Month: July 2013

Looking for your ministry dream job?

I’ve been at Gateway now for over 5 years and we’ve made a lot of progress. I’ve had some incredible staff over the years, but I’m actually at a moment where I have two very key positions open. Over the years I’ve patiently built a team from the ground up and I can’t tell you how stoked I am about finalizing my dream team with these two positions. Once these positions are filled, we’re going to see some amazing things happen.

So, what are these positions I’m hiring? Thanks for asking. The positions are:

Early Childhood Ninja
Elementary Ninja
Yes, I could have said Elementary Director or Early Childhood Director, but lots of people can call themselves a director. A ninja though is a master at his or her craft. They’re abilities go beyond those of others. They’re the best of the best… and that’s who I’m looking for. These full-time positions offer a competitive salary package worth relocating across the country for. What makes these positions most attractive is that they’re part of a killer NextGen team at Gateway Church in Austin, TX. Let me break down that awesomeness:

Killer NextGen Team: Seriously, some amazing people to work with that do ministry as a team… both kids and students
Gateway Church: An amazing church that is reaching the post-modern, post-Christian community of Austin like very few churches are able to do
Austin, TX: One of the coolest cities in the country… no joke. From the food, music and fun, there are few places on earth like Austin, TX
So, who is the ideal candidate:

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App of the week: Pocket

My friend Jonathan Cliff introduced me to this little app and I must say, it’s beyond fantastic.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m a tab addict. At any given time, I could have as many as 20-30 tabs open in my browser. Currently I have 13 open, but that’s only because I restarted my computer yesterday and lost the tabs that were open. Oops. Good thing I have a browser plugin that saves my tabs (I’m telling you, I have a serious problem).

On a daily basis, I’ll have a dozen tabs that I’m actively working out of, tabs with multiple email accounts, google drive account and document, my calendar, facebook, twitter an many more. However, things used to get far more complicated when I’d come across a page or article that I wanted to read but just didn’t have the time at the moment. In the past, I’d simply leave the tab open with plans to come back and read it when I had time. Yes, sometimes that tab would remain open for weeks.

I know, some people suggested bookmarks… but I’m just not the bookmark kind of guy. They take more time to organize or clean up than they’re worth messing with. Plus, many of these tabs are just pages I want to glance at, nothing more.

Well, then came pocket. 

Pocket solved my little problem and provided several additional solutions.

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When a Teen Idol crashes and burns

I’m sure every generation of parenting had it’s extreme challenges. With the hyper connectedness of media and social networks of today’s times, it seems like parent have got to be one their A-game like never before. The issue I’d like to bring up is subject of teen idols. Most kids have them, from TV actors, sports prodigies and most well known… the teen rockstar! This kind of teen role model isn’t really a bad thing, everyone needs someone to look up to. However, as parents, we need to prepare our kids for the likely event of when a teen idol crashes and burns.

Case in point… Miley Cyrus. The lovable star of Hannah Montana of just a few years ago, who had the hearts of millions of pre-teen girls is no longer the teen idol you want influencing your pre-teen girls. This isn’t just a problem for teenage fans who fell in love with Miley years ago, but new fans are made everyday with old DVD’s and video on demand services. The pro-Christian message and strong morals Miley professed a few years ago has been replaced with strong messages of sex promiscuity and drug use.

Check out the reaction of these teenagers who watched her new music video “We Can’t Stop.”

WARNING, this video is not safe for children!

My favorite quote, “It made no sense, like, nothing made sense,” one teen said “[Miley] just wanted to take every cool and edgy and explicit and naughty thing she could come up with and throw it all together in one big vomit of mess.” Some of the teens recognized the disaster, but others saw it as Miley making a name for herself and they were in full support.

This flip-flop happened so fast, many parents still think as Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana as a great role model for their kids. So what happens when your child’s harmless teen idol goes off the deep end?

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Are you thirsty for love?

In case you were wondering, the Hoff is alive an well. Oh, and he’s also thirsty for love! Click, play… you know you want to.

This is why I love marketing. It’s not always predictable. Some companies will spend millions on an ad that is completely forgettable. Then a company comes along and gives David Hasselhoff a mic and the result is so awful it is amazing. You’ll remember this video much longer than the latest GEICO commercial, I’m sure of it.

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The DNA of a serving trip for kids

I am in no way and expert when it comes to serving trips with kids. I participated on a mission trips as a middle school kid and three during my high school years. I’ve also led 2 trips for elementary aged kids and helped lead 3 trips for middle school and high school students. So, I have enough experience to have some strong opinions, but I’m still learning for sure.

I really think that there are three elements that make the serving trip really successful.

  • The small group element
  • The serving element
  • The adventure element

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Why I feel that serving trips are better than camp

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, right? This is mine. I may not be right, even by a long shot. However, I feel like I’ve done this thing long enough to see the outcomes of both. Hear me out though, I’m not saying that you should only do one or the other, I’m just stating a case for why more effort should be invested in making serving trips for kids a reality.

Yesterday I posted about why we stopped taking kids to summer camp. With 20+ summer camp experiences under my belt, few people are bigger summer camp fans than I am. However, I realized that there’s room for something better than camp.

So, here are my reasons:

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Why we stopped going to summer camp

This year we made what would seem like one of the hardest decisions a ministry team would make. After three years of very successful summer camp experiences for kids, middle school and high school, lets not do them any more. When I proposed this to my team back in the fall and explained why I wanted to kill summer camp, it took very little convincing. I was kind of surprised actually.

Why did we kill summer camp?

Two reasons really.

To better align with our strategy
To make room for something better

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I’m not dead

This may be the longest I’ve gone without writing a post on this blog. No, I wasn’t on sabbatical. That comes later. Actually, for the past three weeks, my staff and I led 150+ kids, students and leaders on serving trips around the country and world. It was a first for Gateway and it was AMAZING. Here’s a quick video from our Kids Go! Team last week. I’ll write more about our serving experiences next week.

The music is from North Point Kid’s newest album Shine. It’s awesome, you can buy it here.

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