My first Youtube Video

don't fall asleep to quickly.

Pure Awesomeness

40

incredible illustrations by a British illustrator named Simon Smith and put them to an Explosions In The Sky song.

A drug to be a better christian

If there was a drug that you could take that made you better at what you do, would you take it? A drug you could get a prescription for at the doctor. It's not illegal.

It would make you a better preacher. It would allow you to have more confidence in presenting the gospel. It would give you more endurance to spend more hours of your day saving the lost or building the kingdom.

What if it also brought you greater clarity and discernment? So you somehow knew just what to say when it was time to say it. Maybe you even felt like you heard God better, not in some kind of foggy, trippy sense, but in clarity, reason, and awareness of your surroundings.

What if it helped you remember things better? Relationships were helped because you remember names and stories better. You can remember large quantities of scripture that before seemed too much, or difficult to do.

If there was a drug, that made you a better disciple, better evangelist, better servant, more loving and disciplined. 1 little white pill per day. would you take it?

what if I told you your church would grow. to incredible numbers. People would raise their hands in response to the message you proclaimed, would you take it?

I'm curious.

Quoting Friends

My friend Mike Schlittler, a pastor who I worked with at a large UM church in town said this during a staff meeting and it stuck with me. This is my memory of his quote.

"John Wesley said the world is my parish, but we have made the parish our world."

Very wise words I think.

Patti on Age of youth pastors

Patti of YMX fame is talking about one of the chapters of my books.

I want to get my youth ministry and church leadership audience to chime in on something, if you will. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Mark Riddle’s new book Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors: A Church Leader’s Guide to Staffing and Leading Youth Pastors. I’m writing a review of the book for YMX, and Mark has graciously agreed to answer a slew of questions I sent him and make this humble blog a stop on his blog book tour.

I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the book’s shortest chapters (12), which addresses the elongation of adolescence and the resulting effect that should have on youth pastor hiring decisions. I asked Mark about it so we will eventually hear his input on this question when the blog tour interview appears.

Let me set the stage a bit. Mark, in Inside the Mind, cites research by Dr. Jeffery Arnett (Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens through the Twenties) which makes a compelling case that, developmentally, the years from 18 to 25 should be considered late adolescence. The characteristics of this developmental stage, Mark argues, should be carefully considered in choosing to hire someone from this cohort as a spiritual leader for those in earlier stages of adolescence.

From Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors, Ch 12, p 82:

If, however, you choose to hire an emerging adult to lead your youth ministry, you must give significant attention to mentoring that person in leadership and discipleship. Teenagers need their youth pastors to have a strong sense of who they are, based on life experiences. They need youth pastors who have a sense of stability in their identities.

Certainly there are men and women in their early to mid-20s who fit the bill, but they are few and far between. Church leaders need to dispel the myth that younger is better for youth ministry leadership. It’s simply not true. In fact, entrusting spiritual leadership of your teenage children to someone who’s still working through the five characteristics [of late adolescence] listed earlier [in the chapter] is irresponsible.

While there is a lot of that which makes good sense to me - considering that car insurance and rental companies have considered this age group less capable of responsible decision-making and judgment in general, and have run their businesses accordingly for, well, ever. That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of youth pastors/minister/directors I have ever had contact with got their start in youth ministry as volunteers or staff as young adults in their early 20s.

So, I’m wondering what you think about this. And, if you agree, what are your constructive ideas for ways to bridge the time from the end of college to age 25 for those who have earned ministry degrees, but are not yet “adults” by this developmental measure?

Go over and see what others are saying in the comment section.
Link

U2- Breathe

"Breathe"

16th of June, nine-oh-five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There’s a few things I need you to know
Three

Coming from a long line of
Traveling sales people on my mother’s side
I wasn’t gonna buy just anyone’s cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you

These days are better than that
These days are better than that

Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down nor out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I’m coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you’re fine, or dying
Please
Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine
But I’m running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease

The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it

Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Yeah, yeah

We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown

Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I’ve found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it’s all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now

Thanks to Mike)

My response to Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeshel has a post about being authentic and real when speaking in a church. He encourages pastors to "bring you" to the table. Here's his post.

It seems incredibly ironic that a pastor who has built his church on video venues would talk about the importance of bringing all of himself to the message. But I'm learning here. and it would be the height of arrogance think I know best and sort of passively aggressively post stuff here without engaging him.

So I posted the following in the comment section of the post. He's a busy guy and frankly may not want to mess with a peon like myself. But we'll see. Below is my response to his post.
--------------------


Craig, I'm not sure how to say this bro. I hope you hear my heart in this comment, not as critical, but as curious... I love your content here on this post and I believe in what you are saying so much. But I frankly find it misleading. (unintentionally misleading)

You don't bring yourself to people every week my friend. (can I call you friend?) You bring a representation of yourself, with no soul, no body, no real life, only a thin version of yourself. It's probably better say, that you don't bring yourself to everyone. Because some people are present with you when you give your speech.

