Shaping Eternity Infobytes
These are some very well done Flash 'infobytes' that talk about the current state of Christian missions, unreached people groups, etc. I first saw one of them during the lecture of the first Perspectives class and they really are good. I will be using a few of them this coming week talking about:
- Organizing the world between Christ followers, nominal Christians and the unreached
- Tribal, Hindu, Unreligious, Muslim, Buddhist (notice that when you put these world religion breakdowns together in this order, it makes the word 'thumb'. Cool eh? Not my idea - I got it from one of the Infobytes)
- What is a people group?
- What is the 10/40 window?
- The Biblical Basis for missions
We'll see how it goes. I've also got to line up a worship leader, snacks and some follow up with their individual mission teams.

TEN BOOKS YOU'LL NEVER TAKE FROM MY YOUTH MINISTRY LIBRARY

From YPNation's request for conversation:

X. Waking the Dead
Helped me understand and realize how spiritual warfare is all around us and how we are an integral part of God's plan.
X. Please Understand Me
Great resource for building teams, both mission teams and leader teams.
X. Short Term Missions Workbook
Excellent studies to work through with mission teams.
X. Parenting Today's Adolscent
The Rainey's talk about the most common traps of adolescence and, almost more importantly, pre-adolescence.
X. Transforming Leadership
Jesus as the model of leadership
X. Decision Making and the Will of God
What is God's will? Better yet, let's understand a clear strategy for making decisions.
X. Youth Builder
Good overall youth ministry resource.
X. Perspectives Reader
The text from the Perspectives class. Speaks for itself.
X. Operation World
Yeah buddy.
X. Intensive Care
Subtitle "Helping Teenagers in Crisis"

Hmm.. Interesting list, because I just realized that I don't really have a lot of books about youth ministry specifically. I guess in thinking about it, I've really been modeled for ministry by mentors versus reading youth ministry books. That's probably not a big suprise to anyone reading this, if you have been involved in ministry, you have probably learned by working closely side by side with someone, seen their passion, seen what motivates them, seen how they connect with students. Anyway, enjoy the list for what its worth.
Also note that there I didn't number them.

I love NY
Great lunch today with parents and students of the SPACE crew to talk about NYC. Very good feedback, everyone seems excited. I'm psyched. First missions prep meeting is coming this Friday, should be lots and lots of fun.

Successful night at work
Work went extremely well tonight, a big plus. Thanks for praying that the Enemy would stay away. Your Kingdom come.

Full weekend
Full weekend this weekend.
All day with the girlies.
Ballet practice this morning.
Big DBA night of work tonight - pray that the Evil one stays away.
Missions info meeting for the SPACE crew over lunch tomorrow. Very exciting.
Have a great weekend!

Contact
Well I got my first email from someone reading this blog. Fun! It was Bob, who just wanted to write me a little email to encourage me and to share his excitement about 5 students that are really interested in missions. Thanks Bob, it definitely was an encouragement!!

Find me?

Someone was googling me and I think they found me here. Unless there is another Tony Sheng they are looking for...

I Peter 2
20But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
21To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

He entrusted himself to him who judges justly, even in the midst of toil and trouble. Quite an example, that Jesus guy. And in the midst of guilty people condeming the most innocent, he entrusted himself to a higher purpose and calling. It's so good when Scripture comes alive in the midst of personal circumstances, isn't it? How often we don't believe that the Bible is really a magical book.

St Patrick
In honor of St. Patrick's day, this Wednesday, here is some truth about St. Patrick.
Notice that:
- he was English. DOH
- he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland, and that is when his faith became real.
- he had a burning desire and passion for the Irish.
- consecrated no fewer than 350 bishops (I take that to mean that he discipled them or something like that...)

I also heard that legend has it that he personally baptized about 10,000 people...
Wow.

Making the Grade
Another very tough week at work this past week. I didn't think it could get worse than what I had mentioned a few weeks ago. But it did, in the form of a performance review about 2003. Wow. Apparently, I'm not really making the grade, although people think I can. It's interesting. I've always rated above the 'just meeting' standards, except for 2003, in which I felt like me and my team worked double. In fact, in 2003, I personally worked over 50% of the weekends. Not all weekend, but in some fashion or another. But let's not dwell on that. Evidently, it's not only a quantity issue, but a quality issue. My team's deliverables need a little more diligence.
The first response I had was, of course, I could certainly due without this. On a deeper level, I asked myself if I could really do this job? Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the Great Accuser, of course, wants you to think that. And he will use any and all means necessary for you to think that you cannot do it.
This all in the midst of a high school retreat, plans to see The Passion with C&B, and getting 4 summer mission trips off the ground.
It's been a rough week around here. And a few months ago, after some very successful SPACE launches, when lots of people got excited about what we were doing, when I felt like we were really rolling, I asked myself if it was going to always be this easy. Well, apparently not. But I should have never expected it would be easy. Good, worthwhile, a sacrifice, but never easy.
After a few days of dragging, I'm expectant again. Lord, bring your glory!

Praying for Missionaries
Bob just posted some great suggestions here. It's nice to read about missions on someone besides just me. Sometimes I feel as if I'm the only one concerned with mobilizing students for missions. I mean, that would be okay too, but it's nice to see someone else write about it too.
He's right. It's way too easy for us to give money to missions and then forget about it. Expanding on that, I think we in the American church think that as long as we are giving money to it, it is ok. Meaning that anything related to 'missions' must be a good thing. When in fact, that is untrue. Missions, just like anything else in ministry, needs to have some kind of accountability associated with it. Otherwise, we might end up spending 80% of our resources where it isn't needed, and only 20% on what is really strategic. Oh wait - that is what we are doing...

Passion with CW
Wow, we just came back from seeing The Passion, with my friend CW, who I have written about before, and his wife. Intense. Here are a few things that struck me about the movie:
- Malchus, the soldier who got his ear cut off, and whom Jesus healed. What a reaction he had to Jesus. No more being a soldier for him.
- The way Jesus looks at people.
- The scene when Mary runs to pick him up after he falls down with the cross, one of the many times, and the flashback to when he was just a little boy. Heart wrenching.
- Simon from Cyrene, who helps him carry the cross all that way. Did you notice the way he really helped, like there was something significant about it.
- The details of all the blood dripping down the crosses. I had never visualized it like that before. But it sure must have been bloody.
- Two Roman soldiers who stuck around at the end to help get Jesus' body down.
Needless to say, I was impacted. I won't ever think of the Crucifixion the same way. The thought that kept coming in to my head was that He did all this for me.
We didn't really get a chance to talk to C and B about it, but I'm going to make plans to meet up with him again to talk some more. Interestingly enough, our babysitter IM'd me at around noon saying she had come home sick from school and couldn't baby sit for us. Was this a significant night for the Kingdom? Are we still thinking that these things happen by mere coincidence? Was my crappy review at work this week unrelated to any kind of accusations the Enemy is making against me and what God can do through me? Let me tell you, Satan is pissed at me. At us - for being youthworkers that are willing to invest time and energy into helping students become the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And I say, bring it on.

James 1:2-4; Heb. 10:38-39; Rom. 8:37; 2 Cor. 12:9-10; Gen 50:20; Rom 5:3-5

I didn't come lookin' for trouble
And I don't want to fight needlessly
But I'm not gonna hide in a bubble
If trouble comes for me
I can feel my heart beating faster
I can tell something's coming down
But if it's gonna make me grow stronger then...

Bring it on
Let the lightning flash
Let the thunder roll
Let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come
Let the hard rain fall
Let it make me strong
Bring it on

Now, maybe you're thinkin' I'm crazy
And maybe I need to explain some things
'Cause I know I've got an enemy waiting
Who wants to bring me pain
But what he never seems to remember
What he means for even God works for good
So I will not retreat or surrender

Now, I don't want to sound like some hero
'Cause it's God alone that my hope is in
But I'm not gonna run from the very things
That would drive me closer to Him
So bring it on

Bring it on
Let the lightning flash
Let the thunder roll
Let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come
Let the hard rain fall
Let it make me strong
Bring it on
- Steven Curtis Chapman

Revamped Joshua Project
Spent some time tonight at the revamped Joshua Project website. Very cool. The sheer amount of information there is incredible. Quick quiz - how maby people groups are in Haiti? And how many of them are unreached? And how many of you out there have sent at least one student mission trip there? And tell me again why?

PS - There are 7 people groups, none of them are considered unreached. Haiti might be a great place to take students, for some sort of relief and development work, teaching English, etc. But I wouldn't call it strategic in light of world missions.

Retreat
Wow, it was a pretty great time. KC and I took 5 8th graders to help with workcrew and just serve the high schoolers. It was weird being there but not having the usual responsibility of a small group, cabin, group time, etc. But it was fun nontheless. Workcrew was loads of work, we had to serve, bus tables, clean tables and then setup for the next meal. If you've ever worked workcrew at a Young Life camp, you know how anal they are about place settings, table layout, etc. Wow, really anal. But I didn't mind. I thought it kind of strange, but you know, it was ok.
Our eight graders were awesome. They never once complained, and they got along with each other so well. Very cool. You can see some pictures of them here.
A few things that I thought could have been improved:
1 - They ran those kids out of the dining hall as soon as they could. at past retreats, I remember just hanging out talking with students after the meal was over. That bothered me.
2 - Working on workcrew gave me a new sense about how much food they waste. They really should set up some kind of distribution to the community for all this left over food they just throw away. Granted, I'm not sure how practical that is, since they are pretty far in the sticks. But maybe neighbors?

I did get a chance to talk to a few kids in depth. KD and KS both said they were interested in either full time ministry or missions so I gave them the usual missions blurb:
- what is a people group and how the Bible means that when it says 'nations'
- definition of unreached, and an unreached people group
- Matt 24:14
- 80% of American missions is going towards reached people groups
- there are over 800 churches in the US for every one unreached people group
I hope I don't sound like a broken record. But one of the kids said that she was trying to find out more info about missions and no one could tell her any real information. And that's what I've said for a while, we aren't telling students this kind of stuff and it contributes to the gap the American Church is not meeting with regard to missions, especially for engaging students.

Update - Spiritual Attack and Retreat
An update that ties two previous entries together...
I'm getting ready to leave for our spring retreat. Last minute, I found out about a kid whose parents would have to drive him up later, so I opted to stay and take him with me and the weekend nurse, instead of his dad driving all that way to just turn around when he gets there. I think it's better, and it's not a big deal. And, this kids parents have done a lot for GCC, they are mega-involved. And he's a fun kid.
On another warfare note - one of the worship leaders for this weekend, my padwan K, got sick this morning. Throwing up all morning. Hmm. On another note, one of the workcrew guys, who is K's brother in law actually, can't come either. His wife, who is actually K's sister (funny coincidence huh) got sick also. They have a little baby, so R can't come. Try to convince me again that this weekend will not be significant in the lives of at least one high schooler, that the Enemy doesn't really care that there are 4 Gospel presentations planned, that God isn't interested in being glorified by anyone else.

Padwan to Kstan
K, one of the guys from Dteam03, is getting ready to go to Kazakstan this summer. I got a reference form to fill out for him a few days ago. Some good questions on it, thought I would share them. It's always fun to fill these out for students, especially when they are so excited about serving in a specific way. I can only hope that in the next few years, the SPACE crew gives me lots of these to fill out...

1. how well do you know the applicant? In what context? IN what capacity have you related with the applicant?
2. having read the attached application what additional comments or perspectives would be helpful in better understanding the applicant?
3. in your estimation, what experiences would best serve this individual in a 4-8 week international missions project?
4. give a brief description of this person?s ministry experience and gifts, especially in the areas of personal evangelism and establishing.
5. can you easily visualize this person doing relational evangelism: initiating friendships, relating comfortably, and sharing his/her life and faith naturally?
6. what would you like to see God accomplish in this person?s life while they are involved in this summer missions project?

Wheaton Bible
I've often heard great things missions-wise about this Wheaton as well, and heard a guy who used to be their missions pastor speak. He was seriously the real deal. This talks about their short term mission trips. I like:
- each trip is designed to work and serve along a Wheaton missionary, at their invitation.
(So on the adult side, you've got to have a pretty large base to start with)
- both general and specialty trips.
- applications and interviews required, and required preparation sessions.
Good stuff.

Mature Student Missions
I've heard Calvary Church, outside of Lancaster PA, has a pretty mature student missions program. Check it out here.
I like:
- pre trip meetings are mandatory
- the idea of some progression to their trips
- the integration of college age students too for the upper experience trips
It's pretty cool.
I don't see any reason why we couldn't do something like this at GCC. In fact, I think this summer will be a great start. If I could only get that one special leader...

Pioneers - Core Values
I got the annual report for Pioneers today in the mail. A few things got my attention. First, was their list of core values:
-passion for God
-unreached peoples
-church planting movements
-the local church
-team centered
-innovation and flexibility
-ethos of grace
-participatory servant leadership
WOW - does this make the hair on your neck stand up? It does to me, but I guess that's just my thing...
The other thing they said in the report was that for the past 3 years, they have sent one missionary to the field every week. Man, that is intense.
I'm also glad to report that we have a family that we support through Pioneers, and they are all about these values. The are money.

Soul Survivor - London
I don't know too much about this, except that it seems like it's pretty cool. Sounds like a huge event to coordinate a whole mess of young people doing community service to impact a whole city for Christ. Wow. Sounds like fun!!

03-03-03
One year ago today was when my father in law passed away. I used to call him "The Padre." It really overshadowed everything that happened in 2003. D would say that in 2003, we saw all the fruit of our labor from the Dteam, since it was the year those guys graduated from high school. I would agree, although, still, when I think of 2003, it was the year that he died. We had a great year in terms of family, work, the starting of SPACE and other things, but I think I will always associated 2003 with The Padre. It's good to know, to really know without a doubt, that he is in Heaven right now, worshipping with Jesus like nothing else.

Parenting Today's Adolescents - notes 2
Zones of adolescence
The Innocence Zone – Age ten through twelve
During this zone, parents need to seize the opportunity to do two things: First, mom and dad must secure the relationship with the child. Second, they need to aggressively begin to shape the childÂ’s convictions before adolescence hits in full force.
DonÂ’t make the mistake of many parents who severely underestimate the amount of convictions that can be transferred to a child in this zone.
The Danger Zone – Age thirteen through sixteen
We believe this zone to be the most dangerous phase of your child’s life. The junior high and early high school years are when most families lose a son or daughter, although the actual loss of the child may not become evident until later.
Many parents assume, incorrectly, that the children their sons and daughters have relationships with at church, school, and in the neighborhood have similar values to their own.
This is a very very dangerous assumption.
In the danger zone, however, the family values learned and lived out behind closed doors that may have seemed so similar are now exposed for what they really are – often a murky, bland adaptation of the world’s values or a startling absence of values altogether.
With the onset of the teenage years, when children are experience greater freedom, the peers who once were a good influence may now be banding together to test the limits of their parents.
The wise parent recognizes this danger zone and is careful to not give a child too much freedom too soon. Just because a child is beginning to look and act like an adult by making some 'right choices’ does not mean he is really ready for adult responsibilities and corresponding freedoms.
The Release Zone – Age seventeen to nineteen
Releasing a child does not mean you stop being the protector, provider and parent.

I've been getting a new perspective about the middle school/early high school years since starting to read this book recently. The Raineys make the point that those are some seriously important years, in terms of giving kids stability, convictions, teaching the truth. It makes me think of my experience with students, which is usually "middle schoolers are so hyper" or "freshmen small groups are so hard to corral", or the idea that you see the fruit of your labors when your students are juniors or seniors. Which all may be very true.
But it's got me thinking, to have kids develop a passion for missions, for them to see the world as God sees them, to have a drive to have people worship God, according to the Raineys, these kind of convictions and passions get started early, like ages 10-12. Wow. In theory, my SPACE crew is already gone... Ha.
I also think, in terms of youth ministry being a complement to the family, this really puts us in the mix for helping students. The idea that we are to assist the parents in 'securing the relationship' asaggressivelyggresively shaping convictions.'

Retreat
Our spring High school retreat is this weekend to Rockbridge. It's always a blast, loads of fun. Spring is our outreach retreat, where kids are encouraged to bring their friends. Our speaker is TG, who used to be on staff with Young Life in Howard County. He is going to do 4 Gospel presentations through the whole weekend.
I'm going as kind of a SPACE mini-launch, and KC and I are taking 5 8th graders to work on the kitchen/workcrew. It will be a great time, I'm looking forward to building some good relationships with these 8th graders. Of course, I'm going to try and convey the sense of vision for SPACE to them as well.

Student Conference
I wish I could go to this, but found out about it way too late. Looks really good, like it's the perfect thing for what I believe God is calling me to. If you go, take some good notes for me.

Next book
I'm reading Parenting Today's Adolescents. It's good, the Raineys, gotta love them. It's weird, I came home yesterday and my 6 year old was talking on the phone, like a teenager. Chilling. And to think that those years will be here before we know it.
I'll be posting some notes from the book here and there.

