Check out these websites....

Hey....here are a couple of websites that awesome resources for parents. Check'em out!

http://www.myfamilyminute.com/

http://www.allprodad.com/

Let me know what you think.

Passion

What are you passionate about? I mean, what is it that you really have a passion to do in life? I'm not saying there is just one thing, or has to be just one thing....but what is it that you really have a desire to see happen in your life and the lives of those around you?

For me.... I am passionate about students and their spiritual journey and leading people into a meeting with God through creative arts and music. God has gifted me in the areas of relational skills and musical ability. So I try and look for ways to use those things every chance I get. And it drives me nuts sometimes when I see things that could be done better or more efficiently in these areas, but are falling short due to lack of planning, selfishness, personal preferences, or any other deterrent. I want to be able to help in the areas that God has gifted me in, and to be used.

For instance..... over the years I've had many people come to me and say....Doug, I have a passion for leading people in worship through music. Well...if that is true, then I should be able to say....great! We need someone to lead our children's ministry music team and that person would jump at the chance because they are passionate. But more times than not, the person is actually talking about a personal desire to do something specific. What I really meant was that I have a desire to sing for the main service.

There are times when God takes what we are passionate about and asks us to use those gifts in arenas, or with groups in which we may not be totally comfortable. But a passion for something will transcend personal preferences. Who are we to limit God's ability to use our gifts? By claiming to be passionate about students, I can't turn around and say, but only if I get these kids or those kids.

What the church needs today is people that will say.... I am passionate about using my gifts and abilities in whatever way, and in whatever place God sees fit to use them. God has placed leaders in our lives that we must trust are following His directions in the ministry they lead and are working to grow the Kingdom through those ministries. The service that is needed, and the service that Jesus exemplified, was one that asks where do you need me, not here's what I need.

On the leadership side of it.... I have to make sure that I am doing what I do with excellence, and using the resources that God gives me to make what we do the absolute best it can be. If I have someone sitting on the sideline that is gifted to do something excellent, and I am settling for okay just so someone else's feelings don't get hurt.... I am wrong. When God resources us, we are to use those resources. And sometimes that means admitting that we are not the best, or we're not equipped in the same way as someone else, etc....Pride can be an ugly thing.

Where is God calling you? What gifts has He equipped you with to serve His kingdom? And where are you needed right now in your communities of influence? Leaders...who is sitting on your sidelines right now wanting to be used and equipped to do something better than you're doing it right now? It's about the Kingdom, and a passion for a lost and dying world.

I'm out....

Harvey

Growing up, my family would take frequent trips up into the woods of East Texas. For most of my childhood my granddaddy lived in the Kirbyville, Hemphill area near Lake Toledo Bend. My brother and I loved getting out of the city and going out into the woods. My granddaddy had an old bird dog named Sport and an old chevy truck named Old Blue. There were woods for squirrel hunting, the lake for fishing, pine cones for throwing at each other, and peas for shelling (I hated that job). Needless to say, the only dull moments at my granddaddy's house came at night. I think they went to bed somewhere around 6:00pm and the only thing ever on tv, remember this was pre-cable, was baseball or the news. We played a lot of cards and knee football in the living room.

One of our favorite things to do was to go visit Uncle Harvey. He was actually my great uncle, but everyone just called him Uncle Harvey. His family had kind of disappeared and my granddaddy was left to look out for his brother Harvey. The thing was, Harvey was a hermit. For real! He lived in an old cabin in the woods by himself. As long as you went out there with my granddaddy you were safe. I never tried going out there without him because every time we went, Harvey was sitting at the ragged old screen door that was his front door, with a double barrel shotgun....locked and loaded.

His truck, lawn mowers, air conditioner, garage and everything else within range of the shotgun had been blasted several times. Uncle Harvey had a problem with hallucinating that people were trying to steal his stuff. So I was not about to run the risk of mistaken identity.

Harvey had long gray hair, and a long gray beard and was always wearing some old overa

lls. There was a massive tree in his front yard with vines that had been growing for decades hanging from the top of the tree. My brother and I would climb up in this tree and swing out of it like Tarzan until Harvey started shooting at the people living in the tree that were trying to "get" me and my brother.

