“Intentional” is the word of the Year!
So I went to this youth leader conference put on by youth specialties in November with a few youth leaders from Grace…it was awesome! I learned so many useful things to use in our youth ministry but I think most of all there were two resounding themes to the weekend for me. One being that we need to be much more intentional with everything we do, and two that we need to realize our students are intelligent and need to be pushed and challenged more…basically we are giving them this “Christian Light” because we want to entertain them and capture their attention but in the end will they remember that?
The first theme (intentional) took me a bit by surprise. If you have a ministry and its perfect, then your a freak because every ministry needs to be tweaked all the time…its just the name of the game. So I don’t know why this came as such a WOW thing but think about it…if we were more intentional with everything we did all the time don’t you think there would be a lot more effectiveness going on?? If we started looking at everything in our ministry or even everything in our lives and started asking ourselves, Why am I doing this?, I think we would be changing more lives. Being more intentional means: being more intentional in our relationships with students, in our lessons, in the way we interact with students, in the way we plan events, in the mundane tasks we need to do…its across the board. This world is failing way too fast for us to just do what we do without thinking about WHY we do it…we need to be INTENTIONAL and do things for a purpose and with meaning and vision behind it…if we don’t we’re selling ourselves and our students short.
The second theme (challenging students more) was a little hard to swallow. I have such a heart for students that don’t know Jesus and I guess I have always wanted to make them feel welcome and comfortable over giving them the raw truth and shoving it down their throats. I know there is a happy medium and it should be what we all strive for. There is this perfect balance between discipleship and outreach that is so incredibly hard to get but I believe we should all be striving for it because if not we are missing out on, in my opinion, Jesus’ calling to the church. Rachael and I went to a seminar by this guy Greg Steir. He did this thing called the Gospel Journey and is the head of Dare To Share Ministries. He is an awesome guy and has a huge heart for evangelism. He talked to us about how we as youth groups don’t hit on a lot of the hard philosophical truths in the Bible but we kind of bypass them thinking our students either already know them or their parents are teaching them or they don’t need them. The reality of that is all our students need to know those truths because if they don’t when they go to college and sit in their first philosophy 101 class the professor will disprove Christianity to them in 15 minutes and they won’t know what hit them. He told us that we should be talking about those things now so they have a solid foundation to stand on when people try and disprove our God. He talked about how our students are not dumb…they are very intelligent and they need to be challenged because they will be in the world. This other speaker Francis Chan talked about the verse in Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the world. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty again? It’s good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by people.” He spoke about how a lot of the time we make a bunch of unsalty, bland people. He poured a small salt packet onto his bible then poured a bunch of other white stuff on top. He said that so often we want to hold up our pile of bland crap and show God “how much we are doing” and how big and nice our group is. He said we need to realized that if we loose our salt our taste it’s good for NOTHING…only for people to step on.
Are we being intentional? Asking why we do things instead of just doing them because that’s just what we do?
Are we challenging our students? What about ourselves? ARE WE BEING AN EXAMPLE?? Do our students know why they believe what they believe?
Are we watering things down, becoming bland?
Are we reaching out to students and people that don’t have the hope we do? Do we have a good balance between inward and outward? Discipleship and outreach?
When I meet Jesus in heaven I want to be able to say to him, yes I did the best I could while I was here and I reached as many people (students) as I could…I know I suck at it sometimes and maybe that makes me a hypocrite for writing this but its not like I’m pretending to know the answers…because I don’t. All I know is I want to do everything in my power to help students KNOW Jesus…not just know him but really KNOW him. There were a bazillion other things that I learned and realized at the conference but since the conference was 4 days it would take me like 8 to explain so I’m not going to try…I’ll just leave you with this…
It’s all about RELATIONSHIPS…this was also something I heard all weekend (and hear from Bryan all the time)…something Bryan is so huge on is relationship and pouring yourself into people. We ALL need to be doing that…any age any walk of life…we all need mentors and people to go to when we need to celebrate or ask questions or morn…Jesus was about relationships and in this world I’m convinced that you will not affect a students life unless you build a relationship with them…show that you care…show that someone loves them, respects them, and wants the best for them. Are we creating and continuing long lasting, meaningful, INTENTIONAL relationships? I hope so…lets be the salt of the earth…I’d rather not get stepped on 
Squirrel Murderers
Bryan and I are squirrel murderers…technically I had no part in it, I was just a witness in the crime, I had no choice but to sit and watch the squirrel get murdered. It all happened on the way to church this past Sunday (11/9/08 RIP). Bryan was driving in the right hand lane and I was of course riding in the passenger seat. All of a sudden I look up ahead on Route 9 and there is a cute little grey squirrel…you know like the song you use to sing in preschool? He was standing up on his hind legs just pearing over the horizon. And what do you think Bryan did after seeing the cute little squirrel? No, he did not slow down. No, he did not swerve at all. And no, he did not care one bit for the innocent animal. He just kept his cruise on. The squirrel spotted us and thought should I go to the left or right…well he chose right…50/50 chance…and he bounced off the bottom of our car. 
