Book report - the Power of Nice

The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval

I think I learned about this book from Kurt's blog. “The Power of Nice” is a short book but I found myself highlighting many different parts of it and I had a hard time narrowing it down to my personal filter of only sharing two thoughts from a book. I was able to do that but would encourage anyone to read this book as there are much more in this book than I will put in this post.

My first thought was more of a reinforcement for me than a new idea. The staff here at NCBC is not only great to work with professionally but also awesome as brothers and sisters in Christ. If someone would happen to walk in on our staff meeting they would hear and see us enjoying each other’s company while getting things done (another great book). The authors of “The Power of Nice” point out that this closeness is a key sign for a good working company. They share a note from Daniel Goleman that points this out, “the most effective corporate humor comes not from canned jokes but from friendly banter and situational humor.” I’m so glad God put me where He did.

My second thought was the focus they had on being sensitive to others. They share time and time again that how we deal with others is extremely important. I’m naturally empathetic and based on this book that is a very good thing. “Empathy has been found to be the most important skill for success in life.” I believe that completely. They have a hole section of a chapter called, “Make Friends – before they become enemies” and that it’s more important to tell people what you’re for instead of what you are against. This sounds so much like Pastor Bob that I almost think they must of got it from him.

This is an excellent book and I’m glad that I read it. I think that anyone who wants or needs to be more sensitive to others and want to know how they can do that should read this book.

Jr Hi ministry questions

Getting together with a good friend of mine who is a jr hi youth pastor in Iowa City. He sent me a set of questions for us to talk over tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to talking with him. I've invited another jr hi guy from here in Cedar Rapids to join us so I'm even more excited about the 3 of us going over these questions.

I'm placing his questions here and would enjoy reading your thoughts. Here are his questions:

Mark,

Looking forward to talking with you tomorrow. I have a few questions to bounce off you…

- Part-time Staff or Intern Workers: Where do you like to recruit from: with in the church, outside ministries, bible colleges? What process do you go through to get help? Etc.

- What are the purposes of each of your weekly programs and how do you carry them out?

- What’s your thought on getting kids to read the bible, pray, memorize scripture, come to church, bring your bible to church?

- What do you think about a rewards based ministry for doing the above?

- What’s your opinion of Awana for Jr. Highers?

Hopefully not too difficult of questions. I have some adults I’m trying to lead and they feel strongly about some of these things.

Mag Report - GROUP (May-Jun 2008)

The new GROUP Magazine (if you would like to get this great magazine just click on the picture) came out a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t get a chance to finish it until tonight. I enjoyed the read and there are a couple things (see below) that I will go back and look at again.

What I liked: With our first every middle school mission trip with GROUP Work Camps coming up this July the little write up by Jeff Thompson “Prepare for the After” really stood out to me. I like the idea that we have to “plan times to discuss and ask reflective questions…” about our trip. Looking forward to doing that with our kids.

???: I really went back and forth with Steve Case’s article “Spiritual disciplines for teenagers.” I really liked this article on what we could do to help our kids with spiritual disciplines. But how he put it made me feel like I’m really not a very good guy and that I’ve set up my kids to fail. This is probably me and I like having my toes stepped on if it will move me to being a better Mark Eades on this earth, but I’m just not sure if this article did that or just hurt my toes some.

Key statement: Fred Whaples said, “It’s not about us – it’s all about how to connect the Word, that never returns void, to every teenager.” In his article “How to Deepen the Impact of your teaching.”

Something creative: Interestingly the creative thing that stood out to me was an add for the XP3 “more than a curriculum” stuff. It made me not only check out the web site (http://www.rethinkgroup.org/) but also made it feel more personal.

Final 8th grade night

Lesson Topic: Home (a safe place)
Attendance: below Average - not sure where the kids were at tonight?
'Fun Factor': Ok
Volunteer Involvement: below Average - lot of adults couldn't be here tonight - not a negative just a lot going on right now.
Music: Average
Lesson Quality: Ok - Gabby did a good job but she admitted being scared all by herself in front
Length of Lesson: 30 min - also another reason Gabby had a difficult time
Student Response: Good Kids were respectful and listen to what was shared.
Favorite statement of the night: This Kingdom of Faith is now your home county. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here (Eph 2:19).

It was a good night tonight. The 8th graders did well and the group was respectful over all. One really unintentional thing happen. When Gabby was sharing she would say a sentence and on the screen the words came up at the same time as she said it. I don't think it was planned that way but it happen and it made me think, "this would be cool if we could do it."

(If you would like to see a slideshow of the night please click on the picture)

Mag report - YOUTHWORKERS Journal May/June 2008

After reading through two of the new Simply Jr Hi Newsletter from Group I was able to get back to one of the two key youth ministry magazines. YouthWorker Journal is an excellent resources and full of information for guys like me. The May/June 2008 issue has some great thoughts and I want to put them down here:

What I liked: Walt Mueller’s “Culture Watch” article is excellent. One of his key thoughts was, “the Victoria’s Secret window is not so much about what we’re to wear, but about who we’re supposed to be.” How true this is. The middle schoolers (boys and girls) that I spend week after week with so believe that they aren’t good enough as they are, that they have to have the next best thing(s) to be of any worth. Walt goes on to give some practical ideas of how to make a difference in this culture.

???: Rev. Chad Miller’s article “Evangelizing Tweens” stood out to me because he was talking about middle schoolers. I got even more interested when he said, “no one can reach a tween like a tween” which I so totally agree with. But then he talked about how we need to get kids focused on Lordship living which I also agree with but that was it. I would hope to have more thoughts on this than just middle school kids have to have Lordship living.

Key statement: In Greg Stier’s “keeping PACE” 5 trends to reflect on he shared this in trend 2: “youth workers must know that it is imperative that early teens have a vibrant, relevant experience with the church.” Great thought Greg.

Something creative: I really like the “TOOLS resource reviews” section. Having different resources for different groups (for parents, for teens, etc) I think is a great help. But the write ups are kinda long and I don’t read them mostly because it is a lot to read and overwhelms me.

Book report - the Back of the Napkin

I’m going to keep this report on the book, "The Back of the Napkin" by Dan Roam very simple for two reasons. I’ve taken too long to get this written up and I’ve forgotten a lot about the book. Second is that this book’s ideas is going to be a key resource for me to use at the end of summer to do a large evaluation for my ministry and I hope to blog about the results.

Dan Roam really has introduced to me something that I’ve always wanted to have but didn’t know what it was. The idea of visual thinking is awesome. I really only have one application that I got from the book that I’m already using but I do know as the summer goes by I will be doing a lot more with this book’s ideas.

The one app is to spread things out so that I can have an overall view (through pictures) of my ministry. I hope to not only use this idea for my own eval but also to present it to the sponsor team at our next retreat. I think it will be fresh, different, and a good way for us to work through the ministry for this last year (not to say I hope we can look at a 3 year review as well).

Overall this book is a wonderful tool. I even recommended it to our associate pastor Kim Pagel (here at NCBC) to see if it can be useful for the embracing faith series we have been doing for the last few years.

Mag Report - simply jr hi newsletter from Group - Mar08

I realized (thx to my admin) that I never read the very first simply junior high newsletter. I did that and I wanted to put some thoughts down about it.

What I liked: One big “I liked” was to see that Gary Hunt wrote the first “The Veteran’s voice” and that he is still around. I remember Gary from the time he shared at Liberty U. back in the day about working with Middle school youth. I still have “To Young to Drive to Old to Ride” (a book he wrote a long time ago w/his wife) and from Gary’s book I got the word “tweenager” that I use today to explain middle school youth to adults.

???: I don’t have anything that really was a huh moment as I read through this first issue. I was curious why Scott and Kurt started with Big Event discussion? Just interesting to me.

