• Allowing yourself to be a small part of something much larger

    Slide2
    Yesterday in church, Bob talked about doing our small part of a big dream.     Imagine being one of the twelve spies chosen to go spy out the Promised Land? You literally got a glimpse into the future!

    But they also had a limited and specific goal. They weren’t told to go and make judgment of the land that God was giving them, here is all Moses told them to do:

    "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20
    How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not?
    Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land."     Numbers 13

    That’s the thing about being a small part of something really big… you don’t know how God is going to use your small piece for His glory.

    Slide6
    Imagine yourself as one of the twelve.     For 40 years your family has wondered the desert waiting to have access to the Promised Land. For your whole life you’d heard, "The Promised Land is going to rock!" In days of manna and no television you can imagine that dreaming of the Promised Land had become quite a past time. And your job was to go into the Promised Land and tell the people what was there. Your job was actually pretty small. Compared to the job of starting towns and building farms… this was a cinch. But you also played a part in something much larger.

    Slide9
    It doesn’t matter what you do in life.     If you know Christ and are part of a church… whether or not you agree to it, you are playing a small role in something much larger as you represent Christ in every facet of your life.

    So, where you live and in what you do… how are you doing? Are you doing your job or are you failing?

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  • Celebration

    Mi_romeo01
    This is probably only a big massive deal to Kristen and I.     But yesterday I took our checkbook over to the Village of Romeo and Bruce Township offices and paid our summer taxes. Just because we were so proud that we were actually ready to pay a little early, we decided to actually pay a week early to alleviate the stress of September 15th for us.

    September 15th is a cuss word in our house
    Kristen and I learned a valuable lesson about buying a house, one which we hope we’ll never repeat. We closed on our house on September 15th, 2005 and that happened to to coincide with "tax day" in our community. Practically, what that means is that we have a lot of bills due on the same day. We pay our annual homeowners insurance, quarterly IRS tax payment, village and township summer taxes, and all our regular monthly bills on September 15th. It equates to about 3 months family wages due on the same day. It’s not stressful for us anymore because we know about it and plan for it. (Like this year, we’ve paid early) But it takes a year’s worth of saving to make sure we are ready for September 15th… (you have to say it with hushed tones.)

    Celebration
    So last night Andrea came over to watch the kids so we could go celebrate. We didn’t do anything spectacular, just dinner and walking around a bookstore for a couple of hours… but we had an extra spring in our step. I absolutely love accomplishing a goal. And to accomplish an annual goal even 1 week early feels especially good.

  • Bio

    Adam_teach







    Employment
    Pastor of Student Ministries, First Baptist Church of Romeo
    President, Youth Ministry Exchange, LLC

    Education
    B.A. in Youth Ministry, Moody Bible Institute
    M.A. in Youth Ministry Leadership, Huntington University (in progress)

    Sites under management
    www.ymexchange.com
    www.youthministryclassifieds.com
    www.youthministrytips.com

    Family
    Kristen (Wife-1997)
    Megan (Daughter- 2001)
    Paul (Son-2003)

  • The Matrix of Goal Achievment

    It’s one thing to have goals
    It’s another thing to hear the language of goal realization. And it’s another thing to be able to show your team that you are, in fact, achieving your goals. (See picture) See, somewhat meaningful to say "Let’s meet our goal" and it’s indeed significant to hear your team say "We are achieving our goals." But the most power comes in looking at the obvious data and showing your team they are achieving a goal.

    The YMX Goal
    Feedburner
    Earlier this summer we made a decision. While we had way over 1000 members and steady core traffic to the site, especially the forums… we only had 22 subscribers to our feed. That simply means that while the site is putting out great content, not very many people were reading it.  (My belief is that feed subscribers are quickly becoming the true measure of a sites power instead of old matrices.)

    So we set a crazy, stupid goal of getting 1000 feed subscribers to the site by December 31st, 2007. To go from 22 to 1000 meant that we were going to have to change how we were doing things… so we did! We rearranged a lot of what we were doing purely for the sake of growing this measurable goal. And, if you look at the chart you will see that we are steadily achieving this goal. Since starting on this goal, we’ve grown the feed count by more than 300%!

    (more…)

  • Peach Fest: Parade Report

    3 days ago was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had in my tenure here in Romeo. Our KidsTown team put together an amazing float and impacted the whole town in a very memorable purple cow-like parade appearance.

