3T

Hey Gang!
It's that time of year again where summer is starting to wind down and I am sure you are in the midst of your planning for the fall activities. Just wanted to let you know that our 3T meetings will resume again starting in August. And to be more specific, the third thursday in August, which is the 16th @ 3:00 pm. We will be meeting @ New Holland Brewing. This meeting will probably just be a catch-up type of meeting, with how your summer went, mission trips, etc. I hope to see you there.
Blessings!
Kurtis Ritsema

Graduation Gifts...

It's that time of year again - graduation, and every year I struggle regarding a gift to get kids who have gone through the youth ministry. I've purchased books for kids, but they never read them. I've purchased CD's, and a few kids probably listened to the CD, but now I feel that was a meaningless gift. I've also purchased Bibles, but a lot of kids already have a Bible.

So, again this year I'm struggling to figure out a gift for seniors. Do any of you have a gift idea? What has worked for you in the past? Any help on this topic will be greatly appreciated. Hopefully there are people who still read this blog. If not, I just wasted time writing this entry.

Dave Roberts

Parade??

Hey,

What all is the plan for Thursday. I know the time and stuff that was on the postcard, but what about who is bringing what. I would like to help as I'm sure others would as well, just wondering how and stuff. I guess this is what happens when you miss a meeting you don't have a clue about what is going on.

Sorry I didn't make it to the meeting last Thursday, I was heading down to Ohio for a conference with some others from Calvary. It was a great conference about being a church that is focused on missions and serving. Our leadership staff here at church has really been wrestling with this stuff, so the conference was a great encouragement. This last Oct. we started a year of Jubilee where we decided not to spend any money on any building projects here (and paid off our mortage) instead we wanted to do building projects all over the world and send teams of people from Calvary to assist in those projects. Now about half way through it has been incredible to hear all the stories about what God has been teaching us and doing. So after experiencing the success of this and reading a few books (mainly Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne) we have been evaluating how this year of Jubilee is going to affect the way we do church and who Calvary is as a church. Although things are just in the begining phases it looks like we are going to become a church that is extremely intentional about focusing on others instead of just looking inward. It will mean we have to ask and answer a lot of hard ?'s and rethink what it means to be successful (not how big can we build our church). I am really enjoying this and it is great to see the leadership of the church struggling through this. We just had a staff retreat yesterday and brought all the staff up to date on where things are heading and invited them to dream and struggle as well. It is great to see us asking ?'s about getting more to Jesus heart then to what the American church says.

If you want a book that will mess with you (which is acutally our sermon series right now) read Irresistible Revolution. What makes the book so powerful is that it is not full of ideas, but rather stories of how he has lived his life as a radical ordinary for Jesus.

Expectations...

I love reading Mark Batterson’s blog, Evotional. Mark is the lead pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC. theaterchurch.com Recently, he wrote a blog entry entitled Seven Expectations. These are the expectations he has of his staff. Personally, I think they are great. To read these expectations, check out Mark’s blog.

What expectations do you have of the people you work with?

A Whole New World

Well Ladies and Gentlemen...

I'm breaking out into a whole new world today ~ the world of blogs.

I guess it is about time for me to move forward with technology.

This posted blog is to see if I am doing this correct.

You are welcome to let me know. Thanks!

Kurtis

20 Best Youth Pastors...

I posted this on my blog the other day, and it generated some good conversations so I thought I would put it here to see what all of you think...

I just came accross the list of the 20 best youth pastors. I didn't make the list. Personally, I don't want to be on the list.

Looking at the list makes me ask some questions...
- How did they come up with this list?
- What was the criteria for getting on the list?
- Are you only a good youth pastor if you are in a large church?
- Why are we fascinated with ranking people?
- If I believe in the Bible, wouldn't it be best to be last on the list of youth pastors?
- How much time was wasted on coming up with the list?
- Why isn't Ty on the list? I think he's a great youth pastor.
- What does it mean to be a great youth pastor?
- Are we sometimes too hard on ourselves, trying to copy what other youth ministries are doing instead of being ourselves?

Anyway, interesting list.