Free Media

I think I posted this last year but WorshipHouseMedia is offering some free stuff between now and Christmas. Today's offering is a little weak (would have been great in 1997) but in the past they've given away some very quality stuff.

Check it out here: Worship House 12 Days of Christmas

"The New Ecumenicism" by Chris Heuertz

Thought you all might enjoy this article by the Int' Exec. Director of my organization, Word Made Flesh.

It's called "The New Ecumenicism". Here's a teaser:

I was raised Catholic, but when I was around 10 or 11 years old, my parents joined a Protestant church.

As a child, the only noticeable difference was that mass had been shorted but required much more physical participation. The standing, sitting, standing, kneeling was disruptive to my attempts to sleep through church, while the Protestant services were notably longer, allowing for fairly undisturbed sleep...

10 Commandments of Scripture Interpretation

Had to share this from the Out of Ur blog... especially since I don't think I've ever posted (well, this isn't original content either, but...) and there has been a drought on this blog since June. Enjoy!

Skye Jethani's simple guidelines for engaging the Bible and avoiding unhelpful controversy.

by Skye Jethani

I. You shall not make for yourself an idol out of Scripture.
This is a particular temptation among evangelicals who hold a very high view of Scripture. We forget that our highest calling is not to have a relationship with the Bible but with Jesus Christ about whom the Bible testifies. (John 5:39)

II. You shall honor the Scriptures as sufficient.
We have a common temptation to get “behind the text” or discover what “really happened.” While archeology and other disciplines are incredibly important, we must not forget that what God has given in the Scriptures is enough for life and faith.

III. You shall remember the metanarrative and keep it wholly.
In my experience more Christians can recap the meta-narrative of the Star Wars saga than can recap the biblical meta-narrative. It’s not enough to know the stories and events in the Bible. We must know how they fit together to tell a single story.

IV. You shall honor the Church as the recipient and the guardian of the Scriptures.
The books and letters in the Bible, with a few exceptions, were not written to individuals but to communities of believers. We must be careful not to read everything through the lenses of Western individualism. And we are wise to listen to how Christians in ages past have understood the teachings of Scripture.

V. You shall not neglect the context.
Proof texting (finding verses to make your point), isolating (removing a text from its surrounding material), and synchronizing (taking different gospel accounts of the same event and smashing them together) are all ways of abusing the text and landing on bad interpretations.

VI. You shall not ask questions the text does not want to answer.
Almost every nasty debate about Scripture results from forcing answers from the text it never intended to answer. Debates about creation in Genesis 1 and 2 fall into this category as do most other scientific issues. Avoid a “morbid interest in controversial questions” (1 Tim 6:4).

VII. You shall embrace both the form and content of Scripture as inspired by God.
When teaching the Bible we often retain the content or message but give little attention to the genre or style of the text. We lose something when we teach narrative as didactic truth, or when we ignore the poetic structure and beauty of a Psalm. And there’s a reason God said “You shall not murder” rather than “You will love life.” Do we see that?

VIII. You shall study Scripture for wisdom and not merely knowledge, and never for pride.
I’m really impressed that you’ve memorized 400 verses and took first prize in your Bible Quiz league. Now quit being such a jerk. (1 Cor. 8:1)

IX. You shall exegete your culture and not merely the Scriptures.
The goal is not merely to understand what the Bible said to those who lived centuries ago, but hear it anew today. Proper teaching requires that we bring the Word of God into our world and help people feel the gravity and beauty of it for their lives and context.

X. You shall remember that the simplest interpretation is usually, but not always, correct.
There is no Bible Code! And if you have to do all kinds of contortions with Scripture to get it to fit into your theological framework, you’re probably guilty of something bad. Paradoxes abound in Scripture. If your theology doesn’t allow for that kind of ambiguity and mystery I suggest you try Deism.

Skye Jethani is senior editor of Leadership Journal, Out of Ur, and Catalyst Leadership. He is the author of The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity, and he blogs regularly at The Huffington Post and SkyeJethani.com.

Need some help...

I'm looking for a book or something that is a situation based discussion starter for students. Such as, "If you had a friend sleeping with his girlfriend what would you tell him." Obviously a more expanded situation and story would be great.

Anybody know of any situation based discussion starter resources???

