I Bet Somebody Cares

I killed a podcast.

2008-07-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

Today I listened to the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast and I think I killed it.

Doug and the "friends" hadn't really looked at the emails and it seemed they were pretty much reading them cold, on the air. At the very end, Doug said, "Here's one from Ken, he's a friend of ours and a PDYM mentor so I am sure this is safe to read..."

You see I had written this email as a joke and was being very sarcastic, and most likely knew it wouldn't be read on the air, but just by Josh and possibly Doug and it was a joke...but then they read it and the mood just died for the podcast. Oops.

Now I feel embarrassed, especially since I'll see them in a few months...

Student Ministry Class of 2008

2008-06-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is the First Class I have seen from their first experience with the Youth Ministry. I just started at the church when they were entering 7th Grade! What an awesome experience!!!

Busy Weekend...

2008-06-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was awesome, although it was a little crazy busy!

Friday I spent the whole day with one of our musicians (from Lakeside) at the Red Wing's Stanley Cup Parade. I really didn't have the time (as you may figure out later) but I thought it was a once in a lifetime oportunity and I convinced myself it was ministry (cause I was hanging out with one of my band members...)

The Sunday I not only led Worship, but also taught the message because it was the Sunday we dedicate to our student ministry. Also, I had to put together a video for our senior class (in a separate post after this)

In order for the day to not be the Ken Leslie Show, I wanted to make sure to invite some students up to talk, as well as other adult leaders in the ministry. That is super cool, but also requires a little bit of stress, becasue you don't really know if they are going to be prepared or do a good job.

Well, everything said, Sunday was great! Band was prepared, The students and other adult speakers were well prepared and relaxed, I even received some very positive responses on the message.

God is good.

Summer Calendar

2008-05-21T10:54:00.001-07:00

The Student Ministry Summer Calendar has just been put to print and will be available in a few days for students.

I went for the simple details concept. Not too much information, but enough to get someone excited about certain events. Then hopefully they will seek out more information on the website, through a phone call, or even at church!

I would appreciate ANY comments (I mean really, any at all would be helpful!)

Countdown Video

2008-05-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a video we used a week ago to start our service. No real point to it, other than its funny and gets the students into the service to actually check out the countdown and begin.

MediaShout or ProPresenter

2008-04-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

First, if you don't know what those two things are, stop reading and go play atari or something...They are church presentation software packages.

My MediaShout Journey
So for about 5 years (wow!) we have been using MS. We started with 2.0, then 2.5, then bought the v3 upgrade, now run 3.5.5. Lots of upgrades over the years, and we have developed a few volunteers who run the program Sunday mornings. These volunteers are not MS experts, although they know and are comfortable with the program. HOWEVER, there have been many times that I wished MS would perform better, run .mov files, and simply be more reliable.

Then things changed...
About 6 moths ago, with the intentions of church growth, quality development, and becoming a portable church, we upgraded our 1.8 Ghz tower PC to a 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro.

Our setup now

So currently we run MediaShout using bootcamp on the mac and running winXP. Things are fine, but I want to take the leap to propresenter and just use the Mac. However, I know my volunteers will require a whole bunch new training and might not feel initially comfortable with a mac.

I am sure we will make the change soon, but as of now, I am setting up both Media Shout and ProPresenter so I can get used to the latter. Nothing like some extra work!

Swing Set 1 : Me 0

2008-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

I spent the better half of this morning setting up my son's new swing set, about 3 hours to be exact. However, currently it only has 1 swing that is working. The slide is almost up, but I can't get the screws to fit in right. Then I tried hanging the glider and the pole was bent.

This swing set is making me frustrated...and Colin too!

Some ministry thoughts...

2008-04-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to post some blogs, but every time I think of something to write about that has any significance, I post it to www.pdymblog.com instead.

Thats ok, because no one reads this and I am sure at least a hundred or so people read PBYMblog...

Recap from the All Nighter...

2008-04-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

So here are a few things about this last All Nighter...

The speaker never showed up, so my buddy Tom Gibson spoke and he did an awesome job!
We had a guest to regular ratio of 2:1. How awesome is that!
I like playing whirly ball, but after getting hit from behind so much, my neck is STILL out of whack!
I am not as young as I once was!

Overnighter...tonight

2008-04-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Yep its that time of year. Tonight is our Overnighter. We will be going to a place called Maxx Play which has Whirly Ball, BBall, Hockey, Inflatables, and the big seller, Indoor Paintball!

In Case You haven't seen it yet, here's an awesome video to get me prepared!

Fantasy Baseball

2008-04-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

fantasy Baseball has started once again this year. I play with a bunch of College students from the church and it is tough...Trying to find time EVERY DAY to set my lineup! But at least it is something not related to ministry that I can spend some time doing and have fun!

My Team name, SomeCallMeKenny. Not too brilliant, but its true.

Sweet Resources!

2008-04-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

I use a lot of cool resources (some free and some that cost some money, but are worth using) and so just to help others out there, I thought I'd spotlight a resource once in a while that I use.

Fresh on my mind is EventWax. It is a great way to create an Online Signup for retreats, events, and more. Students can even pay with a credit card for events and such through a nice Paypal connection...It is easy to setup, pretty versatile, and most importantly, FREE! So instead of recreating something for students to register, I just use this little site! Try it out...

Awesome Game!

