*#!%*$*# Words!

It is great to have friends. It is great to have friends who are smarter than you. I am putting together some thoughts for tomorrow night when I'll be speaking to our High Schoolers. We'll be talking about words. Anyway, my friend Josh has already done this and is way ahead with a ton of good thoughts and study. Check it out here. Plus he pointed me to another great site with good stuff here. So I'm re-learning to say or not say. And I'm going to share how God has kicked my tail through my friend Josh. #*!%$(#@ behind again! Oops, there I go.

I would say that there is much to be discovered and learned here. I wonder how much this will (or should) impact our linking and sharing through blogs and sites? Hmmm... more to think about.

Memorable Memorial Day

We went to our church Memorial day picnic yesterday. It was a beautiful day and lots of great folks there with good conversation. Jahred and I were going around the pond a looking at tadpoles. Jahred, being a 5 year old boy and all, was trying to catch them without falling in (which, no suprise happened a couple times). Warning: gross things ahead He eventually succeeded and then proceeded to squeeze the tadpole so hard that its guts came out its mouth. His comment was, "Dad! Look at how long its tongue is!" Awesome. I explained that its not good to kill everything you touch and that the "tongue" was actually its guts. Then we ate some dessert. Okay, first, we washed our hands. But how great is it to be a dad.

Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

I met this morning with my friend Tom Young. Wow! We've come a long way baby! When Tom and Becky started coming to Bel Air, we got to know them and heard their heart of young adults. They started to organize that group of people here and now they are just rolling! How cool! Tom gave me the low down on all they are planning for the summer and future. He also gave me the low down on the twins (hehehe, God is laughing somewhere...)

Tonight I'm going to a Baccalaureate service for one of our High Schools (the only one I was invited to). It will be interesting to hear how they dance the PC dance. It will also be interesting to talk with the other "clergymen" who will be there. I'm hoping to make some contacts in that way. Way too many alone people in ministry.

Spent some time earlier today reading through an interesting article from "Business Week" and emailing some friends my response to it... (they asked for it!) Here is the link. I'd love to hear any additional thoughts and then maybe I'll post some of my own.

Well, we are back and we all survived. It was pretty wet with lots of rain, but it was a lot of fun! Here is a picture near President Hoover's old camp. A beautiful trip with great trails! The question of the trip was from Russ... "Did you guys bring any napkins?" Can you tell it was his first backpacking trip?!? 

A Walk in the Woods - Part 1

Today is a day of mixed emotions. It is graduation Sunday so that is hard because we honor the graduates - friends - who are going to be moving on in the fall. One of those graduates was in a car accident last night and is in the hospital (going to be okay).

And then there's this walk in the woods. Russ, Noah, Tony, Syd, Webb and myself are going hiking/backpacking for 3 full days in the Shenadoah Valley. It will be beautiful and fun. We leave this afternoon. I'm excited for the stories we'll have to tell when we return. It's Russ's first hike and he's convinced we're going to do something to him. Ah, the fun of it!

Reading for the Soul

Someone asked me what books I might recommend for a youth pastor to read in regards to spiritual life and formation. A great question and sadly I didn't have a list already prepared, but I do now. I tried to keep is simple so that these could be worked through in a short time frame. Here is my list, but I would really love to hear any other suggestions by you all...


1. Job, Rueben P. and Norman Shawchuck. A Guide To Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants. The Upper Room, Nashville.
2. Groff, Kent Ira. Active Spirituality: a Guide for Seekers and Ministers. An Alban Institute Publication.
3. Nouwen, Henri J. (pretty much everything he’s written, but in particular…) The Way of the Heart. And The Wounded Healer.
4. Jones, Tony. Sacred Way and Soul Shaper. (But with some hesitation on this last one, because the content is great, but there is this danger in trying to replicate these things, or use them for youth ministry program instead of for self first. )
5. I’m also a huge fan of the desert fathers and mothers, but also am inclined to think that most of us could use a guide through some of it… so let me suggest just that – a spiritual director has been a blessing for me personally.

