Top Popular Songs of 2009

The Source for Youth Ministry just released a very informative article on the top songs of 2009. Read it for a great window into Youth Culture as this year winds down . . .
Click this link here to go to it: Top Artists of 2009

Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

One of my favorite classic rock songs by one of my favorite childhood programs! Enjoy!

Between the Divine and the Daily

In my back yard here in Houston I have stately Queen Palm that we planted right after we moved in a few years ago. It has grown very fast and very tall. Today is Monday and my day off, or as I'm trying to make it more and more, my Sabbath day. Today in Houston it is also remarkably cooler that normal and I'm sitting outside on my back porch spending my morning in reading, contemplation, prayer, and just general enjoyment of the day. And it's not hot. Or humid. Or sticky. Or put your least favorite Houston weather characteristic here. I'm watching the Queen Palm, and it's a little windier than normal. When the wind hits it just right, the fronds wave majestically toward its beckoning direction. When the wind is full force, it turns my back yard into a cathedral of sound that invites me to look up and listen as the pine trees weave a beautiful tune among their branches. (eek, I'm starting to sound like a poet). In this moment the wind is supreme above the din of the neighbors hammer, the lawn service's mower, and the occasional traffic on the street in front of my house.

For me this is an intersection of the Divine amongst the daily. I am naturalist, that is I can feel really close to God and seem to focus, pray, worship, contemplate best in the outdoors. Especially on a cool or cold day with my decaf chai tea or my favorite Starbucks blend, whichever I happen to feel a fancy for.

I am currently reading a book by Robert Benson on the discipline of the Daily Offices, or fixed times of prayer, if you will. An ancient practice that has it's precedent even from the pages of Scripture as we see in the prayer lives of David, Jesus, and other Biblical personalities. Jewish roots that have been passed down through centuries, kept alive in the early years and first centuries of the church, but practiced now by very few believers, and evangelicals at that.

I recently discovered this ancient discipline and began to learn about it on a recent sabbatical. I found a Book of Common Prayer at a close-by seminary and purchased it (and I'm not even Catholic or Episcopal). I am trying to make prayer a better discipline in my life, not just requests, but praying back Scripture to God and acknowledging prayer as a time spent in Abba's presence.

I'm convicted we don't pray enough. At least we don't really pray. Or maybe I'm just talking about me and you actually have prayer figured out. Please write a book if you do. We spend time asking things focused on what we want, but not enough time praying as a blessing to God. The Daily Offices have helped me be more focused for that purpose. Benson's book is one in a series on the ancinet practices that I've stumbled on and am currently trying to obtain the rest. I found it on the 5 for $5 rack at Mardel's. Best dollar I ever spent. He does a good job explaining the Offices for an evangelical like me, but really talks about the discipline as not getting into a routine of it, but learning to use it as a tool to live a life of constant prayer. Hence the name of the book, In Constant Prayer.

Laerning to live a life of constant and fixed prayer is new to me. The Offices are a huge blessing and help. Fixed times of prayer are becoming for me a time to re-focus at key times of the day to make sure I am about God's purpose whatever I may be doing. It also just gives me time with my Heavenly Father.

For me, on Mondays that are particularly cool in Houston, when the morning light and shadows dance around in my backyard in harmony with the wind, while reading more about the importance of prayer in our lives, the Divine has intersected the daily.
Where does that intersection happen for you? I'd be intersted to hear from you and find out.

A Culture Window Worth Watching

One of the greatest windows into the current culture of your students is the annual MTV Video Music Awards. I wasn't able to watch Sunday night but caught them online today. Most everyone already knows about the Kayne West/Taylor Swift fiasco, but there were so many more key glimpes into the world of students. Of note especially was Lady Gaga and her performance. She is worth paying attention to since she is one of the main voices influencing your students.

But instead of taking my word on it and repeating what many worthwhile folks have already blogged, let me give you a link to go to. Walt Mueller is a foremost expert and culture guru in Student Ministry. I read him every chance I get. He gave a very thoughtful and insightful breakdown of the VMA's a couple of nights ago on his blog. I highly suggest it. Go to learningmylines.blogspot.com to get his take on the famous night.

I also suggest you watch a little bit of the VMA's yourself, just to begin to get a pulse on the worldviews out there. You can watch the entire program or each segment separately at www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009 .

As much as you may not like much of what's in it, the music and video industry is a mainstream window into the world of your teen. If we're gonna have a chance to redeem culture we need to see and understand it first (not necessarily agree with it). Catching glimpes afforded us by mogul giants like MTV help us see and hear the hearts and souls of a generation that is normally very guarded with us. Look for these opportunities and think through how Christ would use them.

