Confirmation Changes (Catchy Title, huh!)

This is going to contain 3 things. 1) I’m going to start by laying out the details of confirmation. I would typically start with the why, but I want to be sure you see that first. 2) Why we are changing it. 3) What we need from you. I am going to give people three “public” opportunities to meet with myself to discuss these changes. 

Tonight I will be at FLC in the Fireside room to talk about it with anyone that is interested. I’m planning on 30 minutes so I can see the end of the boys soccer game tonight. Tomorrow night at 7pm in the Upper Room (waaaaaaaay upstairs), and after worship on June at around 10:15 a.m. in the Upper Room. (Worship changes that Sunday to 9am).

Here is the “what".

• 6 weeks total.
• People will meet 6 consecutive Wednesday evenings from 6:15-7:15 p.m.
• Each evening will have a different focus, having a mentor meeting with the student in both a large and small group setting.
• The focus will be on what it means to make a public affirmation of faith including one evening talking through baptismal promises, Lutheran theology, helping people write a statement of faith, and what it means to be a part of the church.
• At the end of the 6 weeks participants will write their own faith statement and have a chance to share those papers with others at a gathering prior to the confirmation service. 
• Confirmation will be offered 2 times per year, once in the spring and once in the fall.
• This coming fall, we will only be confirming our current 9th grade students as would typically happen.
• The first “open” confirmation class will begin early spring 2020.
• There will be NO age attached to it.
• When a student and their parents/guardians feel they are ready they will sign up with the pastors and Adrian.

Sunday mornings are changing too. Since there will be not confirmation on Sunday mornings, we will be offering Orange for kids starting from birth to 12th grade. I am a HUGE fan of Orange. I’m not going to focus on it currently - but as of right now - the set up will be groups for 0-3 years old, pre-k, kindergarten-3 grade, 4-6 grade, 7-8 grade, and 9-12 grade. That may change slightly, but that is approximately where things are as of now. We will also be having Youth Group offered from both 6-8 grade and high school students at a separate time.

Here is the “why”.

I’ve been involved in student ministry/faith formation for about 25 years, My experience includes working as a camp counselor at Ewalu, interning at a huge church in the cities, my first youth director gig in Milwaukee, program director at Ewalu, and for the past 14 years as your Director of Youth and Family Ministry at FLC. In my time, there have been a lot of changes. What hasn’t changed? The need for people to hear about the life giving news of Jesus. What has changed is the how as a church we look to pass the faith along to the next generation. I mean, that’s the goal, right? To have students who have a faith that is relevant to their lives and makes a difference. 

If the goal is a faith that matters - jumping into a two year program isn’t necessarily the answer. Here are some fun stats. Per year - students involved in church spend about 70-100 hrs per year there. Students spend about 70 hours at camp. They spend 400-600 hours with their parents. 16-1800 hours are spent at school. Online? Students spend an average of 2000-3000 hours online per year.

Let me be clear, what I am really saying is “confirmation” is changing to something that we are starting when somebody first walks through the door at FLC.

When a baby, student or adult walks through that door, they should immediately feel as if they matter. That’s when faith formation (on the churches side) begins. If the goal is to have students in a place where they feel led to make a public affirmation of their faith, then that’s what our focus needs to be on. This means on the churches end, doing the best we can with the time we have. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we best use the time we have.

Parents - this is NOT a “guilt” email. This is a reality one. I have 2 kids. I know schedules can be hectic. Most families can’t do church every week. I get it. So on my end, I promise that I will try my best to do the best for your students when they are here. I promise to do our best to make faith something that will stick with them when crap happens. To give them hope when they need it. To know they are loved and valued, not matter what, no strings attached.

As far as the “age” aspect, I honestly think this is a no brainer. With something as personal as faith, should we really be telling people when it’s time to affirm their faith? I have a student who has chosen not to do confirmation. I completely respect that! They are being honest as to where they are. So why make them feel that this is their only shot? I have 6th grade students who I believe would be more than capable of standing in front of a group with integrity, and telling people this is what they believe. It’s important to remember that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. I bring this up so that you understand confirmation in 10th grade is not a salvation issue. Jesus has taken care of that. We want students to come forward when they feel they are ready, not when we tell them they “should” be ready. Honestly - the hope is that we can expand this so it includes adults who want to affirm their faith as well. The idea is when it comes time for a “new” class, people on their own will sign up.

Ok - so there you go. I will be honest - I am simultaneously horrified and excited. This is a change. One I believe is needed and one that I believe is going to be good for the church.

Please, if you have questions - write me, talk to me, come tonight or tomorrow night. I’m always up for coffee. The reality is, we are in partnership. We both want what’s best for our students. Please remember - what we do Sunday mornings and nights, Wednesday evenings, etc., we are doing our best to support you. We are for you as a parent and want what’s best for your family.

In Christ’s Service,

Adrian Walter

adrian@firstlutherandecorah.org

#beorange

Since a certain school has rid itself of the hashtag, #beorange, I am here and now claiming it as my own. OK - so not "mine" but instead what I (and a whole lot of other people) have been working on at FLC these past few months.

These past couple of weeks, I've been excited. Not just a little, but a lot. We switching curriculum. No, that's not exactly right. We are changing the way we do things in our Y and F ministry. That seems weird to say, but it's true. Yes, we are doing Sunday morning faith formation. Yes, it is at the same time. So..in a sense, it isn't that we are doing things differently...but we are. Before I get into what it is we are doing, let me also say I have a sense of guilt inside of me as well. The guilt is that I am excited about this coming year. The guilt is that it feels as if I haven't been this excited for a while. It's not that I felt I was "phoning it in" necessarily, but the guilt that nothing I have done for a while has got me this jazzed for a long time. A really long time. I feel for the first time in a while it's not doing Sunday School, but rather a strategy to help develop faith in students. Rather than look and say "what stories do I want to be sure we cover the next year", it's, how am I helping students to see the relevance of their faith in their context. It's not, "how should we fill this time so the kids aren't let out early to run amuck around the church", it's, how do we help foster relationship between adults and students so they know they are cared for at church?

This also isn't a "we didn't put time into this before", because we did. It's not a "we didn't care about what happened" before, because we did. Rather, this is a "I really stinking believe this strategy could make a difference in the lives of our students". I've been here for...quite a while. Honestly, this is the easiest I've ever (by me, I mostly mean Jill) in recruiting people to be small group leaders (ya...they aren't teachers). Why? Well, my hope is that they didn't see themselves as babysitters, or whatever, but rather as people who want to help form the faith of our kids. As people whose main goal it is to build relationships. People who care enough about the next generation to invest their time and effort into what we are doing.

I'll be honest, every year since I arrived at FLC I've received some weird Orange postcard, email, letter telling me how exciting this strategy is. And for the most part, I think I recycled each one. (truth be told, in one of my "o crap, I need to make a place for somebody to sit", I may have thrown one or two in the garbage. It wasn't until last January or so that I actually watched a youtube video about it. From there I downloaded the free stuff, then chose a handful of people to listen in on a call with an Orange representative. After speaking with Amy (who herself was super excited about it) I spoke with churches (Lutheran and non) using it. They all seemed excited. I was sold.

My original plan was to just use it for K-5. Then we expanded to 0-3. Now we are using it for 6-7 grade as well as with my HS Youth Group. Now I'm all in.

Did I mention the best part? (ok - I know the answer because I've written this) One of the things I'm most excited about is an app and an email. So, the entire concept behind Orange is that Red is home, yellow is church....maybe it's yellow is home and red is church...anyway...one of my favorite things about this is how they get students need both. (Put red and yellow together and you get...Orange!). The app is Parent Cue. It's easy, useable, and relatable. It's a simple way for parents to connect with their students in simple easy activities that can be done at home, in the car, before bed, whenever. The same stuff in the app will be sent in an email to the parents.

