In an effort to be more environmentally conscious AKA cheap, I have decided to enroll myself into a Plastic Cup Challenge. This challenge consists of writing your name on a disposable plastic up and telling everyone you know that you'll gouge out their eyes if they throw your cup away. Easy peasy.

So far, I'm up to day six with my little blue Solo cup. I wrote my name on it in big letters with a fat Sharpie marker and I have used only this blue cup to drink out of since starting the challenge. Not counting drinking wine out of a wine glass because I just can't bring myself to sip a nice Cabernet out of a plastic cup. I have not run my cup through the dishwasher (yet) as I just rinse it out quickly after I drink something. I return my blue cup to the same spot each day and I've yet to lose it. A miracle in itself if you ask me.

I'm quite curious to find out how long I can keep up this challenge. My goal? One year. I am professing publicly that I will try my hardest to use my plastic cup for one year...hold me to it now. Oh yeah...and I just ordered 150 of the 12oz. compostable cups from here:

http://www.worldcentric.org/store/placups.htm

Do you think I can make it a full year with "little blue"?

Here's a video I created for this weekend's gatherings. We're a small church compared to many...but we're trying to make a dent. Peep it.

Disclaimer: This post is about church stuff. Sorry non-church readers.


It's Thursday - That means it's time for another round of Creative Chaos at Ragamuffin Soul. Last week we talked about running credit cards through a shredder...you never know, the shredder might make an appearance in this post too. I'm like that.


We meet in a movie theater. We do not own a church building. We rent the theater every week and we have to set everything up and tear everything down when we leave. We have approximately 5 hours to set up, run two services, and tear down. It completely sucks. It's really helped us get creative in some areas.

One of the opportunities we have is the ability to use other theaters (rooms). We meet in the main theater for our gatherings, but our children's and student's ministries meet in other theaters.


Sometimes we show movies or hold classes in those other theaters. A little while back, we held a Creative Service where people had the opportunity to roam about the cabin and choose where they wanted to go. In our main gathering area, we had a very brief teaching on creativity and there was an artist painting an image behind me. After I sat down, we had poetry readings and scripture readings.

Another option people had was to go to the "Soaking Room" where we had created an environment where you could do more experiential stuff. We had relaxing music playing, an area to write to children in a Kenya church we've partnered with, an area to write out your junk and then run it through the shredder, reading areas, a whiteboard section where you could write out prayer requests anonymously...you know that sort of thing. Very sacred space...lots of candles, incense, colored glass, et cetera.

We also had a video teaching theater set up where people could watch a continuous loop of NOOMA videos. That room was much more popular than I would have imagined.

All in all our creative service turned out to be a huge success. We're hoping to start running creative alternatives to the main gathering in other theaters at all times. I just don't like working 16 hours a day to accomplish everything. That may have to wait until we have some volunteers willing to own it though.

Until next time...

Check out www.ragamuffinsoul.com for more posts like this.

Allison and I traveled downtown on Friday to see the Bodies Exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It was simply incredible. There's no other way to say it. Controversy is abounding with this display. Maybe that's what drew me towards it?

$23 per person seemed pretty steep as we waited in line...it seemed inexpensive as we walked towards the exit doors. I cannot begin to describe the experience. It was sobering.


Probably the most sobering part for me was the display of disease. We hear about cancer. We know people with cancer...people who have died from cancer. There's nothing like seeing cancer though.


Huge disclaimers were printed everywhere giving us the opportunity to skip past a tough section of the display. We went in anyway. It was babies of course. All stages of life development.


Never have I seen something so real. Textbooks can only teach us so much. God's unimaginable creativity was shown to me as we studied blood vessels and bones.


So...are you going to go see it?