Spring Break 2007 – Here is most of the group that will be spending the next 7 days in Toronto serving in the inner city – check back every night for updated information and thoughts about the trip.

Change happens. Lots of things in life change constantly. My life changes everyday. Yesterday we got the girls bikes out and we found out they were WAYYY too small so I went to changing over the training wheels to their new bikes -- duh -- the old training wheels don't fit the bigger bikes -- they aren't big enough :)

I think I live life like that. I change, I grow, but sometimes how I experience God stays the same. Guess what, when I grow the training wheels that I used in my faith are no longer working good for me. I am learning to continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus and to keep learning what the next step is. Next week is another next step -- Toronto 2007. Living Jesus on the streets of Toronto, the next step.

Time to get the bigger training wheels on!

Spring Break and other fun stuff!

I am getting pretty wound up for our spring break trip to Toronto -- We get a chance to serve the poor, the needy, and people who need a chance to experience a little hope in their lives. I can't wait. I love experiencing God through service. When we stop that chaos that rules most of our lives and focus on other people, all sorts of AWESOME things happen. Starting April 1st I will be upadating the trip with pictures and stories.

Can't wait to see what God will do

Big Things Coming!

Wow, stuff is happening! God is doing some amazing things in my life. Don't know what it means exactly yet, but I spent last night until 2:00 AM awake -- struggling with stuff God is putting on my heart, wanting to just walk away from it, but God saying nope -- take care of this stuff, walk the talk kind of thing.

Last night at 180, we talked about Jesus telling the story about a master who gave three servants different amounts of cash -- and how each of them had to decide what to do with the cash. Two of them invested and doubled their money and the third hid it in the ground. The story starts off with the phrase "The KINGDOM of Heaven is like this..." We talked about how instead of thinking of the cash as gifts or things, think about the fact that each of us have the gift of life from God and how are we going to spend that gift. Are we going to go out there and make an impact on the world or are we going to hide our life in a whole and just exist, living life for ourselves. When we get done with our lives are we going to give it back to God and say -- see you gave me life -- I am done with it, I used it all for myself, its junk, I need something new or are we going to say you gave me life and look at how I made an impact in many LIVES around me, look at how I impacted people everywhere I went. I helped reproduce lives.

God is doing something -- am I going to consume the life He has given me in doing my thing or am I going to double up on what He has given me.

Opportunities to reproduce life are coming soon.

Can't wait.

A Little Break
Wow, thanks for everyone who made the break possible that Kris and the kids and I took this weekend, let me break it down for you:
Wednesday night -- 10 minutes before 20 people showed up at our hosue for a leadership meeting -- both girls throw up -- not a good thing
Thursday -- sick kids all day -- Kris and I feeling like we were going to get sick because of sick kids all day
Friday -- we sorted and shredded 5 garbage bags of old documents, junk and stuff. Wow, we collect a lot of stuff-- We have committed (again) never to let it get that bad
Saturday -- after all 3 kids said they were feeling good, we took off -- one game of bowling with bumpers -- makes the game so much more fun :) , drive to a hotel with a pool -- good times -- gave the kids a choice in where we would eat -- they chose McDonalds over Appplebees -- Kris and I got outvoted. Went to a grea church service, back to the hotel for more swimming and then to bed. Woke up later than usual, had breakfast, one more dip in the pool and off to home to watch basketball, and see the FIELD of 65. Homework that we forgot about, ended the weekend.

Thanks again -- great to connect with the kids in a deeper level and make memories that will last forever -- the power of going away, of unplugging, of living life together -- good stuff.

Monday morning and we are cranking again -- looking forward to a great week!

Toronto 2007
Just got back from a crazy two days in Toronto planning our trip for April. Toronto is a great city, tons of divesity, tons of different ethnic groups, and some awesome food -- goat is good by the way. Some thoughts that hit me while I was walking through homeless shelters and subsidized housing and inner city churches.

