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Well here it is Thursday 2pm and another week is flying right by. I can’t believe how quickly it goes. Doesn’t help that this was a short week due to MLK day.

As we are approaching this coming sunday I am going to be talking a little bit about John the Baptist. One of the most intriguing characters in the whole bible. Honestly if you eat bugs and honey and wear camel skins then you are going to be intriguing too.

I love John because of his boldness. He was sent to basically plow the roads to prepare for Jesus’ coming if that meant breaking down mountains, or filling in valleys that’s what he did. He didn’t care who he offended or what others would think. He knew his mission, he knew his reason for being and he went for it.

I want to be more like John the Baptist. Not that I want to be overly offensive to people, but I want to just go and do what Jesus has called me to do. Man I want to be like John, he rocks.

Well,I went home last night and finished up that sermon on the Boy Jesus Luke 2:41-52. I think it came out well, it will be fun to talk about.

I just can’t believe how fast the church world goes. There is so much to do and so little time. AND so many things that can steal your time completely from you. GRRR to that.

I am about to go and visit a senior couple in our church. The wife fell and broke her hip and her husband is pretty shook up. I love this couple, but I don’t enjoy these kinds of visits, because they are so hard emotionally. I invest a lot of my heart in just 15 minutes or whatever, and it kind of takes a toll. But I love this couple, they are really great people so I look forward to praying with them.

I also get to drive over with our familylife pastor here at tNC and that’s always a good time. He’s a funny guy and there is never any shortage of things to talk about.

Tomorrow my wife and I are going in to see the doctor for an ultrasound, we might be able to find out the baby’s gender. Very Exciting, then we are going away for an overnight trip to leavenworth, good times.

Peace

I was really excited when I started thinking about what I was going to talk about this week at >>b>> But now I seem to be hitting a mental block. Maybe because I’m tired of sitting at my desk, and I need to finish this up at home or something. I don’t know.

It’s pretty amazing that Luke would take the time to write about young Jesus. This is the only story we have in the Bible about him. So it’s pretty cool. I’ll try working on it tonight at home. We’ll see how that goes.

Man, I can’t believe that January is already here. I started planning our winter camp in August, and it’s almost here. It goes so quick.

I’m a detail person, and I carry a lot of responsibility for having the details right. I shot a goal that was pretty high for Elevate, and now I have to back track a little bit. But it’s okay. I was originally shooting for chartering a bus to go up, because that would relieve so much stress in my life, but that’s not looking like it’s going to happen. So now I have to figure out some different ways to get transportation up there. We’ll probably end up caravaning like we usually do for events. It’s really lame that we don’t have church vans. I got totally spoiled at the church I grew up in, they had a whole fleet of busses. It still cost a lot to get where we were going, but we didn’t have to pay a driver or for their hotel or anything. Oh well. Maybe this will be better. I hope so.

One of the things that we are doing, and I don’t know if this church has done this before, we are having a guest speaker, and we are paying him, and putting up his family. It’s a worthy investment because they are the top shelf communicators. They rock and I am really excited to have them at our camp. We’re not pouring tons of money on them but it still costs us quite a bit of money.

I need to trust God on this one. I have been, but I need to really lean into him and be confident that he is looking out for us. He’s a big God and I shouldn’t worry so much. Worry is just wasted use of my imagination. Kathy, my wife, chastises me pretty regularly for worrying so much. I think it’s the detail thing in me.

God, help! I want this weekend to be a landmark time in out students lives. I want them to know you fully, and to grow to trust you with their whole lives. You’re the only one who can do this God, please begin working on their hearts and showing them how much they need you.

I’m meeting today with a young man who comes from very troubled background. I know that he really wants to serve God, but it doesn’t seem like he wants to put in the effort to make that happen.

He has been on my heart a lot lately, I actually had a dream that he was messing up his life and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It was very troubling. I actually woke up afraid for him. So I prayed and prayed until I could go back to sleep but that took a long time.

Investing in the lives of students is very difficult emotionally. It’s hard to ever leave your work at the office. You take it home with you, you think about people, you pray for them, you talk with your wife about what you’re feeling and thinking, but it never goes away.

I think a youth pastor who can say I’m done at 4pm and totally divorce their mind from their work, is either very gifted, or very very emotionally unattached.

I’m actually a little nervous about this lunch that I’m going to have, I’m thinking a lot about what we should talk about, whether or not I can give him some spiritual nudges, or what. I guess I’ll just pray my way over to his house.

