Last Saturday Eden and I went to Baker park and walked the park, played on playgrounds, pet dogs, made new friends, took pictures, and she fell asleep 100 years before we got back in the car to go home.  For the past 2 days I have been able to dust off the bike and get a couple of road rides in, and I hope that I can do the same today. 

I have been telling Katie that i have NEEDED to get out for the past little bit, but I don’t know that I realized how much I needed to get out to do something physical.  The days after a ride I wake up sore, but I am also mentally less tired and more ready to face whatever the day will bring.  I feel like I am less grouchy and so much more productive.

Many times we talk about the need to get our and find rest through Sabbath.  It is times like this that I realize the real value in letting your soul rest in things that set it free.  What a blessing this weather has been.  I hope it continues. 

¹ My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my soul!Psalms 108:1 (NLT)

To make up for some lost time in the mist of all the stuff and a desire to get some stability back I needed to post something. So here are a couple of things that are going on that in the middle of the chaos I have been really excited about.

• I have been spending time over at mtownumc.org/jesuscreed moderating a blog for our lenten study go have a peek.
• We are doing a youth small group on Mark Batterson’s book Primal.  I am developing a reading guide if you would like to do it with your youth check it out here…it is a great book and there is wonderful conversation to come out of it about loving God and others.
• Confirmation retreat was modified because of the state of the building, but still a ton of fun.  Note: if you are trying to make “slime” pudding, food coloring and applesauce make a wonderful mess.
• We had a video scavenger hunt and my thoughts before hand were “This is either going to be really really great or really really bad.”  Turned out way more fun than I thought.
• My new idea for youth group planning is a somewhat open source model where the kids are given the theme for the evening and some scripture and they come up with the game, worship music and drama if applicable.  the message is still done by youth leaders or SLT members.
• Had a wonderful bridal shower for 2 young adult couples with comments that are a little to steamy for the blog (sorry, you should have been there).
• Have had some great ideas about what to do with the sanctuary while there is still no flooring.
• Want to make a prayer wall with one of the sheet of plywood laying around the church.
• With each passing day I long for the snow to melt on the mountain so I can go ride in the watershed.

I am hoping to get some of the other posts that i have in my draft bin into full fledged posts soon.

As many of you already know, early this morning (1:30 am or so) a section of the church roof collapsed under the weight of the snow. This section of roof was over the office. After inspection it seems that the open area of the office suffered the most extensive damage. The other 4 offices and the copy room seem to have missed the impact of the collapse. When the roof fell it broke sprinkler lines that poured into the office area and below into the music room. The fire department was able to turn off the sprinklers. The sprinklers in the other parts of the building did not activate during the ordeal.

And now for the good news. First, there was no one hurt. Secondly, because of the way the roof fell we didn’t lose any of the office computers or media team computers. Third, we were able to respond quickly and swiftly to the incident in large part due to our Chair of Trustees,Chris Coffman, Tim Revis, the trustees and all of those who helped shovel snow.

We will know more tomorrow as we talk with insurance, fire and flood and sprinkler people. We will update you on the status of the church tomorrow evening.

As we wait on these meetings, the building is closed. In the mean time please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

If you have specific questions, please email me (chris@lifeforceyouth.com)

Take a look.  Sorry the stills are so poor looking but you get the point and can see some on Flickr in a little bit.  Most important is that you comment on how you would like to put wonder back in the ministries you are a part of.

The Disney Difference from Chris Bishop on Vimeo.

A quick thought and reflection on what the church could learn from Disney World.

Take a look at the article, I found it to be some great food for thought.  Follow the link and scroll to the comments to read  other people’s thoughts on what Kara Powell wrote. 

You’ve perhaps heard the infamous statistic that 80-85% of people who become Christians do so before age 14.  We youth workers especially love quoting that data when we’re asking for a larger ministry budget.

There hasn’t appeared to be lots of hard data to back up that stat.  But maybe that’s changed.

Sociologist Dr. Christian Smith and his team at the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) have studied teenagers of all religious persuasions (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Religiously Indifferent, etc.).  He reports in his new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, that 85% of those 18-23 who have ever made a commitment to God did so before age 14.

Remember, the study includes teenagers and young adults of all religious persuasions, and it’s not entirely clear from the book what students mean what they say they have “made a commitment to God”.

But nonetheless, this is the best data I’ve seen in a while that supports that 85% statistic.

The 85% Statistic is Back — and Pretty Strong Actually | Fuller Youth Institute

Regardless of that, I saw the importance of coming up with good questions so that you could weed out the losers from the winner.  I think the importance is true with youth ministry as well.  We need to be able to ask great questions and follow-up questions to get at the heart of who our kids are. 

I have tried to come up with some of my thoughts about asking questions, but i would like to hear yours too.  I know that I am very bad at this and so it has taken some work and effort to get to the place where I am.  Here is my brain dump of question asking:

1. Start slow: Start off with something easy.  Ask for some information about a student that isn’t really taxing and so you can get an idea of where they are located in life.
2. Open a Door: Ask open ended questions where there is no “yes” or “no” answer.  This will make them think and give you something else to talk about. 
3. Care by listening: Allow the conversation to build on what they have already talked about.  Don’t just ask your questions without thinking about what the students are saying.  Asking follow-up questions will show that you are listening and that you do care.  Having an adult really listen is something that many students lack in their lives and is meaningful. 
4. Repeat:  Check back in with them the following week about something that they shared with you (a sporting event, test, birthday…).  I have to write these things down or I forget.  But, it is always cool when people remember what is important to you from week to week. 

What are some other ways you have found to ask great questions?

Following that the morning continued as Katie and I waited till 9:30 when we could call in for the big news of weather or not we had been approved to become fully ordained members of the United Methodist Church.  During the excruciatingly slow time we got Eden ready to go with my mom for the day, got ourselves ready for the day, cleaned the house, checked e-mail, Played some Mario on Wii (after Eden’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fix of course), and finalized some plans for our trip to Disney.

Eventually we were able to call and find out we were both approved and then the day really started.

I spent a chunk of the day at the hospital visiting various members of the congregation.  We had one surgery patient, 2 members in ICU another in a regular room.  While there i connected up with a couple of members who were working or volunteering at the hospital.

After my visitation was over I decided to grab a chi latte and talk to the anesthesiologist who was part of the surgical team for the member I visited.  I got the good news update on how he was doing.  While waiting for the latte to reach the right temperature, I had a great talk with the barista about his tattoos.  And it turned into a great time where we talked about our faith and how his tattoos are a way to talk about his story with others and help them out of hard times in life.  It was really neat.

I went home for lunch with Katie.  Made some phone calls to update others as to the status of the folks in the hospital.  I did some contact work on Facebook.  Then went back to the office.

Back at my desk I had conversation with our family ministries director, checked in about final bulletin points for the weekend.  Gave the OK for a special love offering in light of the earthquake in Haiti.

I had a great talk with a man who wants to be baptized.

And after this post I am going to write a youth message, start on a sermon and then get ready for young adult small group.

I suspect the night will end with family time and snuggling on the couch.

As I think about where God has taken me in the past 7 years that have lead up to the green light on ordination I am amazed.  I would have never thought I would have a day like today.  And if I would have thought of it I would have cringed at that thought.  But, now all I can think is what a privilege it is to be on this adventure knowing tomorrow will bring another round of excitement.