Found Some New Blogs

So I am addicted to blogs. For me it's a release, whatever that means. I learn more from blogs than any other outlet, currently. Anyways, two ministry leaders who I admire greatly are now blogging, here they are:

David Nasser

Greg Stier

I had a small "tool alert" go off in my head when I noticed both of them had huge pictures of themselves, basically showcasing their good looks on their blogs, but you got to do what you got to do.

I love this too...

I love this, in a weird way

Ain't it the truth sometimes...

"You saved my life"

NO HE DIDN'T, CLARK DID!

I AM GOING TO THROW UP!

My heart aches for Clark, I will tell you that. He just walked in on Lex & Lana going @ it if you know what I mean...wink.

That makes me want to throw up!

Can't Miss too many Life Moments

A book I Love!

A Moment at MacMcDonalds (As Bobby would say it)

After school yesterday, Bekah let me know we should stop at McDonalds so she could play and I could work. This is a bi-weekly activity for us. She plays and I write out Thank you cards as she plays. By the way...I HATE MCDONALDS! I wish they wouldn't of added so those new Cinnamon Melts, the cinnamon, roll type thing, oh, it's from the Devil....
But it's so GOOD!! Anyways.


So I am sitting there, minding my own business and this older lady taps me on my shoulder, huh. She proceeds to ask me if she could use my cell phone to call her son to have him come pick her up.

I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but I realized I have never asked a stranger to use their cell phone before. Or I don't think that's ever happened to me before...someone in McDonalds, a complete stranger, asking to use my phone. Sure, kids in my youth group always use my phone, and friends, But never a stranger.

Of course I said yes and she thanked my by buying me a Cinnamon Melt. Oh Happy Day!

Google Earth Rocks!

My buddy JShinn tipped me off to this, it is killer.

Check it out

Google Earth

Teaching this weekend at church

I get to teach again at our weekend services at church this weekend and I am going to go with 1 Cor. 13:1-9.

I love this chapter, I love this portion of scripture and I can truly say it is my sweet spot of scripture teaching.

Can't wait.

If your in the Brighton, MI area, you are invited.

Zach and his foot

A Raitz kid was back at the doctors this week...we have to keep our consecutive streak alive.

Anywho, Zach had a blister on his little toe turn into a monster, seriously, something from the ABC show...Invasion.

He has to take this seriously bad anti-biotic, not the nice smelling, good tasting stuff.

How Jason feels about Raining Days

Ok, I know my title is in third person, one strike. But I hate rainy days. Really only one reason:

My back aches and throbs on rainy days. Can't explain it, just major pain. Bending, moving, yeah, doesn't work to well.

Fighting a Migraine

I don't think this picture is headache worthy, but it's definitely how I feel today. Lot's going on upstairs.

Summer Celebration 06

This summer Project311 has a little mini-tour and one of our stops is a summer camp called...Summer Celebration. Well, at the retreat I was at this weekend I met a ton of Sr. high kids who had great memories of attending this camp as a Jr. higher, so I can't wait to be a part of Summer Celebration.

P311 is doing all the production, our worship team is playing and I am speaking. What a blast it will be!

Wow, the Retreat is Rough!

Let me start by saying....I have never, never...NEVER been to a nicer camp facility, EVER! Timber Wolf is the NICEST camp I have ever been too. I can't even use the word the camp, it is a RESORT. My room has a double bed, sheets, blankets, towels, and the works. The lodge building or whatever you call it is so stinkin nice. There is so much stone work outside, it's is gorgeous.

Wow, Steve and I actually found a hot tub and went and visited it tonight, wink!

Speaking of wink. I was walking back to my room today and a group of new friends and did the wink thing to me, it was nice. If you don't know, I typically wink a couple of times during my talks.

Highlights so far:

Hanging out with Steve. Can't explain it, but we click really well. What I love most about Steve is his desire to learn and his desire to serve, awesome.

Meeting new friends. It took much longer than normal, but I learned everyone's name/school/grade and went through the group tonight and did it in front of everybody. They thought it was cool, and it gives me a much deeper connection with students. The trick is commiting it to long term memory.

Been fun hanging out with Jared. Jared is the Sr. high director at Ward, one of my former churches.

Leading worship with Steve tomorrow. Man, can he sing some mad harmonies!

Family style meals. OH MY! The food is incredible!

But, I miss my family and I am kicking myself for not bringing them, maybe next time!

