More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts Angels 4, Rangers 1

Got to enjoy the season opener of the Anaheim Angels tonight – killer seats about 12 rows from the field basically right behind the batter. Here’s a few shots of the night, including a) Sosa warming up for the Rangers, b) everyone’s batting average at .000 and c) the Fields family being crazy. It was an amazing night – baseball season has officially begun! So fun …

JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Angels Home Opener

Got some fantastic tickets to tonight’s season opener – the Angels vs the Rangers. Booya!

JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Voice Over for DriveTime

Just finished up recording a voice over for Saddleback’s DriveTime audio devotional podcast on iTunes. Super fun diversion from real work.

JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Who Are These Guys? Podcast

Tony and I have decided to launch a blogcast!

I think we’re both realists that maybe 4-5 people will subscribe to the show (including our parents) so we’ve got some solidly low expectations set. In the inagural episode we talk about Blades of Glory, American Idol’s Chris Sligh and Sanjaya, The Xbox 360 Elite, Guys with no thumbs and other mindless pop culture drivel we already blogged about.

The podcast will hit iTunes today – for now you can check out in iTunes right here.
JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts The God Debate

I remember Rick talking about this a week or two ago … and here it is in Newsweek. A debate between the leading atheist and our pastor about God being real. Awesome. Thanks for Kurt for the heads up the article was online:

Rick Warren is as big as a bear, with a booming voice and easygoing charm. Sam Harris is compact, reserved and, despite the polemical tone of his books, friendly and mild. Warren, one of the best-known pastors in the world, started Saddleback in 1980; now 25,000 people attend the church each Sunday. Harris is softer-spoken; paragraphs pour out of him, complex and fact-filled–as befits a Ph.D. student in neuroscience. At NEWSWEEK’s invitation, they met in Warren’s office recently and chatted, mostly amiably, for four hours. Jon Meacham moderated. Excerpts follow.

JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts SYM Now Accepts PayPal

Just finished an upgrade to the Simply Youth Ministry store today – we now accept PayPal as a valid form of payment. If you’ve got some eBay cash laying around, you can now use it to grab some stuff!

JG

Add Comment April 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Stuff from My Friends Blogs: Volume 18

Here’s the latest and best posts from some of my friends in the blogosphere. Had to do it quickly, so forgive me if yours was overlooked this week:

JG

retreats

Add Comment April 1, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Pastors Going 24/7

Lark News has a great parody article today on pastors going 24/7 – blogging, running live webcams and more. So funny, here’s a clip:

Recently, several hundred members of Holy Trinity Church watched pastor Jeremy Woods eat breakfast, work on his sermon and make a Starbucks run. Woods had just joined a growing group of pastors who are broadcasting their lives 24/7 on the Internet.

“When I first heard of going live I thought, ‘This is the future of pastoring but I’m not sure I like it,’” Woods says. But after a month he says he “totally digs it.”

“It’s the next step beyond blogging or even live blogging,” he says. “It’s about sharing life.” The trend is believed to have started in 2004 when Rick Givens of New York’s West Side Church decided to make himself “more accountable and accessible” by webcasting every waking moment live. But his pioneering effort has forced other pastors into awkward decisions. Donald Taylor, 37, of Nebraska didn’t want to go live, but relented because of pressure from his board. He hated his first week.

“It was like being in prison. You never have a moment to yourself,” he says.

JG

Add Comment April 1, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Easter at Saddleback

Saddleback just launched EasteratSaddleback.com – a mini-site dedicated to letting the community know when the doors will be open. Pretty basic stuff, not sure I’m in love with the design, but it works. 12 service times? Whew, gonna be a big week!

JG

Add Comment April 1, 2007

Josh GriffinMore Posts Epic Launched at Saddleback

A new ministry to post-college age students was launched at Saddleback the past few weeks, the EPIC website just went live this week and they are playing a promo video in the service as well. They’ve got a podcast you can listen to if you want as well. Great!

JG