Newport Day 5

My apologies that the stories from students were not up last night. Unfortunately, we were just way too late in getting to bed (it was the prayer night/footwashing ceremony, I didn't see my bed until after 1). But, we have some stories about Thursday, here they are.

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As this week has gone on, I’ve realized how truly blessed I am to have the people in my life that I do. Today was not only my favorite day, but a very moving day for me. My crew this week has been absolutely amazing and I’ve enjoyed being with them every day through whatever we did. At Hal’s farm today we worked on collecting a ginormous pile of sticks and logs. It was very dirty work, but getting to do this task with Dustin and Brad definitely made it so much easier for me. Another thing that made me so happy to go to Hal’s each day, was seeing how much of a great man Hal is. He devotes his life to getting those who have made mistakes back on their feet. It touches me to know that he helps them know the love of God and lets Him direct them back on the right path. He is such a caring man with such wisdom that I loved listening to. It was such a great work day, but what really made my day was the club activity tonight. At the end of every YouthWorks week, we do a feet washing just like Jesus did with the disciples. It’s such a moving experience because you genuinely feel that God is present and that he is watching and knows how much it impacts you. You feel the love of God and it is honestly such an amazing point in the week. It brings me to tears because I am so overwhelmed with joy and I can honestly feel how much I am loved and how much I am needed. As the feet washing is happening, Troy and Mrs.Witzig prayed over me and I could not have felt more special at that moment. Everyone in the room was crying and it really gave me a chance to open up to others in the youth group and realize how much they are there for me and how much they love and care for me. It is so reassuring to know that I have a safe place to go to where I can tell anyone anything. I could not have asked for a better week and I can’t believe its coming to an end so fast. I made so many great relationships with those from the other church and I strengthened those within my own church. God has blessed me with the opportunity to have this experience and I know that he has changed me this week. –Lauren Detrich

Hey Everybody, tonight marks the end of what I can truthfully call the most exciting and unpredictable mission trip of my life. This evening was particularly interesting in two ways. Anyone familiar with a YouthWorks Mission trip knows that Thursday night is foot washing night. This ceremony reenacts the actions of Jesus on the night preceding his betrayal. Usually this is a cryfest with ever girl… and Stebbe bawling their eyes out because they are attached to the moment. This year, there was no less attachment, just very few tears. Everyone seemed more interested in talking than crying (I consider this an improvement) for me, the entire process was light hearted because the music in the background was a blaring jazz number that had nothing to do with the situation at hand. My Dad also provided comic relief by tickling my feet when he washed them. (total goober) after everything the boys returned to our sleeping room (a tabernacle) for bedtime story and a giant pool noodle war. Our bed time story activity was to serenade the girls in their sleeping room by singing the iconic Disney anthem “A Whole New World” after the singing had finished the boys returned to our sleeping area. Earlier in the day several boys had stopped at a Sonic before showering, next to this Sonic was a family dollar. We bought pool noodles, and foam dart guns, and rubbery dodge balls. When we returned to the sleeping room after our serenade, we took up these weapons and had a twenty minute long teenage boy pillow fight. Matt, Jeff, and Tim all took part. Troy was involved as well (It was awesome). In the end I can solidly say that Team Indiana beat out our Michigander competitors. -Dustin Meeks 

This week in Newport has been one of the most life changing mission trips I have been on. The start of the week was definitely a struggle but as the week progressed I gradually realized how privileged of a life I have and how much I take that for granted. When I went to the kids club this week I met a boy named Storm. He was one of the most athletically inclined kids I have ever seen. He would play the games with the other kids and completely blow everyone away with his raw talent. It was sad to soon realize that Storm may never be able to do anything special with his ability and will be stuck in the black hole of Newport. Now on to the subject of the feet washing last night. Every year I go on a mission trip I have a huge god moment where I see all of the sins I have made and how bad it makes me feel to sit and sulk about the small things that happen in my life. This also leads to crying every year. This year was different to say the least, I began the night sitting in silence thinking to myself about all of the things I have done wrong and just reflecting on the past year. That moment right there was the beginning of the waterworks. Soon after I calmed down it was my turn to have my feet washed and for Troy and Mrs. Witzig to pray with me. That started it again. As the night progressed I had many emotional conversations with a few of the incoming freshmen. We talked about everything from god to their upcoming high school experience. It was so great to be able to help them through what they think is going to be the hardest time of their lives. This group of individuals I call my youthgroup has changed my life in so many ways and in the process has given me a place to have someone to talk to about everything. They are most definitely a dear part of my heart that I never want to lose. I love these people so much like a second family. – Makinna Laymon

Newport Day 4

Wednesday is always an interesting day on a mission trip. It's half-way done, students are realizing how little time left they have to make an impact, and at a split-site which this is, it means many students switch their ministries they have been working on. Add in the massive thunderstorms tonight that messed with our evening activity and you have all sorts of fun (we did a prayer drive, we travelled throughout the town and learned some stories then prayed for the ministries there). And we had a few people eager to tell their stories, so enjoy the blogs!

As a member of the “Lost” crew, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the Kids Club every day this week.  On Monday and Tuesday, only about eight kids came, which was a bit disappointing considering we had about twenty YouthWorks student volunteers. However, today about twenty kids showed up!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Kids Club and appreciate the interactions I have experienced with the children. Kids Club has different stations in which the kids participate, and I am a leader at the Reading Post.  At the Reading Post, the kids read a bible story with the group and then, they can choose to either pick out other books to read or play cards.  Yesterday, I read with a girl named Ali, who will be in seventh grade this fall. Today after the bible story, Ali raced over to me again to see if we could keep reading the story that we didn’t have a time to finish the day before.  I was so proud that Ali wanted to continue practicing her reading skills. Even in my three days with the kids, their attitudes have improved, and most of them seem eager to learn about God.  I will definitely miss all of the children at Kids Club, and hope they will continue chasing after Jesus when Kids Club ends in a couple weeks and their school begins. -Kari Lorentson

These past few days have been a blast! The people from the other church are very friendly. In my group for this week, there are ten students plus two adults, split pretty evenly with people from each church. For the first two days my group did manual labor for Hal at his house. If you haven’t heard about who Hal is, he is a guy that ministers to addicts and is involved with the YouthWorks service. Today most of the groups switched up what they were doing; my group went from Hal’s to the Kids Club, which was a pretty drastic change. At the club, I met a few of the kids there. One I met was named Quinton. He was a pretty nice kid, kind of shy, and some of the other kids and I played ball with him for a while. After kids club was over, I went with some other people to drop the kids off at their houses, and it was very interesting to see where all the kids were coming from. The kids we dropped off all lived in a government subsidized housing area called Myers Circle, which was saddening for me to see so many families living in near poverty.

Later in the day we went on a prayer tour, going around the town of Newport and stopping at several places to pray for many things. We stopped at a park, a goodwill, and a soup kitchen that many of our youth have been serving at this week. It was very humbling to see so many of the things that go on in this town. I look forward to the next and last day of serving with an eager heart and an open mind. –Mattheus Mitchell

I have had a really eye-opening experience over the past few days here, it’s been really great! The first few days working with the kids at Kids Club were a blast, although the first day was hard, being able to reach out to the kids. Even by the second day, though, I was able to make some good connections with them. And of course, I got to be a part of my favorite aspect of worship, music!!!!

Now, though, I’ve moved on and my crew, Love, has started working out at Hal Valentine’s farm. It’s a lot of hard work, not my favorite thing in the world, but it’s really great knowing that I’m making a difference and being able to see physical results from my actions. Today we hacked weeds out of Hal’s pasture, enjoying the adventure of how to learn how to use all the different tools. When we had finished up and moved to lunch, we got to try some of Hal’s AMAZING lemonade. Like seriously, I want to bring him home with me so he can make it all the time! We did finally get back to work though, and we went out back to trim his fence and cover the barn with chicken wire.

My half of the crew worked on the fence, and that was where I was really grateful to everyone in the crew for their amazing and supportive attitudes. We had cleared out most of the first half of the fence and we noticed a little wasp’s nest, which we tried to avoid. Being me, I completely forgot where the nest was and managed to get myself a fun little sting. It wasn’t too bad, through my shirt on my arm, so not even a stinger to pull out, but as soon as I noticed, everyone dropped everything to help me out. Matt was amazing and really kind, and he’s been checking up with me all day to make sure I’m still feeling alright. The rest of the day was less eventful for me, hard to beat such an fun afternoon, but we did have a really meaningful evening activity, going around to all our work sites to pray for the everyday people who work and use the places around Newport. It’s really important to be reminded that there’s always something going on, even after we leave. My last day is tomorrow, and I’m really going to be sad when it’s over, even if it is more manual labor. I’ve really loved this experience and I can’t wait to bring my attitude back to Fishers. -Jacob Bennington

Newport Day 3 (Revisited)

As chance would have it, we had all three bloggers from last night in the same place at the same time this morning with a chance to rewrite their blogs, so they did! Here are their stories, enjoy!

