JOSHTREECE.COM

The Widow's Offering

2013-03-05T11:52:00.002-05:00

About a month and a half ago, we had a big leadership meeting at our church. We gathered all of our leadership (deacons, teachers, ministry leaders) together for most of the day on a Saturday (yes, coffee and donuts and lunch were provided) and, as a staff, each took turns sharing with them a little about what we do, how we do it, and where we'd like to go in 2013.

Our pastor (@EGCoakley) shared first and, what he shared was pretty powerful. And do you know why? Because he used a prop. Who knew we could learn something about preaching from Carrot Top?

As each person entered the room for the meeting, Eddie stood at the door and handed them a tiny bronze coin from a small glass bowl. The coins were so small, that you had to hold them on your finger, kind of like you do with a contact lens. No one knew what they were or what they were for. All we knew was that Eddie said not to lose them, as they were important and expensive.

Here's a pic of two of them.

That gives you a decent idea of what I'm talking about. But how about another pic for size?

Here's the same pic, but with a Dime added for comparison. I like stating obvious things in caption form.

He went on to explain that he purchased each of these coins for around five dollars each ($5!) and that they were around 2000 years old. If he would have stopped there, my mind would have sufficiently been blown. But he didn't.

These small, bronze coins (a lepton) were the lowest, least valuable form of currency in Jesus' time. They were also what the widow in Mark 12:41-44 gave as an offering. I was holding a 2000 year old coin in my hand.

Since then, I've kept the coin. I've held it many times and reflected on how just two of these could be someone's entire savings. And how she could give them anyway. I've also thought about how tightly I hold on to the things I have. Strangely enough, I don't really struggle with giving God my money. But ask me to trust Him with my relationships? My plans? My future? That's when you'll see my grip tighten.

Jesus uses the widow's example to teach his disciples. Throughout the Gospels he can be seen taking what seemed small or insignificant, and using it to change the world. But the things he used had to be given to him.

I'm continuing to think about how that shakes out in my life. What am I holding back from Jesus that he wants to use?

What about you? What's your bronze coin?

#OldSchoolCaseyJones

2013-03-02T11:25:00.001-05:00

Confession: I love taking pictures.

It's something that I've enjoyed since I started college (way back when I was using Kodak Advantix). My junior year, I was able to buy a nice Canon Rebel that I used to cling to 35mm film photography until I began graphic design and had to make the switch to digital. I bought my first digital camera in 2006 (6 megapixels for, like, $300). Then, when I got my first iPhone in 2011, I went mobile. I began taking all of my pictures using my cell phone (which was a 5 megapixel camera). With my recent (December) upgrade to the iPhone 5, I've now got an 8 megapixel camera in my pocket at all times. (Booyah.)

So, needless to say, I'm on Instagram.

I could write pages about how much I love Instagram. But, for the purposes of this post, I'll limit my love to one thing.

During the month of February, I decided that i wanted to participate in one of those "photo a day" things. The one that I chose was created by FatMumSlim. But, here's the thing. I didn't want to do it in any normal way. I wanted something that would make it different and creative. Not to mention fun.

While hanging out with my brother one Sunday, I found one of my old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures in his room. It was Casey Jones. It was then that an idea (not to mention a #hashtag) was born.

Each day in February, I had a word or phrase to theme my picture with. Each day in February, Old School Casey Jones had an adventure. And I documented it on Instagram.

Click the jump to see the photos...

Old school Casey Jones tried to fight me for my dinner.

We don’t need to talk about who won.

#FMSPHOTOADAY #fork

Sometimes, in order to defeat his enemies,

Old School Casey Jones has to scale some high walls.

He doesn’t let it stop him though. He says, “Hey. Walls. I’m coming. Get ready.”

#FMSPHOTOADAY #Pattern

Old School Casey Jones doesn’t just fight evil. He also fights the common cold.

His weapon of choice? Emergen-C. Oh, and a baseball bat.

#FMSPHOTOADAY #SomethingThatBeginsWithE

What is Old School Casey Jones’ greatest foe? Early mornings.

How does he combat against this terrible villain? Coffee.

Gallons and gallons of coffee.

#FMSPHOTOADAY #SomethingYouSmelled

Even Old School Casey Jones needs to take a break from fighting crime to eat lunch.

But don’t worry. Those are reduced fat Cheez-its.

(Vigilantes can’t have love handles. It’s in their job description.)

#FMSPHOTOADAY #SomethingOrange

Just as any prey of the animal kingdom fears its predator,

all pancakes instinctively fear Old School Casey Jones.

He taunts them from the shadows. His hand gently resting on the bacon

that he carries with him wherever he goes. (For emergencies.)

#FMSPHOTOADAY #GuiltyPleasure

Being the world’s best vigilante isn’t all about capturing criminals and stopping injustice.

Old School Casey Jones also knows it’s about staying physically fit enough to do the job.

How does he stay in crime fighting shape? By making sure he spends at least an hour each day #walking. Oh, and also he bench presses mini coopers.

