Category: personal

sometimes something simple can become something amazing. the tsunami blogathon is simply a guy named darren posting 100 blog entries during a twenty-four hour period (around 1 every fifteen minutes) in hopes of raising some money for the asian tsunami victims. this is really not a huge thing – even though the thought of posting twenty-four original posts is quite daunting in my opinion (at my present rate i post 100 entries every three to four months). yet a large number of people are starting to get behind this small little endeavor. you can be one of the ones who are behind it. go and donate to the cause, watch darren sweat, or even send in a post suggestion. who knows this could become something amazing if we all get behind it.

i constantly struggle with keeping our youth ministry website current. i’m too cheap (an overriding theme of my life) to actually hire someone else to do the website for me or to pay for one of the “ministry related” website services that you can get through truewell or other organizations that host and design your site for you. nope my cheapness makes me try to do things on my own. the result of this has been that i buy the cheapest web hosting i can find, make a site, and then typically don’t update it for quite sometime.

after a while i feel guilty about the state of the youth ministry website and start a major redesign of the site. i update the site and it looks okay for awhile but then i typically let it get out of date again. it’s a vicious cycle that repeats itself over and over.

but not this time. i think i’ve reached a solution that will last longer than normal. i’ve decided to use the blogger interface to run the youth ministry website. this will make the website look like a blog. i can update it regularly without having to change the code behind it all the time. blogger also let’s change the style of the website simply by changing the style sheet within it. hopefully this thing will work out.

we got back from the sabbath weekend and things went very well. for an experiment this thing turned out wonderful. all the reports i have received from the kids who went have ben fantastic. to the point of having the majority of the teens who went ask me if we could start doing “mini-sabbaths” every month or every other month. of course, the purpose of the weekend was not to start another program so i don’t know if i’ll start something regular from this. here are some basic thoughts on the weekend:

• the time periods of silence were very well received. the last about 45 minutes each time. i do think that if i do this again i will probably stretch this out some more. a couple of the teens made the very good point that they felt like it took them a good fifteen minutes to really get going with the silence. they said that they wished they had more silence each time. i think next time i will probably go for periods of 1 1/2 hours of silence.
• the parable of the lost sheep was a HUGE hit. it really brought up some deep seated issues for some of the participants within the weekend. i divided the parable into three periods of contemplation 1) in the pasture with the other sheep, 2) being lost, 3) being found. each time we focused on what it would be like to be within the parable as the lost sheep during that time. the danger of reading scripture is to think it is about other people. so we focused on the parable knowing that it was about us. this was not a bible study per se, rather it was a discussion of what would be running through our minds at the various points within the parable. i didn’t try to then connect this to the kids’ lives. they figured out how it connected on their own. it was amazing to hear some of their comments.
• cooking our own meals. i did not bring or hire someone else to cook the meals for us. instead the kids and adults did it. they were not allow to cook just hamburgers and such. instead the meals were decent meals – homemade chicken noodle soup, french dip sandwiches, etc.
• spiritual autobiographies. each person discussed where they had been, where they were presently, and where they were going with CHRIST. they were deeply personal and very moving.
• the free time. everyone loved the fact that we had a ton of free time.

it was a fantastic weekend and i’m so glad that it went well. if you’re interested in doing anything like this i’ll gladly send you all the stuff we did which you can then adapt any manner in which you want.

i’m presently reading “blue like jazz” by donald miller. thus far it IS really good.

reading the book has brought one thing to the forefront of my mind and that thought that has come to the front of my mind is that i have become sick of the word “story“. i love the fact that so many have begun to focus on the importance of conveying truth through stories. i love that we have begun to recognize that JESUS was and is the master story teller and that HE conveyed real truth not through propositions but through the use of metaphor, allegories, and well … stories. i’m not feed up with the concept of stories, rather it is the word itself that i have become feed up with. it seems like presently you see it everywhere within ministry. the word “transparent” was the same awhile back. “story” is simply one of the hot words right now and therefore it just seems like people say it as much as possible.

the good thing is that the truths of telling metaphors, allegories, and “tales” as a way of conveying truth and becoming better story tellers are here to stay. that’s a good thing. i just wish the word “story” would not come out of everyone’s mouth 90% of the time.

that’s my story and i’m sticking to it. 🙂

below is the set-up for the view for wednesday, january 12, 2005. we setup for “worship in the round”. it’s been awhile since we have done this. we basically do this by setting the band in the middle of a circle of 70 to 100 chairs or so. we set up three “isles” for movement and for purposes of viewing the three screens. we use our one stationary projector and hook up two additional lcd projectors on the floor so that you can view a screen from all angles.

tonight i continued talking about the “kingdom of heaven” by focusing on matthew 13:31-33. this is JESUS parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. we talk about letting GOD invade all areas of our lives rather than just compartmentalizing HIM.

here’s the schedule i’m using for the sabbath retreat we doing this weekend.

friday

6:00 p.m. meet at the church and leave for rosemound (we will eat on the way)

