The Power of Young People

I'm always interested and inspired by what young people can accomplish.

I think something happens when we grow older. It seems like when I was 20 years old I thought I could change the world. I had all these ideas about how to fight poverty, stand up for justice, and grow the church with people eager to reflect God's love to others! It seemed that no matter who I told me plans to they always responded in a way that informed me that they knew something I didn't. Do you know what I mean? I remember when I was in college and suggested that our church do a huge push to help the homeless in LA. I got push back from many people saying things like, "There already are homeless shelters in LA, the homeless just don't want to go to them." There are other churches who have successful ministries in downtown. We're trying really hard to focus growing our church. " My favorite response was this one. "It's a lot of work to help the homeless and now simply isn't the right time for our church to help them." The right time? I thought anytime was the right time to love other people. I guess I missed that passage in scripture where Jesus said to love others only when the timing is right. Anyone else found where that one is?

The thing I found interesting is that no one said that the idea was a bad one. They just gave reasons why it wouldn't work.

Looking back over the last six years, I've noticed something has happened to me. I have found myself telling other people why their ideas for spreading the love of Jesus wont work. What happens to us as we get older? Why do we do that?

Thankfully there are young people who are making a huge difference in the world. A group of guys got to together and went to Africa for fun and adventure. They made a short movie that sparked a national movement. The power of young people is amazing. invisible children

Deck the Halls, Not Your Family

I think its funny, sad and all around entertaining. Too often the Holiday season works people up and leads to stress and frustration instead of joy and peace. RELEVANT Magazine wrote an interesting article title Deck the Halls, Not Your Family and filled it timely advice so you can thrive during this busy season. Please enjoy.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/23595-deck-the-halls-not-your-family

Urban Rescue New CD

Just wanted to give you all a heads up. Urban Rescue has a new CD out titled "Just To Be Here."

Urban Rescue has been the worship band at Forest Home for many of our camps. They're fantastic. One of my favorite things about this band is that they have a genuine love for God and want to help others connect with Him. The lead singer, Jordan, is also a friend of mine. I have enjoyed many conversations with him about God and what it truly means to follow Him.

The single off their EP is "Sing." You can hear it for free from their website and blog. http://urbanrescuemusic.com/ http://www.justtobehere.com/

It is also available for download from itunes. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/just-to-be-here-ep/id403936453

Download it, Listen to it, worship with it!

Back At It

I simply needed the time off. My brain was empty. I needed to recharge. Ever been there?

You would think writting a blog entry once a week would be easy. Well, its not. "Just write about what you're thinking." This un-encouraging encouragement usually comes from those who do not have experience. It reminds me of the baseball fans that see their pitcher screw up and think to themselves, "I could do better than that, how hard could it really be?" Well apparently for me. Its more difficult than I imagined.

This is a short little post that says I'm back at it!

The next few entries will be about what God is teaching me, things I find interesting, and of course, youth ministry.

Please stay tuned.

Facebook

I like Facebook. I think most everyone does. It seems like everyone is talking about social networks; movies are being made, books and endless articles are being published and there seem to be hundreds of Christian Conferences explaining how to use this tool to reach the lost. I like Facebook, I'm just concerned. At the risk of being trendy I've written some of my own thoughts on Facebook.

As a Youth Pastor I'm concerned with how high school students use Facebook as well as their parents. It seems to me parents are not completely tuned in to what their teenager is doing on facebook. Girls are posting half-naked pictures of themselves with their friends. Guys are sexually harassing most female "friends" and/or bullying weaker people and leaving threats on the walls of others. Continually high school students post things on their wall that they would never say in "real life." They have a difficult time differing from their "online life" and their "real life." Unfortunately parents have no idea what their teenager is posting. I'm certain many of them would not be proud of their teens online activity. Many parents say they don't want to "invade on their child's private life." Really? Is that really good parenting? I'm not so sure that it is. In a worse case scenario a teenagers private life is where they hide their drugs, drink their alcohol and experiment sexually with others - not necessarily with the opposite sex. Not wanting to invade a teenagers private life is like believing that what happens in Vegas actually stays in Vegas. Its never a good idea.

As a younger 20-somethings adult, I'm simply concerned for my generation. I've noticed our attention span is getting shorter and shorter. I'm finding it more difficult to stay focused on something long enough in order to complete it. For example, I tried reading a well written 2 page article this morning and couldn't do it without my mind drifting off into lala land thinking the article would have been better if he would have simply added more pictures and made bullet points. Maybe its just me, but I don't think it is. I think as a society we are struggling to focus on things that matter, things of substance. We want our information to include a few picture and 160 characters. To prove my point, I'm willing to bet that people reading this blog post won't make it to the end. If they do, I'm betting that they skip a lines along the way. Let me know how you did!

