The lesson of 7th Heaven AKA Help I'm about to be the father of a PK!

I have a confession to make.  I was just sitting in Panera Bread (The restaurant that nine out of ten hip young pastors prefer in a national taste test), and I was hit with the startling realization that in just a few short months I am going to be the father of a preachers kid.

 Some of you may not understand why this thought  is an unnerving feeling to me so let me explain.  I have come in contact with a lot of preachers kids (or PK's as there known on the street).  I have interacted with them at church camps, at my home church, had them in youth group and even dated one and dated and married another.  It has been my experience that PK's are always held to a higher standard than the rest of the kids in the community and the Church.

    For some reason it is automatically assumed that if a kid possess the genes of a preacher that they some how are oblivious of and incapable of sinning, and if they do they should be chastised with even more wrath than  the wrath that I chastise my puppy for peeing on my carpet with.  I am not sure why this is, and I'm not sure what to do about it, but I'm nervous.
  
    Let's face it, we all could probably name some pretty rebellious PK's, you may in fact be one.  I blame a lot of my anxiety on the popular show 7th Heaven.  I grew up watching that show and I learned one major lesson for it.  PK kids are messed up!  It seemed like every week Mary, Lucy, Simon, Ruthy, and Matt were always getting into some kind of awkward moral dilemma that would lead their preacher father ever closer to a massive heart attack (which he eventually had I may add).  I'm not really sure how I am going to handle that stress.

So I have a question for all you minister dad's out there.

What steps do you take to make sure that your kids are not help to any higher standard than any other kid in the congregation that you serve?

What steps can I take as a father to make sure my kids don't develop the PK syndrome that will eventually lead me (according to TV) to a career ending ulcer or massive heart attack?

The Arrogance of Youth A.K.A Look at me I'm so humble!

"At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there."

John 8:9

    As I get older I begin to realize that there is a certain arrogance that comes with youth.  The very fact that I just referred to myself as "getting older" at the age of 24 is in fact a pretty arrogant statement to some of you.  I can look back at who I was as a 18 and 19 years old and cringe at the level of arrogance that I carried around with me, especially in my regards to my claims to follow Christ. My mindset often went like this, "I know more than that person when it comes to Jesus, but because I'm humble I'll keep it to myself."  I'm starting to realize that is more arrogant than just out right saying I know more. Feigned humility is the worse kind of arrogance. 

   I find it interesting that in this verse John makes a point to show that it is the older ones that realize their arrogance and in turn are the first to walk away.  

I wonder how long I would have stood there holding a rock in the stage of life I'm in right now?  How much arrogance do I still harbor in my heart?  

There is no better indicator of spiritual immaturity than spiritual arrogance.  

So how about you? How long would you hold your rock?  How do you keep arrogance in check?

Gross cliches' A.K.A Jesus, Barney, and the stripped power of the Gospel.

    I do not like cliche' statements.  Every time I hear some one utter a trite like quip and hide it behind the smoke screen of sage wisdom I throw up in my mouth a little bit.  Ok so I don't do that, mostly because people think it's really gross, and let's admit it, it is gross, but my stomach does start to hurt a little bit.  I believe the point is made cliches are annoying.

    If your sitting there wondering what my definition of a cliche' is let me give you a few examples, in no particular order I give you five common cliches'

1) When God closes a door he opens a window
2) Hate the sin love the sinner
3) Seven days with out prayer makes one weak
4) It takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian (guilty of using this one)
5) God don't make no junk (this one is not even grammatically correct)

    The issue is not the truth in these above statements (although I wonder about some of them), the issue is that when we fire off these type of responses we make our entire belief system pretty laughable, if you need proof of that check out

http://unreasonablefaith.com/ (warning there is some material on here that you will find offensive.)

    It has been my experience that cliche' statements are uttered when someone does not know what else to say.  It has also been my experience that there are few things that do more damage to the Gospel, than packaging it into cute little sayings that fit on certain types of candy.  Our entire way of relating to God and to others begins to take on the look of a bad Barney episode.  Maybe this is part of the reason that James warns us to be slow to speak.

Let me put it this way(even at the risk of creating a cliche');  If were spending our life firing off cute Christian sayings, I have to assume were not spending our life studying the scriptures.  

This can be quite a problem for ministers who stand in front of people every week and try to convey the message of Christ.  Our temptation is to cut the gospel into easy to digest sound bites that the people can easily remember.  Here is the issue though.  Most of the scriptures are deep and challenging, cliches and sound bites do not do them justice and strip them of their power.


It's amazing to me that Jesus was always able to make truth memorable and relevant with out making it cliche'.

So how about you, what cliches have you heard recently, and what steps do you take to make sure you live a cliche' free faith?