Font OBSESSION (a very nerdy post about typeface)

I have gone through many phases of font addiction... in my early years (hs & college) I used the craziest (and ugliest) fonts I could find. Later I switched to all ARIAL all the time. When I switched to MAC in 2002, I realized that Arial was a Cheap imitation of Helvetica. I immediately switched to Helvetica (or Helvetica Neue actually, as it is a better representation of the actual metal letters used in the typeface before it became a font). In the last few years, Mark, my designer friend, helped me rethink my complete dedication to a single font.

Since then, I have once again been a font junkie, though hopefully with a little more taste than my early days.Right now I am obsessed with two fonts:

Eurostile Next

& 

Brandon GROTESQUE

West Suburban Graduation Message

EFFORT, POTENTIAL, & CHOICES.

“Are we there yet?” I remember asking this question over and over when my family would travel. Almost as soon as my mom or dad could answer, “no”, I would follow up with , “How much longer?” I am sure any of you who are parents are quite familiar with this scenario having lived through it often.  I think that it takes on extra relevance, though, when placed alongside Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6:

MATTHEW 6 ⁹ "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

    ¹⁰ your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

At first glance it is easy to miss, but the connection is there. In His prayer, Jesus outlines God’s desire for the earth: to become like heaven. As one looks around, it should be clear that we are not there yet. You can almost hear the earth calling out, “How much longer?”.

How much longer will there be children who die of malnourishment and diseases long-cured? How much longer will there be the homeless and poor? How much longer will there be people who lack justice? How much longer will there be so many hurting, depressed, and sad students living in the devastated broken families of the American suburbs?  

When presented with these questions, Christians, of which I am one, tend to look toward heaven and confidently say, “God only knows.” And while that is true in once sense, it is not true enough. The question assumes that God has not done much about these situations. But this is an entirely false assumption. 

WE are God’s solution to these problems. 

We are his Kingdom community on earth, and WE are his hands and feet which have been so RICHLY blessed, in order to be a blessing to this World we are part of. GOD has blessed us, to be a blessing to others, but far too often we bury our riches in the ground of personal security, comfort and ease, and fail to pass it on, much less multiply it. 

As if we a riding in a car, waiting to “get to heaven,” we ask God repeatedly... “Are we there yet? How much longer?” Perhaps in truth, these are the questions for us, more than for Jesus. How much longer will we sit and watch out window, assuming God will solve the biggest problems of our day, and that somehow that solution will not involve us getting our EFFORT, see there is that word. EFFORT. God’s plan most definitely includes us getting our hands dirty. If we are going to follow Jesus, our hands are going to get really dirty & we are going to have to work really hard. Many of todays problems do not have easy solutions. They will require hard work in further studies, research & sacrifice in order to Make them look more like HEAVEN

BUT God is making all things new and our faith and hard work will succeed because of HIM.The Car is parked in the parking lot of a groaning world, and Jesus is at work. Are we going to get out of the car and get busy working alongside Jesus to set the world right again?  Or, are we going to just sit in the safety & comfort of the back seat and bury our blessing while we just wait to get out of this place? 

We’re here. God’s time is now. Life is not a waiting room for HEAVEN. Through the resurrection, God is making all things NEW, he is making EARTH more like HEAVEN right here, right now, and He has planned for us to play a vital role in this process. May we be the generation that looks around and takes Jesus’ prayer seriously and joins him in the incredible work of making earth more like heaven.

Now this premise is at odds with my experience in middle school and high school.

I can still remember at my 8th grade graduation how all of my teachers and school administrators went on and on about all the potential that my class had... It was all very affirming, and we left that day feeling like we had already accomplished something great, because of all the potential that we had....

But here is the funny thing... 

Potential matters far less than ACTUAL.

ON any GIVEN day of your life, it is your ACTUAL that will matter the most. Who you really are, not who you could be. Think about it, Jesus said, Don’t worry about tomorrow, each day has enough worries of its own...

Potential is not an end in of itself. On ANY given day of your life, your potential will not matter. It will not change the world, Potential alone will not accomplish great things.

I remember a few years ago a friend told me that they wanted to be a youth pastor....

SO you have amazing potential, but it is your actual that will count every day. People your age are living by faith and changing the world today. They are choosing to invest their life in greater things than entertainment, games, sports, romance, gossip, and fun.

