I’ve Got My Wings On

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I’m headed to Atlanta today to go see my Grandparents. Tomorrow morning I’ll be strapping my wings on to fly to So Cal forPDYM the Conference. Yes, I could just fly there on my own since I am Superman, but what fun would that be? If I have trouble with my Jetpack I’ll grab a flight on Delta. I can’t wait to get out to Cali with all of my friends and mostly to promote PDYM Kingdom Day which is huge! For more info you can check out http://www.kingdomday.com

I’ve got some big announcements coming soon that have not made it to my blog yet, but its going to be HUGE!!! Everything in its proper time 🙂

A Thunderous Roar

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This past weekend the CSRA Youth Ministry Network hosted the 2009 DNOW for our local area. Typically each student ministry that participates in the local DNOW schedules a fun activity on Saturday morning/afternoon for their students to have a little fun as a group. This year we wanted our students to definitely have fun, but we wanted to use this weekend where we had 700+ students’ attention to engage them in opportunities to live beyond themselves and to invest in the lives of other people. After all, the theme was “Your Kingdom Come” and it seemed very appropriate to initiate service projects for the students to participate in.

I am a firm believer that a huge part of our spiritual discipleship has to do with our engaging in ministry and actually doing the things that we’ve been told in scripture to do. Studys have proven that the stuff we learn has been retained in our memory based on 1 part data and 6 parts emotion, essentially we remember what we experience. Therefore when we talk about discipleship, I don’t think we can remove elements that provide experience in what we are learning.

Saturday night was dynamic! The praise coming from this group of students sounded at times like a thunderous roar. In all of the local youth events, I cannot remember students so in tune with who God was at that moment in their life. I truly believe that Matt Papa is anointed and we had the privilege of having his band lead us in worship, but I mostly believe Saturday night had a lot to do with the response from earlier in the day where students were engaged in what God is all about, living sacrificially and loving other people.

I believe this picture with my buddy Steve White best sums up what the day was all about…

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Kingdom Day Right Around the Corner

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PDYM Kingdom Day is right around the corner and will be here before you know it. Kingdom Day is a ONE day service project where the church comes together as ONE body to accomplish ONE purpose. The Church and Christians talk a lot…there is no doubt about that, but we are usually found absent when it comes time to back that talk up.

Kingdom Day is all about the Church putting our hands and feet where our mouth is. We say we love…we’re going to show it. We talk about sacrifice…we’re going to give it. I hope you will join with us on April 25th for Kingdom Day.

Kingdom Day has been encouraging student ministries  all across the US to partner with another student ministry  in their community to work together (across denominational lines), as One body to serve those who are less fortunate than we are. Every group is atonymous and is working on the project they feel led to do for their community. Our goal is to go beyond talking about a Gospel of love to acting it out. One group plans on working on a local camp, other groups are working soup kitchens, while others are seeking out shut ins to assist with cleaning their homes and cleaning up their yards.

The Question I want you to ask yourself is this, “Is there a need in our community that our student ministries can tackle?” If there is, I encourage you to contact a student ministry in your area and plan a service project with them for Saturday, April 25. Some churches have talked about participating in Kingdom Day as an entire body with other churches, so don’t let the word Student Ministry narrow your focus, adults are more than welcome to participate as well.

The Purpose Driven Youth Ministry is fueling Kingdom Day, but you do not have to follow the PDYM paradigm for your ministry to participate. If you plan on attending PDYM the Conference at Saddleback on March 24-27, we would love to meet you. We’ll be participating in the conference at some point. If you want to attend, there is still time and room at the conference, you can register HERE, if you are not attending because of finances, contact us, and I can get you in touch with someone who can assist with a discount.

Click Here to Register your Group.
Click Here to Follow PDYM Kingdom Day on Twitter.

PDYM the Conference: Worth the Money

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I am really excited about PDYM the Conference and can’t wait to head out to Saddleback Church to attend on March 24-27. Okay, maybe I’m a little excited about getting to eat at Wahoos and In and Out Burger too 😉

With my budget being tighter this year it made me think twice about spending the money to attend a conference.

But I know the training that I’ll get, the people I’ll get to rub shoulders with, and the fact that Doug Fields will be teaching all the general sessions makes it more than worth the cost of going, plus its in Southern California! 🙂 (Did you know you can follow Doug’s personal Twitter account? Click HERE)

I really think it’s worth you joining me at the PDYM Conference! If you want more info about the conference you can go to http://www.pdymcommunity.org/ or just leave a comment on my blog and I’d love to tell you more about it myself.

See you there!

Would You Turn In $10,000?

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Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.
Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)

Moses, the bagboy, found $10,000 in the bathroom of the grocery store where he worked. When you watch the video, you will see that he decided to turn the money into his manager so the owner of the money bag could retrieve their property. In this video, Moses attributes his decision to the lessons that he teaches young children in Sunday School, while in another video, Moses goes on to talk about the lessons he was taught to make ‘Wise Choices’ when he was also young in Sunday School.

As a youth leader, this makes me smile 🙂 – It must make this young man’s parents and youth leaders proud to see some of what they have invested in him stick. I hope as my kids get older what we are trying to teach them will stay with them.

h/t CNN