Elijah, strong in the face of many-weak when faced with himself

I am preparing my message for tomorrow morning on Elijah and this just hit me-Authenticity in crowds and in smaller groups! The thrust of the talk is that God never leaves us alone, but these other thoughts came to mind.

Elijah, for instance, just after calling down for the fire from God to burn up the altar and completely humiliate the prophets of Baal runs aways in the very next chapter. God still doesn't leave him, but why does he give in to the temptation to give up when threatened by Jezebel? Where is his confidence in God? in himself even? How can he fold so easily after such a witness of God's power?

I think about how many times I am required to stand up in a crowd and lead with confidence; in a sermon, on a retreat, at my staff meetings, in front of one of my superiors or a leadership group. Why is it in these moments we seem to step up, yet when confronted in a more intimate setting with who we are, our very inmost selves, we fold under the pressure? Does ego play into it? I won't back down in the face of being judged. Accountability seems to be so much more important in my life now than it has ever been before.

Anyway, just some thoughts..

Ten secret needs a student will never tell you they have

1. I need to FEEL like you really WANT TO BE WITH ME.
2. I need ENCOURAGEMENT, probably more than I care to admit.
3. I need you to REMEMBER my name. It's my most valuable possession.
4. I need you to ask me about my HOPES, DREAMS, FAMILY AND LIFE.
5. I need SPRINKLINGS of WISDOM, but not too much. We are all educated way beyond our level of obedience.
6. I need you to CHALLENGE me to stay in the game.
7. When I mess up, I need you to not ABANDON me.
8. I need you to INVITE me to be a part of YOUR life.
9. I need you NOT to always have an AGENDA.
10. I need you to give me appropriate HUGS and HIGH FIVES.

Resurrection in the news!

This is so cool. You may know that Resurrection has been partnering over the last year with Grand Avenue Temple in downtown KC. We held our second partnered Easter worship experience yesterday and the local NBC news did a piece about this partnership. They investigated how a very affluent church and a church with membership predominately homeless have come together-I am very proud of my church and am excited to see us launch into a formal partnership and weekly worship experiences in the downtown church!

check it out here

coming up in Jason's world

Here are some cool things I've got coming up...

Tomorrow...I get to be a presenter at Blue Valley West High School at their career day. I will be leading a workshop on "career in church/youth ministry"

Wednesday night...We kick back up rezlife with a crazy feud game including food challenges, stunts, prizes, and a recap over the year's teaching messages

April 2..I kick off a two-week series entitled "write it on your heart", a series about the ten commandments and their secret message for our hearts!

Apri 4-5...Gant family camping weekend in the pop-up (pre-cursor to the big trip in May)!

April 11-12...my team is leading the Re:Center retreat for students ready for an adventure in leadership. check out more at rezlifekc.org. I am really excited about the direction of the retreat. It will be a road rules meets real world meets amazing race event!

I will be flying out to Irvine, CA that weekend to take a look at two churches (Rock Harbor and Saddleback) who have extended venue style services on their campuses (we are exploring this now at Resurrection).

April 16...I kick off a two-week series called "Blurt it out", a series about evangelistic styles

April 25-27...Scharme is in Florida for her annual girls weekend (a group of girls who served summers together during college at the United Methodist Youth Camp). Scharme and I met serving together at this camp and we still remain close friends with many people. What does this weekend mean for me? Hailey and I have all weekend together! It's going to be great!

April 28-29...rezlife staff retreat at Tall Oaks retreat center. This will be a time for our entire team, and maybe some new people joining our team to spend two days playing (ropes course fun), worshiping (around a campfire), and dreaming (strategic whiteboard sessions) for the future of rezlife.

Who's coming?

Julie Frazier-associate student minister
Dave MaGee-high school minister
Taylor Ogden Thomas-middle school minister
Deborah Comstock-events and volunteers
Teri Chalker-confirmation
Tami Casey-coordinating assistant
Amy McCaw-administrative assistant
Nathan Webb-intern
Jason Watson-media services producer (moving into creation once we find the next producer)

and we are currently hiring the following positions on the team:

Worship Leader (full-time)
Worship Leader (part-time)
Media Services Producer (full-time)
Program Assistant (full-time)
Interns (year-round and summer)

if you know of anyone interested, have them check the job listings at cor.org

May 15...I get to speak at Club 121 at Leawood middle school (last one of the year with parents invited)

May 17-18...I get to preach at all 5 weekend services at Resurrection (title: Moment to Movement). Last time I did this I developed a new found appreciation for our worship, clergy, tech, and hospitality teams!!

May 19-26...Scharme, Hailey, and I are headed to Moab, Utah to spend a week in the pop-up at Arches and Canyonlands National Parks!

June 1-3...speaking at a church in Dothan, Alabama for their summer youth week kick-off. I may even get to lead some training sessions for area youth minister's.

then we are into summer with camps, missions, and fun fun fun!!

I have the greatest job on the planet!!!

Easter weekend rocked!

What an amazing Easter weekend. I am not sure of how many people were there, but the energy was awesome! I was around at the Saturday evening services studying Adam's sermon (as I was the back-up in the case of some catastrophic, electrical, technical failure in the student center service 9:15am Sunday morning-I would be preaching it).

This was to say the least, nerve-bending! It's one thing to have the honor to preach over a weekend in the main services. It is quite another thing to have to fill in for "the man"! I am thankful that all the technical aspects went off without a hitch and the 9:15am student center service was incredible. We had the youth bells. orchestra, and choir, all bringing praise up to God and hope to the congregation. It was beautiful, and the place was packed!

high school confidential-filmed here

High School Confidential, a show from WE follows teenage girls through their real life situations and challenges. It was filmed right here at Blue Valley North West.

I am just learning about it and have been watching the promo vids. It's on Monday nights. I will be checking it out.

more here

A life remembered

I am in Milledegevile, Georgia over the next few days celebrating the life of my grandmother (Helen Anderson). She passed away this week at 88 years old! Wow, I hope I make it to 88. Scharme, Hailey, and I are spending time with family and reflecting on her amazing influence in both my life and my faith. She was a tough lady who had so much unconditional love for me, it's crazy (I especially remember her purse full of candy during church service)!

Well good luck to our intern Nathan (he is dog-sitting for us), and thanks to so many of you for encouraging e-mails and facebook messages in this time of loss for us, but gain for heaven!!

"Where O death, is thy victory"-1 Cor 15:55

This would be scary!

20

I couldn't resist. How many do you think you could take?

one of the greatest examples of evangelism

I found this story doing research for an upcoming "evangelism focus" teaching series. The story shared in this video presentation is 9 minutes long, but worth the investment of time.

It chronicles a man who passed out tracks on George street in Sydney, Australia. I have never been a proponent of passing out tracks, but I can't deny this strategy as one way in which people come to know Jesus, or at least become curious. I am also not a proponent of this saying; "If you died tonight, would you go to heaven", however I can't deny there is truth in the question.

Anyway this is a unique story and a reminder of our responsibility to share Jesus with everyone we meet and in every context we find ourselves in.

What can one man do for God?

researching evangelism strategies

I am preparing for an "evangelism focus" teaching series in April. I have been researching and preparing ideas on how many of us approach evangelism. I recently found this page. It was so unique I just had to share it. It might be best described as a "hip-hop-story track about the saving love of Jesus". Great graphics

readthisbeforeyoudie