All the posts: December 9 - 15

You're busy. Christmas Eve is a week away, you're not done with what you planned to finish by today, and events (and people) need more than you have. Or am I the only one?

That's why today's post is very short. Just some links that you can read now or later. I hope they're encouraging (or at least amusing), and that you're able to rest, even today. May you have quiet moments of peace with enough light to go on with. God bless you.

The links!

Missionary slideshow! (honestly, one of my favorite things)

Our other favorite church called Living Hope (the other one is in Vermont)

Doesn't most of the world have Christmas without snow?

Pies (and pietinis) before plays

All the posts: December 2 through 8, 2018

As we approach the end of our church- and bar-going days, you might be wondering if we'll be posting here after the end of 2018.

We will! This blog will be the place to go for any and all book releases, travel announcements (we do hope to keep visiting new churches and bars, just not on a weekly basis), and links for movie (church) reviews. Dean's got something new in mind as well, and we'll announce that here too.

In the meantime, we're visiting churches and bars in and around Seattle for the rest of the year. This week, we ventured to a cathedral for a worship service based on ancient prayers and to a tiny bar where conversation with strangers was easy. At Movie Churches, Dean explained why he wouldn't be reviewing one Christmas movie -- and then he reviewed another one a day or so later.

Oh, you want links? Here you go!

Evening worship in an imposing place

Not a review. Nope.

Dean didn't expect to review this Michael Keaton film

By the time we left, everybody knew our names

And since there's still time, why not get a copy of Cheers and Amen for your pastor or your bartender for Christmas? It's on sale through the end of the year! (If you'd like an autographed copy, let us know. We have a few copies available for immediate shipping)

All the posts: November 25 through December 1

About four years ago, we started sharing posts about churches (both real and reel) at Dean and Mindy go to church. Almost three years ago, we walked into a bar and wrote about it for the first time. I suspect this month, December, will be pretty nostalgic as we anticipate completing our church and bar journey at the end of the year. (Dean will keep watching and writing about movie churches, though! He already has most of his 2019 viewing planned).

In the meantime, we're coasting into Advent, looking forward to Christmas, and celebrating the year's adventures. Over the past week, we celebrated Thanksgiving one more time, miscommunicated about the bar we were going to visit, and watched an end to Robin Hood's story. Check them out:

Grateful Lutherans

I don't think this will end well

Which bar did we mean to visit?

All the posts: November 5 - 10

No time for a long post this morning, so here's a haiku with links instead:

Light on a dark night,
Two Disney Robin Hood films,
Another dark night.

How's your autumn going?

P.S. Don't forget that Not the Usual Christmas Skits is available at Amazon (so is Cheers and Amen, if you're in a gift-buying mood).

All the posts: October 1 - 7, 2018

It's October at last! Saturday was Dean's birthday, and he celebrated by sleeping until noon (he worked the night before, so he went to bed at 7:00 am) and then driving all afternoon. More about that on Wednesday; you're here to read about the posts you missed this past week, right?

Here they are:

The theme for this month at Movie Churches is revealed!

It's a road trip! It's a coffee house! It's a church!

The first of this month's movies that Mindy won't be watching

In which it's a good thing the sports bar we tried to visit wasn't open

How did you enjoy the first week of October? We have some adventures planned this month, and we'll start telling you about them on Wednesday!

All the Posts: September 17 - 23, 2018

Yesterday, I was checking out the weather for several places we used to live and looking back at pictures from two years ago, when we were in Wisconsin. I guess a lot of you are still enjoying summer, aren't you? Around here, the "12" flag is flying from the Starbucks headquarters, so I guess it's been fall for a few weeks already.

Still, all the lifestyle blogs are full of posts about decorating your front porch for fall.  Words like "hygge" (it's a Danish word that essentially means cozy, as far as I can tell. I blame Ikea) are sprinkled throughout, and I guess people are excited about the return of pumpkin spice and football. Even though fall started officially on Saturday, we're excited because we have tickets to an A's game this week. Summer hasn't quite ended, even around here.

