Why I Don't Mind...

I've taken a brief break from this blog over the end of last week/this weekend. I had friends in town, for one, and also, CSMSG is in the middle of finishing this year's new curriculum and a lot of it comes down to Isaac finishing all the typing of guides and activities I promised to have for it. In the fall when everything kicks off, it's easy to get swamped, and that's what happened.

In any case, I don't mind that a light, fun, fellowship event was the biggest thing I've led so far here. 63 students came out to SkyZone with us yesterday afternoon-- active kids, friends, and several students who are on our lists but inactive up until yesterday. My dear friend and colleague Marty C had ten RSVPs on Saturday night and we picked up another 12 Sunday morning, and by church time we were both a little stressed trying to make sure we had enough drivers (turned out we did with no problem, thanks parents!) and that SkyZone's trampoline court could handle the whole group of us.

And I don't mind, even though there was no Bible study, no service project, no youth-led worship, because the message we set out with this event was that there are still so many things to do that we can enjoy without having to confess afterward. We didn't come home and say "God, I jumped on a trampoline today, and I know that was a sin, and I ask forgiveness." In fact, it was even good for us-- our bodies were tired, our faces all shiny and red and we were set for calming, restorative sleep to help us start the week.

I think sometimes we talk too much about all the things we can't do. We put ourselves into a mindset of "I can't do anything because I'm a Christian" and because, in truth, a lot of things we are supposed to abstain from are so much in front of us day by day, we forget about the huge number of enjoyable, healthy things we can still try out. Like SkyZone. And 63 students remembered that yesterday.

The Rookie's Library September 7, 2006

What I'm Reading:

"The Man who Ate Everything" by Jeffrey Steingarten (he's the food critic for Vogue and one of the judges on Iron Chef America, and his style reminds me of humor writers like Patrick F. McManus)

"The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence (the monk the book is about practiced experiencing Christ's presence in every part of his daily life, and I want to do that too)

"Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget" by Marianne J. Legato (it's an outline of what they're calling "gender-specific medicine" which is a good invention, but it's not a Christian book by any stretch of the imagination; a good read for the biology, but don't apply the morality)

What I'm Watching:

DVDs, looking for scenes with someone making spectacular jumps:
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"
"Shrek2"
"The Goonies"
"The Longest Yard"
(Watching movies at work.. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job...)

What I'm Hearing:

Irish punk bands who aren't really Irish:
Dropkick Murphys--multiple albums
Flogging Molly--multiple albums

A Recipe I'm proud of: Lentil Soup

1 can beef broth
2 cans water
1/2 cup chopped canned spinach
1 tsp. chopped garlic
4 green onions, chopped fine
black pepper
1 cup dry lentils

Put it all in a pot at the same time and simmer for an hour.

The Latte Song

(sing to the tune of "You are my sunshine" and only in the privacy of your own home or office.)

You are my latte,
My only latte
You keep me moving
When I'm short on sleep
You caffeineate me,
in the morning
Please don't take my latte away!

The other night, dear,
When I lay sleeping,
I dreamt the world ran out of coffee beans
When I awoke with the caffeine shivers,
I went and kissed my Starbucks breakfast blend

You are my latte,
my hazelnut latte.
You make me able
To meet the day
I hope I never
start without you
Please don't take my latte away!

Blindfolded Evangelism

When I came home and opened my mailbox at the end of last week, I found a manila envelope addressed to "Our friends at... [my address]" and nothing else. No return address, no hint of what was inside. They say not to open packages like this, so I waited a couple of days. Actually, I stuck it in my bag and forgot about it until Saturday. When I opened it, I found a book inside called "Ten Commandments Twice Removed" with a handwritten comment on the front cover: "A MUST READ!"

Nothing else. No information on who sent it, no listing of church services I could attend, no suggestion that the sender is praying for me and those prayers prompted the gift.

This was about the single least effective way to evangelize I've ever seen. Not only do I not know who's trying to reach me, I've been given no challenge to connect with any church, or even with Christ!

For all I know, someone noticed this blog, dug around to find my mailing address, and sent me the book in hopes that I would review it.

DON'T DO THIS! Whoever it was, stop anonymously sending fundamentalist Christian books through the mail. Don't blindfold your evangelism! You can build a connection with me-- you have the technology-- it just takes a more personal approach.

Three things we can learn from our Orthodox friends

Yesterday after church at CSMSG and a set of short meetings with students, I headed over to the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, a Greek Orthodox church near Forest Park. They were holding their annual "Greekfest" and my goal was some lunch and a tour of the building.

I arrived just in time for the 1:00 tour and and on entering the sanctuary I was left breath- and speech-less. Not an inch of the place was left uncovered by some design, portrait or icon. The tour guide gave a remarkably detailed sketch of the Orthodox church, and the choir sang-- something that only happened on that tour, making me even happier.

Among his comments I found three Orthodox beliefs that especially stuck out for me.

1. The physical world is created good-- God said so. In fact, it was the second thing God said at each stage of creation. (The first was "Let there be," and after it was, "This is good.") Because the world is created good, it pleases God when we use its resources to give glory to God. Churches, homes, cars, gardens, businesses-- these should all be beautiful for that reason, because with intent, our building them can be a form of thanksgiving to God for what He's given us.

2. Jesus began His saving work at his birth, not only at the cross. Jesus progressed through every stage of human life, from birth as an infant to death, and "made over" each stage to redeem every part of life.

3. Icons are an important part of religious practice, not because they are objects of worship (they're not!) but because they help us remember. Icons are faces in the "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) that's all around us cheering for us in our Christian life. They remind us that we are not alone. They show us that others have suffered as we do, that others have given their lives for the Kingdom. Icons show us people whose lives we can pattern ours after.

I firmly believe that understanding the beliefs of other churches is one of the keys to unity in the church and peace on earth. So (along with the shish kebab, spanakopita and baklava) I'm really glad I went to Greekfest, because I now have a great deal to think about.

Meyers-Briggs Prayer

Backyard Missionary has this post today, the "Meyers-Briggs Prayer." It's hilarious, just what we need on a Friday afternoon right before a long weekend. To quote, my own two profiles:

INFJ: Lord help me not be a perfectionist. (did I spell that correctly?)
ENFJ: God help me to do only what I can and trust you for the rest. Do you mind putting that in writing?

Check it out!

Prayer Point: Lord, Make Me Different

Another bit of the mission trip prayer journal from this summer.

Read through the prayer of St. Francis, below. In fact, don't just read it, pray it.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Every line of this prayer is asking "Lord, make me different." That's a hard thing to ask, because the world doesn't usually react well to people who are different. But as Christians, we are called to believe differently, to live differently, to look at people differently, to have different attitudes.That's hard work. We won't always be accepted and loved and complimented for it while we're here on earth. God is sometimes the only one who realizes it's a good thing for us to be different from the rest of the world. And he's given us each other to help us. My prayer for all of you this week is that God will give you the strength to be different.