With my first mission trip being at Oklahoma, and my most recent one being at Minneapolis, I know what makes a mission trip easy or challenging. So far, I had spent the last two days at a local farm. I have seen many things ranging from horses eating all of our lunches to watching Hal (farmer and a good example of my Godfather in 20 years) shoot a possum at point blank range seven times right in front of me. This is by far my favorite work site so far in my mission trips. I did things outside of painting a house or pouring mulch on a local playground. I had to be pushed outside of my comfort zone with challenges like clearing out a rodent and spider infested scrap pile, and sorting out and rewrapping barbed wire.

Throughout the week, I have heard heart-warming stories of little toddlers and senior citizens in assisted living. I for one have no such story, we went to a farm all day and had fun, but I never really saw what life was like outside of my worksite. I was focused on trying to get projects done that couldn’t even be close to finished after two days. I haven’t experienced a fluffy heart warming story that I’ll tell to all my family members when I tell them about the trip. I have had a great time so far, and I have come to realize that mission trips are more than sweet stories, sometimes they consist of laughing with friends and pushing your limits. –Jacob Stebbe

Today, we went to a man named Hal, and he owned a farm. He had a plethora of jobs for us to do from weedwacking to sorting stuff behind a barn. Even though I got poison ivy working along the fence, Hal seemed incredibly grateful for the  things we did for him and his wife. Hal was a very wise and nice man who helped addicts with their problems. His patients would either come to his house for counseling or he would go to them. Both days we worked for him he gave us lemonade at lunch and told us stories of his life with a lesson behind them. Today, though, he gave us more than jobs to do. He gave us his food because his horses had toppled our cooler, spilling the lunches everywhere, leaving only the Cheezits bags intact. While it hasn’t felt like a real godly trip yet, every last bit of hard labor we’ve done has been worth it. -Matt Nieland

On the first day my group Wicked, had to separate since the thrift shop only need a few volunteers. So half of us went to Feed my Sheep; a food pantry/soup kitchen/church. The soup kitchen reminded me a lot of the restaurants. At first I and a girl from another church up north, Jackie both organized the food pantry. We got to know each other pretty well! After that I was moved to the soup kitchen and I was able to serve people their food and drinks. I felt like a waiter.

So as I continued my job I meant a man who really opened my eyes. This man volunteer once a week.  He told me how we would go and travel around the States and world to do missionary work for a couple weeks or even for a couple months. He told me he went to Romania to Ireland to Arizona. I was amazed by how active he was at his hometown but also all around the world. He showed me that I can still do mission work, no matter where I am; at my hometown or even a whole different state. -Emily Buckler

Newport, Day 3

A little bad news for today, in the middle of students writing the blog he computer decided to run an update, all the blogs were lost for today (sorry), and since I'm trying to type this on a phone, here's Troy's quick update:

Today was the last day for most groups at their ministry site, tomorrow those who were at Kids Club go to worksite and vice versa. A few groups also had some new experiences working at Goodwill and nursing homes.

The evening activity was a bluegrass concert by some really talented musicians from 16 to 60. Even those who don't like the bluegrass style of music said they liked the concert.

Our theme for the day was being pursued by God, it hit home with some students.

We have also become known as the youth group that sings, they were quite loud when singing along with "Undignified" in the church bus.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, sorry again for the lack of student posts, we will have some tomorrow (Windows willing).

T

Newport Day 2

So today we got to actually start working at our different worksites. But I'm not going to tell the stories, here are a few from our students. Enjoy! (and my apologies, cell service and wifi are not our friends out here so I won't be putting pictures on the blog, feel free to browse a few at the Fire & Water Facebook page and Instagram account).

On the first day, I immediately noticed that many of these kids had come from rough families and, like many people, were “broken”.   However, the kids seemed to be very comfortable with the youth workers.  We all got to connect with them and allow them to have a good time at the kid’s club.  There were still some difficulties because it was tough; many of them were very shy and timid, but they eventually opened up towards a few and created friendships.  Tonight, we learned that all of us are “broken” from sin and have sometimes not done what God wants us to do.  I realized that we are not that different from these kids who come from a very different background.  We all have that trait that we were “broken” but still loved and desired by God who looks at the bigger picture.  Even though we may all be “broken” God still desires to have a relationship with us and have a connection with us because we are all his children. -Evan Hodes

I was also at the kid’s club the first day. There was about an 8 to 30 ratio of kids to youth workers. Although it was kind of a slow day for some of us, it was really nice to watch these kids open up to us in just 6 hours. Some just came right up and hugged us, and some required a couple of hours to engender affection. During the first day, through the kids, we were able to glimpse a bit about Newport. Our crew drivers went and picked up a few kids from their houses, which they sometimes would share with other families, and dropped them off at the end of the day. Although really nothing spectacular happened today, it was a really good learning day for the most of us. -Kate Wade

Hello errybody! Tis Alec here. I was working at a sort of thrift shop called God’s Storeroom today. And while there was a lot of work to be done here, the work itself seemed sort of… insignificant. We spent a while sorting through all sorts of things that needed to end up on shelves, however these shelves were already full. I felt that as we were adding to the shelves, we were only making them messier. However our church discussion afterwards helped me realize that I have to continue to look at the work that I’ve done and realize that I might not be able to see the impact I’m having, but it’s still there. I’m hoping that as this mission trip progresses, I can begin to look more beyond myself, and see how the impact that we are having is affecting the whole community. This trip isn’t for me, it’s for the community of Newport. -Alec Balasko

Newport Day 1

Hey everyone, we have made it safely to Cosby, TN (it’s the little town we’re staying at next to Newport). Thanks to all those who have been praying for us, we appreciate your support. Every day we’ll be posting stories from students, so here are a few from today with our trip down. Enjoy!

As some may not know, this is my first high school mission trip. I have a decent idea of how it will go from junior high, but I’m hoping this can be a new experience for me. We just now found out our crews that we will be working with all week, and I was hoping I would be at the same site all four days, but I will actually be serving in a kid’s club for the first day, at another site for one day and working on a farm the last two. This means that I will have to try to make as big of an impact on these peoples’ lives in the 3-12 hours I may have with them… Wish me luck! –Grace Balasko

I have gone on quite a few mission trips in the past, once to Alabama and a much closer to home Indianapolis with my old church, but this is my first with the Fishers United Methodist Church. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I signed up to go. Here now, I’m finding out that it is a much different atmosphere than any of the other trips I’ve been on. Whereas the trip in Alabama was organized with many other churches, and the trip to Indy consisted only of my churches youth group, this trip to Newport has two churches, and even though we’ve only been together here for a few hours, the fellowship between the two youth groups has become very apparent and I hope by the end of the week we will all be very good friends. –Mattheus Mitchell

How to start a blog post? I guess the most logical place would be the same place I seem to start every mission trip: with an injury. A few hours into bonding with the other groups, we decided to play some Ultimate; as we were making the last play of the game, I run after a stray pass to go for the final point. The other team’s best defender decides to give me a hit I’ll remember: the big, white, obvious church van picks a fight with me, and I came out the loser. Luckily the other church’s van is made out of tougher material than my face, so it suffered no injury. In other news, I managed to score a mission’s team who has been assigned dinner prep at the community cookout on Thursday. This is a good thing because I have been on this team not once, twice, or even three times; but seven out of seven in my Youthworks career, so I am very experienced at serving burgers and hot dogs. The other church seems very nice, and is genuinely thrilled to be here, so I can’t wait to see where this trip goes. –Andy Patterson

Silence Is Golden

Last night our students participated in our semi-annual prayer night. We set-up stations and allow students to pray in various forms (for example, instead of just praying for God to forgive you for something, we had students write out what they would like to be forgiven for and place them on nails on the cross, making Jesus' sacrifice a little more tangible). It always amazes me how students we haven't seen for a while, God send them to this event.

There was a theme to last night. Silence. For over an hour every prayer station was to be done in silence. Some loved it, some hated it. But in our discussion at the end of the night I kept realizing how little we have silence in our lives and how much we need it. We are barraged by noise coninually in our lives. There are very few places or times of day where we have just silence. Now with cell phones we have the ability to have noise all the time, even if we don't want it that little device can go off to tell us we have mail or a text or to complete your daily challenge in Temple Run II (that was oddly specific).

And I think we do that for comfort. We have grown comfortable in noise, we enjoy it, we crave it. Too much silence hurts. Veronica Roth said this: "Noise and activity are refugee for the bereaved and the guilty." Almost like we use noise as an escape for the calm of being with Jesus because we're scared of it.

So here's my challenge, be silent. Find a place to pause. Away from the internet, TV, radio, machines, people, away from it all, even if it's just for a few minutes a day. It may do you some good.

