Category Home and Ministry

Seems Like A Good Day to Pray

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Sitting at The Met–a coffee shop–down in Renton.  This morning I am doing some work on the new editions of RoadGrip, HomeBase and Merge.  In just a bit I’ll be honored to grab some time with my friend, Dave Devries.  Instead of just jumping into the writing and the meetings, I’m starting my day with some concentrated prayer time, I’d be much obliged if you’d join me by praying for the following:

  • Pray for the many youth groups Youthmark has the opportunity to train for Mission51–being a missionary always, all ways a missionary!  We have completed three of our six retreats, over the next three weeks we conduct our northwest/local retreats!  The travel season was great, but it sure is nice to be home!
  • Pray for my neighbors.  We have several in our neighborhood who we have started to build relationship with.  Pray that we’d be an encouragement to those who know Jesus and build relationship with those who do not.  What an honor it will be to share Jesus with these friends-to-be.
  • Pray for discernment.  I am in the midst of creating/outlining/designing/etc. a ministry/business plan.  I need to know where I am aiming in order to hit it.
  • Pray for the lost.  Do you have non-Christian friends, relatives, co-workers, etc.? Pray for them.  Prayer=Care.  The more prayer usually means the more care.  As you care for these folk, I pray you’ll begin to share the Great news with your mouth.  It doesn’t take much to start a spiritual conversation.  Not in a cheesy, “your yard sure looks beautiful, but do you know what needs some work?–Your heart” type of a way.  Genuinely loving and listening will provide entry points!  Go for it!  I am praying for this for you!

Grace,
Brian

500th Post!

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As I begin this, my 500th blog post at brianaaby.com, I wondered about “the early days of my blogging,” so I decided to go back and re-read my first posts here (three posted in late June), I wondered what I had done for my 1-year anniversary on that date, so I looked back at the archives and I posted twice, here and here.

June 28… a significant day, not only the day that I started my blog, but also the day that I started my spiritual journey with Jesus (way back in 1990)! Now, not even two years into my blog, I am up to 500 posts!  It’s been a fun journey and sorry to announce that this will be my last post as well.

April Fools’!  Since I didn’t get you on April 1, I thought I’d try the 18th.

In all seriousness, it has been a fun discipline to maintain this blog. I hope you will continue to be a faithful, semi-faithful or occasional drop-by reader.

In case you were wondering, here are the stats up to 500 posts:

The total views, as of 4.17.10 was 40,518 (I guess my mom has come by nearly 40,000 times, thanks Mom!)

I have received 752 comments… that means I average over 1 comment per post… man, it doesn’t seem like that, I’d like to hear back from you more!

The busiest day was Tuesday, January 5, 2010.  For whatever reason, 288 people wanted to see this. Which, in case you were wondering, hasn’t been totally fulfilled (there’s still time)!

500 down, at least another 500 to go, right?  We’ll see.

Grace,
Brian

Whirlwind Days

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Quick highlights of the last few days… with the promise of some in-depth reporting on a few of these in the days ahead.

Montana Sunrise on Wednesday

Tuesday & Wednesday: YMV Scout trip for our teams headed to Montana this summer.  I drove to Spokane, picked up Kirk Petersen at midnight on Monday, we were in Missoula by late morning Tuesday and scouted about 10 communities covering several hundred miles in two days.  I was home and in bed by about midnight on Wednesday.  CRAZY.

Greg Stier

Thursday: Kent/Renton Network meeting; meeting with a potential YMV team for this summer and then up to Seattle to meet with Greg Stier, the President of Dare 2 Share Ministries.  It was an honor to grab coffee with a guy and ministry I respect a lot.  After the coffee I quickly met with Frankie Santana (former student, current worship team drummer for Youthmark and also helping me with a special project). Then I got some down time with the family and cuddle time on the couch with my bride catching up on a few DVR’d shows.

Friday and Saturday: Coffee with Carlos Huizar, a friend and Youth Pastor in West Seattle, lunch with Nathan &Megan Schlaud (YP & Wife from West Seattle), picked up Jason Lamb (Dare 2 Share friend) and delivered him from airport to the Key Arena and then back home for a couple hours.  At home I met with Philip Kim (YP from Federal Way) and then I went back up to Seattle for Dare 2 Share.  There on both Friday night and Saturday for most of the day I was helping with a few things behind the scenes (for both D2S and Chris Renzelman/interlinc) and hanging out with a bunch of Youth.  Very excited about THE Cause (more on that later, for sure).

