Hiatus

Knowing full-well that I am not the most frequent updater of my blog (which I really do enjoy writing), I’m letting you know that I will be taking a break ON PURPOSE for the next month or so. I’m hoping to just breathe some fresh air into my life and frankly, on the list of ways to spend my time, blogging isn’t the highest priority. So, I’ll be back with more lists, observations, and whatever else I write about on here. But for now, enjoy the blogs to the right of this and have a GREAT October!

Great 8

DO’S AND DONT’S OF GOING TO CONCERTS

In honor of me going to see one of my favorite bands, MuteMath, in concert, I thought I would put together a list to help you, John/Jane Q. Concert-Goer have the best possible experience at a concert. So here they are in random order (the numbers mean nothing). Read, learn, enjoy.

1. DO listen to the band’s new album before you go. More than likely the tour that they’re on is to promote the new album. Buy it and listen to it so you don’t stand there waiting for that ONE song you know off their last album.

2. DON’T wear any paraphernalia at the concert of the band that you’re going to see; it’s never okay. It’s especially not okay to buy a shirt there and then just throw it over the shirt you’re already wearing (especially if the shirt underneath is bigger than the shirt you just bought.) Just don’t. Trust me.

3. DO go with friends. Concerts are much more enjoyable when you can say, “Remember when…” and, “I can’t believe he…”. At least find someone to go with you for that shared experience so you can at least relive your experience through conversation and not your eleven 30-second cell-phone videos you took and uploaded to Facebook.

4. DON’T do anything on this list.

5. DO get there early. This mainly applies to GA (General Admission) shows because when you get in line determines how enjoyable your experience is. Regardless of whether or not you’re a front-row kind of person, being at the front of the line gives you first pick of any of the places. If you’re going to pay that much for a ticket, at least get a good spot to enjoy it.

6. DON’T be in a hurry to leave. There might be someone in your group who wants to stick around, check out the merch table, or possibly even grab a picture w/the band (if they’re coming out). You standing around tapping your foot and looking at your watch does not help me decide which shirt I want. Plus, the parking lot is most assuredly going to be terrible to try and get out of, so take a chill pill.

7. DO find the biggest fan of the band you saw who wasn’t able to go, and tell them how amazing it was. And then bring it up about once a month until the next chance to see them. Also, at any concert that you go to with that person, say something like, “I mean, this was good. But it wasn’t as good as (fill in the blank).”

8. DON’T spend too much money at the show. More than likely, every piece of merch that is for sale at the show is available somewhere else for less money. If it’s something that you MUST have, go home and check out their website or even eBay. The merch table is there to sucker you in because you just had a sweet experience and now you have to capture that feeling in a shirt, sticker, or program. Walk away, save your money, take a picture with your phone, and then go find it cheaper somewhere else.

Those are just a few “Do’s and Dont’s.” Do you have any to add?

Things Youth Leaders Need to be Okay With

If you’re thinking about working in Student Ministries, there are a couple of things that you need to be okay with. If you’re already hanging with students, this list might look a little familiar. And as a youth leader, if you’re not okay with these things (and others), you might want to try an internship at Dunder Mifflin or Initech (Bonus points for tv/movie references) . Let’s check out this less than comprehensive list.

- Awkard conversations with students where you say everything and they say nothing

- Having  a year of awkward conversations and then having that student open up because you didn’t give up on them

- Waiting forever for students to get picked up after an event

- Getting to chat with students about how their life is going while they wait to get picked up after an event

- Watching students make bad choices

- Watching students make wise choices

- Barely anybody showing up for an event that took months to plan

- Having TONS of students show up for an event where you’re not sure if you’ll get more than 5

- Eating pizza at every event and eating all the leftover pizza from that event that took months to plan that hardly anybody showed up for

- Never leaving your work at work

- Seeing students not using their God-given gifts

- Seeing students using their God-given gifts

- Seeing students and families light up with gratitude when you show up to their event/game/program

- Watching adult leaders develop hearts for students

- Meeting students’ friends that they’ve been praying for and finally had enough courage to invite/bring them to church

- Going to THE fair (this is a Wayne County one)

- Having a front row seat for what God is doing in the hearts of students

Just like anything, youth leaders have their ups and downs. But the ups FAR outweigh the inevitable downs. And the last one I listed makes it all worth it. Any youth leaders have any to add? Feel free to drop them in the comments. One rule: if you post a “down”, you have to also post an “up.”

