Do you ever hear a song that just ROCKS your socks... kicks you in the teeth... makes you wanna mosh? There is a song that totally does that for me. It's called "Long Way Down" by Haste The Day. I've never seen these guys but I really want to! Dude, they just ROCK... if you don't have the CD, go buy it. That's what I'm listening to right this second, as I sit here in Panera Bread using their free wireless connection.
You see, our church office is closed today, as they are switching the gas main from the old part of the building to the new. So, in his good wisdom, Brother Mike Myers (yes, the real one, not the guy from Halloween, Austin Powers, or anyone else) told us to not worry about coming into the office today. So I thought I'd take 5 minutes and update my blog, which is the longest period between updates in the universe I bet!
I am sitting in the corner of a really busy Panera Bread while my wife is hosting all the women from church for a luncheon. I am looking out the window at the best thing I like about Colorado... the snow! It's been snowing for a good hour and the streets are almost covered. I am proud to be from Oklahoma, but man pretty much every day is a good day to live in Colorado. It cracks me up that people that don't live here think it's miserable, like living in northern Canada or something. That's ok with me... and I think the state of Colorado has an anti-tourism campaign to keep all you Texans from moving here. It seems to work pretty well!
Lots of things are changing at our church... we announced Sunday that Emily Tomberlin will be hired as a co-youth minister. It's only taken 3 years to get this in place. Lots of prayers, discussions, proposals, visions and dreams have laid the ground work for what I believe will be a momentus addition to our student ministry. Emily interned for me four years ago and just has the heart of a servant to match her passion for sharing Christ with God's kids. I think also, it will extend my career a few years, letting a youngster keep an old guy connecting with kids. Let's see, I'll be 58 when our daughter Molly graduates from high school.. that's a good 14 years from now! If I can figure it out, I'll try to post a poll to let you provide your input as to how long I'll last!
Speaking of such things, I got an email from an acquantence last week. I had mentioned to him about us old guys needing to stick together and man, I guess I hit a nerve. He sent me a reply three email pages long! He's got some parents, some elders and just random people at his church asking him when he's gonna go do something else... that just kills me. I told one of my elders a couple of weeks ago that I truly hoped to be a youth minister for the rest of my life. He told me that we need more 60 year old youth ministers... at least I've got one guy in my corner. And it doesn't hurt for my preacher (see Mike Myers above) to be the ex-youth minister here... he lasted until 50, then went to the pulpit. Man, I don't know that I could ever do that. I just don't think it's my gift. I think I'm too opinionated and not compassionate enough to keep a whole church happy! YIKES!
On another note, I really, really, really want to write a book. My problem is that I just can't figure out what topic/subject to write about. I'd love to be one of those guys that can crank out a book that people actually care about reading, shell out their money, so that I can make a lot of money and repay the churches for my back salary... how cool would it be to be self-supporting! WOW! If you do have any suggestions for a book topic, let me know. I'll give you some credit if I write it!
Keep me in your prayers. NCYM is less than 30 days away. From the core of my soul, I really want it to be one that totally affects positively every single person that shows up. We have a HUGE number that have registered... maybe the most we've ever had. Now is the crunch time. Finalizing schedules, meals, speakers, schedules, etc. Pray that no matter how focused I (and the entire board) get on all the details, that God will do what HE wants to do... not what I (or we) want Him to do. I desperately want NCYM 2006 to be one that some YMs can say "dude that's where I really sold out to God and to the ministry for kids He prepared for me." How cool would that be?
I miss my friend Ronnie Langton. If you know him, you understand. If not, you don't. Leave me some comments!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Monday, April 18, 2005
The Calm Before The Storm
I haven't had a lot of time in the past couple of months to write. I hate that because I really LOVE to write. At my previous church, Del City Church of Christ, I used to "have to" write a bulletin article every week. The deadline drove me crazy a lot, but I always managed to crank something out I was proud of. Since I don't preach much, I guess it was my little way of getting stuff off my chest. I sort of miss the pressure of that deadline, as weird as that is to say!
Well, NCYM is going well. The website is up and running, although I'm still waiting on final approval of the registration form. Communications is a primary focus for my year as president of the board. I've learned that communicating (or OVER communicating) provides more results than improving the content a lot of times... usually the content is good! But, if people don't know about something, they can't take advantage of it. The Regional Coordinator structure is working well. I think a lot of guys will be able to contribute to the success of NCYM. It will also help the board to expand who they know, so that future boards will not be just from the "good old boy" network... who you know! I'm not criticizing, just that method is the only one we've had.... and it needs improvement.
