Like a fire

Economy and the Church

I have been reading in the blogosphere a lot about how the economy will impact the church and I had a thought this morning while driving into church. About 3 years ago, I served a church that was in an economic crisis. The church had made good plans, but it found itself in a hard place. All areas of the budget were effected and a church that was oriented towards programs found itself wondering what to do in the absence of the resources to continue the programs it had started, much less begin new ones.

In the crisis, I began to see something that became one of my biggest convictions. I didn’t have the budget to have big events for the youth minstry, so I began to pray asking God what he would have me do. The answer was an undeniable call to discipleship. Not what I had always thought of discipleship - small groups, going through a book or Bible study - but instead an investment into the lives of the youth I had attracted with programs. It was different from what the church was used to and caused some raised eyebrows, but I was convinced that it was the direction we needed to go. Using that plan it didn’t cost any money, it didn’t have to commit any resources, it would bring people together unlike the groups that had been meeting. It met all the needs of the ministry and only had a few percieved draw backs (predictability, concrete and measurable goals, etc.).

Eventually, I was asked to leave that church, though I’m not sure if it was all based on this idea or not. I don’t bear tham any grudge, they were just going in a different direction than I was. That direction, though, is where I think a lot of churches are findign themselves. Apart from resources and money, without being able to provide great meeting places and the newest curriculum, churches will have to become much more intentional in how they do discipleship. They don’t actually have to, though I don’t see any better way.

So if I were a prophet, which I am not, I would tell the church to stop ordering curriculum from people who have figured out how to reach their group, stop sinking huge amounts of money into attractional programs, stop spending lots of money on things and start developing an idea of how God will reach the people of your area. Jesus chose to invest in a few to make an impact through millenia. The monetary cost was low. The kingdom payoff was priceless.

Theology vs Listening - Balance

I have had some great conversations through this series online and off. It is telling how much each of us cling to one side of this over the other. When I started thinking about this idea, I was swinging from a pendulum of the idol of theology. Most of my background has been in a place that denies the work of the Holy Spirit and exalts the inerrancy of the Bible. Others have shared a different side of that same problem. So to answer some questions:

Is theology wrong?
No, for almost everyone in our time, it is the way we learn to listen to God. Even people who don’t study theology, they form one for themselves. The problem I have with theology, or any doctrine for that matter, is in it’s adherence to be perfect. I don’t believe in relative truth, but I don’t think there are many things that we understand absolutely either.

The big problem with theology is when people use it, worship it, proselytize it instead of  Jesus. If it is a substitute for the presence of God in our lives and our faith in the person of Jesus, then it’s an idol.

Is listening better?
At the same time, I don’t think that throwing theology out and just focusing on listening is much better. Of course, all Christians try to listen to God, but it is an imperfect hearing. The church has probably been just as hurt by individual’s insistence on perfect hearing or the infamous “word from the Lord” as any other problem of the church. I have over 15 years and thousands of dollars invested in learning how to listen, and I would never imply that my hearing is close to perfect.

What both of these methods, taken out of balance, contend with is arrogance and a lack of patience. The solution is complex and I am not sure I know what it is, but I do have my own checklist. The biggest way I keep myself in check from a raging arrogance that I am completely capable of and an impatience I feel persistently in my life is community.

Community that works bars the door of heresy and arrogance by accounting for individual’s ideas in theology and in individual ideas in hearing from God. It also promotes the patience required to sit with God and ask again. To get confirmation in what I hear and hear about what I think.

For me personally and for most of the people I associate with, we need to listen more. Theology is always happening and I need to continue with it, but I need to put down the books more and go skip some smooth stones across a quiet creek and hear that whisper in my soul that calls to deep.

The Listen Retreat

I just finished the Listen Retreat for my youth group. It was a great weekend and for some it was an amazing weekend. The basic idea for this retreat is that theology is for people who don’t hear God. If we heard God (at least perfectly), we probably wouldn’t need theology. So in an effort to help our teens listen more and teach them less knowledge, I decided to go for a more monastic approach to this retreat. It was very different from my normal retreats, because I usually program a lot of what happens. In this retreat, I had to trust God to show up and make himself known. I wasn’t disappointed.

