NWYC – Monday and wrap up

Steven Furtick spoke today and he looks like a 19 year old. His message was inspirational. He talked about really believing that God could do great things in your life. I love this quote, “If your dream isn’t intimidating then it may be insulting to God.”

Monday morning I got to eat with Mark Matlock with about 11 others. He is great guy and we talked about the convention and the changes to YS. Learned many things. For example the bands and showcases that come to YS come for free and pay their own expenses. That open space cost more than having speakers. Youth Works is a company he believes in and feels that they have the Yaconelli heart.

I loved the conference this year except one big thing. In the big room YS had hired Big Stuff to run everything there. The speakers where great. The best overall in 3 or 4 years. The environment, structure, and feel were drastically different. So here are my list of grievances: 1) Lanny Donoho over explained everything. The frisbee deal was ridiculous. I mean seriously we are adults not 15 year olds. 2) One of the highlights of YS was the love and compassion they showed to youth ministers. Not this year. No affirmations, prayers for people, hooking someone up with a free trip here, etc. No instead of praying for people we played cheesy games and gave out frisbees. 3) Could Lanny promote Big Stuff Camps anymore than he did? I mean he made sure to work it into his introductions, interviews, talking points, ect. This speaker comes to BS, this kids has come to BS, we do this at BS, this band is at BS, go to BS website for this resource.

I hope that Youth Works will put the soul and heart back into the convention that Big Stuff ripped out of it. But overall the convention was great!

NWYC – Sunday

Donald Miller spoke today and it was amazing. I was amazed. I mean I was happy to hear him because of “Blue Like Jazz” but I had little hope that his message would be anything but nice. Well I was wrong. He talked about how after he got everything he wanted he was not happy or fulfilled. A guy wanted to make a movie about his book and as he explained what it took to make a great movie he realized why his life seemed empty.

Every good story has to have a character that endures himself to the audience and their has to be some conflict that he has to overcome and in the end he succeeds. Think about your favorite Bible story and see if that isn’t true. But we often avoid conflict, avoid opportunities to endear ourselves to others, and see success as accomplishing a goal and not as being in heaven with Jesus.

That was an inadequate recap, but get this CD it was great.

That afternoon I went to Mark Matlock’s class on mentoring and it was great. Planet Wisdom has developed a 12 week mentoring program and it is free. You can get it at www.wisdomworks.com

Reggie Joiner spoke that night but I skipped it because his talk was based on a series of lessons from last year in Nashville. If you have never heard Reggie you should and go buy his book Orange it is great.

NWYC – Saturday

Perry Noble spoke and he was funny and I liked his message but I thought it was sad that he took a passage and made it fit what he wanted to say. I thought what a contrast from Stanley and Chan.

Perry had four prayers for youth ministry. 1) we would be paid attention to and that churches would invest in students. 2) That we will submit and sell out for Jesus. 3) That we would have a Biblical foundation. 4) The we would be stewards of whatever God has given us.

That afternoon I met with a spiritual director and it is great talking to someone about your struggles who doesn’t know you and you may never see again. Very freeing and I have some homework to help me.

That evening three students were to speak on how they saw a problem and wanted to be a part of the solution. One girl raised 4,200 pairs of shoes and money to send them to Africa where people are being crippled because of a parasite they contact because they have no shoes. One guy had helped raise a half million dollars to help stop human trafficking. And the other girl had helped raise a half million dollars to buy mosquito nets to help fight malaria. That girl actually wasn’t able to come because she was in Siberia working at an orphanage over the Thanksgiving holiday. So her dad came and talked for her. Her dad was Jeff Foxworthy. He talked about how God could use kids to do amazing things. He also did his “Things I Don’t Understand” routine.

I didn’t make Open Space but most people gave it rave reviews.

