Teen Vogue
Irony…I heard about this on the radio and I have been thinking about this subject for a while and then a buddy of mine Kevin Murrell actually posted on this today from the same article. Great minds think alike, or something like that. I have been watching teenagers make poor choice after poor choice in their life and I wonder why? I know I have made and continue to make poor choices in my life but why? Why do we do that? Why do we so desperately want to be accepted by people who in ten years probably won’t matter that much to us anyway? Why is popularity and acceptance worth throwing away our integrity, character and in some cases our life? Is what people think of us really that important? Listen, I struggle with these same questions and I’m thirty years old. I don’t know if that need or desire every really goes away. Check out what Taylor Swift said in the article written on her in the latest Teen Vogue.
TV: Was country music popular in your hometown?
TS: Not at all. The kids at school thought it was weird that I liked country—they’d make fun of me. Junior high was actually sort of hard, because I got dumped by this group of popular girls. They didn’t think I was cool or pretty enough, so they stopped talking to me.
TV: And then in the ninth grade, you signed a song-writing deal, moved to Nashville, and here you are. Did you ever see those girls again?
TS: Actually, I did! I played a hometown show about a year into my career, and they showed up, wearing my T-shirts and asking me to sign their CDs. It was bittersweet, because it made me realize that they didn’t remember being mean to me and that I needed to forget about it, too. And really, if I hadn’t come home from school miserable every day, maybe I wouldn’t have been so motivated to write songs. I should probably be thanking them!
More to come on this later…
The Family Series
What is under your roof? This is the series that will launch at our upcoming UNITED in March. March 7th at 6:00pm join students from all over the Delaware Valley as we worship an incredible God and find out what He has to say about the relationships we have with our families.
March 8, 15, 22, 29 are our life group nights at 6:00pm. We will continue this series as we deal with everything from death, abuse, family sickness to competition, respect, and favoritism in families.
Get Connected!
Thanks to Greg Davis, my blog now has integration with Facebook via a new feature called “Facebook Connect“. By connecting your Facebook profile with my blog, you can have trusted and authenticated social interaction, that you control the settings for.
By clicking the “Connect with Facebook” button on the right-hand side of the blog, you’ll have to authorize (“connect”) your Facebook profile with this site. You only have to do this once, then future visits to my site you’ll already be logged in via your Facebook account.
If you read this blog via a newsreader or via email subscriptions, please visit the site and “connect“. Other interactive features that this provides is the ability to easily share an interesting post with your friends on Facebook as well as the ability to automatically share comments you leave on a posted article into your Facebook news feed (you can turn that off if you like).
The beauty of social media is the ability and ease to connect with each other. Facebook Connect allows sites like this one to extend that integration and connection even beyond the boundaries of Facebook itself. Give it a try and let me know what you think! (Try connecting and leaving a comment on this post).
The 3 C’s
It all starts and ends in the world of leadership with the big three of C’s. Chemistry, competency and character. The more I work with and lead people I understand how true this is. There are those who you see and think, “Wow they would be perfect”, only to find out later a big C is missing. I have known leaders who had character and competency but could not work and lead a team. The opposite is true as well.
I like to stop and ask myself, which one of those am I the weakest at and how can I improve that? Whether it is in my family, with my friends, with my staff or with those who I lead, how can I get better? Leaders are learners. How can I learn from my mistakes? How can I help others learn from my mistakes? How can I learn from others mistakes?
There are certain things that in a team or an organization you can do without, for instance if they don’t wear deodorant, bearable but gross. The three C’s are crucial to any team or organization not matter how big or small? Which one do you need to work on today?
UNITED Movie February
UNITED Snapshot
Crossroads
There are moments in your life that are crossroads. Those moments where you have to make a choice and that choice can and sometimes will affect the rest of your life. We have all experienced those moments. How well do we respond to them? Sometimes a crossroads moment does not only affect us but everybody around us. Each situation is different but in each situation we should ask the question, what is the wise thing to do?
Even asking that question we may not always do the wise thing. It is crucial in those moments that we pray and ask God for direction. I am so proud of who I work with and well they handle crossroads moments. They truly seek after God and his heart.
Weekend Wrap-Up
- Great weekend!
- Cool diversity in church this morning
- Our teens stepped up huge taking care of things
- Cool night in life groups
- Great turnout
- Hostage has been a great series for our teens
- Hostage has been a great series for me
- We have the best elders anywhere
- We have the best youth staff anywhere
- We have the best pastor anywhere
- Looking forward to what God is going to be doing at Fellowship church
Connection
I am reading a book titled, Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestreicher. An incredible book that shows that the way ministry has been done may not be the way that ministry needs to be done. In it there is a quote, “With increasing violence and substance abuse and more disadvantaged, broken homes than ever before, kids are just dying to be acknowledged. They need somebody to connect with them on a personal level. They need leaders who’ll take the time to listen and affirm that they’re okay, and they’re loved-no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what they’re dealing with. If that connection isn’t made, it’s highly unlikely that youth will allow leaders to take them on something so sacred as a spiritual journey.”
I am so blessed to have the team that I have. They love God, they love teenagers and they see a need to reach students differently than we have in the past. They are so flexible and are willing to change whatever is needed to redefine student ministries in the Delaware Valley. God has given us some tremendously gifted leaders that I have the privilege to work with and call friends.
Friend of God
So now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
I hope this week you are living your life without the enemy whispering in your ear. I hope that this week is a breakthrough week for many of you realizing how much God loves you and how important you are. You don’t have to feel condemned. You don’t have to feel ashamed. You don’t have to live your life held hostage by shame and guilt. You are free!
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. Romans 5:11
Don’t forget you are a friend of God! That means you are in a position of undeserved privilege. We did nothing to earn our salvation and we can do nothing to lose our salvation. We can’t do anything to make God love us more and we can’t do anything make God love us less. We are a friend of GOD! Amazing promises to hang onto this week.
