The Blog of Scott Smith-- I am Amazed... He is Amazing

5th Grade Mission Trip Update #2

2009-05-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

Guest Blogger - Morgan Long (Reflections on Day 2)

We all had a blast; the whitewater adventure water park was way above our imaginations. The raft rides were amazing with the sharp turns and riding on the walls. Awesome great adventures and fast were some of the ways we described this amazing six flags water park. After we had all the fun we imagined, we went to our hotel and got ready for our mexican dinner. We had burritos, which we regreted eating, tacos, beans, rice and quesadillas. After a great dinner we went to the hotel so we could have our devotional and plan out the rest of our trip.

5th Grade Mission Trip Update #1...Pastor D

2009-05-28T05:42:00.000-07:00

Guest Blogger - Pastor D

Here we are sitting in the lobby of Springhill Suites in Alpharetta Georgia... Last night was a night to remember... Dinner @ the Varsity... Riding Marta (which was quite a interesting experience for our kids)... then a great night @ Phillips arena with the Atlanta Dream... which gave us many...MANY memories.

Following our night of festivities we concluded with a special time of prayer and presentation of Teen Bibles to the kids. Needless to say, the kids loved their Bibles and were thrilled with the many things that are in days ahead. Please pray for sunny weather today. The news is telling us that it is suppose to rain all day... we are suppose to be @ Six Flags White Water. Last year we had rain on this same day...doing the same thing! IT was so cold... I am praying that today the water is not cold... especially if it is going to rain.

So here we are about to leave... and journey into another day of fun! Watch for future post... our next post will be by one of our students.... you will have to check back to see!

Are we doing Student Ministry as effectively as we could?...or should?

2009-05-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

I recently graduated with my Masters in Youth and Family Ministry. One of the most challenging things about this program was it requiring me to rethink how I have traditionally done student ministry. I plan on posting more about this but this video gets the idea started. Should we be doing student ministry or family ministry?

Family Time

2009-05-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Today, I am doing absolutely nothing but having fun hanging out with the fam! We've been riding four wheelers, playing baseball, swinging etc...It's been a blast.

But the interesting thing to me is how refreshing it is when you take time to just enjoy family. As a minister I am usually overwhelmed with "church work" and many times can neglect my 1st priority given to me by God.

After my relationship with him, I am to minister to my family, not to my "job". This is not something just for ministers but for everyone. I challenge you this weekend to take some time to do nothing but hang with your family. Enjoy them, cherish them, and most important focus on their needs 1st...

Disturbed?

2009-05-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

I ran across this prayer today and it made me think...How many of us are doing something so big, dreaming dreams so large, that without God we will fall flat on our face? I believe God wants to do great things through the church today, I believe we are just to afraid of failing and looking unsuccesful to our peers that we are afraid to have a God-size vision in our life!

Here's the prayer:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

I know I have been sailing too close to the shore lately and I am asking Jesus to disturb me to action.

In what areas have you become too comfortable and need to pray: "Lord, disturb me?" In what areas in your life have you been traveling too close to shore and need to pray: "Lord, disturb me?"

A lot to catch up on...

2009-05-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

So, I know what you're thinking, I guess Scott feel out of the blogasphere world...well kinda, but things around here have been crazy...I mean seriously crazy. Between a 10 day road trip, graduation, concerts and the list goes on and on, my life has been interesting. Every time I get ready to come back and post, I found another thing come up...

Okay enough excuses...I'm back and ready to rejoin the bloggin world. So if you have left, come back, if your new, welcome!

Where have you been?

2009-03-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

You may have been asking that question about me...it's been crazy here...We had an awesome service at the end of February (on Wednesday Night), celebrated Blake's birthday, did our 1st drama here, and yesterday I preached for the first time in the main sanctuary...and on top of all that...I'm now on FACEBOOK! Ok, so I can see where it can be a little addictive...If you don't have me as a friend...hit me up...and I'll try to get back in the groove of blogging...I am heading to Knoxville Wednesday for Winterfest so I may be here and there with it.

Wednesday Review

2009-02-19T20:29:00.000-08:00

Last night was an overall good night. We started with a cool animated video. Praise and Worship was good...We did some interactive texting agian this week although we really cut down on it this week. I didn't feel like I spoke really well but overall it was a good night. I feel like we are really gaining some momentum. Good things are happening and it's exciting every week to see what God is going to do...stay tuned 'cause something big's about to happen!!

Here is picture from last night.

Wednesday Review

2009-02-12T08:31:00.000-08:00

Last night was AWESOME!! It was our interactive service and here is how it went down...

After the countdown we went into a "text intro" (thanks zach) which was basically a computer driven message on the screens that was communicating to the students like a text message. I was surprised at how much the students were interacting with the video.

We came out of that and into me doing announcements and offering. Then the band did an amazing job with worship. During one of the worship songs we gave students the opportunity to text in what God is to them...I was honestly nervous about this at first, but it was unreal!! Here's a sample of what it looked like

.

