Category Archives: Books

Books, Film & Theology, General, Guilty Pleasure, Leadership, Ministry, Music, Popular Culture, U2

Playing Catch Up (Update)

Uplift Thanks
Our trip to Uplift ended up being very, very positive. Since 1993, I have probably only missed 2 or 3 summers at Uplift. From camper to intern to counselor to dorm guy to now leading my own group I have found that this camp is perfect for groups large and small. Having only been at my church for a month this marked our first big trip together as the youth group. I chose Uplift because I knew that everything would be taken care of before we arrived and that would allow me more time with my students. Andrew Baker, Brandon Tiddle, and the rest of the gang that puts Uplift together did an excellent job of creating and leading a memorable experience for my students. Thank you Uplift.

Uplift Class
When I first started attending Uplift as a camper the classes taught by the youth ministers where always the most random assortment of classes ever produced: No theme and sometimes very little thought (depending on the YM). When Andrew became the director though, the theme of the camp began to bleed over into the classes. This year they took it a step further and had a handful of youth ministers write the curriculum for every class. Basically, the classes would have continuity with the theme and all three sessions of camp. The theme this year was ER: Eternal Relationships and I was asked to teach the class titled Neurology. I was pretty excited when I received the curriculum because it called for me to perform brain surgery!!! Ok, not really but it had a drama skit where I would place the mind of Christ in a student and talk about how the mind of Christ differs from our way of thinking. I was told that everything I would need would be provided for me: Scrubs, set pieces, brains, instruments. However, when I arrived in my classroom only half of what was supposed to be there was actually there and half of that was messed up or unusable. My class at Uplift looked like it would quickly turn to disaster.

Praise be to God that He didn’t let that happen. In under an hour, I was able to scrap the old class and create a brand new one. While I was trying to figure out what to do, God gave me the answer to my predicament. Instead of teaching a class that was over the top and full of grey matter I decided to just be honest about my life and hang out with these kids and share a message of forgiveness and transformation. I spent the whole week telling students about how it seemed that I had everything together in High School. I was a leader, well liked, and on my way to college as a youth minister. However, I was a complete jerk to those around me because of my anger and selfishness. My relationships were breaking apart because of this sin.

Anger isn’t a very sexy sin. You don’t hear about it from the pulpit so you would think that it isn’t really that big of deal. But it is. God used my class this week to touch a couple of students and families. I felt humbled and inadequate every time a sponsor or student came to me afterward to thank me. Their stories of how anger was affecting them or a loved one drove home that fact that we need to talk a little more about these “second tier” sins. Youth ministers, before you write another class about sex, gossip, or alcohol think about addressing stress or anger or disrespect.

Will I Ever Eat a Fast Food Hamburger Again?
After reading the slaughterhouse chapter of Fast Food Nation I’m not so sure anymore. Darn you social conscience! This question didn’t arise because of the cattle, it has come because of the conditions in which human beings have to work in and around in these modern day death traps. I thought The Jungle took care of all that but I guess not. It is appalling the dangers and conditions in these slaughterhouses. I feel a personal boycott coming on.

Nike+iPod
This fat sack of crap is completely mesmerized by this new product. What is Nike+iPod? It’s a wireless sensor that you place in your shoe that communicates to your iPod nano in order to track your workout which you synch to your computer and share with a community of other users. It also will coach and motivate you as you run! Genius! Synergy! Genisergy!

From iLounge:

During CNBC’s “On The Money” this evening, sports reporter Darren Rovell provided the first look at the new Nike+iPod Sports Kit, saying he was “very impressed with it” and that it “could change the running world.” Following a first-hand test of the kit, Rovell proclaimed that it could “kill treadmills and membership at gyms” and “really change the way people run and how people think about running.” According to Rovell, the iPod nano was chosen for Nike+iPod support because the majority of nano owners use it to work out, with Apple’s Greg Joswiak noting that the nano is the most popular iPod model. A Nike exec added that the kit will work with 4 million shoes by the end of the year. Also during the CNBC segment, it was revealed that Apple and Nike plan to spend “no money” on advertising the kit and will “rely solely on buzz.” Besides launches at Nike and Apple Stores tomorrow, the only additional marketing planned for the device is its use by Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong in his preparation for the upcoming New York City Marathon.

iTunes has already added coaching/music mixes on their site to use with this new system. I am intrigued.

