I think I have written about holding Nathan's hand before. It is something that grabs my attention over and over again, though so I wanted to write about it again.

Nathan and I like to play "Ninja Warrior" I set up courses and act as the announcer. Nathan plays the part of the athlete acting out fantasies of the guys on TV. Yesterday was a bright war day tucked in between days of rain so we wrung every last bit of daylight out of the sky before we came inside. Eventually the backyard became Mt. Midoriyama and once again Nathan was tackling the course.

Of the obstacles I set up for him was a long log that he needed to balance on and walk across. It was small and sort of wobbly and even I had fallen off when I was showing him the course so I was pretty sure he would have some trouble with it. Nathan was pretty sure too because as soon as he got to the edge of the log and was ready to step up he shot his hand up in the air to grab hold of mine. The action for him was instinct. He didn't ponder whether or not he wanted my help he just knew that he couldn't make it across without me so his hand shot up in the air.

But here comes the twist. I didn't take it. It hurt me, even in that small controlled space I wanted to grab his hand and help him to walk across that log, but I didn't. I didn't because the game was that he make it across on his own. I didn't take his hand because I wanted him to learn to walk without me.

Even as I type that it makes me a little sad. The fact that his whole life really is learning to walk without me is a hard thing for a dad to swallow sometimes, but it is true.

As I sat there and watched him step off the log time and time again I kept thinking about God and how he helps us. I wish that I had the instinct to reach up for him even before things get to the point where I am falling. I wish I would reach for him even before I took the first step.

But I also thought about how sometimes God does for us what I did for Nathan. He lets us walk through it on our own. We may mess up, in fact we often do, but we learn. We learn and we gain confidence. We learn and then we are able to face little logs without fear. We learn and when the big logs, the logs across chasms come our way we can be confident and reach out our hand for God and face bigger things.

Not a truth to glean from a child's game modeled after a Japanese game show.

Do you play WoW? If you don't even know what those letters mean then this post may not work for you. I sort of pride myself in being able to explain things to people who aren't interested in them, but honestly this may even be beyond my level of expertise, but I do have something sort of spiritual to tag onto the end so if you want to stick around you may get a short devotional thought for your effort. If you don't I will understand.

The game World of Warcraft is wildly popular. That is really an understatement. Ten Million people pay $15 a month for the right to play this game with their friends. If you don't play it is hard to describe what it is all about. There is a fantasy styled world with lots of computer controlled people, shops, cities, monsters, and dungeons all set up and waiting for you to interact with them. In addition to that there are hundreds of people just like you controlling 3D models of dwarves, elves, humans, orcs, and a variety of other races who are all running around in this world as well. As player you interact with other players and with the computerized world.

While you can play this game alone it is meant to be played with other people. The game really shines when you start finding other people to play with. There are lots of people who have dedicated nights when they log on to meet up with a group of friends (their "raiding party") and play through content in the game.

To succeed in this social environment part of the game everyone has a role to play and they must play that role or the group will fail. Some people are there just to inflict damage on whatever enemies you face. Others are there to heal the rest of the group and some of the people are there to be the tank.

I recently started being a tank and I have to say that I love it. Now don't start thinking about a real tank. This is still a fantasy world we are talking about. The tank has one major job. He wades out into the thick of the enemies and basically picks a fight with them. Then he has to stand his ground long enough for the rest of the people to kill the enemies. His job isn't to inflict the most damage. His job is basically to keep the people from attacking the other people in his group. He even has special gear that makes enemies want to attack him more.

Now I like being the tank for two reasons 1) because I don't do well hanging back in games and 2) because I feel like it is sort of noble in a weird video game sort of way. There isn't much glory in being the tank, but the rest of the group can't survive without you.

Now to the spiritual point. I think sometimes as pastors we are called to be the tank for people in our church. As a "professional" I feel like it is my job to do whatever I can to help the people who volunteer to succeed. If this means that sometimes I need to step in front of a cruel word and take the blame for something that may not have been my fault so be it. I am the tank.

Of course to do this you have to have the right sort of gear. It is important to be able to stand up and take criticism and that is never easy to do, but if we are willing to do that for others then we can sometimes turn the tide of a difficult situation long enough for a peaceful resolution.

