Good stuff!

I finally made the subscription to Jeanne Mayo's Youth Leader's Coach. One of if not the best youth ministry resource available. There are three major parts I like. The last National Youth Leader's Conference is all on audio. Each month they put out a new "The Source" and "Youth Leader's Coach." The Source is an actual youth service that is taped, and includes powerpoints, sermon, any drama stuff, and a few other things! The Youth Leader's Coach is a coaching or mentoring session set to topics. These both are invaluable resources, but right now I am loving the Coaching ones. They used to be called "Up close."

Today I'm listening to "Building Great Assistant Youth Leaders", and "Effective Closing Prayer Times and Invitation". Good stuff! Check it out. www.youthleaderscoach.com

More about the Atom Smasher

So after about a year of down time to fix a leak, the world's largest Atom smasher is back up. They are still in the testing phases and have already broke a record for the highest amount of energy shot around the arc. 1.18 trillion electron Volts. But estimates say that by 2011 they will be shooting around 7 trillion eV. LOL! They are in essence shooting laser beams at each other and seeing what happens! I hope we figure out something useful from this thing or it will be the world's largest laser light show! LOL!

More stupid science stuff! Gotta love it!

In other news, some lightning has been seen to produce gamma-rays. Those are the harmful radiation that flies off of a solar flare. Also this is a tell-tale sign of an antimatter particle called a positron, the antimatter particle to the electron. Kinda neat. Lightning has the ability to turn itself "inside out" physically speaking. LOL! I love it!

Sound Systems and Building Projects

Its tough being a Pastor. Not only is there the weekly and daily preparation for services in which we present a Word from the Lord; and that takes time to prepare. But we also must be thinking about the coming future and finding out what the vision is for the coming months/years/generations. This is not an easy task.

We are in the beginning phases of updating our Stadium (the old sanctuary that now is the kids/youth/multipurpose room). We want to make the room more multipurpose without turning it into a gym. It serves mainly as a place to hold services and seldomly as an eating place. ;The struggle is figuring out what to do to make it better. What is the vision of the Stadium and what can we do now?

On top of that we also have a project of updating and upgrading our sound system in our current sanctuary. I met with a guy last night that was commenting about our echo problem and our "cluster effect" dead spots of no sound in certain spots. Really all the stuff we already knew but its good to be backed up by someone that is in the business. The problem again is figuring out which pieces to bite off and do, and in what order.

On top of that, it is Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Bah Humbug

LOL

The stirring of the soul...

Sometimes God moves in our hearts and souls. He stirs something inside us that can only be described as a moving of the Holy Spirit. It seems that God is starting to stir something inside me here at the church. A movement or pushing of the Holy Spirit. Not 100% what it is all about, but if it plays out like my gut or dreams would like it too, we might be in for a real fun ride!

I don't mean anything about a personal move, or staff change, I mean a new vision for the future here at the church. It seems like God is setting things up, putting people in place, and making things happen without us really contributing to them. It really is almost like a story is being set up for huge climax! The rising action, the opening plot is starting to unfold a series of events that sets us up for something great!

It seems like God is putting things in motion. Not a board, or staff thing. A genuine moving of the Lord. It is really neat actually. People's hearts and comments seem to be a general consensus of a shift in the Lord's will. Almost as if he is the conductor and we are playing in a symphony, moving from stanza to stanza. Page by page. Moods changing. Attitudes shifting. And direction changing. Its like God is moving like the pillar of fire in the desert, and we are just trying to keep up the pace behind him!

If this really starts something more than today's neat adventure in church dreaming, then we are in for something revolutionary for our community! Just wait and see!

Time and Eternity

If this world is but a mere shadow of the Heaven (a deep theological understanding that would take forever to explain), then time is just a shadow of eternity. Like an eddy in a pool or stream. Just a spin in the current. Just a small turbulence in the ride. If that is true, it would stand to understand things that we know here and now to be only limited and partial of what it really is an image of.

