Okay - the heading to this post is a bit sensational... but my Total Lunar Eclipse video (see below or go to youtube) has just cracked 1000 views in just under 24 hours!!

While this may not seem like much, it's a pretty lame video and there's only been a handful of views that have clicked out from this blog. How did they get there? I'm sure it's not a featured video on youtube - it's simply through people searching for it.

CCECYOUTH has 32 videos online - but only a total of about 5000 views.

If you want to get a high number of random hits (something we're not necessarily aiming for with ccecyouth) simply work out what people will be searching for on a given day. There's your video name and some tags... the rest is history.

Jesus.

I'm currently watching Hitch. I think it's a good movie with some good lessons. Here's 2 quotes from the beginning of the movie:

1. Basic principles: No woman wakes up saying "God I hope DON'T get swept off my feat today"
2. Basic principles: No matter what, no matter when, no matter who, any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet. He just needs the right broom.

I think Christian guys need help with the ladies. They just need some help with the broom! If you want to talk... give me a call or shoot me an email.

I bought lunch for Daniel, a guy who asked me for money, in Gosford this morning. He's a homeless man - about my age. He knows that there is accommodation available but would rather sleep on the beach with a blanket.

Afterwards I went looking for Luke (his real name) around the streets and in the soup kitchen. I couldn't find him. I haven't seen him for a long time. I haven't made enough effort. I'm going to look for him again and/or speak to one of the social workers who knows him.

Jesus is the hope of the world. Pray for both of them that they would come to know Jesus.

Facebook is still annoying (and MySpace is still ugly). You've heard it here before. Lots of talk about it. So, this is a facebook mega-post.

This video is capital 'H' Hilarious...

Josh Harris has done 3 posts over the last week:

• Facebook Survey
• My One and Only Week on Facebook
• Facebook Follow-Up

The 3 posts chronicle his sojourn into the Facebook World. After a week he quit. For good reasons. But... he had this great quote in his follow-up:

Enjoy Facebook. And if you're a godly single man, receive it as a gift from God to assist you in nonchalantly building a friendship with a godly Christian woman. I'm serious, men! If you're mature enough to pursue marriage, Facebook should be "Courtbook" for you. Don't just sit there, get on the ball and go "poke" a godly girl.

More facebook action:

• The smh had an article on how it could potentially cost Aussie business $5bn a year!
• Ben has some wise tips
• Facebook, culture and community (haven't read it... h/t craig)
• Facebook Grows Up (haven't read it.. h/t JT)
  

Do you do facebook? How long do you spend on it per day? Per week? whatever...

The A-League kicks off tonight. Giddy up!

Here's my predictions:
Sydney v Central Coast - DRAW
Queensland v Adelaide - DRAW
Perth v Newcastle - PERTH
Wellington v Melbourne - MELBOURNE

Feel free to add yours in the comments.

Last week we started a new series on On the Poddy. It's called coast youth radio. Each episode we plan to talk about a different issues for Central Coast teenagers (I'm sure it's applicable more broadly than the Central Coast). The first episode was on boredom.

I've been thinking further this week about teenagers, the Central Coast and boredom. When you ask the typical non-teenager what they love about the Central Coast the answer: the lifestyle (check out this vid). People move to the Central Coast to escape the Sydney rat-race. They love that the Central Coast is so close to the biggest city in Australia... but far enough away that they feel like they are in paradise.

Why, then, do teenagers fail to see the joys of the Central Coast lifestyle? Why are they bored? Isn't the Central Coast paradise on earth? When do teenagers stop being bored and start seeing the goodness of the Central Coast lifestyle?

I don't have an answer. Maybe it's because they've been brought up on entertainment and they are now bored by their Xbox 720? Maybe their parents are enjoying the lifestyle so much that they are neglecting their teenager? Maybe they don't have an imagination? I dunno?

Ultimately - you don't come to Jesus because you are bored... but for an eternal cure to boredom - spend some time gazing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. See him. Savour him. Trust him.

