the mobile church

I don't think there are words to describe this. Strange, thought provoking, surreal, and, well, hilarious.

How far would you go to relocated a church?

a prayer (edwin mcmanus)

I thought this was worth sharing...

"Lord, I need a dream worth giving my life to.
I need a life worth
waking up to each morning.
I need a mission bigger than me.
I want to
believe for not only me, but also for this world.
Amen."

an unimpressive god

Sitting in chapel the other day, I was taken back as I looked around the auditorium. To the right the girl sitting next to me was checking her email on her cell phone; the girl to my left was texting. Another row up a guy pulls out his phone as his thumbs meticulously pound on the screen. I felt that maybe I was missing out in the chorus of small glowing screens that seemed to be appearing all around me.

Now I must admit that I’m currently not the biggest fan of chapel, but I couldn’t help but wondering ‘is it really that boring? Is getting that text out right now that important? Have our attention spans become that small?’ I’ve had conversations with people after chapel asking what they thought of the services and answers tend to be all over the spectrum. However when there’s a teacher who’s able to speak with high energy, clever rhetoric, and an in-your-face message, the majority of students come away generally pleased--it was an impressive chapel. Yet those times that don’t seem quite up to par, well, that’s when the cell phones come out.

Lately I’ve been chewing on this thought of am unimpressive God. When I was talking with a friend about why he and his family chose to start going to the Episcopal church (where I’m now going), he mentioned that there’s really nothing impressive about it. No one is going to pull out flashy teaching or put on something that will draw more people in. You can take it or leave it.

Now in all of this I do not mean to say that God is unimpressive in the way that we commonly think of the word. He is omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient, and he is God; that is impressive. But even in the ministry of Jesus we see that when the Pharisees ask Jesus for a miracle, something flashy and impressive, Jesus rebukes them. He never tried to be impressive. Henri Nouwen refers to it as the need to be relevant, when in reality all that one has to offer is their vulnerable self.

Often times we think of how this applies to us as church leaders as we struggle with the temptation to be impressive. But I want to ask what implications does this have on us as we participate in things such as chapel and church? Are we able and willing to open ourselves up to the unimpressiveness of Jesus? Can we put aside our impressive technology and desire to be entertained for a moment to be stilled by something unimpressive?

here's the warning

Spring semester senior year at Taylor University means one thing to Christian Ed majors--their senior paper. For a good chunk of time I was wondering how in the world can I incorporate all of my passions and what I want to do vocationally...holistic ministry from a pastoral position, teaching, story, creating culture, and so on. But there was a lightbulb moment over our senior capstone trip where it hit me--my paper topic would be scripture engagement!

Never did I think that I would be writing on this theme and be as excited about it as I am. Yet it is all making sense to me. I’ve long thought that if we can simply get a better orientation of who Jesus is and catch the vision of his story, the kingdom of God, as laid out throughout the entire Bible. And when we begin to read and let the word speak to us, it should mess with us in big ways. So why not scripture engagement?

I’m thrilled. I really can’t begin to express how exciting this concept is to me. I think I described it to someone today saying that it, ‘makes my soul flutter.‘ I’m discovering that I can’t work on this paper or read content about it late at night because I won’t be able to sleep. Like I said, I would have never expected this from a thing like scripture engagement.

So here’s the warning: this whole idea of scripture engagement may be a reoccurring theme here.

new year

A year ago I started this blog as an attempt to keep in touch with family and friends about my time in Latin America and then the summer in Chicago. After thinking about, I realized that I actually enjoyed being able to have another place to write thoughts out and process through the retelling of stories and thought processes.

So, that said, I’ve decided to start up writing again. Read along if you like, but more that anything else if for me. We’ll see how it goes.

meet the family

So now that I have reached my last week with YouthWorks, I figured it was about time to introduce you to the people I have worked and lived with for the past three months.

(Brad, me, Sara, Johnny)

(Sara, Brad, Matt, me)

Chicago 1 & 2!

beefy lessons

Every week I have the splendid opportunity to brown about 35-50 pounds of beef for our sloppy joe and taco meals. Let me tell you this has not been one of my favorite parts of the summer, especially since the meat we buy is 27% fat making for endless amounts of grease. I’ve figured that by the end of the summer I will have spent at least 40 hours browning beef. Let me tell you, this has not been a highlight of my summer. However the amount of time I have spent in the kitchen in this manner has provided space for some good thoughts and lessons. So I thought I would share with you a few...

Beefy lessons
•Never buy beef that is 27% fat. If you must wear an apron to avoid lots of grease stains.
•Turn up the music and sing it out. As much as I disliked the meat days, it many times provided me with a chance to escape—not having to worry about anyone else being around, turning up the music of the hour, and singing.
•It’s all about perspective. I’m an introvert, so many times browning the meat would give me space to take a step back from whatever else was going on around me to get some perspective and clarity on things.
•Don’t take yourself out mentally. I am a pro at this; as my mom says I’m my own worst enemy. It helps to identify when those negative thought cycles start and shut them down before there is a chance to take yourself out with negative thoughts.
•Talk to God out loud.
•In the words of our generation, 'just dance, gonna be okay, da-da-doo-mm-da.' But really, it's a release, just dance it out.
•Don’t use a metal spatula on a non-stick pan; it will scratch up the stuff that makes it non-stick.
•Put a fan in your kitchen. Standing over an oven for hours can get a bit toasty.
•Don’t give people the space to do it alone. I hated the fact that I had both of the meat meals, yet one of the most encouraging things is when one of my fellow staff members would come in and ask if I needed help with anything. Though often the answer would be no, just the notion that someone is there and ready to help provides a huge source of encouragement.
•If you are cooking for masses of people, get someone else to do the dishes. I’m so glad that we had students on site to take care of the dishes after dinner.