Beginning June 8th at MPN we are beginning a new series around Oprah’s newest book club book A New Earth. The book immediately jumped to the top of bestseller lists after her endorsement. She also partnered with the author, Ekhard Tolle in a 10 week online teaching of the principles in the book. While some called these online gatherings Oprah’s church, it has generated a new conversation about spirituality and life purpose, which I think is extremely positive.
One of the things I love about our Pastor is that he is not afraid to address socially sensitive topics, but he does it with an authentic desire to model Jesus in presenting “grace and truth”. We dedicated an entire Sunday last year to Homosexuality. He stopped a series to address the bones of Jesus documentary. There are a lot of other examples, and these are not canned responses. In my opinion it is a shepherd helping steer his sheep away from danger and toward Truth.
I’ll keep you posted to the success of the series.
Last Wednesday night we talked about sexual issues in our Hotline series. As a part of that talk I dealt very candidly with the questions our students asked about homosexuality, oral sex, pornography, and sex before marriage. I talked about the very nature of sexual relationships, did so with a firm conviction about my subject matter, and a clear understanding as to who my target audience is.
At the end of the night one of my leaders who served in ministry prior to coming to MPN said to me, “great job tonight. You said things tonight I never had the guts to say in 13 years of preaching.” Because I know the man, and because I have the context of our entire conversation to know his motivation, I took it as an extremely high compliment. However, during my talk I felt the need to say verbally to my kids, “I’m not saying this so you’ll think ‘man I can’t believe he said that.’” When I got home I went back over it in my head to make sure I hadn’t said some things only to shock them, and I don’t believe I did.
I hope that can always be said of me. I feel like there are times when we as preachers/teachers/communicators sensationalize topics to get a reaction or shock the crowd. I absolutely believe we need to be truthful, and I understand that especially in Student Ministry, “they are hearing it in school anyway”. I just wonder…
A man I respect asked recently, “what ever happened to just preaching Jesus?” I believe that’s a very simplistic question to which there is no simple response.
When was the last time you made that statement? I had a meeting today with some great people from a wonderful church oversees. At one point, as talked about a possible joint ministry venture one of the men said, “what we’re talking about today could literally change the world. This is how it starts…a conversation between people.”
As they left I thought, I don’t think that way enough. I’m not saying I should claim that every series we do is the greatest thing that’s ever happened as some bloggers do and apologize for and continue to do it anyway(which I love by the way), but I think my dreams could be bigger.
Do you any of your dreams have the potential to change the world?
With the end of school and the start of summer it’s time to think about transitions. I ran across this article from Youthministry.com dealing with the transition from MS to HS.
If you’ve read much, talked much or listened much about youth ministry lately, you are certainly aware of the growing concern over the vast number of students who walk away from church during, or shortly after, their high school years.
Last night was awesome. The band did a great job leading worship. They opened with the Matchbox 20 song “How Far We’ve Come”. There worship set included “Salvation is Here”, “Glory of it all”, “Lift High” and a tag of “Rescue”.
We continued our Hotline series by addressing all of the sex questions. These included “Can you be gay and be a Christian?”, “Is oral sex really sex?”, “Is masturbation a sin?”, “What’s so wrong with premarital sex?”, “Porn, always wrong?”. We made the students stand up and choose a side on every one of these issues. Then we allowed people from each group to defend their position. It was great conversation and interaction. Then I attempted to bring some Biblical perspective to each of these topics. After working through passages of significance, I abandoned my notes and spoke from the heart. I attempted, and feel that with the Lord’s help was successful, in talking about dropping all the other labels and striving for purity. We talked about what Christianity is about, and what it means to call yourself a Christian. I closed by talking specifically to the people who felt as if they’d “blown it” and fallen to one or more of these sexual temptations and issues in their lives. The band came and closed with one of my new favorite songs as dozens of students came forward to pray for forgiveness and strength to overcome sexual addictions/attitudes/actions. I encouraged students to go to the Hotline blog and post their thoughts on their sexual desires and topics. So far we have some great comments.
After worship we showed this video to set up the night’s issues. We got it from LifeChurch. It is a little provocative, but really set the tone for how sex has been perverted by culture.
This is my personal blog. Most of what is written is my opinion, observation, original thought, or things I find interesting somewhere else. While I am employed by Mt. Paran North, the things expressed here are not endorsed or necessarily accepted by Mt. Paran North or it's leadership. So don't go sue the church because you don't agree with something I write. Just post a comment and tell me I'm an idiot. It'll just be better for all of us.
