You Can Know God

Uncomfortable in Ocala

I write from the Fairfield Inn somewhere near Ocala, where I'm leading an Uncomfortable Weekend for an annual event called Ignition.  Tim Ingram is from First United Methodist here in Ocala and teams up with several other churches for this end of summer event.  There are three Methodist groups and one Baptist church (I love it when the Baptists are outnumbered!).  Tim's been at this church for more than 10 years as their youth pastor.  Youth Ministry years are like dog years, so 10 years at the same church is VERY impressive.

I love the content of these Uncomfortable messages, because I think it hits home for a lot of students.  Christianity is not about comfort, it's about following Jesus.  Some of the stuff we communicate in this weekend has been my teaching focus of the past year or so.  I really like this weekend.

My boy Matt Moody is leading worship, and let me say this.  Matt is a young guy, relatively new to the worship leading scene, but he is already a great worship leader.  He's got some things down that experienced worship leaders still struggle with.  Matt has a great personality, he's teachable, and he loves Jesus.  He is going to develop into an amazing worship leader.  Mark it down.

Sidekick Winter

I've been working a bit on getting ready for Sidekick Winter.  I'm excited that we'll be working with Tenth Avenue North, Daniel and Bonnie, Will Goodwin, John Evans and others at four great ski trips at Winterplace.  I'll announce the other speakers soon.  Two trips over Christmas break, one is MLK weekend in January and the last one is Presidents Weekend in February.

If your church has a youth ministry, this is a great ski trip/winter retreat.  300-400 students at each trip, four general sessions with worship and teaching, and great skiing at Winterplace.  And the trip is just $219 per person.  Adults come free, and youth pastors get a gift when they register (not something for their church, not a discount for their students, but somethinig for themselves...because we really like youth pastors.) Get more details here.

Sidekick Summer

For the past five years, I've been involved with an organization called 412 Students.  We've done youth ministry events - camps, ski trips and weekend events.  As we've worked our way though that, we've learned a lot about this side of youth ministry.  We're in the process of changing the name of the company and reinventing it a bit. 

The new organization will be called Sidekick.  Our desire is to come along side youth pastors and help them with a couple key events.  We don't want to be the hero, just make somebody's youth ministry better.



We're doing four winter retreats/ski trips this season - two over Christmas break, and then again on the holiday weekends in January and February.  In addition to skiing at Winterplace, we also do four programmed sessions, with worship and teaching.  Honestly, there are tons of travel agents out there to put together trips...what we want to do is make it a spiritual marker as well.  No concerts - kids don't really get into that anymore.  No 6 hours of Bible Study because students want to ski.  $229 a student is what everybody else charges, and you get some Spiritual content.  It really is a great trip for youth ministries.  Anyway, check it out if you're interested.

For the summer of 2007, we're also going to reinvent summer camp.  Honestly, I've just gotten tired of taking kids to the mountains and singing around camp fires.  There are tons of great camps that do adventure stuff and college campus stuff well.  We're going to go to Washington DC instead.  I think this is a great enviroment to get your students out of your comfort zone.  We'll stay at a nice hotel blocks away from the US capital instead of jam packed cabins or smelly dorm rooms, do morning and evening sessions in the hotel ballroom, and small groups will be on location around the city.  We're looking at a price of about $249...hotel included.  All the cool stuff in DC is free to see, and I think the big city is more out of the element than a cabin in the woods.  I think youth ministry needs a little something new in the summer camp environment.  I'm kind of tired of seeing kids hyped up and then head home to regular life.  We're thinking about doing some things different for this event that will combat that mentality.

Anyway, I'll share more details on this soon. 

Student Praise Bands

I had the opportunity to work with Daniel and Bonnie at this recent camp and they did a great job.  Daniel is on staff at Northstar Church just down the street from me, heading up all their student creative arts.  He leads a high school band and a middle school band, and helps these students reach their full potential as musicians and Christians.

I like the fact that they are not just on the road, they are doing ministry in a local church.  They also lead Student Praise Band Clinics.  They will come in and work with your student band and help them musically and technically.  They have done some great Bible Study material for student praise bands as well.  You should definitely check it out and bring them in to help your student band or help you get one started.

The fruit of their ministry goes beyond a weekend event...they are discipling the high school students in their bands.  I got to see that up close this week and they are the real deal.   And they do a great job leading worship as well.

