My daughter

My beautiful daughter playing in the mall in Chandler, AZ.



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Trends Facing Youth Ministry

There is a great post over at the Youth Specialties blog about the trends facing youth ministry. Youth leaders were asked to identify the top three trends they felt students and youth ministers were facing as it related to the future of youth ministry. Read it to get a better perspective of what I am writing. Here is my response to some of the questions and my insight to some of the issues affecting youth ministry. Let me know what you think.

These at least for me are not new but put me at ease that I am not the only leader dealing with these problems (tongue in cheek).

#1 square off has, I think, always been a battle, Competing for Time of a student is tough. I remember when I was a teen hearing my YP voice his frustration. OF course we can wrestle it till we are blue or learn to leverage it. I think there are ways to leverage the time we have and the time we don't. Help the student who is on the football team adopt his team as his personal mission field and help him identify himself as the pastor/shepherd to them instead of making him feel guilty over choosing football over a youth event/service. Allowing students their 'spot' to shine can help us with our 'need' of their time. We need to learn how to make the secular and the sacred mesh into harmony and not battle it, I admit it is very tough!

#3, Social Networking for me at home has been a win. In ministry/life learning to leverage what we cannot muscle has been the biggest advantage anyone has with something. Let us not be quick to call this a lack in any proportion, possibly we are seeing a new wave of culture moving across the horizon that many of us leaders are not a tune to. Learning to ride the wave can be your biggest advantage. Marty Burroughs, a District Youth Director for the state of Texas told me a story how a church of a 100 had a youth ministry of about 90, that is insane. Every kid that came in, they got their Facebook and Myspace and added them and their top 10 friends. Then when an event was to happen they would sent invites out to the students and their top 10. They were sending upwards of 5000 invites. I have responded to a post on twitter here, what a TOOL, I would pay for this if it weren't free (Twitter don't get any ideas). There are great ways to harness these tools.

twitter.com/shaunmayfield
twitter.com/eikonlive

#4, Economic Turndown is a killer, parents out of jobs is huge add-on to that one. There is not much to do but be more creative about our events and look and alternatives to costly events, sometimes those cheaper events can be more richer in the end.

#2 & 5 are tough, the Definition of Family and Sexual Confusion. These represent the cultural trend of a cultural agenda. Never before have we seen such an agenda at the forefront of America. The definition of family, at least here in AZ and in California and other states is in a battle to be redefined. This may not seem like a big deal but what it has attached to it's roots can hugely impact the church and pastors.

Secondly, identity issues and sexual confusion, I am so glad this hit the top 5. That sounds horrible of a statement, but I am glad because this will put more focus from a broader audience of YP's to effectively build curriculum and teaching lessons and sermons. For many years the 'church' at large has not been equipped to handle this and has almost feared the subject. We are dealing with it huge. What hurts the most is the agenda from MTV and Hollywood. The agenda is trying to make it a civil issue which then means that anyone who speaks out against it can be charged as a hate crime. It has become so rampant in the school system and what was once considered PDA between a girl and guy is now accepted as normal between two guys or two girls. This agenda has made it very curious for our teens to experiment. That experimentation mixed with just the sexualism of puberty has made so many students confused.

This will be probably one of the biggest topics of discussion amongst church leaders in the next decade, that is my prediction. I believe this is just the beginning of an issue that will hit the church so hard we BETTER begin now or even a year ago on developing strategies on winning this war and #1, helping students learn their identity roles. We need to be teaching masculinity to the men and what marriage is and why the definition should be preserved in our hearts of a 'Holy Matrimony' between one man and one woman. That is why I grouped these together. When the definition of marriage is attacked and the agenda of homosexualism as a trend widens, these two unite as one joint problem. Let us look to God to direct us on how to love and teach and allow the Holy Spirit to convict and change hearts.

Thoughts?

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Frugal: A Trend or Reality?

I have a question: Is a person who is frugal simply green or just trendy?

What is sad is that in a down economy it becomes trendy to be frugal. Is being green with your green just a trend? Because one is sparing and economical with their money doesn't make one trendy however one who is trendy may become frugal because of the look it gives. It is quite funny how many people change their lifestyle based on trends. Now if it is a direct response to their financial hardships, understood. But if it is due to the positive look then quit, knock it off, you look silly. For many the slow down in our economics at least on the consumer side is a simple issue... fear. Many have stopped spending because of fear.

