Category Aaby Family

The Annual Thanksgiving Poll!

Brian Aaby 2 Comments

I know you’ve been waiting patiently for about… well… the entire year, but wait no longer. The Thanksgiving Poll is here!

For the last 7-8 years I have had fun creating a similar poll, trying as hard as I can to make you anguish in pain over your decision.

Most everyone I know loves Thanksgiving, but what if some of the elements had to be eliminated? This is the premise of the Thanksgiving Poll. Of course this isn’t happening so don’t fret too much, it’s just a make-believe, made-up, hypothetical, what if… question.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grace,
Brian

Has Anyone Modeled Evangelism To You?

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I get really excited about the Spring! Though we are five months away from our retreat season, we are busy putting together the framework for our 2012 tour.  The Mission51 Retreats give us the opportunity to train all who attend our Spring Retreat in the area of life-evangelism. We truly believe that mission is not a trip. Though trips are great, I believe that the other 51 weeks of life beyond the mission is where the real work of mission takes place (for both the sending team and the receiving communities).

In the spring of 2010 our theme was “Live and Love Loudly” for our Mission51 retreat. We focused on the first letter from Paul to the church at Thessalonica. It’s a great letter and it gave me some fun ideas. One of those ideas I will give you as a “freebie” to use in your youth group, small group or just for personal thought!

The video below was used to help set that stage for evangelism training. When we hear the word “evangelism” or “share your faith” we see many begin to squirm. Quite simply, people are afraid to share because they fear failure and rejection. But the reality is, their fear and failure stems more from a lack of model than anything else.

Who has modeled witness to you? Who have you learned from when it comes to evangelism?

For those who haven’t had it modeled to them, I invite you to find a mentor. For those who are active, I invite you to teach others.

With a very small budget, a decent camera and some very low-paid (read: “no-paid”) actors and some okay editing equipment we put together this little piece we call “read, daddy.”

Grace,

Brian

Conferences, Connections, Churches and Chapels…

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Like any good Pastor I am sticking with a single letter theme for this post. The last week of my life has been bombarded by Christians of every kind, here is a quick review of my Thursday to Thursday and all the different C’s I was able to experience.

Conference: I attended the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) by Youth Specialties in San Diego. I would guesstimate that I have been to 10 different NYWC’s in my life and this one was certainly one of the best. A few of the things that stood out to me and what made it so sweet from my perspective:

  • Lower cost: More “teams” participated because YS made it more affordable.
  • Diverse, but less “controversial” speakers: All who spoke appeared humble and weren’t looking to just push the envelope but actually deliver a message that would equip, encourage and spur on those who are working with youth.
  • Friendship: I was personally blessed by growing deeper in conversation with many across the nation that I can call “friend.” I appreciated spending time with the likes of Eric, Lars, Mark, Jeremy, Sean, Tim, Mindi, Jeff (two of them), Jim, Len, EJ, Ryan and several others that I am certainly forgetting right now.
  • Partnerships: It is really fun to dream together as to “what can be” when people with a kingdom mindset gather. I look forward to seeing how Youthmark may partner with others who are passionate about seeing lost people trust in Christ!

Connections: Alon Banks (Youthmark and National Network) and I drove north on Sunday evening to meet with Hope Partners International on Sunday Night and Monday  (all day). We are so excited about what HPI is doing and enjoyed talking through the next steps of our partnership with them. It will be amazing to see what God does as prayers are lifted, financial constraints are shattered and the harvest workers are unleashed on some impoverished areas!

I was blessed to have Elisabeth fly down to SoCal on Monday and spend Tuesday and Wednesday with her talking to Spire Resources (our publisher) about several projects! I am so proud of my wife and love partnering with her on some new endeavors!

Church: On Tuesday I was able to meet with a large church in Southern California and do a brief consult about some student ministry visioning! It was a great meeting! I firmly believe this church “gets it” and doesn’t want to entertain students, but wants to see their students equipped to reach out with the gospel!

Chapels: On Wednesday afternoon I took a quick flight over to Phoenix to speak on Thursday at Scottsdale Christian Academy. SCA is our first Christian School partnership for Youthmark. This is the second time I have spoken for this school (I spoke at a retreat with them in August). I enjoyed seeing some familiar faces and look forward to seeing Scottsdale transformed through these students and staff!

