Category: hmm… thoughts

And his staff at the Albany Diocese.

Going into last weekend I had a lot of preconceived ideas about what to expect. I was well aware of all the headlines about division and homosexual clergy and of course the root of the issue for the Episcopal Church, USA… is the Bible true and authoritative or is the church something else?

Most of my life in "the evangelical circles" the ECUSA has never really been considered "orthodox." In fact, it seems most times when people hear the word "episcopal" Christians kind of struggle to say something positive. Most of my knowledge of the ECUSA rests in the frame of "liberal, very liberal."

I don’t have a clue what’s going on in the larger group of churches. But as a complete outsider I got to see just how incredible the work of the Albany Diocese is. These are people who obviously love the Lord, His Word, and are willing and able to stand up for Jesus in the face of adversity.

I was greatly impressed with Bishop Love’s opening address. For me, he hit all my hot buttons! The reason I ask for prayer for this man and his staff is clear.

Just scroll down on that link and the attacks begin in the comments.

Let me close with this. It’s very easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It’s easier to shrug our shoulders and say "what happens there doesn’t mean much." May it never be! May the church be full of people who encourage men and women willing to stand up for Jesus no matter what their background.

I know I’ve posted a lot about last weekend. I think it is pretty simple. I was excited to see God move powerfully. Moreover, I was excited to see God’s people celebrate a life in Christ in an unexpected place.

I certainly hope that conservative people from all sorts of backgrounds rally behind Bishop Bill and his staff as they do their best to change the course of what is to come one heart at a time.

Join me and commit to praying for Bishop Bill Love and his staff.

I’m going to try to contain the superlatives about the weekend. But it is going quite well. From the actual facilities to the staff to the convention goers… everything far exceeds my expectations in approaching this weekend.

It’s been fun, encouraging, refreshing, and stretching. It hasn’t been exhausting, disappointing, or overwhelming.

I’m having a hard time explaining the convention to myself. It’s clearly not what I thought it was… I expected stuffy people and kids who were  "present." Instead I’ve found some of the most loving, thoughtful, diverse, and genuine people I’ve ever encountered. The feel of this convention is fantastic. It feels like a family… 800-900 people… feeling like a family. That is impressive. I was talking to a woman tonight in this big common area they call "the tee-pee" and I explained it to her that I feel honored just to be around something like this. Much less having the privilege to speak at.

The students are very approachable and teachable… to be honest, that’s refreshing! The two sessions today rocked. The band is great… a good ability to create the "worship lather" that every speaker longs for. Tonight’s session wasn’t monumental in its response, but it definitely stirred people. All-in-all I think my part of the weekend has gone smoothly. I’ve tried very hard to "just be Adam." (Let’s just say I’ve been a bit better behaved than "just be Adam." Ha!)

I have one major thing left as I’m speaking at the "youth mass" tomorrow morning. I’ve talked to enough of the "old people" to know that it’s going to be a rockin’ good time. For the students and adult delegates here… there is a lot of anticipation for a homerun service. I hope I can be a small part of that homerun.

A "funny to me" moment.

Tonight the band did an amazing job of moving the students. Just before I was about to speak, the worship leader asked me to pray. (I thought to close the music part of worship and transition into the Bible portion.) The funny part was that there was this very serious "moment" and my opening illustration was the story, "fish farts save lives." It ended up being no big deal as I needed to take some time to help people transition… but it was one of those "funny to me" moments. Kids were spending holy moments in the presence of God and I was getting ready to talk about farting herring.

In the next day or so I’ll be sharing a story that involves my face and a toilet. I promised the students tonight that I’d share it with them… Believe me, it will be memorable.

How come we talk about vision for something and never talk about dreams?

I want to dream big dreams. I want to be called a dreamer. I’m not sure if I want to envision big vision and be called a visioneer.

Word game? I don’t think so.

Like a lot of youth pastors, I’ve been to more than my fair share of high school graduations. And right along with that comes the ever present "student speeches." At the ceremony I attended yesterday there were 10 student speeches.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a student say something memorable. And yesterday was no exception to that rule. Either they don’t know how  to prepare a speech or they aren’t allowed to say anything with any substance. Here is the pattern:

1. Thank their parents.
2. Give a nod to their school.
3. Say to their classmates "We did it!"
4. Give a random literary quote.
5. Say thank you and walk away.

At the end of the day, the best and brightest of a school district look pretty dumb. (And you know they aren’t… this should be a shining moment for them!) They may be able to score straight A’s for 8 semester of high school but they fail to even understand why they are asked to give a speech. I don’t think it’s their fault they look dumb either.

