Archive - July, 2008

Praisin in the Park

July 28, 2008 in Church Related with 1 Comment

We have made it through 2 nights of our community-wide Bible school. It’s been great working with several other churches to make it a reality. Jennifer and I have been involved with some of the planning, but we really are just handling some of the smaller responsibilities since we have been so busy lately. Our church band is leading worship each night so I have had a fun time hanging out with them. The theme is based on American Idol and it’s been fun comparing what society worships versus true worship. They’ve had real contestants and the kids get to vote someone off each night.

The first night was chaotic in a good sort of way. We had a lot of kids and plenty of volunteers, so the challenge was getting everyone in the right place. Somehow I ended up hosting and emceeing the thing which is a huge stretch for me. As a natural introvert, it’s tough to keep things moving from the stage. I think I have done alright, at least according to my kids, but it has been a little strange. I’m comfortable in front of teens or adults, but children scare me.

Tonight was definitely an experience the kids and workers won’t forget. We’re meeting outside under a metal grandstand and tonight we encountered a thunderstorm. First the rain and then the lightening. We managed to walk all the kids over to the gym of our local recreation center (while in the rain), and we managed to finish out the lesson, dramas, and skits inside. This just shows the importance of being flexible. Even with the rain, it is so important for anybody volunteering to make sure the kids have a good experience. I appreciate our volunteers and our local rec center so much for letting us come in and take over the gym for a few hours. They were awesome. Let’s pray for no rain the rest of the week.

Experience, Equip, and Engage Ideas

July 25, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Our vision at Cornerstone is to help people experience new life in Christ, to equip them to be fully devoted followers of Christ, and to engage our community and world for Christ. I challenged our youth to think of some practical ways that we could fulfill our vision. Here are some of their answers. After reading this, I hope you would agree with me that teens are capable of doing much more for the kingdom of God than they get credit for. These are some great ideas.

Experience, Equip, and Engage Ideas

  • Do more local missions
  • Organize a youth led rally for local students
  • Have a Bible Camp and more overnight retreats
  • Help the local food banks and provide free meals for those in need
  • Start a Christian youth radio station that plays music that youth will actually listen to
  • Offer free day care or mother’s morning out programs
  • Help pay for prescriptions for those who can’t afford them
  • Visit the elderly in local nursing homes
  • Start a bible study for the teens in a local juvenile detention home
  • Visit and reach out to those in prison and jail
  • Start a community fun day
  • Go deeper into the Bible
  • Reach out to the community during local parades and events
  • Open up our downtown building for after-game youth activities
  • Provide brochures on how to get involved and serve
  • Be more active and help local schools
  • Provide counseling services
  • Visit and reach out to people in the community
  • Volunteer at the local training center for the mentally handicapped
  • Encourage the youth to teach and develop their leadership skills

Youth Retreat

July 25, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

It’s been a slow week here on the site. We got back late Wednesday from a 4 day retreat for our youth group. I suffered from internet withdrawal since the beach house we all crammed into didn’t have internet, but I’m finally getting caught back up replying to blogs and emails. We ended up taking 17 teenagers to focus some time on relationships. As I’ve shared before, a change of pace and change of place will give you a change in perspective. By getting away for a few days we had an incredible time to grow closer to God and grow closer as a group. And as a pastor, I really enjoy spending time with the teenagers to share and encourage them. They are such an important part of the church.

A few years ago, we did a similar retreat to talk about sex and relationships with the youth. Jennifer and I always try to be creative in naming the youth retreats. A fun name gives them something to look forward to and a good reason to invite friends. We took them to Carowinds and “unofficially” called the retreat “Sex and Roller Coasters” On all the official letters to the parents it was just about dating and relationships, but we were able to really break the ice to talk about some very important issues from a Biblical viewpoint. This time we didn’t give the retreat a title, but the youth did. They kept calling the retreat, “Sex on the Beach” We had a great time talking about purity, holiness, and intimacy, and the unofficial name kept the discussion from getting too overwhelming.

One of the highlights of the trip was our early Wednesday morning baptism service on the beach. One of the girls asked to be baptized in the ocean and we had a great time celebrating with her. Overall the retreat was really life changing. We were able to split up the girls and guys several times for discussions. Jennifer took what she learned from the girls and then shared that with the guys, and I did the same with the girls. It really helped me to understand some of the pressures and temptations that teens are facing now. Times have definitely changed over the past 20 years.

Here are some interesting pics from the trip.