Check it out over at Dan's blog. Sounds gold.

They are now super-easy to embed in a website - just like youtube. (h/t smh)

One of the things that we're keen to encourage our Christian teenagers to do is pray for friends who don't know Jesus. Our hope is that as Christian teenagers understand the death of Jesus for sins, they will understand that their non-Christian friends are in desperate need to hear of Jesus' love and put their trust in him. We are increasingly seeing this happen.

Problem.

About 60% of our teenagers go to Christian schools. When they're in year 7 they don't realise that there are non-Christians in their year group. This gradually changes as they grow older and the differences between the Christian and non-Christian students are more obvious.

Question: How do you help year 7 Christian students work out the non-Christians in their year group?

Suggestion: 1) Let them know that before too long they will start to work out which of their peers needs to hear about Jesus. 2) A good place to start are those who aren't already part of a church/youth group. There's normally a good chance they're not from Christian families and need to keep hearing about Jesus.

Under God we've seen youth from non-Christian families hooked into our youth group and Jesus. In God's mercy we've seen whole families come to put their trust in Jesus.

Bible Timeline (pdf) from a church in Sydney. It's very good. Graeme Goldsworthy is the king of timelines - this is very similar - just a bit more detail. Print out a copy and put it in the front of your Bible. It will be an incredible help when reading or studying the Old Testament.

He's been in the news. This is a timely word:

1 The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle his mother taught him:

2 "O my son, O son of my womb,
O son of my vows,

3 do not spend your strength on women,
your vigor on those who ruin kings.

4 "It is not for kings, O Lemuel—
not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,

5 lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

6 Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;

7 let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.

8 "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.

9 Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy."

This blog post sponsored by Proverbs 31 (NIV) and HOWARD007.com

www.iagreewithdale.com

Here's Tim's sermon from last night. Good stuff. It's got gear about the mission and strategy of saturdayEV. Big ups Tim.

craig has started a new series on church and state

coast youth radio #1 - boredom - check out our sweet new podcast
i agree with dale text and vid - people are saying it's the funniest yet!

coast youth REVOLUTION* radically changed by the goodnews of JESUS
3 great speakers | 2 great bands | 1 incredible GOD

coast youth REVOLUTION* conference
Friday Sept 7 - Saturday Sept 8 AD2007

Erina Centre (next door to library @ erina fair)

SPEAKERS: Andrew Heard, Paul Dale & Dave Miers

BANDS: Running Home & Revive

Workshops

When you understand the cross of Jesus… it radically changes everything. Join us on our first coast youth REVOLUTION conference as we look at JESUS and learn how to... LIVE THE REVOLUTION

PROGRAM
FRI PM: 7-10pm (program @ 8pm)
SAT AM: 830-3pm (program @ 9am)
SAT PM: 3-6pm (activities & hang time)
SAT PM: 6-10pm (dinner 6pm, program 7pm)

Fri 7-10pm & Sat 830am-10pm

COST = $25 (or $10 per session) Bring some $$ for lunch + Arvo activity (Activity price range $0-$15)

BILLETING AVAILABLE
Contact info@cyrevolution.com or
Dave & Row Miers 4322-2107 to arrange

www.cyrevolution.com
myspace.com/cyrevolution

Download flyer for photocopier (100KB). Download postcard (1.8MB)

saturdayEV launched last Saturday. This video is awesome! Good stuff tim.

www.gocn.org

I gave a talk to a bunch of leaders at a mission training day a couple of weeks ago. The aim was to think through how we reach teenage culture without compromising on the timeless gospel of Jesus' death for our sins.

The Gospel and Teenage Culture (mp3)

How do you preach the unchanging gospel in your context?

Mark Driscoll had a great holiday. I'm truly thankful to God for that... But he's also been quite productive... he has 7 books coming out next year with Crossway!!! He'll be overtaking John Piper's book production rate if he's not careful...

