I will be away from a computer for a week and a half. I am leading two teams (simultaneously...not real smart I know) into Jamaica. Fortunately I have some exceptional leaders going with. One group is made up of high school students who will be working with kids. The other group is made up of medical folks and entrepreneurial types in an effort to discern a next step in the Lord with regards to our work their.

Please pray for us.

Labels: Miscellaneous

A good friend of mine is a student at a major university in the US. He is actively involved in the largest campus ministry they have. It is estimated that upwards of 20% of the schools student body passes through their doors in a given year.

Anyway, my friend did a survey for them to help with self analysis. I want to highlight a few of the findings and I have attached the survey results.

(please note that this is not an indictment of para church organizations or campus ministry, just using these numbers as an indicator of something that might be larger than that.)

1) 50% or regular attenders (most of whom are in small groups as well) reported to have no significant devotional life.
-This is significant especially in light of Jesus' call to "abide" and how He is the vine and we are the branches etc...

2) The comparison of the devotional lives between the leaders of the overall para church organization (including small group leaders) and all those who attend was the same. Which is not good when at least half of your people have no devotional life.
-This is significant since discipleship is caught more than taught. Which highlights a propensity to point to programs as a substitute for intimacy with the Triune God. A subtle temptation that has gotten me more than once!

3) 2/3rds of the people who attended were female.
-This seems a norm for Christians across the board. Why is this? Is Eldridge right?
Intervarsity%20Survey%20Analysis.doc

All of last year I had a pretty decent devotional life. It was the exception when I went a day without a quality devotional time. This effected all of my areas of life (as good devotional times should do) as God's grace began to work powerfully in my life on my journey toward holiness in Christ. However, things have been different this year...

I switched prayer books and I have been a little busier than usual this year. My devotional life has suffered. I am aware of this and I am going to God with this. Today was a good day as the Spirit both convicted and encouraged me (which are two hallmarks of His work in us). I want to share with you my take away this morning...Idolatry. I have not been trusting Him. I have been anxious about lots of stuff and He revealed to me that it lies in distrust. Here is a reading from this morning that helped me. It is taken from A Cry For Mercy by Henri Nouwen:

"O Lord, who else or what else can I desire but you? You are my Lord, Lord of my heart, mind and soul. You know me through and through. In and through you everything thing that is finds its origin and goal. You embrace all that exists and care for it with divine love and compassion. Why, then, do I keep expecting happiness and satisfaction outside of you? Why do I keep relating to you as one of my many relationships, instead of my only relationship, in which all other ones are grounded? Why do I keep looking for popularity, respect from others, success, acclaim, and sensual pleasures? Why, Lord, is it so hard for me to make you the only one? Why do I keep hesitating to surrender myself totally to you?
Help me, O Lord, to let my old self die, to let die the thousand big and small ways in which I am still building up my false self and trying to cling to my false desires. Let me be reborn in you and see through you the world in the right way, so that all my actions, words, and thought can become a hymn of praise to you.
I need your loving grace to travel on this hard road that leads to the death of my old self and to a new life in and for you. I know and trust that this is the road to freedom.
Lord, dispel my mistrust and help me become a trusting friend. Amen."

Youth Pastors
Please be encouraged and note this... Had I not spent time seeking Him, in His presence, first thing...where would my day have gone? What would my words have been? To my wife? To the youth group? To the other staff members? What would my attitude have been like? What would my countenance communicated?
Discipleship is caught more than taught. You can only take people to where God is taking you. Are you struggling with idolatry? That is, is the love for the Triune God the center of your heart (which is the seat of the will)? If not, join me today in getting in His presence.

Had lunch with another youth pastor in town yesterday. We were discussing the upcoming training we are doing in East Africa. He was peppering me with all sorts of cross cultural training questions which, to be honest, I did not have answers for (but hope to have real soon). In the midst of the conversation he shared with me a principle he calls the "Watering Hole Principle".

The principle is based on the Woman at the Well story in Scripture. It goes like this:

Main Point: You meet kids where they are at

1) Like Jesus meeting the woman where she was at you go to places where the kids are at
2) This well, was a public place where you would find many people so you meet kids where they are at in a group setting.

For this youth pastor these places were the school, the local mall and the beach.

In these places you can meet a lot of kids, get to know their culture more (even if you just people watch) and you can talk 1 on 1 or to a whole group.

