On God's Revelation

I have a confession...I am way too involved in social media.  I have used it as a way to network, and in so doing I see the opinions of complete strangers.  In so doing I have seen a reoccurring theme: skepticism of church history.  It seems to be coming from "the extreme Sola Scriptura club."  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with carefully and literally following the scripture, but I do have a problem with a nonchalant dismissal of nearly 2,000 years of church tradition.

Here is the irony I see in all of this, how can you believe wholeheartedly that God used fallible people to accurately record his Word and the fail to even consider that he did the same using the church fathers.  Why couldn't He use the Council of Nicea to expound upon His revelation?  Why do you reject the concept of the Trinity because it is not directly in scripture (this is a real example)...you don't think God was at work when the church formed this understanding?  Let me remind you that those people that you are rejecting are the ones who determined what books would be in the bible that you are reading.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think church doctrine should contradict scripture (that is why I don't buy immaculate conception - "All have sinned and fallen short...").  What it comes down to is this, Jesus gave his followers (what would become the church) his job of being the living revelation of God before he departed.  If you believe that God's revelation did not die with Jesus' ascension than you have to believe that God has guided the church the way he guided those who formed the bible. You also must believe that God continues to guide his church.

Statement Of Purpose: My Story

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior when I was only five years old at an Awana meeting.  I didn't know much about theology or church doctrine but I knew that I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus to rescue me from that sin.  As I entered my teenage years the LORD used the youth ministry that I was a part of to help me develop a more robust understanding of the Gospel of Christ.  Specifically, in high school at a youth revival the speaker helped me understand what it meant to surrender to God.  He talked about how an individual’s relationship with Jesus should affect every aspect of his or her life at all times.  I vowed to let God have control of all aspects of my life during that revival.

Looking back at the huge impact children’s and youth ministries have had on my own faith journey, it is quite fitting that God called me to minister to young people.  I first felt that God might be calling me to the ministry field when I was a sophomore in high school. In order to determine whether or not this call was genuine I tried to serve as much as possible during the rest of my high school years. At the end of my senior year while doing an exit speech on public speaking, I showed a clip of myself speaking to another church’s youth group.  The reaction to those watching it convinced me that God was calling me to Youth Ministry.  These teachers and community leaders had little to say about my actual presentation and instead kept focusing on the message I had delivered in the video.

 I enrolled at Olivet Nazarene University intending to double major in youth ministry and sports medicine.  I quickly learned that this double-major idea was not a realistic one.  I was at a crossroads, would I follow my love of sports or embrace my call.  In the end, I chose to stay true to what I had been learning in my youth group and surrendered my will to His. 

Since then I have spent over a decade ministering to young people as a volunteer and as a part-time or full-time staff person in social work, para-church and church settings.  My experiences have brought many lessons, one of them being, that the “usual” children’s and youth ministry paradigms are not working.  Those of us in ministry have to, above all else, be in the business of making disciples.  Those who work with young people must seek to create life-long followers of Christ.  Statistics show that we are failing to do just that nearly half the time.  That means one out of every two seniors that comes across my path will either temporarily or permanently walk away from Christ. 

Those are odds that I cannot deal with.  It is my prayer that God will use the Youth and Family Ministry program to equip me with new ways to successfully make disciples for Jesus.  My dream is that five and ten years from now I will be blessed with story after story of emerging adults who participated in our youth programs and who are still passionately chasing after Christ. 

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There Was Rapping at the Baccalaureate Service: Cultural Relevancy Part 2

A few weeks ago I foolishly allowed myself to get sucked into a social media debate about Christian Heavy Metal (and perhaps rock and roll at large).  One stance presented was that this genre of music was inherently evil.  Now, to be fair this spurned on by the member of a Christian Band who recently murdered his wife.   Frankly, I find the idea of a musical genre being the cause of this mans fall into evil ludicrous.  If, however, I were to entertain the idea, the next logical question is "Is metal (rock and roll) the only genre of music that is inherently evil?"  I the smart Alec that I am, I also wonder what happens with a metal song is covered in a completely different genre (Have you heard that lounge singer version of Down with the Sickness?)  But back to the real question, are other genres whose secular artist tend live on the sinful side (specifically rap/hip-hop) inherently evil?  Christian Rap has largely been considered a good thing by the evangelical community.  While I can't think of any rapper who was ever accused of worshiping Satin, I can literally think of 100 who have worshiped his toys (sex, drugs, greed) and have furthermore done so directly in there music.

