212 Blog

18 hour drive $400.00
food $300.00
snacks along the way $200.00
water and Gatorade $100.00
number of dudes 20
nights in the UP 3
time with the guys…priceless

Returning yesterday from the UP in Michigan was a sweet and yet a little sad all rolled into one. I had the privilege of leading 20 dudes on a backpacking/camping trip. It was dubbed man maker and i think that’s what it did. Th idea was not to go to the wilderness and sing songs and have Sunday school lessons. Not that’s wrong. But I wanted it to be a trip that was hard, difficult, frustrating, exciting, confusing, and a life memory. I think it was…I know it was for me. The food was not plentiful, water was more valuable than money and it pushed them past some limits never known to exist. This was not the Seals BUDS program, but it was a good push that brought upon their bodies, thirst, blisters, hunger, annoying bites, scrapes, sun burns and soreness. I hope as they grow and get older and life gets hard and it seems like its time to quit… that they will remember man maker and push through when they think they can’t go another step. Being a man is not about how strong, or funny, or smart or how much money you make…its about courage, integrity, perseverance, long suffering and trust in God. There are no (insert word I used at the ranger station) allowed. Its stepping up to challenges and pushing through, working hard, not quitting and never giving up. Jesus was a real man. He persevered through persecution, verbal abuse, abandonment, incredible pain, even to the point of death. Why? because that’s what God called him to do and he was not going to quit no matter the pain, the frustration, or even when he was the only one standing…he knew it was the right thing to do and he had the courage to stand. That is where he discovered his greatest victory the world has ever know or will ever know. I hope man maker pushed us all a little close to the greatest example of who man should be…Jesus Christ.

I recently had lunch with a good friend. He is one of those guys I love to hang with, talk to and could spend months together doing nothing or everything. He is a dude who loves Jesus and looks through similar lenses on life, ministry and Taco Bell.

Anyway his situation has caused me to be frustrated with Church leadership. In conversations with him and around my town Church budgets seem to be guiding the Church. Church budgets are influencing the decision making process of ministry. The discussions are bound by the pressure of not wanting to do anything that would cause people to leave…because if they leave our budget…If they don’t like it they might stop giving and our budget… We are called to be ministers of the gospel and men who follow God even when it doesn’t make sense…even when it doesn’t make sense to the budget. Where is God? Where is the Holy SPirit? They are disguised in the word stewardship…bottom lines…and survival philosophy…which is only a slow death to irrelevance. My friend is in the wake of budget controlling the Church. My friend is amazing at what he does and I love him. May God lead Him to places that don’t make sense. May God continue to use Him in radically ways wherever God plants him.

Our war room time today was really good. This summer our team has committed to each reading a book. The books are different. The vary across the spectrum of doctrine to spiritual formation. The idea is to generate discussion and seek the Lords direction for message series in the Fall for our Student Ministries. So far it has been really good. One of the books is challenging our view of Christ in a healthy way. A possible message series next year is, “Will the real Jesus please stand up.” For so long we have simply seen Jesus as this guy who holds lambs and hugs his mother. if we consider the writers of the different gospels each one has a little different perspective on Christ. Paul look at Christ differently than Peter. I look at Christ different than my friend Jmo. For many people this is borderline heresy, but I think its healthy. I am not challenging the doctrine of Christ..The author of this book is simply raising a lens that might have claim some differences about Christ that might not be within traditional Christianity If we grabbed all the ideas about Christ the thread themselves through the scriptures I think the real Jesus would rise to our hearts and minds.

I love to hear great questions. I am so tired of holding onto ideas and beliefs “only” because its how we have always don it. The history of the Church seems more like an organism flowing through the ages seeking understanding. Today Christendom seems to have become a solidified rigid substance with very little color or creativity. As I said I love great questions and we need to continue asking great questions as we attempt to humbly take the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth. May God have all the glory!

A High school student spoke a message with purpose, poise, humor, compassion, depth, conviction, and love. It was great! He spoke from the perspective of a student who has grown up in the church his entire life and began to realize the Christian stuff he was doing means nothing with out truly giving your heart to Christ. His challenge was to pick one thing from two lists: List one was something they could do this week to love God more and list two was something to do to love people more…very clear message. On the list “love people was to forgive someone…wow it sounds so easy, but its so hard when you are hurt deep. The video highlights this point very well. Take a look…

One more thought…
I have been to several youth ministry and training stuff…None of the hours spent in breakouts, classes, or main sessions compare to the indestructible power of having the “Youth Leaders” get out of the way and let students be used by God. Were not taking about a bake sale, or serving on the lawn crew, or helping baby sit and all the other requests that come in the form of, hey lets get the teenagers to help…but that’s only because they don’t want to do the “grunt work themselves” Its about letting them dream, think create and then doing it to bring Jesus glory. Students praying with students. Students delivering a message from their heart in the power of the Holy Spirit…Students planing and implementing meetings, deciding what we are doing, what were are teaching and who…The kind of stuff that usually gets kept by the “youth Pastor” or “youth professional” Students leading the way most American Churches need to begin turning the ship or face death.

