At World's End

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

If you love piracy, mayhem, and backstabbing, then you'll like this end all third part. I discovered that I looked at my watch a lot. I found it hard to keep track of who lies to who and who deceives whom. Multiple duplicity tangled the movie up and I lost the story. The opening scene is hard to watch with adults killed and even one child. In short, I found it too long, too confusing, and too violent (I would have made it an R-movie).

Action scenes and special effects filled the screen . The effect was distracting and diluting the story. As Josh and I chatted, you may find it difficult to follow as well. I wonder when you see it if you could comment by answering three questions according to your opinion:

1. What did you discover as the main theme/story?


2. What did you discern is the difference between what is portrayed in the movie and what the Bible says about those same things?


3. What will you decide to do? Watch it again? Watch it with friends? Watch it again and figure out how you can use the movie as a way to bring God up in a discussion with friends?

Some reviews to compare: Plugged In Online & Yahoo Movies Roundup. Please add your comment.

Pastor D

Pastor D: I am the interim Director of Student Ministries & Single Adults at Northwest Chapel. I enjoy playing basketball, watching sports, spending time with my family, dreaming about what God has in store for my life, and reading books to learn more about my life and my place in the world.

The Student Connection:

I direct the ministries of students from age 11 through mid-twenties, students in sixth grade through college. Northwest Chapel seeks to help students find, follow, and share Christ. I facilitate this mission by focusing on five functions: Contact, Welcome, Connect, Equip, & Mobilize. Each function has its focus and goals. Presently I am focusing on Connect & Equip (Sunday morning ministries). As I move into summer ministry programming, I am shifting to target Mobilize and Contact (Service opportunities & Summer Activities). This summer I will get two interns for training, developing, and nurturing.

What is in my iPod? I don't own one. But if I did it would reflect the full spectrum of music. I am an ecclectic. So I enjoy a lot of music. Bryan Adams, U2, Brooks & Dunn, Johnny Cash, KJ-52, P.O.D., Ottmar Liebert, Bach & Beethoven, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Switchfoot, Chris Tomlin, Stellar Kart, Jeremy Camp, Pillar, Fly Leaf, John Mayer, Sugarland, George Strait, John Mellencamp, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Kook & the Gang, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Leeland, The Ramones, Keith Urban, Los Lonely Boys, BB King, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy.

What movies am I renting? I rarely rent movies. I usually rent them for my children. But I have rented more movies searching for clips to reinforce lessons for Sunday morning teachings. I also love to re-watch older movies that I already know--Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Spiderman I & II, Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Clint Eastwood movies esp. Heartbreak Ridge, Mission Impossible.

What books am I reading? I am presently reading John Eldridge's book The Journey of Desire; Andy Stanley Next Generation Leader, James Emery White A Mind for God, Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz The Power of Full Engagement, Mortimer Adler How to Read a Book, Haroly Myra & Marshall Shelly The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham.

High School Sunday Series

New Classroom change for This Sunday

This Sunday morning you will gather in Room 121 for our next session. So look for directional signs. You will gather in room 121 downstairs for our high school hour. Thanks.

Pastor D

New Summer Intern Middle School Ministries

Please welcome Josh Placeway! Josh graduated from Grace College onMay 5 with a double major in Biblical Studies and Youth Ministries. His track was the The National Institute (TNI) the youth ministry major at Grace College located in Winona Lake, Indiana. The program is run by CE National.

The National Institute equips individuals for youth ministry through academic pursuits and practical experiences in order to lead andminister in a local church, para-church,cross-cultural, or camp setting. He is presently serving as Middle School Youth Intern.

If you missed this Sunday, Josh introduced himself and you would have discovered some things. Josh enjoys reading, playing and watching sports, hanging out with students, and rooting for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

He is the youngest of three in his family. He has an older brother and sister. Josh will return to Grace Theological Seminary this Fall after his internship.

What's on Josh's iPod?

Coldplay; Copeland ; John Mayer; U2; Darkroom; Snow Patrol; Jack Johnson.

What's are Josh's favorite movies?
Hoosiers; Patch Adams; Apollo 13; The Incredibles; That Thing You Do; The Sandlot.

What books is Josh reading?

The Cost of Discipleship By Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry By Doug Fields; Experiencing Jesus By T.D. Jakes; Pierced By the Word By John Piper; The Last Word By N.T. Wright

Pastor D

High School Sunday Mornings

How to Develop Healthy Relationships

This week you will discover why expectations may lead to disappointment in relationships. You will learn how to develop trust and how to measure reliance on someone else as you seek to build a healthy relationship. Every student needs to figure out how to measure how much you can trust someone and how much you can rely on anyone. These skills will help you in any relationship that seeks to honor God.

