Nailed it!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my attempt to get back in the habit of reading the scriptures daily. Today, I am happy to report that I successfully completed the 21 days prescribed by those in the medical profession to set up a habit!

I actually had an experience yesterday that helped me see what was going on pretty clearly. Yesterday was day 21, the last day people say is required to complete a habit. And the best part was I had made it the whole way through without any failures at all! I hadn't missed a single day of the 21! So all I had to do was finish this 21st day, and I would be on my way to reading the scriptures every single day for the rest of my life (I hope).

However, yesterday was crazy! Ed had called me the night before and had asked if I wanted to go duck hunting with him in the morning. I know how much fun Ed has with it, and I liked the idea of getting out in nature, so I thought I'd go too. I felt lied to though when Ed said we'd be leaving at 5 am. That's not morning...that's something else...

If Ed wanted to leave at 5, that meant I would be waking up at 4:55 at the very earliest. I wanted to suck the marrow right off my sleep time. But, this created the problem of not being able to do my devotions in the morning. I was concerned, but figured I could get caught up when we got home around lunch time.

I had to go and throw a wrench in that plan too, but bagging my first duck!

Actually, it was quite cool, and I'm planning another blog post about that sometime soon. But, it did mean that we added some extra time to our day, because I don't like the idea of hunting purely for sport, I want to use this guy for food! So we had to take him home, clean him, butcher him (this makes it sound cooler than it was, he had maybe a nugget and a half of meat on him. Not a very big duck), and prepare the meat to be frozen. By the time all of this was accomplished, it was time to take the high schoolers to chick fil a. Then it was time for the rummage sale. Then it was time for Ed and Elise to come over.

I did indeed do my devos at night, and accomplished my goal. But I actually think the goal was accomplished a while before then. The whole day, I couldn't shake the thoughts I was having about being in the word. I kept looking for little pockets of time to sneak away with my bible and a pen, maybe just to chip away at it piece at a time. I think at one point I was even twitching. At this point, I think I'm pretty securely in the habit of reading the word.

For those of you out there for whom this isn't a regular practice, please let me encourage you to do so. Not with some sort of guilt trip speech, like "God loves you more if you're in the word!" But let me just tell you that in my life, it's made a tremendous difference. I feel a bit more aware of God in my day to day coming and going. I feel like I understand his message to us a little bit more than I did three weeks ago (Please, under no circumstances are you to think I understand his message completely. Just a little better...). If this isn't a habit for you, I encourage you to take 21 days to get there. You won't regret it.

And oh by the way, it doesn't stop there. I just finished day 22, and I have every reason to believe that I'm going to make it to day 23!

Godspeed,

Jason

The Day of Jubilee

(This woman's picture was among the first to come up when I Googled "Day of Jubilee." I do believe she has earned the right to be here today...)

Hello friends.
Ever have a good day? Not in the sense that like you avoided hardships like going to the dentist or paying bills or whatever, but in the sense that everything clicked and really worked out for you?

Well that was yesterday!

We did our annual thanksgiving scavenger hunt last night, or at least the first part of it. If you've read this blog for any length of time at all, you know I don't often get caught up in numbers. But last night as we were looking around getting ready to disperse the kids with their drivers, we discovered that there were 52 students in our youth room.

52.

That's a lot.

Particularly when you only planned enough drivers to cover you for your typical 40 or so kids.

During the event, the planning of who would go in what car, and driving around, the wanting to kill middle school students for goofing around in the streets, and the nearly getting your wish as said middle schoolers jump out in front of moving traffic, I was a little bit stressed out. I even noticed this morning that I labeled our worship set list "aaaaaaggggggghhhhhhh".

But as it ended, we heard mutterings. We heard stuff like "That was really fun!" and "I'm going to invite my friends next week!", and the more important (to me anyway) "Do you really think we'll get enough food for these guys?" (We're collecting food and other items for South Hills Interfaith Ministries and other groups).

Lots of good stuff happened last night. And so I declared today to be a day of jubilee. This is really almost no different than a normal work day for us, but it's critical every now and again to celebrate your successes. Where are things going well? Where are you really succeeding? If you have a good night, celebrate! If you get a chance, take a moment to celebrate the good stuff in your life.

It's a day of jubilee. Celebrate with me!

Godspeed,

Jason

Deep justice is hard to find.

