Derelict Theology

So, yeah, I’m totally stealing this from one of my favorite bloggers, Marko, but I don’t think he’ll mind.

I’m going to be running down MY favorites of 2006 over the next few days, but if you want to respond with yours, just drop a comment below and let me know what you think. First up though, THE BOOKS OF 2006!

my favorite christian book in 2006
Quite possibly House, by Ted Dekker. I love suspenseful style thrillers and Ted Dekker’s writing just gets better and better. He transcends the typical “Christian” writer’s style and manages to tell a great story with characters I really care about, and he always manages to creep me out at the same time. From Deliverance style rednecks to serial killers to a twist ending, Dekker’s House definitely wins this one by a landslide.

my favorite non-fiction book of 2006
Both Postsecret books by Frank Warren. These books cut me to the heart everytime I look through them, because deep inside I have some secrets too, just like we all do. Seeing people pour out both their triumphs and their heartaches on those little postcards really cements the fact that life happens all around us and when we’re down and we feel like everyone is against us and we feel all alone, chances are we’re not. Check out Postsecret’s website to see what I’m talking about.

my favorite fiction book of 2006
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. I finally picked this up and read it after seeing the movie and the book totally blew the movie away. There’s such a sense of hopelessness and dread that is woven through the story, which is told in a first person perspective from one of the survivors. You should be able to find this classic in a bargain bin at most bookstores and I know for sure they sell it at Wal-mart, so you don’t have any excuse to not read it! Now.

book that changed my life in 2006
What Matters Most: When Saying No is Better Than Saying Yes by Doug Fields. This book changed the way I do ministry, thus changing my life. My new goal is to say no more in everything I do. And to be honest, I’ve had the chance since finishing it. And it felt good. More time for my family means a happier, less stressed out Marty. That’s a great thing. Doug’s book really serves to pull us off our pedestals and remind us that yes, the world will keep turning if we stop doing what we are doing sometimes.

best reads for youth workers in 2006
Teenage Guys and Teenage Girls from Youth Specialties, and the aforementioned book by Doug Fields take my top spots. After 4 and a half years in youth ministry, I still don’t have everything figured out, but I don’t feel like a rookie, and these books are still teaching me things I need to know about ministry to teenagers. Seriously, these are great reads.

If you want to add yours or disagree with me, you know what to do.

So yeah, it’s been awhile since I’ve typed here.  No excuses.  Just laziness.

 It’s Wednesday, which means that today is the busiest day of the week for me.  Set up, tear down, speaking, singing, I’ll do it all today.  Yet, somehow, I’m not stressed out this morning.  I’m actually in a pretty good mood, and I think I’m going to be able to get some stuff done today.  That is always a good thing.

 I’ve been reading a great book lately, called Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell.  I know I’m pretty much late to the party on this book, but I had to clear some others off my plate first before I could dive in.  This book is one of those that you have to read a chunk at a time, then sit back and mull it over in your mind.  Last night, I was reading a chapter called Tassels, in which he writes about the start of the church he’s currently pastor of.  God has done a really amazing thing there in Grand Rapids, and the scene finds Rob Bell sitting in a storage closet in the church right before a service wishing he could drive far, far away from there. 

The conclusion he comes to is that the thing driving him is a person he’s really not, and he wants to run away from that person, but realizes that running away from it only ends up bringing it with him, because he’s become that person.  He had become this person he called “Superpastor” who never missed a visit, never missed an opportunity, who always gave great sermons and who always had a kind word.  He was always at study, always ready to work, and always made time for his family.  Or at least, that’s who he was trying to be.

Reading that nudged me in the ribs, and as I continued to read, I became distracted by the thoughts bouncing around my head.  I am doing the same thing.  I want to be “Superyouthminister”.  I want to be the cool guy that is always around, always saying something cool, wearing something cool, always listening to the coolest music, and hanging out with the coolest people.  I want to drink the expensive coffee, and read the newest books.  I want to go to all the important conferences.  I want the best youth room, and the biggest church bus.  I want the most kids, the coolest youth ministry, the most events.  I want to be at every game, every band competition, I feel like I should always have people at my house.  Last night I realized I can’t be that person anymore.

 Being that person, I’m going to kill myself.  The real me.  I’m going to kill my family.  I’m going to kill my wife.  And I don’t want to die like that.  I don’t want to hurt my family like that.  Rob Bell didn’t either, and he writes that he killed “Superpastor”.  He drug him out back and shot him.  So today, consider this post a eulogy for “Superyouthminister”.  He was a great guy, and had the potential to be more, he always had the potential for more.  But, alas, he is dead and gone and he was killed by the person that he had tried to force to fit his image.  This person is trying to believe it’s ok to fail, it’s ok to fall.  It’s ok not to have all the answers.  It’s ok not to be at every game.  It’s ok not to have the coolest clothes, or the best music.  It’s ok to hang out with uncool people.  It’s ok to drink Walmart brand coffee with flavor add-ins.  It’s ok to not have the best youth room, or even the best youth ministry.  It’s ok to not go to the seminars, or the meetings, and to let the books I’ve bought pile up and gather dust.  It’s ok because I have Jesus.  He is meeting my needs, not my busy-ness.  Sure, I’ll go to games, wear cool clothes, listen to music, drink Starbucks, read books, and hang out with kids. 