With Many Apologies

On Monday of this week, I posted a link to a New York Times story about a group of nuns in Hollywood whose ministry is to continually pray for the people of that town, believing it to be "the Babylon of the USA."

I made a comment about how the sisters' singular focus on prayer, without, as the reporter noted, soup kitchens or door-to-door evangelism, "raised a red flag for me."

One of my fellow youth ministers, who is preparing to become a nun, challenged me on this point, asking if I believed prayer wasn't enough, or wasn't necessary.

Both my original comment and my first response to the challenge were hasty and ill-considered, and I apologize for them, to her and to anyone else who may have been offended by them. I ask for the forgiveness of my readers and promise to think more carefully before posting in the future. I have decided to remove Monday's post completely.

I prayed about this situation on my way to a meeting with one of my students yesterday, and the words that came to my mind were "Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom, but only those who have done the will of my Father." And I realized what I had done in my evaluation of the Hollywood nuns was assume I knew God's will for them better than they did. I don't get to decide what makes a full life for any other person. When God calls a person to a life of prayer, that makes a full and complete life for that person, and a powerful witness for the Kingdom, because that is what God commanded. And doing what God commands is never less than enough.

Thank you for challenging an obviously flawed statement, and all God's blessings in your call.

Isaac

A little self-promotion

You probably see a lot of familiar names in the pages of Group Magazine, since it draws articles and ideas from the big guns and from youth ministers all over the world. In the current issue, look for the Rookie-- an article on page 97, "How to build a network of community experts" is a piece I wrote while I was still working in Michigan.

A quote I'd forgotten putting in there: "There's a suffocating lie going around that says as youth pastors, we should have an answer to every crisis, a solution to every problem, the ability to make any event happen, and a Bible verse, song, game and object lesson that can apply to it. I say no. We don't need to know all these things ourselves; we just need friends who do."

Sunday Poll

Teaching a Bible class (literally, a class introducing 3rd graders to their new Bibles and showing them how to use the Book) in my previous parish, I asked the kids if they had any questions. One little girl's hand shot up before I finished asking.

"Isaac," she said, "who made God?"

Her brother had another zinger. "What would happen if God got fired from being God?"

On this year's mission trip, a cascade of students came up in the evenings with serious questions. "Are there different levels of sin?" and "I saw some people at a youth event once who were falling down and speaking strange languages. What were they doing and is it Christian?" were two of my favorites.

Question for you, fellow youth ministers: What are some of the best (funniest, hardest, most insightful) questions your students have asked you?

Lord's Prayer Study

This is a study piece that CSMSG's mission trip crew used to pray through the trip to West Virginia this summer. We provided a series of blog posts and a paper journal and had the students think about each daily theme and their own gifts and callings as part of our prep.

Read the Lord's Prayer below very carefully. In fact, don't just read it; pray it.
Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and forever. Amen.

Now read it again, looking very carefully at the words I've capitalized. I've also added a word in a few places to show the subject of the sentence, in good English-class style.

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be YOUR name
YOUR kingdom come
YOUR will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
(YOU) Give us today our daily bread
(YOU) Forgive us our trespasses,
as WE forgive those who trespass against us.
(YOU) lead us not into temptation,
But (YOU) deliver us from evil.
For YOURS is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, now and forever. Amen.

The only time WE are the active players in this prayer is when we are forgiving. In all the other petitions, we are saying that God is responsible for all the things we ask. We are trusting him to be powerful enough to provide them, and loving enough to walk with us while we use them. Nowhere does the prayer say that WE provide anything for ourselves, or protect ourselves, or save ourselves, or that WE deserve to be honored.

On the mission trip, one of our daily themes is Humility. The verse that goes with it is Philippians 2:3-4: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

To practice humility in the weeks leading up to the mission trip, make a habit of saying the Lord's Prayer; when we know what we're saying and mean these words, we put ourselves in the humble position where God can use us the most-- when we know it's His power, not ours, that works in us.

The Rookie's Library 8-24-06

What I'm Reading:

"Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace" by Gordon MacKenzie, (C) Viking Penguin 1998, ISBN 0670879835 (This is a book on maintaining creativity within a corporate culture that was recommended by Marko over on his blog. I'm about halfway through it and loving every page; the parish I serve has a lot of corporate-type structures in it.)

"Everything I know about Business I learned from Monopoly" by Alan Axelrod (C) Running Press 2002, ISBN 0762413271 (There's a theme in my books this week; the Monopoly book happened to be on the shelf just at eye level next to the Hairball book. I love Monopoly and also love finding useful lessons in ordinary things, so this was a very happy accident to find.)

What I'm Watching:

"Eureka" on SciFi-- the tagline "Every small town has its secrets, but in the town of Eureka, the secrets are top secret!" nearly got me; it was the talking house that hooked me for good.

"Who Wants to be a Superhero?" also on SciFi-- since I was there already, I decided to check out what Stan Lee's up to. Look for a blog post more specifically about this concept!

"Snakes on a Plane" on the big screen-- it's a B-movie. So long as you know that...


Places I went in StL last week that I haven't been since I moved here:

The St. Louis Art Museum (they have mummies-- three of them!)

The St. Louis History Museum

Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard-- ahhhh... drooling...

Armor of God PJs

Saw this in an email from my friend Ceci yesterday and had to post it. These are the "Armor of God pajamas" designed to help kids remember that they're protected by all sorts of attributes of God when they go to sleep. Or maybe just a way to make some spare cash off Christians. But the idea's an interesting one, and since I'm all about using simple everyday things to connect our simple everyday lives to the sacred, if they made them in my size I would own them. Although the helmet and shield might be less than comfortable.

Three Reasons I Don't Believe in Myself

Yesterday I spent three hours in Walmart waiting for my car. I'd brought it in for an oil change and a tire fix. (On the way to see "Snakes on a Plane" a few days earlier I hit a pothole and then it started going flat every day, slowly.)

Around the start of hour 2, I wandered toward the fairly anemic book section and picked up a well-known motivational pastor's offering on self-improvement.

The author has seven main points, all of them things like "develop a healthy self-image" and none of them things like "realize that only Christ can save me." And it's a Christian book!

I do not believe in myself. There are many reasons for this, so in the interest of getting something done that looks like real work today, I've pulled out three of my favorites.

1. I don't believe in myself because I do bad things. Every day. Even when I try really hard. On the days when I have the best self-image, I still sin. I can't get around it no matter what I do. I'm undisciplined, lustful, greedy, selfish and love junk food and television, frequently more than I love my quiet time with the Lord.

2. I don't believe in myself because I want to be in charge of my own life and often try to wrest that control of my path away from God who really owns it. When I hear God's voice I don't always jump to obey it-- my first reaction is usually "You don't really mean that." I try to escape the responsibility God entrusts to me. I am not always a good and faithful servant.

3. I don't believe in myself because I've hung onto a lot of crutches that aren't Jesus and so won't help me in the end. I haven't trusted enough to jump completely into Christ's arms; at best I've rested one foot on the cross but kept the other one in the mud because I think I'm keeping my options open. I talk about surrender and obedience and the joy and freedom that comes from them, but I don't act like I believe it.

I am not interested in self-help. I am in grave need of self-replacement. I believe God has in fact given me my body and soul, personality and talents, but I don't believe He's intending me to use them on my own, but instead to give them back into His control, since only He knows how to work with them for the glory of the Kingdom.

This morning I wrote the title to this post and then went for devotions with my dear friend and colleague Marty C. And I found these words in the Gospel for today:

"[Jesus said] I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true." --John 5:30-32

"You search the scriptures because you believe that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my father's name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?" --John 5:39-44

I love when the Scripture challenges me this way, and when the Word coincides so well with what's been worrying me, I know there's something to pay serious attention to there.

Disaster Control

Yesterday CSMSG went for our long-rescheduled family float trip on the Meramec River. The forecast in the previous few days had called for a chance of scattered thunderstorms, but it had been really pleasant so we weren't worried. It did rain on both Friday and Saturday, so we figured the clouds were out of the system.

Halfway down I-44 to the outfitter's (it's a 90-mile trip from STL) it started to rain, heavily. Huge drops and wind and probably a bit of thunder that I couldn't hear. At the river site, it was only drizzling, so dampening spirits a little but not doing much more than that.

But twenty minutes or so down the river we started to see lightning and hurried everyone off the river (and out of their metal canoes) onto a gravel bar to wait out the storm. We were there for an hour and a half, then finished the trip when the sky cleared.

As camp staff for five years, I'd been on trips like that before and followed the basic crisis/danger plan we'd used there. That part was well in hand. But I learned a few things and made a few notes that would have made the trip a little easier on everyone.

1. A good crisis plan starts with a lot of info going out to people before the trip starts. Adult leaders needed a huddle to go over what might happen and what to do if it did They needed to be informed of their responsibilities as leaders, not just parents/trip participants.

2. While on the river it's hard to keep the group entirely together (with differing skill levels, currents, time stuck on rocks, etc.) a traveling group like this needs a designated leader and rearguard. And those two canoes need some form of communication (turns out we had two radios with us, but I didn't know it.) No one goes in front of the lead canoe or behind the last.

3. During a crisis, the attitude of the adult leaders is key. If they're courageous and able to deal positively with the situation, their outlook will spread to the students too. Adults need to know they're deputized for the whole trip-- they are youth ministers with you and they are "on" the whole time.

4. We made this a family trip, not a youth group trip, so parents were responsible for their own children and each family unit had a certain amount of autonomy. Still, the trip wasn't just a casual float down the river, but a beautifuly journey with God's people, and time needed to be made to bless the group in prayer before leaving, and devotions at lunch, as per the original plan. I'm saying this to myself a lot lately-- plan your work, then work your plan-- if you say something's going to happen, make it happen.

Any other useful notes out there for handling sudden situations?

A Song from Tanzania

Erin mentioned in one of her comments here yesterday a song that one of the Tanzanian counselors brought to Fortune Lake Lutheran Camp. I thought I'd share the words to the song here this morning, because it's been in my head all day! It's a really simple, high-energy song.

"Our God is not Dead"

Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive
Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive

Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive
Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive

Leader: Oh, I feel it in my feet... (the leader dances, pointing to each part)
(echo) Oh yes! (the echo repeats the dance)
Leader: I feel it in my toes...
(echo) Oh yes!
Leader: I feel it in my legs...
(echo) Oh yes!
Leader: I feel it in my knees...
(echo) oh yes

Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive
Leader: Our God is not dead!
(echo) He is alive
(Repeat chorus twice each time)

The verses go through the whole body, and can have a LOT of body parts involved, depending on how energetic the leader is. I'm hoping to get the tune to the song up here at some point, but for now, just let the words remind you that our God is not dead! And that's the point.

Kids in the news

Stories like this one, on MSNBC this afternoon, both make me incredibly sad because they point to the low valuation society puts on its own future (via devaluing children) and guarantee youth ministers, child psychologists their jobs for many years to come:

"Across the nation, there are signs of a low-burning uprising against children supposedly behaving badly in public.
Eateries from California to Massachusetts have posted signs on doors and menus saying “We love children, especially when they are tucked in chairs and well behaved” or “Kids must use indoor voices.” In North Carolina an online petition was started last year to establish child-free restaurants — the petition loosely compared dining with children to dining with cigarette smoke."

I agree with the need for proper behavior in public; at the same time, I call for people to understand that children are messy, noisy and expensive and that's just the way it is.

Which Jesus do you like better?

Last night I went to see "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" and while I couldn't write a whole review about it, I did hear one worthwhile question in the film.

Possibly the funniest scene in the whole picture, (which says something since Will Farrell is brilliant at blurring the line between stupid funny and making people laugh at both) is the first time we see Ricky Bobby's family sitting down for dinner together. Ricky says grace, thanking God for his wife, sons, fast food and "21.2 million dollars" and he addresses each part of the prayer to "baby Jesus" or "infant Jesus" or "little Jesus in your cradle." His wife, both impatient to eat and disagreeable about the theology, interrupts to remind him that Jesus grew up and became a man, and so one doesn't always have to pray to the baby.

"But I like the baby Jesus best," is Ricky's reply. Then the whole table jumps in, stretching grace to five or six minutes on screen, talking about how they like best to picture Jesus.

So which Jesus do we like best? And does Jesus in fact represent different things to us at different stages of his life? Baby Jesus is innocent; teenager Jesus is rebellious, but in a good way; grown-up Jesus is wise; dying Jesus is merciful.

Is it appropriate to look at Jesus in so many different ways? Should we focus only on the grown-up attributes, or look for the ways his infancy, childhood, adolescence give us clues about him? Does it deepen our faith to attach to one part of Christ's life, or does it only rob us of the wrestling we experience with putting the whole story together?

Which Jesus do we like best? And does that show in our ministries?

All Roads Lead...

Rick Lawrence shares this story at youthministry.com about Charles Spurgeon critiquing another pastor's sermon:

"Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?" said the young pastor. "Because," said Spurgeon, "There was no Christ in it." The young man said, "Well, Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text." The old man responded, "Don't you know, young man, that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?" "Yes," said the young man. "Ah!" said the old preacher, "and so from every text in Scripture there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures—that is Christ. Dear brother, when you get to a text, say, 'Now, what is the road to Christ?' and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis—Christ."

I don't have anything to add to that, really. It's a challenge and a goal that I pray God will keep in front of me my entire life and career.

Good Reads Today

Reuters ran this article through Yahoo yesterday on a retired British gentleman whose video blog became one of the most popular clips on YouTube last week. The news service was amazed because the site is dominated by teens/college age students and the man hadn't expected to connect with them. This gives me a lot of hope for cross-generational ministry, if we can get older people to reach out and share themselves with our students.