Churchill Story---Craft it how you need it :)

YO!!!
This is a story with background music I wrote for our message last night.
Last night was the last message in a series we were doing on families. Feel free to use this story...cut it, craft it, do whatever you need to :) :)
Hope this makes your life a little easier :)
Go do something special for your wife (or whoever is important to you) :)

Winston Churchill: Never, Never, Never Give In
Background Music: This Will Destroy You—“Threads”

World War II was the biggest war in the history of the world. It started in 1939 and lasted until 1945. It involved all of the major world powers and those powers spilt in two. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. Most of the world united together to stop Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Great Britain was one of the major powers that joined in to stop Hitler. They had a great and power leader named Winston Churchill. And although his country and the entire world were in an uproar and in the midst of all the chaos, death, the holocaust, Churchill understood something about this war. He understood that this war was a war that they could not lose. Everyone across the world had to stand and fight!!!

On October 29, 1941, Churchill visited Harrow School. This was right in the middle of WWII. Unbeknown to Churchill the war would not end for another 5 years. The world was in an uproar. Most people thought the world was coming to an end. And the reality is that many of you feel that way about your family right now. It feels like a battle zone. But in the midst of the chaos and confusion Churchill gave these words to his hurting country.

This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in… Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

You see Satan, the enemy, wants to destroy your family. He wants to destroy what God meant for good. He wants you to hate your family, to use your words in ways that cut your parents down. To have a bad attitude….to hold on to bitterness and not forgive, because he knows that he if can keep your family in chaos he can get to you.

Churchill understood that the war the world was fighting was one they could not walk away from!!!!

Your family is a place that you cannot walk away from!!! We all at some point want to quite but never give in!!!!You must fight for your family. You must fight to bring a positive attitude and to offer forgiveness your family. Whatever is going on in your family you cannot afford to just turn your back and give in!!! You must stand up and fight for ….not against your family.

What would happen if you stood up to the enemy and let him know he wasn’t going to get you or your family? What would happen if you fought for your family with everything you had? Never giving in…Never, never, never giving in but always fighting for your family. Standing up for your family … never giving in!!!!

It’s going to be hard. This isn’t an easy war to wage. We all need help. And when you need help, you have a group of people here that want to see you win at home too!!! All of us are here together wanting you to win. Cheering you on!!!!! To never, never, never give in. And when it gets tough, to never, never, never give, in!!!!!! And your Father in Heaven cheering and yelling for you to never give in. Keep Fighting!!! Keep Fighting!!!!

We all come from different homes so for each of you it may look a little different to stand up and fight for your family. So here’s how we are going to close.

Close your eyes and listen to this passage and ask God to help you fight…maybe it’s your words, your attitude, maybe you need to forgive, and maybe it’s something else. But ask God to help you stand and fight.

Read Psalm 46 while they pray…

S/G Questions
What do you need to fight for in your family???
What are you taking away from this series???

Godly Dads?

I'm currently leading a weekly bible study for our Sr High guys. Last week we discussed the early life of David and the "qualifications" that he had that made God choose him over his other brothers. We talked about what it means to be a "godly man" and how each of us can try to attain that.

I asked them for specifics of what a godly man looks like in 2010 but they had a hard time coming up with descriptions other than, "goes to church." Thats it. A godly man is someone who goes to church. They didn't mention integrity, strength, taking care of a family, honesty, etc. Going a little further I asked them how many of them believed that their dad was a godly man. Not one guy spoke up. Now I imagine that was partly because they still aren't sure that being a godly man is something to be proud of or not. Either way, when none of them immediately felt that their dad was a godly man, it made me sad.

If your youth ministry is anything like mine, 75% of your volunteers are women. When I need help with an event its the moms that show up. When I need small group or Sunday school leaders, its the women volunteering.

So, where are the men??? I struggle with the fact that many (most?) of the dads in our church would have no hesitation to coach a little league team or spend an hour teaching their son the proper form for throwing a football, despite the fact that they aren't pros as either of these things. But they won't teach a group of boys about the bible, how to pray, or how to be godly men, probably because "they aren't pros" at these things. Why the disconnect? Why will they (we) share their knowledge on football technique without being asked, but will only share about their faith if we pull teeth?

So I ask you friends, how do we engage the men of our churches in the lives of our students? How do we leverage the life experiences of the men in our congregations for the benefit of our young men making decisions today?

