LORD OVER ME

I read the following verse in my devotional time today:

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God…for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. — Romans 14:4, 6, 8-9

It got me thinking about how we are really not at all familiar with the term "lord" as they were when this was written. A lord had complete and sovereign control over everyone in their land -- no questions asked.

In light of that, is Jesus really the Lord of my life? REALLY? I can confess that He is NOT the Lord of my life in some areas -- the way that He should be. I like to "lord over myself" sometimes; and probably even more than I'd like to admit.

Today, I ask for the courage to allow Jesus to be the Lord of my life, in every aspect.

PLAYING WITH PICTURES

Wow! Until now, I didn't realize that posting pics on my blog was so easy. I'm going to have to start doing this more!

I was feeling a little nostalgic today, realizing that Mikella is almost one-year-old already. She was born on Christmas Eve. Here is a pic of Mikella, Bella, and myself on January 1st at Mom and Dad's house.

SIX AWE-FILLED DAYS

I just came back from six very powerfully exciting days on the road. First, on November 4th through the 6th, a busload of us went to the Advance Youth Convention in Pierre, SD, an AOG-sponsored district event that we have been a part of for the last couple of years. This year was a little different, though, as me and a few of the guys from the Destiny worship team had the opportunity to lead the worship services. It was a total blast from start to finish. The sound man was the best we have ever worked with, and the stage -- with smoke, lasers, lights, and four large-projector screens surrounding -- was like a rock star’s dream.

That wasn’t the only cool thing. Our students were experiencing God in very powerful and real ways. One student, in particular, experienced physical manifestations of God’s presence -- reportedly having “hot hands” while he was praying for someone and then seeing some pretty awe-inspiring visions later on in the evening. Twice, I came into my room late at night after all of my responsibilities were done for the day and found the guys in my room reading the Bible, journaling, and praying. How cool is that? There were several other cool stories that I heard from students and it is always awesome to watch and be a part of the ministry times.

As far as the worship times go, it was such an easy and “ready” atmosphere. Many times I felt more like I was part of the worship crowd than a worship leader (which is probably the way it should be anyhow). There really is no way to describe the atmosphere of those three nights without just being there. All I can say is that it was incredible and it was an immense joy to have experienced it.

The group of us came back on Sunday evening, where I left the PM worship service at Destiny early so that I could pack for my Monday morning departure to Oakland, CA. This was hard to do, leaving my family behind for another three day venture, but I knew in my heart that God had plans for this journey, too.

As soon as I arrived I was made to feel welcome by several new-made friends. Tim, Jeremy, and Danny all blessed me with a very memorable first time experience at the famous In’N’Out Burger joint. Several of them pooled some money together and bought me my very own In’N’Out T-shirt. Not to mention, when the In’N’Out employees found out it was my first time, I was given an official In’N’Out baker’s hat and a handful of In’N’Out stickers. To say the least, it was very good food; I’m a new fan of the franchise.

The meetings with the national leadership team were all overwhelming for me. Overwhelming mostly because I couldn’t believe that I was there! Here I was sitting in a room with the nation’s leaders in the field that I am working in and I have no idea how I got there. A word was given shortly upon our arrival about that same “fear” or “feeling”, if you will. God said that there were some at the meeting who couldn’t figure out why they were here. To them His words were “I have prepared a place for you at the table; this was meant for you.” Those words blessed me beyond measure.

Ron Pinkston, the pastor of East Bay Fellowship, James Craft, the national Foursquare youth director, and Larry Spousta, were the three main speakers at the meetings. They facilitated discussion about the national youth ministry movement and helped steer us towards new direction and renewed vision.

They also rolled out the red carpet for us. The meetings took place at East Bay Fellowship’s brand new, 5-million-dollar youth facility, featuring a game room, café, and large, media-rich service room. All of the meals were home cooked except for the last, when they drove us all to San Francisco’s pier for a fantastic meal at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., fashioned after the infamous character from Forrest Gump. The food was great and so was the atmosphere. The youth and Foursquare leaders that I met over those two days will long be fondly remembered and I hope to keep them as long-time friends and ministry peers.

The next morning, Wednesday the 9th, I got up at 3:00 am and caught a taxi with Aaron, Jon, and Charles, some other new ministry friends. I made it home at around 3:00 pm, took a two-hour nap, woke-up, showered, and made it to youth group for a wonderful time with lots of people that I love.

SINGING

SHAWN @ ADVANCE YOUTH CONVENTION

NYWC: Day 4

We just finished packing up the majority of our stuff for the last day at convention. We have to get up early tomorrow to catch our plane back to Denver, CO.