When one changes their values/character/reputation based off trends I personally have a hard time recognizing the integrity in such decisions. Now call me a bigot but I think we adapt to changes that are helpful to better ourselves and others around us. No doubt that many trends could be based off those needs that can better our lives but the changes we make should be based off the issues that relate to our life the most. Trends have a popularity contest of sorts attached. Notice how many people jumped on the global warming agenda. Did I make changes, sure, added a Hot Water Heater timer, you can read that post here. But there are things I have always done, I was taught as a child to always turn off the light behind me, shut the door or I would hear the famous, "Were you born in a barn?" which I still don't understand. The timer, simply because my in-laws did and saved money and that is the basis of many changes for me.

So you have the trend of issues, Gore's and Nobel prizes to be awarded, then you have the issues that affect people where they are in their every day lives. Sure we are responsible for our footprint on earth and have a responsibility to hold those accountable to being on the same page, but let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.

In fact, there is much advice about money management and frugality in the Bible. This comes from Proverbs 6:6-11:

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-

11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.

Thoughts? You frugal? If so is because you are trendy or because it helps?

p.s. click on the pic above to get great ideas on how to be green with your green.

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Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

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Simply Broaden Your Horizon! (re)Dream

There was a previous post in my blog that you will need to go read. It is kinda funny. I had people read this and comment to me that it was really good lyrics/poems. That poem was actually me writing about the absence of me writing my blogs. Poetry is the beautiful artwork that can mean one thing to the artist but is created to be interpreted by the observer. I remember that time period and it reminds me of now, I have been crazy busy/exhausted and haven't written in the last week how I should. Writing is a great escape/need of mine and always has been. It seems when there has been lengthy times that I have not been writing, that is the time that life can get a little more (in)tense.

I say all that to say this, write! Be creative, put your thoughts to words and put your words to an audience. Maybe you don't want an audience, no biggie, journal. This is such a a great asset that you can have to relieve stress, exercise your creativity and explore a new talent.

One other challenge I have for you is to read more. Pick up a book and read. I ran into one of my friends from college and I asked him what book(s) he was reading at the time. That is a general question I ask others from time to time. He laughed at my in a scoffing type of attitude and said, "Dude, I haven't read a book since college". This was about 3 years after college, I was dumbfounded. This was a pastor who is leading people and isn't a learner. I personally feel that just about every profession of life needs to have constant schooling and we need to be responsible for learning and growing. Why not?

I will be blunt: if you are not learning, educating yourself, finishing your degree that you started years ago, becoming better, then ask yourself, what is stopping you? Have you given up on your dreams, failed yourself, STOPPED!!?? Don't! Get started again, get up, enroll in classes, buy a book. Relive the moment that the dream was birthed and recount the feelings that erupted in your heart a that time in your life. I am sick and tired of seeing the greatest potential in peoples lives and them not fulfilling them. Help be my Vicks and Nyquil, help me feel better. Become!

I am done rabbit trailing. But simply broaden your horizon; begin to read:write! (re)Dream! Become!

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Privileged?

A great, great friend of mine, Rich Peterson, is a great pastor and is the father of my boss/pastor Jeff Peterson and he is currently the pastor to seniors at RMCC. Rich just celebrated a couple of years ago being in the ministry for over 50 years and in those 50 years he still has an amazing outlook in life and ministry. Every time he speaks of something he has to do or something he got to do he says he had the privilege in doing it. I didn't get it at first, I didn't realize it at first. As a matter of fact it wasn't until working with him for over a year and a half on staff with him before it clicked. We were discussing in staff four questions which I will be blogging about shortly. And after we would answer the four questions our pastor would exhort us and bring up some highlights of our past year that he had thought of.

