Sunday and my Fantasy team hates me

So I think everyone on my fantasy team systematically plotted to have their worst game EVER this week just to spite me. And yes, my view of the world is so small as to think that millionaire football players care about the fortunes of my fantasy team.

In more pleasant Sunday news, we had another great night with our high school ministry. We started off by playing a couple of different dodgeball games, which proved to be quite entertaining to watch (that's putting it lightly). We just happen to have some gentlemen who think there is nothing better in the world then nailing someone with a small vinyl ball. After taking out our collective anger it was time to continue our BLAST series by talking about the purpose of adoring God (worship). We had six stations set-up throughout the building to give us a hands out chance to worship and just to get a perspective on what worship is really about.
Stations:
Music: We had a bunch of IPods and CD players loaded with a variety of worship music. Students were then asked to think about what makes music worship music.
the Word: We had a lounge area set-up with couches and comfy chairs, as well as a bunch of Bibles, just to give students a chance to dig into the word.
Who God is: Each student got a notecard and wrote down a bunch of words or ideas that they thought summed up God. Then they looked up a number of verses that talked about God. Finally, they flipped their card over and wrote one word that best describes who God is to them.
Nail of Sin: We asked students to write sins they have committed in red on a piece of paper and then literally nail it to the cross as our way of confessing our sins to God, who gracefully forgives them.
Thanksgiving: Students read Psalm 150 and reflected on what it means to really praise and thank God. They then took the time to give God thanks for many things in their life.
For Others: Everyone was asked to pray for someone else who really needs God's help right now. They then lit a candle for that person.
Light of the World: After the message everyone lit a candle as a reminder that part of what worship is all about is going into the world and shining for God.

I hope doing things in this different way really helped everyone gain a firm understanding of what it really means to worship God.

Wednesday

Alright, so the end of September is not nearly as fun when the Cubs are stinking it up, but it's still been a pretty good start to the school year around here. Congrats to all of our students who are having some standout sports seasons, have some great roles in school productions, and are staying above water with all the early year homework. Also, I never congratulated everyone who did such a great job at the fair. It's just great having so many talented students around here.

Wednesday was a big and LONG day here, starting with meeting students at 6:30am to go to See You at the Pole at OHS. This is a annual gathering of Christian students at their school's flag pole before class starts to pray for their friends, teachers, school leaders, their community, state, nation, and world (over 3 million high schoolers participate nationwide). Thanks to all the students who were willing to take a leadership role this year, as well as all of you who got up extra early to be there. The fact that we never told the parents about this, just the students, and had so many students come, is a real testament to their passion and faith. I just enjoyed seeing so many young Christians willing to show up early, stand for their faith, and pray together. Real cool.

Wednesday night we worshiped with our Middle School Ministry as we discussed the purpose of worship. Thanks to those willing to be on the 1st ever MS Worship team, and you did a great job. We said four big things about worship.
1st, worship is NOT ABOUT YOU! We illustrated this out of the gate with blow pop necklaces. If you talked about yourself at any point you had to give your necklace up. It's REALLY hard not to lose that necklace, because we live in a world that is so about us. But worship by definition cannot be focused on us, it's all about god. 2nd, we said that worship is singing a LOVE SONG to God (when students entered we played the hit song Love Song). Worship is about praising and thanking God for all the great things God does, especially dying on the cross to save us.
3rd, worship is about seeking help. We played our own version of 1 vs. 100, which our 1 would have lost very quickly if not for the three helps we offered her. Life is the same way. We can not have the best life possible, or gain eternal life, without seeking God's help. Worship is about telling God we are sinful (do bad things) and asking God to forgive us and help us be better.
Finally, worship is about being charged up to be God's light in the world. We need to let what happens in worship charge our batteries so we can go into the world and make it a better place in God's name. Everyone got some glowsticks to help illustrate this.

Wednesday Night Set-list
Love Song: Sara Bareilles
We Shine: Central Church Vegas
Take it All: Hillsong United
Cartoon Song: Christ Rice
With Everything: Hillsong United

Some great nights and Ryan's great video

We have had a couple of great nights in our ministry recently. On Sunday our high school ministry went all over the church, armed with their cell phones, in order to find a whole bunch of different items. While it was a competition, one by the superpowers of youth groups games (Ben and Mel), it also helped illustrate all the things the church does. That led us perfectly into introducing our BLAST series, in which we are talking about the five key purposes of our ministry. We started this week by talking about the B, helping others to Believe. We talked about five ways to REACH others for Christ.
Reveal you are a Christian
Extend an invitation to something our ministry does
Ask to tell your story of why you are a Christian what God has done for you
Communicate to God (prayer) and them. Remember, your job is to communicate the good news, and God's is to do the converting.
Help them anwser questions they may have about God.
Wednesday night our Middle School group played a couple of wild and crazy games involving chairs, which no one died from (thankfully!). We then got to hear from Ryan for the first time. Ryan talked about the second part of BLAST, loving, or fellowship. He told us that God wants us to love all other people as ourselves, and presented the Good Samaritan story, using a very cool video from youtube. You can check it out on youtube.