Part of my excitement right now is I had the last of three meetings to get ready for this coming Sunday. Ya...so Sunday morning we had a SGL (small group leader) meeting and all but two were able to come. Seriously. That is awesome. The other two came tonight. After that meeting, I met with our Large Group Leaders. They are on board and pretty awesome as well. Don't worry - I'm not expecting this to go off without any hiccups. I am relying on 5 electronic devices to make everything go smooth. Ha....I wish.

There is much more floating in my head right now such as the Facebook groups that have been supportive and helpful when trying to figure out the lingo, the fantastic XP3 Middle School specialist who, despite laughing at me a lot yesterday because I was really clueless, was extremely helpful, and much more. Heck - I even painted today. Ok - so our custodian came in and kinda sorta just laughed at the job I had done and told me he would help tomorrow to make it look better.

Anyway - my wife, Jill, and our pastors I'm pretty sure have been rolling their eyes at me especially these past few weeks as my excitement has grown, and now you can too!

A few other notes (things you probably don't care about but I will share anyway)

• The Twins are a game up in the Wild Card. That is super exciting. They can hit and are even pitching a little bit!
• Vikings won. No, they dominated. That was awesome, although I only saw a bit of it as I was at a 3rd grade student, parent, and an uninvited bat meeting at church. Have I mentioned I really like the families we have at FLC?
• My fantasy teams went 2-2 this week. 
• Below are two versions of the same song I have been listening to a lot. I really like them both, but lean a little more to the acoustic set :)

Let it Be...

What the internet really needs right now is another blog post about where young adults are going to church. Seriously. Nothing leads young adults to church more than blog posts about how they are leaving this church for that one. What really makes a difference to young adults is an argument as to what type of worship service is really going to reach them. Also - when doing so, let's be sure to use anecdotal evidence to prove it is so. "Look! I spoke to a young adult, and they went to a contemporary worship service as a kid, and now they are (insert traditional church here). So, what that means is that churches like that are unwelcoming, inauthentic, cliquish, shallow, etc."

The real benefit is that people who then prefer that style can re-post, like, etc. and use as proof as to who really knows Jesus better, who has a better handle on this whole "faith thing" better, and more importantly we can use it as proof that we don't need to change anything.

Yesterday, I was flipping through radio stations and there were a couple of folk talking on the radio about whether or not Catholics really knew Jesus or if they were just going through the motions (and then of course on their way to hell. They were spending the entire time discussing why (some...not all) Catholics needed to be saved and how to discuss faith with Catholics to get them to better understand who Jesus is. 

It's always nice when we can compare ourselves to others and feel better about who we are. By disqualifying what or who other people are, we can feel better about ourselves. One could actually go so far as to say it is a form of bullying.

Now, let me be clear, if somebody wants to talk about what has been meaningfull to them, if somebody wants to discuss with others how they grow in faith in a way that invites people in, I think that's great. In fact, it's not only great, but I think that is what we are called to. Also - if a church feels strongly about "this is who we are", then own it! Don't own it by belittling our brothers and sisters down the street who have a different set of letters on the outside of their building, but rather live out who you are and who you feel you are being called to be. 

OK - so I should be careful as I'm a Lutheran...and let's be honest, Luther said some very not nice things about others, whether they be Jews, Catholics, women, etc. So I guess this is really nothing new. My churches own namesake was very blunt in how he sometimes spoke of other people in different faith traditions etc.

My point is, let's ease up on the tallying. Let's worry about the plank in our own (churches) eye before being to concerned about the specks in other churches'.

Can this blogpost be seen as ironic? Sure. Is it mine? Yes. So deal with it!

Random thoughts....

• My dog looks like some type of rat right now. He had to get shaved down and before I knew it he was one of those tiny dogs wearing a sweater because he was too cold with no hair. Not cool.
• Twins are not good. I'm trying to get myself excited about the season, but it is getting hard, especially with Santana testing positive for some kind of drug...sigh.
• I'm actually getting excited about VBS. Honestly, it usually takes me a while to get myself excited about it, but with as well as it went last summer, I really am stoked about it this year!

And here is my music video of the day! Owl City (I believe) hales from Owatonna and has done music for a Disney movie or tow. I really am a fan of a lot of his music.

Next?

What's next? Seriously, I'm asking the question. What I know is that part of me is really tired. Yes, this *may have to do a bit with spending some time with Coz during phase 2 of my sabbatical where a few nights of xbox and other activities had me staying up later than I normally would. Part of me being tired is because when I did return I had a fairly busy schedule including a huge fundraiser that while it ran in-spite of me, I found myself fairly anxious about it. It also meant I didn't get my typical Sunday afternoon nap in.

The other reason I feel tires is it seems as though we keep having the same arguments over and over and over. On one hand we are in the midst of a struggle with how busy should our students be? Our schools are looking at having more practices while there seem to be more club type teams taking more and more of our students time as well. So trying to relate to students where faith comes in and why it is relevant seems to be more and more difficult. It isn't only club teams on the weekends (the school has practices on Sundays as well) and it isn't just the school having practices on Wednesdays as the club teams have practices and games on Wednesday nights.

One the other hand, we are still very much in the midst of discussing worship at church. Conversations that seemed to be happening in the 1990's in many places are being had now. Let me be clear, I really don't think people on one side or the other are trying to say things that can be hurtful to the other side, but the reality is worship can be a very personal thing and these types of battles can be painful to people on both sides. As the guy who has developed and plans our New Song service, it is clear which "side" I am on, but that doesn't mean I don't respect where others are coming from. 

In some way those two things seem to have nothing to do with one another, but to me they are very much related. On the one hand, I am trying to figure out a way (any way possible) to help students and families figure out why faith is relevant. I really don't have a magic way to do this, and I am also the kind of person that is willing to try anything. Then I sometimes feel as if I cam running into a brick wall when I go to try to do something at worship that might be outside of our congregants comfort zone, and there is enormous push back. 

These are the kinds of things that can suck life out of a person.

Then, suddenly, something happens to give you hope. This past Sunday, we had two such things happen.

1) After leading worship, as I am heading downstairs, I was walking behind a lady who was talking to her friend about the service. she was asking her friend if we did worship like that every Sunday and how much she liked it. Then, she tracked down our pastor and told him how much it meant to her and how the service and music really spoke to her. She hadn't been to church in a really long time and  this was just what she needed.

2) Sunday night we had a fundraiser. First of all, I was excited about 130 or so tickets being sold. Second, the fact we had a nice cross section of the congregation was also awesome. All of the money raised was going towards camperships to Ewalu as well as helping to pay for our Senior High students to go to Colorado. About $7,800 was raised. i was blown away. I was excited that, even though we can disagree over screens and worship styles, we can come together and support our students.

So, as we struggle to find the right course as it pertains to worship styles, screens, student ministry, finding times to meet with students, figuring out ways to better help students grow in faith, and whatever else comes up, I am reminded that we are still a people of hope. If I didn't think this mattered, I would just give up and find something else to do. But it does. This does matter. Jesus is still relevant. Our faith does matter. What we believe and how we live it out does matter. 

We just have to figure out the best way to pass it along is this rapidly changing, tech oriented world.

• We are doing this song at worship on Sunday. I heard it at the Upper Room last week when i worshipped there and loved it.

Free Socks?!?

The question isn't what would you do for a free pair of socks, but rather what wouldn't you do for a free pair of socks!

A couple of weeks ago, my counterpart at another church in town and I needed to head to LaCrosse some some important business. We are both a huge deal, so we needed to get some stuff done out of town. Anyway, just before we left, I threw my skis in the car. I was given a pair of skis and bindings a few years ago, but had never purchased boots. Since we had a little bit of time while up in LaCrosse, I figured that could be on the agenda. After a meeting with the LaCrosse Area Bishop (yea....no joke) we preceded to stop at a few ski shops.

