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Retro Post #2: A Youth Pastor Goes to Comic-Con

This Post originally appeared July 29, 2008

Over the last couple of days I have been getting my thoughts together about my day at San Diego Comic-Con. Comic-Con is the largest pop-culture,super-hero, fantasy, gaming, comics, freak-show extravaganza in the USA. This year I believe it attracted over 175,000 people. All of the major movie studios, video game companies, comic companies and basically anyone who creates media in America use this as a platform to push their product. It is unbelievable.

If you have never been to this event, you should go at least once in your life if just to people watch. As I walked around on the last day of the convention I continued to ask myself, "Who is going to reach these people for Jesus, and more importantly how?" Now, I'm not talking about people like me who are just fans of a lot of this stuff, but about the people who LIVE for this stuff. The people deeply immersed in this world of make believe and fantasy. How do you get to them with the gospel? I don't think the traditional church is going to quite do it. Do you think wolverine guy at the top of this post would relate to that? I don't know the answer to this question maybe you do and I would love to hear it.

I can comment on some of the things I saw there, things that the church needs to plug into to reach teens, kids and adults who are living in this world.

Passion- People at Comic-Con are passionate about what they are into. Passionate enough to spend hours and hundreds of dollars making their own costumes. Many even dress up their little babies! They drop some major bank on merchandise and collectors items and will wait in line forever to catch the latest buzz about a new movie or a game. It is a yearly "religious" pilgrimage and their level of commitment is amazing. They prepare all year for this, and this event is just an extension of who they are the rest of the year. Are we this passionate about our faith, Jesus and the church?

Community- You can write some of these people off as socially awkward (you might be right) but I can tell you that I felt a genuine sense of community and friendliness amongst most of these people. They spoke a common language, they shared heroes, there were smiles everywhere and people seemed very genuine. If you asked a question about a particular movie or comic someone always jumped in and answered you and tried to help. It was refreshing. Maybe these people aren't afraid to be themselves with each other? Do we share these things as a church?

Imagination- The creativity was amazing and not just from the media makers but from the crowd. From art, to film, graphics, design, costumes, figures, and fantastical worlds it is a tribute to the creative spirit. Do we make our teaching creative? Do we give students chances to be creative?

Hunger for Story & Heroes- People are dying for good stories. For new worlds full of risk, adventure, courage, redemption, struggle and victory. They look for heroes they can connect with, heroes who inspire them to be better than they are. People want compelling narratives, and larger than life heroes. This is where we have failed so miserably as a church but where we have so much potential. We follow the ultimate hero and have such a great story to tell, one that can be told in so many creative ways.

Emptiness and Loneliness- As I walked around I couldn't help hearing and seeing people that had in many ways failed relationally or socially in this world and so were drawn to fantasy worlds where they could be someone else or live vicariously through a character. This is not unique to the "nerds", for there are plenty of popular people at a bar somewhere doing the same thing through alcohol instead of star wars, or another "hook-up" instead of another comic book. It is all the same song, just a different tune. There is a deep pit of loneliness in our culture, of emptiness brought on by losing ourselves in things that will never truly quench our thirst. Does the church offer significance? Significance for the here and now not just salvation for someday? I wonder.

Maybe the geeks have something to teach! Listen up church.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Jonah and A Big Boat

I just wrapped up a preaching series called The Runaway: Story of a man named Jonah. I love the story of Jonah but it is definately not a kids story, which many have sadly turned it into. If you read through the book you realize that Jonah's attitude is horrible throughout the entire story. Count how many times he says he wants to die, it is ridiculous!

In Chapter four of Jonah he goes outside the city and sits and waits to see if God will destroy the city. He is hopeful God will wipe out the Ninevites. While he is waiting, God causes a plant to grow to give Jonah shade against the hot middle eastern sun. Yet during the night God causes the plant to wither and during the day sends a hot east wind to blow into Jonah's world.

Jonah is furious, so furious that of course HE WANTS TO DIE! He doesn't care about what is happening in Ninevah, he just cares about his own comfort. He is complaining because his little "Destruction of Ninevah" one man party isn't comfortable enough.

Jonah has totally lost perspective! People in Ninevah have been spared. Jonah is mad because he is too hot????

Reminds me of a story I read about a Carnival Cruise that went bad a few years ago.

The ship with nearly 5,000 people on board became stranded off of the coast of California and it took 3 days to tow it back to San Diego. Once the regular food ran out Spam, pop-tarts and crab meat was airlifted in.

The worst hardships people had to endure were brushing their teeth with bottled water, showering in the dark, and waiting in line for food. Not too bad. I spent malmost 19 years as a youth pastor doing all those on a regular basis. Ha, Ha.

If you listened to the interviews passengers gave when they arrived at port you would have thought they were on a ship, filled with zombies, that had struck an iceberg and the band was on the deck playing “stairway to heaven” as the ship was going down!

