Jon McClarnon

Made it back from a great few days at the beach! I think that I’m going to move out there someday, maybe start a beach ministry OR just chill out and live a regular life. But I’m not sure why we tend to need to recuperate a day or so when we come back from vacation? Feel that way? Maybe not recuperate…maybe for me it’s more of a reverse culture shock. Trying to get back into character after resting, relaxing, and taking it easy.

I was thinking this week that I hoped many couples were putting last week’s message to good use and working on some of the outstanding practices that Solomon and the Mrs. gave to us.
I’m looking forward to the weekend at True North as we continue our study through the Song of Songs. This weeks’ message is “We Can Work It Out”. We’re taking a look at that little thing that every marriage has - conflict. You know you’ll want to be there for that one. Something we can all use a little help with for sure. There are some very simple things that we can do and utilize that will help us handle situations and the love of our life in a way that will be honest and propel us towards growth.

Just trying to put the finishing touches on a long Sunday and finding that it’s actually Monday!  I’m heading out with the family today (Monday) for a much anticipated few days at Ocean Isle!  I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll be doing while gone, I may check in, but definitely wanted to drop some thoughts from the weekend before taking off.

- We had a great day at True North today!  I thought the service was fantastic.
- Did anyone realize that I went 5-1 in Saturday’s Fearless Football predictions? Not bad. Next weekend will be much tougher.
- I could not stop laughing at the message video today. I’m not sure if it’s the whole giggling about sex thing OR if it’s Benjamin’s face throughout the video. If you didn’t see it, you can check it out here.
When he sent me that last week I was laughing so hard that I was crying. I took it into the bedroom to show Kris and she didn’t even crack a smile. I guess that’s yet another difference between men and women?
- I think people were groovin’ to the message today on sex. Seemed like people were engaged and trying to roll with it. There were definitely some intense moments and some extremely challenging thoughts.
- Since we’ve been going with song titles for our message titles, Jess has been taking us down memory lane with his music video countdown timers. “Gimme All Your Lovin’” is a classic worship service opener for sure!
- Thought that Lee did a great job leading the worship today and the band was really in tune. I love it when the “worship band” takes a role as lead worshipers and not just players.
- Had a lady show up for the first time today and her comment after service was…”it was a very interesting introduction to your church.” I love it.
- Got to talk to some struggling and broken people today regarding the issue of intimacy and sexuality. I’m sure there are lots more of us who are very confused, hurt and puzzled about the whole thing. Just keep in mind that when sin entered the picture, one of the things that was broken was this whole issue of sex. We are a very messed up group of folks, but I believe that God wants us to get a healthy view of the fact that he designed it, he thought it up, and he’s cheering us all on!
- It’s not every week that you get a shout out from the seats after the service is over. Uh, I don’t remember it ever happening, but it did today. Someone let out a “thank you Lee. Let’s hear it for the band!”
- I think baseball is a ridiculously boring sport! Thank goodness that football is in full swing and hockey is around the corner.
- One last reminder about the days message - I don’t think that I can look at a glass of water the same again.
- Music on the day was:
Not to Us - Chris Tomlin
Here is Our King - David Crowder
You Are - Desperation Band
Glorious One - Steve Fee
- Looking forward to next week already. We’re on the back end of “When a Man Loves a Woman” and looking at this title - “We Can Work It Out”.

Have a great week and I’ll be thinking of you while I’m on the beach!

I’ve gotten in a good routine of providing some college football predictions, so I thought I’d keep it going.  Especially after last weekends good performance!  Let’s see how I do.  In case you’re wondering how I choose the games…I try to pick local teams (NC St., Duke, UNC, ECU, OU or Missouri - teams I follow, and the ABC Saturday night game).  Here goes:

NC State will prevail over Boston College.

Duke will come up short at Georgia Tech.

UNC will take down Connecticut.

OU will steamroll over Baylor.

Missouri will handily defeat Nebraska.

USC will take the W over Oregon.

(For entertainmnet purposes only.)

