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This Beautiful Mess

                           

I Just began reading Rick McKinley's book This Beautiful Mess. Who is Rick Mickinley you ask? Well he is the pastor of Imago Dei Church in Portland, Oregon. It is the church where Donald Miller of Blue Like Jazz worships. I just loved this quote and thought it was appropriate for Christmas.

"You can study God expertly in His parts and miss Him entirely in His being. Sometimes I think today's evangelicals have dissected God, put Him in jars, labeled all His parts and then breathed a sigh of relief. Whew. Job done, they gasp. Now we have no more confusion about God. Now we have a God we can market. At least now we can be excruciatingly confident that "our team" is right.

Great quote. So I remind you this Christmas if you think you have figured God out, maybe you need to return to the mystery of the manger. Maybe you've sucked the mystery out of the truth. Yet, I believe God loves remaining mysterious and beyond our small minds. Maybe that makes you uncomfortable, maybe it's time to break some of your jars!

Merry Christmas!

Mark

What Needs to Go?

So here we are at the end of the year and I was just wondering as we move into 2007 what are the things going on in youth ministry that need to go bye, bye! You know sail off into the sunset. Now I know there are a fair amount of youth workers or former youth workers that read this blog so I am counting on you to chime in. I will give you a couple of mine to get the ball rolling.

1. The "We love Jesus, yes we do" chant. This happened @ Rock the Universe this year constantly with a bunch of youth groups waiting in line, it got really annoying.

2. Really bad Christian T-Shirts

3. Youth ministry strategies that say "Guaranteed to grow your group by 50%" or whatever ridiculous number.

So there are a couple I would love to hear yours!

No I Haven't Started Shopping Yet!

No I haven't started shopping yet and I think I know why. I am turned off by the whole Christmas presents thing. I think my discontent really started when people began lining up outside stores at 5am to get the latest and greatest stuff. In fact I have seen video of people stampeding over people to get to tickle me Elmo!!! Now maybe your a Black Friday person and believe me that's cool but just not for me. Christmas is just so over the top anymore that it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so I try to avoid the craziness and find some sanity. Like yesterday our staff went to Metro Ministries in downtown Tampa to serve in any way we could. I was kinda bummed that we got stuck in the clothing store straightening shelfs and honestly I felt like I didn't do very much but something cool happened, it was a moment of perspective. There was a guy who was looking for a warm coat (coats are hard to come by in Florida in a thrift store) and he was desperately in need of one and there just weren't any. Yet he was warm and engaging and friendly even though he had nothing. I bet you would probably find a different attitude at the mall as shoppers complain over designer clothes. Someone once said "We cry over spilt champagne.", how true! I have 3 or 4 coats in my closet at home just hanging there hardly ever used and God just spoke to me and reminded me to be content, thankful and grateful. It was into this poverty that the Son of God was born, entered and transformed. Material poverty like this man's and poverty of spirit like so many of us including me. He calls me to enter into others poverty whatever it might be. I felt His presence in this man's demeanor. It was a Christmas moment. What was cool was some coats came in a short time later and this guy was able to get one, praise God.

I am trying, really trying to keep Christ not only in my Christmas but keep a Kingdom perspective while living life in America with all of it's abundance and over indulgence. Maybe this Christmas instead of dropping tons of money on gifts think about giving something that could save a life. There are some sites below that I would recommend!

"The child, the child sleeping in the night, He will bring us goodness and light!"

Merry Christmas!

http://www.oneliferevolution.org/

http://www.bloodwatermission.com/

Did you think I was LOST!

I know I disappeared again! Maybe I'm on the show LOST. I seem to go thru phases with this whole blog thing and October through December was filled with YS stuff, RV retreats and vacation. So once again I say sorry. Speaking of LOST I thought I would rundown the TV Shows I am watching this Fall and you can chime in and tell me what you think or what you are watching. There is actually some good stuff on right now. So here we go by the day.

Monday

Tuesday

Friday Night Lights

This is a great new show, it is well written and shot well. It is about small town Texas football or should I say the "GOD" that HS Football has become. The cast of characters is great from the star crippled quarterback, the cheerleader, the fantastic under great pressure coach and his daughter who just happens to be falling for the back-up (now starter) quarterback and the angst filled alcoholic fullback. There have been some great portrayals of faith, sin and redemption in the show along with great family moments. So if you like a little teen angst with your football, you'll enjoy this show.

Wednesday

The first episode of this show was not good except for the mushroom cloud you see above but for some reason I stuck with it and it has been really good. There is alot of intrigue and maybe one of the best characters on TV, Hawkins. I am hooked because I want to know who dropped the bombs!

LOST

The show my wife won't watch because it scares her, go figure. I am still hooked on The Others, great characters, whatever is really happening, the numbers, why the sky got all funky  and those great stories of fallen people in need of redemption. I hope this show only stays on another year or two so it doesn't become another X-files. I do have this nagging feeling I am going to be disappointed in the end, I hope I am wrong!

Thursday

The Office

Is there a funnier show on TV, no way! Michael Scott is a human train wreck of neediness that vomits all over everybody but just as you can't stand him anymore the writers humanize him and make you want him to be ok. Dwight is the unbelievable, the new "big tuna" guy is really funny and of course there is Jim and Pam. Why can't this show be an hour!

Friday

Battlestar Galactica

The best show on TV and I ain't the only one saying it! I know what your thinking Battlestar? Well I thought the same thing. This show is incredible. Great characters, stories and a mythology that is deep and fascinating. This show also deals alot with God and who is the One True God. I'm hooked!

So there you have it....I can't wait until January for Jack Bauer to return!

See ya,

Mark