Too Late for Biggie Fries // YouTube Video

Casey Darnell had this video on his blog today. It's awesome.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade // Rick Roll'd

Some of you remember when Google did an April Fool's day joke by playing the Rick Astley music video Never Gonna Give You Up for every youtube video. I believe that was the start of the term "Rick Roll'd" and today every one who watched the parade was Rick Roll'd. Watch the video.

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When you're done, click here to see other people being Rick Roll'd.

Technorati tags: macy's, thanksgivng, day, parade, 2008, rick, astley, rick, roll'd, rolled, youtube, video, never, gonne, give, you, up

Readership

I don't have a huge readership here, but I'd like to know who and where you are from. I check my stats and can see where people come from, mostly Cali, Georgia and Washington.

Who are you?

Volunteer Highlight // Chris Hudiburgh

Meet one of our GREAT volunteers…

 

Chris Hudiburgh

 

Volunteer Role: Worship Coordinator – Relational Magnet

 

Environment: Turnpike / Catalyst

 

Where did you grow up? Southern California (Chino, Ponoma)

 

Family? One Brother, One Sister (Jordan, Katie)

 

What’s the last movie you saw? Reign of Fire

 

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Rainbow Sherbert

 

What was the first concert you went to? Spice Girls

 

How and when did you get involved serving in Family Life? Micah Foster met with me and got me hooked up in June 2008.

 

What’s your favorite thing about serving in Family Life?

Working with the kids

 

Could you tell us about one moment when you were serving you’ll always remember? I’ll always remember leading my grandmother to Christ.

 

What’s your favorite message or series from “big church”?

Not sure yet. I like them all.

 

What’s your favorite Bible verse or Bible story?

The Prodigal Son and Samson

 

What’s something interesting about yourself that most people don’t know?

I love to play chess.

Technorati tags: chris, hudiburgh, worship, coordinator, catalyst, turnpike, band, relational, dude

SM WINS from 11/16

Ok, lots to write today, it's been a great week:

• The worship band introduced a new song called "Glory to God" and it was received really well! Even as the band was practicing pre-service Blake Stephens, a 7th grade student, was singing along with the band. It's just that kind of song that declares what your soul has been trying to scream.
• A couple of weeks ago a two-year-old asked an adult volunteer if she could meet the student ministry band. That volunteer took her in and introduced her to the band and all the guys got down on her level and talked with her. That moment meant more to her than these guys will ever know.
• Kristi Robison, 9th grade girls SGL, emailed me Sunday evening saying the worship response was the best since they've (Kristi and Kent) started serving and they really feel like they are in the right spot!
• Chris, a student I've mentioned once or twice, played with the worship team. Yet another small step towards Christ for this student!
• I was in INNERchange, our 5th and 6th grade ministry environment, on Sunday and was able to be the Host. We decided that one or two times a year it would be good for me to pop in and introduce myself in some way so that they are familiar with my face before they move up. I have a blast and got a text from one of the parents later in the day that said the kids had a great time with me.
• I had the opportunity to speak with visiting family before service. They just stopped by to see what we do for students between services. I think they'll try it out this next week.
• Carly, a 14-year-old girl, came to our student services for the first time on Sunday. She's been attending our adult worship services since we moved into the plant. According to Kristi Robison, she loved it and will be back next week!
• I got this email from Erica, our Children's Ministry Director (and my wife), "Also, a win for you. There was a girl (I forget her name) serving in Rosi’s area. She is in high school, and was serving at 10:45am because she didn’t want to go to Catalyst even after we tried to encourage her several times. She hasn’t been showing up to serve, so Rosi called her and she is now going to Catalyst every week. I was pretty excited! Now, maybe she will serve at 9am."
• Nic Smith has been able to channel his energy into serving as a classroom facilitator during first service for a while. Erica made checklists to help the CF's do their job more effectively and Nic did awesome this past week!
• I met a new adult in our church named Tim. Tim has worked with teens in Southern California for a number of years and wants to help out in our student ministries department. He sat in on our service on Sunday and loved it. We're meeting to follow up when he gets back into town next week.
• Most of our volunteers met together pre-service on Sunday and had a time of prayer together...it was encouraging to see the bond of our leaders deepening because of the Spirit leading us into more prayer.
• This past week, some of your may be aware that a student at Buchanan died, I got a text during the week asking if we were going to talk about it on Sunday. I held a time of prayer with some students from Buchanan after service on Sunday and it really felt like they were coming together on the issue. They want to be the hands and feet of Jesus on their campuses.
• Ryan Smith, 10th grade SGL and communicator, spoke to our high school students on Sunday and asked them to respond by laying something down at the foot of the cross. He brought the cross down in front and had Kai DiMino play some acoustic guitar while students wrote their sins, fears, frustrations, struggle, or whatever they need to give up and they brought those things forward. I have 41 little pieces of paper with all kinds of stuff written on them. For many of these students, this is the big step of faith. We will continue to pray over these requests.
• Greg Zuffelato, Family Life Director, spoke to our Jr. High school students on Sunday about how God is the God who heals. He interviewed Rosi Borsch, our pre-school coordinator, about her struggle and healing from Leukemia. You could tell that her story and answering their questions made a real impact on their lives.
• Dawn Moats, 7th grade girls SGL, told me last week that she was trying to help her girls understand how big of a deal it is that Jesus would actually sacrifice himself for us. She asked them if they have pets and if they'd be willing to let their pets be beaten and slaughtered through a long drawn-out death. Some of them understand how big of a deal this really is for the first time through this little analogy. This week one of her girls came up to her and told her that her dog had been attacked by another dog and they found it this past week. She said, "I get it." Through a really tough and hard situation that girl understands on a personal level, in a very small way, what a big deal it is for Christ to sacrifice himself in that way for us.
• We reminded the students about the discipline and act of worship called tithing on Sunday and several of them gave for the first time. One of these students gave even though his family is going through a really difficult time financially. That's awesome!
• Kabi Bane, one of our students, has received tons of pray from both volunteers and students over the past few weeks. I texted our high schoolers asking them to pray for her last week before she went into surgery and many of them texted me back and said they would. Kabi is coming home today.
• Gail Dunn was at our adult services on Sunday! Some of the doctors didn't know if she would make it...and she's home! Praise God! I know our church family surrounded her in prayer!
• ALL of our Thanksgiving boxes (200) sold on Sunday! This Sunday they will be delivered to families connected to the Patty Project.
• In 2 weeks, Nov. 30th, student ministries is inviting Parents to join our service @ 10:45am. The focus of the morning is to promote OPEN communication between parents and teens.
• Sunday night Erica and I were able to connect with ministry leaders from Clovis Hills Community Church, New Covenant Community Church and River Valley Church. It was a great time...I love sharing and hearing their ideas.
• What WINS are you experiencing?

