Musings

Sanitizing the Sacred

2012-02-06T11:59:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my friend and guest blogger today. Great post!

Sanitizing the Sacred

By Gary Zelesky

Matt, 15:33 After Jesus had taken him aside from the crowd; he stuck his fingers in the man's ears. Then he spit and put it on the man's tongue.

Matt. 16:23Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the village, where he spit into the man's eyes

John 9:6 After Jesus said this, he spit on the ground. He made some mud and smeared it on the man's eyes.

The Jesus I have come to know over the past 42 years was a man’s man; He was never predictable, seldom on time, hanging out with the wrong kind of people, didn’t always tell his parents where he was going and apparently liked to spit.

He was a carpenter most of his life and knew the touch of wood and what it was like to feel the pain of the hammer and the nail. He worked in a dirty carpenters shop making stuff out of wood with his father Joseph. He lived at home until he was 30 years of age and yet took on the full responsibility of a man when he turned 13.

When he went to church he hung out with the old guys having no problem talking to them about the things that mattered and they listened to him.

When he decided to start his church he chooses 12 dudes many who never went to church and put a thief in charge of the money. Apparently he lacked insight! Most of the time his guys didn’t have a clue what Jesus was even talking about but his only requirement of them was to follow! I guess he knew guys liked it simple.

What if Jesus were to plant a church today?

He better have a non-spitting leadership team. He better know the right target audience he will be reaching out to and never spit. He must know what acceptable behavior is and never spit. And he must never hang around those who do spit or he could become a spitter too.

I find it a bit ironic that what we find as gross and disgusting Jesus used as a healing anointing oil. I fear that men have lost the power of the Holy Spirit and the adventure of living the Christian life because they are no longer allowed just to be men. We can no longer spit! Many Christian men are bored with their lives because it has become ruled by a feminist approach to being a man!

I not saying that men become the chauvinistic pigs that ruled the church years ago but what I am saying is that we have so sanitized the sacred that we have replaced the power of the Holy Spirit for the sophistication of acceptability. My heart is broken!

A Presidential Attitude

2012-02-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

Attitude

And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you (Ephesians 4:23-24)

In light of presidents day, this is a good one.

Attitude is almost everything and a good attitude often means a great smile. Anyone can smile on a good day. An old adage but true. Its way more difficult to smile on a day when you got too little sleep, woke up late for a meeting, forgot to iron your clothes, rush to the office late and then realize its Saturday, yep, much more difficult. We all have bad days and will have some in the future but the good news is, a bad day doesnt have to mean a bad attitude. Attitude is so important and because its indirectly affected, probably overlooked way more than it should be. Attitude is our best friend or worst enemy.

Since presidents day is approaching I think of one of Americas greatest presidents, Honest Abe. This guy had justifiable reason for having a bad attitude but history doesnt record that. It does record his trials and triumphs and we all celebrate his ultimate triumph of freedom and equality. Below is a tough track record, but untimatly, we remember him as one or the best leaders in history and certainly one of the best presidents of the US.

Lincoln's Attitude
Your attitude is communicated to others in three ways,—7 percent by words, 38 percent by tone of voice and 55 percent in non-verbal ways, such as posture.

Those who have the most to overcome in life are often the ones who make the most of it. People usually consider Abraham Lincoln one of the top 5 of the best presidents of all time. Look at some of his many obstacles.

If anyone had a "reason" to have a bad attitude, it was Lincoln.

* He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1816
* His mother died. 1818
* Failed in business. 1831
* Was defeated for legislature. 1832
* Lost his job and couldn't get into law school. 1832
* Declared bankruptcy, and spent the next 17 years of his life paying off the money
he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1833
* Was defeated for legislature again. 1834
* Was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken. 1835
* Had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed. 1836
* Was defeated in becoming the speaker of the state legislature. 1838
* Was defeated in becoming elector. 1840
* Was defeated for Congress 1843
* Was defeated for Congress. 1846
* Was defeated for Congress again. 1848
* Was rejected for the job of Land Officer in his home state. 1849
* Was defeated for Senate. 1854
* Was defeated for Vice-President -- got less than 100 votes. 1856
* Was defeated for Senate for the third time. 1858
* Was elected President of the United States. 1860

Next time you feel like you have more reason to frown than smile just remember, its easier to act your self into feeling than feel your way into acting.

Make it a great day!

Top 10's of 2011 - Music Releases

2012-01-12T23:43:00.000-06:00

Regardless if they were released in 2011 or not, i got em in 2011

U2 - Duals
Some stuff you have hear of, most you havent but all the songs are with U2 and someone else. My fave is Where the Streets Have No Name/Amazing Grace (U2 and the Soweto Gospel Choir) and I've always loved Miss Sarajevo (Passengers and Luciano Pavarotti).

Asteroid Galaxy Tour - Fruit
I first heard this band on a Heineken commercial then on an indie compilation. Once I got the music I was hooked. Good, different and worthy of multiple listens. Fruit was originally released in 2009 but I guess the underground from Denmark to Dallas took awhile. Indie bands, sheesh.

Portugal the Man - In the Mountain in the Cloud
Heard them in the background many times and never paid much attention til my friend Scott Sorgea sent me a link to "So American". I still cant get enough.

Adele - 21
Cant say enough so I'll say little. If you actually have been under a rock, get this recording.

Civil Wars - Barton Hallow
Simple, whiny, beautiful. So melodic and harmonic and did I say whiny. I guess I like that.

Mumford & Sons - Sigh no More
Thank Justin La Fond for the recommendation. Part folk, part Irish sounding (although they are another Danish band) and part psychedelic cool (but more folk harmonies and feel good toe stamps than anything else).

Evanescence - Evanescence

The fourth release in twice as many years is saying were here for a while. I loved them in 2003 and thought their cool goth/rock/power vocal with a pinch of bubble-gum might grow tired but I was wrong. I bit more maturity here but the same old Evanescence.

Beatles - Abbey Road
Stop making fun. I know this was released in 1969, I just got it. Been loving it for years and just came to the party. I want you is still so creepy and cool.

Mutemath - Odd Soul
Thanks again Justin. From a city know for everything rock, good old NOLA rock never sounded so good.

Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials

I'm intrigued with FATM but also uneasy. More vocals than I like but the music makes up for it.

Bamboo Farming, the Saw and the Goal

2012-01-05T08:58:00.000-06:00

Its a hodgepodge post but stay with me, they all fit together.

I've recently become a bamboo farming theoretician. Not really, what I mean is, I've been doing some research on the growth of bamboo plants and trying to pull some stories or applications from that. Its actually pretty interesting stuff. At the same time I've been asked to write an article about how to best use the 7th Habit (See Stephen Covey's great book) all while pondering my New Years goals, new starts and all the other stuff that one thinks about around this time of the year.

BAMBOO
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet. It is very sustainable, has a myriad of uses and is relatively easy to grow. Bamboo can grow two or three feet in a day with the right circumstances (but usually 12-14 in a normal growing cycle). Here is where things get more interesting. It if very difficult to harvest and plant bamboo seeds because bamboo rarely flowers (when a plant releases seeds) and when it does it is irregular and if/when it does, they seeds are difficult to harvest. Here is what i'm intrigued by; sometimes some varieties of bamboo seeds take a long time to germinate; some take a couple of months, others a year or two. When the bamboo seed does finally push through the ground and when the roots system is ready it can rapidly grow. During the time the seed is growing its root system UNDERGROUND is getting ready for rapid growth ABOVE GROUND.

SEVEN HABITS
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a must read book. It deals with values, life, productivity, purpose and success (among many other things). The book develops 6 habits (the list) and the 7th is making sure the other 6 stay healthy and in balance. Those 6 habits are divided into two categories; PRIVATE VICTORY and PUBLIC VICTORY.

NEW YEARS GOALS
Each year I plan out my New Years Goals. I see my goals as elements for growth; a flower needs sun, etc. For some time I have organized my goal elements according the scripture that shows the growth of Christ; "He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and favor with man." I make a couple of goals in each category: wisdom (mental), stature (physical), favor with God (spiritual), favor with man (social) and it seems to keep me well balanced. Without these four elements I wouldn't have very good goals and without goals to help me grow, even worse.

SYMBIOSIS & INTEGRATION
All three of the above are related, they need and are dependent upon each other. Unless we have roots, foundation or personal victory, we cannot achieve growth, flowers or public victory. Without the elements of soil, water, sun,(mental, physical, spiritual, social) etc there would be no plant growth at all. To grow a healthy plant/life, etc I believe all of these things need to be in harmony.

Without out one element a plant can survive, without two, it is in trouble, without three it stands little chance. The same is with us, we need we rounded goals; all four areas in place. When they are, we can best grow strong and healthy.These well balanced and healthy goals help us continue to grow and growth above and underground helps us to maintain our goals.

NOW LETS MAKE SOME GOALS

Mental Goals
1) ________________
2) ________________

Physical Goals
1) ________________
2) ________________.

Spiritual Task
1) ________________
2) ________________

Social Goals
1) ________________
2) ________________

If more goals are needed here are some additional suggestions; marriage, family, ministry, educational, financial, emotional, professional

Improving Your Serve

2011-11-05T18:58:00.000-05:00

There should be a scale whereupon we can measure our servanthood. Something like a thermometer that would instantly tell what a person’s servant quotient was; their SQ. If we could have a barometer for individuals, we should also have one for organizations. It would be great to see just how effective organizations that exist to serve a cause or people really are. How would governments fair? Are postal workers or politicians serving their communities? What would our SQ be as the church? Would church hierarchy even have an SQ or do they really exist not just to say they serve, but to have others serve them?

Unfortunately, this chapter doesn’t contain an SQ test, but we should be able to look into our own hearts to see what kind of marks we would give ourselves as servants. After all when the Lord returns we’ll have to answer to what we’ve been doing down here all this time while he has been in heaven building us a home. Have we been building THE kingdom or our own kingdom or have we been building at all? If this is a wake up call, its time to get busy and start serving. Its never too late to build your SQ.

DO ELEPHANTS NETWORK (aka The Necessity of Networking and Peer Learning)

2011-09-26T12:50:00.001-05:00

THE ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD

I recently watched a documentary about the Elephant Graveyard. Fact or fancy, the tale goes something like this (oversimplified is an understatement). Older Elephants get the sense of their impending demise and travel sometimes thousands of miles to die in the "Elephant Graveyard". The EG is rumored to be littered with thousands of tusks and elephant bones.

TRUST YOUR GUT

Truth or fiction, the point is that there is something in our gut that tells us certain things. I know! You know it and Malcolm Gladwell (blink is an amazing book that needs to be in every thinkers library), among others have written books about it.

GUT, NETWORKING, HEALTH, LONGEVITY

We all know that hanging out with peers, like minded and even those better than us makes us better. We also know that we get further down the road by stealing (I mean sharing) ideas, praying for each other and creating deeper connections. So why dont we network regularly?

IMPORTANT BUT NOT URGENT

Some of the best things in life are like this. Important but not urgent. Several things come to mind; eating healthy, exercising , personal growth...anyone feeling me yet? We would all rather eat junk food and never improve ourselves with exercise or education and hope we would all look like we just jumped off the cover of People mag, but good health and looks are not accidental. Neither is being a good Youth Worker. We must work at! Almost everyone I chat with agrees that Networking is Important but they also dont attend local meetings as much as they should. Sound like passing on the burger for the tofu sandwich?

WHAT TO DO?

1. Get involved in a local network.

2. Make a commitment to attend regularly even come early and bring some business cards to share with others.

3. Chant this...Better Together, Better Together, Better Together. Then believe it.

4. Play it forward. Thats just it, go first, lead the way.

The law of reciprocity is one of my favorites. When it comes to networking maybe we should think about others and not just ourselves knowning that we will receive way more than we imagined.

Lastly, I dont know if elephants network but if they do, I'm sure they wouldn't have to travel thousands of miles to do it.

Back To School Party feat. I Am Second, PureGroup & Hawaiian Falls

2011-08-23T15:15:00.004-05:00

Just saw a great article about the Back To School Party event last Thursday with I Am Second, Hawaiian Falls and PureGrup. The event was awesome and this is a great news story about it.

More than 1200 people turned out for the I Am Second Back-to-School party at Hawaiian Falls Garland on August 18. Guests donated school supplies to benefit local kids. The worship band from Stillwater Community Church in Rowlett performed a blend of rock and roll classics and Contemporary Christian worship music on the stage at the wavepool. read the entire article oh NeighborsGo here

Thanks for all your help and prayers. Lord willing we can all do it again next year if this is something use to help further your ministry and can help plan/design and see more people worshiping in the water and maybe even do it at other H Falls locations.

Is this a community of Love and Hope or what?

Thanks to David Alvey and http://neighborsgo.com/stories/73988 for the pics and story

Character Sauce

2011-08-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

When I grow up I wanna be a Rock Star Chef!

Not a short order cook (Waffle House) or the guy that defrosts things from the freezer and puts them on your plate (nope) but the one who writes the cook books and has their own show (Mario Batali, Alton Brown, Paula Deen). Until then, I'll just keep rocking the back yard grill and providing healthy "gourmet" meals for my family.

I threw lots of good and fresh ingredients in a pot. As I was adding some fresh herbs and spices I began stirring it up and wishing it was already dinner time and the magic of time had worked its miracle of taking raw individual ingredients and amalgamating them into amazing Italian goodness. I love pasta and I love pasta sauce; ya, I can buy it in a jar but it is so much better when I take time to do things right. Here are the 5 things for Awesome-Sauce (@noahbenjamin).

1. Solid Ingredients
2. Recipe
3. Preparation
4. Cook Time
5. TLC

Wait for it.....Then I pondered Character and thought, its kind of like us on our spiritual journey...lots of ingredients that can be made into something really good. All that is needed is the crucible of time, heat, stirring and TLC. Now go back and read the 5 things for Awesome-Sauce but this time think of how Christ is cultivating your character.

Cant wait until its done!

Back to School ----------- Party!

2011-08-09T10:24:00.000-05:00

Join I Am Second and PureGroup at Hawaiian Falls for a Back to School Party on August 18.

The purpose of the event is to reach our campuses and community for Christ, connect believers before school starts, collect back to school supplies for those in need, and party righteously in Jesus name cause He is First and we are second (#mouthful). Plus, wont it be cool to have 2500 believers hanging together having a blast?

