Hey guys. Just wanted to share a quick video with from the first full day of Sulphur Springs Workcamp. Enjoy.
*Special thanks to Brandon Mitchell for having incredible technological, ministry skills by making this video.
Sulphur Springs Workcamp
27 06 2008
Sunday is the official start of the 2nd annual Sulphur Springs Workcamp. SSWC is an interdenominational, in-town mission experience in the city of Sulphur Springs. Students from all different local youth groups will come together and work together to help make the city we live in a better place. Basically we paint and restore houses for free for those in major need.
The theme for SSWC is “EAT. SLEEP. SERVE.” That is the theme because that is exactly what we do. We eat. We sleep. And we serve people.
God really put the idea for my SSWC in my brain about three years ago. I was hesitant at first to put another big project on my plate (especially in the always busy summer season). However, God kept putting this idea of an interdenominational local mission experience before me. I procrastinated for one year before deciding to give it a shot last summer. What ever small expectations I had for SSWC were blown away by God’s ability to do more than my tiny brain can even imagine. Anywhere from 90-100 people participated in SSWC as we painted and restored nine homes in Sulphur Springs.
This year, 140+ people from five different local youth groups will be painting and restoring twelve homes in the Sulphur Springs area. We will be helping multiple widows, elderly, and those severely sick. To get a better understanding of the situations we help, check out these stories of Miss Dee and Miss Patsy.
Some people ask me why. Why do feel God wanted you to start SSWC? There are three main reasons why.
1. IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. God is pretty specific about sharing your faith and helping other people. It is the right thing to take care of a widow who cannot take care of things like painting her house herself. Mission trips (in the youth ministry world) are often only thought in the context of far away from home or in another culture. While I am all for global, short term missions, being able to spread the Gospel and the love of Jesus in our backyards is equally important.
2. TO BE A BLESSING TO OTHER YOUTH MINISTERS. As a youth minister, I know how tough summer can be and how hard it can be to plan a bunch of stuff. The best trips seem to be the trips where I simply show up, all the details are already taken care, and I can spend time and love on my students. I try to make SSWC as youth ministry-friendly as possible. My desire has always been for SSWC to be something that is a blessing to other youth ministers, not a burden.
3. TO HELP SMALL YOUTH MINISTRIES. The majority of churches in our area do not have the resources, budget, and staff to participate in summer missions. SSWC was designed for the small church that maybe is being led by a volunteer. This is a local, cost-efficient (only $50 for students) mission experience that is legit. Now every student can have the opportunity to participate in missions.
4. TO UNITE THE LOCAL CHURCH. (WARNING: I will probably preach right here.) If we were honest, we (Christians) do not do a very good job of uniting. We tend to focus more on all the things that make us different – worship styles, songs we sing, vocabulary, etc. SSWC focuses on what we have in common – JESUS, which is by far the most important thing. Sure, the denominations represented think differently about certain aspects of the Christian faith. However, we all believe in the fundamental truth that Jesus is our savior. Maybe people seeing different Christians getting along and serving together in unity will get nonbelievers interested in having a relationship with Jesus.
Sulphur Springs Workcamp will be from Sunday, June 29 to Wednesday, July 2. Please be praying for this incredible mission experience. I hope to post a daily update every night of SSWC, complete with pictures and highlights from the day.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Faith, Life, Ministry, People, Spirituality, Travel
Summer Blockbusters
26 06 2008
Heather and I do not watch many movies in the movie theater. I will admit that the main reason is because I (and yes, I will take full responsibility on this one) am extremely cheap. It is so hard for me to pay two times for a movie when I can wait a few months and pay for the same movie one time. Don’t the movies understand Genesis 2:24 (where husband and wife become one flesh)? Because of that verse I believe that Heather and I should only pay for one movie ticket.
The second reason is because I have gone 27 years without seeing that movie. I can probably wait a few more months until it comes out on DVD to watch it. I am simply trying to practice the spiritual discipline of patience. Really it boils down to the fact that I am just super cheap. However, I could be worse. I could wait until the movies become the older, cheap rentals before watching them for the first time.
Anyways, with my cheapness combined with my crazy summer schedule, I have not been able to see one movie this summer. All these summer blockbusters have come out: Iron Man, Indiana Jones, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Incredible Hulk, The Happening, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and others I have probably missed.