Labels: nuts and bolts

I wanted to blog about something that is not yet out in the open...but it will be soon enough.

I am leading a team of folks (some from our group here at yamia and some from Youth Specialties) to do yearly training for youth leaders in East Africa. That is, for Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and the Sudan.

More info will be coming, like dates and those who will be teaching etc...

As I sit here and type this I am stunned. I feel like I am actually having a surreal experience. I wanted to be the guy who was the best. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be noticed, loved, approved...by others. Then the one who loves me the most. ..He...he began a deep, no, really deep and painful/joyous work. He began to rip that out of me. He began to transform me.

I am sitting here typing this years from the beginning of this work begun by the one who loves me. And it is surreal. Why? Because instead of a sense of accomplishment or pride I feel...thankful...and a lot of other stuff I suppose. Things I cannot verbalize. You know how that goes. I am thankful to have the opportunity to help and to serve and to know a God who loves me so much that He changes me for the better.

I love you Lord.

Labels: Africa, Training, Youth Specialties

First off, let me state clearly that I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD. I would highly recommend that you watch it if you have not already. It is longer than any of his Nooma stuff as it is over an hour long.

I have taken some time to reflect on it since I watched it. Here are a few thoughts...

1) He pays reference to String Theorists...I wish he would not have. I don't put much stock in a theory that has no substantiation. For those in the scientific know this might turn them off.
2) I REALLY liked his main premise...which is this...In Jesus' tradition there is no such thing as a spiritual life. EVERYTHING is spiritual. The rest of his talk bears this out.
3) Because everything is spiritual all of life matters. Everything you do. No longer is compartmentalization seen. Your time on the job is not separate from your time with your friends is not separate from your devotional time etc... everything is connected. This is a timely and needed message in our day and age of compartmentalization. Heck, everything is compartmentalized. Children's ministry, youth ministry, young adult ministry, seniors etc... Marketing, same thing. (Not a rant against the church, just showing the compartmentalization in the world).

Lastly, and not at all connected to this post...I am listening to Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers. Good, good stuff. Ok...maybe it is connected since everything is spiritual. Hmmmm what would Rob say?

Labels: Formation

I took the book quiz...

Here I am:

You're A Theory of Justice!

by John Rawls

In the beginning, you lived in a town. The town had many problems!
Rather than moving, you decided to come up with the idea for the best town ever. Going
all the way back to the original position, you created the idea for the best town ever!
Lo and behold, the best town ever looked almost identical to the town you lived in. You
decided to stay in the town. Now you resent people mistaking your refined thought
experiments for "the wall of stupidity" in high school debate
rounds.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Labels: Miscellaneous

Are here!

They should be up on our podcast page in the next day or two!

I want to make a quick addendum to mine. Here it is...

The Spiritual Disciplines are not the gospel. If you do them you are not guaranteed anything. Rather, if approached rightly they can serve as tools to put you in a position of deep receptivity of God's transforming grace.

This is something I know very clearly in my heart but I did not explicitly state it in my talk.

Labels: Winter Conference

Labels: Family

As I am reading through the gospel of Luke I am struck by something. Jesus is constantly telling the demons to shut up when they say who He is. A few examples are Luke 4:35 and Luke 4:41. This last one is pretty specific:

And demons also came out of many, crying, "You are the Son of God!" But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ."

I have often wondered what that was all about. I though, "why not let them say it!" Doesn't Jesus want everyone to know who He is? Is that not what He came to accomplish?

I now think that He did not want them to say it because for a few reasons:

1) People who were hearing Jesus' message had lots of baggage when it came to the identity and role of the Messiah. They fully expected a military deliverer who would free them from Roman authority and who would be as ethnocentric as they were with regards to salvation (i.e. the Gentiles were dirt:).

2) Success could hinder his ministry.

What I mean by this last point is that if people really got on the Messiah train too early then it would have hurt the ministry. He needed to continue to prepare them and teach them the role of the Messiah etc... Too soon and that would have been hindered.

You can also see this play out in the response of people to Jesus' preaching. One group wants to throw Him over a cliff but Jesus walks right through (that would have been cool to see). Here people try to hinder Jesus' ministry in a negative way by killing Him...ah...but then another group tries to stop Jesus from leaving their area because they really like His ministry! They also are trying to hinder His ministry in a positive way so to speak. But He must rebuke them because He has to go and preach in other places (total obedience to the Father).

