Sitting in a passionate meeting after church one day I got a surprised dropped on me. The discussion rolled around to the children's program for Easter. At that moment an individual chimed in that they wanted to see us have Sunday School that day. I explained why I did not think that this was a fruitful idea. The person continued to push, so I opened the door for them to take the bull by the horns.
I learned from previous jobs that if someone is passionate about something then have them take a part in the solution. That is what I attempted to do in this situation. I said that there needed to be volunteers (as I had explained before) and that I would want them to be one of the volunteers along with helping me find others. They agreed and so I let it go.
A few weeks later the individual backed out because the children they were going to bring were no longer going to make it. The result was that we would go with my initial recommendation. The sad reality though is that this was another case where it was not about the needs of students, helping others grow with God, but about the individuals desires.
This happens a lot in church. We get great plans and ideas, but they are not about the bigger picture but about our own needs. The church situation becomes about our own needs rather than God. I see this all the time in the many churches I have been in. Well meaning individuals that let their desires for their children to take center stage, or drop out of a mission trip at the last minute cause it is inconvenient to their beach plans. These situations all take the focus from the true purpose of things to being about our needs.
My wife and I recently joined a small group. This is something we have been wanting to do for a long time. We needed a place to grow spiritually where I would not be on staff. Our desires entering were about our own needs. However, through the course of the small group we have made the point to lift others up, compliment others, go the extra mile to support the leaders. These things have not been about our desires, but serving God through the small group.
I wish there was more of that in churches. If only we could see the larger picture (myself included) more often and not our own selfish needs for a quick fix, a easy answer, a child to be center stage. If only we could put our own needs down and get to what God and his children may need in this situation or that.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Being in the Desert
Many times for me lent is a spiritual renewal. There were church services more often. New spiritual practices. A renewed focus on God. Hearing more stories of Jesus that ended with a celebration. All of these helped drive me to new heights during lent. Over the last couple of years though that has not been the case. Instead I resonate with a old co-worker of mine. I always hated being told what to give up.
My co-worker surprised me one staff meeting a few years back when he has this feeling of dread radiating from him as we entered into a discussion of lent. He commented that this time of the year was the most challenging for him, and often his wife. The feeling of being in the desert seemed very real as he spoke about having questions arise, spiritual dryness, and temptations.
The last few years I have really understood that feeling. I still find the time to be generally renewing, but now see more desert than ever before.
One thing that cropped up for me while at the Catholic church was the pressure to give up something. I hated the idea that someone else was going to tell me what my relationship with God needed. The idea of sacrifice was great. I wanted to change things in my life to come closer to God. What I did not need was an arbitrary rule on how I needed to give up meat on a certain day.
The biggest problem for me was how this would play out in the office. I would not think about the days of the week (when you have an ever changing schedule it almost becomes hard to track days except Sunday) and end up bringing a meat sandwich on a Friday. Then someone would make a comment and start hinting at how I was failing. Many times it felt as though my boss would use these times to show others that I was not Catholic.
This caused me more resentment and anger towards the church than any growth with God. What I learned was that a tradition was more important than me with the group. I felt as though I was sitting with the Pharisees as they attack a rule that Jesus has broken. It was not to look beyond what was happening to the individual, but to demean. This was not the only tradition that I felt that way with. I wished that others would bring about the joy in obedience and not stress others failure to boost themselves up.
I felt the desert then as I struggled with conformity. This year I struggled with feeling futile. Right now I have a great support group and social network. I have a small group with a church that is growing fast. I have great friends that I get to hang out with outside of work. I have a great community around. What I feel the desert in is lack of growth at my church. I have been there over a year and a half now. All I have seen is families leave. We have yet to bring new ones in. This drop has played a burden but I have kept on.
Then a few situations collided and these failings came to the forefront. A crack in the dam finally broke and my insecurities rushed out. I now work to hopefully not need a dam, but in the mean time I examine the validity of these suppressed thoughts.
Through all of this a story that my pastor told me the other day really helped. It was of a grandfather who gave a child a pot of dirt. He told the little girl to water the pot of dirt every day without fail. She did for a long time with no results. Finally, she got sick of it and tried to give the pot back to the grandfather. He refused and told her to keep watering. She begrudgingly went back to water. Soon she saw a sprout.
My pastors point was that sometimes it takes a long time to see the fruit. Sometimes we want a new pot of dirt. In the end though God gave us this pot to water right now and He has a plan for it. Maybe we will never see the plant spring up, but it is our job to water.
There is nothing, while in the desert, that helps like getting a little bit of water.
My co-worker surprised me one staff meeting a few years back when he has this feeling of dread radiating from him as we entered into a discussion of lent. He commented that this time of the year was the most challenging for him, and often his wife. The feeling of being in the desert seemed very real as he spoke about having questions arise, spiritual dryness, and temptations.
The last few years I have really understood that feeling. I still find the time to be generally renewing, but now see more desert than ever before.
One thing that cropped up for me while at the Catholic church was the pressure to give up something. I hated the idea that someone else was going to tell me what my relationship with God needed. The idea of sacrifice was great. I wanted to change things in my life to come closer to God. What I did not need was an arbitrary rule on how I needed to give up meat on a certain day.
The biggest problem for me was how this would play out in the office. I would not think about the days of the week (when you have an ever changing schedule it almost becomes hard to track days except Sunday) and end up bringing a meat sandwich on a Friday. Then someone would make a comment and start hinting at how I was failing. Many times it felt as though my boss would use these times to show others that I was not Catholic.
This caused me more resentment and anger towards the church than any growth with God. What I learned was that a tradition was more important than me with the group. I felt as though I was sitting with the Pharisees as they attack a rule that Jesus has broken. It was not to look beyond what was happening to the individual, but to demean. This was not the only tradition that I felt that way with. I wished that others would bring about the joy in obedience and not stress others failure to boost themselves up.
I felt the desert then as I struggled with conformity. This year I struggled with feeling futile. Right now I have a great support group and social network. I have a small group with a church that is growing fast. I have great friends that I get to hang out with outside of work. I have a great community around. What I feel the desert in is lack of growth at my church. I have been there over a year and a half now. All I have seen is families leave. We have yet to bring new ones in. This drop has played a burden but I have kept on.
Then a few situations collided and these failings came to the forefront. A crack in the dam finally broke and my insecurities rushed out. I now work to hopefully not need a dam, but in the mean time I examine the validity of these suppressed thoughts.
Through all of this a story that my pastor told me the other day really helped. It was of a grandfather who gave a child a pot of dirt. He told the little girl to water the pot of dirt every day without fail. She did for a long time with no results. Finally, she got sick of it and tried to give the pot back to the grandfather. He refused and told her to keep watering. She begrudgingly went back to water. Soon she saw a sprout.
My pastors point was that sometimes it takes a long time to see the fruit. Sometimes we want a new pot of dirt. In the end though God gave us this pot to water right now and He has a plan for it. Maybe we will never see the plant spring up, but it is our job to water.
There is nothing, while in the desert, that helps like getting a little bit of water.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Rob Bell: Drops like Stars
Last night some of the young adults in the church went on an adventure to downtown Seattle. We went to the Moore Theater, where we saw the Michigan pastor or Mars Hill speak. Before going we had not idea what to expect, a concert or maybe a workshop. In the end it was more like an artful live rendition of his book "Drops like Stars."
There were many stories that we heard through the course of the night. The night focused on the topic of suffering. In his usual, nooma video style, Rob told many modern parables/stories that helped illuminate the topic without getting too bogged down into denominational ideas and arguments. He danced the line well enough to allow each person, Christian or not, connect to the topic and ideas in their own way and level of understanding. In the end there were many stories that I want to remember and look deeper into through this blog.
