Mike Yaconelli was the founder and owner of Youth Specialties as well as the pastor of what he dubbed “the slowest growing church in America”. I never really knew much about the man until after he passed away in 2003. About a year ago I bought and read his book Messy Spirituality, which I coffee shop talking with you. There is no doubt that Mike not only loves Jesus with his whole being, but that he also loves God’s people as well. That is really the heart of what Mike is saying in this book.
Mike encourages you to jump first and fear later. He also doesn’t want people to forget that Jesus tells us to become like a child and Mike explores that idea in this book. I found myself at times getting into some very mischievous moods, because he would talk about playing and having fun like children do and then being reminded of the importance of fearing God. There is such a healthy balance of that that needs to be maintained. It reminds me of what Rick Warren likes to say about not taking ourselves serious, but taking God serious.
Mike does another great job of writing and I would encourage you to pick up this book and give it a read. You won’t regret it and you might just find yourself indulging in a little irresponsible passion. I posted a YouTube video below that is a tribute to Mike Yaconelli that will give you a little bit of an idea of his message to youth workers.
You are probably wondering why I choose such an odd title for this post, but there is a method to my madness and it comes from the Bible. Proverbs 12:18 (TNIV)….
The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Too often times we really don’t think about what we are saying before we say them and I know I am just as guilty as the next guy. And, unfortunately, in our world of technology where just about everything is written out it has seemed to have gotten even worse, because now all we have are our words. We can no longer see people’s body language or hear the tone in their voice. All we have is the text on our computer screens or on our phones.
I am someone who loves the technology we have and love how it has connected people together in such a cool way. I have found old (not that any of us are old) high school and college friends, and think it is so great that sites like Facebook and MySpace have helped that to happen. I have even been able to connect with other youth pastor’s from literally around the world because of Youth Ministry Exchange (YMX). But the side effect of most of those relationships that I have found again or formed anew is that it is most of it is all through the written word, so many things can be left up to interpretation when things are said. You can use emoticons, but even then it can still be misinterpreted.
I have even lost friends for some of these very reasons and had some horrible things said to me, because people can hide behind their computer screens or phones and say stuff. It is really sad but like I said it is one of the things that has come with technology. I try the best that I can to really think through what I say before I type it out and hit send. There have been a couple of times when I didn’t do that and it has really blown up in my face, so now I will often take a long time before I respond to people for that very reason. And I see it all the time on YMX, especially with the political season being upon us.
Then recently I read a story about a guy who lives in Texas that posted a story on the internet that he made to look like it had come from The Oklahoman website. This guy took the web templates header and made up a story about two quarterbacks from the University of Oklahoma that had been arrested on cocaine distribution charges. But, like I said, the story was false. This guy is claiming that he did it all as a practical joke and you can read that here. However, the problem is that it wasn’t a really funny joke because you are messing with people’s reputations and lives. In fact, one of the fathers of these quarterbacks is planning legal action against this guy and I think rightly so. You can read more about it here.
This is another part of the problem. Not only do we think we can hide behind our computer screens and do this, but we have no problems saying stupid stuff because we are “unkown”. Sadly, that is not really the case, but people find hidden courage in what they see as anonymity online.
Another case in point are email forwards. People will get a email from a friend and just believe it outright without even taking the time to check it out. Instead they will just forward it on and believe it. The funny thing is that with the internet we have the ability to easily search these things out and find out if they are true or not.
So not only do we need to put down our swords, but sometimes we need to put down our keyboards and take a deep breath before we respond or forward something on. Technology makes things faster and so we need to do our best to slow things down.
Back in March I bought a pair of Asics Gel-Kanbarra 2 to use at the gym and for when I would run in my first 5K. I waited to do a review on them until I had a chance to use them for a while and to run in the 5K.
I had chosen the Firecraker 5K in Manistee, MI for my first 5K and I hadn’t known at the time that the 5K was going to be sponsored by Asics, so this review is not influenced by that. But I am sure they made the race in such a way that people who had Asics on would have the best experience. LOL
Anyway, for someone is not an expert runner since I have only recently taken up running I must say that these Asics shoes are really comfortable. I am someone that loves walking around barefoot and these shoes hardly feel like they are on, because they are so light. They also make it feel like you are running on soft ground, because they cushion your feet very well. All in all I really love my Asics shoes and will probably only purchase them for running. I highly recommend Asics shoes and I know several other people that have said that the really like them as well, both runners and non-runners. Below is a picture of me from the Firecracker 5K running in my Asics shoes.
And here is another one after the race with my cousin, Kelly, and her husband, Robb, who both ran the 5K with me. In case you are wondering I ran the 5K in 25 minutes, which I am told is a good time, and I finished in 8th place for my age category.
Have you ever wondered how it is that you can form a worship team for your student ministry? The people at Simply Youth Ministry have created a resource to help you out with that, it is called
Worship Band from Start to Finish.
The resource has an explanation of each facet for building a healthy worship band, along with dozens of handouts, training sheets, letters, and more. All of this comes on a CD-ROM for you to print hand outs to the people you have selected for this important task in your ministry.