So I have always wanted to write a book, and some one once told me that I should do it before I turn twenty five. I turn twenty five next month, so I need to get on the ball. I started writing this morning. I started by writing an introduction about me and what the book might be about, which is really still a mystery. I was very entrigued by Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller which is more like a collection of essays than a cohesive book, so I think this might come across like that. But we will see I guess.

So I have been trying to blog regularly, because it helps me to process my thoughts and all that God is doing in my heart. And it’s been a while because I was using myspace went over to myspace to blog, but I was really annoyed by their format so I think I will just come back to blogger.

and I will try to blog at least once a week this year, talk about my wife and the baby she is carrying, youth ministry, college ministry, what I’m reading, the church, the world, culture, and random stuff that I just pick up throughout the day.

Let me tell you about transit. It rocks. It’s our college ministry that we started in October. Currently it meets in my house and we have about 20 people who kind of rotate through attendance. We are going to have to change our venue soon though because we will have a baby soon, and that would just make everything a little too chaotic.

Lately we have been going through the book of Hebrews, and I am currently trying to write a talk on Hebrews 11. It’s hard because this is a passage that is so familiar that I don’t know what to say about it. Very frustrating. But when you look at the context of Hebrews it becomes clear that this chapter is more than just a look back, at great leaders in the history of Israel, it’s really a challenge to the Christians that that author is writing to. He is challenging the people who are thinking about going back to the old ways of Judaism to persevere in their relationship with Jesus. Even though they don’t know all the answers or reasons for what is going on they need to continue. None of the people the chapter 11 highlights knew all the answers when they started trusting in God, but they kept going anyway. Pretty spectacular.

The Christians were doubting that Jesus was really the one that they should follow, and they were facing persecution from all sides, and so it would just be easier to go back to Judaism. But that would be a disgrace to them as people, but also to all the heroes of chapter 11 because everything that they did would ultimately lead to Jesus. And if people stopped following Jesus they would be disgracing all of their heroes.

Pretty interesting to think about. All this heroes of the faith are waiting for us to follow Christ. They want us to serve Jesus, to be faithful. Even when we don’t know where we are going or what the end is really going to look like. It’s scary and it could cost us everything but it’s worth it.

Chapter 12 starts out talking about this cloud of witnesses and how because of them, we need to press on and run through aside every hindrance and obstacle and sin that slows us down and just run to follow Jesus. Moses wants me to follow Jesus, Abraham wants me to serve Jesus. Pretty cool.

I was reading in my devotions in the book of acts, and i was just amazed and Peter’s boldness. It’s really amazing the transformation that took place in his life. He was a blubbering goof ball in the Gospels and then in the Book of Acts he’s this guy with great undertanding and conviction.

I hope and pray that that same kind of transformation either is or will take place in my life some day. I love Peter. He’s the greatest.

So we Just got back from our denominations youth conference for our district. It was a pretty great trip. We brought a bunch of kids and they all seemed to have a great time. One of the things that was most bizarre for me was the worship leader was a guy that used to lead worship in the youth ministry that I grew up in. I remember when he first led worship and now to see him leading thousands of teenagers into the presence of God . . . wow! What a transfroming God we serve. The greatest thing about this guy is not is musicianship even though he is amazing, he’s one of the most humble people you will ever meet. I’m really proud of him.

I don’t want this to sound like I’m a groupie or anything but, whoa. The link above is for the ministry that he is in. If you are a youth pastor and reading this, please check out their website, I’m sure they woudl love to help you and your student worship teams.

Well, last night we had another stellar night at >>beyond>>

We had our highest attendance since I have been on staff, and our youth room is looking better and better every week. But most importantly God has been showing up and changing lives.

We have one kid, who I would say isn’t really serving God, but the last three weeks he has brought a different friend each week. He’s on mission and I don’t even think he has fully devoted himself to Christ yet. It’s crazy how the kids who know they don’t have it all together are often the ones that are most willing to bring friends to church with them. I’m reminded of Andrew, “we think we found the Messiah, come see.” Very exciting.

Last night I also got to speak with a guy who’s actually out of high school, and he’s been hanging around because his friends are still here. But we had a prayer time last night and we talked and he shared how he’s not 100% on board with God and Christianity, but he’s taking his time. I was so proud of him, he’s been through a lot in his life, and he knows that this whole faith thing is not just about the decision it’s about the journey.

I left the youth service last night just refreshed by what God was doing in our ministry and in our students lives. God is so good.