NWYC – Friday

The National Youth Workers Conference was amazing.   It started off wonderful in the big room. Loved the intro to the theme and Andy Stanley. Andy talked about leading in uncertain times. His main theme was in times of uncertainty the leader must make his vision clear even if he doesn’t have all the answers. Following his talk Zondervan announced that Youth Works will take over the event side of Youth Specialties. The ironic thing was that after a lesson on clarity it was the most awkward unclear thing that could have happened. I think most people left thinking what was that about?  Is NYWC is over as we know it? It seemed like it wasn’t very thought out or planned out announcement because everyone seemed like they didn’t know what to say or how to move from one thought to the next.

That night Francis Chan spoke and wow I honestly felt that he was speaking directly to me. His lesson was on the need for us to be abiding in Christ. Francis always has this way of making you feel as if you don’t love God while inspiring you to love him.

My Favorite Time of Year

This is my favorite time of year. Football season is in full swing and Alabama and New England are doing well. I just went to EU training and had an excuse for buy another book that my classes will come from. It is called “Going Public With Your Faith”. I will review it next month.

This year my class at EU is about how to share the gospel of Jesus using only one verse.  I love this concept because it doesn’t seem intimidating. Anyone can remember one verse.

I think many times we make sharing Jesus with people seen as complicated as explaining nuclear fusion. It is actually very simple and that is what this years focus will be on and you only need to know one verse.

 

The other reason this is my favorite time of the year is because it is time for the National Youth Workers Convention or as many of us just say I can’t wait for YS. If you are a youth minister this is the place to be. Why should you go outside of all the cool youth ministers are going. Glad you ask and here is why:

1. It is where everyone who has written a book on youth ministry is at. There is a 90% chance that anyone who has written a book in your YM library is going to be there and you can chat with them.

2. Where else can you go and hang out with 5,000 youth ministers. This is a haven for anyone who has ever felt misunderstood because now you have 5,000 who totally get you.

3. Friends. I get to hang with Joseph Horton, Barry Throneberry, David Knox, Danny and Tammy Sorrell, Jason and Amanda Brazier, and Chuck Morris if he will be a man and make his glorious return. Chuck, David Crowder called and wants you to attend like the saved. If you don’t have friends we will become your for the next 4 days unless we meet you and realize you are a dork then we are getting really bad service and can’t get or return your calls. Seriously though there are ways to connect with people from organized small lunch groups and more.

4. I love to learn new things and this weekend generates more ideas and how did I not think about that moments. Every year I come back thinking wow why are we not doing that.

5. Food, yes that is right I like to eat. Our hotel has a free cook to order breakfast and I know evenings already have a sushi night and Ruth Chris on tap. I am so ready for some amazing food. I am thinking Chicken and Waffles for Monday at Gladys Knights.

Eight Ways to Lose Your Influence in Theology

This is a great thought from Michael Patton copied from his blog – Pen and Parchment

Here are a few ways that you increase your chances to illegitimize your influence in the marketplace of ideas.

1. Be Imbalanced: Militantly focus on a particular non-essential issue. Whether it be in defense of a particular Bible translation or a particular view of the end times, make it your purpose to push for the necessity of the acceptance of something that is not part of the historic Christian faith. Oh, and be passionately relentless about it.

2. Overstate your case: Always use phrases like “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard” or “Nothing could be clearer.” That way your audience knows that you have never really studied the issue. While your goal is to distance a false position from one that is true, you have really just separated yourself from having a true impact.

3. Misrepresent your opponents: This is often called a “straw man.” It is where you represent your opponent in the worst possible light, bringing up their worst arguments and making them very easy to dismantle. This shows your fear of looking your opponents directly in the eyes.

4. Obscure the options: Act as if your belief is the only option out there. Don’t ever let those under you know that there are others who disagree or that there are even any other positions. If you do, make it sound as if they are flat-earthers and preemptively spoil the well, making them look really stupid.

5. Get defensive: When someone challenges you or your position, become militantly defensive or demeaning. A good thing to do is to immediately attack the person who is challenging you. This is called an ad hominem or “to the man.” When you do this, you don’t engage their arguments, but you become defensive and attack the person. Call the person a liar. That is a good one. It’s not that they just have come to the wrong conclusion, but that they are definitely a liar.