It was as Rich was speaking that he said as a pastor to seniors he has to do so many funerals. He said that he had the privilege of doing eight funerals this year. I thought how could anyone think that a funeral is a privilege. Then I began to look back over the past 18 months at the moments that Rich would chime in, few and rare, but when he did everyone would listen. Rich has an enormous amount of wisdom with his 50 years of ministry and he spent many years as the Superintendent for the A/G in Illinois. I realized that almost every time Rich would speak of an event in his life like; speaking at a funeral, visiting someone on their death bed, telling a family member that their loved one has a terminal disease, at the bedside of an elderly man or woman as they draw their last breath he would share about the privilege he had.

This has caused me to think, think about how little value I put on the general things I do. How do I begin to look at each person, each event, each interruption in life as a privilege? I don't want to think about this in 50 years, I want to be that person now in this era of my life. I want to begin a new chapter in my life, I want to turn the page that is completely blank, dip my pen in the ink and begin developing a life of looking at every thing in life as a privilege. Let the penmanship of my life begin to write about the privileges I have.

Let me ask you something. What has happened lately that was not a privilege that you could renegotiate your thoughts and change your perspective and realize that you were privileged by the interruption in life?

How do I operate in 'privileged mode'?

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Weakness Produces Anger and Desperation?!?

I was watching Heroes last week and they had lost there powers for a while. The father of Nathan, Arthur Patrelli made the comment that when one loses their power they become:

• Desperate
• Angry
• Weak

Here is my thought, what happens when we are not on top of our game? What happens when you as a creative/pastor/leader isn't on top of it and you are being slightly subjective in your approach? I know there are times when life is going tough I get desperate for things to go right. Maybe I get irritable and even angry at people easier. Maybe my weakness causes my desperation and anger to leak out... no, no, maybe even poor out. So what do I got? What can I do to overcome my anger and desperation when I am weak? I must recognize where I find my strength, for me it is in God. In my weakness it gives me the opportunity to delve into the position of humility and seek God to be strong and give me the adequate strength, the endurance I need. Could it be pride that cause me to become desperate? I can't lose so I must fight to get what I want, I get desperate. Pride. Maybe I get angry when things aren't going my way and in the time that I want it to happen. What brings humility? When I choose to! It's when I choose to say I can't do it on my own, I have no more available. I can only win if I allow humility to rush in. God holds his hand back to force us to do what he wants. He hopes that we "tap out" so that he can allow his strength to be ours.

What about you? How do you help from becoming weak, then allowing your desperation and anger to come out?

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When the Golden Calf Becomes A Bronze Bull

Jesus People Pray That False Idol Will Save God’s Economy

I have so many thoughts that come to mind when I see this picture and read the headline above. "Jesus People," that's me... "pray that false idol will save God's economy." Hmm, ok this is clearly an incorrect assumption of all Christians. Should I, as a Christian, be praying for the economy? Sure. Should I spend $900 in airfare to go pray at the bronze bull in lower Manhattan? Certainly not. Then again, for people to be saying that those here are praying to an idol is ludicrous, they are praying at a statue for the economy, a statue that represents the monetary system...

Here is what one very liberal writer said in mockery:

Did you know that some Christian dingbat has dubbed today the “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies?” Well here they are, at the Wall Street bull statue thing, praying to Jesus for money. The dingbat has explained, “We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems.” Don’t they know that God taking over the economic systems would be SOCIALISM from SPACE? Also: God will be very mad that they are worshiping a bronze idol here, since his second commandment PROHIBITS THAT, duh? Thank you Wonkette operative “Dan the Man” for the photo. [CBN]

I sometimes wonder about radical Christians that make so much noise in protest or in this case bugling a horn to get people to notice them. I wonder if those that are not Christian, those outside the church get so confused by our actions they don't what a Christian really is. One day they see some radical pastor shooting and killing an abortion doctor and on another corner see other Christians with signs saying "Turn or Burn" and "Gays are going to hell." When will Christians just live life as an example and learn to LOVE? If our demonstrations were in truly loving then nobody could be offended, maybe someone could be offended by a glass of cold water, but the Bible is clear that we break no law if we simply love.

Maybe what they were doing in this picture was right, maybe not. If my friends were going today to pray at the bronze bull I would stay home, that's just me. Maybe this is similar to See You At The Pole, where kids every September stand at their flagpole at school to pray for their nation, school, and friends. I see it a little different. The school represents the kid's mission field. I also see this as a easy way to publicly show they are Christians in a non-threatening way with the hope of starting conversations. See You At The Bull however, to me is a little different.

