I'm off to the old homestead for a few days. I may check in; I may not. Have a happy 4th!

Check out the previous post for a longer discourse about this, but I wanted to give you guys my new "plan" for telling someone about Jesus. It isn't easy. It will be a pain to memorize, but that is exactly why I like it. I am tired of easy answers and tired of acrostics that the gospel has been forced into.

I also wanted to come up with a non-threatening and non-confrontational way for my students to share their faith. So I decided that the focus would be on "my God story" or the story of whoever was doing the sharing. Instead of telling people they are sinners and need to change their life, this plan focused on telling someone how I realized I was a sinner and how God changed my life. It is basically an extended outline for telling your own personal testimony.

This is not a plan for door to door evangelism. This is not a plan to share the gospel with people who don't know you. This is a plan to share the gospel with people who see God in your life and who want to know more about it.

Anyway, that is enough explination. After Kelli's comment I feel all of this pressure, but I don't think it is some radical new idea. It is just my way of helping students to share their faith. Check out the outline after the jump. You can also check download a .pdf of the reminder "tract" that I made for my students.

Click to read more ...

If you are a regular blog reader you know that for a while now I have been trying to think of a new way to present the gospel to students. I feel like the old models, the ones that worked so well for our parents and grandparents, don't resonate with students. Most of the "plans" that people memorize are logic based. They lay out the "steps" to having a relationship with God. These plans work great for people who see the world in a logical structured fashion.

But that isn't how students today see the world. They process information differently. Experience means as much as truth. On top of that they are the most marketed to generation ever. So when they encounter a rehearsed seemingly canned message they are just as likely to tune out as to listen and respond.

So I have been trying to think of a way to teach students to share their faith in a way that is both a) effective and b) easy to memorize. The problem is that plans that are easy to memorize already have 2 strikes against them.

What I came up with is a plan that uses your own "God Story" as a jumping off point to sharing the gospel. The twist is that the gospel presentation that I wrote doesn't talk about what "you" need to do to be saved. Instead it talks about what "I" did with God. By laying out the gospel in first person it makes it a) less threatening and b) more experiential. For this generation it is important to relate to people through stories. So this plan is all about telling a story.

In the end I like what I have come up with. But honestly it only works if you are telling MY story (as in Shane's story) because it is very personal. The idea is that each person will take the basic elements of the gospel and relate their own personal journey through each stage towards a relationship with God. The plan doesn't use an acrostic or any easy to remember device. So it it may be a little daunting at first, but since you shape it into your own personal story once you know it, it should be very easy to tell in a conversational way.

OK, that is the basis for my new "plan" that I am presenting tonight to the youth. Tonight when I get back I will give you a report on how the youth responded as well as the plan in full.  

On Sunday night I hurt my toe. It was so swollen on Monday morning that I couldn't even bend it and now even though it moves it looks like the horse that the little Gosling girl painted on John and Kate last night--all purple an mottled. I would tell you how I did it, but it is sort of embarrassing and also not the point of this entry.

So I was walking around on Monday afternoon after the swelling had subsided and I noticed that it didn't seem to hurt as bad as it had. Then I had this thought, "I wonder if it actually hurts less or just my perception of the pain has changed." (Yes I did think that cool little alliteration there). Then I immediately started thinking about other places where that same statement might apply.

I think many people have reached a point in their life where they have learned to deal with the pain in their heart. They have stopped worrying about trying to fix what is wrong with them and have instead come up with a pain management system that dulls the pain enough for them to make it through their day. Their pain hasn't gone away, but their pain perception has changed because they have lived with the hurt for so long.

I am working right now with a new way of sharing the gospel and I keep coming back to this pain idea. (even though it didn't make it into my final draft). As long as we think we can manage the pain on our own, as long as our perception of our pain is wrong we will feel like we don't need God. But each of us has a deep desire for God, and it is only when we stop trying to act like we aren't hurting and actually go to the one who can help us will real healing begin.

Wow, I just had a whole other thought about guys trying to act like they aren't hurt so they don't have to go to the doctor, but I will let you make that spiritual leap yourself.  

I have included some new pictures of Nathan. If you want to see them click the link below. I also have a new video if you would like to download it.

Nathan June 30 Video 

Click to read more ...

Tonight was our M-Fuge share time. (It is a long story why it is so far away from fuge). The praise band played for "big church" which always makes me both excited and a little nervous. There are some people in our church who love it and who crave the time when the youth lead. There are some people who hate it, bring ear plugs, and proceed to complain to everyone before church starts. There are even some who decide to walk out. But like I said, there are some who come alive in worship when we play.

Tonight I convinced Meredith to bring Nathan in at the start of the service. I like for him to get a chance to see his daddy lead from time to time, and I thought that the music would be something that he would like; and if it wasn't, it would at least be something that was so loud you couldn't hear him talking.

