I returned yesterday from the Seattle/Tacoma trip.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Mars Hill Reunion 

I spent Saturday night with Jamie Munson an elder and Lead Pastor (Mark Driscoll is preaching pastor) at Mars Hill in Seattle.  Mars Hill has gone through a bit of transition and Jamie and I spoke about that.  We also spoke about how to create systems that reflect an organizations vision/values.  Through many seasons, Jamie has much to offer in this area of thought.  Lastly, he showed me a demo of their site, "The City" which was exciting and good timing since we launched a similar set of features with Ekklesia for churches and their members.

Soma School

Finished a week at Soma School.  Capped the week with lunch with Caesar Kalinowski and Jeff Vanderstelt. I continue to grow in my appreciation for the friendship and shared vision between Kaleo & Soma.  On Sunday I was able to spend the day with a family from Soma Community, Mark Tilden who took us (Bryce & Chad from Sojourn in Louisville pictured below, their wives inside in the warmth) on his yacht to Vashon Island.  Mark has built and sold internet companies, his latest venture is FlightStats.com so he and I spoke about entrepreneurial things together.

Heather & Family

My parents flew up from Sacramento and we all spent Friday/Saturday together at my brothers.  My wife, Heather and I took a walk around around the last place we lived in Seattle, Greenlake.  As you can see we weren't quite ready for the 'summer days' of Seattle, having been spoiled by San Diego's weather.  In all of our years in returned visits (we moved in 2001) we always run into people we know here, and this trip was no exception.  

All-in-all a very profitable trip connecting and learning from others.  I look forward to my next conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.

We have gone through a crazy season at the Goodmanson home.  In the last two months we have had 2-families, several guests and a homeless man stay with us.  One of the most substantial is Nate, who lived with us for parts of November and then December.  Nate's life has been transformed by the gospel and recently he shared his Gospel testimony during a Sunday service.

Nate's Story - I came to San Diego because my life fell apart.  My family who live in Arkansas & Georgia couldn't deal with my illness.  I was serving the military as a scout working with Special Ops on the Iraq/Syrian border when I was injured in a surprise attack.  I was shot and blown up, by an I.E.D. containing a combination of Saran Gas & Agent Orange which gave me both Parkinson & Cancer.  After I got out of the hospital I did odd jobs, in 2002 I became ill enough where my health started to decline.  Since 2003 I haven't been able to work.  My family fell apart, every time I got sick it would affect my moms health, and my daughter and her mother's emotional and mental stability would be rocked.  So I decided to leave.   Read Nate's Story A New Hope

Teri's Story - Teri is an actress who asks the question, "What roles should a 'Christian' actress accept?"   I am a Christian. I am a wife. I am an actress. I am those things in that order. What would I do then, if I was offered a part in a major movie such as "The Golden Compass"; a movie adapted from a book that has been expressed by its author to be in opposition to Christianity in theme and intent? Read Teri's Story Faith and Fiction: Navigating Which Role is Right?

Cultural Articles:

Cloverfield -Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

27 Dresses -After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman (Heigl) wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

Know the Game – A Cultural Introduction I was once asked in a class to tell something about myself that no one knew, something innocuous and trivial but definitely personal. We would all write down the statements on small pieces of paper and then shuffle them, hand them out and read aloud.

Merry Christmas everyone!  It's always a little strange to celebrate Christmas in San Diego, it's 70+ degrees and sunny.  On Christmas Eve we took the boys to an ice-skating rink next to the Pacific ocean.  Today we rode our beach cruisers around the town.  It's been a while since I've uploaded family pictures, so here is a select collection from Halloween through Christmas.  Enjoy.

It's been a while since I've posted some pictures.  Here are  a few shots from the last few months that are mainly family pictures.    I typically don't do many 'personal' posts since I'm not wanting to have a 'cat blog'.

Cat Blogs are blogs for and by and about the person blogging. All sorts of posts about you and your cat, what you did today, how you feel, what you ate.  You get the picture.

Boss Blogs are blogs used to communicate to a defined circle of people.  Some pastors write most of their post for their congregation as a communication tool.  These would be boss blogs.

The third kind of blog is the kind most people imagine when they talk about blogs.  These are the blogs that are changing the face of marketing, journalism and the spread of ideas. Godin calls these Viral Blogs.

You can read more about this from Seth Godin's book, Small Is the New Big183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas (Or in his free e-book) where he classifies three types of blogs: Cat Blogs, Boss Blogs & Viral Blogs .   As more and more people people (including pastors, ministry leaders, etc) start their blogs, you need to determine what type of blog you want to have.  Who are you looking to communicate to?  What information are you willing to share?

It was on July 1st, 2004 that I made my first post @ Goodmanson.com.  In the last 3 years there have been hundreds of posts and thousands of comments.   To celebrate:

1. I loaded up a new website design.

2. I re-organized the Article page based on categories for the top posts. Now you can find posts based on categories like the Gospel & Self,  Church, Mission & Ecclesiology, Church Planting & Ministry, Technology & the Church or The Future Church.

Thanks for participating in the conversation…

During the busy seasons, it's often nice to get away for a break.  We had a chance to head up to Disneyland yesterday.  I've uploaded some pictures of our Disney trip . Pictures include:

• Gideon's fight with the dark side
• The Cars characters
• Fairchild's & Goodmanson's

I know it was quiet this week, other than a pre-scheduled post.  I took the week off and head to Kauai (I uploaded 9 pictures from Hawaii including us zip lining through the jungle).  During the trip I had a chance to read a few books (including Small Is the New Big by Seth Godin & Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller, both excellent books well worth a read).

