Moving Sale!

Hello everybody!

 

October 24th 2008 is a day that I am certain almost no one remembers. I can't imagine anything of national importance happened that day. I think it was really just a pretty standard Friday afternoon. But it is for sure a day that will live in infamy. For you see, October 24th was the day the J-Blog was born. 

 

I don't even think it was called the J-Blog at first. I think it was just something like Psycho Youth Min or something like that. The early days were weird. Really, it was like I wanted to copy the Pensblog for youth ministry. It did not go well. Those guys are excellent at being them, and I am very much not. But the point was, I had a blog that I wanted to write about youth ministry, life, and the occasional ramble rant that would come across my mind. I had no aspirations of having anyone read the thing. I just wanted to write what came to my mind because I enjoyed writing. 

 

4 years later, this thing is out of hand! You guys are unbelievably supportive, showing up to read the J-Blog each and every day, sharing your thoughts with me on Facebook or in the comments, starting wonderful debates, and taking this thing much farther than I ever intended for it to go. So thanks for being along for the ride! 

 

As a result of all this support, and the ads that are wonderfully placed by Google, the J-Blog made enough money this year that it can move into a web hosting space all its own. It's not that the good ship blogger hasn't been extremely kind to us, but a new place to call home would allow us to do a lot more stuff than we're capable of right now at the moment. I think it's going to be unbelievably fun and exciting!

 

But, these things take time. There's a lot to set up and do over at the new place, so I think we'll be about two weeks or so before we're 100% ready to launch, including the prospect of importing everything from this J-Blog over to the new one so it feels like one coherent thought, just in two different locations. So while we're waiting, and while I'm neck deep in trying to understand the Hebrew Language, I thought we'd have ourselves a good old fashioned moving sale! When you have a moving sale, you tend to clear out the attic. Some things you find that you wish would just stay buried, and some things you find are treasures of the highest order. But at least in my case, I have fun remembering all the joys and difficulties as I sort through the old stuff. So each day for the next little while, we're going to re-post a classic J-Blog to reminisce together. Some of it will make me cringe with how bad my writing was in the beginning. Some of it is actually quite inspiring. Some of it is just weird and crazy. 

 

We'll keep that up for a little while, and then as soon as it's ready I'll post the link to the new J-Blog and we'll start a wonderful new adventure together! I'm looking forward to it!

Building towards Sabbath part one: The Phone

Greetings friends,

 

This week has been a week of discovery, and it's all leading somewhere pretty special. But I think you should see it develop the way that I did, and so we're going to go through a bit of a series for the next few days. Fun for all I tell ya!

 

Yesterday was our Veritas kickoff. 3 months of waiting, dreaming, planning, vision casting, praying, and excitement were about to give way to our 6th year of ministry at Westminster. A massive collection of people were involved in making it come together, including student leaders, parent volunteers, and staff people. 

 

Yesterday also happened to be another day in my all-day long intensive class about church planting. As I mentioned in the last series, I want to do my best job possible to be present during the class, and so I've gotten in the habit of turning my phone off at the beginning of class, and not turning it back on again until I get into the car to drive home. I have also completely geeked out and set the following sound as my phone's text tone: 

 

 

I think that's enough background for what's coming next. 

 

I got into the car, turned on the phone and started to take off for Westminster. As soon as the phone turned on, the texts started rolling in:

 

"What time do we start tonight?"

 

 

"Is so and so going to be here?"

 

 

"It's the kickoff, are we going to have the same leadership needs as a normal night?"

 

"I'm in college, and I'm still getting the text alerts. Can you take me off the list?"

 

"How much does the corn hole tournament cost?"

 

These are just the ones I read in the parking space, as texting while driving is dangerous and in no way recommended by the J-Blog. From there I began my hour long trek to Westminster. And every few minutes or so, I'd get another text, and I'd hear the same mario brothers noise. Using my bluetooth headset, I had Siri read the texts to me, all basic questions about what was going on in ministry that night. I may have imagined it, but I think even Siri was a little bit out of breath reading my messages to me as I drove. 

 

I actually started getting angry. Don't get me wrong, if you're one of the people that texted me I wasn't angry at any one person or at any one person's question, but just at the sheer volume of texts I was getting. At first I was angry at the idea that so many people would wait until the last second to ask questions. Then that they had questions at all. Then that gave way to realizing that had I done a better job of communicating what was going on that night I probably wouldn't be getting so many texts. Then I got angry at myself. And then I realized it was just the beginning of the year!

 

After careful reflection later that night, I realized that the anger wasn't about anything it seemed like it was about. And actually it wasn't anger at all. It was anxiety pretending to be anger. It was the build up of a long period of not resting, of not getting by myself, of not allowing myself to recharge. As I sat on the couch last night and reflected on things, I realized that I was out of the habit of keeping Sabbath. 

 

It's a spiritual discipline that comes and goes for me. When it's an active part of my faith journey, I find that I am much more capable of handling stressful and busy moments. When it's not there, I all too quickly become completely unspooled. It needs to be there, and last night came the realization that it hadn't been there for a long time. Something needed to change.

 

But then the questions start to arise. What is Sabbath? Is it simply a day off? Is it where no work is done at all? If so, then what is work? And how would you prepare for a Sabbath so that you could resist the temptation to work on the Sabbath? What if no one else takes a Sabbath? What would you say to them? How would you get them to respect the space you need? And what would your relationship with God do on a Sabbath? How would you reconnect the broken places in your faith journey? 

 

All these questions (and so much more) come in part two!

A humbling question!

Greetings friends,

 

As I've mentioned before, I'm in an intensive class this week (it turned out to be a one week class instead of two) on church planting at the seminary. I think on Saturday you can look forward to a post about this class, as it has been one of the most unique and innovative classes I've ever been a part of. But more on that later.

 

Part of the class is that we are to pair up with someone as a prayer partner and spend some time each day praying for each other and for the class. My prayer partner Judy and I meet every morning before class, and start our day out with the exact same question:

 

"How can I pray for you today?"