Once again Simply Youth Ministry is doing what they can to make things easier for youth pastors. Below is a video interview with Jason Carson, who is the author.
Today we took the family to Michigan’s Adventure, which is Michigan’s only amusement park and it is owned by Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. We had such a great time! It was fun hanging out with my wife and kids, as well as some of my extended family.
We went on all of the big roller coasters and my kids even went on some. Hannah went on Thunderhawk and Caleb went on Shivering Timbers, the Wolverine Wildcat and Thunderhawk. Both of them had to be bought to ride them, but the loved it! Hannah would have gone on more, but the sun kind of got to her.
We spent the whole afternoon at the waterpark, which was a lot of fun. The park has some great slides and killer wave pools. We had a blast there and the fact that it is included in the price of admission makes this park a great family park.
It was a fun day as you can see from the picture I had fun on the Flying Trapeze. It was also cool to see Brian Edwards & his family there.
The family and I will be heading up north tomorrow (Monday, 30 June 2008), and I do not know how often I will get to blog. But you can always follow me on Twitter, because I will be updating that regularly.
Kermit Love, who was the creator of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and most importantly Snuffleupagus, died last week Saturday (21 June 2008). I know this isn’t major news, but as someone who loves Snuffleupagus, which is why I have my blog address as “thesnuffy.com”, I was sad when I ran across this news today. As a kid I always loved when Big Bird would meet up with his best friend, Snuffy. It brings back such fond childhood memories. I even had a book where Snuffy met his friend Todd Porter that my grandma and grandpa had made for me.
If you did not know, which I didn’t realize until now, that Kermit Love portrayed the character of Willy the hot dog vendor. He also created the Snuggle bear for the Snuggle fabric softener. And I know many of you might think that his name was the inspiration for Kermit the Frog’s name, but Jim Henson had picked out that name before Kermit Love came to help create the Sesame Street characters. I was really amazed at his accomplishments when I read them and it is kind of sad that there wasn’t more news regarding his passing.
You can read more here about his life and passing.
Last night I emailed Eric Thuemmel, who is the person in charge of the Firecracker 5K, about the race and asked him if it was a race around a high school track or if it is a road race, because on the Run Michigan website it indicated it as a road race and not track race. And he emailed me back today and told me that indeed it was a road course that it “starts at the high school, runs to 1st St. beach, does a loop of the beach area, and then finishes at the high school.” So I have decided to run in the Firecracker 5K.
I am both excited and nervous about this. With this being my first ever 5K and actually my first ever run I think that is somewhat to be expected. If you would have told me last year when we were up at Manistee for the Manistee National Forest Festival that the next year I would be running a 5K, I would have laughed. But after losing about 50 pounds and getting into the best shape of my life I can now see it as a possibility. Hopefully, this will not be my last 5K.
By now you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with my post about mullet-boy. Well, let me tell you. In the reply email that Eric sent me after I told that I would then be running in the 5K he told me that he knows who mullet-boy is, because he was a former student of Eric’s at Ludington High School. I died laughing after hearing that because how ironic is that? He also told me that mullet-boy is very proud of his mullet and would be pleased of his notoriety. And he should be proud of his mullet, because it was one righteous mullet.
On Saturday I begin a 10 day vacation and I am really looking forward to it. We are taking our annual vacation for the 4th of July up to Manistee, MI for the Manistee National Forest Festival. I have been going up there since I was a kid and it is exciting to take my kids every year.
This year we are going to be braking tradition and we will not be going to the parade on the 4th, but instead we will be heading about an hour south down to Michigan’s Adventure. We went last year on July 5th and had a blast. My friend Brian had gone on the 4th of July last year and he said that there was hardly anyone there, so we decided to do forgo the parade and go to Michigan’s Adventure in hopes of it being the same way again.
We don’t actually leave for Manistee until Monday, but I plan on going deep into vacation mode as soon as the clock strikes 1:30p on Friday and I clock out from work. And then I don’t have to go back to work until Tuesday, 8 July 2008. I am looking forward to the break and being able to spend some good time with Kimmy and the kids. It is always a nice and relaxing time when we go to Manistee and one of the highlights of my year.
Some of you who are faithful readers of my blog may remember that I had set a goal of being able to run in a 5K race this summer and that I was planning on running in the Firecracker 5K during the Manistee National Forest Festival. Well, I am not going to be doing it because I found out that the run takes place on a high school track and I wanted my first 5K run to not be running around in circles on a track. I want to run along a road and see some different sights, so I will be checking out the Run Michigan and I will find a place nearby that is doing a 5K and run in one of those instead. UPDATE!!! I will be running in it. See this post for the update.
Mike Yaconelli was the founder and owner of Youth Specialties as well as the pastor of what he dubbed “the slowest growing church in America”. I never really knew much about the man until after he passed away in 2003. About a year ago I bought and read his book Messy Spirituality, which I coffee shop talking with you. There is no doubt that Mike not only loves Jesus with his whole being, but that he also loves God’s people as well. That is really the heart of what Mike is saying in this book.
It was also cool to see 