What I know from own life and journey is that I have nothing to offer except the Christ in me. If I cannot or do not cultivate that relationship and journey (with others especially), then I have nothing from which to serve and love.

Here's Jahred and me at Fanieul Hall in Boston. We had a good time at ENC graduation - good day, good friends, and some good food. Lot's of driving though.  

Boston Bound...

Carol and I are zipping up to Boston Friday - Sunday morning for ENC (Eastern Nazarene College) graduation. If anyone is around and would like to hang out give us a shout.

We have one student graduating. She was one of our first students when we came to Bel Air who we felt like we had an influence on. We're so excited for her and proud of her. Next year we'll have quite a few graduating from college, which makes me officially feeling really old.

This all has got me thinking about the legacy we leave. Perhaps one of the most important and defining things that I hope this emerging church movement/network/collaboration produces is a long term commitment to relationships with others. I hope that somehow we're able to invest in people over years and decades, more than just months or classes. Perhaps this long term view of relationships (though perhaps not programs or organizations) will be the best story told by this change in culture. I sure hope so.

Of course there are a few stumbling blocks to get in our way. People and families are more mobile than ever before. With a growing choice of communication options, its easy to loose sight or sound of others. Of course our own busyness and full lives add more than their fair share to the struggle.

And there are some windfalls for us in this time to stay connected and in touch - cell phones that reach around the world, blogs, instant message and email can keep us almost in real time, and of course there's web sites and other information outlets that can give us a peak at one another's world(s). Whatever the case, my hope is that we are building a legacy of good and giving relationships.

Meg finally lost her first tooth! Quite exciting. It was loose, but it helped when she ran into a boy at recess. She's quite excited. The tooth fairy's note said, "dear Meg, Great job on the tooth. It's a good one. I'm looking forward to more! -tooth fairy" 

This is Freddy Adu. He plays for DC United. David Rebello took me to see their victory on Saturday. What a great time. Freddy Adu is 15 years old (16 in June), makes $500,000 a year for playing soccer plus $1mil a year from Nike. When I was 15 I was just hoping to kiss a girl. Good for him!  

From DC United to Mother's Day...

What a great 2 days. First, my good friend David Rebello took me to my first ever professional soccer match (Go DC United!). It was so great! For the first half we just chilled in our official seats. Then at half time we went and watched the Fan Club, Barra Brava, as they banged their drums and danced (and drank just a little beer). We just followed them down to their seats and had a great time singing and bouncing and watching the game a little too for the second half. I was amazed to see people so into the experience of the games. For some of them this was their community and their worship.

Then flash ahead to Sunday morning and there I am with a different large crowd in church. For some of them it was their community and their worship. As I preached on Mary's Magnificat (her song when she finds out she's pregnant), it was something for me to realize that while we may spend time worshipping and doing many things - none of them really last. As I explained on Sunday, Caesar is dead and gone, Herod is dead and gone, but Christ is not. Somehow that is the good news. That the love and hope that is found in following Christ is not just a fading glory, but a way of life that truly lasts.

This is Antonio, Pastor Bello and Pastor Brian Kido. They are my friends! Pastor Bello and Antonio are from the Elizabeth Spanish Church that our High School group is going to be going to this summer. We are excited to partner with them! Brian Kido is a friend of many years, the pastor of the Japanese Church of the Nazarene in Long Island and the director of work and witness and disaster relief for the Metro New York district. We hung out a little yesterday. How cool! 

Storytellers - draws me in

Have you ever been minding your own business, doing what you do, and then have something - a song, a movie, a poem, a picture, a scene - suck you in? Well I was drawn in last night to VH-1's "Storytellers" with "The Boss", Bruce Springsteen. I have not been a big fan of "The Boss", but last night, I was flipping through the channels and wound up on VH1. The premise of the show, "Storytellers", is that the artist will talk about his/her songs and what's behind them, the meaning of them.

I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, but what I saw last night just drew me in and had me literally on the edge of my seat in my living room as Bruce Springsteen talked about and performed a few of his songs. There is just something about the process of telling a story, of conveying truth, that just grabs me. Incredible.