teenagers and "moralistic therapeutic deism"

There's an interesting article on cnn.com about teens and faith. Check out the full write-up here.

I didn't really agree with the whole thing (mostly because their claims relied on weak anecdotal support); however, I thought this passage in particular was compelling:

How 'radical' parents instill religious passion in their children

... [Dean] says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips.

A parent's radical act of faith could involve something as simple as spending a summer in Bolivia working on an agricultural renewal project or turning down a more lucrative job offer to stay at a struggling church, Dean says.

But it's not enough to be radical -- parents must explain "this is how Christians live," she says.

"If you don't say you're doing it because of your faith, kids are going to say my parents are really nice people," Dean says. "It doesn't register that faith is supposed to make you live differently unless parents help their kids connect the dots."

What do you think? Comment on here if you have any thoughts.

notes from symc

Last weekend, I attended the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago, Illinois with two of my youth volunteers. I always love these conferences, and here I'll attempt to give a few notes from that great trip. (Note #1: Gino's East pizza is amazing!)
One of the best quotes from the weekend was from Doug Franklin's seminar on student leadership. He said, "Youth ministry is not the church's ministry to students; it's the students' ministry to their world." When I heard it, I realized he had articulated clearly what I've been thinking for years. I love this shift in perspective, and I hope I can instill this in our congregation and students.

The "Branding Your Youth Ministry" workshop gave me a lot to think about (and makes me really wish I was a professional graphic design artist!). The purpose of branding is to build trust and connect with the group of people you are targeting. I know it sounds kind of business-y, but our church can do so much more through images, phrases, music, video, and other medium to speak more effectively to our culture. I sometimes go back and forth on how much to do this in my youth ministry (that, and I'm pretty uncreative), but I think I'd like give significant attention to our youth space in the upcoming year.

Also, we have a youth-led worship Sunday coming up in May, and I have several great ideas for it. Some possible skits and creative things, as well as some themes and thoughts to share with the congregation about our student ministry. I get excited thinking about our students leading in worship.

One of the workshops I attended was related to family ministry, basically supporting and communicating well with parents. I really liked some of the ideas for getting families more involved in my ministry, but an idea that I thought of while I was in there listening is a parent experiential calendar much like the Lent calendar I am following throughout this season. It would have a different exercise each day for parents to do, such as pray with your kids, lead a family devotion, write an encouraging letter, share a particular memory, play together, etc. I might try to do it next year during Lent or Advent, or some other time of the year when I want to encourage parents to step up in their role as spiritual leaders for their children.
Finally, this was the first year I attended one of these conferences with some of my volunteers. We had a great time eating Chicago pizza, hanging out, and talking about working with teenagers. Usually this has been a conference I attend with my wife, or even sometimes I will have been their with my brother who's a youth minister, or have seen other youth pastor friends around. But it was nice to see a few of my adult volunteers experience this kind of atmosphere where 2500 youth workers who love God and have a passion for students come and hang out together. I'm excited about what this might mean for them and what God is doing in their lives.

Random other notes--
* Set up a shared google document with my volunteers to share ideas and notes, especially with my small group leaders.
* "If you add something, you must drop something else." Very wise.
* One Meal One Day event sponsored by Compassion on October 20th, I'm looking at participating in.
* I heard Les Christie, a workshop leader, say that creativity is often tied to location, and so we might need to find other places than our office to spark creativity. I think this is true for me.
* Doug Fields' final thoughts to wrap up the weekend: Lead Strong + Love Stronger = Lasting Legacy (1 Timothy 1:3-5).
* Oh, and here's a little video from the conference for your amusement :)

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 :)

top 10 advice to young aspiring ministers

Last week I spoke at Georgetown College's Intro to Ministry class and shared with them my top ten words of advice. Since they are young aspiring ministry students, I thought of what I would have needed to hear the most when I was in their place 11 years ago. Here's my list:

1. Do what is life-giving. Do what you are gifted in and what gives you life regardless of recognition or pay; don't settle for the supposed "optimal career path." Ministries like student ministry, education, missions, etc. are not stepping stones to "real ministry." Also in whatever ministry they end up in, I want to encourage them to make sure they get to do a good chunk of what is life-giving, not just life-draining. For me, it's things like my guys small group. I have at least 3 other adult volunteers who could do this for me, but because it is something that gives me life, I make sure I get to do it.

2. Affirm truth/ faith/ good/ creativity wherever you see it. Don't be that guy who thinks that God only works through you. Be willing to affirm God's work around you. It's not a threat to your value or success if other's are doing good. It's like the disciple John in Mark 9:38 who says, "We saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us," but who Jesus affirms saying, "Do not stop him... anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward."

