National Youth Ministry Conference 2009
seriously, this is one of the highlights of my year in ministry. tomorrow evening a portion of our FUSE student ministry team hits the road for Columbus, OH. yes, i’ve contemplated wearing PSU all three days just to get them OSU-ers all riled up. last year Spence & I came back with so much growth and inspiration that we couldn’t not bring more of our team this time around. there are nine of us representing both our middle & high school teams – and yes, our wives, too. love it.
anyone here heading to NYMC? let’s connect while we’re out there…
puppets
for a long time i’ve believed that puppet ministry is dead. this video however, might be enough to cause me to re-evaluate my stance on this vital ministry issue
what can the church learn from Starbucks?
unless you live under a rock, you should know to go vote tomorrow. if you really needed more incentive, check this out.
there are some statements in that video that are a straight up call to action. i wish the Church as a whole would be as no-nonesense as this when it comes to impacting our community & world. for Starbucks “it’s bigger than coffee”. when it comes to our mission, it’s also bigger than coffee – why don’t you go do something about then?
what are you putting off?
There are some things you don’t need to pray about. You don’t need to pray about whether you should love your neighbor. You don’t need to pray about whether you should give generously or serve sacrificially. You don’t need to pray about whether you should bless someone when it is within your power to do so. God has already spoken. What you need to do is quit praying and start acting.
there are plenty of things that if i’m honest, i’m waiting for a solution that never shows up. truth is, it’s not the solution that doesn’t show up – because i already know what it is. instead i’m waiting for some sort of confirmatino after confirmation to get me to a place of my assurance that i cannot fail. and you know what: a lot of those things never happen because i’m not confortable feeling safe from failure.
but when the crap were we ever promised safety from failure?
Psalm 37:23-24
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
even though God establishes our steps, we still fall. i read this a few weeks ago on one of my favorite blogs:
I’ve been encouraged many times by reminding myself that God orders my steps. He helps me make wise decisions. He guides me in my choices.
But doesn’t it encourage you even more to know that He even orders your falls?
He doesn’t just help me choose the right path. He redeems me graciously even when I choose the wrong one.He doesn’t only order my successes. He orders my failures too.
And it all works together for my good, and His glory.
is that really needed?
i got a call from Lowe’s special order department this morning letting me know that my new door arrived. cool. the automated message gave me the necessary information i needed: that it was here, and where to go to pick it up. it even gave me a number to press if i needed more help. but then –
‘press 3 to end this call, or just hang up’.
seriously? is that action at all remotely necessary? answer – no. maybe it’s because i’m in planning & evaluation mode, but it makes me wonder if there are actions within the ministries i lead that are just unnecessary. or are there options that are either duplicating something already happening? is something there whose purpose has only become another option with the same payoff?
college ministry thoughts
- i’ve been considering for a couple of weeks now hosting a particular simulcast event for ministry leaders of young adults @ our church. it seems like a sweet thing, but it just doesn’t seem like the time is right for it. instead, i’m going to head to another church that is simulcasting the same event and learning how they do it and see if we can look to do it next year.
- had a great brainstorming time about some events for next fall that could be city-wide and include both our local colleges. i’m really pumped about this.
- getting ready to start our first official college small group!
- are there any readers of this blog who lead a college and/or young adult ministry?
reader’s choice winners
the results are in: you’re favorite blogs are:
seth godin and LAist. thanks to [both] of you for commenting. ps – we need to work on that. i love gap between the two – copmletely different.
godin had a great post on his blog a few days back on reaching the right people, which got me to thinking yesterday. where are we doing this, how is it working, and where should we be doing this? Mark Batterson did this with his newest book Wild Goose Chase (I’m about halfway through – review pending). Are we asking this as a church? How about within specific ministries like youth, children, or young adults?
two days until Peru
i’ve been waiting for this week for about a year now. saturday morning bethany and i get on a plane and eventually end up in Chilca, Peru. we’ll be continuing work on Hannah’s Hope, Hannah’s Home, and other ministry around that community. why am i so pumped about this?
i was baptized in the Pacific on the beaches of Peru in 2003
to see friends i haven’t seen in years
those weeks in 03 & 04 changed everything
Bethany will be with me
Hannah’s Hope (which began at my wedding) is coming true
ChildReach is showing Jesus to people
if everything is as i’m told, we should be able to update what’s happening as the week goes on. this will be the place for the pics & video. pray for us.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
quoting [Tom Morello]
Q: What would you say to a guitarist who feels like his tone is stuck in a rut?
A: We’ll I’ll tell you what I did when I encountered that problem – I gave up. For years, I tried to find this perfect tone I had in my head. Then, one day, I spent a few hours fiddling with my gear, and I decided that I didn’t particularly love the tone, but it wasn’t going to get any better. So I marked those settings and said, “Now I’m done. This is my sound.” And those settings are the same ones that I used in today’s rehearsal – as well as on every record and every show I’ve ever played. When I stopped worrying so much about tone, and started worrying about music, the problem went away.
i read this in an old issue of Guitar Player magazine recently. i’ve always loved tom’s playing, in both Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. there’s so much much depth to this thought for me, both musically and spiritually. do you remeber what your big picture is, or are you buried in the details?
quoting [Rick Warren]
If you don’t have freinds who are unbelievers, you are not Christ-like. If everyone you associate with is just your little group, you have a lot of growing to do – grow up.
i heard Rick Warren say this at a conference to church leaders a few weeks ago, and his intensity & bluntness floored me. i needed to hear it. the Bible study I’m in is reading through Mark. on monday we got talking a lot about who we associate with, who are friends are, and who is in our area of influence. this has always been a struggle for me, because my bet is that if you would ask most followers of Jesus where they around the most unbelievers, it’s their workplace. being in vocational ministry, that one is not as natural for me, and i’ve been trying to find intentional ways of doing this.
what do you do?
