Hookers and Robbers

Chad (SJ worship leader) did this song in the middle of the message Sunday night...it was the first week of our series, "How to save a life."

Bat Fight

BAT FIGHT with Will Ferrell from Will Ferrell

Crowder Band - He loves us

This is not Crowder's song originally...but it's a good song either way. Chad, Vicki, and Heebs have been leading this song at SJ for the last few weeks.

National Youth Workers Convention

This was either my 9th or 10th time at the YS convention. We had a big team from Student Journey...and I was terribly interested in seeing the conference in light of all that had happened in leadership. Here are a couple of impressions:

* First and foremost, Kudos to the entire YS team. They handled the Marko/Tic situation well, and they communicated their love for youth workers. While I don't know what will change next year, the conference was good this time around.

* I was initially disappointed that there was no Crowder...but the house band was fantastic. Kristian and Casey did a really good job.

* As a life-long midwest guy...I'm not sure what will happen with no midwest conference next year. It will certainly effect my ability to bring my team.

Ok - with that out of the way, I wanted to post some of my thoughts from speakers. Instead of posting all my notes, I'm going to try to highlight one thought from each speaker. Here we go:

Scot McKnight: Many of the ways we present the gospel don't involve the gospel. We have moved from the declarative rhetoric of Acts to a persuasive rhetoric in order to get quick decisions.

Reggie Joyner: We can talk up significance, but until we provide students with something significant to do, they will never experience true significance.

Duffy Robbins: God loves us too much to settle for happy. Happy is the mall. God wants us to be holy. There is a difference between childish and childlike faith.

Tony Campolo: The question we should all be asking is, "how long have you been alive?"

Don Miller: The hero of a story is what he does...not his ambitions or dreams.

Bonus Don Miller: We have bought the idea that the climax of the Christian story comes now. This leads to huge discontentment. The climax of the Christian story is marriage of the lamb.

Liz Murray: One person can save the life of another person...it is the power of investment.

Andrew Root: Relational ministry is not influence - it is place sharing. It is being with students in the middle of their humanity.

John Acuff: Mockery is a shortcut to laughter, but it removes the ability to love someone later.

Can you see me - Casey Darnell

Saw this video at NYWC this weekend - we'll be using it soon.

Can you see me? from Andrew Donoho on Vimeo.

Validation - a short film

Saw this on my buddy Dave's blog. It's an award winning fable...kind of long, but definitely worth 15 minutes.

Halloween

What I do when I'm sad

This is helpful

Hell House

If you weren't here for Halloween...then I think you missed a great opportunity. After all - nothing says, "redemptive love of Jesus" like this does.

You're welcome

Jesus spankings

HT to MPT

Facebook etiquette rules people still break

Very funny post here. Are you a rule breaker?