There are some who call me … Tim

I now know the kind of youth pastor I aspire to be like… if only…

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

What do you do with 3 old foosball tables that are pretty beat up and old? Find an amazing person to link them together to make one amazingly huge foosball table of the ages!

We had three mis-matched old tables and our good from Jim took them home, leveled them out and connected them at the goals. What we have now is one HUGE table a whole group can play at once. To score, you need to get a ball through both goals in the middle, then the end goal! I imagine we’ll play with 3-5 balls at a time to keep it interesting.

Foos this!!!

So, the last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at a retreat for my friend Jason’s ministry and two other churches that join together for their Winter Retreat.

And let me tell you how awesome it was for me and why!

• It was awesome because I love Middle Schoolers and getting to share Christ’s love with them is always a joy, honor and priviledge.
• It was awesome because I love Middle School (or Junior High) youth pastors and Jason, Aaron and Erik are totally cool. There’s not a lot of us out there in the world who choose this and it’s just the best thing ever to get to know them.
• It was awesome because I love Middle School teams of volunteers and these guys had some totally crazy teams of leaders who loved the students.
• It was awesome becasue the band was awesome and did a great job leading worship.
• It was awesome becaus the band guys made some hysterical videos! Jason Strode!!!!
• It was awesome because there are now even more folks out there convinced I’m kinda different.
• It was awesome to be able to focus on teaching and sharing God’s Word in what I hope were fresh and exciting ways. PLus, I wasn’t in charge. That was awesome.
• It was awesome because I got to use Lionel Ritchie as part of a message. Seriously.
• It was awesome because my wife and son got to stay with family and have a great time while I was away.
• I was awesome because I had my own room. A winter retreat with my own room. Wow.
• It was awesome because the students really seemed to connect with God and grow in their faith.

So yeah, it was awesome!

Tonight in Middle School Gathering we will have a special speaker. (Who doesn’t want a break from me?!?)

Chris Provence, the Executive Director from Rebuilding the Wall will be continuing our series on “Hope”.  Click here to learn more about Chris and the ministry of Rebuilding the Wall.

Last week, Eric howard from Outreach Indiana, spoke on homeless teenagers. You can check out more about his ministry here. http://outreachindiana.org/

This was written Marcia Zgirta, The Director of Women in Middle School. Please note how nice I am to leave in her comment that girls retreat was better than the guys… I am so nice! Tim

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Hey to anyone interested in all things Tim Mauriello.  He asked me to write a short bit about the Middle School Girls’ Fall Retreat, which was equally as wonderful as the guys’ retreat and probably even more so since we had 170 total on our retreat, compared to 130 on the guys.  Our destination was Country Lake Christian Retreat Center in booming Underwood, Indiana.  We began with a stirring charge by our speaker, the incredible Melody Boyer, to not listen to the lies perpetrated by the media, our culture, and Hollywood on what look is pretty, what kind of person is valuable, and what kind of behavior is cool.  It was fun watching the girls tear into teen mags, glamour mags, people mags and make posters displaying the ostentatious lies presented to them in their daily diet of media.  The girls themselves were amazed at what they saw when they put it all together. 

Then we broke for an afternoon of low ropes course challenges by small groups, and free time including boating, sports, crafts, facials and hang time.  The facial/make-up room seemed to be the most popular, followed by the boats.

The next two sessions with Mel focused on who we are, how God has gifted us, and how we can enjoy and thrive in the natural bents that God has given us.  The girls soaked it up.  Then, were dismissed to spend a directed hour with God thinking and praying through what they had learned over the weekend. 

We also spent a great deal of time processing through questions and thoughts in our small groups.

All in all, a great time was had by all.  Well, except for those who are culinarially inclined.  The meals were not the highlight of our time.

Respectfully submitted by Marcia.

So the soundsystem fried my laptop (very thankful it’s under warranty) which leaves me blogging from my iPhone. You’ll have to excuse any typos.

Free time was great, great weather and awesome fun just being guys together.

Session 2 starts great with the guys really into the worship. Started with let the praises ring then went a little old school with “my glorious” I can’t believe we think of that as old school! Craig shares a bit from jis heart. From the inside out finishes the first set. Really was a powerful moment there as we worshipped.

