Off to the Willow Stu_Min conference with Patrick and Bob. Looking for to spending some time with them. I know these things aren't usually very restful but with a such a small group and no students or my or kids. Maybe I will get to catch my breath.
Father grant me rest and renewal in the next few days.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Thursday, February 26, 2004
Trying something new
We just wrapped up a series of messages on being a 'true community of faith' for our high school students. Inspired by what our students are teaching me, what I am learning from the emgerging church thing and a book I recently read called Experiential Storytelling, I set out to deliver a message series without ever gving a traditional message, i.e., for 3 weeks I did not get up front and use some clever central analogy try to get kids to understand what I deemed important about a piece of scripture.
Instead, we tried different stuff each week to get them to live the passage, to experience it, rather than have it taught at them. Then afterwards, in smaller groups we tried to help them process what it was they experienced and what it might mean for their lives outside of Sunday evening.
The last message was on growing our community. I chose Mark 2:1-12 the healing of the paralytic. We sent kids to the far end of our building (which happens to double as a YMCA) and told them at the opposite end of the building in a kitchen that is about 8x10 were snacks and soda. The catch was they could not use their legs to get to kitchen. So one by one they were allowed to set out dragging themselves across the building. After about 15 feet, four of our bigger guys showed up with a 'mat' or stretcher we had made out of duct tape and PVC pipe and carried each student to kitchen where there was indeed Honey BBQ Fritos and Yodels ( or HoHos depending on where you are from) waiting for them. There was also a crowd noise soundtrack playing. The room filled up very quickly and became quite warm. The best part may have been a mistake I made though. We made the stretcher too wide so we had to flip each student on their side to fit them through the door; not quite being lowered through the roof but in mid-flip the kids on the stretchers definitely got an experience.
When everyone was in the 8x10 kitchen, about 25 of us, we played a CD of a dramatic reading of the passage. The light bulbs blinked on for some students, others were caught up in how hot it was, others were still eating, some were trying to listen over the background noise.
It was a cool night. Only time will tell what stuck and what our students got out of it but I think it was worth the risk.
Instead, we tried different stuff each week to get them to live the passage, to experience it, rather than have it taught at them. Then afterwards, in smaller groups we tried to help them process what it was they experienced and what it might mean for their lives outside of Sunday evening.
The last message was on growing our community. I chose Mark 2:1-12 the healing of the paralytic. We sent kids to the far end of our building (which happens to double as a YMCA) and told them at the opposite end of the building in a kitchen that is about 8x10 were snacks and soda. The catch was they could not use their legs to get to kitchen. So one by one they were allowed to set out dragging themselves across the building. After about 15 feet, four of our bigger guys showed up with a 'mat' or stretcher we had made out of duct tape and PVC pipe and carried each student to kitchen where there was indeed Honey BBQ Fritos and Yodels ( or HoHos depending on where you are from) waiting for them. There was also a crowd noise soundtrack playing. The room filled up very quickly and became quite warm. The best part may have been a mistake I made though. We made the stretcher too wide so we had to flip each student on their side to fit them through the door; not quite being lowered through the roof but in mid-flip the kids on the stretchers definitely got an experience.
When everyone was in the 8x10 kitchen, about 25 of us, we played a CD of a dramatic reading of the passage. The light bulbs blinked on for some students, others were caught up in how hot it was, others were still eating, some were trying to listen over the background noise.
It was a cool night. Only time will tell what stuck and what our students got out of it but I think it was worth the risk.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Blogurgy (Blogging the Liturgy)
I was sidelined for better than a week. The family was sick then I came down with something. Then I found out blogmatrix went down. So I devoted most my normal blogging time to getting a new RSS feed up and running, which I eventually did through Blog Street
While Gail is not part of the blogging community she has been along for the ride with me. Gail, who loves liturgy, made a comment last night about a liturgy of blogs. Her thought was this: If someone blogs on a daily basis, for among other reasons processing their days, confessing things left done and undone, and committing the next to God it might become an alternate vehicle for things like Morning and Evening prayer in the Episcopal tradition. Obviously a work in progress but definitely something to consider.
