Photo Friday: Rainbow

5 most mentioned men in the Bible

As I was cleaning my office, I ran across this little tidbit of information, the five men who are mentioned the most in Scripture.

In order, from 5th to 1st

• Saul with 338 mentions (He'll probably want a recount)
  
• Aaron with 339 mentions
  
• Moses with 740 mentions
• David with 1,118 mentions
• and Jesus with too many to count

This list got me thinking. Who are the people you talk about most in your ministry? (people from Scripture, not pop culture) Do you spend a majority of your time talking about Jesus? Or do you spend most of your time talking about pop culture and other frivolous stuff?

What are the five topics that are talked about most in your youth ministry?

Discussion Starter: The story of stuff

If you haven't seen this video (20 minutes) yet, you need to watch it. You can find it here.

Use this video to spark discussion on: consumerism, waste, money, the planet, taking care of creation, and anything it might spark in your students.

(gracias a Marko)

Trivia Wednesday #69: Elephant

answer #68 - Maharishi Maresh Yogi

question #69 - What name is shared by the base of a tree and an elephant's snout?

4 Leaf Clover: God's good luck charm?

As I was cleaning out my office, I ran across this little poem. I think it came from some 4 leaf clover thing we got as a wedding gift many years ago. I thought it was a little odd, so I would share...

One leaf is for hope
and one is for faith.
And one is for love, you know
and God put another in for luck.

Really? Someone actually believes that God would need to put a fourth leaf on a clover for luck.
Anyway, enjoy.

Amos 4:4-5

Amos 4:4-5
"Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years.

Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites,
for this is what you love to do,"
declares the Sovereign LORD.

When I read this, I was struck by how it can be read with sarcasm. Did God say it sarcastically or is that just me reading it that way?

God goes on to talk about how no matter what He did, the Israelites would not return to Him. This got me thinking, how often have I sinned (strayed from God) and yet continue to tithe or do the right stuff on the outside without really returning to God? What would God say to me? What would He say to you?

Photo Friday: Sleeping Baby Opossum

I found this little guy sleeping in the trash can one day. Isn't he cute?

thoughts on an end to a ministry

Sunday it was announced that my current ministry is coming to a close.

Due to this, the last few weeks have been pretty tough for us. They haven't been tough because people have been mean or anything. They have been tough as we worked through this decision. There is never a good time to leave a ministry. There are always events and plans you want to see through to the end. There will always be students you are working with and mentoring. There will always be ideas you want to see become a reality.

All of those are true for me. The last few weeks have been emotionally draining, too. There seems to be little I can focus on. Even as I try to write this my mind is wondering.

We are in the process of looking for a new ministry. As we work through this time, all of your prayers are appreciated and cherished.

Trivia Wednesday #68: the Beatles

answer #67 - Rose

question #68 - Which religious leader was sought out by the Beatles?

to quote someone else: Stormie Omartian (God & our future)

"He (God) only promises to reveal Himself to us, when we seek Him. That's because He doesn't want us to know the future - He wants us to know Him. He is our future. When we know Him, He guides us into the future He has for us."

taken from The Power of a Praying Husband by Stormie Omartian

Helping others can be dirty

What do you do when you see someone in trouble? What is your first thought?

Maybe you start figuring out how to offer your help. Maybe you start praying someone else will come along and do "their" part to help. Maybe you glance the other way and pretend to not notice. Maybe you keep driving. Maybe you have never encountered it.

It happened recently to me. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece were visiting for a few days. One afternoon, while playing at the park, I noticed a truck drive near the pond. Normally this would not be a big deal - people drive up to the pond to go fishing all the time. But on this day, due to the massive amount of rain we'd been getting, it was a problem. The ground was really wet and there were puddles everywhere. The driver of the truck did not think about this and drove near the pond to go fishing.

As I was standing on the play bridge, at the park, watching him I started to think. The ladies had just left to work on getting lunch ready, leaving the three kids and two dads. I knew we were going to need to go and help try to push him out, but wasn't sure what to do. So I watched. I knew it would take a minute or two to get the kids from the park to the pond. And I was hoping he would be able to drive right through without getting stuck. But then he stopped. (not good)

I watched him try reverse and just spin his wheels. So, we collected the kids and started walking toward him. By this point, another car had stopped to try and help. The driver was able to help push the truck a little bit, but was not going to get him out. By the time we got close, the help was walking back to his car.

So, the three of us (driver who stopped to help, brother-in-law and myself) walked back to the truck and were going to push it out. Well, the other driver ended up behind the right wheel and my brother-in-law ended up behind the left wheel. I was the second guy there and went to the middle with little thought. We pushed him out, but not before getting a "little" muddy. Because I was in the middle, I only got some of the spray. Look at what my brother-in-law got...

