The Bible and R-Rated Movies

What is one of the struggles parents and youth pastors have with teenagers?...wishing that they would read the Bible more...we recognize the importance of being literate in the Word of God...we stress that they set aside time in each day to spend time reading the Bible, and yet we hear the words, "It's boring," or, "I don't have time," far too often...so we continue to emphasize it...

On the flip side, another message that we hammer into their heads is being careful what they are watching or listening to...whether we are talking about R-rated movies, rap music, or questionable TV shows, we are concerned that what they are consuming will have a negative impact on their thought lives, attitudes and behaviors...so we try to steer them clear of these influences...

These two thoughts forced me to pose a question to Marcy this morning: Why do we tell our students to read the Bible more, and at the same time tell them to not watch R-rated movies?...this came on the heels of me reading Judges 19...in this passage, a woman is raped and abused repeatedly, to the point of death...her master, upon discovering her body, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends the pieces to the tribes of Israel as a message that the guilty would be punished...can you imagine a movie being made out of this story?...it would probably have a difficult time getting an R-rating, as would many stories in the Bible...The Passion of the Christ managed an R-rating, but from what I understand, it still did not depict the severity of what Jesus experienced...so how do we tell the students to watch what they are consuming, but also stress reading the Bible?...if they are really consuming the Bible, they are putting some pretty horrible stuff into their heads...Marcy's answer was that movies were more visual and stick with you longer than the written word...my comeback was that The Blair Witch Project was one of the scariest films I have ever seen, and yet they didn't show anything scary...it was all in my mind...so do images really stick with you longer?...

This, then, brought another question to mind: If the Bible were being written today, would it still be written as a book, or would it be something else?...would it be a screenplay for a movie; a weekly sitcom; a computer program; or something else?...what form would the Bible take if written today?...Marcy contends that it would still be a book because they are more timeless than the other media...I think what makes books timeless is the fact that they have been around a long time...let's face it, movies, TV shows, radio, computers, all of these have been around a very short time...and besides, the Bible wasn't written as a book...it was written as scrolls, songbooks(scrolls), told as stories, written as letters, etc....so what would today's Bible looks like?...

Finding Neverland

I went and saw this movie last night with Marcy for Valentines Day...I can never remember if "Valentines" should have an apostrophe or not, but I digress...the movie stars Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet...I have always liked Johnny Depp, and Kate Winslet is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses, especially after her performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind...again, I digress...this movie, Finding Neverland, is an absolute joy...it is the story of J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan...the movie is a beautiful look at the power of imagination...we are able to look into the mind of this creative genius as he writes and shows to others their innate imaginative abilities...I won't get into details about the movie; I'll let you see it for yourself...and do this - see it!...you will not regret it...you might cry - Marcy and I both did - but you will still be happy you saw this movie...

The Grammys

A couple of notes from last night's Grammy awards show...let it be known that I watched very little of the show, actually...but on what I saw I feel the need to make some comments:

• Kanye West...I have heard a little bit about this guy and his song Jesus Walks...I was glad that I got a chance to hear him finally...that was a great performance!...I loved the beginning, with Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama...then West did a great job with the close...I read this morning that he was the leading nominee of the evening, but only walked home with three Grammys...can't say whether I agree or disagree with him losing so often, but I know I liked that performance...
• On the flip side, I hated the performance for the tsunami relief effort...wow, was that horrible!...the only one that actually sounded decent on the Beatles song was Bono...Norah Jones looked like she had no interest in being there at all (nice stage presence)...and what was up with Steven Tyler shaking the maracas?...like Marcy said, "It's no We Are The World."...OK, Steveie Wonder on the harmonica was great, but the camerawork was awful, as they didn't show him until halfway through it...it's a shame that this is the performance that they are trying to raise money with...maybe if it was a better one, they might make some more money...
• Steven Curtis Chapman won for his pop gospel category, or whatever it was...now don't get me wrong, I like SCC...but hasn't he been putting out the same album for the past several years?...to be truthful, I haven't heard his latest disc, but to beat out Jars of Clay, it had to have been really good...or maybe, the Grammy voters don't really listen to the gospel categories, and instead go off of name recognition...hmmm...
• On a related note, how did Third Day beat out tobyMac?...I'm just asking...
• I was glad to see that Ray Charles raked in eight statues...well deserving...I am looking forward to seeing the movie about him
• Is it just me, or is Usher just a poor man's Michael Jackson, without the weird tendencies?...