Lastly, I'm concerned that our culture is becoming more self-centered as we attempt to portray ourselves better than we really are. I leave you with a quote from this mornings article, "A self-image controlled in much the same way corporate brands are controlled. Complete with pictures, videos, songs and most of all, metrics-the number of friends we have, the kinds of friends we have the kind of associations we have. We endlessly noodle, refine, create and consume a digital projection we want others to see. However, we are rarely what we project... The problem is that in real social settings, there are limits to what we can hide. At a certain point, people intuitively see through us." They discover what we really are; our flaws, our weird attributes, and our nervous twitches. Its time consuming to create a perfect image of who we want to be. The problem is that we and others are let down when they discover who we really are.

I'm not against Facebook, I like it, I'm just concerned...

You're Welcome TOMS

I love seeing progress. Its been a small passion of mine for awhile. I like the idea of it, I like the impact of it, and I like how its changing the way people do business and how people buy clothes. I'm talking about TOMS SHOES. I through the idea out to my high school students at PULSE and they jumped on board. At first we just wanted to raise money within our own ministry to help support TOMS. As word got out to others in our church we eventually did a huge shoe drive at Desert Springs and spent over $2,000 on shoes. We even donated the shoes that we purchased as a church to a local rescue mission in Indio. It has been fun to watch our students feel like they are making an impact on peoples lives while learning to give or their resources and possessions.
Thank you TOMS for leading by example, and to the students of PULSE, for having the heart of Christ and fueling our mission with the energy of youth!

groups groups and more groups

Is this normal? Am I the only one who struggles with this? These are some of the questions that I hear from our students on a weekly basis. Students want to ask questions, learn how the world works, discover who Christ is and learn who they really are. The best way to help them along this process is by our Life Groups ministry.

The idea is simple but the results are amazing. Students form groups with five or so of their friends and are assigned an adult leader to help guide the group. All groups will be made up of the same gender and will be lead by an adult of the same gender. So, guys will be lead by guys and girls will be lead by girls. These groups will meet every Thursday night for eight weeks.

The time in groups is designed for students to develop and grow in their relationship with God, and with each other. They will do this by studying scripture together, asking questions about the nights message and teaching series, and praying for one another.

In a time where schedules are double booked, students are buried under a mountain of homework and everyone is so busy its crucial to set aside time to slow down, laugh with friends and reconnect with God.

My prayer is that every high school student will be involved in a life group and these groups will equip them to thrive in their high school years.

Benefits to Sin?

I don't often have an "A HA" moment when I read scripture. Sure I continually learn new things and am challenged by Scripture, but rarely do I jump out of my chair screaming, "That was brilliant! I've never thought of that before!"

I'm reading through Romans right now and in Chapter six verse, twenty-one Paul asks a simple question that for me, became profound. "What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?" Have you ever had one of those moments when you're arguing with yourself, telling yourself that you're about to do is wrong and I shouldn't do it but at the same time you convince yourself to do it anyways (if you're picturing the little devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other you're right on track!)? Only after you committed the sin do you then feel horrible and are ashamed of what you have done. This is what Paul is talking about and he follows it up with a great question. He asks, What was the benefit? did you get anything out of it? Are you a better person, do you feel better about yourself, are you at peace now, is everything right in the world again because of your sin? Obviously the answer is no.

When I think back through all my favorite sins (everyone has their favorite sins, its the ones that seem to always repeat over and over again) I realized I've never really benefited from them at all. The only thing I have ever gotten out of sinning was losing my self-control and distancing myself from God. Both of which really aren't beneficial.

Paul concludes chapter six of Romans by saying "But now that you have become set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. " - Amen.

How Christians Respond to Sin.

I just finished reading a theologically heavy and dense section regarding sin. Now, I must tell you that I do not wake up in the morning full of energy and excited to read books on doctrine, theology, and sin! However, I made a commitment to God awhile back to learn more about Him and myself in an attempt to understand our relationship to one another. So, that is why I do the difficult and often tedious readings.

BUT WAIT!!!! There was an amazing section in the chapter that talked about what Christians tend to do in response to their sin. I found it fascinating, and rather accurate. I'll list only a few from Mark Driscoll's book, DOCTRINE.

"What Are Some Sinful Responses To Sin?
1. Minimizing my sin. Its really not that big a deal, everyone does it.
2. There is the delusional belief that my sin is different from anyone else because I have good reasons that legitimize my sin.
3. Blame shifting. Where technically my sin is the result of another persons actions.
4. Diversion, where we try to avoid our sin by, saying we were just joking, someone misunderstood us, or the person who confronted us about our sin did so in a manner that was not loving.
5. Partial confession. This is where we tell only part of our sin and hide the other half because of our pride.
6. There is what Paul calls 'worldly grief' where we merely regret the consequences of our sin and not the sin itself.
7. There is mere confession. This is tricky because people who practice it acknowledge their sin, show remorse, and ask for forgiveness. But they do not change and in fact knowingly repeat their sin."

I wonder, what sinful responses do you practice? for me, I primarily practice worldly grief, minimizing sin, and mere confession. Thankfully I serve a loving God who died for my sins and my sinful responses to them. Thank you Jesus Christ.

The Fundamentals

The other day I dropped my wife off at a friend Bridal Shower so she could exchange gifts, talk about married life, eat cake, and do the things that girls do when they get together at those things. Bridal Showers are like secrete clubs where all the members have shirts that read "NO BOYS ALLOWED." So, being a boy, and not being allowed I had plenty of time to kill until I picked Darcy up from the party. I chose to spend it the way most 20 somethings would spend it, at my local friendly neighborhood Starbucks.

I got my usual drink, grande iced vanilla latte, and was lucky enough to have the last comfy sofa seat as my own. I sat down with book in hand and began reading. I started reading and before I know it I'm three and a half pages into the chapter and I have no clue what I've just been reading. Has this ever happened to you? It did to me, and it continued to for the next fifteen minutes. So I simply stopped...

About this time I looked up at the counter to do some people watching and I saw a man with his bible ordering the his usual, grande iced vanilla latte, and he sat down at one of the hard wooden chairs, interlocked his fingers, dropped his head and closed his eyes. About two minutes later he raised his head, took a sip of his and my favorite coffee drink, and began reading his bible. I decided to do the same. I spent the next 45 minutes in prayer as I read through the gospel of John.

I have recently been feeling down about life in general; I tend to get frustrated by how slowly I see results. I'm one of those people that wants to see them right away, NOW! But as I sat alone in a crowded Starbucks I simply felt the goodness of Jesus. It was refreshing to read about His love for us and how He came so that we would have an abundant life. In that crowded Starbucks I simply relaxed and put my burdens on Jesus. And it was a wonderful feeling.

I've decided that I need more times throughout the week where I escape reality, just for a bit, and do some praying and bible reading. I've committed to Christ to write our my prayers for the rest of this month. My goal in all of this is to stay more connected to Christ. I'll let you know how its been going at the end of the month.

Question, when was the last time you got back to the basics of bible reading and prayer? How can you change it up in order to make the basics, so exciting again?

Camp Updates

This years summer camp was amazingly powerful. Aside from having the most fun I've had in months God was moving in the students of PULSE. Because so much goes on in a week at camp it is impossible to share with you all that took place. So below are simply a few highlights of what I saw taking place during our week at Lake View.

We had a couple students who have been addicted cigarettes go the whole week of camp without smoking and even feeling like they needed to. As they week went on they got stronger and stronger and by the end of camp they committed to no longer smoking and quit cold turkey.

We also had two people put their faith in Jesus Christ this week. They had been struggling with God and Christianity, they weren't sure if it was real or if it was simple a crutch for others to lean on. Throughout the week they encountered God is a way that they have never done before and are convinced that Jesus is real because they personally "experienced God's love."

Those are just two big highlights that stuck out from our week up at camp. I also saw our students open up with each other, sharing their stories, struggles and victories with each other and encouraging each other to move closer to God. This past week at camp was an answer to the many many prayers of the high school staff. It was a blessing for everyone.

*There are more pictures on our facebook page. Click the link to check them out!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Palm-Desert-CA/PULSE-STUDENT-MINISTRIES/128640680508138?ref=ts

When "The Good News" is viewed as bad news.

The simple message of the gospel is this,
JESUS LOVES YOU.

Somewhere along the way we've changed the simple message to Jesus Loves You if you're good. But before you can feel the love of Jesus you need to make sure your life is in order. This is bad news. Then we add to scripture by saying Jesus loves you only if you don't get drunk, sleep around, cuss like a sailor, and smoke anything that grows out of the ground. You need to get your life in order and then Jesus will "really" love you.

I was reminded this week of how powerful this simple message is - just as long as we keep it simple. There is a verse in scripture that says, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Meaning, while life is still a wreck, while we're stuck in addictions, when we're angry, full of lust, high on whatever our current drug of choice is, Jesus loves me...

A mentor of mine once told me that there is nothing that I can do that will make God love me more than He already does. In-fact, God doesn't just love you, He's extremely found of you.

I've learned something powerful about this simple message. It brings hope. Because Jesus loves me I can conquer addictive sin, and be the person that God has created me to be.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

"Go to the Ant you SLUGGARD!"

The bible is filled with all sorts of weird phrases. Solomon is writing in proverbs about sloth, or laziness, and what to do about it. He calls the lazy person a sluggard and instructs the person to consider the ways of the ant. I love Solomon's tone in this passage. He's comparing a lazy person to an ant and saying that an ant is SUPERIOR! Kinda makes you feel like you're worthless for sitting around all day watching TV, and simultaneously checking your facebook/twitter accounts, playing games on your iphone, while neglecting your responsibilities. Oh, wait. Maybe all that stuff is worthless? (sorry, sometimes when i write i end up feeling convicted)

As I thought more and more about this I realized that there is a balance to this whole lazy sloth thing. Sidebar - does anyone ever use the word sloth anymore? I realized that laziness leads to neglect of responsibilities. On the flip-side a being a work-a-holic can lead one to neglect other responsibilities such as being a loving husband, and father, taking care of things around the house, playing with your kids (if you have them) and your relationship with Jesus.

