My Experience As...

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...]

The fact is that Youth are not adults, they are kids. I'm not sure when the transition is, but it happens sometime after 21. Possibly after 30 because I"m not sure how much of an adult I am, but that might just be me because my wife seems to be pretty grown up, but taking care of 4 children can do that to a person. Not that I don't take care of my kids, but I tend to play more than anything, which might be why she seems so frustrated. If I were more grown up that might worry me ...Anyways, my point has something to do with working with the Youth and the joy and frustration that can come … [Read more...]

I've heard tales of Senior Pastors that require the staff to be in the office 8 hours a day through the week. Fortunately that isn't my reality. Actually, I'd probably work less, but don't let my Pastor's wife know. Honestly she works very hard to make sure I'm not working too hard. This past week I put in most of my hours at the house. It is great being able to take a sick day but still get the work done that needs doing. I can relax instead of worrying about all the stuff that is piling up while I'm ill. Actually this illness was particularly convenient as far as sicknesses go. My … [Read more...]

So I stumbled across this pretty cool website. I mentioned it briefly in my post "Let's Talk Sex." It is a Text polling service. You can use it for free with up to 30 responses per poll and unlimited polls. There are fees beyond that based on how many responses you need to allow. Basically you make up a question, either multiple choice or text response, open the poll and provide the information to the people you want to respond.I did this with my talk on sex and it went over great. They were asking this week if we would be doing that again. I am planning on doing this fairly regularly … [Read more...]

I know I've mentioned how much I love technology, but at the same time fight it. I think the main reason I fight my gadgets is because I push them beyond their intended limits. If I had a super fast computer and all the latest goodies I probably wouldn't have to fight it so much. Instead I have a meager budget and big plans that involve things I don't have. This combined with a somewhat unhealthy obsession with MacGyver equals getting the job done at the peril of innocent electronics.For example, my Youth room doesn't have network and it is not feasible to install a wired connection. This … [Read more...]

I have a stack of books to read. Many are recommended non-fiction ministry related stuff. I haven't really had time to read much at all, but one good thing about being sick so much is I was able to squeeze in some time for reading.One of the books I am reading is Saint by Ted Dekker. I have like three Ted Dekker books in my to read pile of fiction. The Showdown is the other book I was considering when I started Saint. I picked Saint because it sounded interesting. Generally the book has been enjoyable. Some of the explanations are a little strange, and even annoying, but I can suspend … [Read more...]

It is my intention to start posting daily again. I went through an illness that refused to stay down. I finally, after weeks, went to the doctor. Good news is my blood pressure, cholesterol, and whatever else they checked is great. Bad news is I had a sinus infection. I say had because I finished off my antibiotics and it appears to be gone. Of course I'm coming down with something else now, but hopefully it will just run its course and be done instead of hanging on for a month.It is that time of the year again when we all think about that December holiday. Of course I'm referring to … [Read more...]

Ok, so first off I'd like to thank the people from over at SCL for their prayers. I posted that I was talking about sex with my youth and wanted prayer. I'm glad I asked. I post more detail on the discussion but I think it went well. I showed 3 videos, two dealing with the same study done by Tyra Banks show, and one about another study linking TV and teen pregnancy rates. I also used some text polls and my group responded. I was not very surprised about the results because they reflect much what the other polls were showing.We had some serious technical difficulties but I had several … [Read more...]