Now THAT'S what I call fishing!

This guy jumps from a helicopter and catches a Marlin! Good night!

Mean Robots Suck: A quick review of Transformers 2

In one word: Bittersweet.

I LOVED the special effects! So amazing. I don't have a clue how they do this stuff. It blows me away.

The story was good...but it took a little while to get to it. The love storyline...lame. Lots of funny one liners like when one of the robots says, "Mean robots suck."

There is so much action! Some would probably say "Violence." There was a lot and it was really hard to keep up and absorb all that was happening in the fight scenes. But it could have been our crappy seats. (we arrived an hour early...sat down 45 minutes before the show started...but ended up in the fourth row from the front and all the way to the left. Not great...but not terrible.)

The cameos...I won't ruin it but I laughed out loud at a couple of the stars who showed up for this movie.

I think there are a lot of Christians who will react to all the course joking. Lots of sexual humor. If you are offended by "Truck Nuts" I'm not sure what you'll do with the giant Transformer testicles. (Sorry for the spoiler.)

In all, the movie is really made for college guys and young adult males. I'm sure that is a "duh", but it kind of took away some of the fun for me. My 8 year old LOVES Transformers and I loved them as a kid! I still remember going to the Grenada movie theater in Morgan Hill and seeing the Transformers cartoon movie. (It was the first movie I went to without a parent!)

And the sad part is, it will be years before I'll let Noah watch the movie with me. I just don't think he can take it. And if he could take the intense robot fighting, I'm just not ready to subject him to the steady flow of sex jokes and related material. (Evidently only models go to college. Not a fat or ugly girl to be found in the movie.)

So, it was an amazing film, and one has to filter out the garbage, like a lot of movies. I just wish my son could enjoy it with me.

Sweet Baseball Skills

ht to my buddy Jesse. This is one great trick! He should get called up just for that!

One more reason I love Youth Specialties: The Mystery Box Revealed!!!!

Sometime I should probably blog all the reasons I love YS but it's easiest to say that without thier encouragement and resources, I probably wouldn't be doing student ministry today.

A couple months ago they were moving offices and had to get rid of a bunch of stuff so they were selling "mystery"boxes of stuff they were going to have to destroy in the move.

So instead of throwing stuff away, for $20, YS would donate that money to Reality Changers (an amazing charity helping at risk teens go to college) and youth workers would get a box of who-knows-what.

Here's what was in my box:

The Ideas Index....a throwback to yesteryear when the Ideas books were in print. printed in 1992!

The Ideas combo edition, four books in one, 17-20! printed in 1981...I feel like I'm holding youth ministry folklore.

2 Videos from the old Edge TV series: Growing up Fast and Word on the Street. Yeah...

So far...not so good. eh eh eh

A THIRD Video: Curt Cloninger "Witnesses" I believe this was standard issue for youth pastors in the nineties. And I can sell it on Amazon for nearly $20!!!!

Mission Trip Prep, worth $8

Leadership Wisdom from Unlikely voices, worth $15

What Would Jesus Do? (In German!), WHOA! Someone is trying to sell it for $158!!!!!

Never The Same, worth $9

Deep Justice Journeys, BRAND NEW just released!!! Worth $13

Art Source 4.0, Clip art library! worth $51!!!

So...for $20, Reality Changers got $20, and I got a box full of goodies worth between $100 or possibly $250, depending on the German need for WWJD. Thanks YS!!!

A GREAT story about how spending time with students changes lives.

Yesterday I posted about an excerpt from Andy Andrew's book, The Noticer. Here is another part of the chapter that I really liked!


In chapter 6, the author links a Nobel peace prize to an adult spending a couple of afternoons with a 6 year old kid. The main point is that our lives make a HUGE difference in the lives of others. Here's the Cliff's Notes version:

"While it is true that most people never see or understand the difference they
make, or sometimes only imagine their actions having a tiny effect, every single
action a person takes has far-reaching consequences."

At 91, Norman Bourlag was informed that he had been personally responsible for saving TWO BILLION people's lives.