Right now we are only selling bundles of tickets...click on the pic below to find out how to get tickets for your group TODAY!!! Individual tickets (if there are any left) will be on sale the day of the event.

follow on Twitter | fan on Facebook | forward to a friend

Networking Saves the Day

2011-04-27T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, networking is something bigger than you,
Yes, networking is something every Youth Worker needs to be part of,
Yes, there are groups all over Dallas and Collin Counties that meet monthly,
Yes, they are all open groups the anyone can join,
Yes, I will post more info on the event below, but for now....

Network Celebration and Free Lunch

Win an iPad

May 19, 11am-1pm, IBOC church (7710 South Westmoreland Road, Dallas, TX 75237)

FREE for all area Youth Workers

RSVP here ----> http://pureymr.eventbrite.com

Get Your Skin On!

2011-04-11T13:38:00.000-05:00

technically speaking

Skin in the game = buying in, having something at stake, a personal passion or intense desire to make things happen. I think that everyone wants to network and be part of something bigger than themselves but I don’t think a lot of Youth Workers have a lot of skin in the game.

Skin, Time, YW Networking

I have a couple of truisms I’ve developed over the years about networking.

1. 1. People want to network

2. 2. People consider networking important but not urgent

3. 3. YW Networking by definition and action are misunderstood

4. 4. People are more inclined to network in the face of a personal social interaction

What is NOT factored into the above is TIME. Not considering that, networking looks like a no brainer activity that everyone is clamoring to be part of; sadly that is not the case. I would have to say that most Youth Workers don’t network and of those that do, half attend monthly meetings regularly and the other half attend twice a year. What makes the bi-annual attendees attend less is that they feel out of touch with the heartbeat of the group and end up attending less and eventually just falling away.

So I think people would be more inclined to valuate networking more if they had more skin in the game.

Here is how to get your skin on

1. Commit – that’s it, make it a point, a high priority to attend local networking meetings. In fact, tell everyone at the next meeting that you are committed and will be at every meeting through the end of the year. You will either be at them or

2. Schedule – put it in, write it down, set an alarm and make it happen.

3. Culpability – I really mean accountability but wanted to use a different word so people would read this without just glancing by. If you make yourself accountable to someone to be there, you probably will.

4. Leadership – if you are involved at the leadership level people depend on you and you have not only skin in the game and not only a cool unofficial title like “Mr Local Network Cool Guy That Is There For Others” (MLNCGTITFO for short) BUT you also make yourself available to help others and to be the one people look to.

5. Pay it forward – bring resources and swap them amongst the other attendees or buy a dozen books

In closing....

Our symbiotic relationship with others is like skin… it is probably more like wearing a tattoo than a Christian t shirt too. So I’m going to be more purposeful in how I can stay skinned. The comments below are more about managing others expectation and not so much the uplifting end to this, so read if you want, otherwise, this is....

The End

How Much Skin Can I Expect Other to Have in the Game?

Every person and situation is different but once there is agreement, 100% of that agreement should be fulfilled. Also the context here is Youth Worker Networking so the comments below build on that. Big factors are time and money but there are others.

Here is what I think a person can volunteer and how effective they can be.

1-2 hrs - Attend a monthly meeting

3-5 hrs - Plus help organize or lead the group and maybe contact a couple of other YW off line

10+ hrs - Plus be a resource to a geopraphic area

20+ hrs - This should be reserved for staff; no one has this much time to volunteer??

Leadership should be very aware of how much they ask people to give and also what they ask them to do (it must be important).

Back To Basics

2011-03-17T01:32:00.001-05:00

"Let's start at the beginning. This is a football. These are the yard markers. I'm the coach. You are the players." Legendary Green Bay Packers Football Coach, Vince Lombardy

Had a great discussion earlier this week with some local youth workers/networkers. I'm asking them to take a more of a pastoral role over several groups, not just one (geographical area director) and then using the principles we have developed for group development to oversee 4 local groups and build another. As we discussed influence, relationship and current networking templates, we had a couple of great takeaways.

I was casting vision for more leadership; more groups but the more I did, the more I felt like we were contriving something old, outdated and not healthy. Long story short, here are a couple of the take aways we have been pondering since:

Movement not meeting - we need to think bigger and think world change, not ihop back room; changing lives, strengthening ministry, growing the kingdom, not 20 people sitting in a round table.

Relationship is the resource - personal relationships are the most important things in life, period. Our relationship with Christ, spouse, family, friends...why then are we so caught up on events, promotion and someone sponsoring a free lunch/training. We need to find a way to harvest the collective. Everyone has something to offer and everyone needs something someone else has. We are in this thing together, lets figure out a way to significantly connect with each other; from that synergy, momentum, strength and health abide.

Networking is the fruit not the tree - if we purposely find ways to cultivate the above, if we work at making sure the tree is healthy, relationships are solid and pure, fruit has to happen.

For me it's time to simplify things, get back to basics and think people; think big, but think people.

Why Youth Worker Networking Sucks

2011-02-10T11:09:00.000-06:00

The following started as a letter to NNYM Dallas and Collin County Network Leaders but quickly became a diatribe on the state of YW Networking as we know it, why it sucks and how we MUST work to make things better. This is a letter to ALL Youth Workers.

I’m writing to all Dallas and Collin County Network Leaders.

I used to think network groups were solid; set em up and let em go. After 18 months of formally working with the National Network of Youth Ministry as the Metro Dallas Coordinator, overseeing Dallas and Collin Counties, I can truly say, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Youth Worker Networking groups are liquid and I’m trying to find ways to embrace that and find traction for our groups both for today and tomorrow.

Why are Youth Worker Networking groups so fragile? I believe it has to do with the nature of “Professional Youth Ministry” and a misunderstanding of Youth Worker Networking.

High Turnover Rate in YW’s

No surprise here: every survey points to the fact that Youth Workers don’t stay in current positions very long. I’ve tracked 40% turnover among our group, non-leader participants (those in leadership positions stay longer. I’ve got some theories to explore later). That means that a successfully launched group with 20 members that is vibrant and healthy will, in two years turn into a four top at the IHOP.

Misunderstanding about the Purpose of Youth Worker Networking

For a while I wanted to stop using the term “networking’ because it is nebulous and meant different things to as many people as had an opinion. But then I sent a tweet, checked my facebook and realized that people see the value in “social” networking, although they probably didn’t agree on what it means but they realized it was valuable. I guess even though there may be widespread (dis)agreement on what general networking is each person uses if for their own ends. Nice! So, what is the purpose of Youth Worker Networking or Networking groups?

No Value Place on Youth Worker Networking

Some see “off the grid” networking as NOTworking. Too bad, they fall so short. Others see it as a place to promote their cool youth group event. You know , the, “Hey come to my event and bring your students because I want big numbers and really don’t care about anything else and my event will probably still suck because this is how I’m promoting it” guy. Way off and getting colder. Still others see it Youth Worker Networking as a monthly lunch meeting – getting warmer, barely. Here is a concept: RELATIONSHIP IS THE RESOURCE!! Read that last sentence out loud, memorize it and let is set you free. Your are the resource! The person across the table from you is the resource! Everyone has something to give and something to get.

We Need to Think Forward

Thinking about Youth Work into the next decade two things stand out bigger than ever and we need to deal with them if formal Youth Work is to survive. If we fail to deal with these two issues, the Youth Worker of today, as we know it, will become extinct.

1. We need to redefine who the Youth Worker is. Here is a hint; its not ONLY the guy who wears skinny jeans, goes to all the local High School games and has an office at the church that says “Youth Pastor”. There is a place in our next decade paradigm for this “Youth Pastor Guy” but he is not the only horse in the race. Everyone who works with teenagers is a Youth Worker; the high school coach, the ballet teacher, the Jr Optimist leader, the scout troop sergeant, the guitar teacher and the parent. Everyone who works with teenagers is a Youth Worker and we need to think about how we can offer our services to recruit and train them.

2. We need to define or assign value to relational networking. I’m blown away about how Youth Workers overlook and dismiss this. Last year, According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking. In 2009 1 in 6 people married met their mate through social networking/online dating. Ludite, silo Youth Work is going the way of the dinosaur. We need to not only find value but find ways to add more value and promote the value of the Youth Worker Network group.

So where do we go from here?

Think! We have to change our thinking about who a Youth Worker is and find ways to connect with the new breed and find ways to mesh the new and old breeds.

Database! We lose track of 40% of our people each year. Sometimes we lose entire churches form moving or relocating or extinction. Other times churches spring up and we don’t know about it. Someone needs to 1, locate churches, 2, find out who the youth contact is and 3, give the info to a local network lead that can and will do something about it. Churches are only one avenue of the new breed of Youth Worker, how can we identify and find new databases of the new breed?

Monetization! There is influence in Youth Worker Networking but not necessarily finance. We need to find creative ways of funding the groups and the people building and sustaining the groups. Those creating the groups and the value are often the ones without a full time salary backing and the important task of building networks is left to those who can raise their own funds. There has to be a way to turn influence into capital in a ministry setting.

PR! What is the only reason to start a Youth Worker Networking group? To change the world by starting a movement to reach more students for Christ. Every movement needs a propaganda machine. We need consistent, regular, quality info and PR. Good communication and PR can bring effective talk points, assign value and grow the movement.

Unity! We need to esteem each other, make time for each other and do life together.

I know there are more things needed and I guess this is the point where we harvest the power of the collective. Please share your thoughts.

Hey Soul Surfer

2011-01-21T09:28:00.000-06:00

Just returned from a special screening of the April movie release of Soul Surfer. I have to write about it because it is a powerful, useful and entertaining media experience.

This is not a movie review but it is some insight on the movie experience and some (hopefully) useful application.

This screening was hosted by the PR and screen team that worked for the movie. During a post-movie Q & A she touted this movie as a Hollywood faith based movie effort. Interesting. Since Sony owns TriStar and some type of partnership with Integrity music, I guess there is some synergy or relationship that makes sense. Anyway, the movie was done via Hollywood and not via local church (fireproof, etc).

Two things about the Hollywood influence before some specifics about the flick.

The cast was all star; not A list but defiantly some names we all know: Dennis, Quaid (everything...), Helen Hunt (everything..., Annasophia Robb (Because of Winn-Dixie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules {i had to put that}) and playing the part of cool and sexy Youth Workers everywhere....drum roll please...Carrie Underwood.

Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the SS soundtrack but i can find any info on it currently. I'm pretty sure i heard Switchfoot, Coldplay and a couple of U2 joints. Also pretty sure there will be a Carrie Underwood tune somewhere but since the movie wasn't finished there were no closing credits, which is where it will probably land.

The movie was inspirational, motivational and a great tool to use to surface conversation with friends; believers and non alike. Here are some favorite scenes and potential discussion starters.
  * Eerie Jaws flashbacks - There were some eerie underwater scenes that reminiscent me of my jr high days when i saw the movie jaws (no this is NOT a spoiler because we all know she looses an arm to a shark). Lots of discussion about not being in control or know what will happen next but how we can make the most of things.
  * I can do all things - There are a couple of great scenes that they evoke the Philippians passage; one pre attack and one post. Together these scenes ask lots of questions and answer some too. Can we really do all things? Does that mean everything or anything, or both?
  * Dont apologize for compassion - at one point Bethany sees something that causes her to cry. She apologizes and turns away. Her Youth Worker tells her to not apologize for compassion, its who God made you. Great thought about being real. This was also a pivotal point in the movie (i wont go into applicational detail here and risk a spoiler)
  * The interactive youth group lesson - "Pastor Underwood" finishes up a great/typical youth talk during one scene using a powerpoint presentation. She makes the point that things arent always as them seem. Actually, trust me on this one, i didnt describe it so good here but it is a great moment of teaching, creativity and youth grouping.
  * The bad chick - we were told that there was not actually ONE villain in the story but that the bad chick was an amalgamation of lots of evil surf vixens. At one point Bethany thanks her nemesis for making her better. Awwww.

Its a great movie about redemption and winning against tall odds and how can you go wrong with that? So, this Hollywood faith movie has all the ingredients of win (faith or not) an all star cast, a beautiful Hawaiian surf background, heros, villains, drama, emotion and triumph.

.....:::::Links for more info:::::....

Bethany Hamilton - this chick is solid. i'd put some links but there are a ton, just google her.

Youth Worker Resources - for networking and resources in the DFW area www.pureymr.com
Interlinc has some great materials for the film including an interactive DVD bible studies, posters, and curriculum. My buddy Troy Hargrave (thargrave@interlinc-online.com) co-hosted the special screening also gave me free stuff from Interlinc-online.com also go here for more SS resources from Inter-linc http://bit.ly/edfTS7

Check Your Vitals; especially for the new year!

2010-12-21T00:10:00.000-06:00

Everything that is healthy needs to be checked up on. People, systems, automobiles and even our own body need a little assessment, analyzation and a few tweaks every so often. The start of the year is a great time to do just that, check yourself out; give your self a personal EKG. I check myself regularly on the following areas. This is not an exhaustive list but is it some things i'm currently checking myself on.

1. Beneficial Contacts
Check the little stack of business cards on your desk. How many of them have been acquired in the last 90 days? How many of them are significant? Getting good contacts is seldom an accident. A good strategy for obtaining key contacts is a must for a healthy check up.
Exercise: list three ways you can meet significant or "upper" contacts in the next 30 days (hint; think network groups, social establishments and friends that can introduce you).

2. Recent Accomplishments
You need to have a list of you most recent "rock star" accomplishments. These should be in your head, your heart and definitely written down somewhere. You never know when someone will ask you what you do or when you might have to defend your job. Dont have any recent? Get some ASAP!

3. Forward Vision
Vision is assumed but it shouldn't be. I want to talk about a big and forward leaning vision but first we have to talk about vision period. If you have a vision, make sure it is big and not only you but those you lead can be very passionate about it. If you dont have one; step one is realization, step two is acquiring.

4. Support
Is your family healthy? What is your spouse complaining about right now? Is your pace sustainable in light of your support systems? Do you have replenishing relationship or are you the perpetual giver? Find balance, find support, find support for you and your mission.

5. A Passionate Elevator Pitch
You need at least 2 elevator pitches ready to go at anytime; especially in youth ministry. Here is an example; someone asks you what your real job is...you launch in to elevator 1.0. Example two, someone notices how well your ministry is doing and yet how underfunded it is...you launch in to elevator 2.0. If you dont know what an elevator pitch is, email me.

6. Physical Well Being
Lets face it, if you are not doing well yourself, you are probably not your best for others. So, eat 4 servings of fruits and veg each day, 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week, get a good nights sleep, keep your mind stimulated, take your vitamins, surround yourself with good friends and stay plugged in to God.

PS get your annual physical too!

Ormel & Cindy

2010-12-05T15:37:00.001-06:00

Today I was in the lobby of my home church chatting with friends, wearing a cool jacket that usually gets most of its use during the Christmas season and getting ready to settle into a warm pew, when in walked Cindy.

