Last Saturday, Paul and I had a guys night out. Mom dropped us off at the SDSU trolley stop and we rode down to Qualcomm Stadium for the home opener of the San Diego State Aztecs. Four quarters of football, the Sky Show, cotton candy, pop tarts, Pepsi, and other junk food later– this is what you get. A kid in a sugar coma on dad’s shoulders on the train ride home. And a dad happy to get a few hours alone with his son.
Yes, he’s using a Webkinz bat as a pillow on my head.
I’ve been blogging the Harbor Mid-City journey as we head towards a launch of student ministry. Up until now in the life cycle of the church plant youth ministry has always been around– part of the DNA– but never emerged as a priority. That’s changing rapidly as the church has formed to the point where ministering to adolescents is bubbling to the top of needs.
Here is where we are:
– We are doing a “soft launch” next Tuesday. 8-10 students are coming to one of the pastors house where we will eat dinner, get to know one another, we’ll crack open the Bible, and break off into discussion groups.
– We’ve got a core team of 4 to start “youth group” with. (That doesn’t seem like the right term, but it’s what we have.)
– We are creating a ministry aimed at ministering to the whole needs of our students. So Tuesday night youth group is really just one part of the greater sum of what we’re doing. We already offer mentorship, we’ll be adding to that academic help, regular community service projects, leadership development, and family assistance and probably more stuff as we go. The antithesis of what we’re after is entertainment.
– For now, we’re focusing on high school and recent graduates. The church has a pretty solid kids ministry and for now, that’s where the middle schoolers will be ministered to.
– For the first quarter, we are meeting in a house. But an early goal is to secure a meeting site somewhere more suitable.
– Unlike anywhere else I’ve worked with students… getting rides is a big deal.
– The concept of plural leadership seems to be in the DNA of what we’re creating. I’ve committed to leading up to 25%. For now that means I’m in charge of content. (Either teaching or lining up the teaching, but helping develop the content for the group.)
– There’s a lot of excitement as we get started. I’d call it naive but the truth is that there’s a lot of experience in the leadership group. We know what we’re getting into and we’re pumped at what God is doing!
– I think it’s a good idea that we don’t have all of the details, vision, and particulars nailed. Since we already have a solid group of students to launch with… it just seems better to launch with what we have and line-up the rest as we go.
– We are looking to learn. I’m picking the brains of the urban youth workers I know, putting feelers out to meet more, and our team is all doing the same thing. We know we aren’t inventing something even though it feels like it.
– Yes, we have a sexy acronymn for what we’re doing. I just can’t remember it.
I can’t wait. Is it October 20th yet?
p.s. They have an awesome WordPress powered site.
I’ve got this running joke that I am guaranteed to see something bizarre at least once a week as I commute to work on the trolley. Here’s just a few things that I’ve seen in the past few months since I started taking public transportation most days.
On my way to the trolley:
– Two drunk college females, in bathing suits, lounging in a kiddie pool in their front yard.
– A scene fit for Animal House at a sorority house, but on a weekday afternoon.
– An elderly naked man picking his nose in front of a frat house.
– A grown man falling off his bike and laying out on the pavement at a major intersection in front of a ton of college students. (Oh wait, that was me on Monday.)
– Watching the summer transformation of trashed rental houses to decent looking rental houses so parents will sign leases… right back to trashed rental houses!
On the trolley itself:
– Regular cat and mouse games between trolley police and people who don’t buy trolley tickets. Rivals Keystone Cops.
– The unibomber. Seriously, he must have gotten free. He rides the 5:20 PM train from El Cajon to 70th Street every day. Who let him out?
– Two college students practicing pole dancing on a crowded train.
– A schizophrenic man receiving everyday kindness from a group of 4 strangers he repeatedly called every name in the book.
Not only does taking the train give me a few ounces of excercise each day, eliminate the stress of sharing the car with Kristen, and give me a chance to catch up on unlimited episodes of This American Life… it also provides me with the fun observations that add to the tapestry of bizarre I enjoy so much about life.
Plus, I’m earning my “green” card here in Southern California.
Are people generally looking to do bad things in the world? Is the world full of evil people set out to destroy you? If you take some doctrine too seriously you fall into this heretical view of life.
Here’s what I mean. A lot of Christians go through life scared of “the world.” You can show them proof that crime is down in America. You can ask them about the people that they know personally. And you can ask them about their personal experiences of good people versus evil people. And yet a perversion of the doctrine of man will lead them to believe that all people are out to get them. Trust me, there’s a reason for this.
Any reasonable observation of human behavior reveals the opposite… most people are generally good. Every person is not a potential murderer or rapist. Every person isn’t trying to rob you. Every person is not trying to knock you down. On and on.
In short, we have a tendency to believe the Fall of man overrides the benevolence of God. We do believe that all Goodness in the world comes from God, right?
So why do most believers in Jesus Christ believe that the world is evil and full of people out to get them? My opinion is this: Too often the church, a place they trust to tell them the truth, is the one perpetrating this view of life that God’s creation is all-evil, all the time!
Why? Because creating a culture of fear leads to increased giving. (Increased giving means your church is successful, right?) Appealing to fear is easy access to cash. It’s a primal response true of people of all walks of life and belief systems. And the people who give to God out of fear don’t want to believe that they got ripped off… so they inherently believe that their giving has somehow protected them from the stuff the leader scared them about. (the church closing, their kids being conscripted by the world, their family falling apart, etc.) This is far different from giving an offering from a cheerful heart, isn’t it? Giving to a cause purely as a way to appease God to protect them from the boogie man… that’s not Christianity at all– that’s animism!
