Warsaw Community Church

There's a great baptism video from Warsaw Community Church here. Looks like their baptism was rained out big time! They definitely did an amazing job with Plan B ... maybe could of used a little deeper pool, but then again how often do you set up a pool in the sanctuary. Loved the video Scott! Definitely dug the way the people said the words to the song.

I'm A Great Aunt

Sarah Gregory was born tonight. Weighing in at 5 lbs 6 ounces. She's just slightly over a foot and half tall (aka 19 inches). Absolutely cannot wait to see her!

Tulsa

Left for Tulsa on Sunday and came home Monday. Let’s just say it was eventful – both in good and bad ways. Delta in the ATL is not winning any awards in my book when it comes to Customer Service. It was good that Jeanne made a last minute trip to Houston; otherwise, she would have never made it to her speaking engagement. I was supposed to meet up with her in Tulsa before her session, but it was not to be – two hours afterwards, I arrived. First flight was cancelled, then thunderstorm delay, and then a late arriving connection.

Crashed and got up for her chapel session, before heading off to a meeting with a youth pastor and his team, then lunch with the youth pastor and his wife, then back to the airport for another two hour delay. Upon leaving the airport, I realized I left my Uncensored book where I made all my filming notes for some small group curriculum in the back of the seat pocket … ugh! I have, let's say, about a zero percent chance of getting it back. If I do, I will so eat my words.

Was it worth it? Yep, here’s why…

1. We were at Billy Joe Daugherty’s church. They just moved into their 34 million dollar building debt free. I thought that was pretty amazing. I didn’t get a chance to meet the pastor, but Jeanne says he’s one of the humblest guys she’s ever met.
2. They had a screen that was 59’ wide. It was stinkin’ huge.
3. It was fun to meet Adam and Ruth Sanders, the youth pastors. Amazing, wonderful people who will be joining us in the Cadre this fall.
4. Jeanne and I have been running so hard and fast, we really haven’t had time to talk…and laugh. We stayed up way too late for the 6:15 a.m. wake up call.
5. We had a great time dreaming on the flight home about the opportunities before us. We also talked heart issues that occur when you leave one ministry and move on to another. Her four decades of experience has left her brilliant.
6. I saw the outside of Church on the Move's "180" multi-million dollar youth facility. From what I’m told, the youth ministry size has shrunk enormously from Blaine Bartel days. Goes to show you it’s not all about the “stuff.” If you don’t have the right people doing the right things, all the bling in the world isn’t going to help.
7. I’ve never been to Oklahoma before. Who wouldn’t want to go to Oklahoma? While I was there I thought of Kara and her play.

MotoQ

Upon my arrival home from Tulsa Oklahoma, my new MotoQ was waiting for me. It looks a little more sophisticated than my cheap Razor. They are "text" crazy here in the ATL and I'm "text" illiterate. My young couterparts can write a whole paragraph by the time I get the first word done. However, now with the full keyboard, I'll show them what lightening fast looks like :) Fun stuff.

An Unforgettable Picture

Seldom, if ever, have I seen a picture that instantly brought tears to my eyes. You can read some of the story behind it here.

Two Weeks Back and MySpace

A great friend and former youth pastor, Scott Greene, went back to high school for two weeks last year and has posted some MUST READ advice for parents here. Scott is at Warsaw Community Church in Warsaw, IN.

I'm officially on myspace. Based on Marko's blog, it's preferred over facebook for my ATL demographic.

The Famous You Tube Video of the Marine

Ok, never mind the title, this rap can preach. It has over 443,000 views.

18-22 year olds on AirTran

Since I know a lot of 18-22 year olds, you might find this helpful. AirTran runs somthing call AirTranU that allows 18-22 year olds to fly STANDBY on ANY flight for $69 or $89 (depending on the length of the flight). A flight is defined as one take off and one landing, so if you have to make a connection it's the cost of another flight.

Mega Church

I have a Cadre friend transitioning to youth pastor position at a mega church. He asked for some advice. I didn't reflect too long on my email, but here were some of my thoughts off the top of my head. I did a lot of things well, but some of this stuff I figured out late in the game. I hope he picks it up quicker.