#FMSPHOTOADAY

1 John 4:19 says, “We love, because He first loved us.” And HOW did God love us?

1 Corinthians 13 is a perfect description of what His true and perfect #loveis.

And even Old School Casey Jones knows that… #FMSPHOTOADAY

Even masked vigilantes need friends.

Well… Maybe “need” is too strong of a word…

“Seriously, Tony? Bunny ears?”

#FMSPHOTOADAY #perfect

Everyone knows that Old School Casey Jones doesn’t like crime. (And early mornings.)

But only those close to the masked vigilante know that he LOATHES an empty office candy dish. #FMSPHOTOADAY #SomethingYouDontLike

Someone once asked Old School Casey Jones, “What #makesyousmile?.”

He thought for a second, looked up, and said,

“The sound of my bat breaking over the back of injustice. And traveling the world.”

#FMSPHOTOADAY

And, even though it isn't a part of photo a day, I like this one as a shout out to my friend, Rick.

Picked up my #LiveLikeRick mug from @JamestownCoffee this morning!

Pick yours up today!

So should I continue documenting the adventures of Old School Casey Jones?

Advice To a Former Student

2012-10-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

One of the joys of student ministry is that, sometimes, we get to see the results of our labor. This isn't always immediate. In fact, most of the time, it takes years.

One former student of mine is now a youth pastor himself! (This makes me feel both immensely proud and incredibly old.) Of course, every student chooses their own path.

I got a message from one of my former students a few weeks ago saying that, in recent years, he had "fallen out of faith" and asking for some advice on how to begin the spiritual growth process again.

What I wrote him isn't revolutionary, but I thought I'd share it here just in case you had a similiar situation.

Here's the deal. There's no magic formula for growing closer to God. What God desires from us is a RELATIONSHIP with Him. So, think about it this way: You've got all kinds of relationships. Friends, family, girlfriend, etc. How do you grow closer to any of them? You spend TIME with them! Right?

It works the same with God. You have to spend time with Him. Now, having said that, there's really three GREAT ways to do that.

1) Read God's Word. I can't stress enough how important this is. This is the primary way that God reveals Himself to us. It's an important habit to develop and practice EVERYDAY! If you need a tool to do this, check out www.youversion.com. They've got some GREAT reading plans that can help (and that you can use on your android or iPhone). I recommend starting with a small one like just the book of John first.

2) PRAY! Talk to God! Ask Him to reveal Himself to you! Tell Him your feelings! Tell Him your hopes. Your fears! Ask Him to help you by giving you a deeper desire to know Him! PS, prayer is a conversation. Conversations involve talking AND listening. So don't forget to listen for Him to speak to you. (Guess how He primarily speaks? Yup. Through His Word.)

3) Find a church where you can find community. We're not meant to do life by ourself. We need accountability, encouragement, and prayer. We also need people that are smarter than us and are farther along in their relationship with God to help guide us. (Is this sounding like a small group to you?) Find a local church to invest in.

Student Discipleship Resources

2012-09-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

In our student ministry at Trinity, we have three main programs.

First, is our MidWeek worship service. This is our "front door" program that we encourage students to bring their non-believing friends to so that they can get a taste of what church and God are all about.

Second, is Sunday School. Sunday School is where our students are divided into grade groups (6, 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12) and delve deeper into God's Word.

Finally, on Sunday evenings, we have our discipleship groups. Discipleship groups are divided up by gender and by high school and middle school. This is where we hope to train our students to tell others about their faith.

A good way to look at these three programs is through the lens of the SBC's "KNOWN" strategy: Our ministry exists to help students know Christ (MidWeek), own their faith (Sunday School), and make their faith known (discipleship groups).

This semester, we've begun using two resources that I wanted to pass along to you. One is the curriculum that we're using in our groups. The other, a series of youtube videos that could be used by anyone at any time!
Last semester, our discipleship groups used what ever study the leader liked (that was also approved by our student pastor). But, this year, every group is using the same this. GodQuest, by Sean McDowell (son of Josh), is a 6 session DVD based study that "answers the most critical challenges teens face on their spiritual journey."

So far, in the high school guys' group that I teach, this has been a big hit. Even though each session is designed to go about 2 hours, we've split them in half. We'll start by showing the 15 minute video (with such presenters as Sean Mcdowell, Lee Strobel, Dr. Craig Hazen, Miles McPherson, and Josh McDowell) in a large group setting, then break into our smaller groups to discuss.

If you're looking for a study that is systematic, uses media/video, is Biblically rooted, and leans more on using leaders to lead discussion rather than teach, I can't recommend this resource enough.

Next, is a yotube video series called The One Minute Apologist. We've just discovered this series on youtube and have already shown one or two to our students. Here's why I like them: They tackle serious and relevant faith questions head on by asking experts about them and they do so in a short video that's only a few minutes long! It'd be super easy for you to pull one of these videos up on your phone to show to a student or friend in Starbucks while you were talking over a cup of coffee.

If you find yourself short of answers, or just want to provide a different perspective, these videos could be a great tool to have at your ready!

