- Looking for small group curriculum for the Fall? You can download a sample of our brand new junior high LIVE right here!

- Three weeks ago I was encouraged/asked/told by Pastor Rick it was time to join the senior leadership team. I had been ducking and weaving ever since Doug Fields left hoping lead the student ministries team without the extra leadership responsibilities required of the executive team. Three weeks in and I can report that things are actually much better than I had expected. The best thing about it may also serve as a great reminder for you: Take advantage of opportunities to be around sharp leaders; you are never worse for it!

- We are seriously considering staining our concrete as our flooring option. It seems that, when done well, stained concrete can be a super cool plan. stay tuned (or should I say, “stained” tuned….).

- Today my daughter, Kayla, turns 16 years old. She is an amazing young woman and I can’t wait to see what the next 16 years hold for her.

- I’m really excited about a lesson I am working on for a junior high event I am speaking at next week. I am going to talk about the idea that sometimes the best way to “go” is to stop. I love the concept and am hoping it will resonate with the crowd.

Been a while since I’ve re-capped our weekend junior high service….so maybe it’s time to start up once again.

Series: No series, we had a “one hit wonder” weekend which was our annual 8th grade weekend. Our 8th graders ran the show with no adult presence on stage at all. They led music, ran games, made a GREAT video, gave announcements and four of them teamed up for the lesson.

“Fun Factor”: High! It really was a fun weekend and the students who put it all together took it seriously and did a great job. The program was quite a bit shorter than normal which probably added to the enjoyment (nobody ever complains about a short church service, right?)

Attendance:A little bit lower than average…but about normal for this time of year as we are wrapping up the school year.

Volunteer Involvement: Normal number of volunteers in the service, but not highly involved due to the fact that students were doing just about everything our volunteers normally do.

Length of Lesson: about 14 minutes.

8th grade weekend always reminds me of two things: First, we certainly wouldn’t want everything to be student led because I think the novelty would quickly wear off and quality would suffer. Second, we sure could use students more often than we do

This week I have been reminded that oftentimes life is really about juggling plates. Marriage, children, friends, hobbies, ministry, crisis etc. are all things most of us juggle most of the time. How do you possibly juggle all the plates? I have asked myself that very question this week, and here’s what I have had to remind myself:

1) You simply CAN’T juggle everything! Sometimes you drop stuff you don’t want to, and sometimes you purposely drop something for a while so you can focus on other stuff. But the truth is, you really can’t do it all all of the time.

2) Decide what things you can drop for now. When I take a closer look at my life, I can see that sometimes I am still juggling plates that I don’t need to! Some of the stuff I juggle can be dropped forever, and some of it can be dropped for now without any long-term consequences.

3) When I drop some things on purpose, it allows me to be more focused on the plates I am still juggling. This is a good thing.

4) Better to drop something on purpose, on my terms, than to continue trying to juggle everything. Because eventually SOMETHING will drop and it may not be something I would have chosen.

You, like me, are constantly juggling. Juggle wisely.

Two events in the same month have caused me to have moments where I suddenly found myself wanting better stuff, a bigger house, etc.

1) My wife totalled her car. We drive two used cars (spent a grand total of $6,000 on both!). Hers was an old, beat up 1997 Ford Expedition with 165,000 miles. When it was deemed a total, I was suprisingly tempted to go buy a new car for her…she deserves it, right? After all we have never bought a new car and this was a justifiable time to do so. Instead, we used the insurance money to buy another 1997 Ford Expedition.

2) Yesterday, we woke up to a “slab leak” in our house. In California, most builders lay the water pipes below the concrete slab of the house which results in an almost-impossible-to-detect scenario when one of the pipes springs a leak. By the time you notice the lead, your house is usually an inch deep in water. Yesterday, as we were pulling up our entire first-floorflooring and wondering if/how/when insurance would cover the damage, I found myself wishing for a bigger and newer home. We bought our 1,400 square foot house about 11 years ago and have always resisted the urge to “move up”. But this seemed like a justifiable time to begin thinking about the possibility. Heck, it would probably sell quickly with new floors!

I have always seen contintment as something to aim for….something that seems to make life a WHOLE lot easier. In our culture, it is a tough quality to embrace, but I’m trying. I miss the mark from time to time (couldn’t resist the urge to buy a new iPad….) but have determined to keep trying. I certainly have no beef with people who buy new cars and bigger homes….I may do both some day, but not now.

Not sure why I’m writing this…maybe it’s just to remind myself of what really matters. Probably also because I saw this article that I found rather interesting.

Okay, it’s not quite here yet, but you can pre-order it today! I’ve been creatingtools for junior high ministry for several years, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been this excited about a resource. The Junior High LIVE curriclum is a comprehensive, two-year (72 lessons) approach to Bible study that was written bya teamof the sharpest junior high ministry minds in the country.

