-Small Steps Toward Stupid

New Blog Host.

2011-01-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

I have decided to move my blog to another host. This is does not do some of the things I would like it to do. You can find my new blog here http://smallstepstowardstupid.wordpress.com/

Now that I'm not a real minister.

2010-12-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

    I took my first part time youth ministry when I was eighteen years old. Looking back on that I can see how that was good and bad. It was good that it gave me a lot of experience that I have been able to look back on and learn from. It was bad from the stand point that I was eighteen and responsible for kids, that at the most, were two years younger then me. I could say more about that, but that's another blog for another day.

   The reason I bring that up is to say this, for the past seven years of my life beginning straight out of high school, I have been in some form of vocational ministry, mostly part time and full time youth ministry. As of two months ago that was not true anymore. Do not get me wrong I still consider what I do with MACU ministry, but it is in no way the same caliber of intense personal spiritual formation focused work that I have been accustomed to for the past seven years.

Since I have been able to distance myself from that type of work over the past two months I have discovered some observations about myself and the nature of ministry work in general. I would like to share those now. Before you read these, please understand that I am not saying they apply to you as a minister. I am simply stating what I have observed about myself from the lens of being "out of" ministry as it is defined in Church's today.

1) I have a horrible prayer discipline.
    I am beginning to see that in the past I have spent a good part of my prayer time interceding for students and others in the Church. Now that I am not emotionally invested in the lives of 150 people, I am finding it hard to make prayer a priority in my life. What does that say about me? That says that I never really had a prayer discipline to start with. What I had was a job description that I felt required me to pray. In fact, it was in my contract. It can be kind of sobering to realize that what I thought was genuine spirituality may in fact just have been Pharisaical pandering to please the crowd.

2) I read my Bible less, but appreciate it more.
    Let's face it, I used to be paid to read and study my Bible. That is not the case anymore. I have to actually make time in my day to do real Bible reading, and I am discovering that is hard. This has taught me that when I do get back in a full time ministry that I need to ease up on my weekly "Read your Bible or burn" speeches that are delivered to the congregation. I am finding that when I do take the time to really invest myself in scripture that I am appreciating it more than I ever have. It is a lot like getting a really long cold drink of water after running for a long time. Being out of ministry has taught me what it is to truly long after God's word, not just tell other people that they should.

3) I have less sympathy and more respect for ministers when they tell me how busy they are.

    Now before you get all up in arms and start to pull out your calendars to show me how busy you are and give me the speech about how I get to leave my work at the office when I come home etc etc. Let me explain. Let's be really honest as one former minister to one current minister. We can have a tendency to make ourselves look a lot busier then we actually are. Yes there are sick people, dead people, and people that want to get married. Yes there is the weekly lesson/sermon (or maybe even three), and yes there is the constant mental and physical stress that comes from always being in the thick of everyone's problems. Can we just be really honest though? We bring a lot of it on ourselves. I can admit it now because I'm not in it. I lived in a constant state of fear that everyone would think that I did not have a real job. In fact I was told on more then one occasion by a gentleman in my church that what I did was in fact not a real job. Ministry is such an ambiguous sort of work sometimes, and it can be really hard to have real physical signs that anything of worth is getting done so we feel the need to tote around how busy we are all the time. Listen, speaking as a laymen, we know that you are busy. We are as well. We really do appreciate and respect all that you do, but when you feel the need to complain *cough brag cough* about how busy you are I really do not have any sympathy for you.

4) I am a lot less stressed.
It is not that my job is not stressful, but it is a different kind of stress. I am not worrying that the teen that I have invested 5 years of my life in is going to get someone pregnant or hop him or her self up on drugs. I don't think I need to say much more about that.

5) I am finding it a lot harder to be intimately involved with a Church or even have the desire to do so.
I have never had to make myself plug into a Church. I was paid to do that so it was kind of a no brainer. Again, I think this is a real testimony to my actual spiritual health at this point.   What I once thought was undying devotion to the Kingdom of God may in fact have only been a financially motivated semblance of true devotion to biblical community.

    With all that being said, I have come to the conclusion that God is using this time away from vocational ministry to show me some things about myself that need work. It is easy when you are in the thick of it to assume that everything that is done, is being done for the good of the Kingdom when in fact it may be getting done for our own personal gain.

    So to all the ministers out there I say, keep up the good, hard, and much needed work of full time ministry, but please take a few moments and reflect on the reason for your service. To all the hard working laymen out there, take the time to thank and appreciate those around you who are in full time ministry and then stop and reflect on your own devotion to the kingdom. Because in the end we are all ministers of the Kingdom of God.

Resignation Letter

2010-09-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Church Family,

It is hard to put into words what a group of people such as yourselves means to us. In the four + years that we have known you, we can honestly say that we have never met a more generous and grace filled congregation. There is much we could say to express that, but for now we will simply say that we love you all very much. That is why today is a bitter sweet day for us.

On September 17th Jonathan was officially offered a job at Mid Atlantic Christian University as a school recruiter and he has accepted the offer. Effective October 11th 2010 he will no longer hold the position of Associate Minister here at Creeds. This was not a decision that was entered into lightly, but after much prayer and deliberation we believe that God has opened a door for us at MACU that we need to walk through.

I know that there will be a lot of question as to why we have decided to do this and that is fine, but let us be very clear. We are not leaving Creeds because we are unhappy or because of any ill will towards anyone. We are sad to go but we feel that as a couple we have taken the youth program here as far as we can take it. We have learned much and have treasured every moment here. We truly do feel like family, and we always will. The leadership was aware of this decision before this announcement this morning. They are in support of it and they send us off with their blessing, we hope that each of you will be able to do the same. Our prayer is that our last remaining weeks here can be spent in joy as we look fondly on what was, and as we look with excitement to what will be. We ask that you please join us in praying for our future in Elizabeth City Nc, and for the future Associate Minister here at Creeds. We love you all more than you know.

God Bless,

Jonathan, Aimee and Jude

What's an Ipod?

2010-08-26T10:33:00.001-07:00

It's not a big secret that I am going to be a dad any day now. The other day I was struck with the idea of just how much stuff exists now that was not around when I was born. So here is a list of just ten things that Jude will never know life with out.

1) Ipod (First Launched October 3rd 2001)

2) Social Networking facebook, myspace, twitter etc (First launched in it's beta form as friendster in 2002)

3) Wireless Internet (Not sure when it was launched)

4) Wikipedia (Founded in it's earliest form as Nupedia in March 9th 2000)

5) Mass cell phone ownership

6) The Message Version of the Bible (Published in segments from 1993-2002)

7) Macbook (First introduced in 2006)

8) The Baltimore Ravens (First season game as this team was in 1996)

9) Justin Bieber (Trust me he is never going away.)

10) Google (Began January 1996)

What other things can you think of that have been invented in the past 25 yrs?

When Cultures Clash. Click around minute 10.

2010-07-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Why God Went Through With It

2010-07-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

  In about five weeks (give or take two weeks) I will be responsible for the needs of another human being. This is going to be quite a change of pace for me. To be honest I have never had to be responsible for another person's well being before. I have been in charge of a lot of teenagers and elementary school kids over the past seven years, but at the end of the day I could always take comfort in the fact that they were going to go home to their parents and I was going to go home to my Xbox360.

   I have always heard it said that something changes in a man when he discovers he is going to be a dad, but I did not really understand what that meant. I still don't, but I am starting to get the idea. I have to be honest, for awhile I have wondered why in the world anybody would want to have kids. Why anyone would want to be responsible for a life that for the better part of twenty some years will at best acknowledge your existence, and at worst want nothing to do with you was something I simply could not comprehend. That changed thirty seven weeks and five days ago. That is when Aimee and I discovered that we were going to have a kid. No, I did not change my mind over night, to be quite honest I was scared, and a little aggravated that it happened so soon. Slowly and surely though God began to work on my heart.