Resources For Worship Leaders

2012-09-10T11:29:00.002-04:00

I love leading worship!

To be able to express my love for God though music and song, and help others do the same, is a beautiful thing!

Since taking on leadership of our student worship ministry, I've been introduced to some great resources for worship leaders that I wanted to let you know about. Check them out!

Songselect (CCLI)- Songselect is a part of CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International). It's probably not a big surprise to you that, when you play or perform someone's song, you've got to make sure that you're kosher with copyrights. CCLI helps you do that. But what is a surprise is that, through songselect, you can get chord charts, lead sheets, lyrics, and sheet music for most worship songs! It's a paid service that comes with your CCLI membership.

Worshiptutorials.com- Two Mays ago, I went to Nashville to take part in writing some curriculum for Lifeway. One of the other guys that they flew in was Brian Wahl. Brian is a youth worker and worship leader out of Durham, NC who has an incredible heart for helping other worship leaders. So, he created this website to provide training, ideas, and recommendations for worship leading. He's got some great content! Check him out! And, best of all, it's free!

Praisecharts.com- Our worship pastor, Jeremy, introduced me to this site last week. I was trying to find music to Kristian Stanfill's "Who You Are" and songselect didn't have it. But praisecharts.com did! Look up songs by title and buy charts or sheet music a la carte for a bout the cost of an itunes song.

Question: What resources do you go to for help in leading worship?

Things I Love: Series 4

2012-09-06T08:00:00.049-04:00

For some time now on my twitter, I've been posting a series of tweets about things I love. I figured I'd collect them all in one place (along with making some of them into links). You can check out the entire series by clicking here. I mean, this way, if you ever want to buy me a gift, you can. After all, my birthday is next month.

Vol 20: Skinny Ties, Tiny Wings, Cake (the food and the band), THOR, Air Conditioning, My iPhone, Nachos, Amy Poehler, Sonic Ice, Coke Zero, Bananas

Vol 21: SC State Fair Corn Dogs, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Candy Corn, iOS5, Sanuks, My Birthday (10/27), Diet Dr. Pepper

Vol 22: Late Night FRIENDS Reruns On Nick At Nite

Vol 23: Mio, Dunkin Donuts' Hazelnut Coffee, Wheaties, Rocky 3, the MyFitnessPal app, Canoeing, Oak Valley, Jeopardy, Tacos

Question: What are some things that you love?

ManCans

2012-09-05T08:00:00.016-04:00

I love stories.

I'm especially moved and inspired by stories of teenagers using their passions or resources to change the world by helping others. Austin Gutwein is a great example of this. But I wanted to let you know of another story that I just found out about two days ago.

Two years ago, Hart Main was just 13 years old when his sister started selling candles for a school fundraiser. Thinking that the candles she was selling were "really girly scents", he wondered, "Why don't people sell candles with scents that men like?" Out of that idea, ManCans was born.

ManCans has candles with scents like bacon, sawdust, dirt, campfire, Grandpa's pipe, and new mitt. If the story stopped right there, I'd already be a big fan. (I mean, who doesn't want a candle that smells like Grandpa's pipe!?) But it doesn't!

Hart thought that, if his candles were going to smell like things that men like, they couldn't come in glass jars like ordinary candles do. So he started using soup cans to house them. But a problem arose. When the candles' demand skyrocketed after some media coverage (including the Today Show), the need for soup cans went up as well. Since their family bought the cans (and the soup that came in them) from their local grocery store, they needed to figure out something to do with the soup.

They started donating the soup to the Red Cross and local soup kitchens. For every candle sold, one meal (the soup) is given to "people who need a little extra help." To date, Hart has helped feed 30,000 people.

Now that's impressive.

At $9.50 each, Hart's candles are great gifts on their own. But coupled with their affect on the lives of others, they're a home run. Go to man-cans.com and order one for yourself. And while you're there, read up on Hart's story. It's a great one.

Question: How are you inspiring/equipping your students to use what God has given them to impact the world?

STUDENT ministers

2012-09-04T08:00:00.002-04:00

My boss, Bryant, has a great story of how, when he was in high school, he started attending our church. Half of it involves a cute girl talking to him. But the other half (the half this post has the most to do with) involves two other high school guys talking to him, and visiting him at his home.

Because of those two guys (that were his age) and the way they showed care for him, he knew that our church was a place he wanted to be. They also created in him a value that we are now trying to create in our ministry.

Because of transitions of leadership in our student ministry in the past few years, 6th grade promotion has been a bit fluid. (2 years ago it was in May. Last year, in January.) This year, after meeting with our children's director and executive pastor, we've finally landed on a plan that we think will be good moving forward: promoting in the fall on the Sunday after school starts.

Leading up to our promotion last month, we did our best (in a few different ways) to instill in our students how important it was that they welcome our new students into our group. That something as simple as saying hello, or asking someone to sit beside them, could make a world of difference.

