Category: Uncategorized

Posted in Different Learning, Different Moments, Uncategorized

gym night.

Posted on by Wick

I have a confession to make – I’m a youth pastor who hasn’t been a big fan of “Gym Night”. The one night each month where I don’t get to talk in depth about scriptures, or spend time in small group conversation, or lead teens in extended moments of prayer.  The purpose is plain: invite your friends, reach out relationally, play together.

But God’s been reminding me of some important aspects of what “Gym Night” can offer.  In a world that increasingly treats our bodies as objects that we’re meant to/encouraged to shape and mold as we see fit.  Where pursuits of beauty and athletic ability make any pain and sacrifice worth the “gain”.  Where we’re encouraged to prove we’re not aging, and our young people are encouraged to prove they can ______ better than ________.bowling

There are very few, if any, places our young people (or older people) can go these days to simply have fun.  Places where it’s safe to fail, and you’re embraced as one who is beloved.  Youth group gym nights at their best can be a safe place for play to happen.  Often providing games/experiences that are either too unique or goofy for anyone to brag about their innate or developed skill at them.  (Sure, they’ll still try to brag they’re the best at smacking your feet with a pool noodle….but just stare at them and smile for a while….they’ll come down from the pedestal.)

In his book “Ethics of Hope”, Jurgen Moltmann reminds us: “People who feel that they are accepted and loved can also accept themselves and their bodies as they are, and as they become as time goes on.  The experience of the divine love makes the believer not only ‘just’ but also beautiful……The incarnation of God has really already given us a counterimage to the modern ‘human being as machine’ and to the artificial products of ‘performance’ and ‘beauty’.  God became human so that we might turn from being proud and unhappy gods into true human beings.”

This hits home also as a parent, watching my daughters learn to play games and dress-up.  They’re so talented and beautiful.  But not because they can do an amazing “grande jete'” or because they share a rich inheritence of physical beauty from their mother. (although both are true)  They are beautiful and valuable because they are loved by God.  To pursue beauty or value from any other source is to participate in a reality we don’t believe exists.  An economy already proven bankrupt in the broken and ugly crucified Christ.

So if you come to one of my gym nights, you’ll probably find more pool noodles, balloons, and nasty foods than basketballs.  If you visit my home you’ll probably find my daughters dressing up like Fancy Nancy more than Barbie.  And if you stick around either, you’ll find people who are learning how to exist genuinely as those Christ has called His “Beloved”…

Posted in Uncategorized

hard sell?

Posted on by Wick

I’m a pretty good salesman.  I’m also a horrible salesman.  It depends on what you’re measuring, I suppose.  When we first followed God’s call & relocated closer to family, I took a couple different sales jobs.  I volunteered at a small church in town, and learned what it was like working 9-5 (or 8-6, as it often was).  A few months was spent in Radio Advertising, and almost a year was with Pitney Bowes, selling “postage meters/folding machines/etc”.  I was pretty good at connecting relationally with my customers.  I even closed deals.  I could talk excitedly about what I had to offer them, and honestly believed I could help them out.  But when they asked me for the best deal – I’d usually give it to them.  So even though I made sales, I wasn’t the profit-generating machine that was celebrated in the sales realm.

Because of working on the world of advertising/ROI and the like, my radar picks up on sales-pitchy things much more than legosit used to.  I shrink back quickly from anything that smells like being a “salesman for Jesus/Heaven/Youth Group/Church”.  Unfortunately, that’s a large percentage of what’s out there for people seeking Christ to consume.  Bible studies, self-help books, and small group curriculum all geared toward convincing/reminding humanity that to come to Christ is to come to the end to all of your problems.  To arrive at the doors of the church is to arrive at an oasis of plenty.  To believe in Jesus Christ is to have all your prayers answered, every day is a holiday, and every meal’s a feast.

In a broken world, that sounds awesome.  We’re in debt, and even credit is running out fast.  We realize that something better than what we’re experiencing must be out there.  So when the man with the Bible, the nice smile and smooth words tells us that coming to church (and perhaps buying his book) will help fill the void we’ve got, and open doors of potential we previously thought were closed….we’re quick to follow.  The problem comes after some time of believing.  Time of offering our devout faith to a God/Genie, and becoming frustrated when nothing we ask for happens.