So is there a balance? What about the age old disciple of Sabbath? Can we really slow down, cut out distractions and rest for one whole day? Where do we find the balance, when do we know when its time to stop, unplug, turn off the cellphone, rest and simply be with loved ones and Jesus Christ? These are the thoughts that we will be pursuing in our life groups.

life groups at PULSE

We've had two successful weeks so far with life groups! Its been great to split the group up and listen to them talk about life, family, scripture, Jesus, music, games and the latest in high school dating drama!

One lesson that I've learned so far (and is difficult for me) is to talk less and listen more. So much happens when people stop talking and start listening. Its powerful! After a great conversation with someone I can't help but walk away feeling, loved, cared for, respected, and the joy and confidence of knowing that I have friends who are there for me.

Which do you do more of: talking or listening? If you're anything like me you've missed some great opportunities to hear the stories of others. I'll finish with a verse that has been important to me.
"... Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry," James 1:19

Toy Story 3

First off, I absolutely loved this film. I thought it was brilliant. Seriously, its a great movie. I'm not saying that this is my favorite movie or that its on my top 10 list of all time favorites. Then again, it might be. Below are just a few reasons why I enjoyed this film.
1. Clever use of humor. The thing I enjoy the most about the Toy Story franchise (and Pixar for that matter) is that thier films have hilarious stuff in them. I really respect people who can tell clean jokes and use humor is a positive way. With all the dirty comedians who use the "F-word" like the word "the" and every other joke is about sex, its nice to laugh at something that is simply funny, and not degrading.

2. The Characters were bounded by love. A constant theme through the movie is family, brotherhood, and a sense that under no circumstances would they separate. They were in the adventure as a team, weak or strong, and they would live or die as a team.

3. There was a spiritual overtone throughout the film. The following is a quote from Donald Miller. "The Toys want to be reunited with their owner. Their owner loves them. Something has come between their owner and they are confused about whether their owner still loves them. It’s powerful stuff, and it’s relatable because it’s true."

I simply enjoyed a good movie that made me laugh, reflect a little bit on life, relate to the characters, and most importantly, it didn't make me cry!

1 last camp spot?

YES ITS TRUE THERE IS ONLY ONE LAST CAMP SPOT.

I will do my best to get more but it is never easy. Please do not wait until the last minute to turn in your money to save a camp spot. The time is now.

If you have any questions please contact me at the church office and I'll be happy to answer any questions of yours.

Whats a Vuvuzela?

By far the world's most annoying instrument,The Vuvuzela has given many soccer (football for you die hards) fans head aches, permanent hearing loss, and a hatred for any form of competition where a large crowd may gather. The vuvuzela has been the subject of controversy, with a sound pressure of 120 dB which is the threshold of pain, at one meter from the bell. In response to the controversy, a new model has a modified mouthpiece that reduces the volume by 20 dB.

In response to criticism of the horn's use, President of FIFA Sepp Blatter commented, "I have always said that Africa has a different rhythm, a different sound. I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country. Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"

On June 19, 2010 at a Major League Baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida, the first 15,000 fans were given miniature vuvuzelas as part of a promotion.

Personally I find the horn to be rather interesting. If I were to watch a soccer game and not hear the horn I would feel like my experience in somehow incomplete. Its like going to a baseball game and singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

I personally would like to see more vuvuzelas pop up more places where people gather. What would happen if we brought them into our staff meetings, company picnics, town hall meetings, and our places of worship? What if instead of clapping after a worship song when the worship leader says, "lets give Him some praise" we all took out our vuvuzelas and played those as loud as we could? I for one am totally into the idea!

An Interesting Chapter

I was reading a chapter from Mark Driscoll's book, Vintage Jesus and I thought I'd post a blog asking for your feedback. Here is the premise of the chapter. Jesus came to earth and revealed himself to us in each of these three ways; prophet, priest, and king. "As prophet, Jesus confronts us and calls us to repentance of sin. As priest, Jesus comforts us and comes to us to save us from sin and enable new life. As king, Jesus commands us to relinquish authority of our life so that every facet of our life is under constant sanctifying transformation." Below are general statements about these categories taken from his book.

1. Prophet + King - Priest = Jesus of Fundamentalism. Its weakness is that Jesus is cold, distant, stern, harsh and even cruel. This lacks the peace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins.

2. Prophet + Priest - King = Jesus of Evangelicalism. Its weakness is that people call Jesus Lord, call his Word true, and then do whatever they want in their "personal life" (including sin) because they are king, not Jesus.

3. Priest + King - Prophet = Jesus of Liberalism. Its weakness is that Jesus is seen as someone who would never offend us, raise his voice, hurt our feelings, speak harshly, or command individuals to repent with a sense of urgency.

My question is, which one of these three categories do you find yourself in? Personally I find myself in the second category. Sadly, I love to do things my way. Whenever I come across a difficult passage in scripture such as the sermon on the mount, I tend to flip right on by thinking that someday when I'm really "holy" and a "great Christian" I'll be able to live a certain way. So, where do you stand?

Prayer Night

Tonight is the 3rd night of our series, "Taking Responsibility For Your Life" and light bulbs beginning to flicker inside the minds of our students. Tonight's focus is on prayer. If you're a Christian, you have a responsibility to pray.

