Thomas

Thomas Young passed away Friday after Thanksgiving. He was a evangelist, pastor, and friend and I am going to miss him. We worked on a few projects together but I'm not sure he would really remember my name, but nevertheless, I felt that he was such a champion for the gospel and really called Christians away from religion and into relationship. He started The Sanctuary Fellowship near Sugar Land, TX with that in mind - moving people away from "church" and into relational exchange between the Father and friends. There is still some ambiguity regarding his death, but his legacy will live in me as one who helped church be more than church and Christians be more than people acting Christian.

Re-Casting In Worship

I was in a meeting yesterday with a good friend of mine and we were discussing the need for visioncasting in worship. In other words, we were feeling that often in a typical worship service you don't really have an opporutnity for a team leader/pastor to just shift his weight to one elbow, look over the pulpit and cast the vision, again.

I'm re-reading "IT" by Craig Groeschel and I completely resonate with his concepts of casting vision. Simply, he states that churches with "it" state, re-state, cast, re-cast, package, and re-package their vision. I found myself as a leader casting vision expecting my people to function out of the casted vision. Irregardless if I'm waking up excitied everyday to fulfill the vision, my people probably aren't...unless I cast and re-cast. How can I continue to say the same thing over and over again differently, how can I continue to recast vision, to whom do I need to continue to cast and once I feel they've caught the vision, what kind of re-casting is necessary?

Then it hit me. Worship. Well, really worship service. When do we provide the time to cast and re-cast the vision? Does this take place inside an announcement? Is it happening in a song? Is it an application point in a sermon? I guess so. But shouldn't it be so much more?

As a student pastor, I find myself laboring over a sermon or over a program time. Thinking through every detail and every facet. Thinking things like, "this game will help students find new friends and make stronger connections", or "during this announcement I'll remind them to invite friends and exemplify the great commission", or even "on this point, I'll pause and restate one of our purpose statements and that will reinforce our vision..." Inasmuch as those things maybe happening, I think to most a game is just a game and an announcement is just an announcement.

We have got to provide occasionally, yet consistent times, in our worship services to intentionally cast and re-cast the vision to our people. That's right worship times. We can't rely on small group leaders, letters, websites, nifty print peices to adequately share the fabric of our vision. It has to happen in a venue where we have the most impact, the most attention, and the most return - weekly worship services.

I think this looks like video testimonies, an on-stage interview, and video loop of the vision statement, and so many other possibilities. Should worship leaders stop talking about a song and how it matches our vision or should preachers stop referring to vision during a "sermon" - absolutely not. But I think we as church leaders think our people aren't recieving our message of vision when we camoflouge it in our worship bulletins.

Taking It In

We just found out that our oldest son Gavin is allergic to pretty much everything. We knew he had food allergies when we has 18 months old, found out he asthma when he was 3 and through a process of events found out yesterday he is allergic to 31 out of 38 common food allergies and 45 out of 58 environmental allergies.

Our hearts are broken for our big guy. Sure it will be an adjustment for our diet (imagine not eating chicken, beef, pork, fish, bread, milk, eggs, even apples and so much more) but I just hate it for him. He has always been embarrassed and anxious about his food allergies. You see his food allergies cause his skin to become irritated, itchy, and dry around his eyes, face, arms, legs, feet, and back. He scratches all the time and consequently his skin looks like patchwork. He is so self-conscious of it he wears pants when people come over and doesn't like to take his socks off because he sees the sores. I wonder how much more he will worry with the addition of so many more known allergies.

God is answering our prayers through my wife being a clinical dietitian and know that we know the facts we are able to start an action plan. But it still hurts me to know my boy is dealing with all of this.

My kids have always been relatively healthy and I know so many parents who have children who are so much worse off than my son. I'm experiencing a glimpse of the anguish they feel and I absolutely hate the feeling.

God, you are the God of comfort and you comfort those who are hurting. Help me to receive your comfort through your Spirit, your Word, and your people.

It's Never Just a Goose

Geese.
Lots of geese.
Our church has a beautiful little pond surrounded by several cleared acres in northeast Memphis. This pond is a magnet for Canadian geese. On any given day, you can drive onto our property and see a small flock grazing in the field. These geese are pretty brave in that they graze close to our building, walk to and fro across driveways, and even find themselves in our recreation fields from time to time. Although the geese are beautiful to look at and provide for a picturesque setting for any church, the most distinguished quality I've noticed is that they are never alone. They are always together. It's always geese and never a goose.

I had a very difficult conversation with a young man last night who confessed to me a moral failure he experienced over the weekend. I'm just broken for him. I know how significant sin can be in our lives and I know his life is forever changed because of his lack of judgment. As we talked it became obvious that one of the contributing factors to his indiscretion were his friends. Inasmuch as he fully responsible for his actions, the crowd he runs around with never encouraged him to stick to his moral standard. When he found himself in the situation he didn't have friends helping him get out, he had peers encouraging to stay in.