Cindy didnt look like the rest of the crowd in their christmas best, although she was wearing a green sweatshirt. She walked right up to our holy huddle (uh hum) and had no problem with asking for $8.00 for a bus pass for her and her husband.

If you were like me, you could guess the rest. She was gonna tell me sh needed money for gas or for a bus ticket to get her hungry baby and wheel chaired husband to the soup line because they haven't eaten since they were evicted by a satanic landlord. At least that is what i thought was coming. Cindy did want money for a bus ride because her husband had cancer and they had to get to the hospital and then to her in laws. But that is where my stale and probably ungodly pre-conceived notions stopped.

Ive been around situations like this all my life, especially being on staff of a local church. I have this internal program that kicks in when I encounter someone like this. The program makes me think that, among other sweeping generalizations, that all panhandlers immediately take the money they get and run straight to the nearest crack dealer. But this time I actually had time to talk with cindy and, according to my program, prove that this panhandler was likely a liar and a drug user.

I walked with her to the bus station expecting at anytime for her story to change. We rounded a corner and there was an elderly man standing by a bus. His name was Ormel and he wasted no time in telling me about his cancer, surgeries and even raised his shirt to show his recent post op scars (I didnt ask for this but I think God wanted to confirm every detail of the story). I did ask the bus driver how much a ride was which he confirmed that a day pass was $4.00 one for Ormel and one for Cindy.

Before I walked back to the warmth of the sanctuary I prayed for them and then watched the bus pull away with my two new friends and no crack heads or drug dealers in sight. Every detail of Cindy's story was true and everyone of my pre conceived notions false. Time for me to start thinking again.

My prayer - Lord let me see through your eyes without pretense; let me give like you would without judgement; let me love like you would - period!

I wanna be a macho man

2010-11-12T09:05:00.000-06:00

I wanna be a macho man

At least I do in the way that my late grandpa, John Vietti said; and it has nothing to do with the village people or randy savage.

Let me explain.

The year was 1988 and I had just graduated with my undergrad degree, accepted my first full time youth pastors position and moved in with my grandparents (not so much for free-loading but to establish myself financially before getting my first apartment). My grandfather was a feisty Italian man who always had something humorous to say, a joke to tell or a prank to pull.
I remember the day he came home from a doctor’s appointment, which also happened to be his 50th wedding anniversary. He walked through the door with his mesh baseball hat cocked back and sideways (way before it was gangsta) and said, “buddy, I told the nurses in the office today that I’m a macho man!”

Last week was my 21st wedding* anniversary and I was reflecting on the following story and contemplating how I too can be a macho man; even one of biblical proportions. Ok, so back to the story.

I figured, I’d bite, ok grandpa, why are you a macho man. He said I told all those pretty nurses that I’m macho because I made the same woman love me for 50 years. Anyone can get someone to love them for a couple years or even 5; but im at 50 and counting.

I decided that day I wanted nothing more in my life than to be macho.

Thanks grandpa, I miss you.

*happy anniversary babe. You are awesome for sticking with me and for making me look good by you looking so good; I mean drop dead gorgeous. Thanks for sticking with me even though I’m not yet half a macho man; but with your help in another 29 I’ll get there.

Wanted: Dreamers

2010-10-31T15:46:00.005-05:00

Dreamers wanted but not all dreamers are wanted.

There have been times in history that dreamers were wanted men. They were wanted because their ideas, hope and beliefs were counter cultural, revolutionary. Men like Joseph and dr king suffered great losses from their dreams. Today more than ever men and women need to dream; big, elaborate and often.

Some have misunderstood dreams. Some dismiss them as passive nocturnal entertainment. Freud treated dreams as "the royal road to the unconscious," a thesis that served his general conviction that consciousness, the reasoned control of life, constitutes only the surface part of the energies that propel or immobilize persons. Some dreams require sleep, some require imagination but both require fuel, hard work and tenacity.

Before I invite you to a dreamers symposium, please be inspired by some innovative pioneers; dreamers that changed the landscape of everything we know.

Joseph from the Bible
The Bible says that, “Joseph dreamed a dream”. Too bad his dream got his dream got him beat, almost left for dead and ultimately sold into slavery. The story turns out good, actually, really good but it just goes to show 1, share your dreams cautiously and 2, when you share them find a friendly audience, especially if the dream could result in the unwanted involvement of others.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr
The only one on this list to have a dream that did not require sleep. His dream is also one that everyone who reads this needs to re-dream themselves. A dream of equality, freedom and justice. A dream that took many waking hours to partially come true.

Here is the invite...

Now the invitation - The December 6, "UnConference"

Click here for more info and registration info - cost is totally free. Were NOT selling anything, promoting anything or attempting to DO anything unless its a GOD THING.

December 6th and 7th DFW area youth pastors and workers want to invite you to join us for a day of prayer and dreaming.

There will be no advertising, marketing, or pitches. Our purpose for gathering is straightforward: We want to come together to pray for the youth in our communities and dream about how God might use us to help them know Him more deeply.

And now for some more dreamers...

Albert Einstein
Einstein had a teenage dream (long before Katy Perry). He dreamed that he was sledding down a steep hill at night, his sled traveled faster and faster, until it approached the speed of light. At that speed, the stars and night sky were transformed into a dazzling spectrum of colors.
Einstein once told a journalist, "that my entire scientific career has been a meditation on that dream."

Robert Louis Stevenson
The novelist Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) described dreams as occurring in "that small theater of the brain which we keep brightly lighted all night long." Dr Jeckle and Mr Hyde and Treasure Island are some of his most famous works.
From an early age, his dreams were so vivid and moving that they were more entertaining to him personally than any literature. He learned early in his life that he could dream complete stories and that he could even go back to the same dreams on succeeding nights to give them a different ending. Later he trained himself to remember his dreams and to dream plots for his books.

Carl Jung
Jung wrote of his early dream journals, " All my works, all my creative activity, has come from those initial dreams which began in 1912, almost fifty years ago. Everything that I accomplished in later life was already contained in them, although at first only in the form of emotions and images. "

President Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln dreamed about his assassination.
" About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence that was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered there I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers " The President " was his answer; " he was killed by an assassin! Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream. "

General George Patton
General George Patton, when at the battlefield on Langres France, said to his driver that he already knew the place. He told his driver where to go and said it was as if someone were whispering directions in his ear. He correctly went to the Ancient Roman Amphitheater, The Drill Grounds, The Forum and even correctly went to the spot where Caesar had pitched his tent. "You see, I've been here before " He had been there in his dream.

Jack Nicklaus
Nicklaus credits a dream for finding a new way to hold his golf club.
"Wednesday night I had a dream and it was about my golf swing. I was hitting them pretty good in the dream and all at once I realized I wasn't holding the club the way I've actually been holding it lately. I've been having trouble collapsing my right arm taking the club head away from the ball, but I was doing it perfectly in my sleep. So when I came to the course yesterday morning I tried it the way I did in my dream and it worked. I shot a sixty-eight yesterday and a sixty-five today."

Famous People Who Were Not Perfect

2010-10-20T22:20:00.011-05:00

Sometimes the things that make us great have the ability to pull us down OR challenge us to greatness. Here are some examples of icon of success that could have just as well been failures. Question of the day - What made them different?

Walt Disney: Walt was fired from the Kansas City newspaper for not being creative enough and was considered “slow” as a child. He is now considered one of the best known motion picture producers in the world, and holds the record for the most awards and most nominations.

Albert Einstein: Arguably the greatest physicist of all time. Known for his theory of relativity and E=mc2. He revolutionized the way we think of the universe and opened up our eyes to the possibilities in front of us.

Winston Churchill: Was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and one of the greatest political leaders of the twentieth century. Known for his powerful speeches it’s ironic that he had a stuttering problem and hated school and math.

Alexander Graham Bell: Well known as the inventor of the telephone and one of the founders of National Geographic Society, had dyslexia, poor grades, and a general indifference towards almost everything except science.

Thomas Edison: Patenting over 1000 inventions including the light bulb, Edison had dyslexia, difficulty with speaking and words, was considered too dumb to be in school, and hated mathematics.

George Patton: Patton was most known for leading the U.S. in World War II as an Army General. In World War I he was a senior commander of the new tank corps. He was deficient in reading throughout his whole life and had to memorize his lectures just to get by.

Worms, Birds, In-Vetro, Jiggling Belt Exercisers and Early Adopting

2010-10-04T14:04:00.003-05:00

The early bird gets the worm – good for them but if that expression is supposed to inspire me to be an early adopter; it’s not working.

I do get excited about the champion visionaries that begin a noble project with no support, little fact but lots of passion and determination. I’m inspired by the brief tales of Columbus who “knew” the world was round or Roger Banister who believed that man could break the 4 minute mile barrier (and did) or even John Wycliffe (one of the earliest opponents of papal authority and translator of Latin scripture to English) who had a vision that every person could read the Bible in their own language. This makes me want to eat a worm or, more germane to the point, be more passion about something that I believe in even though it may not be a popular or proven “fact”.

Today I am inspired again by a name I didn’t know but who’s work everyone is familiar with, Robert G. Edwards. Everyone will recognize his work from his headline, ‘ ‘The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010 was awarded to Robert G. Edwards "for the development of in vitro fertilization".’ http://bit.ly/dogCnZ

Edwards began his work on in vitro in the late 50’s and early 60’s. In 1977 with help from Patrick Steptoe, Edwards successfully carried out a pioneering conception which resulted in the birth of the world's first baby to be conceived by IVF, Louise Brown on 25 July 1978, in Oldham General Hospital, Greater Manchester, UK. Almost everyone has heard of in vetro (in the glass) fertilization. In the US, ART cycles started in 2006 resulted in 41,343 births (54,656 infants), which is slightly more than 1% of total US births. That means there are a lot of happy parents and “test tube babies” out there because of Edwards tenacious belief and tireless work. Some additional accomplishments include: In 2007, Edwards was ranked 26th in The Daily Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses and of course the announcement of his Noble Prize today, October 4, 2010.

There is a lot of time between the late 50”s and 2010; it made me think about tipping points and early adopting of ideas. The graphic above shows the route from nothing to something. I’ve used this graph to illustrate the life of a great idea, program, leadership initiative or just something to consider for future planning on how to plan. You can see this in play around us in companies like Apple (think adoption of iPhone), Presidential campaigns (yes we can) and even the current “overnight success” rock band, video game or social media (where you using Twitter six months, a year or two years ago?). Everett Rogers is usually linked with the genesis of early adopter thought.

The Everett Rogers Diffusion of innovations theory - for any given product category, there are five categories of product adopters:
 Innovators – venturesome, educated, multiple info sources; (2.5%)
 Early adopters – social leaders, popular, educated; (13.5%)
 Early majority – deliberate, many informal social contacts; (34%)
 Late majority – skeptical, traditional, lower socio-economic status; (34%)
 Laggards – neighbours and friends are main info sources, fear of debt; (16%)

So how does this relate to youth work, churches, non profits or families? Here are a couple of my own take aways.
1. Stack the deck – you need innovators before you can reach your early adopters. Use your leadership for early and much needed buy in.
2. Focus. Remember the light that shines the farthest shines the brightest at home. Go after strategic small groups in your sphere of influence before you start going after the masses who don’t know you or are not ready to be influenced by you just yet. Think sniper riffle not shotgun. Think laser beam not florescent light.
3. Pace yourself. Big ideas and big programs usually take more time to get out so realize that this is a process. Know on the front side you are running a marathon, not a sprint. The race belongs to the steady.
4. About half of the people are going to be late adopters at best. More than likely, they will be detractors. The good news is that you will only have between 16 and 50 of the people who will not embrace this. These are actually good odds. And there is a high likelihood that lots of late adapters will eventually come your way. See number 2.
5. Accept the fact that some will never see your way. I believe people still use typewriters, 8 track players and those things that jiggle your butt from the 1950’s that were supposed to make you lose weight.

Rewind - AYM MISSION TRIP

2010-09-30T20:03:00.003-05:00

This summer Pure Group lead the student ministry from Church of the Apostles in Coppell on a 3 day missional journey (aka mission trip). Our Goal was to reach people in the DFW metroplex: our own back yard. We helped build a youth building, fed and hung out with Refugees and served at a back-to-School outreach event, the trip was Awesome.

The first day was Thursday August 12. Everyone met at Church to load up the vans. We traveled to Oak Cliff to help build a Youth Facility for Spirit and Truth Church; It was a blast. Our jobs for the day were texturing and painting. Jordan and Freddy rocked the painting and did an amazing job. Together they finished the whole exterior of the building before lunch. As for the rest of us we got to work inside, (without the luxury of A/C) texturing the ceilings and the walls. It was great; texture and tape were flying everywhere. Amanda, Peter, Jackson, Kevin, and I were tearing it up. Halfway threw it got a little crazy when the building started having electrical issues and we had to take off half of the wall to fix it, and then put it back on. After a hard days work, we "dinned" at one of the best burger place in Dallas...Wingfieds. Their Burgers are bigger than persons face and definitely a highlight to the event.

Then we traveled to the West End Plaza where we "Bought Jesus a Big Mac". This was probably one of the best things we did on the whole trip.

We bought Big Macs and asked God to send us to someone who needed food, prayer, someone to talk to or even a friend. The responses were amazing, some wanted to talk, some wanted food and some only wanted prayer. It was a great finish to an already great day. God used us to help build a place for his children to worship, and then he showed us how we can worship on the street with strangers. Thursday was a great day.

Friday we all got to the Church early to make lunches. The plan for the day was to go to an East Dallas apartment populated with refugees from Angola, Burundi and the Congo. We spent all morning making lunches, packing crackers and chips, planning out games and songs, and throwing peanut butter and jelly at each other, I mean making PBJ sandwiches. After making about 300 lunches we packed the Van and headed out. When we arrived at the apartment complex we were accosted by a couple hundred kids. It was an amazing experience to feed and play with the kids. Their biggest want - attention, and they would do almost anything to get it from you, like take your hat, play with your hair (Lindsey and Amanda), climb on you, or just about anything they could think of to make you give them 2 sec of your time. We played soccer, climbed on trees, played tag, and just hung out for about 4 hours. It was a true God moment for all of use, to be able to share the love of Jesus with these kids.

