Wassup kids! Hopefully someone will see this. I know it has been too long but getting into NRH and then leaving town for a week has ruined my regular time. Anyway, I wish to give you a few things to ponder.
I still haven't heard from Elizabeth about the biggest loser, but I'm ready! Kam, are you ready for some training? Amy's aunt in Chillicothe told us about this website last week. It seems like it can help so I'm gonna try it. Supposedly it will help you with everything from recipes to how much calories you should take in a day to how long you should work out each day. I haven't done it yet but you should be able to put in your stats, how much you wanna lose by a certain amount of time and it will calculate everything for you. But you have to be religious about imputing your info each day. Elizabeth, you give me the word and I will go get a scale!
Next, I am going to start a media fast starting the first of December and I encourage each of you to do the same. That is this Saturday and I will go for one month. I know I tried to explain this to you guys, but I am certain that if we do this, it will give us clarity and purpose. 1 Peter 4:7 says, " The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." That is us. We are doing the media fast so we can be clear minded and we are also doing the biggest loser as a front to create discipline in our lives which creates a level of self control.
So just what is a media fast? For me it means no internet at home, only 5 hours of tv a week, no movies, and no secular music. I will still play games with the kids at NRH to build relationships. but the time I would usually spend watching tv or surfing the net, I will spend with the Lord or in the Word. The idea is not to just hold back, but to replace those things by drawing nearer to God. Building more relationship with Him.
On that note, I have spent about a month thinking about how we do relationships in AMPED. We love each other (leaders) a lot, but sometimes it becomes difficult to see that transfer to the students. It feels like the process and rules have gotten in the way of actually loving on the kids. Don't get me wrong, our motives for what we do in AMPED are driven by our desire to see the students grow in the Lord, but have we lost perspective? I think so. And it has started with me so I point no fingers. So for the month of December, we will not do access groups. Let's have fun with the kids and play some games with them after service. Let's get involved in follow up and really connect with some of the students. You may be surprised at what you find. We will re-vamp access groups in January with a sharper focus and even include training for all (more on that on a later post). Next year I would like to start some home groups and see if we can get some parents to provide host homes. I would like these groups to function as fusion groups, or interest based groups, which means we could potentially have a flag football group. I think it would be good to have these once a month. I mentioned follow up. Any of you that wants to help out with this just let me know, but we need to follow up with visitors, and our regular students that have missed a couple weeks. Let's make sure we have done our very best to let these students know how valuable they are.
Now I know that as I introduce more stuff some of you are thinking, "More stuff?", but we are getting more people interested in helping out. Just today I have had 5 emails of people interested in helping out in AMPED. Plus, ask James, you can bring lots of people in that you know. Sometimes referrals are the best.
This is a lot of info, and if you have found this new post, please bug every leader you know to come and read it. Text them, email them, call them. And if you have ANY questions, don't hesitate to call or email me. I'd love to spend some time with you and talk about it.
You guys are the best!!
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2 comments:
I'm pumped. I know the pope and I have talked about this "loss of perspective" ourselves. Rules and regulations are great, but these kids don't care 1 iota about them. They are what they are. Kids. The reason these kids come is two fold: 1> To hang out with their friends. 2> To have fun and hang out with their friends. Now they have a wicked awesome place to do it. Tonight I watched some skater kids at Senior High who weren't even members of the church. No one was rude to them. No one told them they had to do anything. When service started they went into the auditorium and watched a bit during worship in confusion. When Sammy Nuckolls gave them the opportunity to accept Jesus, at least 8 of what I would consider the "Hard-cases" raised their hands.
Here's where we need the improvement in both ministries. I never saw anyone go up and talk to them afterward.
How often do we do that. We see a kid with a need, and really all it would take would be one of us walking up to them. I beg everyone, lets focus on our kids. Because the second they walk into those doors, God has given us a new kid. Find out some stories. All they want is for someone to love them. We talked about it on Wednesday with Pastor Kam, but I don't think any of us realizes how truly easy and powerful our ministry is. We have the stuff. Getting it and getting it organized is the hard part. We're done with that now. So have fun with a kid. One kid. twenty kids. Throw a Hacky sack at a kid and run away cackling. Get beat playing Guitar Hero. Slam Dunk on a kid in the basketball court. Ask a skater kid if you can try their skateboard, then make fun of yourself cause you haven't done this for 8,10,20 years. That's what they'll remember. They won't remember 99.999999% of the things we talk about in small groups, but they will remember what it was like to have one man or woman look them in the eye and tell them that they care.
Also God has been speaking to me a lot about his love for us. This Romantic theme with the Lord has just drenched me for days now. I was blessed by a friend when he played me a song on Friday night. I found it on youtube, got the audio, and I think I have listened and danced to it at least 30 times. You should totally go check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnvBM40xxw
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