isaac and nolan

thanks to GG for taking this video of Nolan at Easter. He is getting so big. He will be one in a few weeks!

Anberlin - Unwinding Cable Car

Week Wrap Up

Man this was a weird week. Here is a sum up of my week:

Sunday: not so bad of a day, we went to church, Kara worked in the nursery, home and relax for the day.

Monday: Up early for study, Meeting with a pastor for lunch, a quick family errand, drop off at church, stay through the evening for students working off scholarships, home at 9:15pm put boys to bed.

Tuesday: Up early for breakfast with Tom P talking over youth auction and summer katrina relief trip. Drop by Leppinks to purchase items for dinner night, at church for lunch, work on planning missions stuff, leaders training, wednesday night planning. Home for dinner.

Wednesday: Up early for study, hang out with family for breakfast, dropped off at church. Met with Kendall for an hour and a half, planned more missions/auction stuff, working on leadership training stuff, printing and planning Sunday morning transition for Jr. and Sr. High. Go down in the hub to set up for Sr. High night, met with Caleb for our mentoring session, we cooked dinner with adult leaders (fun) have dinner with 4 new students (great time) clean up dinner and kitchen with leaders, lock down building (kind of). Home at 9:30.

Thursday: Up early for study, at church for meeting with Kendall from 10:30 - 12:00, have a lunch meeting cancel on me so I decide to work more on Sunday morning transition time for Jr. and Sr. High, start churning new ideas for Long Lake outreach. Home for dinner.

Friday: Up early to study, eat breakfast with family, meet my canceled lunch meeting from previous day, got some great ideas for Long Lake outreach from him. Got to church for working out of the ideas, more planning, tons of phone calls, e-mails, got home for a quick dinner and went out with Kara to the Central Montcalm High School Play with Emily, Kelsey, Ryan, and Amy in it. Got home at 10:30, put boys to bed.

Saturday: Up early for "Belding Youth Cooperative" breakfast. I had no idea that there were any youth pastors in the area, so I decided to attend this to see them for myself. I arrived to find out that I was the only one there. I met some of the men from the Encounter church there, they meet there on Saturday mornings, I decide to head to McDonalds, meet Pastor Ken, Bev, and Russ, eat breakfast and study some. Head to store for a quick errand, stop by Long Lake playground to pray over some ideas, stop by church to type this and clean my office before Sunday, because after this week, it was a mess.

Jesus was kidnapped!

hmmmm.
HT Ben R.

Biloxi Missions Update

Hey everyone,

As you all know, we are heading to Biloxi MS this year to do some Katrina relief. This is a church trip, not just a youth trip. We want everyone to go. If I could take all of Shiloh to Biloxi I would. The people of Biloxi are still in need of help. It will be 15 years until they are back up and running at normal again. Maybe our church can shrink that number down a little bit, year by year. I believe that Shiloh is a place where we love and care about people. I know this from experience. I have seen your love and support, and I know what kind of a church this is. It seems only logical that a church like ours would want to help out people in need, even all the way to Biloxi.

We are taking a group down, but our single group will represent out entire church. Someone who give prayer support, or financial support, or volunteer support to send us, is just as much a part of the trip as those who leave on a plane. We are so excited to show the people of Biloxi what Shiloh Community Church is like, and ultimately what God is like. I am so excited about this trip.

I have been working on some missions planning and I have a plan. We are going to need some key people to make this happen well. Here they are:

1. Home Base Team:
Prayer Team: I am looking for someone to head up a prayer team on Sundays to pray for the upcoming trip, the attenders, and the finances. They will pray every Sunday until we leave, and then assign people to pray every day that we are gone. Prayer will make this trip a life changing one.

Auction help: We are having our annual auction to help out with the costs of going on this trip. We need:
1. Canvas Team: people willing to go to area businesses and ask for donations in the Ionia, Greenville, Belding, Stanton, Sheridan areas.
2. Phone Team: Calling people reminding them to come
3. Cooking Team: Cooking dinner at the auction
4. Advertising: We need all the advertising we can get in and out of church. The more people, the higher the bids go.

Financial Help: The trip is going to be about $500 a person, so any financial help that we can get will help others get there to represent our church and our God.

2. Site Base Team:
Site Leaders: These people will come to Biloxi with us and take a team of 5-8 people to a site and help with what ever needs to be done, light construction or clean up.

Travel Team: we will need to get there, and get around when we get there, so this team will be responsible for both areas.

Worker Team: If you want to go, but do not want to be a part of a leadership role, you can just go. We are needing people who will want to serve with whatever skills they may have, whether it be construction or relational. You don't have to know how to build stuff in order to go. You can build relationships and reflect God's love in relational ways. A hurricane can come and knock out any "work" that we may accomplish, but relationships can last.


