More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts Student Zone Blueprints

There’s a post today on the ETV Blog with a PDF of the blueprints to the new Student Zone. If you want to check out what Saddleback’s new student building will look like when it opens in Fall 2008, hit the link. Can’t wait …

JG

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts 20 Things Star Wars Fans Can Get Excited About

Wizard Entertainment has a great new post about 20 things Star Wars fans have to look forward to. Which is good, because since there are no more movies coming … anyhow, here’s an excerpt from their post:

3. CGI cone wars cartoon
(Lucasfilm Animation, Fall 2008)
If you couldn’t get enough of the Genndy Tartakovsky-directed Clone Wars cartoons that debuted on Cartoon Network in 2003, you’re in luck. In 2008, you’ll get an all-new, completely CGI series based on the same time period as the animated version.

“The Clone Wars takes place between Episodes II and III during a remarkable time in Star Wars history, a time that fans have wanted to know more about ever since Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke about the Clone Wars in A New Hope,” said Lucasfilm’s Singh. The project will come from the Lucasfilm Animation studios based in Marin County, California and promises the return of fan-favorite heroes and villains as well as never-before-seen characters. There’ll be at least 100 half-hour episodes produced, and Dave Filoni (Avatar: The Last Airbender) will supervise the direction of the series.

“It’s being produced in a remarkable CG style that underscores the action, excitement and drama, and is much more expansive and dramatically rich than the ‘micro-series’ from 2005,” Singh continued. “It’s going to be groundbreaking both in look and content.”

4. Star Wars Live-Action TV series
(Lucasfilm, 2009)
The new live-action television series doesn’t even have a title yet, but fans are already salivating for a new sci-fi program to satiate their appetite for weekly space sagas (especially since Battlestar Galactica will soon join Firefly and Star Trek: Generations in the “great but cancelled” bin).

“It’s too early to say anything about the live-action TV series, as it is in the very early stages of pre-production,” revealed Singh at Lucasfilm. All we know about the plot is that the hour-long show will be set in the expanded universe and star some minor characters, with cameo appearances from the major ones. Who, you may ask? Well, at this year’s Toy Fair we saw a teaser image that featured a close-up of Boba Fett’s helmet. George Lucas himself will write and produce the first season, and then remain executive producer and general supervisor throughout the rest of the series. Singh teased: “Hopefully we’ll have much more news to share about it and other Lucasfilm and Star Wars projects at next year’s Comic-Con!”

JG

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Value of Mentors

Tony recorded a new Who Are These Guys? Podcast with a couple friends while I was away, so there’s a new show up today on The Value of Mentoring. I think I’ll have a download right now … Jim Clark and Tom Roepke join him as special guests.

JG

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Buy a Missile Silo

Just read in the BBC News about a missile silo that’s for sale in the US.

It is the ideal home for an aspiring James Bond villain, or an anxious survivalist seeking a refuge that can withstand an atomic bomb. Thought it sounded cool – and at $1.5M it’s a steal. Here’s a clip:

A former US intercontinental ballistic missile base – with a network of underground tunnels and silos, but no nuclear warheads – is on sale on eBay for $1.5m (

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts NYMC TV Commercial

Wow … didn’t know they promoted this event on Australian TV. Fun!

JG

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Gamer Regret

So most everyone in the world is playing Halo 3 – including many of the people here in Australia, a few literally rushed out the door to go back to playing the game. While I have a few days before I get my controller in hand and have a go at it (at least someone did let me hold the collector’s edition today) I thought this article from Wired would help you in case you come down with some gamer’s regret. Here’s a clip:

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have looked.

I was 10 days into playing Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground — a little RPG I reviewed here last month — and I was poking around the “settings” menu. I noticed that it had a “time played” option, which shows you how long you’ve been toiling away at the game. Curious, I clicked it.

Thirty-six hours.

Upon which my heart sank into a fathomless pit. Thirty-six hours? How in god’s name had I managed to spend almost four hours a day inside this game? I should point out that this was not the only game I’d been playing during that time. I’d also been hip-deep in BioShock and Space Giraffe, so I’d been planted like a weed in front of my consoles for hours more.

This is a missing-time experience so vast one would normally require a UFO abduction to achieve it.

So the question of the column, and possibly the question of my eternal soul, is: Is this good thing? How much does it change the architecture of your life to spend that much time playing games?

The dirty secret of gamers is that we wrestle with this dilemma all the time. We’re often gripped by what I call “gamer regret” — a sudden, horrifying sense of emptiness when we muse on all the other things we could have done with our game time.

JG

halo

Add Comment September 25, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts New Posts on PDYM Community Blog

This is an exciting time for Purpose Driven Youth Ministry – we’ve already got dozens of authors over on the new PDYM Community Blog. We’re getting ready for our official launch in October, but there’s already plenty to read. There’s some insightful new posts over there from PDYM state mentors, even including a few posts from Doug Fields. Check it out and bookmark it today!

JG

Add Comment September 24, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: Speaking to Teenagers

Got this new book from Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins last week at The Gathering – it comes out in the next week or so to bookstores (Simply Youth Ministry beats everyone’s price for the book at $12.89, from what I can tell). I managed to read it on the airplane and also a bit here in the early mornings of Australia since jet lag has continued to kick my soft American butt.

I’ve really enjoyed this book quite a bit. The first 3rd of the book is quite technical, dealing with the thoughts behind communication and the transactions that take place during communication. It’s pretty fascinating, if sometimes heady. After that, the book takes a turn to the intensely practical, walking you though the S.T.I.C.K. principles:

Study: Improve your content and increase your confidence
Think: Take time to reflect on your audience and content
Illustrate: Add a little color to your messages
Construct: Organize and pull it all together
Keep Focused: Crafting for clarity

S.T.I.C.K. in section two is by far my favorite part of the book – though as it heads into the home stretch covering the actual delivery of your talk there’s some great insight on room layout, where bad kids will be in the crowd and how your tone/pitch/non-verbals communicate so loudly.

A great read – feels like if you’re in front of students a bunch this book should really be required reading.

JG

Add Comment September 24, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts 8 Hour Block of Teaching

Today I’m teaching an 8-hour class at the National Youth Ministry Convention 07 here in Surf City. The problem is exactly that – it is 8 hours. Now, even though I’ve got quite the American accent for them all to enjoy, that’s only going to last for so long. To divide it up, I’m going to show a couple of videos and play some games, as well as give them some break times. Here’s what I’m thinking: