NYMC – Twitter

I wasn’t able to attend the Group’s National Youth Ministry Conference. However, I was able to participate from California in a small way. At the bottom of the picture above, you’ll see the top of my head and the beginning of a message I sent in. It was shown live on the big screen in the general session.

The whole message said, “Hi from the one guy in California not currently in Ohio. Have a great conference! #NYMC” Most of the ministry people I know are at the conference.

It’s pretty cool that they’re trying some new technologies. I was SO INCREDIBLY tempted to send a prank message such as, “Penny, will you marry me?” so the ladies in the crowd would all go, “Ahhhhh.” However funny that would be, it might make anybody named Penny in the crowd feel a little uncomfortable. I was also tempted to write, “Check out VolunteerYouthMinistry.com”. However, I thought that might be taking too much advantage of a tempting situation.

Simply Youth Ministry Podcast, Ustream.TV: Just enough Youth Ministry so you don’t feel guilty for listening. Religion,Christian

Right now (Saturday, Feb 28, 7:00 PM PST) Simply Youth Ministry is having their live podcast from the Group youth workers’ conference in Ohio.

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Simply Youth Ministry Podcast

via Simply Youth Ministry Podcast, Ustream.TV: Just enough Youth Ministry so you don’t feel guilty for listening. Religion,Christian.

Lesson Helpers: God’s Protection

Tonight in small group we’re talking about how David was secure in God’s plan for his life. Even when King Saul and David’s own brothers weren’t nice to him, he patiently waited for the day he would become king. He knew it was going to happen, yet he humbly submitted himself to those he would one day rule until that day came.

One way I’m going to illustrate David’s confidence is using a clip from Bill Murray’s movie Groundhog Day. Knowing every day would continually repeat itself gave him confidence to live life recklessly at first, but then to use his gift wisely. I will use this clip to move into the section of the lesson where we’ll examine our own lives. We’ll answer the question, “How can we stand on God’s promises more confidently and accomplish more of what he wants to do through us?”

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Lesson Helpers: Scripture Reading

For small group tonight, we have a large amount of scripture to read. I got to thinking it would be fun to have a computer program to read it out loud to us. This would keep the students’ attention because it’s cool. We probably won’t do it again, though. It’s just a one-time novelty.

I’m going to go to Bible.Crosswalk.com and look up the verses in The Message paraphrase then highlight the verses and click TextAloud Speak in my Firefox browser window. I’ve tested this. The sound is too soft so I’ll have to use some external speakers that I can crank up.

The reason I mention Firefox specifically is that when you install the TextAloud software, it automatically puts a button in your browser window to control the software (it’s easy to remove the buttons when you don’t need them).

Here’s where I got some free trial software to make this happen:

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The World’s Most Popular Text to Speech Tool

TextAloud reads text from email, web pages, reports and more, aloud on your PC. TextAloud can also save your daily reading to MP3 or Windows Media files ready for playback on your iPod, PocketPC, or even on your TV with Tivo’s Home Media Option. Be more productive or just be entertained wherever you go with our text reader. Our TextAloud 2.0 release is here and packed with new features

Ministry Lessons: Counseling Students on Conflict With Parents

3 words of wisdom I ALWAYS give students when counseling them about conflicts with parents are:

1. Your first priority is to respect your parents
2. Even when you are sure your parents are wrong, they’re still right
3. Being humble with your parents gives you time to learn how to work through issues with them

Here’s a chat I had on Facebook tonight with a student where I gave these nuggets of wisdom:

Conflict Advice

Life Lessons: I Went To The Oscars Last Night… sort of

You can buy an Oscar in almost any store in Hollywood Oscar and the red carpet. This is where the stars got out of their cars. Oscars Banner These people were cool and funny. I think the guy in the hat may have been homeless. Stars getting dropped off in their limos

I was near Hollywood last night so I dropped in on the Oscars. I watched through a chainlink fence on the corner of Hollywood and Vine (I think) as the limousines dropped off the stars to the show. Even though I was just across the street from the action, it was difficult to see who was getting out of each car. It was cool, however, just to be where the action was. There are all kinds of life lessons I could blog about from this experience; such as how all of us in the back of the crowd were craning our necks over those in front of us to see the actors while ignoring the homeless man laying up against the wall behind them. There is a whole sermon series in that one. I could also write about people were ripping holes in a tapestry hung on the other side of the fence because it was blocking the best view. What a great illustration of how determined we should be to connect with our Savior. There are MANY ways I will use this in ministry over the next few weeks. For now, however, I thought I’d just put it on my blog and share a few pics of what I saw. It was a super fun, random, and unexpected part of my day yesterday.

Ministry Lessons: Encouragement

I just saw a note from a friend of mine who is a youth pastor at another church. He wrote, “Just read a great email from one of my volunteers……so stoked they’re on our team.”

This was a great reminder that we need to regularly encourage our leaders. It benefits everybody when we do this:
– They get encouraged
– It bonds us closer to them
– We are encouraged by their response
– Having a closer bond with them opens them up to suggestions we offer or confrontations we may have with them later
– 1 Thessalonians 5:11 – It is commanded in Scripture

FOXNews.com – Children Build Tolerance to Peanuts in Food Allergy Study

This isn’t youth ministry related, but it has impacted students in our ministry. I thought it would be good to pass on the good news.

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Friday, February 20, 2009

LONDON — Children with severe peanut allergies given small daily doses of peanut flour were able to build tolerance to the nuts, according to a study that suggests it is possible to treat the potentially deadly condition.

The small trial, the first successful program of its kind, aimed to slowly build immunity to peanuts in people with the common allergy, the team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge said on Friday.

“For all our participants, a reaction could lead to life-threatening anaphylactic shock, but now we’ve got them to the point where they can safely eat at least 10 whole peanuts,” said Andy Clark, who led the research published in the journal Allergy.

“It’s not a permanent cure, but as long as they go on taking a daily dose they should maintain their tolerance.”

To read more, click this link FOXNews.com – Children Build Tolerance to Peanuts in Food Allergy Study – Health News | Current Health News | Medical News.

Ministry Lessons: Easy Way To Learn About Students

On our retreat last weekend, I tested this out a few times with mixed results. I think it’s worth developing, though. I asked a few students, “If they made a magazine about your with your name on the cover, what would the headlines say?” The follow up question was, “Your picture would obviously be on the cover. What would you be doing in the picture?”

The surprise result was not only what I learned through their words, but by their non-verbals. By the way they responded, I could tell if they were humble, cocky, introverted, extroverted, had a good or bad self-esteem, etc. I learned a lot more than I expected. I’ll keep using this from time-to-time. Over-using it would kill it. However, using it occasionally can yield great results.

Fixing an iPhone Safari Crash

I posted this on my other blog. If you have an iPhone, this may come in handy. Worth a quick read.

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Fixing an iPhone Safari Crash

Last night my iPhone’s Safari application crashed. All I had was a grey screen of death each time I opened it. It was an easy fix. I thought I’d share it for anybody else who may be ready to break their iPhone in half over this issue.

via Out Of My Mind And Into My Blog: Fixing an iPhone Safari Crash.