So, promotion Sunday came. And, you know what? Our students were great! I saw them initiating conversations with newbies, escorting them from the worship center to our student building, and sitting with them in preparation for Sunday School. In short, they were ministering!

I'm so proud of them!

Hopefully, our new students will feel like our church is a place that they can call home, but not because of how cool our building is or how great the music might be. Hopefully, it'll be because of other students caring for them!

Question: How are you training your students to reach out to their peers?

The Music Guy

2012-08-21T08:00:00.040-04:00

I've been absolutely blessed to work with some amazing people in my career. And I've done my best to learn from every one of them.

Since moving back to South Carolina and starting my job at my home church, I've, once again, been given more than I deserve in coworkers. (Two guys I'm on staff with were members of the youth group with me in middle school and high school. I've known one of them since I was 2!)

A little under two months after I started, our church hired a new Music Pastor. His name is Jeremy Hansard and he's become one of my absolute favorite people to work with.

He's also started his own blog! I was originally going to point you there so that you can download a song he wrote for a children's music camp, but I see that he's been writing a little more since then. Check him out at jeremyhansard.com and, if you're in children's ministry, download and use his song!

Psalm 112

2012-08-20T08:00:00.084-04:00

I turned my life over to God almost 22 years ago.

I felt called to serve Him vocationally about 17 years ago.

I began my education to serve him 14 years ago.

I began my training almost 9 years ago.

And I started my first pastoral job a little over 7 years ago.

In all that time, I've been told of the importance of spending time in God's Word. I wish I could say that, for the whole 22 years, doing that has been a priority to me. But, to be honest, it hasn't. But I can say that, as an adult (and as a vocational minister), it has.

One thing that's always amazed me about the Bible is how God speaks to me so specifically through it. Now, I don't mean specific as in "to me only". I mean specific as in He speaks to events or relationships or troubles in my life. He doesn't speak to me in the form of general "fortune cookie" advice. He goes straight for my heart.

One of the most recent examples of this occurred a few weeks ago as I was spending time one morning reading Psalm 112.

Sometime in 2011, I had been using a youversion Bible reading plan that took me through the books of Psalm and Proverbs in 31 days. During that time, the majority of the passages I felt God speaking to me through dealt primarily with waiting. Why? I was waiting on an answer from Him about something. But, on this particular early July morning, as I sat in a church in Atlanta, GA, God grabbed my attention with this passage:

Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. Psalm 112:6-8 NIV

They will have no fear of bad news? Whoa. How is that even possible?

It's simple. (NOT easy.) the second line of verse 7 answers it. Their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

This Psalm reminded me of a post that I wrote 5 years ago. In it, I quoted a line from Anne Rice's book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

"Joseph doesn't have to understand, because Joseph trusts in the Lord completely."

That had stuck with me at the time. Mainly because I could not separate my own understanding from God's trustworthiness. Surely, if God is doing something I'll understand it. If God does it, it has to make sense. Right? Wrong. But it took me some time to learn that.

Upon reading these verses from Psalm 112 last month, I felt the Lord nudging me about my trust. Am I trusting Him completely? Or am I trying to BE Him? To control things? To make my life and my world into what I think it should be?

The longer I've known God, the more He's proved His trustworthiness. The more I've read, studied, and meditated on His Word, the more I've seen this character trait displayed and talked about. But, the more I've allowed (let's be honest here, sometimes forced) myself to radically trust Him, the more I've learned that's it's never a mistake.

Question: What area of your life is God encouraging you to trust Him more in?

Sometimes Simple Is Better!

2012-07-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of programming. And I've had the opportunity to work in two churches where programming is done big and it's done well!

But this summer, at Trinity, we decided to simplify things a bit. Two of the things we're doing are as simple as can be but have been BIG hits!

Here they are. Use them if you want to!
The first thing we're doing is a Sunday night hang out we're calling F3 (food, fellowship, and fun). We've talked with a few families in our church that have pools. Each Sunday night, everyone comes over and we eat, swim, and hang out! The host home provides the main course (burgers, hot dogs, pizza, etc.) and we reimburse them for it. The students bring wither a 2 liter soda (if their last name starts with A-H), a bag of chips (I-Q), or a dessert (R-Z).

It's the type of program that I would normally expect (and be fine with) small numbers in attendance. But we've had TWICE what I expected at each one. And more than that at the last one this past Sunday! And it's been super fun to be able to sit down, relax, have a chili dog, and talk with our students without having to worry about times or service elements or transportation.

Is this possible to pull off in a large church setting? Probably not. But if you've got a large group, you've probably got your own facility (or at least one you use). Bring the students there and break out the games or a movie!

Secondly, (and we don't do this one too often) this week we're meeting up for lunch with our students. Each day of the week, we've selected (and publicized) a different restaurant to meet at (all in the Chick-Fil-A price range). My boss and I show up from 11:30am-1pm and students are free to drop in and eat and hang anytime in that window. Once again, super simple. But super fun!

Our goal for both of these things was HIGH relational value and LOW cost.

Question: How are you encouraging relational growth this summer in your ministry?

