In uncategorized on June 30, 2007 by karlo
It’s been a crazy busy week. Bethany and I leave tomorrow morning at 9am to take 19 students to LIFE in Orlando. I know it’s going to be an awesome week, just a lot to work out. We’ll be gone from July 1-9, so it’s more than just a weekend retreat. Some of the expected highlights:
- charter bus ride straight down & back
- a day at the Magic Kingdom
- hanging out with Jimmy & Eileen
- having dinner with Beth’s best friend Sarah
- thousands of students
I’ll update throughout the week of what’s going on. Should be good.
In a nod to the guru of all things Purpose Driven and youth ministry related, Josh Griffin, behold volume of 1 of “Searches that Lead Here”. Being that I’m a relative who-the-crap-is-that in the blog world, this is more about ridiculous searches than the volume of searches. So. The most ridiculous search-engine term that lead to my blog?
“church “hershey park” devil”
I’m not quite sure how to take that…
on June 26, 2007 by karlo
I stumbled across this video this morning. Aside from the guy having some serious chops, I’m even more impressed at his finger style. And even more than that – the wall of Marshall amps behind him. If I were ever in a hard/classic rock band, didn’t take myself too seriously, and wanted a wicked sound…this is the ticket.
check it.
on June 25, 2007 by karlo
Today I’m spending most of the day working on video for my church’s Vacation Bible School next week. It’s a spy kids style theme, and I was asked to do opening & closing announcement videos to go with the tech-y-ness of spies. While scripts, shooting video (on a macbook), and video editing really aren’t my forte, I really enjoy it in my limited capacity of what I’m able to do. In all there will be 10 shorts (~90 sconds), two for each of the five days. I’ll likely post them when they’re finished for the hilarity of it.
on June 22, 2007 by karlo
I began thinking last week about the discipline of blogging. A lot of people might not think of it as a discipline, but here’s my reasoning. Blogging is essentially glorified journaling, which is a practice I’ve never been good at. I’ve tried keeping ongoing journals before, but usually to no avail – they usually crap out after a month or so. While I still journal during events/times I know I want to remember (such as mission trips), that’s about the extent of what I’ve done up to the launch of this blog.
There a a number of different types of blogs, which is good to know if you need to have a clear focus or direction of what you’re doing. This is vital for me to keep this up; I have to know where I’m going. A great blogging resource for getting clued in about this is the North x East blog. Where I’ve found myself fitting in is really in giving insight and thoughtful posts about ministry. Because of this, when I post I want it to be purposeful and pertinent. Problem is, this can lead to only posting when I feel like I have something profound to say, and that can easily lead to just getting lazy and dropping this, which I don’t want to do.
This is why I think of this as a discipline. During my normal work week, I’m now trying to post something at least once a day, be it short or long, to get myself into the practice of it. It’s not always going to be easy, but I know it will stretch me, too; this is why I’m labeling it a discipline. Ministry and pastoring is a creative field…if you’re not creative, I think there are some issues there that need to be addressed, honestly. The thing about creativity is that while much of it can seem to come naturally or on the fly, it often takes practice. As a musician, you have to practice! I wish I had a log of how many hours in my life so far I have practiced music. Artists practice. Writers practice. If you’re in a creative field and don’t practice, you’re probably not that good, contrary to your parents’ opinion. Sorry, it has to be said.
That’s why blogging is a discipline for me. It’s a practice in creativity in ministry, thought, and writing. I told my wife recently that one of my life goals is to write a book. This is kind of crazy to me, because I always hated creative writing and english classes as a whole. Hated them. But there’s something about writing a book that gets me excited. Maybe it’s the time and effort I know will have to go into it. Maybe it’s pouring over the ideas, finding the best way at the time to express those ideas. Maybe it’s having a finished product at the end that I can look at and see as a successful goal met. Doing this discipline of writing a little often is a discipline I hope will lead to this goal.
Tagged: faith, life on June 21, 2007 by karlo
In Uncategorized on June 20, 2007 by karlo Tagged: quoting
“If I can focus on how big God is, I can recognize how small my problems are.”
Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, Anderson SC. This is from part 1 of a 2 part sermon on prayer, and he brings it (6/3/07). This made me think of yesterday’s post.
