1. Daddy needs a mac. The PC Life is getting to me

2. 40% of my youth group doesn't have internet Access. Insane.

3. I'm a ninja

4. Why is cheese the funniest food?

5. You can confuse any taco bell employee by asking for a "Meat & Cheese" Taco. Trust me, it's awesome.

6. I love creating awkward moments... Yay for me.

7. Puppies doth not a happy home make.

8. Eight.

9. I think DC talk is a figment of my imagination

10. Baby seals make great soup... You just have talk quietly when you ask the seal to make it for you... (just a tip)

I'll delve further into this soon, but we're in the middle of a very busy week over here at North Pointe.

I've started listening to a great new podcast from itunes called "itunes U."
All you really get is a podcast of a professor's lecture from the subject of your choice.

My first class, Astronomy. It's fascinating to hear about the information that scientists are discovering and hearing about what we "know" about the universe.

One thing the Professor said struck me though. He told us that the Sun could not have been an original star, because it doesn't contain the same make up of the oldest stars we know of.
Now I'm going to go into this a whole lot because I have no desire to get into a Theistic Evolution vs. Young Earth Creationist debate.

What did catch my attention was how the Professor told his class that the oldest stars are made up of the same core matters of human kind and that it took the big bang to cause the make up of the stars to get to where we are today, to begin our evolutionary story.

I'll try to put it simply. To him, he found evidence that their theory of evolution is correct, because that supports his theory. Fair enough.
But what if I was to suggest the matter that scientists are measuring and hold the same components of man kind are so similar because they came from the same source and that source being the voice of God? Hydrogen and Oxygen slamming together and traveling vast distances to create human life.
Well that does make sense to me, because my bible tells me that the same voice spoke the stars into existence breathed life into the lungs of Adam.

All this to say that possibly;
One man's "big bang traces" is another's "breath of God."

My favorite character joins the cast of the next Batman movie and even though I'm not a Heath Ledger fan, I'm going to have to trust Christopher Nolan on this one.... heck he nailed casting Christian Bale, and Bale would have never been my first choice... though I love him in that role now.

Lets just hope that Hollywood doesn't think that Star Power isn't what drove Batman Begins.
The Story and the Characters will always make or break a Batman movie.

My iPod's "Top Rated Songs" Honestly, after looking through the list, I think it's my life's soundtrack.

1. Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy - Big & Rich

2. Prelude - Angry Young Man - Billy Joel

3. Too High - Dave Matthews

4. Stay (Wasting Time) - Dave Matthews Band

5. Rescue is Coming (B Walk Down Stairs) - David Crowder Band*

6. A Song for You - Donny Hathaway

7. Nocturne No.2 in E Flat, Op. 9 No. 2 - Chopin

8. Have it All - Jeremy Kay

9. The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral - John Williams

10. Losing My Touch - Rolling Stones

11. For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens

12. Vito's Ordination Song - Sufjan Stevens

13. Papa Was a Rollin' Stone - The Temptations

14. One by One - Lion King Broadway

15. Yesterday - The Beatles

16. You Are God - Charlie Hall

17. Do Not Move (Bonus Track) - David Crowder Band

18. Shipbuilding - Elvis Costello

19. Video (Main) - India Arie

20. Little Wing (extended instrumental) - Jimi Hendrix

21. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin

22. The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin

23. Just a Gigolo I Aint Got Nobody -Louis Prima

24. Find Your Wings - Mark Harris

25. I Do Believe - Steven Curtis Chapman

Regarding my First Full School Year of Youth Ministry

1. Kids Don't Expect you to speak Like Rob Bell, Louie Giglio, Erwin McManus, Doug Fields, Andy Stanley, or anyone else you think Rules.

Honestly, I thought that the funnier I was, the smarter I was, the more impressive my topics were, the quicker the group would grow. But that wasn't it at all. The group finally started to grow when the teaching reflected the same heart as the relationships. So many of the questions and stories we were getting from kids was about their friends and families. So instead of trying to preach them out of their problems, we simply just offered a relationship in the midst of them. Relationships were always a part of the process so don't get me wrong in thinking that we weren't offering them. But I kept on reading book after book about "success stories" that I was confused about what my job (much less my work day) should really look like.

