Basketball

Went to see my pal Kelsey's basketball game tonight and it turns out she's playing Chelsea and Rebeccah's team. Ugh, now that's just cruel. Chelsea brings the ball down the court and who does she go up against? None other than Kelsey. Who am I supposed to cheer for? Huh?

The Jimtown Jimmies took the game tonight over John Young. It was fun hanging out with Kelsey's mom. She's a riot. Good times. Good times. While I was there I did get to show off my basketball wound. Two days into playing basketball and I already have a injury, what is that? My poor little pinkie is bruised and swollen. Looks kind of like a purple popsicle. I love showing it to people and hearing the "Ewww, what did you do?" I didn't know I enjoyed sympathy so much, even if it's just for my poor little pinkie.

Ruth - The Band

Corey "the Mann" hooked Oasis up with a band on Wednesday night. Warning...Good Times Ahead!

Weekend Recap

FRIDAY
Friday morning I hit the court running...literally. Theresa invited me to play basketball with some of her friends. I had a GREAT time for a number of reasons. Because...
1. I love basketball.
2. Theresa's friends are cool nondramatic women who kick tail (mostly my tail) at basketball.
3. I love to exercise without realizing I'm exercising. On the court, I'm just having fun. On the treadmill, I'm working out. I like having fun, I don't like working out.

I know this sounds disgusting, but I was drenched in sweat when I was done and actually had a smile on my face. I found out full court basketball for an hour can give you quite the workout. They play three times a week. I hope I stick with it...I hope they stick with it. If that happens, it's exactly what I've been looking for.

Friday night some leaders and I went to see Kasie and Corey's high school play. I'm not huge on plays, but this one was awesome and funny. They did an incredible job. Afterwards a bunch of us went out to dinner at Chili's. The dinner was expensive but the chips were good...and the company, even better.

SATURDAY
I spent all day Saturday with Seth and the Five Star Crew in Chicago. A great time was had by all. In the beginning I didn't think it was going to be possible to make the seven girls I had all happy, but with a little strategic planning at the lunch table we pulled it off. The only regret was the $7 we all paid for the "Fun House" at Navy Pier. The Fun House was not so fun. My only other purchase was for "Jesus" bandaids. They were so ridiculously stupid I had to buy them.

I loved hanging with the girls. They're pretty amazing. More and more I realize the truth in Jeanne Mayo's statment "He/she who spends the most time wins." I want that to become the culture of our youth ministry and its leaders. I now have two of the girls in my group coming to Oasis without me ever inviting them, just their friends. Totally cool!

Saturday night I took a student to see "The Ultimate Gift". It was pretty good. I'd give it 4 of 5 stars. It's got a chick flick feel and a couple of great clips I'll one day use. I admit it ... I cried twice. I'm not sure if it was because of the movie or the fact that my muscles were screaming from Friday's workout and Saturday's shopping.

SUNDAY
Went to church Sunday morning 3rd service. I think 90% of GCC's forgot about the time change since 3rd Service was unusually packed. Mark did an amazing job and the video at the beginning was absolutely hilarious. I loved it! Afterwards, I went to lunch with my dad, sister and a couple of students, checked out a house and hit Lifeline. I had a whole entourage up in my office afterwards. It was fun catching up with some of my pals. We've got some of the most amazing students...EVER!

One Sweet Message and Other Stuff

Last Weekend
Last weekend (March 3-4), Rob knocked it out of the park...way out of the park. You can listen to the message here for a couple more days. The Domino Video at the end was sweet. In fact, it was right up there with Rob Bell's Nooma Videos. You've got to watch it.

Conference Call
Today on a conference call with youth pastors around he nation, I was counting my blessings. They were asking the question, "How do we become more missional?" I'm grateful that we've got that one covered, that it's part of our DNA.

Random stuff geeks like me only care about...
30% of our regular students are from Granger
29% from Mishawaka
14% from South Bend
7% from Osceola
6% from Elkhart
6% from Niles
4% from Edwardsburg
4% from various other places

Regular attendees (defined as making 5 of the last 8 Oasis) = 75%
(it could actually be higher, 2 of the 8 we had horrible weather)

Maximum Impact

There are way too many plays, games and concerts to go to given the number of students in our ministry. So, I've boiled it down to three priorities...

1. Jamborees and invitationals where all of our key schools play each other at one central location.
2. Any activity that our high school leaders are in that I find out about. If it's a sport, I at least try and hit one game/meet a year.
3. Any event where a student looks me in the eye and invites me to come.

