I dream for the day when there will be no needy persons among us…

I know my dream didn’t originated with me. I was reading again in Acts 2 and 4 of what I would call the DNA of the early church. Qualities and characteristics that flowed naturally out a believers life. Sure there is commitment to the apostles teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship and to prayer. I think one of the characteristics of the early church that we miss today in the church is the open-handedness that these early Jesus followers had with one another.

A couple of verses from my quiet time really spoke to me this morning:

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone has he had need” (Acts 2:44-45)

“All the believers were on in heart and mind. No one claimed that nay of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had…there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostle’s feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (Acts 4:32,34).

What a concept?! The church was selfless, not driven by materialistic impulses and cared deeply enough about each other that there were no needy persons among them. I wonder what would happen within our congregations if we really believed and practiced this sort of open-handedness? Why, it would shock people. I venture, there would be some who would frown at this concept. Their mentality being, “well, I worked hard for these things, and my money, and I will decide in what way I will spend it.” I don’t think Christians have an option do we? If we are truly seeking God, where is our focus to be? On seeking the kingdom of God first. I think the parable of the rich young ruler haunts to many of our congregations today. Compared to the rest of the world, we are rich people, and yet there are poor among us. There are probably very wealthy congregations, and yet there are families who are straining to barely get by. Our mindset is totally focused on our stuff, and getting more of it, that we’ve forgotten that our money, and our stuff don’t really belong to us any way. The rich young ruler asks Jesus a question about doing in order to get into heaven. Certainly there is a need for good upstanding people to be good moral people, but when following Jesus gets tough is when Jesus tells the rich young man to sell all his stuff and give the money to the poor. The church today hears this parable and we say, “you tell him, Jesus.” And we pretend that these words don’t apply to us. I know some will protest, “I have a mortgage payment, and a car payment, and other various bills.” Okay, fine, but where is the rest of your money going? Towards eating out all the time, to buy the latest and greatest gadgets? I think it shows how much love God by the way we spend our money.

I still long for the day when at my church, there will be no needy persons among us. I pray that this is your dream too. I think this sort of mentality about being open-handed will be attractive to lost people. And we have some people come for the wrong reasons, to have their physical needs met, and when they come, it is up to the church to respond to also care for the deeper needs of the person. I think if we used worldly wealth to gain friends for ourselves as Jesus talked about, then we truly are living missionally. Jesus makes a hard statement about our money, not indicating that we are to buy friendship, but as we use our money, we are being a friend to those who have needs. We are living out the parable of the Good Samaritan. We are being a neighbor to those in need and not afraid to give. Maybe one day the church will wake up!

“Lord, use me.”

If you’ve ever experienced disappointment it is easy to get tangled in the web of woe that follows. But, through this all my prayer is always “Lord, use me.” I have had times in my life when I have felt like Joseph, and I can say, “you meant that to harm me, but God meant for God.” I love the Joseph story, because if there is a guy who understands disappointment, hardship, and let downs it is Joseph. The youngest son of an aging father, his brothers in their jealousy dispose of him and go about their lives as if nothing ever happened. But, from the moment Joseph was placed in the pit, and sold into slavery, God was with him. His time with Poitphar, and in the dungeon were all times of God’s presence and training for Joseph.

So, I sit this morning, with some big things on my heart this morning. But, I sit here in the presence of one who is bigger than my baggage and is leading me and using me in the way he wants me to serve. I am grateful for his guidance and his leading, even when I can’t see the outcome. He is so faithful.

is there a cut-off point for to much help?

When I read Scripture it becomes quite clear that God cares deeply for the plight of the poor. One place that drives this point home is Deuteronomy 15:1-18. All through the OT God is concerned about justice. God cares deeply about righting the wrongs in our world and in and among his people. Jesus spoke and taught as well, about a kingdom value that seeks to care for the widowed, orphan and poor (cf. Matthew 25). As followers of Jesus, as people praying for the coming of Kingdom more fully on earth as in heaven we are called to serve our communities and our brothers and sisters.

How does your congregation serve the poor? How does your congregation care for the poor? Is there a limit in the help that a family or an individual receive. OT doesn’t seem to limit the help a person can receive. After all, in Deut 15 the chapter opens with the year of canceling all debts. In Matthew 25, Jesus doesn’t limit the help to the least of these, does he? He doesn’t seem to be concerned about any one ever taking advantage of the help he gave. Sure there were those that came only to be entertained or to receive a free lunch, but Jesus still loved them. As a church, is there a line? I don’t think there is. But, what else could we as the church be doing to invest ourselves in our communities? I am grateful to work of Larry James and others who are invested in their communities and making a difference.

The mission Jesus gave us to go and make disciples begins with a relationship with Jesus. We can’t pass on the good news of what God has done in and through Jesus without first being a child of the King. We have forgotten as well, that part of our mission of sharing the good news is serving those who are poor. In Luke 4, Jesus opens with a quote from Isaiah, that talks about proclaiming release to the prisoner, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, etc. We are called to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. I heard Jeff Walling compare this to a VBS class. All the little kids come into the class and are given objects already cut, ready to be glued or whatever. Who made those projects? The little one’s found the work that was already prepared. God is the same way for us. We are called to live the mission everywhere. When we see a need, I believe God wants to us to meet it. Whether it a be a single pregnant teenager with no hope for a better tomorrow, or a strung out drug addict with present. God loves the loser, the weary, the addict, the hungry, the poor. When we join God in this mission to do kingdom work, we are being Jesus to those we met, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Cor. 5).

Winterfest recap: Arlington, Tx ‘08

Intense. Moving. Real. These are the words I would use to describe Winterfest down in Arlington this year. Our kids had a great time and were challenged and many kids recommitted themselves to being a follower of Jesus. Three kids, that I know of have given themselves to Christ. Sunday night our youth group and church family rejoiced in the baptism of two new family members.

I want you to check this video out. It is intense and is a powerful depiction of real life and Christ’s amazing love:

I know it’s not about getting a kid to be emotional, but sometimes we forget just how real and how loving Christ is. I know I sat there and was awed by the story on the stage, and while the details are different, it is all of our stories. Wrecked lives in need of grace, and the truth of no matter how far we may go, he is right there fighting to get back to us.

Family ministry

As a youth minister the last 4.5 years it has become increasingly obvious to me that in order for the youth ministry to be successful, in order for the church to he healthy there must be a focus on the health of the family.

Here are a couple of quotes from a family ministry class I am taking at LCU:

“The Postmodern church is facing a looming crisis of inconceivable magnitude. This crisis is the result of the subtle yet sweeping decision to shift the church’s primary task from building a strong, vibrant faith community that is called, empowered, and equipped to serve a lost, broken world to developing programmatic structure that separates and segments the church into small, generationally homogeneous, unconnected factions in order to keep pace with the Jones’ church down the street. Fragmentation is the most apt description of the postmodern church… The church has become a programmatic shell around which the various other ministries of the church loosely orbit.”

Pam Erwin quoting Chap Clark

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“It is a sad fact of life that often the stronger the youth program in the church, and the more deeply the young people of the church identify with it, the weaker the chances are that those same young people will remain in the church when they grow too old for the youth program. Why? Because the youth program has become a substitute for participation in the church… When the kids outgrow the youth program, they also outgrow what they have come to know of the church.”Ben Patterson

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I recently spoke with a friend who has been ministering to families and youth for more than twenty years and who has an obvious passion for families in the church. I was seeking his wisdom and counsel as I sorted through my own research and thoughts for this book. We discussed ways that churches might minister to families more effectively and what the needs of today’s families are. I also asked him what he felt was the biggest issue facing churches in their ministries to families. He said, “In most churches in America today, the ministries are detrimental to families. I call it ‘fragmentation of the family by design.’” As I processed my friend’s comments, I realized he was accurate in his assessment. Most of what we do in our churches, even when we call it family ministry, serves to disrupt, disconnect, and divide families. Through this book, I hope those of us in ministry will begin to think differently–to not only change the way we do ministry, but to change the way we think about ministry – Pam Erwin

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“Therefore, when I advocate that youth ministers take a hard look at the family, I am not suggesting that they take family ministry and add it as number sixty-three on the “when I have time” priority list. What I am advocating is an entirely different paradigm for youth ministry–a paradigm based not on how many kids we can get to meetings but on how effective we can be in leading young people to mature Christian adulthood. After all, is this not the reason we all immersed ourselves in youth ministry in the first place? It is time to return to a vision for this purpose. The day has arrived when leadership must courageously, and sometimes radically, take steps toward embracing the nurturing roles of the students’ nuclear biological family and spiritual extended family. The time has come for “parenting” rather than “orphaning” structures” – Mark Devries
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A couple of thoughts on the family:

I agree that the way we practice ministry in churches promotes the problem of fragmentation by generational groups. What would happen to our churches if we realigned our ministries to incorporate a sense of togetherness. For instance what if on Sunday morning Bible class we sent families to class together? And instead of keeping our kids out of the worship assembly we included them, what if service projects and mission trips were advertised and promoted as opportunities to serve in ministry together. A shift is needed in our churches, one that will capture the needs of families, one that paint a portrait of a real, vibrant faith community, and promote and an ongoing faith dialogue between parents and kids. I suspect that a lot of the families that our ministries currently service are not in constant faith dialogue with each other. What I mean by this is this, that moms and dads aren’t talking about the Word of God, that they aren’t looking for the work of God in the world, or can’t see it because of the busyness of their family calendar. Families are to busy, stressed, and tired, and relate to one another with en empty tank.