T


FYI, next week I will have help writing the blog as FIRE and WATER Students will be posting stories from our summer mission trip. I hope you get a chance to read about their adventure!

Turning To God In Trouble?

I've been reading through the prophets lately, it's kind of grim to see how the people of God were acting, how God tried to warn them of what their actions were causing and how the leaders treated the prophets trying to save them.

And a little light bulb went off when I was reading Hosea 6. Great chapter, I love verse 6 describing true worship of God as not in how we sing at church but how we treat people outside of church, but something seemed to stick out while reading that chapter. People seem to turn to God in trouble.

When things are going good, people tend to relax, think about themselves, pray less, etc. until something bad happens. This leads to a massive turning to God and asking for His help.

Here's what I was thinking about, if we only turn to God when times are tough, and God wants us to always be with Him, if I were God why not just let people be in trouble all the time? Really, if I know the only way to get someone to pay attention is to ring their doorbell incessantly, then I'm going to ring their doorbell like crazy. If the only time people turn to God is when trouble hits, why not just allow people to live in despair at all times so they are constantly relying on Him? After all, in other places of the world that are not as blessed as North America this is happening.

Maybe we should be thankful for God loving us when times are good so we don't need to be reminded of who God is like the people of Israel needed. I like that option waaaay better...

T

Are You Honest With Where You Are At?

A while back I read a book I found at Goodwill, usually not my stomping ground for purchasing reading material, but I saw something I had heard of and wanted to read. "Good to Great". Very business minded, but it spoke a lot about leading and doing things well.

One of the chapters dealt with a huge problem in business. People aren't honest with themselves with where they are at. They think their product or their sales are better than they really are. Kind of like on Kitchen Nightmares, all the owners think their food is spectacular when everyone else knows it's not, and that's why no one is eating there.

It made me think a lot about our spiritual lives and what we talked about last night at Drink Deep, are we honest with where we are with God? If you ask the average person who well they do with spiritual disciplines they would say "good", but if you had them write out when did they pray, what have they actually read in the Bible, time served, etc. I think people would be surprised.

When Jesus came to earth, that's what he asked of us. Can we be honest enough to say we need Him?

Jesus told them, "Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners." (Mark 2:17, NLT italics added for emphasis)

If you want a fun experiment this week, actually sit down and take an honest look at where you with Jesus. Then look at where you would like to be, and what you need to do to get there...

T

Some Is Better Than None

This is an old idea that seems to be resurfacing lately. It's in Jon Acuff's new book and I've seen it in the blog world. But it's a really simple idea. Some is better than none.

Here's what I mean: Let's say you are supposed to exercise. Now if you're like me, I'm pretty inconsistent with it. So the natural thought is, "Well, I can't commit to doing two hours a day, so I just won't start." And the problem with that is, you get no exercise. Absolutely none. Now what if I said, "I can't do two hours a day, but I can do fifteen minutes at home." I may not be getting the full trainer/bodybuilder workout, but at least I'm exercising.

Some is better than none.

Think of all the spiritual exercises we put stop because they seem too big:

The Bible is big, and I can't keep up with the year reading plan, so I'll read none of it (I am always behind in my year reading plans, but I'm always in a reading plan).

I can't pray an hour a day, so I won't pray.

The church serving event conflicts with my calendar, so I won't serve anywhere.

I don't know how to bring up Jesus in a conversation, so I just won't ever talk about Jesus.

I think too often we forget baby steps. We want to go from nothing to all-in, and it just doesn't happen. The best way to start something is to stop thinking about it, stop talking about it, stop waiting for the perfect opportunity, stop waiting until we "feel like it" and just starting doing something.

You'll be surprised what you can accomplish.

So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. ~ Galatians 6:9 (NLT)
T

Can You Believe Something Without Acting On It?

This was one of the roads our discussions took last night at Drink Deep. We were talking about our core values and living as disciples of Christ, and this kind of came up. The question is can you believe something without actually doing something in regards to that belief?

The answer that came first was yes. I'm sure everyone can name people in their lives that believe one thing but act in a different way.

But, of course, I couldn't leave it at that. If someone is acting in a way that differs from what they say, the question is, are their actions different from what they believe, or are their words different? You can have a rickety old chair that looks like it's about to fall apart and ask if I think it would support my weight. If I say "yes" but I refuse to sit in it, which one do I really believe?

This can lead to some very hard inner conversations. I can say I think poverty is a bad thing, but if I am doing nothing or giving nothing to stop it, am I really that upset with it or am I content to allow it to exist because it doesn't directly involve me? I can say it is important to tell people about Jesus so they can know there is a God who loves them, but if I'm not doing it do I really believe it's necessary? Or just that it's someone else's job?

It's a scary can of worms to open, but it may help you realize what you truly believe. If someone were to look at your life without any commentary, what conclusions would they reach about you? Something to ponder...

My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don’t do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you? If you know someone who doesn’t have any clothes or food, you shouldn’t just say, "I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat." What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!
Suppose someone disagrees and says, "It is possible to have faith without doing kind deeds." I would answer, "Prove that you have faith without doing kind deeds, and I will prove that I have faith by doing them." ~ James 2:14-18 (CEV)

T

Get Rid Of The Little Things

Last week I went and had my oil changed. I take it to the same guys every couple of months, they've really treated me well and let me know what I need to with my car. But I felt a little bad, I was the only one there that day (someone came in for a few minutes, but they were the only other customer). Talking with they guys, I asked if it was normal to be this slow. Their response: "It's raining."

People do less when it rains. Even though you most people get in their car through the garage and the oil place is inside, still, going out in the rain is too much. Later that day I was grocery shopping, people were lined at the door waiting for the rain to stop before they went back to their car. Hey, even church attendance goes down when it rains.

Isn't funny that such a little thing can be so crippling? But then I thought about it. It's those little things that are incredibly crippling. The big things, not so much. We hear so many stories of people overcoming great adversity. But when it comes to getting things done, it seems the little things have far more power.

When it comes to faith, let's not be stopped by the little things. Go to church when it rains. Serve even if it's a little uncomfortable. Read your Bible or pray even if you're a little tired or there's something on TV. Let's not have our souls stunted by the little and the mundane.

T

Who We Call To In Trouble, Why Not In The Good?

The other day I was reading this from the book of Jeremiah:

Kings, princes, priests, and prophets—all are alike in this. They call a carved-up wooden post their father, and for their mother they have an idol chiseled out from stone. Yet in time of trouble they cry to me to save them! Why don’t you call on these gods you have made? When danger comes, let them go out and save you if they can! (Jeremiah 2:27-28, LB)

It really got me thinking, why do people typically call on one thing when times are good, but put their trust in another when times are bad? For me, I'm a typical guy, I don't go to the doctor... unless I am breaking bones or losing copious amounts of blood. Then, suddenly, I trust the doc. Sadly, I many people could avoid going to the doctor in times of desperation if they went when they were healthy and kept on the path to good health.

If God is so powerful and amazing and trustworthy that when things are falling apart all around us we want to call on Him for help, why not trust Him when things are going well...?

T

Post 666

Scary.

But only if we let it be.

What if we stopped letting absurd fears get in our way of our dreams (or better yet, God's dreams for us)?

I bet there could be some amazing things you could do if you let go of some fears.

So what are you waiting for?

T

The Little Things We Can All Do

Over the past week I've had four experiences in which there was really one question at the root of them all, do people want to visit church?

There were all sorts of reasons not to, it's not inviting, the people there don't practice what they preach, people feel like they don't belong, it brings up guilt in their past, they "style" isn't theirs, plenty of reasons why people walk in the doors then immediately walk out.

But what if instead of focusing on why people don't feel welcome we were to work on things to make people feel welcome. Saying "hello", being friendly, offering them our spot, asking about them, getting them coffee, offering to show them around, inviting them back, all things that take a minimal amount of effort but pay off big dividends (and I'm sure you have more you could add to the list).

And here's a crazier idea, what if we didn't limit it just to strangers or first-time visitors. What if we did it for people we see every week? Imagine where we could go then...

I know, crazy...

T

Don't Be Above The Influence...

Be the Influence.

That campaign to fight drugs, it has a good message, but I think it's incomplete. It asks kids to be above the influence. That's great, we shouldn't be influenced to do things we think are wrong. But I believe there is more. We should be the positive influence on them.

Years ago I had the chance to talk with a missionary family in Africa, they told me about their year back in America. They had the normal adjustments of life, but one that turned out well was school. They had a ten year-old son who had to adapt from private school in Africa to public school in America. Not an easy task. But he did it, and he did more than just adapt, he adapted those around him. Because of his Christian upbringing and his school experience in Africa (which is slightly more disciplined than here) he actually changed the attitude of the class. The teacher said it was the first time she had seen it in her career. Usually a bad egg comes in and brings down the class. This young man's actions actually brought up the class.

