Googling God – asking questions

This was a video I did for Oakbrook Church’s “Googling God” series. The series was built off of questions that the congregation sent in about God, the Bible, and church. This video was a response to maybe how some people might feel about questioning God. enjoy:

STRIVE, and phone calls

So our student ministry, OSM, does a fundraiser every year called STRIVE.  It stands for Students Turning Responsibility Into Valuable Experiences.  It is a one day work-a-thon style workday where students get pledges from people and then for one whole day do work in our community.  All the money goes toward making our ministry happen.  That’s right, we fund our ENTIRE ministry this way.  This IS our budget.  We teach our students that this effort helps them become great owners and stewards of their ministry.  Part of the process is for students to call people and ask for money and pledges.  A lot of them are VERY INTIMIDATED by this and have actually verbalized that they have no clue where to start.  That is where this video comes in.  It is a humorous look at how to make a call like this.  This comes from our STRIVE BLOG.  Enjoy:

my afterthoughts on what was “the Beatles concert”…

the picture above is a live shot from the song “I feel fine.”  The Beatles concert at Oakbrook Community Church was an event like no other in the city of Kokomo, Indiana.  In Kokomo, you can find factories, “Mom & Pop” shops, tons of places to eat, and over 145 churches… but the one thing that you’ll hardly ever find is a GOOD concert or a great artistic show.  Some might even go so far as to say that this town is “Arts Starved.” After living in the Bay Area of California for most of my life and going to college only 2 hours away from New York City… I must concur.  But every once in a while something comes along and you go “Hey… wait a minute… wait a minute… what is that?”  I have to say (probably with a little bias) this concert was one of those times.  My wife and I have lived in Kokomo for over 5 years and have only worked at Oakbrook Church for a little over 1 1/2 years.  We previously worked at another church in town.  Anyway, long before I worked there, we were thoroughly IMPRESSED by how Oakbrook Church brought big theatre production and the arts to a small little town like Kokomo during Christmas and Easter.  It made me think back to my high school days of going to the Orpheum theatre in San Francisco to watch “Showboat” or going to New York City to see “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway… or (more recently) going to see “Handel’s Messiah” in the Scranton civic theatre in downtown Scranton, Pa.  (yes… that’s right you office fans… I spent 3 years of my life living about 7-8 miles away from Scranton, Pa).  We LOVED going to Oakbrook… it always felt like a home away from home for us.  So, naturally… we were THRILLED when they asked us to come on staff as youth pastor.  This Beatles concert was one of those big moments… and I am so privileged that I got to be a part of it.  It was unreal.  Kokomo people usually only get excited about 2 things… little league baseball, and the county fair… BUT there was electricity in the air even before the show started.  Over 1,000 people were lined up at least 30 min. before the show started.  That in and of itself is almost unheard of in Kokomo.  They cheered, sang along, swayed (Christian dancing… hahaha) and laughed.  It was a fun night.  But all of this: the stage decor, the lights, the hours of musical preparation, the energy and the fun… it was all about one thing.  We had this crazy idea that God wanted us to leverage a huge piece of pop-culture so that maybe some people who would NEVER step foot in a church would find themselves right in the middle of it… AND LIKE IT… and hopefully… that they would want to come back and ask… what is this all about?  As Rob Bell says, “THIS really is about THAT!”

A little thanks goes a long way…

so this past Friday I surprised our leadership team of Oakbrook Student Ministries by having an appreciation dinner.  These guys do so much and run so hard both in Student Ministries and other ministries in the church… most of the time with little to nothing in return.  So I figured it was time to show them how much we appreciate them and value them.  It was an awesome night. Parents made and served the meal… and then parents and students wrote letters of appreciation to the leaders.  I guess I just forget sometimes how far a “thank you” can actually go.  The best part of the night was just to hear team members speaking into the lives of other team members and some of our team leaders bragging about their teams.  We were able to celebrate wins together and be encouraged by other leaders and how they serve.  It was one of the best nights in youth ministry for me in a while… and it really had nothing to do with students.  so… the lesson learned: Say Thank you often… in many different ways.

       

“All you need is LOVE!” – part one

So I get the privilege of doing the talk this weekend on the subject of LOVE.  Our church had the idea of “what would happen if we chose to leverage the music of one of the most popular bands ever and find some common themes in their music… and then see what God had to say about those themes?”  This is the result.  ”The Beatles: Life.Love.Faith.”  When was the last time that you felt “love”?  When was the last time you KNEW love?  In our culture these two things can be very, very different.  Our culture tells us that love is based on feelings, circumstances, it’s something that effects your emotions and is something that you fall in and out of.  The love that the Beatles write about is no different.  ”Love me do”, “She loves you”, “Hard Day’s night”, “Can’t buy me love”, “I’m looking through you”, “hide your love away”, and “All you need is love” are just a few songs that, if you took a look at the lyrics, you would find their particular circumstance affected how they felt, how they wrote, and, ultimately, how they loved.  Love can be easy to give and feel when everything is going right… but what do you do when the bottom falls out?  What do you do when love is not reciprocated?  what do you do with rejected love?  What do you do when your love leaves you?  Do you just stop loving?  Do you hide your love away?  How does God’s love differ from this?  And what difference does it make?  After this sunday’s message… I’ll let you know!

re:MADE in OSM – week two

Here is part two of re:MADE.

reMADE Pt 2 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

re:MADE in OSM – week one

here is week one’s re:MADE video.  this is a series about how God wants to remake our lives to become like Jesus in his attitudes and actions.  This video series is a spoof of the MTV show “MADE.”  enjoy:

reMADE Pt 1 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

mustache week ‘08

So i saw this on another blog and I thought it was hilarious.  I’m not sure if I’ll participate… I’m fairly certain that I have what Joel McHale of E’s “The Soup” calls the “creepy flesh colored beard,” so I’m not sure it is worth the “No SHAVE, No KISS” house rule violation.  So I shared this funny week with the guys in our High School small group and said (basically) “grow ‘em if ya got ‘em.”  Then the unpredictable happened.  I was shown a photo of one of the senior guys in my small group… he was wearing a fake mustache.  He looked like BORAT!  So I’m challenging him to wear it all week in honor of Mustache week ‘08.

happy mustache week!!!!!!!

OSM opener

here are some shots from the OSM opener last night.  These shots were take during worship time.

Olympics & the kickoff to another OSM season

As I’m sitting here on my couch this awesome Monday afternoon… two things are going through my mind {actually three if you count the laundry that needs to be swapped into the dryer… see sarah… I do work } and those two things are: #1) the Olympics and #2) the kickoff to another OSM season this Sunday night.

I am a BIG TIME Olympics fan!  I especially love to see the swimming, basketball, and the running.  I think this is the first time since my childhood where I’ve found myself on the edge of my couch cheering out loud for the USA teams.  If you saw the mens 400m freestyle relay swimming then you know what I’m talking about.  It was AWESOME.  I’ll have to admit… I’m still a cynic when it comes to USA basketball… so I hope they prove me wrong!  I love the Olympics.  I secretly had a dream when I was little that I wanted to be in the Olympics, win a gold medal, and have tears streaming down my cheeks as they played the national anthem.  Ah… those were the days.  Wait… that was yesterday.

I’m also very excited for OSM to kick back up for another season.  This year there just seems to be a buzz around OSM.  The leaders are catching it… and Core students are getting excited.  I feel like something huge is about to happen with our ministry.  We have always dreamed that OSM would not just be another Youth Group… but that it would be a movement of students that would change our city, county, state, and world.  This sunday night begins another season of that movement!