My Experience As...

A Husband, Father, Youth Pastor, Geek, and Jesus Freak

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When Good Kids Get Better

It is so easy to focus on the students that let you down, that you pour time and energy into and who leave to do their own thing. A while back I saw one of the girls that I had an opportunity to reach out to for a few months, but who never really responded to the sermons, everything was just about hanging out with friends. We had to go way out of our way to pick her up and drop her off while shew as coming. When I saw her she had a baby of her own. I felt that I had some how failed and wondered if there was anything I could have done differently. I get hung up on things like that. I … [Read more...]

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Cultivating Culturally Challenging Children

Man look at the alliteration in the title.  I think I used the word alliteration correctly, and I'm not really feeling like going through all the effort of typing it into Google.  Yep that's just how lazy I have become.  Back in the day I would have had to get up, walk over to my book shelf and thumb through real pages to find the word.  That was a lot of work but I did it and learned a ton.  Now, meh not worth opening a new window and getting the answer in 0.51 seconds. Anyways, this post isn't about alliteration or my laziness, it is about my kids.  Well not just mine, I'm also including … [Read more...]

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My biggest frustration when working with youth is investing tons of my life into them, trying to teach them, hoping I can keep them from messing up like I have and like my friends have; only to have them often ignore me so that I have to deal with the fall out. Then I take a step back and remember how much God invests in all of us, myself included, only to be rejected and have to deal with our fall out, but He loves me anyway.

Apr
21
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He Loves Me Anyway
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Read Your Bible and Win: a Wednesday Night Follow-up

I was really blessed a while back to work with a pretty cool guy on a few projects. First, his name is "Bob," and if you know me then you know I love that name. I don't know why, I just think it is frigintastic. I tried to name all of your kids that. I think I understand my wife vetoing the girls names, but still ... we have two boys, so you would think I could have picked at least one of those names. I also tried naming the dog Bob. Apparently that isn't a good name for a dog. Anyways, Bob is also a Sooner's fan and a Christian. I'm pretty certain I would force him to be my best … [Read more...]

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Music: The Gateway to the Mind

I think most of the Western world, if not the entire world, is aware of the saying, "the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach." If I'm being to Americentric in my assumptions then let me briefly explain. Men like good food and will happily fall in love with a good cook. This might be over simplifying things, but that is the essence of most cliches. It doesn't refute the truths behind the concept though. It is an essential truth that good food can be a comforting thing and make decisions of the heart more pliable. This is, I believe, the reality that leads to this saying. If … [Read more...]

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Accountability and Confrontation: A Challenge to Love

The past few months I've been feeling more and more that there is something missing in the American Church. It seems there is so much emphasis on tolerance, love, and acceptance. I think these are great things to push, but at some point there needs to be balance. Actually, anyone that has heard me preach will tell you I think pretty much everything must be kept in perfect balance. Holiness is a must, but when it gets skewed it turns into legalism, which is not holy at all. The same is true for grace. Grace is the crux (pun intended) of all that we hold dear, but when it is out of balance … [Read more...]

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I do, I did, I should: Weddings, Marriage, and Counseling

Almost 12 years ago I married the love of my life. We had been dating for 4 years and we were both so very young. I was 20 and my bride was 19. Just a couple of weeks before our wedding she picked her mom up from school (her mom is a teacher) and school officials tried making her ride home on the bus thinking she was a student. If this were a high school that might seem reasonable, but since this was an elementary school that seems quite disturbing. I had 3 years of college under my belt and several counseling classes at Marriage Therapy Boulder CO, so I know everything I needed to know, of … [Read more...]

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