Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen

I missed out on the opening night mayhem that I have usually been a part of with a big movie opening. (If you've missed the last 10 or 12 posts, I've been at CIY Move all week...) So I missed my usual 12:01 am showing of the huge movie "Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen."

Tonight, I hit the pizza buffet bar with my wife before hitting the IMAX on Randall 15 for a sold out show. I actually bumped into one of my high school students and sat with him and his friend.

The movie was great. With a couple of exceptions. The action was intense. The storyline was great... I thought that there were lots of sermon material moments about sacrifice, putting others first, endurance and a couple of other themes that might create a good sermon series some time.

I enjoyed that because this was a second movie in a series, a series that I hope continues, there wasn't too much time getting up to speed. The movie kinda assumed that you had a pretty good idea who these characters were and jumped into the story.

The action was intense. I saw it on IMAX and wow!!! It just never stopped. The CGI was great. The battle scenes mixed with the action and drama of the moment made for some very intense moments as the girl beside me jumped about 5 times...

BUT...
There were several unnecessary elements in the movie that I could have done without.
First, they do just about everything they can to play up Megan Fox. Which just gets annoying after a while. There is also an element of sexuality with this movie that could have been eliminiated.

Second, there were some crude references that just weren't needed. They were added for a cheap laugh and we could have done with out it. Be witty without being crass. That goes for the language that popped up from time to time. Again... cheap laughs.

Overall... I thought the movie was great. I think that it's a movie that many students will see... if they haven't already. I think that it's great movie that has some great elements and without a few other crass ones, could have been a truly incredible movie.

Jim

Friday night worship - CIY Move 2009

Here is a little O Happy Day from Friday night.

Jim

Click HERE to check it out on YouTube.

Thursday night Move worship- Thursday

Here is a little video from Thursday night's worship. Enjoy

Jim

HERE it is.

CIY Move - Friday

It has been hot this week. But one thing that we have not have to worry about was rain. And today was no exception. It was hot (again!!!), but beautiful blue skies all day... which made Jackie and Becca happy!!












Laura stopped for a quick picture during Morning Encounter time. This is a great time to get some great pictures!!














We played a little house building game during D-groups today as we talked about Jesus dwelling/abiding with us. Grace and Kyle won... and scored the rest of the gum... after which Kyle promptly posed for this picture with the bucket on his head!








This afternoon we took a walk down to 8th street together. It's an area similar to 3rd Street in Geneva with little shops and ice cream places (like Cold Stone where we stopped for a quick "Love it") and coffee shops!!











Finally we wrapped up the night with a powerful session. Two of our students made major decisions tonight... but I won't tell you who yet. They want to talk to their parents and share the news with them personally... so the blog post would sort of defeat that purpose.

But once they have the conversations that they need to have, I will let you know all and know about the follow up.

It was a great week. Thanks to those of you who visited the blog regularly, checked in on the pictures and most importantly spent time in prayer for us this week. It was a great week and I feel that God really took care of some business with several of our group members that he needed to take care of.

So... THANKS!!!

More pictures to come as I collect memory cards from students who went with us this week. After that, I will post a couple "best of the rest CIY Move" picture posts!!!

Thanks again!

Jim

CIY Move - Thursday

Sorry that we didn't get any photos up last night. The girls dorm is across campus and I forgot to get the camera from our awesome and excellent photographer... Chris Reimers.

So... here are some pictures from Thursday. Becca and Boone are getting into worship here.








Kyle is getting into God's Word. Always a highlight for the week.














On Thursday, we talked about how we tend to worship idols in our lives rather than God sometimes. We made idols out of play dough that we later destroyed by walking over them. These are the idols that our group made.









Thursday is also "Skip A Meal" day on campus with some extended time of recreation. So the group headed out to a Japanese Hibachi called "The Wild Chef." And if you've seen the fireball video HERE on the blog, he was pretty wild.








Finally, we ended up at the beach on Lake Michigan. We were disappointed to find that the beach was closed due to ecoli bacteria in the water. So Becca and Laura played in the sand (and others slept... like me!!!).

It was a very fun and full day!!





Jim

Fireball at the wild chef

we had an incredible lunch at the Wild Chef in Holland today. Before the chef, who was a little wild, cooked our lunches, he set off a little fireball on the cooking surface!!

Enjoy!!!

But not as enjoyable as lunch.

Jim

Check it out HERE

Justin Reyburn singing Father Abraham

Here's a little video from Thursday CIY Move in Michigan with Justin Reyburn going crazy during Father Abraham!

