Fantasy Football: A Ministry Tool?

Can you really use something like Fantasy Football as a ministry tool? You better believe you can. Of course, I believe that ministry can happen anywhere at anytime. I think we just have to be able to leverage the opportunity. So how is Fantasy Football a ministry tool? You tell me how you can get a bunch of non-believers together for 2 to 3 hours and start building relationships that are intentional. It is amazing to me the guy or girl that you can get to play fantasy football with you that you can't get to do anything else. Then you take that opportunity and build upon it and then out of nowhere you have a ministry opportunity.

You know just maybe we could get someone like Campus Crusade who has a lot of different arms like Athletes in Action, Student Venture, Business Ministry, and College Ministry to start a Fantasy Sports division. I don't know if I could raise the money for my salary but how fun would that be? Someone comes up to you and says, "What do you do for a living?" You response is, "Well I minister through playing Fantasy Sports!" I could do that...

By the way, you can also use it as a volunteer recruitment tool. My draft tomorrow is at 9:30 am and has 3 guys who I built relationships with and now volunteer in Children's Ministry. I am telling you that you can use anything for ministry.

1 year, 100 posts, You liked...

This is my 100th post. I know for many of you that is not that big of a deal, but one year ago today I started this blog. I can't believe it has only been a year. I also can't believe that many of you come back day after day and read what my thoughts are. I appreciate it. I really do enjoy doing this and it's all because I know that I am not just writing for myself but their are a few that get something in return. Here is to a great year and another great one to come.

Here are some stats from the first year:

1. Over 20,000 hits. I know that Clustr Maps says 7,000 but it didn't start until May.

2. You like it best when I do curriculum reviews. Over 1000 hits on the Elevate Curriculum Review alone.

3. 145 comments. Thanks for participating.

4. At least 10 friends made who I have never met in person.

5. 1 son born during this time.

There you have it. Now go do incredible ministry that is marketed well with great signs and unbelievable creativity.

Bonus Sign Wednesday: Leaving Church

I saw this today and couldn't help but post it. Why do I think this is so strange?

By the way, it says "You are now entering the Mission Field" Good message, but the sign is less than inspiring. It also was so disturbing that I had to stop and take a picture.

Sign Wednesday: Oops! The big pet peeve.

I am a Wendy's over McDonald's type of person. I can't say that I like Wendy's new commercials but I do prefer going there for lunch. Recently, I had lunch there and looked out the window to their sign at the road. Here is what I saw:

My guess is that they are trying to reach a new younger hipper crowd. I don't have a clue what a "Frosy Fioat" is going to taste like. We know that it is suppose to be a Frosty Float. Let's even say that they had the T in Frosty... All of the other L's in the sign are capitalized and the wannabe I in FLOAT doesn't make sense.

Please spell check your signs. It really hurts your brand if you have misspelled words, especially if the misspelled word just happens to be a trade mark. It would be like you misspelling the name of your ministry or church. If you have to write your sign in Word first and hit spell check.

Networking: Children vs Youth

As many of you know I have a new position at Horizon. I now oversee Preschool, Elementary, Junior High, and Senior High. Now I have spent most of my professional career in Children's Ministry and I am trying to make the transition to get to know more about Student Ministry. Of course I have done some youth ministry, I mean who doesn't in college, but I wanted to really get back into this Student Minister culture. There is one thing that I have noticed about this culture that Children's Ministers could really learn from. Did you know that Youth Pastors hang out with each other? I know this is a crazy concept. Some people call it networking. Some people call it relationship building. Some even call it friendship. As you can tell I am totally blown away by this concept.

OK, seriously, why do Children's ministers have such a hard time with this? Now I know some of you and when I say some I mean very few in Children's ministry, do a good job of networking but their does seem to be a problem in this area. There is one website that I think helps Children's Pastors network, it is www.kidology.org. It can't be the only way we network though. There has to be more and I do think there tons more opportunities. Here are some theories to why it is so hard for Children's people and why it is not as hard for Youth people.

