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?