In just a few minutes the McLane family is off to our first small group meeting. Our little cluster is at a weird time, Friday morning, but should be pretty cool. What’s in it for me? Being a part of the churches vision in a very practical way.
Friday morning in Dryden might not seem like the way to grow your church, but in a lot of very practical ways… it is.
On Saturday, I had a lot of fun over at Simpson Park Camp helping out with their fall high school retreat. Curt is leading the charge in bringing SPC into the present and looking towards the future. Katie, the young adult person at SPC who runs the retreat, did a great job creating a comfortable environment for students. Solid worship, great attitudes, it was very cool.
To see my talk notes from the afternoon breakout session and my Saturday night talk, click the read more link.
OK, so our attempt to just meet-up at the Homecoming festival didn’t go so well. But, the night was fantastic for Romeo High School overall.
The Bulldogs thumped the #17 ranked Titans of Stevenson 12-0. They were impressive.
A highlight for me wasn’t just the game. I really had fun cramping into some seats with my family. There was "standing room only" about 10 minutes before kick-off. So, while LF didn’t get to sit together it really didn’t matter since there was so much going on. Another highlight for me was just something simple. I got to hang out with Chris B. for the first time where we could just hang out and talk. It was cool, and he’s really funny! It’s pretty weird when you know an older sibling really well to hear how they are similar and different and what the little brother thinks of the big sister.
Don’t want to share many details publically. But a friend of a light force student took his life in the last 24 hours. Few things break my heart more than a student looking at his life and deciding there is nothing worth living for. (I know there are more reasons than this.) A life ending never always stops me in my tracks.
There was a lot of pressure felt last night by the staff and the people putting on the first ever MainStreet. MainStreet is our new monthly family worship night where we roll out the KidsTown virtue for the month. It’s a "big production" from the church’s perspective. So, instead of doing big quarterly events plus a week-long VBS style event, we hope to do a monthly "big production."
The cool part of last night was that we didn’t know what to expect at all. We guessed that about 20-30 people would be there (nearly double actually showed up) and we had planned everything out (20+ moving parts including skits, songs, puppets, a clown, carnival games, snacks, on and on) but were never able to get every single part together for a "dress rehearsal." Amazingly, it went 90% smoothly.
There are a few factors why I would call last night a hit. First, we communicated in many ways the virtue about courage. We involved all sorts of people. Parents actually sat with their kids and experienced the "show" together, honestly this isn’t happening very many places out there… so that was a huge hit. I saw my LF students having a good time. Families hung out and played together and talked to one another for a very long time. I saw new faces talking to members and visa versa… woohoo!
So, I’m encouraged. Not encouraged enough to want to start planning the November MainStreet event today (though we will) but encouraged nonetheless.
I saw this picture on Andrea’s facebook. I had never seen it before and it just floored me. At first I thought I was just nostalgic about the Northern Ireland trip… but now I see it more clearly.
Those 21 days are like a time capsule in my life. There we shared moments that were so unique and so special that they just defy definition. Factually, I know that we were snapping these pictures while waiting for Katie and Dawn. I know that the picture was taken where the women stayed while doing training at Methody. I know that we were in Belfast and that Belfast was fun. But the emotions associated with those days and pictures like this one are difficult to pinpoint.
As I said at last June’s "Senior Roast," I shared some of the best times of my life with that group of students. In my mind, the early years of Light Force are defined by Andrea, Autumn, Lisa, and Jon. They said "yes" to God and God rewarded them with 21 days they will never forget.
We move on, we grow up, we move forward, but we never forget.
Our new sermon series this month obviously has an iPod flare to it. It’s called "iConnect" and it’s based on the miracles of Jesus. I’ll save the rest of the images from the series for now… but this is for tomorrow and it turned out pretty good.
It may seem like a little thing, and it is only 6 pounds… but we are adding a cool new digital projector to the line-up down in KidsTown. So… in the next few weeks it will be exciting to see how Chris integrates a drive-in or a theater somehow into our existing town at church.
Of course, I had no ability to resist temptation. That shiny new box was on the counter talking to me. So, before long, I had this little beauty projecting on my wall all night. Not to worry, it will be in it’s proper place in the morning. It’s so bright! I had the dining room lights on and everything, no real loss of quality.
It’s a little thing. But sometimes doing little things right can make all the difference in taking something to the next level.
We’re now 4 weeks into the school year… time flies when you are having fun. My feeling is that Light Force just continues to get better. Last night was a perfect example.
Cool stuff:
The game (yes, I made it up on the spot… it’s a game I’ve played but hadn’t done in about 10 years.) was a blast. It moved quickly, was easy to play, and everyone participated. I think we have a good balance of "hang time" and organized time. I like to make sure people have time to socialize… so we build that in while at the same time we provide some structured stuff. The worship, despite a major meltdown technology side is getting better and better. Big ups to Jason who just rolled with it last night. I’m really starting to grasp my "talk role" in setting up small groups. I think talks have been shorter and more impactful this year than ever… just my opinion. The leaders are getting a chance to pour into students more than ever. Small groups are going great. We measure each night, not by how many kids came, but by "Did small groups get into a meaningful conversation?" Last night 3 out of 4 groups had a very meaningful conversation while 1 group had a "pretty good" conversation. Of course, I was excited to see so many new faces last night. That’s a sign that students are grabbing a hold of this talk series.
Not so cool stuff:
Students like the "Video of the Week" thingie… but it was a flop last night. Got to fix that. It’s such a cool feature… we just have to pick a better video and get Media Shout to deliver it better. That led to the second big annoyance of the night… rebooting the laptop during worship sucks. We just shouldn’t have to do that. I needed to double check my talk notes and lining everything up with Mike, who runs the MediaShout. Sometimes it didn’t line up and my notes had a lot of type-O’s last night.
I hope that this is just the beginning of a fantastic year where many lives are changed.
I spoke too soon. I said that I wasn’t going to have much to do with this years See You at the Pole. Well, my friends at WNFR called me this afternoon to ask me to give the report from Romeo High School. So… I’ll be there about 6:45 am… donuts in hand. What I like about this event is that it’s student-led. I’m looking forward to it. Really, I am. Any way we can do it at 6:00 PM?