"Can you name a more demanding career than being a godly mom or dad? Air traffic controller? That’s a nap in the park compared to a mom landing and dispatching four teenagers from an after-school holding pattern. Brain surgeon? Would you rather poke around in a sedated skull in a fully staffed operating room or try by yourself to soothe and heal the tangled feelings and thoughts of a teenage girl who wasn’t invited to the prom or who failed to make the drill team?
On top of all the challenges of parenting, there’s something far more sinister taking place. We’re in a spiritual war and are operating like guerrillas behind enemy lines. The paths we walk, and the trails our children must walk, are dangerous – littered with traps set by a spiritual enemy that you can’t see, an enemy who wants to destroy the souls of children before they become adults."
"Nothing can compare to the joy of seeing a child grow up to walk in the truth – “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” 3 John 4. Nothing is as exhilarating as watching our children bravely walk through traps and snares, advancing the banner of Jesus Christ in their generation."

Mark 2
My notes from Pastor Mark's message on Sunday. You can listen to the rm here.

Think about your most embarassing moment.
Unhappy activity
Happens in the limelight, center of attention

Mark 2:1-12
The paralytic
Most embarrassing moment
With jesus
Right after the healing of the leper
Everyone knows jesus
Curious people
Religious leaders – out to get him

Friends open a 4x8 opening in the roof
Mud thatch roof, lots of dust and stuff
Roof was repaired probably once a year
Friend lying on a 3x6 pallet

Teachable moment – the whole crowd just watches this pallet come down
What was it like for the paralytic
Can you imagine what he was looking at as he was lowered?

v.5 – whose faith?
‘Son’ a term of endearment for a total stranger, a person Jesus has never met before

The friends want him healed – they don’t care about him being forgiven, necessarily.
The religious leaders are upset. This doesn’t fit their model of forgiveness, because if Jesus can forgive sins, then He really is God.
When Jesus encounters people, He always talks about something they are thinking but don't want to say.

Immediately Jesus
v. 9
which is easier to say?
To be forgiven or to be healed
To be forgiven is easier because there is no sure fire way to prove it really happened.

** From Christ’s point of view, as an all powerful God, the easier thing to say was ‘to be healed.’ For to say ‘you are forgiven’ would require a perfect person to pay the ultimate price in order for one to be totally and truly forgiven.

Spiritual Attack

From my journal...

The past two weeks have been pretty rough – work has been very busy. Not only busy. But lots of production work, lots of outages. We had a release over last weekend, nothing went right. We were really over time, two releases (core and DS) in one weekend, DDL blew up, perf problems on Monday. Then we had another one to setup some database infrastructure for NJ this past weekend. Again. Bad task plans, faulty passwords, and the final straw, Shareplex activation that just wouldn’t work.
These things are tested, just like always.
D said to me this morning, “Is someone sabotaging you?”
That got me to really do some thinking.
And I think the answer is yes.
This is probably the busiest time for SPACE yet, simply because the tone of the summer needs to get launched. Four trips, all with parent meetings, forms, packets, PR. Not to mention scheduling all of this in between two retreats in one month. And finding this one set of leaders for 9th grade… What’s most strategic for the enemy to win? For these trips to fall apart. For me to get so busy with work I have no time for anything else. For my job to suffer, especially with me having a new boss – Ken, that all of the security we counted on for doing both Verizon and a commitment to students falls by the wayside. For me to say that work is much too important to be involved in church stuff. Hmm.
So this morning I had a pretty dialogue with God about this stuff, on the way to get McDonalds for everyone. Asking Him to keep Satan out of the picture, to protect me, to protect my relationship with Ken, the integrity of my team, to keep the releases working the right way. We will never know what went wrong with some of that stuff. I remember saying to D this morning, “I feel like everything I’m doing at work fails” I continued to pray that I would make no agreements with Satan. I’m not at fault, I’m not a terrible manager, my team is not falling apart. That God would allow things at work to flow smoothly in order that I would be able to continue to make the SPACE trips work out. And that we would find a leader for 9th grade.
I’m convinced now, after thinking about it all day, that the software problems at work, and the fallout associated, all stem from me doing something that Satan does not like. It’s a spiritual battle, and Satan is using something as generic as software to attack me on a level associated with my job. In our Western worldview, we don’t believe that Satan would be able to use something as benign as software to wage a spiritual war. But I believe it, it certainly is a battle and I’m finally seeing what is really going on here.

Summer Missions 1
Our first parents meeting for one of the summer mission trips is tonight, I'm excited. I'm excited to see the kids that are interested, to meet their parents, to see the leaders of this team - who are also the grade small group leaders - run the show and share their thoughts. I'm also excited to share the overall vision of SPACE missions with these parents. I think it's going to be lots of fun, I hope they get the vision for what we could do when the youth ministry gets smart, strategic and full bore about Biblical missions.
Here are some of the questions we are using on our trip application:
*What are your reasons for wanting to go on this trip?
*List specific personal goals you have for this trip?
*What or who sparked your interest in missions?
*How do your parents/guardians feel about you going on this trip? Do you have their complete support?
*Do you have any medical or psychological concerns that could affect your performance on this trip?
*Who is your favorite bible character and why?
*If you were stranded on a desert island, what five things would you want to have with you and why? Please list them in order of importance to you.
*What is your favorite movie and in what way do you relate to it?
*What has God been teaching you lately?
*What are your views, as a Christian, on:
- Alcohol and drug consumption
- Christian sexual conduct
- Choice of entertainment/media

Had a conversation with our good friend, CA, who are missionaries with Open Air Campaigners here in Baltimore, about their summer plans. Very exciting. They also mentioned an international student ministry at Hopkins they have started to get plugged into, which was mostly Chinese students. That sounds like a lot of fun. I think one different thing SPACE could really have fun doing would be something with international students, talk about the great need in where we live, a potentially really big impact to the 10/40 window, and getting kids to understand a bit about culture and such.

Went to a girl scout Daisies "Thinking Day" with my 6 year old last night. The theme was ancient Egypt. Let's just say that not too much of it was about Egypt. Two things bothered me - First, they had some 4th and 5th graders explaining what the Egyptians thought about the afterlife, to kindergartenders among others. This wasn't that big of a deal, I'm just glad that our daughter is pretty spiritual sharp, or at least, I would like to think so. It was a good source of conversation for us. Secondly, they had this 'skit' at the end which had nothing to do with Egypt. Instead, the gist was a 'dance' at the end in which the girls encouraged other girls to show off their 'booty.' Uh yeah. I was more in shock than anything else, and I think, and would like to hope, that other parents were too. Did we learn nothing from the Super Bowl? Is undecency that laughable? Do we think its ok to show something like that to 6 year old girls? I don't think I'm making too much out of this, the more I ponder it, the more hot I get. And I thought, like a crazy person, that this whole evening might have been a good cross cultural experience for my 6 year old. Well, it certainly was a good culture lesson, lets just say...

DXM
This article here (which I got from the YS Update) talks about the growing problem of kids getting high off of over the counter cold medicine. One of the kids that was in my small group is still dealing with it. DXM was big in his involvement. I wrote more about TP here.

Welcome Youth Specialties Peeps!
I was just informed a little while ago that I'm the featured blog of the week for the YS email list.... Like whoa... I'm humbled... To all of you that have come here from that link/email - Welcome! My hope is that this can be an encouragement to you who work with students day in and day out. Drop me a line, I would love to hear more about your ministry and to hear about what is going on with students all around the world...

Slick Bible Tool
THIS is pretty amazing... It's called the Semantic Bible... The coolest thing is the Hyper-Concordance... All key words hyperlinked to other passages.... WOW!

Food becomes the Enemy
Food is never my enemy. But a very very interesting article here about how eating disorders are affecting younger and younger kids. I see it with my older daughter, the other day she talked about going on a diet. She is 6. Not to mention, it seems like everyone around me is on a diet. But not me, like I said, food and I are friends...
- ''The way this country deals with food is not normal,'' said Dr. Rosina Pellerano, who specializes in eating disorders. ``It's about using food as a vehicle to deal with stressors. And it's not going away.''
- "Studies have shown that after seven years of treatment, about half of anorexics recover fully. A third continue to struggle. More than 10 percent die from the disease, which has the highest mortality of any mental disorder."
Wow... So, the odds are that someone in your circle of students that you minister to is dealing with this, either directly or indirectly. I think its two-fold, reacting and helping kids in crisis, and (and I think this is big) helping kids that haven't run into these issues yet deal with the right way to look at self-image, food, etc.
It's one of the things that I have against Barbies... Not that they are terrible, with two little girlies, we have quite a few of them. And the girls just LOVE them. But I want them to grow up with a worldview of who God created them to be, and what that means in relation to the way they look, and all that. You guys know what I mean...

