• Germany’s solution for bored adolescents

    How many times have parents laughingly told me about their high school student who said, "I’m bored" and got glared at by a 15 year old too good to do a little work?

    Well, apparently this isn’t something that just happens in the United States. In Germany, they’ve been floating the idea of taking these "bored kids" and sending them to places that will put them to work.

    “Look, this isn’t really my responsibility, you know. I am the DEVELOPMENT
    Minister, okay? But I am more than willing to react to this unmet
    demand,” said the irritable, red-haired minister. “Every day, we are
    hearing from young people who want to ‘do something’,” she continued.
    “And these calls are reeeally starting to get on my nerves. After all,
    I have a lot of important DEVELOPMENT issues to deal with, too, you know.”

    Wieczorek-Zeul’s planned program will be aimed at people between the
    ages of 18 and 28 who have a high school diploma or an equivalent
    certificate and want to work in a developing country for three to 24
    months – and who are also willing to sign a statement promising not to
    call her ministry anymore. The ministry will also pay them 580 euros in
    hush money per month during their stay.

    “So you, too, please feel free to volunteer,”
    she snapped at the latest caller who finagled his way past her
    secretary. “Otherwise we might think about making this program
    mandatory.”     Full story

    You know, this isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard. In fact, it actually fits into what students want to do. They want to change the world… so it looks like Germany is thinking of making that happen.

  • In Honor of the Ice Storm

    With the ice storm hitting the Romeo area, knocking out power to our house and leaving us temporarily "displaced" I thought I toss up a little video tribute. (Thanks Panera for free wireless!)

  • Another single guy?

    Something tells me this little skill isn’t helping with the ladies.

  • Everything Glorious

    For those coming to church in the morning… here’s a little sneak peak at something for the message. I think you’ll see it is very effective, in context. If you missed last weeks message. Catch up.

  • Ahead of the curve

    Two things have happened this week that demonstrate that our little Romeo is far ahead of most churches curve. The really cool thing is not people in the church saying, "Hey, this is working." (While that is happening, these things are even more encouraging) This stuff comes from people who are outside of our church:

    1. I exchanged brief emails with my former pastor, Ray Pritchard, in the past week. I responded to a blog post where he asked pastors for how they plan their message series "I think you and your pastor are on the cutting edge of church leadership. Far too many churches operate as a "kingdom of kingdoms"
      where each staff member leads his own kingdom and the senior pastor is the
      "king of kings." We would never say it that way but that’s how most churches operate. But there is a huge
      new wave today of churches where the staff works together as a team to
      coordinate all the ministries in the same direction.      "
    2. This morning I read on Tim Schmoyer’s post about his experiences in looking for a new job at a church. He reports that while most church have a vision, they have no idea how to accomplish it. They only want to do church the way they know how. And overall are only interested in past successes and not new ones. Why is that encouraging to us? Well… that ain’t us!

  • Stocks, stocks, stocks

    It’s been a long time since I thought about my stock portfolio. I suppose that’s just part of a buy & hold strategy. For the most part, buy & hold should mean "buy & forget about." Interestingly enough, some of the stocks I sold last year to lock a small profit have since soared. Tough to know those kind of things. If I knew that was going to happen… I’d be a stock broker and not a pastor.

    Here’s what I’m holding now:

    Sirius: The majority of my portfolio is still in the satellite radio provider. I like the product, but my personal usage has dove since getting an iPod… which leads me to wonder when I should sell. Yet the stock is up 5% this past week on speculation that they may be looking to merge with XM. I have a number I’m looking for before that happens. That stock has done very poorly in the last year and I’m not interested in locking in a major loss.

    Texas Roadhouse: Again, I’m souring on one of my stocks. I don’t like the fact that I went in our local one and it was fairly empty (no line) on a Friday night. Also, the place wasn’t as clean as the steak clientèle wants. I’ve got a sell number in mind on this one too.

    Statoil: I still like the outlook for the Norwegian Oil driller. I like that they are an environmentally friendly driller. They are proving that you can be both safe for the environment and profitable. I like them and I’m holding them for a while.

    Others: I own some mutuals and other companies that are too new for me to say anything about halfway intelligently.

    Upcoming: Here are a couple I’m looking at, still doing my homework on.  News Corp, Cedar Fair, National City, Proctor & Gamble

  • Is the metephor for church changing?

    This is a developing thought. Not perfect, just capturing a thought for later use.

    All of my formative training centered on the idea that the ideal church emulated the early church. Obviously, Christianity was born out of Judaism, so the early church took on a structure they knew.

    the synagogue, at the synagogue you went to hear from the rabbi. He was the local expert on the faith. So, in early Christianity, pastors took on a similar role. As modern churches have tried to emulate how the early church operated, it’s been expected that church would work this way. The people come to their pastors to discuss their faith, their practice, to learn about God, etc. In the ancient world, the synagogue and the rabbi were pretty much the only access point to "know about God." And today’s modern church has some remnant of that in their assumptions. (We assume that people primarily come to us to discuss what they don’t know about God/the Bible.)

    But I’m wondering how that works in the day we live in. The question right now isn’t access, as it was in the ancient world, as people can go pretty much anywhere, listen to anyone, read anyone’s messages, and even get online degrees in theology on their own without their local church. I wonder if the metaphor for the ideal church in the near future won’t be the synagogue, it will be agora.

    The agora, in the Greek city state, the agora was the marketplace and forum. It was an open air place where people from the town gathered to shop and discuss everything.

    I wonder if in today’s digital age where people have access to all sorts of ideas, if the ideal metaphor for church will shift from the synagogue to the agora. If it is, it drastically changes how we train ministers. It drastically increases the amount of apologetics that we do as we help people sort out the difference between what they hear in the agora and what the Bible says. (For fun, start listing out syncretisms of American culture and the Bible)

    Can the church exist in the agora?     It certainly did as Paul traveled in the ancient world and it would today.
    Just read Acts 17.

    Still a developing thought, it is rich with theological questions, but it has me wondering this Thursday morning.

  • We’re back

    Lf_bug_4Last night was the first time Light Force met, officially, since mid-December. It’s was weird to have that much of a lay-off. In all honesty I felt a little out of practice "doing what I do." All of my parts of the night felt weird. Not bad, just… somehow foreign.

    Fortunately for me, since I’ve done this for most of my adult like it didn’t take long to fall into those roles. At the end of the night, when the room  was dark and the front table was covered in candles, (each symbolizing a friend that a student is willing to invest/invite to Light Force) it was just Jason and I and we said, "Felt weird, but it’s good to be back."
    I love working with adolescents. I love what I do. I love being around my adult team and feeling their passion for kids pouring out each Wednesday night. I am thankful that God made me in a way that runs towards adolescents instead of running away from them.

  • Friends with “bad people”?

    Saddleback
    Last night I was talking to someone and the word "saddleback" was used in an almost cuss word kind of way. It was like, "We aren’t that, are we?" (As if the purpose driven model was created in the pit of hell by satan himself.) While I was talking and reassuring this person that our ministry model isn’t like Saddleback’s at all, I started thinking to myself internally… "I actually know people at the church this person thinks is bad, and those people aren’t bad people, in fact they are great people. They love Jesus as much as I do."

    Willowcreek_logo2
    So I want to be 100% clear. There really isn’t any doctrinal difference between what Saddleback believes and what Romeo believes. At least not significantly different, maybe like 1% total. (While I’m at it, I can say the same thing about Willow Creek, I know people there too! I couldn’t tell you a single difference between their doctrinal statement and ours. They believe what we believe.)

    So, what’s the difference? Why is it that people look at those two churches and say their church names as if they are a cuss word?

    1. They are doing church in a model that is different than ours. Not a little bit different, but a lot different. I wouldn’t classify either of their church models as "bad" (though some obviously do) and I certainly wouldn’t consider their church models "wrong." (How can you say leading thousands of people to Christ, with a doctrinal statement strikingly similar to our own as "wrong?") They are simply addressing their communities needs in the most culturally relevant way they can in their community as the Bible instructs us to do. It’s fine with me that people in our church look at their model and see it as too uncomfortable for them, it wasn’t a model designed for them! It was designed for the people of Lake Forest, California and South Barrington, Illinois. Fall in love with the model that we’ve designed for Romeo. It was designed by our leaders, especially for our needs.
    2. People in small churches tend to look at bigger churches and think "If they are that big, certainly they’ve done something wrong." I can’t explain that thought but as I mentioned in a message 2 weeks ago, I think it’s rooted in two fears. First, it’s a fear that God can’t do that with the people you know. Second, it’s the fear that if God does that our church will grow and "feel" different.
    3. There are people who think that how those churches reach people is wrong, and those people are vocal. I won’t provide links, but there are many very conservative church leaders who very vocally oppose the methods these churches use. I simply fail to see why these people attack other churches. Perhaps if they focused on their own ministries more, they too could be as effective?

    So, as that phone call ended I couldn’t help laughing at myself. What if there are people who say my name or our churches name as if it’s a cuss word. How would I feel about that?

  • Best Youth Ministry Book

    Check out all of the lists on the Best of Youth Ministry lens
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