I finished The Barbarian Way and started reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I hope that it is a good book. I enjoy listening to him but have heard others talk about the scholarship that he uses and how its mostly Medieval Scholars, which can affect the truthfulness of the message he is try to get across. I think he is a awesome speaker, defiantly one of the best today. I’ll write more as I get through more of the book. If you have read the book or know anything about the scholarship he uses please comment and let me know.

Yesterday was my last day at Islands. What a great Sunday! Worship was great, James’ sermon on no book but the bible was so important for our people to hear in times when people try and piece together a religion that fits their needs. All of our people were so supportive of our decision to follow God’s call but that didn’t make it any easier to leave. We are going to miss Islands so much. I am so glad to have served along side these brothers and sisters in Christ to accomplish the vision and mission that God has given their leadership. I am glad to have played a role in the church and I know that God used me for particular reasons and is using my move to continue His work in reaching their community.

Just a little plug for a great youth convention. If you are like me you are always looking for cheap but great activities for the teenagers in your ministry to do. Well when I was growing up in Florida, I attended a youth conference called, creatively I might add, Florida Christian Youth Convention. Now that I’m a Youth Minister I try and take my group each year. If you are in the south Georgia area or in Florida I highly recommend this conference. Hit the web site for information. This year the are having Shawn McDonald and KIDS in the Way, a great speaker, Robin Sigars and a local worship band called Cheneniah. Check this conference out and get it on your calendar.

I have heard other bloggers talk about Comment Spam or Blog Spam and I am too. I got hit with 16 comment spams last night. Luckily Wordpress has a few built in features to protect against it. I encourage all bloggers on any platform to check your options with in the backside of your blogging software and make sure that your site is set up to handle these spam attacks.

For Wordpress Users here is a link to the codex for securing your site.

Erwin McManus’ book, The Barbarian Way is great. I have been recommending it to almost everyone I see. I haven’t been this interested in a book in a long time. He is really captivating and really questions rituals and traditions and ask if they are bringing us into a experience with God.

One of the great parts of the book, Erwin says, “Christianity as a civilized religion claims to have a group plan negotiated with God. Everybody gets the same package. And of course, the package is always the premium plan- get rich, get comfortable, get secure, get safe, get well when you get God. Everybody gets the John (the one whom Jesus loved) plan; nobody gets the Peter package. The result and proof of faith are that you get to live a life without risk, which is ironic when you realize that for the early church, faith was a risky business.”

Makes you think and there are so many more gems like this one in the book.

As my wife and I decided to move we were reminded that God has always provided our needs and helped make sure things were lined up for us following His will. There has always been a roof over our head, whether our own or someone else’s. God always provides. As we decided to put our house up on the market we weren’t looking for huge profits. When we bought we decided not to buy an even mildly expensive house so that we could continue to have Dawn stay at home with our daughter and not have to work, and now selling we knew we wouldn’t make a huge profit. Well we put the house on the market on Tuesday and we signed a contract last night for asking price. God always provides.

Being inside God’s will, He will take care of you and show you that you are on the right path.

Matt. 6:33 -“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you.” This is one of my favorite passages and taken in context with the rest of Matt. 6 we know God always provides for our needs.

I was reading in Terry Storch’s blog about Starbucks Hates Children and wasn’t sure what it was all about so I clicked on the link to read the story. Some things you just are better off not knowing like that Starbucks supports homosexual events, though not shocked, but really disturbed to see that at the event in San Diego they are planning to have a youth and children’s area. Read the story for yourself and make your own decision. But I know what mine will be.

No more… Starbucks Ford Johnny Depp

Today’s post revolve around what I’m reading. You can see a list of books that I’m reading on the left hand side of my site if your interested. Anyways, today not only did I finish a great book I’m starting two more.

First book I’m starting is The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. I read the first chapter it was awesome. He really nails it on the head that American Christianity stifles the Barbarian inside of us that is unleashed when we accept and clothe ourselves with Him in baptism. I think this is going to be a great book and am look for it to really impact me. I think that I’m also going to do this book as a book club type of thing with my youth ministry like Corey Mann did with his.

The second book I’m reading is called Thriving Youth Groups, by Jeanne Mayo. She is sharp and on the ball as far as reaching teens today. I have a funny story about Jeanne Mayo. I found that I had a couple hundred dollars in my books and convention fund at the end of 2004 and saw an add for her convention. So I thought hey here’s a different convention I’ll give it a shot. It was good. I was a little thrown off because it is an Assemblies of God convention and well I’m not (not that there is anything wrong with being, God created us all unique and different and I respect that, I’m just not used to it). I enjoyed Jeff Deyo leading worship and learned a few things during the break out sessions. Doug Fields was great and encouraging and we have a mutual friend and it was cool to talk about him and how he’s doing. Jeanne was good and really had great drama peices. Back to the book. It looks like a great book that is practical and principle based which is what I like. So I’m excited and that first chapter was really good. I highly recommend the book.

I finally finished reading Now, Discover Your Strengths. It was such a great book to learn about myself but also on managing volunteers. I am thinking about finding how much just the Strengths Finder Inventory is and having future volunteers take it. Or if not try to identify their strengths and then match them with jobs and tasks and manage them accordingly. I really like this book and strongly recommend to everyone.

Well the church I had the interview with called on Friday and said they couldn’t meet with me this weekend. At first I was a little unsure about the situation but the elder of the church who I have been talking with assured me that it wasn’t me that they just weren’t quite ready to sit down for an interview with anyone. Their search committee is getting back together on Sunday and hopefully I will have a interview next Saturday.