I'm not stalking you but
So last night, I entered into the foray of conversing with students via their blogs. Up until now, I've read a lot of their blogs, but never commented or such. But I started last night. I guess it will be ok. I'm not sure why I was hesitant to do it, and am still a little... but just not sure why. But I think with each comment I add, I will start it with "I'm not stalking you but..."
haha that's funny, I like it.

Balloon Hats


This is funny.

9th grade nonprogress
On the 9th grade trip front, there is no progress. We worked pretty hard to put together a pretty good leader team. A leader team I'm pretty proud of. ML, who I have led trips with before, who really loves students. MM, a college student who is seeking youth ministry as a profession, EG, another college kid who went with me to SEMP in 2000 when he was a wee lad. Both MM and EG were in my 03 dteam. And no response from these 9th graders, who I would have thought would have been all over this trip. What's up with that? I've had a head cold all weekend and this morning had intentions to go to the Warehouse and make another announcement about it. But then I sat in big church and didn't feel like bothering. D and I talked about it, and she was like, 'You better go do that.'
If we want kids to go on this, with the strategy that it sets them up to do even more strategic missions in the next years of their high school experience, if we believe that kids will grow immensely in their experience and knowledge of sharing their faith with their friends or anyone on the street, if we think that it's worth it for them to learn to share their faith in their own culture before in another culture.... We are totally going to have to fight for these kids to come. One easy thing the Devil wants is for us to sit back and say, "It's not worth it and I'm too lazy to do the work for it."
I'm kind of surprised as I write this - in light of the past few months, I didn't see what needed to be done...
Anyway, I made the announcement. 9th graders - start pounding down my door about this trip...
I know it will be worth it.

Missions Prep #3 Update
We had our #3 prep mtg on Saturday night, easily the best one yet... So much energy, kids in tune with seeking God and being used by Him this summer, very neat and encouraging to see. We handed out the financials so people could see who and how much had been given to their support. To me, that's when the trip becomes real. When you have sent out your letters and money starts coming in. No turning back, it's a reality.
We then did the Myers Briggs test and talked about giftedness and unity from Romans 12. Then looked at the Hardy Personality and then looked at Phil 2 and Christ's attitude towards others. This was the first time I had ever used the Hardy Personality to prepare teams and I was astounded. Wow, what a tool. My team could have talked about those for probably another hour, easily. And they were so excited at the level of depth we were getting to as a team. Statements like, "This is so cool, I'm really getting to know you guys," were said over and over. It was really neat. I wish I had found that thing years ago. I asked one of my NYC team members to adapt it and make it test with a scaling, like from 0-10, fill in where you are at from the basic idea of each question. That would be even better. It's two great great teams that have come together.
Our intro idea was this - from CS Lewis:
For the Christian, there are strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, ‘You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,’ can truly say to every group of Christian friends, ‘You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.’ The friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument which God reveals to us to each the beauties of all the others.

When does God call?
From Howard Culbertson, a professor of missions at Southern Nazarene University.

When does God call people to long-term missionary service?
* 21% were called as a result of a missions education service in their local church
* 20% felt God calling them after listening to missionary speakers
* 19% were called because of their own family's missions vision and conversations
* 10% heard God's call through reading missionary books

Missions Charts and Graphs
Here

Praying for Hollywood
Cool site here that mobilizes people to pray for Hollywood. Some really neat things going on in their newsletter. I'm going to be there next weekend, I'm excited as I've never been to CA before.
I'm most excited about possibly seeing the LaBrea Tar Pits with one of our cousins when the Origins conference is over. I used to live dinosaurs when I was a wee lad.

Missions Prep #3
Our 3rd meeting is this coming weekend. I've decided we will talk about teamwork and stuff like that. Something like:
- culture game
- study on Romans 12 (different gifts, etc.)
- Myers Briggs test, including charting the people on your team for where they are
- the Hardy Personality
- study on Phil 2 maybe
- everyone's status on fund raising
- the 8 great questions (taken from the Short Term Missions Workbook)

I hope it goes well. I'm going to have my mountain climber, Applachian Trail hiker friend G come for Prep #4 and he is going to do some serious team building initiatives. So we talk about it this time and next time, whoa that is going to be hott.

Empty Tomb
Wow just found this site which studies national church financial and giving patterns. Some of the information on there will probably really make you mad. Either it will make you mad at what they are implying, or it will make you mad that our 'discipleship' in the American church ends when it comes to money. In either case, it is compelling evidence.
If giving in American churches went up to 10%, there would be an additional $86B for missions. Note what the chart says that number can do around the world.


In regards to our summer missions stuff:
2 trips raising support
total needed = $9450
total to date = $4201
# of weeks spent raising support so far = 4
I'm not writing this to boast at all, mostly I'm just trying to get it straight in my head. But I also think that when people hear about the need, not just financially, and they see the opportunity to partner with our mission efforts, money is just a detail.

WWII memorial
Check out the new WWII memorial panaramic here. If you are like me and live around DC, you probably hardly ever take full advantage of everything to do in the city, most of the Smithsonian being free. It's kind of too bad.

Origins
Headed to the Origins conference next week. Should be a great time. Travelling with our youth admin/catalyst, a young adults pastor, and a youth small groups coord. Great group of people.
Also found this link from someone who went last year. Nice set of notes.
In preparation, one of them gave me a CD to listen to from Erwin. Intense, my notes are below.
=====

I sam 14

biblical change agents

redepmtive XXXX
the longer we live the more we want to hold on to what we have
to live impetuously
not to protect what he had but to expand
an expansionist - driven by urgency
jonathan was an expansionist
paul was a protectionist

the resources of God
the authority of God
the urgency and passion of God
put those three in the same people

a biblical context for what we must become for God's future
8 characteristics of a biblical change agent for God

1 - take initiative
amazed at how many christians are passive about God's will

we are egocentric about God's will for our lives
the center point is MY life

the people that i know that initiate -
they look at humanity, they see the brokenness, their hearts
are transformed by the longing of humanity
they stop saying 'God what is your will for MY life'
they say 'God I want to make a difference in someone elses life'
they stop worrying about what their life is supposed to be about
they worry about what God wants done in human history
they ask, 'God what is on your heart?'
they ask, 'What is breaking your heart Lord, what do you want done?'