I'm a big fan of things that make sense, so here's a column that ran on McSweeney's a while back. The title sets it up nicely: "If the Head Counselor at my old Summer Camp wrote a Household Q&A Column"

This is what I had for dinner last night. Eat it. It will make you feel all good inside.

One of my students this past spring tried to convince me that Jesus historically HAD TO have a beard-- there was no way around it. She dug out some vague verses in Isaiah that sort of supported her. So this post at The Complex Christ blog caught my eye. It's about different styles of beard marking different kinds of churches.

Mark Hall shares ideas!

Yesterday out at Six Flags St. Louis, JoyFM held a lunch for youth pastors in the STL area. Casting Crowns was playing a concert that evening at the park, and the radio station put the lunch at the same time so that Mark Hall, the band's lead singer, could speak to the group and share some of his insight into youth ministry.

One of the reasons I respect Mark so much is that he's a youth minister on top of being a musician, and his commitment to the youth at his parish strongly influences the way he handles his touring and performing schedule. Sunday through Wednesday, he told us, he's at the church doing youth ministry; Wednesday night he and the band lead their Wednesday program, Refuge, then get on the bus and drive to their next venue. On Saturday, they perform the show, then get on the bus and drive back to their church in Atlanta just in time to lead small groups that afternoon. This is a guy who is seriously committed to preaching the Word to the students God's given him to care for.

A few of his ideas jumped out at me.

An email team from the youth ministry sends email to every student every day of the week. One student is the "Monday guy" and on Monday, sends a short note to the whole youth group list. It's on the order of "Hi, how's everyone-- remember, this event is coming up and it's so-and-so's birthday. Check out this verse I read this week in the Bible." Tuesday, Wednesday and so on do the same thing. Every member with an email address gets a message from someone every day.

This may be a no-brainer but I've never done it, on purpose anyway. On trips to retreats or camp, Mark's church uses separate buses for guys and girls. He says the youth group took a couple of months to realize they liked it that way, but now wouldn't want to go back.

Lots of programs focus on having everything perfect; video, music, drama, etc. Mark's philosophy is a little different-- what matters is that kids are doing it, not that it's flawless. His video team is made of students who are still learning all their video-editing skills; it's not the guy from the band who knows how to do everything professionally.

When you have the chance to see the band and/or hear Mark speak, it's well worth it!

Spot the Chuch Van at Six Flags

Warrenton Christian Church, you were prayed for yesterday while you enjoyed the waterslides and I was lost in the parking lot!

An Attitude that makes ministry more difficult

Watching TV last night, I heard a commercial for the first time that included this tagline:

"The minivan that proves you don't have to give up anything to get everything!"

Our focus this year is on commitment to the Christian life, so this line gets under my skin because one of the messages my students will consistently hear this year is "Yes, friends, there are things you give up when you follow Christ."

How do I get around messages like the minivan commercial? (Even though they don't buy minivans, my kids hear the words of that ad...) How do I challenge them to make those tough decisions, without straying into legalism and creating despair, rather than the hope that Jesus always provided?

• My students are going to hear who Jesus really is, what he commands, and how he never asks us to do anything he didn't do himself.
• They are going to see adult mentors who behave that same way, participating in all the things we challenge students to.
• And they are going to wrestle themselves with how to connect their church-worlds to their life-worlds (we are still at that point, and it's a slow process to rise out of it.)

Honestly, the trickiest part is going to be getting the adults to the point where they can model what we need them to. We will all be learning from each other this year.

What's in your office...

...that no one in any other field would understand your having there?

For quite a while I was the only youth minister in Upper Michigan with a 40-pound bag of quick setting cement in his office. We used it to make stepping stones for a youth group day on ebenezers, or monuments in a place where God did something really cool.

In St. Louis, I have this: it's a microwave potato cooker, but I use it to play "What is it?" a game where each youth group member has to take a random object and instantly make up a use for it, without naming its actual function.

What do you keep in the office that flummoxes people when they see it for the first time?

Spot the Church Van on I-64

Centennial Olivet Baptist Church in Louisville, KY

and

Deliverance Tabernacle in Huntington, WV--

You were prayed for on I-64 this July!

(Played the game on the mission trip but lost the card where I'd written down the names; the prayers, though, were heard at the time and are ongoing!)

Jesus talks to sinners (video)

On the first day of the mission trip, this was one of the clips Group Workcamps used to introduce the theme for the week-- learning a true Jesus attitude. A lot of people seem to think it's like this... the video was produced by vintage21.com.

Seeding a small group

One of the problems we face as an affluent city church is that people are only willing to give our program a limited amount of time-- when we look at our calendar, we frequently make compromises on what we'd like to accomplish with each event based on how much tim we believe people will give. This isn't an ideal way to do youth ministry, but not every event can be a three-day retreat. And the underlying issue is material for a whole other post.

It also points the way to one of my larger goals, which is to have most of our events serve to whet the appetite for small cell groups that meet for longer periods and bond together for accountability, Bible study, service, etc. The quote I'll borrow from Rev. Heather is "Like salt, [they are] intended to make the student thirsty."

Thanks to a number of people I've worked with in the past six years, we'll start up our small group ministry this fall with the following strategy. I could use some ideas on tweaking it, if you have any thoughts:

Two personally invited groups begin the process, one of students and one of adults. In fact, there will probably be two student groups and an adult group, because I have one natural group (this year's mission trip kids) who are already somewhat bonded, and another set of kids who have been asking for a small-group study. These groups will serve two purposes-- to give us success stories and faces to connect to when we begin forming additional groups; and to teach their members how to lead groups, so they can serve as guides if that's their calling.

All groups will begin with a six-week commitment, enough time to work through the first unit of the curriculum we're using, but not an intimidating amount of time that will sap the energy of the group. At the end of the six weeks, they'll renew and be able to help structure the group for the future.

The groups will use a curriculum to spark discussion and give structure to the setup, because we're not in this just randomly. At the same time, we're building lifelong relationships, not just info-dumping, so we'll be dynamic enough to deal with members who bring questions, issues, problems in need of solving.

The group members will decide their schedule together, choose and set up their space, provide snackitude, and rotate responsibilities within the group to train their discipline and leadership.

Once they're self-directed, the small groups will still have the youth minister's support (by that guy regularly attending each group on a rotating schedule, with other adults) and be connected to the other small groups (via several times a year dinners/social events/worship nights) and to the life of the whole church (picking ministries/projects to be part of.)

That's the layout-- go on, kick the tires, poke at it, let me know where we need bettering!

FISH DANCE

This video needs a caption: how about "The adult volunteers signed up in droves at Wally's church when he taught them how to achieve the same behavior at home!"

The Rookie's Library August 3, 2006

What I'm Reading:

"Enter a Murderer" by Ngaio Marsh, (C) 1998 St. Martin's Press ISBN 0312966709 (Every year or so I'll read a mystery novel that kicks off a whole month or more of reading mystery novels; this one's set in a theater so it had a double appeal for me, but won't spark a big read.)