I should also mention that ski boots, while it appears as though they shouldn't be overly expensive, can be. I will admit I had a bit of sticker shock when i started looking at the prices. However, one of the shops that I went into offered me a free..that's right...FREE pair of ski socks if I bought a pair of boots. Seriously, how could I resist? Did I mention they were free???? I felt like I had just won the lotto...no...it was like when my eldest son Luke was born. Yea, it was that awesome.

For some reason, my wife did not realize what a great deal free socks was...were...was. Umm...my wife did not realize how great it was I got a free pair of socks with my boots.

At any rate, I was able to go home, free socks in hand. If I had a mantle, I would actually hang my socks above it. Not during the summer, that wouldn't make sense, but maybe in the winter.

Moving on, since I was not all set with boots, skis, and FREE socks, I was pumped to actually use them. Hence, that next week the family went skiing. We also went the next weekend. In part, this was because skiing is something we all enjoy doing. The other reason was I had just spent too much money on boots and felt as if I had to use them. It honestly would have been pretty silly for me to buy the boots, then not use them. I had a certain amount of buy-in with the boots.

I take my job fairly personally. I have a hard time separating myself to things happening at the church. When I go home at night, I don't leave my job behind. When things are going well with a student, it is awesome. When I see a kid struggling, it stays with me. I have a certain amount of buy in in the ministry that I do. When I begin a relationship with a Sunday School student, parent, or young adult, I begin to care about how their life is going to go. I begin to care if they are struggling with issues, and I rejoice with them when I see them have ah-ha moments or see them succeed in some other capacity. The more time I spend with students, the more I care, the more I want to do to see them grow in a relationship with God, and help them live it out. When that works, it is great. When it doesn't, it really sucks.

We are not promised that things are going to be easy. In fact, I'm pretty sure Jesus mostly talks about how difficult things are going to be when we choose to follow him. You see, when we choose to follow, not just believe, we have more buy in with the world and people around us. Suddenly, it starts to matter more about how our friends and neighbors ware doing. Now, while we are not promised awesome socks, we are promised that we will not be alone in our journey. There is a cost that comes with buying in when it comes to following Christ. We don't know what the fruit is going to be, but when we do buy in, we want to do more, we want to serve more, we want to help others grow in their faith.

So, as I sit here at Magpie, I am asking myself, how can I invest more into my faith life. How can I personally grow in my own faith journey, knowing full well that when I do, I will feel compelled to do more. To care for others more. I invite you to do the same.

A few quick side notes....

• I had a J-term intern. She was fantastic....I'll blog about it at some point.
• Now that football season is over with, I am starting to get over the fact that my fantasy teams and Vikings were all equally terrible.
• I am usually at least slightly optimistic about the baseball season. I'm having a hard time finding any type of hope with the Twins this year.
• I went to 2 partial day continuing ed events in the cities. One about boys and church, the other about why we need to do a good job ministering to youth. Both were great. They are on my list of things to blog about.
• Whenever I watch on of those videos about soldiers coming home...whether real or not, I will admit I tear up. This video does the same thing for me.

Tebow, the Great and Powerful

OK - I will admit it, I like Tebow. Part of it is probably he does the whole "Jesus" thing, but the other part is all he does (did) was win games. He has that "it" factor, that when it comes to winning, he just does it. At Florida he was a beast. Without a doubt, Tebow was one of the top 10 college football players of all time. He dominated. When he started at Denver, he took over a team that was 0-4, made the playoffs and beat the Steelers. It wasn't prety. In fact, throughout many of his pro games, for the first 3 quarters, he looked terrible. For whatever reason, once the forth quarter hit, he would take over. It wasn't just his play that mattered, but it was his leadership.

The reason I bring up Tebow is so you have some background as I continue my discussion on my sabbatical. If you had read previous blogs, I spent 2 weeks in the cities, staying with a former intern of mine named Coz. I think when I first asked him about crashing at his place for two weeks, he was a bit aprehensive. However, once I brought up the idea of stealing my kids xbox for 2 weeks, he was much more amiable to the idea. Coz lives in St. Paul, near major roads, so honestly it was an ideal location for me. Plus, he had two bedrooms, meaning I could have my own space without infringing too much in his space.

So for two weeks, I slept on a mattress on the floor of his spare room. I did pack a grocery bag of food prior to coming, as I didn't want to have him thinking that I was going to mooch off of his food. What I found out when I arrived was that this wasn't going to be an issue, as other than some mustard and pickles, there really wasn't much in the fridge. he was kind enough to make space for my cocoa puffs, hot dogs, strawberrys, half and half, and chips. (I was living the high life!)

In addition to having coz along on my worship trips on the weekends, it was honestly great to have somebody to throw feedback at after my ministry visits and as he is in the 20-30 demo, it was interesting to have his take after each worship service. More importantly was our late evening bonding time. Depending on the day, I would sometimes have evening commitments, as would he. No matter what our days had entailed, we would typically end with some type of xbox game. I did go ahead to purchase a couple of used games, including a soccer game, which I was terrible at. In fact, our first few games were not even close. I know nothing about soccer, I think it is a lame sport, and Coz is a certified ref. No playoffs? No thanks.

What did this call for? Tebow Time. it was at this point that Tebow (Florida version) was called upon to save my dignity. Tebow single handidly dominated Coz. I probably could have put him in at defense, but that would have just been mean.

I am still unsure of the highlight of my time with Coz. I have narrowed it down to three things. 1) Tebow. 2) His reaction when I beat him in Soccer (we stayed up later than normal as he refused to end the night with a loss to me in soccer) 3) brunch.

Also - In addition to providing an xbox and hot dogs (all beef!) I did provide free maintainence. I fixed something. Yea. I was that awesome.

The point of this blog? Other than Tebow is a quality qb (I would prefer him over Freeman/Ponder/Cassel), there is none. Coz has been begging me to blog about my time with him for quite sometime, so this fulfills my commitment to him. 

I will leave you with this....

It's Me!

I am going to really try the next few weeks to blog about different experiences I had on my sabbatical. A quick recap - my goal was to spend time with my family, spend time learning about what congregations are doing in regards to worship, young adult, and small group ministry, and do some time of personal renewal.

So, about me not opening up. Part of the issue with this is that to be honest, I don't always realize what types of things I am struggling with. A big part of my job is being around people, so I never actually just spend time alone. I mean, no TV, no ipod, no phone, no computer, just me. With a little encouragement, I decided to spend 1 day alone. There is a place in Minneapolis called the Urban retreat center. I didn't know what to expect, and was in fact fairly nervous about going, but I signed up anyway.

This place is just north of the cities, above this families garage. They day I showed up, I was surprised by the amount of trees surrounding this neighborhood. Anyway - I found my way around to this, what ended up being a really nice space with an open living room, a coffee maker, a nice little kitchen, and a smaller room with a couch and very comfy napping chair.

My host met me and showed me around. Outside there was a walking labyrinth, there were walking trails close by, she had lunch for me in the refrigerator, then asked if I wanted to code to get on-line. I told her no, knowing that if I had the code, I would probably get on. She then handed me a tentative schedule. The first thing that impressed me was the time blocked out for a nap. She had me going for a walk, reading, journaling, eating, and just sitting, hanging out. Before she left, she asked if I had brought anything to read. I said no. She went over and grabbed a book and told me that she thought this book would be really good for me. it was a book dealing with the story of the Prodigal Son. Whatever.

So after i got over the 20 minutes of being by myself without a phone, music, or anything, I went for a walk. Ok, so I took a wrong turn and the walk took me a few extra minutes. Anyway, it was fine. Kind of weird..but fine. I came back to start some reading. I began, then about 15 minutes later woke up. After making some coffee, I began reading in the comfy chair again. I will admit, I really got into it. After reading for a while, i decided to jump ahead a little bit and see what the author had to say about the "other" brother. You know, the one that tries to do the right thing but his parents throw the party for the brother that went off to some big city? Did I mention I'm a middle child?

Anyway, after a really stinking good lunch, I went ahead and read some more. It was crazy how this book that had been handed to me, how much it was speaking to me, where I was, right then. It wasn't a crazy epiphany moment, but it's like this had been written just for me.

