J-Blog

Haiti Update #3: Veritas South

2012-01-26T07:41:00.001-05:00

Greetings friends!

I dare you to go to your local drug store, buy all the bottles of Pepto they have, and then proceed to paint your walls with it. I make that dare, because that's almost exactly what I've been doing all week here in Haiti! We built a new school through the Westminster capital campaign, and they are just now getting around to painting it. The trick is though, we have to do the painting while the students are in school. The teachers here must hate us, because all of the students watch us through the windows of their class room, and some even crowd around us during the breaks. And while the color of the bright pink paint seems to be burning a hole in my retina, it's nice to have a project that has a definite end. You don't often get that on mission trips like this.

We did have one incident yesterday where a student kicked over a bucket of blood red paint on the floor. Panic ensued, as students ran in every direction to avoid being yelled at by the teachers and administrators. But somewhere out there there is a boy with a bright red shoe, and he is our culprit. Tom and I worked as quickly as we could to run water on the paint, but the floor doesn't have a drainage system, so we couldn't do a whole lot with it. So now the school in La Croix has what would appear to be a generous crime scene on the floor!

And then there was last night. I've had a lot of highs as a youth minister, but nothing that could compare with what was going on last night. We decided, since we're in the same time zone, that we would have Veritas South here in Haiti. At 6 we played some games, introducing the Haitian students to "Chubba-Chubba-Can-Can". They didn't quite understand it at first, but once they realized just how mean that game can make you be to your friends, they lit up and started getting a bit violent. At 6:30, I attempted to give what I thought would be a 30 minute talk, but apparently my translator was very good, because it went by in only 15 minutes, leaving us with about 20 minutes to kill. I grabbed my guitar, and started singing some of the songs I had heard the students singing through the week. Then, after almost each song we sang, we'd sing it again, and the kids would teach it to us in Creole. Sheer beauty I tell ya. Sheer beauty.

Then at 7, we Skype called our friends back home at Veritas. I don't know about the gang back home, but it was an awesome experience for me and for the Haitians. They really seemed to enjoy seeing what a youth group in America looked like. We shared a couple of thoughts together, and then after the call both youth groups prayed for each other. It was a spectacular time! As we were leaving and making our way back home, one of the students looked at me and said "So...we're doing this again tomorrow night, right?" Any suggestions for Veritas games that we could play here in Haiti would be greatly appreciated!

It's been an awesome trip. I can't really wrap my mind around all that I've seen and heard, but I'm sure that will be part of blog posts to come. Thanks again for your continued prayers. I think at the moment, we just need prayers for the team's energy to power through these last few days before we make our way back home to (snowy) Pittsburgh.

Godspeed,

Jason

Haiti Update #2: Education

2012-01-24T08:19:00.001-05:00

Greetings again faithful readers!

The picture above is the view from our rooftop circa 6:45 this morning. The sunrise here is unbelievable! This strikes me as rather odd/sad, because the sun rises just like that in Pittsburgh, but I'm never attentive or awake enough to notice it. Something to work on in the future I'm sure.

Yesterday was our first real work day here in La Croix. The morning went by rather slowly, as we were all looking for ways that we could pitch in and help out, but the jobs were few and far between while the students were at work. But around lunch time, we found ourselves needing to paint 20 chalkboards for the school. This has contributed to my hands having a slightly greenish tint to them for what would appear to be the remainder of the trip. This morning we used our brute strength to carry those bad boys across the square and into the school.

In the afternoons, we've been helping Reeny with her English classes. That has been the most fun part of the trip for me at least. Yesterday we were working on the difference between the words "reading" and "writing", which is rather difficult with a Haitian accent. But man, the look on the kids faces when they figured it out, that was worth more than a solid brick of gold.

In fact, education seems to be one of the biggest and most important aspects of our trip and our mission here in La Croix. Bobbie has her chemistry class, those of us who are mechanically inclined (and the fact that I fit in that category should scare us all) are working in the school building that Westminster's capital campaign raised funds for. Reeny has her English class. Paul is building a computer workstation for the kids with state of the art education software on it. It's truly amazing to see how much learning has been going on down here.

I hope I'm learning too. My biggest prayer in all of this is that God is at work in me, educating me in the ways of his Kingdom through these beautiful children that we get to meet each and every day. I think that he is, but if you wouldn't mind joining me in that prayer, that'd be spectacular.

More to come.

Godspeed,

Jason

Haiti Update #1: Holy Ruckus

2012-01-23T07:16:00.002-05:00

Greetings friends!

I've written to you from a lot of cool places in the past, but today I am writing to you from the roof of the La Croix mission in Haiti, just as the sun is coming up over the mountains. Words cannot express the beauty that can be found here! Hopefully later on I'll be able to take a couple of photos and post those up as well.

We left for the trip on Friday afternoon and flew to Miami, where we encountered our first major snag, in that apparently Travelocity never officially made our reservations for our hotel room. This actually panned out quite well, as it meant that we could spend the night in the same hotel as the rest of our team. It just meant that I also had to bounce around the Miami airport like a mad man a little bit on Friday night!

We woke up at an ungodly hour of the morning on Saturday to board our flight to Port-Au-Prince. Flying in over the mountains was beautiful, but also a stark reminder of Haiti's poverty. There are hardly any trees or forested areas in the country. It reminded me of Africa in a big big way, but not as much as driving from Port-Au-Prince to La Croix. The markets, the people carrying unbelievable loads on their bicycles, and the ridiculous driving all took me back to my time spent in Malawi. The location is different, but poverty is poverty everywhere.

On Sunday, we went to worship at the church in the mission. It was amazing! People here worship with a complete reckless abandon, they couldn't care less about how people might view them. Hands in the air, dancing in the isles, it didn't matter. They were going to display their love for God. My favorite part of the service were the prayers, where people just prayed out loud whatever they wanted all at the same time. It was like a holy ruckus, and I was super pumped to be a part of it.

Most of the rest of yesterday was spent resting up, getting ready for the work that we're up to this week. We sat in on a short English lesson taught by one of our team members, which was a lot of fun and allowed me to dance upon a chair. How could you not love that! I also have access to a guitar, so there have been a couple of songs bouncing around in my head, so hopefully Tree Anthem will walk away from this trip with some new tunes.

Today, I think I'm going to be spending most of the day in the school here at the mission, doing some painting and whatever handiwork I am actually skilled enough to complete. We're shooting some video while we're here, and the internet connection seems to be pretty strong, so maybe we'll post a video blog or two along the way.

Thanks for reading along, and thanks even more for your prayers! God is very good to us on this trip!

Godspeed,

Jason

Travel Blog!

2012-01-20T10:38:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

Today is the big day! A group from Westminster Presbyterian Church has been planning to go to Haiti for quite some time, and we're getting on the plane at 5:00 tonight! The best news of all though is that my wife and father in law will both be on the trip as well, and so it's a whole family affair! I'm really excited about what God's going to do in our lives through this trip. I'm really excited to see how God is moving in and through the people of Haiti, and how our stories can intersect. I'm really pumped for new worship experiences, both formal and informal, new ways to meet God in a new place.

That's the best part of mission trips, I think. To change the scenery a little bit on your typical prayer life and devotionals, to take a step out of the normal and dare I even say comfortable in your life, so that God can interact with you in a way that he might not be able to while you're at home. So I ask for prayers, that our team would be open. Open to do whatever we can to help the people of Haiti, and also open to allow God to have his way with our hearts through this trip.

I think there will be internet down where we are, though it may be spotty at best, so I'm hoping to hop on and post some pictures and updates of the trip. If the internet is fussy, I'll keep writing the posts any way and then share them when I get back to the States. Your continued prayers are amazing, and I look forward to what God has in store for us through this trip!

Godspeed,

Jason

The ocean in a cup!

2012-01-10T15:25:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

Last week, some of us on staff at Westminster Presbyterian Church were giving ourselves metaphorical high-fives, rejoicing in our wonderful decision to delay the start of our Wednesday evening activities as week into the new year. Rather than start last week, we decided to start tomorrow night, to give us time to ease back into the swing of having a full time job before trying to figure out what our next moves would be.

That was all well and good, and probably would have continued to be well and good, had I actually taken the time to ease myself back into the swing of having a full time job. Instead, I spent most of last week trolling the internet looking for hilarious youtube videos. The result? It's Tuesday, I have messages to deliver on Wednesday and Sunday, and I am totally stuck. Way to go J!

Actually, it's not the problem you would expect. Or at least it's not the problem I expected. You would expect after three weeks off, I would just be out of practice. You would think that after a few moments of opening up the bible and/or my favorite commentary, bouncing the "sermon writing ball" off the wall a few times, and busting out my trademarked yellow legal pad would be enough to get the blood flowing again. But I don't think my writers block (at the moment at least) is due to a lack of discipline, or even a lack of things to say.

I think it's that I have too much to say!

That blank page is not intimidating because it's blank. That page is intimidating because there is so much I want it to be. There is so much that I want to communicate through the lost art of the sermon that 20 minutes just isn't enough to contain the whole thing. When I sit down and open my bible, I'm struck by the unyielding grace of the God of the universe, who in spite of everything has decided to share his love and his grace with me through his son. I want to try to find a way to help other people feel the way I feel when I think about that. I want to try to express the joy that's going on inside my bones every time I say the name of Jesus out-loud. And the whole time, this blank page is staring at me, almost laughing at me, daring me to write something down, to make physical something that is so deeply spiritual.

The blank page dares me to try to fit the ocean in a cup.

And so I'll do what I always do. I'll wrestle for a week, and try to get as much out as I can. I'll probably be disappointed. I'll probably think that the messages being delivered this week aren't up to snuff. And this isn't a pride thing, like I'm saying it's not good enough in the hopes that the congregation around me will tell me how great it was and I can feel pretty cool. I'm not even talking about substance or style at the moment. It's like Peter writes, I am filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, and at the moment, I'm feeling the frustration of not expressing the inexpressible.

Anybody out there here with me? And if so, do you have a good text for Sunday? :)

Godspeed,

Jason

Not motivated at all...

2012-01-07T12:01:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

I am sitting at Starbucks, coffee in hand, seminary text books spread across the largest table I could get a hold of in the crowded coffee shop, and I simply cannot find the motivation to get any work done at all.

I have a quiz the very instant I get back to class on Tuesday night, and my professor has provided me with a study guide (for which, I am forever grateful if you're reading this Dr. Humphry!) but I am just struggling to keep going on the task at hand. I have logged an overwhelming number of hours already today on Facebook. I take frequent breaks to try to get my Pandora station to play exactly as I please. I have stared out the window longingly at the bright sunny day.

What do you do when motivation escapes you? What sort of things do you do to get things going again?

Please, comment soon. My grades may depend on it.

Godspeed,

Thank you!

2012-01-06T20:08:00.001-05:00

Wow!

The J-Blog has hit 20,000 views! That means that 20,000 of you have accidentally found this website while searching for the Toronto Blue Jays, or that one person has been constantly refreshing to see if I will ever say something negative about Rob Bell. Either way, thanks for making the J-Blog one of the most fun things I do all week!

The Divine Hours

2012-01-05T12:30:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

With the new year, I've been trying to get back in the habit of keeping spiritual disciplines. This is hard for me! I struggle keeping any kind of habit alive, if for no other reason than my days are so unpredictable that I think I have a hard time keeping a schedule of praise. And so for the (what feels like) billionth time, I'm hitting the reset button on spiritual disciplines.

I've picked up Phyllis Tickle's (best name in all of Christian literature) Divine Hours and started to use it as a devotional. The Divine Hours is a continuation of the practice of fixed hour prayer, that is that three times a day, at the exact same time every day, I set aside a little bit of time to pray. So for me, I'm going to be doing my best to pray at 8, 12, and 9. I already slept through the first hour (or "office") today, but that's ok. This is a bit of a learning process.

So far (I've only been doing this for a day now) I'm really appreciating a bunch of things about the Divine Hours:

The Prayers are based largely on the Psalms. I think as Christians we tend to ignore the Old Testament, and the Psalms are some of the most beautiful pieces of Scripture in the whole bible. Using them as my prayers has been incredibly meaningful.

Repeated Prayers. Each office has the Lord's Prayer as a central component, and in addition each week has a prayer that is repeated at each office throughout the week. I am a forgetful person, and so being reminded of the same thing every day, and in this case, three times a day, can't be a bad thing. I know a lot of people are against the sort of "rote" prayer habits, but for me at least I'm finding a lot of meaning in them.

Habit habit habit. I am so bad at habit, but this book makes it fairly easy to try to break into a new habit for the new year.

Have any of you had any experience with the Divine Hours? If so, feel free to share in the comments!

Godspeed,

Back in the saddle and some prayer requests!

2012-01-03T16:55:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

Just like the guy on a buffalo, I am back in the saddle. The Christmas/New Years break is over, and so we have returned to our offices and returned to youth ministry.

To be honest, I really missed it! We still have one more week before we start back to Veritas, but even today with several planning meetings and dreaming and brainstorming sessions, the blood is starting to flow again. I was actually thinking today that I could really go for an excellent retreat, the kind where kids are opening up and late-night deep discussions are happening all over the campsite. We have a few of those opportunities coming up, so I don't think I'll be disappointed!

But I was also thinking today that there are several among us out there who are coming back and perhaps wish they weren't. I know there are several youth workers out there who are starting to feel the slow pains of burnout. And so this evening, my prayers are with you. I pray that you find the encouragement you need to keep going. I pray that God would open up new doors and new possibilities to you in the near future, and that God would allow you to see all the ways in which the seeds your planting are starting to grow.

If there's anything specific I can pray for you for, please feel free to post it here in the comments.

It's great to be back everybody!

Godspeed,

Humility

2011-12-13T15:11:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

Yesterday I was on a roll! Ed and I went duck hunting in the morning, as we have for the last three years, and I finally FINALLY snapped a two year losing streak by bringing home a beautiful (and delicious) drake mallard. Oh, the feeling was overwhelming! Such joy!

And then I participated in a online bible study, where I felt like I was really starting to get a good grip on the material we were working through. I had a couple of points that seemed pretty well received, and started to imagine myself on the stage of the National Youth Workers Conventions telling people how they can be super awesome better youth pastors if they follow my three step program.

That evening, I lit a candle at the dinner table. This may not sound like much, but we typically eat our dinners on the couch while watching Futuarma or something like that, so to me it seemed as though I should receive the husband of the year award or something, as if lighting a candle was some sort of revolutionary idea.

After dinner, Sarah and I went to the gym, where I met Ed to take a spin class. I had decided a few days ago that it was time for off-season training for the summer's cycling events to finally pick up and start going somewhere, and so I thought a spin class would be no problem. I have in the past ridden 150 miles, so what could one spin class do to me?

I should have seen it coming...

To those of you who are regulars in spin classes, my hat is officially off to you. About 10 minutes into this class, I was no longer following the commands of the entirely too cheery instructor. I was just seated on the bike, pedaling a little bit, and trying to find my breath. I chugged water like a fish, and kept an eye on the clock the whole time hoping that the hour would be over soon so I could go home and not make eye contact with any of the in shape people.

I think God does a pretty good job keeping me on a short leash when it comes to pride. There aren't a whole lot of days where I think I'm the boss, I'm usually more than willing to give that title to someone else. And I don't think I let it slip into a kind of self-esteem vacuum either, where I'm getting down on myself because I don't have what it takes. I think more often than not, because of the grace of Jesus Christ, I'm exceptionally happy to admit that I don't have what it takes. I wouldn't want to.

But sometimes I forget. Sometimes I forget that my life is to God's glory, and not my own. Sometimes I forget that the select few times I have a personal winning streak, it's really because either God has provided the opportunity, or God has gifted me with the skills required. Karl Barth said that all sin comes from lack of gratitude. I couldn't agree more after yesterday.

And so we search for a balance. We look for ways to realize we don't have it all together, and ways to truly ultimately come to peace about that. I am a wreck of a human being. But I am the wreck of a human being whom God loves, and pours himself into. I can live with that. Actually, I can rejoice in that. And I hope you can too.

Godspeed,

Jason

The Puzzle

2011-12-11T20:26:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

I am knee deep into Term II of Seminary, taking a course on the New Testament. Specifically, the Gospels, Acts, and John's letters. The course is set up as an introductory class, meant to teach us about the history surrounding the Gospels, how they hold up to other literary works of their day, how to read certain passages, etc. So far, I've really enjoyed it.

I just wrapped up reading a (rather long) chapter on the way scholars view the Gospels today. Some people have come before, reading this material, and have lost all their faith. Some scholars do an amazing job of breaking things down and claiming they are worthless, and these scholars take great joy in some of the issues presented within the Gospels.

One approach to fight these scholars off is to claim that there are no issues presented within the Gospels. That's just silly to me. There are some issues we need to take a pretty hard look at. Matthew and Luke present two totally different genealogies for Jesus. The details of certain parables, or even the interpretation of some of those parables, varies from author to author. John is all by himself when it comes to placing certain events in the life of Jesus in the same order as everybody else. There are issues.

But this does little to rattle my faith. In fact, it just makes me want to fall in love with the Word even more! Why are they different? Are the authors trying to tell us something? Do the differences actually point to something important themselves? What if Jesus told the same story a bunch of times, but used it to mean different things (a technique I employ ALL THE TIME!)? When was the last time you could get four youth pastors to watch an event and then recall it later exactly the same? Does it make the story and less credible?

Jacob wrestled with God. God broke his hip. But at the end of the day, Jacob was rewarded for wrestling with the Lord. May we never stop wrestling with God, especially with God's word. May we never try to avoid having our hip broken by ignoring the difficulties of our faith. May we with childlike wonder approach the scriptures with curiosity and desire!

Godspeed,

Jason

Encouraging Doubt

2011-12-08T23:19:00.001-05:00

Greetings friends,

Between writing sermons, Veritas talks, attending classes, and getting caught up with all the reading for said classes, I've been working my way EXTREMELY slowly through two books that I see have a pretty sizable connection. You Lost Me by David Kinnaman and Sticky Faith by Kara Powel and Chap Clark. The question ahead of us in both books is, why is it that young people are leaving the church after their high school careers, and what (if anything) can we in the church do to avoid it?

There are lots of answers to those questions to be sure, and I'm only a chapter or two into either book. But the one thing that struck me about these opening chapters is the importance of allowing our teenagers the freedom to doubt, to express their doubts, and to face down the questions that will surely be asked of them when they leave the safety of the Church. All too often, I think we're too afraid to allow our students the time and the space to wrestle with their faith. I think we try to hand them neatly packaged answers, even if the answers we have are for questions that our students aren't asking.

What's to be afraid of? For starters, the kinds of things that our students may be doubting in our youth rooms are the kind of things they will be faced with in their college careers. So why not introduce the questions now, in a safe space, where we can help them learn how to use the tools God's given us to discover in our faith? Jacob wrestled with God and was rewarded for it. Don't you think we and our students will be rewarded for throwing the mats down and letting our kids wrestle with God?

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this from you in the field. How do you encourage doubt in your students? What are the kind of doubts that your students are facing?

Godspeed,

Jason

The Pixar Effect

2011-11-29T13:31:00.001-05:00

At the risk of sounding like a creepy old guy, I really enjoy going to see children's movies. Particularly the movies that have been coming out lately, really since Toy Story. Shrek, Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc. These movies are absolutely hilarious!

What strikes me at the moment though is how there are jokes or lines in these movies that only the parents are finding funny. The kids are still laughing, because there's an inherent goofiness to the characters. But the jokes are told on a level that both the kids and the adults are finding funny.

I envy this skill from these movie producers, because at the moment I'm writing a play for our Breakfast in the Manger event in a few weeks. I have the extremely difficult job of making something that is somehow funny to the kids in the audience, but also on a level that the adults may chuckle at as well. The very fact that I am sitting here blogging about it instead of writing the task at hand is an indication that I am stumped on this one, and may need some help.

What are some of your favorite jokes from kids stories? Are there any favorite children's books you like to read?

Godspeed,

Jason

The Youth Pastor's Uniform

2011-11-28T21:13:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

In the new Steve Jobs biography (review coming soon), Jobs talked about a trip to the Sony plant where he noticed the employes wore uniforms. He felt that the comradere that came from these shared uniforms would help his cause at Apple, but the Apple folks balked at the idea. All the same, Steve wound up coming up with his own uniform. A black mock turtleneck, Levi jeans, and simple white tennis shoes. While we all knew that was the uniform he wore at the big keynote events, I never knew that he wore that same outfit every working day! It was what made the difference between being at work, and not.

Sarah and I were just doing the laundry, and I realized that I too have defaulted to a youth pastor's uniform. Having spent some time this week at the NYWC, I realize that I am not the only one who wears this uniform. What follows is meant to be poking fun at myself, if it offends you because you share this uniform, may I suggest adding a sense of humor to your daily outfit?

On the top:

A t-shirt. This is where most youth pastors stop, but for me it is the base layer. I don't put a lot of thought into my t-shirt when it's acting as the base layer, so these are just the free shirts I've picked up from different events and camps. Unless it's going to get hot, which is possible, then I'll use one of the better shirts I've picked up from Old Navy, because I'm 12 years old.