"Sixy Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, (C) 2003 Sourcebooks Inc. ISBN 1402200455 (It's a study in why France is the way it is, and it's a fascinating read. There's so much history and insight that makes France unique.)

"A Brief History of Time" by Dr. Stephen Hawking, (C) 1988 Bantam ISBN 0553346148 (This is next on my reading list but the book on France is going so quickly I'll definitely be opening this one up in the next couple of days.)

What I'm Watching:

Shark Week! on Discovery Channel
Modern Marvels on the History Channel

What I'm Hearing:

Relient K-- multiple albums
Carbon Leaf-- multiple albums

Number of cat toys Louie's played with to the point of losing this week: 4

See? It's not too difficult...

One of the things I forgot on the mission trip a couple of weeks ago is that the workcamp sends out to all the churches participating the email and snail mail addresses for the camp office, so students can receive messages from home. One of the reasons I forgot about it was that all my kids have cell phones, and are almost never out of contact to begin with-- that's a whole different issue and I'll tackle it later.

Grace United Methodist, of Gaithersburg, VA, had a really clever system worked out to keep their students supported on the road. Back home, the members of their church had an info page with a photo and some basic facts about each student, and prayed for the whole group. Members also had a few students each to keep in touch with over the week through email.

They didn't have to send long correspondence, just a note here and there-- the notes didn't even have to be relevant to the workcamp. Some of the students I met had notes that included recipes; movie times in Anchorage, Alaska; lists of things on a friend's dresser; a page of pet names all beginning with the letter "P."

These kids were laughing about their notes the whole week, and that little touch of support (there were also members designated to send care packages once or twice through the week, so there was a constant flow of snacks as well) kept them strong during the week.

One of my prime guidelines about youth ministry is that it must be connected in significant ways to the mission of the whole church-- not a separate group off by itself. Grace definitely had that connection going in West Virginia this year. And I offer it, complete with the list of random things to send, as a mission we may all want to take on next mission trip season!

I read this in an email from one of our mission trip leaders this afternoon:

"Part of mission trip is to get kids away from their normal environment. Another part is to help them realize that their whole life is a mission trip. For this latter training I think we need to look at some opportunities to perform missions here in St. Louis. I'd arrange them into 3 categories: a service mission to the church itself, a service mission to some of our members and a service mission to our community... I do believe that we lose something with our mission groups by not reinforcing the experience regularly when we get back or building up to it enough."

This is the natural next step to short-term missions, turning them into a lifestyle by serving the community where we missioners live rather than only the ones we travel to. For a lot of people, this is even harder than committing to a mission trip far away. But it's what we're called to: serving "Jerusalem, Samaria and the ends of the earth;" not just one of those places!

It also makes me do the "I love my job" dance because I love having so many people around me who get it, and who are willing to work to help our youth develop the full service life that defines being a Christian.

Last night I read an article about this group, Laser Monks, a Cistercian monastery that sells ink and toner refills and office supplies as part of their ministry. They make money that supports their order, give part of their proceeds to help good causes, and take prayer requests along with orders for supplies.

This strikes me as a unique way to combine spiritual practice and practical service to people, and I wish them the very best as their business grows. They remind me a bit of the monks who run the Jampot in Eagle River, MI, a bake/jam shop along the highway.

Power in the words

If you didn't know this already, you are about to find out that I have strong feelings about Christian music and a number of pointed and entertaining theories on why more people don't listen to it or take it very seriously. In a nutshell, I find praise choruses too simple to be interesting, hymns often too slow to get my students excited about singing them, and radio-type Christian music too syrupy and sentimental to relate in any meaningful way to real life. The hymnbook of the Bible, the Psalms, never pulls any punches when it comes to how the author is really feeling. When the singer is deep into God's love, the words show it. When life is a cesspool of awfulness, the Psalms are never afraid to ask "Why, God, why aren't you doing something about it?"

This past week on the mission trip to West Virginia, I thought a lot about music in youth ministry. The collection of songs we used during the evening programs was very limited, generally repeating the same ones each night, maybe in a different order.

One that we frequently used was the ever-popular "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever," and this one raised the most questions in my mind. Where is the committment in the words, really? Of course I *could* sing, but the song doesn't ask me to say I *will.*

To be part of the whole theological equation, the music youth ministries use needs to challenge the students who sing it in two ways:

The words need to challenge the students to change their lives so they're truly ready to sing words like "forever" and "I will" and "every" anything.

And, since we never quite reach the point in our limited human lives when we can truly do that, it needs to inspire us with a wish to make those words true in our lives, so we have something to look forward to.

Music, like Scripture, must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It must show the commitment we already have, and fill us with a desire to commit more and more. It's not there to make us feel like wonderful people; it's there to stretch us. It's not to prove anything to God; it's a cry for help for Him.

If there are any songwriters reading, I call for more challenging music. For worship leaders, I call for more study of theology. For all youth ministers, I ask you to carefully pick and match the music to the message you're teaching at each event; don't recycle songs just because people already know them-- use them the way they're most powerful; when they're part of a system of Scripture, teaching and song that expect to change lives.

Praise without Pressure

Whenever I go to a place where large groups are singing together, I feel a lot of pressure from the people who immediately jump up and run toward the stage to wave their arms around and compete to see who can sing "I love God, I love God, I love God, I love God" the loudest. Generally I'm one of the few people still sitting down, hearing the music and singing, but quietly, without a lot of show.

Music is one of the most personal parts of worship, to me. It's one of the most direct ways God can reach me, sending me the words of songs at just the right moment, whether it's on the radio on my drive to work or through the organ while I'm slogging through Episcopal hymns, or in the middle of a concert with a thousand screaming disciples all around me.

I always feel like people are looking at me and thinking "Well, he can't be very faithful" when they see me letting the music wash over me and feed me through the roots, like a plant. And I wondered if my youth group felt the same way. So on our mission trip this last week, I gave them the following permission:

"When you sing, react to the music the way you react to it. If you need to sit still and let it wash over you, then sit still. If you need to jump and dance, then jump and dance. But don't feel any pressure. You're not proving to me how faithful you are by being the first one on the floor with your arms up. And you're not proving it to God either; He already knows."

Several of my students came and thanked me for this little talk afterward. I'm suspicious of youth ministries where faithfulness seems to be judged by sheer enthusiasm, which can be faked, especially in the presence of great pressure from people we see as more faithful than ourselves. And if worship becomes a competition to prove to the other worshippers that we're just as devoted as they are, what good is it? Worship is for God.

I strongly recommend that we as youth ministers offer our students this permission in plain words. Don't hope they'll get the message if you imply it; say it straight out. It will give our students more room to explore how God reaches them in worship, and what they need to do to be open to that experience.

Back from the Field

The mission trip crew from CSMSG pulled in Saturday evening around 7:30, and I've never seen a group of parents so excited to see their kids (although I'm sure within a week I'll get phone calls asking if I can set up another trip until school starts!)

