My sons are staging a hostile takeover

We just got the link put up for our new program called SuperStart!. My son Justin was totally pumped to see his face on the front page of the website.

Patrick and his crew do such a great job with SuperStart! Now that I've got a pre-teen myself, I have a whole new respect and understanding of that age group. My son is usually rocking me with some random and abstract question that I feel totally unprepared to answer. Justin tends to floor me with his wisdom. Even at 11, I can honestly say that I respect my son. I'm falling in love with pre-teen ministry. I wish I had really understood how critical it was before. I had that typical Youth Minister attitude. It's all about Jr. High and Sr. High students...and even in that world...the Sr. High group is always trump. Man...I wish I could go back and do my Youth Ministry days in the local church all over again. I would change a lot. I know that I would invest much more heavily in our Children's Ministry.

It's interesting seeing both of my sons this year at conference. I'm seeing elements of myself coming out in both of them...and I'm not sure I like it! Here at summer conference Levi and Justin keep coming up to me offering suggestions on how to make the program better. They are 8 and 10 and feel the need to come up and take my job.

Levi has already told me that I have his dream job. He has decided that he will have my office and my job someday. I think I'll have to give the smack down and make him wait just a little bit longer. They are both cracking me up. I've got them on my left and right during the event telling me that we should change the way we do elements. They are making suggestions for video. They've got lighting ideas.

Man...it's going to be a long summer. Who knows...by the end of it...they may actually have my job.