After escaping a MOB, I am not joking the kids formed a mob, we headed back to Oak Cliff on a mission for Stone Soup. We took the students to Fiesta Market (an unknown place for most of our suburbanites), gave them $3.00 for each member of our team (the local average for dinners in the area we were working) and told them they had to provide a healthy, eatable dinner for the whole crew: that means plan, purchase, cook and clean up for it - all without adult supervision. The hardest part about the whole thing was getting teenagers to agree on what they wanted for dinner. But after 30 minutes of shopping they finally came to a conclusion - jambalaya. Next they had to go cook for everyone and they only had 1 hour to do it all. We learned a very valuable lesson that day, If Jacksons in the kitchen, NO one else is in the kitchen. When it was all done everything was great, there was just enough food to go around and it tasted pretty good to. God used us that day to spread his love to the refugees, and showed us how we don’t have to leave to country to help people in need. We also learned and felt what it might be like to live and eat like a low income family.

On the last day of our trip we were able to serve and be a part of a back-to-school event at Reconciliation Outreach in east Dallas. We took 3 inflatables and had a mini carnival. Once again we got to play with kids all day and share the Love of Jesus with them. The event was designed to give back to the community; we gave away lots of school supplies, and also provided free food. It was a great afternoon. We ended around 1pm in the 104 degree weather and called it quits.

The Ultimate Goal of the trip, and all mission trips, was to grow the Kingdom of God and I truly believe that in part, we accomplished that this summer. From praying with people on the street, to letting kids climb all over us, to working together to make a family meal, to running inflatable’s for an outreach. We did something this summer that was beyond ourselves, we served others, and shared the love of Jesus. This year’s AYM Mission trip was Awesome, and I truly believe we grew the Kingdom of God.

--Aaron Wilfong, Guest Blogger

Word-Nerd: my new fav part of speech

2010-09-27T13:42:00.005-05:00

Ok, so, i'm a bit of a nerd. I like star trek and star wars (and the vast differences between their universes) and LOTR and, and.... But i'm also a word-nerd; i like words, word-smithing, and parts of speech. Up until yesterday, my favorite parts of speech were onomatopoeia, hyperbole and alteration. Now i have a new fav...paraprosdokia! yep, i also just figured out Jack Handy - take that SNL!

Why is this useful? Glad you asked. Especially in public speaking one wants listeners to remember the wisdom imparted. These are a few ways to help. They assist with not only remembering but can add spice and pizazz (just like colorful adjectives) to messages as well.

Lets review
onomatopoeia - a word that makes its own sound like buzz or burp
hyperbole - over exaggeration used to make a statement and not to be taken literally, like instead of saying i'm hungry one would say i'm starving to death.
alliteration - using a repeating sound in words (it can be but is not limited to the first letter) for example: Greta Gruber grabbed a group of green grapes. or some mammals are clammy.

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to re-frame or re-interpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.

Examples.
1. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.

2. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

3. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

4. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

comments??

Lincoln had many reasons to have a bad attitude

2010-09-21T14:22:00.003-05:00

Lincoln's Attitude

Your attitude is communicated to others in three ways,—7 percent by words, 38 percent by tone of voice and 55 percent in non-verbal ways, such as posture.

Those who have the most to overcome in life are often the ones who make the most of it. People usually consider Abraham Lincoln one of the top 5 of the best presidents of all time. Look at some of his many obstacles.

If anyone had a "reason" to have a bad attitude, it was Lincoln.

* He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1816
* His mother died. 1818
* Failed in business. 1831
* Was defeated for legislature. 1832
* Lost his job and couldn't get into law school. 1832
* Declared bankruptcy, and spent the next 17 years of his life paying off the money
he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1833
* Was defeated for legislature again. 1834
* Was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken. 1835
* Had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed. 1836
* Was defeated in becoming the speaker of the state legislature. 1838
* Was defeated in becoming elector. 1840
* Was defeated for Congress 1843
* Was defeated for Congress. 1846
* Was defeated for Congress again. 1848
* Was rejected for the job of Land Officer in his home state. 1849
* Was defeated for Senate. 1854
* Was defeated for Vice-President -- got less than 100 votes. 1856
* Was defeated for Senate for the third time. 1858
* Was elected President of the United States. 1860

+PurePass = Pure Growth

2010-09-19T20:46:00.007-05:00

One of the things God built me for was helping others become more than they are. I love to help and see people grow. It's awesome! Because of that I teach in a local college, serve in a local youth ministry, coach my kids athletic teams and heck, I even have an organic herb garden in the back yard.

This Fall Pure Group and Pure YMR are providing a way to train Youth Pastors and Youth Workers while at the same time providing some fun for them and their families AND saving money while doing it. It's called +PurePass and here is how is works.

We have partnered with several local ministries and entertainment venues to bring you Pure Pass. Here are a few: Hawaiian Falls, Speed Zone, Inflataparty, Christ for the Nations, Wisdom Works and FCA just to name a few. And we are offering litereally thousands of dollars of training and entertainment for $299. For more info see visit us at http://www.pureymr.com/ymrpurepass.html or email Rawd@puregroup.org

Sign up before September 30 and receive a digital dowload of 7 Pillars of Tomrrows Youth Ministry

freedom in memphis

2010-07-12T14:53:00.004-05:00

taking things for granite is just wrong.

the ibc group is experiencing how simple things like food, shelter and safety are not nessarily freebies in life but involve choices; and those choices often effect our personal freedoms.

we began by experinning the rich history of this kingdom of memphis. we learned about its lofty position on the mississippi which was ripe for its kingly crop, cotton. we discussed its king sized problem with slavery. we also noted a monicharichal influence in music, since this is dubbed, birthplace of rock n roll (bb king and elvis, the king of rock n roll). we talked about the reverend king, dr martin luthur, who's KINGDOM ideas solidified the modern civil rights movement.

by the end of the day we will contrast this kingdom with the heavenly kingdom and earthly kings with the king of kings.

a true benevolent king is one who provides safety, opportunity and ultimate freedom for their subjects. we are glad more than ever we serve christ the, the king of kings, the ultimate master and freedom giver.

a picture is worth....... we'll you get the idea

2010-05-31T19:29:00.006-05:00

i was gonna drop a post about little feet, big shoes, goals, perseverance, etc, but i thought i'd let the pictures work for me.

Radio Flyer Customer Service Kudos

2010-03-08T13:51:00.002-06:00

Pretty sure i'm loving Radio Flyer.

sometimes i think customer service is almost a dead concept; or at least the way i define it. I see it as putting oneself in the shoes of the customer and giving them what they need. it is art and science; passion and pro-activity. often i wonder if they only people that anticipate my needs are telemarketers (actually they anticipate not my needs but attempt to create a want).

i bought Radio Flyer trycicle for my daughter when she was 3, she is now 9. it is still in good shape except for a small plastic part attaching the front wheel to the forks. i'm thinking if i can find this small and hopefully inexpensive part, this trike is good for my 18 month old son. i called RF hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

let me vent....

usually the worst is calling and...
1. getting lost in an endless maze of phone prompts
2. having access to dozens of phone prompts, none of which are what i need
3. talking to some one named fred with a distinct india accent
4. having a hard time hearing "fred" because "bob", "mike", "sue" and "nancy" are in the background talking too loud (they are probably all in a cubical built for one
5. after actually talking to a live person, they have to transfer me to someone else because i'm invariably in the wrong department
6. after actually talking to a live person, they have to transfer me to someone else because i'm invariably in the wrong department
7. after actually talking to a live person, they have to transfer me to someone else because i'm invariably in the wrong department
8. after actually talking to a live person, they have to transfer me to someone else because i'm invariably in the wrong department
9. finally, i get to a person in the right department and they locate my part, order it for me but have to transfer me to another department because they cant process my credit card
10. being disconnected at any time

my rant is over, but thanks for indulging me, i feel better.

back to RF saving the day.

i dialed the number from the website. i got an easy, understandable prompt, was transferred to the warranty department. i told them the model number, they didnt ask for a warranty card, phone number or anything. they said, we would love to send replacement parts, and by the way we'll also send new pedals to make it look better. no credit card needed. free. they came in the mail today, exactly 2 days later.

wow!

dear RF, thanks for making my day and giving me belief in customer service. i think i'll go out to eat tonight. indian food, they have great service.

youth ministry application - what brand of customer service are you providing? customers range from regular attenders, parents and especially, potential new customers, 1st time visitors. what do your staff and regulars "sale" newbies? what happens when someone wants a "refund" or needs to file a complaint?

The Communication Process

2010-02-24T13:40:00.001-06:00

I was thinking about how much of life revolves around communication. I then started thinking about communicating and the communication process. First of all, I am always trying to be a better communicator. I believe the better communicator i am, the more successful i will be. Secondly, most of my ffriends and coleagues are communicators and I thougth the following reminder on the communication process would be valuable for us all (this is an excerpt from a seminar i do called Classic and Relevant Communication).

What Communication is
1. Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings, etc.
2. Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words, symbols or other forms of communication.
3. Delivery: the message must be sent in some way, shape, form or fashion.
4. Decoding: lastly, the receiver translates the words or other ideas into a concept or information that they can understand.

Context is the way the message is delivered and is known as Paralanguage - it includes the tone of voice, the look in the sender's eye's, body language, hand gestures, and state of emotions that can be detected. Although context often causes messages to be misunderstood as we believe what we see more than what we hear; they are powerful communicators that help us to understand each other. Please note that we often trust the accuracy of nonverbal behaviors more than verbal behaviors.

Feedback. Most observers believe that verbal communication and context each count for approximately half of the communication process. The only way to accurately know that the intended message was sent and received properly, is to get feedback.

Three General Rules of the Communication Process

1. Listeners Filter Information. Although you communicate in a way that seems clear to you, the receiver of the communication filters the information through a very complicated set of pre- conceptions that can function to distort the message received.

2. Receivers Listen Selectively. They hear and process some things and gate out other things. That means that while you may have explained the "whole picture", is it likely that the whole thing wasn't received.

3. Feedback is Security. The only way you can ensure that you have created common understanding is by asking the other people what they heard, and what are their reactions to it.

I know the above is rather stoic and so, not at all how i deliver information. I just wanted to send some thoughts and challenge us all to be mindful of our communications at every level. If you would like more info please email me.

Today was free day; not sure why. Or how.

2010-02-22T16:37:00.002-06:00

Today was free day; not sure why. Or how.

I heard a couple of days ago that there is a restaurant in town that gives free dinner on Monday nights. Seriously, free. And this place is a pretty up scale place. I've been wanting to eat there for a while, and i even planned on paying. but two days ago i heard they were free so i called and got reservations for tonight. I'm even taking some friends, my treat!

So dinner was covered.

I went for coffee at a local coffee shop, "coffee in a mug please" and i held a five dollar bill out.
She smiled and said, "well, i don't have a cash drawer right now, and it's only coffee". Cool. I'm sure it had nothing to do with my high likability or pithy pleasantries; all which were present.

Coincidental? It was only two freebies.

At lunch time my daughter and i had to run errands. i noticed a local sandwich shop was opening up near me, and i love their spicy pepper gardinara. I was excited and we went it to grab a jar and a bite. they said i couldn't buy the gardinara because today was a grand opening for friends and family. And even though i couldn't buy my beloved condiment we could get free sandwiches, sides and drinks. Score! Oh, and they even through in the gardina in the end.

Really, i don't deserve any of it, I'm nobody special.

So, wow, what a great day and its only 4:22pm. Maybe free dessert, or maybe i should buy a lottery ticket. No, what I'm gonna do is share my happiness by way of bloggging and add some happy commentary.

Free stuff is cool and truly the best things in life are free. Can you name a few i can, and 9 of the top 10 all have names. Besides my freedom in Christ and the gift of free salvation which is the best gift of all, relationships with friends and family are president. I am blessed to have an incredible (and hot) wife and awesome kids. I also have the best friends in the world; I'm sure the envy of everyone.

I'm not gonna get greedy now but i am gonna look for other free things; not dead presidents floating on the ground or looking for someone to hand me the keys to their 2010 Range Rover (although i wouldn't refuse). I'm gonna keep my eyes open to little free things that i normally miss. I'm gonna have my free radar on and I'm gonna appreciate all the things in my life, especially the most important and valuable and crucial freebies; love and relationships.

Throw out the Manual or Marry it

2009-11-09T10:22:00.003-06:00

its been over a week and i'm still chewing on a conversation i had with mathew deblanc. in the context of formalizing ministry responsibility he said, "throw out the manual or you marry it." i was intrigued.

honestly, i've spent hours and days banging out the perfect manual; full of procedures, flow charts, org charts and wanna be attorney speak. i cringed as i wrote but i was sure the end result would be worth it. not sure that it was. sure, i felt good about finishing a challenging task but that logic could applied to moving a mound of manure too. i also felt good about the fact that i could stick a manual in someones hand, basically abdicate my responsibility and if anything went wrong (although, according the manual, it shouldn't), i could fix the problem and ask if the culprit followed the proceeder in the manual. Wait, are we still talking about manure?

ok, so maybe i need to cut back on the legal jargon in my instructions, trainings and emails (or probably anything i write) but can i just cut back and not throw it all away? i guess cutting is a start but the result i want to achieve from throwing out all the wasted words is RELATIONSHIP. it is much easier to write than train, to press send than to have a conversation over coffee. some think that cell phones are impersonal but even a brief conversation is better than an email or way better than a text message.

There is wisdom in throwing out the manual but i'm curious about what other manuals are being written.

* The one for the interns - if i don't have time for all direct reports, i need to reconsider my priorities.
* The one for the staff - i shouldn't assume that paycheck = teamwork.
* The one for my wife - just because i communicated my love for you yesterday doesn't mean i shouldn't reconfirm it today.
* The one for my kids - provision, sacrifice, good intentions and personal exhaustion all pale in comparison to reading a book to a wide eye impressionable ball of potential.

so trade people for paper any day, anytime and all the time. exchange time for typing and relationship for regurgitation.

To Save A Life

2009-11-06T10:03:00.001-06:00

I recently attended a pre screening of the movie, To Save A Life. I have to admit; 5 days later I’m still rewinding and replaying.

The movie was relevant. It was professionally shot, produced and packaged. It leveraged the best talent and made a movie that teenagers would relate to. At times I didn’t know if I was watching TSAL or Adam Herz.

This was not a “Christian” movie. The word “Christian” makes a great noun, “I am a 'Christian'”. But the word also makes a horrible adjective (ie “Christian” movie). This movie played to Christian themes and came from a solid moral base but didn’t have a Disneyesque happy ending, not all the female actors wore turtle necks during the pool scene and not all the language was taken from the Baptist Quarterly.

It was an effective launch point for deep discussion. Any savvy teen would be able to bring a friend to and use this movie as a basis for natural, intentional, gospel presentation. The way the issues were dealt with in real time and not neatly packaged actually left for post movie, Starbucks dialogue.

