This is a sermon I gave last week regarding the difference between the church today and the community in Acts 4. It was terrifying. I'm not cut out for it. But, if you're curious...

And we couldn't put the SNL Clip I Got This on our site for copyright reasons, so when I introduce it, you can watch it here.

Well, we don't really have any conclusions. Becky was the only one that really played along. But that actually did produce some gullibility...in me.

My goal was to predict broad, yet seemingly specific circumstances that would creep you out.

TEST SUBJECT: BECKY JOHNSON
"You will have an awkward encounter with a tall man today."
Becky's husband is 6'8" tall. And without her verifying this, you'd have to imagine she could have found something if she had tried.

"You will experience a small amount of physical pain."
Becky is breastfeeding a 5-week angel named Louisa. (Congrats Becky!)

"Your day will not end up as you had originally planned it."
The day in the life of a 5-week old is, by definition, un-plannable.

After Becky's comment on Wednesday, I thought to myself, "woah, that's weird. I wasn't even thinking of Becky when I was creating these."

The project worked....on me. I confused coincidence for something else, and I acutely aware of what I was trying to achieve. If you were Becky, and you had a leaning to believe this stuff, wouldn't you?

You are going to feel embarrassed today in front of a small group of people. Try and laugh it off.

Report your results before tomorrow's wrap-up.

Your day will not end up as you had originally planned it.

Report your experiences.

You will experience a small amount of physical pain.

Report your experiences.

You will have an awkward encounter with a tall man today.

Report your experiences.

For those of you who haven't gone to Church since Christmas....of 2007, here's your chance to continue your trend. Head over to gracewired.net this Sunday at either 9:00 or 10:30 Central Standard Time, and participate in a church service from the convenience of your laptop. You simply have to scroll down the bottom right hand corner and click the "Watch Live" button.

And if you do, you'll see me preach.

Yes, I'm terrified. But, the content is pretty cool. I'm going to be talking about the difference between today's Americanized Church and the very first baby church in the book of Acts. What made them tick. What made them treat everyone in their community as if they truly were one big family. And if we're permanently stuck where we are.

On an opposite note, I'm going to try a horoscope experiment on the blog all week next week. Should be fun! Stay tuned.

So, what did you think?

"You can not presume a position of authority. You must be placed there."

I know you're smart. You know you're smart. But strangers don't know that yet. And the best way to get them to hate you is to start presuming authority over their life. Telling them why they're wrong. Even in the guise of "speaking truth" into their life.

If you want their respect, earn it. Listen. Think out loud with them.

Stop preaching. The pride will kill you. And it's ugly.

Often I find myself in situations where people return my comments with blank stares. This is usually because I am using some marketing "buzzword" that's not mainstream vernacular.

And I am realizing that the average doesn't know what it means to follow "best practices."

This simply means that you don't have to re-invent the wheel. "Best practices" means following that which is statistically proven to work best.

There are best practices for design. Writing. Teaching. Athletics. Entrepreneurship.

Unless you're Mozart, don't reinvent music. Figure out the system. Imitate the best. And you'll be fine.