Lent

As a typical Baptist, I don't usually do Lent very well. It has always seemed a little too stuffy, religious and legalistic to me (as most traditions do). But over the years I have slowly come around.

This year has been significantly different already. This is the first year that I received ashes on my forehead. The Ash Wednesday service at the Episcopal church was beautiful and meaningful, but I was still very aware how out-of-place and uncomfortable I was with it all. Nevertheless, I was glad to be connected to something that Christians all over the world were a part of.

Then there is the commonly observed practice of giving up something for Lent. It is meant to be a time of self-denial and repentance (which in it's true form indicates a change of behavior) that leads to the Cross of Good Friday and the Empty Tomb of Resurrection Sunday. So with a fairly honest assessment of my life, I committed to drinking only water for 40 days. Giving up soft drinks (of which I typically consume several each day) was the big one, but it includes everything else, too. It may be healthy, but it is not meant to be a diet or for health reasons; it is meant to set me free from something in my life that has been addicting. I cannot allow anything in my life to compete with Jesus for control over it.

Another part of Lent this year is our church's emphasis on listening through the New Testament together. We have been encouraging the congregation to join us each day in listening to a few chapters of an audio version of the New Testament. I have to admit, after trying out the material we were distributing, I went back to my old copy of The Bible Experience audio Bible because it is so much better of a dramatic reading. I'm now in the first few chapters of Luke, and this has been a really nice part of this season as well.

Finally, thanks to a link on a friend's blog, I found Mars Hill Bible Church's Lent 2010 experiential calendar. This calendar is set up so that on each of the 40 days I will participate in an activity that challenges me and stretches me to grow toward Christ and his love. This includes activities like doing something you've been putting off or making a phone call to someone you've had a falling out with or shoveling snow from a neighbor's driveway or fasting from food or technology or music. I like that it helps Lent to be about more than just giving up something for a duration of time, but it also adds in spiritual exercises to your life in a wide variety of areas.

The funny thing about this season of Lent is how these added observances have bumped up against my regular life. The ashes coincided with a youth mission project, which helped me reflect on serving others as a proper response to repentance from self-centeredness. The audio Bible listening has been mixed in with a variety of activities throughout my day. The nothing-but-water fast creates tension whenever I go to the refrigerator or out to eat. My experiences from the Lent calendar are not always convenient with my day-to-day schedule so I have to find ways to make it work.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago, and I'm going to be thinking and talking a lot about youth ministry. I'm hopeful that my deeper observance of Lent this year will also pay off in a fuller understanding of ministry as I reflect and study it together with some other great youth leaders. (Btw, I'm planning on blogging from there this weekend, too... or you can follow me on twitter.)

what's up? oh, not too much

So here it is, late February, and I'm just now getting around to my first blog post of 2010. Sorry folks. It's not that there hasn't been anything going on to report... in fact, it's probably because of the opposite, too much going on that I haven't found (or made) the time to post.

Here's a little taste... (if nothing else, you can enjoy the pictures)

The kids are big stuff.

Kate has moved up to a "big girl bed" now. When she saw it, she said, "Thank you Daddy for making me a bed." Even though it's passed down from Amy's great-grandmother, she thinks I made it just for her. She so sweet. And on top of that, in the past few weeks, she's even graduated out of pull-ups at night. She really is becoming quite the big girl.

Ben has started taking piano lessons. Not only is he doing great so far, but he also loves it. As my mom can attest, I, however, was not so accommodating when I was a kid. He makes me proud, and I love to listen to him practice.

And Will and I have a new connection. I'm leading the music for preschool chapel, a new initiative with his preschool on Friday mornings. All the preschoolers love it, but I'm still not sure if he thinks it's cool or not that his dad is doing the music.

Also because of the snow-pocalypse of 2010, the kids have now missed ten days of school. But at least we've gotten to enjoy the snow a little bit.

Thanks to the Elswicks, we've had a couple great afternoons of sledding on the slopes in their backyard! Kate loves to push, and Ben and Will really enjoy the sledding. (I think Ben offers the most promise for a snow skiing companion in the near future!)

And then there was the water leak. One Sunday morning as I was getting ready to head out for church, I heard a hissing sound and looked up to see a water stain line across our living room ceiling. We turned off the water into the house and got a plumber to look at it on Monday. He couldn't find it the first time, but when the water had been turned on for a few hours, the water stain came back. The plumber came back and cut a hole in the bathroom closet looking for the leak. Couldn't find it there. So he cut a hole in the living room ceiling where he found the leak in the cold water pipe leading into the bathtub on the second floor. Leak fixed, but now we had a huge hole in the ceiling and closet.

Now, my drywall skills aren't all that great, but I think I did a pretty good job fixing the holes. I got the texture pretty decent but still need to see if I can match the color better with some primer. All in all, I'm pleased with my results.

On top of that, as our Christmas present from Amy's mom, we had all the carpet and linoleum replaced in our house. A very nice upgrade in our home, but it certainly was a lot of work and adjustment to have it installed.

In the midst of the chaos when our carpet was being installed, my cell phone was lost (while our home phone was disconnected because of the work being done). The next day I got online and found that someone had used my phone, and, long story short, I got it back by offering a "reward" and driving to the next town over to get it from a guy who handed it to me with a washcloth because he didn't want his prints on it. Honestly, I'm just glad to get it back.

It's been a very active time in ministry, too.

In January, I had the chance to pray with Faith and Angelica to receive Jesus, and I was blessed to have the opportunity to baptize them during worship. Truly, this is the best part of my job!

We also set some record numbers in 2010. On the 17th of January, we had the highest attended lock-in since I've been at GBC with 58 students. Here's a video with some of the kids dancing to the Nintendo Wii game, "Just Dance." (I think there's some dance footage of me floating around somewhere out there on the internet, too.)