Last month it was the ISSMA competition at Elkhart Central, this month it was the Wrestling Invitational at Grissom (#1). Last Saturday was Kara's play and this Saturday is Kasie's play (#2). And Friday night will be the middle school play at Discovery (#3).

It was cool seeing all the wrestlers. Our guys did well. However, it was hard to figure out who to cheer for. I have a feeling I might of cheered for an Oasis guy I knew who was competing against an Oasis guy I didn't know. So, about half way through I just started smiling and hoping for the best. After the match, I decided that was my time to go over and give personal encouragement.

John Young took the championship with Grissom coming in a close second. It went right down to the wire.

I had a good time. However, I can't get out of my head one of our students, had we not been there, had no one to cheer him on. Currently he's grounded from Oasis and outside activities for getting into trouble at home. I'm worried about him.

That's one for the encouragement file!

Jeanne Mayo has taught me a lot of things, but one that sticks out in my mind the most is that, when necessary, to ask for encouragement instead of waiting for it. I always need it and I know my leaders always need it. So when a dad came up to me tonight and was bragging on Oasis and the leaders, I asked him if he wouldn't mind saying it again in an email so that I could forward it to my leaders. His words were priceless! Now, I could of tried summarizing it for them, but if it came from him directly it would mean so much more. He went home and did just that. While I removed the names, here's what he had to say...


Dear Judy,

My wife and I want to say thank you for the ministry of Oasis. When we moved here from out of state, our biggest concern was how would our son adjust to the change. God has done so much to help him navigate the transition, but more than anything God has used Oasis to make this new place his new home. He is a sensitive kid and he can sniff out, fairly quickly, "mean" people or people who just don't care. At Oasis, he feels loved authentically and unconditionally. That is, he is accepted as that unique guy that he is. Oasis is fun for him--he insists that we bring him at 4:45 each Wednesday so he can have lots of hang out time and I don't think he has missed an activity since we moved here--but it is more than just fun. The middle school ministry at GCC is transformational for him. He is uplifted, challenged and changed through the worship, teaching and interaction. And by the way, he thought his first experience recently at the Monday night Bible study was "awesome."

Thanks to you and your team for providing normal (read "not religious stick-in-the-mud out of touch with the real world"), crazy, authentic, passionate leadership for him and thank you for helping him to connect with God through worship, scripture, community and outreach. Because you follow Jesus with your whole heart, he is learning how to be a fully-devoted follower of Jesus. As parents, we could not ask for more.

By the way, this is not mere flattery. I waited months to share this because I wanted to see if what you are doing stood the test of time. Any parent or child can be excited about a ministry after an initial impression or just a few weeks, but its the long haul that matters. Accordingly, the fire in him for Oasis, and more importantly for Christ, just grows stronger each week. What you are doing is for real and you are making a lasting difference! Be encouraged because God is using you in the lives of others.

Thanks for the sacrifices you make for all the kids, but especially for the most important kid to us--our son.

THE GIFT - Score

I love it! All the ministries across the church - adult, children, student and college aged - are on the same page. We're all talking about our upcoming opportunity to expand our church and reach out to the community to impact more people (through buying the rest of a city block in the downtown area and adding a commons area and childrens space to our church). We all have differrent names for the series, but all pretty much land on answering and praying through the question "How is God calling me to use my time, talent and resources to affect eternity?"

In Oasis, I wanted to make this an extra special series - something different. Frankly, I'm kind of getting tired of the whole preach a message and walk through some discussion questions "in hope that they'll take what they've heard/talked about and apply it to their lives." It's not bad, we've got hundreds of students that have been impacted in that way. I just think sometimes students need a little extra jump start. So, here's the twist for this series. We've allocated to every breakout group $120 (a total of $1,440). As a group (they can split it by gender if they want), they have to figure out a way to bless others. The only stipulations are that they have to work on it during their breakout group time, it can't involve an event (we are in a six week event blackout so we everyone can concentrate on the campaign) and they can't use more than the money that's been allocated. They are however invited to use their time, talent and resources creatively. In fact, the last week, we will do a video extravaganza of 1-2 minutes summaries of each group and award trophies.

I had no idea had excited the leaders would be about this. They are totally stoked. They all want to bend the rules to make it the coolest thing ever, but I've been keeping them in line. We've got everything from fleece hats being made for babies after they leave the hospital to canvas paintings for nursing homes going on. Fun stuff.

