Category: light force

  • MainStreet is in 36 hours

    I am probably overly cheesy. But I am pumped about tomorrow’s MainStreet.  For one thing… we’ve outgrown our original location and have had to move up to take over the "big church."

    I’m also pumped that other people are pumped about what we’re doing. Seeing kids be excited at a rehearsal… even the annoying run around and can’t stop talking sort of excitement… is SUPER FUN to see.

    Perhaps that makes me a 30 year old goober. But I still get jazzed when I see people jazzed about doing an event to teach people about Jesus.

    And, it’s Duct Tape Man’s birthday. And, some member of the cast will be getting a pie in the face. Does it get better than that?

  • Focused on the positives

    Thumbsup
    When things aren’t going great… it’s easy to turn into a pessimist. Even as "the leader" at Light Force it’s sometimes easy to join the "this isn’t going well" bandwagon. In fact, one conviction I had tonight is that I need to be more encouraging to the students who are there instead of worrying about ones who aren’t coming. I have a natural tendency to be sarcastic, cutting, and overly discouraging… I need to work on that. I’m really quite optimistic about how things are going… I am just failing to ooze that out of my mouth.

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  • Reaching a Crest

    SummitIn a lot of areas of my life I feel like a mountain climber. I feel as though I am reaching the crest of a mountain I’ve been climbing for a while. Big goals are getting accomplish, new "personal bests" are being reached, and things are overall getting accomplished.

    Here’s the thing. When you get to the top of a mountain on this journey called life, you don’t know what’s to come. Maybe it’s a bigger mountain to climb next time? Maybe it’s a plateau? Maybe the summit is really just the foothill to a much larger mountain? And maybe that summit is a dead end?

    With YMX, the launch of the ezine in March is a big deal.     We’ve got all sorts of big interviews lined up with week with authors, world changes, and musicians. We’ve lined up articles to come from many of our talented readers. If it works as planned, this won’t be a plateau mountain. It’ll be a summit that gets us where we want to go!

    With a lot of things in my work and personal life, March is a big month. Projects coming to completion. Programs and events go to the next level. Stuff around the house getting finished. Big steps with the kids as  they grow up. On and on. It’s just a big month for me. The hope for all of those "big things" is that this summit will be a place to celebrate and look forward to more "big things" in the journey.

    Shadow_everest_summit
    The thing with mountaintops is that its a time to rest, celebrate, look around, and decide what the "next step" will be. So I’m looking forward to what March will bring. I look forward to some rest after some busy months, some celebration of all the hard work, some looking around, and some making of new goals.

    P.S. To my friends in Romeo. I know people like to read into things. I said "next step" and you automatically say "uh oh, Adam is leaving." I’m not going anywhere, get over it! Looking at next steps is a good thing, not a bad thing.

  • Off to Winona Lake

    This morning Paul and I (yes, my son Paul) are leaving with 4 students to visit Grace College as well as, hopefully, Taylor University. I say "hopefully" since they have yet to confirm the details of our visit. But I’ve been to Grace before… so at least I know where I am going and who to talk to.

    I love these college visits, they are a highlight of my calendar year as I get extended time to hang out with upperclassmen. Amongst adults, finding it "fun" to hang out with a bunch of high school students is probably considered demented and the furthest thing they would consider fun.

    Think that guy is single? At least he had $20,000 laying around to play with.

  • How Far is Too Far?

    I’ll be answering that tonight at Light Force.

  • Internal vs. External Motivation

    Internal vs. External Motivation

    What’s the major difference between the typical youth ministry with a paid, trained youth worker and a youth ministry run by volunteers?

    Understanding what makes students tick.

    Why is it that youth workers can get students to do stuff willingly that leaves parents with their jaws dropping open? It’s not the “cool factor” nor is it that youth workers trend towards being the students age.

    It’s understanding how students tick.

    Students have been rewarded to death. By the time a 6th or 7th grader reaches the youth group they know how to play the reward game. They know how to give just enough to earn the teacher’s reward. The coaches reward. The Awana award. In grade school if you set up a good reward you can motivate the children to do anything. In their concrete world, rewards make sense logically to them. “If I do x, y, and z I will get something I don’t deserve.”

    Fear is a short term motivator.     (Repeat that to yourself 4-5 times a day)

    As these students grow into adolescence, external rewards become less rewarding. Sure, you can pull the reward button now and then because a truly great reward is interesting enough to motivate a seasoned adult as much as a 6 year old! But youth workers have the task of motivating students to do stuff when rewards aren’t working for them anymore. They know how to play the game so well that they will manipulate the game on the surface (bringing friends to get a prize) while not believing a lick of the reason. (Evangelism)

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  • MainStreet success

    Mainstreet_logoJust a couple of hours ago we completed our latest Kids ministry "MainStreet." This is as big a thing as our little church can do. It’s the Little Engine that Could!

    Tonight was great. Though people came late, it was quite full. Also, I was super excited to roll out a whole new cast of characters. They are going to be great. More about MainStreet later.

  • Yes, eldery people can like new styles of worship too

    I caught this on a blog I’ve just started reading, the harmonyblog. (Thanks gman for pointing it out) It documents a man taking his elderly father to church. This wasn’t just getting him to go to any church, this was getting his dad to go to NewSpring, one of them big fancy deals with 1 billion people. OK, not a billion but they have quite a few people there. Also,  this is one of those churches that is big and loud and as uncomfortable to traditional church goers as they come outside of the church planting scene. So, check out the video. Quite interesting.

  • Wednesday Night Revelation

    This may shock some people, but to others who do what I do… they’ll know what I mean. On Wednesday night at Light Force, while I was doing the talk, I had some swirling thoughts going on. Nothing revolutionary altogether… but a revelation nonetheless.

    Background: Part of this thing I’ve coined the "One church model" has meant that I use my talents where they are most needed in the church… and that has meant doing less youth ministry for the good of the whole ministry. Such as, I lead an adult small group, not a student one. I create and develop a monthly outreach for the kids ministry, not Light Force. I spend a lot of energy making Sunday morning’s worship service great, but a little time and energy preparing for Wednesday night. On and on. What it means as a youth guy is that I’m not doing a lot of what I love… spending countless hours with students and investing in them directly. Instead, I spend a little time doing that while doing all these other things. In all honesty… since August I haven’t "felt" much like a youth pastor. At least not in the traditional "youth pastor" mode.

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  • Human Slingshot… this has youth group game written all over it

    This absolutely made my jaw drop. I can’t believer anyone would really do this.