Incredible time of worship

June 12, 2008 in Life 0

Let me give you a recap of Varsity last night:

 

  1. Wild Wings: wings, soda, and students!
  2. Concert: the Varsity band rocking out (some of the best worship that I have experienced in my lifetime. Thanks Josh
  3. New Friends: this was an area that Kristen and I really struggled with living in Greenville. We knew that the friends that we had were an incredibly special group of people and we didn’t have that moving here. But just like my I did for my wife I prayed for some people to move here before I moved. God answered!
  4. Bridge: If you haven’t been down to Falls Park in downtown Greenville, SC then you must go right now!
Incredible night with awesome worship and brand new friends = lots of fun.

Volunteer Draft?

June 11, 2008 in Family Ministry 0

Once again we are reading through Jim Wideman’s book Volunteers that Stick. It is mainly about children’s ministry volunteers but an excellent resource for anyone that deals with volunteers on a regular basis. We just went through chapter 5 and one of the principles that he talks about is drafting your volunteers. He talks about waiting on his daughters in the women’s fellowship area and recruiting volunteers there and he also recruited volunteers at Sam’s that happened to go to his church.

 

Excellent chapter on recruiting like Jesus. I would like to take it one step further.

 

It is very close to NBA draft time and I am psyched about it. I am basketball nut. As usual the Grizzlies have a top 5 pick. I want to compare getting and keeping volunteers to the draft.

 

Imagine a world where you scout your potential volunteers: you hear the hype about them, you put them through an intense interview to see what their potential is and where they would fit in your team, and you bring them in for a pre-draft workout session!

 

Think of all the problems that you would solve:

  • people not serving in their area of giftedness
  • people that don’t fit your specific ministry needs.
  • you wouldn’t have to figure out their skill set.
  • trying to find people that might be potential leaders in your ministry.
  • people that don’t want to be on the team. (Vision is polarizing)
I would love to see so many more churches especially in children’s ministry but everywhere in ministry go through the drafting process. Plus imagine how much fun you could have scouting potential volunteers?
out

Can production people make a difference?

June 10, 2008 in Family Ministry 0

I am the elementary production director at Brookwood Church in Simpsonville, SC. I deal with everything that happens in the large group area for children on Sunday mornings. 

I deal with tech people that run our production on Sundays. I feel a strong need to get them to feel significant. I can remember times in my life where I would spend hours installing and fixing lights even programming them and then never getting to see the fruits of my labor. I want to encourage you that if you have any tech people that you deal with on a normal basis please thank them for what they do. They sometimes feel very under appreciated.

 

But how can they make a difference? What gets them going? What gives them significance?

 

Well specifically in our children’s area, our tech people are beginning to find significance in the presentation that they present on Sunday mornings. The kids are more engaged in worship, they interact in a more effective way on Sunday mornings, and they come away learning more about God.

 

Well for our production people we want to do something that is relevant, accessible, and fun. We follow my FITE system.

 

  • Fun- children’s job is to have fun. we want to make our services a fun experience for them.
  • Interactive-we want kids to be involved in the service, whether it is thru worship, a game, or an illustration we want them to interact in large group.
  • Time-we consider time a priority. We want our large group to be amazing but at the same time we realize the impact that small groups have on people. We want to do everything in our power as production people to value that time and be efficient with that resource. We do not want to take that away from our very important small group leaders.
  • Excellence-we want to do everything with a sense of excellence. We want to honor Christ with our service and be prepared and trained to do an excellent work for Him. God wants our excellence. Just think of the temple that He wanted built for Him. We want to offer our best to God.
I think that our people are catching this and understanding how big a part that they play. How are your production people motivated? Do they feel they play a significant part or do they feel under appreciated by their leadership?
out

First large group and awesome weekend

June 9, 2008 in Life 0

I taught my first large group this week. I absolutely loved it. I love teaching people. From children to adults I love to teach. I am so ecstatic that my role involves teaching large group! It was awesome, the kids were awesome, and it all went well. 

Not to mention we did two new songs this week. We did “We Shine” by Steve Fee and “Superstart” by YancynotNancy.

 

The kids were definitely fans and I loved to see them worship. Nothing will make your heart race more than watching a kid chant out to Christ that “he belongs to Jesus”.

 

I am a fan of what I do if you can’t tell. 

 

My wife and I went to my aunt’s house this weekend to visit my cousin Nichole who is graduating today actually and to see my mom. It was fun and its always nice to see family. Lots of driving though and I am extremely tired after 6 hours of driving in two days.

 

Also I have a very strong desire to get a fish tank. If you have one or know someone close that would like to donate one to me or even has one for sale. Let me know.

Incredible worship time

June 3, 2008 in Family Ministry 1

Our music that we have been doing in large group for the elementary kids has been an absolutely mind blowing experience. We have been doing Broadcast by Steve Fee.