I may be the one person under 40 who read, but wasn't blown away by Francis Chan's first book Crazy Love. I don't know if it was just the place that I was in my life, or that I felt like Erwin McManus had been saying similar things for a long time, but I didn't really see what all the fuss was about.

But that didn't stop me from wanting to read his newest book Forgotten God. I am just a few pages in and it is already opening my eyes to a great deal. I keep thinking that if you asked my students they would say that I apparently don't believe in the Holy Spirit because I don't ever talk about Him. I talk about the power of God and Jesus in your heart, but that third part of the trinity is saved for theological debates and not real life talk.

So like I said, it has been an eye opener so far. Here are a couple of quotes that jumped out at me.

The World is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. (Forgotten God p 17)

I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly. (Forgotten God p 37)

Because of a change in our children's ministry the youth have moved out of our own little worship room and into the sanctuary. This is a necessary change because the children's ministry has nowhere else to go, but it does cause a couple of problems. One of them, the fact that the space is just too big and too formal is something I can't really fix.

The other problem is that I really like to have a transition from hanging out to time to worship. (yes, yes, I know that all of our life is worship, but you know what I mean). This was easy in our old space because we hung out outside of the worship room. With us being in the sanctuary this isn't possible. So what I have been doing is using countdowns to at least let the students know when we will start.

Today I found a very fun little site called Free Countdowns. Guess what they have there? I will give you a minute...you're right! They have free countdowns! They also have green screen footage of a 3 minute countdowns so you can add them to your own video. A while back I picked up countdown creator, but it never got installed on this computer because we weren't using countdowns. Now that we are I need to get it installed, but until then I think I will love these free ones. (be sure to check out the Body Countdown towards the bottom of the 3 minute page. It is priceless.

We are finally coming to the end of the old testament in our storytelling trip through the Bible. It has taken me close to 6 months to get here, but I feel like it has been worth our effort. This is the first time that any of these students have been part of lessons that put the story of the Bible in context.

Tomorrow we are going to talk lightly about the prophets and then take a few moments to recap what we have learned about God from the Old Testament and what we have learned about people in general.

For me the most fascinating thing is what happens after Malachi. The fact that God goes silent for 400 years is amazing to me. God has been showing up and speaking through prophets or judges or leaders at least every 80 years or so, and most of the time more than that, and now suddenly the curtain closes on the story of God and doesn't reopen until the Greek empire has already come and gone and the Romans are in power and in charge of Israel.

Here is the cool thing. There were still people who believed and who worshiped. Sure there were people who got things wrong and people who used religion to promote their own agenda, but there were also people who were still faithful, still believing the stories passed down through generations. So that when the story opens again and we find John crying out in the wilderness people know enough about God to respond.

I really can't wait to dive into the New Testament, but I think we are going to take a short break and do a more traditional type of lesson for a while and then get back to it next month.

I installed the Windows 7 release candidate as soon as it came out. I have loved my Windows 7 experience but for a few days now it has been telling me my free period was up. So just two days before it starts shutting down every two hours I am sitting up killing time while I upgrade to the paid version.

I am able to post here because of the really great Squarespace iPod app. I just found it tonight and I am very pleased with it so far. Speaking of apps Plants vs Zombies has consumed way too much of my time these days but it is great!

Below is a letter from my wife, Meredith, about the mission trip she is taking this summer to Guatamala. I thought I would ask you guys if you would like to support this mission as well. You can make donations 2 ways. 1) You can click the "donate now" button in the sidebar or 2) if you would like your donation to be tax deductable you can send a check to

Calvary Baptist Church

107 Baker Drive

Eufaula, AL 36027

As a young child my mother taught me in Mission Friends about the missionaries God sends around the world to tell people about Jesus. As a college student God placed a burden on my heart to be one of these international missionaries. Now as a mother of two small boys it is not easy for me to say, but “Yes, I still want to be one of these missionaries.”

And this year I have the opportunity to serve with a team from our church in Guatemala the week of July 11-17. We are working with the organization Happy Feet International based out of Gardendale, AL. We will be going into the mountain areas and taking shoes for the children – children who have never had a pair of shoes on their feet. More importantly we will be taking the gospel of Jesus Christ - to people who have never heard the name Jesus.