We had a record number attend our annual winter retreat, too. We took 36 people (29 students and 7 adults) to Pigeon Forge a couple weeks ago. We had a great time together with our games and teaching sessions based on Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love. We also had a good time in downtown Gatlinburg, at the Comedy Barn, and at the outlet stores before heading back. It went remarkably smooth for the number of students who went. I have amazing adult volunteers that make this trip so much fun every year. We also collected a record number of warm clothing items for our association's annual Souper Bowl Party where they distribute the clothes to low-income individuals and families in the Lexington area. Last year, we collected probably about 50 or 60 items from our church to donate to the project. This year, the students turned it into a huge competition between the 14 adult Sunday School classes (complete with weekly skits and videos) to see who could donate the most, with the prize being a tasty continental breakfast for the winning class. The competition was fierce, and we ended up collecting almost 1000 items. Our students did a tremendous job, and I'm very proud of their hard work!

And just in this last week alone, we celebrated Chinese New Year (see Amy's blog here), Ben broke his bed by jumping on it (!), our youth group delivered 28 meals to some of our senior adults, and our church staff celebrated Mardi Gras (oh, and Ash Wednesday). And yesterday, because it was yet another snow day, we decided to get the youth together to shovel some snow and then go out to the movies and dinner together. A busy, but fun, week.

Oh, and every time I thought about sitting down to write a blog there was another big distraction--UK basketball!!! What a great season we're having! So, with that acknowledged, I guess you should expect my next update sometime after April 5th :).

2010 GBC theme poll

Just like last year, we're choosing a theme for our youth group for the coming year. This will be a word or phrase that we use along with a Scripture verse and design for a youth group t-shirt. It is also used throughout the year in lessons and events.

A quick survey of my last three years:

2007 "Becoming"
"Don't worry about your youth. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity." 1 Timothy 4:12

2008 "Love Wins"
"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1 John 3:16

2009 "Reclaim the World"
"In Jesus we see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him… all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe get properly fixed and fit together all because of his death on the cross." Colossians 1:15-16, 20 The Message

I'd love your feedback on the two finalists for next year.

reclaim the world

Our youth group was challenged to "reclaim God's dream for the world" in 2009. With all the brokenness surrounding us, I'm proud of the many ways that they have done what they could to show love and bring restoration to those they have served. I want to share some of the ways they have done that just this year.

They have--

• Purchased Christmas gifts for a local family of five through the Share the Joy program
• Collected 56 shoe boxes from our church for Operation Christmas Child for kids around the world
• Visited Dover Manor for their Thanksgiving service
• Raked leaves for a senior adult in our congregation
• Went around the neighborhood to invite families to Trunk-or-Treat
• Tutored resettled refugee children in Lexington
• Worked with the resident farmers at Quest Farm to prepare for their harvest festival
• Kandice Kidd organized a blanket party to make and send 65 blankets to kids in an orphanage in Zambia
• Participated in “Sleepless in Lexington” to raise money and awareness for homelessness
• Spent a week in Chicago with CSM serving in soup kitchens and working with urban kids programs
• Participated in the community-wide Serve the City mission projects
• Served lunch and helped out at the Lighthouse feeding ministry in Lexington
• Canvassed the neighborhood asking for food donations for a feeding ministry
• Collected money to buy shoes for girls in a Guatemalan orphanage
• Collected blankets, coats and other warm items for the Elkhorn Association’s Souper Bowl party
• Prayed for missionaries and their work around the world
• Sent cards to many in our congregation

a hard funeral revisited

A few weeks ago, I was asked to perform a funeral service for a man who was only four months older than me, who left behind a wife of 2 years and a step-daughter and a one-year old son. Though I don't know all the details, he apparently had a secret drug problem he kept hidden from his friends and family and died as a result of an overdose. Tragic and awful... and I had the task of saying something at the funeral to help bring comfort and make sense of it all.

This past Thursday, there was another tragic death. This time a twelve-year old boy from my church. Needless to say, I'm really struggling trying to deal with this one. My heart aches for everyone involved. I guess I just want to share some of the remarks that I offered at the funeral a few weeks ago:

If you’re familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, would you pray it together with me this afternoon?

Part of this prayer of Jesus that sticks with me today is “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” With the death of Chris, a lot of us here are thinking about heaven, this place that our imagination tries to picture—free from pain and tears and hurt and sin, a place filled with God and with those who have been transformed by Jesus—a place that is now reality for Chris.

But what Jesus says that we should pray for in this prayer is that we would live the life of heaven here on earth now. And that’s the problem, right? Our lives sometimes look nothing like heaven. We are broken people… splintered, misshapen, fractured, spinning off in the wrong direction, cracked, shattered, distorted, crushed. In all the ways we can describe it, broken.

Not that there isn’t beauty and love and hope, but alongside it is brokenness. This was certainly true for Chris. Even with his sweet wife, and his adoring kids, even with his supportive family and loving friends, he was still a broken person. And if you and I were to sit down together, I know many of you here this morning could tell me about your brokenness. Relationships splintered—we’re often either getting beat up, or ignoring someone else’s pain, or maybe even the one causing the pain. Sometimes our brokenness is internal. Maybe you sense it within yourself most deeply. Look at our splintered hearts, our crushed minds, our cracked spirits. It’s the inward brokenness of guilt, shame, over-obsession and insecurity.

What about our relationship with God? Maybe for you it is torn apart, cracked, misshapen. God wants to come close to us, and we push him away. God wants to come into our lives, and we crowd him out. God wants to show us the best possible way to live, and we refuse to even listen. We fail to love and obey him, and we find our relationship with God shattered.

It’s not a mistake that at the beginning of the story of Jesus, the first message of God to humans was “peace on earth.” Remember the Christmas story and the angels announcing peace to the shepherds? In the Bible, the word “peace” literally means… to put back together, to put back in, to restore as it was originally intended to be, to bring fulfillment. This is what the angels were so excited about. “Peace on earth!” They were announcing the peace of God on all the earth.

Whatever else you think Jesus is about, I want you to know this: God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to begin the process of putting back together what is broken in us.

In the beginning of creation, the Bible tells us that God created us in his image and his dream for us was to live unbroken lives with him forever, but, when sin quickly came, that image was broken. God’s intention for creation was distorted. But God wants to restore what was broken, he wants to put back in what was lost. God has not given up on his dream for the world. And the coming of Jesus signals the restoration.

So Jesus, who is known as the Prince of Peace, his life means that our shattered lives can be put back together like new—better than new! God takes the pieces of our lives that are broken and splintered and shattered and miraculously reunites them. He takes our crushed relationships with others, within ourselves and with him, and fuses the pieces back together.

