Nationals 2012

In case you’re new to my blog or just terribly unobservant, I’d like to start by letting you know that I’ve spent the last week in Memphis, Tennessee, attending the Free Will Baptist National Convention. And it has been a very fun, fulfilling experience. The conference was a good learning experience for me, and I was reminded of why I fell in love with ministry in the first place.

My main job at the conference was to run technology for the children’s services. I helped Karen with her music by displaying the lyrics on the screen and sometimes helping lead the motions. I helped make Little Billie’s awesome stories a little more impactful by adding backgrounds and sound effects. And I made text slides to go along with Johnny’s preaching. I love being able to use my passion for technology to make an already wonderful children’s ministry program even better. Plus, I got to work with the kids, dance around, and sing with them. It was a ton of fun.

I also ran music and computer at Karen’s children’s choir practices. Having been in charge of the children’s choir last year, I knew what a challenge Karen was up against. She knew it, too, since she’s been doing children’s worship as long as I’ve been alive and has directed the children’s choir before. But the kids were willing to learn, and Karen turned them into an awesome choir. They had fun and got to sing about God in front of the entire conference. It truly was something special.

Johnny, Gail, and Karen were all asked to give seminars about children’s ministry this year. I helped them prepare presentations to go along with the seminars. They went really well, except that Karen’s seminar was moved to a different time and she ended up not being able to give it.

This year’s conference offered me a completely new challenge, too. I was asked to be a judge in the Dramatic Duo competition. I’ve done media for children’s services before, so I was pretty prepared for that, but judging was something I had never done before. I was really nervous, but I ended up enjoying it. The kids all did great in their performances, and the only hard thing about scoring was finding things they hadn’t earned full credit for. If I had been able to, I would have given them all 100’s.

I always love going to the National each year, but this one was especially enjoyable. I got to push my creativity and tech skills to the limit by facing new, more complicated problems than I had come up against before, and I was able to overcome those obstacles to make something great and help spread God’s love to children. That’s what I love about ministry. I am able to take a piece of myself, share it with others, and show them God’s love in the process. It doesn’t get better than that.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given to go to the National and work. I would like to publicly thank all involved, and I’d especially like to thank my good friend Mason (the other half of The Dream Team) for putting up with me all week. It was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to see everyone at the National in Tampa, Florida, next year!

Memphis Days One and Two: Prepping for Nationals

Let’s get one thing straight. I am not a children’s minister, nor do I feel called at this point to ever be a children’s minister. But I absolutely love children’s ministry.

I have been blessed with a lot of opportunities over the years. I’ve been able to serve with a lot of men and women of God in a lot of ministry areas. And the past two summers, I’ve interned at my church. This have given me the ability to dabble in all kinds of ministries. On Wednesdays, I work with the teens of groundZERO with Jason. On some Sundays, I get to minister through media with Dean. I work very closely with Dave on Merge Ministry, our church’s college-age ministry, which I am very involved in. I get to preach. I get to organize. I get to make calls. I get to make copies.

And I get to work with children. God was preparing me to do this type of ministry before I ever even started going to Cavanaugh Church. One year at church camp, Bro. Johnny, a man who I have revered since I was very young, was in desperate need of someone to run the computer for him during his songs. Bro. Ken, my youth pastor at the time, volunteered me, and that’s how I started working with Johnny Miller.

Apparently, I did a good job, because that wasn’t the last time I worked with him. After my family came to Cavanaugh, he invited me to go back to camp with him and run the computer. Then, he put me in charge of technology during the services on our church’s yearly mission trip. The next year, he invited me to join him at the Free Will Baptist National Convention and be in charge of technology for the children’s services, which he ran. Last year, I was even able to travel with him to Indiana to his home church and work at their church camp as their “techie”.

Needless to say, I’ve done a lot of children’s ministry with Johnny. And I’ve loved every second of it. This year, we’re at the Free Will Baptist National Convention in Memphis, Tennessee. We’ve spent the past couple of days preparing for the services that will take place this week. We’re expecting a pretty big crowd of 1st through 3rd graders, and we’re going to deliver the message of love and hope that Christ offers through music, drama, preaching, and technology. It’s going to be a blast.

Being at the National and getting ready for these kids has reminded me why I love ministry in the first place. I love doing something and knowing that it’s going to impact the life of someone else in a positive way. I love knowing that I’m sharing God’s love with someone else, and doing that through technology just makes it even better. Also, I love the rush of finding a solution to a problem that ultimately presents the message of Christ to others in a new and interesting way.

I’m really looking forward to this week. God has already blessed me through the convention, and it hasn’t even started yet. I can’t wait to see what’s in store. I promise to keep you guys posted. Until then!

Advertising Twitter Rant

I went on a little Twitter rant today about the entertainment industry and advertising. I thought I’d share.
 


