Have Fun and Laugh A LOT

Continuing on with thoughts of what makes ministry fulfilling and enjoyable:

I have always been one to crack jokes...often at the wrong time (but that will be for a later post). Maybe it's because I am the baby in my family, or simply because I have an aversion for things overly serious, but one of my favorite things in life is to make people laugh, and to laugh myself. There is something healing and powerful about laughter. As proverbs 17:22 puts it, " joyful heart is good medicine."

So overlay this onto the grid of ministry--if we are not having fun and laughing (not all the time, but at least some of the time) then we are building a joyless ministry. WE should be able to laugh at ourselves, and not always expect everyone to be so serious and stuffy all the time. This is what actually keeps many unbelievers from coming to church...they think it is boring and dull, no laughter, no life, no fun (and much of the time they are right).

Now I know that life isn't always fun, but it can be a lot more fun! If we don't have any joy in our lives (visible joy, not just joy inside and a stuffy frown outside) then what in the world are we preaching?

So have fun and laugh a lot, laugh at yourself, hey, even laugh at other people.

Where is God NOT?

Over the next few days I think I am going to post some thoughts about ministry, and the identifiers that make it personally fulfilling and enjoyable to me. They won't be in any order of importance, but just stream of consciousness type publishing. These have been rolling around in my head and on a few documents that I have been playing with for about a year, but I wanted to put them out there somewhere for input from others, and hopefully to make all of us think about what makes life and ministry worth giving ourselves to.

The church should be in the marketplace, simply because there is no place where God is not. I cannot imagine being satisfied with ministry that only had an impact inside a sanctuary, or was limited only to Sundays. I have a strong feeling that as a Christian and as a leader, I am to be a Christ-like influence where ever, and whenever. I also believe that the Church is not a building, it is a people, therefore wherever the people of Christ are, the church is. Hence, if the church is present, it should be doing something.

So what does a marketplace church look like? The beauty is, that it doesn't have to look the same as someone else's expression. The thing it needs to be is a change-bringer into lives and society. Many churches run coffee houses that become little community hubs, some churches run schools, daycares, really the options are endless. Honestly it can be something as simple as gathering a group of co-workers during lunch and studying the Scriptures. The point is that Chrisitians have the right and responsibility to be the church, not only in the privacy of their own homes or places of worship, but in the marketplace, where they work, live, shop, relax, etc.

Also, it should not seem strange that churches as organizations reach into "secular" realms to have influence. Churches should be involved in the entertainment industry, in the restaurant business, and every significant area of life. There is no place where God is not. He is native to every area of life, and so are his people.

The Social Internet

I thought I would put up a video that I worked on for a class I took this Winter. Interesting facts about how new technologies and tools of communication can impact the way we do ministry.

You may recognize Steve Bolen up there, and music from Adam Isaac.

I am a Lifesaver!

Just finished AED and first aid training...and I have the card to prove it! IT'S OK IM A LIMO DRIVER! Anyway, it was actually pretty interesting...hopefully I will never have to use my new-found depths of knowledge, but at leastI have them.

Rockin Primate

Oh my word! This is the most memorable commercial I have seen in quite a while. I can't figure out what it has to do with Cadbury Chocolate though.

Ministry at 50,000 volts

I was going through some old stuff and found the video of me last summer, getting tazered to raise money for missions at Cedar Park's Men's Breakfast. I am not sure what I was thinking, but I hope those missionaries used that money well.
Here is the video:

The worst part of it was when the pulled the hooks out of my back and butt. Here is that footage:

Encounter 2008

Last weekend was our youth winter camp "Encounter." It was a great weekend tearing the little Bavarian Village of Leavenworth apart. We had such a great time and the Spirit of God definitely showed up. Jeremy Johnson was our speaker, who has to be one of the funniest men on the planet.

It's always great when an event that you and your team put so much into goes off great--better than you could have planned. that's what happens when a team comes together around God's work..I love the Church.

Here is the highlight reel that my friend Jerry Butler put together.