The Naked Gospel - Andrew Farley
Sustainable Youth Ministry - Mark DeVries
Ecclesiastes - God
Engaging Parents as Allies - Wayne Rice
Birthdays come around only once a year. Yes, that’s a given. While it may not be that big of a deal to some – it is a time of accepting gifts. Now suppose you are along in years and gifts are hard to come across. Well, be at ease, I have found some restaurants that would love to celebrate along with you. Just hop onto the following sites – put in the brief information, if required – and within days of your birthday you’ll be stocked up on free goodies.
Deals like this are hard to come by. Okay, I kid. There’s more where this came from. Check it out yourself.
I have to imagine this will spark some memories – and hopefully a number of solid comments. Today I want to talk about the art of weddings. This Thanksgiving weekend I had a wedding in St. Louis. I wouldn’t choose it as the ideal time to make the road trip, but glad we were able to meet up with family and support Kelly’s cousin. The wedding itself was something to remember.
Have you ever heard a speech in a foreign language? Years ago I attended a church service in China. What the pastor was saying made no sense, as I can only recognize so many Chinese words. So I just listened for key words like “Jesus”. My experience at this wedding felt similar. The 21 minute wedding (and that’s from the first bridesmaid walking in to the exiting of the couple) was officiated in the King James Version. I would have been lost had I not picked up on words like “marriage” and “I will”. *
Not your everyday wedding ceremony. This got me thinking – what are the greatest wedding moments I’ve been a part of.
I’ve experienced many wonderful wedding moments. As I’m sure we all have. Time for you to share yours.
Cheers.
Yesterday was a beautiful reminder that relationships don’t die. Then, after an unbelievable experience, I realized that God keeps people in your path for a reason. The whole day became a joy-filled time and an early Thanksgiving gift to me.
It started when I got a surprise visit in my office, the day prior, from four of my beloved graduates, who are now freshman in college. Just minutes after another former student showed up. As these kids grow up to be young adults, I love finding myself transitioning out of the role of youth pastor and into the role of friend. And these cats are, and will continue to be, good friends. Even if they ever think to teepee my house again. ** While I can humbly acknowledge that I’ve done very little to direct their paths, even spiritually (how I wish I had them longer) – I have to think that they know I love them with the love of Christ. These college students make it a joy to live out Philippians 2.
To Incredible Pizza we went. My first Thanksgiving meal was buffet pizza. Ideal? No. But couldn’t pass up a chance to see a bunch of my grads. It’s amazing to see how many are still walking with the Lord. I hate…absolutely hate…seeing those statistics saying how 60-80% of high school graduates also “graduate” from going to church. These young friends of mine take that statement and blow it up. A couple hours of being kids again was fun, but never enough time with them. They inspire me to live life to its full without compromising the gospel. See you again at Christmas!
And then a reunion of unique fashion. As my in-law family decided to spend a bit of our Thanksgiving Eve serving a meal at a homeless shelter, I was shocked to find someone I knew. It wasn’t the fact that she was at a homeless shelter that surprised me – it’s been a difficult year for her. After completely losing touch with her for over a year, when her life took a turn for the worse – she called me out of the blue early this year. Since then I’ve seen her in the most random of places. Her situation does not bring a smile to my face, as she is confused, lost, and wasting her life. Yet God clearly wants me to keep praying for her; to continue to offer hope and nuggets of wisdom. God has a plan here – it’s evident. To end up at this shelter – my first time being there, and her second week staying there – is God sovereign. And then, to exclamate the evening, as we were leaving the house Kelly asked “Do you think the shelter could use a couple of my coats I no longer wear?” She brought them just in case. An hour later I was standing outside with this young lady as she smoked a cigarette. Noticing she was cold I asked if she had warmer clothing – perhaps a thick coat. She said they are hard to come across, especially when you have no money. I think you see where this is going. God provided.
Let this be a reminder to all that God puts people in your path for a reason. Some to be blessed by. Others to be a blessing to. Listen to the Spirit of God. He’s bound to shock you too.
Happy Thanksgiving all.
A follow up to yesterday’s post on Surprise to Parenting. In parenting I was a little clueless, in pastoring I was more naïve. Here are some of the lessons of being a youth pastor that took me a few years to learn. These are things I never learned in seminary. Probably because I never went to seminary. **
1. Youth ministry is a ministry to the family, not just the teenagers.
2. There’s pressure to entertain students as much as disciple them.
3. During the summers, you may be the only pastor putting in 50 hours a week. And no you don’t get paid extra for it – nor do you earn extra vacation or sympathy.
4. Youth ministry is like the nuclear family – if mom’s happy, everything is good. ** It’s also true that the greatest influence in a student’s life is mom and dad not us youth pastors.