I'm Officially Homeless

Well kinda. I sold my house today!!!!!!! It's a great home, but it's time to move on. It feels like I just moved in yesterday, but it actually was 14 years ago. People have been asking what my plans are now. I have none. I'm still looking for a house to buy or land to build on. I'm pretty picky, that's a problem. The people that bought my house don't want to close on it until the end of May, so I have some time. If not, there's always dad's house for the in between times. However, while I totally love my parents, the thought of moving in with one of them doesn't amuse me. In fact, I think I'll go check realtor.com right now.

Mediocrity Attacks Excellence

At GCC we model excellence (not perfection, but excellence ... doing the very, very best with what you've been given). On occasion we take hits for it. A friend passed this quote along to me that will be a helpful reminder when the arrows start flying.

"Mediocrity attacks excellence."
This is because the person doing a mediocre job looks at those doing excellent and feels he/she should be dong that but is not. They make themselves feel better by attacking.

In a funk with great friends

Did you ever have one of those days - where the computer doesn't want to compute, the printer doesn't want to print, the cutter doesn't want to cut, you forget the post office thinks they should have President's Day off and, if that's not enough, you have these killer professionally printed postcards only to find out the ink is rubbing off on your hands? Basically, where it feels like EVERYTHING takes three times longer than it should, NOTHING is coming out like it should and it's just about ready to DRVE you nuts. That was earlier today.

Fortunately, my day did not end that way. I spent a couple hours this evening with some of my favorite people - Ruby, Jeanna, Jerica, Jeremy and Jason. Over eggs, pancakes and postcards, we laughed and we laughed a lot ... and then we prayed.

Hard days are easier when you're surrounded by great friends.

Too Old for the Terrain Park? I don't think so!

So, got the phone call on Thursday and decided to play hooky on Friday (not really, just decided to work Saturday instead). Roxanne called and asked if I wanted to go skiing the next day. I was cold at the moment and my first instinct was to say "no". But then I remembered that I was no pansy and that it would be fun ... and fun it was. We went old skool and hit the ditch (Swiss Valley). It was beautiful - the sun kept it feeling much warmer than the temperature guage recorded.

The funny part was her and I at the top of the Terrain Park (or whatever it's called where snowboarders look like they are trying to commit suicide). At the bottom was this little two foot jump that if you hit it just right would give you enough air that you felt a little on the extreme side, but not so much that your life would flash before your eyes. We went around all the other obstacles and must of hit that thing a half a dozen times. It was pretty funny, we were like two giggling school girls. So amongst these young bucks, stood two 40+ year olds having the time of their life.

Ouch - That Hurt

The last two days were great days - kinda. In great anticipation that they would not cancel school for a third day, I sat down to type up the message that had been marinating in my mind for a couple of days. Becasue of the marinating, it came easy. I had most of it typed up in a couple of hours. Basically, it was a message about "The Road to the Super Bowl." In it was a bunch of cool ties to the God's Word, the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy. I had it all mapped out. When our flight touched down at 1 p.m., I only had a little editing to do to the message and Eagle's Nest Guide, all of which I had done by 3 p.m. Then, some how the most horrific thing that could possilby happen ... happened. I saved the Eagle's Nest Guide right on top of the message and lost it. The unrecoversable...lost it. Admittedly I was stressed for about an hour and then Jesus and I had a one-on-one. It all worked out!

Bring on the Heat

Didn't get a chance to go to the Super Bowl, but did go to the Miami Heat basketball game against the Charolette Bobcats tonight. Dwayne Wade was amazing, the Shaq on the other hand seemed kind of lethargic. Good times, good times.

When we arrived Sunday night, it was like trying to break into Fort Knox. The hotel was swarmed with security and all roads into the hotel were blocked off by police except one. Up until then, I had never had my car searched in order to check into a hotel. There are first for everything. It was kind of fun. In order to get into the hotel, your name had to be on a list, at which time you were issued a a purple silicone wrist band. I wanted to enlighten them and tell them how the majority of junior high students in America has at least five purple silicone wrist bands, but they looked way to serious. ESPN had one floor, the Miami Police another and there were a bunch of old football players and coaches in between.

I wish I was up on my football players. I think I had breakfast in the concierge lounge next to Steve Young. If I was into autographs, I could have had a good time in the lobby Monday morning at check out. All and all, things in Miami have been fun. The highlights have been lots of sleep, 75 degree weather, the Colts win, the Miami Heat game, mastering the Metro People Mover, hanging at the Bayside Marketplace and getting 50% off NFL stuff for Oasis.

