There are some who call me … Tim

This is a little bit of worship the n teaching, response time and setup for the transition ceremony. It was an awesome night!

Hey all, here is a copy of the live stream from session 1  of the 8th grade retreat. This is some of the worship, teaching and response.

We had an amazing night on Wednesday the 16th with our Fuse Christmas Program! It was a really special night that mixed together everything that is awesome about Fuse!

If you missed it, our would like to see it again, we recorded the whole night and here are links to most of the videos. There a still a couple left to upload, so look for those soon!

The Nativity throughout art history from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

Fuse Christmas Program – Part 1 from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

Fuse Christmas Program – Part 4 from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

Fuse Christmas Program – Part 5 from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

Fuse Christmas Program – Part 6 from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

Fuse Christmas Program – Part 7 from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

This is the first of my hopeful series of training videos. This one deals with the issue of having some students who want to talk all the time and others that never speak up. What are some ways to help balance that out and create healthy discussion?

Fuse Leader Training – Helping them talk and listen from Tim Mauriello on Vimeo.

OK,  so I haven’t posted in a while (and I am working on one to explain in a bit more detail some changes to our curriculum) but here is another great video on youth ministry! Makes me giggle…

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/

So I took Vinnie to his 18 month doctors appointment. (the little guy is doing great, btw!) Anyway, as I was talking with his doctor about stuff he was going over all the developmental and safety things to watch out for and his main point was “He is his own worst enemy right now.”

For example, he learned how to climb up on one of our couches, but he only knows how to get off head first… He likes to grab random spray bottles and run around the house making spraying noises… Every now and again he throws a blanket over his head end runs around yelling “night, night!”

As I was thinking about this (and trying to teach the boy how to get down from the couch!) I thought that this is really true for all of us. It can be easy to over-spiritualize every bad thing that happens to us as an attach from “the enemy” when in reality, many times it’s my own actions in the first place. Things like being lazy, not being careful with my words, impatience and a selfish attitude seems to lead to many of the bad situations I find myself in.

Not that there aren’t spiritual forces at work in our world, or that other other people’s actions don’t impact my life… but in the end, if I am willing to take an honest look at my life, I come to realize that many of the problems I face start with me. I can definately be my own worst enemy.

Though, I stopped running around with a blanket over my head years ago!

One of my favorite blogs is “Simply Kurt” by Kurt Johnston the student ministries / junior high guy at Saddleback Church in Cali.

Kurt has been posting some short and sweet takaways from a conference at North Point Church in Atlanta. The snippets are great and his questions are ones we should all be asking ourselves. Check em out at…

http://simplykurt.blogspot.com/2008/05/leadership-gold.html

http://simplykurt.blogspot.com/2008/05/leadership-gold-2.html

http://simplykurt.blogspot.com/2008/05/leadership-gold-3.html

There are also some cool desktop backgrounds out there on the internets from these quotes at http://transitionpete.org/blog/?p=1513 Very cool stuff!