On Adam Lehman’s blog a person asked the question, whats the key problem facing student ministries today? Church and Student Ministries have become goods and services that they consume…they go and get and run out of and have to come back next week and the week after that because they are only pumping quarters into the vending machine…Just enough God for the week….Why is it this way? Because Youth Pastors suck. Churches suck. Parents suck…The entire system sucks and its time we start questioning our entire paradigm. Don’t get all pissy…you suck too oh and I suck. Jesus died for a lot of suckie people. Amen

All I Have Is Christ from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

I helped a friend move the other day. It was sad. I walked through my grandpas house for the first time since he passed…it was sad. Tiger woods sucked playing golf…it was sad. There is a butt load of oil in the Gulf..that is sad.

I guess I wonder how people walk through life with out someone to place their faith… It just seems like life would be so random, and pointless….But its not. If we look to the Old Testament we can see that God who has always had plan. Always pulling the levers and working the buttons to bring about His redemptive plan. Who uses ordinary people in ways that to them might not make sense, who received promises that weren’t fulfilled…until much later…Who believed God when it absolutely made zero sense…They went to far off places, they left their home without direction, they confronted ruthless rulers, went to war against all odds, and so on and so on…I guess I am just so thankful to serve a God who makes life meaningful, purposeful and adventurous…even when sad things are on the horizon

High school students arrived at our weekly gathering as they do most Wednesday nights. But the night was offering a different expression of worship. The band played a few songs as usual…then students were directed to float around the room to various stations to experience and worship our savior. We had a place to paint, sculpt, write, reflect, rest, text in heart felt emotion, take communion, confession on a chalk board…it was extremely encouraging to be present. I think students connected in a new and powerful way. Coolest part: students dreamed up the ideas and help set it all up…hence “student” ministry…

I read this on a blog It is going to be added to my journal as something to process through when I think about life and how I am doing in a culture that demands success in a faith that has failed to define it.
Relationships

Thoughts? How do you gauge your “success” or “faithfulness?”

On a sunny 70 degree day our plain landed in San Jose California. I had the enormous privilege of attending a conference. The conference was unlike any I had been to in the past. The conference was dubbed, “The Innovative Church” The key note speaker was Gary Hammel and to say he is smart does not provide you with a clear picture. Brilliant, rock star of the Business world and a very engaging witty speaker. Oh and he loves the Lord. He agreed to do this conference because he Loves the Lord and because he wants to see Churches thrive. Its nothing new to say that the Church (yes most likely yours) is irrelevant, stale, and not growing. Chances are your church is exactly that same as it was 5, 10, or even 20 years ago. Same programs (new names), same organizational structure (new faces), but its most likely the same. The problem is that culture is changing. It just changed…look it changed again…and again. It changes so fast the church is left with trying to hold onto the past because there is no way to catch up to the future.

It has taken me almost a month to digest all the information I brought back from California. Let me explain the video. Gary Hamel brought his friends from IDEO (an innovation and design firm) to hep Church leaders discover a process to innovate their churches. The tag team of Gary Hamel and the minds from IDEO were an intersect of awesome! Bottom line we must be better and creativity is one piece of helpling churches become relevant.
more later…

but we don’t mean it. The truth is we don’t want to say goodbye…it hurts too much. On Tuesday February 23 my mom called me. She couldn’t speak so she handed the phone to my Dad…I knew something was wrong and I prepared for the worst. My Dad told me that my Grandpa had died. The conversation went silent. He was 84 and lived a fascinating, life. It was sudden and abrupt.
In the service on Saturday I spoke with tear filled eyes and several pauses to gather myself. Here is a short vignette of what I shared about Grandpa…

There are words that seem to fit when a 6 year old pictures his grandpa. Strong, courage, powerful, mighty, indestructible, fixer of anything, In my mind as a kid that would be how I pictured my grandpa. He was my hero. Yet at 33 He is still that same hero.
He taught me so many things about tractors, tools, fishing, bulldozers, —he made the best breakfast—not to throw rocks into his pond… chopping wood…”out back”…snowmobiling, bees, duck eggs, strawberries, tapping the trees for maple syrup, a collector of everything,
Growing up and living next door his world of tractors, dump trucks and mud were my favorite things to do. I would hurry off the bus from school change clothes and off I went to help grandpa. Help with whatever he was doing…didn’t matter what tit was…if he was doing it I was his shadow.

There were a few other stories on my notes that I had intended to share, but my emotions held my words captive behind the urge to break into tears. The good news…I will always have those memories in my mind and I can visit them as often as I would like. I am so thankful to have know this man, to have spent so many days working beside him and the honor to sit shotgun in his trucks. He is greatly missed