Nike+iPod Update

Mussolini Must Need a Sweater
I cried during an Adam Sandler movie. Click has been my favorite movie this summer. As great as mutants, pirates, cars, and men in blue tights are they are no match for the reminder that family, relationships, and the small stuff are the true essence of living.

Whew, I think I’m caught up on my posting now. Have a great day everyone!

Books, Ministry, Resources, Review, The Word

Oh Let The Ancient Words Impart

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Yes, the Bible is an interesting book. Which is why nine out of ten American households own at least one copy, according to a 2005 update from the Barna Research Group. It’s why six out of ten Americans confess to reading the Bible every once in a while, according to a 2000 Gallup poll. Yet most of us readers don’t know Ezra from Esther or Zephaniah from Zechariah. Few of us can list all four Gospels or recite half of the Ten Commandments. A majority of us can’t even identify who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.*

That’s why you need this book – A handy, easy-to=read, occasionally amusing guide to the Bible and its characters, events, translations, and history. Why? Because the Bible is the all-time best-selling book, one that most people own but apparently don’t read, that lots of people read but apparently don’t understand, that lots of people allegedly understand but in a way that makes them jerks. Let’s see what the Pocket Guide can do about that.

As a youth minister, I am constantly on the lookout for new resources that can help me introduce my students to the Bible. With each passing day I have found that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to get students excited about reading the Word. The reasons are many and varied:

1) The Word seems dusty and unapproachable. When you force kids to read the New King james Version what do you expect.
2) We try forcing the Bible on our kids. That’s like trying to eat 8 saltines in under a minute. It’s unbearable and it ain’t gonna work!
3) We are more concerned with our kids getting a scholarship than we are with them spending time with the Savior. Scholarships for knowing the Torah and the history of the Northern kingdom are hard to come by.
4) When adults have trouble understanding something, we often let it slide. It falls off our radar and we don’t make it a priority. Our kids see that and learn a lesson (not a valuable lesson, but a lesson nonetheless).
5) Students don’t see adults all that excited about the Bible.

Parent: Where did you learn this?
Johnny: (through tears) I learned it from you, ok! I learned it from you!!!

Whatever the reason we have to find an approach to living with Scripture that glorifies God, gets people into the Word, and gets everyone excited about learning and sharing the greatest book of all-time.

A new resource that I have come across is Jason Boyett’s Pocket Guide to the Bible. This little book is both side-splittingly hilarious and deep-in-the-trenches informative (Yes, you can be both). I want to spend this weekend and the first part of next week introducing you to this “little book about the Big Book.”

Boyett divides the book into 5 sections: Biblicabulary, Cast of Characters, What Happens, History of the Written Word, and Biblical Miscellany. Today, I only want to discuss the first section.

The first section is titled Biblicabulary. Here he takes the reader through a list of difficult Bible words or confusing concepts that often derail many a man, woman, or child who attempt to read the Good Book. Boyett first defines the word or concept for the reader. Then he gives an example of how it is used in Scripture. By using concise, solid Biblical examples Boyett helps readers understand the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees, Old Testament and New, and everything in between. By using references from everyday life and pop culture Boyett helps make the Word accessible for both first time readers and valedictorians at Hebrew Union. 2 Examples:

Ark of the Covenant: A sacred, gold-covered box made of acaia wood. It houses the stone tablets on which God chiseled the Ten Commandments, plus a jar of manna and Aaron’s miraculous walking stick. It’s kept in the holy of holies in the Tabernacle and later gets moved to Solomon’s temple. Why? Because it is a reminder to the Israelites of God’s presence.
Also Known As: Ark of the Testimony, Ark of the Agreement, Ark of the Lord
Not Also Known As: The Ark of Noah, which holds a bunch of animals rather than stone tablets and is made of gopher wood instead of acaia wood. Also, it’s a boat.
Please Use It In a Sentance: Archeologically inclined Nazis will want to avoid opening the Ark of the Covenant, as it will melt their faces off.
Biblical Example: Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. (1Samuel 6:13)

Prophet: A human messenger speaking on behalf of God, for the purpose of (1) calling God’s people to repentance for doing something wrong, or (2) predicting future calamity or coming judgement because of all the wrongdoing. Such prophesies make up a sizable chunk of the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi. Other biblical big-timers like Samuel and Elijah are identified as prophets.
Not To Be Confused With: False prophets, seemingly religious heavyweights who claim to receive visions and messages and other sorts of instructions from God, but who are pretty much full of crap. On account of how the stuff God’s apparently telling these guys to do is more or less evil, and that’s not how God rolls. Example A: Jim Jomes. Example B: David Koresh.
Biblical Example: “But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true.” (Jeremiah 28:9)

See, who says the Bible is out-of-date and irrelevant? Not me. I love reading, learning, and living with God’s Word. I want my students and their families to get just as excited and motivated about spending time in Bible study as they do about yelling at the refs in the NBA for allowing Miami to walk away with that trophy.