2008-03-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

So I got the chance to go to last night's Red Wings Game...here's my brief observations:

Standing Room Only (my ticket) was a great view, but left my feet cramped at the end of the night.
Darren McCarty is not a good Hockey player now, but he is well liked by the fans, according to the standing O at starting announcements...
Watching Squirt hockey (9-10 year olds) is more entertaining than Fox Intermission Report.
It is eerily silent during play--I am so used to commentary!
And finally, RockStar Energy Drink in a clear plastic cup looks A LOT like Beer--Nice Ben! (And thanks for the Tickets!)

This has got to be the last time...

2008-03-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

So last Monday I was in a tshirt and jeans in 60 degrees with no coat, enjoying the sunshine.

Today I am in my winter coat with boots and mittens scrapping 4" of snow off my car.

Gotta love Michigan!

Re-energizing the ministry

2008-03-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight at the Flood, the High School Ministry at Lakeside, we are almost Re-Launching the way we do ministry. We are making a big shift from an up front message driven ministry to a small group environment, where the teaching happens in small groups. This comes as a result of...

Our Small Group ministry collapsing because students couldn't "afford" another night out
Our Main program basically collapsing because relationships weren't the focus
Our Events declining in attendance because students didn't have the information

Here's the scary thing. The only think I can prove is the 3 things that have happened and not the reasons why. I am only assuming those things and so therefore changing our programming. This could be either awesome for our ministry or could potentially destroy it. I guess we'll leave that up to God...

Website Overhaul...

2008-03-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Just overhauled the Lakeside Website. A lot better layout (I think) and structure. Check it out.

Post-Easter

2008-03-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Just like everyone else in Christian land, I will write a quick review of how Easter went at Lakeside.

We had a decent response from our mailing. In fact we are still getting people calling for information. It seems that most of the people who came because of the mailing were looking for a church, so hopefully we will have lots of return guests over the next few weeks!

One cool thing we did was used a newer product called Igniter Tracks. We used the video "Jesus Paid It All" and it worked great. Basically It is the video with a click track behind it that only the band and I had in our In-Ear monitors--this way we could stay with the video, but do a live song over it. Pretty powerful stuff!

50,000 Postcards

2008-03-21T06:11:00.000-07:00

Lakeside sent out 50,000 postcards to our neighbors around the surrounding community. It really is serving TWO purposes, first to invite people to Easter Sunday. Also, because we are now meeting at Lakeview High School we wanted to let people know we are in that community now. Who knows how many new guests we'll have as a result, but I can tell you already, the postcards were delivered yesterday and we have received about a dozen phone calls asking about the church and referencing the card and our website hits have DOUBLED!

I can't wait for Sunday!

The last few months...

2008-03-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a LONG time, so I thought I figured for anyone stopping by here, I would cathc them up on a few things going on in the church...

1. (AUGUST) After our worship pastor resigned, I have been taking over those duties of leading the worship on Sunday mornings (In addition to the student ministry as usual) I have enjoyed this, although it does add quite a bit more to my plate.

2. (OCTOBER) We have a new Vision plan for the church that we launched in October. It doesn't seem new anymore, but there was a lot involved in pulling off this entire series. The new vision is that we want every Lakesider to "Live for God, Love Others, and Reach The World." It is basically taken straight from the Great Comandment (Love God and Love Others...) and the Great Commission (Go into all the world...) and helps us organize and fulfill our purpose as a church. We think the people REALLY have grabbed onto this as something they can take part in!

3. (DECEMBER) Christmas season is always busy. Especially leading worship, but we had a great Christmas program last December

4. (MARCH) Starting March 2nd our church has done the craziest thing since I have been here (almost 6 years!) We leased out our building to a smaller african american apostolic church (just very different from us) and begun leasing on a long term basis a local high school. We have moved from a 300 seat auditorium, 75 cap childrens space, 99 parking space facility to a 1500 seat auditorium, almost unlimited children's space, and close to 500 parking space facility. This is the next step in our BELIEVE campaign, for building a new building. I imagine we will be in this new facility for quite some time (probably as long as our people and the school will let us!)

And now it is Easter. So my plan is to get back to blogging...yeah right, see you next September!

Evan Almighty: Movie Review

2007-06-06T07:51:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've never been too fond of Blog Movie Reviews, but because I was invited to a pre-release of this Movie and because of its implications on the church going community, I thought I would grace the readers with a quick review...

First off, I was skeptical if this movie before I saw it. I don't think it will be that big in the theaters because it looks kinda hokey. Also, knowing the story of Noah from the Bible, I was confused on it's premise--Is God going to flood the Earth again after promising not too?

After the movie was over I would give it a Christian B+. I say this because it is not blockbuster quality that would deserve an A, and in the secular world, it will probably get poor reviews just because of its premise. I think, however the Christian market will definitely enjoy this film (except for those Christian film critics who need an extremely intricate plot with very well developed characters and special effects up the wa-zu!) It is EXTREMELY CLEAN! Not a single swear word, and only a few "God" utterances (and sometimes that plays into the whole "God being Morgan Freeman" thing) There is at least one reference to an animals anatomical parts...couldn't have a movie these days without one!

The following might contain spoiler information about the plot, so if you don't want to know don't read any further...

