Month: January 2005

len evans mentioned in a recent post about writing an article for his ministry newsletter. when i read it i decided that i would start posting the monthly articles that i write for our youth ministry newsletter. it’s not that i think they are that greay (i don’t). rather each monthly i desperately search for an idea on which to write about. i figure if nothing else some other desperate youth minister might find my articles and at least their themes will inspire him or her to write a truly great article. that way i get partial credit or something like that. 🙂 anyhow, here’s february’s:

january 24th, 1984 steve jobs of apple introduce the macintosh computer to the world at a large convention. steve jobs walked up to the microphone said “all of the images that you are about to see come from what’s in that bag,” then he walked over to a duffle bag and pulled out a then comparatively tiny macintosh computer and turned it on. when the images started pouring out of the computer the crowd went nuts. No one had ever seen images of this quality or speed come from a computer that anyone could use and afford. that speech and those images changed the computer world. all of the personal computers we use now (including the one i am typing on right now) owe their existence to that moment. it was a simple display of technology but it was a revolutionary moment. you can actually view the video from this moment on my blog (www.parkviewyouth.org/blog/).

According to scripture the moment that JESUS comes into your life is supposed to be “a revolutionary moment.” when JESUS comes into your life HE wants to change everything. He wants to change how you feel about yourself, what you do, how you do it, and what you think about the world and people around you. this doesn’t mean that it was a dramatic moment. they moment you ask JESUS to be your LORD may seem siple or not be very dramatic, but the changes that can come about because of that moment are what makes the moment revolutionary. everything that happens afterwards is supposed to be directed by the fact that CHRIST has come into your life because you are a new creation.

the issue is whether we are letting that moment change us or not. you’re the one who gets to decided that. GOD allows you the free will to live in the light of the moment JESUS came into your life or to ignore it. Yyu get to choose day by day, moment by moment.

so what’s your choice?

i hate it when the feelings of inadequacy start pouring in. those feelings that i should be doing more, that the little bit that i am doing should be better, and that everyone else around me is doing things that are “head and shoulders” above my ability. i hate this.

i know in my head that i shouldn’t compare myself with anyone else. i know that i am loved, valued, and all that other crap. yet i look around, compare myself to what it appears others are doing, and feel like a joke that that the rest of the universe is getting a good laugh from. honestly it’s hard not to feel like a failure when you look around and are convinced that everyone else in the world is doing a better job of parenting, being a husband, making pine wood derby cars, blogging, speaking, being a friend, yard work, organizing their thoughts, music selection, ministry, etc. you name it and right now everyone else is doing a better job at it than i am. i hate these feelings.

i love mediashout.

it’s the program that everyone in the youth ministry prefer to use for every presentation other than messages (it’s just not quite as good as powerpoint or maybe keynote for messages yet). mediashout is really the way to go for lyrics, announcements, and video presentations during worship services.

i hate mediashout.

i prepaid for the 3.0 upgrade with the assurance from the sales rep that it would be out in a month. that was back at the beginning of november at the national youth workers’ convention. for some reason i still don’t have my upgrade.

where is my mediashout 3.0? all i know is that it’s not here in baton rouge.

SIDE NOTE – i’m really interested in trying out keynote. this is mainly because i still do my message presentations in powerpoint and i really don’t like micro$oft. i have an inherent dislike for “the big guy” built into my personality. if keynote is at least decent i’ll try it just to avoid using another microsoft product.

i love my sunday school class. i know that sunday school is supposed to be outdated and useless. according to some it’s supposed to be a waste of time. yet i love my class. i also know that some would say that i, as the youth minister, should not lead a sunday school class because by leading that group i might end up leaving my other teens out. i know all of that stuff, yet i absolutely love my class. i’ve loved it for the past two to three years. it just seems to get better and better each year.

that’s why today was disappointing. i was really excited about what we were going to talk about. the problem is that we didn’t get to talk about it. you see every so often we take a group trip to cc’s coffee house and today just so happened to be the day for the cc’s run. usually when we make the cc’s run we still have plenty of time to discuss whatever it is we are discussing. yet two we faced two challenges 1)cc’s was slower than normal and 2)it was dang cold outside for south louisiana. we usually go outside so we can really get into our conversation but there just wasn’t room inside for us to sit and going outside wasn’t an option for most of the teens in the group. the long and short of it was that we only had ten minutes left to talk before we needed to leave. this wasn’t much time.

so we headed back to church. i was really looking forward to the dialogue. now i have to wait a week to get into it.