Blake Thompson daht NetI'm just saying….

With school just starting up for most colleges and universities, I decided to put together a list of 15 Tips for College Freshmen.

Some of these are from my own experience, and some are from conversations I’ve had with other “experienced” college students or graduates.

1. Enjoy it! Don’t stress out – It’s a new place with new people with new expectations. But you can pretty much start all over. For most people you can start your reputation over at ground zero (which is good for some, scary for others). But enjoy the next four or five years. Stressing continually about school will only make your grades bad and body unhealthy.
2. Go to Class – This accomplishes a few different things. The professor knows your face (and this counts for something), listening and taking notes helps (even if you don’t study them a ton later), and many classes will drop you a letter grade if you miss too much. Plus you can form study groups and meet that girl/guy you saw sitting up front.
3. Be a part of a campus ministry and local church – If church and following God is already a part of your life, then I urge you to get involved with a campus ministry. It helps you stay grounded in what you believe, you can find friends pretty easily, and you can find people you can to go for talking though issues at school. And I encourage you to find a local church to call your own for the next few years. It’s rewarding to be a part of something bigger than just a “college student ministry”, but you can serve in the life of the Church.
4. Watch what you eat – I know… when you’re 18 you think your metabolism is hyped up enough to handle anything you eat/drink. But believe me, it will catch up to you fast if you’re not careful. You don’t have to have a strict diet, but too much pizza, chips, snacks, and soft drinks will add up before you know it.
5. Go to the cafeteria and union often – They are natural gathering places. You’ll see lots of people and start to recognize them. Talk to them. Make friends. You might think you have a lot of good friends from high school. You don’t. You do have a few good friends from high school though. But the friendships you make in college are so much deeper than your high school relationships. It’s like Jr High < High School < College.
6. Go to the games –  It’s football season. Get excited about your team, whether you’ve been a fan for life or just a week or so. But go, enjoy pregame festivities, cheer in the student section, celebrate or get mad with your fellow fans. Do the same for Basketball and Baseball seasons. Those will be some of the best memories. And even if you’re not a big sports fan you’ll enjoy the camaraderie of the event together. And you’ll probably become a fan.
7. Know who you are and what you believe – There will be plenty of people who try to tell you what to believe or who you should be. Be confident in yourself. Don’t be a people pleaser or you’ll end up being not just two faced, but five or six faced depending on how many groups you run with. But know what you believe and be able to back it up.
8. Enjoy it – There’s lots of partying that goes on at college. My advice is to be responsible. Stick with a good crowd and have fun. But don’t go crazy. Especially with camera phones and facebook in everyone’s pocket. Plus, getting too crazy too often will cause your grades to suffer. Mom and dad won’t like that.
9. Exercise – It helps on multiple levels. It clears your head and relieves stress.  It keeps you healthy. It helps ward off some of those hot wings and pizza from last night. It’s a great way to meet other guys/girls at the gym or running around campus. Each school has its own gym for the students. And there are probably various other gyms in town. Use them. Or just run a lot.
10. Stop by your professors’ offices during their office hours – This will help you out a ton. Ask them to look over a draft of your paper, ask a question you thought of in class, ask why you missed a question on a test or what it was about your paper he didn’t like. This lets them know you care about their class. That makes them remember you and probably like you. They’ll help you write your paper almost if you ask enough questions (not literally, but you know what I mean).
11. Read – Read the syllabus. Twice. Read the course materials. And read your notes. With basic comprehension and retention, you’re already ahead of the game for most courses. Then read/study/read/and bust your tail some more to go for that A. Studying is important. Getting in a study group can be beneficial too.
12. Go to the Library – It’s quieter in there. There are tons of resources there. You can study or get away from the craziness that is often in the dorm or house. And if not the library, find a special place to study that is away from everything.
13. Diversify your social network – If there are kids from your high school at college with you don’t only hang out with them. Don’t hang out with only people in your major or from your dorm or your greek affiliation or your campus ministry or your club/team or your….. you get the point. But have a variety of groups you interact with. It’ll make you much more well rounded.
14. Don’t wait til last minute to study – It will be both tempting and convenient to do that. And it can be destructive as well. Stress you out. And then you order a pizza and gain 15 pounds and make a D on your test… Remember that stuff about reading? Don’t wait til the day before a test to start your reading. Nor wait til the day before a paper or project is due to ask your prof for assistance.
15. Watch your money – It is easy to spend lots of money in a short amount of time if you’re
16. not careful. Then you’re buying a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger off of the dollar menu the second half of the each day or have debt. Ignore all the credit card applications that will seem to fall like rain on freshmen. You don’t need all that credit.

