T.H.I.N.K. Youth Ministry pt. 3

T.H.I.N.K. SERVICES! 52 times a year, 364 times from 6th to 12th grade we have an opportunity as student leaders to impact students in the large group setting we call services assuming they show up every week for their entire student career (highly unlikely). Chances are this will be the "environment" they bring their unreached friends to and evaluate the youth ministry on. With that in mind our services will be the most important point of contact to our students (small groups would probably be the best for our students). It will be the place where the majority of salvations will occur and therefore it deserves our attention. We must T.H.I.N.K. services.

TIME - We should focus and invest a serious amount of time to building and creating services that attract students (see post on T.H.I.N.K. atmosphere). We should also evaluate how much time our services consume. Say more with less. Keep it short, students are more likely to invite their friends to a 60 minute service than a 90 or 120 minute one. Students today are used to programming that captures their attention from start to finish. Our services should be no different, they should capture their attention, so God can capture their hearts.

HEART - Sometimes working hard and investing time into services is draining. Having to prepare a message week in and week out wondering if anyone is listening let alone getting changed; can turn an incredible honor God has given us into a duty or a have to. We need to examine our hearts and make sure that our heart is filled with desire and passion. Make sure your heart is captured by your students and God will use you to capture theirs.

INVOLVEMENT - Getting the right people involved in your services is paramount for it's success. From the creative planning process to who steps foot on the stage, who's involved is huge! Evaluate who is involved. Make sure they have character and the talent. Presenters on stage should be engaging and captivating and full of Godly character. The creative team should be well... creative and character filled. Just because someone has character doesn't mean they should be a presenter and just because they have talent doesn't mean they should be a presenter. Evaluate who's involved and get the right people even if you have to go get them yourself.

NUMBERS - Your service had better be taylored to reach the masses... period. We're called to reach a generation, not just a specific genre or clique. Make sure everything you do for your services has the whole generation in mind. Every series, design element, worship experience should have the numbers in mind especially those numbers of students who do not know Christ.

KULTURE - Our services need to reach a culture that is broken and blinded with the life changing message of Christ in a way that the culture understands it. With this in mind we often then must speak the language of the culture like Paul did on his missionary journeys in acts. The language of youth culture is music, movies, tv and internet oh and texting :-). Without compromising the Gospel we need to speak their language. Use the culture to reach the culture. Be in this world, but not of it. The Gospel doesn't change, but the method for presenting it does. Speak their language in your services. Here's an example of a cultural service intro.

Questions to ask yourself:

• How much time do we spend planning our services?
• How much time do we spend evaluating our services?
• How long are our services?
• Are our services engaging and captivating to students?
• What needs to change?
• Is the service intro engaging?
• Is the worship engaging?
• How do we transition to the message?
• Is the message engaging?
• Is the closing engaging?
• Do our services allow for God to capture students hearts?
• Is my heart captured by God
• Is my heart captured for my students?
• Is my service preparation a have to?
• Who's involved in our services? Do they have character and talent?
  
• Who's involved in our creative planning process? Do they have creativity and talent?
  
• Do we have the right people involved?
• Does our service reach the many or the few?
• Does our creative process plan to reach the many?
• Are we speaking the language of a culture?
• Are we presenting the unchanging Gospel with an ever changing method that reaches a culture?

T.H.I.N.K. Services!

Camp Promo Video

Hilarious video from our production guys. Sign up here.

Sunday Snapshots

I lost my phone, so no photos from this Sunday, but still we have Sunday's snapshots. Ordered a new Blackberry so pics coming next week. Here are the snapshots from Sunday:

• Largest Sunday morning attendance for youth!
• Great worship, great production.
• Ignite Camp promo video debuted! I'll throw it up this week. Get signed up here.
• The table or the towel? You decide. Are you going to sit at the table of life and be waited on or get up from the table pick up the towel and serve others?
• Tons of 1st time guests.
• Lots of connection with students.
• Discovered some great changes to make to our Foyer connection team. Excited about that!
• Somebody gave me some money to take a student shopping after church and it was incredible. I'll put up a post this week on it.
• My twitter has been silent with the inability to text. Found the phone, but it doesn't work :-( or :-) cause I get a new one!
• Had a great dinner with my family. Lots of laughs!