While Gail is not part of the blogging community she has been along for the ride with me. Gail, who loves liturgy, made a comment last night about a liturgy of blogs. Her thought was this: If someone blogs on a daily basis, for among other reasons processing their days, confessing things left done and undone, and committing the next to God it might become an alternate vehicle for things like Morning and Evening prayer in the Episcopal tradition. Obviously a work in progress but definitely something to consider.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Pulling my hair out
You ever just have one of those days....this feels like one of them. In reality, relative to everything else that goes on in the world around me my "one of those days" is ridiculous and pathetic that I would even mention it as a source of stress in my life.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Congress 2004
In between making sure the kids were settled and racing from one session to the next, I feel as if God may have been prompting me towards the future at this year's Congress. I went to two different sessions that were run by Erwin McManus, a session on developing deeper spiritual roots and exprienced worship led by Chris Tomlin. The last session I went to was on how to communicate with people while they are going through the crap of life. I definitely feel like I got something out of the session even though not fully engaged. But as I zoned in and out, what I only know to be the nudgings of the Holy Spirit, began to stir in me. As I processed some of what I heard and experienced throughout the conference a few things bubbled to the surface. 1) I need to pray more for the minsitries and people God has entrusted to my care 2) I need to spend significant time investing in future leaders 3) The possibility of planting a church in the valley somewhere down the line.
Now what?
Now what?
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Who killed Jesus?
In Jon Meacham's Newsweek articleWho killed Jesus? there is a review of Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ and a rather even handed discussion of Christ's Passion as a source event for anti-semitism. As a believer in the Christ of the bible and from what my studies and experiences have taught me the Christ of history, the high points and low points of Meacham's article are found in one paragraph.
"But the Bible can be a problematic source. Though countless believers take it as the immutable word of God, Scripture is not always a faithful record of historical events; the Bible is the product of human authors who were writing in particular times and places with particular points to make and visions to advance. And the roots of Christian anti-Semitism lie in overly literal readings—which are, in fact, misreadings—of many New Testament texts. When the Gospel authors implicated "the Jews" in Jesus' passion, they did not mean all Jewish people then alive, much less those then unborn. The writers had a very specific group in mind: the Temple elite that believed Jesus might provoke Pilate"
Meacham accurately points out that only a cursory and careless reading of the New testament could lead one to an anti-semitic position. He carries this thought throughout the article. I realize the point of the artice was to highlight the movie's controversial interpretation of scripture and how it might rekindle "explosive debates" that have long been quiet. It was a pleasant surprise though, to see something in a national publication not come down in an anti-christian stance, which seems to be so in vogue.
His view of the bible, and his implicit views of history however, become troubling. The thread throughout the article is that the bible is an opinion piece written by men with an agenda. And that agenda, in turn shaped by their inidividual or group experiences or desired effects upon their readers. This is all well and good but not to look at the rest of history through the same lense of suspicion as the bible is duplicitous.
Meacham puts forth a characterization of Pontius Pilate, "Pilate was not the humane figure Gibson depicts. According to Philo of Alexandria, the prefect was of "inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition," and known to execute troublemakers without trial." To say that Philo or any other historian of antiquity was not a "...human author who was writing in a particular time and place with particular points to make and visions to advance" is subjective at best. Several times throughout the article Meacham corrects the movie's representation of Pilate but based upon what? Who's to say that Philo didn't have an axe to grind in his writings or have a desired impact on his readers?
Read everything carefully, question everything. Just because one document is called history and another the bible does not automatically make one more historically accurate than the other.
Regardless of what you think of the movie or Meacham's articel most would agree, as I would, with Meacham's parting comments "Amid the clash over Gibson's film and the debates about the nature of God, wheth-er you believe Jesus to be the savior of mankind or to have been an interesting first-century figure who left behind an inspiring moral philosophy, perhaps we can at least agree on this image of Jesus of Nazareth: confronted by violence, he chose peace; by hate, love; by sin, forgiveness—a powerful example for us all, whoever our gods may be.
