Archive | June, 2008

Accept No Imitations

11 Jun

One of the things that Hurt (the book).  Talks about is authenticity.  Over the past few years the biggest lesson that I have learned in ministry is be yourself.  God has called you to be you.  

Don’t try to imitate others, and don’t compare yourself to other people.  Can you learn from them?  Absolutely, but Don’t try to be someone you were never meant to be.  

Teenagers have a keen Bull Detector.  And they know when you are fake and in authentic.  Our greatest model of ministry, Jesus, was the most authentic person to ever live.  That’s our model.  So be you!

Hurt by Chap Clark

11 Jun

I wasn’t personally hurt by Chap Clark.  Chap Clark wrote a book called Hurt.

Anyway.

I am prepping for next weeks sermon.  We are doing a Parenting Series at creekside, which is pretty cool and you can find our videos for the past few weeks at vimeo.com/creeksidechurch.

In my prep work I started perusing my copy of Hurt looking at the Highlights and I just was blown away by how insightful this book really is.  I would say if you are a youth worker or a parent who wants to understand your teenager and their friends a little better.  This book is a great resource.  Check it out.

The Hurt in Clark’s book is Systemic Abandonment.  Really powerful stuff.  Read this book.

Also I would recommend Soul Searching by Christian Smith.

The struggle in Soul Searching is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.  That’s not just an adolescent problem, that’s an america problem.  

 

Some things are so obvious we miss them

10 Jun

 

What a Great Worship Song

10 Jun

This song is from Lee McFarland from Newspring Church.  Song Rocks.

 

Twitter in Plain English

7 Jun

A few weeks ago I really started experimenting with Twitter.  It’s hard to explain, but that’s why I love the folks at CommonCraft, they have a great way of explainging this stuff

if you want to follow me you can find me at twitter.com/jdeuman

A lot of people actually use twitter to post their simple profound thoughts, others use it as a way of tracking their day.  It’s a fun little tool, and it’s great if you have an iPhone and are waiting in line at the bank, it gives you something to read.

Jesus Centered Youth Ministry — Review

4 Jun

What is the Goal of your youth ministry?  Really, what is your goal?  When I first started working in ministry, my goal was growing my ministry.  There is nothing wrong with growing a ministry, but the question is what basis are you growing on?

That’s kind of what Jesus Centered Youth Ministry is trying to establish.  Starting with the Spurgeon idea that every sermon and every scripture needs to be brought back to Jesus.  Are you growing your ministry on hype, or on Jesus?  I’ve grown on hype and it burned, but trying to focus on Jesus again has brought a different kind of fruit and hopefully fruit that will last.

I think a completely objective review of this book would be impossible for me.  The message of this book is so close to what I want to establish in our ministry that I can’t find any areas where I would disagree with Rick Lawrence.

I would recommend all student ministry leaders should read this book.  Perhaps even Senior pastors should get their hands on this one, since all these principles apply to the ministry of the whole church.  This is a great resource to go back to for various aspects of ministry.

Prayer Post-Its

4 Jun

This picture is more than just a bunch of random post-its.  Everyone of these post-it’s represent a person a soul that our students are praying for.  I took this picture with my iPhone and it was only a portion of the whole wall that was covered with Names.

On Sunday evening all of Creekside gathered to pray for our church, to move us forward as a church, and our students prayed in our student room to pray for their friends and our ministry.  So great to come home and see this.  Big prayers

Lord Save Us

4 Jun

I’ve seen this book, I didn’t know that there was a documentary in the works too.  Very interesting.  This trailer is a little long but I think it’s worth checking out.

Back From Cali

3 Jun

I flew in yesterday from California, good trip, kind of a whirlwind of a trip and I still need to digest and debrief it all.  Great time hanging out with some good guys and gals and learning about church and what God has called the church to be.  And some great ideas at creekside.  So interesting.

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