That's how it is with teenagers. No teenager ever wants to be lonely. Every teenager wants a friend. As teenagers look for friends, they are drawn to the ones who accept them, irregardless of the moral compass that group exhibits. Teenagers, in their efforts to avoid loneliness, will engage in crowds that lead them to bad choices. I'm convinced most teenagers don't really consider the kind of crowd they are with as they find security in being a crowd. Geese, never a goose.

So what how does the church respond? I'm convinced its not all that realistic to tell students to stand out as a goose. I do, however, think its our calling to equip geese with gospel to go and gather more geese for the gospel. We have a lot of Christian teenagers who are too content to be geese in the Christian flock and never consider the gooses out there looking for a new pond. We've got to get our geese off the church property and help understand their calling is to go make disciples among the gooses. In the end, we all love geese, no one wants to be a goose, and we've got to make more room for new flocks.

Cracks in the Sidewalk

Today is my daughter's 4th birthday. It hard to believe that four years ago I stood in the delivery room asking our doctor, "Well, what is it?" and he promply replied, "It's a girl!". My heart skipped a few beats in that I knew how to deal with boys. With two sons already, I had the talks all laid out in my head, the sports balls in the garage, and dreams of watching SEC football together all planned out. "It's a girl!" ruined me. Absolutely ruined me. And I'm so much better for it! There is a special place for daughters and my Lily has her daddy's heart. I'm not sure if it's her eye contact across the dinner table and we both instantly smile at one another or if it's the times when she shows me exactly where the items go in her dollhouse, but she has my heart and I love her more each day.

A few weeks ago we were walking hand in hand and I noticed that she was skipping over the cracks in the sidewalk. When we would approach a crack, she'd pull on my hand just enough to help step over it. At every crack I felt her tug on my hand as she hopped. Hop, hop, hop, crack, crack, crack. After a minute of this I looked down and asked her why she skipped over the cracks and she responded, "I don't know, I just do."

I've been guilty of intentionally missing the cracks as I walk too. I don't do it every time I'm on a sidewalk, but occasionally, I'll adjust my stride just enough to miss the cracks. (I've also been guilty of concentrating too much on missing them that I look rather ridiculous.) It is interesting to think about the cracks in the sidewalk. Most sidewalks are made with gaps every few feet to allow for expansion and movement. These gaps are considered cracks by many, but without these "cracks" the sidewalk would most likely buckle, become uneven, and eventually become useless.

Most of us have "cracks" in our lives that might seem unsightly or at least inconvenient. Divorce, a failed career, physcial disability, depression, a difficult family member all might be cracks in our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves trying to skip over these cracks. Hopping over them is somehow a way of ignoring them. But these cracks may be necessary for growth. They enable us to withstand outside forces and many times they are necessary for us to fulfill our true purpose. Maybe we need to stop trying to skip the cracks and learn to accept their potential usefulness in our lives, relationships, workplace, or ministry. As you're walking the sidewalks of life don't skip the cracks, but embrace them for His purpose and glory. Just as the concrete worker allowed gaps in the sidewalk, so does our Creator allow our cracks and who knows how he plans to use them.

Happy Birthday to my sidewalk crack hopper. May you learn to embrace what God has given you and use them to impact the world.

Did I Really Just Say That?

Every Monday my phone reminds me that part of my responsibility as a staff person at my church is to visit the hospitals. I really don't like visiting the hospitals. Don't get me wrong, I love to help people, serve people, and pray for people. However, when I'm at the hospital I feel completely out of my element. I'm usually full of optimism and excitement and it's hard to express my true character to a 65 year old man who is dying of cancer. It is really hard for me to adjust my demeanor to match the hospital environment. On top of this, 90% of the time when I walk into a hospital room, I've never met the person or their family and I feel rather unprepared (relationally and mentally) for what I'm about the encounter. There have been moments when I've knocked and been allowed in only to find someone in a state of undress...talk about awkward.

Because it's Monday, I walked into a local hospital to visit a man in his 50's who was having a baseball size tumor removed from his abdomen. When I walked into the room, he was no where to be found, but several members of his family where circled up visiting. Having never met them (imagine that) I introduced myself and began to find out that the surgery had gone well and they were finishing up in the operating room. We visited a few more minutes and I prayed for their family and a fast recovery. When I was leaving the room, I said, "I hope you have a good time. See you later" and walked out.

Ever said anything and in your mind you responded, "What did you just say? You idiot! Did you really just say that?!" As I crossed the threshold of that hospital room that is exactly what I thought..."Did I really just tell a worried, anxious family who were awaiting news from the operating room about their husband, father, brother, and friend to 'have a good time'"? In the words of Amy and Seth on Weekend Update, "Really? Did I really?".

This is a classic example of my usually positive attitude having a hard time adjusting to my environment...no one has a "good time" in the hospital and yet that is what I blurted out. Shesh.

It is also an example of being ill-prepared for what God had in store for me in that hospital room.

Proverbs 29:20 says, "Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him."

In my haste and desire to get on with my day, I fumbled the ball and found myself wishing I would have had the sensitivity to be more intentional with my words. As I walked to my car shaking my head, I was reminded that we're called to choose our words wisely even it means not having "a good time."