The movie seems to have an undercurrent about "Save the Earth" at times. There are many references to saving wildlife, and "God" even shows Evan what the land looked like before the housing complex went up. I do believe this is a driving theme in the movie, but there was also a theme of God answering prayer and families spending time together-this seems to be the bookends around the story of "Saving the Earth". (Evans wife prayed that their family would grow closer in the very beginning, and "God" explains that Evan building an ark is an opportunity for them to become closer as the movie closes.)

It seems like the writers couldn't agree on Evan's plot, however. Sometimes it was evident Evan was "becoming Noah" by growing a beard, and white hair, and wearing robes (as seen in the picture--kind of upsurd!) Other times it seemed like "God" was using this familiar story to teach Evan, his family, and the community a lesson. The later makes more sense to me, but there are so many attempts at making Evan "become Noah" it is hard to ignore! However, there are 2 major Biblical discrepancies related to this:

1. Noah is the only righteous and blameless man on earth, but Evan is definitely not this character!
2. Noah obeyed God WITHOUT question, but 3/4 of the movie is Evan trying to ignore God.

On the whole, I do think the story redeemed itself by the end. It was funny and heartwarming. There are MANY messages you could pull from the movie--not just about Noah-prayer is a definite theme as well as family togetherness. I would recommend anyone to go and see the movie with your family, enjoy the story, and don't feel like you have to over-analyze it (like I did!)

One final Pet Peeve of mine related to this story: The story that Noah pleeded with his neighbors or that they made fun of him is just Sunday School myth! It is not in the Bible! I have even heard pastors use this "story" in a sermon!!! This is just speculation!

How Not To Be A Fool Series...

2007-05-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

No One Likes a Smelly Fool!

At the Flood we are continuing our series "I Pity The Fool!" as we look at the book of Proverbs and what God says about the fools and the wise.

Last week we looked at why we should learn to be wise and tonight we will be talking about how to make wise choices.

The choices we make today, no matter how small they may seem, can effect the rest of our lives. Lets's learn together HOW NOT TO BE A FOOL!

The Intro Video for tonight!

Entourage

2007-05-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of this teaching series called "Who's in your ENTOURAGE" and are looking at the friends we hang out with. It has been a good series which helped us also focus on our small groups and have a follow up study to do each week in a small group. I really think it is important to have Christian friends (although I also feel God wants us to have non-Christians friends too) and this series has helped establish who are friends are. How can we be a good influence on our friends? What should we do when conflict arises? How does having Christian friends help us grow in Christ? These questions and more are being discussed each week as we look at our entourage.

At a show

2007-05-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am at Myspace Internet Cafe checking out one of my students shows. He is in a band called Fifth Window High, but they are playing a huge show with As Cities Burn. Anyway, I am waiting for the show to go on and bored so here I am...

PDYM Lunch

2007-04-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, just a little promotion. I am hosting an area wide youth pastors lunch at Lakeside on May 3rd. If you are a youth Leader an are reading this you should come. If you don't live near Lakeside, check out www.pdymcommunity.com for a location near you!

Youth Ministry Volunteers

2007-04-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

Just had a great meeting with my Youth Ministry Volunteer Staff. THese are a bunch of wonderful people! We haven't met for a few months due to bad scheduling and my lack of administrative skills, but this was a great reunion!

I learned a bunch of stuff, but one highlight is this: Volunteers WANT to help! Sometimes I feel like I am asking too much if I ask them to be there early, stay late, clean something up or spend extra time at home prepping something becasue I realize this is not their full time job...BUT they signed up to HELP when they signed up to volunteer. They just need to be asked most of the time!

Sounds like an easy learning, but I guess I have just gotten used to apathetic people who do a job, not becasue they like it, but becasue they feel they need to do it...

I need to keep learning!

Welcome to the Hood!

2007-04-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

I was driving down I-94 and was just about to exit at 9 Mile when 3 speeding cop cars with lights on came tearing around me, then proceeded to join a 4th Cop already stopped with another car on the side of the road--right in front of the exit.

Then I preceeded to have a front row ticket to "Cops-Detroit" as 3 cops jumped out of their squad car right in front of me with guns drawn. One cop even had an assult rifle set on the other car and finally a man emerged from the car with hands raised. I have never seen something like this before!

Now it just makes me curious beyond belief as to what was going on--I mean what on earth would make these cops take this guy on with 3 guns and an assult rifle?

Welcome to my hood!

Fantasy Baseball

2007-04-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Being in Detroit, I became a quick Baseball fan about June of last year (Once the Tigers started showing they were for real!)

SO naturally I am now in a Fantasy Baseball league now--But Oh man can this eat my time...Researching stats, getting online at the right time to set my lineup and check my scores each night...And unlike football, this happens EVERY DAY!!!

I may have to quit my job if I am gonna stay pace with the college guys I am playing with!!!

TV Pet Peeve...

2007-03-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, not that my life has been totally consumed with TV lately, but I just had to share one of my biggest pet peeves of TV shows (and movies for that matter).

You know the "Next week on [fill in TV show name]" at the end of each show? I HATE when they give away major plotlines just in the quick flashes of previews. A good example of this was a few weeks ago on lost. They said "Three of Lost's biggest secrets will be revealed." When it came time for the show, I already knoew some of the "secrets" becasue they showed them in the trailer--and they weren't even that important secrets! Ugh.

Anyway, I just have to watch TV with one eye shut now.

2 New Addictions...

2007-03-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have become addicted to 2 things, almost simultaneously...