Many of our students struggle with prayer. They feel like they are talking to themselves or a wall. Daydreaming and loss of focus is another common experience they face. They also ask the question, "If God knows everything, including my thoughts, then why do I have to pray"? My favorite response is a simple one. We pray because Jesus prayed.

While I struggle with prayer in some of the same ways our students do in prayer I have been able to grow largely because of two great books. Bill Hybels book, Too Busy Not To Pray, and Philip Yancey's book, Prayer: Does it make any difference? I simply want to pass these to books off to you and hope they will help you with prayer and connecting with God.

My prayer is that our youth group will be one that takes responsibility for their lives and prays boldly!

Part 2 or Solutions

I realized that this entry really needed to have two sections to it. I didn't like how ending made me feel. I felt kinda bummed so I wanted to end on a happier note. You tell me if this works.


Random thoughts on change, adventure, and risk:
1. Take a day off of work. Somewhere in the middle of the week, preferably when it makes absolutely no sense. Have a blast! Realize that life will still go on without you, people will still go to work, come up with creative solutions to problems, and life will go on without you. In my profession this means realizing that God will do amazing things in the lives of people without me.

2. Add risk and adventure to your weight loss diet. nothing adds a challenge to weight loss like starting your morning off with 4 pieces of bacon, two donuts for a late morning snack, and a slice of cheesecake for desert. This may seem counter productive at first but relax, belch, then focus on your workouts because you need to maximize them never before!

3. Sometimes the Christian life is boring. It just is. I really believe that is our own fault and not God's. Jesus didn't say, "Hey, come follow me and I'll lead you to the most boring, insignificant life filled with lame rituals that will cause others to make you feel guilty for completing them." If this is your mindset, I'd encourage you to change. Here are a few suggestions. Pray boldly for big things to happen! Seriously, try it, see what happens. Try a different spiritual disciple, one that will stretch you. Some might include, fasting for a weekend, memorizing whole chapters or even books of the bible, taking a Wednesday off of work just to sit in silence with God. Experience what it like to be homeless for a night. If you really want to try something different, try living like Jesus for a week. Talk to the people he talked to (prostitutes, tax collectors, hungry, sick and the outcasts of society).

4. Revert back to childhood. Build a tree-house. What's that, no tree? Plant a giant tree so that you can build a tree-house. Make forts in your backyard or in the mud. Camp outside in your backyard. Make popcorn and soda and stay up all night watching your favorite movies on VHS. Get up early to watch the sunrise. Climb something tall. Anything, your house, a building, the local movie theater. It really doesn't matter.

Lastly, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! be daring, make people question your sanity and then invite them to go along with you for the ride!

Please leave comments with your own suggestions on how to add adventure to your life.

apathy, motivation and drive, or, blah, blah, blah

There are moments in life when you lose your passion; passion at work, passion for personal development and hobbies, and even passion for the Lord. Why do we lose passion? Why do we burnout, get frustrated, and even… tired?

I certainly don’t know all the answers or cures for this endeavor (or should I say “apathy”?). Experts will tell you to get more sleep, eat fruits and veggies, exercise at least 20 minutes a day, and be around people that challenge and motivate you (ever wonder who challenges and motivates the people motivate you? Or better yet, who motivates the person who motivates and the person that motivates you?).

Although these things may help in the process I don’t believe them to be the cure-all answer for most things in life. The symptom that ill’s me is boredom. The cure, well I’ll get to that in a second. My work environment has gone stale. My hobbies are no longer challenging or exciting. I’ve developed a routine, one that has become predictable, boring, and free of risk! This includes my relationship with Christ. Sometimes I get into a boring routine, which for me, is always a recipe for apathy. My life story is empty of adventure. It lacks rising and falling action, which is the key ingredient for any good storyline. The cure for apathy and meaningless routine is… CHANGE! I need change in my life so I can stay of my toes, challenged, energized, even refreshed.Change brings adventure, adventure brings risk and risk ultimately brings out the passion inside of us. Passion in life helps us to conquer, to overcome, to be victorious in life no matter how big the risk. This is the cure for apathy, boring routine, and lifelessness.

But do I need to drastically make changes or will small ones do?

Where do I start first?

Does it matter where I start?

In what ways have you brought positive change to your life?

Thursday Night Lesson

An important lesson to learn early in life is one of personal responsibility. For the next three weeks our Thursday night teaching series will be grounded in responsibility. This week we are focusing on the principle, you reap what you sow. This principle fits perfectly into our overall theme of personal responsibility.

I was never good at speaking Spanish, let alone understanding it. I struggled through it for the first month of my freshmen year until I decided to take advantage of a good friend of mine. He was Mexican and spoke Spanish fluently at home. So we made a little agreement and he allowed me to copy off his tests for the rest of the year. I passed Spanish 1 with a B+. Not too bad if I do say so myself. The following year Spanish 2 came around and we were going to renew our agreement from the following year. I would copy his work and pass the class. However, there was a breakdown in the plan. He ended up taking Spanish 2 over the summer because he wanted to take auto-shop during the normal school year. Because of his choice (notice I put the blame on him) I now had to fight my way through Spanish 2 learning the basics that I was supposed to have already known while keeping up with the more advanced teachings of my Spanish 2 class. Never has the principle you reap what you sow hit closer to home then my first two years of Spanish class.

