Five things About Me!

This is my opportunity to be a little selfish and talk about me. Here are five things that most people don't know about me. You should feel privileged if you know a few.

1. When I'm quite, it means that I'm thinking, analysing or daydreaming. It never means that I am angry.
2. I hate turkey stuffing, or anything of the sort. I will puke if forced to eat the stuff.
3. I am a medieval buff. I own a few swords and have taken sword lessons before.
4. I am an hypocondriact. I fear disease!
5. I can not dribble a basketball down the court. I can only dribble at a static position.

More thoughts on Leadership

So, today I witnessed something that proved to be something that I need to address. Without going into specifics, I realized something about leadership. Here are few thoughts:

• Leadership is having the "guts" to have "that conversation" with "that someone" even though someone will awake away with their "ego" bruised.


• Leadership is having the "guts" to understand both sides of the coin and still making that decision that will make some people "unhappy."


• Leadership is understanding that regardless of age, schooling and personality, one must yield to those who God has placed in a higher position.


• Leadership is "understanding" your position and excelling at that. Not overstepping your bounds because you "think" you have all the answers.


• Leadership is purging those selfish desires, and making good choices that help students and ultimately glorify God.


• Leadership is knowing and understanding those who are in a position of higher authority and "respecting" that.

Tell me what you think....

Trucks, Cookies, and Singing

Yesterday I helped Mike Lovato move a family member from Yucipa to Riverside. It seemed that we (Mike, myself and Jon) were in for an adventure. Here is a timetable of what happened:

• Got up at 7:30am to meet Mike at church at 8:30am. This in fact was a miracle.
• Mike drove a Ford F-150 to Yucipa to pick up the 1st round of furniture.
• After packing what we could in the truck, some crazy lady came by to see the "goodies" that were "going" to be sold at the estate sale the next day. She was by far the strangest women I have ever met. She claimed to be the Yucipa cookie-making champion, and would leave. She went through everything!!! Like 30mins of waiting for her to stop looking. Then she bought a bag for nuts (birds of a feather, flock together) to use for her cookies.
• On the second trip back, the truck we were borrowing had some radiator issues. In fact I was two cars behind Mike, and I saw most of the radiator fluid. Fun times.
• I am now officially bored typing this. More to come later.

Reflections on JH Discipleship

The weekend is finally over and I must say that it was downright an awesome experience. I am still processing much of what was said and done this weekend. I guess the ultimate purpose of this weekend was to take a small groups of JH students to an environment that would be free of distractions and "try" to connect with God in many different ways. The important thing that I walked away was this notion of "do we really know our students?" A simple question, right? Do we know their hurts, their dreams, their home life? Do we know what makes them laugh or cry? This what I observed by watching my leaders this weekend. I also observed how lazy some students can be. I know that its still JH, but when do we start (or should I say they start) to (teach/learn) servanthood? This is my new study, more to come this later.

Here are some highlights and lowlights....

Highlights

• Worship and camping at the beach...can't beat that!


• Watching the students being stretched beyond their comfort zones.


• The foot washing by the light of tiki-torches that lined the beach at night.


• Watching the red tide light show at night.


• Body boarding at San Clemente


• Watching my buddy Mike present a fine job of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Lowlights

• It was overcast the whole weekend.


• The drunkards in the camp next ot us.


• Students killing squirrels.


• Under packing cooking gear.


• Not knowing your camping gear.


• No hot showers.


• Sand in places that it should never be.

I leave you with this; junior high students are very much capable of way more than we can imagine. Discipleship is a process that is different for everyone, and must be taken seriously. Yet, it is very much corporate in the sense in what it accomplishes. More to come on that.

Reflections on Leadership

Lovato posted an awesome article that he found basically saying that "are you making leaders or followers." Props the Del La Vato for his post.

I have been re-examining what it means to be a leader. More so, what are the traits of a good leader. From this, I must confess that just as there are fish in the sea, so to are the perspectives of a what a leader should be. Here are my thoughts on this matter:

A Leader Must...

1. Be willing to make hard choices. You know the one's that don't please people, but is proper for the vision and purpose.
2. Listen. This is a hard one for me.
3. Delegate when necessary (really not an issue for me).
4. Must do what is right for his ministry, and not what's going to make others feel comfortable. This might sound harsh, but imagine having way too many leaders who want to help out at an event, but you have have the budget or place for them at that time. How do you pick and choose who goes and who stays? The problem here is that we tend to invite those who we are most comfortable with. That's not a bad thing, but it really dampens your ministry and support level with your leaders.
5. Be willing to do the crappy things.

This is just some of the things that have been going through my head this week.

Disicpleship Weekend Retreat

I'm taking a Small group of students to San Onofre for a discipleship retreat this weekend. It should be fun. Here are some things that they will experience:

• Fasting


• Experience a time of prolonged silence


• Foot washing


• Journaling


• Sharing


• Surfing


• Body boarding


• Learning what it means to be a disciple

I think this trip will be exciting and different at the same time. My friend is the speaker for the weekend, I'm excited to see him chat about his passion. More to come!

Spiritual...too much?

Have you ever been around those who are so spiritual that you get turned off? You know the one's who get pissy when you talk about seeing a movie that is rated PG-13, or when the conversation doesn't include something about Jesus, are you with me? Yeah, I had one of those conversations today. Fun times. Why do people need to make everything a fiasco?

Done!!!

I just finished my last final (which I rocked out). I am now officially done with CBU. Now the hard part: cleaning my apartment...