Husband. Dad to 5. Student Ministry Pastor. Follower of Jesus. Yatta yatta.

I HATE SHAVING

October 22, 2009 by 2 Comments

I hate shaving.

I have an electric razor that I can only use if do so regularly- otherwise I have to use the old school razor. Cuz if I wait too long, the hair gets too long and then it takes 500 days to shave. I hate that. I also hate trying to shave with it after showering cuz my stupid hair is all softish and folds over and the dumb razor suckola at working when it’s not all prickly and angry looking.

So yeah, I hate to shave. Thus the electric one is often in the car and I shave while driving so I don’t have to give it my undivided attention- shaving that is. Yes, it’s against the law for me talk on my cell phone while driving, so I traded. Now I do that in the bathroom and shave while driving.

I inevitably miss some critical piece of my face, regardless of what I use to shave, and then feel awkward all day.

Maybe if I bought one of these shavers it would be cool and I’d like it. Maybe I’d become a celebrity or something.

But I’m pretty sure no one really buys these things and the blades are gonna be like $5000 each, just like the fusion ones at Target. When I am rich, I’m gonna give away razor blades to youth pastors who can’t afford to shave.

Why not just grow something then you say?

Well….

I’d just grow a full on man beard, but my wife would never kiss me.
If I grow a mustache, I might have to watch endless episodes of Magnum PI or something.
If I grow a goatee, my chin looks like it starts about mid chest and I look like 5000 other youth pastors.
If I grew a fu man chu, I could move to china and my wife would never kiss me.
If I keep a 5 o’clock shadow, my daughter complains I’m scratchy and won’t cuddle with me.

So there you go. I hate shaving. I only do so to get kissed.

In my next life I’m gonna become a monk, grow a beard, and hide stuff in it.

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MAN TRIP TO THE DESERT- FALL 09

October 14, 2009 by 3 Comments
It took me 8 years in ministry to figure out that we needed to get just our men and women away, by themselves, as a gender group… to talk about life and faith and what it means to be God-fearing men and women. I think, “I’m a slow learner.” Truth is, most youth ministries don’t do this trip at all or see the value in it. When I left powerhouse, it was one of the first things the next leader let go. I’ve said it before, but after almost 15+ years of youth ministry, I’m still convinced it’s the one retreat I think I’ll never let go. As long as God has me in youth ministry, I’ll be doing this trip or something like it.
From the “man” perspective (since I’ve never been to “our” women’s retreat for obvious reasons), I don’t care where we go or what we do, just so long as we get to help young men find godly mentors, father figures, and a chance to officially leave boyhood behind and make a step towards manhood. It is good for their hearts and souls. It is good for mine.
I’ve done this trip in the sierras in a cabin with snow, on a a houseboat on a winter lake, and now a grip of times in the desert. (like here and here) This last weekend was trip #5 here in San Diego.
IN A LIST, IT LOOKS LIKE THIS:
  • 10 seasoned adult men. 31 teenage young men/dudes.
  • 30 lbs of steak. 40 lbs of potatoes. 120 tortillas. 240 eggs. 8 gallons of OJ. 125 gallons of water. etc…
  • A homemade spud launcher. Tons of sling shots for sling shot paint ball. A 300 foot zip line. 10 model rockets and engines.
  • 2000 rounds of ammo. 7 -12 guage shot guns. 3 hand guns. 4- .22’s. A grip of clay targets and stuff to knock over with the .22’s and such. (If you’re a mom, and your heart just stopped… relax. No, we don’t let them shoot without adult supervision. Think safety controlled shooting range on Sat. afternoon, not like wild west chaotic showdown.)
  • A truck bed of fire wood and some random stuff that makes the fire more fun 🙂
  • An assortment of rope, tarps, duct tape, safety equipment and such.
  • 2 guitars, 45 pens, 41 ammo cans, notebooks, and memory tools (I’ll break that down in the next post).
  • A HUGE army tent.
  • 7 off road vehicles.

HERE’S THE SCOOP IN PICS:

The first nights sunset was AMAZING!


One of our photographers snapped this pic of a cloud. Think it’s a sign the spirit of God descended on us as we prayed. Super cool looking cloud either way.

Here’s the campsite we set up- complete with HUGE 50 man tent thing- mid right of the photo… looks small in comparison to the massive rocks we camp near.

I love watching young men have genuine fun. At one point, a random circle showed up and one student had brought two pairs of boxing gloves and a body shot only duel session busted out. You just can’t do that in your living room. Paintball with sling shots, teaching them to shoot a gun properly (I even shot a pistol for the first time), rockets… man this trip is good dude time.

Every year, before free time, we do some old school team building. This year, it was three- 30 minute rotations. One was this thing where you have to pick up a 20 foot 4×4 using only ropes and holding it vertically and move it around a pre-set course. Another was a rocket building station. The last one was a zip-line that one of our leaders dreamed up and tested last weekend for us. Super fun.

And of course, we spent some time bonding by the fire as friends, brothers, and children of God. Here’s a final couple of pics and then the next post I’ll outline what we talked about… cuz I tried something I’ve never done before in that setting and i turned out sweet.