The first night, I intentionally didn’t give much direction. I walked in and sat down and let them explore a bit. Then I lit some candles and had them come and sit in silence for a while. I then told them the story of Arsenius.  I told them that we would be trying to hear from God and that I was going to give them some tools that would help them. They had about an hour that night of silence and solitude. The most ADD Hyperactive kid in our group told me later that night that it was going to be the best retreat he had been on. Th next day we did more of the same and had a prayer walk (beautiful weather) led by Zeb, one of my leaders who is particularly inclined to the outdoors. By the end of the weekend, I think everyone had a good sense of somethings that would work for them in trying to listen to God.

I learned a lot too. It wasn’t a particularly encouraging retreat, since most of the time was spent in solitude. I didn’t get a lot of the feedback I would get in leading discussions. I also prayed more during this retreat, which I think was better, though it didn’t seem to connect with the teens as much.

All in all, I think it is a retreat that we will do again, but not everytime. Some kids got more out of this kind of retreat, but some would get more out of a directed retreat like I am used to.

Here is the booklet, if you are interested.

Winter Conference 09

I just got home from the AMIA Winter Conference and was so glad to see my family again. This was my second in attendance and I think I learned just as much as the year before, which is really great.

What I learned:

1. There are a lot of details that go into one of these conferences, and when the details aren’t looked after, people will get neglected and overlooked.

2. Spending most of your time and resources on one event that isn’t particularly well attended by your target is wasteful and ineffective.

3. I get way more out of meeting people and getting to know them, than I do from attending workshops.

All in all, it was a great time and I was glad to be there. I hope to be there next year, but I somehow think I won’t be. Just a hunch.

One of the best people I met and got to know there was Whis Hays. He leads a ministry called Rock the World that works toward making leaders in the kingdom. Whis is a down to earth guy with a heart for young people. He is driven to help them realize their potential in the kingdom and works towards making their part count through discipleship. If you are looking for a way to develop you youth when they leave youth ministry, check them out.

Twitterpated

This may come as a bit of a surprise to many of you, but I don’t use Twitter. Not only do I not use Twitter, but  don’t really ever plan to. I usually try to stay ahead of the curve on technology and this would be a good way to do that, but there are some hang ups I have about it that I think bear mentioning. In case you don’t know Twitter it is “frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

First thing, I don’t really think anyone wants to know what I am doing throughout the day, at least enough to check. Don’t get me wrong, I have my share of stalkers and I do enjoy a bit of celebrity since I live in Alabama and used to have a mullet. I just don’t really have any people that want to follow my day like that.

Second, or B as Cathy would say, I don’t really want people to know that I just got finished with a big project, or went to eat lunch, or got a great deal on my car insurance. Also, I’m too lazy to update said activities since I would rather be doing them that talking about them. I know that there are celebrities who have amazing traffic on their Tweets, but that just isn’t me (and I don’t have a PA to update all of that for me).

Having said all of that, I do some great uses for Twitter especially in ministry. Several youth guys are using Twitter to update their groups on specifics for meetings. Imagine doing that to coordinate small groups or many of the other activities that operate on the fly. It could also be useful for project management, though only to update status (I use basecamp).  Of course, all of this hinges on your community being open to using Twitter. I don’t have a community that even knows it exists, so it doesn’t prove very useful for me right now.

There is a great little article over at Church Marketing Sucks on this if you want some follow up.

Last Night @ ESPY

We had a great night in discussion at our youth meeting. To start it, we were all eating and one adult leader said that Jack’s apple pies are infinitely better than Milo’s (what the kid was eating). He said, “Compared to a Jack’s apple pie, what your eating is poop.” To which the kid replied,

“I love eating poop, especially this bite.”

I love our group.

Gospel - A Personal Good News

I just saved money by switching to Geico. Much like this ad series, evangelistic efforts across the globe have enticed people to start a relationship with God by telling them about some good news that they will want to know one day. I grew up hearing the Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, and many other techniques to help me share the gospel. All of them focus on making your presentation vague enough to give it to anyone. But there is a problem in that.

