Every once in a while I stumble across www.exchristian.net and read through some of the testimonies people submit about why they left the Christian faith. It always breaks my heart, but I continue to read the stories because they teach me so much about how to respond to people like this in my own life.

This lady tells a pretty moving story about why she became an Atheist. Throughout the account of her life I see bad theology coupled with un-addressed and unanswered pain. I learned a couple things:

• Build a relationship before blindly forcing theology on someone. Learn about what’s going on in their life and intentionally connect Truth to it after earning their respect.
• Actions really do speak louder than words. How we live our life communicates a lot about our theology.
• Avoid trite “Christian-ese.” Maybe it’s a boost for our ego to use big “meaningful” words, but it’s not worth alienating people.
• Listen more than talk.
• Be willing to ask the hard questions with people searching for answers. Questioning is a search for discovery, not an offensive threat.
• Perhaps the most important question someone can ask is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Don’t blow it off or give unsatisfactory Sunday school answers.

Having answers and knowing theology are so vitally important in youth and children’s ministry today, but it can have a negative affect if approached inconsiderately of the audience that hears it. Teaching theology is necessary, but maybe publicly living our theology for all to see is even more necessary today. Maybe theology should be caught more than it is taught.

Last week I had an extended conversation with a friend who’s graduating from Bible college this semester. She came to me saying, “I’m wrestling with some issues concerning our theology of salvation. I tried talking with our college Chaplian about it, but he was no help because apparently he swallows everything he’s taught.” So we talked at length about her questions, which were very legitimate and well articulated. When we finished she said, “Thanks for being willing to wrestle out loud with me on it. Most people won’t.”

Marko had a good blog post today about this very subject. He says (and I agree) that it’s important for teens to question their faith and ask the hard questions. My question is why the church at large generally frowns upon those who ask tough questions and challenge the status quo. If our faith isn’t strong enough to hold up against these questions then maybe it really isn’t worth believing in the first place.

I consider myself to be someone with many questions who is also somewhat intimidated by the Christian public. I think that’s partly why I’m attracted to the blogging community, because here I find others who are also asking questions and are willing to give input into each other’s thoughts.

There’s a lot of blogging going on about the New York Times’ recent article concerning the mass exodus of teenagers from evangelical churches. I’ve heard all this for a while now, so it’s not really a ground-breaking story or anything. I wouldn’t even bother to mention it here except for this quote given in the context of disputing the statistic that “4% of teens will be bible-believing in the next generation.” Quote:

Mr. Luce responded: “If the 4 percent is true, or even the 5 percent, it’s an indictment of youth ministry. So certainly they’re going to want different data.”

Why do youth ministries take so much blame for this statistic? C’mon, [tag]Run Luce[/tag]! Yes, some youth ministries can stand to be re-evaluated and changed, but it can’t be entirely our fault. There is a lot more to this than just ineffective youth groups.

I think it involves the following:

1. If students aren’t returning to [tag]church[/tag], then maybe the church needs to rethink what they’re doing and how they “do church.” What is it about the church that students don’t want to be a part of?

2. Students need to see genuine godliness lived out by parents at home and in the lives of their youth workers. The truth is, many parents in our churches wouldn’t even meet the standard of spiritual maturity that I require for volunteers who are in this role model position.

3. Students need to have a solid understanding of bibliology and why then can trust [tag]scripture[/tag]. The Bible needs to be a reliable source as the foundation of everything they do and how they live their lives, not just a book of stories. Churches are filled with biblically illiterate people and it shows.

[tags]parenting[/tags]

Man, it’s only the first day and I’ve already taken 8 pages of notes! I think this will be the only night I try to type ‘em all up in a some kind of logical sense. Whew!

Shifting from a youth ministry to a group of youth missionaries, by Dan Kimball
Despite the fact that Dan was functioning on only a couple hours of sleep from the night before, he presented this seminar very well. He addressed a big question many of us have thought before, “Why do teenagers get so passionate and excited about serving God and being evangelistic on Mexico mission trips (and other trips like that), but when they are back home fall into more of a routine and neutral passion about evangelism?”

His answer was basically this: We need to intentionally view our town as a mission field and model a lifestyle that actively seeks to reach others for Christ.

In Matthew 4:17-20 Jesus calls the disciples to follow Him and be fishers of people. Their primary role is the worship God, their secondary roll is to reach people. Acts 1:8 carries this same message. When we start reading the Bible through a missional lens, the whole book is missional, too.

Evangelism in Christian sub-culture becomes events and concerts. My personal observation is that Christians attend Christian outreach events more than non-Christians. What’s supposed to be an event for reaching the lost becomes entertainment for those already saved. Even though outreach events may reach some, I’ve seen relational outreach be much more effective. The success rate of relational evangelism seems to be so much higher than that of big events that I sometimes wonder why we still bother with them. Relational evangelism is just so much easier, too!

