RevBlog

It's been a day since we got back from camp and I am still exhausted! I think the 6 months leading to camp a lot of us we're very hmm . . . curious, how camp would be at the "Church in the Cornfield". After all, we're used to hosting our own camp (JAC) and the past two years we've gone to a camp in Erie, PA. I think a lot of us asked the question... can God move in IL? (Joke) 13 hours bus ride, no cell phones or ipods, could we survive?

Now that camp is over I can look back and say that I was more than pleased with everything! I really enjoyed the way they had their days formatted, the services, reflection times, games, the camp rules, the lakes, the food, the services, their leaders, and staff. I would definitely go back to this camp.

Here is a list of my highlights:

• 13 hours bus ride - Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Napoleon Dynamite, The Lion King, McD's and Burger King
• Frogs in the Swimming Pool, Poster for ticks
• The lake - Game with the inflatable balls, tug of war, trampoline, paddle boats, the bridge . . . biathlon, water ball, spasswords, name that price,
  
• Jesse Swanson - Movie Previews, Girls being "gangstas" and rapping, the "Bubba" dance, America's got Talent before meals, my long socks new fashion style, my new short pink socks, running camera every night (my new calling!), G squared, Twix Ice Cream Bars!!!,
  
• Sleeping in 1 room with 100 guys...
  

Spiritually:

For myself... this was a bit different coming from a leadership perspective. I absolutely loved watching everyone in our group experience God for themselves. Watching everyone worship, pray for one another, and encouraging one another was absolutely priceless for me. I really don't think there is any greater joy that I experience in life (Until I get married haha). I also really enjoyed having reflection time each morning with our youth group. It was really cool getting to hear what God was doing in each of your lives and the passion in each of your hearts to make a difference in this world.

The best night was Tuesday night for me... having all the students of Rev come up and lay hands on Sean and I was such an awesome thing. God changed my life that night!

What were some of your favorite memories from camp? Have a camp testimony? We'd love to hear from you!!!

If you were really touched by camp, I would suggest e-mailing a testimony to their church's staff. You can find the link to their church on the camp website.

This Wednesday we will be having testimonies from camp as well as highlight video's at our 4th of July Party. Be there!

I thought my first post would be a recap from Summer Scream Camp (which was awesome.) However, when we got back to the church at 3:15 a.m. Saturday morning, Madeline called me into my cube because she said someone left me a message. One student told me another student had fallen and gotten a bloody nose (the last thing I wanted to deal with after a 14 hour bus ride.) As I walked back to my cube, I saw it was surrounded by campers laughing... This is what they were looking at:

So...

I've decided that while the staff is away, the Vogan will play. If you want in on some super-secret ultra-covert fantastic prank action hit this up with a comment or send me an e-mail at cory@rev412.org and we will have a good bit of devious fun. Just to whet your appetite, think aluminum foil and balloons.

Oh, and I shall post photo's of the results shortly after.

Summer camp is finally here! We're heading out on a 10-12 hour bus ride tomorrow baby! This should be exciting stuff. Sean wants to have the Lord of the Rings trilogy going on one bus and Star Wars on the other bus. I'm down... I think that is every ones dream... to take an entire day and just watch an entire trilogy, but it never seems to happen because we're too busy. Anyway... I always get off topic . . .

Zack Blair will be running the show while we're gone so do not miss Rev! Zack is the man! Since the camp is taking away all technology, I am not sure if I'll be able to Twitter or post any blogs... in either case I'll have a post with funny pictures and stories from throughout the week. I'll miss you all... Cory is in charge of blogging while I'm gone... so if the blogs are "weird"...that is why.

We're expecting God to do huge things at this camp and to come back with all of our students sold out to God and ready to head into the Fall ready to go out and get 300 students to Rev every Wednesday night! (That is the number God has put on our hearts to reach this fall... if not more... More on that later...)

Much Love...Bubs

Ok . . . Just when I was getting over the MySpace and Facebook phenomenon, Cory Vogan gets me completely hooked on this new service called Twitter. (He has powers(like the force) that allow him to influence people to use all the newest technology fads) I remember I was like I will never use Twitter... he waved his hand at me and said You will use twitter... and I responded, "I will use Twitter" and I have and now I am hooked!

Twitter is basically a micro-blogging community. It's a place where you can update via web or txt what you're doing and inform people. I like it because you can follow people and see what they do in everyday life. For instance, I follow Doug Fields who is Rick Warrens Youth Pastor. It is interesting to see what a normal day looks like to him through his Twitter updates.