I read an article recently that kind of disturbed me.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty. Obviously there has to be some sort of punishment for crimes that are committed in our society. But even if I set my moral objections aside (taking a life in exchange for a life will eventually just kill us all...), doesn't it seem like this is a bit of a cop out? If we would leave a person who committed that crime in jail for the rest of his life, he'd have his whole life to reflect upon what he's done, what impact he had on the families of the victims. When he dies, that's it, it's up to him and God.

I could go on for quite a while about how vengeance is supposed to be reserved for God. I could write about how I've been reading in Eziekel how much God despises violence (and I would argue that even killing a person with an injection is violent). But really, one quote from this story stuck out to me:

"Well, myself, I wish Malvo was right there beside Muhammad," said Moore, whose sister, FBI analyst Linda Franklin, was gunned down in Virginia. "They both committed the same crimes. No, I don't feel any closure. I mean, it's ... it ... nothing changes."

Now granted, I have never had my sister shot by a team of snipers. I've never felt the sting of pain that this man is going through, and I truly feel for him and his loss. I understand there's a lot more pain in this situation than I can possibly understand (yeah, read that again). But I wonder if having the young man in the chair next to Muhammad would have brought this guy the closure he was seeking? Would the extra death really have brought any comfort at all? Or would that pain and longing still be there?

I think that from time to time, we search for the quick answer. There is absolutely no question that Moore was wronged here. Deeply, deeply wronged. There is a complete lack of justice in his situation, and I would never argue any other way. But I don't think killing anyone else brings justice to the situation. I don't think there is a quick justice for the families of the sniper attacks. Or fort hood. Or 9/11.

Deep justice is hard to find.

But the reality of the situation is that God is the source of justice. Nothing goes before his eyes unaccounted for. And while we might wonder how he could let such things happen, how these events could possibly go unchallenged, we have to rest securely in his grace and mercy and justice, rather than try to make our own.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below.

Godspeed,

Jason

The Art of the Sermon Part Six: The Delivery

Always looking for a gimmick for the blog, and constantly being asked about it, I've decided to work on a two-week series called "The Art of the Sermon." I'm going to walk through step by step everything I do for a sermon, from two weeks out until Sunday morning at the Bridge. I will then post a youtube video of the sermon, just in case you can't make the Bridge. If we do it right, this will be fun and educational! Come along!

You've spent hours getting everything together. You've researched, prayed, written, and prayed a bunch more. Now the day of delivery is finally here!

Really, at this point I think there are two extremes in terms of types of preachers: Those who swagger their way to the pulpit, and those who have to try with all their might not to pee their pants.

Granted, those are extremes. I think I sit somewhere directly in the middle. It's even more fun in a situation like I had yesterday, where I was a part of the worship band for the beginning of the service, and so had to make a bit of a transition. Here are some thoughts I had through the morning yesterday:

1. Don't be nervous on account of the people.
If you are anything like me, you live and die for people's approval. You hate it when people think ill of you, and you would love nothing more than to hear that you'd done a good job. Unfortunately for people like you and me, this is not the place for that. If you're using your sermon to try to increase your twitter audience because people will think you're cooler than ice, you need to get out of ministry immediately!

If you're on the other side of that situation, scared stiff at the mere notion of a room full of people staring at you, then you needn't worry. You are not you in that moment. You are the vessel through which God has chosen to reveal his word. The opinions of people should never get in the way of what God has to say to us! If you've been asked by the Lord to say something that might push someone out of the comfort zone, then do so with confidence. (This is easy for me to say this week: I don't think anyone was concerned about leaving their comfort zone after a sermon about singing...)

And also, be careful of how you read the congregation. The folks at the Bridge always scare me when I haven't preached their in a while (like, say, this week) because they don't often show a lot of emotion during a sermon. It's not to say they aren't with you (the responses I got at the end of the service definitely showed they were), they just express themselves differently than you might have expected.

2. Do be nervous to represent God.
People ask me all the time if I still get nervous when I'm preaching, and my answer is "most definitely!" Not because I'm scared of the people, or that one time I preached with my fly down when I was in high school, but because when we preach, we are being asked to represent the Lord.

