Week 3

This week has been pretty crazy!!! It's just as busy as the other weeks, but it has required more thought, creativity, and self motivation than simply copying cd's or dvds. Pastor Ben and Bryce are both going to that conference in Dallas today and will be back on friday or saturday. That means I'm in charge of service tonight... which happens to be our first "Summer Night" but I feel well prepared. Madison (one of the other interns) has been working with me and She is very good at getting things done. She calls people to make sure they're going to help with this or that, she gets the food and games, etc ready which takes a load off my back. I'm learning to let other people take care of things like that because I like to have a hand in everything, but I'm realizing that doing that isn't always possible. 

I just finished making the first commercial for the spaghetti dinner/teen auction. We're going to push it hard this sunday and the actual fundraiser is next sunday (june 29th) As long as the teens get into it and realize that they need money for camp... it will be a successful fundraiser! 

The same time I'm doing all this I'm trying to find out what God wants me to talk about for service? I keep hearing God saying "next level?" That phrase has been stuck in my head all week. I've come to realize that when we say "it's time to go to the next level" most people (including myself) aren't exactly sure what that means. So i think the "next level" is different for everyone, but i think there is also a corporate "next level" that the church is being called to. For our church and youth ministry the "next level" is being salt and light in the world... being more like Christ out in the real world, winning people to Christ, encouraging others, speaking life into people, our shadows healing people, etc. It is time for our church to expand our territory and areas of influence. 

Since the theme this night is Hawaiian nights, I bought a Ohio State Buckeyes Hawaiian shirt... it's pretty sweet! But with the theme, i figured i would talk about volcanoes. I've been reading a lot about volcanoes in the past two days and have come up with a lot of great illustrations (that will probably bore you, so i'll save you the time) but they get the point across and I'm actually going to attempt to build one of those science fair volcanoes later... we'll see how that goes?

Anyways, personally, spiritually, I'm loving life! I feel like I'm hearing God's heart and I've been praying that out over my life and the people of our church. God's been telling me all of this stuff that is going to happen soon and it's cool to be expecting it, but i'm not exactly sure what kind of responsibilities come along with that, so i'm still learning. As far as the ministry and youth group stuff is going, I'm loving it because we're mixing the two things i love to do...  ministry and business strategizing. I love doing business stuff and I'm helping Shandra (my girlfriend) raise money for her Africa trip, I get to help design and carry out fundraisers for the youth ministry, and I'm (a little behind) writing my Mexico support letter to help people build their houses. I love mixing my passions with Gods, that's when i feel most used and it's a great feeling to be used!

hours: (way more than 4)

1 hour - working on the kids ministry video

3 hours - filming for the spaghetti dinner/teen auction commercial

2 hours - editing the commercial

4-5 hours - reading about volcanoes and preparing for my sermon

8-10 hours - running around town getting stuff ready for wednesday night

30 minutes writing this blog