Random Randomness

- Last weekend was a fantastic one in our junior high program. We wrapped up our Three-week "Made" series with a lesson on 'becoming sheep'. The band did a fantastic job....led by a 9th grade guy who has one of the best/coolest/strongest/grungiest/ voices I've heard in a while. The only hic-up of the weekend occurred during our really large 6:30 service Saturday night. 6:30 on Saturday night is THE service to go to and is full of most of our highly connected and core kids plus a ton of community kids. Of course, it's our 'core' kids who can often be the rowdiest, not because they're punks, but because they are just so dang happy to be there, to see their friends etc. Anyway, I had to pause the program in the middle and give them a 5-minute "reminder" about appropriate behavior, respecting their peers who are leading the music, etc. IT WAS A TOTAL DRAG, but had to be done.

- I'm really excited about the GROUP conference this upcoming weekend! I think our 8-hour junior high ministry track is going to be super fun. Scott Rubin, Katie Edwards and I have planned some fun stuff.

- On a side note, Katie won't be able to join us which would be a TOTAL bummer if it weren't for the fact that she and her husband were given a foster child on Monday night so she needed to pull out of the conference.

- In two weeks, we start SCHOOL WARS which is our first-ever multi-week evangelistic push at our weekend program. We've put a ton of time and effort into the "series" and hopefully our students will respond by bringing their friends. The best way to describe it is a 3-week school-based competition (think American Gladiators meets Mad Max type atmosphere). The lesson each week will be a super short evangelistic message....same basic message all three weeks wrapped up a little differently.

- The latest SJH podcast is online now. You can watch it here.