Landing Here from Searches
I've been using sitemeter.com lately and it's been cool to see how people get here. The two search terms that have landed people here are:
"Brian Goins" pastor
Barna research +age kids decide go into missions

That's pretty cool. I dig it. Hey, if you are the one looking for Brian Goins, comment - I would love to hear from you if you know him.

Day Job Just About Kills Tony
My day job has just about killed me this past weekend. Of course, its a day job, for which I worked all night long. Most of my job is managing software engineers working on specific versions of software, and our biggest and most important tasks are putting these versions in production systems, with real users. Just about all of these upgrades are done on weekends when users are not on the systems. In this weekend's case, we had loads of problems, and even late on Monday evening, are still dealing with fallout....

Parental Permission
This is funny. It's a parent writing up a permission form... I found it from the last Launch, from Emilie, who is on the SPACE crew and a great person. She is money!!

It's funny, I told her next time to just get her mom to sign a blanket perm form for all the launches she will go on during high school.

Helping missionaries
Just got a cool email from a missionary from GCC. Talking about the idea of sending a youth team to work with them, probably not this summer though. J has outlined some of the things they have had people do, even without being able to speak the language. This is good info - people sometimes think they can't do anything unless they know the lanaguage, but it really isn't true.
Also reminds me of the missions trip I heard about where the people went and didn't have a set place to stay. They were taught a few phrases in the language such as 'I am an American interested in learning about your culture,' and 'I am looking for a place to live with someone from your culture.' The people on the trip all found places to live before they got off the plane trip.
==
"Typically, young people who've come out have been involved in a wide variety of activities depending on their length of stay, including homestays with nationals (both Muslim and Christian), ministry (friendship ev) to English-speaking collegians, leading English camps for young people on a remote island where one of our focus unreached groups lives, experiencing language and culture acquisition, and also serving our local team here (teaching VBS to our kids, baby-sitting, etc.). There's actually quite a bit they're able to do here just with speaking English. One of the highlights for our kids has been to have "big sisters and brothers" stay with us during part of their visits (usually during the orientation periods). "

Pipeline
Lots of stuff in the pipeline. I'm finding that when you work on specific pieces of work, which have milestones, you need to be looking down the road to what is next, while putting the finishing touches on what is almost done. I've been doing this for years with work since we work on 'releases' of software, that require plans and designs for the future, before the current one has gone to market. I'm finding the same kind of pace with ministry tasks. It's good though, because I seem to take to it pretty readily.
So my pipeline looks like this right now:
- LC homeless day debriefing - tomorrow
- Info to SPACE crew about summer mission trip
- Finalize middle school missions weekend with CMTS
- Finding key leader(s) for SEMP for 9th graders (in the next 2 weeks) **my biggest risk right now, pray for it!
- Mission trips prep - 5 meetings, guest speakers, dates, locations, etc.
- CSM mission trip parent meeting - 2/28
- Pre CpR retreat plan meeting - 2/29
- CpR retreat workcrew staffing - 3/6
- April SPACE Launch - prob high school only - maybe a construction thing - KC is really running with this, which is good
- May SPACE Launch - end of year something big
It's pretty busy right now, but I love it.

GCC in the news
Check out GCC in the Baltimore Sun. The Home Improvement ministry is a piece of Grace Cares, a community service and outreach umbrella. We've worked with a few of these folks for some of the SPACE Launches.... Very cool. Check out the great quote at the end by Pastor M!

A good problem to have
So you have this pretty dynamic youth ministry, that seems to be attracting loads and loads of students. And you start to build in a piece of the program centered around strategic community service and missions. And for one of your service launches, you get close to 50 kids that show up. That's a problem, true? Yes, but a good problem to have. But it is, nonetheless, a problem.
Here are some things that I see about it:
- With that quantity, certain ministries will not host you. You can't walk into an inner city ministry with 50 kids from the suburbs. It would never work. And it doesn't fit their style of indigenous ministry.
- Certain other projects would be great with that many kids. For instance, a Habitat for Humanity project, possibly. As long as the host ministry could really utilize all those people.
- Maybe we have to get to the point where we have the same theme for a day, split the kids into smaller groups, working with different ministries around town doing the same kind of thing, and then at the end, regroup and debrief. Sure does make for a pretty complex day though. And lots of volunteers.
The more this year goes along and the more launches we do, I'm seeing this whole job of mine in a few interesting terms:
- Definitely lots of event planning. This year was the first year in student ministry that I dealt with school buses and rental vans. It's a good thing.
- A bit of networking. People have started calling me asking about contact info to other places to serve. That's a good thing too.
- I think the biggest and most important part is the shepherding and vision casting. The SPACE crew is a major motivation for me. To build into these kids, to have them step up to be leaders in this, to get them to 'get it.' It's huge, fun, a passion of mine. It also fills a void because I think I need students to be working with.
Anyway, I'm just talking off the top of my head. Good stuff.

Homeless Debrief
I've got the privilege to do a debriefing for a bunch of middle school kids going to feed the homeless this Saturday. Should be very fun, I'm excited. A lady at GCC, CS, who helps out with middle school, has been very involved in ministries to the homeless around Baltimore, Columbia and DC. She has hooked up with the guy who runs CSM in DC and he pointed her to three parks that would be safe for middle schoolers. So she took the initiative to invite certain kids to this thing on Saturday, and I think she is going to do more stuff centered around homeless people and students. It's very cool, she really has a heart for the intersection of both. I'm excited to see how it grows, and it will be a neat module to SPACE, or something similar.
Of course, on Saturday, everything else in the world is happening too. We have our Parents Panel we are participating in. We'll have to go tell these folks we have no idea about what we are doing as parents, seeing as E has climbing all over furniture to steal whatever she is not allowed to have. Markers, chocolate candy, medicine. Tonight I found a dropper and an empty bottle of Infant Tylenol Cold. Good thing most of it was already gone. No wonder she took a nap today...
Saturday's plans also include a neighborhood potluck, which will be great fun, with awesome food. And I have a production release I have to work. That's not always fun, but its a living. And a good chance to have some good conversations with the people I work with.

What I really enjoy
I have to come to understand, a little bit better, that I really relish in the opportunities to take kids on these kinds of service/mission opportunities. When asked about passion, one of the questions is 'What keeps you up at night, that you dream about?' My answer, mostly, has been, taking kids on missions trips. I think Perspectives helped hone that vision and implementation, in terms of what was really "missions". But seeing what happened on Saturday, having to problem solve on the fly, seeing kids out of their elements, talking to kids about what our real goals were, actually being out 'in the field' with them, man, that was so cool stuff. I know some people would have a large amount of disdain for being with teenagers all day, having plans fall through, all the unknowns between numbers of kids, activities that might not have worked, Senior Citizen residents that loved bingo more than visitors, etc. But I think all that makes it a lot more interesting. After all, if things just flop, we can say that the whole SPACE program is just an experiement this year... No one says it has to continue... haha... of course, I'm kidding myself, and I'm kidding you.
My hope is that youthworkers all around have the same kind of motivation for the work they are doing with students. My prayer, if you are a youthworker reading this, full time or not, paid or not, whatever age, is that you are living with this kind of passion and desire that I am, that thinking about building the next generation of Kingdom seekers keeps you up at night, that God's mercy for you is so good - you HAVE to pass it on, that God is worthy of all praise and that every student should have a chance to testify to His goodness, that students are one of the best plans God has for the world...

Launch S Followup
Here is what I wrote to my prayer team about Launch S...
Thought I would post it even though I wrote details about it the other day too.
Pictures can be found on my fotoblog.
(TS, one of the SPACE team kids decided we should start calling the team
'SPACE crew'. I dig it.)


Hi friends,

Thanks for supporting and praying for Launch S.

Here are some details:

- 49 students and leaders
- Threw a beach party for residents at Sunrise Assisted Living
in Columbia, with the intention of engaging people
in conversations about true love
- Had cookie decorating, valentine card making, bingo
and poker with residents.
- Was ready for some worship time and one of the students
giving a Gospel presentation...
But ---
We had too many people and it wasn't working out for Sunrise,
so they very politely asked us to leave...

- We then had lunch in the Hickory Ridge Village Center,
did worship and the Gospel talk right there in front
of Giant...

- And then made and gave out around 200 valentine cards
to residents at Lorien Nursing & Rehabilitation Center,
right up the road.

Not exactly what we had planned, but we got to hopefully impact
two nursing homes, a bunch of people in the Village Center
and had kids thinking about how to be strategic about the
real meaning of true love.