I've decided to take a break from grad school... I'm overcommitted with NCYM and such. I am not sure if I'll go back to school. I like it, but a lot of times it seems like it's doing work for the sake of doing work, and not contributing much to what I need in my ministry. I guess I'm starting to put all my eggs into the one basket of "doing youth ministry until I die". I don't want to be a preacher!
As far as Scripture goes, what's been on my heart lately comes from Ephesians 4:12-13 "Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." I've always struggled with whether I should spend more time with the one lost sheep than the ninety-nine found ones... I've usually gone after the one primarily, but I've made a pretty strategic change in my philosophy this year... I've spent a LOT of time trying to develop more leadership, attempting to equip my student leaders to do that. It has really strengthened the core of our youth group, but we still struggle with reaching out to those that aren't plugged in. Maybe in God's time, He'll reveal how that needs to happen.
By the way, if you haven't seen the pictures of our recent trip to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona over Spring Break, it might give you a good laugh. We (I) sunk BOTH vans up to the axles in mud and had to walk 15 miles to get help. It's close to the worst thing that's happened in 17 years of youth ministry... I'm fortunate if that's as bad as it gets.
Hey leave me a comment, even if it's just to say hi. Seems like I only have 6 or 7 people reading... could be because I'm a loser and never update my blog. I'll try to do it once a week from now on, just like my old bulletin article days!
Well, NCYM is going well. The website is up and running, although I'm still waiting on final approval of the registration form. Communications is a primary focus for my year as president of the board. I've learned that communicating (or OVER communicating) provides more results than improving the content a lot of times... usually the content is good! But, if people don't know about something, they can't take advantage of it. The Regional Coordinator structure is working well. I think a lot of guys will be able to contribute to the success of NCYM. It will also help the board to expand who they know, so that future boards will not be just from the "good old boy" network... who you know! I'm not criticizing, just that method is the only one we've had.... and it needs improvement.
I've decided to take a break from grad school... I'm overcommitted with NCYM and such. I am not sure if I'll go back to school. I like it, but a lot of times it seems like it's doing work for the sake of doing work, and not contributing much to what I need in my ministry. I guess I'm starting to put all my eggs into the one basket of "doing youth ministry until I die". I don't want to be a preacher!
As far as Scripture goes, what's been on my heart lately comes from Ephesians 4:12-13 "Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." I've always struggled with whether I should spend more time with the one lost sheep than the ninety-nine found ones... I've usually gone after the one primarily, but I've made a pretty strategic change in my philosophy this year... I've spent a LOT of time trying to develop more leadership, attempting to equip my student leaders to do that. It has really strengthened the core of our youth group, but we still struggle with reaching out to those that aren't plugged in. Maybe in God's time, He'll reveal how that needs to happen.
By the way, if you haven't seen the pictures of our recent trip to the Navajo Reservation in Arizona over Spring Break, it might give you a good laugh. We (I) sunk BOTH vans up to the axles in mud and had to walk 15 miles to get help. It's close to the worst thing that's happened in 17 years of youth ministry... I'm fortunate if that's as bad as it gets.
Hey leave me a comment, even if it's just to say hi. Seems like I only have 6 or 7 people reading... could be because I'm a loser and never update my blog. I'll try to do it once a week from now on, just like my old bulletin article days!
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Dreams... wanna help?
Sorry... it's been a month and a couple of days since I last wrote... honestly I've been SWAMPED with a lot of very cool things!
The year began with the National Conference on Youth Ministries which took place far away... in Colorado Springs, CO (only an hour drive from here!). Since I am on the board and the president of the board for the coming year, I have felt great responsibility for things... our theme this year was "Legacy", which took a look back at the history of youth ministry in the churches of Christ. We shared video clips of interviews with many of the pioneers like Big Don Williams, Tim Lewis, Dan Warden, Cliff Crumpler, Jim Moss, Edd Eason, Mike Myers and dozens of others. Watching those made me realize the great responsibility I have to carry on the torch they lit and passed on to me and many others along the way. The conference was a huge success... NCYM 2006 will be in Nashville... please be in prayer for me every day that it will occur exactly like God wants it to!
