Last Sunday was a special morning in our student ministry hour; the first graders came to visit! As part of their lessons they have been studying missions and as a class raised enough money to donate towards the Nicaragua team to cover the costs of four Nicaraguan children coming to the camp we’ll be leading and to pay for the end of the camp party pinata! What a great, tangible learning tool for the first graders … and a great way to bless the older students who are normally the ones helping them! When they came to present it to the group they were a little overwhelmed, but still managed to get in front of all the students, recite their memory verses and give us the above card with the money they raised! What a great group of kids – can’t wait to have them in youth group in five years!

Well, clearly that’s awesome.

I’ve been holding off on blogging my reactions to the new film to give people time to see it before I post spoilers … but fear not, my thoughts are on their way (whether you want them or not!).

My wife, Heather, told me I needed to get on Facebook the other day and see what one the students from our church had posted. I have to confess, I tensed up, logged on … and it absolutely made my day! I love being part of a team of amazing leaders that impact kids in this way and make church a place they love to be – even to the point of blasting it out on their social media for all to see!

I just saw this and I’m not sure how long it will last, but the following fourteen (14!) books are free for Kindle for a limited time, all by R.C. Sproul, his ‘Crucial Questions’ series! They normally range in price from $4-$7, grab them while you can:

• Who Is Jesus? 1 (Crucial Questions Series)

• Can I Trust the Bible? 2 (Crucial Questions Series)
• Does Prayer Change Things? 3 (Crucial Questions Series)
• Can I Know God’s Will? 4 (Crucial Questions Series)
• How Should I Live in This World? 5 (Crucial Questions Series)

• What Does It Mean to Be Born Again? 6 (Crucial Questions Series)

• Can I Be Sure I’m Saved? 7 (Crucial Questions Series)

• What Is Faith? 8 (Crucial Questions Series)

• What Can I Do with My Guilt?: 9 (Crucial Questions Series)

• What Is the Trinity?: 10 (Crucial Questions Series)

• What is Baptism? 11 (Crucial Questions Series)

• Can I Have Joy in My Life: 12 (Crucial Questions Series)

• Who Is the Holy Spirit?: 13 (Crucial Questions Series)

• Does God Control Everything?: 14 (Crucial Questions Series)

This past weekend I snuck off to a Star Trek convention in New Jersey … which Micah started begging me to come along to. I honestly don’t think he would enjoy it or I would have brought him. Finally, I said to him, look – this thing isn’t whatever it is you’re picturing. Basically, I’m going to sit in a room all day and listen to actors talk about what it was like making a show 20-50 years ago (depending on the series). They’ll talk about how they did it, what the scripts were like, tell some stories about hanging out with the crew and answer questions from the audience. It will be like that ALL DAY.

Micah was mystified – he told me it sounded boring and why didn’t I just go, get the autographs I wanted and come back home. Wouldn’t that be more fun?

I responded ‘no way!’ I love hearing that stuff! It honestly never gets old to me, even the stories I hear over and over! Micah decided he would pursue other activities for the day.

This is a strange post for me because I don’t usually reveal this level of geekdom, but I was thinking about it and it hit me that it’s really true that when you love something you never get tired of learning more about it. All of the little details, the stories, etc. It’s why we read about our favorite bands or actors, research our favorite moments in history, know every detail of every player on our favorite sports team. If we love something, we love knowing it more and more.

Which makes me wonder, if we call ourselves Christians and don’t enjoy the Bible, faith and the pursuit of God … if it gets old, or we don’t enjoy the same stories from the Bible, if we don’t want to know the background of the stories, we aren’t interested in hearing about it … are we just kidding ourselves? Shouldn’t a real faith in God prompt the same kind of joy in discovery that our earthly interests trigger?

It’s not really surprising … over the last dozen years as a youth pastor I feel like I’ve constantly been learning and dropping social media outlets as I try to keep up with the latest and most effective way of communicating to adolescents – lately, I find myself leaning on things like Instagram and Twitter more and more. It seems like social media designed for and native to a mobile device has the most appeal, as opposed to Facebook, which is designed for a PC and crammed into an app. In reality, Facebook is still a great tool and has lasted longer than anything else … but it feels more and more like it’s days are numbered. Check out this graphic I recently stumbled across and what it says about young people and Facebook.