The door was opened on several controversial issues (almost too many at the risk of plot deluge) and light was cast on heavy challenges teens face on a daily basis. The movie guided the challenges in a way for constructive conversation and positive situation handling where most teen movies just leave the heavy issue hanging out there or even have the movie deal with it in a way we would not.

In the end the movie was entertaining but the real value is that is a powerful tool. When priming would be viewers it would be wise NOT to compare this movie with a 75 million dollar thriller. Even tough TSAL can hold its own, at the end of the day, we want our teens trained and walking away with a tool that that can be used to help their friends more than a laugh and half a bag of popcorn.

Lincoln's Attitude

2009-09-17T09:06:00.003-05:00

Your attitude is communicated to others in three ways,—7 percent by words, 38 percent by tone of voice and 55 percent in non-verbal ways, such as posture.

Those who have the most to overcome in life are often the ones who make the most of it. People usually consider Abraham Lincoln one of the top 5 of the best presidents of all time. Look at some of his many obstacles.

If anyone had a "reason" to have a bad attitude, it was Lincoln.

* He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1816
* His mother died. 1818
* Failed in business. 1831
* Was defeated for legislature. 1832
* Lost his job and couldn't get into law school. 1832
* Declared bankruptcy, and spent the next 17 years of his life paying off the money
he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1833
* Was defeated for legislature again. 1834
* Was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken. 1835
* Had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed. 1836
* Was defeated in becoming the speaker of the state legislature. 1838
* Was defeated in becoming elector. 1840
* Was defeated for Congress 1843
* Was defeated for Congress. 1846
* Was defeated for Congress again. 1848
* Was rejected for the job of Land Officer in his home state. 1849
* Was defeated for Senate. 1854
* Was defeated for Vice-President -- got less than 100 votes. 1856
* Was defeated for Senate for the third time. 1858
* Was elected President of the United States. 1860

happy 4th of july

2009-07-04T10:09:00.001-05:00

regina spektor - who is laughing at god?

2009-06-24T00:59:00.002-05:00

i'm intrigued by the new release of regina spektor. i dont want to commentate here but i love the lyrics, the music and i want them to speak for themselves...

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

*Chorus*
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

1980's Music Flashback from Twist Weeblow

2009-06-23T09:05:00.003-05:00

My good friend Scott Sorgea (aka Twist Weeblow from Plain White Rappers fame) published a best of the '80's song mix called '80's Ultimate Mix. And i'll have to say i disagree with very few of his choices. Infact, i'm still trying to convince myself not to drop $58.35 and buy the whole list. Great music, great decade, great list Scott.

Perspective

2009-06-08T22:23:00.001-05:00

Tennis pro Rafael Nadal quotes his uncles view of excellence in an interview to American Way Magazine, “First, if you ever throw a racket, we’re finished. They’re expensive, and when you throw a racket, you don’t just disrespect the sport, you disrespect all the people who cant afford equipment. Second, losing is part of competing. You will lose. And when you lose, it’s not going to be my fault or the fault of your racket or the balls or the courts or the weather. It is your fault, and you will accept it and try and do better next time. Third, have fun. When you stop enjoying this, its no good. You’ll find something else that gives you pleasure.”

Netbook on top of car + 50 mph + gravity = only scratches

2009-05-18T23:50:00.004-05:00

Ok, so this is an answer to prayer, a miracle and a surreal moment all at once. We just left the in-laws and because i was carrying a 25 pound man child in a car seat (his name is Sage and he is awesome) i absent mindedly put my padfolio (containing 2 yellow pads and about 20 papers i was working on at the time), a book (tribes by seth godin) and my acer netbook on top of my expedition (about 6.5 feet from the ground).

At the first stop light i head something shift and thought it was stuff in the backseat coming to a rest on the door. because we didn't want to open the door and have things fall out, jeanne checked out the noise and found nothing. i entered the dallas north tollway on ramp at frankford and accelerated to about 50 mph when i heard a thud on in the back. i checked my rear view mirror and saw a flurry of papers and knew in an instant i was gonna have a bad night. i knew exactly what it was. i couldn't stop because by this time i was doing 60 and well into traffic. i cautiously took the next exit, stopped, got out and hoped that somehow only the papers fell and the netbook was stuck somewhere in the roof rack, nope!

i sped back on the tollway took the next exit and proceeded to the drop zone. i called my father in law for assistance, pulled to the side of the tollway on ramp, turned on the hazards and made my way a quarter mile down the tollway picking up my book, padfolio and miscellaneous papers but no netbook. bother, i said to myself, its probably got a cracked screen and has already been run over 10 times. But i prayed as i walked along the tollway as my wife and daughter prayed in the car. then i saw it, upside down and seemingly in one piece. it was. i picked it up, ran back to the car and headed for home.

my wife took inventory; one book (albeit dinted but very readable), one padfolio (complete with beauty marks), surprisingly, ALL the papers that i was working on (which was by far the most valuable item and most desired for retrieval) and one netbook. we pushed the on button with low expectations and guess what happened? Nothing. but thats ok, i thought, i can remove the hard drive and get my data back (most of it was already backed up since i use google docs).

all in all i thought, i got everything back, everything. and for sure i got the most important things (my working documents) and hey, i'll probably even get lucky and retrieve most of the data from the hard drive. when i got home and finally got my hands on the netbook, i noticed the baterry was ajar...see where i'm going here? yep, works like a charm. this acer once aspire netbook is one tough mutha.

ok, so the pics here are of my netbook. the disassembled one was because i took it apart to check for loose wires (which i found one of the wires connecting the wifi modem that was easily put back into place). the other one is the exterior with its many beauty marks.

so........if anyone knows anyone at acer, tell them to look this story up. i'll sale it to them and even star in a commercial or straight to dvd movie about my incident.

(c) 2009 RB Jones

bad night may 14, 2009

2009-05-14T23:40:00.003-05:00

dang. bad night for me. first i leave my netbook on top of my car, it crashes on the freeway. then the lakers bomb.

but that is ok, i can put my netbook back together and there is a game 7 in LA!

How To Make Your Youth Group Bigger Badder Better

2009-04-17T09:34:00.005-05:00

Compel Night (aka friend night)

This is a special night designed to 1, increase your groups visibility (and brand visibility), 2, mobilize students and leaders to bring a friend to church,3, rally the support of the entire youth group for prayer, planning and implementing a special night, 4 potentially double the size of your regular youth group attendance, and 5, to see those who don't know Christ receive a firsthand presentation of the gospel.

download the entire document here

Life Coaching = Life Success

2009-04-08T14:28:00.003-05:00

The return on investment for coaching has been shown to be remarkable. Executives of Fortune 1000 coach-using companies reported the following benefits:
An increase in productivity (by 53%)
- Increased customer service (by 39%)
- Increased retention of senior people (by 32%)
- Reduction in costs (by 23%)
- Increased bottom line profitability (by 22%)
The same survey reported that the individuals who received coaching saw improvement in:
- Working relationships with their direct reports
- Working relationships with their manager
- Team-building
- Reduction in conflict
- Business Relationships with clients

"Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard leadership development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers at IBM, Motorola, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Hewlett Packard. These companies are discreetly giving their best prospects what star athletes have long had: a trusted adviser to help reach their goals." -- CNN.com

Ready to discover what it is all about? Click the link to read the article below and find answers to questions like:

WHAT IS LIFE COACHING?

WHY PURSUE A LIFE COACH?

HOW TO OBTAIN AND GROW WITH A LIFE COACH?

(read more)

(Source: Manchester Review, 2001, Vol. 6, 1; and Executive Coaching - With Returns A CFO Could Love, Fortune Magazine February 19, 2001)

Transitions in Youth Ministry

2009-03-25T17:28:00.003-05:00

I'm a part of a great networking group in North Dallas. Las Thursday we discussed the topic of Transitions in YM. I'm still chewing on some of the thoughts the collective churned out.

1. churches don't transition well.
2. the adolescent years are marked with two types of difficult transition; a physiological one (mental and physical changes, think puberty) and societal ones (church, school and other annual traditions)
3. most churches that don't transition well are personality based.
4. the move from children's program to youth programs to adult programs is bumpy so should we be shocked when there is a train wreck?
5. the biggest challenge in transition is the transition in ownership of faith
6. having a family ministry paradigm (one that oversees these transitions definitely helps.

Comment below to share your thoughts.

Brilliant Prank

2009-02-20T16:20:00.001-06:00

Brilliant Prank

1. Fasten the balloons to the car
2. Drive like a crazy person
3. observe the other road users

car with balloons shaped liked missiles attached... when moving the missiles pull down behind the car

in a flash...in the twinkeling of an eye

2008-11-04T14:01:00.002-06:00

Head Reviews

2008-09-23T23:59:00.008-05:00

music.

Brian "Head" Welch
Save Me from Myself
Released September 2008

Since leaving the band Korn in 2005 Brian became a Christ follower, got baptized in the River Jordan, started an orphanage in India, wrote 2 books (one landed in the top 20 on the NY Times best seller list) and just released his first solo release; not a bad three years.

“I gave you everything, all the pain life brings, just to get you to come back to me.”

This is both the opening line and the tone of the cd.

Incredible guitars, solid lyrics and decent vocals are what you get from Brian “Head” Welch’s freshman release, “Save Me From Myself”.

Hey one would expect some rock your face off guitar work from the man who pioneered the 7 string guitar and Head does not disappoint. they are hard, in your face, melodic and thick. They are often backed with eerie synth and incredible drum tracks thanks to Josh Freese (The Offspring, Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle). The title track proves the power of power chords, not overdone but perfectly muscular.

The lyrical content tackles tough issues head on with perfect passion, boldness and thoughtfulness. Topics include (and deal very positively with) drug abuse, physical abuse, teen abortion, suicide, rebellion, religion and money. Head knows his influence and handles some subjects antithetically. Die Religion Die and Re-bel would conjure Korn fans to a typical anti message. Head uses them in a tertiary way evoking the opposite message (rebel against what is bad and die formal, bad religion).

Besides penning, Head plays several instruments, and belts several layers of vocals. Lets see I think for this musical genera (nu-metal?) there are besides singing, a groaner, a shrieker and an obligatory screamer; Head lays all the main vocals.

Overall this release is solid; albeit, not for everyone. There are very dark overtones both musically and lyrically (die religion die). Although the seemingly negative lyrics are really not. Fans of Korn and those of us new to the party can appreciate this release for face value. For an initial release, the music here is complex, easy to get and huge (see the first 30 seconds of Adonai).

video.

Ok. Lots to say, more questions to ask.

Having said that, this vid aint for everyone. It is graphic, macabre, hard hitting, edgy and for some offensive. My first viewing I couldn’t get past the chick on chick action. After a little more thinking and seeing the obvious, the more subtle came through and I saw the light.

I’ll be concise but there be aware, SPOILER ALERT (if such a thing exists for videos)

1. It is pg-13

2. It is NOT a Sunday School lesson

3. It is very positive and has real life testimonies

4. Head breaks free from his chains

5. The bad people die in the end

You can see the video with yesterdays links (see below) and make your own call.

In an interview on power fm Head says that he is not a Sunday School teacher and what he is trying to do with the video is reach his people.

I think he is but he may offend grandmas people in the process.

Music Therapy - Brian "Head" Welch

2008-09-23T00:33:00.002-05:00

three years ago i didn't know corn on the cob from korn the band.

my friend erik (in the pic below) was a fan and besides attempting to share their music with me told me he was praying for them - good job erik.

anyway, i was browsing the news one day and i saw that a member of the band korn had a religious experience, i would have missed it, except that this epiphany happend at a church in southern california where my uncle was the pastor. i saw his church, him and brian welch on tv. nice. time to call erik.

after confirming the story with my uncle and erik i still was not a korn fan.

fast forward a couple of years; brian has released a couple of books telling his incredible testimony and earlier in the month a cd.

we had the chance to meet him at a local release party and i have to tell the story.

i introduced myself and we exchanged small talk. i thought it would be cool to tell the story of eriks prayer with brian so i did. "hey man, i really didn't know much about korn but erik was a fan and kept telling me he was praying for you and i though it would be cool for you to know that."

here is the coolest part.

a huge smile came across brians face and he gave erik a giant high five and a hug. this made my day - the power and joy of salvation!

Below are some links to some decent reading material regarding brian and his new life.

coming soon, i'll review the cd and the video, but beware the video is a bit of a jaged pill to swallow.

fan site - here
brians myspace - http://www.myspace.com/brianheadwelch
see the video for flush - here (caution - pg13)
testimony/prayer at church - here
some celebrity fodder - here
the making of the video flush - here

Sage Part II

2008-09-23T00:21:00.004-05:00

A few more pics of the lil prince before i begin random posts again.

A few more pics of the lil prince before i begin random posts again.

But first, how about a random post about Sage? In the picture below Sage is sporting his hospital jewelry, or as I see it, his Baby low-Jack. It is an actual device that they put on babies so they cannot be "stolen" from the hospital.

The Man Child Fashion Photo Shoot

2008-08-19T18:08:00.005-05:00

Sage John-Brian Jones
Born 8.17.08
Weight 8 lbs 7 oz
Height 19.75

Awwwwww....

Big Sis

Like Father?

Grandama Jones, Sophia, Sage

What a heartbreaker

Smile or smirk?

Here are some additional pictures of Sage and his supporting cast. Since I have another day or so with some extra time, I'll probably post some additional pics sometime later.

The Newest Member of the Family

2008-08-17T22:12:00.003-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce you to the newest member of the Jones family...

Introducing...

Sage John Brian Jones

sophias new hair style

2008-07-22T10:54:00.000-05:00

rb: I love the new hair, howd you do it?
smj: a put braids all over my head when it was wet. the next day I took them out and... walaa!

grave thoughts

2008-07-20T08:54:00.001-05:00

We began the day with a good amount of work in front of us. But continuing with our theme from yesterday and knowing that tonight would end in a graveyard, we had to us 'stories' as a transition.

Since this was to be our last day working in Calvin's house, we were on a quest to find a relic; at the house, on our free time, wherever. And our relic needed to tell a story; preferably a story that speaks to our life and purpose.

Around 8:30 we ended up in the Algiers cemetery reading headstones and contemplating the tale of our own mortality's. Grave thoughts. We found several common denominators in the graveyard: religious symbols, stone, Cajun names and - the dash.

The dash is the small line between one birth and death dates; it represents our life. How long is our line? How strong is our line? What give our line purpose? How can we direct our lines to be the line that will make a difference, make the world a better place and provide impudence for other to pen stories about? Not every outcome could be covered but the beginning is all the same...a life devoted to Christ.

