The holiday season has officially begun. We now have permission to listen to Christmas music and max out out credit cards… woohoo! Yesterday (as you probably know) was “Black Friday”. A chance for us here in America to proclaim our greed unashamed. Ah, the Christmas spirit. When people die by asphyxiation from being trampled by mobs of people, fists fly over 
merchandise and, in spite of the economic recession, we are waking up at three in the morning and busting down doors to spend money on things that most people in this world couldn’t fathom possessing.
Yesterday I baked bread. I’ve been baking bread all weekend actually.
It all started a few weeks back when I found a few bags of bread mix and yeast at our house. We were in need of some bread so instead of buying some at the store, I thought I would try my hand at baking. They turned out pretty well which, I think, was a mistake. My success with bread making lead me to be volunteered to bake bread for 17 members of my family for Thanksgiving. Since I have this knack of volunteering for things, and not saying “no” (or so my co-workers tell me), I took on the challenge of baking bread from scratch. I went for broke and made three loaves, two of them pumpernickel and one traditional white. They turned out to be pretty good, so good in fact that my whole family wants bread for Christmas.
What?! No electronics, no toys. Just bread. Weird…
I find bread making to be very relaxing actually. There is something about kneading the dough, watching it rise and the challenge of creating the perfect loaf. Not to mention the smell of fresh baked bread. Is there anything more sublime? As I get comfortable with the basics, I can experiment and try weird things like adding cranberries and cheese, or something like that.
This got me thinking.
What if everyone, instead of plowing over others to get their hands on a TV, stayed home and baked bread and gave it to each other, or to the hungry?
Besides an economical, commercial collapse and a break-down in capitalism (except for the flour industry), perhaps thousands of starving people in our country would be able to eat. Perhaps “Black Friday” would be called “Bread Friday” instead.
A little something to chew on…
I like this guy… a lot!
I think I am lacking one of the two conditions here… But I don’t mind so much.
HT: http://www.cartoonchurch.com Go to there!
It’s funny how blogging works. Here we create space to express our own thoughts and allow people to join us, yet when I haven’t blogged in a while I feel I owe some kind of explanation. I suppose I really don’t have that large of a readership to really explain my absence, but I will anyway.
Part of my lack of posting has been as a result of my thoughts on social media and the like. Frankly I have been feeling exhausted with it. Suddenly our society has become raving exhibitionists who want the world to know what they are doing at all times, where everyone they meet becomes their “friend”, and all emotions are on the table all the time.
I’m a little tired of hearing that I need a facebook, or that people who don’t have facebook are out of touch. That maybe true for some, but I wouldn’t consider myself out of touch, nor do I feel I owe anyone an explanation of why I don’t have a facebook. Someday I may have one, maybe not.
I’m getting a little bored of twitter. Of getting messages all the time telling me where people are, and what they are doing. I’m a little tired of doing that myself actually. It’s annoying how self-promoting we have become. where people just want others to follow them because they think they have something to say.
I’m pretty tired of visiting ministry blogs that have advertisements plastered all over them and writers, inadvertently, making great claims of themselves (Just because you wrote a book, or speak at summer camps doesn’t make you an expert on the subject of youth ministry, you are just one of many voices).
I admit that I wake up some days and want to have more people frequent and comment on my blog, but in the long run what does that do for my neighbor next door, or for the students that I work with… Pretty much nothing.
I don’t want to make money off this blog, and I don’t really care who reads it. I’ve chosen to blog as a hobby, much like the guy who builds model airplanes. Personally I have the desire to become a better writer, not because I want to publish anything, but simply to better myself at something. I like words, I enjoy using them, thats all.
Well, I feel much better now that I got that out. Thanks for reading…
Ok, so my two cents (more like .ooooo5) on Zondervan firing Marko. There is a lot going around the blogosphere about this which is why I have purposefully sat out on this one. However I made some initial comments on twitter and other blogs that I would like to clarify.
I don’t think Zondervan is evil. However, they are a for profit company that is owned by another major company (Harper-Collins which runs Fox). I use to work in the book business and one would be surprised who is really behind our “Christian labels”. That said… They are out to make a buck. There is no denying that. What you want to do with that is your prerogative. Personally, there are other people that work for YS besides Marko, and I support them with all my heart.
I am sad that Marko is no longer at YS. I have heard through the blogosphere (from credible sources) that was not an easy thing for Marko, nor was it his choice. YS will never be the same.
I’m taking full responsibility for my response, but I think some of the fire over this issue is a result of how Zondervan chose to address us. We are a strong community and we have all taken a lot of crap as youth workers, which is why I think we have responded this way. Zondervan has chosen to take a route that makes them look (not saying they are) like they are ALL for profit and really could care less about the youth ministry community or what YS stands for. That is unfortunate.
God Bless you YS! Thank you for caring so well for us youth workers when we need it the most! I pray that you guys will be able to refocus and continue your mission of service!
And Marko (if you ever read this), you don’t have a clue who I am, but I appreciate all that you have done (and I hope will continue to do) for the Youth Ministry community.
My prayers go out to Marko and his family, as well as the rest of the YS staff.