After a surreal entrance and video that had me and others in our group wondering if Rob Bell was our generations Billy Graham, we dove into the subject of suffering. Rob told a story about a family who had to deal with the loss of a baby. The family gathered all of their relatives to come say their goodbyes. Around a month later another family member gave birth to a child in the same room that they had just said goodbye in. This brought up the idea of the "why" for suffering. Why did the one group have to lose their child while the same family in seemingly the same situation lose theirs? We have all asked questions like this. Why does a loving God allow this and not that? Why would God do something like this to Haiti, New Orleans, ect?
We quickly went headlong into the prodigal son story. Rob gave some great background that was great to hear again. He pointed out how no person at this time would have sold off their lands to actually give a child their inheritance early. Also how the son was basically saying that the father was dead to him in requesting the inheritance. In the end Rob focused on how the story is left hanging. The father makes a response to the older son who is not at the party when the younger one comes back. The upset son never says anything back, instead the story just hangs...
It was pointed out how this is like a movie where your "lower half" is telling you its about to end. The screen goes black and you are left going "No you can not end this like that!" The story is left hanging with no final resolution. I felt as though Rob left this hanging also, although I feel there was a purpose to that.
The purpose to me comes in that when we have final resolution we stop thinking. We get draw into the black and white answers instead of the gray area and thinking about the meaning. The other aspect is how we don't always get resolution with the why question when it comes to suffering. While there are many ways to explain why a loving God would allow suffering, or cause suffering, when we are suffering we don't really want to know that. We don't want to hear it was because of something we did in third grade, or because we need to learn and grow from it. Or maybe it was to help others get closer to the divine. So from this point we tried to leave the why question behind.
But just leaving the why question was not enough for us. At this point Rob put up on screen a very humorous college essay from a young man named Hugh Gallagher. This essay responded to a very normal "tell us about yourself" application question. Here is a small sample of that essay:
This is what happens when we suffer. We then have to completely change our expectations to be able to incorporate how a squirrel could fit into that. No longer are we able to sit in our preconceived notion and relate everything to the box, but we must then rethink and change.
This is how suffering comes to us. It does not let us sit in our preconceived notion of how our life is to go. We can't stay in the ideas of white picket fences, significant others, and safe dreams. This becomes the art of disruption. In the end it is not the things we plan on and dream of that shape our lives but the disruptions that come up. In my own life I can see how most the things that have shaped me have been the times where I have been suffering or been with others suffering.
We then got out some soap. No, not a squirrel, but actual bars of soap. Rob then told how he had several sculptors come over to his house. He gave them carving materials and bars of soap. Everyone of them went to work and sculpted some great things from faces, modern art, chains, bunnies, and words. At the end he showed a picture of the shavings that had come off of all the soap that they had molded.
The other thing suffering can do is it cuts away the clutter. Michelangelo was quoted pointing out that his famous sculpture "David" was always there in the stone and Michelangelo had simply cut away the excess. The soap sculptures had done the same. They had eliminated the excess around the great art waiting to come out.
We often sit in our little routines. "How are you? Fine. Busy. Busy with being busy." Have you ever been in a conversation where a person broke out of the normal responses? You asked how are you and they told you the truth, "Not, so good I just lost a friend to cancer." When we suffer we stop living on the surface of the sculpture. We carve straight to the true, beautiful us underneath. Thus, suffering can give us the art of elimination.
Then we took to getting to know our neighbors. Rob told a story about how he sprained his left wrist. Don't worry he pointed out how pathetic this injury was and is the laughing stock of all other injuries. Being left handed though it changed his regular life activities. It hurt to write or do other things he normally did. More so than all of that it helped him realize what a friend goes through on a regular basis with a degenerative muscle disorder. The pain that person deals with every day and moment.
Imagine two dads who are opposite ends of the political spectrum. They could fight and fight, but instead they have a deep bond because both has a child with cancer. Imagine two moms living on opposite sides of town and beliefs. Instead they have a deep bond because both have loved ones dealing with addiction. Suffering can unite us in ways that would not be possible.
At this point Rob had us take out a pencil and 3X5 card under the seats. We wrote "I know how you feel" on the cards with our non writing hand. Then rob asked us, raise your card if someone close to you has been effected by cancer. Then we exchanged our cards with someone we did not know. Looking down you read a "I know how you feel" scratched into card by someone whom you had never met that really did know how that felt. We then repeated with addiction, paying bills, ect.
Then the true point of the activity came up. Rob pointed out that Jesus knows how we feel. God brought his son down here to suffer so that God would be able to say "I know how you feel," and walk with us through it.
About this time we talked about possession. No, no demons and monsters. Instead about how owning and possessing is very different. The point was mad of how we may own a painting, or guitar, but another maybe able to really bring out the depth, music, ideas, ect. inside the thing. The person who can bring out great music out of the guitar is the one who really possess it. For example I own a bible, but those who have lived it and suffered really are the ones who possess it.
Rob showed a clip from when he was in Africa. He had been there to find out more about aids and the suffering going on there. Then after he was done interviewing a group he started to hear music and dancing in the next room. They went over and filmed a group singing joyfully. He then asked another leader what was going on and the person responded "They do this ever lunch." The person had not really grasped and understood. The singing group truly had possessed life where the other had just owned a description.
Finally, Rob ended with a short story about a little boy saying "stars" every time a rain drop hit the ground. He wondered what was going on as the boy seemed to keep chanting "Stars! Stars!" His mom explained that he thought the drops looked like stars when they hit the ground. Then he prayed that we would see drops like stars.
To me the end was almost as the movie of "no, your not going to end like that!" But I think I understood the purpose of ending like that. The night was about us getting out of why with suffering and to grow from it. We did not need a clear resolution, because to do so would put us in a box. Ultimately hoping that we see the good, the blessings, in the struggle that we see as falling or rain.
There were many stories that we heard through the course of the night. The night focused on the topic of suffering. In his usual, nooma video style, Rob told many modern parables/stories that helped illuminate the topic without getting too bogged down into denominational ideas and arguments. He danced the line well enough to allow each person, Christian or not, connect to the topic and ideas in their own way and level of understanding. In the end there were many stories that I want to remember and look deeper into through this blog.
After a surreal entrance and video that had me and others in our group wondering if Rob Bell was our generations Billy Graham, we dove into the subject of suffering. Rob told a story about a family who had to deal with the loss of a baby. The family gathered all of their relatives to come say their goodbyes. Around a month later another family member gave birth to a child in the same room that they had just said goodbye in. This brought up the idea of the "why" for suffering. Why did the one group have to lose their child while the same family in seemingly the same situation lose theirs? We have all asked questions like this. Why does a loving God allow this and not that? Why would God do something like this to Haiti, New Orleans, ect?
We quickly went headlong into the prodigal son story. Rob gave some great background that was great to hear again. He pointed out how no person at this time would have sold off their lands to actually give a child their inheritance early. Also how the son was basically saying that the father was dead to him in requesting the inheritance. In the end Rob focused on how the story is left hanging. The father makes a response to the older son who is not at the party when the younger one comes back. The upset son never says anything back, instead the story just hangs...
It was pointed out how this is like a movie where your "lower half" is telling you its about to end. The screen goes black and you are left going "No you can not end this like that!" The story is left hanging with no final resolution. I felt as though Rob left this hanging also, although I feel there was a purpose to that.
The purpose to me comes in that when we have final resolution we stop thinking. We get draw into the black and white answers instead of the gray area and thinking about the meaning. The other aspect is how we don't always get resolution with the why question when it comes to suffering. While there are many ways to explain why a loving God would allow suffering, or cause suffering, when we are suffering we don't really want to know that. We don't want to hear it was because of something we did in third grade, or because we need to learn and grow from it. Or maybe it was to help others get closer to the divine. So from this point we tried to leave the why question behind.
