Like Taft Ayers said in his tweet: Probably a good idea to watch this.​

In 1 Kings 3 we find a story of the beginning of King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. 

In chapter 3 verse 5 something happens that doesn't happen very often - God asks a man what he wants from Him. God literally asks Solomon in a dream, "Ask what I shall give you."

As I said, that doesn’t happen very much in scripture. Moses wasn’t given a choice to lead the Israelites out of Egypt - he was told by God how he was to do it. Even God’s own son, Jesus, wasn’t given a choice in the matter of his earthly death. Sure, Jesus was God on earth and could have called 10,000 angels to rescue him, but God’s plan was absolute and Jesus had no other viable choice - the Savior had to die for our sins on the cross. 

But Solomon was given a choice - and he chooses wisely. 

Selfishly, I know exactly what my first instinct would be to ask for: I would ask God for myself, my children, and my children's children to never have to worry about money. Ever. 

Solomon could have asked for that. He could have asked for power, or status, or riches, or long life, but he doesn't. He simply asks for wisdom to govern his nation - God's people - wisely. He asks for wisdom. 

Believe it or not, God gives you a choice every day. And in terms of serving Him, there's only two choices - we either do or we don't. God has given us the free will to choose what we do with our lives, and every day is an opportunity to show people who we serve. 

What choice are you making? Are you serving God with all your heart or are you serving him half-heartedly? Because there's really no in-between.

I realty was able to take part in the Revival Youth Minister's retreat in Columbia, and it has left me feeling energized, encouraged, but most of all, incredibly blessed.

Just a quick shout out to Chris Webb, Craig Evans, and Scott Bond for working so hard to put all this together.

We had excellent speakers and classes, great discussions and phenomenal material that was covered. A short list of topics that we heard about:

• Building Student Leaders (Reed Henson)
• Event Planning/Communicating Your Ministry (Jerry Elder)
• Team Building in Ministry (Lonnie Jones)
• Weapons of Warfare in Student Ministry (Lonnie Jones)
• Grief and Suicide (Bill MacDonald)
• Simplify Your Ministry (Robbie Mackenzie)
• Digging Deeper in God's Word (JD Schwartz)
• Middle School Ministry (Rusty Pettus)
• Keeping a Blog in Ministry (Robbie Mackenzie)
• Teaching a Parent/Teen Joined Class (Barry Throneberry)
• Service-Oriented Youth Programs and Ideas (Chris Webb)
• Is Your Ministry Miserable or Meaningful? (Craig Evans)
• The Female Self-Image (Nicole Scott)
• Keeping Your Faith Under Fire (Nicole Scott)
• Raising Teens Through Difficult Times (Ralph Gilmore)
• Teaching Teens Heritage of the Church (Ralph Gilmore)

As you can see, the material and the speakers were amazing. ​

If you're a youth worker, this is the workshop you need to attend. Tremendous. ​

Adam Faughn has a wonderful post over at his blog, Faughn Family of Four, entitled "Evernote for Non-Tech Folks". If you know an older preacher or someone who's just not technical, this is a great post for them to introduce them to Evernote. 

Go take a look!​

I've recently had lots of opportunities to stretch my creative muscles in the design department. If you don't know me very well, design is really my first love - web and print design are really my bread and butter. Take a look at my most recent project below.

​Robbie Mackenzie, a youth minister at the Main Street Church of Christ in Springfield, Tennessee contacted me and wanted a logo designed for his new ministry: Missional Youth Ministry. I was more than happy to help him out. 

He wanted something that conveyed the idea of multiplying disciples, which was what MYM was going to be all about. He also wanted something simple and not complex and busy, and something he could use across a wide variety of formats from printed materials to web interfaces. ​

I played around with this idea intensely for almost a week. ​I did sketches, used 'MYM' in every configuration I could think of, and then, like it always, an idea hit me in the head with the simple stick. 

I was trying to evoke a symbol of multiplication and growing, and it was difficult. Then I go the idea to turn the two M's of MYM on their sides facing toward one another and use a complementary color scheme to overlap some slanted rectangles. So simple and so effective. 

​Robbie was very pleased. He now uses the logo on his website as well as on his Twitter account. You can follow him at @MIssionalYM. 

​If you have any design work you would like done, whether it be a website, logo design, flyers, or t-shirts, feel free to contact me at chad.landman@gmail.com.