Lifechanging verse for me

Psalm 51:1-15

Generous in love, God, give grace!
Huge in mercy, wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been, my sins are staring me down.

You're the One I've violated, and you'veseen it all, see the full
extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide is fair.
I've been our of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then, conceive a new, true life.

Soak me in our laundy and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll
have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out wit the trash, or
fail to breathe holiness in me.

This is my prayer today.

My theme for the weekend is....Project311

Here is what I am talking about his weekend:

Theme: Project311...Loving God Passionatley and Loving Others Selflessly
Theme verse: 1 John 3:11..."love one another"

Challenge: If you want to start a Project311 in your life you have to Love God Passionately and Love Others Selflessly.

Retreat Weekend

This afternoon I head off to the new Young LIfe camp

Timber Wolf

I get to take my new friend Steve Hazelwood with me and I get the honor of being the speaker for a Sr. high retreat weekend sponsored by the

EPC Youth

There is going to be a good mixture of EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Churches) churches and I will be seeing a lot of friends. I know my buddy Jared from Ward will be there and my buddy Mike from Grace Chapel will also be there, so that will be cool to hang out with them. I also get to hang out with Marc, the head of the EPC youth, so that will rock. I have been looking forward to this for awhile and I pray that God will move powerfully. I pray that students will be receptive, I pray that God will speak to them, I pray that there will be a great atmosphere of laughter, listening and learning. I pray that if there are hurting kids who attend, I pray that God would touch their lives and draw them to close to Him.

A Debate is on

I was asked by my buddy

Adam

to debate with him on his website,

YMX

about Retreats. That's right, we are debating about the value of retreats to student ministry. His debate article is called "Why I kissed retreats good-bye" and my article is called "Why I will never kiss retreats good-bye. Check it out.

Lex vs. Clark

At one point I actually liked Lex, not anymore. Some would say he is bastage. I love my boy Clark, that's all I have to say.

Do I like Lionel?

He knows the secret, but what's really going on? He loves Martha or does He? Did he set that whole thing up?

Ok, what the Hec

I am not liking Lana, but I love Chloe. I can't explain this, other than the fact that Lana kissed Lex, WHAT the HECK.

Awesome Night!

The Laym Phun Nyte was a success! It was our first Sr. High only event and it was a blast. Lot's of relationship building, lot's of new leaders (which is friggin AWESOME) and lot's of good old hang out time. We loaded up in about 7 different cars and headed to glow in the dark putt putt, some fine dining at Wendy's and then we closed it out with 2 games of bowling.

Lot's of cool conversations, lot's of cool moments for leaders to connect and some good old butt whooping. I actually had a hole in one! Yee haw!

2|42 Community Church

One of the things I love about my church is their eye for graphic design and the attention they give to communicating the Gospel in creative ways.

More Training Pictures

Our training day couldn't of happened with out a lot of help from family and friends. Including these guys: Scott Rubin, Mark Butler, Phil Woodman, Jason Shinn, Bev Luhtanen, Joe Jeffrey and so many others. Thanks to all of you.

Layme Phun Nyte...Tonight

StuCo is rocking out tonight and planning on having a great old time.

Project311 Jr. High Youth Worker Training Day

Our training day went great! Our presenter Scott Rubin did great and I had blast presenting as well. I did a session called..."Do you Speak at Kids or With them?

Could they be more Beautiful?

True Story

A few months ago I applied to be the mascot of the Detroit Tigers, seriously. I got this letter letting me know I wasn't mascot material. You can't really see it, but it is from the Tigers.

How about that

This picture was taken the day I proposed to Tracie, 10 years ago this month actually. We have been married almost 9 years and lately we have been thinking a lot alike. It's taken me a long time, because I was the stupid, prideful husband, but I am learning.

Anyways, I posted a blog about my boys and how much I love them and stuff, later that day, without even checking my blog, Tracie did just about the same thing, how cute. Check it out:

Tracie

Our Bobby is sick again

Man, these last couple of months have been rough with sickness with the kids. So, a couple of weeks ago we took Bobby in for his check-up and his doctor was a little worried about how pale he was and how he complains of headaches pretty often. So, she had us take him for bloodwork and he was a trooper, didn't even cry and they took three tubes of blood. A week later we get a call saying we have to go back because the lab waited to long and the blood clotted. CRAP! So, we took him back and again, a trooper.

