I'm a boring and slightly bottled man

Right now I am reading the autobiography of Eric Clapton. It's not exactly heavy reading, but I do enjoy a good biography from time to time. What strikes me the most about him (and other artists) is the way music became a soothing medication for the sicknesses in his life. When he was brokenhearted by tragedy, he churned out "Tears in Heaven." When he was hopelessly in love with the wife of one of his best friends (George Harrison of the Beatles), he created many tracks, including "Layla."

I want that. Well, not that exactly. I want to have some sort of outlet where I can take what is swimming around on the inside and make it something constructive on the outside. When I get upset, I'm just upset until it passes. I think I need a hobby.

Im outta here

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll be back in my home state for about a week- so expect to hear from me later!



While I'm out- spend your hours looking at icanhascheezburger.com. If you can't enjoy yourself here, then you're just not alive.

It's On Like Donkey Kong...

I'm not entirely sure that I'm finished with my Christmas lights yet, but here's how it started...

Here is a slanty shot of the front of the house...
Here's a another shot of the front...

And here's a shot of the side of the house where our garage is...

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Here's something almost everyone knows about me. I REALLY get into the Christmas spirit. I love the trees, the lights, the drunken uncles- all of it. Especially the lit up houses though. Nothing jingles my bells like seeing a house covered in tiny lights.

Here's my problem- until this year I have lived in apartments, so I haven't had the chance to decorate anything. This year- we are in a house, and I have been stockpiling Christmas lights for 3 years. By the time I'm done, I expect airplanes to try to land on my roof. It's gonna get crazy.

I was going to wait until after Thanksgiving to put my lights up- but I don't think that's gonna happen. My brother in law is coming to town this weekend and I think he's going to help me rig up everything.

I know what you're thinking- "Hold your horses! It's too early to decorate for Christmas." Well, too bad. I'm going for it. People who hold their horses look like this guy:

Simply put

This is a very good thing.

I have a feeling that this still won't deter this absolutely hateful anti-Christian church from making other people's lives miserable.

Here's my question- How far does free speech go? Is it ok that we punished this group because their speech was full of hate and the most tasteless of timing? Where do we draw the line?

It's Taco Time!

Listen, I know what all of you are dying to know- "Did you go get your free taco at your local participating Taco Bell between 2 and 5 PM today?"

The answer is no. I seriously thought about it, but then I remember just how disgusting Taco Bell really is.

Having said that, I really think that this is one of the most brilliant marketing moves I have ever seen. In case you haven't heard, Taco Bell is giving every American a free taco because someone stole a base in the World Series.

My first reaction was "Wow- that's a LOT of tacos! How can they afford it?!" Well, the tacos were only available on a Tuesday afternoon between 2 and 5 PM. I would say that knocks out at least half of America right there. I'd also assume that at least half of those that don't have jobs that keep them from visiting seedy restaurants in the late afternoon have no clue about this promotion. We're down to 1/4 of the country now. Realistically, I would say that only 1 out of 10 non=working Americans that had heard about the promotion really plan on going. Just like that we are down to 1/40th of the country. I seriously doubt even that many people show up.

They are still spending a lot of money on free tacos, but this is a brilliant move for Taco Bell. No one goes to Taco Bell for just a taco, right? You gotta have a coke or pepsi, or whatever your beverage of choice is. The drinks actually cost more than a regular beef taco does. So, assuming that there is substantially increased traffic in Taco Bell's today- they will easily make more money than they do on any other non-free taco day. Kudos to the great minds south of the border.


The only way Taco Bell would lose money is if everyone took Redsox player Royce Clayton's advice and "go into every Taco Bell in the world and say 'I aint got my taco.'" Enjoy the video goodness

I'm back and well rested!

I am going through the book of Genesis in my own personal study these days....and there are some questions about Creation that I would like to throw out to some of you

Genesis 1 tells us that God created light before he created the sun, moon, and stars. Did He create the potential of light? Was light emanating from God Himself?

Also, if the sun was created later in the week, how were the first 3 days of Creation split into days? Since the Hebrew word for day (yom) can also mean "an age," (think of an old person saying, '...back in my day...') could it be that there were ages of the Creation process and not a calendar week? Do you think this could reconcile scientific dating of the earth (which dates the earth as much older) with the Biblical timeline (which says that the earth is roughly 6000 years old)?

And what about the gap theory? This theory posits that there is a large amount of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

And lastly, would any of these possibilities affect your faith at all?


I'd love to have a good conversation about this one...

Fun with Alcohol!

Since no one who reads this was at NYC, we are going to skip my thoughts on it and plow right ahead to a new topic- Alcohol!

