Someone asked me recently, “What do you do when you can’t hear God?”
Here were my answers:
1- Just keep doing the last thing you know you heard Him say?
He won’t lead you astray, and if you know what He said before, just keep doing that until you hear something different.
2- Keep moving toward Him.
Sometimes when my wife or kids are saying something upstairs and I’m downstairs I can’t hear them. So I have to move closer to them to make it out. I’ll get up and walk upstairs so I can hear what they are trying to say. The same is true with God. While there is no magic formula, keep moving closer to Him. Spend time talking to Him, and listening for Him. Pray, read, serve, worship… Remember, “I will never leave you nor forsake you“…He’s there, you just can’t hear Him.
3- Go to the places He speaks to you most.
This isn’t hard. Some of these will be the similar for everyone, and some will be extremely personal. Read the Bible, pray, worship, go to church, go on a Mission’s trip, practice solitude, journal…it might be that these places cause you to cut out distractions that are limiting your ability to hear, or it may just be comfort.
4- Anticipate.
Unlike us, when God speaks, He has something to say. My Pastor spoke last Christmas about the 400 years of silence “between” the Old and New Testament. When He finally spoke…WOW!
I don’t offer this post as if I always hear God’s voice, never get discouraged, or that you aren’t human if you are experiencing these things. I offer them as encouragement.
I pray that you have an incredible conversation with God today.
August 27, 2008 at 1:30 pm · Filed under Humor, Sports
(only 1 more day til football season…hallelujah)
Received this today in an email:
God asks Mark Richt first: “What do you believe?”
Mark thinks long and hard, looks God in the eye, and says, “I believe in
hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in
giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my team.”
God can’t help but see the essential goodness of Richt, and offers him a
seat to his left.
Then God turns to Tommy Tubberville and says, “What do you believe?”
Tommy says, “I believe passion, discipline, courage and honor are the
fundamentals of life. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I’ve
always tried to be a true sportsman, both on and off the playing fields.”
God is greatly moved by Tommy’s sincere eloquence, and he offers him
a seat to his right.
Finally, God turns to Nick Saban: “And you, Nick, what do you believe?”
Yesterday our church turned 21. We had an awesome day celebrating what God has done through the people and ministries of our church this last year. There were 6 stories/testimonies shared live, through video, and interview.
One of those stories was a young lady in our Student Ministry named Marcie Wallace. Marcie has a great story. God brought her to Mt. Paran North at a time when her divorced family was struggling due to her mom’s battle with Stage 4 breast cancer, an almost fatal automobile accident, and financial woes. She got involved through our Student Music program and started playing drums in the HS band. She met a lot of new people, and began to grow in the Lord. Someone in the church paid her way to camp, and there she made a public declaration of her faith through water baptism. The line that killed me yesterday was, “last year I was sitting by myself way up in the back of the balcony, and today I’m giving my testimony.” Wow! Lord help us be sensitive to the people in our church.
The rest of the day was great. The music was good, and Pastor Mark did an awesome job challenging us with where we are headed. It was a great day. You can view it HERE.
August 22, 2008 at 9:42 am · Filed under Leadership
In the last 10 months, my Pastor has allowed me to be a member of 2 search teams for Executive Level Ministry positions at our church. The first was for Director of Children’s Ministry, which we filled in January, and most recently we interviewed candidates for a Director of Discipleship.
These 2 searches have accrued more than 150 resumes. After searching through them, we have conducted phone interviews, presented names to our Senior Pastor, and he has invited certain individuals to come for several days worth of on-site interviews with our team. After those have been conducted, he compiles all the data, opinions, and his own personal findings, and he extends an invitation to someone to join our team. It’s a wonderful, long, and productive process.
In both processes I have attempted to weight out these options:
- Is it better to have a utility player who can adapt and play multiple positions? or
- Is it better to have a niche player who is good at his/her job, but isn’t suited to move around much?
I see pros and cons in both. Utility players, are not necessarily better teammates, but they do allow you more flexibility as a team in the short term and long term. They usually have a competence in multiple areas, which can make them appealing. With that, though, comes a downside of either limited experience, competence, or skill in any one, certain area.
For the niche player, they usually bring to the table a plethora of experience in one area. They know the skills, training, and nuances needed to succeed. But, they are landlocked to that job for this time. If growth, timing, or personnel require changes to be made, they may not provide the flexibility to adjust job descriptions or tasks.
This is not a question about the 2 jobs we have searched or hired for. This is a more general question of leadership.
Would you as a leader prefer a team of utility players or niche players? Where might it be necessary for both to exist? Why?
