Christian Subculture...

The Christian subculture of which I am very much a part of, and currently trying to figure out how to escape, makes my head hurt sometimes.

My latest debacle had me picking up a magazine from my church mailbox. Someone in the congregation was nice enough to give me a free subscription to a Bible College's monthly publication, so I tend to flip through a couple pages before filing it in the little box next to my desk that magically disappears every evening. (Incidentally, I'm told it is also called a trash bin.)

Anyways, all I read today were the "Letters to the Editor" and words are currently escaping me. Or at least the words that are blog worthy are currently escaping me.

Rebecca St. James appeared on a recent cover and here are pieces of comments that were printed (you can read them all on page 3 here):

• One woman (Alicia) makes a comment about Rebecca's attire, "...I used a permanent black marker to draw her jacket for her. (For my sake, yes, and my husband and 2 teen boys.) I would suggest discreet cropping in the future"

• Another woman (Alice) says "...Rebecca St. James' comments about modesty and inner beauty are weakened by her tight clothing in the accompanying article"

I am dumbfounded. My initial response is to ask the first woman if she also draws in clothing on the models when the Victoria's Secret catalog comes. And I hope you don't have cable or the internet. And I hope you don't let your boys look at girls in public.

Seriously? This is what we've become?

High school...

Do you remember you high school days? Were they a pleasant time in your formative adolescent years? Or did you just shudder at the sheer mention of high school as it brought back the countless hours of therapy that you have had to endure because of that dreaded time in life? Maybe the therapy is still continuing...

Anyways, I'm a few weeks away from a school reunion. It's a 20 year anniversary for the little K-12 school that I went to and my family has agreed to make the journey back to my old stomping grounds. Now, keep in mind that this was a "Christian school" and I've been asked to lead worship during the Sunday morning service as well as participate in some sort of interview during the morning.

I share all that to say this: Christian schools crack me up. I've recently discovered an online community (of sorts) dedicated to the School Drinking Team. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not a school sanctioned activity, but nonetheless it exists.

Am I dismayed or shocked? Not really. Maybe I should be. But instead I find it a little bit funny while also saying a great deal about real life. But I'll let you jump to your own conclusions.

Yeah, it's Monday...

I was going to post some random stuff that's been happening or will be happening this week, but then I got bored with that.

Instead I will say that I had the chance to "preach" during the service yesterday. I use that term loosely because in reality I was only asked to prepare 5 minutes. I was bringing the voice of a generation that is currently missing from our congregation.

Like many churches across North America (and even the world to some extent), there are large numbers of people between the ages of 18-35 that just aren't attending what we might call the "traditional evangelical church". And like many churches, ours has gone through the ups and downs of music "discussions" over the last year.

This talk on Sunday was all about perspective, and the question was "what are we focusing on?". It was designed to bring a year of discussion about "worship through music" to a close. And my SP had asked me over lunch a couple of weeks ago to add my insight to the morning.

So I did. And wow...was I nervous. I've never been as stressed about a 5 minute time frame as I was this past weekend as I prepared and waited for the moment to arrive. It also turns out that my comments were the closing of the message portion.

But, rather than take the last word for myself, I quoted one of my students who just a week ago said this, "Aren't we all here for God, not music? We're one church, shouldn't we act like it?"

But that was not the real closing. Our church was then able to witness first hand what public repentance looked like as one man took to the stage to apologize.

I cannot help but wonder what things would look like if we did more repenting on Sunday morning than singing.

YouTube generation...

We took our students paintballing last night and when all was said and done we invited some of our leaders over for pizza. As we stuffed our faces and pounded back the Cherry Coke and Mountain Dew we watched YouTube videos.

I am still completely amazed by the fact that we spent the better part of 2 hours laughing, giggling and questioning our sanity courtesy of YouTube.

To share in that, please watch this:

No snakes...

Well, Indy's back. Read it here.

All I can say is...Woohoo!

Reading list...

Well, the list shrunk a bit, but then it started growing again as a box showed up at the office again this week. Here's what I've been able to finish in the last week:

I'd heard from a few people that this book (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal) by Christopher Moore was completely irreverent yet hysterical. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I found myself laughing out loud at some portions but then shaking my head in others. Don't read if you get offended easily. And if you try not to take it too seriously you may just enjoy a laugh or two.



I have a friend who has a self-admitted "man crush" on Andy Stanley. What that has to do with my reading list, I have no idea. But it's a good intro. Either way, this (The Next Generation Leader) was just a plain good book. I always find that you get the straight goods with Stanley's stuff. Great wisdom about being a leader and what you need to be thinking about if you want to be a leader in today's day and age that really makes a difference. Quick and easy read.

Fire in Philly...

A fire ripped through the The Simple Way community (home of Shane Claiborne and company) yesterday. You can see some pictures and video here. It made my heart sink. There's some ways for people to help out, so check the bottom of the page.

I'll be honest...

I'm one of the world's biggest procrastinators. Seriously, I'm beginning to recognize that I may need professional help. Here's one main goal/task/problem/adventure/nuisance/dream/dilemma/obstacle that is beckoning for my attention:

Student Ministry Model

We haven't changed much about the student ministry since I came on staff, but one of my goals for the year was to evaluate our current ministry model and try to determine if there was a more effective way of running some aspects of our ministry. So, I've asked the questions, hosted the meetings, collected the surveys and put all the results on paper.