"But the Bible can be a problematic source. Though countless believers take it as the immutable word of God, Scripture is not always a faithful record of historical events; the Bible is the product of human authors who were writing in particular times and places with particular points to make and visions to advance. And the roots of Christian anti-Semitism lie in overly literal readings—which are, in fact, misreadings—of many New Testament texts. When the Gospel authors implicated "the Jews" in Jesus' passion, they did not mean all Jewish people then alive, much less those then unborn. The writers had a very specific group in mind: the Temple elite that believed Jesus might provoke Pilate"
Meacham accurately points out that only a cursory and careless reading of the New testament could lead one to an anti-semitic position. He carries this thought throughout the article. I realize the point of the artice was to highlight the movie's controversial interpretation of scripture and how it might rekindle "explosive debates" that have long been quiet. It was a pleasant surprise though, to see something in a national publication not come down in an anti-christian stance, which seems to be so in vogue.
His view of the bible, and his implicit views of history however, become troubling. The thread throughout the article is that the bible is an opinion piece written by men with an agenda. And that agenda, in turn shaped by their inidividual or group experiences or desired effects upon their readers. This is all well and good but not to look at the rest of history through the same lense of suspicion as the bible is duplicitous.
Meacham puts forth a characterization of Pontius Pilate, "Pilate was not the humane figure Gibson depicts. According to Philo of Alexandria, the prefect was of "inflexible, stubborn, and cruel disposition," and known to execute troublemakers without trial." To say that Philo or any other historian of antiquity was not a "...human author who was writing in a particular time and place with particular points to make and visions to advance" is subjective at best. Several times throughout the article Meacham corrects the movie's representation of Pilate but based upon what? Who's to say that Philo didn't have an axe to grind in his writings or have a desired impact on his readers?
Read everything carefully, question everything. Just because one document is called history and another the bible does not automatically make one more historically accurate than the other.
Regardless of what you think of the movie or Meacham's articel most would agree, as I would, with Meacham's parting comments "Amid the clash over Gibson's film and the debates about the nature of God, wheth-er you believe Jesus to be the savior of mankind or to have been an interesting first-century figure who left behind an inspiring moral philosophy, perhaps we can at least agree on this image of Jesus of Nazareth: confronted by violence, he chose peace; by hate, love; by sin, forgiveness—a powerful example for us all, whoever our gods may be.
brain spinning week
An afternoon with Tony Jones, author of Post Modern Youth Ministry and 30 other youth pastors, has left my brain barely able to function; in a good way if that is possible.
The afternoon with Tony was well worth the 4 hours. He gave an excellent 30 minute synopsis of Postmoderism or at least his take on Postmodernism and the folks who shaped it philosophically. The rest of the time was mostly discussion. We covered everything from absolute truth and the metanarrative to the Superbowl antics of two weeks ago. So I walk away from this experience with my radar even more sensitive to those things within my context that smack of the negatives of modernity. To put it another, those things which create a sense of dissonance within me as a postmodern individual.
For example, at church this week we are doing a "dialogue day," which is a misnomer. It is not so much a dialogue as it is questions taken from the congregation and answered by our senior pastor. These dialogue days, in the past, have been very successful for what they are. But one man giving his answers to everyone's questions, no matter how well seasoned the answers are with grace and truth doesn't sit as well with me as it used to. I suggested to our Management team, which the Sr Pastor and I are both a part of, that we let the other folks in the congregation try to answer the questions while the Sr Pastor moderates. The idea was met with mixed reviews. It basically boiled down to the fear of a loss of control. I'm glad to say it was mostly a fear of someone saying something insensitive in the name of Christianity. Rich did say that he would do his best to make the morning as interactive as possible where it seemed appropriate.
That is, still to me, one of the coolest parts of our community of faith at Crossroads. Change or suggested change is never met with a flat out no. It is heard, valued and appreciated.
The afternoon with Tony was well worth the 4 hours. He gave an excellent 30 minute synopsis of Postmoderism or at least his take on Postmodernism and the folks who shaped it philosophically. The rest of the time was mostly discussion. We covered everything from absolute truth and the metanarrative to the Superbowl antics of two weeks ago. So I walk away from this experience with my radar even more sensitive to those things within my context that smack of the negatives of modernity. To put it another, those things which create a sense of dissonance within me as a postmodern individual.
