like a fire

Kent Shaffer over at churchrelevance.com has an interesting article about the differences in teaching each gender of teens. According to the article, boys are more apt to hear and listen to a more matter of fact and stressing tone, while girls are more put off by that and prefer something less confrontational. Also, girls prefer 75 degrees in their environment and boys respond better to 69 degrees.

David Letterman, I hope this comes to your attention. Please turn up the thermostat!

An interesting post over at Think Christian has me wondering about the question. Through my time in ministry, I probably would have chuckled at this question. Is the Bible sufficient for us? Is it enough to teach us all that we need to know about God and our faith in him? Sure, why would you ask.

Lately, I have been getting some questions from people hat makes me wonder. I don’t think I ever would have said that the Bible is all we need in life, apart from God. In fact, I’m not sure you can separate the two. But I am convinced that God didn’t create us to desiminate his Word apart from a relationship with him or each other. I think about Jesus leaving and not saying, pass out Bibles where ever you go and make sure people know how to read it and understand it correctly. Instead, he said, go and make disciples teaching them to obey all that I have comanded you.

I guess you could make a case that the Bible is the textbook we teach from, but it has very little to do with how we teach. I wish it were sometimes, because I have sat under some really awful teaching.

Somewhere in history, it seems like the church got the idea that if we could just teach the Bible prefectly, if everyone thought correctly and had good doctrine, then we would all act a lot better. The world wouldn’t have the problems it does now. To me, that is not only wrong, but borders on spiritual abuse.

Who, after reading the Bible and undertstanding what is says, could easily (or more easily) leave their idols behind? Does perfect knowledge (something we don’t have) lead to perfect obedience (something we won’t have in this life)? Tell that to a porn addict who is already full of shame and knows that what he does is wrong. Tell that to a teen girl who hates her body and only feels good when she is chronically underweight or who cuts herself to fell better.

I would say that, no, tha Bible apart form God is definitely not enough. Why would anyone want it to be?

More than just a REALLY cheesy song, Greg Stier is tackling the now hockey phrase to redeem its meaning in the church - and doing a pretty good job of it from where I sit. The idea is as simple as it sounds (we are supposed to be both) but this is beyond that concept into a Biblical model that is easily communicated and understood. Check it out and be blessed.

nt: Tim Schmoyer

It’s official. Christianity in America has gone beyond looking stupid. We are actually stupid. I’ll not beat around the bush with this one. I don’t know any other group as widespread that feels the need to impart meaning by making up words. My favorite - “missional”, though I don’t mind “shart” so much. I heard this word about a decade ago and thought, “What!?!? Is that a joke?” It is now probably in the top five hot words in churches across America. It is now in wikipedia and I would guess it will one day be in the slow to accept Webster dictionary

Are we no better than that? We can’t relate meaning in a better way than to make up words that imply meaning that has always been there?

Now, that is where I would say that we just look stupid. But here is where it goes over the top and actually becomes stupid. There is a certain church that is having a Children’s conference this week. Many people will attend and it is a given that people in children’s ministry lean towards the cutesy, touchy feely type of marketing. The name of the conference is Conspire. Not meaning what the word already means, mind you. No, this is a “play” on words combining two words “Connect” and “Inspire” to form a whole new word that already exists an has a meaning of it’s own. Hijacking a word for a conference? Hmm… It is so cute to do that!

So in an effort to lead the next generation, I have come up with a few words that I think might represent important concepts for the future of the church:

1. Paneral - the second meeting place of the church for small groups and staff meetings. Also a possible new STD.
2. Kingdomal - The next iteration of missional, since the definition of missional is relating to doing God’s mission.
3. Discipleshipal - taking to next phase in discipleship to invest the kingdom in people.
4. Cohortal - The way churches will grow in the future.
5. Housal church - Where George Barna writes most of his “statistical” (ahem) books.
6. Missionary - this combines two words that should never enjoyed any degress of separation, namely “Missional” and “Stationery” (forgive the spelling “ery”) Evangelism in the future will happen with the new cutesy stationery in the new Leopard Mail.

I got nothing else at the moment. Sorry.

Edit:

Institutional - Meaning we belief in “Instant” and “Satisfaction”.
Meta-narratival - Churches that focus only on the forest. Who needs trees, they just get in the way.
UGCal 2.0 - This is probably only for those who are uber geeks or bleeding edge people in the church, but when is the church going to catch the bandwagon of “User Generated Content”? Why does pastoral (haha) staff decide content for the rest of the church?

I have been reading a lot of Marko lately. I don’t know if his blogging has changed or if I just didn’t get him before, but he really has my attention lately. Specifically, he is writing a book on youth ministry that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

The latest chapter preview is on identity. This is one of my hot topics and I have been teaching a lot on it lately. Marko provides an excerpt (teaser) for us:

“For our purposes, we’ll define identity as the “who am I?” question. Simply put: one’s identity is the sum of one’s self-perceptions. This includes self-perceptions about character, values, purpose and potential in life, caste, emotional make-up, appearance and body type, intellectual and spiritual and emotional strength or weakness, relationship to family and friends and culture at large, and many other factors.”

He then goes on the describe how preteens don’t have generally have the abstract thought to develop a sense of identity, It is in the teen years that this becomes paramount.

I am so ready to hear what Marko has for this, especially if he has any insights into how we help teens find their identity, especially if they are believers. Check out the post if this whets your appetite.

My thoughts have been gathering for this for a couple a years. What were we created for? What specifically am I here to do? Where is my place in the kingdom? My counselor pushed on most of those questions to make them much more specific. What would I do if I could do anything? The best and hardest question though still has me thinking.

What are five things about you that will always be true?

I still think about that and wonder. I have a couple of answers, but not a complete answer to the question. That question has become a great source of freedom for me. It is specific to me, rather than the vague leaning of my identity in Christ. It helps me know when I am being true to myself rather than living for other’s approval (a big problem for me). So I was thinking about this and the importance of identity when reading John 13 the other day. One word changed my perspective on identity.

John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.

The word “so” changes my perspective on the passage. Basically, because Jesus knew where he came from, where he was going - who he was - he did what followed. Did identity drive Jesus’ mission? I can’t see how he could have done it apart from that knowledge. So that is my new goal and teaching point on identity. Where do I come from, where am I going, and who am I? Thoughts?