Taking a break

As you may have noiticed I am taking a break from the blog to realign the blogs purpose and direction. Will start back up in the new year. Thanks, keep praying God continues to move in my family, my ministry, and in my own life.

Leadership 101; a new era has begun!

A couple of weeks ago we embarked on a new program at FOkids that I am really excited about. It's simply called Leadership 101. The thought behind it was that I saw a trend with 5th graders. 1) I noticed that too many 5th graders were checking out of FOkids around the middle of their 5th grade year, that's a problem. 2) 5th graders have the most influence they have ever had and they have no clue what to do with it. Thus came Leadership 101: which is us simply teaching the basics of what it means to be a leader. All leadership teachings and principals come directly from the main man himself Jesus, the greatest leader to ever live. The format: we'll have 4-5 off site field trips for 5th graders only for us to have fun, connect with each other in unique settings, teach team building/leadership exercises, and end with a creative environmental leadership teaching from scripture. For example for our inaugural trip we went to a place called "Rebounderz". Rebounderz is an indoor trampoline warehouse. Their are trampolines on the floors and walls. Kids loved it. After that we did a variety of leadership exercises then I taught from Exodus 2:17, which says this, "So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls from the shepherds.” So right after jumping like monkeys for an hour we talked about how we need to be like Moses and jump up and rescues people. People all around us need to be rescued from loneliness, gossip, hate, etc. We taught the kids instead of being a coward, "Jump up and rescue people." Jump up and invite the lonely kid to sit with you. Jump up and defend your friend that people are gossiping about. Jump up and love someone needs to be love. At the end of the day the kids had a blast, connected with each other, and for most of them were taught leadership skills for the first time of their life. Great stuff and we couldn't have done it without the great leadership team that helped pull this off. Thanks Kevin Wendling, Stacey Simmons, and Suzi Barr. You guys ROCK!

Phenom Book!!!

I'm going to go on and say it, "the best book outside the Bible that has helped me grow in my faith is this book called 'Devotional Classics' by Richard Foster. Richard is the author of another great book called 'Celebration of Discipline'. The book isn't written by Foster but it is written by some of the greatest men and women of our faith all throughout history. By Christian greats such as C.S. Lewis, Dallas Willard, St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Martin Luther, Thomas a Kempis, John Wesley, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fancis of Assisi, and Soren Kierkegaard are just some of the authors. Richard takes a similar theme to his 'Celebration of Discipline' book by making this piece all about a variety of disciplines that helps us all draw closer to Christ and reflect Him more accurately. I must worn you though that in the introduction it does accurately say that this book and principals are not for everyone. They are by our 21st century standards foreign, difficult, and maybe even weird. However if you can hang with it this book has the power through Christ to continue to transform you more into His image.

Beach Baptism from 10/11

Several times a year we head over to the beach for Beach Baptisms. A couple of Sunday's ago we did this for the last time of the year. It was great. Check out the video. Dustin. FO peeps, you Rock! Let's keep advancing His Kingdom for His glory!

2009 Beach Baptism from Fellowship Orlando on Vimeo.

Riley's Big Adventure:

Ever since Riley was 2 years old he loved race cars and just wanted to be a race car driver. He never got the chance to drive anything beyond a typical go cart, until today. A friend told us how a local race track was having a special day for young kids to test out real "1/4 midget" race cars. This was a dream come true for Riley, he loved it. Enjoy and feel free to laugh out loud, Riley is ok and loving it!

Longer behind the scenes version



Shorter, to the point version.

Riley's Big Adventure from Dustin Aagaard on Vimeo.

Callie Joy's Joy Ride

Callie Joy went right after Riley. Due to her inability to steer the race car correctly they improvised. They pick up the car put it on a 4 wheel dolley and had 3 teenagers push her around the track. Best part is she swears she was driving all by herself. She had no clue about the kids or about the fact that she 4 inches off the ground. Enjoy!

"The people God hates" via CNN.COM

This was on the front page of CNN.COM This is frustrating in so many ways. No wonder many people view God in a bad light. No wonder so many people are spiritually confused. Ugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Disney Institute: Day 4, Quality Service

Today I spent the first half of the day playing golf for the FCA fundraiser golf tournament. FCA has played a huge role in my life and making me the Christian leader I am today. You can find out more or support them at http://centralfloridafca.org/ I mention this because it meant I missed a good portion of the Disney Institute. But I'll give you what I got and what notes I was able to gather.

Today's topic was on "Quality Service". Quality: high degree of excellence. Service: meeting needs. Disney's definition of Quality Service is to 1) "Exceed our guest expectations". 2) "Pay attention to all the details."

Hollywood Studios: today we spent an hour at Disney's Hollywood Studios to observe the following: safety, courtesy, show, efficiency, process, cast, sets. The amazing part about Disney isn't that are so good but it's that even when you examine them they still are nearly flawless. I was reminded of the HUGE value of simply slowing down and examining your own footsteps to see where you are at and where you are heading so you can determine which way you may need to turn.

Great Quote: "You don't build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them." Walt Disney

Infrastructure: The greatest thing I heard all day was regarding a grid Disney uses to evaluate their current reality and to determine what should happening next. It's difficult to explain the grid but the premise is while thinking of your organization think of these three questions. 1) What in your organization are the non-negotiables. 2) What in your organization are obvious things you should be doing, things your clients expect you to do. 3) Lastly name the things that if you did they would be considered going above and beyond. I spent some time thinking about what these questions would mean within FOkids and I realized they truly are brilliant. They help you focus on the proper things at the proper time.

