Month: November 2007

  • Ohio


    We are in Ohio!

    3 hours to angies house.

  • And iso it begins


    As much as I love to travel, I hate leaving home when it is just me leaving. I already miss them.

  • NYWC Day -1

    General_v4aAs Patti noted yesterday, at this point there isn’t anything left we can do… we have to go with what we have. At 3 PM today Todd and I begin the journey to Atlanta. We’ll be spending the night at Chris and Angie’s house tonight and completing the drive Thursday morning. At this point there just isn’t much left to do.

    I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little nervous about vending at YS for the first time. It’s a huge deal! And since I’m the one in charge of designing, training, and otherwise making our booth happen… I’m feeling the heat. I feel great about putting Youth Ministry Exchange in the exhibit hall for the first time, but I am definitely nervous.

    From a leadership perspective I’ve got all the doubts running through my head. Do we have enough handouts? Did I spell something wrong and 3,000 people are going to tell me about it? Is the booth going to look good? Who are our booth neighbors? Is this too soon to vend or is it too late? Am I forgetting anything? Will anyone show up to my seminar? (I’m at 10:00 PM Saturday) How are we going to deal with people who are mean? Do I have the booth scheduled right? Will I regret giving away an iPod? Am I leading too much or am I taking charge or am I just a knucklehead that no one likes anyway? Will I say anything stupid? Will I be myself? How much money will we lose? What if no one has heard of us and they all think we’re a waste of time? Is this all a waste of money? Am I investing my time in Atlanta right?

    On top of that, there is all the personal stuff. Because I’m going to the convention not just to be a vendor… I’m also going as an attendee. I am looking forward to sitting in on a couple of seminars that will help us in Light Force. I can’t wait to see all my favorite worship artists. I am looking to hanging out with friends. I am pumped about meeting blog/YMX friends for the first time. I can’t wait to see Angie and Chris tonight. I hope I don’t get a ticket driving 750 miles each way. I’m going to miss Kristen and the kids. I hope I don’t spend too much money on food and stuff like that. I hope that I am open to God leading and teaching me stuff that I need.

    This conference always comes at a good moment for me. Despite all the work and planning that has gone into our booth in the exhibit hall, I also really need the encouragement that comes from being around people like me. I’ll find myself getting into so many conversations about youth ministry stuff. And typically, in church life, you have to explain everything about everything because not very many people "get" youth ministry. But when I’m at this conference, when I talk to people, they say "Yeah, I get that. That happens to me too." What a pleasure to be around people who get you!

    My prayers for the convention. I pray that I am an encouragement to people at the conference. I pray that I receive the blessings and well wishing of others with grace. I pray that I am a giver of blessings. I pray that I go to learn more than teach. Listen more than talk and watch my mouth. I really want nothing negative to come out of my mouth. Amen.

    What about you? For those who are going? How are you feeling?

  • Guest Dip Story: Bobby Williams

    dip_bwNot too long ago I went hiking with a good friend of mine in the Smoky Mountains
    of East Tennessee. The trail we chose started going downhill 2.5 miles,
    then uphill the last 1 mile. We reached a great vista, beautiful mountain
    top and had a great time. Then we had to come back…1 mile down hill and
    then a painful climb 2.5 miles back uphill to our staging area. I’ll be
    honest…I wanted to quit. It was hard. It wasn’t much fun at that
    point. The problem was we were trying to make it back quicker than what it
    took for us to make it to the mountain top. There was no steady
    pace. In order to make it through THE DIP, when you come out of it
    on your way back to the top, realize that you can’t do it in an hour, or a
    day. Climbing mountains is about a steady pace, and so is
    recovering from THE DIP. Here a few tips that might help you.

