Category: light force

  • Are You Crazy?

    Last night at Light Force we asked the following 3 questions…

    Are you crazy enough to change the world?

    Are you crazy enough to believe the Bible is true?

    Are you crazy enough to change what you are doing to reach people?

    Call me crazy, but I hope they answer "yes" to all 3.

    (more…)

  • MainStreet Videos for August 2007

    Here’s a playlist of all the videos we produced for the last MainStreet.

  • Score!

    Last night’s MainStreet was a great success. It was our first "episode" of season 2 and we got it kicked off in style. Later this morning I’ll be releasing some of the videos on the RomeoChurch.com website as well as on YouTube.

    Of course, the dunk tank was also dunk-o-rific as well.

  • A couple of things I am excited about tonight’s MainStreet

    There is still plenty of stuff to do. But tonight’s MainStreet is going to be HOT in more ways than just the outside temperature. Here are a few things I’m jazzed about for tonight.

    • Dunk tank: Let’s get that out of the way… kids will get to dunk their favorite characters outside in a dunk tank.
    • Video goofiness: I am not even to give a sample. There is an amazing package of fresh and funny video for tonight’s baseball theme. It will all end up online on our website. Just not yet! I’ve been a big part of the editing process of these… they rock!
    • Kickin’ off the new series: Starting this month, MainStreet actually launches new message series at the church. So we’re introducing the concept of Contagious Faith tonight… and it’ll get taught to adults the rest of the month and kids down in KidsTown. How cool is that?

  • When Goals Wake You Up

    SuccessA lot of people make goals and set benchmarks. I am the same way. No matter what area of my life, I hear a little birdie telling me "You need to get ____ done by _____ to know that you are accomplishing ____ goal." I’m not sure where it originated but I that little birdie doesn’t come naturally… I’ve learned to listen to the little birdie. I am where I am at today because I listened to the birdie and got stuff done.

    A good goal will wake you up in the morning. It’ll make you stay up late at night. And it’ll be within your reach.

    A bad goal leads to fatalism as you realize that not only can you achieve your goal, but you were stupid to even try. It won’t keep you up late are wake you up in the morning because deep inside you feel like your goal is unattainable.

    I’ve made both kinds of goals in my life… I’ve given up on good goals to strive for bad ones and I’d like to think that as I become a better, smarter leader… I am refining my ability to distinguish. But I think choosing a good goal over a bad one will be something that I struggle with for the rest of my life!

    Ambition
    I have goals for all the major parts of my life.     My marriage, my job, my business, my home, my own development. Along the same lines, I have benchmarks… little celebration moments… that go along the way as well.

    My observation is that most people say the have goals… and they probably do. But they either have goals that are actually dreams or they have goals set with no benchmarks for achieving their goals so they give up. And this lack of benchmarking leads to failure.

    My focus in accomplishing goals is never to work to finish the goal. I think in focusing on the big goal too much, you act like a dreamer, instead I just focus on reaching the next benchmark.

    When you are focusing on getting from benchmark to benchmark instead of focusing on the big goal… you accomplish that goal faster plus you are still looking to work hard on future goals when you cross the finish line.

    Gettowork
    Too vague? Think of it like this, a goal can be a dream…     "I want to be more effective in reaching students in my community." A benchmark is a measurable success… "I will start 4-5 house small groups in September 2007." The goal isn’t to start house small groups but I’m going to celebrate that as a benchmark towards accomplishing my goal. Celebrate the benchmarks and you’ll accomplish your goals.

    And I mean celebrate… there is nothing worse than seeing someone not celebrate a benchmark in their life. They brush it off as no big deal… why? Because they are too focused on their goal to enjoy the benchmarks! You see it in sports and you see it in high school students when a success just isn’t good enough. Take a few moments to enjoy the benchmarks and it’ll energize you to keep going. Skipping that step will just contribute to another year sliding by stuck in the same place you were a year ago. Don’t do that.

    Got goals for 2007-2008? If so, what are some of your benchmarks?

    p.s. The photos come from Despair.com.

  • Sex!

    College students talk about sex. Some interesting thoughts here. Some that are thought provoking, stupid, and…

    What do you think?

    HT to Jeremy DelRio

  • No Child Left Behind

    Marines1
    The United States Marine Corp has a motto that
    they never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield. In the same way,
    in every youth ministry interview I have been asked some variant of the
    question, "What would you do if you discovered that you’ve left a
    student at a location?    " As a youth worker who loves taking students on
    road trips, this is a very practical question and it speaks to the very
    heart of youth ministry road trips. At the end of the day, each child
    that you take on a trip needs to return on that trip. Every child
    matters!

    The reality is that during each person’s youth ministry career there is
    one story about you leaving a student at a rest stop. When I was in
    high school we all told the story about our youth pastor leaving the
    senior pastor’s daughter at a Christian college. Unfortunately, in the
    days before cell phones, he didn’t discover his mistake until he
    arrived in the church parking lot to find his boss steaming in the
    parking lot because his 14 year old daughter had called him hysterical
    from the school’s bookstore because she had been left behind. That
    story, while funny, has haunted me every time that I’ve taken students
    from my ministry on a road trip. But I don’t think that I’ve had
    success in this area of my ministry because I’m haunted, I think it’s
    because I’ve implemented a simple system to ensure that I never leave
    student’s behind.