#1, #2, #3 and now #4. These things are always interested. This isn't a comprehensive list... but it's still pretty funny reading how some people got here. If you've come here looking for boobs, sex, or other nude things. Sorry to disappoint. Jesus won't. Check him out.

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Just got back from the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches conference. It was gold. It was encouraging to hear from each of the churches and how they have gone over the past 12 months. It was super-exciting to hear of new churches that have started in that time. A challenging time in 1 Peter 5 and Ephesians. And it was inspiring to think about how to reach Australia for Jesus by the planting of more churches.

We preach Christ crucified.

Bonus warm fuzzy to the first person to guess the location of the conference.

Are you interest?

I posted a dodgy mp3 earlier on this year... tonight I took footage of my favourite hymn re-write. Shout out to the old guy who wrote the original. Shout out to Dan who changed the music and some lyrics. Check it out...

(I was bummed that I couldn't sing - if I did - it would have sounded terrible me shouting into the phone!!)

Yesterday's smh had a number of articles about teenage relationships and sex.

Article 1: Let's talk about sleepovers - this was an interesting article. Teenagers are painted in a more positive light than they were in the smh articles on the Central Coast. Maybe they only interviews North Shore private school kids??

Quiz enough parents and you'll learn that 15-year-olds have friends all over town and from various walks of life. You'll hear about group sleepovers; boys and girls munching pizzas and watching DVDs as innocent companions. Today's teens, the experts agree, are more relaxed with the opposite sex, more tolerant, more demanding of gender equality than previous generations - and angry when the reality falls short of their expectations.

The article also spoke about a new(ish) practise called "been claimed". Have you heard of it? I hadn't until this article.

Article 2: Ignore the experts - we kids really are all right (scroll down to the bottom of the page) - the 15 year old author of this article, Gideon Reisner, he's one smart articulate young dude!! Again it's a positive piece saying that teenagers are okay. Teenagers get lots of negative media on Today Tonight and other high quality current affairs programs. He was confident that the vast majority of blokes in his year 10 grade at school were still virgins and alright people. With great insight - he recognises that there are 3 areas of life that are most important to modern teenagers. Relationships. Technology. Alcohol.

Article 3: Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder, and the mind a little wiser - I haven't read much from Lisa Pryor before - but this introduction to her world view and logic was disturbing.

Teenagers should not rush into sexual intercourse. Not for the sake of morality, but for the sake of good sex. There are plenty of pro-sex reasons for delaying sex, and there is no reason why religious abstinence programs should have a monopoly on this message.

Go have a read and a vomit.

In conclusion - there was some helpful stuff in yesterday's paper (and some terrible stuff too!). But here's what was missing...

Jesus. He's the hope of the world. He's the hope of generation y teenagers. His way for sex is the best design. So if you're a teenager reading this - Jesus says don't do sex outside of marriage. If you belong to Jesus - listen to him - he knows what's best. If you don't belong to Jesus. Check him out. He loves you. He died for people like you... and what he offers is far greater and much more satisfying (both now and into eternity) than a teenage quickie in your mates garden.

Last night saturdayEV officially kicked off. They've been meeting together for 6 months... but yesterday was the public launch. It was fantastic!! Great vibe. Lots of people. There were about 130!! 50 that are already hooked up with the crew, 50 supporters from CCEC and beyond, and 30 random people (I think mostly non-Christian who'd been invited along... praise God!). The music was superb. The intro from Tim and Andrew Heard was great. Tim's sermon was an inspiring vision setting talk. He's already put it online. Go check it out here (RSS feed). Check out the video he refers to in the talk here.

Below is some gear I put together for them to help with the launch. I didn't have to do much - they were great pics - I just put some text on them and then added some simple info to the back!

OBSERVATION: Apart from Christ people are lost (Acts 4:12). There are many people on the Central Coast who need to hear the glorious news of Jesus. I'm excited. I'm excited about a new Jesus proclaiming venture on the Central Coast. It's been underground for the last 6 months, above ground for the last 3 weeks, and is set to publicly launch tomorrow night. What is it? SaturdayEV. Tim Baldwin and the core crew have done a great job in getting things ready to go to reach coastal people with the goodnews of Jesus. Business cards. Postcards. Posters. Mock websites. Personal invitations. All of these things are driven by an overwhelming desire for lost people to be found in Jesus.