Finally, I felt the need to walk around, so i went through the labyrinth. I found my mind wandering a fair amount about a wide range of topics. Finally, near this spot was a large lounger chair and I went to sit by. After a few minutes, I actually said out loud "OK - seriously - what am I doing out here right now? Is there something I need to know?" Yes, I actually said it out loud. I will be completely honest, I don't have a lot of "God is speaking to me" moments. Suddenly, as I am sitting there, I realized how alone I had felt the last few months. The months leading up to my sabbatical had been a bit on the stressful side. I also don't cry a lot. Seriously. Do I get upset? Yes. Full out cry? No. But there it was...all out tears coming down. Suddenly, I am sitting there wondering whether or not I have anyone in my life that will hold me up. Suddenly, the story of the four guys lowering their friend through the rough jumps in my head, wondering to myself, who will do this for me? Finally, four faces jumped up at me. It was like a load that I hadn't even realized I had been carrying around was lifted off. I know what this sounds like.

Here's the other thing about me. I'm really good at the more on the surface relationship. I'm not good at the "let me share how I am feeling, struggling with, and what I screwed up" part of my life. I don't like to share with people. Period. I like people to see me as the guy who cares about them, is a happy kind of guy, and who seems to have things figured out. The other thing that spoke to me that day was that I needed to be able to share with people what I am struggling with so that I am not doing it alone.

It's a weird thing, trust. Being able to trust somebody enough to let them in and see the messy aspects of our lives. It also greatly impacts our faith. If I can't let others in, how am I supposed to let God in? And to be honest, most of my good friends realize when I am struggling, they are good enough friends to just be there with me and remind me I'm not alone in my struggle. 

Next...

A couple things about me...

1) I hate making decisions.
2) I hate it even more when somebody tells me what to do.

I am wrapping up stage 2 of my sabbatical.

Stage one was me going to Disney and spending time with my family. This entailed 24 hours driving from Decorah to Orlando, spending all day running around parks, eating too much, and trying not to lose my cool and begin screaming at people while waiting in line for the log ride. Seriously, I almost lost it. Luckily I was able to vent on my phone to my brother as opposed to actually yelling at people. Seriously, I don't think I have come that close to screaming at somebody in a really long time. Trying to stay calm in front of my son was not an easy task.

Stage 2 involved me leaving my family for 2 weeks and going to the Twin Cities for a time of visiting pastors, youth directs, and worship leaders about what they are doing to reach young adults and students in today's culture.

I was tasked by Tiger to do 3 things. 1) write down 3-5 bullet points so when somebody asks me about my sabbatical time, I can tell them things I learned, what it meant, etc. 2) Do a longer write up about both the practical and theoretical things I learned and how it has shaped me. 3) Send him a check paying him for his time.

While there are some things that are going to be easy to explain to people (i.e. how a lovely young woman spent time with me walking me through how to use vine, twitter, etc) and a few things that, well, will be much more difficult (day of renewal at the Urban Retreat). Even as I sit here, I have a bunch of different emotions going through me that I can't even explain.

So as I struggle to write this down, here is what I do know.

1) There are a wide range of people in the cities, from different denominations and theological backgrounds that are doing the best they can to live out their faith and reach out and share the gospel.

2) The churches, whether or not I agreed with their methodology or theology, I most admired were those who knew who they were and what they were called to do, let that drive everything they did in their church and community without apology.

3) Sometimes I need to sit back and give God a chance to talk.

I hope to use this blog in the next couple weeks to help me process some of what I experienced. Some will be ho hum, some will be interesting, and hopefully some will make you think I am a complete mess. At any rate, I need to do this to help me figure out the What? So What? and Now What of these past weeks...

Here is a video I will leave you with. Gungar is doing some amazing music that I really dig. Not sure why I typed dig. I always think of the line "Can you Dig it?". Good movie. Anyway, enjoy!

Ramblings

My son Luke and I have been watching the Bible the past several weeks. During this time, I have also been reading different articles and blogs about the show. Here are a few things I find interesting.

1) The "Biblical Literalists" seem to be loving it, although it isn't necessarily word for word by the book.
2) Progressive Christians seem to be having issues with it because it is not necessarily Biblically literal.
3) People are complaining about the English accents all the characters seem to have. I assume they did this after seeing the success Les Miserables had at the box office, having people in France speaking with English accents.

As far as my take, it has been fun to watch it with Luke. Every once in a while we will pause it and talk about what is going on, or why certain things are happening. I will also pause it to make sure he is ok (he kind of freaked out with the whole "Isaac and Abraham thing". I don't think he will want to go backpacking to the mountains anytime soon). He is not going to remember word for word what they said, but it has been giving him an idea of some of the stories and what happened and creating good discussion.

Other things...

• I took Luke to opening day at Target Field. I used it as my high at youth group last night and it was explained to me that anyone who has Twitter and FB already knew this and how I shouldn't be using hashtags in my FB posts and should save them for Twitter only. I tried explaining that my tweets are sent to FB, but they didn't care. Our Associate Pastor tried to back me up, but they didn't really care.
• The same week I saw opening day and it was AWESOME, I went to the dentist. Ugh. I hate it. I'm sure dentists are fine people, but I really, really, really, really dislike going there. Up until Friday morning, I had been having a good week.
• The past few years, I have had hopes the Twins were going to be better than they actually were. This year, I had no hope they would be any good. I might be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. They've played good ball and might not be as terrible as the Cubs.
• I am declaring right now that we officially have the nerdiest staff in the ELCA. With the addition of our tea-loving Associate Pastor, we are all geeked out.
• Speaking of our new pastor, I lost to her in week 1 of my fantasy baseball league. I'm a bit bitter about this. Why? She had Kevin Youkilis starting at 3rd. Seriously. Terrible. I always get upset in my fantasy leagues when I see people give up at the beginning of the season. I might be that person this year.
• At our 9th-12th grade youth group last night we got to play frisbee outside. It was sooo nice to be able to spend some time outside running around. Ok - I didn't so much "run" as "slowly jog". You get the idea.
• My sabbatical starts in two months. I'm starting to get a little nervous/excited about it.
• During set up and clean up of our Easter breakfast, students would bring me different things (fake trees, play doe, etc) and ask me where to move them. I told them to shove them in our SS superintendents office. I'm not sure she whether or not she is still talking to me.
• Speaking of Easter, if anyone wants to help me resurrect my office, that would be fine. I'm pretty sure at this point, my office getting re-organized would be similar to Jesus raising on Easter. 

Video of the week
I love his beard...I wish I could grow one.

Seriously...

As this is my blog, and not yours, I'm going to ramble a little bit. Feel free not to read.

Although my senior high students might not realize, I have tried spending more time prepping for youth group this year than in years past. This is not easy for me. For the first 11 years or so of my "professional" ministry career, I was much more of a "wing it because I'm awesome" kind of guy. While this was cute and adorable at first, and on a few occasions made for really great youth groups and confo, for the most part it meant my lessons and group time were a bit scattered, and while the kids may have had a good time, it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been.

This was really clear to me more so for confirmation than anything else. In order to engage the 8th and 9th grade students, I had to really put significant time into thinking what stories about myself I wanted to share, how they would fit in to the overall purpose of the night, and how I was going to connect it to their real life. This may sound easy, but I think it is really more difficult than one may think. Sometimes we try and lump all middle school kids together, but in reality, they are as different as any other group. You have the jocks, artsy students, students who are starting to realize their faith is an important part of who they are as well as students who really, really, really, really, really, don't want to be there.

At any rate, I started to really figure out, if we wanted the students to take their faith seriously, we had to put serious effort into what we were doing to help the kids along in their faith journeys.

