rondelramsey.com

I have a new page and new webaddress.  This site will serve as an archive until I get things switched over.  Explore here and then check out www.rondelramsey.com.  Blessings.

Dmin class two

I have personally had a blast this week in my class.  What a challenge it has been. It has been mentally and spiritually invigorating and transformative. It has been emotionally filling, It provided some new social blessings as I have met new friends who are disciples seeking to honor God, his truth, and the mission of the kingdom of God as faithful as we possibly can.  I am humbled. John Castelein and Bob Kurka have been outstanding teachers and facilitators of our growth.  Castelein is brilliant! I love learning from him.

I officially realized that I know nothing; the more I study, the more I realize that I am just scratching the surface.  That is not discouraging but humbling and challenging. I can’t believe all the holes that have been filled and all the dots that have been connected. Wow. What a great God we have! What an incredibly wise, gracious, and masterful God we serve.  My imagination has been set on fire. The intrinsic motivation to learn and to makes sense of my short journey on this planet is in high gear.  Oh my. Oh my.

Music culture

Got James Emery White’s blog this am where he highlights the top 10 songs right now.  Just a quick read gives a window into the message of the culture. What do parents, youth leaders, and in general concerned disciples do with this? How do we relate with the young?

Here is a copy of that blog: http://www.churchandculture.org/blog.asp?id=933

Here is the clean version (words) of Pink’s number one song.  The video is revealing of the hurt of kids. If you know the background of Pink, it is representative of many young people… HURT. http://www.mtv.com/videos/pnk/615116/f-perfect.jhtml

Church & Culture

Vol. 7, No. 24

A Musical Window into Our World

If music provides a window into our world or, even more, itself influences and shapes culture, have you been listening to the radio lately? Or checked out the top iTunes downloads?

You should.

Here are the top ten songs. Some titles speak for themselves in terms of their character and/or intent. For the ones that might not, I’ve cited some of the lyrics for explanation.

Brace yourself.

1.   “F**kin’ Perfect” by Pink.

(A self-esteem anthem…but with feeling.)

2.   “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga.

“No matter gay, straight or bi
lesbian, transgendered life
I’m on the right track baby”

3.   “F**k You” by Cee Lo Green.

(A heartfelt goodbye to a former girlfriend.)

4.   “Tonight” by Enrique Iglesias.

“I know you want me
I made it obvious that I want you too
So put it on me…
I love the way
you shake that a**”

5.   “Grenade” by Bruno Mars.

“Black, black, black and blue, beat me ‘til I’m numb
Tell the devil I said, hey, when you get back to where you’re from
Mad women, bad women, that’s just what you are, yeah
You’ll smile in my face then rip the brakes from my car

…[But] I’d catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I’d jump in front of a train for ya
You know I’d do anything for ya”

6.   “Hey Baby” by Pitbull.

“If your girl wanna play, let her go
Hey baby girl, what you doin’ tonight?
I wanna see what you got in store
Hey baby, givin’ it your all when you’re dancin’ on me
I wanna see if you can give me some more
Hey baby, you can be my girl, I can be your man
And we can pump this jam however you want
Hey baby, pump it from the side, bend it upside down
Or we can pump it from the back to the front
…Now let me see where the lord split ya”

7.   “S & M” by Rihanna.
“Cause I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it
Sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But chains and whips excite me”

8.   “More” by Usher.

“Watch me as I dance under the spotlight-
Listen to the people screaming out more and more,
‘Coz I create the feeling that keep ‘em coming back,
Yeah, I create the feeling that keep ‘em coming back,
So captivating when I get it on the floor.

Know y’all been patiently waiting, I know you need me, I can feel it,
I’m a beast, I’m an animal, I’m that monster in the mirror,
The headliner, finisher, I’m the closer, winner.
Best when under pressure with seconds left I show up.”

9.   “Blow” by Ke$ha.

‘Now what (What)
We’re taking control
We get what we want
We do what you don’t
Dirt and glitter cover the floor
We’re pretty and sick
We’re young and we’re bored (Ha)”

10.  “Coming Home” by Diddy-Dirty Money.

“what if the twins ask why I ain’t marry their mom (why, damn!)
how do I respond?
what if my son stares with a face like my own
and says he wants to be like me when he’s grown
sh*t! But I ain’t finished growing”

So let’s add this up.

Among the top ten songs in the United States, two have the word ”F**k” in the title; four others promote – and I do mean promote – rampant promiscuity, including homosexuality and sadomasochism; the remaining four glorify narcissism, hedonism, dysfunctional relationships and irresponsible parenting.

Ten songs.

But not just ten songs.

Hopefully, ten wake-up calls.

James Emery White

Sources

“Music charts: Who rules radio this week?”, USA Today. Read online.

Editor’s Note

To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, log-on to www.churchandculture.org, where you can post your comments on this blog, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on Twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

Biggest Challenges in YM? What would you add?

I received an email from a prospective student who simply asked: What would you say some of the challenges of youth ministry are? Here are my responses off the top of my head.  What would you add?