Amazing how God can shape a life when they move based on what
they feel is on God's heart

2 - understands and uses influence
use the influence properly
Jonathan does not wake up his father
does not wake up his army
understands appropriateness

some people feel like they are powerless to make change
trying to bring change up instead of sideways and down
God doesn't hold you responsible for influence he doesn't give you

there are people in your life that are living passive apathetic lives
because you are

how come this new person is taking on some much responsibility?
'the kingdom of God is not a labor union'
when a person comes to Christ and recieves the urgency of Christ,
their influence expands

a holy life is not a passive life
i don't do drugs anymore
i don't beat my husband anymore
salvation and transformation is not just about what you do not do anymore
Christ was ressurceted not to stop you from doing something but to get
you to do something

people with intense characters are the leaders
the way you expand your influence in the kingdom is that you deepen your character in Christ

3 - operate in the realm of uncertainty
jonathan wakes the armor barer up
when Jonathan says, "Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf"

you never absolutely know
become a risk taker for God

willing to live in the realm of uncertainty

some things we know certainly:
Jonathan understands who God is - that is certain, concrete
do you wait to act until you have concrete evidence?
paradigms sound like the concept of faith
two levels of faith:
a - God speaks to us and its outside of our experience
God calls us to a level of living outside of our experience
God inviting us to where we have not been before
the realm of possibility

b - in the realm of the impossible
beyond the explainable
Sarah's faith and Mary's faith
the church normally identifies faith as anything outside the realm of our possibilities
God is calling us to live in the realm of the impossible
when we begin to live in the impossible, when God does not do it, we fail

4 - they embrace inherent dangers
v. 8
cross over towards the men, but let them see us
we are afriad to declare anything that is from the Lord
we are afraid to risk anything that might fail
won't we ruin God's name?
when you work with the poor, every single day is a test of viability
the Bible has no promise in it that you and i will survive this war,
but we will be part of the victory celebration
are we willing to inherit the dangers of glorfying God in the impossible?

5 - strategize from an advance mentality
the high place is the strategic place
high ground
God is calling us forward, never backwards, never stationary
it's not hard to avoid God - think small, dream small, live small
as soon as you start thinking big - God becomes involved
Jer 33:3
the impossiblity zone is the God zone
it's over when you decide you have to give your life to something bigger
than yourself

knowing that God always calls you to more
ideas are a dime a dozen
biblical risk taker doesn't just cast vision
a person who allows Jesus to incarnate his life

6 - they draw others into the movement
they don't live alone
they don't see the battle as theirs - they see it as the Lords
the 2nd most outstanding soldier was his armor bearer
other people take note, but they don't understand


7 - is a person who God uses to bring communal help
there is a lot of brokenness and dysfunction
kingdom risk takers make people healthy
they move people to health
a critical missing ingredient in humanity - we were created for mission and purpose
created by God to live with intention
the less intention we have, the more broken we become

God heals them when they get into the battle
if we as God's people will move together with courageous faith,
that we will see multitudes come to Christ and find healing in the battle

Youth Pastors doing stupid things
A list here. Yes, hilarious. Yes, scary.

"Our help comes not from the Lord, but from Colorado Springs."
This article brings up a couple good discussion points about how American Christians give and help.
- Watch how and what you write
- Know who you are supporting/partnering with
- Insist that ministries work together and are a team
Good stuff. It gets me thinking about our propensity to just give money, without being more strategic about it. If we give money, it must be a pretty viable ministry.

I Peter 4
Last night our study with our couples group was on I Peter 4. What an interesting passage, speaking about suffering and all. Like we know how to suffer here in the US. In the most affluent county in Maryland, boy, do I suffer.
Some notes that came to mind from the passage.

v. 8-11
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. - Eldredge

The purpose of the church cannot be to survive or even to thrive but to serve. And sometimes servants die in the serving. – Erwin McManus

v. 12-13
From Perspectives:
- Explain the strategic value of suffering and martyrdom in terms of the triumph of truth, the defeat of evil, and the glory of God.
Three things from Martyrdom/Suffering
1. The triumph of God’s truth
The unredeemed world lives in spiritual darkness. When the ambassador of Christ speaks the truth in love and meets death with joy, a strange miracle occurs – the eyes of the unbelievers are opened.
Many, many groups of people on this planet have testified that the darkness which had been over them was dissipated only when a missionary was killed there.
2. The defeat of Satan
The death of martyrs opens the eyes of unbelievers, and when they see the light, Satan’s power over them is gone.
3. The glory of God
In Christ’s voluntary suffering for the salvation of mankind, the true nature of God was revealed. His essence was shown to be perfect love, utterly and unconditionally giving itself to others.
People see the love of God in the death of the martyr and are compelled to believe in God’s love and sacrifice for them.

Something strange ?
I Peter 4:12
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

In the course of planning and building mission teams, inevitably, there are team members who have to drop. It usually happens, family plans, jobs, weird circumstances, etc. To me, it's never been a big deal. I always make sure the parents are totally comfortable not feeling like they have let someone down, making sure the students feel ok with making a commitment and then having to go back on it. Life happens. My trip is not and will not be the end-all/be-all mission trip of eternity. Even this year, I have had 2 students drop from NYC already. Both of them had unforseen family circumstances and were totally ready to go, but the trip had to give. It's ok.
But, I just got an email from another student with a totally different perspective. She felt like a failure because she couldn't make the next meeting and hadn't sent her letters out yet. The language of the email was doubtful and almost resigned. I wrote her back to make sure that she knew she was on the team and that the small things of sending support letters and one prep meeting were just that, small. I believe preparation for mission trips are just as important as the trip itself, but I also know that this student is going to thrive on this trip, it is going to change her worldview and she is going to look at missions so differently. And the rest of the team, me included, needs her. And she needs us.
Is it no surprise that Satan will attack all of us as we prepare, meet, get to know each other, think about what our summers will hold for us? Why wouldn't he send elements of doubt and resignation to us to make us believe that we aren't worthy, that we don't have what it takes, that we cannot possibly make a difference.... Whether it's at the beginning of brainstorming and planning summer missions, when I felt like I was most attacked, or today, as a student believes she has let everyone else down, Satan is at the heart of us feeling like something is trying to stop our efforts in bringing the Gospel to the nations.
"Listen carefully: any movement toward freedom and life, any movement toward God or others, will be opposed. Marriage, friendship, beauty, rest- the thief wants it all." - Eldredge