Through Jesus, God is restoring his people. He longs to take your pieces—all the junk in your life—and make you whole, without cracks, without splinters, without defect. Look at your life… do you think this is the way God intended for it to be? I know some of you could look at shards of glass and say, “that’s me.” You need to know your life was meant to be so much more than all this junk. I believe this isn’t all there is.

I’ve seen God put back together some of the broken pieces in my own life. Several years ago, I struggled through some depression… maybe not as severe as what maybe some of you are dealing with. But I know what it is like to feel like there’s something messed up and broken in my mind and find help and healing and to cling to the hope that God did not give up on me.

I think Chris’ family would really want you to hear this: If you’re here and struggling with some junk in your life, please get help. It’s okay if you’re not religious, but as one who has experienced it, I know that God can do a miracle in your life and make you whole. At the point you turn your life over to him, he will begin to heal the fractures and make your life into the life he always dreamed for it to be. It won’t always be easy; healing never is. But it’s worth it.

Now if you’re here and God has made a difference in your life, I need you to hear this: God is looking for partners. God’s renewal and restoration in your life is an invitation to join him in sharing the peace of God with other people. God is looking for men and women who will seek out those who are broken and cracked and help them to find wholeness. He wants to restore the world through you. Don’t be selfish: you were not saved simply for your own well-being, he wants you to be a part of his work in other people’s lives, too. God wants you to be the healing in their life, get your hands dirty—you be the remedy.

In a way, this is sort of like what my wife and I recently experienced. You see, we returned one year ago from adopting our daughter, Kate, from China. We already have two biological sons, and we could have said to ourselves, “thanks God for giving us a great family.” But, no, we saw so many orphans around the world without a family—huge brokenness—and felt that part of God’s calling in our lives was to reclaim one life out of that brokenness and be her forever family. At times it’s been hard, but we love our daughter so much and are so proud to be her parents.

Here’s what I need you to do this afternoon. 1. I want you right now to turn to the person next you and tell them, “This isn’t all there is.” Take a second to do that now. 2. I challenge you to be there for this precious family that Chris left behind, not only now, but down the road, too. Send cards, give hugs. In a few years, Elizabeth is going to need driving lessons… and I sure hope she doesn’t get them from her mom.

Let me end with this paraphrase of Hebrews 13:

“May God, who puts all things together, makes all things whole, Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant, Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd, up and alive from the dead, Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always!”

Live the life of heaven now.

operation christmas child

I'm posting this video commercial that our youth made to publicize Operation Christmas Child for this year's shoe box collection. (Windows Moviemaker wouldn't let me add two audio overlays, so you will just hear the narration... when we showed it, we played music quietly in the background, too.)

It's pretty funny stuff... enjoy :)

Crossings '09 Camp Highlight Video

Chicago (part 2)

Sorry about the long delay between posts... I hope to have a chance to update more next week.

In this post, I want to tell a few details about our mission trip to Chicago. Part of the problem, however, is that our team was split into two groups for most of the activities, so you'll have to settle with about half the story... But I do have a few pictures I can share from the other serving group (and maybe I should invite Donna to be a guest writer to share more).

We got to town on Sunday evening (with some minor traffic delays on our way to pick up Kandice from the airport) and got settled at our housing site. On all 4 CSM trips I've been on, the housing has been different. This year in Chicago we were housed on the edge of North Park University in the Albany Park neighborhood. We stayed in a row house that was actually owned by the college and rented by CSM. The other church groups there were in other buildings, except we shared our house with a group from Utah. The house was an old building with little furniture (a few bunk beds), no air conditioning (so we were thankful for mild temperatures all week) and three floors. The guys slept on the first floor and the girls on the second, and sometimes we used the basement for our evening debriefing. Because of the old pipes and large number of people, we weren't able to shower there. We had scheduled shower times in the evening where we walked over to the campus and showered in their locker rooms... which meant community showers for the guys (insert giggles here). We didn't spend a lot of time at the house because of our busy schedule, but we had our breakfast and "quiet time" devotions each morning and we had debrief, showers, "quiet hour" and "cell phone access half hour" each evening. All in all, it worked very well for us.

After we got settled at the house, met our city hosts (Wesley, Dale and Brooke) and had a brief orientation, we headed out for dinner. Each evening we ate at a local ethnic restaurant as a way to experience the culture of the city. On Sunday night we started out with dinner at a Thai restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood. It was great food, and I was pleased with the kids' good attitudes and willingness to try new things. It was served family style, but they only brought out one dish at a time... it was almost like a meal with eight courses.

After dinner was the prayer tour. This is one of the best parts of CSM for me. It's hard to explain, but it provides a powerful beginning to the week by taking us around the city and sharing insights into where God is at work there. What we do is we load up in the vans and our city hosts guide us around the city where we see some the obvious tourist sites... but the impact of the prayer tour is that we pause and think rethink their significance or we will reflect on some not-so-obvious meaningful places. For example, a not-so-obvious point along our prayer tour was the once all-white country club that over the years had been integrated and made open to the public and became a symbol of progress in that neighborhood. Another example was the well-known and brand new U.S. Cellular Field where the Chicago White Sox play baseball. What we reflected on was its positioning in the southside of Chicago and how they tore down all kinds of housing to build it and the resulting strain on the homelessness in the area... all the while, refusing to tear down the old stadium because they didn't want the baseball team to be without a home for even a short time. The implication: the homelessness of the baseball team took priority over the homelessness of the residents of that area. Another powerful illustration from this prayer tour was driving Michigan Avenue. You may know the "Magnificent Mile" and all the shopping and beautiful downtown buildings of Chicago that line that street, but what you may not realize that this same road stretches south and it's the very same road that quickly becomes lined by pollution, liquor stores, pawn shops and other signs of poverty. It may be the same street, but there's a world of difference from one end to the other.

