A couple things

 1. Guys in light of the ladies doing their thing tomorrow and Saturday I would like to extend to you all a Raven invitation. Be at my house for some good times as men. We're having our own conference! Doors open at 8:30.

 2. Next week we are back at it again all LS baby! We will be looking at the most significant and intense statement that Christ said on the cross Mark 15:34 "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" Intense man, intense.

3. This Sunday those of you who agreed to help with the video shoot for the song "Whatever It Takes," that Lo and I did for Josh is on. I saw some clouds in the forecast but thats what they said last week. We will leave after guest luncheon on Sunday, about 12:45 (unless it is clear that weather is not on our side) and will be doing the first segment on the Metro. I will provide Metro passes for those of you coming, at least for those who agreed to do it last week. We will catch the train to China Town to shoot another part of the video and then we will try to catch a meal there together. That I cannot pay for. Thank you in advance for being willing to do this!

4. We are getting new LS t-shirts this year. They should not cost more than $10 a person. We are currently designing the new shirt and should be ready to go soon.

5. Lastly, I had mentioned that I wanted to actually have some accountability for sharing the gospel. Some of you responded to that with a likewise desire. So here's what I propose. I am going to each week beginning May 7th post on the blog my weekly sharing the gospel stories. I would ask you to do the same. Each week send a brief two paragraphs of and who you shared the gospel with to lightswitchblog@gmail.com. We will post them on the site that we may all be encouraged and provoked. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS!!!!!!! I am because it will add to the reality if I have to post every week who I am sharing the gospel with. If I do not share with someone I want you all to feel free to challenge me. I'm not talking legalistic here I'm talking faithfulness. So here are the two questions you can ask me when you see me:
        1. Have you been praying daily for opportunities to share the gospel?
        2. Have you shared the gospel in the past week?

I love you guys! Ladies have fun at the conference! Guys have fun tomorrow night! I will have fun always!!!!!!

~Blog Crew (Curt Allen)

Do you want an iPad?

The iPad is so new, so shiny, you may own it, or like most folks, you know a friend who has one and you like it! You like it a lot...so much that you want to buy one. So you look at your bank account and discover you have no money.

You sell your cat, you sell your neighbor's old car that's been sitting in his backyard for years, you sell your mother's china dishes, you hold a bake sale, you make your little sister dress up as a blue Navi from Avatar and charge people $1 each to take a picture with her. But you still do not have enough money to buy an iPad. Have you thought about your heart? The Resurgence blog recently did a great post about addressing your heart as you decide whether or not to buy an iPad and if it is a wise purchase, or an idol you may need to destory.

~Blog Crew (Allison Bucca)

If Guys were Like Girls

Judgments

At a recent Lightswitch meeting we asked some folks to give their thoughts on how the Judgments book affected them in their community groups. Here's what they had to say:

"The book helped me to re-evaluate my attitude towards others. It made me aware of how I interact with others."
~Megan Murphy

"The book changed my view of judging people according to personality, because before God we're equally sinners."

~Mandy Huang

"It helped me most in my marriage; you're so quick to judge those closest to you the harshest. Now I step back when I'm tempted to think harsh thoughts and make rash judgments about his motives."

~Sarah Leidner

"It was a wake up call for the way I thought about judgment. Oftentimes, you're presented with situations in your life where it can be easy to judge others. This book served as an eye opener for how we really should treat others lovingly and not make rash judgments."

~Michelle McVey 

"I'm more aware of how judgmental I am. Therefore, I find that I spend more time confessing my judgments to the Lord. Before reading the Judgments book, I didn't realize I could biblically judge people."

~Laura Welch

"It's helped me be more conscious of my thoughts and to take control of my judgments."

~Michelle Stefun

"Because of the book, I realized how much I judge people and how I make my judgments without authority, which is a sin I wasn't aware of. My fellowship group helped me realize how to practically attack this area of my life and grow."

~Shane Kohout

~Blog Crew (Lauren Bucca with Brianna Smith)

A Place to Rest Your Head

39 Days Until Next.

Next is getting pretty close, school is coming to a close, it has been warm outside, and guess what? More hotel rooms have opened up! Happy days are here again! If you are one of those considering tossing your sleeping bag on the sidewalk outside the convention center, you may want to check out these hotels.

