White Water Rafting update: BROWN CANYON COLORADO

SO... about white water rafting in Montana... yeah... not so much... we arrived early in the morning at Mt. Rushmore to have breakfast, but it was entirely covered in fog... and the weather only got worse... so we were forced to abandon our trip to Montana... The guide for our raft trip called and told us it would be unsafe at the current water levels (by the way... there was a story today of a raft full of people who died rafting in montana over the weekend!) and that they had 8 inches of fresh snow on the ground to boot...

After some soul searching... and some free wifi access at a gas station, Tom (our fearless trip leader) and I had found and secured a new rafting location...

the good news...

it was 9 hours south of where we were currently parked thus warmer...

the bad news: it was nine hours south from our current location... which meant another 9 hours in a van we had already occupied for 20 hours at this point. Since it was this or turn back... drive some more we did...

We finally arrived at our new destination where we found a hotel and rafted the arkansas river. We did one cold day of rafting through Brown canyon... and then a gorgeous day in the Royal Gorge. The highlight was in the royal gorge: We were dominating some class 4-5 rapids at the bottom of a 1300 ft canyon, right under the world's largest suspension bridge, when a passenger train stopped to take a look and then a helicopter flew through right over our heads... all that was missing was a hot air balloon and life would have pretty much been complete....

One final adventure was the way home... at 4:30 or so in the AM, while I was driving the graveyard shift through Iowa a bunch of deer were hanging out in the middle of the road... luckily I avoided hitting them... but apparently they were quite offended that I didnt say hi, so one of the deer decided to jump into the side of Mike's van while we were going 75 MPH... no real damage though...

White Water Rafting....

Hey I am taking a little road trip to Bozeman Montana to go white water rafting... I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am to be away from the office for a few days...

Plus, last I heard, the snow melt is making for some awesome rapids... !!!

Are you Rich or Poor? The answer may surprise you...

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This presentation is based on Data from 2005... it needs to be updated and the sources need to be cited. I will hopefully put up an updated version soon.

Tegan and Sara @ the Pabst

Last night I rocked out at the Pabst along with Tegan and Sara and my friends Bethany, Jo, LT, TT, Molly, and of course Emily. It was really great fun.

I have been a fan of Tegan and Sara ever since Bethany introduced me to the song "I wouldn't like me" about 9 months ago. Since then, I have loved their latest album, as well as catching up on their older stuff.

I got to see them in Chicago in november, and it was fantastic. Their records, although they are awesome too, do not truly tell the story of what an incredible rock band they are...

@ the Pabst, they were also amazing... The best moment of the concert was when Tegan forgot the lines to one of her songs and Sara tried to help her out with it. For like five minutes they kept trying to get it right, and it got more and more funny as they did.

If you haven't checked out T & S yet, you can get their stuff on itunes, or watch a fantastic acoustic set and interview here


(Hey Tegan and Sara's Mom... they were awesome in chicago and milwaukee!)

The Blues have it...

Too Busy...

I think that I know that I am too busy

...when I realize that I am eating entire meals in 2 minutes...

...when I start to be annoyed by routine tasks like brushing my teeth...

...when I find myself driving like I could win a NASCAR race every time I am in my car...

...when I am late to every meeting in my day because I squeezed 10 hours worth of meetings into 6

...when I go to bed late and wake up early to work every day....

...when I forget to even think about weekend plans...

...when my blogs feels like a burden and not an outlet...

... when I lose interest in being creative because it would be too much work...


My pace is so accelerated right now that, even when I could slow down, I am not sure how... Uh... so maybe I am too busy... or maybe I could do just one more thing....

What is your sign of living to fast?

Presentation Series: The New Powerpoint Presentation

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This presentation is from Garr Reynolds of presentation zen, and it is full of good technique. I am posting it here both to remind me of some of his techniques, and to remind to to figure out how he posted this online so I can put some of mine up too...

What do you like in his presentation?

Satisfied...

I spend plenty of time being expressing my struggles with worship services so I though I should share a beautiful moment that I experienced on Sunday. The worship team unearthed an old hymn whose lyrics were written in 1875 by Clara T Williams. Generally our worship teams are amazing musicians, and gifted singers, but something about the arrangement and the words blending with the voices of the team was really beautiful to me. The song has been in my head all week... (thanks in part to a scratch recording my Matt!)

All my life long, I had thirsted
For a drink from some cool spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.
*
Feeding on the filth around me,
Till my strength was almost gone,
Longed my soul for something better,
Only still to hunger on.
*
Poor I was, and sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy,
But the dust I gathered round me
Only mocked my soul's sad cry.
*
Well of water, ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free,
Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me.
*
Hallelujah! He has found me
The One my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies all my longings
Through His blood I now am saved.
*

My Leadership Guru: Patrick Lencioni.

I love Patrick Lencioni's Leadership Fables.

First and for-most I love his writing style. He writes fictional stories where you learn the principals of his leadership style through the events and decisions of the people in the narrative. So you sorta watch as they figure out the problem and then struggle to solve it.

Then Patrick has a brief conclusion where he explains his principles in case you missed them in the story.

