just returned from staff retreat

Just returned from an awesome 22.5 hours with the greatest youth ministry staff in all of the world. We overcame the ropes course through laughter, sarcasm, and genuine vulnerability. We shared and celebrated what God has accomplished through rezlife over the last year (thank you so much to the parents and students who sent Tami e-mails to that fact-what a fun time it was to read your stories to our team and see their hearts fed with your testimonies). We were reminded by our Executive Leader, Randy Meyer, not to give in to "survival" by forgoing the "mission". We shared great food, snacks, and amazing dreams that God is calling us to through our mission and vision

Mission: Building a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious
students are becoming deeply committed Christians

Vision: Changing Lives, Transforming the Community, and Renewing the mainline Church

We welcomed three new staff to our team, Cory, Micah, and Melyssa. They fit right in to our "go for it" approach to life and ministry! The campfire worship was fun and moving. This morning we saw God's clear plan coming forth through our strategic planning. I am so humbled by the fact that this is my job!!

Hey, here's a thought-pause right now and lift up at least one of my team's name before God. Ask for wisdom, strength, and grace to pour all over them-thanks!

Amy, Tami, Melyssa, Teri, Taylor, Deborah, Julie, Nathan, Dave, Cory, Micah, Jason W., Joey (from rezwest), or me

twitter what??

just got twitter set up, anybody out there avid twitter users? Follow me, I'll follow you, and we will continue to release all mystery and privacy in our lives! (over on the left of the page)

rezlife staff retreat next week

Next Monday and Tuesday is our annual rezlife staff retreat. We will spend time growing in teamwork through a ropes course challenge, celebrating God's work through rezlife over the last year, worshiping together around the campfire, and dreaming, planning, and listening for God's vision. During the retreat we take special time in prayer and encouragement of one another. I hope you will covenant with us by praying over each staff member's name below.

Joey Wilson, Rezwest Director
Julie Frazier, Associate Director
Dave MaGee, High School Program Director
Taylor Ogden Thomas, Middle School Program Director
Deborah Comstock, Events & Volunteers
Teri Chalker, Confirmation
Tami Casey, Coordinating Assistant
Melyssa Boone, Program Assistant
Amy McCaw, Administrative Assistant
Jason Watson, Media Creation
Micah King, Media Producer
Nathan Webb, Intern

We will be focusing on John 21 as our theme passage for the retreat, where Jesus says to Peter; "feed my lambs".

We welcome Melyssa Boone and Micah King to our team. Melyssa will assist Julie Frazier through many ministry areas, as well as serving in a relational role with students. Micah will lead production for all rezlife weekly gatherings, camps, retreats, and events. He will also be equipping and mentoring students who choose to serve on the tech teams

We are also finalizing summer intern staff (including one who will assist with the 6 rezlife bands) and our new worship leader over the next week. Please continue praying for these roles on our team.

All that said, I have a special request....If the ministry of rezlife has directly impacted your student or family over this last year, please take a moment and share that with me through e-mail. It may have been a one on one meeting your student had, a time the staff lifted your family up, a mission that impacted them greatly, a retreat, event or camp experience where they really connected with God, a small group growth moment, or a moving time in worship. Whatever story you might have that would be encouraging for our staff team to hear would be much appreciated. Please send these e-mails by this coming Sunday evening.

I believe we have the greatest youth ministry staff in any church I know. They care about every student and family they come into contact with. They spend time praying over students by name, they are always seeking ways to better serve families, they go above and beyond their job description to reach non-religious and nominally religious students and help them to become deeply committed Christians. It is an honor to serve alongside them, and we thank you for your support and prayers.

send your stories to tami.casey@cor.org

California church visit #2 of 5

Mariner's Church was our next stop. This was another quick stop to just really view the campus and stretch our legs. We knew we would be there as teams were arriving to prepare for worship. We saw there stage set and talked with their tech crew for the 4:30pm Saturday service. They gave us a quick overview of what they do technically over the weekend. It was not that far off from how we operate, except that they are running the same service throughout the weekend, where we run 3 different styles over 5 services, with only the sermon being the same in all 5.

The take-a-way for me here was an affirmation. We are one of the few mega-churches in America still running traditional-style worship. I also believe our Contemporary service style is awesome, and feel affirmed that we are headed in the right direction by exploring newer contemporary and creative worship settings.

Mariner's children's ministry area is very sweet (a Disney-style experience), very welcoming and cool. They have a staff person in children's ministry who focuses on training, equipping, and placing middle school and high school students into service. They assimilate some 250-300 students into servant leadership roles inside the children's ministry per weekend. That is crazy cool!

plus they have a sweet donation truck (see pic)

California church visit #1 of 5

Thes next few posts will give an overview of my benchmarking weekend to southern California. I think it is good for everyone in ministry leadership to visit other rooms in God's house to be inspired, challenged, and focused for God's vision in their own home ministry.

