Greg Atkinson

Prophetic Tonight Show assessment made by Artie Lange in 2008 while appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

I simply love this. Enjoy.

You must know that 24 is one of my all-time favorite TV shows and I think Jack Bauer is the man. Enjoy.

Life is short and life can be tough. Lately I’ve needed to intentionally find ways to laugh. I believe laughter is healing to the soul and those that laugh regularly live longer. This commercial makes me laugh. I hope you enjoy it, too.

This past weekend I did a secret shopper visit at an amazing church in Orangeburg, SC. I arrived in town Saturday evening and headed straight to the church as it was nice out and I thought it might rain on Sunday. I wanted to see the grounds and parking lot, building exterior, etc.

As I was looking around, I came across a door in the back of the church that was left open. I didn’t know if someone was inside or if it had been overlooked and left open/unlocked, but I opened it and went inside…

NOTE: It never occurred to me that there might be an alarm.

I went inside the church and began looking around, making notes and taking pictures. I went straight to the restrooms and since I wouldn’t get to see the Women’s Restrooms on Sunday, I decided to go inside them, take pictures and make notes. I must add: they have a very nice women’s restroom. Below is their sitting room when you walk inside the women’s restroom:

I noted that the women’s restroom had 11 regular stalls and 2 large/handicap stalls (as seen in the top picture). Their sink area appeared neat and clean, etc. Regular stuff. I left there and went across the hall to the men’s restroom. I made notes in there and took pictures.

I walked out to be greeted by 3 police officers with tazors drawn. I’m not kidding. They asked who I was and you should have been a fly on the wall as I tried to explain to them what a church secret shopper was. They told me to turn around and padded me down. They took my ID and called it in.

Please understand and believe me – I planned on calling the senior pastor after I finished looking at the restrooms to let him know about the unlocked door.

So the interrogation went on. IF I was not able to get the pastor on the phone (which – thank God I was) they were going to take me downtown and arrest me. I didn’t “break and enter” as one officer said. I simply saw a door cracked open and walked inside it.

Lesson learned – I won’t be doing that again. So there! That’s my new unforgettable secret shopper story and my welcome to South Carolina.

Is this what the offering at your church is like? I’ve actually been to a church kind of like this before. Not as much individual dancing, but where you bring your offering forward and it’s a celebration. What do you think?

In the spirit of my friend, Bill Seaver’s, Friday “Video of the Week”, I’d like to share a video with you of a youth pastor that crashed a motorcycle trying to make a memorable entrance. I think he accomplished it.

You may have seen this before, the interesting thing is you probably didn’t know I went to high school with this guy. Small world. His crash is now blowing up on YouTube!

The Church 2.0 Local Forum – Santa Cruz this past Thursday was awesome. I had a blast and truly enjoyed meeting Church leaders from that area. God is at work all over this country and I’m thrilled to be able to catch little glimpses of it.

This is a picture from the Santa Cruz gathering with 2 of my friends: Cynthia Ware and Chuckk Gerwig (he and his wonderful family had me stay at their house – with an amazing view of Redwoods in their backyard):

This is a picture Chuckk took of me eating my first raw oyster at the Santa Cruz Wharf:

Church Video Idea:
Sunday, after church, I had a meeting with my Technical Arts Leadership Team. This was a great time of lunch, fellowship, collaborating, sharing and vision casting/planning for the future and specifically for the Fall season (which will be busy). Topics on the agenda included:

• Our church’s transition to Planning Center Online (more about them in a future blog)
• Each person’s roles and responsibilities as a member of the leadership team
• Volunteer care and the assimilation process for new team members
• Our new newsletter (which I’m really excited about)
• Upcoming calendar events for Summer and Fall
• Planning and preparation for our summer social on Saturday, July 26

The meeting was fruitful and I am, personally, thrilled to be partnering in ministry with these friends. I’m excited about the future of the team and our moving forward under a shared-ministry philosophy and them being empower to shepherd, care for those under them and welcome and train new team members to their area. Great afternoon – time well spent!