Now I rest at home thinking of the weeks ahead that include prep for our Spring Retreats, scouting for missions, completion of study guides and much, much more.  For now… I rest.

Grace,
Brian

Highline Christian Men’s Retreat

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Sitting down during the  “Personal Prayer and Devotions” time at the Highline Christian Church Men’s Retreat.  I just happened to have sat down at the local Starbucks which is oh-so-conveniently just five minutes away from the Retreat Center!

This weekend I am the guest-speaker for a group of about 70 men from HCC.  What a blessing.  The first blessing is that I get to open up God’s Word and learn with these men.  I count it an honor to be asked to be used of God for this purpose!  The second blessing, the retreat center is only about 20 minutes away from my house and the leaders at HCC gave me the freedom to go home and sleep in my own bed!

Any man reading this who has gone to a Men’s Retreat understands how big a blessing this is!  Men often snore.  My wife does not.

This weekend we’re exploring what it looks like to see unity among the men.  The three messages I am delivering are:

  • The Common Experience
  • The Common Problem
  • The Common Cause

If I get the opportunity to blog more about these this next week, I’ll let you know how they go.  But for now, I need to order the Sbux goodness and get back to deliver the second message!

Grace,

Brian

Late Assignments

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Do you remember the feeling of turning in a late assignment?

Unfortunately, it DID in fact happen to me from time to time in grade school, jr. high, sr. high and college… Though I can’t remember it ever happening to me while getting my Master’s degree!  Whew, finally got it right!

Well, post-post-grad it has happened a few times.

It just did.

Fortunately for me my letter-grade doesn’t drop… my income might, but at least my letter grade didn’t!

However, I don’t think ANYONE is upset about this one (well, maybe my family… no, not really)… I just finished sending off our initial invoices for the 2010 YMV’s!  They were supposed to be out around the first of January (oops).

Who ever got upset about getting billed late?  I’m banking on the hope that nobody will (pun intended).

In all seriousness, it does feel great to have that task accomplished.  I have been so busy with other tasks it just kept getting pushed back, however, the invoices from everyone who wants money from us have, for some reason, come in EXACTLY on time, therefore, if we want to pay them I decided that it may be wise to complete my assignment!

Now to start work on some other overdue assignments!

Grace,
Brian

LA LA Land

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Several months ago Alaska Airlines was running a sale on tickets from Seattle to LAX; prices so low that they were lower than the cheapest rate I had ever flown. Close to 20 years ago (holy smokes, seriously, I started college 19 years ago… wow) the cheapest rate I ever flew was $139 round-trip.

Knowing that I have potential YMV teams in SoCal and my Publisher (Spire) is down in Camarillo, I figured I would have several reasons to be down in SoCal and could take advantage of this airfare.  So I booked it.

About a month ago, I got serious about setting up my calendar for those three days.  I’d fly in on Sunday and out on Wednesday evening, giving me three solid days to conduct business… Then it hit me, Sunday, February 7 was Superbowl Sunday.  When did the Superbowl start (3:15ish), and yep, that’s right when my flight was scheduled.  Great move Brian.

Fortunately for me, there were some open seats on an earlier flight (6 AM…woo, early).  The fun part, I got to watch the Superbowl with my best friend (besides Jesus, Elisabeth and YOU of course) Jeramy and his family.  Good times.

Here’s a quick recap of my three busy days:

Monday: Met with a prominent ministry which sends teams on short term trips to Mexico. Great times.  I then had the opportunity to grab a coffee with Josh, the High School Pastor at Emmanuel Faith, they did a YMV last year and will be the host site for our SoCal Spring Retreat. After some fun times with Josh I got to connect with one of my great friends from College, Scott (aka “Action”).  Lunch with Scott was a blessing.  After lunch I was off to a meeting with the National Network of Youth Ministries.  I introduced/reintroduced an idea I have for them.  A wonderful discussion and the conversation will continue as this idea gains traction.  My evening concluded with a fun meeting with two more college-friends, Mike and Steve.  They are both great basketball minds (Mike a former Laker and Steve a high school/college coach) and have some good ideas on how to use their skills/knowledge to go beyond hoops and use it for the Gospel.