Anyway... Try this site out and see if you get hooked... if you don't...Trust me, Cory will find you whether you like it or not!

Here are some Rev Twitters you can check out and see if you like:

Rev - www.twitter.com/rev4u
Bubba - www.twitter.com/BubbaSmith
Sean - http://www.twitter.com/smoore001526
Cory - www.twitter.com/coryv

Tweet on....

It was so nice to have Pastor Larry come back to Revolution. He has made such an incredible impact on all of our lives. The service brought back so many good memories! He spoke on the "5 Greatest Adventure Statements of Jesus". It was a fantastic message and then we went into a time of worship with Sean. We spent the whole time singing "Wrap me in Your Arms" (My favorite) and PL had everyone pray with each other. I really enjoy when he does this and it is something that I want to implement at Rev in the upcoming months. Overall it was a great night and it was an honor to have Pastor Larry come back and share. We're going to try to set up another date in the next few months for him to come back and share. Thank you Pastor Larry!

Key Takeaway for me:

• God cares more about you than what you do for Him

I've heard that before from PL, but as I grow spiritually and the more I reflect on that... the more life changing I find that single statement to be.

If you missed service, please listen to the podcast here.

What did you like best about PL's message?

Pastor Larry will be our guest speaker tomorrow night at Revolution (6.18.08). It has almost been a year since Pastor Larry left Revolution to start his own ministry (click here for PL's website.)

I've been trying for two months, but have come up short in an attempt to get a donkey for Pastor Larry to ride in on while giving all the students palm leaves . . . better luck next time.

Pastor Larry has been the most influential man in my life and in the lives of hundreds of teenagers, twenty-somethings, and leaders lives. Make sure you invite your friends to come hear this incredible man of God. See you tomorrow night!

Today, in fact, was the first day of the 412 summer of service, and it was good. For those nine of you that were there you may or may not agree. I happen to think that we have laid the groundwork for what will be the best summer of service yet, but then I am rather biased. We watched some Ron Luce and John Maxwell (Bubba's hero), and got all of the formalities out of the way. And then they stuffed seat pockets, which I think will become one of the favorite activities for the students.

It is true, most of the work that they will be doing will be tedious and seemingly pointless, but it all has a purpose. Jesus, a favorite of mine, said that you must be faithful in the small things in order to be responsible in the big things. And right now those small things include stuffing seat pockets with the red card slightly tilted to the right along with two pens.

Congratulations to all of those that will be slaving, I mean working with the ladies, Bubba and myself. It should be a fun time.

This book has been in my library for a few years now and I've finally read it. Does anyone else have a library that keeps growing while you've only read about 20% of the books in it? I originally bought it because I've heard so many leaders rant and rave about how great of a book this was. It's on John Maxwell's Lifetime Must Read List.

The beginning of the book was a little slow, but after a few chapters, I could not put it down! This was the first book I've read that was specifically about one leaders life. I am usually just reading books with leadership principles in them. I thought it was absolutely fascinating to read about how Abraham Lincoln lived his life and led our country through the hardest time in its history. I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys history and leadership and wants practical application of leadership principles and concepts.

After reading this book, I've decided that I am going to make a habit of reading biographies and autobiographies of great leaders of the past and present. (Another Bubba Kick...Whew!)

Grade: B+ Buy This Book Here.

I just finished this book by my hero, John Maxwell! This review could be slightly (I stress slightly) bias. One of my goals in life is to read every book that John Maxwell has written.

This book is actually one of his earlier books that they just recently republished and revised it. He wrote it when he was still the Pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego. It is a combination of a lot of the leadership lessons he taught his staff on a month to month basis. I couldn't resist!

The book has 13 chapters and is a really easy read. He really teaches a lot on vision and commitment. One of the things I really enjoyed about this book is he used scripture as the foundation. I loved being able to look into the scriptures through Maxwell's eyes because he is so focused on leadership that he pulls out amazing things from the scriptures that I would normally tend to overlook.

Here are some of the key nuggets I got while reading this book:

• If something is to be in my life, then it's up to me!

• Success is the privilege of contributing to the betterment of others!

• To be all I can be, I need to help you be all you can be!

• The only one who can stop you from becoming the person God intends you to be is you!

• The Road to Success is paved with criticism

• Behind every great accomplishment is a purpose, not a wish. Our purpose is what keeps us from giving up.

• If you're in leadership . . . you will get hurt.

