We Go Together: a level playing field

Last night was just one of those nights.

it is interesting to talk to other youth pastors and I'm sure we all struggle with having to be four different people on any given program night: the tech guru, worship planner, preacher, gamer, janitor, etc. Last night was just one of those nights.

Our space has tech gremlins that like to hideout until we start our SWITCH Service and it can be overwhelming to try to negotiate with those suckers...especially while not losing it in front of your students. Alongside our tech issues, I just had a lot of distractions last night, especially before getting up to speak. Last night was just one of those nights.

We started a series last night: We Go Together. For several months I've been noticing this ugly virus that has been popping up among our students: "I don't like her." "He really bugs me." "I'm not going if they are going to be there." "I can't stand her." This virus of pride is dividing our group and it was time to open God's word to expose his position on unity and togetherness in the church.

We are ONE; we are MANY; and we are the SAME from 1 Cor. 12:12-13; 24-26; Eph 4:4-6 is what we tried to wrap our hearts around last night. I felt like it was a good night as our students seemed to respond with the conviction of, "I think he is talking to me, so I'm going to look down at the carpet as to not draw attention to myself." In all seriousness, we do have some students who get what the body needs to be about: encouragement, love, affirmation, discipleship, and welcoming others. I am so proud of those students who see church as more about others than themselves. I'm praying that that kind of attitude will bled over to the mainstream side of our ministry.

While speaking it hit me like a ton of bricks...students often engage (or as in our case, disengage) other students based on the social rules that they are most familiar with and spend the most time in: school. The social rules of school don't and shouldn't apply at church. School is a place of judgment, church should be a place of acceptance. School is a place focused on achievement, church is a place of humility. School is a place of social classes/orders, church is a place where we remind that Jesus destroyed the social order. We have got to re-train students to understand that church is not school and the same rules do not apply.

It was awesome last night, in the midst of so many distractions, helping our students understand that they go together as one, although they are many, because Jesus loves us all the same. Reminding them we are all sinners in need of the same Savior brings perspective to how we ought to treat and love one another despite our differences. We go together.

These pictures were taken at Half Moon Bay, Calif., for the Mavericks Surf Competition this past weekend. Apparently not only were the waves just incredible, but the spectators experienced a rogue wave that suddenly crashed against the shore engulfing everyone in it's path. Several people were injured in this freak incident. (View the story here http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/us/2010/02/13/mavericks-surf-competition?slide=1)

I thought of how sin is a like a rogue wave suddenly descending upon spectators. Its easy not to see the wave coming, especially if you're not looking for it. Like any large amount of water, there is little to do to stop it's devastation once it hits land.

Often we allow sin the right to destroy us. That is the intent of all sin: destruction. It doesn't care who you are or what great things you've accomplished. It's like a virus bent on complete destruction of your life. Once it hits us we bend and break under it's weight and movement in our lives.

Scripture says that Satan is on the prowl and like a rogue wave, his strike maybe sudden and unexpected, but as believers we are to watch and pray, faithfully following our Lord, so when we see the wave coming we remove ourselves from it's purposeful path of destruction

Coloring and Contentment

Sorry it's been a long time (not that people are lining up to read my rantings).

I was a little overwhelmed today. I'm part of the twitter-rific world of instant blog/thought about life and ministry and as a man in my early 30's it is easy to feel unsatisfied about all that you aren't doing. I've always been my worst critic and always had a deep sense of passion to be on the top of my game. As I'm logged on right now, thousands of great thinkers, strategists, missional pastors, teachers, and influencers are typing, texting, blogging, writing, and speaking an incredible amount of insightful, helpful, ministry-changing ideas at their high level churches, ministries, and offices. To quote Chandler, "these guys are seriously legit."

It's easy for me to be overwhelmed at not only the enormity of information but how little I feel that I contribute. I want my church, our ministry, and the people that I lead to catch an unprecedented vision from God to reach our community for Christ and I often hold myself accountable to helping our people see the need and the possibilities. In a nutshell, I want to be legit and wow those are some big shoes to fill. So, yes, there are moments when I'm stressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed and today was one of those days.

A little dejected, I came home and just began to read the paper at the hub (aka breakfast table) trying to mute the noise of the boys playing in the living room, Brooke preparing dinner in the kitchen, and everything else in between. Yet, I heard the sweetest thing...I noticed my 4 year old daughter at the end of the table singing. She was singing a made up song of unintelligible words just lost in her own world. She had a piece of construction paper and large bright markers. She was coloring a picture, singing a song with not a care in the world. She had abandoned the noise (doing a much better job that I was) lost in her own enjoyment; not paying attention to the world around her; content as can be.

