JCISONLINE – Resources for Tween and Preteen Ministry

4 hours til gametime. Frankly I’m nervous these chances don’t come along often. I actually had someone accuse me of being a UNC fan the other day can you believe that?

hahaha anyway My Memphis Tigers are playing tonight in the biggest game for every one of them. Honestly I am happy to be there but if we lose I will be upset. Unlike most teams we knew we would be here this year. Everyone says that this is their goal but we said it in interviews after the season that we wanted the ring. Its time. Its time to put every citizen of the city of Memphis on your back to guide the basketball fandom to its first national championship. 

I want nothing more than this win tonight. Put up or shut up. Joey Dorsey I’m proud of what you’ve been doing but do it one more time… nothing matters except this game. Dozier Cal gave you a chance what will you do with it now? CDR I don’t have to motivate you and D. Rose will be there too. Last but certainly not least in my book. Mr. Anderson, the chosen one as I have called him. The best defender in college basketball. Play your butt off and for your sake I hope you go off for 30 but knowing you, you will stay out of the limelight and lock down your man for the entire game.

Win it boys, give it your all and I can’t wait to see our banner in the Forum

If you have ever thought to yourself “What in the world do people do at 3 o’ clock in the morning?” I have the answer. Check this guys site out. The vids are crazy and are a true picture of what goes on at 3 o’ clock in the morning. He is the lead singer of the student ministry band at Brookwood Church and a really cool funny guy. Check out 3 am Josh. Tell him J.C. sent ya.

Love you guys go to church on Sunday

Happy bday jesse!!!

Memphis is in the Final Four

Honestly i told people they would lose just because I have seen the lovefest with UCLA and the domination of UNC and after the butt whipping we put on Michigan State I just figured we would come out for our road game and get out of our gameplan and the refs wouldn’t give us any calls and we would go home again.

BUT

we completely dominated Texas, our pg was better than theirs, and Joey Dorsey is now a beast that wants to win and that spells trouble for the teams in front of us.

Now we are the favorite to win it all supposedly? Can you talk about how bad we are and then completely change your mind and pretend you were on the Memphis bandwagon for the whole trip?

No!! So ESPN and CBS except for Clark Kellog and Gumby (I mean Gumbel) don’t pick us to win. You didn’t pick us to even beat PITT some even had us losing to Mississippi State.

Now we are making free throws. 30-36 against Texas (83.3%) and 26-35(74.5%) so we are ready and we have been looking to the final four all year. We don’t care about anything else except winning it all and that might be what puts us over the top.

I’m ready to spank UCLA and watch for the blatant pushes and no calls on Collison when he fouls Rose it will happen.

out

This is my last day of unemployment and I am so excited about tommorrow its nuts. I can’t wait to get started and see how much I can learn and help. Can’t wait to let you guys know what I’m learning.

til tomorrow

out

I don’t know what else to say. Not only is it an answer to prayer but it is also way more than I expected. I start Monday at Brookwood. I am basically going to be involved with the services for the third to fifth graders at Brookwood Church! I’m so happy I prayed that everyone who was praying gets blessed about a gazillion times. God answers prayers!!! Love you all so much. out 

For the last few days all I have heard is how we are expected to be the first 1 seed out. I will give you the underlying reasons why people say that and why I think that helps the Tigers.

Why people think we will be the first one seed out (or the reasons that no one is talking about):

1. Free Throws: I thought offense and defense were more of a reason to be concerned but not for Memphis.
2. Joey Dorsey: Not can he keep his cool, but does he want to win. If he does look out.
3. Conf. USA: It doesn’t matter how good your team is, but only who you play.
4. BCS bias: Look its there, we were supposed to lose to Nevada, be the first one seed to lose to a sixteen seed, and are just a bunch of thugs.  And for those thug naysayers see Louisville, Tennessee, and Texas. Shouldn’t they get more coverage about off the court problems???
5. Home court advantage in the tournament: I will say this, alot of this has to do with the fact that the area surrounding Memphis isn’t very big and since you can’t play in your home arena it would be difficult to have a home court advantage. But for the past two years we’ve played a team basically in their home location. This year if it works out we will have to play another lower seed in Texas. I heard one announcer say that if Memphis wants to win the title then they will have to go on the road and prove they can beat those teams. Hello? UCLA in Cali, UNC in NC, and Kansas in the Midwest, why don’t they have to “prove” themselves?

Reasons why I think this benefits Memphi:

1. The teams playing Memphis will take up the Hack-a-Tiger philosophy: With only 5 fouls this could hurt teams more than help them in close games. And if that is your defense against us… well … have fun watching at home.
2. Joey Dorsey: If he wants it he can dominate the college game. I saw on Senior Day a Joey Dorsey that I have never seen. He was not just a monster, but the most intimidating player i have ever seen. He looked like he needed to eat basketballs to survive.
3. Experience: 2 Elite eights in two years with basically the same team. We came back against UAB from down 7 with less than 1:30 to go on the road, we won in regulation. Our core guys have played together for almost 6 years, we recruited an entire AAU team. They trust each other and have won close games.
4. Flower Power: Derrick Rose is now showing signs of why people want to pick him so high in the draft. I was doubting them, not that he wasn’t a great player or full of potential but that he made alot of easy turnovers in an easy conference. Now he is running the show with phenomenal skill and grace. He is rockin’ right now and I can’t wait to see him take a game over.
5. You basically told them that they can’t do it.: Memphis is already the underdog, we lost to the No. 2 team in the country and we drop to third? We know that at some point as a No. 1 seed we will have to play on the road and now you are basically telling them that there is no way they can get in the Final Four? Watch out.

