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Is this thing on?
It’s 9:55am on a Tuesday morning and in 5 minutes I’m about to go “live” on Facebook to share a lesson or devotional on a special Facebook Page aimed at the kids and parents that call Rock Creek Church their church home. I’m prepared and ready to share something utterly profound and amazing since after all God’s word is indeed just that, but then I realize I have no idea if even one person will be online with me to see it. Will I be saying “is this thing on?” That’s when it struck me…Oh my Goodness, does God feel this way sometimes? Does God sometimes feel like anyone is hearing him? Granted,…
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A Children’s Pastor’s response to COVID-19. What an opportunity it is!
It’s everywhere and it’s effecting everyone. No one is exempt from the effects of COVID-19. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen and I thought 9/11 was about as crazy as it gets. I would have never guessed that I’d see the day that I would run out of toilet paper and there wouldn’t be anymore to buy. What’s funny is that there are people out there that have 800 rolls of toilet paper filling up a closet or garage in their home. Who would have known that a respiratory virus would require so much toilet paper to cure? I wish I was half as smart! Oh well, I’ll…
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I Want to Start a YouTube Channel!
Have you guys seen the latest stats on the top YouTube earners from this past year? It’s crazy, an 8-year-old boy named Ryan earned $26 million last year from his YouTube channel. The next guy down made $20 million. Seems to me, that if you are seriously creative and have some really good equipment, you too could be a multi-millionaire. Believe me, that logic is plausible especially after viewing several videos from “Ryan’s World”. You see, young Ryan plays with toys and then acts like a professional critic, making judgement calls on what is fun, not so fun and how toys could improve. Brilliant really, if you think about it.…
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History is Awesome!!!
Who out there is a history buff? I love to watch, read or listen to history shows, books or lectures about history. What we do and have done as people fascinates me. The human race has been so good and yet so bad. From the fall of man to present day, history proves that God’s prized creation is simply sinful and flawed. Decisions made by man throughout history have always proven to be less than perfect but perfectly human. The reason, I’m bringing up history is because unfortunately, history is something the younger generation has no concept of and that’s so sad. It’s also not good for this country, the people in it or the kids…
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Those Darn Expectations!
Every day we set them for ourselves and others and they are also set for you by others. They are sometimes really low and sometimes really high but rarely are there none. They judge, define and always create some level of anticipation. They are a part of every relationship, every situation, every dream and really every thought that comes out of our brain. They are (cue the booming drum sound Bom-Bom-Bom) – Expectations! Expectations are constant! Whether we want to admit it or not, we set them with everything. Want proof? Ok, you set one for this blog post. See, I told you so. Expectations are how we prepare ourselves or protect ourselves from the unknown. They give us…
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What Are You Selling?
Before I got into ministry, I spent many years as a salesperson. I learned so much about life while I was in sales and I find myself constantly finding similarities between sales and ministry. I thought for fun I would share some of those with you today: #1) You win some – you lose some! You are going to have days where you nothing goes right, people mistreat you, your lesson falls short, you make a change and you feel as if your volunteer staff, the kids and the parents are all going to hang you from a tree. Those days happen and if we let the evil one get in our heads,…
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What Bothers You?
The question “What bothers you?” was brought up recently during a sermon I heard from my pastor. It’s the kind of question that can either stir up some things in you or it can make you shut down because whatever it is that bothers you is dragging you down and you feel helpless to resolve it. My pastor asked this question after he told the Bible story of Ehud the Benjamite who was under severe Moabite persecution and was bothered enough about it to kill Eglon the Moabite king. The result was that he was able to fire up the rest of the Israelite people and start an uprising strong enough to…
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MOVE!!!
A few weeks ago, I spent a few days in Phoenix at a church planters conference. The conference was designed to help encourage current and future church planters. The theme of the conference was “Move”. For future church planters, it means don’t just stand there, get going and do what God has called you to do, go plant a church. For current church planters, it means to move in a way that would make your church grow or make a greater impact in the community that God has you in. For those of you in established churches, let me tell you the one thing that you can do right now that will change you…
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One More Thing!
In nearly 20 years in children’s ministry, I’ve yet to have a year that I wasn’t short volunteers at least somewhere and at some time in the ministry. I’ve read all of the articles about how to recruit and keep volunteers and basically, I’ve done just about everything short of sin to do just that. Sometimes, those strategies work and sometimes they don’t. I think, in general, it really comes down to building relationships and continuously building into those relationships with vision, leadership, and appreciation. All I have to say about that is…easier said than done! Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe if you build into people, people will help you build out…
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Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me This Before?
About 3 weeks ago I helped officiate a funeral for a 14-year-old girl that lived about 4 houses down from my home. She had taken her own life on New Year’s Eve and was discovered by the girl’s mother on New Year’s Day morning in their own home. An unbelievable tragedy to say the least! I knew the girl because her parents had attended our church for about a year and she was in 3rd grade at that time. I remember that little girl as this sweet, bright-eyed girl who loved to talk about her animals that her family had. One day at church, I had decided to present the…