Summer Scheme
This is a pretty cool page that shows all they are doing for student summer missions, info meetings, pre trip retreats, etc. I like it. A definite goal for next Spring... I mean Winter...
One thing did come to mind - that is one humongous church... Wow... 17K in services every weekend. Is that what Jesus wants the Church to look like...I'm asking because I'm not sure...

Parents Info Mtg #3
Had another parents info mtg today. #3 out of 4. Only a few showed up. Granted, the PR for it was probably lax. That's ok, I feel like you only really need to have 2 or 3 really fired up students and then the trip starts to build momentum itself. The last major one I organized, for a whole grade level, we sent out 60 postcards and only 6 parents showed up. Anybody else out there have tips for running parents meetings? Would love to hear them.

Students to Africa
Found this while googling 'missions mobilization high school'. Looks like this church has got it going on. Check out the students that put together a trip to Africa. Sounds like they did it out of their passion. Cool.

You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 1000 MB.
Wow. I'm liking gmail more and more the more that I use it. But I'm still playing with it. If you've got a sec, drop me an email. The more I get, the more I can test it. tonytsheng at gmail dot com

Prayer for Students
Mykel has started blogging prayer requests for his students. Very cool. Mykel - it's great to see you shepherding your students like this. I'm encouraged and challenged by how well you know them, and how well you know their potential. Sweet!

SPACE intro - updated
Here is the official link to the SPACE page on the GCC YM website. Enjoy. I think it waxes to poetic of me, I'm a little embarassed....

Ghetto?
I was chatting with someone when they mentioned that someone 'lived in the ghetto.' I replied, 'There is a ghetto in Howard County?'
I was, if you didn't know, being facetious. There is not a ghetto in Howard County. Some interesting figures from the census:
Median household money income, 1999 - $74,167
Persons below poverty, percent, 1999 - 3.9%

Plugging in$74K into globalrichlist , I got this:

You are in the top 0.755% richest people in the world.
There are 5,954,658,435 people poorer than you.
One hour's salary = approx $51.38
Oh, and in case you’re interested you are the 45,341,565 richest person in the world.

Please don't say 'ghetto' anymore.

Columbine
Interesting article here about Columbine and the two teenage killers. Still hard to believe it happened. From the article, sounds like it might be a blessing.

Meeting
Went to a Youth Min staff meeting a few days ago, I only go once a month, and only since this year, so I'm still getting used to it. It was good though. I've always felt that it's more fun than work for me to go to those, the meetings that I go to for work are just that - work. They are about software designs, implementing software, software bugs, fixing and implementing software bugs, you get the picture. But these Youth Min staff meetings, they are the stuff of life, at least more so than work.
There was a discussion the other day, it got a little personal, as some meetings, secular job or church job, can get. What impressed me was that there was an honesty, an openness, a 'lay it out and let's get the details as well as the feelings right.' That's some good staff relations. I'm proud to be part of it.

Gmail
So I got to be a beta tester for Gmail, via a link on www.blogger.com. Very cool. I've only played with it for about 15 minutes, but I like it. It's got a cool interface thats very snappy. It's a little confusing, but I'm sure it's just a matter of getting used to it. The 1G inbox had me drooling for weeks. I was just looking at all the folders I had with my yahoo mail. Yikes. I heard someone saying that their dealing with attachments still needs some work. I do know that I had played around with sending a Word doc and that was fine. But I liked the way they lay out attachment info when you get one. And I liked the zippiness of when you reply/forward and how the frames 'jump' to life. Cool. A nice perk to using blogspot.