One of the "burdens" God placed on my heart is that of youth ministry in the mission field. Our missionary from Germany was back in the States to visit his daughter who's doing an exchange all this year. I had the chance to discuss with him the statistics that in the US, the vast majority of those who convert to Christianity are between the ages of 13-21. He felt that age group was the most open to the possibility, much moreso than the adults. I guess change is harder the older you get. As we discussed youth ministry overseas, it appears to be basically an afterthought, with a few teen directed activities being organized by missionaries who just don't have enough time in the day as it is!
Why is it that we spend 90% of our church budgets on "maintaining" those age 22 and above? That is ludicrous if the "conversion" research is correct! And why are we not equipping young men and women to go into the mission field specifically to reach teens? Baffling... but a burden has been placed on my heart. I've been doing a little investigation about this subject and found the following:
1. There are actually a few youth ministers for the churches of Christ in the mission field.
2. Scotland has one.
3. Frankfort, Germany has one.
4. Various places in Australia have youth ministers... I believe I'm aware of 6.
5. As with most missionaries, these youth workers struggle just to have enough money to live,.
My dream, at least for now is two fold. I want to try to raise money to pay for these 8 or so missionary youth ministers to come to NCYM 2006 in Nashville. I want to let them share their experiences and be encouraged by the other 500 youth ministers that will attend that conference. Second, I want to see AIM or HIM or to create a new program that specifically trains and organizes youth ministry in the mission field, internationally and domestically. Unfortunately, I too, am a youth minister.. and don't have the money to do any of this. So, I'm reduced to asking others that God has blessed. If you are reading this and would like to sponsor a guy to go to NCYM, or would like to help me put together this new youth ministry program, let me know.
Last but not least.... on the way to work this morning, I drove past one of the richest neighborhoods in town (The Preserve)... I saw a very wealthy lady at the stop sign. She had a HUGE bowl of cereal on the roof of her car and she didn't have a clue! Thank you God for the things in life that show us we really are just made of dirt.... or bones from dirt!
The year began with the National Conference on Youth Ministries which took place far away... in Colorado Springs, CO (only an hour drive from here!). Since I am on the board and the president of the board for the coming year, I have felt great responsibility for things... our theme this year was "Legacy", which took a look back at the history of youth ministry in the churches of Christ. We shared video clips of interviews with many of the pioneers like Big Don Williams, Tim Lewis, Dan Warden, Cliff Crumpler, Jim Moss, Edd Eason, Mike Myers and dozens of others. Watching those made me realize the great responsibility I have to carry on the torch they lit and passed on to me and many others along the way. The conference was a huge success... NCYM 2006 will be in Nashville... please be in prayer for me every day that it will occur exactly like God wants it to!
One of the "burdens" God placed on my heart is that of youth ministry in the mission field. Our missionary from Germany was back in the States to visit his daughter who's doing an exchange all this year. I had the chance to discuss with him the statistics that in the US, the vast majority of those who convert to Christianity are between the ages of 13-21. He felt that age group was the most open to the possibility, much moreso than the adults. I guess change is harder the older you get. As we discussed youth ministry overseas, it appears to be basically an afterthought, with a few teen directed activities being organized by missionaries who just don't have enough time in the day as it is!
Why is it that we spend 90% of our church budgets on "maintaining" those age 22 and above? That is ludicrous if the "conversion" research is correct! And why are we not equipping young men and women to go into the mission field specifically to reach teens? Baffling... but a burden has been placed on my heart. I've been doing a little investigation about this subject and found the following:
1. There are actually a few youth ministers for the churches of Christ in the mission field.
2. Scotland has one.
3. Frankfort, Germany has one.
4. Various places in Australia have youth ministers... I believe I'm aware of 6.
5. As with most missionaries, these youth workers struggle just to have enough money to live,.
My dream, at least for now is two fold. I want to try to raise money to pay for these 8 or so missionary youth ministers to come to NCYM 2006 in Nashville. I want to let them share their experiences and be encouraged by the other 500 youth ministers that will attend that conference. Second, I want to see AIM or HIM or to create a new program that specifically trains and organizes youth ministry in the mission field, internationally and domestically. Unfortunately, I too, am a youth minister.. and don't have the money to do any of this. So, I'm reduced to asking others that God has blessed. If you are reading this and would like to sponsor a guy to go to NCYM, or would like to help me put together this new youth ministry program, let me know.
Last but not least.... on the way to work this morning, I drove past one of the richest neighborhoods in town (The Preserve)... I saw a very wealthy lady at the stop sign. She had a HUGE bowl of cereal on the roof of her car and she didn't have a clue! Thank you God for the things in life that show us we really are just made of dirt.... or bones from dirt!
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