All the passengers also knew Carnival was going to reimburse them for that cruise, all travel costs getting to and from the ship, nullified all expenses they had incurred on ship before fire, including casino losses and gift shop purchases. Free Hotel rooms and food if they wanted to stay a week in San Diego and give them an additional cruise on top of all that!!!

Ryan Harlan a little kid was interviewed and he said, “A lot of things went wrong, but it was really fun and I made some new friends.”

I don't know about you but I think I would have taken the small inconveniances, and all those perks, even the SPAM.

I hope I would have had the same PERSPECTIVE as Ryan Harlan instead of that boat full of Jonahs!

 

The Death of the Ragamuffin

 

Many writers have affected my walk with Jesus over the last twenty three years, not many more profoundly then Brennan Manning. I picked up the book The Ragamuffin Gospel as a young pastor and Christian and it helped me in so many ways move away from the legalism and self-righteousness that still lived in corners of my heart. Those pesky things had been a part of the Christianity that I grew up with (not from my family) and I saw them practiced by some in my church community. Brennan's words helped dry up those dirty pools.

 Manning died on April 12 and an amazing voice both in preaching and print went silent. His death was mostly ignored even in Christian culture, which was surprising. If you haven't exposed your heart to Brennan Manning I hope that you will pick up one of his numerous books or listen to some of his teachings online. I think you will find that God speaks to you through Brennan reminding you that you are God's child, deeply loved even in the midst of being deeply flawed. You will discover a Jesus, maybe for the first time, who has pursued you for your entire life. You will find in Brennan's writings over and over again the God of the broken, the wounded, the seeekers, and the lost.

Some Brennan Manning Quotes:

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” 

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” 

“I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy Mystery. ” 

“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian.” 

The following video was made to promote Brennan's last book All Is Grace. It shows Brennan in his last days and a look back on his life.

 

 

A Most Rare Thing

 

In this day and age one of the most rare things in our culture is deep freindships, it is a commodity in recession. Every statistic shows that friendships (not Facebook ones) are hard to find and even harder to maintain.

Here are some stats:

-Average American have 2 close friends down from 3 twenty five years ago

-25% have no one to confide in

-80% only talk to family

-Having friends over to your house is down 45%

Pastor Marc Driscoll writes this about his neighborhood and the difficulty of finding friends there:

And what I see in my neighborhood, it’s weird. Every time somebody puts their house up for sale, all of the neighbors go to the open house. They have no intention of buying the home. They’ve just never been in the home and they’re curious. So, they just go to the open house.

We actually opened our home and did a party a few years ago. We invited all the neighbors and they were totally freaked out. I had people ask me, “Why? Why do you want me to come over?” Like, “I’m gonna kill you, and eat you, and put part of you in the fridge.” I had one guy, “Like, are you a Jehovah’s witness?” I’m like, “No.”

Another guy, “Do you sell Amway?” I’m like, “No, I don’t sell Amway.”

“Just shut up and come over or don’t.”  They were like “You wanna talk to me. Why? What did I do?” “You didn’t do anything. You can come over to my house. I’ll give you chicken wings and we could be friends, maybe.”

There is nothing more valuable than friends. I have found that out this year. I have felt the pain of broken friendships and enjoyed the comfort and love of friends who cared for me more than I knew. I have also discovered new friends in the fray of life, some from the most unexpected places. I encourage you to invest in your friendships, treasure them and seek to be the type of friend that you want to have.

"Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?" 
C. S. Lewis

 

Guinness & The Gospel

So in the category of I bet you didn't know this! Check out this little excerpt from the book The Search for God and Guinness

"Arthur Guinness was a great man of faith. Born on the estate of an Archbishop and raised a loyal son of the Irish church, Arthur lived by the words that were his personal motto: Spes Mea in Deo -- "My Hope is in God." He was deeply inspired by the revivalist John Wesley to use his wealth and talents to make the world better. Taking scripture as his guide, Arthur served the needy of his time and worked to use his gifts in honor of his God. One favorite project of his that seems confirmation of both the purity of his faith and his concern for social good: Guinness was the founder of the first Sunday Schools in Ireland.

Much of the great 250-year history of Guinness beer is a story in which wealth is gained through faith-inspired excellence and then used to serve others for the glory of God. This is what Arthur Guinness founded and this is the legacy that Guinness beer still symbolizes to this day."

As they say in Lord of the Rings. "They come in Pints!"

Returning to The Pub

I started the Jester's Pub back on July 31, 2005. That is nearly 8 years ago. How life has changed. I had no children when I began this blog, I lived in Tampa Florida and I had only been married for a little over three years. I started this blog (many people didn't even know what that was in 2005) to have a forum to talk about ministry, life and culture. To share things that insterested me, perplexed me, inspired me and hopefully through words I could add a little bit of value to someone's day, life or ministry.

It was to also capture in someway what I had experienced for years in a little bar in Ambridge called Rooks. It was there that I gathered weekly with a group of other pastors for drinks, wings, a hearty steak salad (with extra cheese), great discussions and a whole lot of laughter. It was a gathering of a group of "misfit toys", people who were simply "fools" or Jesters if you will for Christ. It was a refuge from the busy, often demanding life in ministry. I miss those days. Marriage came, Kids came, people moved away and that group disbanded. Mind you not from being friends, but from that weekly meeting. I guess that is just how life is. Nothing lasts forever.