You see, it was on a prayer tour just like this in Philadelphia several years ago I found myself in a park overlooking the city when God hit me with something that has moved my heart for missions in a powerful way. This may seem a little strange to you, but I remember looking up at the bright stars filling the sky and my middle school science coming back to me, thinking about the difference between these stars and the sun. The sun is simply another star (actually it's even a weak star in comparison to the others) and yet it has so much influence over me and the rest of the earth (heat, growth, power, etc.). And looking up at all those thousands of stars in the sky, they are beautiful, but they really don't have much practical influence over my life. The difference? The sun is closer. Proximity equals influence. Sometimes I think I'm not the most beautiful or powerful Christian around, but when I am willing to get close to the broken and needy, then I am able to make the biggest difference. I don't have to be the best, I just need to come near... and then I'll be able to have real influence in their lives.

(the other serving team at CCO)

Anyways, Monday was the first day of serving at our ministry sites. The other team loaded up and headed to their anchor site, Cornerstone Community Outreach (CCO), a women and children's shelter where they ran a VBS program for the children who were staying there. My group headed out to the YMCA to help with a children's program. We were split up to help out in three different areas helping the teacher and giving these children a lot of extra positive attention. We read stories, played games, reviewed lessons, danced around, chased on the playground, and anything else we could do to pour our lives into these young children for the brief amount of time we had that morning. It was the Monday after Michael Jackson died, so I remember one of the teachers bringing a MJ album to play in her cd player while the kids were playing on the playground. Fun memories.

That afternoon, we went over to the Uptown neighborhood and were given a task to perform. We were divided into two groups, given $5 and were told to talk to people in the area and find a way to help someone with that money. I was so proud of Jennifer's group who went and bought a bunch of water bottles and gave them away to people they met as an act of kindness. They really blessed a lot of people through that creative generosity.

Later, we had a chance to visit the CCO where the other team was doing the morning VBS, only we were there to help prepare and serve dinner Monday evening. I love feeding ministries because of the opportunities to actively serve (through passing out meals and cleaning up) and to meaningfully engage the people who are there in conversation. Here I spent most of my time washing dishes, but our students did a great job jumping in wherever they could.

That night, we met back up with the other group at a Lebanese (Middle Eastern) restaurant in our neighborhood, and I got to try pickled radish (not so good) and felafel (not so bad). We went back to debrief, shower, and head to bed.

And that is where I will pick up later... with Tuesday.

Chicago (part 1)

This past week, I led a team from our church on a mission trip to Chicago. It was an amazing week, and I'd like to share a few thoughts about the trip... probably over the course of several posts :).

First of all, I really like working with CSM for several reasons. (By the way, check out their blog here.) CSM is great about offering a variety of ministry opportunities. Whereas on most mission trips, you build a house, offer a backyard Bible club, or do some kind of evangelism campaign, with CSM you get to do several things during the week-- even several things a day! So, when I have a student who complains about having to wash dishes, I can say, "No problem, we'll be doing something different in a couple hours." For example, this past week we had two groups (a group of 10 and a group of 11, not counting CSM hosts), and between these groups we served in three childrens programs (CCO, YMCA and By the Hand), four city "experiences" (the prayer tour, Meet a Need, Immersion and Ethnic Plunge), and four feeding ministries (Living Room Cafe, CCO, CCIL, and Humboldt Park Social Services). On top of that, the students experienced the city's cultures through four different ethnic restaurants (Thai, Lebanese, Indian and Mexican). These experiences expose the youth to a whole host of issues pertaining to the city they are serving... you really get a better sense of "Chicago" because of it.

In addition to the variety CSM trips provide, they are great because they are very flexible and customizable to our group, they do all the legwork, and they provide you with great city hosts to work alongside the groups. And it's nice to know that once we leave, CSM doesn't. CSM has an ongoing presence with these great ministries we work in. It may be short-term for us, but they are constantly supporting and providing volunteers to many of these ministry areas.

I'm also a big fan of doing urban ministry with my students. I've now taken youth to work in the inner cities of Toronto, Nashville, Philadelphia and Chicago. Sitting at a table across from a hungry family at a soup kitchen, kneeling down to deliver a bag lunch to a homeless person on the street, looking into the eyes of kids who are becoming hardened by the streets, driving through neighborhoods where there is no one who looks like them, being confronted by the reality of poverty, hopelessness, and injustice-- these are truly cross-cultural trips that show a part of the world that kids from Kentucky are rarely ever exposed to (without the cost of having to fly overseas). And I believe there is great value in just being exposed to it... to see it with your own eyes and to feel the weight of it bear down on your soul. You can't leave the city unchanged.

Another exciting thing about this year was our student participation. The first year I was at GBC, we took a group of seven to Nashville. Last year, we had 14 go to Toronto. This year, we again jumped by seven and took 21 with us to Chicago (and an extra van). Because we were split up, I missed getting to spend time with Alex and Donna and the nine kids in their group, but Jennifer and my group were awesome! It gives me a lot of hope for the direction of our youth ministry and the priority of missions in the lives of these youth. Along with the attendance, we had a couple of our youth participate by contributing to our morning quiet times. We have a tradition (handed down from my own experience in youth group) of having a half-hour morning quiet time where we have our Bibles, a pen, and a couple written pages to lead us in morning devotions and prayer. Usually I put these together myself, but this year I was excited to have Andrew and Rebecca write one each for our trip (Monday & Wednesday). They did such a great job, and I'm so proud of the work they put into it. Also, almost all of our group prayed out loud at some point during the trip, whether for a ministry site, a meal, or during our debriefing time. They all worked so hard all week. Great participation by everyone!

More to come later...

relationships and obedience

I had an interesting teaching moment this past Sunday during our morning youth Bible study that I've gone back and thought about several times since... and I think it's worth sharing.

We were studying the first chapter of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. In it, Daniel and his three friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) make the tough decision to refuse the king's food and instead restrict themselves to a diet of only vegetables and water. Whether the problem with the food was an issue of Jewish dietary restrictions or whether it had been a part of idol worship or whatever, Daniel felt that eating it would have a negative affect on his relationship with God. Obviously the easy thing would have been to keep quiet and eat what everyone else was eating. The hard thing was going against the flow in order to honor God.

And so comes the question: Why? Why would we ever choose the hard task of obeying God when it's more desirable and/or easier to go the way of the rest of humanity?