Disney Institute: Day 3, People Management

Today was another great day!

Create your Culture: "Don't let your culture just exist, craft it by design to what you want." Four components of a successful culture: 1) By design. 2) Well-defined. 3) Clear to all. 4) Goal-oriented. They walked us through the new hire orientation process which sets the tone in creating and crafting the culture they have. During the orientation they creatively and passionately share their heritage, traditions, standards, and values. This seems to be where they fully ingrain the new staff member into the Disney way. They don't rush this process and understand the value of building a strong foundation for each employee. This reminded me of the impact of a great new hire/volunteer process can have. Something I look forward to working on in the future. One other thought was they listed 5-8 things they specifically and physically do to discourage potential employees. They want to make it difficult to go through their application process. They want you to want to be there. They believe if they make the hiring process easy then they are more likely to hire, train, and empower more of the wrong type of employee's. They only want to spend their time, money, and energy on people who have a real future and potential in the organization.

Great Exercise: Split into two groups and were told to, "as a team name as many Disney animated characters as we could in 60 seconds". We all jumped in and had fun with it. The winning team had 43 characters and our team had 35ish. Then they asked the question how many characters would we have come up with if we did the exercise alone. Clearly everyone knew there was no way we'd name nearly as much. The point: TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More.

Earn Your Ears: After you are hired they "make you earn your ears" which means they take their time in training the employees until they are for sure ready. The trainee wears a special badge that describes they are in training and to please be patient. Thought this same idea would be beneficial in the church culture.

Cool Thought: Disney celebrates lateral moves just as much as they do promotions. Thought this was a huge conviction for most churches and most communities. Do we celebrate when our volunteers or staff go to different departments in the church? What if they went to a different church? If we are Kingdom minded shouldn't we celebrate that as well?

Pride: One of the exercises they led us in was to come up with the top 5 things we are proud of in our own organizations. Whatever those are we must bring those up in the new hire orientation process. This will give them a sense of pride as well to be part of such a team.

No Excuses: We went backstage to the Epcot's Cast Members (their employees) only area. This place was unreal!!! There goal is to remove all excuses for their employees to be "show ready" when they go on their shift. Check out what they have available at each employee center and there are lots of them. They have shoe shinning, a hair stylist, computer lab, place to cash check, mail things, get a notary, Driver License center, break areas, food venues, and you don't have to do your own laundry. You turn your dirty clothes in and get clean ones. They even have a "no excuses vending machine". Put your money in and you can get such items as deodorant, shaving cream, mints, and panty hose. There is NO reason their employees shouldn't be ready for action. It was pretty cool to see.

Walt Quote of the Day: "You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality." Walt Disney. Walt cared for people more than anything because he knew they were the ones who would make his dreams come true.

Diseny Institute: Day 2, Leadership Excellence

Today was another awesome day out at the Disney Institute. One quick note, one member of the class is from Germany and as we were talking he was amazed people can go to church here in the States for FREE! He said in Germany everyone pays taxes for church and the government pays for the churches to run. I was in shock, needless to say I invited my new German friend to our FREE church this weekend. Siegfried, if you are reading this-you are the man! Praying for God's grace and peace to keep you and guide you, blessings!

Stories & Values: Disney will tell you they are in the story making business. Everything they do they are making a story, including every "cast member" (their term for a Disney employee). They phrased it like this, "every leader is telling a story about what he or she values". Meaning don't tell me the mission statement or the business card with your vision on it. I see what you value by your actions. I see what you care about and what drives the organization by what the employees/volunteers do not what they say they do. What is it we say is important by our actions? Another great quote of theirs is, "we judge ourselves by our intentions. Others judge us by our actions." Think of Simba from the Lion King, what does he value in the movie? Whatever your response it was because you watched his story which you determined what you thought he valued. He never came out with a written statement on what he valued, he told you by a story. We are all writing stories.

Funny Trade: Hilarious story was told about Al Michaels being traded to Universal for a original Disney Rabbit. Full story @ http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/10/business/fi-rabbit10

Fun Fact: In the original Disney movie Fantasia, Walt Disney wanted movie theater employees to spray water bottles during certain scenes and incense during other scenes to enhance the story. Talk about ahead of his time. Of course the movie theaters told him, "there is no way".

#1: The CEO of Walt Disney said, "I'd like for the Walt Disney Company to be universally recognized as the most admired company in the world." This statement set the tone for the day and for the leadership at Disney. A reoccurring theme we heard all day was how much they focused on their cast members not their customers. The whole business model is go above and beyond for your teams and your teams will do the same for the customers. Disney employees love working there. As a matter of fact the average tenure in their laundry department (which is the biggest in the world) is 23 years. That my friends is vision. When people don't want to stop doing laundry because they love it that much you have a successful leadership model.

Vision: They talked a lot about vision and the importance of clarifying your vision and communicating it often, passionately, and creativity. A cool story about Walt Disney, when he cast vision for the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". They said Walt invited 40 employees out to his studio which only had one light bulb (they say to save $) bought everyone dinner and dessert then shared for three and a half hours the story of Snow White. One huge importance to notice was that Walt was willing to sacrifice (1 light bulb) so his employees were taken care of (as they ate a nice meal and dessert).