We looked at four potential models (midweek split, small group focused, weekend service, midweek combined) and then had the parents add a fifth which was really a combo of 2 or 3 of the first four.

As you can well imagine, everyone has an opinion and none of them are the same.

But now I'm stuck. I've reached that inevitable leadership conundrum where a decisions just needs to be made. The problem is that as a world-class procrastinator (and I don't take that position lightly) I'm ignoring the file that is calling at me from the mess on my desk.

I can't take an easy way out as a leader this time and just go with the majority. I can't hope for a consensus on behalf of everyone else. I can't ignore it and hope it goes away. I will not settle for status quo. I guess that's what makes me a leader.

But that means I may have to get off my butt in the very near future. I'm sure it will be good for me and for all involved.

In the meantime...look, there's a book I've got to read.

Death by Ministry...

Allow me, in advance to apologize for my proliferation of Driscoll-esque material over that last little while. And while I was hoping to fly under the radar with some unimportant posts like the current state of the bat suit, I feel like I can't pass this one by.

If you know someone who has been eaten alive, swallowed whole or just beaten to a pulp by ministry, you may want to look at some of these resources. There's a good chance that most people in ministry have felt this way at one time or another so you'll likely get something practical out of it. If you don't get something practical, at least you'll be more informed when it eventually happens to you.

I was sent a link to the original blog post sometime last year. You can find it on Mark's blog here.

And just last week Mark started posting some video clips of a talk he gave by the same title at a recent conference. The nice part is that it's split up into small portions and a new clip is posted every couple of days.

Here's where you can find it:

• Part 1:
• blog post
  
• video link
  
• Part 2:
• blog post
• video link
  
• Part 3:
• blog post
• video link
  

It's Friday...

Since I have nothing more profound I'll opt for solidifying my case for "Dork of the Year". My humble opinion is that the best Batman ever is of course the newest one with Christian Bale. This morning I came across an image of the newest batsuit which is going to appear in The Dark Knight. So here's a quick recap on the evolution of the batsuit.

Adam West:

Michael Keaton:

Michael Keaton:

Val Kilmer:

Val Kilmer:

George Clooney:

Christian Bale:

And here's the most recent one for Christian Bale:

Emergent vs. Emerging...

I read a doctoral dissertation this week that had some pretty critical things to say about the emerging movement, even though the paper itself was not about the emerging church. Maybe I'll post more about the paper later. One of the biggest pet peeves was constantly seeing the author refer to the whole emerging movement as "emergent", and at one point even referring to the whole movement as a denomination.

So, what's the difference? I think Driscoll does a good job summing it up:

Well...

I don't have anything profound to ask or state. I just found this today and I thought it was blog worthy because I haven't had a comic posted in a while...if ever.

Lazy blogger...

I have a confession to make. I'm a lazy blogger.

A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to give this whole RSS thing a closer look. So I signed up to Google Reader and the rest is history. However, it means I've become a little lazy. I find that I'm reading more blogs but I'm not taking the time to comment as often or to follow up on other comments made on some posts.

Does this RSS thing make you lazy too?

Cartoons...

Ever heard of Albert the 5th Musketeer?

I remember catching a few episodes of this show (you can read a bit more about it here) back when I was in college and it always seemed to crack me up. I'm not sure that it's quite as funny as I remember it, but I did get a little flashback when I found this clip on YouTube.



Am I the only one that has seen this show?

Students...

Last week we were talking about Matthew 25 with our High School students and we were trying to find out what it means to actually look after "the least of these". So, we sent the students out with this simple homework: look for an opportunity to show love.

Last night we wrote those ideas down and tried to pick a few that we could focus on as a group. But then came the interesting part. I thought it was important that the students be mobilized and that they do the leg work on getting this stuff up and running, so I threw it at them. I sent around a piece of paper and told them if they would like to be part of the team that would put the plans in motion, that they should sign up.

I thought I'd be working with 3 or 4 at the most. I'm now left with a list of 11 students. A bunch more committed themselves to helping out whenever we got something off the ground.

I heard someone say a few weeks ago that they believe the younger generations are a more selfish generation than in the past. I didn't buy it then and I definitely don't buy it now.

Division...

Not long division, but destructive division. You know, the type that breaks apart churches and destroys friendships and families. The non-pretty kind.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately (my wife seriously asked me "when did we switch places?" as she is typically the one with a book in her hand) and my head is absolutely left spinning as to the sheer number of times I've heard someone completely call another person's faith in Jesus (and even their salvation) into question based on what they have heard or what they assume of another person.

I've heard more strong opinions lately than I would normally care to hear in one lifetime, but I can't help but wonder what drives this stuff. He/she said "this" so they must believe "this" which makes them Satan. And that's not even an exaggeration.

This tends to be an argument/accusation that is primarily floating around blogs and books dealing with the emerging church its leaders. People are being so quick to jump to a conclusion based on what they hear from one or two individuals, who may not even necessarily be representative of a larger group. But then what happens? Anyone who decides to agree with even a portion of what those original two said gets clumped into the category of "heretic" as well.

Today I was reading Paul's letter to the Corinthians. His words, not mine:

Now let's talk about food that has been sacrificed to idols. You think that everyone should agree with your perfect knowledge. While knowledge may make us feel important, it is love that really builds up the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one God knows and cares for. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

I think that sums it up so nicely. So many of these conversations end with accusations and labels and there's no sign of love anywhere in them. It's usually a case of one person deciding they know it all and therefore they should let it rip at the person who obviously doesn't know it all.

