Praisin in the Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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.

Every Time I Cancel Youth ...

I woke up this morning to this. The teens wrapped up my car with plastic wrap and tied fishing line all over the driveway and the house. My kids loved it because all the fishing line was like an obstacle course from Mission Impossible. We canceled our youth meeting last night because of our church picnic and baptism, so they had some extra time on their hands. Even after stuff like this, I still love teenagers and youth ministry. They just like to show you how much they care.

What a Day!!

Today was a great day of celebration at Cornerstone. It was one of those days that I will not forget. I am so thankful that we have people who are willing to answer the call of God on their lives and step up to serve Him.

• We were blessed to hear the mission team share about their recent trip to Nicaragua.
  
• We were blessed to start a sponsorship program for our sister church in Tonala, Nicaragua to help feed and provide for the families there.
• We were blessed to have a great picnic on the church land, and the rain held off until we were done!
  
• We were blessed to see 11 people baptized and show the world that they are following Christ.

I am excited that God still transforms lives. Those that went on the mission trip are transformed. They will never look at those in poverty in the same way. Those that were baptized are also transformed. Hearing their stories was powerful. From the teenager who comes to church alone without his parents, to someone who left the Mormon church, to someone who was just thankful that God had brought them out of their sinful lifestyle. IT WAS POWERFUL AND ENCOURAGING! I truly believe that Greater things are yet to come for Cornerstone. I pray that we will continue to impact our city and our world with the life changing message of Christ.

Here is the video that we showed today about the mission trip. You can learn more about the sponsorship opportunities on this video and at church. Please prayerfully consider making a difference in the lives of a family in Nicaragua. 100% of the money given will go to feed and care for the families there. We will try to get more information on our website soon.

Hiking with the Kids

Jennifer and I took the kids hiking to the Cascades yesterday. It is an incredible waterfall over 60 feet tall near Virginia Tech that we used to visit when we were in college. It has to be one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere in the Appalachian mountains. The 5 mile trail parallels a mountain stream all the way to the top and you feel like you are immersed in some type of tropical rain forest. The kids did awesome and I only had to put Drew on my shoulders for about half a mile. The pictures below really don't do it justice, it's one of those places where you really need to take in the sound and sight together. This website has some panoramic views of the falls. If you have never been then you definitely need to check it out. Their official website is here.

Alex Has Got Talent

A girl here in our town was on America's Got Talent last night. She's in our homeschool group that meets once a week so we know her well. She did a great job and yes, everyone around here talks just like she does. Check it out.

Another Resource for Worship Graphics

I have been on a kick lately sharing websites and resources for technology in the church. Sermonvideos is another site that has a great selection and an interesting subscription plan. For $150 per year, you get unlimited downloads of their videos, stills, countdowns, and illustrations. If you use motion graphics in your service, then this is another way to keep your costs down. By paying a set fee per year, it allows your church to download as many different backgrounds as you need, and it saves you all the hassle of dealing with receipts and reimbursements. Check them out, they have some good stuff available.

Awesome Cool Way to Do Picture Slideshows

Check out this online service. Animoto lets you import your pictures and your background music, and then it analyzes the pictures and music to create a custom video. This is pretty cool. I've typically used the free Microsoft Photostory or iPhoto to create slideshows, but this kicks it up a notch. The free service is limited to 30 seconds, but you can pay a small fee per video or per year for unlimited service.


This would be great for sharing pictures on your church website, especially for children's and youth ministries. Check it out, and thanks to Tim for post. Here is a video that a youth pastor in Minnesota did for their youth mission trip.



Belize Missions 2008 Pictures from rockinyp on Vimeo.

The Sunday Crash

It was great preaching again this Sunday. One Prayer has been great, but it felt good to get up and share this week. I know I have blogged about it before, but I feel like I have been in a street fight after I get done preaching. My body aches, my head hurts, and I just feel like I need to sleep. I've read it comes from the rush of adrenaline that accompanies public speaking, but I can't help but think that Spiritual Warfare plays a bigger role. But whatever causes it, I wouldn't trade this feeling for anything. I still can't believe that God chose me to share His truth in front of people.

We extended the One Prayer series out one more week and I was able to wrap things up by sharing what Jesus' prayer for the church is from John 17. In John 17:20-21, we see Jesus say

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I think it was a great way to wrap up the series by sharing how Jesus wants the church to be one. We didn't want to show another video, but I worked in some segments and points of Craig Groeschel's message for One Prayer. I'm looking forward to seeing how churches can be united and work together. I'll try to post the sermon online at our church website and sermoncloud later today.

The Story Behind the Song: Healer

Here are a couple of videos about the Hillsong song Healer. It's always helps to know the story behind the song. The first video is about how the song was written and the second video is the actual live performance. It's powerful.






(thanks to Stephen)

Updates from Nicaragua

I've been posting updates from our mission team in Nicaragua on the church leadership blog at http://conversation.mycornerstone.org/

Technology is amazing. They are using a skype internet phone to call home, and they are sending photos and updates over the internet. And they are doing this from one of the poorest countries in Central America. The world is getting a lot smaller because of technology.

Shift Worship Media

Some of the first worship backgrounds I used were from VMG. They have now added a subscription based pricing plan. For $99, you get unlimited downloads of all their motion backgrounds, still backgrounds, and countdowns. They have some really great backgrounds, so check them out. This is a really great opportunity for smaller churches that don't have a huge budget for media. Head over to http://www.shiftworship.com/ and take a look.

(thanks to ChurchyMike for finding this)

Engineering vs. Ministry - Part 2

In my engineering job, I focused on solving problems to create designs. People only complained to me when it was my machine that wasn't working. I had to spend my time fixing my mistakes and improving the machines that I was designing.

In ministry, people complain to me about everything. The pastor typically knows about most of the problems and conflicts and disagreements and break-ups in the church. You get to see the not so pleasant side of church life. At times it can be overwhelming, but in those times, you have to focus on all the good things that God is doing. I also have to realize that I cannot solve everything. Everyone won't always get along, feelings will get hurt and people will get mad. My job is to keep pointing people to Jesus, knowing that He is the one that can solve their problems.

Ministry is messy, more so than I expected. But when you see life transformation take place all around you, it makes all the mess worth it.