Make Time: Another theme I heard over the day was that Disney makes sure its employees have time to evaluate, reflect, take risk, do research/surveys, etc. to take their departments to the next level. Most business and ministries complain that there is no time to do all that, we need to tend to the clients/customers. Disney philosophy is you don't have time not to do it. In the church world I often see myself and others take way too much on without proper infrastructure in place to run with it. Thus I find myself with my head down focused on the day to day instead of the future and where we are going and how we are to get there. Make time to evaluate, to plan, to be creative, to celebrate victories, etc.

"The actions of one, multiplied by many, can change a culture."

Character of a leader: Was boiled down to 3 things. 1) Set the example for others to follow. (Christ didn't tell what to do, he gave us an example to follow; my interpretation.) 2) Create relationships for life, (I Thessalonians 1:18). 3) Spark excitement and enthusiasm in others.

Great exercise: Think about your role model, mentor, or someone who has had a positive influence in your life. What did they do to build you up? How did they teach you or care for you? What made them a credible leader? What values did they reflect? How did their influence your progress in life? Whatever your answers are those are same ideas, thoughts, and suggestions we should use to lead and influence those in our ministry/organizations.

If you have any thoughts or questions you'd like me to ask the instructors feel free to let me know and I'll post the answer.

Disney Institute: Day I, Creativity

All this week I have the awesome honor of being able to participate in the Disney Institute for Business Success. Someone provided a scholarship for me to attend this in hopes I'd be able to learn how to use the same principals to further His Kingdom (not Mickey's, God's). So many people have already asked that I share some of the main points or thoughts. So God willing I'll be blogging every night what I learned that day. Today's topic was on "Creativity". Tuesday is "Leadership Excellence". Wednesday is "People Management". Thursday is "Quality Service". Friday is "Brand Loyalty". Hopefully I'll explain my thoughts clearly but if you have questions on anything just let me know. Now there is no way I'd be able to share everything I learn so what I'll do each day is share what I thought was particularly useful.

1. Collaborative Culture: Disney is know for its consistency throughout all aspects of their entertainment. They explained that if they come out with a theme like "Pirates" then every department would come together and learn from one another on how to implement that theme throughout each department. So the "food and beverage" department has freedom and is expected to share thoughts to the "merchandise" department and this happens throughout each department including the "janitorial" department. My first thought was what if each ministry in churches collaborative together to openly support each other. Then I expanded that thought with the Kingdom in mind and thought, "what if churches collaborative together for His glory and didn't worry about their turf/crowds/etc." So the question was how can we help our organizations have a better "collaborative culture". My thought was you have to have at least one department set the trend. One department has to look after and serve another to bring everyone's insecurities down. For example last week Chad Harper our Student Pastor and Jack Thomas are Creative Arts guy both took most of their week and helped me transform one of my environments. It had nothing to do with their "department/ministry" yet they served me with their ideas, hands, and time. Them leading like that totally makes me want do the same back to them or other ministries. Also Disney nominates one person on staff to give a couple hours a week to head up this idea to bring "accountability" to ensure collaborating gets done.

2. Brainstorming Exercise: They did one exercise I thought was great. They had a problem; lets say it's "How can we make people feel welcomed at church". They then took a sheet a paper and posted 9 sticky notes on it. At the top they wrote the problem, "How can we make people feel welcomed at church." The directions were to get in a circle around a table. Pass the paper around and write one way to solve that problem per sticky note. Don't think about the details just dream about potential solutions. Try not to read the others, just post your thought and pass it on. Imagine 10 people in a group with 4 problems being tossed around in a circle. In a matter of minutes we had 50 plus potential solutions and were able to hear from 10 people; very effective.

3. Brainstorming, "Yes if or Yes and": Disney made it clear one of the main ways they come up with their "magic" was by a very strategic way of brainstorming. Some rules to their brainstorming are: 1) Bring diverse people to the table. Bring different departments, ages, etc. 2) When brainstorming do not analyze ideas yet. Accept all ideas at the beginning, analyze later. Disney's rule is "Yes if... or yes and..." Meaning if someone throws out an idea you can not say you like it or don't like it you must say "yes we can do that if..." or "yes we can do that and..." For example lets say to solve our previous welcoming problem example we wanted to hire Miley Cyrus to sing in the lobby every week to welcome people, someone would then say, "yes we can do that if we kidnapped Miley or had a billion dollars to pay her."

Hope this helps and again God willing I'll be sharing some thoughts every evening.

Jeremiah: Simply Obedient

Recently I've been reading and studying the prophet Jeremiah found in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 13 God is asking Jeremiah to do a series of events that don't make sense. 1) God tells Jeremiah to "Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it." Jeremiah's response, "So i bought the loincloth as the Lord directed me, and I put it on." 2) God tells Jeremiah, "Hide the loincloth in the Euphrates River in a hole in the rocks." Jeremiah's response, "So I went to the Euphrates River and hid it as the Lord directed." 3) God tells Jeremiah, "Go back to the Euphrates River and get the loincloth you hid there." Jeremiah's response, "So I went to the Euphrates River and dug up the loincloth."

