Forget natural ability! Talent only makes the job easier. Here are 12 ways to be excellent at just about anything.
I need to remind myself every now and then.
Did I miss anything?
We’re ramping up for our church’s yearly firework stand. The proceeds of course support our youth and children’s programs. But you know what’s really cool? The residuals of the stand extend far beyond the money. Here are 4 additional ways the stand benefits the church.
Have you ever gotten lost in the details of a never ending project, wondering how your contribution makes a difference? When goals are ill defined, teamwork can suffer, vision gets blurred and strategies become tangled. But a goal that is SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time bound) unites a team.
At the firework stand, you never have to wonder if your time and energy are making a difference. The goal is crystal clear. We aim to sell as many fireworks as we can from June 28th to July 4th for the children and youth of our church.
Our firework stand may just be the best way for you to build lasting church relationships. Think of it as a church bootcamp. It often can take months for the Sunday morning and Wednesday night attender to build deep connection with people in the church. You could speed up the process by planning and inviting others to an extra-church activity, but this too takes time.
The cool thing about the stand is that it’s a 24/7 operation. From the 28th of June, to the 4th of July, the stand is never void of people. There’s always a group working or just having fun hanging out. There’s plenty of opportunities to create memories together. If you make it a habit of coming down to the stand, I guarantee you’ll be well connected before the end of the week.
“If you build it they will come.” Yes I know the movie wasn’t about a firework stand. But it could have been! It’s amazing the number and variety of people who come to our stand. Many of them are repeat customers. People who wouldn’t think twice about coming to church, flock to check out our product and prices. They come for the fireworks, but in the process we sell them our mission and purpose.
Just imagine taking our church, located at 500 SE Everett and transplanting it for a week down on the most trafficked area in Camas. It’s more than fireworks. Its intentional ministry.
Year after year we’ve moved beyond what we previously thought possible. In the last three years alone we’ve seen revenues climb from $10,000 to $26,000 to $42,000 – and this in the midst of a faltering economy.
This year we’re taking it above $50,000.
But again, it’s not just the money we get excited about. The firework stand has continued to bless our church by allowing us to practice genuine and effective teamwork and to build lasting relationship inside as well as out.
I think we can praise God for that.
Let’s face it. If you’re in ministry you either have or will drive the bus. Here are 6 ways getting a job as a substitute school bus driver will just enhance your ministry potential.
It’s time you got out the office and used your time more wisely! By working as a bus driver, you’ll spend way more time connecting with students. You’ll hear their conversation! You’ll see them interact! And you’ll learn about their world. What’s the latest pop culture reference? What are they excited or concerned about? What major events happened during the day? There’s not enough time to learn about this stuff on Sunday morning or Wednesday night. And reading about it only takes your time away from students. More interaction is what you need. Bus driving is the key.
Connecting with school officials can be a daunting challenge. You can always connect with students outside school hours but chances are you’ll never meet a school official outside of school. By becoming a bus driver you’ll learn more about the ins and outs of your schools employees and programs. You’ll interact with staff. You’ll get to know them personally. You’ll become intimately acquainted with the school calendar. When’s the next dance or week of testing? This is good stuff to know and all too easy to miss.
As a youth pastor we require training and certifications which are sometimes hard to come by. Some are just easy to overlook. When was the last time you were trained in CPR and first aid? Others are expensive. My state, for instance, has made it difficult to obtain a bus drivers license. Gone are the days when you could walk into the DMV, read a book and take an exam. It now requires training by certified instructors. Courses run around 2,000 dollars. There’s another option though. School bus barns have these instructors to train their employees. By becoming a school bus driver you can earn a valuable commercial drivers license and stay on top of CPR and first aid.
Secondary jobs can be a pain when you’re in youth ministry. They tie you down and take up valuable hours when students are free from school. But that’s what so cool about working as a substitute school bus driver. You work both a little before and little after school. The heart of the day is free for you to plan your next staff meeting, event or message. You’re also can plan events when students are available. Don’t forget you’re off when students are off – weekends, holidays, summer vacations. Finally as a substitute you’re free to choose days that work best for you. If an emergency arises, just tell them you won’t be available.
We do what we do because we love it, not because of the money. But money is still important. Bills are bills and sometimes youth ministry salaries just don’t cut it. School bus driving is a great way to supplement your income without taking away from what you love doing best. The money could also help you to run a little farther.
And of course if money is not an issue for you or your church doesn’t want you moon lighting, the wages you earn could always make a much needed contribution to the youth ministry budget.
Can I hear an “Amen!”
Your thoughts?
I can’t tell you how long its been since an album has really reached me. I love music. I love profound words even more. But when great music and profound lyrics mingle at a certain time and place, the heart cannot help but beat in time with both the rythm and the words.
