So, So, So Good

We are blessed to have one of the best youth groups and youth bands in the area. Riot is the place to be on Sunday nights!

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Friday Night Lights

PV is taking it to Methacton tonight! 34-0 with 25 seconds to go in the first half.

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Ice Breaker – Back To School

Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)

Each week on The Stretched Blog, I ask an ice breaker question. The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community. I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments. While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.

When I was a kid, I struggled to sleep the night before school started. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the summer, but there was something exhilarating about starting the new school year. I was nervous about my classes. I was probably a little concerned about what I would wear. And I was excited about seeing my friends again after the summer break. Our kids started back to school this week, so I thought it might be a good time for a back to school Ice Breaker question.

Question: What was/is your favorite thing about going back to school?

My Answer: When I was in school, I liked the opportunity to start fresh. I especially liked the clean book covers that went on at the beginning of the year. And I liked the new sneakers that typically came with the start of school.

Now, I appreciate the return to school for my kids as it signifies a return to routine. While I love the summer times with my kids, our schedules tend to get out of whack when they are home all summer. School means a tighter schedule. It can sometimes mean a little more rushing around. But the routine is great!

Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!

Also don’t forget to sign up for the weekly Stretched newsletter. Check out this post to find out how to sign up.

Right or Left

Which way should I go?

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Wedding Reminder

This summer, Leanne and I attended the wedding of my boss’s daughter. She is a couple of weeks older than my little brother, Erik. But I definitely felt like I was on the older side of those in attendance.

There were several comical things that happened during the wedding that I may explore at a later point. I just wanted to capture a couple of thoughts related to my observations of my boss. He lost his wife just over 3 years ago (another topic to explore later). It was so great to see him and the whole family happy.

My boss did an incredible job walking his daughter down the aisle. He did a great job welcoming everyone to the reception. And his part in the father/daughter dance left all the fathers of daughters in the room with our jaws dropped. There’s no way most of us can compete with the show he and his daughter put on for this dance.

When I started with the company more than 17 1/2 years ago, his daughter was a little girl. Time certainly flies. Now while I still have several years to go before Hannah reaches this milestone, I’m realizing more and more how quickly the time will fly. I want to make the most of each and every opportunity I have with my kids. I don’t want there to be any regret.

For this reason, my run the next morning with Hannah was a little extra special for me. We didn’t set any land speed records. We didn’t even talk all that much. It was just nice to be together.

May I always remember to enjoy each moment with my kids.

God, Thank You for Hannah. Thank You for giving me such an amazing daughter. Be with her as she grows and continues to develop into the woman You are calling her to become. Thank You for her spirit of generosity and compassion. Thank You for her incredible intelligence and her outstanding work ethic. And thank You for the reminder to make the most of each moment with her. Be with the bride and groom as they start their lives together. Help them to grow and know You deeper every day. Help them to have happy and healthy lives, and help them to have an impact on this world that far out lives them and their marriage. Finally God, I ask that You prepare Leanne and I for the milestones to come with our children in the days and years ahead.

If you are a parent, how are you being intentional this week? How do you prepare for these milestones? How do you celebrate these milestones?

Short-Term Mission Trip = Long-Term Impact

Why should anyone go on a short-term mission trip?

This is a question that I’ve heard in one form or another. People often imply that a short-term mission trip has little impact on those being served. And they typically assume that a short-term mission trip has minimal impact on those serving other than to make them feel good about themselves for a few weeks.

I’d like to say that this doesn’t have to be the case. My recent experience is proof that short-term mission trips can have a huge impact.

Let me explain.

Missions has surrounded me in one form or another since I was a young child. In elementary school, my parents hosted a missionary in our home for a few months. In junior high, I remember my dad traveling to Haiti for a short-term missions trip with other members of our church. When I got to high school, I attended five short-term mission trips with our high school youth group. I also was the missions coordinator for our church’s vacation Bible school on summer. In college, I traveled to Chicago twice to serve with Habitat for Humanity during my Easter vacation. And I was privileged to go twice to Urbana, an InterVarsity missions conference for college students. Each one of these experiences has had an impact on me, and I know these experiences have helped to bring housing, help, and hope to those in need.