We also had Derrick painting during worship...which was also incredible! Great job D!

Worship really was unreal this week...Great job band!

Finally we went into an interactive message, which this week was dominated by the poll questions we were asking students about dating. Here is a view of what it looked like...

We had a panel up front of that students could ask questions to, or we just allowed students that wanted to to share their opinion openly...if they wanted to stand up to the mic...

Overall, I was extremely pleased with last nights service!! I am excited because next week we are going to be utilizing the texting again, but I am going to get more time to preach!!

This was definitely a HUGE success for us!!

This Wednesday

2009-02-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

So this Wednesday will be our first attempt at a txt interactive service. We are setting up everything tonight to be ready for Wednesday and I'm looking forward to an awesome night. We are talking about dating and guy/girl relationships in general. Last Wednesday I told all the students to bring their phone (like they wouldn't) and be ready so this should be fun.

We purchased a service that allows us to not only have immediate poll updates, but also gives us the opportunity to moderate any comments that come through (we are talking about students you know)...but I don't want to give out too much info to spoil the surprise.

I'll let you know how it turns out!! I'm excited!

Super Bowl Recap

2009-02-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

So it has taken me a bit to get back here and recap our superbowl party but it was great!! We had an awesome turn out (around 250) and the place looked great. We of course had great food (wings, pizza etc...), giveaways (we gave a cardinals and steelers super bowl jersey, cheesecake factory gift cards, starbucks etc...), I had some of my students play in between commercials some (which worked out great) and Bobby Humphrey spoke at halftime. It was a great event. A ton of work, but a great event. The pictures definitely don't do it justice but here they are:

Origin Band

2009-01-28T07:42:00.000-08:00

So I instead of posting pictures of the new stage design, I thought I would just post some videos from the Origin Band last Wednesday. although this does not do justice to the service itself...also these are only a few of the slow songs...We didn't run camera production, just a wide angle camera (and the fast songs were a little distorted).

Super Bowl Party and Bobby Humphrey

2009-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Man I am getting excited about this Sunday. We are having an awesome Super Bowl Party...Big Screens (inHD!), wii's, x-box 360, wings, pizza and the list goes on and on, but to top it all of we have Bobby Humphrey coming in to speak for us at halftime.

If you didn't grow up in Alabama you may not be as familiar with him as those who did. Bobby Humphrey was one of the greatest running backs ever for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He played for them in the late 80's and went on to be a first round draft pick in 1989 by the Denver Broncos. Needless to say, being here in Birmingham, he will be a great draw for all football fans, but especially Alabama fans.

If you are from the Birmingham area, listen to WDJC Friday morning...they are going to be doing an interview with Bobby about what he's doing and also about the Super Bowl party Sunday!!

It's going to be awesome! Don't miss it!!

Wednesday was Crazy Good

2009-01-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

Okay so for all of you who did not make it Wednesday to our service with the Origin band...you missed it! And I have to say...I told you so! It was amazing. This band is so tight, anointed and really have a passion to share Jesus Christ through their music! Since I am still waiting on our other stage pictures I wanted to share some pictures from Wednesday.

Kaden had to make sure everything sounded right, so he was handling the sound check

Here is a shot of Eric (lead singer)...He is such a passionate worship leader. He has no clue how crazy good he is!!

Here is a great shot of the students worshiping...It was a great night!

Wednesday...BE THERE

2009-01-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday the Origin Band is going to be doing service. It's going to be an amazing worship service. All I can say is Be there!! If you miss it and here about how awesome it was...I'll have to say I told you so!

Stage Design

2009-01-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

So I've been extremely busy finishing up the stage design (which is still a work in progress), having leader's meetings, Winterfest Steering Committee Meeting, and the list goes on. But as promised here are some pics from last week's service. This should give you a glimpse at the stage. We also took some pics last night after service because we got our truss in!! So I'll update those soon as I get them.

Great Start to 2009

2009-01-08T10:03:00.001-08:00

So it's been a week since I've last posted but it has been a crazy one!! We have been working extremely hard and long hours to get our new stage design done for our first worship service of the new year...and it looks great!! We just added an 8' tall by 18' wide screen as our backdrop...changed lighting...added staging on the front...cleaned everything out!! I'm waiting on pictures that were taken last night to be emailed to me...as soon as I get them I will post them.

Last Nights service was also great! We used this video (which Blake remade)

It rocked!! The band came right in with Your Name High (Hillsong) I came out and did welcome, Alan offering, then an awesome worship bumper. The worship set was Solution, Rain Down, and What You Say I Say. The band did great (especially with all the new stage design and locations of everyone being moved!! Great job CJ and Band!)

Finally, I begin sharing the vision for our student ministry for 2009. I only got through part of it because we were running behind but it was exciting!! I can't wait to see the AMAZING things God is going to do this year here!

Thank you to all the workers who worked tirelessly on the stage design!! I couldn't have done it without you!!
It was definitely a great start to 2009!