I think the world would be without a lot of bad sermons if we all remembered that. We're not just there to fill 20 minutes every week. We're there to tell the people what God wants them to hear. There was a reason that God wanted me to scrap (for now) my original plan of preaching on the Holy Spirit, and instead focus a bit on worship and why we sing. I don't know what that is, but I'm trusting that God has moved through the words I spoke yesterday (more on this later)

Approach the word of God with care and thanksgiving, not with "oh boy look at how cool I can make this sermon!" It's a powerful and yet fragile thing, somewhere between a flower and a gun (thanks Jon Foreman). Be a little nervous, but not to the point of utter failure. Just a healthy fear.

3. Be aware of your vices.
In the first post of this series, I mentioned that I had a bit of a love for Rob Bell. One of the things I picked up from him was the way he moved during his sermons. He roams the stage like a lion ready to pounce, and that probably comes from the fact that Mars Hill is set up in the round, where preachers have to be on the move to keep eye contact with the congregation. When it's done well, it can be a really great way to engage people.

I do not do it well.

I've been told again and again that I wander a little bit too much. At first I dismissed it as old people who didn't get my incredibly awesome arrogance youthfulness, but have since discovered that in fact I was just plain bad at it. Many people would be able to focus on my message a bit more if I didn't walk around so much.

So, aware of that (and about 30 other problems), I set up the podium yesterday. I don't often do that, in fact if I'm honest it scares me a little bit. I didn't stand behind the podium the whole sermon, but I did kind of use it as a home base, in the hopes that I wouldn't be a distraction.

The next few times you preach, do yourself a favor and find a way to record it visually. Either grab a video camera (scary) or a group of friends to help critique you (very scary!) and figure out how your posture during a sermon can be improved. This takes a little bit of ego shellacking, but I promise it's worth it. You will lose these annoying habits over time, and become a better preacher for it.

(Incidentally, I was promising to have a youtube video of the sermon to close out this series. Due to some pretty poor planning ahead (ed had the camera in Laurelville), that's not happening. Sorry guys! If you want a copy of my outline or keynote presentation, just e-mail me)

4. You're not done yet.
I think I've made it painfully obvious in this post, but I'm not such a big fan of sermons that are delivered out of some sense of requirement of obligation. If you head home and throw on the Steeler game without giving a second thought to your congregation, I would argue that you've only given about half of what you could have.

Take some time on Sunday and Monday and pray for your congregation. Pray that someone would be impacted by the words that you spoke. Pray that they would experience some deepening of faith through God's word spoken in their lives. If no one experiences God's grace in a deeper manner at the end of your sermon, then what was the point?

This has been a really fun series everyone! Thanks for following along! More youth ministry minded things coming later this week!

Godspeed,

Jason

The Art of the Sermon Part Five: The Outline (or the Transcript) (or the Keynote)

Always looking for a gimmick for the blog, and constantly being asked about it, I've decided to work on a two-week series called "The Art of the Sermon." I'm going to walk through step by step everything I do for a sermon, from two weeks out until Sunday morning at the Bridge. I will then post a youtube video of the sermon, just in case you can't make the Bridge. If we do it right, this will be fun and educational! Come along!