1. To maintain your own spiritual health – there are always more kids and parents to help and serve, lessons to write, and retreats to plan.
2. To maintain a healthy balance with your family – see above!
3. To learn humility as a young leader – when we are young, we always assume we know what is best. However, do I really know everything I will ever know at 25? at 35? at 45? etc.  What might I learn in the future replace what I know at 25? Everything I know is to be held with faith and open palms… and much humility!
4. To relate and encourage parents as a young leader – What does a 22 yr old ym have to say to parents? Plenty! And Plenty NOT! It is about listening and offering help and suggestions when invited and in loving ways… Oh to be a parent and really understand how hard it is! Parents are the real youth ministers; we want to partner with them and help them any way we can.
5. To empower and equip a staff – most young leaders (and many seasoned ones) think that the YM is theirs, “My Ministry” and they bark out orders to recruit others to work for them instead of listening, serving with, empowering and ordaining others to their ministries so that they own it.  It is “flattening” the hierarchy of top-down leadership seen most often in American corporations.  Turn it upside down so that the janitors and secretaries are the most important people and then you have something!
6. To deal with conflict – how do you spell politics? P-E-O-P-L-E!  Any where you have people, you will have politics and conflict.  It is because we operate with what we know to be right (see number 3 above) and we have a hard time seeing it differently.  If I was wrong, I wouldn’t know that I was wrong but that I was right.  It would feel the same if I was right or I was wrong and didn’t know it. Working with others and humbling myself to listen. You will always have conflict with other staff, other leaders, parents, kids, your own family, your own self!!!
7. To develop a clear understanding of where you need to go (vision and mission), what to do and how to get there (strategy and teaching plan) – Our ultimate aim is to be sure that our students do not need us when they go off to college… they must be independent and able to “fish on their own” because we “taught them how to fish instead of giving them fish for four years of HS youth group!” That takes deep theological reflection, collaborative planning, and a tenacity to never give up “presenting everyone as mature” (Col 1:28-29).
8. To incarnate yourself in the lives of kids and the church you will be serving with – I saved this for last, not because it is of least importance, but because I want to emphasize how vital it is to understand first when you begin a new ministry and that it is completely different from any other church or youth group that you have ever been a part of… even it the church was in the same town.  Every group, church, people, individual has a different culture or environment. As a cutural anthropologist, you must enter a new situation as an anthropologist enters a new people group always learning and never assuming that you fully understand the customs, idioms, language, ideas, etc. I was in a church for 15 yrs and was never considered a Streatorite, one born and raised there. How do leaders think they can make changes in a church or youth group within the first month! Silly!

So, what do you think? What would you add?

Ramsey’s New Year’s Greetings

10 Wishes from a Pew Sitter from Thom Shultz. I like.

I got this in an email today.  What do you think? Which ones would you agree with?

“10 Wishes from a Pew Sitter

At the start of a new year, as a pew-sitter, I have a few wishes for the church leaders I know and love:

1. Banish the “stand and greet your neighbor” time in the worship service. I know your intentions are good, but it’s forced, fruitless and goofy.
2. Forget everything they taught you about three-point sermons. You’re wildly successful if you can get across one point. Just one point. Then sit down.
3. Get out and spend time with real people. Schedule lunches at your members’ workplaces and schools. Listen. Get a feel for how real people live.
4. Encourage regular evaluation. Use comment cards. Ask us what we remember from last week’s sermon. Then take us seriously, and adjust.
5. Crank down the volume of the band. Allow us to actually hear the voices of the flock.
6. Burn the fill-in-the-blank sermon guides. They’re insulting, distracting and ineffective. (Can you imagine Jesus using them? Let’s see, “Feed my _______.”)
7. Show hospitality. Encourage people to enjoy a cup of coffee-during the service.
8. Let us participate. Entertain our questions-during the service. Let the real people around us tell how God is working in their lives.
9. Relax. Make some real friends. Spend more time with your family. Don’t schedule every evening with church meetings.
10. Get rid of the pews. Really.”

From Thom Schultz of Group Publishing.

 

Learning

Learning is the same as changing.  We change when we learn (knowledge, beliefs, values, actions)

• All change brings loss.  Some times it is painful or humiliating, other times not so much.
• All loss brings some sort of grief.  Especially when a change affects the framework of all that we hold true.
• We mostly seek to avoid loss for mental, emotional, social, and spiritual reasons.  We want to have certainty; it brings security and confidence.
• It is hard to learn something new because it causes us to walk in uncharted territories that often times don’t feel safe and that may cause us to give up on what we have always held so dearly in the past.  Some enjoy this sense of mental adventure; most seek to avoid it in extremes.
• Do you know everything that you will ever know? Of course not. We have been and always will be learning and thus changing; it would be arrogant to insist otherwise.
• What will you learn in the future? Tell me what you do not know or understand? We can’t. We don’t know what we don’t know.
• What of what you will learn in the future will replace (change and loss) what you know now and hold to be completely right?
• Everything you now know must always be held with open minds and palms, in humility, if you would ever be able to learn something new that would change what you know now.
• What is the difference in feeling between: Being Right and Being Wrong?  Nothing.  It is only a change in feeling when we REALIZE that we were wrong.  Both perceptions bring about the exact same feeling, confidence, and unwillingness to change.
• What are you feeling now about all that you know and hold to be true?  Right or Wrong?  How would you really know the difference? When would you ever be able to know the difference?
• (Not promoting Dualism) The real us resides inside our brains.

o   “I HEART you” is, in all actuality, scientifically inaccurate. It really should read, “I BRAIN you!” It doesn’t look as cute on a Hallmark card.

o   How does the inner reality that we experience inside our brains/self correspond to the outer realities beyond and outside ourselves?  How do we access that outer reality to help us to make sense of our inner reality (of what we know to be true)?

o   Our inner reality corresponds with the outer realities through our 5 senses (some may say 6 senses… a Spirit directed leading).

o   We therefore must trust and have complete faith that what our 5 senses are communicating to us is accurate and true.

§  However, have you ever misread a conversation and responded wrongly?

§  Have you ever brushed something off your arm when nothing was there?

§  What about amputees and the brain getting signals from their missing foot that it needs scratching?

