Be Still

I am not always patient. It isn't that I refuse to wait for things, or that I get bored. I can easily go into a waiting room and sit and wait with nothing but my mind for company for a couple hours and I am fine. That isn't really the kind of patience that I am talking about. Although most people tend to think of that as the only kind of patience.

No, the kind of patience that I am talking about is being unable to be still. Maybe I am not alone in this. Maybe some of you aren't great at being still either. I have a lot of friends who have just graduated from college. This is such a major step in their lives. Some of you are just graduating from high school or are starting new careers. I don't know where all of you are in your lives, but I do know that for many of us, there is a rush to be at the next step.

I can say this is 100% true for me. I would love to say that it hasn't always been like this, but it really has. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be in high school. In high school I wanted to be in college. As soon as the church plant that I worked for closed, I was ready for my next ministry. At least I thought I was.

That is what made me so impatient. I was so ready to be doing what God had for me. I would got so frustrated when God wasn't immediately opening up doors. Because I am impatient. Fortunately God is patient. And He is faithful.

At some point, you are also going to be tempted to be impatient about the next stage in your life. Instead, remember Psalm 46. It is a beautiful psalm of encouragement. It starts off with,

God is our refuge and strength,                                                                                                    an ever present help in trouble.  

The weird thing is that from there it then goes on to explain all about the trouble. There are natural disasters and wars. Really just a whole lot of terrible stuff. Mountains are falling into seas. Have you ever wondered how many more mountains there were back then? It seems like mountains are constantly falling into seas...

Here is the take away. For God to be a help in times of trouble, there have to actually be times of trouble. You couldn't call a car a race car unless it actually races. God is a help in times of trouble because those times will inevitably come and then He will actually help. He doesn't simply sit idly by and watch.

The weird thing is that while He won't sit idly by, that is pretty much what he wants us to do. Verse 10 goes on to say:

He says, "Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

Be still and know that I am God. That is our role when all of these terrible things are happening all around us. Wait and remember that I got this. That is what God wants us to do. It is so easy to get impatient. It is easy to wonder why God isn't moving forward. But a lot of times in our lives, we just have to be still and know that He is God.

Complaining louder that God isn't moving fast enough will not make God move any faster than the speed He knows He needs to go.  A father who is driving his children on a road trip would never drive faster and faster at a reckless speed simply because the children are in the backseat screaming that they want to be there now. That of course would be insane. Instead of complaining that you want to be there, start looking out the window and seeing what all is around you (Hopefully you aren't in Kansas).

Now before I wrap up this up, I want to make sure there is no confusion. Waiting and being still does not involve sitting on a couch playing lots of video games instead of looking for a job. That's not what being still is. Being still is peace. Having peace that God is in control.

Now with that said, be still and know that He is God.

A Little of What to Expect at PVCC

Ok, so I am having a really hard time not being super excited. I have also realized that I haven't been writing like I should, and I really want to rectify that, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Hold on, I will be right back...
Ok, now that I have the birds cooking in the oven, I can tell you what I want to write about: why I am so excited (It should also be noted that when I get excited my jokes get far worse).

Many of you know that I have been hired as the Worship and Youth Minister at Pleasant View Church of Christ in Angola, IN. Now technically, I do not start until June 15th, but if you know me at all, you will know that I lack a certain ability to not do things. I jump in with both feet. I like to think and dream and plan. It's how God wired me, and I am totally cool with that. Obviously this means that I have already been thinking and dreaming and planning and all sorts of other things that pertain to the work that has been given to me.

This brings me to the point of this post. I want to let you all into my mind when it comes to ministry, the church, and worship. There are a couple of videos that I think sum up nicely where I am...



I want to be as contemporvent as possible. Ok, just kidding. Obviously this was a parody. I'm pretty sure that no one is looking at this video and thinking that it is exactly how church should be done.  However, while I know they zero in on the fact that it is a modern worship service, but I hope that none of you focus on the style of the service as much of the heart of the service.

That is the real issue in this video and it is one of my greatest convictions in ministry. It is true that the overproduction of some modern worship services can be somewhat off-putting. It easy when there are a lot of moving parts to have to think through the impact of every small detail in the service. Because of this, it feels ridged. It is almost as if they plan the Spirit of God out of the building. But this can equally be a traditional church.

The real issue in the service of the video is a lack of authenticity. This is true in a lot of churches, from churches that have screaming electric guitars, to churches that have had the same piano and organ since they were invented, and even to churches that haven't ever used an instrument. Style does not make or break worship. There isn't a particular style of worship that solves anything. It is about the heart of worship that matters.

