I entered the driveway and it was already packed. People, cars, and crowd control were at a full bustle. The shear sight of all of the commotion was a little overwhelming and caused slight anxiety in me as I tried to figure out where to park, what door to enter, and ultimately find my place. I was a little surprised and amazed at how easy and conveniently I found my seat.
Sure I was sitting on the second balcony out of three floors, I couldn’t see the stage, and sat right next to a noisy walk way—but I was in the building! With in a few minutes the lights went out and multimedia extravaganza blitz my senses as I was trying to make sense of what was before me. I was immediately thrown into a sensory overload.
The pictures I was seeing were not matching the loud off color guitars I was hearing. Where was I? Why do I feel like I am in a poorly directed music video? (You know the ones that people forget about until they want to have a good laugh) The musicians and singers all looked like they just stepped off of music television. But again, where am I? I can make out the words to the music, but all I hear screaming in my head is “Rock Star Jesus”! I began to wonder why I had come to this conference. I came here looking for answers to questions that I did not want to answer myself.
Who am I? Who do I want to be? And what kind of Pastor will I become?
Jesus was not popular during his time. His own mother didn’t believe until after his death, and from the little amount written about his father one could assume that his father was absent through out his life.
If we have been made NO promise of earthly blessings then why do we strive to seek an earthly Christian utopia? I have come to realize that the church who builds walls dies, but the church that breaks walls down lives. Why?
One has a mentality to try to preserve itself, the other has the mentality that I have something to offer, to contribute! The difference is in one word—Purpose! And that one word is affected by attitude! When we have purpose it usually started with and attitude about who we are or what we should do and be about.
The problem with a Rock Star Jesus is that we usually need to have Rock Star Leaders, which leads us to Rock star Churches, which leads us to Rock Star living, which leads us to Rock Star privileges. The lines become drawn not by traditional values of who is saved and who is Lost. But now the lines are drawn by who is popular and who is not. We traded one sacred cow for another. When do we unplug the music, turn off the special affects, and ask Jesus who he wants to be?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Life of Regrets
John 13: 36 – 38
Jesus prophesies Peter’s denial
Peter declares that I will go where ever Jesus goes… and yet Jesus stops him in his tracks and says, “Will you lay down your life for my sake? No—I don’t think so! You won’t just deny me, but you will deny me three times…”
Regrets come from knowing to do right and not doing it, from not allowing yourself to be who you know yourself to be, from not standing up but for compromising…
John 18:10 – 11
In the Garden, Peter shows his courage, strength, and power! But Jesus shows him true authority… Peter shows that he is lacking inner strength found through Jesus!
John 18: 16 – 17
Peter denies Christ in front of a little girl
John 18: 25 – 27
Denies Christ in front of a crowd
Denies Christ to the relative of the one who peter cut off his ear!
The Crow cries 3 times and peter is thrown into a place of regret…
Peter found validity and fulfillment in hanging out with Jesus but not being with Jesus. Regrets are common with missing the purpose of a moment, a relationship, a time period… Regret is missing out on an opportunity because you were afraid of the unknown, the stability, the safety net!
Today, what regrets are you dealing with? What do you need to let go, what do you need to be forgiven for, and what needs to change so your life can move from regrets to memories?
Today's choices become tomorrow's consequences! Choose today to begin to live a Life of No Regrets...
Jesus prophesies Peter’s denial
Peter declares that I will go where ever Jesus goes… and yet Jesus stops him in his tracks and says, “Will you lay down your life for my sake? No—I don’t think so! You won’t just deny me, but you will deny me three times…”
Regrets come from knowing to do right and not doing it, from not allowing yourself to be who you know yourself to be, from not standing up but for compromising…
John 18:10 – 11
In the Garden, Peter shows his courage, strength, and power! But Jesus shows him true authority… Peter shows that he is lacking inner strength found through Jesus!
John 18: 16 – 17
Peter denies Christ in front of a little girl
John 18: 25 – 27
Denies Christ in front of a crowd
Denies Christ to the relative of the one who peter cut off his ear!
The Crow cries 3 times and peter is thrown into a place of regret…
Peter found validity and fulfillment in hanging out with Jesus but not being with Jesus. Regrets are common with missing the purpose of a moment, a relationship, a time period… Regret is missing out on an opportunity because you were afraid of the unknown, the stability, the safety net!
Today, what regrets are you dealing with? What do you need to let go, what do you need to be forgiven for, and what needs to change so your life can move from regrets to memories?
Today's choices become tomorrow's consequences! Choose today to begin to live a Life of No Regrets...
Favor and Blessing
As I write this new Blog, I am reminded of the movie, "A Knights Tale". Pretty much the movie starts out with a Knight that has died in his sleep. One of his servants has been dreaming of becoming a knight, but unfortunately in that time Knights had to be from the proper blood line. They had to be part of the privileged few. So the servants struggled over fate/destiny and the idea of whether or not your path in life is already spelled out--or do we take our fate in our hands!
Genesis 25:5,6 says that while Abraham was still alive he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from Isaac to the east. In the eyes of Abraham's illegitimate sons, Isaac had more favor and blessing! I have always struggled with the thought of some men having more favor and blessing than others. I have always held on to the scripture that says that God is not a respecter of persons. This question has been disheartening to me. As I have began to pursue this issue, I have come to realize that the world puts favor and blessing on a man not as a privilege, but as a curse. In God's Kingdom we value people differently. We see people through God's eyes, hear them through God's heart.
