Tomorrow I am getting together with most of the people who were on my volunteer youth staff at the church were I was a youth pastor. I have not hung out with that entire group in about 3.5 years and that has been way too long. I developed such rich and good friendships with everyone and have maintained some contact with each of them, but it will be fun to have the whole gang back together again.
We used to hang out and play games together and just talk about life so much. It was on of the best teams that I was ever a part of. We modeled what the Christian life is all about and I believe it was the direct reason why that student ministry there was so successful. It really had not much to do with with me and a majority of it was devoted to all of us pastoring those teens together.
Hopefully one day soon I will be able to formulate another team together that can be just as good as that team and we can have a profound impact in the lives of students. Half the fun I had as a youth pastor was investing in the lives of those leaders and seeing them have meaningful relationships with teens. So tomorrow while people in Detroit will be celebrating the labor unions, I will be celebrating our union together and the labor of love that we collaborated on together.
Nothing major, just some thoughts of what I think may happen this year. Michigan will definitely finish above .500 and go to a bowl game and keep their consecutive bowl game streak alive. The will lose to that team up north, but they will beat that team down south. No reason why I think this other than just a gut feeling. I hope I am wrong on at least one of the predictions, can you guess which one?
Michael Phelps has been dubbed the greatest Olympian ever after winning 8 golds in a single Olympic games as well as 14 golds lifetime. That is more than any other Olympian and quite an accomplishment for someone who has at least one more Olympics to go.
And since he is a Michigan Man, I am all the more happier to have seen him win those golds. There was only one race I missed on the TV, but I got to see it online, and it was the first relay race when the team came back at the end. Everyone of his races had me cheering and the best had to be his .001 win in the Fly. It had me cheering right along with him and I loved his families reaction. It was as the MasterCard commercials say “Priceless”. It was a truly historic moment and it fulfilled a dream that Michael had since he was young.
However, that is not what this post is really about, but I wanted to mention it because it was historic in it’s own right. But what I am talking about is the nomination of Senator Barack Obama as the first African-American to a major party.
I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on or even if you sit on the fence. You have to admit that what happened last night, and even tonight with his acceptance speech, that it is great to finally see that race barrier starting to fall even more. Heck, even the fact that Senator Hillary Clinton had a serious run at it as well was also a great thing to see. You don’t have to like them to at least respect those things happening.
I honestly thought that the Republican Party would be the first to nominate an African-American candidate and not the Democratic Party. Not sure why, but just a feeling I always had.
I find it very fitting that Senator Barack Obama is accepting the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, because it is a significant step towards seeing that dream achieved. I am looking forward to hearing Senator Barack Obama’s historic speech on this historic night, because as someone who still considers himself undecided I want to gather as much information as I can.
The sad part about all of this is how people are trying to use race as an issue in this election. What I respect about Senator Obama is that he has chosen to try and leave race out of it for the most part. I have yet to see him play the “race card” as some people have claimed him for doing. Mostly it is people looking for it or even race baiting, in my opinion.
What bothers me the most is that while people accuse Senator Obama for using the “race card” I see no one blaming Senator John McCain for using the “victim card”. I have really struggled with even blogging my thoughts about this and before I do let me say that I respect the sacrifice that Senator McCain has made for our nation. He suffered horrible things at the hands of his captors and served his country with pride.
However, if I have to hear him say one more story about his time as a POW, I think I may puke. I swear that during the Saddleback Civil Forum that he talked about his time as a POW after just about every question. Don’t get me wrong I respect his service to our country, but if Senator Obama can’t bring up his race, which has had a major influence in shaping his own life, then why should Senator McCain be allowed to bring up an experience that shaped his life ad nauseum? And someone else isn’t allowed to bring up theirs which just as much shaped their life and still continues to shape it to this day, because it is an ongoing experience. I know that people will label me “un-patriotic” or “un-American” and that just simply isn’t the truth. I am just merely pointing out that it should go both ways for both guys. The comment button is below so go ahead and fire away.
I have made no secret that I will not be voting for Senator John McCain. But I will change my mind if he declares that not only will he get rid of frivolous spending on things like studying the DNA of black bears in Montana, but that he will also not take a salary while he is President or make tax payers pay for the catering service in the White House or maid service or gas for Air Force One, etc. After all, the guy has a wife who is worth $100 million dollars and has more homes than some small countries. So I think he can afford to help out the country for 4 years by doing that. He will then have my vote. So, Senator McCain, if you are listening and want my vote then that is what you wil have to do to get it. Otherwise, you can keep on living in your myriad of homes and dream of living in the White House.
