Satire

Just found this funny post over on a blog called Purgatorio.

Now, it's always easy to target large, 'successful' ministries and poor starving artists, but it takes a special kind of gift to strike fear in the hearts of vast numbers of copy-cat-pastors like that.

Failure?

I've noticed I am really affected by "how things go" on a typical Wednesday night. Some nights just click and I go home with a ton of energy. My wife says she can tell how things went by my demeanor. I can't even go to bed for a while until the excitement wears off. Other nights, I get home exhausted.

Tonight was one of those nights. Things just didn't go very well. Lots of new students and "the group" wasn't really doing much to welcome them. Kids' attention scattered everywhere. I left out a song from the projection program (kind of hard for them to sing a new song when they can't even read the words). Didn't speak well enough to keep their attention. Clean up kids didn't/couldn't stick around.

Maybe I beat myself up a bit, but it just didn't go that well and I was feeling pretty down. When everyone was gone I plugged my Zune into the sound system and started to vacuum the room. Lots of popcorn and chips on the floor (no spilled drinks, though - a little silver lining for the night). As I finished cleaning the floor and put the vacuum away, I was reflecting on all of this and just how unhealthy it is - for me, my family, the ministry itself. I turned off all the lights and sat in the still room to pray and think about it. As I prayed, an awesome song called "Only You" from David Crowder played. It's really about how it's only God that matters. As I offered myself up to God I was reminded of how success/results/impact is really in His hands not mine. I need to be reminded of that often.

Maybe you do, too. So don't forget. Ours is the responsibility to respond in faith to His Voice. His is to accomplish what only He can.

Ready for Weddings...

I've been asked to do a couple of weddings this summer and am looking for some good material to use for pre-marital counseling with both couples. The problem is that one couple lives 500 miles away, and the groom of the other pair is out on the East Coast for military training. I want to find something they can go through on their own, then talk together about it, then talk with me about what they talked about.

So I got Craig Groeschel's new book "Going All the Way: Preparing for a Marriage that Goes the Distance". I liked the book, but am now trying to decide what to do with what I read. It's got some great stuff regarding choices and commitments that will enable us to live in a marriage that is everything God created it to be. If people lived the way he describes, they would truly be setting the table for great marriages.

The problem I have is one of timing. I think a lot of the book will be more helpful for young 'unattached' singles than couples who are engaged and only months away from their wedding. (Which is why I will be exploring the possibility of distilling the book for use in our student ministries - it really is good stuff.)

I can think of a number of students that I'd love to pour this book into. So much heartache and emotional damage could be avoided by making God priority over relationships. Going All the Way includes a lot of really practical truth about developing intimacy, destroying it, why living together doesn't really make relationship sense, re-establishing abandoned values... if you've struggled with relationships with the opposite sex, get the book and gain some possible insight as to why.

Storyteller God

Somewhere in our spiritual walks, a lot of us pick up the idea that God is still on Day 7 – that He’s still ‘up there’ resting. Depending on our experiences and what we’ve been taught, we might think of Him as a kind old grandpa type of figure just waiting on His rocking chair for us to come climb into His lap, or maybe as a grumpy old man watching us and waiting for us to mess up so He can smack us into submission.

Over the past few weeks in Wind and Water Student Ministries we’ve been exploring another view of God. We’ve been picturing God as a storyteller – one who deeply loves the characters in His story (that would be us, by the way) and who is still engaged in His creation. Jumping off from some of what John Eldridge writes in his book Epic, we’ve been challenged to “Enter the Epic” of what God is doing in the world today.

I believe that God is still at work today. Working on my heart, working throughout each day, working through circumstances both near and far. He didn’t just set the world in motion then sit back and watch it spin. He still holds the world in His hands, causing the sun to rise and set, lifting each tide at the proper time, directing each breeze… All of creation bows to His desires.

But among that creation is one character that’s different than the rest. Mankind is alone in being made in His image. We have the capacity to ignore His will and do whatever we want. We also are alone in being capable of loving Him and being loved. Are you paying attention to the story God is writing in and through your life today? Is there a connection of what you hear and read in Scripture and how you live your life each day? My prayer is that we will pay attention to God; that we will “Enter the Epic” and live as the characters He hopes we will be (and only He can make us). Because God is still writing history…
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A Great follow up to our “Enter the Epic” series will be this summer’s CIY conference: MOVE. We will be going to Durango, CO the week of June 15th – so save that week. MOVE is for students going into 9th Grade through the graduating class. Plan ahead now so you don’t miss this awesome opportunity to learn to recognize how God wants to MOVE in your life.

Injured...

A couple weeks ago, we hosted the students from Central Church of Christ in Gering, for a night of worship and focus on our response to the pain of life. After tacos and chips together, we watched a short film about Bethany Hamilton called Heart of a Soul Surfer. She's a competitive surfer who uses her life as a platform to lift up Christ - despite losing an arm to a shark.