Last night was one of my favorite nights ever. We had a great night. As we graded out this morning in our Creative Team Meeting we gave it an A-, but only because we have too many perfectionists in the room. The worship was great. We played a brand new, in-house created game called “My Name Is” that fostered a lot of interaction among old and new students. We gave away some iTunes cards, movie tickets, and the Biggie. The last 2 years for our Fall Kick-off we give away a trip to New York City. A lovely young lady visiting us for the first time named Andrea from Pope High School won, and I was ticked, because I wanted a guy to win. Since it’s a girl, my lucky lovely wife Corrie gets to go for the 2nd time, to accompany her. We will also be giving her $100 spending money and we’ll buy her lunch in Time Square.
The message went well, and I gave an opportunity for students to come forward and pray with leaders to receive Salvation for the first time or to recommit their lives to God and live a life of greater purpose. We had more than 20 students come forward. We had 25 first time visitors which was cool. We showed a couple videos throughout the night with no technical hiccups, 1 funny, 1 serious, and 1 preview of the new series starting next week.
Several of you submitted the correct answer, but it was after Angela. Since I have comment moderation on, you couldn’t see that. Sorry for any confusion. Thanks to all of you who participated in my Wild Goose Chase to win Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase.
For those of you that didn’t win, I really do encourage you to pick up the book. You won’t be disappointed.
I am currently reading Mark Batterson’s new book Wild Goose Chase, which releases today. So far, it’s incredible. Once I’ve finished I will post a full review. I also have a copy to give away. I have outlined how you can win at the bottom of this post.
Here is a summary of the book:
Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect.
“Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….
Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” –from the introduction.
If you aren’t familiar with Mark Batterson, he is one of my favorite author/blogger/pastor guys. He is the author of one of my favorite books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. He is the Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC, which is widely regarded as one of the most innovative churches in America. They have an awesome vision for ministry which you can check out HERE. You can also read his blog HERE.
You can also go HERE for some great resources to accompany the book.
Even if you don’t win, you really need to purchase this book. You can do that HERE.
So here’s what I thought we’d do. I’m going to send you on a “Wild Good Chase”.
If you are the first person to post a comment with the name of the Senior Pastor I worked for before coming to Mt. Paran North, you will win a copy of “Wild Goose Chase”.
***EDIT None of my family members, co-workers, or former members of the staff at the church in question can win. Sorry Kirk! Your comment will be approved only after the real winner is determined.EDIT***
How you arrive at that information is up to you, though you can’t email me to ask. I will tell you he is still the Sr. Pastor of the church I worked at before, and it is located in Alabama. This information is available through a variety of online searches, webpages, etc.
August 15, 2008 at 9:07 pm · Filed under Leadership
As I watched the Women’s Gymnastics Individual Finals last night I heard the commentators say, “she just loves the pressure.” That’s a unique outlook. Most people don’t like pressure, they avoid it. It’s definitely one of the things that sets elite athletes apart. I think the same can be said of leaders.
Sitting in our creative team meeting yesterday, someone said, “I just want you guys to know that I feel the pressure too, and it’s great.” They weren’t talking about something negative. There’s something great happening right now. We’re experiencing an incredible, extended season after summer camp of positive energy, intense worship, Spiritual growth, and “buy-in” for where we’re headed.
How do you maintain that? How do you build each week on what happened the week before? How much of this is human effort and how much is totally dependent on God? (please don’t email me, I realize it’s all God).
There’s a pressure there, and our staff feels it.
But it’s a good kind of pressure, and we’d much rather feel it, than the alternative.
August 14, 2008 at 7:05 am · Filed under Leadership
Shane posted a great list of temptations that bring death to a leader. All of these are great, and unfortunately I’ve been guilty of most of these at one point or another.
Ten things that can tempt and bring death to a leader:
1. Focus on personal advancement instead of team success.
2. Shift blame to others instead of absorbing it yourself.
3. Avoiding a hard conversation because you might not be liked afterwards.
4. Wanting to be heard instead of trying to listen.
5. Delegating to the point of being unaware.
6. Make decisions that please people instead of the right ones.
7. Delaying tough decisions under the disguise of needing more information.
8. Always acting like you know all the answers.
9. Never seek advice or wisdom for fear of appearing incapable of your role.
10. Believe you’ve learned all there is to know about what you do.
We had our new freshmen in the room for the first time, and that just added to the energy of the room. The band opened up with a cover of The Killers “All These Things That I’ve Done”. Then Allon presented a Top 10 list of Ways to make a new freshman feel welcome. It was really funny. The band then led a great worship set including “What the World Will Never Take”, “Break Free”, “He Loves Us” from Kim Walker (great song), and the chorus from “The Stand”.