Next week is going to awesome!

One person truly can make a difference...

Susan Locke. A mother of a soldier in Afghanistan with a mission to make sure that our boys in harms way have the simple pleasures they make possible for us to enjoy every day. Things like toothpaste, warm socks, fruit snacks, junk food, cereal, coffee, the list goes on and on. Susan began an adopt-a-soldier campaign at our church with a desire to send out some care packages to soldiers. Her son is on his third tour and has been actively fighting for five years now. She has been sending care packages to him for five years and 10 weeks ago she's began to ask for help. Since then she been sending 20 to 60 packages a month at a cost of $200 to $500 a month with her husband Terry. How did they do it?

They approached a local grocery store and asked for damaged or discontinued food. The result? Their family room has been transformed into a mini grocery store pictured below. Not only will their efforts help the soldiers, but it will also be a launching pad for feeding the poor.

Thank you Susan and Terry! Your heart to help and your passion has made a difference and this is only the beginning.

What if each us went out and did something? Instead of asking or expecting the church as an organization, what if each of us truly became the church and fed the poor from our pantries? Clothed the homeless from our closets? What would be the result? A world changed? I'm not sure, but certainly many lives changed and that is what it's all about.

One person truly can make a difference.

Boxes of stuff she's sending to soldiers.

They could really use your help. As you can imagine an extra $200 to $500 dollars a month is difficult on a family's budget. If you'd like to help sign up this Sunday or comment back and I will email you her email privately. One can truly make a difference, but what could two do? 10? 20? Let's make a difference.

Crazy Prank

Here are some pictures of a crazy prank Rachel sent me, she was not involved in the prank. Makes you think twice about harassing your office coworker :-).

The Thursday Morning Poll 4

And the winner of the greatest boy band eva title given by traviswarren.net and all my peeps is...

Jackson 5!!! It looks like the old school era won out over the new school. People could not deny the fact that one of the boy bands that started it all was the greatest. While it was a close race in the end Jackson 5 pulled it off with 29 or 54% of the votes with Boyz II Men only amassing 24 or 45% of the votes.

Here is the new Thursday morning poll. I'm a huge sports fan and with the NFL draft coming up on Saturday I think we need to vote on what is your favorite traditional sport to watch. We will do an extreme sport poll at a later date.

I played baseball for 12 years. It was my main sport, but not my favorite sport to watch. Here are the contestants and we are talking professional sports not collegiate:

• Baseball
• Hockey
• Basketball
• Football
• Golf
• Soccer
• Other
  
• Sports? ... Yeah right!
• Curling?

I realize that there are many other traditional sports out there. For this poll I choose those most televised because they have the greatest popularity. Popularity=viewers=money=television is my reasoning behind that. If there is a traditional sport you enjoy watching vote other and post what it is in the comment section. I'd love to know what you watch!

And the superstar volunteer of the week goes to...

ADAM KNIGHT!!! Adam is at the GRID every week ready to do whatever is needed. He's also incredibly multi talented. From helping out in the foyer gathering students, to discipleship outside of church, to preaching incredible offering messages and giving us the 411 on what's going on every week Adam is the man. He is an incredibly loyal and hardworking volunteer. He's also my best friend, so that goes huge in his favor. Thank you Adam for all your hard work. You are the man.


Somebody give him a shout on my blog huh?

Youth Summer Camp

Coming Soon! Beginning April 27th we will be signing up students for our summer camp. Here are the details:

• Date: August 11-15
• Where: Camp Berachah
• Cost: $215 (Sponsorship forms will be available to print off online on 4/27)
• Theme: DEVOTION - Devotion to God, Family, Church, Self, Friends
• Who: 6th grade to 12th grade (current 5th graders and Seniors allowed)

T.H.I.N.K. Youth Ministry pt. 2

T.H.I.N.K. Atmosphere. When it comes to youth atmosphere is everything. Look at what draws them. Walk into their favorite store, their room, their favorite hang out spot, or watch their favorite TV show and you'll see atmosphere. Atmosphere attracts students and therefore in order to reach students we need to create atmospheres that attract students. Dictionary.com defines atmosphere as:

• A surrounding or pervading mood, environment, or influence.