   I have always struggled with the question of why God created us. If he knew that it was all going to go horribly wrong, if he knew that we were going to spit in his face, pretend like we don't know him, use his name to explain our frustration with things, and just generally rebel against him, why go through all that aggravation?

   I do not claim to have all the answers to that question, but here is what I am starting to realize. Last night Aimee and I took a tour of the hospital. It was a very cool experience because we were able to see where we needed to go and what was going to happen once we arrived. The part I enjoyed the most though was the stop at the nursery. Inside the nursery was one single baby boy who was not even an hour old yet. As soon as our tour saw him everyone stopped, got very quite and just looked. We did not know this boy, we did not even know his name. All the kid did was squirm around and make funny noises but all of us stared in awe at new life and at that moment I realized a little bit more why God went through with it, and why I am so excited about the birth of my son.

   None of us knew the boy in that nursery but we did know one truth, we were looking at potential. This was a new life in the purest sense of the word. He knew nothing of evil or good all he knew was the here and now. I wonder if that is what God saw when he created the first man and the first women? Did he see potential? Sure he knew that they were going to mess up, rebel, cause pain and suffering but in the end they were still apart of him and they had potential. Each of us has the potential to turn toward our father and say, "I love you and I'm ready to live life the way you designed it to be lived." That is a choice we can make each and every day.

   So yes I am still nervous and scared, I have trepidation about doing things right and being the best dad I can be. More than that though I am excited. I am excited that in a few short weeks I will be holding in my hand pure potential. A boy that could grow up and rebel, spit in my face, pretend he does not know me and go his own way. If he does do that, it's ok because there is always the potential to turn the other way. He could grow up and change the world, and God in is grace sees fit to let me be apart of that. That is a very cool adventure to be apart of.

The Effects of Fear John 21:15-22

2010-04-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yes I do still blog, below is a sermon that I delivered for chapel on April 27th. Like all sermons I put on here do what you want with it, steal it and make it your own and give God the credit or use it as a coaster for you drink on your desk.

Introduction

As a kid I was a pretty big scared little fellow. Looking back there was a ridicules amount of objects and events that I was scared of. Dogs, heights, bees, the ocean, swimming pools, driving too fast, roller coasters, snakes, basements, the dark. I was even scared of loud noises, and the sound that automatic toilets would make when they flush! I was a pretty timid little dude. I’m happy and proud to announce that I am now the proud owner of two dogs, I love going to Kings Dominion and riding most of the roller coasters, I live by the beach and frequent the ocean a lot, and I can even use automatic toilets with out any fear of them flushing.

We all have fears, things that we were scared of as children and things that we are scared of now. Some are legit and some are just weird. As we get older we may grow out of those childhood fears, but it seems that bigger and even more daunting ones replace them. Fear of being alone, fear of failing at our career, fear of losing those we love, fear of disappointing those around us, fear of raising our children wrong, fear of not being good enough, fear of missing our purpose in life, and the list goes on and on.

Fear Makes us Forget

When I think about this concept of fear I am always encouraged by the fact that the Bible is full of guys that were plagued by fear. Moses pleaded with God to find someone else to do the job, Jonah ran the other way, the Israelites wandered in the dessert for forty years because of their fear of the promise land, David in Psalm 55 cries out, “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me, and horror has overwhelmed me!” the disciples were scared in the storm, and then there was Peter.

I’m not sure if I can say this about an apostle, but I think it’s fair to say that Peter and I would not have gotten along very well. His personality and my personality just would not mesh that well. He was always the first to talk, loud, abrasive and very opinionated (two really opinionated guys in the same room don’t mix well). No, Peter and I would not have gotten along well, but there is realness to Peter that I can relate to. A lot of times we don’t associate Peter with fear, for crying out loud he was going to take on a whole group of Roman soldiers with one sword, but there are times in Peter’s life when he is ruled by fear. The story of his denial of Christ is a pointed example that underneath all of the big claims of dying with Christ, and following him to the end, there was fear living in him and when the proverbial rubber met the road Peter’s true nature came to the surface.

Now I don’t want to pick on Peter too much because truth be told I’m pretty sure I’m not so sure if I would have done differently. I believe that the example of people like Moses, and Jonah, David, and Peter teaches us a very true and very important principle when it comes to fear.

1) Fear makes us forget who God is.

This is not a hard concept so I am not going to spend a lot of time on it. Fear makes us forget. We fear being alone/ we forget that Christ promises to never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We fear failing at our careers/we forget that our identity is not found in what we do, but who we belong to (Ephesians 2:10). We fear missing our purposes in life/we forget that when we belong to Christ we have already found our purpose (Jer 29:11). We fear not raising our kids well/we forget that God is their heavenly father and even though we love them very much he loves them more (Lamentations 2:19). The list goes on and on of issues that we fear and example after example of God being faithful through all things, and yet when fear strikes amnesia sets in. This is evident in the story of Peter, just days earlier he has watched the triumphal entry of Christ, a dead man come to life, a blind man receive his sight, and his very own pronouncement of Christ’s deity. Fear makes us forget the promises of God and the power of God.

It is a fruitless effort to not be afraid of certain situations, but I believe the key is that when we get into those situations that we do not forget who God is and what we has already brought us through and promised to bring us through.

2) Fear looks for company (John 21:15-22)

This is one of my favorite accounts in all of scripture for a couple of reasons but one of the reasons is the realness of it. Anyone who has ever been the bystander to an awkward conversation can kind of relate to this story. Picture the scene, everyone has just finished a very nice breakfast with Jesus, the dishes are getting cleaned up, the fire is getting put out and all of a sudden Jesus drops the bomb. “Peter do you love me?” Oh man here it goes, Peter had to know this conversation was coming, he had been dreading it ever since he had heard the great news about Christ. “Yes Lord you know I love you.” Ok we got that out of the way we can move on, but Jesus is not done yet, “Peter are you sure you love me?” And you can almost hear the underlying statement in there, “Are you sure you love me, because back in the day you talked a pretty big talk, but I’m pretty sure you did not follow through.” I would imagine at this point the rest of the disciples are looking around for something to do, because this was not a conversation that they wanted to be apart of, maybe there like sweeping the beach up. “Simon son of John, “Do you love me?” “Lord you know I love you, that stuff that happened back then was a mistake, I freaked out, we all did, but you know everything and you know that I love you!” It’s at this moment that Jesus seems satisfied and says, “ok then if you’re sure you love me, then hold on because the rest of your life is not going to be for the faint of heart, it’s not going to be for people who scare easy. Translation, if you follow me your going to die because of it. We know from tradition that he did in fact die for Christ, some traditions say crucified upside down, others say by beheading, but the point is the same when people get serious about following after Jesus, it can get scary. There is no guarantee of safety or comfort or glory when you follow Christ. This is not a message that is preached too much to people going into ministry so let me make it very clear, if your in ministry for comfort, fun, glamour or to make a name for yourself, get out because it will eat you alive. The ministry is not for the faint of heart, or for people easily scared by life (that one is for free.)

I love Peter’s response to this whole conversation. Jesus says ok if you love me this is how your life is going to play out, and instantly Peter starts looking around and he see’s John and says, “Well what about him?!” This is so interesting to me because we all do this.

Some of you are going to go through seasons of your life when you follow after Jesus that are completely out of your control, seasons that scare you. For some of you it will be routine test results that come back bad. For some of you it will be job loss, spousal issues. Some of you will work your entire lives in ministry and will never see fruit. Some of you sitting in here today will have to bury children, and when that day comes your gut reaction is going to be to look around and say, “but what about him, what about her?” “It’s not fair, I worked just as hard as them, exercised more than her, raised my kids better than them, and this is how it ends?” If your not careful you can begin to live a life that is controlled by this type of “yeah but what about them mentality.”

