America, The Foregone?

On more than one occasion, over the last few weeks, I've heard people at more than one local church praying for "America to come back to God." At least, that was the gist of the sentiment. There's no denying that this is something on the minds of a number of church-going folks in the wake of the recent ruling from the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. I've thought about this desire for an American "restoration" for a little bit and I'd like to share some thoughts... feel free to comment and let me know where I've gone wrong :-)

1. Seems to me that it doesn't take much to shake the faith of the average American. How can we talk about a God that is so omni-everything, and then completely wig out and bemoan our existence, as a people, just because of a judicial ruling?

2. I, too, believe that the US was founded by men who claimed to be followers of God and framed their fledgeling nation-state based upon the Judeo-Christian values which came naturally to them. However, that's a far cry from making the USA a nation that is "God's" in the sense many seem to believe it has been at some point in the past.

3. (building on 2) Why do we seem to have this notion that, somehow, the state of human existence is getting worse by the second? Culture changes, but I can't go along with the persuasion that we are worse off, morally, now than we were 50 years ago. Have we already forgotten World War II, for example?

4. Why would people who find so much identity in their Christianity be so surprised when the secular world doesn't give a flying fig newton about their values. The Apostle John tells us in I John 3:13 that we should "not be surprised when the world hates us."

5. Most importantly, what hurts me the most is to see so many people who claim to be following Jesus reacting with so much unfiltered and raw fear. Jesus said that others would know we are Christians by our love.

So.... what say you, church folks? Am I just missing the boat? How bout the folks who haven't darkened the doorway of a church building in years? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as you observe things from the outside.

One Simple Thing

I'm in a place in life where I believe many find themselves...there are lots of decisions to be made and many of them feel as though they could knock the earth of it's axis if not handled correctly. As I write this, I'm sitting on my bed in a mission in Nicaragua. I'm here because the director of the mission invited me to bring my family down so that we can talk about how our family might fit into the work here, long term. I have ongoing conversations with a handful of churches in the US, who are all interested in me as a potential staff member on one level or another. I also have a job, currently, with a company that is incredible, treats me very well, and makes me a better person. 

How could anyone feel prepared to make decisions about these kinds of opportunities? 

Honestly, I have no idea, and at this point I really don't plan on making any decisions, at all. Here's my prayer in the midst of all this...I'm praying for God to close all the doors of opportunity, except for the one(s) He knows will be best for His purposes. I'm not capable of holding the wheel on my own life and actually getting the ship where it needs to go. 

We can make our plans,

but the LORD determines our steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Scaring Churches Away

Recently, in my search for a new place to serve as a minister, I was asked to write a one page philosophy of ministry. For some, this may be daunting, as it has been for me in times past, but I'm a much different person than I was even just a few years ago when I moved to Knoxville. I've been a minister for 15 years. According to Seth Godin's 10,000 hour rule, that means I'm more than qualified as an expert, so when you ask my opinions, get ready for the floodgates to fail. 

Combine all of the above with my age and you've got something interesting. I'm 33. That means I'm in a prime position to make my next piece of work with students the best of my life. I'm young enough to easily relate, but old enough to have a ton of experience. It's an opportunity that can't be wasted, so I can't take any risks of winding up taking a job, only to find out that I'm actually a horrible fit. My solution? Be so up-front with where you are that there's no way anyone would hire you inless they really love you and who you are for exactly that. 

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, here's the philosophy of ministry I provided in hopes to scare off as many churches as possible. 

_____________________________

In an effort to keep this as digestible as possible, I’ll do my best to relay a sense of my philosophy on ministry by sharing some key thoughts and giving a brief description of each. I trust that if any further explanation is desired that you will feel free to ask as many questions as you please. 

Christianity isn’t about events, it’s about life. 

Events are a great place to systematically begin relationships and, to some degree, strengthen old ones. They have their place. That said, I could probably count on my fingers the number of times that a life-changing experience happened to a student, purely because of programmed events. My strongest influence has always come in those relationships where students accept my family’s invitation to “do life” with us and live alongside us. 

What people need more than anything else in life is to know they aren’t alone. 

When God tells us to have no fear, it’s almost always immediately reasoned out by His assurance of His presence in our lives. In looking at Jesus’ life and ministry, it seems to me that He went about the business of seeking out the people who felt most abandoned and alone and assuring them that He was with them and for them. I seek to do the same in my life and teach others to emulate this example, as well. 

People, in general, and especially teens, are capable of much more than most of us care to imagine. 