Plaid-button up shirt. This is the key for me. I just hung up about 20 plaid shirts in my closet. I've picked them up from Old Navy (again, 12) or occasionally from someplace sophisticated (American Eagle) for when I'm feeling like I'm 14. Top button? Absolutely not! If there are long sleeves, they are to be rolled up past the elbow. None of this 3/4 crap. I've never been a fan of that.

Sweater. In colder months, I throw a sweater on top of the button up, and pop the collar out. The sweaters? Old Navy.

On the bottom:

Jeans: Old Navy (theme much?) jeans, boot cut. I tried light washes once, and just never got next to them, so my jeans are almost always dark, almost grayish.

(Option 2: Khakis from Old Navy, MUST be cargo or we're done talking.)

Shoes: I have made brightly colored shoes an icon. Here's how to order: Go to Amazon dot com, search for Adidas shoes in your size, and then use the color selector on the left side. The bolder the better. Though, make plans for accessories.

Accessories:

Watch: I am a watch fiend. Target (didn't see that coming, did you?) has some great watches. The bigger the face, the better. I want you to know what time it is from across the sanctuary. It's my ministry to you.

Socks: These need not match. Unless they are party socks:

At first, I thought it was just me. But like I said, I've seen so many youth pastors who wear the exact same uniform. So I ask you: What's missing? Feel free to poke fun at yourself (or your youth pastor for that matter!)

Godspeed,

Jason

Tour Review: Rob Bell's Fit to Smash Ice Tour.

2011-11-26T08:47:00.001-05:00

Greetings friends!

Last night, Sarah and I, along with Sarah's mom, went to see Rob Bell's Fit to Smash Ice Tour. If you've been following this blog even for a few seconds, you know that I am one of the world's biggest Rob Bell fans, so there wasn't a chance I was going to miss this!

I had only missed one of his tours up until this point. Everything is Spiritual and The God's Aren't Angry were amazing. First of all, they almost made my head explode with the level of complexity and theology contained within each, to the point that I don't think I really "got it" for either of them until they came out of DVD and I could watch them two or three more times to try to wrap my head around everything. They were like two hour sermons, which when you think about it is amazing that anyone would pay money to go see in this culture of ours. He's that good of a preacher.

But last night didn't feel like a sermon. It didn't even really make my head want to explode. Rob came out with a stool and a box of props, and proceeded to tell stories. Actually, mostly stories about his personal life. I do this all the time for my sermons, but even I will confess that it takes a lot of guts to share your personal life with that many people on a nightly basis, which is what happens on a big speaking tour like that.

The topics were all over the place really, from failure to creativity to originality, and even a few moments on what it feels like to be publicly criticized for a book you'd written by faceless bloggers (it's probably no conciliation to be praised publicly by faceless bloggers, but here we are anyway...). When the event was over and I looked at my watch, I simply couldn't believe that 2 hours had passed. It felt like 5 minutes.

The tour isn't going to very many cities thus far, but if it's coming anywhere near you I'd go and see it. It's an unbelievably brave thing for someone to open his heart up like that, and when someone does, I think we all have a lot to learn from it!

Godspeed,

Book Review: Devotional Classics

2011-11-22T14:37:00.001-05:00

Hello happy readers!

One of the three books that was required of my Spiritual Formation class is Devotional Classics, edited by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith. It's a collection of the best of the best in terms of writers throughout the Christian Tradition, and offers up their thoughts on a wide variety of subjects from evangelism to scripture study.

I strongly recommend this book, particularly if you find yourself regularly in charge of a small group. I think these short little snippets would work incredibly well as a weekly study, which would give you a LOT of weeks of material (the book is well over 300 pages long). There were only a handful of authors that I had actually read before (C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton for instance), which meant that for most of this book I was having my horizons stretched by being introduced to new authors.

Some of my favorites included Watchmen Nee, who wrote about coming to God requires nothing more than an open and honest heart. I also enjoyed folks like John Calvin and Soren Keirkegaard, both of whom I had to read in college, and neither of them did I enjoy. But this time around, perhaps with maturity or perhaps with with a renewed interest in theology, I really enjoyed what each had to say.

There are far too many authors in this book for me to go one by one and tell you what they said, but again, I say I highly recommend it for every pastor! Go pick one up today!

Godspeed,

Jason

#nywc : you've come a long way baby!

2011-11-22T14:31:00.001-05:00

Greetings friends!

Two years ago, I was at the NYWC in Atlanta. Atlanta is still one of my favorite places to do the convention, because it's where my first one was, and truthfully I think Atlanta is an extremely cool city.

However, two years ago, I wrote this post.

YS was not in a good place. They had done what was referred to this weekend as one of the most awkward moment in youth ministry history as they paraded a bunch of dudes to promise us that all would be well. It didn't work. None of us thought all would be well. In fact, as I remember it, several of my friends and I thought that 2009 would be our last convention.

Some pretty significant things happened in the months and years that followed. Tic Long came back to run YS, a move that was heralded in by a video featuring me and Ed standing on the roof of our church (always trying to out-ridiculous each other). We went to the convention last year in Nashville, and had an absolutely marvelous time. Things felt right again. Not that change is a bad thing, it's frequently good. And YS did in fact change a bunch about the convention that year. There was just a calm over the place that was missing in the 2009 convention.

Fast forward to Sunday. Once again we're in Atlanta, and once again we're in a time of transition. Tic Long is moving on to become an executive pastor at the church that every youth pastor on earth now wants to work at (seriously, can you imagine Tic as your boss?). Instead of awkward squirms and cautious glances back and forth, this transition was met with standing ovations and (if I'm honest) a couple of tears of joy. We celebrated the great man that is Tic Long, but I think we also celebrated that YS is on track and headed in a great place.

For better or for worse, YS is a big influence on so many of us youth pastors. For me at least, it's a place of refuge and rest, a place that not only gives me books to help my ministry, but gives me resources to help my soul as well. It's my safety net in ministry, and in 2009 it looked like it had a lot of holes in it.

I am just so very excited for what is happening with YS now. Mark Matlock, Kara Powell, Doug Fields, Adam McLane (who I think is obligated to read my blog every time I mention YS, so how's it going buddy!) and the rest of the crew look like their passionate about the vision of YS, passionate about resourcing us, passionate about ministering to us so that we can minister to our students. I will miss the heck out of Tic, but things are headed in a beautiful direction.

All that said, I still plan on praying for those guys, and I hope you'll join me. I can't imagine that all that they do is easy on them, so I offer my prayers every day for them and their families.

What do you think? Were you at the convention? How do you feel about YS these days?

More to come this week!

Godspeed,

#nywc : Get out of the way.

2011-11-18T17:08:00.001-05:00

Greetings from beautiful Atlanta.

We began our journey at 3:00 AM. That's disgusting. I don't even get up that early for hunting. And yet we loaded up on coffee, hopped in the car, and made the completely smooth (for the first time in recent memory) trip to Atlanta. The only issue was that I left my iPad behind on the plane, but some kind person managed to pick it up and follow me through the airport until they could catch up with me and give it back. Sometimes there are nice people in the world.

After getting checked in and visiting my favorite Starbucks, Simeon and I went to Marv Penner's seminar on teaching. By and large, this was information I already had tucked away in my subconscious. I've been doing this for 8 years now. I know a thing or two. And yet, I've known for a little while that my teaching and preaching have been flat at best this past year, so even if it's just a reiteration of what I've already known before, it can only help me at this point. Sometimes you have to remember to practice blocking and tackling.

If I have a complaint about the convention thus far, it is the gross distance one must walk to get from where the seminars are to where the big rooms are happening. Chances are this is my out-of-cycling-shape-self just rebelling, and not an actual issue. That said, I needed oxygen.

There was a lot that went on in the Big Room with Reggie Joiner and Starfield and the City Harmonic, which I don't want to just regurgitate here, because I know Youth Specialties is selling the tapes and the CDs and stuff, and they need their money. I was just struck by one message that seemed to be haunting me as I was listening and taking it all in: Get out of the way Jason. The Holy Spirit, the very agent of change in the world of the Triune God, is hard at work in your midst if you would only get out of the way and let him do what he has set out to do. The Holy Spirit is a significantly better youth pastor than I could ever be. All I need to do is show up with open hands and an open heart, begging to be allowed to participate in the communion of the Father and the Son in the lives of these teenagers.

Having been up since 3:00 AM, we came back for Epic Nap Time (and blanket strips and blanket strips and blanket strips...) Since the J-Blog has this new thing lately called "readers," and we're trying to hashtag each post with the NYWC, I'd invite you all if you stumbled upon this happy blog to offer your thoughts and comments as well. How do you need to get out of the way? What do you hope to gain from this convention? What do you think we should discuss here at the J-Blog?

How much Starbucks do you I could drink if I really put my mind to it this weekend?

Godspeed,

J

Countdown

2011-11-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

...do it

Countdown

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Deep Study

2011-11-14T09:53:00.001-05:00

Good morning friends!

There are three days left until the final, and with this my last day off I have locked myself in my home office and won't be leaving until I have a firm grasp on everything that may or may not be on this final! For those who have wondered, I'm feeling pretty good about it. Just a couple of butterflies as I'm gearing up for my first exam in over 4 years.

One of the things that I really have enjoyed this term is how much my work has been influenced by my schooling. Yesterday at the Bridge, I preached a message that was almost entirely inspired by the things that we had been reviewing in Dr. Barnes' class (Don't worry, I cited). It was a sermon that I spent an inordinate amount of time researching, reading, studying, and preparing for, and at least in my mind it paid off. Rather than just throwing something together at the last minute as an after thought, this sermon took time to create. And I loved it.

My next class at the seminary will be on the New Testament, and according to the course description, specifically on the culture and make up of the Gospel writers. I simply cannot wait! I feel like the scriptures open themselves up more and more the further and further we dig into them, and this course sounds like it's going to be ditching the shovels and bringing out the backhoe.

So I've got one eye on my books for Spiritual Formation, and one eye looking kind of longingly at NT 02. Obviously, I'll keep you posted as to what I'm learning, but in the meantime if I can offer some encouragement to pastors and youth workers, don't forget to do deep study. I know we have like 80 billion things going on in our world, but it's very important.

Here are some things to look forward to this week on the J-Blog:

1. The Countdown will reach zero.

2. We'll have a finals post-game wrap up.

3. I'm working on book reviews for all three of the books I've read for this class. Should be some good stuff there.

4. And of course, I'll be blogging from the NYWC in Atlanta beginning Friday. You know you don't want to miss that!

Rock on rockers!

Godspeed,

Jason

Countdown

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

(Get it?)

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Countdown

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

I am in the 1%

2011-11-08T21:02:00.001-05:00

Greetings friends,

A quick break from studying to share something I learned this week. On Friday, Ed and I went with some of our friends to the monthly PKN meeting downtown. I love this meeting. It is truly inspiring, uplifting, and delightful.

It can also be challenging, as this month's was. Brad Henderson, who runs the joint, was speaking to us about his work in Haiti. He shared the same message with us that he shares with multi-million dollar baseball players (he serves as the chaplain to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Penguins). To insist that his point wasn't geared directly at these uber-wealthy individuals, but that it had implications for all of us, he directed us to at website called www.globalrichlist.com. You enter in what you make in a year and it shows you how you stack up with the rest of the world.

My results were kind of shocking.

I'm in the top 1.72%? Really? On a meager youth pastor's salary? As much as it might not feel like it some times, I am one of the richest people in the world. And chances are, so are you.

Brad's point was (quite correctly) not to guilt us, but rather to open our eyes to how much we had to celebrate and rejoice over, and to give out of our rejoicing. It definitely hit a chord with me, and I went home and examined how much we've been giving lately to see if there was any room to increase.

But then on the way out, we drove by the Occupy Pittsburgh folks. A pretty big part of me is on board with these folks in this movement. It's not fair that 1% of us should be able to create a system by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So sure, let's protest. But right after being told that I am in the 1%, it got me thinking. Maybe what we need is an Occupy America. Maybe we need to realize that even the penniless hippies that are camped out in front of Wall Street have more than most of the world. Which isn't to say that it's right that banks and investment firms have all the money. It is however to say that we're all part of the 1%, and instead of protesting, I think maybe we ought to start with giving.

Just some thoughts. I'd love to hear yours! As in, it will distract me from studying, please post a comment!

Godspeed,

Jason

Countdown

2011-11-08T08:14:00.000-05:00

...days until the final

Study Plans

2011-11-07T22:02:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

We are 10 days away from my first final at the seminary since my return. This final has caused me a tremendous deal of stress, because it is just about the only grade I'll get in this class. I get 50% for finishing my journals every day, but that's a given. So the whole thing comes down to the final, as whatever grade you get on that test will likely be what you get in the class.

I'm trying something new this term, as in I'm actually reading for class. This is new. You may be thinking, that's a very good thing Jason! Way to go! But alas, there's a draw-back. This class has thrown so much reading at me that it's making my head spin, and I'm told this is a light class. I feel very much like the picture above!

So these past few nights I've been trying to reduce the readings down to study guides, so that for the next week I can start to focus myself a bit more. But again, this is one of the hardest things I've ever done. I haven't taken any tests in this class. I haven't written any essays. I have no idea what this professor is looking for, and I have no idea what he puts emphasis on out of the massive amounts of reading.

I'm told the test will go down like this: he will give us 6 short answer essays, and I get to pick which three I want to answer. So hopefully I'll be able to narrow down to stuff I know and know well. But until then, I'm going to hit the books and study guides. I'm also going to ask you guys for your prayers, because I'm a nervous wreck! I appreciate it you all! And in return, I'll blog my way through the next week and a half!

Godspeed,

Jason

Pointing

2011-11-02T10:44:00.001-04:00

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stopped saying: "Holy, holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty four elders fell down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. (Revelation 4:6-10)

I was reading through the book of Revelation for my morning devotionals the other day, and I was really struck by this picture of worship from John's vision. It's so stripped down. It's so simple. It's just the living creatures, and the elders, pointing to God and proclaiming his glory.

I mean, take a look at what isn't included in this depiction of worship. There is no reference to a guitar. For that matter there's no reference to choirs or organs either. There's no appointed hour of worship, these guys are on the clock "day and night," and it would seem as though they never stop. There's no theological sermon, with 5 or 6 alliterated points. It is just simply worship.

That's not to say that those things that are missing aren't useful tools in worship. They are. But not a single one of those tools can be worship in and of itself. They, like the creatures and the elders, must point people towards the glory of God. And, in the way we have our worship services set up to happen once a week, I would argue that our services need to provide people the opportunity to point to God in everything else they do. From laundry to meetings, school to work, fun to dark days, everything we do must point to the glory of the Living One.

How have you pointed to the Living One today?

The top of the curve

2011-10-26T13:32:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

I just had a pretty excellent meeting with my advisor at PTS. We were talking about things back here at Westminster, and how things have been going very well for us at Veritas. We were talking about how We've felt lately like things were working their way to autopilot. We know that every fall we're going to go to Laurelville. We know that every year we're going to have a ski retreat. We know that if we don't do Catacombs this weekend, the one right before Halloween, we're going to be in trouble. We know these things now after four years, so there are few surprises available.

Dr. Son reminded me that every congregation (including congregational subsets like youth ministries) have a life cycle. Typically, it looks like the graph above. You start with things very low, a rebuilding period (Veritas had 11 students when we first started here). With love, work, and patience, you begin to see growth in the congregation.

But at some point, with the same systems in place throughout, no matter how hard you work, eventually you'll hit the top of the curve. Things cannot go any higher than this the way you are doing things. And so your ministry will start to slip down the other side of the slope. Dr. Son also reminded me that this is typically when we get defensive about our ministries. People start saying things like "But we've always done it this way, so why would we do it any other way?"

The problem is, few congregations (and again here, I include youth ministries) see that they're on their way down until they're already slipping. Dr. Son's encouragement to me, and my encouragement to you, is that when you find yourself at the top of the curve, it's your duty to find new and exciting ways to preach the gospel of Christ. Maybe you need to shake up an event here or there, just to give it some fresh creativity. Imagine you used the plateau at the top of the curve as your starting point for a brand new curve! You'd be in a very unique place indeed.

This is something I'm going to be wrestling with a little bit in the coming weeks and months. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it!

Godspeed,

Jason

Some thoughts on beauty

2011-10-19T13:43:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

I picked up the new Switchfoot CD Vice Verses a few weeks ago, and the title track to this CD has been absolutely haunting me. There are good songs, songs that make you dance and songs that make you sing, songs that may or may not make you think. Writing one of these songs makes you feel amazing. But lately, I've noticed there's a whole other category of song, they usually don't make me sing them, or dance to them, or even really make me think. The only category that I have come up with is to say that these songs are beautiful.

I love to listen to these songs driving at night. Just to let the day wash over me, and spend a little bit of time basking in beauty. Because in reality, beauty is from God and God alone, and so when we steep ourself in beauty, we're steeping ourselves in God. That is what worship truly is, to be surrounded by the loving embrace of the Father of beauty.

So if you have some iTunes credit, I'd check out Vice Verses (the whole album is pretty good if you've got a spare $10). Put on the title track tonight, and take a drive just for the sake of driving. I know, precious gasoline and all that, but I promise, it's worth it for a moment or two of beauty.

Walking along the high tide-line
Watching the pacific from the side-lines
I wonder what it means to live together
Looking for more than just guide-lines

Looking for signs in the night sky
Wishing that i wasn't such a nice guy
I wonder what it means to live forever
I wonder what it means to die

I know that there is meaning to it all
A little resurrection everytime i fall
You've got your babies, i've got my hearses
Every blessing comes with a set of curses
I've got my vices, i've got my vice verses
I've got my vice verses....

The wind could be my new obsession
The wind could be my next depression
The wind goes anywhere it wants to
Wishing that i learned my lesson

The ocean sounds like a garage band
Coming at me like a drunk man
The ocean tells me a thousand stories
None of them are lies
Let the pacific laugh
Be on my epitaph
With these rising and falling
And after all,
It's just water and i am just soul
With a body of water and bone
Water and bone....

Where is God in the night sky?
Where is God in the city light?
Where is God in the earthquake?
Where is God in the genocide?

Where are you in my broken heart?
Everything seems to fall apart
Everything feels rusted over
Tell me that you're there

Believing ON Jesus

2011-10-14T09:40:00.001-04:00

Good morning friends,

I was getting caught up on my reading last night from Seminary, and something popped out at me and felt like it deserved a post. This quote comes from Devotional Classics, a book I look forward to reviewing here, which is a collection of devotional writings from all across church history. I was reading excerpts from Watchman Nee's What Shall This Man Do, and this is what caught my attention.

"What is salvation? Many think that to be save we must first believe that the Lord Jesus died for us, but it is a strange fact that nowhere in the New Testament does it say precisely that. We are told to believe in Jesus, or to believe on Him; not to believe that He died for us. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,' were Paul's words. We are to believe first of all in Him, not specifically in what he has done."

How does the above quote strike you? Is it scary, an affront to what you've held to for some time, or is it comforting, kind of a release? For me it was the later, but I'd be curious to hear what you have to say about this one!

Happy Friday!

Godspeed,

Jason

Time Management for Dummies!

2011-10-13T17:17:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends!

A look at my day:

9:00 AM The Alarm clock goes off. I have allowed myself to sleep in to cover the cold that has developed, and to work off the Wednesday Night Veritas Hangover.

9:05 AM I clean myself.

9:25 AM I brew coffee. This day will not be a success without it.

9:28 AM I sit down to do my daily devotionals. I've had to do them for a while now for class, but I've really enjoyed them a great deal. I read through 4 passages (one Psalm, one OT, one Epistle, and one Gospel) and journal some initial thoughts.

10:00 AM I pour what's left of my coffee into a travel mug and make my way to work.

10:15 AM I sit down and start answering a few e-mails, taking care of the registrations from the night before, other administrative type tasks.

11:35 AM A volunteer comes into the office to talk about the bible study she's leading. Seriously, best volunteers in the planet. Can't speak highly enough of them all.

11:45 AM Seriously, where did my time go?

12:30 PM The Thursday tradition of eating lunch while playing Mario Kart continues. Ed is having lunch at the middle school, so I play by myself. I am a huge nerd.

1:00 PM I sit down to start writing my sermon for this Sunday. More coffee is consumed.

2:03 PM I am choking. This sermon is exactly one blinking cursor. Nothing to show at all. Nothing.

2:34 PM Oh happy day! Our associate pastor was under the impression that she was preaching this week, and even has a sermon prepared.

2:35 PM I dance around the office with joy.

3:30 PM After taking nearly an hour to create a new ringtone from the famous website Homestarrunner, I hop in my car for the trek down to the seminary.

4:35 PM In my rush to get moving, I nearly hit two pedestrians in the cross walk. It was totally my fault. The girl is screaming words that I cannot print here. I roll down my window and say "I'm sorry. It's my fault. Please forgive me." She is stunned.

4:40 PM I arrive at the Starbucks, still shaken up a bit from the encounter in the crosswalk. I feel bad. I mean I apologized, but that's still tough to shake off. I get more caffeine. That ought to calm me down, right?