Check out the above graphic to see when and where the open casting calls for the next season of Biggest Loser are being held! Exact times and locations will be updated soon at the casting website, www.thebiggestlosercasting.com. What this means, since filming usually begins 4-6 months before the season premiere, is that we’re probably looking at another January launch to the show. Casting will happen over the next few months, be finalized in the summer, and begin filming late summer for a January premiere. Good luck! For more advice on trying out for the show, check out my casting tips blog post.

So who’s going? And to which city? I’d love to hear how it goes!

Sticky Faith is an amazing, amazing resource for parents and youth leaders. For a while now I’ve been talking a lot about the research by Christian Smith and his team on spirituality in young people. Kara Powell and her team have also done similar research, and while Smith does a great job of pointing a lens at the issue, Powell takes it a step farther and gives practical ideas and resources to do something about it with, hence the name – Sticky Faith, in other words, building a faith in your kids that will stick. For a limited time, they are doing a huge sale – the lowest price ever – on the Kindle versions of the books and curriculum:

Sticky Faith, $2.99

Sticky Faith: Youth Worker Edition, $2.99

Sticky Faith Teen Curriculum: 10 Lessons to Nurture Faith Beyond High School, $6.64

For parents with kids of all ages, and youth workers, this is a MUST read. Grab it while it’s cheap!

Was totally caught off guard the other day in the best kind of way when one of the eighth graders in our church posted this video to his Facebook. I thought it was awesome – and I love that he blasted it out there for everyone he knows to see and hear about his faith in Christ.

One of my favorite moments in it, though, comes part way through when he calls his small group leader his pastor and then corrects himself. The reality is, small group leaders do function as a pastor, and I love that a part of him views his leader that way! Leaders shepherd, guide, love, instruct, and disciple the people in their group. Sounds like a pastor to me!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on Noah and his battle with Scleroderma. You can find my previous posts/updates here. It’s starting to feel like we go through spells of very little to report … and then get slammed with waves of challenges. At the moment, it feels like a bit of a wave.

We’re currently easing Noah down to a much smaller dose of steroids. This is good as the side effects are frustrating for Noah. He gets teased for being chubby by other kids even though it’s really just a reaction from his boy to the steroids. Unfortunately, over the last few years, the steroids have been the only truly effective response to the Scleroderma.

At the same time, we’re increasing his dosage of Cellcept. The hope is that this will work in holding back the progression of the disease, but it will take time to find out.

Last Friday we spent the day at the hospital getting an MRI for Noah. Because of his age, this meant he had to be knocked out for the duration, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience for him – but he’s a trooper! The picture to the right is him playing with my phone and taking selfies after he woke up! Originally, the purpose of the MRI was to get a closer look at what’s happening under the skin at his face and brain, mostly as a precaution to see just how deep the disease is impacting him below the skin, but also to see if there is any connection at all with headaches he’s been complaining of the last few months. But then …

In either a demonstration of great timing … or just the pattern of things surging at the same time, the week of the MRI Noah had an appointment with the dentist where they discovered the tissue in his gums had deteriorated along the path of the Scleroderma to the point of causing one tooth to recede dangerously, as well as impact a couple other teeth as well. No matter what he’s going to have to have oral surgery at some point in the next month or so to correct it. The timing of the MRI was really good because they were able to really take a closer look at that region of his face to see if it’s a coincidence that he has something going on there (highly doubtful), or if it’s the Scleroderma, and if so, examine just how deep the impact is.

On top of everything else, Noah has to start meeting with the plastic surgeon annually so he can track Noah’s growth and the development of his face. As he grows, the scarring around his nose and eyes will look more and more pronounced. By starting the tracking now, it will give the plastic surgeon more to work with once Noah is old enough (probably around 16) .

Pray for Noah! The next couple months will probably be difficult with him; the oral surgery will be a painful experience for him to recover from, and the increased doctor’s visits are not on his list of favorite things to do!