Surprise

2008-12-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well Sunday I was surprised when BJ, Cale and Blake (Jr.) showed up at church. I was actually in sunday school when someone come and told me they needed to see me outside...I stepped outside and there they were. I was surprised (although Blake Sr. kinda let it out). Anyway, they left today after staying a couple of days.

This week has reminded me of the importance of building relationships and maintaining them. These guys are all awesome friends and their relationship means a lot to me. It was so good to see them and spend time together.

I hope this holiday you have made time (or will make time) to surprise someone you haven't seen or talked to in a while and let them know how much they mean to you.

Tough day in Student Ministry

2008-12-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a tough day for me in Student Ministry...Friday morning as I was preparing for a day out with the family I received a call from one of the workers that informed me a student had just lost her mother. It was an unexpected death. That was tough, but yesterday I attended the funeral and that was even tougher. It's like the reality of the moment really set in. It's at these moments when your faith is really put to the test.

This is the point where you want to ask God all the why questions...a seventeen year old girl and her nineteen year old brother are now without their mom...Why? In that moment there is nothing you can say...you just try and love them and care about them...and pray that God gives them strength.

My prayers go out to this family, I know God can and will do AMAZING things through this...it's just tough to see what that is right now...

Wednesday Night Christmas Service

2008-12-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

Okay so it's been a while since I have posted and things have been crazy but I am getting a start on my new year's resolution and begin to post more often!! Anyway, the last few weeks have been filled with church work, Christmas Parties, school work, family time, a conference in Nashville, a weekend away with Holly and more and more.

But let's start with last night. We had our Christmas Service last night at the Student Ministry. Blake came down and helped me set up our stage and made it feel more like home.

We played some awesome videos, a game (Christmas Wrap) and the praise team did an awesome job with some acapella numbers. We then read the Christmas Story, with the help of some students (thanks fox and sara). Followed that up with an amazing song by our worship leader CJ.

We followed that up by showing a year end video. Then I was about to wrap up the service before Jessica Lamb took the mic and presented me and Holly with an amazing gift for our family. I was blown away. The workers and students at Metro are awesome and I am so excited about what God is going to do in our Student Ministry next year!

Of course we couldn't end the night without having milk and cookies. Holly, my wife, baked about 200 cookies and they were great!! At least Kaden thought so...

Overall, it was a great night!

Wednesday...

2008-11-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

So last night we had another good service. Our theme was about being thankful (of course it's Thanksgiving)...When students walked into the sanctuary everything was a mess...chairs overturned etc...Once everyone was seated I came out a gave a brief introduction which lead into a drama (Forgive Me by Group 1 Crew). I came back and talked about being thankful using the passage in Luke 17 about the 10 Lepers.

Overall I thought the message went good, at the end I challenged the students to try for the next week to find at least one person a day and thank them. I brought all the leaders to the front to thank them and then as the band prepared I told all the students to find at least 1 leader and thank them. It was awesome. The band then kicked off praise and worship and did a great job!

Overall...great night...I'm excited about what God is doing and going to continue to do here at Metro!

God Moment

2008-11-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

Last night in our service we had what I would call a "God Moment"...worship was finishing the last song and I really felt like everyone needed to push further into worship...it was a great set and awesome worship but it was one of the nights where everyone seemed to come in weighted down and not really able to worship because of what they had going on.

I came up at the last song and just challenged students to do that very thing...focus on God for a moment and set aside all the "junk" they may have been facing...Then it was like God just began to take over completely. It was a big emotional push...as a matter of fact I came back up and asked the band to all leave stage and join the rest of their peers and only CJ (worship leader) up there with his acoustic.

Needless to say, God really changed lives last night...students began to ask if they could share from stage, students were praying for students. It was a really great night...Spontaneous...definitely a God Moment!

Change...

2008-11-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

Mentone Pictures

2008-11-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

So here are just a few pictures from the Middle School retreat in Mentone. The theme was Kairos When time and destiny collide. Hope you enjoy the pics

No bunnies were injured during this video

2008-10-28T15:23:00.001-07:00

I know what you are thinking...how could you laugh at someone else's pain...but it is funny. And Scarlet bunny (the girl that fell) posted this herself...And by the way...she was okay.

Mentone

2008-10-27T08:53:00.001-07:00

Well, I know it's been a while, but it's been crazy around here. Last night we got back from the annual Middle School Retreat in Mentone, AL. It was a great trip! It was also a very cold trip!! We took approximately 64 students and workers and I believe everyone had a great time! We had 10 High School students go and mentor/work on the retreat and they really helped build some bonds between the middle and high school group. Saturday night service was awesome! Drew, Eleanor and Jacob did a great job leading worship.

During worship students just began to pray with each other and for one another. It was really great to see this happening with Middle School Students. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I get them.

