Rush Hour Lock In

Tonight was a blast! I just got home and it's 3 am. You see normally my bedtime is like 931, but tonight was great. It was great on so many levels:

Level #1...Jim Stolt. Wow, I am so proud of him. Let me say this first, Jim's wife Karen is incredible. I love her because she loves my wife. Tracie my wife is not the most out going person and for some reason people forget about her, not Karen. She has been an incredible support to Tracie for 12 years. So, back to Jim. Jim was my first intern. Then he went off to Moody, graduated and has been the Youth/Worship Pastor at Union Lake Baptist Church for almost 5 years. He did great tonight and I admire him greatly as a pastor, a person, a husband and a dad.

Level #2...The Environment. I think too many people forsake the environment at events or regular programming because it's too much work. Don't tell that to Walt Disney, that man loved the details. This lock in was set up nicely. Including huge cut out letters on the front lawn of the church, special lighting hung everywhere, cool signs, it was just done well.

Level #3...The Youth Workers. There were a couple of youth workers there tonight who are in community together and boy you can tell. These guys share life with each other and you can tell how deep their relationships are. It was fun being around them.

Level #4...The Kings Yomen. What is this you ask? Only the sweetest yo yo people on the planet. At first I was like, yo yo's, yeah right. But then they turned into some kind of Jedi yo yo ninja's and they were everywhere. It was sweet.

Level #5..Project311 Merchandise. We now have official merchandise. We have devised a plan to make t-shirts based on some of the favorite stories I tell. So, you get a: I like Cheese shirt, a Who Loves Baby shirt, a Tag your It shirt, or you know it, an El Pepe shirt. Not too spiritual, not like those awesome "you are going to hell". Chad at Rebornwear is awesome and I can see a sweet partnership forming in some kind of form.

Level #6...This should be up more towards the top, but I got to share the awesome message of God's love to students tonight. I have been busted up sick the last three days, all three kids are sick, actually we had 4 Raitz's with a fever over 100 yesterday, not a record we are proud of but my throat has been killing me. And I need my throat to speak and about 16 minutes before it was my time, my throat just felt a little refreshed. So, what a great honor to tell kids about Jesus. There was this one kid in the back, who was your typical rebel wanna be. He whined and complained and then halfway through my talk I could see start to listening and then I saw him laugh, and look out when they start laughing it's over, they will LISTEN.

SIDE NOTE: I don't understand why some youth workers see laughter as a negative. It's not deep enough, it's not theological to laugh, God is serious, Jesus didn't die for us to laugh, do you think Jesus laughed? YES, I DO. What these people don't understand is that students will LISTEN like mad when they laugh with you, notice I said WITH you, it's all about speaking WITH them, not AT them and putting them at ease and they will listen and then they will learn.

Level #7...It was cool running into students who knew me. It was weird, I almost felt like a rock star for a moment. I rounded a corner and a bunch girls said..."he came to our school, he's really funny". So, there you have it. I am a big deal. People know me. My house smells of rich mahogany. Keep it Classy.

So many great highlights, kids came, were loved, and were encouraged.