• God is good -- He is EXTREMELY good to me and to most of the people I live with in Kalamazoo -- we live like kings compared to most people in the world.
• People just want a purpose to live -- if you help them see their purpose you will see a person become excited about life and begin to live it to its fullest.
• Respect is essential in feeling valued -- show someone respect and they will respect you, fail to show people respect only burns bridges.
• Finally -- being Jesus means getting your hands dirty and your comfort zone stretched by showing love to the poor, the widows, the needy, the less fortunate -- that is where compassion and love start

Looking forward to the trip with over 30 of my favorite people. Jesus is going to show us something big.

Brad

Foreign Country
Wow I am sitting in a hotel room in the middle of Canada. They are different here in Canada.
1) they call snowstorms -- snow squalls
2) They don't have ESPN on their TV's
3) They don't have good internet
4) They speak a different language -- at least they call things differently and you have to figure out what they really mean
5) 100KM/hr and $1/liter are 2 very bad ideas

It makes me think that people who are not from the church come to many of our churches and it feels like they are entering a foreign country. Do we speak differently, do we have different technology, do we have inferior methods of communication or irrelevant methods?

Here is hoping that they clear the roads tonight and I can get to Toronto and then home :)

Last thoughts from the Willow Creek Student ministry conference:

I was asked why I bring students to a conference like this and I believe that God speaks to students in ways that many adults have forgotten about. I love to see students feel the call to ministry, I love to see students see that ministry doesn't mean being a pastor, I love students see a bigger picture of what God can do. I love seeing people grasp the vision that God has created them for. Good stuff. Here are some thoughts from some of the people who went.

Session 1
I learned that I need to make a shift and find a way for me or others to feed ourselves spiritually to see how Jesus walked

Session 2
We need to make our story and get into a better story because there is always a better story to be in. Media is full of stories but when we come to church we don’t heat anymore stories and we buy in to the American story

Session 3
There is 3 common warning signs of heading the wrong direction. First is that your heart is becoming prideful and with this you have to pay attention to shifts in your heart. Second is that you are no longer teachable. We need to keep our axe sharp or teachable and to increase the knowledge of God also there is a sense of passion to hear the Word of God and to teach God’s Word. Third is if you are losing home field advantage. You have to make sure that you do not let your youth ministries get in the way of your time with your family.

Session 4
Three values used for technology are efficient, comfort, be in control

Session 5
Don’t ask God to bless what you’re doing but what it is doing because God has already blessed whatever you’re doing if you are following Him.

Session 6
Batman vs Superman
Batman only has a mask and doesn’t have real super powers. And doesn’t come out except at night. He can have a lot of gadgets and leaders of youth ministry can be like that and only coming out when no one can see them and go into there little cave and show others their little gadgets. But superman has supernatural powers and shows himself and saves people. He doesn’t have gadgets and he can be like leaders too.

Breakout A
He told us to tell others about the gospel journey. There are 6 steps:
God created us to be with Him
Our sin separated us from God
Sins cannot be removed by our good deeds
Paying the price for our sin Jesus died and rose again
Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life
Life that’s eternal means we can be with Jesus forever

We can explain these steps to others to help them understand what God did for us

Breakout B
I learned to be a good leader that you have to be a good follower. And we find ourselves trying to perfect being a leader when we haven’t been good followers.

Student


I think that this experience was better than anything – even the bike trip. It was cool to see cool guys raise their hands while we were singing and I did it towards the end. I felt the Holy Spirit go right through me while I was singing and during the breakouts. The one thing that stuck out to me from the break out groups was to be a wise leader you also have to be a wise follower and its hard to be a wise follower. One of the questions was do you gossip and almost everybody raised their hands. Then another question was how many people pray for their leaders daily and probably 2 people raised their hands and not having heartfelt prayer will make you a foolish follower. So I figured that I need to pray more and gossip less. I thought that our last speaker was the best! He said that when Jesus was on the earth He was multi cultural and multi ethnic. He also said that guys are like superman not batman, Superman was born a hero and without a cape he could still fly while batman only comes out at night, lives in his bat cave and has a butler named Alfred and girls are like wonderwoman not batgirl. Wonderwoman had her own abilities and powers. She would make anybody tell the truth. And bat girl is just as good as batman.