We got some news from some of the tests and it turns out his alergy level is double of what it should be, so now we start some allergy testing. But, we haven't heard back from his lead level, which we think the tiredness is coming from anemia.

But, he woke up today with a 101 fever and he has been sleeping all day. I hate it when our kids our sick, I hate the feeling of helplessness.

When my kids are sick, I always think of my friends Tom & Kara. They have been through an incredible amount of doctor visits, surgeries, specialists, and so much more with their son. All I know is that I don't spend enough time praying for my kids, their health and their lives.

The Pressure....AHH

Wow, these last five to six months have been a wild ride, to say the least! The word wild really doesn't cut it, maybe something like...the lowest points of my life. I feel like I and us as a family, have lived some pretty dark days and there were many moments where I have cried about it, both figuratively and literally. It really all stems from financial pressure. Not having a steady paycheck these last 8 months, it has been hard for us to pay bills and honor those commitments. It's really not a tough choice when it comes to feeding/clothing our family or bills.

But, the thought came to me last week...So What? Really, that's the thought I believe God laid on my heart. So What? So What it's been tough, it could be tougher. So What you want to give up, just do it if you want to. So What it's hard with money, it will get better. So, that put things in huge perspective for me. These last months have been hard, but we have been taken care of more in that time than any other time in ministry. I will post later on some of the amazing gifts our family has received and how God has blessed us like crazy.

A few of my board members have really blessed us by taking care of us and supporting us. I am so thankful for their continual sacrificial gifts to p311 and to the Raitz family. A few friends and a couple new friends really came around us and loved us like never before. So, we are blessed!

Actually, I was driving out of our driveway last week on my way to take Scott back to the airport and he said something to me that literally changed my life. He said..."You are a very Wealthy man". Huh, I never thought about that before. I am extremely wealthy! I may not be able to buy my wife new clothes or take her out for nice meals, but our family is incredible. They are the apple of my life and I so honored to have them. Plus, may I never forget about my place in heaven and the sacrifice Christ made for me, wow, now that's wealth!

What is the Proper etiquette?

I was wondering what the proper etiquette is for people who call your cell phone and don't leave a message. They will call, so it registers, but don't leave a message. I can understand if they know you well and you know them well...But what if you don't them? Do you call the number back? Do you just forget about it till they call again? Do you answer, even if you don't know them? I just don't know!

Just leave a message! Or don't call.

My boys

I love these guys! They are so much fun and I love the age they are at. I was telling Tracie the other day that I think I could be done, like 3 kids and out. Well, that didn't go over to well with her. She loves the little baby phase and I love the phase we are in now. All the wrestling, sports, adventures, it's a blast.

Huge Blessing

Tracie and I don't get to go on dates very much, let alone out to dinner at a nice place. The date thing is hard because we have to find a baby sitter to watch all three kids and then one who we have taught the ins and outs of Zach's PKU.

Anyways, last week at our Jr. high worker training, someone came up to me and handed me a gift card to one of Tracie's favorite restaurants and said something like..."we appreciate all you do". Well, it just about blew me away! The really funny thing is, a couple of weeks ago, when I was sharing with a group of youth pastors from the Ann Arbor area on the power of connecting, I talked about how Tracie and I try to buy gift cards and give them to youth pastors just to say thanks. Well, it meant a lot and Friday evening we go the chance to go out on a date and we had a blast! The food was great too!

Favorite Sayings from Ron

Raitz Disclaimer: I respect Ron Luce. Being someone who has started a non-profit, I respect someone who started a ministry out of garage. But, Ron has a way of saying some things that make me shake my head. Things like:

"Young Person, you got to get you some Holy Ghost on steroids"

"Ushers, stop those buckets, God may be moving someone to give more, pass those buckets back down the aisle"

Two out of many of my favorites from Battle Cry.

An Incredible Man

So yesterday I got to hang out with a friend from Chicago, Scott Rubin. I met Scott about 4 years ago when he interviewed me for a job, well that didn't work out, but we both knew I wasn't the right person. Anyways, we hooked back up a few years ago and he has been great encourager and mentor. Every time we talk, I hang up the phone with a new pep in my step. Scott has even asked me to come teach his students a couple of times and those weekends have been highlights for me.
He has a great team, and every weekend we have been there has been a riot.