• A distinctive quality, as of a place; character.

• An aesthetic quality or effect, especially a distinctive and pleasing one, associated with a particular place.

TIME - We need to spend time planning and preparing atmospheres that create a pervading mood and environment. We need to spend time thinking and studying how to create environments (meeting places, promotional materials, web sites,) that have an aesthetic quality that pleases a generation and creates an association with a particular place. When a student walks into your room, reads your promotional material, or visits your website they should all associate it with your church and it should attract students.

HEART - Creating an atmosphere for students cannot be something you have to do, but something you want to do. It has to be in your heart to develop atmospheres in your facility, promotions and web that attract students.

INVOLVEMENT - Getting the right people in the room to create the right atmosphere for students is of the utmost importance. If you need creativity get creative people. If you need money get people with money and cast the vision, if you need to think like a student get some students in the room and ask the right questions.

NUMBERS - Atmosphere should attract the masses for the most part, especially your facility. If your facility only attracts a clique within the generation then you'll only reach a microcosm of the generation. God desires all men be saved and so do we. Create an atmosphere that attracts a generation, not a gender or a genre.

KULTURE - When creating an atmosphere that attracts think culture (or Kulture). Use what the culture is using to attract students as long as it doesn't conflict with your theology and values. Use cultural tools (Social networks, texting, etc...) and cultural influences (video games, music, movies, TV) to attract students, again as long as it doesn't conflict with your values and theology. Think culture when you create atmospheres it will draw them and the unchanging Gospel will change them.

Questions to ask yourself:

• Are we thinking about the atmospheres we create for our students?
  
• Does our atmosphere attract students?
• Does our Facility attract students?
• Does our promotion attract students?
• Does our web site attract students?
• When someone visits our facility, web site, or views our promotional material do they associate them with my ministry or are they conflicting?
• Is my heart set to creating an atmosphere for students?
• Do I have the right people involved?
• If not, who do I need to get in the room and what questions should I ask?
• Am I creating an atmosphere that attracts a generation, big numbers?
• If not, what can I change to do so?
• Is the atmosphere we create behind the culture?
• Am I using the culture to attract students?
• What are some cultural influences and tools am I not using that I should be?

T.H.I.N.K. Atmosphere in your student ministry!

Sunday Snapshots 3

Today we finished our I Heart series with a message titled I heart hope. How do you not lose hope when life gets difficult and challenging? That is the question we answered today in GRID 29:11. It was an awesome day! We had numerous responses to the need for hope alter call as well as, salvations! Here are some snapshots with words and pics from today's service enjoy.

• Quite a few students braved the snow and came to service. Here's the view from stage.

• For the service intro we did a "Pants on, Dance on" competition to win the I Heart prop. Here is the winner:

It was actually her first time and we could only get the heart into her car so we'll give her the I next week :-).

• Worship today was incredible! Thank you production and worship team for another service that was full of excellence. Here is Stephen our acoustic guitar player after he rocked it:
  
  

• Some of the students are beginning to blog and twitter. Here is Teisha (on the right) with my beautiful wife (the one on the left). Check out her blog.

• Sunday youth services have been incredible! Today was another great day and I cannot wait until next week. Here's some more students enjoying GRID 29:11:

Registration for our youth camp begins next week!

This is the truth video...

Another great video from Granger Community Church. Check it out!

Merry Christmas!!! Er... Wait it's April?

I cannot believe my eyes, so I snapped some pics for you to see. This is my road, my house, my dogs and my back yard not in December, January, February, but April 18th in Washington state. Unbelievable! Enjoy!







If you have pics of snow on your blog throw a link up in the comments section, so we all can enjoy!

And the Superstar Volunteer of the Week goes to...

