As we approach the end of the year, we enter into that wonderful time where we reflect on the past year to see how we might be better in the year to come. Admittedly, this work is made more accessible and challenging by the tools made available in a digital church. On the one hand, we have access to comprehensive analytics. We can know a whole lot about a whole lot of people. However, data only tells half the story and often is focused on the macro, not the micro, vision. It

Two years after his tragic passing, we’ve finally seen Marvel’s honoring of Chadwick Boseman and his excellent portrayal as the Black Panther, aka T’Challa. And the pressure was real, I’m sure. The world has wondered for years now how the franchise would adapt and shift with the needed change. How would his legacy be captured? How would the fictional character be lifted to highlight the real one? Of equal importance to honoring the life lost, Black Panther Wakanda Forever sou

We don't often focus on the Liturgical Calendar (the year that the Church follows) very often here at Checkpoint. But I am sure never to bypass my favorite holiday: Advent. Typically conflated with the Christmas season, Advent is a time of preparation leading up to the eventual arrival of the infant Christ in the opening text of the gospels. We spend four Sundays lighting candles, studying the verses leading up to the birth narrative, and trying our darnedest to postpone sing

Sonic Frontiers has officially been out for a few days, but as I wrote this, I still needed to get to play the dang thing because I got the VID. I’m better now, by the way, appreciate the prayers, good vibes, and check-ins. By the time this nerdy deep-dive hits the airwaves, I will hopefully have been proven incorrect or correct about my theories in this one on the blue blur’s story in this game, but, in the interest of hopping on the hype, it’s worth noting that the level of

ICYMI Twitter is on fire. I'm not quite as fatalistic or prophetic as many others, but it's hard to deny that the current steps of evolution on the platform has been alarming. However, you can go and read hundreds, if not thousands, of articles on this drama. The more important question to ask, it seems, is: should we care? When it comes to the vast expanse that is the Internet, the best model (in my experience) for sorting through all of the mess is to address the 'why' behi

Do you know those wholesome anime where it’s not about victory but the friendships made along the way? Yeah - this isn’t that. When I first got Blue Lock the manga in my Manga Spice Cafe sub box, I thought I was in for another encouraging and wholesome sports manga like Whistle! But - this is a far cry from that. Blue Lock happens when you combine a battle royale with soccer and the results, while not deadly, are just as cutthroat. To make matters that much worse, the themes

As you're reading this, perhaps, I am sitting down with several of our LVL2 members and of our benefactors from the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. We are gathering for our bi-annual Stakeholder's Meeting. In this time, we will talk about the past 6 months of Checkpoint Church's existence and the myriad of goals we've met or fallen short of meeting. We will discuss future plans and set goals for the Spring meeting of the same name. All of thi