I am so incredibly enamored with the worship that our kids have been offering to God in the past few weeks. It is only going to get better. I can’t sing a lick but I do know some songs that give our kids a chance to have fun and praise God in a way that welcomes them to worship and not gives them an isolated view of worship.

What worship songs are you doing with your children’s ministry? What songs make your heart long for God by seeing your kids worship Christ? I am eager to know.

Inner Blogging Struggle

June 2, 2008 in Family Ministry 0

Sometimes I struggle with what to say or write actually on the blog. I want my words to add value to people’s lives but honestly I just don’t have the experience or know how to always add something significant. And frankly only the 30 people that visit the site would hear it.

I appreciate those 30 people by the way. If you read this blog I am so thankful that for some reason you continue to come back. 

But back to the subject with less rambling. What do I write about? What can I write about? What can I teach people and what can I say that will actually change people’s lives? I wonder sometimes if this blog should even exist. Because more times than not is more of a J.C. timeline than anything else. But I want to give my readers something to take away. 

 

I’m a 21 year old semi-adult that just started his “career” in ministry. What can I say to people that have twice as much knowledge and experience as I do? This is the struggle that goes into each post or each tweet that I do. And honestly I don’t really know how to accurately answer all of these questions. But when something significant comes up in my life. I will do my best to give you the wisdom that I have received to take you further in your life with Christ. 

 

Thanks for reading and for getting to know me a little by little thru each post.

So I’ve been thinking about getting a pet

June 2, 2008 in Life 1

I love animals. My wife is not really a fan of anything but dogs. I really wanted some fish for the past few weeks mainly seeing a fish tank in Josh’s house. I had to try and get one.

I absolutely love fish. They relax me and love how they interact with their environment and it really is very insightful. Imagine looking in on your life contained in a little box, how interesting would that be?

The only thing I dislike about fish is that you can’t touch them. So we went to Petland the other day. I’m not a huge fan of pet stores like this because sometimes the conditions are very bad. The fish were really cool but I fell in love with the puppies there. A puggle, a jack russell terrier, and a beagle really caught my eyes. It was fun except for Kristen not enjoying the whole thing except for the beagle.

Needless to say no decision on a pet but I might wait for a dog. I can’t wait to have a pet. Kristen and I were discussing pet names last night.

Crazy Day Ahead

May 29, 2008 in Family Ministry 0

I am so incredibly psyched about today. There is so much to do right now that I am absolutely loving it. I love accomplishing tasks. It keeps me motivated knowing that I have a task in front of me.

 

Tonight I have my first meeting with the tech team guys. I am really excited about the chance to speak vision into their lives and allow them to see how they can find significance in light and sound. (Yes, they most certainly can find significance in that service!)

 

I also get to eat with our Children’s ministry team today. I love the time that we get to spend together with one another and just hang out and grow in our friendship. It’s awesome to see God working in all of our lives in different ways but at the same time growing us in the same direction for our ministry.

 

Tell me why you think tech people and their service is significant in the lives of your people.

Check out this post!

May 28, 2008 in Communication, Lead 0

I am a fan of this guy. Check him out. He is a big time guy to follow on relevance and the church. He believes the same as I do that being relevant is a part of the process. We want the church to define culture. That is his dream and vision. Check out this post by Scott Hodge that he did to see how we can get there.

In the midst of it all…

May 28, 2008 in Life 0

I am just in reflection today of where God has brought me to. I am learning more and more about grace in my life right now. I think that God teaches us for different reasons or in different ways I guess.

You could learn after some event: for instance my time at UPS taught me that I am a much better leader than I thought that I was. Not to say that I am awesome but God gave me the opportunity and the reassurance that I can truly lead people. But only in hindsight did I learn that.

You could learn in the midst of a time in your life. Right now I am learning in the middle of my production job at Brookwood. I am learning graphic design, praise and worship strategy, and children’s ministry all at the same time on a consistent daily basis.

God can also teach you before you go through something. That’s where I have this feeling about what I am learning about grace right now. As most of you that read this blog already know, those that grow up in the church have the most difficulty understanding the idea of grace. I am beginning not only to learn this on a personal level but see other examples of it in my life. But why is God teaching me this at this time? There is coming a time where I will need this understanding for some reason.

Maybe it for when we have kids. Maybe its for my ministry. Maybe its for a friend. I don’t really know or have any inclination as to where, when or what this lesson’s end means is. But I don’t care.

Knowing more and more of the freedom that I enjoy in Christ is out of this world. I am so thankful for Brookwood (the most gracious church I have imagined!), my personal time with God that is teaching me through the book of 1 Samuel, and the people God has strategically placed around me to teach me this principal of grace! I am so incredibly blessed and can’t wait to see the hindsight part of this lesson. And I can’t wait to see the next lesson that God has for me. 

 

What is God teaching you? 

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