~grace and peace~
1444443 will be stuck in my mind forever. That is where my odometer was at when I struck a median barrier going 35 on SE Powell in Gresham. For some reason I thought it would be fun to celebrate when my odometer changed to all 4’s… FAIL!
I’m ok (thanks for asking), and my car suffered some damage (enough to keep me in Portland for another day or so), but it could have been so much worse. These kinds of incidents tend to hurt pocket books and egos more than anything.
As I have been contemplating the events of the last day and a half and trying to make the best out the situation without trying to feel sorry for myself I have realized that these kinds of things happen to me…often.
I am usually a pretty cautious person, and most of the time I think things through. But those few times that I don’t the ramifications can be huge! I have scars (literally) for my less than stellar moments.
… enter anticipated illustration connection…
Ministry isn’t much different. We have all taken our eyes off the road of ministry and suffered the consequences. Some results are minor, others are more severe. Either way it’s hard to deal with the consequence of our failures and they leave scares. Obviously the best way to prevent ministry failure is to take steps to avoid problems all together. But sometimes we just don’t see it coming.
So how do we work through failure?
- Admit and embrace it. Doesn’t mean we have to like it, but if we try to avoid obvious mistakes I think it makes us look more foolish.
- Make the most out of it. We never know what opportunities may come from our mistakes, but that is hard to see if we are wallowing in self pity.
- Learn from it. We can read all the best books on how to prevent us from making mistakes but there is nothing like the school of hard knocks.
- Try to please everybody and strive be everyone’s best friend.
- Focus on a powerful program that seeks the greatest impact.
- Evaluate your success on your numbers.
- Go out and prove yourself to God and people.
- Be self-seeking.
- Always compare your program with other programs
- Expect immediate maturity from your students
- Force your own agenda and take control.
I have been typing out my notes from my youth ministry classes. I stumbled on this list of “bad goals” for youth ministry. So often we can get distracted by our need for success and our desire to be the best youth ministry in town and we forget that we are out to make disciples.
What would our ministries look like if we operated them like Jesus taught (the least is the greatest)?
What if God wasn’t concerned with how many students we had in our youth ministry, but more about their relationship with Him and with each other?
What if God didn’t care how much money we had in our budgets, or how big our buildings are, but how much of an impact we had on our communities for His Kingdom?
Just some food for thought…
Hey, got an ugly couch in your youth room?
Inspired by my last post, I thought it would be cool if readers sent in pictures of their ugly couches and I posted them on my blog. Then give everyone an oppertunity to vote for their favorite couch.
What do you think? I don’t have huge readership at the moment but who cares right?
You can e-mail your pictures to me at raisingebenezer@gmail.com or twitter them to me and I’ll post them on this blog.
HT www.uglycouchcontest.com for the picture
What youth room wouldn’t be complete without an ugly couch (or two)? Our drop-in center in Burlington as several beautiful and very worn couches (pictures to come).
These pieces of historic americana have been the bane of youth ministry existence for decades. Since the first “bigger and better” youth workers have been breaking up make-out sessions, vying for the attention of the students sitting on the couch in the back , and not to mention the deacon’s wives crusade to have them removed from the youth room and burned.
But, have you ever tried to remove an old couch from your youth room? It’s near impossible. Students attach themselves to them, sometimes they even give them names. Perhaps it’s not the couches themselves, but the memories they represent.
Though our couches may see PDA and goofing off, they also see a lot of true ministry: A student accepts Christ for the first time, or finally has that “ah ha” moment, or has a meaningful conversation with a leader. In a way, our ugly couches are like our standing stones, they remind us of the good and bad, and help us remember the significant things God has done in our lives and the lives of our students.
When I walk into our drop-in center and see all our worn out ugly couches I am inspired by the 35 years of ministry we have had in the Skagit Valley, and I am looking forward to the many more years of ministry to come.
Do you have an ugly couch story? I’d love to hear it.
Axiom #2
Youth Ministry happens as long as a Christian adult is able to use his or her contact with a student to draw that student into a maturing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
“People over Program.” We hear this said a lot, and yet when it comes down to evaluating the success of our ministries why do we look to our programs to tell us whether we are being effective? I think it is because evaluating our success on numbers and program is easy. I mean who is to say, but God, where our student’s hearts are at?
However, if we are focused solely on our program and getting people in the door than it’ not ministry. I don’t think program is bad, but if our program is not creating the space for students to mature in their relationship with God than we are failing.
Contact is the key in this axiom and we can’t make contact with students unless we are intentional. If we are running around pushing papers and fixing powerpoint issues while our students are trying to tell us about something significant than what are we doing?
Since when does entertainment become more important than spending time with students?
Honestly, I think we do a horrible job sometimes at being creative with our resources and to tight with our theology to create the space necessary to lead students toward a maturing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
What do you think?
Despite the fact that people think it rains here all the time (which is some what true) Bellingham and Seattle have both been rated in the top places to live and play by National Geographic. Why? Because we are not afraid to camp in the rain! I can’t tell you how many times I have, it’s usually a 50/50 chance really. And if you’re lucky, you might get a “sun break” or two.
jonasknudsen