As a kid we never thought about it, but Harvey lived a completely lonely, isolated life. Outside of my granddaddy taking him into town occasionally for groceries, he never left his cabin. If he did the tree people would probably steal everything he owned. He had none of life's finer things, and really didn't care for any of it.

I thought of Uncle Harvey the other night at the movies when I saw the trailer for a new movie starring Robert Duvall and Bill Murray titled Get Low. Duvall looks exactly like I remember Uncle Harvey, and it triggered these memories. But as I thought about my old uncle and his reclusive, lonely life, it made me think of the people that I pass daily that are just as lonely.

Even in the midst of all that goes on around them..... loneliness. In spite of millions of people, and the ability to connect with people around the world....loneliness. Many people live in the same, reclusive, lonely place that Harvey lived. They are looking for connection. They desire interaction. They want to be used. They want to know that God created them for a purpose and for a reason. The question is....

What are we doing to put them in the position to find that connection? How are we helping people realize the gifts and abilities that God has given each of us and how those gifts can be used to love and minister to others?

When people feel that there is no place for them, or that they are useless, many of them look to the church for answers and help. Our responsibility is to help them find the path and direction that God has planned out for them, with the gifts that He gave them in the first place. People want to be used and needed. Some are sitting at their door right now guarding everything they have from the tree people. Our challenge is to get them to let down their guard long enough to venture out and put those gifts to use for the Kingdom.

I'm out....

Moving...

What does it take to get kids excited about ministry? It takes them being engaged in ministry. Moving kids into action is where authentic life change will happen for them. We can't ask them to continually sit in class and listen without giving them the opportunity to be the church.

As we lead.... move the kids into action. Take a group to a homeless shelter; help them start a prayer team on their campus; remind them that no can look down on them because of their age (1 Tim.4:12). Move them into action.

They are a generation that wants to make a difference. They are a generation that has to have instant gratification. They seem to be impatient at times. They seem to be disorganized and chaotic. But in many cases...they thrive in that atmosphere. What can we do to harness their energy and abilities? How can we utilize their "everything at their fingertips" world, and mobilize them into community. They, more than any of us, interact with community on a daily basis. They enter into their schools and have the opportunity to reach hundreds daily.

The question.... what are we doing to empower them? What are we doing to engage them? It's not gonna happen with programming and classrooms.....it's gonna happen when they are challenged to move. Some may choose not to move, but so do some adults. Some may choose to complain. But so do some adults. We can't be afraid to lose some in order to mobilize others.

I love students.... and I'm ready to see them move!

Spring forward!

Spring forward! I don’t even like to think about losing an hour of sleep. What was Ben Franklin thinking when he came up with that idea anyway? But I guess it does have it’s advantages, and once the adjustment has been made it’s not all that bad. It is daylight until 9pm. And for you people that have to have space heaters under your desk and coats at your desk just in case the air conditioner comes on, it signifies warmer days ahead. For a few weeks, those of us with allergies suffer with the hope of summer waiting at the end of our suffering. But year in year out, the change of seasons creates adjustments in routine and we continue to move forward.

What about changes in seasons of ministry? How do we handle that? Our culture is constantly changing. Therefore, how we reach the people in our culture must change too. Students have everything they want at their fingertips. With the advancements in cell phones, game systems, etc...I mean that literally. So what is they want that they don’t have at their fingertips?.... to make a difference in this world. Our students want to leave their mark and know that they did something to help and improve the world around them.

What are we doing to give them that opportunity? In many cases, we’ve followed the model that says create more programs and classes, and that will fix it. That will teach them. Truthfully though, that simply gives them more information that, frankly, most are doing nothing with in the world in which they live daily. We have to move them from a sitting and listening mentality to a doing mentality. When students get involved with doing church, they will get excited about sharing Jesus with the people around them. I don’t know of a kid that gets excited about yet another class. But put them in an atmosphere of serving others, teaching others, working, and doing and watch out. The spiritual growth, and excitement about their relationship with Christ seems to explode and no one around them is safe from the impact.

