Zion 4:twelve Student Ministry

Spruce Pine, NC Mission Trip, Day 4 (Wednesday) written by Savannah Wingard

2011-06-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up 7:30 and everyone was still sitting in their beds for a while because we are super tired! For breakfast Althea and Brenda made us biscuits, sausage and lots of fruit (and we also had some delicious zucchini bread). After breakfast we met up with Mr. Neil (the site leader) and we all lathered up with bug spray and sunscreen and headed to Mr. Stayton’s house to finish the wheel-chair ramp. The senior highs headed over to finish their work on the stairs at their house. We had to finish the ramp … We had to finish extending it and it was tough to cut it to make it fit. We had to dig out some of the ground to make it fit. We started to cut and make the rails and bolted them into place. It took us all day and we didn’t quite finish but we will go back tomorrow!

For lunch, Jillianne picked us up in the bus and the mid highs headed over to the senior high site to see their work and eat lunch together. We ate ham/turkey/PB&J sandwiches and laughed together! There was a beautiful creek on the property and some of us got in and soaked our feet. We then headed back to work some more at Mr. Stayton’s wheelchair ramp. The senior highs finished up their stair project after lunch. Before they left they told us that they got to walk in the creek and cool off for a while.

It was only about 80 degrees today here but we were very sweaty! Just before Jillianne picked us up at 4:00pm, Mr. Stayton brought out and showed us his bird, “Tookie-Bird.” We also got to play with his dog, Trixie. We sat in the shade and talked with Troy about our work for the day and where we saw God. Jillianne finally got there to pick us back up … after she accidentally ran over a squirrel (which we all thought was funny).

After we got back to the bunk house, we all got showers … the bunk house where we are staying has a boys bathroom with 2 toilets and 3 showers and a girls bathroom with 3 toilets and 2 showers so we have to take turns and it takes a while for everyone to shower. After we took showers it was time for dinner around 6:00pm . The gracious people at a local church brought us pizza, drinks, and salad and we sat outside our bunk house at some picnic tables.

After dinner we all decided to walk down to the park at the bottom of the hill. There were some 3rd-6th grade girls from a local youth group who were there and they offered us water bottles with Scripture on the side of them. We played on the playground and then walked around the walking trail by the Toe River. The boys decided that they wanted to go creek walking. They stayed dry for a while but then one of them tripped and fell in; and before we knew all of them were swimming around and being silly as they fought against the current. We encouraged them to get out the water but they decided to swim upstream. Finally, Jillianne made them get out and they smelled terrible. We decided to go back to the bunk house so they could shower … again!

After the boys had showers, we met to talk about our day and do some games and lessons. One of the games was called “Caterpillar Eating Banana.” In this game there were three teams competing in a relay race. One team member was wrapped in plastic wrap and had to crawl across the floor to eat a banana. The next game was called “Bologna Darts.” It was exactly what it sounds like – throwing bologna at a bull’s-eye. Mrs. Brenda decided that she should be the center of the bull’s-eye and the youth all got to throw the bologna at her! We laughed and laughed!

Then we had a more serious time where we talked about poverty and why it exists and what we can do about it in our nation and world. After a long discussion, at about 10:00pm, we decided that it was just about time for bed. Goodnight! Thanks for your continued prayers for tomorrow, our last work day! We’re doing a great job at staying safe on site and we’re working hard!

Spruce Pine, NC Mission Trip, Day 3 written by Jordan Sommer

2011-06-28T17:56:00.001-07:00

Today was a very successful day. We went to the Moore’s house in the morning and finished staining the deck. It looks so much better and it was hard to leave because I wanted to do more and make the house look even nicer. Kara was weed-eating almost the whole time we were there and I pruned some bushes in the front yard. Several other youth worked on finishing the floor inside and other various little projects like adding molding to some cabinets and replacing the door lock.

We went back to the bunk house to eat lunch and then we were off to some other houses to start some more projects. The senior and mid-highs split up on two different projects for the afternoon. The senior highs went to an elderly couple’s house to rebuild some steep stairs and the mid-highs went to a man’s house that was on oxygen and needed his wheel-chair ramp rebuilt because it was falling apart. From what I heard, the mid-highs got far on their project, and the man had a talking parrot that could say Maddie’s name. The senior highs took a while to get going because the area we were trying to build in was very small, so not many people could work there. The couple had their three year old grandson over and he came out and played in the yard with a few of us as the other girls were working. Haley and I held his hand as we splashed in the creek in front of the house.

We’re going back tomorrow to finish the stairs and the mid highs are headed back to finish up their wheel-chair ramp! I can’t wait to complete another project and check another successful day off our list. When we finish tomorrow, we will move on to another house to do some different work! Stay tuned ….

Spruce Pine, NC Mission Trip - Day 2 written by Blake Rauch

2011-06-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on our first day of work and our second day on the trip, Monday, June 27th! It is written by Blake Rauch:

I woke up at about 5:45a.m., ready to go. Everyone else was up (in my room - meaning the boys), and we headed out to go for the river just down the hill from our cabin. We walked for a good 30 minutes, got a little wet in the river, then began hiking all the way back up a steep hill (that part wasn’t fun) and had a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage. We chilled out for a while in the cabin, then headed out for our first job.

We went to the Moore’s house, and got started on the shed. Some people painted, some cleaned out the shed (I was in the second group). Afterwards, we started to put up insulation on the walls. We put it up, and then stapled it in. Then we had a nice little water break, and I got to work on my project for the rest of the work day: the porch.

I started off by sanding, and I sanded for a few hours until lunch. I ate, then continued trying to make it perfect, and then, after it was done, I sort of had to leave, because everyone else wanted to do the fun part of actually staining the porch, so I couldn’t finish with my project. I stood around, doing a few random things, then left and slept on the bus ride home. We came back, and rested at the cabin.

Then we left the cabin to go eat an amazing dinner ith Berry Baptist Church. They fixed us ham, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, Salisbury steak, creamed corn, biscuits, green beans, and banana pudding. I had some of everything. Then we got a little lesson from the youth leader of their church that was providing dinner, and drove back to the cabin in the rain. We came back, and had a great lesson and some games led by Jillianne, then went to watch the baseball game at the hotel lobby, where I am typing this now. I am pretty tired, and I am ready for bed. We’re getting up early to explore the area, so I need my sleep.

Spruce Pine, NC Mission Trip - Day 1 by Savannah Wingard

2011-06-27T19:41:00.001-07:00

Here is an update on our time together Sunday ... written by Savannah Wingard:

We started our lovely Sunday sitting in the front of the church, at 11 o’clock service, all of us in youth. T-shirts on an excited to go on our trip to Spruce Pine, NC. After the service we packed up the bus and headed out to North Carolina, but first we stopped at Zaxby’s to grab some lunch. From here we were in for a 3 and a half hour ride. The bus ride was full of singing, talking, and dancing, everyone was ready to get there. Then we stopped at a gas station and got a snack. When we finally got there, after traveling up a very windy mountain road, we came to a cute little town. We finally arrived at the bunk house that we were going to be staying in. Everyone gathered their stuff and headed into the bunkhouse. Boys in one room, girls in the other, there was a kitchen and boys and girls both had their own bathrooms. In each room there were bunk beds, the best thing about these rooms was that there were more bunks than people, so that everyone could put their stuff in the bunk above or below you. Then once everyone got settled, we ate dinner tacos, that our wonderful cooks, Althea and Brenda, made for us. After we did a bunch of team building games and Jillianne did a lesson on the reason poverty exists!

God, My Friend!?

2011-05-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve always thought of my relatioship with God as defined as friend-like. In fact, there’s not a thing I wouldn’t tell God … including my being mad at God about something all the way to how much I love God. For me, my relationship with God is somewhat like that of a friend … God is always there for me (just as a true friend would be), God and I communicate regularly through prayer and the movement of the Holy Spirit (just as true friends do). But when need be, God puts me in my place (just as a true friend would).

So when the sermon I heard this week started out that our understanding of God isn’t simply “friend,” I felt challenged and my interest was peaked! The sermon was actually on God’s transcendence and immanence. Big words, I know! But simply put, I see the transcendent God as the God who is superior and authoritative and might be seen as “barking” orders from on high. Similarly, I see the immanent God as the God who is with us here and now and is seen as simply being our friend and no more. It's only because of Jesus (the bridge) that we are able to have this type of relationship. We haven't experienced anything that God hasn't also ... friendship, happiness, suffering, physical pain, etc.

The clergy giving the sermon stated that we can think of this as a spectrum with transcendence on one far end and immanence on the opposite end. He said that we Christians should have a view of God that is somewhere in the middle. I like and agree with this view of God but had never heard it put quite in these terms!
I walked away from the challenge being convicted that God does give instruction and have expectation for our lives but is also with us on our journey! This is true for all ages! Another way of understanding this view of God (explained the preacher): Can we tell God anything? Yes, but we have to remember to whom we are speaking …

Bumps in the Road!

2011-05-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year! It's a very busy time but it is always a great memory making time full of reminiscing and fun! A typical May in youth ministry (at least in my experience) brings Youth Sunday, Graduate Sunday, end of the year youth group celebrations, lock-ins, and more!

This past Sunday at Zion was no exception! It was Graduate Sunday! Our high school and college graduates were honored in worship! Also, the graduates gathered for breakfast. As is tradition at Zion, each of the high school grads was presented with a quilt by their parents. All year long, the parents have been meeting with some wonderfully gifted church members who are great seamstresses! They've been making these handsome creations that the students will take with them as they begin the next chapter of their lives! It was quite nice to see the beautiful quilts that have been made! And as I stood back watching the presentations of the quilts, I couldn't help but notice how much each quilt "looked like" the youth to whom it was being presented! What do you think??

Also, during the breakfast, the students had the pleasure of hearing from church member, Britt Collins. She encouraged and I thought she gave some great advice to the graduates as they begin this new chapter in their lives. I was awestruck to hear Britt share some very personal stories about her young adult life. Britt has persevered some tremendously unfortunate circumstances including the death of her first husband and then her younger sister. So she was quite qualified to offer advice to our students when it comes to the importance of persevering in "life." She used a great example of a time in her childhood when she hit a bump/rock in the road and fell off her bike. She had been down this particular hill many times and knew how to navigate the bumps and turns on the way down. But on this day, she made one tiny mistake because of a rock in the road and ended up crashing into a neighbor's mailbox. She vowed never to ride her bike again. Britt compared this experience to the "bumps" and "bruises" that life sometimes has to offer. She encouraged the graduates to be aware of the bumps/rocks on life’s journey that will throw each of us off the bike from time to time.

Britt also shared that this past Thanksgiving, she was remembering her sister's favorite holiday as she and her family spent this time together at Fripp Island. Britt decided to explore the island one afternoon but the only mode of transportation available was via bike. Many, many years after the tumble off the bike in her neighborhood, Britt hopped on the bike and began exploring. Britt shared that the foundations our parents and our church have set for us are much like getting on a bike ... one never forgets how to ride the bike! It is a great lesson and metaphor for us all and, especially, for our graduates! Thank you, Britt, for your inspiring words!

Sometimes Our Blessings Are Out on the Water

2011-05-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

Youth Sunday 2011 was this past week-end at Zion. Our student leadership team has been working on the ideas and our theme all year. Our worship chairs on the student leadership team gave the final approval on the order of worship! And then the 6th-12th grade students were asked at youth group, via email and facebook, and at our lock-in Friday night to lead the various aspects of worship. It all came together quite nicely!

The topic on which we focused for the service was “Initiative” and we used the piece of Scripture where Peter steps out of the boat and is walking on the water to Jesus. Our students filmed a video where the Scripture was read and they then gave their thoughts on just what “Initiative” means and they shared examples of how they have taken initiative in their lives. You can view that video here:

Youth Sunday Scripture Video

The youth also decided to offer an interactive prayer time after the sermon. In this interactive and symbolic prayer, worshipers were given a piece of tile and a marker. They were asked to write one area of their life, family, or our church where they needed to take initiative. They then moved to an area where they were given a hammer and they smashed the tile into pieces. This symbolized their willingness to “step out of the boat” (i.e. their comfort zone) and that they are committed to taking initiative in that area. During the remaining time in the service, the broken pieces of tile were being glued to a cross. This is symbolic because the cross changes us! It gives us strength to step out of the boat and take initiative in the first place. This is just what justification by grace through faith is all about! So, our smashed up tiles were turned into something beautiful upon our commitment!

Perhaps the most compelling part of the service for me happened during Kara’s sermon. Kara was preaching about how the boat is like our comfort zone and often times we are like the 11 other disciples who didn’t step out onto the water as Peter did. During her sermon, Kara said something quite powerful which speaks to me and perhaps has some relevance on our current situation in the wake of the financial and spiritual decisions being made at Zion. Kara said that in order for us sometimes to receive the blessings that God has for us, we must sometimes step out of our boats because our blessings may be out in the water and not in the boat.

I agree! As scary as it is to face the storms that may rise up while we are on the water (not to mention the “water” itself), if we don’t step out in faith think of all of the things we might miss. Thankfully Jesus is right there on the water with us, reaching out His hand to help guide us through our doubts and fears. Either way, in the boat or out of it, we have to trust the God will take care of us and that God will provide for us!

This got me to thinking ... in the past two weeks, two different people have tried to explain something to me that has thrown me a little off kilter. These persons explained that they were convinced that God purposefully steps away from a church or out of our personal lives for periods of time. One of these persons gave the example of God stepping away in the Old Testament. The other one gave the example of thier own life and feeling that God has abandoned them.

I am not convinced that this is the case! I think that we are the ones who turn away from Jesus or take our eyes off of Him. Just look at this example of Peter! Think about what Kara was saying! It was Peter who looked away and began to sink. It wasn't Jesus who disappeared or anything ... he was there they whole time! In the Old Testament, it was the Israelites who turned away from God and focused on other things. Yes, God was silent but I believe, in a weird way, that was because God was trying to get their attention!! So many times in our lives, we want to place blame on other people. However, sometimes we have to look inward and take responsibility for oursevles. It's called free will! So, today, I remember that there is nothing that can seperate us from God's love ... not even a stormy sea.

Youth Sunday 2011 - Scripture Video

2011-05-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

You've been asking for it! Here is the video of the Scripture that our youth made! It was used last Sunday at youth Sunday worship! Enjoy ...

Initiative

2011-05-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

This coming Sunday is youth Sunday at Zion! The youth will be leading all aspects of the worship services that day and have been planning and preparing for the opportunity to do so. At the beginning of the school year, our student leadership team picked a theme of “Gone Fishin’!” So all school year, at youth group, we’ve been studying stories of the Bible that have to do with fishing, fishermen, boats, or fish. Even our yellow youth group t-shirt for this year reflects our theme with a Guy Harvey print of the “Old Man.”

The primary piece of Scripture that the youth will be using for youth Sunday is the story of Peter walking on the water from Matthew 14. The theme for the worship service is “Initiative: Peter Got Out of the Boat.” Kara Kleckley, our youth group president is preaching at both worship services. So, I’ve been digging through the Scripture trying to look at it from all angles and help her prepare her sermon. In most everything I’ve read online and in my commentaries, I’ve noticed something! Peter sure does get a bad rap. Poor guy!

Almost everything I read commented that if only Peter would have kept his eye on Jesus, imagine what could have happened! But I say kudos to Peter for even stepping out of the boat in the first place! I can only imagine how scary putting the first leg over must have been for Peter. Can’t you? It was the middle of the night and there was a storm raging around the boat. Hello … who in their right mind would do that?

Who would do that … I think that is the whole point of the story. Through this story, Jesus calls you and I to step out of the boat, too. But many times, we are like the 11 other disciples who you notice didn’t step out of the boat. We stay seated on our comfortable little “boats” and never step into the “stormy” waters and have faith enough that Jesus will keep us from “drowning.”
This is a huge challenge for leaders (paid and volunteer) in youth ministry! On a regular basis, we should be encouraging today’s youth to step out of their comfort zones. But, we first have to set the example of stepping out of ours. How can we expect someone else to do something that we are not willing to try ourselves?

This is why I think things like youth mission trips and projects (in and out of our own communities) are important. This is why allowing youth to serve in leadership roles in the church and at school (and at home) is important. This is why volunteering to teach Sunday school or chaperone a youth lock-in all night even though we don’t want to get up early on Sunday or think we are too old to stay up all night, are important!

Notice, Jesus never said it would be easy to step out of the boat and walk on the water. But, he did say “Come!” So … Come!

Youth Questions Video: How To handle Stress

2011-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

It's official ... I'm a youtube advice giver! :)
Seriously, I am honored to be able to share some words about stress in this video put together by Tim Schmoyer of Youth Questions! Basically, youth submit these questions and Tim compiles "advice" from adults who work with youth into one wonderful video!

You can check them out by going to any of these sites:

http://www.facebook.com/youthquestions
http://www.youtube.com/youthquestions
http://twitter.com/youthquestions
http://www.formspring.me/youthquestions

Here is the video on stress that I got to be a part of!!

Virus Attack

2011-04-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

So, last week, my computer finally crashed. Actually, I knew it was happening … but for a little over a week, I tried to pretend like it wasn’t and just kept using it. For example, I couldn’t send email right away … I had to create and send the email, log out of outlook, re-start the computer, re-open outlook and then it might go through! And in the midst of that, most days, the screen would go black and I’d have to turn the computer off for a while before I could use it again. It was most frustrating and very non-productive!

According to the Geek Squad, I had 87 viruses and a display driver issue which kept causing my screen to go black. And what’s worse - I have Norton Anti-Virus on my computer, too! I thought it was set up to run regular scans and so I never tried to open it and double check periodically to see that all was well! Come to find out, I guess the viruses were causing it not to update or prevent others from attacking! Not cool.

With all this extra forced “down” time last week, I got to thinking! I was catching up on some reading about postmodernism and the millennial generation as I realized, this computer infestation and breakdown was comparable to a teen’s (or anyone for that matter but for this post, I will focus on teens) relationship with God!
Like the computer, an infestation (i.e. sin, guilt, stress, broken relationships, peer pressure, etc.) can happen in a youth’s life and they may not even realize the damage going on “behind the scenes” because of it until the breakdown happens. This easily happens when the youth of today don’t deal with the infestation or have a mentor or a parent around who might help!

There’s no denying that today’s teens are the busiest generation ever with the most influences ever (i.e. media). And, I think pretty much all postmodern and millennial experts would agree that the world has changed, teens have changed, and their responses to our (the church) past programs have even changed on a broad scale. I read something that said teens today just don’t have the time to and won’t be a part of programs that don’t meet their needs. And, there are hundreds of articles about how often times, we (the church at large) aren’t do much to adapt to this generation.

In addition to business, one characteristic of postmodernism is that morality is personal. One post-modern philosopher thinks: “morality is seen as each person’s private code of ethics without the need to follow traditional values and rules.” I say, who better than the church to step in and mentor (youth AND their parents) and have an influence on this personal ethic development!

I, for one, don’t want to become irrelevant in having a potential impact on teenager’s personal ethics! I hope that someday, someone will do that for my son! But to me, it’s sort of like the resistance that a virus can develop to an anti-biotic. Over time, the medicine just won’t make a difference in fighting against the infestation if we don’t adapt and renew the medicine.

Now, I’m not saying that I think we ought to run out and make a bazillion changes to our programs or create new ones without thinking and visioning and praying this through. But I am saying, that I don’t want us to become irrelevant in the lives of teens either. I think churches and youth leaders must work together to find a happy medium for the sake of the youth of our world.

Lenten Prayer Friend Project

2011-04-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Each year, our youth participate in a special Lenten project that anonymously pairs them with an adult in our congregation! For the 40 (ish) days of Lent, that adult prays for the youth and then they meet close to the end of Lent to get to know one another a little better!

At the luncheon last week, we showed this video! It is a compilation of quotes and "interviews" from participants in the project. Thanks to all who were a part of the project!

Good Friday

2011-04-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

"They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered
in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to
carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right
way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you
were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the
Shepherd of your souls."

This piece of Scripture comes from 1 Peter 2 (The Message version) and I love it. It reminds me that Good Friday was not a "good" day for Jesus but became a "great" day for me. But, it also makes me think!

I so do not deserve what Jesus did for me.
Jesus = so innocent, so humble, so loving.
Me = so selfish, so greedy, so imperfect.

Thinking along these lines this Good Friday, I came across a sermon that Martin Luther published in 1519. It was called "A Good Friday Sermon on How to Contemplate Christ's Holy Sufferings." I know it seems difficult to relate to something written over 500 years ago, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you dig through it!

There is one part of the sermon that I find extremely compelling! Martin Luther basically says that where one thorn in the crown of thorns pierces Christ, more than a thousand thorns should pierce me (and even more painfully at that). Luther says that where one nail is driven through Christ's hands and feet, I should eternally suffer the same (and even more painfully). That is what I deserve becuase I allow a seperation between myself and my relationship with God. That's what sin is, afterall, anything that seperates me from God. But, thankfully, I don't have to suffer this as Christ already endured it on my behalf! So, why don't I celebrate and give thanks for this fact more?

And then there is this verse from Romans 8:38-39. It says "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So in the end and because of Good Friday, there is nothing that I can do (EVER) to make Christ not love me, nor God turn from me. There is no thought I could have, no action I could do, no statement I could make, no punch I could throw that would make me any less loveable in God's eyes! And that truly is GOOD news because (let's face it) I am not perfect and I am going to mess up! Could I do a better job at many things in my life like my attitudes, generosity, praise and thanksgiving? Absolutely. But even when I don't do life well and screw things up, God remains by my side, sometimes carrying me through it, and there is nothing I can do to make God ever be willing to leave my side. I might turn away from God, but God NEVER turns away from me. Again, that is GOOOOOOOD news!

This Good Friday, I am challenged to be more thankful for the suffering that Christ endured on my behalf and his never-ending faithfulness to me.

Simple, simple, focus!

2011-03-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

This morning while I was reading a journal article on post-modern youth ministry, I read this statement:

“It is not unusual to have inspiration come from a rather mundane moment in life.”

How, true. How true! I’m constantly trying to see / hear / experience God in the everyday. I can’t imagine how many times I must miss God! But, this week-end was one such example for me of being challenged by the everyday! About 6 months ago, my husband’s children moved with their mom to Ohio from South Carolina. This week-end, I traveled with my hubby to Smithville, Ohio to pick up his children and bring them back to South Carolina for their spring break! We left Thursday night around 8:00pm and traveled about half of the 9 and ½ hour trip! On Friday, we made our way through Ohio …. the heart of Amish country, actually. Out of the 11.5 million residents of Ohio, about 58,500 of them are Amish (according to one website I saw). And, we were traveling through the heart of Amish country (the almost triangle shaped area between I-77, I-70, and I-71). Check out this google map of the area:

I was enamored by several things from the experience of making our way down Route 250through Wilmot and Mt. Eaton and over to Wooster. First of all, it was snowing (not sticking) for some of the trip which was exciting because I LOVE snow! Second, the amount of horse poop on the side of the road caught me off guard. I’m not being flip, it really did! The reason it was overwhelming was because, at first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. We were in the middle of now where …. literally – farm houses from time to time but no businesses or people! Then, out of nowhere, we passed a horse pulling a cart with a sweet Amish man inside. He was heading in the direction of the town we had just passed through. It turns out that on either side of the road, in this area, there is a special lane just for the horse and buggies. Hence the copious amounts of horse poop. I even read an article online that said there are more horses than people who live in Amish country … stunning!

And then we began to see these signs … you know like the deer crossing or warning signs we see here in South Carolina?! It seemed comical at the time. But looking on it now, I am impressed with how inclusive the local government is of the Amish people.

The deeper into Amish country we got, the more I was caught off guard. The next thing I knew there were tourist attraction signs … they looked similar to like a rest stop or Interstate exit kinds of signs. The sign would say at the top: “Tourist Attraction” and then below would list the miles and direction to everything Amish in the area - restaurant, gifts shops, cheese stores, or furniture businesses. I struggled with # 1 - why these people and their businesses are a tourist attraction and # 2 - with wondering how much money the Amish make from attracting tourists.

Finally, I feel like I was nudged by God at the simplicity of the Amish life in today’s society. Until I did some further reading online, I guess I didn’t realize their rich history. I do think that the boundaries they draw are a lesson for us all! Of course, most of us know the Amish for their simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology. I’ve, naturally, been thinking more about simplicity in my life because of the practice of silence I’ve included for my Lenten practices! So to learn the prohibitions or limitations on the use of power-line electricity, telephones and automobiles, as well as regulations on clothing of the Amish intrigues me! How less complicated this way of life seems!