    As with any big event, we’ve got a mountain of pictures and videos to show off. This Sunday there will be a video shared in the service of both the last MainStreet and the parade.

    Here’s a silly video made when I had inhaled a little too much video.


    Here are some pictures from the event. They are still rolling in so I plan on adding to them when I can.

  • The Big Race

    Numbers1411
    About 30 minutes before MainStreet started I said to a fellow staff member… this is a lot of work for 2 hours! She quickly agreed and called our team "crazy." Now, I know that’s a compliment because I know that people who look crazy because they are doing so much for the church… are really just madly in love with the Savior and desperate enough to introduce people to Him that they are willing to do some crazy stuff.

    Here’s 3 things that made MainStreet a success last night:

    1. An incredible environment team. These are the people who decorate the building and transform our environment from "church"  to "child’s playland." Last night they had a 62 foot inflatable, a dozen kids cars, a boatload of cupcakes and snacks, video games all over the foyer, and checkered flag decorations everywhere you looked. They did an amazing job!
    2. An incredible production team. Last night went off without a single glitch. The goal of the tech team is always to be invisible and to make it look easy. They did that last night as every cue was hit, every "Screen thing" was on time and the right one, on and on. They made it look easy, amazing.
    3. An incredible "Bob" moment. It’s one thing to have a staff of youth workers and children’s workers who are crazy enough to do what it takes to reach a generation. But it’s a whole ‘nother level when the Senior Pastor is crazy enough to crawl around the auditorium on his belly to tell the kids a story about the Spy’s in Number 13-14.

    It takes us a month to put together the next MainStreet. Think about this… a month’s worth of work for a 2 hour event. That’s crazy right there. But when you are willing to be called crazy for the sake of the gospel… amazing things start to happen. We may be a small church… but we have a big and bold vision for reaching a dead and dying community for Jesus Christ. I’m just thankful I get to work with a group of people crazy enough to go after it.

  • Attitude and Altitude

    AttitudeDid you know that how far you go, how high you climb into achievement, has a lot to do with the attitude you express?

    Achievement is not based on education.
    Not based on talent.
    Not based on IQ.
    Not even based purely on God "blessing" one person more than another.
    Not based on luck or stars or fortune cookies.

    My experience has taught me that the difference between achieving success and mediocrity is the attitude I choose.

    Attitude is a choice
    For several years I worked the worst hours. Sometimes I started work at 10:00 PM, then 12:00 AM, then 4:00 AM. But the majority of that time I had to wake up to go to work at about 3:30 AM. Each time my hours
    changed my life as well.

    And I wasn’t alone. The department I worked for had to flex our time like this. And some succeeded in this environment while others didn’t. Some would complain, "I’m not a morning person." A statement like that is merely one of personal choice. No one is a 3:30 AM person. But in that environment, those who wanted to achieve made themselves 3:30 AM people. It was a choice. I didn’t like it but I chose to make the best out of it.

    It’s the same in all areas of my life. Life isn’t a television show and no one has the perfect family, house, job, friends, or anything else. We are all sinners…. we live in a fallen world. If we hold idealistic expectations about the world around us… we will always be disappointed. If we chose an attitude based on ideals… we will always be disappointed. Nothing will ever measure up to what we think we deserve. Think about the vacations you’ve taken in life. You build up expectations of all that you want to experience. Then you get to the resort or the location and it’s not what you expected. In that moment you have a choice to make… how will you respond. Will you choose an attitude that embraces the vacation or will you whine about _____?

    Attitude effects altitude. I’ve already heard whining from students about their schedule,  their teachers, their clothes, their _____. The same reality effects students. You can chose a bad attitude about something that doesn’t live up to your expectations… or you can chose an attitude that gets you somewhere.

    Attitude is everything… or so t he t-shirt says.

  • Back to School Success

    Below is an article I wrote for this month’s Romeo Peach. Normally I wouldn’t pre-release an article like this but since we had printing issues and it related to the start of school… here’s a taste test. (This is article #2, I’ll up article #1 after the release of the Peach.

    September means one thing to most students. Summer is officially over! The lazy days
    of summer come to a crashing halt on September 4th. As you get ready
    for those first few days of class, it’s good to think about some strategies
    that will get you started off on the right track.

    (more…)

  • 2 Things I’m Excited About…

    1. MainStreet has some funny stuff coming!
    2. We’re hopeful to see some new faces Wednesday night.

    If you are in the area… the next MainStreet is going to be well worth your time. 7:00 PM on Wednesday.