What I am so impressed with is Jeremiah's obedience. God keeps giving him these crazy instructions and Jeremiah's response each time is, "So I...(obeyed God)." Man what faith and trust as he proves his faith through his obedience. Every time we read scripture the Holy Spirit speaks to us, calling us to do crazy things for His glory. The question for us both is, what's our response. I pray each of us have the same response that Jeremiah had, a simple yet radical faith that is full of obedience no matter what the instructions are.

My wife is Hiliarious!

Over the weekend my brother Derek and his wife Tiffany came to my sons soccer game on his scotter, Frank the Tank. After the game with hundreds of people pulling in and pulling out my wife decides she wants to take Frank for a little spin. She didn't bother to ask my brother one question before zooming off. And becuase of that she made my week and reminded me why I love her so much! Check out my smooth wife, very funny! Once she starts going turn the volume up a bit to get the full effect.

Pretty funny huh? It's ok to laugh no one got hurt, she laughed, and Derek got Frank running again after a while. TJ thank you for a great laugh, you ROCK! Keep em coming. Be sure to leave a comment for TJ, she'd love to hear from you regarding her latest adventure.

The best CD I've ever heard!

This is Peter Lebhar, a sophomore at Florida State University. I've known Peter for the past 6 years or so. I remember meeting Peter when he was in 8th or 9th grade and I remember being able to tell immediately that there was something really special about him, it was his very mature and sincere passion to follow after Jesus Christ. Peter, myself, and another solid student named Wes Winfree decided to meet on a weekly basis before school to simply explore what it meant to follow Christ. While at Church of the Redeemer in Jax, FLA the two of them stepped up into leadership like I've never seen before. They both led programs, led musically, led their peers, led events, led their own faith so its no doubt that now Peter has his own CD. I've said its the best CD I've ever heard because I know the story behind it all, I know the man of God that Peter is, and most importantly I know that Peter is not a musician but a follower of Christ that happens to like music. To say I am proud of Peter is a huge understatement. I'm not surprised but I am proud. As a matter of fact I look forward to hearing more stories of what God will do through his life and ministry. Peter, may God continue to bless you, draw you closer to Him like never before, and use you to build His Kingdom. Thanks for blessing us with the tunes brother. You can check out Peter's stuff on iTunes soon or right now @

http://www.myspace.com/peterlebhar

Matt Chandler on Personal walk with Jesus

Matt is an amazing Pastor in Texas. Check him out at http://www.thevillagechurch.net/

Rosa Loves, Brilliant!!!

I absolutely love it when I hear of some old friends doing BIG things for the Kingdom of God. When my wife and I were at Flagler College (which rox) we meet some great christian people that blessed us so much. Little did I know so many of them would do such big things for the glory of God. Today I want to spotlight one of those ministries. Rosa Loves is unlike any ministries I've ever heard of. The idea is simple. They are a T-shirt ministry that once they see a need they design a shirt based around that need. They then sell the shirt for X amount of dollars until that they reach that needs financial goal. For example the ministry met a family whose home just burned down, so they designed a shirt for that particular situation and sold it to raise a certain amount to help with the rebuilding. Rosa Loves is lead by godly men and woman trying to reach this globe for His glory. Thanks Mike, Mary Joy, Chris, and Kelly for all you do to build His Kingdom. May God bless you guys as you continue to bless others. Check them out at

http://rosaloves.com/

Great Weekend

This past weekend was a great weekend in so many ways. Here's my Top Five reasons why this weekend rocked (in random order).

1. The service times seemed to be a huge success. I met lots of new people that were excited to connect with God.
2. We launched Elevate Jr. for the preschool ministry. The kids & families loved it. The next months are all about Spy Chase. Thanks Elevate Jr. team for the great resource.
3. We launched Hillsong's BIG for our Elementary aged kids. Again families & kids loved it but the leaders seemed to love it the most as it made ministry simple for them. Thanks Hillsong Team for all your hard work, vision, and sacrifice to reach kids all around the globe.
4. Fellowship Orlando adult service kicked off a new series called "reThink Life". The idea & passion behind the series challenges us to reThink & reprioritize how we live day to day. How we make decisions. How spend our time. How we relate to people, etc. Are senior pastor, Rodney, did a great job. The message was powerful! I'm thankful for Rodney as well as our entire staff @ FO. I feel blessed and humbled to work with them all.
5. Our leadership teams rocked it. I was very impressed with the heart and mentally the FOkids leadership showed to step it up once again. Thanks teams! I've been planning, preparing, and equipping are leaders to run the ministry without me for about a year now. This weekend was officially the first weekend they took the ball and ran with it. As a matter of fact they didn't even need me. They could do it all with their eyes closed. Yesterday was a year long dream come true. Thanks leadership, well done!

Some Birthday Pics too

Riley's Birthday

Today my RAD son Riley turned 6. For his birthday he has been wanting to go to Van's Skate Park (you can't go until you are at least 6 years old). So we all went and had a blast. I was excited to skate with him too. Neither one of us knew what to expect but we were excited. Once we got there I got nervous that Riley may get discouraged because the ramps were so big and fast. I told Riley his goal should be by the end of the day to go down a 2 foot ramp by himself without falling. Well he did it on his second attempt, WOW! I wasn't ready for Riley to be so good. He ended up going on 15 different ramps with the tallest being an 8 foot ramp. We had so much fun and it was a great birthday for him. The video is only of the smaller ramps from the beginning, not the bigger ones he'd later take on.