§  Have you ever thought you saw something that you didn’t see?  Think witness at a crime scene.  People will swear up and down what they saw to be true when in fact they miss it completely.

§  We get it wrong all the time.

o   Helen Keller had 2 of her 5 senses that didn’t function which gave her a warped perception of reality in her early years.  She would have remained in her delusional inner world if it were not for Annie Sullivan who helped her connect her safe inner reality to the outer reality.  She then began to interpret the differences of her inner and outer realities in other ways.

o   An Alzheimer patient’s brain is not functioning correctly.  The inner reality is not corresponding with the outer reality.  The person suffering from this reality altering disease may be 80 yrs old and think they are in 6^th grade or reading this paper on how we learn!!! So how do you know that you aren’t suffering from Alzheimer’s right now? You trust that you are not.

• How do you know something is right or wrong before you ever read it completely or hear the thought out. If you did know it was right or wrong before you read or heard it, you would be prejudging (deciding) before the evidence was ever completely presented. This would be based on previously known beliefs or truths which may be the very paradigmic barriers that would keep you from learning something new and right, and which may ultimately replace what had previously been held, comfortably and securely, as true and right.
• Some examples of how this resistance to learning something new because we assume that everything we currently know is completely accurate are in order:

o   The Pharisees were keepers of the Torah of YHWH.  They were so concerned to follow and obey God the right ways.  They even put up a hedge of rules around the commandments that would keep them from breaking the very commandments (think of contemporary injunctions of it being a sin to drink alcohol as being a hedge of becoming drunk and breaking the actual commandment of God).  They were so focused on what they knew to be right that they could never see that they were wrong and missing the incarnation of the very one they were seeking to obey.  Even Saul, later Paul, was so focused on what he knew to be right that he oversaw the killing of Stephen and wreaking havoc on the young Church of Jesus.

o   The disciples were so focused on what they knew to be right and accurate concerning the kingdom that they acted like the Three Stooges stumbling over what to do and what not to do as it related to Jesus’ Kingdom is now available to all message.  “Let’s set up houses” for Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration; “Can we be the first and second in your command when you come into your kingdom, Jesus?” “Get that little kid away from Jesus. He is too busy for children!” And after the resurrection of Jesus and his teaching about the kingdom for 40 days, the disciples actually asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They could only see what they saw and could not see what they couldn’t see.  Or to put it another way, they didn’t know what they didn’t know, and it wasn’t obvious until they learned that they were wrong, which took a miracle!

o   Years later after a completely Jewish focused ministry, Peter had a vision of a sheet filled with all kinds of animals (clean and unclean) being let down and heard a voice that said for him to kill and eat.  After boldly and righteously refusing this voice three times, did he finally realize that what he had held to be completely true was changing and that he was about to learn something new… that he would help the Gentiles to be part of this decade old new covenant.

o   For centuries, the Jews and the Christians viewed the world as a flat, square object and that it was the center of the universe. It wasn’t until the 14^th and 15^th centuries when Copernicus and Galileo’s scientific research forced the Church and well-meaning Christians to change their minds.

o   In the long seminal history of our country, well-meaning and theologically trained Christians did not view slavery as the atrocious act that it was and is. Contemporary Christians look retrospectively in disbelief at our forefathers who owned slaves and supported that social structure through the lens of Scripture at times.  Paul’s own interaction with Philemon, over Onesimus, does not promote an abolitionist perspective even though encouraging Philemon to release the new believing slave at the expense of Paul’s own relationship and/or payment.  We still have some Christians who cannot fully let go of that slave mentality and view others in a demeaning way.

How arrogantly are you holding on to what you know to be the full, complete, and accurate reality? How does one live in a world where you feel that everything you know may not be the end result or completely accurate, corresponding fully with how things really are?  We do so humbly confident.

As a child we learned new information as best we could grasp it. However, what we learned, because of our own developing cognitive capabilities, was not completely right and did not fully correspond with an outer reality.  Take where babies come from.  A two-year old’s understanding of where babies come from does not represent reality.  But that toddler walks around confident that the answer given or discerned is exactly right.  As the child grows, he may learn incrementally more of that reality.  However, even after he fully understands that it is a mommy and daddy who love each other and can fully grasp the physical explanation, he still is at a loss because he has not experienced the act that makes it possible for sperm and egg to join their respective 23 chromosomes thus forming a baby.  And even after experiencing the sexual union and thereby conceiving and holding a baby, the result of that encounter, the now mature man still is at a loss to where babies come from.

Traditional religious explanations say that God put that baby together giving her the exact characteristics, gifts, and idiosyncrasies that He, from the beginning of time, planned.  Whereas a naturalistic scientist would offer another explanation of complex DNA realities existing in those 23 chromosomes that match up and thus arbitrarily produce the fully unique offspring, he, nor the 100% theologically focused man,  cannot fully comprehend how the soul or spark or the aliveness of the human being comes about or from where it comes.  The best we come up with sounds something like a toddler’s explanation (in comparison to reality) at a more advanced stage of the process.

So we operate within what we know, all the while realizing that we do not fully understand everything.  However, we remain curious.  As Christians, we must remain humbly curious to know and discover what God has created and how he has created it.  For just because we are not infinite and omniscient in our understanding, does not mean that we do not stop learning and discovering and growing.  For learning and using our imagination to discover is part of what it means to be created in the image of God.  For when God created Adam and Eve, we don’t have any indication that God told this young naked couple what to do to have children.  He in essence said, “Figure it out.”  And that is what learning is all about with discernment. Figuring out what we don’t know to be true, through understanding or experience, and growing as a human created in the image of God with a mind that is continually curious, is what it means to be alive.

