God in a headlock

Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:12:01 -0500

We are in springfield for Kevin and liv's wedding.

I am doing the ceremony tomorrow night.

But then it will be all this...

Don't send a lame eCard.
Try JibJab Sendables!

God is our Healer

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:22:40 -0500

A couple of my students recommended these videos to me.

They are amazing.

The first one is the story you need to know.

The second one is the actual performance.

God is still healing, God is soooo good!

God's heart beat faster...

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:23:53 -0500

Thats right.

I think last nights experience at KYC made God's heart beat faster.

I baptized 52 students into the Kingdom!

Sometimes we try to make our services too culturally relevant.

Last night we forgot that we live in the culture of "I cant get this shirt wet, it was 80$" and acted like we lived in the days of the apostles.

We read some scripture on Baptism, then like the ethiopian eunuch, we just baptized people right then and there. No one knew it was coming, it was a spontaneous baptism.

We set-up a blow up pool right in front of the stage.

For the girls that were wearing "questionable" clothes we gave them a free KYC shirt to put over their clothes and we dunked them right there in the name of the father, son, and Holy Spirit!

But what are they going to do without their baptism certificate?

Why does the church make every thing so lame?

Javen diggs the trio...

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:11:44 -0500

late birthday or early christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:16:36 -0500

Either one it's still cool. BLU-RAY YALL, BLU-RAY!

Thanks Austin.

Bullhorn guy

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:20:08 -0500

I ran into this guy while on vacation.

He brought his soapbox to stand on. His bible to hold open. And he yelled at all the "sinners" that judgement was on it's way. He even made the mean face!

I was in my brother in law's van at the time and they wouldn't stop for me to have words with this fellow but,

My brother in law, brenton, just shook his head and said, "oh bullhorn guy, what are you doing!"

and that statement caused me to stop and think...

...because Brenton wasn't a christ follower a few years ago.

...He is a Christ follower now.

...and He is a "good ol' boy" that doesn't really talk about his faith much.

...and his statement was in direct reference to a message I preached at least 2 years ago on evangelism where I used Rob Bells "bullhorn" video.

...I was shocked that that message and video had made such an impression on him that he pulled it out of the dark recesses of his brain from over 2 years ago.

So, bullhorn guy we still love you but really hate the way you do things and we think that you are actually doing other followers of Christ a huge disservice.

And preachers, keep preaching because you never know when, how, or who will be affected by your messages.

Junes Books

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:46:57 -0500

Mark Driscoll Killed it! Everyone in church leadership should read this one, especially church planters.
Im not quite finished with this one but it has been very challenging. So much different than the typical "church leadership" book. Overall premise, Leverage your weaknesses and failures.
Good read, a little weird. God the father as an asian chick, c'mon now, that's just fiction...oh wait, yeah, the book is fiction...all's good.
I already gave my review on this one.

Burn the books!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:28:43 -0500

While on vacation I read this book.

It is over 50 years old but reads like it was written yesterday.

I could not escape from the feeling that is was written for me, today, and I was meant to read it at this moment in my life.

It reminded me of the apostle Paul's writing that we are a "letter written in our hearts, and everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you."

A clarion call to break away from the masses, shut off the television and fall in love with the written word, again.

And the hidden message for the follower of Christ, to become newly captivated and completely occupied by the words of Christ.

GOD I LOVE MY BIBLE!!!!!!!!

Church Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:56:39 -0500

I am reading the best book I have ever read on church leadership.

I'm not surprised because I love just about everything that Mark Driscoll writes.

Check out these stats,

Right now our Youth Church is in the top 25 percent of all churches in the nation.

Anyone ready to be in the top 5%?

If we continue to grow like we have the past 2 years then sometime in 2009 we will pass 95% of Americas churches in size.

Back from VACAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:45:08 -0500

We got home yesterday but my mind is still in vacation mode.

I didn't twitter until this morning. I was actually considering stopping.

The total unplug from technology, other than my cameras, was refreshing. (I really didn't have a choice Jesus commented and threatened me on my last post)

I really had an amazing time relaxing and funnin it up with the fam!