People like Zack & Mikalah....

SO I want to challenge you not to dwell overly much on your potential, but to focus instead on who God has for you to be today. When we are faithful where we are at, in our actual... 

Main VERSE: HEBREWS 12:1-3 

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

You may never reach your potential, but if you are faithful with each day of your life, God will use your ACTUAL in great ways.

SO....

           You have a choice to make. Often in life we are able to avoid hard choices. Many times we do this by simply not making a choice at all. Common sense would have us choose: soccer or track, baseball or football, trumpet or forensics, honors classes or student council. But as americans we detest the idea of somehow limiting ourselves, as so we choose it all.

Whatever we want to do, WE DO.  Multiple sports teams, and honors classes, and forensics, and drama, and music, and more, and more and more, and more.... and more... and more...For a while it seems like we are winning. We have avoided the tough choices, by choosing everything!  We have gained the whole world; we are just doing it; we are seizing the day; we are getting everything we want...

And in not making a choice, we have made the ultimate choice.  

We have chosen this world’s treasure over the treasures of knowing God and developing a deep friendship with Him. Sure, we never thought that or said it, but the choice was clear... it is clear.

By saying yes to everything, we have agreed to a pace of life that does not allow the soul to truly develop, that does not allow the Holy Spirit to whisper, that does not allow us to truly FOLLOW after Jesus as his disciples and learn his ways.  We are too busy, we have avoided making any choices that limit our future and our desires, and in so doing we have chosen not to follow Jesus.

In some ways its not your fault.  Your parents, grandparents, and pastors should have set limits for you.; we should have taught you about boundaries and priorities.  But we didn’t, mostly because we know so very little about them ourselves.  We too have got caught up trying to gain all that this world has to offer. 

But our failure does not alleviate your own responsibility for your life & for your choice.  You STILL have a choice.

Jesus says a lot about this choice, in fact perhaps the centerpiece of his teaching. In his famous sermon on the mount, he talked of two roads that people are on, a wide and a narrow:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.          
                                                                                                   ~Matthew 7¹³

The two roads are a metaphor that speak of our lives.  One road is rarely chosen, yet leads to life.  The other is quite popular, feels great, and is full of accolades and rewards.  In the end, this road leads to death, loss, destruction, and utter loneliness. Later Jesus describes the choice in even greater detail:

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul?                         ~Matthew 16:24

In this verse, many important things are revealed.  First, Jesus is saying that he wants us to choose to be his disciples. He has already chosen us... but our choice remains open.  To choose Jesus is neither easy, nor “fun.” Jesus choice of us, meant the cross.  The Cross with its pain and death, but also its joy and salvation.  Our choice of Jesus, is also the choice of a cross.  Our cross.  Our suffering, and ultimately our salvation.  Our cross is the suffering required to follow him. Choosing daily to seek first the kingdom of God by studying the word so we can know him, and living to Love God and our neighbor.

While this WILL cost us the world, we will gain our soul. Think about it: This is not another thing that can be added to our life. To choose Jesus changes everything.  It means we follow him first, and everything else, EVERYTHING ELSE is truly second.  When you tell your coach, teacher, or director that their sport, class or music is second, it will most likely mean a loss on your part in this world.  Is Jesus worth it ?  That is what putting him first will mean.

WHAT WILL YOU CHOOSE?

Three LAWS of Prediction

Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following 3 "laws" of prediction ( in Profiles of the Future): 

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

These laws are strikingly relevant even though they were first stated in the 60s & 70s. 

Simplicity is an illusion.

Simplicity comes not from something truly being simple, but from such clever arrangement of complexity that the myriad of spinning details are completely hidden under a careful exterior that allows for easy use.

Computers, cars, machines, the internet, cell phones, churches, businesses, buildings, electricity... none of these things are truly simple at all. While they all would appear to be simple to people living today, they are all actually miracles of complexity.

What are the CORE CHARACTERISTICS of a Christ Follower?

A few years ago, I settled on the phrase, "Learning to Live and Love like Jesus," as the mission statement for my life and Mosaic, the ministry I lead. This phrase has since been very meaningful to me, and had helped me think through many aspects of my life.