 But I won’t feel guilty anymore about what I “could have done.”

 Bang bang, “superyouthminister”.  You’re dead.

I found this on a blog that I visit quite often and I thought it was pretty fun.  Below you’ll find some questions about books that I’m reading, have read, and are going to read.  And, for their trouble, I tag…….James, Jeremy, Erin, Mikey, and Steven.  Enjoy, can’t wait to read yours!

1. One book that changed your life: The Bible.  Seriously.  I mean, what else am I going to say?  This is the one book I’ve always turned to, one that I have more copies of than any other, and that influences a majority of my decisions.  However, there is another book that changed my life too.  Blue Like Jazz is a wonderful book, and one that all believers should read, I think, even if they don’t agree with it.  It definitely gets the juices flowing and the thoughts it inspires should create some lively discussion.  Both of these books are precious to me, but in different ways.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: I honestly can’t think of a book I’ve read twice, but I think I should do that more often, because thoughts change over time. 

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: The Bible.  Really.  And Searching For God Knows What, and Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone.  Wait.  That’s three.  Too bad, they would have to bend the rules for me.

4. One book that made you laugh: Mental Floss presents Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History’s Naughtiest Bits.  This book is hilarious!  Want to know about the Roman Senator who declared war on Poseidon, god of the sea?  Want to know what happened to the soldiers who escorted Genghis Khan to his final resting place?  Love scandal and hilarity?  Find it all here!

5. One book that made you cry: A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

6. One book you wish you had written: Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi by David Crowder, Survivor by Chuck Pahluniak

7. One book you wish had never been written: the left behind series, The Davinci Code

8. One book you’re currently reading: Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: Contemplative Youth Ministry, Deep Ministry In a Shallow World, Boundaries With Teens, To Own a Dragon, and plenty, plenty more that are stacking up in my “to read” pile.

and since this meme only had 9 items, but just seems to be begging for a more neat 10, i’ll add one:

10. One book you’d like to write: Someday, I hope I’ve stayed in youth ministry long enough to write a book to youth workers that encourages them, that helps them out practically, instead of being a bunch of theory.

I am reading through Donald Miller’s “Through Painted Deserts” and this morning I came upon and passage that just had me grinning, laughing, and awestruck at the same time.  I hope you find it as useful as I did.

 ”I was raised to believe that the quality of a man’s life would greatly increase, not with the gain of status or success, not by his heart’s knowing romance or by prosperity in industry or academia, but by his nearness to God.  It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler.  The gospel, the very good news, is simple, but this is the gate, the trailhead.  Ironing out faithless creases is a toilsome labor.  God bestows three blessings on man: to feed him like birds, dress him like flowers, and befriend him as a confidant.  Too my take the first two and neglect the last.  Sooner or later you figure out life is constructed specifically and brilliantly to squeeze a man into association with the Owner of heaven.  It is a struggle, with labor pains and thorny landscape, bloody hands and a sweaty brow, head in hands, moments of severe loneliness and questioning, moments of ache and desire.  All this leads to God, I think.  Perhaps this is what is on the other side of the commercials, on the other side of the curtain behind which the Wizard of Oz pulls his levers.  Matter and thought are a canvas on which God paints, a painting with tragedy and delivery, with sin and redemption.  Life is a dance toward God, I begin to think.  And the dance is not so graceful as we might want.  While we glide and swing our practiced sway, God crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our shoes.  So we learn to dance with the One who made us.  And it is a difficult dance to learn, because it’s steps are foreign.”

I started Donald Miller’s second book, “Searching for God Knows What” last year around September or October. Due to time, or other books getting in the way, I only just finished it this past week. That may make me seem quite lazy when it comes to reading, but I think that the way I read it is better. Why, you may ask? Because there were times when I just needed to digest what Miller was saying, and it would take a few days for that to sink into my life. Miller uses the text to get to us to think about the search for faith, and what it means to interact with the world around us. In fact, it ends up being not so much about searching for God rather than having found him, what do we do now? I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with Miller in places, but the point that he struck me with the most was about how we view Jesus.

What is our view of Jesus? I’m not talking about the spiritual sense, either, but the physical sense. Is it like this:

Or rather, is it like this?

What Miller says basically is that Jesus was ugly. His proof text is Isaiah 53:2, which reads: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”

Since Jesus was not attractive, and his message was not attractive, there was nothing that drew people to him naturally, or ideologically. Those that were not turned off by his appearance could have been turned off by his message. But when we look past those things, Miller says, when we look past the outer layer, we find a beautiful being of love, light, and hope, and a message that reveals the same. And yet, what most of our world cannot get past is that Jesus was a not a white, middle class, Republican and to go to Heaven you have to be just like Him. (thank you, Derek Webb)

That chapter of the book stuck with me more than anything, because it’s easy to say that Jesus sympathized with all our sins and sorrows, but we can’t easily imagine the son of the God being not so handsome, can we? It even feels wrong to say that He is “ugly.” But, as I read through the book, I realized why I’d grown so tired of paintings with “english jesus” as I like to call him, with his white skin, flowing brown hair, and perfect complexion. I realized that I was tired of them because they did not represent the truth that my heart already knew. The man who was whipped, beaten, and killed for our sins doesn’t have to be beautiful to draw us to Him, we just have to be willing to see with a different set of eyes.