i stumbled upon this yesterday as i was surfing some blogs. it’s an ebook by Mark Driscoll. it doesn’t look too long so i thought, for all those who wanted, you can download it for free and read it. then we can have a pre-practitioners discussion here on the blog. i’ll put a post up next week about it and whoever reads it, please comment. get the book in pdf form here.
(*Note* review will be coming in January, life gets busy around the holidays)
Hey Practitioners community…we scour the web looking for resources. Actually, I was sitting here with credit card in hand ready to purchase the premier issue of Neue Magazine (a quarterly 200+ page resource for ministry leaders) for $15.
I found a website that I’ve never been to before, thus it’s neue to me, issuu.com. You can find all kinds of publications to flip through. A proverbial virtual Barnes and Noble magazine rack.
I’m attaching a viewer of the ‘Neue’ magazine. Browse the Table of Contents and see if there anything that interests you.
Enjoy!
Patriotic v. Christian
The Patriots are marginal this year with the loss of Tom Brady, however citizen patriots are coming out in droves as the impending election is upon us.
Here at PYM we love political commercials. We approve the message that they send in bashing opposing views. Personally, we’d like to see Obama commercials set to music like “This is why I’m hot” by Mims. Or McCain commercials set to Mariah Carey’s “Hero”.
America is where being patriotic means being a Christian. After all, our money contains the phrase, “in God we trust” right? We sing, “God Bless America” at the 7th inning stretch. God bless America? God has. (Bell & Golden, Jesus Wants to Save Christians)
This is beyond ‘church and state’. It’s about the individual viewpoint of allegiance to a flag or a kingdom? So how should Christians conduct themselves in matters of politics and patriotism? Read the rest of this entry »
it’s interesting how conversations go. we started off talking about what unChristian had to say about spinning and selling faith, and ended up on what this post is about. (we’ll have the rest of the discussion in a post soon.)
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. Hebrews 5.12-6.3
so where is the line when we graduate from milk to solid food? i think most people in our churches would say that when you reach the trifecta of showing up to church every Sunday, reading your Bible and praying, you’ve not only gotten away from milk, you’re eating at the buffet.
but is that the solid food that the author of Hebrews was referring to? doesn’t there have to be more than that? would Jesus have called us to that?
and how did we get to this point anyway? it seems pretty clear that those three things would be the bare minimum in the New Testament church. so why is it, that even those who have been Christians for years, see this as far as they need to go in their faith? and how can we change that view for the students that are coming out of our ministries?
or am i misguided and need to see it differently? let’s talk about it. join Drew and Fred’s discussion in the comments section.
want to make a nice looking flyer? need to spice up a power point? want cool designs but have no idea how to use photoshop? here’s a site that if you don’t know about it, you need to put it on your favorites. the site is stock exchange. here alot of talented photographers and artists post jpegs, that once you create an account with the site, you can copy and save for FREE!!! not only will your publications look better, but you’ll save a ton of time (or in my case lose some, cause i want to look at ever picture lol). here’s a few samples that i pulled off the site this morning. enjoy.
One of the lessons I’ve learned while being in the ministry for the past 17 years is sometimes what people say isn’t exactly true…things such as…
(WARNING…you will probably only like this post if you are a pastor or a staff member of a church!)
What They Say: “I’m looking for a church that preaches the Word!”
What They Mean: “I’m looking for a church that preaches MY view of the Word. I think the BLANK translation should be used…I think BLANK should be talked about a lot while BLANK should be ignored. And if you ever stop preaching my view of the Word I will leave and tell others that you don’t preach the Word!”
What They Say: “Lot’s of people have been coming to me and saying they don’t like is…”
What They Mean: “I basically only have three friends…and all of them think exactly like me. The other night we were enjoying a time of self righteousness because, after all, we are right about everything…and were also slandering you (in the form of prayer requests) and thought it would be wise to approach you with our pet peeve. We’ve actually talked to no one else about this but said “lots” because we wanted to validate our dysfunction.”