Anyways, Project311 brought him out to Detroit to do a training for Jr. high youth workers yesterday. It went really well. Scott did a fantastic job and I have heard great feedback so far from those who attended. One of my very good friends, Mark Butler, opened up his church as a host for us. He blessed us and helped us make the training a success. We had a great mix of youth workers attend and they seem to enjoy talking with each other.

After the training, Todd & Bev and their daughter took us out to dinner and we had a great time. Scott and his wife Carrie was there and Jason Shinn came with us. It was fun to laugh and we enjoyed a great dinner, and I mean great. Then it was off to the Piston's game. Wow, that was a great time!

Scott and I headed back to my house for the night. Now here's the deal, Scott is incredible with kids. He has 3 boys and every time he has been with my kids, they just love him. Since he stayed in Bekah's room, she hid some Easter eggs and a couple of presents for him to find, she is super sweet like that.

All in all it was a great training and it was great hanging out with Scott.

The Sixth Row...Seriously!

Last night I had the awesome priveledge of going to the Pistons game. I went with Todd, Shinn and Scott. It was sweet to be close enough to see the man child up front and personal. That man child, yes, you know it, it's Lebron James. He was on fire and then the Pistons D clamped down and then he hurt his ankle.

Anyways, the game rocked.

I hate FANS!

Alright, alright...I don't hate all fans. I admit, I do enjoy a good fan every once and awhile. BUT, and I mean but...the fan I hate the most is in my own bedroom. Yes, sports fans, that's right. See, here's the story, my wonderful wife only can fall asleep at night with a fan on. Yes, you read that right. A fan. Dead of winter. Yes, a fan. Summer, yes, fall, yes, spring, yes. Every night of our almost 9 year marriage, a fan.

Thankfully it's not as big as the picture.

What a Great LOOK...

I am standing in line at McDonald's, yes the great family resturant. Actually, the McDonald's at Lee Road/23 is so nice it's crazy. There are flat screens everywhere and table decorations...yeah...nice.

Anyways, I am ordering for my family of 5 and I hear myself say...

Can I have a Boy Toy with that? The cashier was a teenage girl and she started crackin up, so did her manager and so did an older lady next to me. Actually, she sort of gave me a weird look when I said "boy toy", huh, I do have an affect on people, if you know what I mean, wink?

Lex + Lana = Throw up in my mouth

What the heck! What is wrong is Lana? Why won't Clark just tell Lana? Why do I love Chloe and when did that start? Why am I starting to like Lionel? Why does it hurt when I think of Jonathan Kent?

I want Pete back!

I LOVE SMALLVILLE! I HATE SMALLVILLE!

Where the heck is glass girl...

Why couldn't glass girl be in the Luthor mansion? I am throwing up...What the Heck is happening with my beloved Smallville.

So, I work in a...

It's crazy, I know, but our church offices are in a recreation center type building. It is a work out place, they have 2 gyms, and a pool. It's wild, oh yes, the wild times roll.

But, my family is coming up as I type to go swimming. You want to talk about crazy fun, actually, I think...

The definition of crazy fun is: Swimming with the Raitz family! OH YES.

So Very Excited and Stressed

Tomorrow is our first Jr. High Worker Training Day, Yeah! I am both very excited and very stressed out. I know I shouldn't be stressed out, but I am stressed out over my presentation. I am doing a presentation called..."Do you Speak at Students or Do you Speak With Students"? It's something I have been working on for about 4 years and I am always making changes and re-tooling it. So, it will be fun to present. This last weekend at Battle Cry actually helped cement a lot of my material this talk, so it was good I got to attend.

I also can't wait to hang out with Scott and show him my hood. I have hung out with him a couple of times at Willow and when he interviewed me about 4 years, I got to see the Rubin crib. Yes, that's right, he interviewed me for their worship posistion for the Jr. high, yeah, that didn't work out. I also get to take Scott tomorrow night to a Pistons Game and better yet, Lebron is in the house. Boy, am I ghetto today.

I am also pretty geeked about our turn out. I was hoping for at least 20 and it looks like we are going to make it. We also have some cool friends coming from some area churches and even our friends over at Mars Hill in Grandville are coming, so that will be fun.

I am thankful for Mark Butler over at Calvary for hosting this, what a huge blessing. Alright, lot's more to do! Peace Out, Fo Shizzle

Battle Cry Night # 1

Some quick observations about the first night at Battle Cry...