I understand that we have some first timers in attendance this year along with many who have been attending Next for many, many, many years. The Next blog has been doing some helpful posts on how to best prepare your heart for the conference. Why is this important? Next is a whirlwind of listening, learning, talking, hanging, singing, and not sleeping and can be so much all at once that all you might end up taking away from it is the new t-shirt you bought. We really want everyone to get the most they can out of the conference, so start preparing now. Here are links to posts on how to pray for those serving at Next, how to care for you friends at Next, and an excellent post titled: Ways to Engage God During the Conference. Hope this helps!

Oh and as of now, 6,979 people have seen my face in the Next promo. I realize that 500 of those views were by my mother, but it's still exciting!

~Blog Crew (Allison Bucca)

Basketball Tournament this Saturday

This Saturday, April 24th at 10am, Brianna Smith's school, Washington Bible College is hosting a 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. Anyone who is athletically inclined or likes watching their friends who are, can sign-up to be on a team or simply come and watch. The gospel will by preached by several speakers in attendance making this a great evangelism opportunity.  There will be different divisions for both guys and girls broken up by ages. Find details and registration information here.

~Blog Crew (Allison Bucca)

This week

I will be doing some live blogging from T4G. A bunch of sites and sounds from the conference will be what I will post on. Please remember to pray for us as we are instructed to be better pastors. I always hate leaving you all and my family, so my comfort is in knowing I won't be gone too long and most of you won't miss me anyway. My family on the other hand will so also pray for them if you remember to do so. Thank you in advance for those of you that are hanging out with my family while I am gone. You do me a true kindness. Since I have an app on my phone I will not be using this blog, I will be using my own. Also there are other people who read my stuff that would be unaware of this blog. I will post more personal things a couple times to you all but go to Words, Flix and Verbs if you want the updates from the conference. I will miss you all and have a week fighting the good fight of faith!

~Blog Crew (Curt Allen)

Stuff, stuff and more stuff

I will try to do these in a bullet point fashion so as to not make huge overwhelming paragraphs.

1. The month of April's schedule has changed due to the fact that your pastors will be at T4G next week. the month will now look like this:
4/7 All LS
4/14-4/15 Men's and Ladies mtgs
4/21 singles with me at the church
4/22 couples with me at the church
4/28 Community groups
Please mark your calendars accordingly. Couples if you have made different arrangements for your groups thats fine just make sure you meet and know that you are with me on Thursday the 22nd. I will not be providing childcare that evening.
4/30 Game Night

2. Next is approaching as many of you know the hotels currently have no more rooms at the conference rate. I talked to Paul Medler at Sovgrace who said he is trying to and pretty confident that he wold be able to get rooms at other hotels for a cheap rate. Stay tuned. Singles we will discuss this at our meeting this month.

3. When I was in New Orleans I shot a portion of the video for the song Whatever It Takes that Lo and I did for Josh Harris to promote his new book Dug Down Deep. I need to shoot the other half of this video and I wanted to know if any of you would like to be in it or involved somehow. We will shoot this month, probably as soon as I get back from the conference. Please see me tonight if you are interested.

4. We are having a retreat this year in August 5-6. I will let you know more details soon but I wanted you all to know that I am looking forward to doing this again. Hopefully many if not all can make it. Last year created a lot of memories.

5. Next week while I am gone Betsy will be roughing it by herself. She would love some company so if anybody wants to please let her or me know.

6. This month concludes our study of judgments, unfortunately not our sinful practice of it, nonetheless we transition in May to a new issue. I hope you all have benefitted from it and actually used it to grow and not ignored for whatever reason. As I did with the couples I will explain to the singles, when I meet with you, why this topic and what to get out of this topic.

7. A buddy of mine an Irish pastor came up with a gospel test and I took it and thought it was interesting. I would like you all to take it. I can post it on here in a day or two or you can go to my blog.
Go to Gospel Test if you want to take it now.

~Blog Crew (Curt Allen)