That is a quick list. What did I leave out? What advice would you give a college freshman starting school for the first time?

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Yesterday in church Pat was teaching and one of the points he was making is that often times we in the church end up relying on “professional Christians” to do most of the “heavy lifting” when it comes to ministry, serving, and missions, but we as a church need to all take up the initiative and both lead/serve with the passions God has equipped us with.

He said that it won’t always be perfect, but we still need to give it a shot. Then he said something like, “Take this for example….” and then you hear a heavy bass line start up over the speakers. Pat grabs a handheld mic and says, “Karaoke is the ultimate example of regular people doing the job of a professional…” Behind him we all recognize “Stand By Me” starting up. “So I’m going to sing a little to show you that we don’t have to be perfect to be effective.” People start to shift expectantly in their chairs to hear Pat melt their ears with some crooning.

But then he bails at the last minute when the lyrics start flashing on the screens. People laugh. And all was good.

At the end of the service I go on stage to announce a few things, remind folks about communion after the service, and tell everyone we love them and look forward to seeing them again next week. But as I’m finishing the last sentence “Stand By Me” starts up again… People again laugh and I can see they’re wondering if I’ll sing or not. They’re looking for a good laugh, apparently. And I actually consider it. But I end up walking off stage after a bit of hesitation.

It made for some funny conversations after church. But I’ll admit on the ride back home as I was in the truck by myself I killed the song. I mean KILLED IT! I tried a few different pitches or intensities. Found my best Ben E. King impersonation. And I’ll admit that there was some regret mixed in. Why didn’t I go for it? Was it risk of embarrassment? Sounding too bad? Or screwing up? Or failure? [can you really fail at Karaoke?] Was it fear of being laughed at instead of laughed with?

It was probably a cocktail of a few of those mixed together. But as I look at my life, both past and present, I see the same thing has held me back from some different ventures/adventures. And I don’t want my life to be marked by that anymore. I want to be able to move forward and take “risks” without fear of failure. Or screwing up. To have confidence of Christ in me (the hope of glory).

Now of course this doesn’t mean I jump at any chance to embarrase myself, which I probably would have done if I’d actually tried to sing yesterday. But to not be scared to push outside of my comfort zone. I think sometimes my comfort zone can become my complacent zone. Does that make sense?

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I never have had a brother. But I do have a mother. But I’d assume if I had a brother and we tried to do something for our mother it’d probably go something similar to this.

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Here in Oxford we got a lot of ran over the weekend. I was actually thinking it was a lot. That was until I saw someone send a tweet that Nashville had gotten over TWELVE inches in less than 36 hours. Then I started to see the various photos coming out. If you’ve not paid much attention to it, you should check out the great website Nashvillest.

It is a blog for/about Nashville. It has many photos that will surprise you as well as tons and tons of articles about how to help, what you can do, and different insights on the flood. But before and beyond the Nashville Flood, the Nashvillest is a really intriguing site in it’s own right.

Below are some photos from the past few days:

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Back in January I posted a video from the first work night The Orchard had in the new building. That work night was on January 20th. And we’ve come a long way since then.

