What have I gotten myself into…

Being a leader of the Y™ means I’ve gotten the chance to run the show a few weeks, get some of the kids doing stuff, and planning some stuff down the road.  My wife and I started talking the other night, over dinner, which is something I have a hard time doing, but that’s a different post, and I expressed my frustration about some stuff, including the “How do I acomplish anything in an hour” and “how do I get more draw on Y™”

One of the things I’ve been put in charge of is getting a new website.  Our current one is done with iWeb and only one person has access to a Mac (the original builder) so I’ve been put in charge of getting something that any of us could get into and edit.  My sugestion was Drupal, as I’ve seen many good things based on it, and I could do a lot with it.  So I passed the idea by and it was approved and I was also given the challenge to change the dragness of the dull blueness.  If you’ve seen the site, you know what I mean.

Right now I’m about to fart around with getting a Drupal theme installed, once I have FTP capabilities on the test server I’ve been given access to.  Then, once I get that up I get to migrate the old site over to the new one, one page at a time.  It’ll suck.  Seriously.  I hate copy and pasting stuff, but there’s a LOT of information thats relivant that needs to move, so it’ll be worth it in the end.  The only issue I think we’ll have, in the beginning, is the lack of calender, but I think I have that under control.

One of the big projects I have in mind, that will work both online and ‘off’ is there is a huge convention/retreat coming up called ‘Alive’ and I want to give three kids going a disposable camera and then take the photos they took and do stuff with them.  Why disposable?  Cheap, dur.  In case its lost, damaged, dropped in the ocean, etc.  No harm, no foul but if someone came back without my digital camera, there would be hell.

I also want to get the kids to write for the site, do podcasts, those kind of ’site’ based things so it just doesn’t become one of those type of sites you go to when you need to find a phone number or when something is, but a site that has some give and take.  I’d love to say to the Youth as a whole and go “what do you want out of your website because it is YOUR website.”

My plan is to have the site up by January 1st, so the new year can bring a new site and we can start off with ideas galore.  I’d love to have a video up showcasing the Youth at that time, I’ll add that to my list of ideas.

two completely different thoughts

I may, or may not have, mentioned before of my dislike for ‘most’ Contemporary Christian music.  Don’t get me wrong, in the right place and time it’s wonderful, uplifting and leads you in praise and worship.  However, I’m not a fan of the average run of the mill praise/worship music.  I love Michael W. Smith, and I love his music, it brings me into this underdeveloped look at everything around me.  I even wrote (poorly, I might add) a musical based on his music.

What’s my point?  How many times has your Praise/Worship Group at your church done a MWS song?  How about a Reliant K song?  How about a Mercy Me song?  How about…  you see what I’m saying?  Don’t get me wrong, using others music to praise and worship is what we’re all bound to.  Who can get down in the mood with a song they’ve never heard of?  Guess what, after three weeks of singing a song they’ve never heard of, over and over, soon, they’ll get it.

On the radio, the other day, I heard about a band (whose name escapes me) who is back at their church writing praise/worship music for their next tour and album.  The thought then occurred to me that more churches don’t do the same thing.  I’m not talking about touring and publishing their own music (well, the second I am, but I’m getting ahead of myself), but I’m talking about writing their own music.

So, my challenge to you, and myself actually, is to start working with your P/W band to write some new music.  I say, at least one new song a month, that’ll give you at least twelve original tracks a year from now.  That’ll be enough to make a decent album, record it and raise some money.  It’s a great starter idea!

And now for something completely different.

Something should be said for the simple things, in life.  Last night, my wife’s parents invited us over for dinner.  I had to work late, so she dropped off my portion of the food, and it was good, but just not filling.  So, when I got home I was still a bit hungry but didn’t want anything huge.  I went into the kitchen and poured myself a bowl of frosted mini wheat and sat in the kitchen floor and ate a bowl.  There I was, a bowl of cereal, my cat, and the sound of me chewing.  It was a very zen, peaceful, moment, but what was better than that, was the cereal was good.