A thin Craig, online, or on a screen is not you and it will always be a poor substitute for you. It's not the real you. It's a dis-incarnate you, with frankly a dis-incarnate gospel.

Which is simply a poor far less than ideal way of being real. Mickey Roarke was real in the Wrestler. Phillip Seymore Hoffman is amazing in his roles. Meryl Streep and other actors are amazing. There is a part of the real them in the role on the screen. A thin authenticity. they are real, in the same way a speaker is presented on a screen. Regardless of if they are talking about God or not.

Am I wrong? help me understand. because I believe in you and your ministry,and your gifts. It just seems misleading to say you on a screen is real.

Our Future too?

(thanks to Andrew)

Video Venues and the Death of Preaching

Bob Hyatt has a great series going.
Here's the link.

It's a pretty bold statement to say that video venues will eventually mean the death of preaching... but I think I can make the case.

In his new book, Flickering Pixels (which I encourage you to check out!), Shane Hipps makes this point:

"Every medium, when pushed to an extreme, will reverse on itself, revealing unintended consequences. For example, the car was invented to increase the speed of our transportation, but having too many cars on the highway at once results in traffic jams or even injury or death.
The internet was designed to make information more easily accessible, thereby reducing ignorance. But too much information or the wrong kind of information reverses into overwhelming the seeker, leading to greater confusion than clarity. It breeds misunderstanding rather than wisdom...
In the same way, surveillance cameras, when there are too many that see too far, reverse into an invasion of privacy."

In other words, what was originally meant to make us go fast now slows us down, what was meant to make us smart now increases our ignorance (well, never our ignorance... just other peoples', right?) and what was meant to make us feel safe now makes us feel exposed.

This is the rule: Technology, taken too far, creates the opposite of what it was intended to create.

Still doubt it? Ask yourself- Email was meant to keep you in touch and ease communication, right? But when you are trying to process 100 emails a day, you don't feel in touch, you feel crushed. You're not communicating- you are wading through spam, forwards, fyi's... Your emails get shorter and shorter, more and more terse, and mis-communication happens more often than not.

Reversal.

So, what about technology in preaching?

First came architectural improvements to increase the range of a speaker's voice. Then microphones to throw the voice even further. Then radio, television, tape and CD ministries, podcasts, vodcasts... and the seed of the video venue, the "overflow room." All with the goal of taking the gift of preaching and extending its reach and impact.

So far, so good, right?

But now, we have all this technology. We're not only recording the sermon, we're video taping it and we have discovered we can send that video, not just to the next room, but to a building across the campus, across town, across the state, around the world...

Now, the preaching gift of one person has the ability not simply to reach the back row, but the next town, state, continent. And we're not just talking about Spurgeon publishing his sermons or Schuller putting his on TV or Driscoll putting his on iTunes...

NOW we're talking about not just influencing local preachers by making the "best" communicators' sermons available... we're talking about replacing those local teaching elders.

Talk about pushing something to an extreme.

The technology that once enhanced the preaching of others, influenced and enriched it? It's making it superfluous. Start up churches and smaller churches that used to have a team of three or four elders (or in our case, seven) who would be called on to teach on a regular basis now have a video screen and a "campus pastor" that gets to preach at most once a month.

Staff member angst

I just got off the phone with my friend Jay and he spurred a thought. (thanks Jay!)

I'm not sure a week goes by where I don't hear about someone on a church staff feeling angst in one way shape or form because they serve on church staff in which the leaders believe or function from a "command and control", "consumer" or "attractional" style of leadership.

All three of these things are often related in my mind. The core issue for each is responsibility. In each of these settings the leader views themselves as the expert and the person who much influence others to live in "god's will". that is to say, that the leader knows best. So power and authority are big topics in these environment. The top gets it, and the followers fall in line with the vision from this leader. We'll take care or your kids, don't worry about it. We'll teach your the right way to read your Bible, don't worry about it. We'll plan and organize ways for you to lead, so you can use your gifts. I assume you get the idea. I've written about this in other places,so I'll move on.

there are those on church staff within these churches get frustrated. they may not completely understand where their frustration is coming from, but they often use words like missional, or service, or owning their life with Christ.

Often, the frustration leads to resentment. Resentment that things don't change fast enough. Resentment that they can't lead their ministries how they want to. Resentment that the leader hold the power and won't share it so that the staff person can be faithful.

do you see the irony of this?

Let me say it clearly.

Your identity as a follower of Christ is not wrapped up in your job. Or it doesn't have to be. You are not your job and your ministry had better extend beyond your job description. The youth pastor who encourages small groups for teens, but has no real peer community themselves will only feel resentment because their identity is wrapped up and consumed in their job.

Waiting for the top to give you permission to personally live missionally is the definition of irony. It's both rejecting the system as a power holding organism, and waiting for it to give you authority to live.

Create space in your life for ministry outside your job. The top may never get it. But you have a personal life. Live it. Create some margin, and be the kind of person you hope to be. Lead the kind of ministry you hold to lead.