Therefore, as humbly confident disciples of Jesus, we take every thought captive making it obedient to Christ and give glory to God every time we turn over a new rock and with that feeling of finally understanding a riddle, we say, “Oh, I get it! God, you are infinitely and omnisciently awesome! Thanks for allowing me to grow closer to your truth and reality!”

How would you answer this question?

I got an email today from a young youth minister.  Got any words of wisdom that you would share for him as he helps this young lady?

————-

“I had a question and answer time last wednesday where the kids could ask any question Bible related they wanted to.  i received a question which said, “I pray and read my Bible and everything but i just do not feel like God is close to me right now.  I do not want to lose my faith but I do not know what to do.  It just seems like God is closer to the less faithful people right now than me. What should I do?”

I do not want her to stray. She is a great person, and I want to help her.  Are there any books I could recommend to her that we could read together?  Or maybe something I can do with her like a service project to help respark her faith?  It has been on my heart to do something to help her; I just do not know what.“

Thanks. Rondel

Here is what some said:

Sam said: Awesome question! I think If I were in this youth leaders shoes I would be looking for help to.

In an assessment I think this girl really just verbalized what we all have experienced or experience. I do not think there is a concrete answer to give this girl that will satisfy her fear of losing her faith. The Christian faith is paradoxical. So much so that the very thing we choose to believe in demands our lives and we will not figure out whether or not it is true until we die. Scary!

A student asking this is awesome! There is no better opportunity to help a student grow and deepen their faith than this. She is teachable and ready to learn. She created her own disequilibrium which turned this whole issue into an intrinsic issue. She is the motivator.
Trust is important. Make sure there is a trust relationship. This girl seems young if not physically she is in her faith. I gather this because she bases her relationship with God off of feelings. She wants to feel God in a tangible way. It is important to help her think. She needs to be given opportunities to get deeper. I would tell this youth minister to not try and give her an answer to help her not be fearful of losing faith but instead help her to ask more questions. This is a great opportunity to dive in the gospels to try and figure out what it proclaims about the validity of God and Jesus as Messiah. This would be a great time to ask her questions like: What caused  you to believe in God in the first place? What do you mean by God being close to you? Why are you afraid to lose your faith? Why do you feel like those less dedicated to God are closer to him? Does God tell us anything that helps us know him better? “There is many more. These came off the top of my head.”
Its easy to want to give answers to students when they ask because we desire to help them. However, it is important to return the ball to their court when they throw it into ours. Its their faith not anybody else’s. One day this girl will be in the real world and be in need of the tools to defend her faith in the elements of a tasty pagan world.
Feelings are based out of thoughts. We need to be a people of discernment. I would encourage this youth minster to find ways to feed her curiosity while giving her a safe place to learn and ask questions. Don’t give her the answers to her questions like free candy. Help her to answer her own questions. Journey with her and watch her discover. Stay dedicated and don’t become frustrated. God designed the abstract mind which she is choosing to use. God created doubt. We will never know the answer to everything because God designed it that way. Shower her with Love and give her opportunities to shine. Continually  pray. Pray for guidance and remember to pray for the student.
—–
Jaisi said: I think that I would first start off by thanking her for her honesty, and letting her know that the position she is in is not a bad one. Many others (including myself), have been there before; we do all the right things and “go through the motions,” but still we feel there is something missing. The thing to keep in mind is that God is always with us, just waiting for us to have that relationship with Him. Alot of times, it just feels like God is more apparent in the lives of those who are in a deep need, and even in our lives, God’s presence overpowers when we are in the deepest valleys. But we also come out of those valleys knowing that God never left us, and He never will. So i guess the ultimate advice I would give seems simple, to stay faithful, even when it feels like you are stagnant. And if her prayer life is still active, that is definately something she can be praying for; for the Holy Spirit to make Himself more abundant in her life.

——
Daniel said: Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you’re always gonna have that “feeling”. It’s about faith. We all get those “feelings” when we sing our favorite worship song, or someone prays for us out loud, but it’s not about that. It seems like she is expecting something from God each time she reads or prays. We just gotta have faith and trust that He is working.
——
Kyle said: I’m only a short way into the book, but Desiring God by John Piper might be a good one to read together. This is something that I think we all struggle with from time to time, but we need to remember that our relationship with God is not dictated by our feelings about him. God is. Period. That means that God is unchanging; he is always near to us. We will go through seasons where we can really feel his right hand holding us up, and we will go through seasons when he seems distant. But the only thing that changes is our perspective. We must realize that by the grace of Christ, we are in a perfect relationship with the Father. His grace holds us to himself. Whether he seems near or far, he has bought us by his blood and we are nearer to him that we are to ourselves. Remaining faithful in prayer and devotion is important, especially though the rough times. When this young lady finally feels the presence of God with her again, the pay off will be worth any sacrifice and hardship along the way. Hope that helps!
—–
Steve said: I have tackled this issue twice during my internship once with my high school boys and the other with the jr. high boys. I would tell him that this is a very common issue among teens today. I have even struggled with it a time or two. One thing that I learned in one of my favorite classes at Lincoln, Prayer Practice and Spiritual Formation with J.K. is that it is okay to be angry with God and to quarrel with Him. Psalm 22 is a perfect example of this David the psalmist is struggling with feeling distant from God and then after talking it out with God understands that through it all God is still there and is still in control. It is okay to have these moments, these moments bring us closer on our journey with God. I believe that this is a lie that the enemy gives us. He tries to tell us that God is not there and that He does not care for us. However, we know that from Acts 2 the Spirit is now with us forever which means we always have God with us. The creator of the world lives inside of us at all times. Another good passage to use is Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” He is there it is simply a lie that He is not there and does not care for us all equally John 3:16 “For God so loved the WORLD that He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.” God loves each and everyone of us equally and the way He displayed that on the cross is proof. I think the best of them all for this is Psalm 22 check it out in the message it has beautifully brilliant imagery throughout it and has definitely helped me teach the kids what it is like when we feel like God is million miles away. I pray that she begins to understand God’s love and how much He loves her. It is simply an amazing thing once we get a grasp of it. Hope this helps.

