Breakfast Club Reunion?

Is this really a good idea? None of them really had any success after this movie..although the soundtrack was killer….

Simple Minds got it right – we didn’t forget about them.

Choosing To Fail

Ever been in a place where your failings just keep popping up and it doesn’t really matter what you do…you can’t get around them? I’m not talking about the huge moral failure kind – although I guess this rant could apply to those as well. The past 5 days have been that kind of journey for me.

We’ve got one kid signed up for middle school camp. 1. Uno. Eins. 1. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in my entire life. One kid. And yeah, there are mitigating circumstances – like the migration of our Campus Crusade families to staff training in July…aka The Pilgrimage.

But one kid?

And the deposit for the camp is gone which is going to put me so over budget they may garnish my wages – and we can’t have our wages garnishy, can we? (Fletch reference.) I still haven’t done the budget for next year or turned in receipts for this month.

Now I know that I am not a complete dork because we’ve done and seen some cool things lately. Like preaching…well, except for the P & M comment… Our student leaders we have for the fall are going to be incredible. The adult Coaching life group starts up this weekend and I am pumped at what God is going to do through these couples.

Plus, we have a new couple coming on Youth Staff who are wonderful. Steve is working and finishing up his Gospel according to Spiderman curriculum for next year. The Getaway for the high school crew is going to be awesome.

But administratively I can not get it together…and it feels like the harder I try, the worse I make it.

Here is how ridiculous I am wired. I have four huge goals for adult life groups this year and a plan to get there. We’ve got a huge, incredibly exciting possibility for 5.36 next year and a plan to implement that as well. But I can’t get out of the week in front of me…

How jacked is that?

Worship

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.

Psalm 29:2

That this is a core discipline probably isn’t that big of a surprise. John Piper in his book Let The Nations Be Glad says that the reason we do missions is because there are places on the earth that do not worship Jesus. And it is out of our overflow of worship to Jesus that we want to share His glory with others.

Worship answers both the why of the mission and the how to accomplish it. We’ve said all along that we best minister out of the overflow of our relationship with Jesus and worship is both the point and the fuel of that ministry. It’s what we will do for eternity.

What is surprising is how few of us do it.

I don’t mean singing. Hopefully, by now, we’ve developed (or are developing) a Romans 12:1-2 understanding of worship. What ever you do can be worship. Where is your mind in that task? For what audience are you ‘performing’?

I mean how many of us see driving to work as a potential worship experience? Taking kids to school? Being late to an appointment? Sitting in a waiting room? Playing a sport?

There is no way in one little post we are going to uncover all of the mysteries and possibilities of what worship could look like. I do want to challenge us as leaders to see all of the disciplines – both inner and Life Group – as worship. All of the disciplines can be seen as a submitting our bodies in worship to Jesus.

Or we can see them as ‘duties’ to be accomplished – which I don’t think is ascribing to the Lord what He His worth.

What are other ways you’ve found to ascribe worth to God?

Next Session: Silence & Fasting
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

Serve

Read Ephesians 4:11-13. Anything strike you?

The only way to achieve maturity – the whole measure of fullness of Christ – is to serve out of the giftedness that the Spirit has placed in you.

Let that sink in for a moment. It isn’t about how much you know but how much you serve. Jesus said it this way in Mark 4:24-25 – “Whatever measure you use, it will be measured to you.” The more you use your gift – the better you will get at it. However much you invest, that much will be given back to you.

This is why we have this as a core inner discipline. It could be grouped with the Life Group Disciplines as well, but no matter where it is pigeon-holed, its importance can not be debated. God created and gifted us to be mature in Him – that is to experience the fullness (whole measure) of Him. And that is in lock step with serving. It’s inseparable.

The lack of this discipline turned the Pharisees into…well, Pharisees. Religious leaders with lots of opinions and ‘insights’ but incarnate very little of what they are teaching. It still happens today.

God’s perfect classroom of spiritual formation is wherever we serve. There are things that God can teach and form in us faster, better, and clearer when we serve than if we memorized the whole of the Bible. (By the way – I’m NOT saying that memorizing the Bible is a waste of time. I AM saying that most of us learn by DOING as opposed to HEARING.)