1. "24" After 5 years, and almost ignoring this phenomenom, I have now been immersed in "24." I started watching season 6 and enjoyed the first 3 episode. Discussing this with some friends, I found out they owned the boxed DVD sets of all past seasons, so thus was born my second addiction.

2. Watching TV shows on DVD. I mean how can this not be the most awesome thing ever--No Commercials! (I have TiVo, but you still have to fast forward...not here!) No waiting for the next week to pass so you can see the next episode, and No time constrictions, I get to watch when I want!

I am addicted.

I realized...

2007-03-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

That I have not posted something new in a long time. What a way to lose readers!

Anyway, I am still here but I just never think to post on the blog...Maybe I'll get better soon.

Good Retreat...but...

2007-02-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

I just got home from a fun Winter Retreat for our Middle School group. Let me begin by telling you some background info:

I work almost 100% of my time with the High School, but am responsible for bothe HS and MiddleSchool. I do, however have a great group of individuals, some parents and some college students, who run the program now voluntarily - I AM SO BLESSED! But when it comes to trips, I see it as my duty to help out and attend.

2 things happend that were awesome this weekend!

First, I realized just how different a highschooler and a middleschooler are. I am so used to HS antics, that regular Middle School actions seem so young! They are funny, but don't really know the lines--they always seem to go too far with their jokes! I am NO expert, but maybe I will jot down some differences I noticed in another blog soon....

Second, I had the first time in 5 years where I did almost NOTHING on this retreat. I basically just drove, becasue our leader, Josh, is to young to drive a rental van (21-you have to be 25) He did a fantastic job at leading, playing, teaching, guiding, and even disciplining (nothing major happen, just the usual "stop it") I fell like I don't have to watch over his shoulder to make sure he is doing fine!

A short story that made an impact in me: At one of our sessions, the leader said "Youc an ask any question you want - Stuff you don't want to ask to your youth pastor" and one kid shouted out, "Josh-leave the room" indicating she saw Josh as her youth pastor--not me! How awesome is that!

New Myspace for SMR

2007-02-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

So I thought I'd go for a different style of Marketing for StudentMinistryResources.com - Create a Myspace for it.

This way I can add friends to the site, post bulitians when there are new resources added, and hopefully get some more exposure for this site!

Check out some of the AWESOME message series that are up now that anyone can download for free!

Conference Training Day...

2007-01-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

So I was invited by my state office of the Southern Baptists to participate in a two day training to help lead conferences and do individual consultations to help smaller churches in Michigan. Here is what I learned....

So much of what was said could be simplified by looking at the 5 purposes of the church (Fellowship, Ministry, Worship, Discipleship, and Evangelism) and at the 5 potential audiences we face (Communit all the way to Core) and developing a Strategy to implement transition into each growth step to through the purposes...I don;t want to labor on describing what I am talking about--Just know that PDYM is so simple...

FloodCafe Show last night

2007-01-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

It was awesome. I have never seen so many peoiple in the Flood Room (Over 200!) The band Shooster (picture below) played their first show as a band here and Action Packed Heroes had a HUGE crowd. The other bands did a fantastic job as well! Nights like these get me excited that we got so many people in the door of a church! I hope to see some people check out the Flood as a result. I know a couple have in the past, and that adds so much to a simple "fundraiser" when outreach happens too!

Who Is God...

2007-01-10T19:28:00.001-08:00

This week we Begin our new series called God:101. Tonight we discussed the question "Who is God." Just to sum up, here is the basics...

Common Misconceptions about God:

God is The Terminator. Better put, God is out to get you. All the bad things that happen in life we can blame on God. When things aren't going my way, I get mad at God becasue He is causing them.

God is Santa Clause. Happy grayhaired man just waiting to dole out everything you've ever wanted. Need an "A" on that History test...just ask God. Need a win for your basketball team...just ask God. And when it doesn't work, I must have done something wrong.

God is Unknowable. OK, so he is the ultimate High being, creator of the universe, and sustainer of life. Obviously I can't know or understand Him so why bother trying. Or maybe you just don't believe His Word or His Church and so you feel that there is really no avenue to really get to know Him

Well, Here is the Truth:

God is Love. Plainly speaking, when we experience love, we experience a piece of God. God went so far as to demonstrate His love to us that even when we were His enemies, He sent Jesus Christ, His only Son for us to take our place and to offer us a connection with Him. See 1 John 4:8-9

God is Just. As we read in the Psalms, the foundation for God's throne is Righteousness and Justice. Righteousness means Holiness o perfection. Justice means setting the bar at Righteousness. Therefore, if we sin even once, we are no longer righteous and deserve eternal seperation from God according to His Justice. He can't just bend the rules and say, "Never mind, everyone is OK!" He has to follow Justice. He did so by sending His Son (see a pattern) to take our place as the offering for our Sins. Now we can stand perfect and Holy before God through Jesus Christ by giving over our lives to Him. Just as we read in Romans 3:25

God is Personal. Even though God is the creator, sustainer, and provider for all, He wants to know us personally. He made this available by sending Jesus...ahh that again. John 1:14 explains to us how Christ came down to Earth and made his dwelling, his home, here with us. He felt what we feel. He was tempted with what tempts us. He went through what we go through so that we can always know that He knows us. Pretty cool.

God wants to connect with us, through Jesus Christ. Simply asking Christ to come into our lives and make us a new person will allow us to get to know God. His Spirit will invade our lives, and reveal God to us every day, if we allow Him to.