Student


The experience was amazing. I mean the praise music was amazing. The session that I got the most out of was the last session about truth. I realized that we can use real life situations and apply it to biblical situation. Also that your ministry is bigger than infinite but not as big as God. The thing that helped me think was to be an effective youth leader you need to know the difference between batman (uses gadgets) and superman (has own powers). By seeing the differences we can help others believe that they are special and they can use their abilities to spread God’s word. I also learned a thing or two about evangelism. One was that there at 6 points to the gospel that we need to memorize and personalize. We also need to relate the others beliefs with our beliefs. And listen to them not just think about what your going to say. Also, talk to them as a fellow sinner. I wish this experience was longer.

n Student


I think this Willow Creek conference has been my favorite out of the 3 years I’ve gone. I have learned so much. The first speaker was Darren Whitehead. He talked about how we are in a cultural freeze as a church and how we need to change and make shifts. That hit me as a person. I just kept thinking that I’m in a cultural freeze myself like how am I different from everyone else? Do people really see Jesus in me? That just made me think about the fact that I need ot make a shift in my life right now.
Then the last speaker Efrem Smith came up and you could just see his passion. He talked about being vessels for Christ, that Christ really deals with us physically. I also learned that we need to get with God. Truly with Him. Without Him we are going to have a truly meaningless life.
Efrem used an analogy that I really liked. He talked about the difference between Batgirl, wonderwoman. He talked about how batgirl doesn’t have super powers, she just has gadgets, like they’re fake. But wonderwoman actually has powers. She doesn’t need fake gadgets. She has the power. That’s like us – are we going to forget the power of Jesus and just use fake gadgets or are we going to accept the true power? So what are you going to do.

Student

Here are some thoughts from those of us at the Willow Creek conference.
We don't plan on doing all of these -- but this gives you some perspective to what God is speaking to us:


Seeing all the people there for the same reason and knowing you’re not alone.
To see the passion, and be reminded we need to grow.
It should be more student run (youth group) have kids more involved.
Hearing all the people sing in one voice with no instrumentation.
Seeing the passion everyone had and their wanting to learn about youth.
Middle school band was awesome.
Encouraging to see all the twenty-something men and women.
Power of Holy Spirit when Adam was praying was cool.
How important it is to make God a part of every second of your life and keep Him fresh everyday.
Kid’s stories about being real and there for each other.
Testimonies.
Celebrating achievements.
Parent training opportunity telling them how to deal with their kids.
Juniors and Seniors leading middle school bible studies,
High schoolers getting more involved with the younger kids.
The high schoolers would have to devote time to spending time with the kids and preparing for it in advance.
Using illustrations to demonstrate points.
High Schoolers to be part of purity month if they feel strongly about it
Open café as a hang out once a week or so as a safe place for kids to do homework and play games.
Friday night activity nights.
Redefine vision.
American Idol is cool for Middle School.
Travel agent analogy.
Change bible studies to have more in depth analysis of fewer chapters at a time.
More inter-relational aspects.
More service projects, have someone be the one to organize it all.
Aim more at asking “What can we do for you?”
Modeling the right way to live is very important.
Reactions to good gesture was interesting.
Don’t care about what others think, just care about others.
Take a group to the Silver Ring Thing.
Pull all-nighter, maybe after Craig’s Cruisers.
Youth group mascot.
Kids feel less threatened over internet as no one can see them,
should adults have MySpace accounts to connect with kids or not.
Southridge Chatroom
Don’t ignore God, respond to His voice.
Make it a safe and comfortable place for kids not from church to ask questions, encourage them.
Ask new kids in small group about church background and reasons for coming to FBI© to get on the same level as them.
Take surveys about youth group.
We have to make sure and have not just adults, but student leaders welcome new students.
Welcome committee.
Enjoy what we have and don’t be all negative of what we don’t have.
Be Positive.

Hey it was a great day -- 2 breakouts, lot of humor and some God experiences -- more to be posted by Friday Morning.

Hey it was a great day -- 2 breakouts, lot of humor and some God experiences -- more to be posted by Friday Morning.

