My Experience as Youth Pastor

If you haven't heard about balloon boy then you need to get out from under a rock. Also, how are you reading this if you haven't heard of that? Just in case let me give you the quick update, everyone got freaked out because some parents claimed their 6 year old boy climbed into a helium balloon they constructed as a science experiment. Pretty much all day Friday it was the news story everyone talked about. Then the balloon finally set down and the boy wasn't around. Suddenly the parents thought, hmmm maybe he went in the attic instead and presto boy is found safe and sound. The latest news on the matter seems to indicate that the agencies in charge of the rescue are looking into pressing charges on the parents because it was a planned hoax. The family was involved with a reality show, Wife Swap, and was trying to cash in with the balloon fame.

This isn't new. Many families have tried to get fame and money from these kind of things including the octomom and the garbage that is going on with Jon and Kate. We seem happy to point fingers at the families but are completely missing the real problem.

We are screwed up people.

There I said it. We are all part of the problem. The news has to become more and more sensational. They are one of the single biggest factors in the recession. Sensational reporting on the state of the economy took a bad situation and made it much much worse. I would love to blame the news but it sells because that is what we want. Recently I have been through Swine Flu, rather I am going through it, with my family. It isn't fun but I've had much worse. Seriously, I can think of many times in my life I've been more ill and my kids have been more ill. Rota Virus was one of the worst we've ever been through. Shudder. Despite the reality of the illness the news has blown it so far out of proportion that people have cancelled trips and gone Howard Hughes to try and avoid the perils of H1N1.

My son at the farm last weekend

Once again I cannot blame the news. They are a symptom of a bigger problem. We are seriously messed up people.

What do you think? Am I right about us being messed up? If so how do we go about fixing the problem?

Labels: broken world, stupid people

"And so it is settled, we will keep him so busy he won't know anything is wrong until it is too late."

SYP sat bolt upright in bed. His sleep deprived brain was trying to remember what startled him. Something dark and sinister in his dreams still haunted him. As he tried to think he began to realize he didn't even remember coming home. He has been so tired when he left the church that he just came home on autopilot. He doubted a car crash could have done much to him, but the worry that he might have hit someone in his overworked stupor scared him more than anything in his dreams.

A few restless hours later his phone rang.

"Don't answer it. It is supposed to be your day off."

SYP ignored Super Wife as he picked up the phone. It might be one of the students and they need him to be there all the time.

"'S'up, Sup?" Came the voice of one of his students. SYP was right and felt justified in taking the call, "Did I wake you?"

"No, I've been up for hours," SYP honestly replied.

"Good a bunch of us were getting together for some paintball and wanted to know if you would like to come?"

SYP considered for a moment and then agreed. Super Wife was not happy. They argued the whole time SYP was getting ready. He explained over and over that he knew it was his day off, but that playing paintball couldn't be considered working even if it was with some of the teens. He even invited her to come along, be she adamantly refused. SYP didn't understand why Super Wife didn't want to come. She had been several times in the past and was a great player. They could use the time together. Heck the two of them alone could probably take on everyone else and still have time to themselves. Super Wife didn't buy into that argument though.

SYP fumed the entire trip to the Paintball venue. As he pulled in he saw the students waiting and put on a smile. They had already broken into teams and were fighting over who would get SYP. He agreed to take turns and got two arm bands with his air and paint. They played a dozen games or so and were pretty well covered in paint when the day was done. SYP had walked into an ambush as the end of the day. He knew it was there but felt bad that the only marks on him were from the old paint that coated the courses. He sent a scout back around to capture the flag as he stormed the breach. He had to fight the impulse to dodge the flying balls and shoot his attackers. He had always been able to see the balls as they flew, they weren't nearly as fast as a bullet, but now his reflexes were so quick it seemed like the projectiles were thrown by small children, not high pressure gas. As the wave came in he noticed that both teams were in on the assault, even the player he had sent to capture the flag. He reached out and caught the first round being careful not to break it and then flicked it at the one who failed to follow orders. He smiled as the paint spread across the student's goggles. He laughed as the barrage completely covered him from all sides. Death by a thousand cuts indeed. SYP felt so alive, so awake so … confused.

He looked up at a group of panicked faces. What happened?

What did happen? How did SYP end up on the ground? Who is plotting against him? Is it already too late? Will Super Wife ever forgive him? Join us next time, same SYP time, same SYP blog.

Labels: Super Youth Pastor, SYP

Hey, if I'm going to be talking about all things geek then I need to make a few things clear right up front. Geek culture is vast. I am generally a techno-geek but I'm also a language geek, a comic geek, a film geek, and several other categories of geek. Generally you can be a geek in almost every niche of culture by fully investing in that niche. However, for the purpose of this blog I will be using a more mainstream version of the term, so geekiness is measured by the technology invested or referenced as well as the potential for science. Science Fiction would fit in this category as well even if there is no basis in real science because I am not so concerned about real science, just potential for science.