Changes

For the past several months the pastoral team here at Fellowship Orlando which consist of Chad Harper, Rodney Gage, and myself have been praying and working through some things that keep us up at night. The 3 issues are simple. 1) We believe we have too many unchurched people in community that are not being reach. 2) The back door of our church is way too big. Too many people are falling through the cracks due to lack of relational connectedness. 3) As a church whole our people are not experiencing spiritually community as described in the Bible. So what do we do? Well here is our solution we believe God is leading us toward.

1) As of September 13th we will be moving our Saturday night service at 6 pm to Sunday night at 6 pm. In many areas around the nation a Saturday night service works but for our community we believe it's been a barrier not a blessing for people. We are excited to reach people on a Sunday night who may not be able to go to church if it were not for that time slot.

2) We believe the solution to closing the back door and bringing more biblical community is summed up in small groups. We are moving in a new direction for our small groups. Many of our ideas were inspired by Sticky Church written by Larry Osborne . Things we are changing in our small group environments.

• They will be 100% relational: We are encouraging our people to do a small group with people they are already doing life with, people they love, and would look forward to hanging out with.
• They will be message based: This is such a good example of how we (myself very included) as American Christians miss out on God. Instead of stuffing our faces again with more scripture, bible stories, and messages the small groups will be based on the sermon notes we heard the previous weekend. Our goal is hear to raise families to be doers of the Word not just hearers. We believe our community doesn't need another bible study as much as it needs a group of people to wrestle with the current realities God is already trying to teach them. This gets me so excited. Can you imagine 5,10, 50, 100, or 1000 small groups meeting not to learn about Gods Word but to apply it. If any Church does this half way well they can easily be the most inspiring church on the planet.
• They will meet 3 times a year for 10 weeks at a time: When looking at the calendar we see 3 natural season that are good for small group ministry. The fall, the winter, and the spring. Now obviously if the group is doing it right then their time together will carry over after their 10 weeks is up. For example if you end a fall 10 week session at the end of November then I'm sure due to the relational connection that the families would have Christmas parties together or serve the homeless together or shop together, simply live life together.

Well I hate reading long blog post and yet I just created one, so I'll be done. Bottom line on all this is that God is doing some great things in our community and we just want to roll out any barriers that might slow down the momentum of His Spirit moving.

Francis Chan's new book

Ahhhh yeahhhh!!! Francis Chan's new book is out. Check out this video as Francis gives us a glimpse of the book. Can't wait to read it!

Weekend Recap

This weekend in the AZ Theater (1st - 5th grade environment) we continued our mini series Back 2 School. The topic was "Avoiding Temptation" as we explored Luke 4:1-13. We gave the kids an acronym to remember what to do when facing temptation. The goal is to RUN from temptation.

Remember What Would Jesus Do!
Understand what the Bible says!
Never stop asking God for help!

Family Exercise: Find a good time this week to ask your child what tough temptations they face and how they are handling those temptations. Warning: if your child opens up this is not the time to be judgmental, but the time to lovingly help them overcome their temptation.

Need Prayer?

Something I've been trying to do for a little while now is praying every Monday. Fresh off the weekend services where I talk with so many hurting kids and families I've decided to have an extended time of prayer every Monday for whoever wants it. I'll be praying for the various issues I am aware of. However if you have something you'd like me to be in prayer for you can email me @ dustin@fellowshiporlando.com All prayer request will of course be confidential and prayed for weekly. In Acts 3 Peter & John are asked by a beggar for some money. This is their response, "Look at us. I don't have any silver and gold for you. But I'll give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!" I feel like I can relate to this story. I don't have this or that but what I do have I will give you. I have a divine connection (we all do) with the ruler of the Universe. So that is what I offer. Big or small, messy or clean, whatever your burden I am here to pray for you. Blessings!

The 4 "R's" Day IV

The final “R” is the glue that holds the school year together. It’s the parent/child relationship. Parents can’t just put a plan in place; they must also be the child’s greatest encourager. Don’t just have a plan … be the child’s fan. Parental statements like, “I’m proud of you for getting your reading done before dinner,” will go along way toward motivating a child to win at school. When a child knows that his parents are proud of him it helps him make the right decisions in life with confidence. After all, what is the real purpose of school? It’s preparation for college and for the real world. It’s the process a child needs to go through to develop the discipline to excel as an adult. The school year is not something you get your child through; it’s a process parents use to train their child. Proverbs 22:6 instructs parents to, “Teach your child to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it.” Parents shouldn’t just try to motivate their children to do their best in school; parents should coach their children to do their best. The beginning of the school year is a time to:

The 4 "R's" Day III

The third “R” for a winnign school year is responsibility. Winning coaches tell the players the plan, teach the players the plan and then they hold the players responsible to follow through with the plan. Every student experiences some big challenges throughout the school year ... things such as science projects and book reports should not be last minute disasters that cause both the student and the parents to scramble to accomplish. Coaches can’t run out on the field to help a player do something he isn’t prepared to do. Parents need to anticipate the book reports, know when they’re due, put them on the calendar and then help the child work out a weekly reading schedule to get it done. Hold your child responsible to sit down for those predetermined thirty minutes, two evenings a week, to get the book read. Teaching responsibility will assist in preparing your child for college.

