"Shattered Dreams"

A powerful video to the opening of a series by Pete Wilson, Senior Pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN called "Shattered Dreams". I read Pete's blog regularly and have started reading his book, Plan B, which is basis for this message series. Many of us need to hear this message and find peace and encouragement from it!

Is Our Goal, Just to Help Kids "Stay Out of Trouble"?

I read a powerful post yesterday by Elevation Church Pastor, Steven Furtick, regarding where the church is falling short in reaching and ministering to the present generation of teenagers.

Here's an excerpt from his post, "Staying Out of Trouble vs. Walking In Your Calling":

I feel that the greatest peril in modern Christianity relating to youth culture is that we are under challenging this generation of students with an anemic alternate version of the Gospel that isn’t worth keeping your pants on for. We lull them to sleep with do’s and don’ts instead of waking them up to the God-given potential inside of them. The truth is you can stay out of trouble but fall short of your calling. You can stay out of trouble, but live a life of little impact or significance.

When a student comes to understand that God has something for them far greater than sex, alcohol, and the pursuit of short-lived high school popularity, everything changes. These things lose their attractiveness. And it has nothing to do with staying out of trouble. Their motivation is that they would not dare risk the glorious destiny God has for them by wasting their time on anything that could short-circuit it.

Students (and all of us for that matter) don’t need rules to live by. They need a calling to live for.

John Wooden (1910-2010)

Making Regular Pilgrimages to the Poor

I recently read a blog post by Rob Wenger called, “Why Is Our Family Headed to India Again?" Here's is an excerpt from that post, that I found particularly profound...

"A few weeks ago at Q, Phyllis Tickle spoke of Recovering Seven Ancient Practices, one of which is pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is a spiritual motivated learning to journey to a specific location to sit at the feet of an elder in the faith, to commemorate a special event, or to visit a place that has been hallowed over the years by God’s people. People undertake pilgrimages to seek guidance for direction in life, to express gratitude to God for His faithfulness, and to seek the provision of God.

The Church has a long history of pilgrimages. In essence, the Church is a pilgrim. As Phyllis spoke to a room of influential and affluent Americans about making pilgrimage to places of ornate beauty like Rome, a question popped into my head, “What if we make pilgrimage not to beautiful basilicas but to the beautiful poor where Jesus truly resides?”

This is not a pilgrimage we make once in a lifetime, but if we follow the example of Jesus, it becomes a way of life. Many people give money to the poor. Fewer people give their time. Fewer still give themselves. What if when Jesus said, "You will always have the poor among you," He meant it?"

Go Get A Copy of This Book...Like Now!

Just finished reading "Lead...for God's Sake" over vacation. Wow, what an awesome job Todd did of teaching profound leadership principles in a fun and creative way! This is an easy to read book that is very entertaining. Yet, if you're like me, it will leave you challenged, inspired and changed. It's one of my favorite books I've ever read!

I'll share more thoughts about this book in the coming days as I continue to process through all that I've read. You can read more about this book here and here.

Understanding the Millennial Generation

An article appeared in today’s USA Today that quoted Mark Driscoll, pastor of a mega-church (Mars Hill Church) in Seattle. Mars Hill is well-known for effectively reaching the Millenial Generation, something most churches are struggling to do. Thus, I found Driscoll’s perspective on the Millenials particularly interesting…

My personal experience having preached all over the country reveals three things:

One, adolescence is extending into the early thirties. Practically, this means that young people are delaying most major life decisions from career path to marriage, children, and even which set of spiritual beliefs they will adhere to. Subsequently, their ambiguity and lack of certainty about Christian doctrines is not surprising in light of their entire life.

Two, young people are committed to churches not built for them but built by them. Around the country young people are flocking to churches that have clear authoritative Bible teaching about real life issues, are lead by authentic leaders, include night services, use online social media, embrace technology, serve the poor and suffering, strive for community, encourage creativity, and allow young leaders to lead at the highest levels.

Three, young people are more spiritually honest. The days of feeling some sort of cultural pressure to adhere to historic Christian truths is simply gone. Subsequently, we may not be seeing younger people less devoted to Jesus Christ but simply more people being honest so that those who in the past would have professed faith they did not possess or practice are simply being honest which is more admirable than being a hypocrite.

2 Great Easter Videos

Resurrection: Rob Bell from The Work of Rob Bell on Vimeo.

It's Friday but Sunday's coming! from Pinelake Church on Vimeo.

Pictures from the National Championship Game

Choosing to Engage Our Culture

Today, I came across a blog post by Walt Mueller, the president of CPYU, called "Silence". It's a great read, especially for parents and teens who are seeking to live out their faith at school.

The sentence that resonated with me the most as a pastor to students is when Walt said in his concluding paragraph, "What would happen if we would stop working so hard to “protect” our kids by legislating morality, and start “providing spiritually” for our kids by modeling how to take the Gospel to those who are hungry for Heaven?"

Some Random Favorites ...

Favorite TV Shows: 24, LOST, Everybody Loves Raymond, Dukes of Hazard

Favorite Type of Food: Mexican

Favorite Restaurant: Chipotle

Favorite Fast Food Joint: Wendy's

Favorite Movie Trilogy: "Bourne" movies

Favorite Sports Movie: Rocky, Rudy & Remember the Titans (tie)

Feel free to share your favorties as well!