As I think through this topic of simplicity, I think about Paul and his writing in 2 Corinthians 11:3 about the simplicity of our love for God … and how easily we are lured away from it (just as the serpent did with Eve). And, I challenge you to think about the Old Testament King – Jotham. In one sermon I heard, he was portrayed as the king of simplicity. In fact, in 2 Chronicles 27 - we read that his one, constant, uncomplicated focus was to please his God. It’s a VERY short chapter; I would encourage you to read it here.

Notice .... everything written about King Jotham in that 27th chapter is positive. The challenge from this Biblical example and from my example of the simplicity of Amish people becomes to consider our focus! Especially, this becomes important, I think, when we feel bogged down by life or stressed. Of course, the temptations of life lure us away, including stress and busy-ness!

So, just what is your focus? Only you can answer that! As teenagers, I’m guessing our youth would answer that their focus is school, friends, family. And I pray that God and serving others would fit in there somewhere for the teens I encounter in youth ministry weekly (after all, that is what I am trying to teach)! So the challenge then becomes our focus on God …. is it constant, like Jotham? If not, can it be? Your focus on your friends, your popularity status/struggles, your self-image, your athletic ability, your study habits, what others think of you – those are all constants in our lives! Remember, our lives bear the evidence of our focus!

Television Tradition!

2011-03-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Television Tradition!
I've been thinking a lot about television lately. Mostly, it's because it has been more tough for me than I thought it would be to practice silence on Thursdays! Of course, we're only two Thursdays into Lent, but both of those days, I've caught myself reaching for the television. Not turning on the television (or radio) is harder than you may think .... try it sometime. For me, television watching is a moment to escape reality .... not that my reality is bad or anything! It is a chance for my mind to essentially, turn off. I don't get the chance to slow down or turn my mind off much during the day so (as an introvert) having this time in the evening is a must!

Some statistics might help us understand this whole television phenom. better!

*According to Wikipedia 99% of American households have at least one television (and the majority have more than one).
*What's more than that, 49%of Americans say they watch too much television (I'm certainly one of that 49%!).
*According to the A.C. Nielsen Co. the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TVeach day (that's more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year).
*By the age of 65 the average American will have spent nearly nine years glued to the tube.
*Now think about this! On average, a parent spends 38.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children.

But there's more to it than television being my "me" time! Bad or good, this obsession we Americans have with television - I'm convinced it's a learned habit, for sure! I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing because it is part of our accepted norm and we can't escape it. I am saying we really ought to give this some thought. As a pre-teen and teenager, I spent many a weekend over at my grandparent's house. My Nanny and Pa had this tremendous and meaningful tradition that EVERY Friday night they ate dinner out and EVERY Saturday night my Pa grilled steaks. Anyone in the family was invited as long as you let them know ahead of time that you were coming. So many weekends, I would pop over for dinner and then spend the night! Two things I remember about those evenings - a timer on the den lamp and Atlanta Braves baseball!

Every evening around dusk, my Nanny had the lamp in the den ,programmed on an automatic timer, set to turn on. And every evening after dinner was cleaned up and digested, there you could find my grandparent’s sitting in their respective recliner watching baseball (or movies when it wasn't baseball season). Period, the end. That was their tradition. Many of those evenings, I would watch with them or I would sit in the kitchen and watch a different TV.

I think there are some lessons - relevant to our spiritual journey - through this example! In a way, I think the fact that my grandmother programmed the light to come on speaks to her sense of hospitality. She was intentionally making the den warm and welcoming for she and my Pa (and us family guests). And, because their house sat up on a hill in a caul-de-sac, the neighbors and cars passing by could also see the light coming from the room or the family gathered there, together. There's also something to the tradition of spending a set aside time together as family, daily. Every single evening, my Nanny and Pa shared that time together. That speaks volumes! But, even if they never spoke to each other during the time, there's still something to be said for the level of commitment they shared in spending that set time together.

These two facts are much like our relationship with our God! If we really sat down and thought about it, how many ways and times does God prepare the "den" of our lives? In other words, how often does God make things a little more comfortable for us? I bet 9 times out of 10, most of us miss that expressed hospitality or take it for granted!

And, what about our commitment to spending time with God? As long as I've been teaching youth about God and God's relevance in our lives, I've tried to help youth understand how personal their relationship with the Living God can be! For me, the great thing about my relationship with God is that it is just like any other person I would have a relationship with .... it requires work and intentional effort to get to know them, to keep in touch, to express my devotion/love to, for example. Of course, it is also different, but the point is it takes commitment and effort!

I am convinced that it is the commitment that is the key. Our commitment is more than just going to worship .... it's honestly worshipping God and not expecting what we need out of it. It's more than just calling out or praying to God in the times that we need help ... it's about prayers of thanksgiving and intercession (for others) and adoration of God! It's more than sleeping in on Sunday morning and promising we'll go next week .... it's about getting up despite your tiredness and coming to coffee and fellowship to share fellowship with all aged church members and then go to Sunday school and learn more about God! It's more than us just doing the fun kickball games at youth group .... it's participating in youth group and Sunday school or setting up for the yard sale fundraiser. It's more than us just giving $5 to the poor or hungry ... it's taking 6 days of your summer vacation and going on the mission trip and physically working to improve living conditions, even though you hate doing it and being in the summer heat! After all, God doesn't pick and choose when God is going to show up in our lives, why should our commitment to God be any less? Now, does that commitment mean you have be at everything and do everything? Absolutely not. That's probably not even possible. Bottom line - sometimes commitment does require a little uncomfortableness and sometimes it offers great fun! It is a tremendous opportunity for the "den" light to automatically be on and permeate our "neighborhoods!"

Silence, Social Media, and Relationships!

2011-03-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

You may have heard that for Lent this year, I gave up talking on Thursdays in an effort to reduce negativity and to just slow down a little. I'm adding the spiritual discipline of of silence / meditation / reflection, especially on those days. Last Thursday, honestly, was a little challenging for my first try at this Lenten experience. I knew going in to the experience that I only wanted to participate in "essential" conversations on Thursday and I knew that I would have to talk some for work and family reasons. Evaluation: I don't think I was realistic about how much that would be and I could not seem to whole-heartedly stick to my plan! And I knew I was going to be intentional not to turn on the television or radio. Evaluation: I don't think I was realistic about how hard that would be for me! I do, however, feel better prepped for this Thursday and am actually excited to try again!

Last Thursday, I did great with not turning the television on at the beginning of the morning. Admittedly, I felt a little out of sorts at not hearing the news or weather for the day. And, it was very surprising to hear about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan the next morning. This got me reflecting on how much we use social media and media to share news. What ever happened to good, old fashioned word of mouth and the relationships that were strengthened because of it? So this is where my thoughts went on and off for the rest of the day. I tried reading some of Bonheoffer’s "Life Together" but found my thoughts going back to the impact of social media on relationships.

As a youth minister, I realize that this generation of youth is all about instant connection. I like the ability to instantly connect. In recent years, it seems the more instant connection had been e-mail. I remember being so excited to get an email address for the first time, when I went to college (in 1995) and having to go to the computer lab at Erskine College to check my email! Now, probably ten e-mail addresses later, they come right to my cell phone (and I don't know what I would do without it).

But, even email seems to be fading out among this emerging generation! I have to say, even though it is a convenient form of communication, I am sort of glad about this for three reasons.

Number one: in my past 18 months at Zion, I have managed to collect only about 25 student email addresses. I send and track a weekly email newsletter to the students and their parents. I use this great program called Mail Chimp!! Google it. On a good week, 3 of those 25 students open the e-mail. And, weekly I get bounces from student emails that have become invalid e-mail addresses. Parents are a little more user friendly to emails! About 10-20 of the 50 or so parent e-mails I send get opened each week! But I know myself this may not be the only indicator of interest in a program or relationship! Even though my emails come directly to my phone, rarely do I open everything or I don't open it because I already know what is going on. I find this trend to be consistent with other churches I have served!

Number two: another issue with email and relationships [for me] is that you can't tell tones or attitudes in someone's words on a screen. This has caused trouble for me many times in the past. I even find myself writing an intro to recipient to the effect of: "I'm not mad or anything .... but ....” But, even when writing my devotions for my weekly student e-mails, I find myself having to pick my words carefully because misinterpretation is so easy. I just really think it can create more tension than necessary. When I write, especially my devotions, I hope that it is prophetic, insightful, or moves others. But, sometimes, I think, people may walk away from having read my e-mail or devotion and have concerns or compliments. That person may never address their concern or insight with me and they harbor it within. Further, I really think constructive criticism and debate are good! In my experience, not to have either of these is unhealthy and damages relationships.

Number three: social media, specifically e-mail, can inadvertently damage relationships because we use e-mail as a cop-out. Right? Honestly, isn't is just sometimes easier to email (or text or facebook chat) with someone? Then there's no hassle of having to talk face to face or voice to voice to someone to whom you don't want to speak (especially when it is a hot topic). Or using email, text, or virtual chat can be seen as much more convenient, taking less time from your day that you could be doing something else.

Don’t get me wrong, I love e-mail AND texting, and virtual chatting are great! I will continue to use them all and I do believe there is benefit and convenience to using it. So I am torn in my writing of this post! With all of that said, I certainly see the benefit of using email, texting, or virtual chatting. For example, I have found that youth will tend to open up with me using facebook chat! I find out more about what is happening in their lives and what issues they are dealing with in their lives. These forms of communication certainly can be a relationship builder with today’s youth.

I know I have gone all around the topic here .... so what is the bottom line for me? - I just think our society will really be missing out on something if we don’t begin to focus more on relationships, as Jesus did, face to face. We have to model that for our children. In other words, we should use these more instant forms of communication to “meet youth where they are” but also not make it our only or primary form of communication and relationship building with the emerging generation.

On alternative that I think can be very useful .... SKYPE! I don’t know that much about it and I haven’t researched statistics but I am here to tell you that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a shift in use of texting and facebook as the preferred form of communication to the use of video chatting being on the increase among teens. It certainly is for some of my students. Not only is it available for free using their webcam on their computer, but the technology is even available on their cell phones / iPads now. In fact, they can even conference in several friends or family members at a time. Good! In fact, great!

I think this type of communication has amazing potential. This could be a tremendous relationship builder in our families, youth ministries, friendships, and in mentoring! Bottom line – today’s generation is the busiest ever. Taking time to use video chat - are you sitting face to face talking, laughing, or crying with someone? Yes .... who cares if it is over the Internet? You are taking the time to be face to face! Think about the possibilities...

I'm Giving Up Talking for Lent!

2011-03-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

When it came to trying to decide what to give up for Lent this year, I was trying to think of something very meaningful. Upon reflection, of past Lenten seasons, I felt like I have been on a downward spiral over the past two or so years with regard to focusing on my own piety. During Lent's past, I've always thought about how much pain and suffering Jesus endured on my behalf .... so it seemed logical that during Lent, the least I could do was to give up something I love. Several years ago, I gave up Mexican food. If you know me, you know that was killer for me because I am pretty much addicted to it (and iced coffee) and my family generally eats Mexican pretty much every Sunday after church.

It seemed to me that I was on a roll with Lent several years ago, as far as having meaningful and memorable experiences went. I think it all started many years ago when the congregation I was serving at the time was challenged to not only give something up for Lent but to add something in the place of what you were giving up. But, for the life of me, I can't remember what I gave up / added last year.

So for the past several weeks, I've been contemplating what to do this year that would mean something. I had basically decided on the Mexican food thing again for this year and then it hit me. A self assessment: I've gotten into this routine of finding it very easy to complain and be negative. Life in general has been very stressful and busy and I feel tired. I've been to the doctor because my Vitamin D levels are low and my blood pressure is high. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making excuses for this inappropriate behavior because there is none. But I am saying that when I am stressed and busy I sometimes get grumpy and more emotional than usual (ha!) and it is easier to be negative and plea my case to EVERYONE around me. Sorry if you've been in my path on those days. I even tend to take the smallest of complications and turn them in to "end of the world" problems. This is not healthy!

I've also been thinking a lot about a class that I took in my Master's degree work called "Spiritual Disciplines." Perhaps this was a nudge from the Holy Spirit for this Lenten season? In the class we studied Richard Foster's spiritual disciplines. As I view it, Foster's premise is that these spritual disciplines are ways to enhance and grow in our relationship with God. It's kind of like an excercise routine for your soul! There's a lot of thought on this in contemporary theology. Foster's disciplines include: meditation, worship, prayer, fasting, confession, silence/solitude, and others!

I've always had a great interest in the discipline of solitude/silence and even did a project on it my Master's work. Combated with my recent negative attitude and the thought of my mother's great teaching: "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all," I decided that I was going to give up being negative for Lent. But I knew it had to be more ... there had to be something radical ... because not being negative would honestly, probably only have lasted a week or so for me.

Then at the Ash Wednesday worship service last night it hit me like a ton of bricks; made my stomach drop and all! I couldn't beleive the thought popped in to my head! Pastor Tim was preaching on piety and I decided I was not going to talk at all for the next 40 days. I was going to be silent and look for God and positives instead of getting all wrapped up in my stress and busy-ness. This too, was not practical; it really would have not worked ... after all, I have a 5year old son. Further, I am recquired to communicate in my job.

So I debated with myself and came to the conclusion that I would be silent for the better part of one day a week. Since I work at home on Thursdays, I've decided that this is probably the best day to try that will enable potential success in this. Of course, I'll have to answer the phone for work related items and I'll generally have to be on the computer for work. And, I'll have to give direction, affirmation, and instructions to my son and husband. But other than that, Thursdays will be my silent / solitude day. No television, no radio, no non-essential verbal communication.

It sounds a little radical but it's more than just not talking. I'm also adding in trying to be alert to the presence of God and feel the best way I can do that is through this silence and reflection of what I experience in the silence. I really pray that this can be a season of responding more positively to God and the blessings in my life instead of being consumed by the stress and busy-ness and negative-ness in my life.

The thing is, from my original thought of being silent all throughout Lent, this really is not that much. It's only six different times in the next 40 days or 144 hours of silence. That is really nothing in the grand scheme of things! (Yes, folks, that was a personal pep talk.) I think, however, that the personal reflection will be the key. In the times where I would have normally watched television or partaken in gossip and venting with friends or my husband, I'll be adding the reading of "The Ethics of Martin Luther" and "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" and other books to help in some reflection.

It's amazing that even in the past 12 hours of today's initial try at silence and solitude what I have noticed that I wouldn't normally notice .... the dripping of the faucet that urges me toward the fact that I'm being a poor steward of the environment (no that's not me being negative, that's me challenging myself to do better) .... the rain drops falling on the roof that made me look at the window and notice how green my grass has become (overnight it seems) and how new life is springing forth all around ... the chirping of birds out my home office window that normally would have annoyed me, today, seem refreshing and calming; I close my eyes as I sit at my desk and realize how worn out I am! This is something I would have unhealthily just pushed through and ignored before; at least I can admit it today.

It's a start. I will say, I've had to be intentional already today to not turn on the television or some music. I know tonight at bedtime I'm really going to miss the television noise in the background. But, I am committed to this act of piety and whatever God can teach me through it.

Fishing for People!

2011-02-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, our youth went fishing! Special thanks to the Kleckley's for hosting us at their pond! We had a great time of fishing for bream and bass and also had some great fellowship! Addison Corley caught 8 or 9 fish with several others like Chancellor Cotten and Jamie Hunt catching nearly as many! Brandon Keisler and Kameron Keisler caught several, too. Jordan Sommer was the first to catch a fish! I even managed to catch a bass!

We kicked off our fishing with a quick devotion on Matthew 4:19 and the fact that Jesus calls us "fish" for people or "lure" others to the blessings of a Christian life!

Personally, I don't know that much about modern day fishing ... but I do know that certain types of bait attract certain types of fish. I mean, it seems to me that one wouldn't go fishing in the ocean with a cricket or in a pond with shrimp. And, I do know a little about fish because as a biology major in college, we studied these animals! I remember being fascinated by learning that fish, like humans, have all the senses except for the sense of touch. In fact, on a bright sunny day, if a large mouthed bass swims to the top of the water, can see just as well as you and I.

I also do know that when one goes fishing, there are some steps to take to have a successful expereince! First, a fisher-person must be properly equipped. To start one must think about what type of water is being fished? Ocean, freshwater, river? Then, there are bobbers, weights, hooks, different size fishing line, live bait like dough balls, grubs, or cut bait, artificial bait like spinners, plugs, spoons, or jigs to consider.
So when we are fishing for people, it is helpful if we are properly
equipped. To be properly equipped, we need to know something about the Bible
and be active in our relationship with God.

Secondly, I know that when fishing, one must be quiet. This is pretty much common sense, right? Think about when you tap on a fishbowl ... what happens? You see, fish have this part of their body called a lateral line. Lateral lines help a fish sense vibration and movement around them so that they can sense danger or movement around them. So it helps fish know what is going on around them!
So when fishing for people, sometimes we have to be silent too! In other
words, it's not always what we say that might attract someone to Jesus or the
church. It might also be our actions and the things that people see us doing
around them! How we act is so important because people are always watching
us! I challenged the youth to think about how their actions match up with
thier Christian values (i.e. when driving, when on the sports field, when with
their parents or friends).

The third and final thing that I know about fishing is that one has to be patient when fishing! I'm really, really bad at this, by the way! A fisher-person has to be patient because sometimes the fish don't bite right away! Howver, it helps to know some tricks and tips, too. For example, when bream fishing, the sun being out is almost a requirement! And an avid angler knows that the north bank of a pond would get sun the fastest so that would be the place to start fishing. Further, bream beds have a distinctive smell (slighly fishy/slightly sweet - sort of like watermellon). Despite knowing all of these tips and tricks, sometimes the fish just don't bite.
So when fishing for people, patience is a requirement for us! We should be
prepared for disappointment. Sometimes there are lots of people who want to
hear about Jesus and sometimes there are none.

Wrestling by the River

2011-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

Since our youth group theme for the year is "Gone Fishin," I've been studying in depth lots of different Scripture that deals with fishing, fisher-people, the disciples as fishermen, lakes/rivers, and boats. However, lately, I've been thinking through the story of Jacob wrestling with God/the angel by rhe river from Genesis 32. You can read it by clicking here if you don't know the story! In fact, I just finished writing a lesson for youth group in March where our youth use this story to focus on self-identity. After all, if we're called to be "fishers of people" then we might be the "bait" that attracts some one to Jesus, so we'd better know who we are!

Basically, in this story from Genesis 23, there's a man named Jacob, who wrestles an angel. Actually, the Bible is not totally clear on who it is that Jacob is wrestling – an angel, a man, God, perhaps. But they struggle hour after hour by the side of a river. And at daybreak the man says to Jacob, “Let me go!” and Jacob says to the man, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” And the man he’s been wrestling with says, “Well, what is your name?” This question, actually has a lot of history to it! Remember Jacob as in Jacob and Esau and the whole stealing of the birth-right thing?

Then I saw this video by Rob Bell (NOOMA) that adressed this particular topic! Bell's take on the stroy goes something like this:
This wrestling stroy takes place after the birth-right blessing story and Jacob has been struggling for a long time with who he is, exactly. But it is also more than that! You see, in the ancient near East (where Jesus was and this stroy takes place) your name was more than just words, your name was identity. Your name was reflective of your character, your substance, the very fiber that made you, YOU. Your name told who you are. So when this man that Jacob was wrestling with asked Jacob what is your name … ?” the real question I think he was asking is “Who we are.”
How much of our pain comes from not being able to answer that question?

Finally, this morning, God placed the stroy on my heart again (hence the reason I am sharing with you today)! I saw a status on facebook that came from Proverbs 4:23. It says: "Be careful what you think, becuase your thoughts run your life." As much as it convicted me to read this today, I really needed the reminder. I'd been looking at the stroy from the perspective of what I thought the message was that a teenager needed to hear about the story .... afterall, adolescence is certainly the most pronounced time for seeking to figure out who we are and know our self-identity. But, it's simply human nature (as an adult, teen, or sometimes even a child) to compare ourselves to others! Rob Bell puts it like this: "Some people are smarter, some people are stronger. Some people have more money. Some people have a certain body type. It’s just how it is. We’ll never live for ourselves if we’re constantly comparing ourselves to those around us."

I think Rob Bell is right when he says that the struggle of Jacob is the struggle of all of us! He reminds us in his NOOMA video "Name": "You and I have pasts, families we come from, mistakes we’ve made, things we’ve done, and where we’ve been and what we’ve done shapes who we are today. And so we have to embrace our story. You don’t have to be proud of it but you MUST claim it because it is yours."

I’m not sure that it was just by coincidence that Jesus chose fishermen to be his disciples. You see, fishermen in Jesus' day had to develop attributes that others did not have. They had to be skilled at their trade, knowing the when, where and why of fishing, but they also had to be patient, not easily discouraged, strong, hard-working and community- oriented. It seems to me, taking all of this into consideration, there is a deeper lesson for us here. If we don’t figure out how to be ourselves (whatever that is) and if we don't stop comparing ourselves to others and how we fall short of thier mark, we might miss the voice of God saying come follow me. And, we might miss the opportunity to be the bait – to inspire others to the rich, uncomparable life that God offers us at the riverside. Maybe sometimes God has to wrestle us to the ground to help us understand that. Do you feel the nudge?!

I Love My Parents Dinner

2011-02-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

This is the video our youth made for the I Love My Parents Dinner last night! Enjoy:

January 2011

2011-01-03T11:47:00.001-08:00

In an effort to save printing and postage costs, all youth calendars/newsletters will now be posted on-line. Here's our January calendar!!!

January 2011

Walk of the Magi Youth Group

2010-12-16T05:35:00.000-08:00

Last night at youth group, our mid and senior high students met to do a lesson called "The Walk of the Magi." My goal in putting together this lesson was to help the youth prepare for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas and to help them understand more about Advent and the nativity.

Originally I had a good plan where they were going to "be the magi." But on Monday I received an email that convicted me to change my plans somewhat. See my post here for the details of that email! In the end, I took 6 of the characters of the nativity and the youth traveled through "stations" focusing on that person and a topic that went with it! I got lots of my ideas from this site and LOVE their work.

Here's a run down of what we did:

Station 1: The Wonder of Mary
One of my 10th grade students, Jordan Sommer, drew an outline of an icon of Mary.
At this station, students first learned what an icon is and then filled in the blanks of the drawing by cutting out Christmas ads (thanks to all the church members who brought these in). Using the Christmas ads helped the youth to consider the commercialism of Christmas that is so prevalent in our world today versus the true meaning of Christmas.

We didn't finish the project but Jordan did take it home to do some more work on it. When it is finished, we will display it in the Narthex and it should look something like this:

Station # 2: The Obedience of Joseph

This staiton was an Advent prayer wall! Students read from Matthew of three examples where Joseph was obedient after angels appeared in his dreams. Often times that obedience meant waiting or that things would turn out differently than Joseph had planned. In Advent we wait for the birth of the Christ child; but sometimes it is hard to be obedient and wait.

There were two large pieces of newsprint on the wall that posed the questions: What are you waiting for this Advent season and what do you think God is waiting for? Youth were encouraged to write their anwers to these questions on sticky notes and post them on the wall.

Station # 3: The Joy of the Angels
At station 3, the youth considered the angels and read their announcement of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-10. The youth were challenged with the following statements:

Why were the angels so joyful? We can imagine the nearly uncontrollable excitement in the voice of the angel that spoke to the shepherds. And we can imagine the shiver of wonder that must have filled the shepherds as they heard the resounding sound of the angelic multitudes praising God. But, what was the source of the angels’ joy? What did the birth of the Lord on earth mean to them?
The angels knew that the Lord’s birth was only the beginning. Jesus would grow from infancy to adult life. He would undergo continual battles and would eventually die on the cross. The completion of His work would come as He rose from the tomb on the first Easter. He became the light of the world; a light to our darkness.
God is calling us to be joyous as the angels and to be the light of the world today.

The youth were then given Christmas light bulbs with wire tied to the end to make a hook to make an ornament. The youth were aked to paint or draw on the light bulb what it means to be the light of the world!

Station # 4: The Eagerness of the Shepherds

When considering the shepherds, the youth were given Bibles and a comfy place to sit to the story in Luke 2:8-14. After they read the story, I posed the questions:

What would it take, do you think, for us to have peace on earth? Where are the places that really need peace right now? What relationships are required? How might God be part of bringing that peace through us?