Technorati tags: new, harvest, church, student, ministries, wins, volunteers, orange, leaders, small, groups, worship

Prosperity Gospel // A Video You Don't Want to Miss

Wow. This is so funny and believe it or not, people really do say these kinds of things.

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Technorati tags: prosperity, gospel, youtube, video

Worship Response

Yesterday our worship response was really cool in Student Ministries. Students actually surrendering to Jesus is a great thing to see. We introduced the not yet released Fee song, Glory to God and it was a huge hit.

Today as I was reading through the Christmas story preparing for our two-week Christmas series I came across this really cool passage:

"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'" - Luke 2:13-14 (NIV)

Even the heavenly host's rejoice that God favors mankind. Wow. Glory to God Forever!

Tweet-up Sunday

Today I've been around more tweets than ever. This morning I started with my own neck of the woods, New Harvest Church:
@newharvest, @ericafoster, @gregzuff, @emilysilveira, @kaidimino, and @kellycha26 (we missed @stacyws and @redjester91)

Then we went to the Clovis Hills worship night and worshiped along with:
@ericafoster, @haugenpaul, @haugenjenn, @thilanirodrigo, @dhuff4, and @emilysilveira (we missed @nhuff and @aronstrong)

Then we went to Sarah Mundy's 25th birthday dinner at Red Robin with:
@ericafoster, @haugenpaul, @haugenjenn, @sarahmundy, @lukemundy, @chadlonetree, @liegedavis, @timbalint and @trhanson

Wow. That's a total of 16 different Tweets + me.

I love the Fresno/Clovis Twitter-network that has formed. I would have never hung out with these people if it weren't for Twitter. I guess that's why they call it "Social Networking."

I met four of these people for the first time today! And I felt like I already knew them. Strange, I know.

Who's in your extended network? Why haven't you set up a tweet-up?

Technorati tags: twitter, tweet, tweet-up, fresno, clovis, churches, network, sarah, mundy, birthday, social, networking, clovis, hills, community, church, new, harvest, church

My Screaming Wife // 2

A couple of weeks ago I told you about how Erica woke up screaming. Well, it didn't stop there and I forgot to inform you about the follow-up-scream.

A few days later we were coming home after dark. Erica was driving and she pulled up close to the garage door and pressed the open button. Our garage door makes some strange noises and she was sort of making fun of it. She said, "It sounds like one of those hitchcock movies." While saying this she was making the classic knife motion towards me. While she was making this killer motion I saw an old man come around the corner of the building, he was probably only 10 feet away. I said, "Can you please just pull in." And I guess my eyes looked a little alarmed because she turned around to see an old man staring at her through her window.

She screamed and scared the poor old man. With our hearts racing we pulled into the garage and the old man walked in and apologized profously for having scared us. He said, "I'm sorry I'm just looking for my wife. She's been gone a long time and I'm worried about her." Right after he said that, his wife pulled up and she looked at him like, "What are you doing bothering those nice young people."

When was the last time you had a good scream?

Technorati tags: scream, wife, scare

Majesty by Casey Darnell

So for the past week or so Erica has been telling me about this Christmas song that she heard on Casey Darnell's blog. He wrote it last year and there's an audio recording on his blog, but I like videos better. Take a look-see, and a listen-hear.

I personally love Christmas songs that don't sound like traditional Christmas songs. What do you think about Christmas music?

