As we were traveling home from eating last night it began to snow.  Twitter & facebook immediately lit up announcing it to everyone (& posting pictures of really small snowmen).  It’s a rare occasion for us to get snow.  Maybe once per year & there is usually no accumulation.  This morning our yard is still covered w/ a dusting of snow (too much snow for Roscoe to even think about going out to use the restroom).  Here’s the proof:

1. How to Estimate Church Attendance
2. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Meetings
3. Third-Person Christian
4. Wrong Question – Mark Beeson shares some wisdom in light of the “news” stories that our country is focused on right now
5. Why Introverts Make Good Leaders

Due to this I’ve been confined to my couch for the past 48 hours.  The first day & a half I didn’t have a laptop @ home (thanks to @collegepastor for delivering it to me this morning) so it was just me, cable tv & my iPhone.  Here’s what I learned:

• I’d go insane if I had to do this more than a couple of days.
• A Kindle would have been useful to download books to read.
• Daytime tv is terrible.  Best thing on tv? Mike & Mike.  Which is a radio show that’s on tv.  That’s sad.
• The Office reruns are great.  I really wished I’d gotten into it before last year.
• All cable news is garbage.  They don’t report news.  They report what others are reporting or just give their opinions all day.  America would be healthier without cable news channels.
• Does the Today Show ever end?
• Days are really long when you have nothing to accomplish.
• Roscoe does this everyday (minus the cable tv, iPhone & laptop) & he loves it.

On Tuesday I had the labral repaired in my right hip (to read more about the injury & surgery click here).  So, for the past 2 days I’ve been recovering by lying on the couch w/ my  feet elevated.  Thanks to my excellent nurse I’m feeling much better (can’t say the same for her – I think I may have been a little too demanding at times in my requests for something to drink, snacks, ice pack, socks, blankets,extra pillows …).

The good news is that I should be off the crutches in the next day or so.  A full recovery will take a little longer, but I’m ready to no longer be limited in my activities due to constant hip pain.

Please, no old jokes regarding having hip surgery.  My teenagers having exhausted every possible old joke that exists.

Today, is the annual Egg Bowl.  I’ll be ringing my cowbell in full support of the Dogs, but I recently saw this video of Dexter McCluster (Ole Miss running back) & was moved by his faith in Jesus.

I wouldn’t mind him having a terrible game today (which isn’t likely), but he’s a rebel that I can root for as he moves on to the NFL.

This week our student ministry’s MacBook Pro arrived.  As a result we are switching from using MediaShout to ProPresenter for our student worship services.  As a part of the process I’m having to develop our song library for ProPresenter.

This morning I went back thourgh each of worship services for this fall.  I created a list (see below) of each of the songs we’ve used.  To my surprise we used 34 different songs (plus a few more when we had guests come in & do some of their originals).  Also, to my surprise we didn’t repeat songs as often as I thought (we only sang 1o songs more than once & none more than 3 times).

Here’s what we’ve sung this semester:

Let God Arise
Beautiful the Blood
Canons
Center
Come & Listen
Doxology (Crowder)
Everlasting God
Glorious One
Glory to God, Forever
God of This City
Hallelujah
Happy Day
How Deep the Father’s Love For Us
How Great Is Our God
How He Loves (Crowder)
How Marvelous (Tomlin)
Inside Out
Jesus Messiah
Jesus Paid It All
Majesty
Marvelous Light
Mighty to Save
O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing
Rescue
Revelation Song
Salvation is Here
Spring of Life
Take It All
Take My Life
The Stand
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
Wonderful Cross
You Alone

1 of the very best youth ministry resources for keeping up w/ the youth culture is the Center for Parent & Youth Understanding.  It’s weekly email newsletter is the best youth ministry newsletter that arrives in my inbox.

Here’s an interview w/ Walt Mueller, CPYU president & founder, on youth culture 101,” narcissism, and the Apostle Paul’s approach to culture in Acts 17:

I posted this blog entry back on February 25, 2009 & it continues to get traffic day after day.  So, I’m reposting it (check out the original post to view the comments it generated.) Here’s the original post:

I’m faced w/ that question on a regular basis or something similar like “Is it ok to ground my teen from church?”.

D.C. Curry, youth pastor at Granger, answered the question on his pastor’s blog.  Here’s what he said:

My blunt answer is yes!

The Bible teaches us that one of the responsibilities of a parent is to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

One thing I love about this passage is that it projects that there is a way in which a child should go…because there is.  There are so many important things that parents will make their children do without even thinking about it like take baths, go to bed, brush their teeth, go to school, but when it comes to church they resort to the great debate.  “Should I or should I not?”

It seems to me that the same reason that governs why they have to brush their teeth, go to school, get some sleep, take baths, should be the same reason that governs why they should go to church, it’s important!  So we make/force our kids to do everything that we think is important so if we don’t make/force them to go to church does that mean we don’t think it’s important?