Jesus said "truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal."

Encounter Time

2008-07-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

Big House, Big Easy

2008-07-15T22:50:00.000-05:00

Originally built in the late 1800's as a single dwelling family unit, over the years this colonial plantation house has been modified, updated, 'updated', rebuilt and today, semi-demolished.

This old house is approximately 4000 square feet, two story, 15 foot ceilings, 3 kitchens corner lot and four 40 foot Corinthian columns on its extra large NOLA style porch.

Calvin, the current owner tells me the story. After it was originally built, a back part was added to the original 3000 square feet to accommodate the families slaves. The house was probably the first in the area and besides affording a house, the land took up most of a city block. Soon the extra land was parceled out to other home builders and the adjacent plot became a community hall. Some time before the 1950s the house was divided into three apartments and rented out. Years later the city acquired the house and turned it into a day care center next to its other building. Calvin acquired the house in '04 and he, his wife and two sons moved in. The property next door passed hands as well and was on its way to becoming apartments when Katrina hit.

After Katrina unleashed its fury. The house sat in a foot of water, a huge pecan tree ripped open the roof and massive mildew began multiplying.

Months later a small white FEMA trailer was moved in front of the house. Calvin had been working for Shell Oil in Lafayette, his wife and younger son moved to Houston and his oldest son moved to Milwaukee. Only Calvin and his wife returned.

Fast forward three years. Some of the furniture had been moved out but by and large nothing major had been done with the house. And to make matters worse, his wife lost her voice. Most likely to either complications from living in a FEMA trailer for three years or a fungal infestation from the mold. This truly is a big house and since virtually nothing had been done in three years, this was also truly the big easy.

Enter Wonder Voyage and St. Nic's Episcopal.

This week we are going to do our best to demo the entire inside of the house and show them our 'love as justice'. Until then, they need our prayers and encouragement. Jesus asked the man at the pool Bethsda if he wanted to be healed, the man didn't say a thing but picked up his mat and he was healed. Today was asked Calvin if we could him rebuild, he opened his door. To be continued...

DAY 4 - humanity

2008-06-26T08:18:00.001-05:00

Ok, so were surrendering our summer to help others. No problem; random acts of kindness, great. But is that it? We even don't have to have info on the people we are serving. Is the who of serving really as important they why? Afterall, we serve our lord by serving our brothers. But if we did know someone, a name or reason it would add to our mutual humanity. Or I guess we could say it is our commanity (if uniy is common unity then commanity is common humanity). So who have we shared our humanity with? Glad you asked.

Meet Phyllis. She has a couple of properties and needed some help with land clearing, scraping and painting and gardening. We ended up helping her with her mom's house.

Meet Keith. He works with an organization called Beacon of Hope (www.lakewoodbeacon.org) and today he helped coordinate almost 200 volunteers to help get a rec center in shape. We helped Kieth clear brush, remve debris, clear weeds, and get the park ready for play.

Meet Connie. She works for St. Pauls Homecoming Center (a divison of St. Pauls Episcopal). We mixed dit and sand to pour and stamp a walkway connecting 2 church buildings.

Meet the volunteer staff of Mount Olivet. Thursday we worked at the church doing some elabrate gardening projects. The returned the favor by fixing us dinner and providing hospitality. Debrah and Marty made thre kinds of jumbalya, Adrian moved to Algeirs from Philly so she could 'live in a place where people sit on porches and wave', The Very Rev. Dr. Jean Alden McCurdy Meade, Rector lead us in evening prayers, Caleb the altar boy, Daniel Fontbleu and his wife Marge White who came to evening prayers and ate jumbalya with us afterwards.

We are a little bit of these people we are all better for the journey, we are going further together, we are commanity.

DAY 3 - stripped

2008-06-24T20:07:00.001-05:00

Day Three - DAY 3 - stripped

We understand our mission, we know our dutes, now it time for our toughest day so far - demolition. Its really difficult to get ones mind around the fact that 3 years after hurricane Katrina there are thousands of houses that have not been touched and even more people displaced and nomadic.

Today we demoed an entire house consisting of 2 single family 2 bedroom units. We were in a mostly poor area called the lower ninth ward consisting of mostly section 8 housing, one of the hardest hit in the aftermath of the storm. Before we began our demo project, we walked through the house and found evidence of three activities: a quick move out, looting and a deluge.

There was furniture, clothes, dishoveled medical equipment and even dishes in the sink denoting a expedited exodus. There wasn't probably much to pilfer from the beginning, but the place looked like a crime scene from a movie: things scattered, items shattered and other evidences of meaningless mayhem. Lastly about six feet up and scored into every wall, an undeniable waterline mark. If there was any doubt that the water had come into this house this high for very long, opening the walls and finding evidence of floating debris up to the same point confirmed it.

We stripped the entire house of furniture, junk and sheetrock leaving a literal bare bones structure: exterier wall, studs, floor and a partial roof. We filled a huge garbage bin about 8 X 15 X 8 up to the top. Not bad for a group of 27, mostly students.

Scripture says that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it cannot produce fruit. So are we. Unless we fall and shatter ourselves and and strip away our hard outter coating. Or demo our own lives we cannot be what the kingdom need us to be.

DAY TWO - fairhaven

2008-06-24T07:32:00.002-05:00

Today we are keeping with our theme, surrender. We surrendered our time, plans and perspective; but probably even more than that. We learned that 42 years ago Mr. and Mrs. Brown surrendered $1.47 and the return on that investment keeps yielding astronomical returns for NOLA, Romania and over 400 children at Fairhaven Children's Home.

Since WV does so many trips, the work project cadence is typical: meet the host, hear about the organization, work your butt off, debrief, feel good. This time, things were different. Johnny had the room set up: air conditioned, overhead projector in place and a presentation waiting. He told the story of the Browns who wanted to start a children's home but literally only had $1.47 and a prayer. "Lord, here we are, and here is our home. If You will send the children, we will have a children's home." before they moved out of their three bedroom house, they had 34 children.

Since their humble beginnings in 1966 they have had 400 children through their program (they currently have 12 living on campus and most of them call the director (Johnny, who is the son in law of the founders, dad or papa john) they regularly ship cargo containers to their upstart orphanage in Romania. But the thing that took us most was Johnny's ability to connect those in need to those with abundance. He told story after story of an acquaintance that has 15 tons of beans to donate, or someone who had a million dollars worth of vitamins to donate or he knew of an orphanage who needed an EKG machine and 3 days later someone else had one to give away, incredible. By the way Johnny is looking for a Laringophone (the thing people who have lost their vocal chords use for speech). If you have one, please email us. Find out more about Fairhaven Children's Home at www.hopeforthers.org.

We we able to help FCH in many ways today with our 108 volunteer hours by sorting several hundred bikes, moving cut firewood, sending several tons of scrap metal to the recyclers, grooming horses and goats, playing with the resident children, clearing fields and cleaning lots of stuff. We had more opportunities to match FHC's ongoing surrender projects than we could seize.

Its so great to get so much done but when need overshadows opportunity, it gets frustrating. But its just the way it is in the kingdom, there is always more harvest than workers. C'mon workers.

Drive By

2008-06-23T17:30:00.001-05:00

Drive by

We wanted to get focused and give ourselves context, so it made sense that we survey the big easy. We drove through some of the areas most devistated by hurricane Katrina. Some thought, surely three years later Katrinas impact was null or repaired; but we were surprised to find that still her impact continues to shape the city. This week we are determined to also impact the community (but in a different way).

We drove through the lower 9th ward (see pics), Chalmatt and St Bernard parish; some of the areas most devistated. It was a virtual study in demographics, socialiogy and disasterology. Stlll 4 years later things were not even close to 'normal'. There were delapated houses, molded houses, rebuilt houses, houses with no water or electricity, houses scheduled for demoliton, business barely open, businesses partially open, buisnesses that will never re-open.

Our theme this week is surrender, it was interesting to see a city under surrender. Obviously, they had no choice but to surrender to the elements; we have a choice. Scripture teaches us we have a choice to surrender but only for now. Later there will be no choice: every knee WILL bow and every tongue WILL confess or surrender to Christ. This week we choose to surrender and daily we continue to choose to surrender.

What is WVM?

2008-06-23T17:15:00.001-05:00

What is WVM?

To the above question, I'm glad you asked. What is Wonder Voyage Missions. As mentioned in a previous entry, I am currently leading a team of 30 from Dallas on a pilgrimage to NOLA.

Our theme is surrender and each day we will do a couple of several possibilities, typically relating to our theme. We will probably do a service project. We will most likely dissect a reason or two of why we did our project and afterwards, what did we learn from our project. We might visit a site of historic or spiritual relevance to the region. We might engage in a WV ritual like an encounter time, moment of wonder or a pilgrimage exercise.

At the end of the day and week we will have served the community by practical, tangible acts of love. We will have partnered with local benevolent organizations and we will all have changed lives!!

This Old House

2008-06-22T23:35:00.001-05:00

This old house

Its been 6 years since I first became acquainted with mount olivet episcopal church (www.mountolivet.org). I attended euchaist services today with my friend Molly on the outset of our mission trip to NOLA (New Orleans Lousaina). More about the Wonder Voyage trip in the future.

The unique thing about Mt Olivet is that it is the oldest church with ongoing sevices in NOLA. Not nly that but it is als the second dest church West od the Mississippi (M.O. Is located on the West bank of NOLA across the river frrom th famed Jackson Square and St Louis cathedral).

This church is indicative of the city and my journey here this week: historic, understated, forgotten and filled with the most incredible people.

Mad World: I Want My, "Husband and Wife's Lung Slice"

2008-06-19T10:12:00.003-05:00

The following story's caught my eye today. They are probably not related (lol) and i think i'll call them "Mad World" stories. This will also serve as a way for me to classify these type of stories ongoing. Really, it is becoming a Mad World.

Story #1, China goes PC

The following story is about China, putting forth another PC campaign either trying to be more palatable to the West or putting a new face of for this summers Olympics. either way, they are separating with their past for a drab and unseasoned new future. C'mon, when i visit China i want "Husband and wife's lung slice" or "Chicken without sexual life" not "Beef and ox tripe in chili sauce" or "Steamed pullet" respectively.

Story #2, Right Foot, Right Foot, Right Foot, Right Foot, Right Foot, Left Foot

Could be a Dr Seuss story, right? Except this eerie event involves 6 severed feet found on Eastern coast of Canada. How wierd. in the time span of about a year, 6 feet wash up on the shore in the same area? What is going on here? An offshore medical college playing a joke with cadaver parts? Or is China changing its menu again? Right foot soup now becomes mystery meat stew?

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da is all I want to say to you

2008-05-21T23:48:00.012-05:00

In case you didn't recognize, the above is the title of a Police song. To the left is the ubiquitous symbols from The Ghost in the Machine.

I just got back from the show in Dallas, and it was amazing. Twenty four years after their break up, they still got it. Elvis Costello opened the show, yawn. Actually, I felt bad for him because the venue was outdoors and the sun was shining right in his face and it looked like he got a pretty bad sun burn.

The opening song, Message in a Bottle, nice. No saving the best for last, although they did that too. Great music, great showmanship, great times, incredible concert. They played about everything you could imagine, at least all the songs you'd expect. I did kinda hope they'd my favorite song to sing when my wife is outta town, "the beds too big without you" or the completely random number "on any other day", they didn't, but a guy can hope, right? You can hear to song done to a non-police video here.

All in all they played almost everything except "Roxanne", Everything She Does is Magic" and "King of Pain", the first encore handled that. It also featured at least a 3 minute solo from Andy Summers on "lonely", it was brilliant. The final song of an almost 2 hour set was "Next to You".

Above is a "Roxanne" from the show.

Of course it wouldn't be Sting if there were no cause, no Amnesty International or pictures of kids in third world countries; it was and there were. A great montage of pictures inspired the audience to "Invisible Sun".

I dont want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an armalite
I dont want to spend the rest of my days
Keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say
I dont want to spend my time in hell
Looking at the walls of a prison cell
I dont ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole days done

Its dark all day, and it glows all night
Factory smoke and acetylene light
I face the day with me head caved in
Looking like something that the cat brought in

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole days done

And theyre only going to change this place by
Killing everybody in the human race
And they would kill me for a cigarette
But I dont even wanna die just yet

There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
It gives us hope when the whole days done

2008-05-13T08:20:00.003-05:00

Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen in Narnia.

I was looking for the right moment to launch back to the blogosphere, and here it is; Prince Caspian. Ok, I took a brief hiatus, but unlike Lewis time line, mine was a bit shorter than 1300 years. Since the movie has to be talked about, I return from retreat.

Narnia at wikipedia - a brief understanding
Chronicles of Narnia - View the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com - interview with the director
Lewis’ thoughts on Aslan in the silver screen
Buy the books

I just returned from a private screening of The Chronicles of Narnia's, Prince Caspian, the second installment of CS Lewis enormous epic.

Mathematically speaking - Lord of the Rings + 300 + National Geographic + Aesop = the silver screens newest Lewis legend, Prince Caspian. In my opinion, the movie had two purposes; for good to triumph over evil and to begin the passing of the baton from the older Pevensie's to Caspian, the younger Pevensies and eventually, Eustace Clarence Scrubb.

Since this in not so much a review as my thoughts, here goes.

Digress...

It's a PG movie involving an epic battle, with lots of violence. OK so it's not really 300 gore, but there are deaths a plenty; but they are nice deaths, not the ones bathed in gratuitous amounts of ketchup.

Disney originally stated that all 7 of the books would be put to film but current rumors disagree. The Disney rep that hosted our viewing said VOTDT would be released in 2010. Director, Michael Apted has scouted several locations for filming which is scheduled to begin in October 2008.

Although this is Disney’s second installment of their commitment to at least 3 of the 7 books in the series, the chronological listing of books Prince Caspian would be 4.

Published Order

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy , The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle

Chronological Order

The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair and The Last Battle

Regress...

Great sets – the sky was beautiful blue, the waters crystal clear, the colors incredible and all around scenery, awesome. Even with all the beauty, it was a bit darker than its predecessor.

The cinematography was captivating. Scene transitions pulled me in to the movie and kept things moving.

With the exception of the incredible scene transitions, amidst the almost constant war fare, I found the movie slowed down quite a bit in the middle parts.

CGI - the nyads and dryads were incredible, bigger than life, fun and amazing.

Liam Neeson – did a great job as the voice of Aslan, but could they make him talk any slower? I guess its difficult to animate a lion talking fast.