Favor and Blessing in the world is fickle and creates false hope and a false identity based on unrealistic goals and ideals. God's favor brings satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentment. In God's Kingdom we are all called on the same level carrying the same title fulfilling the same position!
By my struggle with, "does other men have more favor than me?" I am really saying that I want to be on Jesus's right side. I want to be in the garden like peter-- seen and noticed, but not persecuted!
I am called to be a servant, or in the Apostle Paul's choice, a Bond servant!
Genesis 25:5,6 says that while Abraham was still alive he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from Isaac to the east. In the eyes of Abraham's illegitimate sons, Isaac had more favor and blessing! I have always struggled with the thought of some men having more favor and blessing than others. I have always held on to the scripture that says that God is not a respecter of persons. This question has been disheartening to me. As I have began to pursue this issue, I have come to realize that the world puts favor and blessing on a man not as a privilege, but as a curse. In God's Kingdom we value people differently. We see people through God's eyes, hear them through God's heart.
Favor and Blessing in the world is fickle and creates false hope and a false identity based on unrealistic goals and ideals. God's favor brings satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentment. In God's Kingdom we are all called on the same level carrying the same title fulfilling the same position!
By my struggle with, "does other men have more favor than me?" I am really saying that I want to be on Jesus's right side. I want to be in the garden like peter-- seen and noticed, but not persecuted!
I am called to be a servant, or in the Apostle Paul's choice, a Bond servant!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Just last month I attended a youth pastors conference. The conference was small and poorly attended. However, those who were involved in the leadership side of the conference were very optimistic. The break out session speakers were trying to come across as if they were experts and had everything together.
Unfortunately, I perceived them to have fallen into the death mode of an organization that is struggling between change and tradition, young and old! They saw themselves as being cutting edge. They were using terms like in this post modern world... We should be using clips from mcguyver in our sermons... And we should be looking for a great big marketing hook to bring students into our services...
Here's a new great big Marketing hook to try....How about letting the Holy Spirit show up and show off!
I work with urban youth. My students have probably done everything that they knew was bad, smoked everything, or try everything they were told was bad... And yet they still keep coming back to church every week. We consistently run 80 - 100 students between 11 year olds to 24... And our big nights we run over 100. We are not a mega church, we do not have 100's of students that attend church services that haven't come to youth yet... In fact we are consistently reaching over 40% of our congregational attendance.
It concerns me that we have mega churches--but the youth ministries are not mega compare to their church... For instance... instead of saying wow that guy is an awesome youth pastor because he runs 800 students in his ministry, we should be saying--he better, in fact thats not good enough when his church is running 15,000 - 20,000 in attendance or even just 2,000 - 3,000...
What concerns me is that these big church youth pastors are considered to be the leaders of youth pastors in general... We need to understand that church is a system... each size church has its own system. I believe successful pastors can and will be succesful where ever they go--but! they need to understand different dynamics...
My church runs 350 - 400. I barely get paid. All of my adult staff members are volunteer. My budget for the year is what I can raise. The majority of my money goes into lowering the cost of our trips so that any student who wants to go can be able to afford to go.
In our culture we constantly re-define success by numbers; bigger budgets, number of conversions, size of our sanctuaries, and the salary package...
We the church need to re-define succes by God's definition...In the end he will not ask us how big our church was, or how may people were "saved"--he just wants to know were you faithful!
May God's peace be with you, may his joy overwhelm you, and may his favor greatly increase upon her head!
Harvey............................................
Unfortunately, I perceived them to have fallen into the death mode of an organization that is struggling between change and tradition, young and old! They saw themselves as being cutting edge. They were using terms like in this post modern world... We should be using clips from mcguyver in our sermons... And we should be looking for a great big marketing hook to bring students into our services...
Here's a new great big Marketing hook to try....How about letting the Holy Spirit show up and show off!
I work with urban youth. My students have probably done everything that they knew was bad, smoked everything, or try everything they were told was bad... And yet they still keep coming back to church every week. We consistently run 80 - 100 students between 11 year olds to 24... And our big nights we run over 100. We are not a mega church, we do not have 100's of students that attend church services that haven't come to youth yet... In fact we are consistently reaching over 40% of our congregational attendance.
It concerns me that we have mega churches--but the youth ministries are not mega compare to their church... For instance... instead of saying wow that guy is an awesome youth pastor because he runs 800 students in his ministry, we should be saying--he better, in fact thats not good enough when his church is running 15,000 - 20,000 in attendance or even just 2,000 - 3,000...
What concerns me is that these big church youth pastors are considered to be the leaders of youth pastors in general... We need to understand that church is a system... each size church has its own system. I believe successful pastors can and will be succesful where ever they go--but! they need to understand different dynamics...
My church runs 350 - 400. I barely get paid. All of my adult staff members are volunteer. My budget for the year is what I can raise. The majority of my money goes into lowering the cost of our trips so that any student who wants to go can be able to afford to go.
In our culture we constantly re-define success by numbers; bigger budgets, number of conversions, size of our sanctuaries, and the salary package...
We the church need to re-define succes by God's definition...In the end he will not ask us how big our church was, or how may people were "saved"--he just wants to know were you faithful!
May God's peace be with you, may his joy overwhelm you, and may his favor greatly increase upon her head!
Harvey............................................
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