Some of you know that I have a twin sister. Growing up a twin can be a very interesting experience. One thing that used to irk me as a kid was when people would but us one gift to share. Something that would be even more aggravating though, and it did not happen very often, but every once in awhile my sister would get a gift and I would not or vise versa. My dad used times like these to teach me a very important lesson, “just because someone else get’s a gift does not mean I’m going to get a gift.” This is such an important lesson because it is so true.

It’s during these hard seasons of life, when were looking back at everyone behind us , evaluating their gifts, and looking at what we have and don’t that and fear and the jealousy is taking that our heavenly father reminds us, “don’t worry about them, I have a purpose for them as well, we don’t all get the same gifts, but you follow me.”

Conclusion

Hope amidst Fear

Here is the last thought I want to leave you with this morning. Isn’t great that despite Peter’s fear, Jesus still uses him for the glory of his kingdom? See I’m not quite sure that Peter every really got over his fear of what people thought about him and what the future would hold, because we find in Galatians 2:12 that Paul is openly rebuking Peter because of is fear of what the Jewish community would think of him eating with the gentiles. It’s a really interesting part of the Bible, and when you get a few minutes you should check it out. Isn’t it great that Christ uses us despite our fears? Christ commands his disciples 21 times in the New Testament not to fear and yet it seems as though that was a hard lesson for them to learn, despite that he continued to use them for the kingdom.

I don’t know all of you guys, and you guys do not know very much about me, but here is one thing I know. Every single one of us has something that we are afraid of. I’m not talking about some little fear like heights or snakes or automatic toilets, I’m talking about the deep fears of the soul. If you have not experienced a soul fear yet, at some point you will. One day you will be asked by God to do something you do not think you can do. You will be asked to go places you don’t want to go and minister to people that you do not feel comfortable ministering to. You will be asked to carry an illness that you do not think your strong enough to carry, give help to people you do not feel qualified to help. Christ Jesus will whisper to you, “Do you love me?” “Then feed my sheep.” It is at that point when the fear and the doubt creep in that you will have a choice to make. You can forget who God is, you can begin to look around and covet the cross that others have been asked to bear or you can say yes Lord I love you, please use me despite my fear. When that day comes I would ask you to remember the words of Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry “Abba Father.”

Some Perspective

2010-04-01T05:31:00.001-07:00

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

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

2010-02-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

"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.

2010-02-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

   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?

Jesus Hates Cynics! A.K.A I wonder if Jesus finds Owl City catchy?

2010-01-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

   I'm a cynic by nature, that's just the way it is. I came out of the womb cynical of everything. If you tell me that a certain book is good, I will automatically assume it's not as good as everyone says it is. When someone begins to tell me about "this really awesome song I heard on K-Love" I automatically begin to roll my eyes in my head. I apologize to anyone reading this that has ever told me they liked something, you are probably coming to the realization that I did not believe you, but keep reading. Some how I have gotten into a life cycle of believing that anything that is remotely popular is probably not that good. Case and point, I have been ragging on the New Owl City CD for a long time now. I'll let you in on a little secret, I had never actually listened to that CD the whole time I ragged on it. Low and behold I gave it a listen today, and call me Captain Tom Kasey if it's not really daggone catchy!

   My point in writing this is not to convince you that I am a cynic or to convince you that Owl City is catchy, my point is this. Jesus does not like cynics. I know this because Jesus' fundamental attitude toward everyone and everything he came in contact with was hopeful, and the chief opponent to hope is cynicism.

  I am beginning to realize that I am apart of a ever increasing generation of cynics. I won't debate you on whether or not that cynicism is warranted, I don't really think that is the point. The point is cynicism is an ungodly attitude when it dominates our lives. The saddest part of it all is I see the a lot cynicism directed toward the Church today (and it's not by non-Christians). I have written on this before and if you want you can catch up on that just skip back a few entries.

This Sunday I am preaching a sermon called "Do you love the Church?" We are going to study through Ephesians 5:25-32. The thought I am impacted the most about from that passage is that Jesus, despite some of the horrible ways the Church throughout history has screwed up, is still passionately in Love with the Church, so much so that the only imagery Paul can use to describe it is marriage. If anyone has a right to be cynical about the Church I would say it's Jesus. He died for us, and we still don't get it.

So next time someone tries to convince you that the new season of 24 actually is that good, or the next time your tempted to jump on the beat up Christ's bride bandwagon, take a step back, breath, and balance some of that cynicism with some good old fashioned Hope.

Hollywood Conviction A.K.A Denzel Washington is the Coolest Christian in the World.

2010-01-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

    Last night I went and saw The Book of Eli. If you have not seen this movie and you work in anyway with the word of God I would suggest seeing it (word of caution, do not take your eight year old niece or nephew with you, this is a violent movie). I don't want to give anything away but I will say this, if you read the Bible you will walk out of this movie challenged to read it even more.

    For some reason over the past month God has really been pushing me in a very big way to memorize his word, not just read it, memorize it. It started with a sermon I heard at Church, it continued with the Deeper Conference (mad props to Mark Moore's elective, it made me fall in love with the word of God all over again.) And I can say for the first time ever I think God actually convicted me through a movie.

   I don't share this to make myself sound like I'm some kind of super Christian, I share it because I want your help. What practices do you have in place that help you memorize The Word of God? Would you share them with me?

Fellowship Sermon Outline

2010-01-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

This is a sermon outline I used to preach about fellowship this past Sunday. Not that I think it's great but I am a big fan of sharing information for everyone to use. If you can use it great, it not great, but if you do use it just DON'T give me credit let your people believe you wrote it lol!

If you want to hear the audio version go to http://web.me.com/jondrms/Creeds_Student_Ministry/Home.html and then on podcast link.

Intro

Fellowship is a subject that we give lip service to but often times give little thought to. This may be because we may be a little vague on what Fellowship actually is.

· Some ideas of what we consider fellowship

· Our working definition of fellowship=accountability and encouragement. (Hebrews 10:24-26)

1) The Importance of Fellowship

· It is important because the Christian was never meant to live this life on their own (water drop illustration?)

o This world is Satan’s and we will not survive physically or spiritually with out each other (Proverbs 27:17; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Hebrews 3:13)

2) The Difficulty of Fellowship

· We are in fellowship with each other not matter it we realize it or like it or not. (SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF TRAITS THAT MAKE IT HARD)

o It takes commitment-Hebrews 10:24-25 (This is not just about Sunday morning service)

o Often times the time we need fellowship the most is the time we want it the least.- Romans 12:15 (It’s hard to mourn together, it’s against human nature)

o Something happened in the history of the Church and we taught ourselves that when you have a problem the last place you bring it is the Church. As a result we have families that are struggling with their children, marriages that are falling apart, addictions that grow quicker and more powerful, and apathy that lulls us into thinking everything is ok, all because we forget what true fellowship is.

3) The Result of Fellowship

· When a Church is in true fellowship there are some natural results of it.

o We become a spiritually stronger and more mature family. (“Jesus hung with sinners” excuse) He also had 12 guys he spent a great majority of his time with.

o We are prompted to action = service to the community (full circle to John’s sermon)

Conclusion

Fellowship with each other is impossible without fellowship with Christ 1 John 1:1-3

· He is the common bond that keeps us together

· Imagine if we as a Church became intentional about taking time to truly fellowship with each other.

Digging wells AKA The Mark of a Good Leader

2010-01-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across an interesting story in the book of Genesis that I do not think I have ever read before. In Genesis 26 we find the story of the rise of Isaac's wealth, verse 12-13 says that "Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy."

Like all people who come into success and wealth Isaac soon finds that the people around him are jealous of the success he has accumulated. The Egyptians in the land that he was living in stopped up the wells that his father Abraham had dug (their perceived source of his wealth), and because of this the ruler of the land requested that Isaac move away.

When Isaac moved away he dug some new wells and and the people of that land quarreled with him over these wells also, so Isaac once agains decides to move on from this area.

Finally Isaac comes to an area where he digs another well and the Bible says ,"He moved there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land." (Vs. 22 Chapter 26).