This is what some of the pants looked like afterward.








This was his shoe.








Helping others is dirty.

You do not always get physically dirty, either. But you are not guaranteed to stay clean.

As we were walking home, I was reminded of one truth. It is always the right thing to do to help someone in need. My 2 year old told me, "Daddy, I'm glad you helped him." So am I.

Reminds me of something Jesus said.

New Poll:

This is graduation season, so the poll revolves around graduation. (clever isn't it?) It is a simple poll this week, only two options.

Do you enjoy graduation ceremonies?
yes
no


I'm also interested in hearing about some funny, sad stories you might have about graduations. Maybe you went to the wrong one or sat through a four hour graduation and still missed seeing one of your students walk across the stage. Please share in the comments.

Poll Results: Summer Missions

The last poll asked whether you were taking a summer missions trip this summer. It turns out, this was not a big poll. Only 2 people voted. How did they vote...

100% (2 people) are not doing a summer mission event.

Interesting...

Photo Friday: Bowling

Let's just say it took the ball a little while to get down the lane.

Trivia Wednesday #67: Flower Families

answer #66 - J.R.R. Tolkien

question #67 - Which flower family includes apples, pears and cherries?

Thoughts on Believe '08: Anderson, IN

First, let me just say that Believe was a great event. It was a great chance for our jr. highers to "Connect."

Like all trips; we had our share of unexpected events. But nothing hampered the weekend. Here is a breakdown of how we started the weekend (picture it if you will)...

- got to the school "on time" to pick up 7th graders, the 8th graders were at a local church for the day doing an all day 8th grade thing.
- walked in office and one of the secretaries (both who go to the church) said "I've got good news and bad news, what do you want first?" This is never a good way to start a trip.
- I said, "let's go with the bad news." To which she responded by telling me that a couple of the students left their bags on the bus. We would have to drive to the bus drivers house to get them off the bus.
- Waited for the 7th graders. They were in gym (I mean PE). The teacher's words to dismiss them from class "Alright, all you believers can go now" - had to be one of the highlights of the weekend for me, it brought a smile to my face.
(we never heard the good news)
- Drove down the street to pick up 8th graders. Then on another 5-7 minutes to get the bags from the bus. Then back past all three stops to head out of town.
- I think we started off being at least 30 minutes off schedule

The trip was good. We got there after the first session started. But the good thing about that was, as we were walking in we ran into Brent the Stunt Guy outside. Got to talk to him for a few minutes, great guy.

Even the first night, the students were opening up and sharing. This is rare for me; it usually takes the first day to get them talking.

Scott Rubin did a phenominal job communicating with the students. Also with the adults in the "breakout session"

Brent was great doing his "stunt guy stunts." The students think he is crazy.

Eric Timm added a whole new dimension to the weekend with his art. I've seen him before at other conferences and such, but this Believe tour has to be my favorite stuff I've seen him do.

I had some great adults who really made the weekend a great time to connect with the students. We were able to have some really good, deep, conversations that were about more than surface issues. Hoping to have it just springboard into ongoing conversations...

Thanks to Johnny and the rest of the staff for all the work they put into making Believe a very jr. high intentional and effective ministry.

(maybe I'll post some pics soon)

YouVersion.com review

There is a website called killerstartups that tries to give its readers a good assortment of web startups each day. Recently they reviewed YouVersion.com, which you can read it here.


An interesting take on it.

Photo Friday: Tree and Blue Sky

I like this picture.

twitter apps

I've been meaning to write this post for some time. Over the last few weeks, I've run across a couple (more that I'm not including) Twitter apps. Here are the ones I think can be most useful/fun for those in ministry. I haven't used them all and do not claim to say they are great. But they look to be worth a look.

Twitterlights allows you to highlight internet snippets and twitter them.


Twixxer is a site that lets you share and see video and pictures on Twitter. If you have the greasemonkey addon you can see it in twitter, otherwise you get a link to click and see it (which is no different than what you can do now)


Tweetlater is exactly what it sounds like. You write your tweet and set the time/day it gets posted. Could be fun to do when you are in a meeting or youth group or in a van with 12 teenagers.

Twitimonials is a place to say why you follow certain twitterers. You just say something like, "always has something funny to say."


Intwition is a site designated to letting you track links used on Twitter. See which YouTube video has been sent over Twitter the most and which blog is getting a lot of mention.

Twitearth is a fun way to watch how tweets happen around the world at the same time. Reminds us that the world is a small place.

Trackthis is a way to track your shipments on Twitter. Every time your package changes location you get a direct message on Twitter.

Trivia Wednesday #66: The Hobbit

answer #65 - Ronald Reagan

question #66 - Who wrote The Hobbit?