Category: personal

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.

i receive updates from sojurners, an evangelical CHRISTian political website with a leftward lean to it. in some of the recent email updates sojo has been pushing the book of it’s editor-in-chief jim wallis. i haven’t read the book yet so it’s hard for me to recommend it BUT i have seen an interview with jim wallis on the daily show (go to the site and look under “celebrity interviews”). i liked what he said to jon stewart.

in the interview jim wallis states that he doesn’t think that JESUS first concern would be a capital gains tax cut. some would say that the capital gains tax cut is something that will help the economy and others would disagree with that. i of course, i have my view on the subject but i think the point jim wallis was making is great. why are so many evangelical CHRISTians confusing the republican parties’ agenda with the principals of CHRIST. as follower of JESUS we would be concerned about what and who JESUS was concerned with. JESUS was concerned with the weak (and HE realized that we all are basically weak).

why have we turned JESUS into the GOD of the rich and powerful? seems to me that we CHRISTians don’t do very good when we have power or connections with powerful people. we are believers in the MESSIAH of the marginalized. we do so much better when we are on the side of those who would get pushed out of the picture otherwise.

i just finished wilderness time: a guide for spiritual retreat by emilie griffin. i started it for our sabbath retreat but i really only read the parts that dealt with groups so that i could focus on other books that lent more to the sabbath retreat itself. since the retreat i’ve finished the book. it was quite good. it is definitely about personal spiritual retreats but it did have some good suggestions that helped formulate the sabbath. i’m going to use some of it’s suggestions for my personal sabbath retreat. the best part about the book is actually an appendix that has outlines for 1 day, 3 day, and 7 days spiritual retreats. it’s a very good basic plan to an organized spiritual retreat.

johnny baker is doing an “instillation” that is pure genius . he asking for shoes from all around the world that have experiences of GOD linked to them. it’s an amazing idea. in fact, it is so amazing that after i agreed to send a pair of shoes of my own to the cause i quickly sent out an email to all those associated with the parkview youth ministry asking them to send me their shoes and the stories of encounters with GOD that are associated with those shoes. we will use them as part of a worship service in march and then pass those shoes on to others at beautiful feet, a homeless ministry that we work with every spring, in hopes that the recipients will also have amazing encounters with GOD while wearing those same shoes.

you can read johnny baker’s idea on this for yourself here.

i was listening to a local radio station yesterday that was extolling the virtues of the “good ‘ole days”. they were talking about the 50s and early 60s with fond memories. the “good ‘ole days” were days when you could leave your front door unlocked, you didn’t have to worry about your kids being kidnapped or molested, and teen agers never really got into any real trouble.

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

the “good ‘ole days” never really existed. bad things happened even back then. robberies still happened, kids were still kidnapped, and teenagers stilled screwed up. i mean just look at west side story. apparently during the “good ‘ole days” they even fought while singing. who knew snapping could be so dangerous.

yet even if none of those things happened during the “good ‘ole days”, even if you could actually leave your door unlocked, trust your kids being outside, and not worry about your teen’s drinking or doing drugs (all of which i think is actually a “pipe dream” about the past). even if none of those modern evils existed back in the 50s and 60s there was still at least one over riding evil that we no longer have – organized societal racism. remember that the “good ‘ole days” were the days when entire segments of our population were excluded from the “american dream” merely because of their skin color. no that’s not evil is it? our government was prejudice, our towns were prejudice, our society and culture was prejudice, we were prejudice. i believe that JESUS despises racism. i believe that HE is offended when someone, who was made in HIS image, is treated as an inferior.

we still have racism. i’m not trying to say that we have eliminated that evil. i know that we still have problems with treating people different merely because of their skin color. yet in 2005 racism is no longer tolerated in an organized, societal manner within the u.s. that alone, if nothing else, is enough to make these present days the “good ‘ole days.”

sorry i don’t have any pictures of tonight’s service. the service was really good and i enjoyed it tonight.

earlier today i walked into my study and discovered that someone had placed a u2 elevation tour soccer jersey on my desk. i have a teen in the youth ministry whose dad drives tour busses for various rock groups. one of the groups he has driven for before (and will drive for again on their present tour) is u2. the jersey was one the band gave to him. he found out that i absolutely love u2 and thus the shirt ended up on my desk.

it was fantastic to have them think of me and desire to give me something like that. it made my day and night.