1. Youth people know they need help.

2. The male to female ratio in youth ministry is a lot different than in Children's ministry. I am not saying that this is good or bad but I do think it plays in to it.

3. The local churches have more full time youth ministers than they do children. If you are doing a ministry on a part time basis then you don't have time to network as much.

4. There are more opportunities for youth leaders to get together. How many concerts, retreats, and basic get togethers do Children people have?

There are 4 theories to start with. What are some of yours? Why do children's ministers have a harder time networking than youth ministers?

Blogs I read: Tony Morgan

This blog that I am highlighting today is one that I have been reading since I started reading blogs. It was one of the first five blogs in my Google Reader. Why is this blog so important to me? Why am I so excited about Tony Morgan. I believe in his words it would be said like this, "Simply Strategic". Tony has written many books with the words Simply Strategic in the title. He has incredible view of today's local church. His pulse and the churches' pulse seem to be one. It has been amazing to see how he went from Granger Community Church to NewSpring Church. It was about as honest, real, and genuine move from one church to another that I have ever seen. Believe me when I say that this is not normal.

So I think you get the point. I think you should be reading his blog. Here is something crazy. I have never met Tony. I have never been to Granger or NewSpring. I am a fan who would like to meet him, if you can be a fan of someone who doesn't play sports. I am hoping to change all of this. How? Myself and another pastor are going to NewSpring this October for their All Access event. So watch out Tony, I am coming.

OK, I really don't have that much of a man crush, I mean how can you when the guy looks like this:

Check out his blog here: www.tonymorganlive.com. You will be glad you did.

Random Quote: Andy Stanley

The less I do... The more I accomplish!

---Andy Stanley

I couldn't get this out of my head today. Now maybe I can.

What does your office look like?

What does your office look like? Is it in shambles? Are you proud of it? Right now at this very moment I can't say that I am proud of my office. One because it is in transition and two because I never put my heart and soul into it. I feel bad for the second part, but I am about to change that tomorrow. You see with my new position at the church I get a new office. Really it's because we hired a Spiritual Growth Pastor and he the location of my current office would be better for him, so I get to move. Now I am very excited about this. The biggest reasons are that I get to start from scratch, it is a larger space, and it has outside access that no one else in the office has, not even the Senior Pastor. I am feeling pretty special.

With today's post I thought I would give you a little insight into what my new office is going to look like. Here is the inspiration behind the theme:

No not the bed, but the wall decorations. This product is called Wall Pops and it is basically removable wall paper. I love the retro feel and the bright colors. It also goes well with the Black, Orange, and White of the Cincinnati Bengals. Just a coincidence, maybe. So I have my theme of black, white, orange, green, and retro. I needed some big statement item for the floor so I bought:

Oh yeah, Orange Shag Carpet. Now who doesn't want orange shag in their office?

I also needed some new seating to go into my office. I told you it is pretty large so I went with 2 of these:

And one of these:

Yes it is a futon and no I don't plan on sleeping that much in my office but it is better to be safe than sorry.

I also picked out a new desk. It looks like this:

There is one final piece that I want to tell you about. Besides the whole thing having a theme and color scheme that is fairly creative I wanted something unique. I wanted something I hadn't done before. No I didn't have a Starbucks put in my office but that is a good idea. I wanted something that when you looked at this thing that you made a comment. So I went with this:

I went with a clock that has no numbers, no glass, no frame, nothing but hands. The hands are quite large as well. The hour hand is about 20 inches and the minute hand is about 30 inches.

Why?

Why put this much time, effort, and money into an office? Because it matters whether we want it to or not. Because you are not the only one who walks into your office. Because your office says everything about you. Because at the end of the day I would much rather have a cool office that I am proud of than one that I can't think, create, or invite people into.

Are you being a good steward when it comes to your office? If there was a tour of your church would they make a point to stop by your office because of the effort that you put in or would that make an effort to avoid your office because your don't try to make it a place worth a tour?

So when I am done with my office I will post some pictures and you can tell me what you think. I hope that it is so inviting that if you are in Cincinnati, OH that you will stop by.

