Brain Dump

There is Leo, doing his thing.... playing with his dog... He's getting big, we are 90% house trained, we know sit, lay down, go get your toy, inside, outside, and get in your kennel, and the all important NO! So, we've made significant progress.

Otherwise things are going really well... The job is pretty hectic right now. I am helming YES Ministries 2009... And because of General Conference being right around the corner and Kory is slammed with that I have given the responsibility of all the design work for YES Ministries 2009. I have to say that this has intimidated me more than almost anything I've done in ministry. I guess knowing that my "artwork" (can i even call it that) will be sent all over the country for thousands to see is a little overwhelming. But I'm excited! So I just finished the artwork and I'm putting together a promo package to send out to a few camps this summer. I will post the artwork here once it goes public.
Deb and I are moving in two weeks. Bigger apt, closer to everything we do, so thats good news.

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to my boy T.J. He's getting married in Sept, and he asked me to be his best man. T and I have been boys since 4th period first day of our freshman year of HS. We have a million stories that still make us laugh that we can never tell anyone. So congrats my big eared friend, I am super excited for you and will be proud to stand behind you on the 13th of Sept... Love ya kid!
Peace...

Setapart Video

Click above for a Setapart highlight video put together by Kory Pence.

Its A Boy!!///NFL Combine

There is a new addition to the Rhodes' household.

Meet Leonidas our 8 week old Yellow Lab. D and I got him over the weekend!!! Look at that face!


This was him sleeping while we took care of the paper work.



This was him sleeping upside down in my armpit while I was watching TV. He sleeps a lot... He also pees a lot.

It really funny because D and I haven't agreed on a whole lot about dogs but when we saw him it was a no brainer... We can already tell that he's smart and he will a good dog for us.... he likes kids and plays well with the other dogs hes been around. Of course 1st on the list is house breaking, but we going to start working on sit and stay this week. Last night he slept the whole night through! Lets hope thats the deal from now on. Well any ways there's Leo I'm gonna try to get some video and post it...

send us some love!



NFL Combine and Friendly Visits

Had some friends up a couple weeks ago and Palmer and I went down to the NFL Combine and met Wade Phillips, Herm Edwards, saw Tony Dungy, and met Glen Dorsey... great Sunday!

Perspectives

So one of the toughest things about living so far away from our parents and friends is that we are creating a life here that we can tell them about but thats it... And words just don't do it justice sometimes. So I decided to share moments of my day from last Saturday. From the time that I got up from the time I went to bed I took a picture of what I was looking at or doing at that time. Its still not a full image of our lives here in Indy but its better than just words.

10:20am
It was Saturday so we got to sleep in late... So I rolled over and this is what I saw... our bedroom window

11:20am
Again it was Sat. morning and I'm still in bed with my wife. I'll tell you its one of the best parts of marrige, just lying there talking about nothing.

12:20pm
So hunger finally drove me out of bed

1:20pm
Hook was on!! What a great movie... You know thats what Saturdays are good for... You can always find some random good movie on...

2:20pm
Deb and I had to start getting ready to go the Harvest set-up and worship practice.

3:20pm
Waiting on D... running late... watching hook... its when Pan finds his happy thought... it was his kids... Julia Roberts as Tink... genius

4:20pm
Harvest set-up and practice

I'm bored just typing this.... So you must really be bored... chalk this one up to bad idea blog post...

The Current Journey

RELEVANT...
this the word that has been burned into my mind for the last several weeks. God has been taking me on a journey through was relevancy is. It's a Christian buzzword right now and I hate buzzwords... but I cannot escape the fact that people are attracted to things they can relate to. I am attracted to things that "get me", things that are relevant to me. So where are God and I on this journey... We're in the coffee shop stage. The place where we're just kinda sitting around talking about it... sharing our thoughts... Him telling me when I'm on the right track or way off base. I have to say this is my favorite place to be with God... to me its even more intimate than flat out worship... but its challenging because sometimes He just gives me the answers... "do this"... "don't do that"... "this is My will for you"... And in these situations He lets me talk it out and its more like nudges... Its harder but I feel closer to Him... He feels like a mentor...