Sometimes you just need to stop, smell the roses, and eat a bowl of cereal.  Maybe tonight I’ll hit up the Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

you got cartoons in my evolution!

Back in February of 2000, Maxis (now owned by EA) release The Sims, and it became a huge success.  It was hot, and I mean H-O-T!  I spent days at a time playing, not bathing, not eating, not socializing, and that was me, my Sim, however had the perfect job, wife, and child and I smelt of spoilt milk.  You could do everything with your Sim, you were it’s home designer, it’s therapist, it’s family advisor, it’s marriage counselor, and it didn’t love or hate you for your choices you made for it.  A lot of flack came down on the game for making you “God” being an abomination.  Dude…  it’s a computer game…

Fast forward, a year, to Lionhead’s release of Black and White.  B/W gave you control over an animal creature who did your bidding.  Why your bidding?  Because you were a deity.  You were in control of a lot of things, however there were something you weren’t in control of (ie: weather, villagers, etc.) so calling yourself the God was never brought up or at least in the time I played.

Then Sims 2 came out in 2004 and it took Sims and jacked it on steroids.  You had more freedom to do as you pleased with your Sim, including growing ages (instead of the ever-lasting-post-toddler-alien-of-doom) and added a bit more community based stuff.  You still only had slight control over your Sim, just as much as you should.

Now, in only a few days, Will Wright (the genius behind the Sim franchise) will drop the next game in his attempt to rule the earth: Spore.  Now, Spore isn’t just one game, but five, but the beauty of it all is you don’t have to start at the beginning, you can start anywhere.  However, the beginning of the game you start as a one cell organism and evolve into a creature, which becomes a tribe, which becomes a nation, which becomes a galaxy jetting culture.  Here Wright takes the God approach and jacks it with evolution, just to piss people off.

Folks, there’s this thing called video games, it’s fake, and it’s all allotted (warning: improper use of word) by a age restriction system.

Yes, Halo and Call of Duty 4 are ‘M for Mature’ which means you have to be at least 17 to buy the game.  To me, that means all of those 12 year olds on Halo are spoilt brats whose parents need a reality check.  Yes, some kids are more mature than others, however, drop them into Halo on Live and they revert into 2 year olds who just lost their binky, trust me, I’ve been one of those people.

Now, there may or may not be a huge thing about Spore, from a Christian stand point, mainly because all real Christian video games blow, there shouldn’t be any word from us.  Give me one good example of a good Christian video game.  I’ll wait for your answer, but while I wait, I’ll move on.

Spore is a toy, nothing more than that, and anyone who says it’s a teacher of evolution needs to stop watching their children watch Pokemon, that too teaches evolution, as does Spongebob Square Pants, but those are only cartoons!?  Well, then Spore, too, is just as cartoony.

What about violent video games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty and Rock Band.  Well, I haven’t played Rock Band, so I guess I’ve missed the ‘biting heads of a bat’ DLC they put up (probably a joke at time of this article, but if they DO add that, I want some royalties!) but as for GTA and CoD, yes, they are violent, and yes, they have some messed up stuff in it, but if you’re letting your kids play a game called grad THEFT auto, then you’re in need a family therapist.  If you don’t want your children playing realistic video games (and my no means have I just called Sims, B/W, Spore or GTA ‘realistic’) then buy them a Wii and let them throw green turtle shells at one another.

I’m currently working on a charitable Halo 3 tournament (for ages 17 and over only) so I can see the benefits of video games where some people just see mindless violence.  Watch the news, there’s plenty of mindless violence there.

‘I Am Free’

There’s a photograph floating around on the internet of a bit of graffiti in the United Kingdom.  I’m not sure who took the original, and just about every site has a different location of the wall, but here is what it looks like:

It’s no Banksey and just in case you’re having trouble reading the text:

“go to work, send your kids to school
follow fashion, act normal
walk on the pavements, watch T.V.
save for your old age, obey the law
Repeat after me: I am free”

These verses strike a chord in different people, different ways.  To me it strikes the “Someone had too much time to deface private property.” and in all honesty, it isn’t an original thought, it’s a spraycan version of the open narrative of the movie Trainspoting.  So, with that said, it’s interesting to think that this anti-commercialism ‘tag’ would be borrowed from a movie.  Ironic, to say the least.

