church: impossible

i was watching an episode of restaurant: impossible today and was wondering what it would be like if they had a tv show like this for churches.

for those of you who don't know, restaurant: impossible is a tv show on food network where chef robert irvine tries to save failing restaurants in just two days with only $10,000. he observes the restaurants and tries to find their weakest links, then goes about into updating the menu, re-training the staff, and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team. basically, he's a restaurant consultant who tries to revamp the restaurants image to help them succeed.

so, i thought it'd be interesting to see a show like that, but for churches. a person would go to a church that is struggling and observe their sunday service and then go on trying to help them improve. the thing is, just like each restaurant has it's own theme and demographic they are trying to reach, a church is similar. so, it's not about which type of worship style is better (ie. contemporary vs traditional), but it's really implementing what the church's vision is.

so instead of updating the menu, it'd be updating the worship service. then you could re-train the greeters and ushers presiders and worship team and powerpoint peoples and AV peoples and even the pastor. then, this person could help with the church website, church bulletin design, and even church decor.

i know that when people usually think about church services, they tend to focus only on the praise band and the message, but i think all these other stuff are important too. now, i guess the question is, should church be a production? is it just about putting on a good show? no it's not, but i do believe we should put thought into every detail and i do think those things will help the overall service.

anyway, just some thing that went through my head as i was watching this show this afternoon.

glimmer of hope

the giants won last night in extra innings to move their winning streak to 3 games and keep their playoff hopes alive. of course, it's only a glimmer of hope as all the teams in front of them (arizona, atlanta, st. louis) all won as well. there aren't many games left. the giants need to keep on winning and hope the teams in front of them melt-down. it's highly unlikely that they will sneak into the playoffs, but there is still a very slight chance they do if everything goes right.

i don't know if i really like this feeling. a part of me hopes they will simply lose... just to put an end to the inevitable disappointment. still, another part of me roots and hopes for a miracle to happen. 14 games left. 8.5 back from arizona to win the nl west. 7 back from atlanta to enter as the wildcard. 2 back from st. louis who is also looking to get into the wildcard spot. it's not likely, but maybe. just maybe...

oh why do i torture myself? cause i'm a fan and i can't help it.

let's go giants! let's keep this streak and hope alive!

1-0

the niners are 1-0!

it's a good start, but i'm still not convinced. they beat a pretty poor seattle team and their offense didn't do much. if it wasn't for the kick-off return and punt return from ginn, the game would have been much closer.  their defense was solid and their special teams obviously came through big, but their offense was not impressive. they couldn't run the ball and smith barely took any shots down field. it was only dinks and dunks. i guess the good thing is that smith didn't make any costly turnovers, but i would have liked to see the offense open it up a bit more. oh well, i guess i shouldn't complain because they are 1-0. let's make it 2-0 vs. the cowboys this sunday!