1. Ford Field is amazing! Our tickets were on the floor so we actually got to be on the turf. The first thing I did was to sprint (or at least for me a fast walk) through the end zone, I leaped into the air and pretended to catch a touchdown pass. I dove and all and then I did turf angels for awhile.

2. The Pastor of DWO did the opening prayer, and told everybody to raise their fist in the air. He told us that's the battle prayer position. He prayed with incredible passion, crazy passion. I thought Christ was going to come back, it was a very powerful moment.

3. Delerious led worship. I haven't heard them for a long time and it was different. Different good, but very different. Then I saw the Worship Couple. You know the kind, the girl has her hands raised high, and the guy has his fingers, hands and arms wrapped around her. I wonder who he was worshipping?

4. Stage…Freakin sweet, back wall was a video wall and it was sweet. They had a bunch of lcd screens and subs everywhere.
Lots and lots of speakers, the rigging for the stage was sweet. I notice that kind of stuff, I am weird like that. They always do a great job with the set and production, it was huge. It was so loud that I had to leave during a couple of moments.

5. Interesting moment at the end of the night. Ron explained that you don't receive Christ as your savior, but you die to your old self and surrender your entire life to him. So, he asked students to express their desire to die to their old self by shouting out "I want the cross." So it was quiet for a little bit, then all of sudden kids just starting screaming all over the place. It was wild.

6. I asked my kids what they remembered from Ron's hour and half talk laced through drama's, videos, and dance routines. One girl said, I really don't remembered anything because he was so boring. Another one said he said the same thing over and over. His talk that night was on the prodigal son and his premise was that in order for you to start a Battle Cry, you must get out of the Pig Pen. They had people slopping around in a pig pen to illustrate the point. He did say one thing that intrigued me about that story. He said the father was willing to open his arms to his son until his son got out of the pig pen and left his old ways. Huh, interesting.

7. Ron also told the kids who screamed and got on their knees that he was proud of them for taking a stand and for being committed.

A wild Lunch

So Shinn and I were sitting at lunch last week and we looked over at the table across from us and we both just about lost it. You know, one of those moments where you about pee your pants. Yes it was a wild lunch. There were two older gentlemen sitting at lunch dividing up their SEASON TICKETS TO THE TIGERS!!!

I couldn't even believe it, to see that whole pack of tickets just sitting there. We started to stare and they got a little worried. I am ashamed to say that we even sized them up, and I know we could of taken them. But, we didn't.

Maybe someday we thought, maybe someday we could be those two old guys dividing up our tickets. Maybe

I struggle with Mt. 18

So, I have a friend who I offended. Actually, I think he is closer than a friend, more like a little brother. I guess I offended him when I didn't accept him as a friend on MySpace. Look, I have already posted about how much I hate MySpace, just a personal opinion. And I won't get into details, but I didn't accept him.

So, Mt.18 talks about confronting someone when you have a problem with them, but is it also for the reverse? I actually found out through his myspace that he had a problem with me. So, am I to confront him and say, hey, I hear you have a problem with me. Even when the resonsibility is his? All the leadership stuff I have read says, a leader is the one who always goes the extra mile. I am struggling daily to be the leader I know God wants me to be, but I called him anyway to try and work it out. So, I do feel bad for offending him, because I love him and believe in him. Some of the stuff he wrote on his myspace really got me thinking and hopefully he will give me permission to post it on my blog because I spent a great amount of time last night praying and thinking about what he said. So, I guess my struggle is, it's not easy to go the extra mile and it's not easy to confront each other, because it's darn hard, but I guess we need to suck it up and just do it. Even though, I don't like to. I admit that straight up.

Zach..Our PKUer

This is my buddy boy, Zachary James. He is daddy's boy though and through. He cuddles with me every chance he gets, follows me around, and is full of life. Zach has a metabolic disease called PKU. Basically, he can't and won't ever be able to eat normal amounts of protein. So, that means he is on a super regulated diet. We literally count and weigh everything that goes into his mouth, it's wild.

Anyway, PKU is a seldom known about disease and the families of PKU kids in MI are trying to raise awareness and money for research. My wife has an excellent post on her blog and you can check it out

Here

.

So Many Thoughts

Wow, I don't even know where to begin...lots of posts coming

Where it all begins

BATTLE CRY begins with this crisis, Ron Luce says that in less than five years, there will only be 4% teenage evangelical Christians. 4% that believe in God. Well, I gots to go, more blogging later.