My thought is not about where the tag originated or even why the tager did it, my though is on the last line: “Repeat after me: I am free“.

Freedom, like this tag, means different things to different people.  To the prisoner, freedom may mean a hug from a loved on, sitting under a tree, or even a business suit.  To the business man, freedom may be a boat and fishing pole, a pencil and paper on a beach.  To a mother or father, freedom may be watching their children graduate and become parents of their own.  We each have our own perception of freedom, but I bet there’s one that never comes to mind: salvation.

Salvation is freedom from an eternal life of damnation.  I’m not saying salvation will keep you from being locked up (an in all reality it could be said the opposite is true as you can be locked away for being saved) and I’m not saying salvation will make your life easier.  God never promised us an easy life.  He compares us to metal to be refined in the fire.  God never said “Be saved, life will then become perfect” for perfection is unattainable while we are still human.  Jesus was the only perfect human, and guess what, Jesus questioned God’s plan.  It happened a few time, but most notably on the cross “Father, why have your forsaken me?” “God… why…?”  Jesus WAS salvation and he didn’t have it easy, why should we, mortals be any different?

Salvation = Freedom however Freedom /= (does not equal) Easy…  I print a bimonthly newsletter for the local Moose lodges, and on one of them says “Freedom does not come Free” Salvation isn’t free, you have to give up a lot!  I’m not going to lie to you!  You have to give up sinning, give up hate, give up lust, give up all those negative thing, but in return you are washed in the light of the Lord and you… repeat after me: I am free.

Youth Tech Ministry

I have recently volunteered at my church, St. Paul’s UMC, a church of First Saints Community Church, and will be having my first “meeting” Thursday with two other members of the Tech Ministry leadership team, and I’ve been tossing down ideas of what to do with the youth tech ministry (Y™ as I’m going to call it from here on out – it looks cool, ya know) and some things to get the kids excited about said ministry.

The internet was no real help, because when you combine “ministry” and “tech” said internet thinks you’re trying to find resources on praise team tech (sound), or drama tech (lighting), and that’s not what I’m trying to do, but when you add “computer” to the word, you get “Computer Ministries” with Facebook, MySpace, or computer labs built by churches.  Sometimes you search on the internet and you don’t find any answers, you find more questions.

I did find a link called “100 blog topics I hope YOU write” [link] and it gave me a lot of ideas and even some great reading material.  One day I hope this blog is on that list, as I plan on punching through some of the topics over the next upcoming months.

Back to my idea searching: there’s a lot of resources for a lot of other ministries, but when it comes down to simple non-art tech, there isn’t much, unless I’m looking in the wrong direction.  Elizabeth, the person who seems to have been “voluntentold” to be head of Y™, expressed some ideas Sunday about music videos, and ways to keep the youth ministry as a whole in better contact using text messages and emails, which got me searching, in another tab (YAY! Firefox!) for that stuff, and I found a lot of those, including one directed towards youth ministires in general.

Because the internet let me down, as it sometimes does, I had to come up with some ideas of my own.  I sat down and brainstorm until it hurt, and boy howdy did I get a headache!  I came up with some things, but I really hope they hold well at the meeting Thursday.  We’ll see how that all goes.

Here are some of my ideas, thrown out there for the internet to steal read use and because you won’t be there at the meeting (or will you?!! *dramatic chord*) I’ll give some explanation, and I say some because these are all rough ideas.

Myspace / Facebook – This is more or less a moot (I may be using that word wrong) point but sometimes the obvious ideas get lost in the fickle of looking for the next big thing.  Everyone (even most Pastors) have a MySpace or Facebook, and why not use these tools to keep everyone together.  Most of your youth ministries are going to be on one or the other or both and this allows total access to communicating with them, getting feedback, and even allows you a chance to read up on them.  You should, and I’m not saying snoop, tell them “Hey, I notice you posted a blog, mind if I read it.” or just read it, who knows, they may just not want you to know they have a crush on little suzi.