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Technorati tags: majesty, christmas, song, by, casey, darnell, video, youtube, blog, advent, worship, songs, music

the green room:: healthy people.

I stole this quote from a blog I read and thought it was very interesting. Are you a healthy person?

"someone i respect shared yesterday real quickly about their definition of a healthy person...
1) healthy people believe they are profoundly significant.
2) healthy people are self aware and authentic.
3) healthy people have the capacity for empathy and love.which one best represents you? which one is hardest to achieve?"

the green room:: healthy people.

WINS from 11/9

Here are some WINS from Student Ministries,

• Sunday, Cole Hoover, a 7th grader signed up to work in Student Impact as a Classroom Facilitator. Very Cool!
• I was also informed that a student that had been serving in SI, but had never attended a student service before, just stopped serving. She just didn't come back from one Sunday to the next. When her area coordinator checked-in on her to see what had happened, she said that she had been attending our student services for the past few weeks and decided to go to that instead. Hopefully she'll start serving at 9am now!
• Last Friday/Sat our 8th grade girls were very busy. They went out to eat Teppen-Yaki together (a small group outing) and they served food at the Two-Cities Marathon expo on Saturday. It's awesome to see our students taking an active interest in building relationships with one another and serving our community. (Picture Below)
• I also stumbled across this little video/slide-show one of our students made. Click here.
• Chris Hudiburgh, our volunteer Worship Coordinator/Band Leader, was able to attend the Orange Tour Conference in Simi Valley, along with some of our Family Life staff. He came back very fired up and I can't wait to debrief with the entire team this coming Monday.
• Saturday night, 25 high school students went to Fresno Indoor Soccer and played some good ol' Dodgeball! I'm still sore, but it was a blast.
• Sunday after service Ryan Smith told me that one of his students opened up to him and let him in on some things he's been struggling with. This is a huge win because that student felt comfortable and loved enough to let Ryan in on his world. Students don't do that with a lot of investment. Glad to see students being real.
• Before our student service on Sunday most of our small group leaders gathered to pray over the morning and Ken Horton (small group leader / communicator) who was speaking to our high school students. He hasn't been feeling well and needed some support. It was a great unifying moment for us.
• 5 of us also met post-service to talk and pray for over an hour. It was also a great time for us to just sit and celebrate some things together as well as pray for our students.
• Some great things happening...and there's more right on the horizon. What are your WINS?  

Technorati tags: catalyst, turnpike, new, harvest, church, student, ministry, wins, chris, hudiburgh, orange, tour, simi, valley, two-cities, marathon, small, group, outing

What if Starbucks Marketed like a Church?

I've seen this video a few times in the past couple of weeks...but for some reason it hits me today as hillarious. I love the "Tip Jar" and bumper stickers...soooo funny. If we can't make fun of ourselves, we're in trouble.

Check out the video creator's blog.

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Technorati tags: starbucks, marketing, like, a, church, tip, jar, bumper, stickers, youtube, beyondrelevance.com

Fee Says Hello

A couple of weeks ago, you may remember reading about a great concert (worship experience) I had in Bakersfield.  Or maybe you remember the video of a new Fee song called Glory to God. Well, I showed this video to Catalyst and Turnpike the following Sunday. Pretty cool eh?

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Technorati tags: fee, says, hello, catalyst, turnpike, video, youtube, glory, to, God, sunday, worship

5 Parenting Skills

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting in on an Orange Leaders Lunch (orangeleaders.com) at Merlo Park Presbyterian Church in the Bay Area hosted by Sue Miller (formerly of Willow Creek). The main theme of the lunch was brainstorming how to equip parents to take the spiritual reigns in a student's life. We were given 5 parenting tips that will help families and parents. I'm keeping these for when I have kids! They are taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 which reads: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Here are the 5 Parenting Skills that Carey Nieuwhof from Connexus Community Church is writing a book about. 1. Imagine the End This can be summarized by "keeping your eyes on the prize." If you start with the end in mind and you keep your eyes pointed that way you can weather storms and build the necessary steps now to accomplish that goal. 2. Make It Personal Put your own spiritual growth before you kids. If you don't have a vibrant relationship with Christ, how can you show it to your kids? 3. Create a Rhythm Make a quantity of quality time. Find those small moments through the day to encourage, pray with, pray for, give scripture to, and be the loving parent you want to be with your kids. 4. Fight For the Heart Sometimes parents (and teachers, and small group leaders, and church leaders, and and and) want to be "right" on the rules, but we forget to keep our cool. We forget that over-reacting actually pushes them away. Discipline with a reminder that you still love them is important. Always remind them that you love them. 5. Multiply Strategic Influences Ever heard of the 5-to-1 ratio. The theory is that every kid needs at least 5 adults who care about them and who are willing to share biblical truth and life principles with them. If your kid listens to and loves his best friend's dad, ask that dad to share some biblical truths and life principles with him. I'll be watching for that book!

Technorati tags: sue, miller, carey, nieuwhof, connexus, community, church, orange, leaders, conference, lunch, bay, area, merlo, park, presbyterian, church, 5, parenting, skills, deuteronomy