My 5th C I’d like to add is the word CRAZY. Now that I have returned, I immediately turn around and speak three times at MissionsFest Seattle this weekend and end the weekend by welcoming in the initial Adelphia Bible School Class! I’ll be speaking twice at orientation on Sunday! Great stuff, but a crazy schedule!

It is so good to be back with my family, though it was just a week (my longest trip in a long-long time) it felt like way longer! So good to love on my family! Speaking of family, I have to conclude this post, Will and I have an appointment to wrestle!

Grace,

Brian

15 Minutes Can Save . . .

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I love the commercial with the Gecko reaching into his wallet for his credit card to pay for a meal…

How about the Cavemen? Classic as commercials. Horrible as a TV show.

Regardless of Geico’s crazy ad themes, the tagline that they drive is their call for you to make a call… “15 minutes can save you 15%”.

This morning I took a few minutes to catch up on some youth ministry blogs. I read this one from my friend, Greg Stier. Greg used the State Farm Insurance “Like A Good Neighbor” tagline to call Christians to not just be good neighbors, but to be great neighbors. To do so he suggests that Christians:

  1. Get out of your castle (house)
  2. Pray for your neighbors
  3. Start a neighborhood spiritual discussion group
If you have not read this yet, go read it now. This is not a call just to those involved in student ministries. It’s a call to ALL Christians. I applaud Greg’s humility and response to the Spirit’s conviction in his own life. Here’s a guy with a national platform calling himself and others to engage the lost in the front yard, not just the big stage.
It got me thinking about the number of spiritual conversations I’ve had lately and the correlation with the above-name Geico Insurance company tagline, “15 minutes can save . . .”
Don’t read that as a trite, “15 minutes will save someone.” Though I firmly believe the Holy Spirit can work in that way if He chooses, my play on this commercial tagline is to encourage Christians to see that 15 minutes of investment could open up a myriad of doors into the lives of others and perhaps the front doors to spiritual conversations about God’s saving love.
  • What if you and your kids took 15 minutes to grab your rakes and wheelbarrow when you saw your neighbors attacking their leaves?
  • Could you swing by your neighbor-kids soccer game and cheer with mom and dad for the last 15 minutes of their son or daughters game?
  • As we approach the holidays, how about doubling a few recipes and take 15 minutes to deliver Thanksgiving pies, cookies or cupcakes to your neighbors with a “This Thanksgiving our family is thankful for you” cards?
Of course there are scores of other ideas we can come up with that would only take about 15 minutes. These 15 minutes could go a long way toward opening up conversations where you get to share the amazing story of God’s grace in your life. Three things you can do behind closed doors to be prepared for those 15 minutes beyond your front door.
  1. Consistently Pray for people and opportunities (not just for your neighbors, but anywhere and anyone).
  2. Constantly Practice sharing your story and the gospel, even as a family so when the time comes, you’re ready to give an answer for the hope you have (learn to share the gospel conversationally).
  3. Courageously Participate when God opens the door for spiritual conversation.
15 minutes can save. Let’s be prepared to not just be used for 15 minutes, but to be used by God for our lifetime to bring the message of His love to everyone!
Grace,
Brian

Some Great Stuff Happening

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Every now and then my blog takes an unannounced vacation. This was one of the times.

Over the last couple weeks we were able to take “Speak-ation Meet-union!” (one part speaking, one part vacation, one part Youthmark meetings and one part family reunion).  Good times.

I’ll be posting more about this in the next few posts, but wanted to give the ever-decreasing audience a little heads up as to what’s been going on (it’s funny to see the reader-ship dwindle when you don’t post).

Here are few little highlights (with some pic-posts to come as well):

WA (on our way east): Met with the Spiritual Life Director of a Christian school; Elisabeth and I are speaking together this next year during s Spiritual Emphasis week at an eastern WA Christian High School.

ID: We blinked during the panhandle portion of I-9o, so we completely missed Idaho.

MT : Spent 5-6 days with Elisabeth’s sister and husband. Did some sites and sounds, but mostly enjoyed the pool and family time.

WY: Yellowstone and some long open roads.

CO: Spoke at Summit Camp again, awesome time.  50 people trusted in Jesus for their salvation. So fun to have my family at one of my speaking gigs. In addition got to see family and friends and celebrate our 15th anniversary (July 20) at the place we got married (Colorado Springs). Mission51 has begun.