Enjoy

Jim

HERE it is

Will sings Aladdan

Will jumped in on the Alternative and sang a little "Whole New World." I thought maybe you'd enjoy seeing it for yourself. He's now a minor celebrity on campus!!!

Jim

See it HERE.

CIY Move - Wednesday

Wednesday was a great day!!!

But man, was it hot!!!

I don't think that in all my 10 years of CIY Summer Conference/Move, that I have ever had a week of conference as hot as this one.

It is oppressive. You go outside and it's just brutal.

But Rebecca found some shade this morning for her morning Encounter time!!







Food is always good. Justin Fraker is digging into some kind of sandwich.
















Worship was great tonight and the speaker was powerful. Will, Becca, Boone (and everyone really) got into the worship.












The Jodee Howerton Band is doing a great job leading us in worship this week. And we had really great seats tonight!!!












Finally we wrapped up the day by returning to the tennis courts, where we have "His Time" each night. It's an old tradition, to do this wrap up time on the tennis courts and it continues at Michigan this year.

Today was a great day. The major challenge was to be "Kingdom Workers." Tomorrow, we will talk about worship and who or what we worship.

We will also have Japanese steakhouse... so there will be some good pictures.


Jim

CIY move Wednesday night worship

Here's a little video of tonight's worship. Enjoy. If it's a little loud, turn it down a bit. We were close tonight and it was intense.

Jim

HERE it is.

CIY Move - Tuesday

In case you missed them, HERE and HERE are Monday.


Tuesday got started off to a usual day!!! Morning encounter. One of the highlights of the weeks.

This is Justin hiding behind a poll.









Laura made a friend during her morning encounter time... a catepillar named "Fred" (I think). (He's on her right wrist above the bracelets.)












Will was pumped for lunch!!! (He's a graduated senior... aren't they all pumped for food??!!)



















Since everyone wore bracelets all day (we talked about freedom... and how God is the only one who can truly provide freedom... but most of us would prefer slavery... even when we don't realize it), we decided to take a picture with everyone's bracelets together. This is a pretty cool picture.










The day ended with some great His Time, some ball tag (with our SpongeBob football) and a traditional cinnamon roll.

The week is going great. With the possible exception that's it's about 90 every day. Which isn't bad, except when you're outside all day.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. Look for some more pictures tomorrow!!!

Jim

CIY Move - Monday

The trip got started the way that trips always do... looking at the back end of a van with open doors.

The trip actually got on the road on time!!!! Maybe that's a first!!!










We got moved in, and headed over to the first session. The main sessions are in a giant fieldhouse this year.


Laura, Becca and Will are ready for things to get rolling.










And rolling they did!!!

The first session was on Moses and the burning bush!!! And it was incredible.

If you check out the video that preceded this post (HERE), you can enjoy a video (shot on my iPhone 3Gs) of the first worship song.

Monday was a whirlwind. Leaving... driving... lunching... moving in... unpacking... sessions... His time... powerful but exhausting!!!

More to come tomorrow!!

Jim

CIY move night 1 worship

Here is the first song of the first night of worship. Enjoy some of the CIY Move worship.

Jim

Check it out HERE.

CIY pics...

Hey folks...
If you are looking for CIY pictures, there will be some up later
tonight or first thing in the morning. We don't have regular internet
and so will have to post some later... Sorry for the inconvience.

Jim Clark
Student Minister

Sent from my iPhone...

CIY Move first night

These are a couple of pictures from getting things rolling on
Monday!!! More to come tomorrow!!!

A Sweet Skit Guys Father's Day Video

I saw this last night. It's a sweet Father's Day video reminder.

Enjoy.



I found it HERE.

Happy Father's Day!

Zoe cat iPhone 3Gs video direct from phone!

Took a little video of one my cats... Zoe... and loaded it directly onto YouTube from my phone... No computer involved!!!

Sweet.
Jim

Check it out HERE.

iPhone 3Gs...

Is awesome!!!

I can't stop messing with it. It's sweet! And fast!!!

I'm still experimenting with everything. But it's awesome so far.

Jim

Cyril of Jerusalem - Procatechesis

This morning I'm reading some Cyril of Jerusalem... He is a 4th century church father from Jerusalem. I am reading his writings and instructions to those who are receiving baptism. And he said something this morning that triggered an "ah ha" for me. It is in the "Procatechesis" #11.