6. Lack of grace: Sure the Bible talks about gentleness and respect in defending your faith, but we can ignore that when the person holds to really bad doctrine. Immediately respond with the opposite of gentleness and grace: harshness and judgment. It is the Christian thing to do. Act as if you are the way you are because of your own righteousness.

7. Be perpetually non-committal: Be in fear of what others will think. Be in fear of being offensive. Call it grace, call it tolerance, call it whatever, but don’t ever take any definite stand. In every situation be timid, walk on theological eggshells, and never ever, ever act as if your view is the right view to the exclusion of others. Qualify everything you say with “this is just my opinion” or “to me.”

8. Define yourself by what you are against. Rejoice when someone goes astray because now you have something to do. Be an attack dog for God and the watchdog for the bride of Christ. Go on heresy hunts, never looking to your own failures, but day and night, night and day, bring attention to the apostasy out there. Good news does not bring publicity, so only focus on the bad. Someone gone astray? Open for business!

9. Label everyone. Try to control people by placing them in predetermined circles. Label them as Evangelicals, Fundamentalist, Liberals, Emergers and the lik . . . Wait, I like this one. Scratch it.

Staff Meetings

I am probably one of the few people who like meetings. Well that is if the meeting is actually about accomplishing something and not just talking. Meetings however can be tricky. Our youth leadership team consist of 18 people. There are people who will dominate every meeting if you let them. They feel like they know the answers and they don’t mind sharing. There are others who think they know the answers but are too shy or timid to say anything. It is easy for them to feel overlooked, under valued, and like no one ever listens to them.

Yesterday I wanted to do something a little different and make the meeting a little more fun and get everyone to share. It was a dream about the future meeting and what we wanted to do was get several ideas about 5 areas: evangelism out reach, new adults to add to our team, servant events, topics our students need lessons on, anything goes section for ideas in general.

I gave everyone paper and a marker and we would throw out a topic and have everyone write their thought on one sheet of paper. Then we wadded it up and stated throwing them at each other. After several throws we would un-wad them and you would share the idea on the paper you had.

Advantages of doing this:

1. People who are normally quite had their ideas listened to.

2. People who are talkers didn’t talk as much because they weren’t sharing their ideas.

3. It was fun.

4. We had several ideas and could see ways to marry many of them together.

5. We covered a lot of ground that we normally wouldn’t cover because of time.

Spiritual Depression

There are times that I feel spiritually depressed. It seems like every fall I get this way. I have tried to figure it out but it seems every year around the end of October to November I get wore out and just have a hard time wanting to do anything. I don’t want to serve, I don’t want to read, I don’t want to pray, I don’t want to do anything. Well I do want to watch football, sleep, and eat chocolate.

The bad thing about this is that as a minister we are not supposed to be drained spiritually. I mean we are to be there for people. But who do we turn to? How often do people ever check into see if their minister is doing ok spiritually? In all honesty I doubt many ministers would admit to not doing well. It is hard to teach a class, preach, etc and then tell someone that you are struggling.

For now I do call the words of Robert Benson in his book Constant Prayer. I say the prayers when I don’t feel like it. I do the mundane so I can experience the divine.

Smart Phones and Ministry

In February I got a Blackberry because I wanted a phone to sync my calendar on my computer. This has been working great over the last several months. It has worked so good that we just got Dana a Blackberry so we could sync our calendar’s together.

Last month I was going to put Alabama’s football schedule in my phone. This is crucial to planning. When I went to their website they had a feature where you could download their schedule into Outlook. Wow! I did it and it was amazing. This then gave me an idea. I had my secretary put all our students birthday’s in a calendar so anyone could do the same. I am planning on doing this with our youth calendar as well.

Just think you can put your year long youth calendar in a CSV file and people can import it into their computers and phones in seconds.

We also have a database with everyone’s name, phone number, address, email, etc. In about 3 clicks I was able to transfer everything into my phone.

Are you guys doing anything else with smart phones to help you with ministry?

