I would like to welcome Sherry Moorhead to the blogosphere!  Sherry serves as the Volunteer Director at NewSpring Church.  Sherry is passionate about seeing people get connected to an area of ministry where they can serve out of their gifts and strengths.  Head on over to www.sherrymoorhead.wordpress.com.  Be sure to bookmark it, add it to your RSS Reader, etc.

Matter of fact, she has a great post on Active Impact.

Welcome Sherry!

One of the greatest youth workers I know passed away … Raymond Patrick Downer went to be with the Lord on Friday, March 30, 2007. Mr. Downer was an awesome man of God, that stood “tall” in our world allowing his light shine for all the world to see.

You see, Mr. Downer was 84 years young when the Lord called him home. Some of you may be wondering how Mr. Downer could be one of the greatest youth workers I have known. Well, allow me to explain:

Mr. Downer had a huge impact on my life. He was an older gentleman that saw something in me. He would always make an intentional effort to talk to me, to ask me how I was doing, and how he could pray for me. As a youth, I was a little scared of the older gentleman coming up to me and asking me these questions. So, naturally, at first I was standoffish and did not say much. Just gave the typically, “Yeah. Uh,huh. Nothing.”, but that NEVER deterred him from making an investment into me!

After sometime, I grew very fond of him and became very thankful for him taking the time to ask and truly caring enough of me to ask. This continued all through my high school years (Fast forward a bit…while I was away at college he would ask my mom every week those same questions and would then ask me every time he saw me. )

Mr. Downer loved Jesus, his family, his church, young people, and sports. Those loves in his life always shined through him.

Mr Downer and some of his close buddies would always trek out to Memorial Stadium in Florence, SC every Friday Night to watch the High School teams play. Of the three high schools in Florence, it did not matter who was playing…they were there…watching…cheering…making predictions…and loving life.

This held true for every single high football game I played at home. He was always there…watching…cheering…making predictions…and loving life. I came to expect him to be there at those games. I remember that each time I would come off the field after making a big catch or scoring a touchdown I would always look and point to my family and Mr. Downer. Not only in my times of success, but also my times of failure (missing a block, getting a penalty called, etc.) he still had a smile on his face and was proud of me.

You see, Mr. Downer cared about me as a person and he made an investment in me. He never taught me Sunday School, never really led me in any official role, but he cared. He showed he cared by talking to me, praying for me, being present in my life, and following up with me.

Those are the types of youth workers we need: those who will show they care by talking to students, pray for them, be present in their lives, and follow up with them. May I be as good a youth worker as Ray Downer. If I am, then lives will be impacted through the power of Jesus.

Last night was our last IGNITE service at the Fusebox at the Anderson Mall. We are moving to a new facility called “The 2Seven”. We also finished up our series called Prison break. We spent the time discussing issues that keep us locked in prison and away from what God has called us to do. Shame, Guilt, Anger, and Jealousy were the main discussion topics, but last night we also threw in some others such as: pornography, cutting, suicidal thoughts, and cheating.

One of the highlights of the night, was when Andrew Sentell, Meagan Gregory, and Tiffany Sellers came out and sang an acoustic version of “I Need You to Love Me” by Barlow Girl. Take some time to go and read the lyrics to the song, even go to I-Tunes and buy the darn thing and listen to it.

The night was geared towards presenting the gospel in a clear understandable way. Well, the best part of the whole night was when we we had 5 students accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. It was awesome. We also had numerous students say they are tired of playing games and they want to take their relationship to the next level with Jesus.

After IGNITE, the volunteers all went to Chili’s for our First Sunday Meeting. I always love hanging out with our volunteer leaders. During this time we always hand out our Phenomenal Awards. These awards go to volunteers who have done something PHENOMENAL throughout the month.

Here are the Phenomenal Award Winners for this month:

• Meagan Gregory: Phenomenal Witness in the Workplace
• David Fisher: Phenomenal Ability to Plan and Execute a Small Group Activity
• Ali Henson: Phenomenal Ability to Assist and take care of our leaders and observers
• Sean Gaffney: Phenomenal Service In and Outside of IGNITE.

I think I got all those right…but, if I didn’t they are really close!

Also tonight is stay-at-home date night. Deanna and I are ordering a pizza and renting a movie. We are having a time to just hang out together. I can’t wait to just chill with the most awesome woman in the world! Peace!