That's what we are called to be. We're not merely supposed to detach ourselves from being influenced from the world around us, we are supposed to be influencing them for the better.

Jeremiah was a prophet at a hard time, the people of Israel were rebelling against God and now it was starting to take it's toll. But he held fast. But he also complained. He told God how he had never taken part in the feasts to idols and was a good follower of Yahweh and didn't deserve what was happening to him. God's response-

The Lord replied: "Stop this foolishness and talk some sense! Only if you return to trusting me will I let you continue as my spokesman. You are to influence them, not let them influence you!" (Jeremiah 15:19, LB)

To be used by God, we need to do more than just remove ourselves from a bad situation. We must trust in Him and be a positive influence to them.

How are you doing as an influence to those around you...?

T

You Can't Buy Elbow Grease

I read this quote the other day (sorry I can't attribute it to anyone, even the author said he didn't know where it came from). Basically, in the context it was written, it's saying you can't buy good results, you have to work for them.

We like to buy things in our society. It's easier to give money than to work for it. I find this in ministry all the time, if I'm having a lock-in, there are plenty of people willing to give me a few bucks so it will be fun. There are waaaay less who are willing to spend the night and help. There are commercials on all the time for a new weight-loss formula. For some reason "eat right and exercise" isn't as popular.

With God, it's the same way. I guarantee if someone sold a device to hear God more clearly it would sell like wildfire, yet do the work of finding time to pray? Craziness...

What is it in your life that you think "if I just had _____ I would be better at it"? Maybe all you need is a little elbow grease.

T

Everyone Can Fall

I've been reading a really old book on religion lately that really challenges my thinking, seeing how people view God in a different culture that has no frame of reference to today. But in my reading the other night I found something that was still true today.

It was the idea that everyone can fall. As believers in Christ none of us are perfect and can even walk away from our faith. We can leave Jesus behind. The only person who is safe from this is the person who acknowledges they aren't safe and works at ensuring their relationship with Jesus is the most important thing.

Here was the idea that really struck home. In Luke Jesus says He saw satan fall from heaven like lightning. And here was the question that got me. If satan was in the presence of God, in all His fullness, if satan saw God for all that He is and worshipped Him and served Him in glory that we will never know until we get to heaven, and he still walked away from God, what makes us think that we are safe?

When it comes to natural disasters, fires, etc. there are two types of people. Those that think it will never happen to them and those who prepare so it doesn't happen to them (or if it does, they are ready). The first group does nothing, why prepare for something that won't happen? The second group has fire exits, emergency plans, and some even practice just in case the day comes. When a flood happens, which group do you want to be with?

In our faith, do we think that will never happen to us, or are we working on our relationship with God so that it won't happen to us?

T

The Day After

So Easter was yesterday, a day of celebration for the glorious gift of grace, of life, of the love of God bought with the price of His Son's death, and we celebrate that death could not hold Him in the grave.

And today, have we quickly forgotten? This attitude and excitement we had yesterday, isn't it true today too, and tomorrow, and the day after that...

Are you living like it's Easter the other 364 days?

We're going to be talking more about this at Drink Deep Sunday, we hope you can be there!

T

Our New Vacuum Sucks

It's all in the wording isn't it... is that title a good thing or a bad thing...

It's a good thing. Lorie and I received a vacuum for a wedding present years ago, and it has finally passed on to Silicon Heaven where all the calculators go when they die. So Lorie and I asked around and ended up getting a decent vacuum.

But here's the rub, we didn't realize how filthy our floors were until we got the new vacuum. We did one room and had to empty the dirt trap (we blame the bunny). It so shocked us we went into crazy cleaning vacuuming mode and did every room in the house. The amount of dirt that thing sucked our of our carpet, it was disgusting.

We quickly realized the difference between thinking things were clean and knowing things were clean. It's kind of like on Hotel Impossible when the owners think their hotel rooms are clean, and then Anthony comes in and shows them what it means to be "really" clean.

Spiritually, we can do the same thing. We can be "clean", or so we think. But we get complacent, we do the same things, we're using the same old vacuum. It's not until we try something new, let someone else speak into our lives, raise the standards of our soul, put more effort into getting to know God that we realize how dirty we were before.

So the question is, would you rather use an old vacuum and think you're clean or spend what you need to on a new vacuum and do the work to "know" you're clean?

You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights, holding out to them the Word of Life. ~ Philippians 2:15b-16a (LB)

T

Do We Live In A Den Of Lies?

I read an interesting article the other day. It stated that on average we are lied to 200 times a day. 200! That means we are lied to about every five minutes of our waking lives. I thought that was outrageous until I watched a set of commericals...

But let's face it, truth isn't high on our priority list anymore. As communication becomes more antonymous (over the internet, text messages, even those commercials), there is less personal integrity attached to the message. If the other person doesn't know who we really are, or they're not in front of us, it makes it that much easier to bend the truth just a little.

No wonder people are skeptical of everything in today's world! Every five minutes they're being lied to! And then, even crazier, they hear a story about God, becoming man, giving His life for us, all so we could spend eternity with Him. How incredibly unbelievable does that sound? How much more does it become just another lie when it is nothing but an anonymous message with no relationship behind it?

Easter is coming up, the one day we celebrate this monumental event. And many people are wondering about it. But who do you think they will believe more, an anonymous message over the internet about how God loves them, an evangelist they've never met on television, or someone they know and trust like... you?

Share this story with people, and don't do it from a distance. We have the greatest truth the world has ever known and we are going to remember it on Easter Sunday. After all, as we heard at Fishers UMC yesterday, Jesus isn't just the way to the Father, or even just life, He's also Truth. (John 14:6).

And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. ~ I John 5:20 (MSG)
T

When People Outweigh Your Passion

At Drink Deep we are talking about failure and how to handle it well, and during the first week we focused a lot on the fact you fail if you don't try. The only true failure is quitting. In our discussion that night we asked why students have quit things they have been involved in, band, drama, etc.

What was a little surprising is very few quit something because of the actual thing. They knew what they were getting, the expectations were not too much, and most times they still loved whatever it was they were doing when they quit. So why quit? Because of the people involved.

Almost every story was about someone involved, a teammate, someone else in the play, gnawing away at them until they just had to quit. A few times it was the leader/coach, but generally it was the people around them, the ones at their level. And I pushed on this because it saddened me to think students would quit something they are gifted at, maybe even something God created them for, because of how others made them feel. That is where this quote came out:

"It happens when people outweigh your passion."

Awesome quote, and scary at the same time. How often does our passion get outweighed by someone else? How often do we quit something we love because of those around us, or worse yet, someone else quits because of us? When it comes to our faith and being disciples of Christ, are we making sure we have enough passion so people can't ever outweigh it and cause us to quit?

There are some things that in the grand scheme of life are unimportant, but there are other areas that will affect us long after this life is over and done with. We need to be fueling our passion for those things so that no matter what happens (because sometimes things get rough no matter how much you love it) we are able to endure whatever it is that steals our passion. We can't afford to go bankrupt with our passion for God, it can have eternal consequences...

Psalm 40:11 ~ Now GOD, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back Your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. (MSG)

T

Are You Honest With Where You Are At?

Lately I've been on a kick watching shows and reading books about how to make things better. I know I shouldn't enjoy watching Chef Ramsey yell at people, but the accent makes it all better.

But something I've noticed in common with all these resources and the examples they use, everyone has a false view of where they are at.

The cooking shows, they rate their food a 10 when it's really a 2. The business who thinks it's overhead costs are 30% when really they are 62%. The company that believes they are the top seller in the market when really they are number 4. There's even a clip of Jeff Daniels (I think it's from "Newsroom") that's been floating around the Internet where someone asks reporters why America is the best country in the world and only Daniel's character has the courage to say "it's not" and start quoting statistics.

The simple fact is if you don't know the truth about where you are you can't really improve. Why would you, especially if you think things are going great when in reality they are not?

I read this verse the other day. I've read it before but one word stuck out this time:

Mark 2:17 ~ When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (NLT)

It's that word "think". People who "think" they are righteous. When you know you're sick, you ask for a doctor. When you "think" you are well, even if in reality you are hurt and wounded, if you "think" you are well you won't go to the doctor.

How many of us have really taken an honest look at where we are at spiritually? Yeah, it's going to be messy and maybe even a little hurtful, but when was the last time we really examined our hearts to see where we are with Christ?

Of course, we could just "think" we're righteous. How did that work out for the religious people Jesus was talking to?

T

When People Outweigh Your Passion

Last night we started our series "How To Be A Failure" with WATER (sr. high). Lots of discussion, lots of talk about what failure is and what failure is not.

But I noticed something in the small group discussions that caught my attention. One of the main points of the night was true failure is giving up, as long as you keep trying you're not a failure. So the conversation took a turn to why people quit clubs, sports, etc. And the number one reason? People.