But just leaving the why question was not enough for us. At this point Rob put up on screen a very humorous college essay from a young man named Hugh Gallagher. This essay responded to a very normal "tell us about yourself" application question. Here is a small sample of that essay:
"I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.
I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge." (Hugh Gallagher: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/essay.htm)
We have our boxes. How stories are supposed to end with morals and resolution. Then we say that there is out of the box thinking. Rob points out that our focal point in this is still in relation to the box. The box is still our reference point, in or out. This essay points seems to say "there is a box?"
This is what happens when we suffer. We then have to completely change our expectations to be able to incorporate how a squirrel could fit into that. No longer are we able to sit in our preconceived notion and relate everything to the box, but we must then rethink and change.
This is how suffering comes to us. It does not let us sit in our preconceived notion of how our life is to go. We can't stay in the ideas of white picket fences, significant others, and safe dreams. This becomes the art of disruption. In the end it is not the things we plan on and dream of that shape our lives but the disruptions that come up. In my own life I can see how most the things that have shaped me have been the times where I have been suffering or been with others suffering.
We then got out some soap. No, not a squirrel, but actual bars of soap. Rob then told how he had several sculptors come over to his house. He gave them carving materials and bars of soap. Everyone of them went to work and sculpted some great things from faces, modern art, chains, bunnies, and words. At the end he showed a picture of the shavings that had come off of all the soap that they had molded.
The other thing suffering can do is it cuts away the clutter. Michelangelo was quoted pointing out that his famous sculpture "David" was always there in the stone and Michelangelo had simply cut away the excess. The soap sculptures had done the same. They had eliminated the excess around the great art waiting to come out.
We often sit in our little routines. "How are you? Fine. Busy. Busy with being busy." Have you ever been in a conversation where a person broke out of the normal responses? You asked how are you and they told you the truth, "Not, so good I just lost a friend to cancer." When we suffer we stop living on the surface of the sculpture. We carve straight to the true, beautiful us underneath. Thus, suffering can give us the art of elimination.
Then we took to getting to know our neighbors. Rob told a story about how he sprained his left wrist. Don't worry he pointed out how pathetic this injury was and is the laughing stock of all other injuries. Being left handed though it changed his regular life activities. It hurt to write or do other things he normally did. More so than all of that it helped him realize what a friend goes through on a regular basis with a degenerative muscle disorder. The pain that person deals with every day and moment.
Imagine two dads who are opposite ends of the political spectrum. They could fight and fight, but instead they have a deep bond because both has a child with cancer. Imagine two moms living on opposite sides of town and beliefs. Instead they have a deep bond because both have loved ones dealing with addiction. Suffering can unite us in ways that would not be possible.
At this point Rob had us take out a pencil and 3X5 card under the seats. We wrote "I know how you feel" on the cards with our non writing hand. Then rob asked us, raise your card if someone close to you has been effected by cancer. Then we exchanged our cards with someone we did not know. Looking down you read a "I know how you feel" scratched into card by someone whom you had never met that really did know how that felt. We then repeated with addiction, paying bills, ect.
Then the true point of the activity came up. Rob pointed out that Jesus knows how we feel. God brought his son down here to suffer so that God would be able to say "I know how you feel," and walk with us through it.
About this time we talked about possession. No, no demons and monsters. Instead about how owning and possessing is very different. The point was mad of how we may own a painting, or guitar, but another maybe able to really bring out the depth, music, ideas, ect. inside the thing. The person who can bring out great music out of the guitar is the one who really possess it. For example I own a bible, but those who have lived it and suffered really are the ones who possess it.
Rob showed a clip from when he was in Africa. He had been there to find out more about aids and the suffering going on there. Then after he was done interviewing a group he started to hear music and dancing in the next room. They went over and filmed a group singing joyfully. He then asked another leader what was going on and the person responded "They do this ever lunch." The person had not really grasped and understood. The singing group truly had possessed life where the other had just owned a description.
Finally, Rob ended with a short story about a little boy saying "stars" every time a rain drop hit the ground. He wondered what was going on as the boy seemed to keep chanting "Stars! Stars!" His mom explained that he thought the drops looked like stars when they hit the ground. Then he prayed that we would see drops like stars.
To me the end was almost as the movie of "no, your not going to end like that!" But I think I understood the purpose of ending like that. The night was about us getting out of why with suffering and to grow from it. We did not need a clear resolution, because to do so would put us in a box. Ultimately hoping that we see the good, the blessings, in the struggle that we see as falling or rain.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Church Budgets
This is the time of year for the church I work at to finalize budgets and announce them to the rest of the church. We have been in the process with the budget since November and December, but the finance committee has finally presented their final to the congregation.
No matter how things go when a budget comes out someone is going to be upset. In our church, the most upset group that I know of is the missions group. They have worked for years to get a line item for missions into the church budget. Last year when the economy tanked, finance and church council worked to cut a lot, including the missions budget. In the end the church approved a $4,000 deficit to be able to have a budget for missions. As they say in Monty Python, there was much rejoicing.
This year there is a new struggle with this. At a meeting recently, one member discussed their displeasure at the missions budget coming out of the Memorials and Endowments. The concern is that this money is already given and the church itself is not taking an active roll in missions by not funding it out of the church budget.
I understand this concern as what a church chooses to fund shows where they put their priorities. Honestly, if a church wanted to hire me but had a lack luster budget (or none at all) for youth ministry I would walk away instantly as they are not truly invested. I find myself a little torn on the issue here.
The church needs to be funding mission. This shows their investment and dedication to what God has called us to. What is a church with out mission?
The flip side of this is what has me concerned though. The missions group might become too used to having a budget. The Catholic church describes stewardship as "Time, Talent, and Treasure." What having this budget could lead to (and I have started to see warning signs) is a group that does not consider the time and talent aspect. In addition they could become resigned to accept the budget as all the treasure necessary. Even worse a set line for missions could allow those within the group to feel as though they have given already.
The danger ends up in becoming lukewarm, satisfied, resigned, or lackadaisical. This could mean no more fund raising and raising awareness. No more seeking others for the need in the community. No more going the extra mile because there is a passion or need. No more donating, serving, or stretching ourselves. No more relying upon God for our needs and our support of others.
We have the tendency in the USA to pat ourselves on the back for giving money here or there. In my opinion the real needs is for us put faces to need and truly engage in community.
I hope and pray that our church does not fall into these traps. I pray that they can walk the tight rope between not allocating funds and resigning to be satisfied with just donating others money.
No matter how things go when a budget comes out someone is going to be upset. In our church, the most upset group that I know of is the missions group. They have worked for years to get a line item for missions into the church budget. Last year when the economy tanked, finance and church council worked to cut a lot, including the missions budget. In the end the church approved a $4,000 deficit to be able to have a budget for missions. As they say in Monty Python, there was much rejoicing.
This year there is a new struggle with this. At a meeting recently, one member discussed their displeasure at the missions budget coming out of the Memorials and Endowments. The concern is that this money is already given and the church itself is not taking an active roll in missions by not funding it out of the church budget.
I understand this concern as what a church chooses to fund shows where they put their priorities. Honestly, if a church wanted to hire me but had a lack luster budget (or none at all) for youth ministry I would walk away instantly as they are not truly invested. I find myself a little torn on the issue here.
The church needs to be funding mission. This shows their investment and dedication to what God has called us to. What is a church with out mission?
The flip side of this is what has me concerned though. The missions group might become too used to having a budget. The Catholic church describes stewardship as "Time, Talent, and Treasure." What having this budget could lead to (and I have started to see warning signs) is a group that does not consider the time and talent aspect. In addition they could become resigned to accept the budget as all the treasure necessary. Even worse a set line for missions could allow those within the group to feel as though they have given already.