If someone you know is having difficult time understanding the Bible or connecting all the dots, pick them up a copy of Pocket Guide to the Bible. In fact, get two copies and start reading it with them. Start making Bible study a priority with your friends, family, and yourself.

*George Gallup Jr., The Role of the Bible in American Society, 1990

Books, Leadership, Ministry

The McChurching of America

I started reading Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation this week. The book is a fascinating look at the corporatization of America and a stark survey of an industry that not only shapes our waistlines but our culture as well.

While I want to wait to write a full reveiw after I finish the book, the following passage really spoke to me about my “profession” and the state of American ministry in 2006.

Almost every facet of American life has now been franchised or chained. The key to a successful franchise, according to many texts on the subject, can be expressed in one word: “uniformity.” Franchises and chain stores strive to offer exactly the same product or service at numerous locations. Custormers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown. A brand offers a feeling of reassurance when its products are always and everywhere the same. “We have found out… that we cannot trust people who are nonconformists,” declared Ray koc, one of the founder’s of McDonald’s, angered by some of his franchisees. “We will make conformists out of them in a hurry… The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization.” (5)

In the margin of the page I scribbled the word “McChurch.” I want to take this scribble in two directions.

1) While we should all seek to have and teach uniformity concerning the message of Jesus Christ too often we seek uniformity on the meduim only. For churches, the medium includes buildings, events, ministries, and budgets. Many churches are always seeking to look, act, walk, talk, eat, and sleep like their next door neighbors or their mega-church heroes. Instead of seeking God’s direction on their true, God-given idenity churches are more concerned with making their own name on the back of other successful churches by mimicing their success. Recently I spoke with a guy who has been in ministry for nearly two decades. He and a few key leaders had visited a well respected church on the east coast to observe how they minister to their people. Some in his leadership were very excited about the weekly prayer meetings that go on for hours at a time. The leadership was eager to return home so that they could begin this same type of ministry event at their home congregation. My friend, speaking with much wisdom and discernment, asked his group to slow down. He reminded them that the lead minister and this church felt that they were led to begin these prayer meetings by God. The prayer meeting wasn’t just a cool idea or a great way to get the people of the congregation to pray together. No, this was a directive from God to these people. God had led them to begin this minisrty. My friend encouraged his leadership to first seek out what God was leading their church to do. God would bless that before he would some cool idea. Churches that seek to replicate something that was successful at another church before seeking God’s guidence need to be reminded of Numbers 9:15-23. Here’s the gist:

At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out.

Let the Lord lead at his speed and at his directive. Simple as that.

2) While I am intrigued and even a little excited about the newest form a church planting known as satellite churches, I am worried about the “franchising” aspect that could come about with creating a number of different campuses. Truthfully, tradition church plants can also fall into the “franchising pit” and I have seen my fair share of cookie-cutter churches who look, talk, and act like their mother churches. However, by no fault of the mother church leaders trying this new model and the satellite church leaders, the consumer mentality of many in the church today could take hold of these churches while in their infancy stage and never let go. If this happens, the satellite campus might never be able to grow and thrive on its own if the leadership doesn’t have an adequate plan.

The mother church might begin to act like Kroc and be wary of allowing the satelite campus to think outside the box to meet their members needs in way that differes from the original. Ministers at both locations could begin to burn out very quickly if struggles like this begin to define and dictate their leadership meetings.

The satellite churches could fall into complacency, always believing that the mother church will take care of them. Another problem could aise when those attending the satellite church merely consumer the worship and leadership and never feel the need to get off the pew and take the reigns. The ministers leading at the campus could feel like the junior members or second-teir ministers (Questions like, “When are you ging to pastor your own church?” are already to prevelant). These are just a few issues that could arise.

Again, I am intrugued and excited about the satellite church movement. I believe that there is a great potential for multiple campuses in our fast paced world and hopefully this movement can help bring the Gospel into our larger, more urban cities in a way that is meaningful and life changing.