2007-01-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

If God came as the Terminator

I guess some people have a misconception about God being the Terminator!

I am boring...

2006-12-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

I know. But I don't have any desire to party or do anything special for New Year's Eve. I feel old.

I just wnat to go to bed at a resonable time, wake up in the morning and know that I know have to write 2007 on my checks. Maybe it is becasue I have a 16 month old who still wakes up every night around 2-4 am and becasue I wake up with him probably teo thirds of the time...

Well, I love him and I just want to stay home...Boring...

The Plan.

2006-12-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

So I have revisited my teaching plan fot the Flood(as always) and have made some adjustments (as always...)

Jan 3rd will be kind of a focusing/vision message. I am basically stealing the idea from Granger Community Church, but this is one of those things that is so clear and so focused, I feel like, "Why didn't I think of that!"

Jan 10 - Feb 14 will be a series called "God:101" - Basics in Theology. Sounds like it could be boreing, but nothing I ever do ends up that way (At leaset I don't think so...) We'll cover topics like the Trinity, Heavan and Hell, Absolute Truth and more.

Feb 16-18 will be our annual Winter Retreat. This years theme is "The Journey: Rediscovering Ancient Worship and Discipleship." Again, sounds like it could be boring, but I have faith becasue the Winter Retreat is always a huge success!

Feb 21-March 21 will be a series titles "Go Wide" Again, this is from material that I didn't come up with but is from Dare 2 Share This will be preparation for our upcoming Outreach All-Niter.

March 23-24 Is the annual All-Niter. We typically see our students bring more than double their own numbers in guests, so this is an awesome Outreach Oportunity!

Well, That is the plan...for now...God can always adjust and stuff if He likes!

2006-12-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

Colin's First Haircut - Video

Colin gets his first Haircut!

2006-12-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

So my son Colin went to get his first haircut. I don;t remember it being this fun when I was young! Video coming very soon!

Coping with Tragedy

2006-12-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight I taught at the Flood about "Coping With Tragedy" Much of this came as a result of the recent events at L'anse Creuse High School, but also as a life lesson for all students to learn how to deal with sudden tragedy, as it seems to be more needed each year.

You cope with tragedy by expressing your grief
Many times we don't know what to do after experiencing tragedy, but we need to learn how we can express this. Wether it is creating something like a video, song, or poem, or maybe it is writing down your thoughts in a journal, or maybe it is talking with a trusted friend or mentor, we all need to express in different ways. I have seen many of the students expressing grief these last few days through MySpace, which is a great avenue for dialog.

You cope with tragedy be looking for God's Mercy
Sometimes we hear people say things like "This was God's plan" and such. However, I believe this is a horrible thing to say. God doesn't desoire pain for any of us, but we live in a broken world. Instead, God offers His mercy to us when we don't deserve it. He offers to give us Peace and Hope, even when the world offers us tragedy. God desires all to know Him and be in a relationship with Him.

You cope with tragedy be ending the search to Discover Why
We may never know or fully understand God's big picture. Becasue of this we will only cause ourselves further pain by trying to see the silver lining in all our pain. We need to know that God is a bigger than we will ever know and still be able to say, "How Great is Our God." Searching for the why will only result in our own distancing from faith in God.

You cope with tragedy be worshipping God
Just as King David worshipped God immediatly after finding out his son had passed away (2 Samuel) we need to respond to God just like the words of "Blessed Be Your Name"

Blessed Be your name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be, Blessed Be Your Name.
And Blessed Be your name, on the road marked with suffering, when there's pain in the offering, Blessed Be Your Name.

Dealing with Tragedy

2006-12-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, a student from one of the local High Schools where many of our students come from died in a tragic car accident. Many of the students in our ministry as well as students who don't necessarily belong to a church are realling struggling with this.

This Wednesday we will be interupting our series to do a focused message on dealing with tragedy. This is definitly a neccesity, for the church to be realavant to the students world today! I think, however, this may be a very difficult messgae to do. Mostly, becasue of the sensitivity of some students dealing head on with this, while others don't really have a clue and aren't faced with anything like this becasue they go to a completely different school.

If you happen to read this, please be praying for the students at L'anse Creuse High School and for the family of the student who died, and for the one student who is still in the hospital.

Upcoming Show

2006-11-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to take a second to promote the upcoming show at the Flood Cafe!

MCREST

2006-11-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

This week at our church, we are hosting "MCREST"

Some people think this is where the hamburgler went for retirement, but it is actually the "Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter Team" Since Macomb County does not have a permanet Homless Shelter, this is the "traveling" one. We open up our church (as do many other churches throughout the year) to house up to 30 men. Currently we have about 23 in the program, but it is always an eye-opening experience to serve them meals each night, talk with them, about their lives, and just plain be here with them.

What a way to begin the Thanksgiving season. Helps me to remember to give thanks for what God has provided me with!

PDYM Community Lunch

2006-11-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

So I just got done hosting my PDYM Community Lunch
It was great to have so many different circles of Youth Pastors come together, from Full-Timers to Volunteers, Men and Women (I know, Youth Ministry never got into the whole affirmative action thing...) Rookies and Vetrans. We are all in this together to make a difference in Students Lives. I hope to see continued connection through many areas...

Prayer for and with each other
Corprate Events (not events hosted by Ford, by doing things together...)
Learning how each other does ministry
Having Fun!