The danger ends up in becoming lukewarm, satisfied, resigned, or lackadaisical. This could mean no more fund raising and raising awareness. No more seeking others for the need in the community. No more going the extra mile because there is a passion or need. No more donating, serving, or stretching ourselves. No more relying upon God for our needs and our support of others.
We have the tendency in the USA to pat ourselves on the back for giving money here or there. In my opinion the real needs is for us put faces to need and truly engage in community.
I hope and pray that our church does not fall into these traps. I pray that they can walk the tight rope between not allocating funds and resigning to be satisfied with just donating others money.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
All in a day at church
Often funny things happen at church. There might be a little goof up, or a great joke. Sometimes its just one of those "life" things that happen and you can't help but laugh. Well the other day Kessia and I had five of those things happen, mostly thanks to my wife!
Quotables
The first story comes from Sunday School. I went first to check in on the young kids and then went over to middle school sunday school. When I got there Kessia was leading the class and talking about theme parks like Disneyland. Once I came they settled down to the lesson at hand.
The passage dealt with Jesus reading a passage from Isaiah. This is a very difficult passage, especially for young kids. They did their best and we tried to bring it to their level. The first part we tackled was bringing good news to the poor. We asked what they thought that good news might be. Of course they answered with money, a home, ect. (surprisingly they did not say food). I knew I would be an instigator in this lesson. I pushed harder and asked them what they would really want to hear if they were poor. I had to also ask does money always bring happiness.
At this point the kids start talking about Crab in Spongbob Squarepants. That is when my wife busts out with a quote from a rapper. "Mo money, Mo problems!" She exclaimed! I started laughing so bad and all the 11 year old kids had no idea what was going on. When's the last time Notorious B.I.G made it into your Sunday School!
Going to the warehouse
After a long morning my wife and I slumped into a couple of chairs in the fellowship hall. A few of the older women walked over and said hello and asked us how we were. We said good but tired. They wanted to know why and my wife responds, "Yesterday Nate took the kids to a warehouse..." Again, I started laughing as it sounded just wrong. Now Kessia contends that she just had a short pause and then she said to jump on trampolines. Priceless pause!
Who's the Cheater?
Then, after all that we still had more to go (yeah my wife is awesome that she still even comes to church with me!). We went for a pizza lunch with the confirmation students and the pastor at our church. We centered this lesson on who Jesus is to us. After a few times around the circle one of the dads joked that he wanted to just cheat and copy all Kessia's answers. Kessia quickly responds, "Nate used to cheat off me in high school!" I wanted to slap my forehead! I responded quickly, "No, we worked on the notes together and then I made a copy for the test." Trying to save myself to keep a little authority with the kids. "No," she responds. "You didn't do any of the work and still got a better grade!" At that I turned a brand new shade of red I am sure.
HA!
At confirmation we had another great laugh. The dad, from the previous story, mentioned Lorenzo Romar in one of his answers in talking about faith and Jesus. Our pastor looks at the dad honestly and with an honest blank look says, "Who is that?" In the quiet room a loud "HA!" bursts out from next to the pastor as Kessia could not hold in a laugh. The pastor turns, laughing, and says "Well, I guess its someone I should know!"
Who is that?
After our pizza confirmation lunch the pastor, whom I have worked with for over a year, and I started talking about all things church. Midway through the conversation she asks me "So which families are all coming on the retreat?" I start to list them off, "The Johnsons, the Smiths, the Danielsons, and the Goldblooms." She recognized all but one of the families. She replied "Who are the Goldblooms?" Kessia piped in the conversation at this point and replied, "That's us."
Quotables
The first story comes from Sunday School. I went first to check in on the young kids and then went over to middle school sunday school. When I got there Kessia was leading the class and talking about theme parks like Disneyland. Once I came they settled down to the lesson at hand.
The passage dealt with Jesus reading a passage from Isaiah. This is a very difficult passage, especially for young kids. They did their best and we tried to bring it to their level. The first part we tackled was bringing good news to the poor. We asked what they thought that good news might be. Of course they answered with money, a home, ect. (surprisingly they did not say food). I knew I would be an instigator in this lesson. I pushed harder and asked them what they would really want to hear if they were poor. I had to also ask does money always bring happiness.
At this point the kids start talking about Crab in Spongbob Squarepants. That is when my wife busts out with a quote from a rapper. "Mo money, Mo problems!" She exclaimed! I started laughing so bad and all the 11 year old kids had no idea what was going on. When's the last time Notorious B.I.G made it into your Sunday School!
Going to the warehouse
After a long morning my wife and I slumped into a couple of chairs in the fellowship hall. A few of the older women walked over and said hello and asked us how we were. We said good but tired. They wanted to know why and my wife responds, "Yesterday Nate took the kids to a warehouse..." Again, I started laughing as it sounded just wrong. Now Kessia contends that she just had a short pause and then she said to jump on trampolines. Priceless pause!
Who's the Cheater?
Then, after all that we still had more to go (yeah my wife is awesome that she still even comes to church with me!). We went for a pizza lunch with the confirmation students and the pastor at our church. We centered this lesson on who Jesus is to us. After a few times around the circle one of the dads joked that he wanted to just cheat and copy all Kessia's answers. Kessia quickly responds, "Nate used to cheat off me in high school!" I wanted to slap my forehead! I responded quickly, "No, we worked on the notes together and then I made a copy for the test." Trying to save myself to keep a little authority with the kids. "No," she responds. "You didn't do any of the work and still got a better grade!" At that I turned a brand new shade of red I am sure.
HA!
At confirmation we had another great laugh. The dad, from the previous story, mentioned Lorenzo Romar in one of his answers in talking about faith and Jesus. Our pastor looks at the dad honestly and with an honest blank look says, "Who is that?" In the quiet room a loud "HA!" bursts out from next to the pastor as Kessia could not hold in a laugh. The pastor turns, laughing, and says "Well, I guess its someone I should know!"
Who is that?
After our pizza confirmation lunch the pastor, whom I have worked with for over a year, and I started talking about all things church. Midway through the conversation she asks me "So which families are all coming on the retreat?" I start to list them off, "The Johnsons, the Smiths, the Danielsons, and the Goldblooms." She recognized all but one of the families. She replied "Who are the Goldblooms?" Kessia piped in the conversation at this point and replied, "That's us."
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Getting National Attention
There is an interesting dynamic that comes up with the internet. Previous voices that could not be heard are now able to travel to those known on a larger scale. Artists (producing tv shows, sports teams, paintings, ect) now get critical feedback from unknown sources. Often those sources are willing to be more harsh than the would in normal interactions, myself included.
That being the case I had an interesting discourse with a national writer the other day. I will get to the actual texts back and forth, but I figured some background first would help. While in college I was taught a lot about culture. In this class we were challenged to not just respond to culture, but to create culture. We saw how others did this like MTV and we read great classics like that of Niebuhr called "Christ and Culture." The result is I do not look at ministry as simply reacting to the trends or upsetting parts of the mainstream media. Instead I want to engage with my small ministry culture (as each group of youth, church, school, area, ect, has its own culture) and change that.
We were also challenged to research culture. I have taken this seriously and when there is a slow day in the office I search around to check out what is going on with youth today. As a result I stumbled across what I had hoped would be a decent resource for trends with a ministry eye. Instead what I found was a reactionary view of culture that was more, in my opinion, stirring up fear, anger, and frustration of youth workers. I blogged about this site a long time ago, but recently I wrote them a response in my frustration with their approach. What you read is a blog response to me, a comment from one of the writers and my comment back. Enjoy!