 

On the surface, particularly to those of us who are in ministry, this can seem like such a meaningless statement. We might throw it out there the same way many people answer "Fine and you?" to the question "How are you?" without thinking. It's built into the job, it's part of the lexicon, it's an afterthought, it's not much to worry about or get excited over. But being on the receiving end of that question for the last few days, it's really been a humbling, inspiring, and encouraging experience for me. Perhaps it's the weight of the question itself, or perhaps it's even that the asker in this case isn't asking it in an afterthought kind of way. Judy is legitimately asking to step inside my world, and join me in praying to God. What an honor!

 

When a phrase is staring to lose its significance for me, one of the things I try to do is to move it to places you wouldn't usually expect it. We anticipate hearing the pastor ask "How can I pray for you?" in a church building, especially on Sunday. We expect it at certain points in a conversation. We expect it in all kinds of places. What if we started using it outside of where it was expected? What if we started asking people how we can pray for them at work? What if we started asking them out to lunch or coffee, just to see how best we could pray for them? Are you asking your students, whom we all spend a great deal of time entertaining and teaching, how you can best remember them in your prayers? Are you then remembering to pray for them? Weekly? Daily? 

 

Prayer is a powerful agent. Prayer is the connection point between God and us. To have someone offer to pray for you is humbling. It leaves me at time speechless, because it's one thing to think that God would have time for my needs and worries (a whole other discussion) and it's another thing to think that another person would have that kind of time. So take an opportunity today to step into someone's life, and offer up some prayers in their direction. You might just make their day!

...as yourself.

A rare Saturday morning post to wrap up the Basics series. Pretend it's like cartoons!

 

We've been studying what the basics of youth ministry looks like by studying what Jesus seemed to think were the basics to faith. The most important commandments in the Law. The entire Law and Prophets hang on these two ideas. In other words, these weren't throw away words. These words are meant to be savored, each and every last one of them. 

 

When we come to the last words, we may be tempted to think that this is the least important part of the commandment. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Think of this series of commandments like a great detective story: the real plot twist comes right at the very end. 

 

We left off with Jesus telling us to love our neighbor, a task that in this day and age seems to be very difficult for most of us. Stories like bullying and political fighting and wars and rumors of wars lead us to believe that not a whole lot of people have a firm grasp on what it means to love our neighbors. But Jesus doesn't just blindly point us toward loving our neighbors. Jesus gives us context. We are to love our neighbors as yourself. In other words, the same level of respect and dignity we have for ourselves, we should have for our neighbors. 

 

Do me a favor, take a second and turn on any 24 hour cable news channel, and watch for 15 minutes. I don't care which channel it is, and I wrote this on Thursday night so I have no idea what news stories are dominating the headlines right now. But I'm willing to bet that in 15 minutes, you will come across at least one, maybe two situations where clearly someone has neglected to love their neighbor. Maybe it was the politicians, maybe it was the criminals, maybe those are the same people, or maybe even the commentators relaying the story to us. Either way, here I am a whole 36 hours away from this going live and I'm fairly confident we won't have to look hard to find someone avoiding loving their neighbor. 

 

The reason for this problem can really only be one of two things: either 1) we have completely lost compassion in the face of the challenges of the 21st century, and we really do think that everyone out there is a miserable little twirp who deserves to rot in hell for all eternity, or 2) (a more likely alternative), we've forgotten what it looks like to truly love ourselves.

 

Think about it. We live in a culture where competition and drive are the number one goal from the time we learn how to walk. And yet if we have any kind of intelligence at all, we know that no matter how good we are at something, there will always be someone better than us. When I was in high school/college, I got to be a pretty solid drummer/percussionist. There were however people better than me. I could name them. Some of them I was friends with. Some of them I still am. For all the hours I put in to practicing, I could not achieve the greatness I wanted. There were just simply people who were better than me. 

 

So I wonder if we've lost a healthy sense of self-esteem. What if we either puff ourselves up beyond what we're capable of, putting on a display of misplaced bravado that really only embarrasses our friends and makes strangers think we're jerks? Or what if we just assume we'll never matter for anything, because we'll never rise to the top, and so we just give up on the idea of loving ourselves in the face of every else. Neither situation allows us to love ourselves fully. 

 

My senior pastor has a philosophy about sin and self esteem. His point is that the more we embrace how fallen and broken we are, the more we're opened up to embrace the loving and saving Grace of Jesus Christ. Loving yourself doesn't consist of painting a unreal picture of yourself and trying to live up to it. Loving yourself is what happens when you look at yourself the way that God see you. Forgiven. Blessed. Redeemed. Child of God. It's what Paul was hearing from Jesus when he wrote "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." The more you embrace weakness, the more you experience the power. 

 

This takes some time and some practice, believe me. But once you get it, you truly start to see a picture of the world as Jesus imagines it. What would it look like if someone's love for God was so profound, with all their heart soul and mind, that they saw themselves just as they were, perfect child of God? And what would that look like if it were unleashed on the rest of the world? What would it look like if we loved our neighbors with that same kind of compassion? What would the world be like if instead of exploiting every misstep by our opposition we embraced them, and welcomed them into the grace that is made strongest in weakness? What would our youth ministries look like if our students love for God led them to a deeper love for themselves, and thus a deeper love for their neighbors? Even the ones that don't look, act, dress, talk, or think like they do? What if we saw others the way that God saw them? What if we saw ourselves this way? 

 

That is why this is so basic and elemental. It's so small, and yet is has such a far reaching impact. It's reach is so far that Jesus has no hesitation saying things like "The Law and the Prophets" can hang on this idea. We must fight the temptation to over-complicate this. We must fight the desire to make it more work than it really is. We must allow God's power to be made perfect in our weakness. And we must teach our students to do the same. 

 

Next week: The Best Student.

 

Love your Neighbor

Keep coming at you today! 

 

Jesus actually breaks the Pharisee's rules in the question at this point in Matthew 22. This expert in the Law asked Jesus what THE greatest commandment in all the Law was, and Jesus breathlessly begins telling us what the SECOND commandment looks like. 