I'll have some posts from thoughts I wrote down, including re-thinking eldership in light of being under-shepherds of God's people, more on our ministry design and other non-related ideas Some of these may need to wait because I leave again on Wednesday for an elder/deacon retreat for Kaleo. 

The year 2006 has been a full year for our family.   Some of the events that shaped us were:

• Our family grew with the adoption of Roman in January.
• Gideon, our 3 year old spent two months in a full body cast February through March.
• Monk Development doubled in size, including 100's of churches now using Ekklesia 360 Church CMS and the launch of Sermon Cloud, with 1000's of users and sermon downloads.
• Kaleo Church doubled as well.  We launched Kaleo SDSU in the Fall and are preparing to launch a 3rd location in El Cajon beginning in 2007.

We are excited to go into 2007, many of the above events will still impact the new year. I look forward to learning from you the blogging community, sharing more insights and getting feedback and building relationships with many of you in my virtual community.

Have a great New Years and for now, here are a few Goodmanson December photos to wrap up 2006.  (Images include Christmas, Disneyland, my Birthday, friends & family.)

Welcome to Goodmanson.com .  If you are new(er) here, I began this blog in July of 2004 and today I've posted for the 500th time.  I got out my calculator and discovered that over these 825 days, I've made a post every 1.65 days.  Over the years I've posted a lot on church planting, technology, churches, leadership and culture.  Here are some posts I'd recommend if you haven't been here the whole time.

CHURCH PLANTING 

Five Trends for the Future of Church Planting 26Aug06

The State of the American Church - Why Church Planting is Critical to the Future of American Christianity 16May06

CHURCH

A Partnership of Externally Focused Churches 11Aug06

Emerging From Church De-Construction to Church Kingdom Building 19Sep05

Fun with Angry, Yelling, Legalistic Christians who Know Everything 03Apr05

Is the Twelve Tribes a Cult? 02Nov05 (From my year-plus stint as a weekly Sheep & Goat column for the San Diego Reader)

LEADERSHIP

Preaching the Gospel to Yourself 26Oct06

Deacon Training & Development 02Jun06

Triperspectival Ministry Assessment 12Oct06

The Dangers of Confession while in the Pulpit 20Oct06

TECHNOLOGY

Why God is more glorified by Web 2.0 09Oct06

Technology and the Mission: Conference Session 25Sep06

List of Church Technology & Website Blogs & Resources 27Sep06

CULTURE

My own ‘Sin City’ 18Apr05

The role of the Christian artist in the secular world 20Aug04

FAMILY

New Son Roman! 30Jan06

Gideon Turns 2 Years Old 26Mar05

Our home was the 'crack house' in the neigbhorhood.  It was in 2003 we moved in to our home after it went through probate.  The neighborhood was full of children, all the streets ended in cul-de-sac so often the kids would be running around outside, playing football and other games.  I imediately joined in.  It's great getting to know these kids (mostly boys 10-12).  We've played hundreds of games out in the front streets over these years.  My wife has tutored many of them at our house.  We have a large birch tree in our front yard that the kids would come and sit under.  Many of the boys don't have fathers, so they ask me questions as they grow up. They'd also ask me questions about God and other religions, I even got to explain triperspectival presuppositional apologetics.

One day everything changed.  One of the boys asked me more about sin, God and Jesus.  I went over the gospel with him, as I had before, but this time he began to cry.  He said he wanted to be forgiven of his sins, that he knew he needed Jesus as his savior.  He asked how he could become a Christian.  I explained and he gave his life to Jesus.  He was so excited he started telling the other kids.  A month later, one of the oldest boys came to me and said he wanted to become a Christian too.   Next several boys asked if I'd lead a Bible Study.  So off we went, first we make dinner and then we go through Old Testament stories (from a Gospel/Redemptive Historical perspective).  Creation, Noah's Ark, Babel, Abraham…it's been great.  It's great teaching these kids, some of whom had never heard about Jesus or ever been to church and seeing their excitement.  But mostly, it's been amazing to see the gospel change a neighborhood.

Today I returned from a week-long vacation to Puerto Vallarta (a few pictures from the trip ).  Each year I take my wife on a one-week vacation (without the kids) to celebrate our anniversary.  Last year we went to New York.  This year all we wanted to do is sit on the beach, enjoy the sea/sand and relax.  We went parasailing, too trips to Bucerias and enjoyed a lot of reading.  I highly recommend the trip to anyone.  You can even finance your vacation if you need to.

Books Read: Leading Change, Shepherding a Child's Heart, Getting Things Done (again.  Thanks to Cawley) and The God Who is There.

I'm back and man is there a lot to do.  Hundreds of emails in the inbox, a church conference to put on next week, a new SDSU church to plant by September 3rd and many more…

It was two-years ago that I began this tiny idea called Goodmanson.com. It’s now 100’s of posts and comments later…

It’s been a great season of travel, family and learning. If you read my blog, you know I attended the National New Churches Conference in Orlando in April, the Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle in May and I just returned from Palm Springs where we stayed at a vacation place my parents have. Earlier this month, we were very excited to have my parents and Roman’s birth mom Holly and her daughter here in San Diego for Roman’s dedication. I’ve uploaded some pictures of the trips and the dedication for friends and family to check out!

Photo Gallery

Well this week has been one for my personal record books.  Tuesday included: news that my mom may have cancer again, a beam in my garage collapsed, my company lost a large proposal and my nearly 3-year old son fell off a box, breaking his leg in the worst of places.  He is now in a full body cast!!!  (For 4-6 weeks)

You probably won’t be hearing from me much until we weather this season.  I’ve been very grateful for all the prayers, the food that people have been preparing and bringing over (because we have a one-month old newborn) and the encouragement from friends.  I know God is good and I’m thankful he is giving our family this season.