When I graduated from college, I wrestled with a mission minded decision. Should I go into full-time missions as a missionary, or should I go to work in the world of engineering? The more I grappled with the decision, the more it became clear that God calls people to the “normal” working world just like He calls people to the mission field. As I began to explore and experience the construction industry, it became more and more obvious to me the construction industry is a BIG mission field. God can use Christ followers to make a difference in the corporate world, in schools, in hospitals, and in so many arenas of every day life in America.

After nearly twenty years in the industry, I remain convinced of this. I work in a mission field today.

But there is still a place in my heart for serving others outside my company. There has been a passion in my heart to serve others in strange places. Three years ago, I nearly experienced that dream and passion as my wife and I were preparing to go to Nairobi, Kenya to serve in the slums of Mathare. Some unexpected circumstances caused us to cancel these plans, and I began to wonder and even resolve myself to the fact that this dream would never be actualized.

Fast forward to last spring.

Many of you know the story, I was asked by the high school youth pastor at my church to consider going to Guatemala with the youth group. It was a decision I didn’t take lightly. I prayed. I sought godly council from friends and family members. And I analyzed the reasons to go and not go on this trip. When it came down to it, I had to take a leap of faith.

This initial trip changed my life.

I developed a passion for the people of Guatemala. I started dreaming about going back again. And I began to understand that God could use me at home AND in strange places.

This trip changed other people’s lives.

While we were in Guatemala, our team built a house for a family (thanks to The Stretched Community for funding this project). We installed stoves in the homes of widows in Xenacoj, the community where we served. And we played with children and taught them about the love of Christ.

Many people would naturally wonder if these efforts really made any difference.

I can tell you with certainty that they did! When our family returned to Guatemala last month. We saw how the house we built last year propelled this family forward financially and also spiritually. We saw hope in the eyes of widows we had served last summer. And we even ran into children we had served last year who remembered the “gringos” who came and played with them last summer.

Our short-term mission trip was not a waste. It may have had some short-term impact, but I know it also had long-term impact.

Our family is planning to return to Guatemala to serve again. We think about the people we interacted with last month, and we pray for them constantly. We are strategically thinking about how we can continue to have an impact in Guatemala – even while we’re here at home. And we are sharing our story. We hope we will inspire others to consider similar short-term mission trips. We pray that we might be able to encourage others to find ways to help others in distant lands. And we know that our short-term mission trip will have a long-term impact.

How have you seen small actions result in large outcomes? What small step can you take this week to have a large impact in the future?

Have you ever been on a short-term mission trip? What was the impact of this trip?

What’s stopping you from going on a short-term mission trip?

Would you ever consider going to Guatemala with me on a short-term mission trip?

Book Review: Creating Community (@AndyStanley and @BillWillits)

For those of you who have been around for a while, you may know that I have a passion for small groups and for seeing people connected and growing in community. I’ve been to three or four groups conferences over the past decade. I’ve been plugged into a group of one kind or another for the last fifteen years. And I grew up in a house where small groups were modeled as a way to connect people to each other and to encourage people to grow in their relationship with God. I’ve written more than a couple posts about small groups over the past six years. In fact, one post is among the top viewed posts of all time: Ten Things Every Small Group Leader Should Know.

For a while I was helping to lead in the small group ministry for our church, but I took a break for a few years due to other commitments and some other circumstances. Recently, a friend reached out to me and began to rekindle my passion for group ministry leadership. As part of our conversation, he passed along a book by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits about building a small group culture.

Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture was written to explain the success that North Point Church has had using small group ministry as the center of their strategy for helping people grow in their relationship with God. Creating Community was also written to help churches and church leaders to develop a course of action that could be vital in achieving the mission of the church. Stanley and Willits share about the importance of moving church goers from the foyer to the living room to the kitchen. They share some of their own experiences of what worked and what didn’t work along the way. If followed closely, I believe their method for creating community will not only catapult groups ministry to a whole new level but it will propel local churches in their pursuit of living out the Great Commission and expanding the Kingdom.