Don't get me wrong, without the leaders I listed first, I would feel like a fish out of water in ministry, it just turned out that I just needed to hear their heart and wisdom not be them.

2. The Measurement of Success

The problem with vocational ministry is the fact that you are indeed payed to be a Pastor. And in a capitalistic society that pays for services rendered, it's hard to think of yourself as a person who has to put out statistical or at least measurable results in order to be "worth the investment."

I can't tell you how many times this of thinking gets to me. I often wonder if I'm doing the right thing, just based on the attendance of our midweek program. And honestly, it's hard not to when I have seen so many ministries when I arrogantly thought to myself "this ministry would probably grow if that guy (pointing to the pastor) would get his act together (probably not in so many words, but you get the idea).

But here I am in a ministry where yes we are growing spiritually, and with modest ups and downs in attendance, I can't help but wonder if my heart is really leading me in the right direction when a Wednesday night is down.

That's when I asked myself the question:
If I miss a Sunday does that make me a bad Christian? Or Does it mean that I'm not committed? Or Does it mean that I don't value the lessons that I'm learning from the Pastor?
No, at least if it's not a frequent flippant choice to not attend.

So what's the measuring stick I use now?
I don't have a clear one that I can clearly share yet, but I'm not stressing about it the same way I used to. I haven't become comfortable, I've just become more confident that God is doing a good work that I can't put my finger on in this youth group.

3. A Book doesn't teach you how to handle Junior Higher ...
But, Christ's heart does. In find myself returning more and more to His heart, His patience, His honesty, His way of clarity and mystery, His intolerance of injustice, His heart for the difficult people, and His sacrifice through the night that ended when He brought hope to the morning sun. It's through the idea's and the compannionship of Christ that I have endured and walk on to a journey that will culminate in my death. I made peace during my first year of youth ministry that I have begun my journey out of my youth and towards a death where I will account for the sheep of my master. And Christ has given me the peace and confidence to meet that moment.

I pray that over the years, Jesus will make himself known in the quiet moments and the loud moments of life. But as for the first year, My Jesus never let me down. He never walked away and He never let my bumbling ways ruin His message.

Though we may be hurting,
His heart is beating,
though our dreams may not yet be true,
His voice is now crying,
Though all hope may feel lost,
His soul is yearning,
though we're out of energy,
He stands at the door and knocks,
and we say, "COME IN"
because we will not worry about program You out of this ministry.

Where we feel that we have lost, we remember a night where our first brothers and sisters felt the same.
(the night he was taken)

His arm is not too short to save,
His voice not to weak to shake,
His truth not to muddled to heal,
His hands not too scarred to hold,
His wounds not too few to redeem,
His ways not too lost to be our own,
His name not too small to unfeared,
His sword not too dull not cut,
His fame not too old to be forgotten,
His wrath, not too pacified to be endured,
His greatness not to ignored to be unworthy,
And His power not too empty to lay waste to this world.

He is still YWHY
He is still all and all
He is still all beginning and the only end
He is still creating life,
and He is still destroying enemies,
His is still answering prayers,
He is still the commander of great armies,
He is still the author of all that is true,
and He is still in the rescuing business,

No one has ever touched Him and lived
No one has ever been able to cruse what He forgives,
No one can ever do what He has called "done"
And no one can outshine the exalted one,
No one will ever know as much as He,
And can understand His eternity,

No language can bind,
no thoughts can find Him,
No words can express,
and no melodies contain,
And no other in Heav' nor below can carry His name,

There's nothing He doesn't know,
And nothing will ever grow,
without His presence around and near

Though many have doubted,
they all will proclaim,
the wonder and beauty of Jehovah's great name

We win, the history of the future has already been told, so now we wait for the day where His face we can behold.

Yes Lord, walking in the ways of your truth we wait for you, for your renown is the desire of our souls.

