Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear

She said yes! I'm engaged to an incredible woman! #fb

2012-01-01T21:21:00.001-06:00

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Untitled

2011-12-07T13:21:00.001-06:00

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The things you get from interns... BTW--I love it! Anybody got a big hammer?

2011-05-10T15:40:00.001-05:00

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It's Brinner time!!

2011-02-21T18:24:00.001-06:00

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San Diego Photos

2011-02-12T13:07:00.001-06:00

This past week I got a chance to go to a Youth Ministry conference out in Palm Springs, California. It was a great week, and I got to meet with a bunch of really sharp people who are great at and love what they do. I also got a chance to go out to San Diego and see the sunset from the coast. I grabbed some pictures with my phone and thought that they were worth sharing.

Cliffs near Encinitas.

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

According to the guy we were with, you can only see the offshore islands a few times every year because of the winds that normally don't blow from the desert.

Looking back from a cliff aptly named Yucca Point.

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Lunch!! #fb

2011-02-10T14:41:00.001-06:00

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This is how we are doing our meetings today. #snOMG #stumin

2011-02-01T13:50:00.001-06:00

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A Snow MADLIB

2011-02-01T07:04:00.001-06:00

Pick one choice for each blank. Feel free to post responses.

Holy Cow!!! When I first heard about the ____________(snow, ice, impending doom) that was supposed to hit our area, I was ___________(excited, frustrated, pressed to run to the nearest store and fight my neighbor for necessary supplies). I went to bed skeptical, but when I woke up, I couldn’t believe that there was ____________ (pick any number) ____________ (inches, feet, kilometers) on the ground. Lucky for my family, they closed school ___________ (temporarily, for today, indefinitely). We’ve got no choice but to __________ (enjoy it, complain about it, wait for the snow zombies to attack). If it gets bad enough to where they send out _________ (rescue squads, FEMA, the fourth and final horseman of the Apocalypse), don’t worry about me—I’l be __________ (prepared for whatever else this storm has, king over the “tribe” that used to be my neighborhood, barricaded inside my home until I can see the grass on the ground).

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What's up snow? BTW, there was nothing when I went to bed last night.

2011-01-26T06:50:00.001-06:00

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My dad needed to get out a shopping cart, so he waited for someone to come through the entrance. Nerd.

2010-12-27T16:52:00.001-06:00

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Roadtrip by the Numbers

2010-08-14T13:41:00.001-05:00

If you care about my life at all, then you probably know i recently moved to Maryland to start as the Middle School Pastor at Mountain Christian Church.

It took a really long time, but here's a rundown of some stats that I could think of, countdown style.

80,350--Final mileage on my car on Saturday.

1,686--Mileage from Amarillo, Texas to my apartment in Maryland

30--Roughly how many hours spent driving

7--States we drove in (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland)

4--Days of driving

1--Excited and inexperienced Middle School Pastor ready to start.

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Just bought my first car!

2010-07-22T21:11:00.001-05:00

While this is technically the third car that I've called mine, it's the first one that I have actually been on the title as the actual owner, and also have to make the payments on. (Dave Ramsey followers, I hear you grumbling in the distance. Trust me, I know what you are thinking. There is a reason for me doing this.)

I'm excited as this gets me one step closer to Maryland, and my new Middle School ministry position there. It also is another step in this thing people call "Growing Up" and "The Real World."
For anyone who's interested, it's a 2004 Toyota 4Runner with the Sport Package on it. Essentially, it's like my Grand Cherokee, but updated and little bit more room inside.

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Headed to Maryland

2010-07-06T14:35:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone,Just wanted to get it out there that I have officially accepted a job at Mountain Christian Church, in Joppa (near Baltimore), Maryland, as the Middle School Minister. I'm not sure of everything that the next stage of life holds for me, but I'm excited to have a definite place to jump into, and to see what God has in store for Middle School students in the area.I'm not sure of all of the specifics yet, but I'm excited, and hopefully you are too. Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging me and and praying for me along the way

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Texoma Fishing 2010 Day 2

2010-05-25T10:37:00.001-05:00

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Texoma Fishing 2010 Day 1

2010-05-24T09:55:00.001-05:00

Not a bad way to start a day.

Grant caught the biggest fish of the day.

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Texoma Fishing 2010 Day 1

2010-05-24T09:48:00.001-05:00

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Kung Fu Panda is a hit!