He says this:
"11. Let me give thee this charge also. Study our teachings and keep them for ever. Think not that they are the ordinary homilies for though they also are good and trustworthy, yet if we should neglect them to-day we may study them to-morrow. But if the teaching concerning the laver of regeneration delivered in a consecutive course be neglected to-day, when shall it be made right? Suppose it is the season for planting trees: if we do not dig, and dig deep, when else can that be planted rightly which has once been planted ill? Suppose, pray, that the Catechising is a kind of building: if we do not bind the house together by regular bonds in the building, lest some gap be found, and the building become unsound, even our former labour is of no use. But stone must follow stone by course, and corner match with corner, and by our smoothing off inequalities the building must thus rise evenly.
"In like manner we are bringing to thee stones, as it were, of knowledge. Thou must hear concerning the living God, thou must hear of Judgment, must hear of Christ, and of the Resurrection. And many things there are to be discussed in succession, which though now dropped one by one are afterwards to be presented in harmonious connexion. But unless thou fit them together in the one whole, and remember what is first, and what is second, the builder may build, but thou wilt find the building unsound."

I guess for me, the "ah ha" was the realization that many folks, good, solid Christian folks in our churches (including Fox Valley Christian) don't spend any time on solid reading and study outside of the Bible. Obviously reading the Bible is vital to the Christian, and I would NEVER dispute that.

But when we finish reading our Bibles for the day, are we finished reading and learning about God?

I would say "no."

Maybe that's where we are missing it in the church. We encourage folks to read their Bibles. But then we don't encourage them to go the next step, or to lay the next layer as Cyril seems to say, by picking up some works of the church fathers or a current theological book of interest. I'm not talking about picking up some devotional Max Lucado reading (although I've read almost all of Max's stuff at one point in my life). But pick up something with some meat that is going to require us to think.

Maybe, rather than a book, you download a quality podcast sermon.

Just thinking.

But I think too often we are guilty of encouraging folks to spend 15 minutes a day reading their Bibles (which is awesome by the way), but then we don't encourage them to continue reading, learning and growing by picking up some other works throughout the day.

Thoughts?

Jim

PDYM Community Blog

I just blogged over on the PDYM Community Blog.

Check it out HERE.

Jim

What I...

I saw this little post over at Corey Mann's blog and thought it would be a cool post. So here you go:

• What I'm reading... "Jesus Centered Youth Ministry" by Rick Lawrence
  
• What I'm listening to... Jars of Clay "Long Fall Back to Earth," Dave Matthews Band "GrooGrux King," Seabirg "Til We See the Shore," and Hillsong United "A Cross // The Earth: Tear Down the Walls"
  
• What I'm Watching.... Nothing really for the summer... some Cubs baseball when it's on WGN
  
• What Movies Have Ruled... Star Trek I just watched the trailer again... gave me chills!!
  
• What Movies will Hopefully Rule...Transformers 2 the only bummer is that I'll have to wait until after CIY to watch it... but I'll be there Saturday night!!
  
• What I'm currently working on... CIY Move, MI 1 (Holland, MI)
  
• What's coming up in the future... New iPhone 3GS tomorrow morning!!!
  
• What I love... Having a house!!! I had forgotten how much I missed it while living in the apartment.
  

Jim

I'm gonna feel old...

...this afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago I threw out a blanket invitation to join me in the park this morning at 11 am (about 40 minutes from now) to play some Ultimate Frisbee.

I have no idea how many and who will show up.

But one thing I do know is that I will be feeling really old this afternoon. At 32, it's a little tough to keep up with 16 year olds.

But I'll try.

And then I'll feel old.

Jim

CIY Move...

... is coming up next week!!!

I am getting pretty excited. We've got a smaller group this year than in year's past. But it will be great because instead of me spending all my time counting kids, I'll have extra time to invest and encourage the students who are going... as well as invite our students to take some serious challenges.

And we've got a diverse group as well. We've got 1 graduated senior (Will) and a couple of upcoming seniors (Boone and Becca... who got baptized by my wife on Sunday!!! It was awesome!!!) as well as a couple of Sophomore girls (Laura and Grace), a Junior guy (Justin) and one freshmen (Kyle).

It will be awesome.

So awesome in fact that I bought a new digital camera to catch all the action on. (Check it out HERE! It's a sweet deal!!)

One week until CIY! Can't wait!

Jim

Back online at home!!!

We're back online at home.

We finally got tired of waiting for AT&T. The prices for cable internet have been coming down and they finally got down to where it was comparable to what we were paying for AT&T, so we signed up.

The installation was done this afternoon and I just spent the last several hours figuring out how to make my Apple Airport Express function as a router.