By serving we ‘join the team’ as opposed to being a critic or observing. So the next time you hear the phrase – “I’m not mature enough to serve” you can just agree with them and tell them they will never be mature enough UNTIL they serve.

Helpful Hints:

1. Not sure what your gift is? Start trying stuff on. Volunteer for a month in a ministry and see if it’s a fit.

1. Serve with somebody to begin with.

1. Think outside the church walls. Help with the Compassion Center, tutoring, or even under the Broadway Bridge

Next Session: Life Group Disciplines
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

thirteen, the movie

Popped in thirteen this weekend.

Disturbing. Convicting. Dark. Evil. Innocence shattered.

The story is real but you’ll be tempted to deny that it happens. The feelings and situations are real, but you’ll be tempted to blame Hollywood for one more overrated, oversexed and overdrugged teenager movie.

There was no hope offered in the movie. No spiritual leader or reference. There was no teen in the entire movies with any power to rise above their circumstance.

And it revealed a mission field that we are losing in the States – our public schools. And I’m not sure what to do with that.

Here is Screenit.com review of the movie.

On Star Wars Addictions and Jeremy

My Canadian friend is at it again.

A couple of random questions before I tackle his ‘disenlightenment’…unenlightenment? non-enlightenment? (whatever) concerning Star Wars.

1. Why does Jeremy not use capital letters? Do they cost more in Canada? Is it a Post Gen X thing? Is it the next generation of youth workers thing? I don’t know these things and really need to.

2. Huzzah – please explain. What the heck is up with that? That is so British.

movie i cant believe people actually paid money to see…

“star wars episode 3� – i dont really get the whole ‘star wars’ thing. like, back in high school, my friends and i were bored one night, so we went to see episode 1. i spent the entire three hours banging my head against the wall and trying to pull my eyes out of their sockets. i dont understand the fascination with this stuff. grant, maybe you could enlighten me?

I’m going to try but the cultural barrier might be too much…

WHY STAR WARS IS AWESOME.

1. I was 7 when I saw Star Wars, Episode IV…in the theatre. It was the most incredible thing I had ever witnessed in my life. The opening look of the ship passing overhead…I’m getting goose pimples now.

2. Episode V and VI, I was 10 and 13. Needless to say, the movie choices back then…well, they sucked. But even if they didn’t – V was by far the best movie of the series. VI – well, it was good. And Carrie Fischer back then wasn’t exactly hard to look at.

3. Chewbacca…do I really need to say anything else?

4. The Falcon…see here.

Of course if I were to list ALL the reasons…I’d have to start a new blog…

On the new movies…Georgie should have started somewhere in the middle of the second movie, keeping Darth Maul, ditching Count Dooku. Let someone else – like Tom Hanks – write the love story.

That alone would have salvaged the first movies.

Hope this has cleared some things up for Jer…

The Cards new unis

Do I even have to comment on this? It’s pathetic. I see 4 kinds of red. Plus the still goofy but constipated cardinal on a white helmet. What’s up with the leg piping?

Does anybody else have a problem with the stealing of Atlanta’s jersey look?

Looks like the Rankings are gonna need an update…

Silence and Fasting

There are times we need to withdraw in order to drink deeper of God’s presence. That is the purpose of both fasting and silence. That is also the reason we are going to deal with them together. It’s not just some physical exercise that glorifies God or speaks of our maturity. It’s creating space in our crowded world for more of God.

In Matthew 6:16-18 Jesus speaks pretty frankly about the issue in the same context he speaks on the subject of prayer. All of the principles there apply here.

Before we unpack some helpful hints, let’s be sure we get the point. One of the funniest exchanges I’ve ever had was a guy telling me he was fasting from video games because it was consuming his life.

While that isn’t the greatest motivation in the world to ‘fast’, it’s a start. And I would argue that it’s better to at least start and figure some things out on the fly than to wait until you’ve got it all figured out. I’m guessing that we would be waiting for a long time.

So this guy is fasting from video games and when he comes home he finds himself turning on the video game console. In a moment of complete spiritual insight and discipline, he stops himself because he is ‘fasting’ and instead – watches a movie.

