Vacation

Wow! It has been a really, really long time since I last posted. I am actually ashamed.

Anyway...summer was really busy for me. I am actually glad that summer is over. I have never in my life said that before, but I am glad. We took vacation this past week. Did not plan much other then taking the boys to Roaring Springs. While the water and the sun began to get a bit old for me, our boys were in heaven. We go back to work on Tuesday. I did not get as much relaxation as I wanted, but it has been good.

I have pretty much decided that my mini retreat will be in the mountains for two nights rather then a monostary. Much more secluded and much cheaper. I am really hoping to make this a quarterly event in my life. I just need to get Chris to see the importance of it.

Well, hopefully I am back for good here. Let's see where we go from here.

A thought from someone.

A radical faith requires an abondonment that most of us are uncomfortable with because ultimately we desire security and stability in our circumstances and personal pursuits more than we desire security and stability in our Creator and passionate pursuit of God, himself.

A thought

Jesus was a man of truth with nothing false about him. I wonder what that means for me?

junior high camp

So I just got back from junior high camp. There were 262 campers there. Let me tell you that is a lot of junior highers. I continue to be surprised by how many junior highers are trying to "hook up." It continues to suprise me how young this begins.

I learned something about myself again this week. I am really afraid of failure. I was one of the directors for this camp and I was really terrified that it was going to be a bomb. Turned out it went really well, but I should work on this fear of failure thing.

interesting quote

‘In times of change
the learners
will inherit the earth,
while the knowers
will find themselves
beautifully equipped
to deal with a world
that no longer exists’
-Eric Hoffer

Reading

I have obviously not done very well at posting everyday. I have not done a very good job of reading lately either. I am tyring to become more disciplined about this. Right now I am reading Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones. I found it rather interesting that Tony's book is being sold with Doug Fields book Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry. Mainly because these two guys are totally different and I just never really pictured them being sold together.

Summer

Summer is here and it is going full force. I have found that things really sneak up on me. Like senior high camp and a four day hike. Both of which are right around the corner. Wow!! Summer is going to be a blur.

St. Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within. May you trust
God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget
the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those
gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given
to you.... May you be content knowing you are a child of God.... Let
this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom
to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of
us.

Do you ever feel like stuff was just totally screwed up? Feel like things are just spinning way out of control? That is where I am at right now. Why are things going so fast? Why do I feel so lost? What in the world am I doing? How do I slow it down? How do I gain control? Do I gain control?

Dodgeball update

I hate to admit it but we have been doing a less then stellar job at winning dodgeball. Our team "Rotor cups" is now 1-3.

Interesting Quote

Study after study in the field of youth development makes it clear that the single most important thing that can make a positive difference in the life of a young person is the presence of a caring adult. In spite of that, research shows that most young people don't have enough caring adults in their lives.

from: Contemplative Youth Ministry; Practicing the presence of Jesus

District Assembly

We had our district assembly this week. While I enjoy most of it, there are certainly parts that I really don't care for. One of those is NOT listening to the general superintendent preach. Man, the dude can really preach. He certainly moved me and made me think quite a bit about how I interact with people that I just run across or that I see on a regular basis. He said that we have opportunities to share to love, but they are usually only 1-3 minutes long. It is true. Think about the contacts that you have on a daily basis. In those moments we are able to love as Christ, not cramming stuff down peoples throats, but loving and sharing when the time is right. Dude nailed it.

I found it funny that people noticed when I was not in the assembly. They even gave me a hard time about it. The funny thing is that most of the time when I was not in there, I was out talking to other youth pastors. I am thankful though that Jon never gave me a hard time about it. As a matter of fact, he was pretty cool about it. Guess he has been to enough assemblies to understand.

The whole time we were there, my thighs hurt. You will never guess from what. DODGEBALL!!!!! It comes again this Tuesday. I am confident that we will walk away victorious, or the other team will not walk away.... that was a joke.