Here's the stats from the trip, a Group Workcamps site:
Around 400 campers
divided into 59 crews
worked on 61 sites
contributing 9600 man-hours of work to the community of Buckhannon.

A few personal highlights:

My crew met a dog named Freckles, who did not know how not to be in the way; whenever we were there working, he was excited and happy-- when we needed to put a board down or work in a certain spot, he was there, asking for some love.

The resident my crew served (although we never got to meet her) had a baby a month early, on July 7th, and was in the hospital until the Friday we finished on the site. But she came home to a new porch, new windows, seams sealed and wasps sprayed.

The a/c in the van we rented broke the first day we drove, so the trip to WV was a very hot one, since almost none of the windows on new vans open (because you can depend on the a/c). When we arrived, we called the rental place, who set us up with a dealership who picked the van up every morning after we used it to drive our crew to the site, then returned it before 3pm, when we needed to leave. Way to go, Jenkins Ford!

All my kids returned safely and in one piece, and two that I'd been concerned about committed to being more involved in the church this coming year-- the power of service in Jesus' name hooked them, just like it's supposed to!

I've had a bunch of time to think about various questions this past week, so look for some longish serious posts soon! I'll also have some photos/videos.

For now, if you'd like to take a look at photos of our trip, click here!

Mission Trip 2006

Hi Everyone:

It's 5:30 in the morning, and in two hours CSMSG's youth mission trip leaves my dear friend and colleague Marty C's house for West Virginia. I won't be able to blog this week-- if you're new to the Rookie, I suggest using that time to read through the archives and unearth the treasures that are there, or take a look at the excellent blogs I recommend in my links.

Your prayers for this trip are also really appreciated, as I have the following potentially amusing situations in the van with me:

A guy who's crushing on a girl who I'm positive has a thing for a second guy, all mission trippers.
Three students who before last week had never met the rest of the mission trip crew.
A guy I keep getting told doesn't like (as in, angrily doesn't like) another guy on the trip.
And a girl who's scared-to-death intimidated of another girl, although she keeps telling me it's okay now.

As I keep telling Marty, God will draw to each event the ones He wants to be there, and will help us to discern His purposes and minister with them all, so we'll definitely come back different people.

All God's blessings on you this week!

Isaac

Click here to see where we're going...

Read It: "What's Your Power?"

CSMSG's mission trip crew takes off tomorrow for West Virginia, and the amount of work that trip takes is keeping me from having much original content this week, but I did find a good post over at Rev. Michael Blewett's blog, called "What's Your Power." It talks about the X-Men movie that came out earlier this summer and asks this question:

"Are Christians mutants? I think we are; if we aren’t, then we should be. I had a daydream leaving the movie theatre. People were milling about in coffee hour asking each other, “What’s your power?” Some had gifts of healing, prophecy, or mercy. Others manifested powers to calm distress, access abundance, and hear into the hearts of others. Still others did things that are only known within the creative Mind of Christ. Everyone had power, everyone knew their power, and everyone used their power."

Check out Michael's post today; it's worth the read and I wish I'd written it myself!

These photos are scary to me

In the car the other day, I accidentally made a comment about "When I'm a pastor..." and then I got all red-faced and quiet for a long time. These three photos are from my vacation: preaching June 25th at the Community Church of Calumet.

"Youth ministers don't get to preach very often," I said, "Churches worry, 'What might he say to fire up those youth and make their parents look bad?'"

Youth Minister as Lion Tamer

From an article at the New York Times titled "Modern Love: What Shamu Taught me about a Happy Marriage:"

"I listened, rapt, as professional trainers explained how they taught dolphins to flip and elephants to paint. Eventually it hit me that the same techniques might work on that stubborn but lovable species, the American husband."

Reading the article, which both intrigues (because I know the techniques would work) and vaguely bothers me (because I disappreciate experimenting on people when they don't know what's going on) it strikes me the same practices could be applied to youth groups, and so we should all read the book. Check it out; I think we've all felt like lion tamers now and then!

The Rookie's Library July 11, 2006

What I'm Reading:

"The Non-Runner's Book" by Vic Ziegel and Lewis Grossberger, (C) 1978 Collier Books ISBN 0020409206

"A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy" by Miyamoto Musashi, (C) 1988 Gramercy Press ISBN 0517415283

"Bert Bacharach's Book for Men" by Bert Bacharach, (C) 1953 Barnes ASIN B0007E4KSC

"The Hero Within: Six Archetypes we Live By" by Carol S. Pearson, PhD (C) 1998 HarperSanFrancisco ISBN 0062515551

What I'm Hearing:

Jonathan Rundman and Beki Hemingway, "Tennesota" album

John Reuben, "The Boy vs. the Cynic" album

K.T. Tunstall, "Eye to the Telescope" album

How many times I got lost on my vacation: 0
How many times I got lost in St. Louis after vacation: 2

What I'm Sending to Camp:

Fudgy Oatmeal Bars-- the classic, and what everyone asked for when I was there

The Rookie Reviews: Superman Returns

Please note: This post contains plot spoilers to the movie "Superman Returns." If you haven't already seen it and wish not to know what happens in it before there's butter flavor on your fingers to go with it, you may want to not read beyond this point.

Name a story with more in-your-face, in-your-space Christ references and Messianic imagery than Superman, and I'll buy you lunch. This is the classic hero-who-saves-the-world-from-its-fallen-nature flick, and so it was promised to me, and so I went to see it last night.

What's playing right now is a very postmodern interpretation of Superman. Good characters (like Lois Lane) have serious flaws and wrestle with whether or not the world even needs Superman. The Man of Steel himself is a conflicted character, frequently seeming to ask if what he does for the human race really benefits them-- in fact, there are moments when the audience is forced to think "Why is Superman making it worse?" They're valuable questions, but as is typical with postmodern anything, they're asked too often and the answers proposed by the story get questioned just as much, so all the angsty chest-beating never actually benefits anyone.

Lex Luthor doesn't come across as quite evil enough to be Superman's nemesis; in fact, all the characters give off this vibe of having the events of the movie act on them, rather than really causing any of them. I never felt truly drawn in by the story; the script is weak and the acting doesn't do anything to redeem it either.

In my most cynical moment, I was summarizing the movie in the following three lines:
Lex Luthor: I have discovered the secret of Superman and I will now rule the world!
The Audience: Yeah, yeah, we knew that part already...
Superman: Look at me! I can fly! Kiss me, Lois!

The main worthwhile question in "Superman Returns" is "Does the world need a savior?" As Christians, we know the answer to this-- its yes, we do. But Superman falls way short of what that savior should look like, and we won't be doing our mission any favors by using this movie to advance the point.

Jesus said to them, "There was a widow who lived in a certain town and used to go to the judge in that town every day to ask for redress of her grievances. The judge was hard-hearted and respected neither God nor man, and would send her away. But finally he said to himself "Before she wears me out by constantly coming to me with these complaints, I will give her what she wants."