You might be nodding while reading this, agreeing that yes – we need to be honest about our expectations.  We need to remember that a call to follow Christ, is a call to the cross.  That we’re not promised what we want will work out the way we plan, by simply “trusting really really hard”.  But at the same time, I want my children to know the Hope we have in Christ.  I want them to experience putting their faith in Him, and having a life transformed.  I suppose it all depends on what we emphasize:

1 – We could emphasize the wrong things to our 5 year old.  Tell her that God wants everything to go perfect for her, and if she invites Jesus into her heart, it will enable all her dreams to come true (Jeremiah 29:11, right?).  Or, we could take the threatening route and tell her that someday she’ll either spend forever in flames or in golden streets and whipped cream.  If she asks Jesus into her heart, she won’t have to burn.  Sure, these spiritual things are bigger/different, but it’s important to speak in a language they simply understand, right?

2 – We could be honest with our 5 year old from the very start.  Tell her that people have made some really bad choices, that make this world a hard place to live sometimes.  But tell her how God has moved in our family already, and how He’s calling & enabling us to be different.  That we can choose to love/forgive, even when it’s hard.  We can be humble, and look for ways to serve others & love our neighbors globally.  We can pray, and know that spending time in God’s presence changes us.  We ask him to fill us with His love, so that in the simple ways we live, God is changing the world.

Sometimes that will lead us down paths where people know our name and smile or applaud.  Other times it may lead us down paths where people know our name and angrily yell.   Still many more times it may mean know one knows our name, but God is with us.

We are never alone, and that seems to be a pretty big point to a savior who was called

“Immanuel – which means ‘God with us’. “

But in a culture where more and more churches and youth ministries are selling the fun/loud/exciting/blessing/health/prosperity/nice teeth/etc…it may become increasingly difficult to be heard.  Still…this is what we speak.

Posted in Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

If I were a Christian rock star.

Posted on by Wick

There are times when studying for a message that will be praught in the future, a friend of mine will say “Well, that’s only if you think words mean something.”  Sometimes in jest, and sometimes critically asking an important question about the meaning of a text.  Recently I had an experience that really made me want to say something…but I wasn’t the person on stage with a microphone, and I’d probably sound stupid….so I figured this was a better place for me to sound stupid.

We caught a bit of a “Building 429” concert at the local Decatur Celebration, and I recognized a song they were playing as one I must have heard while scanning radio stations recently.  The song is titled “Where I Belong”, and brought up many of the issues I talked about in my recent post about a song I’ve written/recorded.

The lyrics of the chorus being chanted by everyone in crowd go:all-i-know-is-i-m-not-home-yet-this-is-not-where-i-belong
“All I know is I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong”

I understand the encouragement these words can bring.  To so many of us living in pain, debt, struggling with a broken world, etc…being reminded that this is not what God intends for us is a great thing.  I’m hoping many of the people in the crowd would recognize, if asked, that God’s desire is not that we would get out of this world…but rather join in carrying His image INto this world.

More like:
“All I know is He’s not done yet
This is not how the world belongs
Lord, Take all I am to give them Jesus
Because this is not how the world belongs”

It’d be easy to hear the song, and figure it doesn’t much matter.  After all, these are just simple side issues.  The main concern is Christ.  That’s true, but did you ever live in a college dorm?  I remember doing some pretty silly things during those years, especially in regard to how we lived in our temporary housing.  I remember duct taping the drains in the shower, and putting a wooden door (lined with trashbags and duct tape) in it’s entry-way so that with all the showers turned on hot – the small “group shower” room turned into a giant hot tub.  There were plenty of things we did, that only happened because we weren’t concerned for what happened to Chapman Hall after we moved out.

But now I live in a house, that we’re continuing to make our home.  It actually turns 100 years old next year.  I’m not OCD about getting nicks and dents in walls….but I would never flood a room just to pretend it’s a hot tub.  🙂  So much of what the follower of Christ is transformed for the sake of – involves living out a transformed God-bearing life into a creation that actually IS intended to be our home.  We believe that God put great care into creating this world, and placing us in it to be His image-bearers.  I love this world.  I’m making myself at home here, and look forward to what it will look like when made new/swallowed up by God’s presence completely.

So when another follower of Jesus looks at me and smiles, shouting “I can’t wait to leave this place!!”….I try to hear them saying “I can’t wait for Jesus to make all things new!”

I know we have the same desire…right?