The 1 Percent

My current read is Ten Rules of Youth Ministry and why Oneighty breaks them all. In his introduction Blaine Bartel brings to light a shocking stat. Between 1910 and 1946 approximately 65% of the teens were reached for Christ. This time span is known as the Builder Generation and they are the first generation of teens to experience youth ministry.

Now fast forward to the 1977 to 1994 era. This is known as the Bridger Generation and they are the most current completed generation. In this generation only 4% have been reached for Christ.

Looking at this we can quickly do the math and see the 61% differnence between the beginning and the end of the 20th century. The obvious question is, "what happened?". I don't wanna ask the obvisous question though. Simply because "What happened?!" forces us to look back instead of forward. My question is "How do we make it 5%?" I wanna know how in this current generation we can improve 1%.

In the Bridger Generation 96% of the teens were not reached for Christ. Our ultimate goal needs to be to reach these 96%, however this is done 1% at a time. So how do we get our first 1%?

Hi Emily

At Beulah this year I met a teen who I seem to meet over and over again, Emily. Apparently I always seem to think she is someone else. She told me she reads my blog so I'm using my blog to say "Hi" and hopefully make up for thinking she was someone else.

While I was at Beulah my nephew asked me a tough question. We were talking about my move out west and my teenage nephew looked up at me and asked. "Uncle Dave , how come you always have to move so far away?"

I had to step back and think, "What does take me to so many distant places?". What makes me wanna travel to Virginia, Zambia, and soon British Columbia? Why aren't I content to just live in the same house I grew up, while ministering at my home church or to go to Nova Scotia for my Masters?

Mark Buchanan's book The Holy Wild helped me answer this question for myself. He also wrote Your God's too Safe and both of these books are very John Eldredgish in their subject and approach. The book is a pretty good read. It didn't revelotionize the way I see God or my relationship with him, but it did help strengthed both. Now to how this book helped me answer my nephew's question.

In the final chapter of his book Buchanan uses Bilbo Baggins from J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit as an illustration. Buchanan writes about how Bilbo's mother was a Took and his father was a Baggins. The Baggins were homebodies who played life safe, while the Tooks were adventurous. Bilbo struggles with being a homebody Baggins and an Adventurous Took and ultimately follows his Took nature and has the adventure of a life time.

Buchanan uses this to ilustrate how we all have a Baggins and Took persuasion inside us. This isn't an illusion to a dual-nature of good or evil, more so how we all have a desire to play it safe and to live the risk taking adventurous life. Most of us have found our place on the Baggins-Took spectrum, without realizing it. I have found my place on the spectrum with the Tooks. I love to try new things and if no one's done it before I'm more likely to do it. However, my Baggins forces me to look before I leap .These risks or adventures are only taken after thinking it over and trying to look at all thepossible scenarios,

In life we tend to embrace the Took or the Baggins in ourselves, on which side of the Spectrum do you find yourself?

Saving Superman

After 5 rewrites the 5th installment of the Superman Series was released last week. I consider myself a Big Superman fan. I don't have the pjs anymore and I stopped trying to fly off my roof, but Superman is still my favorite super hero.

In Superman Returns they attempt to resurrect the man of steel's legacy. I use the term "resurrect" because throughout the movie they insult our intelligence and continually slap us in the face with these "Christ Parallels". You think he's Jesus, WE GET IT!!!

Maybe they should have gone with a 6th rewrite, because all I found, besides the excessive and over the top Christ parallels, is a drug out plot and small pockets of actions. It's almost as if the directors changed midway through. The characters are re-introduced in interesting ways. Great rising action. The movie's goin' along nicely. Then there is a lack of any REAL climax and the movie dribbles off to the credits.

Along with a rewrite they should have done some recasting. Brandon Routh?! Come on now!!! Just because he looks like Christopher Reeves doesn't mean he can be Superman. Why not go with guys who have proven themselves as Superman on TV. Dean Cain isn't too busy these days. I'd even take Tom Welling over Brandon Routh (yuck). Kate Bosworth did well to keep the Lois Lane character consistent. I feel bad for James Marsden, who I have a feeling may have gotten himself written out of X-men (Scott Summers) so he could play this role of Richard White, Lois' boyfriend. James seems to do a great job playing the jealous boyfriend. Kevin Spacey played and excellent Lex Luther. His villainous humor along with Sam Huntington's portrayal of Jimmy Olsen made the movie endurable. There is also a scene where 1 of Lex's henchmen & Lois' son, Jason, play chopsticks, that brought some good laughs too. You can definitely say the movie was a good laugh.

Kryptonite is yet to kill Superman, but Bryan Singer & Michael Dougherty (screenplay), Dan Harris (director), and Brandon Routh (Superman) sure have him on life support. The sequel for Superman Returns schedule for release in 2009 has allot to overcome to return Superman to its place of prominence