I remembered this story because I spent yesterday evening visiting bowling alleys trying to find one that was open, because a major goal of my vacation this week was to go bowling, since I would have people handy in every town where I stopped to bowl with.

We checked six of them, all of which were closed and one of which literally closed and turned its lights off as E and A and I were pulling in. But today my persistence paid off, since C and E had one handy that was not only open, but also very non-busy.

Small things amuse me and make me think about God. Many blessings on all of you today!

World Traveling

In the past weekish, I have passed by/through the towns of:

Peru (IL)
El Paso (IL)
Normal (IL)
Bangor (MI)
Shelbyville (MI)
and Atlanta (MI)

I am world traveling in just five states, and that makes me happy!

Happy Fourth of July, everybody!

These guys, the Scottville Clown Band, marched in the parade I saw today, in Manistee, Michigan, so check them out-- they're neat! Sort of like the Polyphonic Spree with clowns.

I'm at camp this week, working with a very unique population, and they inspired this thought:

God has a very special place in His heart for those of us with mental and physical challenges. I know this because He gave them the ability to truly believe. When you ask D, "Who let the dogs out?" and he answers "Jesus!" he knows in his own very unique way that Christ is the answer to every question.

All God's blessings on you this week; vacation posts will be sparse, since I am on vacation, (as I keep reminding S) but I'm praying for the ministries that are going on right now.

The most significant thought...

...I have had all day, on this the first full day of my vacation was as follows:

"I wonder if it's possible to make wild rice Krispies?"

And God laughs with me.

I'll get right on that...

Today, I read a Croatian proverb: "Man has trouble being born, and should spend the rest of his life relaxing."

I'm going on vacation, making some small dent in my relaxation quota, starting Thursday morning, and I'll be back to work in two weeks. I'll still be blogging-- look for irregular and sometimes-neglected features like "Spot the Church Van" in the next few days!

God bless and rest you too!

Call for Prayer

The US Episcopal Church elected a new presiding bishop last week, Katharine Jefferts Schori.

She was the only woman on the ticket and one of the youngest candidates for the position.

Read the article here, and please join me in praying for Bishop Schori as she prepares for her time in office.

The Rookie Reviews:Cars

I woke up this past Saturday morning, mere hours before I was scheduled to take a dozen students to see "Cars," and immediately heard the guys on the morning show my radio lives on talking about how much their kids disliked it. "Can we go home now?" one host's daughter asked, twelve minutes into the picture. I debated sleeping all day and "forgetting" about my movie group.

Then the show started, and the picture redeemed itself. In the years that Pixar has been producing animated movies, they've consistently grown with their technology and talents. The technical side of the movie is amazing; not flawless, but impressive.

The story goes like this: Lightning McQueen, a rookie racecar with a big mouth and a bigger ego, has the chance to win the Piston Cup, if he wins one final tiebreaker race. On the way across the country to the race, he gets separated from his trailer and winds up in the tiny town of Radiator Springs. (There are, by the way, no people in this movie, only cars.) His arrival in town causes a lot of damage to the road, and Lightning is sentenced to repair it before he's allowed to leave town. Along the way he learns a secret about the town judge Doc's former career, makes some new friends (something he's not used to having, being a brash, abrasive type) and learns to appreciate the small town he lands in just as much as his fame and fortune.

Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman and Larry the Cable Guy anchor the movie. There are a few bit parts that could connect very well with an audience, but they aren't given enough screen time to make it happen. I was especially disappointed that Tom and Ray Magliozzi (the guys from Car Talk on NPR) who played Lightning's sponsors, aren't on more. (Also, that I was the only person who laughed when they did their practically patented "Don't drive like my brother!")

The Christian lens on this movie is about what a person's main goal in life is, and what happens when:
you get exactly that
you get that and then it's suddenly taken away
you nearly get it and then realize it's not what you wanted.

What do our goals and priorities do to our faith (in God, in people, in ourselves) and how does our faith form our priorities (or should form them)?

I had a mix of students from rising fifth graders through high school juniors, and I heard across the board that they enjoyed the movie. Some were even seeing it for a second time. As usual, there's humor for kids and humor for their parents in the picture, and the ending should (mildly) surprise you.

It's well worth the gas to go see "Cars" by yourself or with a youth group.

Made some changes...

You might notice the blog page has a bit of a new look; I'll be working over the next few days on making the RYW experience a little more... everything. If you've got ideas to share about what this page should have, as usual please leave them as comments here or use the link in my profile to send an email with your thoughts!

Behold, I tell you a mystery

I love that I work in a place where this is funny...

AJA, our rector at CSMSG, stood up to give his sermon today and began with this anecdote.

"Today before I give the sermon, we're going to learn a great lesson about how God is a mystery. This week, the General Convention passed a resolution that we are no longer going to use the Episcopal lectionary, but instead something called the Revised Common Lectionary, which most mainline churches have used for years. They're nearly the same, but a little different in some places...

Our esteemed lector today read the lesson appointed for next Sunday in the Episcopal lectionary, but for today in the Revised Common Lectionary.

The real mystery is that your rector prepared a sermon on that same lesson... God is a mystery."

Why I love my job

Today, this is why I love my job...

Two pair of moon shoes, no longer on a derailed train in Kansas (for real, they were "delayed due to a train derailment") now in my office as part of my continued plan to prove to my high school students that they are not too cool for anything.

And yes, mom, I wore shorts and flip-flops to work. That's another reason I love my job.

I'm also reflecting, more seriously, that it's my students that make this ministry excellent, not their youth minister. Specifically, I'm thankful for two kids who brought in artwork for us-- a t-shirt design for the mission trip and a cover drawing for our fall youth directory-- and they're both amazing!

I continue to be absolutely convinced that it is vital in a ministry to discover what each student is good at, no matter how odd it might sound at first, and find a way to plug that skill and passion into the program. If through Christ God gives me ownership in the Kingdom, it seems the best way to model that ownership is to reflect it in the ministry we share. So rock on, Sean and Emily! And may you inspire all your friends to share with us too.

The N.Y. Times today carries a story about the election of a new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"GREENSBORO, N.C., June 13 — The 16 million Southern Baptists in the United States have a new president, elected on Tuesday in a surprise victory that he called a turning point for a church that needs to engage more of its members."

The new guy's name is Frank S. Page, and of his plans for his denomination, he said: "Too long Baptists have been known for what we are against. Please let us tell you what we are for."

Please join me in praying in support of Mr. Page as he begins his time in office.

An Open Letter to the Governor of Florida

Dear Mr. Bush:

As a youth minister and advocate for youth, I read with great disappointment a report in U.S. News and World Report about your recent signing of Florida’s “A++ Plan.” In my mind, and consistent with brain research on adolescents, this is a misguided attempt at reform in the educational system that does not in the end address the basic problem it’s trying to solve.

The most offensive part of the story was a quote from Florida’s chancellor of public schools, who said “You’ve got kids who wander aimlessly for 13 years. It’s like an eternal childhood…”

No. It’s like a normal childhood. The brain in teenagers is growing at a rate that is only matched by the rate the brain grows in infants. The frontal cortex—the center which controls long-term planning and judgment—is still in a very fluid state, sometimes through the early 20s.

