bayne's superbowl pick is...

Ever since the fumble away loss of the Titans to the Ravens my football heart has been sad. Yes I admit it, I have not really enjoyed the playoffs since that defeat. I just wanted us to get to play Pittsburgh again and see if we had really arrived. The towel stomp was too much to overcome, bad mojo Titans fans! Well we never got the chance and now I have to choose. Honestly, I am not really stoked about the game. Not a big fan of either and I refuse to pic the Cardinals just because Kurt Warner is a great guy and Christian. If the Cardinals win, good for Kurt he is a great guy. I watched Kurt beat my Titans in 1999 and I just can not go there. So Bayne is picking the Steelers over the Cards 34-2o in a great game.
Football wise...Pittsburgh is determined, they have a TEAM, they have great defense. Think Mike Tomlin is an amazing coach. Willie Parker is going to run for days. I have too many friends who are real Steeler fans. I have never met a true Cardinal fan, do they exist outside of Arizona? If they do exist they were ashamed all season as the Cards floundered in the weakest division in football. The run ends Sunday with a Steeler victory then we all get ready for kickoff 2009. Go Titans! Who are you picking Sunday...I really want to know!

at the VIVA CATIE concert we raised...

we raised......over 1,000 dollars last night for the Lance Armstrong Foundation! We had over 250 people come out! It was an amazing night and we are pumped about the Viva Catie Concert in 2010...better get a bigger venue! Thanks to all of you who came out and gave. every dollar counts in our fight against cancer. Thanks to all the bands and volunteers who served, you all did an amazing job.

Viva Catie Concert...tonight!

We have worked, prayed and planned for this night for over a month and it is here. Tonight we gather around music but for a cause. The Viva Catie Concert is one night where we gather together to raise support for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and fight cancer. Catie Summers was a friend that discovered she had cancer in middle school. She fought the disease with passion and vigor until she lost the battle in her Junior year of High School. Catie is in heaven now and completely healed but for those left behind she showed us how to live every moment to the fullest. Catie also believed he could beat this disease and she did beat all the odds, continue to go to school, raise money for cancer research, hang out with her friends, and enjoy life. Tonight this concert is for Catie and for all those who have battled this disease. This is a donation only show and all proceeds from cafe will be donated also! The Daniel Doss Band, Mike's Chair, the remix band, and Will Mckelvey will all be performing tonight and we hope to see you there also. For more info click on the graphic above to go to relevantstudents.com.

To Write Love on Her Arms

Just got an email from a good friend from Virginia. The past year has been hell for his family because they have had to experience the pain of watching their little girl, now a teen, struggle with cutting and signs of an eating disorder. I know this family, love them so much. They are a great family and this young lady is a beautiful young woman with an incredible future ahead. This season in her life has been terrible and the same story is being played out in every city, across America. To Write Love on He Arms is an organization facing the pain of depression, eating disorders, drug abuse, and cutting that so many people are trapped in. This is a difficult issue and most of us do not want to face it until it hits someone we love. I was just reminded today that this is real. Please be aware, and be ready to be there for a friend or family that feels trapped. Go check out this organization and see the work they are doing. Please if you go visit the site know that these guys are in the middle of helping people try to find healing. Some of the stories are raw and difficult to understand. Just want you to be aware. If you are reading this and this is your story and you feel trapped please know you are not alone!

I am thankful for the work TWLOHA is doing. Thanks for running into the darkness and bringing light and hope!

what the heck is spiritual growth anyway

What is spiritual growth? I may be the only one asking this but i find myself trying to figure out what a "mature" follower of Jesus looks like. The search for this answer leads us to create all kinds of tools, programs, systems, and rules to prove growth is happening. The problem is that in my life it has been an amazingly messy journey and I have not and do not think I will ever stop growing and maturing. I could live 1,000 years and just begin to embrace the kind of life Jesus modeled for us. It is so consuming. John Burke, in his book No Perfect People Allowed, connected so many dots for me about what this growth process looks like in our Western culture. The book has been out for a while but I feel a kind of kinship with the direction of the church he leads and Grace Community. One of the pages I marked on the read through really helped me grab onto what growth looks like for all of us who refuse to run from the "world" Jesus gave His life for. Here was the passage of scripture...Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT)

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.
16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Love that passage! I do not pretend to have all the answers about spiritual growth but the passage and John's book remind me that growth in never isolated. It happened in community together with other believers. Why? Maybe so that we are always reminded that as we grow we are not better than others but in desperate need of other people because we can not live out the life Jesus modeled without community. The Christian faith is not just about a PERSONAL eternal destination it is just as much about bringing God's kingdom into reality here on earth even in our lives. The idea that we will begin to think, live, give, serve, and love like Jesus blows me away and calls me to change in my own life. Growth happens as we care about our fellow man as we care about ourselves.

John says about Gateway community in the book...
"For this reason, our primary goal from day one has been to connect people into small group communities. We teach people how to be a unified community, building up one another in love, using their gifts to serve others in response to the leading of Jesus."

