Occupy Reality

Anyone else a little less than clear about just what the whole Occupy Wall Street thing is all about? The message seems to be "Big corporations, bad; individual, good." but I'm sure that doesn't exactly capture the whole heart of the protest. I checked out the Occupy website and found some interesting thoughts, and I've watched some of their livestream footage to see if I could get a better handle on just where OWS' focus is. Incidentally, it wasn't live while I was watching due to weather problems, so it was a montage of produced footage and brief clips, which would presumably be filtered so as to present 'the message' as clearly as possible. I still can't quite get the pulse of what the point of the protestors is, but some of the highlights are here:

1. Don't tell us what to do - we just want to be free.
2. Let's get together and be upset... about anything.
3. "Fight the power." Whatever that power may be...
4. 1% of Americans are too rich and couldn't have possibly got that way legitimately.
5. 99% of Americans are too poor because of the greed induced power manipulation of the 1%.
6. "We demand a democracy that has zero tolerance for corruption."
7. People before profits.

Among some recycled socialist mantras there are some really good things to say, but I could see the lack of a well articulated vision for what they want causing the degeneration of these peaceful protests into something much worse. Maybe I'm wrong, but the overriding feeling I get from what I've seen and read is "We're mad." If there's no other motivation for being together, sleeping on concrete and under tarps is going to get old quickly.

While my more liberal friends will celebrate the stand for freedom they see in OWS, and my conservative ones will decry all the pot & pooping on the police car, I wonder if we'll all miss something deeper. I wonder if any of us will listen well enough to hear the root of dissatisfaction. What's really going on here?

Is there corruption in the highest echelons of corporations and government? Sure, just as there is corruption in the hearts and minds of people of every income level - and it needs to be dealt with. Is the gap widening between those who have a lot and those who have a little? Probably, in terms of how much they have, but the problem isn't that some people make too much. The problem is most of us aren't very generous - we're looking out for ourselves first. Whether we live in luxury or near poverty isn't the issue as much as our attitude toward what we have. When "what's mine is mine" and you can just go get your own, it doesn't matter whether the system is capitalist, socialist, or anything else. The solution is not a political one.

Church, the unrest in the world today is an open door for us to exhibit something better. What if the world could see a 'peculiar people' who love unconditionally, share whatever they have that's needed, and genuinely look out for their neighbors' best interests? What are we doing to show people that, while they may not feel like they matter to whatever corporation they vilify, they do matter to God and they do matter to us?

I don't make a lot as a youth pastor. I'm definitely not in the top 1% of America's wage earners. But here's a reality check for me (and you): check out this Global Rich List. My family, and probably yours, is a lot closer to the top of the scale than the bottom. What are we doing with what we have earned to benefit someone else?

A Banquet Surprise

I was looking forward to getting to speak at a Valentine banquet back in Casper this weekend. So Saturday night, we headed downtown to this little spot the church had booked and settled in for a good time. I noticed, as we sat there stacking conversation hearts, that a crowd was starting to gather just inside the front door. "Surely, the restaurant's not open for regular dining." I thought.

I was right... sort of. As more people filled the entry, and servers and hostesses began to look more and more flustered, it became obvious that something wasn't quite right. As it turns out, the venue had double booked. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but there was a whole group of people waiting to party while we waited for prime rib.

It made for what has to be the most awkward speaking engagement I've ever had. To be totally honest, it was almost surreal, and I'm not sure I made any sense at all. Any semblance of order to my message was overshadowed with so many other thoughts racing through my head. I've never been the 'bull-horn to the face' kind of guy - I missed the "Preaching to the Open Bar" class at Bible College, so the whole time I was speaking (about how our love is revealed by our action not mere words) I just kept thinking "The whole back room is waiting for you to shut up and leave."

Now, to be fair, the gathering crowd did nothing to make me feel that way. They quietly milled from the small back room into which they'd been stuffed to the bar to order drinks and back. A few sat and quietly chatted at the bar. But the noise level wasn't any worse than a typical Wed. night with my students. It was just the awkwardness of the situation that made things so weird. I felt stuck between a group of church banqueters looking for some spark of inspiration or encouragement and a group of party-goers just wanting to relax and have a good time.