What’d You Just Call Me?

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the “Sticks and stones…” rebuttal to the name-calling that was so pervasive on the playground while we were growing up. The funny thing is, the more I said that little poem-ette, the less I believed it. And as a 4th grader, I had trouble refuting what they were saying because I hadn’t really found my identity in anything more than how well I could play Tecmo Super Bowl on Nintendo (let alone in Jesus).

I think I began to believe it less and less because if they were calling me that over and over again, maybe it was true. Maybe I was a (fill in the blank). Their name(s) for me started to affect how I saw myself and what I thought of myself.

It happens in ministry too. So many times we call people certain names or give them titles that really, aren’t that encouraging. They’re innocent enough and to a certain extent might describe that person exactly. But these names lack vision, direction, and might convey something totally opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish as a ministry.

Here are two ways that we at Wooster Grace Student Ministries have changed how we refer to people in our ministry.

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What we used to say: Volunteer

What it implies/conveys: It implies a lack of ownership, vision and even a separation between the leadership team and the people brought on to see that vision come to life. There’s a sense of “come and go as you please” with little to no accountability. There’s not a lot of connection or commitment because the “volunteer” says that if he/she doesn’t do it, then someone else probably will.

What we say now: Adult Leader

What it implies/conveys: This conveys an idea of partnership between the leadership team (paid and unpaid) and gives a vision for what is expected. We are looking for people to do more than just “show up”, we are looking for leaders, adult leaders. Regardless of position or rotation or level of involvement, an Adult Leader acknowledges the opportunities to speak into the lives of students and make a lasting impact for Jesus.

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What we used to say: Kid

What it implies/conveys: When you’re referring to a 3rd grader, okay, it applies. When you’re referring to an 11th grader, not so much. Once “kids” get into 7th and 8th grade, they are looking to be challenged and treated more and more like adults. And once they get into those grades, the word “kid” becomes more like an insult than an accurate descriptor and carries an ever-increasingly negative connotation as the “kids” get older.

What we say now: Student

What it implies/conveys: It tells them exactly what we should be telling them as they get into 7th and 8th grade, that they’re not a kid anymore. They need to see that we acknowledge that they are growing up and with that they are asking questions about themselves, about faith, and the things they’ve been told all their lives. By using the word “student”, it separates them from jr. church and their little siblings and gives them a chance to grow as “students” of the Word.

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Now, I’m not going to say using words like “volunteer” and “kid” is an altogether bad thing. But we have chosen to go a different route with our verbiage; one that we think conveys a little more identity and vision and hopefully pushes each of those groups to a better understanding of their Savior.

Once Terrible, Now Experts

In the broadcasting world, it appears that there are really only two kinds of sportscasters. You have the journalism major who worked his way up through college, internships, getting people coffee, and editing “Fran’s Food Tip of the Day” to finally doing what he wanted to do, which is get paid to talk about sports. In this category, you have guys like Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Peter Gammons, and to a lesser extent, Scott Van Pelt and Mike Greenberg.

The other kind of sportscaster is the former coach/player who has moved on from their respective sports, picked up a microphone and a stylist, and decided to try his hand at talking about the game he put so many years into studying, teaching, or playing. They had great success at what they did, and now they’re moving on to the next thing. Good examples of this would be Troy Aikman (3 Super Bowls as Cowboys Quarterback), John Madden (1 Super Bowl as coach of the Raiders), and **Terry Bradshaw (4 Super Bowls as Steelers Quarterback).