2010-01-13T19:29:00.001-06:00

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An Open Letter To My Sister's Middle School Friends

2010-01-09T13:01:00.001-06:00

Dear Young Gentlemen,

I wanted to thank you for leaving us a gift in our yard last night. In case you wanted to see how it looked in the daytime, I've included some pictures.

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The toilet paper, ribbon, and marshmallows were very well done. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to commend you, because this is the first decent job of getting our house since, well, ever. It took two of us close to an hour and a half to clean up what we could reach. There's still quite a bit stuck up beyond what I could reach with a broom. Congratulations, you got us.
Now I'd like to turn your attention to the real reason I am writing. There are two rules you will need to know later in life:
1. Never get in a land war with Asia.
2. Never prank a guy's house when he's interested in youth ministry, especially middle school.
The things you used were a nice touch, but you have not yet seen the extent of the armory that can be used on a revenge trip. I wont list them here, but I'm sure you'll know soon.
Thanks for continuing to spread the Christmas spirit (because I'm sure some of your Christmas money went in to this endeavor).

Anyway, thanks for your time and effort. I'm confident you won't be seeing me soon.
Blake

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It's COLD!!

2009-12-04T07:44:00.001-06:00

via tweetie

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It was Christmas light day at the Park house today.

2009-11-27T19:04:00.001-06:00

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Sunset

2009-11-08T17:48:00.001-06:00

One of the coolest sunsets I have ever seen in Joplin MO. Taken on 11/8/09.

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Awesome looking clouds in SW MO.

2009-09-21T15:11:00.001-05:00

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Dude Perfect - Summer Camp Edition (HD)

2009-09-11T12:58:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

One of the coolest sports videos I have seen in a long time!

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Only in Missouri

2009-07-14T21:54:00.001-05:00

Only in Missouri do you see someone hauling something twice as wide as their truck.

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How I spent my 21st Bday

2009-07-03T14:12:00.001-05:00

This is how I spent my 21st birthday. Can anyone beat worshipping with 1300 students?

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I Wonder...

2009-04-11T20:12:00.003-05:00

After I read this post and got some feedback from other people who read it, I decided to create my own list.

I wonder...
I wonder how much of the stuff I am paying to learn in my "practical ministry" classes will be relevant when I graduate in a year.
I wonder what the best way to reach students with the message of Christ is.
I wonder how many of the people (students especially!) I will work with will still follow Christ 10 years later.
I wonder how many people judge a church by its community influence.
I wonder when we will stop fighting about everything Monday through Saturday.
I wonder what a church and the Church will look like in 25 years.
I wonder where I will be in 25 years.
I wonder if I can effectively connect and communicate with parents and leaders.
I wonder just how responsible I will be for the people around me.
I wonder if people really understand what they hear.
I wonder what the next "big thing" is.
I wonder if we need the next "big thing."
I wonder if we are doing it right.

Oronogo--Where?

2009-04-06T11:28:00.003-05:00

Hey everybody, I just wanted to let you know that I have accepted a year-long internship opportunity with Christ's Church of Oronogo. I've been a volunteer in their Jr. High ministry for the past three years. I'll be working on their Student Ministry team, working primarily with their Preteen ministry (grades 4-6). I'm excited about what will happen throughout the course of the next year, and the fact that Preteens are an age group that I have no previous experience with. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in the future.

Coming SometimeTo A Shelf Near You: The "No Duh, Ah Crud Application Bible"

2009-03-26T10:45:00.004-05:00

In one of the small groups that I am a part of, we talk about what we have been reading in the Bible over the past week, and what God has spoken to us through it. So many times, week after week, we say something to the effect of "I was reading about _________, and how he did _________. I thought 'Man, what a moron for doing that and ignoring what God said.' And then I was thought 'Ah Crud! How many times have I done the same thing?" The "No Duh, Ah Crud Application Bible" would have extra room in the margin for the reader to record their own "Ah Crud" moments.
Also, one of the guys said that he would like to place "No Duh" after certain statements that are in the Bible that seem to be understated, such as John 4, where Jesus has traveled all the way the from Judea to Samaria, and it says in verse 6 that he was "wearied" from the journey (No Duh).
Look for this to hit shelves as soon as I understand how publishing works.