Embrace the Curl

2012-07-06T15:30:00.002-04:00

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about contentment. It's not necessarily that I'm discontent, but more out of self examination and reflection. It's always good to be asking yourself if you like where your life is, where it's going and, of course, examining both in light of God's Word.

My present examination reminded me of a big lesson that I learned about contentment a few years ago.

When I was younger (like, from birth through middle school) I had very straight hair. My mom was nice enough to have it cut in an outstanding bowl cut style that made me look like that little kid that was friends with Gary Coleman on Diff'rent Stokes who grew up to be Bobby Budnick on Salute Your Shorts. (I hope you followed that reference.)

Once I reached adolescence, I decided that I wanted to grow my hair long. But there was one problem: once I hit puberty, my hair changed. It became super wavy, then curly. I hated it! So, I did everything I could to get rid of the curl. Unfortunately, since I know absolutely nothing about hair care (other than shampoo is a thing and that I should use it), that meant I kept my hair short. This meant getting it cut short every four weeks and scheduling another cut before even leaving the barber's.

Exhibit "A"

To be honest, a lot of that had to do with how other people looked around me and worrying about what they'd think if I looked different. (Typical teenage stuff.) But once I became more comfortable with myself (around senior year and into college), I started to embrace (but not shake) "what my mama gave me".

So in college, I grew my hair a little, cut it off, grew it a little, etc.

But the point of all this isn't my hairstyle. That's just how I learned the lesson. The real lesson is me accepting me and learning to not only be happy, but to embrace who I am.

I wish that I had a three step formula that I could give you that would help you to do the same. I don't. I suppose there's only two things that really help. One is time. I'm still learning how to do this. Some days a wave of comparison washes up and knocks me down from contentment. It's aided by jealousy and it's a nasty little bugger. But the other thing, the most important thing, is an understanding and embrace of God's love for me.

It's something that, if I'm honest, I still don't fully understand. But I understand more today than I did 14 years ago. And that understanding has caused a shift in me that draws me to think less of what others' opinions of me are and more of what God says about His love for me.

And that's a beautiful place to be.

I know I'm not the only one out there who struggles with contentment, comparison, jealousy, and pride. But, if I can offer you an encouraging word from my struggle it'd be this: Learn to shift your focus from you to God. In moments of struggle, take time to intentionally meditate on His truth. Spend time in His Word. It will change your heart!

Embrace the curl.

That's a picture of me taken while with our students at camp in June. As you can see, I've learned that curly hair isn't all that bad. I actually like it! For me, "embrace the curl" has become a kind of mantra. It's meant to remind me of all that I have to be thankful for. Especially when I begin to lose focus and compare. It's also a gentle nudge back to God. And I know that, sometimes, we could all use that.

Question: What personal reminders do you have in place to help you when you lose focus on God?

Water, Water, Everywhere

2012-07-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Not arranged in order of deliciousness.

I moved back to South Carolina on December 17, 2008. Which means I've been back in the motherland for almost 4 years. When I moved back, I'm sad to say, I kind of let myself go (fitness wise). Looking back, I think it was a combination of feeling down, being without a job, and all of the delicious southern food I had missed out of for the 6 years I lived in Southern California.

As a result, I put on some weight.

But, earlier this year, I decided I had had enough! So, as I did back in 2006, I joined a gym and started to watch what I ate.

But, I am doing one thing differently this time around.It's been over a month since I've drank any soda.

That might not be a big deal to you. But for me, it's HUGE! Why? Because I'm used to drinking upwards of 4 or 5 a day. (This, combined with my morning cup of coffee.) Now, it should be noted that these were all diet sodas. But still...

Anyway, it always helps to replace something that you're trying to give up with something else. So I started drinking Mio.

Mio's sugarless, calorie-less, sodium-less, and fat-less. But it still tastes pretty great. (Think a healthy version of Koolaid or Gatorade.) They're about $3.84 at Target and they're totally worth it! One bottle lasts about 24 bottles of water.

I've taken the initiative to rank each of the 9 flavors in descending order of deliciousness.

1) Mango Peach

2) Orange Tangerine

3) Fruit Punch

4) Peach Tea

5) Strawberry Watermelon

6) Blueberry Lemonade

7) Berry Pomegranate

8) Lemonade (Haven't tried yet)

9) Sweet Tea (Haven't tried yet)

So, there you go. Looking to cut a few calories out of your diet? Try some Mio.

Love Does: A Review

2012-07-02T08:00:00.017-04:00

I've mentioned Bob Goff here, on my blog, before. I've learned a lot about following Jesus and loving others from his musings on twitter. I'd definitely encourage you, if you have a twitter account, to follow him. Lucky for us, Bob decided to write a book.

From his twitter account, it was easy to see that Bob was a man of deep compassion, love, and action. Many adventures (or, capers, if you will) were hinted at, but left unexplained thanks to the 140 character limit. Bob's book, Love Does, pulls back the curtain, allowing us to gaze in wonder at a life lived full throttle for Jesus.

