Not High School Musical or Camp Rock! Seriously, there has been way too much Disney Channel in this home. But, my chance to escape was with High School students enjoying the wonder of God’s Creation in the Durango, Colorado area and learning in His Word. It was awesome and I have yet to fully recover. In fact, I debated posting because I am still wiped out. It was full of activity at 12,000 feet up and I have been reflecting on how He worked on me with those students, so I have not gotten the rest that I need. And although I was able to help Greg with his posting (you can read the play by play at his blog), I didn’t have the opportunity to blog while I was there. But here is some stuff that I took away from camp:

• My friend Fred and I were in charge of team building activities. We made a good team taking a couple of each to make our own and it was so cool. I really enjoyed Fred’s Blind Faith Obstacle Course and Self Control Gum activities. It was fun to work on those with him.
• Speaking of which, Fred is a total Levite. Dude is strong! He could put the giant grill together in about 5 minutes and I marveled at his abilities. It was such an honor to serve along with him.
• It was awesome to serve along with my daughter who was babysitting Greg’s daughter. I was so proud of her.
• The students were stellar. They were digging all the messages that they were taught and got along so well. God was pouring into them and they were loving it.
• I love my guys from Two Days Til Tomorrow. One of the highlights for me was when they got together in front of the condos and just started playing worship songs with a bunch of the students singing along. It was an incredible site that was made even better when a woman who was also staying there walked by and asked me, “Are you a part of this?” When I told her that I was she said, “That is so wonderful, good for you guys.” Man, was my heart filled with joy.

Finally, I got to get up in front of the group and present a couple of our team building activities and it was awesome! I hate to overuse that word “awesome”, but there is really no other word to describe it. On the day of our hike, I reminded the students how it represented our walk with Christ and how we should support each other the entire way. I dug into the book of Romans for this:

We who are strong must be consderate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. Romans 15:1-2 (NLT)

Being in the advertising business, my favorite activitiy that I got to lead was the “Commercial for God”. We gave the students up to 2 minutes to do a commercial that would sell God to somebody who had never heard about His glory and the students nailed it. They had a blast, but more importantly, they brainstormed ideas that would help them in conversations with their friends that don’t yet know Christ. Again, awesome.

And although we had a blast with the activites at the ski resort, hiking in the mountains and white river rafting, it was very spiritual and reminded me of the believers in the book of Acts:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. Acts 2:42 (NLT)

God is working in me BIG TIME and I just have to thank all the students, pastors and adults that were there. I think everybody had pretty much the same take away and I makes me even more anxious for each Sunday and next summer. What a way to start the new school year. Big things are coming. I will keep you posted.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post it, but in the end, I thought that some of my family from out of town might want to see it. Now understand, I have a little pipsqueek video camera that was at the back of this room and I don’t think it was made for this type of thing. Perhaps if I had zoomed in more, you might be able to see my facial features, but I doubt it. So here you have it, my first lesson:

So there you have it. If you made it through at least one minute of it, I congratulate you. It is pretty hard to watch because of the quality, but I appreciate the effort. It has peaked my interest in video though. We need to get a better camera! Thanks for everybody’s support!

Popularity: 26% [?]

I had to title the post that as there a couple of pastor blogs (obviously Greg, but there are others) that always use that when posting on Sunday night or Monday morning. Not that I am in their class, but since I taught the Middle School & High School services this weekend, I thought it would be fun:

• The next time you even think about criticizing your Pastor’s message, think again. It is HARD! It definitely gives you a new perspective when you are standing in front of that church body looking up at you waiting to spiritually fed. So give that Pastor a pat on the back after church, not a piece of your mind!
• I had a blast because it was huge challenge. I have this demented view of loving things that are difficult and this ranks up there. As you know, Dirty Jobs is one of my favorite TV shows and this experience was a lot like that. Not that it was dirty, but that I got to do something that somebody else usually does and enjoy it for a day (or two).
• Despite having spoken in front of hundreds of people before, I was a little anxious on Saturday night. Wore off by the end of the service, but started off a bit rough. Go figure.
• Our church staff is amazing! With Darius and Christina in Nevada for the high school Go Mission Trip, it was me, Jeremiah and his loving bride-to-be Amber for most of the weekend with sound, band, game and teaching. I can’t thank Jeremiah and Amber enough for helping me through it all.
• My daughters are the best! They ended up at church for all 5 services as well, helping me out and serving in the nursery. They are totally incredible and thank God for them and my beautiful wife everyday.
• I mentioned the Go Mission Trip and if you want to see God at work, read their blog.
• My friend Pete is the most incredible musician I have ever witnessed and that is saying a lot since I have worked on some huge concerts and music festivals. He played guitar in the main service, did a song Saturday night on the harmonica and then ran over to the students service to play drums. I like to call it “Pete’s Wheel o’ Instruments”. Spin the wheel and see what he plays! More cowbell…
• D-Lo is on a Twitter kick. He is recruiting everybody! Maybe I will give it a shot…
• Greg was on fire this weekend. Since I was teaching, I had to attend the Saturday night service, so I think he picked up steam by Sunday. I think the services were overlapping! But seriously, we are starting the One Prayer series and he kicked it off by really challenging us. It was great! I will have more on One Prayer tomorrow.
• Thanks to Sean for his support over the weekend. Sorry you were unable to get over, seeing as you were chained to the sound board and all…

I guess that’s about it for now. It was an awesome weekend and I loved teaching and pouring into kids. I got some reactions from the students and the feedback has been positive, so it was a pretty blessed couple of days. I am going to try and have a bit more in the next couple of days. The killer verse for the weekend was:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Thanks again to everybody for all the encouragement. Have a great day.

Popularity: 19% [?]

It has taken me a while to write this post as I have not been sure how I want to put it into words. First and foremost, I want to make sure that everybody knows what an honor it is and how humbled I feel to be asked to do this. It is God at work and nothing else. It has nothing to do with me, but God using me to reach others. With that being said, I am excited to share that I will be teaching the Middle School and High School services this weekend at Palm Valley Church.

I have been serving in the ministry for almost a year now and I am totally in my element. While sound in the main service was great and using the gifts that God has given me, I believe that is cranked up to 11 in the Student Ministry. A few months back, Pastor Darius asked me to host some of the games in the High School services. That has been a blast, but it was few weeks back that Darius asked me if I would teach service this weekend. Since starting this blog almost two years ago (has it been 2 years?), I have really studied a lot of teachers and I am excited to share with the students this weekend because I truly believe that this is a gift that God has given to me to share.

So incidently, that is what I am going to share this weekend: using your gifts to serve the church. I have been given the gift of serving this church for the last couple of years and I think that my testimony will resonate with the students. I really have to hand it to Darius for handing over this message to somebody who is serving. I think it is a great idea for all services. Who better to testify about serving the church than those that are taking the time away from their schedules to serve the church? And when somebody comes to the church with tremendous gifts, move out of the way and let them bring it! It is awesome to be part of Palm Valley right now.

In closing, if I have not mentioned it, I am very excited about this weekend. I want to thank Darius, Jeremiah and Christina for allowing me to invade their space and be a part of what they do each and every day. I know that there are a lot of great people out there that have been training for an opportunity like this and love teaching that could do an exceptional job this weekend, but I truly appreciate the love and faith that these guys have in me to speak with the students that I love interacting with each weekend. Thanks again for allowing me to share the message that God has had me obsessing over the last few weeks with the students! And finally, I will be sharing more about the message after I have given it (I am hoping some really cool stuff) after this weekend. WOW! Praise God…

Popularity: 20% [?]