Before I get to the payoff, you should know that earlier in the morning we played a game in which three of our students tried to get as many followers as they could. Each one had the task of convincing the other youth to do what they told them to do (and not what the other two potential leaders were trying to tell them to do). One of the leaders, Kandice, was getting people to hold hands and was successful in getting two guys who were sitting next to one another to follow her instructions and hold hands (and, being a guy, I know this is certainly not something we normally want to do).

So, when I asked the question, why would we want to obey God when it's hard and inconvenient, this illustration hit me. I asked Tyler (one of the boys who agreed to hold hands with another boy), "Why would you do something that you obviously wouldn't normally want to do?" He said, "I don't know... it's Kandice."

Exactly. It's because of his relationship with her that he was willing to do it. He may not have agreed to do it for most anybody else (including me), but, for her, no problem. It didn't matter that it made him uncomfortable or that she didn't give him a great reason for agreeing to it; he knew and trusted the person who asked him. In fact, if he didn't do it, he knew there was the potential to hurt her feelings... and, as a result, the quality of their friendship.

I tried to explain to the teenagers that this is the exact (and only real) reason for obeying Jesus... out of a relationship with him. So, when Jesus asks me to do something hard or uncomfortable, why should I do it? Because it's Jesus... and I love Jesus. Which, by the way, if this is true, it should never be surprising when someone who is not a Christian, doesn't act like a Christian and doesn't obey Jesus' words. They don't have a relationship with Jesus and have no reason to listen to him. But, on the other hand, if we claim to have a love relationship with Jesus, when we choose to disobey him, we should really be concerned about what that implies about the quality of our relationship. Or as Jesus puts it, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching... he who does not love me will not obey my teaching" (John 14:23-24). Or as John says, "If we claim to have fellowship with [Jesus] yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth" (1 John 1:6).

So, going back to the book of Daniel, one of the things we know about Daniel was that he had a strong relationship with God. If you know the story of the Lion's Den, then you know he was punished precisely because he was more willing to sacrifice his life than he was willing to sacrifice his relationship with God through prayer. Daniel was able to make the tough decisions and obey faithfully because he had a relationship and thoroughly trusted the One who asked him to follow.

The life of adolescence is filled with tough decisions... and "small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Matthew 7:14).

Chicago

This past weekend I had a great trip to Chicago. The express purpose of the trip was a pre-trip meeting with the city directors of CSM to plan for our youth mission trip there this summer. However, I used this as an opportunity to have some fun, too!

I invited one of my friends, Alex, to go with me (he's going on the mission trip with us as an adult volunteer, too). Alex is a great roadtrip buddy (in January we went to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis together)... we have great conversation for the long car rides and he's up for a little adventure, even we have no clue what we're doing.

We left Thursday afternoon--stopping for dinner, fuel and our first Jamba Juice in Merrillville-- and arrived in Chicago around 9:00pm Central Time. One of the coolest things about our trip was where we stayed. We called a while back and made arrangements to stay with "The Jesus People." The Jesus People USA, or JPUSA (pronounced Ja-POO-za), is an intentional community of Christians who live, worship and work together. Started over 36 years ago, members of JPUSA live in an old hotel in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Currently they have about 450 people living together, and through their faith community they support one another and share resources (like food, transportation, kids' education, bills, etc.) by the money they make through the businesses they run (roofing supply stores, coffee house, skate shop and even the large outdoor music festival, Cornerstone). They also run five shelters in the Chicago area (one of which our youth will be working in during the mission trip). It was great to see the place in action and hear them talk about what life was like living there. Alex and I stayed in the single men's apartments and helped out by washing dishes on Saturday morning.

(cross collage in the cafeteria)

On Friday morning, after devotions at JPUSA, we headed over to the offices for the Center for Student Missions on the edge of Northpark University campus in the Albany neighborhood. CSM is the organization that is coordinating our youth mission trip this summer. We met with the city directors, Julia, Kelly and Tim, and talked about what we would need to know to prepare for our trip. Because this is a larger group than we've ever taken before, our group will be divided into two groups for most of the project sites. So we talked about our city hosts, our ministry sites, transportation, the logistics of picking up one of our students from the airport, other schedule issues, and some things we wanted them to know about our group. They took us by the housing site where we will be staying and explained the challenges of accommodating so many students in the summer (food, bathrooms, fans, etc.). Then they took us over to Cornerstone Community Outreach, the shelter run by JPUSA for women and children, and explained about the VBS we would be running for the kids while we're there. Afterward we ate lunch at a Thai restaurant (one of the features of our trip is that we'll be eating dinner at local ethnic restaurants like this one each night).

After the visit with CSM, we got metro passes and jumped on the elevated train (aka "the L") into the city. It was a beautiful day, so we spent a long time walking around town and people watching. We walked by Navy Pier and eventually found ourselves at a movie theater watching "State of Play."

After walking around some more, we took the train to the Wrigley area, got some pizza, and found another Jamba Juice.

As you know, Saturday morning Alex and I washed breakfast dishes for JPUSA and chatted with people there til lunch. Then, since we needed to kill some time and it was a beautiful day, we headed down to the waterfront and sat and read. After a while, we made our way back into the city to find a good spot to watch the NFL draft (btw, I think Cleveland drafted pretty well overall this year). Right when we were getting ready to head out, there came a downpour. I thought there was a Jamba Juice pretty close so, while Alex went back to the car, I decided to go find it. It was not close. So about an hour later (and a couple miles, a hail storm, and being very cold and wet), I finally got back to the car with my smoothie. We stuck around a little longer to hear our friend, Brad's band "Suzy Brack and the New Jack Lords" play at the Bird's Nest on Southport. They were great, and I'm glad we stuck around to hear them play.

So, finally at 9:00pm (10 o'clock our time) we left Chicago and headed back home. Yes, that's right... we didn't get home until after 4:00am, and I was up for church at 7:30am Sunday morning! My meager three hours of sleep turned into a very long Sunday, but it all worked out and we had an awesome trip. In fact, the trip really got me excited for our youth mission trip, and I can't wait to go back to Chicago again in June with 19 teenagers :)

"official" image for the GBC youth 2009 theme

* I know it's April, but I just now got the "real" image.

my team

I have a great team of volunteers who labor alongside me in the kingdom of God to minister to the teenagers in our church. I am honored by their unfailing support and encouragement.

