Today I continue to share my journey of finding a new church. I moved away from my home church of over 20 years and have been faced with the difficult task of finding a new church home. On Sunday I attended a new church. My thoughts on my journey are below.

Pulling into the parking of the church (which isn’t a normal church building but a concert event center place) there is a sign with the churches name that says “Church Name Here – For People Who Don’t Like Church!”

When I saw the sign directing me where to park I wondered for a minute if I should turn around. “Shoot this is the church for people who don’t like church…and sometimes I kinda like church…but not all the time…should I turn around?” I thought to myself.

But I continued, parked, and made my way inside the dark event center a few minutes late to find everyone sitting while the worship band was playing a song. I sat down too and looked around the dark room to see no one else singing. It took a few seconds but I figured out the band was playing a Muse song. For all of you Christians stuck in your Christian music bubble, Muse is a good band and NO they aren’t a “Christian” band. The song they were playing is below. And I must say they played it really well…kudos!

The song finished and Mr Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide I mean the lead pastor came out and welcomed everyone for a minute before the worship team started their set. Now I don’t have a problem with a cool opening song while people are coming in (we used to do it at my youth group a very long time ago) and I happen to think it’s pretty cool. But I am sure there are a few religious Christians who would have their panties in a bunch over it. But I remembered, I am at the “Church For People Who Don’t Like Church” so I am sure people love it here! The Christianise term for this kind of church would be “a seeker church.” Not an offensive or bad word so stop taking it that way!

Looking around the room I saw a lot more blue hairs than I would expect at this kind of church. I mean, this is a hip and youthful church so what are all the blue hairs doing here? This “problem” happens to be a good thing. Blue hairs can equal wisdom which us young and unnatural blue hairs should learn from. Having a good mix of young and old probably means good health in the church.

Anyways, after worship the pastor spoke. The thing I did not like about his message was, he didn’t have any notes to write or an outline to fill in. So maybe 90% of people wouldn’t take notes or fill in an outline sheet anyways so it’s probably a waste of trees and you don’t want to do that in Sonoma County, but maybe I am just a nerd! OK I will admit to being a nerd. But I will also admit that I didn’t start taking notes in church until a few years ago. I generally take them down on the bulletin or in Evernote on my iPhone and then copy them into my nerdy Moleskine Ruled Notebook to have them all in one place. End nerd rant.

The pastor did keep me awake and I enjoyed his speaking. He happened to rip karma and reincarnation a new one which I really enjoyed. I will have to download the podcast and take a few notes on it later this week.

As service ended the song below played through the speakers. Again, another non-Christian band…such sinners here! Please shut up people with too much time!

I’d have to say that my visit was pretty much a positive one. I would feel very comfortable bringing a non-Christian to this church, which is a HUGE something I look for in a church. It’s kinda sad that a lot of times I wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing someone to my home church. I love them and they are getting better.

So is this my new church home? We will see. I have a man date on Wednesday with a leader from the church. Should I be easy or hard on him? Hummm…

Last night I got to see The Juliana Theory in San Francisco at their last date of a 6 show reunion tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of their album “Emotion Is Dead.” They played a full set followed by “Emotion Is Dead” front to back followed by a few more songs. It was 2 hours of pure sweetness. At 16, “Emotion Is Dead” was one of my favorites. Hearing it played start to finish live was pretty awesome and made me feel like I was 16 again. Thanks TJT!

PS I will be posting an interview with lead singer Brett Detar in the coming weeks.

Anyone else get the new NetFlix app for the iPhone? I think it’s pretty sweet. Great picture on the iPhone4!

If you’ve been to Disneyland with me, you’ve probably taken part “Rapture Practice” on Tower of Terror. (Side note: I obviously have the best form in this photo and the worker that rode with us probably isn’t going to heaven. Just kidding, please don’t send me angry e-mails. End side note)

Some of you my ask, what is rapture practice? You see, some church that is probably in the south decided it would be good to train it’s members for the rapture. It’s happening in 2012 right? Anyways, they would teach their members the proper way to pose when they heard the rapture was happening. So like you turn on the news and homeboy is telling everyone the rapture has started so you better get in your rapture position cause I think that’s how it’s going to happen.

Now I am not totally sure what the point of the rapture position is, but I am pretty sure it’s to be sent straight up as fast as possible. And if you are in the most straight up and aerodynamic position possible, you will probably be one of the first ones to get sucked into heaven.

I decided it would be a good idea to teach this position to a bus full of high school students while at Disneyland. Throughout our visit to the park I would call out “Rapture Practice” at any given time to make sure everyone around us knew we were part of a really weird Christian youth group. Ok that’s not the real reason, it’s just really fun seeing a bunch of students drop their food and do the same thing at once so everyone else at Pizza Port wonders what the heck is going on.

A few days ago I came across the picture below. It might be the funniest Christian product I’ve ever seen. I can’t figure out if it’s real or not because the website isn’t working, but I would not at all be surprised if it was real. Nor would I be surprised if my dad was getting one of these hatches installed as I type. I kid…kinda.

