iGens and Nobody's Happy

I was listening to the Net @ Night podcast with Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane (standing in for Amber MacArthur) the other night. Somehow the subject they started talking about was a portion of the Conan O'Brien show from earlier in the week. This was an interesting, because Scot McKnight, a theologian and blogger that I regularly read just got done with a series about the book Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before. Both of these hit on the unique subject that with everything we have, people are more miserable. I see this with the youth group kids and the some people in church. Listening to the podcast Money Life with Chuck Bentley, he has been hammering the fact that we have put ourselves into debt to buy things that end up making us miserable. So we keep trying to earn money to buy our happiness, only to be unfulfilled. I won't go into details, but there are people that I am close to that they haven't figured that out yet. In fact, they once told me that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I think that in the coming years, that America will realize that we need to change...

Dealing with discouragement?

I subscribe to and read a lot of ministry blogs, especially youth ministry. I found this while reading this morning. Here’s the lead in:

If you haven’t been discouraged in youth ministry yet, hang on, you will be. Discouragement is a part of the profile we cannot avoid.  How we respond makes all the difference.

I agree whole heartedly, most of the pain in the church is compounded with the poor way in which discouragement is handled. Doug Ranck points out a good process to deal with it when it comes knocking at your door.

Here’s the link.

Cross posted at Big Ticket Festival Ministers' Connection.

Expectations in Ministry

I listen to a lot of podcasts, read a lot of blogs, and keep up with things on some of the bigger social media sites. I love to learn, especially when it comes to ministry and specifically, youth ministry.

So recently, I was listening to the Fuller Youth Institute podcast with Kara Powell. She was interviewing Leroy Barber on Sabbath Rest for urban youth workers.

During the interview, there was an interesting interchange about senior pastors expectations for youth pastors. One youth pastor talked to his senior pastor and told him that they probably wouldn't see fruit for 5 years. His senior pastor accepted that. That seems to me, not to be the norm. While sitting in a youth worker seminar at a Youth Specialties convention, Len Evans brought out a interesting statistic (at least I think this is where I got it from the convention was in 2002) that youth pastors time expectancy at a job is, on average 3 years.

We are called by God, whether we have a degree or not, to walk slowly beside the ones we minister and realize that once the salvation has started that is a long process of healing and reorienting their life toward the path that God would have them take.

I look at this website, the Facebook group, the MySpace page, and Twitter account as a way to facilitate that process. We are all here to walk next to each other whether in paid ministry or in volunteer ministry and help each with the path that God has appointed us to and help spread the Light of His Word.

Cross posted at Big Ticket Festival Ministers Connection

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If you have a light, You can't hide it

The Daily reading from a podcast and a separate website that I read for Today (Jan. 29)...

Mark 4:21-25

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Would you bring in a lamp to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on the lamp-stand? For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’
He also said to them, ‘Take notice of what you are hearing. The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given – and more besides; for the man who has will be given more; from the man who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’

A statement in the podcast was, (paraphrasing here) Jesus would heal someone and then tell them to remain quiet about it, as if to hide it, but they never seemed to be able to do it. It was as if He was the living example of this passage. "Would you bring in a lamp to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on the lamp-stand? For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light." He could no more keep himself hidden because He was a light to the world.

Are you being a light? So if you tried to remain quiet about things that you do that would please God, would they be shown to the world anyway?

The Secret Life of the American Teenager - Thoughts

I'm glad the youth of America want the unvarnished truth:

And research suggests teens do want the awful truth: Three-quarters say they would like the media to talk more about the consequences of sex, according to a 2007 study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

'Secret Life of the American Teenager' explores teen pregnancy - Los Angeles Times

I just hope that Hollywood would get the message and not send us more unrealistic stuff. I'm middle of the road on the series. It has good moments and statistics, but sometimes falls back on stereotypes for some of the dialog. However, it's not bad.

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My dad's encounter with an atheist

A conversation that my dad had with an atheist was brought to the forefront recently, while attending my uncle Bruce's funeral.

Anyway, it was a wake-up call for me that came alive again this past week as I traveled to Southwest Virginia to honor the memory of a fallen comrade, my sister’s husband, Bruce. The Fort Hill UMC was packed…300 strong, to honor this man who had only been a part of their congregation for five years.

A portion of the poem that was read at his funeral:

Not – How did he die? But – How did he live?/Not – What did he gain, But - What did he give?

These are the things that measure the worth of a man, as a man, regardless of birth.

