Month: March 2006

  • The new look of LDS missionaries in Romeo

    MissionaryonbikesOne of my lifelong passions is to reach out to LDS missionaries. You know, the guys on bikes with ties who talk to you about the book of Mormon. I don’t know why, but I’ve always both admired these students but also had a heart to share true and free grace with people who are tied up in a polytheistic and works based faith.

    Anyway, this is the image I’ve always seen. Particularly in the film "My Best Two Years" you get very acquainted with the uniform and routines of missionaries. Kids with black pants, white shirts, ties, backpacks, and mountain bikes.

    Well, this morning on my way to the library I saw 4 20 somethings pile out of a car in khaki’s and backpacks. At 10:00 am on a Monday morning, this struck me as odd. Upon further review, they are clearly wearing the LDS "elder badges." These 4 guys look more like preppy punk rock wanna-be’s than anything else.

    It’s no secret that LDS is one of the many "new things" popping up around Romeo. I know that they’ve had some hard times finding a place to meet in town as everyone either says no, or the place they choose isn’t zoned correctly. It will be very interesting to see how the new LDS push in Romeo turns out. I pray that many will not fall into her trap.

  • The final push

    3storyTonight is session 6 of 3 Story Life. (Our churches adult small group spin on YFC’s 3 Story) In a lot of ways it has been fun doing this re-write, but in a lot of other ways, it has been really hard.

    It’s been fun to not just critique the curriculum, but to really spend time taking it apart and rearranging it, adding some parts I thought were missing and getting rid of things that I thought were too much. It’s also been fun training our leaders, getting feedback from them, and making the whole thing better along the way. (Several times I’ve re-written something after it didn’t go well on Monday for the Tuesday group.) It has been fun to see where peopel interact with the material, where they go "hmmmm" and where they go "ho-hum." Very interesting because it is mostly at times when I wouldn’t have done the same things!

    The not-so-fun parts. Well, re-writing something that a bunch of people worked on to "make perfect" isn’t any fun at all. Looking back, it may have been easier in the long run to leave the original as it was. While tinkering with it has been fun, it has also cost me a lot of time. Specifically, every day off for the last several weeks has been consumed working on this project. It hasn’t been fun that I haven’t been able to finish this sooner. (Such as, I have to finish tonights session this morning. It hasn’t been fun that we thought it would work out well as a 6 week small group, but we’ve learned it may be better in a 4 week format.

    All in all, 3 Story Life is a great project. To get the adults of the church talking, thinking, and trying to share their faith is amazing. It’s always been my hope that this would be the beginning of changing our community. Let’s hope so!

  • questions of heaven

    Heaven_questionsThis is the background image for church tommorow.

  • Talk notes updated

    Since I was reminded by someone that I was a wee bit behind. I’ve updated all the talk notes over on the Light Force site. There is always a link here on the left side, now it’s all updated. Thanks for the reminder.

  • Light Force doesn’t do retreats?

    RaitzBack a several weeks ago I had lunch with Jason Raitz. It seems like in this conversation we talked about 100 things. Last week I saw him again at the Detroit Metro Youth Workers lunch, I really like him. He’s a cool guy with a great heart for students.

    So, here is a part of our conversation he recorded in his ministry’s newsletter:


        I was having lunch with a youth worker not to long ago who
    said something that really got me thinking: "my kids really
    aren’t into to retreats anymore, so we don’t do
    them". REALLY?!?? Seriously, I could not stop thinking about
    that statement for weeks and here’s why, and get ready for the
    depth of this answer; I love retreats! I do, I always have,
    and I think I will till Christ returns. But more important than
    my personal feelings, I believe that retreats can become, dare
    I say, ebeneezer moments for your ministry. Because of
    that, I believe we should invest a great amount of our time
    and energy into them. [Project 311 March Newsletter]

    Later he wrote: "        I don’t even have enough space to convince you why you
    should you put a large amount of your energy into the
    planning, preparation, and execution of your retreats"

    First off, I’m not mad that he used this private conversation to make a point publically. Heck, I do this all the time. But I do think his idea bears some feedback.

    I’ve asked Jason to write an article for YMX talking about the importance of retreats in student ministry. I will write an article called "Why I kissed retreats goodbye." I am looking forward to this not because I think I have a superior opinion, and not because Jason will represent the majority opinion and I will represent the minority opinion… but because this is something that we need to be thinking about. In most student ministries I know, the bi-annual retreats are major peices of the ministry philosophy. The question is "Do you know why it is or isn’t part of your ministry philosophy?" For many out there, it is the single most expensive thing (time and money-wise) that they do. But should it be?

    Of course, this leads directly into my larger "Pastor Adam rant" about events and evangelism. [Shivering just thinking about it!]

  • I am ready now!

    13 days until we leave for our vacation. I’ve never been to Florida, but it sounds really good. The last few days have been non-stop from dawn-dusk and I am ready for a break.

    p.s. I think LF went pretty good last night. Raya, Aradith, and Autumn did a great skit that set up the talk well. It was a good night.

  • Proof I Am Still a Youth Pastor

    GrossProof #1 Stuff like this still makes me giggle. When I start thinking about the mess and the weirdness of it all, then I can’t call myself a youth dude. But there is just something funny about 4 girls wanting to get messy just to win… NOTHING!

    Proof #2 On the way home tonight I correct my daughter that it was a co-art and not a snart when you cough and fart at the same time.

  • For Sale

    Pews_004aI very reluctantly had our pews listed for sale over at usedpews.org. (Just so you know, I had all the boards permission to do this first!) Our hope is that we can find a new ministry or maybe an old ministry that is looking to buy some used pews. They are high quality, they are in pretty good condition, and I hope this isn’t the end of the road for them in ministry, just a new location.

  • You’re like the cat lady

    Yes, it’s true. I have another website to take care of. Why not just make it a baker’s dozen? But seriously, this one is a pleasure and it’s going to be very easy… especially since I am only supporting the site and not running it. Go to Macomb Junior Golf Classics.

  • Breathe

    This is the air I breathe
    This is the air I breathe
    Your Holy Presence
    Living in me

    These are well know words to a song we sing often. But I have been so busy and going in so many directions lately that I am not feeling like I can catch my breath.

    A phrase I say all the time is "I’m really busy with stuff, all good stuff, but I am sure busy." I find myself really longing and desiring time to just breathe. I take that back, I don’t want to "just breathe," I want to breathe deeply.