Heidi Levesque!!! She's only been volunteering in GRID 29:11 for 3 weeks now (really only two because she was in Arizona for 1 week) and already she is kicking booty. I saw her walking up to students she'd never met, that were sitting alone and she helped them feel welcome. She also was not afraid to sit right in the middle of a group of young ladies and be "the energy." After three weeks she's doing what a seasoned volunteer veteran would do and beyond. Way to jump in with both feet Heidi, to not be afraid and connect with students. You are awesome and you are the Superstar Volunteer of the week. Thank you!!!

The rest of the baby commercial spoof series

Turns out there are 3 of them. Here are the other 2.

Funny spoof off of the baby commericals

Funny video from youtube. Check it out!

The Spice of Life

Today I had a post-vacation-let's-get-together-and-discuss-all-that-is-going-on-meeting (wow that is the longest hyphenated word ever) and it lasted for 5 and 1/2 hours!!! You might be thinking wow I'm really sorry you had to endure such hardship, let me bake you a fresh batch of chocolate cookies and bring them to your office tomorrow but...

It was probably the greatest meeting I have ever been in and I didn't even realize that it was that long. In fact I would have stayed for another 5 and 1/2 hours because of three things. The meeting had the spice of Life:

1. Passion
2. Value
3. Accomplishment

Every person in the room was passionate about what was being discussed. Voices were raised, hand gestures were enlarged and pulses quickened, not out of anger, but PASSION for the subjects being discussed. Recently I read a book "Death by Meeting" and one way for people not to die in your meetings is for there to be passion.

I felt like I had an opportunity to use my gifts to add value to the conversation and the organization. I felt that my opinion mattered and that sharing it would add value to the organization. That my words would not just be listened to but ultimately put into practice. This was the same for everyone in the room. Others opinions and words were valued and will ultimately be put into practice.

At the end of the meeting we tackled two very, very, very, very difficult questions and had an answer. After 5 and 1/2 hours we accomplished something. We didn't just talk, get excited, feel valued and go home, no we accomplished something.

I believe these three ingredients make up the spice of life. If in your job you don't have passion, value and accomplishment then you should reevaluate what you do.

We need a life full of passion, a life where we add value to our job, family, church, and a life where we feel a sense of accomplishment. If you are lacking in the spice of life, find it and live it to the fullest!

Don't Hide Subscribe

If you are a regular reader of this blog subscribe to it. Use feed burner, bloglines, whatever just don't hide any longer subscribe! :-) That way you will know every time a new blog goes up and I'll know that you are listening. In the end we'll have a happy day! :-) Thanks for reading and I look forward hearing from you all soon.

The Thurday Morning Poll 3

While last weeks poll stirred a controversy among those who enjoyed the vocal styling and dance moves of the boy bands that started it all, this week will settle once and for all the greatest boy band ever (or until another hott boy band comes out and we necessitate the need for a recount). The winner of the Old school poll is....


The Jackson 5 with 17 votes or 26% of total votes. This was my personal old school fav, but to avoid further controversy I resisted the temptation to vote and did not.

The winner of the new school poll is.... Boyz II Men, Everybody it's Boyz II Men, Everybody...
With 25 votes or 36% of the total votes. I was pulling for NSYNC, but again resisted the temptation to vote being that I instigated the poll.

For this weeks poll these two bands will battle it out head to head for the title of "GREATEST BOY BAND EVA!!!" (wow what an honor) :-)

Vote for your favorite now! You have one week to decide. Choose carefully :-).