The whole post is here:View Original Article

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I love C. S. Lewis!

If we retain only what can be justified by standards of prudence and convenience at he bar of enlightened common sense, then we exchange revelation for that old wraith Natural Religion. - C. S. Lewis

Rick Warren Interview: On Gay Marriage and Divorce - Beliefnet.com

Rick Warren Interview: On Gay Marriage and Divorce - Beliefnet.com

Rick Warren nails my views on gay marriage. My thought has been that gay and lesbians can have civil unions, but as a church, we do not have to bless them, just as we need to deal with two heterosexual people living together before being married, or deal with someone who is doing x. Sin is sin we should not bless it. We should love the person, respect them, and pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their sin.

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Interesting stats with evangelicals and recessions

I saw this on the NY Times page today, thanks to BW3:

Dr. Beckworth, a macroeconomist, posited another theory: though expanding demographically since becoming the nation’s largest religious group in the 1990s, evangelicals as a whole still tend to be less affluent than members of mainline churches, and therefore depend on their church communities more during tough times, for material as well as spiritual support. In good times, he said, they are more likely to work on Sundays, which may explain a slower rate of growth among evangelical churches in nonrecession years.

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches - NYTimes.com

The first part is great. I see that in our own church. We help those that have a need. However, there are two things about the part I highlighted. Either it is good, because we are finding people who come to know Christ after trying to do it their way and working 7 days a week, with no rest; or it s bad because we are forgetting who truly provides for us, and become swept up in the consumeristic hype of prosperity. This would almost signal a cycle that the nation of Israel had in the Old Testament.

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Chuck Colson's take on Blogojevich

Commentary: I know what Illinois governor feels like now - CNN.com

I like this quote from Mr. Colson:

At the height of Watergate, a dear friend of mine, Tom Phillips, then CEO of Raytheon, invited me to his home. As we sat in his kitchen, Tom read to me a chapter on pride from a little book by C.S. Lewis titled "Mere Christianity."

Lewis wrote, "There is one vice of which no man in the world is free. ... The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-conceit. .... Pride leads to every other vice. ... A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. ... Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."

I couldn't agree more. I see it in the mirror in the morning and I see in the kids we work with.

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I'm not as frustrated

I feel blessed this morning. I have a post that is brewing about justice and Christmas, but that can wait for a day or two. I was beginning to feel frustrated lately with the media again. It has to do with the typical things that are job related. Public perception of the forecast, the media's role in causing the confusion, and trying not to call someone a moron over the phone, while representing the government.

However, as I was on my way into work, I was listening to my usual string of podcasts. My mind was way too distracted during my Bible reading podcast, but when I got to the Pray-as-you-go podcast, I payed attention for some reason.

Matthew 11:28-30 © Jesus exclaimed, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ - Universalis Mass reading.

I realized that my frustration stemmed from me wanting to labor on my own projects, rather than letting go and laboring on the projects that God has given me. I have learned to let things go. After discussions with Brandon today, and yesterday, I don't worry as much about him. We still have some financial problems, but they are manageable. So I am making sure that I have Christ's yoke on me.

This wouldn't fit on Twitter

I have a Google gadget on my iGoogle page that daily gives me C. S. Lewis quotes. Sometimes if I like them I twitter them. In this case it is too big to fit the 140 characters. Here it is:

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. -C. S. Lewis

Tyra ‘shocked’ by risky teen sex

Tyra ‘shocked’ by risky teen sex - Parenting & Family - TODAYshow.com

I guess Tyra doesn't get out much. While I don't doubt some of the information, this survey is skewed by who goes and takes it. It doesn't have any scientific validity, so I question the statistics.

But when some of girls surveyed came onto her show and described their sexual activities, “I was shocked again,” she added. "I don’t think they were trying to be sensational. I really do believe that they were telling the truth.”

Well, some of them may be telling the truth, but knowing that people fake stuff just to get on Jerry Springer, then I think that Tyra is really naive.

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Students say the darnedest things

This site is hilarious. Some youth workers put the statements of some of their youth on the site.

Students say the darnedest things.

HT: Youth Specialties blog

Advent Conspiracy for this year...

I would like to rant...

however, I can't. There have been some things that go on with youth pastors and churches that I can't elaborate on at this point. Part of the problem is that I have a heart for the hurting youth pastors, who have been used and abused by churches. I once attended a NYWC in Pittsburgh in 2002. There I saw a seminar entitled "The Church has Fangs," or how some churches don't always act very Christian-like, with Len Evans. My church at the moment is pretty good. We have some typical things, but most of those things seem to have smoothed out as grace has been applied. I need to remember that grace when I get angry about situations where the church has shown its fangs.