Mike's Rookie Card

Mike's Rookie Card

Tuesday: I drove up to Valencia late on Monday and had a late-night In-N-Out Burger for dinner (yes, another highlight of the trip), but the main reason was to crash at Jeramy’s hotel (he was speaking both Monday and Wednesday chapels).  Tuesday started with breakfast and a great walk/chat with Jer.  I spent most of the day over in Camarillo at the Publishing office and time with Mike Penberthy developing some ideas for the basketball side of things.  Tuesday night, as I said in my previous post, I got to have dinner with two of my best friends from College.

Say "cheese" Jeramy!Wednesday: Breakfast again with Jeramy, then we were off to the college for Chapel.  Fun to see Jer speak.  I had lunch with Jeramy, Mike and Joe (he is in leadership at the Master’s College).  We were able to laugh at memories gone by, but also speak into the vision for the future of that college.  It was a blessing to have spent time with these three friends.

I got to the airport a couple hours early, which was very nice to catch up on a few things that needed to get done (I feel so behind on administrative tasks).  On the way home, I discovered I was sitting next to Sean McDowell (some may know Josh, his Dad).  Fun to meet Sean and get acquainted.

So, there’s my LA-LA-Land experience!  Good times and great potential for some future projects.

In Search

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Want to help network?

One of the… umm… benefits(?) of networking with so many people is that I am often called upon by Churches or by Youth Pastors who are in search of one another!

A church searching for a new Youth Pastor calls asking me if I know of any available candidates…

A Youth Pastor searching for a new situation/employment calls asking if I know of any church hiring…

Really, I do see it as a benefit, I like this aspect of the networking I do.  Especially when we see the right people end up with the right person (and vice versa).

I am certainly not a “job bank” but it is nice to be trusted and sought out for this important beginning stage of a search.   So, I throw it out to you, simply because I don’t know of all the great candidates out there.  If you know of a person who is qualified as a GREAT potential Youth Pastor, don’t hesitate to have them contact me (brian[at]youthmark[dot]com).  The flip is true as well, contact me if you know of a GREAT potential church for a Youth Pastor to land (no, you can’t replace your current, person, only looking to help churches with current openings, not ones you wish were open! Ha).

Be part of the network!

Grace,
Brian

YMV and Friends

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Yesterday and today have provided a variety of meetings that I find 0h-so-exciting for the 2010 YMV season and for my own friendships and encouragement!  I count it a joy to have had these great times with some fantastic folk.  Here’s a glimpse of the folk I got to see.

Wednesday: My friend Mark Miller, was the guest speaker at chapel for Seattle Christian.  Instead of doing our normal Burien area network meeting, the group went to support Mark as he spoke.  He did a great job.  Fun to also hang with Nathan, both Marks, Craig and then grab lunch with several of them and have Chad show up as well.

After lunch I commuted up to Mt. Vernon for the afternoon with Joe Poppino.  Joe is the worship leader for the YMV Retreats this year!  He is recording some of his own stuff and should have an album produced by the time the retreats take place!  This is so exciting.  We got to plot, scheme and dream about the 2010 Retreats and the relationship between the speaking, music, atmosphere, electives, etc.  Fun times with Joe.

In addition, since I was in the area, I got in touch with my friend Mark Moder, he is the President of Youth Dynamics. He happened to be in town (half of his time is spent in ID), so we were able to schedule an impromptu coffee.  I praise the Lord for they way he is using Mark at YD and the progress that has taken place in the first year of Mark’s service as President of YD.

It was then time to head south to Edmonds where I was speaking to students and parents at Maplewood Presbyterian (they are doing an Alaska trip with us this year).  This was a fantastic time.  Please pray for the Youth Leader there, Tania.  She has a very sick aunt who will soon be going home to be with the Lord.

After the Edmonds speaking, I headed south on 99.  My friend Blaine lives in Shoreline and the two of us were able to connect for about an hour at at local joint called Darrel’s.  Blaine was a student in my Youth Group in Roseburg, OR (I also coached him in Soccer and Basketball). It is a lot of fun to see him as an almost 30 y/o, but it does make me feel pretty darn old now.

Then… I came home and had the best meeting of the day!  I got to hang out with Elisabeth!

Thursday: After a little daddy/daughter time with Halle (I take her to school most days) I had a phone appointment with Kirk Petersen (he works for Youthmark down south).  I headed south to South Hill and had coffee with Jon Wimmer.  Jon is taking his youth group to Mexico this summer on SERVE.  The ConvergeNW network is teaming together for this trip and has Youthmark doing the training package.  It was fantastic to connect with Jon.