5. Doing devotions is harder in full time ministry. Every member of my staff, including all my past interns, have mentioned this to me as well.
6. Parents like volunteering – and not just to be critical about how you youth pastor. And kids (for the most part) also don’t mind their parents’ involvement.
7. The Holy Spirit is more powerful than credentials.
8. Don’t do what bigger, better youth ministries/pastors are doing. Be who God has called you and your ministry to be.
9. Take a day off. Yes, there’s still stuff to do. And yes, someone will be upset that something didn’t get done. But it’s biblical and healthy, and if you want to stay in ministry for the long haul – you MUST take a day off.
10. Your number one ally on staff should be your janitor. Do not, I repeat do not, get on his bad side.
11. Church is political. Some say it’s not. My perspective is far different. Someday I might have to write a Top 10 (or 20) list to explain this out. The lesson here is simple – I’m a steward of the leadership and ministry God has entrusted to me. The rest is out of my hands. I also remind myself often, church politics are apparently inevitable – yet I absolutely trust the godliness of our leaders, so I have peace.
12. A youth pastors best friends are his volunteers. So, if you want to hang out more, serve on Wednesdays and hang out on Fridays. Somehow these are the people who maintain best friend status – even after God calls us elsewhere.
13. Be thankful for every person (well most anyways) in your church because they’re paying your salary. Talk about humbling.
14. You’ll virtually always be compared to the youth pastor before you. There’s not much you can do about it. Suck it up I guess. Though I’ve found that if you build a solid relationship with that person than people’s comments become less offensive…for the most part.
15. Titles really don’t matter. Stanley Huffty once said “It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.” Pastor, Associate, Director – personally I’d prefer “Bish” (short for Bishop…similar to Rev, short for Reverend).
My parents will laugh if they find out I’m willing to admit I didn’t know it all going into parenting. After just one kid, and nearly ten months, I’ve discovered a few things about parenting I never saw coming.
1. An infants sleep habits at nine days is reflected still at nine months. Moral of the story, set guidelines from the start.
2. If your newborn is crying for hours on end, don’t rush him to the ER, just quit feeding him so often.
3. Decide, with your spouse, how many kids you want before having your first. I can understand why people have just one kid. It’s enough loving on one. Right now it would seem difficult to share my love for Judah with other miniature versions of me.
4. Asking family members, particularly parents, to babysit is a blessing not a curse. Apparently they actually want to change diapers. Perhaps that’s a little bit of a strong statement, but I’ve come to realize that it’s good to pass Judah around a little.
5. Don’t take infants on week-long youth ministry trips. Just not a smart idea. I don’t even need to explain why – just take my word for it.
6. People, particularly businesses, bend the rules for parents of infants. Take advantage of it. I love the line “I have a little baby in the backseat” – works every time!
7. Take video. Lots of it. Then save the video so it isn’t taped over by silly youth ministry skits. Whoops.
I do believe we’ve done a lot of great things as first time parents. Well, Kelly has. I’m apparently a slow learner. I’m not sure what to expect for year two of being a dad. Any tips?
Today I’m going historic with this one. There are few dates that I can remember each year – my anniversary and Kelly’s birthday are just about it. But for some reason I remember every November 22nd that it’s the day of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. My infatuation with JFK lasted about a year – I was in fifth grade. After finding out that my parents sort of named me after JFK (they wanted so bad to have an “F” middle name but didn’t like the options), I decided to make it my project to discover who this guy was. As a fifth grader, I was less concerned with his political stance or agenda as I was in the more interesting aspects of his life. It might have been Kevin Costner who really sold me on JFK after his marvelous work in the movie JFK.
I would like to share my tribute to our 35th President – one that I scripted sixteen years ago.
I was born in Massachusetts many years ago, my name is one that we all know. I moved to New York in 1926, nothing to do but pick up sticks. I went on to Princeton University, had to leave ‘cause an injury. At age 19 I entered Harvard, when then a trip to Europe I heard. Why England Slept, a book I wrote, was published and I got a good note. I was Commander of a PT boat, which sunk but I stayed afloat. I became Senator in 1952, like my mom always said it was all for you. I married Jacqueline in 1953, when at last I had a honey. Profiles in Courage, my second book, I finally sold to my lovely cook. And then I left to Washington D.C. where I had a daughter – Caroline. In 1960 I had a TV debate, with Richard Nixon who I soon would hate. I was elected 35th President of my country; then John Jr. was born he was quite hungry. The Cuban Missile Crisis had started, but in 12 days it was departed. I took some trips outside the U.S. and then I had a son he was no success. And to Dallas in November, 1963, I died right by my family.
John once said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. This one’s for you John.