Things I wish film directors would figure out

1. Your movies are getting too long

Didn't you learn in film school that you need to be prepared to cut some scenes, even if they're your favorites! It doesn't matter to me if you think that I need to see the main character stare at his/her love interest for 5 or 10 minutes to see that they are in love... If you need all that time to establish a love that is going to be lost, take a lesson from freaking Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, establishing the fact that the two loved each other took about 15 minutes out of a 2 and half hour play... YOU KNOW WHY!? Because Shakespeare could write a dialogue that people can connect with even though he didn't always use the regular person's common vernacular.
No crap "you complete me" lines, and no crazy adventure plot to force the two in love. In a movie you have the freedom of establishing love at first sight and all other kinds of romantic non-sense, because people don't expect to see real life on the screen, they want to see at least a minor part of romantic dreams... That's what draws us in, the whole "yeah maybe life could like that" feeling. Idiots.

2. Strike the words "griddy realism" from your vocabulary.

My life is not griddy. Even when I'm in a city, my location as a color scheme. Chicago makes me thinks of grays, reds, and blues. Detroit greys, blues, and browns.
Warren, green yellows, maroons, browns, and reds. OK? NONE OF THIS IS GRIDDY!

3. Just because something is shocking, doesn't mean that it's funny.

Comedy experts may debate me on this, but I think there's a difference between a shock and a twist/ surprise. So... porn is not funny, it's shocking, racism is not funny, it's shocking. so just because it makes you say "OOOOH" doesn't make it funny. (I'm looking your way Borat. You're not funny, creative, or anything redeaming what so ever) I'll tell you what Borat is. Obvious. I could write a script (or outline concidering that he didn't have a script necessarily) using Borat's identical approach in less than 30 minutes. I could make it shocking too and sadily most of America would probably like it if they mangaged to see it... In other words, It would take little creativity, little time, and little intellegence from the viewing communty to follow it.

However, I couldn't write an episode of the venture bros. in less than 4 weeks if I ever could write one that funny. Why? Because the dialogue, the characters, and the inuendoes are genius.

4. Don't be so freaking impressed with your own plot line.

We've scene it before, just make it yours... not subtly yours, but yours.

5. Don't use so many freaking special effects to replace things that we have scene in real life...

unless you're only going to use it for brief shots. "Lost" understands this. Any and all superhero movies don't... except Batman.

6. The Matrix series is over... stop trying to "remake action" with your movie.

Every you use any kind of slow motion or other clever camera effects. Do you know why The Matrix was revolutionary? BECAUSE IT REBOOTED THEY WAY PEOPLE THOUGHT OF ACTION/SCI FI.
So unless you're going to "revolutinize" don't try to remake the matrix. We saw before, don't need to see it again from you.

7. Read, understand, and implement some of the ideas of Greek tragedy before you make a drama.

Other wise I'm just watching another "cry fest" without taking away any deep meaning. (I'm looking at you "Tristan and Isolde" I learned nothing from you.. I just saw what a whiney woman that the warrior guy was... and I was ready for him to die... should have taken Isolde with him)

8. We know that Hollywood hates the white house no matter who is in it.

Could you find another Scape goat please? Like social injustice and the fact that your soul searching rear end found it's way to work in one of your four Aston Martins.... I rest my case.

9. Tell me why I'm watching your movie in the first 10 minutes or less.

I don't owe you my two hours, you have to earn it.

10. If you're going to make a murder Mystery, than make it a mystery...

I don't want to sit there and watch the hero think for 20 minutes. Take a lesson from CSI and take us into the thinking process.

