An Open Letter

Hello Penguins,

It's been a while since we had one of these chats. Frankly, I've felt like you haven't needed me in a while. We're in first in the Atlantic. We're in second in the east. Only that dirty Russian and his buddies have an edge on us, and let's face it they've been playing their butts off this year. That's ok. From a humble 4th place last year we went dancing with Stanley. Imagine what we can do two seeds higher!

But there's this thorn in our sides.

Oh Marty. In years past, we had your number. We used to be able to chase you right out of that net you were minding. Sid delighted in making you look like a fool on national TV. But these days you have vexed us, and we are dumbfounded before you.

Pens, take a look at that RIDICULOUSLY large ring on your finger. You are the Stanley Cup Champions. He's just a man. He's a man that essentially pooped his pants on the international stage this year. Plus he'll be wearing a different mask. Maybe he won't see as well.

Let me speak to a few of us individually here:

MAF:
What gives? You've been cookies all season against just about every opponent. Something about those Red jerseys has been sending you around the bend. Let's put a stop to this tonight! You are the Flower (a nick name that simply cannot instill fear in the heart of anyone). You've gone over a year without a shutout. That ends tonight. I'm callin it right now. You keep your eyes on that puck and keep it out of your net. If someone's messing with you in the crease, you know what to do. Put an end to this nonsense.

Oh captain my captain.
Marty told me you played like a girl at the olympics. Doesn't that make you mad? Don't you want to go crazy and have a 5 point night? Tavares did it. You don't want that little punk showing you up do you? Go get 'em tiger!

Ponik...Ponikar...can I just call you Poni?

Word on the street is you're being given a shot on Sid's wing. Are you kidding me? Lesser people would be made kings on that line. You need to prove to every single Penguins fan in this city that you were worth the almost nothing we gave up for you. I'm thinking a hat trick ought to do the trick. Seriously, just put your stick somewhere near the net. Sid will figure out the precise angle the puck needs to hit it to make it into the net.

They've had our number all year boys. That comes to an end tonight! Go get em!

All business.

An open letter.

Dear Steelers (and the rest of Pittsburgh for that matter),

What can we say? This just wasn't our year. This is understandable. We've had several years lately. We have with predictable regularity dominated the NFL, especially the AFC North. People trembled in fear when we came to town. Our towels were mighty. Our cheerleaders were fat men with stuff painted on their chests. We won Super Bowls. Times were good.

And then there was this year. Was it a hangover from last year's dominance of the league? Who knows. I started to suspect something when we lost to the Chiefs. I really suspected something after last night's embarrassment. Now it seems that barring a complete collapse of everyone in the NFL, we will not be joining them in the playoffs this year. Bummer.

But please, don't give up on the season, I'm talking to you, Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Jeff Reed, and Heath Miller. I need points. But for all intents and purposes, the season is done.

Now please, do not misunderstand what I'm about to say. I will be there with you for training camp next year. I will wave my towel with all my heart. I am not abandoning you, nor am I a fair weather fan. But we're pretty much done for this year, which opens things up for me to root for someone else for a limited time. Just between now and the Superbowl, and that's it. I'm not cheating on you Steelers, I promise.

I thought about the Vikings. Brett Farve is amazing. I also thought about the Saints, but I feel like both of those are a little trendy. And so I've decided that for the rest of the playoffs, I will be rooting for the Green Bay Packers.

First of all, they're an NFC team, so there's almost no chance they will ever become one of our rivals. Secondly, they're in the playoff hunt, but just underdogish enough to make me respect them a bunch. They play gritty dirty football, and they seem to have a pretty awesome fan base. They remind me a lot of you Steelers.

Again, I will be back after this year. But we're on to other things for now, and besides, you've known from the beginning that my heart really belongs to someone else all this time:

Godspeed,

Jason

Sunday Post Game: Things to do!

Greetings bloggers!
What a day! What a weekend! Things have been out of control around here. Those boring days of last week are officially gone, and have been replaced by the insane and hectic schedule that is summertime. I love it! Let's see what all we have in store for a post-game report today!

