youth ministry | basics

My Weekend Recap: This weekend was crazy and eventful…but was the culmination of an even crazier week!  Let’s start with the good: Saturday night, we had Micah Watson Band and The Oswald Brothers play a concert at Simpsonwood.  The concert was  a benefit concert to raise funds for the Haiti Relief Effort.  Our church’s goal is to raise at least $10,000.  We had over 300 people join us on Saturday night for what turned out to be an amazing evening of rock and roll and worship.  Both bands were incredible and we raised almost $2000 for the Haiti Relief Effort.  Unfortunately, as awesome as the concert was…it was overshadowed this week by the death of a lot of good people.  The week started with the death of my grandmother and ended with the death of the mother of our administrator.  We also lost an influential teacher in our community, a good friend’s dad and another friend’s aunt.  It was a wide range of emotions for a lot of people this week.  On a lighter note, this was the first time in 10 years that I did not have a Super Bowl party to go to and I watched the game in the comfort of my own home and relaxed.  It was nice to be able to do that, especially after the last week.

This upcoming week: Compared to last week, this week looks extremely mild!  I’ll start my new classes today and regroup and get ready for upcoming programs and events.  We have already begun our summer planning at the church and now it is time to start taking registrations for mission trips and retreats.  Now that we have the last five weeks in the rear view mirror, I would love to be able to do some intentional strategic planning for our youth ministry for the next 3-5 years.

Not looking forward to: Classes start today and I wish I had another week to recoup after last week.  Fortunately, I know that the hardest part of the next few months is nothing compared to the last five weeks.  I’m debating a decision on whether I should go to Honduras with our mission team this year.  I really want to go, but I think that it may be too much of a burden on my wife with our daughter.  I’m going to have to make a decision on that soon and I’m really not looking forward to that!

Book I’m currently reading: I’m still not currently reading anything, but that will change tonight when I start reading John Wesley by Albert Outler for my class this semester.  It’s so intriguing and I know that everyone will run out to buy that book, so I will spare you the synopsis (and a link)!

Recent Music Addiction: Obviously, I really enjoy the music of Micah Watson Band and The Oswald Brothers Band.  They were awesome in concert.  I’ve had the song “Rubberband Man” from The Spinners (made popular by the Office Max commercials with a character by the same name in 2004) stuck in my head for the last couple of days.  What can I say…I love music from the 70’s!  It’s pretty catchy.

Attitude Right Now: Drained and Grieving!  Last week was such an emotional week.  I’m hoping for a calm week this week.

Have a great week!