Month: August 2010

  • Big Surprise Headed Our Way!

    We are both surprised and stoked to be expecting our third child this February.

    No ideas on a name yet. But rest assured that we will buy the URL.

    Pray for us. Especially, Megan and Paul.

  • Seeking Euphoria

    Have you ever wondered what people are looking for?

    Every day I read about my friends who are:

    • Climbing mountains
    • Taking kids to camp/retreats
    • Going on mission trips (guilty, as charged)
    • Going to the desert to be alone
    • Moving from one church to another
    • Changing careers
    • Reading books or writing books
    • Going to concerts
    • On and on…

    And I wonder what it is that they are looking for? I look at their stories and think about Pilgrims Progress. “Where are you headed, Christian?” They are going on these trips, seeking something, some find it while others don’t. It’s a mysterious phenomenon that has been going on forever, I suppose. But this spiritual seeking is now on full display thanks to Facebook status updates and Twitter posts.

    We are all seekers of something. But why?

    I often wonder what I’m looking for. Right in the middle of one of these experiences I’ll have an annoying moment of clarity when I ask myself, “Adam, what the heck are you doing this for?”

    Humans are hard-wired to seek religious euphoria

    We aren’t usually able to articulate it. But we spend countless energy trying to find it or repeat it.

    The first time is mystical… almost magical. For many people, we were going about our daily life and one day an experience got us. (See the list above) Maybe we were sitting around a campfire at a retreat when it happened. Or maybe we were at a Christian concert? Or maybe we were at home, sitting in front of our laptop, writing a blog post, when it happened?

    We have a euphoric experience. Something so powerful that we almost can’t explain what it was or what happened that made it so amazing.

    It just was.

    Some people remember just weeping and they don’t know why. Others remember a tremendous warm feeling overcoming them. Still others talk about an intense peace that washes over them.

    The intensity of these experiences defies description. It may have only lasted 5 minutes but those five minutes felt like hours. And we spend weeks on a slow decent back to normal life.

    Then, when we come down off of that high moment– we spend the rest of our lives sub-consciously seeking it again.

    So we try to go back to the place it happened before.

    And we’re a little disappointed when we can’t replicate it. So we try again. And again.

    And again. Some find it again while others don’t.

    And, in moments of clarity, we are left to wonder: What is it that I’m truly looking for?

    Two articles on this experience that speak to the science of it, it literally is a high:

  • Go and Do Discipleship Model


    [video link]

    My view of discipleship has radically changed in the last two years. I’m increasingly convinced that my role as a shepherd to high schoolers is about putting them in moments of spiritual crisis so that they recognize that they need to learn more from God’s Word.

    This is in stark contrast to my previous model. Before I spent way too much time preparing them to do ministry and giving them information that just didn’t seem relevant to their walk with Jesus yet. The more I turn that upside down, putting them in situations where they know they need to learn more, the faster they grow up. When you couple that with my desire to see students take greater responsibility for themselves earlier in life… you start to see a new view of what we used to call a “description of a discipled person.”

    As more time goes on I see my role in disciple-making less as a manager of a program and more as a curator of the spiritual life. (see Richard Dunn’s pacing concept in Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students for that concept.)

    Here are the three links mentioned in the video:

  • Dedication and Leadership by Douglas Hyde
  • Teens 2.0 by Dr. Robert Epstein
  • Inward, Outward, and Beyond’s “New Heights Project“

    • I’d love your feedback and thoughts as I work this out in my life and ministry.

  • Why I went back to Haiti [video]

    Thanks again to Katie from Adventures in Missions for making the time to produce this video. Why am I passionate about connecting North American churches to ministry opportunities in Haiti? Well, you’ll see it goes both ways. You give a lot and get a lot. In the long term, I long to see more of this culture bridging work transform our church culture. With this new global society… I want to get beyond a traditional view of missions and see more bridging ministries spring up.

    Thinking about taking a group to Haiti? I don’t work for AIM, but I am happy to share a third-person perspective on what they are doing. Leave me a comment or use my contact form to send me your information, let’s chat.