As I think of it now, I should have just invited them all out and did 20 minutes of stand up or something... I'm not sure I could have pulled that off, and I know that's not really what I was invited for, but I wish I would have thought of that in the moment. I wonder if the message would've been communicated more effectively that way anyway...

The  more I think about this, the more I'm feeling like I really missed an opportunity to build some bridges and help make some connections. Excuse me, while I go kick myself...
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Just for the record, I'm grateful for the invitation to come and speak to a great group of gracious friends. I pray the thoughts racing through my head didn't cloud the message too much. We are loved so much by our Creator, who adopts us into His own family. We are called to extend that love in every way we can think of, not just with words but with action. Caring for orphans, widows, neighbors... Check out my friends at 3:18 Ministries or Sparrow's Nest for some great examples of how it can be done - and find a way to put your love into action.

Fatherless Generation

One of the toughest issues I've dealt with in my years in youth ministry is the absence of fathers for so many of my students. I grew up with my mom and dad and big hairy case of being sheltered, so I remember being pretty floored within my first few months on staff at a great small town church, when I was confronted with the fact that so many of the students I was working with didn't know their dads. Unfortunately, what was foreign to me then has become a theme today. The particular struggles that are associated with growing up without Dad around have become all too familiar.

When I heard about The Mentoring Project several months ago, I was immediately excited about what they're doing.

Coming Soon

We previewed the movie "I Am" today in staff meeting and I thought I'd post the trailer here, as well.  We'll be hosting the movie at WestWay a couple times in October.

"I want you to know God"

I've heard it said that you can cover up a lot of problems with a little success. A growing ministry can easily assume everything is okay and ignore issues that will become big problems in the future. But what happens when the proverbial wheels fall off? At some point, the cracks WILL show themselves... what then? I had a great reminder this morning to make sure I'm not focused on the less important at the expense of the MOST important. If my ministry to students ever becomes about anything other than knowing God, I've missed the point of His calling me to lead it - even if it looks successful. If our churches are more interested in people showing up than in people knowing God, then we're failing at a critical level - even if lots of people are showing up. Like the priests in ancient Israel, if we're in love with our procedures more than with the Person, we're leading in the wrong direction.

"You refuse to know me... You will be destroyed, for you refuse to understand." Hosea's warnings to the people of Israel, and specifically the religious leaders of Israel, are still good for us to hear today. How often do we put ourselves in peril because we ignore what God is trying to bring to mind? How often do we "refuse to understand" what He is doing? One of the ways we do this looks a lot like the idolatry of the Israelites. We may not make little statues of gold and silver and wood - but I wonder how often our religious duty takes the place of God as the object of our worship. How often do we "go to church" out of a sense of obligation? How often do we "leave church" on Sunday disappointed at the sub-par entertainment value of the morning? Are we so enamored with the stand-up, sit-down routine that we miss the point: knowing God?

"I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings." Much of what was happening in Israel's worship was simply "following the rules" - offer the appropriate sacrifice at the appropriate time. But that's not what God wanted. He wanted a people who would know Him and be identified with Him and extend to others the kind of mercy He'd shown them.. That's still what He wants today. He's not concerned with perfect attendance records at all major church functions. He'll be ok if you don't make it to the annual Horseshoe Tournament/Quilting Bee/Pie Bazaar (or whatever other event you're feeling guilted into attending)... He wants you to know Him.

The destruction that Hosea warned Israel about wasn't coming because they didn't follow the right rituals, it was coming because they'd fallen in love with their rituals at the expense of the God who'd rescued and loved them. "They have forgotten their Maker." I pray that will not be true of the church today.

Comparing Israel to a wife who'd left her husband to be a whore, God looked forward to the day when once again "the people will follow the Lord" and when He would call to His people and "bring them home again." Even when we are faithless, He looks forward to bringing us home; to bringing us into His presence where we can know Him most fully. Maybe it's time to follow His instructions from Psalm 46 - "Be still and know that I am God."

A Way Home...

I came across this video today from Aaron Ivey a musician in Austin who is in the process of adopting a boy named Amos from Haiti. Nearing the end of a two year process... but now with the earthquake, being forced to keep waiting... Some friends of mine from college are stuck in this same moment right now, and I can't imagine the waiting (praying for you guys).