I don't care if the person beside you is the biggest bonehead on the face of the planet and is completely out of touch with 90% of reality, you are still called to love them. Sure they may need some outside input, but where are we told that we have the right to do that without love?

If people in general could just stop their yapping for a minute and ponder the fact that they just might not know it all, I think the silence would be deafening.

I don't have my faith all figured out. I've got a long journey ahead of me. But if I for one second become one of the people that claims to have all the answers, or I begin to act like I do, can one of you please give me a punch in the head?

One of those days...

Ever have those days when you feel like you're kicking things into high gear? They're rare for me so when it happens I tend to soak it up, just like today. I've been involved in some very heartfelt discussion about church, faith and all things emerging while also being able to carve out some time to interact with the Word and process the thoughts of some other smart people who wrote words in some books.

But at long last, my brain feels like it may explode. Corrine Bailey Rae is playing in the background. Half the family is feeling a little under the weather. The sun disappeared again. And there's no House to watch tonight.

Another guitarist...

I stumbled across this guy, Marcus Eaton, the other day. Now I'll admit that his studio stuff isn't really the greatest and nothing much stands out, but you'll have have to watch some video of him playing live. He uses a lot of loops and I've even seen some video of him and Tim Reynolds playing together. Not the most amazing lyricist, but his guitar skills are worth checking out.

To fully appreciate this, you should watch the last 2-3 minutes of the song.

Brain rush...

I spent 31 hours in the state of Washington and got lost more times than I care to remember, but I did have the joy of sitting in on Emergence 2007 which is a conversation about the emerging church.

I'll admit that I was hoping for a bit more verbal sparring and maybe even a bit more passion at times. It occasionally felt like the moderator (who I completely can't recall a name for right now, but let's call her "radio lady") was completely taking the steam out of things. Come on, I paid good money (and traveled a good distance) and wouldn't mind a heated debate between Mark Driscoll and Doug Pagitt about the innerancy of Scripture. (Wow...I never thought I'd say something like that. I nearly bored myself to sleep writing an ordination paper on the subject of innerancy. I'm rambling...)

With all that said, this was a fascinating event to eavesdrop on. I wish I could summarize it into one blog post, but I have about 8 pages of my own notes (sheesh, when did I become such a nerd?). But I think anyone who has issues or questions about the emerging church should sit in on one of these.

I know a good deal of people with some serious baggage about the emerging church movement that should have sat in on this too so it could break down some of their misconceptions. Misconceptions that they probably share with a lot of other people who raise their eyebrows at the very mention of the word "emerging".

At the end of the day I'm convinced that these four people (Driscoll, Pagitt, Karen Ward & Dan Kimball) are just trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus. Are they confused and off base on some stuff? No more than the rest of us. Let's be honest, who really has this whole Jesus following thing figured out?

Anyway...if you have the chance, pay your $49 and go sit in on one of these things.

Not soon enough...

I'm wandering through cyberspace and discover that there will be a CD and DVD release of the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds show from Radio City Music Hall back on Sunday, April 22, 2007.

The last CD these two released was Live at Luther College and it was what officially got me hooked on all things Dave Matthews. This will be good.

Now if only I could see these two live.

Dork-am-I...

I'm the kind of guy who goes to movies by himself. And no, it's not because I have no friends. But I've been known to sit in the odd movie theater by myself from time to time. And you know what...it's not that bad. It's not like you go to a movie to talk anyways.

But one of the things I've never been good at is doing things on my own. I'm not even attending a youth worker appreciation lunch tomorrow because I don't really know anyone that'll be there. And that's a lame excuse because I have met a few people...anyways, back to the topic.

On Friday I head to Seattle by myself for a day. I'm attending Emergence 2007 which is a conversation about the emerging church. After my wife declined due to childcare issues I tried to arm twist a few people into joining me (actually it was only one, but I don't want that one person to feel bad). But I've now settled on being alone with my thoughts...yeah...scary stuff.

But I'm contemplating taking my dork factor to another factor as I consider purchasing tickets for a Saturday evening concert (bonus points if you can guess who and where). I guess I should probably say "a ticket". Singular. Solitary. Uno.

A concert alone? Is that normal? I am trying to tell myself it's just like going to a movie alone but I don't know if I'm even buying that line of thought.

Funny kid...

My kids have been known to occasionally crack me up. The latest situation saw me driving my son to school after lunch today. I turned on the radio and opted for 89.9FM (The Effect) which is a station that plays "alternative Christian music" (let's try to avoid the conversation on how exactly a music can gain its salvation for another day).

I haven't listened to the station in a while but I guess Monday at noon they play "The Way of the Master" radio program. My common sense cut out and a I left it on for the drive because it's kind of like watching a train wreck. Either way, I'll save my commentary on their specific manner of evangelism for now but if you'd like to see them in action, just do a YouTube search for "way of the master".

Anyways, back to the point...my son listened for a bit and we made some small talk before this came out of his mouth:

"Hey dad...you know the guy who is talking? He sounds just like Pa Grape."

Yeah...funny kid. I'll take credit for that.

Irresistible...

I doubt that my writing about Shane Claiborne or just quoting portions of his book will be all that inspiring or life-transforming for you, so on this one you'll just have to go out buy the book.

