I can't write long because I have to get to a high school football game, but I'll type what I can. Sometime things just weigh too heavy on my heart and typing it helps get it off my chest.
I read the blog post of the Invisible Child on www.chapclark.blogspot.com just a little bit ago and it felt like a knife went straight into my gut. I'm not a youth pastor, but the same idea applies to all of our Young Life clubs (actually probably more-so.)
Basically, the blog talks about how, in youth ministry, we get so into our programs and focus so much on our key kids that we sometimes leave other kids out to dry. And every once in awhile, that girl comes. The one that you can see in her eyes...she is desperate for something more than what she has in her life. She won't let anyone know it, but when you are speaking, you can't take your eyes off of her b/c you just see the pain and loneliness in her eyes begging for help. After a few weeks of coming, she just gives up because no one is taking the time to get to know her. She doesn't need a program. She doesn't need to hear a talk. She just wants someone to sit down with her and listen to her whole story (Mark 5:33.)
How often does this happen to us in youth ministry? And here is where we make the big mistake, "Whoever brings the most friends next week gets free ice cream after club!!!" And then that turns in to, "Hey, who was that friend you were bringing? What's her name again? You need to keep bringing her."
The fact is that we want our key kids to do the hard work. We disguise it as teaching them how to be "Missional Christians." And chalk it up under our discipleship process with our key kids. Well, what about us? Why aren't we willing to do the dirty work? Get on the front lines, get made fun of...etc. We pawn the hard part of "contact work" off to our key kids, and we do what is easy...going to the kids that like us.
It is time for everyone in youth ministry to take responsibility.
In my own context this is so hard. Young Life is meant to be involved with the kids who never ever ever ever ever ever ever would go to church. But how much easier is it to target the kids who come from good, Christian homes, but aren't involved in the youth group? Not all of our kids are in that context, but many (if not most) of them are. What about the kid's who's facebook pictures couldn't be shown in an R rated movie b/c they are too graphic? I've been asking the question, "How can we get them to come to club? How can I get them to come to camp?" Maybe we are asking the wrong question...actually, I'm sure I am asking the wrong question. Maybe we should be asking, "How can we go to them?" This is definitely going to be our topic of the next leadership meeting.
Again, I must apologize for the grammar errors and the sloppy writing. It's not meant to be a neatly written thing, just thoughts or "reflections" from my brain that moves way to fast and randomly for me to neatly on paper in 15 minutes. Now I'm off to Santa Fe HS's football game
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Pride
Well, here I am. Sitting on my patio at 12:46 am, just over twelve hours until the Broncos go to battle against Miami, and just two days before one of the more significant events in our countries history takes place, and my mind is racing. However, odd as it seem, my mind isn’t playing images of DJ Williams smothering Ronnie Brown and it isn’t playing images of Barack, his beautiful wife and children on stage on Tuesday night. My mind is on one thing: Pride.
I got into bed tonight around 10:30 hoping to read a little bit and get a good nights rest before another busy Sunday. As I looked around to find a book to read, I decided on one that I hadn’t read in years, The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis. I like Lewis late at night because my mind has to work so hard to understand the depth of his arguments that my brain often gets tired and just shuts off: thus the end goal; finally falling asleep. Tonight unfortunately had the opposite affect. In his chapter about the fall of man, he made the argument that Pride was the main cause for our fall. Lewis is big on pride, as he calls it “The Great Sin” (Mere Christianity I believe…) Anyway, this got me thinking about pride and how as the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve noticed it in prominent Christians, well-respected Christian professors and ministry professionals.
Before I dive into that, I want to discuss what I believe pride to be and why I think Christians have misunderstood it. I think many people think pride means to be proud of oneself. I don’t think that’s true at all. They say we ought to have “humility.” I agree- just in a different way than most. If I were to give a Young Life talk and it was really good, and someone was to tell me it was good, I think it is okay to say thank you and take pride in the fact that God spoke through me in the way he did as long as I remember who the credit goes to. Here is what we forget as we get older (and more educated): We are nothing without God.