The Crystal Cathedral was our first stop off the plane (actually Huntington Beach pier was our first stop for some lunch out at "Ruby's on the pier"). This church stop was unscheduled in our benchmark weekend, but we figured we were so close, we might as well check it out!

The Crystal Cathedral was all I expected it to be, AWE-some and reverent. The grounds were immaculate, and the inspiration of the architecture was powerful. The take-a-way for me was that we at Resurrection are incredibly "Martha", and maybe we could grow more in the "Mary" department. I was also impressed at the "curb appeal". I think every church needs to think about first impressions; great signage and great landscaping!!

It was a great reminder of how a powerful space can help people grasp the power of God. All in all, it was pretty cool. We were only there for about a half an hour. The big sliding glass doors shot with Andrew and Dan walking in is their welcome center with bookstore, cafe, and fellowship areas. The "tower of power" shot is their prayer center, and then the Cathedral. All over the campus were amazing sculptures and water features.

Preaching May 17/18 weekend

I will have the opportunity to preach at the services here at Resurrection over the weekend of May 17 & 18. I am reading two books in preparation for this sermon and developing a media piece with Jason Watson (Media producer). We are hoping to capture, in interview style, many different generational responses, to questions about hopes, dreams, and challenges through each stage of life.

My title will be "Moment to Movement", hoping to platform off of high school graduation weekend, and the rites of passages and accomplishments each of us have throughout our lives. These could be simple moments or become immense movements in our lives and in the world for God.

I am studying the moment of decision through the story of Jacob and Esau, as well as the moments in the life of Jesus that became movements of ministry.

The books I am reading to prepare:

The Challenge of Jesus-NT Wright
Chasing Daylight-Erwin McManus

Scripture Saturation

I recently heard Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor at Willow Creek, speak on inspiring others. This is from his keynote at last year's Leadership Summit we reviewed on last week's senior staff retreat. He spoke of scriptural saturation-the idea of contemplating, studying, and learning from one chapter of scripture for an entire year. He just finished Romans 12, and is beginning this year with Romans 8.

I want to do the same, and would love it if you might suggest a chapter for me to saturate my heart, mind, and soul with. Maybe you would take this discipline on as well. Share with me yours.

Wednesday wrap-up

"B.L.U.R.T. it out!"

Theme: Evangelism
Attendance 7th/8th: Average
Attendace High School: Average
Fun factor: Above Average (diet coke/mentos explosion)
Focus Factor: Average
Volunteers 7th/8th: Average
Volunteers High School: Average
Band: Delta, with a guest worship leader
Media: No new videos tonight, more live stage presentations, still used summer step up video and sermon transitional
Message Quality: Average
Student Response: Above Average
Take Home Devotional: Above Average (evangelism survey from "Becoming a Contagious Christian")

Introduced this new sermon series with a "Choose your own ending" live skit from Hannah, Angie, and Megan-three of our student leaders who perfomed live on stage (came out great in the sermon video on blip. Tried out the diet coke and mentos experiment seen on you tube and myth busters, also came out great on video-even better live!! Going bigger next week. Focused on the great commision-Mathew 28:18-20, and the acronym to BLURT

Believe
Live
Understand
Refocus
Tell

Also welcomed new rezlife producer on staff-Micah King, prayed over Nathan Webb, who will no longer serve as an intern in two weeks, but has accepted the positon of minister to young adults here at Resurrection as as of May 1!!

a job working for God

I had the awesome opportunity to lead two sessions on "church ministry" at the Blue Valley West High School career fair. I had around 70 students come to the workshops which was very surprising. I was even more excited to know between 15 to 20 that were Resurrection students. They asked great questions like:

What's a work week like?
What can I do now to start preparing myself?
What degree do you suggest I pursue for my undergrad?
What is the toughest part about working in ministry?
How much money do you make?
How do you find time for your family?
How do you have to dress every day?

It was really cool to see so many students seeking out God's call in their life. Many asked for follow up meetings over coffee to further understand how God might be shaping them into ministry. I also shared how we are starting a new "ministry as a career" track for students wishing to explore ministry as a career at Resurrection. I will talk more about this later, but what a celebration for God to see the enthusiasm!

Numbers growing for Step Up 08

Follow up to a previous post where I shared our sign-ups thus far for summer step up 08.
Of course these numbers reflect live students, that are more than just a number, but somebody counted at Pentecost!

