Ephesians 6:5-9: Slaves and Masters

While it might surprise you to hear this, not everybody in the world thinks that slavery is unfair. Actually, it's even alive and well here in America, as sex slave trading goes all too frequently unchecked. All this is to say that if you think that we as a society of human beings has moved beyond the issue of slavery, you are sadly mistaken.

But that's not the only point.

Paul's instructions to the slaves in this passage is that even though their situation might not be fair, to truly respect Christ and Christ's work in the world, you should perform the duties asked of you regardless. He even equates the work that they are doing as work unto the Lord, not work unto the masters that are over them. I don't think this is an advocation for slavery by any means, but what I think is hidden here in the passage is the subtle notion that occasionally in life we're going to be asked to do things that don't seem fair. A few hard working volunteers in churches often end up doing the work of the rest of the congregation, frequently to the tune of 20%-80% (As in 20% of the congregation does 80% of the work). As a guy who frequently found himself in the 20%, it was easy to complain and make a big stink about how it's not fair that I had to do all that. In short, I think Paul would tell me to take my self out of the equation, and realize that my service is to the Lord. I think there's a HUGE lesson us often over-loaded youth pastors can learn there.

But again, that's not the (only) point.

Paul writes this letter to a crowd of people that presumably contains both slaves and masters. How awkward is that? What would it look like to address a crowd of people that contains a group that owns humans AND the humans they own? How do you have a church like that? How could such a group continue to exist and serve the Lord?

Making an admittedly large leap of logic, I wonder if this passage has something to tell us about the different personalities we have in our youth groups. Maybe instead of slaves and masters, we have jocks and band geeks. Maybe we have the group of kids that loves to play the wild and crazy games like dodgeball, and the group of kids that would rather spend that time with scrabble. We have both sets of people sitting in the pews listening to what we have to say, and both groups need to be fed.

How do we feed both groups? How do we make sure that every person in the room is able to connect with the life-altering message of Jesus Christ? I don't know if I have all the answers, but it's something I'm going to continue to struggle with.

More later today, this post got finished late!

Godspeed,

Jason

Falling Behind

Hello bloggers!

I am planning on finishing the Ephesians series. I've actually finished the reading, I'm just way behind on the writing. I have a new battle plan for us too when we get done with Ephesians, and I'm pretty excited to get started with it. But first things first, we have to wrap up, so I'm going to get on to that later on today.

Don't you hate falling behind though? I've been pretty on top of things lately, but I can tell that I'm starting to lose pace with the to-do list. Not just with the blog, but with things in my ministry and even in my personal life. I'm not behind yet, but I'm working on it!

What do you do when you start falling behind? What are some of your tips and tricks to snapping out of it and picking up the pace?

For me, it's all about beating back resistance and just getting some stuff done. So if you don't see a blog post about Ephesians today, please feel free to come to my office and punch me square in the face.

That ought to take care of things!

Godspeed,

Jason

Resurection

I don't really think this needs any further explanation. Happy Easter friends!

Resurrection: Rob Bell from The Work of Rob Bell on Vimeo.

Ephesians 6:1-4: Kids vs Parents

Good morning bloggers!

(Note: I said in the last post that we would go to nine, but there's just a lot of stuff to digest here in just the first four verses. We'll pick up the rest later!)

Raise your digital hand if you've had a student ever complain about their parents? Of course you have! Everybody in youth ministry has had at least 50,000 kids complain about the way their parents are treating them. Which, tends to be hilarious to listen to, as it usually has something to do with a punishment handed out that any rational third party observer would agree was just and fair. Once again, it all comes down to perspective!

I often wrestle with how to offer parent/teenager relationship advice on either side of the spectrum. My policy is and has been for quite some time to never offer parenting advice to parents. Even when I'm really pressed, I try to wiggle my way out of it, because the pure and simple fact is that while I am a youth leader and a (hopefully) purveyor of youth culture, I don't have any children of my own. That limits my perspective. What might make perfect sense to me as a youth leader might be missing some fairly obvious points that parents are quick to catch on to. Typically if I see some areas where parents could improve, I might ask questions. But I try my hardest not to offer advice.

Here, Paul tells us that the relationship between parents and children is important, if only to make our life here on earth a little bit better. And the truth of the matter is that when students and parents are getting along, everyone's just a little bit more joyful. So the one piece of advice I have to offer is this: watch the ways we communicate. While I'm not a parent, and I'm a little bit old to be a child, I've come to realize that about 90% of the fights and arguments that happen between kids and parents happen because of bad communication. So my recomendation to parents and kids is to take a moment and make sure you clearly understand the other person before you jump to any kind of conclusions. And my advice to youth pastors is to try your best to be a third party observer when kids come to you for help with their parents. Listen not for who's right and who's wrong, but listen for the breakdowns in communication.

Tomorrow we'll go from 5-9.

Godspeed,

Jason

Ephesians 5:21-33: Be Subject

Ok, you gotta love a bible study that finds it's illustration in The West Wing, right?

There's a lovely scene somewhere around the third season where the President and the First Lady are coming home from church. In the midst of their sometimes rocky marriage, the couple is fighting over the sermon given in Church that morning. It was based on our scripture from this morning.

The First Lady, known as an open and passionate Feminist, is arguing that men need to love their wives and give themselves up for their ladies, and thus the President should be submissive to her. The President, having a little bit of fun, tosses back that wives must submit to their husbands, and that she should be submissive to him. They go back and forth for a little bit, before the President launches into his own mini sermon about what the passage is really about.