We are definitly Better Together!!!

We return from Fall Retreat

2006-11-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

Another successful year at Bambi Lake for this year's Student Fall Retreat. After reveiwing previous years and determining the main purpose for this event, I would say we were quite focused and on target.

We(the CORE student leadership team) determined the primary purpose for this event should be Fellowship--after all when do you get to spend more than 50 hours together! A secondary purpose should be Outreach. The students wanted to see this event be a great "front door" for the Flood. After looking at the week, I think this was definitly the case.

We took 20 students.
Of those 20, only 6 had been to Bambi Lake in the past (what does that say about our return numbers?!?)
Of the remining 14, 5 of those students were Freshman who were in need of connecting.
Out of the 9 left, 5 were students in the Flood who had yet to connect in with the rest of the group
For the last 4, this was their first time to anything.

I had a talk with one of the first-timers while we were up there, and she told me she didn;t believe in the same God I do, that she "picked and choose from different religions." As hard as that is to hear becasue I know the Truth about Christ, it is always AWESOME to know you are speaking with students who may soon come to trust in Jesus as well!

2006-10-31T18:10:00.000-08:00

Colin's Halloween

Colin's First (ok last year he was 2 months old) Halloween!

Updates and such

2006-10-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

I just spent about 12 hours doing some minor (I know, 12 hours for minor changes...) updates to some of the webpages I run. Check them out and let me know what you think!

www.StudentMinistryResources.com - most of the changes were here, adding new resources, updating my profile, and adding some flare with a new icon for the toolbar. Also, I added some small advertising to earn some cash for running this site. If you buy from Simply Youth Ministry, or are interested, visit my site and click on the banner!
www.WhatIsTheFlood.com - Updated a sweet icon, and just did some minor fixes to make things work better.
www.LakesideChurch.net - Updated another icon (I learned something new, can you tell!) and updated the student ministry section.

Check out what these icons are like - here is a screenshot!

Check out the icons, tabbed browsing, and live bookmarks by getting IE 7 or Firefox.

Flood Cafe - Oct 28th

2006-10-13T17:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday October 28th we will host No One's Anthem and Monkey Jacket as well as the Flood House Band for a great Concert night. Only $5 and there will be giveaways! Prizes for Halloween Costumes and even a full trip to the Fall Retreat the following Weekend.

We hope to pack the house for this awesome night! Click the picture for a larger image or to download flyers!

Fall Retreat 2006!!!

2006-10-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

November 3rd - 5th we will be traveling to Bambi Lake in Roscommon, MI for our annual Fall Retreat. What makes this weekend special is that we get to go all on our own and focus on our own relationships! The major purpose for this is Outreach and hopefully some great Fellowship will occur as well!

The theme for the Weekend comes from Luke 15 where Jesus tells the story of three lost things and how passionatly the owner looks for them. We will see how God will not stop seeking us out for a great relationship! Come and have a great time, but most of all, get connected to the Flood! Click here for more details

"iLife...Rules for a better life" Series

2006-10-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

The current series at the Flood is all about relationships in Life. How can we be better in our relationships with friends, family, and even our enemies!

We are looking at how following Gods rules for our lives will offer us a better life! Learn about Forgiveness, Acceptance, Encouragement and more. Every Wednesday for the next month

Oh yeah, and every week we are giving away itunes gift cards for some awesome tunes!

Where Have I Been?!?

2006-10-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

know, I haven't posted in a while. I have been super busy trying to plan and execute some Fall Events. Between New ministry things and current planning, watching Detroit Tigers and having a 1 year old who still doesn't sleep through the night, and more, I feel like I have been non-stop.

I will post some individual posts about some of the things in the Flood that are in the plannings!

The Gathering Part Duex

2006-09-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-09-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-09-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

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!

Flood HSM Road Rally

2006-08-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

We just got done with our digital picture road rally last night. I wanted to post the best pictures of the 5 teams!

Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4
Team 5 We will annonce the winner on Wednesday Sept 6th and show a slideshow of the best pics!

80's Culture.

2006-08-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Many of you grew up watchiung Sesame Street. I can remember many of the sketchs of Grover doing "Near...Far" or Ernie and Bert, or Big Bird and his "Only-Big-Bird-Can-See-Him" friend Snuffalupagous (sp?)

Times have changed.

Now that my son is watching the show, I can't beleive how he instanlty connected with Elmo. I never remember Elmo from when I was a kid (he was introduceded in 1985) But Colin loves him! Of course I knew all about Elmo, you can't go through life never hearing of him, but I was just amazed at how Colin attached so quickly.

Also, I am very disapointed becasue now everone sees Snuffalupagous. Its the end if an era...like when we found out MacGyver's real first name... (Could this mean that Sesame street has "Jumped the Shark?")

Day at Barrymores

2006-08-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

I just spent the day with a ton of Middle School kids at CJ Barrymores (A family fun park)

Let me tell you--they have tons of energy! I don;t think I am letting any cats out of any bags though, because people seem to know this info. Well, except for this one guy...

You see about 10 3rd-6th graders (even younger than middle school) were awaiting our turn at Laser tag (Oh yeah, and I smoked them all!) We were told to go stand over in the holding area and wait for the guy to explain stuff to us. We did, and all their excitment insued as they came up with names for themselves, pretended to shoot one another, and came up with their strategy ("I'm gonna go over there and shoot them all!!!") Of course, they were all chatting. The guy came over and just stood there. And then he stood there. And then he continued to stand there untli about 3 or 4 minutes went by. Finally another adult with us asked, "When are we gong to start?"