I'd give you permission, but I'm not sure you need it...

Toilet Paper your Sr. Pastor's office

Don, a Senior Pastor in No Cal got his office Tee-Peed in retaliation. He knew he deserved it. More church staff team's might think about building relationships that allow for this kind of interaction.

Read the story here.

Wisdom and Rules

hmmm....

Putting on a Show or Telling a Story

"The Super Bowl hype is blissfully long gone, and lazy media outlets can no longer reprint press releases and dissect multi-million dollar wastes of time and money.

The lesson of these ads is simple. Putting on a show is expensive, time-consuming and quite fun. And it rarely works.

The Gatorade commercial, or the guy clipping his toenails or someone throwing a rock through a vending machine... it's all show biz, it's not marketing.

Marketing is telling a story that sticks, that spreads and that changes the way people act. The story you tell is far more important than the way you tell it. Don't worry so much about being cool, and worry a lot more about resonating your story with my worldview. If you don't have a story, then a great show isn't going to help much."
- Seth Godin

I love this. In a day when the technology, or service, or customer service we provide for people in churches is at an all time high, this kind of thing makes a lot of sense to me. There are plenty of people telling pastors they need to be a certain kind of leader, that they need to use technology or they will die, etc etc. some of these folks are my friends.

People will respond to a show. It can create buzz. But change comes from engaging a story and relationship, not pretty sparkly gizmos. I'm not saying God isn't using these churches. I think God uses a lot of thing that aren't best for people.

Again, I've said it for 10+ years technology isn't all good or all bad. But it's not neutral. Using technology is a wonderful thing. But it's not your story. Not even close. Technology is optional for the gospel. the show is optional. frankly, everything is optional.

Everything bows down to the story.

That is unless unless you make the story, the show and you can no longer tell the difference. Hint: You can't easily tell if you've actually done this when you are the one doing. Often because it makes sense in your mind, but people make assumptions a bit differently. then you find yourself with a large crowd of people wanting more show and you start asking the ugly question of, "now that I've got them, how do I change them." This perhaps is the most hideous question a pastor, or leader can ask.

perhaps I'll write more on this.

NPC this week

I'll be in San Diego this week with the National Pastors Convention. Anyone else going to be there?

Jimmy on Rollins Quote

Jimmy chimed in on the Peter Rollins quote from last week with this beauty on my facebook account.

"The general idea of resurrection for 2nd Temple Jewish culture was centered around vindication--that God will stand behind the lives of those who have been defeated by the world, yet have stood faithfully for God. Specifically, belief concerning resurrection for the righteous martyrs in Jewish history, for example, was that their persecutors were not ultimately the victors, but that YHWH and his faithful would win-out.

Jesus' resurrection is also vindication. In the resurrection God backed-up the words and life of Jesus. He _is_ the Son of God, Messiah and Lord. It shows that Rome, power, and death did not win. That the values of the kingdom are ultimately true: that the meek, the downtrodden, truly will inherit the land; that he first _will_ be last; that the kingdom _is_ at hand. If I act contrary to these words of Jesus, even if I think Jesus walked out of the tomb after his death, I think I do deny the essence of the resurrection."

This is Jimmy at his best.

Rob Merola Quote

My friend Rob lives in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington D.C. A really nice part of the country to live in. Rob can also put a few words together as you see below.
This is the kind of thing that seems to pop up in my conversations with friends recently. He just says it better.

"Sometimes, even right here in some of the nicest places in America, there are people suffering such anguish that it is a very real question of whether or not they will survive.

It’s not something I think any of us expect in our civilized world where most people’s lives look so neat and well kept. Maybe it didn’t seem so foreign in past generations when people faced death on a regular basis. Maybe it doesn’t seem so foreign today in those places where life is lived out in the midst of war. I really don’t know. I only know I feel a distinct incongruity between the insulation and comfort of modern life and the knowledge that a person not unlike you or me might not make it to see another day.

It happens more frequently than you might think. Eating disorders, addictions, and depression are all some of the things that can bring a person who on the outside seems to have everything to the place where inside they have nothing left. Sometimes, despite love and prayers, they do not make it through.

Our ability to affirm goodness in life is such a great gift; seeing it absent in the life of another makes us realize anew how fortunate we are, and what a mistake it is to take that fortune for granted without being deeply grateful for it."

-Rob Merola


You might consider reading Rob's blog. Link

"We're gonna be in the Hudson"

Man, I want this guy flying my plane when I'm in the air. Unbelievable.

Link

I Deny the Resurrection

"Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed." - Peter Rollins

Link

Black Cab Sessions

I could spend a lot of time on this site.

A few of my favorites:
Death Cab for Cutie (this one is so good.)

Fleet Foxes

Seasick Steve I've posted this one before. so great.

The New Pornographers

Bon Iver

Badly Drawn Boy

Ryan Adams

David Bazan

David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion) will be doing house shows around the country. I hope this happens in Tulsa.
There the link.

As Pedro


Solo:


(thanks to Brandon)