You would think that clip would be on YouTube. It's not. They had this, which was equally as funny but nowhere near related to the point:

The point in the President's eyes (and mine too) is not who should be submissive to whom. The point is that we need to be subject to one another. Paul uses different words to emphasis very similar points here, that in a Christian household, we shouldn't be looking out for our own interests, but rather should be looking out for the interests of our spouse. Sarah and I work very hard on this with some of our language. A friend of ours taught us that we shouldn't use the phrase "You are mine" but rather offer up "I am yours." It might seem like a subtle little difference, but honestly it has meant a world of difference in more than a few situations.

Now the obvious surface point you could pull from this for youth ministry is that we need to teach kids how best to handle themselves not only in marriage but in their dating endeavors. But I mean, come on, that's a little bit too easy for a Tuesday night, don't you think?

What if we looked at it with this question: How often are you subject to your students?

I had a neat experience today. I was taking out the garbage when a group of our students drove by. They're on spring break, and told me the wanted to come by and find where I lived. I actually thought it was pretty awesome (though under no circumstances want them just randomly showing up all the time. Sometimes I'm in my delicates!). We sat on the porch and talked for a bit before they left, but I found myself playing the host for them. Offering drinks, snacks, etc. In essence, I was being subject to them.

But what about when we see them at the church? What about at youth group? What about when we come to their school? When we make our plans for our ministry, are they plans that benefit us or are they plans that say "We're here to serve you in Christ?" Again, it might seem like a small difference, but I bet it can make all the difference.

Tomorrow we'll pick up 6:1-9

Godspeed,

J

Ephesians 5:3-20: Rise and Shine

Greetings again bloggers!

Ever read a scripture and just get absolutely kicked in the pants? I just did!

Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and bulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Yeah, not going to lie, I'm bad at this one. I like to make crude jokes. I like to laugh with the boys. I like to fit in at the parties. I swear when I stub my toe. I sometimes swear over significantly less important things. I watch shows like Futurama and Family Guy. I am a horrible human being.

And if you want to talk about a hypocrite, I am first in line brotha! When the kids walk into the church on a Wednesday night, and they have a bit of gutter mouth going, I turn all kinds of Mrs. Brady on them! I will tell kids that they shouldn't use such words, as in the very same words I used that morning when that guy cut me off in traffic. They shouldn't talk about such inappropriate things, such as the ones that were on the TV show I'm so in love with the other night. I tell them not to do the very thing that I am most often guilty of!

Is it me, or is it that telling students (and myself for that matter) that "swearing is bad, don't do it" just isn't getting the job done? I can tell myself that from now until the end of time, and until it's replaced by something else, I don't think it will ever truly take hold. And I'm not talking about replacing the F-Bomb with the word "Freakin" or any other Christian swear words. I'm talking about replacing it with something wholesome and good.

Paul writes that instead of these vulgar words we should let there be thanksgiving. What if we worked on replacing our destructive language with thanks and praise? What if even in the most upsetting situations we were able to find the positives and build people up? What if instead of trying just to get through the day without saying a word we wouldn't want our mother's to hear, we let our lights shine, illuminating the world instead of hiding from it?

I know I have something to work on. Because the truth of the matter is you can tell the kids what the Bible says or why they shouldn't say those words for days and weeks and months and years, but if you haven't learned the lesson yourself, if you're not living it, they'll never change their ways.

Hows about 5:21-33 for tomorrow. Feminists and Fundamentalists beware!

Godspeed,

J

The War of Art: A Book Review!

(Note: I started working on both of these posts earlier in the day, but I was really disappointed with the writing. This is saying something, as most of my blog posts go up without any editing at all! Anyway, sorry for the delay. Enjoy!)

Hey gang!

Bible study forthcoming today. But in the meantime, I read a book! We should throw a small parade or something.

I actually found The War of Art from Donald Miller's blog. I have been thinking a lot about improving my skills as a writer, and when his list of books you should read crossed my eyes, I hopped on Amazon and got to the reading. I started with the War of Art, and I'm instantly hooked on it!

The basic idea of the book is that to be a creative artist, you have do dedicate yourself to the task at hand. Steven Pressfield takes the romance out of being an artist and reminds us that it takes some pretty serious work to give birth to our creations. The book is mostly geared towards those artists who are full time freelancers, but I think there are a few applications for the rest of us as well.

1. Resistance is brutal.
Pressfield actually personifies that demonic force that keeps us from getting our stuff done. It's in the room with me right now. It's standing between me and the pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen. It's winning. Some people call this "writer's block", but when Pressfield labeled it as Resistance, it opened the door to all kinds of different areas of our lives than just writing. Resistance talked me into quitting the gym. He's talked me out of finishing my next sermon. He's a crafty little devil he is!

2. Act Like A Pro
This was huge for me. When I first started writing songs and playing guitar, I saw it as a kind of hobby. It wasn't what I did, it was what I did when I didn't have anything else to do. And yet, when I'm not in a band, when I don't have a place to let my music out, I feel empty and hollow. It's taken me forever to come to terms with labeling myself a "musician" or an "artist," but that's exactly what I am. Pressfield would tell me that it's not only ok to call myself what I am, but to embrace it and run towards it as though I was a professional. An amateur only pecks away at their calling from time to time, as though it were some kind of hobby. A pro runs full speed after what they love, willing to toss it all overboard for the next gig or the next project.

Spiritually, the book goes everywhere and seems to embrace a multitude of faith ideas from Christianity to Muses and Greek Mythology. However, if you can work with that and some pretty colorful language from time to time, I think this book is a huge help to worship leaders in particular. I wouldn't chuck it out for youth pastors either though, because we face resistance on a near daily basis. You can pick it up from Amazon by following the link below!

Godspeed,

Jason