A Father's Advice

Sending his son out into the world, a Father gave his son the following rules, without which he said he could not hope to get on:
Tell the truth---falsehoods are hard to remember.
Shine the heels of your shoes as well as the toes.
Don't lend money to your friends---you will lose both.
Don't watch the clock; it will keep going---you do the same.
You do not need clean cuffs every day, but you need a clean conscience all the time.
Don't borrow money, unless you positively have the wherewithal to pay it back--and then you don't need it.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and thanks dad for the good advice you've given me over the years.


Pay attention and grow wise, for I am gibing you good guidance. Don't turn away from my teaching. Proverbs 4:1-2

I will teach you wisdom's ways and lead you in straight paths. If you live and life guided by wisdom, you won't slip or stumble as you run. Proverbs 4:11-12

Get all the advice and instruction you can, and be wise the rest of your life. Proverbs 19: 20

Timely advice is as lovely as golden apples in a silver basket. Provers 25: 11

Website

Well, Ive been working on getting a website up and running and finally got it launched today.

Check it out. You should be able to click the picture below. If not, it's www.vincefarrell.com

Blessings!!!

A Father's Day Video

I've always wanted to do a video for Father's Day, so I did.
Enjoy.

Camps, Retreats and Summer Oh, My!

I've spoken with many Youth pastors and Pastors on the subject of "summer camp."

The responses are quite mixed, they range from;

Love to go to camp, it's great for the teens.

Camps are a necessary evil.

Got to keep teens busy.

Summer camp, ahhh!!!

Honestly, we've probably dealt with ALL of those feelings at one time or another.

I've always viewed camp as a great time to take teens away and get them exposed to something bigger than the local church while at the same time forming bonds with the teens. Regardless of your feelings about this time of year, allow me to share some thoughts on the subject.

I have the honor to speak at a camp this summer and then turn around and take a group of teens from a church to another camp.

Back to Back.

I've been doing some praying and research about camp and here's what I've discovered.

In a survey of over a 100 teens, a simple question was asked, "have you ever made a decision at a camp to make Jesus Lord of your life and has that still held true today?"

7 out of 10 said yes! The actual stat is 71% of teens asked said, they made a commitment to follow Christ and are still doing so.

Wow! What a return on an investment!

Here's another tidbit of info, several youth pastors got together and came up with 11 different things they thought teens would like at a camp. They then gave the list to those teens and asked them to rank the top 3 that was most important to them at camp. (I've added a pic below for total view)

42% said "More in-depth exploration of God"

41% said "Building deeper friendships"

Wow! Now think about this; Jesus gave us the two greatest commandments: love God with all that is within us and love people in the same way. Seems that camp is a great tool to help teens foster that type of mentality.

Now here is the final thought about these and many more findings.

It really doesn't matter if it's a small camp or large camp. What does matter is putting everything into the planning stage and execution to making it the best camp you can on whatever budget you have to work with.

No one likes cheesy (ok, some people do, it's why there are books dedicated to poking fun of church marquee signs---I have two books, they're great.....they give my purpose strength!!)

Teens don't like cheesy, but they hate fake more!

Cheesy can be tolerated, but if it's not real, they'll check out in a heartbeat.

This summer ask God to give you fresh vision for your teens, ideas for the camp experience to make their experience with God real and with others, loving.

Controlled Chaos

One of the things I'd try to make sure we had in our youth ministries was a little element called "controlled chaos."
Let's face it, teens just want to have fun. Guys too.
I believe that if you can have a time in every service for a little controlled chaos, then great things could happen.
Whether it be a group activity, silly game, gross contest, controlled chaos is something to get teens up and having fun. It helps create an atmosphere for good things to happen.

In the movie "The Dark Knight" there is a scene where "The Joker" is having some one-on-one time with Harvey Dent in the hospital. He makes a statement, "Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos...I'm an agent of chaos. Oh and you know the thing about chaos...it's fair."
A little over the top? Yes! However, there is a lot of truth (I believe) to it.

Think about this.
When it comes to the most meaningful relationships in your life; spouse, family, friends, God-- would you say that you have a real in depth relationship with them or are they more on the surface? The truth be told, it's easy for the best relationships we have to quickly fall into a pseudo style relationship.

So how do we keep those relationships real, instead of slipping into surface acquaintances?
Introduce a little chaos.

Bill Hybles calls it, "The Tunnel of Chaos" and Mike Yaconelli gives detail in his book "Messy Spiritually" that if you want to really grow then you've got to go through this stage in your relationships.
A level of chaos has to be introduced! You've got to come to a place where you can look at each other and say, "if we're going to move from a pseudo relationship to a real in depth meaningful relationship then we've got to allow each others messiness to get on us."

Real openness.
Real transparency.
Real arguments.
Real love.
Real forgiveness.
Real accountability.

Upset the established order to your surface relationships, introduce a little controlled chaos and watch great things happen.

God is in the Whirlwind

Well, it's been a while since my last "real" post.
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind; with me traveling and ministering, as well as, moving.

Tuesday I went to go pick up the 16' truck that I reserved for moving.
When I got there they informed me that they don't have a 16' and will have to wait till the afternoon to get one. I explained that simply won't work and long story short, they hooked me up with a 22' truck for $100 less than what I originally was going to pay for the 16" truck!
God is Good!

Before getting home on Monday I spent the weekend ministering at The River Church in Nortonville Kentucky. I so enjoyed getting to know more members of the body of Christ and we had an excellent time together.

By the end of Sunday I will have logged two days worth of driving in the last five days!
Tuesday: Load truck and drive to Arkansas, then unload.
Wednesday: Drive to Alabama and load truck.
Thursday: Drive to Arkansas and unload.
Friday: Drive to Alabama and load truck again.
Saturday: Drive to Arkansas and unload.
Sunday: Drive back to Alabama and return truck to rental store.
Whew!!!!
Yep, crazy.

Then I'm taking the family to Gulf Shores for some rest and relaxation before we sign papers on June 1st and head to Arkansas for the next leg of the journey.
I'm gonna stay behind a few days and tie up some loose ends and then I have the honor of speaking at Elevate Youth at First Assembly on Wednesday, June 3rd.

Well that's a peek into my life for the next few weeks, I hope to keep in better touch through the wonderful media of Facebook.
Blessings!!

Again and Again

Well, it's that time again. I made a couple of quick videos for the Lowe's Spring Dream Challenge contest on youtube.
Turns out both my entrees made the finals!!!!

So if you're able to stop by youtube and click the "thumbs up" icon for these two videos it would greatly be appreciated.

Vince's Outdoor Maintenance Made Easy
&
Vince's Outdoor Play Area

Simply click on the vote tab on this page http://www.youtube.com/lowes

(I just checked to see if these links worked, and it looks like the Lowe's page is doing some updating-- the tab says "gallery" but will say "vote" when they get it fixed....sorry, keep checking)

You can vote everyday for the next week and your help is needed now more than ever. In the video about our "dream yard" well............we just sold that house!!!! And the house we're moving to, well it's going to need some major help, so the prize package is perfect for that, and the play area.....sure would be great for the kids (with no trees and me not wanting to get pets) this would be the perfect fix.

Thanks for allowing me to post this shameless plug. ;)