Matt "Machoo" Mewhorter

I'm not dead!!!!!!!!!!!!

These rabbits apologize for a lack of posts for the last two months!!!!!!!!!

I had some major setbacks with my blog, but am in the works to restoring it to better than ever!!!!! More news to come.   But please, hang tight!!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!!

BLEAT! (the first strip)

My church, part duex

Our gathering at The River tonight was amazing! The whole worship time, we sat around a big table and ate a Jewish style dinner; complete with matza ball soup, flatbreads, matza crackers, pitas, artisan breads and various things to dip it all in. We watched an amazing video about the kingdom of God, took turns reading scripture about Jesus' final days before his crusifixion, took moments of silence, had communion, and worshipped together right at the table. I absorbed so much and felt immersed in the company of my friends and the presence of God.

Yeah, I could do it again. I was just...speechless.

Anyway, I just feel like sharing that right now. I'll share this beautiful vision of The River another time. ( :

My Church

So, with all the commentary I've done about churches, I'm sure you're curious about what I'm doing church wise.

As I mentioned before, I recieved my pastoral lisencing over a year ago. I have a Bachelor's degree in Pastoral Studies. Yet, I am called to be helping my friend Joe with a church plant here in my town called The River while working elsewhere as a counselor. We haven't actually launched yet, and that's a very good thing. Over the past several months, God has been working in our hearts to totally rethink how we are called to reach people in this community.

To summarize, we are a church made up of small groups, that gather once a week on Saturday nights to worship. The vision of the church was to reach the diconnected. For a while, we got really caught up in an extremely 'by the book' structure practically copied from church planting books.  We started putting all of our energies into making Saturday night the coolest church thing in this traditional Virginia town. Over a short time, nearly everybody that started with our church had left. It was devastating to see just about everybody leave, leaving only five of us, Joe and his wife included, meeting in the office house on Saturday nights for worship. We were completely reduced. But it has been in this time that we have been able to slow down and find out that we had been missing the boat with the vision given to this church. We almost completely neglected small groups and the disconnected, appealing only to Christians who got bored with us real quick. The cool stuff flopped big time!!

We are now finally absolutely excited about this church! Why? Because now the vision is sharpened and honed through MUCH trial and error. Before, we just did what we were trained to do in college. Now, we have really seen where to go so clearly that it's hard to contain. Already, within a week, a strange fire is quickly igniting and spreading! THIS is what we are to do. This is it! And the vision is pure and beautiful.

I'll explain it later sometime. ; )

Need Your Help!!

Right now, I'm formulating ideas for a webcomic that I want to launch...but I want to actually go somewhere with it if I'm going to regularly do a strip (If anyone knows some ideas on how I could get the strip promoted through web, let me know!). Below are some primary sketches just to give you an idea of what I'm developing. But basically, with inspiration from my wife and and her obsession with sheep, I am looking at doing a webcomic about sheep...and basically let my imagination run wild from there. I'd like the sheep doing crazy things and having stupid ideas be a constant throughout the comic, as well as their struggle to find meaning. It'll include pop culture, sci-fi, fantasy, and irreverant takes on human nature in general. But I want this to be insanely funny and imaginative. As far as any Christian ties, my life as a Christian and the Gospel that changed me will obviously inspire ideas...as it influences everything I do. But I want the comic to be edgy and universal in its presentation. I want it to basically have great stories with no evangelical propoganda or 'Christian bubbly' agendas, and people can look for meanings where they find them.

Give me your opinion on a name for the comic. Here's the ones I liked best, with the first one being my favorite. My Wife loves the second and last one:

Bleat!

Bleat Ewe!

Sheep

Wool

Wild and Wooly

basketball and faith

Sweat oozed down across my forehead, my lungs burned, and I would have been pleased to fall to the ground and die. My body screamed at me to stop this pathetic game of basketball, yet I could not. It was too exhilirating. Too fun. I was engaged with three good friends after we just got done hosting a church service. Now, at 27 years of age, I finally get sports. I get why many people are into it. I finally enjoy and look forward to playing sports with friends.