Jon and Kate . . . Not Doin' So Great

I stomached the premiere of Jon and Kate Plus 8 with my wife last night. Reluctantly. It was pretty sad.

First of all - who are Jon and Kate and why should I care?

I guess I care because they need prayer right now. I'm not a fan of the show, but my wife and kids are. I do know that alot of Christian couples have elevated them to a high place and now with a possible fall . . . well.

Instead of giving my extrapolation at this juncture, I have found a blog that really reflects where I am at with the whole thing. It's a worthwhile read to ponder. Go here to read it.

Why continue with a new season on the show? Why still go on book and speaking tours when your own marriage needs repair?
Why have your main focus on the kids when your spouse should come first? I know its only by God's grace it could be any of us and that there are extra stresses having multiples of multiples and that a whole lot of couples with multiples end up in divorce.

Hopefully they won't be another casualty of faith, fame, and fortune.

The Phoenix Has Risen

So I'm back from the dark regions of the blogging world. I'm not sick anymore and neither is my laptop, but is has been an interesting couple of months. Probably best to cover it in a Past, Present, Future format:

PAST:
1. Major laptop problems, so haven't been able to blog in a while. This coupled with having everything but the Swine Flu left me out of commission for a while. Glad to report both laptop and blogger have recovered fine.
2. My wife had a major injury that rocekd our household in early April. She fell in the middle of the night and broke her neck and jaw. We've had many weeks of recovery, she had her jaws wired shut for several weeks, and wore a neck brace for several weeks. She is much better now, but still can only eat soft food. It will take a few months for total recovery. She has tests coming up to rule out what might have caused her to lose consciousness. I did learn alot, though, about such things as servanthood, being Mr. Mom, and what's really important at the time.
3. Because of the above, I am soooooo behind at the church. There are a ton of new changes coming for the fall, major summer events and trips right around the corner, and Anna and I had to reschedule our long-awaited sabbatical week for the Fall. I have to be honest and say I feel like I am constantly spinning more plates right now than I can handle and I was at a pretty bad place a few weeks ago. It has been a hard year for us personally, and it all hit the wall and I lost it. In front of my youth. Last month. But God is gracious, and I think I'm moving to a better place now. Slowly . . . but surely.

PRESENT:
1. I'm back blogging. I'm mean, really . . . right now . . . I am typing this.
2. Last week I went home to Memphis to officiate the wedding of a former student. It was a blast seeing former students and old friends and what God is doing in their lives. My Youth Pastor's wife passed away and I was also able to attend her service and see him and friends from my youth group I grew up in. People I hadn't seen in 10-15 years. It was hard to see them under those circumstances, but good nonetheless. Boldly went to see Star Trek while I was there too.
3. Getting ready to graduate our seniors in TSMAC. Wow, another year has gone by this quickly! it's always bittersweet to see our seniors head to new chapter in their life. I'm grateful for how God has used them this last four years and hopeful for how He will use them as they move on to college. Many of our students that graduate use the experience from the years they were in TSMAC to in turn minister in the churches and campuses they move on to.
4. Going through 24, Heroes, CSI Miami, and Office withdrawl until September.

FUTURE:
1. Getting ready for a busy, busy, summer (see #3 under "PAST"). The economy has hit our participation (as it has everyone) in our summer trips and we've had to re-calibrate for it. Starting a new thing for summer with our Sr. High called TSMAC U. Mexico mission trip in July. We have a charge staff-wide in our church to simplify our ministries and church life and live into our new vision and have a whole new atmosphere at CBC come August 23. This is all a good thing, but who knew simplifying would be such hard work? I feel like my plates are spinning and I can't keep up with them. Ultimately I believe all this change will put us in a better place and that God will do some incredible things, but it's going to be a long hard summer to get there.
2. My daughter starts high school this Fall and moves up into my group. Talk about a different dynamic! I am excited about it but anxious as well. She is even more. If any of you guys out there have already lived through this-some help would be appreciated.
3. I think I'll have several kayak days in Galveston Bay this summer to chill from the busyness. Looking forward to that and some family day trips to the beach!

So there it is. l'm back. Be looking for more posts, more often. All two of you.

Sick Again

So I'm sick again. My laptop is sick as well. So I'll start back blogging in a few more days while we both rest.

No Line On The Horizon

So I've been dissecting U2's new album to find some nuggets of noteworthy truth and ponderence. The album's not as upbeat as "Atomic Bomb", but it does have some sonic riffs and lyrics in it. The band is getting more and more gutsy in reflecting their faith as raw and blatantly as they do in this latest effort. Some classic soaring U2 sounds and anthems on the new record.

Here are some worthwhile nuggets so far . . .

No Line On The Horizon: Title song has a good and memorable riff that will catch you off guard. Not my personal favorite on the album.

Magnificent: So far, favorite song on the album. This could be a psalm. Soaring praise to the Creator. "I was born, I was born to sing for you/I didn't have a choice but to lift you up". "From the womb my first cry/it was a joyful noise." "Only love could leave such a mark/Only love could leave such a scar." "Justified you and I will magnify/The Magnificent."

Moment Of Surrender: "It's not if I believe in love/but if love believes in me".

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight: "Every sweet tooth needs a hit/every beauty needs to go out with an idiot/how can you stand next to the truth and not see it?". "The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear" (I love that one).

Get On Your Boots: Great song to bring out as the first single. Not as good as "Vertigo", but one great line: "here's what we're gonna need, love and community/laughter is eternity if joy is real".

White As Snow: The first few bars of the song is taken from the hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". "Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not/only the lamb as white as snow". It was written for a soldier that died in Afghanistan.

Breathe: Another great guitar riff in this one. "But I'm running down the road like loose electricity". "Everyday I have to find the courage/to walk out into the street/with arms out/got a love you can't defeat". "Walk out/into the sunburst street/sing your heart out, sing my heart out/I've found grace inside a sound/I've found grace that's all I've found/And I can breathe, breathe now". When the band did this live Monday night on the Late Show, Bono changed the last chorus to "Spirit, breathe".

Good Stuff.

Time Flies

Wow! Almost a month since I've blogged . . . in between the flu, TSMAC Dive Weekend, and an amalgamation of other known and unknown maladies, time just got away. But got some good stuff coming, so stay tuned. For all two of you who currently know about Wide Awake.

Random Stuff

Some good quotes from stuff I'm reading (and hearing) right now:

"In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering." Howard Hendricks

"Here's what we're gonna need, love and community, laughter is eternity if joy is real" U2 from "Get On Your Boots"

"When have we forgotten that the church doesn't exist for us? We are the church and we exist for the world." Erwin McManus

This last one hits all of us in church work. We deal with it all the time and even perpetuate it ourselves as pastors sometime. How many times have we heard about people wanting to leave our churches because of things that have seem to have no kingdom value? Comments like "I'm just not being fed" and "we're just not being ministered to" dot the landscape. Add to that "I don't like the contemporary music"; "I don't like the hymns"; "I want more deep teaching"; "I want more fun"; "I think its too shallow"; "I think it's too deep"; "I think we use too much media and culture"; "I ______________________" and we got more "I's" than a sack of Idaho potatoes. Now, are these all bad things? Of course not. We need to balance our ministries and reach, train, and minister to our folks we are entrusted with. We are to be good shepherds of the flock. Neither does this mean that we don't evaluate, listen, and get feedback. All of those things are very helpful and help us to better serve. I love my students, my parents, and our folks at our church. It's an incredible place where we see God at work. But we have created a consumer mentality in our churches in America today, much by our own design, that can be very shallow on true kingdom principles like outreach, community, true discipleship, justice and basically having a heart for the the things we see that Christ has a heart for. Not that I have the answers for this dilemma, it's just a pet peeve stirred up by a great quote.

Grammy's

Caught the Grammy's last night, even though I didn't get to watch them until about 20 minute into the program. Some notable and worthwhile performances:

Al Green and Justin Timberlake: well, not really Justin, but definitely Al Green.

Coldplay and Jay-Z: great live performance of "Viva la Vida". Great lyrics.

(can't believe I'm saying this) Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder: having a daughter that screams every time you even mention Nick Jonas, I was apprehensive. My observation is thus: If these guys could break out of the Disney contract and and really write meaningful songs and not have the stigma of screaming pre-pubescent girls at every live outing, they might be pretty good. They have good stage presence and perform well. But it did help having Stevie up there. "Superstition" was hands down the highlight of the set.

Allison Krauss and Robert Plant: bluegrass meet Zepplin? Gotta get that album.

and of course - U2: As usual, best way to start of the show (I believe this is the Irish quartet's third time in the last decade). I haven't been too keen on the new song, although I'm ready for the new album to drop. But after watching live it's grown on me. Kinda a of Dylan "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Larry Norman "Reader's Digest" with a modern rock edge. They've done it again. That's why they are The Man. That's right.

One Of Those Days

Don't cha love it when everything just comes together in perfect sync? The planets align just right, your karma runs over your dogma, murphy and his law take a vacation, and you are the man and can just do no wrong!

Yesterday was not one of those days.