It's Alive
www.atthewarehouse.org

Students and Local Ministry
From the YPNation News Network, a topic suggestion close to my heart - Succesful ways you've gotten students involved in local community ministry...
I thought I would outline the big winners we did this year with our students. Before that, I thought I would share a little background:
- Our ministry did not have a missions/community service component to it prior to this year. Most if not all of that was up to individual small group leaders. That's good and bad. Good because they know the kids and if you get a leader to do it, you probably get most of their kids. Bad because it's a lot to put on a small group leader. I think, and lots of other people agree, that our small group leaders probably put in the most time across all the volunteers in the whole church. Sunday worship, a Bible study every week, contact time with kids, every other Friday night outreaches... It's a lot. Who's got time for community service, and don't even think about a summer missions trip. And forget about the leader's family, if they have one, or a full time job. At best, it makes for a very hectic and busy lifestyle; at worst, we setup leaders for a habit of ministry overload and all that comes with it. So one of our goals was to provide these service opportunites that leaders could just show up to.
- We have kids that have a heart for service and missions. They came out of the cracks when we started this. I suspect you do too. In fact, I think we are dealing with a different generation. When I was a high schooler in the 80's, all I wanted to do was watch MTV. The students we have these days are different.
- I spent the prior 4 years being a small group leader, so I saw the gap of what I wanted to do, and any attention the overall ministry was giving to it. So, I had a lot of input into this piece, so much so, now I am one of the leaders for it. Nice, huh?
- Our kids worship like whoa. I suspect you probably have kids like that too, but these kids worship like nobody's business. I can't understand it at all, but it's inspiring. A natural outflow of worship should be action. Hence, I felt like the engagement of a service/missions aspect of students was ready for prime time. If any students could be engaged to do something like this, it would have been our students purely on the critieria that worship was an intense experience. However, I think we are seeing a generation that worships like no other.
- We wanted to see our community service be strategic, well thought-out, smart. We would not do any old community service just because someone suggested it or thought it was a great idea. For example, Toys for Tots - great community service. But not for us for a variety of reasions.
- Tried to find ones that had a potential for relational impact as well as community impact. Keeping in mind the principle of cultivate, plant, reap, some do any one of those things, we wanted to do things where kids could talk to people. Not always possible, but a goal.
Ok, wow. So here are some areas of community service we pulled off this year, and some thinking behind them:
1 - Feeding the homeless.
Students arrived with their bag lunch. We had stuff there to make more lunches. They made them. We left and went to DC, where each kid had 2 lunches. We sat in a park and ate lunch with homeless people, getting to know them, conversing with them, etc. Spent about 90 minutes there. Saw three other churches come through and just served, delivered food. The kids saw something different and cool about the way we did it.
Then went to a food bank to help pack, stock, sort food. Nice complement with the two events.
The thinking -
In the year 2025, there will be over 4B people that live in cities. The urban slum inhabitants will number 1.5B people. If we don't talk to our suburban kids about reaching the cities for Christ now, we are making a mistake. Additionally, it's a pretty well documented fact that there is plenty of food for the whole world. The problem is in food distribution. Add to that some statistics about the number of children that die everyday from hunger and preventable diseases (34000, that's 24 a minute), homelessness and the related issues should be one of the ways we impact the community with our students.
2 - Raking Leaves
This idea was not mine - but driving around a neighborhood in a school bus, and then stopping at specific (or nonspecific) houses and all the kids getting out and raking the leaves up, bagging them, and moving on. We took the idea and ran with it though, and it was so cool. Really. We had neighbors getting out and looking to see what was going on, one lady took pictures of us.
The thinking -
The idea was based around strategic thinking. We talked to the kids about what it was like to think about these people for a few weeks, knowing what we were doing today. And that's how God thinks of us. He's got us in His mind all the time. And how that translates to their lives, when they ponder the people around them, how they can impact them, etc. We did 7 houses, it lasted all day, and we fed them pizza for lunch in the middle.
3 - Pro-Life
Around January, we decided to do something based on pro-life. We had a guest speaker come who had had an abortion when she was 16, got pregnant again when she was 24, became a Christian during that pregnancy, and was raising her daughter as a single mother. The idea of giving up a child once and no way in doing it again - wow, that was intense. As she spoke, some of our kids were listening with their jaws open. She really made an impact. After that, we made and delivered some meals to people in the church that had babies recently. Then we went over to a local pregnancy center and sorted clothes, packed baby bags, etc. That was a lot of fun too.
The thinking -
Of course, the abortion issue is a huge issue in our country. Pregnancy centers almost always need help. It's perfect and easy. One thing that I see with this area, is setting up a partnership of some sorts. Part of that idea is still swimming around in my head, but it has to do with partnering with local ministries. Same with the homeless idea. You can feed homeless people yourself, but what would it look like to team up with someone who's full time job is to minister to the homeless. It's a better investment, you make more of an impact, you are working on a team.
In my mind, the jury's still out on whether there is more impact to the kids or the community. My hope is that these kids think in a different manner after going on one of these things. That's why we won't just do a service project that is off the top of our heads. We want the service to be a catalyst for discipleship, a mission minded heart, a student that is transformed into a Christ follower.
Wow, I've written a lot. One more thing - for each of these, we teach before we start. We debrief when we end. They go hand in hand with the service activity. Don't underestimate the value and investment of each of these pieces.
I'm not going to write the same kind of thing on summer missions quite yet. I want to see how it goes after the teams go out, come back, debrief, etc.

Search Terms 04/18
- "where is the money from american churches thats for missions"
nice. let's just say that American churches have 80% of the world's resources. yeah
- "jarrett stevens"
great guy, pastor of Axis at Willow Creek. I've heard him speak to the youth min I work with a few times. Very very good speaker.
- "tony sheng"
uh thats me. someone from vt.edu. i wonder who it is?
there's actually two people that googled me. the other one didn't have a domain listed.
- "How to run a Missions weekend ideas"
very cool. would love to hear your ideas.
- "shareplex news group"
something for my day job. Shareplex is a tool used to replicate data back and forth from Oracle databases. are you bored yet?
- "the passion in kuwait"
good stuff happening huh.
- "grace cares" foundation
probably not related to GCC's Grace Cares ministry, but who knows.

Bridging the Gap
So in church this am, PM talked about David and the task before him when he was going to build the temple. The ideas and principles behind when there is such a monumental task before you, that you only know that it is God behind it and who can orchestrate it coming through. PM framed it in light of our building process. For those of you that don't know, GCC has purchased some property and is close to groundbreaking for a new building. It's been a pretty wild experience. Some things include:
- finding this 30 acres via a very strange relationship
- purchasing the property for $50K an acre, when the land around it is easily going for 4 or 5 times that much.
- having all the county and state approvals with no contest, especially in Howard County, which isn't known for letting churches just pop up
- asking the county if it would be possible to extend their water and sewer facilities for us, and them saying yes as long as we pay for it
- raising $5M from the congregation in the midst of today's economy

In essence, we are still $1.5M away, hence the gap. So PM asked everyone to see:
- what they could do
- talk to people around them for what they could do
- leave the results up to God

And then on May 16, we are having a Bridge the Gap Sunday, a big one outside service on the property where people are going to bring their one time donations and see where we end up. It's pretty cool, I'm way excited to see how God moves in people. I know that in the past, when we as a family decided to step out and give on faith, funny circumstances have about. Some might call it coincidence, but I know that when we do that, either God gives us more or God reduces something we need to pay for. Anyway, it will be neat to see what we can do as a family for this, seeing how creative we can be.

What is just as cool, was to sit in church and look around and see all the people that make GCC what it is. The way they serve, relate, care for one another. And just to realize that its not even close to being about the building. The building is strictly a means. Not the end all be all.