Thank YOU for your support!

- the SPACE crew

Ministry Weekend
Wow, lots to write about from this weekend.
First - had lunch with one of my student leaders from when I led a dteam. MG was a senior when my guys were freshmen and he helped me lead that whole first year. Wow, was that bumpy... MG also helped me lead our team to SEMP in 1999. He is now getting ready to graduate from college, wow how time flies. Anyway, he is involved with Navigators and UMCP and excited about the future, working, and helping out at GCC with Young Adults. Very cool. He is also going to come back and help with the CpR sunday teaching team. It's a great opportunity for him to help and also figure more about his gifting. He is contemplating some ministry future, I predict it will happen.
One thing about MG - I've never seen a guy with such a compassionate heart. I always wondered how a ministry cultivated that. I've come to realize that a ministry doesn't, but parents do. I think the SPACE crew is probably a good example of that.

The SPACE launch was on Saturday. We had 49 students and leaders. Like whoa. We went to our nursing home with some pretty good plans and it was working out ok, I thought. But it wasn't. So they asked us to leave. Don't get me wrong, they were really nice about it, and if it isn't working out for the hosting ministry, we really do need to leave. So we left. Before we actually left, I sent KC up to another nursing home to see if they could use us, one within walking distance. Since we had about 2 hours to kill. And no way to transport 49 people. They said we could come and pass out valentine cards so we did that. In the meantime, we had lunch outside, in 30 degree weather, at the Village Center. About half of us were wearing beach clothes - sandals, skirts, shorts, etc. Very funny. One of our students did some worship, and Leslie did her talk anyway. Seeing all those kids out there, worshipping, not caring who was watching or what they were thinking, better than any Launch I could have planned on my own. We then went up to the 2nd nursing home and the kids handed out about 175 valentine cards. Really worked out pretty well...

Had lunch today with TP. TP is an 03 dteam guy, who has had significant battles with substance abuse since 10th grade. It's sad because before that, he was pretty sold out to Jesus. His life has since been a downward spiral, including a ream of counselors, outpatient therapy, inpatient therapy, expulsion from public school, and most recently, a very bad car accident while he was intoxicated which could have easily ended his life. His overall temperament today was 'tired.' Part of him is tired of fighting this battle, part of him cannot give it up. I'm at a loss on how to help him anymore. It's sad. Did we fail him as a student ministry. Do student ministries fail students? Or have families failed students long before those students enter our ministries?

Went to a parents meeting tonight with some LC leaders that are taking some LC kids to feed the homeless next Saturday in DC. It was a good turnout, and the kids and their parents are some solid people. Interesting to consider how the future of CpR will change as these kids enter high school.

Wow. A busy ministry weekend.
PS - D and I had a good time for VDay, in case you thought I didn't do anything. The girlies went out with Grandpa and Granny. Their first words to us when we came to pick them up were, 'Go away.' And to think we actually got bored at the Mall by ourselves...

Stevens
Listen to Jarrett Stevens. He is a teaching pastor at one of the Willow Creek gen X ministries, I think. Anyway, him and his wife Jeanne spoke at our CpR retreats for a few years in a row. Awesome speakers, but moreso than that, they realized that real ministry happens in relationships, among small groups of people. So with every retreat, they met with us leaders and :
- asked if there were any big issues in our ministry that they could address as guest speakers. One year, one of our students was killed in a car accident the Friday morning that all the kids left for the retreat. They listened, and used it during their sessions.
- ALWAYS emphasized that we, as the small group leaders, are the catalysts of change. They always had 3 follow up questions we could take from their talks and use in group time, which was always right after a session.
The dynamic that they had as the spoke together was so great. I haven't listened to the whole message, but I'm sure its a good one.

Ministry to Parents
Phil has posted the text of a letter from the National Network of Youth Ministers regarding ministry to parents and families of students. It's kind of a call to action, which is pretty cool. Read it here.

Google Banners for fictious holidays
See more here.
I think this one is my favorite.

SM
I've written about SM, our high school pastor, at least once before. He's the real deal. At CpR, we do outreaches every other Friday night, where kids are encouraged and challenge to bring their friends, be part of the team putting the whole night together, etc. It's pretty cool, and was one of the big things that impressed me when we first came to GCC. Student led, leader driven, kind of thing. Kids are up front in the band, leading worship, in the dramas, sharing how God is leading them, doing the Gospel presentation, etc. It's really indigenous leadership, if you think about youth as a totally different culture, which I do. So, in terms of a mission mindset, if I am the outsider coming in to 'plant a church' per se, I've got to reach a set of people in the culture, win them to Christ, and have them share with their own culture, and build a church that resembles and respects what their culture looks like. I like to think that CpR, and specifically SM (since it was his whole idea) are on the right track.
So much of how God has grown it is the foundation for SPACE, for at least what a service-missions focused piece of ministry looks like at GCC. It's cool to see. And the feedback from people about us engaging kids in community service has been overwhelming. People love it. Even more, kids love it. We are ministering, and enabling, a generation that doesn't want to just sit around when it comes to spirituality. They need to live it, express it, model it. It's a breath of fresh air compared to when I was in high school. Like, how much of a loser was I? The kids these days are on a totally different plane.
So I digress... Last Friday, we had the All Around the World Party, as one of the CpR outreaches. They decorated the main sanctuary (big church) into Italy, Mexico and China, and had all this food, drinks, waiters and waitresses. It was really incredible. All told, they had over 100 adult volunteers to help put it together, all the food details and clean up. When it was over, the kids went back across the street to the Warehouse and these people just packed it up and cleaned it up. I was left with such awe, because they did whatever they needed to so that other adults could go back over with the students for the rest of the outreach night... GCC loves their high schoolers!!
I did some magic tricks during the eating part, it was kind of cool. The two tricks I did were tricks that sort of told the Gospel story, in small tidbits. It was neat to really try it out on a lot of people, and I think it worked - people listened, it got their attention and they really listened to the point. And my overall goal was really to talk to new people, and have the friends that brought them be able to follow up about a conversation about spiritual things.
When the whole thing was done, SM asked me to continue to give him feedback about how these outreaches go, what they should look like, etc. It was very flattering. He said, "You have an evangelists heart like me." That was quite unexpected... I don't think I really do, I don't stay up late at night thinking about bringing people to Christ, do I? I do stay up thinking about how to engage the students we have into thinking the right way about missions, about what this summer's missions trips are going to look like, about how much fun I'm going to have with some of these kids that are so precious to Jesus...

Launch S prayer letter
Hi friends!

Would you say a quick prayer for this Saturday if you remember?
We are doing our next SPACE Launch, its called Launch S.
We are taking about 30 middle and high schoolers to a nursing
home in Columbia and throwing a Valentines Day/Beach party.
We are going to have some games, snacks, crafts, etc.

Probably the biggest thing you could pray for is that we
are able to communicate the meaning of true love to some
of the people that live there.
Some specific things that we have planned include:
- an activity where residents tell us their 'true love' story.
We will have a computer and print out their story on some
LLUUUV paper. A perfect lead in to have someone share
their definition of true love.
- some students will be leading a time of worship.
- one student (Leslie) will be doing a Gospel presentation.

I'm excited, I think its going to be a lot of fun as well as
be pretty strategic both in the lives of these students
and the people we come in to contact with.
Thanks!

Yours,
tony

Fishers of Men

Check out Marc's post about people discovering Jesus through relationships, fishing for people and what relational nets might look like. Another point, I think, that the real hope of the world, is a vibrant, dynamic, growing, local church.

Mission incubator
I love to just surf through different church's websites and see what have listed under missions. It's intruiging to try and filter to see what other people think about missions and how their church defines it. I think much of it starts with the church's mission statement and then filters down into what they are doing about it. Anyway, this page is kind of cool, they call it a mission incubator - whose goal is "to mobilize every member to become involved in ministry or mission." I like it, its crisp. Got it from the blog of Dave and the church he works for.

Spencer Burke's Making Sense of Church
Picked these up at Justins blog.
Good way of thinking...
* Tour Guide to Traveler - a Conversation about Leadership
* Teacher to Facilitator - a Conversation about Learning
* Hero to Human - a Conversation about Spiritual Growth
* Consumer to Steward - a Conversation about Ministry
* Retailer to Wholesaler - A Conversation about Missions
* Adversary to Ally - a Conversation about Faith
* Warrior to Gardener - a Conversation about Evangelism

I really like the Facilitator one. And the Retailer to Wholesaler has me intruiged. I'll probably have to pick up the book. All of it reminds me about the Perspectives ideas about learner, trader and story teller. Here is another article that expands on those ideas.