3. Play well with others. Be willing to network with others in your field, which for me is other youth ministers. And also foster good relationships with the people you minister to and with, which in my context includes other staff, parents, and schools. You'll need to lean on these relationships sooner or later.

4. Eat your frog first thing in the morning (this is my key to working efficiently). Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." What I have learned is that when I do the thing I least want to do first thing in the morning, it makes the rest of my day much more productive. What happens if I put it off is that I spend time distracted, wasting time avoiding it, and worrying about it so that it grows bigger and bigger and becomes harder and harder to eat. Small frogs are not fun, but it's better than the big ones.

5. Think relationally... specifically close, long-term and vulnerable. Most ministry students have probably heard the importance of relational ministry, but let me be a little more specific with what I mean. I think it's extremely important to minister in close proximity to those you hope to influence. This is especially evident when I have participated in inner city mission work... nothing can replace getting down on your knees, touching a hand and looking directly into the eyes of a child of God suffering under poverty and homelessness. Also, the value of long-term ministry is sometimes neglected. Youth ministry has been perpetually plagued by brief stays and quick departures, and studies have shown how deeply it has impacted ineffectiveness (it's not hard to imagine why that is). Longevity can make a huge difference. And finally, you need to understand that your healing is interconnected with the healing of others. Recognize that you're not in ministry because you have it all together and want to make everyone else whole... rather, we are vulnerable in admitting that we find our own healing in bringing healing to others. As I stated in a recent blog post, I believe God made us in such a way that our salvation is interconnected. "We cannot fully recover until we help the society that made us sick recover." That's why we care about the lost, the orphan, the hungry, the planet... so that we will find healing for the brokenness in our own soul through it.

6. Major in English... and maybe philosophy. Good writing and communication skills are an issue of credibility. I admit I'm personally put off by something poorly written, poorly edited, or not well-thought out. In whatever ministry context you find yourself, you will need to be a good writer as you prepare lessons, sermons, bulletin announcements, newsletters, prayer updates or whatever. Your writing skills will make a huge difference on how your material is received.

7. You don't know what you don't know. Any education you can get is great. With that said, seminary is really only one tool along with other very valuable and up-to-date resources like internships, low pressure ministry jobs, mentors, learning experiences, conferences and books. I think I learned the most from early ministry jobs that allowed for a lot of room to mess up (mostly because they didn't pay very much and were just happy to have someone!). And since you don't know what you don't know, by all means learn to listen and allow people to give you helpful advice. (By the way, I'll be accepting applications for next summer's youth ministry internship soon!)

8. Be ready to reinvent ministry. Change is guaranteed, so learn to embrace it in creativity for new generations. Lord help us if ministry looks the same tomorrow as it does today!

9. You are a human being, not a human doing. Jesus says in Matthew 16:26, "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?" So don't neglect who you are becoming because you are focused on what you are doing and accomplishing. Your value is not in what you do, but in who you are. So the question isn't "what do you want to do when you grow up?" but "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

10. The world needs you... even if they don't know it yet. You're right, this isn't so much a piece of advice as much as it is an encouragement. When you are called to ministry, I want you to know that what you are doing is extremely valuable. You are giving yourself away for the sake of the world. However, so that you don't get carried away, you should also know that you need the world, too. (And, by the way, don't ever let this become an excuse to neglect your first ministry-- your family!)

What do you think? What would be your top ten list of advice?

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.

Stations of the Cross: A Virtual Journey to the Cross

Last Sunday morning, I put together a wholly different kind of lesson for our youth--"The Stations of the Cross." It is a self-guided prayer time, where the students physically walk around the room to different stations representing points along Jesus' journey from his condemnation to his burial. At each stop, there is a Scripture passage, an image, a meditation, a prayer, and an activity to perform. I'm posting here the material I compiled and invite you on a virtual journey to the cross (or you can come by the church before Friday and walk through it yourself!).

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Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Explanation of Stations:
Today I’m inviting you to participate in an activity called “The Stations of the Cross.” This experience is designed to help you bridge the gap between this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and next Sunday, Easter Sunday. If all you knew were these two Sundays, all you would know would be celebration and victory. But there’s more than that going on in the life of Jesus in the last week of his life.

Take a moment to review the events of Jesus' final weeks: Palm Sunday (triumphal entry), weeping over Jerusalem, cleansing the temple, intense time with his closest followers, Maundy Thursday (washing feet, Passover meal, Last supper, high priestly prayer, garden, betrayal), Good Friday (arrest, trial, humiliation, beating, execution, on the cross, burial).