Today I preached at the Bridge. I was nervous as all giddy up going into the service, because I didn't feel like I had a good grip on where I was taking the sermon. It was a lot of stats, and a big illustration, but it really didn't have a whole lot of legs before I got up on the stage. But then as typically happens, I was given words from the Holy Spirit. This is not to say that we as preachers can slack off in preparing our message, but that occasional one-liners would pop up that I am no where near smart enough to come up with on my own. My favorite was "You couldn't ask the disciples of Acts 2 what they did at church this week, because they ARE the church this week." Good.

We talked about Twitter and Facebook and Myspace and blogging. We talked about how we as a culture are trying so very hard to be connected to each other, but we're doing it with relatively shallow and unfulfilling tools. It's not to say that any of these things are bad (obviously), but that if we look to them to fulfill us, we're going to be sadly disappointed. Maybe the church needs to take over, and become the ultimate social networking reality.

Tomorrow morning, I am heading in to work (on a Monday? Gasp!) to attend the Fishers of Men group that meets at our church at an un-godly hour of the morning. Some of the guys have been asking for me to join them for quite some time, and so I figure it's probably about time.

Then I'm headed to South Hills Village, where I will promptly take the T downtown to view the excitement that is the Stanley Cup parade in the city of Pittsburgh. The parade doesn't start until noon, but I truly think I'm going to leave right after fishers of men (at what, like 8?) to ensure my place by the stage. I have waited a long time for this. I haven't been able to go to many games this year. The least that could happen would be for me to get up close and personal with the cup. Which again, it goes with out saying, well done boys!

Then I'm headed back to the office, where Ed and I will do our inital packing for Alive. The trailer has been in the parking lot for about four days now. I look at it every time I pass through, and excitement floods my heart. I can't wait to go! It's going to be such a spectacular trip!

Then we're headed down to Kennywood park to hang out with the kids on their picnic day. How cool is my job? We were praised this morning for having attended a student's graduation party last night. You're doing this job well when you go to parties? Sick. This is exciting stuff indeed.

There is so much to do before we leave at noon on Tuesday. I'm trying to set up a daily post on the blog for the 5 days that I'll be away. So far I have one written, so there's some work to be done there. I would like to clean the house a little bit for Sarah, as she seems to be a little bit more at ease when the house is in good order. I also need to do our grocery run for the week, and start packing my clothes and such for the trip. A fully plate awaits me this week, but I can handle it!

Godspeed,

Jason

Unbelievable.

Stunned.
Enjoy it Pittsburgh!

Now let's get Matt and Ruth married!

The Last Dance.

Ok. Usually my posts about the Penguins are quick little blurbs in the midst of slightly more important or significant things. This is not so today. We are just 11 hours away from the game, and my heart is already tied in knots.

I have been in love with the Penguins since I was about 8 years old. I am one of the select few in the Steel City who enjoy hockey way more than football. I spend my off season reading blogs, catching up on free agent news, stuff like that. Penguins season is almost never over for me, it goes through the whole year.

And yet, win or lose tonight, it is the absolute last game of the season. There's no possibility for more. After 60 minutes (please, Lord, no overtime tonight. Cardiac arrest will follow) the season will end. I'm not a hockey expert, but I don't think anyone is going quietly tonight.

I know it's just a sport. I know that my life will not be much different when I wake up tomorrow morning one way or another. I know that there are bigger and greater things to spend my time on. But this is special. This is once in life-time kind of stuff. Not very many people get to lift Lord Stanley's Cup.

But what could be the most exciting portion of this evening is the fact that my great friends Matt and Ruth are getting married tomorrow. With the rehearsal tonight, there will be a great number of friends in from out of town. Hopefully, after we do what must be done tonight in the way of walking down aisles and not tripping, everyone will sneak back over to our place for the game. There's something special about what happens when all of our friends gather together for someone's wedding. Usually laughter to the point of tears follows. Joy is never far behind for events like this. So even if the Pens hoist the cup, I have a sinking suspicion that it will be upstaged by the events of tomorrow!

