Archives for May 2009

Christian Chapman comes to Denton Wesleyan(and some other stuff)

My friend and fellow SWU alumnus, Christian Chapman, spoke at our church last night. Wow. It was amazing. He is a great story teller and his passion came through in every detail. He is currently speaking with Kingdom Building Ministries, recently finished his first book, is racing a Legends car, and will be competing in the Baja 1000 in November. I will be recommending him for our camp very quickly.

1. Posting on Jon and Kate recently got me the most views for a single day. Thanks for reading! The season premiere got huge ratings(duh). Lots of people have told me they won’t be watching anymore. Unfortunately, we will be getting weekly updates every time we got through a checkout line.

2. Anybody seen the new Terminator movie? I wonder what James Cameron thought of it. I’m falling behind on my summer movie watching.

3. After months of trying to get the church sound system to sound better, a few of us hooked up the subwoofer and youth room speakers to the main system. Hopefully, it will provide a fuller sound. Currently, we have mounted Bose speakers as the main ones and they’re just not getting the job done. The sound coming from the monitors is much clearer than the main speakers. Hopefully, the switch will remedy this.

4. Am I the only one shocked by the Orlando-Cleveland series? Lebron James has had zero help in this series and he appears to be wearing down physically. His teammates have played well all season. They better play great in game 5 or changes could be made. Kobe is just toying with Denver. He knows he needs a title without Shaq to cement his legacy and Phil Jackson is desperate to pass Red Aurebach with 10 titles.

5. My golf game is depressing. Do you know anyone else who hits their 4, 5, 6, and 7 irons the same distance? I can keep my drives in the fairway with my driving iron(not very far down the fairway), but it’s all downhill from there. My putting is pretty decent. It’s shots 2-6(7,8,9) that kill me. There was a guy we played with the other night in church league(yes, we are in a church golf league) who had a really nice bag and sweet clubs. He had the whole attire thing going on too. He tees off on the first hole and nails about a 285 yard drive. I’m thinking,”This guy is not a C or D player.” Then he goes for his second shot, and his third shot, and his fourth shot, and his fifth shot, and his sixth shot, and his seventh shot. We tied on the hole.

6. Tony Morgan had this great post the other day on the new traditional church.

7. Gotta either find my birth certificate or my old passport in order to get a new one for the SLD Road Trip.

8. Question for all you youth pastors out there: do you still have your regular weekly meeting during the summer? With camps and holidays, there are only a few Wednesdays left open to even meet for us. We will using those nights to do some cosmetic work in our youth room. What about you? How do you adjust to the summer schedule?

Yes, it’s raining….again. We whine when it doesn’t and we whine when it does. Via Con Dios!

Educational Reality Television

Being the parents of multiples, Karen and I have watched Jon and Kate plus 8 over the years. It was heartbreaking for us Monday night to watch how fractured their relationship had become. It was almost uncomfortable. One TV critic said that one almost felt like you were watching something you weren’t supposed to. I don’t know what has happened to their marriage. I don’t know if anything the tabloids said were true. I know that marriages aren’t built or torn down overnight. What we saw Monday was not the result of “one mistake”, but the culmination of a couple that had drifted apart over the course of many months(many which weren’t televised). I wonder what percentage of reality tv marriages have ended in divorce. I know that many relationships started on tv have failed(see Bret Micheals now on season 3 of Rock of Love: Whatever). Hulk Hogan and his wife are going through a nasty divorce. Nick and Jessica split up after a few seasons of their show. I’ve been wondering if the tabloids just through out junk headlines that fulfill themselves or if they really do have credible sources for some of this stuff. The National Enquirer broke the story on John Edwards’ affair, but they also said I would become rich if I stared at the big red dot long enough. Do happy couples see the headlines of their impending split week after week and it leads them down a dark path or were the headlines true to begin with? My hope and prayer is that Jon and Kate will work things out and that all of us watching will cherish our marriages even more. What was clear Monday night is that these 2 people do not seem to like each other very much any more. That did not happen overnight. I am facing a summer where I will be away from home for 4 weeks. I have to start preparing my family for that today. I have to invest time, energy, and passion into my marriage so that my wife’s(or my) tank isn’t on empty when I leave. You would think that after almost 10 years of marriage I would know how to do that effectively, but I don’t. I just know that it takes a lot of days and nights of not acknowledging your spouse before you can sit beside them on a couch on national TV and act like they’re not even there. So, are we all just gonna pile on Jon and Kate or are we gonna work everyday on our own marriages? Divorce is tragic whether it’s on national television or not.

What we do on my day off

Since getting married and having kids I have been much better about taking a day off in every week. Like so many people(pastors too!) I used to be really bad about taking a Sabbath. Now, I look forward to Thursdays and the hilarity that ensues. Here you go:

Good News and Bad News

1. This story makes me leary of buying a GPS system despite my inability to navigate the Triad.

2. Karen and I have decided to run a half marathon in the fall instead of the one in June. Basically, I’ve got to lose some weight before I can really run like I need to. Running was killing my knees and back. So, Karen found a nice Eliptical machine on Craigslist and we are hitting it hard. Now, if I would only remember to stretch first. So, I’m aiming for a target weight and hitting the road again after that.