 

Two thoughts pop up before we move on: 

 

1) Perhaps for Jesus, trying to pack our understanding of God into pre-determined rules and frameworks will always leave us wanting. Perhaps he's known all along that one commandment would never do it. So perhaps that makes it worthy to spend some time examining our rules and our regulations about God and see if they are big enough to hold Him up...

 

2) Loving God by itself, even if it was with your entire heart, entire soul, and entire mind, will not be enough. There's barely a pause between what loving God looks like and what loving our neighbor looks like. For Jesus, all the law and the prophets hang on BOTH of these ideas. And so one is just simply not enough. 

 

But after those two thoughts sink in, this passage begins to truly haunt us. This is a difficult passage, deceptively so. This is the passage that makes me raise my eyebrows when someone tells me that their biblical hermeneutic is as simple as read the book, and do what it says. How can you simply do what this says, when it raises so very many questions: 

 

-What does love look like? 

 

-Does the way I love God have anything to do with the way I love my neighbor? 

 

-Does loving my neighbor have any kind of action that goes with it, or can I have this emotion while I sit on my couch and watch Oprah re-runs? 

 

-Who is our neighbor? 

 

-What if our neighbor doesn't want to be loved? 

 

-What if loving our neighbor actually winds up hurting our neighbor in the short run? 

 

-What if our neighbor doesn't love God? 

 

The sheer depth and breath of what's being suggest in a statement as seemingly simple as "Love your neighbor" is staggering. Jesus even had to take some time in a later teaching to explain exactly who our neighbors are, and his answer wasn't short: 

 

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c]and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

 

So where does this leave us in the youth ministry world? I think it means we need to spend a little bit of time talking about who our neighbors are, and who our kids neighbors are. And I think they're different than what usually comes to mind. In a world where bullying has taken center stage, perhaps an extended discussion on who our neighbors are would be of some benefit. In a world where the political discourse has turned into a verbal demolition derby, examining what it looks like to love our neighbor can only be helpful. 

 

But loving our neighbor is only the first step of the equation. 

 

Coming tomorrow: ...as yourself.

...with all your mind.

We've been taking a look through Matthew 22, and Jesus' answer to what the greatest commandment in the entire Law might be. The third area Jesus calls us to love God with is our mind. 

 

This post has been difficult to write, if only because in the Presbyterian stream (if not all of Protestantism) we are all over this! I am part of an entire Christian Education team at Westminster, set up in such a way so as to ensure that everyone at every age has a program to be a part of to learn as much about Christian Spirituality as possible. Sermons often times end up sounding more like a shortened lecture than the art form that they were originally meant to be. I have on my laptop a resource that can connect me with just about every commentary written on every verse of Scripture, and multiple translations. And it's available to everyone. 

 

And all of this is good! I wouldn't do what I do if I didn't think Christian Education was important. Particularly in this world we live in where too many people form their opinions on Christianity based on what they're hearing in the media or on the news. We need to dedicate a healthy portion of our time to educating people in what the true way of Christ, and against the distorted and warped versions that are out there in our world. 

 

But Jesus doesn't say that part of the greatest commandment is to stuff our heads with as much information about Christianity as we can. Jesus says we are to love God with all of our minds. This means the part of our minds that is dedicated to Spiritual practices, AND the part of our mind that is focused on our homework. It means to love God with the part of our minds that memorizes pieces of Scripture AND the part of our mind that memorizes sports statistics. It means that we love God with the part of our mind dedicated to Christian Education AND the part of our mind dedicated to reading writing and arithmetic (incidentally, how are those the three "Rs"?).

 

This has tremendous implications for those of us in youth ministry. How much of your time with students is spent encouraging them in their academic pursuits? Have you encouraged your students to view their studies as an act of worship (a thought that a seminary professor made abundantly real in my life)? When your students encounter a problem, do you rush to solve it for them, or do you allow them to work through their own problem  solving methods with guidance? 

 

Loving God with our whole mind does not mean stuffing our craniums with facts and figures about Christian Spirituality at the expense of everything else. It means claiming each part of our mind, each part of our intellect, each part of our cognitive facilities for Jesus. 

 

Next: Love Your Neighbor

Photo Friday: Landfall

Top of the morning to ya everybody! 

 

It's going to be a busy day here at the J-Blog. One should count how many days there are in the week before diving into a lengthy series! So keep checking back all day today for updates and new posts. 

 

Today is my last day in the office for the summer season. And even that is a bit of a stretch. We've got a zoo trip in the morning for college students, and then I'll likely spend the rest of my day in the youth rooms trying desperately to get caught up on my summer time cleaning! There is only one emotion running through me right now, and it's a good on to hold on to...

 

Anticipation.

 

I am so very excited for what is coming our way over the course of this next school year. I'm excited for the new faces that are going to come through our doors. I'm excited to see the growth in the students we've known for years. I'm excited to experience the stories that are going to make me laugh to tears. I'm excited to be present with these students who drink deeply from the well of Christian grace. I'm just really excited.

 

It's like a storm that you're able to see in the distance. It's coming, and it's going to be powerful. 

 

I know some people for whom this coming storm is just that, a big scary ominous storm. I know some people who would like to be done with youth ministry. I know some people who look forward to everything I look forward to the same way you look forward to a root canal. But a bit of encouragement to you: God can still use you. There are still things for you to say, ideas for you to share, dreams for you to spread. That same God can be your strength, can bring you rest when you need it, and inspire you to spread his Gospel message. 

 

And so today I invite you to pray with me. If you look forward to the coming year, then let's pray for the students that we're going to interact with each week. And while we're at it, let's pray for those who are burnt out and in need of God's grace to run this wacky race called youth ministry. 

 

More updates as the day goes on! Stay tuned!

...with all your soul

Ok, forgive the pun! 

 

We continue today with our series on the basics of youth ministry as laid out by Jesus in Matthew 22. Right after saying that we must love God with all our hearts, Jesus jumps to another hard to define idea by suggesting that we need to love God with all of our souls. 

 

I thought perhaps a google search was in order to attempt to define what we mean (at least in these modern times) when we're talking about a soul. As is often the case, google did not disappoint: 

The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal. 