I am very excited to be having Ryan Arentsen working with our ministry this school year. Ryan grew up in this area and is finishing up a degree in religion at Lakeland College. While we are working out all the details of what Ryan will be doing, he for sure will be at both our Middle School and High School programs, and will be sharing message duties with me throughout the year. Ryan brings a great deal of knowledge, enthusiasm, a strong faith, and an amazing ability to connect with teens to our ministry. To welcome Ryan I wanted to post some great pictures I just so happen to have of him in a little montage. If you see Ryan around make sure to welcome him and give him a little encouragement.

Wow!

Wow! That's the only word I can use to describe our kickoff night last night. Let me just give you some facts:
*We had to scramble to fit everyone into the meal AND then use the Crusader room as overflow
*With all the students, classes, and meal attendees we are OUT of tables in the church
*Even Though we ordered at least two extra copies of material per Bible class we still are ordering more materials because of the number of new students who came
*Even though we put stadium seating in the youth room to buy us space we were still standing room only.
*We ran out of our gift bags for new youth group students (and we thought we made enough for the first few months!), and all the new students said they can't wait to come back next week!

How awesome is God! I don't even have words anymore to describe God's awesomeness.

We had a great opening night of Middle School youth group. We started with the opportunity to win some candy bars, then got to BLAST thousands of cheese puffs at each other in a game called Cheese Puff BLAST (for those concerned we did have tarps down). We then got to welcome our new BLAST intern Ryan by blasting dozens of candy bars at him (I had a nice bag for them, but the students preferred this method). For the first part of this year Ryan and I are doing a series of messages of the five parts of BLAST. I kicked us off this week by talking about helping others to Believe. Did you know that the very last thing Jesus said before ascending to heaven was that we need to be his witnesses? You can check it out in Acts 1:8. God wants to use us to tell others about the eternal life Christ gives us. We were able to watch a great clip from End of the Spear that encourages us to worry more about helping others live eternally in heaven then what may happen to us if we tell us (ex. being made fun of). Our students then had some great discussion as they got into their small groups for the first time. It was a great night and I just can't wait for week #2!

Now only 10 hours before I get to eat my weight in ribs! I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Almost there...

Wow, it's almost time for all of our ministry things to hit into high gear. On Wednesday night our MS ministry kicks of the fall. We have some exciting games planned and will be kicking of our BLAST series. We may also be calling a few people up to help us out, so if you have bravery within you I can't wait to get you nice and messy! I will also be venturing back to the schools myself this week, so hopefully I'll see many of you on Tuesday and/or Thursday. Sunday our HS ministry opens the fall with a fun scavenger hunt type thing using cell phone technology, which should be way fun. We will also be launching our own BLAST series. It has been a lot of fun getting everything lined up for Fall, and I can't wait to get started! See you soon.

food...

So, for the first time in history, I'm sitting at church finding that I'm actually prepared for the meeting I'm about to have. Also currently having been greatly inspired by the facebook image of my good friend Ben (a giant pile of ribs) it is time for me to talk about my second favorite topic in the world (God does come in first): food. So, it is time for Andy to discuss his favorite Wisconsin food offerings in whatever order my tummy commands me to place them in. Maybe I'll be a tad more serious next week.

Greg's (Adel): It's greasy, nasty, the help is fairly rude, hasn't been cleaned in, oh who are we kidding, ever, and one meal there shaves a good five years off your heart's lifespan. Those my friends are the true marks of culinary genius. I seriously went there one time after having my cholesterol checked and them telling me it was actually low, figuring it would give me a nice boost to normalcy (and yes, it worked).


Jerry's Old Town (Germantown): The inspiration for this entry, you can pretty much bet you'll find myself and our high school leaders there on Thursday's for all you can eat ribs (and that will include next Thursday!). They know us by name and reputation: new rules have been created for us (sadly, I'm being serious: it's now all you can eat within a certain time limit. In the eloquent words of the great poetic sages Jar Jar Binks and the Olson Twins: How rude!). There are no better ribs on the planet, and when it's all you can eat for $17 how can you go wrong (well, you could throw them up, but that's another story).

The American Club Seafood buffet (Kohler): Ok, I have afforded this exactly once (and now instead of going there Ben just makes me put on a seafood buffet for him in which I do all the cooking and he does most of the eating), but it was perhaps the third best meal of my life (NYCs Mesa Grill and Josie's are simply perfect). May have been the best if not for the scary and cold pea soup. Just mounds of exotic seafood. Yumyum.

Sabor (Milwaukee): I have afforded this never. Only got to go as a gift. They have every man's dream: bacon wrapped fillet served off a sword wielded by a Brazilian gaucho (note the picture). It was great, but it's mega mega pricey (but if someone whats to gift it to me again, I'm there).

Legend Larry's (Sheboygan and Lakewood): These are hot wings as they should be. Just crazy amazing, and I can get them here or up north. Only thing better then a mound of Terriakyi and hot garlic wings is watching ZB eat 6 DOA's (the hotest ever) or AD going crazy watching me make a mess of myself eating them (she thought I should use a fork, silly girl!).