The students then sat silently and offered prayers for eagerness and peace (in the world, in their schools, in theirr relationships, in our church, in their homes). Once they were finished praying, there were pitchers filled with water and an empty bowl. They were encouraged to pour a small amount of the water from the pitcher into the bowl. This represented the way all of our prayers become one in the eagerness of God’s love.

Station # 5: The Determination of the Magi

The magi likely traveled over 1000 miles to bring gifts to Jesus. That takes some determination. Today, we give gifts as Christmas as a reminder of their gifts.

In this season of shopping madness and gift-getting and giving, I reminded the youth that we should really consider an understanding of "gifts" that goes beyond the material goods that will be awaiting us under our Christmas trees.
Several months ago, we did a study at youth group on Spiritual gifts and each of the youth were given the chance to take an inventory to discover their gifts!

I asked the youth to look around the room and see who was there and what their gifts were. Then, write the other people's "gifts" and "talents" down on strips of paper. They were encouraged to do this several times and then make a paper chain out of the strips of paper. The paper chain was placed on the Christmas tree at this staiton. Later this week, I will undo the chain and mail the anonymous remarks to the youth whom they are about.

Station # 6: The Peace of the Christ Child

At this final station, the youth found a handout on the table, were asked to find a space to sit, and read the account of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2: 1-20). There were also questions on the handout for the youth to consider:

When you picture the story of Jesus’ birth, how do you imagine it? If you were there as character in the story, what do you think you would see? What would you smell? What would you hear? What would it be like for Mary to give birth in that place? What do you suppose Joseph is thinking/doing? What is the baby feeling or doing?

There was Advent/Christmas music playing and there was a slideshow of nativity images being projected on the screen. The youth were asked to sit in silence and ponder the evening.

Here are a couple of pictures from the evening:

Catchy Little Faith Phrases ....

2010-12-13T13:22:00.001-08:00

I almost didn’t open it. With the Christmas just 12 days away and busy youth ministry week filled with an interactive Advent experience I’m designing for the youth on Wednesday night and our annual youth Christmas party of Sunday night, how could I take a moment to read an extra email? After all, I had already perused, responded, or deleted 72 emails by 10:00a.m. But, something drew me to the email and I opened it. The email came from the SC Synod staff and here is what the email said:

“May this Christmas find you filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child.”

-With love from your SC Synod office staff

5 little lines packed with an extra-ordinary message. Think about it! Read the lines again and ponder them!

I just love these (what I’m going to term) “catchy little faith phrases.” You know what I mean! You’ve heard them before! Like these ….

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
“God doesn’t give you more than you can handle”
“GRACE = God’s riches at Christ’s expense”
“Sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction!”
“With surrender, comes victory. That's the way God works.”

And I’m always on the lookout for inspiring phrases like these to share with others and to help make myself feel convicted! So, I thankful to get to share this one with you today.
And I wonder, which of these challenges speaks most to you today, this week, or this season of your life?

My prayer for each of my youth and parents is that you be filled with each of these, especially joy and peace! Advent Blessings!

Yesterday I was moved to tears ... twice!

2010-12-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

Suprise, suprise! But I am happy to report that this time, they were happy tears. I love Advent and worship during Advent. Both times I cried yesterday were during a worship experience. And, a little background you should know, I've been thinking a lot about my definition of worship lately; hence spurring this blog post. Honestly, I haven't thought much about it since my seminary class on worship. But then, over the past couple of weeks, worship and its meaning has been on my heart. And, then I was moved to tears during worship, twice yesterday. It's been a long time since the Holy Spirit has stirred me in that way during worship. And, it is good. God is good.

Of course, there are different types and ways to worship God. For me, types of worship was the most logical place to start when I began thinking about worship. If I'm being honest, I think I prefer contemporary or blended worship experiences (in general) because I love guitar music, I love to sing, and I love the relaxed, yet, respectful atmosphere. In fact, I was so interested in this topic that I decided to do my thesis paper and master's degree project on contemporary and blended worship and how to begin that type of experience in a church setting (and involve youth in it). And, then at the last church where I served, I led youth worship each Wednesday doing series like "Jesus Did What?" where we explored Jesus' life and example and its practicalness in the lives of youth. I've led silent worship expereiences on ski trips (this involved the ever popular twinkie/mayo trick ... just ask a youth about that). I've led worship services where we painted our offerings and praise to God and where I did mandala prayers with the youth. I love that creative aspect to contemporary worship and connecting youth (and myself) to God in creative, practical, and meaningful ways.

On the other hand, there's just something to traditional worship that is important to me also! In fact, life does not seem complete without the traditional worship during Advent / Christmas season. I'm sure this is because of the wonderful memories from my youthhood and familiar feelings that it stirs in my heart. Every Christmas Even when the candles are lit and lights turned off, I feel so connected to my dad (who died when I was 10) and happy tears flow! There's just something about hearing the organ as we sing traditional Christmas carols and about seeing the beautiful Chrismon trees and the Advent wreath being lit each week of Advent. It's just necessary for me.

But, that's precisely what I've been struggling with. Is worship about me? Should it be?

In seminary, my worship professor gave a metaphor for worship that really made sense to me. Dr. Meyers said that worship can be thought of like a play/actors. We (the congregation) are the actors. The worship leaders/pastors are the directors/stage hands. God is the audience.

I think that way of thinking about worship is spot on. But it flips my way of thinking about worship upside down. When I come to worship, personally, I prefer to walk away having "gotten something" out of the experience. And, usually, I do "get something" out of the worship expereience whenever, whereever, and however I worship.

Bottom line for me - worship should be a chance to praise God for the many blessings of my life and to thank God for God's activeness in my life. It should not be about me. However, often times through my authenic and sincere praise of God, I do get something back ... a conviction from the sermon, familiar memories stirred by the singing of a favorite hymn, etc.

Yesterday, we had the Christmas Cantata during our worship time! The choir was phenomenal. The orchestra was outstanding. It's beggining to feel a lot like Christmas! But, I was moved to tears when 8th grader, Savannah Wingard, sang her solo. In talking with Savannah prior to the worship service, I knew she was nervous, but I was very proud of her! Several months ago, I'm not sure if she would have so willingly stepped out of her comfort zone and praised God with her voice as she did. But yesterday, she did and she did an amazing job. I was moved to tears because that moment (and the rest of that worship service) was an authentic, honest moment of praising God.

I truly feel my heart is more "prepared" for the coming birth of Christ at Christmas after attending this year's Catata. And, I'll be honest, I was moved to tears because I couldn't help but think of the many things happening at Zion right now and the possibility that I might not get to experience another Christmas Cantata here as Savannah's (and the other 59 youth on rolls) youth minister. Not having the privelege to further feel and see God at work as Zion's students stretch, grow, and step out of their comfort zones isn't something I want to think about. But, I was moved to tears because I am confident that God has a plan and that God's plan is good. I was moved to tears because I can see God at work in Zion and because in that moment, I felt so lucky to have been a part of God's plan, here at Zion, for whatever amount of time it turns out to be (which is hopefully years and years more!). God is good.

The second time I was moved to tears was with the senior highs at "This Man Called Jesus" yesterday afternoon. The account of Jesus' life that the members of Lake Murray Baptist share is authentic and moving. It's not the first time that I've been to see it, but it was the first time for some of our senior highs. Throughout the experience, it was truly a privilege for me to sit and watch some of our 9th-12th grade students as they were awe-struck by the performance / worship serivce. I couldn't beleive how "glued" to the performance our youth were, barely taking their eyes off of the people acting out the life and times of Jesus Christ. It moved me to tears ... the music was solemn, it was during the crucifixion scene, our youth covered their mouths and one even shook her head in disbelief, and my tears flowed. These happy tears came because I knew the outcome of the scence and that even death would not defeat Christ. He loved me, each of the 9th-12th grade students with me, everyone in the room yesterday, and everyone period, so much that He endured such great pain and suffering. The tears flowed as I realized that because of that, this Advent season truly is a time of hope, mystery, love, joy, and miracles.

I couldn't need that hope, mystery, love, joy, and time of miracles more than I do right now. And, I couldn't be more undeserving of it. But the amazing thing is, for me, for my students, for Zion, for the world - none of that matters to God. There's nothing any of us could EVER do to make God not love and want us. Now, that certainly doesn't justify the things that we do that are wrong, but it does make the happy tears flow .....

Happy New Year, Church!

2010-11-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

Happy new year, church! No! I realize it is not January 1st ... that's the secular new year. However, the church new year actually started yesterday with the first Sunday in Advent. It's a little confusing, I know. I've always though it would be much easier to make the two new year's coincide? It's VERY confusing, to me, actually. I've struggled with this since seminary, where I learned that the oldest celebration of New Year's was actually in Babylon around 4000 years ago! If I recall correctly, the Babylonian year actually began with the first full moon after the Equinox (first day of Spring) or sometime in March. And, that makes sense to me! Right? Spring = new beginnings/fresh growth, afterall!

This tradition of celebration a new year continued into the Roman Empire. But somewhere along the line, the Romans decided it would be better to syncronize the calendar with the sun and various emporers began changing dates around. This tampering continued until sometme around 45BC or 50BC, when Julius Caesar established the "Julian calendar." Caesar moved the new year date back to January 1st, where it remains today. He actually did this to honor Janus, the two-faced god who looked backwards into the old year and forwards into the new. As Christianity spread, often Christians and, especially, the Catholic church were hesitant (and even at times forbidden) to celebrate new year's because they thought it to be a pagan tradiaiton.

So, clearly, the liturgical (church) year and the calendar (world) year don't quite match up in thier cylce. The bottom line is they don't match up because the purpose of the Liturgical Year Calendar is not to mark the passage of time as is the purpose of the calendar. The liturgical / church calendar is meant to enable us Christians to celebrate and understand more fully the entire mystery of Jesus Christ, from His incarnation and birth until His ascension, and the expectation of his return in glory.

So really, this beginning of the liturgical calendar is very important! My favoirite liturgical calendar seasons are Advent and Lent!

Advent is the special 4 weeks just before Christmas. The purpose of Advent is is to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Jesus' birth. I don't know about you but I find it awfully hard, sometimes, to remember the real reason for the season! The world's view of Christmas is certainly different from the church's! That's why we had our Advent Adventure yesterday afternoon ... to help us understand Advent and get ready for Christmas! I'm so thankful for those who helped get ready and plan the event, for those who donated items, and for those who coordinated the stations/activiites. It was attended by many church members, youth, and children and we had a great time beginning to prepare our hearts for Christmas.

There are many other events happening during Advent to help us prepare for Christmas. I hope you and your families will come and be a part of some of these great events:

*The Purpose of Christmas Bible study (by Rick Warren)- this one is mostly for adults but senior high youth are also welcome! The group will meet on Wednesday nights from 6:30pm-7:30pm in the cathedral room.

*Advent worship services - meet Pastor Tim each Sunday in Advent at 6:30pm for inspiring worship

*Christmas Cantata - Sunday, December 5th. Music starts at 10:15am.

*Senior high youth group going to see "This Man Called Jesus" at Lake Murray Baptist church this Sunday, December 5th. Meet after the Cantata in the narthex. Bring $ for lunch!

*Children/youth Christmas play - 6:00pm on Sunday, December 12th. We'll be practicing on Sudnays and Wednesdays! Come be in it!! There are a few speaking parts left.

*Walk of the Maji Experience - for mid and senior high students on Wednesday, December 15th (6:30pm-7:30pm)

*Youth Christmas Party, Caroling, and Progressive Dinner - Sunday, December 19th for mid and senior highs!

I love this time of year. Always have, always will. Thanks for sharing in it and preparing for Christmas with me!

Attack of the Lizards!

2010-11-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

It’s Thanksgiving week! I’d planned to share in this week’s devotion around the topic of thankfulness. And, I am thankful, now more than ever, for A LOT of things - like my relationship with God, my son, my family, the students and youth leaders with whom I get to share in ministry, my church, my health (after being so sick last week and a scare of a staph infection with Blaine this week), new friendships, and so much more. But, over the past five days, I’ve been attacked by lizards! So, that is what I am sharing about on this Thanksgiving week. Read on ….

I don’t really like lizards. Even when I was a little girl, I just wasn’t interested, like some of my friends, in the game of trying to pull the lizard’s tail off. When I see a lizard, quite frankly, it frightens me/gives me the hebejebees and I just want to remove myself from its presence. I don’t know why this is. I know in my head (and from my bachelor’s degree in Biology) that lizards are relatively harmless; at least here in South Carolina. But I just don’t like lizards (or mice or squirrels or …. well … any rodents)

So, you can imagine my dismay when (lizard number one and I) faced off early last week in my kitchen. Let’s call him Charley. So, when I saw Charley, every fiber in my body tensed up and I found myself praying that he go out the door and not up the stairs or anywhere else in the house. I stood paralyzed …. what to do? I got the bright idea to slowly move past Charley toward the laundry room, get the fly swatter, and get him outside. He climbed right on and I thought I was home free. But then, something spooked him and he jumped. Fearing he was going to jump on me, I screamed and dropped the fly swatter and ran. Once I gained my composure, I managed to get him back on the fly swatter, out the door, and I chunked him over the fence (sorry little guy). Done.

Not done.

The next day, there was a second lizard in the kitchen. Let’s call this one Bob. Bob’s tail had been ripped off and was just beginning to regenerate; so I felt a little sorry for him. Consequently, I saved him from certain death / attack of my dog and went for the fly swatter again. He hopped right on and out the door I sent him. But, before I could chunk him over the fence to be his buddy (Charley), he jumped off the fly swatter and scrambled under the back deck . Done?

Nope.

Yesterday afternoon I was doing some work in the office before senior high youth group. I was making copies and gathering supplies for different events this week. Busy and then boom! There he sat, startling me, on top of the computer monitor in the front office. About that time, several of the senior highs arrived and they scooped him up (yes, in their hands) and placed him out in the grass beside the office. I’ll affectionately remember this lizard as Gus. Done?

Round four.

Meet Michelle. I met her, this morning, as I walked in to my kitchen. Again, catching me off guard, this lizard was on the baby gate that I use to block off the laundry room. I went to move the baby gate and hello …. paralyzed, again, I went for the fly swatter. But Michelle, had other plans. She was a fighter! She wasn’t having anything to do with the fly swatter and being moved out of my house, back to her natural habitat. I tried and I tried but Michelle kept jumping and running and moving to new parts of the baby gate. Finally, I took a deep breath and picked up the baby gate and slowly moved it outside. As soon as I laid the gate down, off Michelle jumped and scurried under the back deck.

I wondered what is going on. Why are there are there so many lizards out of their natural habitat? Is it birthing time for lizards or something? So, I googled “why are there lizards in my house” and “lizards in South Carolina” and “lizards.” And, I learned some things I didn’t know and one thing in particular that can relate to our Christian lives.

Apparently, the lizards are coming inside because it is getting colder outside. I’ve never had a lizard issue in my house before, so I’m not completely sure I buy this as the only reason. Nonetheless, Charley, Bob, Gus, and Michelle came inside seeking comfort (warmth and food). This is much like our relationship with God, right? We come to the Holy One in search of comfort, love, and peace. For example, when times get hard (i.e. cold weather for the lizard), we tend to move closer to God in prayer. The challenge is to remember God's presence in our lives more than during just the rough times; to be caught off guard by the movement of God in our lives, daily!

Another interesting fact about the lizard has to do with their tails. A lizard’s tail helps it in balance and movement. As I could tell from my struggles with Gus (balancing on top of the computer monitor) and Michelle (moving quickly through the tines of the baby gate), balance is very important for a lizard when trying to escape and “enemy.” Further, the tail of a lizard is where fat is stored and thus energy comes from when needed. So, losing a tail could become a real problem for a lizard.

Finally, a most interesting surprise about the lizard’s tail! When it is bumped or pulled off by the “enemy,” it will wriggle around, confusing the “enemy,” and the lizard can get away safely. And, most lizards can regenerate their tails. I think this is a great lesson for us to take in relation to our Christian journey and the enemy (a.k.a. Satan/sin). When we are faced with “attack,” God equips us and gives us the tools for a great escape! As long as we are active in claiming our relationship with God for ourselves, God will “regenerate” our abilities to escape the enemy.

I don’t like lizards. But, I am thankful for Charley, Bob, Gus, and Michelle (the lizards I have encountered this week) and the theological example that lizards bring to the table this Thanksgiving. Pun intended!

Zion Students This Week | 11.08.10

2010-11-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

The Test

2010-11-08T09:46:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday and Sunday, we focused on stewardship at mid and senior high youth groups. As a part of our study of using our time, talents, and gifts, our 6th-12th grade students were given the opportunity to take a spiritual gifts inventory. The goal was that this “test” will help them understand some of the talents they have and the ways they can share some of their talents with Zion Lutheran Church. If you didn’t get to take the inventory, you can access it here to either take it online or print it out and take it:

http://www2.elca.org/christianeducation/programplanners/2005CEProgramPlanner/spiritualgifts.html

Despite its length (it’s hard to focus for that many questions), I really do like this inventory and the resources that go with it! It offers a perspective on one’s spiritual and relational talents. That same site offers a resource in the youth category called “Using Your Gifts.” Once the inventory is taken, this sheet tells a little more about how one can use their spiritual and relational strengths.

Some of the Zion youth who took this “test” shared their results with me. Knowing what I know about several of these students (and teens in general), I expected our students to receive high scores and to be talented in areas of gifts like music, leadership, and even service. However, there seems to be a common theme from the results of many of the Zion teens who took the inventory. Many of them scored high in the categories of relational gifts over spiritual gifts. In particular in that relational category, many of the youth have their top gifts in listening and intergenerational openness.

For me, this speaks volumes, especially in the area of intergenerational openness. In my master’s degree work, I studied lot about adolescent growth and development, in addition to faith development of teens. Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, intellectual, social, and emotional growth. And, as most of us could probably guess, a typical characteristic of teenage development is discovering their self identity and expressing that identity to others. Often, this leads to a “breaking away” from parents and various expressions of asserting independence. While often times this is trying on families and parents, this is actually a very healthy and normal teenage experience.

From time to time, as their youth minister, youth share things with me that they don’t feel comfortable sharing with their parents. For this very reason, having an adult role model, that is trustworthy, is so important for teenagers. And barring any harm from what they share may cause to themselves or another, a smart youth minister would not break the confidence of a teenager. On the other hand, not every teenager will connect with their youth minister. I’ve not met a youth minister, yet, who had a daily/weekly, strong, personal, wonderful connection with every youth on their church’s roster. It’s just not possible.

Can they be cordial and friendly? Sure! But this is part of the key to having adult church members serve as volunteers in a church’s youth ministry. While I (the youth minister) may not have an instant connection with every youth in the church, I bet I can find an adult in our church who does! That is a fascinating part of ministry for me! In the past 9 years of doing youth ministry, I have loved promoting and seeing the relationships formed between youth and youth ministry volunteers. I have loved (and do love) the connections I have made. It is truly a visual representation of the vows we (as a church) say when we baptize our children … that we are going to love and support them (and their parents) as they grow up in the Christian faith.

I am so thankful for the volunteers at Zion who have stepped forward to be in relationship with our youth – those who help with youth group, teach Sunday school, go on trips, cook meals with or for our students, and so much more! The good news is, according to the gifts and talents of our youth, Zion students are very open to this intergenerational connection. What an exciting place and situation to share in ministry!

TODAY AND TOMORROW!

2010-11-03T05:44:00.001-07:00

I have heard it said, over and over that our youth of today are the future of our church. I’m not sure that I agree with statement, whole-heartedly. Yes, it is a fact that some today’s youth will grow up, go off to college, come back, get married, have children, and will be the adults of tomorrow’s church. And, I’d like to think that we’re instilling the priority to our youth that even if they don’t come back to Zion Lutheran Church they would be a part an active part of some Christian church, somewhere. But, I think there is more to it ... I think our youth are not only the church of TOMORROW but they should be, in fact, known as the church of TODAY.

I mean, just think about some of the leaders in the Bible who were young. They actually teach some really good lessons. Here are three examples:

First, there was David. Come on, he killed an intimidating, skilled, giant of a man. You’ll remember that young David, not even old enough to be in the army, came to the “front lines” (at the request of his father) to bring some food to his brothers and check on them. When David got there, he simply looked at the problem (of the Philistine army / Goliath), faced his own limitations, prayed to God for help, and defeated Goliath. The lesson? “Young” David despite his age and lack of experience figured out how to use the skills he did have! After all, he was a shepherd-boy and he defended his sheep all the time against wild animals. David’s gifts? A cool head and an inventive brain. Don’t those same characteristics apply to some of the youth of today?

Then there’s Mary. Young, pregnant, Mary, the mother of Jesus. Can you imagine being young and in a situation not well accepted by society? Don’t get me wrong, I am not comparing, judging, or suggesting any of our youth should willingly get themselves into situations not accepted by society. However, I am suggesting “young” Mary’s actions in the situation were heroic. When Mary found herself and her family in a stressful and unfortunate (by societal standards) situation, she was able to accept that God had a plan for her even though she couldn’t understand it. And, I think there is a lesson we can take from Mary when she found herself in this troublesome situation. Mary connected with a mentor, Elizabeth. Mary sought her mentor’s guidance, thoughts, and support. On the other hand, Elizabeth listened and learned a lot from Mary; and Mary was, in turn, a support to Elizabeth.

And, what about Timothy? Timothy has been a traveling companion of Paul. The influence that he had over the early Christian church became extra-ordinary. But, Timothy, was very young for a church leader; we know this because Paul tells him “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for other believers!” (1 Tim 4:12). In the two letters sent to Timothy by Paul, Timothy appears as timid, perhaps because of his relative youth. On the other hand, it is believed that Timothy became the first bishop of Ephesus, and that he was martyred there in 97 AD. The lesson? We can’t lead people where we ourselves have never been. Paul taught that to Timothy. So how can we expect our youth to lead the church tomorrow, if we don’t TEACH them and INCLUDE them and TRUST them in the decision making processes of today?

There are modern day examples, too! These are examples of “young” leaders from our congregation who are, truly, setting the example from 1 Timothy 4:12 (please note: there are many I could share; I’ve limited myself to 3 examples but I am proud of all of my students).

Take Christian, an 11th grader. He and some of his friends dressed up and went trick or treating last night! According to Christian’s mom, Christian and his friends ran into another mom who started interrogating them, thinking they may be the older kids who snatched her 11 year old son's candy and ran with it. After talking to Christian and his friends, this mom realized it was not them. Here’s the extra-ordinary part of the story. After this conversation, Christian and his friends filled a bag with all of the candy they had collected and took it over to the little boy’s house. Nope, it’s not saving the world. But, they did “save” that little boy’s world and probably sparked a Halloween memory for that little boy that he will not soon forget and may one day share with his children.

Don't forget, Kara, a 12th grader. She was very frustrated and offended by some bullying that was going on in one of her classes at school. Several times, Kara “stood up” to the bullies in the class and asked them to stop picking on another student. Kara was able to be proactive in the situation and help stop the negative behavior that was hurting another student. Nope, she didn’t save the school from a terrorist or anything, but she did stop one student from being terrorized and isn’t worried about what those bullies think about her for standing up to them.

What about Jordan, a 10th grader. Jordan has been a part of Zion for over 10 years and is in her second year of serving on our student leadership team. Jordan is running for church council this year. Jordan is a great example of perseverance, for me, because she has acknowledged the fact that because of her (and the youth of Zion’s) age, teenagers are often looked down upon or not taken seriously. Jordan KNOWS and MAINTAINS and is EXCITED that the youth of our church could have a voice on church council. Jordan and the youth are excited for an opportunity for the youth to step up and become a part of the Zion decision making process.

Considering these past and modern day examples, it seems that teenagers are actively engaged in being the church of today, not just tomorrow. I am very proud of the students with whom I share in ministry and I am excited that, together, we will grow and make a difference in the world!

The Woman in Front of Me

2010-10-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday’s Gospel lesson was from Luke 18 – you know the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector who were each in the temple praying. The tax collector was very ashamed of his sins and couldn’t even look to God. But, the Pharisee was praying something like “God I am so thankful that I am not like ‘those’(i.e. the tax collector) other people; I do what I’m supposed to and follow the rules, and I’m just awesome!”

This got me thinking.