11. Horror movie people. God love your sick minds, but mutilation won't always sell your movie.

This is a film style in which the story of the adversary has to be compelling. No one who has ever scene a couple Nightmare on Elm Street Movies can tell me that Freddy wasn't compelling. He was dark, gory (but that's not how it was sold) and it tapped into a common fear. The vulnerability of sleep. I don't care if you know what I did last summer, but I want to know why you're angry, what drives you and how deep your thirst really goes. Chainsaw could've been the greatest Horror movie ever made, but it got so caught up in the griddy feel so much that it muddied the plot, and yes a horror movie does need a plot to be great. Gore doesn't ruin a movie always, but sometimes it can distract. In the first Saw movie, you were compelled by the character "Jigsaw." AND Jigsaw it was held the whole movie together. The star is not the puzzle. When you look at the puzzle, you wonder "what kind of person would think of this... and why would they?" And that question alone will normally keep you in the whole movie.


Ok I could go on, but I'm ranted enough.

What I would do for 50 free things from Simply Youth Ministry.com

So a website I use called Simply Youth ministry has a great podcast for youth pastors and they are having a contest for their 50th episode special. They said that they would give away 50 free resources for either the best email or best idea for the show. So I gave them 50 things I would do for free stuff from the site.

Here's what I listed.


1. Stand outside near a street corner for 50 minutes wearing nothing but a speedo (I weigh 300 pounds, so I you know that this would bring sexy back).

2. lose 50 pounds in 500 days

3. eat a cow tongue raw

4. Give my 60 gig iPod to those guys

5. shave any part of my body (keep it PG please)

6. Build a statue of Matt (a guy from the show) made up of thing but Miracle Whip, goat cheese, Whoppers, melons, and bottles of Diet Pepsi

7. Eat Dog droppings

8. wax my legs

9. Get PDYM (purpose driven youth ministry) tattooed on some part of my body.

10. go without shoes for a month

11. kick a pig

12. kick a junior higher

13. buy a goat

14. suffocate a turtle

15. get my nipple pierced

16. wear a moo-moo in public

17. watch "Bad Boys 2"

18. kick over motorcycles in front of a biker bar

19. shave off one eyebrow

20. fight a woodland creature

21. Get in a knife fight with Sanjaya

22. Listen to the William Hung CD for 48 hours non-stop

23. Give an entire Sermon in Pig-latin

24. Drink out of the Detroit River

25. Build a tree fort and not let any girls in (that'll teach em)

26. Drink 50 red-bulls in one day

27. wear my underwear on the outside of my pants to go grocery shopping?

28. start singing out loud in a public library

29. sit in a restaurant and pour a glass of milk over my head

30. Wear an eye patch and speak like a pirate

31. crack 6 eggs into my underwear and then go to the movies with them still in my underwear

32. wear sandals every day outside for the months of Dec-March

33. break wind in a crowded elevator

34. unlock the entire Barbie horse adventure game for Xbox, while dressed like Barbie (not just beat the game, but get all the extras in it)

35. drive around in an empty ice cream truck that only has chilled asparagus and skim milk on a hot summer day.

36. mud-wrestle Darth Vader (or at least his clone)

37. 6 hours, doors closed, in a full port a potty on a hot day

38. smuggle maple syrup into Canada
like a u-haul full of maple syrup

39. hug an unsuspecting black bear while wearing a velcro suit

40. Three Words "Hot Sauce - Enema"

41. Write a simply youth ministry podcast Theme Song w/ tons of "Styder" coolness.

42. give up T.V. for 50 days

43. Wear a pony-hawk (Sanjaya style)

44.Watch Gigli and admit to people that I liked it

45. Communicate only through a sock puppet for an entire month

46. memorize the 1st season of the golden girls, line for line

47. ride in a bus, across the country, with a polka band

48. get left nostril surgically shut

49. capture and eat a goose raw

50. go three rounds with a professional heavy weight boxer

It's hard to know sometimes, whether I'm doing the right "thing" or not as a youth pastor.

There's no set criteria except "preaching the word" and discipling young people. The problem is no matter who you are, you're going to bring your own personality or agenda into the mix.
I often find myself being nervous about whether my leaning is the right one for our youth group.

I put high priority on relationships and preaching, but so many other ministries seem to put all of it on events and preaching, games and relationships, or "coolness" and training.
All of those elements can be productive for making fully devoted followers of Christ, but when I hear other Youth Pastor's talk about what they're doing, I feel so different.

