like a fire

Those crazy guys over at Simply Youth Ministry have broken the teen barrier. It seems they have come up with a new way to communicate to teens called “txt”ing. I did some research and it seems that the mobile phone companies have been holding out on us. Apparently, most cell phones can send and receive short messages in the form of text (for those uninformed, text is another word for words or letters). Not only that, but unbeknownst to most youth leaders, the teens have known this for quite some time and have been using this technology to communicate secretly all the time. In fact, there are several plans that they are undertaking using only this technology.

The good news, at least for us youth pastors, is that SYM is helping us be more relevant (for a small fee) by providing a service to “txt” teens we know and work with. For just 10-40 dollars a month, youth pastors can communicate the teen way. This is actually a bit of a tradeoff, though. On the pro side, you don’t have to get into the other techonology that most people don’t know about yet called the “cell” or “mobile” phone. On the con side, you have to deal with another very new techonology called the “internet” or “World Wide Web” (don’t worry, it has nothing to do with spiders).

So you will have to make up your mind for yourself. I will say that SYM has a great track record since making available the “web site” in a box. I also look forward to the new technologies that SYM may tackle in the future. There are so many possibilities with some hints at things to come like:

“peer to peer” file sharing - you could sent the notes from you sermon to your kids at home on there computers. This probably won’t be feasible until much later when most homes have computers and the “internet”.

“MMOG or Massive Multiplayer Online Game” - this one is really out there but I think it is possible. One day (probably in the distant future), people are going start playing games online. When they do, they will get more for their experience if they play with a lot of people online all at once. I could see people getting together in groups, maybe called clans, and playing together. What better place for your youth group?

“Social” or “User Generated” content - this would be really cool. What if your youth group could host a site where teens could make their own user pages and put information about themselves, maybe even pictures. Again, this won’t be feasible until probably 2112 because people will have to have computers in there homes, but I think it is a possibility.

Having said all this, if you are a youth worker in the US and have never heard of any of this stuff (and your not Amish) then you might want to check out some of this stuff. If you do know about this stuff, forget about this whole article and continue doing what you have been doing all along. And if you need to send a “txt” message to many people all at once (and can’t do it from your Facebook account) then head over the Tim Schmoyer’s blog and get the lowdown on how to do it for free with txtsignal.

UPDATE: txtsignal is a pay service. For a free ride use Broadtexter.

I just started a new teaching series at my church based on some of John Eldredge’s teachings called Becoming Fully Alive. I would call it Waking the Dead, but there were some objections on our team about endorsing a book that heavily. Anyway, I taught the first night last night and thought it turned out pretty well. It is here, if you want more details.

This last month has been pretty hectic. I have been cranking out all the promotional stuff for the church’s new service and a lot of smaller events, like this one (pictured here). I have also been trying to plan the rest of the year for youth ministry stuff and discipleship stuff (my new responsibilities in the church).

This last Saturday, I was in the midst of detailing the context for the youth teaching series (transformers) and just was completely unisnpired by any teaching that came up. I thought that most of it was good, but I just wasn’t inspired by any of it. At that point I knew that I had allowed some bad habits to resurface. I hadn’t been spending the time I needed with God, I hadn’t been praying, hadn’t been reading my Bible for anything other than lesson prep. Basically, I had checked out of my relationship from God. Not a great thing for the average person, even worse for a pastor.

I don’t know why, but for some reason it is very easy for me to get distracted. Almost everyone I know is as busy as they can get, most of the time. I am definitely like that. At the same time, I know the value of checking out of busy-ness and checking into God. I had a great time with God this morning. Hope I keep it up and stay focused.

I start my first teaching series for the church as a whole this Wednesday. It is some of the themes from John Eldredge’s Waking the Dead and some of my own thoughts mixed in as well. I really like what Eldredge says about the heart and what he points to in the Bible about the heart.

I wonder sometimes that I never saw it myself. It really is apparent that God wants us to have full lives. That’s not very surprising. The surprising thing is that He wants to do it through our hearts. I grew up in the church very suspicious of my heart. It was the source of all those things that were bad in my life (like emotions). The Bible shows something fairly contrary to that, though. Hopefully, I’ll post more about it as I prepare for the lessons.

So I have been blogging about this for a while. Christians are just annoying. They are rude, sometimes pedantic and occasionally stupid. So why not me. I mean, this mostly started with the word “missional”. What is missional? It’s a made up word that means following the mission of the church. What that mission is depends on who you talk to, btw.

So today I heard the response from the leader of the Episcopal Churchin America to the statement issued from GAFCON (Could there be a worse name for a meeting?). It is evasive and equivocating and just plain annoying. In other words, perfect for this post. Her response:

“Much of the Anglican world must be lamenting the latest emission from GAFCON. Anglicanism has always been broader than some find comfortable. This statement does not represent the end of Anglicanism, merely another chapter in a centuries-old struggle for dominance by those who consider themselves the only true believers. Anglicans will continue to worship God in their churches, serve the hungry and needy in their communities, and build missional relationships with others across the globe, despite the desire of a few leaders to narrow the influence of the gospel. We look forward to the opportunities of the Lambeth Conference for constructive conversation, inspired prayer, and relational encounters.”

That’s right, he refers to the statement as an “emission” which, since it doesn’t come from a car, can only mean flatulence. She does however throw in the word “missional”. Forget the thought that she thinks a “few leaders” is actually the majority of the leaders in the Anglican Communion, let’s focus on words.

Emission -

1 a: an act or instance of emitting : emanation barchaic : publication c: a putting into circulation2 a: something sent forth by emitting: as (1): electromagnetic radiation from an antenna or a celestial body (2)usually plural : substances discharged into the air (as by a smokestack or an automobile engine) b: effluvium

Missional -

adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message.

So for the sake of me being annoying, I submit a new word for Christians.

Emissional -

Radiating the part of the gospel that is completely true and right, but offends some people who don’t want to hear the truth and in fact try to cover up the truth when it reveals things they don’t like to admit. This word will surely become very useful in the present church, especially in America, where the gospel has been corrupted by so many. Just look back a couple of posts to the Obama/Dobson debacle. Use it in a sentence - Obama, in an emissional statement about his faith in the role of government, clearly believes the the place of government is not to endorse any one faith.

I am really excited about the future of epistemology in the church.