But the video for this song took my thoughts beyond anxiously waiting adoptive fathers as well. It made me think of God and His desperation to "find a way to get you home." It cost Him everything to make a way for me to escape the rubble of this world and make it home to Him. I'm the orphan...

But I'm also a father... Praying for Amos and Conleigh and so many more.

Primal Book Review

A few months ago, I caught an invitation on Mark Batterson's blog to review his upcoming release Primal as part of a blog tour for the book. I signed up with the publisher, then sort of forgot about it. Over the next several weeks, Batterson had giveaways on his blog of his book to various groups; campus pastors, worship pastors, lead pastors... I eagerly waited for the book to be offered to youth pastors, but to no avail. Then an e-mail came from the publisher and I remembered I did indeed have a free book on the way, anyway!

I've enjoyed Batterson's blog and the other two books I've read from him, so I had high expectations for Primal. The subtitle of the book (A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity) really struck a chord with me. As a youth minister, I work with a lot of people who's faith seems to have lost (or never really found) its soul... so many people acting out what they think they "should" be doing and not really fully living.

The book digs into the question, "What is the primal essence of Christianity?" and discovers that at the heart of our faith is the Great Commandment: to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. "We need to be great at the Great Commandment."  Batterson dives into what it means to love God in 4 parts within the book (heart, soul, mind, strength). In each segment, he weaves Scripture with research and stories from a broad range of topics to explore loving God completely.

All of this, for Batterson, leads to a new Reformation of the church. A reformation not led by powerful personalities or creedal figures, but by "millions of reformers living compassionately, creatively, and courageously for the cause of Christ. It will be marked by broken hearts and sanctified imaginations. And the driving force will be the love of God. A love that is full of compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy."

I looked back over the year and found that the first book I read in 2009 was Batterson's Wild Goose Chase. It was a great place to start the year. Primal is a great place for you to start 2010. Rediscover your primal love for God.

Faith is measured by action, not attendance.

"I think many of us doubt Scripture simply because we haven't done it." - Mark Batterson

I came across this quote yesterday in Batterson's new book, Primal, and it made me think about whether I'm "doing" the Bible very well and how the church is doing in living out our faith. Too often, I think we measure faith by attendance frequency and coloring inside the lines - But the Bible has a whole lot more to say than "Be good and go to church."

My faith isn't measured by how many verses I can find faster than the next guy or my perfect attendance on Sundays (especially since that's pretty much a job requirement anyway). My faith is measured by the impact it has in the world around me. It's measured by how well I'm doing what Scripture says.

Last week a lady measured my faith by the fact that she didn't have to sleep outside in the cold... She called at about the single most inconvenient time in the week for me. It was Wednesday night about 5:30 or so - students coming at 7:00, music team coming in half an hour, lots of last minute things to get ready. But the phone rang, and I was the only one in the building, so I answered. For the next 25 minutes, I went through every option I could think of to steer this lady to someone else who could help her. "This place won't let me stay there because I'm not abused - this place won't let me stay there because I'm not bipolar - they won't help because I'm not just passing through..." On and on it went. She had sought solutions and found lots of closed doors, sending her back out into all 10 degrees. The desperation on the other end of the line didn't need me to go to church on Sunday - didn't need me to stand up and recite Psalm 23 - She needed me to take seriously what Jesus said in Mt. 25. She needed me to DO what Jesus says, not just read it.

As we talked I kept thinking about all the other things I had to get done in the next hour... but then the voice of Jesus broke through the clutter in my head and asked me "What good is it going to do to wish her well and send her on her way?" Then his brother James was a little more blunt: "Don't merely listen to the word... Do what it says." How could I stand in front of a group of students and worship and teach them how to help a friend in need (which was ironically the topic that night) if I just hung up the phone and did nothing? I couldn't. So I grabbed the first kid that showed up and we went on a little ride to find a total stranger and take her someplace warm and dry.

We grow in our understanding of Scripture only when we do what it says.

What are you doing today?

So much to be thankful for...