That being the case I had an interesting discourse with a national writer the other day. I will get to the actual texts back and forth, but I figured some background first would help. While in college I was taught a lot about culture. In this class we were challenged to not just respond to culture, but to create culture. We saw how others did this like MTV and we read great classics like that of Niebuhr called "Christ and Culture." The result is I do not look at ministry as simply reacting to the trends or upsetting parts of the mainstream media. Instead I want to engage with my small ministry culture (as each group of youth, church, school, area, ect, has its own culture) and change that.
We were also challenged to research culture. I have taken this seriously and when there is a slow day in the office I search around to check out what is going on with youth today. As a result I stumbled across what I had hoped would be a decent resource for trends with a ministry eye. Instead what I found was a reactionary view of culture that was more, in my opinion, stirring up fear, anger, and frustration of youth workers. I blogged about this site a long time ago, but recently I wrote them a response in my frustration with their approach. What you read is a blog response to me, a comment from one of the writers and my comment back. Enjoy!
I guess we're "missing the mark"
I get all kinds of emails and feedback from people about the free resources and articles we provide. Here's an interesting one to ponder. I can't say I like this person's first sentence: "The youth culture window that you guys offer is missing the mark."
He's talking about our Youth Culture Window (YCW) articles, featured in the big magnifying glass on the front page of our web site each week.
Let me be the first to verbalize, "Don't worry David (David writes over 80% of our YCW articles), I think you're right on the mark! Critics are a dime a dozen. I appreciate your work!"
Here's this guy's entire email to us:
The youth culture window that you guys offer is missing the mark. Lets be honest, the majority of the posts deal with sex. This is what our culture as a church thinks is crucial to fight. Violence is also out there. Then comes what about the good stuff going on in culture? It is sad that all you can find in culture is things to complain about. Ultimately, what you are addressing is the symptoms of the larger issues within culture. Please, PLEASE, read Niebuhr's "Christ & Culture" and see if you can incorporate something more than the "Christ against Culture" attitude.
It's interesting that he observed that most of our posts have to do with sex. I agree. We simply report what's going on in today's youth culture and the media, and that's pretty sex driven. I wish it wasn't.
I also find it intriguing that he mentioned how much of this was "bad news." David and I talk about this frequently as we research current attitudes and trends. We constantly are asking, "Isn't there something mainstream that's good that we can report about" And that's the key-- we want to try to focus on attitudes and trends that are predominant across the board, not the exception.
Considering his criticism, I looked at the list of our last few articles released and the subjects they covered.:
The New Form of Phone Sex (1/2/2010)
Beyoncé’s Newest Song “Video Phone”
This article is about Beyonce's newest song and video which are filled with sexual imagery.The #1 Hits of 2009 (12/11/2009)
A Review of 2009’s Top Songs and Their Message
This article reviews all the top songs of 2009, whatever their message.
Culture’s Confusion Over Sex (12/4/2009)
And The Impact It’s Making On Teens
Yes, this article is about sex, specifically new research about the confusing messages our students are being inundated with.
Fireflies from Owl City (11/28/2009)
Is That a Christian at the Top of the Charts?
This article is about a new song and artist that is not only popular... he's clean!
Twilight Goes ‘Emo’ (11/12/2009)
Bella’s Self Destructive Dependence on Edward
This article is about on of the biggest media youth culture phenomenons of the year, the newest film from the Twilight series. The article focuses most of its attention on self destructive behavior.
Do Threesomes Come in Threes? (11/4/2009)
Youth Media Ups the Ante with Sexy Trios
This article focuses on the abundance of recent threesomes in the media, as well as the onslaught of "bi-curious" attitudes and activity portrayed.
“I’m Trying to Talk to You!” (10/30/2009)
Getting the Attention of Teenagers
This article discusses the different communication technologies used for contacting students and their effectiveness.
So... are our YCW articles a misrepresentation?
Thoughts?
(By Jonathan)
The David writer he references:
Monday, January 4, 2010
Kindred Spirits
There are some spirits in our lives that we run across that we bond with. We grow close through shared experiences and touch each other's lives. We see the same attitude, passion, and expressions in each other. Words need not be spoken because both know the bond is there. A simple look and you both know what each other are thinking. It is not often that we find this deep bond in our lives. When we do it is something to cherish.
I lost a kindred spirit two days ago.
It is hard for me to think about. Harder for me that I know the world would not understand the depth of the pain as my kindred spirit was my cat, Nike. I know most would shrug this off and not understand that he was more than a pet. He and I bonded on a spiritual level. We shared many moments, memories, and joys. I know that he knew he was loved. I wish I just had a way to tell him how much.
Harder still is I don't know what happens after death for animals. I pray and hope that he too will receive an afterlife. It hurts just that there is a possibility that a spiritual friend, like Nike, and I may never meet again. The unknown on this scares me.
Then comes the pain that I have cried more for his death than for relatives. The guilt of this stings, yet it is the truth. Is it ok to have been more connected to a cat than a person?
While I work through these sad thoughts I do know one thing, he was a soul friend. We had fun (he better have with all the catnip I gave him!). We had battles of stubbornness. We had deep bonded moments of care and support in as each other struggled in life. He laid with me. He cheered me up. He made me laugh. I comforted him in his injuries. Cared for his needs. Protected him from fireworks and small children. We headbutted one another like a bunch of silly guys. We played together.
I will miss my cat. I will miss him as a friend, loved one, and kindred spirit.
RIP Nike
I love you
I lost a kindred spirit two days ago.
It is hard for me to think about. Harder for me that I know the world would not understand the depth of the pain as my kindred spirit was my cat, Nike. I know most would shrug this off and not understand that he was more than a pet. He and I bonded on a spiritual level. We shared many moments, memories, and joys. I know that he knew he was loved. I wish I just had a way to tell him how much.
Harder still is I don't know what happens after death for animals. I pray and hope that he too will receive an afterlife. It hurts just that there is a possibility that a spiritual friend, like Nike, and I may never meet again. The unknown on this scares me.
Then comes the pain that I have cried more for his death than for relatives. The guilt of this stings, yet it is the truth. Is it ok to have been more connected to a cat than a person?
While I work through these sad thoughts I do know one thing, he was a soul friend. We had fun (he better have with all the catnip I gave him!). We had battles of stubbornness. We had deep bonded moments of care and support in as each other struggled in life. He laid with me. He cheered me up. He made me laugh. I comforted him in his injuries. Cared for his needs. Protected him from fireworks and small children. We headbutted one another like a bunch of silly guys. We played together.
I will miss my cat. I will miss him as a friend, loved one, and kindred spirit.
RIP Nike
I love you
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Sermon dynamics
As I am writing my first sermon (hopefully finishing tomorrow), I am noticing many little struggles with it. There are the common things with writing in general. What I am noticing the most though is that there are little tricks to balancing the information and the message that I did not previously think about.
One thing I have constanstly talked about with friends and Kessia is sermon quality. I think a favorite past time of college friends was to pick apart what speakers said. The biggest complaint we had was that there was lack of substance. There would be too much fluff and no real information, or background. The another item that we picked on the most was (and is) lack of an application. Probably the last item (not as important in college) was the length of the sermon. Now as I get set to preach I am finding it trick to make all these three quality.
The one I do not want to compromise on is including lots of information and background. I love it when leaders actually help me understand the scripture that we are reading. My favorites bring out all the little background nuggets of gold that help me better understand what it was that I just read. This also helps me get perspective.
I put in all my own insights, then I have now added background information from many sources. This background information has pulled my sermon in so many ways. Not all the insights help in making the point I am making. At what point am I overloading the congregation and muddling up the core message? I can now see why many pastors have people take notes on a little sheet.
