Update on See You Tomorrow

So I got in the habit of telling one of my friends, "See You Tomorrow." Finally, my friend asked me "What does that mean?" (Is there a joke?) My reply: "No joke. Just I'll see you tomorrow whether here, there or in the air. Lord willing."




We're not always guaranteed today; but when THAT "Tomorrow" comes; we shall be reunited with HIM.  No matter what happens; we're going to Praise HIM. Praise the Lord in all things.



2 Peter 3: 8-14 reminds us of this. We get to look forward to a new earth and a new  heaven, the home of righteousness.



1 Thess. 5: 10 says "He died for us so that, whether we wake or asleep, we may live together with him."



My friend's health isn't great. I don't know what the future holds for my friend,(Nor for me) but I do know WHO holds the future. And until then, I'm going to continue to tell her "I'll see you tomorrow."

We serve a GREAT God.



Tomorrow offers Hope, faith, and love. Tomorrow exists because of Jesus. Thank God for His Grace.



I'll see you tomorrow.  I had arrangely wrote this October 13, 2010. As of today ... my friend went to be with the Lord. The last time I said "I'll see you tomorrow" was last nite .... We sang some songs ...(Amazing Grace and It is Well ... as well as I read Psalm 23) Keep the family in your prayers. Thanks.

Practicing Greatness

Just finished reading this book. It actually was one of my favorite reads this year.

The 7 disciplines helped me reflect on what type of leader am I?

If you have someone in leadership, this book would be a good read.

There were some tough questions .... in the discipline of decision making.

Instead of asking How do we do church better ask How do we be church better? (Getting away from Churchianity)

Instead of asking how do we develop church members - how do we develop followers of Jesus?

Some good things on how we are to be better leaders. From good to great. My prayer is to be a great leader rather than just getting by.

Marriage Obsolete?

Article
HT to Doug R.

It isn't that marriage is obsolete as it is the definition of family is changing. Seems media bias plays a role in this. Means the church needs more godly marriages and families to show the world.

Green Lantern Movie Trailer

Judas - a book Review.

Rarely does a book cause me to question it, but this one does. I had a hard time finishing it and had to re-read several times this book. Basically the Author goes over the collection of gospel writings and legends about Judas Iscariot. He even gives about the Gospel of Judas. (Gnostic heresy)

It gives some insight of why some may have thought Judas more of a saint than a sinner and that he might of been a fictional figure. This book isn't for the faint of heart or those new to the faith. There are tons of books out there - other "Gospels" which aren't really so.


Canon originally meant "a straight rod" or a "measuring stick."

1. Authorship - A book had to be written by an apostle or a close associate of an apostle. For example, Mark was not an apostle, but was a close associate of the Apostle Peter.
2. Nature of the Book - Does the message of the book agree with the content of divine revelation in the Old Testament? Does the book reflect the character of the person and work of Jesus Christ and agree with the existing apostolic writing?
3. Universality - Is the book being read and practiced in the churches throughout the Body of Christ? This criterion addresses the degree to which the people of God recognize and accept the authority of the book under consideration.

4. Inspiration - The word inspiration literally means "God-breathed." Does the book have a spiritual character that agree with the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers?

THREE MAJOR REASONS FOR THE OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE CANON

1. The spread of false doctrine - The very existence of the church was seriously threatened by gnosticism.
2. The development of false writings - A major motivation for the canon was pseudepigrapha, false writings. These came out of a desire to know more about the childhood of Jesus
and to have more information about New Testament personalities.

3. Persecution - In A.D. 303, the Edict of Diocletian declared that all Christian books must be destroyed. This forced the Church to determine what books to keep.

I was always told to be informed and updated on books and articles that you might not necessarily agree with but would help enhance in why you believe in what you believe. I had read the book, The Last Temptation of Christ and this is my first attempt of reading an gnostic text and so forth. Judas gives some interesting insight but the author's premise and motives seem to want to wander from what the biblical account is.

My suggestion: Interesting academic reading, but scholarly it is not.

Read the Word. God's Word before any Gnostic text or other so called "Lost" texts.

The Just One Sunday.

This Sunday I had the opportunity to preach from Matthew 9:35-38. "The Harvest is plentiful; but the workers are few ...."