Alright. You've got your topic. You've done your research. You've scrapped all that in favor of recycling an old sermon. You've fine tuned it to make sure it's still relevant. Now you have to turn all of those ideas into a sermon!
Relax, this is no time to panic!
For me, this is probably one of the most fun parts of the process. It's fun to watch all these ideas and journal scribbles come together into something that makes sense. This part of the process for me looks different just about every time I come to write a sermon, but I thought I'd share at least how it went down this time. Obviously, step zero is (and has been this whole series) start with a good (or if you're in the office settle for decent) cup of coffee. Then proceed!
(Spoiler alert: If you attend the Bridge, there are a couple of giveaways about the sermon this week. If you don't want to know, and would rather be surprised at the Bridge, I'd wait to read this until later!)1. Begin with the end in mind.Maybe this is something weird that I do, but I always try to start with the ending of a sermon. What do I hope they will get out of all this assorted information? What do I want them thinking about as they walk out of the sanctuary gym?
For this reason, this time in particular, I started with the benediction. Some people have one benediction that they use over and over again, which is great. But for me, I like to tie the benediction to the sermon. For example, the benediction to this sermon is "May we remember why we sing. May we remember Christ's saving work in our lives. May we remember that we are loved. And may we continue to make a joyful noise to the Lord, even if we can't carry a tune in a bucket!"
That's how this thing has to end. How are we going to get it there?
2. Start funnyI don't know if you can consider this a spiritual gift, but Sarah tells me that in my writing and my speaking, I'm pretty good at taking people from a pretty funny story into deep spiritual matters. If I do it right, sometimes I can get people to forget how we got there!
The truth is, you have to think about your congregation. While most of us in the ministry love to hear about the next theological idea or discourse, most people in church in Sunday are still thinking about their weeks, what's coming on Monday, their taxes, or who the Steelers are absolutely humiliating playing on Sunday. They may not be ready to dip right into something serious. You have to start light with em.
For me, it's usually a funny story dealing with some embarrassing moment, like how I nearly peed my pants on a high ropes course at a camp a few years ago (trust me, I can get from here to why we sing. Just come see it). Maybe you're not in the funny camp, and you'd rather start with some sort of discussion question, or prayer activity, or whatever. Anything to kind of transition them out of musical worship and into a time of reading the word.
3. Media is king(As I'm typing a lot of this, I realize that if a seminary homiletics professor read this they'd probably want to punch me in the face. I don't know anything about formal preaching, but I do know what works for me. Just thought I'd toss that in there...)
In the middle ages, churches began to look like castles. During the enlightenment, churches moved the pulpit to the center of the sanctuary to better highlight thinking and logic. During the industrial revolution, churches started building board rooms and offices. The church, for better or worse, always has a hand in the dominant popular culture it finds itself in.
Today, our dominant cultural element is media. iPods, PS3s, Wii's, TVs, and cell phones of all varieties (though iPhones are still the best...) are at the top of everybody's Christmas list this year, I'm almost certain. Our culture at least responds to (if it is not driven by) media.
So why aren't our sermons?
For me, at this point of the process, I take some time to create a Keynote file (Powerpoint for you non-Mac people) for the sermon. Some people learn by listening, and others by reading or seeing. We shouldn't alienate half of our congregation just because listening to the spoken word isn't their predominant learning style!
For me too, this works out to be pretty handy. If I create the Keynote document, I can quickly turn that into an outline for me. It's a quick glance way for me to see where I am in the sermon, and where it is I wanted to be headed.
Some people like to have a complete transcript in front of them of what they want to say. Sometimes I find this helpful, but honestly I feel like I'm reading a bit too much if I use a transcript. And, because I do tend to go off on at least a little bit of a tangent every now and again, it's a lot harder to find your spot in a transcript than it is in an outline. Combine that with the fact that there is almost no light at all on the Bridge stage, and I'm going to be sticking with an outline for a long while. But if a transcript works for you, go for it!
One more step left folks! Tune in this weekend to see the stunning conclusion!
Godspeed,
J

The Art of the Sermon Part Four: Bottles and Cans (Just Clap Your Hands)

Always looking for a gimmick for the blog, and constantly being asked about it, I've decided to work on a two-week series called "The Art of the Sermon." I'm going to walk through step by step everything I do for a sermon, from two weeks out until Sunday morning at the Bridge. I will then post a youtube video of the sermon, just in case you can't make the Bridge. If we do it right, this will be fun and educational! Come along!

Ok, this morning I was scared of this sermon writing blog post thing. Why you ask? Because I was absolutely eating it! There was nothing on paper. There was nothing in my brain. I was struggling to find a way to tell you guys how I had completely bombed. I was afraid I couldn't finish the series. And most importantly, I was afraid you wouldn't like me anymore.

But then inspiration struck. On my computer, I have a folder of half baked ideas. These are sermons that I started, and were marinading, but hadn't made it past the marinade process. And I found it, a sermon that I had nearly finished, and was ready to preach, but it turned out the sermon was shaping up to be too long for the time period I had that particular Sunday. JOY! And so one of the most important idea when it comes to sermon writing is the concept of reducing (stress), reusing (ideas that never made the floor), and recycling (old/unfinished) sermons.

But it's not that simple. There are some things to think through when you're recycling something:

1. You can't just assume it's finished.
Remember I said that this sermon was nearly finished. I hadn't quite gotten all the way through it, because I realized right away that I didn't have the time needed that Sunday. It's probably I would say 75% done, so obviously we're not done with this series.

But more than that, even if your recycling a completely finished sermon, you need to read over it, and make sure that the illustrations and examples are up to date. No one wants to hear about how you voted in the 1992 election. Keep it up to date!

2. Make sure you haven't preached this sermon (or anything like it) in front of this audience.
A statistic that bothers me is that many pastors only have 6 sermons that they just re-work again and again and again. It bothers me most when I realize I am no different. I have my favorite topics, but I realize that the scriptures have a lot to offer our congregation.

