I love weekends.

JG

Interesting article from a couple of days ago in the Christian Post talking about youth ministries and reflection on the old ways and vintage faith. Here’s a clip:

The cohort of young adults today have grown up on cell phones, the internet and in a materialistic world where their top goals are fame and fortune, a recent Pew survey found. And more youth ministers are trying to draw more teens to the church with a message wrapped in pop culture.

Schuller says young people are looking for something “beyond the show.” Vintage is the newest trend.

“They are looking for a deep and real intimate relationship and what I found is that people desire something more vintage, not something in style. Vintage is something that is older but really valuable.”

In fact, they’re looking for something that is even older than the older generation, Schuller says, such as going to old cathedrals for lay worshipping.

Amid the search for something vintage, there is also a wide gap between the younger and older generations. Youth leader Chris Folmsbee had noted a widening “chasm” between youth ministers who want to do ministry in a new way and older leader who want to stick to traditional ways in his new book A New Kind of Youth Ministry.

“There is a lot of butting heads about which one is right, especially in O.C. (Orange County), where there is a greater emphasis on youth,” Schuller says. “A lot of older generations have been offended. The younger generation feels bound by older generations. We try to resolve in all of this and create a forum in which three generations can have a meaningful experience.”

JG

Fields gave his last message in the Simply Amazing series at Saddleback – this was by far the best of the series, and excellent finale to a powerful survey over the life of Jesus. It was a great look at the miracles that Jesus did and the reaction from people that watched – it ended with a clear plan of salvation and I’m confident many will respond to the message. Good stuff!

JG

I love the What’s Inside that Wired does every so often. You remember spray cheese from way back, right? This month they list what’s inside the miraculous Fix-A-Flat:

Tetrafluoroethane
A type of fluorocarbon that doesn’t deplete the ozone layer, TFE is found in everything from cryogenic-tissue kits to car air conditioners. Here it’s used as a tire inflator, a drying agent, and a propellant for the other ingredients. Unfortunately, it’s also a greenhouse gas that’s been implicated in abnormal tes-ticular growth in rats – you must have some serious cojones to keep using it.

Heavy aromatic solvent naphtha
It’s not called aromatic because it smells (though it does – like petroleum). Aromatic is a scientific term referring to any molecule with one or more hexagonal rings of six carbon atoms. They can be unusually stable and powerful solvents for other hydrocarbons. Since naphtha is a mixture of medium-weight aromatic rings in the C9-to-C16 range (extra carbon atoms can hang off the sides of the main structure), it easily dissolves smaller carbon compounds like simple plastics but won’t harm larger polymers like styrene-butadiene (synthetic tire rubber).

JG

This made me laugh – passed a catering truck on the way to L.A. this morning that had this writing on the side.

JG

Just got back from the World Series of Pop Culture tryouts … and we got schooled.

They only took the top 3 teams out of the 25 or so that were there – basically it was a 50 question fill in the blank test to see if you were good enough to be on the show. It was fun – but we’re not good enough for the World Series … this year.

Kudos and love to teammates Allison and Treece.

JG

Just noticed that we started up a S.H.A.P.E. blog recently you might want to check out. If you use the acrostic in your youth ministry setting, there might be some good learnings and training and of course, freebies!

JG

Nadim just uploaded a new resource today to the SYM store (in addition to the 2 yesterday). It’s the Skit Guys Live & Almost Live which is now live in the Brand New and Drama category.

JG

This is where I’ll be next March 9th. Wow – if it’s half as good as the trailer …

JG

Here’s a few of the notable points from today’s venue pastor meeting. Just a little encouragement to communicators.

• We must preach for behavioral change, repentance
• Nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific
• Always start with the Scripture
• Carefully communicate to seekers
• Worry about speaking to insiders and outsiders
• Resist the temptation to speak too much

JG