I subscribe to a youth pastor email list. Basically, youth pastors have email conversations and debates with other youth pastors from around the country. Yesterday, a youth minister mentioned that he drinks a beer from time to time- and was basically condemned to hell for it.

What are your thoughts on the alcohol issue for Christians? Is it a sin to take a sip? To get drunk? OK in moderation?

Before I spill....

Was anyone else at NYC in St. Louis last week?

If so, what were your general thoughts?

Opinion time!

I read a quote today that I thought was interesting, so I thought I'd throw it out there and see what your reactions to it were.



"Christianity was born in the Middle East as a religion, moved to Greece and became a philosophy, journeyed to Rome and became a legal system, spread through Europe as a culture- and when it migrated to America, Christianity became big business."

What have we made of Christianity?

Warning: Opinionated ramblings ahead.

If you were to ask someone outside the church how they recognize someone as a Christian, what do you think they would say? I know, because I recently asked quite a few people (some Christian and some non-Christian) "What is a Christian?"

Lots of Christians may be pleased with the responses I received. Most everyone answered that a Christian was someone who didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't curse, etc. Basically people have begun to identify Christians by what we dont do.

Does that bother anyone else?

Somewhere along the line Christians stopped being identified by what we do do, and started being identified by the things that we abstain from. As usual, I have a theory about this.

The early church wasn't nearly as concerned with personal lifestyle boundaries as they were about going outside the church and winning souls for Christ. And wouldn't you know it, the greatest growth in the history of the Church occurred during a time when most "congregations" didn't even have a building to meet in! The Church was a missional entity, whose sole purpose was to expand the Kingdom. That was the primary goal of the church.

As a Church today, we still think that sounds good and we even claim it as our goal- but how realistic is that claim? It seems to me that as Christians we have become MUCH more concerned with making sure we stay within the boundaries of the Law than we are with going out and making a difference in our communities. What's the purpose?

Great! You don't drink, smoke, or curse... but tell me, what DO you do? Imagine standing before the great throne of judgment, and having God himself tell you to present your case for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. You reply, "Well God, you're going to be very impressed! I didn't work on Sundays. I didn't curse. I didn't drink. I didn't smoke or do drugs. I wasn't mean to people." I imagine that God would respond with the top line of this paragraph: " OK, but what did you actually do for me?"

I believe we have made the mistake of creating our own little Christian subculture. We become a Christian and then eventually move our entire lives into this "bubble" of the Christian subculture. Our friends from church become our closest (and sometimes only) friends that we spend time with. We spend all of our free time at church events with other Christians. We wear Christian t-shirts and listen to Christian music. Our cars are peppered with metallic fish and bumpers with pithy Christian sayings on them. We withdraw ourselves from the culture around us and become enveloped in our Christian subculture.

Is this the example that Jesus gave us? In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, we read that the Pharisees grumbling that "this man receives sinners, and eats with them." Where we seem to be content with sitting in the church waiting for the lost to enter, Christ seemed to be more enamored with becoming a part of the culture and ministering to people where they are. He ate with sinners! He went to feasts and even wedding with (gasp) drinking! But it is in those settings that we read about some of the greatest moments in his ministry. We seem to be too disgusted with the world around us to enter into with anything but disdain. Christ entered into the culture around him with the love of the Father.

In the church, we make huge deals of mission trips. Why is that? Because it's one of the only times of the year that we actually do Christian service outside of the church walls! This is what bothers me.

On Sunday mornings before church, ESPN usually airs "outdoorsy" type shows. I love watching the old men do flyfishing, because they do not fish from the bank, a boat, or a pier. These guys stand out in the middle of the lake and fish with water coming up to their waists. That's the kind of church we should be! We can't keep fishing from the bank! We need to be as Christ and get out in the middle of the lake if we want to do some real fishing.

I've probably written too much to even understand what my original point was, but here is my wish for the Church. That we reorganize ourselves in such a way that when people are asked what a Christian is, they start listing the good that we do in the world instead of listing everything that we don't do. Secondly, let's break out of our Christian subculture every now and then and associate ourselves with those that need Christ the most. Remember the words of Christ from Matthew chapter nine- "It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick..."

Evan Almighty

I wasn't a huge fan of "Bruce Almighty," but I have to tell you- I absolutely loved "Evan Almighty." Great, great movie.

You should run, not walk, to go check it out.

Ah, the life of a pastor...

Is there any better or more romantic way to spend your 2 year wedding anniversary than helping out with VBS all day at the church? Methinks not.

Teen camp and an aching heart.

This past Monday through Friday, my teens and I attended our district's summer teen camp. Overall, we had a fantastic time. If you forget about the food, you would have a hard time finding anything negative about the way camp was run this year.

