Category: ministry

i love my job!

i know that i say this about every 5th entry but it really is true. my job is the greatest because while i’m doing something very important and meaningful i get to include really cool things within it and have alot of fun while doing it. i’ve been working on a swish movie (shockwave) for wednesday and i decided to included within the movie the theme some from the “spiketv” show “mxc” (most extreme elimination challenge). i love this show. i usually turned the volume down on the television, because the commentary is not always that great but the program is hilarious. me and the boys watch the contestants kill themselves and laugh. for some reason it is great to watch strangers put themselves through near fatal challenges.

i had to cook tonight. pam and adam went to the movies so i was left making supper. i cooked chicken divan from a receipt. it was an extremely scary adventure. men were not meant to cook in your normal household kitchen. a man’s cooking talents go beyond the size of the normal kitchen. this is why we either cook outside on the grill where our talents can freely expand throughout the universe or use a professional kitchen which has enough room to at least withstand our skills until we can take them outside and cook over a fire again. i was at least able to hold my talents in a enough to make the divan. it was touchy there for a little while but i kept those talents in.

tonight at the view the power cut off. we’ve had a fair number of storms around here in baton rouge and they have caused a decent number of power outages. particularly this afternoon. the power cut out three times while i was developing the powerpoint for the worship at the view. at the view everything was going fine until about 7:20 when the power cut off. this meant i pretty much lost everyone’s attention. the power came back on but i was pretty sure that i had lost control. we finished the service and the cut off again. typically the youth and adults hang out after the service for a good while. usually there are people around the student center over an hour after the view is over. it’s wonderful. i really enjoy everyone enjoying being around each other. of course, when the power cut out everyone left. apparently everyone enjoys being around one another until the lights cut out. apparently i have developed a ministry full of people scared of the dark. it’s sad but true.

i’m pretty excited because today i received confirmation that the band i really wanted to join us for our disciplenow will be with us. the robbie seay band will be leading us in worship through music during the disciplenow (march 19-21). this is not meant to be as much of an advertisement for the disciplenow as it is a comment on how i like it when GOD works things out. rsb has been helping me out with some of their songs for about two years now. that’s why i wanted to get them involved. but, i was pretty sure that we would not be able to cover their costs for joining us for our disciplenow. turns out that it within their schedule and travel and that means we can get them. i can’t wait.

if you are curious about who they are then go to their website http://www.robbieseayband.com/. i really like them.

on a sad note, pam and i gave into today and bought noah an o.u. jersey (with his birthday money). we tried to talk him out of it but he has been converted and it didn’t feel right saying “no you can’t buy a non-l.s.u. jersey” when football isn’t really that important to us.

i just finished taking down all the stuff we set up in the student center for the view last night and i was amazed at the mess that a group of 80 teens can cause. each of you should be ashamed of yourself. did your mother raise you in a barn?

just kidding.

i had a flash back to what my mother used to say to me and neither adam, my almost 10 year old, nor noah, my 7 year old, are around for me to pick at so i had to use ya’ll. see this is what you get to look forward to one day. you’ll probably get married, have to work real hard at having a great marriage (a little hint here – the marriages that stink are the ones in which both parties
don’t work at it all the time), then probably have kids and then you get the joy of blaming them for everything that breaks (and knowing that you are probably right). ah, the joys of parenthood.

yesterday noah decided to swap from being an l.s.u. fan to being an oklahoma fan. neither pam nor i can find out why he swapped. he says he was coloring a snowman in l.s.u. colors and half way through the snow man “it just happened” and he swapped to being an o.u. fan. he describes it like it was a mystical experience. it’s as though the big sooner mascot in the sky unveiled the heavens and spoke to noah – “noah, be a sooner fan!” anyhow, noah brought the snow man home to prove to us that “it just happened” and sure enough it is half l.s.u. colors and then immediately swaps to o.u. colors. apparently my youngest son had a mystical n.c.a.a. football experience. who knew?

i just got in from working on the labyrinth mat up at the church. the JESUS project retreat is this weekend and i’ve still got plenty of stuff that needs to be done so i probably won’t be writing much in this thing until monday, november 24. of course, you never know because i always read more when i have the least amount of time, and that could also transfer to typing also. i’m just not sure. all i do know is that i have placed approximately 120 yards of gaffing tape in a pattern on 600 square feet of canvas (not an easy task). i am finished with it and i am excited about it being used for the first time tomorrow night.

now so you’ll know what i’m talking about, the labyrinth is a 21st century rendition of a 12th century spiritual practice. in the 12th century many cathedrals had labyrinth (kind of like a maze but without dead ends or wrong turns) on their floors. these were used as a kind of guided walking prayer time. people would walk the pattern of the labyrinth while they prayed. it was supposed to physically remind them of drawing closer to GOD, spending time with GOD, and then taking their time with GOD back out into their daily lives. yes, they could do this without the labyrinth, but the labyrinth was a good way of reminding them and getting them focused.