I hope to write more on this subject in the future. I have many thoughts on how the relationship between the entertainment industry and viewers could be improved and how companies could broaden their appeal without stupid commercials and other types of advertisement, but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks for reading! If you have thoughts on the matter, feel free to share them with me.

Living Faith

This week, my church had its annual Vacation Bible School, and I worked the computer as I always do. I love children’s ministry. I love seeing kids worship God and learn about Him. I think it’s amazing to see them soaking up God’s word in a way they can understand and apply. I find it very inspiring.

The theme for VBS this year was Living Faith. LIttle Billie, the friendly clown who sometimes visits the children at Cavanaugh Church, taught about three stories in the Bible with characters who exemplify living faith. The first story was Noah and the Great Flood, the second was the story of The Three Hebrew Children (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), and the final story was about Solomon’s Wish for Wisdom. All of the stories were delivered in a fun, relatable way that the kids enjoyed and could easily take life lessons away from.

It was nice to see the kids praise and learn, but the stories were also a nice reminder to me. If I’m going to be successful in working with kids and ministry in general, I’m going to have to have a living faith, one that shines in my life at all times. I need to trust God and praise Him in everything I do. Only then will my faith be alive and fruitful. I pray that God will help me to have a living faith, and I challenge you to do the same. Live out your faith and share God’s love with someone today! 

The Amazing Spider-Man



I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man tonight with my friends from Merge Ministry. And I must say it was, well, amazing. The movie did a really good job of setting itself apart from the original Spider-Man film trilogy in several key ways while staying true to the story of everyone’s favorite web-slinging superhero.

Many people were worried that it was way too soon for a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise, considering the fact that Spider-Man 3 came out only five years ago, and many critics have claimed that The Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t different enough from the original Spider-Man movie to justify a reboot. I would like to disagree. The original Spider-Man films were great, but I have been excited about this movie since I first heard about it, and I fully support the reboot for several reasons.

First of all, the new Spider-Man is just better than the old one. Andrew Garfield’s version of Peter Parker is more relatable and more realistic than Toby Maguire’s rendition. One thing that bothered me a lot about the original Spider-Man trilogy is that there is almost no mention of Peter’s parents. Peter lives with his aunt and uncle, and that is never questioned or explored. The Amazing Spider-Man begins with the story of how Peter came to live with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and Peter’s quest to discover more about his parents plays a large role in the events of the film. Peter’s struggle to find self-identity and the pain that he feels as a result of being abandoned by his parents make him a more relatable character in The Amazing Spider-Man than in the first Spider-Man movie.

Spider-Man is also more realistic in this film. There is trend in Marvel movies now to focus on ordinary people becoming superheroes through extraordinary means such as technology (Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk) rather than extraordinary individuals just being superheroes (X-Men, Fantastic Four), and this change can be seen when comparing the Spider-Man of the original trilogy to the rebooted Spider-Man. Sure, Spider-Man does gain powers supernaturally through a spider bite, but his main weapon and method of transportation, web-slinging, comes from a technology he develops himself in The Amazing Spider-Man rather than being a natural result of the spider bite as in the original movie. This makes Spider-Man more realistic and easier to grasp for the audience.

Another thing that really sets The Amazing Spider-Man apart from the original Spider-Man movie is the tone, and this is both good and bad. The tone of The Amazing Spider-Man is very dark. From the very first scene, the viewer can tell that The Amazing Spider-Man is not a feel-good movie. The themes of abandonment, not knowing oneself, betrayal, and guilt give the movie a very heavy feel. This is good in that it gives the movie an identity of its own, but it is also problematic. It is very obvious that the creators of The Amazing Spider-Man worked hard to make it different from the original films, so much so that (mini-spoiler alert) they sacrificed an important character to achieve this darkness, possibly upsetting some fans.

Finally, the movie has a much more modern feel than the original film. If you re-watch Spider-Man, you can already tell that it’s dated. The dialogue, rhythm, and comedy of The Amazing Spider-Man are very current, sometimes reminding me of less mainstream indie films that seem to be becoming more and more popular.

Overall, the movie was great. You should definitely go see it at least once. Based on its success and the unresolved nature of the ending, I’m sure there will be a sequel in the near future, but I’m worried that there might not be an Avengers/Spider-Man crossover as I had previously predicted. First of all (mini-spoiler alert), there was no Samuel L. Jackson cameo as Nick Fury, something I had really been hoping for. Secondly, Spider-Man is much darker, edgier, and younger than any of the Avengers, and I’m not sure he would fit in with the Avengers franchise without a lot of work. However, I am very welcome to the possibility of seeing Spider-Man in The Avengers 2 if they can somehow make it work.

The bottom line is this: Whether you’ve seen the original Spider-Man trilogy or not, you need to go see The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s a great movie with a new take on the classic coming-of-age story of Peter Parker, the boy who became known as Spider-Man. And you won’t be behind when they release a sequel or a Spider-Man/Avengers crossover. I hope you enjoy the movie, and I can’t wait to see where they take the series from here.