Derelict Theology

So, if you noticed, I didn’t get to update after the second day of the convention, mainly because I was simply disgusted with the idea of paying 10 bucks a day for wifi for two more days.  So, I braved a new, internetless world and simply disconnected.  That’s way, way hard for me, so it was a step in the right direction, and quite possibly a step towards where God really wanted me this past weekend.  More on that later.

Looking back over the Cincy YS, I can definitely form a few solid opinions.  It was a wonderful, refreshing weekend, and God touched my heart in ways I haven’t felt in a long time.  But, it wasn’t the best NYWC I have been to.  Some of the general session speakers just didn’t live up to my expectations.  The seminar rooms were too hot, making my pregnant wife suffer.  So, we bought a lot of seminars on CD.  The food court in the Hilton was way too overcrowded: standing in line for 35 minutes for 2 slices of pizza, a Mountain Dew the size of Tic’s head and a slice of sinfully delicious chocolate cake, all for a mere 13 bucks wasn’t really as great as I just made it sound.

But, saying all those things really takes the focus off what was really important about the weekend, which was what God was trying to tell me about myself and my ministry.  To me, the major theme that emerged over the weekend was “change”.  At least, it was to me.  I am changing, and God meeting me in that change.  My ministry is changing, and I can’t be left behind.  My priorities toward my ministry are changing, and they are causing me to slow down.  That’s a good thing.  Doug Field’s “What Matters Most” became a really important book in my life this weekend.  I signed up for a session with a spiritual director, and though she told me some things that I’d suspected for awhile, it was good to hear another human say them.  I left the session feeling great, feeling lighter than I have in a long time, and a trip to the prayer labyrinth right after that was simply one of the defining moments of the trip for me.  We stayed through to the end, left after the last general session, and drove 8 hours back home to get my Nintendo Wii, which has also kept this update from happening.  So, this is my last update from, or about Cincinatti.  Thank you YS, and thank you God for everything!

Wah mee?  I don’t know.

Me and Dave the Horn Guy

Nadaddy from Family Force 5.

Family Force 5, greatest live show I’ve ever been to.  Please YS, if you are reading this, get these guys back and give them as much time as they want!

I’m so blessed.

Today was a busy day. I broke my usual YS rule and did everything, but I did walk out of a seminar, which means I slightly kept it. (The rule, for those of you who are clueless to what I’m talking about, is to skip at least one thing each day and just do something fun.) So, I walked out of seminar series 1 about 45 minutes into it because I figured out where it was going. I guess I just like surprises. However, my Early Bird seminar, taught by the jovial and quite funny Dan Kimball, was wonderful, on the subject of turning youth groups into groups of youth missionaries. Dan has some mad puppet skillz, in front of the projector.

Today’s General Sessions were wonderful, a great mix of worship and fun. Sometimes I find myself falling into the opinions based on how I was raised in the church, of what is appropriate and what is not, but today I rationalized that keytars an beachballs in worship was just fine with God. Especially keytars. Mainly though, both of today’s speakers, Phil Vischer and Donald Miller, drove home a point about change. In fact, it seems that all I’ve heard about here today is change and I can only take that to mean that something is about to happen in the ministry God has allowed me at home. Just thinking about it gets me excited.

Sitting here and reviewing my day, I’m wondering why we fear change, especially when we have a wonderful God who seems to specialize in it. Be it name changes (Abraham), position changes (Joshua), to life changes (Paul), God is in charge of change. In fact, when we embrace the very nature of God, it calls us to change, and causes us to change into something beautiful, something beloved, like a butterfly emerging from it’s dry, dull cocoon into a brilliant world of color and adventure. Praise God that He calls us forth from our husks and births us into a life of vibancy and true living!

