A few days ago I was sitting in a meeting for Converge World Wide (Our denomination formerly known as the Baptist General Conference) and we began to talk about the issue of women being ordained.  As we began to bring up specific names I learned that Christine’s (The lady running the meeting) husband was my pastor when I was 8 years old.  As we began to talk she made a statement that caused me to pause.  She said, “We did a lot of praying for you!”  At that time in my life I lived in an abusive home.  My step dad (at the time) was not a good man.  After the meeting I called my mom and we began to talk about prayer and how God has protected me because of the prayers that were offered on my behalf.

I was suppose to be the kid who was strung out on drugs, sleeping around, and generally messing up my life.  Statistically, that should have been me, but it wasn’t.  Why?  I think the answer is simple, prayer.  You see my mom prayed for me daily (and still does), my grandparents prayed specifically for God to protect me from the environment in which I lived, my aunts and uncles were praying for me, and apparently my pastor and his wife were praying for me.  I believe it is God’s ability to intervene in the affairs of mankind and the prayers of those around me throughout my life that moved God to work in my life.  Prayer works, not because it is a magic incantation, but because of the God who hears the prayers.

I’ve always known prayer was important, you’ve heard the pleas from speakers and pastors forever.  I’ve made those pleas myself, but I don’t know if I have ever taken prayer as seriously as I should have.  I wonder, are you praying for your staff and your students?  Are you doing it enough?  I pray, but not as much as I should!

If you are like me and you don’t pray as much as you should, maybe some self evaluation would be helpful:

• Why don’t you pray?

I think I don’t pray as much as I should because I didn’t believe it really mattered that much.  I would rationalize it, God knows my thoughts anyway…right!  I believe now both because of Scripture and because I have seen it.

• How do you pray?

I most often pray as I go through the day, but I now realize that I need those focused times of prayer in my life for my staff and students.

• Why do you pray?

I pray because I need God to intervene in my life and in the lives of others.

Let me close with a prayer for you

Dear God, we all need you to work in our lives.  Our arrogance and self reliance cause us to think we can do ministry without you…forgive us!  Remind us to pray for our staff, our students, and our families.  Help us to pray as a way of life with our staff, with our students, and with our families.  Ultimately you are the source of power and we can really do nothing without you and when we depend on you, you are glorified for what you do and not us.  Thank you for the cross, for the resurrection, and for eternity.  In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen

My daughter follows along during the sermon filling in the blanks in the outline and reading the passages in her bible.  My son usually plays quietly with a car, but he sings and pays attention some of the time (not bad for a four year old).  This week he was very interested in watching mommy sing.  The choir got up and sang while a montage of clips from “The Passion of the Christ” played in the background.  Jo, my son, was a little upset about what they did to Jesus.  When my wife sat down he started to ask questions about the “movie.”  My wife took him out of the room and began to explain why Jesus had to go through that.  Before you call us irresponsible parents, please understand that the clips shown were not the really bad clips, but they were bad enough.

Jo gets a daily does of Bible reading every night at home.  He has heard the gospel many times, but it never really impacted him until this day with those visuals.  At the tender age of four, he accepted Christ.

I know what some of you are thinking.  It is true that it would be easy to manipulate him into saying a prayer.  That is not what happened here.  As parents we have been very purposeful about telling our kids about Jesus and very careful regarding their ability to understand what is being communicated.  I accepted Christ when I was four and I can still visualize that moment to this day.  Some of you are thinking this is the first of many times he will “accept Christ.”  Maybe, but it would be irresponsible on our part to not explain the gospel to him, and to not allow him to “accept Christ.”  Maybe there will be 20 more times, I don’t know.  What I do know is that on this day I am glad this little person was in Big Church.

As parents we must take seriously the task of teaching our kids to go to church.  This is true when it comes to teenagers as well.  What are you doing in your church to teach people how to go to church?  If my four year old can get something out of it, then so can teenagers.  People will only get out of it what they put into it.  Taking notes and looking up passages is an essential part of attending church and listening to a sermon.  In an entertainment driven world, people need to be taught how to do this from a young age, it is not intuitive.