Attention, youth pastors and camp directors---One of our speakers' name was Scott Regester. This guy was absolutely phenomenal. If you have any need for a speaker, look him up. He lives in Oklahoma, so how hard could it be to find him?

I took a group of 17. On the last night, the speaker asked which teenagers felt that God may be leading them into the ministry some day. 6 of my teens went forward. It is always incredibly moving to see teens in your ministry willing to answer God's call on their lives.

Here's the main event that affected me this year: It seems that every year at camp, there is some sequence of events that absolutely humbles me. This year, it started before we could even load up the vans to leave for camp. I had a girl who was signed up for camp drop out at the last second because she was sick. Her payment was nonrefundable, so I scrambled to find someone to take her place. Eventually, the girlfriend of a guy in my group was able to take the last spot.

I should have known that there was a greater plan than mine, with the way that events unfolded to get this girl to camp. Little did I know how much this girl needed to feel loved.

One night this girl and I were talking, and I asked her what her home life was like. She immediately started crying and told me that the last 12 months have been the worst in her life. What she then told me absolutely broke my heart.

About a year ago, this girl was raped by a complete stranger and got pregnant. The person who did this was never caught. Her pregnancy ultimately ended in a miscarriage. Her mother, who is an alcoholic, hasn't been around for much. Most every day, this girl comes home to an empty house, where she has to also play the role of mom for her 10 year old brother. She cooks all the meals. She helps him with his homework. She puts him to bed. She can't remember the last time she went out with friends, because she always chooses to stay home so her brother doesn't have to be lonely. When her mom is home, she tells her daughter that she's worthless, ugly, fat, and stupid. In my opinion she is none of these things.

Here is a 15 year old girl who has been forced to deal with more tragedy in a year, than I have known my entire life. Not only that, but she is having to force herself to be strong for the sake of her brother.

The theme of our camp was simple- "Used." How are you going to let God use you? The girl made some huge decisions this week, and is convinced that God is going to use her to tough her family. She knows it will not be easy, but she seems to be very determined.

Please join me in prayer for her.

They're doing amazing things with fountain drink technology

Well, if you saw my last post you know that I went on a bit of a road trip last weekend (the swim wasnt that bad). Well, I ran across something on my trip that changed my life in an instant.

My friend and I stop at a random gas station in Tupelo, Mississippi. By all accounts, it appeared to be merely your average, run of the mill gas station. That, my friends, was wrong.

My eyes scanned the gas station as I tried to locate something to drink. I saw a big sign above a brightly lit up fountain machine that simply read "BURST". As I walked over towards the fountain drink machine, I noticed that there seemed to be a ridiculously high number of buttons on this particular machine. As I drew near, I saw that beside each drink choice was three extra buttons. One button was cherry flavoring, one was vanilla, and one was lime.

Turns out you can select up to two flavors to add to your cool beverage free of charge! You want a cherry vanilla coke? No problem! What about a lime vanilla diet sprite? Go to town!

I thought you'd be impressed...

No time to talk- must train!

The googles are funny.

I am going to be out of town this weekend. I am meeting a friend at the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. I went on to my trusty maps.google.com to get directions from here to the airport. For some reason I thought that LRA was the abbreviation for Little Rock's airport, but apparently this is in fact an airport in Greece.

Naturally, google still gave me directions to this little Grecian airport. I would like to direct your attention to step 34 of the directions they gave me.

"Swim across the Atlantic Ocean. 3,462 miles."

That's right, they recommend that I swim across the Atlantic. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go train if I'm ever going to make it across the pond...

Humans- The Poetry of God

Here is the lesson that I am giving tonight. I hope it speaks to you like it did to me.

Prayer

Activity

Divide into groups for poem

• About how one member of your team is so great
• At least 10 lines, must rhyme
• Bonus points if your team acts it out!

Lesson

We are going to talk a little bit more about poetry tonight- not like you do in English class, though

• It is going to help us see how God looks at us, and how we should respond in light of that

Any fans of poetry in here?

• Any particular poets or poems that are your favorites?
• Anyone write your own as a way to vent or just be creative?
• How do you tell good poems from bad poems?

Some people think they are being really great, colorful writers- but in reality they aren’t that good- here are some examples of actual lines from really bad poems and stories

• Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
• Every minute without you feels like 60 seconds.
• Her parting words lingered heavily inside me like last night's Taco Bell.
• He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

So, you see that there is some really bad writing out there- and hopefully you are getting curious as to what all this has to do with the way God sees us.

Speaking of poetry- did you know that you are all poems yourselves?