Student Ministry

2008-10-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last Night we had another good service. We flipped the order last night to change things up. After the countdown hit zero, the media team went straight into my sermon intro video. From there I came out and started my sermon. You could tell it took a few minutes for students to realize I was preaching my sermon and not leading into praise and worship. One side note, when we do this, I think it is better to just come out and start preaching like you normally would. Don't come out and say, tonight is going to be different, we are going to be doing different things...well duh, they know that. Anyway...soapbox...

At the end of my sermon (about turning our fear to faith) I gave the students a challenge, prayed and CJ came behind me with Worship...He, of course, did a great job and we had a great worship experience. We closed with announcements. Tyler from The Basement was there and came up and gave an announcement about their big Halloween service coming on the 28th. Then we closed by praying for one of our students (Nick) in the hospital. Overall it was a great night and I thought the change was good (it was needed).

Wednesday

2008-10-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

We had another great Wednesday night this week. We showed the Horn's Creek Video (which I will try to post later) that David did a great job putting together. Praise and Worship was phenomenal again!! CJ is doing an awesome job integrating new students in and teaching them to lead! We had a drama in the message which went perfectly with our topic.

One interesting thing that happened is when I got back up after the drama to preach, one of the dimmer packs started to smoke, lights flickered off and we had to turn the house lights on. I never turned around, I figured if it was bad enough they would stop me :)...anyway the sermon went well and God spoke to many lives. We again had a great time of prayer and I thought the service as a whole went really good.

I'm really excited about what God is doing here. He is slowly bringing things together. God is going to do AMAZING things here...I can't wait to see all He is going to do!

Safety First!

2008-10-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is awesome...especially how the guys continues to sell the product...

Horn's Creek

2008-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend 29 of our High Schoolers and leaders went to Horns Creek in Tennessee for Fall Retreat. Needless to say it was a great weekend! Being farely new still it was great for me and Holly to get to know the High School students on a more personal level. We had some great service time, fun hanging out and of course paintball was a blast.
The only tough part of the weekend was having to leave at 4:45 this morning and head right back to Tennessee for class today. If I wasn't tired enough from this weekend, driving 3 hours to class this morning, sitting in class and driving 3 hours back late this afternoon has done me in. I will try and post some pics soon! For now...I'm going to finish some work, play with Kaden a bit and go to bed!!

God is Amazing!!

2008-10-02T10:25:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had to give a talk, preach a sermon etc...and it's just not coming together? That was me this week. Last week I thought was great...had it together, was prepared etc...This week was a different story.

On Monday of this week, through all the busyness, God spoke to me and changed my sermon. I had the other pretty much done, which is a great feeling, because there is a ton to do, but God wouldn't let me let go of the word he was giving me. Complacency...that was what God wanted me to speak on which was great, but I was on short time...Monday I didn't get a lot of time to work on it. Tuesday came and we had staff and ministry at Turning Point, which was great by the way, but still no work on the sermon. We had a meeting with some of our youth workers Tuesday Night so I was going home to do it then...Long story short Kaden had been running temp all day, we end up taking him to the after hour clinic and get him checked out...by the time we had the prescription filled at the pharmacy we got home at midnight!!
I grabbed an ice cream and Dr Pepper from a gas station and was determined to work on this sermon, which I did but ended up going to bed not really far into it.

Wednesday got here and I work all day on my sermon, it's not coming together...then it is...etc...Finally I feel like I have it.

I come downstairs and Bo is got the place set up looking awesome, CJ has the band kicking and I'm getting excited.

So, service starts with a crowd breaker, announcements...then it's time for worship...and man did CJ and the band ever tear it up!! They did awesome. Intro Video and then it's time to speak. Complacency, it's what God wanted me to share, so I'm going through my sermon and it's just not hittin home (with me or the students!) If you ever speak you understand these moments come...But as it goes on the Holy Spirit begins to speak through me in amazing ways and I see God start to speak to students.
Anyway not to drag it out but we had a great altar service and we had students give their heart to Christ. It was truly a God night and He is so Amazing to let me be apart of what He is doing here at Metro...Amazing things are coming!!!

Busy...

2008-10-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I have posted but man have I been busy. Here's a quick recap...Mission's Conference, school, fireproof movie(we rented out the Rave!), I took Pastor Mark, Allan (worship pastor) and Josiah (Pastor's son) to the Auburn/TN game. It was great! Here's me and Josiah at Cheeburger Cheeburger...
Then Sunday we had Doug Small in the morning, parent meeting in the afternoon, Doug Small that night, fundraiser dinner after that...visited turning point on tuesday, mix in staff meeting, worker meetings, etc....the list goes on and on. But it's been great. Sorry for those who come check and have seen nothing that last little bit...I'm getting better!

Missions Conference

2008-09-17T12:49:00.001-07:00

Tonight starts our Missions Conference here at Metro. We are having a combined service (Adults, Students, Children) tonight to kick things off. It should be an exciting time. We are going to hear from 4 missionaries tonight.

Tomorrow and Friday we will have a time to sit and dialogue with many of the missionaries, while Friday is the HUGE Missions Banquet. Pastor Mitch Maloney will be there.