(rising 8th-12th grades) Camp 1-125
(rising 6th/7th grades) Camp 2-113

(rising 7th/8th grades) Surge mission 1-21
(rising 10-12th grades) Gulf Coast mission-10
(rising 9th grades) Transform mission-15
(rising 7th/8th grades) Surge mission 2-4
(rising 11th/12th, post HS) Honduras mission-(application only, not on-line, but I hear around 15 now)

Wednesday wrap-up

The Ten Commandments (next six, and review)

Title: "To write them on your heart"
Attendance 7th/8th: below average
Attendace High School: Above Average
Fun factor: Above Average (tattoos)
Focus Factor: Above Average
Volunteers 7th/8th: Average
Volunteers High School: Average
Band: Theta, with a guest worship leader
Media: Used a "man on the street" video with our kids, new blurt it out video, Honduras mission video
Message Quality: Average
Student Response: Above Average
Take Home Devotional: Above Average (ten commandment prayer and memorization card)

They really responded to the hand motions for each of the commandments. The students got to vote live on stage for what henna tattoo both Taylor and Dave recived on stage during the message. We had students come up and take the "ten commandment challenge". Each service had a winner, naming all ten! Dave got a flowery tattoo, which was awesome! We also had Tori Litardo, student leader, open up a video about the Honduras mission which was very impactful!

Going back to Cali

Dan Entwistle (Managing Executive Director of Ministries), Andrew Conard (Associate Pastor), and myself are heading for a quick trip to California this weekend to take a closer look at some churches that are doing creative worship venue services.

We are planning on visiting Saddleback, Rock Harbor, NorthCoast, and maybe even Mosaic, if we can squeeze it in. This will be a valuable time as we dream about our venue service in the student center kicking off this fall. Our hope is to offer an entirely new style. I also hope to bridge the hundreds of high school and even middle school students into the larger life of the church beyond mid-week youth group!

Here's to the California sun, well at least a couple days of it. Man I hope Andrew and Dan don't snore!!

New Bloggers

I am really excited to have some new friends and colleagues in ministry blogging.

Janelle Gregory-champion of young adult ministries, circulating executive of all things Resurrection, I kind of compare her to the "sixth man" on the basketball team. She can come off the bench and play whatever position is needed for that moment! Her blog is definitely sarcastic, insightful, slapstick, and satirical. All things that I enjoy.

Julie Frazier-Associate Director of Student Ministries here at Resurrection. Person most likely for me to both delegate to and seek counsel from. Julie's blog will certainly focus on prayer life and time with Jesus, but don't be so quick to box her into the spiritually enlightened. She does drive a jeep, runs around barefoot, and hails from Texas-you know how Texans can be!

Dave MaGee-The man, the myth, the legend, the MaaaaGGeeeee (the chant heard each week by our high school students every time he takes the stage as the high school minister). Dave is a man of the sacrament, canines, and sports. Not just the "sports guy who goes to a game sometime", more like the "sports guy who knows every detail and nuance to every professional sport in existence". He is a sports nut. This will certainly shine through as he finds his voice through blogging. Look for dry wit here!

Step up Summer 08 update

We are getting excited about rezlife summer and are filling up camps and missions fast. Here are numbers as of today

camp 1--108
camp 2--96

surge mission 1--19
surge mission 2--3
transform mission--13
gulf coast mission--8
Honduras mission--13

This are 50% more registered for camp over last year at this time. Our fear now is we may not have built in enough spots. Isn't that an awesome problem to have!

As far as missions go, this is right on track with where we were last year at this time. We have many more spots available and want every student to participate in a mission this summer. If all spots fill we will take over 150 students on missions and 300 to camp!

Wednesday wrap-up

I am going to start giving some feedback on our Wednesday rezlife youth group night with 7th/8th grade and high school. I got the idea from Kurt, and thought this would be good not only for myself and my team, but also thought many of you may be interested in my thoughts about the night

Message Topic: The Ten Commandments (first four)
Attendance 7th/8th: below average (Blue Valley-no school)
Attendace High School: Above Average
Fun factor: Average (gave temporary tattoos at 7th/8th)
Focus Factor: Average
Volunteers 7th/8th: Average
Volunteers High School: Above Average
Band: Delta, they rocked it, even though they were missing two singers!
Media: Used a youtube clip-Ten things I hate about Commandments(edited)
Message Quality: Average
Student Response: Above Average
Take Home Devotional: Average

We had a guest worship leader in who did a great job with the music. The 7th/8th graders loved the tattoos and the high school students really responded to the memorization tool for the ten commandments.

Ten Commandments and tattoos!

kickin' off a new two-week series tonight about the ten commandments. It's called "to write them on your heart". I am hoping to help students see the commandments as what they truly are-a love letter from God.

We are using the "tattoo" theme on stage in line with Proverbs 7:2-3

2 Keep my commands and you will live;

guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.

3 Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.

Dave (high school minister) and Taylor (middle school minister) will receive painted tattoos tonight voted on by the kids in the room during the message. The hope is to help kids see the depth of writing something on your heart--and well, having some fun with Taylor and Dave.