Lately I have found its simplicity to need more definition. I have been working on creating some core characteristics of what I think people who are L2L&LLJesus might look like. I have 6 so far, and I would love thoughts on what is either overstated or missing from my list.
HERE is the LIST:

1. Crazy in Love with God

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.    ~Psalm 63:3 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.      ~Matthew 5:8

2. Becoming Whole in God’s Community.

²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

~Hebrews 10:23-25

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.           ~John 15:12-13

3. Seeing Others with God’s Eyes.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.     ~Matt 9:36

¹ Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.     ~Ephesians 5:1-2

4. Knowing and Living God’s Truth.

¹ In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.      ~Hebrews 1:1-2  

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.                   ~Hebrews 4 :12 

    The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.       ~John 1:14

5. Living to Bless Others

...I will show you my faith by what I do.       ~James 2:18b

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  ~Matthew 6:10

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."     ~Matthew 28:18-20 

6. Depending on God in all Things.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.                  ~MARK 1:35

 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love.      ~Galatians 5:13 

>While I think that there is a long way to go on the language used to describe the main points, they have helped me further my understanding of what it means to be a Jesus follower in my own life. 

What are your thoughts?

Storying and the Merge Conference.

A few years ago while working with a team for a national youth conference, I was exposed to the practice of biblical storying. This method uses story and imagination to help students grasp who God is, instead of the more traditional lecture/sermon model. There were many things that I liked about it. It really caused me to rethink how I had been teaching the bible. I realized that in many ways, having the right Picture of the Story that we are living in, is more important than knowing lots of trivia about God.

If you have never heard of, or thought about biblical storying then I would encourage you to check out these websites to get a better feel of what it is, and how it could help you in your ministry:

ECHO the STORY

Chronological Bible Storying

If you happen to work with students and want to expose your students to the world of Storying, MERGE is the best Student Storying Conference that there is. Students who go will experience  God's Story through creative storytelling, art and media, and hands on interaction.

"Thank God for Phil Wickham..."

I was at coffee with a friend a few weeks ago and mentioned that I really liked Sing-A-Long, a free album by worship leader Phil Wickham. My usually somewhat jaded friend with admittedly picky musical taste responded, "THANK GOD FOR PHIL WICKHAM!!!"

I was surprised at such exuberance, but after further exploration and a few days with his new CD Heaven and Earth, I sorta agree...

I especially love the live (free) Sing-A-Long, but its all good...

Paparazzi Series Rewind (Jan & Feb 08)

This January and February Mosaic will be launching a new series on Boys, Girls, Birds, Bees, and following God. As I am preparing, I thought it would be helpful to collect in one post, the links to my last series on the issue.

paparazzi INTRO
Flash bulbs explode as people pursue their obsession with finding the next big thrill... extreme sports... extreme partying... extreme clothing... extreme everything... Our culture has gone wild. The message is clear: DO whatever you have to do... give up whatever you need to give up... go as far as you need to go.... all just to have the next thrill... and whatever your do... don't let your values get in the way of your fun.
... but does it really deliver? Or could it be that after experiencing all the extremes people are still extremely empty?
Life is a treasure. Don't throw it all away to fast.

Freedom is overrated

Paparazzi Week 1: The Proposition.

Paparazzi 2: hot R not.

Paparazzi 3: Celebrity
-Celebrity Video Text:
-Paparazzi VIDEO (Celebrity)
-News Cast video

Paparazzi 4: Feb 4th, 2008 (Part 1)
- Lessons from Duct Tape (Part 2)

Paparazzi 5: I see London

-Paparazzi comment round-up: What students are saying.

Respond!


And a few other links from other places:
Help Needed

Sheep with out a Shepherd.

Thoughts and Questions for student ministry

I am working on a list of thoughts and questions that are helpful for working with students today. The list keeps growing, but it is only based on my experience and things I might have read or heard. Take a look at the list and rip it to shreds, question it, remix it, add to it, correct it, or whatever you want. These are the sorts of conversations that we need to be having in the church today!

1. Most students are post-Christian: Students do not know the story of God... They know some details about it, some trivia, and some emotional stories about missionaries, but they do not really know the big picture.

2. Many students are post-literate: How do we create faith foundations in a Post-Literate world? 

-How does someone read the Bible if they don’t (or can’t) really read? (Do Christians owe a secret debt to J. K. & Stephanie Meyer? At least these ladies get teenagers and pre-teens reading!)