 

The word that hops out at me from that definition is "immaterial." Madonna was right, we are living in a material world. We are focused beyond denial on what we make, what we bring in to the family, how much money is in our bank accounts, how good looking we are, how often we go to the gym, what style of clothing we're going to cover ourselves up with, or what style of clothing we're going to let provocatively show a little of ourselves with. By and large, in the American culture anyway, we don't care very much about the immaterial soul. 

 

For one thing, if my soul's in a good place, I can't show off for you. There's no comparing souls among competitive people. On the other hand, if my soul's in a bad place, I can keep that pretty well hidden, and so I do. But even when the soul is feeling very good, even when we've taken some time out of busy schedules to allow for soul care, the "buzz" we get from that is nothing like the feeling of buying a new pair of sneakers, and so we don't tend to worry about the soul. 

 

And yet, this idea of the soul is essential to Christian thought and practice, isn't it? When we pray, we're often encouraging that immaterial part of us to wake up and take part in things. When a piece of scripture speaks particularly clearly to us, we claim that it fed our souls. We are for sure behind the idea that the soul is immortal, that through Christ the eternity offered our souls is a glorious and divine one. 

 

So as we start into another season of ministry, how's your soul? Is it in a good place? Is it being drown out by the material "needs" we've conjured up? Is it being well fed by scripture and prayer and community with other good souls? Or is it tucked in the back of our consciousness?  

 

But even beyond that, if your soul is in a good place, then what does it look like to love God with all of it? The soul isn't typically thought of when it comes to love, that's something that we usually reserve for the heart. But if this immaterial part of us is capable of love, how do we direct that love towards God? I guess another way to approach that question is to ask what it looks like when our soul is pointed in a direction that is other than God. When we are too angry for too long, that's not healthy for the soul. When we pollute our selves with negativity and doubt, that's not healthy for the soul. When we too often ignore the scriptures and what they offer us for soul food, that's not good for the soul. 

 

And so before we begin this season, I'd invite you to spend a bit of time focused in on the soul. How is yours doing? And where is your soul pointing? 

Next: ...with all your mind. 

Get back to basics!

Hello friends,

As I was browsing through my RSS feed this morning and reading all the blogs worthy of my attention, I noticed not one, not two, but three posts that used football and sports as their illustration. I don't want to miss out on that bandwagon!

 

It was rumored that legendary Steelers coach Chuck Noll pulled the team aside after a fairly nasty loss (Thursday night anyone?) and informed them that they were going to spend their practice time in the coming weeks to focus on basics. They would spend time blocking. They would spend time tackling. They would spend time doing that which at this particular point of the season felt silly, but all the same were the building blocks of any kind of success they might come across. WIthout the basics, the more advanced stuff doesn't make any sense at all. 

 

I'm thinking about this as we're about to ramp up another year of ministry, and wondering what the basic elements of a solid youth ministry are. What are the things that would matter even if you stripped away the fancy programs, well researched curriculums, and beautiful looking powerpoint shows? What are the things without which your whole ministry would collapse? 

 

What follows seems obvious, which is why it's so very important to give it our full attention: 

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" (Matthew 22:34-36)

 

In other words, "Hey Jesus, what does blocking and tackling look like in a spiritual world?" 

 

Jesus' answer is astoundingly simple and unrelentingly complex all at the same time: 

"Jesus replied "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40)

 

I'd actually like to spend the better part of this week thinking about this and focusing on this here at the J-Blog, but a few questions jump out at me from the start: 

 

Before we begin this season of ministry to others, how is your relationship with God? 

 

How much of your work week is dedicated to improving your relationship with God so that you can improve other's relationship with God? 

 

How much of your work week is dedicated to prayer, dedicated towards communication with the Father? 

 

How do we show other people what loving the Lord with all their heart and soul and mind looks like? 

 

Who is our neighbor? 

 

Who are our kids neighbors? 

 

So like I said, I think we're going to spend a good part of this week at the J-Blog looking at this. But before we do, may I encourage you to read over this passage each day? Whether you follow what goes on the Blog this week or not, I think this is a fantastic passage to read before we launch any ministries for the year. And because it seems so obvious to us, because the meaning is already assumed by most people, that's all the more reason to pour over this text and beg it to speak clear and new meaning into our lives. A living and active word will do that to you!

 

More thoughts later!

 

J

Photo Friday: American Dreams

Greetings Earthlings,

How can you not love Switchfoot? While I shuffle the contents of my iPod rather frequently, there is almost never a time that Switchfoot isn't at least a part of the mix. Lately, I've been stuck on the album Oh Gravity... and in particular this song American Dream. 

I find myself going back and forth. In my heart of hearts, I want to live a simple life. It seems to make sense to me. I don't want to spend any time at all caught up in the trappings of consumeristic America, letting my wallet determine my worth. And so every once and a while, I'll drift into a living simply mode, where I try to set things aside and live as basic and down to earth as humanly possible. 

It usually lasts a week or so. 

Then I'm right back into it. Apple will release a new iPad that I absolutely must have. Old Navy will have a sale and I'll spend my money there rather than say at the Goodwill, where everyone wins in the end. I will obsess over how my car isn't good enough because it doesn't have leather seats or a navigational system (though, at this particular moment I'm happy the car runs without falling apart!). And no one will notice anything is wrong, nothing will feel wrong, because that's the culture we surround ourselves with. I'll blend in to the crowd, and no one will notice me. 

I worry about this. Jesus seemed to think that living simply was the best way to go: 

"Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts, no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or staff, for the worker is worth his keep." (Matthew 10:9-10)

In other words, working for the kingdom of God should be payment enough for us. It should be status symbol enough for us. Whereas the American Dream really ends up enslaving most of us (ask anyone who has over-maxed their credit cards), the Kingdom and the work we do for it frees us. It might seem so backwards to our American culture, but the less you worry about yourself, the more free you'll really end up being. 