Kyle is up. Starts strong talking about how we all mess up but god gives us gifts anyway. Romans 12. I am gifted by god. How do we approach these gifts? We need to get real. At this age these guy think they are all that, but we need to get real about who we are. They way we do and the we figure pit what our gifts are is in community. The point of these small groups is to me real an honest with these guys.

We are all gifted and important to the body. We can’t focus on how other people are gifted and wish we were like them. God did not intend you to be the guy sitting next to you. He made you the way you are.

Use your gifts. It’s a lie that middle school men can’t use their gifts to further gods kingdom. Then as we use our gifts we start to communicate with god in a whole new way.

Another great message. Short and to the point. Perfect for these guys.

On to worship set 2. Give me Jesus, holy is the lord, one way.

Then time in small groups to discuss the message. I just love processing these things together in groups.

Things got off to a fun start with Craig’s re-written “smells like teen spirit” though the fun stop came to a screaching halt as a guitar stopped working and we had to change a cable. so, we started over and all was good. I introdced Kyle, who I am so excited is speaking this weekend, including random questions from students and it was time to worship. Two songs, too loud. We gotta figure out how to keep the volume under control in this old barn!

Kyle starts with a great idea of having the guys respond like spartan warriors! so cool! then he just brings the gospel thunder with the big idea that “I am forgiven by God” I’m a little late posting so I am missing some of the finer points, but he did a great job and set the tone for a weekend that will be manly as well as the in your face truth of scripture. Very cool.

the guys seem like they are more into the music in the second set, and I’m up after we finish this song, so I better go! Let god arise!

So, since we have web access (even though its slow) I think I’ll blog from the retreat. Of course, Iwon’t be able to post about the girls trip as they are a few hundred miles away.

Things went very well at church, checking in 300 students and leaders! A huge testimony to the team’s organization and the quality of our leaders.

The bus trip was going great until we slamed on the breaks and came to a dead stop. A truck had just jack-knifed in the road and was blocking both lanes! We were a onl a few hundred yards behind. hd we been maybe 10 seconds earlier we may have been involved. After an hour wait all three busses stopped at a rest area and we still made it to the camp in time to get luggage to cabins and mae it to lunch.

God is good and we’re here!

So, I just got back in the office yesterday after three weeks off. It was great! I got to spend lots of time at home with my wife and son and also got to see family in the Chicago area and in Orlando. I saw plenty of MMA (if you don’t know, don’t ask!) and really had time to let go of work and ministry for a while. I’ll post some highlights another time, but I didn’t want to share some reflections I had as I couldn’t sleep last night!

How I know I’m rested (or How I know I’m not tired and grumpy)

• I know I’m rested when I focus on the positives not the negatives (like at church, in ministry, etc)
• I know I’m rested when I’m excited about the possibilities and dreaming of what God can do instead of focusing on obstacles in the way.
• I know I’m rested when I’m OK leaving work with some things not done and not worrying about it.
• I know I’m rested when I’m making the time to exercises and eating right.

I’m sure there are more! If you know me and can add some insights (like “I know your rested when you aren’t grumpy…”) or if you have insights from your own life as well, I would love to hear them!!!!

I’m almost through my first week of vacation and I’m so glad I have two more to go. (Yep, I took three weeks off!) We went out to Illinois last weekend for a wedding and to see family, which was great! We had tons of fun and I even got to spend an evening with a couple of my older brothers watching UFC 86 and eating a ton of BW’s!

So, we’ve only had a couple days at home and I’m looking forward to another week before we head off to Florida. One of the problems with only taking a week off at a time (like I usually do) is that I get to this point and I am finally starting to relax and let go of life at church and work and you have to head back in. I’m so grateful for more time to really decompress, refresh and renew before the craziness of the fall.

Tonight, I am taking my lovely wife out to dinner at a resturant in Indy I have been dreaming of going to, Fogo De Chau! It’s especially fun to be going out on a Wednesday night when I would normally be at church.

Anyway, you may or may not hear from me a lot during the rest of vacation. Who knows? I may feel inspired and write a ton, or I may feel like playing a lot of video games, or napping or maybe ven getting something done around the house.

I love my job, but its nice to not be a youth pastor for a few weeks!