This brings us back to a concept from our first post in this series: the spreadsheet. When I'm calling an audible at the line, one of my first stops is to the spreadsheet to make sure that we haven't preached on this topic recently. The spreadsheet in this moment goes from being my greatest enemy to my number one friend! Luckily I cleared the bar this time around!

It's really important to make sure you are in some way tracking what you've preached on. I just heard a story about a pastor who will go out and buy a cheap bible, and then highlight only the passages he's preached on. He tries his hardest not to repeat any of the highlighted sections until the whole of the bible is filled up. Whatever your methodology is, make sure you're keeping track of what your preaching, so you don't sound like a broken record.

3. Remember that God isn't done with the sermon you were working on.
I started this process feeling like God wanted me to share something about the Holy Spirit. Just because I wasn't writing a good sermon doesn't mean God wants me to abandon that concept or theme. So the few notes and beginings of an outline I have for this sermon heads into the same folder that brought me the new idea, and I'm certain it will find its way to the Bridge again soon.

I don't think God gives up on ideas, or that the need to hear about ideas becomes any less, just because we can't write the sermon. The spirit just had other priorities, and needed to plant the seed for tomorrow today. So keep a folder somewhere on your computer of half baked ideas, and let them marinade some more. As new ideas come and go into your head, make sure to update your files. You never know when they'll come in handy.

So now I'm on to this sermon. I'm actually really excited! I forgot how excited I had been to give it before I realized I didn't have time. We're going to be looking at Exodus 15, and examining why we sing in church. I'll have more on this sermon later, and fill you in a little bit more on the writing process. But if you're still hanging in there with me, take a moment in the next couple of days and read Exodus 15. It'll help if we're all on the same page, picking each other's brains!

Godspeed,

Jason

The Art of the Sermon Part Three: Coffeeshop

Always looking for a gimmick for the blog, and constantly being asked about it, I've decided to work on a two-week series called "The Art of the Sermon." I'm going to walk through step by step everything I do for a sermon, from two weeks out until Sunday morning at the Bridge. I will then post a youtube video of the sermon, just in case you can't make the Bridge. If we do it right, this will be fun and educational! Come along!

Good morning bloggers!
I am sitting at the Barnes and Nobel at the Waterfront. I had to fight incredibly hard to avoid the temptation to order a Peppermint Mocha. The holidays are trying to sneak their way into our world incredibly too quickly. Until the first snowfall, or the moment they discontinue the pumpkin spice latte, I will not purchase anything Peppermint. This is important for us to all understand before I begin.

As you may have heard, a few weeks ago my macbook took a turn for the worse when some Gatorade was inadvertently spilled upon it. I had a back up plan, which was to use a desktop computer for work, and to just get by without a laptop. In that time, I learned many valuable lessons, but probably the biggest of them was that I am completely incapable of writing my teachings or sermons in our office. I don't know why, but it's true. I tried really hard to write sermons in the office, and failed miserably. It was rough.

I've learned that I do some of my best thinking by getting out of the office and writing in a coffee shop, or in this case, a bookstore. You could argue that there are more distractions here than there would be in my office, but I seem to be pretty impervious to them. In fact, they actually seem to influence my writing. I tend to write better in a place with cool music and a warm cup of java in my hand. I swear, I wrote the best stuff in my life when I was within walking distance to Tazza Doro. I still get pretty mad at myself that I can't find those writings...

Today is Monday, which is my day off, so I'm not intentionally thinking through the sermon. I have some ideas rattling around, and have picked up a few books to kind of help out with that. But really, I'm here to write some other stuff. I am still working on a book (and the proposal that goes along with it), so I've got that going for me. I'm also starting to plan the recording of the Bridge CD for this fall, so I've got that on my plate. The writing is going well today too. I might stay a bit longer than expected!

But the point is this: in those moments where you feel stuck on a sermon, get out. Maybe you dig coffee shops as much as I do, or maybe you're more a library type person, or a parks and recreation person. But wherever you feel your creativity let loose, get out and get there. Our sermons must be creative. Our sermons must be interesting. I am absolutely tired of putting people to sleep with the stories of God. They deserve better than that. So wherever your creative passions are let loose, get there to write your sermons. Your congregation will thank you later!

Godspeed,

Jason