The cost of the mission trip is $2,225. If you would like to provide financial support for this trip, it would be greatly appreciated. Please make checks payable to Calvary Baptist Church and on the bottom of the check in the Memo section indicate “Meredith Mission Trip.” The trip must be paid in full by June 3.

If you cannot help financially, please be a prayer partner for me as I prepare to journey to Guatemala. I am excited about this opportunity to serve our Savior.



I decided to pull a list of some of the good friday ideas that I have published here over the years. Hope it helps.

"Crucify Him" responsive reading

"The Torn Veil" hands on experience

"Unashame Love" object lesson

"The Cost" performance poetry piece

"Because of the Cross" a very rough worship outline (some of the links no longer work)

I am a person of stories. I think I always have been. That is part of the reason why I love this storytelling series (yes we are still in the same series) that we are going through right now with the youth. I love these stories and I love learning new stories so I figure that these students would love it too.

Of course that isn't the case. Some of them love it, some of them don't, and some of them haven't heard a word I have said because they are always just paying attention to their girlfriend or boyfriend. But that is a common thing and as a youth pastor just a part of the fabric of our lives.

The problem for me, the problem that has me awake at midnight looking for answer is that every single student that comes through the doors of our church (and the ones who don't) are hungry for stories. They crave the stories of their friends, they search for stories of celebrities that they want to be like or who they feel connected to. They are hungry for stories because that is how we related to each other. We don't give a bulleted list of our lives, we share our stories with each other. So these students want stories, so my mission is to find a why to help them see that this God story that we are talking about is the root story, the heart of all that they are searching for. This story is connection like they have never dreamed because it is the story of the creator of connections.

They are hungry for story and it is shameful for me to serve them something that makes them turn up their nose and refuse to eat.

So I have some more praying, some more writing, and some more just plain old thinking to do before I sleep.

How in the world can a sport as slow and non-action oriented as curling keep my attention for so long?

...spoke at my church tonight about her recent trip to Uganda and Ethiopia. She came home with the desire to take Jesus literally when he talked about reaching out to help the poor and a vision of sharing that desire with others. She spoke tonight with a passion that was challenging beyond words.

I couldn't have been more proud.

If you would like to hear it you can download an MP3 here. She ended with a video so that is why it seems a little chopped off at the end.

Howard the Duck

Killer Clowns from Outer Space

Fletch

I just planned out your evening. Your welcome.

Like most youth parents I have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the best way to minister to the parents of my students. Parent ministry is important because parents are the most important spiritual influence on their children. The Bible tasks parents with the spiritual development of their children. As youth pastors our primary job is to help them to do that. Our job isn't to take over the spiritual education, but to help supplement what the parents are already doing.

Tonight I am sitting at Lifeway listening to a seminar about parents being involved in the lives of their students and I got this idea. What if I changed my title and job from Student Minister to Student Parent Minister?

I think that would help out in several ways. It would communicate to parents their importance. It would help reshape our programs to be more family oriented and last but not least when I was talking to parents about helping their children grow spiritually they wouldn't look at me with that "Isn't that your job" look.

I don't think I will make the change any time soon, but it is something to think about.

I have been a published author for over 5 years now. For the past few years I have been writing two or three things a year for Lifeway. In all that time I still can't get used to seeing my name in print. This is Volume 3 of Fuel Ignited. I wrote one of the unit Bible studies. To be honest I had sort of forgotten about writing it until I opened my door on Thursday and there was a package on my doorstep with the DVDs inside. Anyway, click here if you want some more info.

I have been reading Greg Atkinson for a while now and I have been very impressed with his recent posts about finding a space for your worship music to breathe. You can check out the discussion here.

Our Wednesday night praise band has a very hard time finding any sort of dynamics other than loud. We make even the softest of praise songs sound like an 80s power ballad, but these past two weeks I have been trying to push the idea that everyone doesn't have to play all the time.

It makes the music more interesting and also I think creates some spaces for more introspective kinds of worship, but in a bright lit room (which we are in right now because we gave our cool worship space over to the children's ministry) it can sometimes be hard to stand on stage in front of everyone and not play. But my guys came through like pros tonight and I think the worship music portion was some of the best we have had in a long time.