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.