Archive for February, 2008
TVGuide has released the saucy details of TV life post-writers strike. What it means for me and my house:
No new episodes expected. Ever. No new episodes until fall. No new episodes expected. Ever. Four pre-strike episodes remain. Expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to air beginning April 24. Expected to shoot 6 new episodes to begin airing on April 10. Five pre-strike what about you?
Bionic Woman
[interesting, guess I won't be watching any more on Hulu]
Chuck
[I've been getting in to this. nice.]
Journeyman
[me and Beth were also digging this. oh well.]
Lost
[i can't begin to explain what would have happened if this had taken a blow. think Job part II]
The Office
[seriously, this is every office in America. if it's not your office, then you're un-American]
Scrubs
episodes remain and will begin airing on April 10. Up to four
additional episodes may be shot; unclear whether they’ll air on NBC or
go straight to DVD.
[glad it's being finished, but i watch it on DVD anyway]
aftermath of the strike
after most conferences, i often get the feeling like i’m drinking from a fire hydrant. i’ll come away with a ton of information, but it came so quickly that it takes me days to decompress it and try to keep it all straight. what i loved about the NYMC was the relational aspect of it. spencer said he hoped he’d have a lot of, “wait, you too?!” conversations, and i totally did. that made the conference for me.
one of the big take homes for me is all about my leadership of other leaders; i’ve found i’m much more comfortable leading kids than other adults. i’ve been convicted about developing and caring for my leaders. hopefully the implementation of that began today in revising leadership documents, expectations, and my first of many meetings with my leaders. i hope that i’m empowering my leaders for ministry more than just delegating tasks.
if you’re a youth worker, attending this conference (even with your team!) will be one of the best moves you can make as a leader. you heard it here. quote it, tell your friends. pass it on to SYM, Group, and Josh.
and i’m glad to be home with my wife. dang she’s hot…
nymc :: final thoughts
some thoughts on our last full day of the conference:
- the deeper learning tracks were a great part of this for me. spending 8 hours with 120 other middle school workers was amazing. our last hour was spent in round table discussions with the four leaders, and a great way to end our time together
- got to spend a good deal of time talking with Scott Rubin, middle school pastor at Willow Creek Church. he’s the real deal. “your formal teaching time is only a fraction of your teaching.”
- “we must be fed or we can’t feed others.” ~Gary Hunt
- tonight i heard about Austin Gutwein. this 13 year old started hoops of hope, a free throw shoot-a-thon, when he was 10. he started it after hearing about HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and wanted to do something about it. since it started he’s raised over $300,000 and with that money built a high school, a medical clinic, and field medical kits. this year the money will build another clinic. this kid is literally changing the world and people’s lives. dang.
Greg Stier as the keynote tonight. he’s the kind of guy that when he’s done speaking you’re ready to charge the gates of hell with a water pistol.
- “if we want to be like Jesus, we’re going to have to initiate challenging conversations”
- how well am i listening to what my students believe?
- “we have to get kids to share what they believe & think and then take it back to the Word of God”
- am I teaching with practical relevance?
nymc :: sun. evening
free resource winner!
thanks to Josh, my blog coverage of the NYMC allowed me to give away a free SYM resource. i posted a short list of rules:
- find me here at the conference and sing me either the chorus of Billy Jean or Take on Me. you get Power Play V3 plus 75 bonus points for the Truffle Shuffle.
tonight i am proud to announce a winner! Josh Maxwell of Hamilton, NJ won with flying colors tonight with the Truffle Shuffle. so in addition to PPv3, Josh is also awarded 75 bonus points. here is the video evidence:
another great day today, even if i did only get about 4 hours of sleep after last night’s run to Shanghai Mama’s. i’m really digging my deeper learning track – middle school ministry, headed up by Kurt Johnston and Scott Rubin. it’s great having a chunk of hours devoted to middle school ministry.
highlights of today:
- getting free play-doh
- super impressed by Saddleback’s 9th grade worship team. wow. definitely pumps me up to continue working with our high school worship team
- lunch with a bunch of Alliance folks, complete with Chick-Fil-A milkshakes
- Doug Fields talking about hot moms in his keynote
- great conversations with middle school workers
- another late night dinner with ministry folks at Shanghai Mama’s, this time complete with Josh Griffin
nymc :: sat. night
- who doesn’t love a freebie? you? then you’re lame. if you’re not lame, i have a Power Play Vol. 3 up for grabs. sweet! there are two ways that you can have this for your very own:
- find me here at the conference and sing me either the chorus of Billy Jean or Take on Me. you get PPV3 plus 75 bonus points for the Truffle Shuffle.
- if there are no takers in person by Sunday evening, it is open to the first person to link to write a tasty blog about Oh Snap, Brilliance and add me to their front page blogroll.
- Napoleon Dynamite is a youth worker/intern. apparently, his real name is Braedon Tabor. who knew? pictures to follow
nymc :: i declare a challenge
wow. a great day. i’ve gotten to connect already with so many, from old friends Guy Wasko & Jason Ostrander to new friends, like Vince Beresford, Jana Grant, Jeff Berger and a slew of other youth workers, especially from around central PA. The more intimate discussions have really been a highlight of this conference so far; the small group feel is really different from most things like this, and I love it.
initial conference thoughts
- great atmosphere
- live music in the atrium – sweet touch, very tasteful and fitting
- 5 foot micro suede bean bags. oh yeah
- i love meeting folks like me, with more and less experience, like me and unlike me, willing to listen, challenge, and for us to realize we’re rally not that different
- being up front for so much in the church every week, it’s so nice to not be up front
- i got my More Than Dodgeball shirt from Josh Griffin for being an official NYMC blogger. tell your friends. seriously
tonight Tony Dungy was our keynote speaker, and he really brought it. even for me not being a sports guy, his talk really resonated with me about having a coaching role in a kid’s life. one of my favorite quotes was, “in football you try to build your team by seeing what you can get; we (the Church) are unique in that we try to build our team by seeing what we can give.”
late night highlights
- sitting in on the live SYM podcast
- Shanghai Mama’s. it was really great chinese food, not a seedy brothel
- learning secret New Testament history from a dude on the street who looked eerily like Dave Chappel. it was really creepy. a large portion of the conversation will not be posted due to the family-friendly nature of this blog
nymc :: fri. evening
After an 11 hour drive from Williamsport, Spence and I made it to Cincinnati. What’s that you say? It shouldn’t take more than 8 hours even if you’re blind and still behind the wheel? Well sir, you would be correct, unless you had the heavens open up on you and decide to pour the wrath of snow and rain everywhere. Our last half hour on the road turned into three hours. You read that right.
Highlights of the evening thus far:
- using a gas station restroom a teen slasher film could have been made in
- the aforementioned drive
- dodging the half million cops on I-80
- not having the right card to pay for the hotel room
- running into my friend Jason Ostrander at dinner
So maybe they’re not all real highlights, but hey…this will all make a great story. Tomorrow the conference officially kicks off. Stay tuned.
nymc :: thur. evening
NYMC
Today I’m off to Cincinnati with Spence for SYM/Group’s National Youth Ministry Conference. 8 hours in a car? Yes. But this will be worth it. The last conference I went to was in Austin, TX. It was a great experience, plus I got to go with my wife and some friends. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to learning, sharing, and meeting new youth ministry folks. Spence has some good thoughts on it here.
Oh, and I’ll be blogging on the conference while I’m there. Yes, I made the list of official bloggers for the NYMC. Spence will also be blogging, but mine will be better than his.
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