currently reading Shaped By God’s Heart.

is it possible to move a youth ministry from merely surviving to thriving?

is that possible if the church is not moving in that direction?

what implications would be involved with either?

i’m not sure what it is that God is doing right now, all i know is that he is moving me and several others within our church construct from surviving to thriving. i have no idea what that will look like, all i do know is that it has become some of the most exciting times of my life.

ht to the skit guys

Sunday Teaching Series: Outflow (Week 1 of 5)
Message Title: Overflowing Life
Sermon in a Sentence: Our lives are to allow God’s love to flow from us to those around us, based on Acts 1:8.
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 8 out of 10
Attendance: (will be updated once I know)
Service Length: 76 minutes
Understandable Message: B+
Volunteer/Student Involvement: C- Many people away this weekend.
Element of Fun: B
Positive Environment: A-
Music Playlist: A- Hillsong: Count Me In, C+ Leeland (not sure of the title)

Thoughts: Great Sunday - lots of effort and it paid off! The videos were super, especially the opening promo video: the rapping granny. The Leeland music video for some reason didn’t “click” well with students or flow with the scripture. I had students at each service saying they didn’t get it. If I could change anything it would be to have my 11:30am talk at both services and some of the other ad libs and bits mirrored in both services as well. We missed the Hillsong video at the 9:15 service, it really added to the 11:30am service.

Overall grade:B+

i am reading a few books right now that talk about the emerging church, emergent church, and the missional church. it has me wondering if we really know what each one is really all about. and what impact would any one of them have on a youth ministry within either construct?

what is an emerging church? what is an emergent church? what is a missional church?

i’m wondering where i personally see myself fitting into any of these constructs? am i emerging, emergent or missional? are they inclusive of each other or completely exclusive? could you have two but not three together? if it’s about making disciples, what eveidence do we have that any one of them will make disciples?

the bigger problem: youth ministries in the west have been doing the same thing far to long with the same results. that’s insanity, defined by dictionary.com:

The act of alienating, or the state of being alienated.

why do we continue to do what we do with little or no results? is it about results? have we alienated youth from specific people or areas of their lives that they would have otherwise been exposed to had we not had them in “our” youth ministry?

what would you do if your church leadership (whoever that is; pastor/board or dir./presbytery etc…) came to you and said,

we are changing the way that we do things around here. we are going to move our church to become more emerging/emergent/missional (you pick).

what does that mean? what would you do? to whom would you seek advice from? what impact would you foresee within the youth ministry? would you welcome this or be threatened by it?

all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

edmund burke - Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)

]]> http://jeffsmyth.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/do-nothing/feed/ Fly http://jeffsmyth.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/celebrating-cementing/ http://jeffsmyth.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/celebrating-cementing/#comments Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:49:09 +0000 jeffsmyth http://jeffsmyth.wordpress.com/?p=136

this years conference was an amazing expression of what touches the heart of god and what he requires of each on of us in our relationship with him.

conference theme

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 (niv)

conference keynote speakers: george snyman (hand at work - south africa), shane claiborne (the simple way - philadelphia), sharon cohn wu (internation justice mission - washington, dc)

conference wrap-up:

i must admit that out of all the the global outreach conferences that i have been a part of at our church, this one touched me at the deepest level of my soul. i have been confronted with many of the issues that we seem to neglect b/c of stats or location. i must admit, 27,000,000 slaves in the world today is an ominous number. where would i begin to even make any type of impact? i know that i am different because of what i heard, saw, experienced and learned over the last three weekends. i guess the only real way to tell if any of this has been transformational in my life will be to see what my life looks like in a year. obviously i’m still processing and it is going to be a while for my own personal thoughts to be sifted through, let alone how this is going to impact my family.

missio dei

Saturday, April 26th, 9-11am Breakfast: What Justice Requires—Canadians and the Struggle for Human Rights, International Justice Mission Speaker (IJM): Jamie Macintosh.

Sunday, April 27th: National Dress Day: Come to the morning services dressed in the national dress of your home country! Guest Speaker: Sharon Cohn Wu (IJM)

i’m really looking forward to this finale weekend of our three week global outreach conference. god has been doing a great deal of work in my own heart and life and those i’ve spoken with have really been impacted by what god has said to them through the many different speakers and events. people always ask me how did the conference go? meaning, do you think that it was a success? i always tell them, we’ll see in a year.

ht to our global outreach department. you guys did a great job this year!

this picture is in desperate need of a caption. any suggestions!?!

earthday.ca

what responsibility are you taking for helping the earth?

How To Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

How Experts Would Save The Earth

ht to Forbes magazine

Breakfast with International Justice Mission

Time: 9:00-11:00am
Location: Founder’s Hall - The Peoples Church
Cost: $5.00

What Justice Requires—Evangelical Canadians and the Struggle for Human Rights

Scripture calls us to “seek justice [and] rescue the oppressed” (Isa. 1:17). So why are Evangelicals sometimes so skittish about engaging in justice issues? Have we so privatized our faith that it is of little public good? Interact with Rev. Jamie McIntosh (Executive Director, IJM Canada) as he traces historical developments, scriptural imperatives, and first hand accounts in the ongoing struggle to protect against the abuse of street children, sex trafficking, slavery, and the theft of widows’ land. This breakfast session is certain to stir thoughtful and historic action!

Purchase Tickets Here