A word that you will hear me use way more than you will ever want to hear me say anything is authentic (this includes all variations such as authenticity). Being authentic in your worship is a choice. It is a choice to worship God even when the music isn't your favorite this means that if the worship is too old for your liking, you still choose to worship God. If the worship is too new for your liking, you still choose to worship God. We owe it to God to lend our voices to His praise.

Authentic worship isn't about what is happening on the stage. It isn't even entirely about what is happening in the church as a whole. Authentic worship is about being glad to come before God.

Hopefully this has given you some more perspective about who I am. I know that many of you at PVCC haven't had much opportunity to speak with me or dive into the depths of conversation about the Church and ministry. This is a small snapshot and I look forward to the conversations that are sure to follow with many of you. See you in a few weeks.

What Wipeout and Christianity Have In Common

Christianity is hard. At least that is what I hear. 

Then again I also hear that Christianity is easy...

Okay, now I'm just super confused. Is it easy or is it hard? 

For the time being, let's just go with both. Christianity is easy. But it is also pretty hard. I like to think of it like the popular show, Wipeout. The premise behind Wipeout is one of the easiest you will find: Get from point A to point B. No one gets confused by what you are supposed to do in the show. It isn't like you will ever see a contestant take off running in the wrong direction. Wipeout in that sense is incredibly easy. 

But we all are well aware of the fact that Wipeout is really not easy. At all. Because point A and point B are not simply two spots on a leisurely path through a park. No, there are obstacles. Obstacles with the entire purpose of not only getting contestants off the path, but also hurting them in the process. Well, maybe not hurting them seriously, but some of those have to be pretty painful. 

So let's look at Christianity in this light. First Christianity is easy. At least in premise. Christianity really boils down to following Christ. We try to get from point A which looks a lot like the super broken sinful self, to point B which looks a lot like the person of Jesus Christ. That is really the goal. Jesus said that the entire law can be summed up by two commands: Love God and love people. Easy. That is all there is to it really. You could pretty much explain this to a child and they would understand. Christianity is not complicated.

Sure you can certainly discuss things in theology that can get super complicated. Just like you can really dive into the physics that are at play in Wipeout, but when you really get down to it, Christianity is not that hard. 

Now I say that to say that Christianity is really hard. Sure it's easy enough to know what to do. the problem is there is another factor at work that really doesn't want you to get to point B. There are spiritual forces at work that are basically launching tennis balls at you while you are trying to get through the obstacles of life. And yes, there will absolutely be obstacles in life. Christians lose loved ones. Christians get laid off and fired. Christian relationships end. Christian friends stab each other in the back. I'm not saying this is all how it is supposed to be, but they do happen. 

Too often people go into Christianity assuming that once they become a Christian they gain some super power that combines Superman with a ghost and a ninja. So no matter the obstacle they simply avoid it or power through it effortlessly as if it weren't there. Obstacles don't go away. 

While obstacles don't go away, there is some good news. When you are a Christian there will always be a way for you to get back on the course. There will always be a hand that will help you over a wall that you don't think you can climb. That is what Christ offers. It isn't that you suddenly become better. You are just as incapable of getting through the obstacles alone as you ever were. You just get to go through it with help. 

So yes, Christianity is easy. And yes, Christianity is hard. And yes, I have started three sentences in a row with conjunctions, and every English teacher I have ever had will find this paragraph disgraceful. So here is the trick: keep striving for point B. You will fall and you will struggle. More importantly you will always have help. You will always have an ally. Then when you finally finish you can here, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." 

Doesn't point B sound amazing?

Tales From the Boring

I subbed today at a local high school. This isn't really a strange event, though. I mean I sub pretty much everyday. Today was just a particularly boring day. Seriously I did virtually nothing. I gave an assignment and let them work while they talked quietly. Thrilling, I know.  I did, however, get to do one thing throughout the day. As the students got louder I would warn them that they were getting too loud. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. how do I get that job? Pretty much just apply....It isn't hard in Fort Wayne.

Despite the crushing boredom, I did come away with some pretty cool sociological research. High schoolers can't stay quiet. At least not a whole group. And by 'quiet' I don't mean 'silent.' They can definitely stay silent if you make them. Some even do that on their own, but ask them to keep a low volume and that is just right out.