Almost everyone had a story of them quitting something they liked because of the people there. The people were mean, rude, didn't get along with them, whatever it was. But it saddened me that the most common reason for quitting was the people around them. But then Logan said something quite profound:

"It's when people outweigh your passion."

That's a good thought. What things are there in your life that you are passionate about? And at what point do the people involved outweigh your passion for whatever it is?

When it comes to faith and Christ, how many times have people outweighed your passion? You wanted to be involved in service but you stayed away because of the people involved? You enjoy Sunday morning worship but you thought you may run into someone you're not getting along with so you stay home? You want to share the gospel but you're worried about what someone may think of say?

It seems the problem is we need enough passion to outweigh the people. So what are you doing to fuel your passion? In your journey of faith, are you feeding your passion, serving, loving, learning more about who God is, spending time with Him, doing all the things to fuel your spiritual passion so that no matter who ends up in your path your passion will outweigh the person?

Keep your passion for God, our relationship with Him is not something we can afford to quit.

T

Okay For Me But Not For You

The other day I was reading in Matthew 27, the story of Christ's crucifixion, the Last Supper, etc. and a story in there caught my attention. I've read it many times, but for some reason a piece of it just stuck out at me.

The story goes that Judas was approached by the religious leaders of the day to betray Christ, and to do so he was paid 30 pieces of silver. He is called out at the Last Supper, meets up with Jesus and the gang in the Garden of Gethsemane and kisses Jesus on the cheek telling the soldiers who to arrest. But later he feels some remorse and goes back to the religious leaders wanting to give them the money back.

Now here's where my attention was piqued. The religious leaders say "no", they don't take the money. Judas throws down the money anyway and goes and hangs himself. That I remembered, but it was what the priests did with the money that caught my attention.

The leading priests picked up the coins. "It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury," they said, "since it was payment for murder." (Matthew 27:6, NLT)
Now hold on a minute, it was okay for them to take money from the Treasury and use it to pay for murder, but to take it back on that same murder, unacceptable? Really?!

It got me thinking, do we do that in our faith with people around us? Actions or thoughts that are wrong for them, but okay for us. My favorite one in college was music, I couldn't listen to non-Christian rock because it was bad and ungodly, but the person telling me this could listen to secular country because, well, they liked country.

Maybe if we held ourselves to the standard we hold others, and offer others the benefit of the doubt we offer ourselves we would all get along a lot better.

T

You Lose When You Stop Trying

It's a quote I saw last week (and used at Drink Deep last night). It's a really good one (thanks Jeanne Mayo).

This is an attitude I wish I could just force on people. Too often we think we've failed. In reality, we've done nothing but taken a step back. Take that old famous quote "the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step", it tells us that to get something done, you have to start. Okay, but what if at mile marker 223 there's a rock in the road, an obstacle to go around, or even worse, you walk backwards a little. Do you stop the journey because you've suddenly failed?

No, you regroup and move forward. The journey isn't a failure until you stop walking. And that's so true of our spiritual lives, sometimes we hit walls, we make mistakes, we even go backwards. But that's not failure, that's life. Giving up would be failing.

In two weeks Drink Deep will be doing a series on what failure really is and how to overcome perceived failure. We hope you can make it!

T

Popping Seedlings

Anyone else enjoying this weather? I hate it. Don't get me wrong, I like 60 degrees, I like 20 degrees. What I don't like is them back-to-back in less than 24 hours.

In the midst of this weather I saw Mr. Yakey (he runs a tree farm as well as helping out at the church) and I asked him if this weather affected the trees, it's playing havoc on our bulbs, I wondered how the trees are faring. What he told me was interesting. The mature trees, this does nothing. But the seedlings, this crazy weather affects them. The heavy rain gets down in the ground with their tiny root sack then the cold freezes that water pushing up on the sapling making it literally pop out of the ground. He has a fun week of staking down hundreds of seedlings, putting force on them so they stay firmly encased in dirt.

So here's my question, spiritually, how are your roots doing? Are they strong enough to endure the emotional and spiritual changes in weather? Or do you pop out of the ground, pop out of your faith when that happens? Or an even better question, do you have someone who is helping you grow as a Christian, someone who you let stake you into the ground?

Colossians 2:7 ~ Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all He has done. (LB)

T

Big Day Sunday...

First off, I apologize for not posting last week. Between the Winter Retreat and the death of Lorie's grandmother it got away from me. Sorry.

But for this week, we have a big game coming up on Sunday (I won't use it's proper name so I don't get sued). Many ministries, like our own FIRE & WATER, will be having parties and all sorts of other fun to celebrate this momentous occasion. So here's the thing, take advantage of the opening it provides.

Many people would never darken a church door, it's too scary. But watching a game on a big screen with free food, not so scary. Many of you may not know your neighbors, there hasn't been an opening to talk with them. What about inviting them to watch the game? Believe it or not there are even some people who don't like the 18 hours of pre-pre-pre-game coverage, what if they were invited to be a part of something else on Sunday morning?

It's funny, I've heard people say they don't talk with others about Jesus because it never comes up in conversation. Of course it doesn't, why would someone who doesn't believe in Jesus bring it up? So we should be looking for an opening to bring it up. Believe it or not, even a football game can give you that opportunity...

T

Depending On Helps

New cars are amazing. There are all these things to help you be a better driver. Rear view cameras as you back up (they even beep if you're too close to something), sensors on your mirrors that let you know if you are too close to another car (or a wall), built in GPS telling you where to go, all sorts of gadgets to help you be a better driver.

But that's the key. They are there to help you be a better driver, not make you a better driver. They are helps, nothing more. You should not be depending on side mirror sensors to let you know if you are too close to another car, you should be looking for other cars like a responsible driver. These helps are all great until we become lazy and start depending on them instead of driving properly and doing the things we should be.

When it comes to faith, are we doing the things we should be or are we depending on helps. I should read my Bible, but Jason always puts a Bible verse on his Facebook post so I'll just browse Facebook and call it devotions. I should be praying, but the church website has a place for prayer requests, I'll just put it there and let them pray. I should go to church, but Joel Osteen is on TV, I'll just watch him as my worship service.

All these things are great, but they are helps. Our faith should not depend on them, we should be living the lives we know we should and doing the hard work of getting to know God better and be who He created us to be.

After all, put yourself in the driver's seat of the other car. Would you want the guy driving next to you changing lanes depending only on the side mirror sensor or would you want them to be doing the things they need to be doing as a responsible driver?

T

How's A Christian Supposed To Act?

It's something I've been thinking about lately. What is proper etiquitte for a child of God? How are we supposed to act?

Do I tell the truth if it hurts or soften the blow because we're supposed to be nice?

Is following the rules higher more important than how you treat people? Can you treat someone badly for not following the rules?

Is it okay to fight for holiness?

Should we be teaching things that make people uncomfortable or make church a nice, safe, happy place?

Can I hang out with people who don't go to church or should we "keep to our own"? Or even worse, invite the two to get together?

How far is too far when serving someone else? What if they take advantage of me?

Are Christians allowed to get angry, even yell?

I've been looking at it, how would Jesus have measured up to what the people of God think we should act like? Oh wait, yeah, He didn't. The religious leaders were mad at Him all the time. Do we do the same to people trying to live like Him? Would we recognize it, support it, or disclaim it?

T

What's In A Date?

I always love new year's. Not because it means everything is new, but I love watching people freak out over a number. Or have we already forgotten about the end of the Mayan calendar...?

But it's funny how people go crazy for the number. We have to count down to midnight, like somehow that second is magical. It's a number we created, and it was midnight an hour ago for my family in the Atlantic Time Zone. Australians are already cooking dinner on Jan. 1st and watching Aussie Rules Football.

Here's my take on it, if you want to be a better person, be a better person. Choose to do things now, not because of a number. I do it too, sitting on the couch at 7:47, I'll take the laundry upstairs at 8:00. Why 8:00, what am I waiting for, something good to be on TV? These numbers were created to help us measure time, instead we use them to lock ourselves in routine, for good or for bad.

So let's start being who God wants us to be now. And if you didn't start your Bible reading plan on January 1, the 4th works as well...

T

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow's Christmas and I hope everyone has a good one. But before the big day I have a challenge for you, read the Christmas story.

I know, I've been on a kick lately on getting people to read things for themselves, but this is one of those stories that we have heard and seen retold so many times we have added or taken away things from the story that are so important (no one ever has Simeon and Anna in their Christmas plays).

Matthew 1-2 & Luke 1-2:40. Not even four whole chapters, maybe 5 pages of reading. I bet you'll be surprised what's actually a part of the story and what's not. You may even see parts of the story you've never heard before. They're in there for a reason.

So take some time to read the story. It's such a major part of our lives we will spend the next few days (for some weeks) celebrating this event, wouldn't it be prudent to take 5 minutes to read about why we're celebrating?