We are the image of God. The temple on earth was only an image of that in Heaven. Our worship is only a portion of what worship is like in Heaven. Our love is only a portion of what God's love is.

It seems that our "stuff" here that we would call "timeless" are still bound by our understanding of our world.

And furthermore, we view eternity as something that will happen one day, but in fact it is not a state that we will achieve one day as something new, but a restoration of what was before. This "time" is only a spin off or eddy of eternity. This, right now, is the eddy of eternity. In Adam we were part of the eternal kingdom (Eden). Then at the entrance of sin and evil, the eddy began to turn like a paddle in the water make small eddies in the lake, we began a small spin off in which all things will return to their previous flow quickly.

Eternity is the real thing, the actual, the concrete. This time, is the shadow, the vapor, the eddy. And this time is but a vapor to the grand scale of what really is, eternity.

(working on Revelation study and these thoughts came up)

Survivor

Coming up next week and following for a while is our summer series: SURVIVOR!

Come out and join a team for the chance to win prizes and hear the scoop on "How to survive the end times."  This is seriously going to be a blast!

And a special congrats to our seniors!  You made it and you have just begun!

Good Medicine for the Youth Pastor

Here is an article written by a friend of mine, Jeanne Mayo.  She writes articles for youthministry.com and has 35+ years of experience in youth ministry.  Here's something good to read for today.

Building Something that Will Last

By Jeanne Mayo
7/8/2008

A couple of hours ago, I just finished speaking at a national youth leaders’ conference. At the conclusion of my last session, someone privately asked me an interesting question. “How do you build something in youth ministry that will really last, Jeanne,” the guy said quietly

A couple of hours ago, I just finished speaking at a national youth leaders’ conference. At the conclusion of my last session, someone privately asked me an interesting question. “How do you build something in youth ministry that will really last, Jeanne,” the guy said quietly. The intensity behind his voice and the seriousness in his eyes told me that he probably had a personal story behind the question.

The intensity behind his voice and the seriousness in his eyes told me that he probably had a personal story behind the question. Let me highlight for you a few of the things that I shared with him.

1. Focus on building a destiny—not a dynasty. A destiny deals with people, but a dynasty deals with programs Destiny tends to focus on significance, but a dynasty focuses on success. A person of destiny prioritizes servanthood; but someone focused on a dynasty prioritizes servitude. 
   All along the youth ministry journey, there will be the temptation to focus on the more visible, the more spectacular, and the more sensational. But from my vantage point of 37 exciting years in full-time youth ministry, I can assure you that those things won’t build a ministry that will last. It will be the non-glamorous moments of personal discipling, laborious planning, and behind-the-scenes praying that will come together to create a ministry that will really last. Don’t get too impressed with the spectacular. Jesus isn’t.


2. Choose or lose. In other words, be a person who doesn’t just stumble into his priorities, but a person who very purposefully chooses his priorities. Thoreau once said, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is ‘What are you busy doing?’”
   
   The busier you are as a youth leader, the more strategic you have to become about living a “choose or lose” lifestyle. We’re all familiar with the Pareto Principle that tells us “20% of our time efforts will usually produce 80% of our results.” So if you want to create a lasting ministry impact in students’ lives, you will continually be asking, “Where can I put my energies that produce the most results?”
   
   Often in my life, that question determines how much time I invest into various students. I focus on giving myself away to my leaders and potential leaders. If not, my “EGR’s” (“Extra Grace Required”) eat up the majority of my time.


3. Preach louder with your life than you do your pulpit. I’m pretty skeptical about how much real truth is transferred apart from a living, up close model. So if you want to build a youth ministry that will last, prioritize living your own messages with more fervor than you ever publicly communicate them. Students will catch your attitudes, your priorities, and your responses. And over time, that haunting Scripture from Proverbs will become a reality: “When a student is fully trained, he will be like his teacher.” 
   