But for now I just want to focus on Senator Obama helping our country achieve the dream and shape history.
I love summer and the heat that comes with it, especially 90 degree summer days. And while I am sad to have the summer end and have to bust out the winter clothes, I am excited to have college football starting back up. You may have noticed that I changed the header on my blog to reflect my favorite college football team.
Some of the best parts of college football, and really all college sports, are the rivalries. I love going to games and seeing the fans wearing their respective teams colors while cheering on their team. You just don’t get that same feeling with pro sports.
Plus, the guys on the field are playing for the love of the game more than the paycheck, which is another thing that annoys me about pro football. Of course, there is the fact that I am a Detroit Lions fan and that probably adds to my disdain for pro football. LOL
My wife is not looking forward to it, because that means that the TV will be on some college football game all day Saturday. Starting with College Gameday on ESPN. And the best part is that this year I get to watch Michigan play in HD, along with the myriad of other games that I will watch.
This season at Michigan will bring with it a new challenge because we have a new coach. And while I am not happy about the circumstances surrounding him leaving his previous school, I would be a fool to not say that I am not excited about what Coach Rod will do with the boys in the winged helmet. Hopefully, he can repeat the success of Bo Schembechler in his first season at Michigan and beat the bucks. All we need to do is take a page from the SEC.
Today, I read an article in a section of the Detroit Free Press called Play about a local band named The Great Fiction. (This is their MySpace page.) Well, I know 3 of the 4 members from a summer camp that I used to help do. I knew these three guys when they were mere teenagers and even when they would lead the music at our camp chapels. It was cool to see that these guys, who formed this band when they were teens are still together making music.
They haven’t hit the big time and it doesn’t even appear, from the article, that they have a desire to really hit it big. They just seem to be enjoying what they do and hanging out together. They are having a CD/DVD release party this weekend and that is why they were featured in the news magazine.
It was very interesting to read what they had to say and there was a couple of things that they mentioned that got me to thinking about why I love student ministry so much.
The church proved to be an excellent place to nurture their musical inclinations, he says. “All of our parents are very devout Christians, and we all went to these wild Pentecostal churches where there’s lots of jamming going on, a lot of dancing, a lot of craziness. You just pick it up because there’s really good musicians there,” Philip Zott says.
I believe that if you give students an opportunity to use their talents in the church at a young age that it will help them to develop into productive citizens later on in life. The church can and should be a place where they can hone these skills, and make mistakes or even fail. That way when they become adults they will have the confidence to go forward and do something. When I read that quote by Phil my heart jumped, because I know that I had a small part in some of that with these guys.
The other thing they said that got me thinking about how much I love student ministry was this….
Despite the intense religious background, Zott wants to be clear that the Great Fiction is not a band in the Christian genre. “We have some lyrics that use the kind of phrases that people use — we grew up around a lot of what we call Christianese. I kind of left Christianity. Unfortunately, we had bad experiences, and we just kind of got tired of dealing with that stuff,” Zott says. Neme is the only member who still attends church.
Why would such a negative thing like someone leaving Christianity make me realize how much I love student ministry? It is because it makes me realize all the more how desperately teens need to be connected with loving adults, who will care for them and show them a God that is bigger than them and loves and cares for them far more then any person can. It also made me realize that we need to teach students that a faith in God is more than hype, flash and mountaintop experiences; but that it is a journey. We need to give them so much more than just the high times but give them some good solid grounding that will help them when the storms of life come at them.
I am all the more energized to keep doing student ministry, because I do not want to see teens graduate from high school only to graduate from their faith as well. Instead I want to do what I can to help them to grasp a hold of a faith in God that will last well into their adult years that they can then pass onto their children. I think of my youth pastor and how he helped me to develop a faith in God that has stood the test of time and the trials of life, and then pass it onto my children. And that is why I love doing student ministry, because of the challenge and the joy of seeing lives changed.
For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.