I decided some weeks ago that I wanted to get down and read the Bible through – it’s a good thing to do. To start the day off this morning, some of my reading was about God’s calling of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac (Genesis 22). One of the huge points of this story is the foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us. But something about a straight down reading of this seems somewhat sterile. Abraham is obedient to God through to the point of raising the knife – that’s obedience to the extreme. Now I don’t want to sound too much like Oprah, but there’s not much about the personal struggle of coming to terms with what God called Abraham to do.
I’ve had to make some hard decisions, but I don’t think I would put any of them on the level of being asked to sacrifice my child. I listened to a sermon yesterday by Steven Furtick from his series When Truth and Life Collide. There are those times when it seems that what we know about God and what we’re experiencing in life don’t seem to jive all that well. This is the feeling that I get from the account of Abraham. The dude was 100 years old, promised a son by God, given that son, and then asked to sacrifice him. It seems pretty “!?”. If we aren’t having a question with God like that right now, we probably will sometime soon if we’re following Him. My thought is that sometimes the questions we ask miss the point, either from our limited view or our emotions. One of the points I’ve picked up from some great leadership books is to start with the end in mind. I believe that this is how God works in the purpose He has for us, and something that our limitations keep us from. What is the biblical truth that is being directed to us in these situations?
on June 19, 2007 by karlo
Over on a sweet little blog about church IT stuff, Jason Powell whipped out a little game called the shuffle. Here’s the deal…open up iTunes or your music player du jour, hit the random button, and list the first 15 songs it brings up. Even if it’s lame. Points are lost for cheating.
Here’s mine, straight from iTunes:
Dave Barnes – Crazyboutya
Five Iron Frenzy – New Year’s Eve (these guys made ska cool in my book)
Johnny Cash – If We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven
Chris Tomlin – Unfailing Love
David Crowder Band – Lift My Eyes
University Baptist Church – All I Can Say (the little known first CD from Crowder)
Strong Bad (What’s Her Face) – I Think I Have a Chance with this Guy (some of the tracks on this CD are 80’s hair metal at its finest)
U2 - I Threw a Brick (best rock namd in the world…don’t even try to argue)
Radial Angel – Burning Bridges
Michael W. Smith – How to Say Goodbye (this reminds me I need to 1) clean out my music library and 2) not rip every free CD I get in a youth pastor perk pack
Ben Harper – With My Own Two Hands
Johnny Cash – Get Rhythm
TobyMac – Catchafire
Robert Randolph and the Family Band – Good Times, Bad Times (these guys get down! randolph proves pedal steel guitar isn’t just for twangy country & western music)
Lincoln Brewster – Spin
There it is. I tag and challenge Bethany, Spence, Mike, Stac, and Jon. Post your list in a comment, or trackback to this post.
on June 18, 2007 by karlo
How do you prepare? Preparation, or a lack thereof, can often be the make or break of a great idea. What makes this difficult is when you add personalities to the discussion. I’ve always been a procrastinator, always waiting until things absolutely had to be done to do them. Why? I think because I like the rush of working under the gun. And trust me, I’m not in solo company here. On the other hand, there are people who feel hung out to dry if they don’t have more than a week of prep time for whatever they’re doing. They’ve got their social calendar planned out for at least the next year. There’s a medical term for this – lunatic.
I was in a church worship team once that did not practice. Music was given out the morning of, the order given, and maybe the beginning and ends of the songs run through. The reasoning was that we were going to “let the Spirit move.” Poppycock is more than a snack. The question I had as a trained classical musician who had to fill out practice sheets for my teachers was – why don’t we practice to make sure it’s good? The choir practices. The organist practices. Why not us? This gave me a weird taste in my mouth for the move of the Spirit in regards to preparation.
It would seem that the answer is somewhere in between for the leader. The ability to work under the gun & play in the clutch, but also to have the discipline to cast future vision and have the time to develop said vision. And for the record, I believe the Spirit also moves through preparation.
on June 15, 2007 by karlo
In Uncategorized on June 14, 2007 by karlo Tagged: quoting
“The best is always forthcoming as I follow Christ in faith.”
~Steven Furtick
Dang. How about that for a call to not living in mediocrity or staying comfortable in the present. Steven is the pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.
