a Shared Life

Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God

Nobody sets out to live a life full of regrets—never fulfilling their God-given dreams. Although a life following Jesus begins with excitement, it often becomes routine for many believers. Mark Batterson identifies the “cages” that keep people from living fully and experiencing the unpredictable adventure for which they are destined. Throughout the book, he encourages believers to pursue their God-given dreams, passions and goals—while giving practical advice to finding and discerning God’s will within those dreams and goals.

Much like his preaching, Batterson has a knack for writing in a thoughtful, clear, entertaining style. He authors a narrative filled with real life examples of people chasing the Wild Goose, living Continue reading »

Mike proudly showed me his favicon on Friday, so I immediately went and added one to our church’s website. (Before this, I hadn’t really given it much thought.) And, of course, I had to add one here too, but there were a few steps that weren’t as easy as they first seemed. but, as you’ll see, it’s not that hard. Continue reading »

Sunday School at Dunkin’ Donuts the last couple of weeks has been fun–and a nice break for the summer. Along with the funny things that happen–like spilling iced coffee everywhere-the times of talking have felt more genuine. In a classroom setting, it’s a struggle to make meaningful eye-contact with everyone. There is a certain intimacy around small tables while sipping iced coffee and eating donuts and breakfast sandwiches that is not easily duplicated in a classroom. We also run into other people while Continue reading »

Finding good, well-written, easy to follow, creative curriculum is always a challenge. When involved in youth ministry, there were many options, but I rarely found material I really liked. I often bought material and spent as much time modifying it as it would take to write my own!

Good resources for young adults were scarce when I first began working with this age group. As churches in America begin to address the obvious disconnect with younger generations, finding material for young adults has become easier; but Continue reading »

We’ve been doing a young adults (18-35) Sunday School class almost since we started the young adults ministry here. But, we’ve been wanting to try something new for a while, so we’re taking it off campus–to Dunkin’ Donuts. Tomorrow morning will be the first trial of this, so we’ll know more in the morning. I’m excited.

Things I’m wondering…

How much will the change in location change the nature of what we we talk about?

How will the social dynamics change outside of “class”?

Will new people feel more or less comfortable coming?

Will it help young adults be consciously aware of how “church” integrates with their “real” lives?

Will I have to buy everyone breakfast tomorrow?

UPDATE: So far the experiment of having class off-site has been fun. People are much more talkative outside of a “classroom” setting–and it feels more “real” in some way. We also run into other people we know while off-site–but not many young adults. We haven’t had any new people so far, so I’ll have to update everyone on that later. The downside is that time constraints are defintely tighter and I am spending a lot more $ at Dunkin’ Donuts than I am used to spending…

As I’ve mentioned before, I love technology, but I’m not a programmer, but I can get by with some help from friends, good problem solving skills and Google. So, I love when I find technology that makes my life simpler, but doesn’t take me hours to set up.

My desk is normally covered in papers and post it notes. I try to carry my pda with me at all times, because I often need to write down appointments, tasks or notes. Inevitably, I find myself without paper, pen or pda. I used to leave myself voicemail or text myself, until I found Jott. In order to Jott

1. Set up a profile on Jott.com
2. Call their number, when the prompt asks, “who do you want to Jott?”, reply “myself”
3. Leave yourself a voicemail and hang up

Jott then transcribes your voicemail and emails it to you. If the transcription isn’t right or deosn’t make sense, simply click on it to listen to the audio. You can also Jott other people who you define in your address book and many other services–including Twitter, Wordpress, Amazon, etc. When it beta, everything was free. Now, for a fee, other services such as Google Calendar, Vitalist, Remember the Milk, etc. can also be used. For a complete list of applications/links, check out Jott’s getting started link.

Jott Express is a nice addition to Jott. It allows users to sync and organize their Jott’s offline. Since I jott a lot, it makes it easy to maintain multiple Jott “to do” lists.

Jott for iPhone allows iPhone users to use their iPhone like a voice recorder and access their Jott’s, which are synced with Jott while online. Of course, I don’t have an oPhone and have to settle for iPhone envy…

Frontline is one of my favorite places to go. There’s something contagious about stepping into a ministry that has literally thousands of young adults coming every Sunday night. The energy is tangible, the music is awesome and the preaching is deep, Biblical and relevant. To make things even better, they do a great job of connecting young adults into a community to help them grow and sending them out to missions within a couple of years of being there. If you do young adult ministry or are a young adult living near Washington DC, you’ve got to check these guys out. And, you can check them out online through their virtual campus if you can’t make it in person.

RECAP: We’re traveling around to churches recommended to us who connect with young adults (18-20something/30ish), checking out what they’re doing, interviewing the about their preaching (for a paper) and other things that God’s doing where they are. Continue reading »

Ever the student, I am currently working on a project for a class on preaching in a changing culture. In particular, my focus is on churches that are reaching young adults while in so many churches young adults (variously defined as adults age 18-25, 18-30, 18-35, 20-29, etc.) are conspicuously absent. My research assignment is simple: visit churches, evaluate the preaching and interview the preacher or another staff member about the sermon development process, the preaching and its role in connecting young adults–and maybe throw in a few other questions as long as we’re there!

Continue reading »

As the thunder, lightening and rain pound outside today, I’m reading an excerpt from Mark Batterson. When Mark spoke at our MinistrieSummit for Pennsylvania and Delaware earlier this month, his team handed out the excerpts of the upcoming book. I’m only on page 5, but want to read the whole book! It comes out August 19, so, I’ll have to wait a little before I can read the whole thing. If you’re bored with your spiritual life and looking for adventure, get a copy as soon as you can!

Check out NCC and their audio & video podcasts too.

A conversation with a younger friend yesterday made me realize that I’m old enough to remember when finding love on the internet seemed kinda creepy. As one of the early pioneers of internet love celebrates their 25th anniversary, I’m amazed at how our perceptions have changed. I spend a lot of time online and using the internet and social networking sites. I made a joke about xanga the other day and realized that many people had never even heard of it. (I think my account is still active out there somewhere.) I know few people today under 25 who would think that making friendships and finding the love of your life online is anything but normal and socially acceptable. The talk shows in the 80’s and 90’s that showcased people finding love on the internet seem a distant memory in a world in which I get “friend requests” and chat online with “friends” I’ve never met in person.