I went to a youth ministry conference last weekend, and one of the presenters, Mark DeVries, spent some time talking about volunteers. And somewhere in there, he asked, "Who's the most important person on a football team's offense? (Obviously, it's the quarterback.) Who's the second most important... or at least the second highest paid? The left tackle." If you don't know, the left tackle is the guy on the offensive line with the task of protecting the quarterback's blind side (that is, of course, assuming the QB's right-handed... and actually, in the case of my Cleveland Browns, Left Tackle Joe Thomas is THE highest paid player on the team). The point is this: An unprotected leader is vulnerable... and even though the leader of a youth ministry is important, don't neglect the importance of someone in your life who looks out for your blind side. This football analogy really made sense to me and got me to thinking about some my volunteers...

First of all, there's my left tackle, my wife Amy. More than anyone else, she defends my blind side. Without her, I'd be toast. She keeps me in check in everything from balancing my time with work and family, keeping my ministry priorities in line, and helping diffuse frustrations. She's the one who sees the things that threaten my attitude... the things that can easily make me ineffective. And she'll go to bat for me every time, even when I make some pretty clumsy plays. In football jargon, she keeps my uniform clean.

Then there's my starting running back, Alex. In football, the running back can run the ball out of the back field, stay in as an extra blocker to pick up a pass rush, or go down field as a receiver. In most offenses at least half of the offense goes through the running back. So, needless to say, Alex is my work horse. He has led Sunday morning Bible study, taught the guys small group, went on mission projects and last summer's mission trip, chaperoned for many events, and basically fills in any time I need him. He's a great friend who I trust to make great decisions, and we've gotten pretty good at coordinating clean hand-offs. He's very versatile, and I can depend on him to "pick up the hard yardage through the hedges" over and over again.

Also I've got this amazing receiving corp, including Melissa, Blair, Christa, Erin, and Scott. The reason I think of this group as my receivers is because they're the ones who make the big plays and show up on the highlight reels. I love to watch them work... it's so fun to see them loving on these kids and making a significant impact in their lives! They each have their own strengths like receivers in football (e.g. speed, good hands, tight routes, athletic agility, big targets, and even down field blocking). Some of these volunteers have just the right timing with words, some of them give just the right nudge to push a kid along, and some are always showing up to be there for a kid when they need it the most.

In particular, I think of Christa as my slot receiver. The receiver who lines up in the slot is usually a possession receiver (a.k.a. you count on them to make the play to keep the drive alive) with great hands that is willing to run across the middle of the field, knowing they'll take the big hits from the defensive backs. Not only is Christa clutch, but she has been willing to take some "hits" for the team. When she's in there, she's definitely a momentum changer.

Similar to the slot receiver is the tight end. However, tight ends are unique because on any given play they can function as either important possession receivers or stay on the offensive line as extra blockers. The primary tight end on my team is Donna. Even more so now that she's on the personnel committee, Donna picks up some key blocks by advocating for me or the youth ministry whenever she can. On the other hand, Donna is one of my favorite passing targets. Tight ends are known for being tall and big (so they can block effectively) which means they have a larger throwing window, i.e. there are a lot of places you can deliver the ball and it will still be caught. Tight ends are often athletic and can catch passes thrown at their feet or way above their heads. Many times I've not delivered the ball particularly well to Donna, but every time she has found a way to make a great play out of a bad pass. In fact in a lot of offensive schemes, the tight end has become sort of like a pressure release valve. When the quarterback is in trouble and about to be sacked for a loss, he'll often dump it down to the tight end and can count on him to make the play. When I'm feeling the pressure I have a lot of confidence in Donna to help me out of my mess. She is indeed "clutch."

Though these are a few of my "go to" players, there are a host of other teammates who come in and play valuable downs, helping to take the pressure off the starters. I have depended on great volunteers like Tia and Aaron, Dianna, Connie, Alyssa and Paul, Christie, Charlene, Karen, Jamie, Terri, Jennifer, Sabrina, Kevin, Heather and Matt (and others who work behind the scenes or cheer us on from the sidelines).

I have a great team. And this is really the point: We are a team. These important volunteers are not simply chaperones who babysit the youth. They value the goal, they buy into the system we've put together to reach them, they work hard at their responsibilities, and they believe in me to lead them. They truly take ownership of this ministry. Do we mess up? Yes, I often draw up a terrible play. But we're getting smarter, working together better, seeing some great results, and having a lot of fun, too.

Many times when I've gone to the kinds of youth ministry conferences like the one last week, I've sat there feeling depressed about how much work I needed to do to have a stronger ministry. This last weekend, as the guy talked about healthy, sustainable youth ministry, there were a lot of youth pastors there having these same kind of obvious difficulties with their programs. The interesting thing was that I really had this sense that, even though we're not there yet, my student ministry at GBC is getting there, and I felt good about it. And I think the thing that made the biggest difference--my team.

By the way, as we approach the time when we finally have our new senior pastor in place, I hope that he's looking for a teammate. I'm hoping he'll let me be his left tackle (or maybe tight end!).

a long day at NYMC

*video from last year's conference replayed last night... thought it was pretty fun.

This morning's worship included a simple devotional activity and lesson from Rick Lawrence and Duffy Robbins based on the passage "taste and see that the Lord is good." What can I say? You can always count on Group Publishing for some good object lessons. They gave us packets of condiments for us to taste, including salt, pepper, vinegar, honey and Dijon mustard, taste at least 3 of them, and think through some ways it reminded us of God. Shawn (the youth leader at the Crossroads Christian Church campus in town) and I tasted the Dijon mustard, then the pepper, then the salt, and finally the honey. I was surprised to find that the pepper taste wasn't very strong, so the thought I wrote down was this: "The taste of pepper reminds me that You are more subtle than I sometimes expect You to be (even while others attack my senses); and You show me Your goodness when You make me aware that You are there." A good way to begin the day.

