Nervous yet?

My trip to the Philippines is a little over a week away. I leave Monday the 8th. People keep asking me if I am nervous yet. It is funny how much it snuck up on me. I was so fixated on finishing the school year at both locations, so I kept thinking the trip was way off in the future. Now it is literally upon my doorstep and I have to confess that I am quite anxious. I hear that verse in my head - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:5-7. And I am claiming that, or at least trying too. But what I found interesting as I tried to articulate to someone why I was nervous, it wasn't for any of the reasons you would typically expect. My new friend Bob, who is the expert traveling with us, thinks it's uproariously funny to share all his plane crash dreams with me - but Bob's nocturnal visions aside, I am not really terribly worried about the normal stuff like plane trouble or sickness. I guess I have resigned myself to the fact the plane ride is going to be long and uncomfortable. The food is going to be unpleasant and the weather conditions worse. All of that I know is going to wear on me but I am not that anxious about that. I think the reason I am struggling a little is because it is coming at what I hope is the conclusion of a very trying season for me. I have loved seeing all the stuff God has done in StuCo this year but 2 locations has stretched me to the brink. When I volunteered for this trip 6 months ago I never dreamed I would be going there feeling like I have very little to give. My strength is gone. Through the help of Ann Jackson's amazing book - "Mad Church Disease" I feel like I am on the road to recovery but I see that it is a long road back. The only way I can reconcile it in my mind is that somehow in God's infinite wisdom He has brought me to a time and place to be used by Him and if my strength is gone than it is all Him working through me. I often take the credit for God and now I am not in a position to do that.

I do think that the opportunity to "unplug" from the pace of my life for 2+ weeks and just focus on serving people is going to be good. Not in an easy, relaxing way but in a refreshing, refocusing kind of way. I have such a hard time unplugging from things, so nothing like being half way around the world - that's unplugged baby! It will be interesting to see how I reflect on these words when I return. I guess my prayer along with the prayers for details and safety and health is that God & I would reunite in that strange place in the way I so desperately need right now. It is all about Him after all. It's just been easy for me to get distracted and think it is about me these days. So am I nervous? Yes, yes I am. I did joke with someone the other day that one of the crazy thoughts that popped in my head was a Gilligan's Island/Lost sort of scenario where I was stranded on a deserted island with a bunch of students - that would test my love for student ministry!

I am feeling a little weak, a little vulnerable, and a lot out of my comfort zone. But at the same time that sounds like fertile soil for God to come in and do something amazing.

Burning question of the day

So here is my question I am wrestling with today - wait first let me explain (there is no time, I will summarize) how I have gotten to this point of mental excercisedness. A few weeks ago I read a book that really challenged me on views of Heaven and Hell. It was "The Last Word and the Word After That: A Tale of Faith,Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity" by Brian McClaren. It's not the first time one of his books has some what forcefully broken me out of my stronghold of limited perspective. The book which is fictional admittedly, provides some information about the impact of various religions and cultural traditions on the modern understanding of heaven and hell. I won't go into my emerging philosophy on the afterlife but it started an interesting awareness. Over the last several weeks in several ways and in several places I have been faced with things I believed to be solely Christian or Biblical ideas and have found that to not be the case. Culture, current to whatever period it may have been or currently is, has a significant impact on how we interpret the unchanging truth of God. I do believe that God is unchanging however our interpretation of Him seems to change almost constantly.

So finally after the eternal introduction here is my question - what role does the Church play in this? Are we the filter or the delivery vehicle to bring the unchanging, timeless message of Christ in a relevant way to society? Or maybe we dilute the message when we do that. It is undeniable that culture has a significant influence on the Church - does Church have an impact on culture or are we doomed to react and always try to interpret God to the godless. I think it's a both and kind of thing. We do bring the message in an understandable, relatable way and culture does influence us but what would it take for the Church to influence culture? I have never had a fondness for political activism. I clearly don't respond to the latest fads as I am usually a decade or two behind. Don't know that even the question is clearly formatted in my brain. I am just wondering why is this something I am wrestling with now. I tell students they are the most powerful force on the planet and I believe that. Isn't that what the Church is supposed to be - an unstoppable force as Erwin McManus would say.

Just wondering I guess about the relevance of being relevant.

Am I Wrong?

This weekend I got to speak on the adult stage at Montgomery Campus (I'm sworn to secrecy about how many times!) and it was a thrill for several reasons. First I have wanted to be able too for a long time. I have attended Montgomery Campus since it's inception back in March of 2002. When I look back over these last 7+ years it is a remarkable period in my life. I think if I were to find my own time traveling Delorean and go back I would hardly recognize my old self. This is not to suggest I have attained any significant maturity but I certainly have grown a lot. It is my home campus in so many way because I have taken so many steps there. I look forward to having the same memories at the Shorewood Campus. Who knows what lies ahead.

But back to the weekend. I got to speak to the adults about our current series - Suburban Legends. This is the second message in this series I have gotten to deliver. The series is about the social myths that we buy into that are not really true. The first one in the series and the first message I gave was on the legend that kids just need to be happy. I taught that one at Shorewood and I felt it went really well. I always feel hypocritical when it comes to talking about parenting because I think I was a bad parent for a really long time. Finally, I am starting to feel like my kids don't secretly hope I fall in a deep hole. This talk addressed permissive parenting which is probable the one area of parenting I don't feel like a total fraud. I enjoyed the opportunity immensely.

As the series continued we came to this weeks legend which was that all teenagers are rebellious. This is a topic near to my heart obviously being in student ministry. I loved the angle because it addressed the fact that so many adults think, communicate to, and treat these teenager years like something to be endured, a storm to be weathered. They inadvertently communicate that adolescence is nothing more than preparation for when your real life begins. I think this devalues teens and leads them to believe what they do whether good or bad doesn't matter. I of course believe students are the most powerful force on the planet when they embrace God's plan and purpose for their lives. I love seeing students engaged in the mission of the kingdom of God. It really is what makes it all worth it for me. Anyway the combination of that topic and being on my home stage really made it special. I almost felt like it was a guilty pleasure - is that wrong? Many thanks go out to all the people that lobbied for me to get the opportunity in it's various forms. My favortist moment was asking all the students in the audience to come forward and be prayed for "commissioning" them as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because they are the Church of Today. No matter where this crazy journey leads me, I will remember that moment for the rest of my life. I suppose if that is my guilty pleasure and I am wrong then I don't want to be right! It was a thrill.