Elevate Curriculum Improves and Declines

As many of you know, I use the Elevate curriculum for my weekend services. I am a firm believer in the large group/small group model over the traditional Sunday School model. There are many reason for this but one of the main ones is consistency. Basically making sure every elementary kid gets the same teaching excellence in large group which of course can't happen in the traditional model. The current series that we are doing is entitled Berry Blast Theme Park. As usual the Elevate guys do an incredible job with graphics and environments. Darrel Oldenburg is the manager of this and deserves a ton of credit. He use to be a designer of ceiling fans and now puts his gifts and talents into Children's Ministry. Way to go Oldenburg!

On to the point... In this series, Elevate makes one huge improvement. The parent piece that comes with each lesson has a drastic change for the better. Here is a sample of this week's Family Devotional or parent piece to hand out at the end of the service:

So what are the big improvements? For one it is a full page and not a half page. This makes a difference and makes it feel more important. Second, there is a service project for the family to do together. Even for the 75%-80% it is great for those that take advantage of it. This is called not shooting for the lowest common denominator. Thirdly, is the bottom cut off portion. It actually encourages every student to take action and rewards them if they do. Now I know that several of you are not big on rewards and church but they way this is done is not the "If you accept Jesus you get candy" or the "Here is a big pencil with our church logo on it" type of stuff. It really does encourage proper behavior outside of the weekend services.

One improvement that I wish they would do is put this piece into color. It doesn't cost them anything extra and would give us the opportunity to hand out something that looks better. Color beats black and white on every hand out. Hands down.

So there is the improvements to the curriculum. Here is where I think this series declined. Now let me say something before I tell you the bad. First and foremost, I believe Mike Johnson is the best story teller/children's sermon guy in America. I have quite a few and his presentations are incredible. He taught me everything I know about sound effects, scoring a talk like a movie, the use of props, and the use of audience participation. I owe him a great deal. Now that's out of the way. The large group portion, specifically the Bible Time of Berry Blast, I wish was done a different way. I wish instead of Mike being on the video telling the story that the story pieces were given to us. Like I said Mike is incredible, but I believe that stories are told much better in person than on videos. Now I understand consistency. I understand not everyone can tell stories using video as their backgrounds. I even understand that Mike telling it on the video is much better than most can do, but just give me the option. You have in the past and when the story was told by all video in the past it has been done more like a movie or a drama than a storyteller.

So my conclusion is this. Great job improving the parent piece but please give it to us in color. If you are going to make the Bible Time into Storyteller time please give us who really want the files to be able to be that Storyteller.

Sign Wednesday: Very Creative

I love sweet tea. Yes, this makes me a southern boy and I am perfectly fine with that. The biggest problem is once you gross the Ohio River it is as if they don't know what you are talking about when you say sweet tea. Most of the time the response is that there is sugar on the table. Of course this is no good. I mean it is like saying that your flight is going to take off but you are on a 4 hour delay. That's how long it takes for the sugar on the table to dissolve in my cold iced tea. Or it is like when you ask for spicy mustard and their response is that they have honey mustard. IT IS NOT THE SAME!

Enough on the tangent and onto great signs with great placement at a great place for lunch that happens to have great sweet tea.

Do you have McAlister's where you live? I hope you do. I walked into one of their restaurants and noticed a very unique stack of high chairs. Here is the photo:

All of their high chairs had signs on them. Basic little bumper sticker like signs. For one I had never seen this approach. I am sure they aren't the first to do it, but whoever thought of this placement is very clever. I mean what else are you going to do with the back of the high chair. Why not use it to advertise your best stuff? And while your at it, why not make good creative phrases about your best stuff? Talk about brand awareness within your business. Not only are you telling your customers who you are but you are always reminding your employees who you are.

Of course I took individual pictures of these signs so that you can enjoy them. But before you look, I want you to think where are places I could do this in my ministry? Are there little unique unused areas that I could put a clever phrase or a vision statement that will not only let my students, parents, kids, and first time visitors know who you are but be a good reminder to the staff. Here are the signs:

P.S. When you do something like this you are also saying that you value their kids and you want the family to have a good time while they are there. What a novel concept.