So, last night we had a session on dealing with grief and loss. The numbers were not great. I was hoping to have a lot more students arrive. It was a bit dissapointing, but then Pr. Matt Larson began to speak. Matt and a few pages of typed out notes ready to go. We showed Matthew, a Nooma video to begin the night. Matt was great. He really did a fantastic job connecting the video, his life experience, and why this matters to the kids. When Matt was done speaking, we broke the kids up into small groups where I had come up with a sheet for each small group leader.

Anyway, I think it was a really great night. I'm sure if you asked each kid, not everyone would agree. However, I think we prepared well and was really pleased with how it went.

The point of the entire story is that if we take this whole "faith formation" thing seriously, we need to put serious effort into it. Had Matt just showed up and talked, it would have been ok. Or if we would have just had the kids and leaders sit down afterwards and talk, it might have been adequate, but adequate is not good enough.

During this holy week, we are talking about a God who came down, died and the cross and rose again. I think that is something we need to take seriously and something we need to put real effort into passing along.

Other random thoughts...

• "Hope Springs Eternal". The Twins are still tied for first place. So what if they don't have any pitching, they still have Mauer.
• I am going on a sabbatical in June. I plan on blogging more about that later, but I'm fairly excited about it. Plus, I get to spend some time with an intern I had (the only one) a few years back. Yea, after him, I never got another one....hmmm...
• I just finished the 2nd season of Game of Thrones. Yea, I'm a fan.

Ok - in love with this song right now...

Being Fashion Forward

I remember seeing guys in college that wore the t-shirt with a long sleeve-t underneath. While I wasn't opposed to it, I just didn't get overly excited about it nor did I really think it looked like me. It wasn't anything I was interested in. 13 years later, I have come around and find it being a staple of my wardrobe. I rarely wear sweatshirts, and a majority of each week during the fall/winter, find myself doing the layered look with either a t-shirt or a polo. Yesterday I met with a Pastor, so I went with the polo look, just to dress up a little bit for him.

Anyway, 13 years after I first noticed it, I came around. Most of my clothes are purchased by my wife after she gets frustrated enough with me that she just buys me something so i don't look like a complete slob. Every once in a while a package from Old Navy will come with a pair of jeans or two. or she will have gone to JC Penny's or the depot to pick up a shirt for me. What's kind of funny is that when she does pick me out something, I end up being really picky. Yes. Me. The guy that doesn't like to dress up is picky about the clothes he wears. Anyway, nobody would ever accuse me of being fashion forward. It ends up causing some tension in our marriage. After a pair of khakis has been sitting in my closet still in the package for a few months, my wife will ask me why I didnt' even try them on. Or if a shirt still has the tags after a year or so sitting in my closet she will just take it to my father-in-law. Or she will just get mad that I will not go shopping for myself, yet when she picks out something, I will leave it to sit in the closet for a while before even trying it on.

For the record, I do blame my mom. As a kid I was forced to sit at market. What is market? Market is room after room of women's clothing and accessories that stores go into to pick out clothes in some city. As a kid, having to sit for days watching her pick out pants, earrings, dresses, etc. will really screw up a kid. Such began my despising shopping.

Back to the fashion thing. I'm not opposed to having nice clothes or dressing up. I am, however opposed to doing something b/c somebody told me to or to be on the cutting edge of something.

If you are still reading this, congrats, you win a cookie.

Ok - so here's the point. This past week I spent time in Anaheim at the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza. While the name "Extravaganza" doesn't bother me, when i say the name to others, it sounds weird. it makes it sound as if there are dancing elephants or something. Anyway, much of what was talked about was pushing the envelope and really taking a hard look at the "cutting edge" of where ministry is heading. For the most part, I don't like being told what to do. I will even admit when I am told by my senior pastor a certain song he wants to have sung or something he wants me to do and I don't agree, I really don't like it. (I haven't told him that, so please don't let him know). I will even reluctantly admit in previous years hearing speakers, rolling my eyes and thinking they are absolutely wrong. After all, I am Adrian Walter and know pretty much everything there is to know about ministry.

In fact, the speaker at each of the main sessions spoke all about the lack of use of social media and technology in ministry. I wrote something about it a while ago. He seemed to go beyond just having a nice website, but rather using it to really form faith. I will be honest, I was entranced. In fact, unlike some years I was never even tempted to skip a main session. I wanted to hear more. I wasn't doing anything he was talking about, and in fact had somebody just sent me a proposal about less class time and more web time, I would of thought it idiotic. Instead, I find myself trying to figure out how I can start to incorporate what he was talking about to what we do at FLC.

Now, living in a small town in NEIA, it takes a while for fashion to get here. Everything starts on the coasts, then slowly makes it's way here. It's kind of like ministry. however, because of the web, everything seems to be getting here much more quickly that it used to. We have the opportunity to be fashion forward when it comes to faith formation and passing on the faith, and that makes me excited.

A few quick notes...

• I've been tempted to blog about our new pastor we having coming, but I am afraid she will force me to drink tea if I do, so I will refrain from mentioning her.
• Speaking of our new pastor, she drinks a lot of tea. I'm not sure how I feel about that. If you believe what she writes, she essentially carries a tea pot around with her at all times. I always thought it would be cool to drink Earl Grey (sp?) but then I found it tastes really bad.
• Twins are going to be terrible. I will not be taking any bets that they will be in the running for their division.
• I'm way excited about the new Star Trek movie coming out.

 I still love this song...

Hello Blog, long time no see..

I'm tired. My wife is gone, school is about to begin for the boys, and I do not have an "after school" schedule set up for them. We had a council supper/meeting tonight. I'm getting ready for fall programming trying to get my calendar lined up. I have 2 football drafts coming up. Earlier today I spoke with Aaron from Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp to plan out dates for next years trip (we JUST got back from New Orleans and I'm already planning next year..seems wrong, somehow) and tonight I have spent a good chunk of the evening thinking about the things I left undone last year.

I tend to be the kind of person to dwell on the stuff that I neglected to do or didn't do as well as I had hoped.

For example, I am going through the people I didn't contact as much (or at all) this past year and should have. Students that I have not seen but did not call. Youth group sessions that I should have done differently. Bible studies I meant to plan but never got around to. Telling my kids I would play play station with them but didn't (I was told by Luke I owe him $10 if I don't play before school starts on Thurs.). How I played my guitar for a funeral and at the end of the song hit a wire so in the silence after a wonderful rendition of Jesus Loves Me by my younger bro, there was a loud crack at the end. How on our trip to the ELCAYG I really didn't talk to and foster as many relationships with the students I brought down as I would have liked. How, as much as I tend to be gone from my family both with work and other things I am in a position to talk to families how they should be.

I am struggeling with what to do with my SH students this year. I need a name for youth group. "Youth Group" just seems blah. I need to figure out what the heck I am going to do this year. I used up all of the Nooma videos the past 2 years, which I used as an intro and really loved it, now I have to move on and I don't know what direction I am going to go. In addition to YG (or whatever it needs to be called) I need..yes, need, to set up a Bible study to go deeper with those students who want/desire to do so.

I lead our contemporary worship twice /month. When I say lead, I mean plan the worship, get the band together to rehearse, set up the music stuff (all with help, but its still my thing) etc. I have been trying to figure out the best way to do the service so the people who this reaches..well...it reaches. This also means continuing to argue for the existance of said service and explain to people why it is needed.

I need to get my bum in gear and get more of a 7th and 8th grade program going. This means stuff beyond just confirmation.

We have an entire group of 20 something adults who are not coming to church with whom we need to do something..anything for on a frequent basis.

Did I mention my office needs some..umm..work? by some, I mean..a lot. (anyone?)

And finally, I really need to figure out a way to better utilize our youth and family committee this coming year. I am totally a "do it myself" kind of guy and..well..if I really want things to go well this year, I think I probably need to lean on them a bit more than I have been.

So, I have a few things going for me..

1) The Twins stink this year. When I mean stink, I mean they are terrible. So, I don't have to be distracted by a pennant race this year.

2) There are a bunch of great people at my church to work with. I have an extraordinarily supportive (yet a bit undeserved) pastor, parents and adults who truly care about the faith formation of students, youth and families at FLC.

