No, actually, I'm not tracking...

I'm about to admit something that might get me banned from some churches.

Lots of hymns creep me out.

There I said it. I feel better.
I'm all for metaphors and hyperboles and singing about the blood of Christ that washes away sin, but I think a lot of the songs that we sing just plain freak some people out... and some things we say too...

Imagine you get invited over to a party by a friend and all of a sudden the DJ puts on a song about taking a dip in a fountain filled with some guys blood. I hope you'd be freaked out.

I don't think hymns are sinful, and I'm sure there are lots of people that really connect with those lyrics. I'm also sure those people grew up in church or have gone there for long enough to get all the subtle hidden messages tucked away in those songs.

I just think we need to be careful. If our primary job as a church is to reach people with the Gospel of Christ and make them into disciples we should probably be careful about the things they hear and don't understand when they walk through our doors for the first time. I think sometimes Christians speak their own language. We assume that everyone knows the Bible story we're referencing, we assume that people understand that the blood that flows is not sadistic and the mansion in glory isn't all we think about. We assume to much, and we all know was assuming makes of u and me...

I think we need to be careful. To think about how people feel when they walk into our churches, and if they're going to be introduced clearly to the gospel by the things we do, or if they're going to spend the whole service wondering what the heck an "ebenezer" is.

You could always just go read Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley instead of my blog though... He says it a lot better than I do. I'd recommend doing that. 

Sports Parents

One of the best parts of my job as a pastor is being involved in the lives of the people I minister to. For me specifically, since I work primarily with youth, I get to attend sporting events. I've begun to notice a few trends in parents who watch their students play. There are many different types of parents, from those who threaten to sue the officials for one more bad call to those who sit quietly and wonder what all the fuss is about. I decided, for the sake of clarity, that I would create a set of categories so next time you are at a game you know exactly who you're sitting by.

1. "My Child Carries This Team on Her Back" 

- aka: "Single Child Family" "Private School"

- Characteristics: This parent is yelling. Not cheering. Yelling. At the refs. At the coach. At the other team. Every time their offspring sits on the bench to take a water break it becomes a personal offense against generations of Smiths. Oftentimes this parent doesn't know or care what the score is, they just know it would be higher if their kid were on the floor.

2. "Run Down the Field and Hit Another Basket"

- aka: "Brought My Knitting with me" "Jack, did you bring your cup?" "My Son Thinks You're Beautiful"

- Characteristics: This parent is also yelling, but not to be confused with parent 1, this parent is cheering. This parent is cheering for everything. Baskets. Touchdowns. RBIs. Fouls. Defense. The Cheer leaders. Your 8th grade crush. They may not know if this is basketball or track but they do know that their team better win... as long as the other team doesn't have to lose. 

3. "He Reminds Me of Me When I Was His Age"

- aka: "Dad" "The Unpayed Assistant Coach"

- Characteristics: You'll find this person somewhere between screaming advice from the drills his child was coerced into doing after school and mumbling statistics from the state tourney in '83. You've also seen him sitting on the bleachers during practice spewing well meaning advice to the team and muttering about how much more they used to run when he played.

4. "I Want to Cheer But I'm Just Not Sure"

- aka: "It's the Thought that counts" "You're always a winner in my heart"

- Characteristics: Sitting next to someone with anxious eyes, fidgety hands, but hushed silence occasionally broken by the first few syllables of "Way to Go Kid!"? You're sitting next to parent 4. Ever supportive on the inside but ever timid on the outside, parent four thinks the world of her daughter but just isn't sure if it would be right for her to yell or when the appropriate time to cheer is. She will also be caught making horrified faces at parent number 1 because she doesn't understand how they could be so rude.

5. "I'm Here for Ya Son... While I check my email"

-aka: "Hey Mrs Cheerleading Coach, I'm Bill." 

-Characteristics: He's the one guy shouting out advice that is helpful, but irrelevant. "Defense is the best offense"... while his son's at the free throw line.