Last Sunday was the Baccalaureate Service for the local community that I live and serve in.  During that service a student (think Em n' EM meets your youth group "all star") led those present in two worship songs that were his original rap songs.  One even had a simple chorus that the whole crowd was able to sing along to (like a praise and worship song...imagine that!)  I could question the motives of this man and I could critique his talents, but the important thing is this, his message through his music was Orthodox, Evangelical and Christ-Centered.  For this reason, I see it as true worship.

I think young people are absolutely wonderful at worshiping God with their talents, and we adults...we stink at it.  I believe that Worship is something you live, not just something we halfheartedly do for one hour a week.  Those high school Seniors believe that they can worship God by rapping, by sculpting, by painting, by drawing, by staring at nature...I say, they are absolutely right!

Christianity as Counter Culture

"The church exists today as resident aliens, an adventurous colony in a society of unbelief."¹ The western church is so quick to dig its heals in and fight the "barbarian" way of life. Yet it so easily accepts "civilized" culture which may indeed be every bit as un-Christian. To be more direct, there are many American principles and beliefs that are un-Christian. Similarly, there are many Christian principles that are truly un-American.

Specifically, there are an increased number of individuals who are approaching church from a consumerist perspective. I hear phrases like "What I need from a Church..." and "When I was Church shopping..." These phrases come from well intentioned people who love God, are devoted to service and to the church. They just don't realize what they are doing. The reality is they are comparing God's church to a pair of jeans. In my church individuals are also consumeristic with their attendance. If our senior pastor is on vacation then many congregants opt to miss church. So then, for these individuals worship is about hearing a phenomenal message from the pastor, instead of a mediocre message from that other person, which frequently just so happens to be me. It appears then, that when the church accepts western culture's consumerism, the church is in danger of being reduced to nothing more than a glorified support group or country club.

Another cultural practice that has infested the church, especially among youth is to ridicule those different from the "norm." I have seen Jr. High boys driven to tears during Sunday school because they were being verbally bullied by their peers. Once, a mother came to see me with concerns about her Jr. High daughter refusing to return to youth group because some girls, who she thought were her friends were texting mean comments to her during youth group. My father believes that a major reason for turning away from God during his early twenties was because of the way his church peers treated him while he was school aged.

I use these examples to illustrate the point that youth ministry may call young people to live counter culturally. For instance, sound teaching about Godly generosity and service will conflict with the consumeristic message young people are hearing from media, peers and perhaps even their parents. Additionally, the Christian call to love the "unlovable" is a very different message from what kids learn through the social complexities tied to fitting in at school. This call to live counter culturally may also allow young people to be a part of social reform.  I can't help but think that the American church and its youth could be a part of causing a drastic decline in abortion without any help from Capitol Hill.

Rodney Clapp states in his book A Peculiar People, that he believes the church's blind acceptance of cultural norms as "Christian" originated when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome.  He claims that to break away from this "Constantinian Christianity" the church must begin to see evangelism not as delivering a message but as an invitation into a world changing community. This means that Christians must begin to see evangelism as a corporate matter as opposed to an individualistic one.²

1. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989) pp. 49.
2. Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1996) pp. 167-168.

Parent Empowering Youth Ministry

There was a time when many youth workers thought they had to be an advocate for students amidst the tyranny of their parents and other non-understanding adults.  It is true that parents do occasionally fail their children in terrible ways ranging from unchristian advice and example to heinous and illegal abuse.  Still, if we youth workers our humble and honest we have to admit that most of our disagreements with parents are a matter of personal opinion and preference.  If we want to effectively empower parents we have to push aside our opinions and, whenever possible, honor parents and their wishes.  We will not have a youth group that honors and obeys their parents if we as youth workers are not setting the tone by making a point to also honor them. 

Honor Parents and Their Wishes

One small thing that I regularly do to honor parents is “kick out” students at the end of the night when their parent comes to take them home.  We’ve all seen it a million times, haven’t we?  A mother or father tells their child that it is time to go home and he or she is talking to friends, shooting hoops or in the middle of some crazy youth group game.  They are having fun and they don’t want to leave.  So what do they say?  “Just a minute.”  I know this bothers parents and it should also bother youth workers.  So here is what I do, I fly into the seen in cool youth worker fashion grabbing the ball, obnoxiously interrupting the conversation and screaming “honor your parents!  They said that its time to go home!”  I know this is a small thing, but it sets precedence.  It tells parents that I am on their side and it gets me in the practice of being the parents advocate when bigger issues arise. 