4:45 PM I sit at a table in the back of the Starbucks and pull out my book for class. I am behind. Tragically behind in my reading. I could blame the sermon, but I never got anywhere with that.

I need a time management for dummies book. I've been doing a pretty solid job I think of balancing the working and going to school at the same time thing (as of this writing at 5:14 the reading for the week is done) but I'm still struggling.

How do you manage/organize your time? Do you have a plan or a purpose, or do you just tackle things as they come?

Godspeed,

Jason

The Purpose of the Game

2011-10-12T10:59:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

As is the case every week, I sit in my office and fight temptation. Temptation to sin? No. Temptation to blog about something that I shouldn't be blogging about? Nope. Temptation to listen to Ke$ha? Only sometimes. The temptation that I am facing on a near weekly basis is the temptation to revert to Dodgeball as the Veritas Game of the Week.

It's so perfect. Our kids love dodgeball. And who can blame them? There is just something to be said about mercilessly whipping a rubberized bladder across a large gymnasium and not getting in trouble for it. There's something about getting beaned in the face to the point where you bare the marks of the ball for a couple of minutes. And there is nothing better than when there is only one person left, typically the least likely to be a hero in a game such as this, and with it all on the line they catch a few balls and bring their team to glory. This is marvelous! But playing it every week is probably a bit overkill.

So today I'm sitting at my desk and wondering the purpose of a game in a youth group setting. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important. But I'm trying to figure out why it's important. Is it truly an evangelistic endeavor, in that kids will invite their friends when there's a solid chance that they'll play the right game when they get in the door? Is it because we feel the need to make sure that the kids think we're cool as their youth leaders, and so when we're leading cool games that obviously means we're cool? Sometimes we find games that fit well into our theme or our teaching, so they become a teachable moment, but these are few and far between.

So as I've got my YS Ideas book opened up on my desk, I'm wondering what people think the purpose of a youth group game is. Please leave any thoughts here in the comments!

Godspeed,

Jason

Book Review: Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace

2011-10-11T15:56:00.001-04:00

Hello again friends!

So I thought for the first edition of the new focused JBlog we would tackle a book review, partly because this book hits in three of the four focus areas for the blog, so we can boost some of those numbers up there!

Premise

A few weeks ago my professor for Spiritual Development taught a class that was based largely on this book, so I wanted to pick up a copy so that I could get a better grasp on what was going on. The essential premise of the book is that our worship (and by that, Torrance means way more than just the singing, he includes things like communion, baptism, prayers, liturgy, etc) must be rooted much more than it is in the idea of a Triune God, not just a Unitarian (a poor choice of term, as I found myself confused a bunch with the Unitarian Church) view. Do you get your revelation directly from God? And if so, how would you know if it was truly a revelation from God? Is your worship purely a reaction to the cross, rather than an inclusion of what Christ is alive and doing in your midst right now? If so, you might have a more Unitarian view of worship.

What I liked

I really resonated with the idea of "participating" in the Trinity. Torrance argues (rightly) that in Christ's baptism, he becomes us, and through his cross we become him. And so Worship isn't just a response to what has happened 2000 years ago on the Cross, which would deny the presence and active leading of Jesus Christ in our lives. Rather, worship is all about claiming our place in the Trinity, of actively participating in the love of God. His baptism is our baptism. His death is our death. And gloriously, his resurrection is our resurrection. This, is the heart of the good news.

What I didn't like.

This book has an extremely scholarly tone, but that shouldn't come as surprising at all anymore to me. I'm slowly getting up to speed at reading this type of book, but I could see how it might be a bit difficult to just pick up and run with.

Read this if:

You are a worship leader or other church worker, particularly if you are in the reformed tradition.

Don't read this if:

You want a how to guide for worship. Torrance isn't about the HOW of worship, but more the WHAT of worship. So while you won't find a step by step guide for your next worship gathering, I think it will shed some light into why we do the things we do already.

Focusing

2011-10-11T15:04:00.001-04:00

Hello bloggers!

We seem to go through this about once a quarter or so, but I was feeling the hurt from not having posted to the J-Blog in a while. As is typically the case when this goes down, there is a revamping of the theme, and I thank the designers of the free theme you see before you (whoever they are!)

I want to try to do my best to post once a day, whether I think I have something or not. My writing improves greatly when I'm on the JBlog, and you all seem ok with putting up with my dribble, so I really want to be disciplined in getting things posted up here on the olde' blog.

I've also really wanted to focus things. At the top, you'll see four specific areas (or TAGS as those in the biz call them) that I'm going to be focusing on at the JBlog. This isn't to say that there won't be the occasional riff into Pittsburgh Penguins (how awesome are they!) or hilarious YouTube Videos (those will be filed under youth ministry, because who doesn't love using them as clips), but for the most part I want to focus us in on four different areas:

Youth Ministry

How could we get away from our roots? Something special has happened in the last year or so, which I have been totally unprepared for, but somehow I have become a Veteran Youth Worker. A good friend of mine tells me that an expert is someone who makes the same mistake 100 times or more, and manages to stop making it. As much as I hesitate to say so, by that definition I believe I am an expert youth worker.

And so we're going to have a renewed sense of youth ministry around here. If you are a youth pastor, I'd love to hear your stories in the comments as well. But I'd love to offer some insights, challenges, dreams, and visions for where youth ministry is, and where youth ministry could be going. So get in on the conversation, and if you know someone who is a youth worker who could benefit from seeing things here, feel free to point them in the direction of the J-Blog.

Worship

I have the privilege and honor of also working with our Bridge worship service as a worship leader. My view on worship is definitely expanding. I've said before that I don't think that worship is limited to holding a guitar and busting out a song, but I'm seeing more and more of that knowledge lead to lifestyle change. In particular, I'm starting to see a great importance to incorporating home worship into corporate worship. This isn't to say that you could do the whole "God thing" on your own, but it is to say that there's a personal aspect to our faith in addition to our corporate aspect, and we'll explore both here. (For those of you who are fans of things like my Spire Articles, don't worry, this is where they fit in)

Seminary

This fall, I returned to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty. Granted, I am only on campus one night a week for one class a week, but hey, I'm still there. And I also think that I'm not alone in being a 20 something who works full time and has to try to juggle a seminary degree on top of that. Not only that, but when was the last time I took a test? When was the last time I wrote a paper? We'll explore in detail what it means to be a student, but most specifically a student of Theology. How could anyone not find that exciting?

Book Reviews

How could we forget these? I've actually been reading a great deal, because of the whole school situation, so we'll get to see a bit more here.

So anyway, that's where my head is headed anyway. I look forward to writing a bit more, and hopefully interacting with you guys through the comments!

Godspeed,

Jason

Trying to live like Jesus.

2011-09-22T14:34:00.001-04:00

As part of my studies at the seminary, I am reading through the daily lectionary as prescribed by the Presbyterian Church. This includes one Psalm, one Old Testament reading, one Epistle, and one reading from the Gospels. That's a lot of reading to get done every single morning, but I'm two straight weeks in without missing one, and I'm truthfully loving it. I'm discovering that I'm so scatter brained that if I don't have someone telling me what I should be reading every day, I'm just going to be all over the place.

I've been reading through Matthew 5 and 6 these last few days, which are a part of the Sermon on the Mount. If you've been following this blog with any kind of frequency, or know me as a person, you probably know that these three chapters are my absolute favorites in the scriptures. How can you not love them? They are a collection of Jesus' most famous instructions! If you were to ask Jesus "How should I live my life?" his response would be something very similar to Matthew 5-7. I have read these three chapters about a hundred times even in just the last few years. I even tried my best to memorize these passages at one point.

So why is it that when I'm reading them now, I'm realizing that my life and the life Jesus describes for us are two totally different things?

From something so simple as yelling at people in traffic on my way to the Crowder concert last week (love your enemies I assume covers even Browns fans) to how I pray, and whether I'm making a big show about my faith, I'm finding that there are still areas in my life that need some serious work if I'm going to be living in the Way of Christ.

I'm also reading a book right now for fun (in-between my seminary reading) called The Year of Living Like Jesus by Ed Dobson (seen rocking an AMAZING Jesus-era beard above). Pastor Ed goes through an entire year of trying to shape his life around the kind of life that Jesus would have lived, and from day one realizes that it's an incredibly hard thing to wrap your mind around. Our culture has changed significantly, but still I think a lot of the struggle is outside of just the cultural challenges. The truth is, Jesus gave us an incredibly difficult prescription for this life.

Now, I also really affirm and believe in Grace. Jesus spells out the way we are to live, but knows already that we don't stand a chance. But still, I find it compelling to do everything in my power to live the way Christ would have me live. I want to be more generous. I want to forgive more. I want to love more. I want to pray in a way that's glorifying to God. I want to give my worries over. I don't at all want to lose my saltiness.

What's the most challenging part of living like Jesus for you?

Godspeed,

Jason

Seminary Update

2011-09-21T08:39:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

It's been a long time since I've posted. I've been a rather busy bee! Here's what I've been up to:

*Tree Anthem is diligently trying to finish the new CD in time for the deadline we made for ourselves. We're close. We just have a few odds and ends that need to be tied up, and we'll be good to go!

*Veritas is back in fullest of swings. We've been having a lot of fun (at least I think) with the new Zero Theme. We're working through those things which hold the central focus for us in our lives, and what a bad Zero looks like in people. Tonight, we're going to take a look at what our Zero should be, and I'm super pumped about what we've got coming up.

*But the biggest thing that's been going on lately is that I'm back at the seminary. I'm taking a class right now called Spiritual Formation with Dr. Barnes. And it is absolutely blowing my mind! I had been doing the reading for the class before the class even started, so now I'm swinging back through again and reading a second time over, and I love each of the books we're reading (Augustine is a little bit hard to work through, but man, he was brilliant!)

The lectures are amazing too! I've been having a hard time keeping my fingers moving fast enough to keep up with the notes! It's been truly awesome!

I wish I had more time for the J-Blog, but I think at the moment I need to ask for patience and grace while I'm working through Seminary stuff. I'll try to keep you posted on what's going on along the way. Thanks for reading!

Godspeed,

Jason

My New Monster

2011-09-06T14:04:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

I noticed something while I was at the gym working out yesterday, and I thought I'd share some thoughts here on the J-Blog.

When I was in high school, I took Advanced Placement American History, or APA as we called it. The idea was that you would submit yourself to an incredibly difficult year of learning, followed by a national test, which if you did well on you would be able to opt out of college classes. The test was the source of much stress and disdain from several students, and so our teacher nick named it "The Beast." It sounds ridiculous, but it actually helped get you through the tough year of classes to know that everything you did was one more weapon in your tool belt for when you would attempt to slay the beast. We pictured it with nasty fangs and blood drenched claws, and know that what we were suffering through would help us to slay the Beast made the suffering tolerable.

Last year, I started cycling as a form of fitness. I had always like bike riding, but never really got into the intense all out riding that so many people have come to love over time. I was at dinner with a few friends, when one Travis Bachelder invited me to participate in the MS 150, a 150 mile bike ride from Slippery Rock to Lake Erie. Foolishly, I said yes.

The 150 became my Beast. It was the monster that I had to overcome. At that dinner table, a 150 mile two-day ride seemed impossible. It was going to require a lot of me in terms of training, in terms of mental dedication, in terms of nutrition and eating better. I was going to suffer. But at least I knew that I was going to suffer with a purpose. I was going to slay the monster, and slay the monster I did. I never felt better after a ride than I did when we rolled into Lake Erie, and they handed me the finishers metal. It sounds cheesy, but that metal means a lot to me. It's not just two days of accomplishment, but it's every ounce of the 500 miles and countless hours in the gym that went into training me for that ride.

The 150 happened in the middle of my cycling "season", and I started to notice something interesting towards the end. I was losing my drive to go on. I didn't want to go out on a huge training ride. I had very little desire to go to the gym. When I did go out on a ride, I was seeking easier courses and flatter terrain. Without a monster to slay, I had no reason to suffer, because suffering pointlessly is really no fun at all.

As I was lying in bed the other night, and I saw an article about Gran Fondos. I had never heard of such a thing, but the article made it sound like the next step up from the charity rides that I have been doing so far. It's usually a century ride, or 100 miles in a single day. They are known for their climbs, and usually have competition on the climbs. They are not to be trifled with, yet they come with rest stops. Like the 150 was to me a year ago, this ride seems so very far out of my reach. There's one coming in New York early next season (http://granfondony.com/) and I want to ride it so bad.

It is my new monster.

All of a sudden I can't spend enough time in the gym. I'm already upset that it's raining/getting colder so as to keep me off the bike a bit more. I will let you know when I get crazy enough to wear the jackets and tights and ride in the weather anyway. But this monster is coming, and I must be ready to slay it.

What is your monster? And what happens when people don't have a monster to work towards? Is it in fact true that suffering makes a little bit more sense when we realize it's leading us somewhere?

Food for thought.

Godspeed,

Jason

Veritas: Some further thoughts on zero.

2011-09-01T07:54:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends!

Last night we had the first Veritas of the school year. I love love love love love love love love (get it yet) love love Veritas! It's a lot of fun and energy and excitement and joy, and this year it seemed to have been bubbling up all summer into a night of just sheer worship and excitement.

We kicked off our theme of Veritas:Zero with some introduction into where we're headed in the next few months. For those who weren't there last night, a quick catch up:

In Malawi, our sister church in the town of Zomba has acquired the nickname Zomba Zero. It it thusly named because it was the first thing that was ever built in the town, and everything else in Zomba gets it's identity from the church at zero. Nothing happens outside the relationship it has from the church. Everything is tied to that one thing.

And so we asked last night what our Zero is. What is the one thing in your life that makes all the other parts of your life make sense? Obviously there is a bit of a Sunday School answer that goes with this (JESUS!) (said in an incredibly cheesy voice), but last night we noted that we want to get to the heart of the answer now. The real answer, rather than what you would think the youth pastor wants to hear. What is your zero?

We talked about David, who in Psalm 139:23 said "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." This is a crazy bold statement to make to God. Because before I open up my heart to God, before I allow him to see the messed-up-crazy bits of my life, I'm going to do my best to clean up. I'm going to try to get things in order, sweep up a bit, and try my very best to make it look like I have everything all together.

Of course this is a sham. God knows everything already. We learn in the same Psalm that he knows when we stand up and when we lie down, and how many hairs are on our head, and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The truth is there's no detail about our lives that isn't abundantly clear to God.

But I think there's something special in the openness of asking God to search our hearts. I think there's something about knowing that we're holding nothing back, that we're letting God search us freely, and that we may or may not like what he finds.

Because the truth is, when we invite God to search our hearts, he's going to show us exactly what our current zero is. He'll show us exactly the area in our lives from which all the other areas get their meaning. And he's God, so he's not going to be shy about it. If we're open, honest, and ready to do a little introspection, God's going to point out exactly what it is that keeps us from him.

And at the same time, this God that knows everything, sees us at our very very worst, offers us the forgiveness to move forward and the grace to hit the reset button on our zero. This God somehow is both the judge and the jury, but he's also the healer. And so as scary as it might be to open up our hearts and allow God to see what's going on inside, it is required. And thank God for the grace that awaits us on the other side.

MUCH more to come soon!

Godspeed,

Jason

Deep Posts: Help!

2011-08-28T17:15:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

Every time I preach a sermon, I almost always walk away thinking "Man, I wish I would have had more time to elaborate on this point or that point." Today was no different, except that today I woke up and remembered that I have a blog where I can expand upon any idea I darn well feel like it. So if you were at the Bridge this morning, this is a bit of a deeper exploration than what we went through this morning. If you weren't, well then hopefully this is just thought provoking.

In Psalm 50, God prescribes for us what praise should actually look like:

"Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me." (Psalm 50:14-15 NIV)

We have this idea brewing in the American psyche that we need to be able to accomplish anything and overcome any obstacle that lies in our way completely on our own. I'm not sure where this came from, but I'm fairly certain we can all blame John Wayne, or perhaps Chuck Norris. But I am no exception. I know that there are times in my life that while I desperately need somebody's help, I will not ask for it. There will typically be a conversation in my head that includes rationalization, and a desire to not look like a sissy or a wimp or whatever word is going through my head at the time.

Ultimately, this is a rather destructive approach to life. There are a few things that happen when we take on the maccho man (or woman) bravado of figuring things out for ourselves:

1. We can't do it.

This should come as no shock to anyone. We know this going into certain situations don't we? "There's no way I can do this on my own..." we say as we proceed to the starting line without the rest of the team. I don't know how many times I've failed at doing something because I thought I could do it on my own. Or perhaps a better way of saying it, I don't know how many times I could have done something better if I had just sucked it up and asked a friend or two for help.

2. We alienate ourselves from the community.

God's word is clear time and time again that you and I were created for community. It's in our blood, it's in our DNA. God hard-wired us to need each other, and when we put on the tough guy routine, we begin to shift our way out of the community. Of course, you've got to ask yourself, how tough can you really be if you're running away from the design of the Creator of tough?

3. We lose opportunity to praise.

This was the new revelation to me this week as I was preparing for the sermon. In Psalm 50:15, God tells us that we bring him honor when we ask him to help us. Think about that for a second. Asking God for help is not a sign of weakness. It is not a sign of your life falling apart around you. It isn't even a sign of a weak faith. In fact, just the opposite. Asking God for help is actually an act of praise. Having the boldness to take our entire person and place it in the hands of the creator takes a kind of trust that few people are comfortable with. But placing that kind of trust in the creator is to proclaim to ourselves and those around us that he is trustworthy, and that he deserves to be praised.

So, it's time to drop the John Wayne impersonations. If you're anything like me, you long ago realized they weren't working anyway. Let's take some time together this week and Praise God, by being bold enough to ask him to help us when we need it. I think we'll all be pretty amazed to see what he comes up with to rescue us!

Godspeed,

Jason

Word play: Rescue

2011-08-18T09:44:00.001-04:00

Hello faithful readers!

Ever have a word get stuck in your head? Like a fire ant that has climbed into your cerebellum and decided to make it's nest in your consciousness, this word has grabbed your attention and will not let go? Well, even if you haven't, play along with me.

I've been working through a few books and scripture studies lately in an attempt to get myself prepared for the upcoming season of Veritas, and I'm stumbling over these words that used to have my attention, but no longer seem to have the grip they used to. And the more I'm reading, the more I'm discovering, these words are essential to a Christ-Centered Life, and they need to be picked up and reclaimed. Today's word is rescue.

The truth of the matter is that all of humanity finds itself in a dangerous or harmful situation on a daily basis. We harm each other with alarming regularity. The things that we do to each other on the internet alone should probably qualify as war crimes for the soul. Our words rip and tear at each other so that we have the perceived feeling of being raised up when really all we've done is torn another person down. And all of that is before we even get to the unimaginable harm we do to each other physically, both intentional (wars, stealing lunch money, rape) and unintentional (ignoring the poor, ignorant of suffering, holding on to all the food ourselves while someone else goes to bed hungry). We are horrible to each other.

But then I think about some of what's going on in my world, and without turning the faithful J-Blog into my person therapy session, I've realized in recent weeks that I am capable of doing all that harm to myself with very little help from the outside world. I talk myself down. I beat myself up. I say things to myself that I would never say to any other human being. While it's not always this way, I'm realizing that I can be a total wreck.

Of course, in the Christian faith we have a language for this too. We call it Sin, and it is the engine driving the injury we inflict on ourselves and others. When we aren't busy using it as a weapon against each other (see paragraph above), we start to realize that everyone is a sinner. We realize that it's inescapable. We find ourselves in a situation not unlike Indiana Jones being stuck in quicksand. There's no way out, and thrashing against ourselves or other people only makes us sink faster.

And hence, the importance of the word rescue. We believe firmly that Jesus rescues us from the dangerous or harmful situations others have brought upon us, as well as those we place ourselves in. Like a coast guard diver who leaps from the helicopter into the choppy water, Jesus leapt from the right hand of God and came into our world and experienced our hurts, our desires, our temptations, and even our death, purely and simply so that he could provide us with rescue. His blood shed on the cross was a promise that we would never have to deal with sin again.

Of course, the struggle is that we are in the already/but not yet. For as much as we look forward to the life to come in the Kingdom of God, we still live in the world that everyone has universally agreed is falling apart at the seems. But rescue is here, and rescue is coming. Christ frees us from the harmful situations we place ourselves in, and offers us the ability to forgive those who place us in harmful situations. And in the end, the ultimate rescue of the Kingdom founded on earth as it is in heaven will be ours to enjoy forever.

Praise God for Rescue!

Godspeed,

Jason

Scripture Deficency

2011-08-15T10:31:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends!

A few days ago, I realized that something was a little bit off in my world. Not major off, but I was just discovering that I was all around irritable. A little bit beyond that, I kept finding myself doubting my own abilities, and feeling a bit unworthy of certain things. I get this way from time to time, and you would think that by now I would know the reason why and the cure to the affliction (hint: it's the same thing)

I realized that I wasn't spending any time in the scriptures at all. This is always a tricky area for those of us who work in the church I think, because we confuse the time we spend in the scripture for work (writing sermons, leading small groups, etc) as the time we should be spending in the scriptures for US. During my biblical drought, I bet I opened the bible every single day (if that sentence even makes sense!). The problem was, I was reading it for someone else, not for myself.

