the mallet & youth ministry

the mallet
Originally uploaded by ratterrell.

tomorrow i get to speak at the parkview church high school chapel service. it's the first time i've done it this school year (which is much later than normal because i would usually have spoken once or twice by now). i'm speaking on the "herem" of joshua 6 & 7 - those items that we devoted to the LORD for destruction. for the fun of it i am going to kick into my best gallagher imitation and have fun with a sledge-o-matic.

thus i spent the afternoon making my own personal sledge-o-matic (which i have named "smashie") and buying stuff to smash. tomorrow during chapel i will spray everyone with small piece of fruit (apples, oranges, and a small watermelon).

youth ministry is the greatest.

slammed by swaggert

i have a hidden pleasure ... i love listening to jimmy swaggart's sonlife radio in baton rouge. the swaggart's trash on anything that isn't from them. catholic's, purpose driven, charasmatic, conservative, etc. if it didn't come from them then it simply isn't from GOD and they have an entire radio network setup just for the purpose of telling everyone else how wrong they are and how right the swaggarts are. i think it's hilarious. i laugh my rear end off as they attempt to "prove" things.

tonight they spent the evening tearing into the emergent movement and youth specialties. according to what i heard from the swaggarts the emergent movement is wrong because it is comfortable being friends with people whether or not they ever come to CHRIST as a result of the friendship. apparently JESUS would never be friends with someone unless it would definitely lead to that person following HIM. apparently loving someone has to have an agenda behind it ... according to the swaggarts it doesn't glorify the GOD of love to actually just love someone merely because they are created in the image of CHRIST. of course, they proclaimed the evil of the emergent movement in other ways also. the emergent church seeks the transcendent (apparently GOD isn't transcendent). the emergent church is comfortable not knowing all the answers (apparently GOD is composed of propositional truth that you have to completely understand in order to be "saved"). etc., etc.

i've never been more proud to associated with a group of people. praise GOD for the screwed up emergent movement. i can't wait till next wednesday. they have scheduled an entire show to talk about how evil youth specialties is. i always knew there was something wrong with marko and now frances swaggart is finally going to tell us all what exactly it is. be afraid marko. frances is coming after you. :)

an okay retreat

over the past five years every retreat i have done as a part of the parkview baptist church youth ministry has been better than the last one. what i mean by "better" is that each retreat has been better organized, involved more people, and attempted more challenging subjects than the last one. this was true until the last JESUS project that i just finished.

the retreat i we finished last weekend was an okay retreat. it's wasn't a failure or a mess. it just wasn't fantastic or amazing. i don't think anyone except for me was disappointed by the retreat (of course, i could be wrong). i spoke at this retreat because we were trying a few new things (a large use of lectio divinia which our youth have reported they loved) and while i definitely enjoy speaking at retreats i will never speak at my own retreat again - way too many distractions from focusing on the task of communicating. i was personally in chrage of more of the tasks that i usually would have been. this is partially because of some of the issues that have happened within our church recently and very largely a result of our ministry's focus being more focused on hurricane katrina and what resulted from it. i didn't spend near as much time planning the reteat with other people as i usually would. the lack of other people was the strongest weakness of the retreat.

again it wasn't a failure. the retreat was a time where kids and adults encountered GOD. i am just disaapointed becauseit is usually incrediblly obvious that each retreat has been better than the last one. this time that wasn't true.

the highlight of the weekend for me was seeing kids respond to the prayer stations we set up. that was really cool. i'll post the prayer stations later this week.

"lost" retreat

this weekend is our annual fall retreat (we call it the JESUS project). though a little stressed (it's been a very weird year at parkview and baton rouge) i am very excited about the retreat. it finally feels like everything is pulling together for the retreat. better late than never i guess. i'll detail out some of the details:

• the entire weekend is based on the 15th chapter of luke - the lost chapter: lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. each day is dealing with a different parable from the chapter and has a different emphasis. they are: 1)the lost sheep - being lost, 2)the lost coin - being found/home, 3)the lost son - being celebrated over.
  
• i'm trying allot of active/visual/kinetic teaching within the weekend. we've sent out puzzle pieces to some of the kids and will have them make the puzzle on stage while i am speaking saturday (the expectation is that some will be lost). we'll send a video feed of the group putting the puzzle together. we're doing a written version of lectio divina and taking the words that the student write out and surrounding the worship service with them. there will be other things also.
  
• we're hiding a random sheep statue (small) on the campus and whenever the students find it we are going to break into a serious party - music, cake, poppers, shouting, etc. i want them to remember the celebration of finding that sheep.
  
• the office staff and i designed a prayer service each night that takes everyone through stations that detail out the meaning of the weekend. if they don't get the preaching or the teaching but do get the prayer service they'll still understand the entire weekend's message.
  

there's allot of other stuff too but since i know a couple of students read this every now and then i won't post the specifics right now. needless to say i'm very excited.

above is the final product of my "sheep" design that i posted earlier.

what i have been reading recently

here are the books that i have finished recently.

• schools for conversion - this book was written by various authors from the burgeoning newmonasticism movement. this group of writers discussed and determined the 12 things that they believe define their movement. the books discussions on moving into the forsaken places of empire, racial focus, and down mobility was great.
  
• experiential storytelling by mark miller - this was a good quick-read on storytelling and how it can direct your messages. the discussion of their retreat they developed is worth the price of the book.
  
• dark night of the soul by st. john of the cross - very challenging. it took a little while for me to get past the antiquity of the language but like a good shakespearian play the content of what was said eventually broke through the style of language.
  

robertson just gets dumber and dumber

here we go again. i really wish there was some way to disassociate robertson from the rest of us. i can't believe that he is saying that that the people of dover, pa shouldn't turn to GOD if a disaster comes their way.

here's robertson's words:

I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, ... And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there.

mosiac manhatten

sunday pam and i went to mosiac manhattan church pam had seen it previously mentioned on tony jones' blog. it was a great service. the pastor, gregg farah, had great video as a part of the service.

awhile back i had signed up on the ship of fools to be one of their mystery worshippers. a "mystery worshipper" critiques their worship experience at a church. it's all done in a very positive (and helpful) manner. unfortunately, i didn't bring a "mystery worshipper" card with me and therefore i didn't do anything (you're supposed to leave a card when you do it). there were plenty of things that i liked about the church. here are a few:

• everyone wore nametags.
  
• the music was worshipful and fun - it seemed obvious that the band was enjoying themselves and that made it easy for everyone else to do the same.
  
• greg farah's message was very good - good points, good depth
  
• the video they made to convey one of farah's points was hillarious
  

it was a good service.

len recommended the journey but unfortunately i received it too late. it looks like a interesting church too.

new york, new york

does anybody know an emergent / alternative church they would recommend in the new york / new jersey city area? pam and i are in new jersey city tomorrow and thought we might drop into a service but we didn't come prepared.

JESUS project details

i spent a large part of my day working on the details of our fall retreat, what we call the JESUS project. part of this was figuring out what decorations we will use within the retreat. our decorations for our fall retreat each year play a vital role in developing and conveying the message of the weekend. we are spending the entire weekend focusing on the 15th chapter of the book of luke (the lost coin, lost sheep, and lost son). therefore we want the decorations to convey this. today i worked on wooden/fiber fill sheep and 18" coins (using the rasterbator - i love the rasterbator for two reasons: 1, because it's a great way to enlarge images, and 2, because when i use it i get to say that i am rasterbating and i think that's funny).