This has implications for youth ministry too, you know? If our youth ministry is run by programs and toys and gadgets and stuff rather than by relationships and an honest yearning for the Spirit of God, then our kids will end up loving the world every bit as much as we teach them to. Please understand, this comes from a place of conviction, I'm thinking through our ministry as I'm typing this. But all the same, does your ministry feed the American Dream, or the Kingdom Come? 

I'm going to work on this the next few weeks. I hope you'll join me. I hope you'll join me in trying to put God first by putting myself last. I hope you'll join me in trying to advance the Kingdom by suppressing my desires. If his love is really better than wine, and the worker is really worth his keep, then won't we actually be better off in the long run? Won't we actually be free? 

Cleaning the Youth Room...

The sign in Ed's hands reads "The cleanliness of this room is the responsibility of EVERYONE. Please clean up dishes, spills, food, etc. Thank You."

Yesterday was a day of dread around the office. It's been a day we've known was coming for about six weeks now. You see, we have what we call "The Worship Room" in our youth area. It's a big empty room, the only furniture is the stage and the table we set the sound equipment on. It's the room responsible for making the floor shake on Wednesday nights. It's where we always hope heavenly mosh-pits erupt weekly. But because it is nothing but a big empty space, and because it remains largely unused during the summer, after each and every trip we dump everything out of the church bus into that room and leave it "for later."

Later began yesterday. We're still not done. 

We haven't yet discovered any living creatures under the mess, though that has happened in years past. Again though, we only got about halfway through yesterday, so there's hope for today. 

I think it's good that youth ministry runs in seasons. Usually by the end of the school year, after almost 40 weeks of youth ministry on a regular basis, I'm ready to take a break. I'm ready to have my Wednesday nights to myself, to be able to spend a bit more time with my wife during the week. But as I was sitting in the worship room yesterday, watching as the mess started to disappear, my mind started to wander into what we could do to improve the room. It started to wander into dreams and plans and visions for the upcoming year. It started to wander into who was coming back for this new year of ministry, and what new faces we might see this time around. Now, all of a sudden, after three months of break, I simply cannot wait to dive back in to a youth ministry season. 

Like I posted a few days ago, this feeling of church home is very important to me. And as I was looking around the worship room, dreaming about what we could do with that space this year, I was wondering if our students felt at home here at Westminster. Does this space invite them to feelings of safety and encouragement in the presence of God? Does this space exist as a hiding place for them when things aren't going well? Does this space represent a place to celebrate joy and encouragement in times of excitement? In what ways does the space itself do those things? In what ways do the people who fill the space do those things? 

I realize not everybody has a youth wing. We are blessed beyond what even I think is reasonable. But I've done youth ministry in a single room in my home church. I've seen friends who do youth ministry out of a residential house, because that's the space God has given them. Maybe you don't even have a typical meeting space, maybe you meet students in whatever coffee shop or fast food joint will have you. But before the season ramps up, before we get things going, perhaps its a good time to ask if your students feel at home in your space? Perhaps it's a time to work with that space to make it more inviting, to make it a safe space. 

Even if that means a two day cleaning spree...

Book Review: Working the Angles by Eugene Peterson

Greetings again friends,

Two blog posts on a Friday? You guys are lucky! 

Seminary kicks back into full gear for me again here in two weeks, and because this first class is a two week intensive, I need to read like the dickens before it gets here. 1,200 pages worth to be exact. Not being the fastest reader in the world, I had to get cracking. 

So I just finished up the first of the books on my list, Working the Angles by Euguene Peterson. Most people when I mention his name roll their eyes slightly, with visions of The Message dancing in their heads. True, that's not my absolute favorite translation of the scriptures. But when it comes to writing about what it takes to be a pastor and lead a community of people in the ways of Jesus, Peterson is second to none. 

In Working the Angles, Peterson notes that many of us pastors have become adept at faking it. We've figured out that if we preach the same 6 sermons with slightly different funny illustrations, show up at the occasional board meeting to open with prayer, and make our rounds at the hospitals for visitation, then we've earned our paycheck. For Peterson, being a pastor is not (and sounds like has never been) about earning a paycheck. Being a pastor is not about faking it. Being a pastor is about faithfully leading a community of believers. 

Three areas in the pastors life seem to be deeply missing according to Peterson, and they make up the three sections of this book. The first is prayer. Who among us hasn't wanted to elevate the prayer life of their congregation (or in most of our cases, youth group)? But if our prayer life is simply opening up meetings and gatherings with a few short words, then haven't we taught our flock to pray the same way? Peterson reminds us that prayer is essentially spending time in the presence of God, and so few of us actually carve out enough time in our busy schedules to pray properly. If by the end of the first section you aren't equal parts encouraged and challenged, you haven't been paying attention to this book!

The second area we need to spend more attention is in the habit of scripture reading. In this section, Peterson sounds a lot like the conversations I have with my self in my own head, only he's way more articulate. Too many have reduced the Bible to a book containing facts. We tear apart the facts and tidbits of Greek and Hebrew with our modern exegetical studies, all the while sucking the life directly out of the living and active word. We have to wrestle with the book. We have to listen to what God has to say to us, not just reading the words off the page. We need to engage the scriptures contemplatively today. 

The last area is in that of Spiritual Direction. Some of us have seemingly confused Spiritual Direction with Christian Counseling. They're not the same. The act of Spiritual Direction is a lot like having a guide on a wilderness trip. Someone who has been there before, and is willing to walk along with you as you go. Too often, I am at least convicted that my spiritual direction is more about my having an idea to fix a person's problem, rather than just letting them speak and share with me. 

Like I said, Working the Angles is both encouraging and challenging. It helped me to celebrate where I am, and desire to get to where I want to be. I highly recommend it for anyone working in any level of ministry. 

Have a great weekend!

Godspeed,

J

Photo Friday: 2012-2013 Veritas Theme Announced!

Hello friends!

It all started a few weeks ago. Ed and I were driving with our friend Dave, and Katy Perry's new single happened across the radio. As is often the case when a pop song that actually sounds good shows up, we all affirmed that it was indeed a good pop song. There are so few. It even seemed to have, to at least our amateur listening ears, a semi-Spiritual message hiding in its lyrics. Thus began the thinking. 