Yesterday was the First Sunday of April, that means we always go out to eat as a youth volunteer staff. We always eat at the Chili’s in Anderson They always give us great service, they never mind that we take up half the restaurant and create ALL the noise.

The awesome volunteers that were given a Phenomenal were:

• Dale Sellers: Phenomenal Ability and Dedication. Dale is ALWAYS there at IGNITE. He has been running our lights for a while and does a GREAT job. Dale has a PASTOR’S heart! He loves people and loves students. I am so thankful to have him apart of the IGNITE team!
• Keri Holder: Phenomenal Encouragement. Keri has the unbelievable gift of encouragement. She has encouraged so many of our leaders since she has joined the IGNITE team. **I get the awesome privilege to be able to officiate her wedding to Mr. Jonathan Unsworth on June 2, 2007! I am really excited about being a part of their special day!**
• Mike Smith: Phenomenal Husband, Dad, and Leader. Mike has been “that” guy in my life since coming to NewSpring. I will never forget sitting on his front porch along with his family and talking about ministry and them welcoming us to NewSpring. since that time our friendship has grown tremendously! I have the utmost respect for Mike, because he loves his family, his Lord, and his church.
• Ryan Sutherland: Phenomenal Creativity. Ryan is the reason for our MADE Videos that we did a couple of weeks back. He came up with the idea, took the pics for each shot, made the set, and then assisted in putting them in video form. I referenced all of the videos in a post back on March 5, 2007. Be sure to check them out here. Dude, you rock! Keep using your talents for Jesus!

A little over two weeks ago, I went to Willow Creek Church for SHIFT Student Leadership Conference. It was a great trip and awesome time to learn from and network with youth leaders from all over the country.

During that time, there was something that was happening back home in South Carolina that I did not know about. There were some IGNITE volunteer leaders messing with my car. When I say messing with, I mean giving it some tender, loving, care. A group of about 39 or so IGNITE leaders, were taking my car to get detailed (cleaned, waxed, etc.), getting a full service oil change, getting my headlights changed, along with getting the casing for the headlights burnished.

For a long time now, my lights worked, but I could not see all the light that the headlights were given off because the casing for the lights was very foggy. A couple weeks back, I was having a conversation with a couple of volunteers and we were all talking about issues with our individual cars. I mentioned my headlights and the issue I was having with them. I said that i had gotten so used to it that there was no need to get them fixed. One of those volunteers heard that and ran with it.

When we returned it was about 1:00 AM, I could not see my car real well, but I noticed my hands were sliding on the steering wheel. I also thought that my lights were brighter, but I had been driving another car all week, so I didn’t think much about it. I got home and park my car in the garage and look at my car and it was clean and shiny! I looked at my headlights and the casing was clear. I was blown away! My wife greeted me at the door with a smile, and asked if I noticed a difference.

What a HUGE blessing!

To ALL the IGNITE Volunteer Leaders: I am still blown away by the generosity and thoughtfulness of all the volunteers that contributed to giving my car such a clean up job! You guys rock! Each week, you make IGNITE happen through setting up the stage, running check-in, setting up the chairs, straighten up the Fusebox, leading your small groups, and much more! You bless me each week by serving Jesus and serving our students, so this messes me up that you would do this as well. I consider it a privilege to minister alongside each of you! Keep rockin it out for Jesus!

On the First Sunday of each month we present the Phenomenal Awards. These are given to leaders who do something PHENOMENAL during the previous month, some are serious and some are not so serious.

This has become something that the staff and leaders look forward to each month to see who we are going to pick. And now…presenting the Phenomenal Awards for March of 2007:

• Matt Broderick: Phenomenal Phantom Award - Matt is our phantom leader. If you did not know Matt you would know that he was there. He is so stinking quiet. He leads a group of our 6th Grade guys, which he is awesome at doing. Matt leads by example, not a HUGE vocal leader, but one that you can ALWAYS count on and is SOLID to the core. Matt, you ROCK!!! Thank you for all you do!!

• Deanna Ellis: Phenomenal Servanthood without Prompting Award - This person is absolutely AMAZING!! Deanna got this award for always being willing to serve without being asked. She is consistently looking for areas that needs assistance and then gives her help. Not to mention is she is an awesome worker, but she is even more of an AMAZING wife. I love her so much and each day, I fall more in love with her each and every day. Deanna has been so supportive of the ministry that God has placed us in. She is such a great pastor’s wife; she is bold when she needs to smack me down, full of compassion and mercy, full of Jesus, and willing to serve. Needless to say, SHE IS AMAZING!!!