Articles

I've now had three internet articles published, which is kinda cool. However, if I had the time to write five more, these are the subjects I'd choose. I'd write them, but just thinking about them makes my head hurt. They've been whirling around in my brain for a couple of weeks now.
1. Balancing Statements - Be careful how you speak when you can influence how others think.
2. Rebellious Spirit - Recognizing when it rears its ugly head in others and in yourself.
3. Lending People Your Status - We're not so different than India.
4. Everyone needs a coach who believes in them - And when you find yours, it makes all the difference in the world.
5. Women in Ministry - What you need to know about them.

Where did the headlights go?

It was back to the ER tonight. My nieces's heart rate is still elevated four days after the accident. It's in the 120's and 130's just standing up, evidently that's not good. Doc says that her heart is probably bruised and she needs to see a cardiologist. After getting the pic of her car, I could see how that might of happened. The blessing and curse of seatbelts.

There's a Rumble Strips sermon illustration in here somewhere for the Oasis series that starts tomorrow night.

Kenya at the end of the year

So word is getting out that some friends and I are going to Kenya at the end of the year. The weird thing is how many random people want to go with us. Personally, I've had over a dozen requests. We're going to hold off on all that though. It's just gong to be an "exploratory" trip. I think it will be about six or seven that I've been doing life with on Monday nights. It should be pretty amazing - a mix of a whole lot of intense ministry and little bit of safarai. The cool thing is the number of connections we are getting from the oddest places. It's the craziest thing.

Off to the SuperBowl...kinda

Just purchased airline tickets to Florida leaving late Saturday through early Wednesday. My sister is working down in Florida where some of the SuperBowl big dawgs are staying. I'm hoping free tickets are coming. If not, it will be a great three days on the beach.

PURE GOLD

Went to Elkhart Central for the ISMA competition on Saturday. Wow. Didn't realize how many of our students I'd run into there...middle school and high school. I'll have to put this on the calendar from here on out.

A Night in the ER

I was sooo looking forward to it! It's the first chance I had in months to sleep until I can't sleep anymore, but it was not to be. I got the call at 1 a.m. that my niece had been in a pretty serious car accident. They took her by ambulance to Elkhart General where they did x-rays, but it appeared to be just some bruising (thank you Jesus for seatbelts and airbags) and a possible broken nose. They sent her home with prescriptions for muscle relaxers and pain. Unfortunately she passed out in the car on the way home after she and her dad stopped at CVS. It was off to Memorial. I met them there at 2 a.m. and the whole process took until noon. While it took forever, Memorial was good and thorough. Turns out she had elevated muscle enzymes (whatever that means), a pretty rapid heartbeat and a kidney infection she didn't know about. After a boatload of IV bags, she was good to go...sore, but good to go.

THE LESSON: I've talked forever about leaders breathing life into their students and the importance of making them feel comfortable. I haven't been on the other end of it in quite awhile though. The entire staff was great at Memorial and all were friendly...except one (she was great, just not friendly - more like ice). It reminded me that we can have an exceptional program, be really good at the stage stuff, but if we are sub-par when it comes to our "friendliness factor" the stage stuff really doesn't matter so much. I'm grateful for the work the Mark W., Shelly, Julie, Susan and the team do to make our church rank high on the "friendliness factor". I'm grateful for what our Oasis team does as well, but am on a mission to take it to a new level. While the saying is getting kind of old, it really is true that "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Willow Creek

I'm at Willow for a couple of days with 20+ junior high pastors from around the midwest. It's been pretty amazing. Scott and Jason are hosting and doing a superb job. I love their humility. It's pretty incredible.

We started out yesterday by getting to know each other, sharing info but no ministry numbers (I like that). We ended the first night at New Community with Dr. B. I absolutely loved how Bill Hybels intro'ed his friend. It was "a moment". Dr. B talked about community and oneness. Two random points I wrote down.
1. God's first command to man - go and multiply.
Jesus last command to man - go and multiply.
Church is a human invention if it has no community.
2. It is better for there to be no lighthouse than a lighthouse with no light. Wow.

Today we finished the introductions and decided on three topics to discuss.

The first one, "spiritual formation", was pretty deep - kinda of made my head hurt...in a good way. I came away with more conviction than ever to figure out some quantitative measures - not to determine our success, but our progress. The difficult part will be to determine what the right measurements will be. I need to think about this a whole lot more.

The second topic was on ministering to parents. I got some great ideas and a renewed passion to invest in parents more - both our churched and our unchurched. Good stuff.

We ended tonight at GameWorks were I got lucky and beat a couple of guys in basketball...and then I got smoked.