Coaches Training

Last night we had our Five Star coaches training here at the church. It was a mixture of Seth Maust casting vision, Justin Maust doing some leadership training and Judy Gregory (jr. high youth pastor at GCC) teaching on how to make the most of small group discussion. It was a great night. I love working with the team of coaches that I work with at Schmucker Middle School and seeing the impact that we are having on the kids in that school. One quick story:

Yesterday I went to Schmucker to do Five Star promotion at lunch. Schmucker has 1200 middle school students so I spoke to three different lunches with around 400 students each. As the last lunch group was heading back to class, one student from Five Star (he is like a mini Chris Farley) stopped to talk to me. He said, "What do you have to do to be a coach anyways?" I asked him why he wanted to know. He responded by saying, "Because when I get bigger that's what I want to do. I want to be a coach."

It provided a great teaching moment for me as I told him he needed to model a five star life. Show that he is responsible, has integrity, willing to serve, chasing his dream, and is excellant in all he does. He is beginning to get excited about what life has in store for him. That is what I love about Five Star. We are bringing to hope to kids who really never had any before.

Eldredge

On my way to and from the Red Wings game last Saturday I pulled out an old cd I had forgotten about. It is a two cd set of John Eldredge and the Rasomed Heart team talking about what it looks like to have conversation with God. There was a great deal of that cd that I connected with. Some things were simple like the fact that there is always give and take, back and forth when talking with God. He wants there to be dialogue. It's not just a one sided conversation. We need to wrestle with what it is He is communicating to us. Ask questions. 1 John 4:1 says to test the spirits to see wether they are from God. Look for confirmation.

So that is just a spill over of what I heard during my drive. Might seem a little scattered because it kind of is...but...it was good.

Destination Disease and Multiple Dimensions

Last night at MERGE (GCC's college age ministry) Mark Beeson (GCC's senior pastor) came and spoke for part of the night. What he had to say really hit home with many questions I've had recently. He said that since he only had about 10 minutes to talk he wanted to share two of the most important things that he thought 18-25 year olds need to know. And I think he was exactly right.

First, he said beware of Destination Disease. In other words, don't live for tomorrow, live for today. So many times we say, "When this happens...Then I will do this." When I get a new job, when I graduate, when I get married...then I will start disciplining myself to do this, then I will pay off that, then I will commit to whatever. He said if we continue to live for tommorrow it will wreck our lives. I have to admit that I have been guilty of living like this. And Mark is right, it makes life pretty miserable at times because we live for tomorrow but tomorrow never comes. All we have is today. I need to pound this into my head.

The second thing he said was we have to live multi-dimensional lives. We don't have a choice. For example, at GCC we focus on five things. Invest and Invite (mission), Have a friend, be a friend (connect), Reach your Bible (grow), Serve once a month (serve), Do the next right thing (worship). You can't just choose one or two of these and forget the rest. You have to do them all. Life is multi-demnsional. We have to take care of all that is intrusted to us. Our job, our family, our body...everything intrusted to us.

So with that I would say that I have some work to do. I need to get rid of destination disease and make every moment count today because today is awesome and I will never get it back. I also need to begin incorporating all dimensions into my life and not just the easy or convenient ones. That's my challenge for the next while.

Blog Stats

Thanks to some helpful programs I have been able to track how many times my blog has been viewed and from where in the world they have come from. Here are the numbers:

• 638 visits Since Dec. 28th. (Avg. of 255/month)
• 75 visits in the last week.
• Received hits from 3 different Continents - North America, Europe and Asia.
• 3 hits have come from Beijing!!!

So this is exciting to know that people from all over the world are reading my blog. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think about what you read. Thanks to all you readers.

EWOK it is!!!

Jon Shupe said in his last comment to me something about me being an Ewok from star wars. So I took the star wars personality test and believe it or not, I am...

Your results:
You are An Ewok

An Ewok 77% Qui-Gon Jinn 75% Yoda 71% R2-D2 71% Obi-Wan Kenobi 70% Chewbacca 65% Han Solo 62% Padme 61% Princess Leia 58% Luke Skywalker 58%

You're a hard worker, cute, and view all your close friends as your own personal tribe. Yub yub!

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character are you?" quiz...


Good Call Shupe!!! The Ewok's were actually my favorite characters from Star Wars. I guess it was meant to be.

From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

My first ever marshmallow and toothpick creation. The legendary Tie-Fighter. So if you're wondering what I am doing here at GCC, there you have it. Actually we used this at our Life Mission Leadership Retreat last weekend for a team building event.