Review: Taken

2009-01-30T21:48:00.006-06:00

Just got back from watching Taken. Apart from the terrible seat that I had, and the resulting bad angle that I had to look at the screen from (it's my own fault--we got to the theater late), it was a pretty well done movie. I'm not going to review any of the cinematography or script writing. Those of you have been around here for a while know that this blog is about something more. There are people far more qualified than I am to tell you what they did and didn't like. What I am here to do is to spoil the plot for you. But first, some of my own backstory that I brought to the movie when I watched it tonight.

I watched the trailers on TV, and thought that it was going to be a great action movie. Guy kicks butt and fights an organization of kidnappers to try and find his daughter. It sounded a lot like Man on Fire 2.0. I showed the trailer to a couple of guys that I live with, and they also were immediately intrigued and wanted to go see the movie. I grabbed one of them, and another guy off of my floor, and we headed to our local movie theater.

The movie was everything that the trailers said that it would be: lots of fighting, vengeance, and all around action that kept it going pretty smoothly. There was just this one thing that the trailers didn't mention: that the girl was kidnapped by sex traffickers. The rest of the entire movie gives a glimpse into the world of trafficking, and it worked me over pretty good. The directors and producers did a great job keeping the movie pretty clean, considering the subject matter that they were dealing with.

Like some of you, I watched Christ in Youth's "Baht" film this summer. It also covers sex trafficking, but in Cambodia. Baht broke my heart for the women, the girls that are forced into prostitution over in Asia. One of my friends that came with me spent part of his summer in Cambodia, working with an organization called Rapha House that rescues girls out of trafficking and gives them skills so that they can re-enter society without reverting back to prostitution.

When we walked out of the theater, I asked him "How much harder was that movie to watch once it became about sex trafficking?" His response was simply "Oh, yeah." He told us that a few of the scenes in the movie were not too far off what he saw last summer.

Like I said earlier, Baht was heartbreaking, but Taken hit closer to home for me. I've got a strong paternal instinct, which I think come from having a sister that is so much younger than I am. I found myself sickened by the thought of someone that I loved being forced into sex trafficking. So here's the deal. It's time to get the word out about the travesty that is sex trafficking. Talk to people about it. Support organizations that are fighting it. Show people Taken (heads up--not a great date movie) and Baht. It's time to do something.

The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever

2009-01-19T12:50:00.002-06:00

Last night, I started hanging out with a D-Group of 8th Graders from the youth ministry that I have volunteered in for two and a half years. I was (and still am) pumped to start getting to know these guys better. I've felt like I haven't been connected well enough with the students for most of the time that I have volunteered in this student ministry.

But something happened last night that really drove home a point that one of my profs had mentioned. The way he put it was that "students today are biblically illiterate." Our group is going through a book that the point leader selected, and last night the topic was about integrity. The tagline for the lesson was something "If I have integrity, my behaviors will match my beliefs, which will match what the Bible says." The question "How do make sure my beliefs match what the Bible says?" then came up.

The guys all just looked around the room, staring at the ground, each other, anywhere but at the person who asked the question. Finally, one guy said "Well, I wouldn't know because I don't read the Bible that much." Without knowing it, he had answered the question.

What are we doing to make sure that our students are learning the Bible?

Perhaps more importantly, what are we doing to make sure they are learning how to study the Bible on their own?

The Future is (Almost) Here!

2009-01-11T22:43:00.002-06:00

I recently wrote in my Suggestions for 2009 post that I wanted wireless power. Well, a huge step towards that goal was recently introduced at the CES show in Las Vegas. This will be awesome if it is implemented on a large scale.

Power of a Moment

2009-01-08T16:22:00.003-06:00

Something really cool happened to me last night. I got to attend the large group programming of the youth ministry that I interned in this past summer (it's also the youth ministry that I grew up in). When ever I first walked in, I went to where the middle school students were. I was walking around, and I ran into a student that I had met at a week at camp during the summer.

This girl, Izzy, was in my life group, and decided to get baptized at the end of the week. I had to leave the camp to go pick a guest speaker up from the airport a couple of hours away, and wasn't sure that I was going to make it back in time to baptize her, like she asked me to.

I pulled on to the campground just in time to see all the campers heading down to the pond, where the baptisms are done. I got out of the church van, ran up to the dean, and he said "Blake! Glad you're back. You're up!" I emptied out my pockets, and walked into the pond. I got to baptize two girls because of the time I got to spend with them during the week.,

When I saw her last night, she freaked out like only a middle school girl can, and ran up to me. I honestly did not know that a middle school girl could hug that hard. I was shocked to see her, and that she would recognize me after six months.