So we went through "Every Movie I Make" and I am checking him out and he is smiling and sort of dancing along and I think that is pretty cool. Then we move into the song "We Shine" but Steve Fee. This song is by far the most rocking out song we have ever done in Big Church, but it was a major part of our camp experience so I wanted to play it. At camp we learned to raise our fists and pump them in the chorus. 

So we are singing along and I look at Nathan and he is looking at me with this big smile on his face and he is pumping his little fist in the air. I have to admit that the room got a little misty and it was hard to find the right notes. I keep thinking of who he will become when he is my age. He is being exposed to so much and I know that his generation will take it and find the next level of interaction with God. I am sure it will be different and I am sure that when I am old I will think it is weird. But for right now my little guy was surrounded by other believers raising his fist with the rest of them. I am not sure if it was worship for him or not, but it sure was for me.  

Go see this movie. That is really all that I have to say. It is part sci-fi, part Charlie Chaplin, part Short Circuit, but all of that that rolled into a surprisingly good story great pacing and visuals. The movie has very little dialog, but even youngsters shouldn't have trouble following the action. There are a couple of slow parts that are great for adults, but they lack any really hooks for kids so you may have to suffer through one whine from your child, but I assure you that it will be only one.

Trust me on this one, go see this movie--with or without the children.  

I was doing some video stuff today and my computer was chugging. I looked and my 100 GB hard drive was very nearly full. So I went on a crusade against data tonight. At the end of the night I have 18.9 GB of space! It feels nice.

This is my 10th summer at Calvary so I decided I wanted to have a reunion of sorts for the students who have come through our ministry over the years. It has been fun looking back and remembering students who were here back in the early days. Being a youth minister is a job of constant turn-over. As each group grows up and leaves it is hard to let them go, but at the same time you only have so much time to minister and there is a whole new crop of people coming up who demand your attention. It can be hard to keep up with everyone who has left.

So I hope to have a big turn out at this event. Mainly because I miss these guys. There are people who were part of my early ministry days and I have such found memories of those small groups. 

Wow, I really am an old man.  

I have been staring at the screen trying to think of something to write for about 10 minutes now. I even went and look at other blogs for inspiration, but couldn't find anything. Oh well. I feel bad, but it is late and I am going to bed. I am sure that the presence or absence of a a Nailscars.com post won't make a huge difference in your day. And if it does, again, I apologize, but I got nothin.

It is hard to explain the difference between a good week's lesson and a bad one. The differences are subtle, but at the same time they are huge. Tonight was a good night. The youth were into the singing, responded well to the lesson, and sat around talking at the local coffee shop afterwards. It was just a good night.

He may not know it, but "Rhymes with Karouac" over at "Daily Life in a Homeless Shelter" is my blogging mentor. His openness and honesty always inspires me and his life makes me want to run from my daily routine of church meetings and politics and go and actually meet the needs of others. This is what he wrote today:

There is no ritual to rescue me from the existential emptiness that yawns like a cavern in the middle of this night, no incantation, no prayer that will suffice. I am Jonah in the belly of the whale, Jeremiah weeping at the bottom of the well, Saul searching for a boy David to sing a lullaby. I am a valley of dry bones.

You can read the rest of the entry at:
http://mission.squarespace.com/-journal/2008/6/25/3-oclock-in-the-morning.html

 

It is funny how things work out in life. Some people may call them coincidence, some people say that they are unrelated things and our brains trying to make sense of the world tries to connect them, I say that they are little gifts from God--notes written on scraps of paper telling us he love us. These things I am talking about are those times in life when ideas converge or items in your life build on each other or balance each other out. Have you ever noticed how at churches people will be dealing with similar spiritual questions all at the same time. Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you need a smile or a reminder that life is good something will come just when it is needed most.

Today was one of those days for me. It was one of those days that reminds me that not only am I a child of God, but that he loves me--not just in the he loves the whole world way, but He actually knows me and cares about me and thinks about me. It is actually a multiple part reminder, so here's the story.

Yesterday I got a rejection letter. It is part of being a writer I know and just a few days before I was checking the mailbox saying "I would rather be rejected than have to wait." Turns out that wasn't true. I'm not devastated or anything, just a little bummed. So tonight I check my email and it is a from someone who wants to buy something from Nailscars.com and put it in print. It isn't like it was a huge deal, but it was God's small way of reminding me that he still cares.

Part two is a little more ephemeral of a connection, but I feel it all the same. I am talking about telling your own personal story tomorrow night with the youth. I have an idea in my head and a rough outline, but even now I am a little shy of exactly what I want to say. Well, tonight Meredith and I watch "Definitely, Maybe" which is all about someone telling the story of their life. I found myself being drawn into this fictional account and was just reminded again about how much we are people of stories.