Fantasy Football

Chances are that you have already done your fantasy draft. I have completed 2 of 3. The third is the one I care about the most. I thought I would share with you my draft strategy.

1. I like to tier my players. I use a variety of magazines, fantasy focus on ESPN, and pre-season to make my picks. This helps me know who is the best available.

2. Basically I pick RB and WR by tiers until the 6 or 7 rounds.

3. You only get a QB early if a top tier guy is available in the late 3rd other or if you get 6pts a TD or you can start 2 QB in your league. Otherwise you can get a steal in the late rounds.

4. Kickers – get a guy who kicks in a dome. He has 8 weeeks of perfect conditions to kick in.

5. Look at strength of schedule. For example the Falcons have the 4th hardest schedule while the Vikings have the 2nd easiest. Guess who may have better stats between Turner and Peterson?

Anyway here is my draft sheet:

Tier 1

QB

Aaron Rodgers

Drew Brees

Tom Brady

Phillip Rivers

Peyton Manning

Kurk Warner

RB

Adrian Petterson

Matt Forte

Chris Johnson

Maurice Jones Drew

Steve Slaton

Michael Turner

WR

Larry Fitzgerald

Randy Moss

Calvin Johnson

Andre Johson

Steve Smith

TE

Antonio Gates

Tony Gonzalez

Jason Witten

K

Jason Elam

Kris Brown

Garrett Hartley

Nate Kaeding

Rob Bironas

Stephen Gostkowski

David Akers

DEF

Steelers

Gaints

Eagles

Jets

Tier 2

QB

Matt Schaub

Tony Romo

Carson Palmer

Donovan McNabb

Matt Ryan

Ben Roethlisberger

Trent Edwards

Jay Cutler

RB

Steven Jackson

DeAngelo Williams

Brandon Jacobs

Frank Gore

Brain Westbrook

Kevin Smith

LT

Ronnie Brown

Marion Barber

Pirrer Thomas

WR

Anquan Boldin

Greg Jennings

Reggie Wayne

Marques Colston

TE

Dallas Clark

Kellen Winslow

Greg Olsen

Chris Cooley

Owen Daniels

K

John Kasey

Ryan Longwell

Mason Crosby

Joe Nedney

DEF

Vikings

Ravens

Chargers

Cowboys

Patriots

Tier 3

QB

Matt Hasselback

Eli Manning

Brett Farve

Matt Cassel

David Garrard

RB

Ryan Grant

Clinton Portis

Chris Wells

Joseph Addai

Darren McFadden

Larry Johnson

Marshawn Lynch

WR

Braylon Edwards

Chad Johnson

Roy Williams

TJ Houshmandzadeh

Dwayne Bowe

Terrell Owens

Bernard Berrian

TE

John Carlson

Dustin Keller

Zach Miller

Tony Scheffler

Brent Celek

Jeremy Shockey

K

Lawrence Tynes

Neil Rackers

Adam Vinateri

Robbie Gould

Shayne Graham

Bick Folk

Josh Brown

DEF

Bears

Packers

Titans

Dolphins

Tier 4

QB

Chad Pennington

Jason Campbell

Shaun Hill

Jake Dellhomme

Joe Flacco

Kyle Orton

Kerry Collins

RB

Thomas Jones

Knowshon Moreno

Derrick Ward

Reggie Bush

Darren Sproles

Jonathan Stewert

Cedric Benson

Felix Jones

WR

Anthony Gonzalez

Antonio Bryant

Santana Moss

Vincent Jackson

DeSean Jackson

Wes Welker

Lee Evans

Donnie Avery

Devin Hester

Donald Driver

Brandon Marshall

Jerricho Cotchery

Santonio Holmes

Hines Ward

Lance Moore

TE

Vernon Davis

Visanthe Shiancoe

Anthony Fasano

Heath Miller

Todd Heap

Kevin Boss

Brandon Pettigrew

K

Does it Matter?

DEF

Cardinals

49ers

Seahawks

Rams

Texans

Colts

Falcons

Panthers