For The Kids

Tim Stevens of Granger Community Church is a pastor, blogger, author and father. In a post last week he outlined his family's rules and expectations for media usage. I found this post interesting because my parents had similar rules for me growing up. Fortunately for me, my parents also shared Stevens' idea that restrictions must loosen as kids grow up if parents expect their children to be able to make their own responsible choices once they're out on their own (IWU Code of Conduct anyone?).

I emailed Tim's post to all of the parents of youth on my church email list. I really thought it was too valuable not to pass along. Probably close to 100% of your students regularly use either the internet, email, social media, or an Ipod Touch, or a regular basis. I would guess that far less that 100% of their parents have any kind of guidelines in place to monitor and govern what their kids are doing/watching/listening to.

Here is one of Tim's thoughts that I really liked. You can find the rest at LeadingSmart.

iPod Touch restrictions – our 7th grade son saved his money for a long time until he was able to buy an iPod Touch. The first thing I did was took it, enabled the “restrictions” feature, locked it out from Safari (internet surfing) and YouTube, set a password, and gave it back to him. I don’t need my adolescent son walking around with a pocket full of temptation.

What do you think? Are parents that monitor emails invading their kids' privacy? Or are they doing what's best and keeping them safe? Should we let kids listen to what they want because "they'll hear it somewhere else anyway"?

Developing Adult Leadership

Last night I held a meeting for adults interested in committing to an Adult Leadership Team for the Youth Ministry here at Covenant UMC. The decision to hold this meeting and “re-invent” our current adult leadership came from one of my personal goals as well as from our church’s recent Leadership Summit. The meeting was well attended and honestly went better than I anticipated. The adults were onboard with what I was sharing and I really didn’t even need to “convince” as much as I was casting a vision that they seemed to latch onto immediately.

Because this first step went as well as it did I wanted to share what worked well for me, what excited our adult leaders, and the direction we're embarking on in our youth ministry.

(Youth) Pastor Focused Ministry

The first problem with this model is philosophical. I am currently responsible for much of what goes on here and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its my job after all. However, responsibility is one thing, focus is another. The way things are now, I am often the main focus, or the face, of Covenant’s student ministry. This problem is layered;
1. My way isn’t the way to follow Jesus. It’s merely a way. Students need to see other adults pursuing Jesus on a regular basis. The more adults they can see chasing after Jesus, the more they may realize that they too, (not just pastors!) can do the same.
2. If I fail, their perception of Christ and/or the church may fail with me. I’m not planning on a major failure, but if it would happen I would hate to take down the faith of my students with me.
3. Although I hope to never succumb to a major spiritual failure, there is a high chance I will leave this ministry someday. If our ministry is focused on a face (currently mine), what happens when that face leaves?

The second problem with a (Youth) Pastor Focused ministry is logistical. Logistically speaking, having one person “in the know” is a plan for failure. I’m currently very involved in the planning, teaching, leading, media and sound, etc. A problem could easily arise in a few situations and leave the ministry in a minor tailspin if...

1. I get sick, injured, etc and can’t be there for a day, week, longer
2. I leave.

If either of these things happen, the last thing I want is for things to come to a screeching halt here until a new person is found to lead and restore order.

(The following is found at ChurchMarketingSucks.com)

Fallout in a church will occur...“unless the church and its leadership has a culture in place that’s deliberately, intentionally and passionately committed to pointing people toward Jesus and away from the guy with the mic. That’s how disciples are made, how Christ is lifted up and how all our churches are made healthier and stronger.”

This is what I want to develop at Covenant. A culture (not a person) that points students deliberately towards Jesus Christ. And I think to do that we need to train, equip and empower our adults and parents to stand in the gap between the youth pastor and the students. The culture I want to foster involves all of our adult leaders along with their individual skills, gifts, failures, and questions. Within this culture, students want to share their excitements, worries, fears, and struggles, not only with the youth pastor, but with the other adult leaders that they know care for them on a personal level.

Our Plan

Step 1: Involving adults more in leadership, not just chaperoning, of all youth programming and events. This may have to do with leading our student greeters, working with students giving announcements, speaking, media & sound, etc.

Currently our students are responsible for most of these things. However, I am the “head person” for all the things they are responsible for. I find the greeters and teach them what to do. I find and prepare students for giving announcements. I teach and am responsible for the students handling media. If there is a problem with the sign-in process, they come to me. If there is a question about announcements, they come to me. If the media/sound is messed up, I fix it.