The last day was like all the others –- we only wish this week could last longer. Deanna and I had the opportunity to interact with Tic Long, one of the convention hosts and YS execs. We told him that the convention is our favorite week every year. He commented about my hair (he said that it looked like I had been "rocking out") and asked Deanna about her 1-Life Revolution experience (ask her about it). Then he welcomed us back for our sixth year next year.

I attended a great seminar on Creative Bible Teaching by Jim Burns, the founder of HomeWord, this morning and attended another one by Doug Fields on Developing Student Leaders in the afternoon. I can't wait to start applying some of the things that I learned this week into play at Elevate Youth Ministry.

This day was my favorite day of worship as David Crowder took over the general session worship times. What an incredible band and great lead worshippers. I got lots of good footage from side-stage and front-stage of several of the artists. (Enough, I hope, to make our friend Barry Edwards come next year.)

Ted Dekker read his newest book with a multimedia backdrop at the morning session and the true-to-life Sue Thomas from the F.B. Eye detective show spoke in the afternoon session. Shane and Shane did a short but powerful worship set.

The day ended with a big concert featuring the Canadian boys from Starfield and everybody’s favorite southern rocker’s, Third Day. KJ-52 was supposed to be there to perform, too, but the promoter said that he never called or showed up. We never heard anything more about it.

We ran into a new youth worker friend, Paul Kind, from Rapid City, too. He is a new youth pastor taking over a youth ministry position at a church which I can't remember the name of right now. (Sorry, Paul, if you're reading this.)

All in all, the week was too much for words. I feel refreshed, renewed, re-energized, and re-filled with passion for the calling that we have to Destiny's youth. I hope that we can bring more Team Elevate leaders with us next year. Thank you SO MUCH to all of those who supported Amy this year and our other volunteers in years past! It means so much to us!

Time for bed. Got to get up at 5:00 am. See you when we get back!

NYWC: Day 3

We started out the morning all splitting up into different workshops, which is what we normally tend to do at workshop time. That way our team gets three different workshops in one hour and a half period. I attended a seminar by a young man by the name of Chuck Bomar that started the collegeleader.org web site and ministry. He was a deep thinker, but really helped me get a first-timer's grasp at how to disciple college-age volunteers. Very cool stuff. Deep, but cool.

The morning general session featured a former pro football player turned youth speaker, Steve Fitzhugh. He was a big guy with a Pentecostal flavor to his preaching style. Very fun and encouraging. Steven Curtis Chapman was there, too but we’ve seen him so many times, we skipped out on him. Lunch was at a small Mexican restaurant with really good fresh fruit drinks and salsa, but not-so-good enchilada sauce.

We took a long afternoon nap to catch up and keep up with taking care of Mikella. Having her along definitely has kept us busy, so the two-hour nap was very welcome.

We took a walk to a far-away fish and chips place for dinner. It was worth the walk; good fried food – yum! We did pass by a passed out drunk on the way. I don't think it was the best neighborhood.

The last general session of the day was our last night with Chris Tomlin and his band. It was good to have them back with us again this year. We got to see them last year, but it was for only one night. Those guys really know how to shine the spotlights on God and lead a group into worship. I’m even more excited for the David Crowder Band tomorrow.

Louie Giglio also spoke at the evening general session and blew me away as usual. He used the best definition of worship I’ve ever heard: us in God’s hands and our life in His plans. Incredibly inspiring. Deanna and I actually spotted Louie taking an afternoon job earlier in the day. He looks like a really fit guy.

Afterwards, we stopped for a while at the late night comedy club with Taylor Mason, Thor Ramsey, the Village Idiot, and Darren Streblow. We bought a bunch of their DVD's so that Destiny can host another comedy night. I’m sad that tomorrow is our last day. We are going to have to miss out on the last day in order to make it to Colorado in time for the district convention. We are looking forward to that too, of course, but YS is very close to our hearts.

NYWC: Day 2

Tonight, we thankfully have a little bit earlier bedtime. Funny thing is that it was the first night that the girls wanted to try a late night event: Fear Factor – Youth Worker’s Edition. The group that was coming to do the event was not able to make it for whatever reason. I think we were all somewhat relieved. Sleep is always welcome at the end of a long convention day.

We woke up this morning and went to the La Boo for breakfast. Very good iced chai tea and breakfast pastry. The first general session of the convention we all attended together. It was a “Rant by a Runt on What’s Wrong with the Church” by Marko, the president of Youth Specialties. I liked it because he asked a lot of tough questions that made me re-think my own personal philosophy of ministry.