In this movie you have a story of a dad telling his daughter about his own love story and in doing so it invited her into a whole new aspect of his life. The sharing of his story led them to a new level of intimacy, because stories connect us, they bind us together. That is why telling your story is much more important than knowing a slick way to present the gospel. The gospel is powerful truth all on its own. It doesn't need a marketing plan. Combine the truth of the gospel with the story of God in your life and you have all that you need to tell the world about Jesus.

But now I am writing my message instead of this entry. One of the things that I came away from in this movie is how much I would love to hear my parents tell their love story. I know parts and there are people I can go to and ask for other parts, but I don't know it all.

If you are a parent out there let me ask you, "Do your children know your faith story?" Do they know how you met with God? Do they know how you walked with him in hard times? Do they know about the small times when God makes himself real to you? If they don't make a plan to tell them right now. If they are too young then spend some time and write it down. You will feel better for it and you never know maybe one day when they are old and you are gone they will be able to look back and feel connected to you because of your story.

Cause that's what stories do.  

I am getting old. I know that. I can feel it in my bones.

One of the big ways that I know I am getting old is there are people who come up with ideas that they are all excited about and they feel like they just now discovered that this was a problem in our church and I am have to smile and not just say, "well, duh!" I get a little frustrated at times when the very things that I have been saying for years (the things I have been asked to check on and have written reports about) get said back to me in a "why didn't you think of this fashion." I want to scream. "I did think of it. I have been trying to find someone to help me fix it for years now, and I would fix it myself, but I already wear about 50 hats in this church and I can't put one more on right now or all of the rest of them will fall off."

But I don't say that. I stand and I smile and try to be excited that someone else finally sees what I have been saying all along. It is a good thing that things will change, but I just wish they could change without people looking at me like I am a moron for not fixing them before. I'm not a moron I am just one person and there is only so much I can fix. (Even less that I can fix since the church brought in a guy to lead instead of letting me head things up during this transitional time. So I don't have very much "whole church" authority to make changes.)

But what I see in this is how people in the church must have felt when I first arrived. I was young and naive and just full of ideas and answers. I know that I looked at people like "why in the world haven't you been doing things my way before?" and I know that some of them wanted to hit me with a snow shovel. I understand now that most of the stagnation that goes on in churches isn't because the leadership doesn't want things to be better, but rather because the leadership can only do so much. And until the rest of the church steps up and starts trying to help and make a difference there is just so much that leaders can do.

But now I am just rambling so I will be quiet again. Just wanted to share that I am old. I hope I am at least a little wiser to go along with that age, but you just never know.  

There are some trends that you see when you spend your life in churches. One of the funniest to me is to come to church the Sunday after VBS and watch the interactions of various people. Here are some of the groups that I see:

The VBS Workers:

• are proud of the work that they have done and are looking to talk about numbers and how good the week is to anyone who will listen
• at the same time they are tired of being at church and have this "just come through a storm" look on their face.
• There is a deep resentment for anyone who didn't come work at VBS. This is expressed through jokes.
  
• You will hear this group humming little songs and then chastising themselves for doing so.
  

The Children:

• After a week of being at church they are not ready to be back
• They have spent a great deal of time with each other and are getting on each other's nerves
• They too will hum songs, but not chastise themselves for it
• A week of messed up schedule and lack of sleep gives them hollow eyes and short tempers.  

The Youth:

• Pretty much blend the workers with the children.
  
• Most of them have been together even at night
• They are tired and have been together for too long
• But they are such social creatures that they feel the need to continue to get together
• They too are proud of their work, but tired from the children and the messed up schedule.
  

Those Who Missed It:

• These guys fall into a couple of categories
• The first one would have to be those who wanted to be here but couldn't. They respond like those people who have missed out on a good inside joke. They keep asking for information and for those who were there to explain it, but they can't seem to really understand so they end up just saying, "That's nice"
• Then there are those people who feel that VBS is pointless. They will never say that out loud, but these are the people who complain about the mess that is left.
  
• All of them seem to feel the hostility and superiority that oozes off of the those who came to help so they respond with defensiveness about why they weren't here.   

All in all the Sunday after Vacation Bible School is a crazy one. It is a mix of excitement and exhaustion. There is great joy over what happened and great joy over the fact that the week is over. It is cool to look and see that we have shared the love of Christ with the children of our church and with several who don't go to church anywhere. At the same time it is a ton of work and the relief that it isn't restarting again tomorrow is palpable in this place today.

Two more VBS thoughts: 1) Tonight Nathan wanted to go to Bible school so we told him, that if he finished his chicken he could go to church. He started eating again right away. I like that church is a reward for him. 2) Meredith and I were talking and we really miss the "stand up" and "sit down" chords from the VBS's of our youth.