Willow Creek is amazing. I’m learning so much as a student; how to lead better, how to trust God more, and how to share my faith in a more comfortable way. My favorite speaker so far is Donald Miller. He challenged us to know our story and how to share it with others. I love the fact that we got a change to write our story. I wasn’t sure about it at first, and I didn’t really want to write anything. Then I realized that I needed to write something. So, I started to write and you should see my paper. It’s full! It’s just cool how God works in such different ways. I’m very excited for the rest of the trip, because I know God is still going to keep working in me through this trip. –Mindy Gissal

I truly liked what Don Miller had to say about evangelism and he was right on that in our own communities we have no problem talking about God, but put us in public, and we freeze up. I also like the verse that said, “Study thoughtfully, but write boldly.” We must be willing to declare to the world God’s love, but first we must learn so we can prove we know what we’re talking about. Darren Whitehead also had a good analogy in that we need to be less like travel agents trying to sell people on something we ourselves have never experienced and more like tour guides and leading people by showing the love we have for the way we live. The other thing that really hit me was when Don Miller was talking about how everyone wants to be part of a great story. At one point he mentioned how every good story has a rescuer or a redeemer. I think all to often I try to do things myself and even though I’m sinking I won’t ask God to rescue me. Good stories aren’t about people who save themselves, but about people who get rescued and I have to remember that it’s okay to admit when I’m overwhelmed and turn to God.
- Kelli Sexton

We need to shift and be flexible to the changing culture to keep reaching our kids. We can’t stay the same. We can’t place limits on what this will look like. My agenda is not important I need to go with the flow. I also learned that story is the dominate way to the heart. There are 3 warning signs of what distracts us as leaders. 1. Your heart is becoming prideful -we need to lead with humility. 2. You are no longer teachable - we need to have an increasing desire to have the scriptures in my heart and on my tongue, how can students put in to practice what they have not seen up close. 3. You are losing home-field advantage- don’t let it distract from our families. – Joan Osterhouse

What impacted me today were Donald Miller’s words “God’s way of communicating with us is through stories.” If we want people to know God’s truth and his story – we must first get to know their story. To walk along side them, building trust in order to help them see they can live out a different story- that they were born for this wonderfully special role God intended just for them. Wow – how loving and healing.
- Tami Parke

Amazing musical performances at the beginning of each new session. Great use of videos to introduce related topics. The speaker were fantastic. They stayed on topic and really got their points across. The staff at Willow Creek really do an outstanding job of welcoming and serving their conference attendees. Lunch was served very efficiently. Staff members were basically around every corner to assist you with any questions you might have. The facility itself is awe inspiring. Lastly, I loved the evening worship service. The 2 gentlemen on stage had and amazing discussion about real life issues. We all need to work on our end of relationships. – Rene Everts

Willow Creek Conference Day One
It was a great day here at Willow Creek -- We heard and experienced a lot about shifting our focus in ministry more towards connecting with people and doing ministry instead of being the audience to ministry.

Here are some thoughts:

Session 1
Rate of change in culture is much higher than the rate of change in ministry. Church can be a frozen culture like going back to the 70's.

We need to shift from leader driven content to more user generated content

We need to shift from less travel agents(telling people where to go) to more tour guides walking with people through the experience

We need to shift from less imitation to more imgination

50% of the people who have ever been alive are alive today

SESSION 2
Help people be a part of a better story
Instead of judgment we should be about showing people that they are part of a better story

In Acts 17 -- we learn form Paul that we need:
1) Go to people where they are at -- not people coming to us (church building)
2) Be in places where we can be interrupted -- it is ok to live life with people in the distractions and normalcy --- not an insulated presenation area.
3) The people liked Paul even though they didn't agree with him because he was there talking about what he believed without judgment


SESSION 3
Identify your person shifts -- protect yourself!
WARNING SIGNS!
1) Protect your heart to prevent it from becoming proud
2) Are you still teachable
3) Are you losing home field advantage in your homes, with your families

No one can pressure you without your permission.


Wed night worship
The power of the tongue
It can lift people up or CRUSH them
Does what comes out of your mouth build people up or does it set fire
You walk around everyday with a jug of water and a jug of gas -- which do you put on the people around you.

More to come Thursday