Drop-ins

Today I left my task list and went down the hall to hang with Than and Rich, two men I serve with here at the church. Not scheduled meetings just drop-ins. It's great to not make all of our interactions scheduled meetings. Today was a great time to connect about family, leadership issues, planning, raising kids, future of the church, the Nuggets, buying a car, joys in our ministries, etc...

Sure you can have all of this happen in scheduled meetings, but sometimes you just need to put down the task list and head down the hall and say, "What is up?" Drop-ins help create an environment that says our relationship is more than just a working one.

Luther

This Sunday in our study of church history we come to Luther.

I just read the 95 Theses he nailed up - here. Whoa! This man had more than just a few things to say! I would love to have heard him read them. Even if you don't read them, just click on it to see how long it really is!

In addition, can't wait to read and listen to A Mighty Fortress Is Our God together! I am wondering what will stick with our students from his life!

Prayer for student ministry

Psalm 100:3 "Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his we are his people, the sheep of his pasture."

I'm praying for a student ministry this week full of students who know and will experience that the LORD is God; that He is the one who made them; that they are His; And that He is watching over them and caring for them like a shepherd would his sheep.

Amen.

Surgery and relational youth ministry read

I am spending Turkey day recovering from a SLAP tear of my labrum surgery! I just started reading Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry - From a strategy of influence to a theology of incarnation by Andy Root! More to come when I can type with both hands!

Prayer of trust in student ministry

“Abba, into your hands I entrust my body, mind, and spirit and this entire day – morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Whatever you want of me, I want of me, falling into you and trusting in you in the midst of my life. Into your heart I trust my heart, feeble, distracted, insecure, uncertain. Abba, unto you I abandon myself in Jesus our Lord. Amen.” - Brennan Manning from Ruthless Trust

I am envisioning a student ministry in the next few years where more students are praying this prayer and then living it? Can you see it? But then it hit me, if I am not praying this prayer and then living it I can't expect to see in our students.

Right person or Right program?

As our church looks for a new senior pastor I've been thinking a lot about how he'll present himself to our committee and our spiritual community. Will he come in emphasizing that he is the right person or that he has the right program?

I am praying that he emphasizes that he is the right person who desires to build the right programs instead of selling the us a program that worked in his former church. I am not saying I don't want a fresh new vision, I just don't want the smoke and mirrors to get us more bodies, more of a building and more bucks.

Vision

"Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in you." - Bill Hybels

What's your picture of the future? If it's not producing passion in you it's time to get out clean piece of paper and draw a new picture!

My picture of the future of our student ministry fuels my passion to serve today. My picture of the future of my family fuels my passion to engage them today. My picture of the future of my relationship with Lord fuels my passion to pray and read His Word today.

And when the passion is gone, I'm going to pull out a clean piece of paper and draw a new picture.

Adoration in small groups

Last night we had our adoration time in our i2i groups. We are moving some of our adoration times to our i2i groups for a more intimate time with the Lord. In the past, all we've ever done is adoration with a large group before we broke up into our i2i groups around the building.

Last night our i2i groups prayed slowly through the Lord's Prayer together while thinking about each of the words. I am excited to get feedback from my leaders on how it went.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'

I mentioned that we could just stop with the first word of the prayer and think on it for a while. It's our prayer. It' not just mine. We are part of a community of people here and around the world praying together with one heart and one mind. Our desire is for them to start soaking in the words they know by heart and praying that the Spirit of God would open their eyes to the wonderful things in His word (Psalm 1119:18). I can't wait to implement more i2i adoration times next semester.

The Millennials Are Coming

Michael over at Extra Mile Management, and a good friend of mine, pointed me to this video over at CBS, The Millennials Are Coming. This video is worth 13 minutes of your day. Here are some things that stood out to me:

1. They need coaching instead of bossing.
2. They grew up with Mr. Rodgers telling them they're special, but never defined for what.
3. They suffer from a coddling virus. This one slayed me. At the end of the video, watch what the two Millennials want their bosses to do if they do a good job. I almost fell out of my chair.
4. They will choose their friends and lifestyle over their job any day. The Millennials they interviewed were very insightful here as they talk about watching their parents.
5. How is our economy going to continue to be stable or even get stronger if we are putting Millennials in jobs where they want to just have fun?
6. I laughed out loud when they talked about how to talk to this generation like a therapist.
7. Mary Crane is very insightful in this piece. I laughed out loud when she was talking to them about their tattoos.
8. They are growing up with no expectation to work hard.
9. Who couldn't be happy growing up in a world where there is no failure?

As I watch this video I am asking myself, "What is the church supposed to do with these 80 million people born between 1980 and 1995?" These next 20 years are going to be a ride!

Prayer for the week...

1 Peter 3:15 "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord..."

This week I am praying that when our i2i groups meet on Wednesday night and our students gather to study church history this Sunday they will make the decision to set apart Christ as Lord in their hearts. A war is being waged for so many other things to be set apart as Lord in their hearts.

One of the things I am doing more of in my preparation for our gathering times is praying scripture. It's been a good rhythm of ministry practice to establish as it's keeping me dependent on the Lord.

Cruise faliure

I failed to gain 15 pounds on the cruise from eating every 30 minutes. Oh well, we had a great time! What a HUGE SHIP!

The Anniversary Cruise

8 years ago we decided with our friends, the Hodges, that we would take a Caribbean cruise together to celebrate our 10 year anniversaries. Well, we're halfway through year 11 and they're halfway through year ten so it's time to make the plan a reality. We're off today on the Carnival Legend to the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras.

WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!

many youth pastors...one dad

The students of this church will one day have another youth pastor. There will be several more after me when I move on.

But my kids will only get one dad. May all of us that get the privilege to shepherd students in the church, who have kids, be reminded that our first youth ministry is at home.

I love these Rockies hats!