Life In Ministry and Ministry In Life.....

Weekend in Review and Some Ramblings about Social Media...

2012-02-07T14:25:00.002-05:00

It was a great weekend! Awaken services were packed, especially second service where there was little room for movement(not much of an exaggeration at all....need more space). We continued our "Girls and Boys" series by talking about who a guy is. I think there were some eyes opened and some teens realized that they thought they knew a lot more about the opposite sex than they actually did.

Then Sunday night we rocked a Super Bowl party. The turnout for this event doesn't quite reach the normal Life Group attendance numbers, but we had a blast! I spent a good portion of the evening making 25 lbs. of wings(a ridiculous portion of which were actually eaten during the game). I love our Awaken Services and I love life groups, but sometimes it's nice to just chill and watch a football game together!

Now for some deep ramblings about social media. Social media has become a huge tool for teen ministry. I can tweet or facebook post activities, events, and reminders. I can repost or direct teens to videos we've used for different services or events. I can directly contact a teen in a way that might actually be faster and/or more effective than calling or even texting. It's an effective tool when used the right way.

But here's the problem: Once a student(or anyone for that matter) identifies themself with Jesus Christ and makes any public(social media or not) statement that they are a Christian, every bit of their social media existence becomes 100% subject to evaluation against that Christian backdrop. And some might say this is not fair, but I say it's part of being a Christian. Part of being a Christian is holding yourself to a higher standard and knowing that others will too, not to mention the even higher standard that God holds us to. When we take the name "Christian" we represent not only ourselves, but Jesus Christ in everything we do and say. This very much includes social media. Back-to-back tweets that reference partying in one and church in the other reflect poorly on the Christian and on Christ. Tweeting(or Re-tweeting for that matter) a questionable quote for the sake of laughter reflects poorly on the Christian and on Christ. Condemning others for their actions through social media shows others that Christians(and in turn, Christ) are judgmental, not loving.

This makes it necessary to ask this question: Is this the picture of Christianity and the picture of Jesus Christ we want the world to see? Absolutely not. And honestly, it comes down to something very simple: Take the extra 15 seconds to reread what you're tweeting or posting on facebook. I promise that every once in awhile you'll find yourself rewording or removing a lot of what you were about to post.
Remember who you are and remember who's you are. Remember who you represent. Remember we may only get one chance to show someone Jesus Christ. And remember that one wrong tweet really can mess that up. And most of all, remember, God works through us not because we are perfect, but in spite of our weakness.

It's Friday....and I'm pretty sure I am annoyed by every song about Friday..which is sad because it's a good day...

2012-01-27T14:09:00.001-05:00

Nothing like a long title to get a post started.

that ridiculous rebecca black song. that's what i was thinking of....but then i googled songs about friday and realized most of the songs about friday i found I don't actually know...so maybe they aren't so bad. but that rebecca black song....not cool.

Well it is Friday, frustrating Friday to be exact. I'm pretty solid when it comes to video editing but today's project is just getting to me. It may have to simply be a failure. It's just not coming together. But those things happen.

Stacy, Kate, and Jackson brought me a picnic lunch today and Kate rode her tricycle in the church parking lot. Never thought I'd be posting that in January, but I'll take it. My parents are coming in for the weekend(weather permitting) but we haven't told Kate yet. First, we don't want to get her hopes up in case the weather turns bad there or here. And secondly, it'll be a fun surprise for her. It will also mean we should have some time to paint the living room this weekend. Painting is hard work, but the house is really starting to feel more like home.

This Sunday is Youth Sunday. Get pumped. This is always a great Sunday at New Life and our teens do such a fantastic job. We also tend to have a lot of visitors on Youth Sunday, so that's always a plus too!

Currently Listening to: Jesus Culture
Currently Reading: The New Breed by Jonathan McKee and Thomas McKee
Currently Working on: Finalizing details for Sunday morning.

Have a great day everyone!

Weekend In Review....a day late...