He replied, "I am just waiting for everyone to be quiet to listen to directions." To which I told him, "Look, buddy, you have to ask us to be quiet first." Ok maybe I didn't say it like that, but I wanted to. Anyway, he just stood there expecting 10 youngen's to just awe in his reverence. What a goof.

2006-08-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Colin's 1st Birthday!

So this is my son eatring his first Birthday cake. I love this boy!

2006-08-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

Colin!

Today is Colin's First Birthday. This video is a few months old, but maybe I'll get some video today at the party. Gifts of cash and prizes can be sent to my house!

My To-Do list

2006-08-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

Just so you know why I get paid the big bucks, here's my list for the next few weeks:

Youth Ministry Related

Format resources for new discipleship table
Clean room in prep for new year launch
Finish new painting/decorations
Finish messages for Sept.
Have a Volunteer Staff meeting
Work on Back To School Road Rally

Church Wide Related

Promo material for our October "Together we're Better" series at Lakeview Auditorium!
Training for specific Teams needed for this event.
Finding resources for this event and working on the website

Personal

Take time with my wife and family
Finish backyard landscaping
Have Colin's 1st Birthday Party
Plan California Trip for the end of Sept!

Wow--I am busy. Why am I posting blogs?

Some teaching updates.

2006-08-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

So last Sunday I had the oportunity to teach in "Big Church."

It is always fun, but a little intimidating I must add. You see, in the past, we have had people actually come in and see Pastor Ken (Render, not me) was not teaching that morning and they actually walked out! How depressing when you have to fill in those shoes!

But I think I was able to really share something that is deep within me. John 10:10. This is like my favorite verse--Its what I live by: Living an awesome, maxed out life.

I tralked about how Jesus relates us to sheep and how we need to follow him as our Shepherd who knows way more than we ever could know. And so I found this picture that I thought was funny!

Mountain Dew

2006-08-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

The nectar of the gods. The juice that keeps all youth pastors going. The temptation of students everywhere.

This is the new color scheme of the Flood's lounge area, meant for selling soda and snacks, T-shirts and apparel, and simply hanging out and relaxing. Hope it lives up to the Dew!

Hard work.

2006-08-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

I love projects. Currently I am installing a pation at home which requires diging a hole in my yard 16 feet by 12 feet, and 1 foot deep. I used to love digging in my parents backyard, and now I have a reaso to do so--But it is hard work!

Also, (not that I have done anything yet) we are painting lots at the church during the day. It will be Mountain Dew Green with sweet black trim. I like it alot. It will help freshen up the space--plus add a whole new dimension to the Flood room--place to just hang out. At the same time we are (and by we I mean my wife) painting the Storm Room, for the middle school.

In only about 10 days we will be having Colin's 1 year party and Jaime has a lot of hard work getting the house ready for 50 people.

It is a busy few weeks!

Boot Camp

2006-08-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I just did a whirlwind tour of Jackson, MI to speak for a friend's church retreat, "Boot Camp." There were about 20 something middleschoolers their and they were learning about the 5 purposes for their lives; Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism. I had the privilage of speaking on Worship and Evangelism.

Evangelism Talk: I basically laid out the three story method; My Story, God's Story, and Their Story. I also used my famous PIF3 model of Prayer, Invite, and Follow-Up. It is neat to see students get excited about sharing Christ with their friends.

Worship Talk: My premise here is what I have been working on for the start of the school year--Everyone Worships. Understanding that we all worship, but the question is, "What do we worship." We have to choose to worship God as we read about in Romans 12. Offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and to be transformed. Awesome stuff.

Check out more stuff that I like to do here

Finally, I get recognized!

2006-08-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know I didn't write the following email for the recognition, but I have written in to my favorite podcast, the SimplyYouthMinistry.com podcast, many times. I realized many of my emails seemed sarcastic and too long, so I decided just a word of encouragement was needed for these guys. So I write them and they posted it as the "Email of the week"

You have to scroll down past the list of links to see what I've written and if you are checking this after like Aug 8th, chances are they are featuring a new email!

A little PacMan

2006-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a fun past time with all my friends. I like wasting time to my 2nd favorite classic arcade game Pac Man (I haven;t found a good online version of my fav-Ms.PacMan) It is just a clone, but a pretty darn good one. Click on the picture to play!

Pizza the Hutt

2006-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

Yep I had pizza agin.

Sunday Night we bought pizza. 1 Cheese, 1 Pepperonni

I had pizza for lunch today at "Taco Hut" (Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo)

Then I reheated pizza for dinner tonight.

I likes my pizza!

MySpace : MyFrustration Part #2

2006-08-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, time for another myspace frustration.

I get very annoyed by "multiple bulletin poster people" or MBPPs. These people post 3+ bulletins at a time, usually begging for comments, showing off new pics, or answering stupid questionnaires. Basically this ruins the bulletin people. If I want to post something for you to see, I will post ONE bulletin at a time, you look at it and then move on. But when MBPPs post so many bulletins, the chances of you seeing my posts are rare--You have to search through pages of posts just to find one worth reading!

So MBPPs... Stop posting so many bulletins!!!