You know what I’m talking about. Think of album or a song that has really reached you. It more than likely was a combination of these three things: music, lyrics, and occasion.
For me Petra’s “Beyond Belief” probably would have been just another album if it hadn’t been for Anggi Finley (now Wakefield) giving me that tape in the early days of my salvation. The music was good, the message was real. But it was the time more than anything that made the album come alive.
Now a new Album has reached me in the same way as Beyond Belief. Switchfoot’s Beautiful Letdown is both great music and a great message. But more than anything it has come at the right time and in the right place.
You may not know this but I work as a Custody Officer in Clark County’s Jail. It’s not your normal place to work. In any given day I see drunks, drug addicts, prostitutes, child molesters, murderers and thieves. It’s easy to classify these people as something other then oneself, beyond hope. The people I work with do it all the time.
I’ve recently changed shifts. Now I work in the pods. And I’m sitting here listening to this album surrounded by 185 inmates. I’m engulfed like an island, feeling the crashing waves of there broken lives beating against my isolation. They can’t hear the music pulsing inside my tower. They can barley see me through the glass. But I can see them.
Just in front of me, not more than 50 feet, is a man whose failed attempt at suicide killed a Clark County Sheriff’s Officer last year. I see a dentist who after two years of separation from his wife, returned to brutally stab her to death in her home. Behind me there is a woman who is locked up and pregnant with her third child. Hooked on heroine, she’s taking methadone in effort to save her babies life. To me these people have become more than just names in the newspaper. I see them as more than the crimes they commit. And as I listen to Beautiful Letdown, I feel their cries for redemption.
In the words of Jon Foreman, the voice of Switchfoot,
THE BEAUTIFUL LETDOWN is about real life: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s an honest attempt to reflect on the great and terrible aspects of being human, the tension of existence. A lot of people run away from this tension because the problems in our world are too hard to face. But the tension of being human is where we live and think and breathe. In fact, the very lowest moments in our lives are when we stand toe to toe with the truth about ourselves and our world. The way I see it, hope means nothing at all if hope doesn’t reach to the core of our need. THE BEAUTIFUL LETDOWN is where meaning and hope invade our greatest and worst moments. THE BEAUTIFUL LETDOWN is where we live, who we are, and where the future begins.
As I sit in my tower I see the tension expressed in stark detail. The beauty of God’s redemption is that it was meant for them. The beauty is that it is meant for me.
Originally posted February 16, 2006
Just as with His ride into Jerusalem, there’s more to Jesus’ violent actions in the temple then the exchange rate. Here are three all too often overlooked reasons Jesus cleansed the temple.
In His entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus claimed to be like Solomon, the “Son of David,” and thus rightful heir to the throne. And in the temple cleansing which follows, he demonstrates how he has taken up the responsibility given to David’s son.
In 2 Samuel 7, God says to David
When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son.
Of course David’s son Solomon built the temple. But Jesus by entering Jerusalem on a donkey and then cleansing the temple claimed that “one greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:42).”
As he overturned the tables of the money changers, Jesus said,
Is is not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers.
We emphasize the connection between the money changers and “den of robbers” but often fail to see the quotation of Isaiah 56:7 in between. The temple establishment is not robbing from men. Scholars have noted the reasonable necessity of the temple exchange based upon the law. The temple system is robbing from the universal glory due God’s Name.
Isaiah prophesied (Is. 2)
In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it.
The word “nations” in this passages as well as the one quoted by Jesus is gentiles. It Isaiah who prophecies,
And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
But the foreigners and gentiles by and large are not coming. Jesus is angry because rather than a bridge, the temple has become a barrier to the worship of God among pagans.
The word “cleanse” is not an appropriate description of Jesus’ actions here. He’s not cleansing the temple. He’s attacking it! This temple must be removed.
Look to Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree to find the truth in this point. Mark, the earliest of the four New Testament gospels, records the following scenes in this order.
The sandwiching of these stories indicates that the fig tree is a symbol of the temple. The cursing of the fig tree and its subsequent withering represents Jesus attack on the temple and its subsequent destruction.
The destruction of the temple in AD 70, a generation removed from the events recorded in the gospel, is no where explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. But there are numerous implicit details which indicate that it has already occurred or is about to occur when the gospels are written.
Jesus teaching on the mount of Olives (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) has this event in mind. Here, Jesus once again links the temple and the fig tree.
Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth, will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Like Ezekiel and Isaiah, Jesus prophetically acts out the coming violent removal of the temple.
But Jesus has not left a temple in ruins. He has built a new one! The New Testament continually indicates that the rebuilding of God’s true temple is found in the death and resurrection of His son.