What Does This Mean For Us?

I think "success" in ministry can hurt youth pastors and students if it is not God's timing. As a preacher, I am slowly growing into one (by God's grace) who can accept sermon praise the right way. Even today I have to guard against getting a "big head". I cannot imagine how negatively this praise would have affected me 5 years ago! Yipes.

As for students. This is a BIG issue. Especially with up front ministry. Youth led worship bands are the norm. Are our students able to handle the "success" that comes with that? I guarantee you us as youth pastors can tell many stories about this one! After all, how they handle ministry success can AND WILL directly influence the ministry!

To help with that I have put a form on the ministry resource page of our site. One that is a help for selecting worship team leaders. If you have any other resources for us that would help with this topic please send me a note.

Labels: Scripture, Web Site

If I were Bishop...
Noting the current crisis in ministry, specifically, the first three things to go in a pastors life are diet, exercise and devotional life, I would put in a place a policy for all seminarians to do morning and evening prayer 6 days a week. In addition, I would work on a plan to check exercise and diet habits.

On Parents...
Do we youth workers see them as a resource for our ministry or do we see ourselves as a resource for them? And...which is Biblical? I will hold off on my answer:)

On Youth...
I am absolutely convinced that they can do way more than we give them credit for. Though, they are fairly erratic in their behavior so one week they will surprise you and the next they might disappoint you.

On Formation...
Our tendency is for info dump. What I mean is that we just dump as much info on students (and adults) as possible when it relates to formation/discipleship. I am convinced that the better way is the way of the tradesman...or something like this...Here is an example of what I mean:

Let's say I am an expert carpenter and I have a son. This son of mine is supposed to take over the carpentry business eventually. Here is how I teach him.

1) He watches me do it.
2) He helps me do it.
3) I help him do it and
4) Finally, I watch him do it.

This is much more Biblical (think of Jesus and the Apostles) and it is much more experiential.

On Who the Pastor is...
God is the pastor. You are in his stead. So...do not be afraid to put your students in situations that are really uncomfortable and not necessarily fun. What I mean is instead of teaching them on prayer for 45 minutes and then praying for 10...do a slightly guided time of prayer (even silent) for an hour and then talk about it. This uncomfortable experience (which is easy to facilitate) puts them in a position to wrestle with God and allow Him to pastor them.

Labels: Miscellaneous

One common misconception about monastic life is that it is easy. When I would tell folks about my time there they would usually smile and talk about how great it would be to get away and be able to be close with God. They whimsically imagine how peaceful life is in the monastery, and to some degree how wonderful the monks must be.

I have just hinted at about 3 or 4 common misunderstandings but I will address only two of them for now. That is, going to a monastery for an extended amount of time (more than a 1-2 week silent retreat) is not a peaceful get away or vacation with God. I did think this when I entered...boy was I wrong.

You go to battle. What do I mean by this? Many things but I will only mention a few. You face yourself. This alone can be pretty challenging. You begin to see yourself more for who you really are. The saints call this self awareness and it is absolutely essential to life in Christ. It is a primary step in growth in our Lord.

It is a complex subject to be sure but one thing that takes place is you move from looking at your actions to looking at the reasons behind those actions (or the reasons behind those reasons etc...).

You also move from the illusions of certainty to the reality of uncertainty. You simply engage with God as He really is...not what some slick sales pitch wants you to believe! You wrestle with and encounter a mysterious incommunicable God who allows you to go through dry times and one how forms your character at ever deepening levels (as opposed to a God who cares primarily for your comfort).

Enough for now...

Labels: Formation, Monastic

"The fruit of silence is prayer"
-Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"Prayer is the oxygen of the soul...Scripture is food for the soul."
-Padre Pio





Every Friday (pre Vatican II though some still practice this) the Franciscan's would be silent. When they gathered as a community for lunch they would keep silence while having one person stand up and read the Sermon on the Mount while they all ate.

I have used this many times in retreat settings with youth. It is most effective when used after youth have been in silence for a few hours. Why? For a number of reasons...

The ability for you to focus on the reading can be amazing. Not only while you hear it but afterwards too... I think for me it is the realization that the Sermon on the Mount is applicable for today. And that awareness is heightened because you are in the middle of doing Christianity with others. Maybe this makes the Sermon on the Mount seem less impossible or less detached from our everyday experience?

Labels: Formation, Monastic