At the very least, you would think the administration would intervene and say… "Hmmm… maybe this isn’t a time to allow the kid to blab about stupidity, maybe we can help them look good so that we can look good too!" (After all, high school graduation may be the best PR event of the year!) I don’t mean they should write their speech for them, but perhaps they could look at the speeches and work with the students to make the speeches say something? And if there are 10 speeches… perhaps they should assign each student something different to say so all 10 don’t repeat the same speech with different proper nouns inserted?

I think there needs to be a graduation speech website. Give some practical advice to the best and brightest… help them turn high school graduation from something that is completely forgettable to something memorable and unforgettable.

Several weeks ago I was asked to write an article for Simply Youth Ministry. Well, this afternoon it was released. Here’s an excerpt of "Left for Dead by the Church."

Somewhere there must be a manual that some senior pastors read called
“Ways to Destroy a Youth Worker” because the pattern of hurt is
predictable. (This article is describing a termination for reasons
other than moral failure where immediate removal is required for the
protection of the church and its students.)

There
are secret meetings where a decision is made as well as a “story”
developed that will be told publicly. A meeting with the youth worker
is arranged. The youth worker, blindsided, is told lies about his
ministry or confronted with a politically charged issue. He is then
offered a financial package in exchange for agreeing to this story. The
youth worker is forbidden from saying goodbye to his students and
volunteers, all he is allowed to do is repeat the story the leadership
wants or else he risks losing the financial package. As soon as the
youth worker has left the job, the church leaders spread lies about the
youth workers ministry, relationships, or even family in order to
justify the firing. Link

This, of course, is part of my heart’s cry for youth workers. This has been a terrible week for youth workers over at YMX. I know of 3 people who lost their jobs this week and more than 3 in the preceding 3 weeks. As my article clearly states, we know turnover is part of the role of associate pastoral staff… no one argues that we are untouchable… but what needs to change is the lack of professionalism in God’s church.

This is why Patti and some other friends are working so hard to create Raising Lazarus. We know that there are many other ministries that do similar types of work. But few of them focus their attention on associate level staff people. A applaud Patti and people like Gerrard Fess who join me in speaking boldly in caring for the people the church has left for dead. I am tired of seeing youth pastors treated like the living room couch… the centerpiece of the living room one day, on the curb in the rain the next.

We don’t care to give the church a black eye… but we do care to help those who need to be raised from the dead.
Amen

There is a sign nazi in our area. Some government official has apparently made garage and for sale signs on easements his vendetta.

The church is located on a visible corner… we are easement sign central for those entering or leaving Romeo from the east/west direction. Several times per week a person will place a sign for an upcoming garage sale or their for sale by owner sign on the corner of the church property. And within hours its gone.

Now, our police department is fine… but they are a little like Barney Fife in The Andy Griffith Show. They deal with so little crime, they end up passing their days on traffic duty and picking up signs. I know for a fact that they wouldn’t dare get our of their car to pick up a sign on their own accord.

Someone has told them to do it. And someone is making a big deal about it because they are being entirely too consistent and too quick about it. To be honest… the little dance of "us peons" putting out signs to see "the man" put them in the back of his squad car is completely ridiculous. It’s silly over-policing… yet someone one higher than them has made it very important.

My parallel to this is my own life. What am I quick to pluck out that is seemingly unimportant to me but important enough to them that they would take the time to create and place a sign in my life?
Where am I being a dictator on something minor that is distracting to the bigger picture?

HT to Brian Eberly

It’s a beautiful sunny morning in Romeo on Memorial Day. We were out late visiting with some friends so everyone is a little slow in getting up this morning. But as we don’t have many plans today, it’s just fine.

One thing I like about getting back from vacation is a fresh perspective on things. After being away for a Sunday from church, it was awful nice to be back home. This may sound cheesy, but I’m pretty pleased with the vibe the church services are putting off.

The church staff is full of perfectionists… me being the worst of them. I have a natural tendency to forget the 95% of things that went great and focus my attention on the 5% that didn’t go to my liking. (In fact, people are willing and have left churches over a .5% thing… but I digress.)

I think this comes from the "theater and music" background of growing up. Burned on my brain are the sharp criticisms of former mentors and teachers who instructed through insult. I remember finishing shows where everyone in the audience was elated about a performance only to get intensely negative feedback over tiny things. ("You didn’t stick a line the way we rehearsed it" or "that one note was a tad flat.") In fact, I think I’d gotten so used to the back-sided compliments in my life that I vowed to just cut to the chase.

I’m such a people pleaser that the compliment part… I always felt it was insincere, said only to earn my ear for the harsh critique.

The back-sided compliment/critique:
"The performance went great, we brought down the house… but there were 3-4 things we need to fix for next time."

In an effort to just be direct, I would have preferred this:

Blunt force feedback:
"The performance would have been better had you done these 3-4 things better."

Here’s something I’m learning: People prefer the back-sided compliment/critique. While I may have focused on the negative… it seems most people don’t mind the negative when a few nice things are mentioned first.