Tonight was also good for me, as I got to sit down and talk with a friend about ministry, but it seemed like most of the things I was saying to him were things I needed to hear as well. You ever do that? Small town youth ministry is tough, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There is a harvest there just like there is a harvest in the big city, and it is of no less importance. Sitting there, talking with him, he reminded me that almost 9 years ago, we were sitting in my room (when I was still around 17 or 18), and I looked at him and told him, “You’re going to be a youth minister, I just know it.” He didn’t believe me then, but I promised him that I knew it, and now, here we are, both of us in youth work. I don’t think that’s coincedence. Instead, I think it’s the God we love and serve drawing us back to a moment where he spoke life in and through us, and He lets us see His words fulfilled.

My desire is to go home to Adamsville and be an agent of change. It seems like something I’ve forgotten, but this convention has already reawoken that desire in me. But, it’ not about me. God must be the change agent through me, not beside me, behind me, or along with me. It’s the only way for lasting change. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this weekend holds!

And now, some pictures:

Finally, after what has seemed like forever, we are finally at the National Youth Workers Convention in Cincinnati. I’m coming into this convention drained, a little burnt out, and definitely in need of some healing. Finding our hotel was relatively easy (Erin and I are in the Hyatt, which is across the street from the Duke Energy Center.) This, of course, was after a 45 minute traffic jam which was caused by some guy on the side of the road in a machine the size of a tollbooth. It was very anticlimactic.

But, today was very relaxing. Caught up with a friend, discussed ministry and life over dinner at a mexican restaurant called Margarita’s (where I had a huge burrito), and then went to see Leeland in concert. They were perfectly, absolutely amazing. Wonderful band. I’m impressed. Tomorrow, hopefully I’ll have more pictures for you, but for tonight, that’s it. Notes from day one go up after the Flickr Rock Show tomorrow night!

Huzzah!

Today I was browsing around Myspace, looking over some of the profiles that my youth have created on there, and like most times I’m on there, I got a bit discouraged at what I saw.  To any youth minister, a journey around Myspace would be discouraging, I think, because it seems widespread that those people who call themselves Christians really don’t want to live like it.  It’s much easier to talk about following Jesus than actually doing it, is the vibe that seems to be given off.  But is it really that hard?

Following Jesus to the letter would be impossible, I think, because there are some things we are still working out here in our flesh, but there are also a lot of things we can do that get us pretty close.  What it comes down to, I believe, is a disconnect between “our lives” and the life we live as a child of God.  There aren’t supposed to be two lives, just one.  “Our life” should be the life we live for God, not a compartmentalized Sunday/Wednesday block of time.  In each and every thing that we do, we should seek to honor and glorify God.  That’s where the hard part comes, though.  It’s hard to see sometimes how to honor God in all our ways, and we ask questions like: “is it ok to do this, or do that?”.  I have always thought it came down to asking ourselves if doing something would cause someone second guess Jesus because of our actions or words, then it’s not worth doing. 

People would argue that this would cut out a lot of life, and there are things we could not ever experience.  That’s very true.  But there’s a beauty to simplicity, to simply saying “no” and knowing that it’s something that would never cross your mind.  So what if you don’t experience a lot of things in life that are mostly negative anyway?  What do you gain by having those experiences, and what do you gain from not?  I say that what you gain from not having those experiences is much, much more valuable. 

Grace does come in, but grace is not the license to do what we want, it is the gift of God that we don’t deserve.  As Christians, we make a better statement to the world when we live what we believe instead of just talking about it.

I’m in an interesting situation in my ministry right now.  Since July 23, three young men in our are have all passed away in similar accidents, all of them involving some kind of vehicle.  The first was on July 23, then the second on August 1, then another yesterday.  To be honestly, it’s overwhelming.  The teenagers here in our community are having to deal with one wave of grief after another.  One of the young men was still in high school, the other two had graduated just a year ago. 

Whatever the cause of their death was, be it a mistake, a bad decision, or being wreckless, they all are a tragedy.  Whenever a teenager dies, it leaves a profound mark on a community and causes a stain that cannot be removed in the memories of the teens.  It causes them to doubt their salvation, and could cause them to turn their backs on God.  Unfortunately, many adults will also do the same.

