Get it together.

It's time. 

Thus far our season has looked a lot like this:

I've been tired and cranky all day, so I'm only going to watch the first period unless we're winning and winning big. 

Do it.

Monday Morning Update

No updates today folks. 

366 (leap year) days ago I married my best friend. We're celebrating. 

And so for 24 straight hours, I'm unplugging. No twitter, no facebook, no blog, no e-mail. Just me and my wife. 

See you Tuesday!

Sunday Post-Game: Retreating.

(It's been a while. Hit us with the nap time Matzaball!)

Greetings friends,

I am sitting on my couch. We have just come back from a weekend of ski retreating. It was such a good time. Here's the recap:

We had every intention of leaving on the bus at 5:30. By 5:40, we were very concerned that the bus had not yet arrived. At 5:50, the bus had arrived, and after some equipment loading we hit the road at 6. Half an hour behind schedule isn't all that bad, right? 

We hit the worst traffic I've ever seen. We sat on the Blvd of Allies for over an hour. It was past 7:00, and we weren't even out of Pittsburgh. I was trailing the bus in my jeep, and I beat them to camp at 9:30 PM. Gross.

Rob Conte beat everybody there. He gave me a ShamWow. I promise you a post in the extremely near future, because I would really like to see if the Shamwow can do this:

(You'll be sayin wow every time)

I kept the Shamwow on stage with me, and proudly displayed it to the crowd every set. The kids ate it up. They screamed every time the mighty power of the Shamwow joined us on the stage. Also in my bag of tricks to get the crowd active and jumping: 

(Keytar)

Granted, mine is now held together with duct tape, but still...

Worship was actually really great. In the spectrum of worship, I was definitely a bit campy this weekend, but they responded to that. They also really responded to the deep and contemplative stuff. It was a really good time of leading worship. Tons of fun.

A lot of people think I'm crazy. Perhaps it will ultimately end in dudes in white pulling me toward the padded van in my chonies. But I have to say, I absolutely love being a youth pastor. I absolutely love going away for a weekend with a great group of kids. I absolutely love seeing God move in their lives. I love what I do, even if it comes with a little bit of bumps and bruises. 

Do it.

Godspeed,

Jason 

Retreat Blog

Hey everybody.
I'm sitting in my office, getting ready for this year's Sr. High Winterfest. To all of you who live in our fine city of Pittsburgh, I feel the need to appologize, as this inordinate amount of snow that has befallen us is completely my fault.

That is was the weather was like the day we left for last year's ski retreat. Remarkable. It actually turned out pretty well, as we were snowboarding in our hoodies and jeans quite comfortably. Today however, the skies opened up. Check out this shot from right outside my office: 

That layer on the top of the pillar came down about 2 hours ago. In my mind, this is the perfect ski retreat situation. It stopped in just enough time to make sure that the roads are cleared, but I bet you a ton of money that it's beautiful at 7 Springs.

I am so pumped for this trip. More on Twitter as the weekend goes!

Godspeed,

Jason

Worship Leader

(disclaimer: if you were checking out the blog at any point today during my "logo experimentation", I apologize for subjecting you to that. Obviously I will never touch photoshop again...)

Hello friends.

I am sitting on the couch collecting my thoughts for the up coming Winterfest retreat. For the first time in a long while, my primary role will be that of Worship Leader. I'm not speaking, I'm not leading games. Of course, any time you go anywhere you want to develop relationships with the kids around you, so in that sense I'm always a "youth leader". But as I'm sitting here thinking through the weekend, I'm so totally stoked for what's coming: a whole weekend of idol worship.

(I wish I was that skinny...)

As I'm sitting and reflecting, I'm struck by some of the awesome worship experiences that have happened in the times of the Bible. I'm thinking about Elijah, up on that mountain praying to God, and then out of nowhere fire comes down from heaven. I'm thinking of David dancing around in the streets naked, because God has provided him with a victory. I'm thinking about Jesus just simply thanking God for the followers who by his teachings changed the face of the human world forever.

