I've had an amazing week!

Greetings bloggers!

If you will forgive me for a moment, I'd like to be proud of myself right here on the internet. This week I followed through on some pretty radical life goals, and I'd just like to share about them.

1. Calories. I started two weeks ago counting calories using a App on my iPhone. My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week, which is a relatively healthy pace. Since then, I've been pretty consistently under calories. Truthfully, it wasn't even that hard. I just had to think a little bit more about what I was eating.
   
2. Pounds. That said, I've lost 4 pounds in those two weeks. While I'm not interested in the numbers as much as I am interested in how I look and feel, I've got to say that feels nice.
   
3. The Bike. I think this is the accomplishment that I'm most proud of. Since Sarah and I moved to our new house in February, I had been saying that I was going to ride my bike to work more often, like I used to in Murrysville. Last week I rode a couple of times, just to see how it went. Then this week, I decided to set a goal of riding my bike to work each and every day this week. With some motivation from my friends on Facebook, and a little help from mother nature, this morning I accomplished that goal!
   

Not that I want to say that I doubted myself, but I totally did. I didn't think I would stick to it. But here I am, and I'm sitting in victory! Not only that, but man do I feel good! My spirits are up a little bit more (not that they were down, but you know), I have a little bit more of a spring in my step, and I'm not as tired as I usually was.

Beyond even all of that, the healthy and the weight loss and all of that, but I have felt truly connected to God in this season. Riding my bike used to be one of my favorite things to do while I was a kid, and re-connecting with that this week has been amazing!

They say that three weeks is what it takes to truly form a habit, so we'll see what next week holds! And truthfully, a lot of what got me going through all this was the support of my twitter/facebook friends, so feel free to hop on and encourage me through this! Thanks you guys!

Grace and Peace,

Jason

Underestimating Middle School Students.

Greetings bloggists,

This is a slow day in the office, so this post comes partly from being bored, and partly because it's a topic of conversation that has come up again and again around here lately. So what I'm telling you is that this post is simultaneously not well thought through and critically important. Do your best with it.

The question I've been getting a lot recently is "How much can a middle school student handle?" It comes up in a lot of different situations. Sometimes it's when we're talking about theological debates that we don't think MS students are deep enough for. Sometimes it's about sex and what kids are or are not into. Sometimes its about leadership positions, and how young students may or may not be able to contribute to the program. I don't mind questions or asking questions around ministry. What bugs me about this situation is that the question is typically asked with a tone of suspicion. When a person asks "Can a middle school student really handle the sex talk?" what they really mean is "A middle school student can't possibly handle the sex talk, can they?"

First of all, it's critically important that we all drop our innocent acts and realize that middle school students are engaged in sexual activity. It's happening in their homes and (I would wager) in their schools and (I'm certain) on their phones. If they're capable of participating in sexual activity, then certainly we can (and should) have a discussion with them about sexual activity. Turning a blind eye to it doesn't help it. (End of soap box)

Ed and I have been talking about this a lot lately as well. Ed works primarily with the middle school students around here, and it bugs him too when we sell our MS students short. The truth is, they're capable of a lot more than we give them, and in fact they often times desire that level of depth. They want to go deeper in their prayer life. They want to understand the boundaries of sex. They want to have a theological debate. But too often their teachers and (sadly) their parents don't think they're ready for such things and the need goes unfilled (or worse, filled by the negative culture they're surrounded by).

Obviously, we can't generalize. It is true that there are some middle school students who might not be ready for the depth we're talking about here. But the danger is to assume that group to be the norm at the expense of students who desire more. If their hearts are there, we need to give them what they're looking for.

Grace and Peace,

Jason

Shameless Plug

Hello friends!

I may or may not have something else later today, but I would be remissed if I did not mention that my wife has thrown her hat into the blogging ring, and that you should become a regular reader and commenter.

http://sarahfett.blogspot.com

See you soon.

