The Deeps

My prayer for the week from a collection of puritan prayers.

"Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water."

A friend who cares

“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.” - Henri Nouwen

The most revealing thing about your youth ministry

"For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. ..." AW Tozer

This quote has captured my heart. The most revealing thing about my youth ministry is its idea of God. What have I said about God? What have I left unsaid?

Memorize This

We are using Memorize This in our i2i small groups this year! I am so excited to see our students hide the Word of God in their hearts this year!

Check out the book here for the table of contents.

Things My Kids Say

From Josiah's Sunday school teacher in an email to me this week.

We were studying Joseph. At one point, I asked, "Where did Joseph's captors take him?" The kids thought for a moment before Josiah offered ever so sincerely, "Nevada?" All of us helpers/teacher were desperately biting our lips trying not to laugh. Somehow I managed to respond calmly, "Close." Then, Josiah said, "Egypt."

5 Dollar Youth Ministry Training

I am so excited to be a part of what my friends Chris Folmsbee and Matt Wilks are doing this year with 5 Dollar Training! We are hosting one of the 12 trainings at Southern Gables Church on Saturday, September 19th! Here's a blurb from the blog that Chris wrote.

Barefoot has decided to launch an initiative that we hope will help youth workers deal with the current economical challenges called, $5 Dollar Training. Through the generosity of some people who have a HUGE heart for youth ministry, my colleague Matt Wilks and I will be traveling to 12 (8 in the US and 4 in Canada) cities this fall to provide youth ministry training for $5 per person. We’ll do one day of training comprised of three separate seminars for only $5 per person – not $5 per seminar just $5 for the entire day. We hope that providing training at this low cost will help youth workers be able to afford to bring their entire staff and volunteer teams.

The three seminars we will be facilitating in each city cover the themes of (1) spiritual formation for the mission of God, (2) dynamics/practices of healthy teams and (3) collaborating with parents. More details for each of these seminars and an easy registration process will be available when our website goes public in the next few weeks. Watch www.5dollartraining.com for more information.

Fondant Dan

What can I say? I made a cameo appearance this past weekend at Noah and Josiah's water birthday party on their birthday cake. Yes, I became "Fondant Dan" on a hostess chocolate donut floating in a pool.

God loves me as much as he loves Jesus

I am overwhelmed with the truth that God loves me as much as he loves Jesus.

John 17:22-23 "22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Our chief resort...

There are many nuggets of truth to glean from this amazing quote from Charles Spurgeon as we look back on the school year of 2000-09 and look ahead to 2009-10 in our student ministries.

“Beloved brethren, let us pray. We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men. Prayer links us with the Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Infinite, and hence it is our chief resort... Be sure that you are with God, and then you may be sure that God is with you.”

I want to be a pleader during the up and coming school year. I want prayer to be prevalent every time we gather. I want to be eloquent with God before I am eloquent with my students. I want people to look into our student ministry and see that my chief resort isn't my capability, but rather my dependence on prayer. I want to be sure to be with God at every moment during the day to ensure that I am following Him as He directs our ministry.

Tears of joy

Yesterday I experienced something I will never forget as I came through customs after returning from Poland. My Adah was came running to me so filled with joy that she was crying. What a moment. What a hug she gave me. I will never forget that moment and thank God for the love I experienced in that moment with my daughter. Thanks God...it was EPIC!

Poland 2009

I have been in Poland for almost two weeks! Check out all that we've done and seen God do while we've been here at our 180inPoland Blog - HERE! Our theme this year has been "Stories" - we told the Story of God during our evening program and built some amazing relationships with our new friends and deepened ours. We are excited to come home on Tuesday and share our stories of what God did in Poland!

Sharing our humanness

Larry Richards said, "To communicate the reality of God we must share our humanness...that inadequacy of ours which made us need Him."

For the next two weeks I am hoping and praying that I will be able to communicate the reality of God by sharing my humanness not only to our team, but to the Polish students we encounter as we serve them at English Camp.

SCAMPER

Next time I am having a brainstorming session I am going to SCAMPER!

• Substitute: Is there anything you can substitute that will make your idea better?
• Combine: What things can you combine to make the original idea better and more relevant?
• Adapt: Is there anything you can adapt from another idea to improve it?
• Magnify/Modify: Will your idea be better if you expand it or modify it any way?
• Put To Other Uses: Is there a better use for your idea than originally intended?
• Eliminate: What can you eliminate that is not serving any purpose and make your idea better.
• Rearrange/ Reverse: Could your idea improve if you rearrange any of the ideas concepts and details.