Have you ever had one of those moments? You know the moment where you try to justify doing something you know you shouldn’t do or where you compare yourself to other people to build yourself up or where you judge yourself to be better in some way than another … We’ve all done it! I have! Certainly when I was a teenager, this was commonplace in my life. I think that is part of the process of growing up and gaining one’s self identity and self esteem. It’s a natural tendency. But, even as an adult and as much as I don’t want to admit it, I still catch myself in these situations from time to time.

Picture it … I was shopping. After all, I really needed some new pants. I went from store to store. When I finally found some that I liked, I wanted to get one in every color they had and call it a day. But I didn’t. I did, however, make my way to the register with 2 pairs of pants. All the while I was contemplating if I should really even get either one of them. After all, Christmas is only two months away and I could wait for a coupon to come out. But on the other hand, the pants were on sale (10% off is better than nothing, right?) and they had my size in stock.

When I got to the register, the woman in front of me had, I’m guessing, about $300 or so worth of purchases she was making. As she was handing item after item to the clerk, I heard her say something like “Well, I really don’t NEED these but they are just so cute, I HAVE to buy them. I’ll probably never wear them, though.” And, “My husband is going to be so mad at me, I didn’t get him anything … oh … hold on – there’s a nice shirt, I’ll get him that.”

I began to think to myself, how I probably didn’t need to spend my money on these two pairs of pants. But, at least I wasn’t like the woman in front of me, needlessly buying something I would never wear.
And there I was … looking down on someone else and judging myself to be better than her. When I heard this Scripture Sunday, it make me think - I was worse off than the woman needlessly spending money because of my judgment of her.

Jesus' message / lesson through this parable is simply stated. I love The Message version of the Bible and that lesson in verse 14 of this 8th chapter. “If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” I also like the Contemporary English Version’s translation: “If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.”
When I thought about the shopping situation and this verse from Sunday, it was a real slap in the face; a real wake up call that I need to be more humble. It’s a challenge for me. Recently, I took a spiritual gifts inventory that confirmed this. My lowest score was in mercy (and skilled craft). That’s a real growing edge for me!

So, I’m praying for myself. I need to be more like the tax collected and pray for God to give me the know-how and strength to be more merciful, non-judgmental, and compassionate. I mean, after all, I didn’t know the woman in front of me or her life story. Maybe she won the lottery. Maybe her house burned down and she was replacing her clothes. Maybe this was money she had worked really hard to save and was now enjoying spending it on herself and her husband. And, at least she thought to buy her husband something … in the first place!

Margaret and Lucy

2010-10-19T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am sad. I’m sad because a terrible thing happened and there was a funeral. Don’t get me wrong, I understand death is a part of life and I’ve experienced the death of people that I am close to in my childhood and in my adult life. I’m no expert on death or anything but I do understand how one feels when losing someone they love and the life-long mourning and journey of personal healing that comes with the experience of death. After all, my father was killed by a drunk driver when I was ten years old. And, all of my grandparents have died between my college and young adult years; most recently my grandmother just over two years ago.

But, for me today, this is a different kind of sad. It is a heart-wrenching, deep, belly aching sadness. Tears don’t help. It’s a kind of sadness that I’ve not experienced before. It’s funny that the Lectionary Scripture on Sunday was Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God, because God and I are in a full on match right now.

I’m not going to lie, I expect to have a perfect little life; unfortunately, for me, it doesn’t ever seem to work that way. Bad things happen; a lot. And, these bad things seem to usually happen to good people. Yesterday I learned that two of my friends who were about 5 months pregnant with twins, lost both of their daughters. So, yep I said it, I’m angry with God over God allowing two of God’s perfect, beautiful creations to be taken away from their parents before they were even out of the womb. I’m angry that I couldn’t be there to help in some way and to grieve with my friends.

Margaret and Lucy’s parents are the kindest, most caring and loving examples of a human being I know and they don’t deserve this. I was lucky enough to meet Jenn and Graham when they became members of the last church where I served as youth minister. Not only did I get to share in ministry with Jenn and Graham (as they served as youth volunteers), but I also had a friendship with them outside of church. They adored my son, Blaine, and he, them. You see, Jenn and Graham had this “swagger” about them. Many of the children of that church, including Blaine, would run up to Graham and hug him each Sunday … it sort of became a ritual for several of them. And the youth were very attracted and connected with Jenn and Graham. These two amazing adults were two of the greatest role models I’ve met. When I left my position at that church a year and a half ago, Graham even served as the interim youth director! Jenn and Graham loved (and still love) the youth of that church. They have a gift for youth ministry and they showed (and still show) that love and share that gift by being a consistent and positive presence in the life of those 6th-12th graders.

As I struggle with God about why such bad things happen to such good people, I realized there is a more fundamental issue for me. It’s also an issue I’ve seen with many of the 6th-12th graders I’ve shared and am sharing in ministry with. When these bad things happen to us or people we know, we tend to judge God's goodness by those circumstances. But, when you think about it that is not a really fair judgment … is it?

I believe it is only natural to question God’s goodness from time to time in our lives. Like - why doesn’t God intervene, why didn’t God save Jenn and Graham this pain? I also believe that sometimes we CAN understand the reasons why bad things happen: the brakes failed, the terrorists hated us, or the cancer had spread too far. But sometimes it gets complicated; sometimes we just don’t understand, as in this case for me.

My guess is if I asked Jenn and Graham about the situation, they would be very sad and I know they are grieving and in pain. But I also don’t think they are yelling "why me?" at God. I know that sounds silly. But, knowing Jenn and Graham and their strength and goodness, they probably see the bigger picture of "why not me?” and eventually “how can we grow and see the positives of the experience?”

Last week I was leading a Bible study based on Rob Bell’s NOOMA series. The lesson was called “Matthew.” You can view a preview of the video below:

The bottom line is (as Rob Bell states) “Whatever you’re feeling in the moment, it’s okay.” But, I don’t think we can judge God purely based on those feelings. God is good, just, loving, and merciful and I know from personal experience how easy it can be for us to lose sight of that in the midst of our pain.

As I imagine Jenn and Graham and how they are dealing with the death of their twins, I imagine that the example we will all see from them is that instead of doubting God's goodness, they are trusting. Trusting - this is a remarkably difficult thing to do. Will Jenn and Graham struggle and wrestle with God to get there? Absolutely! But I am reminded through Genesis 32 that struggling “to get there” means that we are growing. These two remarkable strong individuals will one day be even stronger.

So when these bad things happen to people we know, what can we do / how can we help? Isn’t that just like us human beings? I mean, I don’t know what I can do but I want to help; I want to make it better for Jenn and Graham (even though I know I really can’t). This is one thing that I am struggling with in my current battle with God because the answer is not one I want. The answer? Be present. Be silent. Listen.

In the video (not seen in the preview above), Rob Bell speaks about an ancient Jewish practice called “sitting shiva.” In this practice, when you know someone who loses someone whom they love, you go to their house and you just sit with them. You sit in silence and when/if they want to talk, you listen. So, Jenn and Graham, I am here. I am praying for you daily. I love you. I am here when you are ready for whatever you need.

The Stroller

2010-10-11T10:29:00.001-07:00

Just over a year ago, I was contemplating a move to another town in South Carolina (little did I know God had other plans for me). At my realtor’s suggestion, I packed up most of the “extras” and “clutter” of my house and neatly stacked the boxes in the garage. Before I could stack the boxes, I had to clear out all of the “junk” from the garage that was 7 years worth of accumulation. But, you know what “they” say: “One man’s junk is another’s treasure.” So, I had a yard sale! At that yard sale, I couldn’t bare to part with my (then) four year old’s baby seat and matching stroller. I knew Blaine would NEVER again be able to fit in the stroller, but it just seemed the best place for it was to sit in my garage and accumulate dust and spider webs.
This past weekend, my sister and mom had a yard sale. I planned to try and sell my old washing machine there and as I went out to the garage to clean it off and get it ready, I began to look around my garage. Remember, it’s only been a year or so since I cleaned it out and organized it … As I looked around I realized there was more new “stuff” and I couldn’t figure out where it came from or how my garage had gotten so disorganized and cluttered, AGAIN! As I started to look through the “stuff,” there was that baby seat and stroller. Yep, you guessed it – to the back of the car and over to my sister’s it went.
I’d thought about how much I wanted someone to pay for it and settled on $50 for the set. After all, I’d originally paid over $200.00 for it! But, secretly, I was hoping that no one would ask about it or purchase it. And, until around 11:00a.m. that was working quite nicely for me; I was sure that in about an hour, I’d be packing it pack in my car and returning it to my garage.
I noticed her because she had beautiful red hair and was clearly of Irish decent, but was speaking Spanish and translating for the women with whom she had arrived. They would look at the baby clothes and other toys my sister had out. Then the red headed young woman would ask Jessica a question and tell the others in Spanish what Jessica’s answer was.
About that time, another woman came up and asked about the stroller. She didn’t want the baby seat, just the stroller, so I told her $30. She went to make a phone call to friend she knew might want the stroller but had to leave a message. She was convinced her friend might call back and so she was waiting and continued to look. About that time, I had to walk away for a moment and the red headed woman and her friends asked my sister about the cost of the stroller and seat. Since Jessica had just heard me tell the other woman $30, she told them $30. But, Jessica didn’t know the other woman didn’t want the car seat.
When I returned, Jessica told me what was going on and I was, honestly, a bit disappointed that I wasn’t going to get the full $50 for both pieces, should this red headed lady decide she want to purchase the stroller. But as I watched what unfolded next, I was so impressed with the way these ladies were truly living in community; it reminded me of the characteristics of the early Christian church how they lived in community.
We read in Acts about how willing the early church went about helping one another. See Acts 2:44-47. All the Lord's followers often met together, and they shared everything they had. Verse 45 says: “They would sell their property and possessions and give the money to whoever needed it” (CEV). The main idea is that they were willing to give up all that they had so that others (their own family in Christ) would not have to go without.
As it turned out, the young red headed woman had just given birth to a baby, two weeks ago. This is why she was interested in the stroller. But, apparently, she did not have enough money to purchase the stroller because she had already purchased a car seat cover from my sister. She asked my sister if she could return the car seat cover and my sister said yes. After this, another of the Spanish speaking women purchased the car set cover for the red headed woman. About this time, another of the Spanish speaking women, went out to her car and came back with a $20 bill and gave it to the red headed woman. Still another of the Spanish speaking women, made her purchase of some clothes and gave her “change” to the red headed woman. She handed me the $30 and pushed the stroller away.
While all of this was going on, I had a few moments to prepare myself for the departure of the stroller. I know this is silly … but, emotionally, I thought it would be a hard thing to see the stroller and car seat rolled away and placed in someone else’s car. After all, letting go of the stroller meant I have to admit I have a big boy, kindergartner now, right? And that means I’m getting older. And that means, before I know it Blaine will be off to college. And that means things are changing. And that means … well, you see my thought pattern here, right? But I sat stunned, yet at peace, as these four women walked out of the yard side by side - laughing, talking, and happy for all they had accomplished together. I’m sure they thought they got a good deal on all they left my sister’s yard with (and they did), but more than that they gave and shared all they had, so that another could benefit. What a great lesson God spoke and challenged me with through these ladies.
Might I do a better job at remembering, every day, how blessed and lucky I am to live in community with such good friends, family, and in my church. Might I strive to be more like those Spanish speaking women who would do anything to help their red-headed “sister.”

Pray with Me?

2010-10-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

This week at youth groups, we are electing our student leadership team members! Sunday, at our senior high youth group, we began our time together with a devotion on leadership. The students listed several qualities of being a leader and then we discussed how Jesus exemplified each of the characteristics they listed. Bottom line - we should strive to model our lives and ourselves as leaders after the example of Jesus. Afterall, it's all about example, right?! You may be the only Jesus somebody knows.
Also, this morning, in our stewardship Bible study, we were challenged to make a list of all of the things of which we should be good stewards (i.e. our bodies, our church, our money, our time, our attitude, our environment, and more!).
These two conversations convicted me to thinking further about myself and about three personal challenges I have been considering lately. I am challenged arond being a good steward of my time, attitudes, and priorities. I bet most of our students (and parents, for sure) can relate to these challenges!
For me, I've been convicted about being a good steward of my time and priorities, in part, because we hear so much about all of the miraculous healings Jesus was a part of in Bible stories. But, then I heard a challenge to consider the fact that Jesus frequently left people unhealed. Upon further investigation I realized that, quite often, Jesus said "no" to good things! I have a very hard time saying "no" to anything. What a great example to consider in today's busy, busy, busy culture.
As Blaine and I are living in to this new lifestyle of a 7:45pm bedtime (since he began kindergarten this year), I've been forced to saying "no" to friends and fun things, to meetings, and to many other options. Does time and priority challegne you? Do you feel convicted to say "no" to sport team practice or other extra-curricular activities on Wednesday nights so you can focus on your discipleship at youth group? Do you sleep in on Sunday morning or do you take moment to worship God with your church family? I heard a challenge today by the hip hop artist Jason Petty a.k.a. "Propoganda." When I was a teenager I loved to sleep! And there is not much better than a lazy Sunday morning! But this artist's statement is clear and profoud! He said (in the middle of sharing this epic poem) "You can chase down dreams or you can catch up on sleep." Click below to view the performance.

I'm also challenged about my attitude frequently. I mentioned in the front page devotion I wrote for our students in our October Student Ministry newsletter that I am a very emotional person and that because of that a growing edge for me is to think before speaking.
I've been especially challenged about being a good steward of my attitude in relation to the recent congregational survey at our chuch and an upcoming church-wide conversation about the results (this Sunday). I want to have and have been praying for the attitude of helping fix any issues for our congregation and discern the best way to move foward and bring excitement to Zion. On the other hand, it could seem that it would be much simpler and less challenging to just sit back and watch or remove ourselves from the conversation altogether. But, that would be too easy! And, I certainly don't think that is the approach Jesus would have taken. Does that challenge you?
I pray that our students and parents will join me in the challenge of being a good steward of our time, attitudes, and priorities as our church body gathers this Sudnay afternoon at 4:30pm to disuss the survey results and discern how to move foward at Zion Lutheran Church! Pray with me?

The Drink in Your Hand

2010-09-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend our 6th-12th grade students were invited to attend a fall retreat at a near-by Lutheran Retreat Center. While at Camp Kinard, I invited our students to focus on unity, community, and visioning for the year. I pushed the youth who did attend to discern what kind of community we want to be this year (as a youth group) and to name and claim some of the things we will do over the school year. We also focused on our call to serve others and to be a united group, all the while “plugged in to God”.

We did many fun activities to promote bonding as a total student ministry and separately as middle and high school groups. Saturday, our two groups, individually, spent time on the ropes course. But, Friday night we all met together for a game of Fear Factor, some singing/dancing, and we picked a theme for our group to focus on for the year. The groups voted and decided to work with the Scripture from Matthew 4:19: Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you (The Message).

On the way to camp Kinard I challenged the students to a “random acts of kindness” type of scavenger hunt. The had from the time we left Zion to the time we got to Camp Kinard to complete as many random acts of kindness as they could (up to 26) … one for every letter in the alphabet. The youth had to work in teams and be as creative as possible with this task. When we got to Camp Kinard, we talked about some of the things the youth had done. Some of the accomplishments included: holding the door for someone, offering to take someone’s tray to the trashcan, let someone go ahead of me in line, smiled at someone I didn’t know, picked up trash on the ground at the restaurant where we ate dinner. I explained to the youth that implementing random acts of kindness in our daily lives could, potentially, impact unity in the world. If we start with the small things, like smiling at someone, eventually giving, being good stewards, and kindness become second nature for us.

I began to think about this as I was driving to church this morning. Most mornings, I drive a very popular stretch of I-20 in Columbia (during rush hour) to get across town to my office. There is this stretch of about 4 or 5 miles getting in to Columbia that always backs up. There is not usually a wreck or anything, it’s just a matter of everyone on the outskirts of the city needing to get in to the city. The main problem I’ve noticed recently is that people tend to tailgate the car in front of them so that traffic from Clemson Road can’t easily merge on to I-20 and the congestion is further promoted. Usually I just try to stay in the left hand lane so that I don’t have to deal with the merging.

This morning, about a mile before Clemson Road, I could see the traffic backed up. I decided to make it my mission to stay in the right hand lane and commit some random acts of kindness. My plan was to let as some cars merge on to I-20 as I made my way through the intersection. I was proud of myself for remembering my challenge to the youth to change their norm in small ways in hopes of it becoming second nature. Just then, a song I love came on the radio. If you know me, you know that I LOVE to sing in the car! So, I started jamming and before I knew it I was in the middle of the intersection where merging was happening. I realized I was speeding up quickly and then tailgating the car in front of me so that the people margining couldn’t get on to I-20. That’s always been my driving habit. I figure if I let them in, it will make me later than I already am. Selfish! I know … I don't WANT to be this way, but without focus, I am.

This morning, I lost my focus and failed at my goal. So, I’ll try again tomorrow morning. As I drove the rest of the way to my office, I thought about what had happened. I had lost my focus, gotten distracted. Isn’t it so easy to do? Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re doing it. Isn’t this like life? Isn’t this like our devotion to God? Isn’t this like our giving to the church?

This morning in our stewardship Bible study, our group focused on Scripture from Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We talked about the ability to make your heart feel something it won’t. We discerned that this is possible; but it requires a change of attitude, flat out pretending, or changes from within.

A perfect example - over the weekend, I was walking in downtown Columbia at dusk. As I passed by a homeless man in a wheel-chair, I smiled and said hello. The person behind me offered the drink in his hand to the homeless man. Honestly, it didn’t even dawn on me to offer the one I had in mine. I want to be more like the person behind me who didn’t just pass by someone in need but offered something simply.

The bottom line is that in life we have to decide what kind of person we want to be and then give our time, talents, treasures, attitudes, minds, everything we are and everything we have to it. It’s not simple; it’s certainly not one of those black and white areas of life. But, how differently unified the world would be if more people offered the “drink in their hands” or if more people taught their children to do the same.

Wednesday Night Programs at Zion!

2010-09-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Don't miss our kickoff celebration tomorrow (Wednesday), September 24th from 5:45pm-7:30pm.

Zion Students This Week 8-31-10

2010-08-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

Senior High Mission Trip - Day 5 by Jordan Sommer

2010-08-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

We went to a new house today! We painted the exterior of it. The house was actually pretty nice compared to the other ones we've been to this week. The lady who owns it inherited it from her parents when they died. But, soon after she and her husband moved in, he passed away and she was left with two kids to raise and the house went on the back burner. She's putting herself through college so, of course, home repairs are hard to do. Today, she got new windows, paint and porch railings.

For our activity we went on the beach tonight and had a worship service. Everyone had to bring an object from the job site that symbolized their experience as a servant this week. We each took turns explaining the significance of our objects and what we learned about each other, God, and ourselves this week. We are each going home different than when we came! The objects we each brought - we super glued them to a cross we made out of wood from the site. During worship, we took turns and served each other communion. Pastor Tim had consecrated the box of bread mix and juice druring worship on Sunday and we cooked the bread this morning.

To view pictures of our day, go to our facebook page!

Senior High Mission Trip - Day 4 by Justin Hall

2010-08-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

So today was a lot more hard on all of us than we thought it would be. We all got up at around 6 this morning. However, we got through the day and got a lot done for a days work. We arrived at the work site at 8:00am.

The guys worked on the roof and it was so hot!!! I can say for all of us that the guys got the hottest job of the day. We took some vents for the roof and put them down and in the process we kinda screwed some things up but it all worked out just right.

So the girls had to paint the exterior of the house(outside). And wrap the outsides of the windows with tape and plastic. Then when us guys got done we all got off the roof and helped the girls out with the painting.

So for our lunch break we had pb&j and turkey sandwhiches it really hit the spot on a hot day of work. We had a long lunch break because it was sooooo hot. We bring our lunch and drinks to the site each day. It is nice to sit and hang out at lunch!

We had tacos for supper and our "out of your comfort zone dinner" hallenge for today was that we couldnt feed ourselves we had to feed eachother. We all split up and had a good time with that. Tonight for our message Jillianne is going to talk about being the light of christ and we are palying glow in the dark dodge ball. For our dessert we had peach cobbler and it was AMAZING!!

Here are some pictures from our day! To see all of them, go to our facebook page!

-Justin

Senior High Mission Trip - Day 3 by Casey McIntosh

2010-08-03T18:07:00.001-07:00

So we got through day 3 of our mission trip (work day number 2)! It was EXTREMELY hot and of course the clouds didn't do much for us :(

Today, we all went back to the houses we had been working on. Us girls washed the lady's house and finished up putting in the floor. The boys finished putting in windows, put vinyl around the house, and also put in new air ducts. When they were done, they came to our house and helped us.

After we finished up the house, we went to another house where we pressure washed the it and started painting. However, the house had to dry before we can paint it's exterior (tomorrow). So, we got to leave a bit early today so we came back to the church and changed into our bathingsuits and headed to the beach!

Jillanne's first activity was for us to tie a string around our wrists and talk about our day then throw the yarn to another person so we were tangled up like in a web. She then told us to eat while we were all tied together! It was so hard! Everyone had to move at the same time just to walk! It was really funny though. Then we tried to play frisbee all tangled up like that! We also made sand scultpures of ourselves.

The lesson for tonight was about being a part of the body of Christ (i.e. why we had to eat dinner all tied together) and about the importance each of us serves in the body of Christ!

For dinner, we ate hotdogs, potatoe salad, and watermelon! It was very yummie :)
We then made a fire and roasted marshmallows! Also very yummie. After that, we all came back to the church to take showers and go to sleep early! Goodnight- Casey

Here are some pictures from the day. To see the rest, please go to our student facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lexington-SC/Zion-Lutheran-Church-Youth/150573651544?ref=ts&__a=5&ajaxpipe=1

Senior High Mission Trip - Day 2 by Brent Wingard

2010-08-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

This morning's wake up call came awfully early - 6:30am to be exact. Sunday night, we didn't get to bed until about 11:45pm or after! The work day was fairly easy for the guys, unlike the girls day (we were working at two differnt sites). Here are some highlights:
*The girls found 2 dead rats while tearing out flooring that was rotten.
*The guys didn't really get dirty (or to shower first).
*The girls tore out an entire dining room floor and replaced it with new joists
and plywood sub-floor!
*The guys helped put in 2 windows and will finish the third tomorrow.
*The girls replaced half a popcorn ceiling!
*The guys spent time talking to the owner of the home where they were working
and she helped them clean up the rotten wood from rthe windows they were
replacing.
*The girls had a distracting visit from the cutest puppies that were roaming
the neighborhood.

For dinner, we had another "challenge" to step out of our comfort zones. We are doing these each night at dinner. This time, we had to eat spaghetti without using a fork, spoon, or knife. We had to bring our own utensil! Some brought spatulas! Needless to say, it was a pretty messy dinner, but we all left the table full!

The lesson that Jillianne taught us tonight when we got back to the church in Pawley's Island was about spiritual gifts. We learned what types of gifts we each have individually.

See some of our pictures below or head to the Zion Youth Facebook Page to see more!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lexington-SC/Zion-Lutheran-Church-Youth/150573651544?ref=ts&__a=6&ajaxpipe=1

Senior High Mission Trip - Day 1

2010-08-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

We're on day one of our first ever Zion senior high mission trip to Georgetown, SC! Zion's congregation generously supported this opportunity for our students to serve and share God's love. We were able to raise $2143.00 to help with expenses of this trip and the mid high trip (last weekend) to Beaufort, SC. And, a fellow congregation, St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Pawley's Island, graciosly opened up their church and fellowship hall to host us this week! We'll be doing our work through the United Methodist Relief Center. We'll be working on several houses in the Georgtown/Andrews area doing some flooring, painting, roofing, and intalling new windows. Today, I'm writing the blog. However, each day this week, one of our students will be blogging and sharing information about the work we are doing and the evening programs being led by Jillianne.

Today, we traveled to Pawley's Island after the 11am worship service at Zion. Our time began with a lunch stop at 5 Guys in Lexington. Once we arrived in Pawley's Isalnd, arond 5pm, we were greated by Pastor Lyle at St. Peter's and we "moved" in to our temporary home!

I explained to the youth that this week is all about stepping out of their comfort zones! When we are willing to step out, God grows us and we are better able to sense God's presence in our lives and the lives of others! To prove this idea, each dinner meal we share together will be an "out of your comfort zone" dinner. Tonight's meal - the youth were given $50 and asked to provide food for the ten participants on the trip. The only rules were no pizza or sandwhiches. The youth brainstormed for a while and decided to to breakfast for dinner. As they were making their grocery list, someone decided going to Waffle House would be easier. So, off we headed to waffle house! After some free waffles and biscuits and gravy, we met our goal!!!

