We've Moved!!!!

Hello friends!

The J-Blog has officially moved to our new home.

www.j-blog.net

Please update your browser's bookmarks and RSS feeds. See you at the new place!

Moving Sale 4: My favorite series

Hey friends! 

 

Here it is, the last official post on the J-Blog in this location! Tomorrow, we're going to move to the new site, which you will be able to find at (www.j-blog.net). Tune in tomorrow for Photo Friday and some intro posts!

 

To close things out, one of the things that I love to blog about most is when we take our annual trip to the National Youth Workers Convention. But a few years ago, I wrote one of my favorite YS summaries. After spending a few hours this morning pouring over the J-Blog, I think these posts represent some of my favorite writing I've done here. And so I shamelessly share it with you!

 

NYWC #0: Traveling

NYWC #1: Photo Blog

NYWC #2: Time Machine

NYWC #3: Challeneged

NYWC #4: Photo Blog 2

NYWC #5: Me Time

NYWC #6: Photo Blog 3

NYWC #7: Worship

NYWC #8: Photoblog 4

NYWC #9: Going Home

 

Tomorrow's the big day! Woohooooo!

Moving Sale 2: Anne Rice

Good morning bloggers! 

First of all, good news! The J-Blog move is going a lot smoother than I had originally hoped, so the new site will launch officially on Friday! We'll wrap up the moving sale this week and then move over there for the first post in the new digs! Should be great!

Until then, check out this gem from the J-Blog's history. I wrote a quick piece on Anne Rice, and what her decision to leave Christianity was teaching all of us. It is to this day the single most commented on story in the J-Blog, so it deserves a second look. Enjoy!

Quitting Christianity: What Anne Rice is teaching us all

Posted by Jason Freyer at 9:42 AM Thursday, August 26, 2010
Greetings bloggers!
A few months ago, Anne Rice stated on her Facebook page that in the name of Jesus Christ, she was quitting Christianity and was no longer a Christian.
It's taken me this long to get around to this post because that sentence is tough to wrap your mind around. How can a person quit Christianity in the name of Jesus? What's really at the heart of Anne Rice's comment here? What does it mean for those of us who are in the Church and in Church leadership?

Rice's comments make sense in a world where we're told it's perfectly ok to be spiritual but not religious. On the plus side, it would appear to this casual observer that there are more people than ever who are interested in the life and teachings of Jesus. People are opening the scriptures and seeing the God of the Universe who cares for and loves their souls. These people fall head over heels for the savior.

But they simply can't stand his followers.

These folks read the scriptures, particularly the teachings of Jesus, and as their eyes glance up from the page they notice that the people in the pews around them are nothing like the savior has asked of them. They see the horrible things we are capable of doing in the name of Jesus, the way we treat each other, and the way we treat people who disagree with us, and they want out.

So the question is, can you be spiritual, but not be religious? Is it possible to lead a life of devotion to Christ but not be a part of the community of faith? Yes and no I think. I understand the heart of this feeling, the desire to distance oneself from "organized religion" (a phrase I find pretty funny, because as someone who works in the church I realize that it's seldom organized). I can even understand feeling like you're capable of accomplishing more on your own than you could with a group of infighting Christians.

But the truth is, you need that connection. You need that community. You need encouragement when things aren't going your way and challenge to see things differently when needed. You need to have your viewpoints challenged by caring and loving people who are willing to invest in you. I personally think everyone should be a part of a small group, a team of people who will listen to your life stories and help you put things in perspective. Sure, the Church can be ugly. To quote Augustine, the Church may be a whore, but she's my mother.

So Anne, I see where you might have felt compelled to quit Christianity. But I also beg you to seek out those of us who are trying to make authentic and purposeful communities, trying to live the life that Jesus has laid out for us.

Perhaps we should spend less time worrying about being Christians and worry more about being disciples.

Godspeed,

J

Moving Sale 3: My New Monster

Hello friends!

I accidentally published what was supposed to be this morning's blog post last night. Oops! So we'll do another one today. Don't forget, we'll be moving to the new digs on Friday!

This is the single most viewed post in J-Blog history, and frankly I have no idea why. It clocks in 3446 hits, 1400 some more than the next competitor. Why you guys like this one, I may never know, but here it is anyway. Enjoy!

My New Monster

Hello friends,

I noticed something while I was at the gym working out yesterday, and I thought I'd share some thoughts here on the J-Blog.

When I was in high school, I took Advanced Placement American History, or APA as we called it. The idea was that you would submit yourself to an incredibly difficult year of learning, followed by a national test, which if you did well on you would be able to opt out of college classes. The test was the source of much stress and disdain from several students, and so our teacher nick named it "The Beast." It sounds ridiculous, but it actually helped get you through the tough year of classes to know that everything you did was one more weapon in your tool belt for when you would attempt to slay the beast. We pictured it with nasty fangs and blood drenched claws, and know that what we were suffering through would help us to slay the Beast made the suffering tolerable.