This is a cool story to me because I think it shows how good of a leader Isaac was.

1) Isaac was a good leader because he understood that people will always be jealous of success and the blessings of God.

2) Isaac also understood that you can't fight culture, it does not matter how much good work your doing in an area, if the people are quarreling with you it's time to move on.

3) When you find an area, where the blessings of God can be poured out with out resistance a leader will flourish.

Do you find yourself in a setting where the blessings of God are being "stopped up?" Do you find that you are fighting with culture and a mindset of jealousy and envy because of the work God is doing through you? Perhaps we could learn a lesson from Isaac.

Sometimes we try to reopen the well, sometimes it's just time to move on and dig another well in a setting where the work of God can flourish.

Why we exist

2010-01-07T14:26:00.001-08:00

This Sunday Creeds Church of Christ will begin to cast it's vision for the mission of this congregation in it's local setting. Here is a peak at what we are working on.

The Decade in Review A.K.A. Leaving Egypt out of It.

2009-12-31T14:53:00.000-08:00

When I sit back to remember I usually do it in one of two ways.

1) I focus on why I am glad to be where I am at this very moment

2) I begin to remember how it used to be and find myself longing to be back there.

  I realize this is not exclusive to myself. As I read the scriptures I begin to see that it was a pretty typical practice of God's children to reminisce about "the good old days." A certain story about a group of people coming out of Egypt always seems to come to mind. As I write my final blog post for 2009 and wrap up a decade of significant changes this is where I have landed.

  Like all blessings that God has given us the art of remembrance can be warped by Satan.

  There are many instances in the Bible when God commands his children to remember events in the past and focus on how God has either delivered them or blessed them through those events. I believe that God is please when his Children practice the art of remembrance today. So as the decade wraps up, take a moment to focus on what God has delivered you from, or blessed you through, and for just a few moments leave Egypt out of it.

Happy New Year see ya in 2010!

P.S. Leave a comment and let me know what you favorite event of the past decade has been. Mine is a tie between balloon boy and Stephanie Meyers making Vampires fun again.

Are you calling my wife ugly? A.K.A Why I think Jesus Might Feel Like Beating Us Up Sometimes.

2009-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

   I have noticed that a lot of my blog posts have been kind of negative. I did not mean for this to happen it just kind of did. I have been thinking long and hard lately about my view of the Church, and the tone set by my views and the views of others that I talk to and listen to. It is beginning to occur to me that it has become the cool new trend to point out everything that is wrong with Christ's Church. I know that this is something that has been going on for awhile, but it seems to become more and more rare that I read or listen to something that is positive about the Church. I am always hearing how traditional, new age, unrelevant, sneaky, and boring it is. Sad to say most of those comments come from regular Church attenders.

  I am in no way a head in the clouds type of guy, I know that the Church as a whole has some issues today, but with that being said I have started to stop and hesitate before insulting Christ's Church. I look at it this way. The Church is symbolized as Christ's Bride in the Bible. As a husband, I have to wonder how I would feel if every time my wife was talked about, she was talked about negatively. It would not take too much of it before I was ready to bust some heads. Which leads me to wonder, if perhaps some of the negativity that we use so much of to speak about the Church has any correlation to its success?

   The first rule of sales is you have to believe in the product your selling, and I wonder sometimes if we actually believe in the Church? We preach and teach about its necessity, and the good that it will do for people, but our closed door conversations, hall way monologues, and frequent blog writings seem to suggest that we don't believe in our own product sometimes.

Anyway I say all of that to say this. I would like to hear your comments about why you love the Church? I don't want any negative comments, there is plenty of time for that and if you want any examples just read back through a few of my posts. I'll go first.

I love Christ's Church because it is the only place I know that gives everyone regardless of age, race, and history, meaningful and everlasting significance.

What's Yours?

If I had a million dollars A.K.A Maybe I should not have a million dollars

2009-11-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

  Every once in awhile I read a verse of scripture that I can not get out of my mind. I will be walking down the road and it comes to mind (I don't walk down the road that much though). I will be taking a shower and it comes to mind, eating and it pops up, playing a video game and it sneaks back in. When that happens I usually need to write about it or preach it or I will never be able to move on, so here you go, if you stumbled on this you get to hear about a passage of scripture that has been working on me for a few weeks now.

   "See that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 7b-9

  I'm not quite sure yet why this verse has stuck with me, its not the first time I have read it, but for some reason this time the idea that Christ, even though he had everything he could possibly need or want, gave it all up to walk around with us broken sinful people for 33 years has really hit me hard. I think one of the reasons is because God is really working on an ugly idea that I have had in my heart and mind for many years now. The idea goes something like this, "Why don't those people just do it themselves?"

   Do you ever think like this? It is a pretty popular mindset among people, but the problem is if we claim to be followers of Christ it does not fly, and in fact I would go as far as to say that you can not claim to be a Christian and have that attitude. Here is how God is breaking this out of me.

me- "Why doesn't that guy just get a job?"
God- "Jonathan, though Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that Jonathan through Christ's poverty might become rich."

me- "That is ridiculous, how in the world do you expect me to to give money to her? She is probably just going to spend it on __________anyway"
God- "Jonathan though Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that Jonathan through Christ's poverty might become rich."

me- "I have already given all of my time to Church stuff this week I am not giving any more time or money or effort, today is my day off, they can do it themselves."
God-"Jonathan though Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that Jonathan through Christ's poverty might become rich."

   What it really boils down to is this. What if Christ would have had the mindset towards me that I often have towards those who are in need of my time, money, and general resources? Somewhere a long the lines I bought into the idea that people who are well to do are well to do because they worked hard, and people who are doing poorly are doing poorly because they have not worked hard enough. You know what? Even if that is a true statement, as a Christ follower it does not matter. We are not called to judge why someone is in the situation they are in, we are simply called to show the humility of Christ to others. What if we applied 2 Corinthians 8:8 like this?

   "For you know the grace of (insert your name here) that though he or she was rich, yet for your sake he or she became poor so that you through (insert your name here) you might become rich."

   This is not a popular idea at all. Christian's a lot of the time like the idea that God has blessed because of how good, and spiritual, and stylish we are, but here is the truth. In God's eyes everything we do is dirty, broken, and poor. It is only because we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ do we appear before our Father as rich in grace in mercy.

  So how does this apply practically? Here is one way I think it could. We are all aware of the debate that is raging right now about the idea of government run health care. There are arguments on both side that seem to make sense to me. There are people who are dying in this country from stupid disease's that could easily be cured if they were caught quicker, and the only reason they are not is because they can not afford the coverage. On the other end I can see what can happen when government has too much influence in an arena such as health care. I have also heard the stories of other countries that do run their health system this way, and a lot of people are not happy about it. So where do I land on this issue in light of 2 Corinthians 8:8? It's pretty simple. I think both sides are wrong, convenient right? Really though, think about it. According to the teaching of scripture who should be in charge of caring for those who can not care for themselves? THE CHURCH! Who should be caring for the sick, the homeless, the poor, and the oppressed? THE CHURCH!

   Let me make my point very simple, I believe that if every Church as a whole was doing its job in the area of caring for the sick, hungry, poor, and oppressed the debate over health care would not even be happening because we would not need it.    Now I know that I am young and idealistic, and there are some of you reading this shaking you head saying, "thats too simple." I would agree with you to a point, it is too simple, because for far too long the Church has shunned one of it's greatest responsibilities and opportunities in this world. All I know is this. My stomach hurts anytime I ever hear a Christian say the phrase, "that's not my responsibility."because I always wonder to my self, "than whose responsibility is it?"