Corrie took the kids through a slideshow of photoshopped/fake pictures of her trip to New York City with one of our students last fall. We are giving away another trip to New York next week for Friend Night. I took the opportunity with the new freshmen in the room to recast the vision for our group…who we are, what we’re about, etc. At the end of my talk, I was talking about what God could do through us…together. I showed THIS VIDEO. I closed by talking about the importance of next week. At the end of our Friend Night service I’m going to give a salvation invitation. We talked about our community. There are 4000 homes with at least one 11-17 year old in the zip code around the church. And a majority of our kids are from 5, 10, or 20 minutes away. The possibilities are endless. We are trying to expand our perspective.
We closed with “God of this City”. It was a neat moment, watching our students respond.
Is there a formula? Is it completely relational? Is there a curriculum?
If you have been in ministry very long you’ve asked yourself some variation of these questions…so did we. When I arrived at MPN I started looking at our discipleship process in High School. It wasn’t so much a process, as a bunch of different things under 1 umbrella. We had 1 home based group left over from a push several years before to do home based groups. We had a really well attended Sunday School class. We had a 9 month class that ended with a missions trip every year. You get the picture. All of these things are great programs, and we are still currently utilizing all of them, but we began looking at other potential ways to disciple students.
We wanted to accomplish these things:
1- Be intentional.
We want to know what we are accomplishing, what students are learning, and how they are progressing to some degree. We want there to be easy entry points, and easy transitions.
2- We want to be relational.
Students are in relationships, defined by relationships, and looking for relationships. Mark 3 talks about Jesus calling the discipleships to “be with” Him. We want our discipleship process to be centered around the relationship of students with students and leaders with students.
3- We want to be consistent.
We didn’t want to create new programs that would change in a few weeks, months, or years when some new program came along. We have taken our time to build something that will last, and that we can utilize to incorporate other methods, teaching, etc as it comes along.
Where we landed was on home-based small groups. This is nothing new or profound, but for our church it’s different. Our church is based around classes on campus Sunday and Wednesday. Beginning in a few weeks we will launch 4 proto-type groups. Each group will be different. One is for Seniors only and will use material created and/or compiled by the leaders. One is for girls only and will utilize a video based curriculum from BlueFish.tv. The other 2 groups will be open formation groups. One of those will follow the Wednesday night series from our High School worship service, and the other will be leader created/compiled materials.
As we move through the fall, we will be communicating with our leaders to see which of these variables work best in our context. As we progress it is hope and belief that we will identify some parameters to structure our groups for the Spring. We will constantly observe and evaluate the groups this fall to see where we are hitting our mark and where we are missing it.
We will compile all the information, make the necessary changes, and begin promoting in December and January for a Winter/Spring launch for everyone. This launch will happen on February 1, Super Bowl Sunday, with each group hosting a Super Bowl Party.
We obviously don’t have all the answers. We have done our best to gather resources, network with successful people, and bend all this to our context, but in the end we’ll have to wait and see.
Our team meets again tonight, and every time we meet I have one overriding emotion…I’m excited!
Our band did an incredible job at our Summer Camp leading our students and leaders in worship. You can read more about that HERE. They had a great mixture of songs we do on a weekly basis back home, some that we’ve done before, and some new music. When we returned home some of our students and leaders were looking for a way to keep that soundtrack going. So we created an iMix on iTunes of the camp playlist. While our students will still have to purchase the music through iTunes, this gives them a great place to start.
We are now talking about doing this on a regular basis as the Wednesday night song list expands and changes. Monthly may be too often, but we like the idea of making the songs we are doing available to our students outside our worship gatherings. Short of pirating music or doing something illegal this is one of the best ways we’ve come up with.
August 11, 2008 at 2:05 pm · Filed under Culture, Church
A few months ago I heard Ed Stetzer speak at a conference our denomination was hosting. The best take away from the day was the idea of defining what you will contend (fight) for and never compromise, and those things that could be contextualized (changed and adapted). He said that once you had defined those things for which you would contend for, the moment you began to contextualize them you were sunk.
Today I ran across an article from him on a similar subject at Threads.
Here is an excerpt:
Church isn’t supposed to be like TiVo. That is, it’s not a place where you can choose to keep only what lines up with your viewing pleasure and delete the rest—while you cozy up to watch surrounded by friends who laugh at the same things you laugh at and get caught up in the same dramas that you get caught up in. Church isn’t supposed to be like that, but most of us have been catered to in so many other areas of life that we’ve become little more than church consumers. So if someone threatens our preferences, we’ll just shop around until we find another.