Again, I’m happy to do these things. It’s my job after all. But what happens when I’m sick? What happens when I leave?

So, step one involves training and empowering adults and parents in positions of leadership, not just chaperoning.


Step 2: Involving adults in the planning process. This is coming directly from the Covenant Leadership Summit our church staff and leaders attended back in January, led by Doug Anderson.

A major question was asked: What impact does the length of time you take to plan have on the fruitfulness of your ministry?

Doug proposed that the amount of time you need to effectively go from focusing on the area you want to focus on, to actually doing something to accomplish that goal, is 9-12 months. This is just the planning stages.

What is more typical is that events, trips, worship themes, etc get planned a few weeks out.

Problems: Not enough time to explore, familiarize ourselves with, and express ideas creatively.
Most of time is spent drumming up support from volunteers and excitement from students instead of focusing on event itself.

With planning ahead, we’re able to be concise, creative, focused, and “sticky.”


Action Steps

Re-invention of the Adult Leadership Team.

Group will meet 6 times a year to engage in discussion regarding youth ministry, brainstorm, date check, and creatively plan ahead for youth events and regular programming.

(At each meeting) I’ll layout the short (next 4 weeks), medium (2-4 months) and long term (4-9 months) plans for discussion. We’ll spend a little time on the short term, most of our time on the medium term, and a little time brainstorming on the long term stuff. We’ll discuss upcoming sermon series’ and how we can enhance those messages, future fundraisers, camps, trips, curriculum choices, etc.

Once this bi-monthly group is established, we’ll shift into delegation of responsibility and move toward involving more adults on a regular basis at 707 and other youth events.

_____________

This is where the “prepared” discussion ended. I then opened the floor up to our adult leaders for their thoughts, concerns, and general input. They jumped right in. They shared how they were excited to work together on developing sermon series’ in a creative way, how much better events would flow with this kind of advance planning, etc. They really seemed to grab onto the vision I was trying to cast. This was a moment of personal success that stands out from my first 3 years of youth ministry.

Agnostically living amongst us

What do you desire? Why do you desire? How do you desire? Do you desire because it is what you want or is that ‘what’ the creator of ‘why’ you desire? Either way, which either one comes first, one can be understood as the creator of the other (Why-->What or What-->Why). Shouldn’t one first ask ‘how’ they desire? Well, maybe so, but not if the creator of ‘how’ one desires is rooted in the ‘what’ or the ‘why;’ cannot one know ‘how’ they desire based on the ‘what’ or ‘why?’ Maybe. Or I guess it all depends on ‘why’ or ‘what’ someone is desiring…the understanding of ‘how’ is not subject to a formula, but not fully developed until the ‘why’ or ‘what’ is complete. Maybe. Is it possible that our situations and experiences determine the ‘what’ and ‘why,’ which births our ‘how.’ For example, the first time I was ever in an art class (4^th grade) I initially desired to become a good artist, so I would take every assignment seriously and try my hardest at putting together the best artwork I was capable of. So it was my desire that drove me to do well at art, but ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘how’ did I desire such? Well if you break down my situation and experience, one may have an understanding. 1. I was young and still did not know what my gifts (it came easy to me) were, for that matter I thought gifts were nothing more then things you received on your birthday or during Christmas. 2. I had an incredible teacher who was extremely gifted, which inspired me to be that great. 3. I was put in a situation that gave me permission and/or forced me at times to draw. 4. It was the quietness and atmosphere of the classroom. 5. It was the assignment at hand or the form/style of art that inspired me. 6. It was an opportunity to remove myself from reality. These are only a few ways in which I may have developed a desire to become a good artist…many which are based on experience and the current situation, yet without the understanding of what I personally was going through at such an age could give more clarity. Still the question remains if none of the examples presented above created my ‘what’ or ‘why’ I desire to then know how is my ‘how’ ever fashioned? Is it possible there is something much bigger than my experiences and situations and curiosity that may give authority to my ‘how?’ Something that plays such a role for a purpose, whether or not, I am that purpose, but at least part of it? But, ultimately, is it possible for me to know this author of my ‘how,’ which plays a huge part in ‘what’ and ‘why’ I do what I do in life? It is weird to think, but I desire to know this ‘something’…but why…? Is it even possible for me to know…is the human mind capable of such intellect? Well, I would hope I could know of this ‘something,’ even if I personally or on a relational side cannot know this ‘something’ I at least want to know what generates my desires! Is this ‘something’ so far removed? If this ‘something’ has the authority and power to form and influence my desires, wouldn’t it have the same authority and power to create the entire world and all that is part of it? Is this ‘something’ limited? If this ‘something’ has such great authority and power then it would cease to hold to a humans understanding of authority and power, because our authority and power is not that great and is limited…or is it? Maybe we are the author of our authority and power, which we make it as great as we want to, which transpires into ‘how’ we desire…ultimately birthing our ‘what’ and ‘why’ of our desires. Is it possible we are that ‘something’ and once we know this the authority and power we have over our desires increases=how influential we are in life because we are secure in ourselves? Yet, we hopefully desire there is ‘something’ much greater than ourselves or the next person, because life is quite shitty sometimes…is this all there is to life…understanding you are the author of all you do, which develops confidence, in hope you will make life much easier and better, all for what purpose? To then die? What happens when you no longer desire and/or all your pleasures have been met and/or you have succeeded in all that you can…what then? Life is anticlimactically lame…destined for meaningless death. Oh how I hope there is ‘something’ more authoritative and powerful then myself…oh ‘how’ I desire such…