After dinner, we returned to St. Peter's for a program on servanthood. We started with some hilarious games that focused on attention to detail and building/teamwork (important jobs for us this week)! First was a reverse photo scavenger hunt. Basically, the youth started with a list of 8 captions and they had to be creative and capture a picture to go with it. Here are some examples:

"Who would have thought a youth group could do this an no one got arrested?"

"It was pretty obvious to onlookers how THIS was going to end."

"'Be Careful!' someone shouted at the group. "THIS could cause an unstoppable outbreak of peace in the world."

In our next game, we built towers out of marshmellows and spaghetti! The goal was to see which group, the guys or the girls, could build the highest tower. This was the winner (built by the guys):

We then brainstormed the characteristics of a servant and a missionary and decided that we are called to be both this week! Some of the characteristics of a servant/missionary the students came up with were: willing, hard working, committed to sharing God's love, and helpful. We used Matthew 5:7-12 to talk more about the charcateristics of a servant/missionary!

We also looked at several examples of servants in Scripture and the senior highs acted out the scenes of Jesus calling the fishermen to be fishers of people, Mary and Martha, and Jesus washing the disciples feet.

We ended our evening by serving one another, and again stepping out of our comfort zone, by painting and washing each other's feet and hands.

After all, this week, we are Zion's and God's hands and feet in the community of Georgetown and Pawley's Island! By painting ... we created this:

Vacation Bible School 2010

2010-07-28T11:22:00.001-07:00

Here's a look at our High Seas Expedition! It was awesome!!!

Walking on Water

2010-06-10T10:09:00.001-07:00

So, last night we had our first mid high summer youth group gathering. We met at the house of two of our mid high youth and they have a pool! We swam, ate dinner (in the pouring rain), had a devotion, and shared in fellowship. It was fun.

I tried to get the group to play "Pool Bowling" but they looked at me like I was crazy ... which I probably am! :) If you've played before you know that in pool bowling you have volunteers to be a "bowler" and a "bowling ball" and then you have the "pins." It's a little tricky! Basically, the bowling ball person gets on a raft and sits. The pins do a handstand and hold it and the bowler "pushes" the ball into the pins. If you've never played, it's acutally hilarious and worth a shot! Mostly, everyone just wants to be the bowling ball. Seriously, you need to try this game ...

After dinner, I started off our devotion time by asking the youth if they could think of a time that involved Jesus and water. They named several but their first guess was Peter and Jesus walking on water. So, I felt convicted and pushed them on this. I read the account to them from Scripture.

They decided that Peter began to sink because of fear. So, we discussed what things we fear. They all agreed that they get afraid from time to time and one person even shared about being afraid of death. We also talked about how our hearts shouldn’t be “hard” or “closed” like the disciples were that day (as it says in Scripture).

And here is where I am stuck (which is a good thing because I'm really praying for my youth about this right now). Here's the thing about opening our hearts - it forces a change in our lives. Jesus calls us to a higher standard, afterall.

(Sadly) Often times, that change, the committment required to open our hearts, is not something we are willing to do. For example, not having closed hearts might mean we are called to hang out with different people or limit the time we spend with those whom we do not want to be like. For we know from 1 Corinthians that bad company corrupts good character. How many students do you know that might be willing to change their friends or limit their time with people they've been hanging with, especially in the summer?

Okay, so where am I stuck? How can I as a youth minister share this message in practical ways? I truly beleive that we, too, can walk on water (or at the least help rescue someone else who is sinking or afraid) if we do live our lives differently/with open hearts where Christ is central. What I feel convicted to do is find the best way(s) to take Martin Luther's thought and have the youth in my church live it! Luther said something like: "It is more about knowing Jesus, it is about possessing Jesus." That's where I am stuck ... making that practical for today's youth, so that they might set that example for others (1 Tim 4:12).

Sweet Summertime

2010-06-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I’ll admit it! I am a beach bum! If I could live at the beach, I would! I LOVE summertime.; I always have! It is a magical time of year when (as a student) you don’t have so much responsibility and can do awesome things like stay up late, sleep in, hang with friends, wear flip-flops to church, take a family vacation, and relax!
Loving the summer comes naturally to me. The beach was also my dad’s favorite place in the world. And, I probably love it so much because it is a tradition for my family! When I was growing up, my grandparents had a beach house at Hilton Head and each summer our family and friends would go for multiple weeks. I was very lucky (and spoiled).

Some of my favorite memories of that summer tradition include:
*Apple fritters! My grandfather would always go and get from the local grocery store early in the morning and bring to us for breakfast. I’ve never tasted any as good as those!

*The coffee tree! Our family named it that, but it was really a palm tree that leaned to the side (so you could sit on it) and was located across the street from our house. My dad would have his coffee there most mornings by himself and have his time with God. My sister and I LOVED to climb on that tree.

*The Earle of Sandwhich Pub at Coligny Plaza! This is the best restaurant ever, and it was a part of our tradition to eat there at least once a trip.

*4th of July Fireworks! Our family went to the beach EVERY 4th of July. Our house was very close to Shelter Cove! So close, in fact, that we could lay out back in the grass and the fireworks were just over our heads!

Because of all of this, I have come to realize how meaningful tradition is for people! But God has also taught me the importance of creating new traditions! Sadly, my grandparents sold their beach house when I was in college. I really miss that dedicated family time in OUR beach house (which I will always remem-ber as sweet summertime)! But our family has found new ways to be together, and we’re beginning to make new traditions (we LOVE renting at Edisto now)! It’s not the same—there’s no family beach house any more and my grandparents have both passed away now. But, there is still time together and many memories to share in and live through together!

These memories are so important as are new ones! Blaine and I are so excited to be a part of Zion’s family now. In the past 9 months we’ve had some great times! We look forward to being able to continue making memories and experiencing traditions (old and new) at Zion!

Links to Mission Trip Information

2010-06-02T15:44:00.001-07:00

In case you can't see the info on mission trips in the previous posts ... here are the links. Copy and paste them into your browser!

Mid High
http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B__iHRI_DidtZmFkMGY0MzgtMDc0ZC00YmY3LWEzMGMtNTg4NjkzMTFjMGU1&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Senior High
http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B__iHRI_DidtM2VkODVhMTMtM2M3ZS00Y2IxLWE4NDYtMTE0MjRkMTZjZTk5&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Mid High Mission Trip July 2010

2010-06-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

See below for info about our mid high mission trip, July 23-25! Check it out! Deposits due to Jillianne by Sunday, June 13th! (If you have trouble viewing, click on the small box on the top right below and open the document in a new page.)

Senior High Summer Beach Mission Trip

2010-06-02T15:26:00.001-07:00

See below to get the information and sign up form for the Augsut 2010 trip!

Student Ministry Survey Responses

2010-05-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Copy and paste the link below into your browser to view the results of our recent survey! Thanks for your participation!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/gform?key=0Av_iHRI_DidtdDVuRWs4bHlNZHI4UFNydjJoOERCa1E&hl=en&gridId=0#chart

Youth Sunday

2010-05-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, Zion students will lead worship! They have have worked super hard on this video over the past 3 weeks! Here's sneak preview at about a minute's worth of the footage from the 3 minute video! Part of what you don't see is a stroll through the woods where the old church sites are! Join us for worship at 8:15am, 11:00am, or 6:30pm to see the whole video and some other amazing youth led worship experiences!

Zion Student Ministry Survey

2010-05-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

We need your thoughts and opinions! Please take this survey ASAP so we can decide how to move foward this summer and fall! Thanks for your support!

May 2010 Student Ministry Newsletter

2010-04-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Look for this in your mailbox this week!

Here's a sneak peak ... just copy and paste the link below into your browser and have a look!

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B__iHRI_DidtNzliMzdlZGUtM2Y1NC00YzY0LWI4ODUtODFiNmUzYjQ4MjVi&hl=en

Crazy May!

2010-04-29T09:46:00.001-07:00

This month is going to be wild!! Check out this video of the Top 5 Upcoming Events for Zion Student Ministry!

Senior High Retreat 2010 Info ...

2010-03-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Zion's 1st Annual Lenten Prayer Friend Project

2010-03-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our the lunch gathering of our first annual Lenten prayer friend project! For the past 40ish days, adult members of our church have been anonymously paired with 6th – 12th grade students in our congregation. They’ve been praying for each other. Today, the adults and students met for the first time. At the lunch we got to know each other a little better and then we watched a video. To see pictures and the video, watch here:

Martin Luther also said “the fewer the words, the better the prayer.” Actually, Martin Luther (the founder of our great denomination) had a lot to say about prayer. One of the main points of Luther in the Reformation was that Luther disagreed with needing a priest to approach God on our behalf. Martin Luther believed, instead, that people could communicate directly with God. He called this the “priesthood of all believers.” So, as you can imagine, Luther wrote a lot about prayer; including this.

Luther truly believed that through prayer, we can serve others. Yes, prayer is personal and personal conversation with God is important. But corporate prayer is also vital in our relationship with God and others. We see the example of corporate prayer set forth in the New Testament! And, in Romans 15 we hear that God’s desire for us is to have God’s love for us toward others. In James 5:16 we read “The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.” Based on some of the stories I’ve heard about the past 40ish days, I’d say that is very true for our project!

At a recent student ministry meeting, we focused on prayer: how to pray, the importance of prayer, and we even experienced an interactive time of prayer as we transformed the cathedral room (at Zion) into a prayer station room where the students had a chance to pray for their adult prayer friend.

Whenever I talk to youth about prayer, I try to share what works for me when I pray. The best routine I have found for successfully engaging in prayer regularly is to pray at a specific time each day. For example, I usually pray while I am brushing my teeth and showering. One day, I came to the bathroom and realized the tube of toothpaste was very out. So I chunked it in the trash and went to the cabinet for another tube. But, there was not another tube! I was all out of toothpaste. I had three options at this point. I could not brush my teeth … but that’s gross. I could have gone to a neighbor’s house and asked to borrow some … but it was very early in the morning. Or, I could dig the old tube out of the trash an d try to squeeze some out. So, of course – as gross as it was, I dug the toothpaste out of the trash. Needless to say, my prayer time that day was a little lacking. However, it dawned on me afterward that when we are “feeling the squeeze” or “under pressure” (like the toothpaste was), what is deep down inside of us will come out.

So it’s really imperative that we fill ourselves with good stuff like faith. We can do that through worship, Bible study, fellowship, and especially prayer. Jesus was on the same page with this! In fact, His bottom line concerning prayer was that we be consistent, persistent, and stick with it. Read examples of persistence that Jesus shares in Luke 11 (neighbor, middle of the night, bread) and Luke 18 (poor widow and crooked judge). It’s nice to know that when we can’t keep at it and be persistent, especially over these past 40 days (and the next week), that someone is praying for us! Thanks to all who participated in this project!

1st Annual Prayer Friend Project

2010-03-28T13:55:00.001-07:00

Zion Students This Week 3-15-10

2010-03-15T18:47:00.001-07:00

"Male Delivery Failure" .... Zion Lenten Worship Series

2010-03-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

Pastor Tim has designed this theme of “God Tech” for our Lenten worship. Last Sunday, March 7th, I was luck enough to preach one of these messages! This is the message I shared ... hopefully you can understand my thoughts - I wrote this as I would speak it!

So far, we’ve looked at Moses and the burning bush a.k.a. “THE GREAT IM” and then Moses and the 10 commandments a.k.a. - “HOLY MOSES YOU’VE GOT MAIL”.
And tonight we're moving through history and the judges, prophets and Kings. For our purposes, we'll focus mainly on the kings – and really just the first two kings a.k.a. - “Male (M-A-L-E) Delivery Failure”.

So kings - we know from Biblical history that Israel had many kings. And then Israel and Judah split and they both had kings. You may or may not know lots of those kings, but I am positive you’ve probably know a little about the first 2 (because they were the most “famous”) Saul and David. Saul – not so good; in fact, just plain terrible as a king. (But that might not have been totally his fault. He was sort of set up from the start for “male failure.”) And David – probably the best king ever (Scripture calls him a man after God’s own heart, though we know David was not perfect … does the name Bathsheba ring a bell?).

But before the kings, who ruled Israel? How did we get from Moses to King Saul? I’m glad you asked! You likely know this, but let me sort of re-cap this for us. Scholars think that near 1400 BC, Joshua lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. And you’ve got the 12 tribes that are sort of the governing system of the Israelites. And from about 1410 to 1020 BC, we have the period of the “Judges.” The judges were sort of the primary military leader of a particular tribe, and a lot of them, really, came to serve as legal administrators of the tribes. There are more, but you’ll recognize some of the judges: Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Samson, and Samuel.

Ahhh, Samuel. What an amazing Biblical character. Samuel is considered by most as the last judge. But he is also considered to be the first prophet since Moses. Or a sharer of God’s messages to the people and most importantly a prophet would come to be (because of Samuel) the king’s conscience … So Samuel was living in this period of transition (though he probably didn’t recognize it at the time). You see, Samuel judged the people of Israel all of his life (Scripture tells us) and he even appointed two of his sons to be judges after him. But his sons were corrupt and perverted the law and the Israelites did not like them. That’s where we pick up our Scripture today … Click below to watch a video of it or read 1 Sam 8:4-22:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFmHsa2nDkk

So, we learn from 1 Samuel 8 that Israel having a king was not God’s idea. In fact, through Samuel, God tried to get the people to stop asking for one and to see God as their King. Through Samuel, God warned the elders that if they called a king, certain "not so okay" things were going to happen and that the Israelites would be unhappy and even that they would then cry to God but God would not hear their cries. But the Israelites, the men, they didn’t listen, they wanted a king. Now this is an important thing to consider – the elders they were men – because in those days women had no place or responsibility other than to produce more male children. Hence, Pastor Tim’s sermon title “Male M-A-L-E delivery failure.” It’s not a sexist thing or to leave out the women kind of thing – the elders (who happened to be men) failed to listen to God.

The plan up to this point had been pretty simple for the Israelites: Obey God, stay away from the false gods of your neighbors and God would keep them free and prosperous. But Israel was never really good at this and now they’re getting greedy! They see their neighbors and the kingdoms and the kings they have and they think that if they get some “towering figure” in our physical presence that this “king” will prevent them from doing wrong and will lead them to great things and will protect and prosper them. They wanted what the surrounding peoples had; they thought the grass was greener on the other side! It wasn’t about progress and growth or meeting culture where it was. It was simply a "we want what they have and we don’t care about the consequences" type of thing.

Isn’t that just like us? In our personal lives and as the body of Christ, the church - as Christians. We don’t always listen to God. But, why don’t we listen? Here’s what I think part of the problem is … (I originally read this in a blog by St. Paul's Presbyterian church). Today in our society we are saturated by words. Words fill the air on radio, on television, at meetings, all around us all the time; we are hardly ever silent. And when there is silence, it’s uncomfortable.

I just read this report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Their research showed that in a typical day, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using media (TV, computer, cell phones, etc.). That’s more than 53 hours a week! And if you include all of the hours in the day where the media is just “on” then it’s over ten hours a day that our kids are exposed to media content.

In our culture, we are saturated with words: 1. words that often mean nothing (I’m deliberately not mentioning politicians here); 2. words that attempt to attract our attention (I won’t tell you about the commercials on Nickelodeon … Blaine’s already got his Christmas 2010 list done) 3. And where would we be without the commentators who tell us what all the words mean and what we should understand, as if we weren’t capable of understanding and forming our own view. (I won’t mention the Olympics at all. Did you watch the Olympics … I got to the point where I just wanted to hear the cow bells and the sweep of the skates on the ice. But, that doesn’t happen). And I think eventually we sort of become numb and we just stop listening; we just block words out. We all do it; I mean you kind of have to, to function.

Have you ever been on an airplane? I really dislike flying. Really, I am a nervous wreck and I fly as little as possible. But there are people who fly all the time, like my uncle … he flies weekly and I don’t know how he does it. But I’ve noticed something about those people who are on airplane’s all the time and it makes me mad! You know at the beginning when the stewardess is doing the safety talk and they flip on the video and you’re supposed to pull the safety card out of the back of the seat in front of you. Of course I’m scouring it, trying to get it all in my head, wanting to move if I’m in an emergency exit seat. But the people who fly all the time, if you watch them, they’ve got their headphones on, or they’re talking to the person next to them, or reading a magazine, or doing work, they are totally ignoring/blocking out the safety instructions. They’ve flown so many times that they’re numb and they just stop listening.

Or here’s another example, I don’t know about you but I get so much email in my junk email box that I can’t even keep it cleaned out. And, God forbid, that an important email actually make its way into that junk box because finding it is nearly impossible. So, I just ignore that junk box; I never look at it.

And sadly, for some of us, this trend blocking things out or whatever you want to call it - I think that trend rolls over into our relationship with each other and certainly into our relationship with God (whether we mean for it to or not). But, listening is important, words are important! That flight that landed in the Hudson River – do you think there were regular travelers on that flight? They’d probably taken hundreds of flights and never crashed. I wonder if when they realized they were crashing if they thought, now what did that stewardess say to do … words are important! I want you to remember that, we’ll come back to it at the end. Words are important.

So we know from the writer of 1 Samuel that the male Israelites were not listening to God in those days. And Samuel, bless his heart, he tried to warn them. He flat out tells the men they will regret this decision and lays out the negative consequences of having a king. But the men, they don’t care. And sadly, there were negative consequences for Israel because of this decision. We know that the nation of Israel would eventually have 41 kings. Only 11 kings followed God at all and seven of those forgot God at the end of their reign. This “spiritual rebellion” later caused the fall of Judah and then Israel and captivity by foreign nations and the Israelite people and this monarchy – failed.

So this is how the monarchy came about for Israel in the first place. And then Samuel appoints and annoints Saul as the first king. And Saul really fit right in to the whole “not listening” to God thing. When it came time for Samuel to present Saul to the people as their king, Saul was hiding. If you read 1 Sam 10:22, you see Saul hiding in the baggage. So, Saul was hiding behind/in some baggage, scared to death. Do you ever do that? I do. I hide amongst my baggage all the time. God wants to use us and we hide in our baggage, afraid to be used. And, eventually this fear and self doubt would cause Saul’s reign as king to unravel. Now, of course, they pull him out of the baggage he’s hiding in and Samuel lays out the duties of a king, and off Saul goes to be king. And things go okay for a while and then there’s a problem with the Philistines where the Goliath comes to attack them.

So, enter David. We know that David’s brother’s had gone off to be in Saul’s army to battle against the Philistines and Jesse (their dad) sends David to check on his older brothers. But with David, Jesse sends some baggage. He sends grain and loaves of bread and cheese and who knows what else. So off David goes with these bags and he gets to where the army and his brother’s are and something interesting happens. Read 1Sam 17:22! Saul hid in his baggage, but David has baggage from his dad and he gave it to the keeper of the baggage and then runs to the battle line. Because he was able to leave his baggage with the baggage keeper, he was able to go and be victorious in battle and defeat Goliath. And, then of course, David after much turmoil with Saul eventually becomes king. And, he’s a good king.

David, the “apple of God’s eye” started out strong – he was a servant king, not forgetting widows and orphans (thinking of others) . But eventually we know that David looses his focus on his relationship with God, he blocks God out (doesn’t listen), abuses his power as a king and stumbles into an adulterous affair with Bathsheba. We also know that, of course, Bathsheba becomes pregnant. David tries to cover up the sin and they bring home Urriah, her husband, but he won’t sleep with his wife because it wouldn’t be fair the other soldiers. So then David concocts this plan to send Urriah to front lines where he’ll be killed and then David can take Bathsheba as his wife. I mean, it’s just crazy - David becomes not only an adulterer, but also, a murderer and clearly is in no relationship with God.

So that’s where we pick up for our second piece of Scripture for tonight. The prophet Nathan comes in and tells David a parable. Watch this:

There’s a brilliant contemporary Hebrew scholar named Walter Brueggeman, he just died in 2008. And he had some things to say about this piece of Scripture. He wrote: “This story is more than we want to know about David, and more than we can bear to understand about ourselves.”

I can identify with that. I am so much like David, quick to judge / slow to listen but then my words come back to bite me and I’m the man (woman). Eventually this child that David and Bathsheba have together, he dies … they say as punishment for these sins. And it’s hard to understand but this is what it seems to take to get David back to being open to listening to God, back to putting down the baggage of self-righteousness. He goes to Bathsheba and consoles her after their child’s death. So we get the sense that he is beginning to understand his relationship with God by caring for others once again. So here we are with these two pieces of Scripture and Saul and David.

This why I think (well, I know because he told me) Pastor Tim picked these readings for us: The 1st reading reminds us what happens when we don’t listen to God, and the second reminds us how great start’s can quickly deteriorate when we loose sight of God. But I want to go back to this baggage image for just a minute. Saul, you know, he would not let go of the baggage of self-doubt and he hid in it and imploded upon himself. David started good, dropped his baggage with the baggage keeper and had success. But then later he goes back and he picked up the baggage of self righteousness, and stumbled under the weight of his own ego.

We all have baggage, but both of these men of the O.T. teach us what happens when we are not willing to turn our baggage over to God, the baggage keeper. So my question to us tonight - what are we doing with our baggage as we’re on our Lenten journey?

It’s a funny thing about baggage (I heard about this from The Skit Guys)! We begin collecting it when we are just little kids. Do you remember how I kept saying words are important? Well, they are. And, do you remember the funny little children’s saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That’s a LIE! I’m here to tell you (and I’m sure you know) - words cut deeper than any stick or stone ever could. And it’s a really sad thing, because as children as teenagers, even sometimes as adults, we are not prepared to deal with the mean things people say and so we collect the baggage. And, we carry lots of bags other than the things people say to us – guilt, anger, shame, self-righteousness, greed. And we just go through life collecting these “bags.” But they’re heavy and we know with just one little mishap, we will fumble all the bags. So, as we get older, we begin to find ways to deal with the baggage.

And I see it this way – we can one of two things with these bags: 1. Give them to the baggage keeper (God) 2. Dump it on somebody else which is something we do frequently. Dr. Phil has this great saying that is so true: “Hurt people, hurt people.” Balancing and lugging around this luggage is not the abundant life Christ calls us to. Didn’t Jesus say - “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” In other words, come here, let me carry your bags. And let’s not forget Philippians 3:12 – “Forget the past and look forward to what is ahead.” In other words, it’s over, you don’t have to carry the bags.

Christ is the keeper of the baggage – we are invited to leave it with Him! Oh and by the way, don’t pick it back up on the way out …. I don’t in this Lenten journey what bags you might be lugging around or if you are even carrying any, but I just want to invite you to consider them and invite you to drop them right now!

Wednesday Night Lesson on Prayer

2010-02-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night at our student ministry meetings, we talked about prayer! We asked the students if there a right or wrong way to pray and to list ways of praying?
They then moved on to talking about how much they pray. We invited the students to rank the top ten things that they spend time on in a given week. Asked, where their faith ranks? And if there would be a way to rearrange their priorities to make more room for prayer or if there were more creative ways they could pray.

I think prayer is kind of like a box of chocolates! We all have a different style and approach! There’s no one RIGHT or WRONG way. There are some ways better than others. Here’s some not so good ways … not wrong … just not very productive:

1. The “Let’s Make a Deal” Prayer: This prayer starts with “God if you do this for me I will do this for you…” God if you just help me pass this test, I’ll never not study again!

2. The “Gimme Gimme Gimme” Prayer, also known as the “Christmas List” prayer: It goes God, I need ____(Fill in the blank)___ and peace on earth, Good night!”

3. The most common prayer is probably the “911 Prayer.”
This prayer starts with “GOD! HELP!”

So, what are the more meaningful or productive ways to pray? I have a couple of
ideas:

1.Jesus tells us how in His sermon on the mount! Just read it!

2. Another good tip I heard once was to establish a pattern. For example,
I do it every morning while brushing her teeth, putting on makeup, and drying my hair. Now, every time I pick up my toothbrush it is second nature to talk to God! It's kind of funny how that pattern has worked in my life.

3. Be creative! Use the Internet. There are lots of prayer sites, interactive prayers, prayer rooms, online labyrinths, etc.