Is it different? Should it be different? I honor their prayers at the bull and hope and pray that America learns to steward itself better. Then again it was America's greed for money and devaluing the end user/buyer to make some big/quick bucks that has put us here. Lenders creating explosive home loans set to explode after 3 or 5 years and called them adjusting. Yeah they adjust, they adjust out of the reach of the home owners while you sit back and make millions then when it get's tough, big brother will bail you out, yeah the big brother that just a few months ago rolled 10 trillion dollars in debt. I will keep praying in my prayer closet. not for 'them', but us, we all got into this together and now we need to all get out together.

So I offer my prayer...
Lord Help?!?

This is very open ended discussion but what is your thoughts?

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Lego Blocks [An Architective Design of Life]

Blocks even though much bigger than Legos, which happen to be my favorite, are one of Amberlyn's favorite toys right now (here you can read an old blog on Legos here). I am a typical father that loves playing with his child and because of my affinity towards Legos and blocks I can spend a long time playing with Amberlyn. As I sat down to play, I knew that meant quality time with my daughter.

As I began playing with her I realized she had a process to her building. I did architecture, both commercial and residential professionally for 6 years and have done a lot of remodeling and construction so I assume it must of been in my jeans figuring I learned all my construction from my father. I am proud that she cares about your building construction if only with blocks. She began to grab a block and add it the construction project. I would move it and place it where it 'should' go. Sometimes she was okay with that, sometimes she would move it back to where it was letting me know with her action that I was to follow her moves and I was merely invited to her construction project, I kept forgetting that. We began building bigger and higher and I was getting excited for how well her skills were for constructing such a high tower.

Higher, higher I told myself as I would point to where to put the purple 3 block, then came the 4 block and I would point 'here'. Then the 4x4 block and I point to the place that Amberlyn needs to put the block on our building. Then the hot pink single block and point to its future destination. Then I keep instructing her where to put the blocks so that our structure becomes a masterpiece. I have become the project manager. Notice the change from her structure to our and the her to I.

Then it happens, in an instant she is no longer an architect or contractor or project manager, she has thrown in the towel and found a new job of a demolitionist. She begins taking it all apart. Not as crazy as you would think, her girl qualities are apparent. She is descuplting it piece by piece. Where is the pile that it all goes, on daddy's lap. Each one at a time is placed on my lap and if one should fall she is quick to pick it up and place it in it's primary location that she has decided and I recognize my position is not of management but merely a hired hand in her demo crew. [That's the pic above of her placing the pieces on my lap.]

I realize the life lessons learned from a child, in this moment all is good and she has taught me a valuable insight into my life and hopefully yours.

You see God begins to place things in your life and asks you to do something or move, change directions, don't say something, speak into someones life, etc and many times we listen. Then it's almost as if God becomes predictable so we begin to look ahead at the seemingly predictableness and make the decision for Him. Not a big one, we are not that proud, we humble ourself and make a seemingly easy decision despite God's desire, why would we? We know what God wants. Next thing ya know we become the project manager for our life and begin to direct it and tell ourselves what to do, where to go. When something doesn't go right we respond to the problem instead of respond to the foundational issue. I became the project manager in the structure for my daughters creation. Many of us take the same role in our own life, we become the manager of our structured life.

Even worse, there comes a point that our life is so much a mark of our own architetive design that it no longer resembles the creation of our creator, like Amberlyns structure had become that of her dad's. Then what happens? Well with the blocks Amberlyn began to painstakingly take it apart one piece at a time.

There is a story in the Bible where Judah is stepping out of what God has for them, they are constructing their own fate. The are trying to build an alliance with Egypt and God is explaining to them the true depth of how bad Egypt has it in for themselves. In the beginning of Isaiah chapter 30 God is warning them. He tells them in verse 12 since they have rejected Him they will suffer, He explains that they will begin to fall and crumble as if Judah was this block construction of mine and they watch Amberlyn begin to destroy it one block at a time. God even says in verse 14 that their collapse is like the smashing of a potter's jar. I see Amberlyn destroying the structure taking it all apart and laying it as ruins, clay pieces in my lap.