I ended up passing the class with a C- thanks to some extra credit reports and a website called freetranslator.com (which it turns out does a horrible job of translating English to Spanish). The website barely helped with my homework. I was able to understand the big picture but not all of the details. Example: I understood that I need to give directions on how to get to the library but I had no idea how to give directions. There was no way I could explain to him that the library was on the other side of town, he needed to take the gray taxi, which cost 5 dollars (cinco pesos?), and cross the street to the left.

If high school students understand that in life we reap what we sow apply it to their life it will be amazing to see what they have accomplished ten years from now. What have you been sowing? Are you scared or excited of what you will be reaping?

The important things in life

For those of you who follow my blog you are well aware that I focus on the serious and important issues in life. I ran across this video and it has helped me out in many social interactions. I hope it will be useful to you as well.

Faith and Doubt

This Thursday's message is dedicated to a student named Chris. His honesty and desire to know Jesus is contagious and inspiring. One night, while we were in the mountains for winter camp, he asked the question, "How do you know God is real"? from that point on I've been challenged to give him an answer that is helpful and honest both biblically and from my own experience.

While studying I searched through the scriptures to see if there were examples of people who doubted the existence of God and the words of Jesus. I was very encouraged. I hope you will be too.

1) John the Baptist: His ministry was dedicated to preparing the way for Jesus. His message was simple; Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. He told everyone that the savior was coming. Fast-forward a bit to Luke 7:20 we read that John the Baptist, now in prison, sent some messengers to Jesus to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" He didn't know!!! He doubted. He wasn't sure that Jesus was really the one! I love that. As a pastor who points people to Jesus sometimes I find myself praying, are you really the one? because I was sort of expecting something a little different to happen...

2) Peter in prison: Acts 12 tells the story of Peter in prison while in Rome and how people from his church gather to pray for his release. Peter has the same prayer and then an angel appears to bring him out of prison and he thinks its a silly dream. Well he ends up at the house where the people had been praying and a servant girl answers the door and is so shocked that he arrived she leaves him outside and runs to tell the others. The others don't believe her as well and Peter is left outside standing at the door! Eventually Peter enters the house and the Bible says everyone was amazed to see him.
They prayed for his release and when it happened, they didn't believe it. I've had so many prayers like this one.

3) The Resurrection of Jesus: When the girls arrive at the disciples house after looking at the empty tomb they tell everyone that Jesus is no longer there. He has risen. And the disciples don't believe them. They have to see it for themselves. These are the guys that walked with Jesus and listened to all he had to say. Jesus told them this would happen and they didn't believe it when it finally did.

Throughout my study this week I have been encouraged by the fact that those who were close to God still had their doubts. My prayer for the students in our ministry is that they would remain faithful to following Christ even though they occasionally have their doubts.

Stuff Christians Like

I had two minutes to skim this book while in Barnes and Noble. I'm so excited to read it. I've grown up in the church and can say that I'm guilty of about 90% of these. I'll provide a list of some of my favorites below. I think the idea of "Stuff Christians Like" is brilliant. It reminds to me laugh at myself and reflect on why I'm really doing, saying, or acting a certain way. I love it. I'm going to pick up the book in a couple of weeks and I'm excited to do a book review! Check out a list of my favorites below. How many do you identify with?

#1. Putting a God spin on popular secular ideas.
#23. Tattoos for God
#34. Subtly finding out if you drink beer too.
#55. Getting a precise definition of virgin from your youth minister.
#71. Calling things “postmodern”
#80. Fixing things with “mo prayer.”
#96. Using God’s Favorite Word
#105. Wishing your testimony was more exciting
#106. The Side Hug
#121. Thinking God’s call will be long and detailed
#115. Kissing Dating Goodbye
#154. Breaking up after a retreat
#157. Testamints – Sending bad breath to hell
#188. Judging someone’s faith based on their Bible underlining.
#202. Thinking Vegas is slightly worse than hell
#231. Drinking Coffee in church.
#232. The magical power of denim
#252 Youth leader that makes everyone cry during games with his over competitiveness.

A Jesus Moment In A Restaurant

I was sitting in my booth and I overheard a conversation between two women. They have not seen each other in about six months and decided to meet up in the desert to have a "girls weekend." They sat down and began updating each other on everything that has been going on. As I listened in I realized that updating each other on life really means complaining about everything. Here is what I mean...

One women began talking about how her husband continually screws everything up around the house. She joked that he's a horrible husband and she she only stays with him because he brings home a lot of money which she can spend when she goes shopping with her friend. The other women jumped in with annoying habits that her co-worker has. They seemed to have found common ground about work because they hated what they did, hated the people they worked with because they were idiots, and hated the paycheck they received from it. They then started to complain about how Obama has screwed up the economy and how their 401k has taken a hit, and on and on and on they went.