   I’m been privileged to be the youth pastor for 13 and 15 years respectively at different locations. On my farewell nights, no one mentioned my sermons or brilliant program ideas. But countless students talked about quietly watching me, noticing my attitudes, and internally being shaped by the Christ I tried to model.


4. Begin preparing for your exit on the day you enter. Sound strange? But I really think this truth is vital. If you want to create a youth ministry that has lasting impact, you have to focus on creating leadership all around you. In short, you have to “work yourself out of a job.” That’s always one of my first goals when I begin to work with a new youth ministry. So in this manner, I begin preparing for my farewell party during my very first month. 
   
   You see, common sense tells me I won’t be leading a certain youth group forever. It may be 15 or 20 years down the line; but at some point, I will probably pass the baton to someone else. If I internally wanted to build a self-centered dynasty, I will secretly be glad if the youth ministry starts to unravel when I walk away. But if my heart has been focused on creating a youth ministry that will last, I will want a core of strong, competent leaders to take the ministry to the next level. Though the old saying is trite, it still remains true: “There is no success without a successor.”


5. Build yourself to last. Lasting youth ministries rise and fall on lasting youth leaders. Sometimes, with all the demands of teenagers and parents, we forget the importance of taking care of ourselves. Worse yet, we can sometimes feel self-centered or lazy when we “disappear” for a day or choose occasionally not to answer our cell phone. We all know that in a family unit, one of the nicest things mom and dad can do for the children is to take care of themselves. In like manner, in a youth ministry family, one of your most unselfish leadership acts will be to take care of yourself. Pace yourself so you can do youth ministry for the long haul. That means taking days off without guilt, focusing on some teenagers that are replenishing to you, and even turning off your cell phone. That also means doing some “self leadership” activities like reading, youth ministry coaching, or interacting—anything to help your youth ministry skills grow to the next level. By building yourself to last, you are building a youth ministry that will do the same.

---

So thanks for letting me give you some of the highlights from my conversation this weekend. Remember? A youth pastor had asked me, “How do you build something that will last?” My hunch proved right. There was “history” behind his question. 

“Any special reason you ask?” I said casually as we started to finish up the conversation.

Pausing, sadness flashed across his eyes again. “I guess so. Growing up, I had 11 different youth leaders. Now my old church doesn’t even have a youth ministry. Everybody’s scattered and most of us aren’t even living for the Lord now. I just don’t want to repeat the pattern. I’m a volunteer in a different city now. But I just want to help create something that is around for a long, long time.”

----- Good Medicine for the Youth Pastor -----

New Office

So I repainted and rearranged my office.  Before it was purple, and a mess, and very kiddy.  Is that even a word?  Now it is tan, I've added Danielle's keyboard, a 5 guitar stand, two tall chairs, an area rug, and removed a bunch of clutter.  I plan on adding some sound panels to the wall, and a practice amp, and eventually when I get it approved I want to change the lights.  Fluorescents are not very warm.  They aren't inviting, they are pretty harsh.  I hope to add some spots.  I found some I liked at Ikea but I'm still not sure on them yet.  They're 5 35-watt bulbs.  Not sure if that is enough light... But they would be so much better than what they are now.  I hope to add some of that stuff in a few months, but for now we're broke.  Ha, thats life I guess!

Bean

I'm  at boston bean coffee this morning.  I love their coffee.  I'm waiting for Josh and Brian to show.  We have a tradition of coffee before our NEWAY meeting.  But Brian got called away for a delivery and Josh has a tendency to no-show when Brian doesn't show.  He still has 20 mins till the meeting so... we'll see.

30 Hr famine is coming up.  Last year we weren't able to participate, but this year we are.  It should be a blast.  Last year they raised an enormous amount of money for it.  Like $50,000 or something like that.  Not really sure though.  But it was huge.  This year I'm helping with music and games.  Yip... games are not my thing.  But oh well.  I'll pull 'em off good!

Gotta drink my coffee.