The older and more educated we get, the more we lose the wonder and majesty of God as we try to box him up to fit two things: Our own intellect and our own picture of how we want Him to be. This is where I was frustrated tonight and this is why I can’t sleep. I think we are in real trouble, and it’s not the crazy right-winged fundamentalists that are getting the Kingdom in trouble, it’s the ministry professionals and theologians that think they have God figured out, are telling everyone who God is, and have fallen in love more with the study of God than God Himself. THAT is what is scaring me. And that is why I am writing this tonight.
I’ve often heard seminary referred to “Cemetery.” Which was a good and fun joke when I was in college. Now that I’m a part time seminary student myself, it scares me, because I see myself becoming what too many seminary students/theologians are: Prideful. Where is the innocence we used to have? And where is the awe and wonder we used to have over an omnipotent Creator who loves us? One of the reasons I love new Christians is because I love the passion and innocence that they have. They don’t know anything except that they are loved by a Creator who they can’t possibly grasp…and they don’t care to grasp Him, they only care to love Him and be loved by Him.
For me personally, my worse faith periods in life are when I am doing well. When I am having my quiet times, doing good at my job, reading a lot of books, and staying on top of everything. My best faith periods? When my quiet times aren’t coming enough, when my job doesn’t look so great, when life seems to be falling apart, and worst of all, when I fall into certain sinful desires. Why is this? It’s because when I’m falling apart, when I’m buying into my sinful nature, I realize I need God and I remember that I am nothing without Him and His unrelenting Grace.
I think it’s funny how Christians rate sin. We put sexual sin right at the top of the list –and maybe god-forbid smoking a cigarette-, many ministry people would be fired for this. One thing we leave out –or worse, we covet- Pride. I want to address the group that was first brought to my mind when I started thinking about pride and that’s those who study theology. We all argue about the stupidest stuff, but these arguments are leading down a slippery slope. Arguments about Adam and Eve for example, were they real people or were they just characters in a story representing man kind and woman kind. Didn’t use seem like a big deal to me, and on one hand it isn’t…who cares what the story represents? What is a big deal however is how big of a deal people make it. In theology now, there is no room for faith. Only room for fact. What can science and history back up? There is no evidence of the Exodus, therefore according to a large number of theologians, it didn’t happen. There is a whole new theology out right now and I would call it post-modern, but to the truest sense of the word, that wouldn’t fit. I’ll call it “Theology of the millennium, no room for faith and wonder.” Does anyone else find it weird that our biggest seminaries are making old Judeo-Christian theologians and philosophers out to be idiots? Does anyone think that Aquinas, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, or even CS Lewis could stand this? Their theory is worthless nowadays. I imagine the counter-argument would be that science and historical evidence is much further along now than it was back then. I agree that is the case, but is it so much so that we can take half of scripture and throw it out…and not only that, but not leave room for the possibility that over a thousand years of theological study is at least somewhat credible?
Here is my plea to theologians: learn to love Jesus again. Stop loving the pride in your knowledge of him, stop hating on and making fun of those who don’t know much, and stop trying to put God in a box that fits science and history. Simply put, study hard because we are called to, but don’t fall more in love with the work and knowledge of God than with God himself. That is a slippery slope. What scares me? What scares me is that I am seeing little to no genuine relationship and love towards Jesus from our academic people…I’m seeing the love of their work, and the pride in their knowledge.
On to our ministry professionals. And I fit this boat more than I wish to admit. This has less to do with pride and more to do with our priorities. One thing I’m seeing with people in ministry is something interesting. We really love the people we work with. In Young Life, we really get a deep sense of care and compassion for our kids. We suffer alongside with them. We lose sleep because we are worried about them. Why don’t we feel the same way about Jesus? I have to stop writing for a min to ponder over that question. I think it is great that we love the people who we minister to, but it should pale in comparison to the personal way in which we love Jesus shouldn’t it? Jesus loved and had compassion on those around him no doubt, but it did pale in comparison to the love he had for his father. This plea isn’t to love the people in ministry less, it’s a plea to fall in love with Jesus more. How to do that? I don’t know, but we sure shouldn’t rest until we find out. Isn’t it supposed to be that out of the overflow of our hearts our mouth speaks (Matthew?) My personal thought on the issue is that I think it’s the Spirit in us that makes us love the people we minister to so much, and through that yes, there is a connection between us and God, but let’s not forget our own personal touch outside of the ministry we are involved in. We need to fall back in love with Jesus! I know we all love him, but do we to the point where we can’t do anything in life without thinking of him and smiling and crying because of who he is and the lengths he has gone to in order to be with us?
