Archive for June, 2010

A “not-so-new” (but great) leadership resource

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by .

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Leadership is an interesting thing, isn’t it. Some of us are born with a natural “know-how.” Others of us have to work really hard at it. All of us get stuck at certain places. As people who oversee ministries, we need it, need to know how to grow it and how to cultivate it. All of us know what our limitations are as a leader. I know mine. At times I’m embarrassed by mine. It’s good to know that this isn’t the end of the story, there’s plenty of time to develop and plenty of time to grow.

So, there’s a book out there that I want to point you towards. It’s called “Lead the Way God Made You.” I’ll be honest, it really spoke to where I am right now as a leader in many different ways. I’m doing an official review for this book on Monday, July 5th which I’m writing right now. It’s a holiday weekend and I’ve got a feeling that a lot of my regular readers will be soaking in some rays as opposed to reading my blog. On Tuesday, be sure to log in and read the review. I’m kinda excited about what this book might mean for me as a leader. Maybe if it helps me, it will help you.

Larry Shallenberger published this book five years ago and to celebrate the anniversary, he’s organized a blog tour. So far you can read Larry’s summaries here as well as the first few stops of the blog tour here, here and here.

If you haven’t read the book yet, go ahead and pick up a copy or two right here, I highly recommend it!

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Product Review: Live it Out

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by .

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So a few weeks ago, we took 70 kids and leaders to summer camp. There were 400 kids there overall and I had been hired by the camp to be the Camp Pastor at one of the three weeks of camp. They had chosen reThink’s Live it Out curriculum in a box to use as a camp theme and curriculum. We use both 252 Basics and My First Look every Sunday, so I was pretty familiar with the material. However, I wanted to give a review of my experience using the material supplied. Please note though that I didn’t go out and select this product and I wasn’t in charge of determining what we used and what we didn’t. As the Camp Pastor, I was given the DVD of video elements as well as the small group materials that had been selected for small group breakouts. So, my experience is more from a “adapt and use” approach instead of “choose and use” approach.

In the 8-10 years that I’ve taught at kids camp, this is the first time I’ve ever used a curriculum. I’ve always developed the theme, written the messages and put together the small group/develotional materials. So, this was a very new experience for me as well. After using a curriculum, would I do it again? Yeah, I think I would.

Live it Out was the first curriculum I’ve used for camp and it was a good/great experience… but I think that your feelings about it are going to depend on what your expectations are. As far as the theme goes, it was fantastic. Take it In and Live it Out is based on the scripture in Matthew, “However hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like the wise man…” The first day of camp was this main point as well as the parable of the wise and foolish men who built houses on the rock and sand. The next four days we chose lessons that were parables of Jesus and they all tied in so well to the theme overall. It was a GREAT message and theme for camp. I know that hundreds of kids were powerfully impacted. Many to begin relationships with God, others to truly “Live it Out.” In addition, the theme song was a lot of fun and very well done. The kids loved it… especially learning the rap. We only used 5 messages/lessons, but there were more to choose from. There was also tons of small group activities to take part in… tons. So, there was no shortage of material. Overall, “Live it Out” is pretty much consistent with what you would expect from 252 Basics.

What did I not like? Most of this may just be personal preference and experience. In all the years I’ve led camps, I never really led small group activities as breakout times like we do on Sunday mornings. For camp, I always had devotional times where kids spent time in their Bibles and working through a guided devotional that tied to what they were learning… teaching them how to have a quite time. In the evenings, I developed discussion guides for kids to reflect on what they were learning. In so many ways, camp is go, go, go, go and it was nice to have kids all gather around on one bunk and have a discussion time, not an activity. Also, I wasn’t a huge fan of the videos. They’re good, just not nearly as funny as I feel they need to be. The way to a child’s heart is through humor and I just don’t think they’re funny enough. Most of them are of one guy telling the story which has some humor, but I think kids really love the slap-stick approach of a straight-man/funny-man approach. However, these are just my impressions and my opinions.

The uses for Live it Out are endless. We used it for camp. I essentially wrote messages to go with the theme of each day. There is some video teaching with every lesson, but it just wasn’t long enough for our taste… not personal enough to lead the room of 400 kids to the heart of the lesson. Maybe it could have been with a guided approach with an emcee, object lesson and then wrap it up with the video teaching. However, others may love the video teaching and it would do the job. This curriculum in a box would also work great for a summer series. There is enough material in here to last you most of the summer with enough stuff to carry an entire church service. You could use it for a modified VBS or any other multi-day event.

So, if you’re looking at if for something like this, I encourage you to pick it up here. It really is a great resource!

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Summer camp video

Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by .

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After this week I don’t plan to publish any more camp posts. My production director was on a post-camp vacation last week, so I just got the final day of camp video. It’s a great video that shows a snapshot of all the best parts of camp. It’s about 10 minutes long, so feel free to skim. :)

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Dealing with Crisis

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by .

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Today was the last day of the series, Never Waste a Good Crisis. It was an incredible service, a great conclusion to a great series. The service led up to a key point… when the video below came on. Powerful! There were very few dry eyes around the auditorium. Nothing like the power of a story to drive a point home.

The link to the service wasn’t online when I wrote this post, so I’ll add the link when it’s up.

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Video Review: What’s in the Bible Disc Two

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by .

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Okay, I just finished watching disc two. Honestly, I intended to watch the review a month ago, but finding an hour to watch it and write my assessment has been harder than I’d have imagined. In case you didn’t read earlier, I wrote a review of disc one here.

