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I received a rather odd comment in an e-mail the other day. One which I am contemplating addressing since it’s a potentially divisive issue.

A student wrote:

So, its not as bad as my last email made it sound, but sometimes I still do feel like Adam doesn’t like me, and its quite obvious that he has his favorites (x,x, x, and especially x) but its not always that I feel this way, I mean I know that x and x and x and x are his favorites, but that doesn’t always bug me.

A few thoughts along these lines.

1. Is it OK for a pastor to play favorites?
2. If yes, then aren’t I responsible to find someone to play favorites with the other students? Or is it OK that some people just don’t have someone who is their favorite… afterall there is no way that every personality or individual can be “special.”
3. If no, then how are you supposed to respond to people who you genuinely like being around and who are responsible to your leading them. People like to bring up this comment, but they also fail to look in the mirror long enough to see that those people who are “favorites of Adam” are actually the most dedicated and reliable people.
4. Didn’t the disciples play this game? The disciples were often upset that Jesus invested in John the most… Especially Peter who wanted to be the favorite. In Mark 10:41 Jesus deals with a little jealousy about John and James. “When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with James and John.” His answer to this cry was a call to the others to be like John and James, servants.
5. Is this just a result of students developmental stage? The writer of this e-mail is in the middle of my “inside group.” To everyone else, she would be one of my favorites. But her insinuation tells me a lot about where she is developmentally. Doesn’t she see that I’m invested in a lot of people who aren’t her? Do young adolescent students have any ability to see beyond their nose and look at life from the perspective of others?
6. What role is this just hormones? I mean, we are talking about a high school female! They have more ups and downs than a Lions game.
7. From my perspective I’m not showing favorites so much as I’m purposefully investing in students who have expressed interest in growing to become multiplying disciples. It’s only natural for it to look like I’m favoring

At the end of this whole bit of frustration I am happy to see that a 15 year old girl can still make me think so much! Even though I am tired of dealing with stuff like this it does reaffirm that I actually like dealing with it. Is that an oxymoron comment or am I some kind of masochist?

An interesting map was sent to me the other day. This is a county by county break down of the election last week. 

Today and tonight is a massively huge LF tradition. The Word of Life Superbowl.

We are taking 20 students to the Palace of Auburn Hils for a day of fun, crazy games, followed by the Pistons vs. the Sixers game. It should be an interesting day.

I know there is some level of disappointment because this isn’t the exact same Superbowl that everyone wants. Previous to this year it has always been an all-nighter with loads of wackiness spread all over the city of Saginaw. I echo their disappointment but since we aren’t really any more than guests of Word of Life, I don’t have much of a voice. Plus, I don’t really like all-nighters anyway. They wear me out. I’ll give an update on this event later this weekend.

You read the title of this topic correctly.

I love high school students. I must because I have put up with my fair share of garbage in the last few months. But in the last few weeks I’ve had a little more than I like to deal with. I think I need a few days off.

Now that’s I’ve surpassed the initial stages of “to blog or not to blog” I often wonder two things about my blog. (I’ve got over 1000 hits, all of them can’t be mine!)

1. Should I go public? Should I ever let people who I know in on my blog? Should I include the link on my e-mail signature? It’s not that I hide the blog from anyone it’s just that I don’t publicize it too much. (YS Forums is the only place I’ve ever linked to.)
2. Should I rename the blog something less conspicuous? Right now the URL is just my name. I’m not 100% sure that I’m cool with being that up front. When all is well it’s no big deal but I often wonder if there is some way someone will come back to use my words against me.

All for this starts with the YS boards. I do enjoy the anonymity of going by drew. It provides a certain amount of security that I think I like.

Last night we had a pretty good youth group night. We’ve been having students bring friends lately, which is cool since I haven’t pushed that at all. The talk part went OK and the games were funny.

My lost sheep did come and he expressed how much he wanted to be part of our group again. So, we’ll need to be finding him a ride to get here. He was like, “I don’t get my license for another year and my parents can’t drive me… So I only need a ride for a year.” I thought that was pretty cute.

The big work problem of the day is trying to scrounge up 2 tickets to the WOL Superbowl. One ticket I’ll be in huge trouble if I don’t come up with since I made a mistake in not buying one, the other one I want to add since that student accepted the Lord at the Superbowl last year.