Imagine with me if you would a scenario. A woman wakes up one morning and is sick, she has been sick for several weeks and it is not getting any better so she needs to go to the Dr. There is a problem though, this woman is poor, she can not afford a Dr. and she knows that if she goes she will be paying the hospital bills for years to come. What if instead of going to a hospital she could go to a Church that happened to have a hospital inside of it? What if she could go to a building and find not only a professional staff of Dr's but also a professional staff of Dr's that follow Christ and administer what ever health needs she may have, completely for free! The Dr's are Christians, the nurses are Christians and they take to heart the words of 2 Corinthians 8:8 and simply heal because that is what Christ would do. What if those Dr's and nurses were being funded by the tithes and offerings of people like you and me who have no medical training at all, but realize that the words of 2 Corinthians 8:8 apply to us as well. If that scenario ever became a reality on a global scale a lot of debates that are going on right now would be silenced, and a lot more people would see the reality of the Kingdom of God here and now.

So how about you? How do you apply the words of 2 Corinthians 8:8 in your daily life? What steps is your Church has a whole taking to battle the problem of sickness and healthcare in your community?

Is Jesus a sissy?

2009-11-10T08:31:00.000-08:00

    There is an idea that has been disturbing me for awhile now that I want people's opinion's on. Actually I don't want your opinion, I want someone to be able to show it to me in scripture. Can some one please show me the phrase "Having a Relationship with Jesus Christ." Now I know that the idea is there. I know that through Christ's sacrifice on the cross he has enabled us to come into relationship with God and be called his children (Galatians 4:1). What I mean is the actual phrase, "relationship with Christ," is one that I can not find in Scripture, and I have been looking.

    Some of you may be asking, "Jonathan, why have you been looking for this phrase in scripture?" Well I'm glad you asked because I want to tell you. Every time I hear the phrase "having a relationship with Christ." I can not help but think, "That is not in the Bible," and "Saying it like that really does a disservice to Christ and what he wants and desires for our lives." There is an aspect of Christianity that has really been bothering me lately and I want to blame some of it on this idea of "a relationship with Christ." It seems to me that Christianity has become, for lack of a better phrase, really sissified. Now before you throw up your defensive walls I really just want you to consider it for a moment. How much of what we do as a Church is girl centered? We walk into a sanctuary that has been decorated more than likely by women, we pass around shiny plates, we sit quietly and watch pretty backgrounds move around on the screen as the songs we sing about Jesus talk about him being beautiful, and lovely, and how he wants us to climb up in his lap and pet his beard as he gives us a big hug and tells us everything is going to be ok (not an original idea, for more on this listen to Matt Chandlers sermon entitled "Sanctification in Marriage" on the Village Church Podcast.) When that is all done we sit down again and listen to a guy tell us about how much Jesus loves us and views us as a bride and how he wants to marry us have us live with him forever. Am I the only guy that has an issue with this?

Yes I understand that the imagery of the bride of Christ is biblical, but I believe that as a whole we have done a great disservice in portraying this imagery, and because of that I really do think we have painted a picture of Christ and his Church as a very effeminate and sissified community. Something happened in history that took the Christ of the Bible, the Christ who got angry and drove an entire group of people out of a temple with a whip, hung around with rough and tough fisherman and other various rough necks, was beaten half to death and still had the strength to carry a cross all the way up a mountain knowing full well we was going to be nailed to it, and replaced him with a permed haired, robe wearing, flower picking wimp, and I don't like it!

I think it all started when we began "having a relationship with Christ" instead of serving and following Christ. I have to admit this is still an idea that is fresh in my mind and that I am wrestling with, but one thing I know for sure, for the most part men have a real problem with Church and I don't think its God's fault. Now do not get me wrong, I am not a sexist nor do I believe women should have no part in Church. I believe the beauty of Christ is that he is an individual who appeals to both men and women. As you look through scripture you see a man who could lead other men, and be respected and loved by women. You see a man who could drive out the supernatural with his very words and yet at the same time was one of the most compassionate and loving individuals that has ever lived. I believe that for some reason the Church focuses more on relationship than service, and the problem is women respond to relationship but men respond to service. We have carved out the model of a sissy Jesus and men do not want to follow or serve a sissy. We call men to relationship when we should be calling them to service.

    Men would never say out loud, if they attend Church, that they think Jesus is a sissy, but it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that The Church is lacking in the men department. God Bless our women who have stepped up and are working hard to advance the gospel, but it's time for men to start doing their job, and it's time for the Church to stop retarding that process. There is an amazing process that takes place when we rework the way we present Christ to men and I think it is even found in scripture. I am struck that when Jesus calls the disciples to himself he does not say, "Come have a relationship with me," or "Come and get to know me better." He says, "Come follow me I'm going to put you to work"(my paraphrase). The disciples did not just sit around and listen to Jesus talk at them about how great his coming Kingdom was going to be, they were active participants in bringing that Kingdom to this world. Because Jesus gave them an opportunity to follow and to serve they grew to love him i.e. build a relationship with him, so much so that later all of them but one would die a horrible death for him. How many men in our Church's today would die a horrible death for Christ?
    Men need a figure that thy can serve and follow. Don't agree with me? If your a man look at all of the men in your life that you admire. Were they sissies? Did they walk around and pick flowers and say nice religious sounding things? I doubt it. Look at the types of activities that you participate in. Why do you participate in them? Why do you follow certain sports figures, rock stars, and movie stars? Could I suggest its because you see in them or in the activity a way to live out what it means to be a man? I believe that Jesus was and is the ultimate personification of what it means to be a man. He was strong, powerful, and yet loving and compassionate all at the same time, and if the men of our Church's could grasp onto that, amazing events would take place.

Like I said earlier, this is an idea that is fresh to me. I wrestle with it a lot lately. So I would love to hear your opinions. What are you doing to engage the men of your Church for Christ? Do you agree that we have sissified Jesus? If so what do we do to restore the true picture of Christ? I know one thing I am doing, I no longer ask people to have a relationship with Christ, I ask them to follow and to serve, I figure the relationship will grow out of that.

Its good to be reminded.

2009-11-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I get aggravated at how weird teenagers are its good to remind myself that I was one not too long ago.

Nice Necklace eh?

Is Modern Day Youth Ministry Harming the Church?

2009-11-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

  I am a youth minister. It's neat being a youth minister. Sometimes when I am getting my hair cut and the lady (or gentleman whatev) is making small talk with me for a better tip I like to see the expression on their face when I tell them what I do for a living. There are usually two responses #1 is "really? your a minister?" I never understand this response because when I look in the mirror I think I fit the typical minister mold, skinny, product in my hair, and a slight five o clock shadow. I'm either a minister or I work for the Apple Store. Then there is the second response, "awww thats nice." They are right, it is nice. I have been a great respecter of men and women in ministry ever since I was a child. I was not one of those people that thought ministry was something you did if you did not want to work, it was and is hard work and I knew it.

   I knew youth ministry was more than just pizza parties and wild concert trips to see Michael W. Smith. In fact I viewed these types of events as perks to the job, not the job itself. Granted there are some lazy dudes out there that use ministry has a cloak to hide behind so they can sit in their office all day, play farmville, eat pork rinds, and drink Red Bull, but I like to think of my self as an optimist in this department and call them the exception not the norm. I bring all of this up because I want everyone who reads the next statement, (according to my stats the whole five of you), to understand that I am both a fan and respecter of youth ministry. With that being said I need to ask the question that has been bugging me for awhile now. Is modern day youth ministry doing more harm than good for the Church Universal?

   Let me explain how this question began to surface. As I look back on my years as a kid in the Church, I am struck by the fact that I was not apart of a youth group. My home Church was simply too small to pay a designated youth minister to come in and work with what little amount of youth we had in the Church. This means a couple of things. One, I participated in a lot of "old people Church stuff." I sat in service on Sunday morning, I went on trips with grown ups, I ate fellowship meals with people who for the most part were way older than me. Don't misunderstand me, I went on youth trips (usually with other churches), and I had a Wednesday night bible study that was with kids my age (taught by volunteers from the church). Secondly, I spent a lot of time listening to "old" people teach, sing, and preach. At the time I hated it. I wanted so badly to be at a church that had a cool young dude that could play guitar and take me to Taco Bell when I wanted to go, I desired to be apart of a youth group.