• It’s true- you are a living, breathing work of art that God made- that every day appears before the world as either a beautiful poem, or a trainwreck like some of those writers we heard from earlier

To prove to you I’m telling the truth, let’s turn to Ephesians 2:10

• For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago
• Different translations say this a few different ways
• “what he has made us” “creation” “masterpiece”
• The reason there are so many different translations for this is because there isn’t an English word that really has the same meaning as the Greek word used
• The Greek word in question is this: poema- look familiar?

Every Christian is God’s living poem- and every day we had a new line to that poem

Group Discussion Questions

So how do we make our lives end up as masterpieces- beautiful works of art instead of becoming trainwrecks?

• Easy answer- in the second half of the verse-
• He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago

Think about it this way- long before you were a sparkle in your parents’ eyes- you were a complete story- a complete poem in God’s imagination

• Before the world began- God the poet had already pulled out the paper and pen and was thinking about his next creation
• And just like a poet who had a great line pop into his head, God smiled when he thought about what you (his poem) would look like if you decided to “do the good things he planned for us long ago”

God began this poem in his mind long, long ago

• And when you finally showed up on this earth, he actually handed over the paper and pen to you- so you could finish the poem however you chose to

You could have chosen to not fulfill the vision God had for you- you could have chosen to write a really crappy poem

• Or hopefully you chose to continue writing your poem as beautifully as God planned for you

Either way, it’s your choice

I don’t know about you, but that’s what I want for my life- I want to be a beautiful poem that God would be proud to show off to everyone around Him

• And the way I try to do that is by living every day the way I think God would want me to
• I try to handle every situation like Christ himself would- I try to share the love of God with those around me.

And you know what- every time you show God’s love to someone around you….every time you handle a situation exactly like a Christian should…. You are adding a beautiful new line to the living poem that is your life.

I want all of us to bow our heads and we are going to close in prayer

• But first- I want you to think to yourself what your poem has looked like until this point
• Has it been all good stuff, or are there some lines in there that don’t belong?
• Think if there have been any lines added that you really wish you could go back and erase
• I want you to take just a few seconds now and I want you to do two things
• Tell God you are sorry for the bad lines in the poem, for the times you’ve messed up
• And end your prayer by telling God that you are committed to living your life the way He envisioned for you- End by telling him that you want beautiful poetry to your life with the way you handle every situation in every day.

I close with quick prayer.

Update

First of all, the teen in my group that was having such terrible physical problems is doing much better. Thanks to any that might have joined with me in praying for him.

Secondly, District Assembly was honestly not that bad. I met several people that will be good for me to know... NYI president, Camp director, NYC Director, District Superintendent, etc. As far as the actually assembly itself- it had it's moments. If you can get past the droning business sections and incessant NPH pimping, there were some really excellent visions for the future cast.

Oh well, I'm about to head to youth group... I'll give you all another morsel of information soon!

District Assembly, Here I Come!

Hope everyone has a great week- I'll be spending the rest of mine at District Assembly. We'll see how that goes...

In the meantime, please pray for a young man in my youth group. To make a long story short, it seems like he has a large polyp on his colon, for lack of a better explanation. He was taken to a hospital in a bigger city yesterday so they could better take care of him. More tests this week will hopefully tell us why he is having these issues at such a young age.

I just don't know sometimes...

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your name

This is the song that I heard sung by thousands of teenagers at a Newsboys concert last night. Hands were stretched to the sky all across the venue as they all sang at the top of their lungs. It was an emotionally driven, feel-good moment for most involved.

I know that I can be too cynical at times, but I couldn't help but wonder how many of those teenagers were paying any attention at all to the words of the song. I'm particularly interested in the stanza below:

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

I truly believe that these are beautiful and powerful words, but do we really realize just what we were singing? I've been to about a dozen camps on a few different districts, and I've always been bothered by the emotion-driven worship that we feed our teenagers. Have we sacrificed authentic training and discipleship for a feel-good moment with kids flooding the altar? We get a charismatic speaker who knows exactly what to say to stir a crowd, and the services end with literally hundreds of teens at the altar. On the surface, this looks like a wonderful experience!

My concern is that youth ministers are becoming too caught up in altar numbers, just like some pastors have become too caught up in attendance numbers. My question is whether or not we are doing our teens justice with this movement. If we intentionally prick their emotions and they spend an hour at the altar crying with their friends, will the experience matter a year from now? Have we equipped them for the rigors of the Christian life outside of our protected camp atmospheres?

As a fairly young youth pastor, I can clearly remember my own experiences as a teen a nazarene summer camps. I got "saved" five summers in a row. Anyone else out there have similar stories? I can name you plenty of teens from youth groups I've pastored to experience the same thing- is this not a symptom of a larger problem?

