Dan Roth - Pastor of Disaster

Well, I've given up on the idea that I can pastor a church, be a good husband, or get a good night's sleep (I have a feeling the inability to do the last is currently coloring my view on the first two), so I've decided I might as well take on one other big task I know I can never do - lose 100 pounds.

The good news is that all the other things happen because of God's grace, even 'though I personally suck at them. So, I'm gonna count on him for this too (and, perhaps, even more so) - especially since I think the whole "lose 100 pounds thing" just might be his idea as a testimony to what he can do.

Theme Song by Bill Eckhardt under a Creative Commons Liscense

I sometimes create images for use in our worship services, and for a website for church media professionals. I created this one recently, and wanted to share it. The words are from the Biblical book "Song of Songs" (also known as "Song of Solomon").

I watch the Superbowl for three reasons...

1) to hang out with friends
2) to justify eating lots of food that's bad for me
3) to enjoy the commercials

The first two were pretty good this year,
but the commercials really stunk.

Yawn.

Sylvester Stallone and crew were filming at Kensington & Somerset today, not too far from here. It botched up traffic a little on Kensington Ave, but not nearly as much as you might think. I drove by, but didn't see anything other than crowds and trucks.

I'm not sure what I think of yet another Rocky movie. I liked the first, mostly out of love for the neighborhood. (Amazingly, I never saw it until a couple of years ago.) The bits I've seen of others, I didn't like at all. So, I'm scared of yet another B-grade movie.

However, I like the idea of Rocky as an older guy... so I'm hoping for the best.

Here it comes... oh no!

That's right, it's the way-too-common "Sorry I haven't posted much lately" post.

Thankfully, I'm not going to make excuses or explain the problems in depth or make promises I probably won't keep. Instead, I'll simply let you know my current solution... I've created a "No Comment" category where I can post items I think you'll want to see, but where I don't have to actually say anything about them.

Hmmm.. blogging without saying anything. That'll actually be an improvement over many blogs I've seen!

There's never a dull moment here in Fishtown/Kensington.

Wednesday the Warlocks, an Outlaw motorcycle club, had their clubhouse, which is about two blocks from our church, firebombed.

Last night there was a massive boom. A car being chased by police in a high-speed chase ran into a house that's a block away from the church... causing the front of the house to collapse, and leaving the house next door in danger of collapsing.

This morning we're having the final rehearsal for tomorrow's big Christmas musical. A few minutes ago I walked into the sanctuary where the choir and other musicians are practicing, and noticed a little black baggie, about 3/4" square, on the floor.

About two years ago God gave me the vision for a website to tell churches about free resources. I started the site, but for a variety of reasons stopped maintaining it.

I sense it's now God's timing to revive it. I've relaunched it using my new favorite content management system, Drupal.

If you lead a ministry in your church, or in some other non-profit Christian ministry, I hope you'll use it. If you'd like to actively contribute to the site (not money, but help maintaining and growing it), please email me!

Free for Churches

I promise, this is the LAST one of these that I'll inflict upon you. (For now, anyway.)
This was taken in front of Notre Dame during a spring vacation in Paris a few years ago.