   Looking back on it though, I am grateful for the time that was spent among my older brothers and sisters. I believe, that because of my time spent with these dear people I relate a little better as a minister with the older folks in my congregation. Let's face it, how many horror stories have we heard about youth ministers butting heads with older folks in their congregation because of a lack of ability to work with them? Could it be that were setting our future youth ministers up to fail, because of the constant emphasis we place on segregating age groups within our congregations?

   I have heard it said that Sunday morning is the most segregated day of the week in regards to Church, and I believe that is true, I also believe that statement applies to more than just skin color. A trend began to emerge among Church folk, and I am not smart enough to tell you when it started, but I know it was in full swing when I was a teenager. The mindset of this trend goes like this, "I don't like the music, chairs, decorations, and dress style of this Church so I'm going to go find one or start one that looks and sounds more like I think Church should look and sound." These Churches began to pop up all over the place, young disgruntled 20-30 somethings began to start their own Church's and although they would never say it out loud the pervading mindset among these congregations was NO OLDS ALLOWED! This is not to say that there were not a few trendy old folks sprinkled in among the crowd, but old traditions were gone. No old music, no old way of doing communion, no old way of preaching, it was all going to be new and fresh.

   I'm a fan of new and fresh, and sometimes I think its needed, but as I look back on this trend and I see what has developed as a result of it, I begin to wonder if we have sacrificed something very important in the quest for new and fresh? Let me be very clear, I have no problem with congregations that are predominately younger, but I do have a problem with congregations that segregate the elderly under the guise of progressive evangelism and trendy seeker sensitive programs. So why do I bring this up? Why does my stomach turn whenever in the past I have walked into a church building to find that everyone is wearing the same designer clothes? I believe it is because as a youth minister I sometimes come in contact with students who have become a casualty of this segregation mindset. Let me explain it this way.

   Those 20-30 something's that segregated themselves when I was a child have now become parents with teenagers, and those teenagers have been taught that if they do not like the way something is going in the group that they are apart of, they can just leave and find another group. As a result youth ministers become circus ring masters. We cater to the needs of those who whine and complain if something is not cool, flashy, fun, or interesting enough. If something is not interesting to them (i.e. they have to hang out with old people, and sing songs that old people like, listen to teaching that old people have to listen to) we develop program that pacifies, instead of teaching them to find the value and worth in the beauty that is worshiping together as a family of sanctified believers. Somewhere along the line we bought into the idea that the youth at a church are the most important part of the community, this is a lie! Buying into this lie has resulted in youth ministers that spend more time pacifying whinny kids than teaching and developing strong Christian teenagers.

   Let me be clear about this, youth ministry is a vital part of our Church culture today, but youth and children's ministry that teaches segregation from the rest of the community is at best going to develop whiny shallow Christians and at worse going to fail completely. When we fail to teach our students that there is value in the way that our elderly brothers and sisters worship, we fail to teach them about what Christ desired for his Church.

So how about you? As a minister or participant in a local Church how do you make sure that students are encouraged to be in community with older brothers and sisters? What programs do you have in place to make sure they spend time together? I would love some suggestions as I am struggling with this concept.

Mass Elitism A.K.A why is no one commenting on my blog?

2009-10-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

Ok here is a problem that I have just discovered about myself, *deep breath* my name is Jonathan and I need attention. There I said it. I am an individual that thrives off the attention of others. Here is how this scenario plays out. On Monday morning I wake up, I get out of bed, make coffee, brush my teeth, take my dogs out and then go into my office. As I am sitting at my desk in my office I begin to realize that I need to do a lesson for this or a lesson for that and I begin the beautiful process that is lesson or sermon writing. When I am done with this process I sit back, breath a sigh of relief and instantly this thought comes into my mind, "I hope _______ likes this." There is a blank there because on any given day the name that goes inside of that blank changes. Now I know I should not being doing my job for the glory of any one else except my heavenly Father, but let's be honest with out selves for a moment. When was the last time you did something purely for that reason? When was the last time you dressed with the idea that you were going to please God? When was the last time you decorated your house and thought, "Gee I hope God likes this." If we were all honest with ourselves I think we would realize that a large majority of what we do is done in order to please other people. Or maybe to but it more bluntly, we do it so other people will like us. Why is it that I operate like this? I think it has something to do with the way I have been trained to act ever since I was a small child. I can remember as a child sitting in school being taught the most basic of human lessons, to matter you need to succeed, and to succeed you need people to think your worth following. We all learned this lesson and we learned it in one of two ways. We were either cool and people liked us, or we were uncool and we watched other people be liked and in turn we copied what those people were doing in the hope that someone would pay us attention. Now I realize that for most of us it was not this clean cut, we had moments where we were kings of the world, and then moments where the kings of the world beat us up and stole our girlfriends(personal experience? You be the judge). As adults we have somehow convinced our selves that we have grown out of this need for self validation, but I would suggest we have just gotten a whole lot more sneaky about it. Let me give you an example.

Three years ago I purchased an Apple Computer. My old PC had broke and it was time for a purchase. I would like to say that I purchased my MAC because I was sure it was the best buy, I would like to say that I own it because it best meets my needs for the work that I need done as a minister, but if I was really honest with myself I would have to say the reason I own a MAC is because somewhere down the line I learned from a mopey haired kid with cool jeans and a sweater that cool college students own MAC's. Sure it does what I need it to do, yes I love that it does not crash, but what I really like about it is the fact that I am part of, "the group." If you are apart of the group you know what I'm talking about. When your sitting in a coffee shop and you see another person pull out a MAC you secretly in your heart know that you both are part of a far superior group of computer owning individuals. If you do not own a MAC you too are aware of the group mentality that comes from the MAC owner, in fact you have probably been proselytized more than once in an attempt to get you to convert to our way of life. Rest assured the Apple Company is not unaware of this phenomenon, in fact I believe it is what they can owe their success too, Apple has captured the essence of what I have come to call "mass elitism." Mass elitism is where we have some how convinced ourselves that we are independent and different, but in reality we are following the crowd. Somewhere deep down inside we know that this is the case, but thats ok because to be apart of the mass elite is safe and validating. If your sitting there saying to your self, "I have never been apart of that," then let me just throw out a couple of words. Track Jackets, Jnco Jeans, Tight Jeans, Slap Bracelets, Hoola Hoops, Roller Skates, The Blair Witch Project, Iphone, Macbook, Rock Band, Ipods, Playing the Guitar, The Real World, LOST, American Idol, Blogs Facebook, and gmail. If you have ever, worn, watched, owned or wish you owned any of the above mentioned things you have fallen victim to Mass Elitism...sorry.

It's ok we all do it, it has gone on since the fall of man and will continue to go on until the end, but here is why I bring it up. I think as Christians we need to be very careful about our intentions and reasons for doing certain things. I am observing and must confess being caught up in what I think may be a disturbing trend among ministers of the Christian faith, we are beginning to market ourselves as the mass elite. We write blogs that we hope other ministers will read and comment about how smart we are (Come on you know you do it). We write sermons that sometimes have little to do with the Cross of Christ and more to do with how people can feel better when they wake up tomorrow, when in fact a lot of people should wake up feeling crappy because they are living crappy God hating lives. We dawn our cool jeans, tight t-shirts and style our hair just right so that the people we stand in front of every day will find us physically appealing and somehow we believe that is going to bridge the gap and make Jesus more spiritually appealing. We worship the speakers of the faith that bring us great insight into God's word instead of pausing to worship the God who allows them the very mouth they speak these words from, and all the while we secretly wonder how we can one up the last sermon we heard, or the last blog that we read, not so that Christ will be glorified but so that we can be validated. We have turned Christianity into the same idea as an Apple computer or the latest movie that needs to be seen, but here is the problem with that, trends die, elite groups fade, and so does the validation that comes from being apart of these idols. So lately I have been trying to check my motives. Why do I write blog articles? Why am I apart of the Facebook community? Why do I care if anyone likes what I write, say, dress like, own, or look like? If I am a true follower of Christ I should gather my validation as a human being from Christ shouldn't I? Why should I care if a blind person thinks I am handsome? Why do I care if a deaf person does not like what I say? According to scripture thats what we are as a human race. With out God we are blind, deaf and dumb, and only God can make us whole. It is God we should pull our validation from, and until we do that we will always find out selves among the Mass Elite, always changing, never satisfied, always insecure.