At this stage of their lives, youth do not need to be turned into specialists by choosing a “major” at the beginning of high school. A plan that tracks students down too-specific corridors like this one may let them focus on an interest for a little while, but in the end it will obscure other interests that might have come out were they given the chance to explore the whole slate of choices available to them. In the short span of this letter, I do not even consider that a wide range of new fields of study will open up in the short time these students are in high school.

Youth changing their minds is not a bad thing. Taking one interest for a while, then another, then yet another, is simply the way these students role-play and imagine their lives to find their strengths.

What will do more to fix the problems rampant in our educational system isn’t greater pressure on students, but higher standards and training for teachers. They need to be trained in interactive, media-rich classroom methods, using examples that connect with the world their students live in. Textbooks must be updated more regularly to include changing technologies. Assignments need overhauling so they rely less on rote knowledge (which is good for learning the ABCs, but not more complex concepts) and more on application into life.

Above all, teachers need to be trained to care about their students as young humans, and they must be passionate about the subjects they teach. Any student can learn any subject when he or she is taught by an adult who cares deeply for both student and knowledge.

Sincerely,
Isaac Arten
Youth Minister, the Church of St. Michael and St. George—St. Louis, MO

Six Ways to Squeeze God In

Peggy S., our bookstore coordinator, just returned from a Christian booksellers' conference with gifts for the whole staff, and mine was a book by Keri Wyatt Kent called "Listen." The subtitle is "Finding God in the story of your life" and it's an incredible book. She admits in the last chapter that other books have the same points and ideas, but no one has the same story. And this book caught me and held me. It's a gentle read, and one of the things she takes on is the discipline of silence.

(Paraphrasing...) "Cell phone companies offer 1,000 minutes a month, which works out to about 16.5 hours, or 30 minutes a day. How many of us actually spend 30 minutes a day in God's presence? And what would it do for our faith if we did?"

With that in mind, here are six ways we can practice and teach for spending time in God's presence, and in silence, listening for Him, every day.

1. Keep the radio off in the car while commuting. (Tip of the hat to Fr. Wheeler here at CSMSG; this is his discipline.)
2. Have the first cup of coffee with an icon of a saint or of Christ.
3. Record five minutes of silence, save it as an MP3 and load it into your iPod.
4. When it's dark, light a candle and hold it in your hands. You'll be able to see the candle and hands, but nothing else. Reflect on physically carrying Christ in your life.
5. Have a silent meal and really focus on enjoying and being thankful for your food.
6. Wake up early-- really early-- now and then. Open a window and listen to God's world waking up.

The Virtue of a Quiet Day

I've been in my office for a full hour today without any student knocking on my door, without the phone ringing, without even the little bell that rings for new email sounding in my ear. It is a quiet day.

I need quiet days. This month they've been rare enough; parents have called to share concerns about what's happening around their children, students have found me and asked me to share their playtime, and both my dear friend and colleague Marty Chapman have been called on to make decisions about our program.

But today I can listen. Today I can hear the still, small voice that guides me in ministry. Today's largest task is writing letters to our senior class, reminding them that the church cares about them long after they leave our doors. And because it is a quiet day, I can hear God's guidance for my words.

I am not afraid of quiet days. They do not mean I am doing any less work, and they are no less valuable than a day full of sound and laughter.

My students need to see me modeling an acceptance of and an eagerness for quiet. God needs to know of me that I can be grounded in silence and stillness, waiting. My own mind needs quiet to bleed into it.

Today is a quiet day.

The Rookie's Library June 8, 2006

What I'm Reading:

"A Generous Orthodoxy" by Brian McLaren, (C) 2004 Zondervan ISBN 0310257476-- Don't give me that look. Emergent isn't evil. And the man makes a lot of good points.

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other clinical tales" by Oliver Sacks, (C) 1985 Summit Books ISBN 0671554719-- I ran across a reference to this book at Kevin McCauley's workshop on addiction and had to read it because of the title. Which is the idea in any well-titled book.

What I'm Hearing:

"The Best of the Toucans Steel Drum Band"

Gloria Estefan, "Amour Y Suerte" album

Norah Jones "What am I to You?" album

What I'm Proud of from last week:

Making it to the gym on the three days I've been promising myself I'd go all year.

Church Buildings: Two Perspectives

From Catapult Magazine, in an article titled "Church as Third Place as Church"

"Any secular third place displays its values—how do we do the same without being churchy? [Clue: expressing values is not the same as expressing religion.] If people come and go, what do they take with them apart from a coffee? Visitors to emerging church events often leave with mementos in their pockets, reminders of spiritual experience that also allow it to be recreated in another time and place. How do we extend this idea for everyday customers?"

And a professor from Valparaiso University weighs in on spending money on a church building. The two articles create a nice tension and suggest, taken together, that suggest a way to do both-- beautify our churches and serve the community by our use of them.

"It seems to be an obvious fact: In a world where people are starving for want of food and souls are dying for want of the Gospel, original art (ie: expensive art) in the church seems like worse than an unnecessary extravagence. It seems downright sinful.
Is this so? Is it always improper for the church to spend it’s resources on art and design? Is it contrary to the Great Commission of Matthew 28 to seek out and provide things of beauty for the church?"

A tip of the hat to Karl for the links!

The best...

...moment in baseball was tonight at a middle school game when two fielders ran for the same falling fly ball and it managed to land on both of their gloves. Since it was already after 10pm, a mom watching the game hollered "Two outs! TWO OUTS!"

...invention since the Bible for youth ministry is Starbucks. On the way back from running errands with a student volunteer today, we stopped off for a latte and on the way across the street ran into my senior pastor's daughter and a friend, then once we'd been sitting and chatting for a bit, another 8th grade guy and his grandmother came in and we got to hang out with them for a while too.

get familiar with... Jonathan Rundman

I've mentioned this guy once or twice in the Rookie's Library, and Jonathan Rundman now has a music video out, of his song "You Don't Speak For Me" (Sound Theology album) on YouTube. Check it out!

Insight vs. Oversight

From the NY Times today, in a story titled "Pork 1, Antiterrorism 0":

"Some of the specifics of the decision process are downright bizarre. New York City's evaluation found that it had no "national monuments or icons." The department concedes that omitting the Statute [sic] of Liberty was an "oversight," but it still seems unaware that to many would-be terrorists, the biggest American icon of all is simply — New York."

And from the daily lectionary: Ephesians 5:1-4 and 15-17

" 1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving."

"15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."

The connection between the Times article and the lectionary reading today was striking, because both talk about protection-- the news story about protection for the nation and where our priorities should be in that, and the Bible lesson about the same protection and priority for our souls.

The lectionary consistently challenges me these days. I think there's more at stake than we've been willing to admit in this whole discipleship thing, and that we might need to preach a costlier grace.