I’m no longer a youth pastor, but I’ve been recently reflecting over my tenure in youth ministry. It hasn’t been all happy thoughts. In fact, much of it has been disappointing thoughts. I think being in youth ministry is one of the hardest areas of ministry, because you’re working with people who are usually not at all mature. Not only are they not mature in faith, they aren’t mature as people in general. They’re not stable. You can’t rely on them for very much. Yet you pour your life into them, looking for fruit, only to often find quite a bit of frustrating and disappointing results. I think with technology today, it makes it even harder. In the past, you could pour your life into kids, and just pray and hope that it would make a difference in their lives as they grow older, not knowing how their life would turn out. But today, with things like Facebook, you stay connected with them. I look at my friends on Facebook from both churches I youth-pastored at, and I am often extremely disappointed to see their attitudes, lack of faith in Christ, poor life-choices, etc. Part of me wonders if it was really worth it. Did Christ really do anything in their hearts? That’s why near the end of my tenure at my last church, I became increasingly aware that the best way to really disciple youth is to see their parents become genuine disciples of Christ. Too many parents think that being a Christian is just going to church and volunteering somewhere there. It’s been called “churchianity.” The parents do very little to teach their children what it means to follow Christ. They do not know very much about the Bible themselves, nor do they know how to lead someone to Christ. They struggle being able to even share with someone how to become a Christian and what that really means. On top of this, there seems to be very little eagerness in adults to change this. They don’t seem very willing to change. It’s a large reason why I tried to focus on working with teenagers, rather than working with adults. As a result, I shouldn’t be surprised...

Perhaps you’ve heard attempts to explain the Trinity like I have. The egg illustration (shell, white, yolk) or water illustration (water, ice, steam) immediately come to my mind. The problem is, all these illustrations come up very short in explaining what Christians fully mean by the word “Trinity” when trying to explain God. The Trinity is one of the doctrines of the church that is hardest for me to make sense of. I wrestle with it very often–even sometimes question its truthfulness. I think what it is trying to describe will always elude me to some degree. It’s not easily explained with rational arguments or illustrations. That being said, today a thought came to me. Maybe the concept of the Trinity is harder to understand than it really needs to be. The Church is supposed to be a reflection of God. We are supposed to illustrate who He is to this world–it’s our main job. But what do we see instead, a Church that is fragmented. A church that is not One. Yet that’s what the Trinity tries to portray, three persons–all equally God as singular persons, but yet one God. What if the Church looked like that? Local churches (who do not need other bodies to fully be the church), yet not many churches, but One Church. Just like God himself. Perhaps if the Church would do a better job of being one in unity, fellowship, resources, camaraderie, mission, outreaches, etc., then we could have something on earth that better reflects a Trinitarian God, and it might be a little easier to conceptualize God as...

I’ve written quite a bit about my frustrations with how church leaders view their ministries and whether they are successful or not. Yesterday, while at the bookstore, I saw a book I never heard of before, written a few years back by John Piper entitled, Brothers, We are Not Professionals: A Plea To Pastors. Not having read the book, I’m not sure what it all entails, but I love the title. I was thinking…you know, out of over 2,000 years of church history, it’s only in the past 60 years or so that churches have developed this mindset of “driven” ministry that seems to be commonplace all around us. It really is spiraling out of control, IMO. This idea that we must do everything “well” and do all we can to grow a successful church with a plethora of staff, ministries, resources and congregants simply isn’t the model of a healthy church given to us in past centuries. Instead, when we look back at history, we remember people of faith who were earnest to draw close to God and boldly follow His call, often losing it all in the process. It was those times when the church sought success, personal gain, or power that we are most embarrassed to look back on. This morning as I was driving, I was reminded of a sermon I heard awhile back on Jesus’ words in Luke 10:20: However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. The disciples, budding leaders as they were, had just returned from some “successful” ministry. Today, I think Jesus might say the same thing to us church leaders. I think He would caution us against this mindset of foolish frustration when things aren’t “happening,” and subsequent celebration when things turn around in our favor. We have become focused on the wrong things. I think today Jesus would call foul and blow the whistle on “excessive celebration” centered on what’s happening in the Sunday arena. Just like immature football stars, we are glorifying our successful plays. I think He would be equally disappointed in other church leaders who are coveting their neighbor’s “success.” Success now determines whether church...