NM/UT/CO/AZ: We did the 4-Corners thing. Really ugly area, but fun place to take our kids and say that “we’ve been to 4 corners.”

AZ: Great price on a 4-star hotel (thanks Priceline). Saw friends and had a very good meeting for Youthmark (more later)

CA: Elisabeth’s folks live in SoCal! Always great to see them!

I’ll be posting some pics and more stuff about the actual events that took place soon!

Grace,
Brian

U2 and Date Night!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

A little over a week ago I got to go on a sweet date with Elisabeth,  a specific date that was 1o years in the making!

About a decade ago I was asked the question “if you could pick two concerts to go to of any living performers/bands, which shows would you choose?”

Because Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice were both on their way out, I couldn’t choose them (I tease), I said, “I’d go to James Taylor and U2.”

About eights years ago, while living in Phoenix, Elisabeth and I got to go to an outdoor show of James Taylor. It was great! It was his last show of that tour and during the intermission of the show, he chose to stay on stage and take requests from the audience (4000+) while the band all left the stage for the scheduled break.  All told, he probably played for two or two and a half hours!

In November of 2009 I got the inside track on U2 coming to Seattle for their 360 Tour. Well, even though we didn’t have the cash to really afford to go, I still purchased four seats, knowing that we could sell the other two to someone (or all 4 if the financial need arose)! We were supposed to go last June (2010), but Bono, the lead singer, broke his back (and the concert was delayed a year).  Well, last week that year delay ended and Elisabeth and I (along with Joe and Rachel Poppino) went to the show! And what a show it was! U2 played for over two and half hours! They played most of the songs I had hoped for (would have loved “40”, but oh well). The stage, lighting and effects were amazing as well! And to top it all off, it was about 80 degrees outside as the concert began, truly “A Beautiful Day!”

It was a great night with a great date! And the fulfillment of a question I was asked 10 years ago! Quick, someone ask me what two sporting events would I most like to see (I need to do something over the next 10 years, right?).

Grace,
Brian

Not Bad Luck… Bad Design

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We’ve been in our house for nearly seven years. The house has been a wonderful blessing to our family. A few years into our time here we invested in (or were we gifted? I can’t remember) a brand new washer and dryer set. Namely because our old dryer just wasn’t doing well. It would routinely take two-hours to dry a load of clothes.

The new washer did really well, but to be honest, we were never impressed with the new dryer. Sure, it looks good and had a great Consumer Reports rating. But, it was still taking 75-90 minutes minimum to dry a load.  We just figured we had bad luck when it came to our dryers…Well, it went from okay to worse in the last year. The 75-90 minutes became 90-120 minutes, but what was really bad was the smell. It was evident that the heating element was just too hot! It smelled like something was about to catch fire.

Nervous that we may just burn down the house we changed our heat-setting to medium for all loads (which only increased the amount of time it took to do a load). But even on medium we eventually began to smell that burning smell again.

Finally, about a week ago I had my mechanically-minded friend Walt over to help me figure out exactly what was wrong. I had done the general things that had come to mind (like vacuuming out the hose-vent-thing, etc.). I knew it was time to get into the machine and see what was happening. Walt and I took the backing off. WOW! The entire inside was full of lint (even on top of the drum was about one inch of dry lint). The venting (which I had vacuumed out probably six months prior) was pretty full as well (with wet lint… nasty!). After cleaning out everything and putting it back together we went to check the venting outside the house to make sure the venting to the outside was not the issue.

The stuff next to the heating element was almost charcoal.

BAM! We found the problem, but exactly where in the approximate 25 foot stretch of venting was the blockage? We had to go CSI on the matter and went under the house. The only time I ever go in the crawl space is to get my Christmas boxes out in December and return them a month later. Well, it was Christmas in June and we found the presents! It came in the form of discovering the UPHILL route our dryer vent-air must take to get out of the house. Who designed this system? Not only does the vent angle up at about a 3% grade, when it gets to the foundation on the back side of our house it makes a 90 degree upward turn to go that last foot before making another 90 degree turn to go out of the house (again, who designed this system).

I figured there must be some sopping wet lint blocking the vent somewhere. Well, what we discovered was that it wasn’t about the lint, it was the approximate four gallon flood we were about to encounter when we took the venting pipes apart. Our venting was essentially a pea trap.