So, the question is, how do we deal with death, and more specifically, how do we weave hope into the tapestry of despair that is already becoming real in their lives as a result of these events?  For one, we can’t do anything.  We can’t hope to instill peace and comfort into their lives without the help of Jesus.  And we have to be open to His leading, and open to speaking His words.  There will be opportunities that the Holy Spirit arranges to speak truth, and to show the ultimate hope, that of eternal life in Jesus Christ.  And we have to be ready for those opportunities.  We have to be ready to reach out to kids that aren’t in our youth ministries, that may never come through the door EVER.  Remember, they are grieving too.  And in no way should we ever use it as a plug for our Wednesday night service, unless there is going to be a special service for the deceased. 

We have to be open to the Spirit’s leading in ministering to the family of the deceased as well.  We have to be willing to step outside our comfort zones and arrange help and counseling if it’s necessary.  It may mean working extra hours, it may mean going in places we don’t want to be in.  It’s important in these moments to remember that we are the hands and feet of Jesus, physically representing Him. 

 Most importantly, for us, who may be dealing with grief ourselves because of knowing a deceased teenager personally, we must remember the tender words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30 - “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Dear Lord Jesus, be rest for the people affected by these tragedies today.

I think I need one of these for my church van!  Of course, if brought near my house, the batteries would be used up in one day. 

 Every youth minister needs: The Fart Detector!

[credit to Marko from www.ysmarko.com for this gem]

Tonight I found out another of my youth had recommitted her life at M-fuge last week, and that another has answered a call from God to youth ministry. 

 It’s days like this that make ministry so worth it.

I’ve been incommunicado for the last week or so due to M-fuge, which is a youth camp that we take our group to every year. The camp centers around missions, and 4 days out of 6 are spent on ministry sites doing everything from backyard bible clubs for kids, to roofing houses in need of repair, to visiting maximum security juvenile detention centers (which is what I did). M-fuge is a big part of our youth ministry, and was intrusmental last year (which was our first time) in being a big reason behind our group focusing more on missions in the last year than we ever have. It was a good week, of course there’s always a little drama on a camp trip, but we came back feeling refreshed and also challenged, and I know our group is closer now than it’s been ever. Also, I left one of my youth at camp for another week, because he’s an SLA, or Student Leader Apprentice, and this week is his week to be a shadow staffer. I’m excited about that. I mentioned to some of my youth Thursday night during a conversation that I believe that you can’t be a Christian and not care about people. Loving people was at the core of Jesus’ message and ministry. What bugs me, though, is that a lot of times it’s not at the core of our messages or ministries. This is somewhat of a new thought for me, because I’d always believed that I was supposed to love people because they needed the Gospel, but I believe that Jesus is telling us to simply love people because we’re supposed to love them. This week on my ministry site we visited several places where people had done bad things. Sometimes it was a result of feeling unwanted or underappreciated. In the conversations we had, I never really got to mention Jesus’ name, but those people did leave every day with a smile on their face. We gave them a bright spot in their day that they might not otherwise have. I’m proud of that. God did tell me this week that I’m not living in joy, though. Something the speaker said one morning during adult bible study really hit me when he said that “we should be living in the joy that God gives us”. God didn’t create us to be sour and to be worried all the time, so I’m trying not to be. I think my wife can tell the difference, and I think she likes it. It’s much better this way. I just hope it’s not a temporary attitude adjustment. This week, on Thursday, I leave for Weston, Missouri, where I’m going to be speaking at a youth revival over the weekend. It’s going to be a fun trip, because I’m going with a group of friends who are in a band called Saul2Paul and they will be leading the music. We’re going to stay at a church in St. Louis and then drive on to Weston on Friday morning, then do training and ministry the rest of the weekend. Should be a good trip. Hopefully I’ll be able to post from the road. Tomorrow: Pics from M-fuge

As the title of this post implies, I’m freakin’ worn out!  These past two weeks have simply run over me like a freight train and I’m pretty sure there is no light at the end of this tunnel.  I think over the past week I have put in about 100 hours at work, plus tried to squeeze in a little home life and some recreation for myself.  It’s hard sometimes to be a youth minister, but it really is worth it. 