The question is why?  Why would someone do this?  Why would God allow it to happen?  The answer is simple and not always satisfying.  We as humans have a sense of right and wrong, justice, and purpose built into the fiber of our very being.  The simple answer is that we live in a fallen world where people do terrible and bad things.  It is a result of the fall.  Intuitively we know this is not the way things are suppose to be and so we find it unsatisfying.

Things are suppose to be good, we are supposed to live in a world wear peace reigns and love for God and others is the ultimate good.  We weren’t created for this world, but the previous (the Garden of Eden) and the next (The new heavens and the new earth).  There are no answers that are satisfactory because there shouldn’t be.  As we go through life tragedies happen.  Most of the time they are somewhere far removed from us.  We watch the news and learn about natural disasters in Haiti or some other part of the world and we may feel sad or upset, but we get over it quickly.  When it hits home our emotions run high.  We aren’t just sad, but sometimes angry.  We are angry because deep in the fiber of our being we know we were created for something better.

There may not be any words that can make all these feelings go away, but there is hope.  The hope of redemption found in Christ.  The hope of a world where peace and love reign will one day be realized when Christ returns.

Yes, we live in a fallen world, but that is only part of the answer.  Without hope, without Jesus, that answer isn’t enough.

At the time I am writing this it appears both of the students who were shot will recover.  Still let’s be in prayer for the students and families who were connected in some way.  The only real answers for this kind of event are found in Jesus.

John Byrne talks about youth ministry models, what they are, and how we use them.

Perhaps you read the quote of Spurgeon and you began to be defensive in your own mind.  I know I did.  I love to preach the gospel!!  Jesus death on the cross and His resurrection are the center piece of all of scripture.  Yet in youth ministry we get sidetracked by how many of our kids smoke pot, have sex, or do other things that are not approved of.  While it is true that these things do not honor God, it is also true that without a commitment to Jesus there is no spiritual reason for any person to avoid such behavior.

Love is one of those words that brings all kinds of different thoughts to mind.  Sometimes I begin to think about Beau Jo’s Pizza and how much I love it.  Other times I think about my wife and kids, they are amazing!!  I also think about the ultimate message of love found not in what Jesus said, but in what he did.  Too many people look for words of love when they should be looking for deeds of love.  What Jesus did in coming to earth, dying, and then going to Father to be our mediator (Hebrews 9, Phil. 2) is what defines true love.  How could we as ministers of the gospel not preach of such love?

Ephesians 4 speaks of the calling which God has placed on people’s life.  I am not gifted like Billy Graham, and I will likely never see thousands come to Jesus they way he did, Spurgeon did, or many of today’s evangelists.  I do not believe I have that gift, certainly not in that measure.  On the other hand the most loving thing I can do is tell people of the love of Jesus.

What if I was faithful in telling others of the love of Jesus and never saw anyone come to saving faith?  Then I would be a faithful worker whom God has gifted to other things besides preach.  Being called to the ministry is not about putting out a good effort; it is about whether you are designed to do God’s work in that specific context.  It is about whether you would bring more honor to god by doing something else.  How should we measure our calling in this area?  Here are a couple of thoughts:

• If a person is called, they must be able to clearly and effectively present the gospel.
• If a person is called they should understand the purpose of preaching is spiritual.  Though there are times to deal with drugs, sex, and rock n roll in a message, those should be dealt with as an application of a spiritual and biblical truth, not as the primary purpose of a message.
• If a person is called they will see people come to Christ as a result of their ministry.  I don’t know how many, and it would be presumptuous of me to throw out a number.  It may not be every time they preach and it may not be every other, but it should be noticeable and regular.
• If a person is called they should have a desire and even a passion to see people come to Jesus.

What if you are not called?  If you are not called, figure out what God has gifted you for and go do that whether it is in or out of the church.

Is youth ministry Biblical?  If so, how does the Bible speak about it?

John Byrne explains why it is important to develop a good theology of ministry before you figure all that other stuff out.

Teach This

“In the second place, combined with the earnest desire to become a pastor, there must be aptness to teach and some measure of the other qualities needful for the office of a public instructor.”  -Charles Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students

I remember the first time I walked up on stage at church to do anything.  I had done virtually no public speaking of any kind.  All I had to do was get up and read some scripture.  I was in high school, and to be honest I don’t know why I was asked.  I thought I was going to be really nervous, but as the time grew closer I grew more confident not less.  There were no butterflies, sweaty palms, or anything.  I went up there and read the scripture and sat down.  Over the years I have absolutely been nervous from time to time, I have messed up, I have done well, and everything in between.  Nervousness is not a measure of a person’s talent when it comes to teaching, there are many factors of which this may or may not be one.  For me though it was one of the clues that maybe I could teach and preach some day.  There have been several clues over the years.  Some however think they can teach when in fact they should not.

