Archive for the ‘youth’ Category

Sooo Long!

Posted: July 17, 2008 in children, FIGHT Night, summer, worship, youth, Youth Quake
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FIGHT Night is over and we are on to the next event. At the end of each night we would sing this song titled, So Long. I have had the song stuck in the orchestra pit of my brain all day.

The “Farewell Tour” is finally coming to an end. We leave for Youth Quake on Friday. YQ is one of my favorite events of all time. We bust out the tents and camp in the mountains of Colorado for a week with 300 high school students. Each night is like a major worship event and every day we get to do something cool like climb a mountain and whitewater rafting. This year I get to go with a group to the Royal Gorge! I am also going to try and meet up with my long time friend and former vocal coach Chris Beatty. Check out his blog here

This will officially be the last major event I get to play with my youth worship band 3rd String Jesus. (Yes there is a story behind the name… that’s another post) Jacob, Andy and Nathan are like brothers to me. I have really enjoyed getting to know them, mentor them, and learn from each one of them. Each of them give up a lot to travel with me to all these camps and youth events to help inspire worship in students from all over the Midwest every summer and for that I will be forever grateful. Please pray for us on our last trip as we head out to CO for one last “hoorah”. As we sing at FIGHT Night…

We wont say good-bye but for now we’ll say
“So long, we’re gonna miss you when you’re gone
With His love you can’t go wrong
We’ll be here to help you along
So long, you can thank your dad and mom
Clap your hands and sing this song
But until next time we’ll say ‘So Long’! “

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Mad Props Friday!

Posted: July 11, 2008 in children, ministry, summer, VBS, youth
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Since I am feeling the “themes” this week we are going to call Friday Mad Prop’s Day. This will be the day I give my “Prop’s” to someone who has done something outstanding during the week. Feel free to leave your own “prop’s”, “atta boy’s”, or whatever it is you happen say to let someone know they are friggin awesome.

Mad Prop’s Friday #1
This week’s “Mad Prop” goes out to my boy Aaron. “Double A” (as I refer to him) is the Children’s Minister in our budding congregation. He was hired shortly after I came on board to be the assistant CM and a couple years ago took on the lead role for the Children’s Ministry. This year AA has stepped it up a notch and it is all going down this week.

For years our congregation has put a massive amount of effort and resources into a VBS program every summer. I know what you are thinking… “VBS? Is your church stuck in the 1980’s Tim?” but this was the VBS of all VBS’s. Every year we would see 500- 600 kids along with 200 volunteers come together to educate the children of our community on the value of God in their lives. With full production, music, story rooms (that literally made you feel like you were “there”) and hundreds of kids our VBS program set the standard. For a 100 year old church like the one we are a part of, VBS was a jewel in our crown. Surely God was going to give us a bigger mansion because our VBS program was “bigger” and “badder” than any other VBS out there.

Of course AA, in the back of his mind, wondered if we were actually meeting the spiritual needs of our community or simply meeting a cheep babysitting need for the white collar, suburban driving, stay at home mom, ecosystem that is Owasso. So Aaron took a risk. A BIG risk. Aaron decided to kill VBS and create a tool to help parents and kids learn and grow together.

On paper this looks like a great idea. More and more we are finding that parents don’t know how to teach their kids about God and the Bible. Part of that is due to our congregation making a concerted effort to reach more non-Christians (good job church) and part of it is due to our failure to educate parents how to teach their kids moral truths and Godly decision making (boooo church). So setting out to solve this dilemma sounds great… unless you work of a hundred year old church that has “always done VBS”.

So MAD PROPS to AARON! Come Wednesday night he will either be the guy who took our children’s ministry to the next level or the guy who sends you an e-mail to ask if your church has an open Children’s Minister position. Either way he is doing what he feels like God is leading him to do and is willing to risk it all to do it.

CAMP!

Posted: July 1, 2008 in camp, summer, worship, youth
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I am back at camp this week, this time with 4th -6th graders. Its a short camp so I will be back in the office on Wednesday. Tonight will be our last worship time before they leave tomorrow morning. Pic’s coming soon!!

One Last Time

Posted: June 16, 2008 in camp, summer, worship, youth
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I have jokingly deemed this summer my “farewell tour”. For years I have spent the majority of my summers months leading worship for youth summer events, camps and retreats only to return to the home church to lead our congregational worship on the weekends. It is one of my favorite times of the year. I’ve noticed, however, over the past couple years that my mind, body and spirit are not holding up as well as they used to. I’m usually worn out by the weekend and have little to nothing left to give to my family or lead the church when I get home. Growing older, well… it sucks! So, my wife and I decided that this would be the last year I accepted invitations from camps and youth events and would begin to focus more on our local congregation and overseas missions durring the summer months. It will also be nice to be a parent to my kids at the youth events we participate in. So it begins tonight with worship at camp CYOKAMO for about 300 Jr. High students from KS, MO, OK and AR. I will be with them all week and then back home on Friday. I have three more week long events between now and the end of July with a few one nighters mixed in. I am tired already…