2012-01-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

It was a great weekend at New Life. Stacy taught in the Awaken services and did a fantastic job. We knew we couldn't go through this series on relationships and sex without hearing a female perspective. Worship rocked the house both services, we had a rare 10 out of 10 winner for our opening game, and if the three second service attendees who came to first service this weekend would've come to second service, we would've been out of chairs. What a great problem to have!

As for Life Groups, it was a great turnout despite the impending supposedly bad weather. Enjoyed our group time and then enjoyed watching some football and snacking on soft pretzels. It's crazy to have that many teens in our house every week, but it is so much fun and such a blessing to us.

Today I'm releasing the first teen ministry newsletter, The Update. And I know it seems like an old skool thing to do, but I think it's going to be a good communication tool because I'm going to make it available in several different ways. There will be hard copies available at the church, but it will also be available through our website, teen facebook page, church facebook page, and I'll probably even link to it from this blog. Improved communication is never a bad thing.

This Sunday is Youth Sunday and I couldn't be more proud to say that we are rockin' two bands for the two services. The first service Awaken Band is ready and will be leading the worship first service while the second service Awaken Band leads in second service. I hope our adults are ready to rock for Jesus. I've also had a sneak preview of Tyler's message for us and am very excited to hear what he was to share.

Currently Reading: The New Breed by Jonathan McKee and Thomas McKee
Currently Listening To: needtobreathe - The Reckoning
Currently Working On: Finalizing "The Update"

Have a great week everyone!

Friday...As Quiet As It Gets Around Here....

2012-01-20T13:29:00.000-05:00

Well it's Friday. And around here that usually means that I'm the only one in the office for the whole day. Our secretary is here in the morning, but for the most part, it's just quiet. Well today was slightly different. The guys(and when I say "the guys" i usually mean Larry and Josh) came in to get haircuts and there were several people cleaning so things were actually quite busy around here this morning. But now it's quiet again. And I'm not teaching this Sunday or next Sunday(my wife is teaching Sunday because the sex and relationships series needed a female perspective and the week after is Youth Sunday) so here I sit being able to do what i need to do beyond this week which doesn't always happen on Fridays. I have some thoughts, but before I do:

Currently Listening To: I listened to Rich Mullins this morning. Can't beat that.
Currently Watching: The Simply Youth Ministry Show live online
Currently Reading: Almost done with Generation iY by Tim Elmore(hopefully finishing today)
Currently Working On: Transitioning from my ministry being birth-12th grade to being 6th-12th grade and the potential for college ministry.

Which brings me to this: I am excited to share that we have hired a part-time Children's Director. She is the perfect choice for the job and has jumped in with both feet. Since I arrived here at New Life it has been difficult for me to try to advance both the children's ministry and teen ministry. As Larry recently put it, it's like trying to serve to masters or trying to be married to two women. I can be real on this blog: The success of the teen ministry(extreme growth) would not have happened if I had tried to split my time, effort, and energy between the two ministry areas equally. I jumped into the teen ministry full-on and basically attempted to make small changes and maintain the Children's Ministry. There simply weren't enough hours in the day. And the biggest issue: Sunday mornings. We have our two teen services running at the same time as our adult services. That means I am never physically in the building for any children's classes because I am teaching the teens. So rather than cutting me in half, we hired someone and it's fantastic to be a part of a church that take's steps of faith instead of retreating. A weight has been lifted from me and I feel like it's given me renewed focus. For these reasons I am so thankful for God's leading in this situation.

But what's the future of the teen ministry? What's the next step? Well the truth is, it's time to start looking at facility options. Because the teen ministry has grown to the point where we need a larger facility with some specific features that would meet our needs and help us grow(i.e. larger worship space, gymnasium, etc.) It's part of my job to dream these sort of dreams and pray for God's guidance as we move forward. This is something I do everyday and look forward to the future both tomorrow, and years from now. God is working through the teens and through everyone at New Life, I believe that's undeniable.

Weekend in Review and Other Stuff...