With all that extra in there now (might get cut down later) is not taking too much time to get to the point. I feel like I am slowing down too long to tell much of the background. Although I feel without some of this background the passages do not make sense. One of my passages, Samuel, is very short and really makes no sense without understanding some of the background that was going on in the temple and with Hannah. Does this help get to the point of community? And with including all of this am I going to spend 18 minutes on background and 2 on application?
It is very tricky to balance all these thoughts, insights, and messages. I am loving having the challenge though. I would not imagine ever doing this without using three passages either. I guess that is why I will never be a pastor. I can not write a sermon on three passages in a short amount of time! Lets hope it will all come out well...
One thing I have constanstly talked about with friends and Kessia is sermon quality. I think a favorite past time of college friends was to pick apart what speakers said. The biggest complaint we had was that there was lack of substance. There would be too much fluff and no real information, or background. The another item that we picked on the most was (and is) lack of an application. Probably the last item (not as important in college) was the length of the sermon. Now as I get set to preach I am finding it trick to make all these three quality.
The one I do not want to compromise on is including lots of information and background. I love it when leaders actually help me understand the scripture that we are reading. My favorites bring out all the little background nuggets of gold that help me better understand what it was that I just read. This also helps me get perspective.
I put in all my own insights, then I have now added background information from many sources. This background information has pulled my sermon in so many ways. Not all the insights help in making the point I am making. At what point am I overloading the congregation and muddling up the core message? I can now see why many pastors have people take notes on a little sheet.
With all that extra in there now (might get cut down later) is not taking too much time to get to the point. I feel like I am slowing down too long to tell much of the background. Although I feel without some of this background the passages do not make sense. One of my passages, Samuel, is very short and really makes no sense without understanding some of the background that was going on in the temple and with Hannah. Does this help get to the point of community? And with including all of this am I going to spend 18 minutes on background and 2 on application?
It is very tricky to balance all these thoughts, insights, and messages. I am loving having the challenge though. I would not imagine ever doing this without using three passages either. I guess that is why I will never be a pastor. I can not write a sermon on three passages in a short amount of time! Lets hope it will all come out well...
Monday, December 7, 2009
What does Christmas mean?
This question has seemed to come up over the last few days for me. It has come up in church. It has come up with family. It has come up in the culture. What does Christmas really mean?
Sunday School this week we talked about waiting in conjunction with a passage about John the Baptist. This scripture helped us focus on what it was that we were waiting for and why John came. As expected, when this conversation about Christmas came up the little children had one focus on their mind: presents.
I have talked to many Christians that wish this was not the case. They wish their family focused more on Jesus instead of presents and getting. The temptation of the culture can seep through and corrupt the purpose of the holiday for many. A similar thought has come up in conversations with family as my brother discussed with me the difficulties of parenting and wanting all his children to focus on the true reason for the season.This has got me thinking about how we really help others see the true purpose of Christmas and not get caught in the monetary side.
One of the students in Sunday School asked me a question that I think should play much more in this discussion than it does. The little 7 year old girl asked "When was Jesus born?". To clarify I had to respond with, "Do you mean the season or the year?" She wanted the season. Because of the shepherds being out with the sheep and traveling for taxation many believe that it would be late summer or fall time that Jesus was actually born. No matter what, it was not December 25th.
One of the main reasons we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because of the pagan celebrations at the time. This shift would allow to the church to reach out to pagans and bring them in to the church easier. It also essentially hijacked one of the major pagan holidays.
Just like weddings we have created traditions around this celebration that have nothing to do with the Biblical understanding. In the Bible you will not find outlines that rings, family, signatures, ect needs to present to make a marriage valid. Which brings us back to what is the point of celebration and not what history and tradition have done to it.
I would argue Christmas is about two things: loving God and loving others. This may seem like a simplistic answer, but when you examine the base of the celebration (and all we do) this should be at the heart of it. Our gift giving should glorify God and love others. If it doesn't then it needs to be readjusted. Our worship should do the same. Parties/gatherings too.
For example a family in church throws a HUGE party. The previous year I was afraid that this was something that demonstrated rich over the rest of the community or became exclusive. The party is far, far from that. The couple does this party to help the community come together and to raise donations for those in need. It is their way to bring worship God and love others.
Now what about parenting? How can you help your children realize that the focus should be on loving God and loving others? Based on psychology I would argue that there is a certain age that you are going to lose that battle for the most part. A two year old is not going to see things other than from their perspective. What I mean by this is a two year old naturally centers on what they want and need. They have special moments where they empathize with others but for the most part the "world revolves around them". With this natural focus of the younger age groups a parent is fighting a up hill (or losing) battle with the child. The child will be exposed to gift giving through the media.
I am not saying here that we should not try to teach children about loving others. Far from it. What I am asserting here is that we should go about this by exposing children to the needs of others. This can be done with soup kitchens, making cookies to donate, buy gifts for those who do not have any toys. Essentially, I think modeling is going to be a much more effective teacher in this rather than the pressure to escape the tendencies of the culture.
There is another "holiday" that I would argue would be more appropriate (theologically and culturally) to buck the spend trend. Birthdays. The early church did not celebrate birthdays. These were pagan days to celebrate. Rather the church celebrated a persons birth into Christ. Now many denominations wait until a person can make that choice themselves, and then what better day to celebrate than when they chose to join the church? If they did not make the choice, then it still is a great day to celebrate when they were born new in Christ.
Culturally, children do not really know about birthdays until school age (or play days with friends). This is much easier to escape the media push on the subject. It also is easier for family to give in other ways at that time. You may not have seen them in a while so a trip to visit is a gift.
I would like to leave everyone (and my future self) with these parting thoughts. No matter how we decide our immediate family celebrates a "holiday" we must remember that our focus must be on the spirit of the law and not become litigious with it. Jesus often ignored the laws because it was the right thing to do. It is not about people not respecting decisions, but doing their best to love God and love others. While this can be frustrating we need to be people of grace and forgiveness.
It is my hope that all are blessed and able to break the hold of money and materialism at this time of the year. I pray we can all focus on Jesus. And as we do so that the focus is not on strict decisions, but grace and remembering that the true purpose of the season is to love God and love others.
Sunday School this week we talked about waiting in conjunction with a passage about John the Baptist. This scripture helped us focus on what it was that we were waiting for and why John came. As expected, when this conversation about Christmas came up the little children had one focus on their mind: presents.
I have talked to many Christians that wish this was not the case. They wish their family focused more on Jesus instead of presents and getting. The temptation of the culture can seep through and corrupt the purpose of the holiday for many. A similar thought has come up in conversations with family as my brother discussed with me the difficulties of parenting and wanting all his children to focus on the true reason for the season.This has got me thinking about how we really help others see the true purpose of Christmas and not get caught in the monetary side.
One of the students in Sunday School asked me a question that I think should play much more in this discussion than it does. The little 7 year old girl asked "When was Jesus born?". To clarify I had to respond with, "Do you mean the season or the year?" She wanted the season. Because of the shepherds being out with the sheep and traveling for taxation many believe that it would be late summer or fall time that Jesus was actually born. No matter what, it was not December 25th.
One of the main reasons we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because of the pagan celebrations at the time. This shift would allow to the church to reach out to pagans and bring them in to the church easier. It also essentially hijacked one of the major pagan holidays.
Just like weddings we have created traditions around this celebration that have nothing to do with the Biblical understanding. In the Bible you will not find outlines that rings, family, signatures, ect needs to present to make a marriage valid. Which brings us back to what is the point of celebration and not what history and tradition have done to it.
I would argue Christmas is about two things: loving God and loving others. This may seem like a simplistic answer, but when you examine the base of the celebration (and all we do) this should be at the heart of it. Our gift giving should glorify God and love others. If it doesn't then it needs to be readjusted. Our worship should do the same. Parties/gatherings too.