This is my first Missions Conference with Metro so I am excited to see what it's all about!

Friend of God?

2008-09-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Say hello to the future of praise and worship!

My little Tiger

2008-09-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well because of the lack of internet, this is a REALLY late post, but i hate not to share it. Last Saturday, Kaden got to take in his first Auburn game in Jordan Hare Stadium. Another awesome thing is that my whole family went (Mom, Dad, Dale, Julie, Jada, Mitch, Cindy, Anna, Grant, Me, Holly and Kaden!!) Although he had no clue what was going on with the game, I was really excited and I can't wait for the memories we are going to continue to make going to the games. Here are some pics of our trip.

By the time the game was over, there was no rolling toomers corner for Kaden, but we had a great time to say the least!! War Eagle!!

Hot Dog!

2008-09-13T19:35:00.001-07:00

So today was an awesome day...My little boy, Kaden, had his 1st birthday party! It was themed, of course, in Mickey Mouse.

We had hamburgers and Hot Dogs...if you don't have kids, the end song for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the "Hot Dog Song", which Kaden loves, so it went with the theme.

He had lots of presents and of course his own cake! Here is a picture of his new Mickey Mouse Airplane and his cake.

Finally...

2008-09-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a while since I have posted and I know most of you have gotten tired of checking back to the same ol nothing...however I have FINALLY got some things straight and will be back on board. It has taken forever to get internet hooked up here at the rental house, but today is the first day we have it.
There has been a TON of stuff happen since I posted last, but tomorrow is going to be a HUGE day. Kaden's first birthday party is tomorrow!! He turns 1 on Monday but we are having his party tomorrow. I am so excited. I will try to post pictures tomorrow night (depending on how the Auburn game goes :)! Anyway, of all things my battery is about to do so I will definitely be back on track now.

Guest Blogger- Blake Adams

2008-09-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,
This is Blake Adams, Scott's Production Director at ONEWAY (and now Media Consultant at Metro Church ;). He asked me to head over here and let you all know how things are going at Metro! He is in the process of moving into his new rental house in Birmingham and is crazy busy right now which is why he hasn't posted in a while (Which I get on to him quite often about!). They haven't gotten the internet installed at his house yet so he is "in the dark!"

Anyway, I headed over to Metro Church of God last Wednesday to check things out! It was great! Here is a little bit I wrote about it over on my blog:

"Scott gave me the grand tour of his new “diggs” and I must say I am very impressed! It is seperated into two different buildings, the Main Sanctuary which has the Childrens Sanctuary as well, and then the Office/Youth building beside it. The youth facilities are also very cool! They have a really neat cafe with televisions, air hockey table, billiards etc. and tons of signed posters and pictures decorating the room. The sanctuary area also has HUGE potential! They have been blessed with a lot of awesome stuff that I know they can make great use of! I’m working with Scott right now to design some cool staging and seating area. The sanctuary is in a Gym which kind of hinders your ability to do a lot with the seating area because it is sometimes moved for functions, but the stage is stationary which helps a lot! I’m looking forward to seeing what we can come up with for it!"

Here are a few pictures I was able to snap with my Camera Phone. I had taken my camera but unfortunately forgot to charge it the night before.

The Band Rehearsing before Service

I also was able to visit Scott's new place before I left Thursday Morning. Some of the youth at Metro Church had decorated his driveway and house with Balloons and signs. Here is the one that was on the Front Door

All in all it was a GREAT trip and I really enjoyed getting to check out Metro Church and meet several of the leaders and students! I know that God is going to do great things through Scott and Holly at Metro (and hopefully He'll let me contribute a little!)

I'll try to stay on Scott about posting soon! If not I may be back in a week!

Till next time,
Blake Adams

Networking

2008-08-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

This Friday and Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the AYLA (Alabama Youth Leaders Association) conference in Tuscaloosa, AL. Friday night Bro. Tom Madden spoke about the need to make disciples and did a fantastic job. Saturday we had breakout sessions and ended the day with our new State Youth Director Bro. David Jarvis. He also did a tremendous job echoing the call to make disciples.

The best part of the weekend for me though was the ability to network with other youth pastors in the state. This is something that I view as very important. To hear what is going on with other youth pastors and what they are doing, really excites and motivates me to continue on. I look forward to connecting with these guys again soon and hope that we can really begin to change the face of youth ministry here in Alabama!

LEADERSHIFT

2008-08-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

No I didn't spell it wrong, this is what Pastor Schrade talked about today. First let me start with the fact that we had an awesome service!! Allan Malloy (worship pastor) is doing a great job leading us in the presence of God every week and today was no different. Pastor Schrade also did an awesome job directing the service and not just "jumping" in to his sermon...

So anyway today Pastor talked about the Leader SHIFT that is taking place at Metro. I'll give you the quick run down and maybe later we will go through it a little more in depth. Here goes
L - leadership
E - evangelism
A - assimilation
D - discipleship
E - equipping
R - resources
S - spiritual
H - heart
I - infrastructure
F - facilities
T - this will lead to transformation

It sounds like a lot, but Pastor tied it all together and talked about how everything will revolve around our Core Values (which we will get into in the next post).