Last weekend Pat made the call to call it a 95% chance that we’d have church today (March 7th) in the new building. And I think that pushed us to get as much done as we could in the next six days. And there were lots of folks in and out of the doors. There was still painting, carpeting, putting together 200 chairs, hanging televisions, putting together children’s ministry furniture, setting lights, running sound system cable, building a stage, changing light fixtures, replacing facia board, getting the Fire Marshall to approve us, getting fire extinguishers, hanging posters, and probably a dozen other things. And all fo that was just this past week.

But there have been many, many people who have put in many hours to get the building to where we are. And today felt good. And one of the coolest things is that now we don’t need to spend near as much time before and after a service setting up things and then taking them right back down. We have had some great volunteers give their time and strength to that. We have been blessed. But now we get to reorient their efforts/focus to other ministry areas.

The new building still needs some more attention. There’s a punch list we’ll still need to knock out (did you see the bathrooms?). But it’s great to be in a building of our own. But we have to be careful that we don’t allow a building to define us. Sure, it opens up many opportunities and should also make other things easier. But it’s not an end all solution. Our heart, as a church, still needs to be focused on Jesus. And our passions need to be the same as His passions.

So while we’re quite excited about the building, we’re more excited about the opportunities it provides for The Orchard to impact Oxford for God’s Kingdom.

[I wish I had a few photos from this morning. Maybe next week.]

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Not too long ago Bev and I had a few friends over for supper. You know how that usually goes. Some people are on time. Some are a touch late. But everybody makes it eventually. And then everyone eats at the table or the barstools or standing around in the kitchen. And then the guys end up in a clump while talking about sports or tv shows or how they would probably make up a good Curling team in the next Olympics. And on the other hand the ladies clump up and  talk about their kids or how lame it is that their husbands watch Curling.

So this time Bev wanted to go with a theme for dinner. And for some reason she chose a Wedding Theme. So everyone wore something from their wedding or brought something from their wedding and wedding pictures and all that fun stuff. It was quite fun. But we also played a game. We called it “The Not So Newlywed Game.”

It is played like the classic Bob Eubanks version I guess. But we had five questions each. It provided quite a bit of laughs and insight as we talked through the ten questions. Here’s what they were:

Questions for the Ladies

1. The saying “opposites attract must be true because my husband and I couldn’t be any more different when it comes to _________?
2. Every wedding has something to go wrong. What detail at your wedding didn’t go as planned?
3. Where did you share your first kiss?
4. What is your husband’s most irritating habit?
5. If your husband won $5000, what would he want to spend it on?

Questions for the guys

1. If your wife could have unlimited access to any store, what store would she choose?
2. If your wife could send you to the body shop for a tuneup, which body part of yours would she want worked on?
3. What is your wife’s favorite comfort food?
4. If you could have a second honeymoon, where would your wife want you to take her?
5. If you wife was married to a tv/movie star instead of you, who would she want to be married to?

As I said, it was a great time. And I meant to mention that my wife actually wore her wedding dress from nearly 11 years ago for a while. She’s a trooper!

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I’ve now been working here with The Orchard in Oxford for two years. And in those two years we’ve never had our own space. We started out meeting at The Powerhouse which is the Community Arts Council building. The building is used. A lot….A WHOLE lot. So it’s not uncommon for us to show up early on a Sunday morning to set up for church and there was HUUUUGE party the night before, or wedding reception, or gala, or “She got a donk” contest (whatever that is) with some crazy DJ and all of the stuff from the night before is still up. Or a play is set up for a few weeks for rehearsal and performance, and we’re have to work around each other.

Last May we moved into one of the local movie theaters to have church. We got in early on Sunday morning, set up, and then took everything down before the Sunday matinees started. But in September the theater closed down. Oxford wasn’t big enough to support two movie theaters it seemed. So we returned to The Powerhouse. And I’ll say up front that the folks with the Arts Council/Powerhouse have been very gracious.

BUT…we’ve found our own place. We don’t “own” it, but we have a two year lease. And we’re tearing out walls and building walls. Ripping out old carpet. Painting things afresh. Making it “ours”. Etc. The building has been a number of things. A night club. A restaurant. And most recently…a funeral home. But our goal is to make it as “un-funeral homey” as possible.

