Ruined People

“I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15 (NLT)

A few days ago I was watching television with my daughter and while channel surfing the Nickelodeon show “iCarly” caught my daughter’s attention. As the opening credits rolled and Miranda Cosgrove’s song, “Leave It All to Me”, played my daughter jumped into action. She began running around in circles stopping every few seconds to look at the television screen and imitate some of the actions or facial expressions the cast would make as they raced across the screen. My daughters interpretations weren’t quite spot on but it was entertaining to watch. Thankfully my daughter loss interest after about 10 minutes and I was able to continue surfing.

While I was watching my daughter dance in circles without a care in the world she reminded me what acting like a child looks like. I began to consider what Jesus said to a bunch of adults in Mark 10:15, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” There is so much we can learn from our children and that day my daughter taught me about how I should approach my relationship with Christ.

After I realized there was nothing worth watching on television I pulled out my Bible and began searching for a few verses. I set out to find verses that showed Jesus addressing His followers regarding how we are to live out our faith. When I looked for these verses I wanted to be intentional about looking at them from a child’s perspective. A child looks at things from a literal perspective, so when Jesus says, “come, follow me”, their eyes will open with excitement readily waiting for a game of "follow the leader" to commence. Adults, we tend to look at things suggestively, so when Jesus says, “sell your possessions and give to those in need”, our minds begin to think of what part of our worn-out wardrobe we can donate to Goodwill; we get a receipts for those donations.

A child’s perspective to life is filled with curious abandonment and vulnerable imagination. Most adults will approach life with sensible inquisitiveness and conceivable possibilities.

What would happen if we all took Jesus’ advice and became “like a child” – like my daughter? Is abandoned curiosity and fascination for our Creator a real possibility for you and me? I believe it is. Why, then don’t more of us experience life in this way? In my opinion, it is because we allow the obstacles of life to overcome our wonder and steal our enthusiasm.

One of my favorite books was written by Michael Yaconelli the founder of Youth Specialties and one the greatest youth leaders of our time. The book is entitled, “Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith” and in this book Yaconelli writes, “Episcopal priest Robert Capon named the first obstacle: “We are in war between dullness and astonishment.” The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer like changing, it is life enhancing.”

I admit my faith has been peppered with periods of disillusionment and doubt but those have been temporary detours to the WAY. I truest hearts desire is to really chase after Christ, to love others just as Christ loves them, with grace and authenticity. I’m so far from where I know God wants me to be but I’m going to continue moving forward. I want to be at a place where my heart longs for nothing more than to do the will of my Father.

“I’m ready for Christianity that “ruins” my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and… well… dangerous. Yes, I want to be “dangerous” to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered “dangerous” by our predictable and monotonous culture.” – Michael Yaconelli

Will you join me in that pursuit? Turn the television off, silence your Blackberry, turn on your favorite worship cd, crack open your Bible, and just dive into his GoODness. My prayer is that when the room stops spinning we come out a ruined people!

Reaching Into the Margin

“Our approach to ministry is to view it relationally rather than programmatically,” says Greg Paul, who has directed Sanctuary, a street ministry, for more than 13 years. “So our approach is not to develop a bunch of programs to put people through and they come out the other end and there’s some change in them. Our approach is to say that we are fundamentally a community.”

I recently read an article on Relevant Magazines website, (If you are interested in reading about progressive Christian culture I highly recommend you purchase a subscription to their magazine. To me it’s the best $15 I spend every year.) “The Gospel on the Street”, and it got me thinking about my approach to youth ministry.

I’ve served as the youth pastor at my church for two years and during this time we have struggled to effectively reach the young people in our community. We have planned large concert events, given away game stations and ipods, and passed out flyers to our weekly services. I have dug deep into my ministry bag-o-tricks several times and now I’m beginning to clean out the lint. (Side note: nothing we do has gone without much prayer so please don’t get overly spiritual and miss the point because there is a point here, I promise!)