To my wonderful wife...

I love you! It has been a incredible 8 years.

By the way, my wife blogs at http://jessica-blessedmom247.blogspot.com. You should go there and read her posts. She is a much better writer than myself.

Blogs I read: Indexed

I am going to start a series of post about the blogs I read and why I read them. Some of these are going to be very popular ones and others may be ones that you have never heard of. Today I am going to start with one that is a little less known but I absolutely love.

The blog is titled "Indexed". It is one of the most creative blogs out there. The author is Jessica Hagy and she does all of her post on Index cards. (Hence the name and very clever marketing) The way that she looks at the world is very unique and her approach is very interesting. Here are a couple of samples of her posts that I really like:

She has many more and other graphs/charts to show what she is thinking. She must be a genius. Anyway, it is a great site that gives me a creative break. I hope you enjoy her site as much as I do. Here is the link to her site: http://indexed.blogspot.com

P.S. I know that her sight is like little signs and that is why I like it so much. No need to comment on that.

Family Vacation: Back Home

That's right ladies and gentlemen. I am back! Church was great this morning. Most everyone was back since school starts this week for many. We are back in our normal programming and we started our new fall series today called "Berry Blast Theme Park". It is by Fellowship Church in a curriculum called "Elevation". I will write more about that this week, they made a big improvement and took a step back all at the same time.

Enough about today and on to stats from vacation:

Stat #1: 3 rounds of golf... total score: 291 I know it isn't pretty but the courses were beautiful and I did win the day I shot a 93. My Dad and brother were playing horrible that day.

Stat #2: 1473 miles put on the car. I am worn out. I need a vacation from my vacation.

Stat #3: 7 lbs. gained. I love eating ice cream everyday on vacation.

Stat #4: 7,873 grains of sand brought back in the suitcase. Why can't you ever get sand off of you?

Stat #5: 2 for 12 at the game of Settlers of Catan. I went 0 for 10 and then won the last 2. The game is addicting. If you haven't played this game you are missing out. It is a strategy game that might be better than Risk. It at least ranks up there with it.

Stat #6: 2 miles crawled by our 9 month old son, Azlan. Once he started he didn't stop.

Stat #7: 6 hours of boogie boarding. The waves on the last couple days were incredible. It is always good to see a Red Flag when you have a boogie board in your hand.

Well there you have it. It was a very good week with good food, good laughs, and surrounded by good people. Next time though I think we may leave the kids at home.

Sign Wednesday: High Expectations

When you put up a sign then expectations are soon to follow. Let's say that you put up a simple sign that says that restrooms are down the hall. One would come to expect the restrooms to be down the hall and not on the opposite side of the store. Pretty much a no brainer correct? Well, I am on vacation this week and came across tons and tons of signs. Myrtle Beach is an incredible city when it comes to the good, the bad, and the ugly. They are also known for signs like this:

there are many other signs that say World Famous, #1 in South Carolina, The Best, and so on and so forth. The sign above has not only set expectations of ice cream but the expectation of "Best in the U.S." Of course we had to stop. The ice cream is average at best and not the best in the U.S. but they did many years ago get People Magazine to vote their Black Cherry the best in the U.S. It is amazing how you can get someone to write something nice about you.

OK, evaluation time... What kind of expectations are you setting with your signs? Are you meeting them?

On a side note, please don't under any circumstance use this many fonts in one sign. That is ridiculous.

Family Vacation: Better than the Griswalds

I hope that you have figured out by now that I am a huge family guy. (Please no comments on the weight.) I love my family. I am not just talking about my wife and kids but my parents, my brother and his family, and Jessica's family. It is amazing how we all get along. Some times it is even quite freaky but we enjoy it anyway. I mean come on... The reason I even moved to Cincinnati was because of them. Why else would you leave a church like Fellowship Church who is averaging over 20,000 people a weekend and come to Horizon who is averaging 500? God has called me to my family and I love it.