Here is what I need from you: without giving the movie away, let me know what you thought of the summer movies you have seen so far. Good/Bad? Worth the two hours and money watching it? There are a lot of summer blockbusters that I really do what to see.
Give me some summer blockbuster thoughts and information.
Comments : 14 Comments »
Categories : Family, Life, Movies
Dating Quotes
24 06 2008
As a youth minister, dating is one of those topics that are talked about quite a bit. All the dating books out there, like I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Boundaries in Dating, and Boy Meets Girl, have some great, practical advice for dating that honors God.
However, some of my best dating advice has come from one of my best friends, Scott Pittman. Here are two of Scott’s greatest dating quotes: (By the way, this is where you need to get out paper and a pen and write down these golden nuggets of dating advice.)
“STAY VERTICAL.”
“KIDS IN THE BACK SEAT CAUSE ACCIDENTS. ACCIDENTS IN THE BACK SEAT CAUSE KIDS.”
Chew on those for a while…
Do you have any good dating quotes?
Comments : 11 Comments »
Categories : Books, Friends, Funny, Life, Ministry, People, Random
Running in the Shade
23 06 2008
Training for a marathon is way harder than actually running a marathon.
After running two marathons, I know the high amount of energy, time, sacrifice, and effort it takes to get the starting line. Training time for a marathon is commonly at a minimum of four months (if not way longer). Four months of running almost daily. Four months of waking up earlier than normal. Four months of taking ibuprofen just to walk the next day.
Seasons tend to change during a four month stretch. You may start training when the sun is out by 6:00am and the temperature gets well into the 90s. However, during the last few weeks of your training, the sun could be still hiding at 6:00am and the temperature could be in the 40s.
I have always enjoyed running when it is on the warmer side. Running in the shade has always been very comfortable for me. There is something soothing about running through shade on a hot day that is natural and comfortable. I started thinking about why that is true.
Is that true with my relationship with God too? Do I find great comfort in being in the darkness of the shade on my spiritual journey? Am I naturally drawn to the darkness of the shade spiritually? Do I seek the shade out? Do I eagerly anticipate those times in the shade?
Some time ago I had a conversation with a fellow runner and a fellow follower of Christ. She told me something interesting that got me thinking and has definitely stuck with me. On long runs, she will run harder through the shade so that she never is in the darkness too long. She did not want to comfortable in the shade. No matter the temperature outside, she enjoyed basking in the light of the sun. Now that preaches.
Father, help us always enjoy and crave basking in the light of your Son. Help us to never get comfortable with darkness. We want to be free from the shade and darkness of sin, shame, and guilt.
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” – 1 John 1:5-7 (NIV)
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Faith, Life, People, Spirituality, Sports
Incredible Birthday Gift
20 06 2008Today is my 27th birthday. Because I am at church camp some 600+ miles away from home, Heather always gives me my birthday gifts before we leave so we do not have to travel with them. This year, she did really good. I only got one present but it was an awesome one.
My favorite baseball player growing up was Nolan Ryan. Nolan was incredible pitcher for many years who is the MLB all-time leader in strikeouts (5,714) and no-hitters (7). When I was in little league baseball, my nickname was “Nolan Brian”. Heather got me this incredibly inspiring autographed picture for my birthday:
It is going to be hanging in my office as soon as we get back. Thanks babe! Good job!
__________________________
My Birthday Wish: That the New York Yankees will win their 27th World Series championship on my 27th year on this planet (and do not give me the “your wish won’t come true because you said it outloud” speech).
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Family, Life, People, Sports
Complete This Sentence
18 06 2008GOD IS ________________________________________.
Please complete this sentence (multiple comments are encouraged so try to keep one thought per comment). How encouraging to open a blog post and see a ton of incredible words describing our indescribable God! Make the most of it.
Comments : 31 Comments »
Categories : Faith, Ministry, Spirituality
Another Person I Want To Spend One Day With
17 06 2008A little over a week ago, I wrote a post entitled “Five People I Want To Spend One Day With”. During this post, I talked about five people who I thought were interesting enough to hang out with for one entire day.