Key statement: Wayne Rice’s Q&A was great – Q6 was very powerful ; “…your (youth pastors) goal is not to get them (parent’s of middle schoolers) to help you succeed with their kids.”

Something creative: I really liked the funny YouTube suggestions that was brought up. Get this newsletter and you can find out about them.

prayers this last month - Apr 08

On March's "prayers this last month" I wrote my longest blog post ever. I've moved back to my old format for April. I went through the book of Joshua and it was a wonderful read with thoughts for personal growth, ideas to share w/middle schoolers, and other key ideas. Here are the prayers from that devotional time:

Lord, when I'm discouraged help me see You even more - shine Lord.

Lord, may my story always reflect you to others and bring you glory.

Lord, please work in my life so that I might be part of a generation that will follow you without question.

Lord, may I follow your instructions to the letter even if it seems I walking into a raging river like the Jordan.

Lord, may I be with you in all things, to be your servant.

Lord, may you find me ready to obey.

Lord, help me to learn the lesson of Achan and not put stuff in front of You.

Lord, may I be able to continue the truth of your word to all that hear and meet me, but may they see You not me.

I'm sorry LORD, open my eyes to see what you want me to see. I don't want to miss it any more.

I want to live a life of honor before you Lord, may I be like the Israelite leaders in Joshua's time to honor what they said no matter what.

Lord, I trust you no matter what - You must do what is right but there are times that I'm really confused.

Lord, I know that change will happen and I pray that it will happen because of your will only.

LORD, open my eyes to see you and do not harden my heart - PLS!

LORD, thank you for using Joshua and may you find me as available than he.

Lord, may I be as you want me to be but if I may ask please let me be a middle school guy until I'm 85 yrs old or older so I might do what I'm on this earth for.

Lord, open my eyes to what I'm doing so that I don't wait when you want me to act and to wait when you want me to wait.

Lord, thank you for being my city of refuge for me.

Lord, I love you with all that I have may I keep that up and not stop, may I stay focused on You.

Lord, Joshua made it clear, "we will serve the LORD" and I say the same, may I serve until I die.

Lord, may I see you in all that is around me - not to worship - but to realize there is so much around me that has been a witness of your actions.

fun video

Here is a little video Mark F and I made to invite all of our sponsors to an appreciation banquet we are having for them. Fun stuff.

Ok so I don’t know how to spell “Groovy” but I do now.

Mag Report - simply jr hi newsletter from Group - May08

I had to stop my book reading and reading over the newest Group and Youthworker magazines for something much more important that came in yesterday – Group's simply junior high newsletter. Here is some of my thoughts:

What I liked: For sure Paul Baldwin’s thoughts in partnering with parents was dead on. When he wrote, “Parents are the solid, reliable, in-the-trenches, on-the-front-line, been-there-and-back-again, untapped resource you’ve been looking for.” I was almost cheering out loud. Good thoughts Paul I totally agree.

???: This wasn’t really something I didn’t like but that confused me. Phil Shinners thought on The Veteran’s Voice had this in it, “As we learn to say no to the right things, we allow ourselves to say yes to the right things…” That just didn’t make since to me.

Key statement: from the stats’N stuff – Phone Safety, “Don’t put the power in the instrument. The power is in you, the power is in the family…and that will give you safety.”

Something creative: I chuckled a little when I read Joe Schmaltz Q5 on the Q&A section. If you want to know get the newsletter (another chuckle).

This is my passion and I really really enjoy this newsletter.

Doing what's right - even if you lose

Pastor Kim Pagel (our associate Pastor here at NCBC) put this on his blog and it made me cry and think. My daughter is enjoying her 2nd year of softball and I'm coaching my son's 1st year in t-ball and this really moved me. With so much negative stuff out there concerning any kind of competition this was refreshing to watch and hear. Enjoy, but have a kleenex by you.