In the last month I have come across people who sound like the above thoughts and questions, living a life controlled by the day-to-day task life brings every week. Everyday they find themselves hoping for more in life, but continue tracking on the same cycle (exemplified in NASCAR racing or the toy train a child puts on the plastic railroad in the middle of his room and proceeds to power with electricity for the next 2 hours, as the repetitious train goes in a circle). How jaded! But as I engage in conversation with these people they verbally or physically express how they wish there were more to life…I then wish they knew there is more to life. But, I too am overwhelmed with uncertainties and humbly state, I have at least once in my life thought in these terms; to the point of becoming enslaved by them…In what category can we put these thoughts, questions, and way of life:

“When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion”[1]

These are the insights, questions, and way of life agnostics have. Above I presented you with a group of questions, in which I conjugated up, by placing myself in the life of the people I come across in the last month. I then presented thoughts to my questions, as I tried to bring myself to some sort of conclusion, but my hope for ‘something’ bigger then myself remained. I wrote this to understand people, because I love people and many people I have come across lately, with these thoughts and questions, desire to know Truth (whether they know it or not), but do not know why they desire such.

One of my favorite musical artists is Iron and Wine, because of his intriguing melodies and authentic lyrics. He has challenged me to think much deeper and authentically express what I do or do not know…I have recently learned about his faith which is agnosticism. He grew up in a religious home, but did not understand much of what was taught in Christianity. This is the same testimony of another well known musical artist, David Bazan (informally, Pedro the Lion). They both influence many, but why and is their more agnostics amongst us than we think…how many are apart of your local church? From my experience there seems to be arise in agnosticism…maybe because it seems safe to people (not saying there is a God, but not saying there isn’t). Maybe there is a hope beyond “ignorance is bliss”…? ‘Could I be safe after life because I do not intelligently know if there is a God, but I am saying there could be, well actually there is…maybe…, but it is arrogant for me to say there is, because I cannot prove it.’ These are the thoughts many agnostics struggle with, which are part of the people I come across daily.

Fellas, I know you all are a part of life changing ministries, but I challenged you to ask yourself, “Do I love people, no do I authentically love people to the point I actively ask people their thoughts and questions about God. Do I challenge them to be real with God and with the Body of Christ? Do I give them the freedom to be this when I am around them…do people know I love them like Christ? Do I love my ministry more than the people a part of it (followers and leaders)? Why am I in ministry…is it because I love people?”

P.S. For more info on agnosticism and its different forms and Iron and Wine check out these websites:

http://www.skepdic.com/agnosticism.html

www.religioustolerance.org/agnostic.htm

www.atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/ath/blag_index.htm

www.ironandwine.com

Love you guys,

TC

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[1] David Hume, “The Skeptic’s Dictionary: From Abracadabra to Zombies: Agnosticism,” Robert T, Carroll, http://www.skepdic.com/agnosticism.html (accessed February 3, 2010).