It wasn't always this way. I literally hated sports for most of my life. I didn't watch sports and I didn't play them. Why? because I'm not naturally athletic. At all. And I gave it a good shot-believe me. I played soccer as a kid, as well as pee-wee football and softball. In junior high I joined the wrestling team and tried out for the basketball team. I was terrible at all of it. I didn't even make the first cut in B-ball tryouts. I was terribly ill-coordinated, I wasn't competative, and my endurance sucked big time. I was into art and good at it. Sports was a lost cause for me. So I ditched the whole world completely as a whole by high school, cringing at anything sports related. It changed somewhat when I started working with teenagers as a youth worker, intern, youth pastor and later as a troubled teens counselor. It forced me into positions where I had to get on the basketball court. During that time, I would hate it and be embarrassed at my blatent lack of ability.

What changed though is when I began to get invited to play basketball just like everyone else. My friends would let me play, and most of all treat me like the rest. I started to feel that I was accepted, whether I ever got better at the game or not (cause I'm still not that great). Lately, they have been cheering me on, telling me I'm improving. I'm starting to make baskets and my defense is getting stronger. I'm getting the game more and more. I actually really like it now.

The big deal in the Church right now is in reaching the disconnected, the lost, and those who aren't Christians. Not growing up in church for me was the same as growing up without natural talents in sports. Those who 'get' Christianity and have been Christians a long time tend to forget or just plain don't know how to truly relate to a clueless bloke like me. For Christians, the life, the culture and rules of Christianity are natural for them.  Many churches, even a lot of cool innovative ones still get into the game like always but unknowingly leave the disconnected to watch from the sidelines. The Christians play their game naturally, assuming that non-Christians will just jump right in. Non-Christians assume you already have to be good to play. You'd be surprised how many actually want to participate, but avoid it for fear of being embarrassed at not being a natural.

I believe that the way of Jesus is caught more than taught. I believe conversion is more gradual for most. The most pure conversions will happen over time I think, and you may never hear about the exact time they "got saved". I think there is too high of a standard in many churches for people to get involved, whether they are a beliver or not. What if a church went into the community, serving others and allowing everyone to join in-regardless of thier faith stance? I think we will see more solid belivers come from non-Christian backgrounds when we live as Jesus taught us to, and let those who are cluesless see this way of life and catch it. 

Okay, enough of the novel. Add your thoughts.

Week in Review.

Here's my list for this past week!

Favorite movie I watched: Stranger than Fiction. The movie was pretty genius, really. The screenwriting was out of this world creative.

Most unfavorite event: Going to the hospital due to a dangerous fever. I shook uncontrollably and broke out into a hideous rash! Nothing like spending the evening in the Emergency Room with a mask on your face!

Song Most Listened to: "Intergalactic" by the Beastie Boys. The song's just awesome. Period.

Most hated Food: Chicken Noodle Soup. Normally like it...but not for lunch and dinner for a week!!! Being sick was just not fun.

Best Moment: The evening I finally stopped feeling sick. It felt amazing.

Person who made me angry: Pastor Fred Phelps. I apologize on behalf of Christians. PLEASE know we don't all think like this!

Shout out to God.

Honestly, I couldn't be more thankful for this life I have been given, as well as the people that have been placed in my life. I certainly don't have all the answers and I don't have everything in my life figured out. But God gives me a peace, hope and joy that gives me the strength to stand and a purpose to live for everyday. I wouldn't trade my communion with God for anything.

God Hates...Mr. Krabs?

I found this website, GodHatesShrimp.com. Go ahead and check it out....it had me laughing. It's a clever paradoy of an actual and very unfunny site by Pastor Fred Phelps. I think they make some good points worth looking at. If anything...it's a creative and hilarious reponse to a man with a  twisted vison.