2012-01-17T10:34:00.000-05:00

Back to normal should have happened last week after being on vacation for a week, but it didn't really happen. Maybe this week?

Here's the weekend in review:
Sunday morning we kicked off our new series "Girls and Boys." It's a series on relationships adapted from Doug Fields' "Power of Sex" series. The first message was all about why this matters and some basics on what the world says vs. what God's plan is. I think it went well and despite what I expected, the awkwardness level was pretty low. Worship went well in both services. I couldn't be more excited that we have a band in each service and both are constantly moving toward excellence. Probably the most memorable element Sunday was Matt's lip sync video of "Never Gonna Give You Up." We've always had positive response to these videos, so I try to bring them back once a year or so.

Sunday night at Teen Life Groups we made what I think is our first attempt at having all four groups not only discuss the same topic as each other, but discuss the topic being taught on Sunday morning. We're using a format where I give each leader 5 questions that directly relate to that morning's message. It definitely worked for my high school boy's group and we'll see how it goes for the rest of the series.

This Sunday my wife will be teaching in the Awaken services. I just didn't think I could be very convincing teaching a message called "What a Girl Wants."

Currently Listening to: a random 90's Christian music playlist on Spotify....love me some Spotify..
Currently Reading: got a Morf magazine this morning, will probably check that out today sometime.
Currently Working on: videos for this weekend's Awaken services.

Check out Matt's Lip-Sync from Sunday.

Hey look...I posted twice in one week....

2011-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

So here it is: My friday post.
Currently listening to: Jimmy Eat World....Futures....fantastic album I had kind of forgotten about.
Currently Reading: Generation iY, Wilt(biography of Wilt Chamberlain), God and Football(a book about Church and football in SEC country.)

It's been a strange week. Almost every moment that I've been in the office, I've been the only one here. I've accomplished much. The Sex and Dating series beginning Jan. 15th is basically put together, I'm ready for a one-off New Years Resolution message on Sunday, I switched all the Christmas lights back over to regular lights and added some lighting touches to the modular, i read a huge chunk of Generation iY, carried all the stuff we used from the modular Christmas eve and morning back to the modular, made some minor improvements to the modular sound system, and chugged water like it was my job.

We started this diet thing and it's fun to see it actually working because i'm actually trying. And for once it's not about cutting something completely out of my diet(except maybe donuts....i just don't see the justification for eating a donut right now) it's simply portion control. I don't eat nearly as much as I used to and ya know what? I'm not starving. Not at all. And i'm down 15lbs......sweet.

We're leaving for the in-laws on Sunday after church. I don't like the drive, but i always manage to get some relaxation and extra reading in while we're there. It's nice to see everyone there, but nice to get away from here for a few days too. I'm one of those people that struggle because I have trouble leaving the office. I won't ignore my phone if someone from church calls, I insist on checking my work email from home, and given the opportunity, I do some of my best ministry brainstorming at home and won't ignore it when it comes to mind. But when I leave the state, it gets slightly easier. And that's what i need to do this coming week. Refresh, relax, read, and just chill.

And it just occured to me that i wanted to try to get my ipod battery replaced before we left and if I don't leave right now it may not happen. And if they happen to be closed, it won't happen anyway.

Let's Try This Blogging Thing Again...

2011-12-28T14:39:00.000-05:00

So i really think it would be healthy for me to blog, even if nobody ever reads it. But I think part of my problem in the past has been that I had no purpose or set agenda for blogging, which is fine for some people but probably not for my unorganized self. Let me give you an example: I've tried to diet/exercise many times in the last several years and it just doesn't work for me. I don't stick to it. But we started tracking our food and exercise on myfitnesspal.com and suddenly I've lost 15 pounds, have exercised every day, and am watching what I eat closely. And like I said, 15 pounds in a couple weeks and keeping it off during Christmas is nothing to take for granted. I think it's worked because I have to plug it in everyday. I have set things I need to accomplish daily to track it. So i think i'll apply that to blogging.