What's funny about this is that it always happens in a predictable process. It starts with the warning. That is the lowest their volume gets. At this point everyone is whispering. Then someone either gets bold or just slightly excited and their volume gets a little bit louder...enter the new normal. That is now the volume that almost everyone now talks. Their response times are incredible, too, because it sounds like a jump in volume. Slowly this process repeats, and the volume goes from quiet to loud and it is fairly hard to notice for a while.

As I was noticing this trend, it made me think a lot about our churches. This is almost the exact same process that allows worldly culture into the church. Just look back through history. As the church begins to accept more of society in the church, more then creeps in. Then someone calls the warning that it is getting too loud and it drops back again, more than it needed to. (Enter the Amish and Non-Instrumental churches)

It is this process that I have been noticing a lot in my generation. We are getting pretty loud. Now I'm not calling for a reset, and I definitely don't want to fall back to a whisper; that is too far, but we do need to check how much culture we allow into the church. This is no clearer than it is in the area of sexuality. I know, sexuality has been beat like a long-dead horse, but it is a very good benchmark for how my generation views culture.

There are a lot of people in the 18-35 age bracket that have effectively removed sexual sin from their minds. Its like its not real anymore. They don't see a problem with sex before marriage. They don't see a problem with porn. They don't see a problem with homosexuality. It is all in the name of being more acceptable to culture. Here is the problem, Christianity is not supposed to be acceptable to culture. Christianity is supposed to be separate from culture. *Please note that this doesn't mean having a completely different sub-culture that is essentially culture's younger brother with all of his hand-me-downs. What I mean by separate is that as Christians we are meant to be distinguished by the choices we make, the things we endorse.

Christianity sets a pretty high bar when it comes to sexuality. Our sexuality is meant to glorify God. It is an act that God has blessed, but just like any gift from God, he lays down the ground rules for how it works. It is a covenent union between a man and a woman. The problem that I see is not the sinning. That isn't the problem. That problem becomes when we no longer acknowledge a sin as a sin.

Sexual immorality has become the norm in young Christian culture. I often hear the excuse that we can't expect purity in this hypersexualized culture. I don't buy that. Namely because purity was something that was expected of Christians in the hypersexualized culture of first century Rome. Last I checked we don't have sexual relations with prostitutes as part of the worship to state-sanctioned deities. Christian purity was one of the main ways that Christians were different than the culture of the rest of the world.

So this goes out to my generation of Christians: We are getting a little loud. I am not proposing that we live like Puritans, but please can we start checking how much culture is creeping into our theological thought?

Say Something, Church

If you know me at all, you know that I love music. And I mean I LOVE music. There is rarely a time when there isn't music being played in our home, whether by me personally or on the various speakers that find themselves in our house. Music is a huge part of who I am. Music is a huge part of me, largely because of the honesty that is found in music. It's hard to be fake when you are singing a song. You sing about the things that you care about. If you don't, it is obvious by the lack of passion in the performance.

Anyway, enough ranting...

There is a song that Alyssa and I haven't been able to get enough of lately. The song is "Say Something."  It is by a new group called A Great Big World. Take a listen here:



Admittedly, Alyssa is largely a fan of this song because she is a huge Christina Aguilera fan...please don't judge her too severely. Meanwhile, I find it beautiful for a number of other reasons. Namely, the honesty. I love the honesty in this song. There are a lot of different situations represented in this video. Real situations that people deal with every single day.

Beyond these situations, I can't help but listen to this song through the ears of someone who is about to give up on church (please note: I am not about to give up on church). So many people are right there, especially people who are in my age bracket.

According to Barna Research Group, 6 out of 10 young people leave the church, either permanently or for an extended period of time. There are a lot of reasons why this is; reasons that I won't get into in this post. The important thing is that no one gives up on their core beliefs easily. People don't just wake up one day and say, "Ya know what? I don't believe in this whole church and God thing." That doesn't happen. It is something that is wrestled with. It is fought with.

And there are a lot of young people in your church right now who are going through this battle. Young people who are calling out to the church, "Say Something! I'm giving up on You." The problem is that most churches have a culture of pithy niceties. If we ask how someone is, we expect them to say "fine." If they don't we drop an "I'll pray for you," and call it a day. We don't expect honest transparency. We don't expect  honesty in church.

Young people see this. They have genuine struggles. They see things in the church that don't line up with culture. They have questions about sexuality, inclusivism, and science. When they voice their opinions they are immediately dismissed or judged. Because of this, it calls everything they believe into question. Their whole faith.

