Goodbye to My Old Friend Hair

Well, I finally did it! The top of the dome was getting thin and I decided to take matters into my own hands and beat nature to the punch. I buzzed my hair! Of course, we redeemed the haircut for its humor value and made it an announcement video which I will post ASAP.

Bango's Amazing Dunk! INSANITY!!!

The Importance of Finishing! ... CRAZY BASKETBALL FINISH!

The only thing I can think of like this was the college football game years ago when the marching band was on the field before the end and the guy ran through them for a touchdown to win the game. This is nuts!

C.S. Lewis' Surviving BBC Address

Tough Miss!

Kamara goal called back @ Yahoo! Video

Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman

Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho | Local News | Idaho Statesman

Thrive-Marriage Conference 10 - Large.m4v

Free Offer for YouthWorker: New Testament Guide for Youth Workers

Never before has there been a resource this comprehensive, this practical, and this relevant for teaching the New Testament to your students. With the topic overview, ideas for games, outlines for messages, study questions, and ideas to incorporate media or real-life experience into the teaching, and a searchable CD-ROM, you now have everything you need to lead students through more than 100 New Testament lessons.

Get The Complete New Testament Guide for Youthworkers FREE when you subscribe to Youthworker Journal. CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW!

A Critical Spirit

I was reading a devotional in Spiritual Classics by Catherine Marshall (1914-1983). She spoke about how the Lord challenged her to fast from criticism for one full day. She was not to criticize anybody about anything. She realized that the world - the government, the church, individuals could apparently get along just fine without her penetrating observations. But she really didn't get what the whole fast was supposed to accomplish until mid-afternoon. She writes, "My critical nature had not corrected a single one of the multitudinous things I found fault with. What it had done was to stifle my own creativity - in prayer, in relationships, perhaps even in writing - ideas that He [God] wanted to give me."

She summarizes the things God was teaching her:

1. A critical spirit focuses us on ourselves and makes us unhappy. We lose perspective and humor.
2. A critical spirit blocks the positive creative thoughts God longs to give us.
3. A critical spirit can prevent good relationships between individuals and often produces retaliatory criticalness.
4. Criticalness blocks the work of the Spirit of God: love, good will, mercy.
5. Whenever we see something genuinely wrong in another person's behavior, rather than criticize him or her directly, or - far worse - gripe about him behind his back, we should ask the Spirit of God to do the correction needed.

Selah!

Announcements April 19, 2010

28th Annual St. James Fire Department 5 Mile Run for Burn Victims

Today I ran the St. James Fire Department 5-Mile Run for Burn Victims for the second year in a row. I had two goals for this race: (1) do better on the hills than last year, and (2) improve my time. Last year I was unprepared for the hills which really come into play after the 3rd mile, so this year I took time to train for them. I felt much better this time around, and I improved my time by 2:44, completing the race in 45:47. With about 150 yards left I felt the presence of another runner right next to me. At 100 yards we both simultaneously decided - without looking at each other or saying a word - that we were going to race for the finish and we sprinted our guts out. I am happy to say that I ended up beating him by 1.1 seconds. lol! I thanked him for the great finish, and it was cool how - even as strangers - we both pushed each other to the max.

Nate Larkin: I Am Second

D.L. Moody on Prayer for Healing

I like D.L. Moody's approach to prayer for healing ...

"We cannot dictate to God. The prayer of faith is not to make myself believe that just the very thing I ask will be done and done in just my way ... but a trust in God's power to do what I ask and a trust in His love that if He does not do it it is because i is better not to have it done and to leave the decision with Him." - D.L. Moody

Me in a Dress ... Announcements 4/14/10

Huckabee likens gay marriage to incest, polygamy

WASHINGTON – Mike Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the effort to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.

Huckabee also told college journalists ... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

New York Real Life Super Heros

Family Vacation

We are home from a week-long family vacation to the Poconos, PA. In addition to doing many fun things as a family, I also accomplished a life-long personal goal of skydiving! You can view photo albums here ...

Family Vacation

Skydive

NT Wright on Life After Life After Death

Watch one of my favorite scholars N.T. Wright address issues of death, the afterlife, resurrection and the implications for life in the here and now.

Dr. Ryan aka "Spanky" Swain "Dental Hurricane"

So here's the other 1/2 of G-Force, Dr. Ryan Swain. We used to kick it back in the day baby! lol!

Developing HABITS that will Change Your Life!

I recently gave the most important talk I have ever given in all my years of ministry!

What would happen if your cool spiritual programs were taken away? What would happen if you went off to college and there were no slammin' programs like your youth ministry back home?

What would happen if the spiritual personalities in your life were suddenly gone? What would happen to your spiritual life if your parents or pastors were not there to motivate you to grow?

We all need to learn how to GROW ON OUR OWN spiritually! That's why Spiritual HABITS are essential. My desire as a youth pastor is to not just give students a good time for a few years, but to equip and inspire them to pursue God on their own. SimplyYouthMinistry has a great tool resource HABITS which stands for ...

Hang Time with God

Accountability Relationships

Bible Memorization

Involvement in Local Church

Tithing

Studying Scripture

We talked through each of these items, and then unveiled our HABITS Shack which is a place where students can pick up tools that will help them grow in each of these areas. If you would like to order HABITS for your youth ministry, use the 10% Off coupon on the right hand side of my blog for this and any other orders you place at SYM.

California surfer receives whale of an escort during marathon paddle, by Pete Thomas

California surfer receives whale of an escort during marathon paddle, by Pete Thomas

Texas Church to Give Away Millions in Prizes ... WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bryan Culbertson & The Funk Experience

The Verizon Cross

My buddy Don works for Verizon and snapped this pic while working yesterday. Here's what he shared:

"This really happened while unloading poles yesterday ... poles were tied together vertically then shifted when lifting. Mabe the Lord wanted to remind me/us of the reason for the season. Happy Easter/Ressurection Sunday!"