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This will be my last post from the Target Conference last weekend.

Reggie Joiner spoke in our 4th Session and informed us that prior to the meeting he had decided to change up what he was going to share with us.

He gave us 5 concepts that youth workers think about every week:

1. Student (names and faces)
2. Content (what will be shared/taught)
3. Production (creating environments to engage a generation)
4. Attendance/Growth
5. Age-Group Focus (segmenting church life by age)

He then suggested that we should shift to the following concepts:

1. Leader (invest in students and volunteer youth workers)
2. Experience (we need to bridge the gap between what we teach and what actually occurs in a student’s life)
3. Relationships (we won’t be able to out-produce culture)
4. Service (not “how many are attending?” but “how many are serving?”
5. Family Ministry Focus (don’t compete with family but compliment it)

I’m sure it’s not reflected here, but this was the best session of the Target Conference. I think these shifts are long overdue. We have a great task before us. I’ll be bringing these topics to our leaders meeting in a couple of weeks to discuss how we can make sure our focus is on the proper concepts.

In the meantime, give me your thoughts.

I’m so proud of Kent. He’s only a year and a half old and he’s learned to blow his nose. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll still let snot run down all over his face, but when I put a Kleenex up by his nose, he’ll go to town.

I can’t stand snotty noses.

I love Skittles. My favorite are the red ones. When I’m eating them, I have a tendency to push the red ones aside and save them for later. Once or twice I saved ALL of them for later.

mmmm……red skittles………

My devotions in the Chronological Bible have placed me in the book of Leviticus for the past several days. I’ve been wading through one law after another. It’s difficult at times because they seem to have little relevance to today.

Throughout these laws, however, is a statement that clarifies the real purpose of the instruction. At Leviticus 20:26 it is mentioned: “You must be holy because I, the Lord, am holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own.

Dictionary.com defines holy as “Specified or set apart for a religious purpose”.

I think we’re kind of like red Skittles in God’s eyes. With purpose and intention he places us to the side to fulfill a greater plan. We’re not used or taken advantage of, but we’re cherished, loved and respected. Being called holy is an honor and a privilege. It signifies that we are important to Him.

Dan Hunter from seven ministries spoke in the third session of the Target conference. As I look at my notes from that message, one of the main ideas he shared was the importance of working in teams. He gave three reasons for this:

1. Helps others discover and develop their gifts.
2. Ensures people get ministered to.
3. Prepares for the future and ensures success for tomorrow.

Other random quotes from him:

• “You can’t and shouldn’t do everything.”
• “Step out so others can step up.”
• “You have too much to do to NOT build teams.”

In the second session at the Target conference, we heard from Gabe Lyons one of the coauthors of the book, Unchristian. With the help of the Barna Group, they research the attitudes and opinions of late teen to early 30 years old about their perspectives and views of Christians.

Through that research they discovered the following perceptions:

• Anti-homosexual
• Judgmental
• Hypocritical
• Proselytizing
• Too Political
• Sheltered

Basically, he says that Christians have more than image problem; we have a substance problem. Something is wrong with the way we’ve been living out our faith.

Lyons explained that part of this is because of our understanding of the story.

For thousands of years, the story was understood as:

CREATION –> FALL –> REDEMPTION –> RESTORATION

Then in the last couple hundred years, we’ve adopted a half story (according to Dallas Willard, a “Divine Conspiracy”). The story has been minimized to:

FALL –> REDEMPTION

This half story misses out on seeing God’s restoration and recreation of the world as we live out our lives. It focuses on simply getting to heaven (and getting others there) instead of how we live out and restore creation.

He have the difficult task of changing the above perceptions into the following realities (which mirror the above list):

• Compassion
• Grace
• Authentic
• Relational
• (he skipped this one)
• Informed

Here’s a video about perceptions found in the book. You can visit their youtube page for great interviews and another promo video.