9:00 p.m. arrive @ rosemound

9:10 p.m. evening gathering

• worship

• spiritual autobiography

• 1st prayer journal assignment

11:00 p.m. free time

12:00 midnight lights out

saturday

8:00 a.m. breakfast

8:45 a.m. worship

9:00 a.m. solitude

10:00 a.m. morning gathering

• worship

• 1st part of the lost sheep

• 2nd prayer journal assignment

12:00 noon lunch

1:00 p.m. recreation – free time

3:00 p.m. worship

3:15 p.m. solitude

4:00 p.m. afternoon gathering

• worship

• 2nd part of the lost sheep

• 3rd prayer journal assignment

6:00 p.m. supper

7:00 p.m. group movie

9:30 p.m. worship

9:45 p.m. solitude

10:30 p.m. free time

12:00 midnight lights out

sunday

8:00 a.m. breakfast

8:45 a.m. worship

9:00 a.m. solitude

10:00 a.m. morning gathering

• worship

• 3rd part of the lost sheep

• 4th prayer journal assignment

12:00 noon lunch

1:00 p.m. clean up

the previous posts on sabbath were – sabbath post #1 and sabbath post #2.

i’m presently reading “adventures in “missing the point” by brian mclaren and tony campolo (along with several other books that are in various stages of being read). as always i love tony campolo. he is in a class by himself and while i don’t always agree with what he says i am at least always challenged by it.

i’ve also enjoyed brian mclaren’s words within the book. i have to admit that i typically have an aversion to author’s who become the “thing” at any given time. brian mclaren is the “thing” in some circles right now. he is referred to and quoted allot. that’s enough to usually turn me off and keep me from reading an author’s work. if an author is really good i’ll come back and read their work later. i know this is a sad statement concerning my nature. even with this automatic “popularity” aversion to mclaren’s work i’ve enjoyed the few things i read from him. i’ll have to read more.

of course, campolo is still the main course of the meal of this book as far as i am concerned. the whole thing reminds me of his books “twenty hot potatoes CHRISTians are afraid to touch” and “is JESUS a republican or a democrat?“. i love it when campolo tackles hard issues. of course, that happens almost every time he speaks or writes.

first

i delivered the message this week for our 9:30 worship service. the 9:30 service is our “contemporary service” which means that the music is different (led by our college minister a very cool guy) and bill (another very cool guy) preaches the same message delivers to the other two services but does it in a “hipper” way (if that’s even a word). truthfully the service is still very much like the other two services just with fewer coats and ties in the audience. it was fun doing the message but it really made me realize that i love working with our youth and the ones who love them. on wednesday at the view we experiment allot. i wouldn’t go so far as to say we are “emergent” because often i’m not entirely sure that i know what the term means. i would say that our kids, adults, and college students are working on loving GOD, trying desperately to love each other, and enjoy being in the midst of a question, mystery or experiment. every wednesday night is another chance to worship GOD together in such away that we affirm the worship of our LORD we’ve have done together through our lives during the rest of the week. i love that group because they jump on board and are willing to work their way through another gathering that is supposed to be based on being e.p.i.c. but often fails.

please don’t get me wrong – i love our church and i love the 9:30 service. i’m just saying that “big church” is not where i want to be leading. i’ll gladly follow there.

second

i was reading andrew jones’ blog recently and ran across his post on his blog being dumb. he goes on to describe various ways that his blog has improved over the years but then hits on failures that he sees in his blog presently. i of course, am sitting there thinking “you can do that with a blog?” here he is thinking his blog is dumb and i begin wondering what my blog must be then. if his blog is dumb then what level of stupidity would my blog rate? i hate it when smart or talented people think they are dumb or untalented. it always just makes me feel worse about myself.

anyways, in an attempt to improve upon my truly dumb blog i will now attempt to do my first ever trackback “ping” on andrew jones’ site. this is a small step for most people but for me it means i step one level up out of the extreme stupidity that is my blog. here goes.

APPENDUM – i just checked the trackback on andrew jones’ blog and it worked. i suddenly feel as though i have stepped up to a slightly less stupid level. 🙂 now if i could only figure out the other stuff he was talking about or at least figure out how to get rid of the line on top of my blog.

why is it that followers of CHRIST are sometimes willing to do anything, including hurting people made in the image of GOD, when they are convinced that they are doing GOD’s will. our church, a really good church in-spite of what is presently going on, is presently going through a disagreement over some changes in our structure. while i definitely agree with the changes i don’t have a problem with people holding the other view point. i think any time you make a major change there is going to be a debate over it and perhaps there should be on ever major change.

so i don’t have a problem with there being a disagreement. i figure it is just part of the process. yet i have a serious problem with people being willing to do evil in the name of winning their side of the debate. presently we have people on one side spreading rumors about the leadership that is pushing for the change. the rumors are hurting not only the leadership (which would be evil enough on its own) but also their spouses and kids (which just makes it worse). how could someone spread meaningless rumors in the name of CHRIST?

if the cross of JESUS teaches us anything it teaches us that the end never justifies the means. even GOD wouldn’t break the rules and accomplish salvation by doing something against his word. i hate that believers would ever think trying to destroy other followers is a part of GOD’s will.

SIDE NOTE –sonlife radiois an example of this same thing because jimmy swaggart and family’s constantly tear into every ministry that is not their’s. they tear down everyone. from ric warren to billy graham. it doesn’t seem to matter. if you’re not with their ministry then you are preaching a false gospel.

i frequent a site called emergingminister.com that has some good ideas that i get inspired from, modify, or sometimes blatantly steal. they have a series of “bobble head” videos that i think or hilarious. so for your viewing pleasure i have placed a few of them up on the site. here they are:

• bobble head theater #1
• bobble head theater #2
• bobble head theater #3
• bobble head theater #4

i hope you like them because they crack me up. i can’t believe this guy has so many bobble heads.