FollowI’m at the airport right now getting ready to board a plane to Denver, then onto Nashville. I’ll be spending two days there teaching my Connect Workshop to a group of youth workers and taking them through my “sticky-note” exercise. John, the youth pastor at this particular church, bought each of the members of his team of volunteers my brand new Connect book, and now he’s bringing me out to train them how to connect with kids.
I’m really excited about this weekend for several reasons:
FIRST… when I get to Nashville, John is taking me out to get some authentic Bar BQ. For those of you not familiar with “real Bar BQ,” I warn you, someone from TN might just set you straight. From my last few trips to TN I learned that Bar BQ means only one thing: pulled pork on a bun. There’s only one question they ask you. “Do you want slaw on it?” (Which I always answer, “No.”) The first time I was in TN and someone mentioned Bar BQ, I said, “Bar BQed what?” They replied, “See, out there in California y’all think that Bar BQ is a verb. Bar BQ is a noun and it means one thing: pulled pork on a bun.” So I asked them. “What is it that I do to my burgers then when I throw them on my Weber grill?” They told me, “You grill them.”
Funny, in Texas they informed me that the TN folk got it wrong. Yes, Bar BQ is a verb, but it means the slow cooking of any meat. So now I get a kick out of asking people what Bar BQ means in their state.
Just added: Joseph just linked this video in the comments below to help us clear up any confusion on Bar BQ… hilarious!
(click here for the video if you don’t see it embedded above)
SECOND… the second thing I’m excited about this weekend is that I just love training adults, and that’s all we’re doing this weekend– training adult youth workers. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy sharing the WORD with students. But I think of it this way. The last group of students I spoke too had about 300 of them in the room. The last time I trained adults there were a little less than 200. But when I trained those 200 adults, I could see the excitement as each of those adults left the room, excited about connecting with maybe 5 or 10 students. Do the math. If each of only 150 adults makes an impact in just 5 kids that year… that’s 750 kids impacted this year… not including any students that they’ll go on to impact in the future. I love equipping adults to love kids and share Christ’s love! This weekend will be dedicated to that!
THIRD… I’m training tonight (Friday), then Saturday, then hopping on a plane Saturday afternoon and getting back to my family by Saturday night, going to my own church on Sunday a.m. Love it when that happens!
Gotta go… about to board. Hmmmmm…. already thinkin’ about that Bar BQ! 🙂
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Jonathan, this video should help clear up the barbecue misconceptions out there.
I cannot believe you’re finally in my back yard and I didn’t weasel my way in somehow. I’ve wanted to meet you for forever. And I’d kill to hear you talk about Connect. the bbq deal is just insult to injury. Sorry that it’s like 15 degrees here right now. I hope they’re taking you to Tex’s. Just slobbered on my keyboard.
Jon… sorry I missed you. Would have been fun to meet you.
We went to Jack’s BAR B Q downtown… not very impressive. I’ve had WAY better out here in California.
BBQ DOWNTOWN!!??? talk about an oxymoron. If you don’t get mugged in the parking lot, it’s probably not a good BBQ place. (even though i guess technically you could get mugged downtown.) I digress.
I don’t have the book in front of me, but the page where you quote the guy saying, “Our kids need good fans to make it.” (I think I left out some stuff and added “good”) and you ask “what if our kids had one adult at church who is crazy about them…” Ministry changing stuff. Sorry about the BBQ, go enjoy a California Sushi roll or whatever ya’ll eat out there for me. 🙂