Emotions come and emotions go- which is why I don't want my teenagers' faith or major spiritual decisions to be based on emotions only. We have basically closed the book on preaching "hellfire and brimstone" because we realized that in essence we were scaring people into making decisions. The problem with scaring people into decisions is that they were only scared for a few hours. Their faith wore off as their fear did. Can we not expect the same results from playing to positive emotions? Teenagers won't always have the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with teen camp. Will the decision they made there still hold true in their lives when the struggles of the world hit them in the mouth a few weeks later?

The bottom line is that I feel we have sacrificed true spiritual maturation for tears and snot on the altar.

I'm aware that this is a hastily written post and my thoughts are all over the place, so I may not have been clear or made a valid point at all. This is just something that has been heavy on my heart this morning, so I wanted to share... any thoughts?

So far, so good

Sorry for the delay, blogland. I know that during my hiatus, you all were frantically checking the net every day to see if I bestowed you with any more pearls of wisdom...well your wait is over, my friends!

Of course, I kid.

In news that isn't fake, I implemented a competitive small groups model for my Wednesday night services. At some point during my lessons, we split into small groups- each having a teen captain and an adult- to go deeper with the topic. The groups are "competitive" because they received points for showing up, bringing Bibles, bringing visitors, memorizing a weekly verse I assign, mission projects, and a slew of other random things. Whichever group has the most points at the end of the summer will have their way paid on our summer trip to six flags.

I introduced this two Wednesdays ago, and last night was our first "real" meeting with the small groups. You have to understand that since I have arrived at this church a month ago, I have seen one visitor and one person bring a Bible. Last night we had three visitors, six people brought Bibles, and five people memorized our Scripture for the week. I was quite pleased with the result.

I know that the reason they did these things was because of their competitive spirit, but I really don't think that is the most important thing right now. I am trying to develop good habits in them, and if takes a silly church competition to get them memorizing scripture, inviting friends to church, and bringing their Bibles to church- I'm totally ok with that.

really?

Anyone ever heard of an established church of over 200 that has never had an actual budget? I hadn't, until now of course.

Apparently my new church has never even considered keeping a budget- thankfully, the new pastor is all for knowing how much money you have and where exactly it goes. We hope to have a rough draft of a budget within the month. What a mess...

Now, I am also left with the uneviable task of coming up with a proposed 2007 NYI budget. This would usually be a pretty easy task, but take into account that I am only 3 weeks into this job, I don't have any clue what this group is used to spending, I have no previous years' budget to go by, and I don't even know how much money the church in general has to spare. I feel like I'm grasping at straws here... at least it's making things interesting in the office this week!

Decisions, decisions...

Let me begin by thanking everyone who has offered advice on the last few posts on my blog. Believe me when I tell you that your advice has not gone unnnoticed or unheeded. Furthermore- by all means, keep it coming!

My next dilemma will be regarding the make-up of the group itself. Out of about 30 teenagers, only about 7 or 8 are juniors or seniors- the rest are much younger junior high kids. From speaking with some parents of the older kids, it seems that my juniors and seniors are feeling a bit detached from the group recently because of the influx of 6-8th graders.

Historically, the group has always been combined- jr and sr high together. I like the idea of togetherness, but it also makes it difficult to provide material that challenges both jr AND sr highers on a regular basis. It's one thing to have a 10th and a 12th grader in the same class. It's a bit more difficult to have 6th-7th graders and 12th graders in the same setting. During this transitional stage in their life the two groups are worlds apart.

My question is this- how do I reconcile the differences in age and maturity levels? One option I have considered is as follows: We all come together for worship, prayer, and a general lesson from yours truly. At that point, we split into groups and discuss the topic further while making it more relevant or "deeper" depending on the age group. That way we are coming together as a group, but the older teens are still able to discuss things that are on their minds specifically.

Good idea? Bad idea? Got other ideas? Once again, I'm all ears.

EDIT: I am also kicking around the idea of splitting everyone into "family groups" and having my older leaders dispersed throughout them. They learn to be better leaders, and in the process they help the younger and less mature kids grow. Of course, splitting them up into the correct groups is tantamount to making this plan successful- separation by cliques would accomplish nothing.

Long Time, No Update...

... but I have a good excuse!

We made the move to our new church home this past week, and finally the internet and I are companions once again. The trip was a little rough-car problems- but we got here safe, which is all I can ask for.

Our first service was last night, and I handed out a brief survey to try to get a grasp on where the group is spiritually. These are all good kids, but spiritually they are so far behind it isn't even funny. The past few youth pastors have treated the youth group as their personal playground, so now the teenagers' idea of youth group is simply a place to come and play dodgeball. You can't blame the teens for that- that's what youth group has been for them.

Needless to say, I am going to have to start from scratch with these kids if I am going to change the whole way they look at youth group. Has anyone else out there in blogland had to undo the disservice that a previous minister has done? If you have any tips or ideas, I'm all ears.