One of the areas I want to work on this year is helping our children and preteens transition smoothly into the youth program. My first workshop this morning addressed that specifically. "Bridging the Gap: Transitioning Kids from Children's Ministry into Youth Group" was a good, interactive workshop led by Rick Chromey. Understanding that it's "better to build a fence at the top of the cliff then to build a hospital at the bottom," we talked about starting earlier and more intentionally with our kids. With all that our preteens (5th and 6th graders) are experiencing physically, mentally, socially and spiritually, we need to think through some ways of tailoring our programming and events to respond to where they are in the development process. One thing I took away from it was the desire to find some possible ways of getting our youth small group model going (in some form) with this younger age group. With the nature of early adolescence and the onset of puberty, I think they would greatly benefit from some small, gender-specific groups with several caring adult volunteers who spent significant time investing in them.

After lunch, I went to Jana Sarti's "Creating an Intern Ministry From Start to Finish." It's funny to sit and listen to Jana talk about Saddleback's intern program, thinking about how unbelievably different it is from what we've recently started at my church. They have 15-25 interns who come from all over the world and commit to coming to Southern California for two years at a time without any compensation (by raising their own support). Don't get me wrong, I came away with tons of new ideas and helpful suggestions, but I guess I had to listen better and work a little for the take away. It also got me more excited about our summer intern this year and having a great experience where both the church and the intern come away with a win!

Finally, the worship tonight was great. I have to admit I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Kay Warren. I knew she was Rick's wife and had an outreach to orphans of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, but I can't say I knew anything else about her. Let me just say that I've read a couple of her husband's books and heard him speak at Catalyst the year before last, but she really blew me away tonight more than he ever has. It may just be where I am in my journey with God right now because it's hard to pinpoint anything new she said that I hadn't heard before (I've even used some of her illustrations in my own teaching), but as she spoke God was really working on me.

As she focused on the words "dangerously surrendered," "seriously disturbed," and "gloriously ruined," my gut was wrenching and my heart bursting. Surely not outloud, but inwardly, I have prayed the prayer she said used to pray, "Lord, ask me to do anything as long as it doesn't threaten my family... if you mess that up, the deal is off." If I pray that, I'm recognizing that God might ask risky and dangerous things, but it reveals in me a disbelief in God's goodness and a fear of the unknown/uncontrollable. He's not safe, but he is good. If he's good, why can't I trust his plan to be ultimately good for my family? My temptation is to use Amy and the kids as an excuse to play it safe... you know, for their sake. All the while the world continues on...

Part of my struggle is with the nature of youth ministry itself. It's legitimate. It's safe. It operates within structures that are legitimate and safe. As entrenched as it is, I struggle to know how to change the world from within it. Kay mentioned that the church has so often spiritualized the phrase "carry your cross" without realizing that, for Jesus, it meant being willing to actually die for something. Do I love what God loves so much that I'm willing to put my very life on the line for it (especially since God says he loves the neglected and marginalized of the world)? How do you communicate that in a youth Bible study class? As she said this, it also occurred to me that, for Jesus and his audience, the cross was also a loaded political symbol. The Romans used it as an object lesson (!) to make a statement about power, displaying the tactics and methods of how the empire would exert its will through violence, domination and control. How does this change the meaning of "take up your cross"?

I'm still struggling with all this, but I'm praying and seeking... I have confidence he'll reveal himself at the right time.

he did what?

We started a new teaching series in Youth Sunday Morning Bible Study called, "He Did What?" It's a 4-week series on some of the miracles of Jesus. When we look at Jesus' miracles with fresh eyes, they should leave us shocked and amazed. Last week we talked about the man born blind who Jesus healed by making mud with his spit and smearing it on this guy's eyes. This week we're looking at the healing of the paralytic who was lowered by his friends through the ceiling of the house where Jesus was teaching. We'll end the series with a week on the healing at the pool and a week looking at Jesus healing the sick woman. It's good stuff... I'm excited about it.

Also, our youth t-shirts are in and ready to be picked up. Thanks Katie for the hand-drawn cityscape and Hands On Originals for the rest of the design. They look great (especially on me!). So if you ordered one (or want to purchase one of the extras) bring me your $8.

2009 theme update

Well, for everyone who participated in my poll for possible 2009 youth themes, thank you! I wanted to post an update, too. Though "Be the Change" actually had the most votes on this site, the concensus among the youth was "Reclaim the World." (However, "Be the Change" will be the theme of our upcoming annual Winter Retreat in Gatlinburg.)

Here's our theme and Scripture passage (actual image is pending)...

Reclaim the World

"In Jesus we see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him… all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe get properly fixed and fit together all because of his death on the cross."

Colossians 1:15-16, 20 The Message

Top 10 Highlights of 2008

In honor of the new year, I thought I would do a top 10 list of my highlights from 2008. Enjoy.

1. Kate & China
The biggest highlight of the year, of course, is the adoption of our daughter, Kate. We were finally matched with our daughter this summer on July 11th. After getting our LOA and TA, we traveled to China for two weeks in October, and on October 13th, 2008 we met her for the very first time. While we were in China, we went through Beijing and saw the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, traveled to Nanjing and Suzhou and walked around the beautiful canals and the Ming mausoleum, and finished up in Guangzhou with some final shopping and the oath ceremony at the US Consulate. After an extremely long flight, we returned home on her 2nd birthday, October 23rd. She has been a constant joy, even as our new family struggles through the newness and strangeness of it all. She has gone from wanting me non-stop for the first two weeks, to not wanting me at all (only Mommy), and now--especially in the last little bit-- she seems to be comfortable with us both (though sometimes she still just wants Mommy). We have worked through a lot of communication issues already: we picked up some Chinese, she seems to understand a lot of English now, and we've all been learning sign language. She loves her brothers, and the boys absolutely adore her. I can't tell you how thankful to God I am that we are now together at last.

2. the Boys
The boys are great kids. I'm so proud to be their dad. This has been a wonderful year with them. Ben and I have always been close, but now that Kate has come along, I think Will is becoming a little less of a Mama's boy and has been closer to me. This summer they both took swim lessons, and they're starting an indoor soccer program next month. In the Fall, Will started preschool two days a week and Ben started half-day Kindergarten five days a week. They are so smart and are great at teaching Kate new things. In 2008 Ben started reading, and I'm so amazed with his ability to read so well (he reads anything and everything he can get his hands on). And Will is very creative and athletic. The work he brings home from school and church are very imaginative, and he's becoming quite coordinated as we play ball together. I'm so excited to watch how they continue to grow!

