• Teaching Acts

    book of actsRight now I am teaching the book of Acts for a class at Romeo Bible Institute. It is both fun and challenging. It’s fun because Acts is one of the most action packed, exciting narratives in the world as a band of eleven takes hold of a challenge from the Risen Jesus and (under the power of the Holy Spirit) takes the Great Commission literally. Within one lifetime Christianity went from 11 to over 100,000.

    It’s challenging because I am trying to cram 28 chapters into 6 weeks. Pray for my students.

  • Youth Ministry & Risk

    I’ve been thinking about successful youth groups vs. unsuccessful youth groups. And truth be told the exact same thought holds true for churches.

    • Successful youth groups takes measured, bold risks.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups take few risks.
    • Successful youth groups generate excitement both internally and externally.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups are boring.
    • Successful youth groups have a two-fold reaching/teaching mode.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have a one-fold teaching model.
    • Successful youth groups have the support of the church leadership.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups aren’t sure they have the support of church leadership.
    • Successful youth groups have intentional event planning.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have events that are based on what kids want.

    Of course, all of this comes down to “How do you measure success in youth ministry?” How do you answer that question?

  • Pre-concert thoughts

    Light Force ConcertWith just a few days left before the Light Force concert (Sunday @ 7) I’ve got a lot of dreams for the thing. This is the first time we’ve tried this… and I’ve got a lot of thoughts floating around my head.

    Most importantly, I hope the event is well-attended and fun for everyone who comes.

    Second, I hope its a great stepping stone for some students who may want to learn more about Light Force. I had the guys over from Nowhere Found today… they were super excited to play our show. In fact, they were more excited than I was about the show! One of the band members even asked if he could help us move chairs. Awesome.

    Third, I’m really excited about the team of adults who is coming to help. It’s awesome to know that I probably have too many adults. How cool is that? It shows that the adults in our church are just as passionate about the mission as I am.

    Fourth, I am hopeful that our youth group embraces the event. This thing is WAY outside of their comfort zones. And it’s going to rock their world in an awesome way.

    Fifth, I hope it is crazy fun.

  • Aim lower.

    aim lowerStick with this video. It will make you angry and then it will teach you something. At Romeo, I think we are aiming lower, thinking smaller, giving up, and
    having cups of coffee.

    What about you? How are you doing?

    HT to Chris

  • Random Warning

    Do you ever feel like your mind is cluttered with a bunch of random thoughts and you can’t seem to focus on any of them? That’s how I feel this week so far. Here’s a rundown of the things going on.

    • It’s a blast having a full house. With 8 people (Patti‘s family is here) laughing, playing Wii, and having a good time its really fun to be home. If I had one word to summarize our time together it would be: Laughter. There have been some moments where everyone just erupted into laughter… that’s a very good thing for us.
    • Taxes are done and submitted. I finally finished the taxes last night and submitted them at 10:12 PM Eastern Standard Time. Why the delay? When you have to pay what is the rush?
    • Street teams are underway. Yesterday I talked Bob and Jimmy into helping me hand out flyers for our concert at Romeo High School. I’m headed to Romeo Middle today to do that same. Wanna join me?
    • There are lots of more cool things headed our way at YMX. In case you didn’t know… we’ve somehow survived the first 2.5 years of existence and suddenly find ourselves one of the largest independent youth ministry sites out there. [insert head shaking, I have no idea how it happened. It’s so obviously a God thing.] And there are some fun opportunities coming.
    • Speaking of YMX, Patti and I collaborated on a news item last night. It’s a cross between a product review and a sneak peek at a September release. Check that out here.
    • Today I’m going to help Bob do his first ever vlog. One of the things I love about Bob is that he’s always game for a crazy idea if we think it’s going to help us reach people. Bob is not “the safe pastor” and with 96% of people to reach in our area… that’s exactly what we need.
    • Spring has broken out wildly in Romeo. It may hit 70 today. I think the last time we saw 70 was October or early November. It’s time to change the oil in the mowers.
    • We had two really ugly, mean cats outside of our house last night causing trouble for Explorer and Lovely. (Explorer was wildly scratching to be let it) They were howling at our cats from outside and being generally annoying. A bucket of water took care of them.
    • I’m really, really, really, really excited about the next sermon series at church. It starts this week and is called “Change Without Compromise.” We’ll be teaching through parts of our doctrinal statement. Someone asked me the other day, “When will Romeo stop changing?” Never. A living organism changes constantly. When your body stops changing they plant you in the ground. I’m not quite ready to get planted.
    • Paul started karate yesterday. He’s got some new moves. They worked on punching yesterday… he’s not a good height for that.
    • Next week I’m headed to Chicago for some continued education. If you are in the northwest burbs and want to hang out, let me know.
    • I ordered the replacement lamp for the projector. We joked on Sunday that it was like a Polish joke… “How many pastors does it take to change a light bulb?” Turns out the answer is 1. And about 6 trustees and 1 deacon.
    • Kristen just got back from taking Megan to school and the coffee is about to be pressed. Wednesday has begun.