Well, I have to add one more now (thanks to Morning IMPACT). The person is Biz Markie.
And it is all because of this video…(click link to left if video isn’t popping up)
Now who would not want to hang out with this guy?
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Funny, Music, People, Random, TV
Hump Day
16 06 2008I know that for most people Wednesday is your hump day. However, today was my hump day.
This morning I woke up at 5:00am and hopped in a large van full of wiped-out Jr High Shannon Oaks teens. You see Sunday night was the last night of IMPACT Jr and Monday afternoon was the start of IMPACT Sr. By 6:00am this morning I was already on the road heading from Nashville, TN towards Sulphur Springs, TX (roughly a 600+ mile drive). I drove halfway back to Sulphur Springs where I stopped at a gas station in middle-of-nowhere, Arkansas (just east of Little Rock) to meet another bus load of Sr High Shannon Oaks teens. The Jr High students poured out of the van and then the Sr High students piled in. I immediately turned around and drove all the way back to Nashville, TN.
Officially one of my toughest days of the year in ministry. God took care of us today though. We made it to Lipscomb University safely, on time, and ready for IMPACT Sr.
Be praying for God to show up in a powerful, real way this week. (Thanks in advance for those prayers.)
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Faith, Life, Ministry, Spirituality, Travel
Great Father’s Day Story
15 06 2008CLICK HERE for a great Father’s Day Story.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Family, Life, People, Sports
Breathing Through Your Mouth
14 06 2008
This picture has what I have been doing all day.
I have been breathing though my mouth all day today. For the majority of the day, my nose has been completely stopped up. I am talking the “if somebody covered up my mouth, I would probably die after a few minutes” kind of stopped up nose. I am sure I have looked goofy all day (not that unusual from normal life) because I have been walking around all day with my wide open just so I can breathe.
You do know that kind of breathing is not how God intended breathing to be? He did not create our mouths for the main purpose of breathing. However, I am super grateful that he gave us a Plan B when our noses are stopped up.
Just like he did not create us to breathe through our mouths, God did not create us to go without a relationship with him. If you are experiencing life without God, then it is like you are breathing completely out of your mouths. God hard-wired us to connect our hearts with his heart.
How are you doing? Are you connecting with God? Or are you breathing out of your mouth?
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Faith, Life, Spirituality
Scotty P Words of Wisdom
13 06 2008The past couple of days I have not been feeling pretty well. My throat has been extremely sore and I have felt a lot of fatigue. It makes it harder because I am at church camp and I want to feel better. So what did I do today to feel better? Did I take a nap during free time to re-energize and re-fuel the body? Nope. Did I go to the doctor to get the right medicine to fix me up quickly? No way. I decided the best thing for me to do was to go to the weight room and lift, followed by going on a 3+ mile run. The goal was to sweat out all the disease and sickness.
That reminded me of one of my best friends and college roommate, Scott Pittman. Scott is one of those guys that seems to have a saying for any situation. He had three remedies for physical aliments (such as sickness and injuries):
- WALK IT OFF.
- SHAKE IT OFF.
- RUB SOME DIRT IN IT.
If sweating it off does not work by tomorrow, I am finding me a huge pile of dirt.
___________________________
Do you have any unconventional cures for sickness or injuries like Scotty P?
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Friends, Funny, Life, People
Hitting the Road
11 06 2008Today starts off my summer traveling. For the next six weeks, I will be gone from my home for 35 days. It is a very weird and very bittersweet time for me. I am extremely excited to see students grow in their faith and their relationships with God and each other. It is so energizing to see the look in their eyes when the whole God thing starts to click in their minds. On the other hand, it is really tough to be away from home that long, away from normal routines (that is really big for OCD people like myself), and away from the gym. The amazing thing is that my wife gets to come with me on most of these trips and minister right alongside me. It is also tough because I never get enough sleep and I most certainly never get enough time to catch up on missed sleep. Come the end of July I will be running on fumes. I take rest in the fact that I know without a doubt that God has internally wired me to do my job and do it well.
Tomorrow I will be hoping in a van full of Jr High students (20 total) and driving to Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN for an amazing church camp called IMPACT. I will on campus until June 21. I get to spend a ton of time with my teenagers, my family, and a few of my close friends. I am extremely excited.