Let’s work together to give our kids those opportunities. I am not talking about projects, programs, or events. I am talking about consistent service and using the gifts and abilities that God has given them to help draw others to Christ. When it becomes the norm to serve and do rather sit and soak, that’s when explosive spiritual growth will occur. Other students will be drawn in by students that are excited to be a part of something that is impacting the lives of their community. They’re in class 5 days a week anyway.... not much excitement there.

Kids walk out of high school, into the world, and out of church at an alarming rate. Why? I believe it’s, in part, due to not being engaged in ministry. When someone is engaged in doing ministry, and it’s just part of what they know to be ministry, they can do that wherever they are after their days in student ministry are done. When they’ve equated ministry to sitting in a class and being taught, they lose the application aspect and when the opportunity to stop going to class presents itself, they’re out. Understanding how God can use them..... anywhere, anytime, any circumstance helps them understand that their circumstances and environment do not define them, and the God wants to use them for more than just sitting in a chair and listening.

Lamp Stands

For those of you who have read Think Orange, or maybe for those of you who went to the one-day conference with us a couple of weeks ago, some of this may sound familiar. But as I was reading Reggie Joiner's book, Think Orange, in the first few pages I read something that I think we need to chew on a bit as leaders.

In the first chapter of Revelation, John compares the church to a lamp stand. Something I did not know about the lamp stand that intrigued me is that the lamp stand was always placed strategically as to show light onto the loaves of bread known as the "bread of presence." The bread represented God's provision and presence, and the lamp stands job was to cast light on what represented God's goodness and provision.

Wow.... you mean that is the primary job of the church? To cast light onto the table of God's goodness and provision so that the entire world can see God and who He is? It's not about filling our buildings and developing programs? It's not about us?!

Reggie goes on to suggest that perhaps the reason the church has an image problem is because the church has an identity problem. We've forgotten, sometimes, why we exist. You see... we don't exist to shed light on everything that is wrong in the world, or to try and solve and every problem.... we exist to focus our light so that others see who God is.

As we lead our students through this mine field of being a teenager let's remember that we exist primarily to show them God.... to show them the love that He has for them; to show them His provision and goodness. Don't move the lamp stand to illuminate other stuff...... let the lamp stand show light on the one thing that we all have in common....... a desperate need for a loving God.

I'm glad we're on the same team.

Music.....

Music and student ministry go hand in hand. And most of the music that our students listen to is not on KLTY or any other of the Christian radio stations. And as I've stated before, I think that's okay. There is much truth to be learned in the poetry of today's artists. I know, for me, songwriting and music are itches that have to be scratched. Most of us have outlets for stress, anxiety, etc.... music and sports are mine.

Music is just an emotional tool that can communicate feelings and thoughts that resonate with most of us. We remember lyrics and songs and are instantly transported to another day and time when we hear the song on the radio or ipod. The students today are no different and quite possibly more in tune than we were because of the access they have to an entire globe of music.

Well... if music is that big of a part of these kids lives then using it in our ministries becomes crucial to connecting these kids to the message and to other people. The music we use in our services must be engaging and purposeful. I love using our student leaders to help them learn how to engage their peers through the medium of music in order to lead them into the throne room of God.

One of the ways that our kids respond to music is by seeing others engaged and worshipping through music. It helps tremendously when our students see adults engaged in the music of worship. I love being a part of a service where people are singing their praises to God. He hears our heart. And I believe that music was created to soften the heart and open the mind so that we may hear from God through all phases of the worship service.

Take some time to encourage our student worship team and their efforts at leading us in worship each week. Music is a creative outlet that begs to be shared and used. Those who have the ability and talent to play or sing, and choose to use that to lead their peers, need to be encouraged to continue to seek out how to deliver truth through music. Take a look at the article below.....Andy Stanley on Music.

http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/music_matters_stanley/

Have a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year. And thank you so much for all you do for the students here at Firewheel. I love you guys.