I stared at her for a few moments and I can feel my mind and soul take a breath. I began to wonder if I was feeling some of the same joy and warmth that God feels as He sees His children simply content. They aren't trying to keep up or speed up with the world, people, jobs, MINISTRIES around them; they are just content to be a child of the King, in His presence, under His grace. I wonder if God stares at us and can find the enjoyment of seeing us content with nothing else than just Him. All it took for my daughter was a piece of paper and a few markers; surely with the majestic power of the Lord of All Creation I can simply be content.

Lord, reassure me of Your power, mission, and purpose when I'm overwhelmed and help me to find contentment in Your calling and Your strength.

Grandma's and Gratitude

Last month Brooke and I were asked by our mechanic if we were especially attached to our car...that's never something you want to hear from your mechanic. Consequently, we were forced to find another family vehicle and after weeks of searching we found a vehicle in our single income, stay at home mom price range. That was 9 days ago.

This morning I did what thousands of dads were doing: packing the family car and heading to grandma's for Christmas. After packing up, cleaning up, and escorting three trips to the restroom, we were finally on our way. Excited about meeting some good friends for lunch and then eventually on our way to grandma's we prayed and pulled out the driveway. Halfway through our journey (while I was napping and Brooke was driving) the car lost power and she was forced to find space to pull over on a bridge of a busy interstate. As we waited for a wrecker to find our location, our car shook and moved as every car and truck whizzed by on their way to grandma's. When we finally arrived at THE garage of this one horse town, we were told that the car we owned for 9 days would need a new transmission (something of a torque converter malfunction and depositing debris in the transmission). This was turning out to be not a very merry Christmas.

To our surprise, the friends we were meeting for lunch arrived at the garage. They took our kids to McDonald's while we dealt with what to do next. I made a call to one of our volunteers who is a service manager for a large dealership in Memphis. (He is one of those guys who knows everyone and doesn't take no for an answer.) He began the arduous process of getting the car fixed. After several phone calls to dealerships, customer service, the salesperson who sold me the car, and my insurance agent, we were just simply stuck. The garage couldn't do the work on the vehicle, it needed to be towed to Memphis, no one would take blame for a bad transmission, and we still hadn't made it to grandma's. This was turning out to be not a very merry Christmas.

A short prayer later and a few more phone calls, my volunteer called and arranged for a dealership in Memphis to install the transmission for almost $1000 less than our lowest bid. He even offered to come get the car on his own the next morning and bring it back to Memphis to save us money on the towing charge. Our friends, who had been at McDonald's for about 2 hours by now) told us we could pile in their car to head on to Little Rock, where we would drop them off and take their car on to grandma's for Christmas. While we were in the car (our luggage, several Christmas gifts, 5 children, 4 adults, and 1 fish) a friend of ours from our church called. He heard of our predicament and told us that he had made arrangements to get our car fixed over the holiday and the bill had been taken care of.

I immediately began to cry, overwhelmed with a deep sense of gratitude. Our friends were loaning us their car, another friend was picking up our car and taking it to the shop in Memphis, and even more friends had taken care of the bill. I'm one of those guys who is very grateful, but I don't receive gifts very well. I've always been taught that you work for what you get and to be on the receiving end of such incredible help is simply overwhelming. Our friends have been so much more than a blessing to our family today, they were being Christ to us today as they selflessly met our needs.

Words can't adequately express how I feel about our day. In thinking through all the emotions I've felt today it leaves me rather exhausted. We went from a road trip from hades to being overwhelmed with generosity from our friends and family of faith. A good friend reminded me today that if God can move mountains he can take care of transmissions...how true. God's unexplainable grace and overflowing provision for our family continues to amaze me. Our journey today will last in my mind long after the new year; it stands as a reminder of just how wonderful He is to us.

Our hearts of so thankful for Casey and Janie Cole, Mike Kerr, and several others who have offered an unbelievable gift to make our Christmas an extraordinarily very Merry Christmas. I only hope that one day I will have the opportunity to give back what I've been given today.

By the way, we finally made it grandma's... and it was worth every mile.

So incredibly grateful,
Jason

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.