Getting back to basics

As I have mentioned before, I am moving to a different state in the next couple of weeks and stepping into full-time youth ministry. Coming into this last Wednesday, I only had two more Wednesday night programs to be with my current youth group. I struggled greatly as I started to prepare my lesson for the night- what did I want to leave them with? What do I want them to remember as the last thing I tell them? The Scriptures are full of instruction- what do I want them to keep in mind?

Late in the book of Matthew, the religious powers that be try to corner Jesus with a few questions. One of them was the question of what the greatest commandment was. Out of the 613 Old Testament laws that were recognized, Christ was able to sum everything up in two statements.

Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself.

So, last Wednesday I spoke about loving God. This Wednesday I am speaking about loving our neighbors. There are a hundred topics that are important and worth touching on- but if I can get every youth group I ever come in contact with to simply love God and love people...then I will consider my ministry a success.

Immigration?

I promise that I won't usually make a habit of including political ramblings in a predominantly religious blog, but one issue has been on my mind as of late- Immigration.

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last couple of years, you know that immigration has become one of the premier hot-button political issues as of late. Why has it blown up into such a huge issue lately? Haven't illegal immigrant been crossing the border since the annexation of Texas? Is it really a new phenomena?

An idea that I haven't completely worked out in my head yet, is that the government is capitalizing on the subtle, maybe unconscious racism of many Americans.

It's no secret that this administration is in trouble. Last I heard, President Bush's approval rating was fluctuating between the high 20's and low 30's. When someone has drawn the ire of that many people, their every move is watched more carefully- with the audience just waiting to tear them apart for their next misstep.

So then, what should an administration in that position do? Avoid polarizing issues and start to really stress one or two issues that most Americans already agree on. I think it's safe to say that most Americans are in favor of stricter immigration laws, and some are even in favor of building a giant wall on the Mexican border.

Why are we so obsessed with keeping Mexicans out of our country? The current administration refers to this situation as a matter of "national security," or of "securing our borders." Both terms have been thrown around a lot lately, because the scars of 9/11 are still fresh on our minds. They are using the average American's knee jerk reaction to defend their country in order to increase the government's power and involvement in our every day life to unprecedented levels. It seems they have used our fear for their own profit. I seem to be getting a little off subject here. Maybe a new paragraph will help...

Do Mexicans really pose a threat to our national security? Is anyone really concerned about Mexican suicide bombers running through their town's square? Has there been a rise in Mexican terrorist activity that I am unaware of? Not that I have heard of. Mexicans cross our border to improve their situation, and whether or not we like to admit it, they improve our economy in the process. Now, I would prefer that they go through the proper channels to cross the borders legally- but I think it's ludicrous to label this a "national security" issue.

Some say that we build a wall and tighten security measures in order to keep terrorists who try to enter our country from south. In other words, a Iranian extremist group would fly to Mexico first, and then enter America illegally. If that is our concern, where is the proposal for a wall on our Canadian border as well? Theoretically, aren't we just as vulnerable to those coming from the north?

My yet-to-be-developed idea is that Mexicans are the new Blacks. Across the history of our nation, there has always been a contempt for a group of people abroad and a contempt for a group of people within our borders. The groups abroad have ranged from the Brits, the French, the Germans, and the Japs. These days, our most hated group abroad are people from the Middle East. As far as our hatred for a group within our borders, we have been pretty consistent (until very recently) in considering black people the "lesser" race. I truly believe that Mexicans have taken their spot, and are now receiving similar vitriol.

Even in what are commonly assumed to be the more racist southern states, it is taboo to refer to black people in a derogatory manner. Of course, there are some exceptions- most notably with older generations. For the most part though, we have welcomed black people into our society as equals. Seventy years ago, no one would bat an eye if they heard the word "nigger" in a public place. Nowadays, it would be shocking- just ask Michael Richards.

I've noticed that it isn't taboo to refer to Mexicans in a derogatory manner. From slang terms describing them to assigning them poor moral and social qualities because of preconceived notions and broad generalizations- we as a nation have begun to look at Mexicans as a lower class of people. We Americans are the elite, and the Mexicans aren't worthy to tread our soil.

Think about it this way. You have probably been around a Hispanic person somewhere, and innocently wondered if they crossed the border illegally. I know I was guilty of this way of thinking. What if you met a British person, or a Canadian, or an Irishman? Would you even think twice about the means by which they entered the country? Probably not- and yet we look at Mexicans and wonder if they are really supposed to be here.

I am not referring to a racism where a group of people is physically abused and ostracized by society as a whole. I'm talking about a form of racism where we didn't even realize that we started looking at Mexicans as second-class humans. It is a form of racism that assumes that since we are American, we are entitled to more than others.

