Come to my rescue

I am not a big Worship guy…I know that is heresy but music has never really been my thing.  I get bored in concerts and after the third verse of a song I am done.  Besides I still don’t get why we have to stand to sing anyway?

That aside…you may have noticed that my blogs have been pretty thin on the spiritual side.  To confess, I am tapped.  So, this morning rather than do my usual reading, I did something different…I put in a song that just gooses me.  Come to my rescue, by United.  I am at a place where I need God to rescue me, my ministry, my home.

I am going to Pittsburgh this Thursday with my wife, Nancy and Bobby to the National Youth Workers Conference.  I love this conference.  It is 4 days with thousands of youth pastors, praying, worshiping, talking and learning and resting.  I can’t wait.

God is really giving tons of vision for Alive Youth Ministry 2009, But I am going to get what I need most of all.  Him.

Hard day

One of our kids is hurting today. He was driving a car and drove off the road killing one and placing himself and another in critical condition. Before the news gets on this story and before the rumor mill hits let me just tell you about this kid. A year ago he was neck deep in drugs, thug life and headed for no good. About 6-8 months ago he accepted Jesus as his Savior and he has tried to change his life. He got a job, was going for his GED and was to begin a job doing construction this week. Yes, he is flawed. Yes, he made a mistake that he will regret the rest of his life. But he was a work in progress, as we are all. He simply had further to climb and last night made decisions that he will never forget. Berkeley High School and Moncks Corner will undoubtedly be full of rumors and judgments of who these kids were. Please know that they were kids struggling but trying.

Today me and Bobby looked into the eyes of 2 boys hanging on for their lives. We held parents that were asking why? We tried to encourage friends that just saw them the night before. It was a hard day.

Pray for Chris, Nick, Stevie, and the family of Darryl.

One of the scariest things a pastor can read

Reading through Amos I came across a passage that scares the begeezes out of me.
Amos 5:21-27

Are our assemblies pleasing to God? Are our songs pleasant to him or “noise”? Are our sacrifices blessed by God? As I am finishing the set/sermon for Wednesday night that is my biggest prayer. Lord, Be Glorified!

What is cool though is while wondering why did God’s people offend him so much? Look to chapter 6. they were complacent. They were phoning it in. There was no more than the basics given. The people of God rested on simply being the people of God. One thing that we try very hard NOT to do…is be complacent. We try very hard to give the very best this week and the next. We are constantly trying to give a better gift. Why? So that we can impress the masses, NO! We want to give the best…the best songs we have to sing, the best prayers we have to give, the best environment we have to provide so that the Spirit of the living God can move freely into the hearts of those in this place.

I pray we are succeeding.

I love what I do

We had Baptism yesterday and because we don’t have a baptismal in our church yet we set up a pool out back and set it up there. It was COLD! However, it was the coolest thing ever. That is one of my favorite parts of being a Pastor is participating in Baptism. To be part of such an important aspect of someones spiritual journey is extremely humbling. I remember being baptized 16 years ago. I still remember Pastor Jimmy’s talk. I remember the feel of the water and the really baggy white robe and I can still hear the water dripping off as the congregation clapped.

On a side note yesterday I had a great time with a student that I am mentoring. He is a good guy and I believe will be in full time ministry one day. It is such a privilege to pour into people’s lives. And tonight I am going to hang out with 20-30 of the coolest people on the planet and that is my youth ministry team. They are fun, devoted and passionate…we are gonna cast some vision and then sling some bowling balls. I can’t wait.

Basically, I love what I do. Thank you Jesus with allowing me to live my dream.

Good Tired

There are a lot of things that wear you out but it is ok. When my wife gave birth to Emily and Avery she was tired for days…but it was worth it. When you hike up a mountain it will wear you out but it is ok because when you reach the summit and look out at God’s beautiful creation it is worth it. When you run a marathon…alright now I am just getting silly.

It amazes me that we get to do this…to change the way church is seen in the eyes of teens in this area. We had a kid come to fight one of our other teens last night. We dealt with the teen and he stayed. Pray that God blessed him. We had 256 teenagers here last night! What a night. I didn’t get to sleep till almost midnight. Everyone on the team did such an amazing job. I know they are tired. But it is a good tired. A tired that makes you smile in the midst of the yawn. A tired that makes you thank God that we GET to do this.

I am reading a great book by Mark Batterson, called “Wild Goose Chase”, in it he poses the question. “When was the last time your spiritual life was an adventure?” Kierkegaard says “Boredom is the root of all evil”, are you bored? Does your life lack adventure? When was the last “good tired” moment you have had? If you can’t remember…join the youth ministry team.

Rededications

Stealing a page from Steven Furticks playbook I want to share with you what God is dealing with me on. I am deciding now to rededicate myself. It is amazing how I don’t remember losing my deidcation to certain areas. However upon reflection it is obvious that my passion/energy has waned…but now it is time to get things back the way they need to be.
So I re-dedicate myself to…
… a life of prayer and meditation on God’s Word.
… Caring about individuals.
… developing a “culture” that longs to see teens love Jesus
… doing anything short of sin to see teens become fully devoted and passionate followers of Jesus
… falling madly in love with my wife again
… being a daddy that leads his home with the love of Jesus

That is my list…have you strayed a bit and not realized it? Does you life need refocusing? Take a minute and put together a re-dedication list of your own. Then go after it!

What would I do?

With all of this talk about financial crisis and the possibility of another depression and wide spread panic over the news it got me to thinking…
Youth Pastors are a luxury not a necessity. If the economy hit so bad that churches had to scale back and youth ministries would not exist as we know them today in our affluent society…what would I do? I have been doing this over 15 years. I am 34, which if you do the math, I have been doing this since I got out of high school. I went to college to do this. I have NO other skills, life experience or background.
I LOVE what I do but it has gotten to me lately that I posses no real-life skill. I can’t build anything, fix anything, grow anything or sell anything. So, I am going to be praying REALLY HARD for our economy.

What about you? If you couldn’t do what you do now…what would you do?

The Gathering/See You At The Pole

Last night we had about 220 youth and about 50 adults come together for the first Moncks Corner “Gathering”. We had some awesome times of worship, prayer and connecting with other youth ministries around the community. Our volunteers did an amazing job of making everyone feel welcome and part of the crowd. Of course our kids lit it up in worship! I love my Church, Youth Ministry and I love my job!

The Gathering was a time to promote an event called See You At The Pole. A day where thousands of students come together to pray for their schools, friends, and country.

This morning we had over 50 at the Berkeley High School SYATP, 40-50 at Berkeley Middle, tons at St Johns, Macedonia and Timberland had a good showing as well.