Any of y’all out there asking the same things? Or even thinking similar thoughts? How is your congregation ministering to the whole families?

no good, terrible, very bad day

That could be the title for my Buckeyes aim at another national title, only to fall short. I give my Buckeyes props though. They made it to the title shot, had a good season, and won the Big Ten. Not bad. Now, if we could just beat the SEC in the big dance.

Next Year’s college football prediction for the BCS Title Game:

OSU vs. Georgia

OSU wins 42-10

NCYM:recap from the last day

It is tough to write about a place you hate to leave. Saturday night, the last night of the conference was a good night. The worship was moving, and the entertainment for the evening was excellent. I enjoyed the round table-ish discussion that Jeff Walling, Buddy Bell and Don McLaughlin took part in. They answered the questions we are asking as youth ministers, as church leaders. It was especially good to hear them speak from their hearts and all agreed that they don’t have this stuff fully figured out. There was a comment that touched my wound though, that God also healed as well. It was a comment, I am sure, that God saved until the end of the week to bring me a to place of brokenness and healing. Don McLaughlin talked about our weakness and ministering out of weakness. For out of our weakness God’s strength overflows. I don’t remember exactly how he said it, but the way he said was what I needed to hear. Somewhere on this journey of youth ministry I have listened to the lies from the enemy, that I am no good, that my ministry stinks, that nothing is changing. I constantly wrestle with seeing the good that has come from my ministry. My wife elbowed me in a loving wifely way at what Don said. Her nudge was a, “I told you so,” nudge. Jen has always seen the good in what I do, even when I can’t see it. I couldn’t have been lead to a better, more wonder woman to have as a ministry partner. As I was listening to what Don was saying, it dawned on me that indeed, God is at work in my weaknesses, and in my frailties. He is powerful when I am weak. For me that comment was a powerful reminder.

Jeff Walling asked us to pick a couple of things that were especially challenging that we are taking home to focus on. Here’s my list:

1. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.

• Often, in my walk I have had a hard time embracing God’s love fully. Once I take my eyes off his love, I begin to feel less than human, I feel enslaved to the things that don’t matter.
• Once my perspective is renewed I can rest in my identity as the beloved of God and not just a professional minister.
• God made a way for my wife and I to be at the conference when there seemed to be no way. I have a renewed understanding of the Lord as my Provider, not as genie or a God that I can manipulate, but as Sovereign over all of the universe. The last couple of weeks reminds me of the time when the Lord hide Moses in the cleft of the rock and passed by him. I feel that Jen and I have seen the Lord pass by.

2. The church is not the buidling:

• Jeff Walling did a series of classes on the missional church. It was good stuff, one of the fundamental things we discussed was that placing special emphasis on a place or a building is not the plan of God at the outset of the church. Duh, the church is the people, not the place.
• In order to impact our communities the church must leave the building.
• This missional stuff sure is messy, but my God is the God of the mess.

3. Hang on

• I know that I could pick a whole host of other points to write about as things I take away from the conference, and indeed there is more, i.e., the role of the Spirit in my life and in my ministry, the importance of the spiritual disciplines. But, I am reminded, encouraged to hang in there. I know there are other guys and gals that come to the conference every year hanging by a thread, and are renewed and encouraged and even find some more rope to hang too or solid ground to stand on. I have rediscovered a passion for youth ministry and found new rope!!

4. This generation of teens needs to see authentic expressions of discipleship

• Chap Clark in his book Hurt, writes about the systemic abandonment that our teens are experiencing. Our teens are leaving our churches after graduating high school, and many of them are hungry for meaningful adult relationships, particularly with their families.
• This generation is willing to roll their sleeves up and serve, wherever, however, and whomever.