After that meeting I got to catch up with Troy Asher at the same Starbucks.  Troy was a Youth Pastor, then he became the Discipleship Pastor and is now wearing both hats at his church. I really like this guy, he is a few years older than me, I’m hoping his wisdom wears off on me and that his gray hair does not!

Then I was off to the Spaghetti Factory in Tacoma with Brad Hostak.  B-Rad is once again taking his group on YMV.  It was great to connect and encourage one another.  I finally got to get him his Leader Notebook and a gift-pack I owed him.  I even took his prize for winning one of my blog contests… only I forgot to give him that and part of his gift-pack.  I guess we’ll just have to get Spaghetti Factory again!  Darn.

My last appointment of the two day stretch was  in University Place (Tacoma area), with Steve Imhof.  Great guy, looks like he will be joining us for a YMV this year for his group.  I’m excited because Steve had every intention of doing a YMV last year, but then he and his wife discovered she was pregnant with twins… Steve made the wise decision of staying around all summer after the birth (they already had another little girl under 2).  Wise move Steve.

Now, it’s home with my boy Will.  The gals are out with Elisabeth for some Mommy/Daughter time, Will and I are going to chill out at home and watch some hoops and drink some cold ones (Apple juice for him and Green Tea for me)!

Busy two days, but thankful for the encouragement these friends were to me!

Grace,
Brian

Gearing Up!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

As my writing deadline (Dec. 15) quickly approached and just as quickly appeared in my rear-view mirror, I began to cut out some “extras” in my life.  One of these was biking.  From Dec. 4 to Dec. 23 I did not ride my bike at all.

Not me.

Last Thursday, Dec. 24 I jumped back on my bike with the intent of easing back into shape.  My normal 13.5 mile jaunt would be cut down to approximately four, so that I could slowly get back into shape without hurting my body.  This was my intent.

It has been a long while since I preached in a church.  I’ve had ample opportunities to speak (camps, Young Life, retreats, guest speaking at Youth Groups and several Youthmark functions); however, filling the pulpit is different.

Back to the biking.  With the first hill, I could already feel the effects of having not biked for three weeks.  Not only did the scale proclaim the increase in weight, my legs and lungs were complaining with each push of the pedal.  By the time I reached the one-mile mark, I was ready to turn around and be satisfied with a two re-entry ride.  However, I pressed on.

About a month ago our new Lead Pastor at Faith called me and asked me to consider preaching on January 3, 2010.  What an honor.  While serving at Boulevard Park I preached about once month, so it really became part of my routine.  Every now and then I have missed that part of the routine.

Last Thursday, on the ride, I kept going and the muscles kept aching.  For some reason the scenery wasn’t as pretty, the trail seemed longer and everything appeared to be moving a lot slower…hmm, wonder why?  At the next most natural stopping point (two miles into the ride) I seriously considered turning around, namely because I was starting to feel a little queazy.  However, I didn’t stop, I kept going.

As I approached the 3 mile mark I was feeling rather gross, but had only one big hill to climb to reach my real goal; well that “gross feeling” paled in comparison to the feeling I had by the time I reached the top.  Be proud, I did hold back and never did toss my cookies.  Though the ride back was slow, I did make it 6.25 miles… 1/2 of my normal “in shape” ride.

I’m taking a different approach with preaching.  Though I may not be “in shape” to preach, having not filled a pulpit in over a year.  I’m easing in.  Within the hour I’ll be done with my outline; I’ve been studying consistently and will continue to throughout the week.  I don’t feel winded, I don’t feel achy and I am looking forward to that next hill.

I’m back on the bike (each ride feeling stronger), and now I get to climb back on the proverbial pulpit bike!  Can’t wait for Sunday!

Grace,

Brian

Discipline, Oh How I Love/Hate It!

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There are a few things in my life that I have let slide in the last few weeks because of other areas dominating my time.

Before things get too out-of-control, I am making a total effort to finish a few projects that simply have to get done before I get back to some things I want in my life…

The things that will be scratched for the next few days:

  • Blogging
  • Biking
  • Ballgames (which stinks, both the Zags and Huskies have games I really want to watch tomorrow, but more important matters are at hand).
  • Internet use, except for what is needed for the few projects.

So, check back in a few days and hopefully I’ll be back to the blog, but for now, enjoy a short-break.

I’d really appreciate your prayers over the next few days.

Grace,
Brian