So how about you? How do you make sure that the motives for what you do as a Christ follower and a minister are pure?

My sis and I being weird.

2009-10-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Half Truths and the Men of God.

2009-09-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I am reading through the book of 1st Samuel right now and this is what I am gathering so far. The first half of this book is really sad. If you have not read it or need a little refresher you should stop reading this waste of time blog and go read up to chapter fifteen right now. If you don't want to do that, than here is my summary. The Israelites are not happy being different then the civilizations around them so they whine for a king. Samuel the only real man of God that is found in this story up to this point warns them that if they get a King it is going to be nothing but heart ache, but of course they do not listen, and God appoints a man that does not even want the job named Saul (when he gets called up to be anointed he goes and hides in the luggage, check out chapter 10). Of course what God says is true and pretty soon Saul is doing a royally bad job at being the King (sorry for the pun). There are a lot of examples of this, but as I was reading today one story in particular stood out to me. In 1 Samuel chapter 15 we find that God has decided that it is time for the Amalekites to pay for the way they treated the Israelites when they were coming out of captivity from Egypt (Exodus 17:8-15). The Lord was very clear with Saul that he was destroy everything that had to do with the Amalekites. Saul decides instead though to take the Amalekite king hostage and to keep the best of the livestock and slaves for himself. The Lord informs Samuel of this and when he goes to confront Saul about it Saul insists that he did what the Lord had commanded him to do. Here is the last straw for God, he had put up with a lot from Saul but it was his half truth that put him over the edge and made him reject Saul as the king, in fact the Bible states that because of this, "The Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel."

When I read this story it made me think back to something I had heard Matt Chandler of The Village Church say awhile back in a sermon he preached. He stated, "Men who aspire to be Men of God forfeit the right to half truths." He was in essence saying that Men of God need to have integrity. This is really what Saul's core problem was, he was not a man of integrity at all. He followed God only as long as it brought him comfort and when his comfort came into jeopardy he caved and then lied about it. The sad thing was that he had fully convinced himself that he was doing what the Lord wanted him to do. I believe that we as ministers have more in common with Saul than we would like to admit. Take a moment and ask yourself these questions (I did after I read this story)

1) When was the last time I told a half truth (time spent in office, how I spend my time when I am there, where I got that sermon or lesson from etc)

2) When was the last time I caved in and did something I knew I shouldn't in order to please the crowd (Saul blames his actions on the people after he sees that the, "I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do," excuse was not working). Maybe a better way to ask this question is, When was the last time I should have spoken out against something I knew was wrong but did not because I did not want to make the crowd upset.

3) How many times have I let my comfort get in the way of God's work?

These are hard questions, and it would be easy to simply pass over them and go on with our day, but one thing is for sure. If we refuse to be men and women of integrity God will find someone to do our job who will.

I would love to hear your thoughts, what steps do you take to make sure that you are a Man or Woman of God i.e. keep your integrity?

2009-08-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Preconceived Notions or Why I am glad that God is not always who I think he is.

2009-07-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to realize something about myself, and no it is not the fact that it is weird that I have over and over again in my head thought about the theological ramifications of the movie Ground Hog Day. What I am realizing is the fact that I have preconceived notions about God. In other words I have a picture in my head of who God is and how he acts. How this picture came to be is hard to say. I am sure that it is a combination of many different factors. It is a picture that shifts and changes over the years but there are some basic traits that stay the same. Let me be very clear about something, I do not believe that my picture of God is who God actually is, and on the flip side of that I do not believe that all of my assumptions about God are entirely wrong. It's hard to be a finite being trying to think about an infinite being. Below follows the list that makes up my picture of God.

1) God is a snazzy dresser. Flip through the scriptures and notice how many times when God appears to people in a human like form they comment on his clothes.

2) God is not a big fan of scientists. Look I am not saying there are anything wrong with scientists or science for that matter, but I have to think after all these years of these dudes committing their life to disproving him he is probably not rushing to become their fans on facebook, but don't worry if your scientist all you have to do is repeat three times that you approve of the literal 6 days of creation and God will welcome you with open arms into the fold.

3) God probably drinks coffee and has a goatee. If we were really honest with ourselves a good deal of the people that we know that are "close" to God drink lots and lots of coffee and are rocking some form of awesome facial hair. Just look at all the pictures we have of all the heroes of the Bible, name me one of them that did not have facial hair? The goatee is just todays hero beard. And for the record women this is a pretty good argument for why you can not be ministers, you can't grow facial hair duh.

4) God loves everyone (except racists). Look I realize that God is a lover of all mankind but it seems like a no brainer to me that he can not love someone who is a racist. Its an oxymoron, how can you love someone who hates something you created? I mean if I bake a cake and I feed it to you, you better bet your weathered designer jeans that if you tell me you hate it I'm going to smite you with my wrath (a. k. a I will tell you I laced it with arsenic and watch you squirm, but don't worry I didn't....or did I?) Sure its kind of a contradiction for me to be racist against a racist, but God approves of that kind of racism...right?

5) God is ok with me praying to him like I update my twitter account. If we were honest with out selves we would realize that God has a lot of requests to listen to on any given day, and the quotient goes up on Sunday. In light of this it only makes sense that God is perfectly ok with me updating him in 140 characters or less. If it takes longer than that to talk about it you probably need to rethink how your phrasing it or just write on God's facebook wall so that he can read it later.

6) God hates and I say again hate hymnals! Its a well known fact that God hates hymnals to be used in worship service for anything else but propping up my wobbly leg on my drum set, oh and flipping through when you get bored with the sermon.

speaking of sermons

7) God will bless my sermon more if I preach it sitting on a stool. Preaching while standing up is so 2007. We all know that God approves more of the sit down and have a conversation method than he does of the stand up and lecture method. Now I am not saying that God will not use his word to do a mighty work if you stand up, but just know your convert ratio will double if you stay seated...it's science...kind of. Oh and on a related note don't wear a tie everyone knows that God hates ties.

8) God cares more about the people out side of America. I mean really, what do we have to bother God about? He has already give us Starbucks, Joyce Meyers, Joel Olsteen, and Hillsong (I know technically they are from Australia but come on we love them.) What could we possibly have to bother God about? Let's all do God a favor and leave him to his latest campaign of making sure the RED campaign at the GAP is successful.

9) God loves the NIV, likes the MSG, (even though its technically not a translation) and thinks people that read the KJV are stupid.

Come on, really, let it go, God never talked like that and we know it. We all know that God has always and always will talk like either a very level down to earth James Earl Jones or a surfer dude...come on bra really!

10) God hates Christian radio. Yeah sure you may say that these musicians have poured their lives into praising God with their lips, I say they have laid down their gifts at the alter of fame and fortune just so they can have the glitz and glamour that comes with being on the road 24/7. If they really love God they will do what the rest of us do, volunteer their time at the local church leading worship on Sunday morning for no pay. I mean of course I get paid to do what I do for God, but I'm different...I'm a preacher I do the real work.

If your like me, than when you take a really honest look at who you think God is you probably fall down right there and thank him that he is not! I find that I am in good company with this type of thinking though. As I read through the Bible I realize that many of God's children had ideas about who he was only to find out later that God is more than they could ever hope to imagine.

So how about you? What are your preconceived notions about God? I would love to hear them.

What is truth? Or sometimes I really want to use South Park as a sermon Illustration.

