Friday, April 27, 2007

Think before you post

Here is another PSA about posting on line. It makes you wonder, who is reading this blog?

Everyone Knows Your Name

Thanks for Josh Griffin for showing me this video. Every teenager needs to watch this video. Think before you post!

Philadelphia Phillies

I have had a great week. Wednesday was the zoo, today was a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. A group of 12 of us went to the businessperson special, which means a 3:05pm start. It was a great day except that the Phillies lost. I can give them a pass, because they had just won 5 in a row.

We tailgated at FDR park, and then watched the game from high above in the upper deck (see picture below). It was dollar dog day, which means all hot dogs were only a buck. Personally, I think the Phillies should make hot dogs a buck every day; it is expensive enough for a family to go to a game, why not get cheap hot dogs while you are there.

I took this picture with my new cell phone, using its VGA camera. Not a bad photo.

Zoo

On Wednesday, we surprised the kids with a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. The girls had a half-day of school and Andrew did not have school. We decided to have them miss the whole day and visit the zoo instead. My favorite spots were the Tigers (one was very active), the birds that eat out of your hands and the gorillas (they always put on a show). I hope to post some pictures soon.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Juggling

This past Sunday at church, we held our annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the Student Ministry Summer Mission Trip. The evening is part dinner, part entertainment, part highlighting the ministry and the unveiling of our highlight video from last years mission trip. For the past 9 years, we have varied the entertainment from outside guests, musical groups and internal fun & games. This year it was time for some homemade fun and game.

The leaders of the student ministry decided on a talent show, jeopardy (using a real jeopardy like contraptions that some schools use) and the highlight video (which I hope to post on youtube if I can figure it how). Wanting to set a good example, I announced from the pulpit that I would be juggling for the talent show. Now, I am not a juggler, but what other talent can a youth pastor have--talking, listening, creating silly games. None of those talents would bring in the people, so I opted for juggling.

Here is my juggling background. My best friend’s family (and adopted parents) were clowns--serious, dress up in funny clothes, paint the face--clowns. So I learn a little about juggling from watching them. I was taught the basics and I can juggle 3 balls for about 10 rotations. However, I do not juggle in public or for anyone else. I do juggle for my own kids (because anything I do for them, they still think is great).

Therefore, Sunday is the big day and I realized that I did not practice all week for my juggling talent. Now I had told the congregation that I would be juggling for the first time in public at the talent show, so they did not want to miss it. They understood my level of talent.

On a hair brained whim, as I when I was getting the juggling balls and some fuzzy balls from my office for the show, I grabbed about 10 Frisbee rings. I figure I could juggle them as my encore. (Now I cannot remember ever juggling rings in my life.)

The first set of juggling balls went great; I did my 10 rotations and stopped. It is always good to stop before they hit the ground. Then I juggled the fuzzy balls, again for about 10 rotations and then stopped. By now, the crowd was cheering me on. Therefore, I announced my encore--I would juggle 10 rings. I started throwing them into the air and because they are Frisbee rings, not juggling rings. The rings go sailing in all different directions, the crowd starts laughing, I am laughing. When all the rings hit the ground and a few hit people in the front row, I take a bow and announce I am available for birthday parties.

Comic relief has been provided. As my wife said, “you have no shame.” True, when it comes to ministry, I will gladly make a fool out of myself.

BTW, the fundraiser was a big success and everyone loved the entertainment, especially the jeopardy and the talent show.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Saturday Fun



One of my favorite Saturday rituals is playing Star Wars Lego Trilogy 2 for the computer with my kids. I got the game for Christmas and we have been playing it almost weekly. The game is really easy to learn and when you die, you just fall apart. My son, Andrew, can play it by himself and he is only 5.

I love the creativity of the game makers. The game is filled with humor, and lots of depth. There are 99 aspects of the game to complete, so we will be playing it for a long time. Plus I love being Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. It is like a dream to explore the movies, which I fell in love with as a kid. Now I am passing Stars Wars onto my kids.

This past Saturday, we played Star Wars for a little bit, then we watch Episode 4. My son said it was one of the best days ever.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Stranger than Fiction

This past Sunday, I preached a sermon based on the movie, "Stranger then Fiction" starring Will Ferrell. You can listen to the sermon on our church website.

I first saw this movie on my flight back from Oxford, England. As I watched the movie, I was captivated by the premise—what would it be like to wake up one day and hear someone narrating our life. I then started thinking how this parallels being a follower of Jesus. One aspect of following Jesus is learning to hear His voice as he guides our life. I said it much better in my sermon, but you get the idea.
So go watch this movie. Then ponder what it would be like to wake up and find you in a story bigger than yourself.

I definitely give this movie an "A".


Friday, April 20, 2007

Library Thing

Allow me to tell you about the most addicting website. It is called Library Thing. It is an online card catalogue for all the books in your library. It is amazing. It is also so easy--put in the title and author, then click on the book when it appears. Check it out, but be warned, you could lose a weekend logging in all your books.

Blogging and Ministry

I love Wired magazine. It is a great combination of culture and technology. This past issue had a good article about transparency, blogging and business. You can read it here.
Here is a blurb:

Radical forms of transparency are now the norm at startups - and even some Fortune 500 companies. It is a strange and abrupt reversal of corporate values. Not long ago, the only public statements a company ever made were professionally written press releases and the rare, stage-managed speech by the CEO. Now firms spill information in torrents, posting internal memos and strategy goals, letting everyone from the top dog to shop-floor workers blog publicly about what their firm is doing right - and wrong. Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, dishes company dirt and apologizes to startups he's accidentally screwed. Venture capitalists now demand that CEOs be fluent in blogspeak. In February, after JetBlue trapped passengers for hours in its storm-grounded planes and canceled 1,100 flights, CEO David Neeleman tried to deflect the blast of bad publicity by using YouTube to air his own blunt mea culpa. Microsoft, once a paragon of buttoned-down control, now posts uncensored internal videos - and encourages its engineers to blog freely about their projects (see page 140). The very process of developing ideas, products, and messages is changing - from musing about it in a room with your top people to throwing it out on the Web and asking the global smartmob for a little help. That's how this article was written: I've been blogging about it since I started, and some of the reader input I received is reproduced on these pages.

So I started thinking about ministry and transparency. Should churches be this transparent? Should pastors? Would this level of transparency hurt a church or help it?
Tell me what you think?

Further Pondering

As I continue to get into the habit of blogging, I must admit another person who I admire in the blogging world. It is my best friend Todd. Todd uses his blog as an online journey allowing those of us who live far away to participate in his journey. I think that is the power of a blog. To build a greater community of friends who will walk with you in life.

Hello Again

This is my second attempt at a blog. The first time I was in just starting a PhD program and did not have time.

I would like this to be a place where we can discuss life, movies, entertainmet, God and youth ministry. I have a passion to build a community of friends who do life together.

My blog rolemodel is Josh Griffen. I hope to post half as much as he does.
Thanks for reading.