20 ways to be left alone at work

1. Grab your phone when it isn’t ringing and scream, “Stop taunting me like this!”
2. Show up doused in White Out. Tell everyone you’re just trying to cover your past mistakes.
3. Announce that tomorrow you will bring fruit salad for the entire office. Use durian.
4. Add, “Please see attachments,” to every email you send. Include JPGs of Captain Crunch or He-Man.
5. Learn to whistle through your nose. Deny doing it.
6. Announce in a worried tone that your pet Hobo spider is missing.
7. Ask Human Resources what their policy is on chronic bedwetters.
8. When asked what you did on vacation, reply sincerely, “Visiting the holy sites of Waco, Texas and Lincoln, Montana . And some golf.”
9. Scream at the copy machine, “You call this a reproduction? This is crap! Get your act together or you’re out of a job, mister.”
10. At your performance review, state that your five-year goals include interpretive dance lessons for the upper management.
11. Practice polytonal throat singing like the Tibetan monks do. Chant all meeting notices this way.
12. Show up early to lunch and bend all the spoons in the cafeteria. When coworkers arrive, hold a spoon up to your forehead and concentrate.
13. Ask how the fax machine works. When informed, look stunned and well up with tears. Walk away silently, shaking your head.
14. Ride a Galapagos Tortoise through the office.
15. Wear a black suit and stick hundreds of white threads all over it. Pretend not to notice. When it’s pointed out, remove only one and thank the person profusely for saving you from embarrassment.
16. Do the Time Warp at your desk at 17 minute intervals.
17. Keep a bowl of dog biscuits at your desk. Offer one to anyone who comes to your desk.
18. Demand equal rights for all legless employees. When it’s pointed out that you have legs, call them lowlife bigots.
19. When a coworker uncaps a marker, act extremely high. Hallucinate and scratch your forearms.
20. Put up a flyer announcing gender change operations to be performed in your cubicle all week. Discount for employees with promotional codes.

Encounters

So every Tuesday afternoon, as soon as staff meeting is over, I have had an encounter. It has been in the same place for about the last month and a half or two months. Each time I have walked away from this encounter with my head held low, kind of shuffling my feet. Until today. Today I had a little skip in my step. No, that is not an adequate description. Today I was bouncing off the stinkn' walls.

See, I have been playing our associate pastor, Lennie, in a game of foosball every Tuesday. Now you have to understand, Lennie is a really, really good foosball player. We have played an average of 4 games each time. And I have lost every one. The closest I ever got was to eight points. He beat me that game.

TODAY WAS THE DAY!!! I beat Lennie 10 to 9. I was pretty excited. I have ruffled his feathers. Then he came back and beat me one more time. But you know what? I beat him. That is all I really care about. It will come again.

Sadly I don't think the new web browser is "gonig" to help me with my spelling.

Dodgeball

DODGEBALL!!!!!!! It begins tonight. I am so excited.

I am really, really excited. I just changed my web browser to Fireox and this is really gonig to make things much easieir for me when it comes to my blog and linking stuff. YEAH!!!!

tp

’m not quite coming up with the perfect ministry use for custom-printed toilet paper at this moment, but i’m sure there is one.

I feel official!!

I found out something really exciting today. It is official; I have an audience!! I cant’ tell you how excited I am about that. Guess I have to get “serious” about this thing now that I am “official”. O.K., probably not the whole "serious" thing, or the whole "official" thing. But I am still excited.

I am now in the last week of school for a while and I am equally excited about that!! To top it off, I am pretty sure that I am going to pass both of my classes. SWEET!!!!

What am I reading or getting ready to read as soon as this week is up?

Would really like to finish Blue Like Jazz and A New Kind of Christian. I have been reading some of the Devotional Classics published by Richard Foster.

Speaking of Richard Foster, I was pleased to see how he weighed in on the topic of homosexuality in his book, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life. Here is what he says,
“Because this issue has wounded so many people, the first word that needs to be spoken is one of compassion and
healing. Those who are clearly homosexual in their orientation often feel misunderstood, stereotyped, abused, and
rejected. Those who believe that homosexuality is a clear affront to biblical norms feel betrayed by denominations that
what to legislate homosexuality into church life.
There is a third group that has been hurt by the contemporary battle over homosexuality: I refer to those who agonize
over their own sexual identity, those who feel torn by conflicting sexual urges and wonder if perhaps they are latent
homosexuals. Perhaps this group suffers the most. They are cast into a sea of ambiguity because the Church has given
an uncertain sound. On their right, they hear shrill denunciations of homosexuality and, though they appreciate the
compassionate concern for the oppressed, they are astonished at the way the Bible is maneuvered to fit a more
accommodating posture.
All who are caught in the cultural and ecclesiastical chaos over homosexuality need our compassion and
understanding”.