On Our Way To Crazy

AWESOME THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY

1. We didn’t get swept by the Nuggets.

2. I remembered both my reusable shopping bags and my coupons when I went grocery shopping this afternoon.

3. Aaron grilled us some seriously delicious fajitas.

4. We ran more of our three-mile loop than we ever have before.

5. Remedy Drive is number one at radio! Number one! I feel just like Faye and the boys dancing around Patterson’s.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thanks for doing awesome things like matching my belt to my shirt to my ribbon. And matching your shirt to the curtains.

You are the best. I hope my kids are half as proud to be mine as I am to be yours.

I love fluffy movies. If a movie is set in high school, or involves some kind of dance contest, or, well, Ethan Embry, it is pretty much automatically on my top ten list. Action? Intrigue? Deep political impact and social commentary? No. I need a good party scene.

So when I saw the trailer for Post Grad, I knew it was meant for me. Yes, it looks fluffy, and yes, it involves a girl trying to make it in the big city. Check and check.

But! It gets even more awesome. The actors in this movie have real names. I don’t care what they are. Because this movie? Stars Rory Gilmore and Matt Saracen. Rory and Matt! It is perfect.

I don’t know if their characters in the movie are meant to be together. But their TV characters would be a great couple.

This got me thinking. What fictional characters from my favorite TV shows would make good couples? I present you with my favorites.

1. Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) + Matt Saracen (Friday Night Lights)

This is a match made in heaven, y’all. Rory is smart, bookish, a little shy, thoughtful. Matt is smart, artsy, polite, funny, and lives with and takes care of his sick grandmother. They could ride around together in the back of Landry’s car and talk about their plans to see the world. Perfection.

2. Dylan McKay (Beverly Hills, 90210) + Blair Waldorf (Gossip Girl)

I always hated how Dylan got a free pass in the whole Dylan/Brenda/Kelly love triangle when he was obviously the instigator. Ms. Waldorf would not let him get away with that business. Plus, she would look great in his car.

3. Ted Moseby (How I Met Your Mother) + Izzie Stevens (Grey’s Anatomy)

I am torn on this one. I don’t really like Izzie very much. Well, until she got cancer. Is that awful? I don’t care. She has become so much better lately. To be honest, though, I don’t love Ted either. He’s kind of whiny and his friends are way funnier than he is. But. They are both super romantic and dream of the big house and the perfect wedding and the 2.5 kids. So let’s get them together. They can be an annoying couple and have annoying kids and we will all avoid them when we pass them on the street.

4. Kelly Kapoor (The Office) + Cappie (Greek)

I know you are probably not watching Greek on ABC Family. You are definitely missing out. Kelly and Cappie have the same thing going – kind of silly, lots of partying, a softer more serious side hiding underneath that shallow exterior. And Cappie could totally beat Jim at ping pong.

5. Tim Gunn (Project Runway) + Kenneth Parcell (30 Rock)

Alright. This one is a stretch. First of all Tim Gunn is not a character, he is a real person, and I believe he is the same in real life as he is on Project Runway and don’t try to tell me differently. And I don’t think Kenneth is gay. HOWEVER. How awesome a couple would they be? So awesome. So happy and smiley and well-dressed. And imagine the stir they would cause when Kenneth took Tim to his reunion at Kentucky Mountain Bible College.

Here’s the Post Grad trailer. Get pumped. Matt Saracen!

“Yes, worship includes the experience of raising our voices together in songs to God. And, yes, worship involves prayer. But a broader – more scriptural – view of worship is about serving the poor, righting injustice, caring for those in need. When teenagers – whether they’re already followers of Jesus or not – experience this kind of worship in action, they have the enormous opportunity to have a tangible experience of God in their lives. This often leads to faith (or more faith). More importantly, it leads to sustainable faith. …for today’s teenagers, experience is what they trust. And, if we’re really honest, this is how we all live.”

I don’t write a lot on this site about youth ministry philosophy. For one, I think it would bore most of you. But mostly it’s because I am still very much figuring things out. I took the job at the church with zero experience. Sure, I had volunteered for a long time and headed up a project every now and then. Then one day two years ago (!) I jumped headfirst into being in charge without a fat clue what I was doing.