I’m still impressed with the content. Several times I laugh out loud due to the witty and cleaver lines but it’s been well put together and it is certainly a fantastic way to be exposed to the Bible. Disc two covers the remainder of Genesis and and all of Exodus. What I love so much about WITB is that it’s not just an overview of key Bible stories, but key concepts are being introduced. In disc two, Biblical Cannon is explained, concepts of salvation and redemption are introduced as well as other things like patriarchal history and basic covenant theology. These concepts are key to understanding the “Bible story,” so it’s incredible that this DVD set is so well-rounded. If our kids grow up just knowing a bunch of stories, it isn’t likely that it will change their lives. However, if we tie the stories of the Bible to the problems and pain we experience, our kids might see God’s plan for their lives as told through his scriptures. Amazing.

One of the things I loved about this DVD were the tie-ins to current life. There’s a key point where the first commandment is explained. They went into a humorous explanation of how in those times people worshiped the sun and moon and statues. In my mind I’m thinking, “they really should tie this in to how we worship other gods like money and sports.” Then they did. Perfect!

Last of all, I loved the concept and strategy this series is revealing. In this disc they kept saying God’s rescue plan. When you read the Old Testament in light of the knowledge that God is at work to redeem his people, the stories all take on a different light. In this disc, they tie the ram God provided for Abraham instead of sacrificing Isaac and the lambs blood on the doorpost for the passover as foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus would make. This is so important, to tell the Bible story as one interconnected narrative that all points in the same direction.

My only negatives. I don’t like the Pastor and Sunday School Lady characters very much. They just come off as being a little weird and out of touch. Granted, they look very much like what a lot of Pastors and Sunday School teachers look like, so maybe that’s part of the reason for it. It’s just my opinion, but it doesn’t change how I feel about the videos overall. Go get them. You can pick them up here!

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-28

Posted on 28. Jun, 2010 by .

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Father’s Day Video

Posted on 27. Jun, 2010 by .

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Not sure if you’ve seen this yet. Usually I see this on the blogs or on twitter, but actually found this from the facebook feed of someone I recently married who isn’t really that plugged into church. So, I’m assuming that this video has gone somewhat viral. I have been a little out of touch though, so if “everyone” was talking about this last week and I just didn’t see it, I’m sorry for passing it along. I’ve cracked up at this many times now. Enjoy!

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App of the week: Settlers of Catan on iPhone/iPad

Posted on 27. Jun, 2010 by .

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I’m a huge fan of the game, “The Settlers of Catan.” Over a year ago Wired Magazine wrote an article about this game called Monopoly Killer that describes how this game and others like it are redefining the board game genre. I’ve been playing Settlers for 6-8 years and I LOVE it. So, I just found out this week that there is an iPhone app where you can play multi-player or just against the computer. I don’t get to play very often, so this app is great for scratching the itch.

I’ll be honest, it’s a little hard to play on the little screen that is my iPhone. However, I think the experience would be considerably different on the iPad. So, if you have an iPad and you’d like to check out a very unique but fun game, pick up the Catan app. The board game actually costs $40, so you might want to try out the digital version first to make sure you’re going to like it.

Check out more on this iPhone app right here.

Oh, but before I leave you though, I saw another bit of Catan goodness. A version of the game has been developed for the Microsoft Surface. We first learned about the Surface 3 years ago and over the years we’ve seen videos and bits of news about it, but nothing widespread. However, playing Catan on the Surface looks unread. Check it out!

If you feel you need to trust me that this is an awesome game, then buy it right here… the real board game version.

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Book Review: Read with Me Bible for Toddlers

Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by .

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I recently got a new Bible for my son Titus. I’ve been a fan of the Read with Me Bible for years, so I decided to try out the version for toddlers. Holy Cow, I love it!

So since Titus was about 6-8 months old, we’ve been reading to him from “The Beginners Bible.” Titus probably didn’t actually engage in the process of reading his Bible until he was about 18 months or so (before then he was more interested in tearing pages out). However, I think I was becoming bored with reading from this Bible. The illustrations are cute, but really on the simple side of things where the books he was really getting into were a little more complex.

So, the Read with Me Bible has absolutely amazing illustrations. It’s so easy to fall in love with the characters, especially Jesus. In other Bibles, characters are simple cartoon characters that don’t necessarily stand out. The illustrations in this Bible suck you into the story. The stories are simple (not weighed down with details) but longer than some of the other Bibles for this age group (15-16 pages). I like this becasue you can really get into the story. Other Bibles at this age group focus more on getting as many stories in the Bible as possible making each story just 2-4 pages long. Although this Bible doesn’t have nearly as many stories, the stories it does tell are very engaging.

The only downside is that this is a little shorter than your standard Children’s Bible. We read to Titus twice a day, so we’ll go through the entire Bible in a little less than two weeks. However, this could be a positive though. Kids do like repetition and becasue this is shorter, my son will hear the key stories more often and become more familiar with these stories than he would if we only read through the other children’s Bible 3-4 times in one year.

If you have a child between the ages of 2-5, I highly recommend this Bible. I also suggest you buy some of these for your preschool classrooms and encourage it as a resource to the parents of your church.

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Father’s Day @ Gateway

Posted on 22. Jun, 2010 by .

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Sunday was Father’s Day and we were right in the middle of a series called, “Never Waste a Good Crisis.” It’s been a phenomenal series. This week one of the leaders from High School and College shared his story. It’s a powerful story for men to hear and it tied into our series so perfectly. If you want to see more, I attached the video of the entire service below. Enjoy!

Full service:

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