I believe it's possible that a flailing administration is using this mindset to help bolster support among the American people. Long our subconscious opinions of Mexicans have laid dormant, but it seems they have been stirred up in order to have a majority agree with something this administration stands for.

I would ask only that you consider why you are in favor of making it harder for illegals to cross the border. Is it because you are concerned for your own security? If you look deep within yourself, you may realize that isn't the case at all.

Then again, maybe a wall is a good idea. I'm sure the remaining American Indians are kicking themselves for not thinking of that a couple hundred years ago...

I'd love to hear some feedback- negative or positive.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; send these, the homeless tempest-tossed, to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
--inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty

Yeah... I wasn't trained for this...

Over the past 2 months or so, a new family has been attending my church. They have a 13 year old girl who has started coming to youth group, which is usually a great thing. It didn't take long to figure out that there was something different about this girl.

The first Wednesday night program that she attended was interesting to say the least. She first raised her hand in the middle of the lesson to ask who in the group were siblings. After we established who the brothers and sisters were, I continued with the lesson. A few minutes later, her hand went up again. She then pulled a cd out from her purse and asked if she could "share" it with everyone. I asked exactly how she intended to share it, seeing as how there is no cd player in our area.

The whole time, you could just tell that she wasn't aware of anything going on around her. She was in her own little world, and would come back into ours every few minutes to bring everything to a screeching halt to answer her random questions. As she keeps coming to church, it is increasingly becoming the norm.

She doesn't ask as many questions now, but she desperately tries to get the attention of other members of the youth group all during the lessons. Ways of doing this include slapping her own face, choking herself with her scarf, breaking out into random laughter, and a few other ways as well. Another issue we face is that when there is food around, she absolutely gorges herself. At our superbowl party, she had 3 plates of food and an entire box of Kroger cookies by herself. Her parents had to come pick her up early because she ate herself sick. I didn't see all of that, or I would have stopped her.

I spoke with the pastor and his wife about the situation. There immediate reply was "Oh, yeah- that girl has some major issues..." Turns out that she may be suffering from turrets, aspergers, schizophrenia, or some combination of them.

Needless to say, here is what I know for sure. She doesn't seem to be even remotely aware that there is a lesson going on. I know for a fact that she doesn't listen to a word I say. I am basically baby-sitting her for an hour on Wednesday and Sunday nights. I also know that her interruptions absolutely bring any teaching or spiritual moment we may be having to a halt. Her parents aren't big fans of having conversations about their daughter, so they haven't been much help. I do know that she isn't being abused in any way.

So my question is this... how do I handle this situation? I have never cut her off or dismissed any of her random questions, but they are seriously impeding any learning or worship that may occur with the rest of the group. Is it fair to the rest of the group that they cannot possibly keep a train of thought for more than a couple of minutes because she distracts us some way? I want this girl to feel included, but at what price?

Any advice or insight would be awesome

Youth Revival Last Weekend

This past Friday and Saturday, I was asked to be the evangelist at a zone youth revival at a Nazarene church in my home state. This was the first time I have ever done a youth revival per say, so this was new territory for me.

It was only a two service revival, which turns out to be very limiting in your overall theme and delivery. Usually with a revival, you have at least 3 or 4 days to flesh out an overall theme for the week. Having only two sessions is a different monster; you have to get in and get out. My plan for the two services was to have the first service focus on getting right with Christ, and the second lead into the "What now?" discussion. Below are brief synopses of both sermons. Neither is a complete manuscript of the sermon, but I do have those available if you are interested.

Session 1.) Ezekiel 37:1-14

I used the "Valley of Dry Bones" passage to kick off the revival. I can think of no other scripture that better illustrates revival than this one. I spent a few minutes placing them in the middle of this valley with Ezekiel, where they are surrounded by nothing but death and hopelessness for as far as the eye can see. But then we see God's command to Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, and then we see these dry bones coming back together and eventually having their life breathed back into them by God Himself.

In verses 11-14, God explains to Ezekiel that the bones represent Israel and that he would restore them in the same way that he restored the dry bones. I then spent some time talking about where we are in the history of Israel when Ezekiel receives this vision. They had already been delivered from Egyptian bondage, spent time in the desert, and settled in Canaan. Things were wonderful for many years, as the Israelites walked with God and enjoyed such great leaders as David and Solomon. Eventually, the Israelites fell away from God, and introduced pagan religions, idols, and rituals into their culture. Internal fighting ensued and Israel split into two parts. Eventually, both parts were overtaken by the Babylonians and the Assyrians respectively. Israelites were transported all around the Babylonian empire, and they were nothing but an empty shell of who they once were. Surely we can see why they were dry bones.
Nevertheless, God tells Ezekiel that he will revive and restore their dry bones. I then transitioned the discussion in order to talk about the interconnectedness of the Old and New Testaments. I explained that even though we often see them as two completely different books, that they essentially tell the same story- the story of God rescuing his people from bondage (slavery in OT, sin in NT) and delivering them into the Promised Land (Canaan in OT, Heaven in NT). I explained that when God told Israel that He wanted to restore the nation who turned their backs on Him, that we can be assured that God wants to do the same with his New Testament Church.

