I have a serious concern.

On November 20, in just over 1 month, the new Legend of Zelda video game releases. Now before you check out from this post thinking I am a total nerd, you should know that I do not play a ton of video games.

For some reason, however, when new Legend of Zelda games come out, I cannot put them down. The last game was released my sophomore year of college, and I may or may not have missed several days of class. (OK so maybe I am a nerd).

So why am I so concerned?

Two huge things have changed since the last Zelda came out.

1) I am married.

2) I have a full-time job.

I’m not sure I can justify a few days of missing work and not talking to my wife as I play what promises to be the world’s greatest video game of all time (if you haven’t figured it out yet, I am an eternal optimist). This concerns me, because I may not be able to stop playing once I start.

The Hero of the Legend of Zelda

As it turns out, I am not the only one who spends too much time on video games.

In 2009, video games brought in $10.5 Billion dollars. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of money on something most people consider a waste of time.

Why do people love video games?

As we engage with culture, we must seek to understand what makes it tick. Instead of just brushing off video game fever as laziness, maybe there is a motivation lying below the surface. For instance, people love watching movies because it allows them to be a part of another story. They can forget about the difficulties in their own life and see someone else find victory in a movie.

With video games, the motivation is the same, but instead of merely watching a better story, people get to play or “be” the better story. Watch this Play Station commercial to see what I mean:

The desire to be a part of a great story is wired into people’s DNA. We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, and many people do not think their lives will ever add up to something more. Since their real lives will never allow them to save a princess, be a secret agent, or seek after a Lost City, they meet their needs in video games.

We want to be Michael. We want to make a difference in this world that lasts. Too many people believe they are incapable of doing this in the real world, and so they live their dreams in the virtual world.

But We Are Part of a Greater Story

God has been telling an incredible story since before Creation came into being. That story is far greater than any video game ever made and will keep being told long after we have gone.

And the best part about God’s story? He invites us in. 

We have the opportunity to be a part of something amazing. Something that transcends all stories and will literally change the entire universe. In this story, we are more than bystanders, we are  more than extras with no real role. In fact, Romans 8:37 even says “We are more than conquerors.”

Video games are fun and can be cool, but at the end of the day I choose to be a conqueror in God’s story over a role in any other story.

Even if that story is the Legend of Zelda.

If you play them, what is your favorite video game?

I Love Nature.

Being in the outdoors helps me connect with God more than anything. It reminds me of how small I am and how big God is.

Creation is huge, but God is so much bigger. He made it beautiful, he made it with detail, he made it well.

I’ve always wanted to make a video with Scripture praising God for His Creation interwoven with footage of His Creation. I’ve never done it, until now…

The best part is, even though God is so big, He still loves us on a personal level. Awesome.

How do you connect best with God?

Shameless Plug: If you enjoyed this video, please share it!

Every Fall something amazing returns to my life: LUG.

LUG happens on Wednesday night, and it is a crazy Middle School gathering and the highlight of my week.

To give you a taste of LUG, here are some videos and photos of the different elements that make LUG so special:

1)Fun: This year, we are playing a full sized, completely original game called “Really Upset Fowl.” It might start to catch on around the country soon, but only time will tell.

Launching the "Really Upset Fowl"

The Destroyed fortress of the pigs

2) The Worship at LUG is always inspiring. Check out this video:

3) A Goofy Skit: I am really excited about this year because it is all done on video, and high school students are responsible for filming and editing them. I love seeing students excel. They did a great job on the first week.

 4) Teaching: Randy, the pastor of students at Grace, always does a great job teaching Middle School students straight out of the Bible.

The Sea of Students who attend LUG

5) Student Led Discipleship: As great as all of the other elements are, discipleship is by far my favorite. If we kept everything else, but dropped discipleship, I think I would quit. Discipleship was the model of Jesus, and it is vital that we disciple the next generation (check out 2 Timothy 2:2). What makes discipleship at LUG so unique, however, is that the Middle School students are poured into by the High School students! The fruit of this operation is amazing, I am constantly blown away by the amazingness of our leaders, and I love seeing it happen every week.

High School and Middle School students getting in the Word together

Getting started with journals

If you want to check out LUG for yourself, we stream online live tonight from 6-8pm right over here.

Question: Who has had a valuable impact on your life? Why/How?

My friend Gardner sent me an e-mail with an incredible video. In the e-mail, he said the following:

“Last Tuesday a friend of mine from high school was killed in a head on collision.
I’ve been struggling all week wondering where Bobby would spend eternity because I was fairly confident he had never accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. Bobby was a wild kid, acquainted with every drug known to man, and lately struggling with severe depression.”