Then verse 15 is the key to it all. God promises that in repentance and rest they will be saved, in quietness and trust is their strength. Here are four things to consider when you have began to make your own choices and run your own life

1. Repent - self explanatory, say you are sorry and vow to turn away from those decisions.
2. Rest - When we rest we are not making any moves.
3. Quietness - I am no longer making the call, I am quiet.
   
4. Trust - I give God the control to make my life into what He wants.

Here is the astonishing situation. Verse 16 God says, And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,” . It is amazing that in those simple 4 steps Judah failed. They thought their choices were the best. Lord break me into the smallest pieces, into dust, that I can no longer build so that I can only depend on You!

Are you able to put those 4 steps into practice? What is stopping you? What makes it difficult?

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Tech Stuff

Let me introduce you to Delicious Library 2. If you have any sort of library of books or a pile of toys and tools, music, software, electronics or movies this is for you. Ever have people borrow things and forget who has what? Want an easy way of checking stuff out to people, knowing who has what and when it's due that also automatically puts it in your calendar for it's due date? Want a simple way to look at everything you own on a nice bookshelf on your computer screen (Mac only!)? How about a way to input it all by scanning your items by it's UPC with your digital camera, video camera, laser barcode reader, or the best, through your iSight camera. Ever want to be able to see the library of others in your office and what they have soyou can borow? What about a program that will take your library and export it as a website that anyone can see, here's mine that I was messing with.

From their website:

When we demo Delicious Library to people, about ⅔ of them instantly say this:

“Wait, I just hold a CD or DVD or video game or book or whatever up to my webcam, and it magically reads the UPC and downloads that item’s cover and all pertinent information about it, and displays all my stuff on photorealistic shelves? I’ll take it! Right now! This is why I bought a computer in the first place! ”

This is a must checkout, it is awesome! The free version allows for 25 books, $40 gets you an unlimited library. Let me know what you think when you try it out.

CLICK on the picture above to go to their site!

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MADE Week 5

This is week 5 of RMCC's series based off the MTV show Made where Pastor Jeff will be discussing what is our purpose in life. We will be hitting several areas, lifegroups, where real life happens, worship encounters, where we get to experience God, and volunteer teams, where we get to serve the body and people of our community. Join us as I get to coach Cougar McSangston on life and how to get made into what God has him to be.

This week I get to coach Coug in the area of serving. He decides to help me out in making some food for a homeless shelter. Of course there were challenges along the way. Enjoy!

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Souper Salad and Being a Disciple

My wife Krisann, aka Chez has this enormous like for the restaurant Souper Salad. To me, Souper Salad is more like a garden for rabbits; where's the meat? I'm not a rabbit. The extent of meat is little cubits of ham that I refer as 'hamlets' and then bacon bits for your potato. I'm sure to complain and hate the place but recently I have given in to the taste and can enjoy it as needed. So my main issue is I am a meat person, steak, burger, ribs, pork, t-bone, etc. and this place doesn't do it for me on that scale.

When I think about this introspectively I think about how in my personal life I like to get in deep into subjects. I love to learn, I have this innate desire to try and learn all I can do on a subject or experience or item. Some say I am argumentative, I conclude I am when I feel I have a strong foundation on a certain subject, BUT I see my argumentative side more as my passions, however I am trying to become more professional at how I demonstrate my passions. Sometimes it gets me in trouble because it can be a bit over the top. On another note I typically don't argue in areas I don't know much about, I tend to open my ear and look at this as an opportunity to listen and learn. Life offers so many opportunities to learn. We need to learn to listen more instead of always having the answer.

So what does this last dissertation have to do with soup and salad? Maybe not much except that I see soup and salad as a introduction to a meal, but certainly not as a meal. Hebrews 5:12 says, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!" If you consider yourself a follower of Christ, wanting to live like him and better yourself and the world around you then you need to be eager to dig deeper into the Bible and learn everything you can. Be a meat eater, even if you are a vegetarian!

I want to be a disciple of Christ, while eating my veggies. What are you doing to grow yourself, to learn and grow more?