Here is an incomplete list of helpful hints:

It’s important to have some consistent times like these in your life. So if getting started is a colossal undertaking for you, enlist a friend to try it with you.

Start small but purposeful. Turn off the radio in your car and spend some drive time praying and listening. Skip a meal and meet Jesus for lunch through His word one day a week.

Take notes during these times. Some of the stuff will be distractions, but some of it will probably be nuggets of insight.

Practice makes perfect, so if you ‘fail’ (whatever that means) keep practicing.

Concerning fasting – if you are pregnant, have diabetes, or some other health issue, then broaden your scope of what to fast from to include electronics, blogging, email, books, or kids…just kidding on the kids thing.

Keep remembering that the purpose of withdrawing from sound or food or electronics is to have deeper encounters with God.

Next Session: Serve
Back To Inner Disciplines
Back To Intern Track
Back To Life Group Leader Track

The Bronco Train is Derailing

First, the draft. They draft – count ‘em folks – 3 corners, none of them taller than 6 foot.

Then they pick Maurice Clarett.

Then they signed Todd Sauerbrun – a punter with some issues.

Now they sign Jerry Rice.

What the heck is going on?

And Jerry and Rod Smith share the same number. There is no way Rod Smith gives up his number. No way.

Rod Smith is the poster child for how every football player should behave on and off the field. His work ethic is astounding. This guy volunteered to return punts last year. A Pro Bowl receiver volunteering to do that? Just doesn’t happen.

Jerry Rice was once the greatest receiver in the league – and he will probably go down as the greatest receiver of all time – but he should have taken a cue from John Elway and Barry Sanders. Go out on top, with the team you played your whole career for.

He’s tarnishing his legacy and further jacking up the already messed up Bronco off-season.

Cartilage Piercings

Well, tonight is the Big Stumin Grill…(we’ll eat at 6 in Maumelle Park) and today for lunch – a friend and I are going to investigate the possibility of getting some cartilage pierced.

And what a tricky subject this is. Nose piercings – I’m not a huge fan of. I mean, doesn’t that thing get in the way of a great nose pick? Lip/Tongue piercings – ummm, no. How do you keep from knocking out your teeth?

Belly buttons – I’m okay with that but in order to appreciate that piercing I got to look at someone’s belly which is either going to be a stumbling block to sin or time throwing up – neither of which I am a big fan of.

The upper ear portion – I like. Actually, anything on the ear I’m cool with except for the big honkin’ circles that create funnels in your ears. That’s just…well, gross.

However, I also know that while it looks cool, only certain people can ‘pull off’ that look. For instance – I can pull off the earring thing, Mark Schatzman…can’t. I mean, can you see him with an earring? Ridiculous. Same for Steve Boehm. He would just look ridiculous with an earring. A Stumin tatoo is another story.

Speaking of tatoos, some people can pull off a tatoo, I can’t. I don’t have the ‘guns’ nor the pain threshold.

Yet if I were going to get a tatoo, I would get a Millenium Falcon tatoo.

The Falcon or the NCC1701 D

Email received today…

I have a bone to pick with you – the greatest ship of geek space lore is the NCC1701 D. It had light speed travel, plus transporters, holodecks, and Counselor Troi to boot!

By the way, why is it acceptable to see Star Wars, but you are a total geek to watch a Star Trek movie? They are both a stage for current events in a space travel setting. I think that would be a good question for next week.
I’m so confused!

I will allow the intelligence of my readership answer in full but here is the bottom line reason:

Because the NCC1701 didn’t have Han Solo or a wookie on board.

Barry’s Paradox

My bro posed this question to me on Annakin’s Rest.

I gather you are saying that once we, as mortals, do our part (not that we can control it) that we must rest and leave it all in His hands to complete things. But what if ‘our part’ is to see our tasks through to the end?

At what point do we say to ourselves, “I’ve done all I can, now it’s time to rest in the Lord.”?

Here is my 2 pennies on that. I think it’s the process of ‘growing up’ in Christ.

Are you called to start a work but not complete it? Complete it after someone else has started it? Compliment someone else’s role? What’s your role in life of a student you are discipling? At what point do you release the student to figure it out on their own?

