ministry consumerism

my mail today consisted of nine different opportunities for me to involve my kids in some “ministry opportunity” that is going to change their lives, or change the way they view GOD, or shape them into leaders who will change the world. all i have to do is shell out $265 for the conference fee or $99.95 for the leader’s pack or $350 for the whitewater camp experience. it’s really that easy? all i have to do is bring or buy something for my youth and the youth ministry has accomplished it’s goal? all of the offers came with outstanding advertisements. the promotional materials were full of great testimonies from other ministers who had been smart enough and sensitive enough to the SPIRIT to take their kids to these programs or use the right material. the ads were full of pictures of cool looking teens having a great time. it was all hip, cool, and definitely appealing.

it all made me sick.

how much do we spend in promotion to get out the message that our standards are no different from the world’s? the contents of my mail showed the truth. the advertisements and promo packs told the story of what we really think is valuable. we value flash. this is why our churches are so busy going to national programs rather than doing things together, locally, relationally. this is why our kids are convinced they must have an “experience.” if they didn’t have an “experience” then it was a trip or event that GOD was a part of it? rather than us growing closer and closer by being in the whole process together we sell out and just take our teens to things.

we “ministers” really like to buy into all this stuff. we love the “big events” just as much as the kids. we love the hype, the great “summary” videos, the t-shirts, and crap. we buy right into it all. i know i do. give me some free stuff and i think much better of you. free stuff dismisses allot of my questions. i’m such a whore.

i’m really not opposed to all the “big things.” i think they have their place. i think they can be great tools. but that’s all they are … tools. they’re not ministry. they’re events. the real ministry takes place in the youth ministries that bring the kids to the “big events” and are there when the real problems of life occur. that’s the important stuff.

i just hope i can remember that next time i’m given some cool camp item for free.

nerd test

i just finished taking a test on my “nerd rating” and figured i would paste it for y’all to be able to see. nothing really surprising personally. you can take the test for yourself by clicking the image below.

I am nerdier than 54% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

i just finished taking a test

i just finished taking a test on my “nerd rating” and figured i would paste it for y’all to be able to see. nothing really surprising personally. you can take the test for yourself by clicking the image below.

I am nerdier than 54% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

the superbowl ads

i really don�t like commercial advertisements. i hate the fact that almost every where you look during your day you will see an advertisement. i can�t stand the fact that our schools have ads pasted all over them from the football scoreboard to motivational posters that have been �given� to our learning institutions. i say all this to preface my next statement.

i was really disappointed by the commercials during the superbowl. yes, i know it stands in contrast of my above statements that i would even consider liking the superbowl commercials. it�s just that i really do like creativity and the superbowl commercials are usually very creative. at least they used to be creative because it seemed like this year�s batch of commercials were pretty bland. in my opinion none of them were really very creative with the possible exception of the toyota prius commercial and the emerald nuts commercial that involved a unicorn, santa, and the easter bunny. they were both good commercials but i didn�t think either one of them was amazing or anything.

of course, my feelings on the matter were not helped any by the fact that new england won the game. i can�t really tell you why i don�t like them. in fact, they have the attributes that i usually like within a team – not flashy, major �team� mindset, very well coached, not made up of big names. yet for some reason i have never liked the patriots. it�s not even an anti-boston thin because i like the red sox and i LOVE the celtics. still i don�t like them and i really wished they had not won.

pinewood derby average speed

for some reason i have been receiving lots of search engine “hits” to the blog concerning “the average speed of a pinewood derby car”. i think this is pretty funny but i figured i would put a little bit of info on the page just to help whoever has been coming to the site. here it is and i hope it helps:

  • all of the statistics below assume an 80 foot long track – track length varies so this info will vary also
  • a really good time on a such pinewood derby track is below 4 seconds
  • if you are below 4.1 seconds on your average time you’ll be in the running for placing within the competition
  • if you are at 4.6 seconds you’ll be in the middle to milddle/rear part of the pack
  • 4.6 seconds translates into the real life speed of about 60 miles per hour
  • 4.6 seconds in scaled speed translates to about 325 miles per hour

to the unknown searcher – i hope this helps

superbowl

please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win! please don’t let new england win!

i don’t care who actually wins but PLEASE DON”T LET NEW ENGLAND WIN!

the feminar

feminar 2005i am firmly convinced that most youth ministry is far to masculine in nature. because of this a few years ago our student ministry came up with the idea of doing a “feminar”. basically it’s a mini-retreat dealing with feminine issues. so of course, i have nothing to do with this retreat. i give the whole thing over to a group of ladies (led by my assistant, jessica) and they work through all the details. all i do is make an appearance to say “hi” and then hear the reports afterward. the ladies make the whole thing into a huge slumber party.