So say something, church. Say something. Because we are losing an entire generation of youth and young adults that genuinely want to be a part of the church. They want to, but because of a lack of honesty and transparency they are giving up.

False Humility

In Matthew 25 we read about a parable that Jesus told. It is commonly known as the parable of the talents. A talent was simply a form of currency. It would be sort of like us saying the parable of the quarters. Or dimes. You get the idea. It was a type of coin. Fortunately for us, the parable of the talents is about not using the things that God has entrusted into our care. This includes money, but it also includes, well, talents.

There are really so many lessons that we can learn from this parable. I will give you the short version of it. A wealthy man was leaving town. When he did, he left three of his servants money to care for; three varying amounts. Two of these men invested the dough. One went to the back yard and buried it. When the wealthy man returned two had earned an investment on his return. One had not. Who do you think he was mad at?

Now, my college professors would likely be mad at me for making points about the text that the author wasn't intending to make, but I am going out on a limb here anyway. I really think we can learn a lesson on humility. Namely, what humility is.

First, humility is not pretending like you don't have something that you actually do have. This is the most common misconception of humility. So many people are afraid of being good at things. Of being great. Of success. They see these things as not being humble. They think that if they acknowledge the fact that they are good at something, then they are arrogant about it.

This just isn't true. You can't pretend like you haven't been given something that you have.A baseball player who is a 5-tool Major League caliper player isn't going to go out and play for Big Earl's rec league softball team. Why? Because that would clearly be a major waste of the talent that has been given to him.

That is basically what the man who buried the talents did. For all practical purposes he pretended like he didn't have any talents. He did nothing with them. He had been entrusted with those talents, to use those talents. Instead he acted like he had none. 

Okay, so if we know what humility isn't then we are a little bit closer to knowing what humility is. Humility is acknowledging where the talents come from. God gave us talents, just like the wealthy man gave talents to his servants. How did they use those talents? They didn't go out and buy whatever they wanted. Rather, they used those talents to make a return on their master's money. Why? Because they knew who the talents belonged to.

So where does that leave us? We have all been given talents. God gives people things to use. Some people have been given A LOT of talents. Some people less. Really all of that is okay. The important thing is that we are humble with our talents. So let's not pretend like we don't have abilities, but let's instead use those abilities for our master's benefit.

What Ricky Bobby Can Teach Us About Christmas

"Dear baby Jesus! Dear sweet baby Jesus!" I know generally most people wouldn't consider Talladega Nights to be one of the great holiday film staples of our age. However, I think there is a lesson in there somewhere. And yes this will be short (I mean there is only so far a religious post that centers around a Will Ferrell film can go, right?).

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's totally fine. Allow me to clarify. In the film, the main character, Ricky Bobby, begins to pray for the meal that they are about to eat as a family. Rather than addressing his prayer to Jesus, he specifically prays to baby Jesus. In fact his Father-in-law who tends to be the voice of reason actually calls him on this. Eventually he finally yells, "He was a grown man!"

I love this scene. It is far and away the funniest scene of the movie, a movie that really was just okay. But this scene also speaks a lot about people's mindsets around Christmas. Christmas tends to revolve around baby Jesus. Well, baby Jesus and Santa Claus, but we can leave that for another time. and honestly, I understand the focus on baby Jesus. After all, Christmas is all about the coming of Christ, and he did come as a baby. So there is that. You can't avoid baby Jesus.

The problem isn't with baby Jesus. The problem is with stopping at baby Jesus. "He was a grown man!" That is why baby Jesus matters. Is it significant that God chose to come to earth in the most vulnerable way possible? Of course it is. I'm not trying to undermine that, but the reason that the coming of Jesus was so significant is because that little baby grew into a man. A man that turned water into wine. A man that healed the broken. A man that fed the hungry. A man that brought the dead to life. A man that rose himself back to life! That is why baby Jesus is so incredible. Because the vulnerable child would become the Lord of all creation.

So yes remember the coming of Christ this Christmas. Remember the fact that God didn't come into this world with a million angels and chariots of fire, but as an infant. Remember the proclamation of the shepherds, the magi from the east, and the incredibly odd assortment of animals that seemed to help Mary and Joseph in a Cinderella-esque way during the delivery (I don't know if this is true. I'm mostly basing that on Nativity scenes).

Remember all of it, but most of all remember Christ the man that came into this world to bring life to the dead. 

And that is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.......or Ricky Bobby.