Most of us answer those questions by the trial and error method. In fact, that seems to be God’s preferred method of leadership development. Failure can be a great tool.

Maturity then, is figuring out your part and resting when that is done. Do what you can, leave the results to God.

Here is the rub of the matter, though. God also surrounds us with community to help figure out that answer (when do I rest?) – which can be an awesome thing. But it requires a culture of grace. In other words – if you aren’t in a community where it is okay to fail and try again, I doubt you will ever experience true rest.

If you have to have it all figured out – either by those around you or by your own expectations – you will never enter rest.

One more thing – then I’ll end my rant. Some of us ‘professional clergy’ have created our own hells. By choosing to not be vulnerable, choosing to always have a plan or an answer, by choosing to always having to be ‘right’, we have set ourselves up as being the “God” of our little part of the universe. We’ve created our own communities where failure isn’t acceptable or redeemed. Hence, we will never experience true rest.

Accepting Grace

Went to the Valentine/Gaydos life group last night to walk through the transition plan. So we went thinking we were going to be the ones who were doing the ministering….oh how quickly God can change the perspective on you.

After the usual questions and answers, Mark G threw me and Steve B in the middle of room and the entire life group prayed over us and blessed us. (I’m tearing up now…gosh, I’ve become a pansy…)

Do you know how hard it is to receive a blessing? And these people know all too well my failings and quirks – yet they still blessed us.

It was the perfect end to a week of refreshment and recharging.

Final Thoughts on Emergent YS

I have some questions/critiques of the conference. But I want to frame them properly so let me throw out the gaurdrails.

First off, Marko’s heart is golden. He’s a worshipper and lover of Jesus. I think Yac would be proud but more importantly, I think God is pleased with his efforts and intentions. I have mounds of respect for him as a leader and brother in Christ.

Second of all – I came back refreshed. That alone made the conference worthwhile. The YS crew has always opened every session with the same edict to those who attend their conferences. ALLOW GOD TO REFRESH YOUR SOUL. Sleep in, take walks, go swimming, take naps, and seek God’s face. They don’t expect their attenders to be at every session. They expect them to take advantage of the resources to have their souls refreshed.

So, having said that – here are my random thoughts in no particular order about the Emergent YS Conference and the entire US portion of the movement.

1. We are still figuring out how to incarnate our values. While the movement emphasizes conversation, community and open dialogue – most of the breakout sessions were the opposite. Some of that is the nature of the beast. You put 100 people in a room – it’s hard to converse.

Some of it though was the style of the presenters. After an hour of convincing the importance of the topic – we had another hour of information and very little time for discussion.

2. After hearing issues and passionate discussions – I question how long the emergent folks will be welcomed around the non-emergent table in the United States because of our tendency to polarize every issue and draw hard lines of what is acceptable and what is not.

3. I think the discussion/insights concerning the doctrine of humanity might just be the single largest contribution of the entire movement. (I’ll blog more on this later.)

4. I hope that we (US side) can maintain a focus that emphasizes spiritual formation (ie- life-changing encounter with Jesus) more than just one more church growth strategy.

5. I hope that our intentions are to honestly follow and obey the Spirit, not to do something just because it’s out of the box or contraversial. The jury’s still out on this one in my mind. Probably 50% of the attendees at YS – GE’s guess…not hard data so don’t go quoting me – are going to be guilty of Conference Envy. Instead of prayerfully listening to the Spirit as to how to incarnate Him in their specific context, they are going to take some “tricks” or “tools” and randomly start applying them to their context without doing the harder, more godly work of intrepreting and understanding the cultural they live in.

6. I hope that we continue to elevate community as a core value for lifestyle and leadership.

Okay – I think I waxed long enough….

Anakin’s Rest

Saw SW III for the second time – caught a lot more and yes – the love scenes are just as painful the 2nd time but the saber duels are twice as cool…so it’s a wash, I guess. Plus I caught a sighting of the Millenium Falcon! The all-time greatest ship in science fiction lore.

Anakin incarnates something that hit me at Emergent Conference this week. Rest. Anakin couldn’t get any because he thought he had to control everything. And he knew that he couldn’t.

One of the prayer stations at Emergent YS was about rest – and I was struck by the complete lack of it most of those in my profession have. I think it’s for the same reason.

