The Good, the Bad, and Getting Ugly

So the BUMC Youth recently went to the Springmaid Spiritual Life Retreat. Overall it went really well. I broke 2 toes, earned a nasty bruise, and was tackled numerous times during football on the beach. The speaker was pretty good. He talked about surrendering your life over to God fully. No strings attached. The food, well it was cafeteria food. The rooms were nice. I slept on the floor. To be honest I liked it that way. One night Sam sat up screaming "Dad! Dad! Dad!" Which was followed up by Sean sitting up and nearly killing Sam. The funny part is that Sam has no recollection of any of this.

We had some beautiful shots of the sunrises as well.

On the bus ride a few of the youth helped to develop a list that they want to send to Xibit for "Pimp my Church Bus." It would be complete with:

Stained glass window tint
Air purification system (and odor neutralizer) <-- my idea

Hardwood floors

12 Xbox 360s

Full reclining seats

A 42" plasma tv mounted on the ceiling

Personal headsets

Ipod touches mounted into the seats

"Bible" holders that would really only be used for laptops

Rims with the Itchus in them

Black paint job

6" Lift Kit (to be closer to heaven)

A sunroof the length of the ceiling

Ten 12" subs (one for each commandment)

Bin for preheated blankets and pillows

Outlets at each seat

The actual list was nearly 3 pages handwritten. They also added a navigation system, a soundproof driving area, and a LCD monitor for backing up all for the driver.

Now for the rant. Yes, I'm going there. Yes, I hope people read it. Yes, there is a letter being sent to the conference office. The speaker we had was good, however, he was not the speaker advertised nor were we told why the scheduled speaker wasn't there. No one at the conference level had a clue what was going on when I called. They played "Crank That" at the dance. I realize my Wesleyan friends are gasping... I did too. Overall, it was very unorganized except for when the youth leaders had control of their groups during breakout sessions and free times. For the most part events were ran by youth. Now, this can work, but I don't remember seeing a youth pastor or for that matter a full time pastor ever taking the stage to direct the services.

All this brings me to this point:

I feel like youth ministry is being used as nothing more than a stepping stone to ordination. This is my holy discontent.

I've seen what great work the Wesleyan Church has done with youth ministry. Just look at Set Apart and the youth camps at Table Rock Wesleyan Camp. There are just over 50 Wesleyan Churches in South Carolina. There are 992 United Methodist Charges in South Carolina, and some of those charges contain two or three churches. Someone please explain to me why the SC Wesleyan Church is doing so much better than the UMCs in the area of youth ministry? I understand that this is not a competition between denominations, but lets look at the numbers. Which denomination values their youth? Which denomination is using their resources wisely? Which denomination seems to think that youth won't catch on that they are catching the short end of the stick?

I understand that from church to church the emphasis may differ, but as a whole we (UMC in SC) are doing a poor job. Salkehatchie is doing great, but it was not a conference idea. It was lay and clergy lead, and evolved to a great ministry. (If you haven't seen the salk video check it out).

To the SC Wesleyan District and the Wesleyan Church as a whole: Thank you for taking youth ministry seriously as a denomination. Please continue to work hard for the glory of God in this area.

To the SC Methodist Conference: Stop playing around. If we expect to see our denomination flourish instead of flounder we need to get in gear and move. If we continue to sit idle we can expect to see a decline in youth and a further decline in membership.

For Lent....

I've decided not to give up anything. Instead, each day I am going to:

1. Write in my journal
   
2. Pray for the people that I don't quite get along with
   
3. Wear a tie at least once a week

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens during Lent this year.

Weddings and Worry

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4: 6-7

You know, with the planning of a wedding comes a lot of stress. And I’ll be honest it’s more stress for Kristie than for me. I’m sure that many of you (youth or not) have had deadlines to meet, limited time and limited resources. It seems that the more Kristie and I worry about the wedding the worse things look. However, we have discovered a way to relieve some of the stress. First, we had to give things over to God. We had to come to the realization that no matter what happens or how it looks at the end of our wedding day we will be married, and that’s all that really matters. Second, we had to stop looking at empty checklists and had to start attacking the list piece by piece. Trying to plan the entire wedding at once is impossible, but trying to accomplish a handful of goals each week is much simpler.

In life it’s easy to become overwhelmed. This is partly because we fall into a do-it-yourself way of thinking. We want to be independent. We want things done our own way. In order to we have the abundant life (John 10:10) that Christ offers us we have to get out of the do-it-yourself way of thinking and get into the rely-on-God way of thinking. As Christians, if we are going to make God number one on our list of importance then we have to become dependant on Him in our day to day living and stop worrying about the things in this world that won’t last.

Saints, Sin, and Salvation

"Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words."

-St. Francis of Assisi

Some have said that this piece of advice is useless. That we must use words in order to effectively communicate the Gospel. I beg to differ.

One may say, "I know Christ as my savior," but if that person does not live out their convictions day to day then they fail to effectively communicate the Gospel. Any good liar could convince you that they are a straight "A" student. Their report might say that they are, their teachers might say that they are, their degrees and decorations might say that they are, but if you saw them cheating on an exam... would you say that they are? They may have the letter grade, the title if you will, but they do not have the integrity to say I am a straight "A" student and I deserve to be counted among those that wear honors on graduation.

It is important to communicate the Gospel verbally, but it is even more important to communicate it with our daily walk; letting the Spirit of God led us.

People talk sometimes about how they are afraid to share their faith. They are afraid that they might say the wrong (as Bill Hybels calls it) "Christianese" phrase. They are afraid that their words might cause a person to reject Christ. It seems to me that if more people were worried about their actions rather than the right words to say that Christianity might seem more attractive. It is hard to communicate the Gospel... especially if you have never paid God attention and you have never allowed Him to change your life.