3. Shepherding vs. Teaching. Relationships are not optional.

-God spoke in Christ... Incarnation is living the message among them... The Medium is the Message...
-Jesus was never condescending... are we?
-How can we overcome the power-differential as parents?
-Are we out in front, or along side?
-How are we helping students to connect the dots?

4. Students need ADVOCATES! They often ARE treated unkindly and unfairly.
-Jesus was never condescending... are we?

-It seems like all people, young and old, respond best to respect.
-Students often lack an advocate that will really listen to and fight for them.
-Students need and respond best to people who take their pain seriously.

5. Students are “Growing up Online.” They are always connected.

-They live natively in a multitasking always connected community. How do we help them navigate it?

-What does grace mean when Google never forgets, or forgives..?

-Many students have moved past email. It is obsolete to them.

6. Many students today are overwhelmingly busy, stressed, hurt and anxious.
-Too much activity but too little real play
-They never learn how to make limiting decisions (either play guitar, or basketball, or be in forensics...)

7. Many students are mobilized by service (and relationships).

-They will evaluate Christianity based on whether its followers seem to make the world a better place.

-Consider redirecting family vacations toward missional impact.

8. Journey vs. Destination. (Long view vs. Short view. )
-Embracing students’ journey helps us to realize the development takes many stages, and that each stage has its own revelations, pains, and struggles.
-Plant seeds! Success is not week to week, but year after year. Sometimes it is hidden for long seasons.
-Often quick growth is in the “shallow soil.”

9. What forms Character? 

-Students need to learn boundaries (and develop the ability to say no and mean it.)

-What tools do we need to give them in order to do more than just say no... 

-Are those tools realistic in the timeframe that we are working with.
-Differentiation is a natural and healthy part of becoming an adult.
-More is “caught than taught.” Our choices teach our students life priorities.

10. Parents MUST be a big part of the process.

-What do we do with spiritual orphans whose parents are not Christians.

-How do we empower and equip the defeated, demoralized, and unqualified.
-As adults many students seem to eventually settle into the same faith "orbit" as their parents.

11. It take a “Village” to raise students that love God.
-Can the Church be a “Village” (a loving community) for students too?

-Utilize other “safe” adults when students pull away from you.

-Students crave multi-generational relationships.

12. The Church has lost the discussion about sexuality. 

-Christian students (even home-schooled) are statistically just as sexually active as any other students.

13. Youth Ministry is not Enough! *(but it is important!!!)
-Students need more than a program can offer.
-Student ministry needs to partner with parents, it cannot replace them.
-If you see a need in your students life, do not wait for the Church to fill it!

Temptation #2: THE FLESH

Something is wrong inside of us. Though God desires for us to live the best kind of life full of beauty and good, our desires lead us astray. Like a starving man hungers for bread, our fallen nature hungers for sin. Even though we know it is wrong we long for the promised treasures of sin. Even though we know it will hurt us in the end, often we do not say no. Like an addict we are hooked.
It wasn’t always this way. Once the first humans walked with God and did not desire sin they way we do today. But now our very nature is against God. Our flesh want to sin, and we do not need any external pressure or demonic influence to make us do it.

Temptation2presentation

View more documents from Brandon Brown.

The Greatest SNL skit of all times! ( or at least recently..)

Check it out:

Fun with ANIMOTO

I am playing around with a new video generator that so far seems to rock.

Why "Cash for Clunkers" is a stupid idea.

Recently the news has been full of jubilant reports about Cash for Clunkers. While this is certainly a welcome relief from the MJ funeral debacle, the nightly dose of communal celebration over the destruction of a perfectly good "clunker" is beginning to feel like a bad B movie. You know... the type of movie that actually makes you dumber as you watch it.

The news heralds "Cash for Clunkers" as a bold environmentally savvy way to boost the economy while producing a healthy environmental impact. They are wrong for many reasons.

1. The whole idea of stimulus is hard to swallow. Is the concept of going deeper into debt as families and as a country really they way to fix our economy? Can you spend your way out of a financial ruin? Try that in your household and I can predict what will happen. It sorta reminds me of a Miss Piggy cartoon I read when I was a kid... she used her Mastercard to pay off her Visa each month, and then reversed the order so that hypothetically she never had to pay. Problem: Everyone has a credit limit... even the richest country in the world.

