As you can tell by my blog calendar, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  Working full-time at a church during one of the two biggest holidays we celebrate can take up a lot of time.  When not working, I was partaking in activities that do not require a lot of brain activity (eating, playing video games, watching my family decorate the tree, sleeping).  It’s kind of ironic that I am coming back to the blogosphere with this post.  I’ve never been much of a reader without some task associated with the reading like school or small group.  One of my favorite authors at the moment is Mark Batterson, writer of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase (both of which I read with a small group).  When I heard he was doing a blog tour for Primal, I jumped at the chance to get the book for free.

Let me just say that this book is so good that I am probably going to buy a couple copies for others.  If you’ve read anything about this book, you’ve probably seen a line like “Primal should be the first book everyone reads in 2010.”  I disagree with that statement for one reason.  I think everyone should get a copy and read it before the new year.  It will give you a new perspective going into the new year.

I have yet to read a Batterson book and not be challenged in some way or another.  Primal has challenged me to the Greatest Commandment in a new and fresh way.  To love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  It takes compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy.  One specific challenge that I have for myself after reading Primal is to read the entire Bible in 2010 as a part of loving Him with all of my soul.

I want to encourage you to get this book, even if it’s the only book you plan to read in the coming year.  It will be well worth it, and you can expect to be challenged.  You should be able to find it anywhere books are sold, but for an easy link, just click here.

Have you ever worked LONG hours a few days in a row.  That’s been this week so far for me.  When I was in the middle 0f the stretch, there was a huge goal ahead of me, keeping me going at a steady pace.  Now that the goal is near completion, the need for rest can be fulfilled.  That’s my goal for today… to rest.

If you follow my tweets or facebook updates, you know that I am watching 4 boys (by myself) today.  I’ve never taken on this kind of thing before, so I was a little nervous coming off of my 4th straight 14+ hour day.  Believe it or not, I am relaxed and rested today.  There is no stress, I’m awake, and I’m having a fun day with the boys.  I just Dropped Cooper off at school and as you can see, I even have the time to write a blog post.  I guess sometimes rest comes with just a change of focus.

I love the way God gives me the kind of rest, right when I need it.  He gives it in unusual ways sometimes, but I’ll take it any way He gives it.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  Sorry about that.  With my dad’s health issues and Christmas preparations starting around church, blogging was the easiest thing to let go of to allow more space in my life.  Everyone needs some margin in their life right?

Anyway, this past weekend brought our annual high school retreat to J-Town (Jumonville via Pittsburgh Kids Foundation).  This was the biggest J-Town weekend in the history of the retreat with around 500 students (70 of whom came from our church).  If you’ve not had the opportunity to go to J-Town, here’s a glimpse into what goes on throughout the weekend:

Students arrive by the busload Friday evening, greeted by a very animated program staff from PKF.  There are 4 ‘club’ times throughout the weekend that include worship, a run-on skit, and teaching that progresses through the Gospel message.  The run-on skit exists to help students let their guard down and be comfortable and open to hearing the Gospel.  Some of the activities that the students can participate include a day-spa, movie, football, air-soft, guitar hero, a hike up to the cross, coffee-house, improv, and a number of other things.  After the 3rd club time (the message of the cross), everyone spends 20 minutes outside, alone in silence.  This is by far the most powerful time in the whole weekend as the students are alone with God.  After that 20 minutes (as well as after every other club time) there is cabin time where students and their leaders discuss the talk from club, relating it to life and what ever is going on in their lives.  Every cabin time is different because every cabin has different dynamics.  Sunday morning is the only time there is no cabin time because after club it is time to head home.

Now for my high points throughout the weekend…

I had the privilege to lead a student band this weekend.  It was an incredible experience for me as I got to witness hundreds of students jump right into worship wholeheartedly.  It was awesome to see our students leading them as well.  Our student band from blitz is growing into an incredible team of lead worshipers.  They are not just up there performing for their peers, but they are worshiping God from deep in their hearts and leading their peers is just a natural product of their worship.

After the 20 minutes of silence, our cabin time was deep and focused.  Just like last year, we took extra time during this moment to allow the students to get real and be open.  My favorite part was when John openly and publicly recommitted himself to Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Savior.  With a lot of freshmen in our cabin, it was great for them to see an upperclassman do that.  This was THE high point of my weekend.

