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.