3. 10-year anniversary
This August, Amy and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, and we took a long weekend trip together to Myrtle Beach (via Chimney Rock, NC). If you know my wife, you know how lucky I am. She is beautiful and sweet and smart and witty. She loves God and her family and supports me and my ministry in a hundred different ways. I love that she "gets it" (i.e. she cares about the things that you're supposed to care about), and she's so great at listening to me go on and on about whatever I need to talk about. She's my favorite.

4. Baptisms
This year, three students from our youth ministry were baptized: Buckley, Sarah and Stefanie. I was also privileged to perform the baptisms for Stefanie, her step-dad Dean, and a new friend, Aaron. It is a huge honor to be a part of such a special moment in their spiritual journey.

5. Toronto
I think the highlight of our youth ministry in 2008 for me was probably our mission trip to Toronto, Canada. It was awesome to be a part of a group of 10 youth and 3 adults from our church to serve in the urban center of Toronto this summer. We had a great time, and I got to witness God using our teenagers to go outside their comfort zone and serve others. I'm continuing to see ripples from this week of ministry all throughout our youth group.

6. Fusion, Summer Internship, and Student Leadership
In my second year of youth ministry here, I'm proud of three new developments. One is our youth ministry network called Fusion. In January, I began contacting and pulling together youth ministers from churches all over town and setting up opportunities for us to get together. In the Fall, we pulled off our first joint venture-- Fusion: United-- community service projects and joint worship service. I've enjoyed getting to know these awesome leaders and look forward to what we'll do together in the future.

Second, we started a summer youth internship program. Blair, a junior at the college next door, worked with the youth this summer and did a fantastic job. She was full of great ideas, was great relating to the youth, and was fun to work with. I've enjoyed hanging out with Blair and am glad that she's continued working with our girls high school small group.

Finally, there were a few students who were ready to take the next step in their relationship with God and their role within the youth ministry. So, we've begun a student leadership program with four students who have committed to being contributors instead of just consumers. We're meeting to talk about what it will take to be the kind of leaders within the student ministry that God wants them to be. It's so exciting seeing their enthusiasm.

7. Jacob & Hawaii
Back in January of this year, Amy's mom took the family to Hawaii for two weeks. It was our Christmas present and basically a last chance to spend family time with Amy's brother, Jacob, and his wife, Alison. Later in 2008 they would leave for the mission field. It will probably be quite some time before we get to spend much time together again, so the trip to Hawaii was such a significant two weeks. It was so nice to escape the cold January winter for the warmth of the Hawaiian beaches. But more than that, it was great for us and the boys to spend some time with some of our favorite people. We saw the sights, ate good food, drank Jamba Juice, visited friends (Kele and Kaala & their kids), sat on the beach, and played together. Especially since Ben and Will miss them so much now, I'm glad we got these two short weeks together.

8. Presidential election
In 2008, we saw the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. I'm still in shock that it happened, but I'm very excited for this new time for America. I saw him in person at the campaign rally for the Democratic nomination in Louisville on May 12th and followed the general election on the news pretty regularly. I'm proud to be a part of this historical moment in our country's history, and I look forward with great anticipation the work that he'll do when he begins his term in office.

9. New Guitar
In March, with some of the money my grandmother left me, I purchased a new guitar. It's a Takamine EG543SC Acoustic Electric, and it's beautiful. It's got a great sound, and I love playing it. I think Grandma would be happy that I'm enjoying it so much :)

10. Cubs, Browns, UK basketball disappoint, but football Cats make 3rd straight bowl game

As you would expect from the Browns and the Cubs, I was very disappointed this year. Both had high expectations-- the Cubs even led the NL in wins-- but both failed miserably. The Cubs got swept in the first round of the playoffs to the Dodgers. The Browns barely even made it out of the gate before finishing the season miserably with two injured QBs, no offensive TDs since early November, and firing the head coach. Pitiful.

The Cats struggled in their first year with new head coach, Billy Gillispie. Had it not been for the emergence of Patrick Patterson it would have been very ugly. And even barely squeaking into the NCAA tournament, we made an early first round exit to Marquette. I don't even remember the last time we were ranked in the top 25. As we head into the SEC part of the schedule in 2009, I'm starting to have some hope for the Cats yet.

On the positive side, congratulations to the underestimated/ overachieving UK football team. Even though no one expected them to have much of a year, they crawled their way across the six and six line into their third-straight bowl game appearance (and hopefully third-straight bowl win). I'll be heading to Memphis tomorrow with great hope that they'll pull another one out, this year against the Conference-USA champions, the East Carolina Pirates.

2009 theme

If you read my last post, you know that I've been working on a 2009 theme for our youth group. I want to invite you to respond with your thoughts by participating in this little poll. (By the way, because I'm not creative, I freely admit that I've stolen all these ideas from other people.) Also, if you have thoughts for images, Scripture passages, or songs that would compliment these themes, please leave those in the comment section! I'm not promising to use the winner, but I'd love to get some honest feedback. Thanks :)

t-shirt time

2008-- "Love Wins"

"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1 John 3:16

2007--"Becoming"

"Don't worry about your youth. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity." 1 Timothy 4:12

It's that time of year again. Time to come up with a youth group theme, Scripture and t-shirt design for the new year.

Shortly after I came to the church in 2006, I promoted t-shirts for the youth group to begin in some small way the process of developing cohesiveness. I think maybe (at least subconsciously) it helps teenagers feel like they belong, that they know the direction/ theme of the group, and that it helps them have a way to let their friends know that their church is important to them.

I've really liked the first two years we've done this (see above), but I'm still praying and searching for a direction for this year. I've already had some good input from some of the teenagers about what they'd like to see.

I think it's also nice for the youth to have something like a t-shirt to help reminisce about some great times or to remember some awesome things God did in their lives. That's the way it is for me, at least. I have to admit I love my old t-shirts. For the longest time, I held on to old t-shirts from high school and youth group until they were falling apart. I still occasionally sport a Kentucky BSU shirt or a FCA ultimate frisbee shirt. Sometimes when I look at an old t-shirt, I think of some of the best times of my life.

p.s. I'm grateful to Hands On Originals t-shirt company for some great help putting together some fun t-shirts and designs over the years.

highlight videos

A couple highlight videos from youth trips this summer...