CIY Staff Retreat!

This past week was our ciy staff retreat. Great times. Check out the media yo! Ha! To complete my CIY experience I got the opportunity to go and shoot skeet. Yes, skeet. I took this video of my first few shots. Yes, I actually hit some of them. Fun sport. It is December and I have NO TRIPS! I am celebrating by not shaving for the entire month. Scary I know. Just about as scary as me with a gun.
peace

tough homecoming!

So I came home from Thanksgiving at Mom’s house to a mess. As I walked into our southwest Missouri abode with Aiden asleep in my arms I realized our house had been vandalized. Our beds were peed on. Our unmentionables (doesn’t that sound like what the grandma on the Beverly Hillbillies would call underwear?) were “messed with”. The pictures throughout our house were all marked on. Our bedding was all marked on with sharpie markers. It was not a good homecoming. My oldest son Riley was rather upset. It was just all stupid vandalism.

What stinks even more is that I had to leave right away for our CIY Leadership Retreat. The retreat is the stinky part it is that I had to leave so quickly after the break in. I was going to stay home until we pretty much thought we figured out who did it. (we think it was a kid downt the street) The retreat has been awesome and I am looking forward to blogging about some of the great stuff we got to wrestle with on the trip. I do also have some sweet pictures of our skeet shooting expedition.

peace

Captain Para Church Event guy (that is my self mocking super hero name)

I don’t know why so many ministers at some time in their lives become involved in Multi Level Marketing. Whatever it is, this is the same phenomena that explains why ministers go

into car or insurance sales after leaving ministry. My whacked personal church history is just as
crazy across the board as my (indirectly) contact with guys who have meetings
in hotel ballrooms and draw circles. My father,
my stepfather, my father in law all have at some point asked me to tag along to
some presentation such as the one I find myself in tonight. A summery:
Sasco, Amway, Quickstar, Mary Kay, Excel and tonight’s presentation –
Isagenix. My step dad is a rep who sells
this toxic cleansing systems. I have
personally made periodic cleansing a part of my health cycle. The product is great. I am going to have some fun with this presentation tonight though.

What is funny to me is that over the years (and I have been to many events such as this) I have become quite the student of sales presentations like the one I am typing about right now. I would actually enjoy doing consulting with guys like Pete tonight about their presentation . .

ah, nice, Pete just inserted one of my favorite lame jokes in a fashion that
takes trite to a whole new level. I feel
bad. This guy’s content is great. It is not that I don’t believe in the
product, it’s the “feel” that is nauseating!
He uses pauses like a tent revival preacher slowly working up to his
ask. I am just numb. Ha! It
is a good thing I have a month off right now.
I am here tonight because I love dad and he is kicking it selling this
cleansing product.

Homeboy just presented the scariest picture of the toxic chemicals in the human body
today I have ever heard. So we still have longer life spans today than we ever had.
Okay, best joke of the night: “I was
inside size 34 jeans my stomach just wasn’t.”
OOooo he is closing right now.
Cue music, seriously, Pete (picture Al Piccino) could use some help from Captain Para Church
Event guy (that is my self mocking super hero name). Wow, at the end of this sermon (cough)
presentation, it comes down to a decision.
. . . All I am saying is that if he would have us stand and turn the
lights off it would help . . . maybe plant a few staff to start coming forward
right before the big chorus (I have never done this at Believe!) . . . I am bad.
Good night . .
. never mind, the planted people just hit their mark NICE! Last thing I am going to type: I just heard someone say Amen on the other
side of the room . . . I would so love to write a mocumentary with Eugene Levy on
something like this!! HILARIOUS

accident

Jen & I woke up Tuesday morning in Orlando @ 2:00 AM to catch our plane home. Long day. We had our bath time after I got back from voting. As I was getting Aiden out of the tub Finney walked in, fell on the tub and pushed two teeth up into his gums. I barely missed catching him. I feel terible. It is getting late and turning into one of those deals where you feel like you could leave the emergency room because your kid is actually fine accept for being tired. I just know that niether, Jen nor I will sleep good without hearing he is okay. Finnley just farted and laughed. Maybey we should go home. Aiden is running around in his long pajamas with cowboy boots on. We really look like the family from "Raising Arizona". I think we should have said, "He fell in the pits and cracked his gums on a 4 barrel webber we was using for beer coasters." when I walked in. We would have been helped sooner.

That was Tuesday night. The dentist is saying we just have to wait and see what happens . . . I could have stayed home and figured that out!

reality check

I was in a jr high idea lab at an awesome Youth Specialties convention in Anaheim last weekend. One of the questions brought up by the group had something to do with programming so the forum moderator gave me the mic to give some insight since I was the resident event and programming guy. Age appropriateness is a big issue when you talk with veteran Jr High youth workers. I don’t remember the question or my answer; but what I do remember is what Kurt Johnston said later in that session. We all need reminded from time to time. He basically reminded us all that at the end of the day, students are people too. They also have built in, “does this stink-o-meters”.

Much discussion is had over the attention span of students when it comes to Bible study, small group time, worship elements and teaching. Kurt made the insightful comment that he has students that can play a video game for six hours without wavering in attention. What he alluded to was what we miss sometimes. Students can be just like us in that we all have plenty of attention for the things that we are interested in. I think I could watch all 18 of next Spring “Lost” episodes straight! It has my attention. As I have attended workshops this fall and listened to youth workers I hear frustration when it comes to teaching students. “They just don’t have the attention span” I hear. One goal we had on the Believe tour for many years was to change something in the program flow every 7 minutes for the sake of age appropriateness. We have not completely abandoned that methodology; but now we first ask ourselves, “Can we make this interesting enough to hold for 20 minutes”.

The reality check here as that our students are actually more like us in this way than we care to admit. I do not have this figured out yet with the students I work with on every Wednesday night. It is a constant battle every week to engage students in a way that grabs their attention and holds it. One of the definitions of entertainment is: to grab and hold people’s attention. A scripture is brought to mind when I hear that from Matthew. When Jesus was finished with the Sermon on the Mount scripture says the people were astonished and amazed. Wow! How many small group leaders wish that their students would be astonished and amazed at the Word of God. Here are some of the questions our that the jr high department where I serve are using to help us present the Word of God in the engaging way it deserves:

• Does this message, worship set (insert whatever programming element in question here) engage me in a spiritual way?
• Does this (insert element) come across as relevant to my life/ my student’s lives?
• Am I genuinely excited about this material and what can happen as I encounter students tonight?

We don't have it all figured out yet. I know that the Word of God is alive, active, breathing and sharp. The question is not in weather or not the word of God is effective. It is. The missing link is sometimes in how we present the Word to our students. It is a struggle and as long as I am wrestling with it I know I am taking it seriously.

Florida trip

This has been a crazy past few days. I flew from California Youth Specialties to “Inside Out Orlando” on Sunday. “Inside Out Orlando” was a CD release party for Robert Pierre, an artist on our tour. Robert has been doing a great job at Believe this year singing. His new album, Inside Out, comes out tomorrow across the country. Justin Lookadoo was the main speaker and I got to play Ryan Seacrest and MC the event. It was a great event at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. Today we got tickets from a friend (Thanks Bruce Humphrey!) to MGM Studios. Jen got called on to help with one of those street dance teams. It was priceless if you know Jen  Jen got to come with me and it has been great to spend time with just her; but we miss our boys and can’t wait to get home.

YS in CA

I am in California today at a Youth Specialties Conference exhibiting for Believe.  It has been great to see youth leaders from all over the country who come to Believe conferences and see thier excitement about this year's tour.  Portland Believe is around coming up soon!  See you all there.

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