Overall, great movie. I took my 7 year old and she loved it. She particularly noted the humor and the (spoiler alert) Kiss; stating that later was "totally unnecessary". She didn't fixate on the violence, war, and plot laziness of the movie. Get your tickets early, cause Disney is sparing no expense promoting this (for example, click the Liam Neesom link above before 5/16). In the end, its a great feel good, and draw some redeeming conclusions movie.

Go see it now!

Headlines and Testimonies - Words from Leonard Sweet

2007-10-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, so i missed a day blogging, in my 7 x 7 campaign, but who is noticing? So to make up, i'll do two today. here is number one. some words from leonard sweet i hear passed on from andy mcquity at irving bible church while listening to their pod cast. Good stuff. follow the link to see the whole quote.

in speaking of getting something done, or fanning the flame of gods purpose in your life, leonard sweet offers the following.

One of our students received an appointment from a bishop, and the studentdid not feel the placement exactly suited his abilities.I overheard him complaining about it to another student, and then the otherstudent said, "You know, the world's a better place because Michelangelo didnot say, 'I don't do ceilings.' "Her comment stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to admit she was right.If you and I are going to be faithful to the ministry God is calling us to,then we had better understand that. I reflected on the attitudes of keypeople throughout the Scriptures and the history of the church.The world's a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther did notsay, "I don't do doors." (read more follow link below).

Headlines and Testimonies - Words from Leonard Sweet

17 year old changing the world and follow up from yesterdays micro finance story

2007-10-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

A Teen in Mozambique--Clinton Global Initiative 2007 This is an incredible story of a 17 year old in Massachusetts who is on a campaign to change the world. He's also the kind of kid who, when he was 13, instructed friends and family to donate money to a nongovernment organization called VillageReach, in lieu of bar mitzvah gifts.

I'll let you read the story (here) but the point i want to make is. One person can change the world; in this case a teenager.

1. get over yourself
2. give of yourself
3. go beyond yourself
4. leave a legacy

SUCCESS!! Lun Chanthy got her loan fully funded! 40 philanthropic would be social, venture capitalist helped her secure her air compressor and tire inventory. Join me and pray for her futhered success and that of her family. For more about this visit http://www.kiva.org/.

Name: Lun Chanthy
Location: Prey Veng Province, Cambodia
Activity: Vehicle Repairs
Loan Requested: $1,000.00
Repayment Term:
18 months - repaid monthly
Loan Use: To purchase an air compressor and tire inventory.

Mrs. Lun Chanthy, age 23, is a housewife who takes care of her two young children. Her husband works as a vehicle tire repairman. In order to expand his business and meet customer demand, she would like to borrow $1,000 to purchase an air compressor to pump tires and invest in a stock of tires to sell to his customers. They expect the expanded business will bring in $10 per day in revenue. They will use the extra income to continue to invest in the growth of the business and to save money for their children’s education.

Micro-Finance; the new way to teach people to fish

2007-10-14T20:59:00.000-05:00

Micro finance is not a new concept. It’s been around since the first teenager borrowed money from his dad for a night on the town. But today micro finance is a way to, in part, help equalize and in some ways redistribute wealth in the world and teach people a way out of poverty.

It goes like this. Most Americans have a couple of expendable bucks at the end of the month. Sometimes well give of that surplus to a local charity or church or even sponsor a child in a foreign country who needs food and medical attention. There is another option gaining traction today; micro finance.
What micro finance as a concept does is to provide small loans for small business start ups. Most people in underdeveloped countries are unable to obtain small loans to further their business or family development. If there is micro credit available, it is offered at exorbitant interest rates. Here is an example from the Kiva website. Lun Chanthy is a 23 year old house wife who lives in Cambodia and takes care of her two young children.

Her husband works as a vehicle tire repairman. In order to expand his business and meet customer demand, she would like to borrow $1,000 to purchase an air compressor to pump tires and invest in a stock of tires to sell to his customers. They expect the expanded business will bring in $10 per day in revenue. They will use the extra income to continue to invest in the growth of the business and to save money for their children’s education.

She currently has $175.00 towards her goal raised by kind hearted souls (like you and I) whom she will probably never meet. By helping people like Mrs. Chanthy we can change the world and help her forever change her family tree!

There are several groups that do that and there are links below to help you begin your journey.

Rob Bell in a Whittenburg Door interview says of micro finance…”…there are huge things going on. Like micro-finance. I was in Rwanda—essentially you take someone in poverty and give them a couple of bucks so they can start a business. We met a woman who started a business, built a house, fed her family and her business was now self-sustaining and growing—on a $40 dollar loan. A Western church gave this woman forty bucks and look what she’s done. Economically speaking, that’s one of the hopes of the world right now. We have more money than we know what to do with. American churches have more concentration of wealth than any time in history in a world with massive poverty. But some are exploring with micro financing, working with ground churches and trying things that could help save our world.”

You can now be your own venture capitalist!

Micro-Finance Handbook
World Relief
Info from Wikipedia
Great Organization doing MF

answer the call.

2007-10-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

What are you good at and what is your life purpose? Sometimes it is referred to as a “calling”. When I was growing up a common tongue in cheek phrase was used when someone did something very odd, very good. Usually an adult to a kid, after he jumped a car on his skateboard or something equally death deifying, “maybe you missed your calling”.

A calling could also mean, your purpose in life. I mean we are all put here for way more than just to turn oxygen into carbon dioxide and then become worm food, we were made to live. One way to live life to the fullest is by finding who you are, doing what you are good at, having a great time doing it and changing the world while you are at it. Talk about your win, win.

First a funny story, then a quiz; both for the purpose of discovering your calling.

A group of animals got together in the forest one day and decided to start a school. There was a rabbit, a bird, a squirrel, a fish, and an eel. They formed a board of education and tried to create a curriculum.

The rabbit insisted that burrowing in the ground be in the curriculum. The fish insisted on swimming. The squirrel insisted that perpendicular tree climbing be included, and the bird wanted flying.

They put all these courses together and wrote a curriculum guide. Then they insisted that all of the animals take all of the subjects.

Although the rabbit was getting an A in burrowing, perpendicular tree climbing was a real problem for him; he kept falling over backwards. Pretty soon he became brain damaged from these falls, and he couldn’t burrow well any more. He found that instead of making an A in burrowing, he was making a C. And, of course, he always made an F in perpendicular climbing.

The bird was really beautiful at flying, but when it came to burrowing in the ground, he couldn’t do it so well. He kept breaking his beak and wings. Pretty soon he was making a C in flying as well as an F in burrowing. And he had a very bad time with perpendicular tree climbing.

The squirrel was terrific at perpendicular tree climbing, but was so afraid of the water that he failed swimming altogether.

The fish was easily the best in swimming class, but he wouldn’t get out of the water to come to any of the other classes.

The valedictorian of the class was a mentally retarded eel who did everything in a halfway fashion. But the teachers were happy because everybody was taking all the subjects in their broad-based educational curriculum.

(From Everything You’ve Heard is Wrong by Tony Campolo, Dallas: Word, 1992, pg. 130)

1. Look up calling in the dictionary and write the definition below.

2. Now ask 2 or 3 people what they think a “calling” is.

3. No look up at least 30 references in a concordance of the word calling.

4. Categorize the above words by context. For example, find a couple of common denominators and list each verse in that category.

5. List 10 verses that particularly speak to you. Also say why

6. Read the story of Samuel’s calling. I Samuel 1-3.

7. How was Samuel called?

8. Why do you think Samuel was called?

9. Why do you think God calls some people in very intense ways and some not?

10. Are you called?

11. What is/are the most important thing(s) about a calling?

12. Describe your calling?

13. How personal or specific is it?

14. What can I do to help you in your calling (ie help you determine if you are called, help you understand the specifics of your calling, help you get to the next step of your calling, etc.)

15. What is your next step to fulfilling this call?

God itched my foot.

2007-10-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

God itched my foot.
May 25, 2007 (started)
October 12, 2007 (finished)

Tonight my daughter learned there was no Santa clause. No biggie, she’s six. She also learned there was no Easter bunny, but she already had her doubts. We didn’t mean to rock her world, she is very inquisitive and fairly smart, so it was only a matter of time.

So, after a few minutes more, she dropped the bomb.

Is god real? Ouch, shot through the heart? not the question parents want to hear, but I do understand. My wife talked her through all the logic that a six year old could understand, and reasoned with her like a great mother would do. This whole thing transpired during the mommy daughter night time ritual, which I was not part of. After Jeanne did all the damage control she thought she could, daddy was called in to bat clean up. I loved it. I love teachable moments. I love dissonance. I knew we had an opportunity. I knew it would be fun.

I had one thing on my mind; to get her to understand that God is different than Santa or the Easter bunny. I understand God’s sovereignty and he wants to reveal himself to his people. I rested in that fact.

I don’t do real well with kids; I mean, I love my daughter but babies, toddlers and elementary aged little people scare me. I have to try too hard to tone down language and concepts. So sometimes with Sophia, when I’m up against a tough concept, knowing that we’ll have many more moments in which we’ll be able to unpack the existence of God, the Easter bunny, big foot and extra terrestrials, I settle for foreshadowing. I’ve also learned throughout the years that I don’t have to go to bat for God every time. So….

I came in to Sophia’s room confident and anticipating an adventure, wherein which we would all win. I had one point to make and a ball to toss into God’s court. I said “sweetie, what’s going on?”

“Well if Santa isn’t real, maybe God isn’t real either.”

We talked a bit about historical fact and categorical differences (in 6 year old understanding, I think) and I tried my best to get my point across; God is real and you will know in your heart that he is.

“How can I know?”

“You just will, he really wants you to know him and will do whatever it takes to show you; maybe tonight, maybe later. He will show himself to you and you will know for certain, that it was God and that God exists.”

“But how will I know?”

“You just will. And right now were gonna pray and ask God to reveal himself to you.”

I prayed a prayer that would be appropriate for the situation. When we said amen, I saw a glowing face of amusement and astonishment; something was visibly afoot.

“What sweetie?”

“God itched my foot.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well when you were praying, I had a bad itch in my foot. I was going to scratch it, but I decided to wait until after you were done praying. But in the middle of the prayer I felt god itch my foot and showed me he is real.”

Several months later, the legend of the itchy foot continues. I’m not about to let that one leave the Jones’ tribal story book. And speaking of foreshadowing, if she ever questions the things of god, she’ll know, undeniably….

God itched her foot.

God is real, and he still scratches us where we need it.

7 days, 7 blogs

2007-10-11T08:42:00.000-05:00

the wisdom of emerson wields us this, "the years will teach us what the days will never know." well, in todays speed frenzy we call the day, i've adapted emerson to my week of blogging, ah hum.....

"the week of daily blogging will teach me what the inconsistent months of blogging will never attempt to sort out for me." ok, so it isnt as pity as emerson, but today i'm going for more tongue in cheek than fingers on chin, soaking in wisdom.

so, wish me luck and insight as i attempt to expel wisdom, inspiration and world changing insight in the next 7 days my 7n7 experiment rolls out.

i have a couple of thoughts in mind, but really, i want to be aware that i'm doing this and crack open something fresh more than calculated. some things i am currently thinking about that may surface this week; sabbath, death (a close friends dad died yesterday), the value of 1, green, diet and i'm sure life will reveal some additions.

i'm not sure who reads or who enjoys this, but if you hear something that works for ya this next week, give me a shout.

rawd

ever had a bad day (or life)?

2007-09-09T23:13:00.000-05:00

i think we dismiss our behavior and attitudes way too much. instead of becoming the victim of circumstances, we must let our challenges be our mentors and rise above them, abe did.

He had to work to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1816
His mother died. 1818
Failed in business. 1831
Was defeated for legislature. 1832
Lost his job and couldn't get into law school. 1832
Declared bankruptcy, and spent the next 17 years of his life paying off the money
he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1833
Was defeated for legislature again. 1834
Was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken. 1835
Had a nervous breakdown and spent the next six months in bed. 1836
Was defeated in becoming the speaker of the state legislature. 1838
Was defeated in becoming elector. 1840
Was defeated for Congress 1843
Was defeated for Congress. 1846
Was defeated for Congress again. 1848
Was rejected for the job of Land Officer in his home state. 1849
Was defeated for Senate. 1854
Was defeated for Vice-President -- got less than 100 votes. 1856
Was defeated for Senate for the third time. 1858
Was elected President of the United States. 1860

keep going, rise above, make a difference

less than average.

2007-08-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

In high school I was a C student. Its not that I didn't have the mental capacity, it was just that all I wanted from academia was a passing grade. I wanted to spend the least amount of time studying to allow more time for other pursuits. My priorities (i wince in hindsight) were fun, social, sports and popularity: probably in that order. Three of my current top priorities were sadly left behind: my faith, my family and education.

Today my priorities are in very different order, but all of my high school priorities are still, well, priorities. I have added the ones I was missing but others have morphed. Sports is now keeping physically fit and fun, like watching the lakers trounce an opponent. Being social now includes strategic dinners with friends and mentors as well as an occasional night out with 'the boys'. And popularity, well, its really not much of a priority, everyone wants to be loved, it more of a necessary evil to accomplish some of the higher ranking priorities.

I think either scenario, my priorities reflected my values, what was (is) most important in my life.

Priorities are who we are, what we are and where we are going.

final thougth about my hs grades. for fear of being labled a complete slacker, my gpa for post grad work was 3.8

exponential.

2007-08-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about what we would think is the normal impact of the internet.

A news item caught my eye when a 17 year old new jersey teen and some friends he met in a chatroom (2 from russia) began and completed a ack on the most anticipated cell phone in history, the iphone. All it took was 500 hours, a sodered wire and some simple original programing. Anyone could do it right? Well, after the story of the iphones hack broke, george hotz, also broke the news that he would be posting how he did it, complete instruction, on the internet. (read his blog here)

So even though u cant, u could.

The internet empowers us to attempt do things together that we wouldnt dream of doing alone. Our seeming potential is compounded by that of others. We gain more knowledge, we garner more confidence, we google more queries and we gather more results. What we end up with is exponential growth, accomplishment, knowledge and so on. This means 15 years ago (when george hotz was two) something comperable to haccking an iphone would be impossible.

i, used to have a friend that was an entomologist, i had access to lots of bug info. We've lost touch over the years, and even though i cant easily get the 411 on bugs from him i have access to thousands of sites giving not only one persons expertise, but many and i get picture and video (google lists over 11,100,000 sites with info on emtomology).