• This generation expresses themselves differently than the gen-x, Boomers, and the WWW2 generation. Different expression isn’t sinful, just different.
• Families need to be reminded, encouraged to fight for their families
  • One of the questions that teenagers are asking, is “mom, dad, will you fight for me?” This generation of young people has been abandoned by the adult institutions. I recommend a very troubling book, Hurt by Dr. Chapman Clark. Clark’s book looks at the abandonment that teens feel. By and large, our young are growing up and going off to college and leaving the church behind. There is a great verse in Nehemiah 4 that drives this point home. You Nehemiah was given the task to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, well this was a daunting task. They got started and faced some difficulty. Look at chapters 1-4, but zero in on 4:1-14, ” 13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. 14After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Notice what Nehemiah does, he makes the struggle that Israel faced urgent and personal. Nehemiah challenged the people to fight their families. Are you willing to do the same. What are the exposed places in your family that is most susceptible to attack? We have to defend those places.

NCYM: recap of Friday

Once again, there is just so much to write about. The exhibition booths and the folks who have manned these booths have been friendly and warm, and generous as they have given away a lot of cool free things to us. The Hilton here in Atlanta has been amazing. Everyone that works here has been warm and grateful for our being here.

But, I want to share a story that has spoke me more than the words this brother has spoken. There is no shortage of talented, grace infused brothers and sisters that have come to this conference to speak and to share their hearts. One of these talented brothers is Don McLauglin from right in ATL. I haven’t heard Don speak much, but the few times I have he is so powerful, so convicting. His key note session last night was one of those convicting and powerful times when God speaks loud and clear through a brother. Don used Colossians 2:13-23 as his text and he spoke about the problem at Colosse being a Jesus problem, and he spoke about our problem in the church in America being a Jesus problem too. The problem has been the decentering of Jesus with other things of lesser importance. He spoke of wasted opportunities to help move people closer to Jesus as we bicker of issues that have business arguing over. His remedy was that the cross decenters all the immaterial things and places Jesus and focus on him as the center. Don talked about how this generation of young people are looking for authenticity. Kids want to see how what we preach meshes with how we live. Well, Don amazed me in a profound way. Several hours before his evening keynote session, I happened to see him in the bathroom. There was a pile of used paper towels that had managed to miss the trash can and were laying in a heap at the foot of the trash can. Here is this preacher, widely traveled and well known. He could have walked right by and it would have been cool. I got to be in the bathroom with brother McLaughlin. Don, paused then stooped low and picked up the paper towels. I was astounded. He was modeling what he preaches. His words last night at the key note session were inspiring, encouraging, convicticting. His sermon he preached in the bathroom was his authentic expression of following Jesus. Don, thanks for the living sermon.

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The classes continue to be amazing. I had the privelege of sitting at Dr. Carson Reed’s feet. I have read his blog for sometime, and it was good to finally get to meet him yesterday. His class was on the Gospel of Matthew and how we can see Matthew’s literary structure as a didactic tool as well as painting a grand picture of Jesus.

Chris Seidman’s classes on the Holy Spirit have been amazing. Last year in Colorado Springs, I sat at his feet for a couple of days and heard some great teaching on and about the Spirit. Once again, this year as his series continues, I am amazed again at just how little I know about the Spirit of God. I can testify though that as Chris has prodded our thinking that I am beginning to see places where God has been moving and how the Spirit has been involved.

Yesterday morning started with an early morning devotional with Dr. Randy Harris. He told a story of an olympic diver who stood at the edge of the diving board and then back away, this went on for a while until finally, the diver climbed down the ladder. Later, the diver was asked why he couldn’t jump and he said something to this effect, “I realized at that moment, I had been training for the Olympics all my life, and as I stood there, I realized that this is not what I want to do any more. If I ever dive again, it will be because I choose to, not because I have too.” How powerful, how profound. Randy, related that to the spiritual discipline of relinquishment, just laying it down. I know I have needed to lay down youth ministry for a while and I feel like finally I can pick it back up.

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I am honored by all the care and concern that just oozes out of the Board and the shepherds that have come to just love on us. God loves me, this I know.

NCYM:recap day 2

I want to begin with a haunting question, well a phrase really that was made last night about our enjoyment and excitement about being in youth ministry. Buddy Bell talked about the passion of enjoying what we do. I used to feel the unbelievable excitement about getting to do this work. I used to wake up and marvel, that I get paid to work with teenagers. Flash forward two years, and I lost the sense of wonder. I played the part when I needed to, but somewhere over two years of ministry joy turned into just a job. Last night through the Buddy’s words and the work of the Spirit in my life I am reawakening to the joy of being in ministry. I came here just about on the brink of hanging up my youth ministry hat. It’s not because I have had a bad experience, or faced difficult people. I guess I was at a place where joy was replaced by duty and wonder was replaced by worry about getting paid. Father forgive me for being more concerned about the size of my check than the lives of those you’ve called me to minister to.