I really feel like I am the most blessed man on the planet! I was with Amanda and Javen 24/7 for 7 days straight and I am ready for another 7!

It felt like Javen grew up while we were on this trip. By the end of our stay he was going down the water slides by himself, climbing everything, and going down the big slides with me! He is only 16 mo. old but he is a daredevil just like his father.

Today I am trying to put the videos together from our trip and post some pics on Facebook then its on to Kevin's Bachelor party tonight!

It starts today...

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:01:20 -0500

Tonight my family and I will be staying in something like this...

While looking at something like this...
and this week we will be doing this...
and this....
and this...
Thats right, were going on Vacation!!!

We are leaving in a couple of hours and heading to Wisconsin Dells for the next few days. My sister and her family are going to meet us up there tomorrow and stay with us a couple of days, it should be fun.

I am not going to read any ministry books or do any studying. I will pray and read my bible and just relax. Please pray for us. I really have a hard time relaxing and being away from ministry so I would appreciate your prayers. I really want to enjoy this time with my family and then come back rejuvenated and ready to plow forward.

I love you all and if I can I will be posting pics and stuff while Im gone. So check back soon.

It is really really good.

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:31:34 -0500

The new Coldplay album rocks.

If you don't have it, get it.

It's the best album of the year in my opinion.

Here is their nasty video/commercial for itunes.

40 days of Purity!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:01:58 -0500

God is calling us to a higher level of sexual purity.

Will you respond?

40 days....No Porn, No Masturbating, No Fooling Around, No Orgasms at all unless your married.

Radical Purity in response to the Radical Grace of Jesus Christ that has set us free from the slavery of sin.

Can you do it? Will you do it?

Don't be a Preacher!

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:52:02 -0500

If you want people to like you.

If you don't want to offend anyone.

If you only want to say what people want to hear.

If you won't say what the Bible has to say about the tough topics in life.

If your okay with "believers" sitting in your church and hearing the word without doing it.

Do the world a favor and quit! Go be a motivational speaker somewhere and make lots of money, but don't try to be a preacher.

Preaching is proclamation. It is prophecy. It is about understanding the past, knowing the present, while seeing the future and proclaiming the steps it's going to take to get there while doing it all through the lens of Holy Scripture.

Preaching is all about confrontation. Confronting the evil forces of today that try their best to steal our allegiances away from Christ. Confronting people with their beliefs and the Gap between those beliefs and the word of God.

It's easy to lecture. It's easy to talk. It's easy to discuss. It's even easy to motivate.

Sometimes it sucks being a preacher, last night was one of those nights.

I was going to preach on hearing from God, but God gave me a different word the night before.

Lust, Porn, and Masturbation.

My response- "Awesome, thanks God, I cant wait. The people are going to love me. This will be a really fun message to preach especially in the middle of summer when our numbers are already down a little bit. Let's just give them all a really good reason to never come back again."

I wasn't excited, but I was broken. I AM BROKEN! This is not my church, it's Christ's church. If He want's me to preach something tough, I will do it. If he doesn't want me to be the biggest church in the state, thats fine. So many "preachers" assume that God wants them to preach the thing that will offend the least amount of people and get the biggest crowd.

Real Preachers are ballsy enough to piss every person off, except Jesus!

Are you a Real Preacher?

A little bit of the outdoors with just enough of the indoor comforts.

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:49:22 -0500

Fathers Day

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:30:15 -0500

You might need to click on the image to really see what's going on but this is what my amazing woman did for me for fathers day.

I was out of town at our Student Leadership Summit and when I returned on Saturday afternoon, I found this in my back yard.

It used to be a nasty corner of my yard that desperately needed my attention.

I was completely blown away! She worked 8 hours on this with only Javen's help.

It was an awesome Fathers day gift and I'm blogging from that chair right now!

Cardboard Testimonies

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:13:50 -0500

I haven't seen anything this powerful in a long time.

It really takes a couple of minutes to take off but this is what ministry is all about.

Let's Tear down some religious walls

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:55:06 -0500

Earlier this week I heard an awesome story from one of our church members.