As you read you'll probably be scratching your head while you contemplate selling everything you own and moving out of North America. And yes you'll more than likely be wondering what would happen if we all started living like this...but it'll be a fun little conversation going on inside your head. And that alone is worth the $17.99 CAN.

I'll include some of the random thoughts and reactions I had while thumbing through the pages.

• "So...are you a hippie, or what?"
• "Huh?!?!"
• "Mother Teresa was a smart lady."
• "You're an idiot."
• "I'm an idiot."
• "____________ is an idiot."
• "Where's my Calcutta?"
• "What little thing can I do with great love?"
• "Is this dream even practical?"

I could say more, but it would ruin the book. And it would take me more time to craft the words and I'm not feeling eloquent today.

Happy birthday...

1977 was a good year, but I'm biased on 2 levels. Today is the 30th birthday of Star Wars. In honour of that, here's a tribute.

Dorkville Population: 1 (that's me!)

Ritual lament...

Philip Yancey described "ritual lament" at a past NYWC. It's stuck as a bit of a coin phrase in our household. And it's the only phrase that describes my head space for the past week (or maybe weeks). I'm not sure what's going on...so if anyone has a clinical psychology degree, I'd more than welcome your opinions and suggestions.

Until then I'll keep on putting one foot in front of the other while I try to be honest with those closest to me and those random people that read this blog.

Maybe this I'll just blame this all on United losing to Chelsea last Saturday.

Relevant Church...

This book was a collection of short essays written by pastors about what they were doing to create environments where people can passionately pursue Jesus and live out their faith in the midst of others.

If you're familiar with any of the individuals who contributed to the book you will constantly feel like it was all taking place 3-4 years ago. Nonetheless it does a good job of showing a multitude of different ways that church can be lived out.

While I'd like to say "I'd go to some of these churches", I know there is something seriously wrong with that statement. But I think you get the point.

Invite-evangelists...

"We need to stop inviting people to Christian events as our only form of outreach."
(Dustin Bagby, The Relevant Church)

How many times do we see this in churches? We put on an event. We tell everyone to invite their friends. We call it outreach. It begs me to ask, what have we even done to reach out?

I think outreach takes a risk. I think it requires us putting our life on the line more than it requires our pride being put on the line. Really that's all we do when we work as invite-evangelists. We're hoping that someone will come see all the hard work we've done (even if we would never admit it) and we hope that they will be moved and respond accordingly. But what have we risked? Our pride takes a hit when someone says no or says they're busy. But that's all (even though we seem to make it out to be a big deal). We choke it up and vow to try again at the next invite-only event.

But I have a picture of more urgency and more risk when it comes to introducing people to Jesus. If someone fell off the balcony of a 23-story building, we wouldn't just stand by and kindly ask the person to reach out their hand and grab the other railing. The idea of "I hope they don't refuse my advice and then fall to their death" wouldn't even enter the picture. We would hopefully be throwing themselves over the balcony to try and rescue the individual. There's more on the line than just someones pride...it's their life.

Yet, how often are we willing to risk our lives when it comes to those around us? How willing are we to risk our time and energy on those that don't know Jesus? How likely are we to just stand by and invite someone and hope that someone else will take the risk?

Most of us don't know how to risk. We don't want to risk rejection. We don't want to risk failing. We don't want to risk the time, the energy, the late night phone calls, the constant questions and the seemingly endless interruptions that come from dealing with messy and hurting lives. Instead, we settle for inviting someone to some event and then we pat ourselves on the back and say we've done our part.

But, isn't outreach about investing in people? And spending time with people? And listening to people...and loving people? Isn't it about being with people? Isn't it all about risk?

I think of Jesus who was with people when they were tired, when they were annoying, when they asked ridiculous questions, when they didn't understand, when they failed, when they made mistakes, when they were messy. He took risks. He invested time. He didn't just stand by and wait for someone else to do something. He did it.

Is invite-evangelism normal?

Expanding my mind...

I've never spent a day just doing some random reading and studying. Normally I'm working on a lesson or planning for an event or meeting. Today I decided to start reading and see what happens. No strings attached. Just taking it where it goes. Here's a sample of what I've covered today:

• Read some articles on the Emerging Church
• Familiarized myself with Acts 29 Network which included a lot of reading about their doctrine and beliefs
  
• Listened to "Reverse Engineering Your Life" by Mark Driscoll
• Read an article on Bible translations...yeah, I'm not sure why either...
  
• Read a few chapters of "The Relevant Church"
• Wrote of few pages of journal stuff
• Read some pages from Catalyst Groupzine
  

I'd like to say I'm smarter now than I was at 9 this morning. I don't think it would be true.

More confessions...

But they're not my own because I'm not that authentic. I just finished Mark Driscoll's "Confessions of A Reformission Rev". It's the journey of how his church plant in Seattle called Mars Hill has grown and developed over the years. Each chapter focuses on a specific chapter of their life (ie: 0-45 people, 45-75 people, 350-1000 people, 4000-10000 people, etc...I think you get the point).

In case you don't know much about Mark, he seems to get himself in trouble a lot because he speaks his mind (for an example, you can read this about a little video he made and some of the discussion it has stirred up). But I like his approach. I like the fresh style and the sarcasm. And I like the insights he has to offer.