I'm thankful that LuAnn and I were able to begin sponsoring children very early in our marriage. Before we had our own kids, before we had decent paying jobs, before we were even through our first year of college... For 15 years, we've been able to share a little of Christ's love and hope with kids all over the world.

Kids matter to Jesus. They should matter to us. Do something.



Maybe you're afraid you can't commit to a monthly sponsorship right now. Try this for a start.

Unyielding Resolve...

"This essential energy of the soul is not an ecstatic trance, high emotion, or a sanguine stance toward life: It is a fierce longing for God, an unyielding resolve to live in and out of the truth of our belovedness." -Brennan Manning

What you really need for the ministry you are called to live out... is God.

There have been times when I thought "All I need for this ministry to really take off is ______." The blank in my mind has been filled in a number of ways at various times: better facilities, a few more adults who really love kids, a bigger budget, any budget, a better band, etc. "Maybe if I get another degree or use the right curriculum or set up the room in just the right configuration..."

The truth is that what I really need to lead youth to the destiny God has in mind - is more of Him. That doesn't simply come to us from a great camp or youth trip - a momentary mountain-top. It comes to us from - no HE comes to us through an unyielding resolve to know that I am loved by God and to live out the knowledge of that love. One of Paul's prayers for the early church was that they would "know this love that surpasses knowledge" (Eph. 3:19). When we know the love that is greater than we can comprehend - when we really live out of that love - His power is at work within and through us, doing more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Because I know that I am loved by Him, I can...

-love kids who just come to church to keep up appearances.

-love kids who make the same terrible choices over and over.

-love kids who make the same mistakes I've made because they won't learn from someone else.

-love parents who've spent years breaking their children's spirits and now just wonder why they're so unmotivated.

-love the church even when it too closely resembles our culture's abandonment of the next generation; and love her enough to challenge her to do better.

-love enough to tackle tough issues and tell students the truth (even when it hurts and I know they won't like it).

For over a decade, I've been learning and relearning this lesson. I would have never imagined myself doing any of the above. On my own, I am a small, self-protecting wuss standing on the sidelines watching the fray so I don't get hurt. Left to myself, I am an underconfident pansy resting in the shade where it's comfortable, I won't get stepped on, and no one's mad at me.

Thank God that He hasn't left me to myself... because in Him, I've found who I really am. Not insignificant, not vulnerable - I am His.

Never forget who you are.

When They Like What I Like

I like it when my children like the things that I like. Last night, I took Emily out to run with me. Lizzie and Siah decided they had to go too! I can remember flipping through channels Sunday afternoons before Dakota really talked much. If I happened to come across NASCAR, his grunts made it very plain that he wanted the channel to be parked for a few laps! He'd climb up and watch with me for hours. Now he does this with football, and I finally have him convinced that the Broncos are the good guys.

I like how all my kids have enjoyed playing soccer. It's exciting to watch them develop and learn what they can do. Dakota discovered the thrill of dribbling this year and loves to change directions sharply and watch the other kids scramble and fall all over themselves trying to keep up. Josiah didn't have a very fun season, but the last couple weeks he decided he liked it and was going to have fun - and he did! Emily's not a big fan of extended physical exertion, but she's had fun being part of the team and developing relationships with her teammates (and anyone else on the field who will talk to her). Lizzie can't wait to get on the field and play - and she may have all the tools a girl needs to rule the pitch (definitely has the attitude)!

I love how my kids are always dragging books around. When kids disappear at our house, we usually find them with their nose in a book of some kind. I know this makes us a couple geeks raising a bunch more geeks - and I'm ok with that. I enjoy seeing my kids getting enjoyment from so many of the things that I also enjoy. I don't want to push my kids to be just like me only better and vicariously live through their competitive endeavors to surpass my own failures. I don't want to be "that dad" - but I really do like it when my kids like what I like.

I think this is a reflection of how God feels about us. It brings Him immense joy to see His children caring about what He cares about. As a child of God, I want His passion for humanity to be reflected in my own life. I want to be able to love the way that He loves. I want to live the life that He's crafted me for - and this brings Him great joy. Want to please God? Find something He cares about; pour yourself into it; & live the life you were meant to live.

Guerilla love in action

Vince Antonucci is a church planter who recently moved from Virginia Beach to Vegas. (Yes, that Vegas.) He has a book coming out called Guerilla Lovers about surprising people with the love of God. Apparently, his wife got an advance copy...