We took the just one challenge. We prayed that our congregation be one that maybe has just one young man consider ministry as a calling. It was very interesting is I called out our young men by name. (In our services I have a conversation and dialogue with the congregation. Usually I ask questions or ask people to say something and they respond back). We prayed that God would give us more workers for the Harvest fields.

People were surprised by the stats. Over 1500 ministers each month leave the ministry. That the US is the 4th largest unchurched nation in the world etc. So did your church take the Just one Challenge? Can you pray? Do you see the need for more people to go into and consider ministry as a vocation - whether volunteer or career?

Fifty Cent Words

There are tons of fifty cent words out there. (Fifty cent words are those words that make phrases seem longer or rather more complex and less simple)

One in "Christian" circles uses alot of fifty cent words and phrases and tries to "Christianese" (Christianese means use them in a spiritual sense but really sometimes don't add to the conversation and dialogue) them.

Here are a few terms I've used in a class for Wednesday nite on vocabulary.

I. Theology - The pursuit of God.

II. Bibliology - Study of the Bible.

III. Anthropology - study of man, sin and death.

IV. Christology - study of the work and person of Jesus.

V. Soteriology - study of salvation.

VI. Pneumatology - study of the work and person of the Holy Spirit.

VII. Eschatology - study of the end times.

VIII. Ecclesiology - the study of the church.

There is importance to the study of things and words but in reality it is best to keep things simple.  Use non-Biblical words sparingly. Language is something we use everyday and should be something in which we convey the message of God in such a way that from the complex to the simplest of people can understand God's Word.

YM Shorts Premier Issue.

Found here

Check it out!!

Living Below our Beliefs.

This Sunday we're talking about Dumb Mistake #3 ...living below our beliefs.

How:

By letting sin entangle us.

We need to put Jesus First.

We need to Follow  Him.

Hope you can be here!

Colors of God

So a professor, a pastor, and a counsellor walk into a  .... Almost sounds like a running joke? right?

The three authors presenting this book are from a different background ... planting a church in Canada.

The church neXus is based on 4 main ideas represented by colors. Blue stands for the gospel, green for healthy living, red for community, and yellow for culture. For each of these topics, the authors seemed to be trying to be outside the box, but really isn't something new.  They try to distant themselves from the Emerging Church movement. (Which I think they mean emergent and misunderstand what emerging church was, is  ....) They have an informal dialogue - conversation on the different colors and what they believe in (Though it is interesting from Canada that the book is called Colors of God and not Colours but that's just semantics)

The conversations they have about being the church is one that we all must have and examine. How do we go about being the Church? What is it about presenting the Gospel? How does one take care of the temple? How does on establish community in our own fast paced world of social media and sometimes phoniness. The quote "Authenticity begets authenticity and phoniness begets phoniess." sometimes hits home.

How does the culture affect us and we it? Tough questions we need to ask. I think I might have to re- examine this as an ongoing conversational piece of work in progress rather than a book to be read. A definitely examining piece of where is the church, and where is God in our world today?

3words CCHMD

We don't Do Youth Ministry

Article

HT to Doug for the article.

So how are you doing discipleship?

Books on my "To Read" Shelf

Wild at Heart - John Eldredge - A Review.

So its been almost 10 years since the first "Wild at Heart" came out. The book talks about the secret of a man's soul. It isn't football, sports, nor food.  This is a revised and expanded version.

The author, John Eldredge, basically is writing this book as to his own children. It is getting away from the whole society thinking of the wussification (My Words - not his) of what manhood is, and isn't.

The author tends to want you to know how masculine journey should go about. How it unfolds From "Boyhood to Cowboy to Lover to King to Sage. all in the course of about eighty years or so ..." pg. 246.

In reading this book ... I had a hard time following some of the logic and context of the scripture verses he was using.  His book is very similar to the one I read called "No more Christian Nice Guy"

John Eldredge, does well, to cause us to continue to dream, as when we were little boys and try to define what is a Christian man. The problem I have is not every Christian man is called to be exactly like the author nor will they go through all the stages he gives. A very insightful book. I never read the first edition ...but am glad I have this in my library of sorts. I would give a 3 out of 5.

One of the most interesting Statements of Faith. YS.

Youth Specialties
has the following statement of faith from a few years ago that I appreciate.

