What is Next?

A lot of people have been wanting to know what is up next for Project Hangout. Not only is it the year of the small church, but we have some transformational things stirring about. I can't go into to much detail, but I'll draw you a picture:

Diagrams Made Easy

The church has to be the living body that it was created to be. Thus it has to REACH out into the community. Christ sent out the 70 in pairs of two. Sounds familiar, yet undone most of the time. Let's work together to change that.

A Church has generations in it as a strength. Wisdom cannot be faked and so it must be passed down. We have "boxed" ministries into age groups for good reasons, yet it is crippling our future generations. Let's build intergenerational ministries together!

Please learn about my friend

Please learn about a most remarkable young man. His story is moving. You will love him and the God that he serves.

Click below:
Clayton McDonald

Dodgeball Tournament Review

The first Hot Dog and Chocolate Dodgeball Tournament has come and gone. With 16 teams in rotation we had a great day. In the end the frontrunners, The Pretty Girls, ended going undefeated and walked away with some clout.

But it wasn't about winning. The tournament was a celebration of the relationships that were created prior to the tournament. The teams came together and their leaders lead them because of a desire to be together and experience something that cannot be done alone. With a handful of churches and Olive Crest coming together there was even more uniting that happened that day. It was a community event where everyone was blessed to be there. The people that had the greatest time (in my opinion) were the 10 plus referees that volunteered to supervise the epic battles. Next time we would love for you to join us. Thanks you for everyone who came out that day. For those who made this happen, the Kingdom of God will never forget!

From a Fan:
Hi Ryan, thanks to you and your team for a great Dodgeball day! Our
four teams had an awesome time. Please know that from our end, your
labor of love was well worth the effort you invested. I've had many
kids ask when we can dodge it up again! There was a lot of good pride
with our 2nd place team and our 1st place for t-shirts. We felt so
welcomed and a part of the Proj-Hang Family. What' up for next year...
Cider and tacos? Yoohoo and Hot Pockets??? Please keep us in mind if
there's anything else you and PH is up to that any of our kids could
join in.

You blessed us muchly, Frank

Frank Fried
Olive Crest Chaplain

The Sage Pt. 2

After working on Project Hangout for about a year and a half I have discovered a number of ministry principles that are true to everyone’s spiritual life. One principle I’ve found is that longevity is spurred on by experience. Seems easy enough and yet in the real world how do we expect twenty somethings to continue in ministry if they are inexperienced in ministry. They are full of energy and have the time, but we all know that can fade quickly when things get tough...

That is where the Sage comes in.

The key to a healthy spiritual life is being connected with your vertical relationships. Those older than you and those younger than you (and of course God). Those older hold wisdom and experience - enough for someone younger to draw strength from in order to carry on. This kind of relationship is beneficial for both involved as we all need to give in order to receive. Wisdom is passed down ensuring successful development of those new to ministry to help them form those in their teenage years. Its a trickledown system that cannot be cut off if we expect positive results.

I’ve found that teenagers that have: (1) mentors and (2) pour into those younger than themselves, have a greater chance of making it through college. This is a natural conclusion as those that live and breathe their faith by walking with others older than them can glean the necessary tools to forge through life’s constant rough terrain.

My conclusion is that if we want young adults and college age students to live missional lives with high school students and junior high students we must first find those that can be their backbone of support. We need wisdom first and that can only be found through the tested, not the untested.

More to insights to come...

-- Let's build up the Church to be mobilize everyone within it to reach everyone not yet apart of it!

Hot Dog and Chocolate Dodgeball Tournament

All Info on the dodgeball tournament (except for the rules, you have to email me) can be found HERE

To "pre-register" your team (or "sign-up") please email me at rz@projecthangout.com and let me know the team captain and who else is on your team. Also include info like what group you are from, the ages/gender of the team and a team name if it has been set.

We do have needs for volunteers. Here are some areas we could use your help:

Set-up
Time/Rank officers
Refs
Security
tear down team
and any kind of prize or food donations!

The Sage

How does a boy without a father grow up to be a man? How does he learn to make the hard decisions he is going to have to make in life; the ones only a man can teach? - Sylar, Heroes, (NBC)

I've been asking myself the same questions. Good thing God gave us other men. I find the heart behind God is that great men take interest in those around them. Selfish men worry only worry about themselves.

The role of the "Sage," is laid out as the most important role a man could play at the end of his life in the book by John Eldredge, The Way of the Wild Heart.
"The Sage draws us to God. He offers a gift of presence, the richness of a soul that has lived long with God."

A few pages later John gets vulnerable and tells us a personal encounter with a Sage:
"And while this old saint's counsel was immensely helpful to me, there was something more given during our two hours that even still I find hard to describe. To sit with a man who has walked with God some seventy-plus years, to be in the presence of a father, to have the eyes of a wise and gracious man fixed upon you, to have his heart willingly offer you affirmation and counsel - that is a sort of food the soul of a man craves. All my years of loneliness and fatherlessness came into stark contrast. I could have wept."

A Sage offers hope and a way.

The church needs to get connected again. Connected to each other. The aging and the young need to cross paths.

We need to be intergenerational.

God designed us to feed off each other.

I heard of a study (I'm looking for the source and my notes) concerning similarities of teens and the elderly. Both showed the same characteristics of feeling depressed, isolated and unwanted. Why? Because one needs the other. I am not suggesting every teenager and elderly person need to hang out. Bingo and Hip-Hop have very little in common. What I am suggesting is a chain. The sage needs to meet and be with those who are in their 40's and 50's. This age range needs to connect with the young married/career and those need to meet with the life stage just below them - college. Young adults and college are the most natural fit for hanging out with high school students (even their schedules lend to this idea).

There can be cross over in every life stage but the point is that we are blessed to be a blessing and that means that we are in the lives of others to help show them the way as well as to soak up the wisdom that is available to us.

More on this. I am just scratching the surface and so is Project Hangout as we seek to reunite the church with each other and reach the unreached together.