Awhile back I asked Wendy, who leads our kiDZ ministry, to give us a quick update on things happening for elementary kids. By the way, our team of leaders and helpers do an outstanding job every week and it’s a great feeling knowing that I can fully trust them to give it 100%…and, that kids are having a great time growing in their faith at such an early age.  Here you go:

kiDZ - we do realize that is not the way to spell kids. However, here at True North, our kids area is called the kiDZ Discovery Zone. Our Elementary class has just finished up a big summer unit on science. We did science experiments and then related them to Christian principles. By the way, the experiments seemed very cool in print but didn’t always work the way we hoped.

Last Sunday, we had an end of Summer Science Blowout. Everything worked great this day! We made slime (sorry about the messy clothes), lava lamps, and played with super bubbles. We ended the morning with the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment (see pictures below). We told the kids that like the Diet Coke, they need to explode for God. One thing we try to get across to the kids is that even though they are small and young, they can be mighty for God. The way they act and how they treat others is contagious.

Be on the lookout for these upcoming series:
* Spiritual Olympics
* The Lord’s Prayer
* Bad Boys of the Bible

Okay, let’s see how well you know me.  Or, if you were taking a wild guess at what goes on in my head and what irritates me OR fires me up in a good way…

Rank the following real life interactions I had this morning at the coffee shop. Here’s a sketchy rating system.
1 - Don’t care…you’re wasting my time.
2 - I kinda care. But you’re mostly irritating me.
3 - Great. Let’s see how it goes from here.
4 - Awesome. Fantastic.
5 - You made my day.
Okay, so there’s a little variation in the voting schematic…but hopefully you get the gist. Here’s the 5 interactions I had this morning at the office, uh, coffee shop.

1. Someone who attends True North off and on. Life is busy and the new job has been demanding so hasn’t been around most of the summer. But realizes it’s a good thing.
2. Someone who used to attend True North, but found it to be “too intimate”. And, not really into the whole missions thing about helping people who really need it. Not right now. Found another church.
3. Someone new, never met before. Works close by. Owns a business. Not too interested in me or what I do, but would love to get my business if I need it.
4. Someone I met awhile back, but only recently started attending. Really enjoying it and looking forward to the upcoming Sunday.
5. Someone who has only been coming a few weeks. Gotten to know them pretty well outside of church. Realzing that group life is essential and asking questions about how to get involved and where to plug in.

So, what do you think and why?

I’ve said a few things over the years from the stage that just didn’t come out right. Yesterday’s miscue near the end of the service is without a doubt at the very top of the list. Here’s that and some other notes from the weekend.

-Wow, did i really say that? Not sure how that happened, but I guess people thought it was pretty funny. Just so long as you don’t think there’s something wrong with me. I’m trying to tell myself that it could happen to anyone. Hey, you read the Song of Songs 10x this week and see what you come up with?

-By the way, if you’re looking for it…we had a recording failure and the first few minutes and last few minutes of the service got chopped!

-And did we really show the music video to Truly, Madly, Deeply as a countdown timer? That could be where it all went wrong for me.

-Wondering if we need to do donuts every week to get people to show up early?

-We’ve got some people who are having a rough time with life. Lots of things to pray about.

-Had a great time at the Discovering True North class last night. We had a great group. Really enjoyed getting to know a few people better. We tried yet another new location for the class - the Swift Creek Coffee House - I think it worked pretty good a new venue.

- Good day all around. I’m really enjoying the “When a Man Loves a Woman” series from the Song of Songs. Extremely practical for everyone. It’s just good stuff from Solomon and his bride.

-I felt a little out of sorts on the whole day - think I talked 40 minutes or so. But as my wife says, “as long as it doesn’t seem like 40 minutes…”

-In case you’re not paying attention, the OU Sooner are the new #1 team in college football. And, I was 4-1 in my fearless predictions from Saturday.

-Next week we hit the pinnacle of the love Song…”Gimme Me All Your Lovin’” - you know that’s going to be worth coming for.