1. Remember everyone is your friend, even if you don't connect well with them … one day you’ll need them. (Ok, so that goes with any job)

2. Don’t tick off housekeeping. Just like in small churches, they are a significant decision-maker in the mega church too. Fortunately at Granger, we had the most incredible housekeeping team on the planet ... seriously, they were amazing.

3. Listen again to the Cadre conference call with Senior Pastor Sam Mayo and do everything he says to do for your senior pastor. (Sorry, most of my readers aren't privy to it. It was really good. I just wished I'd heard it ten years ago).

4. Love EVERYONE well (once again, even the ones you don’t have anything in common with). They are all probably running way too hard and fast. Staff growth in mega churches does not usually keep up with numerical growth. Your encouraging words could be all they need to go another leg of the journey.

5. Every chance you get, tell stories of what’s going on in the youth ministry. Numbers are great, but life change stories are better.

6. Work like a dog six days a week, but keep your Sabbath and family a priority. If you do that right, favor will follow.

7. Find your coaches. I had 100 leaders on the roster, with 80 showing up every week. The majority of my time was spent with 12 of them, two groups of six. One was a younger group and one was older. It kind of happened by accident, but I would be strategic about it if I had to do it all over again. Most of them were the leaders of leaders (aka coaches). Then I had another dozen or so “up and comings” that would get some of my time as well, but not as much as the first twelve.

8. I did everything in my power to talk “family” with my leaders. Sometimes in mega churches there is not a real sense of family because of the difficulty in connecting. However, if you can create a “family” environment with your youth group leaders, it will carry them through the valleys of life and ministry ... and create that "small" feel that people often long for.

9. Provide perks for leaders every chance you get. For example, provide awesome childcare for their little ones during youth service. Even if the leader doesn’t want to show up one night, if their kid loves childcare they will beg them to come. Also, if you run a café like we did, give them a couple of free items a night. I would give mine three, the equivalent of $1.50 - $2.50. We would also have incredible food during our leaders meetings.

10. Find ONE person who is trustworthy to vent to (Wayne Cordeiro called them a lightning rod). Don’t vent to your leaders. Don’t vent to your husband/wife if he/she can’t maintain confidentiality. I know way too many people who shared stuff with the wrong person, who in turn vomitted it onto others ... only to have it come back around and bite the leader.

Have a safe trip my friend.
Judy

Oh yeah, number 11. Mega churches typically do a thousand things right and a dozen things wrong. However, because sometimes those dozen things seem glaring, people tend to park on them … help refocus their vision.

A Little Humor

Copied these from Richard Ross' website, some of them are kinda funny.

You Might be a Student Minister If . . .

1. You know over 50 things to do with a lighted candle on a youth trip.
2. You evaluate your youth devotionals by how many cry.
3. Your own children have never worn anything at night except youth trip T-shirts.
4. You haven’t been to Sunday School in 5 years.
5. Your senior pastor pays an amount in income tax equal to your salary.
6. You have recurring nightmares about being driven by teenagers with learners’ permits.
7. You don’t remember to gas the bus before leaving on a 1000 mile youth trip.
8. A sweet, little old lady tells you she is just sure that God is going to call you to the ministry some day.
9. Your idea of worship leadership is a dynamic announcement time.
10. You suddenly discover you are sitting in a McDonald’s without the youth group - and you like the food.
11. Your aunt still asks you what you are going to do when you grow up.
12. You have washed every car in town but your own.
13. Your office staff moves morning coffee break down to 10:00 AM so you can be there.
14. The only golf you have ever played is miniature golf.
15. At camp you find your razor dull from head shaves.
16. You understand that going out to pick up the morning paper means gathering toilet paper.
17. You accidentally plan a lock-in the night of your wedding anniversary, but promise your spouse you will make it a special evening together any way.
18. Your only close friend outside the church is the pizza delivery guy.
19. Your office still has the hooks on the walls where the mops once hung.
20. When you announce to parents when the youth group will be getting back to the church, they just chuckle.
21. You collect permission forms to go on a family vacation.
22. Your keys weigh more than your children.
23. You know that "Blue Flame" is not a restaurant.
24. You get a little thrill when you see a sign that says, "Bus drivers eat free."
25. Your first question to new church members is, "Do you own a mini-van?"
26. You've ever used pimple cures as an illustration in a Bible study. 27. You have ever been inclined to violence when someone greets you returning from youth camp with "how was your vacation?"

Oxygen Last Night

Alex spoke at Oxygen last night on Rejection and absolutely nailed it! I'll try and post some notes later. Afterwards a bunch of us went out for pizza at Fellini's in Decatur. I spent most of my time talking with Hoi. Hoi's mom is from Tonga and his dad is from Samoa. His mom works for the United Nations and travels globally. It sounds like her job is life-changing and, in the midst of it all, she's raising three great sons.

Uncensored and General Council

I've only been in Atlanta 5 weeks and already got my name in a book (Jeanne's Uncensored). How cool is that? Ok, it's only on the "Thanks" page, but still fun stuff:)

General Council in Indy's RCA Dome was fun. Met some great people. Reconnected with my Cadre peeps. They are way too cool and so much like family. My sis got to attend the closing session with Jeanne, that was awesome. About 30 of us closed down PF Changs afterward where I got the opportunity to put a face to a voice. Josh Mayo and I have been talking daily in an attempt to help Brett get the youthleaderscoach website up. It's still got some work, but is well on its way.

Jeanne knocked it out of the park in the RCA Dome, which is pretty amazing considering it has the most horrific accoustics (everything echos) and sense of closeness (imagine being the person in the middle of the field trying to penetrate the heart of someone in the upper deck ... good thing that was God's job).

I've come to some conclusions on stuff I saw there...
1. Jeanne spoke about the need for senior pastors to be "dads" to their youth pastors. As I listen to youth pastors across the country, it is so evident that's the cry of their heart. However, I don't think it's limited to youth pastors. I think there are countless people out their longing for a spiritual mom or dad, which is something more than a mentor, coach, etc.

2. There were a lot of really old pastors at the convention and a lot of really young ones. It looked like there may have been a missing age gap in their 40's. Maybe I just missed them, but it made me wonder if the church world burned them out ... I hope I just missed them.

3. I think revival will one day be redefined. Planetshakers sang a revival type song right before Jeanne spoke and it seemed so appropriate. Revival stories in days gone by have centered on a particular location where an outpouring occurred (examples might be with Edwards, Wesley or, more recent days, Kilpatrick). I just have a sense that it's going to look different in the coming days. I feel like we're only beginning to fully realize the multiplication factor that occurs with the holistic linking of arms locally and globally. It's a Pay it Forward strategy - I'll teach you, now you go teach others. I think of what Jeanne is doing with the Cadre, Mark is doing with Innovate, Rob is doing in India, Rick is doing with Purpose Driven...and the list goes on. The beauty is that they are all significally, not loosely, tied to a LOCAL church where they are living life in the trenches. I'm still in the early stages of the thought process on this, but thought I'd throw it out there.

4. Coming from Granger, we've always championed and done well with the reclaiming of the arts for the glory of God. I don't know how well it's doing with big church, but the Assemblies of God is knocking it out of the park in this area when it comes to its young people. They do this thing called "Fine Arts" where kids from all over the country compete on a state level, then national level, in categories like drama, human videos, short sermons, long sermons, a gazillion music categories, etc. It's like Indiana's ISSMA (a public school competition for bands and choirs) on steroids, with the sole purpose of glorifying God. I'm told that some churches take it way too serious (they lose sight of the purpose), but from an outsider looking in ... it was amazing ... seriously, amazing!

Hot off the Press

Jeanne's new book - Uncensored - came out yesterday!!!!! If you have a teenager, it's a must read.  It's straight talk on Dating, Friendships and Sex.  Some of the chapter titles totally crack me up.  I've read too many dating books when it comes to sermon prep, most of which bored me to death.  This one is series worthy!

That's a lot of emails

Technology...it's a crazy thing. I've been officially in Atlanta one month, 23 working days. During that time I've sent and received a totally of 933 emails. Maybe a dozen of them were personal...maybe. That's 40 per working day.

I don't want to sound old, but I remember when we didn't have email. In fact, we didn't have personal computers. I took one of the first computer classes offered at Penn High School. And, every once in awhile when the computer was acting up my teacher would pick up the corner of it and drop it to make it start working again. Hmmmm. We've come a long way baby!