There will be Easter and resurrection and victory, but not yet. Don’t lose sight of the significance of the journey by rushing through the messiness and gruesomeness of Thursday night and Friday in order to get to the victory of Easter Sunday. Take time to focus on the cross and all that it means so that you can fully appreciate the Resurrection.

There are 7 stations and each one represents a point along Jesus’ journey from being condemned to die to his death on the cross and being placed in his tomb. At each station I want you to read the Scripture, look at the picture, read the meditation and thoughtfully participate in the activity. Take your time. This is for you.

The first point to note is that this is prayer. It isn't an intellectual exercise. It is in the context of my relationship with God. I could read through the text of each of the stations, and look at the pictures, but that wouldn't necessarily be prayer. This is an invitation to enter into a gifted faith experience of who Jesus is for me. It becomes prayer when I open my heart to be touched, and it leads me to express my response in prayer.

The second thing to remember is that this is an imaginative exercise. Its purpose is not a historical examination of "what really happened" on that day in history. It's about something far more profound. This is an opportunity to use this long standing Christian prayer to let Jesus touch my heart deeply by showing me the depth of his love for me. The context is the historical fact that he was made to carry the instrument of his death, from the place where he was condemned to die, to Calvary where he died, and that he was taken down and laid in a tomb. The religious context is that today Jesus wants to use any means available to move my heart to know his love for me. These exercises can allow me to imaginatively visualize the "meaning" of his passion and death.

The point of this exercise is to lead us to gratitude. It will also lead us into a sense of solidarity with all our brothers and sisters. In our busy, high tech lives we can easily get out of touch with the terrible suffering of real people in our world. Journeying with Jesus in the Stations, allows us to imagine his entry into the experience of those who are tortured, unjustly accused or victimized, sitting on death row, carrying impossible burdens, facing terminal illnesses, or simply fatigued with life.

Beyond all the good statements and the sentimentalism associated with the Cross, finally it is about faithfulness, servanthood, the commitment of God to his creation that will not abandon that commitment even when rejected. In a real sense, the cross is about the power of love, the commitment of God to humanity, the God whose faithfulness and grace knows no limits and will yield to no boundary, that will risk even death itself for the sake of new life.


Station 1: Jesus is Condemned to Die
Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so." But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?" But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. . . . So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." . . . and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. (Matt 27:11-14, 24, 26b) As the journey with him begins, I view the scene, I become moved by both outrage and gratitude. I look at you. Your face. The crown of thorns. The blood. Your clothes stuck to the wounds on your back. Pilate washes his hands of the whole affair. You stands there silently with your hands tied behind your back. This is for me. That I might be free. That I might have eternal life. I express my love and thanks.

Jesus, I wish you would speak! I wish you would proclaim who you are. I wish you would confront the disbelief of the crowds and the arrogant cowardice of the powers that be. Surely someone will speak up for you! Where are the lepers who were healed? Where are the blind who can now see? Where are all the people who ate the bread and fish on the hillside? Where are those who followed you so easily when they thought you would become King of the Jews? Yet no one speaks. No voice in the crowd comes to your defense. You stand alone.

You stand before Pilate, the power of Rome. Weakness stands before strength. And yet, Pilate, the ruthless enforcer for the Empire is not really in control here. He cannot make you confess. He cannot quiet the crowds. For all his power, he cannot find the courage to do what is right. So he does what is safe. He yields to the crowds for the sake of order. Courage and strength do not always sit on thrones or judgment seats. Power is not always in the hands of Empires.

I have been alone. I have been falsely accused, and no one has spoken for me. I have been treated unfairly by those who could have used their power for better purposes. I can understand some of your feelings as you stand silently before Pilate and watch him proclaim his own innocence as he condemns an innocent man.

But perhaps I have treated others unfairly as well. Perhaps I have not spoken up for others when they needed a voice. There are those around me who have been treated unjustly. Have I always had the courage to come to their defense? There are those around me who feel alone and abandoned. Have I always been there for them? O Lord, forgive me for not always being who I should be.

Pray: Jesus, I see in your silence the quiet strength that reveals a peace and a resolve. O Lord, help me deal with the unfairness of life without becoming critical of others. Help me to be sensitive to the pain and feelings of others. Give me the courage to do what is right without being swayed by the demands of others. Let me understand that this was for me. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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As the journey begins, ask to be with Jesus. To follow his journey.
Spend a few moments looking at yourself in the mirror. Think about how it feels to be treated unfairly. Remember what it feels like to stand alone.
Know that he stood alone, so that you would never have to stand alone again. Say to yourself, “He did this for me. He did this for me.”