For example, I know a guy who has got to be one of the smartest men alive, when it comes to Reformation Theology. He can talk up and down about the Romans road, but couldn't tell a joke or build a relationship with a teen to save his own life.

I know other guys who can put together a calendar full of fun events, but couldn't preach his way out of a whole in the ground.

On the other hand, both of these guys seemed to have ministries with kids coming out of the wood work.

The question for them is "what kind of Christ follower is leaving your group after graduation?"

So I should look to the famous guys right?

Well sometimes that does in deed help. But, they can't do my job for me. And what can really get to me, is the fact that I can't always figure what's getting through and what's not. Arg.

If my youth pastor would have known who I was and what I was doing as a teen, he would have been so hurt, frustrated, and confused that he might have thought he was never getting through to me.
BUT HE WAS

And his lessons and the relationship that he built with me have helped mold me into a better man today, so I try not to stress.

Capitalism Sucks

What does the "work" or "job" world tell you? You produce or your worthless to the company's bottom line and you're fired.
So how do I "measure" whether I'm worthless or not?

yeah I know... "God made you..." Ok, so I'll sprinkle myself with happy Jesus juice and I won't be nervous anymore right?

Wrong.

I'm confident in the word, my God, and nothing else. I just hope and pray I'm doing right.

Because all of these books (i.e. you're not a real Christian unless you read them) claim to know they're doing things right (though they don't claim perfection) and talk about other churches (not by name) who are screwing it up...
So how do I know if I'm one those "look at that guy, don't do that" cases?

I guess I'll know if I'm ever as cool as one of those author's.


That brings me to another point completely.
I love, respect, and praise God for the Doug and the guys over at Simply. I just don't think it's fair to them to build them up so high. I don't hang on every word that the guy says, I just consider his thoughts because of His wisdom and experience.

If I ever got to hang with him, I'd want to minister to him more than him minister to me, because that's what you do for the people that have helped you so much.

I just wish people would lay off of him and stop kissing his... behind so much.

Praise God for the guy, but don't magnify him beyond something that he isn't.
I'm pretty sure he would feel the same way.

For years my parents have been trying to get me to go back and watch a John Wayne movie called "The Searchers."

I started it last night and after finishing it I can say that this 50 plus year old movie holds up pretty well over the years as far as overall plot goes.

Honestly, how many old movies especially westerns can you say that about?
Some of the dialog was a little cheesy, but the story is fantastic.

It's a great journey about a bitter Civil War vet (Wayne) and a part Native American boy who chase after the Comanche Tribe that brutally murdered and kidnapped his family.

Rarely does an old Western allow such brutality of rape, murder, and kidnapping.

Awesome plot, pure John Wayne, and well worth my 2 hours.



(the iconic image of John Wayne exiting his part of the story)

What will the New iMac look like?

People keep putting up rumors about a new industrial look, but part of me kind of hopes that this isn't the case.

The "industrial look" has become as tired as a fat guy walking to the front door.

Mac has got to me the best at bringing sexy to the tech industry. It would be a little disappointing if mac jumped onto the "brushed metal" band wagon, but since I tend to like what ever Steve Jobs tells me to, I'm sure everything will be just fine.


(mock up by slash gear)



(mock up by Tech Digest)

I hate getting dressed in the morning.

It's far too stressful to try and figure what to put on everyday. Ok, maybe not stressful, but it is kind of boring and tedious. So of course I googled the problem and here are some ways to make the morning prep easier from career-intelligence.com.

1. Clean Your Closet

2. Organize Your Closet

3. Buy Clothing You Can Easily Maintain

4.Maintain Your Clothes regularly
"Hate to do laundry? What a coincidence! So does the rest of the world! But don't dodge the issue all week only to start your weekend with a mountain of dirty clothes to wash..."

5. Pull Out What You're Going To Wear The Next Day The Night Before

If you read the article you'll notice that it's meant for women, but dude I hate the morning routine too!