Almost every student to whom I’ve ever ministered has been starved for opportunity to grow. Much of that stems from a lack of opportunity to fail. I make it a point to push my students to do more than they dream possible. Sometimes those efforts are not successful in the moment, but growth will never happen in the absence of struggle. It’s uncomfortable and messy, but it’s necessary if we really are committed to raising students up to lead. 

Working at a church is about going after the one, not patting ourselves on the back for the 99. 

I have an undeniable role to disciple the students that make up the core of any ministry with which I may work, but when another “weaker” student is struggling, it’s not a time to protect the rest of the group from him or her. Rather, it’s a time when I will do all I can to lay out the welcome mat for such a student and I will encourage my other students and families to join in the same. 

Every single student has a talent (or more than one) that is worthy of the world’s attention. 

I can’t tolerate claims that today’s adolescents and young adults are lazy or apathetic. My experience and a large amount of research suggests that they are actually the most motivated group of young people the world has ever seen. A student’s talents and passions may not fit the mold for our traditional lists of spiritual gifts, but those gifts are still God-given and purposeful. We have to allow our students to think outside the box and seek out their role in the body. 

No one is going to be a perfect fit for everyone. 

If you hire one guy to take care of 30 kids (or more) it’s ridiculous to believe that he will become best friends with every single student. Hopefully, a productive relationship can be formed, but even Jesus only had 12 disciples… one hanged himself and only three seemed to really be super close to Jesus. Let’s face it… If Jesus were a youth minister and the disciples were His youth group, most every Church I’ve ever seen would fire him…or put Him on administrative leave until He resigned.  What a church can expect of a youth minister is that he will empower other adults in the church to provide strong relationships with students in the group as well, so that it’s not an all-or-nothing one man show. 

In a perfect world, it would be completely unnecessary to have a youth minister on staff.

Best-case-scenario, all of the parents in a church, as well as the empty-nesters, and everyone else, for that matter, would take their faith community seriously and seek out opportunities to grow relationships with younger kids and adolescents… they would disciple one another as they grow in love for one another… students would learn to minister to each other, rather than sitting back and waiting for someone to cater to their spiritual needs because they’re being told they don’t know enough yet. A truly healthy youth ministry is one in which the youth minister is there, not to run the show, but to coordinate the things being done by members as they minister to one another and their community and make sure that those efforts are all working in the same direction. 

It’s not the job of a youth minister to tell students what to believe. 

Our students aren’t stupid. One of our biggest problems in Christianity is the number of adults we have in the church who don’t know why they believe what they believe, except to say that it’s what they’ve always been taught. Teaching students a bunch of facts and instructing them on how to believe is a worthless waste of time. On the other hand, teaching them how to ask the right questions so that they can look at scripture and figure out their beliefs for themselves is the greatest gift we could give these students and the Church as a whole. After all, while people may be intimidated by tough questions, truth is never afraid and will never be overtaken because someone asked too many questions. 

If I haven’t already scared you off…

The Church is the last place on the planet where we should be tolerant of gossip. 

No Church or ministry within any Church can function in a healthy way when gossip is tolerated. When I share something negative about you with someone else and I haven’t talked with you first, unsuccessfully, about that issue, I am guilty of gossip. If I have talked with you unsuccessfully and I share that situation with another person who is in no position to do anything about it, I am guilty of gossip. Gossip is relationship cancer and a Church without relationships is no Church at all. Any team of which I am a part can count on me to strive diligently to conduct myself with an attitude of vigilance to always “go to my brother,” and I will expect the same from others in leadership. 

Worship vs "Distractions"

So many times I've been in a worship service and heard folks pray for many things... Health, family struggles, job searches... And sometimes, in the very same prayer, we go on to ask God for something that I find very interesting; that God would help us to forget about all the things that are going on in our lives and focus only on Him. 

What?

I mean, I guess I get it on a certain level. I know all of this is well-intentioned. I can appreciate that we want to give God everything and that we want to recognize His supremacy over all the other things that might be going on in our lives. He is certainly bigger than any of our problems. Yet, I struggle with this idea of God wanting us to forget about all that's going on in our lives when we come to worship Him. 

When the Geresene Demoniac came to Jesus, he hardly put his "distractions" away for the moment.  I doubt that the woman caught in adultery was able to check her troubles at the door once she found herself in the presence of Jesus. 

Oddly enough, in these and so many other cases, it seems to be all those problems that drove these folks TO Jesus. Maybe we should allow all of our "distractions" to do the same thing. Of course, that would get kinda messy, wouldn't it?