Made for Humility – 2009-Aug-09 – Ryan Geiger from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.

If you have been in youth ministry for any length of time than you will find this funny.  I so don’t fit the stereotypical youth pastor. Found this on Josh Griffin’s blog who is a youth pastor at Saddleback.

Share/Save

I heard today on the radio that there is a statistic that says 50% of all “PEOPLE” will get divorced which differs from the statistic that 50% of marriages end in divorce.  I have no statistics to back this up but I would disagree.  I think that 50% of all marriages end in divorce but [...]

Julia Brewer made a video about Summer Camp

“Made” Series Promo from Fellowship Today on Vimeo.
Share/Save

On this blog I will be re-posting quotes from the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek that happened last week.  Bill Hybels heads up this conference and brings in some of the most influential leaders in the country each year to be a part of the process.  I am simply re-posting what Tony Morgan has on [...]

We are doing the song “If Today Was Your Last Day” by Nickelback for UNITED [on June 6 at 6:00pm...shameless plug and promotion]
Watch this video in it’s entirety.  The beginning of the video leads you into assumptions but the end leaves you convicted.

What if the church became like this?
What if believers lived with this mentality?
What if it could really make a difference?
What if people saw the church or God differently?
What if people became more open to a real and  a practical faith?
What if our faith become tangible?

All the what if questions are great but it starts with each one individually.  It’s in the broken unworthiness that we fulfill our calling.
If you could do anything to make a difference for God what would it be if you had no restrictions?

Nickelback - New Music - More Music Videos

Just a fun video clip I found of Steve Harvey introducing Jesus. What do you think?

April 20, 1999 changed the face of youth culture as we know it.  Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado became the focal point of the worst school shooting massacre in history.  When all was said and done the killers’ own suicides, 12 students and a teacher were dead, and 23 students were wounded, several of them critically.  It took days for the police to find and defuse all of the 30 propane  and pipe bombs that had been planted.  Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold casually walked around deciding which of their classmates would live and which would die.  Two female students were asked if they believed in God and when they answered “yes” they were shot at point blank range.
I remember I was sitting in my campus ministry youth class when I heard the news and I remember thinking, “How would I handle this, If I was a youth pastor there” and I had no answer.  Nobody knew what to say or what to do because nothing like this had happened before on this magnitude.  I remember spending hours watching the news trying to find out why these two guys would do this and take so many innocent lives. Later in the year some survivors came to speak to our class about the tragedy.  Songs were written to remember Cassie Bernall.
April 20, 1999 was a wake up call to administrators, parents, students and the local church that nobody is exempt.  It was a wake up call that there are hurting students and there are warning signs and it is so important for us in “charge” to be on the lookout for the hurting and broken.
“First, there’s more brokenness and suffering. Kids are hurting. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold didn’t just simultaneously snap one April morning. Their hurt and pain had simmered and grown over the course of a long, long time. Then, the only way out they could find was the way they chose.
Second, the stuff that kids should never have to deal with is having to be dealt with by kids at younger and younger ages. It’s called age compression. What th

This is just a joke but it is FREAKING hilarious…to me.

One Shining Moment seems so lame, but I am a sucker for it every year.
Watch CBS Videos Online

Do you remember where you were 15 years ago on April 5th 1994?  I was a sophomore in high school living in Seattle when I heard the news that Kurt Cobain had committed suicide.  I remember the feelings I had and I remember seeing my classmates in shock that somebody who we all looked up to and related to so well had taken his own life.
It’s a reminder to me that 15 years later and 26,465,420 views on You Tube the same music that shaped and was the icon of Gen X still is representative of today’s culture.  The pain and hurt we felt was represented in the songs that Nirvana sang.  Smells like teen spirit was the battle cry or theme song of a generation.  Today our teenagers still have that same pain and hurt and 15 years later they still relate with a band from Seattle called Nirvana and a lead singer named Kurt Cobain.
As you look at the pictures of Kurt, the same pain and hurt and maybe guilt and despair that you see in his eyes, is the same look you see when you look into the eyes of teenagers today.  The same students who so desperately need a relationship with Jesus and many of whom don’t even know it yet.  May the battle cry or theme of this generation not be to idolize Kurt but to worship Jesus.
I get sentimental when I remember how Kurt’s music shaped me and my friends and every year I remember where I was when I heard the news of his death and every year on May 9th I remember where I was when I heard and accepted the news of Jesus forgiveness for me.
I remind myself that what I get to do as a pastor is a privilege and who I get to reach is a responsibility.

New series for UNITED in April.

Used by permission: New Spring Church, Anderson SC

Exactly why people don't want anything to do with God or the church. Very sad

So much is made of this generation and how it is lost and has no direction.  Isn’t that said about every generation and won’t that be said of every generation to come?  Every generation thinks that there generation is better than the one that came before it and every generation feels that they had more vision and purpose than the generation that will follow.  The reality is, your generation is what you make of it.
There are those who make poor choices.  Those who feel that acceptance is more important than character.  Those who feel that the choices they make today to be popular will not affect them later in life.  Those choices do make a difference and they do affect you for the rest of your life.  I am a walking testimony to poor choices and consequences that come with it.  On the flip side there are those who make great choices.  There are students who not only want to see change happen in their generation they want to be that catalyst for it.  There are students who choose to live a life of character and sacrifice.  These are not just students in the church these are students who have a heart for the hurting, broken and forgotten people of generations past.
I so strongly believe that students are not only the future but they are now and they can make a difference and they are making a difference.  They are not the lost generation but if anything they are the generation who has the greatest potential to bring people together of different backgrounds, cultures and differences.  They have more tools at their disposal, they have more technology at their disposal and I truly believe they are about being real and transparent and forgiving.
Have you given a teenager a chance?  You may just find that you can learn from them.  You may just find that they become your friend.
Check out this video of a girl of this generation who is trying to make a difference.

Saw this and it reminded me of Transformers meets Terminator.  And of course I enjoyed it because Mac’s will be in heaven because although I can’t prove it, I’m pretty sure Jesus uses a Mac.

more about “Mac vs PC“, posted with vodpod

Yesterday I had a chance to go with Kyle Short our intern and one of our youth staff Mary Davis to UrbanPromise in Wilmington, DE.  I really didn’t know what to expect although I know that our teens had a blast the last time they were there.  We met at a coffee shop with James who came here for a seven week internship seven years ago and he never left, needless to say by the end of the afternoon I could see why.
I was blown away by the heart and passion that James had for his kids.  James is in charge of the street leaders that work for UrbanPromise.  He does a phenomenal job with them and they appear to have so much respect for him.  I was so impressed with the organization, how it was run, how it was staffed and how friendly all the leaders were.
Being there only fifteen minutes the kids already became attached.  One girl came up and gave me a hug and asked me not to leave, it broke my heart.  It so reminded me of Russia for those of you who have been there.  I went to offer our services to them and walked away broken for what is twenty minutes away from our church in Wilmington.
We have so many opportunities to connect with these kids and bless these leaders and I am glad that God has put us in a position as a youth department to make a difference and in turn have our own lives rocked as well.
This is a short video clip they had posted on their website about their ministry at www.urbanpromise.org

more about “UrbanPromise Wilmingon Banquet Video“, posted with vodpod