Let’s just avoid the pitfalls of franchising by avoiding the franchise/franchisee mentlity in the body of Christ.

Books, Theology

It’s No Secret At All

“I think that Jesus would have been political.”

Eight small words uttered by a college freshman struggeling to articulate his new reality. What my friend was trying to say was that he is now begining to understand, after growing up in a Christian home and attending a Christian school for all his life, that Jesus Christ would have cause a huge problem for politics, cultural and national identity, social structures, and the status quo. As he spoke, all I could do was smile because I knew that I was witnessing this young man owning his faith. Up until this point in his life he had lived the faith of others- parents, ministers, teachers. Like Jacob, he is wrestling. I began this wrestling match around the same time and have continued through this day. I hope I never stop. I pray thet neither does he.

If Jesus Christ really did come to this world as a messenger of hope and forgiveness and true life found through Him then his words and actions should redefine the way we live our lives.

Christ gave us a new paradigm. Why do we insist on still using the world’s busted one?

Over the weekend I began reading the much anticipated new book by Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything. McLaren addresses this wrestling match head on. Much of what he writes is simply a rehashing of points I’ve read before in Wright and Yoder but with McLaren the information is accessible to all. No advance degree is needed for reading this former English professor’s thoughts on first century Judaism and the impact of our Savior.

Here are a few exerpts to whet your appetite:

What if many have carried on a religion that faithfully celebrates Jesus in ritual and art, teaches about Jesus is sermons and books, sings about Jesus in songs and hymns, and theorizes about Jesus is seminaries and classrooms… but somewhere along the way missed rich and radical traesures hidden in the essential message of Jesus?

What if his secret message had practical implications for such issues as how you live your daily life, how you earn and spend money, how you treat people of other races and religions, and how the nations of the world conduct their foreign policy? What is his message directly or indirectly addressed issues like advertising, environmentalism, terrorism, econmics, sexuality, marriage, parenting, the quest for happiness and peace, and racial reconciliation?

If the Christian religion “misunderestimates” the message of Jesus and his message- if it doesn’t know or believe the truth about Jesus and his message- the whole world will suffer from Christian ignorance, confusion, or delusion. But if it discovers, understands, believes, and lives Jesus’ message- if it becomes increasingly faithful to the reality of what Jesus taught in word and example- then everyone could benefit: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, everyone.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I’ll let you in on this: the further I go on this search, the more inspired, moved, challenged, shocked, and motivated I become about the secret message of Jesus.

I’ve become convinced that if the good news of Jesus were carried in a newspaper today, it wouldn’t be hidden in the religion section (although it would no doubt cause a ruckus there). It would be a major story in every section…

… this much is clear: the carpenter’s son from Galilee challenges every existing political movement (Essene, Pharisee, Zealot, Herodian) to a radical rethinking and dares everyone to imagine and consider his revolutionary alternative.

There you go. Just a few snippets so that you can see where McLaren is going. He isn’t speaking of some gnostic secret message of Jesus that will lead to transcendence. No, he is simply asking us to re-evaluate the message of Jesus Christ- take off the layers of theological gunk that 2000 years of war, power struggles, and history have added to this radical message stripping it of the power that it once had- and see it with new eyes and a renewed heart. Let this powerful message effect you whole life and impact those around you.

Books, Theology

Not Just Deaf and Dumb

On Saturday evening I stopped by Border’s for some coffee and a chance to stretch my legs. It is always a little dangerous for me to walk around a bookstore because I never seem to leave empty handed. This time was no exception.

I picked up Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright. I was surprised to see the book on the shelves because according to Amazon.com this latest Wright book isn’t supposed to be released until tomorrow (March 14). Well, fortunately for me I now have a copy in hand.

THe book is intended to be a kind of a Mere Christianity for today: a summary of the faith, hope, and love that Christians claim to live in. One of the things that I love about Wright is that on one hand he can write on subjects that are so lofty and complex that they require an advanced degree in comprehension and on the other hand he writes for the Every Man. This book is for the latter.

Bishop Wright divides the book into 3 sections. Part One is entitled Echoes of a Voice. “It is as though,” he writes, “we can hear, not perhaps a voice itself, but the echo of a voice: a voice speaking with calm, healing authority, speaking about justice, about things being put to rights, about peace and hope and prosperity for all.” Of course, this voice is the voice of God speaking to his children about true justice, living spirituality, God-honoring relationships, and this world in which we live. Every human being hears this voice or at least the echo of the voice and we all must respond. That brings us to Section Two. In this section. Staring at the Sun (Lovin’ the U2 reference BTW), Wright tackles the basic building blocks of Christianity: God, Israel, Jesus and God’s Kingdom, Resurrection, and Life by the Spirit. It is only after we understand the story in which we are invited to join that we can begin to live this Christian life to the fullest. Section Three, Refelcting the Image, introduces the reader to worship and prayer, community and fellowship.

