We're neck deep in getting prepared to take a pile of our students to Creation Festival. Sure, we can talk about the Christian subculture bubble until we're blue in the face, but I'll gladly cave on my feelings in exchange for the relational time that comes out of a week like this.
We've got an interesting group too. Middle school, high school, regulars, newbies...the mix is all over the map for this one.
But consider this:
4 grads that came on last year's trip have worked with our student ministry over the last year
3 of those former-grads-that are-now-leaders are coming on this trip
We have a student to leader ratio of 2:1
A regular driving tradition of playing the first 30 seconds of "Bullet the Blue Sky" by U2 (which we affectionately referred to as "track 4") began last year and has continued on every trip so far (one van listened to that 30 second clip for over an hour straight)
We had 10 tickets donated to our group for this trip
I was removed from food prep detail after a fiasco last year involving spam, chili and mac & cheese
I had 4 dozen hot dog confiscated at the border on the last trip
One of our leaders fell asleep with his feet on our remaining hot dog buns (and there were toe marks evident in some of the buns come dinner time)
A while ago I posted about some video clips and notes that had been showing up on Mark Driscoll's blog that deals specifically with the area of burnout in ministry. Here are a few more of the additions:
Here's 2 books that I was able to finish up over the vacation time.
Obsessed by Ted Dekker was my latest foray into the world of fiction. All in all, I don't think fiction is my thing. Or maybe I just keep choosing the wrong books. After reading Lamb a few months ago I thought I'd try this book that my wife had lying around. And I'm left with the feeling that it was the author's attempt to be rated R in a PG setting. Does that make sense?
I felt that the book for the most part was just missing that next bit that would have made it a really good book. And other parts were completely cheesy with random "super spiritual" moments that focused on being obsessed. It was just too much of a stretch. So I'm looking for suggestions as to what could be my final attempt at fiction. Any ideas?
This next book by Dan Kimball was very typical of the whole "emerging" line of thought. Today's generation likes Jesus but they don't necessarily care for what Christians have turned the church into. Unless you live in the stone ages, this book probably won't hold any new revelations for you. But still it's an ok read. I found some of it fairly repetitive but it's reinforcing stuff I've already been witnessing or experiencing.
The big question is what are our churches going to do with this information? And that part has me more intrigued, curious, excited, hopeful and confused than anything else.
Above all else in the book I was hit smack in the face with the reminder that I need to start spending more time with people outside of the church. I've got a few ideas, but I'm not entirely sure what this will end up looking like.
Your thoughts... So, what do you do to stay connected to people who don't know Jesus?
Oh what fun. I got tagged by Adam and Patti on this one. Here it goes...
Rules to play:
1. players start with 8 random facts about themselves. 2. those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. 3. players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
And now for the randomness...
1. My first car was a 1982 Honda Civic. It was a stick and cost me $250. 2. I don't profess to any "man crushes" but I will admit to have taking a liking to Miss Jennifer Love Hewitt at one time in my life. 3. I once went to a Crash Test Dummies concert. 4. I love Disneyland. In fact, for our honeymoon we had the chance to go almost anywhere in the world and we chose Anaheim so we could visit Mickey & Co. 5. I got my first guitar as a gift for graduating from high school. 6. I bought a new Bible last week. 7. I just started watching UFC and am immensely enjoying it. 8. I almost pass out...for most anything that requires being stuck with a needle.
I know you're excited about this. Another post from vacation without pictures. You'll have to trust me that I really am on vacation and not just hiding in our basement.
Bryce and I are currently killing time before we head out for another stellar movie. We have a habit of picking out some of the strangest and worst movies ever created. I contemplated creating a a blog post of all the terrible movies we've seen, but then I knew that many of you would lose what little respect you still have for me.
And to those of you who are allowing us to eat your food, sit in front of your fan and sleep in your back yard, we are thankful.
Yeah, I had high hopes of getting a wireless signal somewhere and doing some diligent blogging over this vacation. So far I've had to settle for using the internet at my folks place. I've done some reading, listened to some podcasts, hunted wild butterflies with my new airsoft gun, and even got a little sleep.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but that's what is so great about vacation. But tomorrow that may change as we get ready to head into the big school reunion weekend. Maybe if you all behave I'll post some pictures eventually of what's going on.
I know my wife has a picture of the welt I got after she shot me in the back with the airsoft gun. You may want to stay tuned...