Let’s get back to the root of it. Everyone…ministry professionals, theologians…etc. This is why I love leading YL. It takes me back to the root of my faith, and that’s who Jesus is and what He did so that we could be together. Let’s remember that we are loved by Jesus, and we need to wildly love him in return. And in our faith, remember that in the words of my amazing boss, Randy Giusta, “He is greater than I.” We are nothing apart from Him and even when we are in Him, we don’t know everything, there is a big sense of awe and wonder with our God.
In closing, let’s remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: The cup he gives us will overflow out of us. When we drink of Christ’s cup and fall in love with Him, he will flow out of us. Let’s get back to the simplicity of faith. Love Him and be loved by Him. Thanks for reading.
Quick note: I hope no one is offended by this blog, my intentions were not to call out anyone. My intention is this blog is solely to put on paper what is going on in my head at that particular moment in time. I recognize I could be wrong in everything stated above, but I just wrote what my mind was racing about and that was my only intention.
I got into bed tonight around 10:30 hoping to read a little bit and get a good nights rest before another busy Sunday. As I looked around to find a book to read, I decided on one that I hadn’t read in years, The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis. I like Lewis late at night because my mind has to work so hard to understand the depth of his arguments that my brain often gets tired and just shuts off: thus the end goal; finally falling asleep. Tonight unfortunately had the opposite affect. In his chapter about the fall of man, he made the argument that Pride was the main cause for our fall. Lewis is big on pride, as he calls it “The Great Sin” (Mere Christianity I believe…) Anyway, this got me thinking about pride and how as the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve noticed it in prominent Christians, well-respected Christian professors and ministry professionals.
Before I dive into that, I want to discuss what I believe pride to be and why I think Christians have misunderstood it. I think many people think pride means to be proud of oneself. I don’t think that’s true at all. They say we ought to have “humility.” I agree- just in a different way than most. If I were to give a Young Life talk and it was really good, and someone was to tell me it was good, I think it is okay to say thank you and take pride in the fact that God spoke through me in the way he did as long as I remember who the credit goes to. Here is what we forget as we get older (and more educated): We are nothing without God.
The older and more educated we get, the more we lose the wonder and majesty of God as we try to box him up to fit two things: Our own intellect and our own picture of how we want Him to be. This is where I was frustrated tonight and this is why I can’t sleep. I think we are in real trouble, and it’s not the crazy right-winged fundamentalists that are getting the Kingdom in trouble, it’s the ministry professionals and theologians that think they have God figured out, are telling everyone who God is, and have fallen in love more with the study of God than God Himself. THAT is what is scaring me. And that is why I am writing this tonight.
I’ve often heard seminary referred to “Cemetery.” Which was a good and fun joke when I was in college. Now that I’m a part time seminary student myself, it scares me, because I see myself becoming what too many seminary students/theologians are: Prideful. Where is the innocence we used to have? And where is the awe and wonder we used to have over an omnipotent Creator who loves us? One of the reasons I love new Christians is because I love the passion and innocence that they have. They don’t know anything except that they are loved by a Creator who they can’t possibly grasp…and they don’t care to grasp Him, they only care to love Him and be loved by Him.
For me personally, my worse faith periods in life are when I am doing well. When I am having my quiet times, doing good at my job, reading a lot of books, and staying on top of everything. My best faith periods? When my quiet times aren’t coming enough, when my job doesn’t look so great, when life seems to be falling apart, and worst of all, when I fall into certain sinful desires. Why is this? It’s because when I’m falling apart, when I’m buying into my sinful nature, I realize I need God and I remember that I am nothing without Him and His unrelenting Grace.