Please pray over these areas, and see where you fit. Every person at Shiloh has something to offer Biloxi, whether it be $5 or leading a prayer group, supporting the auction or canvasing businesses for donations. Every little thing gets us closer to Biloxi. thank you and God bless

--
peace,
tom

The Good Stuff

I am a passionate believer that if I am to have anything interesting to say when I get up in front of people, I have to have a steady stream of input coming into my life. I do this by reading and listening to other speakers. Here is a list of this years good stuff so far.

Great books that I have read this year:
Sex God: Rob Bell.
Return of the Prodigal Son: Henri Nouwen
Wounded Healer: Henri Nouwen
Made to Stick: Chip Heath & Dan Heath
How to read the Bible for all it's worth: Gordon Fee & Douglas Stewart

Books I am reading now:
Following Jesus, Biblical Reflections on Discipleship: N.T. Wright
Creating Community: Andy Stanley & Bill Willits
The Connecting Church: Randy Frazee
How to Read a Book: Adler & VanDoren

Speakers I am listening to often
Rob Bell
Erwin McMannus
N.T. Wright
Noel Heikkinen

Fiction I have Read this year
Lord of the Rings series: J.R.R. Tolkein

Fiction I am reading
2001 A Space Odyssey: Arthur C. Clark

Fiction I will read
State of Fear: Michael Crichton

Everybody's doin it...

In 5m 46s

Click here to Play

I stunk at this quiz

HT: every youth pastor on the planet but me until now.

the shirt says "feed the world"

Nolan is VERY dramatic and emotional (and loud too) He does NOT like the bath and screams when goes in. Once we were glad he did not know any words, because what was coming out of his mouth... well we'll leave it there.

Anyways, here is Nolan in classic drama king style switching from screaming to laughing in a mere 10 seconds. enjoy.

My Bro

My brother Brian got baptized on Sunday. To make a long story short, I am proud of him, and he is doing great things by turning life around and making things happen instead of sitting back and taking what life dishes out. He has gone back to school, has a great job, met a lady friend, got baptized, gotten back into church, and is planning college out now. All in a few months! He had to sacrifice some things to get where he is, but God is blessing him for it now. And you can tell.

I am so proud. Love you man.

Another Great Picture

love this picture

My Grandmother mailed Isaac a play checkbook. Isaac was saying, "I forgot my checkbook" (not that we do that often) so GG mailed him a play checkbook with checks in it. It was so cute, he played with it all day. ISaac made his GG a card to say thank you, so next time we see her she is getting a glittery suprise.

Great Article from Ben

Ben Redmond has become a great friend this past year. He has been showing me that there are ways to do youth ministry that are not yet discovered yet. I had been stuck in trying to "do" youth ministry the same way, even though our ministry was not equipped to do so. We are now doing more innovative things in our meetings, Like eating, and facing each other, and talking with each other, (go figure) and ointeracting and having fun with each other. We are trying to get away from the "sit still, be quiet, and listen to the smart and talented people serve God" mentality of "doing" church, and taking on more relational styles of ministry.

That said, Ben wrote a great article on youthministry.com that you should check out. Here is a good tid bit:

"As adults who work with impressionable adolescents, we have influence. These students trust us, they travel with us, and they learn from us. We are kidding ourselves if we believe that students buy into our philosophy or strategy before they buy into us. When we ignore character and integrity in our personal lives, we are forcing them to pay a very high price."

Left Behind theology and other funny things

A Hilarious post on the 70's Christian movie, "Theif in the Night" from Letters from Kamp Krusty. I was laughing at the ten things he learned from this movie. Read the full article here.

I learned a lot from that movie:

1) Ronald McDonald is going to escort me to Hell.

2) If I ever walk in a room, and it's empty, but something's "on" -- like a kitchen radio -- it's because everyone's been taken to heaven except me, and now it's too late, and I'll never see my family again. And how YOU doin'?

3) Anyone driving a white van is trying to snatch people. (Probably true, actually.)

4) ...and they're from the U.N. (Also probably true.)

5) The more pronounced the sideburns, the less likely one will be raptured.

6) In the end times, the evil guys masquerade as harmless, good guys, and they'll subtly do this by wearing a red armband.

7) ...and then holding me down as they tattoo my forehead.

8) I don't really want to go to McDonald's anymore, but

9) I think Grimace, who was nowhere to be seen in the movie, will be raptured.

10) Little kids like me can watch movies in church, as long as they're blood-curdling frightening.

HOLY RAY GUN BATMAN!!

This is an actual ray gun! I am such a dork because I thought this was worth posting!