Godspeed,

Jason

The Week that Wasn't.

Hello bloggers.
My dad and my grandfather were very vocal about their love of hard work. As I was growing up, I constantly remember hearing things like "If you work harder, you'll have more time to relax" and "Work smarter, not harder." Growing up, I also recall not listening to them very much. Why do stuff now when you could do stuff later after watching TV? The logic made perfect sense in my brain. But as I've grown a little bit older and hopefully wiser, I've adopted the plan of working super hard early on so as to have more lazy time later.

So, simply put, this week is entirely their fault.

We spent a lot of time working the past couple of months on next week's Alive festival trip. We have been at this a little while now, so some of the pitfalls of the past were easily avoided. We organized the meals with one of our coolest (and also most organized) volunteer families. We checked how many tents we had. We got the trailer to haul everything. Everything is set for Alive.

So this week, there is nothing to do.

Sure, I'm preaching on Sunday, and that's a sermon that's going to need to be written. But even that is mostly done in my head, it just needs to find its way to paper. We could possibly start planning next year's Veritas schedule, but at the moment we'd like a week or so to cleanse ourselves of last year before we start diving in over our heads. There is nothing going on this week.

We are bored.

So the moral of the story is, if you have any ideas or suggestions of things to do during the work week this week, we'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, I'm going to waste away on Twitter.

Oh, and of course,

Let's go Pens!!!

Godspeed,

J

I couldn't let a whole week go by without posting!

Ok, ok. My keyboard has been suspiciously vacant lately. I'm really working on getting as many blog posts up as I can, but times have been busy. I think we're finally about to enter into a slow period for me. 

Veritas Wrap Up

We wrapped up the last Veritas on Wednesday night. It was kind of a mix of joy and sadness. Obviously sadness at the exit of the seniors, and the incredible lack of things to do on Wednesday nights for the next couple of months. But a little bit of joy because Veritas, unlike youth groups I've led before, is a marathon rather than a sprint. We counted for next year, and from beginning to end we will participate in 36 Veritas. I counted how many I would have had if I was running SOAP this year, and it would have only be 20 or so. 16 extra youth groups doesn't sound like much, but it is. So I'm happy to take a break. I'm also happy to have a little bit of time to plan what we're working on for next year. I know I said this last year, but some of the stuff we're working on for the 2009/2010 year is going to make it the best season of youth ministry we've ever had. Buckle up. 

Ed Cyzewski

Some of you know if you've been following my blog for a while now that through a series of technological communications, I developed a relationship with Ed Cyzewski, the author of Coffeehouse Theology, as well as in.a.mirror.dimly. We'd been e-mailing back and forth, so when I needed a speaker for our baccalaureate service, he was the first place my mind went. So, even though we'd never spoken over the phone or in person until he arrived in Pittsburgh, Ed is here and hanging out with us. Last night's baccalaureate service was really good, even though it was under-attended. Ed gave a great talk about the love of God, and I thought it was really well suited for the kids who are moving on to the next phase of their lives to hear that message one more time. Today we're going to hang out and show him around Pittsburgh, and tomorrow he's speaking at the Westminster Seminar, so if you're free you should check it out. 

Dave Matthews Band

It's not a very big secret that I am a HUGE fan of the Dave Matthews Band. One of the first CDs I ever bought was Crash, and I fell in love with their sound. You absolutely must go out and get a copy of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. It's only been out a couple of days, but it is pretty quickly working its way to the number one spot of my favorite all time albums. Go get it right now. 

Ok. Time to get ready for the day. Three cups of coffee are coursing through my veins, so I'm pretty wired right now. Wooo hooo!

Oh, PS:

Go Pens!

(H/T to Pensblog for the image. You should read their stuff)

Woooooooooooooooo

 

Hello friends.

I have to admit, I was skeptical. I was exceptionally nervous coming into tonight, assuming that it would be a 1 goal game, two if there was a pulled goalie. God help us all if the game went into overtime, my heart wouldn't have been able to take it. But then it happened. 