A few things in particular are spending an extra bit of time floating through my cranium:

1. Mars Hill really calls people to step up to the plate. And there are many times where Mark mentions that they want people to be serving in the church rather than just being consumers. For that reason if someone isn't willing to dive in and get involved, they are told to leave. When was the last time we told someone to leave church because the only thing they've done for the last 10 years was sit in a pew?

2. Mark expanded on an Amway concept to develop 4 phases of organizational decline. In it he describes it as:

Phase 1 - Creative, the dream stage
Phase 2 - Management, the reality stage
Phase 3 - Defensive justification, the failure stage
Phase 4 - Blaming, the death stage

If you want a more detailed explanation, buy the book. But let's just say that I'm finding myself asking lots of questions where the ministries I am involved at would be on this chart. And to be completely honest, it's a scary question to ask. What I am discovering is causing me to shake my head lots and mumble "aarrrgghhh" (and that's not in a pirate type of way). Ask my wife...it's true.

3. Attractional or missional? Which describes me, my ministries, and our church? Driscoll's challenge is that churches should be both. They should be drawing people in, but they should also be sending people out. Again he talks about not wanting church to be consumer-minded.

----------

As you can imagine, this is only a small piece of the picture. There's lots of stuff to chew on. And I'm sure this will only serve to continue my ongoing process of "God...what the heck are you up to?"

Glory Glory Man Utd...

It's official...2007 Premier League Champions! The trophy is finally in hand.

My only beef on the day was that I set the DVR to record the game and arrived home after church to find that they actually played the Chelsea-Everton game. Come on! And for those of you who are replying with "check you TV guide next time", let me point out that as of 12:30am last night the United game was supposed to be on. Sheesh...

Anyways, this will be worth a few thousand words...

(HT to Derek)

Flashback...

We had a pile of our youth leaders over for a BBQ tonight and what a blast that was. I hope my neighbors don't hate us. But a few of the college/university students stayed a little later and we watched some stuff on YouTube. Here's a gem...

Beautiful mess...

I've heard about the Kingdom of God, but I can honestly say I've never done a whole lot of processing about what (or where) it actually is. For the most part I've been part of that camp that sees it as something to come. But what Rick McKinley (author of The Beautiful Mess and pastor of Imago Dei) describes is a Kingdom that is already present, if only we would open our eyes to it.

The book is split into 3 major parts and the third portion focuses on practicing the presence of the Kingdom and I can honestly say he has given me something to chew on. As you may know, I've been on a bit of a journey myself in my faith and I've really been challenged lately with the practical aspects of it. Or maybe I should say the current lacking of the practical aspects of it.

I'm not a nature-freak, but I wonder about my responsibility as a follower of Jesus to look after creation. I've got kids of my own and I work with students, but where do our our churches place value on learning from the younger generations and worshiping with them, rather than entertaining them and ignoring them? And what about the poor and the homeless? What about the broken and wounded people in our community?

Are we actually living out the Kingdom of God or just biding our time in the safety of our pew and completely missing out on the closeness of the Kingdom?

We've got our trophy back...

United beat City yesterday which meant that Chelsea needed to win today in order to keep any hope alive of being able to catch up before the end of the season. They ended up with a draw against Arsenal. So...

We've got our trophy back!

We've got our trophy back!

While we still have 2 games left in the season, we also have an FA Cup final against Chelsea on the 19th. Another glorious opportunity to pour some salt into the wounds of the Blues.

Makeover...

I think I just spent too much time this evening giving this blog a makeover. I don't know if I'm completely satisfied with this one, but it'll do for now. I don't know if I'll ever get it to look like the vision in my head without becoming a dotcom. And I think I've already committed myself to not doing that.

And now I await a 4am game between Manchester United and the Scum (Manchester City). No hiccups tomorrow and we'll be that much closer to clinching the title next week when we play Chelsea.

Dwight highlight 4...

The past couple of weeks haven't been the greatest episodes ever, but there have been some classsic moments like this...

Stupid politicians...

Ask my wife...I can't stand politics or politicians. And this just once again shows why I feel this way. Apparently some people in government have nothing better to do than criticize Hockey Canada's decision to choose Shane Doan as captain of the IIHF Men's World Hockey Championship. Their main beef is that Doan allegedly made comments about French-Canadians (directed at the officials of the match) during a game in Montreal back in 2005. And since they provide funding for Hockey Canada they feel they can dictate how a hockey team is managed.

So instead of doing something productive like raising the age of consent they'll spend their time calling Hockey Canada in to explain why they chose a player like Doan, who is a quality player and a leader on the ice, to be their team captain. Somebody please explain this to me. It can't be normal.

Monday ramblings...

It took me almost 45 minutes to get through all my emails this morning after missing last week. And that doesn't count the 5 or 6 I picked up last Thursday. But I don't regret ignoring my emails last week while at retreat. After all, it is a "retreat".

Last week reminded me of how much of an introvert I really am. I would die without regular time to my space. I think the world of the other YP's in the district, but all week I wrestled with a feeling of "I don't really fit in here". I'm not sure if that is normal...

Now I'm eating supper in my office as I wait for my middle schoolers to show up in a couple of hours. I wonder how the evening will go.

Play guitar like this...

While I am still contemplating the future post that will turn the blogging world on its head, I must post this. I stumbled across it today in my semi-monthly YouTube wanderings. The guy's name is Erik Mongrain, a Montrealer who taught himself to play the guitar and basically made a name for himself by playing on the streets and in subways. Wow...