I think it’s funny how Christians rate sin. We put sexual sin right at the top of the list –and maybe god-forbid smoking a cigarette-, many ministry people would be fired for this. One thing we leave out –or worse, we covet- Pride. I want to address the group that was first brought to my mind when I started thinking about pride and that’s those who study theology. We all argue about the stupidest stuff, but these arguments are leading down a slippery slope. Arguments about Adam and Eve for example, were they real people or were they just characters in a story representing man kind and woman kind. Didn’t use seem like a big deal to me, and on one hand it isn’t…who cares what the story represents? What is a big deal however is how big of a deal people make it. In theology now, there is no room for faith. Only room for fact. What can science and history back up? There is no evidence of the Exodus, therefore according to a large number of theologians, it didn’t happen. There is a whole new theology out right now and I would call it post-modern, but to the truest sense of the word, that wouldn’t fit. I’ll call it “Theology of the millennium, no room for faith and wonder.” Does anyone else find it weird that our biggest seminaries are making old Judeo-Christian theologians and philosophers out to be idiots? Does anyone think that Aquinas, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, or even CS Lewis could stand this? Their theory is worthless nowadays. I imagine the counter-argument would be that science and historical evidence is much further along now than it was back then. I agree that is the case, but is it so much so that we can take half of scripture and throw it out…and not only that, but not leave room for the possibility that over a thousand years of theological study is at least somewhat credible?
Here is my plea to theologians: learn to love Jesus again. Stop loving the pride in your knowledge of him, stop hating on and making fun of those who don’t know much, and stop trying to put God in a box that fits science and history. Simply put, study hard because we are called to, but don’t fall more in love with the work and knowledge of God than with God himself. That is a slippery slope. What scares me? What scares me is that I am seeing little to no genuine relationship and love towards Jesus from our academic people…I’m seeing the love of their work, and the pride in their knowledge.
On to our ministry professionals. And I fit this boat more than I wish to admit. This has less to do with pride and more to do with our priorities. One thing I’m seeing with people in ministry is something interesting. We really love the people we work with. In Young Life, we really get a deep sense of care and compassion for our kids. We suffer alongside with them. We lose sleep because we are worried about them. Why don’t we feel the same way about Jesus? I have to stop writing for a min to ponder over that question. I think it is great that we love the people who we minister to, but it should pale in comparison to the personal way in which we love Jesus shouldn’t it? Jesus loved and had compassion on those around him no doubt, but it did pale in comparison to the love he had for his father. This plea isn’t to love the people in ministry less, it’s a plea to fall in love with Jesus more. How to do that? I don’t know, but we sure shouldn’t rest until we find out. Isn’t it supposed to be that out of the overflow of our hearts our mouth speaks (Matthew?) My personal thought on the issue is that I think it’s the Spirit in us that makes us love the people we minister to so much, and through that yes, there is a connection between us and God, but let’s not forget our own personal touch outside of the ministry we are involved in. We need to fall back in love with Jesus! I know we all love him, but do we to the point where we can’t do anything in life without thinking of him and smiling and crying because of who he is and the lengths he has gone to in order to be with us?
Let’s get back to the root of it. Everyone…ministry professionals, theologians…etc. This is why I love leading YL. It takes me back to the root of my faith, and that’s who Jesus is and what He did so that we could be together. Let’s remember that we are loved by Jesus, and we need to wildly love him in return. And in our faith, remember that in the words of my amazing boss, Randy Giusta, “He is greater than I.” We are nothing apart from Him and even when we are in Him, we don’t know everything, there is a big sense of awe and wonder with our God.
In closing, let’s remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: The cup he gives us will overflow out of us. When we drink of Christ’s cup and fall in love with Him, he will flow out of us. Let’s get back to the simplicity of faith. Love Him and be loved by Him. Thanks for reading.
Quick note: I hope no one is offended by this blog, my intentions were not to call out anyone. My intention is this blog is solely to put on paper what is going on in my head at that particular moment in time. I recognize I could be wrong in everything stated above, but I just wrote what my mind was racing about and that was my only intention.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