The 4 "R's" Day II

The second “R” for a winning school year is routine. Determine a school day routine for each child. In the NFL, the players don’t vote on their daily routines and workouts. The coaches pick them and post them. Setting a routine and sticking with it saves countless parent/child arguments, when (and only when) the child believes that you are committed to it. Knowing there’s a specific bed time on school nights and a routine to follow on school mornings will eventually help the child spend his energies on accomplishments rather than arguments.

The 4 "R's" to a winning school year.

This week's blog posts are from the ministry and insights from http://www.sheridanhouse.org/ and from my father in law who pointed me toward this great article, thanks.

"Parents could learn a lot from professional football coaches. Right now before the season begins, coaches aren’t just thinking about getting through it. They’re already busy working to help every player bring his “A” game to opening day. This coaching principle of preparation should also be true for parents. Opening day of the school year is upon us. This is the time parents must show up with their plan for a successful year. Coaches don’t wait for the first game to hold their first strategy meeting. Long before the games begin, coaches get together to develop a plan of action. They start by analyzing the individual players’ weaknesses and strengths. Once the plan has been established they inform the players. The players might not like the restrictions of the plan, but that doesn’t matter. The coaches don’t hold a vote to see if all the players are in favor. The purpose of a coach is not to be liked, but to help the players reach their full potential. As the school season approaches, it is the perfect time for parents to focus on the four “R’s” of a successful school year.

The first “R” for success is to be reasonable. Start by deciding to have reasonable expectations about what can be and needs to be on your family calendar this season. Your children can’t do it all … and they shouldn’t have to try. Make the family calendar your playbook. Set your top family priorities (such as family time, academics, worship, etc.) and make everything else work around it. This is the time to determine the family non-negotiable and negotiable activities. Decide which extra-curricular activities you will do and which you will say “No” to. Parents should ask themselves, “What’s the priority? What does our child need most to become a healthy, fully functioning adult in the future?” Now is the time for parents to decide to help their child become a healthy human being rather than a frazzled “human doing.”

Hiliarious!!!

How does this happen? Earlier in the week TJ went to brush her teeth in the morning when she discovered a huge FROG was just chillin in our toothbrush cup holder. TJ freaked out of course not expecting to see a frog. I wasn't home so she took the frog outside and thought that would be the end of it all. Well about several hours ago Callie Joy (my 4 yr old daughter) woke up to go to the bathroom and she completely freaked out and starting crying hysterically. As I rushed in to see what was the matter I see Callie Joy pointing at the sink. Sure enough there was another frog. After calming her down she explained that as she went to "potty" the frog just jumped out at her from inside the toilet. It was so hard to comfort my daughter without cracking up. How do two frogs invade two different bathrooms in two different days? I'm 100% clueless. I guess they are coming in from the toilets, is that even possible. All I know is if I don't find a solution quick TJ is going to check in at the local resort. If anyone has a clue let us know. Seriously let me know, thanks!

Interview with Francis Chan on book Crazy Love

One of the best books I've read by one the greatest pastors I respect. Good stuff!

Sharing my heart with my community

Classic Vacations Part 2 from Fellowship Orlando on Vimeo.

Resently Pastor Rodney was asked to speak at Fellowship Church ( http://www.fellowshipchurch.com/index.php ) in place of Ed Young, (I'll be posting his message later this week). While he was out I was aksed to share my heart during our 3 weekend worship services. For those that asked or care here is a video of the message or you can follow this link to the audio version via our podcast. http://fellowshiporlando.com//sermons.asp Thanks for your prayers. Praying we continue to give up everything to the one who already gave up everything.

Louie Giglio on song "God of this City" formed in a brothel.

Above: Louie Giglio @ http://www.268generation.com talks about how the song "God of this City" was written in a Brothel in Thailand.
Below: Listen to Chris Tomlin cover the song "God of this City".

Backyard Missions?

I'm in the process of praying through some ideas for FOkids to serve our community this fall in a BIG way. I'm looking to set up opportunities for our kids and families to simply love and serve our community. I'd love to hear some of your ideas. Either ideas you've done, heard of, or ideas you thought would be cool to try. Obviously different communities have different needs but I'd still like to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Camp Bahamas: Pray 4 ballers

Early in the Summer I got to go with our High School ministry to the Bahamas for a mission trip. Over the week I was able to meet some really awesome people as well as some serious ballers. At the end of the basketball tournament I was able to present the gospel. The men in the picture above are the ones who made the decision to begin a relationship with Jesus. I ask that you pray for them. That God would bless them each with a love and passion for Him and His Word. Also some of them may read this blog so if you'd like to encourage them you can by leaving a comment on this post. Boys, I'm proud of you. I think of you often and will continue to pray for you. I pray God improves your basketball skills so I don't have to dominate you all again next summer :), just kidding you guys were killing it! Live for Him, Love each other, and don't get dunked on!

Research Results...

So after much research I have concluded some pretty amazing facts regarding one Funny Man Dan.
Fact #1: FMD is in fact very Funny.
Fact #2: FMD is a male, making him a Man.
Fact #3: FMD is, after viewing his birth certificate with my own eys I have confirmed that his real name is actually "Dan." (I lied, I actually have never seen his birth certificate)

In light of confirming these 3 facts I too shall buy in and subscribe to The Thursday Blog http://thethursdayblog.com/ as well as add it to my blogroll.

