Blogelemy

Am I still American if...

I didn't watch Barack Obama appear on Jay Leno?

I get lost watching the show "Lost"?

I don't like baked beans?

I don't consider St. Patrick's Day to be a real holiday?

I filled out a March Madness bracket but haven't watched more than 5 minutes at a time of basketball?

I don't watch "American Idol"?

I don't follow MC Hammer on Twitter?

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I do watch Jack Bauer on Monday nights.  Doesn't that make up for all of the above?!

I dislike fax machines

The only thing fax machines are good for.

I consider myself to be pretty tech savvy.  I enjoy using technology to get work done easier and maximize the work that I am doing.  Sometimes I like it too much.  One piece of technology that I have never liked is fax machines.  Fax machines have never been a technology that I could trust.  I understand the need for them (or I did 15 years ago).  I know that it is helpful when someone needs a document with a signature on it.  I remember the days in college when I would send a fax to my mom through my 28.8 modem to see if she would read through one of my term papers before the days of attaching files to emails.  My biggest issue is the fact that I don't trust that the fax went through until I talk to the person and hear from them that they did in fact receive every page of my fax.  Too many things can go wrong with a fax, the connection could never be established, toner could be out, paper jammed or out, wrong number etc...

This past week we had some families try to register their students for our Senior High Winter Retreat by sending us a fax.  It seemed to go through on their end but our fax machine was down and we didn't receive it.  Typically, this wouldn't be a problem except that we had sold out our retreat and this person would've had their registration in prior to our sellout.  We were able to squeeze her in but it added another chip in my mistrust of fax machines.

Unmixed, Mixed and Remixed

A few weeks ago I heard a sermon delivered by Pastor Clark Crebar, Young Adults Pastor at Grace Church.  I recommend that you listen for yourself.  It gives an excellent exposition of how we are to pray for one another.  There were a number of great things about his sermon.  One thing that he said, that wasn't at all the main point was when he defined the word 'pure'.  In simple form he said that the original word means to be 'unmixed'.  Ever since this sermon, I have been thinking about what being 'unmixed' means for me personally and how I look at ministry.

There are a number of ways that unmixed could be applied to life.  Or, maybe I should say that there a number of ways that I find myself mixed.  My diet, iTunes collection, television watching, family leadership, the weed content of my yard (when its alive), my preference for PC's or Macs...  When I take a hard took at my physical, emotional, spiritual, mental and social balance, I see things being mixed.

I think a great tension that I deal with is how to teach and model to students how to be unmixed in some situations and mixed in others.  There are areas where students (and adults for that matter) should strive to be unmixed with the things of this world (sexual immorality, idolatry, gossip, slander...).  And then I feel that there are areas where we should be mixed or to borrow Eugene Peterson's word 'remixed'.  In order to be salt and light, it is of ultimate importance for us to engage in the people and culture of this world.  I think that youthworkers need to teach and model the tension between areas of life that need to be unmixed and areas where a mixture is necessary.  We tend to go to far one way or the other!  This gets us into the whole "being in the world but not of it" discussion.  Jesus' words shed some light:

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. - John 17:14,15 (NIV)

I currently find myself reading two books talking about this very thing.  The first is Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture and The Fine Line: Reinvisioning the Gap Between Christ and Culture. I haven't finished either book, and I plan on having a 'part 2' to this posting once I do.

Football = Relationships

Has there ever been a better day of Sports for Tampa fans than last Sunday?

Those who know me know that I love professional football.  I'm a nominal basketball and baseball fan.  However, this year I am all over the Rays and their quest for the World Series Championship. 

One of my favorite things about football is how it is tied to relationships.  Among other things, my parents and I enjoy talking about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are doing both off-season and on.  I have friends and acquaintances all over the country who are fans of different teams.  Often these loyalties cause us to communicate.  For example, if my team is playing the Washington Redskins, I will talk to my friend from Bethel Seminary, Dave Runion.  If my team is playing the Dallas Cowboys (which they are this weekend), I will be on the phone with the Junior High Pastor, Travis Armstrong.  I have lots of friends who are Chicago Bears fans (Matt Sharp, Dave Nordyke, Kevin DeVries) and others who follow the Packers (Stephanie Armstrong, Dawn Fong, JP Turner).  I could go on and on nearly every team is covered in this, being in Minnesota I have lots of friends who rise and fall with the Vikings (shout out to Ken Reily, my in-laws). These ties allow me to think about my friends when their team is doing well, not so well, when our teams are playing each other, or when they make a gutsy off-season trade.

So, maybe this is my defense for being a football fan, but there are lots of relationships that I am able to continue not because of Facebook, not because of proximity but thanks to the NFL.

Sum, Sum, Summertime

So, my blogging has slipped quite a bit over the past several weeks.  I think that it is due mostly to the fact that I am in the thick of summer.  Summer is a pretty fluid time for most people, especially those who are in youth ministry.  In my last ten years of youth ministry, I don't think that I have had a summer that has even come close to this one.  Here is a list of what I feel I have been spending most of my time on (on top of what I normally do):

~Doing everything within my means to not let high school students "take the summer off" in their own spiritual growth
~Working alongside children's ministries to minister to inner city families via "VBS in the Park"
~Leading the high school counselors at Family Camp
~Prepping for over 60 students to travel to Lima, Peru to minister aside the Callao Church http://www.atgrace.com/peru
~Drastically remodeling our senior high environment (theUnderground)
~Planning for some program tweaks this fall in the Senior High Ministry
~Spending as much time as possible with my wife and 2.3 kids

When I look at this list I am grateful that not one of them is something that I am trying to tackle all alone.  I am surrounded by talented people who are shouldering the responsibility with me.  I am also grateful for the ways that I am able to include my family to partner with me in ministry.  There have been multiple events where I have been able to bring my son (or entire family) to join us.