We have affirmed that the bible is the living word of God. In truth, the way I read that is that the bible is the only book on the planet that actually read you back. God communicates to his people through his word, and when you're always reading the bible with a mind to find tidbits of information for someone else, you're probably missing what God has to say to you. And it has been my experience that because the bible actually reads you back, it knows exactly what you need to hear at any given moment, whether it's challenge or encouragement, or a dollop of both.

So for my own growth, I took a whole new approach. I've made it pretty clear on this blog that for preaching/teaching, I'm a big fan of the TNIV (although, I have a New International Version from 2011, and I have to say that so far I'm a fan). So to keep me from making this about other people, I reached for a copy of Eugene Peterson's The Message. I've started a study through Isaiah, using Lectio Divina, and I can say for certain the God is speaking to me through the pages of his scriptures. I mean, if someone who is carrying around doubts and worries reads things like "Don't be like this people, always afraid somebody is plotting again them. Don't fear what they fear. Don't take on their worries." or "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows--Light! sunbursts of light!" they are sure to understand that God is speaking to them, as was the case with me.

So let me encourage you my friends, get into the word. Particularly if you're a church worker of some kind, don't forget to read the bible for yourself from time to time. God has some things to say to us too!

Godspeed,

Jason

I need your help! (Please read!)

2011-08-14T20:03:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

This past June, you helped me achieve what I thought would never be possible. Together, we raised over $1000 to fight MS. Your donations fueled my ride, and together we inspired several folks who are suffering from that disease. I would never have thought that we would raise over a grand, nor that I would have been able to ride 150 miles in two days! What we accomplished was simply miraculous!

Inspired by our work together, I set my sights on another charity that is very near and dear to my heart: The LIVESTRONG foundation. The foundation started by Lance Armstrong benefits thoughts living with cancer, and those who have survived and need further assistance. Let's face it, I've been sold out to LIVESTRONG for a long while now, so when we were so successful with Bike MS, I signed up for the LIVESTRONG challenge in Philadelphia.

The challenge is one week away, and I am $125 away from the minimum donation required to ride. I've been training hard for weeks, and feel like I'm in the best shape of my (admittedly short) cycling career. If I don't have $250 in donations by Saturday, I will sadly not be able to ride in the LIVESTRONG challenge.

We don't need big time donations here. If just a few of us can get together and offer $5, I think you'll be amazed at how quickly we can reach our goal. Together, we can make folks living with cancer know that they are loved, and that we support them.

Your support means the world to me! I'll have live updates on Twitter from the ride, so if you are able to donate, keep the journey going by following along with the updates.

To donate, visit http://philly2011.livestrong.org/freyer

Godspeed,

Jason

A great article worth reading!

2011-08-09T08:51:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

Just a quick update today. I've been working through a lot of what I think about the Bible, and how we read it, and how the way we read it these days may not be the best way (or, for that matter, biblical). While I'm going to continue to mull over these thoughts for a few more days, I came across an extremely well worded article that I completely agree with, so I thought I'd share it with you all to get the gears spinning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lose/4-good-reasons-not-to-read-bible-literally_b_919345.html?ref=tw

Other than that, I'm back to work this week, so that probably means a few less posts. Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple of other hits up in the next week or so. Veritas returns very soon, and I have some thoughts to share about that as well!

Godspeed,

Jason

Dreamer: What kind of pastor will I be?

2011-08-05T10:55:00.000-04:00

Hello friends,

I've been reading Eugene Peterson's The Contemplative Pastor as I get ready to dive into Seminary this fall. First of all, it's a really good book that I'm hoping to review here at the J-Blog as soon as I finish, but it got me thinking about what kind of pastor I will end up being when I finish my time at PTS.

This is how my brain is wired, and I understand it's different for everybody else, but I am so much a dreamer. I get caught up in imagining what kind of church I'll pastor. Will it be a big one or a small one? An old one, or one that I've planted myself? What kind of congregation will I have? Who will be the people that I love to hang out with and grow in faith with, and who will be the people who make me want to rip my fingernails off (come on, we all know they're out there)? Or will I stick with youth ministry for a real long time, try to find an ordained position? Sometimes this week, I've been just closing my eyes on the beach, and dreaming of what life will be like in the (sigh) nine years it will take me to wrap up this degree.

I think dreaming is important. Like I said, I know that most people don't dream the way I do, but for me it's so critical. It's like the GPS to my life, mapping out what dreams are worth following and which are dead ends. Some dreams are short, like the current dream of taking a nap on the beach in a couple of hours. Some are big, like trying to figure out what my future holds. But either way, dreaming is a big part of my life, and I wonder if it shouldn't be a bigger part of all of our lives.

God seems to enjoy the dreamers. Joseph comes to mind. It's a story worth reading a a couple of levels, because Joseph's dreams got him in a lot of trouble, as ours will from time to time. But in the end, it seems to me at least that God rewards the dreamers. Take a look at King David. For as much as he was the mighty king and warrior, he writes Psalms in a way that indicates that he knows how to let his mind go, to play with imagery and dreams. This, scripture tells us, was a man after God's own heart.

So what are your dreams? Where does your mind wander when you give it enough time? What scares you about being a dreamer?

Till next time,

Godspeed,

Jason

Book review: Love Wins and Erasing Hell

2011-08-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

Hello friends!

As I previously mentioned, while in Africa I took some time to read Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and Love Wins by Rob Bell back to back, which provided some interesting insight to this theological discussion by two of my favorite authors/speakers/pastors out there.

Before we dig in, a few thoughts:

#1) Let's be civil.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm discovering more and more the importance of civil discussion and debate among us in the Christian world. I know that both of these books have raised some eyebrows and some temperatures in the blogosphere lately, and I'm sure that my words here will be no different. I only ask that if we're going to wade into a discussion in the comments here that we do so lovingly and with grace and kindness and respect. Anything less isn't worthy of our calling to the Way.

#2) Let's watch the "H" word.
No, not hell. That word we'll probably use a lot here. I mean heretic. I've seen that word thrown around a lot in this discussion, and I'm honestly quite appalled by it. There are times when we're meant to label something heretical, or someone a heretic, but I think we've taken to using it far too much in our time. Really, I'm seeing it used for groups of people who have a disagreement with a particular tribe church or denomination. If this person doesn't line up with our doctrine statement, we throw the "H" word at them.

In my humble opinion, these are two throughly dedicated guys who took a hard look at the Scriptures, and came to two different decisions about them. Neither is outside the realm of Orthodox Christianity (just ask C.S. Lewis, Augustine, or Gregory of Nyssa). So while we might disagree on some points, let's be careful with the name calling and labeling.

Now, on to the books. Let's start with Francis Chan.

Summary
For as much as some people are saying that this book is not a direct response to Love Wins, it sure acts like one. Rob Bell is quoted in almost every chapter, but in a way that kind of looks to me like Chan was working on this book for a while before Bell's came out, so they added those quotes at the last minute. I think Chan believed what he believes well before Bell's book arrives on the scene, he's just hoping on the hype train (who could blame him?)

This book is a summary of what has been the typical classical evangelical Christian teaching for the last 100 years or so, mainly that those who do not accept Jesus Christ in this life are doomed to some sort of punishment or destruction in hell. Actually, Chan isn't quite sold on conscious eternal torment or just a simple end of life. But either way, in Chan's view, hell is eternal. No second chances as prescribed in Love Wins.

What I liked
1) I really liked the heart Francis Chan had in the writing of this book. He says accurately: "It forces me back to a sobering reality: This is not just about doctrine; it's about destinies. And if you're reading this book and wrestling with what the Bible says about hell, you cannot let this be a mere academic exercise." Paragraphs just like this one litter the book, and make you realize that Chan understands that people won't appreciate what he's suggesting, and neither does he. He just understands it as truth. For as cold and unwelcoming as the discussion about heaven and hell have been lately, Chan is heartbroken and gentle, and we need more people like that in the world.

2) Francis Chan did his homework for this book, which is what led me to believe that this was written or at least started well before Love Wins hit the shelves. An untold amount of research and bible study went into this book, and I for one think that more books could benefit from this. Rather than just opening our mouths and spouting our opinions, we ought to make sure that we're taking a hard look at the scriptures. Anything else is just opinion, which is worth while but not all that weighty.

What I didn't like
1) There was some false advertising in this book right from the start. In the introduction, Chan says "I'm not going to hang on to the idea of hell simply because it's what my tradition tells me to believe. And neither should you." He follows that up with saying "...if it's true, if the Bible does teach that there is a literal hell awaiting those who don't believe in Jesus, then this reality must change us." The introduction makes it sound (as least to me) that Chan intends to check tradition at the door, and rely squarely on the scriptures. This is typically Chan's M.O., and honestly I looked forward to it. But then through the book every scripture was read in light of a theologian or particular theological background, as though their way to read it was the only way to read it. I found myself saying "That's nice that they feel that way Francis, but I'm interested in how you read it."

Don't get me wrong: Tradition and theology are critical in our Christian beliefs, and leaning heavily on them is important and good. But not if you tell me in the introduction that this is more about the scriptures than it is about your tradition. This is probably more my own disappointment rather than a flaw in the book, but there it is all the same.

2) There was a footnote that actually made me physically upset to read. It's a note on Matthew 25:31-46. The footnote (#3 in Chapter 5 specifically) says "In the context, Jesus is talking about impoverished Christians, not any poor person. This is clear from Jesus' description of the poor as 'these brothers of Mine.'" I could not disagree with this interpretation of this scripture any more. I've been pouring over this passage for a long time, and never came to the conclusion that it was meant for Christian poor folks only. First of all, caring for people and mission work are two of the finest ways to bring non-Christians into the most wonderful Way of life that's out there. Secondly, Jesus didn't really have an intention to start a new religion, did he? So why is it that he would give a teaching in which the people to be affected by it were in a particular religion? That doesn't seem to make sense to me. Lastly, Jesus had a heart for everybody, including Gentiles (see the Roman Centurion in Matthew 8:5). In all my readings of the Gospels, I've never seen Jesus putting fences up around who can get help and who can't. I love you Francis, but I think you got it wrong here.

3) Lastly, it's not the best writing in the world. I won't hold that against him, but it was kind of hard to work through at times. The sections surrounding Love Wins in particular seemed rushed, and so the writing takes a noticeable dip there. But hey, you guys put up with the garbage that I write, and this book is way better than that!

Summary
First of all, it's important to note that this book has an incredibly different goal than Erasing Hell. The later is a theology book, meant to clarify a particular doctrine statement. Bell outlines a different agenda in the introduction of Love Wins:

"I've written this book for all those, everywhere, who have heard some version of the Jesus story that caused their pulse rate to rise, their stomach to churn, and their heart to utter those resolute words, 'I would never be a part of that.'"

So rather than having the direct objective of clarifying a particular theology, Bell intends this book to be an encouragement to the disenfranchised who NEED to see Christ in a different light if they have any hope of getting behind Him. Now obviously to do that Bell includes some theological statements and doctrines, but I think it's important to note that it's meant for another purpose.

Bell's idea is that heaven and hell are choices we make, both in this life and in the life to come. He affirms what Presbyterians have long stated, that God's love is irresistible, and that given enough time, everyone will come to know that love. Even if it's in the afterlife.

What I liked
1) Rob Bell is not afraid of complexity. This book makes it clear that salvation is quite simple, as it is found in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone (anyone who denies this about Bell's book hasn't read it), but the way that salvation is worked out is a rather complex thing. What does believing in Jesus really mean? Is it saying a prayer? Is it a lifestyle? Is it what you do? How can you tell who believes in Jesus and who's just saying they do? It's a complex discussion, and if we're honest, it requires a lot of extra thought on our end. I need a faith that has such complexity. I need something that goes way beyond surface comfort and happy feelings. I need a Holy Spirit who will take me deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole with every scripture I read.

2) Rob Bell uses scripture as much if not more than Francis Chan to build his argument. Somewhere along the way people started saying that Bell has either a low-view of scripture, or that he doesn't place himself under it's authority. I know I'm one of the biggest Rob Bell fans on the face of the planet, so perhaps I'm biased, but I really truly believe that he built a position entirely on Scripture here in Love Wins. You may not like his interpretations, or the conclusions that he comes to. But that's a different discussion. Like Chan, Bell has absolutely done his homework, and it shows.

What I didn't like
(Yes, there are a few things about a book Rob Bell wrote that I don't like. I'll give you a second to recover...)

1) Unlike Chan, I had a hard time with Bell's attitude in this book at several places. It's almost as if he can feel his critics coming, and so he develops this downright snarky attitude in places that I can honestly do with out. Granted, I don't know what it's like to be the subject of every blog post and the bullseye for every sermon in the country for a couple of weeks, so perhaps I'd develop a snarky attitude too. But given how much I desire to have a respectful and honest debate about these books, I was disappointed to say the least about the tone taken in certain places in Love Wins. (Note, this is hard to quote in the blog, as it usually involves a long paragraph followed by a snarky comment at the end. As I've been advocating all along with this book, it's probably better for you to read it for yourself and see what I'm talking about)

2) Chapter 7 deals heavily with the Prodigal Son story found in Luke. To try to summarize an entire chapter in a few lines or less, when you get to the end of the Prodigal Son story you find the older son miserable outside the party being thrown for the younger son. Bell's assumption then is that "In this story, heaven and hell are within each other, intertwined, interwoven, bumping up against each other."

Now, this gets messy, because in addition to believing in real afterlife heaven and a real afterlife hell (again, anyone who says he doesn't hasn't read the book), Bell also believes that heaven and hell are happening here on earth. In that sense, it makes sense that heaven and hell could be rubbing elbows in the very same place based upon the kinds of choices people were willing to make about their own stories. But this is confusing at best in this chapter, and I think it could lead to a bit of confusion. I'd have liked to have a little bit of clarification on this position. But then again, I didn't write the book.

Wrapping it all up.

So what can we learn from these two books?

Two very serious, very dedicated Christian men have read almost exactly the same scriptures, studied them, prayed about them, and came to two radically different conclusions. What does that say to us? That one must have prayed wrong and there for got it wrong? Or does it mean that the Holy Spirit wants to stir the pot, and help us debate it among ourselves for a bit? (Anyone who doesn't see the Holy Spirit as a rouser of rabel isn't seeing the whole picture)

My guess is that the truth lies somewhere between the two extreme views put forth by these authors, and I don't know what that looks like. But that's the beauty of a situation like this, it invites us to discover and dig into God's word for ourselves. Rather than picking one of the sides and defending it tooth and nail, what does it look like to find the holes in both positions and try to sort out for ourselves where the truth lies?

And so that's what I'd like for us to do here at the J-Blog. Where do these authors stand on these issues, and how is it different from where you stand? Remember to answer that question in a way that explores our faith, rather than defending it. I think that will make all the difference. To help, I'm humbly asking that no one comment on this post unless you've read Love Wins, Erasing Hell, or both. Opinions are great, but opinions based on rumors can be rather toxic to a good conversation.

May God bless the conversation.

Godspeed,

Jason

What the debt ceiling taught me about civil dialogue.

2011-08-02T14:53:00.000-04:00

Hello friends,

There have been a confluence of things going on in my world the last couple of days that have reminded me that it's absolutely critical for Christians (well, really we could broaden that to include all humans, but let's be simple here to start) to posses the ability to talk about the things we might disagree about in a civil, loving, and supportive way.

For starters, this whole debt ceiling debacle that wrapped up just a few moments ago (the major lesson we can take from this is that my government thinks that my procrastination problem is ok). On Sunday, Sarah and I were watching the news while we were getting ready for vacation, and saw a debate take place on the floor of the Senate. The debate was between John McCain and Dick Durbin, two people who probably couldn't disagree less when it came to the issue of the debt ceiling. And they went back and forth, and they debated. Not like fighting or arguing, but like an honest debate between two people who disagree. They respected each other. They respected the room they were standing in. They respected their peers. They agreed with each other when they found the little areas of similarity, and they were sure to point those out. I bet neither of them changed their minds, or their votes. But for a few brief minutes in a months long shouting match, I saw something refreshing take place on the floor of the Senate, and it warmed my heart.

Then, as we were driving up on vacation, we entered into theological discussion with our friends Luke and Jessie. We come from vastly different church backgrounds, and this of course has led to very different views on a wide range of subjects. And even though we were 1) in New Jersey and 2) stuck in traffic, I saw the same sort of patience and respect and love for each other that I saw in the Senate debate. Let's face it, when you start talking religion or politics, these are the kinds of discussions that can wreck a whole congregation, let alone two pairs of friends. And yet we got out of the car in New York smiling, and happy, with our friendships still intact.

We're human beings, so of course everyone will eventually find a place where they disagree with their brother or sister. What if we could do that in a loving way? And by that I mean, what if our disagreements were held up to the light of 1 Corinthians 13?

Are our disagreements patient? Are they kind? Do they envy? Do we boast in our disagreements? Are we too proud? I know that I have been in some debates and arguments where I wouldn't be able to honestly say that about myself, and my heart breaks for that. Hopefully I can work on that so that all of my debates and discussions sound a lot like the one I had in the car with my friends on Sunday night.

Also, the timing of this post isn't lost on me at all. Tomorrow, we review Erasing Hell and Love Wins back to back. As I'm sure we're going to spur a lot of debate in the comments, let's try to keep this post in mind first!

Godspeed,

J

Book Review: Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me

2011-08-01T17:16:00.000-04:00

Greetings from NYC!

Sarah and I are joined by Luke and Jessie here at Breezy Point for a week of chilling by the beach, chilling on the porch, chilling in the city, and really chilling anywhere we can find. We've got a fridge full of Coke, and computers ready for blogging, so let's get to it!

While I was on my way to Africa last week, I knew that I wanted to read as much as I possibly could. I actually worked my way through three books, the first of which was Ian Morgan Cron's book Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. Somehow, I missed the fact that Cron was also the author Chasing Francis, a book I enjoyed incredibly for it's ties to a hypothetical CD that my hypothetical band may or may not be releasing on October 4th. (If you were wondering what the theme of our CD way, I essentially just gave it away!)

I have always been a big fan of memoir as a genre of writing. It's the style I feel most at home writing in, and definitely the style I feel most at home reading. Cron has a wit and a sense of humor that speaks directly to my heart. Jesus...and Me has an excellent style, and an incredible subject matter. Though I agree with my good friend Ed Cyzewski that this subject matter (rough childhood and how it impacts a person's faith) is a bit overdone in the bookstores right now, I think each story is different, and each story has something to teach us. This story in particular did kind of fizzle out in terms of the CIA and how that impacted Cron's relationship with his father, but I also kind of imagine that the situation fizzled out in his life in a way that was less than what he expected.

All in, I thought it was a tremendous read. Super quick to get through, and a fitting book for a sumer beach read if that's your thing.

Coming soon, I read Francis Chan's Erasing Hell and Rob Bell's Love Wins back to back. I'll review them together!

Till then!

Godspeed,

Jason

Coming Home From Malawi

2011-07-29T12:44:00.000-04:00

Hello friends!

Ten days ago, a team of seven students and seven adults left on the trip of a lifetime. We traveled from Pittsburgh to a city called Zomba in Malawi. We had been planning this trip for well over three years, and fundraising for the last couple of months. Our teens did amazing work leading up to the trip, and it came as no shock to anyone that they did great work in Africa itself!

I've spent the morning trying to post everything that we learned from this trip, but I'm coming up severely short in all of my drafts. So while a play by play review of the trip will likely be coming sometime in the future, I thought I'd share a couple of initial thoughts now that we're back in the States to pass the time. What I'm about to do is kind of like trying to fit the ocean in a Dixie cup, but we'll see where it takes us.

1. Don't underestimate youth.

This has been a staple thought of my ministry from day one, but it was on loud and proud display in Malawi. Too often in our culture, teenagers are looked at as less than capable people, folks who should not be trusted with the hard stuff of life. I think (hope) it comes from a place of care for the youth, that we don't want to over-whelm their already busy plates. But the truth is, at least with the students I work with, they are capable of every challenge that life hands them. Why would we expect anything less of them?

Our kids were amazing on this trip. We told them this about ten gazillion times, but I don't know if our words were capable of expressing what we as adults and leaders were feeling. From big things like sharing testimonies and forming a choir (who knew?) for a church service to small things like not complaining when plans changed and keeping it together when the whole crew was taken over by a food poisoning episode, our kids were up to the challenges Malawi handed them. Frankly, they handled themselves much better than some adults I know would have in the same situations.

We also had the opportunity to meet some amazing students from Zomba CCAP. Culturally, their youth group looks a lot different from ours (you're basically in the youth group until you get married, so there were people as old as 30s and 40s in it), but their ability to rise to the occasion was no less impressive. One of the ministries of Zomba CCAP is their Street Kids Program, which provides lunch and spiritual education to countless homeless children in Zomba. The whole thing is now being run by their youth, and they do it with grace and poise, as if they were made for such a task (spoiler alert: they were). It was a tremendously beautiful thing to see.