Unfortunately, the longer we’re Christians the more we stop socializing and hanging out with non-Christian friends, so by the time we reach a ripe old age and have grown to be mature in our faith, the only people who see it are other believers.

Dan said he thinks the reason teens drop out of church after high school is because they’re bored with the “bunny slope” (short-term missions) and they don’t know that the black diamond slope even exists (our life is on a mission). If they lived like they’re on a mission in a mission field their prayer lives would increase, their spirituality would be strengthened and their knowledge of scripture would abound. Our kids have skis but they need to put them on an go down the hill!

Some ideas and questions in creating guilt-free and non-awkward missionaries
1. Do an experiment of presenting your local town as a mission field. Give demographic stats, the perks, the struggles, what previous missionaries have tried there and what it will cost them (free!), but present it initially as if it were a village somewhere.

2. Personally re-think our role. Are we “youth group leaders” or “leaders of youth missionaries?” Do we see ourselves as youth leaders or just hang out with church kids? We need to intentionally go to the unsaved community and use our teens to reach them.

3. Write missionary letters or missionary journals as an exercise. Send newsletters and mission updates and prayer support letters just like we would for any short-term missions trip.

4. Teach and train youth to better understand how to think about critical key issues in our culture, such as the trustworthiness of scripture and other apologetics.

BOTTOM LINE FOR ME: Relational ministry is the most effective form of evangelism, which obviously indicates it must be an ongoing visible lifestyle, not a calendar event.

General Session #1: Buster Soaries
Normal faith is not what we need — it’s inadequate. We need to pray for astonishing faith if we want to see what God has in store for us.

In Matthew 8:5-10 the Centurion had faith that God could heal his servant from a distance. Whenever God is revealed, something happens!

How did the Centurion know Jesus could heal from a distance It had never been done before. Jesus touched other sick people or was in the presence in some way. The Centurion’s faith was so astonishing. He believed God could do what He’s never done before. God specializes in things that have never happened before, not reruns.

BOTTOM LINE FOR ME: Faith involves risk. When I ask the Lord to interact with my life I then need to trust Him with it. God wants to do things through me that He’s never done before and He needs me to take my hands off!

The importance of theology in youth ministry (or any ministry in a church), by Dan Kimball
Dan’s main roll in this seminar was to raise a lot of questions about why we do what we do in church. Most of it is not based on scripture but rather has just passed down through tradition. Whether we like it or not, the way we do church communicates a lot about our theology and values. A lot of his questions and conclusions are some of the exact same ones I’ve been wrestling with personally and blogging about the past several months. Some people may read my skepticism about the current model for this thing we call church and be immediately label me a heretic, so it was refreshing for me to sit in Dan’s seminar and hear all my same questions being asked by someone who’s more well-known and respected than me.

The modern church has fallen into a subtle trap that has caused some people to re-think what church is supposed to look like. Dan said it goes through several phases.

Phase 1: First we re-think our methodology. How are ministry methods supposed to change as culture changed? Rethinking methods usually begins with changing the worship gathering, as I kinda thought through in a blog post earlier this week. Why do we do what we do?

Phase 2: We then re-think the youth ministry, realizing that it is not in isolation and culture and theology is beyond an age group. Discipleship is not something limited to just certain age groups.

Phase 3: Next we rethink our ecclesiology. What is church? (It’s not a building or a place. It’s not some place we go. WE are the church, I am a part of it.) Our theology about church is indicated in many ways, including how we set up a room. Pews separate the speaker from the audience, raising him to some “more important” status of the church. Pews also make the church service a performance with spectators. It doesn’t teach community as we stare at that backs of people’s heads. Our ecclesiology is also indicated by what we teach about worship. We don’t go to church to worship (as I also blogged about two weeks ago), as if what takes place at church is something different than what should take place at home. We also equate worship with singing and thereby ignore many other forms of worship in services.

This leads to start rethinking spiritual formation, evangelism, community, preaching, church “membership,” and the roll of a “pastor.” What is a pastor? What’s a youth pastor? In scripture “pastor” is a spiritual gift, but we’ve turned it into a title.

Phase 4: No we start rethinking our theology (without losing truth). This means changes are more than just contemporary music and adding some candles. More questions are bound to come up and thus we MUST know what we believe and why. Students need to know the Bible, its origin, inspiration, how to handle difficult passages and how to understand it holistically. They also need a theology of human sexuality, marriage, homosexuality and divorce. Furthermore, they need to understand the church, the roll of women, what “church” is, the roll of the Holy Spirit and more.