Take some time to observe how church leaders use fear to raise money. [This doesn’t happen everywhere or all the time.] Watch TV and pay close attention to how a charity uses fear to separate you from your cash. Fear is the easiest way to convince a person to donate. I would dare say that many church leaders are so ingrained in this culture of fear that they don’t even intentionally use fear to raise money. But they do it instinctively because they know it brings the money. I won’t give examples of the phrases leaders use to do this. I want to challenge you to observe it for yourself. Oh, it’s ingrained in sophisticated ways!
My belief system recognizes that while there is evil in the world, and while we are all inherently sinners to the core… people are generally good. People generally chose to do good over evil. The world is safe. And I refuse to allow fear to override enjoying the benevolence of God in His creation. See my examples below for proofs.
Addendum #1: Of course, the culture of fear isn’t just for believers. Fear of bad stuff happening leads you to vote for candidates, vote to increase your taxes, support political ideologies contrary to your belief system– on and on.Any time someone is trying to manipulate you to their position… watch how they intuitively use fear and perpetrate this heretical view that the world is a horrible place.
Addendum #2: I’ve used fear to get you to read this blog post– the title and imagery were chosen to appeal to your sense of fear. Twisted stuff, isn’t it?
I’m 33 years old. Let’s say I live to be 100. Best case scenario I’ve completed a third of my life. The first third of my life was relatively unremarkable. Looking at the fictional “bucket list” I still have a lot of dreams, goals, and accomplishments left to complete. I have suffered through some hard times. I have experienced great exhilaration and moments of joy. But, with 33 years in the past I’m left with precious little to show for it. A sober judgment of myself reveals that I’ve talked a good game… but don’t have the track record to back up my smack talking. That’s a crisis of self-realization, isn’t it?
Some respond to this reality in their lives by shutting up. I hope to respond counter to what my cultural leanings say is best. I do not think I’m called to slither away into silence and sit on a list of dreams for the next two-thirds of my life. Personal failures and moderate successes to date aren’t going to stop me from a pursuit of something much greater.
My personal mantra lately has been, “put up or shut up.” In relationships, I’ve gone into a risk taking mode by radically speaking the truth– making myself more available to some and less available to others. At work, I have a tendency to play it safe– but this mantra has me a lot more vocal. In my family, I realize that I can’t just talk a good game about stuff publicly– so I’ve gotten aggressive in putting up barriers to protect my family from my own stupidity. Those are just three areas of my life I feel like I need to put up or shut up. There are a lot more.
I look at my first 33 years as preparation for the next 33 years. It’s time for me… In increasing ways to put up or shut up.
I suppose there is a challenge for any Christian leader in this. This speaks to our worldview as believers. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true… it isn’t just a Gospel of personal renewal, it is also the Gospel of institutional, societal, interpersonal, and even corporate renewal.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
If Ephesians 2:10 is true God’s people are a people of renewal. Their good works make things better and better. It’s my naive hope that women and men who say yes to Jesus will embrace Ephesians 2:10 and wrestle with this reality… they need to put up or shut up. If we are really God’s workmanship the evidence of that will be our good works into our society. When I look at the people and institutions in my life… my society, my company, myself, and my family… I believe that our best days are yet ahead. If I am faithful to God, that is. I believe the reason I am placed in those institutions and relationships is because God prepared in advance for me to be there.
Conversely, it is the same for anyone who is God’s child. We are called to express the Gospel is tangible ways. (American evangelicalism focuses too much on church and preaching and not enough on application the other 6 days, 23 hours per week) We don’t just have relationships just by coincidence, do we? We don’t have families for biological reasons, we are called to live out the Gospel to our children and ones we are most intimate with. We are not just called to run a program or earn a paycheck, we are called to be God’s workmanship in the workplace. We aren’t just mystically placed into our apartment complex, neighborhood, or city randomly. God chose the work of loving our neighbors for us to do in advance for us to do. Those actions are the Gospel of Jesus Christ flowing through his people and renewing those areas of our lives.
“Is it time to put up or shut up?”
On Friday, the greatest player in basketball history was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Here’s the video of his speech:
For those, who like me, think that Mr. Jordan is washed up beyond belief. This is a friendly reminder that he can probably still beat 99% of the population in a 1-on-1 game to 10.
The other night I was working on a project and I downloaded a pile of shapes, a couple brushes, and an action. I thought my collection might be worth sharing. If you like them, awesome. If you don’t… well it didn’t cost you anything! They are all royalty-free (as best as I can tell) and seem pretty cool. I think they are worth sharing. I use Photoshop CS4 but I’m pretty sure they will all work with CS3 as well.
[download id=”2″]
Like any person who comes up with a lot of ideas… I’m used to getting shot down. The pill of reality I swallow every day is that only about 1 in 20 of my ideas are worth seeing to fruition. Thankfully, God has put people with the gift of discernment in my path so I don’t go insane.
Knowing that– I know this phrase to be true: A vision unfunded is merely a dream.
A lot of people in my life are learning that their vision is merely a dream. Tough economic times mean that their ministry, their business, their job, or even their early retirement dreams are now unfunded. Grandiose plans usurped by a new need for freelance or part-time work. The people they trusted/hoped/prayed to fund their vision disappointed them.
Kristen and I are chosing which visions to fund and its hard! We have to look inside ourselves and ask which are dreams (the big house, living abroad) and which are visions worth funding. (our local church, building short/long term savings) Hard choices which reveal what’s really important. As you think of that with a wider lens of millions of people doing the same thing you see why the people in my life are struggling when families like ours our choosing one vision over another. It’s painful to witness.
What does this all mean? I don’t know for sure. But I do know that even when the funding isn’t there vision, dreams, and big ideas are still worth having. The world won’t change without visionaries and dreamers. Even unfunded ones.