Slam It In Gear...Pedal To The Metal !

These past few days at church have been spent getting things going and finishing projects started in the past. The FUSION LAB remodeling took a back seat on my priority list and needed to get done and get done right! John from my church has worked with me all day these past few days in getting things done!
Things in our church property is getting organized, rooms cleaned out and functional for ministry, and new strategies are being planned for the betterment of how Bayshore Baptist operates.

On top of all this...The Adult Choir Christmas Cantata is this Sunday morning,the youth are having their Christmas party Saturday night, Christmas Candlelight Service is next Sunday, Christmas in Miami, New Year's Eve Lock-In with the youth at church, and Winter-Jam in January!!!

I feel God rewarded the efforts in working in the youth room because we had a record attendance of 7 youth @ FUSION (yes I celebrate those awesome numbers) I had two girls that couldn't normally come due to dance attend tonight and they said that the times are changing for Wednesdays!!! Hopefully they can come from now on! Thanks God!!!

I feel it's time for Bayshore to "SLAM IT IN GEAR AND GO PEDAL TO THE MEDAL!!!"

Getting Away From Distractions

Well Jessica and I are back and attempting to recover from taking our youth group camping this past week! Even though we both are exhausted, it was a awesome time! Some highlights and funny things that happened was the late-night hike in the woods (it's always fun when you get a youth to hide back in a bush and jump out and grab someone...ahhh the ear piercing screams!) Of course there were campfires and S'mores! Swimming in an alligator habitat was fun and fearful at the same time! The last night we were there it stormed and my tent and another one of the guy's flooded out! Needless to say I crammed all the guys in one tent and I literally slept under the stars and was awoken by raccoons only twice!

Amongst all the craziness, wetness, lack of sleep and stress, the more important thing that took place was the bonding of our group with each other and with my wife and I. We had a total of eight youth come! (for those of you think 8 is no big deal...my group was only 2 youth in July!) I had some cancellations at the last minute which could have brought the total to 10. It's awesome to see numerical growth but that is not nearly important as spiritual and relational growth in the group. My church supports me in this philosophy of youth ministry and they are just as excited as I am.

During the camp-out we took time to focus on getting away from the distractions in life and think about those less fortunate to have all the luxuries teens have today. There's no better setting than in the middle of the woods with no electricity, video games, computers, ipods, television, phones, or radios to learn about focusing on God's purpose in there life! We live our lives with countless distractions. Work, family, money, politics, and even church eats away at our time alone with God. Our distractions become our idols! Let me challenge you to spend three days without any electronics, phones, etc. and spend that time alone in God's word and prayer just like my group did this past week!

Be Back Monday

Bye everyone...Jess and I are off to our camping trip....be back monday

Sound Off Campout!

Hey everyone...I haven't been able to spend much time lately posting new material and I apologize. I have been preparing for a campout with FUSION this week and things are getting crazy! As of Sunday, my total for youth wanting to go went from 5 to 12 !!! wow! I don't know if they all are actually going to go until Wednesday Night but it is exciting to see a group finally have some numerical growth along with the spiritual.

This campout with actually be a fasting time from all media devices like video games, cell phones, ipods and such. The time spent away from media will be turned into discipleship. We leave Thursday after school and will be camping till Saturday. Hope no one gets eaten by alligators!

I'm Back and Running

Hey guys...I am back from the FOCUS conference and it was awesome! I learned alot about building relationships with youth and not youth ministries. more of that to come.

I got back Saturday to find out that i will be preaching tonight in church due to the death of the pastor's mother. I have a funeral tomorrow morning for my piano lesson teacher when i was in school, I have a meeting with the high school activities director, a choir music reading conference tuesday in Lakewood Ranch , FUSION on Wednesday, and a See You @ the Pole Rally on Saturday! ...welcome home Bill!