Now that we are all on the same page, how does a geek cook? There are the old standby geek meals, which include pizza (frozen or delivered), microwave burritos, ramen noodles, and energy drinks, but many geeks want more. I, for one, believe that geek food can be good food. To that end I am gracious for Good Eats with Alton Brown. He brings geek chique to the Food Network. You can tell the difference between standard cooking and geek cooking because of the science and the tools used. In most episodes processes are described in science terms as well as anthropology and other useless information for actually making the meal. Useless to any non-geek but for the geek elite it is as precious as the food that nourishes us. Beyond that the tools used are impressive and diverse. It is nice enough that there are plenty of standard tools, but the geek code holds that if you can make something better to do a job then don't buy something to do the job. Alton often builds pretty amazing devices to do his cooking and also finds ways to incorporate power tools, which is a win.

Of course, geek cooking doesn't end with a single show. There are a multitude of gadgets out there for the geek in us all. There are fridges with tvs in the door and amazing new technology like the anti-griddle. These might be a bit out of the budget for your average geek, but that doesn't mean we have to go without. The nice thing about being a geek is the sheer volume of useful but no longer used gadgetry in the world. For example, I have a dead laptop with a perfectly good LCD screen. A little bit of dremel work, soldering, and hacking can result in a refrigerator with a TV in the door. If I have a serious need for an anti-griddle I could rig of something pretty quickly with an aluminum plate, and a modified window air conditioner.

Geek cooking is about the technology but also about making things happen and that is why I'm proud to be a geek. I'm feeling inspired to turn my fridge into a tv right now, I wonder if my wife will let me?

Labels: Geek Alert, Geek Facts, Geek Friday, geeky

Tonight was a cold and rainy night. So far I have referenced a movie I never watched and the worst noir opening ever. I'm off to a great start.

Anyways, it really was cold and rainy so attendance was down a little. Not much though, which really surprises me based on the fact that I am switching to a much more bible study type presentation. We have spent the past three weeks on Matthew 5. During this I start by reading the passage we are covering and then explaining that section within the culture and how it relates to us. Then I preach on a specific point. I really thought that several would stop coming Wednesday when I started the Bible study transition but I was wrong. Now for those that know me you can pick your jaw up off the floor. I've often said that I can be wrong and if it happens I'm happy to admit it. Here is proof. I'll even say it again. I was wrong about losing students when I started teaching without the fun times.

Of course, I still need to explain picking up cars with boys. When one of the parents was dropping off her student tonight her car broke. It was right in the entrance and wouldn't pull forward. The rear passenger tire was leaning, which is generally a bad thing. I got the car jacked up and pulled the tire to see if it might be some kind of simple fix to at least move the car, but it was bad. This vehicle has a rear ball joint which had completely separated. Very bad. We had to get a bunch of guys together and pick up the rear of the car as we pushed it forward into a parking space. All of this in the cold rain. Fortunately I was wearing my motorcycle jacket, which is somewhat water proof.

Labels: wednesday night follow up, youth service

So a couple weeks ago we had the free yard sale (aka unsale). I was very happy with how it went for our first time. We had 26 people come by representing 69 people in their households. We gave away donated items estimated at nearly $400 in value. Mind you these are yard sale values so this was a good amount of stuff. We also sold nearly $200 in items which will be donated to the local men's and women's shelters. All in all things went great and more than that we learned a lot for next time.

The items left over are being donated to the Salvation Army except the baby clothes, which we are saving for next time, and the jackets/sweaters which we will be giving away in another month for a coat and blanket drive. Tonight for Young Adults we did our first outreach project. It was very simple, but a good start. We loaded up all the items going to the Salvation Army. Afterward we went for dessert and played cards.

I have changed things up a little with the class. We are now having a regular class 2xs a month and every other week we will have either a fun activity or an outreach event. I'm pretty excited about the change and I hope it gets out there.

I've also made some changes to the Saturday night Youth gathering. We will be watching movies 1 night a month and game night 1 night. The rest of the nights are going to be unplanned hangout time. We did the first no plans event last week and it was a big hit.

Well that is all the changes for now.

Labels: Young Adult Follow Up

So I got lazy and didn't get a post up on Monday. That's ok though because I'm getting my Tuesday post up so we'll just agree to forget about that missed day, after all it is Monday and we collectively agree that we hate the day so much we would like to just forget it. I'm just giving you one less thing to remember about the day that shall remain nameless. I'm a real giver like that.

Of course, that brings us to Tuesday on which I once made topical posts based on a monthly theme. This month is October, which brings a great many things to mind. I could talk about getting older. If you can't figure that out then I'm afraid I can't help you. I could talk about the changing seasons, or I could even talk about retarded government officials that moved the daylight savings dates instead of more pressing legislation. I won't be talking about any of that because there is a much more universal and obvious choice. Halloween is coming and so it bears talking about.

Today I would like to tackle the name. More accurately I would like to repost what I wrote on this subject last year.

So if you are not aware, it is October and that means Halloween is near. Of course, not knowing this in America means you must be living in a cave and therefore must not be reading anything on the internet so I'm guess you aren't reading this right now which means I'm talking to myself … kinda worries me a bit but that's ok.