4. Look at prayer as a conversation where you talk to God and God actually talks back to you? Remember Elijah (1 Kings) and the earthquake, fire, wind story? He didn’t find God in any of those things, but in the silence. So, sit and the somewhere in the silence, there is a still, small voice talking to you! Most of the time, our lives are too loud to recognize the small voice. This takes some work. The key is to not give up because you don’t understand what God is telling you or the voice is muffled. Keep seeking, find silence until the voice becomes more clear. This is work people! But is so worth it!

A specific way some people remember how to pray and not do the not so productive these let’s make a deal, gimmie/gimmie, and 911 prayers is called the ACTS or SPOON prayer.
A = Adoration (tell God that God is wonderful and how!)
C = Confession (say your sorry for your sins and what they are!)
T = Thanksgiving (thank God for all wonderful things you/we have!)
S = Supplication (Sometimes it’s called “intercession” - praying
for people that you know that need God and why)

Or even more simply:
S - saying sorry
P - praise
O - others
O - ourselves
N - needs

So, considering all of this and what works for you, do you think God answers prayer?

I am convinced God ALWAYS answers ALL prayers. Follow me here - Here is what I think God’s five responses are. There may be more than 5, these are just the 5 ways I have seen God at work in answering prayer in my life and the lives of my friends and family:
1) Yes (Way good to hear!)
2) No (Not so good to hear!)
3) Maybe. Let’s see what happens (free will)!
4) Yes, but be patient. Or yes, but not now.
5) It is answered but you forgot to notice or it wasn’t what you expected, so you didn’t notice!

The bottom line, I think, is that it is difficult to pray, to trust, to confide in God … who can’t be physically seen, heard, touched, or necessarily physically sensed. But in finding way(s) that work best for you to pray, you will more fully be able to sense God's work in answering your prayers.
We also offered the students a chance to pray interactively. We transformed the cathedral room at Zion into a room with 8 prayer stations based on the Lord's prayer. The students were given 30 minutes to go to the various stations and complete activities. See the next blog entry for all the details on this experience!

Lord's Prayer Lenten Stations

2010-02-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

In coordination with our lesson on prayer (see next blog post) Wednesday night, we set up stations for our students to interactively partcipate in prayer. The stations were based on The Lord's Prayer (since that is how Jesus taught we should pray). Instructions for each station were placed at each station for the students to read. I took many of the ideas from the "Rethinking Youth Ministry" website / blog (http://www.rethinkingyouthministry.com) but then expanded on the ideas some, relevant to our needs. Below are explanations and pictures from each of the 8 stations. Students were instructed to move through the stations in any order and to spend as much or as little time at each as they were comfortable. If they didn't make it to all stations that was okay.
Enjoy! Feel free to use / tweak for your use!

STATION # 1
"Our Creator in Heaven..."

At this station, think about those you know (or yourself) who are struggling in the journey of life right now --

Perhaps they are struggling with:

*relationships with parents
*relationships with friends
*health issues
*decisions
*self esteem
*other concerns

Light a candle as a prayer for those people.

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 2
"Hallowed be your name …”

At this station, simply sit or lie on the floor and spend some time listening to the music.

As you listen, meditate about how beauty in music can remind us of God's goodness.

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 3
"Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done …”

At this station, think about your prayer friend (the adult who is praying for you throughout the 40 days of Lent). You don’t know who they are! What is that like? Are you nervous to meet them at the lunch on Palm Sunday? Have they sent you a note or reminder that they are thinking of you?

Do you think they are really praying for you every day? They are! They are praying for God’s will to be done in your life. How does that make you feel?

Using the art supplies, created an image or symbol of how you are feeling about this prayer friends experience or your prayer friend or offer up a drawn prayer for them. Here you can express your prayer of thanksgiving and intercession for that adult.

Leave your drawing on the table, it will be displayed in the narthex this Sunday …

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 4
“On earth as it is in Heaven …”

At this station, look at the images on the cards.

As you look through them, which ones stick out to you?

What issues come up for you as you look at the images? About yourselves, about your friends, about your families?

Reflect and think about them. That is your prayer!

Will these things matter in Heaven? Will these things lead you to Heaven?

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 5
“Give us today our daily bread …”

At this station, focus on eating! Yes! Physical eating and spiritual eating!

The bread and juice is an example of God providing for our basic needs. Offered thanks for all that God provides for you!

Pray for those who do not have enough.

Tear off a piece of bread and eat. Pour and drink the grape juice!

Take the Bible in your hands. Just as God provides for our physical needs, God also provides for us on our faith journey. Just as we must eat physically, we must also “eat” spiritually. If we don’t eat physically we become malnourished and eventually die. The same is true spiritually.

This is an easy “trick” you can do at home to pray. Randomly open the Bible and let the pages fall where they may. Look at where it opened. Wherever your eye falls, begin reading.

What is God speaking to you? Just sit an reflect!

Don’t sense anything or understand what you are reading? Try again!

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 6
“Forgive us our sins …”

What is sin?

Sin is anything that separates you from God and God’s love.

Is any sin greater than another?

At this station, focus on the sins you are “carrying” around.

PICK A STONE FROM THE ONES ON THE TABLE.

Write a word or words on the stone that represent your sins on a stone.

Then when you are ready, drop the stone into the bowl of water.

This symbolizes that you asking God to help you “carry” the burden.

PICK ANOTHER STONE.

Take it with you. Each time you look at it, remember that God is present even when life's burdens weigh heavy on us.

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 7
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”

At this station, you will reflect on Jesus' temptation in the desert!

Push play to watch the youtube video “40.” It is a rendition of Jesus’ time in the wilderness.

What tempts you most?

Which aspects of the Christian do you find it most difficult to follow?

How do you overcome temptations?

Where does that strength come from?

Do you learn anything about yourself when you are in the desert?

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

STATION # 8
“The kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours, now and forever.”

At this station, you will do a “breath prayer.” Sit with you hands in your lap, palms up. Say the first line and take a deep breath then turn palms down. Breathe out as you say the second line. Repeat until you read all lines.

Breathe in the breath of God
Breathe out your cares and concerns
Breathe in the love of God
Breathe out your doubts and despairs
Breathe in the life of God
Breathe out your fears and frustrations

Breathe in the breath of God
Breathe out your tensions and turmoil
Breathe in the love of God
Breathe out your haste and hurry
Breathe in the life of God
Breathe out your work and worry

Quietly move to the next station when / if you are ready.

Busy Desert

2010-02-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

At senior high Bible study on Tuesday morning, I decided to let the word be written / read instead of spoken / heard. Here is what the students read:

Look at these pictures (from http://www.episcopalcafe.com/art/art/):

So, I’m wondering what the first thing is that you see when you look at either one of these pictures. There’s no right or wrong answer! I think where you are in your life, depends on what you see. Who we are, what happened to us last night, what stresses we have in our lives will all impact how we see these pictures! That’s good …

Here’s what I see. I see busy-ness. Especially in very colorful picture. Right? I see the at least 7 versions of me that I will be today. I am sure you can see at least 7 versions of you too! Think about it! But, I see the “me” working in my office, the “me” in a meeting at 4pm, the me kicking everyone’s rear-end in volleyball tonight in the gym at 7pm (just kidding), the “me” who will hopefully get some sleep tonight (still recouping from ski trip), the “me” eating lunch with a friend, the “me” on the phone, the “me” racing to get everything done today, the “me” driving in my car to pick up a package that arrived for me.

But you know what I just realized I didn’t see at first glance in this picture? The “me” who will stop and listen for God; the “me” who will do personal Bible study; or the “me” who will pray. That’s embarrassing! How’d you do? You see, I got so overwhelmed in thinking of all the “me’s” in the picture and all of the things I have to and want to accomplish today that I didn’t even recognize or acknowledge the “me” who is called to recognize and acknowledge the call that God places upon “me.” That call is to be connected to God each day, in all ways. It’s not an easy call and I get so busy being “me” that I sometimes just forget about God altogether. How about you?

Martin Luther said it like this … your relationship with Jesus, it’s more than just “believing!” It is “possessing” Jesus. In other words, it’s more than me just getting in my car and driving to pick up my package; when the crazy driver pulls out in front of me – I don’t flip him off, my reaction is different because I “possess” Jesus. Or, it’s more than me racing around to get everything done; it’s taking time to stop and reflect and pray. So if that means I don’t get to bed and recoup as early as I’d like, then so be it. Or maybe that means that I start my 4pm meeting with a prayer instead of just dashing right into the business (maybe like you taking a test at school or before starting homework?). Or maybe it means having a different kind of conversation with my friend at lunch instead of gossiping about all the things that happened with our friends while I was away skiing this week-end.

We’re all busy, that’s just the society we live in. Jesus was busy too! It was a different kind of busy, but it was busy, nonetheless! Do you know what God did to Jesus, when he got too busy?

It’s the story from Mark 1. Here’s the background: John the Baptist is running around telling everyone to turn to God and their sins will be forgiven. And he’s baptizing them in the Jordan river and they are all gathered around. I mean there are crowds of people; crazy busy all around! Can’t you picture it? And all of a sudden, in comes Jesus! We assume he’s been on a journey because the Bible says he’s come UP from Nazareth to see John. So, he’s been going and busy too! And then, John baptized him. As soon as he comes out the water, do you remember what happened?

The sky opened up and down came a dove and the voice that says “You’re my son and I am pleased with you.” The Bible then says that RIGHT AWAY the Holy Spirit makes Jesus go into the desert. For 40 days, no less! Can you imagine 40 days with no friends or family. Just animals, rocks, yourself, and, oh yeah, temptation. 40 days of being still and listening for God? I can’t imagine 40 minutes, much less 40 days! However, in that dry, hot, miserable, lonely desert, I think Jesus learned a lot about himself and his human strength. He overcame many temptations! He came out prepared for what was ahead of Him.

So here’s your challenge for this day or this week (and always). Take time to go to the “desert.” It requires you to be still. But, you will learn a lot about yourself and just how exactly you “possess” Jesus more than you just “believe” in Jesus and what difference that can make in your life. Be busy! But don’t forget to be still too! Make the desert your priority!

P/S – That’s why you had to be “still” and read this in “silence.” 

Zion Students This Week! 2-22-10

2010-02-22T16:19:00.001-08:00

Lenten Prayer Friend Project

2010-02-11T08:26:00.001-08:00

Good news! Take the survey online!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFFpOHBOR01DbVkyeFJBVDQ3QmxPdlE6MA

Lenten Prayer Friend Project

2010-02-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Coffee

2010-02-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

This weekend I’ve been attending Extravaganza 2010 in Charlotte, NC. Though I am in my 8th year of ministry to and with youth and I’ve been to several major youth conferences, this is my first year (few months actually) as a Lutheran and my first time at this particular conference.

That’s not the point, that’s the context. The point is, I’m a loser. I’ll admit it. And what’s more, I think I sort of like it that way. And, I’ll admit this: I skipped the free lunch that the network had for us today. Hey – they told us in orientation to the conference to go to what we wanted to and skip what we didn’t. So, instead I took my mom and four year old son (who are here with me) to Wild Wing Café for lunch. Then I walked them over to Discovery Place before heading back for the afternoon workshop.

I was weirdly (for me because I hate exercise) looking forward to the walk back the hotel … about three quarters of a mile. About 5 minutes into my walk, I hit up a Starbucks for a mocha … it was really cold outside and I thought that would make my saunter back to the hotel even more perfect and relaxing.

That’s when it happened. I had the most surreal experience as I finished the walk. I became broken. I wept. I drank my warm, chocolaty coffee in guilt. The saunter
became what felt like a get you out breath sprint.

You see, about 30 seconds after I left Starbucks, I walked by a bench on the side of the street that had a container of Chinese food on it and a note written that said “Food for You.”

This struck me, so much that I had to turn around, go back to it, and take a picture. It just struck me. Perhaps this was because on the walk to Discovery Place with my mom and son, I noticed the large amounts of homeless people near the library (which is next to Discovery Place). Perhaps it was because it was just an odd sight. Perhaps it was because I allowed my mind to wander – how long has it been there … has someone poisoned it … is it a joke?

I continued on my way with not much more thought. A few moments later, I came upon a covered seating / waiting area for Charlotte’s transit system (the bus). These covered areas are very frequently found throughout the city. In this one sat an older, disheveled, overweight, bundled up to protect himself from the cold, man. As I came closer, I realized he was homeless (or so I assume). His bags were by his feet and he was making coffee. Not hot coffee; not fresh coffee, not coffee as you and I would make. He had what appeared to be a used filter with coffee inside of it and an old scratched and warn blue with black handled coffee mug. He had the filter over the cup and was pouring some bottled water over it. My thoughts immediately wandered to wondering how many times he had used it, what trash can he dug it from, how weak the coffee must taste. I then looked back to the path in front of me, sipped my coffee, and continued toward The Westin.

Just after I passed him, my heart sank and tears began to flow from my eyes. I felt for this man. But, I didn’t do anything about it. Then I looked up and saw this statue. It was made of silver pieces and a great red heart was in the center. It was bright and shiny.

I realized as I stood there that my heart was hurting for this man; I literally ached for him. I felt broken because I didn’t think there was anything I could do.

When I returned to the hotel, I was convicted about the cup of coffee, still in my hand, half-drunken. That was the point it was still in my hand. But, why? I realized that Martin Luther was right: we have to do more than believe in Jesus, we have to possess Jesus. I should have given that cup of warm coffee to the homeless man.

I wish I had a great story to share with you of going back to the man, offering him my coffee and loving on him. I wish I could tell you that I told him of Jesus’ love. But I didn’t. I wandered back into my hotel room and then headed to a workshop on post-modernity.

Why oh why didn’t I offer my warm, sustaining coffee to this man. Why aren’t others offering theirs?

A workshop that I went to this morning, we talked about being losers in youth ministry. We heard of losers in the Bible like Peter and Job and Zechariah. We talked about how we grow in our broken-ness. We are all created in the image of God. The Bible doesn’t say only the baptized are the image of God. The question becomes: At the center of our relationship with Christ is there love, acceptance, and grace or is there sin or judgment? For me, today, it was the difference in keeping my coffee for myself. Or rather that in future days, I want to offer my coffee; I want it to be second nature that I offer my coffee. And further, I want to teach my students the same!

Zion Students This Week 2-1-10

2010-02-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

What's up this week? Check it out:

February 2010 Student Ministry Newsletter

2010-01-31T13:55:00.000-08:00

Look for this in your mailbox this week!

Here's a sneak peak ... just copy and paste the link below into your browser and have a look!

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B__iHRI_DidtNzBkNDE5ZDYtYmNiOC00Mjk2LWIyMGItNTYxYWZjMjlhM2Vi&hl=en

Health Kits for Haiti

2010-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday night, Zion’s 6th—12th graders met and discussed the situation in Haiti. We spent time around: Daily life in Haiti prior to the earthquake and post earthquake, heard about the ELCA’s response to the earthquake, discussed theological impacts of the devastation (i.e. where was God in the situation, why do bad things happen to good people, and what should our response as Christians be).

From that meeting, our students feel called to help the ELCA response in a tangible way! So, on Wednesday, February 3rd, Zion students will put together health kits to send to Lutheran World Relief. Per their website they are very low on kits and need to replenish them ASAP.

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP!
Please donate the following items by next Sunday, Janury 31st!

Hand towels, dark color recommended
Washcloths, dark color recommended
Bath-size bar (4 to 5 oz.) of soap, any brand, (in original wrapping.)
Adult-size toothbrushes (in original packaging)
Sturdy combs
Metal nail file or nail clippers with file attached,
Band-Aids® (or similar brand), preferably 1/2" to 3/4"

DONATIONS WILL ALSO BE ACCEPTED!

Cell Phone, Public Flogging, and Jesus the Humanitarian

2010-01-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

I first heard about this story on Twitter when it broke last week! I was blown away. So we discussed this story and human rights at Senior High Bible study this morning.

What happens if you bring a cell phone to school in Lexington, SC? Well, according to ours and Pilgrim's senior highs, it depends on the teacher / administrator. Some will take the cell phone, some will tell you to put it away.

Of course, things in Saudi Arabia are a lot different from the US. There is no democracy and the people are ruled by a king. Today, people who do wrong in Saudi Arabia are still sentenced to stoning, amputation, crucifixion, and even public beheadings; and in this case, public flogging. And 90 lashes, well, that could certainly kill a 13 year old.

So I challenged the students to think about this incident as it relates to human rights. Human rights are basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. The students named some of those rights: right to life, happiness, speech.

Then I challenged them to think about some issues (other than public flogging of a 13year old) that may arise around human rights. Some issues could be racism, mistreatment of women, sexuality issues.

It is my opinion that Jesus was sort of the "founder" of human rights. The fundamental theory and basis for "human rights" is that we should treat other people as we ourselves wish to be treated. In fact, I think, Jesus made Human Rights central to his entire message!

Just read Matthew 22:34-39. We know the passage, well. Jesus is asked: "Which commandment is the greatest of all?" Jesus answered from the Old Testament: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. But Jesus added a second command, that we must love our neighbor as ourself. Then he explained that every other law of God was based on these two laws.

So does the public flogging of a 13 year old loving your neighbor? Not really.

When we read Matthew 18:21, we hear Peter ask Jesus, “Should I forgive my brother up to seven times?” Jesus says, “I do not say to you forgive your brother seven times seven but forgive him seventy times seven.” Then Jesus told a story about a king who forgave his servant an enormous debt. But that same servant turned around and put his servants in prison for not paying a small debt they owed him.

I think Jesus was sending this message that it is a basic Human Right that we be treated fairly and equitably by other human beings. So does this flogging of a 13 year old promote this? Definitely not.

Jesus came and was a radical change. A change that still matters and is applicable today. In the Old Testament we hear all the laws of how to live, and be pure, and right, etc. But Jesus simply says with rights come responsibilities and the love is so important. I challenged the students to think further about this and take a look at an example of rights coming with responsibility by reading the Beatitudes this week.

When the judge who presented this punishment to the 13 year old Saudi girl was interviewed about this case, he reported that the king can still pardon this 13 year old. At least for now, there is hope.

Zion Students This Week

2010-01-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

We've got some fun things going on this week, including messy game night this Wednesday! Be sure to watch this video and see Pastor Tim's face meet with a pie ... he's such a good sport!

Zion Students This Week 1-18-10

2010-01-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Sheep: Theology From a Four Year Old

2010-01-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

The conversation in the car this morning on the way to Blaine’s preschool went something like this:
Blaine – “Mommy are you a sheep?”

Me – “No Blaine!”

Blaine – “But, God says you are His sheep …. You are mommy! You’re a sheep.”

Insert awkward, embarrassing silence here

Me – “Blaine, you are so right! I am a sheep, Jesus does teach us that.”

Insert more awkward silence here except for the working of my brain.

Me – “Where did you learn that Blaine?” (expecting the answer of “church”)

Blaine - “Ms. Beth told me at school … “ (note: Blaine attends a Christian pre-school)

Theology from a four year old! Flabbergasted, I drove the rest of the way to Blaine’s school, my mind in “over-drive” the whole time. As I thought Blaine’s statement through, I wondered about two things:

1. When will I be so connected to God that my response naturally considers all sources (reality, Biblical, etc.) and the answer becomes yes, I am a sheep!

Generally speaking, I count myself as having a pretty decent relationship with God. If I didn’t then I wouldn’t be able to do the job I do and try to set a positive example of what I teach to Zion’s students. Now, I am NOT perfect and do fail at that; but, I am aware of those short-comings and weak areas of my life. Nonetheless, I do feel well connected and have an active relationship with God as I would any other! We just had this discussion at our student leadership team meeting this past Sunday. How do you have a relationship with someone and/or God? The students said: through interaction with, listening to, hanging out with, communicating with, having patience, honesty, trust, and enjoying each other. Along those standards, I would say I am doing a pretty good job of being in a relationship with God. Yet my response to “are you a sheep?” was no. My mind didn’t even go to John 10 (or any of the other Bible verses and parables where Jesus discusses sheep), not even for even a split second. What’s up with that? Call it being sidetracked with entering the Interstate on top of running late, call it context, call it too early in the morning … whatever excuse we can give it, I am convicted to examine my connection and to help Zion’s students and members to think this way as well.

2. Why isn’t he learning this at church?

Of course my mind goes there as the one at Zion who has been hired to oversee the Christian education of our body! So, why wasn’t Blaine’s answer that he learned this at church, in Sunday school, or during Wednesday night programming? Well, I don’t know that he’s not! But, I totally expected his answer when I asked him where he had heard that Biblical truth to be something related to church. But it wasn’t … exactly. He does attend preschool at a local church where he not only attends chapel each week but also has classroom time each day learning Bible verses, stories, and more (which I am very excited about and want to continue for his future). So, technically he did learn it at a church but not in church programming on a Wednesday or Sunday night! Regardless, the truth is, he rarely shares “nuggets of theology” like that with me that come from church. Call it forgetfulness, coincidence, call it being tired after Wednesday night programs and it’s almost bedtime, call it inconsistency of attendance when he’s at his dad’s house for the weekend and misses worship and children’s church … whatever excuse we can give it, I am convicted to find ways to equip Zion’s teachers and parents to the excitement about theological concepts such as the one Blaine shared this morning!

I want to serve 2010!

2010-01-07T09:15:00.001-08:00

It's that time again! How will you share your talents and time with Zion and God this year? Yes, students, even you can do this! Just fill out the form below!

Click here to take survey

Zion's 1st Annual Snowball Dance

2009-12-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Cooking Up Christmas - Zion's Christmas 2009 Play

2009-12-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas Things ... NOT in the Bible

2009-12-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday in senior high Sunday school, David Prosser, got me to thinking! He challenged the students with the fact that there are some things not in the Bible that we tell as a part of the Christmas story. Namely of interest to me was the fact that we put Jesus in a stable but the Bible never does! So I started to do some lookinng in to this! And, I came across this blog about Things Not in the Bible (Christmas Edition):

"Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem, an innkeeper, a stable where Jesus was born, three Kings, camels, and singing angels. Oh, and also, the date of December 25.

None of it is there.

The Bible does not say that Mary rode a donkey, just that she gave birth while she was in Bethlehem. She could have been there for months.

It says Jesus was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn.” But no stable or innkeeper are mentioned.

Luke’s gospel makes reference to “shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” This would have happened in the spring months, not December. And there was one angel appearing to the shepherds--one. And Luke writes:

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Saying, not singing. And do we know what the "heavenly host" is?

And then we have my favorite Christmas myth: the three kings. No, Virginia, three wise men did not visit the Jesus in a stable on the night of his birth. The Biblical text merely refers to “Magi,” and they visited Jesus months or even years after his birth. It even says in Matthew 2

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...
After. Not the night of. After. And nowhere does it mention that they rode camels.

It has become so ingrained in our culture’s Christmas narrative, with carols like “We Three Kings” and nativity scenes showing three men wearing crowns and flowing robes bowing before the manger, that this may come as a shock. However, none of that is in the Bible. Even the entire nativity scene is not in the Bible."

So how do we justify these contradictions in the Bible? Do these (and other) contradictions invalidate our faith in Christ in any way? I don't think so. In fact, I think that many Biblical contradictions have to do with historical content and can be easily explained or justified. And, afterall, we do beleive that Scripture is the inspired word of God! And correct me if I'm wrong, but humans (the ones writing it) are fallible, right? And, they were writing from different points of view and with different agendas, right? Finally, anyone who is REALLY seeking the truth will find not only the contradictions but the many answers to them.

Zion Students The Week of 12-14-09

2009-12-13T12:02:00.001-08:00

Check out the video below to see this week's announcements. Plus watch interviews with the cast and directors of "Cooking up Christmas."

Student Leadership Meeting # 1

2009-12-10T17:07:00.000-08:00

Last month, we had our first student leadership meeting. At that meeting, I shared these thoughts with our leaders! Stay tuned for part 2 after this Sunday when we meet again!

When I think about examples of leadership in the Bible, I naturally am drawn to these descriptions of leaders in the early church: 1 Tim 3:1-13 or 1 Peter 5:1-3.

But THE ULTIMATE EXAMPLE OF LEADERSHIP, of course, is Jesus. My favorite example of Jesus' leadership comes from John 13. Here, Jesus showed the disciples the manner of leadership that they were to have - to serve one another! And what Jesus teaches us here is that to be an effective leader is to be one who is an example of what they want other people to do and be. So watch what he did:

In the first century, people walked to visit family and friends. And they walked in sandals on dusty dirty roads and towels. Proper hospitality meant that the slaves of the house would offer guests clean water to wash their feet and towels to dry them. Sort of like we offer folks a drink or place to sit when they arrive at our houses today.

