...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. 

...with all your heart.

Greetings friends!

Yesterday we took a look at Matthew 22:34-40 as a way to examine what the basics of youth ministry might look like. Today I want to focus in on what Jesus claims is the first part of the most important commandment:

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart..." (Matthew 22:37)

I spent the better part of last term in Seminary learning that American Theology in the last 100 years or so has placed a profound emphasis on logic, understanding, and knowledge when it comes to God and Spirituality. We want to think this thing through. We want to set up a 6 week series, or a collection of blog posts, or a Christian Education Seminar as our way of understanding who God is, and what God is all about. That all has its place, and we'll get to that in a few days.

But that's not where Jesus starts. He doesn't start in the nice neat lines of logic that so many of us have become accustomed to. He starts with the heart. The illogical, messy, unpredictable, wild and free piece of us that beats just beneath our chest. That piece of us, that is what we're called to love God with.

And not just some of it. All our hearts. We're called to love God with a passion and a zeal and a desire that only our hearts can provide, and beyond that we're not supposed to have the same passion or zeal or desire for anything else. That would constitute loving something else, which would mean that we're not loving God with all of our heart.

I mean, just as a for instance, do you love doing Youth Ministry more than you love God? It happens to some people, more than I think anyone would be willing to admit to publicly. But it's true. We can fall in love with that feeling you get when a student finally "gets it." We can fall in love with those late night sessions around the campfire where we're in deep conversation with a student. We can even fall in love with dodgeball. And all of that is fine, as long as we don't love it more than we love God.

You can apply that to just about any profession in the world too. Do you love being an artist more than you love God? Do you love making money more than you love God? Do you love being a stay at home mom more than you love God? Again, don't mis-read me, I'm not saying you can't love these things. But if they get in the way of your love for God, if you give your heart to those things, then according to Jesus we're into some murky waters.

Our students are extremely perceptive. They pick up on things that we assume no one in their right mind would notice. They look to us for an example, even if it seems like they'd like nothing at all to do with us. And one of the first things they notice is what has the full attention of our hearts. What do we love? What are we passionate about? What do we desire? The truth is you can have all the best programs in the world, be an extremely eloquent speaker, be able to come up with the greatest youth group games just off the top of your head. But if you don't have your heart right before God, your students will see right through that, and your ministry will be completely worthless.

So I hope you'll join me today in my prayers. My prayer is that my heart would belong only to God. My passions, my desires, those things that keep me up at night would be God's and not my own. I pray that I would desire him more than I would desire anything else in the world. Be careful though. If you're willing to pray this prayer, it's possible that God might just answer it.

Tomorrow: ...with all your soul.

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...

Trying to listen

Hello friends,

The Dark Night of the Soul is a concept I've written about here before on the J-Blog. It's the idea that God would simply stop speaking to you. You wouldn't hear from him for a long while, despite constantly praying and seeking and asking and searching. It is, according to many church fathers like St. John of the Cross, a blessing. If you only had a relationship with God for the sake of loving God, and not for all the things he could bless you with, would you still love him as deeply? Or is God our cosmic sugar daddy, always there to give us what we need? 

This isn't that...

I found myself in a situation this morning where I needed discernment. Sarah and I even sat down and prayed together and asked God to help us make the right decision. And as I found myself in the moment, as I was thinking through decisions and what was in front of me, I heard nothing. I didn't hear a voice from God. I didn't feel the Spirit descend like a dove. I didn't see the clouds part. I had nothing going on inside me. It was not unlike driving in a really thick fog, being pretty sure there is road underneath the wheels but having absolutely no idea where the road was taking me. 

The temptation in this moment is usually to blame God. After all, he can take it, right? The temptation is to call this a dark night of the soul, a moment in time where God abandoned me and stopped communicating. For once in my life, I saw right through the temptation right away. The problem wasn't that God wasn't speaking. It was that I wasn't asking. Sure, Sarah and I said a quick prayer that morning, but my mind was elsewhere. The prayer was half baked on my end at best. In typical fashion, my mind was on what I could do. My mind was centered on the actions that I could take. What am I going to do next? 

It's so subtle isn't it? This idea of grace vs. works. I mean sure, when it comes to salvation and eternal life we're all pretty good at seeing the difference, knowing that the correct answer on the theological test is to say that nothing we could ever do would make God love us less. We are given our free gift of salvation because of Christ's work on the cross, not ours here. Yet I don't think that the eternal ramifications are the only place this grace vs. works battle plays out. I think when we enter our prayer life focused on what we can do in a situation rather than ask God for his wisdom, it's like trying to have a conversation with someone while wearing headphones. You can't possibly listen to what the other person has to say. 

Tonight, I'm taking my headphones off. I'm hoping that I can sit quietly enough to hear what God is saying to me. The situation from this morning is well passed and resolved, but there are other situations. There are so many areas in my life where I would rather trust myself and what I can do rather than leaning back, trusting God, and listening to what he wants to speak into my life. 

My prayer for us tonight is that we would listen. That we would be still enough to hear what God is speaking into our world. That we would have the strength and the courage to take the headphones off, and listen and converse with God. What a privilege and an honor it is to have a conversation with the God of the universe, that we all to often take for granted. 

Let us pray...

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