In the age of twitter, how would you proclaim the Good News with only 140 characters? 

Redirecting to external links doesn’t count. 

Today the amount of written material and media is astounding.  Most of it is just background noise to us.  It is hard to have something that passes through our filters and then makes an impression.  It seems that there is great value in short and sweet.

So with 140 characters PROCLAIM the WORD!

The past couple of days have been a true gift. 

Friday was my Sabbath and it was filled with a little work while Eden was in preschool, then we went to chuck “e” cheese and we suppressed Eden with a playmate there with one of her best friends, then we played outside where we got this pic.  Eden put herself down for a nap and I took a great 7.5 mile run that ended with the assistance of a headlamp.  Dinner was amazing too. 

Saturday was more of the same with a family hike, some Toy Story mania on Wii.  Katie was trying to work and then she was playing 2 players at the same time (see pic). 

The Dog even has loved this little bit of spring before real winter has come. 

I am loving this little camera that I got for my birthday this year.  Katie got it for me thinking about camp, and the fact that I am rough on things. 

It is one of those cameras that is waterproof, freeze proof, impact resistant and dustproof.  I have been sticking it in my bag and taking tons of pictures and not having to worry about it when we do things like slip and slides, water balloons, shaving cream sculpting and other fun things at youth group.  Plus the impact resistance means that I can give it to Eden (my 4 year old) or one of my students and I don’t have to worry about it getting dropped and broken. 

It is really handy to have around.  I feel like there should be a little youth ministry seal of approval on items that can stand up to the riggers of student life. 

I also have an eye-fi card in it so that I can wirelessly sync the photos from the card to my laptop.  That way I can get the pictures off without having to worry about getting the guts wet after getting out of the pool.  It is the simple stuff that I like. 

Eden refers to it as hers so you know it is great. 

This past weekend that i thought would be a great idea.  We kicked off a new series called “Becoming.”  It is all about being transformed into people that God has made us to be.  The thought was that we would try and reflect what we are doing in Sunday morning worship by having a series that kind of went along the same lines as the other series without duplicating it.

I went and got a couple of Transformers with the idea that we would talk about the way that they were a fine toy in their vehicle state, but they are so much better when they are transformed and you can play with them in a couple of different ways.  I thought that it would be fun to have the object lesson of me then transforming them up front during the talk.  Before the service I tried transforming them to get an idea about how long it would take to make the change.  It took way longer than I thought it would. I gave them to one of our great youth workers and she too took a long time. Plan B was to turn it into a bit where we would time the a couple of kids to see who could transform the the fastest.

After a couple of minutes of the students fumbling with the toys, we gave it up and put the illustration out of its missury.  Oh well better luck next time.  The two transformers now have found a place on my shelf as a reminder that the best thought out plans go bad and we just have to work though it.  doh’

I am sometimes a very dense person and so I wanted to share about a recent process of discernment for something that is a bit silly, but perhaps a good illustration. 

I have posted before about the order and state of my desk and work area.  I like to live amongst the chaos, perhaps an explanation about why I have a heart for student ministry.  My area is messy because I allow it to be, because there is not really any storage for youth stuff in the church, my desk becomes like a dropbox of sorts for others, and the mess makes for some distraction during times when I am having trouble focusing. 

Well, in the past week I have had a number of conversations, encounters and come across a blog post that has encouraged me to shift things up a little bit. First, I had about 3 conversations with folks about storage concerns in the church and making room for “stuff”.  The conversations always ended with me explain that I knew how hey felt because in a very real way my work area is also a storage area.  Next, a buddy of mine left a couple of notes around my desk and I found the last one a couple of days later with a “we need to get coffee” ending.  My rationalization is that I has worked a 12 hour day and the desk was particularly bad on that evening.  Now things are getting serious, I thought, my disarray could potentially be a detriment to my coffee/tea addiction.  Finally, I saw this guest post from Josh’s blog all about the need for an uncluttered workspace.  I have been rolling these events around in my mind for some time.  I also want to project the best picture as possible of the church to those who enter the space.  I am hoping that the reclaiming of the space would then offer a more hospitable place to be in (however then I don’t have it as an excuse to meet at a coffee shop for meetings). 

I cannot help but think that this is more than a series of random events, but rather the spirit nudging me into a clutter-free direction.  Last night while I was in between meetings and the internet was out (another prompting of the Spirit), I began the process of uncluttering.  I went through a closet in the youth room and pitched a number of things and rearranged others.  I put books on a newly claimed youth worker resource shelf and moved my recycling bin to under my desk.  I am excited!!! 

I don’t expect it to be “clean” but perhaps clutter free is a real goal. 

Who is your team for the super bowl? Vote here!!

Finally I can put to rest the Winter Ministry catalogue for our student ministry.  This is a booklet that outlines all that we are offering in our student ministry on the Fellowship, discipleship and service areas.  We also talk about ministry teams and give a calendar of events through the spring.  The next time I have to do one of these is going to be in May!!!

Many thanks to the folks who helped edit and proof read my poor grammar and bad spelling.  I am excited about getting this in the hands of our students for Christmas eve and beyond.  Check it out.  We are going to be printing today and posting to the web soon. 

I always forget the details that go in to making this thing.  I was so excited I even put on my Santa hat to show my holiday cheer!!!

The other week when Katie and I were in the throws of trying to push out some young adult materials for the Conference Young Adult Council, I took a number of pictures of nativity sets from our home. 

I got out the tripod and my nifty 50mm 1.8 lens and started snapping.  Soon I found that I had a very interested assistant who was willing to hold up backdrops, move furniture, and hold lights at just the right angle. 

After she got the hang of it she wanted to shoot some ornaments on our tree for her self.  So we gave her a crack at it and she did rather well.  take a look at some of her shots. 

It was so much fun. next time I think that we are going to try for some sunsets.

After some time of jingling around in my mind, I finally put design to ink and came up with this logo on a soccer style jersey.  I am really excited about it, and just wanted to share a couple of pictures.

Here is another of my Screening “lab” in the basement.