While reading this article something that Greg Paul said struck a cord with me, he said, “Our approach to ministry is to view it relationally rather than programmatically.” I’ve been in youth ministry for almost 8 years now and relational ministry is nothing new to me but when he said it; a light went off. We are missing the most important ingredient to any effective ministry and that is authentic relationships. How could we have been so blind!

However, the issue is not with our vision it’s our complacency and this is a dangerous place to be in ministry. Now that I think about it, it does make sense. Our leaders and their youth pastor, that’s me, have found themselves being drawn to the students that seem to have it all together. They are easily motivated, dependable, loyal, hard-working, and know all the words to the songs we sing. All the while there are students in our ministry and in our community that don’t fit into our comfort zone that we are failing to reach.

The article stated, “Statistics show that of youth who end up on the street, 84 percent of them will admit to having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse in the home. The vast majority come from broken homes. The vast majority come from homes where one or both parents have a drug or alcohol problem.” Greg Paul explains the danger to our ministries complacency when he says, “It’s important to remember that these issues are as present in church communities as they are anywhere else. So, in a church of several hundred people it’s entirely likely that there are a few kids being sexually abused. It’s entirely likely that there are a number of families where one or both parents have an alcohol or drug problem. So, the first thing churches need to do is get their heads out of the sand and recognize that this is probably taking place in our own congregation. And look around the church for the people who exist at the margins.”

We have young people and families within our church and community that desperately need us to bring the love of Christ to them. Up to this point our youth ministry has failed to effectively extend our hands to reach into the margins. We are guilty of making our ministry more about the programs and less about the relationships and I know this has drastically stunted our growth. I believe our ministry and the church as whole will not see the exponential growth it desires until we begin to focus on authentic relationships.

In about 2 weeks our youth ministry will host a Back to School Bash and we are expecting to have around 50 students on our campus that have never engaged our ministry before. On that day I will challenge myself and our staff to view this event and all future events as “tangible expressions of relationship, or an invitation to a relationship, rather than an end in themselves.”

In relationships we display how much we care so others can hear how much God cares. When we fail to build relationships with the people we are ministering to we are limiting what God can do in us, and more importantly, through us. I hope you will join with us as we pursue the “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Heart Problems

“What you say flows from what is in your heart.” Luke 6:45b

Over the past few weeks I’ve had several instances where I felt God was pointing out that some of my ideas, attitudes, and actions are not exactly Christ-like. My convictions have brought me to the point where I need to ask God to show me the corrections I need to make as apart of my minute by minute pursuit to become more like Him.

It is my desire, as is should be yours, to begin living out what Paul says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.” In order for this to become a reality for you and I the core of who we once were should have been thrown away when we accepted Christ as “the author and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2) At the point of our conversion the very beat of our heart should’ve begun to find the beat of our Creator. At that point my ideas, attitudes, and actions should have miraculously changed by removing all my pride, impatience, hypocrisy, and selfishness.

However, we have interrupted God’s conversion process at the point of salvation. We received His power to cleanse all of our past sins and while they were being cast to the east and west we packed up our futures thinking the work was done. We left the operating table after our old heart had been removed but before God could make the transplant complete with the new heart He handcrafted. This now leaves us with the knowledge of how to ask for forgiveness without the power to leave our life of sin.

I’ve discovered the root of my problem and what I need to do in order to allow God to fully live in and work through me. I’ve got a heart problem and I need God to take complete control of it if I’m ever going to be completely transformed.

“A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” (Luke 6:45) Everything that I say and do that contradicts God’s love for me and others comes from my heart.

Until we allow God to complete our heart transplant we will continue in the habits that damage the perspectives of the people God has called us to reach.

Let’s begin to seek the heart of God not just the provision of his hands.

Prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10

Knowledge

The below entry has been written by Ben Grice, admissions manager, Grand Canyon University

23 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. –1 Kings 10:23-24a

18Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. –1 Corinthians 3:18-19a

The wisdom of the world, the mentality that more is more, the mindset that the here-and-now trumps the there-and-later, the attitude that momentary and artificial gain equals satisfaction and happiness, IS foolishness. And, I’d add chaotic. Think about it, think about the actions, doings and strivings such ‘wisdom’ promotes. When adopted (and embraced), this is a way bent on busyness; and with it, come restlessness and an overwhelming sense of just missing what’s constantly sought after and only seemingly within reach. Painted this way, would anyone want this, would anyone be so foolish as to dedicate their life to its pursuit? Probably not. Would anyone admit to it if they did? Even less likely. But the truth is, on some level all of us have, in one way or another, bought into the quest for this kind of ‘knowledge.’ Like Paul exhorts, let’s not deceive ourselves!

Hit up the first set of verses again. King Solomon was the wisest and richest king the world has ever known (literally). The whole world (which had never beheld such breadth of knowledge) sought audience with him. But pay extra attention to the phrasing of the second verse: ‘The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.’ Interesting, is it not? God granted Solomon wisdom beyond measure. But He put it in his heart! Now don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying Solomon’s mind wasn’t comparatively sharp, but perhaps it was his wisdom of heart (his knowledge of God) that really attracted the crowds. This is why some of the most brilliant minds of our time, those with incredible intellect, those ‘wise’ and influential by the standards of our age, were actually fools, in the sense that they did not know nor accept the Truth. The wisdom of God was not in their heart—they didn’t let it be.

The main point here is the following equation: wisdom of heart = peace of mind. And conversely, the wisdom of this world = chaos and unrest. Which do you want? Put in these terms, the best choice is obvious. But I pose the question, to myself and to you, not because of our verbal response, but because of how our actions answer. Do we really want peace? Really? Then why is it we continually wrap our mind (no, our heart!) around the ‘wisdom’ of the world? Why do we painstakingly pursue that which will ultimately leave us spiritually (and emotionally?) malnourished and discontented, and drive us crazy in the process?

God richly bestowed His wisdom upon King Solomon. He will do the same for us, should we desire it enough to seek Him for it, that is.

Seek wisdom of heart, and delight in its derivative: true peace-of-mind.

IMITATION

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1–2

I just can’t get these verses out of my head this week. I don’t know why but God is really dealing with me in the context of this verse and I’ve got so many questions as I look at my life and the life of other believers around me. My main question is, why? Why aren’t we, followers of Christ that are called to be “little Christ’s as Jim Palmer refers to us in his book “Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity” (Thomas Nelson), imitating the one who calls us beloved children. Why am I not walking in the same love that Christ loved me with? Why am I not fully offering my life to God as a sacrificial offering, just as He did for me?

The Bible, the very book Christians agree is the complete authoritative rule for living, is chuck full of verses that make the Way very clear. However, we have failed to take the words on the page and transpose them into our lives. The verse that continues to convict me is at the centre of our relationship with Christ; John 3:16 “For God so loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

If you put Ephesians 5:1 and John 3:16 together I’ve got to think that what I’m giving God is in no way reflective of what I know I should be giving him. I realize that there is nothing we can do to compare to the sacrifice made on the cross for our sins but that doesn’t void us from our obligation to make greater efforts toward that end. Toward the end of becoming imitators of the one who hung on the very cross our sins created.

If we lived forever marked with the obligation to imitate Christ by making cross sized sacrifices I believe the world would look at the church drastically differently. In stead the church, to the world we are called to “go and make disciples” of, has been minimized to place where gossip runs rampid, judgements are carelessly thrown upon people and through under-informed responses to cultural issues, such as homosexuality or abortion, or by emphasizing gimmicks or a rejection of spiritual drift as anything more than rebellion, church has alienated the world rather than display sincere compassion.

So I’ve resolved to be more deliberate about my efforts to imitate Christ and look for opportunities to love the world just as Christ has loved me. Will you join me?

“For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and how you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” Matthew 25:35-40 {NLT}