**I’m not going to debate whether or not Terry is crazy, but I AM saying that he had tremendous success as a player and regardless of what comes out of his mouth, I gotta believe that somewhere in there is a guy that knows what he’s talking about.

But there are those that did NOT have that much success before jumping into the broadcast booth. There were a FEW who were not just mediocre, they were downright terrible. And regardless of their pitiful performance while they were participating in that sport, they have managed to procure a position where their opinion is given credence and we (the audience) are supposed to sit there and say, “This guy’s an expert!”

Not so fast. Here are just three (I’m sure there are more) that have somehow gotten pretty sweet broadcasting jobs in spite of their performance DOING the job that they are now TALKING about. You will see their name, what they’re doing now, and a resume of what they did prior to their sportscasting job. They are in order from not as terrible to ridiculously terrible.

BOB DAVIE

NOW – College football analyst for ESPN and ABC

THEN – As Notre Dame’s Head Football Coach, Davie compiled a 35-25 record (.583 winning %). He was 0-3 in bowl games (including a 41-9 loss to Oregon State in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl). He never had a 10 win season (He did have two 9-3 seasons), and never finished higher than 15th in the AP or Coaches Poll.

LEE CORSO

NOW – ESPN College Gameday Analyst. Show is widely regarded as THE show for college football talk (and hype). Corso can be seen flanked by Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit and each show ends with him picking the winner of the “Big Game” that they’re covering for the day. The show is huge.

THEN – As Indiana University’s Head Football Coach from 1972-1982, Corso compiled a record of 41–68–2 (.369 winning %) and followed that stellar performance by going 4-6-1 as Northern Illinois’ head coach in 1983 (.363 winning %).

MATT MILLEN

NOW – NFL Network analyst and ESPN college football color commentator

THEN – As a player, he was good. He actually won multiple Super Bowls and made it to the Pro Bowl. If he had stopped there, he wouldn’t be on this list. BUT….. as GM of the Lions for 8 years, he had the worst 8 year tenure by any team since WW2 (31-97). The Lions lost their first 24 road games under Millen and caused him to describe his own leadership as “beyond awful” (not to mention all the “Fire Millen” backlash).

I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones that I feel are most appalling. Feel free to add them to this list. Also, in my “research” (wikipedia and other blogs), I found a great post that dealt with this very idea as well (check it out here). Now, hear me out, I don’t pretend to be an expert. I just don’t think these guys should pretend either.

The Youth Office

One of my favorite shows is and has been The Office. I’ve got all the seasons (1-5) on DVD and even the 2 seasons of the British one (the original). We as a Student Ministries team have made a few homages to the show and most recently we made an episode to introduce our adult leader orientation. They are a riot to make and hopefully mildly entertaining to watch. I’ve compiled all three of the episodes (and an outtakes video) here and they go from oldest to newest. Check ‘em out and I would love your feedback.

In the “pilot” episode, Josh (me) has just started his job at Wooster Grace and is having a hard time transitioning out of his teacher training (he has a Health/PE degree in real life) and he is slowly taking over control of the entire office.

These outtakes are taken from the first episode (above). Not much to explain.

In this episode, it’s Katrina’s last day as the administrative assistant for High School Ministries and Josh is trying to figure out how to cope. Thanks to Chris Rice for letting us use his song in this video. And little known fact, this was actually shot on Katrina’s last day.

This episode is the first with all of our current team and rather than Josh being the only real “character”, each of them is modeled after characters from the actual “Office” show. They are all trying to figure out how to reach students and then they realize that the best way to do that is to train adult leaders.

Even though I wrote/directed/edited all of the episodes, I feel like the third episode does the most justice to the show. Everybody did such a great job and it was a blast to make; they all were. Stay on the lookout for the next episode!