I've already written one post on something I've learned from the book. Here's a few other quotes that stuck with me:

"I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude as I get older because I can see, both through the good times and the bad times, that God has been with me."
"In the Bible, the people following God had the same problem I did. They swapped the real thing for an image of the real thing. We target the wrong thing and our misdirected life’s goal ends up looking like a girl or a wide-brimmed hat or a golden calf. All along, what God really wants for us is something much different, something more tailored to us."
"If Jesus has taught me anything, though, it’s that sometimes you can really want to know somebody and it takes them forever to want to know you back."
"Am I the right guy? I don’t know, but I’m the guy being asked, and the last thing I want to do is miss an opportunity or make God mad, so I just keep saying yes."
"God searches for us, no matter what dark place we’re in or what door we’re behind. He hears our impossible, audacious prayers for ourselves and others. And He delights in forgiving us and then answering those prayers by letting us return home to Him."

And there are so much more! If you'd like to check out some other things I highlighted in the book, you can go to my Kindle highlight page here.

Have you ever met someone that was an incredible storyteller? Maybe they were able to enthrall you for hours simply by telling you about their lives? Maybe even at the end of a story they were able to reveal some truth about life or God that, because they were able to reveal it to you as a part of their story, became part of yours? If not, let me introduce you to Bob.

Pick up his book and get to know him. You'll be glad you did.

The Best Movies of 2012 (So Far)

2012-06-25T08:00:00.019-04:00

I see a lot of movies. One year, I saw 64. (What can I say? I had a few free tickets.) Because of this (and because I like to talk about movies), I get asked for recommendations all the time.

So far, this year, I've seen 20 movies.

And out of those 20, here are the ones I can solidly say you should see...

1) The Artist- If you kept up with the oscars at all this year, then you know all about this film. If you haven't heard (no pun intended), it's silent movie. I was awestruck with how different the experience of watching a movie with no sound (except background music) was. I found myself being bothered with ambient noise coming from the audience that I would have never noticed before. But, if you're watching it at home, you won't have to worry about that. It's a beautiful story of someone struggling with progress and change while falling in love. There's also a cute dog.

2) The Desendants- First, this movie was written by two "second banana" comedic actors. Second, it'a a very realistic story (except for the part of someone cheating on George Clooney) of a family struggling to stay together and love each other through a tragedy. Shailene Woodley is great as an angry daughter who feels no one listens or cares for her. And George Clooney is, once again, awesome as a man who is figuring it out as he goes. The visuals that the setting provides (Hawaii) are beautiful and set the movie in a unique universe.

3) The Avengers- I've seen this movie 4 times. And, knowing the kind of money it's made so far, so have you. It's probably the most fun a superhero movie has ever been. And they finally got the Hulk right. See it.

4) Brave- I. Love. Pixar. Plain and simple. I think Up was, not only, their best movie, but one of the best movies of 2009. Period. Pixar knows how to tell a story. While I don't think Brave belongs on the same level as Up, I loved the story. Pixar also completely rewrote their animation software for this one, so the visuals and animation are on another level completely than their previous work.

So, there you have it. Four recommendations of movies that you should see.
Question: What movies that have come out this year would you recommend?

Learning to Manage a Weakness

2012-06-21T11:10:00.000-04:00

I'm a pretty observational guy. Like Monk, sometimes it's a gift and sometimes it's a curse. The gift part of it is that I'm usually self aware enough to notice when something's off in me.

For instance, I noticed quite a while ago that I'm impulsive. And this character trait bleeds into almost all areas of my life. Everything from grocery shopping to relationships to time management. It's easy to see how this can be a weakness. In fact, McGill touched on this a little in a great little blog post. But, part of the joy in getting older (or "growing up" if you don't like to think about age), is that you learn more about yourself. You learn more about how you are you.

Is it possible to use something that you've discovered in yourself to be a potential "weakness" to your advantage?

That's exactly what I've learned how to do. And here's how...
I've learned that it's not just "bad" things that I'm impulsive about, but good and productive things as well. The trick is learning to discern between the two, and act on the right impulses.

For instance, if I'm in my office and have an impulse to surf around on pinterest, it's probably not something good to follow through on, because it will be an unwise use of my time at work. But, if I get the impulse to write some cards to my student worship leaders to encourage them, I should grab hold of that feeling and go for it. Encouragement is an investment in people, so it's a wise use of my time.

Full disclosure: I had the idea about the cards on Monday, and didn't follow through. So they're still sitting on my desk. I made a mistake! I didn't follow the right impulse!

I'm still learning how to follow the right impulses in my life. It's a weakness that I'm learning how to use as a strength. Because, when I get inspired (when a good impulse strikes), if I harness it and ride it out, I feel like I can complete the activity with more energy and excitement than usual.

Question: What impulses will you let master you today?

Worship Songs We'll Be Working On

2012-06-19T11:18:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, when I posted on our summer camp experience, i toughed very briefly on the worship band that leads us every day. What I didn't say about the worship was how much it inspires and fuels our ministry during the school year.