As I was working on this piece I sought ideas and prospective from parents about this topic using social media.  It was through this “research” that I heard a truly appalling story about a youth worker failing to honor parents.  A parent sent me a personal message sharing that they and their spouse were strongly opposed to “missionary dating” and were unhappy when their teenage child began dating a non-Christian.  My three children may still be young, but I understand and agree with these parents’ stance.  Beyond my personal feelings about their position, it is a biblically sound principle.  This worker, however, did not feel the same way about the situation.  They believed that the parents were anti-evangelism and in the name of evangelism encouraged the child to continue dating the student.  While it is true that the unbeliever was attending youth group while they were dating the youth group student, it still does not justify blatantly undermining the parents.  I am convinced that there was a way to align with the parents’ stance and still continue to encourage the evangelism of an un-churched student.

Empower Parents, Don’t Save Them

The opposite and equally destructive response to undermining parents is trying to “bail them out” whenever they encounter a tough situation involving their child.  Anyone who has been in youth ministry for a while has undoubtedly gotten that phone call from a distressed parent who’s just realized that their “little saint” isn’t so saintly after all.  If you are like me, you will be inclined to try to swoop in and fix things.  Not only is this painfully ineffective, it sends a dangerous message about the roles parents and youth workers play in the faith formation of young people.  Do we really want to send the message to parents and the church at large that a parent’s role is to identify the problem and that the youth worker’s role is to fix it?  Instead, we need to send the message that parents are best equipped to play a primary role in their child’s faith formation and in working through struggles their children are having.  After all, God did choose them to be the parents of this teenager so instead trying to save them, let’s try to equip and empower them instead (For more on this idea see this related blog post:http://shemainitiative.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-shema-initiative-engaging-parents.html)

Equip Parents with Resources

One of the ways that we can empower parents is to connect them with resources that will help them better understand their teenage child.  Youth workers are masters of spotting helpful resources, Christian or otherwise, that create a better understanding of young people.  It really is as simple as passing these newly found resources on to parents.  Great examples include Fuller Youth Institute’s Sticky Faith web site and other resources (http://stickyfaith.org) and Walt Mueller’s Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (http://www.cpyu.org). 

Being the number one supporter of parents will not only win their support, it is a biblical and effective way to usher teenagers into a lifelong relationship with Christ.  History has shown just how ineffective “lone gun” youth ministry is.  If we care about the faith formation of the young people entrusted to us then we truly must be serious about creating a parent empowering youth ministry.  Do we want to empower our students to be lifelong disciples of Jesus?  If so, we better get serious about empowering parents.  

Why I Don't Want a Smart Phone

Last night I watched my wonderful wife, a women who just six months ago "never checked her facebook page," spend a substantial amount of time surfing facebook pages while complaining about how crappy the touch screen was.  It was at this time that I realized something; I never want a smart phone.  My reason for not wanting one are twofold:

1) I already waste too much time fiddling with social network sites.  I have no doubt that I would that guy spending hours a day on facebook and twitter (heck I might actually take the time to figure out pinterist...)

2) Finding the balance between being in full time ministry and being the husband and father God has called me to be is already a constant struggle.  Saying no to ministry is already hard, the last thing I need is limitless access to my work e-mail.  My inability to let a call go to voicemail is already a source of frustration for my wife.  I know she wouldn't want me to run to my phone very time I received an e-mail notification.

Please don't think that I am putting down my wife.  I am not necessarily even making fun of network marketing or smart phones.  My wife has a smart phone because both she and I are considering masters degrees and previously we had no internet at home (shocking I know).  We figured using a smart phone as a hot spot might make us less enslaved to technology and media (I don't want a cable package...sorry!).  It boils down to this, I don't want to embody the things about our culture that I find sad or annoying.

Economic Fairness is a Global Endeavor

So everyone is in an uproar about jobs being outsourced and the purchase of things overseas that are taking away jobs here in the US. I don't necessarily have a problem with people's objections to this; however, we have been purchasing items from overseas for decades without any complaints. 

The real issue I have with all of this is the fact that we don't seem have a problem with a fourteen year old girl in China working 18 hour days for 6 cents an hour, but are in an uproar because we are losing technology jobs to India. I don't like either scenario, don't get me wrong. I am just wondering how we as Christians here in the western world can be so oblivious and self absorbed.  

Yes, we should be concerned with whether or not we and other Americans are being treated fairly economically speaking, but we should be more concerned by clear violations of human rights over-sees in the name of Global capitalism than we are about mild inconveniences domestically.  What I mean is this; when you get mad that the pair of jeans you are holding, do you take a second to wonder if the person who made them was payed a fair market value?