The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

GIFT Ramblings

Time for dreaming a vision from our favorite GIFT FINK, Debbie Streicher:

What if we didn’t even use the word “Sunday School” with GIFT.

What if GIFT were only seen as a “Family Edu-Worship” model?

On the FINK website, it looks really good to have “family ministry” under FSS. It would compliment that to have “Family edu-worship” under GIFT.

Why?

1. Because most clergy and majority of staff appear to have little interest in anything that says “Sunday school”, but a vested interest in anything that has the word “worship” attached. (guess it’s the word and sacrament thing J)

2. Because parents and other adults are the challenge we have in changing to a family ministry model, not the kids…..you put the word worship and make it a devotional worship to attend together and all of a sudden it’s okay with parents and adults to be mixed with kids ‘cause that’s already what is done in worship. (sneaky way to get the adults equipped…even the “traditionals”)

3. Because most churches using H2H have clergy and staff that are familiar with FINK.

4. Because several churches in the past week have called about this…..Gloria Dei outside of Phila. will be introducing an alternative

1 and ½ hour family worship in the fall and want to use the FINK system…..also spoke with a church in MN that wants to do the same. (They both love the idea of a service around tables for sharing thoughts and the eucharist!)

Adaptations to enhance:

Bookmarks for take-home devotions or put them on a website.

Combination of art and FINKlopedia for closing meditation.

Extra slides for offering and eucharist.

Everything else lends itself to a service design J.

Hmmmm…….dreamin’ about it! ……been a looooooooong couple of monthsL.

If you read this far…thanks a bunchJ!

See you soon.

Blessings,

Debbie Streicher

(On her way to lead the GIFT University May 17 - 19 - there's still lots of room. Send us someone!)

Thought for the Day

Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely.
Erma Bombeck

We sponsored a FINKtank for our favorite Golden Globe nominee, Rick Barron, last night, planning his next five years. His song "Five Seconds from Elvis" about his accident that changed his life (and almost killed him) was used in a movie recently, and he's wondering how to leverage it to let him do most of his music for God in the future. Lots of fun, and an invigorating evening. It started with garlic chicken pizza from the Grand Pizza place and ended with four of us playing guitar, sipping wine and dreaming about the future of a sunday night internet youth and family ministry show.

I'd recommend you share your dreams every once in a while. It's a great way to get perspective.

rich

The Crystal Penguin

Download PenguinAward.gif

Crystal Penguin Awards

Arlyce just found the absolute perfect crystal penguin for our Foundation's future youth arts awards. Can you picture a banquet hall full of kids every April Fool's Day and a hundred of these sitting on tables for the "Musician of the Year," "Video Godmercial of the Year," "Painting of the Year," "Skit of the Year," etc.

"May I have the envelope please? The Crystal Penguin for 2005 for the best FINK Youth Songwriter of the Year goes to..."

Fun, fun, fun!

Now we just have to raise the fun... ds.

(-;

rich

Daddy Day (and Care)

Joseph and I had a marvelous day yesterday. He had a chance to skip school and spend a day with a parent at work. (He chose me, yah!)

We started out with donuts in St. Paul with the Bishop at an annual specialized ministry gathering. Joseph held his own, taking part in the discussions and even causing a couple laughs. (His "high" for the year was skateboarding and his "challenge/low" was his new PSII game).

From there we stopped in on Seminary chapel. It was a high school visit day with a few hundred older kids. We grabbed the fruit and cheese before sneaking upstairs to look at Luther's death mask - one of three in the world. "He was fat when he died," said Joseph, eating more cheese.

From there we stopped in on St. Anthony Park Lutheran, where a Chinese congregation is meeting and left some information on Dr. He Qi, our friend from Nanjing Theo. Seminary. He and his wife and son will be moving here, living in my house, and officing at FINK for their first year in the states. We are trying to make some good contacts here to make them feel at home. There are 20,000 Chinese nationals living in the Twin Cities, so hopefully we can find some good friends to welcome them and aid in the transition.

From there we went to our friends at Wet Cement Productions and Joseph was able to watch the animation process, see their computer graphics, and learn that math is very important to cartoonists today.

