So apparently it was a simple case of mistaken identity.

There are several Josh Griffin’s in eHarmony, but the closest lives in Texas, and apparently there’s another clone of me in Oklahoma. But none here in Southern California, so the lady that cornered me after church last night was looking for another Josh or pastor at Saddleback and somehow her search mistakenly led to me.

At least that’s what the customer service agents assured me. We shall see. So – whew, glad that’s over. Not that I would support pranking somebody this way, but man, that would be funny.

JG

The best part of the night. Not much else to love.

JG

An alien spaceship landed on Andy’s car today. Be warned, it could happen to you.

JG

This was funny. Unfortunately, this was the only part of the show that was.

JG

And the winner is …

JG

We had a visitor on the podcast last Friday, and Fields asked him to send in a report to share. Here it is!

Hey everyone,

The gang asked me to write a quick blog about my visit to the Simply Ministry podcast so here it goes.

I met Josh at the small group conference earlier in the week and I told him that he was CHEM and we had a few laughs about some of the things they have talked about over the last year on the podcast. Is it just me or are you surprised that there were no jokes or comments about Josh’s “surgery” the following week? Anyway, Josh then invited me to sit in on Friday’s taping.

When I arrived Friday morning, everyone was great. They welcomed me in like I was one of their own. The office was cool and they had like 20 empty frames up on one wall. I commented on how cool this contemporary art was and they said that it wasn’t meant to be art, but they just hadn’t gotten around to putting pictures in them over the past year. At this point all of my anxiety went away because I knew that they were just normal people, who like most youth pastors start a project and go all ADD and start something else without finishing what they started on. I was surprised at the size of the room that the podcast is taped in. It looks a lot bigger on line. In fact everything looks bigger than it really is. Matt and Josh are really only 175 lbs each!

The podcast began and was very entertaining. I caught myself not even paying attention to the questions because I was in the company of such greatness (Andy was sitting next to me!). I couldn’t help noticing this cable that was hanging down from the ceiling behind Matt. I could only assume that this was in case he said something controversial and Doug could use it to choke him. (We would hate for there to be a second edit.) Natalie got locked out and I kind of felt bad, but it just seemed like another day at the office for them.

Over all my experience was AWESOME! I left thinking about one comment that was made during the podcast. It was that a lot of people in Indianapolis told them that they listened to the podcast and really liked it because they didn’t feel like they were alone in ministry after listening. I whole-heartedly agree with that statement. I would encourage anyone to drop by and check it out. They were really down to earth people who just love youth ministry. Thanks again guys for letting me sit in on your day. Much love and YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

JG

How bad was that last night? Not even mildly funny, disappointing on every count.

Even the Jack Black/Will Ferrell bit was a B, and that was by FAR the highlight. Argh – bad, bad, bad. No surprise when the ratings come out it will be in the toilet. Did you notice how many times they mentioned “a billion people are watching right now” – yeah, right.

Redic.

JG

You might be wondering why I’ve been married for 11 years and have 4 children – and also have an active eHarmony profile. That’s what a young lady asked me tonight at the Passion service when she came to the service to look me up. Really? Me? This has to be a joke – if not, it’s a joke I want to play on someone else. But she was serious, and dissapointed I hadn’t taken my profile down since I was now married. She left before I could put all of the pieces together of what exactly was happening.

Just to be clear, I don’t have an eHarmony profile – never have and hopefully never will. No that there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just that I’m happily married so don’t exactly feel the need for one. Just an interesting moment tonight. Here’s what I shot over to them to get to the bottom of this:

When you enter, a playlist plays of songs submitted during the week, the ones with the most votes rise to the top. A few more are even shot spontaneously wirelessly from various iPods to the DJ who plays a selection of the submissions for everyone to enjoy. As the service officially begins, a few are played live as the band gathers on stage. The center screen shows the live message, and you notice that everyone brought laptops or curiously large cell phones. It seems the place is full of geek Christians and seekers.

Instead of lecture-type seating, it’s more coffee-shop-esque with multiple living room pods. For a better view, some people are watching the same talk broadcasted simultaneously on their own device. The whole place is wireless.

Everyone online shares together in instant messenger, a few live conversations break out off to the side. Sometimes you just have to talk. There’s lots of caffeine, and there’s plenty of buzz. As the pastor gives an illustration, someone calls up a relevant TV clip to one of the side screens, it is approved by the moderator and played for everyone to see. When they reference a book, in one click it’ll be at your door tomorrow. Now the best quote of the last 5-minutes of the talk shows up in bold on the center screen. Someone wanted to hear that last part again, so they can rewind on demand on their screens and then click LIVE to rejoin the rest of the group.

Everyone is on the email list, and word is spreading fast about the service. A few people are away so they share their webcams on the far screens, completely synced into the service. There’s live blogging for personal sites and the church’s main team blog, instant messages are flying around now and some have asked for counseling or prayer. During the application the pastor mentions a class everyone should take for further study, and sends the webpage to everyone’s screen. You can add the event to your Outlook effortlessly, and pay for it online, just like you already did for the offering you gave during point 2.

Hours later, the geek church finally winds down. The message ended a while ago, but they’ll be talking, engaging and posting about it for days. Good thing there was food, since church has become a near-full day event. Engaging, relevant and full of community.

Church 2.0. Just a thought I had tonight.

JG