Last night we went caroling instead of having or normal Young Adults group. I think things went very well. Only 20% of my youth went, but that really is pretty good when you think about it. We didn't go visit all the families. Instead we went to visit the church shut-ins and nursing homes. Generally I think everyone enjoyed it. I know the people we visited loved it. The Youth seemed to have a good time also. This is the first of our service projects. I was convicted by a blog over at SCL where Jon pointed out that being a Christian isn't about convenience. It wasn't convenient for … [Read more...]

Actually it is a misnomer. Tomorrow isn't really Christmas Eve until sundown. It turns out that the day use to end at sunset and so the new day started in the evening. This is why we have so many holidays like Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, and even Halloween. Of course this means that tomorrow at sunset it is officially Christmas. For all those times that you were told that you had to wait until morning to open your presents because it wasn't Christmas yet was a lie, just like the cake.We buy a lot of lies about what we can't have yet. We can't have a life of victory because we aren't in … [Read more...]

I've decided to try and make my life more organized in many respects. I function best with order. Actually it is quite funny because I"m terribly OCD but I'm also ADD so it strikes a very nice balance. When I stat getting obsessive I see something shiny and get distracted so I'm almost functional.Anyways, my attempt to get organized with this site will result in daily categories and monthly topics.Mondays will be totally random poking fun at whatever topic comes to mind. Loony Lundi. (Lundi is French for Monday).Tuesday will be Topical Tuesday, which will deal with the monthly topic … [Read more...]

SO my kids were watching A Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol and it occurred to me that this holiday classic based on the literary classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens doesn't share the Christmas story. This prompted an internal dialogue, read argument, about the Christian value of this story and thereby the Christmas value. Sure we allow all kinds of other stories like The Night Before Christmas which have no value whatsoever, but they are much more obvious so it is easy to talk about how it doesn't really capture the spirit of Christmas. A Christmas Carol and all its versions, on the … [Read more...]

For those that don't know, TMI is "Too Much Information." I have found a major flaw in my desire to get closer to my Youth. As my relationships with them grow they open up to me. That is the point right. I want them to share with me their struggles and dreams. I want them to come to me when they are hurting or excited.I have forgotten that they struggle with the same things that my friends and I struggled with in school. This means that as they open up to me I am inundated with way too much information about all kinds of subjects that I really don't want to consider they know. I don't … [Read more...]

Together, together; if we ll work together how happy we'll be.So for a while now I have been involved with a group of Youth ministers from other churches in our community. We have this crazy idea that if we work togetehr then we can accomplish more than if we try on our own. This is a new group in our area and I'm one of the founding members. Even befor eI came here I was feeling a push to work in unity with other churches. God has orchestrated this with like minded ministers. In fact, we also have with our group representatives from secular youth programs. I find it very exciting … [Read more...]

So there are a broad spectrum of parents in the world, but on one end you will find parents that think their kids are perfect no matter what and on the other end you will find parents that don't care one way or the other. I have kids from both categories. Each come with their own kind of problems. There are a lot of different ways the kids can turn out too.For example, I have a kid that is practically perfect in every way as far as the family is considered. This results in the child generally expecting to get whatever the child wants. The child is generally good though and works very hard … [Read more...]

So if you are in a preaching ministry and haven't filed in your preaching calendar yet what are you waiting for? I know a lot of ministers like to wait till the night before to here from God, but I promise that god knows what is going on more than a year in advance. That is why it is actually possible to sit down with a calendar and pray about what you should speak on now so you can better organize your topics and plan series that will play well together. God is cool like that.Actually, one of my pet peeves is when a pastor claims that God changed the sermon just before they walked up and … [Read more...]