Here's what I'll try:
I'm off Monday's, so Tuesday morning I will debrief the weekend services on here not only so someone else might see what we did, but so that I will metaphorically walk through our services step-by-step and see where we could've done better. I'll also post what I'm currently listening to, reading, and any videos or stories I've found during the week that inspire me, make me laugh, or make it into my message for Awaken. Then maybe on Friday I will review a book if I finish one or a movie if I watch one or even a TV show. Sounds like fun and a healthy output for my thoughts.

So here goes:
Listening to: A Random Playlist, but right this moment it's needtobreathe!
Reading: Generation iY by Tim Elmore

This past weekend was Christmas weekend. We rocked the Christmas Eve services with Andrew Peterson's "Behold The Lamb of God." I'm proud to say we had a banjo on stage for the first time(at least since I've been here). We've heard nothing but great response to that service and our Sunday morning combined service. More than 220 people in our sanctuary at once Sunday was definitely a stretch, but it was awesome. The kids opened the service with Go Tell It On The Mountain and we did very updated versions of some classic Christmas songs. Larry brought us a unique but very challenging message called "Christmas Number Two" where he reminded us that Christ will be returning and we must be ready. Closing the service with a song from the Christmas Eve service added a fun element to send people out to enjoy the rest of their Christmas Day celebrations.

My parents left today so our house is back to "normal" but we leave for Stacy's parents Sunday after church. Lots to do before then to prepare.

This Sunday is a one-off message for Awaken called "New Years Resolution."

This isn't quite what my new format will look like, but either way, I'm back and going to stick to it!

Settled...Sort of...

2011-05-17T11:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday a wise man asked me if I was feeling some burnout. For those of you who don't know, that's a word that evokes a lot of emotion and plenty of responses from most ministers because at some point most of us go through a season of burnout. But I think I can honestly say I'm just a little tired. We moved(and by moved I mean we are moving because the house sure isn't totally put together yet, but progress is being made.) We're also expecting our baby boy Jackson in August(or earlier if Stacy has her way.) This time of the school year is always rough because I'm working hard on summer details while also going through the last several weeks of school year programming. We've been talking about Spiritual Disciplines at Awaken Teen Services and that deep topic has exponentially increased my study time for each message. On top of that, Kate's nights of full sleep per week have declined steadily, whether because of the new house or new teeth or not feeling good. Whatever it is, I hope she gets over it soon. It's rough on me and rougher on Stacy because she insists on getting up because I have to work the next day.

But we love our new home (and love not essentially flushing rent money down the toilet each month) and I'm excited for Jackson's arrival. A busy summer including a weeklong CIY Trip(which Kate will spend at Grandma and Bumpa's...we'll see how that goes) and a week of Sr. High Camp(provided Jackson doesn't arrive before or during camp) and he will be here. I'm still shootin for a Cleveland Browns themed room, but I dunno if it's gonna happen. Which is unfortunate cause if Kate had been a boy, the room was already decorated that way. But I also thought Kate wouldn't mind a Browns room so what do i know? We love our Kate-Kate but I think God knew we needed one of each.

We feel so blessed to be here in Virginia. Life is busy, but life is good.

Another Funeral.......

2010-09-27T22:18:00.000-04:00

In the past year and a half I have lost 3 grandparents. The third was this afternoon when my Grandpa H. passed away. He was ready to go. He had been without Grandma for a long time. He was weak and tired and ready to be in heaven. And this afternoon he went. Of course we are sad. I'll miss him. I have the honor of preaching his funeral this Friday and at the moment, I have no idea what I am going to say. I'll talk to my aunts and uncles and cousins this week to see what they would want me to say. I'm sure i'll hear story after story after story. But what can I really say about a man who has always been a part of my life and now is gone. This is not the first funeral I've preached. It's the second. And it's the second of my grandparents funerals that I am preaching. And I have no idea where to start. But i guess i'll go write out some thoughts and try to find a starting place from there. Miss you Grandpa.