• Kelley Amick: Phenomenal Fastest Check-In - Each week Kelley takes our front check-in station and just gets our students check in so fast. Her line is always moving at a great speed. A part of the reason that she gets students checked in so fast is that she knows the students names and information. When she does not know the student’s, she always has another student beside that does. This is important because if it takes too long to get students checked in the become disengaged.

• Gil Karkins: Phenomenal Slumber/Ability to Sleep Through an Ignite Service - This one was hilarious. A couple of weeks ago, Gil showed up to IGNITE very tired. Well…in an effort to lead his small group with a lot of energy, he decided to sleep in the service. It had to be one of the funniest things that has happened with our leaders. Gil has been a champ about it, through all the picking, teasing, laughing that has come from that wonderful time.

I always look forward to this time, because we laugh so much and celebrate our leaders; as they pour so much into our students!

We just finished a series at IGNITE called MADE. Our volunteers wanted to do a video series for the intro of the sessions, so we gave them the FREEDOM and let them run with it. It is a claymation. Most Awesome. It is amazing and this is volunteers using thier gifts for the kingdom!!

Do yourself a favor and check them out! Yes, this was done by our volunteer leaders!!!!

Week 1: Iggy’s New Heelys
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FKojW6U00o”>

Week 2: Iggy’s Suprise

Week 3: Iggy’s Friend from Space

Ryan, Matt, Caleb…You Rock My FACE OFF!!!

By the way, sorry for the break in posting. Been busy traveling checking out a potential resort for our summer youth camp!

Tonight, we started a tradition where we are going to give away awards to our volunteer leaders at the beginning of each month. It was WELL received!

Allow me to share with you how the name for the award originated. At the end of each IGNITE; we gather the leaders together for a meeting to share any important information, training, etc. Well, I typically always take that opportunity to encourage and cast vision. (Side Note: Ministry leaders, anytime you get the opportunity to have the ear of all your leaders: CAST VISION! When you finish…CAST VISION some more.) Most of the time while encouraging the leaders, I would typically use the word PHENOMENAL. The leaders caught on to it and basically HARASSED me when I would use the word. It became a HUGE inside joke between me and our leaders.

So, I told my staff that I wanted to recognize our leaders once a month. I asked how we could do that and this is what we decided to do each month.

The IGNITE Staff is on the front row and the reciepents are on the second row (left to right): Scott Murray, Shelley Dixon, Brandon Long, Matt Feiling.

Tonight, we gave away 4 awards! Here are the recipients and the reason for their award:

• Scott Murray for Phenomenal Attitude. A couple of weeks ago, we started a time for our Team leaders to spend intentional time with their small group leaders. At the end, Scott was so excited about that time. His expression was something close to, “WOW! That was awesome. That was a great time to connect with my leaders. Thank you so much!”

• Shelley Dixon for Phenomenal Leadership. Shelley has done an AWESOME job at a Team Leader. Each week she makes an intentional effort to lead by example for her leaders, she also makes the effort to contact her leaders each week to pray for them and with them. Shelly is a mother of one of our students, by the way, her son LOVES is that his mom is involved.

• Brandon Long for Phenomenal Service. Brandon has made the intentional effort to put up chairs for the past couple of weeks at the end of our service. Not only did he put up the chairs, but he also took upon himself without being asked to MOP the floors. That is HUGE!!!

• Matt Feiling (first from right on second row) for Phenomenal Ability. Where do I begin? This dude it the man! Anyone ever heard of DDR (Dance, Dance, Revolution)? Well, this guy can tear it up! Some of you would say that is not that big of a deal, but this guy is 6’7” with a size 17 shoe! This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I am amazed each time that I see him do DDR. I am hoping that this will be a video soon for IGNITE. Also he plays a great GIANT in our videos we shot for IGNITE.

To each of you: THANK YOU for loving Jesus and loving middle school students! You rock and are PHENOMENAL Leaders!

If you don’t already do something like this, take the time to brainstorm what would be the best thing for you to do and DO IT! Take the time to honor your leaders for all that they pour into the ministry! They deserve it!