 

(Note: That's transmission fluid. If you're first thought was blood, know that that was the intended metaphor, only no one had to die to produce this photograph.)

6-2. Are you kidding me? At one point this game was 5-0!!!!!!!! Unreal. Everybody says bring on the 'Canes, but after surviving this series, and winning the way we did tonight, I say bring em all on. We can handle it. Bring it!

 

Lately, I've felt like a little bit of an injured athlete. Not one of those "I tweaked my pinky finger" injuries either. Something a bit more like this:

Tonight was my first time back at Veritas in three weeks. Three weeks folks! That's entirely too long to be away from my passion. The problem has been the illness, sure. But even the couple of times I've poked my head in the church over the last few weeks, it's been a distraction. Not that it's bad, it's just that I've spent my time focused on things other than youth ministry. I have preached up at the 8:30 service two weeks in a row, with a brief stop at the 11:00 two weeks ago. Again, I love preaching up there, but it was a distraction from youth ministry. I was working on the end of confirmation stuff, which again is fun and part of what I do, but not really youth ministry. It was time to get my head on straight.

 

So tonight was good. We started up the Student Leadership Interviews today, and they've been going pretty good so far. The unfortunate part is that 13 kids have applied, and we're only opening 7 slots this year, so we're going to have some tough decisions to make in the coming days. But for now, I took great comfort in hearing the kids describe what Veritas meant to them. In their answers, it really indicated that the kind of vision and dream we had for Veritas is starting to take on flesh and blood and move into the neighborhood. It was just a nice way to hop in and get my feet wet with the job I am so desperately in love with!

And the best part is that I'm not done yet!

More to come.
Godspeed,

Jason

Easter

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

I have always loved that saying we toss back and forth to each other on this day! Just something about it reminds me of how great our God is. 

It is incredibly early. 4:46 AM to be exact. I'm about to go preach at the sunrise service, but I thought I'd pop on and wish everyone a Happy Easter, because we all know that after four services today I'm going to drop dead on my couch. 

Go Geno go!

Playoffs start soon. You better believe there will be some blog posts!

Godspeed,

J

Sunday Post-Game: Lent week two

Greetings friends.

What an amazing day of worship today! I don't know about those of you who attend, but it seems to me lately that the Bridge is growing in the ways that we haven't been able to put words to. You wouldn't be able to look around and notice the changes physically, but it's been there. Every Sunday has been a pretty consistent experience of God's love for us in singing and in prayer and all kinds of ways. It's just been good.

(PS--this photo is SUCH a keeper)

Mandi was the worship leader this morning. It's been such a joy to have her voice be a part of our worship leadership. She's a great person to work opposite me and Ed, just to give us a bit of spice in our leadership. It's been wonderful. She was joined by Ian Gallo on the bass and the (can you even handle this?) electric cello, Kristi Reismeyer on the electric violin, and me on a variety of hand drums and percussion. Such drums always make me feel like this:

(actually, not a bad representation of me this mornin, what with the coffee and all)

Mandi's set list:

• O Worship The King
• I will worship/Worth of my praise
• Prince of Peace 
• Heart of worship
• Blessed be your name.

Heart of Worship had to be one of my favorite moments of worship in a while. I just laid out of it, and let the strings and Mandi carry it. It was so wonderful.

Today's sermon was about peace, but more about what peace is not. As you saw when I was teasing the sermon, I was kind of taking a shot at those people in the world who think that if you have enough stuff, if your financial needs are met, then you'll have peace. I don't think so. I talked to the people who think that winning whatever argument they're in will bring them peace, even though I don't think it will. I talked about people who assume that if you simply avoid suffering, you'll be ok. If you sneak through life without offending anyone, without bothering any people, you'll work it out. It doesn't work like that. Jesus was SOOOOO willing to offend people, and so should we. (as long as we're simply speaking truth.) True peace, being none of these ideas, requires us to be satisfied in the love of Christ. I love the quote "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." Good thought.

I have an afternoon off. The Pens have won 5 straight. At 6 it gets serious. Let's go Pens!