With that being said, this video is pretty incredible, and well worth your time:

We talk a lot about Kairos Moments at church. In the Greek New Testament, there are two main words for “time.” The first is “kronos” and the second is “kairos.” Kronos is where we get the word “Chronology,” and it simply means the time on your watch.

Kairos, on the other hand, means the time of fulfillment. It is a specific moment when the course of one’s life is changed. A great example is in Mark 1:15 when Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” A kairos moment, then, is any time we encounter God and we choose to act on it.

In the above video, both Jose and Bobby had an encounter with God. Both of them chose to follow God, and the results are nothing short of miraculous.

Yes, it is extremely sad that Bobby died in the car accident. We should weep at the loss, just like Jesus did when Lazarus died. But we have hope, because Jose encountered God and chose not to ignore him, and Bobby met God and chose not to reject Him.

How will you act when you encounter God? What do you think you will miss out on if you choose to ignore or reject Him?

It’s my first legitimate music video! This project was so much fun. All year I wanted to get a great recording of worship at LUG because it is so crazy to see. Every time I watch our Middle Schoolers worshipping God the way they do I think to myself, “this shouldn’t be happening.” But God doesn’t care what society says should or shouldn’t happen. When He wants to move, He moves!

My good friend David Dalton is one of the worship leaders at LUG. He wrote a song for LUG, “Not Afraid,” and we knew it was the perfect song to be our first music video (we have a couple more coming out throughout the year). Thanks to his incredible work and an excellent production team, this video came together in a pretty cool way.

The video was filmed with 9 different cameras, which resulted in a massive edit, but I definitely think it was worth it. The coolest thing is how many middle and high school students were involved in this production. Our student team included 5 cameramen, 2 grips, 2 lighting directors, 2 words on the screen guys, and 1 video director. The results were amazing!

Enough talk. You can watch the video right here. I hope it blesses you the way it has blessed me.

You can buy David’s song on iTunes by clicking here: Not Afraid

I just finished a video for the Grace Student Ministries website. The goal of the video is to show people who we are, what we do well, and hopefully to get them interested in some of our materials.

For all of our flaws, we have had some success with youth ministry and want to help others find success in reaching the next generation. We want to enable students to become leaders, but we are not satisfied with it ending there. We want student leaders who can teach others how to become leaders as well.

Here’s the video, let me know what you think!

If you enjoyed the worship footage, get ready because we filmed a couple full length songs last night with 9 different cameras with the purpose of putting them all online!

I have gotten really into doing short and sweet videos lately. Most of them have been based on commercials. Not super original, but very effective and funny. Easy to make as well. None of them are over 1 minute, so you have time to watch them all! Here are a few of them:

1) Ray Lewis Old Spice Spoof for TNVA videos:

2) Geico Spoof for 30 Below:

3) This one is a favorite of mine, because the students were 100% responsible for making it. It is so awesome to see them doing great work! Old Spice Spoof for Infusion:

4) This is not a spoof, but a movie trailer made through iMovie 11′s templates, which are pretty awesome and epic. This is made for the TNVA’s:

A few things are finally here.

1) Breathing room! I have been working around the clock to complete some seminary work and prepare for 30 Below, our high school retreat. They are now both done, which gives me some space to live!

2) I watched the Oscars last night. Much more enjoyable with DVR and the fast forward button. I thought the stage looked amazing, the hosts were mediocre, and I am glad Inception won 4 oscars, though it deserved more.

3) I have a feeling one of the videos we made for 30 Below will be nominated at next year’s Oscars. It is one of my best, so please enjoy it and share it with your friends. To preface, it stars “Lil’ Neon,” the true genius behind Justin Bieber’s success. Neon wrote all of Justin’s classics, but the Biebs stole all his work and tweaked the lyrics a little bit. Lil’ Neon refused to take it anymore and so he made his own epic music video.

A while back, I wrote out a story about the Way I fell in love with Morgan. You can read it right here: CLICK!

Or, you can watch this video of me telling it for our Pursuing Passion Weekend! I also give some insight into what love actually means…

Today we premiered the biggest project I have made in my life. It is called the TrueNorth Vision Video, and it was a beast. I started filming in March and have been working on it on and off since then. It was a really fun project and I was honored to tell the stories of some of our students. I know its longer than normal, but I think it turned out really good so I hope you enjoy it. We got the idea from Hillsong Church’s vision video, so if you have ever seen that you may see some of the tributes (or blatant rip-offs) of their creative ideas.

If you have ever wondered what video editing looks like, I decided to include this picture so you can see how many edits and layers there are. The top section is video and the bottom is audio. There are actually a few more layers, both higher and lower, but they couldn’t fit. Anyway, I thought some people may be interested in seeing what video editing looks like:

This version is not as exciting. Especially since I deleted all the media before taking the snapshot.