Vacation Bible School AKA VBS

We are in the midst of our Church's Vacation Bible School program.  Which I have been hearing about for the past year.  So far it has lived up to the hype of being lots of kids, lots of energy and all of our staff pitching in to help out. I have never seen a Vacation Bible School this organized and attended.  The student ministries team is responsible for all of the recreation games.  All of the grades are split into two groups and one goes outside to Pastor Travis and his group and the other comes inside to our group in the gym.  I have never seen this many young students in one area at a time.  After one day of doing this, I felt as if I had already experienced a week of it.  I'm pretty sure that I will not have a voice at the end of the week.  All this to say, it is clear already that this is an amazing form of outreach to young kids and their families.  I am really proud of my son for getting one of his classmates to join him.

Since I am blogging about VBS, I can bring up a pet peeve that I have about the initials "VBS".  Sometimes we come up with programs that everyone inside the church knows about but everyone outside the church has no idea what we are talking about.  Take VBS as the example.  There are VBS's happening all over the world right now (most of them are probably this week).  But the initials VBS by themselves do not tell a person who isn't churched what it is.  Actually the words "Vacation Bible School" are hardly descriptive of what it is.  Every so often I cringe when I hear from the stage "VBS" without the explanation of what it stands for.  I imagine that newcomers immediately feel like they can't relate to churchgoers because they don't understand the lingo that is thrown around.  Another one that gets thrown around the Church is "ABF". 

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.  I feel better now.

What REALLY makes me want to change?

Last night in the Senior High Ministry we kicked off our "Advance" theme for the summer.  It was a push to not take this summer as a break or  kick our relationship with God into cruise control.  Rather, the challenge was actually to 'advance' in our relationship with God with the summer time afforded to us.

In the midst of thinking through this summer theme, and preparing the first installment of teaching.  I had a internal crisis as I realized the obvious fact that I could talk and motivate towards "advancing" all I want but if no one in the room really wants to advance it isn't going to happen.  I can't make someone change!  So this left me with the question, "What causes a person to want to advance?"  I came up with two major ways this happens.  The first way that I'm motivated towards change is through inspiration.  We can be inspired through movies that we see or influential people that cross our path. Another change agent is our own disappointment with self.  If we are able to take a good look at ourselves and see things that we may not like, we can be motivated towards change.

Knowing that my list probably wasn't complete, I asked the students what other things motivate them to change.  Their answers were great.  Here are a few that I could remember:

Passion
Knowing that I need to represent Christ to the lost
Pride
Jealousy
Satisfaction from being in the Word
Joy
Affirmation from Parents
Fear
Desire not to waste our lives

I don't think that I am done wrestling with this.  I think it hits a fundamental issue that Pastors and Teachers face.  They can create a compelling talk to motivate change but unless the Holy Spirit prompts a person towards change, the presentation is just words.

Indiana Jones Publicity

I'm pretty sure that I am the last person who hasn't seen the Indiana Jones movie.  My friends who saw it have told me to go in with low expectations and then I will be fine.  I have noticed that Indiana Jones has created a publicity blitz that has surrounded everyone with advertising this movie.  If I had the time, it would be fun to go into a grocery store and count the number of Indiana Jones products.

I did have time to find this link:  Indiana Jones products on Amazon

Movie Theater = Photo Opportunity

After going to the movies this past weekend I realized that part of the current movie-going experience is taking pictures of movie displays.  This isn't people being goofy, it is encouraged!  At one point this might have been the old-fashioned put your head into the cardboard cutout, now it is sit in the Barber chair.  So next time you go to the movie find a spot to smuggle in your digital camera as well.

Guitar Center

I was recently in a ginormous music store called Guitar Center with some of our staff as we were making some purchases for some stage design.  There are a few stores like Guitar Center that don't do anything for me because my passions and giftings aren't in that area.  There are others who can spend a lot of time (and money) in a store like Guitar Center.  I have taken students into a Guitar Center and asked them to tell me how they might spend a $1000 in the store if they had it to spend.

Stores where I could spend lots of time and money:
Best Buy
Apple
IKEA
Lowes
Home Depot
Volkswagen

Stores that I could care less if I ever walked in again: (not worth looking up the links)
JoAnn Fabrics
Archivers
Baby's 'R Us
Bed, Bath and Beyond
Michael's
RadioShack
Sears
Guitar Center

Hilarious website...

I recently saw a Twitter from Doug Fields that brought me to this website.  I would explain it but I'm guessing it is pretty self-explanatory once you enter the site.  For some reason, I laugh every time I see it or show it to someone else.  Here is one of my favorites:

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

 

Won't it fix itself?

As I left this morning to take my son to Kindergarten and myself to work, the Garage Door Opener decided to stop working.  I have a couple of ideas as to how to fix it but I didn't have the time to do it prior to our departure.  So it sits there waiting for me to fix it upon my return.  I did make it possible for my wife to leave by pulling the red plastic emergency cord, but the overarching problem of broken Garage Door Opener will definitely be waiting for me to return tonight. 

I have gotten really good at putting things like this off.  I wonder and joke sometimes that they will fix themselves.  I joke with students and tell them don't work on your assignments, they will do themselves.  I really need to work on how I influence others!