“I’ll rest when I get things done.”

No, that isn’t rest. That is exhaustion, crashing, burning, cratering. It isn’t rest. It might could even be labeled as recovery…but it’s not rest.

Rest is getting 7 to 8 hours sleep only to wake up to take a nap with Jesus.

Rest is awaking from a nap to enjoy a quiet walk in the cool of the day.

Rest is turning off the cell phone, pager, computer and not responding to every ‘crisis’ that clamors for attention.

And that is only going to happen when we realize we can’t or don’t control ANYTHING. Rest is the result of completeness. The job is finished. The work is complete. The deed is done. At least my part of it.

Hence why REST is (should be) a spiritual discipline. It is a bold statement to our flesh that isn’t on us to get it done or complete the work. It is on Christ.

And he will do it.

On his own schedule.

In his own manner.

And I can rest in that…sometimes.

The Mandolin Assembly Area for Gibson is located in Opry Mills Shopping Center. Row and I watched this guy for a bit and as we were leaving – him and two of his friends were ‘test driving’ the product. What a treat.

One corner of the prayer room was designed with pillows and blankets to just rest. If the ‘professional clergy’ is guilty of one thing it is NOT resting. We are good at crashing, wigging out, reacting…but resting. That is an act that can only be done when there is completion – which in ministry doesn’t happen.

Unless of course you begin to realize that the task isn’t yours to complete. It’s God’s. So the start of resting is the admission that we don’t complete anything…God does.

The view from our room. That is the peak of the historic Ryman Auditorium. And of course the lovely roof of the convention center…can’t have it all.

Refueling

Today I’m ditching the afternoon sessions and taking a walking tour of Nashville. I’ll post pictures later. Going to enjoy the think time and download.

Going to Bicentennial Mall, War Memorial Museum, and the Capitol.

Later.

Day 2, Emergent Conference

Struggled in the seminars today…partly because I was up till 3 with Star Wars III.

Partly because of frustration with the presenters. In my opinion – which I realize isn’t all that important but I am an ‘end-user’ – the presenters end their presentations where they should begin. That is with questions.

An Open Plea To The Speakers At Emergent
Please don’t take the first hour of a session arguing why we should talk about this subject. I’m here in your seminar – you don’t have to convince me. You don’t have to justify your existence to me.

Jump in the deep end. Ask hard questions of the participants and see if we’ve struggled with it. Ask us questions. Let us bang off of each other to start with. Then if needed – come in and do mop up.

It’s not that the presenters are bad or stupid. Just the opposite – most caring, gentle and intelligent people I’ve heard. They just aren’t very good at …facilitating…dialogue. Which is incredibly odd given the circumstance.

Revenge was sweet

Just got back from SW III….

Good.

Now the circle is complete. pun intended.

Sin as substance or relational?

That was the topic of our afternoon breakout session. LeRon Shults and Kara Powell were the facillitators of this discussion.

If we start by PRIMARILY seeing sin as substance – ie, something that needs to be cleaned or fixed – then we miss the larger issue of sin as relationship killer.

Now this was not exactly revolutionary – I mean for years we’ve talk this way in the student culture. Sin destroys relationship. In fact, sin in it’s essence is rejecting one relationship (with God) in preference for another (yourself, others). It destroys your relationship with God, parents, peers and yada, yada, yada.

Evangelistically we speak this way – there is a relationship you need but don’t have. You can have it. You can choose it. It will bring healing to every other relationship that you are in.

So where is the contraversy, right? Well, for those who hold and ‘only’ hold to “penal substitution” theory of atonement – it can cause some unrest.

I’ll blog more about this later…we’ll see what kind of response this generates.

Old Friend

I’m sitting in one of the breakout sessions at Emergent and in walks Garen Forsythe. We worked together at 12th Avenue in Emporia for 5 years. He is a spiritual formation guru and lover of international students.

We’ve had as numerous as the stars late night, early morning conversations about leadership, small groups, ministry, and life. We always left with more questions than answers…which is a good thing.

So we grabbed dinner tonight at Old Spaghetti Factory
and caught up. Glad we have the week to hang and chat!