Retreat...

It's that time of year again. The annual district youth pastor's retreat. It should be good. It'll be nice to have some time with no "normal" student ministry responsibilities. It'll be fun to reconnect with some old friends. I'm also leading worship, which should be interesting given that I have absolutely no clue what most everyone else is singing these days. Is Kumbayah current?

But, I will miss a variety of things...

• My wife and my kids
• My bed
• Champion's League football (I hope I can find wireless internet)
• My bike, TV and computer (I know...I'm hopeless)
• My wife and my kids (wait a sec...did I already mention that?)

Not a dot com...

I apologize for 2 posts in a row about student ministry. It goes against my nature to speak for too long on one subject unless it's talking to my students. I'm sure they wish that I would shut up earlier some times.

So, now on to another completely different topic: American Idol. My thoughts? I'll keep them to my self for fear of looking like more of a dork than I already have confessed to be. But the kid that can't sing that keeps on winning is cracking me up!

Also, I'm pondering the possibility of a future profound post that will rock the blogging world. Much like this one by a pastor's wife I know or this one by a friend who says lots of smart stuff that I would never even be able to come up with, or this one by another friend who uses a word I've never even heard of to talk about something I've also experienced.

You would be well advised to watch this space...

Longevity in YM (Part 2)...

As previously stated, here is the conclusion of the list I began last week.

7. Serve Outside the Youth Ministry
You get paid to do this, so do something else that’s not youth related. If you want to last you also need to be serving. Be a volunteer in the nursery, play on a worship team, set up chairs or run sound. Just don’t call it “work”.

8. Have An Outlet
If you don’t’ have some sort of outlet outside the ministry, it will eat you alive. It doesn’t matter if it’s youth or seniors, you can’t focus on it all the time. Play soccer or golf or any other sport, build a car, take up crochet. You need to do something outside of the church if you want to last. Oh, and talking to students online doesn’t count!

9. Be Willing to Make Some Sacrifices
If you aren’t flexible to some degree, you’ll have trouble lasting. This doesn’t mean you don’t have boundaries, because you, your family and your students need those. But it does mean that you will have to attend the occasional school play on a night off. It does mean that you may have to say sacrifice a great concert at the church to be with your family. It does mean your weekly schedule will never look the same the next week. To last, you will have to make some sacrifices.

10. Communicate
Learn to communicate, communicate and then communicate some more. And then when you tell everyone what’s going on, tell them two more times. If you want to last you need to learn how to tell people what is going on. And you need to be aware that most people don’t read the bulletin, check emails, visit the website or listen to their voice mail, so you may need to be creative.

11. Learn To Say “No”
If you can’t say “no”, you will be eaten alive by anything and everything that moves within the walls of your church. You may have to say “no” to some good stuff too. It may be saying “no” to a certain speaker that wants to talk to the youth because the topic won’t fit or the speaker won’t fit. It may mean saying “no” to a student’s phone call so you can spend time with your family. If you want to last you need to learn how to say “no”. And you’ll need to learn how to say it with conviction!

Longevity in YM (Part 1)...

I got a call this week from a college student who was looking for someone who had been in youth ministry for more than five years. I guess I qualified. I've been doing this full-time for 7 years, but working with students for almost 12. He was looking for 10 keys to longevity (I provided 11 so I would appear smart) when working with students.

I'll admit that most of this list isn't new. In fact, most of it is probably covered in every good youth ministry book ever written, but it's stuff that I've tried to put in place or stuff I'm trying to put in place, and it seems to be working. Here's part of what what I sent him. I'll save the rest for next week.

1. Be Willing to Learn
This involves being a student of students. You need to know who you’re trying to serve. This requires attending classes, seminars, courses, speaking events, movies and anything else that deals with students (ie– what they do/listen to; how to reach them; how to help them, how to understand them, etc). If you don’t learn, you won’t get better at what you do and you won’t last.

2. Read Lots
And don’t just read about youth ministry. Try to wrap your brain around other things and other ministries—even things you don’t particularly care for or understand. Remember that we are training students who will one day be leading our other ministries in church. It helps to know what we can do to train them for that. And it helps to know what’s going on around us. And lastly, it makes you look like you know what you’re doing when you’re reading books that other non-youth workers are reading!

3. Hang Out With Adults
Someone once told me that I should spend an hour in meaningful conversation with people my own age for every hour I spend with students (it was likely Marv Penner). Students, while a focus of my world, shouldn’t be my entire world. I need to remember that I am an adult and that adolescence is temporary. I cannot live in the world of teenagers without it affecting me somehow, so I need something to balance it.

4. Don’t Stoop to Cheap Tricks and Gimmicks
The minute I try to compete with iPods, cell phones, parties, TV, Hollywood and Disneyland...I will lose. Don’t try to get students with gimmicks. They’ll take the freebies but it won’t bring about any lasting growth. If I’m all about the “cool factor”, I won’t last.

5. Preach the Word
Keep yourself grounded in the Word and keep preaching the truth of the Word and you’ll likely be ok (I’ll admit that you’re never completely safe). The troubles tend to arise on the extra commentaries that so many people try to force on Scripture. Sure, there’s a time and place for adding your two cents, but let’s remember that the Bible IS the Word of God and what you and I say isn’t. Keep it truthful!

