Archives for June 2011

Last Sunday was a mixed ministry bag for me.  I have some moments I loved and some that left me scratching my head wondering if this is working at all.  I’ve been in this place before, but it doesn’t make this mental/emotional/spiritual trip here any more palpable this go around. The consequence of all that was that I had a grip of things on my brain today.  So, while I did this random painting project for my kid’s school, I spend some time pondering life and ministry.

In the process, I was reminded that the voice in my head is not the most accurate gauge of reality.   Sometimes I’m content with stuff that is not good.  Sometimes I’m in a funk about stuff that’s really not that funky.  Sometimes I see clearly. Sometimes I see fuzzy.  There’s enough variation inside me to confirm that I can’t really trust the mirror to be an objective source of evaluation.  I can try and convince myself I see thing unbiased and neutral, but it’s not true… especially when the subject is me.

So as I thought about it, I was reminded of a couple of verses:

(Proverbs 26:5)   “Do you see people who are wise in their own eyes?   There is more hope for fools than for them.”

 (Isaiah 5:21) “Destruction is certain for those who think they are wise and consider themselves to be clever.”

Reading those verses again today in this season of ministry was a great reminder for me of the need for multiple voices and the power of community to help me sort out my sense of God’s direction.  It is clear that as I make changes and assess problems, there’s a few others that I need to get involved and be the mirror for me.   A team of people are a much more accurate reflection than my own eyes staring back at me will ever be.  Here’s my list of where I go for insight:

• PRAYER:  I ask God for divine insight that only God can give. I ask God to speak to me about my issues and his plan.
• STUDENTS:  I ask students for their feedback. I might grab someone who brought a visitor or a key student who I believe will give me honest feedback.  
• VOLUNTEERS: I ask some volunteers in my ministry to tell me if my funk is their funk or if it’s just a mirror thing. I ask them to confirm or disconfirm what I’m thinking seems right to them.
• COACHES:  I go to a few hand selected friends and mentors. I tell them my situation, how I’m feeling, and the course of action I think I’m being called into and ask them to confirm it, caution it, or correct it.  
• RESOURCES:  I might read a book on the issue I’m wrestling with or seek one out that someone recommends, but sometimes a neutral voice I can trust can be found easiest by going to someone not in my community at all.  

If you’re a parent, then you know there are plenty of times when stuff doesn’t go right in your kids life.  Maybe it’s cuz they got in a fight at school.  Maybe their teacher said something to them and when you heard about it you felt judged and so did your kid.  Maybe it’s a neighbor who is unhappy or maybe it’s your own kids not getting along with one another and fists are flying.

God is crazy like that.  Check this craziness out.  I owe each of these people a HUGE debt of gratitude for their influence in my life.

ED NOBLE:  A friend who we had brought 3 or 4 times to come and speak to our high school students (at a summer camp run by myself and another friend of mine) invited me to come and be the youth pastor at Journey Community Church.  We said yes and 6 years ago we moved to San Diego after serving 11 years in Northern California.  I had no idea what kinda web that God would start spinning in me with that decision.

MARK OESTREICHER: a long time friend of Ed Noble, was the president of Youth Specialties when I moved to San Diego.  He was a volunteer in our Middle School ministry and was eventually my son TJ’s middle school small group leader (today was their last group mtg) and has since become a treasured mentor and friend.  Somewhere in there joined the YS Core and the launch of the Youth Ministry Coaching Program due to Marko’s influence in my life.

TIC LONG:  a president and founder of Youth Specialities recently resigned his post (sorta) and is working 1/2 time there and 1/2 time at my church… soon to become my full-time boss as the Executive Pastor at my church.  I knew Tic well from my interactions with YS while Marko was president.  Now he’s in my office. That was crazy fun.  Who coulda dreamed that up?

MARK MATLOCK: a friend of mine who I have served with through YS, became the president of Youth Specialties as a result of the Tic Long move.  The other day he e-mailed me and asked if I would join the YSPalooza team.  That was more crazy news.  Of course I said yes.

DOUG FIELDS: Doug’s name coulda gone at the top of this list because I met Doug like 15 years ago when he was teaching the first ever “purpose driven youth ministry seminar”- at that time it was a single day add onto the “purpose driven church seminar” that my church staff was going to at the time.   We talked, started a friendship, and it has grown ever since.  I’ve taught at several seminars for conferences that he’s hosted and last year he asked me to come to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference and teach some seminars.  I did and loved it.  This has led to a column I write for Group Magazine and even a couple of book deals. But I put this at the bottom of the list because today, they announced he was coming onto the team of Youth Specialities.  Ok… now this web is getting really crazy twisted and funny.

God, what are you up to?  Oh yeah… spinning crazy God webs. My bad.  I forgot.

I had to write a theology of preaching for a theology of preaching final tonight.  I didn’t want to forget, so I made up an acrostic.

Turns out, I kinda like it. I want to preach from the H.I.P.  I want to preach with:

HUMILITY:

I believe that there is something way bigger going on when someone is bringing God’s word to the forefront of people’s hearts and minds.  As a communicator, I’m humbled that God let’s me.  I’m humbled that God ever uses me to say stuff to people.  I’m humbled out of fear because James 3:1 says God holds teachers to a different accountability level- for we are responsible for where we lead people.  And lately, I’ve been humbled as I wrestle with the certainty of it all too.  The last thing I want to do is be unbudgingly confident about that which I gotten even slightly wrong.  I’m trying to walk softly and let God carry the stick- painting my theology in an occasional black and white, but mostly a more honest set of shades of grey.

I read two quotes recently that have shaped me a little:

Perhaps the greatest temptation of preachers is to think that only they have a theology and to believe that the best thing to do is to convert all those who listen to their way of thinking.- Henry Nouwen in “Creative Ministry”

Tolerance isn’t about not having beliefs. It’s about how your beliefs lead you to deal with people who disagree with you. – Tim Keller via twitter.

hmmm.  Neither Nouwen nor Keller are saying they are wishy washy.  They are just saying, before you go telling people how right you are and how wrong they are, take a big humble look in the mirror first.  Then talk to yourself before you talk to anyone else.


INTEGRITY:

If it was a universal law that no one could speak a word unless they were fully living that word in their lives, there would be a lot more silence on the planet.  Maybe it would just be plain silent.  I mean really, everyone’s a hypocrite at some point.  But our world is full of far too many fakers- especially in the preacher department.  Again, this one scares me to death because I know I have to call myself and to those who will chase after Jesus with me to a higher level.  That means preaching what I’m striving for instead of what I’ve achieved at times.  But with that said, the honest truth is the same.  If I don’t want to practice what I preach, I should shut up and stop preaching.

I love photography.  I started taking pictures in middle school with an old film camera from the WWII era, a pentax with screw on lenses that I bought at a camera swap meet as soon as I was old enough to learn the ropes.  I took a photography class in high school… back in the day when you had to go into a dark room and develop your own film.  

You can read more about this one on Time’s site here…. but it is evidently some crazy galazy pic.  It is NGC 6744, a galaxy located about 30 million light-years away— or 170 million trillion miles.  They claim that this is actually pretty nearby in cosmic terms, and of the galaxies in our immediate celestial neighborhood, NGC 6744 is probably the most similar to the Milky Way.   Of course it is.  Dang I feel small.  

This is the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile that erupted on Saturday, shooting a column of ash and gas six miles into the sky.  This picture and 13 more crazy photos like it can be found here.  Crazy stuff.