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Is All Truth God's Truth?

Is all truth God's truth?
A pastor friend of mine argued that that this statement is not true. Let's discuss that for a moment.

"Epistemology" is defined as "the study or theory of the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge." This is is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. When it comes to truth there is ZERO opinion. If your opinion happens to land on truth then great, your opinion is right. If your opinion does not align with the truth then your opinion is not true. You have a right to your opinion however you do not have a right to debate your opinion as truth if it is not true. Does perspective change truth? No. Perspective is how you may agree or disagree with truth, a sort of lens on how you view truth, but doesn't change it. What is comical about 'epistemology' is that can we really study knowledge? It almost seems like a paradox. But here is the main question, is truth a social construction or solely God's? I would relegate this to an absolute, I personally feel it can only exist wholly God's or man's. All things are created by God, He is the causality of everything. I process things through reductive reasoning, reduce this down to it's simple form, truth is God's or it isn't!

Truth is not subjective, truth is not opinionated, truth is not debatable, truth is not irrational even when you disagree with it, truth stands on it's own always remaining the same and being unchangeable. So I want to use a simile to look at truth; truth is to light as untruth is to darkness. There are verses like John 1:5 that says, the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Then Isaiah 5:20 NIV says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. So if dark and light cannot coexist then (un)truth cannot coexist. So truth and untruth cannot coexist then can there be truth that is not of God, if God is truth? This is commonly called the "correspondence of truth". This basically means that something is true only if it corresponds or agrees with factual reality. Again this is limited to our understanding of our universe and reality. So check this out, this basically presupposes a flow of logic called bivalence. In technical terms, bivalence is a very deep part of epistimology. Basically, any unambiguous, declarative statement must be entirely true or entirely false. So God is either wholly true or wholly false, we know he is wholly true, this is pretty declarative in studying God with the process of epistimology, again, only limited to how we interpret and understand what truth is, the absolutism of truth. For post-moderns I can stand firm upon their belief and say they are not human, based on their definition that truth is relative, they are a higher bread of mosquitoes (this is a joke based off their reasoning). Relativism is an attempt to not have to pony up to the admittance of self-responsibility, what a nice life. However that belief does not remove truth, ignorance doesn't create, again it is perspective.

Satan has no creative abilities, he can only use what God has created. He can manipulate truth, he can stretch truth, but he cannot tell the truth and lie at the same time, refer again to the rules of bivalence. Satan can borrow only. So the same rules apply, either Satan is a being of truth or he lies. We must understand his nature is evil so if he does tell the truth it is motivated my ill actions and will be used for bad. Now his truth is truly borrowed from God, not created. So even in this understanding we can say all truth is still God's truth. It either is or isn't. If it isn't all God's then whose else is it?

If God is true and God is the creator of all things then false is the lack of truth, just like darkness is the lack of light. Did God create evil or is evil the absence of Godliness and truth? Is there hate or is hate the absence of love? Thoughts?

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MADE Week 4

This is week 4 of RMCC's series based off the MTV show Made where Pastor Jeff will be discussing what is our purpose in life. We will be hitting several areas, lifegroups, where real life happens, worship encounters, where we get to experience God, and volunteer teams, where we get to serve the body and people of our community. Join us as I get to coach Cougar McSangston on life and how to get made into what God has him to be.


This week I get to coach Coug in the area of relationships. Of course like normal, he is terrified and freaks out at the thought of having to meet 'others'. He get's a first hand encounter of Lifegroups. Enjoy!

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My First Instructable

I decided to install a Hot Water Heater Timer on our water heater in our house and I have always wanted to do an instructable over at instructables.com, it is a great website to see how to make, fix or build something. They literally have thousands of instructables. So I decided to do both, here is a link to my Hot Water Heater Timer instructable. The cool news is within two days of doing it I got an email that it was a featured instructable on the home page. There is a pic below showing that (look at the left column under Featured, under the DIY Squid Hat, lol), I thought that was pretty awesome.

