At youth specialties…what should I buy? Also got a chance to help set up a prayer room…it’s very cool and should be a great escape to be with the Lord…to pray…and to rest.

If you are in youth ministry or ministry in general you will appreciate my pain. I remember being in a small group of youth pastors that met once a month in my early days of youth ministry. This group was the place I dumped. A place where I poured my heart out. A place where I got to gripe about church life. A place I got to dump about parents, kids, leaders, pastors. The group was a place of safety. A place where I was prayed for, I cried, and I literally asked God to teach me how to cope with the daily grind of loving the church and those within the church without wanting to strangle those I served. Those guys were my friends. There is another friend I’ve had over the last ten years that I’ve done just as much sharing with and dumping as those guys I sat with monthly. She was given to me by a church I love dearly with all of my heart, a church where I met the Lord, where I married my best friend and wife, where I heard the call of the Lord to go into full-time ministry. I lost this friend today. This friend has seen my cry. This friend has helped me lead eight different churches into the throne room of our King. I’ve spent numerous hours with this friend. If she could talk she’d tell you lots. She’d tell you about the youth who strummed her. She’d tell you about my own children trying learn how to play her. She’d tell you about the mission trips she had been on to Mexico and the beach trips. She’d tell you about the times she saw the spirit of God move upon the people of God in worship. She would tell you about the songs I led and the numerous times I played King Jesus is all with a smile…she evens knows how many guitar strings I broke. She’d tell you about the times I played my guitar to help my kids go to sleep. The songs I sung to myself that I’d try to write for my kids and my wife that were still works in my heart and in progress. She’d even tell you how I love to worship, how I love leading others into worship, and how she even put up with my mediocre voice…last night around 3:00am, alarms a blazing, in my office at church…my guitar walked away with someone who obviously needed it. I loved my friend dearly. I will miss her and I pray that the Lord will use her whatever pawn shop she lands in. So long buddy!

I had to find out. Thanks Marko and thanks cyborg name generator…

I know I’m a bit behind on this. Have no doubt it’s floating around the net. Read about it here and here. You can view this preaching moment here. I’m still laughing. Waiting for my day to descend upon me. The day I spew…and make the word come alive… with laughter…literally.

My friend Andrew is right on!

How do you measure your success?

I don’t. Seriously. Or, I try not to. The reality is that no matter how hard you try there WILL ALWAYS be people in your church who need NUMBERS. Oh, how I hate numbers. If you refer to my PH of YM (philosophy of youth ministry) and the statement "It is not about numbers. We will affirm this by asking about growth and quality rather than quantity."

I am more concerned with what God is doing or going to be doing in a student’s life. When you have an outlook on ministry that is not focused on numbers, then you begin to gain clarity on how to affirm what God is already doing in a student’s life and sometimes clarity on what God will eventually do. But you must be willing to know and say that this is God’s job, NOT MINE.

It is far more healthy for me, to just desire to minister to the students who are THERE. Instead of saying the statement "where is everyone" when 3 students show up, I use language that shows that I am WHOLLY grateful for the opportunity to spend time with those 3 students. Sometimes we are blessed with more, sometimes we are blessed with less, but the bottom line is, that ministry is about presence, not about seeking out more when there are already some present.

Presence. Presence. Presence. What I remember most about my youth leaders as a kid…weren’t their cool talks, their expertise on leading a special event or camp, a mission trip, or even how they led me to the Lord…what I remember most was that they were present…and thus why I do what I do in the midst of the joys and struggles in youth ministry…I practice the art of being present, I show up ready, willing, and waiting to see and to watch the Spirit of God at work…may not see it now…may never see it…I only hope my presence will make a difference…and knowing that it’s Christ’s love and compassion I hope will be caught through myself just being present…

If you’d like to hear a portion of Elder Rick Ufford-Chase’s message to a group of students this afternoon listen here and listen to some of the worship here. I really enjoyed what he had to say to the youth regarding mission. After hearing him at our presbytery meeting yesterday and listening to him speak to a bunch of youth and young adults this afternoon I’m convinced that he is an advocate for the church becoming missional in the way it does mission not only throughout the world but locally. What I appreciated most was his challenge to the youth to becoming more mission minded not just on an annual mission trip to Mexico but mission minded within their communities.