For example a family in church throws a HUGE party. The previous year I was afraid that this was something that demonstrated rich over the rest of the community or became exclusive. The party is far, far from that. The couple does this party to help the community come together and to raise donations for those in need. It is their way to bring worship God and love others.
Now what about parenting? How can you help your children realize that the focus should be on loving God and loving others? Based on psychology I would argue that there is a certain age that you are going to lose that battle for the most part. A two year old is not going to see things other than from their perspective. What I mean by this is a two year old naturally centers on what they want and need. They have special moments where they empathize with others but for the most part the "world revolves around them". With this natural focus of the younger age groups a parent is fighting a up hill (or losing) battle with the child. The child will be exposed to gift giving through the media.
I am not saying here that we should not try to teach children about loving others. Far from it. What I am asserting here is that we should go about this by exposing children to the needs of others. This can be done with soup kitchens, making cookies to donate, buy gifts for those who do not have any toys. Essentially, I think modeling is going to be a much more effective teacher in this rather than the pressure to escape the tendencies of the culture.
There is another "holiday" that I would argue would be more appropriate (theologically and culturally) to buck the spend trend. Birthdays. The early church did not celebrate birthdays. These were pagan days to celebrate. Rather the church celebrated a persons birth into Christ. Now many denominations wait until a person can make that choice themselves, and then what better day to celebrate than when they chose to join the church? If they did not make the choice, then it still is a great day to celebrate when they were born new in Christ.
Culturally, children do not really know about birthdays until school age (or play days with friends). This is much easier to escape the media push on the subject. It also is easier for family to give in other ways at that time. You may not have seen them in a while so a trip to visit is a gift.
I would like to leave everyone (and my future self) with these parting thoughts. No matter how we decide our immediate family celebrates a "holiday" we must remember that our focus must be on the spirit of the law and not become litigious with it. Jesus often ignored the laws because it was the right thing to do. It is not about people not respecting decisions, but doing their best to love God and love others. While this can be frustrating we need to be people of grace and forgiveness.
It is my hope that all are blessed and able to break the hold of money and materialism at this time of the year. I pray we can all focus on Jesus. And as we do so that the focus is not on strict decisions, but grace and remembering that the true purpose of the season is to love God and love others.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
ROUGH DRAFT of Sermon
So over the last few days I have taken the time to play around with the three passages I will be preaching on. I noted things on each passage, thought of new ideas, and played with others. I have yet to go to the commentaries on the three passages (always recommended by teachers to do that last). This next week I will try to consolidate, focus, iron out, and add important background from commentaries. As a sneak preview (mainly for my wife who is most likely bored at work right now) I thought I would post my notes and incoherent ramblings online. Enjoy!
December 27th 2009 Sermon
I have been on many, many mission trips. In these trips I have visited Mt. Vernon, Forks, Yakima, Idaho, Vancouver B.C., San Francisco, North Carolina, Tijuana, and Mexicali Mexico. Each one of the trips has presented us with many challenges, and usually along with it comes a piece of clothing.
Over the several trips I have received at least 12 T-shirts. Some of the shirts were cool. Some of them I have given away. Some I have thrown out. No matter the coolness of the shirt we always had one picture with everyone wearing their shirt. While these pictures were never the popular ones with the students, it symbolized more. It showed us as a community. A group connected for one purpose.
Scripture: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
The story of Samuel is a fascinating story. In the beginning it parallels that of Jesus. The song of Hannah, Samuels mom, is inspiration for Mary’s famous song that we often hear referred to as the canticle of Mary or Magnificat.
The story of Hannah may sound familiar. She is the most loved wife of a faithful man. She can not have a child and is barren. Up until this point we naturally think of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachael. Most closely, Hannah’s story follows that of _________. Then we get thrown a curveball.
She prayed. In her bitterness she prayed. Instead of just asking for something she made a crucial mistake, she made a promise! Have you been there? “God if you give me this job I will…”; “God if you get me out of this commitment I’ll…”; “God if you would give me an A on this test I’ll…”; “God if you give me a Child I’ll give them to you for all the days of their life.” Hannah is granted the Child that she has prayed for and unlike all the times we prayed for jobs, houses, release, and made promises that we did not keep, Hannah keeps her promise and gives Samuel to the Priesthood.
Where were they living? Did she only go once a year?
This loving mother had made a tough sacrifice. What she wanted more than anything else she gave up. With the Jewish custom she and her husband would have to return to the temple each year.(Explain in depth) And in doing so she would see her son.
Eli, the priest whom blesses the family, recognized this great gift and sacrifice. This is why he asks that the Lord would repay the gift she made.
Upon first reading we are still left with why this would be included at Christmas time. Samuel is definitely a gift to God and to Hannah. This is not how these passages connect though.
Scripture: Luke 2:41-52
Luke adds in a story that none of the other gospels record. This story is unique in many senses. It also is the only account of Jesus as a young boy.
The story starts off with reminding us of the Jewish custom to travel to Jerusalem for Passover. This is very similar to Hannah traveling to the temple each year.
The twist here comes when the family leaves and Jesus stays behind. The Mary and Joseph discover this error and start searching. They ask all those around them. They make the day’s journey back to the Jerusalem and start searching the city. After a long frantic search they discover him.
At the time this passage would have carried a different meaning to the readers. The culture of the day would have understood the traveling parties, the city layout, and customs. As a result they would have centered in on how Jesus responds to his parents. Jesus’ comments support the purpose that Luke has for his Gospel. He is telling the Good News and trying to show that Jesus is the Christ. Thus by showing how Jesus knew where he belonged early would lead us to start to recognize Jesus’ divinity. It also would show how he is not an simply a man as he teaches the teachers of the law for three days. They spent three days in discussion with a 12 year old boy. Now we have had some great biblical conversations in Sunday school, but none yet that have kept us for three days.
Now, instead of zeroing in on how this shows Jesus’ wisdom, maturity, and ultimately his divinity, we want to focus on the worry. We imagine ourselves in the parents shoes frantically searching for our child. We know that feeling of worry and dread. We all have stories of losing our children, family, parents, or keepsakes that have caused us to worry.
After relating to the feeling of dread and worry, I would always wonder what kind of parents Mary and Joseph were. How could they lose God’s only begotten son? Did Jesus not need to be watched? Were Mary and Joseph just not observant or worse yet, negligent?
It took a closer reading to discover the truth about the situation. This was not a matter of bad parenting, but community. Mary and Joseph were traveling with their family, friends, loved ones. Their entire local church had made a journey together. More so they trusted their community to support, watch and raise Jesus.
This point becomes obvious as we see how long it took they to discover his absence, an entire day’s journey. Then we discover how large this community and Jerusalem are. It takes them three days to find him. We know it only took a day’s journey back to the city and knowing the feeling of frantically losing someone their search would not have been a slow one. As a result it takes them two days to search their traveling party and the city. Some estimates have the size of the traveling party around _____.
The connection with Samuel brings up this theme even stronger as we see Samuel ingrained into a faith community at an early age. He has been given from his family to become a part of a community that supports him. Samuel is more than just a boy in this community, but a minister as is stated in the first verse.
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Colossians brings the established theme of community from the earlier two passages into the light.
*Background on why Colossians was written and to whom*
Colossians starts in verse 12 with establishing who the audience is, those who follow God. After a subtle reminder that we are loved and meant to be holy, the passage uses the imagery of clothes. The word choice harkens back to Jesus’ words in feeding the hungry, CLOTHE the naked, tend the sick (reference bible verse). This connection reminds us of the call Jesus has on our lives. Here, like we have seen in the other two passages we have looked at, it is the change in the familiar stories that are meant to draw our attention in and help us understand the meaning.