I'm officially on vacation. I have a pile of books to read. Am I allowed to read them if they mention Jesus or the Church? Or is that classified as work?
I was tagged by Adam and I wouldn't want to be the one who doesn't respond to a tag. I hear it's bad. So, without cheating, here are the next 10 songs that ended up in iTunes shuffle:
"Funky Tonight" by John Butler Trio
"Fred Jones Pt 2" by Ben Folds
"Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan
"Landed" by Ben Folds
"Dear Slim Pt 2" by KJ-52
"The Maker" by Dave Matthews Band
"Atmosphere" by TobyMac
"Sunny Days" by Jars of Clay
"Wandering" by Ben Folds
"Stuck On Rewind" by Thrift Store Romance
I'm a little amazed by the Ben Folds favoritism. I didn't even know I had that Dylan song. And no playlist is complete without Dave Matthews.
And now I shall tag Erin, Bryce, Nick, Mike and Tammy & Blaine. Pick the next 10 songs on random/shuffle and then post them. But don't cheat!
I sit in my office on a Wednesday morning and brew. I'm trying not too as I'm only 2 work days away from a vacation. I need a break. It's been a while since I've had more than 2 days off in a row. I think the last time was February when I took 4 days off for a wedding and spent 2 of those days driving.
I don't do this to pat myself on the back or somehow show how good of a worker I am. I'm an idiot. It's a wonder I'm still sane.
My eye started twitching yesterday. That can't be normal.
The Christian subculture of which I am very much a part of, and currently trying to figure out how to escape, makes my head hurt sometimes.
My latest debacle had me picking up a magazine from my church mailbox. Someone in the congregation was nice enough to give me a free subscription to a Bible College's monthly publication, so I tend to flip through a couple pages before filing it in the little box next to my desk that magically disappears every evening. (Incidentally, I'm told it is also called a trash bin.)
Anyways, all I read today were the "Letters to the Editor" and words are currently escaping me. Or at least the words that are blog worthy are currently escaping me.
Rebecca St. James appeared on a recent cover and here are pieces of comments that were printed (you can read them all on page 3 here):
One woman (Alicia) makes a comment about Rebecca's attire, "...I used a permanent black marker to draw her jacket for her. (For my sake, yes, and my husband and 2 teen boys.) I would suggest discreet cropping in the future"
Another woman (Alice) says "...Rebecca St. James' comments about modesty and inner beauty are weakened by her tight clothing in the accompanying article"
I am dumbfounded. My initial response is to ask the first woman if she also draws in clothing on the models when the Victoria's Secret catalog comes. And I hope you don't have cable or the internet. And I hope you don't let your boys look at girls in public.
Do you remember you high school days? Were they a pleasant time in your formative adolescent years? Or did you just shudder at the sheer mention of high school as it brought back the countless hours of therapy that you have had to endure because of that dreaded time in life? Maybe the therapy is still continuing...
Anyways, I'm a few weeks away from a school reunion. It's a 20 year anniversary for the little K-12 school that I went to and my family has agreed to make the journey back to my old stomping grounds. Now, keep in mind that this was a "Christian school" and I've been asked to lead worship during the Sunday morning service as well as participate in some sort of interview during the morning.
I share all that to say this: Christian schools crack me up. I've recently discovered an online community (of sorts) dedicated to the School Drinking Team. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not a school sanctioned activity, but nonetheless it exists.
Am I dismayed or shocked? Not really. Maybe I should be. But instead I find it a little bit funny while also saying a great deal about real life. But I'll let you jump to your own conclusions.
I was going to post some random stuff that's been happening or will be happening this week, but then I got bored with that.
Instead I will say that I had the chance to "preach" during the service yesterday. I use that term loosely because in reality I was only asked to prepare 5 minutes. I was bringing the voice of a generation that is currently missing from our congregation.
Like many churches across North America (and even the world to some extent), there are large numbers of people between the ages of 18-35 that just aren't attending what we might call the "traditional evangelical church". And like many churches, ours has gone through the ups and downs of music "discussions" over the last year.
This talk on Sunday was all about perspective, and the question was "what are we focusing on?". It was designed to bring a year of discussion about "worship through music" to a close. And my SP had asked me over lunch a couple of weeks ago to add my insight to the morning.
So I did. And wow...was I nervous. I've never been as stressed about a 5 minute time frame as I was this past weekend as I prepared and waited for the moment to arrive. It also turns out that my comments were the closing of the message portion.
