brianleimone.com

i found this news rather disturbing when i read this article. not so much that spam sees an increase in sales when recession hits, but rather that a “slaughterhouse next to the Hormel plant butchers 19,000 hogs a day”. that is seriously an unprecedented # of pigs. crazy.this post is for you joey - who loves hot dogs.article about spam if you are bored or just need something to kill some time when you’re trying to do something more productive. 

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tomorrow i am taking a day long sabbatical. no phone, no computer, no emails, no confluence, no work, no nothing. just me and jesus and sarah.please pray for peace, rest, and most of all a hedge of protection from satan. life is extremely stressful and exhausting right now with everything that goes on with leading the Team that makes Confluence a great place for the community.satan is trying to get a foot hold in places where he does not belong because of my stress and exhaustion. pray that God will give me the strength needed to lead the team of Confluence through this battle. pray that i can be the leader that is focused. pray that i can be the leader who leads through the valley. please pray.  

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it has been very interesting watching the whole political scene this fall. i purposely avoided engaging in many conversations about one candidate or another. not because i didn’t want to, but  mainly because when i wanted to have a bipartisan conversation, those who weren’t believers assumed that i was republican because i was a Christian, and those who were believers would be horrified if i was a democrat. it disgusted me how much assuming and pointing fingers happens that seem to just ostracize you.

when in reality, there are many great and positive things about each party that Jesus most likely be happy with. i think politics are no different than the unhealthy competition between churches.

and even as i type this, i think to myself, is there really a “healthy” competition between churches? ONLY when competition spurs to you take risks, think outside of the box, and encourage you to find what God’s will is. it is when the Church realizes that what we do is the highest calling that could ever be given and spurring us to do anything short of sin to see people come to Christ, that is when competition is good.

i was going to avoid writing anything about the election, but when i saw scott hodges post, nothing necessarily profound, but just simply put…. encouraged me to put my thoughts out.

“Barack Obamais our next President.  Wow…  What a historic election!  And let me just say…  Christians who are freaking outabout this election are getting on my nerves- BAD.  Grow up and trust God!   I don’t remember seeing fear, anxiety, and worry listed as “fruits of the Spirit.”  Let’s pray for President-Elect Obama and ask God to guide and direct him as our new leader.  I think God can bless that a heck of a lot more than He can bless all the badmouthing and disrespectful attitudes. “

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it is always interesting to see how new guests respond when they come to confluence for the first time. some people come in and look the whole place over head to toe before they ever place an order. some people are ecstatic because they’ve found a coffee shop in their area. some people come right in like they’ve been at confluence for years and know exactly what to order. some are confused as to what we are. while some kids have heard about our indoor playground and are running and dragging their moms and dads in.

unfortunately today’s example is not one that any of us would want to brag about. sometimes you can spot the people who have questions about confluence before they decide to order a mile away. today this customer asked “what are you?” a little confused i said, “we are a coffee shop.”

the customer responded, “well good, because i was trying to prove my friend wrong because they said that you were a damn church”.

at that point, i could have been shocked or taken aback, or even upset, but unfortunately i wasn’t surprised. now don’t get me wrong, its not because i think they they had been offended by someone at the river church to cause them to think poorly of us, but more likely, they had been turned off by Christians in more of a corporate way.

how unfortunate it is that people feel that way about Christians, but rather than dwell on the fact that someone said what they said, lets ask the more important question ….  why would someone say that???

let me first say… God totally took control over the conversation at that point and spoke through me to make this customer feel comfortable in our setting and her and her friend enjoyed their cup of coffee at confluence for about an hour and said they’d be back.for every person who has been turned off by Christians they have their own reasons. this person was expecting someone to be preaching at them when they walked through the doors of confluence. and that statement would categorize how they would see churches, as places of judgment, rather than grace. a place of law, rather than love. a place of hypocrisy rather than honest sinners.

may we ALL be cautious in the choices we make. we are representing the LIVING GOD who loves each of His children, yet we help create filters that alter who HE is. let us also remember that at some point in our lives, we may have been the cause as to why someone would call a group of people a “damn church”.let us spur this on to share God’s love without strings to this community.  i leave you with a quote from a great song by Jars of Clay called “Show You Love”

Speak - say the words that no one else will ever sayLove - love like the world we know is over in a dayI’m gonna show you love in every languageI’m gonna speak with words that need no formI’m gonna give you what you never had before

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is anyone in the market for a new computer?i may be selling the following computers. if so, let me know asap and we can talk how much. iMac 20 in Intel - 2.0 ghz, 1.5 gb ram, 250 gb hd, super driveibook g4 - 1.0 ghz, 1.5 gb ram, 30 gig hard driveeMac g4 - 1 ghz, 1.5 gb ram, 60 gig hard drive  

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confluence has received its first review and it is glowing! wake university has a great website for its students to see what is going on in the town and has hundreds of reviews of the local businesses. i use this website all of the time, and i am not even a student at wake (www.wakestudent.com).

the folks at wake student visited us a few weeks ago and Confluence is now there feature story this week.

the author hit it right on the nail about who confluence seeks to be in the community. statements like these happen all of the time from people in the community and couldn’t have been possible without YOUR help and support to renovate this space and support it financially. thank you!

i loved how the author described our goal … here is a quote from the review:

Confluence’s goal is to embed itself in the community and at the same time make it a better place. And with quality coffee and a great space (it even has an indoor playground) it seems very likely that it will achieve it.

click to read the full review

also you can VOTE for us by clicking below.  search for confluence in the dining directory and click the stars on the right.

http://www.wakestudent.com/dining/ 

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“you cannot produce divine change by human effort. you must be born again” - steven furtick

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does anyone want to help with face painting on saturday for the fall extravaganza at Confluence? it would be from 10-2. if so, post a comment or send an email ASAP - brian[@]confluencecoffee.com 

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if you’re a worship leader than you need to make time to be at Confluence on Oct 18th. WBFJ is hosting a free worship leaders workshop with Matt Maher at Confluence at 9 am.more details are here. 

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we need orange cones (or something like it)we need bright orange tape. these are things that we need to help keep folks safe at the pumpkin patch. if you have any of these call the coffee shop 771.8661 and bring it by tonight !! THANK YOU! 

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