Station 2: Jesus Carries His Cross
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31)
Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. (John 19:17)

You are made to carry the cross on which you will die. I contemplate the wood of that cross. I imagine how heavy it is. It represents the weight of all our crosses, our burdens, our anguish, our sufferings. What you must have felt as you first took it upon his shoulders! With each step you enter more deeply into our human experience. You walk in the path of human struggle and experience its crushing weight.

Jesus, I see you accept the Cross in the midst of such mockery. You could have refused. What more could they have done to you? Yet you begin this journey, knowing full well where it will lead. I hear no words of complaint, no protests of innocence, no cursing the injustice. And yet I am so prone to complain and whine. Sometimes the troubles of life are very real and bear down on me. But I so easily fall into self-pity. I too often assume that I am the only one who bears a cross, or that my cross is larger and heavier than any others.

You told me, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

Pray: O Lord, forgive me for forgetting that in my weakness I am driven to trust on you, and that in that trust my weakness becomes your strength. Forgive my attitudes of self-pity that make me more bitter and ugly than loving. And when crosses come, give me the strength to bear them as one who follows your example. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Jesus bore the weight of the world on the cross.
What are some of the weights that your bear?
Write your struggle or burden on a slip of paper. Join your link to the chain of sorrow, misery and sin.
Give it to Jesus and commit to trust Him with it.


Station 3: Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. (Mark 15:21)

Jesus, I can only imagine the awful weight of that cross you carry. It is not just the weight of beams of wood that presses down on you. It is also the weight of the burden you carry for those whom you have loved. You came to offer them life, and yet they return only death.

So I see you fall from the crushing weight of pain and grief. I don’t know how many times you have fallen, but I know that your physical strength is failing. The soldiers must recognize this as well, because they force a man from the crowd to help you carry the cross the rest of the way to the place where you will be crucified. Perhaps they are afraid that you will die before you make it to the top of the hill. The man of Cyrene was just a bystander passing through on his way into town from the countryside. And yet he bears the weight of the cross to save your strength.

I look into your face and contemplate your struggle. Your powerlessness. Your dependence on another. I see how you look at Simon, with utmost humility and gratitude. This is for me. So I feel anguish and gratitude. I express my thanks that you can continue this journey. That you have help. That you know my inability to carry my burden alone.

I would like to think that if I had been there I would have rushed from the crowd and volunteered to carry that cross for you. But would I have had the courage to face the Roman soldiers and risk being forced to join you on a cross? Would I have been willing to risk everything to ease your suffering for a few moments by letting you know that you were not alone?

Besides, I have my own crosses already. I have as much as I can bear without taking on the added burdens of others. And what would people think of me if I were seen consorting with criminals and enemies of Rome in such a public spectacle? So instead of offering to help, I tried to become invisible in the crowd. And when the soldiers were looking around for someone to press into service, I looked away and pretended not to notice what was happening.

It is easy to pretend not to see the needs, the grief, and the suffering around me every day. It is easy to pretend not to hear the cries for help that come in many forms from those among whom I walk every day. It is easy to convince myself that I am too busy, or too tired, or have too much on my plate already to get involved in the lives of others. There are simply too many who need too much.

And yet I remember something that you said, something about becoming a servant of all, of putting myself last and others first. Is this what it means to be a servant? Jesus, are you showing me what it means to be that kind of servant. Is this man from Cyrene modeling for me the path of discipleship?

Pray: O Lord, forgive me for becoming so preoccupied with myself that I have become deaf and blind to the grief and suffering of those around me. Forgive me for my indifference. Constantly remind me that I cannot love you without loving others as well. Help me always remember that to be a follower of yours means that I share in the burdens of others. Lord, show me someone whose cross I may help carry. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Put yourself in Simon’s place.
Be a burden-bearer.
Light a candle for someone near you. Quietly pray a prayer of encouragement for that person.

Now put yourself in Jesus’ shoes.
Pray a prayer of thanks for those who have helped and encouraged you.
Open up your life and allow others to come alongside you who might share your burdens… giving you the strength to fulfill your purpose.


Station 4: Jesus is Stripped
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." And that is what the soldiers did. (John 19:23-25a)

Part of the indignity is to be crucified naked. You are completely stripped of any pride. The wounds on your back are torn open again. You experience the ultimate vulnerability of the defenseless. No shield or security protects you. As they stare at you, your eyes turn to heaven.

