Hey everyone!  I'm not going to keep my blog at this address anymore.  My blog moved to:

http://itsmekevin.wordpress.com

Come on over!

8th Anniversary

Today is my anniversary and it has caused me to stop and think about my life.  I think now more than ever before I realize how blessed I am.  Honestly, in years past I haven't thought about it that much but these past few  years have been different.  I have a wonderful wife!  She is beautiful, smart, a great mom and she loves God.  I'm so glad that I haven't had 8 years of misery.  I'm so glad that my marriage is fun.  I'm so glad that Christina and I have the same vision and heart to serve God together.

A Key Ingredient of Teamwork

I've been seeing a lot of teamwork lately around NSM.  First there were the past few nights at the Element where the staff and volunteers came together to make some very cool creative elements happen.  Then there was Night Shift where our leader participation was amazing.  And then at Shift the middle school students put together 189 boxes of food for the Turkey Outreach.  All this got me thinking about the ingredients of teamwork.

Tonight as I was watching "The Italian Job" I was wondering why Donald Sutherland invited Edward Norton into his highly effective team.  Everyone else in the team was so loyal and they worked together so well but Norton was sketchy.  And of course he sabotaged the team. 

Trust is an absolute key ingredient for teamwork.  When there is a lack of trust team members won't try anything extraordinary for fear of criticism or betrayal.  Where there is fear there is not trust.  The fact is when we try extraordinary things we are bound to experience some failures.  But a good team will embrace those failures as learning experiences.

We at the NSM staff (Phillip, AJ, Brian and myself) have recently grown tremendously in the area of trust and teamwork.  I don't know if I can pinpoint when it started to happen (maybe taking a trip together for the Catalyst Conference?) but these things take time.  There are certain things that only time can accomplish and I know that trust is one of them.  Time alone doesn't do it though.  It also takes humility to share the success and failures.

Top 15 Moments of the Week

15. Good conversation with AJ and Phillip over the book "Tribes" on Monday

14. The Broncos beat the Falcons and the Chargers lost

13. Watching Quantum of Solace with the guys at midnight

12. Dominating at office Bag Ball. 30-30-30

11. Skunking AJ at ping pong

10. Tim Dorn preaching at Chapel.  The man was preaching!

9. Sunday lunch made by my mother-in-law: Roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, Pecan pie

8. Several middle school students drank Thousand Island dressing for the scavenger hunt

7. The 7th and 8th grade girls win the scavenger hunt w/ only one item missing!

6. The plan really came together nicely for The Element.  Fun times w/ glowsticks 

5. Pecan pie leftovers!

4. Bowling a Turkey (3 strikes in a row) to give Gilbert and I the lead vs. AJ & Phillip

3.  Middle school boys expressing much disappointment at my small group sabbatical

2. The leader participation and overall awesomeness of Night Shift

1. Shift students working very hard and having fun filling food boxes for the Turkey Outreach

Giving+Thanks

On Sunday At SHIFT, Northwood Church's middle school environment, we started a new series called "Giving+Thanks".  I'm excited to teach about thankfulness not just because it's the time of year but because I need to be more thankful myself.  I encouraged the students on Sunday to pause and focus on what they have been given by God and others.  You simply have to pause to think about life every now and then or you will miss out on the best parts of it.  And you have to focus (see clearly) on how great those best parts of life are or you won't be grateful.  No pause, no focus=ungrateful.  So that's the thanks part.

This Sunday we will focus on the giving.  Instead of a regular service we will all work together to fill food boxes to give away Nov.23rd at the Turkey Outreach.  Our church members will be going out to the neighborhoods of North Charleston to deliver Thanksgiving meals to those in need.  

I'm excited because we aren't just talking about giving+thanks, we are doing it.

I had a huge "pause and focus" moment the other day when I saw this clip:

I don't get it

I'll be honest.  There are a few things I don't understand.  If you have any insight please feel free to enlighten me.

I don't understand these phrases:

"You can't have your cake and eat it too"

"Head over heels"

"I was going ninety to nothin"

My Halloween

Our church administrator called on Thursday to ask me (I'm really not sure if he was asking or telling) if I would drive the school bus for Northwood Academy for the football trip to Hilton Head, SC.  I agreed.  

What's the best thing about driving a school bus?  Free food.  We stopped at McDonald's and they give free meals to bus drivers so I loaded up with the works: qtr pounder, coke, milk shake and apple pie.

What's the worst thing about driving a school bus?  Everything but the free food.  But I did listen to some podcasts by Francis Chan and Ed Young along the way.

It was a great game!  Northwood played great defense against a very good passing team.  17-14 Final.  Northwood is conference champs!

Meanwhile Christina had the girls by herself on halloween and didn't know what to do with them.  Some of our friends already had plans and so she was bummed until our neighbor came over with her 2 boys and invited them to go trick or treating with them.  Our neighbors really saved the day.  They had an awesome time.  Especially Ella, who really enjoyed her first trick or treat experience.

Halloween

Here are a few pictures from Halloween night. Olivia only wanted to be a princess if she got to hold the sucker and that is Ella with our neighbor Lawton who dressed up as a mad professor. :)

Grateful

Guest Post from Christina:

Sometimes we forget how good feels until we don't feel good anymore. The girls and I have been sick/injured for the last 2 weeks. We are finally starting to feel better and it sure does feel good!!

Through the last weeks being home alot I have realized how grateful I am for all the things God has blessed us with. What a wonderful life, healthy children, my most wonderful blessing Kevin (the best husband in the world). God has been so good to us!! 

The girls are going to be princesses for Halloween and we thought we would make it out trick or treating a little bit but it looks like due to our sicknesses we will just hand out candy to any one that comes by our house. Anyway Ella can't remember Halloween. She just knows she gets to dress up so she has changed this holiday to "dress up day". Here are a few snapshots of the girls trying on thier dresses.

Teachability

I am now in the blogosphere.  It's dark in here.  And it smells like a paper mill.  

Anyway I thought I would start off by trying to be spiritual and write about something I've been thinking about.  In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about different types of ground that seeds are planted on.  You know, the walked on, stony, thorny  and good ground.  What's interesting is that later He tells the disciples, "Do you not understand this parable?  How then will you understand all the parables?"  So you could say that this is the KEY to all parables (I thought the renewed mind was the key!  Thanks anyway, church dancers Youtube sensation).

So now there's some pressure to really figure out this parable.  We already know it's about what type of ground you are but I have to ask myself "How receptive am I really?"  How well do I receive not only scripture but correction (God corrects those He loves)?  And how well do I receive correction from other people?  Maybe this parable is about teachability (it is a word no matter how W-ish it sounds).  If someone isn't teachable how will they ever learn anything?  To be teachable you have to humble yourself because to be taught is to admit you don't know it all, and that can really hurt your pride.  

On the other hand, humbling yourself can be very liberating.  Think about it: wouldn't it be nice to stop caring so much about your image.  I think we all spend way too much energy on keeping a good image.  Imagine the stress relief.  And you can go around and throw out plenty of compliments to people and feel great about it.  You don't have to defend yourself so much.  It's nice. 

Holding the Birthday Girl!