Who else have you seen at high school sporting events?

3 Reasons Confession is Important

I have a confession. That confession is that I do not really like the idea of confessing.
I much prefer a comfortable arms length relationship with basically everyone. It's easier that way. If there are certain things no one knows then there are certain things that no one has to know about. And if no one has to know about it then I can pretend it doesn't really exist.

Secrets Secrets are no fun. But they are very helpful in keeping up peoples perception of me.

But then again I am a pastor which means I really do need to teach and accept the whole Bible, not just the parts that I like. There is that verse in James that talks about confessing to one another and praying for one another so that we may be healed.

Darn.

This verse has been running through my mind lately. I wonder what it would look like to live a life where we actually confessed to one another and prayed for one another. I wonder how my life would change if I lived with nothing to hide. A life with no dark closets where I keep all the stuff I can't force myself to throw away, but hope no one ever finds out I actually owned. That closet where most of us keep that members only jacket or studded belt from high school or that shirt that had shoulder pads... Some of us just still wear them like there's nothing that needed to change... (which is for a different blog post whether you mean shoulder pads or unforgiveness).
What would life look like it I didn't try to convince everyone that I wasn't weird and just admitted that I really don't want to get rid of that leather jacket I'm never doing to wear again, just because it's nostalgic? What would life look like if I didn't try to hide the fact that I struggle with things? If when my accountability partners ask "how's it going?" I said more than "pretty good lately, you?"?

Anyone uncomfortable yet? Or am I the only one who has used "pretty good" as a really broad and vague term before?

What would it look like if we actually confessed?
I've got a pretty good idea. I bet if we really started to confess to people that we trust then those people would really start to pray for us. I bet healing would come pretty soon after. I bet I'd never really be worried about what people find out ever again too.

Here are three reasons I think that.

1. Keeping deep secrets is like holding a lit match in one hand and a gallon of gas in the other. You're perfectly safe as long as things go like you planned, but the second you trip everything you knew is blown to bits. And we all know just how often life actually goes as planned.
2. It is impossible to really effect someone when you have them at arms length. Try it. Stand up straight exactly arms length away and try to push someone over without getting any closer to them. Unless you have inhumanly large fingertip muscles that's impossible. In order to have an affect on someones life you have to lean into them. In order to pray for real healing you need to see the hurt. And your prayers when you lean in will accomplish a lot.
3. Because you can never be confident in who you are and who you were made to be until you realize that you are loved in spite of your flaws. Jesus Christ knows literally every thought you've ever had. He knew them before you were even born. He died for you before you thought them, even though He knew you would think them. You can't mess up your way out of his love, and in true Christian community when you are in honest confession, trying to grow and seek healing, you can't mess up your way out of love.

**I'm not implying that we should start posting facebook statuses about our sins. Privacy is important. What I am implying is that a doctor can never help a problem until you tell him where it hurts and that the coughing might come from the chain smoking. To continue that analogy doctor patient privilege is a big deal. You need to be able to really trust and depend on the people you confess to.

So I'm thinking about a life with nothing to hide. It's scary. I don't like it.
But I think it might be worth it.
What do you think?

James 5:16 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

Captivated

The most important thing a Christian leader can do is be captivated by Christ.

There so many things crowding our vision. It is easy to let our lens get fogged up by the things we are doing and leading and loving and serving and completely lose sight of Christ.

Sometimes we do so much for Him that we forget Him.

We must be captivated by Christ.

It is out of Christ that we will find rest, restoration, identity, calling, energy, motivation, and the ability to give wholeheartedly to the things we are most passionate about.

That means being willing to stop looking at what we feel like we need to do and simply be overcome by our Lord again.

I need to be captivated by Christ yet again.

"One thing I ask from the Lord,

    this only do I seek:that I may dwell in the house of the Lord    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord    and to seek him in his temple." -Psalm 27:4

Enough

I constantly find myself in internal conflict. 

I find myself conflicted because I know in my head and my heart the never ending grace of Christ, but I still find myself trying to carry my own burdens. 