FMD, if America could ask you to do 3 things it would be the following: 1) to always stay Funny, 2) To always be a Man, and 3) never go by another name other than Dan.

My Pregame Jam

This has been my pregame jam before every service for the past 6 months. I can't get enough of this song, it pumps me to go and to do whatever God calls me to do. Be sure to wait for the song after about a minute and a half muscical introduction. Thanks Hillsong United for another Home Run!

Dust it off!

March 30th I began this Bible study by Beth Moore. It is 90 days with David, having a heart like His. It was supposed to be a 90 day Bible study and here I am on July 31st and just finished day 31. WOW! A little behind. Somehow I misplaced it and didn't even think about it until I found it a couple days ago. Maybe it's time you find that book, bible study, or Bible dust it off and get back into it as well. I promise you wont regret it. When we stop growing we stop leading.

Life after LegoLand Series

Since LegoLand finished we have been doing a series called Life after LegoLand. I am very excited about it because it is all about the foundations of the Christian faith. We are using a devotion book (see below) by LifeWay as our guide which we have encouraged everyone to buy for $7. The 4 week series covers Salvation, Baptism, Lord's Supper, and the role of the Church. I highly recommend this book. I'll post more on it another time but it's great.

My thoughts summed up in a song.

This past month has been such a great month it has left me literally speechless when trying to talk about it. This video is basically the sum of everything I'd like to say. The David Crowder Band is one of my favorite worship bands and as always he leads you to the feet of Jesus. If you are unfamiliar with the David Crowder Band check them out and buy all their cd's.

LEGOLAND Recap Part II

Back from a mini vacation and feeling refreshed and revived, ready to rock n roll. You can check out the LEGOLAND pictures just above this post. It's so hard to put into words what took place last week. It was an event that felt more like a mission trip. The way the body of Christ worked seemed like it was straight from Acts 2. People were worshipping, serving, giving (of their time, energy, and money), sharing, caring, teaching, encouraging, and then we got to see God move into the hearts of 70 kids for the first time in their lives. That Rox!!! Here are some LegoLand fun and random facts for you:

• We used about 1,000,000 legos.
• We had an 8,000 sheet paper fight.
• We smashed over 20 pies in peoples faces.
• We watched 8 leaders eat peanut butter off of plexi glass.
• We had inflatable water slide that was bigger than our 28 foot building.
• We served over 660 kids.
• We saw close to 230 volunteers serve throughout the week. Thank you so much volunteers for all your hard work and servanthood, you all ROCK!
• We witnessed 70 first time decisions.
• We think over 600 learned the verse of the week which is John 15:13 "The greatest love a person can show is to lay down his life for his friends."
• We passed out thousands of "Keep On Brickin" encouragement stickers. When a child did something good/positive a leader would give them a "Keep On Brickin" sticker and send a note home to the parents telling them what their child had done.
• We met 100's of new kids.
• We saw over 30 new families come to our church during last Saturday night's service alone.

Now in ministry a lot of people get weird when talking about numbers (big or small) and I sort of get that but as long as each number has a face and soul I will always be about numbers because Jesus is about numbers. That's why in Luke 15 He went after the 1 lost sheep. Here are a couple true stories about some #'s. We'll call this one #248: his mom just left him 2 weeks ago for good and a friend invited him to LegoLand and one thing led to another and this 5th grader gave his life to Jesus. Story # 412 During the school year kid A makes fun of kid B for reading the bible and believing in God. Long story short kid A came to LegoLand and gave his life to Jesus and now of course believes in God. There are so many stories of God just showing up and doing miracles in the lives of these kids. I am in AWE of all God has done, is doing, and will continue to do in this community. If you have a story from last week please share by commenting on this post or emailing me @ dustin@fellowshiporlando.com We'd really like to hear what God did for your child, you as a parent, or you as a volunteer. Thank you Lord for a week we can only describe as "God showed up".

Life after LegoLand

LegoLand is officially over and we had a great weekend with all three services. Next week we start a new series called, "Life after LegoLand". For the next 3 days I'll be spending time with my family. Later on in the week after all the LegoLand dust settles I will have lots of pics, videos, and stories of all God has done at LegoLand. Parents thank you for trusting us with your child. Volunteers, simply you rocked it this week, well done! Also if you have a story of something cool that took place last week just comment back from this post. Thanks

LEGOLAND: Final Day

It's crazy how fast the week went by. Today was the last day of LEGOLAND and it was another great day. It's too late for me to give a full report of all that went down today so here is a small glimpse I'll call "part 1". I'll complete "part 2" tomorrow.


This is me "surprising" Pastor Chad by coming out of the big barrel throwing paper balls at him.

The Chick Fil A Cow joined us today during the morning session. He greeted kids at the door then danced with us. They hooked every kid up with a free kids meal, gotta love that.

We've had a lot of people ask about the songs we've picked out for LEGOLAND. Here is who they are:
Brother, Sister, Friend: This is an unrecorded song; meaning you can't buy it.
Happy Day: Steve Fee
Follow You: Hillsong Kids
Take it All: Hillsong Kids
There is no one like You: David Crowder Band
Again I'll go into more detail tomorrow but today we saw 70 kids give their lives to Christ for the first time. Wow, that is awesome. Praise God!!!
More to come tomorrow, goodnight/good morning.