More later,

Godspeed,

Jason

Sunday Post Game: Technology and the Bridge Will Never Get Along.

 

Hi kids,

Today we continued a losing streak when it comes to Jim attending the Bridge and Technology. His microphone died right at the beginning of the sermon. It worked fine during sound check. I'm personally asking Congress this week for federal bailout money.

 

(Sugar Daddy)

On top of that, I was dead dog tired today, because last night we were rocking away at Ed and Elise's wedding. A great time was had by all, but it led to a very sleepy morning that even Starbucks cannot cure. 

 

Can I admit it is hard to worship in these moments? It's hard enough to get yourself to wake up out of a slumber, but to do so on a day when nothing was working technologically? Mandi did a terrific job leading worship, except her microphone kept falling down. Jim's sermon was wonderful, except I could not hear it over the heater fan. It was a tough morning. 

 

I desperately want our new sound system. Tomorrow. 

 

Tough loss today too. On the rebound though. 

More later.

Sunday Post-Game: Slacking.

Greetings readers!
It was such a busy weekend, I had to post the Sunday Post game a day late. Sorry about that to those of you who faithfully await the recounting of Sunday's adventures. However, I will gladly take the delay, because there were absolutely no technical issues this week at the Bridge! NONE! Say it ain't so!

Actually, this Sunday update starts on Friday, when I spent my third and final weekend on the Camp Harmony tour. Can this be a space for some serious encouragement? The folks at Camp Harmony are doing a terrific job. All three of the weekends were a wonderful time. The first weekend I played drums for Mark, and then the second two I was the worship leader. It was just some good clean fun. I really enjoy leading worship for a group of energetic kids. But again, I really can't compliment the Harmony staff enough. They're doing a terrific job, which is surprising when you consider the guy in charge has destroyed somewhere around 6 cars:

Sunday I returned to Westminster to lead the Bridge. I had a moment when I walked into the WROC with my amp and guitars, when I remembered why I loved this worship service so much. It's just fun to be around this group of people, this community of believers. I guess in a way, it was just a feeling as I walked in the door that I was home.

It was a small worship team, just me Alan Jeff and EWoo. In fact, we were pretty tight that way. I played electric guitar all weekend, which was fun. We mic'ed it for the first time, just to make sure you could hear it no matter where you were in relation to the amp. The set list was:

• Undignified
• Everything Glorious
• He Was There
• Mighty to Save
• Hold Me Closer

We haven't played some of those songs in a while, and it was fun to see the congregation respond. All in all it was a really good morning of worship. And did I mention that there were absolutely no technical issues?

(Didn't even watch. Probably shouldn't have.)

Don't go far. The Monday Morning Update is coming.

Godspeed,

Jason

Wednesday Night Post-Game: Back in Action

(I defy you to listen to get that song out of your head. It's been in mine all day)

Greetings faithful readers. 

Last night was the stuff that crappy Disney sports movies are made of. My star player was in India. I was (as previously posted) a bit tired and out of the loop. It was worship night (traditionally a bit more work involved than a standard Veritas). I was going to need to summon all of Coach Bombay's strength to win this one. 

But all kidding aside, last night was a really great night. We worshipped with the JAM kids for the first time, and they were a lot better behaved that I would have imagined them being. They were awesome. I was also pretty proud of our youth worship team, who have really come together over last weekend's retreat and have gotten their A-Game on. 

For a talk last night, three of our students gave a presentation on their trip to the Dominican. It was stupendous! The girls did a really good job, and had a lot to back their talk up with. It was good stuff.

We did a couple of prayer stations that I want to tell you about, but I'm going to save that for another post. 

I'm just so excited that a night of worship is really all that's required to get me out of my slump. Seeing the kids respond the the call of God the way they did last night was excellent, and I say again to everyone in this business that the kids minister to us more than we ever minister to them. 

Another weekend at Camp Harmony coming up. More on this later!

PS, you want to see unbridled joy? Take a look at this from last night's game:

Astounding.

Godspeed,

Jason