Basically here is what it does. It allows you to turn off the power to your electric hot water heater during hours of non-use automatically. The cool thing is that if you have a typical 40 gallon HWH you should be able to still get a few showers out if it even if it is during the time that it is scheduled to be off. We were able to cut out 16 hours, yes, 66% of our electric from our HWH that runs almost constant. Currently I have it scheduled to be on from 2a-5a for morning showers then from 9a-2p for washing clothes, dishes, etc. This is our winter schedule then it will change in the summer for off-peak hours. We are being green!

All the details, costs, etc. is available at the link above. Husbands, here is a way to make your wife see you as a man that cares about money, energy, and show her that you know a little somethin somethin. Best of all, is if you know nothing about electric or wiring you can get step by step instructions on the site.

So here is my question for you, what can you do to be green? To be responsible?

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Text Messages and Holidays

I got a couple dozen texts wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving, what nice people out there. I began to realize every holiday I get dozens of texts and I rarely reply. The main reason I never reply is because of the impersonal text. There are two sides to this, it would take way too long for all my friends to send out individual texts and I understand the easiness of doing it all at once. But I also understand that it feels so impersonal because it really isn't to me. I thank all those people who feel compelled to text me, don't stop, I just may not return the favor ;). Maybe I am selfish, maybe I am not.

Think about how this applies to business advertising or church advertising and marketing. We pump so much information to people who don't necessarily want it. TV commercials use interruption advertising. Many feeds are opt-in advertising which is one of the best kinds, it allows the user to opt-in and opt-out whenever they want to. The television programmers don't care if you are into the show or not. Why do we pay for cable if we are still forced to watch commercials. Doesn't commercials pay for the TV show? Then again if I am paying for cable television should't that opt me out of commercials?

I love all you text messagers who take the time to send me a text on the holidays and forgive me for not texting back. Am I alone in this? What do you feel?

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The American Culture Shift: Thanksgiving

It is amazing to see the cultural shift in America from Thanksgiving Thursday to Greedy Black Friday. Up until midnight we are still celebrating what we are thankful for, midnight plus one minute all has changed! Black Friday references to over 20 different historical events, but is most popular for it being the most popular day of shopping and representing the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This Christmas shopping season is huge among retailers, this is the day that they will open up as early as 4a (Kohls and Mervyn's) and have loss leaders that many times is an item that is sold at below it's value so that the store loses money in order to get the greedy shopper in their doors to buy more. But "Shaun you are being a bigot, we are saving money and therefore stewarding what God has given us." So right you are, but at least be honest with yourself, our mindset has changed.

Americans narcissistic attitude of greedy indulgence till your stomach is so full is the annual American Culture Shift. We over indulge with food on Thanksgiving Day then overindulge in spending the following day. Sure, Black Friday represents that the stores are no longer in the red and can show a clear upturn in their income... for what? At the risk of the consumers going into the red and piling on the credit card debt. Please let us not overlook the true meaning of Thanksgiving, what a day to celebrate. We spend 364 days a year overindulging then take a brief moment out of our schedule on Thanksgiving to be thankful for those 364 days. Clean water, jeans (multiple pairs), house, clothes, food, fast food, cars, fast cars, iPod, iPhone, cable TV, DVR, Big Screen, Stainless Steel appliances, Macs/PCs, Blackberries, pool tables, bikes, quads, laptops, air conditioning, gaming systems, and of course bling, we are in the land of plenty. Maybe you can sit back for a moment and be thankful. What about the bigger things in life, family, breath, health, free will, safety, compassion, empathy/sympathy, emotions, humor, laughter; you know the things that really count that are not able to be purchased but are part of every human, part of every eikon.

This year I want to be simply... THANKFUL!

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TXT MSG THAT MEANS SOMETHING!

I got a text message from one of our Lifegroup leaders and she sent out a text to all her students and I was fortunate enough to get included in it. She said:

Thought for the day: Relationships aren't built by sitting together but by serving together. Be in prayer for your cause.

That was a great challenge. Are we trying to just have relationships or trying to build relationships. Think of the value of something that you invested in. Listen to the difference between the value of these two statements; I have a house, or I built my home. We take pride in what we build. The value comes from the work that you put into it. Don't just be a part of something, create something, be a change agent.

Serve your friends. Serve your neighbors. Serve complete strangers. Here is one, serve your enemies. It is a simple thought but a very powerful one.

