Baby #2 Update

On Saturday we met Leslie, one of my teens parents & a youth volunteer who is an Ultrasound tech, at the hospital for her to give us a sneak peek at baby #2. If not for Leslie we would have had to wait until Sheena’s June appointment to find out the gender of the baby. Most doctors want to wait until closer to 20 weeks to tell you, just to be more sure. But it is pretty common to be able to tell at 15 weeks, which Sheena is.

Not Hiring!

No! This is not a post on the complexities of the job market and how I have the best idea to put people back to work (which I do, but nobody is listening). This is about a funny thing that happened this week regarding our Preaching minister’s job.

It all happened Tuesday morning. The whole staff was at the funeral of a dear Christian brother who recently passed. As I walked into the funeral home and shook hands with people and said hello, Danny, our preaching minister, came over to say hi. While he did, he asked me about the job search I was doing for his replacement. UH, WHAT?!! That was my response. As he laughed at me, he began to explain that a friend of his recently told him about a job listing for a Full-Time Pulpit Minister that was on Lipscomb’s job database for Gateway Church of Christ in Pensacola, FL. That is US, and I was the contact person.

Now I am sure my face was rather red, because I love Danny, and I am certainly not trying to find a replacement for him. As I did some backpedaling, even though I didn’t even post the listing, I tried to give an explanation for the mishap. Kind of like when you were a kid and mom or dad accused you of something you didn’t do, but because you have broken a few things around the house before you feel the need to defend yourself in the same manner as if you had done what they are accusing you of. This was the case, I was embarrassed and searching for words.

Well, after contacting Lipscomb, apparently what happened was a student worker accidentlay put our location and my contact information online for a Gateway Church of Christ in Michigan. I have posted listings for youth interns in the past, so they know me and have my info, and I assume the Michigan church wanted to renew a listing and whomever posted it just saw Gateway and posted the first information that they came across. Odd and funny.

The funniest part, since Tuesday, we have been getting phone calls for guys wanting to apply. Today I got a packet in the mail from a guy who wants to apply, with a resume and dvd’s of sermons. Hilarious.

Just to clarify, Gateway is not looking for a Preacher. We have one, Danny, we like him and hope he hangs around.

“Do’s & Don’ts” Part 3 – More Don’ts

So I have been sharing a list of things on here about the things I, and others that I have spoken with, like and dislike about what their fellow Facebook and/or Twitter followers do and don’t do.

Today is the 2nd part of my “Don’t” list. You can check out Part 1, the “Do’s” HERE and Part 2, the beginning of the “Don’ts” HERE.

As always this is mostly from MY opinion, but it is also based on numerous conversations about the things that annoy others on social media sites. If you fall victim to some of these, don’t worry, we still like you, but wish you didn’t do these.

Here is #5-8 of the “Don’ts”

The “Don’ts” of Twitter & Facebook

Last Friday I began to tell you of MY “do’s and don’ts” of both Twitter & Facebook. I started of with the “Do’s”, you can read that here if you missed it.

Today, I bring you part 1 of the “Don’ts”. I will break these up in to 3 maybe 4 parts over the course of the week. I have a lot of don’ts. Some of you may take offense to these, because you constantly break them. Don’t worry, I still like you.

Do’s and Don’ts Part 1

For a while now I have wanted to post a Do’s and Don’ts list of things on Facebook & Twitter. Let me preface this by saying it is MY list. Things that I look for and do. Some of you may not agree with them all, but trust me. After talking with a lot of people about their likes and dislikes on social media, I am not alone in my thinking.

So here is how we will do this. I will do a list of Do’s and then a list of Don’ts. Since not all of you are on both Twitter & Facebook, then I will preface whether it is specific to twitter or facebook if it applies to only one and not the other.

Today will be just the “Do’s”. (Look for the Don’ts tomorrow, or Monday)

Odd Thought

This Sunday during worship, we were singing a rather traditional hymn, called “Jesus Is Coming Soon”.

During the song, the chorus to be exact, it hit me that, the song was about Armageddon and Zombies.

Fringe

Today, I am looking for advice. Advice from my fellow youth workers and anyone who has legitimate insight into these sorts of things.

For some time now, I have really struggled with getting “Fringe” teens at Gateway involved with our ministry. We have a number of teens who go to Gateway on Sunday morning, but have never darkened the door of a youth class, Wednesday night Worship, Small group, or surprisingly even a fun event. It seems like they just have too much to do (extracurricularly) to come, or the vicious cycle that is where they fell they don’t know anyone so they don’t come, but they don’t come so they don’t know anyone.

It is really tough. I try to talk with them, invite them, send them facebook shout outs, etc. This may sound bad, but honestly, I haven’t put a whole lot of effort into them lately, because nothing I have done in the past has helped. I really hate that feeling. But I don’t know what else to do. I know that if they would just come for a few weeks, they would get plugged in and love being a part of the group. But…They just don’t come.

What are some of you doing out there to GET “Fringe” teenagers to come so they can get plugged in? I know we all encourage, but what are some things that are actually getting them there and plugged in?

Thanks in advance for your responses.