• Where will youth ministry be in 50 years

    Ct
    Christianity Today     published an article called What’s Next: Youth in their 50th anniversary edition. Basically they went around and asked a bunch of people "What will youth ministry look like in another 50 years?"

    Mark Ostreicher, president of Youth Specialties, (a big player in youth ministry, publisher of YM related stuff, and all-round cheerleader of the cause of YM) is involved in discussing the article on his blog. He’s asked a lot of his friends "in the biz" to pipe in with their thoughts.

    I’ve not had time to formulate my thoughts, since YMX was mentioned in his post as "the nifty gaggle of peeps" I think that’s an invite to chime in. If I get time or have something to say I’ll jump in. But at this point, I’m most likely to observe.

    My initial thought to the article was, "Cool, people think there will still be youth ministry in 50 years!"In all seriousness, so long as their are people hard-wired to think differently in the body of Christ (adolescents brains literally work differently) God will create people in His body with the gifts and desire to reach them.

  • Phew, MainStreet was a Hit

    Kidstown_color2_webThere 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.

  • Pedestrian Killed in Front of the Church

    Yesterday, when I was coming to work, there was the remnents of a terrible accident about 100 yards from the church. I had to walk through the accident scene because the road was blocked off, I could tell that it was a terrible accident. I saw that it was a high school students car. I asked the officer there if a student had been hit and he told me that a student had hit an adult lady. My heart sank because Romeo is such a small community that somehow we must know either the student in the accident or the woman killed. So far, that hasn’t come true.

    Here’s the news story:

    BRUCE TOWNSHIP — A 17-year-old Romeo
    High School student likely is not at fault in a car/pedestrian accident
    that killed a woman walking on 32 Mile Road this morning, Macomb County
    Sheriff Mark Hackel said.

    The accident happened about 7:18 a.m.
    at the intersection of 32 Mile Road and Campground in Bruce Township,
    about a mile from Romeo High School.

    The student, a girl whose
    name was not released by police, was driving her 1996 Oldsmobile
    Regency eastbound on 32 Mile Road, when a 57-year-old Washington
    Township woman stepped off the curb and into traffic, Hackel said.

    "This
    doesn’t seem to be the girl’s fault," Hackel said. "We haven’t wrapped
    up our investigation yet, but all indications are that the girl tried
    to avoid the pedestrian."

    After the car struck the pedestrian,
    whose name also was withheld, the teen stopped. Another motorist who
    saw the accident called 911.

    The victim was taken to St. Joseph’s West Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

    Thanks to Kristen for the link.


  • Great memory

    Northern_ireland_jon_2I 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.

  • Tired

    How is it that I’m both energized and exhausted at the same time? I love what I do and I couldn’t think of doing anything else. Yet, at the same time I’m fatigued.

    That doesn’t mean anything politically and that’s not meant in code or to mean anything else than this. I’m ready to get away and get recharged. I can feel that I need time to wander, time to dream, time to waste, time to listen and not talk, time to meet people for the sake of just meeting them, time to get lost or to not be worried about a detour, time to adventure, time to browse.

    After all, how can I lead people when I’m too tired to want to lead people?

    Good news. I have a whole week away coming up. In the words of Robert Frost, "I have miles to go before I sleep." As I think about NYWC: Cincinnati I can’t help but chuckle at the words of Mike Yaconelli. He began each conference saying something like, "We have X, Y, Z, but that’s just for your bosses. We don’t care what you do this week. Just get recharged. If you need to lock yourself in the hotel room for 5 days, go for it."

    Of course, between that respite and today there is oodles of work. It’s tough sledding for the next month. I hope I have enough energy to get there.

  • iConnect Images

    Iconnect_loavesOur 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.

    (more…)

  • A pornographer comes to Jesus

    Numberonepornsite
    Some people are shocked that xxxchurch.com even exists. With a tag line like, "The #1 Christian Porn Site" I’m certain they rub many Christians the wrong way. Yet their ministry is extremely relevant, needed, and changing lives in the name of Jesus. I’ve been an observer of this ministry for a long time since I’ve long had a passion for reaching people for Christ using the internet. From the moment I heard about them in 2002, I’ve been curious. These guys clearly do a great job at connecting virtual reality with reality. I don’t have any stats but it’s safe to say that porn is easily accessible to anyone in the world and it is extremely dangerous for people to look at.

    Their ministry has two specific arms.
    1. They help anyone, but especially Christians, get free of porn. They talk about porn in churches, they appear on talk shows to talk about porn, they’ve created great software for helping you get away from it, they help restore your relationship with Christ. That message is pretty simple, "Jesus said lust isn’t good and we know porn is degrading to women, we want to help you stop."

    2. They minister to porn stars and pornographers. This is brilliant in its simplicity. It is effective in its strategy. Pornography degrades women and makes pornographers rich, right? (Though many argue that it’s needed or that a legal porn industry is better than an illegal industry or that the women aren’t degraded since they are compensated, blah blah blah. Porn isn’t lifting anyone up, is it?) So xxxchurch sends women, most of them former porn stars themselves, to porn conventions. They don’t protest outside,  they rent a booth right in the middle of it! There they provide information and express the love of Christ (not preaching condemnation, sharing truth that we are all sinners in need of a Savior.) to the men and women "in the biz." But they don’t stop there. They also reach out to the men and women who shoot the movies and own the studios.

    The true test of a ministries worth (for those of us on the outside of it) is to discover what God is doing through the ministry. I agree with these guys theologically and metehodologically in theory… but is God blessing it?

    Enter Donny. Donny is a pornographer. Or was a pornographer until the other day.     This week, he came to know Jesus through the ministry of xxxchurch.com. I’m going to post his testimony and a note he wrote to his friends in the business. (For obvious reasons, no link and I’m slightly editing his post for more obvious reasons.) Donny is from Chico, California. Just up the road 20 miles from where we used to live… for some reason it’s a porn hotbed.

    (more…)

  • KidsTown Theater

    Kidstown_color2_lowIt 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.

  • Light Force gaining momentum

    Lf_bug_3We’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.

  • It’s only been 2 days

    This morning I was reading 2 Peter 3. Just a simple observation about end times. It’s only been like 2 days since Jesus left. Peter said:

    With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The
    Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
    He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
    come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

    To me, the question isn’t "how long will God allow this world to go on before the End? To me, it’s how much work can we get done in joining the Lord in bringing people to repentence? The pages of Revelation aren’t pretty. I guess sometimes I wonder what the rush to get there is.