I have to let my heart be careful. My first instinct is to assume that such epic and glorious things will not befall us while we are at Camp Harmony this weekend. My first instinct is to not get my hopes up. My first instinct is to assume that all we will have is a couple of guitars and a loud sound system. But I don't want to be that way, and I have Jim's sermon from Sunday still ringing loudly in my ears. 

What if I've become so familiar with who I think Jesus is and what I think Jesus will do that my expectations are far too low for this weekend? What would it take for me to assume that fire will in fact come down from heaven? Not in the sense that every song will sound perfect or that I will break absolutely no strings, but in the sense that I am willing to step back and watch for Jesus moving in our students. What if I walked into this weekend assuming wonderful things were in store for us?

I kind of want my heart to be where it was when I was a kid at Christmas time. I used to wake up at 6 in the morning on Christmas Day, and my sister and I would sit atop the stairs. My parents wouldn't allow us to go downstairs without them, and they wouldn't let us wake them up before 7 (a policy I now fully understand and support). And so I would sit at the top of the stairs, knowing full well that something amazing was just a moment or two in my future, I just had no idea what it was.

May God make it so in my worship...

PS: I've been reading Jesus For President, and so don't be surprised if there's a Politics/Christianity post tonight. 

Godspeed,

Jason

Brain Jam

 

It's a snow day today. It looks absolutely nothing like this photograph. It's actually slushy and nasty and disgusting. However, school is closed, which means the office is closed, which means Veritas is closed. Usually this would cause me great pain and discomfort, because I love Veritas and hanging out with the kids. However, Ed is in India, and this is the one week during his trip that Mandi would have been unable to help me. I was not really ready to do Veritas all by myself, and so God has delayed us so that I can have one less day without my faithful assistant. But don't worry kids. I'm going to be spending the day dreaming up a new event for us to make up for our two cancelled Wednesdays. 

 

(TO THE LAB!)

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Marko from YS has posted a link to my blog on his blog. I reviewed his book a while back, and I've actually be re-reading it since. It's spectacular! Go buy it! Go check out his blog! Go get a mohawk like his!

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The Pens take on the Rangers tonight. I have a feeling that a lot rides on tonight's game. If we can't establish momentum now, I don't know if we'll be able to. 

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I still freaking can't beleive the Steelers are in the Superbowl. I never would have called that at the beginning of the season. I really want to say that we're going to mop the floor with the Cardinals, but I'm hesitant to make such a bold claim. I know this for certain: it's going to be a great game. I wish I would have sent Ed to India with a terrible towl. 

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I picked up the new iLife. I love it. I swear Apple can do no wrong. Well that's probably not true. Steve Jobs might be dying. But still. I love the fact that I can pick up a program, and within minutes be doing some really interesting professional looking stuff. More on this later.

I hope to have a more serious blog post later in the day. Hope you all enjoy the hibernation!

Godspeed,

Jason

Monday Morning Update

Good morning faithful readers. It's time for the Monday Morning update, a useless recounting of what's going on in my world. Go grab that cup of coffee, and let's dive in.

Current Listening: Working with Mark this weekend at Camp Harmony has led me to listen to a lot of Charlie Hall. Good stuff. Marvelous Light has been the song of choice for a few days now.

Current Reading: Youth Culture kind of wound down a little bit. It's a terrific book, but it's also very long, and extremely work related, making it hard to read on my off nights. On top of that, I've enrolled myself in the NavPress blogger review program. As such, I'm going to spend a fair amount of time today reading "How Can a Good God Let Bad Things Happen" by Mark Tabb. Hopefully a review will be forthcoming by the end of the week.

Bible Study: Still going through the Message Solo. It's good stuff.

The Gym: Missed a couple of normal work out days with this weekend's trip to Camp. Actually, it turns out I'm going to be at camp the next two weekends as well, so I'm going to have to work hard on the Gym.

Big Project: Gearing up for Winterfest this weekend. I'm actually super pumped about the retreat. I haven't been on one for quite a while. That, and I'd like to have the house cleaned up and presentable for Sarah when she gets home, so I ought to get off my butt!

Godspeed,

Jason