After service we had all the new and existing staff and families in the fellowship commons to meet and greet the church. Needless to say, everyone (especially me) is excited about where we are heading as a church and this is just the beginning. I can't wait to see all God is going to do in and through Metro...Be praying for us...God is about to do something AMAZING!!

Wednesday Night Update

2008-08-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

So last Wednesday was my first official service as Youth Pastor at Metro. Overall I thought it was great!! We showed a hilarious Kung Fu video at the start to get things going. Alan shared some interesting info. Trey Hardee who is competing in the Beijing Olympics in the Decatholon was a former middle school student of his HERE AT METRO!! How AWESOME is that? Also, don't forget En Fuego is this weekend for all middle and high school students interested in going.

Praise and Worship was INCREDIBLE. CJ got the band kickin' and man was worship good last night. I was blown away. Band you guys did awesome.

When I got up to speak, I introduced the fam (Holly and Kaden). That was cool. I spoke on transitions in our life and how God has called us to not remain stagnant but to keep moving forward. I thought it went okay, not my best, but it was good. We had a good response on the altar call which went great.

Alan closed and asked all the students to pray for me, Holly and Kaden which was great (we need it :) and then afterwards gave us a basket of all kinds of great snacks and things. Of course my favorite was the Aubie they gave Kaden that plays the fight song...War Eagle!! only 9 days away...

Overall the night was great, we are so excited and can't wait to see all God is going to do here!

Well that's about all for the update...I'll try to keep you caught up on what we are doing on Wednesday's as much as I can.

Check this Out

2008-08-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is crazy awesome...

First Service...Moving...

2008-08-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Okay so it has been a long time since I have posted consistently (and I can't say it's not going to be a struggle for the next bit), but I wanted to post today and tell everyone how excited I am about tonights service. Please pray that things go smoothly and God shows up in an AMAZING way!!
I am speaking on transitions and moving forward tonight and I believe it is going to be good. God has actually been showing me some new things that I had not prepared originally for. So maybe tomorrow I can unload the info from tonights service and let you know how things went.
Also, I am a liitle bummed because we thought we were going to get to move this weekend (Holly and Kaden even went home) to prepare, but I found out last night we are not going to be able to move until NEXT weekend!! Boo...But we do have a busy schedule this weekend with AYLA (Alabama Youth Leaders Association) in Northport, AL in Friday and Saturday, so maybe it worked out for the best.
Check back tomorrow (and Friday) for the update on my FIRST service.

Moving Pains-- No Internet

2008-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So inevitably with moving there comes those little things you take for granted. One of those I have discovered this week while staying at my sister’s house here in Birmingham is easy access to the Internet! I haven't had a chance to spend a lot of time online this week, but I did want to say sorry for the long delay (and I promise to do better next week). We will be "officially" starting at Metro Church of God tomorrow morning and will be having our first service as Youth Pastors this Wednesday! Thank you for your prayers as we begin this new endeavor in our lives! Keep checking back for updates and thoughts about our first week at Metro Church of God here in Birmingham.

Thanks for your patience!

The Shack

2008-08-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

So on the plane ride home from San Antonio (after Kaden went to sleep...of course) I finished reading "The Shack".

Have you ever had a friend tell you how awesome a movie was? That you HAD to go and see it. Then when you go, it was good, but were expecting the BEST EVER...so you left a little let down. That is how I felt about this book. I had been hearing "rave" reviews about how awesome this book was so I was extremely excited to read it.

It was a good book, but I think I was "over pumped" about it revolutionizing my life, I was a little let down. I will say this...it is worth the read...and has some really good things to pull from it. The adminstrative pastor at The Torch did a really good message about expectations and expectancy (that I might have to creatively pilfer from him:).

So if you are looking for a good book to settle into...you may think about picking up The Shack...just don't be overzealous about it!

Up next for me is The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry (by Andy Stanley)

San Antonio Update 6

2008-08-09T01:01:00.001-07:00

So, it's 3:15 a.m. in San Antonio and I am tired!! So unfortunately tonights update will be brief. We are flying back in tomorrow so ask the students for all the updates!! Tonight was the youth service followed by the awards ceremony. North Georgia brought home 8 total trophies, 3 of which came from The Torch (the most of any church!!). We won 1st in Team Bible Quiz, runner up in Multi-Media Short Film, and 1st in Group Pantomime!! The students did an AWESOME job this week and I could not be more proud. Here are a few group shots from tonight.

Here is a link to a video Blake put together of the awards ceremony. Thanks Blake!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcsvVtH6C9M

Pray for safe travel tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and support!!

San Antonio Update 5

2008-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today was another exciting day of competition. It was time for the Bible Quiz Championship. We started the day by meeting together in the lobby at 10:45. The team (Renee, Blake and Emily) were dressed for success!