As a parent, it may not always be popular to make them go to church but it has eternal implications.  It’s not just about their attendance, it’s about their eternity.  We who are charged with the care of students (parents, youth pastors, teachers, godparents, etc.) must see to it that they find The Way and are trained to live in that Way.
Also know that training is not always easy, comfortable, or fun, and usually doesn’t come without a bit of pain.

A very respected parent recently told me, “I don’t care what they want to do, I (as the parent) am committed to getting my kids in environments where they can grow closer to Christ.”   He believes it’s important, so he follows that up with his actions.

Do you agree?

I’ve been using twitter for almost a year.  I use it to keep up w/ a few friends, to follow a variety of leaders, & as a youth ministry tool.

I use it as youth ministry tool for the following:

• follow youth ministry leaders (@terracecrawford, @cpyu, @dougfields, @kurtjohnson)
• follow church leaders (@youcanknowgod, @timsteevens, @reggiejoiner, @rickwarren,
• specific searches
  • I use tweetdeck to organize twitter for me.  I have a few “permanent searches” built into it like “youth ministry” & “student ministry.”  I don’t glance through these columns every day, but it’s an easy way to keep up w/ a broad area.
    I create columns for a specific topic that I’m researching.  For example, I’m in the midst of preparing for a youth parenting class that’ll begin in January.  So, I could set up a search for “parenting teens” or “how to discipline teenagers.”  The result will be lots & lots of links to articles & ideas.  It’s a great way to find current info on a specific topic.

Roscoe has recently gotten jealous of @banjoisadog (currently the funniest thing on the internets (thanks w)).  He’s wanting to spread the word about what’s going on in his life.  For now I’ll just post a picture of his favorite moment of this week.

1. Unauthorized Version by Mark
2. Breakthroughs and Drips by Seth
3. Five Good Quotes by Brad
4. I switched to using Chrome on my pc @ work this week; so far so good
5. @ Work by Jeff Henderson; it’s a 3 week sermon series that was preached at North Point; check on Jeff’s blog entry here & to watch or listen to the sermons click here.  It’s the best thing I’ve ever heard explaining work from a biblical perspective

Sunday I’m teaching 1 of our senior Sunday School classes.  The topic: Being Thankful (& understanding that being blessed = blessing others).

We’ll be primarily looking at Genesis 1:27-31 & Genesis 2:8-15.  As I’ve read & studied those passages I kept thinking about this quote by Seth Godin that hangs above my computer in my office:

It’s not available until Easter 2010, but beat the rush & preorder your copy at masswepray.com

We are changing it up a bit.  The message will be @ the beginning of the service & we’re giving some time for prayer & reflection following the message during the 1st couple of songs.  Our goal is to have teens consider rather or not they are attempting to satisfy their soul w/ something other than Jesus.

Message: I’ll be speaking; final night of the 3 week series Thirsty; key verses Matthew 5:6, 20; John 15:1-8
Songs: Come & Listen (Crowder), Wonderful Cross, Hallelujah (Hillsong), Happy Day

Click here for our service program sheet.  To follow the service on YouVersion Live click here.

This isn’t about moral victories (if they do exist my team has had too many of them this year).  It’s about decisions that = a short term loss, but a long term win.

A few mornings ago I heard an interview w/ Keith Evans.  He played tennis @ Ole Miss & spent some time on the pro tour.  He was on a local sports talk show to discuss Andre Agassi’s new book.  During the interview he told stories of playing Sampras, Agassi, Chang & others during their teen years.  One story about Sampras was how his coach changed him from a 2 handed backhand to 1 handed backhand just a couple of weeks before the biggest jr national tournament.

The immediate result? Sampras loses early in the tournament.

The long term result? Sampras won 64 tournaments as a pro; including 14 grand slams

There are times that we must make decisions that aren’t great for the immediate goals, but they’ll equal long term success.

I spent the early part of this week @ Lake Tiak-O’khata for our annual Mississippi Student Minister’s Retreat.  This year we had  Phil Newberry join us.  Phil has served the past 25 years as student pastor @ Bellevue & is now a campus pastor for Bellevue.

A few thoughts that stood out to me from the retreat:

• We want to help teens become independently dependent for their spiritual growth.
• Only 12% of 7th graders who begin in our youth ministry will still be active as seniors.
• Never tell a teenager something that they can discover for themselves.
• Only 1 out of 10 who begin in ministry will retire from ministry.
• Don’t be the enemy of the family.

1. DC’s list of what youth pastors CAN DO & CAN NOT DO for parents
2. Google Map of flu shot availability
3. Outsourced Worship by Tim (the article features FBC Hattiesburg & a guy w/ Parkway ties)
4. This list by Josh gave me some great youth ministry ideas.
5. Tomorrow State plays Bama so here’s a look back @ the 1980 game (click here for info about the ‘80 game)