The apostle said that he would give up all personal preferences because of the mission to share the gospel. Let’s not forget that Paul was a Jew by birth; Judaism was his heart culture. It was the culture of his mother and father, the one he had grown up in and felt most comfortable around. Yet for the sake of the gospel, he was willing to become all things to all people. In fact, he even went so far as to say,
“For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my countrymen by physical descent” (Romans 9:3-4).
Paul’s passion was so great that he was willing to sacrifice his very salvation so the Hebrews might be saved. What about us?
Most of us aren’t willing to sing different songs.
Most of us aren’t willing to trade seats.
Most of us aren’t willing to adapt our methodologies.
Most of us love preferences more than the gospel.
Do we love our preferences more than the people who are dying to connect with a God who loves them?
August 11, 2008 at 1:59 pm · Filed under Technology
I have entered the tweeting world. I twitter. I’m a tweet. I don’t even know what all that implies. I do know that certain people wore me out, and I kept getting email invites from others…so here we are. I think I’ll stick with it, but we’ll see. I only commit to trying it out.
August 8, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Leadership
You can find Part 1 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 2 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 3 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 4 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
5. Follow up.
- A lot of times I can get us all feeling good about each other and about working for Jesus before we leave the room. But once they get home and talk to mom and dad, their wife, their neighbor, the devil (j/k sort of), and some new guy they met in line at Wal-mart, they start to believe what others are saying and feel like they got done wrong in the meeting. A follow up 24-48 hours later is a great way to make sure we’re all still on the same page.
These 5 things aren’t an exhaustive list, but should help as you deal with confrontation.
August 7, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Leadership
You can find Part 1 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 2 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 3 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
4. Set a course of action.
- If resolution can be achieved in one meeting, thank the Lord, and let’s move on. But it may require more steps. It might mean involving other people who have been affected. Whatever the outcome, set a course of action that includes everyone involved and give a timeline for completion. (ie. Let Sally talk to her husband, and Jim let his leaders know what’s going on, and we’ll get back together next Monday to make sure we’re all on the same page.) It’s important that everyone understands and agrees on the plan and the timetable for completion.
August 6, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Leadership
You can find Part 1 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
You can find Part 2 of this series on Dealing with Confrontation…HERE.
3. Be direct.
- My natural tendency is to be passive aggressive in my approach to conflict. I want us to be able to work together after it’s over, and I have convinced myself that in order for that to happen, this conversation has to remain nice and pleasant. Usually the opposite is true. The longer I skirt around the issues and try not to hurt feelings, the greater the likelihood for confusion when we leave and an empowerment to continue doing whatever action was the problem in the first place. I have to be direct. That doesn’t require me to be mean or get personal, but it absolutely requires me to be direct in my approach. The more direct I am in this moment the less likely there will be any confusion after we’re done.
August 5, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Leadership
Click HERE to view Part 1 of this 5 part series on Dealing with Confrontation.
2. Allow each side to present.
- Not everyone will agree with this one, but I think it’s important. If you don’t give everyone in the room an opportunity to present their side of the argument it’s going to be easy for them to leave and feel like their side didn’t get represented. If we are to move beyond this confrontation, we need to get all the cards on the table first. Another byproduct here is that you have each person’s own words to utilize in the rest of the conversation. Once we identify what the real issues are, it’s harder for us to get sidetracked. (ie. “Steve, while it may be upsetting that she doesn’t like your chicken casserole, you said earlier that the real issue here was that both of your small groups wanted to use room 310 at 6 pm.”)
August 4, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Leadership
Whenever there is more than 1 person involved in something you shouldn’t be surprised by differences of opinion. Each person has their own opinion, and it’s not the same as yours. There is often a need to address these issues, but most of us avoid confrontation like the plague, and ending up paying for it in the long term. Confrontation can be healthy when it’s done in a way that values each person involved and pushes us closer to achieving our intended goals. This week we will look at 5 steps to assist you when dealing with confrontation.
1. Run to the roar.
- The longer you let issues fester without resolution the bigger the fall out will be. What started out as a difference of opinion of how to handle a dress code issue at camp can turn in to a turf war that requires people to choose a side. There have been so many times that I get into handling something and I ask myself, “how in the world did we get here?” Usually the answer includes something to the effect of “because it wasn’t handled sooner.”
This is a new series of posts where I will highlight some of the incredible paid and volunteer staff that I get the pleasure of working with each week. This dedicated team of people make Student Ministry go at Mt. Paran North, and I thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge them here.
When I came to Mt. Paran North in January ‘07, I was blessed to have Kim Victor serving as the Administrative Assistant to my position. She continues to serve in that role with great efficiency and energy. Her role has been continually shifted and adjusted as we’ve made changes in personnel and job descriptions, but she has shown up everyday and done her job with excellence. She likes to get the job done, and get it done right the first time. Most mornings when I arrive she has the radio going, her water fountain running (it makes me have to go to the bathroom, I don’t know how she sits there all day), and is well on her way to completing her “To Do” list.