  • Apocalypse Now – Life and Theology in Haiti

    24 hours into my second trip to Haiti and I started crafting this phrase:

    Theology and culture always co-mingle. You just hope that theology and culture never conspire against the goals of the church.

    In America: Theology and culture conspire to destroy the church through our belief in the American Dream and pursuit of happiness.

    In Haiti: Theology and culture conspire to over-spiritualize everything.

    At least that’s my opinion after my second visit. The first go-round, I was doing my best to look past all of that so I could focus on evaluating the needs of the people. But this time, it became clear to me that the desire to blame everything on the spiritual world was seriously hampering rebuilding.

    God may have been in the earthquake. But there were certainly human factors at play as well.

    Walking around Carrefour, the epicenter of the January 12th quake, is like a scene out of a movie. Not the beginning and fun parts. And not even after the credits roll. It’s like that sense of curiosity you have when you watch a movie like I Am Legend. What would happen if people re-inhabited the set? That’s the feeling you get walking around the effected areas. You are on the set of a movie about the end of the world.

    “The world has ended.” These are the words of some church leaders. Most Christians in Haiti seem to believe that January 12th was the beginning of the tribulation. And who can blame them? On a single day half the cities people became homeless. Almost 10% of the cities population was killed. Countless homes, business, churches, and government buildings either collapsed or were severely damaged. If this isn’t tribulation than the real tribulation is truly something unimagineable.

    Last week I documented some signs of hope in Haiti. This time I wanted to be fair and share some signs of despair. (And evidence that you need to be involved!)

    • Some rebuilding has begun. But with no building codes, horrible materials, and skilled labor lacking… people are just making the same mistakes that lead to so many deaths. It’s easy to blame God, but one major contributor was faulty construction practices.
    • Billions of dollars in foreign aid will be distributed mostly to wealthy oppressors. Joel spoke with a Spaniard on his way out of Haiti. He had been in the country for 3 years and is leaving because he can’t handle the corruption anymore. “Want to know where all the aid is going? The Haitians the NGOs are hiring are selling it out of the back door.” Enough money has been given to Haiti to completely level and rebuild Port-au-Prince. Unless people intervene all of that money will be squandered away bit by bit. Sorry if that’s shocking to you.
    • While there are thousands of NGOs on the ground, very few have camp managers like Sean Penn. Like it or lump it, each camp needs a foreigner who will go to the various NGOs and leverage social currency selflessly on behalf of people. Spiritual needs are great to meet. But there are still plenty of physical needs unmet too. A camp manager who checks in 1-2 times per week isn’t going to cut it. It takes people who make running the camp their life mission to make things happen.
    • The earthquake shook the people, but a culture of dependency is hard to loosen. Americans have a “fix-it” mentality. It’s in our cultural DNA and we exhibit it everywhere we go in the world. As the recipient of generations of this, Haiti (and other places in the world like Haiti) have a “foreigners fix-it” mentality. Our cab driver in Ft. Lauderdale was the perfect example. His wife is a doctor in Haiti and he sends home money to support her. When I asked him when he would move back to his country he told me, “I will move back when I find a white man willing to partner with me on my water and ice business.” When I told him that, in my opinion, the only hope from Haiti was if the Haitian people lead themselves and stopped depending on outsiders… he just laughed. “I wish that same thing, but the Haitian people just like to buy and be given things by white people. It means it is a better gift or business than a Haitian can create.”
    • The government of Haiti is dragging its feet. A major problem facing rebuilding efforts are the myriad of 18th century property laws that govern ownership. You need a permit to remove rubble. And if you are renting you need to get the owners permission. The owner might live in another country, and he may only have a share of the ownership with dozens of cousins. And, of course, to prove you own the land you need to go to a government building which collapsed. Round and round you go. Months go by and nothing gets done. Unless you pay a bribe, that is.

    Is there hope for Haiti? Obviously. I believe to the core of my being that Jesus brings renewal of the soul and the land. While this is an incredible time of spiritual revival in Haiti it is also the greatest opportunity in our lifetime for Christians to get involved at the grassroots levels and help root out corruption and see the best interests of the people served.

    If not you than who? Want to change the world? Think you are crazy enough?

    Step one.