So the take home here is that our youth can be trusted with the big things. We can lay upon them the challenges that they're already facing, because for as much as we try to shelter them from the world, they're already a part of it. And truthfully, when you're in the front row watching a group of students rise to the occasion, it may well be the most beautiful thing you'll ever see.

2. 90% of anything is just showing up.

One of the questions we were asked the most (and the one we had the hardest time answering) was "What are you going to do in Malawi?" It was a fair question before we left, because we had absolutely no idea!

When people think mission trips, they usually think about the kind of hammer and nails building that goes on in a lot of the state-side trips. Either that, or they envision street preaching, passing out tracts and trying to win people to Christ. We knew from the start that this trip wasn't going to be either of those things. So what were our goals?

Our goals were to broaden our faith and the faith of the folks we met by simply showing up and sharing. This sounds painfully simple, and that's because it is! But the truth is, it's also downright biblical. Acts 2 was lived out in a profound way, as a group from Westminster and a youth group from Zomba CCAP literally shared all things in common. We spent time together. We ate together. We prayed together. We sang together (we did this one a lot). We literally climbed mountains together. And through it all, we grew together. We learned what a dynamic faith in Jesus Christ can look like across cultures and across oceans. And, like watching the kids rise to the challenges put before them, it was an awe-inspiring thing.

How much of our lives are spent looking for something "big" to do? How often do we feel like we need to write the next book or sing the next song or build the next house to make a difference in someone's life? What if, to truly make a difference, all that's required of us is to show up and let God do his work among us? What if sharing life together would be all we needed?

3. Always keep a sense of awe.

How could you spend all that time traveling to Africa and not stop along the way to see the awesome animals?

(A better question to ask me would be, how could you know you were going to see the animals and forget to charge your camera battery that day?)

We spent a whole day on Safari in Liwonde national park, and saw all the animals you typically see at the zoo sans cages. We spent the night in an area where you would be kept awake by the snorts and shuffling of hippos (easily the most terrifying part of the trip for me). Crocodiles swam alarmingly close to our boat. And all I could think the entire time was "What an awesome God."

He created the whole world for us, and everything that's in it. I think God takes extreme delight when a group of people hop in a bus, drive around his creation taking pictures and excitedly exclaiming to each other "look at that!" Surely it brings a smile to the Creator's face!

But I wonder if we shouldn't have the same sense of awe when we're driving around Upper Saint Clair as we do when we are lucky enough to find ourselves in the jungle? I wonder if a smile shouldn't be enough to fill us with wonder and amazing me as an elephant's tusks? What would the world look like if we all carried that sense of awe into everything we experienced in God's good world? I'm not sure, but I think it would be a drastically better place.

So those are some initial thoughts. I'll be sharing more, including a bunch of pictures pretty soon. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement on the trip!

Godspeed,

Jason

Spirituality vs. Religion

2011-07-14T09:55:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I can exactly explain it, but there are certain uses for the word "religion" that bother me. I don't know why, but some of these sentences are like fingernails on the blackboard for me. Some examples include:

"What does your religion say about (insert current event here)?"

"My religion teaches (insert scripture passage here)."

"What is your religion?"

It was to that last one that I said a sentence that bothered me at first, but actually I think turns out to have a lot to teach us.

"Christianity is my spirituality, The Pittsburgh Penguins are my religion."

Like I said, at first this idea really bothered me. But after I thought about it a little bit more, it makes all the sense in the world. A religion is a scheduled devotion, you are dedicated to your religion at certain times and at specific places. Each year, when the Penguins announce their season schedule, I grab my calendar and write down every game. If there's a game on a Wednesday (when we have youth group), I will break the land-speed record to get home and see it. Religion is meant to be experienced in a community, and while I will watch a Pens game by myself, there is nothing better than having my living room filled with my closest friends "worshiping" together. Religions tend to have sacred spaces and buildings, and I'll admit that I always stare at the Consol Energy Center for a bit longer than is normal. I even considered making this purchase.

A spirituality however, is much more adapt to answer the questions at the top of the post. A spirituality doesn't come in seasons or on schedules, because a spirituality impacts every once of your life. Every area, every event, every meeting, every workday, and every vacation are impacted by a spirituality. A spirituality doesn't happen in a fixed location. It happens everywhere. It happens in every instance, and it influences every decision. And while community is very important to a spirituality, it's not a limited community. Your spirituality impacts each and every person you come in contact with.

To me, Christianity fits way better into the spirituality category than it does into the religion category. There are religious aspects to a Christian faith, but it's not purely a religion.

As usual, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Godspeed,
Jason

Book Review: Falling Upward

2011-07-13T12:06:00.001-04:00

Hello again friends!

I just wrapped up the first book from my summer reading list, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts on it here at the J-Blog.

Falling Upward is a challenging book from Richard Rohr. It may have been particularly challenging for me because this is a book all about how to live the second half of life, which is still probably a little ways off for me. But all the same, there were some beautiful and inspiring sections to the book, and I think some great things to think about even as a young person.

One of the thoughts that I appreciated was the notion that a spirituality could actually mature and grow. I think too often we think of our spirituality as a static collection of views or opinions. Rohr points out that as a faith grows, it typically becomes more open and more inclusive in it's thinking, rather than exclusive and "gated". How could this not ring true to the followers of Jesus, who spent his time inviting the very people most thought were on the outside fringes of faith into his inner circle? It makes all the sense in the world to me.

Rohr also spends a small section of the book dealing with Heaven and Hell. Like Rob Bell, he speaks about heaven and hell in ways that make a tremendous amount of sense to me and to many other Christians. "No one is in heaven unless he or she wants to be, and all are in heaven as soon as they live in union. Everyone is in heaven when he or she has plenty of room for communion and no need for exclusion." (Page 119, or at least that's what page my iPad gives for it) This fascinates me that so many people are up in arms over Rob's position, while other Christian leaders have been saying the same sorts of things for quite a long time (Rohr, and most notably in my mind, C.S. Lewis). But, again, that book review is coming.

The central theme of the book resonates for me as well. The idea that our failures and fallings are actually where God does some of his best work in terms of growing us and maturing us is something that I've been working through a lot lately. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says "My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness." When we fall, fail, screw up, and get egg on our face, God is right there beside us to show us exactly how powerful his grace really is.

This is an amazing book, though very deep and not the easiest read. I very much recommend it to anyone, but particularly to older readers who are trying to make sense of life in the second half.

Catch ya later!

Jason

Jesus is a person.

2011-07-13T09:54:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends,

Some follow-up thoughts to yesterday's post. After I wrote it, I spent some time thinking about how we try to pretend that our theology or our doctrinal statement or our denomination is the source of absolute truth, when in fact it's Christ, and Christ alone, who occupies that position in our world. I was thinking about it a bit, and the same sentence kept playing itself over and over and over again in my head.

"Jesus is a person."

A few specific points that need to be mentioned about a sentence like that:

1. Jesus is a person.

One of the things that bothers me more than most is when Christians refer to Jesus as though everything he was happened 2000 years ago. My friends, we do not worship a historical figure. We do not worship a dead man. We worship a LIVING God, a Christ who is as much alive today as he was 2000 years ago, not to mention at the beginning of the world. This is one of the biggest ways the Christian Spirituality separates itself from the other faiths of the world, our God is still with us.

2. People are meant for relationships.

If I approached my relationship with my wife the way some people approach their relationship with Jesus, I doubt very much that we'd still be together! Knowing facts about my wife is not the same as knowing my wife. Having a theology or doctrine statement about Christ isn't the same as having a relationship with Christ.

Don't get me wrong, facts and theology and doctrine are important. I'd be in as much trouble with my wife if I didn't know ANYTHING about her life and world. But if all I have is that framework for understanding a person, then the relationship isn't in fact all that deep.

I think for some of us it's time to stop talking about Jesus and start talking to Jesus. It's time to stop figuring out how Jesus works and start working for him. It's time to treat Jesus less like an idea, and more like a person.

3. Relationships aren't static.

I think one of the ideas that gets us in the most trouble is the concept of Jesus being the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's an absolute true statement, but I think we've forgotten something. We are not the same yesterday, today, or forever! We are static humans, our ideas and opinions and world views and personalities are constantly on the move. So while our savior is always the same, we are not, and so our relationship with him shouldn't stay the same for too too long.

Honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of my faith. It's constantly on the move, Jesus is the same God every day, but the way I approach him and the things I lean on him for and how I respond to him are constantly changing. Some people would have us believe that this is the sign of a weak faith, but I disagree. I honestly think it's a sign of a mature faith, one that's open to allowing Christ to do with them as he pleases.

Just some initial thoughts. I'd love if you'd share yours!

Godspeed,
Jason

Why are we afraid of asking questions?

2011-07-12T15:09:00.001-04:00

Hello gang!

There's lots to come this week, including a book review (I hope) of Falling Upward. Also to come soon to the blog (probably not until I return from Africa) will be the long anticipated review of Love Wins by Rob Bell. I've been waiting for a while to get my review in to try to let the dust settle.

But this post, not a review of the book itself, is actually a review of said "dust" we're all waiting to settle. Rob's book caused a great stir when it was being previewed and advertised. It's reception has been mixed since it came out and people actually started you know, reading it. And as someone who has an unbelievably long standing love affair with all things Rob Bell, I've found myself at the center of some questions from friends (and not so-friendly people).

Some would argue that the book is the best thing since sliced toast.

A significant portion more than that would argue that it's the most dangerous book to come out since they gave away free knives in cookbooks.

And still others don't think it's the secret to the meaning of life, but it's also not as bad as a lot of the hype makes it out to be (What are the odds that the media would blow something out of proportion?)

If you ask me (and again, we'll get to my views when I finish my second read through and get around to posting a review) all three are valid positions. This book does offer a lot of freedom to people who for years have felt trapped by a particular brand of Christianity. This book is dangerous to faiths for whom this is a new and murky topic (though, whoever said Christianity avoided danger?)

My problem is with (as in most cases) the tone of the argument around this book and the beliefs expressed within. Because (and again, I'm reading the book again because I went through pretty fast the first time around) it seems to me that this book is not a statement of theological fact. It's not a doctrine statement. It's not a decree. It is in it's most basic and rudimentary form, a book that asks a lot of questions.

Leading questions? Probably. Deep questions? Sure. Unnerving questions? In some cases. But truthfully, questions are all this book seems to offer us. It comes across to me as Rob trying his best to understand the world, and even more importantly, to understand the world through the lens of the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. Which leads me to my big point and question for us today:

If we affirm (and I do) that Jesus Christ is the "way, the truth, and the life," and not only that, we affirm (again, I do) that he is the ultimate source of truth in our world and all worlds, then what question could Jesus (and/or our faith in him) not be able to handle? Is there a rabbit hole so deep that it actually leads us away from the ultimate truth of the universe? And if so, is it still an ultimate truth?

If I am asked questions, even questions that may or may not rattle my faith a little bit, won't that ultimately lead me to a deeper and more resounding understanding of my relationship with Jesus?

Actually, the problem occurs to me just now after typing that sentence. Jesus Christ is the absolute truth in the universe. Our faith (by which I mean our system of beliefs and doctrines) is not. When we engage in a sort of tribalistic Christianity, in which only our view points are true and everyone else's are wrong, then questions can cause us a great deal of harm.

But if we open ourselves up to the ultimate truth, even if that truth is outside of our particular faith system or doctrinal statement, then questions aren't threatening at all. The truth will ultimately do what it always does.

It will set us free.

More to come, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Godspeed,

Jason

Summer Reading List

2011-07-08T14:42:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

Man, I think I literally had to dust off the J-Blog when I opened up my computer today! Sorry for the long delay between posts!

There's a lot that's going to be coming our way. Depending on the internet connection, there may or may not be some posts coming your way from Malawi when the team heads over there next week. Of course, your prayers are appreciated. I'm also working on a few projects that might require J-Blog input, so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I've started a summer reading list for myself, and I thought I'd share what I'm planning on working through and seeing if any of you are working through these books with me.

1. Falling Upward, Richard Rohr
I'm already most of the way through this book. It's a really good read! My iPad is getting sort of cranky with me for all the highlighting I've done, but there are a lot of lines that I'm looking to pull for upcoming sermons. I'll have a full review when I finish the full text.

2. Quitter, Jon Acuff
I don't really have any desire to quit my job at all, but anything that encourages people to be dreamers is alright in my book. Plus, Jon Acuff is an absolutely hilarious man, so I'm looking forward to ripping into this one.

3. Erasing Hell, Francis Chan
Is this a response to Rob Bell's Love Wins? I don't think so, but all the same, it's on the same topic. Plus, for as much as I may disagree with the conclusions Chan comes to (who knows, haven't even opened this one yet), I know from past experience that Chan is a man I can trust, who does his biblical homework better than most. The conversation continues!

4. Black Tide, Antonia Juhasz
This book was recomended in Relevant's summer reading list, and the BP oil spill of last year is something that always interested/disturbed me greatly. What was it's impact, and how is that impact still being felt by folks down in the Gulf? I don't want to be ignorant, I want to know what's going on in the world around me.

5. The War of Art, Steven Pressfield
I read this book at least once a year. It's super helpful for me as a creative type person to keep my priorities in line, and try to keep myself productive. This will be my third pass through it, and each time so far I've learned a little bit more about myself and the work of art.

Usually, I'd tell you that there's no way I'm getting through all 5 books, but with two 20+ hour plane flights in my near future, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to make a new list in late July!

What are you reading? Have you read any of these books?

More to come!

Godspeed,

Certainly Uncertain

2011-05-27T10:37:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends!

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I use Blogo as an editor for all the blogs I write for, and it was being cranky this week. But, one cranky spell in 3 years is a pretty decent track record, so if you're into blogging, and need an editor, I highly recommend Blogo!

I've been thinking a lot this week about certainty. Particularly when it comes to the predicted end of the world that never actually happened. I was reading a bit on www.familyradio.com just to get to know these folks a bit, and what struck me was the certainty with which they predicted the end of the world. It was GOING to happen. No one would be able to talk them out of it. Of course, we all saw how that went.

I think about the religious leaders of Jesus' day. The Pharisees and the experts of the law. After hundreds and thousands of years of studying the law of Moses, these folks were convinced that they knew what the heart of God was all about. They knew with certainty what was good, and what was wrong. And these were the people who Jesus placed directly in his cross hairs, and had the harshest words for.

There's a lot of debate around heaven and hell right now, who's a heretic and who's not, and who's a universalist and who's not. I don't really want to get into the finer points of the argument, but I do want to ask, how do you know with certainty your point of view? How can you be certain?

I mean, one obvious answer would be that the Scriptures are a source of certainty. But I don't know if it's that simple. First of all, the religious leaders in the days of Jesus were certain based on the scriptures, as was Mr. Camping. And also, the scriptures are a source of truth, not certainty, and those (in my humble opinion) are two different things.

Maybe another answer would be the community you belong to, if everybody else feels the same way about something then certainty can't be far behind, right? Yeah, but this also has two fatal flaws to it: 1) Group think, where no one challenges anything because they're afraid to be outside the group, and 2) people who don't look/act/dress/think/behave like the group are not welcomed in, so the group eventually dies out.

Maybe the truth is that faith is never CERTAIN. There were things that I was certain of in high school that I've come to discover are extremely wrong. Is it wrong to have a faith that's open to being wrong? Is it wrong to have a faith that's flexible and breathable and moving, open to whatever might enter the conversation next? Is that really a wishy-washy faith, or is that the kind of faith that affirms that Truth is a Person, and people are fluid and moving things?

I, of course, welcome your thoughts!

Godspeed,

Jason

Worship in the Club

2011-05-17T15:09:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

I was driving home from a meeting today, and I'm pretty sad to announce that I was indeed listening to KISS FM. Yeah, I like pop music. What of it?

For all it's catchy beats though, I do like to make fun of the complete lyrical depth of some of these songs on the radio. Because "yes, of course we does" must make every English teacher's skin crawl. These songs have a complete lack of depth in their lyrics because I think, with subtle few exceptions, pop music has been reduced to one simple agenda:

Make people dance in a club.

It drives me kind of crazy when you get a song that has absolutely nothing to say but "everybody get up and dance!" It feels like the song is telling me what to do, and as I'm usually in the car when I'm hearing these songs, and dancing is out of the question!

But as I was thinking all of this on my ride home today, I started to wonder about the songs we write for worship. How many of them are just like that? Jesus died for our sins, so let's all get together in the club and put our hands up!

I get kind of conflicted here, and my brain starts to hurt drifting between two different thoughts. On the one hand, the death and resurrection of Christ is a huge moment in human history, and it absolutely deserves to be celebrated! Go crazy! Put your hands up! Dance! Sing at the top of your lungs! As someone who leads worship for a Presbyterian church, we could admittedly use a bit more celebration in our worship services!

But then again, is the worship music we create a little bit too shallow? If the only thing we're singing about is the party that is either here and now or the party that's coming in the next life, then are we robbing people of the deep and rich traditions of the Christian faith? Would it kill us to have a few more songs that use the language of grace and forgiveness (I think a series is coming on this...stay tuned!)

What do you think? Are we balanced in our songwriting, or could we use a touch more emphasis on one side or the other?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Baggage

2011-05-12T10:44:00.000-04:00

Hey friends,

Last night at Veritas, we started a series that I think is going to be pretty unique when it's all said and done. The theory behind it all is that we spend far too much time discussing things AROUND the idea of Jesus, and even (I am pretty guilty of this anyway) substituting information ABOUT Christ rather than a genuine relationship with Christ. So, as a teacher this is hard, but I'm trying to work through this series without any actual "teaching." My goal at the end would be that our students spent some time with the person of Christ.

Last night we talked about Matthew 11:25-30, and about the kinds of burdens we're each carrying. We watched a pretty awesome Skit Guys video, and then started asking questions. The truth is, at least in our neighborhood, I see our students so tense and so stressed out and so worried, and I wonder how much of that they actually NEED to carry around with them.

Questions are a marvelous way to teach. I've gotten so many interesting comments about the Bin Laden post from a couple of days ago, and all it contained were the questions in my mind. Take a look through the gospel stories, and you'll find that Jesus was way more about the question than he was about the answers.

And for our students last night, it felt like questions led to more questions. And those questions led us to another place. And by the end of the night, we were nowhere near where I had planned to take us. But then again, when you have a series which strives to keep Jesus as it's focus, how far could you possibly stray? And so, a few questions for us to think about this morning:

What kind of baggage are you carrying?

Why?

Why is it so hard to let Jesus carry our baggage for us?

Do we trust him?

Really?

Really really?

What's the first tangible step towards letting go some of what we're holding on to?

What role does the Church play in allowing us to let our baggage go

Where do we go from here?

Youth Ministry Friday: Relationships

2011-05-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

So, I've been trying to re-invent the blog a little bit. Over the years, it's increased it's scope from a blog by a youth pastor to youth pastors, to starting to include worship leading stuff, to just whatever might be in my head.

But I thought perhaps there should be a bit more of the youth ministry thing, since it's one of my favorite activities, and favorite things to write about! So each Friday, we'll do a post about youth ministry, and we'll try to do it in such a way that everyone has something to learn in the process.

Why Fridays? Because Friday is the home of one of my favorite youth ministry events of the week at Westminster. After school, we pile the kids into our bus (and a couple of wonderful volunteer's mini-vans) and take our high school students to Chick-Fil-A. Now, this is usually when folks in youth ministry ask about the programing of the event.

"Is it a bible study?"

"Is it a discipleship opportunity?"

"What book are you working through?"

"How many people have been saved there?"

"How many people come to your youth group because of it?"

The truth is, there is no programming behind Chick-Fil-A. There's no agenda. We don't make any speeches. The whole idea is to give the kids a place to relax a bit after a hard week of school, and to give them a chance to hang out with us. Relationships, as cliche as it might be, is still the name of the game in youth ministry.

Because while there's no bible study at Chick-Fil-A, we've had some of the most spiritually fulfilling conversations in that dining room.

While there's no specified discipleship being offered, I've had a blast watching some of our kids grow in leaps and bounds over the years at Chick-Fil-A.

While I don't have any intentions of presenting the Gospel to new people, I've heard countless times from students who say they feel like they can belong with our group.

My question to us is this: How much time and energy are we pouring into our programs and events, and how does it compare to the time and effort we're pouring into our student's lives? If we're leading one of the larger youth groups around, do we still know all our student's names? Do we know their stories? Do we know their hurts? Do we know how they need us? Do we know (most importantly) how they need Jesus?

May we spend more time with our kids, instead of more time for our kids.

Different Voices

2011-05-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I was looking for a book in our office that was nowhere to be found. So I did the un-thinkable: I tore every book off the shelves and started to re-organize them so that I might actually find things. So far, it remains organized, which is a world record of some kind.

On the shelf right next to the door, I put all my "go-to" authors together. Brennan Manning. Rob Bell. Leonard Sweet. Don Miller. David Crowder. Brian McClaren. All the works by these guys (and the extra copies I've collected over the years) are in one place, a quick grab situation if I need some encouragement.