Over the years I have heard a lot of people who thought they could teach but in reality could not.  I have also heard some people who thought that they were not very good at teaching or preaching and still do a good job of that very thing.  Perhaps there is much more to determining our own ability to teach than our own thoughts and feelings about the issue.

I have watched the first couple shows of American idol for the last couple of seasons.  I always wondered why some of those people who were trying out didn’t first sing for a friend who would be honest with them about their own ability to sing and perform.  Perhaps it would have saved them a lot of trouble.  Sure it is entertaining for us, but I would think it is embarrassing for them.  Some of them just think the judges (especially Simon who is actually my favorite) are stupid and don’t know a good thing when they see it.  Maybe some of them go away and realize they are not as good as they thought they were and find something more productive with their life.

Scripture makes this demand for those who would be elders or “overseers” in 1 Timothy 3:2.  Of course a person can develop their ability to teach, but this is an important part of determining calling.  So how do we measure that?  I don’t know that I have a definitive answer, but here are some things to consider:

• Is the person able to understand Scripture
• Can this person help others understand scripture
• Can this person help others apply scripture in their life
• Humor and storytelling doesn’t necessarily make someone a good teacher
• Can this person keep the attention of the audience

Over the last year breakfast burritos have become one of my favorite foods.  This morning I stopped at Qdoba’s (a Mexican fast food type of place similar to Chipotle) and purchased a breakfast burrito.  In the process I decided to attempt to speak Spanish to the person behind the counter.  It worked for a minute until he decided that I must be fluent in Spanish and began to speak Spanish back.  Of course I had to reveal my pathetic Spanish speaking abilities by switching back to English.  This guy must have been thinking, “Another stupid gringo who thinks he can speak Spanish.”  I wish I could speak fluent Spanish, but the truth is I can barely order a breakfast burrito.

There is a similar problem that occurs in the church with God.  A lot of people speak “Christianeze”, but that is like some gringo who can barely order a breakfast burrito in Spanish.  I’m not so sure God speaks Christianeze at all.  In reality hearing God’s voice has a lot less to do with some kind contemplative, mind altering experience than it does with simply taking time to know God’s word.  The question remains, how do we hear god’s voice in a world filled with voices screaming for attention every waking minute?

For many years I sought after God’s voice.  I would pray for an audible voice, a dream like Joseph had, or some kind of supernatural sign that would guide my way.  I never received that kind of communication.  I have received a very different kind of communication.  One that I think is much more reliable and less affected by the Qdoba’s I ate the night before.

If I really want to go to a Spanish speaking country and communicate with the people there I am going to have to learn more Spanish.  If I am going to communicate well I am going to need to learn more that a list of vocabulary words, I am going to have to be able to conjugate verbs.  The same is true when it comes to hearing God’s voice.  The book of Hebrews begins by reminding us of how God speaks.  God has spoken through the prophets, and more recently through Jesus.  I believe this passage is speaking specifically about the life of Jesus, the incarnation.  Of course his life is recorded in the New Testament.

Hearing “God’s Voice” is more about understanding what He has already said than it is “hearing” Him through some kind of gut feeling or unusual thought (those are all too common in my head, and it is painfully clear to me that most of those are not from God).  Ephesians 5 tells us to live wise and James tells us that we should pray for wisdom and God will give it to us.  It seems wise to apply the principals and wisdom found in God’s word to our lives.  When there are difficult decisions, consult Scripture and seek out the counsel of trustworthy friends.

Maybe God has given you some kind of clear communication that cannot be denied.  Maybe you have dreams given to you by God or you hear the literal voice of God.  I don’t, at least not yet.  So throughout my life I have resorted to simply living wise.  Of course sometimes I do a better job than others.  I continue at every turn to try and live wisely.  I still pray for God to make things abundantly clear and just tell me what to do, but so far I have had to rely on Scripture and wise council.