Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Holiday Popcorn Tins

We got this lovely popcorn tin for Christmas this year – and during the plethora of football games on the past 10 days we’ve been really enjoying it.

Except for 1 of the 3 sections, that is.

When you buy a tin – or really, someone buys it for you since you would never buy one of these for yourself – which is always the first section of corn to go? In our house, caramel and cheese are always gone in the first few days, leaving the cheap “filler” butter popcorn to take up the rear and slowly be eaten out of sheet pity.

Is white popcorn merely the packaging so that the real popcorn doesn’t get damaged in shipment? Is it just cheap filler since the cheese powder or caramel glaze is so expensive? Did a particularly bright executive one Christmas figure out we would still buy it if 2 of the 3 flavors were good?

JG

Add Comment January 8, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts New Gears of War Maps

Yes, yes, yes! Free Gears of War maps coming next week! Yeah!

JG

Add Comment January 7, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Weekend at Saddleback

Fields is starting a new series in big church next week, which should be fun. This week at Saddleback Pastor Tom did a 1-off called “Do-able faith” on practical living and learning, Wildside started a 2-week series on Heaven and Hell and HSM is gearing up for the LOST series that also starts next week, so this week they did a quick 1-off on Fear. Good stuff!

JG

Add Comment January 7, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Superbowl Ad Contest Ends Today

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite Superbowl commercial pitch here – voting ends tonight!

JG

Add Comment January 7, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Homeschooler Discovers The Simpsons

Lark News is always a classic stop in my browser around the first of the month. This month they’ve got great parody humor, including this one about a homeschooler finding The Simpsons in college. Funny …

Andrew Griffin’s grades have sagged this semester. He blames Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

Until he entered college, Griffin barely knew The Simpsons existed. He was homeschooled in rural Idaho and had a VCR but no television stations. Now “I’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” he says. Griffin was vaguely aware of the yellow cartoon family but thought they were “generalized symbols of cultural decadence.”

He believed the popular Bart Simpson “Don’t have a cow, man” t-shirt was a pro-vegetarian slogan. He thought Homer Simpson was the Home Depot mascot. But Griffin is now “hooked” after discovering his roommate’s collection of Seasons 1 through 12 on DVD.

JG

Add Comment January 6, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts With Friends Like This …

This was a very interesting piece about Rick Warren, Southern Baptists and Evangelicals in this weekend’s Dallas Morning News. I would think there’s a generation of young leaders rising up in the near future that’ll worry less about in fighting between Christians and are more concerned about fighting a spiritual battle. Here’s a clip:

Rick Warren is an evangelical anomaly, and some people think that’s a good thing.

In seminary, I heard countless slams on his preaching style. I was lectured in cheap, pithy platitudes that “seeker services” were an oxymoron, if not “Satan-friendly.” Saddleback Sam, the name Dr. Warren gives to the “target audience” to whom he ministers, was a joke, a marketing ploy to reach a certain kind of person who could bankroll a certain kind of ministry.

In my home church, there is a lady who is convinced Rick Warren is the antichrist. He’s compromising the Gospel. He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothes. And then there are
those who think he’s sold out on the abortion issue by hosting U.S. Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., at an AIDS conference, or that he’s compromised U.S. foreign policy by visiting Syria and North Korea. Some Southern Baptists have their briefs in a bunch because he still supports the Baptist World Alliance, which the Southern Baptist Convention stopped funding a few years ago. I have good friends who refuse to read his books, and I have former professors who take regular potshots at his publishing prowess.

But Rick Warren presses on. Perhaps more than any minister today, he takes the high road.

JG

Add Comment January 6, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Swearing in on PDL

Funny parody press release on a couple folks swearing in on Purpose Driven Life when entering Congress. Timely humor, considering the guy actually swearing in on the Koran last week.

In a controversy that eerily mirrors the recent dispute over a congressman’s use of the Koran, several Christian representatives have asked to be sworn in on the best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life.”We were asked to use the most meaningful text in our life,” said Rep. John T. MacGruder of Colorado Springs, from his state’s seventh district. “And, as far as I can see, my church preaches more from Rick Warren than the Bible, except at Christmas and Easter.”

McGruder and Rep. James R. Newhell of Wheaton (R-Ill) both petitioned Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to be allowed to use the famous evangelical guidebook in the swearing in ceremony at the Capitol.Reactions from other Congressman and public figures were mixed.”I see no reason not to allow others to use their own books — as long as ALLAH AKKBAR!” shouted Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn). Rep. Ellison, who is a Moslem, had requested to use the Koran for his swearing in ceremony and is, apparently, the inspiration for the requests from Representatives MacGruder and Newhell.

JG

Add Comment January 6, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts SimplySmallGroups.com

SYM has a new domain we’ll be building out in the coming weeks – SimplySmallGroups.com. For now, it just points to the small groups resources category, but we’ll make it a full landing page in time for next Fall’s huge new batch of small group material. So fun!

JG

Add Comment January 6, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Relationship Factor

Just posted this new article from a PDYM mentor in Louisiana on the importance of relationships in youth ministry. Good stuff, here’s a clip:

Relationships are the key to life for everyone. For students, relationships are huge.

The need for acceptance and a place to belong is great motivation for students, and meeting that need should be a top priority in student ministry. At times it’s easy to forget about the relationships when you get caught up in running the day-to-day things in student ministry. Events and experiences can be such a big part of the ministry that we can sometimes forget the reason we are having the event in the first place.

Here are some traps I have experienced that caused me to lose focus on the students. I am sure this is not a comprehensive list, but these are the ones that get me the most.

JG

relationships

Add Comment January 5, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Tell Why You’re Calling

One of my pet peeves is when someone calls and they just say, “please call back” and don’t say why. If you need me to call you back, help me know if it’s urgent or needs to be a priority in my world, too. If it’s important enough for you to call, it’s important enough for you to tell me why. If you don’t me why you’re calling in a voice mail or it isn’t obvious based on context, you go to the bottom of the list.

Is that mean? Am I just being selfish?

JG

Add Comment January 5, 2007