    • Know that THERE WILL BE A DIP
      • Yes, it’s coming. At some point in your career there will be a dip
        of some sort. Just like in hiking, if you go down, you have to come
        back up to get a place where you want to be. Knowing there is a dip
        coming ahead, whether you know when or not, you can pace yourself
        accordingly.
    • STAY in for the long haul
      • I’ll be honest; when I was on that hike coming back up, I wanted to
        quit. It was not fun. But I had committed to hiking with my
        best friend a trail that we knew would be difficult. The reward for
        finishing was the great memories we would have and the stories we could
        tell about taking on very difficult task. Plus, we were out there, we
        HAD to FINISH. I’ll make this short and sweet; don’t get into
        ministry if you can’t handle failure, heat, and criticism; it’s gonna be
        tough. I’ll even go one step further and say that if you don’t
        already know that you’ll be in ministry for your lifetime, then just don’t
        do it. God’s call on our lives is a lifetime call. When things
        take a dip, we can’t quit and when it’s time to head up the mountain, we
        must reach the top. Moses didn’t quit when faced with 40 years in the
        wilderness leading a grumbling, ungrateful people. Demand to NOT
        QUIT.
    • PACE yourself
      • . Be healthy in your pace. Don’t overexert yourself.
        Don’t try to arrive at your destination too soon. When you try and
        do these things, you miss everything good around you, only trying to
        achieve your goal. On our way back to the top of the mountain, we
        totally forgot to enjoy the beauty around us. Part of hiking is
        enjoying your surroundings. In fact, we were so focused on getting
        to the top, we hardly talked, missing out on time we had together. A
        steady pace would had remedied all of this and will do the same for you
        when you’re coming out of your DIP.

    Bobby Williams is Pastor of Student Ministry for New Life Fellowship in Clinton, Tennessee.

    Dip Series Headquarters

    Sponsored by: Raising Lazarus: A Fund for Hurting Youth Workers.

  • An evolutionists report from the Creation Museum

    Creationmuseum
    Blogger John Scalzi’s was challenged to go to the Creation Museum by his readers. He said it wasn’t worth his time so he challenged readers to raise $250 for his favorite charity and he would attend. He ended up raising $5100.

    See John’s pictures
    Read John’s Report (Parental advisory on the language)

    As a 6 day creationist, I’m not surprised by the commentary of an evolutionist. Are you?

    What do you think of "Christian Tourism?" This place is likely super high on the list of every Christian school and home schooler’s field list, and that Christians are more than willing to part with their "in God we trust" bills for stuff like this… it’s not a bad investment of $27 million.

    Would you take your children there? Your youth group?

  • A solid beta test

    You know, I should feel like tonight didn’t go well because only 4 students came to our worship night. But I can’t feel bad because it was a great run through and I got a glimpse of better things to come.

    We had a fun game, solid worship, something experiential, a good talk, and a great snack. I think the room (we scaled the sanctuary down to about 25 seats) went really well and overall I think it was a good night.

    It’s something to build on. I know that there were a number of schedule conflicts tonight with it… that’s going to happen no matter what night we offer it on. So, schedule junkies, the next LF worship night is Monday, December 10th @ 7 PM.

  • Can you help Brian?

    Brian_jesThis is Brian. He’s a youth worker like a lot of the readers of my blog. Brian was a youth pastor for a long time… then earlier year he took a huge leap of faith and uprooted his family from Missouri to Washington so that he could
    spend the summer working on a boat and kind of re-find something. (People in ministry know exactly what this feels like.)

    Here’s the deal. At the end of the summer Brian got seriously ill on board the boat. He had to be evacuated from the boat off the coast of Alaska and was flown back to Seattle where he learned he needed a kidney transplant and would need to go on dialysis immediately.

    Long story short, Brian is out of money. He is the father of two and his wife is working… but with mounting medical bills and his complete inability to work they are in serious trouble. Brian has applied for help, he is seeking social security benefits, and all the other state aid programs they can… but that stuff takes more time to get started than they have money to make it through.

    This is where Raising Lazarus comes in. I have the pleasure to partner with Patti as a board member of RL and I know it’s an incredible thing. Basically, we take no money out of donations and get them to the people who need them. (Who needs administrative costs?)