In 1970, the Nobel Committee awarded Bourlag, then 54, because he was the guy who hybridized corn and wheat for arid climates, that the committee estimated at saving billions of people's lives from what would have otherwise been famine.

However, Bourlag was hired by Henry Wallace. Wallace was Roosevelt's second VP and he was a former Sec. of Agriculture and while he was VP he set up a station in Mexico to figure out how to hybridize corn and wheat for arid climates.

But Henry Wallace was given a vision for his future and what he could do with plants to help humanity by a 19 year-old kid at Iowa State U. This 19 year-old had a professor who let his six year old son hang out with this brilliant kid. The 6 year old was Wallace. The brilliant kid was George Washington Carver.

The story goes on about how Carver was influence by the man who saved and raised him, but what really stood out was again, how much what we do makes a difference.



My life was changed by a number of people who drove me home from church, were youth coaches, adults who took me out to lunch, and loved on me. These are the relationships that change lives.



My friend Kurt says it best: People who love God + Teenagers = Good stuff/Good ministry.





sidebar: if you read yesterday's post: Norman Bourlag is 95 and was STILL teaching at Texas A&M at the age of 86!

A new perspective on Senior adults in student ministry

My friend Kirk tweeted about not being able to put The Noticer, by Andy Andrews down. So I had to pick up a copy and check it out for myself.

I came across a gem last night in the book that really challenged me. I've heard so many times that I need to get senior adults involved in student's lives. And i've tried, but they never seem interested or feel like they can relate no matter what I tell them.

Well, this chapter has given me such encouragement about how to involve older adults into students lives.

In this chapter, this one senior citizen is basically living as she waits to die. She feels her usefulness is done. And then this guy "Jones" really challenges her. Here is what he says:

"Let me give you a different perspective about feeling that your time has passed. Isn't it a good thing that Harlan Sanders didn't retire when he turned sixty-five?"

The name didn't register with Willow. "Harlan Sanders?"

"You probably remember him as Colonel Sanders. But it wasn't until he was sixty-five that he took a family recipe and began franchising restaurants to serve his fried chicken. And all he had at the time was his Social Secruity checks to get stared-one hundred and five dollars a month."

He then lists the following people, thier ages, and accomplishments:

Benjamin Frankllin, 78, invented bifocals.

Winston Churchill, 78, wrote a nobel peace prize winning book.

Nelson Mandela, 75, became President of South Africa

Grandma Moses, 90, sold her first painting

Michaelangelo, 72, BEGAN his work on St. Peter's Basilica


I am embarrassed to admit that I don't usually percieve our Senior Saints like this. Not as being at the beginning of doing something great! And our church has LOADS of Senior Saints! What kind of geniuses am I passing by in our church EVERY Sunday?!

There is one more thing that really stuck out in this chapter, but I'll post that tomorrow.

Youth Pastors and Money

My friend Adam McLane just finished a GREAT series on youth ministry and money. You HAVE to check it out.

When I started this youth ministry gig 15 years ago I was fresh out of college and had no idea really what to ask for in regards to money. Just out of college, newly married, my sweet wife was pregnant, and I landed my first middle school ministry job for 14K a year. That was in 1998. Having to put grocery bills on credit cards, I had to ask for not one raise, not two, but THREE in that first year.

Now, part of that blame goes to the church. They should have done a better job taking care of me. But most of the blame goes with me. I was worried, get this, that if I asked for more money people might think I was doing jr. high ministry for the money. Yeah....right. I should have had a realistic idea of what we needed and the church was gracious to give me a raise every time I asked for one.

Nevertheless, I was living paycheck to paycheck. And we were living beyond our means. I could have really used the tips Adam gives in this four part series. And even though I'm not a rookie anymore, some of his stuff was a good reminder for me now.

Make sure to check them out. Here is Part 1 (Intro), Part 2 (Debt and Savings), Part 3 (Cost of Living Adjustments), and Part 4 (Investing).

sidebar: I really appreciated Adam's thoughts in Part 2 about realistic savings plans and I was BLOWN away in Part 3 that there were some people that had no idea about COLA. Wow. Thanks Adam!