The act of Jesus taking off his outer clothes and wrapping the towel around his waist meant He was in the position of a menial slave. Without saying it, Jesus is showing the disciples that being a leader sometimes means being a servant, that there are no boundaries of status (I’m better/more powerful than you). And this act of foot-washing was a chore given ONLY to the LOWEST slave. This is not something that any other Jewish or Roman leader would have ever done. So it was a BIG deal!
Here’s the deal with the act that is important or teaches us leaders a lesson from the ultimate example of a leader. Jesus requires that we step out of our comfort zones a bit in 2 ways.

1. Pride:
Over and over, Jesus taught his followers about the value of humility. Now the Jesus is placing his closest friends – the people who would now become the leaders of the church – He is placing them in a situation in which they must act out humility. If I said to you right now, take off your shoes, I’m going to wash your feet, how would you feel? Right, there’s that pride / humility feeling we’d all have. The bottom line - to be effective as leaders we sometimes have to set aside our pride. There will be times as student leaders here at Zion that we will be humbled by God.

2. Independence:
"What would you find most difficult: washing someone’s feet or having someone wash yours?" For me, and for most, the answer was always the same. Having someone wash my feet bothers me a bit more than my washing someone else’s. I confess: I have a very independent streak in me. I do for myself, thank you very much, and these feet don’t need your help. I can wash them on my own, no problem. Besides, I don’t want another person to see the dirt between my toes and under my toenails or the hair on my legs because I forgot to shave this morning. The problem with this thinking, however is that it is far from the spirit of the Christian faith. An independent nature is not a highly valued trait for a leader. In fact, as leaders of this student ministry, we will become a “family” where we are mutually dependent for ministry and encouragement. We might not “like” each other all the time, but we will have to depend on each other. In fact, the disciples didn’t really like each other. Just before this part in Scripture, they had been battling and jealous of each other about which of them were more important in the Kingdom of God. But, when it came down to it, after Jesus’ death, they pulled together and depended on each other to get done what needed to be done. We will do the same.

Each time we meet, our student leaders will spend some time in prayer about what is going on in our ministry. And, I will challenge us to step our of our comfort zones regularly. Being a leader is great and I am so proud of each of our leaders for stepping up and serving on this team. But, it can also be a little scary or intimidating. We worry that our peers and friends will not like the choices we make for the group, etc.

Our students then spent some time drawing their prayers. I didn't make them wash each other's feet, but they did have to trace each other’s feet on paper. On the papers, they listed what they perceived to be thier individual strengths and weaknesses as leaders and what they were most excited and most challeged about on this team. Then, as a “family” we compiled our drawings together to form a doormat. We'll walk the doormat each meeting as a reminder of our chance to be servants!

Senior High Bible Study (12-8-09)

2009-12-08T06:05:00.000-08:00

So, it’s Advent! And I'm sure I don't have to remind you that Advent is the season of preparing. And I convicted that there must be something to this whole “preparing” thing because if you think about it, Jesus spent about 30 years preparing and then had 3 years of powerful ministry while on earth. So, it kinda makes sense - preparation is vital.

So, I’ve been trying to “prepare” myself this Advent, whatever that means. I wasn't sure, so I went to Scripture. And, I’ve gotten stuck on these two little verses in Luke chapter 2. I thought I was starting there because the beginning of this chapter is all about the birth of Jesus. But there are some things about this passage that have really struck me and I haven’t been able to move on in my “preparing!”

Here's the background; we have all probably heard the story! The Emporer calls for a census and so all the people have to go to their "hometowns." So, Joseph goes to Bethlehem and he takes his pregnant, fiancee with him. While they are there, it comes time for Mary to have her baby. She has the baby (and this is where I am stuck), wraps Jesus in pieces of cloth and lays him in a manger.

Is there anything that strikes you about the passage from Luke 2:1-7?

Here’s what strikes me about it:

First, we know that Mary and Joseph are having this baby in a barn in Bethlehem. What gets me is - the Son of God's first bed is a feeding trough, the place from which dirty animals eat. Quite a curious place for a king if you ask me. But here’s the thing - Jesus never learned to live like a king. He lived like a servant his whole 33 years.

Think about this. This amazing man’s life started in a dirty barn where he was put in a feeing trough and wrapped in pieces of a blanket. It’s gross. And this is Jesus – you know Jesus = God. God can do anything / God is in control. So why choose to be born in a manger?

It’s pretty inspiring to think about the incredible things Jesus then accomplished and went through later in his life. The turning point in human history was born in a barn. This tells me that no matter where we come from or how small and insignificant we feel, we, too, can accomplish amazing things through serving others. And, we should celebrate all of this!

But, it's easy to get self absorbed during this season and lose sight of these things. I know when my mom asked me for my Christmas list, I was like, oh yeah … it’s time to rack up. Then, my refrigerator died. Completely died and I didn’t know it, so I lost pretty much everything except for a small cooler full of freezer stuff that didn’t thaw out. Do you know how hard it is to live without mayonnaise or ice? I’m on day seven – it aint easy! I’m just saying. The experience made me so grateful in a way because I also realized how much I take for granted and how tough it must be not to have everyday necessities. I mean, I have worked on houses on mission trips where there is no toilet or no floor - but there are people who don’t even have water this Christmas.

Americans, it is estimated that we spend about $450 billion dollars on Christmas each year. Did you know that there are people that don’t have water? And to give everyone in the world water / wells would cost only about $10 billion? It really makes you stop and think how backwards we seem to have our priorities.

Several years ago, there were some pastors who had this same thought. They created a group called "Advent Conspiracy." They have four principles by which they suggest folks go during the Advent season to help re-shift this backward priority. They suggest to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all during Advent. Their vision is overhwleming and amazing! You can view their web-site here: http://www.adventconspiracy.org or watch the video below!

Advent Blessings!

Zion Students This Week

2009-12-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! This week's annoucements video was too large to post here. So ... check it out on our youtube.com channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7VGHYxNLiU

In it you'll see Zion/student ministry leaders (Pastor Tim, Jillianne, Troy Fite, Pres. DJ Corley, and Jesus) as break dancing elves. Don't miss it!

Advent!

2009-12-02T18:33:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Did you know there was a secular year and a church year? We all know the secular year begins in January. But, the church year begins with Advent! So Happy New Year! Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24).

So this week, I began to wonder, what is Advent and hat does it mean to us? I proposed this question on my Twitter and Facebook pages today. My challenge was to define Advent in one or two words. Here are some of the answers I got: Baby Shower, Anticpation, Getting Ready, Great Expectation.

Then I read this about Advent: "Let’s use our imaginations – I see two parts: ad and vent. Stay with me on this. Ad is short for advertising. Vent is a hole in the floor or ceiling that lets air flow into a room. The two combined form the word Advent. If you follow my “logic” here, a reasonable assumption would be that Advent means advertising airflow. Really? Well, don’t save that for your SAT. But think: If we “do” Advent well, then our very lives flow in a way that advertises Jesus!" What a concept!

So, just how do we do Advent well? We wait! Seriously / Technically Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” During the four weeks before Christmas, Christians celebrate and look forward to both the coming of Jesus. So why all this waiting? After all, this is the 21st century! We can drive 70 miles per hour; DSL lets us surf the Net without a wait; FedEx can deliver in 24 hours. So, why wait?
Why not just jump right to Christmas? Because waiting is a good teacher. To wait well is something that must be learned.

So, let’s take some time to explore waiting in Scripture. Each passage reveals something about waiting well. There are some tips we can use to wait well all year!

1. Wait with “Presence” (said "Presents")
Read Matthew 2:1-2 and 9b-12 = the wise men deliver presnets.

Of course, there’s got to be presents at Christmas right? Or it’s not Christmas! I mean even the wise men brought Jesus presents! So, they must have been the original creators of gift giving! And, two things, they came from really far away and gave some pretty extraordinary / extravagant gifts for that day and time. But here’s the deal, after they gave these “presents,” they offered Jesus their “presence” by worshipping Him. The wisw men went out of their way to claim this relationship and worship Jesus. We can do the same today and claim that relationship and have God present in our lives. The challenge is to have God’s presence so integrated into our lives that when others look at us / interact with us, they should sense that "presence."

2. Wait with patience
Read Luke 1:5-25 = Zechariah and Elizabeth (John the Baptists parents)

Zechariah and Elizabeth had been waiting for a child. Zechariah was a priest; in those days, if a priest didn’t have a male child he could be excommunicated from the church. Zechariah must have feared this but waited and waited patiently.
Also, we read that Elizabeth isolates herself for 5 months after learning she is pregnant. This allows her to prepare for what is likely in her old age to be a tough child-birth. But can you imagine not leaving your house for 5 months? That would take some patience! So we know here that when we are patient in our waiting, good things can happen.

3. Wait for Wisdom
Read John 8:3-9 = Pharisees try to trick Jesus

How does Jesus handle this moment? He waits! Jesus takes time to think and ponder. Then he bends down and begins to write on the ground with his finger. Is he stalling for time or could he be teaching us to wait well by waiting for wisdom to respond in a Godly way? I don’t know about you, but when I get into a tense situation, I have a bad habit of just saying whatever I am feeling, especially when I am upset. But we learn here that we are called to wait for wisdom and that there is big value in it. Our problems (i.e. the stoners) tend to dissipate or not seem as intimidating when we wait with wisdom.

So you can see, there’s lots of waiting! And waiting is certainly a theme of Advent. But, we Americans seem to totally get caught up in stress and forget to anticipate the arrival of Christ! Think about the things that are stressing you right now: schoolwork, Christmas parties, gift buying, parents, friends, family obligations, etc. No matter how much you worry about everything going on or all that you have to do, Christmas is still going to come on December 25. We will still be blessed by Christ's birth.

So how do we make Advent a special time? Wait well! Wait with presence, wait with patience, wait for wisdom.

Ditto

2009-12-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

So, my friend Eleanore just sent me this picture on e-mail. I LOVE this house! Should have decorated mine like this. But, none of my neighbors are really putting up lights (nor have they in the past 7 years).

Seeing this picture made me stop and think. Clearly the lights on the left house probably took a lot of time and planning to get up. At least a days work, right? And, gosh, I can only imagine their electric bill.

The left house, alone, would certainly draw a crowd of drivers-by. But then add house on the right: 5 little letters and an arrow AND they steal the show! But imagine the further draw these houses together have on drivers-by and folks in that city. Further, this picture is spreading across the Internet like crazy.

It's sort of like us and Jesus. Replace the hosues with Jesus (on the left) and you (on the right). Isn't this what people should see when they look at us. A "ditto" sign pointed at the brilliant, bright, and beautiful Jesus Christ? I'm just sayin' ...

2009-12-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

2009-11-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

BIG

2009-11-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Somehow, I've hopped on the twitter bandwagon ... like I need anything else to keep up with! But, I am really glad that I checked it out and am now 100% hooked. Through this great technology I am able to connect to people whom I will likely never meet, but who have great things to say, who inspire me, and who are teaching me much about God in practical ways. I was able to join a youth ministers list; these are people that are doing my same job and live in various places around the world. And, boy, do they have lots to say! I am learning! There are groups for just about everyone and everything on twitter! Much like facebook, but seems a little more intimate for some reason!

Just tonight @RyanTArnold posted this: "God, why do You move in such big ways? Why do You want so much?" Wow! Okay, so I hear God speaking to me in this because over the week-end I watched a live stream of Steven Furtick speaking at the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta. In his time with youth ministers, I got stuck on his challenge: "If the size of your dream isn’t intimidating to you it’s insulting to God." Ahhh!

So I started thinking, what kind of people does God use when God moves in big ways? The best I can surmise - me and YOU! Then I thought about Zacharias! You can read about John the Baptist's dad in Luke 1! He was an ordinary person; like me and YOU! He led a good life, but it wasn’t perfect; like me and YOU! He had some real problems; like me and YOU!

Here's the basic story. Zacharias was a priest. Elizabeth was Zacharias' wife. Scripture tells us they were good people and followed God's commandments. However, they were old and had no children. In those days, this was basically shameful; priests could even be ex-communicated from the church for being childless. It came his time to serve in the temple and go to the inner sanctuary and burn incense (a rare occurance). Zacharias has been praying and praying for a child to no avail. But, when he went to burn the incense, an angel met him and told him that his wife was going to have that child he had been praying for.

Instead of rejoicing and praising God, Zacharias freaked out! The Bible says "He was paralyzed with fear" (vs. 12) and though there was no way someone of his and Elizabeth's age could make this happen. And isn't that just like us wimpy little humans? We’re happy when God does human-sized things or things we’d expect like making the sun come out. But when God moves in God-sized ways, we tend to freak out like Zacharias.

Let's get real ... there was really only one thing extraordinary about Zacharias; HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. He and his wife, Elizabeth, actually walked the talk. It’s not that they were doing great things; it’s just that they were doing everyday life in a great way. And I truly believe that that is how it is with me and YOU!

Here's what I know. God moves when God moves. God can’t be manipulated, rushed or (as I would mostly prefer) slowed down. And often, even those close to God have no idea what God is about to do.

It's simple, really. We've got to learn to trust God. To experience the movement of God in ways so huge, they are frightening and exciting at the same time, we must be able to trust God. Trust, in turn, leads to a strong faith (walking the talk). What makes us trust in someone or something? My answer: an intimate connection. So, I guess we'd better get busy getting close to God! And that, I believe, is exactly why God moves in such big ways and wants so much; so that God can be in an intimate relationship with us to God's glory in those movements!

Video Annoucements

2009-11-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

So, Troy and I have decided to try announcements in a little different way from now on! Here's what we created today for the week of 11-24-09. Here's the link to youtube in case it doesn't load below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2hpEb1LjYg.

The Bigger Picture

2009-11-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

So lately I’ve been thinking about something, spiritually, and Monday night it sort of exploded and I totally sensed God’s presence concerning this battle I’ve been having (in my head). Let me give you some background. I have this friend, Hope, who is amazing. And we walk together two or three times a week. And so during that hour of walking we talk about lots of things like our lives, things we are thankful for, our struggles, and just lots of stuff. Last night while we were walking, we started to talk about my house that is for sale. I shared that I was frustrated that it had been on the market for a while and had not sold. Yet Hope and I have some friends whose house was on the market for 2 weeks and sold right away! I shared that I knew my house would sell when it was time. I just didn’t understand why God was allowing it to take so long. I know there is a reason why, I just don’t get it.

Now, I know this example isn't something that our students at Zion can necessarily relate to, but there are definitely struggles we each have and we may not understand when/where God is in the situation. For example, struggles with deciding about what college to attend or issues with parents or friends.

The spiritual struggle I have been convicted of lately is in reference to God’s timing. Well really, my timing and what I want versus God’s timing and what is God’s plan. Really, it's a faith issue. And the Bible actually has lots to say about "time." The most obvious one, I’m sure you remember. You know the ever famous verses from Ecclesiastes 3 about time and purpose. There’s a time to die, a time to live, reaping, sowing, dancing, laughing, crying, finding, losing, winning, listening, speaking. Remember all those?

But if you read further in that chapter you see: 11God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. 12I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, 13because God's gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do. 14Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship him.

And this is what I realized Monday night when my friend, Hope, and I were talking. She made my personal dislike of the image of God as parent okay – NOT GREAT – but okay. She said that when we can’t understand why something isn’t happening the way or how fast we want it to, we have to remember that there is a bigger picture and God knows it and is present there. She described it like a parent knowing what’s best for us. And while we may sometimes dislike our parent’s decisions about things, they usually know what’s best for us because they can see the bigger picture! Yikes!

The greatest mistake people make is by looking at all things from a human view point. Waiting for God’s timing is one of the toughest things we have to do. But, I know from times past that it is so worth it. And so, whatever your struggle currently is, I am confident there is a bigger picture. You can’t see it right now, but I assure you it is there. It's kind of like the fog we had earlier this week. While we can't see very far beyond our hand in thick fog, we know there are things beyond it and eventually, when the fog rises, we will see! We've got to learn to just trust God that God will show it to us. Don’t rush it! It’s worth the wait!

Cell Phone Olympics and Star Gazing

2009-11-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight at our student ministry meeting we played cell phone Olympics! In these events, our senior high students were challenged to complete certain tasks with their cell phones. For example, they had to go to certain spots in the church and take pictures. They had to get their parents to text them. They were challenged to text Jillianne with their name and favorite restaurant (congrats to Amber Grant for winning the Olympics and a free dinner at her favorite restaurant!).

After our Olympics we were supposed to go outside and do some star gazing. But, thanks to tropical storm Ida, we were rained out. However, we found some great videos on youtube.com and watched them to learn about constellations and star gazing! The topic for the night was connecting to God. Here's the basis of our talk:

The night sky is divided into 88 constellations, most of which are visible from the United States at different times of the year. On a clear, moonless night, a thousand or more stars are visible. Five of our solar system's eight planets, a few star clusters, a spiral galaxy, and the odd bright comet are visible, too!

It is amazing how small we are and how BIG the universe is, how small we are but how much God loves us. God wants to be in a relationship with us. In the click of a button (on a cell phone) we can be connected anywhere in the world, just like that. But how easy is it to connect with God? If you are like me, it’s not as easy as pushing that speed dial button on the phone. But, God tells us it can be!

So, how big is God? Think of size of the universe. Nearest star is about 4 light yrs away. How far is that? Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. This means nearest star is about 24 trillion miles away from earth. That’s a long way, but it’s just a speck of distance in the universe. Scientists estimate may be up to 200 billion galaxies out there. But here’s how big God is … Read Isaiah 40:12. Isaiah 40:12 tells us God measured off space with his fingers. That's pretty BIG!!

We are called to connect with God (to find a speed dial). So if God is that big, that God can measure the universe with God’s fingers, then why is it so hard for us to connect with God / to find that speed dial button in our lives? Why do we feel alone at times?

Bottom line - it is hard. We do sometimes feel disconnected from God, like God doesn’t care about us, There are many reasons for this. My top two?
1. We fill our lives with so much that we just do not have time for God. In our culture we fill up every free moment that we have to make sure there is never a time where we have nothing to do. From the moment we open our eyes, to the moment we close them at night we are doing things. We are so active with work, food, chores, projects, school, family, friends, entertainment, and any other things we add to the mix that we don’t have room in our day for God.
2. Other times we feel disconnected because we don’t want God to be God. If God is in control of our lives that means that we aren’t. We feel disconnected from God because we are trying to run the show ourselves. Sometimes we feel disconnected from God because we are all imperfect people. Each and every one of us sins and that keeps us from God.

Have you ever felt disconnected from God? I assure you, you are not the first. And it is a battle you may fight for the rest of your life as a Christian. Even in Biblical times, people felt disconnected. Just read Psalm 22.

When we feel disconnected from God it is because we walk away. God has not moved. God did not leave. God did not desert us. God is standing right where we left God. It is us. Because here’s the thing, right, if God can measure the universe (THE UNIVERSE) with God’s fingers, how can we 5 or 6 feet tall people ever escape God’s presence? Where is somebody that BIG going to hide from us?

Later in Psalm 22 we hear:

God has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being kicked around. God has never wandered off to do his own thing; God has been right there, listening.

So how do we stay connected? It’s really simple actually. Is God at the top of your list? Make a mental list of the top 5 things in your life. Now take away 2. Take away 1. Take away one more. Is God your number one? If God is your number one, then you live your life differently because of that. Things like worship, Bible study, youth group, fellowship, youth trips, mission work, etc. become important. Those are the things that fill up the hours in your day. I am not saying there can’t be other stuff too. But the way you do that other "stuff" changes. God being # 1 means you play ball differently, you hang out with different people, you stand up for the kid being picked on in the lunch room. It’s ironic, because saying God is number 1 is really simple, but the life you are called to lead because of that is not so easy.

Connecting with God ... what's your priority?

Open Ended Questions

2009-11-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

I hate closed ended questions. Yes, I said it. Now, let me admit, I am guilty of asking lots of closed ended questions, but I hate it when others do the same to me! I'm going to pick a hot topic, like homosexuality, here because it helps prove my point well about close ended questions. Recently, I was wathcing a video from a veteran youth pastor, Andrew Marin. In the video he does the same.

Let's start with some examples of closed ended questions. It's like these: is homosexuality a sin? can someone change? are persons born "that way? can you be gay and a Christian? are homosexuals going to hell? These questions seem to elicit a one word answer and not much more. Yes or No.

Marin points out that the problem with open ended questions is two fold! First the asker of the question likley already has an answer in mind. Secondly, the asker is probably trying to figure our "which team" or side of the opinion you are on.

We have a great model from Jesus for dealing with close ended questions. As Christians that's what our model should be right? I mean how many Christians do you know that would say ... "nah ... I don't want to be like Jesus."

Marin points out that in the three years of Jesus' public ministry, he was aksed closed ended questions approximately 25 times. Of those 25, 15 of the questions came form His enemies, like the Pharisees, Saducees, Jews, or high priests. 10 of those times, the questions came from his friends, like John the Baptist, the disciples, and the woman at the well. Amazingly, Jesus only answered yes or no 3 times. And of those three times, they were ALL after He was on trial and had been beaten and His death on the cross was approaching.

So, what would Jesus do? What is the model we have for approaching closed ended questions? Don't answer yes or no. Move the conversation to a new and fresh approach. Try this ... catch the asker of the question off gaurd by answering with an open ended question.

Horror Stories of the Bible and Pumpkin Smashing 2009

2009-10-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight at our student ministry meeting, we talked about fear. We discussed some of the things we are afraid of and why we are fearful. We also talked about there being good things to be fearful of and how we deal with fear. With Halloween approaching, I’ve been thinking about the things that scare me. Horror movies are one of my greatest fears. As I read through some spooky, gross Bible stories, it hit me that any of these could be turned into a modern day horror film. So, our 6th – 12th grade students got their chances to be the stars of these scripts as we acted them out tonight! We broke into groups and each group chose a story from Scripture to act out or summarize for the rest of the group. The spooky stories we looked at were:

* Elijah flames to Heaven / Mass murder of boys by bear from 2 Kings 2:11-17; 23-24
* The Madman and the Pigs from Mark 5:1-20
* Jael drives the tent peg through the enemy soldiers head from Judges 4:4-22
* Samuel's ghost / Witch of Endor from 1 Samuel 28: 3-25
* The Writing of a Disembodied Hand from Daniel 5:1-31
* Dry bones come to life / Ezekiel from Ezekiel 37:1-14

Over the past week, we’ve had several stations around Zion where members and friends could stop and write on a pumpkin the things of which they are afraid. The Bible has lots to say about fear! Like Psalm 34:4:

“I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears”

And 1 Peter 5:6-7:

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you”

If anyone had something to fear, it was Paul -

The apostle Paul found his strength in God, He reminds us that, “I …have …been in prison …frequently, been flogged …severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. …I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. …Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. …I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. …[God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 11:23-12:10).

The point, as I explained to our students, is we must CHOOSE FAITH OVER FEAR!! When we do that, when God is a priority in our lives, the easier it becomes to lift our fears to God. God then smashes our fears … but out of the smashed pumpkin comes something beautiful. From the seeds come a new, fresh, clean, beautiful pumpkin (with no fears written on it). To illustrate this point we stood above the ground on the breezeway of the Zion FLC and smashed our pumpkins that had fears written all over them. Even the 4th and 5th graders joined in the action. It was a
spook-tacular night … sorry, I don’t know where I get these things! Happy Halloween!

The Giant

2009-10-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

There are only two things that I am really, absolutely, positively scared of: roller-coasters and horror movies. And, I've been thinking about both of these things lately because the state fair was in town and because it is Halloween! That got me to thinking even further and investigating the "spooky" or horror-type stories of the Bible.

So I came the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. You know the story: the Philistines and Israelites are battling and they come to a valley. Both sides draw their "battle lines" and refuse to move forward. The Philistines send forth their best fighter, Goliath. Goliath challenges Israel to send their best fighter forward and fight him. Goliath says that whichever side loses will be the slaves of the other side. But the Israelites were intimidated and none of the soldiers were willing to step forward and fight him. You see, Goliath was 9 and a half feet tall. His armor, alone, weighed 125 pounds. He was so massive that he had a soldier assigned to him just to carry his shield.