Since that seminar, and then later during a guided prayer session in Dallas (2004) at another NYWC, I saw youth workers crying and in my heart, I felt God whispering in my spirit of me being a pastor/spiritual director to youth pastors. In the meantime, I read everything about youth ministry. I talk to kids. I look for ways to speak into their lives. In short as "Tiger" McLuen once said, "Be a Bob." (I won't tell the whole story, but it has to do with building a relationship with kids.)

This has taken my faith into radically new directions at times as I question what the Christian church really wants.

I question those that think that their buildings are more important than their kids.

I question those that don't look at the youth as worth the effort. They question why the need for a youth program.

I question those that seem to stay in their comfortable country club and think that their tradition is the only correct theology. There is a difference, and I have to constantly go back to God to question whether I am letting that interfere with my relationship with Christ.

That last one was a poke at some denominationalism that I have run into as of late.

I like to think that when I get mad at a church that it is a holy anger. I'm just not sure that I always channel it constructively like Christ did when He healed on the sabbath in the book of Mark.

On a twitter post I said something about the Republican party hijacked Christianity. I don't agree with the Republican party because they have some unholy planks that most ignore. The Democrats are no different. I look for who agrees most with me.

Instead of spreading the wealth that Obama would like, if Christians were just generous to the poor and oppressed, Show mercy and do Justice, their wouldn't be a need to spread the wealth.

While I agree with a couple of big issues that the political parties talk about, most ignore the mercy and justice that needs to be done at their own home.

I wrestle with these things.

Someday, I'll write what I am trying to not rant about, but it is too soon for the things to have happened, and I can't even speak in generalities at this point without tipping my hand.

However, as I think about it, all of this has to do with pride, and being self centered. I admit that I struggle with that. I know that I am not always right.

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An Extended Youth

This is an interesting article which I'm not sure what to do with. If this is the case, then the church has some serious work to do in training up its leaders, or place more emphasis on "youth ministry."

The youth market has always been defined as tweens, teens, and sometimes college students, but Viacom's recent "Golden Age of Youth" study reveals that marketers should begin including the 25-34 age group as part of their youth target. Call it the Peter Pan syndrome if you will, but the survey found that contemporary twentysomethings prolong their youth and delay "the onset of adult responsibilities and stay emotionally and physically younger for longer."
Why do you think the "youth market" has expanded? Boomeranging millennials moving back home? Youth culture as pop culture? What's behind this alleged case of arrested development?

View Original Article


HT: ypulse.com

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evangelical teenagers and sex

The hat tip goes to ysmarko with this. Although, I read the article from the youth marketing site called Ypulse. It brings about a good point that behavior doesn't always follow attitude, especially with teens.

interesting article in the new yorker about evangelical teenagers and sex. important reading for youth workers (and parents).

here’s an extremely key sentence:

Regnerus argues that religion is a good indicator of attitudes toward sex, but a poor one of sexual behavior, and that this gap is especially wide among teen-agers who identify themselves as evangelical.

(ht to ypulse)

View Original Article

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Hearing God...an explanation

Here is a remark I made yesterday on Twitter: 

Second time today that God has said don't look at your feet while listening to a sermon.

Where upon my brother-in-law responded:

Without context, may I gently point out just how crazy this makes you sound? - Brendon

I agree it sounds quite weird. However, after working my 9 hour shift, I don't always communicate what I'm thinking in a clear way. Not to mention that I've always had a bit of a crazy streak, just ask my sister, my wife, my kids, and former roommates.

Okay, the explanation.

Toward the end of the shift, I was listening to Rob Bell on the Mars Hill Bible Church (Michigan) and he mentioned that there is a rabbinical tradition that says and I'm paraphrasing, you need to keep your head up and see that God has parted the sea for you, or else if you constantly look at your feet you'll begin to complain that the mud is getting all over your feet.

Then while I was in early service at Gaylord Community Church, Pastor Steve made a remark that you need to keep your head up and not stare at your feet.

I took that as a gentle reminder from God that I need to remember to keep my head up and look to where God is taking me, rather than looking down at my feet, i.e. my current situation and grumble about it.

Actually, now that I thnk about it, I'm supposed to tell that to somebody else, but that's another story.

So no, I'm not hearing voices in my head.