Great 8

PEOPLE YOU WANT TO AVOID AT CONCERTS

I’ve been to a lot of concerts. Dave Matthews Band (Leroi R.I.P.), Coldplay, U2, The Eagles, MuteMath, EBE Crew. But no matter where you go, who you go with, or who you go to see, there are always those people that you see and you know that if you’re going to enjoy this concert, you need to be as far away from them as possible. I’ve seen ‘em all, but here are my Great 8.

1. The Guy Who Tapes the Entire Show – While it used to be just a tape recorder and something small that fits in a shirt pocket, today this guy has upgraded to a video camera. Always hoping for that classic YouTube moment like the dude from Nickelback getting hit in the head with a bottle or Bono falling off stage, he holds his camera high and with pride. And out of all of the “guys” on this list, he’s the most tolerable…until the light on his camera distracts you and all of Section E during the song you’ve been waiting all night to hear.

2. The Karaoke Superstar – This person knows every song. And when I say “knows” I mean sort of recognizes the tune a little bit if you give them a second to think about it. But just like with bad karaoke (is there good karaoke?) the person chooses to belt out songs that he doesn’t even know and really only gets about every third word, maybe. Each song is usually preceded by a “Oh, I LOVE this song…” and then it turns into something like, “Lights wi-…………….YOU home. And indi-…………phone. I……….FIX YOU! Woo!”

3. The Little Kid Who Has No Idea Where He Is or Who He’s Listening To – This is the kid you always wanted to be, but now that you’re out of college and had to save for 3 years to go to this show, you secretly hate him. He walks around in the $45 shirt and the $28 hat that his dad bought him, but you know full well the kid doesn’t even know one band member’s name, let alone all the words to every song they ever wrote (like you, of course.) And no matter how hard you try to avoid this kid, he always seems to be in front of you, ordering a bigger pop or a cooler keychain, and even though you hate him, you still kind of wish you were him.

4. The Loud Talker – This person is probably the most oblivious person in the entire place. He is almost always talking about something unrelated to the concert and it’s at the absolute WORST time. The band has gone off stage and the lead singer has come out by himself for an acoustic encore. You’re trying to guess what it will be and as soon as the first note is played, you hear behind you something like, “Hey, have you seen The Fugitive? I know it came out awhile ago, but I just saw it and liked it a lot! That Tommy Lee Jones…” You’re torn because you want to hear the song, but you also want to punch this dude in the face.

5. The Aisle Dancer – This guy is pretty desperate for attention. Apparently his mom never looked when he shouted for her before he jumped off the swings, so now he wants to make sure no one will ever ignore him again, ever. He never really dances with any rhythm, or connection to the music, it’s mostly just a back and forth motion. The dead giveaway that you’ve spotted one of these guys is that about every 2 minutes, he slowly looks around to see if anyone is watching him. Sorry dude, but the only person watching you is me, and I’m laughing on the inside.

6. The Know-it-All – This guy isn’t a stranger. Sadly, he probably came with you. On the ride up, he told you about all his albums and how long he’s liked the band. He’s rattled off all of these obscure (which is code for “terrible”) songs that only he would know and then acts smugly surprised when you say, “I’ve never heard of that song.” He shows tendancies of the “Loud Talker” as he tells you all the random facts about the song you’re straining to listen to or the song you just heard and then complains because “…they’re not going to do anything off of their first album, which is by FAR the best. My favorite song is ________, but they probably won’t play it. It’s pretty obscure.”

7. The Wanderer – This guy is hard to spot. He’s usually slow, and is in no particular hurry to go anywhere. You may even see him and think nothing of it. But as soon as you realize that he’s just wandering for wandering’s sake, he’s a distraction. He more than likely came by himself, so he’s not tethered to any particular area or seat, so he is everywhere, because he can be. And no matter where you are or where he is, you can see him. And even though it’s you’re favorite song and you paid $210 just to hear it, all you can do is follow this guy up and down the aisle.