I love oranges
and orange juice, and clementines... In fact, I had 7 clementines today...
I know, pretty random post...

Married Conspiracy #2
D and I were talking more about it - what if we got to church early this Sunday and saved a pair of seats for the couple that were treated so rudely and one for Mr. Seat Stealer. And had them next to each other... Now that would be a conspiracy...

RSS
I think I got an RSS feed working.... Check out the link to the left... And leave me a comment if you tried it but it doesn't work... Thanks!

The Grammys
I liked the show overall, it was pretty entertaining. I have to admit, one of my main objectives was to try to stay in touch with popular and youth culture, I guess that's what happens when you are almost 35 *yikes*... Anyway, although I think I achieved my goal, I'm not sure how in touch youth are with the Grammys. Do high schoolers really watch the show, or care? It almost seems more like the establishment that so much of youth is always trying to rebel against. I mean, who cares how many albums they sell and stuff like that? And who really votes to decide who the winner is? Isn't it just a big bunch of corporate boondoggles?
Well, it doesn't really matter... I had fun, and to see Prince was pretty funny too.
I have to admit though, the below was probably my favorite. Those guys sounded really good.

YP Nation
News aggregator of youth min web sites and resources. Very good. Here.

A Conspiracy of Married People
I walked in to the service yesterday from watching some of my SPACE kids talk about the next launch for Light Company (our middle school ministry) over at the Warehouse. D had saved me a seat so I sat down. She pointed to the guy in front of me and asked if I knew him. I said no. She then proceeded to tell me that this guy sat down in a seat the lady next to him was saving for her husband. Not only that, when she told him, he said, basically, 'since he isn't here, he isn't sitting here...' or something to that effect. He also shoved all of her stuff off of the seat. Of course, they went on back and forth for a little bit. Totally rude. Incredible. We just could not get over it. Needless to say, it blew Pastor M's message for us, which makes me pretty irate now that I think about it more and more. D had to leave for a few minutes she was so incensed.
I decided during the message that I was going to say something to him right when it was over. Maybe he was a visitor, maybe he got confused, maybe he's had a rough morning. I thought, I talk about how this is really my church, how we belong here, how I help out with students, that gives me - almost entitles me- to a sense of ownership. What happens here really is important to me. I belong here. Things that happen here affect me and my family.
So right when Pastor M was done, I jumped up, introduced myself, told him I help out with students. I asked him if he was new. Nope, been going here for a few years. What? Anyway, I won't go into the details, but D and I got nowhere with him. The gist was that he felt like he was entitled to a seat. And he was pretty bitter about all the married people saving seats, that married people were so bad and selfish about it, it made it very hard for single people to get a seat when they come early. What? I just don't get it. And I really didn't want to anymore. He was very amicable, just hard headed. In the end we chose to disagree and walked away from it, on a pretty civil tone. Not to mention that he used the word 'bullshit' two times in our conversation. Now, I'm not against using that word, but I wouldn't do it 1- in church, 2- with someone I just met. That's pretty lame. And I think it's pretty indicative of his heart. Shock people, be bitter, live life how you want to live it.
I'm still in shock. And I'm sad that the couple (she by the way left when the message started to stand in the back with her husband who in fact did come in) had to experience something like that at a church that I so believe in.
Let's just say that this guy won't be coming into any contact with my students if I can help it. At a minimum, he needs to clean up his mouth. At the extreme, he needs to work on his heart.

Homeless Church
More posting later. Read this

James 1:27
As Charlie invests himself significantly in the lives of other people, his is finding fulfillment in, as Scripture says in James 1:27, 'visiting orphans and widows in their distress."
Read the whole story here.

When Fellowship Fails
D and I have been talking a lot today about a couple that we know whose not doing to well. I think the church has failed them in many respects.
1 - They have made them 'do' too much, in terms of church programs. Teach this, lead this, be here for this. Despite your young family, despite the fact that there are older, wiser people, more along in their journey, who don't need as much time at home, all who are plenty capable to do those things.
2 - Their 'good' friends have failed to call them on some pretty significant issues. It's sad, because if I were in their shoes, I would want someone to say something, if they felt like it was a big enough deal. Like, "Hey, I think you being stoned while driving your kids to school is bad." Of course, I'm making that extreme example up. But if you were crazy, wouldn't you want your friends to say something?
3 - Their 'good' friends have seemingly almost given up on them. No one seems to be seeking them out when they don't show up for things they have made commitments for. It's almost that the couple has maybe given up on the idea that anyone would care.
It's pretty sad. But I do need to mention that, I'm not in any of their shoes, so I really don't know first hand. I could be more off than imaginable. I would hope, with all my heart, that if that was me/us, our fellowship would dive to any depths to rescue us. And if it was someone in our close midst, we would do the diving...
Pray for the Bs if you could, for restoration and the Enemy would leave them alone.

V Day 2004
So I'll spill the beans here, since I don't think anyone reads this.
The next SPACE launch, for both middle and high schoolers is on vday. We are going to throw a beach party at a Senior Citizens home. It's going to be cool.
The reasoning behind it is simple - we want to talk about love, on the day that the world takes time out to talk about love, in a different way. We want to impact a major segment of society, steering them into the meaning of true love. We want to expose these great, wise, old people to the author of real love, to the One that went all out, that spoke and acted on love that was greater than any other kind of love imaginable. And we want to get kids to do that.
Can I just tell you, I know God is going to use it strategically, in a pretty significant way...
Here are some of the plans:
- beach music
- limbo (but prob not for the senior citizens)
- vday cookie decorating
- vday card making
- a 'tell your true love story' thing (we'll have a computer and a printer and have residents tell us the story and we'll print it for them on some nice vday paper)
- some live worship
- a short gospel presentation (by one of our students, Leslie. This is probably what I most excited about - indigenous leadership - adult driven/student led, etc.)

We did this last year, with my Dteam from 03. We went to this place for 3 weeks just hanging out and helping with bingo, making friends, playing poker. On the last night ,we brought the girls from the grade, flowers, cards, pictures, etc. It was pretty neat. But I think this year is going to be better.

What Church People Ought to be About
'I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the market place as well as on the steeple of the church,
I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles:
But on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at the crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek, and at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died, and that is why He died, and that is what He died about. And that is where Christ?s men ought to be, and what church people ought to be about.'
- George MacLeod
Taken from Scott's blog.

The Growing Church in Afghanistan
Read the quick blurb here
- a surprising 2 million refugees have come back, and some are bringing with them what they didn't have when they left: faith in Christ.
- It is unnatural for Afghans not to talk about God.
- Many had supernatural dreams, where Jesus appeared to them and revealed Himself to be the truth.
Wow....
Make no mistake, God is moving around the world...

Another Passion Writeup
I'm only posting this because Barbara thinks this is good, and she knows a lot better than I do. Read it here.

Playing at a Church Near You
Cool, lets do some advertising for church, with the opening of The Passion. Read it here. I personally think its a cool idea.

Holding on through the Teen Years
Good article here. I liked:
- Insist teens give you at least one day's notice of any request.
- If you can't stay up until your teen's curfew, sleep in his bed.
- Don't dismiss puppy love.
Some other good advice on acne, sleep habits and straight talk from (gasp!) actual teeenagers.
I thought most of the article was pretty right on. But on the other hand, it made me realize that the students I come into direct contact with, wow, some of these things don't apply. Because I think:
#1 - they are mature
#2 - they understand life's priorities correctly
#3 - they have a realization that they have it pretty good in comparision to the world around them.

Am I that kind of Manager?
Good tips on being a good manager. Read it here.

Bar Codes that look like Jesus
It's weird but kind of cool.

Jeopardy Winner volunteers with IJM
This guy writes about how he won on "Jeopardy" and went to volunteer with the IJM for a few weeks. It's nice to see someone live with conviction..... Read it here but you have to scroll down to "No, I didn't go to Disneyland"

US States I have visisted
You can generate a map of states you have visited, as well as countries around the world you have visited too. Neat-o.


create your own visited states map

Super Bowl
Wow, of course lots of controversy about the commercials and especially the half time show from last night... Nothing more than I need to mention here, except that if you know me, you know I have a big disdain for professional sports. I usually never watch them, because I'm not convinced its a great investment of time and I think we as a culture have a slight problem with the way we treat atheletes and the amount of money we spend on pro sports. Please understand, I'm not taking shots, just reflecting how I personally feel. But despite all that, I watched the whole game, and it was quite a game. Kudos to the Pats and the Panthers on some good competition.