She is the mother of 2 great sons, a huge Ohio State Buckeye fan, and a tremendous asset to our team. Most days I wouldn’t know if I was coming or going without Kim’s help.
Thanks Kim for all you do for students at Mt. Paran North.
I remember the summer between my 7th and 8th grade year in Middle School. I don’t know why that one stands out, though we did move from Alabama to Tennessee at the end of the summer. I specifically remember thinking just before school started back…”man, summer’s sure do go by fast.” And here we are…
Tomorrow some of my students begin the ‘08-’09 school year. This summer has been a good one, even if it did go by so fast. We had 2 awesome weeks of Summer Camp. I spoke at another camp. Some of our students went on Missions Trips. I got to go to Scotland. We had various outings, special Wednesday nights, and a whole lot of fun. And now it’s back to school.
We have a big fall planned, but I sure do hate that there’s just a few hours of summer left.
August 1, 2008 at 2:34 pm · Filed under Technology, Blog
I saw this on Chad’s blog recently, but just added it.
If you have Facebook would you consider joining my Blog Network on Facebook? You can follow a lot of different blogs, including mine. It provides another place for us to connect, and dialogue. Just click the link below.
I was reminded of this fact again this past weekend while in Scotland. That by itself is amazing. I was able to leave Atlanta, fly to New York, fly to Scotland, interact with a group of missionaries, lead worship, take some tours, play golf at it’s birthplace, fly back to New York and back to Atlanta in less than half the time it took some of our forefathers to sail the same trip.
Monday night as I sat in a restaurant eating fish and chips I was talking to my waiter about golf. When he asked where we were from I said Atlanta. He asked what that was near. A girl behind the bar yelled Alabama (the fact that he knows where Alabama is and not Atlanta is bothersome to me). Turns out she’s an American in Edinburgh getting a PhD in Genetic Biology which she said, “is a no-no in the States. Plus I get paid in pounds over here and can pay back my student loans over there at 2 to 1 on the weak dollar.” (Ouch!)
Sitting in church in Lanark, Scotland on Sunday morning I met an incredible couple that work for YWAM. The husband, Michael, is from Charlotte, NC…so I more than half of my family.
After boarding my flight to return home, I was making small talk with the flight attendant. She said she was “from Atlanta.“ “So are we.“ “Cool, I’m from Marietta.“ “Cool, so are we.“ “Yeah, I graduated from Walton High School.“ “Cool, I’ve got some kids in my student ministry that go there.” “What church are you from?” “Mt. Paran North.” “No way, I had a bunch of friends go there while we in HS.”
While driving through multiple small towns we encountered some familiar sights. McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Blockbuster Video, Chinese Take-out, Subway, PC World, and a bunch more.
I’ve been traveling internationally now for more than 17 years, but I was reminded again just how small the world is.
What is my responsibility to that world? What is yours?
The following article is written by Kirk Walters, our Missions Pastor at Mt. Paran North. Before coming to MPN he was a Sr. Pastor near Jackson, MS, a youth pastor in Mobile, AL, and was successful in business. He and his wife Laura have 2 great kids, Bradley and Lauren.
I just returned home from Scotland after visiting our missionaries with Jeremy and another guy from our church. Yes, we did play St. Andrews and it was spectacular (I make no apologies!). On the flight from Edinburgh to New York, the flight attendants were still serving snacks in a frenzied manner as we began our initial descent into NY. I asked one of them why they were in such a rush. It turns out the pilots had played a joke and told the flight attendants we would be an hour late, when we actually were almost an hour early. The flight attendants were literally running down the aisles picking up trash and securing items in order to prepare for landing (they even threw the bags of trash onto the bathroom floor!). They sat down within 30 seconds of landing. It was extremely funny to Jeremy and me because we knew what had happened, but I wonder how it was viewed by the other 200 passengers unaware of the joke. The other passengers probably thought the flight crew was extremely inefficient and unprofessional.
It got me to thinking about leadership. It’s important for leaders to relate to their employees and volunteers. This should include many moments of laughter with one another that build relationships. However, leadership involves timing. Just as leaders need to make right decisions at the right time; good leaders know when it’s time to relate and when it’s time to lead. These pilots didn’t understand the law of timing. There are moments that require leaders to lead in a transcendent way:
• When it involves mission – jokes would have been fine over lunch, but the crew should be committed to its mission (making the flight safe, enjoyable, and efficient).