I realized that I spent my whole lunch break listening in on their conversation and they complained the whole time. Then I had my Jesus moment. Ephesians 4:9 popped into my head - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

I began to reflect on my life and realized that I too, can complain with the best of them. I have tried to take this week and be thankful for what the Lord has provided for me and my wife. We both have jobs, a paycheck, good health and friends. Is everything perfect? Of course not! But I have seriously tried not to be apart of conversations where people complain about other people. Having conversations that build people and benefit others who listen in is a difficult task. But, it is a necessary one. And for the times I find myself wanting to complain about someone, I have found that I better having actually talked to the person who frustrates me. This seems to talk care of the issue and we both benefit.

Complaining is a very easy thing to slide into. I wonder what goes through the mind of non-Christians when they know we're supposed to love our neighbor but all they hear us talk about is how inept they are and how we can't stand them.

Back to Basics

My dad didn't care much for basketball, but he loved legendary coach, John Wooden. He would always tell me stories of how successful he was as a coach and try to explain to me John's coaching principles. One of the stories my dad liked to tell was at the beginning of each season coach would sit down with his players and teach them the basics. He would walk out on to the field and explain to everyone on the team what a gym sock was and how to properly put it on your feet. John always said that if you don't put your socks on correctly you'll get blisters and you won't perform at your best. He would then go on to explain what a basketball was, how to properly lace your shoes, wear your uniform and then explain the rules of the game. He did this at the beginning of every season. Personally I thought this was a bit much and if I were a senior I'd get really frustrated with the first month of practice!

Another story that my dad liked to tell is how the coach new the strengths and weaknesses of every player. He know the personalities of everyone on his team. He knew that the best way to motivate one player was not necessarily the best way to encourage another player. He would scream and yell at some players and quietly walk over to another player and put his arm around him and give him a little pep talk. Growing up I thought this was unfair because I was probably the player getting yelled at and would get frustrated to watch another player screw up and not get yelled at. It just didn't make any sense to me.

I never really understood the importance of these principles until I began ministry. There are moments in ministry where you need to take a step back and start from the ground up. I love taking a Sunday morning to pause, hold my Bible up in the air and tell students, "This, is a Bible! there are rules and principles in here on how to live life. There are stories in here that will help you know who God is. And if you follow what is in here you will truly be living life, not just getting by." I once heard a story of a pastor who was always accused of not going "deep" enough in his sermons. He always talked about God and loving your neighbor. His response was brilliant. he said, "Every time we gather as a church I will teach about loving God and loving people, once we master that, we can move on to something "deeper." He was teaching the basics. Come to think of it, Jesus seemed to always be teaching basics.

I also learned from coach Wooden the importance of knowing your students. Every teenager that steps into our ministry has a different background and brings with them their own baggage. Teenagers don't respond the same as their peers do. So, conversations, teaching and discipleship must be done differently for every student.

As our ministry continues to grow I am making a conscience decision to always go back to the basics of sin, Jesus, and love. I'm taking time to learn more about my students and how to appropriately respond to them. And once we have mastered the basics of loving God and loving people we will move on to the other stuff.

Reflections of winter camp

Instead of telling all the amazing stories that happened up at winter camp I've decided to do bullet points of all the high lights. For all the details of the story ask your kids!

The BEST memories and experiences at camp!
1. Watching our students truly enter into worshiping God.
2. The Piano Kitty.
3. Late night conversations in the cabins.
4. Being snowed on!
5. Feeling the burdens of sin lifted off everyone's shoulders as they embraced God's forgiveness.
6. JUNK FOOD!
7. Not having to preach and run the weekend retreat!
8. The worship leader sounded like Eddie Vedder meets Scott Stapp. It was magical!
9. Piano Kitty.
10. Seeing old friends and developing deeper relationships with my students.
*BONUS*
11. Witnessing the spiritual growth and relational change in everyone from PULSE. Our youth group is turning into a family. Its exciting and encouraging.

Best Sex EVER Questions

I've just posted questions for parents to ask their high school students. It's my hope that these questions will be a starting point for a healthy dialogue between you and your family. Sex is an extremely important and relevant conversation that more and more families need to have with their kids. Click the lessons link in the column on the right for a copy of them.

Less is more

In Deliberate Simplicity, author Dave Browning discusses the less is more theory. He says that it applies to everything they do at their church, Christ the King Community Church. They focus solely on three things,

worship
small groups
outreach.

That's it!
He claims that churches are trying to be all things to all people. And in doing so churches struggle to do even a few ministries well. This is because the people on staff are stretched too thin, often working in ministries that they were not hired to work in, and because they are in charge of multiple ministries they find themselves working in areas where they simply are not talented in. This of course leads to burnout. Dave brings the discussion full circle by saying the church should focus on a few things they can do well, focusing on effectiveness rather than business.

I agree with most everything Dave writes about so far in his book. There are only a couple areas that I struggle with. Let me know what you think of them.

1. He suggests that church doctrine be minimal. Keep major things major and minor things minor. My question is, who decides what is major and what is minor? And how does one come to that conclusion? I think doctrine is important. My fear with a simple doctrine is that major things in scripture and slip and become minor.

