like a fire

I haven’t been posting much lately and there is a reason. More later.

Think Christian » Blog Archive » Top Ten Surprises in “The Da Vinci Code”

Finally something worth talking about with the DaVinci Code. Read this and try not to laugh. I dare you.

It’s time for churches to stop abusing youth pastors

This is the second article I have seen on this in a week. Read it and get the link from there to the other if you want. Both articles tell of church and pastoral abuse of youth ministers. In my experience, if you haven’t been abused by the church yet, then you haven’t been there long.

I personally have been hurt in many ways by the church. It is really painful to have spiritual leaders betray and manipulate you and others. Having said that and been the target of much abuse, I ask myself, “So what?” Is it worth it to serve in a place and help others? Is it worth risking hurt to be able to be faithful to a call? I think so.

I think what we do in this life is precious to the kingdom. I think that I and many others are often afraid to be hurt and that keeps us from doing great work for God. It’s funny that this article hit me today. Last night I was talking to some people about risk. We talked about how boring it is to play it safe and how rewarding it can be to get out there.

I think of Paul the Apostle and what he would say to this. Abuse? Have you been turned over for stonings, beatings, public ridicule, three times for flogging, shedding blood for the gospel? What do you mean abuse?

I don’t want to make light of this for those who are being mistreated. It is very real and painful. But I look at my own life and what I suffer and I just think that it is all worth it. I wouldn’t go back and change that even though it hurts.

BlackSpot Shoes

This is one of the most phenomenal things I have seen in a while. These new kicks are for the hard core. They are shoes made for people who care more about a statement than they do about shoes. The whole business is driven off of the desire to “Kick mega-corporate control over their lives.” The most interesting thing is that people are actually buying the $65-$95 shoes.

What are the shoes? From the site:

This is your chance to unswoosh Nike’s tired old swoosh and own one of the most Earth-friendly shoes in the world.

* 100% organic hemp upper
* recycled tire sole
* made in a union shop
* hand drawn logo & sweet spot
* unique “dirty wash”
* designed by John Fluevog
* produced by Vegetarian Shoes

To me they look like a canvas borgan from the late 1800’s. But the most interesting thing about these shoes and there marketing is that there isn’t anything said about comfort, durability or wear. At least Dr. Martens said they would last a long time. Even Reebok started as a comfortable tennis shoe. These guys promise only one thing. These shoes won’t be anything like Nike’s. I can’t believe that people would buy them.

Of course if they sent me a pair for free and they were actually comfortable, then I might change my tune.

I juts read an article over at Techcrunch that was about how Google has probably just acquired Gtalkr. I was just thinking about that and how it relates to the kingdom. Google has become notorious for buying up things that will help them do what they do - only better. They have built themselves from a great search engine to a great email, homepage, mapping, etc., web service. The do it through staying aware of what the user wants and adding those functions to their service. In this case, and probably others as well, they have probably hired the guys responsible for Gtalkr. This is a great strategy for building a team a great people to help the user. Google’s message is loud and clear. The user is number one.

Microsoft on the other hand, can’t keep from aborting the user. They build in all kinds of un-usefulness into everything they do. Ever tried to do something new in MS Office only to be asked to downlaod something new (usually when you don’t have an internet connection) or need the original install disks of the OS and program (usually when you don’t have them either). Microsoft’s answer to Google’s startegy is to see something someone else is doing that attracts the masses, do it in house without worrying about the user or quality, and build in some very un-useful hoops to jump through for the consumer. Microsoft’s number one goal seems to be - don’t let anyone steal what we can charge for. This is Microsoft’s new webservice called, what else, Microsoft Live.

Then there is God. What God does is, he sees the good that he created people to be. They are his kingdom images to multiply and rule the earth. He makes them useful. Then he develops their usefulness even more and they see the value of it as well. It is a great feeling being useful. God’s tagline is you are my creation of usefulness in my kingdom.

In youth ministry, we see a lot of things come and go. most of the formulaic stuff is dead. Teens are just too busy and too aware to put out superficial, canned messages and games that they would never play anywhere else. A new paradigm is developing - usefulness. Where are we teaching teens to be useful? How are we extending the kingdom through what we do and teach? Ofcourse, paradigm shifts cause all kinds of friction. Some teens and churches still want to hide behind the old rules of ministry. Maybe they are scared of being useful and therefore necessary and depended on. Maybe it is easier to just come and hang out. It’s definitely scary to be in a place that acknowledges that they need you and that you matter. That means you have to get outside yourself and into other people.

I think God’s way is better than Microsoft and similar to Google. He sees usefulness and grows it into something more. He creates in us the desire and need to be useful.

More on this later.