The Pipeline Olympics

For the month of August, we have divided The Pipeline into three teams.
Each team is competing for points.
The team with the most points after the five weeks, wins a "Party at the Lake".

Each night at The Pipeline we do games, and then we talk about Olympics Moments in history.
Last night we talked about the 1972 Munich Olympic basketball game between USA vs USSR, and then we talked about the Olympic moment in the bible with Noah.

Here is the shot put with a melon.

ht travis

Our goal by the end of the month is for more students to know God, and to pubicly display knowing him, thru water baptism.
We signed up two people for baptism so far last night

My Bad Idea

Tonight I had a bad idea.
To put the trampoline on the basketball court.

Mark.

This is Mark.
I met Mark when he was playing drums for a Chicago rock band called, Endless Never.
I had booked his band to play at our youth center twice within a couple years to play for 100 teens.
This week at camp, Mark is playing drums for the worship team in front of a 700 teens.

Jeff.

This is Jeff.
I met him when he was going into 7th grade, eight years ago.
I poured everything into Jeff for seven years while I was in Macomb.
Two years ago, Jeff was going to camp, this year Jeff is helping lead worship at camp.

Youth ministry & parents working together is a beautiful thing.

Speaking at Experience

Katie and I are speaking at a Jr. High retreat in St. Louis at the end of the month.
We are pumped.

When txting in service is a good.

Tonight at our youth service, we encouraged our students to text message.
We signed up for free with a service called Poll Everywhere.

We asked the questions, "What causes you to pound the table?"
And then students texted their answer to a certain number, and then we projected the poll website page and watched the live results come in.
It was very simple.

Here some of the results.

Before we went dark

The Pipeline had a small student vision retreat.
We dreamed and talked leadership for our summer program.
4 girls
3 guys
2 leaders
1 lake house

Here were two picture from early in the night when we were playing around the lake before we went dark.




going dark - no screens. no laptops. no cell phones. no text messaging

Would you eat it?

Last night at the pipeline Travis spoke about keeping a tight rein on our tongues.
I boiled a cow's tongue for 30 minutes and then we showed it to the students during the message.

Thanks for picking this up for us Joey

Movies with a Cause pt. 1

Tonight at First Assembly we had our monthly Very Intentional Parenting workshop.
Tonight's theme was "Spiritual Conversations with your Kids".
I tackled the teenage years.
A couple great ways to have spiritual conversations with teenagers is thru situations and culture.

Here are 5 movies with a cause that can be used for spiritual discussion with teenagers.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
official site


Amazing Grace
official site


Hotel Rwanda
official site


Jesus Camp
official site


Invisible Children
official site


Have you seen these?
What do you think?
What are some other movies that are good for this?

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Creative Idea: Balloon Launch

We started a new series based on the first chapter of the book of James.

You in Real Life.
Real Pain.
Real Smarts.
Real Temptation.
Real Speech.


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Last night we started with part one. Real Pain.
Here is what the message sounded & looked like.

I told a personal story of real pain.

Showed this clip on pain/suffering from Dan in Real Life.



Read
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Luke performed a poem by Bradley Hathaway called "On Being Joyful And Content".
He tore it up, by the way.

I talked about that when we are suffering or experiencing real pain, we have a choice to believe and trust in God, and when we do, we become mature.

We showed this incredible video 99 Balloons

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Then we had small cards on the stage, and challenged those students who are dealing with pain and suffering, to write it on the card.

And then to take a balloon and attached a card to it with the string.


Then we went outside where we prayed and ask got to help us with our pain and suffering, and as a symbol of releasing that to God, we released the balloons with the card attached.

One year ago.

One year ago, Katie and I said goodbye to our church family in Macomb, and made the journey to a new family in Mattoon.

Our last day at the Macomb church was Easter.
After the service our strongest supporter/parent/youth leader for the past seven years came up and asked me
"So, are you ready?"
my eyes filled with tears,
I answered, "No".

My eyes weren’t filled with tears because I was making the wrong decision.
It was because, I knew that my life would be changed forever.
I was excited, fearful, sad, and totally pumped all at one time.

I said goodbye to a location, not to friends.
We left an impression on them and they left an impression on us for a lifetime.




We moved to a place where we had only a handful of friends.
But over the past year, we have made a ton of additional ones.




