Author Brian Aaby

Festivus for the Rest of Us

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A classic Seinfeld episode

A classic Seinfeld episode

Here is a link to a very funny, yet sad, story about my fellow Washingtonians.

The show, Seinfeld, is one of my favorite TV series of all time.  In fact, “The Strike” is one of the best shows on that series.  It is the one in which we discover George Costanza and family celebrate Festivus.  Some other highlights from that show: The Human Fund, Kramer working at a bagel shop and Elaine trying to get her stamp card for a bad sub shop back.  Anyway, the gist of the article… in an attempt to be politically correct, the state gov’t of Washington is allowing Festivus to be displayed at the capitol as well.  Hilarious and sad at the same time.

Grace,
Brian

One Sentence Random Snip-its From My Life

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Thought I’d try something new and possibly fun with the blog today.  Since text messaging is the rave and seeing as how some of my posts (okay, almost all of the) the 162 characters allowed in text messages, I thought I’d update you on some things about my life with one sentence updates (and some visual enhancements).  Enjoy.

  • To save cash, I’ve been drinking only drip coffees with Sugar Free Hazelnut (instead of lattes and such).
  • Whenever our daughters do anything funny they ask, “Are you going to blog that?”
  • My fantasy basketball team is 7-5 for the season, tied for 5th place (out of 12).
  • This is my 158th post on this blog, I’ve had over 10,000 visits from folk like you.
  • I’m looking forward to a Lifeboat reunion this Sunday with my class of 2008 LB guys.
  • My current favorite at home beverage is Cherry Coke Zero
  • A few new things entering the Youthmark radar screen have me prayerful/expectant/excited.
  • I think that Facebook is ultimately going to be a great personal evangelism conduit as it has put me back in touch with many of my old friends who knew me before I trusted Christ.
  • My immediate at home “to do” list: assemble a bookshelf, fix all three toilets (they all need new inside stuff) and put away Christmas boxes for the next few weeks.
  • I’m reading John Grisham’s book, “The Appeal” for enjoyment reading.
  • Halle lost another tooth this week.
  • My last phone call with Barry St. Clair (mentor) was our best phone convo yet.
  • Excited to share at the main services at Calvary Chapel South this Sunday (they are doing a YMV).
  • Reading 1 John again for my own personal study; great stuff.

Hope you enjoyed the Snip-its.  I’ll try this again sometime.

Grace,
Brian

Youth Leader Notebook

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Will it be done next week?

Will it be done next week?

One of the items included for the churches participating in the Youthmark Mission Ventures is a Youth Leader Notebook.  Basically, it is a full-guide to how to lead your mission team and it contains all of the administrative tasks to be completed between now and the end of the trip (recruitment letters, fundraising ideas, how to use move, parent meeting outline, two-week talk series, etc.).

 

It is kicking my behind.

I have to get it done in the next couple days and I’d give it a solid 45% complete so far… argh!  

Pray for wisdom and creativity in getting my ideas out, quick fingers in the actual writing, eyes to see the typo’s and mistakes and the great technology which will get them printed to work well!

Grace,

Brian

P.S. I work well under pressure, so there is part of me that loves this!  Yes, I’m strange.

CO Consulting

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It was sunny and 62 on Sunday, by Monday I was braving my way through a couple inches of snow and 16 degrees.  Such is the weather in Colorado.

I flew in late Saturday night.  Getting to Denver was not an easy task; after a wedding in Bellingham I had to get quickly down to Seattle to catch a flight from Seatac to Portland.  Then from Portland I was able to catch the only flight to Denver (from anywhere in the NW) after 3:00 in the afternoon (seeing as how the wedding was at 2:00 there was no way for me to take a 3:00 flight out of Seattle directly into Denver).  I arrived at DIA at 11:45 PM and into Colorado Springs at 1:30 AM.

A church in Colorado Springs is between Youth Pastors and Youthmark has been hired to do “Transitional Consulting.”  In essence (a very short summary) I am assessing the current situation, giving guidance to what could take place and helping the lay team in the interim period.

Sunday started a little early for me, I was at the church by 8:30 AM (after talking with my buddy, Peter, for an extra hour after arriving, so, 2:30 to 7:30 on the ol’ sleep) and got right to my assessment stage.  Sat through a Middle School class and then a Sr. High class.  We had a lunch meeting with the middle school volunteer team and then straight to 3 “interview” sessions with a parent group, high school boys and high school gals.  It was about 5:00 PM by the time my time at the church was complete for Sunday.

Sunday evening I was able to drive up to Palmer Lake (20 minutes north of C.Springs) and have dinner with one of my good friends, Steve.  We ate at a restaurant where you order your dinner and they bring the meat out raw and you get to grill it!  Fun stuff and great to catch up with Steve and later his family (went to his house to hang out with his fam for a few hours).  After that I got to Hot Tub with Peter until way too late (midnight).  Oh, and I also, stupidly, watched Survivor after the hot tub (so another 5 hour night of sleep… wise huh?).

Monday, once again, started early (7:30 AM) with a breakfast meeting with the Senior Pastor, Mark.  I then met with the interim Middle School guy, the interim High School guy, then the four of us together (sr, mid, high, and me).  Lunch with just me and Mark and then a few hours off in the afternoon (in which I rested a little bit, but got to play with Peter and Christa’s kids).  Dinner with Peter and Christa and then back to the church for more interviews with Middle School parents.  When I left the church (8:00 PM) it had been snowing hard and the roads were now covered.  Back at Peter and Christa’s I had my first wii experience (bowled a 145).  Amazingly, I was able to manage 5.5 hours of sleep after watching the Amazing Race with Pete and Christa.