Tomorrow we leave for vacation. Who is going? Jessica, Patriot, Azlan, myself, my Mom, my Dad, my brother Daniel, his wife Ashley, and their son Caedmon. We are all staying in the same condo. I know, can you believe it. We are going to North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and staying at a very nice place on the beach. 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a 51" HDTV. That's really all you need to know.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I hope that you have been as blessed as I am with your family. I know that many families don't do what my family does. I know that many families fight and bicker more than they love. My family is truly an incredible, unique, and joyful support structure that I take for granted to much.

I probably won't be posting as much over the next week but I will be playing golf, fishing, playing cards, having fun in the sun, and most importantly adding a couple of lbs. to this family guy.

Last thing... I will be going to church somewhere in Myrtle Beach. If you know of a great church down there let me know. I would love to have a great worship experience while on vacation.

Sign Wednesday (A Day Late I Know): Sign Spinning

I know that it is Thursday and not Wednesday but the big news yesterday trumped any sign that I could post. Thanks to all of you who either sent me an e-mail or comment of encouragement. I really do appreciate it.

Now on to Sign Wednesday on Thursday. Since this is a twist on the normal Sign Wednesday, I thought I would highlight a story about Sign Spinning. If you have never seen Sign Spinning then you have missed something very cool. The tricks these guys can do with a hand held sign is pretty amazing. Maybe over the top but still amazing. Here is the full article on ABC.com:

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3348602&page=1

Make sure and watch the video in the upper right hand corner.

Here is a nice photo of it in action.

Of course there are plenty of videos on Youtube as well. Just search sign spinner.

I think this goes to show that movement beats standing still every time. I know there is a good lesson there for all of us to learn.

(A special thank you to my mother-in-law who sent me the article from ABC.com)

Big News: New Job

Yes, you read that correct. I have a new job. What is the new job? Did I go and start my own marketing/sign/consulting/naming/branding/chocolate business? Did Google bite at my billion dollar idea? Am I still in Cincinnati? Do I need to change the title of this blog?

I know that all of these questions came to mind when you read the title of this post. OK, maybe not but I do have a new job here at Horizon. I am now overseeing Nursery-Senior High. Am I ready to take on Junior High and Senior High? I think so, but I know that I don't have all the answers. The great thing is that I have 2 incredible people who are already doing the ministry for both of these ministries.

I really am looking forward to this. I know this is going to be a challenge. I know that this is going to have great rewards in relationships and in leadership building. I ask that you pray for me. I really don't have all the answers, and that scares me. There I said it. I don't even know if I am cool enough to hang out with these students. There I said that too.

I do need your help. What should my title be? I have some in mind but I would love to hear what you think?

By the way, the name of this blog won't change. Junior High and Senior High are still kids and God still wants to take their old selves and make them new.

Would you wait 2 hours?

We have all been there. We walk up to the hostess stand at a popular restaurant and ask how long is the wait. We go to amusement parks and stand in line for a new roller coaster. We even get in line for new technology, concert tickets, and Tickle Me Elmo's. I have even seen people wait an absurd amount of time for gas that is $0.15 cheaper per gallon than the gas station across the street. My question for you today is this, "What would you be willing to wait 2 hours for?"

Here is another great question, "Would anyone wait 45 minutes to get into your ministry or church?"

Step #1 Changing Ministry Culture: Recasting Vision

What is the vision of your ministry? Stop. If you can't answer that in less than 2 seconds then you need to change your vision. If you pause, and then ho and hum, people are going to think that you are making it up on the spot. The major problem is most of you are making it up on the spot. So let me ask you this question again, "What is the vision of your ministry?"

I have written in the past about changing the culture of the children's ministry here at Horizon Community Church. The article can be found here. I was then asked to expand on the article and tell you how I accomplished the change. If you want to change the culture of your ministry then you will have to start with the vision of your ministry. Here are the 3 major keys of a vision that I believe are the most important.

1. Your vision must be Memorable. If you can't remember your vision then no one else will. If it is to long and complicated then you have lost the battle before you started. If your Senior Pastor, church, or volunteers can't bring it to mind then you need to change it. I don't care how long you worked on it and chose just the right words and made it less than 3 sentences... Which brings me to me next point.