Obviously, the point is that we should never underestimate any amount of time that we are able to spend with a student. Whether it is a week at camp, an hour at a midweek youth ministry program, or even a minute catching up with them in the hallway. The time you spend pouring into them may just end up being one of the best decisions and investments you could have ever made.

Suggestions for 2009

2009-01-01T00:59:00.003-06:00

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen who control our society,

For the most part, our society runs fairly smoothly and is pretty well off. I commend you on this. You are excellent masters of concealment, and are also fantastic spin-masters. Not much gets by you guys (except for the **** that happened New Year's Eve on ESPN).

However, in my humble experience, I offer four suggestions that I believe will help make our society even better for the future. Please consider them carefully and send me any feedback you find helpful.

1. Make Everyone's License Plate Their Cell Phone Number.
(Ok, so I stole this idea from Erwin McManus, but it is still a good one!) Do you know how much frustration you could eliminate from my life if I were able to yell at the person who just cut me off instead of just keeping it inside my car? Maybe this would require a serious reworking of the license plate and cell phone industry, but I think that we can agree that this will be for the better in the long run.

2. Create Wireless Power
My laptop isn't very portable when I have to be sitting close to a wall outlet in order to keep it going for longer periods of time. If you guys could invent something that would allow me to wirelessly transmit electricity across a room, that would be great. In fact, once you get this done, feel free to shut down the patent office, because there is nothing else that will ever further society beyond that point. Unless, of course, you come up with something that will plug the wireless power thingy in for me. That would be great too.

3. Give me an iPhone.
Ok, not really. This is more wishful thinking (Seriously though--let's make this happen).

4. Allow me to never make a bonehead mistake when working with students.
I realize that this is pretty unrealistic too, but can we at least make sure that the camera isn't rolling when it happens?

Thank you for your considerations. I look forward to what you have in store for this New Year.

Sincerely,

Blake Park

Christmas Reflections

2008-12-26T09:31:00.003-06:00

As with most things that will end up being posted on my blog, this is not an original idea. The preacher at my home church, Hillside, did his Christmas series on "The Tale of Two Trees." The majority of this devotion and reflection comes from that series and especially the Christmas Eve wrap-up.

In the story of Jesus, there are two family trees. The first, Jesus' ancestry, is recorded in Matthew 1 and is full of people has issues such as lying, conspiracy, adultery, murder, and many other sins. In spite of the sins and failures in their lives, God was still able use them and make them a part of his plan and the line of the Messiah.

The second tree is a line of descendants. Of course, this is a spiritual family (unless you want to go all Davinci Code). In John 1, we read that we have the ability to become a part of the family of God, if we believe in Christ. Every person since the time of the apostles that has submitted to Christ has become a part of this tree. Much like the first tree, this line of spiritual descendants is full of cases of sin and failure in people's lives, in both your life and mine.

These two trees are bridged by yet another tree. In 1 Peter 2, it says that Jesus Christ suffered under our sins on a tree, so that we could in fact become a part of his family, and proclaim His name to those that are around us, so that the family and the Kingdom of God could continue to grow and the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ be furthered around the World.

I realize that this a day late for Christmas celebrations, but many people will continue to have family gatherings throughout the rest of the week, so I hope that it will provide some encouragement throughout the rest of the holiday season.

Sacred or Secular

2008-11-23T18:59:00.001-06:00

I've been reading a book for one of my classes, and it has been kicking my butt. Not only does it have about 5.3 billion pages in it, but the ideas presented in it are really tough to deal with. It's called Total Truth, and it's about finding and living with a Christian worldview. One of the chapters focused on leadership and fundraising. It basically asked the question "Why do we in the church take leadership and fundraising ideas from the business model (x number of support letters sent to y number of people will raise z amount of money) and applying it in the church.

