I posted about my planning for Easter a few weeks ago, but now Easter is in plain sight. I think I’ve crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s (I could have uttered some famous last words right there…) It’s my first Easter in Lubbock and I’ll be involved in doing special Easter celebrations for all 4 Sunday Morning services in all of our kid’s areas. I have over 100 volunteers helping out in many different areas for our Children Ministry this Easter. I have programming, services, and many other activities happening in 3 different buildings. But really, that might have been the easiest part.

The hard part is remembering that it’s Easter. My prayer for Easter is that I don’t get lost in the frustrating part of what I do. I spent some major time in prayer this morning, just asking God to help me be a good reflection of what Easter means to the families at my church. If I’m celebrating that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, then I’d really like to have that show on my countenance throughout the morning. I’m also praying that the conviction to be excellent will reign down on all of my volunteers. I really want to make Jesus as easy to find on Easter as humanely possible. I’m praying that most of my planning will help us all avoid being thrown off our God-given purpose by distractions and disruptions that inevitably come with gathering hundreds of kids together in one place. I really believe that this weekend could be the beginning of the rest of someones life with Jesus.

If you have a Bible, will you shake it at the screen and maybe shake your hankie in my general direction?

“Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Daniel 12:3

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Now playing: Relient K – In Like A Lion (Always Winter)
via FoxyTunes

“The worst way to tell a story is to tell it the way you always tell it.”

I used this quote two weeks ago during an Elementary Small group training that I held for my Kid’s Team here at the church. I spent a big portion of our 90 minutes together talking about creative storytelling, or in their position, creative re-storytelling. I covered many different strategies to keep a kids attention, and spoke about all the different distractions that keeps us as teachers from being creative and interesting to listen to.

So this past Sunday Morning my heart jumped for joy when I observed one of our long-time teachers standing on a chair in the corner of her room, with the kids sitting on the floor all around her as she creatively expressed the element she was trying to convey to the kids. This is Big! It feels so good to get buy-in from your team, when it comes to teaching style. She later expressed to me that the kids seemed to really enjoy the change, and I encouraged her to keep mixing it up every week.

I’m still in the midst of my slow, purposefully reflective journey through the New Testament this year. I just finished the book of Acts. Here are my thoughts:

• Acts 1:21-26 -I’d love to see a church hire happen like this. It would be interesting to watch it unfold.
• Acts 2:29-36 -In the Message interpretation this passage starts off with, “Dear friends, let me be completely frank with you.” Acts 2:36 is about as bold a proclamation that a preacher can make to his audience.
• Acts 2:37 -The first altar call wasn’t even a call for salvation, the people were begging for an answer!
• Acts 2:39 -The Children’s pastor in me loves this passage.
• Acts 4:4 -The worlds first mega-church! 5,000 added in only a few days!
• Acts 4:1-22 -The persecution begins, but the gospel of Jesus Christ starts to spread.
• Acts 6:1 -The beginning of ‘hard feelings.’
• Acts 6:6 -I’d like the description of Stephen to be said of me someday.
• Acts 7 -Stephen was quite the preacher. He didn’t exactly get the results I’d like to have (death by stoning), however he could make a point.
• Acts 8:1 -The first mention of Saul/Paul is a dubious one.
• Acts 9:5 -I’ve always been curious how Paul knew this light and voice was his Master.
• Acts 9:21 -First appearance of suspicious Christians.
• Acts 10-13 -The news is picking up steam, it’s gaining momentum.
• Acts 14:14-15 -Humility in action!
• Acts 15:37-41 -Disagreeing without being disagreeable?
• Acts 16:9-10 -This is one great way to get travel directions.
• Acts 17-18, 20-21 -Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus; Macedonia and Greece, and on to Jerusalem, after getting through Tyre and Caesarea.
• Acts 21:27-36 -Jerusalem turns out to NOT be such a great destination. Earlier in the story Paul is repeatedly encouraged to stay away from Jerusalem. He continues to travel in the direction of Jerusalem. He is warned over and over again; but says emphatically in 20:24 that he must finish the job God started in him.
• Acts 22:1-21 -Paul tells his story. Would it have happened if he was not imprisoned?
• Acts 24 -Paul tells his side of the story. Would it have happened if he was not imprisoned?
• Acts 26 -Paul tells his story, again. This time to a King. Would it have happened if he was not imprisoned?
• Acts 28:30-31 -The last written actions of Paul in the book of Acts. “His door was always open.”

“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that’s relativity.” — Albert Einstein

I’ve been preparing some training materials for a special meeting this Sunday night with my Elementary volunteers (aka -team members.) As with any teacher training I’m dedicating a small amount of time on time management; both in preparation for the class and during the teaching of the class. Time management… it’s got to be the most boring thing in the world to talk about; but yet it is also one of the most important skills to be good at if you want any level of success in your life, ministry, or yard work. People who aren’t good at managing their time don’t want to hear about getting better, and people who are good don’t usually need the tips. So why do I talk about it? Because it give me an excuse to use my favorite all-time quote.

“The irresponsible will always be at the mercy of the responsible.”

This morning during our weekly kid’s team meeting I shared from the ‘Tyranny of the Urgent.’ Ever heard of it? I first read it in 1994 during my freshmen year of college. It radically (yes that was a cool word in 1994) changed my life! Here’s the first paragraph from this great source:

Have you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? Surely this extra time would relieve the tremendous pressure under which we live. Our lives leave a trail of unfinished tasks. Unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unwritten articles, and unread books haunt quiet moments when we stop to evaluate. We desperately need relief.

But would a thirty-hour day really solve the problem? Wouldn’t we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four allotment? A mother’s work is never finished, and neither is that of any student, teacher, minister, or anyone else we know. Nor will the passage of time help us catch up. Children grow in number and age to require more of our time. Greater experience in profession and church brings more exacting assignments. So we find ourselves working more and enjoying it less.

I shared with my team this morning, what the article so eloquently exposed in my life. If I don’t do the important when it needs to be done, then it will become urgent. And the urgent controls my life like an angry tyrant. When things become urgent, then everything else takes a back seat. Yesterday I had to stay home with two sick kids. It was an urgent situation, and situation demanded my attention. I had to cancel my appointments, stay home from work, and sit in the Dr.’s office for 2 hours. All things I hadn’t planned. Now this particular urgent task could not be avoided, but many times the urgent things in our lives can be avoided.

You know the kind… You’re supposed to prepare for that special meeting… and you’ve known about it for months… but instead you found reasons to wait until the day before to start prepping… and now your entire family has taken a backseat to this task… and all the important things you need to do are now slowly becoming the urgent tasks for another day! What a vicious cycle, but one that can be broken.

FOCUS –defined as the concentration of attention or energy on something; maximum clarity or distinctness of an idea

What things in my life need to be focused upon? Any relationships, projects, or obligations? The ability to separate the ‘Important’ from the ‘Not-Important’ can help us escape the Tyranny of the Urgent.