the green room:

college interns

mars hill is pretty fortunate to have 10 colleges within a 25 mile radius of the church.  many of our leaders and interns attend or attended at one time one of these schools.  the unfortunate part for me is that i spend little to no time on any of the college campuses (except for calvin which continually brings in some of the best indie bands on a regular basis).  as we continue to try and look toward the future, we want to begin creating more consistent opportunities for some of these college students to intern with us.

as we plan for this and begin dreaming it up i've had a couple bizzare ideas cross my mind that i'd love to get your take on.  is it ridiculous to put in an intern's job description that they will help you find their eventual replacement?  the reason i thought of this is that most young emerging leaders who are fresh out of a college come with a list of names of underclassman who would be great volunteers or interns.  for those of us who are removed from many of the college campuses, these interns are some of our only real connection to that university.  i'd love to have a video intern from the local state university help us find another talented person in their program.  does this make sense?  what are your thoughts? 

ciy believe - holland

this weekend i had the opportunity to join the ciy believe tour in holland.  i had a great time getting to see the believe tour up close for the second time and share the stage with so many talented people.  Johnny Scott and his team puts so much time and effort into finding creative ways to help students connect with the story which always makes the job of the teacher so much easier.  it was great getting to connect with  a ton of junior high pastors and leaders who are longing to help their students live the best kind of life. 

if you want to learn more about believe you can check out www.ciy.com/believe

i got to sit in on some creative meetings for next years believe and i was blown away with what kind of ideas they were throwing out.  if they can pull off a quarter of what they were mapping out, i think it will really connect well with junior high students.  if you're looking for an event to take your students to next fall or spring, check out believe...

the dominican sisters.

this past week, sister Virginia and sister Nancy from the Grand Rapids Dominican center came and shared with our staff about Lectio Divina.  for two hours these sisters taught us through 4 ways toward the path of intimacy and gave us the space to practice what we just learned.  it was helpful, difficult, inspiring and a little frustrating all in the same breath as we sat in silence and meditated on the daily reading.  the sisters kept mentioning that gift of Lectio Divina is both a process of descent and ascent.  As we went through the 4 movements toward intimacy: lectio, meditatio, oratio and contemplatio i could feel the descent; but struggled to understand how one ascends.  i asked the sisters afterwards and she quoted Thomas Aquinas, "we are to contemplate and to give others the fruit of our contemplation."  this is how one ascends when they give others the fruit from their space with God, his word, and his spirit.  what kind of fruit are you giving to others today?

substitute teaching

have you ever thought about substitute teaching once a month?  during our leader meeting last night, we had a volunteer in the.element share how she has begun substitute teaching at the middle school that the majority of her girls from her LifeGroup attend.  i couldn't believe it...i would never have assumed that this female leader would want to sub at a public school; but it all makes sense because this leaders group is one of the strongest at the.element.

i want to try and sub starting next fall.  nothing huge; but possibly twice a semester at a local school.  i think it would be fascinating to get to see some of our students on campus for more than just a lunch.  have any of you ever done this before?  what was your experience like? 

Emerson Hays Carter

the little man is here.     

Scot McKnight

i'm a fan of his books, his blog at www.jesuscreed.org and his teachings.  he recently came to good old grand rapids and delivered this message to a number of seminary students at grts.  you can listen to the mp3 here.  i'd love to hear how this message connects with you as you prepare to teach students?