8. The Constant Stander – (**Does not apply if it’s an SRO event) He’s probably trying to show that he’s a true fan. I mean, a true fan stands up for every song, right? Not necessarily. You can spot this guy because he’s not singing, he’s not clapping, he’s not even swaying a little bit. He’s standing there, arms folded, like he’s listening to a lecture on grout removal. He’s trying way too hard to compensate for the fact that he’s really not a fan at all. And then after staring at the back of his head all night, you realize that he’s really a fan of ticking off the actual fans.

Did I miss any? Who have you seen at concerts that you should avoid?

Monologue: Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the Monologue that I wrote to go before and after a drama I wrote. Here are some related links to check out. Monologue: Part 1, Drama Synopsis. Enjoy.

PART 2

So you tell me, what I’m supposed to do now
I’m wonderin how
Tryin to make the most, but I’m dangerously close
To abandoning my post
And throwing in the towel
I’m left with just pieces, shreds
A mere fraction of the original
With each decision equally pivotal
In my direction, which upon further inspection
Put me on a path, fast, to a condition that’s critical
I abandoned the source
Slowly drifting off course
Until I felt the force
Of You
Pulling me back
So I return with me head down and hands up
Offering all I am up
I can hardly stand up
Feeling safer on my knees
And after all that, look where it’s gotten me
Alone in a place where it’s only You that I see
And finally I realize that I’m right……
Where You want me to be

Monologue: Part 1

This is Part 1 of a 2 part monologue that goes before and after a “Musical Drama” that I wrote to “The Best of You.” To read the storyline for the drama and to give the monologue some context, check out my previous post. But without further stalling, here’s Part 1. Enjoy.

PART 1

From the outside my life could pass as ordinary
My ability to fool you with a fake smile is scary
Carry the weight of the world as it’s hurled onto my shoulder blades
My passion for life fades as it’s tied to
Popularity and good grades
The American Dream seems like an endless pursuit
At the root is hopelessness trying to
Snag another recruit
I’m shooting down insecurity with words that are sure to be
Beneficial and inspired, required reading for life
Met Jesus-the Christ, went from naughty to nice
Even prayed the prayer twice
Just to be sure
I get frustrated at times
The lines blurred and twisted
Between best and the rest
My chance came and I missed it
Life filled with good but not great
Didn’t hesitate to make
A mistake or two, or three
Can’t you see?
There’s nothing left to debate
Caught up, in a sense, in what I was brought up against
Now my only defense
Is to get back the pieces
One…by…one

Musical Drama

One of my favorite things to do is creative writing. Scripts for videos, lyrics, and even some dramas. And recently, I wrote a “Musical Drama” (use a song and then write a story that goes with the song) to the song “The Best of You” by the Foo Fighters (great band). Other songs I’ve done include “Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape” by Underoath; “Fix You” by Coldplay; and “When You Thought You’d Never Stand Out” by Copeland (What’s up with these long song titles?).

Anyway, the “Best of You” drama was unique because I wrote a free verse/monologue thing to book-end the drama. We had one of our senior girls memorize it and she KILLED it (for the record, that means she did well). So, I thought I’d throw the “logue” up here in hopes that maybe you can use it for something or just read it and think. But before I post the monologue,  I’ve included the drama storyline so you see how the monologue leads into the drama and then transitions out of it. It seemed to work well. Enjoy.

DRAMA STORYLINE: Guy receives his heart/life from God @ the beginning (depicted by a white t-shirt with a giant heart painted on it). As soon as he begins to look away from God, characters enter and begin to offer an alternative to a life spent pursuing God. Each one proceeds to (literally) take a piece of his heart by cutting and removing pieces of his shirt (heart) until he’s left with shreds hanging around his neck. When God re-enters his life and asks for his heart, he realizes he has nothing left. He then attempts to get back his heart from those who took pieces of it. He gets some of them back, but they’re just pieces and he ashamedly offers them to God. The drama ends with our character on the ground holding the pieces of his heart.

**Check back soon for Parts 1 and 2 of the Monologue