    So this is what I’m asking
    If you are able, would you be willing to contribute to Raising Lazarus for Brian and his family? As with any solicitation that RL does… we want to be perfectly clear. Don’t give us money if you aren’t tithing to your church. This would be something "over and above" all your normal things. But if you are willing to go without a couple of movie rentals or cups of coffee at Starbucks, you could make a big difference. Literally, you can help keep a family just transplanted into a new town and new state with no network, mounting medical bills, and mouths to feed in their home.

    If you would like to contribute something, ANYTHING, to Brian and his family. Here is a link.

  • Infant Ba— Ur, Child Dedication

    This morning we had a packed second service as we were having a baptism and a few child dedications.

    I don’t know what happened. But I was doing the call to worship and my mind was still thinking about the baptism and how cool it was to see that step of faith. And I almost said something really dumb. I started to say "Today, we are celebrating infant ba…." and then I caught myself. "Child dedication."

    Oops.

  • Kidnap a Gnome Details

    Gnome
    This is the message that just went out to the Light Force list about tonight’s "Kidnap a Gnome" night. I’ve gotten so many questions about this event on Facebook and AIM that I’ll be bundling it all together and releasing it this week on Monday Exchange.

    I’ve gotten a number of detail requests about this event, so here
    are some clarification points: (And to remind you how much fun this
    event will be!)

    • This is a Light Force event. We’re inviting any student in middle and/or high school.
       
    • No, Light Force is not providing the gnome. You will need
      to borrow a gnome and/or lawn ornament for your team. So spend some
      time today scouting out a gnome in that one weird lady’s yard on your
      block. (Every block has one, right?) It doesn’t have to be a gnome…
      it could also be that scary deer thing or a pink flamingo or any other
      lawn ornament that is looking to get out on the town. (Yes, you should
      ask her if its OK to borrow it. Invite her to church while you are at
      it. People who like lawn ornaments need Jesus as much as you/me.) You should not bring the gnome with you, going to get a gnome is part of the game.
       
    • The judging will be a points based system, so start being creative now.
      (So, taking the gnome home and getting a picture with your mom will be
      worth 100 points. But taking the gnome to the mall and having his
      picture taken with the mall security guard will be worth 500 points.)
    • A general reminder for the pyros and those who like to blow things up… the event is called "Kidnap a Gnome" and not blow up gnomes, burn gnomes, crush gnomes, or drop gnomes from tall places.
    • Your team will have two hours to get as many pictures/videos with your gnome and/or lawn ornament as you can.
      You’ll have to decide how far you want to go. But I’m pretty sure your
      gnome has never been to CVS, Meijer, Sheena’s, Blockbuster, Caribou,
      Wal*Mart, Dollar General, Bruce Township Fire Department, Romeo Coney
      Island, a hot tub, AMC 30, Subway, Wendy’s, the play area at
      McDonald’s, or ordered food at the drive through at Arby’s. But he has
      been to K-Mart because all gnomes and lawn ornaments seem to come from
      K-Mart.
    • Yes, your team can make a rap video called "Chillin’ with My Gnomies, Talkin’ about My Homies" Just make sure your gnome doesn’t have potty mouth. Videos are worth more points.
    • Yes, your parents can come because we need drivers. No, I won’t make your mom be in your car.
    • Yes, I know there were two typos in the handout I gave you. The event is November 10th and not 11th. And I meant "of course" and not "of coruse." Mrs. Miller from 3rd grade at Madison Elementary would be very disappointed.

    I’m really looking forward to this as it’ll be a great time! We hope to
    have a bunch of small teams who are ready to be creative and HAVE A
    BLAST giving a gnome the night of his life.

    From 5ish-7ish you’ll be out and about.     From 7ish-8ish you’ll come back to the church to share your pictures and videos, eat pizza, and find out who the winners are.

  • Crowder in St. Louis

    Since I’m kind of on a video tear this morning anyway. Here’s what all the excitement is about leading up to the National Youth Workers Convention. Thousands of youth workers cutting loose and enjoying themselves. Yes, that’s a youth worker crowd surfing! No responsibilities, no counting students, no making sure they aren’t making out, just a really long weekend of fun like this. (Of course, there is content too… but you get the gist.)

    HT to Stuart Delony