She loaned their car to a total stranger!

Check out the link to his wife's post about the incident and his response.

This is the kind of love that will shock and awe a world that is looking for the real thing.

Grace & Holiness

Marshall's preaching this week about our response to homosexuality and I am leading music this Sunday. I am usually pretty careful to choose songs that meaningfully connect with the message (at least in my mind there's a connection) so this was a little bit of a challenge. (There aren't a whole lot of songs that treat homosexuality in the context of worship!) But I've been thinking lately about how hosed we'd all be without God's grace. He's holy and he can't stand sin - any of it! We may have a kind of gag reflex to some sins that seem particularly heinous to us, but it all causes God to wretch. It's easy for us to be judgmental about sins that we might not struggle with, but the truth is that without God's grace, we're in the same position as those we condemn.

Whose God is He Anyway?

"Jeremiah, go talk to your God for us and find out what we're supposed to do..." Jerusalem was decimated by Babylon and only a few remained. They'd abandoned the God of their ancestors, and now it seemed their very existence was all but lost. But there was Jeremiah. Unflinchingly delivering message after message from God to the king and to his people. So in Jeremiah 42, the few who are left go and ask Jeremiah to pray to his God to find out what they should do.

They were desperate and turned to a God whom they did not recognize as their own. "Pray to your God..." Generations had drifted so far that the people of Judah didn't even recognize the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (their ancestors) as their own.

But God continually reminded them of His desire to be their God. He promised a new covenant unlike the first covenant that they had broken. He offered His law written in their hearts, not just on scrolls and tablets. In Jeremiah 31, Hosea, Ezekiel 37, 2 Corinthians 6, Hebrews 8, and Revelation 21 - scripture uses the same language to describe a day when "They will be my people, and I will be their God."

Today in the church, the people of God, it seems there is a great danger of a generation adrift failing to recognize God's desire to be their God. Anecdotal evidence points to a very high percentage of young people leaving the church as they enter young adulthood. It seems that though they've connected with their peers in youth group, they've not connected with God Himself or the wider Body of Christ. Their faith is perhaps only a thin veneer, subtly stripped away by the questions of life.

I believe that we can do a better job of connecting young people with their Creator who loves them desperately. We can help them see that God is not only the God of Grandma and Grandpa - He desires to be their God as well.

Sadly, the people in Jeremiah 42, though they promised to do whatever he said, put their trust in another nation instead of in God. They disobeyed yet again, and were destroyed in their false refuge. May God lead His people today to connect young people to Himself. May His people follow His lead.

Summarize...

I got a link to this video in an e-mail from Joe, our children's pastor. This is a great idea, but more than that - it's a great statement of what God's doing in the lives of the church where this was filmed. How would you summarize your self/life in just a few words??? What would be your "cardboard testimony"?

"I Was Just Testing You"

Sitting on the couch with my son Josiah the other day, we had the following conversation:

Me: "I think you're about the funniest kid I know."
Siah: "So you won't ever throw me away?"
Me: "No, I would never throw you away!"
Siah: "What about Kota?"
Me: "Nope, I'd never throw him away either."
Siah: "Emmy?"
Me: "No."
Siah: "Lizzy?"
Me: "Nope."
Siah: "Mommy?"
Me: "No way."

Siah, after a long pause: "I was just testing you, dad."

Then he gave me a big 4-year-old hug - I guess I passed.

Oasis...

"...we are baptized into Christ and joined with his body. Every believer passes through the waters and becomes a part of the river of life. Alone, you are only standing in a puddle. Together, we become an oasis where those searching for genuine love and acceptance can come and drink deeply."

--Erwin McManus in An Unstoppable Force

We really need to emphasize that the church, young and old, needs to be this type of source to the world today. People should find within us this well of love and hope and faith... because we freely share our love and hope and faith with them. Together.

Divided, they'll only find pettiness, self-regard, and defensive posturing. Do they really need us to show them more of that?
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Thinking of calling our unnamed Wednesday night youth ministry time together "Oasis" or "The Well". Any thoughts???