Naturally, then, the blogs this past week were also a bit of a mix of summer and fall, too. We went to a church that aims to be a warm, homy place, and we went to a preview night that turned out to be perfect for the last summer bar post. And the movie church? Well, you decide. We're still talking about it.

One name, five locations. Sounds like home

Theology, NPR, and Netflix

We went to Detroit, too. Our experience wasn't like this

All the posts: 9/10 - 9/16

What did you do this past week?

This weekend, we finally got to experience what I guess is typical fall weather (yeah, it's fall here already. Leaves are changing color and everything. I didn't expect that for another month). I've started carrying an umbrella in my purse, though I've heard that nobody uses an umbrella around here -- and come to think about it, what will I do with it once it gets wet? Certainly not going to shove it back to the bottom of my purse.

I might have to give some thought to the reasons behind this whole "no umbrellas" concept. Maybe there's more to it than trying to look cool in a downpour.

Anyway, rain or not, we're still exploring Seattle, and this week's posts reflect that. Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, we visited a church that might have been hard to find otherwise; we watched a movie on Netflix with lower expectations than the Vatican had for the soccer team in the film; and we managed to get a few words from the bartenders at a kind of pop up beer garden in one of our favorite Seattle neighborhoods.

So this is Wallingford

Soccer will change their lives

It's Chinatown

It's Monday morning, and we're getting ready for another workweek with rain in the forecast by Wednesday. What do you have planned this week? Will weather add to the challenges?

All the posts: 9/2 - 9/9/2018

This post will be a little rushed because I need to catch a bus in about 45 minutes. Can I get this done and get to work on time, photos, links, and all? We'll soon see. And since I'm in a hurry, do you mind providing some of the commentary?

Introducing Netflix month. We discussed using "and chill" in the title, but wonder if it's just too suggestive for Movie Churches. Your thoughts?

We check out a big church with a good reputation. Is that reptutation deserved? You decide.

The debate over "netflix and chill" continues. And this movie doesn't help at all. What do you think these people could have done differently?

This bar was exactly what it ought to be, and the A's won, and we saw a warthog. Should we have sung when asked?

It's a manic Monday here, but thanks to public transit, I think I'll make it to work on time. How's your week starting?

Mindy considers coffee, another undercover nun, and we visit a duplex bar: all the posts 6/3 - 6/9/2018

As we fnish up in Fresno before moving to Seattle (you knew about that, right?), we took a break from visiting new churches in order to spend one last weekend with our friends at The Bridge Fresno. Our Sunday School class (Hi, One Accord!) celebrated the start of summer with a gathering on Saturday night, and on Sunday we attended the morning worship service for (probably) the last time as regular attenders. We've been very grateful for our time with the class and with the congregation at large -- and while the post isn't about the church, their coffee ministry inspired this week's post. Thank you, friends! We appreciate your welcome and wish we could have spent more time with you.

Over at Movie Churches, though, it was just another week of undercover nuns, this time with Andie McDowell and Bruce Willis. Dean's really not sure the Pope would be okay with this particular ministry.

We had to go a long way (about 950 miles), but we got to a new bar this week. Not that we've been to all the bars in Fresno, it's just that Dean got pretty excited about the carnival theme, and since there are technically two bars in one space, we figured it improved our average of bars visited per week -- so it was well worth the trip.

Oh, you wanted the links? Here you go:

Mindy explains why coffee haters can like coffee at church

Dean explains what he thinks of the nun in Hudson Hawk

Dean explains why we drove almost 1000 miles to walk into a bar

And hey, those of you in northern California: we'll be reading (and, we hope, selling) copies of our book, Cheers and Amen, at a couple of bars next week. On Monday, June 18, we'll be at Dukes in Healdsburg from 7-8 pm; on Tuesday, June 19, we'll be at Final Edition in Larkfield. If you want to hear more about our year-long adventure visiting bars and churches in all 50 states, come on over!
(and stay tuned -- we'll have more news about the book next week)