Read what Walt Mueller says about the Super Bowl here, find the heading "Lettin' it all hang out...". Very good critique. "I am fully aware that those who would be critical of my criticism will say I should have just turned it off. Sorry, but that's not the answer. I may not have watched it, but millions of other impressionable young kids will have. I think we need to be advocates for them and protect them from physical, emotional, relational, and moral harm." Go Walt!! We can't engage or dialogue if we hide from it...

Recording Dying Languages
This article is pretty interesting about a researcher doing language studies with languages that are dying off. Wow, I've really never thought about this before. And the ramifications for something like Bible translation, that keeps the language from dying, and sometimes consequently, the whole culture from dying...
- "A language doesn't fall over a precipice, it sort of slides into oblivion."
- Once I asked, "Can I use this word this way?" and the response was, "Of course, you're foreign, you can say a wrong thing. But I can't say that." (Foreign missionaries NEVER do stuff like that.)
-... to learn about how people communicate and how the human mind works. What are the categories that are important enough for people to express them in their languages? If these so-called "exotic" languages die, we'll be left with just one world view.
- every Amazonian society ever studied has a legend about a great flood.
- About 60-70 percent of linguistic diversity in the north-western region of Brazil has disappeared in the last 100 years.
Read it here.

Next SPACE Launch
So this SPACE kids come through again. We went and scoped out the next Launch.... I'll talk more about it when it gets closer. Very cool though. Going to do something unconventional to celebrate Valentines Day. Think a party that's totally out of the box. Yeah.
We also talked about these two statements:
1 - The church of God has a mission in the world.
2 - The God of mission has a church in the world.
Which one is right and why?
It made for some good discussion, especially after we framed them and talked about the previous four launches and which ones were relevant to statement #1 or #2.
Just for the record, #2 is really the right one. Debate among yourselves in the comments...

Pure fun
SPACE core meeting tonight.... Talk about just plain fun. These kids crack me up.

P&P 2
So we had this big work party tonight. It was quite a party, literally. There was a great dinner, an open bar, a live band, and lots of socializing, at one of the best restaurants in DC. Very fun. It was really a great time for a job well done, the execs really pulled out all the strings to throw this gala event. They really did a nice job.
My friend CW came too, even though he left the company a few months ago, he was invited, because he was a contributor to our successes. It was great to catch up with him, and we continued the conversation we had started during his final days as an employee. We talked about a decision point, The Passion movie, and differences in religions. The most significant thing we talked about, certainly, was my story of the P&P strategy, and thinking about him and giving him that book. How Joe pressed him for what book, and then hearing that Joe had gotten the same book as a gift the next day. CW said that he didn't think it was a coincidence at all, I of course agree. He and his fam also went to a church a few weeks ago, and they liked it. It sounded a lot like Grace. Your prayers for CW and his continuing to investigate and research would be great news.

Waking the Dead 3 - Fellowships of the Heart
- It Must Be Small
This small core fellowship is the essential ingredient for the Christian life. Jesus modeled it for us for a reason.
- It Must Be Intimate
Of course, small groups have become a part of the programming that most churches offer their people. For the most part, they are short-lived. There are two reasons. First, you can’t just throw a random group of people together for a twelve-week study of some kind and expect them to become intimate allies.
“All the believers were one in heart.” Acts 4:32 It means they all loved the same thing, they all wanted the same thing, and they were bonded together to find it, come hell or high water. And hell or high water will come, friends, and this will be the test of whether or not your band will make it: if you are one in heart. My goodness- churches split over the size of the parking lot or what instruments to use during worship. Most churches are not ‘one in heart.’
Second, most small groups are anything but redemptive powerhouses because, while the wineskin, might be the right size, they don’t have the right wine. You can do some study till you’re blue in the face, and it won’t heal the brokenhearted or set the captives free. We come; we learn; we leave. It is not enough. Those hearts remain buried, broken, untouched, unknown. It is knowing that you are at war, that God has chosen you and evil is hunting you, and so a fellowship like Frodo’s must protect you.
- It Will Be Messy
“The family is… like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy.” – G.K. Chesterton
It is a royal mess. It is disruptive. Going to church with hundreds of other people to sit and hear a sermon doesn’t ask much of you. It certainly will never expose you. That’s why most folks prefer it. Because community will. We have settled for safety in numbers – a comfortable, anonymous distance. An army that keeps meeting for briefings, but never breaks into platoons and goes to war.
Living in community is like camping together. For a month. In the desert. Without tents. All your stuff is scattered out there for everyone to see. Some philosopher described it like a pack of porcupines on a winter night. You come together because of the cold, and you are forced apart because of the spines.
However, there are two things you now have that you didn’t have before, and they enable this sort of fellowship to work. First, you know the heart is good. That is the missing key in most fellowships. Your heart is good and the other’s hearts are good. This makes it so much easier to trust and to forgive. Whatever may be happening in the moment, whatever the misunderstanding might be, I know that our hearts toward one another are good, and that we are for one another.
Second, we know that we are at war. The thought that says, “Oh, brother, here goes Frank again. Why can’t he just drop it about his mother? What is it with these people? The’re not really my friends.” That’s the enemy. You must remember that the Enemy is always trying to pull everyone else to do to you what he is doing to you. As I said earlier, he creates a kind of force field, a gravitational pull around you that draws others into the plot without their even knowing it. “If you cant get it right, we don’t want to be with you.” It’s a lie. It’s the Enemy. I don’t feel that way toward him really. But unless I live with this awareness, keep a watchful eye out for it, and resist, I’ll get sucked into the pull, start making agreements with it, and there goes the friendship.
- Fight For It
“Be kind, for everyone you know is facing a great battle” – Philo of Alexandria
A true community is something you’ll have to fight for. You;ll have to fight to get one, and you;ll have to fight to keep it afloat. But you fight for it as you bail out a life raft during a storm at sea. You want this thing to work. You need this thing to work. You can’t ditch it and jump back on the cruise ship. This is the church, this is all you have. Without it, you’ll go down. Or back to captivity. This is the reason small house fellowships thrive in other countries: they need each other. There are no other options.
Suddenly, all those “one another’s” in Scripture make sense. Acts of kindness become deeply meaning full because we know we are war. Knowing full well that we all are facing battles of our own, we give one another the benefit of the doubt.

Wow.... We just started with a growth group this past Fall. Some great couples in it, and to be honest, we kind of hand picked it with people that we already knew, that we had worked with in ministry before, because of some of the reasons Eldredge refers to above. We started with three couples in the Fall, the other two we knew pretty well, and worked with together in YouthMin for literally years. Like about 5 years. We have shared passions, the same kind of calling, see the same kind of perspective. We just added a fourth couple, and they are a great mix. When I think about these three other couples, the word 'sacrifice' comes to mind. I'm pretty sure I could call them in the middle of the night if I needed to. And I think they would feel the same about us.

Evanescence
So, I don't exactly have a disposable income to buy all the latest music, although I would love to. In any case, since it was one of the top albums of 2003, I bought it. I wanted to buy it used, but D and I bought some other stuff from Amazon and got free shipping. I'm listening to it now, as I do more reading of Eldredge (the girlies are in bed...) Eldredge speaks a lot of seeing our lives as epic, and this album really fits the part. The music is so wide and expansive, listening to it convinces me that I'm integral to the battle, that the hour is desperate, that there is a war going on. It's interesting isn't it.
The other thing that comes to mind about it is that its kind of a dark record when you first listen to it. But the words are so heavy. Our culture is looking for spiritual answers... Enough that the album sold 3.4M copies...

i tried to kill the pain
but only brought more
i lay dying
and i'm pouring crimson regret and betrayal
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?

my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation
my God my tourniquet
return to me salvation

do you remember me
lost for so long
will you be on the other side
or will you forget me
i'm dying praying bleeding and screaming
am i too lost to be saved
am i too lost?

Missions Bio
Found this bio of a missionary who works with Wycliffe.
- After twenty years of linguistic research, translation and literacy, and medical work, she completed the New Testament in 1982
- resulting in the establishment of indigenous churches in every Balangao village
Now that is some impact huh?

Year of the Monkey
Unfortunately, I'm not usually very big on Chinese New Year. And I'm Chinese!! It's pretty sad all in all. And if you know me, you know that the only Chinese culture I have in me is eating chinese food. I've tried to be better about it. I chose a people group in China for my Perspectives final paper, and been trying to expose my kids to more Chinese culture. But it's still bad. I've also often thought what kind of impact I could make as a Chinese person living here in the states, maybe Chinese youth ministry, or something like that. It really is a big culture difference, moreso than I ever used to think.
So this year, I took the girls to a Chinese New Year celebration they had at our county library. It was pretty cool, lots of little crafts, and a few little demonstrations and shows. They seemed to enjoy it. You can see pictures of them here.
Also, this is a cool link to see a Quicktime VR of the NYC Chinatown celebration.

