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Monday Morning Brief – 3.9.09

March 9, 2009 By 1 Comment

Highlights of the Week… 1.  Taking Nathan to buy the new U2 album.  I can’t play catch with the 10 month old yet but I dream of the day when he pushes me in my wheelchair as we buy the physical album of U2’s Greatest Unreleased work in 2067.  That’s going to be a good day.  2. Youth Leader Enroute Training Day.  We took our wonderful youth leaders to this Sonlife training day.  It’s about exploring transformational youth ministry with God’s narrative.  It’s been pretty good and makes a great day of training and our other youth pastor, Tim blogged about it here.  3.  We had our fantasy baseball draft yesterday.  Commissioner Tim Nye is at the helm.  I’m confident that he will do a much better job than Bud Selig.  My team name is, “I Am Wolverine!” so we hope to live up to the name. 

Disappointments of the Week …  ARoid.  But I was smart enough not to draft him ;-)

Listening to … U2’s No Line on the Horizon, Homebrewed Christianity podcast 44 (Evolution and Faith with Daniel Harrell), Mars Hill Bible podcast 2.15.09 (A Life that Shines with Jeff Manion)

Watching … the best show on television – Lost. 

Student Ministry Update … Our students are still loving They Like Jesus But not the Church video curriculum.  Doing some rethinking about certain things in our ministry.  Praying for wisdom.

Feeling … good about this current class at school.  (although I’m a little behind in certain parts.)

Looking Forward to … Amidst the Powers Conference with Evan.

Understatment of the week …  In a Washington Post article discussing the need and cost for super fast trains:

“But experts and government officials caution that despite the billions, the amounts are still not nearly enough to pay for the kind of sleek “bullet train” systems that crisscross Europe and Japan at speeds of 200 mph or higher. The California project, for example, would cost an estimated $45 billion, including $9 billion in state bonds that voters approved last year.

“It sounds like a lot of money to Americans, but it’s really just a start,” said James P. RePass, president of the National Corridors Initiative, a nonprofit rail advocacy group. “We’re not going to wake up in a year and see a bullet train. But we are going to see much faster service for relatively little money.” 

LOL – I know he used the adjective “relatively” but it still made me laugh.

Filed Under: Reflective

A Brief Thought on the new U2 Album

March 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Like almost everyone who breathes oxygen, I love the music of U2.  And like so many who pledged their allegiance to the epic works during the days of Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby and who lived through the American reactions of Zooropa & Pop (which were brilliantly misunderstood albums not only ahead of their time but in a different dimension.  Some call it Europe but I’m not sure it’s that easily identifiable), you always have a bit of anxiety whenever a new U2 album drops.

I understand why many people despise Bono and his band.  They’re so big that they are “The Man” and we all know it’s cool to hate the man.  I will still never forget the argument I had with someone who told me that if I wanted to listen to real rock’n roll, I needed to listen to Aerosmith.  We all know that Steven Tyler has a life-size poster of Bono above his bed and we all know the best thing about Aerosmith is Liv Tyler. It’s ok, there will always be people who hate God too.   Anyway, while it is not the Achtung Baby reinvention we were promised, No Line on the Horizon is still fantastic.  

Of course so much has been written already, but here are some of the posts I’ve appreciated.

Don Miller’s post was really insightful.  (What else would you expect from Don?).  I don’t know how to summarize it without creating a  long post so you can just read it.

From a NY Times article:

“How do you puncture pop consciousness with a tune anymore?” Bono said later over a pint of Guinness in the restaurant of the venerable hotel Claridge’s. “That’s actually your first job as a songwriter.”

A conversation with Bono is a free-associative adventure. Between thoughts about the album he dispensed fascinating digressions, casual but carefully placed on and off the record. He gave a full-voiced demonstration of Italian opera vowels and Frank Sinatra style — heads swiveled nearby — and mused on cathedral architecture; he described encounters with presidential candidates and plans for his future columns on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. He spoke fondly about his band mates as characters he’s still trying to figure out, about songs as bursts of serendipity and about what he wants in a performance: “spastic elastic energy.” more.”

Filed Under: Music, U2 Tagged With: ,

Offense versus Defense in Student Ministry

March 9, 2009 By 3 Comments

A little while back, my friend Eric, told me that our youth ministry is geared more towards offense then defense.   While either/or is not my language, my initial thought was it’s probably better to be that than the opposite. Like so many (especially youth pastors), I am tired of being part of the Church that appears to be cryogenically frozen in a defensive posture.  Even worse, should they break that position, it is only to get into a mode of judgment or criticism.  

Here’s some of the greater context of what we are trying to do.  Our students know some of my passions and fears.  The passions are somewhat normal youth pastor ones like family, friends, coffee, etc. I enjoy discussions that intersect faith, culture, theology, issues and the tensions that exist within these conversations.  Add music, movies, books, wifi, and baseball, and I could live on any “island” ;-).  Following Christ faithfully in our context is a topic that I believe we I am always discussing.

My fears are somewhat normal too.  Like falling out of the Superman ride because the 16 year old who wanted to be a life guard at the Jersey shore pressed the “Release All” button when reaching for his Red Bull or drowning in the pool at one of our summer parties because someone jumped on my head, broke my neck and I stayed under the water and no one saved me because they thought I was kidding and so I drowned (wow what an awkward moment that would be).  Like I said, normal fears.  Our students also know that as youth leaders, our real fear is that our students will abandon their faith as they leave the safety of our homes and youth groups.

Because we believe that God is not afraid of our questions nor is the truth trying to hide, we not only encourage our students to ask their questions but try to provoke them.   At first the temptation is to be too provocative and do your favorite old school Tony Campolo impersonation every week.  Certainly there is a goodness in quoting a brilliant moment from a conference you attended but remember that you are at a different starting point when you hear that quote.  (Not saying to avoid it, saying to be careful.  Anyway, I digress). 

I have found that if we encourage our starting points to be honest from within our contexts and see if and how we are being faithful to Christ, then there is a relevant and worthy discussion to be had.  Those discussions ought to be sensitive enough to welcoming doubts and questions.  I sometimes voice them like “Some of you love the Lord so much but you feel guilty because the ideas of evolution make a lot of sense to you.  That’s ok, you should think that through.  God is not afraid of our questions but realize the answers take time, discipline, and work.”  This resulted in two students talking to me privately about that. 

I’m describing a starting point and sometimes I find myself guilty of rushing our students past them.  For instance we say that Christianity is the best and most unique of the world religions but if we haven’t explained the virtues and the issues from alternate worldviews, then the statement tends to lack integrity.   Does everything require an 8 week explanation?  Certainly not, but may God give us the wisdom in making the statements we make and modeling the lives we live.

Indeed, some times it is an ideology or a passion that hinders us in our faith journey and we get to the point where we have to sacrifice it in order to worship our Lord.   This is part of the process of life long discipleship that we need to do our part in allowing the Spirit to work through us so their faith be take root.  

Finally, our students know that we love God and we pray they too will love Him with all their hearts mind and soul.  Coffee, books, traveling, even family and great friends are secondary upon coming to an understanding of what Christ is asking of us.  To go back to my friend’s language, it is in this way, that I find Jesus to be the most offensive and so, may we be Spirit-led and model this life.

Filed Under: Student Ministry Tagged With: