Simple Things

(www.http://tsn.ca/cfl/)
I am currently celebrating the Edmonton Eskimos' Grey Cup Win!! For those of you who are anti-CFL... I'll pray for you!

I have been an Eskimos' fan since 1994, and many times I have watched them go to the Grey Cup and, in heart break, the same amount of times lose by a touchdown or less. The one time they won since I've been a fan, I was in Zambia and couldn't even watch a minute of it.

So this year, I made sure I was home to watch the game! They controlled the game early but some how with 2 minutes left they were down by 5. My heart raced, as thoughts of "NOT AGAIN!!" went through my head. Then they scored and went for 2 to go up by 3. The Alouettes, were able to tie it up and send it into Overtime. As I stood hunched over the TV, less 6 inches away, I watched the teams trade points on the first series of Overtime.
The Eskimos were stopped short of a Touchdown on the next series and had to settle for a fieldgoal, and the doubts of not again began to return. However. whne the Alouettes got the ball, the Eskimos' defense stopped the Alouettes cold and on their final down, 3rd and 31, the Alouettes Quartback ran and kicked in desparation, as they came up short. I jumped and quietly screamed (didn't wanna bother the rents).

So all this week, as simple as it may seem. I am going to be celebrating my Edmonton Eskimos' Grey Cup Win!

Motion

How long has it been since we've been passionate about the ministry God has called us to?

Thinking back to the first time I was hunting for a ministerial position. I wonder how much of my quest was fueled by a genuine desire to be in a place of ministry, which is within God's will and plan, verses a desire to just be in a church.

When I initionally had my denominational interview about becoming a pastor, something I shared about my calling into full-time ministry is "I couldn't imagine doing anything else and being happy". A few years older and perhaps a little bit wiser. I would say it's not enough to want be in full-time ministry. What is essential is to know our place in full-time ministry is within God's will. A will that could have a multitude of possibile places or simply 1 option.

Motions of Ministry
For us to serve in a church out of our own desire to be in ministry would be dangerously close to sin. A sin against God and his people, and ourselves. How can we consume a position of ministry we know is not within God's will for us, simply so we can be in ministry? Consider this, by maintaining a position of ministry, we know is not our place in God's will, is to go through the motions of ministry. In going through the motions we hinder and work against God's will. God has a better place for us in his divine plan and the place you currently hold belongs to another.

Ministry in Motion
Ministry in motion is to seek not only a place to minister but the place God has for us in his plan. Think of it as a train yard. There are hundreds of trains going different direction all for the same purpose, to get people where they need to go. Instead of jumping on a train and trying to make it go your direction, look at the direction God's already taking the train, then jump on board the train going in your direction.


The introspective question of the week: Are we going through the motions of ministry or are we ministry in motion?

Complacent Mediocrity

So I've been tearing up this book, The Youth Builder, by Mike DeVries & Jim Burns. Some of you would have had it for required reading or collateral reading in a youth course, if you went to Bethany. Well, I was not one of you, but was blessed to have it given to me. The book has allot of practical ideas and principles drawn from years of youth ministry experience. It's not the Bible of youth ministry or anything, just a very valuable resource. Kindof of like Maguyver's swiss army knife.

As I was reading today, I was deeply convicted about something. I was convicted about how we go about ministry half heartedly. As long as things are running smooth, what we're doing is good enough. We shouldn't live in a constant depression of inadequacey, but we should always have in our mind, "What needs to happen for us to go the next mile?"

This life of ministry we have isn't about achieving a certain standard. It's not about numbers. It's not about programs. It's not about being trendy.It's about impacting lives for Christ, the best way we know how.
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Those of us who think our ministry is "good enough" are falling to fulfil our responsbility to God and those he has entrusted to us. If we are at this point we need to ask 3 things.

1) Is my heart right?
2) Am I in the right ministry?
3) Am I in the right place?

With a "good enough" ideology we are a parked cars in the middle of the freeway. So we'd better get our tires spinning or get off the freeway!

Consumer Christ

Like most youth leaders of the Atlantic District, I was at Booster this weekend, which in my opinion was the best Booster I've been too. The speaker was Matt LeRoy. At the last rally he talked about the Cost of following Christ. This got me thinking about how we've watered down the Gospel. We tell people about how easy it is to accept Christ and then once we get them committed we start telling them about what God requires of those who follow him.

Please understand I am not intending to preach salvation by works. I do believe God freely gave himself for us, and it is only through Christ we are saved.

We sell Christ to our teens and THEN start telling them, "Now that you've accepted Christ, he requires you to do this and that". We're the fine print people.
"For only one easy prayer you can have eternal life and your own Personal Saviour. Now that you have eternal life here's what's required of you by your new Lord & Savior".

We need to be more clear about what God requires of us in the long run from the beginning. I gotta question my integrity if I don't let people know upfront Christ requires our whole heart and not just a 5 minute prayer.

When I look at Scriptures like II Peter 2:21-23, telling us how it's better for those who accept Christ and turn away to have never known him and then passages like, "Whoever sets his face to the plough and looks back is not fit for service in the Kingdom of God". I gotta wonder what God's gonna say to us when we stand before him.

By presenting a Consumer Christ, we attributed to Consumer Christians, who sign up for their free trial, and then when it starts to cost, they give up.

From the other side of the Glass

Last Saturday, I went to an "Understanding Teens" seminar that was held up in Moncton, with one of my friends, who just happens to help with youth. The Seminar was geared toward parents, but I felt we could get some helpful insight by going.

As we sat there in the High School auditorium, something hit me, besides realizing we were almost the only 2 people there who weren't married and had a child. What hit me was how differently we look at things now that we are out in ministry.

Back at Bethany we were pretty well immersed in the hypothetical, with some practical. We went to class every day, most of us, and once a week helped out with or ran some sort of ministry. So our perspective of ministry was pretty much shaped by what we were told in textbooks.

The best way I can think to describe this comes from a junior high school memory. We used to have a class called Family Education, or something like that. In this class we'd spend time learning about the development of children and then after a few weeks we'd throw together a temporary day care. During these weeks there would be a time we would sit behind this one way mirror, you know the kind they have in jail, and watch the childrens' behavior. Then we'd paly Freud, Skinner, Piaget or some other psychologist and try to explain why they do certain things and how we should respond. This is pretty much what we did in our classes at Bethany

Now we find ourselves on the otherside of that glass. Now we're immersed in the practical and we dabble in the hypothetical. Other than the few seminars we hit or the books we read our perspectives are now being shaped by our experience.