FUEL (our Sr. High worship experience) started way too late. We had major soundboard issues. Thus we had major band issues. No monitors worked right, so alot of songs were slow and painful. Not to the band's fault, but faulty equipment mind you. I had only ten minutes for my talk and was majorly rushed. We had a significant decrease in attendance because of flu, sports, tournaments, laziness, and lack of world peace in general. One of my superiors happened to wander in when nothing was going right. Not good timing.

Why couldn't it have been last week? Everything was flat out on. The band was tight. Worship was engaging. I finished a three week series on The Kingdom. Over 100 students there. Great moving of God at the end and two students even came to Christ! Our FUEL team was on task (well, they usually are-they own it!)

Oi!! There are just those days in youth ministry. I hate em, but they come. I'd be interested to know how anybody else deals with those days.

And to top it all off, I missed U2 opening up the Grammys! (But I caught it on YouTube later).

Oh well. There's next week and God is still in control.

Best line from "The Office" last night:
"Are you trying to hurt my feelings? Well you succeeded. Fortunately, my feelings regenerate at twice the speed of the average mans".

Stinky funny! Classic!

What's your favorite Dwight moment? . . .

1,000 Questions

We ended our "Upside Down" series with our high school students this past Sunday with this video.  Very powerful.  Got a lot of response from our students and had a very moving ending to the morning .

Tribes

So this blogging thing is harder than I thought.  It's been 3 weeks, so I'm still getting disciplined in it.

I'm reading a book by leadership speaker Seth Godin called "Tribes".  Working with students the concept of tribes is not new.  Youth are notorious for running in their tribes (not to be confused with cliques).  All of us belong to some tribe or another.  A tribe carries a sense of community, belonging, purpose, passion, and intensity in everything it has in common.  For us in ministry, the pull is that tribes need leaders.  The caveat is that anyone in the tribe has the potential to be a leader.  We need those leaders, especially leaders who are ready and willing to do things differently and to think outside the box.

Which brings me to the section I'm reading right now-the difference between factories and tribes.  Now, were talking organizations here.  Companies.  Corporations.  But for our purposes, let's say, oh . . . the church.   Interesting things about factories:  they're made to produce steadily (a product or a service), without major risk, and cut costs as efficiently as possible.  Factories are efficient.  Factories offer stability.  Factories offer assurance that the same, mundane, routine job will be there in the same, mundane, and routine way in 20 years.  What factories don't offer is free agents.  Out of the box thinkers.  Risk-takers.  Passion.  TRIBES.  If I asked you what your dream job would be, chances are you wouldn't say 20 effervescent years on an assembly line making toothpaste caps.  Most of us would want to see the scope of our dream reach far and wide.  Most of us would want to be our own boss; control our our own schedule; create things or services we're actually proud of; have input in what we do.  Listen to what Seth says:  

"The factory is part of the fabric of our lives.  It's there because it pays, and it's there because it's steady, and it's there because we want it.  What you won't find in a factory is a motivated tribe making a difference.  And what you won't find outside a factory is a tribe of customers, excited about what's to come."

He goes on to say that the organizations of the future are filled with smart, fast, flexible people on a mission.  A tribe . . . of leaders.  Leading a tribe . . . that get it.  Whether it's a company or a church.  All of us know by now that these are unstable times we're in right now.  And in unstable times growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations.

So the question I am wrestling with and propose to the meager number of you who might by chance mull over this humble blog is . . .  are our churches (is my church) a factory . . . or a tribe??  Hmmmm . . . 

So, it's a great, easy read.  I dare you to read it.

Top Highlights of 2008

Here's my top 10 highlights of the past year:

10. Becoming an official "Office" fan (finally!) I should get a Dundie for that . . .
9. Seeing the NW Houston Youth Ministry Network start and grow healthy - you guys rock!
8. TSMAC Mexico City Mission Trip - looking forward to going back this year!
7. Preaching about being Salt and Light in our culture in the Big House at CBC
6. TSMAC Deeper Summer Trip - "Retro" through the decades & returning to our first love
5. Riding out Hurricane Ike - not necessarily a good highlight . . .
4. Courtside seats at the Rockets game - SNAP! Those guys look much shorter from the cheap seats
3. Coaching my son's basketball team
2. Seeing my daughter turn 13 and become a young lady, and . . .
1. 18 years of marriage and Anna still wants me around. I am so in!

How can 2009 top that?

Dos Jota

Wake the neighbors and phone the dog-Dos Jota (aka Daddy Jones) has a blog!  So I figure every good youth pastor worth his weight in salt has to blog, so I got on the bandwagon after some challenges and encouragement from some of my colleagues.  Stay tuned for ramdom thots on student ministry, spirituality, life, family, friends, U2, and anything else that crosses my mind.  Come back often and check it out, add me to your blog ring so i can feel good about myself! Ha.