• Cedar Point or Bust

    Dragster_3
    We take off very early for Cedar Point. We’ll leave the church at 6 am and likely be back around midnight. It’s a big, long, hot day. But if you are into adreneline rushes… this is the place to be. I’m looking forward to riding the big rides all day long. Put me on the Dragster all day long.

  • Boys Day

    Dadandpaul_small_1
    Today was  one of those days you circle on the calendar and say… "wow."

    In the course of my normal craziness one of my favorite old guys came over to me with a funny look on his face. He asked me what I was up to after church. In my mind I was thinking, "Cool, an invite for lunch." (One of the coolest things about Romeo is how friendly people are. We tend to get invited out for "dutch lunch" Instead, he hands me an envelope with 2 tickets to the Ford Senior Championships.

    After some trying to figure out who to go with it dawns on me that the best person to take is in the backseat of my car! So Paul and I had a great day together.

    It was a great reminder to me of how much I love spending that kind of time with my son. We went to the golf tournament for the afternoon. He did great, though I don’t think he cared about the golf at all. From there we popped in on Kristen’s parents for a little ice cream and then drove home. It ended up being about 9 hours of pure "Dad and Paul time."

    Best part of the day… on the way home Paul said "My best part of the day was spending all day with you." Well said, little man. That was the best part of my day too.

  • Youth Pastor Discouragement

    This morning I’m publishing a "draft" of a post from 2 weeks ago. I like some of the things I was thinking here… even if they are incomplete.

    I’ve been reading Henry Blackaby’s "Spiritual Leadership" over the past few weeks. Here is a quote that I came across that really hits home as I talk to, encourage, and "whatever" folks through YMX.

    Moreover, those yearning for recognition and approval from others rarely find that positions of authority fill the void because they have sought a worldly remedy for a spiritual problem. (p. 75)

    Time and again I’ve seen youth workers who are struggling with "should I stick it out or should I go work elsewhere?" To me, this often goes to the "hip idea" of calling. Like a tuning fork it rattles me when I read/hear "I’m questioning my calling."

    There are two levels of this. The truly called often shy away from the calling because they bear the weight of it. (Such as Moses) But the "think they are called" often run away when the going gets tough because they are in that position because they "sensed" the calling but it wasn’t verified by others. (Such as JohnMark)

    Here’s how this plays out in my mind. Not claiming infallibility here. A young leader "feels called" to go into ministry. So they do. They get whatever education or experience they need to get hired somewhere. Everything is well and good at first. But then the going gets tough. The least healthy churches have a tendency to hire the least equipped to deal with the problems of an unhealthy church.

    So, it doesn’t take long for the new leader to say "I don’t think I’m called into THIS!" My question for that new leader is about verification. If your calling has been verified by the people around you… you shouldn’t run from it but embrace it through it’s hardships. So… the question goes back to "who does the calling."

    If your calling has been verified by others and you are experiencing hardship… endure it! There simply doesn’t seem to be a point, in my opinion, when you can throw in the towel. Because if you are called somewhere… you are there until the same people who called you there release you.

    But the falsely called or self-called should feel free to kick it in at any time. They are in a position that wasn’t for them in the first place.

    Here’s the incompleteness of this thought.  I don’t know where the difference lies here in those called into vocational ministry vs. a general call to action that all beleivers receive. I think there is a difference… and I think that people can get called vocationally into specific types of ministry for times in their lives (such as urban youth ministry or music ministry or lead pastor ministry) but I’ve not throught much beyond this thought.

  • Good news at LaShish

    Lashish_1In an ongoing All Blogs go to Heaven story, we went back to LaShish for dinner last night. Dave had never been and we talked it up pretty good.

    Well, the good news. Food is still good. While the place was empty when we first got there it did actually fill in well by the time we left. We still didn’t see the "waiting room only" from a year ago or so… but they are doing pretty well.

    The bad news.     For the first time ever we got bad service. I’d put it at terrible. (Hall Road location) The waiter we had started off well… but as soon as he saw we weren’t going to order any alcohol… he basically ignored us! I could see his waiting on a group of 6 that was boozing it up pretty good… he was all over them. But we never got treated right. Three of our party ordered Sierra Mist and it was bad. So they got a fresh round (a long time later) and that was bad too. I won’t detail everything he could have done better… but for the first time ever I left LaShish dissatisfied with the experience. Too bad.

  • YMX is down

    Ymx_alt_nostroke_2Just a note for users of YMX. Our web host is experiencing a massive power failure. At this point, we know nothing about when we can expect to have the site up. If I know anything I’ll post here.

    This is highly unusual as the host that we use has about 160,000 sites hosted with less than 1% of downtime annually. Again, sorry for any inconvenience.

  • Notre Dame is on the Up

    Weis_1There is a great article about my Fightin’ Irish on the ESPN website. Here are some excerpts.


    A year ago the South Bend Marriott required a two-night minimum stay
    during a Notre Dame football weekend. I know, because my company credit
    card was billed $299 per night.

    Now for the Sept. 9 home opener against Penn State the Marriott
    is requiring a three-night minimum for — are you sitting down? — $649
    (plus tax) per night. By the way, the 298-room hotel is sold out. The
    Marriott     loves Weis.

  • Vive Zidane

    Zidane
    If you don’t know the story of France’s Zidedine Zidane’s foul in the world cup, read about it here. Basically this one moment of stupidity cost France a chance to win the World Cup… the largest sporting event in the world. (4 times as big as the Super Bowl)

    So, with all that said… enjoy this spoof.

  • YMX Weirdness

    I’m not talking about the people. The people of YMX are always amazing and forgiving. But the site itself is acting weird. For some reason there are all kinds of errors coming up.

    I shouldn’t whine since the site has been nearly maintenence free all year… but it’s still annoying. I’ll be workin’ on it Saturday.

  • So far… Excellent!

    DaveavatarDave’s been here 2 weeks today. So far everything has gone better than expected. Last night he planned and led the Middle Madness event and it all came off great.

    So far, so good. It’s panning out to be a great time.

  • We’re Back!

    There is nothing quite as much fun as coming home. We had a great and productive time. It was not restful in any way but we did get a lot of work done. Good stuff all around.