Anyways, Christians have a love to hate relationship with Halloween. A lot of churches, though, want to provide a safe place for their children and make an outreach for the neighborhood kids. I think that is great, but let's consider the names for these parties. Typically you get something along the lines of "Fall Festival" or "Harvest Party." We also like to take similar sounding words and call it a "Hallelujah Party." It starts off the same but then we hit you with church halfway through the word.

This is because we've been told all these horror stories about how evil Halloween is. Now I'd like to try and find out what is really going on with the holiday. Way back in time various cultures celebrated the fall harvest by worshiping the spirits or gods associated with the harvest. These harvest festivals (sound familiar) typically involved fruits and vegetables that symbolize the fall harvest. Wheat, pumpkins, apples, and other like items were used in these varied pagan holidays. October 31^st, specifically, was a Celtic tradition that revolved around the Celtic calendar which ended on the last day of fall and began with the first day of winter. Because many cultures, even ours, associate winter with death this became a day of spirits. As the Romans took over their fall feasts became incorporated into Samhain's day.

Then the Roman Catholic Church came on the scene. Starting with Constantine the church began to incorporate various pagan holidays into Christian traditions. This was typically done to appease various cultures that had long celebrated a particular feast. I can understand the thinking on this. After all, let's say I was use to getting the 4^th of July off from work. If the president and congress suddenly decided that we didn't need to celebrate a day that marked bloodshed and so cancelled the holiday I would get pretty upset. In fact, huge portions of the country would get upset.

The RCC didn't want to leave the full traditions in place, because they were pagan after all, but they didn't want to change too much. They kept the date, but changed the purpose from keeping the dead in the realm of the spirit to celebrating the saints. Perhaps you have heard the phrase "All Saints Day?" Many saints in the RCC have a day dedicated to them, but this day is dedicated to all saints. The name "Halloween" then was introduced by the Church as "All Saints Evening" or more commonly "All Hallows Eve."

Fast forward to last century when it was decided that Halloween was a pagan holiday. Never mind that we celebrate plenty of other pagan holidays as Christian holidays, this one must be particularly bad. Of course we can't do away with the entire holiday. After all, our kids want to dress up and get candy just like everyone else. We let them keep many of the traditions of this evil holiday, but not the name. After all Halloween is a name of pure evil, so instead we give it a name like "Harvest Festival." In other words, we go back to celebrating the harvest and dedicate the party to the Lord of the harvest just like the pagans did. In fact we reject a Christian name given to a pagan Holiday in favor of an even more pagan tradition.

Does anyone else see the irony here? Christmas has extremely similar roots, but we get totally offended when people try to give it a different name even though it was assigned by the RCC as well. Why do we have such a double standard on these two holidays? Why do we have to make things so confusing with our names that have gone back to their original forms? Do we really want to reach our community when we give them trick names like "Hallelujah Party?"

I say either celebrate Halloween in a safe Christian place so your kids can have fun and the neighbor kids will actually know what they are being invited to, or just turn out your lights and huddle in the dark afraid of all the evil spirits running around … oh wait that is exactly what the Celts were dealing with on Samhain's day. My bad.

Labels: halloween, topical tuesday

When last we saw the pastoral protagonist he had just stopped the church split engine once again saving the day. Over the summer a routine set in devouring all of his time. The church needed mending and the youth needed things to do. The Janitor seemed leery of the events at the church, what with having to clean up after SYP on so many other occasions, and the voluminous fissure rent in the church by the bored of directors through their church split engine was more than he was ready to fix.

The youth group got larger with every event and so SYP's time was spent at or planning the next big thing. All seemed well until the end of the summer led to the confluence of performances that nearly destroyed our hero.

This is where we find him, alone and exhausted.

The darkness was closing in again as another late night beckoned. SYP had been working over 12 hours each day for the past 3 weeks. He was excited that the planned concert had already sold 500 tickets through his youth, but even with the new help he felt the weight of it all on his shoulders. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago they would have been lucky to sell 50 tickets, but word spread fast after the nearly disastrous lock-in.

SYP walked through the dark halls of the church and shuddered as he passed by the repaired cleft from the near church split. Time would heal that wound if he ever had any. He checked the last door and turned off the last light before heading home to Super Wife. She would still be waiting for him at this late hour, supporting him but clearly sad for all the time he spent at the church. SYP sighed as he started the car.

He could remember his excitement when he first discovered the powers bestowed upon him from Super Pastor in order to save him from a terrible accident brought on by his own bravado. He loved the feeling of conquering powerful foes in the church world, but none had surfaced all summer long. It is fortunate they did not for SYP wouldn't have had time to do everything that needed doing.

SYP remembered to turn his lights on as he pulled out of the parking lot. His super vision didn't require the assistance but the local police might not appreciate his abilities in lieu of the mandatory beams. There was a momentary sparkle of a reflection in a deep shadow but no movement caught his eye so SYP thought nothing of it. In the back of his mind he thought he heard a light chuckle over the din of the engine, but dismissed it as a manifestation of his daydreams about fighting real villains, not just the monotony of business.

What will Super Wife say when Super Youth Pastor gets home? Did our champion really hear something or is he losing his mind? Tune in next week, same SYP time same SYP blog to find out.

Labels: Super Youth Pastor, SYP