Last year, I started cycling as a form of fitness. I had always like bike riding, but never really got into the intense all out riding that so many people have come to love over time. I was at dinner with a few friends, when one Travis Bachelder invited me to participate in the MS 150, a 150 mile bike ride from Slippery Rock to Lake Erie. Foolishly, I said yes.

The 150 became my Beast. It was the monster that I had to overcome. At that dinner table, a 150 mile two-day ride seemed impossible. It was going to require a lot of me in terms of training, in terms of mental dedication, in terms of nutrition and eating better. I was going to suffer. But at least I knew that I was going to suffer with a purpose. I was going to slay the monster, and slay the monster I did. I never felt better after a ride than I did when we rolled into Lake Erie, and they handed me the finishers metal. It sounds cheesy, but that metal means a lot to me. It's not just two days of accomplishment, but it's every ounce of the 500 miles and countless hours in the gym that went into training me for that ride.

The 150 happened in the middle of my cycling "season", and I started to notice something interesting towards the end. I was losing my drive to go on. I didn't want to go out on a huge training ride. I had very little desire to go to the gym. When I did go out on a ride, I was seeking easier courses and flatter terrain. Without a monster to slay, I had no reason to suffer, because suffering pointlessly is really no fun at all.

As I was lying in bed the other night, and I saw an article about Gran Fondos. I had never heard of such a thing, but the article made it sound like the next step up from the charity rides that I have been doing so far. It's usually a century ride, or 100 miles in a single day. They are known for their climbs, and usually have competition on the climbs. They are not to be trifled with, yet they come with rest stops. Like the 150 was to me a year ago, this ride seems so very far out of my reach. There's one coming in New York early next season (http://granfondony.com/) and I want to ride it so bad.

It is my new monster.

All of a sudden I can't spend enough time in the gym. I'm already upset that it's raining/getting colder so as to keep me off the bike a bit more. I will let you know when I get crazy enough to wear the jackets and tights and ride in the weather anyway. But this monster is coming, and I must be ready to slay it.

What is your monster? And what happens when people don't have a monster to work towards? Is it in fact true that suffering makes a little bit more sense when we realize it's leading us somewhere?

Food for thought.

Godspeed,

Jason

Moving Sale 1: The First Post

It's a blog!

Posted by Freyer at 4:38 PM Friday, October 24, 2008

It seems entirely appropriate to give birth to this blog just 6 short hours before embarking on an all night game of catacombs in the church. Researchers tell me such an act has about as much common sense as the following video:

 

 

 

We've all been there. We've all spent nights sleeping in the couches in our offices. We've all driven the church van home on entirely too little sleep. We've all had that feeling in the pit of our stomach when we knew we were going to kill that child if he/she uttered one more word. Chances are we even knew where we were going to hide the body.

 

 

 

 

This blog is for us, the youth leaders. It is for those of us who would rather spend our Wednesday nights dressed up as a big dork

 

 

 

than actually have a life and contribute to society. It is for those of us who are in love with our kids almost as much as we are in love with Jesus Christ. It is for those of us who are addicted to one of the following items:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can only make a few promises to you from the on set:

1) I will make many promises about how often I plan to post on the blog. At the moment, I would like to post at least once a day, if not more.

2) I will almost never keep the first promise.

3) I promise that this blog is based on the ministry I am running in Pittsburgh. This isn't some place for big ideas that have absolutely no basis in reality. This is about real life on the front lines.

4) I promise to try not to let the fact that I am in fact a Christian get in the way of me having fun or telling fart jokes.

 

The only thing I ask from you is tons of comments. This thing is all about community, and we need to band together to make that happen.

 

So to those of us on the journey, light up one of those cheap cigars. We just had a blog!

 

 

 

Godspeed,

 

Jason

Moving Sale!

Hello everybody!

 

October 24th 2008 is a day that I am certain almost no one remembers. I can't imagine anything of national importance happened that day. I think it was really just a pretty standard Friday afternoon. But it is for sure a day that will live in infamy. For you see, October 24th was the day the J-Blog was born. 

 

I don't even think it was called the J-Blog at first. I think it was just something like Psycho Youth Min or something like that. The early days were weird. Really, it was like I wanted to copy the Pensblog for youth ministry. It did not go well. Those guys are excellent at being them, and I am very much not. But the point was, I had a blog that I wanted to write about youth ministry, life, and the occasional ramble rant that would come across my mind. I had no aspirations of having anyone read the thing. I just wanted to write what came to my mind because I enjoyed writing. 

 

4 years later, this thing is out of hand! You guys are unbelievably supportive, showing up to read the J-Blog each and every day, sharing your thoughts with me on Facebook or in the comments, starting wonderful debates, and taking this thing much farther than I ever intended for it to go. So thanks for being along for the ride! 

 

As a result of all this support, and the ads that are wonderfully placed by Google, the J-Blog made enough money this year that it can move into a web hosting space all its own. It's not that the good ship blogger hasn't been extremely kind to us, but a new place to call home would allow us to do a lot more stuff than we're capable of right now at the moment. I think it's going to be unbelievably fun and exciting!

