For some curious reason, the links wouldn’t work for my blog yesterday. Let’s try it again.
But here are some blogs I’ve been getting into the last couple of weeks:
davidblog.com
The Blogging Church
Terry Storch
Chris Marsden
Let’s hope it worked now!
I have been reading a lot lately online. And it’s got my juices flowing in wanting to do some different things.
First of all, I’m getting ready to start a podcast for church. This week I bought Podcasting For Dummies. I figure I’ll pour over it for a few days, see if there’s any specific equipment we’ll need to get, and then Tracy and I will start up an audio newsletter of sorts for the youth ministry. I think it’s got tremendous potential. And we’ll be able to include various kids and all as a part of it as well. So if anyone has any suggestions on what would be an awesome addition to a Youth Ministry Podcast…let me know!
We want to start a new blog on the youth ministry website as well. The site is “final”, but still might could use a little tweaking. There is a forum running vB on there right now, but it’s not really been used. I want to fire up a blog and have me and Tracy posting on there. We’ll see how the readership goes once we start. But we’ll need a nice skin for it and all. But I also bought Naked Conversations that should give me some keen insights on blogging for the marketplace, but is supposed to have TONS of transferable principles for churches. But it will keep me busy until The Blogging Church comes out.
Here are some recent blogs I’ve been digging:
DavidBlog.com
The Blogging Church
ChrisMarsden.com
TerryStorch.com
Last night was a win for us. I was grilling out last night, listening to the game and heard us hit back to back to back homeruns. That’s right. Three in a row! The Bulldogs ended up winning the game 11-1. Too bad we couldn’t save a few of those runs for todays game. Because all good things must come to an end.
Well, I went to a Sunday School Bowling party and the Dogs were up 6-3 in the top of the 7th inning. I go out to check the score later, figuring we’d won and find out that our relief pitching gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th. We lost 8-6. Dang!
I can handle the loss. And I didn’t expect to sweep LSU at Alex Box Stadium. But it was the way that we lost that makes it sting a little extra. To be up like that and give up 5 runs in one inning. As I was getting out of the car, I heard Jim Ellis say that we needed a few extra runs because “you can never have too many runs when playing LSU at Alex Box.”
How right you were, Jim. The streak is over at 18. Quite impressive if you ask me. Tomorrow is the rubber match. We need another win to maintain a good ranking as well.
Well, this is the weekend we really start to find out what the Bulldogs are made of. After seeing them reach #1 in the Baseball America Poll this week, they travel to LSU to put it on the line. LSU, probably one of the top baseball programs in the nation over the last few years.
Right now the Dogs are 17-0. I really don’t expect them to go 56-0 this year. But I do believe that they have a special group of guys. My goal for them is to remain in the Top 7 all year (yes, top 7…arbitrary number, I know) and then be able to host a regional and super regional.
This morning I had an early breakfast meeting. One that never actually happened. The person I was supposed to meet never showed up.
But as I drove back home at 6 something in the morning, I saw kids waiting by the end of their driveways. And it was a cold morning. In the 30′s. But then I think of the even colder days and the kids having to wait there on the bus. Will it be on time? Did it come early and I missed it? How late will it be?
Looking at those kids make me glad my mom was willing to drive me to school each day.
Has anyone ever seen their one year old reach into the trash, find some raw chicken discarded from lunch time. Get her hand all juicy and then stick it in her mouth?
I kept expecting her to get really sick or something. Diarhea or some vomit or something.
But she escaped it all I guess.
Back from Colorado. It was one of the best snow conditions I’ve ever experienced on a ski trip. Lots of good snow just before we got there and the first 2 days of skiing we were dumped on even more. The only thing someone might could complain about is that the temperatures were absolutely freezing. Or below freezing. In the mornings, the windchill was actually below ZERO!
I skiied like an experienced skier. But my skill level was let down by my legs. For some reason my thighs would burn like liquid fire after a while. And I even tried to do some exercises a while before I went on the trip. I didn’t attempt to snowboard again. Though I was humbled. There were people who tried it w/ no lesson and got the hang of it quite well. Now I want to do it again, but don’t want to waste any time.
Our nightly church meetings were great. Greg Taylor was our “speaker” and brought God’s word to us quite effectively. The rooms were good, as expected. The kids were fantastic. No problems. No over the top crankiness. No disrespect. No complaints. Everyone got along really well.
All in all, a fantastic trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado. I would definately do it again. Might look at another mountain, but it’d have to be a great deal to sway me from Copper.
Appetizer
What job would you definitely not want to have?
Rat catcher
Soup
Oprah calls and wants you to appear on her show. What would that day’s show be about?
People who don’t like Oprah.
Salad
Name 3 vegetables that you eat on a regular basis.
Potato, Spinach, Tomato (not really a veggie, but will have to do)
Main Course
If you were commissioned to rename your hometown, what would you call it?
Rail Town
Dessert
If you had a personal assistant, what kind of tasks would you have them to do?
Pick up after me, give positive criticism, read to me while I drive, play ping-pong.
It’s nearly past midnight, so I’ll say 2 days.
But we’re almost ready for our trip to Colorado. I think there are a few last minute details as usual, but I think we’re pretty much set. And it looks like we’re going to have some fine conditions. The next 2 days’ forcast says 4-6 inches of snow on Wednesday and 6-10 inches on Thursday. Holy Cow!
If it stays cold enough after that we’ll have plenty of nice powder to be ripping up. When I think about skiing and put myself back there in the condo, on the mountain, going down the slopes….it really is indescribable. Nothing like it.
Still trying to decide whether to take the laptop and try to post from there or not. We’ll see.
So tomorrow I go to The Core. It is a half day training event sponsored by Youth Specialties for youth workers. That’s me. I’ve been to one a long time ago in Montgomery, AL. But I’m looking forward to this one. It’s here in the Metro Area and I’ll probably see some friend there as well. And it seems the theme for this year is Passion.
Here are the Session Titles:
Session 1—Why Teens are Dying for a Life Worth Living: Understanding Their Search for Passion
Sessions 2 & 3—Marks of a Passionate Youth Ministry
So we’ll see how it goes. It is supposedly going to be anti-hype. And I’ve been reading some about hype lately. Is it okay to build a little hype as long as there is punch to go along with the hype? That sort of thing.
I’d really like to be able to go to the National Youth Workers’ Convention this fall. I’ve been a few times before, but not in a long while. But I’m a little curious as to how the continuing education $$ works out here at this church.