E3 - RAIN

After years of careful research and in depth analysis, I have come to believe that a critical part of life is breathing. You might even say the act of breathing is essential to life! Unless a person inhales enough oxygen in a continuously re-occurring manner, that person will die. The problem is that our lungs only have the capacity to hold enough oxygen for us to live on for a very brief moment before they must be re-supplied. If we don't exhale, emptying our lungs of precious, but used, breath, we can’t refill them with new oxygen-rich air.

Once the breath of God has entered our spiritual lungs, there can be a tendency to take hold of that and savor the ecstasy of life in Christ. To bask in the security and joy of being loved by God and being saved from death. But if we hold it in too long, the result is death – not necessarily ours, but others’. We rob the world when we don’t exhale His breath of Life.

“His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” -Jeremiah

When our students have allowed Christ to begin transforming them and have connected with Him and with His Body, then together they will become conduits through which the Breath of Life will flow wherever God wants it to. As water VAPOR travels with other molecules of water VAPOR, they collide and combine and condense. The VAPOR even becomes more visible to us as clouds as it is collected and blown about overhead. Eventually the molecules of water in a cloud will become dense enough that the force of gravity escorts them back to earth as RAIN.

In human terms, we see this part of the process as students humbling themselves in community in order to love. In simple terms, love is putting someone else above our own desires, thinking of another first. That is impossible without first humbling ourselves before God and learning to think of ourselves as players in His story, not merely our own. We want to see our students enter into relationships through very small discipleship groups in which they each humbly seek the good and growth of the others in the group.

It is in these relationships where students will learn to order their lives in alignment with God’s mission. Erwin McManus and Mosaic use a phrase as a core value: “Love is the context of all mission.” In the RAIN environment, we want our students to live lives of love that allow them to enter into the mission of God. We know that God is desperately concerned with restoring His relationship with “missing” people. They’re missing from His family – He created them to love them. In humility and love, RAIN is allowing God to send us back into dry areas on His mission to bring life to the world.

And that will bring us to RIVER…

More "Polar" Than Just the Bears...

As the Golden Compass is set to begin its gilding of our silver screens and young minds, it seems the conversation between church and culture is once again faced with a polarizing talking point. Several months ago, I received the first of many well intended warnings to stay away from Pullman and this movie. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical - I mean, no one warning of its dangers had even seen the movie. As I read more about the film, and the books of its origin, it was an interesting hornet's nest to watch. Conservative Christians were mad because of the atheism and anti-church stance. But I also found Phillip Pullman fans angry due to Hollywood's removal of a pretty good deal of the atheistic and the anti-church from the story. I began to wonder if boycotting was simply adding more hype to the movie - free publicity.

I've refrained from commenting until now, but today found a great post from Dick Staub that provides some very good perspective. Visit Staublog and read the post. This really isn't something new... and it's not something to be feared. Phillip Pullman, or Hollywood, or Nicole Kidman, or Friedrich Nietzsche or whoever you want to blame are all powerless to change the reality that God is, and God loves.

Be wise, but not fearful. Nothing can destroy the reality of God.

Hiding from Love

Embarrassed and ashamed, they hid from their Maker. Their state of attire hadn't changed. Their reason for being hadn't changed. The fact that they'd been designed for relationship with God and each other hadn't changed. But their awareness of their own (and each other's) inadequacies, that had changed drastically. With an act of experimentation beyond a clear border God had placed, Adam and Eve broke the very fellowship with God that they were made for. And we've been following their path ever since.

The irony is that ever since, we've also all been seeking for someone to love us. As the song says, "We all want to be loved... tell me what's wrong with that?" There's nothing wrong with that - it's what we were made for! What's wrong is that we spend so much time hiding from the only one who possesses a love deep enough to satisfy our need to be loved.

We hide in our jobs, a general busy-ness that keeps us blinded to Love's advances.

We hide in sex that is divorced from love, a counterfeit to the true intimacy God intended.

We hide in money, and power, and iPods, and weed, and church, and movies, and books, and any number of other things that can serve to numb us to the reality of God's love for us.

Embarrassed and ashamed of how we've fallen short, we hide. And God still asks, "Where are you?"

Maybe it's time to come out of hiding, faults and all, and let yourself be loved.