Middle School Spot light 2007

Each year our church allows each children and youth ministry to run "Big Church." We basically do everything expect the message. Last Sunday it was IMPACTs turn to be in the spotlight and it was awesome. I've had the opportunity to be a part of 5 of these now and I have to say without a doubt this was totally awesome. The Middle Schoolers ran the show and the adults/sponsors just helped where needed. I want to say a big thank you to all the sponsors and youth who helped with Middle School spotlight Sunday - you guys ROCK! Thanks for all you do.

He Pooped

I have three great kids but our youngest (4) has had a lot of problems pooping in the potty. I know for most of you this will be just strange but for a father and mother who has been dealing with this now for over 4 years it is an exciting thing. If you would like to see the celebration I had with my son please click on the picture (I did a cartwheel in the middle of our street).

Book Report - Made to Stick

NCBC’s association Pastor Kim Pagel has done it again & recommend another great book (here is the other great book he recommended). “Made to Stick” had me sticking so many underlines in it that I underlined nine different ideas that I thought were blog worthy. But I have a filter with my book reviews to try & only have 2 to 3 key ideas and I stayed with that filter. I took away two ideas for me to implement and one idea to watch out for from this list of nine.

The first idea comes from the chapter on concrete thought. I work with 11-14 year old youth and most are still very much concrete thinkers. Black is black and white is white and there is no grey and yet they are starting to see the grey. I think every person who is the parent of, soon to be the parent of, or work with a middle school student should read this chapter. “Abstraction (grey) makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it.” For these youth who are just starting to see the grey of life sharing concrete ideas (instead of abstract ideas) will really stick to them and be the building blocks for the rest of their lives. “If you’ve got to teach to a room of people, and you aren’t certain what they know, concreteness is the only safe language.” Since middle school youth often have problems understanding and knowing adstrace thoughts- concrete thoughts are huge.

I am a “scavenger” by nature. I often use other people’s ideas as the starting point for a message or an activity I put together. At the end of this book the Heath brothers say, “If you’re a great spotter, you’ll always trump a great creator. Why? Because the world will always produce more great ideas than any single individual, even the most creative one.” This is my other idea to keep implementing. Once in a while I can come up with a creative idea but most of the time I see other’s creative ideas, modify them, and they work. I use those ideas to impact middle school youth’s lives and it works.

My one “watch out” thought is the “Curse of Knowledge” that is peppered throughout the book. Chip and Dan talk about how this curse can keep things from sticking. “We start to forget what it’s like not to know what we know” is how they define this curse. I have been in full time ministry for almost 10 years and I have learned a lot. This knowledge can help me to get better at what I do or it can cause me to forget what it is like not to know something. To help combat the “Curse of Knowledge” they suggested one should ask the “Three Whys.” This is just the idea of asking your group or yourself three times why we/I are doing something. “Asking ‘Why?’ helps to remind us of the core values, the core principles, that underline our ideas.”

“Made to Stick” is a great book and one I hope to read again as it is packed full of useful ides to help make things stick in my life and in others.

6th summer trip 2007

Yet another exciting year of summer trips have started and what a trip we had. It was horribly hot but the service and fun that we did together was incredible. The sponsors are incredible and they really knew how to make this trip memorable. Thanks to Kris, Mark, Jim, and Peggy for a job well done - God was glorified this weekend. If you would like to see a little slide show of the trip please click on the picture.

14 years!

14 years ago today Lisa Ann Burger said, "I do" and now there has been 14 years of history (I said, "I do" to). We did our traditional thing of going out and seeing a movie. This year the choice was Transformers. I have a great wife and she actually likes going to these kinds of movies with me (she was talking about seeing Terminator 1 tonight together). I think she just likes to hold on to me when the tense parts come up. I love you Lisa and thank you for 14 years. May the next 41+ years be even more exciting.

Prayers this month - June 07

A shorter list of prayers from this month’s personal times. Not sure why except that I'm going through Genesis right now and I've had more questions and thoughts then prayers from the reading. If you are wondering why I'm putting prayers on my blog please read this.

God you are so massively powerful that I wonder sometimes why you made man (and me) when you could have done so much more - but you choice to do it this way and I say, "THANK YOU!"

God, you know all things and you put into your Word for us “all things” that we need to know to honor you and to take spiritual steps in our lives. Help me understand your Word better so I might be a more useful tool in your hand. Pls

Lord I don't even pretend I understand who these guys (Gen 6:4) are and where they come from. You have them here - in your Word - am I to learn something from here or is this something that you want me to know about but wait to heaven to fully understand.

Lord I want to be moving for you but only when you direct it and it brings me closer to others and/or closer to You.

Lord I want to believe in you like Abram did. How can I do that? Is there something that I must do? Help me see you, Pls.

Lord, I don't want to be like Lot, keep my eyes on you and not the world, tell me where to go or what to do and I will go, I don't want to be a foot dragger, I want to be all about You.

Lord, I know that Abraham was a great man for you but in this reading I find a repeat liar and someone who is more concerned for his own neck than his own wife. Help me understand this better.

Lord, keep me simple in this - You can do anything.

Lord this is a hard concept for my mind to understand (Gen 22:12 MSG), to fear you fearlessly. Help me Lord to understand this or to know what I need to do to fear you fearlessly.

Lord, help me even if grief is on me or sorrow or happiness to be humble as Abraham.

Lord, open my eyes to see how to be used by you - weather to be a doer of quick things or a part of something much longer.

Lord help me understand what I need to understand when you put something into place - like the "butting heads" of two nations while still in the womb - it makes no sense to me but to You I know it does.