• People want success without sacrifice, but it never works that way

• When someone succeeds in life the world looks back and wonders how these successful people got so lucky. Luck had nothing to do with it; they were simply willing to do what all the rest of the people were unwilling to do.

• We see problems based on our past experiences, present environment, and personal evaluation.

• "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." -Abe Lincoln.... learn to fail forward!

• If you become secure in God, you will gain a freedom that people can never give you!

These were just some of the key nuggets that stuck out... I didn't want to take up too much space. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. You can never read enough of these kinds of books that encourage you and challenge you to dream bigger than you currently are.

Buy it here.
Final Grade: B

If you like this stuff let me know and we'll make it a weekly feature. But for now just enjoy.

• Harry Potter fans of the world rejoice! The unicorn really does exist... Kind of.
• "He told his friend he didn't know where the nail went, but he felt a sting on the top of his head."
• Nice try "scientific community," but Pluto's feelings won't be mended so easily.
• Of course... The turtle goes right next to the soap you silly health inspectors.
• Garbage Dump + Prayer = $200,000.
  

I can't believe Impartation is over already. We've been waiting an entire year for this and now it is gone. What an amazing conference though! I felt like a little kid on the last day of summer camp, not wanting to go home. This conference will have a lifetime impact on me... I'm really excited to start implementing what I learned in my everyday life. If you were unable to attend a session I cannot encourage you enough to listen to them. You can download all of them at www.lifeatvictory.com/podcasts

Here are some of my favorite nuggets from day 3:

Doug Jones:

• A teachable spirit and maturity go hand in hand with one another
• 2 reasons for teaching are to form and strengthen beliefs
• You can't keep false doctrine from coming, but you can lessen the impact if you teach people properly before hand
• The purpose of our beliefs is to govern what we think, say, and do
• You cannot be governed by two things at the same time... you'll either be governed by the Word or your flesh
• Areas in our lives where we're bearing fruit -> we're mature and spiritual
• Areas in our lives that we're frustrated -> we're carnal and immature
• Our goal as Christians is to disconnect our flesh from governing what we think, say, and do
• If you're not saying no to several thoughts a day... you're not being governed by what you believe
• Every problem, every person we encounter, and every command from God will demand a response. How we respond will determine the outcome!
• You're initial response to something does not have to be you're permanent response

Keith Moore:

• We need to move beyond knowing God can do something to expecting Him to do something!
• People who want church to be a half an hour service aren't expecting anything... if they were expecting... they'd want to stay all night!

Please let us know what some of your highlights were from Impartation!

Much love...

The second day of the Impartation Conference was awesome!

Here are my highlights:

Doug Jones:

• We need to be able to look in our own lives and judge ourselves to whether or not we're carnal or spiritual
  
• It's possible to go from being a spiritual baby to spiritual maturity in 4-7 years!
• Everyone starts on the same step when it comes to spiritual growth
• To Grow spiritually you must give attention to spiritual growth, get fed the proper food, and exercise your faith!
• If you have favorite teachers in the body you're carnal (I didn't like this one!! haha)
  
• You're spiritually mature when you have control over your flesh
• 3 Reasons people abandon their beliefs: Problems, False Doctrine, and the Good life
• We should come to church with the purpose of forming and strengthening our beliefs with the Word of God!

Keith Moore:

• Don't talk unbelief about your city, area, local schools
• God won't let someone who is expecting be disappointed!
• God is not moved by needs or desperation
• "There is something about faith that will cause God to skip over a million people to come to you!" -Smith Wigglesworth
• Faith is the substance of what you expect.
• The Word is a closed book to unbelievers!

Love you Guys!

Bubs

For those of you in the know, we have our annual 4:12 summer of service is getting ready to kick off. I've spent most of the day working on technical behind the scenes sort of stuff that should make this the most effective summer we have seen yet. I am quite excited about it. I'll be heading in to the office all day tomorrow to meet with Bubba and the team to work out the nitty-gritty and get things set for the best summer yet.

Oh, and for those of you that are leading the pack in webtastic nerdcentric fun, I am now rocking on twitter. But please keep the techno-stalking to a minimum. You will see another familiar face on there as well.

Shalom.

Today was the first day with Doug Jones and Keith Moore! It was everything I expected and more!

If you're unable to make it to any of the services for any reason they are live streaming on the internet. I've heard awesome things about this.
To watch go here .

Here are the key nuggets I got out of the messages:

Doug Jones:
Scriptures: I Peter 5:1-4, Hebrews 13:20, John 10:11, I Cor. 3:9, II Cor. 5:20; Phil 2:19-22

• Never let what you're going through personally to sidetrack you from being concerned about others.
  
