The Gathering Part Duex

What a great morning and afternoon!

We drove out to Saddleback and began our time together by identifying our passion for being part of the PDYM Community. Doug highlighted 5 c's (which he admitted he made up minutes before initially speaking on them--He must be a youth pastor!)

Commitment to the 5 Purposes
Connection with other Youth Workers
"Check us out" Attitude (not out of pride but out of example)
Creation of PD Resources
Communicate PDYM Locally and Globally - one of my passions!

Following this time and after lunch, we learned from Greg Stier from Dare2Share - a ministry focused on helping Student Ministries implement an Evangelism Strategy. He was great as a speaker, but even better as a communicator of his Heart. I now have an even stronger sense of urgency to bring this into the Flood

Now I prepare for an evening at Downtown Disney and ESPNZone for dinner. AWESOME!

The Gathering Part 1

It is the eve of Night 1 of the Gathering. I thought first I would explain why I am here, and then tell you a bit about my experience.

What is the Gathering? Good question. Basically Doug Fields, A Youth pastor from Saddleback Church, one of the leading churches in the world, hosts a "gathering" of about 30 youth pastors from around the country. It is all based on Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, a model and Biblical basis of how to run a youth ministry.

Why am I here? Another good question. When I find out, I'll tell you. Basically I feel like a small fish playing with the Big Dogs (Did I mess up that expression?) These youth pastors are basically the best of the best in the country, so how did I get here again?

What am I doing? Well tonight we kicked it off by going to Doug's home for dinner and meet and greet. Now picture this-Your hero or favorite sports star or actor invotes you to his or her house. That is how I felt. Even though Doug Fields may not be a name you recognize, He is like a mentor to me--like a celebrity, so it was pretty overwhelming to eat in his house, talk with him, and to just be in this environment. I am pretty excited!

More tommorw, but they don't tell us much of anything of the agenda!

The eve of my California trip...

I am getting ready to head out to the LA/Orange County area on California, and I am sure it will be good to meet with some great Youth Pastors and learn a lot.

But.

I am sad, becasue, Jaime has decided not to go. Colin has been screaming uncontrolably the last few days and she can't bear to leave him. I feel guilty for leaving her, but she want's me to go. So, if you read this blog, give her a call this week. She really needs it!

Sanctuary...A Night of Worship

Toinight at the Flood we had a Sanctuary "preview" night. I feel it went pretty well, and that God was truly praised. It was different from most Wednesday nights, but I think it was a good change.

We got rid of the tables for the night and had a slightly different atmosphere with the announcements and things. We bagan our time of whorship with the Phos Hilaron (oldest hymn) with the entrance of the center candle, representing Christ's presence. Then as we sang and worshipped throughout the night everyone had the oportunity to light their own candle off of the Main Candle representing Christ's presence in us. Overall, I think it was quite effective and allowing each individual to focus in connection with Christ. I am excited to continue these events, to worship God in a community.

Next week is See You At The Pole so prepare now to participate next Wednesday at 7 AM, and come in the evening to hear stories of what God is doing in each of our lives!

Stephen Baldwin on Today Show

Jaime recorded the Today show for me to watch becasue actor Stephen Baldwin was on talking about his new book. The cool thing here is that Stephen recently (like 5 years ago or so) became a Christian and the book is his story of his pathway to Christ. I thought it was great when Baldwin "called out" other Christians in the spotlight, like Bono of U2. He basically said that he needed to take a few minutes at their concerts and share the gospel and how much of an impact for Christ he could have! It was actually pretty good.

You can check out the interview at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8004316/ and then find the link below. I don't know how long they keep their videos, but this is a good one to see his heart!

MySpace:GodSpace Week 2

Just a recap of tonights message at the Flood

Tonight we continued on with our topic about Worship--When My Space meets God's Space. We truely worship God when everything about me is all about bringing glory to God.

We talked about some of the roadblocks that keep us from Worshiping God.

1. We don't spend time with God. Basically if we are not taking time out to be with God, we will miss out on some awesome connection with Him.

2. We Block God from our life with Sin. Sometimes we actually choose not to worship God and many times it is because we desire sin instead of what God has to offer.

3. We don't Accept His invitation. Just like in Myspace, we can't communicate with God if we haven;t accepted his invite. He wants to be in a relationship with us and all we need to do is say Yes to Him.

4. We don't know Him Personally Many times I've seen students trick themselves into thinking they were a Christian because they did Christian things. We only know about God when we attend church or camp or things like that. We get to know Him personally when we spend time with Him and accept the Salvation He offers through Jesus Christ.

Network Lunch

I love to be ina room with a whole bunch of like minded people--people who love God and like students as much as me. That is why I had a good time today at the Project311 Metro Detroit Lunch. I enjoy meeting new people just as involved in this crazy game called student ministry, as well as free food.
I meet some good people like Jacob who is running a HUGE youth ministry in the middle of nowhere. Also, I got to reconnect with some guys that I have met once or twice, like Brian, Dave, and Barry. I even have another get together with a couple new guys to start connecting on some other larger events and just learning from each other.

I also got to hear from some vetran youth workers like Tom and Keith--both doing youth ministry for over 30 years! I only hope that in the year 2030 I can be as encoraging as they were!

Thanks to Jason (see his blog off to the right there...) for putting this together. I know it can be a headache sometimes, but I enjoyed it and know that it was worth my time!

New Year...New Series...Everything felt New.

We just kicked off a new season of the Flood, High School Ministry at Lakeside. Everything felt new. I mean, we have a whole slew of things that are new this year, from the CORE team, to the Jones Lounge, to the Deep End, but I didn't expect this to feel this different. I liked the atmosphere, and I think we are in for a good year with the Flood.

The serties we just started is called "Myspace:Godspace - where do they meet?" The concept is that Worship is when My Space meets God's space. We worship God when our normal everyday life (Romans 12:1-2) and everything that makes us unique connects with God's purpose for our lives.

I am excited for Next Week becasue we will be looking at things that get in the way of that connection. We will be looking at a great story from Exodus where the Israelites creat a golden Calf to worship while Moses is off chatting with God.

The in 2 weeks we will be holding a special Sanctuary (Thats from an old flyer, but same theme...) where we spedn the entire night experiencing worship of our God. It will be great!

Getting set for California!

I just finished most of my arrangements for Jaime and I to go to CA later this month. We will be flying out Monday morning, and returning Saturday evening. I am very excited to go becasue I get to hang out with some great (I am sure they are great, even though I have never meet most of them) Youth Pastors from around the country and discuss Youth Ministry. To most this may seem like a boring way to spend a week in California, but when you are as passionate about Youth Ministry as I am (and they others that will be there) You would be excited too!


All of this is hosted by PDYM (or Purpose Driven Youth Ministry) community under Doug Field's leadership. He is the youth pastor for a huge church in California named Saddleback Church and is basically where I developed my philosphy for Youth Ministry.

I am very excited!