I pause to watch the stripping. I contemplate all that is taken from you. And how you face your death with such nakedness.

I reflect upon how much of yourself you have revealed to me. Holding nothing back. You have trusted me with everything of you, revealing the depths of your heart to me. And I realize how much I hide from you. I conceal my ugliness, my weakness, my sin. I am so scared that if you really knew me, I would disgust you. You are so good; I am filled with so much darkness.

Can I trust you with my real self? Will you still find me worth loving? Or will you give up on me? If I reveal too much, I’m afraid you might leave me alone and naked.

As I look at you in your humility, I know that this is for me so that I could trust you not to reject me. So that I would not have to hide anymore. I share my feelings of gratitude.

Pray: Jesus, help me to trust you enough to have the confidence to expose myself to your Spirit. Forgive me for my distance and hiddenness. Make me free. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Take a moment to stand in front of the fan.
Feel the breeze as it penetrates and overwhelms you.
Allow God’s Spirit to blow through you.
Feel the Spirit strip away everything you hide behind. Everything that is not His.
Ask Him, “Remove everything that stands between us.”


Station 5: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!" In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also taunted him. (Mark 15:23-32)

Huge nails are hammered through your hands and feet to fix you on the cross. You are bleeding much more seriously now. As the cross is lifted up, the weight of your life hangs on those nails. Every time you struggle to pull yourself up to breathe, your ability to cling to life slips away.

I make myself watch the nails being driven through your flesh. And I watch your face. I hear your words spoken from the cross:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
“I am thirsty.”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“It is finished.”
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

I contemplate the completeness of your entry into our lives. Can there be any pain or agony you would not understand?

This is for me. The brokeness that makes me whole. The surrender that gives me life. I pause to experience and receive how completely you love me. You are indeed completely poured out for me. As I treasure this gift, I express what is in my heart.

Pray: O Lord, thank you for this gift. I am amazed that you did not give up on your dream for me to be with you, even when it cost so much. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Take piece of ice in your hand.
Hold it in your palm.
Hold onto it as long as you can through the rest of the stations.
As you feel the cold stab through your hand, remember the nails that pierced his flesh.
Let it remind you of his suffering… and love.


Station 6: Jesus Dies On The Cross
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, "This man is calling for Elijah." At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, "Truly this man was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:45-54)

I watch as, between two criminals, a mocking title above your head, with only Mary and John and Mary Magdalene to support you, you surrender your last breath. Outside the city, as a convicted criminal, you are executed.

I stand there, at the foot of the cross, side by side with all of humanity, and witness our salvation. The One who gives life now passes from life to death, for me. Behold the ransom paid, the price of my rebellion given for me. I am bought with the highest price.

Can you imagine how much God loves you?

Pray: O Lord, may I understand this more and more. Let my heart more fully experience this unapologetic and unconditional love for me. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Take to heart the price of salvation.
Express your deepest feelings within you. Write your words on the cross.
Communicate your feelings of love, thanks, adoration, whatever.


Station 7: Jesus Is Laid In The Tomb
Then he took (Jesus’ body) down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. (Luke 23:53-55)

What tender mourning! As you are taken down, I behold this scene at the foot of the cross. The preparations for burial. Gently touching your broken body. I remember all that your hands have touched, all who have been blessed by your warm embrace. I pause to let it soak in. Your lifeless body is laid in the tomb. A profound sacrifice, complete.

They take your body to its resting place. The huge stone over the tomb is the final sign of the permanence of death. In this final act of surrender, who would have imagined this tomb would soon be empty or that you would show yourself alive to your disciples, or that they would recognize you in the breaking of bread? Oh, that our hearts might burn within us, as we realize how you had to suffer and die so as to enter into your glory.

For me. That I might love as I have been loved. I pour out my heart to the God of all mercies.

I stand for a moment outside this tomb. This final journey of your life has shown me the meaning of your gift of yourself for me. This tomb represents every tomb I stand before with fear, in defeat, struggling to believe it could ever be empty.

Pray: In the fullness of faith in the Risen One, given by your own Holy Spirit, I express my gratitude for this way of the cross. I ask you, Jesus, whose hands, feet and side still bear the signs of this journey, to grant me the graces I need to take up my cross to be a servant of your own mission. “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have reclaimed the world.”

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Pick up a stone.
Carry it with you this week.
As you wait for Easter Sunday, when the stone was rolled away, use it to remind you of Jesus’ journey to the tomb.
Of your journey with Him.
Bring it back with you next week.


Amen.

* Here's some of the places I found material for this.