I've been reflecting this afternoon on the waves of change in youth ministry. I have been working in youth ministry now for about 20 years. Most of that time I have spent in rural and smaller settings. Camp Berea is a small camp, and I have served rural churches with small budgets. I have seen a lot of trends come and go and seen myself and then other young leaders enamored with the new and shiny ministry objects. These days most of those objects concern internet tools. Now I am not going to complain or denegrate internet tools. (That would an ironic thing to do in a BLOG!) :) I use Facebook and Twitter. I am building a social networking site for Berea. I look at our branding decisions and always work to balance tradition with innovation. The thing that I think often gets under-emphasized is the basic thrust of ministry. I am not trying to do more AS MUCH as I need to try to do better. And WHAT I am trying to do better is build Discipleship Relationships. Emphasis on relationships. I recently looked into a conference for youth ministry that had speakers and workshops aimed at helping us learn the internet tools, at doing better worship, and better video production. I think all of those are great and if you have the time and money to pour into it, you can maybe catch the attention of some of our media soaked kids. ***BUT*** What I have observed and learned myself in the last 20 years, is that the biggest need and biggest draw for adults, teens, kids, saved and unsaved, is LOVE, expressed personally. When it comes to ministry. More is not always better. They are not opposites as some naysayers like to claim, but they are not interchangeable either. For instance. Twitter and Facebook and the other iterations of online technology, allow for MORE communication. Better? well, that depends. I Twitter, Blog, and facebook in an effort to increase peoples ability to see my life in Christ and to connect with their life. I find that these tools are most effective when they SUPPLEMENT my offline contacts with people. This is a tricky balance. Too much time on them and they can begin to take away from face to face contact time. A friend of mine who is a youth leader and active with these new tools recently twittered a visit to the dentist to have a tooth pulled. There were numerous updates describing each step of the way. While I love this guy, i would argue that this was an instance of MORE but not BETTER. However, I will admit that it had that crazy youth pastor flavor, so I'll let you decide. :) Christ had the ability to do miracles that drew big crowds. He generated a lot of interest and people probably came to see miracles and ended up hearing the message. But I see Christ often declining to do miracles because people wanted a performance only. Do we sometimes over-emphasize our cultural connectedness trying to get people to listen when really the entrance is not through attracting their curiosity but awakening the hunger of their heart? Perhaps we should make sure that we are spending as much (or more) time sitting at the Samaritan well as we are trying to news-feed 5,000. Let's by all means use new tools as they come, but let's routinely stop and make sure that we are not merely doing more, but doing better.

Sunday night was awesome!!! We had a great turnout and a great time. It was great to get a bunch of Christians together to sing and share. The spirit of the evening was wonderful. I am so thankful that we have such good fellowship between the churches in the area. Already we are looking at the details of the next get together. I am thankful for Pastor Steve and Pastor Barry. I think it is so vital to have pastor friends in the area to fellowship with. I am thankful for some of the other pastors in the area who I have had the opportunity to connect with as well, but Steve and Barry especially are great as our three churches connect more and work together. We are all the body of Christ and I think it is essential to the functioning of the body that we work together when we are able to and that we cultivate a culture of cooperation (wasn't that nicely alliterated?) :) I am back to trying to leave more entries in the blog and write more often. This is going to be a busy week as we launch a new Sunday Morning series, a new Bean's Corner Nights series and record another set of radio shows.

Saturday was a great day to refresh ourselves. Sarah and I had a great chance to just talk this morning and catch up on many things and reflect on events in our life. Then we got a lot of work done outside as we continue to pursue our yard work projects. The kids had a great time outside too and #3 continues to have a great time now that he can climb the slide ladder. The kids are going to be disappointed when Sarah plants the garden; they have been having such a great time digging in it. This afternoon we took the kids and went over to drop in on the Patterson's yard sale just to say hi and see them as well as the Daltons. Then I took the two older kids to Hannaford to buy supplies for supper. On the way home we stopped at Root 4 Pets to get a few more fish for the tank. (2 of them died after we got home. :( ). Brosey family over for supper. The kids had such a great time together and it was nice to have some nice couple time together. It had been a long time since we had gotten together as families. Aimee and the kids dropped by for awhile too which was great. Just a good evening. Kids were exhausted by the time it was over, but surprisingly, baths and bedtime went off without any meltdowns. Just a great day. I feel very recharged and renewed. My TO DO list is still long, but I'm more hopeful. Tomorrow will be a busy day with a full day, but I'm not preaching so that makes it a little easier.

Ten years ago today I said "I Do" and I have been doing ever since. As we get ready for marriage weekend, I was talking to Mac and we were reflecting on the work that goes into marriage. I don't mean that at all in a negative way. Some seem to think that marriage happens. It doesn't, it is made. And like anything, what you get is a reflection of the work you put into it. If you don't want to put in hard work, planning, effort, and sacrifice, you are going to get a sub-standard product. What really bothers me is couples I know who aren't willing to really do that work but then use the low quality of their marriage as an argument for divorce. It's like not taking care of your home and then complaining about where you live. On the other hand, when you do the work. When you keep doing the work. When each day is a choice to say "I do" then you end up with a quality marriage that in turn makes that work worthwhile. I am so thankful for a wife who has joined me in that work. Now we do that work not only for us, but for the wonderful children God has blessed us with. They are a lot of work to and require another daily "I do." But the resultant life is so awesome! Enough of this. Time to take my lovely bride of 10 years out to dinner.

Once again I have let the blog languish while I am working on other things. Sometimes its hard to keep all the plates spinning. A few weeks ago I attended a conference with CCCA (Christian Camping & Conference Association) and the speaker at one of the workshops I attended recommended trying to write a little every day. That is a good goal, but I have a ways to go. I have opened a Twitter account and am starting to use that along with regular updates on Facebook, so I can be found there. The Holy Week services went really well I thought. I was amazed at the turnout for SonRose service and the breakfast. Sunday School was very well attended too. A great weekend of celebrating the Risen Savior and looking at our response to Him. On Monday we had the first joint Deacon/Deaconess meeting. It was a very profitable time. We are so blessed as a church to have such a great team of godly people who are passionate for God and dedicated to shepherding and discipling this flock. I hope to have those kind of meetings on a semi-regular basis as we get more and more people working together rather than just a few people (or the pastors) doing all the work.