So come and learn how to grow in your understanding of trust and reliance in relationships. Ask a friend to come and join you.

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Mornings

Game Day

Webster’s defines play as, “to amuse oneself, as by taking active part in a game or sport; engage in recreation; activity engaged in for amusement or for fun.”

The intention for programming a GameDay on a Sunday morning is to meet our goal of helping students play well so that each student has fun, feels connected, and is cared about in the context of a church family. We intend for students and their friends to come and play at Northwest Chapel.

One way students have fun is multiple-player video games. We want students to share games and game systems so that there is enough time for as many students as possible to enjoy playing a game. Four player games are best. Likewise, we may need to set a time limit on each game played so that other students are allowed to try a game.

Another way students have fun is multiple-player board games or card games. Again sharing games and time limits will help us direct students to try games and to include others by inviting other student(s) to join in. Whether they play or not, we want every student to get an invitation to try playing a game.

Moreover, some students would rather play individual or one-on-one games. These students need to share games as well with an adult leader who sets time limits so that others can play these games as well.

Fun is not the only goal—but also seeing students make connections with one another and feeling that adult leaders care about them. Adult leader(s) will issue name tags so that we can hear student names and begin using them. Likewise, An adult leader will take pictures to post on the website or on a PowerPoint slide or to include in a pictorial directory for MS Ministry Team members.

Thus, the goals for GameDay are:

1. To help students have fun by offering a variety of games so that students can interact with one another and with an adult leader.
2. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is greeted.
3. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is issued a name tag.
4. To help students feel connected and cared about by making sure that every student is invited to participate in an all-play game.
5. To help students feel connected and cared about by taking pictures to post on website or PowerPoint slide or for pictorial directory.
6. To help students get connected to God by sharing Christ in testimon, which outlines how to know God in a personal way as your forever best friend.

Pastor D

High School Sunday Series

How to develop healthy relationships

This week you got to focus on making your relationship last. In the get-to-know the person category, you must consider the family of origin and the person's own actions and attitudes. Next you seek to discover compatibility in the areas of personality, values, and lifestyle.

You ask the question of compatibility. The prevalent cultural norm is to live together first and discover compatibilty before even considering marriage. Yet God's word states that God intended marriage to be a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman where they are no longer two persons, but one flesh (Genesis 2:24). God instituted this marriage covenant. He expects commitment prior to marriage. In the ancient near east, marriages were arranged. Man and wife were put together by families. God spoke into that culture and shared how things were intended to occur. One man and one woman would become one flesh. Compatibility was no concern. Yet today it is a significant issue--in fact, you look at eharmony and compatibility is a major concern. So rather than disregard compatibility you can include it in the process of making a marital commitment to someone.

You were shown three areas to consider: personality, values, and lifestyle. For personality, the points to consider were intelligence, emotional styles, energy levels, chemistry, openness and expression of confession, and sense of humor. Each point has a range of possibilities, discover where you are and where the person you like may fit. I wonder if you have questions like these to consider when pondering who to be with for the rest of your life. It's important to consider these prior to beginning any relationship. In my opinion, you need to at least think through each point with a parent(s) or with friends. Personality is the first point of compatibility.

The next one is values . What values are most important to you? Three you need to conider are spiritual values, family values, and material values. How important is spiritual life to you? How critical is it for you to have a small or large family? How significant is it that you make lots of money or just enough money? Questions like these you need to ask and you need to answer. What is most important to you?

The last area of compatibility to consider is lifestyle. Work ethic, leisure interests, and recreation fall under this category. It matters if you are highly motivated and someone else is not. It matters if you like being with family and people and your lifemate is not--more of a loner. It matters if you enjoy non-active recreational pursuits whereas your lifemate is an action-sports fanatic who participates in races and competition. Assess your lifestyle and measure it with your lifemate. Are you both willing to commit to life together in spite of the small similarities or wide differences? Is your lifestyles compatible?

Compatibility gave way to a brief overview of evaluating your past relationships. Ponder the past relationship patterns of you and your present love interest. Do detective work and ask the hard questions.

Lastly, gather relationship communication skills. Mrs. Feusse shared how you must cultivate better listening and speaking skills. Don't merely repeat the facts but figure out the feelings involved with the facts. You need to be better communicators. I need to be a better communicator. God's word gives us insight, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Moreover, "Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)." These skills will improve any relationship. Everyone would do well to improve listening and speaking skills.

