I think I’ve decided to keep our commercial for this Sunday morning on the lowdown until Sunday afternoon. But… at the same time… here’s a taste test.
Here are a couple outtakes worth showing. The best part of filming this outsides at 2:30 PM was that school buses were driving by and high school students were honking. As I said before, I have no dignity left. We’re going all out to bring people to Jesus in Romeo.
This morning I was reading an article in the Focus on the Family thing that comes in the mail. It’s not a magazine I seek out to read, but the cover story caught my attention. "Kids Music that Won’t Drive You Crazy" about a Christian kids ministry band called, Go Fish.
There is a sentence in here that really made me think. (Didn’t blow me away, I just like it) They talked about having to learn the kids audience and they described it with the phrase "We had to adapt to entertain…"
That is so true. With MainStreet, we flat out label it as "entertainment." We know that MainStreet is a tool for helping draw kids and families into better learning environments. It’s full of crazy music, skits, puppets, and the occasional bucket of nacho cheese… and it’s just that… entertainment. But, just like the Go Fish guys, it’s entertainment with a specific purpose. It’s not a stand-alone event, it’s an event tied into our stronger teaching times at UpTown and DownTown.
And it works! At the end of the day, all of the labor of something like MainStreet is absolutely worth it because it works to help connect families to the life-changing, life-giving message of a relationship with Christ. So, if entertainment is bad… I’ll take it.
Some of the best moments of life have come in doing youth group. Conversely, some of my least proud moments have happened in youth ministry too.
One thing that "just comes with the title" is that my kids are sometimes treated poorly by careless words and careless actions of the students I love so much.
A few examples:
The point isn’t that middle and high school kids are bad with students. And in no way am I upset. But it speaks to something that I am becoming increasingly aware of... my career choice effects my kids in ways I can’t always control. Everyone knows about the social pressure that "pastor’s kids" feel. That is actually manageable. But there are other unintended consequences (like getting dropped on your head) that I’m just observing and thinking, "How can I both model biblical parenthood and allow kids to potentially accidentally hurt my kids feelings…. or even bodies?"
The simple answer is, "we trust God will watch over our children." At the same time… where does protection come into the equation?
I officially have no shame. I am willing to do and be anything to help Romeo grow. A video is coming that is, ridiculous. (insert your own groaner)
I talk to a lot of people who are complaining that they are too busy. They have taken on so many things that they feel like they don’t get to enjoy any of it.
I look at it like this:
Stuff I do – What I get out of it = Margin of Joy
An interesting observation is that the people who are "crazy busy" are making the mistake of thinking that if they increase the "stuff I do" they can increase that margin of joy in their lives.
Here’s a solution:
Drop some of the stuff you do, increase the quality of what is left… and your margin of joy will increase. Guaranteed.
What do I drop?
Drop stuff that isn’t biblically commanded first and see how that goes. It’s amazing how much stuff you can cut. Further, it’s amazing how creative you will get and how much joy you will find in having a few extra hours per week.
It’s not what it sounds like. (Although North Point does it every year between Christmas and New Year’s.) But a church in California is not going to worship this Sunday in their building… instead they are going to be meeting at many locations and sites to doing work projects throughout their community.
The seats at North Coast Church in Vista will be empty the weekend
of April 29, but members won’t exactly have the day off. The church,
which attracts about 6,500 people on weekends, is planning the largest
community-service event in its history, with participants painting,
landscaping, washing and rolling up their sleeves for various jobs at
54 sites throughout North County on April 28 and 29…
In all, congregants will tackle 92
major projects, including painting and landscaping Washington Middle
School in Vista and Claire Burgener Academy in Oceanside, with up to
200 people working at each site. Read the rest
What is so astonishing about this to me is that they will grow by doing it. I can here some people saying, "Yeah but Hebrews tells us to not give up meeting together." They aren’t. They are meeting in 92 locations to worship by doing stuff. Plus, today’s people are all about action and taking a stand to make their world better.
I love this on so many levels.
As a pastor at a small church I look at this and have two immediate reactions.
OK, back to Earth now. I’ll be watching this to see how it worked out.
I live in a house that was built in 1871. Over the last 136 years gravity has had it’s way with parts of our house. In fact, there probably is more in our house that isn’t perfectly level than there is that is perfectly level.
Recently I was putting in a new kitchen counter. The floor wasn’t level. The cabinets aren’t level. But after shimming up one side and thumping the hammer here and there I was able to make 2 unlevel things support a level counter top. Sometimes when a new visitor is in our house they’ll say something like "wow, I felt a little dip there" or "the porch seems like it may be a little crooked." They are right. It’s an old house and that happens over 136 years of settling and bowing under the weight.
Outside it only gets worse. Our garage probably needs to be leveled rather than trying to take care of the major structural issues it has. A lot of years after an exceedingly poor design has led to the roof "swaying" a little in the middle. The south wall is buckled by about a foot at the top and the whole structure somehow stands. The patio leans just a little one way.
I’m even noticing a couple of things about stuff that I’ve done that isn’t quite level. The kids new tire swing isn’t quite level. The play structure we had placed there last spring… it’s a little cockeyed.
I can defintiely say this about almost our entire house. "It’s about a half a bubble off."
That about says it all, doesn’t it?
A couple of unedited videos grabbed off of Kristen’s camera worth sharing.
Here I am proudly following Paul around the football field at the Easter Egg hunt last month.
Here is Megan at her very first soccer game. She is in training for the 2020 Olympic games. Though, she may be a little too for the 2016 games in Chicago.