Hello to all! Yes, that is a picture of my beautiful niece Iris who will turn ONE YEAR OLD on Friday, unbelievable!

This past Saturday night I had the opportunity to see Over the Rhine in concert at the Olde Town School of Folk Music and boy was it an incredible show! If you have the opportunity to see them in concert do so immediately. They create some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear, my highest recommendation! Please check them out and support them in any way possible. If you're in Indiana, they will be in Goshen on December 9 and in Indianapolis on December 12. Trust me, it's well worth the drive!

I am in the library and should be writing a speech outline... but I'm not. Here's my topic:
"In order to be effective and true to its Biblical mandate, the church of today must learn how to effectively communicate with and minister to a postmodern culture that seems foreign."
Do you agree? What do you think?

I recently directed my first ever youth retreat with the Senior High youth group at Kankakee First Church of the Nazarene. I think it really went well. We did things a little differently than most retreats, including watching a movie one night and having live feedback from the students. Have you seen the movie "Thirteen"? It's an incredible insight into what it means to be a teenager in current day America. The pressures and pains are incredible to watch and I really think a lot of teens identified with Tracey, who was the main character in the movie. What I really loved, though, was the input of many adults who were sponsors on the retreat. They had some great insight and, even better, were able to identify with Tracey's mom in the movie. We also utilized some experiential worship times throughout the retreat, had many moments of silence (silence isn't scary!) and joined together in the Eucharist on Sunday morning. I tried my hardest to think through every aspect of the retreat and not do anything for the simple sake of doing it. One question I asked a lot during our preparation time was "What is the difference between intentionality and manipulation?" I would love to hear some responses on this. I wanted to be intentional in everything during our sessions, from what was going on up front, to the layout of the room, to the light levels. When do we become so intentional that we begin to manipulate our students in order to achieve the response we want? The movement of the Holy Spirit requires a voluntary response, how do we create an environment for the Spirit to work without eliminating the voluntary aspect of that response? I don't think we tipped the scales toward manipulation during the retreat, but the question stayed in the back of my mind a lot.

Thanks to Steve Spangenberg, the senior high pastor at Kankakee First for believing in me enough to allow me to take ownership of this retreat. The faith he put in me allowed me to continue to validate the call of the Holy Spirit upon my life. It was a great experience.

Okay. Back to the grind. I'll try to write in here more often as I continue down this path. Much love to you all!