• We not only need to know who God is, and what He does, but we also need to know His interests!
• His Interests are:
• The Lost (In the Gospels)
• Getting People Spirit Filled (Acts)
• Getting people to grow up spiritually (Epistles)

• If you want God to speak to you... start talking to Him about what He's interested in! He'll start speaking to you all the time!
• The only people that will go places are those who have the Father's interests as their own!
  

Keith Moore:
Scriptures: Hebrews 11:6, Psalm 27:13, Matt. 14:26

• Anytime you're looking at something that seems to big -> You're not looking at God!
• God is waiting on us to believe!
• We must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! Heb. 11:7
• Most Christians believe God is, unfortunately a lot do not believe He is a rewarder.
  
• Start confessing over your life: Something good is about to happen to me!

I'm so excited to hear these guys on Tuesday and Wednesday! If you missed the messages and would like to hear them you can download them here.

We'd love it if you shared with us you're favorite nuggets from the services... feel free to post comments!

Love you guys!

Bubs

So just to mix things up a bit, here are Sean's Songs to Give a Chance. I purposely threw in some variety where genre is concerned, so feel free to love, hate, and comment.

P.S. the "Untitled" song is "Now is the Time" by Slick Shoes. It's ace.

The Impartation Conference kicked off last night with Pastor Duane Sheriff spoke on Vision, Patience, and Problems. It was a great message! Here we're some of my favorite nuggets:

"God has a plan for your life and He wants to do a lot more than just fix your problem."

"Character is not always a moral issue, it is a maturity issue"

Count it a joy when you're going through problems (James 1:2). Why?:

Your Problems -> Works Patience -> You Mature -> End Result: You're complete, lacking and wanting nothing!

"Most people don't want help, they want relief. They don't want to and aren't willing to go through the process they need to in order to get help."

"Every problem will open up doors for you to overcome it, mature, and then help other people through it. Ultimately it is to benefit other people!"

What we're some of the best things you took away from the message? Leave some comments!

Doug Jones and Keith Moore tomorrow!! I can't wait!

See you there!

-Bubs

The Impartation Conference officially started tonight and runs through Wednesday (June 7th - 11th)! I cannot encourage you enough to make it to as many of these meetings as you can. Come with an open heart and expect God to do huge things in your lives over the next few days. Here is the schedule of the sessions:

Sunday - 9 and 11 a.m. - Duane Sheriff

Sunday - 7 p.m. - Pastor Duane Sheriff

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Mornings - 10 a.m.: Rev. Doug Jones

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Evenings - 7 p.m.: Pastor Keith Moore

The youth center will be open every evening for an hour before service. Light snacks will be provided.

We will not have Revolution on Wednesday night, everyone is encouraged to go to the evening session with Keith Moore.

I am pumped up about this event! Sean, Zack, and I have been waiting for this for a year and now it is finally here! We hope to see you there!

Much love...Bubs

It's graduation time all over the country so we took a few moments to recognize our seniors in high school at Revolution as well as Vanessa Phillips who has interned for Rev for an entire year! We had an amazing group of seniors this year! In fact, when I first came to Revolution in 2003 (after I graduated high school), these guys were just starting out as 7th graders at Rev. So it was a very special time for me since I got to see all of them grow up in the youth group!

Last night we kicked off our series called "The One". We are taking the entire month of June to teach all about Jesus.

Zack Blair led worship for us! It was sweet!

Sean spoke and his message was called: "Who is Jesus" and he answered three basic questions about Jesus:

1. Who did Jesus claim to be?
2. Did Jesus ever sin?
3. What makes Jesus so different?

My favorite part was when Sean reminded us that we are called to be imitators of Christ and that our call really is to be just like Jesus. That is what "The One" is all about... learning all about Him so we can learn to be like him.

We had two students give their life to Christ! Whew!

After service we opened up the youth center for the Pens game. It was a good time even though we lost to the Red Wings 3-2. We'll get them next year...

We have a ton of awesome things coming up for Rev... I'm pretty pumped up about it! See you this weekend!

-Bubs

So, I just looked over the service format for this evening, and it looks to be a jolly good time. Tonight it's the Sean Moore/Zack Blair show. I do enjoy it when Mr. Blair makes an appearance at the old Rev service. I have included (without his knowledge) a lovely picture from our photo shoot this afternoon of the one I know as smoore.

-Cory

My first post!

-Cory