What They Say: “I’m leaving the church.”
What They Mean: “Beg me to stay. If you will just ask me I will share with you several ways you can compromise God’s vision that He’s given you, thus becoming nothing more than a people pleasing pastor who is more interested in popularity than obedience. If you don’t bow to my demands I will remind you that I tithe and that the church needs my money, reducing you to a mere preaching whore…one who is paid for a service for the pleasure of another person.”
What They Say: “I want a church that is more focused on discipleship.”
What They Mean: “I want a church where everyone knows me and how important I am! I don’t want to reach people who are different from me, be it economic class or race or even musical preference. I already know WAY more than I do…but I somehow equate spirituality with knowledge rather than application and I rather enjoy feeling intellectually superior to those who don’t know as much as me.”
What They Say: “Don’t take this personally…but…”
What They Mean: “I am about to lower the BOOM on you…but you can’t get angry because I told you not to take it personally. Even though you have dedicated your life to this and pretty much invest every ounce of energy you have to this cause…and I think about it once or twice a week…you need to receive my attacks, even when they are personal…and you cannot retaliate because, remember, it’s not personal.”
OKAY, that was fun! I typed it all with a smile. Trust me…I’m not mad or frustrated with anyone…I just thought a pastor or two MIGHT get a smile out of this. 
We as youth ministers can find ourselves in tough spots when it comes to dealing with other church leadership. We’re not at the top of the totem pole, and in some cases we’re seen as the babysitter of the church. Not all churches are this way, but unfortunately many are. We find our passion for Jesus and helping students, leading us to places with less than perfect leadership.
So what do you do when you find yourself in that spot? Do you fight it and start a revolution? Do you go along frustrated? Do you just focus on your own ministry and let the church fall down around you? What do you do when you find that you have more vision and passion for your ministry, than it seems your leadership does?
These are all tough questions, that have all sorts of complexities to them. So one answer doesn’t exactly work. So instead I’ll share some suggestions.
Read the rest of this entry »
We’re setting a goal of updating this blog weekly with content and discussion that we didn’t cover at the retreat. Please partake in the conversation via comment, and check back each week for more.
We’ll start with the book Unchristian.
Christians are described as anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of other faiths, and confusing in the book. Which one do you most resonate with?
Sheltered and Judgmental (a conglomeration of the two). It could be said that one leads to the other. When you are out of touch with reality it can lead to ridiculous judgments about that reality of which you are out of touch.
The cliche goes: you need to be ‘in’ the world, not ‘of’ the world. really?
1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world, to adstain from the sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
Peter wries to Christ followers who are scattered to other nations thus making the recipients of this letter literal ‘aliens’ from a citizen standpoint and strangers none the less.
I fear that we have taken this alienation upon ourselves. Christians alienate themselves from others (unchristians) and continue to allow the chasm between us become greater. Then they look across the chasm and judge them for their ‘acts of sinfulness’.
Let’s not forget the part of this passage, “live such good lives AMONG the pagans”. It implies that we ought to coexist and inspire them to glorify God.
How can one be ‘not of this world’ if one is so out of touch with this world to know what that means?
I don’t know about you guys, but I had a great time at the last Practitioners retreat. It was great hearing from everyone about what you are embarking on for the Kingdom of God in your communities. May God continue to bless your efforts and renew your strength.
We’re going to be amping up the level of content on this blog as Drew and Fred meet weekly for coffee and conversation. Those conversation will lead to some weekly posts and hopefully spark some ideas amongst all of us.
Matt will be attending Catalyst down in Atlanta and updating our space here with a recap.
Also, from time to time we will be posting resources on this blog for anyone to download and use. We love creating these things, and we love sharing them even more!
At the retreat, Fred, Joel, and Dustin were talking about speaking to youth and there was mention of a sermon worksheet for preparing messages. You will see a link to that document at the bottom of this post. Enjoy.
-Fred-