Chinese food....coming attractions....old feelings....

2010-09-21T13:24:00.000-04:00

So we have several students who attend a local Christian school and can apparently get out for lunch just because they want to, so I met a couple guys for Chinese today. I do love chinese. One of them is preaching at chapel tomorrow at school and wanted any help I could give him. He has a great idea that he's gonna roll with tomorrow and I'm excited to see how it goes!

We also talked a little about CIY Move which inspired me to come back to the office and check to see if the 2011 dates were posted yet. The answer is YES! I immediately figured out which dates were potential choices for us and posted them on the teen bulletin board. What I want everyone to understand is why I am so excited about this. Move is something i did throughout high school and it was awesome. But this summer, when we took 9 teens and 2 adults to move in Scranton, PA, it was life changing for everyone involved. These teens came back on fire and have not lost that fire. Move has been one of the main catalysts to propel the teen ministry in the direction it is going. We have modified our space, spent many hours working on small improvements and have seen attendance jump. We've seen many new faces and have seen many of those same faces return for a second week, if not more. That's where we see God really working through our teens. We could probably get almost anyone to come once, but when they are so welcomed and enjoy themselves so much and feel so encouraged to return that church quickly because a part of their life. I'm excited to see what God will continue to do through the teens we have contact with, whether we've known them for their whole lives or for less than a week.

This should explain why I'm already excited about MOVE 2011. My hope is that it can be a yearly refresher for our core teens. My hope is that the leaders within the youth group will keep the fire they found this year and build on it at Move next year. They truly brought back the passion and the energy and the ideas that Move gave them this year, and I can't wait to see what CIY has in store for us in 2011.

As far as why i listed "old feelings" in the subject line; it's because I don't feel well. Back in the spring I went through a couple weeks where every time i ate anything, no matter how much i hate, i felt sick. It often resulted in an action I will not go into detail with on here, but I think you get my drift. It becomes a little scary to know you'll probably not keep down much of what you eat. I got to the point of dehydration and had to go the ER for an IV and some meds. They decided I needed an ultrasound of my gall bladder and found that it was sludgy, but not in need of removal. They instead suggested that I alter my diet and avoid foods with too much fat or cholesterol(something we should all do more of anyway). I haven't exactly stayed true to that, but now that issue seems to be flaring up again. Hopefully it's somehow related to the head cold I have developed and it goes away with the headcold, but we'll see. It's not like it keeps me from coming to work (except on it's worst days), but it does make life very difficult and frustrating, not just for me but for Stacy as well. I'm pretty pathetic when i'm sick. So prayers for both of us would be appreciated.

Back....New Ministry.....New Start.....Life Is Good

2010-09-14T16:11:00.000-04:00

So i haven't blogged on this blog in a long time. In fact the last post I made discussed how great things were going in Ironton. I have removed all of those posts for a new start. If you don't know me well, I'll explain the reason. Earlier this year we were presented with an opportunity we could not pass up. We knew that it was time to move on and find a place to settle and serve for a very long time. We interviewed at a church in Virginia even though the thought of moving to Virginia had never crossed our minds. We were blown away. And several months later, we have now lived in Winchester, VA for 4 months. I am the Youth Minister at New Life Christian Church here in Winchester and I love the way our lives are going. We are renting a house from a very good property manager. When we arrived to move in, the house had been painted the colors we wanted, cleaned thoroughly and really taken care of by members of the congregation. In addition people brought food and welcome gifts the whole first week so that we could get settled more easily. We feel at home. We feel so welcome. We feel like we are already a part of this wonderful family that is New Life.

The Youth Ministry is growing, especially for the teens. In the small modular building we use for Awaken Teen Service due to spacial issues we had 37 people between two services. We are seriously pushing the limits of that building and will soon have to do something to find more space. What an amazing problem to have!

To make a long story short, God has truly blessed us and we cannot imagine being anywhere else. We have a great home, a great church, great friends, and a great job. The moral of the story? God provides.