After Burger King and a discussion on how much St. Olaf (his chosen college) will cost in ten years (roughly a billion dollars) we returned to the FINK office where he helped me answer email and edit the new Faith Stepping Stone Entry into Confirmation PowerPoints.

I had a blast. He had a blast.

It's great to be a dad.

Before hormones.

Rich

(PS The best brain book of the week is Barbara Strauch's "The Primal Teen." Read it and weep.)

Manna

This just in from my buddy Dana Hansen in Northridge, CA, via Craig Barnes
Numbers 11

"The manna is only for today.

When Jesus says "I am the bread of life..." he's saying "I'm enough for you today.

The manna is not promised in the future. It is not the past (moldy gunk).

So the question is, what is Jesus Christ doing today in my life."

Dana Hansen

Thomas on Sharon

Our young music guild friend, Thomas Ian Nicholas (photos left) will be on The Sharon Osbourne Show this Thursday, April 22nd. You will have to check your local listing for the time as it's different in each city. You can go to http://www.sharonosbourne.com to see when it's airing in your town as they have a page with a map of the US and info for your area stations. His segment was shorter than expected as they added a guest at the last minute, but he talks about Stealing Sinatra and sings one of his songs. He had hoped to talk about LADJ but that didn't get to happen.

Way to go, Thomas!

Rich

Our Newest FINK

Here's a link to our newest FINK, Morgan Grace Lysne.

homepage.mac.com/mlysne1/PhotoAlbum4.html

Rich

Fun Days

I had one of the funnest days in memory with my son Joseph yesterday. We were pulling the old swing set/monkey bars out of our back yard before the tornadic winds and hail were to hit us. Once that was done we started to repair a rotted wooden planter attached to the old porch. One thing led to another, and before we knew it we were tearing half of the porch off. Underneath the porch Joseph found access to the old foundation wall of the house, which he immeadiately turned into a fort. Then he grabbed eight spray cans and (with my permission) "tagged" the old wall with his name and some eclectic designs.

His "high" last night was the fun time. A little work. A little play. A little art. Fun day.

Oh yeah, and the tornado missed us.

Speaking of fun days, our friend, Nathan Dungan, is the featured speaker at the Spring 2004 Westminster Town Hall Forum, Thursday, April 29, 2004 ·12:00 Noon at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1200 Marquette Avenue · Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nathan, a national expert on family finances whose book, Prodigal Sons and Material Girls: How Not to be Your Child's ATM, gives parents advice on how to raise financially savvy and responsible children.

Kids today are bombarded by sophisticated marketing messages while at the same time their parents are taking on increasing amounts of consumer debt. Given this new reality, how can upcoming generations maintain a society that is economically healthy and civically responsible?

Nathan has some ideas.

Parents, teachers, and young people will enjoy this session on reclaiming the true value of money.

(Plus, it's free.)

Check it out.

Rich

Our Newest FINK

Here's the latest news that's popping our buttons! Congratulations Monty & Tracy! We'll get photos as soon as they're available. Send your kudos to MJlysne@faithink.com.

Hi Everyone,

Tracy woke up at about 12:30 AM this morning and thought she had wet her pants (pregnancy and the bladder are not friends, as I'm told). She didn't think much of it. Then, she woke up again at 2:30 AM, and thought she had had another accident. It was at this time that it dawned on her that her water had broken.

So, she woke me up, we called the hospital, and they said to watch things, and come in if contractions started. There had been none to this point. Within about an hour, she went from no contractions to being doubled over, making the James Brown hee-hee-hee breathing noises. We called Tracy's parents in Fridley to come over to watch Mya, and that took another hour. The contractions became so frequent and intense, that we couldn't wait, and called Pete Erickson at 4:30 AM to come over to watch Mya.

We arrived at the hospital at about 4:45 AM, had to stop three times on our way to the women’s center so Tracy could have a contraction, and got to a room at a few minutes after five. The doctor looked at her and said, "It's time to have a baby." Tracy pushed for about 15 minutes, and by 5:20 AM, Morgan Grace was born. So, this whole process didn't take long, which was a far cry from our first which took a day and a half. Everyone is doing fine, and although we're a bit tired (and stunned at the speed of things) we're excited to have a beautiful new addition to the family. Morgan weighed in at 7 pounds 12 ounces, so she's a keeper.

Thank you!

Monty