Mrs. Wendy Feusse and I trust you will use this relationhsip tool to develop healthy and godly relationships in your life. May God bring you great relationships to surround you when poor relationships occur.

Pastor D

Middle School Sunday Series

Losers: How to learn from Bad Examples

You learned how Haman put action to his prejudice and tried to kill those he hated. In the Old Testament book of Esther you will find the story of Haman. The king of Babylon appointd Haman a role of honor in the king's court. All paid him honor--all but one Jew named Mordecai. Mordecai worshipped the true God alone. He did not bow down to anyone but God alone. This action enraged Haman. So Haman made plans to kill Mordecai and his people (Esther 3:5-6). God intervened in a unique manner to save the Jews and to honor Mordecai. You have to read the story yourself to see how it concludes. But the challenge is to put off prejudice rather than feed prejudice like Haman did.

You can put off prejudice in three ways: 1- You can forget the stereotypes, 2-Focus on the Inside, 3-Everyone deserves respect. The Bible says that you can discover how you are by the fruit of your actions.

Prejudice means "an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason (Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006)." I wonder if you have thought about how you treat people. Your actions will reveal how you treat people. For instance, I wonder how you interact with those from other cultures in public. What if you had to stand in line at the checkout in Hollister? I wonder if you would forget the stereotypes and warmly greet them or at least try to be friendly. You may think that people of other cultures only want to be with their own people. That perconceived reason may be prejudice. But you can forget the stereotypes and seek to encounter all people groups differently. You can put off prejudice by forgetting the stereotypes.

A second way to put off prejudice, you can focus on the inside of the person. I Samuel 16:7 says that God looks at the individual's thoughts and intentions, not on the outward appearance. Rather than focusing on the outward appearance (skin color, type of clothes, footwear, or sunglasses), you can choose to focus on what's inside a person. It is more important in God's sight to see the individual's heart and thoughts rather than mere outward appearance. So focus on what's inside an individual, not on what's outside.

The last way to put off prejudice is to respect others, everyone deserves respect. Jesus said it best, "The second and most important (commandment) is similar, 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself(Matthew 22:39).'" In fact the apostle Paul reaffirms in I Peter 2:17, "Show respect for everyone." Give respect to each person as a follower of Jesus. YOu can put off prejudice by showing respect for everyone.

Next week be ready for Game Day--we will try to do something different. So come and bring a friend.

Pastor D

Wisdom from Proverbs

Proverbs 22 prompts me in three ways--trust God, be diligent, and remove debt. Verses 17-22 is the first of thirty sayings which covers chapters 22-24. You can read the first one to direct you to trust in the Lord. To put your trust in the Lord is the first and wisest thing to do.

Second, diligence in daily tasks. As you read and re-read the book of Proverbs contrasts abound. One is the sluggard and the diligent. I often learn from mistakes and correct them. Here in verse 13 the wise one challenges the sluggard, "The sluggard says, 'There's a lion outside! I'll be killed in the public square!'" What he means is I will do nothing because I fear what is outside. You can be lazy by doing nothing at all worrying or fretting about what is out there to slay you. Or you can be diligent and courageous and do something no matter what is outside. Fear can paralyze or catalyze action. I want to catalyze action on daily tasks and not merely fear that something might go wrong or that I may fail. I take to heart what President Teddy Roosevelt once said (regarded as the man in the arena anecdote),

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or here the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in he arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."("Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910)

President Roosevelt's words catalyze me to action rather than the sluggards cries to be paralyzed about what may happen. I want to act courageously--to fail while daring greatly. This is the approach of my daily tasks today. I will strive valiantly in the arena of life, serving God the best that I can.

Third, God's truth guides me to remove debt. I owe some money. I will make plans to pay it back . It may take me awhile. But with God's help and wisdom, I will repay the debt and "owe no man anything but to love one another (Romans 13:8)." Verses 26-27 challenged me to remove debt, "Do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you." So you need to be mindful of accumulating debt. Put this in your mind now, and be free from threat.

May God use His word to challenge your life and catalyze faith in action everyday in your life.

Pastor d

Finishing Edit on Jamboree Movie

I am finishing the edit on the Jamboree movie. It is rendering and encoding. Numerous students mobilized to serve. I want to thank them for their hands and feet, their smiles and cheers, and their time and freedom. God used them in a great way. I hope you can come help next year. Or the next time there is an opportunity to help out. Maybe you can help at Vacation Bible School.

pastor D