  • Holy Travel Schedule Batman

    scheduleThis is more of a confessional post than anything else. I can feel my travel schedule getting out of control. In 2007, Kristen and I carefully managed our schedule to maximize our time together. It was fantastic spending so much one-on-one time with the love of my life.

    Then reality struck back. Here’s a quick rundown of what I’m currently trying to jam into the next 12 months… these are the temptations of a networking-crackhead. A true one-week family vacation. A YMX getaway. Two or three National Youth Worker Conventions 08. Internet Ministry Conference 08. National Youth Ministry Conference 09. Shift 09. Staff retreats, Light Force mission trip, and of course… more family trips. Did I mention that next week I’m headed to a 3 day conference? Yeah.

    Every single one of those are good things. Great things! I love every one of these opportunities. I love that at each one of them I get a chance to be a friend to people, learn new things, and hopefully minister. The challenge is that I don’t truly have the ability to travel that much. Every one of those opportunities comes at a cost, doesn’t it? And sometimes the cost has nothing to do with money… it has to do with the time away from family.

    I’m not the only person in the world with more opportunities than time. How do you balance it all? 

  • Ron Jeremy on Christian Music

    ron jeremyI’m a big fan of Craig Gross and the ministry of xxxchurch.com. (The #1 porn site for Christians, by the way) Which means I’m not a huge fan of Ron Jeremy. (Old school porn star) One of the craziest things going on today is that xxxchurch.com and Ron Jeremy are traveling the country together to hold, what they call, The Porn Debate on college and university campuses.

    This video is self-explanatory. Ron & Craig were in the car together and they were talking about music. Listen in on this discussion between them about Christian music and worship music. Then watch what happens when Craig and Ron talk about going to a Christian concert together.

    HT to Craig

  • A Satanic Wii Title

    Wii-JiHere is a little insight into my strange sense of humor. During today’s message Bob talked about Ephesian believers who, as an act of obedience, burned their magic books. To apply that to our people Bob suggested that believers not read horoscopes, got to tarot readers, or use Ouija boards. When he said, Ouija boards… my weird sense of humor thought, “I wonder if that’s a game for the Wii yet?” Obviously it isn’t so I made this mock-Wii graphic in Photoshop just for kicks.

    Speaking of today’s service… there was a major difference between the first service and second. In between services I heard a loud “bang” come from the projector. The bulb had exploded and we didn’t have the time to change it before the 11:00 AM service. Believe it or not, we actually had a plan for that because we knew it would one day happen. I was very proud of our team who adapted to the problems and managed to deliver a fantastic service. Bob and Jimmy earned some stars. Kudos to them as they reacted beautifully.

    For me, today’s service was a reminder that it isn’t about how well you use technology. It’s about bringing a heart of worship. I know that in my mind… today was a tangible in-your-face reminder from God. I love it when God does that!

  • Saturday Tunes

    Saturday TunesThis morning I’ll be teaching a class at Romeo Bible Institute on the Book of Acts. After that I’m coming home to start working on some template and structure changes at Youth Ministry Exchange. And at some point during the day Patti and her family are arriving from Albany, NY to hang out with us for their Spring Break. They were tired of their Gubanatorial sex scandal in their state so they thought they’d come to the Detroit area… where we know how to mix our mayoral sex scandals with bribery and dead strippers.

    As I am finalizing my preparation for classes, my iTunes is rockin’ these next 10 songs. As always these are random, no cheating, ratings included.

    1. Every Breath You Take by The Police ****
    2. How Great Thou Art by Charlie Hall ****
    3. Our Love is Loud by David Crowder Band ****
    4. All I Want is You by Barry Louis Polisar *****
    5. Anyone Else But You by Michael Cera and Ellen Page *****
    6. Daddy by Jewel **** (Alright, that one is embarrassing!)
    7.  Life is Beautiful by Vega4
    8. I Hate Everything (but you) by Derek Webb ****
    9. A Kiss to Build a Dream On by Louis Armstrong *****
    10. One by U2 *****

  • Young at Heart: I Wanna Be Sedated

    young at heartLike a lot of people, I want to be a cool old. This morning I ran across Young at Heart. All of the members of this choir are 70+. They sing all sorts of music you wouldn’t expect to hear from people born in the 1910s and 1920s.

    Young at Heart looks like the age-opposite of School of Rock. And if its half as good it’ll be worth seeing.

    Here they are performing a song from the Ramones: I Want to be Sedated