A few weeks later, as we were sitting around trying to determine the theme for our year at Veritas, the ideas were bouncing around the office like wildfire. Actually that's not true. A 6th theme is hard to come up with without repeating the previous 5. And so we thought until smoke came out of our ears. And then the song appeared again, and we knew it in a heartbeat. This year, Veritas would wake up.

Boy, we need it don't we? Looking around at the various blog posts I've put up this week, all of which seem to surround Christianity and the news, it would appear as though most of us who are practicing Christians are sound asleep. We are sound asleep to how our words are used, heard, and interpreted by those who need the living word most of all. We are sound asleep to what it looks like to make hay out of a fast food restaurant rather than have a civilized debate about where we might disagree. We are sound asleep to the grace of God in our world. 

"Wake up sleeper, 
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14)

Are you wide awake? Are you wide awake to the way God is moving in your life? In your family? In your relationships? In your community? In your workplace? Are you wide awake to how your lifestyle affects those around you and around the world? Are you wide awake to your relationship with God? Or are we in some kind of half-snoozing slumber, where things are happening, but we're only a little aware of it? 

Come to Veritas starting August 29th, and wake up.

Godspeed,

J

The words and the Word

Hello friends,

Jim touched on something the other day in his sermon that has been rattling around in my brain ever since. The sermon dealt with fear, and what it looks like as a Christian to deal with the fear in our lives. Nobody lives without fear, it's something we all deal with on a daily basis. But when dealing with fear, and consulting with friends about it, one of the annoying refrains that Christians seem to throw at each other is "Oh, just trust Jesus. It'll be better."

Really? 

Does that provide any sense of comfort to the person in question? Or what if the person in question is already trusting Jesus, but still feels fear? What if the fears themselves are wrapped up in what trusting Jesus looks like (a prospect that honestly should scare us more than it does I think)? There are more than a handful of situations where the words "Just trust Jesus" don't fit. In fact, they can be harmful. 

But as I mentioned, that all got me thinking. A cursory glance through my twitter timeline this week led me to a handful of sayings that we seem to try to make fit in every situation, even when they don't. Sometimes I even get a bit nervous when we post random pieces of scripture that are taken completely out of the context in which they were meant. For instance, did you know that the saying "Where two or more are gathered, I am with them" comes from a teaching about disciplining an unrepentant sinner? 

I mean, I get it. The twitter world attempts to solve every nail with a 140 character hammer. But our words are at times worthless. Our words can only take us so far. Our words, more often than we'd like to admit, fall flat and much shorter than we intended. 

But Jesus does not. 

Jesus himself is THE Word of God made flesh. When God speaks words, whole galaxies come into being. When Jesus speaks, light breaks into darkness. When the Spirit speaks, an entire movement within the Church is born. When the Word speaks, things start happening. 

And so maybe for those of us who are in ministry, we should spend a little less time coming up with and finding pithy sayings that are meant to encourage in every situation, a one size fits all piece of theological encouragement, but rather we should spend a little more time inviting the Word made flesh into our ministries and our conversations. Maybe we should invite Jesus to put a fresh word on our tounges every time we are bold enough to represent him publicly, to those who need to hear from him most. Maybe instead of tweeting about a situation, we could spend a bit more time meeting with the people behind the situation. 

Just some food for thoughts. Happy Wednesday everyone!

 

 

Photo Friday: Swing

Hello everybody!

Welcome to a second (record breaking!) episode of Photo Friday, wherein I end the week with a photo that summarizes what's been going on here at the J-Blog. Let's dive in shall we? 

This week, in so many ways, it is all about getting back into the swing of things. Tuesday was the first official day in the office in almost three weeks. It was the first time we gathered in Jim's office for our staff bible study, the first time we had staff meeting, the first creative lunch after staff meeting. It was good to get back, but it was difficult to get into the swing of things. We definitely had to re-find our rhythm. 

This week is also my first time back at the Bridge in a while. I feel like I'm going to have to re-introduce myself to the congregation! But again, this was the first week I had to put together a set list, to really think about what songs would line up well with the sermon and would be singable by those who are in the congregation. There was a considerable amount of rust to shake off. 

I also began reading again for Seminary. A glance at the syllabus for the class I'm taking in August (that I'm really glad I read through!) informs me that I should read 1,200 pages of material before arriving on the first day of class. And so, summer break is over, and I've been diving back into reading. But not just reading as in letting my eyes see the words on the page and semi-absorbing what they said. This is back to seminary reading, back to trying to do everything I can to retain the information in question so that I can call it back whenever I need it. 

The phrase "getting back into the swing of things" has been thrown around a lot this week. Swings are a pretty good image to carry around with us sometimes. You have to go backwards first before  you can go forward on a swing. Sometimes people assume that the only way to go is forward in our society, keep moving, keep producing, keep busy, keep going. But a swing reminds us that you sometimes have to take a step back in order to take a step forward. You have to go on a quick vacation every now and again before you can come to work full of energy and creativity and passion. Or perhaps it reminds us that a step backwards won't be forever. Perhaps making tough decisions in your financial world will lead to a much brighter future. Perhaps tearing down a statue feels wrong at the moment, but removing the culture of hero worship is a big step forward in the long haul. 

Jesus seemed to think in these terms. Whoever is last among you shall be first in the Kingdom of God. Whoever wants to be greatest must become a servant. Greater love has none than this: whoever lays down his life for his friends. Sometimes backwards is ok. 

And so this weekend, be ok with a step backwards. Take a moment to breathe, to relax, and to stop producing. If you really get into the swing of things, taking a step backwards will propel you further than you could possibly go on your own. 