Battle Cry News...Day 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, what I am about to do in these next 12 or so posts is open you, yes you, up to the world of BATTLE CRY.

I am going to report on the happenings, the events, the moments, the star studded moments, of the BATTLE CRY event. I will do everything I can to not make fun, make light, make sillies...Anything I see or hear at battle, in order for you to get the whole view of this fine Acquire the Fire BATTLE CRY event.

I am sitting here this morning, waiting for my guys to finish up their showers, and then we are going to head down, back into the fiercest city of God's green earth, DETROIT. I even had one of my kids, after finding out I grew up in this fine city, ask me if I had ever been shot. "Oh yeah, once, when me and "Rabbit", aka...EM, if you know what I am talking about, got all shot up". Misconceptions are a flying from these fun kids from Livingston county.

All right, I am ready. I snuck my laptop into Ford Field last night, in hoops of finding a wi-fi signal, but to no avail. So, I will keep notes and then keep you posted.

24, Scratch that, Make it 34

Friends of the Blog World, yesterday, April 7, 2006 will do down in infamy. Yes, indeed, the "Life is Electric" blog registered 34 hits a day, and 235 visits last week. Yes, I am a DORK. But it was big for our operation, there will bonus's, a company party, we may take the comany yacht out on the Detroit River, do some celebrating.

PS...I just checked Marko's, he gets an astounding almost 500, a day. Yeah, wow. Then I checked "Your Mom's", she blew us all out of the water. Ha

Battle Cry

It has started and there is no wi fi, man.

4 hours till Battle Cry

Those of you who know me, know I have vowed no never attend an Acuire the Fire event again. Oops, well, my new church had told the kids we would go, so, Jason is going. I will enjoy the event itself. I am an event guy, so it will fun figuring out all the production and staging and programming and what not.

It will fun just hanging out with a couple of kids from my youth group (THAT IS FOR DAVE KURT!)

I love these guys

I have known these guys for a long time. My brother James, I have known for 25 years, well his whole life. And Jason, to the left in the picture, I have known for 20 years. These are a lot of fun.

My prayer for them is that they would realize how much potential they have for reaching people and they would unleash it. I mean, in my humble opinion, that James would be a tremendous youth pastor or college pastor, or creative arts pastor. Anyways, these guys are great.

Got in some trouble over this..

Last month I showed this Jesus video up at SpringHill Camp and I ended up getting a little flak for it. You can find it over at www.vintage21.com. Basically they are old Jesus videos filmed in the 70's that they dubbed a fake voice in for Jesus. I got a couple of emails from some folks that thought that they mocked Jesus. Well, that wasn't what we were going for, I was using one of them to illustrate some misconceptions we have about sin.

Anywho, we used them as well at our youth workers lunch and then I have used a couple of them at Elevate, I think they are funny.

Crazy Church

I had lunch with a very cool youth pastor yesterday from a church that is building a student ministry center. It was fun, Jason Shinn came with me and he drove, for some reason he doesn't trust my driving. We met Jacob in his new student center and wow! It's a flippin 3 million dollar building that's attached to their current church building. It's stinkin incredible. A 500 seat auditorium, a 30 foot climbing wall, cafe, 2 basketball cages, vdo games everywhere and a church that invests in its students.

Anyways, we had a blast. Jacob had asked if we could do lunch, because for some reason he heard I was the guy to talk to about doing big events, well I don't know about that. But it was fun, I sometimes take for granted all the information that's floating around in my head and it's cool to be able to download it to someone who wants to learn about hosting events.

Oh yeah, another one

Outreach Night, or Outreach event. Another phrase I am struggling with.

The first Outreach Event

So, I think this is a picture from our first "outreach event". We did the good old fashioned lock-in and it was old fashion, I will tell you that. If I remember right, I had a 101 fever and I was sick as a dog. We planned for something like 20 kids and 80 showed up and within the first 20 minutes we had a fight and a broken door. Yeah, not a wood door, but one of those full glass doors.

No programming, no real plan and I might have them sing Pharoh, Pharoh. Yeah, you know it, lame. I think I may have preached the gospel and students raised their hands to accept Christ.

I just used two phrases that are giving me a lot of thinking time lately..."Preached the gospel" and "Raised their hands".

I don't know even know where to begin. For some reason, every time I hear the word Preach, I just shutter. It's like someone is running their fingernails on a black board. I don't know if I think down deep that the American Church and American pastors have taken this word to give them liberty to speak at people and tell them how to respond to the gospel, I don't know.

