LAST POST ON THIS BLOG!!!

Yep, you read the title of this post correctly: This is the last post on blogspot for me! Go ahead and check out my new blog which is ajrankin.org. A tool you can use that has helped me in my blog reading is Google Reader. It will help you organize the blogs you subscribe to and read regularly. Put ajrankin.org into your Google Reader subscription list and enjoy!

NEW BLOG COMING SOON!!

I am making a few last minute touches to the launch of my new blog and I will blog when the new site is ready. I also will update Twitter when I post my first blog on my new site. I'm getting excited!

New Year's...Implementations?

Here are some things I am going to begin implementing this New Year. I don't really like the word "resolutions", so I'm going to go with implementation.

- GET MARRIED! And have a great first 6+ months to mine and Allison's life together.
- Eat healthier. Drink more water (Eliminate Drinking Soda & Don't Drink So Much Sweet Tea).
- Exercise 4 times per week.
- Come to grips with the fact that I will be completely bald really soon, so the little bit of hair I have will be kept short forever.
- Read 48 books this year. I will be reviewing them throughout the year. (Of course, I will be reading the Bible as well; that's non-negotiable.)
- Use better capitalization and punctuation when blogging and twittering.
- Use as much of my gifts and potential to help Northwood Student Ministry go where God wants us to in 2009. I want to see students' and volunteers' lives changed! I love the opportunity God has given me and the people I get to do ministry with.

These are big implementations, so I am going to set goals in 21 day increments (Thank you Jeff Henderson) to monitor progress more efficiently.

Also, this blog will be coming to an end soon. I will be launching a new site and will let you know more about that in the next few days through this site and my Twitter. Thanks for reading and I will let you know the new Web Address very soon!

Happy New Year!

what makes a small group great?

i wanna hear it from you. if you've ever been in or led an effective small group, what made it so great? talk to me about it. talk to each other about it. leave a comment below and let the discussion begin.

what happens when you lose your voice?

if any of you were to talk to me right now it would sound like you were speaking with a 98-year-old man. i lost my voice yesterday after our first week of All I Want for Christmas at SHIFT, NSM Middle School Ministry. in some weird way, i think i lost my voice for a very specific reason.

this morning phillip and i went to pointe north community church to visit their student pastor and our friend, sean rheaume. he observed The Element last wednesday and had some great insights for us. i love when God uses others' observations to stretch us as leaders and pastors, even when the insights are things you didn't want to hear.

during our debriefing with sean this morning, i really could not even talk. just a few weeks ago i wrote about actively listening. well, this morning i forgot about my voice because i basically did not have one. instead of waiting for my turn to talk, i was truly, no i was actively listening. and boy did phillip and i need to hear it. thanks sean. love you bro.

as weird as this sounds i really want to say thanks to God for the loss (hopefully only temporary) of my voice. i do not want to sound like this forever. but i want to be someone who listens and learns from what they hear.

Proverbs 12:15 "Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others."

please pray for NSM for 2009 and for me personally to become a much better listener this upcoming year.

overflow of joy

II Corinthians 8:1-4

"We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints."

in the devotional i am reading it then asks: "how did the macedonians' joy relate to their giving?"

the title of the this week's chapter is true love: duty or delight? II Corinthians 8:1-4 is evidence that true love is delightful. the way in which we love God and one another is what i believe God tells us to monitor and take inventory of. this Christmas, start something that will change the rest of your life: turn up the intensity with in which you love, honor and respect our God. turn up the intensity with in which you love one another.

DO IT WITH DELIGHT. it will change things.

sundays are my favorite days

9:00 am - arrive at SHIFT to get ready for environments
9:40 am - leader meeting & prayer with our awesome 10:00 am Middle School group leaders
10:00 am - service begins with some really fun games which i had the privilege of hosting (decorate your leader & egg nog chug through a candy cane straw); worship; message; GROUPS!!
11:10 am - another leader meeting & prayer with our amazing 11:30 am Middle School group leaders
11:30 am - our second service begins and we get to worship God again (except this time my microphone doesn't work; the gameroom has a mind of its own as far as programming goes)
1:00 pm - we are packed up and headed to wild wing cafe to watch 7 nfl games at the same time (allison couldn't come today :( she was in a parade)
3:30 pm - write a blog post and watching games on tv and gamecast on my computer (holding onto a small lead against kevin harris in our fantasy football playoff game)
5:30 pm - arrive at THE AVENUE to get ready for service
6:00 pm - leader meeting & prayer with our super HS group leaders
6:30 pm - dinner at THE AVE, followed by worship, a message by phillip and GROUPS!!
9:30 pm - lock up the extension after hanging out with the band, leaders and students after THE AVENUE
11:00 pm - call allison to say goodnight, read for a bit and call it a day

p.s. i like mondays too