Godspeed,

J

Some thoughts on Heroes

Hey everybody,

I had the pleasure when I was a kid to meet my hero twice. The first time was at a Pittsburgh Penguins event for kids, where players and coaches were sprinkled around the arena for us to get autographs from. My dad and I were kind of wandering the halls when we found a line of about 15-20 people. We didn't know who it was for, but we figured we could hop in and find out at the front. As soon as we were in line, a staff person yelled "Everybody for Mario Lemieux right here!" We had accidentally found the line for the greatest hockey player of all time, and we were near the front! I got his autograph that day, and even wished him luck for the game that was coming up the next day. He seemed genuinely shocked/appreciative of that! I still have the autographed puck on my desk at home. I met him a few years later at a restaurant, which was the first time I got to see exactly how outlandishly tall he was. He was literally larger than life in my 13 year old eyes. 

Of course this year, Lemieux had a statue erected outside of Consol Energy Center. In this town, in the hockey loving world, Lemieux is seen as a legend. As a hero. Kids my age would play street hockey and imagine they were him, glorious mullet flowing in the wind and all. He inspired me, and probably countless other people in our area and around the world.

Which is why my heart goes out to Penn State fans this week. I've been thinking about what it looks like to have a hero, and even more what it looks like to have a hero who stumbles. We'll probably never know the whole truth of what went on with Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky, but I think we can safely say that not a whole lot of the characters in this story acted as heroes. They faltered. They stumbled. And in the end, they let us down.

Countless of my Penn State fans are still in a state of mourning over the whole situation. I can't blame them. I've been trying to imagine what it would be like if Mario were caught up in something like that. If I had to watch as they tore down the new statue that meant to honor all the good he'd done in this community, I think honestly even now (long removed from my hockey playing days) I would shed a tear or two. It would hurt. I would likely be at a loss for words. I might protest. I might scream. 

None of this is by way of defending Joe Paterno or his actions/inactions in light of Sandusky's wrongs. I'm actually of mind that it was right to remove the statue, if for no other reason than because opponents would surely vandalize and/or destroy the statue on their own anyway. But the whole thing has caused me to ask deep questions of the institution of "hero" in our lives. Should we be vesting so much of our hope, inspiration, meaning, and purpose in ordinary, simple, sinful, flesh and blood human beings? While it's hard to imagine that my personal heroes could let me down, the truth is they're more than capable of it. Ask anyone a year or two ago if Joe Pa would be the center of this much controversy, and I bet no one saw it coming. Human beings are only capable of so much. I don't know that it's fair to put them on such high pedestals. Everyone has flaws. Everyone is damaged. Everyone is broken. 

But let's make this really uncomfortable for a second, shall we? This is a blog about youth ministry for those of us who are in youth ministry, so let me ask this question: Do your students see you as their hero? Is your program set up in such a way that you are designed to be the hero? Do you follow the age old formula "Dude loves Jesus, Kids love dude, therefore Kids love Jesus?" What if you let them down? What if you can't be the hero they imagine? I know how good it feels. I know how much it can inflate an ego and even heal some old wounds. But if we falter or fail, as sinful human beings are often known to do, what have we done to our students? 

Our faith really only allows for one hero, and that's Christ. Our job is not to be the hero, our job is to get as far out of the way and point towards the hero. This is hard. It's hard to not want to be the hero. But human beings simply can't handle that weight in our lives, no matter how heroic you are. 

But God absolutely can!

All about the journey

Good morning!

As you are reading this, if I've figured out my blog editor correctly, I'm currently on the road back home from Vacation. If I can pretend for a moment to predict the future, I am probably staring at the countdown clock on my GPS telling me exactly how many more hours I'm going to have to sit in this car before I can get out, get home, and stretch my legs. Or I'm looking at how far away the next Starbucks break is going to be. 

This particular journey will also be difficult as I will be headed back to work tomorrow. I'm guessing future me is thinking about all the tasks that are ahead of me. In a best case scenario, I'm letting my mind dream a little bit, starting to think about the big ideas that are ahead for Veritas and the upcoming school year. Worst case scenario, I've already activated my e-mail on my phone, and I'm thinking about all the mundane tasks that lie before me. 

What troubles me about this approach, and what I'm hoping I can avoid on Monday, is that I'm letting miles and miles of beautiful Pennsylvania (and at times, significantly less beautiful New Jersey) pass me by without so much as a second glance. What kind of beautiful sights might I miss if I'm not paying attention? What sorts of things might God want to be telling me that I'm just not listening to right now? 

I confess that I do this constantly. I am way more about the destination than I am about the journey. It should really be the other way around. The number of T-shirst in crummy gift shops that tell us that life is a journey ought to be evidence of this enough. It's almost as if some of us have conditioned ourselves to believe that the destination is where life is to be lived, and the journey is just in the way. "I'll be happy when I get that new job." Will you? Or were there points in between job A and job B that were meant to make you happy, but you missed it because your eyes were on the destination? 

I'm going to try my best this morning to enjoy the journey. I hope and pray that whatever journey you find yourself on, you will do the same!

Godspeed,

J

Planning and Riding

Hello friends,

A few days ago, I experienced two sides of my personality pretty dramatically. Hard as it might be to believe, I can sometimes be a compulsive planner (my blog posts are not part of this side of me obviously). I can also sometimes drift to wherever my heart is taking me without much planning at all. 

For a few years, I've started to notice that when it comes to teachings at Veritas, we cycle around to the same topics again and again and again and again. This year for instance while we were studying addictions and how they impact our faith, several of the students said "this is nice, but we feel like we've been over this before." After checking with the calendar, they were right. We had been over it before. About 4 times in 5 years. 

And so I sat down at our white board, and crafted something huge. A four year teaching plan for High School Veritas. Each teaching planned out for four years, so that a student who comes in as a freshmen will never hear the same topic repeated twice except in certain instances where repetition is key. And even there, the repetition is once every other year, so that we can break up the monotony. Four years of planning! I can tell you what we'll be talking about each week until 2016. I walked away from the whiteboard feeling really good about where we're going as a ministry!

I got in my car, drove home, and decided to take a training ride. This was one of the first times back on the bike after a two week break with Alive and Vacation Bible School, so I decided that I just wanted to hop on and get my legs spinning. I had no plan. I had no goals. I had no measures of success other than to end with a smile on my face. I actually wound up going faster and longer than I would have thought (10 miles at a 16.9 mph average), but again I had no real goal, so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. But being completely without plan felt good in that moment. I felt free. 