We left and headed to lunch at the food court. Competition started at 1:00 and so we all made our way to the Convention Center in plenty of time to get good seats. We were slated for the first against the team from Tennessee. From the start our team was on fire. Renee and Blake both quizzed out and Emily added some points with questions she answered. When it was all said and done we won the match 250 to 135.

The next game was Virginia vs. Kentucky with Virginia taking the win. So we were up against Virginia (which had the 2 time International Individual Bible Quiz Champion). We started off slow getting down 70 to -10 and really didn't get much going early. The tide started changing when Emily answered a HUGE 30 point question. This brought the match to a 120-70 score (we were still behind). The game wore on and our 3 continued to fight hard but never managed to gain the lead. Blake quizzed out on the 17th question to bring the score to 190-130...still behind. It did not look good for us but we still had a chance. When you quiz out (answer five correct question, you are out of the game)you get a 25 point bonus. Blake had already quizzed out but they also had one person who had quizzed out. We were down to 3 final questions. It was a 10 point question and Renee missed it, giving us a negative 10 and the other team succeeded in answering the question. The score was 200 to 120 them...with 2 questions to go. The next question was a 30 point and Renee answered it. It was 200 to 150. Renee had 4 correct answers and the possibility to quiz out, but because how far we were down, we only had a chance if it was a 30 point question. It was, and Renee was first on the buzzer...she answered...and the answer judge said...........CORRECT....200 to 180...but Renee quizzed out to get 25 bonus points...We win (after tallying quiz out points) 230 to 225!!!!!!! The place erupted (at least our side) when they announced the score! It was amazing. We were in the championship game.

Next Tennessee and Kentucky had to play...Kentucky taking the game rather handily. Then it was Kentucky vs. Virginia. This was another great game coming down to the last question which Kentucky answered correctly to win the game. The championship was set...North Georgia vs Kentucky.

The game started with Kentucky answering the first question for 10 points. From there, our team caught fire answering the next 6 questions to take a 140 - 10 lead. They never looked back. ALL THREE OF OUR QUIZZERS QUIZZED OUT!! and the final score left no question who the best Bible Quiz team in the nation was...The Torch, North Georgia, ONEWAY Student Ministries...whatever you want to call them the final score was 425 - 80!! All I can say is Blake, Emily and Renee did an AWESOME job!! They have worked so hard. Of course NONE of this would have been possibly without the coaches. Mrs Anita, you are AWESOME. The time and effort you put into practice and behind the scenes, no one will ever know...but now the world will know what your effort looks like...International Champions...again. And who can forget BJ. Among the many other hats that he wears, he somehow finds time to assist Mrs. Anita with Bible Quiz and does an excellent job. Thanks BJ for all you do!!

(How nice of them to let me in the picture :)

Kaden was excited that we won today too!!

After the competition we went and visited the art exhibit. We have 2 competitors in it and I have yet to blog about how awesome they have done but here are a few pics of Emily and Natalie with their pieces.

Next we went out together for our final group meal. Eric found us a great spot called Sazo's. The setting was perfect. Good food, nice environment and great fellowship.

Finally, we ended the night taking a riverboat cruise. It was the perfect ending to a perfect night.

Also, here's a group shot we took today (minus BJ, Alice, Mr Jacky, Cody, Zac and Shaw)

San Antonio Update 4

2008-08-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today was another exciting day of competition. We started things off with Blake in individual Bible Quizzing. His first match was against a student from Mississippi. He won and then had to face the 2006 International Winner (who was from Virginia) and beat him! He proceeded to play the representative from South Carolina. He also won this match. Blake was in the finals and unfortunately lost by only 20 points to the guy from Virginia. It was a too defeat for Blake to take but he did an AWESOME job and representing us so well! Blake I am extremely proud of you!!

Next up was the Group Synchronized Movement. The ladies were pumped up (literally...check out the hair :) and ready to go...and once again they delivered a dynamic performance!! Here are some pics of the performance and after the performance...

After the performance, many of the students, leaders and parents headed to a famous mexican restaurant in the middle of "the market" called "mi tierra". Here are some different pics from their experience there...

Here is a shot of some of the parents! You guys are awesome!!

So tomorrow, we have our last competition...Team Bible Quiz!! We will compete with Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee for the title. It all goes down at 1 o'clock tomorrow. Throw a prayer up for us as we try to bring home the championship!!

I thought I would close this post by showing up my #1 competitor of the week thus far. He is #1 in my book and has been tremendous all week...you guessed it Kaden!!! I love you bud!

San Antonio Update 3

2008-08-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Today was the absolute longest day we've been here, but by far the BEST!! We started with lunch at the food court (again!) before we headed over to the Convention Center for competition. We met in a huge meeting room for practice from about 1-3. Finally, at about 4 o'clock it was time to perform...and let me just say, these guys did the best they EVER have!! Here are some pics of the action.