Creating Community is a quick read. And I would recommend it to anyone who is passionate about small groups, the local church, and connecting people in community. Stanley and Willits are not simply trying to create another program at your church. They are presenting a mind shift for how you do church in general. North Point, where Stanley is the lead pastor, has grown by leaps and bounds and is having a tremendous impact on the Atlanta, Georgia area. North Point’s small group culture is a huge part of this growth and impact.

Check out Creating Community by clicking the link below!

Are you in a small group? How has community impacted your life? What are you doing to invite others into community?

August 2013 – Top Posts and Commenters

Here are the highlights from August 2013. Thanks to everyone who read along and commented. Your readership and participation in the daily discussions are what make The Stretched Community. Thank you! Overall, traffic was down from July (2.56%) which doesn’t surprise me considering it’s the summer time and I was in Guatemala for a week during this month. Traffic was up 47.62% compared to a year ago. The top 10 posts included two posts from 2012 and two posts from previous months in 2013. The top post was a guest post by Leah Adams. If you missed any of these posts, I hope you’ll go and check them out now by clicking below. The post with the most engagement was Ice Breaker – What Do You Do For A Living posted on August 2, 2013.

Top 10 Commenters:

- Steve Y (28)
- Larry Carter (15)
- Leah Adams (11)
- David Paul Stolpe (10) Dethroned after several months as the top commenter.
- Dan Erickson (8)
- TCAvey (8)
- Bill (cycleguy) (6)
- Joe Lalonde (6)
- Charles Hutchinson (5)
- David (5)

As promised at the beginning of the month, I have randomly chosen someone from The Stretched Newsletter subscriber list to receive a copy of The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing [A Spiritual Memoir] by Jeff Goins. The Stretched Newsletter has become a great place to continue the Stretched conversation with new content. So far, I’ve been pretty consistent with sending out the newsletter once a week. This winner of this book is…(drum roll)…Dan Mazzucco. Congrats to Dan! To find out more about how you can get the newsletter, click here.

For the month of September, I’ll be giving away a copy of Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court. This month, the winner will be chosen randomly from the top 10 commenters.

Thanks to each and everyone for reading and for commenting. I’m looking forward to September with The Stretched Community! The month of September will include a couple of book reviews, more reflection on my Guatemala trip, and a couple of visits to and from other bloggers. September should be a fun month!

How was your month? If you’re a blogger share a link to your top post in the comments? What was your favorite Stretched post this month? How were you STRETCHED in August?

In case you’re interested, here are a few other interesting stats about August (based on Google Analytics):

Visits – Decreased 7.01%
Unique Visitors – Decreased 6.01%
Pageviews – Decreased 3.93%
Pages Per Visit – Increased 3.41%
Average Visit Duration – Increased 2.86%
Bounce Rate – Decreased 4.72%
New Visits – Increased 0.50%

Children Of The King

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

As the month of August draws to a close, I cannot get the images, the sounds, and the smells of our Guatemala experience out of me. I pray for the children we served and played with at their schools and in the streets of Xenacoj. May they know that they are children of the King!

What experience stretched and changed you this month?

Ice Breaker – Favorite High School Music Group

Image by VerseVend (via Flickr – Creative Commons)

Question: What was your favorite music group when you were in high school?

My Answer: I’m sure I had several favorite music groups at that time in my life. My favorite was U2. The Joshua Tree came out while I was in high school, and I remember several of my classmates going to the Joshua Tree Concert when it came through our area. Sunday Bloody Sunday, 40, Where The Streets Have No Name, and Pride are just a few of the songs that were in my regular playlist back in the late 80s.

Here are a few music groups that would make my honorable mention list: DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, REM, and Billy Joel (not a group, but still makes my list).

Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment. I look forward to reading your response! (As always, feel free to share links.) And keep STRETCHING!

Also don’t forget to sign up for the weekly Stretched newsletter. Check out this post to find out how to sign up.

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I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18