—-

Will said: I would suggest Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby. The book seems perfectly tailored for people who are in a spiritual rut, and do not feel God’s presence. It teaches the reader to know more about God by strengthening their relationship to Him by looking for how he has been moving in their lives outside of prayer and reflection on scripture. Hope this helps!

—-

I would say: Just because we don’t feel him doesn’t deny his existence.  His desire is for us to grow… some of our best growth comes in the valleys when we realize we need him most.  The Israelites were in Egypt for 430 yrs and they were crying out and crying out thinking that God didn’t hear their prayers; they couldn’t feel him.  That didn’t mean that he wasn’t aware of their struggle.

I would explore Yancey’s works: Prayer is an awesome book.  Read it together.  Disappointed with God is another.

Let me conclude by saying this.  I love it that she is questioning… that means that she is trying to adopt and grow her own faith. Keep creating that disequillibrium that is causing the students to ask great questions.

Changing Paradigms in Education. Wow

Watch this: http://www.wimp.com/educationparadigms/

Now what do you do with this? This should change the way you do everything!

NIV has been changed! What is going on?

Maybe you have heard this, but the NIV has been updated.

Because I was going to be talking about Col 1:28-29 in YM Orienteering, I wanted to add a slide to my powerpoint and drop that text in (even though it was to be memorized for the class).  I opened up www.biblegateway.com and typed in Col 1 and scrolled down and read:

²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

I read it again.  Scrolled up and looked to make sure that I had it on NIV.  Yep. Scrolled down.  Same think.  Switched to NASB. Scrolled down. Read it.  Yep that is NASB version.  Switched back and scrolled down.  What? That isn’t the NIV.  Col 1:28-29 in NIV reads:

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”

I switched to www.blueletterbible.org (which I love for Greek and Hebrew helps) and read Col 1.  Yep, it was right there.

I clicked on the Biblegateway.com tab and reread it.  I thought to myself, “What is going on?”

Then I clicked on a link that said the Updated NIV.  When did this happen? It happened in August 2010.  It is now more in line with the TNIV which updated the NIV several years ago. Now the NIV has been changed to reflect the current English speaking and mindset changes.

I have always complained that “presenting everyone PERFECT in Christ” was off base.  The Greek word telios does not truly convey a perfection and many believers may get the wrong impression.  It is about maturity or completeness.  The updated NIV renders Col 1:28-29 right on: so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. Yes! That is it. No more telios incorrectly translated. 

I did a quick skim of some other passages.  Oh no, some of my NIV theology and memory verses are going to have to be changed.  It is because scholars are learning more and trying to convey the message of the Greek and Hebrew in a more true meaning… You’ve heard the phrase, “Lost in Translation.” Ideas get lost when they have to leave the language they were first written or spoken in and translated to another language by which those words and symbols may have slightly different meanings when interpreted in the brain than what the original author first meant.

That is why Bible and Theology classes are so important on this campus. That is why I want you to be a serious student of Pentateuch and Pauline Epistles class as well as Greek.  You have to understand the tennor of depth of the what is going on so that you can better communicate the real message of God to your students.  Youth Ministry isn’t just hanging out! What an illustration with this.

I can hear a lot of non-Greek thinking people in the church getting up in arms about the changes.  “How can they change the word of God?”  How great it will be when you can explain what telios means and that this updated version does a much more faithful job in communicating what Paul really said!  You will be able to speak as an educated leader who knows what is going on.  You will be able to speak as a leader who is telios!

I am bummed about one thing… the updated version changed the translation of hagios in several places when it is referring to believers.  It isn’t that it is wrong, it is that it misses the theological punch. That is okay, when I preach, I can point that out and the contrast can be even more powerful.

However, check it out for yourself. Are there any Greek words that the translators have messed up on? You better check it out before you teach or preach the next time.

If you want to read the changes in the updated NIV and the rationale, here is the link:

http://www.biblegateway.com/niv/Translators-Notes.pdf

Blessings.  And may we we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end [WE] strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Jesus standing at the door and what?