2009-07-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

In the book of John there is a passage of scripture that has for a very long time resonated with me. We find Jesus in the last hours of his life standing before Pilate, who is questioning him about who he is and what all the fuss is about. In verse 37 of chapter 18 Jesus says, "Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." To this Pilate responds, "What is truth?" This is one of those sayings that stops me in my tracks every time I read it, because it really is the question that everyone, even if they do not know it has been asking and continues to ask. The asking of this question really gives the reader a glimpse into the cultural climate of the time. When the leadership starts doubting about where to find truth, people should start to worry. This is a question that I really connect with because through the years it is one I have struggled with. Like I have said before, I grew up in the Church. I had always took it for granted that I was right and the rest of the poor souls that were walking around who were unfortunate enough to not have grown up with the truth were pretty much doomed to hell, unless of course they were lucky enough to stumble upon the truth one day. Looking back I am realizing that this is a very narrow view of the grace of God. Don't get me wrong I still believe the basics. Jesus is God's son, he is the only way to heaven, and people need to hear that. But as far as my other pre-conceived notions about what it means to be in relationship God go, I am starting to realize that maybe they are not all true. Please hear me before you start sending me angry comments, I still believe baptism is essential, communion is essential, and fellowship with other Christians is essential I just think a lot of us are going to be surprised when we get to heaven and find out who our neighbor in the next mansion is, that's all. For the record I want mine to be beside Bill Murry (don't ask). But I digress, I look at the question Pilate gives to Jesus 2000 years ago and I find that I ask the same question only with a slight twist. Instead of "what is truth?" I find myself ask "Where is truth?" Here is what I mean by that. The other night I was watching South Park (yes that vile show that will send you straight to hell, but bare with me before you click the x on the top left hand of your screen). The episode was about the Jonas Brothers and the whole gist of it was that Disney sells sex by selling purity. The Jonas Brothers made a huge deal out of wearing purity rings, and since they did that parents would allow their daughters to go to the concerts where the dancing and lyrics of their songs were all sexually driven. After I was done watching that I thought to myself, "That is the best way I have ever seen the concept of Christians allowing themselves to jump on a band wagon with out researching it just because it had a "Christian" symbol slapped on it." My next thought was, "That would make a really good sermon illustration." And that thought was followed by, "If I wanted to get fired." This is a concept I have struggled with for awhile, I find truth from many different sources not just the Bible. Again before you send me the angry comments let me clarify. I believe all truth is found in the Bible and I believe that any truth that is found out side of the Bible is in fact in someway rooted in a Biblical concept. But here is my question. Do you believe that truth can be found anywhere? If so how do you feel about using that source in your teaching and ministering to others? When is it inappropriate to use a source even if it contains truth? Do Christians shy away to much from using "secular" sources of truth?

I Hate My Church or I Hate the Church of Me.

2009-07-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Ok so let's get one thing out of the way before I go any farther, I love the Church. I have grown up "in" the Church. Ever since I can remember I have been attending Church services. With that being said I have to admit I hate the Church. Don't get me wrong I don't hate it all the time, only some of the time. A lot of you probably know what I am talking about. You get that feeling when your sitting on that pew, (or if your in a hip cool church, that plush chair that has no arms and is connected uncomfortably close to the chair and person next to you) and the thought hits you and you get that gaping hole feeling in the pit of your stomach, "Is this all there is to this?" As a minister that is a bad feeling because of course the only logical ending to that train of thought is, "Your kind of responsible for all of "this" that you are hating on so much right now." I have been getting a lot of those feelings lately. At first I thought it had something to do with the format that I was apart of, or as its better know as the "culture" of the Church. If we were honest with our selves congregations fall into only a few basic categories.

1) There is the ultra conservative, never changing, most likely dying a.k.a "old church." I think thats all that really needs to be said about that category.

2) Then there is the congregation that thinks they are progressive and contemporary but really they are just cheesy, the congregation who's Church sign out front doubles as a motivational speaker for people driving by i.e. "Prevent burning use Son block," the congregation that is excited because they just now got drums in the Church and they are going to start "contemporary" services next week which really means they are going to sing My Life is In You Lord for the first time ever and not well I might add. Let's for simplicity sake label this congregation the "unprogressive progressive Church."

3) Then we have the really cool hip Church. You know what I am talking about, you have seen them, go to one, or in fact may be the minister of one (for the record I'm jealous of you if you are.) As soon as you walk in you are handed a double shot mocha frappachino (fair trade of course), an organic T-shirt, and a guide on how to grow the perfect goatee. You step into the sanctuary, ahem excuse me I mean, "worship center," sorry my old Church roots were starting to show there, and you are immersed in a sea of savvy video clips, a Bono look alike singing the latest John Mark McMillian song, and a not overly dressed but just dressed up enough to know that he is in charge minister preaching to you sitting on a stool on a stage that looks like something straight out of the latest Urban Outfitters store set up. Minus the over priced clothes I mean come on now we are a social justice minded congregation.

Now it does not matter what culture you find your self in because I have found that the more people I talk to who attend all of the above mentioned Church styles, the more I realize that every single one of them gets that same pit in the feeling stomach as I do sitting in the congregation that I work for and worship at. By the way for those of you that are curious my congregation falls somewhere in between unprogressive progressive and some nether region that can not be placed in a category. We have John Mark one Sunday and the Old Rugged Cross the next. I have been thinking about this problem for awhile now. Why is it that no matter who I talk to it always seems that they are a little bit unimpressed with some aspect of their Church culture? Some people say, "Well people will always complain about something." Yes this is true, but the people I talk to are not complaining. They are not leaving their congregations to find something else, they are not screaming at the congregational meetings (OLD CHURCH ROOTS ALERT!) for better music or more Thomas Kinkade paintings in the foyer, they are simply searching for the authenticity of the Church they find in scripture. Could it be that no matter what Church culture you find yourself in we are all missing the point? When I look at the scriptures and observe how Jesus did ministry I notice something very interesting, he does not have to try very hard at all. People came to Jesus, people looked for Jesus, when Jesus was not around people wondered where he was. Jesus was so important to them that they would hike out for days and sit for days just to hear him speak. Why? Jesus did not have any cool church signs, savvy videos, mocha frappichinos, board meetings, drum sets, pulpits, organic T-shirts, organs, buildings, church growth conferences etc, and yet people flocked to him. How is it that Jesus was able to do ministry so well with so little? I think in a word it's authenticity. I have a feeling that the people that came and listened to Jesus never walked away going "Is that all there is?" I doubt they sat on the ground while he was teaching with that gaping pit feeling in their stomach like they were missing something, because when Jesus spoke the people knew that what they were hearing was most important words they would ever hear in their entire state of existence because they were hearing the very words of God. Could it be that we as a Church universal are trying to hard? Are we trying to hard to cater to the culture of people that we find ourselves in? Are the hipsters trying to hard to be hip and the unprogressive trying to hard to be progressive? I don't have an easy answer for that, but what I do know is that when I say that I hate Church it is not the Church in the scriptures that I hate, in fact it is not the Church at all that I hate, what I hate is what I have tried to make Church be. I hate that I have gotten so wrapped up in putting on a good program, making things fun, and making sure the same apathetic group shows up next week that I have lost a love for the Church that I once had. I have allowed my Church to taint God's Church. I have substituted the authenticity of the scriptures for flashy count downs and cute little sayings and I pay for it on Sunday morning when I leave unfed and disappointed. For the record I do not think any of the above mentioned techniques for carrying the gospel are wrong. If you want to use signs, use signs. If you want to have videos and t-shirts, and coffee, and goatees have them. But maybe you are where I am right now, if you are I would suggest that you step back for a moment and ask your self if you have allowed all of this stuff to snuff out the authenticity that the simple gospel message brings to a persons life.

So what do you think? How do you bring authenticity of the gospel message back to a Church culture that has allowed itself to lose it? How are you doing it in your congregation? I would love to hear your feed back.