2. The concept of spending billions on a non-renewable project is crazy. Invest the money in windmills or nuclear energy, or even on creating a nation wide electric car network as Shia Aggassi begs for. Why? Because investments have a yearly and ultimate return. Getting people to go further in debt, while taking to government further in debt, so that car manufactures can make some sales provides a small boost today, but Zero future dividend or payoff.

3. The environmental impact of taking "clunkers" that get less than 18 MPG off the road would make a small impact if they were all being replaced by cars that got 40 - 50 MPG or better yet, electric cars without carbon emissions. But the facts are that many of the new cars are only nominally better than the cars they were CLUNKERIZED.

I can only imagine the type of impact that several billion dollars would have made if invested in something like what Shia Aggassi proposes. Rather than putting more nominally fuel efficient oil based cars on the road, lets invest in a true solution, or at least a theory that could be a solution.

What do you think?


http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/shai_agassi_on_electric_cars.html

Steward Brand on GEO-ENGINEERING

The world is moving toward cities. According to Brand, we passed a threshold recently. Now most of the world is urban, and is rapidly becoming more so.

Watch the video. He makes some real interesting points about the one billion people living in slum cities. Rather than seeing them as hopelessly poor, Brand sees them as entrepreneurs who are fighting their way out of the extreme poverty of subsistence farming.

His short talk ties together the issues of green living and poverty in a way that is quite helpful. When resources are scarce, wars break out. For example in Darfur, much of the fighting is created by a struggle over who will control the less than adequate water supply.

Very interesting stuff.

Elmbrook Message: 10 Words for Life #5 Honor Parents

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12

God intended for the Family to be the basic building block of civilization and the primary means of passing His story from one generation to the next.

Check out theMessage here:


Here is the slide deck if you want to follow along:

10 5 Honor

View more documents from Brandon Brown.

As we continue our series on the 10 words for life, this week we tackle perhaps the hardest of them all: Honor your father and your mother. For some, this Word comes easy. Your parents were great and you have no regrets, but for many many others family is associated with pain, shame, and anger. Their homelife looked (or looks) like a war zone, and the idea of honoring the flawed humans who caused them so much pain seems impossible. Our prayer is that we all may find hope and healing no matter what our family looked like.

Great Post on Youth Ministry Hiring

Found this on a friends site:

Click here to read the post:

Top Ten Ways to Ruin a Young Pastor (By jim Vining)
10. Promise big things in their interviews, and then pull back on those promises once the family is on site.

9. Do not bother mentoring them or investing in their personal or professional development.

8. Ask them to reach new people, but force them to think the same way as the existing staff.

7. Ask them to bring change, but do not allow them to do anything different.

6. Young Pastor’s Concerns = Never Valid. Member’s Concerns about Young Pastor = Always Valid.

5. Give them responsibility, but do not give them the authority to accomplish those things.

4. Give them greater workloads than other pastors, but also less respect.

3. Say one thing in private meetings, another thing in staff or elder meetings, and another thing in Sunday Worship.

2. Reject their ideas, tell them how to do it, and when it does not work … blame them.

1. Allow your personal insecurities to interpret the young pastor’s words and deeds as attempts to mock you or steal your job.

There are a few I would add or tweak... so maybe in a few years when I find time to blog again, I will generate my own list...

Flail

If you can run toward your hopes... if you can't walk toward your ambition. If you can even crawl or scoot toward the object of your greatest dreams... you can always flail for all your worth.

Laughing Baby Brown

Context: Containers for Relationships

Relationships die without context.

Take a strong friendship that "works" while two people are both part of the same context, and see what happens if that context is removed prematurely. Contexts can include clubs, sports teams, work, neighborhoods, churches, and more. Relationships developed any of these contexts can be real and substantial, yet if the context is removed (Ex. the church dissolves) then the relationships will langure in emotional purgatory for a while and eventually feel like a flat as a two liter of Mountain Dew.

Its not the friendship cannot rediscover itself in a new context, they just don't most of the time.

Context is what keeps it from provides the place to see each other and remember how much you appreciate each other.

Context is what provides the rhythm of the relationship.

Context is the fabric upon which the friendship is written.

Not all contexts are equal, and not all are easily replaced.

Cool Presentation on 21st Century Educators

Found this on slideshare and thought it was worth taking a look at.

The 21st Century Educator

View more presentations from Kim Cofino. (tags: educator k-12)