Did I mention they did AMAZING! People were clapping through the performance and when they hit this last pose (below) the place erupted...A Standing O!!! It was unreal. The place went crazy! Needless to say I was extremely proud of all our students. They come off stage and went to change upstairs. When they came down the escalator, we had all the parents standing at the bottom of the elevator cheering for them. It was an awesome experience.

After this Eric and Zach took me and Holly to a great restaurant on the Riverwalk called Pesca. I had some stuffed chicken and Holly had the New York Strip. Needless to say I ate mine and part of hers. Then we went to Hard Rock and had a dessert.

We came back to the Convention Center to get ready for Bible Quiz. Unfortunately it was running late. So instead of starting at 6:30, we didn't start until 7:45 . In our quiz session was North Georgia (us), Texas, Northern Ohio, Florida-Coccoa and South Carolina. We started off by playing Texas. We won and then played Florida-Coccoa. Won again. Next was Northern Ohio and won and then we waited til the final game of our session. Texas came through the losers bracket to play us and we beat them again to advance to the finals on Thursday. Here are a few pics of tonight.

So now it's after midnight here, everyone just went to their rooms. Tomorrow we have Group Synchronized Movement, and Blake competes in Individual Bible Quiz. If you are interested in watching, the drama will be in the 1:30 session. I am guessing we will go on around 2:00 or a little later. Hopefully I'll remember to post pictures and you can check things out. Keep praying!! These students are working hard and REPRESENTING!!

San Antonio Update 2

2008-08-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

So we started competition today. The first session started at 12 p.m. and was Monologue and Group Skit. Anna got our group started with her Monologue (One More). She really did an excellent job. I'm so proud of her.

Next for us was Group Skit (Beenie Weenies). Logan and Anna rocked the house and had everyone in the place laughing. They too did an awesome job.

After their performances, the girls had dance practice, then the large drama practiced. Bible Quiz is about to start practice here in a bit.

The students are now at supper and Holly is getting ready to go and judge Solo Mime. I'm about to go eat with Eric, Zach and Jay Critz. Maybe if we get something good I'll let you know (Blake) and rub it in :)

Other than that we have a team meeting at 9:30 and get ready to start Pantomime and Bible Quiz tomorrow!! Make sure to check out the live stream (see the link below)

San Antonio

2008-08-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

So, we are in San Antonio, Texas. We arrived here Saturday afternoon about 6 p.m. We had quit an interesting day. To keep it brief, we caught major traffic in Atlanta, we have a TON of luggage (26 of us), our check-in lady(s) were in no hurry.........no really, they were definitely getting paid by the hour because it seemed like it took that for each person!

Saturday Night we ate at Chili's...horrible service...a real test of patience. I think that was the theme for the day! Maybe God was trying to tell us something.

Today we started with a devotion in one of the conference rooms in the Hotel. Eric Freeman (our worship pastor) spoke. He did a tremendous job!

From their we began to get into practice time!!!

First was Bible Quiz...These students are machines!
They have worked tremendously hard and are doing a GREAT JOB!!

Next came dance practice...These girls are also working hard...and of course my wife is doing an AWESOME job with them! Thanks Babe!!

Finally was the large drama, which I didn't get pictures of (I was at the mall),

but we'll have some of them later. Finally, we had a group dinner tonight. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was pretty good food and great fellowship!! Here are some pictures from tonight...

Me and Holly

Please pray, tomorrow (now today), we are competing in Monologue and Group Skit. It all goes down starting at the 12 o'clock session. Anna is 5th in the session and her and Logan are 16th in the session. Make sure to check out the live stream on www.mywinterfest.net

Look back tomorrow for updates and pictures!

A Time for Change

2008-08-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Change is exciting, fresh, sad, hard, and scary...sometimes feeling all these emotions at the same time! Well me and my family are experiencing this now. We have currently resigned as Youth Pastors at The Torch, where we have been for almost 7 YEARS, and have accepted the same position at Metro Church in Birmingham, AL.

This is a change that is exciting, we are ecstatic about the opportunity of what God is going to do! Fresh because we are starting over. Sad because we are leaving our friends, church and students that we have poured our life into. Hard because starting over is always that...hard. Scary because we are trying to sell our house, in a down market, looking for a new place to live (can you say two house payments :( ), and the rub is Holly's job situation. She will not be working which is good because she gets to stay home with our 10 1/2 month old, but scary because we have never lived off one income (did I mention two house payments?)

Having said all that, we are ultimately believing God for AMAZING things! We totally have a peace that this is what we are supposed to do and we also truly believe God is going to do things at Metro that we cannot even imagine. We are believing for amazing things, because when people see what is happening there, they will know that there is no way that we could have done it...it will definitely be a God thing!

To all our friends and family at The Torch, this is not the end, but the beginning. And Kaden's first birthday is coming up so you better pack your bags and be ready to come to the party!! Please pray for us as we are getting ready to compete in National Teen Talent this week. It's going to be great!! This will be our last trip with our students before we leave, so this is going to be extra special!