For 40 days (or a really long time), Goliath taunted and challenged the Israelite soldiers, among them, David's brothers. One day, by chance, David heard Goliath’s challenge. Now, David was not actually a part of the army, but he had been sent by his dad to the battle-lines to check on his brothers who were in the army. David, willing to fight Goliath, decided he was willing to step forward; he figured it couldn't be any worse than his “shepardly” duties. When a sheep would wander off or be taken away by a lion or bear, David would go after the lion or bear and kill it so it would release the sheep. So David went to battle with Goliath with only a sling and a stone in tow, no armor or anything. He takes one shot at Goliath, hits him in the skull, and Goliath dies. And here's the horror part ... a great battle begins and the Israelites kill all of the Philistine soldiers and their bodies are strewn everywhere. And what's further, after Goliath falls down David celebrates by cutting of Goliath's head and carrying it around. YUCK!

We all have "giants" in our lives. And if our teenagers are anything like I was when I was their age, they are facing spiritual (i.e. how does faith relate to my life), emotional (i.e. argument with parents/friends or tough decisions about college, etc.), and physical (i.e. self esteem) giants. And, it is easy to be intimidated by our giants! Even as adults, we continue to battle "giants."

There are a couple of lessons we can take from reading between the lines of the David and Goliath story. First, David didn't go to battle Goliath but he went to check on his brothers. Our giants are usually the same, they just pop up when we least expect them. Secondly, the more we put the battle off (like Goliath's 40 days of taunting), the more intimidated we can become and the further out of control things spiral for us. Thirdly, we need to celebrate our victories! I'm NOT saying we should go and cut our enemies heads off and carry them around but I am saying we should celebrate and give God appropriate credit.

A warning: we may lose a battle or two. But, the great thing about battles is, they are designed to bring us closer to God. We have to trust God to get us through the fight and that God will equip us with the right tools to win! We're not called to be successful ALL OF THE TIME; but, we are called to be faithful. The bottom line is we can't beat our "giants" if God isn't in our army!

Are you called to be a student leader at Zion?

2009-10-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Zion 4:twelve students will be forming a leadership team! You can apply and elections will be held Wednesday, November 4th. Here's the deal:
*We will elect a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and several age level representatives.
*Turn your application into Jillianne by Sunday, November 1st.
*Job descriptions and applications will arrive in your mailbox next week!

YOU ARE CALLED TO THIS IF YOU ARE:
1. A 6th – 12th grade student active @ Zion.
President and VP must be senior high student.

2. A POSITIVE ROLE MODEL
He/She should be a model of Christian living that
awakens a responsive desire in others to follow.
(A leader moves people by example, not by position.)

2. A PERSON OF INTEGRITY
Having a good reputation is important.

3. ARE WILLING TO SHARE YOUR OPINION
How else will we plan a student events, calendars,
lessons, lock-ins, trips, service opportunities, etc.?

4. HAVE THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY WITH THE
PROBLEMS, NEEDS AND FEELINGS OF OTHERS
Are you willing to talk to your peers and ask what they
want out our student ministry? Communication is key!

5. ARE WILLING TO GIVE NECESSARY TIME
We will meet approximately once a month.

The fine art of a balanced life

2009-10-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

I don’t know about you, but, I have a very hard time finding balance in my life. So that got me thinking … today’s generations are the most overcommitted ever. Today’s teens face so many activities to fit in the 24 hours of our day, including schoolwork, youth group / church (hopefully), sports, duties and responsibilities at home, friendships, jobs, technology, and much more. All of this makes it easy to feel overwhelmed! It makes it really easy for God and church and family not to be our priorities.

It’s not easy to live a balanced life. So many people place demands on us (including ourselves). But finding balance is imperative if we are going to accomplish what God has in store for us. And the truth is, we can’t be effective if we’re constantly feeling exhausted, stressed, and / or overwhelmed.

By having faith in God and ourselves, letting God be in control, and a few helpful tips (from this great book I currently reading), I am convinced we can live a balanced life and understand that God called and allowed us to be exactly where we are this very minute … even if it is hectic and crazy or perfect and stress-free.

Tips for a leading a balanced life:

1. God first – ALWAYS. Enough said … see Deut. 6:5, etc.

2. Stay connected to God – duh … pray and praise (worship)! Frequent conversation and time with the other is important in any relationship. And, that does mean church, worship, youth group, Sunday school, service/missions become the ways in which we partially live into that relationship.

3. Get a planner – plan, plan, plan. Manage your schedule and time better will help you avoid dilemmas.

4. Delegate – figure out what only you can do and get help with the rest from those who are willing!

5. Sabbath – that’s a big word for rest. Even God rested, right? Take at least a day off … COMPLETELY!

6. Learn to say “no” – this is tough but sometimes you have to say no in order to keep your priorities straight.

7. Hang with your family – even if it’s just dinner. But what about movie night or a vacation? There’s only one you in your family and you can’t be replaced!

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future ...

2009-10-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why God hits me with the things God hits me with. And I wonder how often God sends a message my way and I totally miss it. Well, not this morning! I heard a quote this morning as I was driving to worship that hit me where it hurts and I have been in a tailspin ever since. Here it is … get ready … I hope it will impact you as it did me: “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” This quote comes from Paul Boese who was a Dutch botanist, more known for his quotes than his research.

It has become apparent to me that lately I am carrying a lot of emotional baggage in two current situations of my life. This morning upon hearing this quote, I had to stop and wonder: have these simple words provoked the wake-up call I needed to forgive the persons in these two situations who have wronged me? And further, what is my part in wronging them by not forgiving them and being able to move on with an “enlarged” future?

One of the situations is a family matter and I can clearly see how offering that forgiveness would enlarge not only my future, but also other family members’ futures. And, I want to and will do that. It scares me and honestly the reason I haven’t offered forgiveness prior to now is because I am afraid this family member won’t ask me for forgiveness for their actions but will instead continue to point out what I am doing wrong. But I have realized that I can’t dwell on that. This person loves me as much as she can, just not the way I need; I can’t change that and must learn to accept that fact. It will take some time for things to get back to normal, but I am unpacking that emotional suitcase!

But in the second relationship, I remain bitter in spite of the words of Paul Boese. Clearly this is the reason for my afore mentioned tailspin. And, it is a little different from the first situation because I have forgiven my transgressor in this case. However, I have no inclination or longing whatsoever to have an active relationship with that person so how do we have an “enlarged future?” BOOM … God wrestled me to the floor again! Maybe the “enlarged future” is not mine or about continuing a relationship with the person but that “enlarged future” belongs to my ex-transgressor because of my forgiveness? Maybe the enlarged future is mine because I have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes and move on in a positive way. As much as I cared for this friend, my heart has become hardened (like Pharoah’s in the Old Testament) against this person. I know that if I do not separate myself from this person, this person will never change or be able to focus on their issues. As heavy as this emotional suitcase has become and as attached to it as I am, I just have to put it down and walk away. A metaphorical way to think of it is like this: perhaps the “airline” (i.e. God) just lost the “suitcase” (i.e. emotional baggage) and I am now headed home from the “airport” (i.e. our relationship) without the bag. I’ll still hang on to the “clothes” (i.e. our times together / memories / lessons learned) I wore that were in the bag, but I can’t carry it anymore.

You can probably tell, I have been thinking so much lately about forgiveness and the bitterness a lack of forgiveness can cause. And, for sure, God knew I needed to hear Paul Boese’s words this morning. Forgiveness is an emotion and emotions are what drive us (and our behavior). And I would argue that most of us know from personal experience...forgiveness works. When we are wrong, our first reaction tends to be anger and resentment. But not Jesus! Jesus, even knowing that his “friends” and “family” will soon desert him, He breaks bread and celebrates with these same people. I am so thankful for the example Jesus has set forth and for the words of his servant Paul Boese. Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.

Cynical Samuel?

2009-10-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

A teenager’s relationship with a local church matters. Yet, many teens today, have become cynical about going to church (and even their relationship with God). And let’s face it, there are lots of forces working against students today that keep them from embracing the truth: peer pressure, parents who don’t attend church and aren’t actively in relationship with The Holy themselves, sports, massive amounts of school work, the media, drugs, parties, after school jobs, etc. Louis Mellado – a Spanish youth minister – has written about the similarities between the young Samuel and today’s Christian teenagers. Mellado has noted that some of the forces Samuel faced were similar … yet Samuel overcame them and did not remain cynical.

1. SAMUEL DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE ABOUT GOING TO CHURCH
His mother dedicated Samuel to God before Samuel was born (1 Samuel 1:11). Samuel was not only taken to church, he lived there! Some of today’s teens seem to sometimes resent growing up “in” the church. But Samuel used it as an opportunity to embrace his religious heritage. In my seven years in youth ministry, I have seen this happen (both ways)! But, the on fire, all the time, at church whenever the doors are open students are (sadly) more difficult to come by. Teenagers are pulled in so many directions and are so overcommitted these days. Teenagers are not encouraged to even go to church. Some parents don’t want to “force” their child to go to church for fear that later in life they will “turn” from God for it. I’ve got news …. If you don’t get them here, I can’t introduce them to Jesus and teach them how cool that relationship is and how NOT to turn from it later. I can’t help them recognize how present and active God is in their daily lives and how any Christian topic could possibly relate to popular culture. I can’t introduce them to adults in our church who will mentor and love on them and affirm them. I can’t help them recognize what an important role they play in the kingdom of God. I can’t laugh with them, cry with them, worship with them, teach them or fellowship with them. I can’t introduce them to people whose lives they can impact (i.e. mission and service experiences).

2. SAMUEL GREW UP IN A SOCIETY THAT HAD FALLEN AWAY FROM GOD
Just read 1 Samuel 3:1b and you will know that God’s presence was rarely recognized in Samuel’s society. Was God not there? Absolutely not; of course, God was present, the people just missed it! Most of us do that everyday. Further, teens are naturally attracted to the world and all of its temptations and offerings. Because of this, as much as we church leaders and Christians do not want to admit it, in many ways we are moving to a secularized society and a post- Christian era. Perhaps teens feel they are on the outside looking in … which brings me to the next point:

3. SAMUEL GREW UP IN A CHURCH FILLED WITH DOUBLE STANDARDS AND HYPOCRICY
One example from Samuel’s day were Eli’s sons … just read 1 Samuel 2 to see their story. Samuel didn’t fall prey to this situation, but, as children become adolescents they are able to see and identify the weaknesses and mistakes of their parents, church leaders, friends, mentors, society. In my experience, this definitely leads to cynicism about the church and most of the rest of the world feels this way too. People love Jesus, but not the church. Oh, I could go on and on about this and how bad I am at it too, and the lessons I have learned, but that is for another blog entry on antoher day ...

4. ALTHOUGH SAMUEL GREW UP IN THE CHURCH, HE DIDN’T REALLY KNOW GOD
We know that from 1 Samuel 3. Samuel knew the Scripture and the songs but he didn’t know God. There is a difference in knowing ABOUT God and being in a RELATIONSHIP with God. So many times God calls us (just like he did Samuel) and we just miss it because we don’t know God’s voice.

Medallo makes a great point. We know Samuel was active in relationship with God. This is what prevented him from being cynical about the church. We know this because Samuel stopped keeping his distance from God. Samuel did more than just go through the motions. Samuel listened more than he questioned and acted more than he talked. What a great lesson for our teens today (and we adults)!

Do you think God is just sleeping on a pillow in heaven?

2009-10-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

God is at work in creation, afterall, God is the author of life right? Romans 1:20 reads, “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things God has made.” So, where have you witnessed God’s eternal power and divine nature? This was basically what the senior high Sunday school class was debating this morning. Some of the most common answers were at the mountains or beach. But I also thought of how we can sense God's presence in the changing of the leaves. Or how could anyone doubt God's existence after getting on an airplane in the rain, flying above the clouds, and witnessing the beauty that exists above those rain clouds.

Candice and Paul, who were teaching today, brought in some quotes about God's presence in nature. And one quote, in particular, caught my attention. The words came from Martin Luther. “God is wholly present in all creation, in every corner, behind and before you. Do you think God is sleeping on a pillow in heaven?” I love it!

More thoughts on the mirror

2009-10-06T05:17:00.001-07:00

I have been so convicted by the statement from the skit guys "what do you see when you look in the mirror?" Here's the link to the video: http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=849dc7c803281df74bb2

Usually I am rolling on the floor laughing a good belly laugh when I watch the skit guys, but, this is one of their more serious clips! At Sr. High Bible study this morning, I talked about this video and proposed the question "What do you see when you look in the mirror?" to our youth and Pilgrim's youth. Do we see beauty? Do we see a great new haircut? Do we see our imperfections like something stuck in our teeth or a zit? Do we someone pretending to be something they are not?

James 1:23-24 tells us: "If you hear the message and don't obey it, you are like people who state at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave ...."

The bottom line is that we all have the imperfections, zits, warts, and bruises. If we don't look in the mirror then we'll never know they are there. That's the thing about mirrors (good ones anyways) - they always tell us the truth. Thanks wicked witch in snow white ... mirror, mirror on the wall. Let's be honest, when we look in the mirror, we're not always going to like what we see. But God does! And, I'm not convinced that God can see the imperfections. We know that God is Emmanuel or God with us. If we think, symbolically, of the zits and warts and imperfections as our sins, then I don't know that God can look on them. Sin is something that God forgives (if we ask) but it is also something that separates us from God. If God is a God with us then how can God check out those imperfections we see in the mirror? God loves us no matter how many zits we have!

And, there are a lot of mirrors / things that reflect our image in our lives (sybolically speaking, of course). Think about a spoon or aluminum foil or a puddle. The image we see there is not clear; it's blury. We can think of this like the world and culture - there's not necessarily a clear view of right and wrong. Think about a broken mirror. In this reflection, things aren't quite acurate all of the time or are distorted. It depends on your view or where you are standing and the reflection changes easily. This is like our friends. Think about a small mirror versus a full length mirror. The small mirror is good but you have to get close to see the strengths and weaknesses of your reflection. The small mirror is like the Bible.

I think what James is pointing out to us is that a "forgetful hearer" is someone who sees themseleves / God's reflection but then goes away and does nothing about it. In reality, we wouldn't walk away from a mirror and jjst forget what we look like or what we're wearing or which was we parted our hair. When we look in the mirror and we see a problem, we fix it. That's just like our Christian journey. When we look in the little mirror or the Bible and we see a problem, we should fix it (or at least try). We all have the zits and warts and imperfections, we always will. But using the small mirror, getting really close, in that we will be shown by God the way to fix those imperfections.

So, what do you see when you look in the mirror? Ultimately I pray it will be Jesus!

What Do You See When You Look in the Mirror?

2009-10-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, as I was prepping for Wednesday night's graveyard scavenger hunt at Zion, I came across a really funny video! It's by the skit guys! I LOVE the skit guys; I got to see them perform live at a conference I attended in the summer of 2007 ... Amazing! They are so funny. They are two guys who have made these videos of just about any Christian topic you can think of. They really have a good thing going and are appealing to youth.
In this video that I saw over the weekend, one of the actors is playing God and asks the other actor who is playing an every day human: "what do you see when you look in the mirror?" The everyday guy starts to explain what he sees. He sees a fairly handsome fellow who could stand to loose a few pounds in a green shirt. But "God" interupts him and says something like: it sure would be nice if you humans could look in the mirror (or at each other) and see My Son, Jesus Christ; I really want you to be the image of Christ.
Wow, that hit me like a ton of bricks. I was so convicted by the statement. I mean, it makes perfect sense; it's what we are called to do and be and see. It's what other's should see when they look at us and our actions. Yet, if someone had asked me what I see when I look in the mirror, I probably would not have given the answer, "Christ."
When I think about Zion or look in at Zion, I have to say, I do see Christ. Just last week we made a plea for you to help us collect backpacks for Lutheran family Services. There were 29 children who had been taken from their homes recently who had NO or ripped and torn bookbags. As of today, we had collected enough backpacks and donations to give LFS 35 bookbags. Way to reflect Christ Zion! I'm impressed and proud to be a part of your family.

Dr. Pepper Devotion - 9/30/09

2009-10-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

After sharing my faith / life story with the congregation last night at the Zion Coffee House, I invited the youth and their parents out to parking lot to participate in a devotion related to one of my favorite chapter of Scripture. We distributed a can of Dr. Pepper to everyone and we did, what like to call, a Dr. Pepper devotion (because Dr. Pepper is one of my favorite drinks).

Psalm 117, the whole chapter, is only two little verses. But, those two verses contain the answer to some of life’s biggest questions --- questions about who God is and why people are on this planet. This shortest chapter in the Bible gives the “Who, What, and Why” of Christianity. It’s so important that even Paul repeated in Romans 15:11. If I had the privilege of titling the Psalm, I would title it “How’s your praise life?” or “The Basics of Christianity: who, what, why.”

Here’s what the Psalm says:
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! God’s love has taken over our lives; God’s faithful ways are eternal. Hallelujah!

THE WHO:
Who is this Psalm written to?
Everyone … Praise God, everybody. Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives. No matter what language you read this in … the message is the same. God loves us. All of us. I asked the youth and parents to shake up their Dr. Pepper, if they were WHO these verses were written for. Everyone shook their Dr. Pepper!

THE WHAT
What should we do in response to God’s love? Verse 1 tells us we should praise God / applaud God What does it mean to praise God? Our youth and parents had several suggestions. But, the Dictionary says Praise means to extol, commend, or honor, often in song. I had the youth and parents sing praises … they did well! I then explained that praise is like bragging on someone --- loud enough that everyone can hear. Finally, I asked the youth and parents to shake their Dr. Pepper up if they are good at bragging on others, themselves, their friends, their church, their favorite sports team when they win (like the Gamecock’s beating Ole Miss), God, or anything.

THE WHY
Our youth and parents shared many of the reasons why God deserves our praise: God died for us, everything good we have comes from God, God first loved us, etc. I mentioned that Verse 2 tells us exactly why God deserves our praise! Because God’s love has taken over our lives … and God’s faithfulness to us will last FOREVER! Even when we turn away, God will remain faithful to us. There is nothing we can do to make God not love us. My guess is there probably aren’t very many in our lives that are like that?

The point of the devotion was that once we have and acknowledge and live in God’s love, amazing things can happen. The Holy Spirit fills us up and we begin to explode and get others wet with God’s love! With that, we shook our Dr. Pepper one more time, popped them open, and exploded them all over the Zion parking lot! Dr. Pepper went EVERYWHERE!! For sure, that is just where Zion’s youth ministry is headed!

See You Sunday!

2009-09-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not from the Lexington area, I've enjoyed just driving along the major roads in that past few days to check things out. I'm quickly learning my way around and where the best iced coffee and Mexican food is located! So, as I was out exploring the other day, I drove past a church sign that caught my attention! The advertisement on the sign said: "Kids in church? Great Idea! See you Sunday." They then listed their worship times. Genuius. Just after driving past the sign, I found my way into a local sandwhich shop for dinner and was greeted by a teenager. Instead of asking for my order, he asked me if I knew who Megan Fox was and if I liked her. He went on to passionately share that he would "sell his soul" to have 5 minutes with Megan Fox. I had to chuckle! Yes, kids need to be in church! (Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with Megan Fox or the teenager but selling your soul??).

I wonder if the people in the church were implying (with the sign) that parents aren't briging "kids" to their church? Or, is it a tactic to get parents to know they have a good children and youth Christian education program and worship at their church? It seems to me they are implying that children and youth aren't in church! And, in a way, I think they are right. Clearly, children, youth and adult committment / participation at a church are what makes that congregation what it is. Some churches are known for what they offer children or youth. Some churches are defined by what they offer young adults. Along those lines (and exciting for me)... it is my impression that Zion is known for what it offers families. And, I did see quite a few "kids" in church on Sunday. In fact, the little ones even tried to take over Pastor Tim's king puppet during his moments with the children!

So all of this brought me to this blog entry and wondering why aren't "kids" in church? Logically, my first thought was that we all know this is the most over-committed generation EVER. It's scary! When my son was three we played t-ball and the coach wanted to have practice on Wednesday and Sunday and we had games on Tuesday or Thursday. Well, we just weren't ready for more than one night a week and we switched to karate lessons at his preschool that happened while he was at school on Wednesdays. Even now, on a WEDNESDAY NIGHT (church night) as I look to my facebook page and read status updates, I see parents who have updated that they are getting ready for tonight's practice or are leaving work early to catch their child's game. I wonder to myself why coaches schedule practices on nights or days that are and always have been filled with church activities. But, on the other hand, I can understand that they have to becuase other days are filled with other activities. To me this means that the church must do a better job of understanding these schedules and be open to adjusting their activities. For example, why not push back Wednesday night dinner fifteen minutes? Or, why not have the youth meet on the soccer field before Sunday afternoon's practice for a devotion or Friday night after the football game for some fellowship?

Secondly and because we are so overcommitted these days, I think we have taken up the Israelite practice of worshipping idols. I know I have! An idol doesn't have to be some sort of statue as the Old Testament defines it. An idol can be a thing or practice, like sports, shopping, money, sleeping, being powerful, giving first priority to career over family, or status. These "idols" are very powerful and overwhelming. These things will take away from our committment to church. These things make it easy for us to justify why not to attend or take our "kids" to a Wednesday night program, Bible study, worship, etc.

But, third, one reason we might not get our youth and children to church is the church's fault. I think the church is called to offer programs, worship,and opportunuties to which the community can be excited about and to which they connect. I'm excited to get to be a part of those plans here at Zion and look foward to hearing your suggestions about ways in which we can do that here! Most especially, I am excited for the new contextual worship service that will be starting this Sunday night at 6:30pm!

Kids in church? Great idea! See you tonight or Sunday at Zion!

Eleanore

2009-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

So, today in worship, Pastor Tim said some things that got me thinking about our identity as Christians. Obviously, as Christians Jesus is part of our identity. And as Pastor Tim pointed out, Jesus came to serve. Think about it! Even in death, Jesus continued to serve the world. And we know the early church grew through relationships and service to one another. So naturally, service should be what we members of the kingdom are all about!

But, part of our Christian identity and service also has to do with culture. It's like a spectrum; on one end is culture and the other is Christ. Pastor Tim pointed out that Christianity calls us to be almost opposite of culture. In today's culture it is not second nature to serve! We get caught up in our busy schedules, being with our families, or hanging out with our friends ... it becomes all about ME!

I had such an experience this week-end! I had a "shopping date" with one of my friends. She was going to help me make curtains for my freshly painted bedroom and she was also looking for some fabric to go in her guest bedroom. First thing when we met, Eleanore let me know that another friend of hers may interupt our time together via a phone call. She went on to explain that this friend has been unemployeed for the past three years; and recently she lost her car because she could not afford the payments and repairs. This friend had called earlier and asked to borrow Eleanore's car so she could run some errands. Eleanore was not comfortable with that but did feel "obligated" to take her friend to do the errands. However, this was Eleanore's day off of work and she had planned to spend it shopping, having a birthday dinner celebration with her mom, and then was having some friends over later in the evening.

I have to admit it, I secretly hoped that this person would not call and interupt MY shopping trip with Eleanore. I had planned for us to shop and then take Blaine to Chick-Fil-A for some lunch and playground time; while Blaine played on the playground, we could chat away! However, about an hour or two into our shopping time, the friend did call and Eleanore literally had to cut our time short so that she could pick up her friend, run the errands, and then make it to her mom's birthday dinner (only a few hours away). I was disappointed but understood Eleanore's desire to help her friend. Eleanore has a big heart and I have always admired her ability and desire to serve others (i.e. teaching children's Sunday school, working with the youth at her church, her committment to her friends, etc.).

Later that day when I talked to Eleanore, I asked how the errands went. Eleanore explained that it took much longer than she had time for but that they got them all done. But the thing that struck me most was that Eleanore was beating herself up because she didn't go into the opportunity to serve her friend with an open heart. She might as well just not have gone at all because of her attitude. In other words, she felt worse for going with a bad attitude than if she hadn't served her friend at all.

Pastor Tim talked this morning about Israel and how they lost the vision of service and it became about power. Clearly, I lost the vision of allowing another to serve and it became about material things (the shopping trip) for me. But my friend, Eleanore, (despite her self proclaimed bad attitude) never forgot that her identity as a Christian calls her to serve others above self. Despite having and wanting to do other things on her day off, she still went and helped a friend. I am so proud to know Eleanore and I am convinced that her going to help her friend could have made a profound difference in that person's life. It could even mean the difference of employment vs. unemployment for this person. Perhaps if I continue to surrond myself with Christian friends like Eleanore, these attitudes and examples will begin to rub off on me! Though the curtains did turn out nicely, maybe one day it will be second nature for me to serve others first or not get upset when the opportunity to serve another presents itself (even if it is in the middle of MY shopping trip) ...