Obviously, I have learned a lot in the past couple of years. I am confident planning services and writing lessons and doing events and counseling kids. I get thrown for a loop approximately a hundred times a day, but I feel like I have my feet under me a bit. One thing I have realized over the past several months is that you can’t just operate on a week-by-week basis. You have to be coming from somewhere deeper. You need a basic working philosophy that informs the things you teach, the events you plan, the leaders you involve.

So I have been working on mine. I’ve been working from a community- and relationship-based idea from the beginning, even when I didn’t really know I was doing it. We don’t preach at the kids. We are very discussion-oriented. I don’t want our kids to grow up in a world where church is where you’re on your best behavior and you get in trouble for breaking the rules. I want them to connect to a faith and to a God that loves them wherever they are, and to a community of peers and adults who do the same. I’m still working on what that looks like, but I think I’m starting to get it.

Mark Oestreicher is the president of Youth Specialties, an organization that I love love love. This book is a bit of a history of youth ministry, a bit of conversation, and a lot of philosophy. I don’t agree with the whole thing. But I found a lot of passages that really put into words what we’re trying to do in our group. And that is really encouraging.

“Kids are just dying to be acknowledged. They need somebody to connect with them on a personal level. They need leaders who’ll take the time to listen and affirm that they’re okay, and they’re loved – no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what they’re dealing with. If that connection isn’t made, it’s highly unlikely that youth will allow leaders to take them on something so sacred as a spiritual journey.”

Apr 1 – The youth group moved 100 million bricks and then ate cookies. Good night.
Apr 2 – I spent all day making sound panels with two of my new favorite people.
Apr 3 – I was taught how and then successfully used both a t-square and some other tool that I can’t remember but trust me when I say it is very scary.
Apr 4 – Lots of strawberry cake.
Apr 5 – We moved into our new building and baptized 17 people. 17! It was a crazy awesome day.
Apr 6 – I slept. A lot. And also watched a whole ton of 90210.
Apr 7 – One of my calls for specific donations for the kids actually panned out! Crazy.
Apr 8 – My first and probably only ever Wednesday night off from youth. It was nice to have a break.
Apr 9 – I found out that NY&Co is selling THE DRESS in a long version. Then I bought my first one.
Apr 10 – I started planning our Manes family hoopla for Aaron’s dad’s birthday.
Apr 11 – Mmmm… sleeping in.
Apr 12 – Aaron and I continued our Easter lunch tradition at the local pizza place. It was fabulous.
Apr 13 – Great meeting with my youth staff. They are awesome.
Apr 14 – I spent some time reading on a blanket outside.
Apr 15 – Super fun youth group cookout with some new leaders. (Finally!)
Apr 16 – Saw one of our kids in a hilarious production of Once Upon A Mattress.
Apr 17 – We drove up to Clarksville to see the band play and hang out.
Apr 18 – I took a couple of the band wives on a tour of homes in Nashville. It was really fun until it made me want to completely overhaul every room in my house.
Apr 19 – First youth service on the new property! It POURED down rain the whole time, but overall it went well. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Apr 20 – The second annual showcase put on by my awesome husband went extremely well. As usual.
Apr 21 – We saw Hands On a Hardbody! In the theater! Get out of town!
Apr 22 – I discovered one of the most fun youth games of all time.
Apr 23 – We got super dressed up and went to the Grand Ole Opry with the band and their wives and did not win any awards but did put on a pretty freaking great performance.
Apr 24 – I got my life back, a bit.
Apr 25 – Another tour of homes, this one in our actual neighborhood. Now instead of wanting to overhaul my house I just want to move into a different one down the street.
Apr 26 – The beautiful weather allowed us to have youth outside in the backyard, which was great.
Apr 27 – Made contact with some new parents and got good feedback.
Apr 28 – Sushi for lunch!
Apr 29 – The junior high kids worked with our children’s ministry on a service project that turned out really well and way more fun than I anticipated.
Apr 30 – I started my campaign to convince Aaron to take me to the Austin City Limits Music Festival for our vacation this year.