I had the best small group ever.  Andrew Snell and I were leading our rowdy 6th grade boys. They came in as usual, spinning the seats, laying across 3 chairs, putting their feet up on the tables, then switching chairs and threatening to beat the crap out of each other at the littlest of comments, telling off the topic stories and starting off color jokes, and then doing it all over again for our entire small group time. This week, we were unpacking what Clinton Battles had talked about… to look with love to others… the way God looks with love to us.  I asked the first question, “What is your definition of love?” They gave a stab at it.  Mostly their definitions had to do with feelings or the opposite of hate and wanting to punch someone which one of the kids began to illustrated before we stopped him! Whew! It is like herding cats! After giving our definition of love (Doing what is best for someone, and I had to add… even for someone you don’t like), one of the kids, Alex, piped up with the picture of Jesus standing outside the door.  Playing dumb the whole time, I asked, “What picture?” Then he and Kyle began fighting about who was going to tell about this picture.  Alex explained that Jesus was knocking on a door that didn’t have a handle on it. “What? No handle?,” I asked.  That only fueled him even farther.  He was now the expert schooling the teacher!!! It was great.  Kyle piped in and said, “You got that marker we use? I can draw it.”  We didn’t have our dry erase marker, so Andrew ran and got one.  While he was gone to fetch a marker, the boys were then trying to explain this picture.  Other kids were asking questions too.  I was saying stuff like, “That is stupid to have a door with no handle on the outside,” etc.  The marker arrived and Kyle grabbed it and went into teacher mode.  I sat down in the back of the room, as the student. He drew Jesus… we all laughed.  Jesus had a gotee.  The kids were all attentive and “in to it” as best they could be.  Kyle drew the door and then went into presentation mode explaining all the details of the picture… Alex helped. The door leads to our heart and we have to let him in.  One kid still not getting the whole analogy spoke up, “The door handle is on the wrong side of the door!” Kyle quickly replied, “No, its not.”  We have to let Jesus to come in.  I asked, Why would Jesus want to come into our live when we are so wild and crazy and out of control people? Kyle schooled me. He does it because he loves us like our lesson is tonight.  He sees what we could be or the real us.  We need to obey him.

It was hilariously wonderful.  I used this teachable moment to call Kyle back after the kids left and said, “Kyle, I was completely impressed. That was fantastic. I didn’t know you knew so much about God. You did a great job”  He cockily said, “I know,” witch a smerk on his face that you could tell was like water to a dry sponge. He was being affirmed for his smarts.  He said that he is smart when he wants to be; it’s just more fun being rowdy.  I caught him being smart, wise, and beneficial.  He blessed me.

One of the kids yelled out during the mayhem, “Kyle, you do a great job preaching!”  Another kid agreed!  And I thought so too!

(Now they all want to teach.  They were fighting on who was going to teach next week! I guarantee that they will listen a little better… at least Kyle will.  It was harder to keep those boys’ attention than he thought! I was priceless!)

Helping Students Develop a Rationale Faith

In our age of trying to connect with students where they are, we at times can miss the point that we must also move them to where they aren’t.  I was reading the latest Breakpoint email and Colson presented a book that might help youth ministers with this.  Sure you won’t have all of your kids wanting to dig into the Hermeneutical implications of Reformed vs Armenian theology (however, they do subscribe to one or the other or a conglomeration of the two), but they do have real questions that go oft unanswered by cool, relevant youth ministers.  Our job is to help our students prepare for the next stage… that is called adult discipleship.  We cannot just leave them in their naturally narcissistic, small perspective of the world.  We must expose them.  If they aren’t asking the questions, then get them to ask the questions by creating the disequilibrium.  Don’t allow their simplified, pat answers go unchallenged.

Here is that Breakpoint article in part:

“The Reason for God Culturally Relevant Christianity – October 25, 2010

You probably couldn’t find a more secular place than Manhattan. And yet, in the midst of Manhattan’s worldly, sophisticated streets is a thriving Christian congregation. Nearly 6,000 people jam five services every Sunday.

Any pastor worth his salt should be asking, “What is this church doing right?”  The answer can be found in a recent book by Tim Keller, the pastor of Manhattan’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

The book, titled The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, describes the kinds of questions newcomers-mostly highly-educated twenty-somethings–fire at Keller: Why would a good God allow suffering? Hasn’t science disproved Christianity? Why would a loving God send people to hell?   And isn’t it arrogant for Christians to claim that their faith is the only route to God?

Keller’s answers jolt his cosmopolitan audience into thinking about the implications of their assumptions. Answers that point to Christianity as a rational choice for explaining the world.“

You better believe that your kids will be facing these issues.  My guess most won’t be staying around the Mayberry type towns they grew up.  They will be moving to the Metropolitan areas where these questions are the norm… unless there aren’t any answers.

The Most Amazing Frisbee Catch!!!!

This has to be the most amazing catch of anything, of all time!!! Wow! I had to watch it several times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5edTmCn09s&feature=player_embedded

Atheism on college campuses. How do we prepare our good little HS kids for this?

What do you make of them? How does this stuff affect how we do YM, how we prepare students for the University scene?  The following articles are about Athesist, Agnostics, and the “Marrying” of two religions.

How do we prepare our good little HS kids for this? Pizza Parties won’t cut it! (see those articles below as well) Hanging out is great and absolutely necessary.  But we better be engaging their minds and exercising their discernment muscles.  What other suggestions do you have?

• Atheist student groups flower on college campuses http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-11-24-college-atheists_N.htm
• Summer camp caters to kids of atheists, agnostics (USATODAY.com in News) http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-06-30-no-religion-camp_N.htm?csp=obinsite
• Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding reflects uniting of religions in USA (USATODAY.com in News) http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-02-rites02_CV_N.htm?csp=obinsite
• Myths widen the science-religion divide (USATODAY.com in News) http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-07-19-column19_ST_N.htm?csp=obinsite
• Australian PM says her atheism no threat to church schools, welfare (USATODAY.com in News) http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-07-30-atheist29_ST_N.htm?csp=obinsite
• FAITH & REASON FORUM: Readers on what it means to be atheist – http://www.usatoday.com/community/forums.aspx?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aec018ff9-2afb-4253-a3a7-c229861d7279Forum%3a8c500347-cee1-4456-a1fb-188ea5be845bDiscussion%3a4ad4aef2-e861-41e4-8824-30f4a6b7aa86
• ATHEISM 3.0: ‘New’ new atheists allow more room for religion http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-10-19-atheism-belief_N.htm

It’s not going away!!! We can’t “ostrichize” our kids!

