Leave the 99 and go for the 1

This is my last post about the generation conference …..until next year.

If I were to take just one thing from this conference it is that God is passionate about people. We need to lay aside the things we think we need. We need to lay aside the things we want and pursue what matters to God. One thing I have been guilty of and I believe the church as a whole has been guilty of is that we stay with the 99 and leave the one. That is not where God’s priorities are. God is intensely passionate about the one. You and I need to be passionate about the one. We need to love God and Love others!

Below is the opening video to our conference I think that it illustrates at least in part where God’s heart is.

What I learned from Ed Young

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet one of my spiritual heros at our generation conference. I was blown away by his humility and by how personable he was. It is very humbling for a Pastor who has 20,000 people in his church to not only listen to you but ask you questions to get your perspective on things.

What did i learn from Ed Young?

He truly has a passion for reaching people who are far from God.

He truly cares about people.

He is what he preaches. He exudes Authenticity.

He says that he loves asking questions and he really does ask a lot of questions. He never stops learning, I love that.

He has a way of talking the conversation and using it to find out more about you.

He is 100% passionate about the local church.

He lives the theme of our conference. He really does Love God and Love others.

Generation Confernce Wrap Up.

All I can say is WOW. What a great 3 days. It was such an honor to be part of such an amazing event. God is so good.

Highlights for me.

1600 kids passionate about God – learning how to love God and love others more.

Hearing Joyce Meyer for the first time – she can preach. I was very impressed I think to often she is thought of as only being a woman’s conference person. She brought it Thursday night.

Hearing, meeting, talking, and getting my picture taken with one of my heros Ed Young. I will talk more about this in another post. I was blown away by Ed. I used to respect him after this week he took my respect for him to a new level.

Being part of a big team that belongs to a church with big vision.

The Jumbo video screens (the media geeek in me)

Knowing the video’s were projected by a mac (the Steve Job’s loving media geek in me)

Talking with old friends and meeting new ones.

Knowing that the next GenCon is at least 1 year away and not 7 months away like this one was.

Meeting Ed Young, He so nice I had to mention it twice. (If you have ever heard Ed speak, you know he loves to rhyme).

Live updates from the Generation Conference

Here is a link for live updates of the conference. Generation Conference 2007 Live.

6 hours left and 5 videos left to make………yikes….

Sporadic Posts

We are having our 11th annual Generation Conference this week so my posts. Will be sporadic. I will do my best to update everyone during the conference.

The evening speakers this year are Chris Hill (Bishop T.D. Jakes former youth pastor), Joyce Meyer, and Ed Young.

32, 4, and 6

We are in the midst of raising funds for our kids wing remodel. So we made a video to highlight the value of children’s ministry.

This powerful statistic comes from George Barna’s book “Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions”. I have quoted it below.

George Barna reported that “the greatest evangelistic window currently available is among young children.” According to the data gathered, children, ages 5 through 13 have a 32 % probability of coming to Christ while teenagers and adults have just a 4% and 6% probability respectively of doing so. Barna continued in the report to state “that if a person does not accept Christ as savior before the age of 14 the likelihood of ever doing so is slim.”

What the church can learn from Ratatouille. Part 2 (Duex)

Picking up from yesterday I think that another illustration that we could use from the movie Ratatouille is when Anton Ego comes into the restaurant to taste the food that Linguini has been making.

“Anton Ego, the most powerful food critic in Paris, can make or break a restaurant with a single review. The sight of his dour, colorless and unsmiling face strikes fear into the heart of even the most complacently successful of culinary celebrities. Chefs have become so afraid of displeasing ‘The Grim Eater,’ as he is commonly known, that no one dares to change a menu without his blessing.”

Towards the end of the movie Ego comes to review a restaurant that has become the talk of the town. Young talented chief that uses uncommon techniques for producing masterpieces.

Everyone fears Ego. When he comes to the restaurant everyone wants to cook something “typical” Remy the Rat has a different idea. He suggests they cook a “peasant” dish for him. Unheard of, cooking a peasant dish for the great Anton Ego.

This dish is prepared and served to him and he takes a bite and is instantly transported back to his childhood. The very taste of this “peasant dish” made him feel the same sense of goodness he felt when he was a child. He was so overwhelmed that he could overlook the fact it was made by a rat.

I thinks this speaks volumes to the church about the importance of children’s ministry. If we provide and experience that is powerful and touches kids emotionally and spirtually. They will never ever forget it. It will leave a wonderful taste in their mouth of who God is and what he can do. And when they have grown they will seek out a church that provides the same experience for their kids as they had growing up.

Bottom line “Parents will put up with a lot if their kids love church”.

What the church can learn from Ratatouille.

I saw this movie the other day and loved it. Pixar rocks. I thought there were quite a few clips that could be used as illustrations for kids or adults.

The first one I saw was in the opening sequence when Remy the rat first discovers he has a amazing sense of smell he knows that it is for something creative and good. He ends up saving his family from being killed because he could smell rat poison. How do they thank him. They make him the official food sniffer. They make him smell the garbage they are all eating. He ends up having to leave the family to find a place to express his gift.

I think the church does this to people all the time. We find out something that people are good at an make them do that instead of what they are passionate about.

Does Jesus Like Vegetables?

I for a fact know that he hates corn and peas.

Actually one of the parents in our church sent me a audio file talking about children’s ministry and the importance of teaching kids the Bible.

Tedd Tripp was being interviewed on the The Albert Mohler Program guest hosted that day by Dr. Russell Moore and Mr. Tripp began to explain how the commercialization of Bible narratives is hurting our kids not helping. That Bible stories told by Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato is not a good thing.

He feels that kids do not hear enough about redemption, resurrection and hell.

I think that he has a few good points but however, you do need to make sure everything you do as a children’s pastor relates and engages the kids. For example I would never put our memory verse in King James when we have so many other translations that are easy to understand. I think you can make the truths of God’s word powerful and applicable. I agree that we shouldn’t sugar coat the gospel for our kids but, a wise woman once said “A spoon full of sugar, helps the medicine go down” meaning why not preach the truth of God’s word in a fun way. I go the impression from the interview that unless you were preaching the gospel like Jack Bauer interrogates terrorists you are not fully representing who God is to the kids we reach.

Here is the full audio of the radio program. “I Am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N” Reaching our kids with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Worlds of Wow closer by the day.

I met with Eric Taylor from Worlds of Wow, last Thursday. I am pumped. It is hard to believe that we are only 3 months away from our church’s extreme kids wing makeover.

It has been about 2 years in the the making and is almost here!

It has been a pleasure working with Eric and his team they really know their stuff and really care about local churches. We have been blessed to work with them. The concepts that we have come up with I think are fantastic.

I will blog about more of the details of what is going on the closer we get to October 8th, 2007 when the instillation starts. I thought I would however show a present shot of our education wing and the artist drawing of how it will look.

Below the first picture is our kids wing now and the second picture is the artist conception of how it will look.