3. The NBA Playoffs have been a joy to watch. I’m not sure what they did to increase the flow of the game and the offense, but I like it. Orlando was amazing in Game 7 at Boston. KG truly is the heart of their defense and without him they couldn’t get the stops they needed. I think Cleveland wins the Finals this year and models their franchise after the Bulls: surround Lebron with role players who do what they’re asked to do.

4. I am still trying to figure out this network marketing thing. It’s frustrating because I know there are a gazillion ways to make money online. It’s putting my time and energy in the right place and learning the right things that are a struggle. I feel like I get distracted and lose time getting to my end result. Thankfully, I’ve learned alot of neat things, but still need to put many of them into practice.

5. I have no idea what’s happening on American Idol.

6. In case you didn’t hear, all World Series games will begin at 7:57 pm this year. Finally, Bud Selig makes a sane decision and I won’t have to celebrate quietly when one of my teams wins it all. Both Red Sox victories were enjoyed alone after midnight and I had to be quiet. Red Sox and Phillies have won 3 of the last 5. I hope to see that trend continue.

7. Found the site, keepvid.com, last week. It allows you to download youtube and other videos to your computer. It’s already helped with getting videos for worship as I can import the downloaded vids right into propresenter. Any other programs I need to be checking out?

8. I’m off to lunch with my friend, Jared Bell. I’m excited about what God is doing in his life and ministry. We are gonna solve the world’s political problems and plan the camp games.

Thoughts for a Monday

Here’s a link to a video about a story I heard about this weekend. Watch it here. Was this an innocent mistake? What would the cost be to redo all the yearbooks? Who should pay for that? How would the school make sure all the yearbooks were collected? Am I the only one who was waiting for the mother and daughter to accept some blame? The moral of the story is ALWAYS wear underwear and make sure they are clean.

Here’s a more uplifting video about a church putting it’s money where it’s mission is.

Lastly, are there certain songs that your church responds to more than others? Songs that really get the congregation fired up? I’m not sure if it’s the rhythm or the familiarity with the song. I do know that some songs are easier to clap to than others. Is it good or bad when we insert those songs into the worship set because we know the response it will get? Just wanting your thoughts. Have a great Monday.

Some Pitfalls in Youth Ministry

It has been 12 years since my graduation from Southern Wesleyan. 12 years since my interview and hiring at Central First Wesleyan Church as the youth pastor. I have learned many lessons in those 12 years. Some I have applied effectively and some I have not. I guess today is a confession of those lessons I still have trouble applying.

1. I am up front too much. From the announcement to worship to speaking-I am always the one talking. There have got to be other faces and voices in front of the group besides mine. There isn’t because I hold onto things too tightly. Instead of taking the time to train others and release their ministry potential, I just do it myself. This can lead to burnout. Ideally, Wednesdays would run like sunday mornings with others doing their roles and me doing mine. Yeah, I’ve known this for a while, but haven’t done anything about it. Chances are, you haven’t either. If you have, add some dialogue in the comments.

2. I drive too much. I love driving the church van, but how much conversation am I missing out on in the back? What if our youth group had “designated drivers” for different events which allowed me more bonding time with the kids? What if I could have been in the middle of conversations all the way out to South Dakota? Just a thought.

3. Most of us have an hour a week for our main youth rally. I used to feel bad when I would speak longer than 15 minutes. Sometimes, I have felt like there has been an effort to cram too much stuff into that hour instead of building every thing that happens within that hour around a common theme/goal. We are supplementing our Wednesday night meeting with a Sunday night Bible study that gets deeper into the word so that Wednesdays can be more topical. Brad Cooper challenged me at Unleash this year when he said,”We do two things on Wednesday: worship and the Word. That’s it. That involves some small group time, but we leverage our time towards those 2 things.” I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m not going to feel guilty about preaching the Word for longer than 15 minutes.

4. I don’t keep my wife in the loop enough. An event may have been on my calendar for months, but it needs to be on her calendar first. We are still trying to figure out how to do this electronically. Women like surprises, but not that you have a cook-out at your house and people will be arriving in 15 minutes. It’s called communication, and I shouldn’t get upset if I have to tell her about youth group stuff more than once. How many times does she have to ask me to take care of the garbage?

5. I don’t act my age. I need more sleep than I’m getting. I need to eat healthier than I’m eating. On average, we put on several pounds a year just because we’re getting older. Add that to what I already need to lose and it’s enough to make one relapse on Mountain Dew(oops, too late). My 5 year old twins know I’m not supposed to be drinking it and they are quick to remind me. It’s not about living slower, but living smarter. You young pups would be wise to lay off the dang pizza before it’s too late. It’s called metabolism and mine left the buidling with Elvis.