Tag: light force

  • 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.

  • Light Force Concert

    Light Force ConcertOn April 20th, 2008 Light Force is hosting a great concert. Jimmy and his band will be joined by local band, Nowhere Found.

    I’ve been thinking and dreaming about this event for a long time. We know that in Romeo 4% or less of 6-12 graders regularly attend a youth group… but we also know that some local music clubs are filled to capacity 3-4 nights per week! So our method here is really simple and really obvious. We want to introduce people to our student ministry in a very non-threatening way… so we’re simply doing what they already enjoy in our environment to introduce students to our student ministry.

    Here’s the official announcement. Here’s the myspace page. Here’s the facebook page.

  • 10 Things I Did While My Friends Were in Florida

    I mentioned this project earlier today, here is the video. I think it turned out pretty funny. What do you think?

  • Off to Shoot a Movie

    Today I’m hanging out with my favorite peeps, the cast and crew from Light Force. We’re going to conceptualize, shoot, edit, and release a movie today.

    It’s called “10 Things I Did While My Friends Were in Florida.” We’ll be driving all over the Metro area shooting all sorts of weird things. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

  • Will you pray for my ministry?

    Tonight we are starting something new. In a lot of way I wish I had access to this new thing years ago. At Romeo, we say “small groups are where life change happens.” And I am entering into this new study, Life Hurts… God Heals, truly praying to see that come to life. I long to see this study connect hurting students to a God who heals.

    Will you pray with me that life-change will occur as we help our students deal with some realities in their lives? Will you pray that as we deal with the “real stuff” in their lives that they will open themselves up to the healing that comes from God?

    Why are you teaching this? Let’s face it, 100% of us and 105% of our students are hurting somehow. I want to equip them with the skills to face their “stuff” and I want to equip them with the skill to help their friends face their stuff.

    Want to learn more about what we’re teaching? Check out this link

    Want to see your student get involved? We’d love to hear from parents or students, shoot me an email or leave a comment. mclanea@gmail.com

  • Mercy: Some practical theology here

    Last night at Light Force small groups we talked about the difference between mercy and grace.

    Grace = Getting something you don’t deserve.

    Mercy = Not getting something you deserve.

    I could see the students wrestling with this. Here are students completely covered in both. They have parents who bathe them in both on a daily basis. Yet they don’t see it. I think it goes back, for them, to a fundamental misunderstanding of what “deserve” means. They think that they deserve mercy and grace.

    I left thinking that most of the students expect to deserve grace and mercy. (By their birth they feel they have merited favor with others and even God) And I wondered how I could communicate that they don’t deserve to deserve grace and mercy better?

    What are some practical areas of grace and mercy the students in your life experience but fail to acknowledge?

  • thump thump

    I am 31 years old. I have done youth ministry, pretty much, since I graduated from High School.

    And I still get jazzed about an all-nighter. I am pumped to hear that many of our students are not only coming but bringing friends.

    In 30 minutes doors open. I’m ready. I hope they are.

  • Gaining some momentum in Light Force

    Last night’s small group was great.

    That makes 3 “good time had by all” Light Force events in a row. With a sure winner on Friday night, we’re off to a good 2008.

  • Last Night was Great

    Last night in Light Force we had our 3rd worship night. And they just keep getting better.

    The first two I was really self-conscious about who was and wasn’t there. (Easy to do when only a couple people show up!) This one I was just focused on making it a great night.

     We had a fun game to kick things off. (Ping pong baseball will be back!) Then Jimmy did a great job leading worship. I may be biased, but I think Jimmy is one of the better worship guys out there! Our students are lucky to have him and I hope they recognize how good a job he is doing.

    For the talk I spoke from John 13. This was kind of a blend of a talk I heard from Andy Stanley at YS and a fantastic video that ESPN did on Tim Tebow, winner of the 2007 Heisman trophy. What I liked most about this talk (Ha! It’s my own talk, of course I like it) is that it started from a very positive angle… you are a person of power somewhere in your life… and helped students answer the question, “What do I do with the power I have?”

    (more…)

  • So, ready for coffee?

    In the coming weeks I’ve cleared my schedule a lot so that I can concentrate on two things more than I have in the recent past.

    1. Spend time with parents of Light Force students.
    2. Spend time with Light Force students, with a purpose.

    So here’s the deal. If you are a student or a parent and you would like to meet up to talk about Light Force… I want to hear from you. Got gripes? Got ideas? Got wants? Wanna share what’s been going on? Call me, email me, Facebook me, AIM me, whatever it takes… I’m trying to get in contact with you, you try to get in contact with me. Let’s get this bus moving in 2008. Let’s overcome obstacles. Let’s do what we need to do.

    One dream I have right now is to have a regular group of people who meet weekly to pray for our students. Nothing would warm my heart more and highlight my weekly calender in “can’t miss red” better than that.