A buddy of mine sent me this article that we both found very interesting. When I first read that a Catholic church in New York was offering indulgences, I almost lost it. I actually started a blog to rip the idea and had to walk away from it. A few weeks later I have a little different take on it and think this might have a little value. Don’t get me wrong, I believe there is a lot of things wrong with the catholic church and I don’t believe in indulgences but what if it causes a person to confess their wrongs and change their ways. I hope and pray that these people will confess to God and ask for forgiveness rather than just to another human being in a confessional booth, but I think money is a huge factor in our American culture. If someone is willing to lay down some cash and confess some sins, I say bring it on. Granted it is a very misconstrued concept but think about it…there are a lot of diet companies out there that are making you pay for the weight you didn’t lose this week. People in offices and friends in dorm rooms and neighborhoods all over America are throwing down chunks of change in a competition style motivation. The one who loses the most wins the pot. Money is very motivational. If people are willing to separate themselves from the love of the greenbacks and it brings them one step closer to God and His forgiveness…isn’t it worth it? What are your thoughts?
Indulgences
Historic Day
I sit in a coffee shop this morning doing some work and listening/watching this historic day unfold. I am amazed at some of the comments that come with a day like today. Phrases like, “YES life is going to be so much better”, “I’m proud to be an American for the first time in a long time”, and my personal favorite was this one right after Obama said ’so help me God’ a patron at the coffee shop says “YES, let’s go get a job now”. I remember when Bush was elected to his first term and how America trusted him and them trusted him again four years ago for a second term. Now all people can do is hate and slander! That is amazing to me. But with change brings hope! I have great hopes for Obama but I hope that America realizes that this country won’t turn around tomorrow. I heard a proposed change of 2011 or 2012 before anything drastic happens with Obama’s action plan. I don’t know how true that is but I hope that we can support and stick beside the man we so eagerly challenged with one of the hardest jobs in America! Good luck President Obama, Congratulations to you and your family, and may God bless you and the United States of America!
I’m A Whore!
…enough said!
Cape Cod
Ok, so this blog isn’t anything about Cape Cod. I’ve never even been to Cape Cod and in fact…I don’t even know where Cod is…so how can it have a Cape? Anyhoo, I always here it on movies and television and it sounds nice. It was a great thought to relax me from the stress of today. I have been pondering and fretting about youth ministry. Specifically, how do we get our students to live for and like Christ?
I have been preaching relational ministry for years and I still think that is the best and most evangelistic way to do ministry. However, this style of evangelism takes time. I am human and want to see results…yesterday. So how do we convey Christ to our students? How do we convey the importance that “Wednesday night youth group goer” should be the same person at school, athletics, and home. Especially when these students lives are crap at home.
Ok, now back to Cape Cod…
Advent Conspiracy
We are currently doing a series at Crestview called the Advent Conspiracy. It is amazing!! Just this video alone gets to me everytime. Enjoy!
For more information go to www.adventconspiracy.com
2 New Youth Series Coming Up
I am really excited about the two new series we have coming up for our youth. This will be the first time that we have run a back to back series like this but it’s going to be awesome. I hope to have video segments implemented as well…once we get TV’s back in play (who steals things from the church…I mean really…come on).
The first series will be based off of a Student Life bible study “What if you knew…” The second series will be the “Whatever” series. Can’t wait!
Phoenix…OUT!
As of 11/23/08 Phoenix Church of Austin is no longer. We have closed the doors of POA! It is a sad time but I feel like it was a very productive and successful effort. I would have like to seen it continue but time has run her course…click here for more info.
Engage
Staci and I have been talking over the past few weeks about engaging our community. You see, we are trying to sell our house in order to move closer to the church for two reasons: 1. To engage and be a part of the community surrounding the church 2. To be closer in order to have youth events at our house. But in all the preparation and fun thoughts about doing that, we realized we haven’t engaged our current community. SAD!!!! We have been there for 3 years and don’t know anybodies names and the ones we did know have moved. So here are a couple of ideas we have in order to get to know our neighbors this holiday season. These are very preliminary and I am open to your suggestions…please provide more suggestions…
-Reverse panhandling, there is only one way out of our subdivision and it gets really backed up during the morning commute. What if we give out money to those waiting at the stop light instead of asking for money.
-Cookies and a Christmas Card, knocking on doors in our neighborhood with a plate of cookies and a Christmas card. We would introduce ourselves, tell them where we live, and why we are doing this.
-Block Party, hosting a block party for our neighbors with food and games. Just a time to hang out and meet everyone.
What ideas do you have…what have you done before?
Resonate
There are a few lines from an old hymn that just resonate in my soul and have been since this summer. They really struck me today…how about you…
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of His glory and grace.
“The Church” in “Church”
For years “the church” has gone to “church” to listen to one man/woman stand up and tell them how to live a better life, only to walk out with a puffed chest and think that we have done our “Christian duty” by listening. Some of us have even attended many events and helped with church activities but don’t have a personal time with God. What would life look like if we could make an “eternal ripple” (props to JHellums on that one) in peoples lives? Wouldn’t it carry on? That person would share it with someone else, and they would share it, and the ripple would continue to grow. So how do we make that happen? How is a life impacted so deeply? I have a couple of ideas…
1. Through a relationship. You don’t meet someone for the first time and begin to dig deeply into their past and current life. You don’t ask those deep penetrating questions automatically. However, most of us don’t even go that deep after we have a great relationship with someone. We become afraid of hurting our friendship. I believe that a relationship is a process. It doesn’t come overnight and it gets sticky and messy sometimes but, it is worth the wait. The process is significant.
2. It takes self-initiative. It takes self-initiative on our part to stick with the relationship AND to ask and dig into the persons life. It also takes self-initiative from that person to change! It is up to us to encourage and stimulate that change.
3. Patience and Effort. It takes patience to build a relationship and it takes a whole lot of effort. You have to work at it! You see, most of us have patience but don’t want to put out the effort it takes to make the relationship grow, therefore, an eternal ripple is never achieved because we are not willing to dig deeper into our relationships.
This blog was inspired by personal feelings and growth in the last few months as well as the author of “Insert Title Here“, Jeremy Hellums who wrote a recent blog on the phrase “Eternal Ripple”.
