Category: light force

Sunday was a day I was really looking forward to for a lot of reasons. I knew that we had a lot of things going on. Nicole E. got baptized. We started our new series on hospitality. We launched a fun summer initiative called the "Let’s Get Together" card where I’m using my first ever external motivator in church. We had a cool hotdog suprise for everyone after church. (Would you believe that cost us less than $60 to pull off?)

But I was also excited to see a whole new level of teamwork. Bob, Jason, and I really talked a lot about what we wanted church to look/feel like this week. And, my opinion, I think it all worked.

Sidenote: The images we used today turned out great. I was looking at them and had to remind myself a few times that I had made them. They just reminded me of stuff I have previously paid for. Kind of cool, eh?

Just 2 more weeks and the church will be overrun by little campers. VBS, called Kid’s Kamp this year, will be every day from 9-12. But the past 3 has taught me that during this time I will get nothing done.

And I’ll like it. It’s funny because I know I’ve been labeled the "doesn’t like VBS" guy at the church. I’d prefer to be known as the "guy who thinks critically about the effectiveness of VBS" guy. That said, it should be fun as usual. If nothing else it gives me an entire week of being around my favorite people.

As I reported a few months ago… there are 4 mormon "elders" in town doing their thing. The local LDS group has even acquired some property… and I know of at least a few students who have encountered them in the last month.

So, it’s going to be time to hit this head-on. (Note I put on the LF blog)

I’m thinking we will be addressing this over the summer on Wednesday nights. We’re just seeing the tip of the ice berg here. And the complacency of Christians in town makes for ripe territory for mormon lies.

OK, I can now mention this since it’s "public."

Today was a changing of the guards within the worship department of Romeo. For the last year Stephen Lancaster has done a tremendous job leading us on Sunday mornings. He’s been integral to helping the worship team develop and form an identity. Of course, he brought his own extraordinary gifts and talents as well. It’s been a real privilege to have someone so "outclassed" to us. On a personal level, there is nothing that makes me more excited than seeing a disciple of Christ boldly follow his calling… and that’s what Stephen is up to as he leaves Romeo. I look forward to hearing from him as he chases his calling.

Beginning this week, Jason Brady comes to Romeo to fill a new position at the church. He’ll be a combined worship leader/office administrator. (Let’s admit this is a weird position!) I think it will be great to have a new person on staff who will be here full time. Bob and I are geeked about this… if 2 wasn’t fun enough… how about 3?

We have 4 seniors walking the halls of Romeo High School today for the last time.

Flashback about 16 months ago when the leaders were talking about this class… I just remember the tear-filled "Let’s not talk about that." That just about sums up how I feel.

I’m happy that they’ve completed this step of their lives, and I know they are looking at it as just the beginning, yet this doesn’t make it easy.

Let’s not talk about that too much.

Last night I used this image to go along with my talk, the last in the Luke: Tell me your story series. Though I didn’t explain it very well, this is what the image was supposed to be about.

The beginning of life outside of a structured life is hard. Imagine life without school, without mom waking you up, without anyone… anywhere… telling you what to do and where to go. Imagine your alarm went off in the morning and you woke up in the desert and you had to start a brand new life. What would be your purpose and your goals?In reality this day is coming sooner than you think. There will be a day, sooner than you think, that you will wake up in a brand new life. You will have to decide what you will do with yourself… not to please anyone or to keep people off your back… you will need to determine What are my goals, what is my purpose? How you answer that question will determine the rest of your life.

I’ve been wanting to do this for the past several months, so I finally headed over to the local Radio Shack and picked up this wonder.

Now I just have to do a little research about "condusive decibel levels for modern worship." The aim here is that our sound guys would use the meter to balance the sound on Sunday morning. This will help us get away from people competing against one another and instead mixing the house sound to a specific number.

I got an e-mail this morning from my mom telling me she had seen Romeo on Primetime last night. I’m still looking for the video of the show, but I did read the story on their website.

One day, there will be some stories about this day from my students that have not yet been processed. In a small town most people knew both the boy and the girl in this story. Hopefully, it’s a reminder to parents to get nosey with their kids. Of course this implies that parents are actually caring about what’s happening in their kids lives when over and over again kids are telling me "My parents don’t want to know the details."

We all know this isn’t true. Parents desperately want to be there for their kids and kids desperately want to have their parents there for them. The issue is that neither is comfortable with the details… How do we make this happen?

Two things you need to read/do in follow-up to this entry.

1. Read the Primetime story
2. Watch the video The Secret Lives of Teens
   

This weekend we’re playing hosts to the Cedarville University Jackets racing team. Basically, these are engineering students who design, build, and race a F-1 car. I hoping to run over to the Ford Proving Grounds a few miles away and check them out later today.