Get Ready for your Egg Roll Competition

I strongly encourage you to begin this fantastic Easter tradition for all ages. Let me know if you do it this year: http://brentthomaslive.blogspot.com/2008/04/thomas-egg-roll-competition-2008.html

Killing Time with the Fam

Here are some of the 'funner' things we've done as a family over the Christmas break. Some are traditions, some 'r not...

• Take one of the FREE personality or intelligence tests at Testdex. Compare results.
• Share a Christmas eve Breakfast. Turk on the TV comedy Scrubs calls this 'Brinner'.
• Open one present on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas morning.
• Take a picture of the "present" that Shamus left for us under the Christmas tree.
• Play speed Scrabble.
• Play Amy Grant's Christmas album and see how long it takes for Shannon to complain.
• Catch a movie.
• Play Nerts.
• Play Upwords.
• Play Rummikub.
• Read the Christmas Story, of course.
• When the kids were little we'd build a fort out of a refrigerator box, build a mattress slide down the stairs, build a fort with blankets and couch cushions, play indoor tackle football with Dad, get bumped onto the couch cushions on the floor.
  
• Cook and bake experimental goodies (usually they're Very Good!).
  
• This year I'd like to deliver some of those experimental goodies to neighbors.

What do you do with your family at Christmas?

What I Learned NOT to Do in Youth Ministry

Here are the results of an off the cuff survey of Youth Pastors.
What I learned NOT to do in Youth Ministry. I learned...

• Not to send 5 guys down a zip line in one harness.
• When re-enacting the crucifixion with a nail and hammer, don't assume the female volunteer will move her hand.
• No matter how responsible teens seem to be, don't leave them unsupervised.
• If guys go outside to make snow angels, make them wear shorts.
• Not to take myself too seriously.
• Not to gossip.
• That I should not back up on an interstate entrance ramp with a van load of teens.
• Not to read emails in the wrong place.
• Don't doubt the janitor dude.
• Jump at the same time onto the Blob.
• Don't let teens play the Salt Game that can send them to the emergency room.
• Not to interrupt parents before they tell their whole story.
• To be careful with what I tell my mother.
• Not to do the Birthday Spanking Gauntlet.
• To keep my mouth shut.
• To never shut off all the lights.
• Not to take the van load of teens to Hooters.
  

Random Stuff

Here's some more random stuff that I found mildly interesting...

Bobby Gruenewald at LifeChurch.tv shared a couple of fun links. It's no fun to be branded. But I think we carry brands more than we'd like to think:

• A blog devoted to Stuff that White People Like.
• A blog devoted to Stuff Christians like.

Ever heard of mind-mapping? Here’s how to mind-map a meeting.

Media I've Run Across

I am so random...

A great time-waster is Facebook Lexicon. How many times do people mention a given word in a week on Facebook? Check out Facebook Lexicon. For upward trends type in Craigslist, or gas. For yearly cyclical trends enter depression, or Easter, or Bible study.

Cult of Sincerity is a full length secular indie movie about POMO; thoughtful, clever, witty, a prophetic message About 20-somethings, By 20-somethings, and To 20-somethings. ALL people from 15 to 30 yrs. old MUST watch this flick and discuss it! My 7-word review..."a critique of the post-modern ethos".

I can’t believe re-shaped 38^th Parallel is now The Ministry of Magic contributing to the wizard rock scene. I love ‘The Bravest Man I Ever Knew’. I get a buzz from these former youth group members (TLC! woot!). The great British accent by Mark Jennings gave me a flashback to his high school All-State Improvisation performance!

For Laughs

Other people post some funny stuff on their blogs.

• Mark Arant posted Tim Hawkins.
• Ben Witherington posted a really bad Wyoming preacher.
• And one of my favorites, The Man Song.