this year the feminar was february 4th-5th and it was tremendous according to all reports. we had about 65 girls that were a part of it. my wife, pam, was a part of the weekend and she came back talking about seventh grade girls talking about their lives being full of thinking that they have let people like their parents down and how hard it was to live under that pressure. they had deep conversations and CHRIST was continually brought into the midst of those conversations. it was a great weekend. i’m very proud to have those ladies on our team.

random chinese arts

random chinese artsi made it back from dropping my kids off in mobile for the weekend early this afternoon. before going home i wanted to go to the church and download my pictures that i took at the beginning of the feminar friday night (the student ministry’s girls only mini-retreat). so i headed down sherwood forest towards the church. that’s where i saw a chinese arts festival being held in front of a strip mall. the only connection i can think of is that the hunan chinese restaurant is located in the strip mall.

i thought it was cool and decided to stop and watch. i have to say that there is nothing quite like watching a bunch of anglos demonstrate chinese culture (almost everyone involved in the program was anglo). there was kung fu, music, asian dancing, and big freaky dragon things. i stayed and watched for about thirty minutes and then left. who knew that baton rouge was the seat of chinese culture?

here are a few more pictures from the strip mall chinese culture thingy – picture #1, picture #2, picture #3, and picture #4. you can also view my pictures from the feminar here.

an upcoming post

i just arrived in mobile to drop my kids off with my in-laws for mardi gras weekend. this way the boys get to participate within some parades in mobile (a much more family friendly atmosphere than new orleans) and pamela and i get a weekend alone. about twenty minutes ago my dad just finished telling me the latest news of saraland, alabama. i don’t won’t to steal my dad’s thunder but i have to tell you this story. my dad will blog about this later, probably tomorrow and do a better job of it with pictures and such.

presently the state of alabama is working on expanding highway 158 from two lanes to four (a much needed improvement by the area of the university of mobile). as a part of the project they were using an excavator to clean out a swampy area beside the road. it’s really rained alot around here and apparently no one consider the possibility of the land being too damp for the weight of the excavator. thus when it went down to the swampy area one side began to sink and the whole machine tilted over on it’s side. this would usually be bad but not a case for panic because you could always come back when the land was drier and pull the machine back up. the problem here was that ground was VERY wet and the excavator began to submerge into the soil. pulling the excavator right side up is one thing but pulling it completely out of the ground is something completely different.

not wanting to lose the $200,000 machine the city sent another excavator down near the first in an attempt to pull it upright and away form danger. this would have been a brilliant idea if it were not for the fact that the second excavator began to sink submerge too. it sank straight down, tracks first, fast and deep. in the past three days the first excavator has sunk to the point that all you can see of it is the track on the high side and the second one has sunk straight down to the point that only the excavating arm is visible. thus the city now has two $200,000 machine underground.

the city has been quoted the price of $65,000 a piece to have an outside contractor with a super-sized crane come in and lift the machines out of the ground. that wouldn’t even include the cost of the rebuilding the engines which have now be engulfed and no doubt in-filled with mud. someone else has come in and said they would pay $20,000 to the city for each vehicle and then remove them. it will be interesting to see what the city thinks is cheaper.

my dad’s blog will surely have a better story concerning this and pictures of the events.

hospitality – what is it good for?

do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. hebrews 13:2

lunch @ deangelosover the past four to five months my wife, pam, and i have really been dealing with the biblical concept of hospitality. truthfully hospitality is a concept that i find frustrating. it frustrates me because i don’t understand it. it is completely foreign to what i have been told in this world. hospitality is much more than just “having people over.” hospitality focuses on the “alien” or “stranger”. it means bringing those who are on the “margins of society” into your lives. it is not just meeting the needs of food, clothing, or lodging, though that is definitely a part of it. hospitality involves bringing those who are on the margins actually into your lives and homes.

in my opinion hospitality is simply not practiced very well within western CHRISTianity. if nothing else i know that i don’t practice it very well. yet it is of incredible importance in both the old and new testaments. this means that the follower of CHRIST, which i am trying to be, needs to practice it. this is not something that is easy for me to practice. i would rather give money to help, or go to the place of need and serve. bringing the “alien and stranger” into my house is something else entirely.

pam and i have been taking small steps. we had a homeless friend over awhile back for supper with our kids and us. it was a wonderful experience. the next step for us is to “adopt” two l.s.u. students who are from india. according to the university these guys have been in the states for two years and are still desperate to know someone. we’ve made the contact and started the process of getting them over to our houses regularly. the next step is actually getting them into our homes. we’re not doing this as some form of evangelism to india (though if they come to know CHRIST i would be please as punch). we are not trying nor will we attempt to prostelize them. this is merely an attempt to bring some guys who are on the margins of american society into our homes and practice hospitality.

i don’t really know what i’m doing but i do know that i really want to understand what GOD means by “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” and i guess this is the start of understanding that.