stage fright

I am sitting at one of my favorite coffee shops in Madison, listening to some Norah Jones and enjoying the way caffeine interacts with my bloodstream or whatever it is that makes my brain work so much better. The past couple of hours I have been working on talks for camp this weekend with the middle school students. I enjoy the process of trying to craft a talk, to capture people’s attention and hopefully influence the way the live.

To that end I have to be careful. Sometimes I can get so caught up in the challenge of coming up with the right hook to grab the listener and make them want more and then move into the meat of the message and flow into one great illustration after another. They will forget that time is passing and move from emotions of humor to sadness to conviction. I want them to leave the room with a desire to change the world and with the knowledge and motivation to do the little things that can make that happen.

But too often this process is all about me. The rush of being up front and the feeling of importance are intoxicating. People care what you have to say and even when you suck people take the time to tell you you did a great job. That would all be nice and good if I were a motivational speaker and sometimes that sort of thing sounds good. You know, all I need to do is go try out for the Notre Dame Football team, get in for one play and the rest will be history. Of course that might have already been done so I will have to come up with something else to conquer.

I am looking forward to this weekend and can’t wait to get through all the details and just get on the bus and be on our way. By God’s grace I hope that students both experience and better understand Truth. I look forward to teaching and seeing what comes of it. And then I look forward to a long night's sleep come Sunday.

the secret is out

I work at a somewhat large church. Here is the secret to our success: mega church. Check it out and let me know if it works for you too.

the classics

hi, my name is jon. and i work in a button factory. i've got a wife and two kids. one day my boss said, jon, are you busy? i said no. then push this button with your right hand.

hi, my name is jon. and i work in a button factory ...

oh just kidding. i hear that song all the time from our junior highers. they just can't get enough of the classics!

that's why i bought them time life's classic rock collection. from the byrds' 1965 mr. tambourine man hit to the delfonics' 1968 la la means i love you chart-topper, my students are here early and leave late! they can't get enough of what time life calls a classic rock explosion that'll leave you a changed man (or woman, as the case may be).

you know, they say you never forget your first kiss. and how could you? when the soundtrack of that premier smooch is playing tommy james and the shondells' hit, i think we're alone now, you've made a moment that's one for the history books.

so what's stopping you from stepping back to the classics? time life promises - no, it guarantees - that you'll be creating your own magical memories in no time.

well, looks like i need to get back to my junior highers. i hear someone crying out for 1965! it's true - once you've heard sam the sham and the pharoahs sing wooly bully, life will never be the same again.

just not the same

AND

This past week with the middle school students we had a night where we had a panel of men and women and the students filled out cards where they asked questions to the half of the panel that was the opposite sex. Here are some of my favorites…

Questions from the boys to the women:
What makes a guy hot to a girl?
Why do girls care so much about what they wear?
Why do girls talk for such a long time about nothing?
Why do guys think it is so funny to fart and girls don’t?

Questions from the girls to the men:
Why do guys hit you when they like you?
Why are guys so stupid?
Why don’t guys say what they feel?
What do people feed boys that make them so hot?

I love their honesty. I love the open discussion about all they do not understand about the opposite sex and their basic understandings and misunderstandings. I know we jokingly say that the opposite sex is beyond our ability to understand but I would love a more open dialog like these students have where we can laugh at our differences while trying to learn to appreciate what seems so foreign to us.

Or maybe I will go out and buy one of the million books about this topic, write Ann Landers and call it a day.

stealing from cory

Okay I know it is lame to post this since Cory does on his blog but you really should check this out. I am just thankful that all the times I have done the same thing it has not been caught on tape.

becoming more me

I think I have rambled on this topic before on my blog but it has been on my mind again so I digress. Last week our staff team met for a day of planning, evaluating and sharing stories. A question that arose in a variety ways was ‘are people growing spiritually?’ and ‘what does it mean to grow?’ This question has plagued me since that discussion. I am also taking a class right now called spiritual growth which only complicates matters.

My experience in the past is that most people, me included, usually answer a question about spiritual growth with quantifiable activities like quiet times, amount of prayer, going to church, etc. I am growing if I do more of those things and I am not growing when I forget or lose interest in spending my time that way. Or maybe even more generally I am becoming more like Christ when I do more of the disciplines.

This has often been my practical theology. Not that I actually believe it but I live it out which I think is really more of a reflection of what I believe than any affirmation of some theological fact. Any yet at the same time, and I think this is a Rob Bell influence, I find myself taken with the idea of growth becoming more of who you are.

This is the idea that once you place your faith in Christ you are forgiven and alive when you were once dead. From that point on your reality is that you are perfectly forgiven and holy in God’s eyes. The rest of your time on earth is to become more and more of who you are. I am a saint, now I just need to learn to act like it. That is growth. I like this idea because I think it reflects what I see in scripture and is so freeing. It is no longer about guilt and always coming up short.

So what is growth and how do we foster it? What can we do if anything to help challenge people to move from where they are now at towards something better? Towards Christlikeness? I don’t really know. And as another topic for another day, what is up with the term spiritual growth? Is that a worthwhile term or is it a dangerous compartmentalization of our person? Maybe more on that later.

come on people

Because it has been a long time since I have posted and I have had a hard time coming up with something to talk about I thought I would take a moment to rant on something that I hold near and dear. There are few things in life I love more than a good debate. I love hearing people who know far more than I ever will about a given topic put forth their best argument in an attempt to persuade listeners to come to their viewpoint.

I remember a night in college where a world renowned atheist and monotheist came together and in front of a few thousand people debated the existence of God. What stood out to me was the amount of respect that the debaters had for each other and the respectful and yet passionate way they presented their views.

As a Christ follower I believe that all that is Truth is God’s truth and will rise to the top of the sea of ideas that exist all around us. I also believe that we are blinded by sin and that it is by God’s grace that we can see the truth but it is out there and should be sought.

My pet peeve and the reason for blogging, other than to stop the ‘post now!’ comments, is that I sense that most people do not really believe in actual debate or the power of truth and instead feel obligated to use manipulation of facts and persuasion by emotionally misleading terms.

For example, saying that in the abortion debate you are pro-life. Come now, is that to suggest that the other side is pro-death? I believe strongly that abortion is wrong but I don’t believe my friends who disagree are gleeful when an abortion takes place. Of another example is a common response when a Christian is asked what his view is concerning a certain doctrine and he responds, ‘I believe what the bible says about ____’. Again, what does that make my view if I happen to not agree, the anti-bible view?

I think what set this idea off was hearing about the confirmation of Judge Alito and hearing how partisan the discussion was about his confirmation. It seems excepted in the political realm that people can and even should cherry pick cases to paint a person in a certain light even if that does not fairly represent the person.

Oh if we could just learn to fight fair.