Here are the runners up from last week:

Old School Boy Bands

• Beach Boys (16 votes or 25% of votes)
• Duran Duran/New Edition (11 votes or 17% of votes)
• The Temptations (9 votes or 14% of votes)
  

New School Boy Bands

• NSYNC (24 votes or 35% of votes)
• NKOTB (12 votes or 17% of votes)
• Backstreet Boys (7 votes or 10% 0f votes)
• 98 Degrees (0 votes or 0% of votes)
  

Hey there MacGyver

T.H.I.N.K. Youth Ministry pt. 1

I did a session on Saturday for Mitosis on How to create and environment for youth and children. In order to build an environment for youth you have got to T.H.I.N.K. Sometimes so little thought actually goes into youth ministry and to make it successful we must T.H.I.N.K. three areas to think:

• T.H.I.N.K. Atmosphere
• T.H.I.N.K. Service
• T.H.I.N.K. Fun

TIME
HEART
INVOLVEMENT
NUMBERS
KULTURE (Spelled it with a K because that's hip and trendy and I needed culture in there)

This is just the intro. I'll be breaking down each of the bullets in my first ever... !!!BLOGERIES!!! That's a blog series.

Sunday Snap Shots 2

This last Sunday was an incredible day! Sorry this post hits the internet on Tuesday afternoon. I was unable to get to a computer before my 24 hour web sabbatical on Monday. In need to get a blackberry or iPhone, so I can blog anywhere anytime. Or maybe I should get one of these. But enough of my phone woes here are the snap shots from Sunday:

• Daughtry's "what about now" done by our worship team set the stage for the message.
• I heart Now: what are you going to do now? Now that you've been touched, your eyes are opened, God is asking what are you going to do now?
• Tons of Students
• Couple of Salvations and 1st time guests
• Lunch with Tony Morgan was awesome, here's some notes from me and Pastor Jeff
• Volunteers tore it up again!!! We have the most dedicated and incredible volunteers.
• Leaders were connecting with students like crazy.
• Students were in their seats 15 minutes before worship began because they were so excited to be there.
• One student (Teisha) was gone and she was incredibly bummed out and wants to stop doing her Llama competitions so she wont miss another Sunday. Here's her blog.
• Superstar volunteer of the week 1 and 2.
• And the Superstar volunteer of the week goes to.... Check back Thursday for the answer.

What an incredible day! Cannot wait until next week when we finish our series on I Heart and give away the giant I and Heart to somebody.

The Mitosis Superstar Intern/Apprentice of Mitosis is....

Nate Caldwell!!! Nate did an incredible job of not just doing what was asked, but went over and above to clean and tidy areas he had not been asked. He even found a spider and killed it (my hero). We had a sink full of dishes from the lunch yesterday and Nate jumped right in and cleaned the heck out of those pans. It took him several hours and he never stopped or complained, but served the church knowing that his efforts were making a way for others to have their lives changed. Nate your servanthood made a way for many to be reached and that is to your account!!! Great job Nate and thank you for truly serving, not just doing. Way to dive in and do work son!!! You're awesome man of God!

The next time you see any of our interns, give them an incredible compliment for all the hard work they did and all they accomplished for Mitosis.

Lunch with Tony Morgan

All of us on The Rock Church staff went to lunch with Tony Morgan and Michael Brown from NewSpring church. He was able to attend our services after the Mitosis conference with the intent on doing some consulting for us. They had some incredible feedback for every department. Both he and Michael were open and honest with us and I know that I and the rest of the staff appreciated that so much. Their feedback will help us take the church to the next level. Here are the questions he asked us. If you're reading this from another church I would recommend asking yourself and your staff these questions:

• What is your mission? Are you communicating it in a way the first time guest can understand?
  
• Who are you trying to reach not trying to keep? Is it the un-churched? The de-churched? The Churched?
• After someone attends your church what do you want them to do next? Small groups? Membership? Etc...
  

He then advised us to make sure that we streamline our processes and communication (written, verbal, web) to make it easy and obvious for people to understand our mission, who we are reaching and what we want them to do next.

It was probably one of the most informative and thought provoking sessions I've had with any leader I've been around. Thank you Tony and Michael for all of your feedback, encouragement and time!

Guitar Hero Intro

We used this intro last Sunday and it was awesome! My brother rocked the guitar solos and was crazy funny in his 80's rocker gear.

Mitosis Session Finale - Pastor Jeff

• Told story of how he came to get into racing.
  
• He was working too many hours and was maxed out and Racing gave him margin.
  
