Exiled Community

What’s the deal with us Christians? How come we sometimes act so unchrist-like? My wife works in a Christian workplace where the workers can be rude, gossipping, inconsiderate (and the worst) unprofessional. Of course this isn’t everyone. Even in ministry, the people that I have the hardest time dealing with are my good christian “brothers and sisters.” Why is that?

On our mission trip last week, one of the tires on our trailer blew out about 2 hours into the trip. We had been cruising along rather nicely, but the blowout really slow us down. Our actions are sometimes like that. We’ll be moving right along in our faith and then someone is rude to us, or does something spiteful. It can be a major blowout because we often don’t see it coming.

While I don’t want to over spiritualize this…God calls us to do better. If we are reflecting Him. We are called to love…called to forgive…called to not cause someone else to stumble.

Lord, help me each day to reflect your love and glory. Mold me into the man, husband, and servant that you desire me to be. Help me to forgive. Help me to love others as myself. Help me to be more like you. Amen.

It’s been awhile, but for once I have a good excuse for not writing. I have been in Tennessee for a week, leading our youth mission team. We were in Oneida, TN for a week of home repair. Boy, did we get a lot done. We did two porches, two additions, and got 3/4 of a house sided. All that in 4 days. It was a great to see our students learn so much, and learn about serving.

One lesson learned was how we react when we serve and nobody “seems” to notice. at our one site, the homeowner was not there. So the work was done with no interaction. But we are called to serve whether or not we get a thank-you, a smile, or even the blessing of someones presence. That was a valuable lesson to learn.

It was also humbling. Humility was our theme for the week. By and large, we are not a humble people. But when you do work like we did, you become humbled. This trip, like the ones before, taught be many lessons about myself and God. Probably in the upcoming days I will share some of those lessons.

Until then…live to serve!

Wow…it’s been awhile since I have written anything. I leave tomorrow with 18 students and 8 leaders to Tennessee for our annual Mission Trip. I am excited. We will be doing some much needed repairs on some homes this week. We’ll be working with three families. It is such a good opportunity for those who are participating. I pray that things go well, because our students haven’t had the best attitudes in preparation for the week.

Spent last weekend back in Pennsylvania for my friend Ashley’s wedding. She looked beautiful…and had a great day. It was good to see some friends from High School. Also got to spend time with my parents, sister, and saw the Pittsburgh Pirates play. (If you haven’t, go to PNC Park, it is worth admission)

Not much else to say. Just hoping to be asleep by 10:00 p.m. I have to be up around 3:45 a.m. Fun!

It’s Tuesday night. I listened to Delirious’ CD, Glo for the first time in awhile. It made me remember why they are such an awesome band…and worshippers. If you haven’t heard it, go check it out…and if you don’t know, now you know!

Memorial Day Weekend was good. On Saturday, Andrea and I rode the light rail into Baltimore to Camden Yards to see the Orioles play the Tigers. It was a good game. We saw homeruns by Tejada, Palmeiro, and saw Sammy Sosa barely hit his way out of a paper bag. It was cool to see three hall-of-famers play in one game (Sosa, Palmeiro, and Ivan Rodriguez)

On Sunday, I preached at the 9:30 service. The message was on self-control. Isn’t that something that we all need more of? It went well. Hopefully, God used it to challenge some and set others free.

That night, we got together with our friends Dave and Heather and saw Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. It was good. It was cool to see how they brought things together to set up Episodes 4-6. Hayden Christianson(Anakin Skywalker) is such a bad actor though. His dialogue was almost always unconvincing and forced. Could they have picked a worse actor for Anakin?

Monday night (June 6th) is our big night here. We have three bands coming to the church. I hope we have a good turnout because they are great bands!

That’s all for now. More to come.

It’s church softball season. This is one of my favorite times because I get to be with some great men and woman from our Church. We’re not doing quite as well as we’d like, but we are having fun. We’re just not hitting too well as a team.

It’s memorial day weekend…I have a four day weekend, while Andrea has a three. We should have fun. I think we’ll see Star Wars, and we’ll go to a Orioles game on Saturday, and then up to Andrea’s parents on Monday. Andrea and I will enjoy a weekend together after several weeks of being busy.

Not too much else now. More to come later.