We talked about how if you're going to live a life that really amounts to much, chances are you're going to be hurt at some time or another. It's how we respond to our injuries that reveals our character and opens or closes a lot of opportunities. God often uses our injuries to point people's attention (ours and others) to Himself.


In response to the message of hope despite pain, I asked the students to offer their injuries to God and allow Him to work through them. I had them write down their injuries and leave them there. Some of them got stuck on the physical pain part of being injured, while others brought out some pretty heartbreaking stuff. As a youthworker, it hurts me to see students being hurt. But it doesn't do any good to pretend we don't.


Here's a sampling of the injuries listed:

-"My arm broke when I was 5. When I was 3 I got stitches."

-"Girls always talking about you... Boys are a hurt, too in my life... God, take this HURT!"

-"Everyone holding stuff that I have done in the past still against me. People thinking I should be perfect and always happy, to never have a bad day"

-"I broke my arm playing football and sprained my ankle wrestling"

-"I have done many bad things in my life. God I thank u for dying on the cross for my sins. I love you."

-"Boys tell me I'm fat. I used to be bulimic and I started cutting this year, but trying not to. I'm giving it to God."

-"I have been abused both sexually and physically by a boy I thought was my friend. But I didn't tell anyone about it & still haven't. I need help! (*She's getting some now.)"

-"I need your strength to help me be stronger."

-"One of my best friends was raped. She is broken and seeing her melt down like that kills me... I don't know how to be strong for her when I'm not strong myself."

-"Had to use my left hand to write in 6th grade."

-"Having mono and not being able to play my favorite sport for a whole season."

-"This is gonna sound weird but I think he uses me because I'm blonde, because a lot of people are always like, "You're such a blonde" and I just say "Well, I don't care that's how God made me and He loves me!" Just by saying that I've opened doors for someone to come to Christ."

-"My parents split up and my dad doesn't pay attention to me and it feels like he doesn't love me any more."

-"I broke my collar bone."

-"I was taken away from my parents and went back to live with them and got taken away again and they move and I'm in foster care."

-"I guess feeling left and rejected. It's been hard without a good Christian influence in my school system."

-"Asthma and still being able to play baseball and basketball."

-"Uncertainty."

-"I have broken my arm 3 times and I'm glad that was all that happened. I know God was watching over me."

-"A friend of many years took things from me that can't be replaced."

-"I'm very uncertain what God wants me to do. I feel like I've been hurt so many times that he has made me strong so I can pray for and help my friends. I'm not sure how or what he wants me to do."

-"Focusing more on boys than Christ. Being selfish. Thinking of myself as better than others and sometimes doing the opposite and thinking worse of myself."


I wish I could identify which students went with which anonymous comments to sit and discuss some of these very personal issues. So much pain for young people to know how to handle. But they've been trained to hide it well, and so often never allow themselves to be healed. Pray for young people today.
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I had written this post last week, and planning to post it later. In light of the shootings in Colorado over the weekend, please pray with me that God will bring healing and hope to those involved. I can't imagine any injury like losing a child to such random senselessness.

Maybe I Like Mike???

I haven't yet decided on a candidate for president, but this video is awesome and made me take a look into Mike Huckabee. I did a little digging and found some pretty positive stuff. You can go here to find out where he stands on important issues.

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.

Guitar News

I've been fortunate to have guitars that tend to stay in tune pretty well while I'm playing - either that or I'm tone deaf enough to not hear when it's out! Now, for those who are less fortunate and find themselves re-tuning far too frequently, a self-tuning guitar! It's even a Les Paul.

If only the tones of our lives were so easily adjusted...

Empty Passion

"I am learning not to be passionate about empty things, but to cultivate passion for justice, grace, truth, and communicate the idea that Jesus likes people and even loves them."

-Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

In some recent staff discussions, we talked about our passions and serving God out of our passion. What are you really passionate about? What types of things get you really energized and excited? What gives you a sense of accomplishment & satisfaction? Are those the areas where you're serving God? Could they be? Should they be?

So I've been re-reading Blue Like Jazz and came across this quote that's got me thinking again about those questions and measuring my responses with the ideas of justice, grace, and truth and thinking about the ways I'm communicating to people that Jesus loves them. Does the flow of a week for me reflect God's passion (which would be justice, grace, truth, and us)?

I love the church. I love seeing seeing people in action together as His Body, reflecting His heart. I love traveling with students in the moments when they're just on the edge of discovering their place in His Story. Taking in the view with them as they reach the next ridge and discover the grandeur that God has set before them. I love seeing the church find new ways to love people and call attention to God.

Unfortunately, I can find myself absorbed in lesson plans and evaluations and scheduling trips and following up on issues and putting out fires and assuaging hurt feelings, and buried in new books and seeking new methods and untangling teen dramas... It's been a good reminder that my heart needs to beat with the Heart of God. My activity needs to be directed by His passion.