The author claims that our dependence upon "secular" methods of leadership shows a lack of dependence upon God. Now, I believe that God rewards preparation and hard work. This is not to say that God cannot and does not intervene on a regular basis. I think that all of the above factor in to results. By the same token, we in America don't place enough emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

For my second rant, I would ask what has been done to create a truly "Christian" model of leadership? Or even, what Christian leadership model is on par with any secular model. For as long as I can remember, churches and Christians have been taking ideas from the business world in the area of leadership. Maybe I'm wrong. Please let me know if I am. As much as I wanted to argue with the author on this point (in my head of course), I have to agree. I'm in a course this semester called "Leadership in Ministry", and all of the books were "Christian" in their orientation. However, I felt that none of the assigned reading was truly revolutionary in the way that I thought about leadership. This summer, while I was on an internship at my home church, the entire staff read a secular leadership book. I felt that it was extremely well written, and while not groundbreaking, it was extremely practical and a better read than any of my books for the course.

So, what do you think? Should we rely upon outside fundraising and marketing techniques in the church, or should we pull back and let God do His thing?

Should we continue to adapt business leadership models for the church, or should we use a sub par Christian model only because it bears the label "Christian?" What can we do to construct a model of Christian leadership that exceeds the business model?

Is 50% Good Enough?

2008-11-23T14:07:00.000-06:00

Today I had the opportunity to attend a Sunday Morning service at my home church in Texas, and the message topic was service. Our senior pastor was preaching, and he said that a lot of churches that are doing a really good job at whatever it is that churches do have about 25-30% of their members/attendees involved in somehow serving their in the congregation. He challenged us as a congregation to get to a point of 50% involvement.

I understand that some leaders definitely want to avoid unrealistic expectations, but I feel that we are selling ourselves short on this one. I think that to expect such a low turn out from a church sets the bar lower than it needs to be. If we had a church where 50% of the members were evangelistic, would we be satisfied? Yes, it would be higher than the average in most churches right now, but would we be satisfied? Would we call it good enough if half of our people decided to show up on any given Sunday? My guess is that we would not.

When we set a goal for ourselves and for the people that are involved in our ministries, we are, in a sense, responsible for the outcome of it. If we set the goal too low, people will not be challenged enough or have to be stretched to reach it. Is it then better to set a goal too high?

There is a good chance that this goal of 50% involvement will not be reached by Hillside. I then wonder, if the goal was set at 75 or even 90% if the challenge would be great enough to cause serious inspiration and call for a radical commitment to the cause of Christ and actually reach above the 50%? Would a church filled with people who would make a commitment like that cause the community around it to take note?

Here We Go!

2008-11-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

For a while now, some of my friends have told me that I should start blogging. A few of them have their own blogs (Shout out to Charlie, Jim, and David!), and I thought that I would join the fray. No promises about what will be posted or how often i will post. With all of that said, let's jump in to what I actually wanted to talk about.

I had an 8 hour drive home from school today. That's a really long time to be in a car, driving from the Midwest to the Southwest. Needless to say, I had my iPod with me to keep me from drifting off. One of the albums that I listened to was Taylor Swift's newest (Yes, I listen to Taylor Swift. Don't judge me.) Several of the songs struck me as saddening and interesting. The big ones were Fifteen and White Horse (listen to the songs if you can), and I could even make a case for a couple of other tracks.

When I was listening to these songs, it felt as though I were listening to a very young girl just crying out to be loved. It seemed as if she had been hurt, injured by a previous experience. I have worked with students for far too long now (at my old age of 20!) to know that this is not an isolated incident. Over and over again, I have seen these same ideas played out in the lives of teenage guys and girls. And it's time it stopped.

Two points: First, If you are a student (high school or younger), I beg of you to stop trying to find your "completion" or "satisfaction" in a dating relationship. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the relationship probably will not last. The best and only loving relationship that you can find and take ahold of comes from Jesus.

Secondly: This one goes to adults. Students today only know relationships that are broken, and they accept the fact that life hurts. While they may have accepted those facts as merely a part of their lives, the side effects or aftershocks continue to sound in our culture. In fact, they are louder than ever, and there is not much chance of them going away anytime soon.

I think that sometimes we simply choose to ignore the cries of a younger generation because we ourselves have become used to the sound. Like I said earlier, they are becoming louder than ever, yet we have chosen to not do anything about it. We have chosen to drown them out because they are too loud (Hence, the title of my blog). Those of you that know me know that I feel called to work with students. My plea is that all of us would take just a few moments and notice the hurting that are walking among us, and do something about it.

Will you join us?

P.S. If you want to stay up to date on all my random thoughts throughout the day, you can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.