The change here centers on who we are to clothe and what with. We are called
And while church is important, the attitude of gratitude does not stop there. The passage continues and reminds us that we need to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is important that we have this church community, but our faith Jesus should not be confined to these walls.
What other communities are you apart of? Is Jesus in your heart in mind there? When is the last time you clothed your self with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience with your family? Your Children? Your frustrating relatives? When is the last time you clothed your self with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience at work? At a Husky basketball game? In traffic when you get cut off?
When is the last time you clothed yourself with love?
I absolutely love verse 15. Here we are reminded that the peace of Christ should rule our hearts. This is so difficult to do! Peace. During this season? Does Jesus know my family dynamics? Did Jesus ever have to drive on 520? Yet, peace is to rule my heart. Leaving the anger of what we did not receive, or who received what from whom on Friday behind for the peace of Christ to rule our hearts. Not only this but we are to do this in one body.
The image of the church as Christ’s Body is evoked here. We are reminded that we are to have peace in our community. Anger, frustration, competition should not rule this building, this denomination, or this Christian faith, but the peace of Christ. This does not mean do not disagree. We are called to admonish and teach each other in Wisdom and Love. This means we need to bring up things that divide us in a healthy way. Not defensive. Not vindictively. Teach one another with the peace of Christ in our hearts.
The kicker for verse 15 comes in at the very end. After being told that Peace should rule our hearts and that we must do this in community. After being instructed to love and be in harmony with one another. After we are reminded to forgive, and after many of us wonder if this is all possible we get the punch line in three simple words: “And be Thankful.”
I imagine the teenager in all of us hearing all this and starting to roll our eyes at parents. That’s when they drop the last line: And be thankful.
This community that we all probably look at and think it is unattainable I have seen take shape. In 2007 I lead a group of High school students to Yakima on a mission trip. We got this goofy t-shirt to show our selves as a community and to let others know who we were. As the week progressed the group painted a house for a woman who could no longer move around the house. We painted a deck for another struggling family. Finally, part of our group went to a house that looked as though it had been pulled straight from Mexico.
After the ups and downs of the hard work and serving those in need we sat on the last night. We talked about our experiences and one girl surprised me. She said something so simple yet she said it with such true joy on her face I understood exactly. When it came to her turn she exclaimed “This feels like paradise.” Now for those of you who have been to Yakima and painted outside on 100 degree days you know that is probably the farthest thing from Paradise. Yet, I knew what she really meant was that she felt close to God. It felt as though the kingdom of heaven was here on earth.
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Besides the first sentence, which Jonathan already addressed in his blog, this person says, “the majority of the posts deal with sex.” Let’s see about that. I went back and tabulated the percentage of articles that deal with the topic of sex, and found that it was less than 20%. That’s far short of the “majority” he found. Granted, it may be a bit arguable about which articles deal with the topic of sex directly and which ones don’t – some articles “mention” sex or use it to illustrate a point, but are about another topic altogether – but even if the percentage is DOUBLED, the total is still well below 40%.
But let’s forget the numbers for a moment. As one of the other readers commented, none of us like all that we see when we look out our window onto culture today because so much of it is saturated with sex. It’s a bit ironic, but I spent a good portion of my day writing a message…on sex…that I’ll give Saturday night to a group of middle schoolers when I speak in Pennsylvania this coming weekend. When I submitted the message outlines to the camp director a few weeks ago, I included the message on sex. (I actually thought he would ask me to substitute something else in place of the message on sex, but I didn’t hear that from him.) Later, I called him, just to make sure he had read over my notes and seen that I wanted to address sex…with middle schoolers. He told me that he had seen the message in my weekend lineup and welcomed it because of how many students he saw coming through his camp that were dealing with the woes associated with sexual mistakes.
The critique is that the Youth Culture Window articles talk about sex too much. Perhaps they don’t address it enough.
Moving on.
I’ll skip over the accusation of our articles being mere complaining; that’s too subjective to argue. However, one of the crucial purposes of the Youth Culture Window articles has always been to educate our readers about the facets of culture, both good and bad.
Finally, the individual appeals to Niebuhr’s work entitled Christ and Culture and asks us to read it so we can move beyond the “Christ against Culture” mentality that Niebuhr denounces. First, I’m already familiar with Niebuhr’s work. Second, there is nothing wrong with being “against culture” when culture is clearly wrong, wicked, or sinful. None of us (as believers) are in a position to condemn anyone else, yet all of us (as believers) are obligated to help the younger, or more immature among us. Third, what Niebuhr describes as the best stance on culture, the “reformational” or “transformational” attitude, is precisely the target we aim at in the articles. Almost all of the articles end with a few ideas, strategies, or resources that (hopefully) equip our readers with the ability to engage the elements of culture so that it too can be redeemed.
Again, I sincerely thank the person who submitted the thoughts, and welcome others to do so, as well. Even though I ultimately disagree with him, his critique showed a high level of thought that is uncharacteristic in most youth ministry circles today. It’s good to see someone thinking so theologically about our students and the culture they wade through each and every day.
David R. Smith
Finally, my response to them both:
As the emailer, I figure I should help clarify my statements as I honestly did not expect a reply, as the site is free :). The majority of this response is to David as he was who I was originally addressing, but hopefully this will help clarify my hope and challenge as it was briefly stated in my previous comments.
1) Sex needs to be addressed. I agree with that as students are bombarded with images and cultures thoughts on this daily (could say hourly or every minute). My point was more than there are other very important issues that youth workers deal with daily such as drugs, depression, cutting, gossip, ect. I would argue that the issues that are more pertinent to be "against" are the ones that our culture (and more importantly the church) have already accepted as acceptable- materialism (and to a much lesser degree violence).
Really, none of these matter if you can get at the heart of the issues facing teens (which these are all a symptoms of): where we find our value, what is our identity, and what it really means to be created in the image and likeness of God.
2) I am glad you are familiar with Niebuhr. What makes the work a classic is how Niebuhr does not really give us his view in it of which one is the best. After each he explains positives and negatives with each. This is why I brought this up. In the posts I have read they have primarily used the "Christ against Culture" by presenting a trend and then telling why this is alarming or we should be afraid. They have always ended with suggestions, but if we are only RESPONDING to culture then there is a problem. We need to be creating culture. This might be small, such as in our own circles fostering an environment of safety, or lame jokes, ect. that makes a new culture instead of simply playing off the old.
How would you do that in your articles? I don't know, but I wanted to present the challenge. You already have an established audience that could use this help.
3) I mentioned the negativity. It is great to hear that you guys look for trends that are positive. There are many other neutral trends that maybe we can use to create something new and change the culture like Paul did with the unknown God. Here are a few I have seen in ministry over the last couple years:
Schools increasingly requiring service work (and non religious service trips to other countries)
Groups trying to break away from media. In Britain there has been a large rise in Knitting, Cloud watching groups, ect. How great would it be to help ministers capitalize on the growing need for human interaction and slowing down that students are missing.
Rising age of adulthood and the lack of a "rite of passage"
Time had an article on the growing groups going to more liturgical churches because of the feel of deep reverence
These are just a few suggestions. There are hundreds of things out there to write about that might help leaders with students and their culture.
Ultimately, We do need to know what is going on in culture. Honestly though, the best source is simply developing a relationships with our students and digging into it ourselves as each one of our "Youth cultures" will be different. Mine right now has an eclectic group with varying needs. None of them pay attention to the mainstream media because they are not accepted by the mainstream media.
What I hoped to do was to challenge you to more than just simple reporting. Anyone can do that. Find the trends, dig to the deeper issue, and help the youth leaders address that. Hopefully, now you understand that while it looked like harsh criticism it was really challenge from another brother to take it to the next level.