I see both sides of the argument from different youth leaders. Some insist that you have to be meticulously planned out, to the point where you know every detail of every possible event about 5 years before you actually pull the trigger on it. I get this. It leads to some security and safety. It also frees you up from having to think a whole lot on your feet, because the thinking took place months ago. 

I also know people who say the Spirit needs to move in freedom, and that our plans would get in the way of the Spirits work. If I plan something for a high school event while the Spirit is busy making other plans, I might miss something. I get this line of thinking too. Too many plans can suffocate a movement. 

I think what becomes obvious here is that there is a time for everything. Having a four year teaching plan for us right now is going to alleviate a lot of problems we've been experiencing at Veritas. But at the same time, I love nothing more than the impromptu visits by students, the unplanned movements. I'm even sick enough to love when plans go horribly wrong, and I'm forced to think a bit on my feet. It's got to be both, in certain situations and certain times. And to know the difference takes the spiritual gift of discernment. 

What about you? Are you more of a planner, or a free spirited person? 

Godspeed,

J

God in the mundane

Good evening friends!

I'm trying to write a sermon, but it's not going so well. So of course, I turn to the blog for distraction and/or inspiration. 

I've actually been meaning to write this post for a while now, but my week has gotten away from me. Tuesday, I had to get the packing lists for this year's Alive festival mailed out to all the students. This is typically a tedious project. First, I have to open up the file from last year and change all the dates and times and what have you. Then I proof read it, which was hard this year because Ed was in class, and so I had to proof read it all by my lonesome. And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that proof reading is not my style. At all. So if you're going to Alive this year with us, and you got your packing list, please add "lawn chair." Completely slipped my mind. 

Then I had to wage war with the paper folding machine. It's this device that lives in the print room at Westminster, and claims to make life easier on all of us. Wrong. It's sole purpose is to taste human blood. That thing is insane. There are way too many buttons for a machine that is supposed to in essence be a faster pair of opposable thumbs. Luckily, Mariela who runs the print room was there that morning. She commands respect from the machines. They obey her. But that didn't stop the dreaded paper folding machine from scowling at me while neatly creasing the letters in question. It was a scowl, I tell ya!

From there I returned to my desk, and set up an assembly line. A stack of packing lists, a equal sized stack of Veritas envelopes, and a sheet with mailing labels for everyone who is signed up for the trip. I had 15 minutes to get the labels on and the letters stamped before our weekly staff meeting, so I was in go mode. 

But then I thought about something that Dr. Sunquist said during class one evening last term. Every morning, he wakes up and walks to the seminary from his house, and as he passes the dorms, he takes a moment to pray for the students that are just waking up and getting ready to start their day. Because why would you waste an opportunity to pray for someone, even in a mundane moment of life? 

And so I took those words to heart, and spent a little bit of extra time praying while I stuck labels on envelopes. Some of the students I've known for all 6 years we've been going to Alive. Some of them I know, but not incredibly well, maybe because they just moved up into 9th grade. Some of the students I don't know at all, because they're friends of some of the other kids and this will be their first entry into youth group with us. And so I prayed for each one of them. I prayed for this trip, even though it's mostly a fun trip, meant to be an enjoyable start to summer, I prayed that these students would have a profound experience with Jesus along the way. I've been praying the same thing ever since. 

This isn't meant to be bragging. My prayer life is nothing to be bragged about. It is however (hopefully) an awakening, a return to a prayer life consistently for the students and for the ministry that we've been called to at Westminster. Too often I get caught up in the little things, the details, the how and why and when and where that I forget the Who that's behind it all. And that's not right at all.

So take a few moments this week and pray for your kids. Even if you've wrapped things up for the summer, take just a few moments in your office and pray for the students who God has graciously placed in your life, and pray that they would experience Jesus in a new and radical way. Because I'm quite sure that's a prayer that God never tires of hearing.

Ok, sermon time!

Godspeed,

J 

Beginnings and Endings

Hello again friends,

Last night was a great night, and deserving of some reflection. I love my job, but if there's anything about it I don't like, or at least have difficulty with, it's the end of the year. Last night was our last Veritas meeting of the 2011-2012 year, and our students showed up big time for the party. We played the first (annual?) Veritas Olympics, which contained elements of all the best Veritas games. We had worship out in the courtyard, and I'll admit that it did seem as though the floor was shaking even though it was firmly attached to the earth. 

As we often do, our last Veritas ended with an open microphone. The sharing came mostly from what turns out to be our largest ever senior class to graduate out of the group. If those sharing weren't seniors themselves, they seemed to talk a lot about the seniors. Their impact on this group was immense. Their weekly presence will surely be missed. Last night was, in a sense, an ending. 

But while that's difficult, and there are moments where my "allergies" were getting to me a bit, last night was also one of my favorite nights of the year. Because watching younger students listen to these seniors share how much this ministry impacted them, you could tell that they were being invited to dive into something with all they had. The mantle is ready to be picked up by a new generation. Last night wasn't just an ending. It was, in a lot of ways, a beginning. 

In 2 Kings, before all the awesome stuff about she-bears, Elijah is about to be taken up into heaven, and he's having a conversation with his student Elisha. When asked what Elisha wanted before Elijah went to be with God, his young student asked for a double portion of his grace, a double awareness of God, and a double ability to bring God to the people. As I was watching the younger students last night, I realize that it happens in our midst every year. As a group of seniors leaves us, each a little harder to say goodbye to as we've gotten to know each other, they leave behind a legacy of wanting to serve God more than those who have gone before them. And younger students see that, and younger students want to serve God even more. I got chills thinking about what things will be like in 6 years, when this team of 7th graders leaves us. Imagine all that God will do in our midsts in that time. 

Youth ministry never stops. Exactly 13 hours after Veritas ended, I was in a planning meeting for next year, getting ready to do it all again. There is no rest for the weary. But there are moments, in my ministry and I'm sure in yours, that need a moment or two of pause, reflection, and celebration. Last night was surely one of those. A time of endings, and a time of beginnings.