My guess is that our old dryer had the same issue and that the water has been trapped for years, perhaps there was a little clearance when we bought the house, but it has likely been blocked for years!

With all the water out and the house not burned down, we are now experiencing dryer loads that, on average, are taking less than 45 minutes!  I can’t wait to see the savings on our electric bill!  We’re thankful to Walt, thankful for God’s protection and thankful that it’s now fun to do laundry again (okay, that last part was a stretch).

Grace,

Brian

Seven.

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One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes is the one where George proclaims the name he’d like to give his firstborn.  The name, “Seven.” Classic episode. Though I would never name my child, Seven, one of my three most favorite kids in the whole-wide-world turned Seven today! That’s right, my mid-kid, Audrey, turned seven this morning!

She’s such a blessing! My mother-in-law described her so well the other day, “of your three kids, her emotions are certainly the closest to the surface.” I love that. If she is upset, worried or sad, it shows and shows quickly. But then again, if she’s joyful, content and glad it shows just as quickly.  She’s the one that likes to be cuddled the most, or the one who least wants to be cuddled. Audrey’s the one who most wants space to be alone OR hates being alone the most!  Yep, that’s our Audrey. Not a walking contradiction at all, just a super-fantastic, uniquely gifted, awesomely stitched together bundle of emotion! I love her so!

My wife has a great post about May 24 in comparison to May 23 (about the specific blessing Audrey is to us). Check it out here.

Perhaps you’ll lift up a prayer for our Seven year old right now?

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Grace,
Brian

Lake Retreat; What a treat!

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The weather was an absolute loss. But that was the only negative about the weekend!

On top of having our largest crowd of the Spring Retreat season, I got to have my family out at Lake Retreat with me! In fact, on Saturday, during the free time I was able to take the kids down the the rock wall where both Halle and Audrey did the full climb and got to “ring the bell”

This year I have received more feedback via FB, email and texts than any other year. The students (and leaders) are saying that this weekend has made a world of difference in his/her life. In fact, one message I just received said, “this training, single handed, has given me the passion to reach my own school for Jesus… Mission51 all the way.” Another leader posted on his wall that he felt “privileged” to be at such a retreat.  What humbling and gratifying statements.

I know that I’ve said this before, but I really feel like we (Youthmark) have hit our stride with this training. It is a great mix of worship, fellowship, teaching and practice! Yes, practice. In order to share our faith “out there” or “over there” I believe we need to practice it “right here” and “right now.”

I look forward to sharing more about the retreat (a couple cool things we do) but will wait until we’re done with our last three training times. Right now, we’d appreciate prayers for the 8 groups headed out to Lake Retreat this coming weekend!

Grace,
Brian

Consistency? Nah!

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The last few weeks have been swamped. No doubt about it. A number of times I have wanted to sit down to blog, but not once did the inspiration or amount of time needed to blog strike. For most of the nearly three years I have blogged I have been consistent; that all went away the last couple weeks. Well, I guess I did become consistent — consistently not posting!

I finally am making the time on my way home from Houston, via Denver from our “pseudo” First Spring Retreat. We didn’t market to Texas this year, therefore we weren’t offering a retreat in the area, however, our friends at NorthWest Bible Church of Spring, TX still wanted the Youthmark training for Mission51 and their trip so they volunteered be the “test” team. It was fantastic. I will be sure to post about it sometime this week!

On top of the craziness of preparing for the Youthmark “Together” Spring Tour, I have taken on a consulting role with an organization that has taken up some time as well. In time, I’ll be posting about this as well.

Then, factor in a couple weeks ago when I had the privilege of playing “Full-Time-Single-Parent” for serveral days, the busyness stacked up. I now know how Elisabeth feels when I am away for Youthmark and/or speaking opportunities. We had some airline miles available and decided it was a good time for Elisabeth to get away and have some down time with her parents. She enjoyed about 4 days down in SoCal and especially enjoyed the rest (sleeping in!). I’m glad she had this opportunity, she’s a great Mommy and Wife, I’m thankful she got to play the role of “full-time-for-a-few-days-daughter” in Southern California.

I’ll look to get back into the groove of some regular blogging; I think I once titled a post “consistency breeds consistency,” well, I’ll try to live by that when it comes to some blogging again!

Grace,

Brian