Important Stuff YS Believes (a.k.a., Statement of Faith)


We believe in Jesus. We know He's part of the Trinity and all the other important stuff we also believe, but if we're honest, we're partial to Jesus. Don't get us wrong. God is like a Father—no, God IS the father—and the buck stops with Him (if you're going to have the buck stop somewhere it might as well stop with Someone who is … well … all about love with a capital L. Of course, He's also about justice with a capital J, but we'll take our chances that, in the end, justice will feel like love). And then there is the Holy Spirit—mysterious, windy, seems to like fire a lot, whispering, and always pointing us to … you guessed it … Jesus. We not only like Jesus a lot, He likes us a lot. Enough to die for us. We know that when life gets tough (and it always does) He'll be there for us.

We believe in the Church. We know—it's flawed, inconsistent, institutional, bureaucratic, even embarrassing sometimes. Yet it is also incredibly heroic at other times. Whether we like it or not, want to attend it or not, we're stuck with it. There are a lot of parachurch organizations out there that are a lot more glamorous at first glance, but the Church is the Body of Christ, and that's pretty glamorous too. The Church is not optional, it's not up for discussion, it's been around ever since Jesus, and it's still here. That's good enough for us.

We believe in the scandalous grace of God. Grace is outrageously unfair, ridiculously extravagant and unashamedly the center of the gospel, and it sure beats judgmentalism, legalism, and all the other isms. Grace always gives second chances, third chances and never stops giving chances. Grace has Jesus written all over it. Grace makes people nervous because they are always so worried someone is going to take advantage of it. But that's what we like about grace. You can take advantage of it. But here's the really interesting part—grace doesn't just let everyone in. Anyone, yes, but not everyone. And the Grace of God frequently includes the unexpected. So … who's in and who's not? Only God knows, and that's fine with us.

We believe in the Bible. We're awed by it, inspired by it, and believe it is Truth. We're also terrified of it. We don't understand all of it, but we believe it. All of it. That's the important part, because if you only believe some of it, if you try to edit out the parts you don't like, then you don't believe it. Of course, believing it all doesn't mean we perfectly live it all. It doesn't even mean we have it all figured out. Mostly we're scared of it, scared in a good way, because whenever we read it and try to live by it, God shows up and that's pretty terrifying … and also pretty amazing, and pretty …uh … assuring.

That’s kind of it. The “biggies.”

We know there’s other important stuff out there … actually, a lot of other stuff: theology, doctrine, homosexuality, abortion, war, the second coming, prophecy, music, discipleship, appearance, serving, worship, tattoos, dancing, drinking, traditions, smoking, language, baptism, moral issues and … well, like we said, lots of stuff.

All that stuff is important, and certainly people should try to figure out what to believe about all those things, but that’s exactly the point. We believe that if the “biggies” are sorted out, then all the other stuff will eventually fall into place too. It might not fall into the same place as the brother or sister next to you, but that’s what makes the kingdom of God so interesting. Right?

 

© 1995-2003 Youth Specialties.

Turning Back your clocks!

What I would Do Differently

I have done youth ministry for 13 years as an ordained minister and several years as a volunteer youth worker prior to that. Along the way, I have learned from the School of Hard Knocks. In that school, I had to learn from my own mistakes. As I look back at the years I spent as a naive youth worker, I think I would have changed a few things. If I was entering youth ministry today, in the 21st Century, here are some things I would do different that I learned from the School of Hard Knocks.


1. I would definitely pray more. Spend more time in prayer.



2. Delegate more. The better you can inspire and administer things, the better balance to your own life.



3. Have better resources. Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, DYM, and My First Two Years in Youth Ministry weren't written yet. I wish someone told me these things long ago.



4. Take care of my own soul. So often I so busy trying to save the world, I forget to feed myself.



5. Take more retreats. With my family, youth and students. There is nothing like NWYC, CIY, Marriage conventions.



6. Choose wisely. I think some of the ministries I took job at; I didn't choose wisely.



7. Leadership is everything. Be a leader. Influence other and make sure your leaders are behind you.



8. Make the most of every moment. Today, for example, I hung out with a youth intern at another church to build a relationship and encourage him. Another example of that would be involving more parents more often.



9. Know your strengths and weaknesses. I think knowing thyself is a good thing. Personality tests, and such come in handy.



10. Loving God and loving students more. I think this essential helped me stay on focus and wish I did it more.

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For Discussion: What would you do differently? Do you have a story of a "famous failure" in your ministry that others could learn from?