Today, who are you going to serve? What relationship are you going to build?

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My Abilities Are Gone?!?

On this Monday night's TV show, Heroes, the individuals with powers lost them as they experienced an eclipse. Here were a couple notes of interest:

• An interesting thought was the people without the powers were actually stronger because they live normally without powers, they are practiced daily.
• The heroes have only practiced their powers but forgot their carnal strengths/weaknesses.

BUT...

• What happens when you, a speaker, can no longer speak with your voice? Will you still have a platform?
  
• If you are an athlete and can no longer walk do you still have a sport and fans?
  
• If you as a creative suffers a brain injury on your frontal cortex on the right side and your ability to create and dream goes away then can you still imagine in color and be able to paint masterpieces?

What happens when we lose our powers, the talents and items that make us strong? Just an interesting thought I had, do you have any thoughts? What's your backup plan?

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IH82LSE

Yet another license plate as I drive through life. I have wrote one other post a while back on another license plate that is interesting, you can read it, it is HVNCNW8. This license plate happened to be on a C300 Sport Sedan Mercedes Benz, but a few years older, new they are priced at a low $33,775, that does includes transportation and handling charges but not taxes, title registration or tags, smile.

Let's talk a little more about this. I am competitive, sometimes too competitive. I am the type that will go too far, run too fast, throw too hard, etc. This typically leaves me VERY exhausted and a few times in this past year out of breathe and wheezing, nurse Kathy told me I have sports asthma after I was out of commission for about 45 minutes this past summer at Youth Camp. Nothing is worse than having to walk off the court with your head down knowing you can't finish. Lack of strength, lack of breath, lack of motivation, simply the lack of something... this holds so many athletes back from reaching their potential, their best. How true is this for the Christian that has a lack of motivation, breath, strength, or anything else that holds him back from reaching his world, changing his world, impacting his world; the way 12 ordinary guys did 2,000 years ago. Creatives stop their creativity because lack of vision, lack of dreams, lack of sketching on their whiteboards of life. Pastors stop leading because lack of strength, lack of vision, lack of support, lack of encouragement. We lose because we lack.

There are so many excuses/reasons for this... LACK.

Proverbs 5:23 NIV - He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

This past week I had given our interns a quote to dissect and we spent about an hour chewing on this and breaking it up. The quote is:

"Structure demands discipline, without it is chaos."

After we discussed it I had them write a one-page reflection journal to turn in this past Thursday. They got it! Each of the 6 seemed to really be able to grapple it and unserstand the depth and see how it can help them in college/ministry/causes/etc.

This is one simple straightforward quote, not many words but enough words that can put so much finishing in our life. Living with this simple concept apparent in our life, in all our decisions, can cause us to complete so many things in life and keep us from loosing out. As Proverbs says, we will die because of our lack of discipline, which will eventually lead us to major mistakes. Chaos breeds mistakes:folly! In order to make mistakes infertile, to destroy the ability to birth life of mistakes in our life, we must begin to bring discipline to the forefront of our minds and our decision making process. When we lack that ability we fail; we lose out on being great. We settle for being good and sell out for being great. Scott Gibbons in his book, Carry-On, said...

"Good things become bad things when they keep us from the great things."

The New Testament is scattered with passages of Paul referring to our life like a race and talking about not losing. He says things like keep pressing on, look forward, run with a pace, keep your eye on the prize, don't give up, run hard. These are not the words of the average, the bleak, the almosts, these are the words of athletes and the determined.

Do you have the heart of a champion, the heart of a lion, the heart of one who wants nothing out of life other than becoming the greatest that God can enable you to become? Quit lacking. I said it before in a post called Twitterranked and Self-Branding:

"Anyone doing anything better than you is providing you the resources, strategies, and ideas for you to be better than you already are." - Me

Allow me to be a little direct. Quit giving opportunity to lack, you have no excuses. Piggyback off the wins/experiences/failures of others, learn what they did(n't) do, spend time with them and ask them questions. Be intentional about your discipline. As you begin to find ways in your life to bring discipline into it you will see the chaos of loss begin to become impotent.

Have a passion that says IH82LSE!

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