Phase 5: We start being the church rather than going to church.

BOTTOM LINE FOR ME: Dan Kimball: “Getting the latest youth ministry fad materials lasts for only minutes, but theology will last students their lifetime.” I also walked away feeling more confident about my critical questions concerning church and that I need to continue exploring scripture’s intent and how that plays out for us today.

General Session #2: Mike Pilavachi
Jesus didn’t try to entertain anyone into the kingdom. He just had them hang out with Him through daily life and He taught them along the way. He had the disciples feed the 5,000 from 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Jesus likes to perform miracles through His disciples. The disciples finally cast out a demon and they were excited. Jesus said, “Rejoice not that demons flee, but that your names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Jesus taught them as they went.

BOTTOM LINE FOR ME: It confirms the importance for relational ministry and teaching through real-life situations.

[tags]Evangelism, Dan Kimball, Youth Specialties, National Youth Workers Convention, NYWC, Outreach, Mike Pilavachi, Buster Soaries, church, missions[/tags]

On the way home from our honeymoon a couple weeks ago Dana and I started listening to the audio book of Frank Peretti’s novel, “House.” The whole story is pretty suspenseful and doesn’t really follow his typical style of spiritual warfare. It mostly resembles a horror story of a haunted house, at least until it reaches the end. Toward the climax of the novel it becomes clear that the thriller is just one big metaphor about the state of our sinful hearts before God. As it ended, my mind raced to connect all the theology and implications of Peretti’s writing, which hit me pretty hard. When it ended, Dana and I both sat in silence for a while before sharing with each other the convictions of our desperately wicked hearts.

It’s easy to gloss over sin and disregard a lot of things that “aren’t a big deal,” but before God any sin is a HUGE deal. If even “our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), just think of how disgusting our sin is! All the negative thoughts that rush through our minds, the critical attitudes, and self-righteous pride — no one else may know about these things, but to God it’s repulsive. Thankfully, as Peretti’s book makes clear, the only way to be clean before God is by the sacrifice of Christ. And the only way to please Him is by allowing Him to use us in order to glorify Himself. No human effort will ever come close.

After hearing this book, I don’t think my view of sin, my heart, or my Savior will ever be the same. I pray my view of sin becomes as nauseating to me as it is to God and that my heart will always be a reflection of His purity.

And by the way, I finally got some wedding pictures posted. Our photographer put all the best pictures together in a wedding album for us, but was kind enough to give us some of the “leftover” pictures on CD at no extra cost. Enjoy!

A friend of mine posted today some thoughts I’ve also shared and discussed with other ministry friends concerning church worship and icons. I haven’t blogged about it, though, until now.

Here’s what she said:

…why do we put so much focus on the people playing the instruments and singing up front[?] Why don’t we put them in the back, or something? People seem to focus on the people up there, instead of God. I know that (well, girls at least) talk about what the people are wearing, and the motions that they did, etc. That’s not focusing on God. Why don’t we just put them in the back, or how can we as humans trying to worship train our minds to focus on God and not those things happening around us?

This really happens all the time, doesn’t it? During the singing part of worship on Sunday mornings, it’s easy to focus on so many other things. “Man, the projector is really dim. We need to turn more lights off in here. And why don’t they make the lyrics a larger font?” or “Did those sunglasses really stay on his head through the whole service or did he just put them back on for the closing song?” I’m not sure it’s possible or even our job to remove all distractions from the worship place since worship ultimately takes place in the heart and life of the individual, but maybe there’s a couple easy steps we could take to make the environment more conducive for it.

And then there’s the use of icons in worship, which has been popular for centuries. In protestant churches we tend to lean toward the icon of the cross, but why should this is our main focus? I mean, yeah, Jesus suffered and died on a cross because of our sin and it’s definitely an important event to remember, but maybe His resurrection is equally as important. If there was only a cross and a dead Jesus then Christianity wouldn’t exist anyway. His resurrection proves that He defeated both physical and spiritual death (the penalty for our sin). Otherwise, death would’ve won. Although using the cross to remember his crucifixion is legitimate and important, I wish we had more icons of empty tombs around to remind us to celebrate His resurrection. Lilly’s once a year doesn’t seem to cut it.

My interns and I have been discussing the gospel in regards to this question: What is the core of the gospel message? Or, in other words, what is essential for a person to know and believe in order to be saved and, conversely, what is not necessary to know for salvation to take place?

Their discovery is that there is usually a lot of extra “stuff” thrown into the plan of salvation that does not pertain directly to the gospel, as well as many ambiguous phrases to explain “key” aspects. For example, “Just accept Jesus into your heart and you will be saved.” What does it mean to accept Jesus into your heart? I’ve heard it all my life and, although it’s apparently figurative, I’m still not sure what that means. Or how about, “You must make Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life.” That sounds like more of a dedication/discipleship statement than a salvation statement.

Back in Bible College I had Dr. Charles C. Ryrie for Soteriology and he challenged us with a story that went something like this:

You’re walking along on the sidewalk when suddenly there is a massive car accident and a man is thrown out of his car, lying on the street pavement dying. Someone rushes over to help him, sees that he only has 30 seconds left to live, looks up and recognizes you as a Christian. They beckon you over and say, “This person only has 30 seconds left to live. Quick, share the gospel with them!” What do you say?

This definitely got me thinking back in college and is provoking many thoughts in my interns, too. What needs to be communicated to the dying man in that 30 seconds and what can be left out? What’s essential for him to know and believe for salvation and what’s not?

Unless there’s a lot of extra “stuff” thrown in, thirty seconds is more than enough time to fully explain the gospel in clear terms that any unchurched person can understand. The gospel is a lot simpler than most Christians make it out to be.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Daniel in the Old Testament, specifically the following:

Daniel 6:4
Then the other administrators and princes began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize. He was faithful and honest and always responsible.” (NLT)

Daniel stands out to me as an example of what Godly manhood is all about. Job has been this figure to me for some time now. The book of Job starts out by saying,

Job 1:1
“Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion.” (The Message)

What an example for us men to follow! But lately my thoughts have shifted from the example of Job to the life of Daniel. Here’s a man who was appointed as one of the highest officials in the entire kingdom and naturally draws the envy of those below him. Those who were jealous try to plot his demise, but, after a thorough and critical evaluation, they could not find a single fault in his character or work habits. The only way to catch him in something foul was to intentionally pervert a commitment in his life to be something offensive to the kingdom. What did these envious men find in Daniel’s life to be the strongest commitment in which to trap him? His commitment to prayer.

I ask myself the obvious application: if someone were to closely watch my every moment, both public and private, would anything be found that’s less than honorable? If my work was closely analyzed, my motives evaluated, and my actions scrutinized, would the result be anything less than an obvious commitment to holiness and righteousness? To answer in all honesty, I don’t know the answer to that question. Maybe that alone should indicate something to me. If someone needed something in which to trap me, would my commitment to prayer be the best point of attack? Probably not.

My fear is that my response has the potential to become very much works-based in motivation to be a “better person” on the outside rather than being based on my heart’s response to Christ’s love and mercy. This conviction has lain heavy on my heart for several weeks now and so far I’ve seen my depraved nature react both ways. Hopefully, though, I’ll increasingly see myself grow in a worshipful response to the holy lifestyle to which my Lord calls me: to live a life that is above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2), a workman approved who has no reason to be ashamed (2 Timothy 2:15).

I’m getting pretty tired of reading blogs and articles that condemn the youth pastor position as not being a credible Biblical church role. I understand all their arguments why youth pastors shouldn’t be called “pastors” and why it’s not a God-inspired position and blah blah blah, but can I be as arrogant to say that I disagree? It really comes down to an issue of hermeneutics, I guess, so it’s kinda pointless to continue arguing when both parties come from different principles for interpreting scripture. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter what they think since I know the Lord’s calling on my life and that I am obediently following Him to the best of my ability. No one can deter me from that. As members of the body of Christ, though, I have the freedom to say they’re wrong but still enjoy fellowship with them if the opportunity arises — let’s just agree to disagree and talk about something that doesn’t directly attack my passion in life and my position in it.

As far as I understand scripture, when it describes the roles of pastors and the church, there are some very specific instructions for what’s expected. These are absolutes that are unquestionable. However, the model of the early church I do not think is a prescription that mandates we imitate the exact same thing today — rather, it’s a description of what they did in their day that encourages us to be creative in meeting the needs of our day. Paul was a church planter and moved to a new church every three years or so. Does that mean that pastors today must not stay in one place longer than three years? No. I am a youth pastor and am clearly created to serve teenagers. Does that mean everyone must serve teenagers the way I do? No. The question really comes down to whether one believes the New Testament examples are prescriptions for ministry today or only descriptions of what they did that give principles for us today. My position is the latter. Two-thousand years have passed since the early church and the game is still the same, but the playing field is completely different.

That’s my deal and I’m not gonna bother arguing it any more. It really doesn’t make a difference to me if you call me “pastor” or “director” or “coordinator” or whatever fits your theological position. In my mind, function is much more important than title. Just let me follow the Lord’s calling on my life and please don’t discourage others who are doing the same.

James 1:2-18 (NLT)
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

If you need wisdom–if you want to know what God wants you to do–ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do….

God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him….

Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven’s lights. Unlike them, he never changes or casts shifting shadows. In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession.