Blogelemy

Poll: When will Baby #3 arrive?

Raffstar.com confirmed what I already knew about myself

About a month ago I saw a post on one of my students feeds about a website called Raffstar.  Heavy with advertising, Raffstar gives out prizes randomly to those who acquire free tickets.  Plus Raffstar gives the majority of its advertising revenue to a selected well-known charity for that prize.  Raffstar claims that this is win-win-win approach to giving out prizes.  The webuser wins a prize, the advertiser wins 'hits' (possible customers) and the charity wins a donation.  You don't have to do anything to get a ticket and typically you can only get one ticket per item per hour. 

It seems pretty harmless(and it is) until you get someone who is compulsive (like me)doing this.  I found myself constantly logging on and trying to increase my chances to win a prize.  If my son woke me up in the middle of the night, I secured another ticket.  For my own sanity, I had to create a cutoff prize by which I would no longer try to win any prizes after it.  Oh and by the way, I never came close to winning anything! 

Raffstar reminded me that I need to be really careful about what I get involved in.  Being as compulsive, competitive and consumeristic as I am, I really have the ability to lose sight of the fact that I am as sucked into something as I was and neglecting other important things.  

Slogans the Church should adopt (and some they should flee from)...

This Christmas season I have a heightened sensitivity of the variety of different messages that are marketed to me (and you) on a daily basis.  I have been pondering these through the lens of what the Church strives to be, compared to what it was called to be.  Before you go any further, I don't want to pretend to be able to find a secular marketing slogan that will capture everything that Christ established the Church to be.  Rather, I am embarrassed to admit the number of times, I have as a youth pastor sent some of the messages below in an effort to further the Kingdom:

The following is the slogan that I have been pondering for several weeks (it's the inspiration for the blog post you are reading):

Imagine how ministry would look if the Church looked at ministry this way.  Instead of come to our programs so we can do it for you, what if we equipped people and created an environment and culture whereby they take the Great Commission upon themselves.  This is a gut check for me and how I "program" ministry.  As we turn a new year, I desire to focus on taking ministry from a spectator sport to "all hands on deck". 

I can hear the Triune God saying to me "You can do it. We can help".

Random Update

Here's a random update on what is happening in my world, in no particular order:

• We are expecting our third child to be born any day now.  The past few nights I have gone to bed wondering if I would be spending the entire night in bed or would I be rushing my wife to the hospital.  Greta thinks that it will be this week.  We both hope that we aren't spending Christmas in the hospital
• We are still uncertain of this babies name.  We have three names we like more than any other name right now but we haven't committed to any of them.
• Our son has done well with his transition of bedrooms down to the basement.
• Our student ministries team is completely focused on the New Years Eve all-nighter outreach.  We are trying to convince students to do something they (or their parents) don't do, buy their tickets early.  We feel that if students have their tickets in their hot little hands then they will be more apt to invite friends than if they waited until the last minute to see if something better comes up.  The way that we are doing this is through a "VIP experience".  We will be drawing names of those students who have already signed up and give them and a friend of their choice a variety of VIP perks (speedy registration, food vouchers, special transportation to our venues, premier seating at the rally etc...)
• I'm wondering if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have quit for the season.  The last two losses have been yucky

"Wicked" and the power of story

This past Sunday my wife and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary (which was in June) by going out to eat and going to the Broadway play "Wicked" that was playing at the Orpheum in downtown Minneapolis.  One of the things we did while we were on our date was discuss baby names for the new addition to our family.  It has been our tradition to do have this discussion while we are alone at a restaraunt.  We got our list narrowed down to three names.  Much to the chagrin of  our family, we don't share the name with anyone until we announce the birth even though this video seems to say otherwise.

Ever since experiencing the play "Wicked" for the first time (which we saw from the fifth row!), I have been thinking about how amazing the story was performed, told and put together.  I was engaged throughout the story.  I was at lunch today discussing this with our Senior Pastor (Troy), Worship Pastor (Brian) and Junior High Pastor (Travis).  As I was describing our experience, Troy shared, "that just shows you the power of the story".  He nailed it.  That is what made the play so dynamic.  I had never seen any part of "Wicked" before that night, I didn't know any of the songs (read below).  I did however know the "other" story that it was complimenting.  I think that is what helps this production.  Almost everyone has seen the movie "The Wizard of Oz" more times than they really want to admit.  I probably haven't seen it in over ten years but I was familiar with it enough to really understand what was going on in "Wicked".  I definitely recommend going to see this if you get the chance. 

In light of my job as a youth pastor, communicating God's Truth and grace to the next generation, this experience left me wondering how God's Word might be communicated in an engaging way (without adding or taking anything away from it)?  I don't have any answers to this question except to never abandon the power of story.
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Another side note that is worth adding: In trying to prepare myself for this show I purchased the "Wicked" soundtrack.  I remember thinking I paid so much for these tickets I really want to get the most out of this experience.  As I tried to listen to the soundtrack beforehand none of it made sense and I remember thinking that I was not going to enjoy this play as much as I had hoped.  Now that we have seen the performance and I understand how the songs work into the story, it is far more enjoyable to listen to!

New Episode of "The Student Ministries Office"

The following is the fourth episode of our very own "The Student Ministries Office" produced, filmed, edited and written by Jed Culbertson:

The (Student Ministries) Office: Episode Four from Grace Students on Vimeo.

In case you missed them, here is Episode One, Two and Three.