I also got to thinking, for the four weeks, what else could I do to make some extra money. Maybe get a paper route? No way, can't get up that early. Get a part time job? Not a chance with two little kids at home. Time is too precious with them. Then I thought, and here is where you blogspot readers come in, maybe I could do something for you guys out there? No idea what specifically... Maybe write a Bible study for you? Point you in some direction for youth and missions? Network you with someone else? But then I thought, thats kind of lame. I already try and do that for free. How could I ask for money to do that? PM was right, creativity is certainly going to come in the play here.

Warehouse web
Our new website for GCC youth min launches tonight at midnight. www.atthewarehouse.org Our youth building is affectionately called 'The Warehouse' so that's where that comes from.

PA
My friend PA came this morning to talk and sketch with his paintboard for our missions prep mtg. It was pretty awesome. I accomplished one of my goals - for kids to see a different kind of gospel presentation. It also got him some visibility at GCC, which is something that I think will be good for him.
He talked thru Acts 17 including:
- the word evangelist is only used 3 times in the NT
- the word 'witness' comes from the same word that we get the word 'martyr'. Scary.
I will probably update more when I find my notes. In any case, thanks PA!

Funny because I just read this from McManus last night:
"The New Testament word for ‘witness’ is the same as for ‘martyr.’ We have come to know martyrs as those who have died for the faith. They didn’t survive, but they died facing the right direction. The purpose of the church cannot be to survive or even to thrive but to serve. And sometimes servants die in the serving."

SPACE intro
I get people that ask me about SPACE all the time. I talk about it so much, it's almost something I've memorized. I guess that's a good thing, since I think I'm pretty passionate about it. I just hope I don't talk too much when people ask me. I hope they don't walk away saying, "Man, I wish he would just shut up about this SPACE stuff..."
Anyway, the GCC YM website is launching on Monday. Here is the quick write up I wrote about SPACE for it. I like it, I think it sings.

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SPACE
(Students Prepared to Act for Christ's Empire)

SPACE is the intersection of students, service and missions;
the GCC Youth Ministry's component of strategic community service
and worldwide missions.

SPACE exists to:

- Provide students and their leaders with opportunities
for strategic community service. These opportunities are typically
community service days during the school year and occur around
5 times during the school year. We call them 'Launches'.
Past Launches have included outreach to the homeless, a day
centered around the Pro-Life movement, and the school
bus that loves to rakes leaves.

- Propel our students into worldwide missions
with a strategic, progressive and prepared edge.
SPACE partners with the GCC Missions Task Force in
ensuring that our student missions trips are strategic
with where the Body of Grace is going throughout the world.
We seek experiences that will allow students to progress
in their missions experience as they go from middle school
thru high school.
We prepare our students going out on summer missions
in the concepts of worldwide missions which includes teaching on
culture, team building and the unreached.

Just like us?
My friend T and I had breakfast the other day. He mentioned that he was at this conference for young adult minstries and met Mark Batterson from NCC in DC. This is a church that I have followed on and off for a little while, since they are in DC and I love their whole approach. I asked T what he was like and he said, "You know, hes in his mid 30s, has a few kids. He's just like us."
That's funny. The idea that a pastor could be just like me, it's weird and different because of my experience as a young Christian. But I think it's right. And I'm glad my thinking is changing.

Mission Prep Mtg #2
Some of my notes for this mtg on Saturday.
And my friend PA from OAC is coming to speak too.
Lots of it is right from SEMP.

Team Time

Part 1 – Paul’s testimony

1. Paul’s life before Christ
Read through Acts 26:4-11

Describe what Paul was like before he met Jesus.
What kinds of things was he involved in?
How famous was he for those things he was involved in?
Was there one key problem in his life?

2. How Paul met Christ
Read through Acts 26:12-23

Describe how dramatic Paul’s experience with Jesus was.
Why so?
How does Paul explain Jesus and his work?
Did Paul’s initial response to Jesus change?
If so, how?

3. Paul’s life since he met Christ
What are some things Paul is continuing to deal with?
How has becoming a Christian dealt with his problem?
Part 2 – Your testimony
My life before Christ

Include good elements of your life before Christ
Identify one key problem that characterized your life before Christ
Show how this problem affected your life
OR
The Early Years
Tell how you were provided for as a child
Tell how your need for Christ was made evident

How I met Christ
Be specific
Avoid confusing Christian jargon “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb”
Talk about Christ and His work

My Life Since I’ve trusted Christ
Tell how Christ dealt with your problem mentioned above or if yours was an early conversion Describe a positive benefit of following Christ.
Be honest.
Include an invitation to know Christ personally.


1. Do you identify with something from the person’s life before Christ? Explain.
2. Was the gospel clear?
3. Could the average person understand? Were there too many confusing statements or Christian jargon?
4. Did they share how Christ is working in their lives today? Explain.
5. Is there an appeal to know God personally?
6. What can be improved to make things clearer, understandable, or relate better to the average person?

McManus


Our Youth Administrator and Catalyst (that is her real title, cool huh?) gave me this book. I started to read it last night, and I really like it. I'll post more notes about it later. One of the cool things is that Erwin has quoted two people related to Perspectives. I think it's cool because so much of the American church is missing our sense of mission. And Perspectives puts it all into, er, perspective. I'm sure I can write better than that.