PRAYER:
>>DOUBLE up tonight at CCECYOUTH
>>Get some rest on Saturday
>>SaturdayEV public launch tomorrow night
>>cafe del freeo for sunday nite crew

... to violinkid and hayesy. both got a comment onto smh . and vk bought howard07.net and howard07.info and has a digg plan of attack. also he submitted it into 2 tv shows (sunrise and morning show?). and they just sent some more high-traffic blogs through they got comments on. craig, sam and steve also linked to it. vk keeps sending links through to me while i type. gotta go. peaceout.

...to check out HOWARD007 - pass it on

HOWARD007 is a brilliant website! So helpful and informative and much better than KEVIN07!! I'm willing to give a coffee and a warm fuzzie to the person who can get this website the most hits. Either you link to it from your own site - or somehow get it onto smh.com.au or nytimes or wikipedia or wherever!! I'll check the stats by Monday and the person responsible for the most referrals - wins big time!!

It's all about Jesus.

You've heard of kevin07.com - go check out howard007.com

I just made it - go spread the word.

hey duke - happy about this?

At 3 am this morning when I saw the new smh.com.au - I didn't like it.
I'm more awake now... just had a quick look over lunch - I like it. It's cleaner... more white space... maybe a bit much white space at the top with the header. Have you seen it yet? What do you think?

Just saw the KEVIN07 website. Maybe we could put together a DALE07 website?? I'd vote for him! Anyone with me?

ccecyouth.com is all the haps. Lots of fresh content. Check out the latest episode of On the Poddy. There's some sweet articles in the latest issue of J-Walk. Don't miss the article by Andrew Heard on the prosperity gospel. Peaceout.

(h/t Steve)

This did the rounds a year ago. It's helpful in giving perspective.

www.iagreewithdale.com

OBSERVATION: MySpace is ugly. I think I've made that point a few times. Facebook isn't ugly. It's clean. It's smarterer than MySpace. BUT... It's annoying... or at least the things people do on it are annoying!! What is a poke? Or a super-poke? I love ninjas... but I don't really care if there are more people who love Pirates over Ninjas! Zombie Bites - what's that? Why are you biting me!! And what's with all the groups? The 'I pick my nose with thumb instead of finger" group! Stupid. Facebook is very good for getting in touch with people - check out pics of what friends have been up to... even arranging events or gatherings. It has lots of social networking goodness. But please stop annoying me!

This is my 400th Post. Awesome. That last century has had some memorable posts.

John Piper is the Pastor of a church in walking distance from the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed yesterday. His blog post is insightful and prophetic. In it he reflects on a conversation with his 11 year old daughter and Jesus' warning from Luke 13:1-5

The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that John Piper is a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind’s attention and my heart’s affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God’s message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.

I'm with John Piper... I also need to "turn from the silly preoccupations of my life" and focus my mind and heart on Jesus: my only hope.

Go read the rest...

This is part 2 of our www.iagreewithdale.com series. Go check the website for other videos and show your support for the extraordinary things that Dale says.

Helpful vid over on the youth vanguard.
(Watch especially if you're a teen who uses MySpace.)

I hate crap design. Lots of design in churches is crap. Lifehack has some helpful design principles. CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.

My tip: try hard not to be ugly + don't ever, ever, ever use clip art!

(h/t lifehacker)

Dale is a guy -- He lives on the coast -- He loves Jesus -- He goes to CCEC -- He has hair. He is now blogging.

Post 1 - solid start
Post 2 - #2 Aussie sporting moment!
Post 3 - pure gold - super challenging.

Go say hello...

Saturday night we had a sweet Jazz night with Con Campbell. We had him on On the Poddy afterwards.