Home Archive by category "Life" (Page 6)

Category: Life

What Words Define You?

Facebook asked me yesterday if I’d like to know what words I use the most when I post to my wall. It seemed like a fun activity. After clicking my approval, some software somewhere read my wall, compiled words, and sorted them by frequency. The result was the word cloud you see here. I was happy to see “kids” front and center and my son’s name as well. It was no surprise to see “church” or “Yosemite” – though my wife teased me that my friend Brett bumped her off the list, which does cast a little doubt on the accuracy, but at least Brent affirmed that I made his list too! Of course, Facebook only provides a glimpse into our lives, and the parts of our lives that we choose to share – but it’s worth some reflection to ask ourselves, What am I about? What drives me? What do I talk about? What do I think about? Life is made up of words and words reflect the heart. (Luke 6:45 and Matthew 15:18 discuss this.) Whether or not you allow Facebook to count your words, consider if God counted our words and made a list of what typically…

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What Re-Creates You?

The 9th annual Summit is now only one month away. It will probably seem like the longest month of the year as I anticipate my annual pilgrimage with God in Yosemite National Park with six other pastors for a time of re-creation, renewal, recharging, refocusing and restarting for the next season of life and ministry. I am often asked, “What’s so special about Yosemite? Why do you go there every year?” While I have answered that countless times and in many ways on the YosemiteSummit.org blog, let me share with you my first entry in the journal I have now taken to Yosemite on every trip. WHY YOSEMITE? This place is beyond description, though of course, I will try. As I often say, it is the closest God ever got to sin… because he sorta showed off His creative abilities! Our language lacks adequate words to do Yosemite justice. Incredible. Amazing. Spectacular. Breath-taking. Beautiful. Magnificent. I suppose the best I can use is awe-inspiring. Awe at the sheer size and height and depth and distance and beauty and splendor that hits your eyes all at once. And no matter how many pictures you take (and I take a lot) you…

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20 Years of Thankfulness!

As we approach the end of the year, I can’t help thinking how grateful I am for the people that I get serve on Kidology.org, each and everyone of them impacting eternity by ministering to children! Its been wonderful to be able to serve others in this way, now for over 20 years! For those of you who may be new to Kidology, let me share a bit of our history. Back in 1994 when very few people knew what the “Internet” was, I got an idea for a website: The KidologyWeb: I was already calling myself “The Kidologist” in my workshops as I sought to equip and encourage children’s workers to approach children’s ministry from the perspective of a child: By 1996 the first “Kidology Handbook” was published: VERY FEW people remember when Kidology.org (before I had that domain!) looked like this: OR when you clicked into it and saw crude pages like this: Only hundreds were lucky enough to BE on the Internet surfin’ kidmin back then! (And only a few bought the “Life Time Memberships” I offered back then when I needed to raise some money to buy some much needed Microsoft FrontPage software, and yes, they…

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Forms, Meetings and Hanging Pictures! Week 1 at The Rock

If you haven’t heard, I am the new children’s pastor at the Rock of Southwest in Littleton, Colorado. The kids ministry is called Kids Rock! (Pretty awesome, as kids DO rock!) This Sunday I’ll be introduced as we say farewell to the current children’s pastor who is moving out of state. Kim is well loved and has been a wonderful leader of the children’s ministry – so nice to pick up where a great leader left off, while at the same time being excited about what’s next! So how did my first week go? Since I had a week before I’m officially introduced on Sunday, I was able to focus mostly on meeting the staff and setting up my office. (And filling out lots of forms.) It’s kinda fun starting out with an empty office and figuring out how to arrange the furniture and what to bring from home to make it HQ for the Kids Ministry. I didn’t want my back to the door – with two youth pastors here, as well as a youth intern… your back to the door isn’t wise! But seriously, it’s so that I can communicate that I’m available and eager to engage with…

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A Father’s Forgiveness

My son is nine. He has always amazed us with his incredible memory. He will randomly bring us experiences and family events that happened long ago that we didn’t think he was old enough to remember. Often, we had forgotten, but his memory brings back ours. I marvel at the things that stick in his little head and it reminds me to be intentional about how I conduct myself as a Christian, a husband, and a dad in his presence. But there is one type of question he brings up every now and then that bugs me as a dad. Luke is a pretty good kid, and rarely does anything intentionally wrong – usually when he is in trouble, it’s something he’s learning about life rather than outright willful misbehavior. His heart is usually in the right place and when emotions get him carried away, he is quick to apologize when he calms down. As a result, we have rarely needed to discipline him other than verbal correction or mild things like a “time out” or missing out on something or going to bed early. However, the few times we needed something more compelling – he remembers those, and often…

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