Spring Break Mini Launch followup
I realized that I never wrote about what we did or how it turned out.
So I thought I would fill you happy readers about it.
The idea was to have a mini launch since it was Spring Break for our students and since it was almost Easter weekend. I wanted to do something and have it be somewhat targetted for the holiday weekend. So the prayerwalking idea came to my head. And I wanted to do it at the Mall. We had done a small prayer thing with some of the SPACE crew there a few months ago, and they just ate it up. The prayerwalking idea is different though, since no one is supposed to know that you are praying, but you are, just with a small group of people as you walk through a certain place. You also have in mind certain specific things you are praying about, and are trying to let God speak to you for who and what to pray for. I think it can seem a little mystical at first, but that's ok.
So we had about 15 students show up and one of the leaders brought his young adult Bible study, which was cool too.
I introduced the whole night with talking about how Eldredge talks about that we need to believe that God still speaks to us, and then get into a position where we are listening. And how our American modern church disbelieves that to a certain point. And the story of one of our student's moms who had a dream about one of our college students who was on a missions trip - that he had something in his eye. Turns out he had pink eye, while on his missions trip in Indonesia. I had also printed a list of stores they could pray for, and an idea or snippet of how to pray. And then they broke into small groups to go off and prayerwalk for about an hour or so.
After it was done, we did a quick debrief near a hairdresser. This lady that was getting her hair done was looking at us pretty strangely. It was funny.
Here is my list of stores and things to pray for: (I for one, thought some of them were funny.)
Starbucks - Friends building good relationships
A&F - Kids to understand how God sees them
Chick Fil A - Kids meals
Gymboree - Stay at home moms
Fountains - Living water
Disney - Impact society for Jesus
Bookstores - People finding and reading books about Jesus
BOSE - God to free people from materialism
LL Bean - See God as the Creator
Panera - People to see Jesus as the bread of life
Hot Topic - Young people being protected
Nordstrom - God sees you as glamorous
Movie Theater - People moved by The Passion
JCrew - God is cooler than your clothes
Music stores - Power of music
Build a Bear - Love of a creator
Sports stores - Jesus competes for your heart
Victoria secrets - True beauty
Ice Cream- Strong families
Bank - Money is not the end goal
Merry Go Round - Christ to capture kids early
Jewelry - Christ light of the world
Maternity - Safe babies
Shoe stores – people would walk with Jesus

And then some things we talked about for debrief:
1. Was it weird?
2. Did it make you think a little differently?
3. Did you feel effective?
4. Any interactions with people? Strangers?
5. Did God speak to you about anything or anyone?

The overall feedback was that they enjoyed it and thought it was a little uncanny and weird but fun. They said we should definitely do it again. Some people heard them praying and looked at them funny. And one of the guys said he was so used to sharing and talking with people about spiritual things, he felt funny holding back and just praying.
Fun stuff!

O snap
From dead youthpastor walking. Ouch. I hope it hurts because we know it is true.

DM
This is an interesting article. It's funny, I helped out with a trip to a DM conference back in the early 90s. You can either like DM or not like him, but you have to admit, he's reaching loads and loads of kids. What I liked about the conference was that he pretty much set you up as a youth ministry to take his content and go deeper with your kids. What I didn't like is that our particular leader team didn't take advantage of it. But that's the overall story a lot of times. We take kids to these big events, but never go deeper. Speakers give us almost everything we need to strike up conversations with them... We just don't take advantage of it....
I've only spoke at two retreats, but when I did, taking the example of some really good speakers, I had a list of questions that small group leaders could use to follow up right away. I know when I was on a retreat that was set up like that, I had some phenomenal personal times with students.

Joe Gibbs and his faith
If you now me, you know I'm not a big fan of professional sports at all. But being from DC, I have a slight interest in the Redskins. Great article about the new coach and his faith here.

Shepherd versus Administrator
Read this.

CT
Off to CT this weekend for Easter. I know its tough for you guys and gals that 'work' these big holidays, in terms of full time ministry. So my prayer is that in the midst of all the setup, practicing your talks, getting communion ready, sunrise services on the Beach, trying to keep kids awake or quiet, balancing your ministry and your family, helping your little children and your teens understand Easter, and all of that.... My prayer is that you yourself enjoy and embrace Easter and the truth that it represents. Jesus is Alive!

Walt Mueller nails it again.
Check out his post here titled "Do we mind or nevermind?"


"This weekend as you remember, ponder, and celebrate the salvation secured for you on the cross, think about Kurt Cobain and those represented by his voice. I wonder if his cries went unheard for so long that he finally gave up and walked away from life while saying “nevermind.” God “minded” so much that He sent His Son into the world and to the cross. As His followers, we’re called to “mind” on His behalf. Will we “mind,” listen, and answer with the Good News?"

SPACE crew movies
From the app to go on the SPACE crew mission trip,
"What is your favorite movie and in what way do you relate to it?"

LB - Shadowlands
SD - The Empire Strikes Back
CN - BlackHawk Down
TS - Lord of the Rings
AW - Dead Poets Society
KS - The Matrix
BC - Bad Boys 2
AW - The Other Side of Heaven

Well, it's a somewhat insightful question. Anybody out there have their favorite question for an application for a missions trip?

Recent Searches
Some recent searches that have brought people to this page:

"missionaries unreligious tribal THUMB" - yeah definitely. THUMB - a very cool acronym for the unreached. Tribal, Hindu, Unreligious, Muslim, Buddhist. Nice.
"youthworkers glorified baby sitters" - ouch. I guess its the nature of the beast. Some people will think of youthworkers as glorified baby sitters. Sad but true.
"muslim woman in image in sad presentation in nursing home" - weird. hmm. I hope this person found the image they were looking for.

Fun! I'm a big fan of sitemeter. If you are not using it for your blog to track where people come from, you should do it. It's easy to set up and fun.
Out of 3 searches, I think those sort of hit the mark on what I'm trying to do with this website.

Funny Tax Quotes
Look both ways, who is a part of YPNation, has some funny quotes about taxes. In fact, they are very funny.

Walnut Hill CC
Found this church from a friend of D who has recently been going to a moms group there. Looks like a pretty great church. Check out their missions page here. I like the whole consortium idea - "loose confederation of churches whose goal is to send new missionaries from our churches overseas as quickly and expeditiously as possible."
That's a great idea.
Three churches that I know in this consortium:
Black Rock - Kevin Butterfield - who was the youth pastor, is a high school friend of D. The first time I met Kevin was at SEMP in 2000 when he did a concert of prayer. I had only heard the name before, I had no idea who he really was.
Trinity - D's family's home church. And Len Evans who is a part of YPNation.
Valley Community - I heard the missions pastor speak last Fall about short term trips at an ACMC conference. He is money.

Stuck in my head
Lamb of God
by Rebecca St. James, Matt Bronleewe, and Jeremy Ash

I hear a voice of many people
I hear a voice like a mighty thunder
Singing Hallelujah for the Lord reigns
Singing Hallelujah for the Lord reigns

Chorus:

Lamb of God
Holy
Lord You are
Holy
Lamb of God
Holy
You are
Holy

So let us be glad
Let us rejoice
And let us give honor, glory to the Lord
And may every tribe and every tongue
Gather and sing praises to the Holy One

SEMP 9th grade
My key leader for SEMP for 9th grade has signed up. So in other words, the 4 trips I had dreamed of are almost a reality. Wow. I still can't quite get over it. It's not about me, it's about engaging kids to see missions in a new light, to get out into the world and help people glorify God, to see the essential task and how they are so so so integral to it.

Good reading
For some reason, I haven't added lots of links to the margins of this page. I don't really know why. But here are two that I love. Because they are a little off beat, but so well written. They talk about faith and real life in a way that evokes so much emotion, its rather incredible.
Anyway the first one I've been reading for a while. The second one I just found this morning.
Real Live Preacher
Correction

"Friendship, like marriage, like parenthood does more than simply give us a moment's pleasure; it helps remind us who we are."

Spring Break mini launch
Talking about this idea tonight when we meet with the SPACE crew at the new opening of ChickFilA... Funny place and time to meet, but one of the kids wanted to do it. Building indigenous youth to lead....
I have this desire to do something with SPACE during Spring Break.... I think it's a great time to engage kids, especially with Good Friday and Easter at the end of their break. So I'm thinking about something like this at the Mall. I'm thinking, just in general, of the movie theater where the Passion is playing, Hot Topic, and stuff like that... Hmm. Anyone done something like this with students before?

ML and J
Great meeting last night with ML and J. They are close to signing up, they just have to check a few things. Even cooler, I think they get the picture. It was fun. They are quality people, they desire to walk with Christ with all their being, and desire to bring people to know Jesus. So fortunate to have some many people around us that really are sold out disciples....

Ps 73
Pretty interesting sermon from CRCC. Thanks for the link Rudy. I like most of what Brian says, its pretty good. But I think the most important thing he said was to watch the way you read Psalm 73 versus the way Christians in other countries would read it. Yeah, thats big.

Child Witches
This article here
Link from Jordon.
So sad. We sit here and can't imagine how people would think that.... whereas people that don't live in the Western hemisphere deal with spirits, witchcraft, curses and magic constantly. The excluded middle....

The Passion in Kuwait
Read this.
"In two short hours, more Qataris heard the gospel than I have been able to reach in nearly five years of living here."
In Kuwait, there are 33 people groups, with 20 listed as unreached. So an argument about The Passion being not being a great outreach opportunity... well in this specific case, I disagree.

A story as told to Dennis Rainey
From the book Parenting Today's Adolescent
My son has two daughters one who is five and one his is two. For several years, he's taken the oldest girl out for a 'date' time but it wasn't until recently that he'd asked the two year old out.
On their first date, he took her to breakfast at a fast food restaurant. They'd just gotten their pancakes when he decided it would be a good time to tell her how much he loved and appreciated her.
Jenny, he said, I want you to know how much I love you and how special you are to Mom and me. We prayed for you for years, and now that you're here and growing up to be such a wonderful girl, we couldn't be more proud of you.
Once he said all this, he stopped talking and reached over for his fork to begin eating but he never got the fork into his mouth.
Jenny reached out and laid her little hand on her fathers. His eyes went to hers and in a soft, pleading voice she said, "Longer, Daddy, longer."
He put his fork down and told her even more reasons why he and her mother loved her. "You're very kind, nice to your sister, full of energy"
Then, he again reached for his fork only to hear the same words again. A second time, and a third, and a fourth time.. and each time he heard the words, "Longer, Daddy, longer"
That father never did get much to eat that morning, but his daughter feasted on words every child longs to hear.
Told by John Trent
Wow. Does that story bring tears to your eyes? It did to me the first time I read it. But not just because I have two little girls, who hold my heart in their hands. Mostly because of that. But also, because I realize that we have students that we see every weekend that would say the same thing to an adult that would care for them. They would say the same thing to an adult that would spend time with them, say hello to them, go see a game or a play they were in, call them out of the blue just to say hi, chat online with them for a few minutes. To a person that cares for them, "Longer....longer."

Great youth group games!
Intriguing article about youth group games. I have to admit, some of these are pretty funny, but the article brings about some pretty good points. I might think they are funny, but I do realize that many of them are totally pointless. I have a bit of pride is saying that in 4 years that I ran a small group, as well as running grade wide get togethers, we never did anything like this. In fact, I can say without reservation that we did programming that was based on principles only and we never did things just to do them, or just because someone else did them. We always had a very specific set of goals and objectives. I think that's pretty important in youth ministry and I think kids start to really respect your ideas and foresight when they realize that EVERYTHING you do has a significant purpose to teach, model, disciple. Now before you think that I think that I really know what I'm doing, there was that time that we accidentally left a kid at someone's house after leaving to go play Manhunt. And the time a student smoked pot while having a sleepover at his house. And the time all the guys got upset after doing a GPS scavenger hunt that took 4 hours instead of 2. And the time.... well, you get the picture.

More Google
Someone found this page by searching on :
'dxm satan'

Interesting, because I think DXM really is a tool of the devil.

The big 20
I just realized it - today, I have been a Christian for 20 years. That's pretty cool.

Almost 4/4 for 2004
Some of you readers have been following my plan and implementation for summer missions for this summer. The plan was to have 4 different trips from GCC, between middle-high school, all of them are looking into the future, to set up a progression for summer missions, and trying to be strategic.
Up until today, I really only had 3 out of the 4 staffed and ready. But this morning, two people, who have worked closely before, both said they were interested in leading this trip and both were really interested in working with each other. Hmm. Very cool. So I meet with them on Wed evening to lay it all out. Pray for ML and J. They are a great team, and I trust them as mission trip leaders.

