I'm hoping to join XBOX Live in the next 24 hours. I feel like a 12 year old kid this year.

Labels: random

Dear whoever found my blog by searching for "lovato training",

I will do my very best to train you in how to be a good Lovato. It is a difficult road, but with commitment and discipline you too will prosper in this field.

Sincerely,
Mike Lovato

Labels: funny stuff

I met this morning with Sam Boone, high school pastor at The Grove. Sam and I are in the beginning phases of planning a joint guys retreat with our churches for October 08. The plan is to camp down in San Clemente, do guy stuff, and give our guys time to talk through issues like being a godly man, purity, etc. I'm looking forward to it!

Labels: youth ministry

Our church's remodel continues moving forward. Here are some pics:



This is the site of one of the lounge areas in our student ministry space. There will be a sectional couch in the corner and some cool seating framing it in on the outside.






Yesterday, they pulled out a ton of vertical beams that were holding up the roof and replaced it with these. They will all be exposed. Should be pretty sweet.






Big shot of the space. Stage is along the right-hand wall. Far left corner is the second lounge area. The shot is from the first lounge area I talked about earlier.






This little quad area is getting two bridges that will connect three buildings and one elevator together. Should look pretty cool visually as well.






Shot from the student ministry room into the quad. The bridge connects into what will be a new lobby. The little tower on the left is the elevator shaft. My office is in that building just past the elevator a couple doors.

Labels: youth ministry

In response to my brother's comment on the previous post, here are the gifts we gave:

• My stepdad - we gave him Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus
• My mom - we gave her an olive oil container we got filled and some pasta
• My grandma - we gave her two old pictures that Nicole cleaned up in Photoshop and then put in frames (one of her mom's family and one of her and my grandpa on their wedding day)
  

Labels: random

Nicole and I celebrate Christmas and do the whole presents thing three times every year - once with my mom and stepdad, once with dad and stepmom, and once with Nicole's family. Today was ours with my Mom. Here's what we did:

• Went to church together
  
• Had lunch at Market Broiler (delicious!). Side note: I saw a guy there from the facilities team at Saddleback. It's weird when you see someone from one phase of your life in a totally different section of your life.
• Opened presents: I got Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist, Hillsong United's All of the Above, and MxPx's Secret Weapon. Also got Transformers on DVD. And some other stuff too.
• After the family left, Nicole and I watched Transformers and then Music & Lyrics (she got that one).
• Then it was off for some Starbucks. The one around the corner was out of white mocha powder that Nicole wanted so we headed down the road the half mile to the next one. They had white mocha powder. If they'd been out we'd probably have headed to the one in Vons around the corner from our house. Have I mentioned that Riverside has lots of Starbucks?
  

Labels: random

Today I...

• Drove to LA
• Went to The Grove
• Visited Barnes & Noble and Crate & Barrel
• Met up with my family
• Ate at Pampas Grill at The Farmers' Market
  
• Got an over-priced milkshake for dessert
  
• Drove home (after sitting in traffic)
  

Labels: random

I'm not always the most cultured of people, but this makes me want to check it out. Classical piano versions of Radiohead songs? I'm in.

Labels: random

There are three parts to the Commercial Driving Test that the California Department of Motor Vehicles requires of those of us who would like to cart around teenagers in a 15-passenger van.

Part One: The Pre-Trip Inspection
Part Two: The Skills Test
Part Three: The Driving Test

I didn't even make it to the skills test because I made 14 errors on my pre-trip inspection. I'll be heading back for try #2 in January.

Labels: random

I'm halfway through a two-day busy stretch. Today was pretty good. Got to spend some time with Nicole in a waiting room while my Grandma had a procedure done. Got stuff done for our Christmas party and for tomorrow. The Christmas party went well.

Tomorrow's agenda:

• Speak at chapel for a Christian high school - this is either a fantastic experience typically or a horrible one. This is my third time speaking at this one and it's a blast. There's just a certain type of student there that I enjoy.
• Take my driving test for my Class B license. I'm a little nervous about this. I haven't really practiced at all. I have to do a pre-trip inspection and I'm not much of a "car guy" to begin with. Plus, I don't want to waste my friend's time that's taking me.
• Wrap up the day with an hour or two in the office tying up loose ends for the week.
  

Labels: random, youth ministry

Jon McWhorter has been on our staff for almost two and a half years. In that time, he's served as a high school intern, high school associate, contemporary service worship leader, and college pastor. I first interviewed him on the advice of my mom (good hiring advice, Mom!). But now he's heading out to work full-time at a bank and getting ready to head out to seminary and overseas. We had an open house for Jon last night and it was a cool time that basically consisted of a bunch of college students jammed in my living room with our senior pastor telling stories of all the illegal pranks and stuff he did in college. I've loved working alongside Jon and it's going to be really cool to see what God does in him and through him in the future.

Labels: church life, random, youth ministry

I was just asked about a week or so ago to teach another class at CBU in the spring. It's called Current Trends in Youth Ministry and is basically a research-driven class looking at current trends in youth ministry (imagine that).

I'm on a tight deadline for getting my textbook requests in so I thought I'd see if anyone has any suggestions. What books would you recommend for a course like this?

Labels: books, CBU, youth ministry

My friend Eric just called me a bit ago because he's stuck in traffic on the 5 trying to get back up to Visalia in Central California. They closed the freeway due to snow and so he called his map nerd friend (me) to figure out what to do. So he now has about a 2 hour detour to add onto his drive. Fun times for him.

Labels: random

We just re-did our high school website using a free account from WordPress. We may change a couple things like adding a custom domain, but you can check it out here. I'm pretty stoked about how it turned out.

Labels: nerd talk, youth ministry

I'm sitting in my office right now listening to two construction workers argue with each other over the length of something they have to do because of some water damage in an office across the wall due to our roof being exposed during construction and the crazy rain last week. They keep going back and forth. It's kinda entertaining. Oh....I think they just got on the same page. Whew.

Labels: random

We have an annual tradition of doing a Christmas Party for our high school ministry. This year I wanted to change it up a little. Typically we eat, play some games, and do a white elephant gift exchange. Here's the plan this year:

Eat - We're not changing this part. I like to eat. And the family that hosts us is borrowing a sweet chocolate fountain that we're going to dip all sorts of stuff in.
Games - We're still doing these too.
Christmas Caroling - For those who want to, we'll send out groups of 10-15 students Christmas caroling through the neighborhood. Since our church has a big youth choir most of our students will probably want to go, but we'll have a couple volunteers hang back with the non-singer types.
Worship Time - I want to do some sort of Christmas-themed worship time. Not sure exactly what it will look like other than I want to read the Christmas story as part of it.
Food Drive - We're nixing the white elephant exchange (partially because my wife is sick and tired of white elephant exchanges). We're going to have them bring a food item for a food bank rather than just exchanging the junk from their houses that they don't want.

Labels: youth ministry