J

Book Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

As I noticed earlier this morning, I have yet to officially review the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller, and this is an absolute shame. Honestly, it's been one of my favorite books of the last year. I finished it a while ago, but I'm seriously considering going back in for a re-read. It's that good.

The book follows Don as he begins working on plans for a movie about his book Blue Like Jazz. (Side note: what could be my only real complaint about the book is that there's no mention of when said movie might come out. I'll be first in line I can assure you!) Some movie producers come to Don and being working on a screen adaptation of the book. Don starts noticing that the producers are saying the story of the book needs to be updated a little bit if people are going to spend money on it. In other words, it's not interesting enough. This would probably be all well and good except Blue Like Jazz is a memoir, so to say the story isn't interesting enough is to say that Donald Miller as a person isn't interesting enough.

And that's when things get interesting!

The book centers on Don editing his life, trying desperately to tell a better story. Through it all, Miller challenges us to live a better story. He questions us the whole way through the book, wondering if living the way we're living is good enough for us. Would anyone come to see the movie of our lives, or would it simply be too boring? And he does all this questioning not as a high and mightier than you author who has an idea about life, he does it at someone who has tried to live a better story, succeeded, and invites us all along on the journey.

This book has in recent months has changed my world in a variety of ways. The biggest (and most evidently successful) was our confirmation class this year. Rather than trying to just flat out teach them things, I did my best to invite them into the story of God. I'm trying to get on my bike a bit more and lose some weight. I'm trying to teach our youth group to tell a better story with their lives. The moral of the story is whether you find yourself working in a church situation or not, this book is incredibly relevant to all of us!

Pick one up at Amazon today!

Grace and Peace,

Jason

Donald Miller=Hilarious!

First of all, I'll have to dig a little bit further through the blog, but it seems as though I never got around to reviewing A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller. This is a travesty! I'll get right on that this afternoon, but in the mean time I'll sumerize by saying you need to get to your local book store and read it. Now. Go.

In the meantime, enjoy this humorous video. H/T to Stuff Christians Like.

More thoughts on race and the church.

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature (Genesis 1:26)

After yesterday's blog post, and reading a quick article on Relevant magazine, I discovered I might have a few more thoughts to weigh in on the issue of race and the church. Forgive me if I'm a broken record.

One day during confirmation class this year I held an open Q and A with the kids. One of the first questions that was tossed out was "Was Jesus white?" I wasn't exactly thrown off by this question. If you walk the halls for even a little bit at Westminster you will find several (dare I say tacky) paintings depicting a Jesus I've grown up with all my life. He's got long hair, a stylish beard, a beauty contest sash, and skin that is (somehow) whiter than my own. I could understand why the student might be confused. I spent a little bit of time talking about how Jesus came from the middle east, and actually (almost a little ironically) would have most likely looked like one of the people we have so quickly labeled enemies.

That almost always gets people going. To think that Jesus would have looked like a member of the Taliban.

What scared and perplexed me even more was last week when, following confirmation Sunday, that same student and I were walking the halls by my office. He stopped and stared at a painting of Jesus for a couple of seconds, and asked me if I was sure that Jesus wasn't white. I said "I'm certain of it." And his response sent chills up my spine.

"Then why do we have some many paintings of this guy?"

As I said in the post yesterday, the emergent church is not alone in it's segregation. The Relevant post correctly points out that the most segregated hour in the United States is on Sunday mornings. We go with people who look like us. We do more than that too. We go with people who act like us, who think like us, who talk like us, who vote like us, and who flat out are like us. Westminster is no exception.

The danger in this movement in the church is that we are more likely to have pictures (both physical and mental) of a Jesus who doesn't at all match the glory and grace of the Jesus proclaimed in the Gospels. Being white is one thing. But what if we start to assume that Jesus would vote for our favorite political party? What if we start to imagine that Jesus would worship with a guitar in his hands? What if we start to assume that Jesus would only hang out with people that look like us? What we're doing in those situations is that we are creating God in our image, rather than the other way around.