Friends pictured
Jeff Lotz
Briahna Jones
John Barry
Christie Lotz
Kelly Gantner
Devin Heberling
Janell DeWeese
Trent Randle
Dave Keck
Jesse Lucas
Cody Hutton
Josh Simpson
Josh Taylor
Dan Lotz
Cindy Lotz
Chandler Orr
Alex Orr
Pastor Frownfelter
Joy Spencer
Cooper Spencer
Ashley Herbert
Joe Herbert
Brian Williamson
Matt Taylor
Kristy Fitzsimmons
Chelsea Kirkley
Jordan Snively
Ashley Taylor
Travis Spencer
Luke Greer

There is not a complete list of my friends.
If I posted pics of everyone then that would be a long loading post, now wouldn’t it?

Pics and stuff about my other friends are here.
myspace
facebook

Supporting Project Rescue

Estimates of women and children trafficked across international borders each year range from 800,000 to four million. In the United States alone, the U.S. State Department estimates that as many as 18,500 men, women, and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year, many for sexual exploitation.

Each quarter, we are challenging our students to give of themselves.
Last night in our youth service, we challenged our students to give towards Project Rescue in a special offering on Sunday, April 27.

What are some missions organizations do you give to?

High Ropes Course

Yesterday I had meetings with the funnest people on the planet. Youth pastors.
We spent about an hour at Eagle Crest Adventure, going thru the high ropes course.

I rigged up and got up in the course with several other guys.
Here was my spotting partner Ray.


1st Task - Balance Beam. Walk from one side to the other. 15 feet high, 30 feet long. Easy.
2nd Task - Balance Beam. Walk from one side to the other. 15 feet high, 30 feet long. Blindfolded. I thought this was going to be Easy. I put the blindfold on, I took one step out, and I got shaky. It was freaky. I couldn't do it. I had to hold onto my safety rope while I walked the beam. So much for being a wild man. eh.

80s Night was a Blast

Last night was our 80s night. I have blogged about us doing it here.

Here's what the night looked like.

• Costume contest
• NES games on a video projector
  
• Ms. Pacman and Dig Dug on tvs
• 80s music pumping.

We also, setup Rock Band and had a band play the Bon Jovi song "Dead or Alive", on stage.


I played the music video for U2's Pride (In the Name of Love).
Here are some of the lyrics from the song.

One man come in the name of love
One man come and go
One man come, he to justify
One man to overthrow

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

And then I talked about God's unconditional love for them.

This was an incredible night.
In the future we are going to be doing 70s, 60s and even "the future".

80s Night - Sketchcast

What's your favorite 80s song

This sunday is our 80s theme night.
I'm needing an hour of 80s music.

What is the must have track that needs to be played?

Amazing Grace. A Must See.

Last night was our first night of a new an eight week small group we are calling Faith & Film. Each week we are watching a film that has a cause. That has purpose. That is challenging.

Last night we watched Amazing Grace.
It is about a young zealot, William Wilberforce, and his fight to stop slavery in the 19th century.
One of his mentors/allies was John Newton, a former slave ship captain who wrote the hymn, "Amazing Grace."

Who are those people in the world that don't have a voice of their own.
Who are those that God wants me to stand up for?
What is the cause that God wants me to live and die for?


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Any suggestions on movies that we can use in the future?

A new blogging project. Missionaries.

I am working with IYCM to launch a blog that will connect global missionaries with Illinois jr. high & sr. high students.
We are wanting to have missionaries from around the world blog what they are doing, so that students can connect with them.

A couple other functions of the blog.

• Section for students to ask missionaries questions.
• World map, of where missionaries are located, with a short description of what they are doing.

I am in the early development stage of this new blog project.
I'd love any suggestions or thoughts.

Are there any blogs out there that are doing this sort of thing?
Are there any missionary blogs?
Is a forum my best bet for a q&a with missionaries?

I love the 80s artwork

Here is our postcard artwork for our theme night.


Top ten 80s fashion fads

1. Shoulder pads
2. Mini skirts
3. Leg warmers
4. Huge earrings
5. Fingerless gloves
6. Parachute pants
7. Members only jackets
8. Units
9. Stretch pants
10. Oversized tops
    

I've got my ticket to Orange.

Do you?



Breakout sessions I've signed up for.

• Creating Success in Your Organization
• Unedited – reThinking Student Ministry
• Teach Less for More
• The Five Faith Skills

Are you going?
If so. Let's get together

The Orange Conference