Month: April 2009

One year ago I was barely able to get around using a walker following back surgery. To celebrate the one-year anniversary today I ran in the 27th Annual St. James Fire Department 5 Mile Run. The proceeds from the race went to help burn victims. It was a beautiful day, and I completed the race in 48:31. There were probably 300 runners, and I would say I was in the first 100 or so. The hills wee pretty tough. I run a lot on my treadmill, but I don’t really use the incline, so my body is not used to hills. Next time I will train for them, and I am sure I can improve my time. I just learned of the race two days ago, and, of course, my goal was just to finish. lol

Today Adriana took our worship team members to Battle Cry NYC where they performed this evening as part of the Mass Choir in front of about 15,000 people! We were able to watch them live on www.god.tv and spotted several of our students in the choir. 

In celebration of a major win, I am growing a beard for the next seven weeks. I’m calling it A Big Beard for small groups. Four years ago when I was interviewing for the position I now hold, I explained to the pastors and members of the board that within two years it was my goal to launch small groups as the backbone of our youth ministry. Two years ago we launched. It was an awesome time for me. Through the ups and downs, challenges and rewards, we have kept at it, experimented, and said small groups are a mountain we are willing to die on. Well, I was absolutely thrilled last week when we had 67 students register for & PAY to be in a small group for the next seven weeks for a series we are calling Live Pure based on the Good Sex 2.0 curriculum by Youth Specialties. Just think about that. In two years well over 50% of our students are not only in a small group, they were willing to pay to be in one. Wow! Thank You Jesus! May this be an incredible, helpful, fun experience in authenticity and community that will shape how they view their need for Christ-centered fellowship. Amen.

I was checking out David Bazan’s website the other day and absolutely loved what he is doing with his tour … house shows! So great! Check out how he’s doing them here. 

This evening I had to run to Sports Authority to pick up dodgeballs for our Killball Tournament tomorrow night. I took my eldest daughter with me, and before heading home we stopped by Michael’s to get her some supplies for a hobby she is beginning. While in the store I decided to pick up a craft we could do as a family on this our designated family night. I found a Mosaic Stepping Stone. After eating dinner together I mixed the cement and mom and the girls laid out the pieces of broken glass in a pattern that we though symbolized our family. We designed a cross with a heart in the middle and put our first name initials in the four corners along with the year, 2009. It will take two days to completely dry. It was a lot of fun, and a special time of creativity and teamwork. After we finished Adriana went out for coffee with a friend, and my youngest daughter made me some coffee that was really good! She asked if she could have a cup, and I said yes, but then she chickened out. lol!

I just finished reading the book Miles to the Cross: A Spiritual Journey on the Open Road by Mike Howerton. The book is a collection of journal entries by Howerton over a number of years during four different pilgrimages throughout Europe, America, Britain, and Central America. It was fascinating reading of his adventures and his journey from a college student seeking for truth to a young man who concluded that Jesus is Who He says He is, and the moment he realizes that he has indeed embraced Jesus as His leader. This is the second book I have read in recent months which is comprised of journal entries of people on pilgrimages, and I have absolutely loved them both. Raw. Real. Honest. Authentic. Neither had that “Wow! Now that’s profound, intense truth that I have never considered.” Rather, the joy for me was in observing their daily grinds, their simple reminders and discoveries of what is truly important in life, their struggle to live well each day, and the inherent invitation for us to do the same. 

The 2009 baseball season has begun. Which means that all of the great athletes get to play the game for us to enjoy, and all of the non-athletic government officials get invited to entertain us before the games. You’ll love this!

Wednesday night for our youth service I decided to do something that focussed attention on the last days and hours in the earthly life of Jesus in a special and memorable way. I used a Youth Specialties resource called Journey to the Cross. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, and I almost passed on it again this year because it is designed as a prayer station experience. I absolutely love prayer station experiences, but our meeting room  is not conducive to such a setup. However, I decided to adapt the presentation for our room. I created a beautiful slide show with the Scriptures, thoughts, and pictures of the scenes that would have been created at the stations. As each person entered the room they were given a bag with the items they would have normally gathered at individual stations. (Note: My one mistake (I’m sure there were more, but this one was really obvious): I used paper bags. I failed to consider that every time they went to get an item out it was like a hail storm in the midst of a quiet and reflective night. Oops! They did well at getting past it though, so I was proud of them for handling it with some maturity. If you do it this way, definitely go with plastic baggies.) I also had candles lining the stage which they had to come forward and extinguish at one point, as well as a table with communion elements on it which they also came forward to partake of during the journey. I then led them through the experience by just clicking through the slides. For added affect I played some background music (used a good movie soundtrack (ex. Braveheart)) and read the Scripture portions that were projected on the screen (other than that, I just let them read the slides and respond accordingly). After the experience I closed in prayer and invited students to further digest it and post comments on our blog, which I was glad to see a few of them did. It was different than our usual structure, but it was by far one of our best services of the year! I mean that! It was totally awesome! If you want to try the Journey to the Cross yourself, you can download it here.