Youth Story

This week I finished up a series of very difficult talks with my students on issues that divide the church. Wednesday marked the day after the big election in which President Obama was re-elected for a second term. Over the past weeks I have talked with my students about some of these issues that were not only important to Christians but also seemed to be important election talking points as well. Last night I ended with a discussion on abortion. Though I am by no means a political "junkie" I do consider myself to be well informed on current political events. One of which was the swirling controversial comments made by some pro life politicians regarding abortion. I realized a very large need for pro life Christians to have much better way of voicing their position that might be much more effective and much less offensive. I was surprised last night to find out that although I pastor in a somewhat small country town, some of my students are pro-choice or at least s...

This week my buddy Jason and I took our youth groups to West Virginia for an annual Ski Trip. He decided to theme our worship service lessons on a phrase that he heard in a North Face commercial. "Never Stop Exploring" was the phrase. We took this idea and each developed a couple of sermons to use in our worship service times on the trip. I decided to take this catchy little phrase "Never Stop Exploring" and use it to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. It took me days of searching through my bible before I was absolutely sure which scripture I was going to use. After much debate I finally ended up deciding on Matthew 13:44   44  “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.    I started off my first sermon by talking about what I look like trying to play golf. I went on to say that most of the time I step up to the tee box I drive the ba...

For the past six years I have been privileged to be involved with an event called Nearly New Years. It is a long standing tradition that started way before I was working out in Brentwood. A few churches would get together at the end of the year and have a fun night together to celebrate the New Years. The event has been growing and last year we reached about 350 which overcrowded the Brentwood Nazarene Church. In February I took a job at the Franklin Nazarene church just down the road from the Brentwood church. This gave us the perfect location to host this year's Nearly New Years. This was also the first time I was to host the event without my dear friend Jason Underwood. This made me nervous, but I absolutely love this event so I was excited at the same time. I went through all the planning sessions with Derek and Jason, and even brought Daniel our speaker in for one of the planning sessions and yet I was still nervous. It wasn't until the morning of the event that I fina...

My buddy Jason and I took our youth groups tonight to see the movie "Soul Surfer". It was a great time. The reason I recommend you take your youth group to see the movie can be summed up in one word: Priorities. The story is amazing and the acting is great, but everything seems to sink away as you are drawn into the world of this teenage girl. Her hopes become the viewer's hopes. It builds a sort of straw man in a way. You as the viewer also buy into the dream of her becoming a professional surfer. All the while she passes by opportunities to focus on the "real" important things in life.   Through all of the scenes that will make you cry, eventually you will begin to pull for this great surfing family. The entire family, guided by their faith in God, begins to see order being birthed from the chaotic waters. After the movie is over, your teenagers will be asking themselves some of these questions: What is really important to me in life? How can God use me to...

  Today in a university chapel, Dr. Dan Boone promoted his newest book: " A Charitable Discourse ". In the book Dr. Boone includes ways of talking about the tough issues that are dividing the church. Some of the tough subjects that Dr. Boone presents are: Homosexuality, Women Preachers, Drinking, Emergent Church and Science. Now I have been a student at Trevecca Nazarene University since Dr. Dan Boone was appointed as the President. I have developed a great respect for the man and the work he does. This book he promoted today was the same that he promoted at M11 conference where I sat as he took some tough questions from the audience. The same thing happened today as the chaplain opened the forum up to the chapel for questions. Never have I met a man who is able to take the amount of criticism and tough questions with such grace as Dr. Boone. Most of the book " Charitable Discourse " was taken from the once a year tough subject chapel sermons that Dr. Boone has hos...

Hey if you get a chance and you are interested in reading some good youth culture material that isn't way out of date: check out this book! Amazon    The idea of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a term I never want to hear again, but yet I am faced with a world that constantly throws it back at me! As a youth worker I don't want to admit this, but I am sometimes finding myself as a fish swimming against the current on this issue. The odd thing about that analogy is that usually when a christian fish is swimming against the current, he/she is swimming opposite of non-believers. It is hard for me to say this but right now I am swimming against what the mainstream church culture is dishing out. They seemed to have dumbed down Christian theology to a point where believers don't know what they believe and they have made the gospel message so self serving that those who were supposed to be following Christ only end up following themselves. Seriously though, its not my teenagers ...

Today I was sitting in another extremely boring church administration class checking my twitter and stumbled upon a sermon from Gabe at Cat10 East. I slid my headphones into my sleeve and leaned against my hand to conceal the fact that I was listening to a sermon instead of listening to the "lecture". I got home tonight and watched the full sermon in its entirety again. Gabe has a few great points that just needed some more exposure. Today was the first free release of the full sermon . In here he touches on the idea that out of over six billion people on earth, and hundreds of different religions and belief systems, how can someone actually believe that they have the answer to all of life's problems? Now look I have been talking for some time about how globalization has created certain fractures in the American Culture's view and understanding of the Gospel. Most Americans don't want to be told that they are wrong about anything. It's not so much that we don...

A few weeks ago Kari and I had set out to find a place to eat after church on Sunday. Kari was craving.... you guessed it Chick-Fil-A. Of course being the great Fiancee that I am, I drove her to Chick-Fil-A. As we pulled into the parking-lot we quickly noticed that it wasn't open. This was a dead give-away because the lot was blocked off by little orange cones. We both realized at that moment, "Oh, it's Sunday". Everyone not living under a rock knows that Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. What happened to us there? What were we thinking? I've known for years not to go to Chick-Fil-A on Sunday. Today there are more people on earth than there has ever been. (To our Knowledge) This has some dramatic effects on the way people live these days. Now there are seven billion people here that are all competing for the same things. One of those things is attention. Another one of those things is business. Even more importantly one of those things is Love. Unfortunately tod...

So I got hired at a new church recently. For the last four years I spent working with youth, I was at a church with the average age of a member being at about thirty-five. This new church which is the same denomination, in pretty much the same community (3.1 miles down the road) has an average age of about sixty-five. I started thinking lately about the major differences I am experiencing with the congregation at my new church. Why is the older generation so turned off by the younger one? Looking back on Craig's sermon a few months ago, gave me almost an instructional video on how to bridge the gap. The key being the older generation must "love and invest in the younger generation" and the younger generation must "Honor the older generation". This was seriously one powerful and healing message. If you would like to hear the entire thing click here! You do have to purchase it :( Well the first Wednesday night service in the new church was great! Can't wait ...