Also watch the UCLA and Western Kentucky game, WKU matches up very well.

Can’t wait til Friday

I interviewed yesterday with some of the leaders in the Children’s Ministry at Brookwood Church for the position that I have been describing to you guys. I think that overall it went well. I expressed my skills and capabilities and told them the things that I observed during their service. I was encouraged by the questions and I felt that they were encouraged by my answers.   

But I know that they had an issue with one of the themes of the questions. They want a long term more than 5 year commitment. I don’t blame them at all for this. They are going to pour time and resources and effort into growing me into this position and they don’t want me to leave. But I had to be honest and tell them that I really feel this is where God wants me but I don’t know how long he wants me here. It would be dishonest to tell them otherwise. I might be there 50 years or I might be there for 2 but I have learned over the past 2 months that I will only plan what God reveals to me and push super hard in that direction.    

This is also a weird post because I contemplated not writing it because I know some of the Brookwood people will be reading this entry. But if you know me you know that I don’t have a problem with honesty. And this blog is about my experience in life and it will help readers to better understand how God is shaping my life through my experience and give me a chance to relive some of that growth in the future.   

Regardless of all that I feel that God completely changed my life a month ago with this move to SC that is totally unlike anything that I would ever do. God did it for a reason. I think this is where God is leading me. I’ve done my part and now God will do His. I am under His divine will and the next step is determined by the decision he lays on those people’s hearts. I am ready either way it goes. 

Pray for me, I want the opportunity for so many different reasons but I want God’s will more than anything else and I am happy with that right now and am loving the spot that I am in and just what God has grown me in since I have obeyed His voice.  

And I say to you, listen at all times for His calling. He will speak to you when He wants it is our responsibility to hear and obey His voice.  

out 

So I went to check out the kids service yesterday during the 10:30 hour at Brookwood Church. I have been contemplating the decision and yesterday went a long way to confirm in my heart that this is where God wants me. I saw some incredible things. The kids that were there were interested but not enthralled, engaged but not committed to what they saw. Plus it was sort of a special situation as the 2nd to 5th grade were together and that is usually not the case. The drama participants were extremely good for the most part. Some were absolutely incredible! But I wanted to see where did they lead the kids to growing more with Jesus and I didn’t find that. They told the Easter story but where was the meaning? What message did they present to the kids besides: Here is our drama that we worked really hard on, We hope you like it. Ministry isn’t about how hard you work, its about pushing people further in their relationship with Christ whether they are kids or seniors adults, that is what it is all about. The lights, the sound, the narration were just a few small things that could’ve went a long way in the presentation that would have captured the kids allowing you to deliver the message to a convinced audience. But again from what I saw I was more impressed than not.  If you know me and my leadership style, I motivate but at the same time don’t care for anything less than people’s best. I can usually get that from people. It might be interesting to see how that will work in Children’s ministry. But if God works it out, I am more than ready for the challenge. Please pray for me on Tuesday as I meet with some people about the position again. 

Well its finally here the greatest time in college basketball maybe even all of sports…(maybe not if BCS didn’t exist) But I am really pumped however, once again we get stuck with an absolutely horrible matchup when we make it that far. If it plays out we will play Texas in the Elite eight in Houston, TX. If you know me I am a huge Tiger supporter but am also very close to a conspiracy theorist after what I’ve seen the last three weeks in college basketball. 2 years ago- 1 Memphis v. 2UCLA in Oakland, CA. People said “Do you know how far Oakland is from Los Angeles?” I say “alot closer than Memphis!”   Last year- 2 Memphis v. 3 Texas A&M in Texas Once again are you serious!!! This year- 1 Memphis v. 2 Texas in HoustonWhatever UCLA barely wins about 3 of the last 4 that they play all of their games are in Cali. Duke plays no one non conference and gets a 2 seed in the same bracket that plays nobody. That is just my bitterness talking but UNC and Memphis definitely have the toughest road to the Final Four. I will be shocked if we make it because of how it is set up. Mississippi State could give us problems. As well as Pitt, Stanford or Texas. Fortunately we would only have to play either Stanford or Texas.Well at Least we’re not being picked as the first number 1 seed to lose in the first round again.2 straight elite eights same team with a new superstar freshman??? I like our odds.out 

I had a second interview with Charter Media today. For those of you who don’t know what that is I will explain:Charter Communications is a Cable company sort of like Comcast, they have cable services, OnDemand programming, internet, phone, etc. You get the picture… anyways Charter Media is the company that sells advertising space to businesses around the area. So there are 48 channels that businesses could buy TV from to advertise on 24 hours a day or just during a certain show etc. My job is to get people to buy advertising time. There are a variety of different ways to do that but that is basically the outlook of my job. Honestly I’m nervous. Tomorrow they will make a decision on who they will hire. There are three people and I am one of them. Needless to say it would be pretty cool if I got the job and I imagine there would be many different possibilities and opportunities that could come from this position so time will only tell. But I’m waiting to see and there is a possibility that it could work out so check back here tomorrow to hear the update. out