• ‘NONES’: People with ‘no religion’ gain on major denominations – http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-09-22-no-religion_N.htm

And you wonder why just being cool and relevant isn’t the answer (We must be relevant, but…)

• ‘Forget pizza parties,’ teens tell churches - http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-11-teenchurch11_ST_N.htm – Churches lose teen appeal (to modern distractions. According to recent research only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups) (USA Today)
• Hipster Christianity – http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704111704575355311122648100-lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwNDExNDQyWj.html#printMode (Read this one quick. It was locked out in a day or so!)

Here is that last article:

The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity

By BRETT MCCRACKEN

‘How can we stop the oil gusher?” may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.

Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn’t megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church.

Increasingly, the “plan” has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called “the emerging church”—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too “let’s rethink everything” radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity’s image and make it “cool”—remains.

There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated “No Country For Old Men.” For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.’s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan).

“Wannabe cool” Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for example, have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an “iCampus.” Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services.

But one of the most popular—and arguably most unseemly—methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking. What better way to appeal to younger generations than to push the envelope and go where no fundamentalist has gone before?

Sex is a popular shock tactic. Evangelical-authored books like “Sex God” (by Rob Bell) and “Real Sex” (by Lauren Winner) are par for the course these days. At the same time, many churches are finding creative ways to use sex-themed marketing gimmicks to lure people into church.

Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia, created a website called yourgreatsexlife.com to pique the interest of young seekers. Flamingo Road Church in Florida created an online, anonymous confessional (IveScrewedUp.com), and had a web series called MyNakedPastor.com, which featured a 24/7 webcam showing five weeks in the life of the pastor, Troy Gramling. Then there is Mark Driscoll at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church—who posts Q&A videos online, from services where he answers questions from people in church, on topics such as “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasuring Your Spouse.”

But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?

In his book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes:”The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.

“And the further irony,” he adds, “is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.

Mr. McCracken’s book, “Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide” (Baker Books) was published this month. Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Better it breaks here than out there

In our effort to get converts or raise up students in youth ministry, we many a time present a clean, professional faith package to people with the goal of conversation or obedience to a particular accepted pattern of behavior as the top priority.  While, inherently, either of those are not bad goals, but because of intense passion to see conversion and to have the prospective converts sign on the spiritual dotted line or to fall in line with what is and is not accepted, it may cause us to present a slick, perfect, no holes, thin argument ignoring the messiness that the mystery of God communicates. While I completely believe in the God of the Universe, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the incarnate Jesus and indwelling Spirit, it is a faith message just like faith messages of every other group trying to make sense of reality.  We do not have absolute, unequivocal proof. We simply do not have a bullet proof argument.  It is not “blatantly obvious.”  When we present the gospel in such a way and use similar simplistic language we are setting up a faith crisis for unsuspecting, growing disciples later on in life when they run headlong into a wall of hard-to-reconcile hermeneutic issues.  This is particularly dangerous for the young that we mentor and teach.  When these students grow and transition from early adolescent spirituality and mature toward a late adolescent way of thinking and living out their faith encountering convincing arguments against the veritas of scripture, they simply will not know what to do with the “slick, thin and plastic” version of their faith.  Their perception of Christianity is that there are no variants in the Greek New Testament writings or with the LXX (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) and Masoretic text (the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament). They will not even know what to do with seeming discrepancies of the number of visitors to the tomb or who did visit the empty grave of Jesus first, or how the NT writers used the OT scriptures to prove their points (sometimes seemingly not saying at all what the OT says when they look at the footnote), or why the Hebrew writer said that the golden altar of incense was behind the second curtain (in the Most Holy Place) in the tabernacle (9:3) when it clearly wasn’t (Ex 30:6-10, 40:26).

When we teach our kids or other new believers to the faith that all the arguments of Christianity are obviously true and we can defend the faith against all attacks, we leave out the real issues of ideas being “lost in translation,” understanding the ancient near eastern culture and mindset, and the hermeneutical issues of how we interpret and apply what we read for our lives today.  It simply is not easy.  In fact, despite what some anti-formal education proponents might say, it is really hard.  And to make matters worse, it is faith-shaking or even faith-destroying to some who grew up with a clean, simplistic (“just read the Bible and you understand it”), packaged, slick plastic presentation of God’s story of humankind and all of reality.  Now, understand, I completely and fully believe this message of God… the problem is, it is just not easy.  There are major issues that a 21^st century disciple must wrestle with.  We can present this simplistic version of Christianity and in essence keep our students’ heads firmly embedded in the sand.  However, they will stop being the Christian ostrich at some point, most often when they go off to college, and then what will they do? How will they react when they are faced with real issues and questions and those interpretive hurdles of Christianity.  Will they simply and repeatedly point to their Bible and boldly and confidently say, “It says so in the Bible.”  That won’t last very long.

In High School, I took the vocational training track instead of the academic route.  While many of my friends were treading water with trigonometry, I was learning practical skills for a guy who wasn’t going to college. I needed to make a living.  I had no idea what I would do.  I started out cheating my way through electricity class. I stole a test from the teacher’s desk and aced the class but couldn’t wire anything. I quickly realized that that was pretty stupid if I was going to build my own house.  You just can’t cheat—I wanted my light switches to turn on lights, not open the garage door! I also took woods (intro and advanced), metals, small engines, auto mechanics, and welding.  I loved welding class.  As with the other classes, my artistic side came out.  Although I wasn’t painting or drawing, there is something special in being able to put several pieces of metal together in a way that served a useful purpose.  We learned different styles of welds.  With each weld or project that we worked on, our teacher would come by with a hammer and smack the hot, steamy metal hard.  The first time he did that to me, I blurted out, “Hey, you are going to break it.” Continuing on to the next student with a loud pin, he shot back, “Better to break it here than out there.”  Welds have to hold up to a lot of pressure and torque and tension. If it is the weld on a car, bumps in the road can’t be allowed to break them. If it is a lawn chair, you want it to keep you from falling and breaking your tailbone on the ground.

