Centri-Kid update #2: Friendships

Today is out last full of camp. We leave tomorrow morning. The kids are already a little sad about leaving and I don't blame them. Why? I think it is simple. You can't help but make friends at camp. Leaving friends is one of the hardest thing in the world to do. I hate it. I always have but it is one of those necessary things in life. Which by the way, I am very bad at goodbyes. I don't do it well. I have the tenancy to just leave. This is what happens at camp. The tenancy is that tomorrow morning when we leave the kids don't get to say goodbye to everyone and it kind of hurts.

I even feel this way. I have been able make some great new friendships and refresh some old ones. I think there is something about getting away from your normal day and your normal life that makes you build relationships. Not just earthly relationships but spiritual relationships as well. I can tell that the kids that came with us are building a better friendship with God. How cool is that?

So thank you Centri-Kid for giving the kids and the adults the opportunity to get to know each other. It is very nice to meet and see friends.

@ Centri-Kid: Update #1

I am currently at Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY attending a church camp called Centri-Kid. Centri-Kid is a camp that is run by Lifeway Christian Resources or otherwise known as the Southern Baptist Convention. It is for kids who have completed 3rd-6th grade and is an overnight camp. This is our second year as a church to attend this particular camp.

Why Centri-Kid? My philosophy on camp is that I want to be able to build relationships with the kids and not have to worry about anything else. We only brought 12 kids and I am really getting to know each and every one of them. Basically Centri-Kid takes care of all of the programming and let's my volunteers and I the ability to just hang with the kids. This camp also builds into the adults while the kids are in their own Bible Study.

So far the camp has been very good. The program is solid and the kids are having fun. Registration was a breeze. The dorms are fine. The food is actually good. They even gave us free Starbucks today as a thank you and not just your normal cup of joe, but a grande iced carmel-white mocha. The only bad thing that has happened so far is one of the boys fell off the top bunk this morning at 5:30am. He got a nice pop knot on his head but will be fine.

Today we will get to go to a water park for our free time. The kids are really looking forward to this.

Here are some pictures that I have taken so far that I think you might enjoy.


The drop off area. Nice use of flags.



The stage set-up for large group presentations.



Kids doing their quiet time this morning.



One of the campers talking smack and telling Momma jokes.



The Senior Pastor's son doing a got Milk commercial.


There you have it. I really am enjoying myself. If you want more details then you can also follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mattmckee

Tech Thursday: I gave my iPhone away!

I did something crazy yesterday. I locked my gen. 1 iPhone and gave it away, to my wife. That's correct, I am walking around right now with an old Nokia flip phone in my pocket. I signed a 2 year contract with AT&T and dropped T-Mobile. My former iPhone is now legit. That means today I don't XM on my phone. I don't have a cool twitter client. I don't have much of anything including phone numbers. I can make and recieve calls and texts and that is it.

Why in the world would I do this? I need today to be a day where I get a ton done. I am out of town next week at a camp in Georgetown, KY. I need to make sure and have everything done today because tomorrow I will be occupied. I won't be worth anything on Saturday and Sunday besides church will be a wash. What will I be doing over the next 3 days?

ENJOYING my NEW iPHONE 3G!

I don't know if you have read yet but the App Store is live in iTunes. You can already buy your favorite Apps but of course you can't do anything with them until you upgrade to iPhone 2.0 or buy the new iPhone 3G. Many of the Apps in the store are very similar or the same as the ones in Installer of a jailbroken iPhone. The sad thing is that the ones that are the same are of course not free like they were in Installer. There are Apps that are not in the store as well. In the Installer you could add a video camera app that turned the camera of the iPhone into a recording device. You could also changed the theme of your phone through Installer and I don't see that in the App Store. There was also a voice dial App that I will miss. I will also miss the Touchpad Pro that allowed you to use your iPhone as your mouse.

As with any change I will have to adapt. I will have to contact AT&T now which I am not really excited about. I will have to be ready to download web pages faster. I will have to get use to real GPS. I will also have to get ready to pay for my Apps.

Here I come iPhone 3G. I can't wait for our friendship to begin.

Ministry Monday: Visiting other Churches

I love visiting other churches. I wish I could take a week and travel all over the world and visit the best churches out there. I believe you can learn so much from doing this simple exercise. You learn what to do and what not to do. You learn who they are as a church and more importantly you learn who you are as a church. You also get to meet some incredible people who just might inspire you to become a better minister.

Today I took a portion of my team, Tim Selnick and Andrea Goslee, to Montgomery Community Church. Instead of doing our normal staff meeting we went and visited with Kim Vaught. Kim is a firecracker and has a huge heart for kids. She is all about vision and seeing people come to know the love of God. She was kind enough to spend over an hour with my team and I.

Just over 2 years ago Montgomery had Wacky World come in and establish an environment for the Children's area. Before the transformation the church was your typical white/grey walls with little decorations. Now it is a vibrant space that speaks leaps and bounds on how much the church values kids. Here are some pictures I took while I was there:











If you are not visiting other churches then why not? If you are visiting other churches then let me know what you learn. If you are even in Cincinnati, OH then I would love to take you around the city and eventually to my own church once it is built.

Hot Topic: Church and Video

Over the last several years churches have begun what they call Video Venues or Satellite Campuses. A video venue or satellite campus is one where there's not a live preacher but the pastor is on a very high quality video that is shown instead on a very large screen that fills a stage. A basic service at one of these churches is very streamlined and has live worship music, maybe some creative element, and then the sermon on video. I was working at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX when they opened up their first campus like this. I remember it being a back and forth on whether or not this was a good idea. The questions of do we build a bigger auditorium that will seat close to 9,000, redo the current auditorium for more seating, or go to video venues were the questions of the day in staff meetings.

Here is why I remember Fellowship Church went to video instead of the other two options:

1. People would not have to drive as far to new venues.
2. You could reach new people in new areas and have more impact on a different community.
3. The cost for building a new auditorium or redoing the current one would be as much if not more than starting 3 new campuses.
4. Ed is a gifted communicator and would be better on video than most would be live.
5. People who were sitting more than 10 rows back were already watching Ed on the large video screens and not looking at him on stage.
6. LifeChurch.tv was being very succussful in starting and maintaining new places of worship. Therefore we could follow a model of success.

Basically it came down to impact, levels of excellence, cost, and success.

Here is the question of the day, the month, the year, and years to come:

Is it working?

Keith Johnson just wrote a blog post about his experience at one of these services. Read the article and look at the comments. I have known Keith since 1999 when he hired me for a summer to work for the Billy Graham Association. Sometimes in his post and in his comments he comes across harsh, judgemental, or critquing. I know that is not his heart or intent (I just got off the phone with him). He could communicate his questions better. His questions are the same as why Fellowship started doing video venues.

1. Can and is it being impactful?
2. Is the level of excellence greater than a live speaker?
3. Is the cost of watching a video overcoming the building of community?
4. Is it being successful and how do you measure that success?

These questions are not those of critique but of evaluation. These questions are very viable and need to be answered. For many churches they have answered these questions. Take NewSpring Church in South Carolina for example. They are just starting their video venues and must have answered a resounding, "Yes" to the questions above. Why else would you start something if you didn't believe in it.

Here is the problem. This is still a new thing. We don't know the long term answers to the questions. We don't know if video venues cause weird attadance patterns or a lack of passion for attendance. We don't know if video venues cause tithing issues. We don't even know if a gifted communicator on video is more impactful than a gifted communicator live. We don't know if there is longevity in these campuses. We also don't know how this effects the rest of the family.

What we do know is that people are going to these campuses currently. Just look at LifeChurch.tv again. We know that they are hearing the truth about God. Anytime Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church preaches you here the truth about God and they have video venues. We know that they must like a gifted communicator on video more than a sub-par communicator live or they wouldn't be there.

What I hope doesn't happen is this same trend in Children's Ministry. I hope that we are not streamlining Children's Ministry so much that all they get is live worship music and a video. Whether you think adults can handle the difference or not, I think it is much harder for kids. We should not put more emphisis on production to make sure every kid gets the same experience over all the campuses by video. This statement is coming from a guy who loves production at very high qualities. We should instead make sure every kid has the same experience through building relationships. Kids don't get enough relational learning outside of church. They do get enough video and entertainment. Small groups or relationship building is going to be more and more important. I would much rather see a "good" live performance of a drama, Bible story, and games than an incredible, out of this world, great produced video for kids. Please keep as many live elements as possible for kids. It builds their imigination, their understanding, and I believe is just more effective.

2 Minute Tuesday: Celebrating America

It has been a while but 2 Minute Tuesdays are back. Enjoy.

Sign Wednesday: I couldn't believe it!

I walked into the atrium of our church 2 weeks ago and saw this sign:



I truly couldn't believe what I was seeing. If fact there were 2 guys who read my blog who came up to me as I was walking through the atrium to point this sign out to me. They were excited to show me how bad this sign is and that is never a good thing at your own church.

Let's go over why this sign is so bad.

1. Having to put a sign on a sign is rarely a good idea. It is always a bad idea when you have to cover up something printed on the sign. Just print a new sign. The cost of the new sign outweighs the message that you are communicating about your brand.

2. Seriously, do I have to go over the whole hand written sign thing again. Hand written signs are bad. Period. I don't care how nice your handwriting is or that you are being artistic with the letters. Hand written signs are bad.

3. As you can tell the sign is old, look at the curve in the right and left sides. Once again, I am for reusing good signs if they look good. Your brand means more than the $17 that it would have cost to reprint this sign.


There you have it. I even have a hard time at my church keeping the signs looking good. Don't worry though, I will keep trying to make our world a better looking place.

Ministry Monday: 5 Themes

I am currently working on a scope and sequence (not real high on that term but it is the best I have) for birth-high school. Yes I know, it is a task and a half. You think I am crazy and you want to know why I am doing this thing because I am not a publishing company. Well, let me just say that I think we need to be more strategic and intentional in our approach of leading kids and students.

Right now I can't say that we are doing a great job at being either strategic or intentional in the ministries that I over see in this area of cohesion for kids. Don't get me wrong, I think that we are doing very well in our series that we do for each group but it is not a cohesive unit by any means. As the Pastor of Students and Children it is my job to get us there.

You may or may not know but Reggie Joiner and the people over at the ReThink Group are doing this as well. Reggie has his 3 dials of Wonder, Discovery, and Passion that he talks about when examining this topic. Those are very good and the way that he presents them is great. The only problem is when I tell parents that I am going to teach their kid about Wonder, Discovery, and Passion then they look at me funny. Believe me, I have tried this and the looks are great. I guess I didn't do as well as Reggie at presenting the concepts.

What did I do in return? I have come up with 5 themes that we are going to focus on from birth-high school. Now don't get me wrong, these are not earth shattering by any means but it does give us a stick to measure with and to communicate to parents.

When a parent comes to me now and asked what we are going to teach their child from birth-high school I will say, "There are 5 key themes or areas that your child will learn while in our program. We will make sure your child is taught about:

God (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit)
The Church
The Bible
Self Disciplines
and Relationships

I told you that it wasn't earth shattering.

This gives us a foundation of what we are going to teach. It also helps us plan the teaching series or look for curriculum. I can now honestly look at each series and say that we are to heavy on the relationship piece and not enough on the Bible or the Holy Spirit or whatever happens to be the case. It is a start but not even close to being finished. More will come in the future about what our scope and sequence really looks like. It will be broken down for each area to give us a nice picture of where a kid should be in 5th grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade. Like I said before this is a task and a half.

By the way, why is it so hard to find this topic of an over arching theme for birth-high school? Is Reggie really one of the few people out there doing this? There has to be more. If you know of any could you leave a comment and let the rest of us know about it.

Free Thought Friday: Weird News Story of the Day

I was searching the web for some good news to blog about today. I came across this story:

Report: Ohio teacher burned cross on kids' arms

View smaller image

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (AP) - A public school teacher preached his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators. Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom, the report said. School board members were scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the findings by consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc., hired by the district to investigate. The report was released Thursday. School Superintendent Stephen Short wouldn't comment on the report before Friday's meeting, his office said. A message seeking comment was left for Freshwater's attorney, Roger Weaver. The report comes one week after a family filed a federal lawsuit in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on their child's arm that remained for three or four weeks. Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him. "With the exception of the cross-burning episode ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch in a story published Friday. Several students interviewed by investigators described Freshwater, who has been employed by the school district for 21 years, as a great guy. But Lynda Weston, the district's director of teaching and learning, told investigators that she has dealt with complaints about Freshwater for much of her 11-year term at the district, the report said. A former superintendent, Jeff Maley, said he tried to find another position for Freshwater but couldn't because Freshwater was certified only in science, the report said. Freshwater used a science tool known as a high-frequency generator to burn images of a cross on students' arms in December, the report said. Freshwater told investigators he simply was trying to demonstrate the device on several students and described the images as an "X," not a cross. But pictures show the images depict a cross, the report said. Other findings show that Freshwater taught that carbon dating was unreliable to argue against evolution.

I am all for living out your faith. I am even for people getting tattoos. My uncle is a tattoo artist. The thing that is the most weird for me in this story is the last paragraph. When Freshwater told investigators that it was an X and not a cross. If you are going to be bold enough to break a bunch of rules and not own up for this one then there is something wrong. I do appreciate Mr. Freshwater's passion. His technique maybe a little off.

Sign Wednesday: The Tombstone

Did you ever think about your tombstone as a sign? In many ways it is the ultimate sign. The last sign that you will probably ever get to post will be one that you decide for your remains. I am not trying to be morbid here but I do think that it is important for you to think about.

I like cemeteries for some reason. I think they are really intriguing and interesting. I participated in a funeral today at Spring Grove Cemetery here in Cincinnati. Believe it or not it is a beautiful place. Incredible trees and landscaping but more importantly incredible tombstones or should I say signs. I was blown away by the number of tombstones that were just huge. There were more ornate and intricate than any I have every seen in one cemetery. I can't believe I am going to write this but if you get a chance to go to Spring Grove to drive around I think you should. It really is a site to see.

Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was there.



There were many of these there and this one was not the biggest by any means and it stood about 30 feet tall.



I found this very interesting. It is quite tombish. Again not the biggest one but is a good representation.



Look at the huge piece of petrified wood on top of the tombstone. I couldn't figure out why but thought it was really cool.



This picture doesn't give it justice but believe me when I say that this was awe inspiring.

When I die I don't think I want an actual sign as my tombstone but I would like to have a really cool unique one that stands out. No neon or anything but I do think that my last sign should be at least interesting. I might be putting more pressure on myself than I need.