I asked the teens to think about where they were spiritually. Were they in a "dry bones" period in their lives? As they looked back over the past year, could they point to where they were on fire for God after camp, but slowly fell away over time? God wants nothing more than to take His children and to breathe the breath of life into them. He wants to restore and He wants to revive us all spiritually.

Session 2.) Ezekiel 37:10; Matthew 5:13-16

We begin the second service by looking back at verse 10 of last night's Ezekiel passage. The Scripture reads that after the dry bones were brought back to life, they stood and formed a great army. The fact that they formed a "great army" implies that there was some sort of action or mission to accomplish yet. Surely God would not a revive a great army simply to have them stand in a valley forever. So the question is, "What is their mission? What is their objective?" What could the purpose be of this newly revived army of former dry bones?

Too often we (youth pastors, pastors, camp speakers, revival speakers) fail our teens. We tell them, "You have to get saved. You have to get saved. You have to get saved. You have to get saved." We set the goal as having this big moment at the end of camp where everyone gets saved. Where we fail is that we don't tell them what to do next. Ok, I'm saved...now what? Is it any wonder that a majority of teens experience only a "camp high" and fall back to their pre-camp state within weeks of returning to the real world? We treat conversion as the ultimate goal, but in reality it is only the beginning of our individual spiritual journeys. It is upon our conversion that the heavy lifting truly begins. The problem is that telling teenagers how much work is involved in being a Christian may not send them flocking to the altars, so we leave that part out. We fail them.

We are the army of former dry bones. What is our mission? What is our objective? From this point I turned to Matthew 5:13-1 and looked at the popular "salt and light" passage straight from the mouth of Christ. I went into detail about the nature and value of salt in the ancient world, concluding that by being the salt of the world we should be having an effect on the world around us. We look at the light passage for some time and conclude that we should look different as Christians. We should act differently, we should speak differently- in essence we should stick out like sore thumbs if we are truly living the Christian life. We are to be noticeably different, and we are to have an effect on those around us. Our mission, our objective is simply to expand the Kingdom of Christ- to see more dry bones revived.

I asked the teenagers to stand up right where they are if they were willing to stick out and make a difference in their homes and in their schools for Christ. While they were standing, I told them one last thing about salt. Salt effects only what it is put on. It starts small and makes a difference where it is placed. Likewise, the best way for Christians to have a positive effect on the world is not to try to save the entire world at once- it is to make a difference where you are already planted. I asked everyone standing to think of one person in their inner circle who they knew needed the saving power of Christ. It could be a friend, parent, family member, whoever... so long as it was someone who was close to them. I explained that a successful revival was not measured by a great speaker or even by numbers at the altar. A successful revival is measured by whether or not the people at "ground zero" (people who attended the revival) carry on the spirit of revival and go out and make a difference themselves.

Instead of a traditional "come pray for yourself" altar call, we did something different. I told them that if they truly wanted revival to break out in their community, that they had a job to do. I asked them to come to the altar and pray for the name that they had in their head from their inner circle. I asked the to pray that the Lord would start working in their lives and that they would have an opportunity to share Christ with them in some way. This is how revivals are started. It starts with a small group of committed individuals who are willing to make a difference in the world around them.

And that's how we ended the youth revival; On our knees, at the altar, praying for someone close to us that we knew needed Christ. We cannot look at revival as something that takes place within the Church. It has to be something that the Church takes out into the world.

Getting You Up To Speed...

Welcome to the new blog! In this humble space, I will chronicle the day to day joys, struggles, and happenings of being a youth minister in the Church of the Nazarene. In addition to updates, I will also post lessons and sermons that I use in my ministry. Feel free to use them at your discretion. Before we jump right into it, I should get you up to speed on the current situation.

Currently, I am a part time youth pastor with a full time job that isn't ministry related. On March 18th, I will be moving to a non-neighboring state to start my first full-time position. Until then, we will be tying up loose ends here at the church and making preparations for the big move.

I wish to maintain a level of anonymity on this site, but I will give a few tidbits about my life. I am a recent graduate of a Nazarene university. I have also been married for about a year and a half. I am also ridiculously good looking.