What really matters...

One of the things I neglected to mention in my "What's next?" blog post is probably the one that is biggest but also most vague in my mind at the moment. Dr. Kara Powell is the executive director of the Fuller Youth Institute and a member of the faculty at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. Over the years, I have seen her name on various curriculum and resources, and they always looked like good resources, but I had never actually used them or read them. But this year she was at NYWC in Atlanta and I had the opportunity to hear her speak about her most recent research and subsequent book, which I am very interested in using. Her book is called Sticky Faith and there are actually 3 versions - one for youth workers, one for parents, and one for youth. I haven't read the book yet - in fact I still need to go buy it - but I was able to hear her speak at NYWC, and think she is on to something. So this morning, I read this article... http://stickyfaith.org/arti...

As I reflect on my experience in Atlanta last weekend, the question that I keep coming to is "What's next?" I already wrote about this a little bit, but the question continues... these are the things that I am reflecting on... 1. What's next for me? One of the most challenging speakers I heard was Doug Fields who was talking about the way that we lead people. His message was challenging to me because it was convicting about some things that I struggle with. He talked about how many people are self-preservation leaders - they are focused on themselves, see their ministry as their identity and want the credit for the work that we do. Fields says that we need to move from self-preservation leadership to spotlight leadership where we work to shine the spotlight on others. To do this we must be secure in ourselves and willing to not get any credit, we must search into the lives of others to see what gifts they have that we can put in the spotlight, and we must serve...

I am sitting here this afternoon watching the OSU v. Michigan game, and I find myself thinking about how things have changed since last year, and what could have been this year if different decisions were made. Ohio State players made selfish decisions to take tattoos and money that were against NCAA rules. Coaches made selfish decisions to hide this information and protect their players instead of following the rules - and yes I think that was a selfish decision. I think in situations like that, many times it is easier to justify that you are protecting the players, but what they really need is to be taught that breaking the rules has consequences. Telling the truth is hard, but telling a lie or keeping the truth secret typically makes the problem bigger, and is most often a selfish decision. This reality is even more evident and harsh when you look at the Penn State situation. At Ohio State, the consequences were lost jobs, game suspensions, and were all college football relat...

Romans 8:14-15 as written in The Message: God's spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It is adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, "What's next Papa?" This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) in Atlanta. All in all it was an amazing weekend, and I plan to be processing and thinking about my experience for quite awhile, but I figured the verses above were the best place to start as they were the theme verses for the weekend, with the overall theme them being "Adventurously Expectant." So what does it mean to be adventurously expectant? Honestly, I'm not really sure, at least not for me. I know that involves looking toward the future. And that's really not something I am good at. I am a one step at a time type of person. I am someone who can't see what things would really...

When I lead team building activities, one of the important things that I always do is the debriefing. It's the time after the activity where we talk about what just happened. When learning to debrief, it is often structured in three sections - what, so what, and now what. What - what happened? How did the group work together? What did you do well? What could you have done better? So what - What did you learn? What did you need to do in order to succeed? Why did we do this activity? Why does it matter? Now what - How will you take what you learned and use it outside of this activity? What does this have to do with your daily life? The thing is, debriefing is important for all sorts of things, but we don't often take the time to do so. I wrote yesterday about how I was out of balance. Last night after I turned off my computer I was thinking about some things that have happened in my life recently and realized why it was that I was out of balance. So I sat down with my...

I'm preaching this Sunday. I have a direction but I am having a really hard time focusing my thoughts. I feel like my brain keeps running in 15 different directions. I have thoughts that seem like really good ideas until I start to follow them, and I inevitably get stuck or don't like where I end up. It reminds me of those papers that I used to start, and then I would get stuck and end up scrapping the entire thing and starting over at 10:00 the night before it was due. (and who knows - I may just be doing that Saturday night!) But then I wonder if it's because my life is so out of balance right now. I haven't had a lot of social time. I haven't given myself much sleep. I say it that way because it is the choices I have been making. I have let myself get unbalanced. And I haven't fixed it because I haven't been motivated enough to do so. Honestly, I don't want to pay attention to the mess that I've made. It's easier to just keep living...