But lately, I've been trying my best to reach out to some different authors and get some different voices into my diet. Mike Yaconelli. Scot McKnight. N.T. Wright. Authors that I've known were good, but were almost always in second place to my habits of reaching for the same books over and over again.

The problem with reaching for the same books over and over again (especially if you're reading theology books) is that your view of the world is shaped by these books, and if you keep reading them again and again, then you're in danger of cementing your worldview with no hope of growth.

So when you're looking for new voices, where do you look? Does the Amazon recommended section help? Do you have trusted friends who share what they're reading with you? Do you have a book club? What are you reading now?

Good questions to ponder!

What comes out of our mouths.

2011-05-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29

I realized something nasty about myself the other day. I caught it when I was having a conversation with someone at work. We were talking about something ministry related (kind of proves my point that I can't remember what it was). And the whole way through, I think maybe six or seven times, I brought up the bike ride I was gearing up for. I was pretty proud of myself for all the work I was doing (still am in fact), but I walked away from that conversation thinking "Man, I must think I'm cool."

I didn't like it one bit!

After some deep introspection and examination, I realized that I had a couple of other tricks to get you guys to make me feel pretty cool:

1. Make jokes about myself. This does one of two things: It either beats you to the punch of making fun of me, so that I can control the impact, or it makes people give me a compliment to balance the joke out. Either way, I make fun of myself, and you make me feel better. I am a jerk.

2. Make every story about me. Dang, I am good at this one. You might be telling me about something deep and personal in your life, something that takes incredible bravery to share with someone, and I will take every opportunity given to me to share some trivial story about me that makes me look cool. I am a big jerk.

3. I write a blog. I am a colossal jerk.

Then I read the passage above, and I started to think through a beautiful world. What if everything I said wasn't meant to make me look cool, but was meant to make other people feel good about themselves? What if every comment that came out of my mouth lifted my friends up, rather than lifted me up? What if when I asked someone how they were doing, I actually cared what their answer was rather than just using it as a means to get them to ask about me?

I've been trying this for about a month now, and truthfully, I'm not very good at it yet. I walk away from conversations thinking "Dang it...could have done that better!" But truthfully, just trying to keep it on the front of my mind helps.

How much time and energy do you dedicate to thinking about what you say? Am I alone in feeling this way, or is it a more common experience?

Share away!

Getting Away

2011-05-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I went away for a couple of days to Pine Springs camp. I had planned on making a get-away once a year when I took the job at Westminster, and it turns out that I've been successful only twice. More on this at the end.

What do I do on these retreats? It's one of the hardest simple things to do:

1. Sit quietly. I have been an advocate of making sure that we're opening our ears and our hearts for what God might have to say to us, but the truth is that I am one of the worst in the world when it comes to putting that concept into practice. An hour without my headphones is too much. But at the onset of the retreat, I sat on the couch in the cabin and just listened. I've never actually heard an audible voice doing this (though who knows what might come next time), but it's more like a cleansing of the palate. As was the case with this retreat, God was going to speak the whole time. I needed to get my head straight and be ready for it.

2. Read. Mike Yaconelli wrote in his book Getting Fired for the Glory of God that youth workers are horrible about reading. Guilty. But like anything, the busyness of life can get in the way. I don't have time to read when I'm getting ready for that lock-in next week. So to take a couple of days to get away and get a few books under my belt, as well as some much needed personal scripture reading, was welcomed. By the way, reading entire books of the bible in a single sitting is amazing, and you should do it as often as you can. Changes the whole perspective.

3. Relax. This is hard. Very hard in fact. It feels selfish. But the hard reality of it all is that you are useless to those you minister to (and we all minister to someone) if you are tired, burned out, at the end of your rope. Really at that point, you're just annoying. So I had little problem grabbing pizza from Dusty's and listening to the Penguins game (an over-time thriller).

4. Journal. I'm a writer by nature, so I'm sure people will have a hard time with that one. But as I mentioned previously, I think God was speaking to me the whole time I was in the cabin. For as random as my reading selections were, there were a few common themes that kept coming up as I was reading both my books and the scriptures. Writing it down and then piecing it together at the end of the retreat really gave me a chance to see a bigger picture, one that I truly think God put on my heart.

Now the problem here (and it should be obvious) is that not everyone has the flexibility to take a silent retreat. Work sometimes gets in the way. Families get in the way (by the by, Sarah is super awesome and supportive about this kind of thing in my life). Life gets in the way. But for as much as I was putting it off for a couple of years, it truly helps me minister to folks better.

So I urge you, even if it seems like a stretch, take the time to get away. Go somewhere you'd love to be. Take only what you need with you. And most of all, take an open heart, ready to hear what God's going to say for your life!

Another great way to start the day!

2011-05-03T08:52:00.001-04:00

A good way to end the night/start the day!

2011-05-02T23:37:00.001-04:00

House Keeping.

2011-05-02T10:19:00.001-04:00

I know, I know, you've heard it before. But I really am going to try to spend some more time on the J-Blog.

Starting with this dazzling new theme you see. It's my favorite that I've had so far.

Unfortunately, it does have one draw back (at least as far as I can see). It's hard to tell where to make a comment.

See that little green word bubble next to the picture at the top of this post? That's where it's at.

Of course as always I encourage comments, but only as long as their civil and respectful.

Sorry for the confusion! Enjoy the Monday!

What to make of Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T10:16:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends.

I was about three seconds away from going to bed last night when I read the news on my Twitter feed (there should be a whole other post about this!) that Osama Bin Laden is dead. What followed was a series of emotions, distaste for the news industry in our country (what else is new?), and a tremendous number of questions. I don't know that I have any answers, but I think that's ok. I think we just need to ask ourselves some questions as a nation right now. So, in no particular order:

1. Is it ok to celebrate the death of someone? Even if that someone was evil?

2. Does it make me less patriotic that I don't want to celebrate his death?

3. Why didn't anyone (at least while I was watching) take a moment last night to thank our troops? Say what you want about everything that's happened in the last ten years (and some of us could say plenty), but our support of the finest men and women in the world should be absolute! Where were they last night?

4. What do people who lost loved ones on 9/11 feel after last night?

5. Did it really bring closure? Or are they still mourning/suffering/grieving this morning?

6. How do we best support them?

7. How will we channel the (at least presumed) feelings of unity in the country right now?

8. Why does it take something terrible (death) to bring about this sense of unity?

9. What are the implications on our relationship with the Muslim nations of the world right now?

10. What does this do for/to my faith?

11. How do we fit passages like Matthew 5:44 into a national situation like this?

12. How could we possibly talk about anything else at youth group on Wednesday night?

13. What if one of the kids asks a question I don't have a good answer for?

14. What if I have a good answer, but they don't like it?

15. Is Wolf Blitzer growing a playoff beard?

16. If we want to celebrate something, why not celebrate our freedoms?

17. How do you even do that?

18. Fireworks?

19. Hotdogs?

20. Starbucks? (Ok, actually that one has an answer)

21. If we're so desperate to celebrate that we're willing to celebrate a man's death, is it because we needed him to die, or is it because we've been desperate for something to celebrate lately?

22. If it's the second, then why is the Church so miserable at promoting joy and celebration?

23. What's my role as a leader in the Church in promoting joy and celebration?

24. Is this blog post too depressing?

25. Or is it actually raising questions that we need to deal with?

26. Back to Matthew 5:44, how do I pray for Osama Bin Laden?

27. Should I pray for his family?

28. Should I pray for the rest of Al-Quidea?

29. If yes, what in the world should I pray for them for?

30. That they find Christ?

31. That they stumble into Christ-like lives?

32. Would they even know a Christ-like life if they saw one?

33. Isn't that my job?

34. Aren't I doing a terrible job at that?

These are just questions. Some of them feel like they should have answers, but I'm not sure if I have answers to any of these questions. Of course, with as much respect for each other as we can muster, I would welcome a civil discussion here in the comments if you feel like you have something to share.

Godspeed,

Jason

Book Review: Getting Fired for the Glory of God

2011-04-29T14:35:00.001-04:00

Wow. I'm not usually known as a reader, but lately I've been chewing right through a bunch of the books that have been on my to-do list for a while. Today I wrapped up Mike Yaconelli's Getting Fired for the Glory of God.

I should make it clear on the blog the way I've had to make it clear to everyone on staff this week at work, I have no intention of actually getting fired any time soon. So just so we have that out of the way...

The book is tremendous and painful. Painful when I start to think about how much Youth Ministry as a profession has left to go, how hard it is to do the job we've been called to do, and how much is standing in our way. It was painful to think about how many youth workers neglect to take care of their souls at all, making the job their number one priority.

It was tremendous because it reminded me that my church is actually pretty decent at taking care of me and Ed and our ministry to young people. We've never been in need, and we're incredibly blessed because of it.

But perhaps the most challenging part of the book had absolutely nothing to do with youth ministry. Yaconelli writes about a wide variety of topics, but at the heart of everything he writes is Jesus, and his concern for our relationship with Him. It's easy to get caught up in the programs, in the business, in caring for our family, in the ins and outs of our daily lives. Even for those of us who are crazy enough to claim to be theologically minded, a lot of times we spend our energy and time working through Paul or the Holy Spirit or the Doctrine of Atonement, and not enough time on Jesus and what it looks like to follow him. But Yaconelli hammers it home, line after line, paragraph after paragraph, page after page. Nothing else matters, just Christ and following him.

If you're in youth ministry, it is a MUST read. If you're not, I still think there's a lot you can gain from the book. It's one of the only books in my library that I didn't highlight or color through, so you're welcome to borrow mine if you'd like!

Godspeed,

Living with grace

2011-04-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

One of the books of the bible that I read a great deal on my personal retreat last week was the book of Galatians. It's quickly become one of my favorite books in the bible, because I find myself identifying with the Galatians on a number of levels.

These were people who had heard the Gospel message from Paul and were overwhelmed by it. They bought in with everything they had to the forgiveness and grace that was being offered to them in the name of Jesus Christ. But then Paul leaves, and the Galatians start to fall prey to other ideas. They start to think that faith is about what they do, about which laws they uphold. And in this letter, Paul flips out on them for forgetting the grace that Christ has given them.

I am a Galatian. I think just about every year I need to read a book along the lines of Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel to remind myself of how much I need the grace of God. Lately it feels like in my life that the need to find approval in others has been trumping Christ's free gift of grace. And this, according to Paul, makes me foolish.

What's even more crazy is that when someone comes to me and tells me they feel that they need forgiveness, I am more than willing to remind them again and again that guilt has no place in our faith, and that Christ has set us free to live in his grace. On paper, this is easy. When it's someone else, it comes naturally. When it's me, it's a whole other story.

I have a feeling that I'm not alone on this one. I think that most people have a pretty easy time assigning grace to other people, but we have such a hard time accepting God's grace in our own life. How do we turn it around? How do we live a life full of grace, not just for other people, but for ourselves?

Living as a blessing

2011-04-28T16:33:00.001-04:00

Every Wednesday, I meet with a handful of my closest friends for breakfast at Pamela's Diner. First of all, the pancakes are amazing! But more than that, this is a time for us to gather together as friends and occasionally hold each other accountable in certain areas, but more often just enjoy each other's company.

This week, as we were getting ready to leave, we were introduced via our waitress (Edy, probably the coolest gal on the planet) to Father Joe, the priest from right next door. Father Joe was the kind of guy you knew you liked from the moment you laid eyes on him. He was at his core a story-teller, as though these stories that he has collected over the years are far too cramped in his heart, and he must get them out to whoever will hear them. He told us about parishioners he has, some who have experienced miracles, some who just had their own great stories to share. It was quite wonderful!

At the end of our time together, Father Joe asked if he could give us a blessing. I grew up in a Catholic background, so I understood the significance of this. A blessing from a priest is a big deal. And so I bowed my head down and listened quietly as he blessed us, and through us our ministries.

I've been thinking about it all day yesterday and today, how much it meant to me to be blessed by this stranger. And I also started thinking about the typical Presbyterian language that we believe in a "priesthood of all believers," that actually you and I are called to the ministry of reconciliation within ourselves. And so I've been toying around with a few thoughts. What does it look like for you and I to offer blessings to other people? When I'm speaking to a person, whether it's a dear friend or a random stranger, are they blessed by my words and actions? When I'm working with students, are they blessed by our youth ministry? What does it look like to live as a blessing to other people?

I don't know if I have the answer yet. I don't know if I have it all sorted out. But I'm pretty sure that simply living with the question on the top of your mind would lead to results. How can I be a blessing to this person? In this time? In this situation? If we follow hard after this idea, the world would be a significantly more Christ-like place.

Godspeed,

Book review: One.Life

2011-04-27T10:50:00.001-04:00

Greetings friends!

Last week on Wednesday and Thursday, I snuck away to Pine Springs Camp to have a time of quiet reflection and prayer (more on this later). As I was getting ready to leave, I was scanning our office book shelf looking for something to read while I was away, and Ed suggested I take a look at One.Life by Scot McKnight. I had really only taken that and N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope, which turned out to be a bit heavier and more theological than I really wanted for the weekend. I wanted something that could both challenge me and nurture me, and One.Life did not disappoint!

In short, I think One.Life is like the Christian Field Guide to Everything. Each chapter builds one upon the other in an attempt to describe what the life of a true disciple of Christ looks like. I've seen other books that attempt a similar goal, but these other books almost always come across as a bit snarky, matter of fact, or even rude. Not so with One.Life. As I said, the tone was both challenging (it said some things that I truly had to wrestle with up in the cabin) and reassuring (I came home more enthused to do youth ministry than I had when I left, which was the goal).

Perhaps my favorite chapter of the book was Imagined.Life, where McKnight takes a look at the world as Jesus saw it, and invites us to see it in the same light. I am pretty well known throughout the galaxy as a dreamer, and it was super encouraging to see our Savior in the same light. However, again to go with the challenge, I was convicted that the dreams I have for the world and the dreams Jesus has for it might not line up exactly as well as I had thought.

I highly recommend this book to anyone! Go to Amazon and get yourself a copy today!

Godspeed,

Jason

Wait, how many blogs do you have?

2011-04-13T11:25:00.001-04:00

Friends,

I've been posting about my cycling on the J-Blog for a bit now, but I'd like to get some separation between all things theological and all things cycling. Plus, I have some pretty hefty fundraising goals for a few rides coming up, so I thought it would be best to set up another blog to keep up with all my cycling adventures.

I'd love it if you could poke your head over to http://thecrankset28.blogspot.com and read the continuing adventures of my training and the handful of fundraising rides I have coming up this summer.

Specifically, I'm raising funds right now for the MS-150. If you are willing or able to make a financial contribution to my ride, please go here. You have no idea how much it will mean to me and my team (The Roadkill Warriors)

Thanks friends,

Godspeed,

Thinking about doubt part two: The good kind

2011-04-13T11:19:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

Last week we took a look at the bad kind of doubt, when we doubt ourselves or our importance in the kingdom work being done all around us. But actually, I think there's a very good kind of doubt, the kind that not only helps our faith, but is central to our spiritual survival!

For example, I am working right now on a sermon for our Easter sunrise service. Have you ever stopped to ponder the sheer lunacy of the resurrection? In our world, typically, when a person dies, they remain dead. Typically stones weighing hundreds of pounds do not roll themselves away of their own accord. We do not typically see men in shiny white robes. We do not typically confuse the Lord and Savior for a gardener. And so, I think if we're honest, most of us doubt these stories on some level, even if it's only a double take.

But what if we let the doubts play out? What if we let our questions take over? What if we start to dig into the reality of the resurrection, and see what kind of truths we might find along the journey? Because the truth of the matter is, if we claim (rightfully so I believe) that Jesus Christ is the ultimate truth in the universe, then I have the freedom to dive as deeply into that truth as I want. Just accepting the truth is great, but doubting the truth and letting it take you on a wonderful journey towards a deeper truth is even better.

And honestly, when we talk to a lot of non-believers, we hear people who are frustrated at Christians for their "closed mindedness," which ultimately make no sense because my idea of Christianity is extremely open to whatever Christ is doing in and through the world. Maybe what they mean is this constant acceptance of facts as facts, without any room for growth within them. It's not that I'm suggesting we throw the facts out. I'm suggesting we're not getting enough out of them.

What have you doubted? And what did you learn from asking questions?

Godspeed,

Jason

Thinking about doubt part one: The bad kind.

2011-04-07T11:33:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

I was reading through my typical blog roll this morning, and came across this entry by Donald Miller, and it got the brain kicking in to high gear. Seriously, people could smell the smoke all the way down the hall!

I can't tell you how many times people have said something to me that puts me on a much higher pedestal than I deserve. When my family gets together and someone needs to say grace, the eyes all turn to me because I'm the youth pastor. When a new volunteer steps up, the say that they could never teach the way I teach. People assume when I'm shopping for groceries, I'm somehow doing it more holier than they could.

Truthfully, I hate it.

If people only know the very humble path I took to get to ministry. I'm here because I went to be a music education major who couldn't read music. When I started, I didn't know anything. I didn't have a full or complete grasp of the Bible or what was in it. I didn't have the most eloquent teaching style (I've seen some old tapes from college, and they'll be making their way into a bonfire very soon). I am not special when it comes to religious-y things. I'm just like you.

When doubt begins to tell us what we can't do, we're in serious trouble. When we doubt our ability to have a kingdom impact, we have a bigger tendency to sit on the sidelines and wait for something to happen. When we doubt our ability to speak truth into someone's life, we have a tendency to retreat to our comfortable sanctuaries and cushy pews while a whole generation doesn't experience the love and grace of Christ. When we doubt ourselves, things fall apart.

More than that, we worship a God who believes in us and seems to have very few doubts about our abilities. Like Don said, Jesus left his ministry in the hands of fishermen and tax collectors. Not exactly the A-Team, and probably not even the B-Team. Yet God believed in them, and they in turn believed in themselves. When God believes in us, and we start to doubt ourselves, does that mean with think God's a liar?

Today, be confident in what God has called you to! Go confidently into whatever mission field you've been called to, whether it's in a distant land or right here at home. And know that God believes in you.

Tomorrow, we'll see how we can make doubt an ally.

Godspeed,

Stating Faith

2011-03-30T11:02:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

How I wish I had more time to spend with you all! Actually, this week looks pretty light, so we can see if we can get some more information pumped up on ye' olde blog this week. I can always dream!

This week is the one week of the year where I have a temporary change in profession. As the confirmation class finishes up their statements of faith, I sit at my desk and proof read and re-think and re-word and format and...it's a bit tedious at times. Luckily, this year as in the last few years the statements have been fairly rock solid in a theological sense, and haven't caused me to have a nervous break down.

Every year, I think about writing my own statement of faith along with the students. The problems that come up in my head are thus: 1) If I seriously wrote down what I believe about everything, it would take me three years to complete. And 2) A statement of faith seems so stale, so boring, and so lifeless.

I hadn't really considered it until this year, but I wonder if asking our students to write a statement of faith is at all worth it? What I write on that paper may or may not actually be what's going on in my head, heart, or more importantly my life.

Come to think of it, Jesus never wrote a statement of faith. He made statements of faith all the time, but it almost always comes as a situation response to an actual flesh and blood person. What kind of statement of faith did I make at the grocery store? Or at the hockey game last night? Or on a date with my wife?

Is there a better way to get at the heart of what we believe than just writing out a statement of doctrines and ideas about God? I wonder if there's a way to document faith as it's happening, as we're engaging situations along the way.

Any one have any creative suggestions floating around out there?

Godspeed,

The American Church: Still Searching.

2011-03-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

Good morning friends!

As she does from time to time, Sarah shared with me an article she thought I'd find interesting. She was right, but I have some issues with the premise of the article that I thought I'd share here.

In the article (which I encourage you to read) the authors suggest that most American Evangelicals love Jesus because he grants them access to the Kingdom, but that they don't necessarily love the teachings he gave us. Love the least, pray for enemies, etc. The author at one point even suggests that Jesus preached socialism, which is kind of a stretch. We could spend hours debating back and forth these issues and points, but there is a broader message I think boiling here:

The American Church is still searching for it's identity.

For so long, we knew exactly who we were. We had a system, a flow of things, a rhythm. But in the last 10 or 15 years, it's started to fall apart. We've been presented with questions that we don't really have an answer too. For instance, if America is a Christian nation, and yet the American government is involved in torture, where does that leave us? If God provides everything we need, yet we lean on less-than-stable economic strategies and Wall Street companies, when they fail us we feel like he failed. If you're in one of the mainline denominations as I am, you start to realize that though you haven't done much in terms of change or radical departures from "the plan", people are leaving (or dying) our churches at breakneck speed, leaving us strapped for cash and "critical mass" to get things done.

And I have to say, I'm really disappointed in our response.

Rather than take these questions as an opportunity to explore and learn and dig deep into our faith, we (for the most part, I hesitate to generalize as deeply as this article's authors did with our evangelical brothers and sisters) have turned really really defensive, haven't we? Perhaps the article in question is true in certain aspects, and perhaps evangelicals are running hard and fast from certain teachings of Christ. But the article has a kind of snippy tone that really rubbed me the wrong way. Which, in turn if you visit the comment section, incited some of our evangelical brothers and sisters to develop their own snippy tone, which incited more snippy, which led to, which led to, which led to...