I cannot wait to finish this book. If you liked Mere Christianity or if you are a fan of N.T. Wright, pick up a copy of Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. It might be a good way to help you introduce the concept of Christianity to those around you. Peace.

Books, Music

Two Times Tuesday (Hoo-Ah!)

Two quick posts today:

The new album from Matisyahu drops today. I pre-ordered it from iTunes last week and downloaded it first thing this morning. First impression is that Youth is a solid effort from my favorite Hasidic Jewish Reggae artist. The title track is hot, Jerusalem is cool, and the album version of King Without a Crown captures the raw energy of the live track and polishes it into a new creation. Good stuff!

Over the weekend I read Andy Stanley‘s newest book, It Came From Within! Andy is one of the best teachers and ministers out there right now. Everytime he speaks I get a fresh perspective of God’s Word. The new book invites readers to look below the surface of our problems (Guilt, Anger, Jealousy, and Greed) and begin to rid our hearts of these monsters with the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. It isn’t about changing our behaviors but about changing our hearts. I heard Andy speak on this subject a couple of years ago and it was refreshing to see his thoughts fully formed on the page. After identifying the monsters, Andy invites us to join in a new set of habits to destroy their power (Confession, Forgiveness, Celebration, and Generosity). The book was such a breeze that I read it in 3 days. You need this book!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Books, Theology

Starting Right (Again), pt. 1

“Practical theological reflection- reflection that connects what we believe about God with how we live as disciples of Jesus Christ- is the first task of ministry with young people.”

I have begun re-reading Starting Right: Thinking Theologocally About Youth Ministry a powerful and thought-provoking tome edited by Kenda Creasy Dean, Chap Clark, and Dave Rahn. Hopefully, I will be transitioning into full-time youth ministry at a church in the next few months and I wanted to reconnect with this book that has meant so much to me. Starting Right was one of those books I read before I gradutaed college. It helped me form my philosophy of ministry and helped me look at ministry to students from the perspective of the total mission of the church. I have enjoyed being reminded of how powerful and necessary practical theology is today, not just for my students but for me as well.

In the opening chapter, Kenda Creasy Dean tells us that “adolescents traffic in theology everyday.” However, she says, “most of their theological reflection goes unheard, unnamed, and unclaimed.”

They are unaware that their social studies discussion on freedom is a theological discussion. They don’t realize that the way they treat an unpopular classmate reflects a doctrine of creation.

We all, students and adults alike, engage in theological reflection whether we admit it or not. Just because I have the title of minister doesn’t mean that I have the theological market cornered all for myself. Theology is simply “human reflection on who God is and how God works in the world.” It is as simple as that. The way you veiw your job, the way you treat your coworkers or employees, the way you act toward people of other races, how you treat people of different religions, and the way you live your life all come from at least some sort of theological reflection on your part. You are a theologian.

I’ll continue this thought after the weekend but I want to encourage you to begin to hear, name, and claim the theology that you’ve been living. Be conscious of it.

Books, Theology

Coffee and Conversation

I am currently writing this from my favorite coffee shop on the planet: Midnight Oil. I’ve got a Mr. Blonde (White Chocolate Mocha), it’s raining, and I’m reading a good book. I’ve been reading through Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book: a Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading. This is the second of five books Peterson is writing on the subject of “spiritual theology.” Last year’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places was the first in this series and was a challenging read. Eat This Book is considerably shorter but so far has been just as riveting. Here are some snipits from chapters 1 & 2:

“Spiritual Reading”: reading that enters our souls as food enters our stomachs, spreads through our blood, and become holiness and love and wisdom. (4)

The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is, in its entirety, rooted in and shaped by the scriptual text. We don’t form our personal spiritual lives out of a random assemblage of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances; we are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture. God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit. (15)

I want to pull Christian Scriptures back from the magins where they have been so rudely elbowed by their glamorous compeditors, and reestablish them at the center as the text for living the Christian life deeply and well. I want to confront and expose this replacement of the authoritative Bible by the authoritative self. I want to place personal eperience under the authority of the Bible and not over it. I want to set the Bible before us as the text by which we live our lives, the text that stands in such sturdy contrast to the potpourri of religious psychology, self-development, mystical experimentation, and devotional dilettantism that has come to characterize so much of what takes cover under the ubrella of “spirituality.” (17)

Most of us carry around a handful of essential commands that keep us on track: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… Love your neighbor… Honor your father and mother… Repent and believe… Remeber the Sabbath.. Be not anxious… Give thanks at all times… Pray without ceasing… Follow me… Go and tell… Take up your cross…” Add this to your repertoire: Eat this book. Not merely Read your Bible but Eat this book.