December Series

Next month I'll be going through a series of lessons with our students about God's story and their place in it. Also going to be using this time to introduce new students to our youth ministry. (If you know any 7th - 12th Grade students who come to WestWay but haven't ever plugged in to the youth ministry, let them know about this - and let me know about them so I can get in touch.)

Birthday/Christmas List

For those of you who've been asking... Here's a link to some options:

Deadly Viper

"Character isn't a destination, but a journey towards becoming a more whole, fulfilled, and healthy person."

Recently finished reading a fun, but challenging book called Deadly Viper Character Assasins by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite. Basically the book is a warning to pay attention to your character before the Assasins tear you up. An essential part of being a person of integrity that can stand up under attack is to have someone fighting with you. Mike and Jud have made a commitment to fight for each other - to help the other maintain his own honor.

That kind of relationship is something all of us need, and sadly, few of us have. We may have a lot of business associates, work buddies, or just 'the guys' - but how many of us have real friends who know us well enough to see when we're slipping and love us enough to tell us so? How many of us will dare to be real enough with someone else that we allow them to see the cracks in our lives and the wounds in our souls?

The warning in Deadly Viper is that to fail to do exactly that will likely lead to catastrophic failure of your character. Don't go there. Find someone to help you maintain your integrity. The hope of the book is grace. As much as it is a warning to watch out for life's common pitfalls, it is also an offer of a chance to climb out of the muck you may have found yourself in. Grace. Mistakes. More grace...

I'll probably come back to some of the topics of the book in further blogs, but for now, check out the Deadly Viper Site for more, and get a couple copies of the book for you and a good friend and start today to build the character you need to survive.

Kidney Stone

I had another kidney stone last week. About halfway through Wednesday morning, I could tell I had one and started drinking tons of water. I figured if I could drink enough, and keep it down, I could flush the stone out... but not this time.

Friday morning the pain was finally so bad I had LuAnn take me in to the ER, where they eased the pain and did some scans and found a stone they said was big enough that it may not pass on its own. So on Saturday, I had surgery to remove the stone. It's been a painful week or so.

I've done some more reading on what causes kidney stones and how to prevent them and haven't really found anything conclusive. Lots of "secret" home remedies that I can get in on for $37 or $17 or... whatever. It's frustrating. People are in pain and don't know what to do... let's make some money.

You can't sell hope. It's discouraging to know that for the rest of my life, I'll probably have kidney stones - and maybe the only thing I can do about it is take drugs every day that don't really do anything to change the root of the problem. I want to know why my body has become a rock factory and what I can do to shut down production.

Maybe chugging olive oil will do the trick. Maybe I need to drink lemonade everyday. Maybe it's coffee... no don't drink coffee. Here's a special kidney bean concoction to try. Cranberry juice... stay away from salt. No, it's your thyroid... try this secret mix of three common grocery items... eat more basil... don't eat kelp...

The frustrating thing is the 'just hand over some money and we'll help you out.' attitude. Conditional assistance. I wonder if that's what we offer in the church sometimes. "Talk like us, look like us, arrange your daily schedule like us and we'll share with you the answer to all your problems." As a sufferer, what I'd really like to see is help. Help me through my struggle as I am, and when I've come out the other side, I'm yours because I know it's really me you care about. We need to give the love we've been given - without qualification - and then see real transformation take place.

Beyond the Sheen

Yesterday, we went up to the monument for our staff meeting. No real agenda except a brief time out of the office for prayer. The plaque at the top of the monument always gets me thinking... a tribute to a man who died within reach of help, but didn't make it - abandoned by his friends. I often wonder if that's still happening today? People dying for eternity - abandoned by the church.

It's not that we don't care. I'm not so cynical as to think that most people in the church really don't give a rip about their neighbors. We do. But I'm afraid we've forgotten just what is at stake.

A team from our church just returned from Haiti and they're talking about how dark a place it is. The voodoo and witchcraft that are so visible there have made the evil palpable. This thought of blatant darkness has converged in my mind with some recent conversations and sermons having to do with the materialism so prevalent in our own Western culture. We have so much - and often what we have has blinded us to the spiritual reality that without Christ, we are dead.

As I looked out over the view of our community from the top of the Bluff, I noticed that there are a lot of white buldings in town. Coupled with the glitter of glass on the sunny day, Scottsbluff looked like a shiny, bright sparkle in the midst of the browning fields.

As these contrasting thoughts collided, Nehemiah came to mind, surveying the city of Jerusalem and finding the rumors of desolation and destruction to be true. When we survey our cities, do we look beyond the glitz to see the grime?

A beautiful darkness has crept upon us -
----but darkness, nonetheless.
This beauty illumined is no beauty at all -
----but greed, and pain, and death.
But who wants to expose the ugly?
----"Paint the town white!"
----"Cover it up with a little shine!"
So we whitewash our tombs,
----extinguish our lights,
----and go blind to what's dying inside.

Challenging Video

Just came across this video montage of some of Mike Yaconelli's speaking on Knotter's blog. Good stuff...