T

Blind Spot For Bishops

In my spare time I like to play chess. I'm not very good at it, but it helps me work on two things I know are important in life and help me in my ministry, planning ahead and being strategic in what I do.

What frustrates me most when I play chess is bishops. The pointy headed things that can only move diagonally. They are great pieces if you use them properly, they can move clear across the board for a strike. My problem is I never see them. Mine or my opponents. I rarely use them because I don't think diagonally. I usually get killed by them because I don't see them across the board. In all aspects of the game they are my one true blind spot.

So I can do one of two things with this information. I can ignore it and keep playing, after all it's just for fun, there's no prizes for the winner. Or I can admit it's a problem and intentionally work on it. Before entering a game I can admit my weakness to myself and consciously try to pay attention to it.

In life so often we want to ignore our weaknesses. We want to pretend they are not their, not deal with them, not put in the extra effort to fix them. We'd rather find another way to deal with them, like learning to use your rooks better and forgetting about bishops. But if we act that way we will always have that weakness and never be whole, or in my case, a complete chess player. The best way to improve, as hard as it is and as much work as it will entail, is to work on our weaknesses.

So what weaknesses have you been sweeping under the rug that need to be dealt with? It may be hard now, but in the long run it's the difference between a mediocre player and a Grand Master.

T

Stop Making Things Up!

Lorie and I just got back from vacation, it was a magical time (aren't all vacations?). Everything was great, the food, the experience, the time away, there was only one thing that really bothered us. The people.

And I don't mean that people were everywhere or they treated us badly. They were all nice people. But in our conversations with people and just hearing others talk we noticed something that began to get just comical. When someone doesn't know the answer to a question they just make one up.

I don't know if because we live in the information age we know so much more or can find out so easily that people feel that not knowing something is some sort of horrible crime, but almost all the time through our vacation when someone was asked a question they had an answer, and so often it was wrong. They really didn't know (and you could tell), but they felt the need to give an answer.

"I don't know" is a perfectly good and acceptable answer. If you want an even better answer, try "I don't know, why don't we find out". What a breath of fresh air it would have been to have people say that to us.

Making up an answer helps no one, and trust me, when someone finds our you were wrong and making things up you look way worse than if you said "I don't know".

Proverbs 24:26 ~ Giving an honest answer is a sign of true friendship. (CEV)

T

Foundation Part 2

So last week I ranted a bit about foundations being something unseen. There's also something else I realized in my staring at my house time.

When the storm hits it's too late to work on the foundation.

Too often God is an afterthought. He's nice, but I don't need Him right now, so I won't worry about it right now.

And when the time comes that you suddenly think you need God, it's probably too late to build that foundation of faith that would have seen you through the storm.

When the foundation of my house was built it was made without knowing how many people would live there, what kind of weather was coming, when another earthquake will hit Indiana, so it was built to withstand whatever storms may come before they happened, before we even knew they would happen (if ever).

If you want a faith that is true and can withstand the storms of life, you can't ride along until a storm hits and then start to work on your foundation. Instead, to be healthy and able to stand, work on your foundation now. Ask any of the people in hurricane Sandy, some foundations weren't able to stand the storm and now people are rebuilding in the snow and rain. I bet they'd give anything to have a sunny, calm, 60 degree day to build their foundation.

T

Foundation Part 1

The other day I was working in my backyard and looking at the patio we build this summer and doing my best to secure things down or put them inside for the winter. It got me thinking to another conversation I had earlier in the week with someone about things like Sunday School and Bible Study. They knew of students who were completely unengaged with these things.

The problem is for the things you learn in those places, it's a foundation. If you drive around your neighborhood and look at houses you'll notice very rarely do you see the foundation. It's hidden. It's something built first and everything else is put on top of it.

Too often we have people who want to go out and serve on mission trips, play in the worship team, do the things that are visible. Things they can look back on their life and point to and say "I did that". The problem is without the foundation those things never last. And the foundation is built on the things you probably don't remember. I don't remember every Bible Study I had in high school. But I also don't remember every meal I ate in high school either, but without them I wouldn't be healthy.

Just because you don't see the immediate effects of something doesn't mean it's not there. Foundations are like that, if you are only going for the things of God that are visible, you're missing the foundation faith is built on.

T

So Much To Be Thankful For

This week is Thanksgiving, the time of year we sit and thank God for our families and all He's given to us while we eat copious amounts of food. In a few conversations over the past few weeks, I wonder if we could be even more thankful. Next time you're about to complain about something, find a way to be thankful about it.

I have to park all the way at the end of the parking lot on Black Friday:
  I have a car
  I have working legs and can walk to the door
  I live where I can go to the store and buy something I want &
  I have the money to do it
  I can buy a drink inside, bottled, safe, many flavors and types to choose from
  I have people in my life whom I love so much I want to give them a gift
  I have stores with electricity to shop at night and be heated inside
  I can buy food while I'm shopping, prepared by someone else, I don't have to make it myself, also safe
  I am healthy enough to shop
  I can breathe clean air while shopping
  I have joy, the other people that are unhappy shopping, I don't have to have that attitude

You get the idea. Try it, every time you go to complain, think about what you can be thankful for in the situation. You'll be surprised what you find...

T

No One Does It Alone

Sunday was Veteran's Day and it reminded me of one thing:

No one does it alone.

No war is won alone. No one masters a subject alone. No one builds buildings alone. No one makes movies or music alone. No one find a true sense of who God is alone.

Thank you to all those who fought for our freedom, but thank you to all those who helped me, I couldn't do it alone.

T

Shakespeare & The Bible

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!"


It is one of the most famous lines of Shakespeare and is often quoted. But here's my problem with it:   What does it mean? Who sad it? Why was it said?   Too often people pick out one line of an entire play and remember it. "To be or not to be", "All the world's a stage", these are lines we hear, we know, but if I was to ask the context most people could not tell me.   And this is what we do to Scripture waaaay too much. We know a single line, a single verse, we have it memorized and we know it backwards and forwards, but we don't know what the line is before or the line after. We don't know where Jesus was when He said the verse we're quoting, who He was talking to or what the main point of His entire conversation was. Many times we don't even know where the verse is to go back and find it to look up what it really means.   There's a danger in taking one line out of the context of the whole conversation, the whole day of events even. If we really want to know what God is saying in His Word, we need to read more and understand more than the single line.   By the way, the line at the beginning, it was used by Marc Anthony. It was also a parody of an earlier line of Brutus, making fun of him but also showing his intelligence, talking to the people about Brutus' murder of Caesar. It was a counterpoint to Brutus' speech and lead into a discussion on politics and right and wrong. When was the last time you heard that line used in context...?   T

Honest In The Little Things

What do you say you will do that you don't deliver on?

Lorie and I were talking about that today (not that she doesn't do what she says, just making that clear...). There are people in our lives who don't do what they say they will. They say what we think we want to hear and that will make us happy, but it really makes us unhappier. And usually it's really little things so people think it will go unnoticed.

Here's an example: I say to Lorie I'll be home at 5:00, but really it will be 5:30.

I say 5:00 because that's the right answer. Work's done at 5:00. It sounds nice to say I will be right home. But in reality I have some traffic to fight, a few things to do before I leave, etc. so I really get home at 5:30.

Now do this every day for a month. What happens? Lorie no longer believes me when I say I will be home.

And that will soon bleed over into other things I say. Will I be honest about other times I give her? Will I be honest with other numbers like money? And it blossoms into me not being trusted.

Jesus all the time talked about being responsible in the little things means being blessed with bigger things. I think it works with honesty too. If we fudge a few little things, eventually it leads to a lack of trust. But if we are honest in every little thing we say, even when it isn't the answer someone wants to hear, chances are they will whole-heartedly believe us in the big things.

What little things do we need to be a little more honest about...?

T

What's More Important?

A few weeks ago Apple released it's IOS6 for iPhone with all sorts of new bells and whistles and looking all pretty, and included a new app they designed called "Maps" (to replace Google Maps which was standard before). They made their own GPS app. Great. Except it flopped. It was full of bugs and errors. And as soon as that happened, they gave this announcement from CEO Tom Cook:

"While were improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.


Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard."

And they followed through, if you go to their apps app the first thing you land on are alternate gps/map apps. Their competition. There's only one reason a company would do this.

Their goal is to get you where you need to go, not make money.

For Apple it was more important their users made it safely to their destination than to use their product. In church, it should be the same. My goal is to get people to know Jesus. Better than they did before. If they come to NewSong, the worship service I'm involved in. Great. If they are going to anther service. Great. My goal isn't to get people to worship my way, use my worship app as it were, but to have people worship and grow closer to Jesus.

When it comes to sharing your faith, how important is it that people know Jesus, even if that means they don't worship the same way or at the same place you do?

T

Doing As Learning

A few weeks ago I read an article about music production and someone made a fascinating point. When it comes to learning something, say piano lessons, do we have people read all the books about how to play the piano, pass a test, fill their heads with knowledge before letting them touch a piano? Or do people learn to play the piano by actually doing and mixing in the knowledge as we learn?