But, rather than take the last word for myself, I quoted one of my students who just a week ago said this, "Aren't we all here for God, not music? We're one church, shouldn't we act like it?"
But that was not the real closing. Our church was then able to witness first hand what public repentance looked like as one man took to the stage to apologize.
I cannot help but wonder what things would look like if we did more repenting on Sunday morning than singing.
We took our students paintballing last night and when all was said and done we invited some of our leaders over for pizza. As we stuffed our faces and pounded back the Cherry Coke and Mountain Dew we watched YouTube videos.
I am still completely amazed by the fact that we spent the better part of 2 hours laughing, giggling and questioning our sanity courtesy of YouTube.
Well, the list shrunk a bit, but then it started growing again as a box showed up at the office again this week. Here's what I've been able to finish in the last week:
I'd heard from a few people that this book (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal) by Christopher Moore was completely irreverent yet hysterical. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I found myself laughing out loud at some portions but then shaking my head in others. Don't read if you get offended easily. And if you try not to take it too seriously you may just enjoy a laugh or two.
I have a friend who has a self-admitted "man crush" on Andy Stanley. What that has to do with my reading list, I have no idea. But it's a good intro. Either way, this (The Next Generation Leader) was just a plain good book. I always find that you get the straight goods with Stanley's stuff. Great wisdom about being a leader and what you need to be thinking about if you want to be a leader in today's day and age that really makes a difference. Quick and easy read.
A fire ripped through the The Simple Way community (home of Shane Claiborne and company) yesterday. You can see some pictures and video here. It made my heart sink. There's some ways for people to help out, so check the bottom of the page.
I'm one of the world's biggest procrastinators. Seriously, I'm beginning to recognize that I may need professional help. Here's one main goal/task/problem/adventure/nuisance/dream/dilemma/obstacle that is beckoning for my attention:
Student Ministry Model
We haven't changed much about the student ministry since I came on staff, but one of my goals for the year was to evaluate our current ministry model and try to determine if there was a more effective way of running some aspects of our ministry. So, I've asked the questions, hosted the meetings, collected the surveys and put all the results on paper.
We looked at four potential models (midweek split, small group focused, weekend service, midweek combined) and then had the parents add a fifth which was really a combo of 2 or 3 of the first four.
As you can well imagine, everyone has an opinion and none of them are the same.
But now I'm stuck. I've reached that inevitable leadership conundrum where a decisions just needs to be made. The problem is that as a world-class procrastinator (and I don't take that position lightly) I'm ignoring the file that is calling at me from the mess on my desk.
I can't take an easy way out as a leader this time and just go with the majority. I can't hope for a consensus on behalf of everyone else. I can't ignore it and hope it goes away. I will not settle for status quo. I guess that's what makes me a leader.
But that means I may have to get off my butt in the very near future. I'm sure it will be good for me and for all involved.
In the meantime...look, there's a book I've got to read.
Allow me, in advance to apologize for my proliferation of Driscoll-esque material over that last little while. And while I was hoping to fly under the radar with some unimportant posts like the current state of the bat suit, I feel like I can't pass this one by.
If you know someone who has been eaten alive, swallowed whole or just beaten to a pulp by ministry, you may want to look at some of these resources. There's a good chance that most people in ministry have felt this way at one time or another so you'll likely get something practical out of it. If you don't get something practical, at least you'll be more informed when it eventually happens to you.
I was sent a link to the original blog post sometime last year. You can find it on Mark's blog here.
And just last week Mark started posting some video clips of a talk he gave by the same title at a recent conference. The nice part is that it's split up into small portions and a new clip is posted every couple of days.
Since I have nothing more profound I'll opt for solidifying my case for "Dork of the Year". My humble opinion is that the best Batman ever is of course the newest one with Christian Bale. This morning I came across an image of the newest batsuit which is going to appear in The Dark Knight. So here's a quick recap on the evolution of the batsuit.
Adam West: Michael Keaton: Michael Keaton: Val Kilmer: Val Kilmer: George Clooney: Christian Bale: And here's the most recent one for Christian Bale:
We're neck deep in getting prepared to take a pile of our students to Creation Festival. Sure, we can talk about the Christian subculture bubble until we're blue in the face, but I'll gladly cave on my feelings in exchange for the relational time that comes out of a week like this. 