Anyway, just a few thoughts on relevancy and then something funny.

1. Cool is not always relevant. - I used to equate the two... so I looked for whatever was cool at the time. Here's the thing about cool. Cool is relative almost down the each individual... Relevant is more about cultural engagement. Its about keep your finger on the pulse of the community not just parts that you can identify with.

2. Cultural Engagement - to engage the culture you must know your community and know your community you must be in the community... I don't mean live in the neighborhood either... IN the community... involvement, contribution, participation, getting dirty. two things about that...
a. the best way to learn from or about something is get your hands dirty and adsorb yourself in to
b. Creditability... (i know its cliche but...) people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care... There's a lot of truth to this...

3. The point of relevancy - finding the most effective avenues to get the gospel from the sanctuary to the streets...

let me go off on a tirade about this... and I'm not a "pastor" any more so I can say this... I'm just a regular church goer... Evangelism is the primary responsibility of the congregation not the pastor... His/her job is to equip and motivate you to reach the lost... Evangelism is not a Sunday morning activity... Evangelism should take place mon-sat in your home and workplace... where you eat... how you drive your car... the way for you cheer for your kids @ soccer games... the way you live your life should evangelize... give people a reason to want to learn what you know...

there's my tirade...

so here is a vid from the Family Force 5 concert at setapart... what was I thinking... hope you enjoy.

just a thought...

John Mayer had a great post I read today....
You know I wasn't incredibly fond of the John and Jess relationship but I gotta give it to my my boy JM for having some integrity about it...

...free ipod touch... skeptisism peaked?

d-will.... I have to say buddy I don't think the poddy touchy is going to be a freebie... just have to let ya know...

anyways, its been awhile so I wanted to update the "not so masses" about how thing are going here in "dang cold" Indy.

Setapart was incredible! The perspective on conventions is so different from where i sit now though. Not in a bad way just different. Its hard to explain but there was a disconnect from students, especially in the rallies because I sat backstage. And because @ logos5 I was a youth pastor and my job was to connect with students and now my job is to #1 support Scott and #2 connect and support youth pastors which was really really cool for me. I had coffee with Brad LeRoy yesterday (more on that later) and we were talking about where I am in life and with my job. I told him it was weird because there were some people at SA07, you know people I've known for awhile, people I went to school with that think that this position is... I don't know... up there... for instance one guy said "you're like the #2 guy"... I'm not... at all. Don't get me wrong Scott has been SOOOO awesome at letting me take ownership of stuff like YES Ministries and FUEL. And given me freedom to explore ideas of my own. But I am by no means #2. But I told Brad that I am at the bottom at the funnel... I am in the best possible place to glean off the best the Wesleyan Church has to offer. I feel so blessed that no other youth pastor (i don't care if i don't have a group right now... I'm still a yp... its who I am) has this opportunity. God is good to me.

Anyways, Brad Leroy is the pastor of Harvest Church, where we have decided to make our home. He and I had coffee yesterday and talked about our involvement with the church. Can I just say it is ultra-refreshing in sit down with a pastor and him ask me what I want to do and now what he wants me to do.... so nice... We talked about the areas of creativity and youth my favorite things to be involved in. So we'll see the journey God takes on with Harvest... the cool thing about Brad and our connection is that he was the last person to hold any semblance of my position here @ HQ... Although he was the #2 guy, after he left it went to a straight admin asst and now Scott is trying to get back to a Ministry Assistant... So its really cool to have his perspective and wisdom in that area... I respect him a lot... have since I first met him.

I guess going home and coming back here really made our lives here in Indy "real"and we've settled on a church and both have steady jobs and all that jazz.... so thats it we're here for awhile and this is our lives... we miss everyone in SC but God gives us affirmation everyday that led us here and here is where we belong until He does it all over again... now i just need a dog