Rob Bell releases a book that dares to ask some questions, and we get snippy.

We see the response of those who have commented on Bell's book, and we get snippy.

Someone wants to change the color of the carpet in the parlor, and we get snippy.

More and more I have a longing for the next reformation. More and more I long for the people who will stand up in our midst and say that enough is enough. No more snippy-ness. No more finger pointing. No more unnecessary anger. I long for the American Church to find its way. And whatever my role in that is, I'm up for that too.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Thoughts?

2011-03-07T18:05:00.001-05:00

Rob Bell

2011-02-27T15:41:00.001-05:00

Anybody who has read this blog at all or seen me in person or spent really any time with me at all knows that I am a huge Rob Bell fan. I am an imitator by nature, and so even to this day I know a large part of my speaking style originates from Rob, and people are constantly comparing my speaking style to his (something I'm sure he wishes weren't the case, as he's way better than me). So on one level, this post is going to seem a bit like a biased one-sided fan post. Maybe it is.

My buddy Curt texted me the other day and told me that it looked as though Rob Bell had gotten himself into trouble again. First of all, I should note that this in and of itself gets me excited. Christians don't get in enough trouble now a days. But when I asked why, I was told that Bell was publishing a new book this month, and it was on heaven and hell.

This in and of itself is not trouble. I'm sure there are countless books about heaven and hell. What seems to be causing all the hoopla is that it would seem from the materials and publicity that has come out in advance of the book that Bell is suggesting that Hell doesn't exist, or at least that all the people we think are going to hell may not be.

I wrestled with this in my theological holy place, the Giant Eagle. I had a conversation with myself through the frozen foods section. It's possible that Bell and I disagree on some things (something that not many other people would think is a possibility). It's possible I may get this book and completely disagree with it. But then as I was reading some of the blogs available today (this link in particular http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2011/02/rob_bells_book.html) I came up with a couple of questions/concerns:

1. This book isn't out yet. Thankfully it comes out soon, as I have been looking for something to read for quite some time! But as someone who just finished co-authoring a 20,000 word book myself, I'd be horrified if anyone tried to condense everything we were trying to say into a paragraph that could fit on a dust jacket. There's no way you could pick up on the neuance of our work in a summary that small. So my first thought is, should we be sounding the alarm yet before we read it? If you disagree with Rob Bell and/or his theology, will you take the time to read with those with whom you disagree with, or will you make assumptions?

2. I've been listening to Rob Bell (and for that matter, the rest of the excellent speakers at Mars Hill) for the last 8 years or so. Almost without fail at all, every single sermon has started with the sentence "Open your Bibles to..." and then the words that follow are based upon that scripture passage. To be honest, this has made a tremendous impact on me as a preacher/speaker, you simply cannot be an effective deliverer of God's word if you don't start in God's word. Now, understandably, people may have a difference of opinion when it comes to how Bell (or me, or Joel Olestein, or Billy Graham) interpret the scripture they're using, but I find it difficult to swallow when bloggers suggest that Rob Bell has moved away from Bible based Christianity. Granted, in conjunction with point one, I haven't read the book yet, so perhaps there are zero scripture references in it, at which point I will be as disappointed as I will be surprised. But I think we need to be careful labeling someone as not bible based simply because their interpretation of the bible differs from our own. That's not a problem, it's the opening to a great and respectful debate. I learn way more from the people I disagree with than the ones who are in my corner.

3. Again, in the face of point one, this may be jumping the gun a little bit, to the point where I almost didn't want to put it in there. So let's look at this not in terms of Rob Bell's book, but in a more generic way. When someone comes out and makes a controversial and revolutionary claim, and we start to question their orthodoxy, I get a bit nervous. If Rob Bell uses scripture, history, and doctrine to make his point that we may not have Hell figured out the way we think, does that pose a threat to Christianity or our particular flavor of Christianity? Again, who's to say what's in the book (you gotta love blog posts that set themselves up for follow up in the near future!), but what about a preacher you don't like at a concert festival? What about a blogger on the internet? What about that crazy person who sits next to you in your local congregation? My problem is if we jump to label everyone who disagrees with us as heretics, we fail to learn anything about what they believe or (as is almost always the case in the discussions and debates I've been a part of) strengthen what we believe. To be a heretic is a pretty specific and severe label to throw on a person, and yet lately I feel like we've been all too willing to toss it around. From my perspective, if someone loves the Lord and is doing their best to love their neighbors, then our disagreements are not cause for separation, but rather discussion.

And in that spirit, I welcome your comments and thoughts on this as well, so long as they're respectful and Christ-like. Let the conversation continue!

Godspeed,

Jason

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Project Update

2011-02-24T14:35:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

I've been absent from the blog, which on the surface may appear as though I've been slacking off on the writing portion of the new years resolution. You'd be wrong!

I've had two projects in the wings that I've been writing feverishly for. The first is our new college ministry blog, www.veritasuniversity.net. We have a bunch of college kids at our church, but we really couldn't figure out a way to connect with them outside of our yearly care package. So we decided on the idea of a blog, where people can comment and share in discussion. So far it's going really well, so if you or someone you love is in college, I highly recommend checking it out!

The other project is our lenten devotional guide, LET/GO. Ed and I have been writing this book since January, and we're just now landing on the finishing touches. We're waiting for two more sections of the book to come back from our editor, but even in it's incomplete state, it's pushing 60 pages and 13,000 words! That's insane!

All that writing has kind of zapped me of inspiration (just ask anybody who was in church to hear my sermon/rant). I'm sure a better writer would be able to over-come this, but I am not a better writer.

Anyway, I'm hoping to bounce back this week with some new stuff for J-Blog, but of course if you have any suggestions of things you'd like to read about/discuss, hit me up in the comments!

Godspeed,

Bicycle Repair Man

2011-01-28T10:49:00.001-05:00

Very funny!

Driving in the snow

2011-01-26T12:05:00.001-05:00

Greetings!

I was talking with a friend this morning about our mutual weariness of the lack of progress Washington DC seems committed to making in the wake of the State of the Union Speech. I mentioned that I'd much rather work for the Church, a body known for it's quick decisions and responsiveness.

It's true, we are not at all known for rapid progress in the Church. It seems to be an affliction that particularly affects youth workers, those of us who are young and in the church have this desire to see things move along just a smidge faster. I'm in that boat too for the most part. I've spent more than a few conversations over coffee whining about how slow our session's moving with this idea or how unwilling to change our congregations are.

But, is going slow such a bad thing?

I was going through my book shelf, determined to actually read the books I bought at the National Youth Workers Convention this year (and then when that's done, I'll take a look at the ones from years past!), when I started to get frustrated. With subtle few exceptions, every youth ministry book I have is a deconstructionist manifesto. It seems like everyone's solution is to tear things down, wait for the dust to settle, and then build something new again. And sadly for me, as a less-than excited reader, I almost never make it past the demolition. Some books don't even really talk about building something else up, because we don't know what should go there. We just know that what we have isn't working.

As I was reading these books, I began to feel kind of weird, because it turns out that things are going exceptionally well for our team at Westminster. I don't at all feel the need to tear anything down. But at the same time, I know that we are capable of improvement and making a much better ministry than we already have. Am I psycho to think that we could improve a youth ministry slowly, by tweaking this idea and that program just a little bit as we go?

I had coffee with a very good (and it turns out really wise) friend the other day, who told me that leading the Church is actually like driving in the snow. Slamming on the brakes or making a sudden sharp turn is going to spin you completely out of control, and you're going to end up in a ditch. But if you take it slow, if you gear down a little bit and make minor corrections along the way, you'll wind up at your destination safe and sound. Maybe not as fast as you want, but for sure a lot faster than you would if you wound up in the ditch.

Is anyone else feeling this? Let me know in some comments!

(By the way, enjoy the new digs. Hope everyone likes it!)

Godspeed,

Training Update #1

2011-01-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

Hey friends,

As mentioned in my goals for the year, I'm working out for the MS 150 this June. In the future, I'll have some information on how to support the team financially, but in the meantime, I thought it'd be cool to have a group of folks praying for me, and I'll keep you all updated here on the blog. So here's a bit of what I've been up to!

The (other) Bible

I've been reading this book, and it turns out to be pretty great. It's a great start for someone who wants to get into the cycling world on the ground floor. It's a big long read, and I've still got a ways to go, but it's really got me going on the right foot. Friel really stresses the idea of training happening in periods, or seasons, which is helpful because the season I currently find myself in has temperatures of -6 on a somewhat frequent basis. So that leads me inside, to the gym!

Bally's!

Starting last week I joined Bally's Total Fitness, and I am absolutely loving it! The biggest thing they have over my previous gym is a pool, which is one of the best things I could possibly do to improve my aerobic ability (something that needs to be drastically better before June!). I also really dig the indoor track, again a good place to get the lung capacity up. Plus, the training bible has me working through a thorough plan in terms of strength training, which makes me feel a little bit less like a lost child wandering around the equipment.

Man cave.
Ahhh yes, the final touch. For Christmas I got an indoor mag trainer, which might well be the best thing I've ever done. It's been great in the off days from the gym to take a spin in my own training room, pushing through some intervals. But I will admit, if the snow could just stop falling a little bit, I would absolutely love to get the bike outside into it's natural habitat.

Biggest Accomplishment This Week: I've dropped down to 234.2 pounds, the lightest I've been since college!

Biggest Frustration This Week: I want badly to go outside and take a big long ride. It will come.

Thanks for tuning in! More to come later!

Godspeed,

Jason

S***y first drafts.

2011-01-14T09:36:00.001-05:00

Happy friday everybody!

This has been a fun week in terms of one of my new year's goals, the idea that I would like to write more. I spent a decent amount of time working on a new project that I'm not quite ready to make public yet (though it's gonna be awesome when I do!), and have some ideas swimming in my head for a sermon for next week. I like when my job affords me the ability to do the things I love!

However...

I have one project I'm working on that's giving me all kinds of trouble. Ed and I have decided to write a devotional guide for Lent, and it's going to be amazing! It will tie in to all the sermons at the Bridge for the season of Lent, so if you read along with us it will bring a really great unity to the church's learning. All of this sounds lovely, but my week has looked exactly like Sam in the beginning of this post. I write a little bit, become disgusted with myself, and throw it away.

Anne Lamot says that any serious writer has to be (excuse the language) ok with "shitty first drafts" that they will allow absolutely no one to see. Some people actually light them on fire! I write mostly on my laptop, so that's out, but the symbolic act of tossing a document into the trash bin has a similarly exhilarating effect.

I've actually never had trouble with this. Tree Anthem is about to enter the studio to record our first full length CD. At the moment it has 17 songs on it, but when we sat down to first start thinking about it we had 40 to choose from. That means 23 songs of mine weren't worthy of seeing the light of day (or at least not yet), and to be honest I'm more than ok with it. Those 23 songs probably led in some way to the creation of the 17 good ones, so though they didn't serve their original purpose, they did lead to good.

I wonder if in life we're ok with shitty first drafts. When we come to something challenging, something that's going to require a lot of our energy and effort, and we screw it up the first time around, do we realize that's ok? Or do we get frustrated, bummed out, burned out, and quit? Do we allow the 23 bad attempts at something get in the way of the 17 good ones, or do we allow them to pad the landing of the 17 good ones?

So, as I sit down to take crack number 55 at this devotional guide, my encouragement to us this morning is to be ok with shitty first drafts, both as authors and as people with stories. You never know what a mistake might lead us to!

Godspeed,

Jason

Enough is Enough.

2011-01-11T08:54:00.001-05:00

Hello friends,

I've been following pretty closely this tragic shooting in Arizona all weekend. Goes without saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, particularly Congresswoman Gifford. (Which, I don't know much about this sort of things, but it sounds to me as though if she's been shot in the head and has made it this far and is even responding to simple commands, we might be witnessing a miracle. Just a thought.)

To be honest, I actually had a fair amount of hope for the outcome of things earlier this weekend. It sounded like people were blaming the shooting on the exceptionally childish behavior and toxic climate of our national politics. Not directed at either party, but at both in fair measure. I thought we were really going to see something exceptional, that for once a tragedy was going to lead us to a better tomorrow.

That thought didn't last long.

Really? A group of people who readily label themselves Christian are going to protest a funeral? That idea being ridiculous enough on it's own gets worse when you find out that they're doing so because the girl was Catholic. Really?

I noticed too that the debate has turned back into finger pointing, party vs. party, ideology vs. ideology, and I suppose (I'm still stunned here) even denomination to denomination. I simply can't believe how quickly it turned into a divisive issue, rather than create a united front to end the tension between two groups of people that frankly see more eye to eye than either side is willing to admit.

So I'm here this morning to issue a challenge. To those in Washington and in Arizona, if they happen to read this blog, but also to you and me sitting on our couches watching it unfold on TV. If you find yourself tempted to point the finger at someone, or some people group, or whatever, take a couple of moments to ask how you might be responsible. Seriously, even those of us in Pa probably bear some of the responsibility for the political climate that has again and again been blamed for this event. I have said things about people I disagree with that I wish I could take back, and I'm sure you have too. On the surface, these are just words, but sooner or later we need to realize that those of us who are created in God's image possess the power on one level or another to create entire worlds with our words. (Genesis 1:3)

And when we've come to the realization that we all have a hand to play in the political climate that's out there, let's repent. Let's literally turn it around. What would it look like today for your to pray for the political party you disagree with? Not the "Hey God, help them see the world the way I see it" kind of prayer, but the "I honestly wish them well" prayer. What would it look like to reach out to a branch of Christianity that you have never really seen eye to eye with? (I'd like to recommend we reach out to other faiths, but hey one step at a time here I think.) Instead of tearing people down, what would it look like if the entire nation committed to building bridges?

Enough is enough. I'm tired of the nasty politics out there, but I'm even more tired of complaining about it. It's time for you and me to lay aside our pride, and start repairing the world we live in.

Godspeed,

Jason

The Player or the Coach?

2011-01-09T08:27:00.001-05:00

Good morning friends!

First of all, how good did Dan Byslma look for the winter classic last week? That hat was the bomb!

I have seen churches (and I think I've even been a part of churches) where the youth pastor is looked at as the next Sidney Crosby. A young, talented, and dare I say even good looking youth pastor walks in, and without warning there's talk of championships. "We're going to have a bigger youth group!" "He can start preaching more!" or my favorite "Things will be just like they used to be!" The church has their superstar, and they're feeling pretty good about it.

But the harsh reality of it is, one person cannot do everything. If Hines Ward was the only player on the Steelers, they'd be terrible, because there would be no one to throw him the ball. No one would be around to play defense. And most of all, it'd be an 11 person to 1 slant. If such a game were ever aloud to happen, I reckon Hines Ward would be dead by somewhere around the 2nd Quarter.

But I've seen youth pastors (and other leaders for that matter) fall into the trap of thinking they actually are the superstar player for the team. They try their hardest to do everything. They're at every meeting. They're at every student's sporting event. They're writing every lesson plan. And at the end of the day, they start to wonder why it is that youth pastors only last on average 18 months in any given job.

Last night as I was watching the Seahawks game (may they make it to the Super Bowl to play us!), I was listening to the commentators talk about Pete Carrol's coaching style. I started wondering what things would look like if the youth pastors job was less to be the player, and more to be the coach. A player is responsible for doing things, while the coach is responsible for resourcing and guiding the player to get things done. A player is motivated, but mostly because the coach behind them is motivating them. A one player team would be horrible, but a single coach can influence and be successful with a team of 30 or so players without issue.

Who are the players in the youth ministry world you ask? Your volunteers. Your student leaders. If you're fortunate enough to be in a big church, your staff. You may have to start a re-building process, but in my experience most of the people who attend a church actually want to be active players in what's going on with the church. And this doesn't just apply to youth ministry either, I think that anyone in a leadership position can be overwhelmed with the idea that they have to do it all.

So this morning, take off the pads, put on the fedora, and do a little bit of coaching. Your team will thank you for it!

Godspeed,

Jason

New Years Goals

2011-01-08T18:43:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

If you still read this blog, you get a gold star! 2010 wasn't the best year in terms of blogging. Personally, I'm ok with this, because I was so busy with other amazing things in terms of ministry and personal life that I didn't really have time to sit down and blog! But starting today, I'd like to get back in the saddle and write a bunch more.

You could call it a new years resolution, but to be honest I'm not such a big fan of that particular tradition. For one think, I think it's something like 80% of everybody who makes a new years resolution will loose it by the 21st. Not a very encouraging number!

Instead this year, I have a couple of goals that I'd like to accomplish. I'm trying to use them as a marker of success, something tangible that I can actually see and feel good about. And each of these goals is something that the blog will have something to do with, so hopefully it will encourage more writing! So, in no particular order, the goals of 2011!

Complete the MS 150. I've been getting into bike riding on and off for the last year. A couple of months ago at a dinner, I was talking about how much I was enjoying it, and my friend Travis asked me if I'd like to bike the MS 150 with him. It's a 150 mile ride to raise money and awareness for folks with Multiple Sclerosis. At first, I honestly kind of laughed it off. 150 is a large number of miles. But then I realized that it was something I needed to do. And so with the arrival of an indoor trainer and a fairly strong resolve, I'm in the process of training for the 150 in June. This goal has really impacted a great deal of my daily life. I'm working out 6 days a week, shifting between really hard rides and recovery rides. I'm working on eating better, including not going out to a fast food restaurant this whole month (so far so good on that one!) and eating more fruits and veggies. And even in the winter, I'm taking at least one outdoor ride for 20+ miles. I have a lot of friends helping me out with this, and it's been a great feeling to get back in shape! Soon, I'll have some information as to how you can support me both with encouragement and financially, but at the moment I'm really enjoying the ride!
Write more. At Westminster, we recently picked up a printing press. Pastor Jim joked that we were on the cutting edge of the late 16th century, but still, this thing is going to be cool. Ed and I are working on a bible study/devotional for the season of lent, and I'm also kicking around an idea about a book for how to evangelize as a Presbyterian (we are soooooo horrible at that!). Also, we're working on a new blog for college students, where I will be doing a lion's share of the writing. I really enjoy writing and getting things out on paper, but for the last couple of months I just haven't been in it. It's kind of wacky. This year, most tangibly, I'd like to have more blog posts than I did in 2010. When I'm blogging, I tend to write more in other areas, so we'll start with that!
One on One Time with Students. One of my favorite parts of being a youth pastor is spending quality time one on one with students. Unfortunately, a lot of times I make my schedule in such a way that I don't have time to take kids out or get to hang out with them. I'd like to try to change that this year, by committing to the goal of hanging out with a student one on one at least once a week. By the way, if you're a student and you're reading this, give me a call and we'll get together!

Some of those goals are pretty lofty, but I think they're all achievable. What are your goals for the new year?

Godspeed,

Jason

Laurelville for the rest of us part two: Toying with Emotions

2010-12-08T11:04:00.001-05:00

Hello again friends!

I have done enough three day evangelism inspired retreats to know how things are going to go down in terms of teachings. On Friday night, as emotions and caffeine are still riding high, tell a funny story or seven, get the kids into the idea of being on a retreat, and maybe name drop Jesus once or twice. Saturday morning, offer the sin talk. This can feel slightly sketchy, as usually the day time activities on Saturday are dangerous enough that someone could actually die, and the last thing they would ever hear is that there's a sin problem. This of course has never happened, but it's just enough to make me nervous. Saturday night, you give the good news of the gospel. Typically here, you want to over-emphasize the pain and the torment and the tribulation that Jesus went through, so that the kids will be good and emotional. If they're crying, you're winning. Then you let them loose for 20 minutes of silence to make their peace with God. Sunday, you wrap things up with more jokes and a talk about how to keep living as a Christian in the world you're headed back to.

It's a formula, and I throughly dislike formulas.

Which is why it was so refreshing to hear from our speaker Kent this weekend! His teaching style was a little bit different than what I was used to on these kind of retreats, and in a very good way. He stuck to the formula listed above, but he tweaked it enough and in such a good way that it really hit home with me, as well as the kids. So if Kent doesn't mind some positive critique (and who does?) I offer up three things that Kent did this weekend that made me appreciate what was being said:

Be up front. Sometimes speakers in this situation will do what John Acuff affectionately refers to as the "Jesus Juke." One moment you're talking about monkeys at the zoo flinging poo at you (true story, I heard that one once) and the next you're equating it to the four spiritual laws. I think kids any more just want us to be honest with them up front about what we're speaking about, and that's exactly what Kent did this weekend. No bait and switch, no hiding meanings in cute stories. Here's what I'm going to talk to you about today. The kids knew exactly where he was going, and I think it made it a little easier for them to get there with him.
Let the good news sound like good news. Kent made Saturday night's talk about the gospel and Jesus' sacrifice on the cross sound like, well, good news. It wasn't heavy. It wasn't depressing. There wasn't an orchestra playing in the background to make kids feel a certain way. Again, in a straight forward kind of way, Kent just showed us the person of Jesus. Rather than present the scandal of the cross and elicit a guilt response, Kent presented the scandal of the cross (let's face it, it will always be a scandal) as Jesus' biggest act of love, and invited people to celebrate in that. The change was subtle, but dang did it make a big difference, at least in this youth leader's eyes
Prepare them for a healthy response. The Sunday morning talk always feels a bit to me like "Now you be a good boy or girl, or else Jesus is gonna zap you!" This was once again not the case for Kent. In fact, his goal was to get kids plugged into their local youth groups so that the celebration of Jesus' grace could continue well beyond the weekend itself. I didn't have any non-youth group kids with me this weekend, they were all pretty well established regulars. But if I had, this talk would have meant a lot to me. It would have opened the door to a discussion about what Church is really all about, and how to best include yourself in that if you made a decision to follow Christ that weekend.