I don’t think I will easily forget the day we killed Mr. Squirrel.
Tribute to Mr. Squirrel:
Grey Squirrel
Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, shake your bushy tail (2x).
Wrinkle up your little nose
Drop a nut between your toes.
Flick and flash your furry tail
As among the trees you sail.
Walk across the silver wire
Balancing, you never tire.
High among the trees you dwell
Where’s your nest? You’ll never tell.
Gather food to fill your store
Then run off to get some more.
11/9/08 RIP
The Best Quote Ever
“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today,
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips,
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
My Wedding Revelations
So I was thinking a few nights back about how crazy it is that we live in the time we live in…and i’m not talking about silly “well back then” things, i’m talking about how God had a plan for us to be on this earth at THIS time and we are just a tiny piece of his entire plan…yet we think we are the plan sometimes…haha little do we know! But he decided when we were going to come into this world and when we will leave and its just crazy and awesome (and a little scary to be honest) to think about that. The exciting part is that he has so many things planned for us and wants to do sooooo much through us. What is even crazier is the fact that we don’t realize our full potential most of the time and we don’t recognize the fact that he WANTS to use us!! How often do we think completely selflessly and are 100% wiling to do what HE wants not what we want. What if every person that claimed to be a Christ follower actually lived out what God had planned for their lives…better question…what if the few that actually do live out their faith and are genuine completely surrender to Jesus and live completely selfless…WHAT A DIFFERENT WORLD WE WOULD LIVE IN!!
The awesome part of it all though is that it is never too late to change! I know I need to work on this and ask God more what he wants and what his plan is and to help me desire those things and not my own will or the things of the world we so easily get wrapped up in.
I’ve been learning a lot from this wedding planning. I’ve learned I’m pretty materialistic and when they give me the gun to shoot the bar codes of all the stuff at the store I want to just go crazy and shoot everything, I think because I worry we will need this or that and worry we wont have something…what is up with that!!! I mean I don’t think it is wrong to like things but is it worth it? Am I taking the nice dishes or super cool magic bullet to heaven when I die??? (By the way I resisted on that one and decided I could chop things on my own haha) Even more importantly I’m not showing people Christ by having a nice toaster oven or nice bath towels! I mean sure its convenient and nice to have quality towels that don’t scratch my skin like sand paper but what was the alternative for Jesus? Air dry? Maybe a leaf? Maybe the clothes on his body? And I don’t think it is wrong to enjoy the things God has blessed you with…if so I’d be a total hypocrite because I do enjoy things! But I guess its wrong when those things distract us from the real reason we are on this earth which is to honor, praise, and glorify God and to show the world HIM…so if you can do that through your stuff, do it, but for me and Bryan I think we are going to choose to do it through our relationships. Its all about relationships…so I guess I am ok with getting the kitchen stuff because relationships are made with the two big F’s…fellowship and food!!!!!!!! hahaha…
Seriously though…Jesus was about relationships and we ought to be as well…not just with our friends but with other people…be a blessing for life…to anyone you come in contact with…How can I change someones life today?? How can I bless someone today?? How can I show someone Christ’s love??
Now that I just got off topic a little…I’ll bring it back. I think that many many times we as humans we can get in the way of God’s plan…now I know I know this is a sticky topic but its my blog so ha! But I just think if we focus more on his plan and on what HE wants to do…we will line up with what God wants to do through us. Less of us, more of him.
I am so one of those computer illiterate old ladies…
So you need to either be scared or excited that Jamie has a blog…one because who knows what I will write about and two because my posts will probably be rarely “intelligent” or politically correct BUT I promise they will be entertaining!!!!! I think my thoughts entertain me more than everyone else though…oh well…at least someone is being entertained!
So we will see where this will go. I do actually have a lot of important things to say at times and things that flow through my brain…(Crazy right?!)…and I think this might be a good way to vent a little and get things out that I might not talk about but maybe need to be known.
Really though tonight I just want to explain my frustration with registries and the fact that they want you to shop online but they make it soooooo darn hard to do so!!! I spent almost two hours tonight trying to find stupid stuff that didn’t go through when we clicked it…also, I know very little about this blogging deal and I feel like a grandma…
aaaaaaand i’m done…
ps…Bryan deserves a lot of credit because he went with me two nights in a row to do registry stuff, spending hours of his time…and I think I realized how painful it was for him when we entered the tools part of Sears and he took the gun…we stayed there for a total of 3 minutes and I was like, “if this is what it feels like for him, its like torture!!” So credit given…He’s the best!
