The finale …

JG

Just finished recording a staff vs. volunteer parody as a tribute to the volunteers at our church for the upcoming WOW Awards. Should be fun, if they let me I’ll post it on YouTube and share it this weekend … fun.

JG

It’s done! It’s amazing … OK, it’s pretty normal, but we do have a great time talking about youth ministry for about an hour. Look for it Thursday afternoon!

JG

Rick spent some time today walking the staff through the history of the church, it’s various iterations over the years since it began and began to reveal where it’s going in the future. In a few weeks he’ll share the vision until 2010 … today he shared these principles from Deuteronomy, and illustrated each point with stories from the past years at the church:

Remember the blessings
Remember the miracles
Remember the tests
Remember the lessons
Remember your leaders

JG

Episode 2 of the Wacover …

JG

Interesting possible observation made listening to six of the most amazing special effects gurus in Hollywood. I sat in a press room with the guys behind most of the big films you know and love.

For about 1/2 an hour I listened to them talk about the good old days. They talked about what’s wrong with the industry now. They talked about successes of the past. Really all of them talked about the good old days, except one named John, who was talking about the here and now.

The old way of doing special effects has really fundamentally changed. With the invention of the computer and the birth of the digital effects industry, no longer is there the same demand for model making, actual set building and miniature work.

Perhaps this concept is a bit generalized or oversimplified, but the point is – the times have changed.

You can talk about the good old days – what was and how it was a better time then – but the fact is, the revolution came and went and many were left behind. I’m not suggesting this to stomp on the old pioneering ways or to under-appreciate what people have done in the formative cutting edge past – I’m merely using it as a possible correlation to my personal and professional life to the here and now.

I must purposely advance or be left behind.

• As a young leader, are you looking at business/ministry models of the now or making models of the future?
• As a maturing pastor, is current methodology a signal you are ministering to a past generation?
• As a youth worker, are you focused on today or are you still riding the success of the good old days?
• As a web developer, are you resting on antiquated technology to communicate an urgent faith message?
• As an evangelist, am I pandering to the crowd I already have captured or am I pushing the message out to those who haven’t committed?
• As a visionary, am I too arrogant to use the mind of others or be a part of the team?

I’m not here to suggest that the old ways have all expired. These men are the reason movies like this exist. They created an industry, then the industry briskly advanced into the future.

The message remains the same, but the method must always change.

Either that, or we’ll end up being the 5 guys in a room talking about the good old days and there will be 1 guy still making movies.

JG

Rumor has it … tomorrow afternoon … the soon to be legendary Episode 50 of the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast will be recorded. It would go public mid-Thursday if all goes as planned …

JG