• When it affects another person’s performance – the passengers unaware of the joke simply thought the flight attendants did a poor job of planning.
• When it reflects poorly on the organization – the displeased passengers will remember one thing – the airline seemed disorganized!
The real problem is that people’s potential view of the flight attendants is not accurate. These flight attendants were great! They handled some unruly passengers with professionalism and even handled a minor medical emergency (I’ll let Jeremy tell you about that) with great compassion.
It makes me wonder about my own leadership – do I lead and relate well? Am I intentional about timing my relationship and leadership moments to maximize my employees/volunteers potential for the good of the organization?
After making it back to New York’s JFK airport yesterday around 2pm we took a cab to Laguardia where we were to fly home to Atlanta at 5:55pm. Then a storm hit Atlanta and our flight was delayed. Then delayed again, and again. Then it was cancelled. So they stuck us on 2 different return flights and we eventually landed at midnight. After getting my luggage, I shared a car with Kirk, our Missions Pastor. They dropped him off and then me, and I walked in my house at 1:45am.
I layed down, and Cooper starting throwing up. So I went to the store to get some medicine. We all fell back to sleep at around 3:30. That would be 8:30am Scotland time, or more than 24 hours after I woke up the day before.
It was an awesome trip, and I’ll post a bunch of pics soon, but for now, here is my tee shot on # 1.
7|22 has played a huge part in the modern ministry landscape. If you haven’t already seen it, watch this video. The faith and courage required to make some of the statements he makes are incredible. They have a pretty big announcement about the future…
Excellent post from Tim Stevens on parenting that relates to Student Ministry. I encourage all parents and anyone involved in Student Ministry to go check it out…HERE.
Here’s an excerpt
Here is the key learning: Environments matter. Who my daughter is influenced by as a 15-year old is dependent greatly on the environments that my wife and I placed her in as a 10- and 12- and 14-year old.
It’s a little early to tell whether we will survive life with teenagers, but here is the advice I would give parents of pre-teens…
-Get involved in a great church with strong youth leaders.
-As they start middle school, don’t give them the option to stay home from the youth program.
-Find a school that has strong values and where there is good chance they will be able to find solid friends. That might mean paying for private school or moving to a better school district.
-Get them in situations where they are hanging with young adults who are following God. That’s why we had college-age students live in our home for two years.
-Teach them the joy of serving when they are very young.
-Let them participate in events where there is a good chance they might take a step spiritually, like summer camp, missions trips, or weekend retreats.
Oh, and one last word of advice for those with teenagers—stop lecturing and start listening. Stop giving direction and start asking questions.
- I spent time this week with our 20’s and 30’s pastor nailing down our Fall and Winter series for The Gathering (once a month young adult worship service). It’s gonna be great.
- Our team is looking into streaming our HS service each week, making it available for viewing through the website during the week, and incorporating that into our web strategy to reach students (it’s really stretching my thinking)
- That could lead to a long term strategy of some kind of video based multi-site Student Ministry…which isn’t really being done, best we can tell. But that’s way down the road from where we are right now…just dreaming.
- I’m pumped about testing out home based small groups for discipleship this fall. I will unpack this more in a future post.
- After watching more than 70 students make public professions of faith through water baptism the last 2 summer camps, I’m looking for a way to create meaningful baptism opportunities locally throughout the year. If you have ideas, leave a comment.
- My trip to Scotland has given me an opportunity to really make some headway on my book project.
- Corrie and I haven’t been on a date in way too long. Our schedule has been ridiculous, but that’s still my fault…priorities, priorities, priorities!
- I cannot force myself to Twitter.
- I was doing so good working out and losing weight until camp and stuff…I’m ready to get back in a routine.
- Our church just announced some pretty major personnel changes at the Executive Ministry level. The great thing is, everyone’s staying here, they are just moving to different departments to fit need and giftings.
- Kicking an idea around for the Spring of ‘09 that I would love to do, but don’t know if I’ll have the time, energy, or resources to do it…so it’s probably worth doing. Stay tuned.
“We aren’t just raising sons, but we are raising men, fathers and husbands. It’s very important to us that they can live their dreams, but the first priority is that they are good people.”
- Kevin Jonas, Sr. (the Jonas Brother’s dad)
On my flight from New York to Scotland on Friday I was assigned seat 30 B. Those of you that have been on a Delta 757 realize immediately what that means…I was in the middle of 2 other gentlemen for an 8 hour trans-Atlantic flight. I was pumped. The guy in 30 A was a really cool college student from Rollins College in Florida. He was coming to Scotland to study art for the last 2 weeks of Summer School.
The gentleman in 30 C was probably 70 years old and cussed like a sailor from the time he sat down. I’m a naturally engaging person so we struck up conversation. He was coming to Scotland with his 2 sons and their 3 sons to play golf for a week (I graciously allowed him to talk about it). We talked politics, business, oil prices, etc. Finally he asked me what I did for a living.
I said, “I work at a church.”
“Doing what?” he asked.
“I oversee our Student Ministries.”
“Oh”…”what’s that?”
“Pretty much, I serve as the Pastor for our MS, HS, and College Students.”
“Oh, great.” At which point he went mute. For the next several minutes there was an awkward silence. I tried talking to the college student, but he was listening to his iPod. So I got out a book.
After about 10 minutes he says, “what do you know about Rick Warren?” It turns out, his brother gave him a copy of The Purpose Driven Life several months ago but he hadn’t read it yet. While sitting in the airport he saw Warren on CNN and decided to listen to him, and he liked him.
We talked about Saddleback, Purpose Driven Life, the P.E.A.C.E. deal that Warren’s doing, Saddleback Sam, and a whole lot more. After about 45 minutes he said, “Ah hell. I might as well read it. It won’t kill me. Thanks for helping me figure out if this guy and all those Christians (I guess I’m not one of them) are a bunch of boobs.”
I’ll never get to meet Rick Warren, but thanks to his book, and his influence I got to engage a guy in conversation that otherwise might not have happened.
I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting on my flight to leave. In a little under an hour I leave for New York City. Tonight at 10 pm I will fly to Edinburgh, Scotland with THIS GUY and another guy from our church.
Our travels will allow us to spend a good bit of time with some of our missionaries to Scotland, and minister in a local church there. And then…
Monday morning at 11 am local time we will play golf HERE.
For those of you too lazy to click the link above, I’ll give you a little clue.
At the camp in Mississippi, Cooper and Branson stayed with us. They had been with my parents during our camp. Cooper was pumped that he could play the drums and hang out with some of the students from our church. He was also a stinkin’ ladies man. On the last night he got 9 balloon-a-grams from girls at the camp. (if you don’t know what a balloon-a-gram is…it’s a balloon with a hand written note in it, that the camp sells for like $40 a piece…MONEY MAKER!!!).
Here is a picture of him playing the drums with an audience of sorts…
Early in the spring I received an invitation to come and speak at a Summer Camp in Jackson, MS from July 18-21. Looking at my calendar then, I realized that it started the same day our HS Summer Camp ended, but thought it might be do-able. So Friday, as our kids loaded 2 charter buses headed for Atlanta, I left with a Cargo van and 3 cars full of band members and their equipment. We arrived in Jackson about 3 hours before the first service. Unloading, setting up, and sound-checking in time left me a nervous wreck which usually isn’t good before I’m supposed to speak. But it came together, and this past weekend was a great experience for me and some of the students from our church.
In some ways I was blessed way more than I was able to bless anyone with my speaking. In other ways the Lord gave me great strength and ability when my strength was all dried up…I am still exhausted!!!
I’ve enjoyed sleeping in my own bed the last 2 nights!!!
Thursday afternoon at camp I was studying for that night’s service and there was a knock at my door. Several of my leaders were standing there with a blank look on their face and asked if Corrie was around. I told them she was soaking up a few more rays of sun before coming to get ready for service. They asked me to go get her. After I got back they blindfolded us both and led us all over the place before finally having us take off our blindfolds. We were standing on the balcony of one of our rooms overlooking the beach/ocean. A wonderful dinner for 2 from Carraba’s was sitting on a table with candles as wonderful music played in the background. It was extremely romantic, and so thoughtful. They thanked us for a wonderful week of camp, and all the hard work we had put into the week.
The food was outstanding after a week of camp food. Corrie and I had an awesome time relaxing and talking together. The atmosphere was amazing. But the overriding thought above it all was an appreciation for being appreciated.
Ministry can be such a thankless job, and while I’m not in it for a lot of pats on the back, it was one of the kindest gestures I’ve ever received.
Thanks to an amazing team that I’m so blessed to serve with on a weekly basis!
Wednesday and Thursday capped off an incredible week of camp for us this year. The days themselves were so much fun, and filled with incredible relationship building opportunities. The services each night were a little more subdued and reverent. I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. The worship was almost sweet, as students were reflective, personally responsive, and engaged. The teaching each night was more practical and challenging.
I’m going to give it a few days and then I will reflect over camp in general, but I wanted to put up the final daily recap.
Tuesday was another great day, all day long. Some of the highlights were separate guys and girls Bible Studies where David and my lovely wife Corrie brought the funk (David more so than Corrie, she was all feel good, warm fuzzies, and butterflies).