I ask that you pray for the next few days. Pray for the leaders of the camp. Pray for the students. I know in faith that some of my students will never be the same this time next week. God is going to do amazing things this week. I hope you will be a part of this incredible week by praying for the students.
Despite being out of town, I have every intention of keeping up with the blog while I am away. I will have Internet access. I have really enjoyed the discipline of consistent writing and I want to maintain that discipline throughout the summer.
Thanks to all of you read. I greatly appreciate you. Next time you hear from me, I will be in my home state of Tennessee. Go Vols!!!
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Faith, Family, Friends, Life, Ministry, People, Travel
Bath Time
10 06 2008
As most of you know, Heather and I do not have any children yet. The closest thing we do have is our two spoiled rotten dogs, Gaby and Kate, and I have to say we take really good care of them. One thing we always take care of as responsible dog owners is keep them well clean and groomed. We brush them and bath them every seven to ten days.
Here’s the problem: Gaby (pictured above) hates to take a bath.
It is like she senses it is about to happen and will often try to hide. We have to track her down and either push her or bribe her to waddle into the bathroom. If she is feeling really sassy or ornery, she will growl and act tough to whoever is trying to get her in the bath. Once she gets in the bath and starts to clean up, she actually somewhat likes it because it is like one big massage. Knowing the battle is already decided, she stops fighting. After the bath is over and she is dried off and clean, she excitedly runs around, woofing, and seems the joy the feeling of being freshly clean.
Isn’t that often like us with God?
Think about it. There are so many times when we are dirty and in need of a spiritual bath. I call this the process of putting a spiritual mirror up to your life – also known as refinement.
How does God give us a bath and get us clean? There are so many times when he tries to clean us through conversations with a close friends, through times spent reading his Word, through challenging messages we hear on Sunday morning, through times of intimate worship, and through many others ways.
We (and I say we because I am real good at this) tend to hear things that God brings into our lives so that we can clean up a little and become more like him. Those times are often faced with defensiveness, pride, denial, performances that we have it all together, justifications, and straight up ignoring.
We know that God, our Heavenly Father, is trying to make our lives better by cleaning our lives up a little. And like Gaby, we also know that we enjoy the feeling of being clean and fresh in his eyes. The problem is that we often hide and avoid spiritual bath time and when we are forced to it, we go kicking and screaming.
What in your life needs to be cleaned up? Are you hiding from getting spiritually clean? Do you go kicking and screaming into your spiritual bath?
Maybe the best thing that you and I can do today is enter God’s presence and ask him to reveal something in our lives that needs to be cleaned up and ask him to help us do what whatever it takes to get clean. I know I would absolutely freak out if Gaby voluntarily hopped into the bath one day without any prompting by me ready for her bath.
Let’s get spiritually clean today. Life is way better that way. If you do not believe me, just ask Gaby.
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Dogs, Faith, Family, Life, Spirituality
Horse Racing Rant
10 06 2008
Another year of the “famous” horse racing Triple Crown, another year of a horse that comes short of winning all three big races. Big Brown was the winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before loosing the Belmont Stakes this past Saturday. There has not been a Triple Crown winner since 1978.
My question is, “Who cares?” Please do not get me wrong, I love sports, but I just do not get horse racing.
There was all this time and hype spent on this horse possibly winning the Triple Crown and what happens? He finishes last in the race. Now they trainers have to start with brand new horses and lock those freakishly tiny “men” who ride those horses back in their dungeons so they cannot eat and actually grow (seriously those guys are tiny).
And why is it necessary to have three hours of television coverage for something that takes a maximum of two minutes. That is the equivalent of having a 45 hour preview before one thirty minute episode of Seinfeld.
And who seriously watched this on Saturday? This is 2008 people. I mean seriously, horse racing? After it was over, I turned it over to NBC to catch the last few minutes of old school knights jousting (you know where they ride horses at each other and try to knock each other off with large sticks). Before you go looking in your TV Guide for jousting on NBC, I was being sarcastic.
Hey, at least no horses were euthanized on the track right after the race this time, therefore scaring all the children present from ever seeing a horse again without crying their little eyes out. That is like watching Bambi’s mom get killed in person.
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Funny, Random, Sports, TV
