Time to celebrate. 500+ blog posts on this blog. Here’s some of the highlights of the past few months in case you’re a newbie to this place. Welcome to the journey.

• Are Unicorns Real?
• Shaun dancing to DDR
• Stephen is on crack
• Weird Al parody of “You’re Beautiful”
• Seeing Jack Black on Jimmy Kimmel Live
• 2 Movies I was Embarrased to See
• Met Chris Collinsworth in Laguna Beach
• The New Testament with LEGOS
• Austin Carty (Survivor) comes to Saddleback

JG

A good friend gave me Good to Great by Jim Collins earlier this year – it was one of the better business books that I’ve read in a while. There were many principles that were transferrable to a church setting, I think there was a lot of wisdom in the pages. Read it, if you haven’t had a chance yet. I just noticed that Pastors.com has a new article about Good to Great churches that shouldn’t be missed either. Check it out, and here’s an excerpt from the beginning:

How does business sector greatness differ from church greatness?
The biggest distinction is the role of money. In the business world, money works both as a fuel to achieve greatness and as a measure of greatness … But in a church, money is only a means or an enabler of true performance, which is successfully reaching people with the message, creating a sense of community, and contributing to the community.

The subtitle for your monograph is “Why business thinking is not the answer.” How is business thinking misapplied in the social sector?
The mistake social sector organizations often make is to implement “business practices,” but they imitate mediocre businesses.

For instance, bringing in an outside change agent. That’s what many average companies do, but great organizations have the discipline to grow leadership from within. There’s also the practice of using incentives. Average companies spend a lot of time incentivizing desired behavior. Great institutions discipline themselves to get people whose character is naturally to exhibit great behavior.

JG

Just finished a weekly meeting with the interns from Saddleback – this week’s special speakers were Dennis and Leesa Bellesi.

It was an amazing story of how their church gave away $10,000 – $100 to 100 people on a Sunday morning. It was based on the parable of the talents, and you can hardly imagine what happened. They played clips from the Oprah show and told stories of how God moved in the following 3 months at their church. Amazing – we should get the book if you haven’t read it – and I’m sure we’ll also talk about it and auction off a few for charity on eBay on the podcast, too. Good stuff.

JG

The latest installment of the PDYM Newsletter (subscribe here) hit inboxes this morning – if you missed if you can read it here. There’s a great classic article from Steve Farris included in it, as well as info on Saddleback Church internships and our YS travel schedule. If you don’t have a mentor yet or been in contact with your state PDYM rep, find them and connect now. Cool!

JG

The Starbucks offer I originally posted was legit! Key word? WAS. But not only did it work for a few days, but some friends used it successfully, too! Here’s the story from Reuters about the pulling of the offer. So funny!

NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters) – Starbucks Corp said on Tuesday it is withdrawing an offer of free iced coffee to a limited number of employees and their friends and families in the southeast United States. In a statement, Starbucks said the offer “has
been redistributed beyond the original intent and modified beyond Starbucks’
control.”

The company said an e-mail offering a free Starbucks iced coffee was sent to a limited group of employees in the southeast on Aug. 23 with instructions to forward it to friends and family. However, Starbucks said the offer was redistributed beyond the original intent. Effective immediately, the offer will no longer be valid at any Starbucks locations.

In July, Starbucks posted its weakest monthly same-store sales increase since 2001, saying heavy demand for cold drinks like Frappuccinos slowed service during busy morning hours, prompting customers to go elsewhere for their daily jolt.

JG

Just happened upon GQ’s list of The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die. How great would it be plan a whole vacation around these 20 stops? Now THAT I could do. Shoot … this has got road trip written all over it. How many have you had from the list?

JG

Sometimes I hear people discounting age in the ministry. I know that rookies make rookie mistakes, but there’s a lot they bring to the table as well. Energy, passion, fresh eyes and reckless abandonment to the cause to name a few. But of course, I’ve got to say that, since I’m still considered “young” by many in church circles (students not included), at the ripe old age of 31.

Enough. Here’s an excerpt from an AJC article about a young preacher making some waves. If you fit this demographic, here’s some encouragement for you:

That feeling, he admitted, still exists. McInnis, 29, is one of the youngest ministers in the North Georgia United Methodist Conference. He’s the lead pastor of Church of the Way, which holds services in a Lawrenceville elementary school.

Yes, he’s the youngest minister whenever the Methodist pastors gather, and, yes, he sometimes gets tired of that distinction.

But McInnis also looks at his age as a bonus: He is surrounded by mentors who are eager to share their knowledge with the kid in their midst.

McInnis, who is married and the father of two boys, 5 months old and 2 years old, regularly meets with two other younger pastors roughly his age. Over coffee, they sometimes discuss their age and the challenges the ministry faces in attracting younger people to the pulpit.

Younger ministers, he thinks, are crucial to the growth of the church.

“The greatest unchurched generation in our county is the 18- to 29-year-old generation,” he said. “And who’s going to reach them?”

Let no one make little of you because you are young, but be an example to the church in word, in behaviour, in love, in faith, in holy living. I Timothy 4:12 (BBE).

JG

Found this nice article in The Herald about churches still making a difference in the hurricane areas of the US. Here’s a particular clip about a youth pastor’s committment to the effort:

It is taking much more than a year to repair that kind of damage.

Many businesses are not back to operating, Sosebee said. “Homes are the greatest need. Probably 30 percent of the homes have been repaired. But that still leaves 70 percent.”

Sosebee’s outlook is it will be at least three or four years to get back to the areas back to how they were.

Johnny Caruso, youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Fort Mill, has been to southern Mississippi three times since last year.

He said stores are open, but usually not for very extended hours because they don’t have enough workers. He’s noticed many people have moved away. The first mile from the coast was so severely demolished that it had to be leveled. The houses that are there are being worked on, and trailers are housing families in the yards.

Caruso and another 30 church members will go back to Mississippi in three weeks. Last time he was there, seven families they helped were back in their homes. He hopes there will be a significant amount more back in homes on this next trip. What’s even harder for them is that extended families are living together as they rebuild their individual homes.

JG

The latest Simply Youth Ministry Podcast is up and running at the official site. I think Matt will drop it into iTunes momentarily, too.

We talk a lot about staff versus interns, church planting, starting in youth minstry, prayer postures and Kenya. Our first show in almost a month – between work and play we’re finally getting back into the swing of things. This is an episode not to be missed, look for another one just on voliunteers later this week. We’re back in the saddle, baby! That feels like a bad pun, but I assure you it was unintentional.

You’ll want to be sure to visit the links page this week and send us an email if you were caught up and waiting for the show. Doug doesn’t think that there was anyone really waiting over the last month, and we’ve got a side bet to prove him wrong. Enjoy the show!

JG

UPDATE: We’ve had 80 people write in in the first 24 hours of the new show being up – wow!