Lets get this straight about this word "repent". I'm about to go crazy hearing alter call after alter call where the preacher says, "Come repent of your sins" and never goes on to explain what the word "repent" means.

When you sin you do it for a reason. Simple enough. You do it to get high. You do it because you like the way sex (outside of marriage) feels, or perhaps you feel obligated to do it. You lie so that you don't get caught, or possibly to hurt someone less than if you told the truth. You get drunk because you like the feeling of not being responsible, or maybe it's because you're addicted. You don't pray because you figure God doesn't listen so why talk. Whatever the sin... there is a reason.

Repentance has two parts.

The first part is confession. When you repent you confess your sin. You open up to God and you sorrowfully confess that you have not been living as God desires for you to live. You give Him your fears, pains, sins and you allow yourself to become vulnerable before a God of forgiveness, grace, and change. It doesn't have to be done at an alter, or for that matter a church. You verbally say, "God I am sorry for ____________ and I don't want that in my life anymore. Take it from me."

The second part is change. Remember how people have reasons for sin? This second part of repentance comes when you change your reason... hold on... when God changes your reason. You don't smoke pot because God drives you to make a moral decision to be more like Christ and less like sin. You stop having sex outside of marriage because you love Jesus Christ your Savior more than the one night stand in your bedroom and you know God has a better plan. You stop your drinking to escape responsibility because the Spirit of God that dwells in you is greater than the spirit of sin, strife, and suffering that causes you to drink. You pray because you know that God is more than just a dreamy figure, and you finally realize that He is a life changer that cares about you.

People have their reasons to sin. But when you repent, you have found a reason to live. A reason that satisfies.

Christian Worldview

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 93% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Fundamentalist 57% Reformed Evangelical 57% Roman Catholic 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Classical Liberal 50% Neo orthodox 43% Modern Liberal 21%

A Franciscan Benediction

I saw this on the cover of my friend Russ' ordination bulletin. I thought that it was quite profound and yet very simple.

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your own heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice , oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, starvation, and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim can't be done.

International Wesleyan Youth Convention

Impressive, extensive, incredible, moving, LOUD, fun, warm, focused, blessed... in the words of my good friend Chad Young, it was by far the most bestest Int'l Youth Convention you'll ever go to in your life... until next year.

So my fiance Kristie, Amanda, and I traveled down to Orlando to work at the youth convention between the Christmas and New Year holidays. I have to say, it was the best in between holidays week that I have experienced. First of all, it took us 11 hours to get to Orlando. This is because I decided to pick up I-20E in Columbia rather than following I-26 all the way to I-95. Why did I decide to tack on another hour of travel you ask? Because I did not follow my directions? Guilty as charged. At least I had good company. I was wondering why it took 6 hours to get out of South Carolina. For a moment I thought the state had annexed part of Georgia or something!

When we finally arrived that night this is what we pulled up to:



Here is a daytime picture:


Pretty awesome eh? And to those of you at BUMC reading this... Kristie and I stayed in separate rooms, and more importantly the Wesleyan Church picked up our tab... not you... so don't fret over the $475/night or the 9 Escalades parked out front.

The best part is that the convention was the worse part. Honestly, the convention itself was great! Over 7,000 youth gathered together from as far as New Zealand to join together under the common bond of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to hear the voices of those youth singing praises in worship and to see their hands lifted up as lights ricocheted off of the crowd.

There were numerous bands and speakers. Kutless, Fireflight, Everyday Sunday, and Family Force 5 just to name a few. The worship leader was Steve Fee.

The final day was amazing! Kevin Myers spoke about "getting over it". How sometimes in life we just have to get over things. That sometimes there are things we have to do that we would not care to do. In the book of 1 Samuel, David isn't taken seriously at first. First when Samuel comes to anoint a new king, Jesse doesn't even recognize David as a candidate to become king. Then after the anointing, Jesse sends David to the front lines of the battle against the Philistines. However, Jesse sends David out with bread and cheese to take to his brothers and their commander. Jesse is a lowly pizza delivery boy. But because David got over his pride it showed that he was worthy to one day become king, and to face Goliath.

The music was incredible the last day. Both the worship music by Fee and the concert by Family Force 5 went great. It's a good thing too, because I blew a fuse in the Mazda that took out my radio. the road trip home seemed longer than usual with no radio. A special thanks to Fee and FF5 for getting a few songs stuck in my head... they helped on the trip home.

Two good increases in friendships took place. With Kristie sleeping like a rock in the passenger's seat it was just me and Amanda awake for the ride back to South Kakalaki. Luckily, Amanda did a wonderful job of keeping me awake by engaging me in conversation clear from St. Augustine to Charleston. Another surprise was with my roommate for the week, Kevin. I have to say that I knew Kevin and I would either do great together or we would both kill each other. I am pleased to say that all went well. To be honest, I couldn't have picked a better roommate.

All in all, the convention was not the only place that God reached out to me. He reached out to me in the hotel, in the car, at worship, at the convert, in break out sessions, and in the quiet times of that ride home.

I think that one of the best things about the conference was that among 7,000+ Wesleyans I was treated as a brother. No one looked at me as if I was from another denomination. I was treated as a fellow brother in Christ. This convention was about Christ, not denominational lines. I'm glad to see that the youth understand the big picture. I pray that adults, of all denominations, will see the same picture. 7,000+ Christians gathered in Orlando last week seeking after Christ. That is amazing. I have no doubt that 2008 will be as impressive as those 7,000 teens.