Online newsletter – better know as E-Zines (FYI: i HATE that term) you can turn a full fledge newsletter into a PDF and send it to everyone, or post it online and send the link out on MySpace or Facebook.

Community Blog – Blogging seems to have become that “next big thing” as most websites have tossed out the old way of doing sites in favor of this more user-friendly way of posting, and a lot of places (I can’t speak for WordPress but I know it’s an option at Blogger) allow multiply accounts to access posting to the blog, or even an email where anyone can email a blog post to a specified and it’ll either hold in a que to be approved or post automatically.  This could be huge if you want one spot for people to just blog about whatever.  We did a sermon series called “40 Days of Nothing” and on the site for our ”emergent” service we had a spot where people blogged about their difficulty and experiences with the 40 Days.  Side Note:  I think I’ll post the 40 Days series here one day, it was a great experience and I usually hate “series”

Podcast – Maybe I was wrong before, maybe THIS is that next big thing, as everyone and their dog has a podcast.  It’s simple, there are plenty of free software out there (I use WildVoice [link]) and all you need is a computer, a microphone or two and you’re all set.  Of course you need something to talk about so get your Y™ group to schedule podcasts monthly to begin with and help them plan out a ’show’ and let them go to town.  Listen to other podcasts that are out there and see what everyone else has a good time doing, maybe one day someone will be listening to your Y™’s podcast going “that’s an awesome idea!”

Flyers/Handouts for Band & Drama Ministrys – Instead of the particular ministry doing their own fliers and programs, letting Y™ do the work releases stress on them, allowing them to focus more on what they need to focus on (be it a play, a set, whatever).  Simple, no?

Music Video – Elizabeth mentioned that she had an idea to do a music video.  Get some music, find some video, and then clip them together.  That’s a neat idea, and I took that idea, put it in an envelope and ran with it.  Sometimes a unified Youth Ministry project is an awesome youth ministry project, so I said to myself “Self, how do we involve the rest of the youth?”  Well, at St. Paul’s we have the basic youth worship band, youth drama, the youth tech and just a group who play tag football each week.  Instead of doing the work for the ministries, we’re going to work with them, please follow me.  What you do is go to the band and go “Band, write a song, perfect it, we’re going to record it for a music video.  We’ll be back in a month to do so, but in two weeks we want to hear the song to pass it along to the drama ministry.”  Two weeks later, we make a rough recording of the song, pass it along to the drama ministry and go “Drama ministry, here is a song, we want a music video based on said song.  We will be back in a month to film this music video but in two weeks we will be back so you can give us a run down on how it’ll play out (ie: story board).  See you in two weeks.”  Now, the tech team doesn’t get off that easy.  During the whole time the other two ministries are working on their part, the tech ministry is learning the software, the limitations of the camera, how the program works, what lighting shows up best on a screen.  After the song is recorded, filming can begin on the video.  Once the filming is complete, you edit it together and presto, music video containing all bits and pieces of the youth ministry, except those kickball players because hey, sometimes you just wanna play kickball.  Wait, I’m not done yet!  Have a viewing party.  Invite family, friends, the rest of the church, for a world exclusive showing of the video.  Have a question/answer time after the video to let people get some feedback or skip that part and show Spinal Tap or a Vegetales flick.

Band Album – Here we combine the band and Y™ again.  This time we record the bands best 5 songs, burn it to CD, give it a label, CD case and insert and sell them.  Let the band pick their best 5 songs and record them.  Then, allow the tech team to come up with different samples to pick from or combine details from the different concepts and make a final concept for mass production.  You can go all out and find a local print shop (I’m blessed enough to work at one, so sometimes that’s easier said than done) or even just peg out some on the church office printer, no one will know.  See what kind of designs and insert concepts the kids come up with and if you need help for ideas, there’s always the internet.