Two summers ago, as we sat in worship every night at Summersalt, my students would giggle at how, during the songs, I'd be bent over my moleskin notebook, furiously scribbling down the lyrics to songs so that I could look them up later. We would then use those songs in our own MidWeek services.

Well, this year, the same thing occurred. (Only, without the giggles. Mainly since they were expecting it.) I also asked each of our students (especially our student worship leaders) if they would let me know which songs they really liked at camp, so that I could use those as well.

So I wanted to provide you with a list of which songs we'll begin work on soon:

Question: What new songs are you introducing in your ministry?

A Few Thoughts About Summersalt (Our Summer Camp)

2012-06-18T10:15:00.002-04:00

For the second summer in a row, we took our students to summer camp at Summersalt. And, while originally, I selected Summersalt as our camp mainly for convenience (we've got connections that allowed us to register late last summer and it's only an hour away), after year two, I'm sold.

Summersalt is a camp put on by the youth ministry department of the South Carolina Baptist Convention at White Oak Conference Center. Not only was this my second summer taking students from Trinity, I went as a student when I was in youth group here, so it holds a special place in my heart.

Here's a few quick thoughts about why I love it:

I know, without doubt, that everything that is taught at camp will be in line with the Baptist Faith and Message. I like knowing that our s students are getting solid theology.
It's close enough to home so that I'm not worried about an emergency but far enough away that it still takes students outside of their comfort zone.
They bring in some incredible speakers. This year, it was Lee Clamp, evangelism director for the SCBC and my first boss in youth ministry.
Their worship band is the absolute best of any camp I've ever been to. Ever. Seriously.

So, if you're in South Carolina, or within a few hours drive, check out Summersalt for your camp next year! If you need any info, email Karen Prevatte!

Church > Sports?

2012-06-11T08:00:00.005-04:00

This past Friday, as I was doing a little pre-camp shopping for essentials (a man needs his cliff bars and 5 hour energies), I saw my friend, Steven, tweet this:

"Is there ever going to be a day (especially in OC) when church will take priority over sports for students? -@StevenOrel

(By the way, Steven co-writes a great blog called Gen To Gen YM. Click the link to check it out!) This reminded me of a ministry story from a few months ago.

About a year ago, a new family moved to our church from another local one. They had two teenagers, one a freshman (a guy) and one a junior (a girl), that entered our student ministry. I tried my best to get to know them right away, but both had a little bit of trouble opening up. You see, they had both gone to their former church for their whole lives and felt like their parents had "up-rooted" them.

Naturally, I spent more time trying to get to know the guy. Every question was met with an awkward stare. Every request for a high five was met with the same. I couldn't figure out how to crack this kid!

Flash forward a few months... we started a student worship band. Well, I found out that this kid played guitar. So I invited him to play. And he... was... GREAT! I was so impressed! He became our lead guitar player.

A month or two later, his mom came up to me after a worship service and told me that that week, he had been told by his soccer coach that they were having a mandatory practice on Wednesday evening for their big rival game on Friday. But our student band was playing on Wednesday night. So, her son told his coach that he wouldn't be coming to practice because of his commitment to our worship band.

I was floored!

I thought all of my efforts to reach out to this student weren't producing any results. But I was wrong.

How many times have you reached out to a student in your ministry, but were met with awkward stares or silence? Let me tell you, keep trying. Keep talking to them. Keep reaching out. Find out what they love and try to connect with them through that.

And let my story provide you with proof that, not only can connection with tough students happen, but sometimes they'll even choose church over sports!

Summer(salt) Camp

2012-06-07T08:00:00.018-04:00

This coming Monday we'll be leaving to take our students to summer camp for the week. So there won't be any new blog posts during that time.

But if this year's camp is anything like last year's, you'll want to be following me on twitter just for the quotes from our students. You can follow me at @joshtreece. I'll be posting from there every day.

Also, I mentioned in this post last week that there was a story of how my heart turned from not liking leading worship to liking it, and that I'd post that story later. Well, as I scanned through past posts last night, I saw that I had already written it! You can read that story here.

See you guys in a week!

Questions To Ask Before You Kill a Program

2012-06-06T08:00:00.005-04:00

This past week, I had to pull the trigger and kill a program in my ministry. But it wasn't a hasty decision. It was about a five week process of evaluation, questions, and discussion. I'm always bummed when something that I start doesn't work out the way I planned, but I'm excited to refocus my energies for the future.

Here are some questions that I used in my evaluation process:

What goals was this program trying to meet?
How do I determine its success (if these goals were met)?
Have I done my part in leading this program? (In other words, is there something I can change about me that would help?)
Would being patient allow the program to succeed?
Would food help? (Hey, I work at a Baptist church.)
Would a change in time or location affect things?

Question(s): How do you evaluate your programs? How do you know that it's time to kill a program?

What I'm Reading

2012-06-05T08:00:00.023-04:00

Bill Hybels once said that leaders are readers. I couldn't agree more!