I still remember my first piano lesson when I was five (kind of). I learned to play three whole notes. Three. I learned to read them and transfer that knowledge to finger movement on the keys. I played the three notes I learned to read.

What would piano lessons have looked like if I had to know how to read all music before touching a piano and making a sound? Understand music theory? The science of waves and sound and mechanics of tuning a piano? I probably would never have played...

I learned music by mixing doing and head-knowledge. And I think we need to do more of this in faith. In talking to some people it's like they are waiting to serve. When I know this much Bible I will teach a Sunday School class or when I feel this holy I will be a greeter. In reality, wouldn't learning to live as a disciple of Christ look more like piano lessons, a mix of learning and doing? After all, isn't that how Christ did it? He called fishermen, not religious scholars. And they learned about the kingdom of God while being the hands and feet of God.

If you want more from your spiritual life, dive in!

T

Waiting For Holiness

In my reading last week I came across a curious piece of history involving baptism...

It seems that around 400 AD baptism was hitting a height like never before. It was really important to people's faith. So important that many believed that you were not forgiven of your sins until you were baptized, it was the most important thing you could do in your faith.

That seems all well and good, except it caused an unexpected backlash. If you knew there was a single action you could do that would forgive your sins and you could only do it once, when would you do it? It seems the Roman people of the time decided the best thing to do was to wait for baptism. After all, what if you sin after it? You can't be baptized again so what many people would do is hold off on baptism, hold off on declaring their faith in Christ, hold off on forgiveness and living as true Christians and wait until their deathbeds to be baptized. It became such a big deal there was a division in the church, these people who were followers of Christ but waiting for baptism would be considered Christians, but not part of "the faithful".

This whole piece of history got me to wondering about how those people felt, half-Christians as it were. Do you think they still served as faithful and as much as other Christians? What about in their hearts, did they fell loved by God or a little less loved than "the faithful"? What impact did that have on them sharing their faith?

And the biggie, do we still do this today? Maybe not in the evidence of baptism, but do we hold back from doing things for God because we haven't arrived at some far off spiritual point yet? Do we not serve, give, love as much because we're not what we consider "the faithful"? What are we waiting for?

More on this next week...

T

Many Hands Make A Difference

Yesterday we did something that has never happened in my entire time at Fishers UMC and Fire & Water.

We unloaded the pumpkin truck in under 2 hours.

That may not seem like much, but after ten years and being the one in the truck, trust me, that's a big deal. We unloaded 2000 pumpkins in under 2 hours.

How? We had help.

Sunday afternoon (when the truck was here) we logged almost 100 volunteer hours. There were over 50 people helping unload the pumpkins. The most we've ever had by a long shot.

Sometimes we look at something as insurmountable because we forget that if everyone did a little it would get taken care of. We look at the task at hand as too big and think "how could we ever solve this?" and do nothing. We don't even do our part, we do nothing.

Our church is looking to raise $150,000 this month. Some people will look at that and go "it's too big" and shut down. The funny part is we have over 3500 people in our church database. If each person gave $50 we'd be above our goal.

The problem is we can't get everyone to do their little part. So other's pick up the slack. Then more drop out because the slack is now too much. And suddenly, we're at insurmountable again.

Think of any problem, and add in all the people who could/should be a part. If everyone did their part, how much work would there be?

It's kind of like a few years ago when I was talking to someone about how to get more people to visit our church. And I told them I could get our church to double in size overnight. How? Everybody invite one friend.

No problem is too big if everyone chips in...

T

Do You Really Know?

For the past few weeks we've been doing a little something at Drink Deep (our sr. high program) called "Google What You Believe". It's the idea of discovering what is true by looking it up for yourself in the Bible. There are verses all over the room about a certain topic and students look up the verses and try to figure out what those verses have to do with a certain topic.

Last week there were verses about Christ's life, His death and resurrection. And in our discussion at the end I asked a question I really hadn't planned on. Everyone knows the Easter story but before that night, who had actually read the story for themselves? Maybe 30% of students there...

It got me thinking, as in really thinking hard, do most people who call themselves disciples of Christ even know what or who they are following? Do we take what the pastor says on Sunday as good enough to learn about our loving God and that's it? How can anyone really know who God is and about His love if the only knowledge they have of His love is through a holy game of telephone (remember that game? Someone starts with a message, you relay through about 10 people and then see what it turns into at the end, usually nothing like what it started like)?

The question on my mind is do people really know who Christ is? Do they know what happened? What He taught? How He died? How He rose again? What's important to Him, especially if they aren't taking the time to read those things for themselves but instead living with just the abbreviated version I heard last Easter?

I would hope we take the time to read things in the Bible for ourselves, to see if what we believe is really true or something we picked up playing telephone...

T

Knowledge Unearned

A few weeks ago we talked about wisdom in our morning worship gatherings at Fishers UMC. And it sparked some conversations I had outside of Sunday morning, which got me to thinking a little more about where we are as a society.

It seems we have a lot of people lacking in wisdom. I always heard the definition of knowledge and wisdom and knowledge having the information and wisdom knowing how to use that information. With all of our advances in technology we know have limitless knowledge. Google has changed our lives forever, we don't have to end conversations with "I don't know" and more. We can look it up and learn. So if we have all this knowledge, why does it seem like wisdom has gone down instead of up like our knowledge?

All I can think of is this. It's unearned knowledge. Before, if I wanted to know something, I had to seek it out. I had to look it up. I had to go to the library and research. I had to earn that knowledge, I had to work for it. Now, I hit a couple buttons, wait impatiently for a few seconds and Bam, I have the knowledge. I didn't earn it. Do you notice how people treat things they have had to work to earn differently than those given?

To have true wisdom in our current state we have to make a shift. Before wisdom came as a by-product of the work for the knowledge. Now we have to be more intentional on using that knowledge wisely. For a good story to get you thinking on this, read I Kings chapter 3. It was knowledge and wisdom given, and how it was used.

Let's seek to be wise with the knowledge given to us.

T

There's A Difference Between Returning To Your Roots And Returning To Your Past

What a long title. Anyway...

I've been reading Onward by Howard Schultz. Great book. Talking a lot about the changes Starbucks made a few years ago, the thought behind them and what it took to implement them. And in this book I've noticed a theme. There is a difference between your roots and your past.

Your roots are the history that defines you. What made you into you. The things that are important in your history. Your past is what you've done. Sometimes those intersect but many times we end up fighting for our past and forgetting the roots of why we did it.

For example, say your family has the roots of a family Christmas bonding time, decorating the tree. And every year you've made a string of popcorn to go on the tree, but now you have a child who is allergic to popcorn. Some people would still fight to put popcorn on their tree, thinking that is their roots. It's not. The family bonding time over decorating the tree is your roots, and by keeping something you've done in the past you are actually losing the roots behind it. "We'll decorate while you sit over there away from the tree..."

Sometimes we have to put away the past to keep our roots, and that can be especially hard if the two get clouded together. So when it comes to your faith, what is important to you? What are your roots? And what things in your past are you holding on to that are actually stopping you from returning to your tree roots in Christ?

Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. (Colossians 2:7a, CEV)

T

Self-Evaluation

Every once in a while a theme seems to prop up in my life. This week it's been self-evaluation. I was asked to write an article of things I learned in ministry, I have a review with my pastor next week, I talked with a youth pastor new to the area and we talked about why we do what we do and starting next week we're going to be doing a series at Drink Deep in which people will have to do a little evaluation of what they believe and why.

It's funny how so often we are scared of self-evaluation. We might see something we don't like. It's hard. We have to be honest when we've been holding up a mask for so long. But I've learned something watching those "Kitchen Impossible" and "Hotel Impossible" type shows; people who don't evaluate what they're doing very slowly lose their standards, forget their goals, and eventually end up in a hole that seems impossible to dig out of. If a hotel would have evaluated it's books and been honest with themselves when they started losing a few hundred dollars, they probably wouldn't have ended up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

So don't be scared, take a shot at it. Evaluate how you;re doing, in your faith, your work, your family. The only person you have to answer to is you. But be careful, you might find yourself challenged to do something with what you learned...

Good luck.

T

Job

This weekend I started reading the book of Job. It's a different translation so it's fun to read the little differences.

But here's where it gets weird. I am reading another book that talks about why God allows bad things to happen. Then last week I was asked to speak at HSE at Cru about why God allows bad things to happen.

I really hope this isn't God hinting at something coming up...

But if it were you, and you were asked why God allows bad things to happen, what would you say?

T

How's Your Level?

My wife came up the wonderful idea of building a patio in the back of our house with individual pavers. You cannot know how much joy this has brought me trying to make sure that every single brick, all tumbled so they are imperfect to begin with, fit perfectly together and make a flat, level surface for us to stand on. To do so, for every single brick we lay we have to make sure it is level. We have a nice little level that we use for the job, and without it I'd be dead in the water.