Christians feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. Christians don’t simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing, and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son. (18)

Books, Ministry, Theology

Eighteen Years of Dawning

Back in college, my youth ministry professor turned me on to a book by Kendra Creasy Dean entitled The Godbearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry. Much like Bro. Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God, this book helped shape my heart for ministry in ways that I hadn’t yet experienced. Every so often, I get the itch to re-read The Godbearing Life and everytime I do I learn a little more. Dean makes the argument that we- youth ministers, pastors, teachers- have been invited to become Godbears to the world in which we live. While Mary physically brought God into the world in the birth of Jesus Christ, “God invites all of us to become Godbearers- persons who by the power of the Holy Spirit smuggle Jesus into the world through our own lives, who by virtue of our yes to God find ourselves forever and irrevocably changed.” This powerful image has stuck with me from the first moment that my eyes read the words on the page. What an awe inspiring invitation. You cannot help but be passionate about that task.

Dean’s newest book Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church begins with another powerful image of invitation. Although this one is a little more daring and scarry. Dean believes that just as Abraham was asked to offer Isaac before the Lord, we too must make that same choice. Do we allow our children to go off into the world to face the culture on their own or do we offer them up to God so that they might have a new life and a new heart? The choice seems simple but, according to Dean, the choice can seem terrifying when you are faced with the full reality of having a child who is entering into adolescence.

No amount of searching the text or teaching or preaching quelled the rage that mounted when I read that abraham bound Isaac to an alter, automotron-like, following the divine dictum that he present his child as a burnt offering to God. What kind of parent would do such a thing? What kind of God would ask such a thing?

And then my son turned twelve.

Now, it seems, there are only two choices. Brendan could come of age alone, as scores of his pubescent peers will do, heading into the wilderness of adolescence to face decisions- many with irreversible consequences- once reserved for adults. I know he can’t survive this alone. He has youth, smarts, and vigor, but few skills of resistance, and precious little experience excersising wisdom over whim. Consumer culture would surely eat him alive. Its greedy teeth marks show already.

The other option is to accept God’s invitation: “Take your son, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you” (Genesis 22:7). I can climb this coming-of-age mountain with Brendan just so far, knowing that very soon I will run out of ways to protect him.

Surely God does want Brendan’s heart, the way God desires the heart of every adolescent. Yet if Brendan were to run, where would he go? Back to the shelter of childhood? He could try, but he’ll soon learn that no adolescent can be a child again, no matter how immature he acts. Forward, then, to adulthood? A rather optimistic plan, given the fact that no one today knows where, exactly, adulthood actually begins. To his peers? Maybe. But they’re lost in the wilderness too- although we can still hear their voices, most of them, calling out through the media that tempt them off this holy mountain. He could go back to his parents- well, I guess not. Anyway, we’re not home. We’re along for Brendan’s adolescent journey too, which means facing the fact that very soon we are either going to have to give him up or give him over to God.

Given the options, I’m banking on God.

And so his dad and I find ourselves these days hammering away at an alter, made of practices of faith and a fellowship of believers we’ve been attending to over the years- the combustible stuff of Christianity, faith fuel that ignites in the presence of holy fire.

For better or worse, one of these days we will arrive at the sacred place, and I will lay him down on this alter of faith. And when that day comes- when the car keys, the career plans, the dates, and the decisions are his, not ours- his dad and I will offer him up to God, who has a plan.

Question: What does all of this have to do with practicing passion? Answer: Everything

If we are not zealous about teaching and raising our children to follow the Lord than we are like a boxer beating the air. If we do not show our young that the call to follow Jesus Christ is a call to exhibit the Passion of his everlasting love than they will not hear us. Youth ministry is a about ministering to the entire church, re-introducing to this passionate life, and living out its kingdom values.

What an invitation!