 Saturday we had our annual Youth Awards Day here at church.  It’s possibly my favorite event we do, besides camp.  Basically, we have an awards ceremony where we give the youth serious and silly awards based on their accomplishments during the year and also some of their unforgettable moments.  We give out awards like “Most Likey To Be Injured on a Church Trip”, “Drama Queen Award”, and “6th Grade Heartthrob” which goes to the guy who is the reason most 6th grade girls can’t wait to move up into the youth ministry.  We grill, play games, and have a huge water war to top the day off.  All in all, it’s a great experience!  I hope to get some pictures up from this years awards day, but I have to get them off my camera first. 

 Sunday was another big event, our Senior Roast.  We do this every year in honor of our high school graduates.  We have a nice meal, put together a slideshow of pictures, and let their parents, other family, and friends tell embarassing stories about them.  A great time is usually had by all, and tears are shed, too.  The event this year went off without a hitch, which was a blessing!  But, I was at the church from 7:45 - 12, then back at 3 - 10 that night, so I didn’t have a Sunday, it seems.

 There is no time to rest for a youth minister once school is out, and yesterday was no exception.  I took one of our graduates out for lunch for his graduation gift, then we retired to my house, where I tried to stay awake while playing UNO on Xbox Live.  We left a little later to go to another youth’s house, where we packed four people onto one four wheeler and went to the middle of his pasture to shoot model rockets.  We only got to shoot it once though, because it went so high and the pieces were so spread out that looking for them took up all our time.  I did get to see a baby pig though, and smelled what it was like to be down on the farm for the first time.  I can honestly say that farming is yet another job I know that God has not called me to.

From there it was dinner at La Potosina here in Adamsville and then back to our house for games and lots of yelling (ERRRRRRDAY!) until finally all left except the girls who spent the night with Erin.  I didn’t get into bed until 12, and so needless to say, worn out + tired = exhausted today.  Tonight offers no hope of rest however, because today is our big concert event that area youth ministries have planned with Freshmen 15 and Calls From Home.  We’re expecting a big turn out, you can expect pictures tomorrow. 

 That’s all.

This has been a rollercoaster of a week.  Sorry for those who read this page regularly, I know I haven’t updated much and I need to fix that, but I haven’t had a whole lot of time between work, life issues, and a small bit of free time for myself.  I’m going to recap the last few days quickly, and hope for the best.

 Wednesday was our year end TeamKid Bash for the children of our church.  They rotated through gamestations and the youth served in each one, playing against the kids and helping them to learn the games.  We had a great time, and several of our youth and one youth sponser got soaked playing Drip Drip Drop.  Afterwards we had hot dogs for the kids and they surprised Erin and I with a birthday cake, which was totally unexpected.  I love our church.  We stayed afterwards and moved tables and set up the set for our Awards Day this weekend for the youth, which is the main reason I haven’t updated the blog in such a long time.  I’ve put in about 50 hours work on the thing already, it’s still not done, and it’s tomorrow!!!!  ARRRGH! 

On Wednesday afternoon, we also got some news about Avery.  For those of you who have been following the story, Avery, my cousin Tadd’s son, has passed away.  Wednesday morning after a really rough night, the family met with doctors who told them they were 99% sure there was nothing else they could do for little Avery.  So, they made the decision to disconnect the life support machines.  Tadd and Julie spent Avery’s last moments holding him in his favorite blanket, while they listened to the classical music that always seemed to calm him down when he was so sick.  Thank you all for praying if you did, and continue to pray, they need all the help they can get right now, the funeral is tomorrow as well.

 Last night we finished decoration for Awards Day, which took from 6-9 p.m., then Erin and I came home, and I worked on the powerpoint for the event until 1:45 in the morning, when I just crashed because I was so tired.  Today I’ve gone to Henderson to pick up our music minister’s son and tonight our praise team with practice in preperation for tomorrow and Sunday.  Plus, our Senior Recognition Day and Graduate Roast is Sunday as well.

 If I make it through this weekend, I think I deserve a pizza…..or at least a trophy full of Steak’ems.