And they are heavy.

Sometimes it's as if I think I can be good enough if I try hard enough.

Sometimes it's like I think that God needs me to be better.

Sometimes it's as if I forget the cross. 

Sometimes I see the overwhelming reality that I can never be good enough for Christ, I can never remove my sin, I can never overcome my brokenness. 

It is then that I see that Christ is always good enough to make up for me, always strong enough to cover my sin, always great enough to overcome my brokenness. Christ is always and forever enough to save me. I never have to be enough, because He is.

People don't need to see perfection in me, they need to see growth. They need to see grace. 

They need to see that even though I never will be, Christ is enough.

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1-4

Effortless Education

I believe there are two types of learners. There are those who sit on a couch, at a desk, in a classroom, or on a campus, and wait for some new knowledge or revolutionary idea to come sit next to them and tell them about herself. Then there are those who go find knowledge and ideas, yank them out of bed and badger them until they understand and can apply that knowledge in a beneficial way.

I think that in one form or another we all fall into one of these two stereotypes. Now, I realize they are stereotypes and no stereotypes are 100% true, but allow me to take a bit of liberty here. I think that this generalization, if applied to everyone, would show a distinct difference between people, both current and historic, who are making a difference and who are not. If there is one thing that everyone who has ever done anything great has in common it is a lack of apathy when it comes to bettering themselves. They all have a "go out and get it" attitude instead of "wait till it gets here" one.

It is very easy nowadays to think of education as someone else's responsibility. It is either our teacher, or pastor, or mentor, or boss's job to make sure we are learning. That is simply not true. It is their job to make sure that there are constantly things that you can access easily to learn. The onus for education is primarily on the learner. This does not mean that teachers have no responsibility. It is their job to teach things in ways that facilitate learning and lend themselves to the context of the learner, but it is not their job to make that knowledge make a difference, and it is impossible for them to do so.

If we truly take seriously the call on each of our lives to become the best that we can be so that we can serve Christ the best that we can we must ask ourselves a few important questions.

What am I doing right now to become all that I can be?

Am I seeking knowledge or waiting for it?

Who am I seeking out to learn from?

Who is my accountability?

What difference is the knowledge I have making on myself and those under my influence? 

Discipleship and Parenting

First off, I'm not a parent, and I'm very happy with that. Part of my job description is to give teenagers Jesus and a RedBull and give them back, and I like it like that.

But there is a lot to be learned about parenting from working with teenagers, and I'm beginning to see distinct  parallels between parenting and discipleship. (maybe that's why the writer of Proverbs said to train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it. Maybe you could read it as: disciple your children in the way they should go and they will not depart from it.)

Lately I've been rereading a book from college called The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert Coleman. The book lays out piece by piece the plan of Jesus to reach the world. You could sum it up simply by saying God's plan to evangelize the world is by making disciples. In chapter 5, specifically, the author talks about demonstration. He basically claims that one of the keys to Jesus' discipleship was that he let people watch the way he lived.

In other words the heart of discipleship lies in living your life alongside someone so that they can emulate you. If 2 +2 still makes 4 then I'd bet the people we disciple the most are our spouses and our children.

The terrifying fact of the matter is that children and teens are sponges. They absorb everything. They either become just like the adults they are regularly around or they rebel against them, and the funny thing is that more often than not when someone rebels against something, they still emulate it.

Humans will become like whatever they feel the strongest towards, and teenagers feel the strongest towards their parents, in one way or another.

Gandhi said "be the change you wish to see in the world." I would say "Be the person you wish your child (disciple) to become, because, more than likely, you are the person they will become."

Granted there are anomalies, children who push back against unhealthy parents and healthily become something different, but those children usually had another mentor to facilitate that.

The most powerful tool for changing a life and changing the world is becoming someone worth watching, and then letting someone watch. Let someone watch you succeed and watch you fail, and let them watch the grace of Christ lift you back up to keep pursuing Him.