In other news, I’m dealing with some pretty hard core sin issues with a couple of students. There’s some conflict brewing and I need to come up with a strategy for dealing with it to reunify LF.

Relationships are messy. I like relationships. So I guess that makes me kind of sick.

(AP Photo) Standing at his desk in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush receives a phone call from Democratic nominee John Kerry, in which the Senator conceded defeat in the 2004 presidential election on November 3, 2004. Kerry’s concession squashed prospects of a lengthy legal challenge and endless ballot counting in Ohio, where the election had been too close to call and delayed the final outcome for hours. 

I just got a call from a student whom I haven’t seen in an exceedingly long time. He’ll be here tonight. Praise God for that. Hopefully this will be a reopening of this door with this student. He accepted the Lord about a year ago but I I’ve never really seen him take big steps in growth. More on this later.

Getting past election stuff for the first time in a while here, this is tonight’s talk at LF.

Daniel 9



Obviously, this is a great day if you are a conservative republican. GW Bush has been reelected and the hyper-liberals have been defeated.

As I noted for a friend earlier today this has some meaning across the United States and around the world…

– This will tip the scales away from gay rights and free usage of abortion for birth control.

– This will hopefully result in conservative judges being put in place in the Supreme Court.

– This will definitely mean a completion of the task in Iraq.

– This will be good for small business owners and self-employed people.

– This will mean the economy will grow healthier.

– This means we won’t have scandal in the White House.

– This means we will have to see one more stupid video from Michael Moore that is completely false.

But this also has some meaning for us as believers because we can see that a man who prays regularly and has people pray for him can do an impossible task… be president of the United States for 2 terms.

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Prayer works.

– I can’t tell you when I finally realized that there was more to prayer than just doing it.

– For me, seeing the effects of prayer on my life and the lives of others was a process.

– It wasn’t until I started to script out my prayers, keep a journal of my prayers, and pray with other people regularly that I saw exactly how prayer worked.

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Tonight, we are going to look at Daniel’s life of prayer. This will help us prepare to handle a very difficult piece of Scripture next week.

Let’s begin by reading one of Daniel’s prayers.

Read Daniel 9: 3-19

Discussion Q’s

Is this how you pray?

As I read this did anyone else wonder how he remembered what he was praying? Do you think he wrote it down?



Here are some insights from Daniel’s prayer, things that are plain to see.

1. Combined prayer & fasting

2. Reminds God of His character [not like God forgot who He was!]

3. Personally identifies with the sin of the people of Israel. [Even confesses to sins that occurred before he was born!]

4. Appeals to God’s grace

5. Rehashes God’s faithfulness

6. Petition is done for God’s sake and His alone Form this passage, I’d like to look at some insights we can glean about Daniel’s prayer life.

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God’s response to Daniel’s prayer was immediate!



Read Daniel 20-23



3 Points to Ponder



When did God send Gabriel to Daniel?



While Daniel was still praying!



Why did God send Gabriel right then?

To give Daniel insight and understanding about what he was praying!

Why did God chose to answer Daniel’s prayer?



Gabriel [an angel] called Daniel [a man] highly esteemed!

If you are like me… I know I want not only pray like that, I want to get a response like that too!

The question for you is then: How can I open the door for God to speak to me?



WARNING: There isn’t a formula. These are things that we can learn from Daniel that can be applied to your prayer life.

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Story: Unanswered prayers

We all know people who have cried out to God but the prayers have gone unanswered…

Loved one is sick… but still passes away

Desperate situation…but it doesn’t get better

Desire to do good in a situation…but still fall into bad.

But we cannot forget the words of Jesus and how he taught us to pray. In Sunday school we will begin looking at Jesus’ “Óur Father prayer.” Even there we see that Jesus, who is fully God says while praying, “thy will be done.”



When we pray, God instructs us to ask for things and to present our requests to him… but God cannot do something out of His will. Ultimately, while we request and petition God… we must continually pray that He will do His will in whatever the circumstance is.

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A few ways God can speak to me

Combine a regular time of pray with a private time of fasting.

Pray to please God, not you. (Try to eliminate personal pronouns)

Confess you sins.

Appeal to one of God’s attributes.

Praise God for the things He has done in your life… it’s sweet music in His ears.