Illusion of leadership

In Leading With A Limp, Dr. Dan Allender suggests that most of us want an illusion of a leader. He suggests that this what we're really looking for,

"...a leader must be physically attractive, fluent public speakers with a firm command of their audience, well-educated, open, sincere, humble, salt-of-the-earth people able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, leaders who never forget their humble beginning or the values and convictions of those they represent. We expect a leader to make tough decisions - to fire his close friend if necessary or to send troops into harm's way - yet we want him to tear up over a sad story and be sentimental on Mother's Day."

Allender's conclusion, which has caused me long moments of thought and contemplation about myself, what I expect out of leaders I follow, and what our spiritual community at Southern Gables expects out of our new Transitional Senior Pastor and the next Lead Pastor,

"What we want is an illusion and we know it. We prefer the illusion because we have a deep need to be buffered from reality."

Press the "awkward" button

I read this post by Seth Godin two years ago and read through it again today. I am convinced that if you're a leader you must make awkward not only a part of your vocabulary, but a value you embrace.

Awkward. Seth suggests it’s his new favorite word. I agree, especially when you look at it through the lens of leadership. Seth states, "It's awkward to create a product that changes the status quo. It's awkward to demonstrate your amazing insights when it might threaten those that are looking for stability instead.”

Change creates awkward moments. Leading creates awkward moments. Silence creates awkward moments. Disagreements create awkward moments. Confrontation creates awkward moments. Passion creates awkward moments. Meetings create awkward moments. Challenging someones thinking creates awkward moments. Therefore, leaders must commit to searching for the awkward. Why? Seth suggests,

“The reason we need to be in search of awkward is that awkward is the barrier between us and excellence, between where we are and the remarkable. If it were easy, everyone would have done it already, and it wouldn't be worth the effort.”

There is no easy button to press when it comes to leading. Press the awkward button.

Student of change

"Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

Today we start a new era at Southern Gables Church - our new TSP is in the house! TSP stands for Transitional Senior Pastor. Dr. Mark Platt comes to us with a TON of experience. I am excited to navigate the new waters ahead of us here at SGC.

D'Angelo's quote resonated with me this morning and has challenged me to start becoming a student of change. I am excited for what this change will bring in my own personal life and ministry!

How kids learn

I pulled this article out again this morning from CNN and it was a good reminder that kids have a primary way that they learn. It’s nothing new to all of us, but it’s a good reminder for us as we spend time with our kids and students this summer. The author suggests that kids learn in at least three ways:

Learning by listening
Learning by seeing
Learning with your body

What is your kid's primary learning style? Should the ways kids learn change the way we teach? What needs to change?

The Social Media Tee

This made me LOL!

Wildness lies in wait

"The real trouble with this world of ours is not
that it is an unreasonable world, nor
even that it is a reasonable one.
The commonest kind of trouble is that it is
nearly reasonable, but not quite.
Life is not an illogicality, yet
it is a trap for logicians.
It looks just a little more mathematical
and regular than it is; its'
exactitude is obvious; but
its' inexactitude is hidden;
its' wildness lies in wait."

- GK Chesterton

This quote captured my heart on Monday as I was flying to Kansas City reading Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullan.

With every change "wildness lies in wait." As we change our student ministry by releasing the class of 2009 and gaining the class of 2013...wildness lies in wait.

As we say "goodbye" to our beloved senior pastor Jerry Nelson and "hello" to our new interim pastor Dr. Mark Platt...wildness lies in wait.

As I continue to walk more closely to Jesus following him, fishing and feeding...wildness lies in wait.

Here's to a lifetime of finding hidden inexactitudes!

The wrong addiction in leadership

"As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their 'right' place." - Henri Nouwen

This Monday morning I am so grateful that I have been surrounded by men who weren't addicted to putting me in the "right" place: Fritz Dale, Jerry Nelson, Michael Murphy, Jim Means, and Jim Kimbriel. I want to live out the opposite of Nouwen's quote, that which all of them have given to me as a model to follow. I don't want to live out what Nouwen portrays as the wrong addiction in leadership. I want to live out the opposite as a husband, father, friend, follow, leader and shepherd in my community.