3) It may seem cliche', but I also believe it a God who takes us as we are, and even though I may screw up, He still walks with me. Watching a family who i care about deeply go through a terrible tragedy helped remind me of this. After saying that line 50 times during the youth gathering trip, it really came to light while visiting the family. I don't believe in a God who promises me everything will be hunky dory. Instead I believe in a God who says He will walk beside me no matter what. And really, that means a lot more to me than anything else.

At the Youth Gathering, Switchfoot played. I like em. A lot. This is a great song. For me, it also tells me to get off my butt and get something done...

There is a lot of crap to get done. I suppose it might help if I get to sleep and get started tomorrow...

Friends, Followers, and the weird world of Pintrest

I don't get it. I recently got invited (after some begging) to Pintrest. It is cluttered, confusing, and I have no idea how to find anything. There are just a bunch of pictures of things ranging from board games to pictures of star wars. It wouldn't be so bad, but I have no idea how it is organized or what I am supposed to do. As a person who lives his life in confusion, this seems to go beyond anything I can handle. How people spend hours upon hours doing it, I will never understand.
When I first logged in, it asked who I wanted to follow. Before I knew it, not only was I following people who are my facebook friends, but I found myself following people I didn't know because I like baseball. I un-followed them immediately because...well...it just seemed weird. And they had some really weird things "pinned". I keep getting notices that "so and so is now following you on Pintrest". I assume some notice was sent to my fb friends telling them I was on there.

It was probably un-necessary for me to join Pintrest. Between my blog, facebook, and twitter, I probably have enough ways to share what I am thinking, doing, etc. While it would seem there are plenty of ways to do such a thing, there are plenty still left out there. I'm not on foursquare, linkden, or google + (ok, I did get an account, but I really don't get it).

All of this does bring up an interesting question. What does it mean to be a follower? During a week when we are talking about following Jesus to the cross and the tomb, how do we differentiate our understanding of what it means to be a follower today vs. 2012 years ago. I can follow somebody sitting at Magpie. I can be a friend to somebody that I haven't talked for several years and probably won't have a face to face conversation with for another 10 years. So if I am sitting in a congregation and a pastor talks about following Jesus, what is s/he talking about? When we "churchy" folk talk about following Jesus, we mean living a life of service. We mean caring for our neighbor. We mean telling people about how Jesus death and resurrection changes the way we care for and treat other people. Anywhere else in the world, it means clicking a button and receiving an invitation to help somebody with their virtual garden.

Anyway, for a long time I tried to figure out how I can be with the "in" group and get on Pintrest. Now that I am there, I don't get it. It hasn't changed my life. It hasn't given me meaning. It hasn't made all of my dreams come true.

Anyway, as I continue on my journey with Pintrest, please keep me in your prayers.

 

A few other quick tidbits..

• The Easter breakfast I usually do has been hijacked by a few parents. I will admit I feel a bit slackerish, but also very relieved.
• Opening day is Good Friday. Hmm...do I stay home and listen to the Twins game or attend worship? This may very well be the lone game this season when they are in first place.
• I loved our contemporary service on Palm Sunday. Between the music, message, etc., it all flowed extremely well and it was awesome. 
• My mom tore her hamstring. The "how" isn't important. What I should do, however, is record how "nurturing" my dad is with her and show it to my wife so she better understands why I am how I am. (For example, him trying to explain to her that she should sit up and move around a little bit and how that would help her feel better).

Reminding Me (Us)

As the point person for our New Song worship, I have found myself on youtube and other media place listening to music and trying to figure out which songs to use for our worship. I came across this ditty while planning our last worship service. I really like this song.

I saw a stat the other day that said my denomination was down in membership about 5.9%. Yes, much of this has to do with the "split" in the church from 2009. At the same time, mainline protestant churches have been on the decline for quite a while. At a recent youth worker retreat, we tackeled the question about where our youth ministry was, where it is, and where it is going. Without getting into too much detail, I think it is fair to say that most of the conversation revolved around relavance. How is what we are doing relavent in peoples lives. How are we showing people that God is relavent in people's lives. I heard a sermon recently that essentially said to the congregation "you know the good news, go and share it". I don't believe this is true. As I looked around the room, I wondered, "how many people here really understand who God is and what this really means?" When I see stats like 7-8 % of people find their faith relavent in their daily life, did the people sitting in the pews get it? How are we talking to people about faith? Should we go and assume that people do understand when there has been a steep decline in not only church membership but the importance of people's faith in their lives? Does this change the way we are explaing the gospel to people?

I recently visited Wartbug College to continue preparation for the ELCA National Youth Gathering. A lot has changed on campus since I was there. For starters, there is a library. There is also a coffee shop in the library. It seems as though colleges are constantly changing. Why? Well, the demographics have changed, the way students learn has changed as well as what makes students choose one college over the other. Back in my day, there was not a widespread use of projectors, video, laptops, etc. In Luther College's new buildings, almost everyroom has its own projection system.

What has this taught me? It is not only the content we are teaching people, but also how we are passing along information. When students go to google with questions before their parents, it would appear the "how" is getting to be as important as the "what". We need to let go of "what used to be" and focus on the "what is the reality".

Why? There are students that don't really know who they are. There are students (and parents, people in their 20's, etc) who feel overwhelmed, confused, lost. There are students (and parents, people in their 20's etc) who do not understand there is a God who loves, cares for, and wants them to remeber who they are. That is our job. It means to do whatever it takes to help people remember who they are. It means meeting people where they are, not where we think they should be. It means the church need to change. (the reality is the church is constantly changing whether we like it or not, we just don't like to always acknowledge it).

Given that, the question for me is, how quickly do we push for change. Whether it be projectors in the sanctuary or the use of video in worship, it seems as though we are already behind. The new software program I am using for worship allows for "signals" to be sent to peoples iphones and ipads with things such as scripture readings. I really do struggle sitting still for any period of time beyond about 10 minutes. During worship I find myself looking around and crumpling up my bulletin. If I try to give a "talk" to my students at youth group and it goes beyond 5 - 10 minutes, I've lost them. (yes, part of it is me) but also that is NOT how students live out their lives. Heck, I had a student last night in-between drying dishes texting her bf. Even when I show a video at our senior high group, kids faces are lighting up from their cell phones. They are always connected. If we don't figure out a way to tap into that soon, we are going to fall even further behind and the 8% will drop even further.

So, how quickly do we push for change? We don't want to alienate people, but if we don't start to do something soon, I will begin to question how we "insiders" really view our faith and the impact it should have on peoples lives.

• Still bitter, but this does make me feel better
• There is hope...
• Our church is creating putting a new website. I am really excited about it!
• My favorite part of this weather is going outside and playing catch with my boys. Love it. Probably the highlight of being a dad...

Hipsters and Pretties

I recently returned from the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Gathering in New Orleans. As a "Gathering Coach" (sucker), I had to go a few days early for a training on training. Also - we were doing some planning for the youth gathering. For these first three days, all of our meals were taken care of at the hotel. I was standing in line one night to eat, and a person I have not seen in quite a while came up behind me. I wouldn't say that we were ever close friends, but we knew eachother. After a few minutes of awkwardly waiting for her to acknowledge who I am, I finally said hi. She looked up, then suddenly said "you used to be so preppy!" Ah, the power of a hair style. That and I was wearing a long sleve t-shirt with a twins t over it. When I did know her, I had short hair that kind of spiked up in front. That and I wore a lot of polo shirts. Two nights later I went out with a few friends. I was standing there listening to some people, and this gal looked up at me and said "so, your trying to be all hipster. I'm not really a fan of the hipster look, but I do like He-Man, so I'm trying to figure out if I like your shirt or not". A few of my friends even began referring to me as Sheldon. (If you don't get the reference you NEED to begin watching the Big Bang Theory)

For the past, oh, 6 months I have been getting a lot of flack for my hair style. I recall coming home one day and my mother-in-law was at my house. I told her, "Audrey, I got a hair cut today". She just said, "no you didn't". I said "yes". She just made some type of noise and continued with whatever she was doing. My new Senior pastor and I were having a conversation about our congregation. He suddenly turned to me and said "It's kind of like your hair. 1/3 hate it, 1/3 like it, and 1/3 don't care."