 

But, these things take time. There's a lot to set up and do over at the new place, so I think we'll be about two weeks or so before we're 100% ready to launch, including the prospect of importing everything from this J-Blog over to the new one so it feels like one coherent thought, just in two different locations. So while we're waiting, and while I'm neck deep in trying to understand the Hebrew Language, I thought we'd have ourselves a good old fashioned moving sale! When you have a moving sale, you tend to clear out the attic. Some things you find that you wish would just stay buried, and some things you find are treasures of the highest order. But at least in my case, I have fun remembering all the joys and difficulties as I sort through the old stuff. So each day for the next little while, we're going to re-post a classic J-Blog to reminisce together. Some of it will make me cringe with how bad my writing was in the beginning. Some of it is actually quite inspiring. Some of it is just weird and crazy. 

 

We'll keep that up for a little while, and then as soon as it's ready I'll post the link to the new J-Blog and we'll start a wonderful new adventure together! I'm looking forward to it!

Tech Saturday (on a Sunday!): Planning Center Online

Hello friends! 

 

Sorry I haven't been on schedule around here on the J-Blog. It's been a busy season with a final paper and a new language to learn down at the seminary, as well as the kickoff of a few things at Westminster that need my attention. But, happy happy news is coming to the J-Blog, and I'm hoping to make that announcement next week! In the meantime, accept as my apology a late Tech Saturday offering, and we'll see you all again on Tuesday!

 

To quote Rob Bell, I would screw up a one car parade. My administrative abilities are negligible at best, and disastrous at worst. Before the advent of iCloud, and the ability to keep all of my calendars and to-do lists in a single space, my desk, car, refrigerator, backpack, and palm were covered in sticky notes and reminders, about half of which I ever remembered to follow through on. My arrival at Westminster forced me to change my habits when it comes to planning and personal discipline, because the mistakes you might be able to get away with in a smaller church can be devastating in a larger environment.

 

One of the hardest things to keep straight and going was planning for our Bridge worship service. The way we've always put it that makes sense to me is that the Bridge is made up of many moving parts, each of which are changing from week to week. There are two primary worship leaders, who are both sometimes out of town. There are (at the moment anyway) 5 regular preachers. There are dozens and dozens of skilled and talented musicians who have cycled through our doors in the last 5 years, almost none of whom work for the church. And so we have to keep it all straight, some how we have to manage this monster of a thing called the Bridge, and in a perfect world, do so in such a way that to the congregation it seems seamless and smooth. 

 

This is not an easy task! 

 

Enter Planning Center Online. This outstanding web based service has helped us to keep track of what's going on from week to week and keep everybody in the loop. There are any number of excellent features on this site, and truth be told I still don't think I have figured out how to use it to its full advantage yet. But here for the sake of a blog post are a few of the features that have changed our worship service, and that I think could help you organize yours:

 

1. PDF downloads with YouTube Videos. We are forced because of the temporary nature of our worship space to run the no huddle worship team, meaning we do not have a weekly rehearsal time to get things ready for the Sunday to come. So one of the challenges we faced early on was how can we best equip our musicians to be ready to play when they walk in the door for a quick hour long sound-check that doubled as rehearsal? 

 

In Planning Center, you are able to upload PDF files of your chord charts. Our habit is to simply download the chart directly from CCLI when we can, and upload the PDF to planning center. That way each musician has the ability to download the music on their own when they're scheduled for worship. You can also attach a youtube video to the song in question, so that musicians can listen to the song and maybe even practice along with it with the chord charts. A few of our musicians show up to practice on Sunday mornings with their charts all marked up and highlighted, so they know what to expect when they walk in the door. 

 

2. When did we use that song last? We try our best to limit the number of times we repeat a song in worship, because we don't want to get bogged down singing "How Great is Our God" for ten weeks in a row. But because we have several different worship leaders sharing the workload, it's hard to keep track of what we do from week to week. Planning Center offers us a Matrix view, where we can see how each of the last few services shaped up, and what songs we might need to step away from, or what songs we haven't done in a while that could use re-introducing. 

 

This feature is also great when it comes to be our turn to participate in CCLI reporting. Planning Center can communicate directly with your CCLI account and report the songs we're doing from week to week, to make sure that the goofy worship leader doesn't forget to do so on Tuesday morning after staff meeting! One less thing to worry about in a busy week.

 

3. Scheduling. This is the biggest help for us. Once we know who's leading worship on a particular week, they can sign into planning center and set a schedule for each of our musicians. The musicians themselves can even help things along by letting us know which weeks they are unavailable, so that we can avoid scheduling them or schedule someone else. When someone declines an invitation, Planning Center can help suggest people who might be able to fill that role. 

 

Planning Center is a monthly subscription service. The cheapest package is zero dollars a month, so you really owe it to yourself to at least give it a shot! Plus, they do an incredible job with their video tutorials so that you know your way around the service. Stop on by and check it out today!

 

www.planningcenteronline.com