2. Your vision must be Repeatable. Not only do I remember my vision by I can say it in under 15 seconds. Your vision is your sound bite. Your vision is what your Senior Pastor says about you in front of the whole church. It is what your volunteers say at lunch when they talk about Sunday. You should be able to fit it into a conversation that feels natural.

3. Your vision must be Measurable. Here is a great quote for you, "What gets measured, gets improved." People want to be apart of something successful. If you can measure what you are doing then you can know if you are being successful or not. You can also improve what you are doing.

So I know you are asking yourself right now. Matt, what is the vision of your ministry? What vision do you have that helped change the culture? Here it is:

Kids bringing their Parents to Church!

What is your vision? What do you see is important in a vision?

Ministry Perks

What perks do you have at your church? At Fellowship Church I had a lot of perks. I could go to the coffee shop that was at the church and order a "Matt McKee". Yes there was a drink. In fact I went back earlier this year walked into the Source Cafe and ordered one. By the way, a "Matt McKee" is a White Chocolate Mocha made with the vanilla blend instead of the mocha blend and it has an extra shot of espresso. Yes it is a little bit of heaven in a cup. Not only did a get great coffee, I got to go to all kinds of sporting events for free. We had some great people who let us have their seats for the Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers. I even got to go the Texas Motor Speedway for some races. These are incredible perks that never show up in a salary or a 403b matching plan.

At Horizon I also have many perks. I have been to Red's games and Bengal's games. I don't have a place to order a Matt McKee but when we build our new building I am pushing for just a place. We have one other perk that I love at Horizon. We are given 2 VIP passes for Kings Island. What does this mean? Well, with each pass we get up to 10 tickets per day and get to park in VIP parking. This is incredible for someone like myself who loves to ride roller coasters. You know, it may be a toss up. Coffee VS. Roller Coasters. I may just take Roller Coasters.

Here is a great pic of my favorite roller coaster. It's called "The Beast". It is the world's longest wooden roller coaster and it will beat you to death. It is awesome. If you are ever in Cincinnati and are man/woman enough to ride then let me know.

Enough bragging... Seriously, what perks do you get?

Google Phone Hype is ON!

You know that if I didn't work at a church I would be on mission to do anything for a little company called Google. That's right, I have a man crush on a company. When I woke up this morning I was overwhelmed by all the buzz of possibility of a Google Phone coming out within a year. Here is a link to show 64 stories about the news: http://news.google.com/?ncl=1118836327&hl=en. Or of course you could go to Techmeme.com and get even more hype. I can't wait to see the innovation, the creativity, and the ease of use. The iPhone must now be worried.

By the way, I have used T-Mobile's MDA as my phone for the last year and Google has really ramped up their mobile options for my phone over the last month. Now I can get my G-mail, Reader, Notebook, and many other services. The problem of course is the GPRS on T-Mobile is not great when connecting to the internet. So I still need to be in WiFi range for these to work good. It will be great to have all of Google's services in my hand at all times especially when it is optimized by Google.

Sorry no pictures. I believe all of the ones that are out are fakes and until a real one comes out I won't post Photoshop wannabes.

Speaking to Inner-City Kids and Object Lessons

All this week I have been speaking at a camp for Inner-City kids. I love doing this. I think it really hits where I am gifted and the energy I get from it is incredible. Each morning around 9:00 I go and lead a devotional or talk or whatever you want to call it. There is no technology whatsoever. So I am feeling totally lost. To fill most of you in, when I speak I normally have background music, sound effects, and graphics going on as well as meaningful object lessons. Think of it as an overstimulating circus speech that focuses on Jesus as Lord. Anyway, like I said no technology but I am using object lessons like crazy. Here is a break down of the main point from each day with an object lesson in which I have used to teach that main point.