I have greatly enjoyed all of his books and can recall close to 85% of the content even thought I read some of them almost 5 years ago. The story makes the points easy to understand and remember.

I like them all but would rate them in this order:

1. The Five Disfunction's of a Team (A must read!)
2. 3 Signs of a Miserable Job
3. 4 Obsessions of Extraordinary Executives
4. Death By Meeting
5. Silos
6. 5 Temptations of a CEO (good book, but it has the same principles as Five Disfunctions, and I like that one better)

Presentation Series: "My King" by S. M. Lockridge

I first heard this portion of a S. M. Lockridge sermon when I was a student at Moody Bible...

Since then I tracked it down and have used it on many occasions with students...

This is my favorite Video presentation of it. I even like it better than two different ones I have made on my own. Right now, I am thinking a lot about how to make videos like this and also like the one by Piper that I featured a few weeks ago.

In my opinion, short "sermon" videos like this sometimes have the potential to make a more long term impact than hearing the full 30 - 45 minute sermon. In a long sermon, most of it is forgotten by the next week... but this sort of presentation is viral... it stays with you for a long time.

Especially in a culture which has a 30 sec attention span.

Presentation Series: Rob Bell on presentation

Rob is a great presenter/ teacher.

One of the things that is unique about his ministry is that he is able to focus almost entirely on being a great Bible teacher/preacher. He has an awesome lead pastor at his church who handles the management and day to day needs, so Rob can really focus on teaching.

What I really like about his teaching is that it is content based, creative and full of surprises.

Content: Rob spends a lot of time studying the text from every imaginable angle and really tries to get past what you expect in your head when you hear the passage that is going to be preached.

Creative: Rob is willing to do whatever makes sense to bring the text alive... he is not bound by tradition or by expectations...

Surprises: Rob is the master of leading you one way, then suddenly shifting in such a way that you are caught a little off guard with your defenses down in a good way. This helps keep the message interesting and makes it stick.

A few years ago I had a chance to meet Rob while attending a "study session" that he hosted at Mars Hill. about 80 of us showed up and we spent a few days really looking at the ten commandments and thinking about how we would teach them. It was great fun, and I would say the group effort and collaboration really helped us all...

(I found this on Charlie's Blog

Thoughts on Preaching or Presenting.

I am a big believer that a sermon is not just a one way conversation. The message relies on the audiences participation… even if it is a big audience… It is not just a great presentation, but a conversation... I think it is in some ways a lot like improve comedy. The audience is what makes improv work... and in the same way, I think good presentation work when there is a prepared and gifted communicator and a ready to participate congregation...


I spend my time crafting three things:

1. the content (through lots of study of the bible)

2. the flow of the message (via an outline and presentation),

3. the hooks (stories and surprises found by studying the culture and my congregation).

To be honest, I think that in seminary I was never taught hooks were important other than for an intro. I find that my message needs to be laced with things that are going to keep people engaged and keep the message in their head. Because of this when I study, I try to think through how this intersects where people live and understand what the passage means in some of the main "world's we live in: Church, Family, Friends, Culture

I do not write my messages out word for word or even close. I would have to spend at least 20 hrs just on the writing… I usually write down some meaningful sentences which do make their way into the message in some form.

Leadership Priorities in Ministry

Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

I have been thinking a lot about my Job lately. I work in a great environment, but one where you sorta have to hold yourself accountable to growing and improving. As a middle school pastor I am a massive list of responsibilities.
The main ones are as follows:
1. Listen and Discern God's voice and movement.
2. Run Programs & Special Events,
3. Manage Staffing,
4. Train and equip Volunteers
5. Provide Direction for ministry
6. Budgeting and Planning
7. Counseling (students, parents, etc.)
8. Provide Content and teaching,
9. Research and understand Adolescence and culture.

...In addition to my own area that I manage I also have some larger organization responsibilities that include weddings, Being on call 1 day a month and a few weekends a year, and weekly meetings.

What I think is unique about the pastoral position is the way that it requires such a diverse skill set. The job requires you that you both manage well, and that you create great content (sermons, curriculum, devotional material, training tools, etc.). I find that it is not easy to do both well, so I tried to prioritize my responsibilities in order to see how I was really doing.

Ministry Priorities as I see them.
1. Manage Staff
2. Equip and Shepherd Leaders
3. Identify and Disciple Student Leaders
4. Everything Else.... (all of the other responsibilities these three priorities do not cover.)

Confession Time:
As I have been evaluating my ministry I found that I tend to focus 90% of my time and energy on the "everything else" category, mostly getting ready to teach on tuesdays and providing the curriculum for sundays.

My problem is that we I get too busy I tend to use my staff, leaders, and student leaders as tools to accomplish everything else... when really as the point leader they should be the main focus of my creative energy and leadership skills.

The World of Open Source Sharing...

I have talked quite a bit about open source here. Larry Lessig talks a lot about read only culture, such as old CD's and read write culture... where people are a participant in the culture... they read... but they also have a function where they can add to the culture... and the conversation...

This video talks a lot about this.



(I found this on Michael's Blog...)

