Archives for May 2011

What I do without thinking says more about me than what I do when I have plenty of time to process my response.  If I don’t like my gut response, it’s the clearest indicator for me that something is wrong inside.  If I respond on a whim in a way that reflects the character of God, it’s the clearest indicator that God is in me.

This is my life these days.  I’m not expecting it will change anytime soon.  Here’s a few thoughts on how to keep your crazy life from making you crazy.

If I’m honest, I’m actually just using this blog as a counselor for me.  If the shoe fits, you can wear it too.  But for right now, LISTEN UP BRIAN… and do this!!!!

GIVE UP:  if you started your day with more than can be done in a day, at the end of the day you’ll still have more to do. So give up the idea that you can get r all done and just get some of it done instead.

THINK BEFORE YOU MOVE AHEAD:  take 5 minutes and make a list.  A brief list.  What must get done TODAY.  What would you like to get done.  Look at the calendar and schedule some long term stuff a couple of days from now.  Sometimes the very best thing you can do before you get at it is survey the big picture.

BLOCK OUT TIME: block out and hold critical some times when no one can interrupt and when certain tasks are going to be done. Like an appt with a friend, just block out an hour and call it a meeting with a certain task if you need to.  Like, “meeting with message prep” or “meeting with e-mail” 🙂  But whatever you do, know that when your boat is below the waterline, if you schedule no time to do a task, you’ll have no time to do it cuz other stuff will fill all voided spaces.

AVOID MULTI-TASKING:  when you try and do two things- especially important things- at once you just do two things poorly.  If you do less at one time, you’ll get more done and better.

DELEGATE:  If you can give it away.   Do.  Even if it’s a 5 minute job.  You’re wasting precious time on stuff someone else could do.  Why is that again?

GIVE YOUR BEST PROJECT YOUR BEST TIME: When you give your best thinking hours to menial tasks, you’re killing your productivity.  If a phone call can wait to be made on your way home, then don’t do it during your prime teaching prep time.

ok… I’m going to bed… with my list no where’s near done.  Tomorrow I’ll try and practice what I preach.

… is when students have good clean fun.

I really love it when students just get to laugh, especially when I know that’s rare in their own personal world.  Tonight was one of those nights and we just simply had a great time with students at a “root beer kegger car rally”.   There was no agenda really.  Just a good time and some root beer floats.

Ingredients for this night:

• kegs of root beer
• ice cream for floats
• volunteers to drive
• clues to hidden points and a few hidden people all over town
• cell phones for pictures
• a list of ridiculousness to do like:
• find a pregnant woman and get her to sign your belly with her due date.
• get a picture with one person in your group in hand cuffs by a cop or in a firetruck at a station
• build a pyramid in a public setting
• re-enact the iwo jima with a flag pole
• etc..

great job Brian, I really had a lot of fun.

let’s do that again, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while

hey, if you ever need any more help, let me know.  I really had fun tonight.

That stuff fills my tank.  I’m not saying I don’t love it when students make more significant decisions with their life, but I really it just does something to warm my heart when I watch students engage in great fun and laughter.

I think they need it really. I know I do.

I was reading twitter today and saw a link to an article on false statistics.  Then today I got an e-mail about a crazy awesome baseball catch that saves the life of a woman reporter…. and it’s awesome and a fake.  Both got me thinking.

So, in honor of stats that are bogus and since you likely know that 3 out of 5 statistics are made up on the spot.  Here’s my take on 5 that don’t hold much water but are common place in the youth ministry world.

90% OF TEENS ARE HAVING SEX RIGHT NOW.
No they aren’t.  For every study that says teens are having sex there’s one that will say they’re having less sex.   Yup, some students are sexually active.  All probably wish they were.  But I’m putting my money on the side of regardless what “they say”, most graduates even went home on prom night still in the clothes they left in.

THE AVERAGE YOUTH PASTOR STAYS LESS THAN 2 YEARS.
I hate this statistic not only because I could give you lots of examples where this isn’t true, but mostly because I could give you just as many examples where it was primarily the church’s issue, not the youth pastors.  It might be more accurate to say, “the average church in america” doesn’t want a youth ministry for more than 2 years before they decide to practically and financially rethink it.

WHEREVER 2 OR 3 ARE GATHERED, GOD IS THERE.
I think this might be the most quoted verse in all of youth ministry gatherings.  Students will say it to each other to build up confidence.  Leaders and pastors use it to encourage and to support their view.  But it is not true nor was that the point of the passage in Matthew 18 where Jesus says it.  He was not trying to give us some blanket statistic for every time 3 believers sit in a circle.  Trust me, there are tons of times when 2 or 3 “christians” have gathered together and the Holy Spirit was no where in it and lots of times where they were all alone and God was surely there with them.  Just because 2 or 3 people get together and pray does not mean their decisions were blessed by God.  It just doesn’t. What about those 2 naked students in my first bogus statistic.  Was God in their midst?  Well… that depends on what you mean… I suppose he mighta been there, but I’m not guessing he wasn’t directing their actions.

SENIOR PASTORS AND PARENTS ARE IDIOTS. YOUTH PASTORS ARE NOT.
If you do enough youth ministry and hang around youth pastors long enough, you’ll find that there is no shortage of “you’re not gonna believe this one” stories.  Many of which stem from something your senior pastor or some angry parent said to you.  But despite the stereo types, every youth pastor in the world needs strong pastoral and parental support to do ministry well.  Youth Pastors are not saints any more than parents and senior pastors are demon possessed. [there’s a thousand things I’m not typing here :)] Bottom line is we’d all be better off if we’d quit ranting about the bad apples and started partnering with the healthy ones.

80% OF GRADUATES WILL CHUCK THEIR FAITH.
No they won’t.  And if they did, it’s because 80% never owned it in the first place.  It’s also not because youth ministry is dead.  This is like blaming a divorce on a professional counselor’s inability to fix a couple who came to them with divorce paperwork in hand.  There is way more to a student’s spiritual development than just their hour on sunday or midweek in youth ministry.  Youth ministry might not be dead, but expecting a couple hours in youth group per week in their teen years to change a life for forever… that might be dead.

Got any bogus stats you wanna add?

If you’re ever in the beautiful wine country of Northern California’s Sonoma Valley, well you owe yourself a 2.5 hour treat called the Sonoma Canopy Tour.  It’s beautiful country to drive through and the experience once you get there is well worth the hour off highway 101 it’ll take you.

It is a high ropes adventure and zipline experience of a lifetime owned by Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds outside of Occidental, Ca.  Seriously, it’s crazy fun.  It cost over a million dollars to build and design and it’s about 10 months old now.  You go on 2 rope bridges, a spiral staircase around a redwood like 100 feet off the ground, and 7 zip lines totaling a little over a mile in all with the longest one being about 800 feet long and about 200 feet above the forest floor.  It ends with about an 80 foot rappel off a redwood to the ground.  Amazing.

It’s crazy awesome.  My son and my dad and I all went on it yesterday after I finished teaching at the mens retreat.  Oh man is this thing fun.  What a great way to polish off a great weekend.