Then, their is the whole raise your hand deal, I don't even have time. I know there is a great post about this on Marko's website, but I am too tired to link it here.

Anyways, the night was successful on a couple of fronts. Students were loved, the associate pastor had to get out of bed to fix the door, we ate a crazy amount of ice cream and I think it was the first time I held my wife's hand (that was before we were even dating). Yeah, you got it, she was one of my adult leaders. YOU KNOW IT!

I don't get many comments...I've Noticed

So, I really don't get many comments left on my blog, this I have noticed. Maybe it's because I am a little Jedi like, maybe my blogs are not comment worthy or my posts really don't lend them selves to comments, well, I dont' know.

A couple of great friends

Not only two of my best friends, but my dad and my brother. I couldn't be more blessed to be so close to these guys, I love them. My dad was my youth pastor and my brother has been with me in ministry since the beginning. I couldn't of done much without him.

My Boys

I love my boys. They are so much and we have a blast. Tonight we went for a bike ride, and then a wagon ride, and then played basketball out front. How fun.

I am going to Battle Cry

I know, I promised I would never go, but my new church had made plans to attend, so I had to suck up the pride and I am going. Trying to nail down who is going with us, oh, the fun of sign up sheets. I wonder if Ron still has a mullet? I doubt it. Don't get me wrong, I very much so admire Ron Luce, but he had a mullet at the last acquire the fire event I went to. This is all surprising to me, because I love events. I do, it's in my blood, the bigger the better, go big or go home. So, I will definately enjoy it from an event's standpoint.

Why do I hate MySpace?

I do, I really do, I hate it. Maybe hate is a strong word, I have to be careful, because my friend Dave will pick up on this, and will never let me forget it, so...Maybe I just dislike MySpace, or maybe MySpace is not for me. I mean, I like the concept, heck, I have a blog, but I just don't like MySpace. I really don't know why, I think it can become a huge ministry tool, but it's just not for me. Now, I have a MySpace, I have had one for a year, I just haven't let anybody know.

I may dislike it because:

The half naked women, or maybe I like that part, but I shouldn't. I got a MySpace request the other and I so opened it and poof, there was one of those Naughty girl pictures and at just that moment a bunch of people walked into our church office, yeah, explaining to do I did.

It just seems people are a lot more vulgar on MySpace. Now, I have a little battle going on in my life with vulgarity. Maybe somewhere down deep, I really don't have much a problem with it, but I still haven't balanced that feeling with scripture, I am working on that. But, out of deep respect and love for my wonderful wife, I try to not be vulgar. She hates it, and actually loathes it, that may be the wrong word, but she doesn't understand it. Like, why do we need to be vulgar? I understand that, I really do. Typcially the only time I am vulgar or swear is when I am super mad or it helps my cause, so I don't know. It just seems that people are much more dirtier on MySpace. SIDE NOTE: I am a youth pastor, I also do a lot of speaking and if I was vulgar on my blog and students read that, is that being a good example? I know, just something I am wrestling with.

It's Addicting. My buddy Aaron actually wrote a blog about this on his MySpace and hit home this point. People become addicted to it, because of their friend lists and how large it is, and how many comments they get. It's almost like some people are getting their self worth from it.

My Mac hates it. Seriously, everytime I open it up, I get that darn little swirling ball. It hates it.

Ok, so I know none of these are good enough reasons to hate it, but maybe I just don't understand what all the fuss is about.

My favorite Lunch Place

Today I get to have lunch at my Favorite, and I mean my FAVORITE Lunch place in the entire WORLD. BD's Mongolian BBQ. OH MAN, I love this place.

I am having lunch with some folks from

Ideation

. They are a graphic design & signage company and they wanted to talk with me about church marketing and stuff like that. I love church marketing and I love talking and discussing how to reach and develop relationships with church's in order to help them. Can't wait for the lunch and our discussion.

April 12, Jr. High Youth Worker Training

I can't wait! This is one of the areas that I have been dreaming about Project311 being able to offer for local youth workers and next week we will. On April 12th, we get the honor of bringing in Scott Rubin, the Jr. high director at Willow Creek Community Church, to the Detroit area for a Jr. high youth worker training day. I can whole-heartedly say that Scott is one of my good friends and I am honored to get a chance to partner with him.

Exiting it will be! How about that Jedi talk.