I enjoy shopping – one day a year. Each year I head out the day after Thanksgiving to take advantage of insane deals, while treading through insane lines. It’s not that I even come home with many items. I just love the experience. I love that it makes virtually no sense that I get up at 4:00am to stand in line outside, only to end up buying a $5 DVD. Yet I’ll do it again this week. This time Kelly won’t be able to join, so I’m open to any other nuts that want to have some fun on a Friday morning.
We’re less than a week away. I’ve done some homework and thought I’d offer you a few items that may convince you to get your butt out of bed on Friday.
The early bird catches the worm. And there are a lot of worms to be caught. Happy hunting.
This week Kelly and I have been in the search for a vehicle to replace the totaled Envoy. Even though I had no interest in purchasing a new car, once I realized that insurance was providing a check – I got pretty excited to start car shopping. That excitement didn’t last long. Days later I sit here thinking “what went wrong”?
Like any nice tale, this story does end well – I have my new (used) car, of which I am thrilled. I can afford it (always a bonus) and my family is no longer inconvenienced by having only one car – what an inconvenience right?!?! But the process it took to get here was anything but a joy ride. I wouldn’t want this on my enemies; it’s stressful. I suppose since this is my blog it’s acceptable to vent, no? Well here it is…
1. There are too many cars to choose from. Even after narrowing it down to wanting a Honda or Toyota 7 passenger vehicle in the Des Moines area – there were still enough choices to keep me occupied online and in person for weeks. More on that later. Besides having too many cars, there are too many choices on cars. LE, XE, XE-L, and several more letters that make no sense to me. Then there’s seat material, external color, internal color, number of previous owners, A/C controls, on and on.
2. You have to deal with car salesman. They’re the worst. It’s harder to deal with them than it is mall kiosk workers. And it gets real interesting when you finally to engage the salesman in negotiation. I meant salesMEN not sales salesMAN. How many middle men do you dealerships hire? At one point I almost asked if I could speak to “the guy who was really in charge”. Fortunately I bit my tongue.
3. Once you decide on the car and you’ve crossed that threshold of finalizing the price and your blood is pumping with excitement to drive it home – you now are three hours away from officially owning the vehicle. I never want to sign my name to a sheet of paper again. Nor do I want to hear another spiel about purchasing warranty – the first time I said “no”, I meant it.
4. No matter what I bought and how much I paid – I know I got ripped off. That’s car buying. I’m afraid to know how much my vehicle has depreciated since I purchased it two hours ago.
Nevertheless, I know I will enjoy my new ride – a Honda Pilot. You didn’t think I’d make you read this whole lousy post and then not tell you what I purchased did you?
I’m baffled. It’s almost uncomfortable for me to write such. Wrestling with Scripture can be so beautiful and yet such a struggle. I’m calling on you to jump in the ring and wrestle with me. It centers around two seemingly simple questions.
Q: How did sin enter humanity? A: Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the only tree that God forbid them to eat from.
Q: Why did Eve decide to eat from this tree?
A: According to the NIV, she ate because she wanted to become like God, as well as having the wisdom to know the difference between good and evil.
Let’s break this into two parts: Becoming Like God Similar to how Lucifer desired to be like God in his power. Isaiah 14 states that “I [Satan] will make myself like the Most High”. Result: cast out of heaven (eerily similar to humankind cast out of paradise)
Wait a second though. Isn’t it our life goal to be like God? In a recent Francis Chan article (sorry no link; paid membership required), he says “Perhaps we should start asking the question: Am I a good Christ? In other words, do I look anything like Jesus.” 1 John 2:6 says “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did”. That suggests that we ought to live like Jesus. I often hear other Christian leaders, locally and nationally, encourage believers to make it their goal in life to become more like God.
It appears that we’re following in the footsteps of Eve. Only difference is that her doing so was a violation of God’s command; whereas, we are told to be like God as an act of obedience. Nevertheless, the similarity of our pursuit to Eve’s is jaw-dropping.
Knowing Good and Evil
So there’s evil in the pre-fallen state of earth. My bad for not paying attention in catechism class in junior high. * So there was evil in the world…yep. And Eve wanted to be able to distinguish between it and good. At that point all she knew was good. God knew that it was all she NEEDED to know. But she wasn’t convinced. Interesting that upon knowing good from evil, the first thing they noticed was their nakedness (Gen. 3:7). *
New Testament passages make it clear that we need to know good from evil [Luke 6:45; Romans 2:9, 7:19, 12:9,21; 1 Peter 3:11,17; 3 John 1:11]. So here I am several thousand years later wanting exactly what Adam and Eve wanted. To become like God. And to know the difference between good and evil. Guess I won’t be casting stones at A&E again.
Have the rules changed because of sin? Or because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Why does God want from us what he wanted Adam and Eve NOT to have? Even more surprising, why didn’t God want Adam and Eve to enjoy the same pursuit we have?
7 reasons why you should start your own blog