It’s an online-based curriculum that is fully customizeable or can be used exactly as we’ve laid it out for you. You access the website and tweak the curriculum as you wish….it’s really that simple! Dont let the price scare you….it breaks down to about $3.50 per week for some of the best curriclum available.

You can check it out, watch a little video from me, and pre-order your LIVE curriculum right here.

- This Blog: I have purposely slowed down blogging in anticipation of the upcoming “Simply Junior High” blog that I’m really excited about. Sadly, that is moving along rather slowly so I will comitt to getting back in the habit of a regular post.

- God is Good! Last week our old, beat up, dent-filled 1997 white Ford Expedition with 165,000 miles was totalled in an accident. Last night, spending only $200 out of our pocket, we replaced it with a white 1997 Ford Expedition that is in show room condition and only has 54,000 original miles on it….it has been owned by a resort and used soley for the purpose of showing potential clients around the property. Several years ago we made a decision to live debt-free and avoiding car payments has been a big part of that lifestyle. We drive used cars that we can pay cash for. This serves to purposes: Keeps us out of debt, and tends to keep us buying cars much more frequently as the ones we can afford typically don’t last more than a few years! But, you can buy quite a few used $5,000 vehicles before it adds up to the price of a new car. Ummm….I will now step off my used car Vs. new car soap box!

- My daughter, Kayla, just got her driver’s permit and is suddenly the one doing most of the driving on our family outings….one more reason to buy easily replaced vehicles.

- Been in WAY too many meetings lately….gotta figure out how to get out of the office more often as we head into summer.

- I thought the LOST finale was lame and thought the 24 finale was decent. My favorite new show: Modern Family; which is odd because I’m really not a huge sit-com guy.

-

I found this article to be quite fascinating. What type of “elevator pitch” would you give?

- Started our new series, The Guy/Girl Thing, this past weekend and I think it’s off to a great start. We aren’t focusing so much on sex, dating etc. as we are on simply trying to help students learn how to better understand, treat better and be better friends with the opposite sex. For week one, our focus was “THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS”, this week we will look at “GUYS ARE WEIRD AND GIRLS ARE WACKO”, then we will wrap our series up on week three by splitting them off to focus on some gender-specific issues. We’re keeping it fairly light and really fun.

- Just got word that the release of my new book, The 9….Best Practices of Youth Ministry, has been bumped up to early August! I’m really excited about this project for a couple reasons: First, it is my first serious attempt at writing something for the “larger” youth ministry world instead of focusing solely on junior high age material. Second, I really do think this book will be very helpful to lots of youth workers.

- Celebrated a really nice and relaxing Mother’s Day with the extended family on Sunday. Rachel and her mom got their wish of a simple day filled with good food and good conversation.

- Apparently wearing wrist protection while skateboarding is completely out of the question for junior high guys. My son, Cole, won’t be caught dead in them despite the fact that he has spent the majority of the past year in a cast having broken BOTH wrists! Yesterday I offered him this deal: He can keep paying for all of his skateboarding related expenses (gear, replacement decks, park fees etc.)or he can wear wrist guards and I will pick up the tab for his skating costs. Since he doesn’t play any other sports, this seems like something we should be doing anyway, but I don’t want to tell him that until he agrees to start wearing wrist guards!

- My friend Johnny Scott has one of these awesome bibles…and when I saw it, I had to have my own. Anxiously awaiting its arrival!

If you’re like most people, you probably don’t consider yourself as being creative. Very few people do, and I think this may be because most of us have too narrow a definition of what “creativity” means and also because most people never practice being creative.

A New Definition of Creativity: Most people think being creative means inventing something out of nothing, or coming up with an idea that has never been thought of. I like to define creativity as simply being willing to think differently and try something new. That’s it. When faced with a project, an opportunity, a challenge, a problem etc. most of us will typically default to our normal pattern of addressing such things; usually patterns that have found success in the past, so we assume they will bring success again….and they often do. Creativity is simply the willingness to take our normal patterns of thinking a step or two farther by thinking differently and trying something new when faced with life’s scenarios.

Here are a few simple exercises to help you flex your creative muscles.

- Make a list of your 5 favorite ways to spend your free time. Now, pretend those things no longer exist and you have to come up with 5 new hobbies or interests to occupy your free time. What would they be? What new skills would you need to learn to enjoy them? What new people would you need to spend time with in order to learn more about these new interests?

- Pick a recurring “challenge” or “problem” you face at work. Come up with two new ways to address the situation that you have NEVER entertained before.

- Purchase your LEAST favorite food at the grocery store and force yourself to create your own recipe that would turn it into an enjoyable dish.

Routine and doing things the way you have always done them are sort of like anchors on a boat; they are super important when you need stability, but can slow down progress if you are trying to move forward.