Also, when good ol george was two, i just found out my favorite burger joint, in n out, had a secret menu. A priviledged fact for the chosen few. Today it is available for the click of a mouse.
So, good (n n out sec menu) bad (anarchist cook book)* or other (geroge), the internet offers us the power of everyone. hopefully, someday, everyone can end the tyranny of illiteracy, anti socialism and greedy proprietary companies (u listening att and sony); the internet is helping to speed the way.

* you didn't really think i would link the that did ya?

sophia's cooking school.

2007-08-29T09:09:00.000-05:00

edible summer fun at sophia's cooking school.

the last week of summer was a great time with my daughter. i love to eat. i actually love to cook too. i was excited when she thummed through her kiddie cook book. here are some of her summer recipies.

the celebration dinner.

mmmm fish cakes that were shapped like fish, does the creativity ever end?

look out, that sandwich (snake) may bite you.

the snake and his creator.

we took a bite out of the snake, actually, pretty tasty.

the recipe book o plenty. shown here with the peanut butter and banana sh sh shake (it). this was pretty good too.

same. see above.

new mouse. very cool.

2007-08-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Mice & Keyboards - Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000

just got the above mouse, incredible. it is a 4 in 1: presenter, mouse, laser pointer and a media remote controller. it is bluetooth (the dongle can be paired with other bluetooth devices, like my pda) it is easy to use (right out of the box) and the set up it quick and simple (once you actually get it out of the sill, yet cool, yet hard to open packaging).

favorite features;
1. non directional control thanks to blue tooth. this remote is 100x better than the one that came with my laptop
2. one button push changes the device from mouse to presenter
3. easy set up and brings immediate productivity with little experience curve needed

excited.

photo phun

2007-08-10T18:53:00.000-05:00

isnt it great on when you are away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life that there is time for fun and goofy adventures? a couple of posts ago i told of a website that is similar to (better than) apples photobooth. it is found at http://www.sigost.com/. here is me and sophie goofing around.

the catch of the day and sanibel island

2007-08-10T18:01:00.000-05:00

update on the jones vacation including the tons of shells from the beach.

evidently sanibel island is a shellers paradise due to the fact that the island is oriented east to west instead of north to south, thus the island is acts as a giant finger drawing in the shells to its many fine beaches. for more info on sanibel see below.

on to the pics....

at the beach, 10 miles on the bikes, the catch of the day(s), pool fun.

http://www.sanibelisland.com/

http://www.sanibelflorida.com/

Church Marketing Sucks: Grow Your Church By Asking People to Leave

2007-08-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

Church Marketing Sucks: Grow Your Church By Asking People to Leave

Here is a new counter intuitive growth technique, or is it? is it counter intuitive or is it a technique? maybe it is just about negative growth, or not. hey, we can be all things to all people to win them to christ, but not to keep them in our church..........

sigost.com - a.k.a. Photobooth for Windows, Linux & Mac Online

2007-08-09T23:21:00.000-05:00

sigost.com - a.k.a. Photobooth for Windows, Linux & Mac Online

after my friend william got his mac note book and showed me a program called photobooth, i thought, wow, here is actually one reason to get a mac.

here is what photobooth does; takes your webcam and lets you take pics using various effect and color manuplituation.

cool program, available only for mac. mac 1, pc 0, UNTIL...

http://www.sigost.com

now anyone with a computer, internet connection and webcam can have "photobooth"; pc, mac, linux and more. HA mac 1, pc 1

i like saturate combined with barrell.

check it out and send me your pics.

ahhhhhh, vacation with my 2 fav peeps

2007-08-09T23:01:00.001-05:00

So here I am on the beach, fighting off harmful sun an uv rays entertaining the good ones. I'm looking past the store bought beach toys to my daughter playing w/ sea weed and a plastic water bottle we just finished. I'm content. Not w/ the moment or the romance of the beach but w/ kife. Is life perfect? Hardly. Current Ministry assignment is tough,tenacity becomes more difficult when confronted w/ escape, but life is good. christ came to give us life abundantly: to the hilt, the fullest, to the max, totally, for sure. Im glad i get to live every last drop outta life, better and worse, rich and poor sick and healthy, im livin large. Boyeee

The missions of San Antonio

2007-07-27T00:43:00.001-05:00

Below is a brief summary of the San Antonio missions. Our journeys this will let us explore all four (plus the Alamo, which isn't really a mission but the chapel of the former mission San Antonio).

In 1709 an exploritive expedition in the San Antonio region named the San Pedro Springs and the San Antonio river. The name came from the fact that the expedition team lead by Father Damian Massanet named the regions and rivers on the day of a holiday of Saint Anthony de Padua. The head waters of the San Antonio river are located on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word (where we are staying).

The first mission, San Antonio de valero established on the west bank of the San Antonio river, near the villa de Bejar. It was later moved twice and found its infamous home in 1724 where only the remnant of the chapel lay today (along the river walk and better known as the Alamo).

The next mission was founded in 1720 (although the current structure, the second stone chapel, was not completed until 1756) and Father Antonio Margil de Jesus named it San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo, although today it is known only as mission San Jose. This, the most complete of the missions, houses many rooms, walls a chapel, and offers a museum, an educational movie shown every half hour, a gift shop, and many helpful park and rec curators.

In 1731 the last three missions moved to the SA region from East Texas. Mission Concepcion kept its name; Mission San Jose de los Nazoris renamed San Juan Capistrano; San Francisco de los Neches renamed San Francisco de la Espada.

Ok, having said that, today we visited three missions: San Juan, San Jose, and Espada. We had a chance to see living history, touch the past, and project towards the future. Our professor this week is called history, and he is teaching. Lord grant us the ability to learn well.

d2: daily bread and buy jesus a big mac

2007-07-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

Similar to day one, we worked with an organization to help give people food. This place, the Daily Bread, called these people impoverished, yesterday, they were called food insecure. First of all, below are pictures of us working at the daily bread.

Our afternoon saw us get lunch at McDonalds and each team not only bought lunch for themselves but purchased an extra meal in hopes of sharing it with someone less fortunate than themselves. Based on a passage from Matthew 25, we called this exercise ''Buy Jesus a big mac''. Below are our axis missionaries and our new friends Lee and Shawn (not pictured are Chico and Mary).

the work, the ministry, the fun: day on

2007-07-24T17:01:00.001-05:00

"Then the King will say to those on u who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "The King will answer and say to them, 'truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

today we worked for 7 hours at a local 'community owned' food bank called san antonio food bank. they are largely city supported and very organized. we got a tour of the 104,000 plus facilities. they included a volunteer area massive refrigerator and freezer sections, nutritional counselors, auditors (to ensure the donations end at the intended destination) grant writers, aid assistance counselors and a chef school.

our students worked HARD. together we went through hundreds of boxes of food; separating old and expired food from several categories of usable food. we then packed the usable items into boxes of varied, nutritional meals and stacked them on to pallets for weighing, delivery and distribution. we organized 14,500 pounds of food which feeds about 8120 people in a week. not bad for a group of 29 jr varsity students and workers.

you will also see the after effects of mckinzies birthday party (and an icing fight). the pictures of mckenzie were too dark to see, but happy birthday anyway mac!

san antonio mission...

2007-07-24T17:00:00.001-05:00

for the next few days I will be updating this blog on the road via cell phone. please be patient regarding pics and punctuation. this is to be informational, informal and fun but not exhaustive. ill keep this updated every day or two but if you want more info on our travels, you can join us for our welcome back services: sunday july 29 and wednesday august 1 at 7pm.

48 hr from poverty land to fantasyland

2007-07-18T13:35:00.000-05:00

I had a really weird experience. It was not design, but by what ill call destiny.

I had just taken a group of 27 to mexico city. In MC we worked with the poor and needy by providing practical services (medical, dental, optometry, hair care and childrens activities). one day we actually worked in a garbage dump.

In MC there are approximately 200,000 people living in five major garbage dumps under the most destitute conditions. There is no running water, little food and abject poverty. Most people that end up here spend the rest of their lives in and out or only in this prison. One girl on our team had visited this particular dump six years earlier and became friends with a three year old girl. They we reacquainted last week, this child now nine and still growing in the dregs of garbage.

None of that was particularly abnormally weird, I knew what I was getting in to, I signed up for the experience. What was weird, the part I call destiny, was that within 48 hours I went from poverty land to fantasyland (literally). We flew back to dallas, had a great time of celebration and sharing in our church services and then I boarded a plane with my family to visit my parents and head for disneyland.

I didn't have time to decompress unwind or contemplate, I went from appointment to appointment. Even this writing was a long time coming because of the effort it took in getting a proper perspective on this yoyo experience.

I would have to say that besides the extreme emotions that followed, my first take away was a sense of bittersweet.

Bitter
People in abject poverty
A country imploding from political corruption and internal strife
Hunger, disease and neglect
Children raised in absence of proper medical care, healthy nuclear families and a caring social structure.

Sweet
We took a team of 27 to in part, help alleviate the above
We provided over 900 professional services for the people in MC
Our whole team returned safely and more aware of the needs of the world around us
I was reunited with my girls in time for a family vacation
I am more blessed than I deserve

Thank you god for your provision, your help, your people, your plans and your blessings.

the joshua tree - 20 years later

2007-07-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

on march 15 1997, a recording that changed the world was released. When I realized it was twenty years ago the I first came into contact with such greatness, I did what any U2 fan woild do. I grabbed my ipod and went on a one way walk until I head the edge wailing the beginning of 'in gods country' and then I started back. On my journey I relived some great memories associated with great music and a great period in my life.

In 1997 I was in my senior year of college in southern california. I'd had already seen the four lads from dublin and been a fan for some time. So I was excited for a new release, but not ready for the maelstrom that ensued. I've always hate pop music, so when a good thing made it big, it was sad yet somewhat satisfying. I mean, the boys made it and huge. Good for them, they were finally real rock stars, good for me, the music I loved had just been justified by the masses. But bad for me, now I had to share.

Although the joshua tree iis not my favorite U2 recording, I do appreciate it and think it is one of the best recordings of all time.

Contenders: pink floyd, dark side of the moon, led zeplin IV, michael jackson thriller, the beatles sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band (although I much prefer the white album) and anything by the rolling stones.

2007 also commemorates the 40 anniversary of sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band.

some facts about TJT

"The Joshua Tree" was certified as DIAMOND in 1987 with sales of over
1,000,000 copies. According to the RIAA, they have sold approximately 50.5 million albums in the U.S., had six #1 albums in the U.S. and are widely considered as one of the most successful groups of the last 25 years. The band is also very politically active in human rights causes, such as the Make Poverty History campaign as well as the spearheaded campaign by Bono, DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa).

Singles from The Joshua Tree
"With or Without You"
Released: March 1987
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
Released: May 1987
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
Released: August 1987
"In God's Country"
Released: November 1987
(North America only)
"One Tree Hill"
Released: March 1988
(New Zealand only)

The Joshua Tree was the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released on March 9, 1987 on Island Records. It was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The album was massively successful, and is considered to have been U2's worldwide commercial breakthrough. In addition, it has often been praised by music critics as the band's best album and one of the best rock albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The Joshua Tree won the Album of the Year award at the Grammy Awards of 1988.

For more info:

http://david2002002.blogspot.com/2006/01/u2.html
http://www.u2.com/
http://www.one.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U2_concert_tours

last years trip...

2007-07-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

last year we helped roy and keely morley in sittingbourn UK do and event called party in the park (among other things like vbs and school assemblies). anyway, click the link below to see keely's blog and some pics from party in the part 2007.

http://therealvicarofdibley.blogspot.com/

rawd

ramdom pic and places

2007-06-29T21:40:00.001-05:00

some random pis from friday.

1. the outside of the church we worked at.
2-3. the neighborhood.
4-5. kids face painting.
6-9. various foods we encountered at the market.
* chicken heads for sale
* 10 pounds of chicken necks
* rotten bananas
* moldy mangoes

locks of love

2007-06-29T21:16:00.001-05:00

today several ladies came with long hair and for whatever reason, they knew about and wanted to do donate their long hair to 'locks of love'. below are their pics and those of our stylists that cut for them.

chimalhuacan 2

2007-06-29T17:07:00.001-05:00

so we all know the drill. now som pictures of the town, food and people.

below are the numbers for thursday and friday.

Medical-20
Dental-20
Hair-46
Comb outs 31
Optical-84
Nails -28
Kids Ministry- 85
Salvations-35
Med-20 both days
318 total people

chimalhuacan 1

2007-06-29T16:48:00.001-05:00

by now the rotation is familiar. we pull into various locations, partner with local churches and preform services. so far we have been in four different locals but tomorrow we return to the same place we went today.

chalco

2007-06-27T17:39:00.001-05:00

ministry in an older, former agrarian area called chalco. we preformed aroun 150 services, most of which are listed below. 44 optical
patients, 40 hair
services, 11 dental, 12 manicure, lots of childrens ministry and most importantly, 44 salvations.

Love card

2007-06-26T22:51:00.001-05:00

to my girls, I love and miss you.

two incredible six year olds

2007-06-26T22:49:00.001-05:00

before we left we determined that even though sophia Oage six) and jeanne couldn't make the trip, they would contribute. we purchased a tinkerbell backpack (and if any of axis reads this, for the last time this backpack was not mine) and filled it full of supplies for a six year old and prayed for god to lead us to a six year old that we could bless and pray for. well, here they are: Adela and Najayle.

neza 2

2007-06-26T22:47:00.001-05:00

ministry pictures from tuesday.

neza 1

2007-06-26T22:43:00.001-05:00

Today was our roughest so far. we did the usual things: optomtry, hair cair, dentistry, medical, kids ministry and drama. we use the above to meet practical needs but we also get to pray with people, share testimonies, and minister one on one. below are the pictures that tell the story.

we were in a newly grated area in the dump. most of the ministry pictures are taken looking out from the more intense parts of the dump.

pray for us

2007-06-25T22:06:00.001-05:00

her are some additional pictures of todays outreach. in addition to our dramas, we did light medical and dental work as well as eye checks and glasses fittings, haircuts and kids ministry.
also pictured here is the place we worked at.
I believe we helped about 75 people with all the above services.

tomorrows prayer request is because we'll be in the worst dump we will visit. we need longevity, good health and effective ministry.

more from ministry day one

2007-06-25T19:09:00.001-05:00

eye care

renevicion 3

2007-06-25T18:27:00.001-05:00

kids ministry and haircutting.

renevicion 2

2007-06-25T16:51:00.001-05:00

medical and dental

renevicion

2007-06-25T16:33:00.001-05:00

hair care

video: ministry, fun or both...

2007-06-25T14:14:00.001-05:00

...you decide.

monday: love in action 1

2007-06-25T12:15:00.001-05:00

haircuts for kids