6. Know Your Elders & Your Senior Pastor
Spend time getting to know your elders and who they are and what they are about. Genuinely care about then, pray for them, encourage them and support them. Even, dare I say it, hang out with them! If you want to last, you will want to have as many of them as possible in your corner.

A picture worth a 1000 words...

Last week was horrible for my teams of choice in the sporting world, but today was another story. United headed home to Old Trafford to host Roma after losing the first game 2-1. And United came out to play. This was the definition of a clinic. Perfect passes, passionate tackles, precise crosses, timely runs and beautiful goals.

And now it's on to the semi-finals. If only we can avoid Chelsea until the very end. I think the Premier League coming down to a United-Chelsea game and the Champions League coming down to a United-Chelsea would be such a gut-wrenching yet somewhat appealing stage of events.

Although, I will admit I'll shout like there's no tomorrow if Chelsea were to drop out of either race any sooner!

Free of charge randomness...

I was in the midst of working on tomorrow night's message for our high schoolers when my brain decided to call it a day. It's actually kind of a good sign. Usually I'm interrupted every 20-30 minutes (and I'm not even that important!), but today I've been plugging away since 11:30 sans interrupts. But apparently, my brain isn't use to this and thus needs a change of pace.

So, in honor of this mid-afternoon sabbatical I offer you this randomness free of charge :

• My wife sent me one of those "send this to 10 of your friends" emails.
  
• I drank a can of caffeine free Coke.
• I cleaned up my blog list...apparently some people have stopped blogging.
• I can't decide which book to read next (Driscoll or McKinley). Please help...
  
• My student worship team is leading worship in the service this Sunday.
• "Everybody knows it sucks to grow up" (Ben Folds in "Still Fighting It")
• I was awaken from dreamland at the butt-crack of dawn to scope out a mysterious crashing noise in the house...it was apparently my son. I'm still not entirely sure but I do know that my sleep did not return for at least 90 minutes.
• I think we need another vehicle.
• I'm behind on 24.
  
• I've been approached by someone writing a paper/article/something about the keys to longevity in youth ministry. Umm...yeah...got any ideas?
  

Ok, that's enough...it's now time to hit the books.

Dear Church...

I'll admit that I've been disillusioned with the church. Sometimes I still am. In fact, just the other day...ahhh...nevermind.

This book by Sarah Cunningham (www.dearchurch.com) sums up so well what I and many of my generational counterparts have felt about the church lately. And while she speaks loudly on behalf of the disillusioned generation, she doesn't let this become what I've heard Philip Yancey describe as a "ritual lament".

At moments I would be thinking "Yes! Let 'em have it." and then the next moment I'm being challenged and wondering what my whole role is going to be. What part will I play in helping the church adjust to a new generation of Jesus-followers? Provided, of course, that it needs some adjusting.

I'm thinking this would be a great book to work through with some similarly-minded people. To hear if the ideas and thoughts resonate with anyone else. To see if this could push/encourage/empower/motivate the disillusioned to start doing something instead of constantly running away. And you have to admit that our generation runs away from the church a lot, right?

But why do we do it? Why don't we stick it out? In fact why do so many people play the "do it my way or I'll leave" card? Why has leaving (or abandoning) the church become so normal?

Dwight highlight 3...

It's Easter and this is the best I can come up with?

Bad sports day...

Last chance for the playoffs this year and we choke with a 6-5 loss? Yeah, not exactly a display in defensive prowness. And not exactly the Dryden/Roy-esque performance that I was hoping for.

A natural hat trick from Ryder, Huet stopping something like 25 shots in the first period alone, and a 5-3 lead at one point just wasn't enough.

Now who am I supposed to cheer for?

Another loss...

United lost again today...sigh...

On the heels of a midweek defeat against Roma in the Champions League, this has not been a good week football wise. Yeah, I know any away goal at Roma is a good thing, but a loss is always hard to take.

I'm really hoping that my Habs can pull off a big victory against those Leafs tonight. But I'll admit that I'm not exactly the most confident right now. The road hasn't been good to us lately, ACC hasn't been good to us...and it should be interesting to see if Huet gets the start. He'll have something to prove. Maybe we'll get a Dryden-esque or Roy-esque performance out of him tonight. The countdown is on.

Random Thursday post...

I'm bored, therefore I post.

This show cracks me up. Sure, not the greatest character development, but David Spades' sarcasm and Patrick Warburton's dry humor make the show. But it'll probably get cancelled. Most shows I like get cancelled. MacGyver, Hidden Hills, Boomtown, Albert the 5th Musketeer...

When will it end...

Here's yet another case of violence off the pitch at a football game. This is getting ridiculous and it needs to stop.

I truly believe that football is a beautiful game. But these moments do not make it look like that to the rest of the world who doesn't seem to appreciate the game as it is.

And now April...

I thought March might have been the month of blogging where I could have beaten my single month posting record. But then life happened and well...the record did not.

I am currently watching another Leaf's game...don't worry, I do have a good excuse for watching them play twice in the last 24 hours. I want them...no...I NEED them to lose. With the battle for a playoff spot in the East going down to the wire, my Habs need to win all their game while the blue and white drops game after game. And while last night I spent 3 periods and overtime as a Penguins fan, today I am a rangers fan. Although I'd really rather that they both loss.

Next Saturday will be a big night as the Habs and the Leafs come face to face. I only hope I'm on the winning side.

Strange...

I know that when you put a blog out there that it's intended for public consumption, but ever since I've installed the statcounter I've been able to notice some peculiar facts about the individuals that drop by to read my ramblings. Today I noticed that 5 different people in the past week have ended up here after doing searches for "monster rabbit".

I dunno...it must be getting close to Easter.

Talkin' sex...

We started a sex series with our middle school and high school groups this week. One word can describe the environment: awkward. We get the nervous chuckles, silly smiles, nervous seat-shifting and the "don't-make-eye-contact" looks. And with an anonymous question box, you never know what you might get.

But the highlight of the week was this exchange with some middle schoolers:

Me: "What have you been taught about sex?"

MS #1: "Masturbation"

MS #2: "Uhh...what's that?"

Yeah...a room full of teenagers and a conversation about sex is the ultimate recipe for "interesting".

Beautifully vulgar...

I'm not sure why but I have a habit of listening to particular artists for extended periods of time...almost to the point where I overdose on them. And sometimes these musical binges seemingly happen right out of the blue. I read an article or hear a song and the next thing my wife knows that's all I'm listening to for the next month and a half.

My most recent one, besides the obvious Dave Matthews and Eric Clapton, is Ben Folds. I think it was an article in Relevant Magazine a few months ago that got me re-interested in his music. I say "re-interested" because already had one album from my college days.

But this afternoon watched a video of a song called "Still Fighting It" (you can find the video here) and felt myself getting choked up. So apparently not only do I have a soft spot for Boy Meets World, but I also find myself being moved by the beautiful music of this often vulgar individual.

I feel like I'm all over the map these days. This can't be normal.

Driftin...

My wife is getting sick of hearing about Clapton, but I found this clip from his show in Dallas last month. This version is not nearly as good as the one last thursday, but maybe you can just enjoy the fret work. There is some close ups of Eric on the big screen a little later in the video.

A living legend...

My wife asked me how the concert was when I arrived home at 2:00am last night. My response was not coherent. Not because I was tired from a long day or worn out from 6.5 hours of driving, but rather because I could not put into word what it was like to watch a living legend do his thing for 2 hours.

Some call Clapton a god. I will settle just short of that description out of courtesy to the One who actually dishes out the talents. But the guy's got some mad skills.

The concert was beyond words. From the beginning to the end every song was filled with "wow". It's a toss up as to which part of the evening I enjoyed more...the acoustic portion that came in the middle of the evening or the 2 song encore that consisted of "Cocaine" and "Crossroads". Oh, and let's not forget "Layla".

I will say that this was money well spent and I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you ever have a chance to see Clapton in concert, don't think...just buy the ticket(s) and go see him. You will have an appreciation for him unlike ever before and you will be glad you did it.

Here's a great review. And this was the setlist for the evening:

-Tell The Truth
-Key To The Highway
-Got to Get Better in A Little While
-Little Wing
-Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad

-Driftin' (EC Solo)
-Outside Woman Blues
-Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
-Running On Faith

-Motherless Children
-Little Queen of Spades
-Further On Up The Road
-Wonderful Tonight
-Layla

-Cocaine
-Crossroads (with Robert Cray)

So what...

I'm falling deeper and deeper into something, but I'm not sure exactly what that "something" is. I know it has to do with the church (not just my church, but the larger church) though. My past and current experiences, my reading, my thoughts and my convictions seem to be up to something. And I'm not sure what's going to come out on the other end. I've had moments in the past 2 weeks where I feel like my head is going to explode. I have times when I'm racing...trying to figure out what to do...trying to figure out the "so what".

I'd liken it to a pile of modeling clay that's being shaped, but right now it just looks like a blob. Is this normal?

SexGod...

I think I read this only because it's Rob Bell. I like the guy. He's smart, articulate and just plain annoying at points. I don't get half the stuff he says, but that's ok, since I normally toss stuff like that aside anyway.

I think Rob describes how I feel about this book best with something from the epilogue:

For some, hopefully, light has been shed on things that matter, "Oh, that finally makes sense," or "I never thought about it like that," or even, "Huh...I'll have to think about that."

As the title alludes, the book is all about sexuality. It's about sex, God, relationships, marriage, lust, self-image, submitting, Hebrew, heaven, hell, animals, angels, dancing and Johnny Cash. Really...it takes it all on.

A New Kind of YM...

I get nervous when people suggest they've come up with a new way of doing youth ministry that is more effective than the "other" way (whatever that other way may be). I swallowed hard when I opened this book and I was guarded, skeptical and pessimistic when I started reading this (which makes me wonder why I started reading it to begin with). My first question was, "who are you to tell me that my way is wrong and your way is right and better?"

My ending question, "what do I need to change about myself and the way I minister to students that can result in a more productive ministry?" Yeah, I noticed that there's a bit of a change in my thought process too.

Chris put into words many things I've thought of over my years of working with students. He challenged me, encouraged me, reprimanded me, and flat out smacked me in the face. I think he's bang on with so many of the things he said. I'd sum them up, but I'd just be writing the book in my own words, and I think that's plagiarism.

This goes on the list of "books you should definitely read if you work with students".

As for the outcome in my own life/ministry. I'm currently involved in the beginning stages of a ministry evaluation and this book helps remind me of some all too important questions I need to be asking as we begin to refine what the future of our student ministry looks like. You'll probably hear about it here from time to time.