This past weekend a couple of mom's from my church asked if I wanted to wear a pretty. I found out this is a barrett. In fact, last night after Ash Wed. I received a text asking me if the pastor had to put a pretty in my hair prior to putting the ashes on my forehead.

Last summer I even purchased a pair of chuck taylors to wear. Why? I didn't really plan on buying any. I hadn't owened a pair since high school. I just happened to walk into a shoe store, found a pair and bought them. In addition to being mad fun of as these have now become my church shoes, the young lady who sold me the shoes also explained that I needed to wear socks that you couldn't really see. She had a tattoo and several piercings, so I wasn't going to disagree as she obviously was much cooler than I. Of course, when I asked her if they would look ok on me, she said "my mom has a pair, so you'll be just fine."

My new "look" didn't happen because of some great scheme, instead it's been a process over the past year. Last week, my wife turned to me and asked what I had going on. It was a Monday and I was wearing a pair of Khakis. Honestly? The previous Friday I didn't have any longs sleve t-shrits clean, so I went and ironed a few shirts. So, when I got up Monday, I had a couple of shirts ironed, so i put one on.


In Bible study this morning, we talked about peer preasure. We discussed wearing or doing things just to please other people or to fit in. I can't really say I have ever really "fit in". Whether it be at camp wearing my awesome and comfortable (but highly in-approrpiate) shorts, not dressing up at church, or even refusing to cut my hair.

In less than an hour, I will be getting my hair cut. The main reason? I am having trouble seeing out of my right eye as the hair is too long and I refuse to wear a pretty in public. I want it made clear right now, that it is in no way getting cut because of pressure to do so. Of course....if the question were asked whether I was refusing to cut it b/c people thought I should? Well...

A few quick notes

•  I am giving up soda (not pop) for lent
• I am proud of Luke. He went through his lunch schedule for lent and is eating peanut butter once each week instead of his favorite meal at school
• Pitchers and Catchers have reported. Twins have a legit shot at winning a very week Central division
• The David Crowder Band is no longer together. They are by far my favorite Christian group and I am going to miss them making new music.

Like a box of chocolates...

I'm trying to figure out what kind of day today is going to be. When my alarm went off this morning at 5:56 a.m., I was not excited. I was in a deep sleep and as I feel as though I had not been sleeping well, really wanted to crawl back in bed. I forced myself to get up, get dressed, and wait for my walking partner Pat. I will admit (grudgingly), when I do go for a walk early in the morning, I do feel better. Yes, part of it is the wonderful conversation that occurs, but mostly it is the being active portion of the walk. Anyway, when I got back from my walk, I made my coffee (for those of you wondering, I was able to salvage my broken coffee grinder, so that's good). My youngest son who most mornings is a complete monster woke up relatively easy this morning and at no time did I yell at him or tell him to get dressed, eat, or get his snow stuff on. It was fantastic. I have to admit, I was on a high. Boys were playing well together, Adam wasn't being...well...Adam, and we were way ahead of schedule. Then it happened.

Luke walks to school each day. As we are only 3 blocks away, he leaves each day about 5 - 10 minutes before Adam and I do. Adam on the other hand gets dropped off. Now, this seems like it should be relatviely simple. You pull up, you say goodbye, your kid gets out of the car, and you leave. Not so much. This morning, the line wasn't moving all that fast, then it came to our turn. We followed the car ahead of us, we stopped, and I told Adam goodbye, and he jumped out of the car. That should have been it. Instead, I sat there for what seemed like 10 minutes, staring at the car 2 cars ahead of where I was. I started looking around wondering what they were waiting for. Finally the back door opened and the kid got out. Ok, I thought, now we can go. No. the parent then got out an walked their kid over. I'm a parent. I understand that some days are kind of rough and a kid needs a little extra tlc. What I don't understand is why you would hold up a huge line of other parents who have things to do (like sit in a coffee house and blog). Maybe it is because I have no heart, but I am all about shoving my kid out of the car as quick as possible, in part because it is polite to the other parents and also because if Adam isn't in a "yea school!" kind of mood, an extra 3 minutes in the car isn't going to help. It's kind of like ripping off a band aid, the quicker the better.

So now, here i sit blogging, preparing myself for my annual review in less than an hour, unsure what is to come. (That and I am still a little sore from running with students from 5- 9pm yesterday)

As far as the review goes, here are a few of my thoughts. As I was filling out my official form, I began to think about all of the things that I left undone this past year. I started listing out the things I wish I had done better or (gasp!) even the few things that I even screwed up. I find it a lot easier to focus on those things that on the things that I did well. I have been a part of some really great reviews and some...well...not so great ones. When I say that, I don't mean ones that were just talking about what a great or terrible job I was doing, rather a reflection on this past year and what can be done to do better next year move forward in a positive way. I think today will probably be the latter.

Ok - a few quick thoughts, A friend of mine posted this article. The first time I heard something similar to this was from Paul Hill who essentially said the same thing while talking about how men bond and grow together. He focused on how guys like to compete with eachother, etc., and the church needed to find a way to do this and while girls enjoy chatting on the phone for a long time sharing their feelings, a lot of guys want activities that will challenge them physically. The challenge is to find those activities in the church.

• I am holding out hope the M & M boys will be back and the Twins will at least have a shot at the division this year
• I really do love the worship band I play with. They are a great group of talented people and I am blessed to have the opportunity to play with them
• I leave for New Orleans next week for 6 days. I'm not really sure what to expect, but it should be a good time

Finally - Super Bowl prediction. I will have a better idea when I talk with my brother as to who he is rooting for (he always picks the loser), but right now I am thinking the Giants will win in a not very close game.

Eh...this isn't great, but I need to try to get back in the habit...

I had tried to tell myself that I would begin regular blogging this fall. This has not happened. While I would like to blame it on a busy schedule, it is more a case of laziness than anything else. Since I haven't blogged in a while, I am going to cram a few thoughts into this one post...but first....

Ok, when I was a kid, I was huge into wrestling. Yes, I even was able to go to an event in 7th grade to watch Demolition wrestle 1/2 of the Rockers (Marty Genety). Demolition had earlier injured Shawn, so only Genety could wrestle. I recently became FB friends with a guy from college who I hadn't talked to or seen in a out 11 years. We were part of the same Faith Alive group at Wartburg. He and I actually led an entire Faith alive meeting, basing it on wrestling with video clips, Bible passages, etc. It was quite impressive.

Now that I have streaming netflix, I find myself looking for things to watch. Within the last 2 months I have now watched 2 documentaries about wresting. One focused on Brett Hart, the other on was a more general wrestling documentary, with a slight focus on Jake Roberts. Both were sad. Not in the "I'm going to cry", but rather in the "oh, that is just sad" style of sadness. I loved Jake the snake growing up. Other than George the Animal Steal, he was my favorite. I also recall jake being  big into the whole "Jesus" thing. He would talk about it after a match and I even recall him speaking on one of those "Jesus Channel Shows".  To see a guy who was uber popular now living a life out of his car, addicted to drugs, and no significant relationships in his life, I felt pity on him. The Wrester is an awesome movie which appears to chronical the real life of Jake Roberts. Contrast Jake Roberts with Brett Hart. In his documentary, he talks of the significance of his relationship with his brothers and father. In the documentary he even knocks out Vince McMahon (its actually real, not fake). It seems very apparent that because of the relationship he has with his family, he is much more grounded than some of his peers.

