Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Next?

What's next? Seriously, I'm asking the question. What I know is that part of me is really tired. Yes, this *may have to do a bit with spending some time with Coz during phase 2 of my sabbatical where a few nights of xbox and other activities had me staying up later than I normally would. Part of me being tired is because when I did return I had a fairly busy schedule including a huge fundraiser that while it ran in-spite of me, I found myself fairly anxious about it. It also meant I didn't get my typical Sunday afternoon nap in.

The other reason I feel tires is it seems as though we keep having the same arguments over and over and over. On one hand we are in the midst of a struggle with how busy should our students be? Our schools are looking at having more practices while there seem to be more club type teams taking more and more of our students time as well. So trying to relate to students where faith comes in and why it is relevant seems to be more and more difficult. It isn't only club teams on the weekends (the school has practices on Sundays as well) and it isn't just the school having practices on Wednesdays as the club teams have practices and games on Wednesday nights.

One the other hand, we are still very much in the midst of discussing worship at church. Conversations that seemed to be happening in the 1990's in many places are being had now. Let me be clear, I really don't think people on one side or the other are trying to say things that can be hurtful to the other side, but the reality is worship can be a very personal thing and these types of battles can be painful to people on both sides. As the guy who has developed and plans our New Song service, it is clear which "side" I am on, but that doesn't mean I don't respect where others are coming from. 

In some way those two things seem to have nothing to do with one another, but to me they are very much related. On the one hand, I am trying to figure out a way (any way possible) to help students and families figure out why faith is relevant. I really don't have a magic way to do this, and I am also the kind of person that is willing to try anything. Then I sometimes feel as if I cam running into a brick wall when I go to try to do something at worship that might be outside of our congregants comfort zone, and there is enormous push back. 

These are the kinds of things that can suck life out of a person.

Then, suddenly, something happens to give you hope. This past Sunday, we had two such things happen.

1) After leading worship, as I am heading downstairs, I was walking behind a lady who was talking to her friend about the service. she was asking her friend if we did worship like that every Sunday and how much she liked it. Then, she tracked down our pastor and told him how much it meant to her and how the service and music really spoke to her. She hadn't been to church in a really long time and  this was just what she needed.

2) Sunday night we had a fundraiser. First of all, I was excited about 130 or so tickets being sold. Second, the fact we had a nice cross section of the congregation was also awesome. All of the money raised was going towards camperships to Ewalu as well as helping to pay for our Senior High students to go to Colorado. About $7,800 was raised. i was blown away. I was excited that, even though we can disagree over screens and worship styles, we can come together and support our students.

So, as we struggle to find the right course as it pertains to worship styles, screens, student ministry, finding times to meet with students, figuring out ways to better help students grow in faith, and whatever else comes up, I am reminded that we are still a people of hope. If I didn't think this mattered, I would just give up and find something else to do. But it does. This does matter. Jesus is still relevant. Our faith does matter. What we believe and how we live it out does matter. 

We just have to figure out the best way to pass it along is this rapidly changing, tech oriented world.
  • We are doing this song at worship on Sunday. I heard it at the Upper Room last week when i worshipped there and loved it.





Thursday, February 6, 2014

Free Socks?!?

The question isn't what would you do for a free pair of socks, but rather what wouldn't you do for a free pair of socks!

A couple of weeks ago, my counterpart at another church in town and I needed to head to LaCrosse some some important business. We are both a huge deal, so we needed to get some stuff done out of town. Anyway, just before we left, I threw my skis in the car. I was given a pair of skis and bindings a few years ago, but had never purchased boots. Since we had a little bit of time while up in LaCrosse, I figured that could be on the agenda. After a meeting with the LaCrosse Area Bishop (yea....no joke) we preceded to stop at a few ski shops.

I should also mention that ski boots, while it appears as though they shouldn't be overly expensive, can be. I will admit I had a bit of sticker shock when i started looking at the prices. However, one of the shops that I went into offered me a free..that's right...FREE pair of ski socks if I bought a pair of boots. Seriously, how could I resist? Did I mention they were free???? I felt like I had just won the lotto...no...it was like when my eldest son Luke was born. Yea, it was that awesome.

For some reason, my wife did not realize what a great deal free socks was...were...was. Umm...my wife did not realize how great it was I got a free pair of socks with my boots.

At any rate, I was able to go home, free socks in hand. If I had a mantle, I would actually hang my socks above it. Not during the summer, that wouldn't make sense, but maybe in the winter.

Moving on, since I was not all set with boots, skis, and FREE socks, I was pumped to actually use them. Hence, that next week the family went skiing. We also went the next weekend. In part, this was because skiing is something we all enjoy doing. The other reason was I had just spent too much money on boots and felt as if I had to use them. It honestly would have been pretty silly for me to buy the boots, then not use them. I had a certain amount of buy-in with the boots.

I take my job fairly personally. I have a hard time separating myself to things happening at the church. When I go home at night, I don't leave my job behind. When things are going well with a student, it is awesome. When I see a kid struggling, it stays with me. I have a certain amount of buy in in the ministry that I do. When I begin a relationship with a Sunday School student, parent, or young adult, I begin to care about how their life is going to go. I begin to care if they are struggling with issues, and I rejoice with them when I see them have ah-ha moments or see them succeed in some other capacity. The more time I spend with students, the more I care, the more I want to do to see them grow in a relationship with God, and help them live it out. When that works, it is great. When it doesn't, it really sucks.

We are not promised that things are going to be easy. In fact, I'm pretty sure Jesus mostly talks about how difficult things are going to be when we choose to follow him. You see, when we choose to follow, not just believe, we have more buy in with the world and people around us. Suddenly, it starts to matter more about how our friends and neighbors ware doing. Now, while we are not promised awesome socks, we are promised that we will not be alone in our journey. There is a cost that comes with buying in when it comes to following Christ. We don't know what the fruit is going to be, but when we do buy in, we want to do more, we want to serve more, we want to help others grow in their faith.

So, as I sit here at Magpie, I am asking myself, how can I invest more into my faith life. How can I personally grow in my own faith journey, knowing full well that when I do, I will feel compelled to do more. To care for others more. I invite you to do the same.

A few quick side notes....

  • I had a J-term intern. She was fantastic....I'll blog about it at some point.
  • Now that football season is over with, I am starting to get over the fact that my fantasy teams and Vikings were all equally terrible.
  • I am usually at least slightly optimistic about the baseball season. I'm having a hard time finding any type of hope with the Twins this year.
  • I went to 2 partial day continuing ed events in the cities. One about boys and church, the other about why we need to do a good job ministering to youth. Both were great. They are on my list of things to blog about.
  • Whenever I watch on of those videos about soldiers coming home...whether real or not, I will admit I tear up. This video does the same thing for me.