If you know me, you also know that the last eight months have been beyond painful. Without going into detail it has been devestating on all fronts both personally, relationally and professionally. This time has made me question everything I believe in and my calling, strained some friendships, saw lies and exaggerations turned into truth, had people judge me and abandon me without knowing the facts, and I've tearfully asked "Where are you God?" in the midst of pain over and over again. There have also been amazing people who have loved me, prayed with me and spoke truth and sought reconciliaton.

I am still holding out hope on many fronts and will not give up on my family especially on my three children and their greatest wish which is an intact family. Honestly, I don't know who will read this and if you read this and your a person who has some "problem" with me or you think you know my story I challenge you to realize first and foremost I am just a person like you who needs grace and mercy. I have made tons of mistakes im life, mistakes that are not I'm sure unlike yours. I would also challenge you to talk to me directly instead of listening to someone else talk about me. Isn't that Biblically what you should do? Isn't that what you would want from me? If your a Christian shouldn't you always seek the truth and reconciliation? I have heard hundreds of people's stories over the last 23 years of ministry, and in all that time I never judged I only sought to help and share the grace of Jesus no matter what was going on in their lives. I will do that for you and I hope you will return the same.

The purpose of this blog hasn't changed. It will still be a place to share thoughts on life, culture, ministry and complete randomness. I like random. I am sure at times it will be deeper and darker than it ever was before. When you are in the season that I am in, it is unavoidable. My hope is in those momentts I can somehow walk alongside you and you with me through life that is often filled with pain and disillusionment. I have avoided writing much of anything in any forum for the last eight months because the pain was just too great. I am hoping that this blog in some way will be part of the healing. I am still addicted to the idea of REDEMPTION.

The last post I wrote was on August 16, 2010. It was simply a quote from Henri Nouwen. I repost it now to open the doors to the Jester's Pub once again.

“At the core of my faith belongs the conviction that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. And one of the enormous spiritual tasks we have is to claim that and to live a life based on that knowledge. And that’s not very easy. In fact most of us fail constantly to claim the truth of who we are.” – Henri Nouwen

Where Orphans Dance

So I have decided to return to blogging after a seven month absence. For all those who read this blog faithfully and wondered where I went, I apologize. I have no good answer why I stopped, I just did. My recent trip to Haiti was what "shook" me back to a place where I feel like I have something to say.

Last week I joined a group of people from all over the United States for a week in Port-Au-Prince with the mission organization AIM (Adventures in Mission). I have been on many mission trips over the years (maybe with you) to Mexico and inner city and rural areas in the USA but this one was different in many ways. It not only shocked me but inspired me in new ways.

It would be easy to spend this blog post talking about the devastation that I saw in Haiti, there was plenty of it even six months after the quake. I could talk about the poverty, the deep poverty I saw, poverty unlike I have seen and smelt before. It is tangible and in your face in Haiti. Those were two very poignant realities in your vision each moment in Haiti.

But what I want to talk about is DANCING. Sound strange? Let me explain. One of the days on our trip we stopped by an orphanage that housed over 100 orphans, it is called Sons of God orphanage. These are children who not only survived a quake, survive poverty daily but also survive without parents. It would be hard to imagine people with harder lives than these children. Children living in a impoverished, devastated city and doing it all without parental or family support.

Our team went there to simply see the ministry and watch another team that was there. Well it is impossible to just watch! Our team jumped in by holding kids, taking pictures with them, coloring with them and whatever else. 

For some reason I found myself sitting back and just watching, watching with wonder all that was going on around me. One of the things I saw was JOY. There were smiles, laughter and play here in the midst of what could be a place filled with sorrow.

Then a holy moment arrived.

The other team there started a circle game where they sing a song, clap and one person in the middle pulls another into the circle to dance. The picture above is one taken during this event. I was sitting on a bench outside the circle watching this scene of merriment. Old dancing with young, white with black, orphans with missionaries and Americans with Haitians, It was a beautiful joyful scene.

 It was a picture of God's Kingdom. My father who was on the trip even danced! (Now that is a miracle and God's sense of humor!)

Then it hit me, a beautiful thought, and it brought tears to my eyes. The thought was: "The Kingdom of God is where orphans dance."

Wherever the Kingdom of God is, there is DANCING, even amongst orphans, those with no family and 1,000 reasons to live in despair can find hope and a reason to dance. When Kingdom people enter into places of despair the response is DANCING! The Kingdom of God brings new life and renews all things and the response is dancing, laughter and joy.

The same is true for all of us who know Christ. The scripture assures us that we were once orphans, lost, alone and fatherless until He came and claimed us as his own. He adopted us. He gave us a home. He called our name. Gave us a new name, His name.

If you know that truth, when is the last time it caused you to DANCE?