Speaking on Sin to a Bunch of Students

From Red Bank's Youth Camp at Disney World... Last night, I spoke on the subject of sin to a room full of students.  I had two main points:

1.  It costs something to follow Christ.  For too long, we've told people to just pray a prayer and become a Christian, when Jesus told people to stop and think about the cost before deciding to follow.  Maybe we need fewer Chrstians and more disciples.  See, Christianity is a good life, but sometimes it's a hard life, and I think students need to hear that message.  If it's not costing something, then maybe you're not really following.  God called Abraham (we're talking through some of His story at this camp) out of his comfort zone.  He promised to bless him and make him famous, but all of those blessings came AFTER he obeyed.  He was willing to risk it all to follow God.  Many of the disciples were willing to leave their nets in order to follow Jesus.  For fisherman, nets were sources of income.  See, there was a cost involved.

2.  It also costs something to NOT follow God.  We moved on to talk about Lot and how he was infatuated with the evil city of Sodom.  I don't think the problem was that Lot wanted to live there, it was the reason he wanted to live there.  He didn't go there to be a missionary or engage the culture, he went there to become important and be a part of the culture.  When he tried to warn his family about the impending destruction, they didn't take him seriously.  Possibly because he never talked about his faith or God.  See, sin is a big deal.  It's not a minor thing to gloss over or keep in the closet.  Sin separates from God, and the end-result of sin is eternal separation and spiritual death.  Lot didn't take sin seriously, and he dies a patethc, apathetic old man whose wife ended up as seasoning.

I think students need to hear these messges, and last night was kind of a hard message.  I talked honestly and Biblically about sin, which is not a popular or fun issue.  I think the gospel is sometimes offensive, but we have to teach the whole thing.  And when it's done in love, we can cut like a knife for the sake of healing, and not just blow people out of the water with judgement.

Nice Drive to Florida

I left early this morning to drive down to Orlando.  I'm speaking at a youth camp for Red Bank Baptist Church .  We are staying a Disney's Coranado Springs Resport, which is a cool place.  I love speaking to students, but I hate driving.  But this time, since I was driving along, I loaded up the iPod with some great things and the trip just flew by.

I listened to about half of Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.  I read this a while back, but wanted a refresher.  It's filled with great stories and I really like his writing.

I had Hillsong United to keep me company as well.  I mean, Tomlin and Crowder are great, but I am glad there is some other good worship music that people are using in church.  It's time to update some of those tired songs, and HIllsong is putting out some great stuff.

I got a new song called "The Riddle" by Five For Fighting.  I love those guys, and love this song, and you should download it. The new Goo Goo Dolls album is also quite nice. As is Daniel Powter (Free Loop and Song 6 are incredible tunes...check them out)

I listened to a Catalyst podcast where they interviewed Tim Stevens and a sermon by Mark Driscoll on I Corinthians 8 about freedom and responsibility in Christ.  It was very good, and anytime I hear someone talking about drinking, smoking, tatoos, vegatarians and homeschoolers, that's an interesting message.

Finally, there was a little Rascal Flats.  If anyone out there could figure out how to do country music like this at church, it would be huge.  Here we are in Georgia, in the south, and we're doing rock and roll as contemporary worship.  This is all fine and good, but so many people like country.  Figure out how to do worship tunes that sound like Rascal Flats, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and people like this, and you can write a book and start a conference.

Anyway, I'm all listened out and I'm reviewing some notes before the message tonight.  I've been working on some new stuff for students, and I'm excited to be able to communicate God's message to students who have been on a bus for the past 13 hours!

Ski Trip

We already have groups signing up for our Winter Retreats to Winterplace.  Three nights, two days of skiing, and four late night worship services make this a great ski trip.  And the cost is comporable to what you could organize yourself.  December, January and February options.  If you're a youth pastor, check it out.

Ten Lies of Student Ministry Review

Ben was kind enough to read my book and post a review on his blog.  We're about to publish an updated version, which will be on sale at Amazon.

I’m Featured

I just found out that I was the featured youth group at Youth Specialties a few weeks ago.  Our ministry was featured March 20, 2006, which is pretty cool.  The only problem is that I haven't worked at FBC Middleburg for a couple of years.  So that info is pretty old. Pretty funny.  Tomorrow, I might get one of those new cell phone things, buy some stock in Enron and fly Eastern Airlines to see the Berlin wall.

Book Review

Art Stafford over at Cool Springs Baptist Church wrote a review of my book, Ten Lies of Student Ministry.  Check it out here.  You can get your own copy of the book, by visiting the store at the 412 Students website.