Like I said, Westminster is as much to blame in this situation as anyone. But it doesn't have to be this way forever. One of my favorite scripture quotes comes from Ephesians: (make) every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." If our churches are segregated, then we are not making every possible effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit. So let's start! Even if we're lone voices in our congregations, we still need to make every possible effort to maintain unity. So let's start today!

A lot more coming today. The brain is spinning!

Grace and Peace,

Jason

The Emergent Church: Sidetracked?

Hey friends,

By no means do I pass myself off as an expert in the Emergent movement, or Emergent Theology, or whatever you might call it. But I do have a passing interest in the emergent conversation, and so when I saw a few articles today that caught my attention, I thought I'd pass along some thoughts on my very-seldom read blog.

First, Sojourners had an article in it's magazine titled Is the Emerging Church for Whites Only? Frankly, this isn't a bad question, but it might be limited in it's scope. As I read I realized they were correct on a number of points, that most of the "leadership" (we'll address this later...) are white men. Even if you don't want to label a "leadership" group for the emergent movement, certainly most of the authors and vocal proponents of emergent are white dudes. I haven't frequented many emergent congregations, but my take on the ones I have visited is that it's mostly white people. Sure, this is an issue, and it certainly should be looked into. But I would argue that the problem extends well beyond the walls of the Emergent Church. I work at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper Saint Clair, which is about as Emergent as a five point theology lecture. We're also incredibly single sided when it comes to race. We are predominately white. By no means am I celebrating that fact, or making excuses for the Emergent Church. I'm simply saying that the problem extends well beyond the walls of that particular group. I agree that we need to take action on this, but I think first we're going to have to examine our hearts and figure out what the best action would be.

But then, Tony Jones through his blog wrote a couple of responses to the original article. Now, I think Tony is an amazing thinker, and an incredible theologian. However, I think he may have overstepped himself a little bit in these articles. A few thoughts just in case Tony's reading along with us:

1. Responding to Sojourner's questions about race in the Emergent Church by attacking their issues with the GLBT community is about as blatant an example of trying to remove a person's speck in the eye with a plank in your own as I've ever seen. Ok, maybe they're both planks, but still. That wasn't the point of the original article, and it shouldn't have been the point of the response. Right from the title of Tony's response, I get the feeling that he's just calling Sojo stupid and that there won't be any good points in the article. That's silly, because there were some pretty solid points in Tony's first post, but they were tainted by what I perceived to be a pretty childish stance on the issue. If we're going to have open and honest debate (which, I hope happens on this blog as much as anywhere) then we need to make sure that we stay focused on the issue at hand rather than pointing out someone else's issues to take the heat out of our hot kitchen.
   
2. In a couple of places in a couple of different articles, I've been hearing whispers that the Emergent Church movement is dead or dying. I sure hope not! I honestly think that the Emergent conversation is one of the best things to happen to the Church since Matin Luther picked up a hammer and nails and went to town. I agree with the Sojo article that the hype has died down, but we're still needed to ask questions. We still need to make sure that the direction we're taking the church is the absolute right direction. We still need to challenge each other in love and respect. I certainly hope that the Emergent conversation isn't dying out, and I certainly don't think it is. We have a long way to go...
   
3. That said, again and again and again in his response to the Sojo article, Tony reminds readers that there is no leadership structure to the Emergent movement. Of course I get the thought process behind that. If a single leader takes charge of the thing (or a group of leaders for that matter), then the Emergent conversation will be less like a conversation and more like a denomination or an organization, which doesn't sit well with typical emergents. That's all well and good, but I feel like lately we've lost our sense of direction in the conversation. Perhaps the Emergent conversation hasn't died out, but rather has finally hit that awkward silence that occurs on nearly every first date. We forgot what we were talking about. I don't know that the Emergent movement needs a specific leader, but I think it for sure needs those of us who are passionate about the movement to stand up and start asking questions again. Questions are what fueled this thing in the past, and questions are what will fuel it again in the future.
   

So these are just a few of my thoughts on the emergent movement. I'd love to hear some of yours in the comments!

Grace and Peace,

Jason