For example, at church this week we are doing a "dialogue day," which is a misnomer. It is not so much a dialogue as it is questions taken from the congregation and answered by our senior pastor. These dialogue days, in the past, have been very successful for what they are. But one man giving his answers to everyone's questions, no matter how well seasoned the answers are with grace and truth doesn't sit as well with me as it used to. I suggested to our Management team, which the Sr Pastor and I are both a part of, that we let the other folks in the congregation try to answer the questions while the Sr Pastor moderates. The idea was met with mixed reviews. It basically boiled down to the fear of a loss of control. I'm glad to say it was mostly a fear of someone saying something insensitive in the name of Christianity. Rich did say that he would do his best to make the morning as interactive as possible where it seemed appropriate.
That is, still to me, one of the coolest parts of our community of faith at Crossroads. Change or suggested change is never met with a flat out no. It is heard, valued and appreciated.
Friday, February 06, 2004
Last Community Group
About a year ago my wife and I started a community group, small group, house group, or home fellowship or whatever you want to call it. We did it more out of sense of obligation, me as youth pastor and she as volunteer director of Community groups. What began as obligation quickly grew into relationship and life together. In a year, the members of our group saw each other through bouts of depression, job struggles, kids first days of school and all the stuff in between. And tonight we had our last group together. We just couldn't keep up the pace. On most weeks, with both of our respective commitments to youth stuff at least one of us would be out 6/7 nights a week. And that ain't good.
So now, we are step out of our community group. With an agreement that the time will not be lost it will be time to spend with the boyz. It will be time that we can spend together. It will be time to slow down. We will miss this regular time with these dear friends but in the long run this is the right thing.
So now, we are step out of our community group. With an agreement that the time will not be lost it will be time to spend with the boyz. It will be time that we can spend together. It will be time to slow down. We will miss this regular time with these dear friends but in the long run this is the right thing.
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Out of the mouths of 6th graders...Thank you Lord for the guys in our Middle School core group for their incredible energy and spirit; for the hearts, fears and hopes that lay underneath all that energy. i just dropped off two of our 6th graders after a small group meeting which by all accounts was pretty much a disaster. There was the usual burping, farting, wrestling and inexplicable body movement that can only come from an early male adolescent. But the lack of concentration and focus on the bible study was at epic proportions. At the very end of the evening we got around to talking about our fears and they all got interested and started to engage. Our time ran out and all the guys went their own ways but as I drove Jesse and Matt home our conversation continued.
"Why is the world so messed up?"
"Does God know if someday I'll be abducted?"
"Why would He let a little kid be abducted?"
"God knows everything that I'm going to do in my life right?"
"I want to know what it is God wants me to do with my life."
I just tried to listen and be thankful for the renewed realization that these guys do think about God, they do think about their choices and decisions and that I was there to be part of the conversation.
"Why is the world so messed up?"
"Does God know if someday I'll be abducted?"
"Why would He let a little kid be abducted?"
"God knows everything that I'm going to do in my life right?"
"I want to know what it is God wants me to do with my life."
I just tried to listen and be thankful for the renewed realization that these guys do think about God, they do think about their choices and decisions and that I was there to be part of the conversation.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Back to the real world
Just getting back to life after a weekend retreat with our high school students. The weekend was based on John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. It is always amazing to me how God works through a weekend devoted to Him. Our students grew closer to Him through scheduled program kind of stuff. But some of the most significant growth came during informal times playing basketball and hanging out in our cabins; relationships grew, some were reconciled. Pete, Nicole and Patrick did an awesome job being there for the kids and serving them. What an amazing gift those three are to me. Pete's musical gifts and his cool gentle spirit that totally disarms kids so they can be real, Nicole's heart to see kids grow closer to God and Patrick's servant heart and can-do attitude make this ministry.
We tried something new for our group. We don't usually use written prayers in church or in our youth ministry programs. But I found a couple that really fit well with the weekend. In our time together on Sunday morning we also used one of the confessional prayers from the Episcopal Book of Common prayer. It will be interesting to hear the kids feedback on using "canned" prayers.
Our challenge now is to follow with kids and help them apply whatever it is they learned on the weekend to real life. Lord, help us to be there for them.
We tried something new for our group. We don't usually use written prayers in church or in our youth ministry programs. But I found a couple that really fit well with the weekend. In our time together on Sunday morning we also used one of the confessional prayers from the Episcopal Book of Common prayer. It will be interesting to hear the kids feedback on using "canned" prayers.
Our challenge now is to follow with kids and help them apply whatever it is they learned on the weekend to real life. Lord, help us to be there for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