Bubbles
So I bought this really cool bubble machine tonight, from BJs (its a warehouse club store). It was $10 and it must spit out 20 bubbles a second. Really. It's rad. Why the fascination with bubbles? Well, I really bought it because it was cool, and my kids love bubbles. But a second reason is for children's ministry. You want to attract kids to what you are doing? Whip out some bubbles. Want to see kids have a great time for no good reason? Bubbles. Want to do something cheap, when its hot outside, and don't have any good ideas? Bubbles. Really. It might sound kind of dumb. But that's ok. So I'm going to take this bubble machine everywhere I go this summer on ministry. In fact, I just might keep it in my SUV at all times.
My fondest memory of bubbles was when I went on a 4 week missions trip to the Dominican Republic. I remember it like it was yesterday. I travelled with a team of 6, I was the primary leader, with a woman co-leader Suzie, and we were in charge of 4 students. The goal was to work with a missionary from our home church who was with a missions agency working in a medium sized city in the center of the DR. He was involved with kids clubs, street ministry and an orphanage run by Christians. It turned out to be a pretty interesting experience - lots of downtime, he was only there every once in a while, I got really really sick about half way thru the trip. Anyway, probably the first few minutes we got to our town, unloaded our stuff, kids came pouring out from everywhere. Literally. There must have been 30 school aged children all with huge smiles, beaming at their new visitors. And we got bubbles out. And it was like we had just pulled out heaven from our baggage. Really.

Missions Prep 1
Great time last night doing the first prep meeting for the summer. A good 25 kids there, I just watched them during the worship set. Just amazing to see and hear them worship so whole heartedly. Went over some really good stuff missions wise - unreached people, state of missions today, Gen 12, etc. The feedback I got was that a lot of them hadn't heard stuff like that ever before. My goal accomplished. Had some good team times too and we got them a great start to writing support letters - the notion of finding partners to their missions trip. I feel a great sense of pride at a job well done. Not only me, but having God lead in such a way, and, more importantly, that God would grab these hearts to be passionate to bring His glory to the nations for the rest of their lives.

YP Nation blogroll
Just fixed the YP Nation blogroll. It's been a while since it was working, wow there are lots of people on there now. Cool.

Adopt a Village
Pretty good article about Rick Warren here, coverage from Time. That's pretty cool. Whether or not you like Rick Warren (I for one like him), he's done a lot for the evangelical church here in the US. Catch the end of the article, about how he would like each one of his 2000 small groups to adopt a village.
"He wants each of Saddleback's 2,000 small groups to adopt a village in a developing country, make mission trips there and send educational and medical supplies, along with spiritual and financial support, to its residents."
Now THAT is some influence. What would that look like if each one of those small groups caught the vision for unreached people groups and being accountable and responsible for indigenous church planting movements in each people group? Maybe I should send him a letter....

In Your FACE
If you have followed my postings for the past few weeks, you know it's been a tough 6 - 8 weeks in general, mostly due to my day job and the pressure of trying to get things started for summer missions. Last weekend, we had another big work weekend and things ran pretty flawlessly. It was a very visible piece of work and my team came through. It was pretty awesome, I was, and still am, elated about it. Since then, I have also gotten the 2nd out of 4 planned mission trips off the ground, with a parents meeting, paperwork started, etc. And we got a final confirmation on dates for the other trip that was already off and running. Tonight is our first out of five mission prep meetings with all the students going out this summer. I'm way excited, we will probably have about 20 there tonight and I've been working hard all week getting packets together for them that includes a study, sample support letters, printed labels for returning support to the church, and response cards for people to write back their level of support. Wow.
So in other words, about the level of spiritual warfare that has been going on, I say to Satan, in your FACE! The feelings of attack, the physical toll of working two long weekends back to back, the stress between our family in the midst of a bad review at work, the nagging doubt that maybe I could not do it all, that I had taken on too much responsibility between work, missions stuff, family, etc. All of these feelings are gone... substituted with this emotional high based on the knowledge that God and I can do this. To you youthworkers reading this, You are capable.
“It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell, it is this at which demons hurl their mightiest weapons.” – William Gurnall

Teen Suicide
Steve, a YP from around where I grew up, writes about how to talk to a suicidal friend here. Good advice. He also talks about two students who committed suicide and his own experience with his brother committing suicide here. Steve, thanks for sharing some pretty personal stuff. I'm sure that your words and experience will help some students pretty significantly both now and way in the future.

Middle school job
Here is a job opening for a middle school pastor. I can vouch for this church, it's money. And the guy that built the youth ministry there is an old friend of ours, he went to high school with D. And its a church that is fully engaged in Biblical missions.

Revamped USCWM.org
Revamped US Center for World Missions web page. Nicely done. I like it, nice and crisp. Check out the page on their Vision. Hey, I could get into some of that!

DC bloggers
Pretty cool idea - a visual map of bloggers around the DC metro. It is a cool visual thing, kind of like all the stuff that is happening missions wise with visualizing where we are going and that kind of thing. The Internet, what a tool!

A fridge that doesn't use electricity
Check it out. Very cool. When we think of indigenous people making transformations in their culture, this fits, doesn't it? Reminds me of the talk about perishable versus nonperishable in 1 Peter 1:
22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Who is Normal Anyway?
I had wanted to write about this about three weeks ago. An incident happened on the CpR retreat that was pretty significant. The nurse who came for the weekend rode up and back with me, since I came a little late. On the way home, she was telling me how she had gotten a chance to sit in on the Sat night session. During the session, there was a drama about suicide. And while the nurse, J, was there, a female student was watching the drama and just got freaked out and had to run out of the room... Since no other adults were following her out, J ran out to see if she was okay. The girl was talking about how she hadn't thought about suicide in so long and that this drama just really got her. And she couldn't stop thinking about it again. At one point, the girl said, "I'm just not normal."
J had the presence of mind to say to her, "You ARE normal. Everyone has something to deal with." Is that great or what? Because that is so much of what students are dealing with, whether its contemplating suicide, or thinking about whether their shoes are cool or not. Of course, it could very well be all of us who are trying to decide whether we are normal or not, us adults just hide it a little better. But in either case, I loved it the fact that a visitor to our ministry could shepherd a kid like that. And I think those words are so significant. Those are the words that some of our students are dying to hear.

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.