what we are going to do is a modern version of this. this means a multimedia approach that still retains the meaning and most of the methods of the ancient version. the whole point is to get the youth and the adults on the retreat to focus on GOD for an extended period of time. instead of just spending 30 seconds in prayer, they will spend between 45 minutes and two hours in prayer, talking with, listening to, and just being with GOD. again you can do all this without the labyrinth, but the labyrinth is merely a good tool for helping you to make sure you spend some serious time with GOD.

it’s quite cool. of course, setting it up is also quite time consuming and that is why i am writing this late at night and getting ready to wake up in 5 hours and go back up to church. even though i’m tired and i know i will be even more tired tomorrow after doing pbs chapel as “worship in the round”, throwing a party at “the view”, and just the normal busy wednesday i love my job. i have the greatest job in the world. there is none better. in fact, it’s so good i usually feel guilty taking my paycheck.

btw, here’s a picture of yaconelli so you can put a face with this guy who GOD used to make a huge impact on modern youth ministry.

yes, he might not look like much but yaconelli is a guy deeply in love with JESUS and he had a wonderful passion for expressing that love.

tonight i was attack by a ray stevens’ song.

well, at least that’s what it felt like. tonight i went up to the student center to set up the stuff that i normally set up on sunday mornings (i’m trying to streamline the mornings a little). being in a church by yourself at night is always a little freaky. i believe the reason for this is because church buildings are structures that are meant for life. their meant to be moving and full of hustle and bustle. when you enter a church building you expect conversations between friends to be going on, laughter and tears to be pouring forth, and songs and teaching to be occurring. even the silence that occurs in a church building is full of expectancy and fellowship. church buildings always feel weird when their empty, kind of like a party after every body has left. even though it feels weird i always enjoy being up at the church alone because it prepares me for the joy of when everyone else is up there. i enjoy it but i’m still a little tense because like i said the building doesn’t feel quite right empty.

while i was walking up to the balcony to get a spot light i was lost in thought about something. i turned the corner to enter the balcony and was immediately jumped at by a terrified gray squirrel. he was trying to get away from me but apparently got confused and thought the best way to avoid me was to jump at my face. of course, he was right because i fell to the floor quicker than i should have (which i am now paying for in pain). the squirrel flew right down the stairs and went somewhere i couldn’t see. it took me a moment to overcome my fright (and believe me, i was frightened) and then realized that it was up to me to get rid of this little acrobatic rodent. if i didn’t youth sunday school would be very interesting in the morning. i could just picture the squirrel running through the opening assembly. the girls shouting and the guys trying to catch the thing. it would be utter chaos.

so i went down stairs trying to chase the squirrel out the open window through which it had come. of course, the squirrel didn’t know that i was trying to free it. it thought i was trying to turn it into a meal. therefore, it ran in every direction except the one that i need it to. it wouldn’t go anywhere near the open window. i chased it and chased it. up the stairs, down the stairs, through chairs, around tables. i eventually was able to chase it up the stairs to the open window but i never actually was able to see it go ou the window. i assume that it did but who knows. tomorrow’s sunday school could be very interesting.

you’re not going to believe this second part and i’m too tired to tell it completely so i’ll mention it now and finish it tomorrow. i was attacked by yellow jackets again and i have the marks to prove it. i’ll tell the story of the ninja trained yellow jackets tomorrow. i’m not sure what i have done to the world’s yellow jacket population but it is apparent that every yellowe jacket on the earth has it in for me.

i absolutely love the fact that i get paid to be a minister. this afternoon i was given the name of a church member who i haven’t met before (it’s a large church) who was at home with her husband watching him slowly pass away. five days ago he was told that because of liver damage he would have about 4 to 6 months to live before his body would give out. since, the doctor said that he has gone down hill incredibly fast. yesterday he slipped out of consciousness and this morning the doctor came to their house and told his wife that he would probably die at any second. i was the minister who received the opportunity to go to their house. there is not much that you can say that a woman who is soon to be a widow and knows it. there aren�t many words that will do for a time like that. so i simply sat with her and her husband for an hour. GOD was already in that room. the LORD was already there taking care of her. my only purpose there was to remind he of the GOD who cares about her and her husband. so for an hour i sat there and held his hand and listened while she told me about his love for fishing, building his pond, his stubborn nature, and love for reading. i left her with the only words I knew that would make any difference �GOD is here for you and HE says that HE will comfort those who mourn and are in pain.� it is easy to see the difference that JESUS makes in life when you watch someone as they are dying. this family knows CHRIST and that makes all the difference.

it was an honor to be there with them. i can’t believe doing that type of stuff is actually considered a part of my job. i love my job.