As always, for entertainment purposes only.

UNC will fall to Miami.
ECU will lose a heartbreaker to Houston.
NC State will be beaten soundly by South Florida.
Duke will win an ACC game over Virginia.
And…the likely new #1 team come Monday morning - the OU Sooners will defeat TCU.

I really have no idea how to title this one. Maybe you can give me a headline.

I just read about a 62 year old pastor who has been using technology in a quite new and astounding way. Apparently the pastor has portrayed to his church that he is computer illiterate…when all the while he has some 170 bookmarked sites at his home office. What is he doing you ask?

It seems the pastor is constantly surfing personal pages of members of his church and he’s looking for anything questionable that he can incorporate into his sermons. Seems as though some people in the church think he’s got quite a knack for saying the right thing at the right time - when he’s really just looking into their life and getting the material and making himself look quite prophetic.

Check out the article here.

With that said, we’re continuing our new series, “When a Man Loves a Woman” - from the Song of Songs - this Sunday. While I was reading and studying this week, I decided to add an extra message into the series, so this Sunday will be one that I hadn’t planned on doing. I’m simply calling it “Truly, Madly, Deeply”. It’s going to be fun.
And, by the way, when we open up the Scriptures like this and see what God has revealed for us about our relationships - it can truly change your life and I don’t have to know everything that is going on - God’s got that covered and he’s aware of exactly the very thing we need to hear and know.

I think that’s the case with this series. See you Sunday.

(PS - just in case you’re wondering - the news site isn’t really factual - but funny.)

After a very early morning meeting, I left the coffee shop and did this. This is the key to my other vehicle. I do have a key ring that any custodian would be proud of…I just got this one stuck in the opening for the steering wheel adjustor - and when I tried turning the wheel - presto!
I know exactly what happened…because this is the 2nd time I’ve done it!
And, as part of the van security device, it doesn’t work no matter how much you bend it back. Here’s the deal - it’s been at least 4 months since I did this the first time and I still have it on my key chain. So glad I haven’t replaced it yet, but I guess it really is time to get a new one.

Wow, Sunday was a full day and I really enjoyed most all of it! Here are some random thoughts from the entire weekend in my world.

- There were alot of enthusiastic workers on the set up team yesterday. There was a very noticeable vibe of good feeling AND we knocked it out quickly.
- Could have been the donuts. We had a slew of them in the lobby and it was great to see so many people come early and take advantage of that opportunity to meet some new folks.
- The University of Missouri Tigers are the best team in the state of Missouri - that includes the Chiefs and the Rams.
- Loved the first day of the WAMLAW series. Thought we got off to a great start and people were into it.
- Since someone asked…here’s those top 5 songs I compiled on my WAMLAW Hilarious Song Titles Playlist:
5. If My Nose Were Full of Nickels I ‘d Blow It All on You
4. Take Me to the Corn Field Honey and I’ll Kiss you Between the Ears
3. Why Do You Believe Me When I Tell You that I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?
2. You’re the Hangnail in my Life and I Can’t Bite You Off
1. When You Wrapped My Lunch in a Roadmap I Knew You Meant Goodbye
That’s just good stuff!
- I love the Ryder Cup! That’s how golf should be played…OR at least, that’s how golf fans should normally participate. Can you believe these guys though - just throwing darts at the green? And the putting was unbelievable.
- Took a group of kids to a See You at the Pole rally last night at C3. That place is really blessed with some great musicians. Can you be jealous during worship?
- We had a great crowd yesterday. More new faces and some returning faces. Looking forward to the Discovering True North class coming up this Sunday PM at the Swift Creek Coffee House.
- Little known fact - but the SCCH is having a contest for the month of September to see who brings in the most first time visitors. Yours truly is about to take home the grand prize…especially when all the people attending the class buy a cup of coffee…it’ll be a landslide victory!
- Have a good week…and don’t lose sight of this question…”if you knew you only had 30 days to live, how would you live differently”?