Recently, the Mission Team went to Camp Pecometh for a day on the Ropes Course. During the time, we were working on one of the exercises that they had us do. A few of us (myself included) broke the rules and kept on going. The instructor gathered us around and challenged us with this: We could have broken the rules and finished the challenge. It would have been good to finish it, but it wouldn’t be great.
In our Christian walk, we often (I often) settle for good instead of great. We settle for being a good Christian instead of striving to be like Christ (who was perfect, by the way!). I know that in my own life, I have sometimes settled for good in my prayer life, in my devotions, in the way I treat others, or in the way I talk. God wants me to be great at those things. He wants me to not settle for second best, and strive to be the person He intends me to be.
As Christians, We may settle for good instead of great. We may settle for sleeping in and missing church instead of joining in worship. We may have settled for going to a party and drinking when God has called us to be above reproach. We settle for having a physical relationship outsite of marraige when God has called us to be pure. Here is the deal, God is calling you (that’s right, you!) and me to greatness. In the way we live. In the way we talk. He doesn’t want “good little Christian girls and boys.” God desires great disciples who give Him their lives.
Being great is hard. But we can do it through Jesus Christ. Philippians 4:13 says: “I can do all things through Him (Jesus) who gives me strength.” Strive for greatness!

It’s raining here in Delaware today…raining like crazy. Which is fine, other than it is my day off. I had big plans for the day…let’s just say they’ve been washed out!

Tomorrow I am taking out mission trip team to the Ropes Course at a local camp. We are going to be doing some team building…and confronting our comfort zone. The afternoon will be spent harnessed in forty feet in the air! Pretty cool. It will be interesting to see how different people react.

Working with teens can be frustrating. As a youth pastor, you work hard to create space where they can 1) Experience God’s love and grace, 2) Make choices that reflect what God has done in their life. What is really frustrating is when you see those teens throw aside their experiences and things they’ve learned for something fleeting. I know I did it as a teen to a certain extent. But I also knew that I was chooses something other than what God wanted and wrestled with what kind of life I would live. Would I live it my way? Or Would I live it God’s way? I struggled with that as a teen (and still do in a different way as an adult). I wonder if our teens ever think about that. *Sigh* Sometimes it sucks to be a youth pastor.

By the way…does anyone actually read this? Just curious!

Until a brighter, sunnier day…Blessings!

Andrea and I rented Hotel Rwanda this past weekend. It had everything that a good movie should have…entertainment value, plus the ability to cause the viewer to think and examine life. For those who haven’t…Hotel Rwanda takes place in 1994 as the horrible genocide of the Tutsi people by the whuto people. It is a story of hope in the midst of destruction as Don Cheadle character tries to save as many people as possible, including his own family.

I was around 14 or 15 when the genocide took place in Rwanda. I can remember that UN Peacekeepers were not authorized to fire their weapons (why did they have them then?). What really should be a black eye on America is our unwillingness to go to bat for Rwanda. Maybe because there was no oil there? Who knows? While I don’t like the idea of America being the World’s police force, I hurts to think that we really didn’t do much of anything to save the million people who were slaughtered.

James 1:27 says this…”Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

I have been wrestling with how we respond to something like this as Christian Americans. Do we sit idly by and say, “Aw…that’s terrible,” and then turn the TV off and go to bed? Do we write our Congressman and Senators? Do we help raise awareness? How do we respond?

Today was a pretty good day. I spent part of it in Dover stopping in on another Youth Pastor and picking up one of my students. Tonight was our High School Ministry. Pretty low key, but we have a good group of kids, and they are excited for our summer ministries.

Tonight was funny. We are studying the book of James, which I love because it is so practical. One of our students was reading and was like, “I get it! This makes sense!” The passage was about how our tongues are untameable and that they are sparks that start destructive fires. She compared it to the drama at school.

It is amusing at times when we read a passage in the Bible and it really applies or speaks to us. That is the Bible’s purpose; to be God’s Word in life, yet sometimes we are suprised when it does speak to us. Kinda funny how that works.

I haven’t totally thrown myself into this blogging thing. I think I really want to, which means I need to do it everyday….or at least every other week. Which would be better than the current.

Moving on…

Why are worship styles so volitile? As a worship leader in a church with both ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ worship…it is frustrating to see people mad/angry/scared/intimidated/ignorant of another ‘form’ of worship. I grew up in a traditional church, but my preference is a more ‘contemporary’ (i hate that term)…ok, how about modern form of worship. But here is the deal, I love hymns. Not all of them, but most of the classics. Yet at our ‘traditional’ services, we sing these hymns of faith/songs of praise like we are half dead. That is where traditional worship wears me out. On the flip side, the same thing can happen to ‘modern’ worship if we don’t keep our hearts focused on the Father.

I think God gets angry when we squabble over forms of worship. Our function is to worship, honor, adore, cherish our Creator. Shame on us in the church who put the form of worship over the function.

**moving on**

The Pittsburgh Pirates suck. Sure they have won like 6 of their last 9, but as a lifelong fan, it really challenges my faith to see them consistently terrible. When will they have a good season? At least they are not the Cubs!

Peace, Love, Joy