Where do I begin. I had planned to attend the early morning devo time with Dr. Randy Harris. I over slept, so I waited around our room this morning and hung out with my little one and my wife. The morning general session was cool. I had never heard of Shane Clairborne before. Dude’s got dread locks and a scruffy beard, not the image of a regular pastor kind of guy. His message of revolution, actually taking the words of Jesus seriously about loving God and loving our neighbor was so insightful, so simple, and yet so profound. For Shane, Jesus is his constant pursuit, the joy of the pursuit, his best friend and the one who inspires his radical committment to be His hands and feet in this world. The world needs God’s people to embrace the missional mindset, to see ourselves as the church now, to see ourselves as the living embodiment of Jesus Christ in our families, in our communities, in the world. My wife bought Shane’s book for me. I am looking forward to spending time with his book and being challenged.

Class time is always special here at the conference. I went to Chris Seidman’s class on the Power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and then to a class about the connection of the Spirit to water in Scripture. Seidman is always insightful and his class was great. Two things stuck with me from my time in his classes. The metaphor of the flood as a picture of judgment and how NT writers ( 1 Peter 3:21) makes the connection or compares baptism to the flood, how when we go down into the water we are agreeing the world we live in, that our own lives are out of whack, they are messed up and we are inviting God’s judgment on us, and asking for renewal which is what the flood really did, cleansed the world of the yuck. Something else that I found interesting is the connection that Chris made with the image of the dove at creation, and then again at the flood with the Holy Spirit. Chris spoke about the baptism of Jesus and how the Spirit descencds upon him. And like the dove in the flood account, lands on the place where the water recedes. Jesus is the place where the water receeds, the place of God’s judgment, and source of renewal. Deep stuff.

I went to Jeff Walling’s class on the missional church. Walling is Walling. He asked us at the beginning of the session what has been the biggest curse on the church historically? Really the biggest curse has been the move away from house churches in the context of persecution to church buildings. Persecuted communities lived committed, for so many of our brothers and sisters have given up their lives for the sake of the gospel. Our language today in the church about going to church, to do church is dreadful. For we have allowed our mindset to be building centered as if the building is a holy place. We really have lost a sense of the holiness of the people. Jeff’s class was good and insightful and I am looking forward to tomorrow.

I also went to Don McLaughlin’s class on contextualizing the purity conversation in 2008. Don’s big premise was that our kids are so inundated with sexual images and temptations today, that it is a tough, cruel world our kids live in, and we shouldn’t try to ignore the purity issues in our churches or our world. Parents have to come to terms with the fact that all young people will struggle with sexual issues as an adolescent. We mustn’t abandon them in their struggles.

Tonight’s worship time was moving. I know that crying when you sing isn’t the tell tale sign of a good worship experience, but two songs tonight especially moved me and it has been a long time since a song moved me. As the conference continues I continue to feel God fill my cup.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

NCYM: travel and day one

We rolled out of Duncan, Ok at 6:30 am on Monday morning, go to Memphis, TN around 6:30 pm, and spent the night there. Actually we met my folks there, who had come to get our oldest two girls and take them back to their home while we attend our conference.

We got to see alot of Arkansas, some of Western Tennessee, and a the north west corner of Mississipi and Alabama before we got to Atlanta. My wife and I had never been to or through either Mississippi or Alabama.

We rolled into the Airport Hilton around 5:30 pm on Tuesday.

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Today, our conference activities didn’t start till around 5pm, with worship beginning at 7:30m pm. So, earlier today we toured the Coke Museum ate lunch at P.F. Chang’s and then searched for a Walmart. We went exploring today around Atlanta with a former partner in youth ministry in the Duncan area and two new friends of ours we met through the conference and camp. It was bitter cold today in Atlanta. The kind of bone biting cold that us Okies don’t know to much about. The coke musuem wasn’t bad. I thought the admission was a little high, but the taste room was pretty neat.

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Tonight we were challenged with the idea of emptying our cups of all the stuff we come to the conference with. And to refill our cups to overflowing with the Presence, Power and Provision of God.

Our theme text this week: 

11-13May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from us to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers. (1 Thesslanonians 3:11-13)

We’ve come to the conference with cups full. Full of distractions, full of junk, and full of ingratitude. Tonight, God began to empty our cups and fill us with Him as we were reminded to be express our gratitude towards God. We were challenged to see “thank you,” as the password and key to our ministry.

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After the key note session, it was good to catch up with some friends and to express our gratitude to the NCYM board for the help they provided in getting here. As I write this tonight I am in awe at how God has provided for us over and over. He has made a way over and over when there seemed to be no way. A couple of months ago, we were convinced that we weren’t going to be able to be here, but through God’s infinite mercy and kindness we are here, and I thank Him!