Yesterday I was jazzed about a new ministry our church kicked-off here in our neighborhood. Several months ago I was talking to a friend about what it would mean to host a monthly feeding program at our church. I had shared that my home church several years ago had begun a weekly feeding program that had pushed the church to a greater understanding of what it meant to be "sent" by Christ into the world and into the world next door.

Several meetings later, a presentation at a session retreat my friend made regarding the vision of a feeding program for low income families and the homeless, and recruitment of some much needed volunteers who were willing to carry out the vision of ministering to those who are hungry, we prayerfully opened up our doors to the neighborhood. I heard this morning that two persons showed up. They expected up to two hundred. When I chatted with those who coordinated the efforts to begin this ministry, they weren’t the least disappointed. As a matter of fact they were encouraged and were reminded by one of the larger feeding programs, a Catholic church in our city that on their first night over twenty years ago, they had three folks, they now average close to four hundred persons a week. It’s exciting to see the church becoming excited about being a church "sent" by Christ, ready to proclaim Christ’s love, not only within the world, but the world next door.

5 days until the National Youth Workers Convention. Haven’t been for almost ten years. I’m actually jazzed. All I remember from the last one was that it was a time to chill. Relax. Worship. Pray. Listen. Watch. Laugh. Cry. Think. Study. Read. Eat. Pray some more and be FED! And the cool thing is…it’s finally in a city practically in my back yard here in Sacto…I save money, my church saves money, and I get to take a few days off to just BE! What I’m most jazzed about is that I get to see these two (here and here) very cool bands lead worship…can’t wait!!!!

(I will never complain about traffic again) Hurricane Rita needs to chill out! I’m reminded though by my friend Steve that God does not have anything to answer for when it comes to his creation. Steve is absolutely right…but my heart still breaks knowing that there are thousands who hurt because of the destruction of the last several weeks. My heart still breaks also knowing that there are thousands who will blame God…my prayer is that these last several weeks will only draw humanity even closer to the possibility that there is a God and that he exists…a God who moves…who works…who reigns…and even sometimes seems to be quiet in the midst of pain and suffering…and my hope is that in that place of pain and suffering would be the place that the Lord would grab the hearts and minds of his people into his arms of love…read Steve’s take rant here on intelligent design. I’m also wanting to find and be with people who are willing to go out in faith, wanting to make a difference in the lives of folks who are indeed hurting, lost, and some how feel that God has abandoned them in the aftermath of Katrina and whatever happens this weekend with Rita. I don’t know what this looks like. I only pray for God’s wisdom in showing the church universal where it needs to be…where it needs to love…and where it needs to be a light in a world that seems to be falling apart before our eyes and that gives and breathes new life into so many in need of new life.

Some of you might remember a couple of posts here and here regarding Pastor Nelson and his work with FEMA as a chaplain in New Orleans after Katrina. Here’s a note I received in an email about a report that should be on CNN this evening;

CNN did an interview with me that will be shown Wednesday evening at 7PM (in the west) on the Aaron Brown show. The subject relates to my work as a Chaplain at the Super Dome and the   New Orleans Airport. They focus on my discovery of 84 people on stretchers in the morgue - a majority of them were alive and left there to die. Toby Nelson

This Friday Toby will be here…

Rev. Toby Nelson of Grass Valley, California, will give a live report on his experiences at the Superdome in New Orleans in the week following Hurricane Katrina.   Toby serves as Chaplain with a Disaster Medical Assistance Team especially trained for responding to such tragedies.  His DMAT arrived on scene at the Superdome the day after the hurricane passed through New Orleans, and the day the Lake Pontchartrain levy was breached.  Toby’s eye-witness account is both tragic and inspiring.  Many were deeply moved by his presentation on the 9/11 Twin Towers attack when he spoke in Nevada County three years ago.  Please join us.

7:00 pm, Friday, September 23, 2005
at Christian Life Center
13010 State Highway #49
Grass Valley CA
(2 miles south of McKnight Way intersection)

Sacramento has a WNBA basketball championship! Meet the real KINGS! Go MONARCHS!