So if you're reading Kent, well done! To the rest of us, my question would be what impact does the subtle shift in tone of our teaching (or just straight up living) have on our efforts to share the gospel with others?

Comments encouraged!

Godspeed,

Jason

Laurelville for the rest of us part one: retreat.

2010-12-06T10:31:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

I must once again apologize for the lack of regular posting on the blog. I had meant to post a bit from the National Youth Workers Convention, but man I was so into everything that was happening I just didn't have time to pull out my laptop and write. A quick recap of that will come later I think. I have lots of notes to look back over.

This weekend, I took a group of 11 students to Laurelville Camp for a weekend retreat. It was an amazing weekend, with great times of building relationships and worship and games and all kinds of fun things. But while this was a trip meant for the kids, as I was wandering around and taking it all in I realized that there were any number of lessons that those of who who hesitantly apply the label "adult" to ourselves could learn. So we're going to work through a series of these things in the next couple of days, so keep tuning in to see where we're headed.

As is the tradition for any Veritas youth retreat, we began the weekend by taking away the devices that our students hold most dear. Cell Phones, iPods, Nintendos, basically anything that plugs into a wall. This ritual is always remarkable to me, because when it's happening, as I'm snatching the precious device from their hands, I always get resistance. Veterans know this is coming, but they still put up a fight. Rookies look at me as though I have three heads. "My cell phone?" they ask me. "How will I keep in touch with the world back home?"

That's the point, isn't it?

A retreat is exactly what it sounds like. Get away, back up, fall back, retreat. For 36 (what I would call) glorious hours, we are cut off from the world. No one will hear from us, and we won't hear from anyone else.

I've been at Westminster for four years now, and I've been doing youth ministry for about 8 at this point. Do you know that in all the times I've taken away the cell phones, nothing earth shattering has ever happened back home that required a student's attention? If it did, I always keep my phone on me so that parents can get in touch. But it's never come to pass that someone back home desperately needed to be in touch with the students. Funny how that works, right?

We got into a great discussion the one night as a group about how the concept of a retreat allows us to leave behind the very things that get in the way of our relationship with Christ. In fact, with the distractions set aside, it became clear for the students what the distractions actually are. It was like spraying bright orange paint on a hunter in camouflage.

And when I handed the phones back...almost no one used them on the way home.

So the question comes to us: What would you like to retreat from? You could argue that there was no way you could retreat from your cell phone (or your job, or school, or worry, or fear...), but I bet you could. I bet you could turn off the computer for a couple of hours and put your focus entirely on Christ and his work in your life. I won't deny that it will require an obscene amount of courage, but I believe it can be done.

Godspeed,

Jason

NYWC #0: Anticipation

2010-11-17T15:00:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

Every year, Christmas comes in November for me. The one thing I look forward to more than most things every year is a chance to take a trip to the host city of choice, relax with some fellow youth workers, all the while digging and learning how to master our craft a little bit better.

As I mentioned last year, I had some concerns. I think most of those are gone, and have been replaced by concerns of sharing a bus with 4 smelly youth leaders for 10 hours on a trip to Nashville. But today, I want to share a little bit about what I'm looking forward to at the Youth Workers Convention this year:

Worshiping Crowder. Jars of Clay. Brandon Heath. Starfield. How can you not get excited about letting these folks lead you in worship.
Fellowship Each year we go to the convention, there's time to hang out with friends from here in the 'Burgh as well as meet some new friends. (Small moment of regret: Ed has to stay behind because of classes. Truly, my heart breaks for this.)
Food We eat like pigs wherever we are.
Rest Every year, without fail, I will choose a block of seminars to skip and take a nap in a hotel room. I long for this right now. I could use a rest.
Tic Long I heard him give a message on leadership a couple of years ago, and I would love to hear him give a similar message again after all he's been through.
Marko Same deal as Tic. These guys have a tremendous amount to teach us.
Coffee As if I needed an excuse, coffee is always in over-abundance at the convention. The fact that we're driving down instead of flying will only increase my final input.
Time with Sarah This year, Sarah is making the trip with us. This is sheer joy.
Breakout Sessions I took a quick glance at the schedule, and found at least 2-3 sessions I want to be at in each block. If only I could find a way to split myself into three different people.
Blogging I always enjoy blogging through my thoughts at the convention every year. Last year I worked through the theme of how 6 years into my youth ministry career things were essentially the same, but totally different. Who knows what I'll come up with this year!

Are you coming to the convention this weekend? What are you looking forward to?

Godspeed,

Jason

Prayer as a conversation

2010-11-12T11:34:00.001-05:00

Good morning friends!

This morning, it was really affirmed for me that one of my favorite parts of my job is to meet with people one on one and have a conversation with them. I love to preach, I love to lead worship, and of course I love dodgeball. But in truth, I don't love any of those as much as I love getting to know a person through a conversation over a cup of coffee.

After a meeting this morning with a new friend, I started to think about how our prayer life is really meant to be like this. I don't know if God is a fan of Starbucks or not, but I think our prayer life should more mirror the kinds of conversations we have with our friends than it does a formal speech or presentation. And so, as I'm working on a new devotional for students and for folks at the Bridge, I thought I'd share some thoughts and tips on how to view prayer as a conversation.

1. Let God do some speaking.

I've said on this blog about a few thousand times that we Americans are terrible at sitting still, being quiet, and listening for the voice of God. Some times we even complain that we feel distant from God, that he's not around to answer our prayers. The truth is, we so frequently don't give God any room in our prayers to talk to us.

One of the ways God speaks most clearly to his people is through his word. The Bible is in fact the inspired (literally: God breathed) word of God, so naturally it has some of God's very words for us today! The Bible is an incredibly effective prayer tool among other things, so spend some time in the scriptures to see what God might have to say to you.

2. Honesty is the best policy.

Some times I know in my own journey I hold back from God. I feel like I'll be struck with lightning if I complain about the tiny things that are happening in my life. God surely has bigger and better things to deal with, right?

I don't know that there's anything more important to God than getting to know the heart of his people. If you're struggling with something, make sure you take it to God. If you are feeling angry with God, know that he's a big God and he can handle it. Surprisingly few people have ever actually been struck by lightning by God, so don't worry about that. If we affirm and believe that God is a loving and caring God, then we should know that he has our best interest in mind, and wants to get to the heart of what we're experiencing.

3. 21 days to a habit.

I have had friends who have told me that they want to keep in touch with me, that they really desire to be close. But then I don't hear from them for years on end, and so I am forced to doubt their desire. If they wanted to be in touch, they would be in touch.

The same thing goes with God. If we're serious about being with God, if we're serious about being closer to him, we should make a habit of going to him in prayer. Pick a time of day that works for you, and stick to it. There are tons of prayer books and guides out there if you need some help.

Are there any other tips that I left out? Anything that you have found helpful in your prayer life? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Godspeed,

Jason

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:University Dr A,Pittsburgh,United States

To our veterans

2010-11-11T21:46:00.001-05:00

Hello friends!

I don't like war. I think more often than not, the wars we fight these days are not very well thought out. More often than not, I think at there are any number of ways we could solve our problems that didn't include tanks.

However...

I don't want anyone to be confused. When it comes to the men and women who have LITERALLY said to their nation "I lay my life down for you", I have nothing but the deepest respect. Their sacrifice is incredible. And today we say thank you.

Really, it's kind of ridiculous to think about the kind of freedoms we have been given by their commitment to us. Just a few days ago, I dressed up as a banana and danced on the side of the road all in the name of bringing kids to Jesus Christ. While it might take you years to figure out how I concocted those ideas, no one would question my freedom to do it.

So if you have served this nation in uniform, please know that my thanks and my prayers are with you. I know its probably not all that easy to come home. If you haven't served in uniform, I encourage you to say thank you. I know I wrote this post a little bit late in the day, but I bet you can still say thank you the day after veterans day. It'll still count!

Godspeed,

Jason

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Highview Dr,Upper St Clair,United States

Technological Sabbath

2010-11-09T09:27:00.001-05:00

Hey friends,

Last Sunday I went down to the Open Door in Highland Park. It's so very rare to have a time of worship where I'm not in charge of something, and so I've been meaning to make a habit out of going to the Open Door to just worship!

BJ gave a sermon about taking a Sabbath that was really quite good. Truth be told, taking a Sabbath is something I'm fairly good at. Mondays are sacred days. There is to be no meeting. There is to be no office visits. I think three times in the four years I've been at Westminster I've come into the office on Monday to pick something up, but I try to do so under cover of darkness where no one can see me or ask me a question or anything. Literally, Monday's are sacred for me. So I was going into this sermon as though it were all review.

Not so! BJ encouraged those of us who are already taking a Sabbath to take it a step further. One of his specific suggestions struck me right between the eyes: What if you took a technology Sabbath?

I'm not sure if you can comprehend the difficulty that was posed to me in that suggestion. Ever since I got my iPhone and I could e-mail and Tweet and Facebook and even blog from anywhere I darn well felt like it, I was hooked. Addiction was hard and heavy. So, I make a vow to turn my e-mail accounts off, to not check Twitter or Facebook, and to only use my laptop to work on making music (more on this aspect of a Sabbath later...).

I survived!

Actually, it was quite pleasant. There were no angry e-mails waiting for me when I got to work this morning complaining about my sluggish response time. The J-Blog didn't fall apart without a Monday post (which, honestly, when was the last time I posted on a Monday anyway...). I didn't have hoards of angry tweets waiting for me. Truth be told, almost no one noticed I was gone.

Moreover, the lack of attention paid to technological vices freed up some time to do what I truly love to do on a Sabbath day. Ed and I went hunting in the morning. I spent the late morning/early afternoon song writing and recording a couple of things for a project I'm working on. I read this goofy thing composed of many pages bound together, I think it was called a book. I spent time with Sarah. What I thought would be a test of my endurance actually turned out to enrich my Sabbath experience.

Are you taking a Sabbath? If you are, could you take it a step further and take a rest from something distracting in your day?

Godspeed,

Worship from the beginning.

2010-11-05T12:52:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

As you may or may not be aware, I have this band that I play with every now and again. We are all in some way or another church workers who have decided to spend some of our free time by worshiping together, and leading the Pittsburgh area in some spirit filled and rock influenced worship.

We also have a ministry to each other, as some evenings just turn into lengthy conversations about what's going through our heads in terms of worship or church leadership or Pittsburgh sports. Last night we had one of those excellent conversations about the theology of worship, and I thought I'd share a little bit here.

Worship is exalting God, and proclaiming his goodness. Worship is saying "thank you" for the life giving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Worship is enjoying the gift of life that God has granted us even now (as opposed to waiting until the day we die to enjoy God's goodness). When we realize all of that, we realize that worship absolutely can't begin unless we recognize our need for Grace.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, particularly in terms of giving grace to myself. I go through these cycles of thinking I can make it on my own, that my charm or my sense of humor or my talent for speaking can save me, that I am in control. And for a while it's going to feel like I'm actually in control, that things are on the right track. But eventually, I will unravel. I will come undone. I will be spent. And I will realize that I was lying to myself all along, and that I am nothing without Christ's ever-persuing love.

To talk about your need for grace always sounds a little morbid. Oh wretch that I am, that sort of thing. Quite the opposite, I realize every time that I get to this place that I am a broken vessel, but Christ's love pieces me back together. That's why I sing. That's why I get up in the morning and go to work. That's why I speak to teenagers. It's because Christ's love is alive in me, and it needs to get out and see the world without me getting in the way.

I don't know how to convince myself to stay in this frame of mind, rather than reverting back to this sort of "I can do it on my own" attitude that so frequently prevails in my life. I'm going to keep working on that. But for now, know that we are all sinners, even the best and most put together of us. But thanks be to God that Christ comes to us and offers his love unconditionally, no matter how many times we've been down this path before. His arms are open, and I could use a good embrace.

Godspeed,

Jason

Spiritual Disciplines

2010-11-04T11:10:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

Yesterday was a kind of a rough day on me, at least in the opening sections. I'm not even really sure why. Perhaps it was the stress of the day mixed in with some nerves over a teaching I was giving on social networking (incidentally, if you were at said teaching, the slides are available right now at www.befreeveritas.com), or perhaps it was something else, but I just had this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach like something was wrong and I couldn't place it.

What do you do when you have these days? Where do you turn?

This is why having spiritual disciplines is so important, and why I get so nervous when I realize how bad I am at it. A good baseball player has rehearsed every situation that could possibly come his way so that in a game situation, he's not thinking he's just reacting. The reason we commit scripture to memory, the reason we work through a liturgy of prayers, the reason we spend time in meditation is because when a game day situation arises, we will be prepared.

So what are some of the spiritual disciplines you can involve yourself with? I'm going to list a few that I want to work on, and perhaps we can work through them together.

1. Scripture Memorization
I have often brushed this aside in the past, partly because when I was growing up there were bible trivia teams in my church. There were actual competitions to see who had memorized the most scripture. But as I looked at these kids who had spent hours and hours memorizing scriptures and bible verses, I realized that very few of them knew what it meant. So I kind of wrote this discipline off.

It's only in recent days that I've really started to think about it seriously. If you memorize a piece of scripture, you can carry it with you everywhere you go. You don't need to open up a bible at every second to check on a particular wording. I think it's important to memorize not just quick verses that can quickly be taken out of context, but to memorize entire passages or stories. Right now, I'm going to try to work on memorizing the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), because that seems to be where I turn most often when I need some comfort or some assurance.

2. Journaling
I used to be in this habit, but something as of late has gotten in the way. Keeping a journal is a great way for those of us who work in the writing world to get some prayers and some thoughts out on paper. You can write out your prayers, keep ideas for later, or even straight out diary it up! This has always been helpful when I take one of my silent retreats, something that I need to do a bit more often as well.

3. Prayer Liturgy
For a little while, I was working through a series of books called the Divine Hours. These are a set of prayers that you work through in sequence through the day. It's helpful, because often times I can relate to the Psalmist in Psalm 77, where I tried to open my mouth but no words would come. Often times, unless something is wrong in my world, I don't exactly know what to pray for. And yet opening up the communication lines with God is an important part of every day. So having someone offer the text is fairly helpful from day to day.

What did I miss? Are there spiritual disciplines that you've found helpful that aren't listed here? I'd love to hear them!

Also, if you're looking for new ideas, my good friend Ed Cyzewski did a great series on 5 minute retreats a little while ago at his blog, and I would absolutely recommend checking them out.

Godspeed,

Some thoughts on politics.

2010-11-03T09:43:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

As often as possible, I try to shy away from political debate and discussion on the J-Blog. But you know, last night was a big night in our nation, and so where would we be without a little bit of post-game comments?

The first thing worth saying is that I'm hugely appreciative that the campaign season is over. I understand that folks were a bit angry with Washington this time around, and that campaign managers know how to take advantage of that fact. But it took until Monday, the day before the election, before I saw a single positive campaign ad. Everything was about how the other person would be the worst thing to happen to America since Rosanne Bar sang the national anthem...

I am a disenfranchised voter, one of those people those ads were aimed at. But not for the reasons they thought. I'm quite frankly tired of politics. I'm tired of promises that don't get fulfilled. I'm tired of people claiming they're more willing to compromise than their opponents, when no compromises are ever reached (a fact I'm certain will only become worse now that the congress is a divided body). And so, I would like to address everyone who is involved in politics for a second: I'm going to be turning off the news until one of you can show me an accomplishment. When you can do that, we'll talk. Until then, you're on probation.

But all of this got me thinking on Twitter yesterday about the way we present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How many of us have seen someone carrying a sign or screaming into a bullhorn about how Hell is an awful terrible place, and that Jesus is your ticket out? If I hear one more time "What happens if you get hit by a bus on the way out of here tonight?" (How morbid are we?) This line of thinking is a sort of negative campaign ad for Jesus. It's not about how good Christ is, it's about how horrible the Devil (or the world, or pop music, or Justin Beiber) is.

And so now I turn my gaze to you my fellow Christians. I've given up on the politicians, but I think there's hope yet for us. It's time to stop the negative campaign ads, and time to start showing the grace and the goodness of Jesus Christ. If God's grace is enough for us, then we should be able to share Christ's love without the negativity or the scare tactics.

Who will join me? Let's put an end to negativity, and embrace love.

Godspeed,

I'm bad at giving grace to myself.

2010-10-28T14:05:00.001-04:00

Hello friends,

Some quick off the cuff thoughts for you today, with almost no real thought involved.

I've been having a hard time lately (read: the last 27 years) with being organized and dealing with the administrative sides of my job. On every single spiritual gifts assessment I've ever taken, administration has occupied the basement. Not that I want that to be an excuse or anything. I struggle with it a lot, because when you struggle with organization, simple things that shouldn't be a big deal quickly become a big deal. It's like pushing a twisted slinky down the stairs, watching it catch fire, and wondering how it could ever have gotten that bad.

Today in particular I dealt with some administrative short comings, and going to lunch I felt just very down on myself. "I need to be better than this" I would lament. "These things shouldn't be such a big deal" I would reason with myself. But luckily, I had lunch with a good friend who reminded me (rather unintentionally) that if we plan on taking Christ's gift of grace seriously, then we need to start by giving it to ourselves.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

For as long as I've been in ministry, I have struggled to truly believe the concept of God's grace being enough for me while I have tried to convince other people that it was enough for them. I don't know why it's so hard to bring that grace inside, to let Christ get into my heart and do his magic. But I know for certain that it needs to start happening more and more. To tell myself at each mistep (because lets face it, there are always going to be misteps) that His grace is enough for me, and even more so, that His power is made perfect in my weaknesses. In other words, when I'm at less than my best, God steps in and takes control in a way that I never could have.

So this afternoon, I'm going to be reading through some scripture in the hopes of giving myself some more grace. My encouragement to you is to do the very same!

Godspeed,

Jason

Navigating the Networks Part One: Technology

2010-10-26T15:04:00.001-04:00

Hello gang!

On November 3rd, I'll be presenting a class for parents on how to navigate the social networks. I think it's going to be a pretty awesome conversation for us, but I thought I'd hop on the blog and think through some things so that I can get your input on things as well. And of course, if you're not doing anything, swing by the church at 6:30 on November 3rd!

Genesis 11.

³ They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.⁶ The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel c]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Now, according to the infinitely wiser than I Rob Bell tells us that this story is actually about technology, not about language. Until this point, people were using round stones to stack and create things. You may have noticed, but it is infinitely easier to stack a squared brick than it is to stack a rounded stone. Therefore, in all actuality, a brick at this point in the story is a technological advancement.

When you think about a brick, you probably don't think about all the inherent evil packed into it do you? In fact at this point in our society, bricks are a part of our daily existence, though we rarely pay attention to them. In fact, I bet none of us would consider bricks a technological advancement. They don't even have computer chips.

And yet in this story, the way they were used created an issue for people. They used the technology in such a way that it brought glory to themselves, rather than to God. So while the brick doesn't contain any evil in and of itself, the way it was used was sinful.

So as we start to frame up some thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a whole host of other social network sites, are they inherently evil? Are they solidly in the bad category? Or are they completely devoid of evil, and just really excellent devices for us to take advantage of? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

Godspeed,

Some Blogs You Should Be Reading

2010-10-22T10:38:00.001-04:00

Hey gang,

I've been trying to write this sermon for the better part of the week, and it's just having a hard time working it's way out of my brain. So in an attempt to distract myself from the deafening silence and the glaring white screen, I thought I'd share a couple of blogs that are totally worth your time these days.

http://woodgrainworship.wordpress.com/
Adam Strawcutter

Adam is a really good friend from back in my days at IUP. He's a worship leader and a really deep thinker, and while he's not a Mac guy yet, I bet he will be soon. Also, he linked to the good olde J-Blog, so it's only fair that I link back. Don't be fooled: Even though he writes primarily from a worship leader's standpoint, there are tons of nuggets for those of us who aren't on stage every week.

www.whyismarko.com
Mark Oestreicher

Marko has been one of the most influential youth leaders in my journey already, and leaving YS hasn't stopped him from doing that. In fact, Marko usually blogs about what I was thinking about blogging about before I got lazy and forgot to blog about it. So if you want to see what the J-Blog would be like with less apathy and more experience, check it out. Lately I really recommend the pieces of scripture he's re-worked for youth pastors. Good stuff in there!

www.stuffchristianslike.net
Jon Acuff

Ed and I laugh daily at this blog. You really need to check him out if you have any kind of sense of humor about your faith.

Those are just three of the many blogs I check in with daily. What kind of stuff are you reading?

Godspeed,