She was telling her sister about the "awesome" band that our church has, when her sister interrupted her about the "awesome" band she heard the night before in a local bar. The sister said that the female singer "gave her chills she was so good!"

Then later on that day, they were flipping through Facebook together and the sister saw "the female singer" on one of her photo albums and freaked out.

"Thats the girl I heard in the bar!"

-"Thats the girl who sings in our church."

That female singer is my wife. This was the first time she played with TRI, 3 guys from our worship band and God opened heart doors in a bar.

The sis will be at church this sunday, and my prayer is that God will rock her face off!

C'mon church folk, Let's tear down some religious walls so we can change lives!

The church has been trying to keep people out of the bars for years, what do you think? Is it wrong for christian musicians and singers to perform "Non-christian" music in a bar?

Moleskin

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:23:00 -0500

Do you moleskin? Yeah, its a journal but it can be so much more.

I use mine to keep track of my random thoughts and Ideas. Most of the time when I am creative, writing flows easier than typing.

Some of my most recent entries.

-Job Description for an associate Youth Pastor

-New Vision for KYC Small Groups

-Message Ideas for our next series

Do you moleskin? How do you use yours?

Who are you, right now?

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:04:00 -0500

Yeah, I know, Your You.

But which You are you?

I think that every person bounces back and forth between two versions of their-self.

The Selfish You, and the Selfless You.

This is one reason that I go on a Short-Term Mission trip every year. When I return, I return the Selfless Justin and I like him a whole lot more.

So how do you know which one you are right now?

Selfish You- Thinks more about what you need, deserve, want, can afford, etc. The "christian" version of this sounds like this "Well, I just don't feel called to serve... blah, blah, blah."

Selfless You- This version of you is the one that will do whatever it takes to help the kingdom. Where ever and whenever you are needed, you are there. It don't matter if it's cleaning the church, hosting a small group, or running the sound board.

The crazy thing is, when we are living the selfish version of ourself we think that it will make us happy, but in reality we are much more at peace with ourselves when we are living the christ modeled way, completely Selfless.

So I ask you again, Who are you, right now?

Student Leadership Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:38:32 -0500

Tomorrow I am taking our Student Leadership team away for a little R&R.

They have served the Kingdom well all year long and this is where we are able to get away and re-connect and pump them up with vision for the new year.

Last year was our first Summit and it was a blast.

So the next few days will be filled with early morning devotions, creek stomping, high ropes courses, hiking, low ropes courses, swimming, late night hikes with no flashlights, the leap of faith, campfires and allowing God to stretch our minds capacity to dream big things for our friends, families, schools, and cities.

Last year I set the camp record for climbing and nailing the leap of faith, 8 sec. from Ground to trapeze. Im in better shape this year maybe I'll beat it. Or you never know maybe a student leader can beat me.

Any takers?

Who's your Paul/Yoda?

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:48:40 -0500

Here is another key relationship that everyone needs in this life to be the person that God has called them to be.

So for Scriptural references I will use Paul as an example.

But for all practical purposes you probably recognize the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Yoda better than Paul and lets say Timothy.

But Paul was a huge believer in personally investing in the generation to come. He spent a majority of his time praying, writing, teaching, preaching, and modeling life to younger men like Timothy.

Timothy was a smart young man. He was anointed and called by God, but recognized his need for a Yoda.

Smart people, deep people, successful people look for a Yoda.

Luke Skywalker would have never became a Jedi without the help of Yoda.

Timothy wouldn't have been as great of a young pastor without Paul's influence.

I wouldn't be where I am without the influence of Pastor Brett Black in my teenage years and early twenty's.

Today I have many different Yoda's, Men that are ahead of me in certain areas of life that I follow on a daily basis. Some I follow through web 2.0 stuff like blogs and twitter, some I meet with occasionally and some I meet with through the books I read.

So the obvious question is,

Who's your Paul/Yoda?

June 9th

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:47:42 -0500

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday!

But more importantly it is the day that Steve Jobs will cause me to covet for things I don't need.

For Apple watchers, next week will -- if rumors are correct -- bring a host of reasons to rejoice.