It has amazed me how often I think I have a brick perfect, and it's completely off. The problem is my view is completely narrowed, I'm on my knees staring at one brick, I can't see the whole picture, so in my mind that brick is perfect. But when I put the level on it, not even close. I thought this may happen once in a while, but it's more like 75% of the time.

That's what the level is for. Without some sort of level, all we're doing is guessing based on the tiny narrow view in front of us. In life, that is what's happening way too often. The story of the rich young ruler who came talking to Jesus comes to mind. He asks what he needs for eternal life and tells Jesus he has done everything in his narrow view of life. I even love how he calls Jesus good, to which Jesus asks, "Why do you call me good?" Jesus knows this young man's view of good is skewed, much like all of ours. He's not balancing it against the level, the ruler, the Scriptures. He's just going by what's in front of him. I hear it all the time, "I'm good, I'm not as bad as-". If I want my bricks to be level, I don't look at the wonkiest, most crooked one and go, "This one is better than that, so it's okay." I get a level and make sure it's as close to perfectly level as possible.

Over the next months at Fire & Water the sr. highs are going to be looking at the Bible, what it means, how to read it, how to use it as a level in our lives, how to make sure that God's Word is real and alive in us. It's the best spiritual level we have, II Timothy 3 tells of all it can do, teaching us what is true, helping us see what's wrong in our lives, and "it straightens us out and helps us do what is right" (II Tim. 3:16b, LB). If you can make it, we hope you can come on out and grow with us.

T

Getting The Message

Every once in a while the things I read seem to line up with exactly what I'm thinking about or with things going on in my life. It seems a little freaky, but I think, "Okay, maybe there's a message here." The scary one now, I'm reading three books and all of them are saying the same thing at this point.

What's even crazier, they are three completely different books. One on little known stories of the life of Walt Disney, one from the ceo of Starbucks and one on the discussion between Peter and Jesus at the Last Supper (which, incidentally is free this week for Kindle, if you don't have a copy you should pick one up here).

I think sometimes when it comes to hearing from God we put so much on it to be this huge spiritual experience. Yes, many times God speaks through times like the footwashing and prayer at the end of our summer mission trip. But many other times God is speaking to us through every day experiences, through the people we talk with, even for some the music that plays over and over in your head (right Dustin?).

So if we want God to speak to us (and He wants to), that means one of two things. We either have to have massively spiritual events all the time, which will eventually seem less and less special because we're doing them so often, or we need to start looking for God in the everyday. Too often we like to separate the spiritual and the rest of the world, but that's not how God is, He's in the spiritual and the everyday, He made the everyday world, didn't He? So why can't He speak to us in it?

Be looking, maybe God is trying to get a message to you...

T

Cognitive Illusion

This is something I was reading about last week. It was a little blurb about the news and how having so much information at our fingertips has changed how we view the world.

In a nutshell, cognitive illusion is the idea that we make assumptions about our world based on what we hear, usually without knowing it. How it applies to the news is because we have so many news stories in our heads all the time from all over the world, we start to believe that what we hear is the case everywhere and it shapes how we view our world.

An example would be child kidnapping. A hundred years ago if a child was kidnapped three states over we would never had heard about it. That news didn't reach us and it didn't apply to us. Now with the internet, amber alerts, etc. if there is a child kidnapping we hear about it instantly, all of them. So because we hear about more child kidnappings we assume that they are on the rise and we begin to act accordingly, kids aren't allowed to cross the road by themselves now. But the reality is child kidnappings lower, they are not nearly as prevalent as we think. Since we hear about it more, we assume there are more, and act accordingly.

And this whole process got me to thinking about faith and what cognitive illusions we've created and how they shape how we act. We talk to three people who believe in Jesus, so we assume everyone believes in Jesus and act accordingly. We hear that two people are serving at a local seniors center, assume lots of people serve and they don't need our help while in reality they have only two volunteers.

So the question I keep asking myself is looking at what I think and how I act for Jesus, is it based on truth or is it based on assumptions I've made about the world around me from isolated stories...?

T

Ananias & Sapphira

Last night we told a couple of stories from Acts at Drink Deep and this story seemed to make a big impact. Apparently God smiting people down in the New Testament Church caused a wee bit of a ruckus leading to all sorts of discussion from God's love to the end of America. So today I just wanted to add some things to think about.

First, there was the question of why God doesn't act like this today. Some even wondered if God had changed. I don't think God changed, but we have. Let's just ask if God were to suddenly strike someone dead in church today, would we acknowledge it as God? Would we see it as His call to holiness? Would our people and our leaders turn to God in a way like never before? Probably not, so if it's not going to get across the message God wants, I don't see why He would do it (He's pretty smart, He knows what works best).

But then there was the question of why God would do such an act anyway. People lie to God all the time today, but they don't die for it. I think the big question is where's our level of commitment is at. Anyone who's done any leadership type thing with me hears me say this all the time, the higher up you go, the higher the expectation. This was a church with a high level of expectation, people gave up their lives, their finances, their time, their own personal goals, this was a church that was 100% committed to Jesus Christ and His work, every single person in the church was involved in Christ's work in some way. With that level of commitment, there was a high level of expectation. In today's church, do we have that commitment? Even anywhere close? So then why are we surprised there's also not that level of expectation? You can't expect and enforce a lot from people that have low commitment.

Likewise, I'm not one that thinks we should need a sign from God to do what is right. If you say you're going to do something, you shouldn't need a punishment to convince you to act. I'm not saying I'm perfect at it, but it's one of those levels of expectation I try to put on myself. If I should do it, I should do it.

The main point of the stories yesterday was the commonality of hospitality; whenever the opportunity arose the people of Christ gave everything for others. In the story of Lydia the Holy Spirit overwhelmed her with hospitality and she supported an entire church herself (at least at the beginning). As we talk about this again next week at Drink Deep take a look at the stories in Acts and how people welcome new members of the Church, or even how new members treated the people that had just showed them the truth. Go back to the idea of us living up to a higher expectation without needing to be forced, where are we at?

Sorry this was longer than normal, still nothing compared to our discussion(s) last night. If you haven't been involved, it may be something to try!

T

The Value Of A Hard Week

This mission trip for me was a little unlike many before. Let’s compare it to last year, it was a split site, which means everyone gets a chance to both build/do repair work for two days and they spend two days working with children at the one kids club. We also had great staff and got along really well with the other churches. Since we all built something, we could all point to something and say “we did that”, a sense of accomplishment. If I told a story about a child at kids club, every single other person on the team knew who I was talking about, we all shared the same experiences. Friday night was really uplifting and happy as we shared stories about this great trip.

Three days ago our Friday night was a little different. People still had some great stories, but our mission trip was much different. Many students did not connect with the YouthWorks staff, one of the other churches caused problems, we were at one worksite all week (and some sites were not a fan of YouthWorks) and generally when we were there we were split up. For example, I was put in a class of older children at a summer school/summer camp program. I did not see anyone else from our mission trip for six hours a day. Our students had a really hard time, there was not the sense of accomplishment from last year, either you didn’t make a good relationship with the people you worked with and felt unfulfilled or you did make a good relationship but by the time that happened it was time to go home. All in all, our students were really having a hard time.

So Friday night I asked who thought this was a hard trip. Almost every single hand was in the air. For the reasons above, people were not as happy as they were last year. But it really opened the door to talk about it. From talking with a few students their natural reaction was to still say the trip was okay and leave it at that, instead we chose to be honest about it and talk about how hard it was. Because in reality, the hard trip was much more similar to what it is like to really be a missionary, hard to make relationships, some people didn’t want us there, that unsettling feeling of, “What am I doing here? I’m not accomplishing anything.” And when these students go back to high school or off to college and they view their school as a mission field, they are more likely to have an experience like this year’s mission trip.

The important part is realizing that just because you don’t see fruit doesn’t mean you’re not accomplishing something. If I were to go to a farm in the spring and work for four days then leave upset because I didn’t get to harvest my dinner, the farmer would laugh at me. Real growth takes time. But just because you don’t see the harvest does not mean the watering or the fertilizing was not helping. Just because we don’t see the final product does not mean our work was in vain, and that’s the stance we have to take with this trip and in the mission fields of our lives. Sometimes the harvest takes a little longer, it doesn’t mean you give up or that God doesn’t value your service to Him, it mean we have to work a little longer and a little harder. Unfortunately we don’t get to go back to Minnesota to do that, we hand that off to this weeks youth groups, but we can do it in our lives here. And I think that is the most valuable lesson this mission trip can teach us, to continue to run the race as Paul writes, to keep on doing what we know is right.

Thank you all for your prayers and support last week and be praying for Liz and The FIRE Students as they serve in Kentucky this week (she has a blog on the Fire & Water page too).

T