2. He also explains that when people commit to God and to a church that it should be simple and fit conveniently in their life. I agree that church should not be over bearing. I have been part of churches that required so much of you it consumed your life and other ares of life, friends, family, hobbies, free-time, and vocation suffered. I think there is a fine balance between church being over complicated and over bearing and not requiring any sacrifice at all. Following Jesus has never conveniently fit into my life plan. There is sacrifice involved in living the Christian life. Church should be part of that. It should not be over whelming though. Practically I believe this looks different for every follower.

What do you think? What are the pros and cons of a deliberately simple church? Where does Desert Springs Church fit into all of this? How can we as a church improve?

life, sex and love

“A magazine poll of teenagers in 59 countries found that 99 percent of the American teenagers surveyed cited sex as the most important issue facing today’s youth.”
“According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control among high school students in the United States, 47 percent have had sexual intercourse before graduating. The good news is that this figure has declined steadily since 1991, when 54 percent of students admitted to having sexual intercourse.”

Culture expert, Walt Mueller goes on to explain that most experts and culture watchers indicate there is little attitudinal and behavior differences between Christian teenagers and their non-Christian peers.

Chap Clark strongly believes high school students are engaging in more and more sexual activity because they are trying to fill a void in their life. He says that teens have been systematically abandoned by adults, adult programs, adult agendas and the adult world. This no doubt leads to loneliness and a feeling of being ostracized by society. Reaching out sexually to peers is a temporary "love" fix. Much like a drug, high school students (even fourth and fifth graders) engage in sexual acts because for a moment they feel loved and accepted for who they are.

For the month of February Pulse will begin a new teaching series, Best Sex Ever! This four week series is based entirely on God’s Word and will address many of the common struggles teens have with sex, life, and love. Please continue to pray for our students.

Pat Robertson comments

The Christians world has been under fire due to the comments that were made by Pat Robertson. I found a brief video of his comments on youtube.
Pat Robertson video

I'm curious what your thoughts are in regards to his words. I've been reading a few other articles from other well known Christians and ran across a response from Donald Miller. I like what he had to say and feel that he responded humbly and with love. Your thoughts?
Don Miller responds

Spiritual "To Do" Lists

1. Pray
2. Read Bible
3. Memorize important verses.
4. Confess Sins
4a. Confess that I don't pray enough or read my bible.
4b. Confess that I don't memorize scripture or confess sin enough.
5. Tell others about Jesus.
6. Give more money away... To anyone or anything that sounds like Jesus would support.
7. Decide to fast from T.V., fried food and desserts, and other evils of the world.
8. Confess that there is no way I can fast from fried food and desserts, T.V., and other things that I'm mildly addicted to.
9. Explain to Jesus that I really want to be more like Him but I don't have the time to fit everything in.
10. Get a good nights sleep so I can fail at being a super Christian again tomorrow.

I've been reading "The Naked GOSPEL and Andrew Farley has been explaining that Christ has fulfilled the law and we are no longer under it. He explains that while we are no longer under the law, Christians tend to make up their own laws in order to be "better" Christians. This is often a failed attempt to feel closer to Christ. This is especially significant for teenagers.

Teens are looking for a magical formula for spiritual success. A simple "To Do" list or a 5 Easy Steps program that guarantees happiness and satisfaction knowing you are doing everything Jesus wants you to do. The problem is that life doesn't work that way. High school students spend the majority of their time being graded and rewarded on how they perform. They are often told to do more, work harder, and get more accomplished in a shorter and shorter amount of time. This outlook on life and spirituality is a failed one.

High school students know how to do all the good Christian things Jesus would want them to but have no idea how to spend time with Him. They struggle to connect with Him and talk to Him. Resting in Christ is an oxymoron due to the fact that they have been raised in a culture that values hard work and results, which is the opposite of rest. Since when did being with Christ become so foreign and difficult for Christians?

As parents, teachers, and youth workers how can we help students engage with Jesus and shorten their guilt motivated Christian "To Do" List?

The Bible O.T. Style

I had no idea what the Old Testament was about when I entered high school. Come to think of it I didn't really know much about it when I graduated. I knew that God got angry and had many people killed by a flood, had a guy swallowed by a fish, created ten commandments that seem impossible to follow, and allowed his chosen people to kill other nations only to turn around and have those nations start killing them. Special attention was paid to a building which housed an ark, a tabernacle (which I thought was a well known choir) and only one guy was allowed to stand in the presence of God. How come God's chosen people couldn't be in His presence? Shouldn't it be called God's chosen person? Anyway, apparently God's chosen people were separated from the mother land (or was it the promise land) and then hundreds of years later Jesus appears. Its all too confusing,

Pulse's new Sunday morning series is a survey of the Old Testament. Throughout the next few months students will study important events and key themes throughout the Old Testament Scriptures in order to better understand God, the significance of Jesus Christ, and to understand the Biblical story as a whole.

Can you explain the Biblical story to your son or daughter from Genesis to Revelation? How about simply Genesis - Exodus?