Prayer on the Beach

Baptism Service
The Youth Diet (Mt. Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Fruity Pebbles)

Just Talking and Sharing at the Beach Early in the Morning

Sunday Wrapup

July 21, 2008 in Church Related with 0 Comments

Wow, yesterday was a long day. I woke up in a cold sweat with my back hurting. I've had a bunch of kidney stones and apparantly I've got another one. It stopped hurting just in time to get to church and preach.

After church, we loaded up 3 vans to head to the beach with the youth for a retreat. We are talking about relationships, so it will definitely get interesting. Everyone is up early this morning, so it's a good sign.

Unfortunately, we were supposed to have internet access at our beach house, but we don't. So there won't be much blogging for a couple of days, but I will try to update twitter.

sent from my Smartphone

Youth Retreats

July 19, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

After church, we are taking almost 20 teenagers on a retreat to the beach. It’s just us and one other couple spending 4 days with a great group of kids. We are focusing on relationships and dating. We have a beach house to stay in, so we want to just focus on getting away from the distractions and craziness of everyday life to really seek God and His Word. I always look forward to trips like these because I know transformation will take place. I love how teens respond to the truth of God’s Word, and I love their passion and zeal for life. We adults might call it naivety or idealism, but in reality it is simply faith. Faith that God will provide and will equip them to do what He has called them to do. Pray that I will be able to teach and lead them to a closer walk with Christ.

The Agony and The Pain of Technological Failures

July 19, 2008 in Technology with 0 Comments

If you have a love-hate relationship with technology, then you have been through this before.
My 1 year old Sony Camcorder died a couple of weeks ago. The screen went out and is completely unusable. I called Sony and since it is out of warranty, it will cost me almost $400 to get it fixed. So it looks like I will be in the market for a new non-Sony camcorder. Then tonight, my big 12″ powered home theater subwoofer started making this incredibly loud noise. I’ve unplugged it, but my guess is that it’s fried as well. It is almost ten years old, so I’m sure it probably won’t make sense to try to get it repaired.

I don’t know if electronics go out in threes, but I really don’t want anything else to break. If you live on the cutting edge, sometimes you do get cut.

One Prayer from the Youth

July 16, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

I challenged our youth to write out their One Prayer for our church during our last meeting. It was awesome to hear what God has put on their heart. Here are just a few of their prayers.

Lord, Make Us Ready
Lord, Make Us Aware
Lord, Make Us Grow Closer to You
Lord, Make Us Loving
Lord, Make Us A Lot More Passionate For You
Lord, Make Us Stronger
Lord, Make Us Listen
Lord, Make Us Passionate
Lord, Make Us Evangelistic
Lord, Make Us Obedient
Lord, Help Us Change The World!
Lord, Make Us Genuine
Lord, Make Us Compassionate
Lord, Make The Church about God and Only God
and finally
Lord, Help Us Drive a Bulldozer With a Stick??? (Don’t you love youth)

Do you think they get it? I know they do. Teens are awesome and Cornerstone has been blessed with an incredible group. I am blown away by what they are learning and how passionate they are. We adults have so much to learn from teens. They aren’t held back by the worries of the world, they are ready and willing to tackle any problem, and they do it all with enthusiasm and passion. I’m proud of our group and I will share tomorrow their thoughts on how to accomplish their prayers listed above.

In Memory Of …

July 16, 2008 in Church Related with 1 Comment

I was able to officiate a wedding for one of my former youth members last week. I had an awesome time catching up with a bunch of our former students. Their wedding was also special to me since they met at a Christian concert at Carowinds in Charlotte. But enough about the wedding, I didn’t mess anything up and the bride looked beautiful as always. What I wanted to talk about was the church.

They were married in an old “First” Church in North Carolina (I’ll leave out the name as a courtesy) It was a beautiful church, but as I walked around the church, I kept seeing something that bothered me. Around every corner, there were pictures of members from years ago, rooms that were named after people who had gone on to be with the Lord, and plaques that memorialized and honored people from the church’s past. It honestly felt more like a museum than a church. Something just doesn’t seem right to me to put up memorials everywhere in the church. How can you change a room or get rid of ugly furniture if it was left in memory of someone’s grandparents? How can you stay relevant to reach out to your community, when all they see in your church is remnants of the past?

I’m all for honoring those who have served God, but do you have to do it with pictures, plaques, and memorials? I think it was Howard Hendricks who once told a church that he was consulting with that they needed to build a fence around the church and charge admission. Just so everyone could see what church was like 50 years ago. In this case it was more like 100 years ago. I’m sure that the church is full of great people who love God. But I wonder if they realize that to outsiders it feels more like they are worshiping their past instead of worshiping God? I wonder what will happen to all these old great buildings as these churches lose their connection to the culture they are in? I hope and pray that it won’t happen, but my gut instinct tells me otherwise.

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