The sold-out Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC, happening June 9-13 in San Francisco, is widely expected to be the venue at which company CEO Steve Jobs unveils a second-generation iPhone, a panoply of new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, a new MacBook Pro and the next upgrade to OS X, codenamed "Snow Leopard."

The highlight of the week will be Jobs' keynote, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday morning. Wired.com will be covering the WWDC keynote live on Gadget Lab.

After the keynote, Apple will take developers behind closed doors for a week of secret briefings. (Press are not invited to the conference sessions, and attendees are bound by a nondisclosure agreement.)

IPhone 2
Most hotly anticipated, of course, is the announcement of a new iPhone, which will probably include support for fast, 3-G wireless data and advanced geotagging features, if not outright GPS capability. As with other WWDC rumors, Apple has been characteristically close-mouthed about these details, refusing to confirm even the existence of a new iPhone. That hasn't stopped bloggers and journalists from engaging in iPhone mania, even going so far as to photograph incoming cargo shipments that may or may not contain new iPhones.

New iPhone Software, New Apps
The iPhone and iPod Touch operating system will also probably receive an upgrade to version 2.0, which, according to leaked shots of posters at the Moscone center, has been rebranded "OS X iPhone." The new OS will also likely include an App Store, integrated with iTunes, enabling users to purchase and install new software.

Apple's software development kit, or SDK, for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been in the wild for several months. Given what the developer community has achieved with the current iPhone, we can expect some exciting new toys. Programmers working with hacked iPhones have gotten their hooks deep into the OS, creating a video recorder, a Last.FM music streaming client and even an NES emulator. Now that an official development platform is available, look for Apple-sanctioned versions of applications like these to begin appearing next week.

It's also likely that users of first-generation iPhones will be able to upgrade their handsets with the new OS. Indie developer Gus Mueller of Flying Meat says, "Developers already have their hands full with the current iPhone as it is, [but] I would love to see GPS in an iPhone."

GPS support is the big question mark. The SDK has support for geotagging photos, which could help turn photo-sharing sites like Flickr into a giant mapping service for photographs. However, it's still unclear whether the new iPhone will contain a GPS unit or whether it will compute its location by triangulating WiFi hotspots and cell towers, as the current model does.

We could, too, see something like the Streetview overlay demonstrated in Google’s Android platform.

New MacBook Pro
There are other hardware expectations, too. One is a new MacBook Pro, the external design of which has remained almost unchanged since the PowerBook G4 back in 2001. Many people want a return to the form factor of the 12” PowerBook, but even if this doesn’t show, a little reorganization is needed. The Pro version is overshadowed by the consumer level MacBook with its new-style keyboard and user-changeable hard drive.

OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard
The rumors say that there is a possibility that Apple will preview OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard, at the conference. It will drop support for the PowerPC-based Macs, possibly be 64-bit only and will be coming just months after the release of Leopard. According to reports, it will focus on performance enhancements and stability improvements -- two areas that Leopard, aka OS X 10.5, has been criticized for.

An Intel-only release would pave the way for Apple to drop PowerPC support altogether. It would be a controversial move: Many people argue that PowerPC G5 machines are still perfectly capable. However, Apple killed off OS 9 pretty quickly and does not have the best track record when it comes to supporting older hardware (Leopard already requires at least an 867 MHz or faster G4 chip).

It seems likely that moving to a pure 64-bit system would be more appealing to Apple than continuing to support the increasingly long-in-the-tooth PowerPC architecture.

What actually comes out of WWDC is still uncertain however. What we do know is that Jobs will make the most of his semiannual turn in the spotlight to focus as much hype and excitement on Apple's products as he can.

This is taken from the Wired website.

Backyard words from God

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:16:16 -0500

This is a video for all you rss readers.

A few things that I love...

noreply@blogger.com (Justin Dean) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:07:13 -0500

I love my Youth Church.

I love competition.
I love my family.
I trained for a few hours this morning but now I get to go spend some quality time chasing my son around the pool. I also get to see my wife in a bikini which is always a positive.

I'm looking forward to a little family time at the local pool.

Tonight is UFC and Amanda has a gig so this will be some R&R before the bedlam begins.