Tuesday, November 30, 2004

do this in remberance of me - the ooze - articles

article - do this in remberance of me by steve humphreys - the ooze

an interesting article that summarizes the nature of memory and then comes back to the LORD's supper. do we "create consumers out of participants" in the LORD's supper by focusing on receiving the LORD's supper rather than focusing on remembering "HIS death until HE comes"? it's a good question.

when we do the LORD's supper as a youth ministry (which we only do when we are on mission trips or retreats and not able to receive it with the whole church family) we focus on the fact that it is a celebration. we are remembering until HE comes again. one day HE will come again and the feast will begin. we try to focus on LORD's supper celebration toward the fact that the day of the wedding feast is fast approaching. one day we will be together forever.

Monday, November 29, 2004

sabbath retreat #2

to my knowledge i don't have "sections" available on blogger for linking together thoughts and entries that are in common. therefore, so as to keep my thoughts and inner workings together on the "sabbath" retreat for youth that i am working on i will start posting things in this entry. of course, i'll end up finding out how to do "sections" later and that will solve everything. until then i will simply re-edit this post each time.

here are the resources that i am presently working with:

i've talked with the seniors and juniors in our youth ministry and asked them if they wish to do a sabbath retreat. the response was great. i was worried that we might be doing too much and actually just making their lives busier than they already are. the teens responded by begging for us to do the sabbath. two teens who weren't even going to be able to make it to sunday school (when they were going to voice their desire for the retreat or not) grabbed me before sunday school and said "yes! i want to do the retreat!" so it looks like we are going to do this whole thing in january.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

new videos

this blog originally started as entries about me learning about how to make and use digital video within the youth ministry in which i am a part. i haven't posted anything on this topic in a while so i decided to correct this problem. so here goes.

the dry video
    during november during the view we talked about the temptations of CHRIST. as a part of that we talked about those spiritually dry times that we all seem to go through. as an introduction to this i interviewed several people about the times when they feel spiritually dry and then i peaced them together.

JESUS project rules video
    ever year we have our fall/winter retreat at the judson retreat center. it is a great thing. the retreat center has two rules that we constantly have to remind the youth of 1) no gum whatsoever, and 2)don't eat on the trays. we decided that it would be more fun to convey the rules in a video than just tell everyone. so we took a scene from the ten commadmets and then voiced over it. i recorded the voices digitally using audacity and then cropped them down the the small segments we needed. i then added the segments to the video cuts that i wanted. the kids thought it was incredibly funny. i stole the entire idea from vintage21. they this same thing with JESUS for a sermon series. we figured we couldn't use JESUS for a rules video without offending people but using moses would be okay.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

the church must go on

i'm not sure why but apparently the church tradition within baton rouge is to cancel church for thanksgiving. almost every church does it. almost all wednesday night services are canceled through out the city. it just doesn't make any sense. you have this holiday that is specifically designed to be about thanking our CREATOR and what do we do? we cancel all the services that are specifically about thanking HIM.

this completely confuses me.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

okay maybe GOD didn't tell me to do anything

on november 1st i wrote about the fact that a couple of people who had agreed to help out with an event later told me that GOD had told them that they weren't supposed to be a part of the retreat. at the time i actually knew that they wanted to be a part of our college ministry's tailgate party at the l.s.u. v. ole miss football game. well, a small problem developed - i.e. rain - and the tailgate party was canceled.

interestingly enough these two individuals suddenly came to me asking if they could now be a part of the retreat again. interesting how GOD will changed after the other event was canceled.

i just wish that had be honest in the beginning and said "i really want to go to the tailgate party." i would have been fine with that. we can always find more leaders. i learned a long time ago that no one, including myself, is indispensable. GOD always provides someone else who can and probably will do a better job. GOD provided the leaders we needed for the retreat. in fact, he forced me to use two people who i hadn't planned on using. of course, these two people ended up being the two best leaders of the weekend. they were amazing.

Monday, November 22, 2004

the "it's over" blues

ever since college i have had a problem dealing with "big events" being over. in college these big events were my finals. for me each quarter's finals were an "all encompassing" event. every last bit of my energy and focus went towards them. when i was doing something else (being with my family, going to church, working, etc) then i was focused on finals. it consumed all of my free time. i loved it because it meant i always had something to be working on.

retreats, mission trips, and other youth ministry events do the same thing for me now. when i have a major event coming up i never have to wonder what i'm supposed to be doing. any spare moment can be used in doing something for the event. a better advertising scheme, developing the small group material, determining how to better support my leadership, etc. there is always something to do.

the problem with this is when the event is over. i shouldn't have alot of free time that i have been used to doing something with. for a few days after an event i am in a sort of malaise while i get used to the normal non-rushed schedule of life without a major event. it happens every time.

the whole thing drives my wife crazy. she sees me get up and look around like there is something to be done and then go sit done again. then i do the whole thing again. surely something has to be done. there has to be something i have forgotten. of course, there isn't because the event is over.

after a day or two i will actually be able to rest.

Monday, November 01, 2004

GOD told me to do this

i hate it when people blame GOD for them backing out of their agreements. every now and then i will have a chaperon or volunteer that will tell me that they need to back out of a commitment they had made to the ministry because GOD has told them to. usually, this means that they are quitting a retreat, bible study, or mission trip or maybe they are bailing on a some teaching they had said they would do. the problem i have is that if you dig a little deeper it's not real hard to find the real reason that they "have to" back out of their promise. maybe it's a ball game that they were given tickets to, or it's an event with friends that they would miss if they went to the retreat, or it some other great opportunity that they really want to do.

actually, i don't have a problem with any of these reasons. i understand that sometimes things are just going to "pop" up and you have to adjust your commitments based on what happens. i just hate it when people blame GOD for their desire to back out of promise. come on, grow a back bone! don't make GOD look bad by making it appear that HE changes HIS mind all the time. If GOD was the one WHO lead you to say "yes" (because i never take "yes" answers without at least a week of prayer on both my part and the part of the person i have asked) then GOD isn't going to cause you to bail on that commitment later. i just hate it when people blame GOD for their own decisions.

the election

i am so ready for the presidential election to be over. the reason for this is not because of the constant press coverage of it. instead, it is because of CHRISTians who continually tell others how GOD has picked their candidate. most of these CHRISTians have been conservative and have told me that it is my CHRISTian responsibility to vote for george bush. i've heard CHRISTians say that if you are a bible believing CHRISTian then you have to vote for bush and i've heard others say that they have no idea what will happen to the world if john kerry wins the election. this is ludicrous! CHRISTians on both sides (conservative and liberal) have picked their issues and decided that only those issues matter to GOD.

sojouners, a website dealing with faith, politics, and culture has an interesting advertisement based on that. here's the advertisement.

no matter who wins the election for president of the united states of america GOD will still be on HIS throne. GOD is the only governing authority that i trust and i will place my faith in no one else.