The first general session featured Mark Yaconelli, who I hadn’t enjoyed much in the past, but did an incredible job today. In fact, I would like to hear him again, if I have the chance. The Skit Guys were absolutely hilarious and the Swift were mediocre.

We all shared dinner at a loud restaurant called “Pizza by the Slice”. It didn’t pass all of the inspection codes by the health department, but we didn’t see that until we were leaving (smile).

I attended my afternoon workshop with Doug Fields on “Small Groups from Start to Finish”. I have been really praying about starting some kind of small group ministry within our youth group for a long time now. This class was super-practical and eye-opening when it comes to the effectiveness (and toughness) of doing small groups ministry. It doesn’t hurt that Doug Fields has always been one of my convention favorites.

The evening general session went just as well with featured speaker (drum roll please) Doug Fields. He spoke on the importance of saying “no” to ministry (yes, ministry) and keeping family and other more important things first. Kendall Payne was a surprising treat (better than I thought) and One Time Blind was a pleasant mix of rhythm and drama.

Mikella has been doing fairly well, although, Deanna and Amy have taken some time out a time or two to take her to the kid’s play room, which features a live video feed of all of the action on the main stage. Otherwise, she loves the music and the clapping the most and really seems to dig the party atmosphere!

NYWC: Day 1

I just got back from the first night at the National Youth Worker’s Convention in Sacramento, CA. I’ll tell you about it in just a second, but first let me tell you about the trip here so far…

We -– Deanna, Mikella, Amy, and I -- left on Wednesday morning from Rapid City. Our goal was to leave sometime between 10:00 am that morning and noon. Well, go figure, we left at noon. The milometer on our car as we drove out read “77,777.7” miles. We joked to each other that God was going to be with us even from the start of the trip. The day before we had to have some expensive repair work done on our car to prepare it for the trip. Something that we weren’t expecting when we took it in for an oil change on Monday.

Anyhow, we left town and drove to Fort Collins, CO to spend the night at the Hyatt. It was a gift from the church for last year’s Pastor Appreciation that we hadn’t used up yet. It was a wonderful evening in a wonderful room at a really nice hotel. The next morning, we got up and drove to the Denver International Airport to fly to Sacramento. It was Mikella’s first airplane ride and she did incredible. We had a short lay-over in Phoenix and a some-what unpleasant flight from Phoenix to Sacramento. There were two guys sitting in front of us who thought too much of themselves that were drinking, reading pornographic magazines, and making rude comments to the attendants and others.

We got to our hotel with no problems, meeting up with a neat couple from South Africa who were with a dance / drama company called the “Thirteenth Floor”. They happened to be exhibitors at this year’s convention. We stopped by once we got to the hotel and convention center to say “hi” and pick up their promotional materials.

We settled into our room and walked over to the capital building to see if we could spot "The Governator". We were told later in the week that he lives on the 15th floor of the hotel that we were staying at.

After our stroll through the capital, we headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We were all really hungry because none us had eaten since breakfast -- and Amy actually hadn’t had a real meal since lunch the day before (long story). After that, the girls went back to our room and I went to the late night option at the Sheridan Hotel featuring live worship from WorshipTogether.com. The featured artists were Johnny Parks, Brenton Brown, and Vicky Beeching.

It was an incredible evening and the best way I have ever had the pleasure of starting my time at the NYWC. I hope they do it again next year. It was like two hours of general session worship with Tomlin and Crowder, only a little more intimate and personal. I was in tears through most of the time as God ministered to me in places only He could know that needed it. In fact, I found myself getting filled up spiritually in places that I didn’t even know were dry or stagnant… and this is only the first night. I can’t wait for tomorrow! I’ve gotta sign off… it’s midnight.

TIME TO CHEAT SOME MORE

Okay it has been a long time since a post… so here ‘tis, the long lost post you have all been waiting for.

The highlight of my day was swinging in the back yard with my two youngest daughters. There’s something about their smiles that get to me every time. I can still remember a message that I heard at a YS convention a few years ago from Andy Stanley about cheating. “If you are ever gonna cheat on someone,” he said, “cheat on your job (or ministry) and not on your family.”

I’ve always tried to make my family a priority in life. It isn’t a task; it’s what I want. The thing is that sometimes all of the demands of life try to command out everything else without me noticing. That’s what I hate. That’s what I don’t want to happen.

Here’s something funny. I got an e-mail from myself a few days ago. It is from this web site called “FutureMe.org”. I definitely suggest giving it a try. Anyhow, here’s what I wrote:

(this message was composed on Tue, Sep 7, 2004)

Dear Future Me,

I thought I'd try this cool web site out. We just got back from NOT-WINNING at the LifeLight Festival [Battle of the Bands competition] in Sioux Falls this past weekend.

I feel pretty bad. I'm hoping you finally wrote and recorded some new material by now. If you haven't, stop and schedule some time in your calendar now. Don't waste the gifts that God has given you.

God bless you richly (you're a pretty cool guy),
Shawn

I like how I tried to encourage myself at the end (. Anyhow, there’s another thing that I’ve maybe cheated myself on: playing and writing music. It’s something that I love to do but hardly seem to find time for anymore. I know that I need to listen to my own advice and actually “schedule” it in to my day. That sounds sad. I love what I do. I love youth ministry. I love my family and my wife. Why do I have to “schedule” in something that I love to do? How come it doesn’t come naturally?

I don’t know. Weird question? Maybe even a weird thought. Maybe I spend too much time reading e-mail or surfing the Web. It takes up a significant part of my mornings and evenings. Maybe that’s taken over my “first love” of music. Who knows? Time to ponder some more on this. Maybe even time to re-prioritize. Maybe blogging should be on the list, too, seeing that this is the first post in how many months now?

BELLA'S TREE POSE

BITING THE TOE NAILS

Mikella trying her first taste of "foot". Maybe she's following in Bella's tradition of hourly foot cleaning.

BEAUTIFUL BABY

Mikella trying to stay cool on a very hot summer's day

ROUGH RIDERS

They look pretty relaxed considering that Cynthia is "driving".

CYNTHIA ON THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

CYNTHIA

RAGEDDY DOLLS

Aunt Helen and Autumn as Rageddy Ann and Andy @ Storybook Island

SLURPEE GIRLS

Bella and Cynthia @ Storybook Island

MIKELLA ENJOYS HER "RIDE"

Auntie Helen and the girls visit Storybook Island

SISTERS HAVING FUN

CYNTHIA: SKATE MASTER

Cynthia tears it up on the skate rink floor!

AUTUMN AND DEANNA SKATING

Mom is trying to teach Autumn the finer points of the skate rink.

MIKELLA ON THE COUCH

...looking pretty in pink!

AUNTIE HELEN AND MIKELLA

AMY'S BARBIE PARTY

We threw a Barbie Birthday party for our good friend and constant companion, Amy. This was "the look" on her face at the party!

CYNTHIA AND AUTUMN

Cynthia and Autumn at wedding reception

SHOUP FAMILY

Family picture at our first wedding (as pastoral officiators)

MIKELLA AND ASSORTED FRIENDS

AUTUMN IN GOLD

Autumn playing "dress up" at a children's church fundraiser

ROBYN AND MIKELLA

Robyn has been a good friend of the family for several years; she is at every birthday party and big event for our girls.

CYNTHIA'S 9th BIRTHDAY

Always the animal lover, she had a horse-shaped b-day cake made out of cupcakes frosted together.

NERVOUS FOR ALL OF US!

This is Friday... the Youth-led Service is Sunday. I'm getting nervous for all of us!

One thing's for sure: we are never gonna do the Youth-led Service two weekends after the Youth-led Good Friday Service again. They are just too close together.

It's a good thing that we have such high quality, spiritually hungry, super-charged youth and volunteers, or I'm afraid that this weekend wouldn't minister much to anybody. But from what I have seen so far (at the one practice we have had so far -- smile), I know that God is going to move and minister to those that are there this Sunday morning. I can't wait to see how God works through us.

His grace is enough... WHEW!

ORANGE IS MIKELLA'S FAVORITE COLOR

TONKA'S LAST DAY WITH US

We all loved him -- and he loved us -- but he was just too "high energy" for us to handle with Mikella and Bella. We found him a loving family here in town and he is doing great!

MIKELLA'S SMILE-IN-A-SWEATER

BELLA IS ALL SMILES

AUTUMN'S EASTER EGGS

CYNTHIA'S EASTER EGGS

CYNTHIA AND PRINCESS ISABELLA

She rules the house with grace and beauty

PLAYING WITH HAIR

Cynthia looks so serious in this picture...

CYNTHIA AND "BLONDIE"

I am messing with my eye because it took two hours of bleach on my head to get it that white!

IN THE FLOWER GARDEN

Mikella in the flower garden

MIKELLA AND THE BUTTERFLY

CYNTHIA AND MIKELLA

MEMORIAL PARK POND

Autumn on a Memorial Park stroll around the pond.

BELLA'S CHEER!

ADMIRING A BABY DOLL

Bella admiring a doll @ Mikella's baby shower