So, what do you think? Should I get into the rapture hatch installation business before Pat Roberston falsely predicts the rapture, again? 1, 2, 3, rapture practice!

PS Do you walk in place when you get sucked up?

Funny to me.

Before you click away in disgust over the picture, stop! Get over it and read the story below before you judge.

In September of 2007, myself and three friends took a trip to New York and Boston for a week of baseball. We visited Yankee and Shea Stadiums in New York and Fenway Park in Boston. Some love for Fenway is at the bottom of this post.

The picture above was taken on Paul’s (the other guy in the picture) birthday. Not many people have seen the picture before and there is obviously good reason for it. Just looking at the picture by itself you may say, what the heck? That’s because you don’t know the story that goes with it.

The four of us were at a restaurant in Times Square after an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium. We were celebrating Paul’s 25th birthday. I don’t remember if it was the ESPN Zone, but if it wasn’t it was something very similar. Food, bar, games, etc.

When I had returned from the bathroom I was told there was a girl who wanted to take a picture with me. “Haha ok. Very funny guys. Where is she? Let’s take this picture.” I told them.

I knew my friends talked to some girl and begged or paid her to pretend she thought I was cute and that she wanted to take a picture with me. So I knew I had to play along. I was going to play along with their joke.

They waved the girl over to our table where she made a little bit of small talk on how she thought I was cute and wanted to take a picture with me. Blah, blah. I laughed, thanked her, played along, and took the picture.

Paul wanted to get in it too so I let him. I figured he must have wanted to be in on the joke so he could laugh about how he tricked me, even though I wasn’t tricked. So we took a couple pictures, she made some more small talk, I thanked her and said I needed to finish my nachos. She walked off and I went back to my food as my three friends huddled around the camera laughing uncontrollably.

I said, “guys, it’s really not that funny. I know you probably bought her a beer to get her to come take a picture with me. You could have at least found a smoking hot blonde that I might have been slightly nervous around, but I wasn’t even attracted to that girl.”

The uncontrollable laughter didn’t stop. “Are you going to show me the picture or what?” I asked.

Finally they let me see the picture. They wouldn’t hand me the camera because they were scared I would delete the photo. As I looked at it for a minute in my friends hand that was shaking from laughter, I tried to figure out how I didn’t see the shirt that she was wearing while I was talking to her. Did I really rush the picture that much that I didn’t even look at her? No. It’s because she had her sweatshirt zipped up and had unzipped it right after she stood next to me to take the picture.

“Wow that is awesome! I can’t believe you guys pulled that one off!” I said.

There response was, “What?!?! You aren’t mad?”

But why would I be mad when I knew I was getting setup? I played along only to have gotten setup times two! It explains my goofy, thumbs up, lets be cheesy pose in the picture. I wanted to look like a big dork so my friends would get more satisfaction in their prank that I wasn’t falling for. It just makes it better that she was wearing the shirt that she was, because it made it twice as funny for them and now also funny for myself as well.

Good job guys! Prank well done!

Now the point of this story isn’t that girls who live in New York are kinda trashy and wear shirts like this. It’s not that I got pranked. The point is, a lot of times you may see a person or person in a picture and judge it without knowing the full story. I know I have and I am sure you have too. If you just saw the picture and didn’t read this story, you probably would have said what kind of guy is this Chris Loach character anyways?!?

So I hope that you read the full story and now understand that I don’t love what the picture above says I do. And I also hope you don’t judge others by the first appearance either.

Ok, now laugh and make fun of me for getting setup. Enjoy!

Here is the A’s bullpen in Fenway. Haren was pitching his last bullpen session of the season and Braden was kicking a baseball around the outfield like a hacky sack. Good times in NY and Boston.

Thank you @joshshipp and @booksneeze for mailing me free books this week to review.

Taking steps one day at a time.

Craziness will happen even when you don’t plan for it.

Life is too short not to enjoy it.

Tomorrow is another day that you can have an impact on another person.

I heard about this earlier in the week. A brother gave his brother part of his liver and died two days later. Watch their story below.

Um Mormons? They really kinda creep me out eh.

And after all of that you will need to watch something funny. This is funny.

But what happens after is hilarious!

Right now I am kinda ticked I have a job. Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for it, but JetBlue is once again doing their “All You Can Jet” deal. Last year I found out about it after it happened and this year I am not in a place where I can do it. (full-time job) Major bummer!

The deal is, for either $499 or $699 you get a seat to any of the 60 cities JetBlue flies to for an entire month! That is a dream for me. I’d fly to a different city everyday. It would cost me thousands of dollars for what I could get for 500 bucks.

If you don’t know, I love to travel! My dream job would be to live out of a suitcase and be in a different city every week or day. I love flying. I love airports. I love people watching. I love free peanuts. I love everything about it. Kinda funny how most people hate it. My parents always told me I was special. Oh well, maybe next year.

Note to Southwest. If you did this I’d pay a grand for a month of unlimited travel. Hint, hint. Do it!

If you could fly anywhere, where would you fly?