But we look forward to the stability having our that having own place will provide us as a church. And we look forward to being able to use the building as a way to impact the local community for Christ in ways that extend far beyond just a weekly church service.

But below is a video from one of our workdays. We’ve had a few since, and it is already looking way different.

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…it’s a new life…for me!

That is a quote from a Nina Simone song. I think I first heard it in a movie, but I’ve heard it now and then since. But it’s a pretty cool song. But the phrase repeated often is, “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me. And I’m feeling good.”

As we move into 2010 (do you say twenty-ten or two-thousand-ten?) I think there’s reason to be feeling good. I know everyone looks towards the new year as a time to make resolutions and changes and drop big mile markers on their life’s roadmap. I’ve never been big on resolutions. But maybe I can list out some intentions. Maybe that’s a softer way of saying things. But if I’m honest I do realize changes I need and/or want to make in my life.  So here they are, in no particular order:

• Read more. Now it starts with me being in The Word more. I really have no excuse. And You Version now has over 20 reading plans that I can download and print, read online, or read right on the iPhone. No excuse, right? But I know it should be my base in life. But I also want to read to my kids more; both the Bible and other stuff. Addie is a voracious reader on her own, but she really likes for me to read with her too. Ella is still putting together how to read, but has grown in her interest lately. And little Rowan, not yet 2, will go get a book and crawl up on the couch and call you over to him. So all of our kids like books.
• But I want to read for fun too. Good fiction books can really carry me away sometimes. But not only fiction but non fiction too. I want to learn more though books, and from that learning put that knowledge into life experiences.
• I intend to blog more. I always miss blogging. And I’ve not done it much at all lately. But I always mean too. And then I’ll go back and read some of my older stuff and really get the big again. Especially if I go back a few years. I need to figure out how to get my way older stuff imported into here. I think I have to juggle some old mysql databases and all. We’ll see. But in blogging more also comes more interactions with other blogs.
• I want to take more pictures. Whenever we look back at old pictures we always wish we had taken more pictures more often. I got a nice camera a year or so ago, but I’ve been hamstrung with out getting a good lens to go with it. Time to eliminate that excuse.
• I intend to eat cleaner. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I think I’ve probably got enough toxicity in my body right now that eating “clean” would benefit me in a whole host of ways.
• With eating better also comes exercise. I don’t want to try to be on any magazine cover. But to gain some cardiovascular endurance, a little muscle, and a lot of flexibility is where I want to go. I’ve got three small kids. I want to be around for their kids…and not just watch them from the recliner either. Without a doubt I need to work on core strength and flexibility.
• See growth and depth occur in the body of The Orchard. It’s been a great two years, but I think now that we’ve found a place (building) to call our own, we’re about to see lots of potential become realized. It’s going to take work and effort and prayer. But it’s exciting.
• Serve more. We’ve talked about it as a family, but we want to teach our kids what it means to serve and give of ourselves.  There are many opportunities around Oxford for serving too.
• Put some work into MissSportsTalk.com. It’s a good site, but it has lots of potential to be a great site. I’ve even considered starting up a podcast for it. I think there are plenty of people who would be willing to help out. And there’s a base of people already there who would listen I think. But articles and interviews for the site as well.
• Have real conversations with more people. Reconnect with old friends. But use the phone or the email or the coffee shop or whatever to connect with more people.
• Take my wife on a vacation: just the two of us.
• Take my kids on dates, just one of them and me, from time to time.

So there’s a quick mind dump. I know I wasn’t very specific with some of them. Instead of “exercise more” I could have said, “Run a half marathon in 2010″, but I didn’t.  Like I said, these are just some intentions. But hopefully they become reality.

But either way, it’s a new dawn…it’s a new day…it’s a new life for me.