Without a personal gospel, without good news that effects people personally and most often within a relavent time, most people aren’t too terribly interested. I think it would be challenging to find someone in America who hadn’t heard that Jesus died for your sins. It would be muh easier to find someone who hadn’t heard that Jesus died for your porn addiction.

People don’t feel the need for a good news that will one day benefit them when they die, and I’m not sure that is what Jesus meant. It seems like he talked more about repenting now for the Kingdom is at hand - now. Jesus spent less time on the “one day” thougts and much more time in the present. But many of the approches to evangelism only deal with an eternal life that starts at death.

I don’t do evangelism any more. I don’t share the methods of evangelism witht the teens I see throughout the week. Instead, I help them to see how the Gospel is good news for them now and in the life to come. I try to help them see how that would be good news for the people around them as well. Hopefully, some people can learn about a personal God that cares about their lives right now and that it impacts their life through eternity.

BTW, I didn’t really save any money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, but one day, I hope to not have any car insurance.

Communionity

There is an interesting discussion going on over at the YM 3.0 page on Facebook. Part of the book dealt with how we see sacraments playing into how we do community in youth ministry and how many ministries are returning to ancient practices to form community.

Highlights so far:

“True communion is the example we’ve had from the beginning right? God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have existed in perfect community from the beginning of it all. If community is that important to the Creator, maybe it should be for me too.”

“You can have community at the volunteer fire department, but communion is God-focused.”

“it’s before the game, during the game, and then after the game. it’s communionity… that is why they listen to what I share.”

It is so interesting to me how many different views of community and communion we have in the church. Many of them work despite the diversity and sometimes contradiction of each other. It really challenges me (and has been for a while) to think of how many different ways that people do church that often are so different that they are completely incompatible, yet they all work for different people in different contexts.

Go read for yourself if you want to see what I’m talking about.

Design and the Message

I had a really interesting talk with my buddy Chris Zoephel yesterday about a book he is reading. The book is called The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. In this book, Hirsch says that the medium eventually becomes the message. This is similar to a thought I have carried in ministry that says “what you save them with, is what you save them to.” From my point of view in youth ministry, this means, if we save people with games and frivolity, then that is what they think has saved them (even though verbally they might say that it is God). I’ve seen this paradigm played out enough that I believe it. But what Hirsch says is that the mediun becomes the message.

So taking this into the practical world, I am not sure I agree. Steve jobs is quoted in saying, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” He also says, “Design is the fundamental soul of a man made creation.” I believe in these ideas. Design is important. It’s a big deal. From Garr Reynolds to Seth Godin, people of success and excellence believe design is a part of the product as much as any other part.

I’m not saying that products and messages can’t be good and have success apart from good design, but they aren’t great without it. There are times when the content of a message overcomes its need to have good design. In fact, to be great, I think you have to have both. Proof of this is my recent purchase of a mouse habitat for my daughter. I found this one habitat that was just cool looking (Habitrail Ovo). I would have bought it if not for the visual image of mise poop on it.

But, I wonder if the way it was designed was actually the message. I’m not sure I could go that far. Preaching is definitely a medium, but I don’t think it has become a message all its own. TV is a medium, but it is capable of many messages, many often contrary. Even video games play this same rule. So I don’t think I can go as far as saying that the medium becomes the message, but I do see the point.

Monday Catch Up

Well, it’s the Monday after Christmas and I am trying to catch up on some work that I didn’t start before the holidays. Today is a fun, but busy day. Here is my plan:

1. Get in early, respond to emails - done
2. Meet with Glandion Carney - Canceled - Glandion is a friend, sometimes mentor and client for Like a Fire Media. Today was an appointment to work on his site.
3. Finish and get confirmation on the Yamia Backdrop for Winter Conference.  - Confirmation pending
4. Meet with William Wilson - William is a Bishop in residence at our church. He is a former monk and I wanted to pick his brain for some ideas for our upcoming retreat in February.
5. Be creative - I have a retreat and a speaking engagement coming up that I need to spend some creative time on
6. Call youth and spend time with them
7. Possible staff meeting - probably a short one - Just canceled (yea)
8. Small group meeting - tonight I get together with some friends and we live life together (again yea)

So that’s today, is all goes according to plan.