• Margin - that little more allowed than what is needed (Websters)
• Reveling the greatest message is taxing, tiring and difficult and the key is having a little bit more than what is needed.
• Jeremiah 29:11 - God whats us to have margin in our life. God doesn't want me broke down and burnt out because of what I do. There is no future for a man or woman of God who burns the candle at both ends. The end is brokenness.
• John 10:10 - Jesus came not so we could have an empty life, but a full life!
• The racing took him to the greatest thrill of his life... Not driving a car, but leading people to Christ and now he wants to spend the rest of his life leading people to Christ.
• He felt like a bad man because he would spend Saturday nights at the race track and not at intercessory prayer.
  
• The enemy will always go after your margin!
• God turned margin into ministry not just on Sat. night, but also on Sunday morning because the more filled up he was because of his margin, the more filled he was to do the task on Sunday morning.
• Couple of years ago he traded in his pit pass for a helmet. The helmet is like margin, it creates space and allows you to hear what is happening around the car. It also allows you
  
• Margin clears the space and gives you more than what is needed. We need that little bit more to be who God has created us to be.
• His message to close the conference is don't go out and buy a race car, but do what God recharges your batteries with.
• "You know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one" :-)
• Proverbs tells us there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. In our country people are dying from stress, obesity, cardiovascular disease because of a lack of margin.
• He's had an opportunity to so many people to Christ that he has lost count because of the margin (racing).
• In order for people to say that God is truly in this place we need to have enough margin, so that we have a little more than enough.

What an outstanding conference. I cannot wait for the impartation, information and fun that next years conference will bring.

God give us margin!

Q&A With Tony Morgan - impromptu

1. One Pastor would love a copy of the violinist story. Can be found on tonymorganlive.com search Google Joshua Bell.
2. What is the balance between word and relevance? They must be combined in order to bring life change.
   
3. What are the top organizations you follow? Apple, Google, Amazon... Then he asks why and trys to use that in the church
4. How does his church value and utilize volunteers? 2500 or 1/3 of current attendance serves. They streamline it. Come to church, get plugged into a group and serve and that's all they ask of their people.
5. What is the impitus for launching new site or church? They auditorium was filled and they asked whether they should build a bigger city or would it be better to launch a new site. It's cheaper and it accomplishes the same thing.
6. Are they going to simulcast? Everything will be just like the Anderson Campus. Live everything except for the message. That will done via video by whoever is speaking at the main campus.
7. Out of all the methods you've used what is the most effective for reaching the youth? They are trying to figure it out.
   
8. What's your daily schedule? Reads the Word and other books in the morning, Spends most of the day talking to people and will sit down at 5pm to see what he needs to get done. It's through the disciplines in our life that we see real growth.
   

Mitosis Session 3 - Tony Morgan Creating Buzz

Mark 1:40-41 - Buzz happens when peoples lives are changed.

• 75-80% of people attend church for the first time because they were personally invited.
• We as churches are always marketing because we want the Gospel spread.
• The reality is most people will walk through the doors of the church because someone they knows life was changed.
• Amazon.com takes their marketing dollars into improving their service because customers will tell other potential customers about their experience.
• 3 ?'s that need to be answered:

1. Who are we trying to reach?
2. Are we getting their attention?
3. Are they hearing our message?

• Who are we trying to reach? At New Spring (his church) they reach red necks :-). His pastor cannot go feminine or incredibly scholarly because it's the NASCAR crowd. He said this with tongue in cheek :-).
• What will they think of next principle. Keep people talking and asking what will they think of next week at...
  
• The most impacting churches out there do not add programs to make themselves more relevant or effective, but they rather find what is effective and stay focused on that.
• We give people too many choices and when that happens they shut down.
• "If you try to make everybody happy you have to be willing to embrace mediocrity!" WOW, what a quote.
• Are you getting their attention? You need three things: Relevant topics, Strategic themes and Biblical truth. This is a great filter for message every message series.
  