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Over the last two years I got to know Steven Bush though his blog and photography. I would email him and ask a ton of questions, and he was more than gracious to reply and give me patient answers.  He was living in Nashville while also part of a band called Spur58. Since that time he and his wife, along w/ their bandmates, have moved to Austin, TX to be a part of a church called The Austin Stone. But I’ve continued to check his blog as he’s gone though an adoption process and expanded his photography business.

The lead singer of the band and now worship pastor at Austin Stone is a guy by the name of Aaron Ivey. I first heard of him through Bush’s blog because of pictures Bush took of Aaron’s family. As I looked as his and his wife Jamie‘s blogs I saw they too had a heart for adoption and missions. And as a country they have a heart for Haiti specifically.

So, when I take time to peruse a blog here and there, I’d looked at these guys’ blogs, showed a few pics or stories or videos to my wife or shared them with friends.

But then yesterday Bev shows me the DM and asked if I knew anything about this: there was an add saying that Aaron Ivey was playing a concert that night. In Oxford. At….(get this)…Chick-fil-A. What? How did I miss that? And why did they plan it or the same night I had Community Group?

So the concert starts at 6pm. Group starts at 6:30. But it was a casual night of just soup and hanging out with another group. So I’d miss a little at the front of group and get to see the concert and meet the guys. I sent Steven and Aaron a msg on twitter and said I’d be looking for them.

I make it to Chick-fil-A thinking I’m going to be late, they’ll be starting up and not able to talk, and then I’ll have to leave and basically miss out. But they were behind schedule because of some weather issues. I was able to talk to Bush just a bit before sound check. I saw Aaron setting sound under the tent. Something he doesn’t usually do. He was stressing. I said hey, but could tell his mind was in about 47 other places and had no time for any talk, small or big.

I stuck around for a few songs, but had to get to the Heckel’s house for some good soup with some good people. We talked Friday Night Lights, and football, and website hosting, and mission trips. We talked of Haiti a bit because of the video from Austin Stone I sent out to our group. We talked of maybe trying to plan a trip soon that was similar.

I felt torn. I was enjoying the conversations with everyone, but wanted to catch the guys after the show, so close to 8pm I headed back up to Chick-fil-A. The stage area was being torn down, equipment packed up, and the band was being treated to free chicken and a tour of the inner sanctum that is the Chick-fil-A kitchen.

I got to sit down and talk with them as they enjoyed their free chicken (a friend of mine calls Chick-fil-A the Gospel Bird!). But this post is getting long enough. I’ll continue w/ the rest tomorrow.

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It’s been a bit of time since the last bullets. But here goes:

• Going to Orange Beach was a blast for vacation. That’s when the blog break began. But I might have a story or two to bring back from that trip.
• I participated in some osteoporosis study at Ole Miss. The were studying bones and such. I barely made it into the age range but had a bone scan done. Turns out I have the hips and spine of a 20 year old. But at least that lets me know that something else is wrong instead of just my bone hardness. I think it’s flexibility. But I credit my eating ice cream and lasagna for my strong bones.
• The test also told me my body fat percentage and Body Mass Index. It was no surprise. Not overweight, but not ideal weight either.
• I’ve been meaning to exercise more. Run around my neighborhood some. Maybe join a gym. I realized I’ve not lifted a weight in a gym since I started working here in Oxford. Only a few pushups now and then. That needs to change.
• I heard about CrossFit from Matt Chandler. Then after reading up some and watching some videos, I’m intrigued. It looks both easy and really hard at the same time. It’s aim is for total body fitness instead of any specification. I might give some of it a whirl. But I’m (currently) inexperienced in any Olympic style lifts.
• Pat and I started a new podcast. It’s called Everything and Nothing. Catchy title, huh? You can listen at the blog or download it from iTunes. And if you tell all your friends about it you’ll feel good about yourself.
• I’m still digging the iphone.
• The Orchard had a news piece done on it last weekend. Here’s the video.
• Speaking of The Orchard, we might just start having two morning services soon.

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