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IT IS SO STINKIN’ HARD…

October 14, 2009 by 2 Comments

… for me to stay motivated to finish my Masters of Divinity (MDIV)

WHY?  honestly? I have struggled with this for years due to philosophy and ideal differences, but today while cramming for Greek, I pondered my own soul too and I think there are 3 main reasons.  I’m not saying they are good or whatever, just that they are what they are: 
  1. COMPARISON GAME:  I’m really tired of hearing about friends and co-workers who got it done in less time.  There are days when I just want to quit because my life is blitzed and one class at a time is all I can afford in both finances, time, and energy.  Honestly, I don’t think I would ever do this again this way.  If you are headed for ministry, I would get the seminary thing done ASAP… being a dad, a coach, a student, a pastor, a leader, a husband and yatta yatta is just plain too much and too hard.  This thing just might kill me… especially when Greek is requiring something like 10-15 hours a week.  I would never try and hold all these hats high at the same time if I had another choice.  
  2. ENDURANCE:  This pace means a 2 year full time degree is taking me something like 15 years to finish.  Yes…. 15 years.   So, I’m whittling away, and it’s hard to keep the light at the end of the tunnel in view, especially when I say no to hanging out with my wife or kids on my day off so I can study.  
  3. PURPOSE:  Today while cramming all day for my Greek class, I got a text from a friend who lost his job.  He has a baby on the way, recently became a first time home buyer, and now is looking at no job and no severance.  I wonder what difference my degree will make as I strive to help people relate in the real world.  After hours of writing papers, memorizing stuff I easily had access to in an instant on my computer or shelf, and reading stuff that none of my neighbors even care about, it just wears on me.  Today I spent 5 hours memorizing greek words… and it still wasn’t enough and I had to guess on 5 words on my test.  Really….  I know that knowing Greek can help me study and teach, but sometimes this degree thing seems so far removed from the real world of parenting, soccer practice, hurting friends, and student’s real life struggles. 
SO WHY DO I STAY? I did some soul searching there too…. 
  1. FINISH:  I’m too far to not finish.  Quitting now would be pointless. I can’t quit.  I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I do.  
  2. BELIEF:  I believe that the subjects and learnings are important- even if I often disagree with the philosophy they employ in teaching it.  I’m determined to be a better pastor by being a smarter student of theology, my Bible, history, and even a better me as a result. 
  3. OPPORTUNITY:  I have no idea what God has for my future.  But the last time God moved me, it became clear to me that without a masters degree, my options were limited.  Whatever God has in store for my days ahead… if it’s in pastoral ministry, a seminary degree will only open doors, not close them.  I can’t say that confidently of the reverse.  
So, here I go… a grip more classes and hundreds of hours of language studies left to go.  Wish me luck.   
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MY FIRST EVER PODCASTIN’

October 7, 2009 by 1 Comment

I did a couple of video podcasts for YS while at the NYWC a few weeks ago.

One is more “devotional” in nature.  One is more “training” in nature.

The first one came out today I think, it’s the “training one” and is like 5 minutes of yappin’ about calendaring to defeat they tyranny of the urgent in student ministries.

If you have 5 minutes and want to give it a listen…

You can hit it up here on itunes.

Or you can download it directly here.

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SMALL BRAIN ON BIG WORDS

October 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Yeah… I’m not much of a big word guy.
Every once in a while my wife will say something to me and I’ll have to go look it up to see what the proper response should be.  I pause to look up words sometimes when reading an e-mail, cuz I have no idea what someone just said.  Some people like to shorten several small words by dumping in one big word that means essentially the same thing.  Which makes them sound really smart.  You’d think with a Bachelors degree from UC Davis and a grip of seminary classes in pursuit of my M.DIV- I’d have a better handle on the big words, but nope. I’m dumb.
So, last night in church, Ed used the word “despondent”.  Yeah.  Because of context I knew it was bad, but essentially I had no idea what it really meant.  He kept saying it, even threw out “despondency” and then he even had it in the printed outlines as a subtitle for a section of Elijah’s life.
This left me feeling dumb again…. so I searched my trusty iphone dictionary app while sitting in church and here’s what I discovered.  That cool word means, “feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless.”  “Oh”, I thought, “Like how I feel when everyone acts like they understand the big words and I’m scratching my head like an idiot.”
Also last week, in my Greek class, our prof kept using the word “declension”.  Which he then told us is a “pattern”- to which one of my brave peers asked, “why not just call it a pattern”.  I laughed out loud.  Classic.  Those were my thoughts precisely!
Now what is to follow, will surely be shocking to you because the next series we are starting in Encounter in 2 weeks is called “BIG WORD THEOLOGY” and yes, it’s about BIG words.  BIG BIG BIG WORDS…. mostly cuz the have crazy BIG implications for us, but they are also big and letter filled.
So, wish me luck.  I’m gonna have to double my study time this next month or something.  We’re gonna look at 4 BIG THEOLOGY WORDS (or groups of words in some cases) and talk about what their implications are for our lives.

  • WEEK 1: The Omni-God:  Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent.
  • WEEK 2: Anthropomorphism: expanding our view of God.  (HA! That’s a mouthful.)
  • WEEK 3: Sanctification: being and becoming holy.  
  • WEEK 4: Hypostatic Union and the Trinity:  thinking and rethinking the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit thing.   

There you go. If you just read that and didn’t have to look any of it up… you should teach seminary or something cuz mine really really loves Big words.

Anyway, there’s really ZERO possibility of doing any real justice to any of them in a 35 minute talk, but hopefully I’ll get some students walking out the door with the assumptions turned on their ear and with an increased desire to study more on what it means for their daily lives and their connection with God.

I think I’ll just preach to myself this whole series and hope someone else is like me 🙂

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