Power Outage

2006-08-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was just about to sit down to some pizza when all of a sudden everything went dim. We had a brown out becasue too many people were running air conditioners in our area. The junky part was that it was only our street and the street next to us. So we haad to go to bed in the dark and wake up at 4:00 AM to realize the power had come back on.

Crazy Day

2006-07-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

My day was exhausting!

First I went shoping for a new Patio Jaime wants me to put in.

Today at church I got asked to lead worship for 2 different churches for 2 different occasions (one is tomorrow!) I didn't realize I was that popular!

Also I picked up 2 couches out of a dumpster behind a shady hotel--No joke. I actually did this!

Then this evening I had a great Flood Staff meeting.

I only wish everyday was as productive as this!

What do you do on the Internet.

2006-07-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I have a routine.

My Hotmail account is my homepage. I only briefly check it, and sometimes get an email from MySpace saying I have a comment/email.
I usually go to MySpace, especially if I have a new comment. If not I see if there are any interesting things on the bullitan page (Usually MANY junk posts)
I usually then check my Church (main) email. I usually have to delete about 5-10 spam, only to see 1 new email!
I then go to my bank account, just to make sure I have money :)
Then it is up in the air. Like recently I was working on buying something from Ebay, so I check that like 100 times a day!

The Calm Before the Storm (or the Flood)

2006-07-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

So here I am in the summer months getting by planning and preparing for September's kick-off for the Flood (the High School Ministry I work with.) I feel like I have so much time on my hands, and yet, every time I try to plan something, time gets away from me.

Anyway, this next year I have some major projects/goals I will be working on:

-Working with the CORE (Student Leadership team) for the first time
-Working closer with my Volunteer team
-Launching a monthly (?) band venue (to allow some local bands to play)
-Launching a monthly (?) worship venue for some serious Worship
-Planning and prepping months in advance. (this always happens up until about December)

All this plus I want to make sure the Middle School (the Storm) gets off to a right start and keeps going strong as well as launching a brand new Young Adult/College Ministry.

Whew. I'm tired.

Pizza Hut Stop

2006-07-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I was pleasured with the tastes of "the Hut" today as I enjoyed a lunch buffet of Pizza.

I had mostly pepperoni, but a slice of cheese, veggie, and dessert pizza helped round out my meal.

Where have I been?

2006-07-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, fancy you'd ask...

I have spent all day Friday, Saturday and today (Monday) drywalling a room in my parents house. It has been a lot of fun, as it is real easy to spend other people's money!

Now...I need to actually get some youth pastoring done.

I like the bandwagon

2006-07-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

Yep,

Since the Tigers are good now, I like watching baseball again. It has been like 10 years since I actually watched a game, but now I try to catch them on TV now that they win.

I hope they don't suffer the same fate as the Pistons and the Red Wings: Best records by no Post Season hope.

Do you ever wonder....

2006-07-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

...if anybody cares what you are doing.

I mean with blogging. Does anyone else read it and so is it worth my time to do this.

Also with teaching. I wonder sometimes if what I am teaching to students makes any sense or if it is what they are looking for or if I am way off base.

I guess when we consider how much feedback we get for things (like no comments on my blog or on my MySpace or no questions from the students about what I am teaching,) it makes it easy to think that nobody cares.

BUT, guess what. I bet somebody cares. In fact these tyos of feelings have inspired me to comment, wether in person or in the old electronic fashion, way more. I try to remember if I have read something of somebody's or if something they did had an impact on them and ...TELL THEM. It actually is real easy. Anyway, I thought maybe I should describe the title of my blog.

Sometimes I feel lonely

2006-07-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight was one of those nights. My wife Jaime went "out with the girls," and left me home with Colin. There was nothing on TV to watch (maybe someone could tip me on to a new good show) and nothing on TiVo I hadn't already watched.

So then I go to my computer. Hotmail comes up, but alas, no new mail (unless you count 3 junk emails) I go to my church mail account--nothing. I go to MySpace, but I knew I wouldn't have any messages and there were no interesting posts for me. I check my own blog. 1 new comment but it was about 4 words long!

I think I will talk to the paint spot on my wall.

Heat.

2006-07-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

I know, everyone's hot. But I just have to say I hate walking out to my car and sweating, and then getting into a car that is 100 times hotter than outside (I guess that would make it 1000 degrees) and no air conditioning. Here's to living like its the year 1899.

MySpace : MyFrustration (Part 1)

2006-07-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

So I have been working with MySpace for about 6-8 months now and have accumulated some frustrations toward this revolution. I will post one every time I get overly frustrated toward it.

Number 1. I am sick of hearing how BAD it is. Give it up. If students are on this thing with graphic pictures, lying about their age, or getting hooked up with 55 year old men from Malaysia, I think parents need to have a bit more knowledge of what their kids are doing. As with anything new and popular we Christians fee Satan himself created it. All the Dateline NBC, Primetime Live, and 20/20 episodes of how scary this site is just creates hysteria. The bottom line--If used correctly (and responsibly from a parents perspective) it is a wonderful way to connect with people.

2 hoorays from me for MySpace and how it has helped my ministry!

Till I am frustrated again...

kenny

2006-07-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

DCLA 2006 Recap Video

Check out the recap video from our recent trip to DC for the DCLA Evangelism Confrence

A whole new world...

2006-07-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, this isn't Aladian, but it will be a new adventure for me. I think its about time I get blogging!