Monday: Main Point: Just because you can doesn't mean you have too! (I know, it is long but so true)

Object Lesson: I do basketball tricks, i.e. balancing, spinning, and juggling. Through these different types of tricks I talk about how every action has a consequence. Some are very good consequences and others are bad but we have to make sure and make wise choices. Most of the scripture references come from Proverbs and talk about wisdom. My favorite line in this talk is, "I have the choice to punch you in the face right now, but that doesn't mean I have too."

Tuesday: Main Point: Watch your mouth!

Object Lesson: I use the illustration of a hammer and a bunch of nails. I talk about how when we say words it is like hammering a nail into a piece of wood. It has impact whether we want it to or not. We can try and take back our words like taking a nail out of the wood but we will always be reminded by the whole that is left behind. I use the book of James as my scripture for this talk.

Wednesday: Main Point: B Thankful.

Object Lesson: This is my favorite object lesson of all time. I consider it to be the perfect object lesson because you use all the senses. Are you ready? I pop popcorn in front of the kids. Now you have to use a Stir Crazy popcorn popper. If you don't know what that is go to Wal-mart. They should have one. Anyway, you talk about how you give your wants and your needs to go. The wants and needs are represented by the oil and the kernels. God is the popcorn popper. You give both over to him and let him do the rest of the work. Now here is the great part. You get to see the popcorn pop, you get to hear the popcorn pop, you get to smell the popcorn and if the group is small enough you pass out the popcorn so that they can touch it. When you do this then there are always kernels that didn't pop at the bottom. You talk about being thankful for all of the things that God has provided for you, i.e. all of the popped kernels, and don't stress, complain, and whine about the things you didn't get, i.e. the kernels that didn't pop. Psalm 100 is the main Scripture reference.

Thursday: Main Point: Jesus has impact!

Object lessons: Here are 2 for you.

#1: If you can juggle then you can talk about all of the great teachers in the past. Even talk about Mohamed and Ghandi ad how they lived and died like everyone else. Have 2 bean bags or I like to use Spaghetti balls (brand of koosh ball) represent all the other great teachers. When you say that they die like everyone else does then you drop one while juggling and make sure it doesn't bounce. Now Jesus is different because he lived, died, and came back to life. Use a lacrosse ball to represent Jesus in your juggling. When Jesus dies, you drop the lacrosse ball and it bounces back up to you and you continue to juggle. Of course Jesus is the only in history to do this and that is why he has so much impact.

#2: Get a clear container and fill it half way full of water. Also have with you a squirt bottle labeled sin that is filled with Iodine and a squirt bottle labeled Jesus that is bleach. You then talk about how God wants us to be clean and pure like the container with water in it but we all have sin in our lives. Squirt the Iodine in the water and it will look nasty. Then present the Gospel and talk about how when Jesus comes into our lives he makes us new, clean, and pure so that we can get into heaven. Squirt the bleach into the water and it will clear up all of the Iodine and make it look totally clear again. Now if you put enough bleach in the water mixture then you can continue to pour iodine into the bleached water and it will disappear to signify how Jesus has so much impact that He even takes our future sins away.

So there are the highlights from the last 4 days of teaching Inner-City kids. I hope that you can use some of them and I hope that you stretch yourself to go and speak at places that you normally don't. It is amazing when you get out of your comfort zone how much God teaches you while you teach others.

Sign Wednesday: Try to spell this

I love naming stuff. I know that many of you know this fact about me but it is very true. Well this Sign Wednesday is dedicated to the longest name known. They even put this name on a sign for us and then made a sign to tell us it is the longest name. I love that a sign has to have another sign for educational purposes. Enjoy.

This sign can be found in New Zealand. I knew I wanted to go there I just didn't know why until now.

So when you think of the name of your church or the name of your ministry area or even the name of a business or product, please, I am begging you not to make this mistake. Let it be something a little bit more memorable. You know something someone could pronounce, spell, or even use in a sentence.

By the way, the name of our Children's Ministry here at Horizon is a little bit different than most. The name is simply .

I even have an arrow that I use on all of my directional signs. It looks like this:

.

We also have a group of kids who help us lead worship in our large group time. They are called:

I love that little dude that makes up the "i". He makes me smile.

I will tell you more about how the name came about and why I chose it later. Until then...