"But he was in the stern"

When the disciples were caught in one of the worst storms they had seen on the sea, they believed they were going to die. Remember, these men were 1st century fishermen and a storm was nothing new. Yet this one was bad. They are quoted yelling for their lives as Jesus lay asleep in the stern of the boat.

What did the fishermen do?

"And they woke him and said to him, 'Rabbi...'"

They woke up the Rabbi. Sounds like the start to a bad joke. Often times we go on from this point in the story, but I'd like to stop us all here: in the midst of the storm, they woke up the teacher.

They not only woke up the teacher, they woke up the Messiah, God himself in flesh. So, let's make this simple and short: when a storm comes your way, what do you do?

Often times, we try to battle out the storm and fight it, all the while waiting for God. We wait. And we wait. And we wait. "Where is God now?" we ask. We blame him and believe him away from our lives.

Wake. Him. Up.

God will not leave you, but he might have his face turned away, he might be asleep or in other words: he might be waiting on you. If you are in the storm and waiting for God, it's time that you go to the depths of your vessel and wake him up. Speak to him, yell at him, shake him in the cages of your soul - for it might be time for a miracle.

A Reality Check

When I was studying the rhetorical characteristics of Evangelical churches in Portland, I came across a scholar from Columbia University named Randall Balmer, who quickly became an inspiration to my work. I read pockets of his book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, to help guide my limited studies and was fascinated with his quasi-journalistic but still scholastic approach to the faith culture.

Balmer goes from state to state cataloging interviews with evangelical leaders and lay-people within certain states. Since I was studying the churches in suburban Portland, I combed through his section on Oregon. Now, I'm re-reading the entire book in hopes to get a new perspective on this movement many of us find ourselves sitting in and wrestling with.

One of the best things we can do as humans is to read or listen to those outside of our own little stories. This book, if you so choose to tackle it, will certainly humble you as an evangelical Christian.

Balmer grew up in a fundamentalist Evangelical household and he does not claim to have an "objective" view on the culture as no good historian can, he says. Objectivity is an impossibility. But somehow while he gives up his objectivity, he does not surrender his scholarship. The book is such a brilliant twist of journalism and scholarship; I love it and recommend it, especially if you work within the evangelical subculture. So much of the gospel can get lost in normalized language and practices that only help us identify with one another instead of God.

I just write this post to recommend this unique work, but also to share this quote, which compares evangelicalism to adolescence (like I said, humbling) in an interview with the scholar Douglas W. Frank:

"No stage of life is more prone to hero worship than adolescence. An adolescent is strongly influenced by group conformity and the expectations of other people; it's a stage in which self-consciousness is at its height. 'I see [evangelicals]...constantly comparing themselves to the standards of spiritual behavior they've established and asking "How am I doing?" and "Am I good enough?" and "How do I appear to others?"' Spiritual appearances are very important to evangelicals, just as an adolescent spends a lot of time in front of the mirror."
            -Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, p. 269

As Liz Lemon would say, "Ya burnt!" This hurts only because I see a lot of my own journey in this passage.

I celebrate a lot of what Evangelicalism has brought to Jesus followers everywhere, heck I've worked in Evangelical churches since I graduated from high school. This is not a picture of 100% of the Evangelical movement, but you have to admit it's pretty spot on for a lot of our experience, huh?

We must lead ourselves and our people away from self-obsessed spiritual adolescence.

First Crack at Self-Publishing

In our growing youth ministry, there's a lot to celebrate. I have loved watching more and more kids show up on Wednesday Nights, to see the numbers rise because each of those numbers represents a real kid who has started plugging in, making relationships, and learning about Jesus. Some pastors say, "Well, I don't care about numbers, I just love people." The truth is, as Pastor Joel reminded me this weekend, if you really love people you would want more and more people coming to church where they can meet other individuals who know Christ. It's that simple. In the church, attendance "numbers" is just a way of representing people.

So as we've been growing, it was amazing to see 33 of our students answer the call to come to Managua, Nicaragua this summer. We've been raising money and training our students for the last month, watching God provide over and over again. As we slow down the financial emphasis, we're turning our eyes toward preparing spiritually. One of our leaders came up with the idea to do a devotional book before we left for the trip, something we could all do together. It was difficult for me to find one that would work well for us, so I decided to write one.

I focused the 18-day devotional on the Christian virtue of servanthood, calling the book, Not Your Gut Instinct. I had some help and input from our staff, but the finished product looked pretty good despite my lack of design skills. It took tons of work but reminded me how much I love putting together and assembling a long-form piece.

Writing blog posts is somewhat easy; they act as stand-alone little messages that only go into so much depth. For some reason over the course of putting together the devotional, I was reminded of the one man show I wrote in high school that ended up in our annual playwriting festival. I think long-form writing is becoming increasingly rare our blogs and twitter accounts are being turned into books, it is difficult to think about the large scope of a long story.

This is why I still have a lot of appreciation for books, newspapers and certain magazines, especially what Dave Eggers and McSweeny's is doing. In our age of awesome web-based information and well designed and maintained blogs (which I love, obviously), there are still some things that long-form, large and well-designed pieces can do that computer and web-based work cannot do. I love when people explore these limits, publishing boldly. It was fun experimenting a little with it and got me thinking about other things we can do to stretch the limits of the press in order to keep it as a relevant medium.

We definitely need to explore all of the Internet, but in doing so also recognize its limitations. I really do not see the irrelevancy of print, I just see a some laziness. It's easier to build a website than a well-designed printed publication. I'd love to see the universities stretch the limits of the printed word as well as publishing companies and the Church.

The Jimmy Fallon Crew is Killing It

When you're in youth ministry, "dude check out this video" is a common phrase uttered toward you. I was sent this video through multiple streams and it has solidified my opinion that Jimmy Fallon's crew is killing it. Yet another performance of a lifetime.

Specific Love

St. Paul writing to his apprentice Timothy says this about their ministry:

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Plain as day, we are meant to love people as Christ has loved us. But love is a specific thing in the Bible, it is not some ambiguous notion that has to do with good feelings. We say this word “love” all the time and yet have trouble understanding it. Paul specifies: our love comes from a heart and a conscience that are both pure and good along with a faith that is honest. We are commanded to love, but love out of something, out of an abundance of love, out of a changed heart, out of a clear mind, out of a hope in God.

Love is not ambiguous, it is specific: “By this we know what love is,” St. John writes, “that Jesus Christ laid his life down for us and we ought to do the same for our brothers and sisters.” Love is not contrived or thought up and checked off the religious to-do list, love is an outpouring - so what is filling you up?   

The Christian life operates so well this way because our well, our resource, our center is not an argument or doctrine, but a person. It is founded on a man who lived perfectly and died forgiving people who hated him. Our well is deep and our love is specifically self-sacrificing and generous.

Paul continues writing to his protege saying, “Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions…” 

When we fix our eyes on “being right” instead of God making us right, we miss the gospel and get trapped into religious fundamentalism. But fundamentalism is not bad if our fundamental becomes the man Jesus. When our fundamental becomes the manifested love of Jesus who died for his enemies, our lives change and we love out of a clean heart, clear mind, and an honest hope in something much greater than ourselves.