So we're back online. Hopefully that will mean more blog posts in the future.

Thanks for being patient regular readers.

Jim

New iPhone 3Gs for me!!!

So...

As I twittered, I am getting a new iPhone 3Gs next week.

A couple of weeks ago, my iPhone (Edge) died. It was a trusty companion for almost two years. But it was replaced with a new iPhone 3G.

Then, this week Apple released it's news of it's new iPhone 3Gs. For me, I thought "That's cool... But I'll have to wait a while to get mine." That was until a couple of friends (L.G. and S.O.) encouraged me to rethink it. They reminded me that AT&T has a 30 day return policy on phones, including the iPhone. So I went in today and talked with them. Basically what is happening is that I am returning my iPhone 3G 16 GB on Friday morning June 19 and trading it in for a iPhone 3Gs 32 GB. And they are the same price. So basically I'm upgrading 18 months early and doing it for the price that I just paid for my new 3G!!!!!

Awesome!

I got the short end of the stick a couple of years ago when the price dropped. A lot of folks got some serious cash back. I got a $100 gift card. Which I was/am happy about. (I got something!) But this time, it worked out in my favor!!!

Sweet!

And I get to keep my current iPhone until then!! I thought I was going to have to do without for a few days. But I don't!

Double sweet!

Jim

12 week reading the New Testament plan

One of my PDYM buddies, Brian Berry, from San Diego put together an excellent 12 week read the New Testament plan for his students. (You can read his post HERE.)

I don't think that what he did was groundbreaking, but it is helpful to be able to have it on hand and he's already done the work. If you're looking for a simple reading plan, this is an excellent one! And he even provided a PDF download of the document so you can download it and hang onto it.

Thanks Brian!

Jim

I wish AT.T would get its stuff together

On the flipside of the post that I just posted about Logos, I wish that AT&T would get their act together!

When we moved to our house in North Aurora, we wanted to go to being a "streaming" family with some antenna live TV. Meaning that we would watch the majority of our TV off the Internet along with having an antenna for live shows that we wanted to watch (like Cubs' games).

But when we started to initiate the move, we discovered that AT&T DSL isn't in our neighborhood yet.

So for the past 6 months, we've been living (Internet-wise) off of connections at FVCC and Starbucks.

Until a couple of weeks ago when we got a flier in the mail saying that they were coming to North Aurora!!! YAY! But when I called, they said that they weren't in our neighborhood yet.

Yesterday we got another one. But I called this morning and they still aren't in our neighborhood!!! If we aren't in your area, stop sending up fliers!!! And get your act together.

Then yesterday, the much anticipated tethering option to iPhones was announced. Could be the answer to my problem. Only to find out that it might not happen until the end of 2009 and then it might cost me more money.

Come on!!!

Jim

I love Logos Bible Software!!!

I love Logos Bible Software. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about and like/love studying the Bible, you have got to check out this software. There is a Mac version (which is way better) and a PC version.)

I was reading today in my Google Reader (where I read all my blogs) that they are getting ready to sell a new set of commentaries from Tyndale Press (love the name!!!) called the "Cornerstone Biblical Commentaries." Back in August (yeah, 10 months ago), they were giving away a free sample of their "Matthew/Mark" volume.

From their website, it looked like they were still giving it away. So I tried to pick up the free copy, cause hey, free is good.

But when I tried to use the promo code, it didn't work.

So I called Logos, as I have an account with them. After bouncing around a couple of different places, the guy informed me that the code I had was an old code that was no longer active.


But he decided to go ahead and unlock it for me anyway!!! Just because I asked!!!!

That's stinkin' awesome!!!


If you aren't familiar with Logos, I would love to tell you all about it sometime. But I just wanted to share a little bit of awesomeness from a company that genuinely cares about it's customers!!!

Thanks "Jim" (not me... the guy who helped me) if you're reading this!

Jim

Powerful post for those in ministry...

My buddy, Neal Benson who is a youth pastor in Las Vegas, posted a pretty powerful post on his blog this morning about ministry and our, as ministers, relationship with God.

I won't repost the whole thing. But here is a snipet:
"I was doing well with this time with Jesus; I was able to wake up early and spend time with Jesus. I had my days where I had long nights out with students and times on missions trips that I wasn’t able to get this special alone time with God but I never really felt as empty as I do right now. I am not sure if it is because of being a new dad or seminary or work. I would love to have something to place the blame on; but the only blame can lie with my choices and me."

It would do you well to give it a read HERE. It's not a long post but it's a powerful one. Thanks for the reminder Neal!

Jim