This is something I’ve thought about quite a bit in regards to leading our church. What do we want our church to be like in 10 years? For the months of September and October, I met with our church leadership team and then our church body on a weekly basis to hammer through some of these things. As I’ve thought about this question, I keep coming back to the underground church. While so many churches are trying to become more like Willow Creek, or Saddleback, or North Point…I think the underground church even better exemplifies the kind of church Jesus desires. Why? I think the underground church relies more on the Holy Spirit, because it doesn’t have so many resources at its disposal like the American church has. Yet it seems like churches in the US are in a rat race to obtain more and more resources–bigger buildings, larger crowds, better giving. How is the underground church able to grow so exponentially w/out any buildings, paid staff, large crowds, or enormous giving? I think the underground church could care less about talent and cares more about spirituality. I keep seeing over and over how our churches in America crave talent. We want someone super-talented to work with kids or youth. Someone super-talented to lead worship. Someone super-talented to preach on Sundays. I think this is one of the worst trappings we find ourselves dealing with in America. First, it eliminates 98% of our congregations from leading ministries (and we wonder why so few are involved in our churches). Second, it infers that we rely on man’s abilities far more than God’s. Gone are the days of Paul, when he’d rather come in weakness, boast about his weaknesses, and ridicule riches, persuasive words, or talents. I think those who are involved in underground churches are more devoted to Christ than our congregations are. Because they follow Christ at the risk of their own lives, there is an authenticity to their faith. I am sure that when it’s praise and worship time, they press in (even though the music sucks or is completely absent). When it’s time to hear Scripture, they’re all ears (even if it’s the same passage over and...

This past month, our church has been meeting, among other times, at 6:18 am on Wednesday and Sunday mornings to study Scripture together and pray. My favorite part of this study is hearing the Holy Spirit speak through others at the study. My second favorite part is driving home on Highway 85, seeing the mountains on the right and watching the sun come up on the left. I can’t remember when was the last time I saw the sun come up before we started doing this. I guess in Alabama, it is so hilly, etc that you can’t really see the sun come up unless you’re on top of one of the hills at that time. A bigger obstacle, however, has been that I never get up in time to see it rise. 🙂 Come to think of it, when I had video jobs in Atlanta, I’d see the sun come up as I drove east on I-20, but once again, it wasn’t nearly as visible as here. In Ault/Nunn the ground is so flat, there are very little trees or buildings. On the way to the Bible study, everything is pitch black. On the way home, however, the sky is already lit–although the sun isn’t here yet. It usually arrives by the time I get home. Watching the sunrise got me thinking. This marvelous thing happens every single day, and very few of us enjoy the grandeur of it. If you want to see the “bigness” of God, get to a place where you can see the sunrise. One day, while waiting for the sun to rise, I imagined that the sun was the “Son.” Jesus said He was coming back one day, but He hasn’t returned yet. Even though the sun hadn’t arrived yet, the sky was bright. In fact, when I stepped out of the church and into my car that morning, I thought I’d missed the sunrise. As I started driving, however, I realized it wasn’t here yet. Isn’t that a great analogy for Christ? He hasn’t returned yet, but His light is shining everywhere through the rays of the Holy Spirit. We cannot doubt that He is right around the corner, about to appear....

You know, some days are good, others are bad. Yesterday was a good day. Yet, even in good days, we can think about all the things we want to get accomplished but don’t have time to do. Or we consider things outside our control that we wish we had control over. Or our minds can race to a million different things that can consume our thoughts for hours, the whole day, or several days. But I’m reminded of our worship service last Sunday at church. At any point, we can turn off the noise, get away with God, and remember that He’s our Father. We can remember that everything in this life is temporary. We can be assured that one day, this will all be over, and we will be with God forever, and none of this stuff will matter any longer. Is that a great comfort to anyone else? The cool thing is that we don’t have to wait until then to get a taste of how this will be. In our time of communion with God, we can experience this reality right now. Granted, we don’t experience it in all its fullness, but it is enough. God gives us enough to continue on, and to rest in our relationship with Him. Be reminded today that this the only truly important thing in this life–your relationship with God. Protect it. Nourish it. Appreciate it. Don’t let it go to waste. And don’t let this life steal it away from you. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his...