samwise the brave

last week i spent a couple of great days in lexington, ky with some kid’s ministry folks at the first ever children’s ministry expo. the expo was the brain-child of ken dovey and roger fields at kidz blitz .   i went partly because i wanted to see what things are coming up the ladder towards student ministry.  while there i had a chance to spend some time with alan root. i’ve known alan for about 10 years…and think he’s one smart guy when it comes to understanding where today’s “tweeners” are.  take some time and check out this breakout he did the first day…tween ministry with 10 Heads & 20 Feet.  those of us in student ministry need to understand more clearly where the hearts of our incoming middle schoolers are in the life of the church and what we need to be inviting them into.  after you’ve watched it, please leave a comment would love to start a conversation…and mark your calendar for next year’s cmx, july 7&8, 2011 in lexington, ky.

henry clay's home in lexington, ky - the Ashland

its been a whirlwind month since my last post. (and to add i had a bug in my blog and lost access for a week…thanks to the amazing tech team at bluehost… i’m back)and we’ve traveled to FL to support one of melinda’s students who competed in the national health occupations students of amercia conference.  then back for a week long “home” mission trip with 25 students and then jumped off for a 36 hour jaunt to the first ever “children’s ministry expo” hosted by the good friends at kidzblitz.

the trip to FL was great and a good time away.  we visited Disney World for three days… a trip there is always good to prime the “creative” pump.

this was our second year partnering with our mothership, berean baptist on a local home-based mission trip.  our students joined another 60 from three other churches and got some real mileage in helping several non-profits leverage their impact…habitat for humanity, homelessness coalition, salvation army.  all were great places for these teens to find their place in serving others.  great stories still being told.

the kidz blitz expo was a good time away…short, but had a chance to connect with several amazing kid’s ministry folks… old friends like jim wideman, alan root, michael chanley and the team from kidz blitz. got a chance to meet and spend some time with ronnie caldwell and doug & linda tidwell.  it was good to see what’s coming up the ladder from the kids ministry folks.  good stuff.

on my way home i drove by a cool historical place, about 3 minutes from the convention center.  when folks ask me where i’m from they always think that “ashland, ohio” is named after “ashland, kentucky”, but the truth is our hometown takes its name from the estate of  famed orator, and Kentucky son, Henry Clay.  his home sits today as a museum and testimony to a great statesman.  fun stuff.

last week was kinda of crazy. i took the late nite flight back from the purpose driven stealth summit. got into columbus around 1:00 am friday morning. got some sleep but was up early to do an interview about our exploits @ the summit with mark zimmerman at wcrf in cleveland. then i met up with our team from both campuses to hang for a solid day of learning at a kidzblitz seminar called LGO . it was all time well spent. the core presenter jim wideman. jim offered many insights on how to be a leader. spent a ton of time on time management practices. was a huge encouragement to our kidz team. one key point for me was that you need to start acting like your big to get big. although i’m not about “bigness” i am about developing systems and processes that will stand our growth. that made huge sense. as we continue to push out our mission through our new campuses these first principals are huge. I grabbed a couple of pics. in the above photo jim answers our questions and in the bottom photo jim joined with our team for a group picture.
. earlier this year the thot was to send a couple of key folks to willow or orange for a kidz ministry thing. i think we’ll get a better investment out of this day long program. it was just long enough to allow the team to have some fun getting there, hanging out and learning at the same time. not sure where i heard this, but its the problem of pushing down what a person learns at a conference. those that attend get to inhale the “oxygen” of the environment where they’re at. the trouble that happens on the return to home is the sharing of the “oxygen” of the experience. by sending our core folks, including the directors i think it will be an easier transfer to others. of course it was also very cool that they brought in lunch from chic-fil-a.