I had a young gal ask me a couple of weeks ago what God wants from us. Well, I said, God wants us to be  in relationship with Him. Once that starts to happen, other things fall into place. When I say "fall into place" I do not mean life is hunky dory, I mean, the way we treat others, how we care for others, etc. does fall into place. We were created for relationships. No matter ones financial or success status, if we don't have some type of close relationships, we feel lost and alone. That is (I believe) a big reason Jesus came to us. God wants to know us and for us to know God. As a parent, sure I want my kid to be successful. Yes, I want them to do well. More than anything else, I want to have a relationship with them. As a parent, yes, I think about what our relationship will look like in 5 years, 10 years, etc. That is how I see God. That is what God wants, and that is what we need. What does a relationship with God look like? Well, that is another post at some point and time in the future...

A few other quick notes...

• I am excited about caucusing in a few weeks, although I am still undecided as to whom I will be caucusing for (yes, I am a Republican). (I'm also hoping I used the word "whom" correctly.)
• I am in the finals of 1 of my 4 leagues. Here's to hoping Vick has an awesome weekend!
• I get to Christmas with family starting Dec. 24th - January 2nd. Yes, I am very excited about every minute. Really. *sigh*

Have a great Christmas!

A new beginning

Change and transition. Both of these things easily raise up my anxiety level.

That being said, I LOVE change. Thanks to my non-diagnosed ADHD, I need to be working and doing several things at once. Yes, this makes it difficulut to actually finish things (I have several blog posts that I have started, but never actually finished).

Anyway, there comes a time when new leadership is needed. This isn't necessarily because the old was "bad" or not working, but it keeps things fresh, and for me, keeps it interesting. When I first heard about a "new person" being in charge, I was genuinly excited. I couldn't wait. I will admit, when I looked at his age, I got a little nervous. The reality is the person he is taking over has a lot more experience, knew the "system" better, and so was assumed to be a better fit. There were several other issues. What kind of experience did this person have and how is it going to work here? The person had never really been the go to guy at an organization as large as this one. How would they handle the spot light? Everyone and their mother would be watching closely to see how he would handle different situations. Lots of people (including myself) had a "set age" or "set amount of experience" that we wanted the new leader to have. This person didn't necesssarily fill that quota. We had also seen other organizations close by that had gone with a person this young and watch it cause conflict.

Anyway, Let me be clear. I am excited for the future. The fact that Christian Ponder is now the leader of the Vikings excites me. Yes, he is a young qb, but he appears to have the chops for the job. To be clear, Ponder is NO Tavaris Jackson (that is a good thing). I think it is great that McNabb is still around to help him out. They seemed to have transitioned well with giving control of the team to Ponder, but yet to have McNabb there to help out where needed and to share his experience and expertise with Ponder. So far, it is off to a great start. It is wonderful to see the team rally around Ponder and to watch how much better he makes the rest of the team.

While I won't say "super bowl" yet, I think the team did a great job is bringing in the right leader at the right time.

This is just one of my many issues...

12 years ago when I first began in youth ministry, I refused coffee. I HATED that everytime I went to a meeting, it was between coffee (decaf) and water. OK - except for our men's ministry meetings when we would sit outside prior to the Bible study and share some Miller Light (it was Milwaukee after all).


Anyway, it wasn't until while I was at Ewalu and visiting with different Lutheran Brotherhood and AAL groups that I began to force myself to drink coffee. At many of the meetings it was the only thing offered with their meals. I should point out that this was "church style" coffee, which meant water downed, poorly brewed, etc.
Anyway, this began my addiction to coffee.

When we moved to Decorah, my wife went and bought a coffee grinder. I will admit, my first reaction was "you spent money on a coffee grinder?" I wasn't impressed. I don't like like spending money. Then I started to use it. The aroma (yes, I used the term aroma) was awesome. taking the lid off of the grinder and smelling those beans is a very spiritual experience for me. Suddenly, not only was I a coffee drinker, but I found myself becoming a coffee snob. I found myself actually judging different types of coffee. (Whole Bean, Dunkin Donuts is my coffee of choice, btw). It is the point where if I am making coffee at home, when the coffe gets to the 4, I take it out of the coffee maker. The first cup made tastes the best. Its scientific fact.

Tragically, 2 nights ago, my wife dropped the lid on the floor. Yes, I should have put the lid back on when I was done, but it was still her that dropped it.

This means I am currently w/o a grinder. I came to work this morning w/o my mug of coffee or w/o having a couple of cups prior to coming to work. I'll admit, it doesn't feel the same. I miss the roar that grinder made and especially the smell of the ground beans.

I now have three choices laid in front of me. 1) go to Ace and pick up a new grinder. 2) Complain to my wife about not having a working grinder until she goes and gets one. 3) Suffer from withdrawl and began the process of ending my addiction.

Here are the problems with each...

1. I hate shopping. I don't know if I could pull the trigger on that purchase. I prefer to have my wife do it so I can complain about how much it cost w/o actually have spent the money myself while at the same time getting the benefit of my Dunkin Donuts coffee in the morning.
2. My wife began getting ready for school this week. For the most part, I try to keep my head down the first couple of weeks of school as she is adjusting as to not add any more stress to her life. I say "try" b/c I usually do a poor job of it. I do realize at some point I will push her off the edge. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't yet, and it probably doesn't have to be done over a coffee grinder.
3. I can say I am going to go w/o, but the reality is I will end up just going to Java John's or Magpie that much more often and buying a cup of coffee. I do it already, and probably don't need to add to the amount I am already spending on coffee..

Anyway, such is my life..luckily this song brings me hope in a time of darkness....

 

Other quick notes...

• Just when I had quit reading or watching anything Twins related, Thome hit is 600th, which was probably the lone bright spot of being a Twins fan this year. I was going to put the video of it on here, but MLB has blocked all video of it on Youtube.
• We are in the process of hiring a new Pastor. I am both excited and very anxious about this prospect.
• Clayfire is a new website that helps with worship development. about 30 minutes into the webinar, I began to think to myself "what am I doing on here" while at the same time thinking to myself how this could really trasnform what we are doing with our contemporary (or "conemporary" as my friend Ben would say) worship service.
• Luke is officially  Jedi. After spending a week at Ewalu (which he thought was "star wars camp") he claims to have been knighted as a Jedi. I did some checking, they did talk about Jesus some too...
• I thought about actually going through and proofing this post, but that seems like a lot of work...

There will still be church...

As you may or may not know, the Rapture will be happening this Saturday. The good (?) news is that both of my pastors have told me if the Rapture does occur, that I will be leading worship Sunday morning...(yea..it kind of hurt)

I had a dog, Marty who passed away several years ago. Marty was..umm..special. My wife probably wouldn't have worried about this for him, but if you love your pet, you should probably look into this...

 

I have been reading (sort of...when I say "reading", I mean I started a book a few weeks ago and read a few pages since that first day) titled Love Wins by Rob Bell. I really like what I have read so far. It happens to be in stark contrast to a billboard I saw on the way home from Fargo (that's another story, I have to figure out if my wife is reading this or not before I talk about the trip) that had flames on it talking about the Rapture. What is bothering me is the ease that some groups have when talking about Jesus. All it ends up being is a "turn or burn" type deal. Really? That is the arguement for people to follow and become disciples of Jesus? No, excuse me...the billboard wasn't arguing that we should follow and become disciples, it was a "HEY! If you don't want to be damned, do this quick!"

I don't in anyway want to minimize Jesus death and ressurection (I think I made that clear) but at the same time, I want people to understand that there is so much more to this faith that who is in and who is out. That is what I really am liking so far about Bell's book. Plus, lets be clear, that is not our job to decide, it's God's choice.

Anyway, I am looking at real students and parents who are really struggling with a wide range of issues who need to know, that no matter what they are cared for. They also need help where they are. More than just a "Jesus loves you". They need real help from real people.

Anyway, something I have been thinking about lately. I'm leaving it here as I have a meeting to figure out a design for a new sign for the church....yea...not exactly in my job description...but hey, if it helps people hear about what is happening here, I suppose it is a good thing.