    3 Practical Failsafe Measures to Ensure You Never Leave a Student Behind on a Road Trip

    1. We always travel together. On
      multiple vehicle trips, I alway have the group travel together. This
      seems exceedingly simple but I am surprised to discover that not all
      youth ministries do this. When we stop for gas, we all stop together
      and we all leave together. When we leave an event, we don’t leave
      the main location until I’ve checked every name off the list
      physically. This means that no matter how large the group, my eyes have
      made visual contact with every person we’ve brought. And I won’t give
      the "all clear" to leave the main event location until I have accounted
      for every student.
    2. Never allow students to change vehicles. When
      I first started doing road trips I thought it would be fun to have a
      constant shuffling of students in vehicles. From a group dynamics
      perspective this made some sense but it was terribly hard to keep track
      of people. Now we simply don’t allow, no matter how much whining or
      reasoning, a student to move vehicles on a trip. They can change seats
      in a vehicle but the vehicle we leave the church in is their vehicle
      for the trip. This makes it simple for each driver to do a count at
      each stop before they leave. It seems a student should notice if the person they were sitting next to was not on the van. So my job is simply to walk around to each
      vehicle and make sure each driver has everyone. When all the drivers
      have everyone, we depart… together.
    3. We talk about it all the time. "Nine out of ten, that’s an ‘A’ in my book."
      I have intentionally ingrained a joke into the youth group for the sake
      of keeping our desire to bring everyone home that we left home with. This is
      a fun way to keep the discussion on everyone’s mind and much less
      annoying than the trips mantra being "Do we have everyone?"
      On every road trip I start off by telling everyone how many people are
      on the trip and then introduce the joke. "Today we are going to Cedar
      Point in Sandusky, Ohio. We’re leaving the park at 6:00 PM and it’s
      your responsibility to be at the meet-up location so you don’t get left
      behind. Today there are 36 of you and one of me. In my book 36 out of
      37 is 97%. (Pause) And that’s an A in my book. Good enough for me      ." It
      always gets a laugh and it always keeps the thought in everyone’s mind
      that they don’t want to get left behind. The last kid leaving the bathroom and running to the van will say something like "I don’t want to be the reason you don’t get an A+."

    Eventually, it
    will happen.     My system will fail and I’ll leave someone behind at the
    Super J on Interstate 75 south of Detroit. To answer that parent’s
    question of "What would I do if I discovered I’ve left someone behind?"
    I like to tell them these two answers. First, I’d call their cell
    phone. This is 2007 and most students have a cell phone. (They were
    probably playing with it in the gas station in the first place and
    that’s why they got left behind.) And second, I still got an A
    because 9 our of 10 is 90%. (Heck, 90% is better than I did in almost
    every class in Bible College.) All jokes aside, I answer that question
    by reassuring parents that we have a system with 3 failsafe measures
    built into it and that we will do everything we can possibly do to
    ensure that it never happens.

  • why bother changing?

    I’ve not heard this direct quote, but I’ve put it together enough to know that some people in Light Force are wondering "Why bother changing? We’ve got a good thing going!"

    It’s true. Light Force has gone fairly well. But I don’t think it’s gone well enough.

    Why bother changing?How do you know changing things is worth it?

    Because lost people are worth reaching… even if it costs a lot. Because somewhere, sometime someone thought I was worth reaching. Because somewhere, sometime, someone got out of their comfort zone because they thought you were worth reaching.

    With that in mind, who isn’t worth reaching?

    I personally believe every person is worth leaving our comfort zone to reach out to. And I believe every story is important enough to, at least, hear. So… that is why we’re bothering to change.

    In my opinion, why bother staying the same?

  • 4 years ago

    I didn’t expect anyone to notice. Today celebrated 4 years of ministry at Romeo. In a lot of ways it feels like a lot longer than 4 years. It feels like I’ve always been a part of the church. That’s one thing this church is super good at, taking in new people and making them feel welcome.

    I couldn’t find a blog post from July 2003, but here is one from late May 2004- the close of my first school year- that I thought was noteworthy enough to republish:

    Another round- Last night was pretty small, but a good youth group night. It’s kind of
    funny, but we played perhaps the simplest youth group game in the
    history of youth group, volleyball, and everyone loved it. What a
    reminder that the simplest way is often the best way.

    It was a pleasure and an honor to talk about legacies and mention
    great names last night. More than that, it was amazing to talk about
    Mr. Wendt and his "already evident" legacy exhibited by his sons. It’s
    hard to believe it’s already been 3 weeks since Larry passed away.

    In the golf world. What a tale of 2 halves of a round. 6
    consecutive bogies. But went birdie, par, par on the last 3 holes for
    an ugly 41. Best part about it though, I’m hitting some fairways again.
    Been a long time since I found the short stuff.

    Last lunch with my students at Romeo HS today. It’s amazing that
    most people are still shocked that I go. I love my job… and there is
    no finer time then spending quality time with Americus Highschoolucus
    in their native environment. I am constantly praying that the 2 junior
    highs will allow me on campus for lunches in the fall.

    God has been good to us here in ‘lil Romeo. We’ve got a job we love, we are loved by people, and our kids are growing up in a place they’ll be proud to call home. I pray I will be able to continue to live a legacy of love for another four years and beyond.

  • Light Force was fun!

    Last night was fun. The students who came were playful and engaging. We played a couple new games that went well. The new series kicked off just fine.

    Just proof that summer in Romeo can work.