• Without all three you you don't capture their attention (no relevant topic), it doesn't connect (no strategic theme), LOL someone (in the crowd) said that it's like Oprah when you have a Relevant topic and Strategic theme, but no Biblical theme.
• Are they hearing your message?
• We're sharing the greatest story ever told and we assume ordinary people will recognize the power of the message.
• If the best musician can play on the nicest instrument and play some of the greatest music ever written and people don't connect then surely the best communicators can share the greatest story in the nicest facilities and the message not connect or be heard. (He used a story of Joshua Bell playing in a Washington D.C. metro stop and only few people stopping to listen and is drawing a parallel with our context and how we do our services.)
• People outside the church know us more for what we are against than what we are for.
• People didn't stop to listen to the violinist because they were busy and had other things on their minds.
• We are competing against careers, pillow, recreation... not against the church down the street.
• Some people didn't listen not because they didn't have the capacity for beauty, but because it was irrelevant.
  
• Are we stopping to help them get the healing they need rather than giving them the truth they think they need?
• Romans 10:14
  
• Is it possible to preach the Gospel message and not be heard?
• If people don't come to faith is it just noise?
• If Lives aren't transformed, does the message even matter?
• Creating Buzz is not about slick marketing or gimmicks, but rather lives being changed forever by the message of the cross.

Absolutely outstanding session! Get the CD/DVD through the bookstore when they come available it will be worth the investment.

And the Superstar volunteer of the week goes to.....

NAOMI LACOSS!!! This last Sunday Naomi took a break from her normal role of singing on stage and jumped in to help the foyer team. Without any prior experience she jumped in like a champ and connected with students like it was nobody's business. Not only that but she also left five minutes early to greet at the door of the GRID as students walked in, helping everybody feel welcome and get excited about the service. NOT ONLY THAT BUT!!! She also got one of our students signed up and involved in being a youth greeter. She tackled every situation that came her way like a champ and did an incredible job. Thank you Naomi for kicking serious butt on Sunday and being such an incredible volunteer in TVM. NOT ONLY THAT BUT, she also came up with a whole new welcome idea (her first was the musical chair thing and it rocked) that is going to be legit! Keep on rockin' Nome!

Mitosis Session 1 - Pastor Frank

Pastor Frank's first session was incredible. If you could not be there buy the DVD or CD when it comes out, it will be worth it to hear.

One of the greatest quotes was "bad leaders take simple ideas and make them complex, good good leaders take complex ideas and make them simple!!!"

Here are the 10 Non negotibles of a Church Builder:

1. Build from the Word of God to the Word of God.
2. Fulfill the purpose of God as stated in scripture.
3. Grow people in the Kingdom of God - Make sure they are saved, water baptized, filled with the Spirit, that they do devotions.
4. Minister from a core of integrity at all times.
5. Raise up another generation of leaders. Reproduce yourself by reproducing leaders. He shared a story about their school of voice and instrument and how they have a Jr. High band that plays for their main service and tears it up! Ownership means giving them the best spots.
6. Honor the local church above all else: Ephesians 5:25, Acts 2:42, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
7. Keep a heart and eye for the nations. They have sent out 50 full time missionaries in the last five years!
8. Love and reach the poor, the outcast and the broken. They giveaway more food than any other religious or non-religious non-profit organization in Oregon. That's amazing!
9. Serve your city and region with wisdom and compassion. They repair high schools, teach ESL classes etc...
10. Length of Service. Every second of your service should be quality no matter the length. Give every moment God's best!

His message for the night session was incredible too and I will post some notes and thoughts a little later.

Thursday Poll Controversy

This Thursday's poll about the greatest boy band of all time has stirred quite a controversy in the blogsphere. While not one to placate others, I do value the opinion of others and your cries have been heard. Many have been up in arms concerning the lack of representation of some of the more original boy bands and I take full responsibility. To bring peace to the blogsphere I propose a solution:

2 polls, 1 old school boy bands, 1 new school.
The winner of each poll battles to the death the winner of the other poll for winner take all title of "THE GREATEST BOY BAND EVER."

The rules are that the band must be considered a boy band i.e. choreographed dancing, no playing instruments etc...

The contestants have been set, now rock the vote and may the greatest boy band win!!!