Could Ephesians 4:11-16 be a road map to helping people discover spiritual growth? For me it helps. This is the mission of the ministries we lead and the door is wide open to discover new ways to help people encounter community and become more like Christ. What an adventure!

rethink youth ministry...

It was great to sit down this week with George Stull, the director of student ministries at Cross Point church in Nashville. It is always refreshing to take time out of my week just to connect with another leader, hear their story, and dream about what youth ministry can be today. The one place we both landed on with both ministries we lead was that we need to have the courage to view student ministry from a wider perspective. We usually measure our impact around a program that we run. Student leaders must step back and evaluate what we do from the church / community level and not just through our meetings or programs. We have to be asking...

How many students are plugged into the life of the church we serve? (are we a part of the local church we serve or just leading a teen church within an adult church)

How are we helping students to see the adventure of living for and through Jesus?

How are students connecting with and experiencing community at all levels, young life, fca, the environment we lead, home groups, etc.? (teens need community and there are multiple ways to connect with teens, our program is not the final answer)

How many students are serving?

How are we supporting an encouraging parents to be influencers in their teens spiritual journey?

Are we willing to stop supporting programs, environments that we are having to manufacture energy for? (many of us try to DO so much we have no time to BE with anybody in healthy relationships)

Student ministry is always changing because the teens we are reaching live in a changing world. I pray we will be willing to adapt our STUFF to reach teens for Christ and help them to live in and through Christ. What questions are you asking when it come to serving teenagers today?

first impression?

Today I had my first can of Diet Pepsi in the new can. Great design, love the look. I know you may be thinking, does it matter how the can looks? We all think we don't care about design until we see something we do not like. When we have a bad first impression suddenly it matters. First impressions do matter. First impressions leave us desiring or rejecting many things around us. First glance moments impact our choice of TV shows, restaurants, jobs, cars, clothes, and even relationships. I saw the Pepsi can today and immediately liked the look. It had nothing to do with the taste, my brain just liked the design. a local restaurant I like called Cumberland Grill just did a huge makeover outside and the place screams, COME IN AND EAT. It looks great! At GCC we had new banners made for the main hallway and it looks so much more inviting. You actually know where to go and the banners have a look that connects with our branding. I looked a local photographers web site and I immediately thought it would be someone I would use! Ok, banners, graphics, and design only help with first impression but I think that one first moment is HUGE. Over time quality trumps first impression, but a good first impression allows people to see the substance quicker. First impressions are either helping your organiztion of hurting it? Make sure the first impression's you are getting say what you want them to say...that is the secret.

Viva Catie Concert...THIS THURSDAY

This coming Thursday night is going to be an amazing night in the life of relevant student ministry as we continue to try to see where God is working and then move that direction. On January 29 we will host the first Viva Catie concert as we unite together through music to raise support for the Lance Armstrong Fund to support cancer research. Cancer Sucks, it destroys lives, we can fight it, we are going to take action. Will post again later in the week but I ask you out there to pray for us as we get ready for Thursday night and help us raise a ton of money to fight this disease. Hope you can make it out to see Mike's Chair, Daniel Doss Band, the remix band, Will Mckelvy, and Jason Roy. There are no ticket for the show, donations only! Help us do something about this disease. for details hit relevanstudents.com!

good stuff...

Last week I showed the girls the Photo Booth program on my Mac and they loved it, really loved it. Who doesn't like making their head look like a stretchy mess on a computer screen. If you want to see our first collection just go look on my facebook page. It has been a busy week. Just the fact that I missed posting yesterday will let ya know it was a crazy Thursday. Sure I have a few things to knock out this weekend but I am really excited about being with the family. I just need to slow down for a few days...make some more pictures, HA.

In office news - The GCC office is officially moving over to the MAC, wow it is a glorious day. Now we can all make stretchy head pictures!

the right response?

Most of life is made up of responses? Responding to people, responding to problems, responding to success, responding to hurt...Response is a pretty big thing. This week I had the chance to watch a student I have mentored respond to a difficult situation. It was so exciting to see maturity rise to the top in the middle of chaos. My friend had spent several weeks planning an event at school. Tons of time, tons of effort and the event turned out great. After the event a teacher confronted him and was very sarcastic in asking why something was not done the way she wanted it. The student thought it was a joke then later asked the teacher if there was a problem. THEN CAME THE RESPONSE MOMENT - the teacher shared their feelings and added several wonderful choice words and attacked my friends character. WOW, how would you respond. The student apologized then wrote a letter formally apologizing later that day. With all he could have said and all the commotion that could have been caused the student apologized and moved on. Really he did nothing wrong but he apologized for missing a detail important to this teacher. What a response! This is the verse I was reminded off...

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1

My friend had every right to throw that teacher under the bus and cause a major stink over what was said and done. He could have fired back and been confrontational. He chose to respond with respect and patience. He chose the gentle response. Sounds like something Jesus would do. There is a time to confront. There is a time to respond in tons of different ways. We must know the God does care about the response we choose. How we respond to life determines the outcome of so many situations. No matter what we just need to respond well. Thanks to my friend for the reminder.