As youth leaders, we need to be the kind of mentors who know how to help our students have strong spiritual welds so that their fragile faith can remain strong through the bumps and tension and pings of life. They must wrestle with the deep issues of the faith. And we can’t weld their faith for them; they must do the hard work. We, leaders need to ping their answers and their understanding of the Bible, God, and the Christian life.  They have to understand that there is not always going to be a clear cut answer, all neatly packaged and argument-proof.  This message we have from God has been passed down.  Just the process alone raises major questions.  They will read the annual Easter issue of Newsweek or Time and encounter convincing arguments against the validity of Jesus and the Bible.  When they go off to college or when a college friend gets leukemia or dies in a car crash, they will have a sledge hammer of reality pounding against the welds of their faith. If they have been given simplistic, one-size-fits-all theological platitudes, all wrapped up in neatly and boldly presented either/or and us vs. them teachings, along with untested reasons for who, why, how, and what of Christianity, they may just crumble under the pressure and tension.  We, as youth leaders, must dig deep and study the Bible, but we also must be educated in other disciplines.  Our theological training would malnourished if it did not include serious wrestling with the languages, hermeneutics, exegesis, epistemology, philosophy, and science.  We can always drop down to the level of the immature, but it is so hard to smart ourselves up to the level of truly preparing our students to successfully make the transition from adolescent spirituality (which is often based more in emotional and social development – visit any teen worship service) to a mature, adult faith that can walk through valleys of death and doubt and the quagmires of questions and conundrums. We would do our students a great and eternal service to provide deep and theological teaching that we get from intentional and thoughtful study in both college and master’s level work that would serve as a faith-development hammer pre-HS graduation. You must know the issues that they will be faced with and how to wrestle through them.  Because “better it breaks here than out there.”

Fight nights at Youth Group to connect with the culture?

Fight Night brings in Teens in Brazil

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

NY Times – Published: September 14, 2009

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The atmosphere was electric at Reborn in Christ Church on “Extreme Fight” night. Churchgoers dressed in jeans and sneakers, many with ball caps turned backward, lined a makeshift boxing ring to cheer on bare-chested jujitsu fighters.

They screamed when a fan favorite, Fabio Buca, outlasted his opponent after several minutes. They went wild when Pastor Dogão Meira, 26, took his man down, pinning him with an armlock just 10 seconds into the fight.

With the crowd still buzzing, Pastor Mazola Maffei, dressed in army pants and a T-shirt, grabbed a microphone. Pastor Maffei, who is also Pastor Meira’s fight trainer, then held the crowd rapt with a sermon about the connection between sports and spirituality.

“You need to practice the sport of spirituality more,” he urged. “You need to fight for your life, for your dreams and ideals.”

Read the rest of the article Here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/americas/15evangelicals.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

What do you think?  Is this a right practice theologically? It is too relevant?  Would we do it here? Some churches do have UCF nights where guys get together to watch a match?  What else? What are your thoughts?

LCU is coming; Heaven’s Kitchen is gettin’ all started!

Lincoln Christian College becomes Lincoln Christian University tonight at Midnight and the Heaven’s Kitchen Team will be out in full swing making U shaped pancakes and other breakfast goodies.

We are excited about the name change and all that this change will bring.  We are excited to truly bring all things under uni (one) head, that being Christ.  We are excited for the students who will come to LCU to study and leave as kingdom workers serving the world in a variety of vocations.  But most of all I am excited for the youth and preaching majors and leave here to go impact the world.

Send us students so that we can send Kingdom Servant Leaders… all to his glory!

Getting Organized

Hey Stereotypically Disorganzationed YM students.

You may not be disorganized and have a great system for getting things done.  However, I have tried many different strategies on how to track the details of ministry.  Believe me, there are tons when you get out let alone the myriad that you have while in school.  You have heard me mention Toodledo.  I spent the morning making up a tutorial on how to set up toodledo.  I did it especially for our new students so that you all can get organized.  You may not want to use this program. That is fine.  Develop your own way of getting things done.  It is a system.

If you have a phone that can access email, toodledo can send you a hotlist every day of the top things due.  If you have an iPhone, you can download the toodledo app from the iTune’s Store (small fee, but incredibly worth it) that completely syncs with your laptop or desktop.

Go to Toodledo.com.  It utilizes Franklin Covey and Getting Things Done planning characteristics.  After you go to the website and set up an account, click HERE for PowerPoint slides that I made that will walk you through the set up process.

If it helps, great.  If you have a system, go for it.

Fall 2009 LCU Youth Ministry Majors

The Youth Ministry Dept had our annual beginning of the semester meeting and picture.  What a great group of students!  I am so excited to journey through the semester with these students.  LCU is such a great place for these students to learn and mature and become the kingdom leaders who will serve God, the church, and the world.  May God be praise.  I’m humbled and privileged to be on this journey with these students.

Teaching Discernment

I came across this little article on teaching kids discernment (a topic that should be taught all the time and be included in our pedigological approaches.  It is simple, but helpful. Kids must be taught to discern about all of life BEFORE they go off to college.  That means that we have to help them learn to wrestle with issues as well as decisions.  The following article is more for decisions, but it could be applied in other areas as well.

Check it out: http://www.ymtoday.com/article.php?aid=2294&page=article_list.php