Another high point for me was cabin time in general.  To see the students asking questions and being real with the answers they were giving to our questions was awesome to see.  Some students that I didn’t really expect to hear much from had some of the deepest input into our conversation.

With this past weekend being such a spiritually high moment, it is now important for me and the other leaders to keep up with the students.  We need to stay along side of them as they navigate being back at home, back in school, and the inevitable trials that they will face.  Please pray for us and all the students that were at J-Town (and all the students that will be there in 2 weeks).

I don’t know about you, but when I know I have meetings about specific topics, it’s really easy for me to focus going into those meetings.  This morning, I had 2 meetings about Christmas preparations at our church.  One was about the design of our kidz venue and the other was about the design of our main worship venues at both campuses.  Now that those meetings are over, it’s time start working on the details and I am having a tough time keeping that same focus I had at the beginning of the day.  Maybe it’s just that my computer is running a little slow with SketchUp right now and I am impatient. Or maybe I just need to take a break.  I don’t know, but it’s frustrating.  I am excited about how things are going to turn out, but right now I just want to take a nap.  Can we make the ’siesta’ a normal part of the work day in America?

Twitter is just a fad (just like the internet).  What a joke.  Twitter has become a part of life for many people.  It is not a means to deep relationships, but it is a great supplement to existing relationships and great way to grow in your vocation by networking with others.  A questions was brought to my attention yesterday about monitoring the twitter feeds of the staff of a company (specifically the church).  Pete Wilson blogged about that topic here.

As someone who has been asked to delete a few of my own tweets, I think I bring a different perspective than a lot of the commentators on Pete’s blog.  With Twitter literally being at my fingertips with my phone, I sometimes tweet before really thinking through everything.  It’s not that I am being monitored, but with Twitter and Facebook being public forums, my leadership is bound to see what I write.  As I look back on them, I understand why I was asked to delete those couple posts, and I like to think that I won’t post anything else that I will have to delete in the future.  The thing is, I’m not perfect.  When I make mistakes, they are brought to my attention in a graceful manner, and I respect and appreciate that.

One of the comments on Pete’s blog was from Lindsey Nobles:

You represent your company. your tweets represent you. Hence your tweets represent your company. Be yourself, but make sure that your tweets are appropriate and use discretion at times.

I think she nailed it there.  The church as a whole has already left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.  As a member on the staff of a large church, I am pretty well-known as being connected to that church.  I can put the legal mumble-jumble of “these are my views and don’t represent the views of my church,” but that doesn’t change the fact that people will always associate me with my church.  To ruin the image of the local church in the eyes of someone who reads what I write can in turn skew how they see the church as a whole and furthermore alienate them from their search for what is missing in their lives.  If there is even a chance that I might make it more difficult for someone to enter a relationship with Christ, then someone watching what I tweet is the least of my worries.

I don’t want to misrepresent my church.  It’s not important what I was asked to delete, except that I understand why and agree with those that provide leadership to me.  They are not scrutinizing everything I write, they are just asking me to be a little more careful and think through things a little more.  Your public tweets are being monitored (directly or indirectly) whether you want them to be or not.  That’s the nature of them being public.

Yesterday I was looking for a reset button so I could start this week over.  I’m sure everyone has a week here and there that seems to have one thing after another that just keeps dragging you down.  This has been one of those weeks for me.  Knowing what has happened this week so far, if I could start it over, there’s a lot I would change about my attitudes, reactions, and even a few little things I did or didn’t do that really don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.  If only it were as simple as the Staples “easy button.”

God has a better reset button though.  It’s different for each person because He has designed us each differently.  For me, He gives me a new day.  I almost just listed all the things today that could make it a bad day for me (I decided to delete that long list).  Even though I may have more than enough excuses to have a bad day, my God wants the best for me.  He did not design today for me to sulk around and be upset.  He designed it for me to breathe life, follow His guide, and have a better attitude, making it a better day.

If your week sucks, ask God to show you the reset button He has for you.  It might not be easy.  Sometimes you even have to lose something you are working on, but sometimes it takes a fresh start to actually get moving.