Tears of Joy and Sorrow

When is the last time you cried for a person? Not a TV show, or a stressful moment, but for an actual person. This last week I was in SD on a mission trip with Westwind Church. We were in the town of White River. As part of our trip we hosted a VBS program in a local church. It was standard: songs, skits, crafts, games, lesson. Just when you think that VBS is an old school method of evangelism, a young girl talks to one of the leaders and makes a personal decision to follow Christ. This is the method that we wanted to take since, if we were numbers oriented, we could have asked the kids to raise their hands to accept Christ and we would have had 100% of the kids raise their hands.

The response after her decision is what got me. She actually wept for her two sisters who could not be at the VBS club and wished that they could have been there to hear the message. We were blown away as a team as we were told this.

It got me thinking about my soul and it’s desire for people to know Christ. I am not sure I have wept in a long while over someone not being able to hear about Jesus, and what he did for them. It is easy to get cynical in ministry and roll your eyes at situations like this. We hear stories like this, it impassions me to clear my heart of anything that makes me sarcastic or cold to stories of God at work. I want to join this young girl in weeping for those who don’t know that Jesus is the savior of the world.

What’s your method?

Today in a staff meeting with Cornerstone Church we had a discussion about electronic communication to large church audiences. It brought up the issue of transparency, generation gaps, and relevance. It made me remember that I have a blog that I haven’t updated in a long time. I think it is because I wanted my blog to be more than it was intended to be. Blogs are just one means to communicate. And since I have tens of people who are interested in “following” me, I need to remember that blogs, like Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking tools are designed to communicate to a special niche of people. I thought it could be THE method. Silly me. So, for now I am back to blogging. But what is interesting (and I thank Todd Wallace for helping me with this thought) is that different communication methods can be used for differing depths of communication levels. General thoughts seem to be saved for Twitter. Like a t-shirt. Facebook is more like a small group circle. People know more about your life. Blogs seem to be the external thoughts of people who want to think “out loud” with the world. I need all those tools to communicate with the world around me. And to have them communicate with me. As long as I remember this, I think I should do a better job expressing myself and navigating the communication mall of the internet.

Tags: Thoughts

Sticky Church Conference

I just got back from St. John’s, IN where Suncrest Christian Church hosted the Sticky Church Conference. I had heard Larry Osborne speak at the Exponential Conference last year for church planters. I was very impressed with his pragmatic way of dealing with issues, so I was eager to read his new book, The Sticky Church. I was just as impressed with his writing style as I was his point-blank speaking style. This conference displays a deeper level to Osborne’s “you don’t have a lot of time to waste so let me get to the point” attitude. The conference was one day focusing primarily on Message, Small Groups, and Multi-site areas that affect the “Stickiness” of people to a church. You can get my notes HERE .

I went with a buddy from Cornerstone Church in Ames, Jacob. We talked about everything under the sun, even ministry. It was a great trip and I hope to implement some of what I learned at Westwind. For me, this is the only way to conference. I got a few ideas on a specific topic. I don’t need the week-long conferences that make me feel overwhelmed. I feel appropriately whelmed.

Bowling with the Boys

Recently, I have been invited to be young again. I say that because most people think I am younger than I am and so I get invited to do things that are not necessarily age appropriate. So, from time to time, I get invited to do something that I am not physically able to handle. To think that bowling is one of these things makes me physically sick to my stomach.

Over the past two weeks I have been hanging out with some great people (Jake Bouma, Joe Bouma and Brandon Mick) at the local bowling alley. There is a great late night deal on Wednesday, and since those days are generally pretty long, I thought it would be great to unwind from a hard day of ministry by knocking down pins. Little did I know that I absolutely stink at it. The first week I was not only humiliated to have the lowest score (2 of the 3 games I bowled were not even over 100), but I also had to sit and watch as Karla bowled a 156.

This week on my second roll, I actually injured by back making almost impossible to bowl except in “granny” fashion. What happened to me? When I become someone who couldn’t role a round ball down a lane? Had I bowled like this when I was younger I may not have considered youth ministry a viable career at the time.

I do not plan on giving up, but I do plan on stretching out now before each game. Like I said, I am old.

Tags: People

Blogging Religiously

I am trying to write more blog posts for Westwind Church. You can CLICK HERE to read them.

Churches Behaving Badly

I am working on a book entitled, Churches Behaving Badly, which is about how some churches have hurt people and the progress of God’s message being shared to the world. One chapter is entitled, They Actually Said That?. It addresses the ridiculous things that church leaders have said, in particular to me. Here are a few things that have actually been said to me by people who follow Christ.

1. Your message was good. You didn’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit or anything.
2. What is the deal with your weight?
3. So, did you purposefully overspend your budget?
4. We love having you preach here, we just think you need to work on your theology.
5. If you want respect you are in the wrong business.
6. You don’t care about people at all. You leave dead bodies in your wake.
7. We don’t want you in our denomination because you know Tony Jones.
8. I don’t think you are even a Christian.
9. Don’t you think your secretary is too attractive?
10. I don’t know what other churches are teaching, so I want them coming here!
11. No, you are not invited to this meeting, but I need your ideas.
12. That is a great idea, Brandon. (Insert name here), will you implement that?
13. It’s okay if you believe that, just don’t teach it.
14. You should warn people first before you show pictures of snakes in your sermons.
15. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus (Said in response to the phrase I quoted, “Good luck with all that.”)

I am sure there are more, but as you can see, I have a lot to work with. I am also sure that worse is to come.

Pre-Op

I don’t know why this is posted sideways, but here is Seth in pre-op.

Speaking at Cornerstone Church

In December I got a chance to speak at Cornerstone Church in Ames. I had about a week’s notice to prep (during Christmas week), so I pulled out an old message. It’s the first time it was videotaped, though.

Click here to see it