Green

I'm so green at this "doing youth ministry" thing...

Father,
Give me the patience to be shaped by you, even if it hurts sometimes.

Thomas

Lovers Anonymous

I'm gonna have to say that one of my pet peeves are petitions for worthy causes.

Don't get me wrong! I think we should all stand up against evil and injustice in the world. However, it's too easy to sign a petition and think you've "done your part." This is especially difficult for me to grasp since I'm a hands-on kind of guy. Don't just write your name down (or type, which is even easier). Put your name down with sweat and blood. Jesus did it for us on the Cross.

We're finishing a three-week look at Romans 12 tonight in (grace)land. Paul is exhorting the church in Rome. He sums the thought process here with a list of ideas that play into living the life transformed by the Holy Spirit renewing the mind and compelling us to a Jesus-centered lifestyle.

Thoughts from 1 Peter

Mars Hill (WA) is on my podcast list right now. They're doing a series through 1&2 Peter. Here's something Mark said in the first sermon:

"If your gaze is only to how the world responds to you, you will live with no joy, or you'll sin and compromise in an effort to pursue joy where there is none to be had in the approval of those who don't love God. If you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, understand His great love for you, the fact that He's chosen you, that He won't leave you, that He won't forsake you, that He loved you before time began, that He loved you before He created the earth for you to walk on, that He loved you knowing you're a sinner, that He pursued you before you pursued Him, that He chose you before you chose Him, you'll have joy and you'll be able to live a life patterned after Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Great stuff.

A Fine Line...

I feel like I am walking a fine line with my future. On the one hand, I want to see the church grow and expand like Jesus wanted. On the other hand, I have a deep love for youth ministry. I want to stay in youth ministry, but for some reason sense a small call to more than "youth ministry" (i.e. college ministry, church planting, etc.) The Church is my third love (after God and my wife, of course) and tied with (but not exclusive from) missions. I think I should journal more about this...

Thomas

simplistic procrastination

I know I should be working on other things right now (see previous post). However, I decided to clean up the blog a bit. I had removed my "labels" gadget in the toolbar because I simply could look no longer. There was a long list of one-post wonders that I decided to narrow down. I'm not here to get a bunch of fame and glory. This is my "journal." I didn't need the 25 different labels, so I brought it down to about 10 categories that I hope to regularly blog about.

Back to work...
How Great Thou Art by Becoming the Archetype just came onto iTunes!

Thomas

YM explosion

Things are getting really hairy around here. Before you say anything, yes, I'm shaving still. I'm simply becoming a smidge overwhelmed with the retreat at the end of the month, Youth Sunday coming up, Mexico on the horizon, and Confirmation looming. There's lots to plan for. Hopefully, I'll have a jumpstart for next year when this summer comes around. Watch out for me... I might start looking like a Sasquatch or something.

Thomas

Eureka!

I had my eureka moment! It was in the Becoming a Man seminar that was taught by a 26 year old guy. It was geared toward 20 somethings, but there were a lot of teens in the room, too. There were a lot of really good ideas in the session that were taken from Daniel's life. Josh, the speaker, was engaging and had the quirky nose-wipe going on. I'll have to post my notes from it separately.

Thomas
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

No Regrets

I took a leap of faith and traveled to fabulous Milwaukee for the annual No Regrets men's conference. So far, it's a pretty typical conference with breakout sessions on familiar topics. The church (Elmbrook) is gigantico but still homey. I do appreciate the attention to providing natural light vs. artificial.

The teaching and breakouts have been pretty traditional; regular man stuff. I can't say I've had an "a ha!" moment, yet. Still, it's only the middle of the day. Part of me wishes I could attend the discussion later about what we can do to keep this going at home. (I've always been a fan of secret pacts/covenants. Too bad they've lost their allure to men.) All in all, this is shaping up to be a good day of refreshing.

Thomas
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry