• Hate Mail is Funny

    LettersThere is little I find more odd about being a pastor than getting hate mail from other Christians.

    I just don’t understand why Christians do this… they disagree with something I say or do and then send me mail or email. Do they really think that this pleases Jesus? Christians attacking other Christians is just sad.

    Now for what I got today. I get it… some people hate Rick Warren. Some people hate the Emergent Church. Some people hate worship music. Some people hate that our church wants to reach people with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. And others just hate me. OK, I can handle it! (Thick skin is part of the job!) In fact… I find getting stuff like that funny. Really, I do.

    Here’s some unsolicited advice for hate mailers and hate emailers:

    • If you want me to read it, put your real name on it. If you think you are going to change the world with an anonymous letter or email, think again. Stop reading this and watch the movie Luther again. The dude signed his name. The first thing (OK, the second… I’m human) I want to do when someone attacks me is see how I can talk to them and find out how I can restore the relationship. (Most issues between believers are simple misunderstandings in my opinion) If you are just hating me and don’t put your name… I can’t do anything with that and I will simply delete it.
    • If you want me to take it seriously, use a decent source. I mean… do you really think places like Light House Trails or Southwest Radio are reputable? I don’t know these people personally… but I do know that they have no credibility among anyone but hyper-fundamentalists. In fact, I’d be happy to point you to examples where they intentionally sensationalize things to prove their own point. Including blatantly avoiding attempt to fact check their "facts." Likewise, their practice of "guilty by association" and "secondary assosiation" are clearly anti-biblical concepts. Anything that comes to me from these sources goes straight to the trash (folder). Hit me with someone who at least has a similar belief system to me, OK?
    • Don’t contact me because you have an issue with someone else. I believe in Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 18. I don’t get why people send me hate mail because of someone else. Someone… explain that to me! If you don’t like someone’s ministry… contact them, not me! If you can figure out how to contact me… how come you can’t figure out "rickwarren@saddleback.org"?

    That said… 99% of the comments, mail, phone calls I receive would NOT constitute what I’m labeling "hate mail." I would define hate mail as people who try to contact me anonymously with accusations via my blog’s comments, email, or snail mail. In fact, most emails, phone calls, comments, and snail mail are quite pleasant… even in disagreeing. I can handle disagreements… but hate mail just makes me laugh.

  • Crutch

    This guy makes being disabled look good. This is a classic "When life deals you lemons, you make lemonade" story.

  • Solo Sex

    Solo1There are actually very few pastors willing to talk frankly about masturbation. Jonathan Herron apparently is one of the few. Friday night we published an article called, Solo Sex, that has really been stirring the pot.

    This series on sex in March is teaching me some stuff about the church. They are very curious. They are very willing to read. They are very willing to email an article. But very few readers will comment. I wonder why?

    (more…)

  • Light Force did it!

    Last night was a very cool all nighter. I’m on the record as not really liking the whole all-nighter thing, purely for the obvious reason that I like sleep and any event that promotes me not getting sleep is a problem… but last night wasn’t about me!

    I asked our students to bring their friends… and they did. Not only that, the whole night was positive, fast-paced, (well, for a few hours it was!) and accomplished it’s primary goal of introducing new students to Light Force in a "foyer" kind of way.

    I’m still sleep depraved, but it was a great night.

  • Inconvenient Supermarkets

    So this afternoon I went to a Farmer Jacks to pick up some stuff for our event tonight. When I think supermarket, I like to think of finding everything I need in one place. Convenient, right?

    Wrong. Nothing about "supermarkets" are convenient. Who puts cookies in the produce section? Who puts water in an aisle with baby food? How come the "fast lane" is anything but fast? How come things are labeled as "sale" but they really mean "sale if you have our loyalty card?"

    See, bad supermarkets take advantage of their convenience and make the process completely inconvenient. To top it off, they have terrible customer service that goes out of its way to make you feel unimportant and stupid for not knowing that they hide cookies next to the fruit.

    Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a solution that provides convenience and good prices.

  • Introducing Jesus

    This is one of those amazing clips of video that just shocks you with it’s profoundness. It’s based on answering the question, "If I had the chance to introduce Jesus Christ on his second coming, how would I do it?"  I’m not sure how I’d do it… but this is how comedian Steve Harvey would do it. Trust me, watch this video.

    HT to Think Christian

  • Close call for Stoney

    Black_squirrel
    On Wednesday morning the whole family was dropping me off at church for work. Since it was so warm we let Stoney out… and we all saw it at the same time. A black squirrel on top of the kids play structure.

    Stoney tore off after it… it’s little pathetically disgusting ears propped up and it dove off the structure. Stoney rounded the corner, ready to taste the black fur he’s dreamt of. Just then… the evil squirrel put it into overdrive and scooted under the fence just in time.

    Stoney will eat him an evil squirrel. It’s just a matter of time.

  • $625?

    You know… sometimes God’s people are just amazing. Just 2 days ago Derek and I published a little mini-manifesto about church’s not taking good care of their youth workers.

    And people have begun giving. I mean, we don’t have our ducks in a row and people are giving. Other than saying… let’s raise $5000 to get us started helping people in tangible ways… we don’t know what else we’re doing. Well, we didn’t two days ago, we do now.

    Last night, we agree to start a 501(c)3 charity to handle these funds and help youth workers. In fact, fellow administrator and friend, Patti Gibbons, will be heading that up. So YMX, LLC and this new entity will be completely seperate legally, but completely united in mission.

    So, I’m praying for Patti as she weighs through mountains of paperwork.     I only ask that people in youth ministry give. Give biblically, over and above what you give to your local church… but give. Likewise, if you can’t give… help us in raising funds to meet some needs.

    Need a story?  This happened this week…

    I come in after putting in a really good Wednesday night service with
    the youth, to find that the pastor had been going around to the deacons
    of the church and meeting with them privately about me.  The long story
    short is that I was given the option of either taking a month’s
    severance pay and leave immediately or to appear in front of the
    deacons the next day who (according to the church’s really messed up
    bylaws) had the power to send me packing with no severance.  With a
    baby on the way, I obviously chose choice #1 and packed up my office. 

    What
    makes it worse is that I was not allowed to even come back for Sunday
    morning to resign properly in front of the church.  I cannot come to
    Wednesday night this week for a last message or anything like that.
    Simply, that’s the end of my time with this church.
    Now, I’m
    finding out that there are people in leadership (deacons, etc) talking
    bad about me now that I’m gone.  One youth emailed me saying that she
    heard "many reasons why quit, but [she doesn’t] believe any
    of them."

    See… not every local church is as good as mine. I heard a great analogy that most churches treat staff the way people treat the couch in their living room. One day it’s the centerpiece of their house. The next day it’s out on the curb getting rained on.

  • Sprinter is here!

    SprinterSprinter is here. Both literally and figuratively.

    Figuratively, it’s the time of year when you don’t know what to wear since it could be 70 today and it may snow. (Last night it did a little) What’s nice about this time of year is that you get tiny glimpses of spring hope in which to exorcise your spring fever. What’s annoying is knowing that it’s premature to celebrate and put away the shovel and salt.

    Literally, Sprinter is an event we’re hosting at Light Force Friday night. I’m geeked about it and just hoping that it works as a foyer event. It’s Light Force’s first real "foyer" level event. Let’s pray that students are going to bring people. The group has been so small lately… we certainly need an influx of fresh faces.

  • Hurting Youth Workers Fund

    Derek and I have felt like we needed to do this for a long time. We’re going to be championing the raising of some funds to help youth workers who are in need. We’re not trying to "be the church" so much as we want to "be the community" that goes beyond the local church’s reach.

    The problem
    Each month, we encounter a few youth workers whose church’s mistreat them. They may fire them and not offer severance. They may have their salaries cut. They may need to get counseling but can’t afford it or ask their church for help. On and on…

    How can I help?

    1. You can contribute
      financially to this fund.       Like we’ve mentioned, there is absolutely
      nothing in this for us… we just want to help people in the youth
      ministry community.
    2. You can post our widget (many sizes, color options) on your blog,
      myspace, facebook, or pretty much any other site. Please help us raise
      funds to help people displaced, bruised, or hurt by their local church.

    The rules
    I want to be really blunt. We don’t want anyone to give $1 to this fund if they are not giving biblically to their local church. We’re not doing this to circumvent any church, nor are we encouraging anyone to sin and withhold from their local church to help us. We’re serious about that, please… if you aren’t giving to your local church, please don’t give a dime to this fund. Seriously.

    Legalese
    Derek and I aren’t touching this money at all. Nor will YMX, LLC. This fund will be managed by some members. We’re working out the exact details of that right now, but just like in everything else with the site, Derek and I have removed ourselves from majority voting rights. In other words, we will not be in control of the distributions 100%, nor do we own the accounts. That said, we will seek independent review of the books on the hurting youth worker fund.