In the afternoon we had multiple volleyball games going on at the same time, and as you would expect from an ultra competitive person like myself…we won!
Service was again incredible. After an awesome time of worship, I talked about the incredible gift we have been given of prayer. I talked out of 1 Kings 18 where Elijah calls down fire from heaven and rain. James 5:16-17 tells us that he was human like us and that prayers of a righteous man are effective and powerful. I invited the leaders to the front and we had a “good ole fashion prayer line”. Our leaders laid their hands on our students and prayed with them for salvation (theirs or others), healing (theirs or others), deliverance, depression, anxiety…it was awesome. It is my nature to shy away from environments where emotionalism can overtake us, but our students were genuinely seeking the Lord on behalf of friends and family members, and it was awesome.
I was touched by the sincerity of their prayers.
Here are some highlights of the day. Tomorrow’s video will include more of the services as well.
One of our media guys, Matt Weirson, and our bass player, Chris Duncan, are idiots (in a great way). They shot this video for our Late Night Great Event Tuesday night. It’s pretty funny.
Monday was a great day. The morning Bible Study time included some great interaction. David Bethea and Jim Turner are heading up our recreation and team competitions, and they kicked that off with a bang. The highlight was the vaseline covered watermelon in the pool. Your team has to retrieve it and get it to the other teams side of the pool. As you can imagine it’s a little difficult to hold on too.
The service Monday night an amazing and fitting follow up to Sunday. There were several moments of stilled awe and reverence that were incredible. The fact that teenagers could be still and quiet was impressive in and of itself.
I spoke on Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I talked about their unwillingness to compromise in 2 specific situations and God’s faithfulness to them. Because they were true to their beliefs God continued to elevate and give them more and more responsibility and as a result they were able to make an incredible impact. The challenge to our students was…”yes you want to do great things for God, but can He trust you?” It was not a night of conviction or condemnation. It was a chance to stand up and say I will to do something great for God, because He can trust me. We asked God to put us in positions to prove our trustworthiness, and in return he would position us to bring Him even greater fame.
We are off to a roaring success. The buses arrived Sunday at around 4:30, which was the exact moment a storm, that appeared to be a Class 5 Hurricane, showed up. We unloaded luggage in a torrential downpour. After getting everyone to their respective rooms we had dinner. After dinner everyone got cleaned up and we had our 1st service of the week. It was a great night, and the Lord touched a lot of our students and leaders.
I’m speaking at our camp again this year, and we are looking at stories where God shows up, is revealed, or speaks to us through fire. It goes along with the idea of God igniting something in us to carry out in the world. It is my hope that we can look at these passages and learn something about God’s nature so that when the fire is gone we are still left with the truth of who He is. Last night I spoke out of Genesis 13 and 19, with the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. I talked about Lot’s journey of living near Sodom, to living in Sodom, to working in Sodom, to being reluctant to give Sodom up. I correlated these with our interaction with sin and lifestyle choices. We get near it, we get in it, we defend it, and we struggle to let it go…but then God shows up. The truth that we learned about God is that He is holy-He is pure. In Sodom and Gomorrah he rained down a holy fire and it consumed Lot’s place of struggle and left nothing for him to return too. We prayed for a Holy Fire of God to consume the things in our lives that need to be gone. There was a great time of prayer and celebration at the close.
Late night was great. We had a bunch of food games and a hilarious Top 5 Worst Things About the Start of Camp. The best was #3
When the other groups show up to the facility and you realize that their guys and girls are hotter than the ones in ours!
Here are 2 videos for your amusement. The first is The Adventures of Matt and Trevor, who left our church Saturday at 5am and worked until 1am Sunday morning setting up. I can’t get the video to embed right so you can view it HERE.
The second is a recap of Sunday night’s service and some late night stuff.
As I write this I’m staring out into a beautiful cloudless blue sky with the ocean waves hitting every few seconds. I’m in Panama City, FL awaiting the start of our HS Summer Camp. Within the next 30 minutes our group will fill up 2 charter buses in Atlanta and head this way. It was an eventful day getting here yesterday (which I will post about later), but I cannot wait on these students and leaders to arrive. We have been planning for this camp almost from the time last year’s ended, and I’m believing for a great week.
Our theme this week is “ignite“, and it’s centered around the idea that God can do something inside of you that could impact the world around you.
The economy has forced a lot of our older students to have to work this summer with rising gas prices and college looming, so we are bringing a lot more Freshman and Sophomores than we have in the past, and I’m pumped about that part of it…though I will miss a good number of our Seniors and Juniors who can’t join us.
The forecast for the week doesn’t look as pretty as it is right this second, but hopefully we’ll be spared from much rain.
I will be blogging an update each day, so you can che