Tuesday morning was spent with Mark (the Sr. Pastor) and then a few hours at Starbucks doing some reports for the church.  Had lunch with Steve on my way out of town and then hit the road to catch my flight.

I see a lot of hope and potential for what can be at this church in Colorado.  I was impressed with the spirit of the people and feel they are several months away from being ready for a new person.  I am praying (and invite you to quickly do the same) they wait patiently and allow the Lord to lead and prepare them for what is ahead.  I believe God is doing a healing work in the church and the students are really doing a great job of taking ownership in that process!  I hope the consulting relationship continues and other opportunities like this open up!

Grace,
Brian

Church Search

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Since July the Aaby family has been doing our “church search,” looking for the place we will eventually call our church home.  Perhaps one of these days I’ll blog about the search, but today, I wanted to keep things a little lighter. 

First impressions are always important for a church; Elisabeth and I always debrief after the service and talk about everything from how we were greeted to the sermon, worship and everything else.  So, that very first impression, to us, is an important element.  In some of the churches we have been to we have been greeted well, in others, we were pretty much ignored.  Unfortunately (because I would crack up laughing), we have yet to meet this guy:

Grace,
Brian

First Experiences

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Yes, I’m 35 and until yesterday I had never experience Thai food.  Man, they love peanut stuff don’t they?  

We were up in Bellingham for the beginning of our weekend.  One of my former C-Group (FEPC Small Group) members, David, wed his sweetheart, Natalie.  I was in the wedding.  It had been a long time since I had been in a wedding and not been just attending or officiating the wedding. I even remembered how to put on a tux!

After the rehearsal, we joined the crowd at the Thai restaurant for the Rehearsal Dinner (never knew why we had to rehearse dinner?).  Thai food, interesting choice, seemed a little trendy or something, because there was a huge group of college students (not with us) enjoying in as a large party, and then all the college age folk in the wedding seemed to really know what they were doing.  I just sat there trying to figure out what ingredients were in each dish (but it was a guarantee that there was some sort of nut).

When all was said and done, I decided I would be willing to do it again, and would even be excited about a couple of the dishes!  

On a side note:  My girls LOVED the rice (that was all they ate, but they did love the rice).

On a different side note: Be proud mom and dad, I tried something new (I normally turned up my nose to new foods growing up).

Congrats to David and Natalie (this means about half of my 2001 Graduating Class C-Group is married now).

Grace,
Brian

Audrey-isms

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A couple days ago Elisabeth had gotten up before all of us and gone downstairs while she was down there Audrey had snuck out of bed and made her way down the stairs and crept into the kitchen without Elisabeth hearing a thing!

She unintentionally startled Elisabeth. 

Elisabeth: Oh, hi sweetie, you startled me.

Audrey: You didn’t hear any of my footprints?

She’s so cute!

Grace,
Brian

 

Audrey and her pilgrims

Audrey and her pilgrims

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Wrote my monthly email to our Youthmark Prayer team yesterday, if you’d like to be on that list (which has much more than just the listed requests) I’d love to get you on it.  Please email me at brian@youthmark.com and I’ll add you.  
Anyway, here are this months specific requests:

  • Praise God for the November highlights, the new volunteer position with Young Life, successful launch of Kent/Renton YP network and some wonderful time with my family.
  • Pray for the completion, editing and printing of the Leaders Guide for the Mission Ventures.
  • Pray for the upcoming Colorado consulting opportunity (and specifically pray for more opportunities like this).
  • Pray for more teams to join us on the Youthmark Mission Ventures (about 21-22 teams right now, would love to have 5+ more!).
  • Pray for the students/staff who will make up those teams.
  • Pray for two church retreats I will be speaking at in December and January.
  • Pray for an upcoming trip to LA to talk through some publishing projects and future ministry ideas.
  • Pray for humility, wisdom and grace as we look to serve the greater Youth Ministry field!  We are so thankful to the Lord for the people we get to work with, we want to serve them well!

Grace,
Brian

Development

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Thought I’d solicit some opinions with this post.  Over a year ago I put together the first major event for Youthmark, entitled, 360º Parenting.  This event did very well and I have received many invitations to repeat the event at various churches.  We will eventually do this, however, we knew for it to have long lasting impact it would need to be more than just an event, so Elisabeth and I have been doing research and have started to write a book which will work in conjunction with the event.

Two weeks ago I was part of a panel discussion for a parenting class at a church, Wednesday I will be speaking at another church (it’s “Parent Night” at this youth group).  And just this week I have had a number of discussions with parents and youth pastors about this same issue of parent/teen relationships.

So, here’s where your opinion comes in.

One of the areas which has been a hot topic revolves around the social networking area.  How much control should a parent have in regard to the use of the internet of his/her child?  Should parents allow pre-teens or teens to have their own facebook or myspace?  If they do allow, should a parent have the password?  What should a parent do when their has been abuse of the internet freedom?  Should parents use cyber-sitters and tattletale?  How can teens “prove” to their parents they are not mistreating it, yet still maintain confidentiality and freedom in relationships?  As a parent, do you check the internet history, cache and trash bins on your computers?  As a parent, how aware of internet issues are you?

That is just a sampling of the questions we are asking and being asked, would love the public opinion… pick one, pick all, I’d love your thoughts on any of them!

Grace,
Brian