1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. The students’ parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax-revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative—or known about a friend’s relative—who died comfortably at home with hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando, Fla.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Häagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the national anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. The students have never been able to color a tree using a raw-umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always had Jay Leno as its host and started at 11:35 p.m. Eastern time.
34. Pee-wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the United States.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. The students’ parents may have watched American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. The students have never heard a gasoline-station attendant ask, “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft-drink refills have always been free.
50. The students have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows operating systems have always made IBM PC’s user-friendly.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 degrees F, or otherwise, has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate-cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in U.S. waters has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.
Some of you will probably remember when Blake Bergstrom, who was the youth pastor from Colorado that made the following blooper during a message to students….
Well, a group called Prank 3:16 decided to pull a prank on him ala Punk’d style.
My friend, Amy, tagged my with this “3 Question Meme”, so here goes….
1. If you were to be in ministry 10 years from now (whether you’re in ministry now or not) what would you like to be doing and where?
I hope to still be doing student ministry. Right now, I am not doing in a paid capacity and I hope that that will change, but otherwise I love working with teenagers and I don’t see that changing. I have said that I want to outdo Dick Clark as the oldest living teenager.
2. If you could wake up tomorrow with a degree and all the learning that would have gone with it from any seminary which one would you pick and why?
I honestly don’t know. I value education, but I think that the church emphasizes have a degree a little too much. If I did have my choice I would love to have gone to Saddleback Church for their Student Ministries Internship Program, because I would love to have the hands on experience.
Some of you may have seen the response that Paris Hilton has to Senator John McCain’s attack ad against Senator Barack Obama titled Celeb. However, just in case you haven’t, here it is for your entertainment. It is pretty funny. At least Paris can poke fun at herself.
That is a blog title that is sure to garner a lot of attention. It is a topic that is a hot button issue amongst Christians and even in the political world this year. With two states (California and Massachusetts) legalizing gay marriages it has caused all kinds of reactions. You have some churches that support gay marriages, some that oppose it and some churches that spew such vile about it that I don’t think that they can be considered Christian.
I have spent a lot of time thinking and talking about it, and trying to figure out where I stand on the issue. On one hand I read the Bible and I clearly see that the homosexual lifestyle is a sin, but then I also know that there are things I have done in my life that are sinful as well. God’s grace is big enough for both sins to be forgiven. However, that is not the issue at hand. The issue is whether or not our government, which is not a theocracy, should sanction gay marriages.
I am first and foremost against a federal law or Constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between only one man and one woman. I think that it is an issue of state’s rights and not something that the federal government should step into.
Second, I believe that marriage is a sacramental act and something that is founded in biblical principles and so marriage should be kept within it’s biblical context and that is between a man and a woman. But where does that leave homosexual couples that feel that in this country they deserve the right to formalize their commitment? I believe the answer is to separate marriage and civil unions. Like I said marriage is a sacramental thing and should be kept within the context of the church. A civil union is a governmental thing and thus the federal government can regulate it. So homosexuals that want to formalize their union can get a license for a civil union that can be held in a courthouse or wherever they would prefer to conduct a ceremony. And then heterosexual couples can do the same thing and if it is performed in a church then it can be formalized as the sacramental marriage.
Now a church that chooses to bless homosexual unions can do so in a church that may approve of such a thing. However, by making the unions all civil unions and leaving marriage out of the picture then you will leave churches that do not believe in gay marriages to not be forced to perform those kind of ceremonies, because it won’t be required by the government for a marriage to take place for a union between a couple. Because I would be willing to bet if gay marriages were legalized in this country that it would not be very long before a church that opposes such a thing would be sued for discrimination. Thereby forcing homosexuals beliefs upon the church, which is pretty much what they feel churches are doing by rejecting their desire to be married.
There is more about this idea that was in Monday’s edition of the USA Today. You can read the full article here.
I know some people will not be pleased with what I have written and may even call my own faith into question, but let me just say that we need to realize that our government is not Christian and so we can not force it or it’s people to uphold our Christian ideals. Instead we as Christians need to be going about changing the hearts of people by showing them God’s love for them.
Tomorrow I am getting together with most of the people who were on my volunteer youth staff at the church were I was a youth pastor. I have not hung out with that entire group in about 3.5 years and that has been way too long. I developed such rich and good friendships with everyone and have maintained some contact with each of them, but it will be fun to have the whole gang back together again.
HT to 