New Music from Brandon Grissom

If you are into original worship music, check out Brandon Grissom's new EP! It should be dropping into a record store near you (if you happen to live in Chicago)... or itunes... today.


Learn more about it here:

Book Review: Who Stole My Church

My Boss Scott recommended this book to me. It is written by Gordon MacDonald, and is written narrative style. Narrative style is where the truth of the book is conveyed through the story of real or fictional people. Their experiences teach the lesson.

My leadership GURU, Patrick Lencioni, also writes in this style.... and to be honest, it is my favorite style to read.

so what is "Who Stole my Church" all about?

Has your Church been Hijacked?
Millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations, and cavernous megachurches devoid of any personal touch. They are bewildered by the changes, and are dropping out after thirty, forty, or fifty years in a congregation. It’s a crisis!

In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change, and to demonstrate how that change can actually be a positive influence in their church. The church, he says, has always been in a state of change; it has been changing for the last two thousand years. It is time to embrace that change and use it further the Kingdom of God

Having lived through a few tough church situations, all I could think about while I read this book was how timely it it. I "knew" every character in the book because I had run into them, usually on the other side of a disagreement about how church should be done.

The book tries to paint a picture of how a dialogue could be opened between the generations to create a road to the future that we could all travel together...

Having seen this process fail, I struggled to not be cynical with the books attempt to realistically paint this story. That said, I think that Gordon is right that this is exactly the only way we can move forward together....

The book is great, read it if you get the chance...

Book Review: The Shack

I just finished reading The Shack, by William Paul Young. It is a very unique book that is causing many to revisit their framework for theology, relationship and grief.

Here is the jacket description:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

This book is so good that I don't want to share anything that will spoil the story.

There are two things I will say about it though.

1. I am a huge fan of this style of theological dialogue. The book has a gripping story that is used to explore theology in a way that causes many cliches and platitudes to fall away. In creating a narrative context within which to explore these themes, we are saved from the normal theological babel that only a few understand. It also forces the theology to answer the real questions people are asking and not just state some empty philosophy about God.

2. I loved how the author wove so many awesome insights about God together into one narrative. Each insight on its own would be cool, but together they start to reframe our previous conceptions of things and allow us to look at God and life very differently. Since our whole life and all our experience have created the current system through which each person views God, often new thoughts cannot be fully explored because they do not fit into our existing system. This book temporarily allows us to leave our system, as created by so much personal pain and guilt, and to step into an alternate system, briefly, which allows fresh thought.

I would highly recommend that you read this book. If you do, let me know what you think.

One other thought:
I have a feeling that some will call this book dangerous.

Keep in mind that many people call anything that produces new thoughts dangerous. However, if God really is a mystery that is beyond us, then it only makes sense that there is always so much to learn. In this light, even the most biblically astute theologian on his best day, doesn't know far more about God than he does know...

When living in such educated ignorance, massive grace is needed.

Caleb and Alair: Helping the orphans in Uganda

My good friend Caleb and Alair are headed to Uganda very soon.

They are going to be working with the many orphans created by aids, and the war in northern Uganda (which has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today.) For the past 21 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The Ugandan government has failed to protect its citizens from this rebel militia that has murdered mothers and buried the young, leaving an entire generation of youth that has never known peace.


If you have a few minutes, click over to their sight and take a look at what they are going to be doing over there...

Movie Review: Trade

Last night I watched the movie Trade Here is the basic plot idea...

When 13-year-old Adriana is kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico City, her 17-year-old brother, Jorge, sets off on a desperate mission to save her.
Trapped by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana's only friend throughout her ordeal is Veronica, a young Polish woman captured by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges overwhelming obstacles to track the girl's abductors, he meets Ray, a Texas cop whose own family loss leads him to become an ally.

I bought it a while ago and put off watching it because I thought it would be emotionally draining. It was very hard, but more hopeful than I had anticipated.

The movie does a great job of using a gripping story to draw the viewer into a very real world wide epidemic. As you follow the plight of a few kidnapped women as they are moved to "market," the story also diverts long enough to look at how this can happen in today's world. These diversions are quick and powerful...

A woman looks out her window and sees a little girl kidnapped, but does nothing...

A police officer in mexico allows them to cross the border in exchange for "use" of one of the girls..

One of the kidnappers kneels and prays to mary for forgiveness as he leads 4 young girls across the border to be sold...

The american police capture the man and 4 young women crossing the border, but will not believe the girls stories, but instead just dump them back across the border and leave them in captivity to the man...

The impression is given that the woman running the whole ring was herself "bought" at some point...

When a young mexican boy tries to get help from the authorities, but they do not believe his story and think he is simply another illegal immigrant...

The movie weaves all of this into a system that ends up allowing people to traffic children and women...

The ugly truth in it though is that it is based on reality to some degree... according to the website,

The State Department estimates that as many as 800,000 people are trafficked over international frontiers each year, largely for sexual exploitation. Eighty percent are female and over fifty percent are minors...

The truth is that the United States has become a large-scale importer of sex slaves... estimates that at least 10,000 people a year are smuggled or duped into this country by sex traffickers.

Makes you wonder...

Wall-E movie trailer...

.... I am super excited to see this movie!!!