Parents Panel
Our pastor to the Family, TS, asked D and I to participate in one of three parents panels that he is running, for preschoolers, elementary age kids and middle/high schoolers. Pretty cool, it's very flattering. When we both read the email, we were like, "Who, us?" Anyway, it's a pretty neat opportunity and not that we are experts.
Here is a snippet of what he wrote to us. "...seen in you a commitment to being a God honoring parent and one who knows the difference some encouragement and a few new ideas can make."
It sounds fun and like it could really be a great thing in very tangible terms. We are totally going to help out.

Day Job
More changes at my day job due to the mass excursion of people in November. The gist is that I now have a new boss. I think circumstances warrant some new individuals fitting in with the P&P strategy. Very intersting. In case you haven't heard about the first great P&P story (because I just know there are bound to be more), get in touch and I'll tell it to you.

Remote villages and email
Rural Cambodia and Wi-Fi
(free registration required)
This is pretty cool, how about incorporating this into a missions strategy?


Working from home in the snow
While watching this with the kids...


Who is Brit's hero?
Article here. Hmm. Very interesting...

21st century slavery #3
Article #3
(Free registration is required)

Camp Sheng
Last night, me and the girlies slept in the tent. It's a very fun thing to do, most of the time, and we don't do it that much. And yes, K has been camping outside, once in the backyard...
I remember the first time I did it with her when she was probably 18 months or so. It was probably the most impactful time I have ever had with one of my kids. That was the turning point of her toddler years, the point where I was no longer her father, but her dad. I still think about that sometimes, what a profound influence time makes in relationships.
You can see some pictures of Camp Sheng here.

Gospel Night
So CpR had this thing tonight called Gospel Night. It was basically training for high schoolers on how to share the Gospel. We focused on the key points, helpful verses and sharing illustrations. It was really good. Sounds like lots of kids are pumped about being able to have tangible tools to share as well as seeing all the other kids who wanted to share but never knew how, since they all came to the thing tonight. SM (the high school pastor) talked at the end about a bunch of stuff, I can't quite remember all of it.
The biggest thing to me tonight was how those kids feed off of SM, he has such a touch with them, a way to communicate to them, its uncanny. I mean, I've heard him speak plenty of times, but tonight, he was right there in sync with 99% of them.
The funnest part for me tonight was teaching a few kids and leaders how to do 2 card tricks that can really be used to open the door for talking about spiritual things. MW was probably the biggest fan, and she was actually in my group during the training. And I had no idea that she had become a Christian through MW (another MW). (So I like using initials...) That was a pretty cool story!
So to see 50 high schoolers come out to Gospel Night on a Saturday night. I'm telling you, there is a generation coming up that is going to have some serious impact for the Kingdom.

Launch B follow up
Last weekend, SPACE had a launch that centered around babies. Making meals for people in the church that just had new babies and working at a pregnancy center. During the intro, which had an awesome testimony from a girl at Grace that had gone through the issue, I talked about how much information there was about the prolife movement. So much info, so much you could do, so much energy with the issue. But here is an article that I think is pretty unique. It deals with all of us because it talks about the pro-life movement from the perspective of the entertainment industry. Wow, its got some perspective that I have a hard time even trying to think through, its that good. And its written by the author of one of the blogs that I follow, who I think is doing some pretty redemptive things in Hollywood.

"God rules the Earth through the laws of physics"
This article states that it was physically possible that the Red Sea was parted. Sweet.

"I introduced 2 of my favorite people"
Chris Marshall writes about one of his children wanting to hear more about God's story. This is not only neat. As a father, its almost overwhelming.

Waking the Dead 2
** It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell; it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons. -William Gurnall
** "Satan is called in Scripture the Father of Lies (John 8:44). His very first attack against the human race was to lie to Eve and Adam about God, and where life is to be found, and what the consequences of certain actions would and would not be. He is a master at this. He suggests to us – as he suggested to Adam and Eve- some sort of idea or inclination or impression, and what he is seeking is a sort of ‘agreement’ on our part. He’s hoping we will buy into whatever he is saying, offering, insinuating. Our first parents bought into it, and look what disaster came of it. But that story is not over. The Evil One is still lying to us, seeking our agreement every single day."
** "The whole plan is based on agreements. When we make those agreements with the demonic forces suggesting things to us, we come under their influence. It becomes a kind of permissions we give the Enemy, sort of like a contract. The bronze gates start clanging shut around us. I’m serious – maybe half the stuff people are trying to ‘work through’ in counseling offices, or pray about in their quiet times, is simply agreements they’ve made with the Enemy. Some foul spirit whispers, “I’m such a stupid idiot” and they agree with it; then they spend months and years trying to sort through feelings of insignificance. They’d end their agony if they’d treat it for the warfare it is, break the agreement they’ve made, send the Enemy packing."
** "During an assault like this, you must remember: make no agreements. The Enemy will suggest all sorts of things. “God doesn’t care. You’re not worth fighting for. Your heart doesn’t matter. You can’t trust him.” He is trying to kill your heart, destroy the glory of your life. It will feel hard – really hard, almost impossible – but whatever you do, make no agreements. You have to start there."
** "Finally, the Religious Spirit makes it next to impossible for a person to break free by spreadling the lie that “there is no war.” Be honest. How many Christians do you know who practice spiritual warfare as a normal, necessary, daily part of the Christian life? We don’t sing the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers because it isn’t true. We have acquiesced. We have surrendered without a fight.
We’ve exchanged that great hymn for a subtle but telling substitute, a song that is currently being taught to thousands of children in Sunday school each week (I’m in the Lord’s Army)
There is no battle and there is no war and there is no Enemy and your life is not at stake and you are not desperately needed this very hour, but you’re in the Lord’s army. Yes sir. Doing what?, may I ask."

Wow, that is some heavy stuff. It's very similar to the whole "excluded middle" that Perspectives teaches on, the idea that there is no spiritual element to life and we don't need to worry about it. In contrast to nonWestern cultures that totally believe and act on the fact that there is indeed a middle layer - where the physical and spiritual meet, and sometimes are in conflict with one another. We totally have acquiesced.
Reminds me of the time, and I always tell this story, when I took a group of guys to do conversational evangelism in OC, MD for a few days in the summer. T and E were talking to this older gentleman about Jesus and life and all that, and he seemed pretty into it. His wife came out of a store and immediately got confrontational. Bad vibe starts there. They go on for a bit, she is still very antagonistic. She then looks at T and asks, "Your birthday is in May isn't it?" And of course, it was. Never saw her before in his life. That night, and ever since then, I have taken the middle layer to be a lot less excluded. I think all of us in ministry, all of us that call ourselves Christ-followers really ought to.

21st century slavery
This report from the New York Times writes about his experience buying two girls out of slavery here. I can't even imagine. The second installment of his series talks about the reluctance of one of the girls to actually leave and take her freedom. It's an interesting set of observations that talk about freedom from bondage, but also acceptance when one is free.
It's a whole realm of society that we don't have to deal with here in the US, and a serious opportunity to reach people that are literally captive. Christ came to set all of us free, in order that we would be giving Him more glory.
I wonder what kind of spiritual background this guy has.
(Oh, reading the articles will require registration, which is free)

Some serious questions about The Passion
Well, the movie certainly has gotten lots of exposure over the past few months and even more in the past few weeks. I just linked to my friend Brian and an article he wrote about it. But this post here asks some serious questions of us Christian leaders about what we promote and why or why not....
** "However, I am curious how some evangelicals will navigate the moral trap they will set for themselves by endorsing this film. What trap is this? It is the moral dilemma of supporting a film filled with excessive violence, torture, and blasphemy - a film so bloody it has earned an R-rating simply for its gory content."
** "Christian leader, if you endorse The Passion as an evangelistic tool in spite of its R-rating, how will you keep your parishioners from attending other R-rated films?"
** "If they are willing to admit it, many evangelicals, if they are to remain consistent in their stated convictions concerning movies, will have to reject The Passion. Those who believe that the morality of a story ultimately has to do with its details (Does it contain sex, violence, or profanity?) rather than with its overall message will be forced to sanction this film with an unclean conscious."
Whoa. Yeah, he hits deep. And he is right on.
** "If you have preached against attendance at R-rated movies, or if you have declared that a movie is immoral if it contains violence, sex, or profanity, then you are inconsistent and lacking integrity if you endorse this film. If you constantly complain about the level of violence, disturbing images, or blasphemous actions in other films, then you should do the same for The Passion."
Read it for yourself and see what you think.