LEGOLAND Live Online Tonight

LEGOLAND will be online Live! tonight @ 6 pm. Here is the schedule:
1) Opening Rally: From 6:00-6:45. This is crazy squad war games, funny videos, worship songs, and lots of high energy stuff centered around a brief message.
2) Stations: From 6:45 - 8:15 kids rotate from 4 different stations. They go from REC to Snack time to the Imagination Station (building Lego's) to a small group lesson time.
3) Closing Rally: 8:15-9:00. This very similar to the opening rally but with a slight more focus to rally the kids around a longer and heavier message.
You can watch both rallies but not the stations. The feed is live and is not recorded.
The link to watch live is http://live.fellowshiporlando.com/
Thanks and be praying as we present the gospel. This morning we had 51 kids give their lives to Christ. That's awesome!

LEGOLAND: Day 4

Today was a great day. As you can see from the picture below the Squad Wars game involved me getting pied a total of 14 times between both sessions. Of course the kids loved it and hey I'm a fan of pie (any way I can get it). The pie was made out of whip cream and it smelled so bad I had to go home and shower during the program. Kids seem to really be taking in the messages. I've had lots of conversations with kids regarding the talks. But the kid in the video takes the cake. On the way out tonight he shared with me the verse of the week so asked if he cared if I video taped him. The kid (Brandon) blew me away. The BIG IDEA of the day was "friends sacrifice for each other." I shared the purpose of why in baseball teams "sacrifice bunt". They do it to give up their at bat in hopes of allowing one of their teamates to get a score on the play. I shared that that is what Christ wants us to do. He wants us step into the batters box and take one for the team in hopes of blessing others.

4 Year Olds and the Bible? from Dustin Aagaard on Vimeo.

LEGOLAND Live

Tonight @ 6 pm you will be able to watch live what takes place at LEGOLAND. The night is broken up into three sections:

1) Opening Rally: From 6:00-6:45. This is crazy squad war games, funny videos, worship songs, and lots of high energy stuff centered around a brief message.

2) Stations: From 6:45 - 8:15 kids rotate from 4 different stations. They go from REC to Snack time to the Imagination Station (building Lego's) to a small group lesson time.

3) Closing Rally: 8:15-9:00. This very similar to the opening rally but with a slight more focus to rally the kids around a longer and heavier message.

You can watch both rallies but not the stations. The feed is live and is not recorded.

The link to watch live is http://live.fellowshiporlando.com/

We'll probably be able to have a live feed tomorrow @ 9 am and tomorrow @ 6 pm. Thanks

Dustin

LEGOLAND: Day 3

Day 3 of LEGOLAND was a great one. The BIG IDEA of the Day was "friends serve each other". I shared a story how I met my best friend when he brought me an apple pie shortly after moving to the neighborhood. That servant hood led to a 2o year long friendship. We learned that Jesus gave us an example how we are here not to be served but to serve others. We looked at John 13 where Jesus gave an example on how we are to serve. He brought the disciples together and washed their feet. Not caring how nasty or hard it was He did it. Once He was finished washing their feet He tells us all to follow His example of servant hood.



Here is the 30 foot water slide. It was huge. The kids loved it. However it did storm in the evening and we were unable to use it during the evening session. We will NOT be able to have a make up water day, sorry.


The game today was involved hot dogs. We chose some students to come on stage. Each team had two players. One player wore a necklace with a cup on it. While the other teammate took hot dogs and tossed them at their partner who tried to catch the hot dogs with their cups.


Teams Orange Crush and Green Machine during the worship time.


A view of the praise team leading worship.

The Green Machine during the worship songs.

The Red Rumble during the worship songs.

Allison leading us in worship. Allison leads the praise team and is doing a fabulous job. Allison, you rock!

Some kids enjoying life at the Snack Shack station.

LEGOLAND: Day 2

Day 2 of LEGOLAND is in the books. We had a great day. The volunteer teams are doing an amazing job, well done gang! The kids have been great, coming in each day with lots energy. Today's BIG IDEA of the day was "friends say kind things to each other". We had a student squeeze out toothpaste and then try and put it back in the tube. We talked how you can't do that just like you can't take back the words you let come out of your mouth. In REC we played human jenga. We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow, it's WATER DAY! Be sure not to bring a towel.

Here are some kids racing their Lego's race cars.


Here is a picture of our REC leader and some kids.

Some Blue Crew kids having fun.

What the facility looks like empty.

Parker showing some Red Rumble pride.

LEGOLAND: Day 1 PM Session

Well Day one is in the books. Tonight was another great session. The pm crowd and leaders were great. Today's BIG IDEA of the Day was "to treat others the way you want to be treated". We introduced the "Keep On Brickin" idea. The thought is every time you see someone building someone else up you tell them to keep on brickin and that person gets a note and a sticker. Let's all Keep On Brickin. Can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Blessings! Dustin


This is a picture of the two youngest people in the praise band. The one on the left is my daughter Callie Joy. They are doing great.


Here is Pastor Chad leading the crew.


Here are some kids and leaders hanging out racing their built Lego cars.

Some kids taking aim at the leaders during REC.

The leaders taking cover during REC.