I've been a regular reader for some time now. My normal practice is to read a book a month, and to alternate between reading a book for fun and one for learning. But in the past year, I've had to pick up the pace due to my job.

Here's what I'm reading right now:

Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bobb Goff
Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Gregory Koukl
Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem (part of my ordination study)

Question: What books are you reading for learning or for fun right now?

Leadership Training

2012-06-04T08:00:00.052-04:00

Lately, I've tried being a little more focused in what I'm posting. This has resulted in mainly thoughts about ministry (to students in particular) and leadership. I'm sure this will drift a little, as my life has other facets to it. As I've spent more time on the blog, I've taken to reading some of my old posts. Three specific ones prompted me to revisit them. And that got me thinking...

When I entered full time ministry, I was 22 years old and fresh out of college. I was also a Southern, east coast transplant in Orange County, CA. Needless to say, I was a young, naive, fish out of water. I also had almost no training in leading others. That's why I went to Saddleback. I wanted to be trained.

After moving back to South Carolina in 2009, I spent some time working at Target. I was pleasantly surprised that I found some very good leadership training there! I wrote more about it in these three posts. (Links here, here, and here.)

Question: What training are you seeking in leadership?

Leaders are sometimes born, but they are more often made. And education and experience have equal parts in the formula.

I don't know what your story is. I'm not sure if you had the chance to go to college or do an internship. But I do know that you (and I) should be striving to make yourself better. There's all kinds of training available, both paid and free. But I think the best is always found in the context of a mentor/mentee relationship.

There's also lots of books. I can't even begin to list them all, but two of my faves are Andy Stanley's Next Generation Leader and Donald T. Phillips' Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times.

If someone you knew were looking for direction in how to be a better leader, where would you point them? Leave your direction in the comments!

Kind Words Spoken

2012-06-02T08:00:00.005-04:00

I love Bob Goff. And I don't mean that in a general "I love tacos" kind of way. I mean genuine love. Is it possible to love someone you've never met? Sure it is. The truth is this: I may have never met Bob in person, but through his twitter feed (link above) and book, Love Does, he has had a deep impact on my life.

This past Friday, as I was reading a chapter from the book on how words can impact us, I came across this quote:

"Words spoken by kind people have the ability to endure in our lives."

This reminded me of something that happened early last year.

I had been interviewing for a position at a church and had made it through several rounds. In fact, I had made it so far, that the senior pastor shook my hand and said that he believed that I was the man for the job. There was just one hurdle left. I had a final interview with another committee.

I had been told beforehand that the committee were concerned at my relationship status (single) and didn't think that a single person could minister to students of both genders. So I prepared a presentation before the meeting.

When asked for my ministry philosophy, I explained the Purpose Driven paradigm. When asked about ministering to girls, I talked about the importance of recruiting, training, supervising, and encouraging adult female volunteer leaders to minister to them. Well, long story short, they didn't hire me.

A few days later, after I found out, I called my mentor. He asked how it went and I told him all about it. I finished with, "You would have been so proud of me."

What he said next has stuck with me ever since. He said, "I've always been proud of you."

Here's the truth: words are powerful. They can be used to build and they can be used to destroy. They can be used to hurt and they can be used to heal. When we're not careful with them, there's a greater chance of their effect being one that is damaging. In my case, my mentor's words were medication given at the perfect time, and they helped me recover from a powerful blow.

It was like getting to peek behind the curtain and see a little bit more of what God's love is actually like.

Challenge: Be intentional about your words today. Purposefully speak kind words to someone. You never know if they might be in need of some good medication.

Student Worship Leaders

2012-06-01T08:00:00.051-04:00

I mentioned in a post a few days ago how part of my job is to oversee worship music for our ministry. This is more that a little ironic to me, considering that 10 years ago I hated leading worship. (How my heart did a 180 is a story for another post.) But, in this particular role, I've found tons of joy that I didn't know I could. And all of that joy has come from helping students learn how to be worship leaders.
We started our worship band some time around March of this year. I'll be honest with you here: it was a ministry that I felt more called than equipped to lead. I've been a musician and singer for a long time, but I've never had the opportunity to formally learn (other than in middle and high school band). So I've always been a little self conscious about my level of musical knowledge.

But, as He always does, the Lord provided.

We've got an incredible volunteer who is one of the best musicians I've ever met in real life. So the two of us have partnered together to lead.

For the past two weeks we've been working with our students to learn 4 songs that were new to them (Saviour of the World, Desert Song, Revelation Song, and Let My Words Be Few). But, in addition to working on playing the right notes, I've been trying to teach them about the heart of a worship leader. That, as a worship leader, your primary job is to regularly kneel before the throne of God so that you'll know how to lead others there.

Well, This past Wednesday night the hard work and heart work (see what I did there?) came together!

As I stood in the audience, waiting to walk up to teach, I watched our students truly worship while leading others. And I felt something incredible. It was like a combination of pride (the good kind) and a deep sense of experiencing God's love.

I got to take part in teaching students how to express their love for God through music and then lead others in doing the same. Isn't that discipleship?

Gosh, I love my job!