The Thursday Morning Poll 2

The results are in, your vote has been counted and on this Blog it counts. There will be no recount :-). The winner of the most shocking unknown fact is... there are 27 million slaves in the world today. Fifty percent (15 votes) voted for this fact. 33% of people voted for the fact that more people in the world know what the Golden Arches are as opposed to the Christian cross. 10% of voters thought that 1/5 of the world lives on less than a dollar a day was the most shocking fact. And in last place 6% of voters thought that the fact that 1/3 of the worlds population is at war was the most shocking fact. All of these facts are incredibly tragic and need our constant prayer and attention.

For this weeks poll, we are going to go with a lighter note. I figured with the return of my sisters favorite band (if you can call them that) growing up we should vote on who is the greatest boy band of all time! If you haven't heard New Kids On The Block is doing a reunion tour! All the teeny boppers from the Eighties give out a big YAY!!! (The Stone Temple Pilots are doing a reunion tour, but that's not as big of a deal in the media. I used to rock the STP back in the day) So here is our poll which you can vote on in the top right corner of the Blog.

Who is the greatest boy band of all time?

• NSYNC (YAY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, JOEY, JC, LANCE and the other guy)
• Backstreet Boys (Go guys I don't know who any of you are)
• New Kids On The Block
• Boyz II Men
• 98 Degrees

Rock the vote! You have one week to decide. Choose carefully!

Work Party tomorrow at 3

We are doing GRID 29:11-clean-for-Mitosis work party tomorrow at 3pm. If you are interested and come help meet me in the foyer tomorrow at 3! See you soon!

Baby Got Book

Remix of the Sir-mix-a-lot song. Pretty funny check it out.

Umbrella remix (Christ version)

This guy sings the Umbrella song with Christian lyrics. Pretty cool check it out. I can't stand the Rihanna song, but I'd rock this :-).

Don't forget to sign up!

Here's the promo video for this weeks Mitosis Conference. You can get signed up and get more information here. Even if you can't make the whole thing make sure to come Friday night!

Great Video

Mitch did an awesome job on this video. Today's his birthday too. Happy 30th man of God!

Sunday Snapshots

This weekend marked the second youth service on a Sunday and first my wife was able to come to. She was sick last week :-(. Once again it was an incredible service from the world altering effort put forth by the volunteers to the energy and passion from the young people. It was inspiring once again. Here are the "SNAPSHOTS FROM SUNDAY":

• Our Jr. High 9am service doubled! 1st week - 4. This week - 9! The word is getting out!
• Our 11am service had 73 total people again.
• The Foyer team looked awesome in their shirts again. Those people created more energy that a nuclear blast. :-)
  
• Again I was so ignited by the dedication and passion the volunteers brought. And the superstar volunteer of the week is.... Check back later this week.
• The Guitar Hero 3 intro with my brother was hilarious.
• Left my phone in my car so I was unable to twitter during service :-(.
• The worship team did an incredible job last week. Shout out to production as well! They fixed the broken speaker and it sounded much better this week.
• The worship video with the Jeremy Riddle song "Sweetly Broken" totally set the stage for the message.
• I Heart Guitar Solos
Message title and my true feelings. Worship is less about the how, how it sounds, looks, feels, and more about the who.
• We are transformed into the image of WHO we worship. That's why we should be more concerned about the who (and I don't mean the band, rockers unite!) and the how.
• The response from the message was awesome. 3 people lifted their hands to give their life to Christ (rededications).
  
• In response to the message about having a heart for worship we did and old school song, "The Heart of Worship." There were no words on the screen, but you could still feel the presence of God.
• Once again just and incredible change and you can feel the energy and momentum. My wife was so excited and that the change is totally God because of the new people and salvations.
• 5 first time guests!
• Went to the race car unveiling. Tons of people. Pastor Jeff looked awesome in his race outfit. The car rocks too!
• ROCK BAND! Played it at the car unveil and then dropped by my parents after helping my Papa with his house and there it was again. We played till late then my sis and Tess stayed the night with Gia.

• Can't wait till next weeks service. I HEART NOW.