I welcome your comments and rebuttals...

Cell Phone Dilemma

My cell phone plan at Cingular just ended in January...that means it is time to re-up, sign up for a new plan and get a fancy new phone...there are so many options out there...do I want another Nokia (my last two phones), or a Motorola, or maybe a Sony Ericcson, or how about an LC or Samsung?...which one is best?...I have no idea...then, do I want a regular candy bar style phone, or do I want to go for a flip phone this time?...judging by the number of times Marcy has accidentally added a random number to the address book or sent someone a text message while the phone was in her purse with the numbers unlocked, conventional wisdom would tell me to get the flip phone...but I've heard they're not as good...then the question of what features I want comes into play...I really like the idea of the speakerphone so I can be safer while driving...I also like the camera phones, but will that get old quick?...what about web surfing or Bluetooth?...as you can see, there are so many questions to be answered...I would love whatever feedback any of you might have for me...I'm really hoping to hear from Jonesy, because judging from his blog, he is a tech guru...anyway, if you have any thoughts, just click on the Comments thing below and add your comments...thanks in advance...

EPIC Stuff

Leonard Sweet came to our church this week for a seminar that was put on by the district...it was called Summoned to Lead and the focus was evangelism in the culture in which we find ourselves...there was so much good stuff, that I may have to make a couple of posts to summarize it all...and then again, I may not...we'll just have to wait and see...one thing that I wanted to make sure I got out there for others to appreciate was the idea that the way we need to reach people is EPIC...one of my good friends, Trey Carey, once told me that the most important thing to know about doing youth ministry is the effective use of acronyms...EPIC, of course, is an acronym that Sweet used to discuss our evangelism...and to spell it out, he exegeted a Starbucks coffee cup (brilliant!)...our evangelism needs to be:

• Experiential
• Going to Starbucks is not about the coffee; it's about the experience
• Starbucks wants to handle the experience, so they give you a cup holder to protect your hands...they don't apologize for the experience - the temperature of the coffee - as some other establishments might
• Every experience needs to be as positive as possible
• His point: Church and a relationship with God should not be about putting on a good show, giving people a good product...it should be about finding ways to allow the individual to experience God in His fullest sense
  
• Participatory
• You can't just order a cup of coffee at Starbucks; you participate in the ordering process (I'll have a double-shot of espresso in my skinny venti latte - totally made that up)
  
• You should have to learn the language that goes into the experience (venti, latte, black eye, etc.)
• Culture is increasingly interactive and participatory
• His point: Church has gotten really good at providing a show for people, but does not give the individual the opportunity to participate...we have gotten away from making the individual learn the language (Doxology, sanctification, etc.)...this culture needs to participate...one way Sweet allows the people to participate is to almost have an open-ended discussion with them as he preaches, while a "dancing partner" is on Google putting images on the screen that relate to whatever they are talking about at the present time - ultra-cool!
  
• Image rich
• Consistent image in all Starbucks...if you go to one in Ohio or one overseas, you will recognize it as a Starbucks
• Starbucks communicates more in their images and less than in words
• His point: He led a discussion of Paul, focusing on his back...he had us describe Paul: was he short? what color hair did he have? intense or carefree? etc....then he looked at the way Paul describes himself in 2 Corinthians 11 (five times he received 40 lashes minus one, three times beaten with rods, once he was stoned, etc.)...then he had us imagine what his back must have looked like after all of that abuse...it put our image of Paul in a much different light
  
• Connection
• There has been a migration in our society from rural (with huge wraparound porches) to urban (small front porch) to suburban (no front porch and gaping garage to swallow you up)...Starbucks created a front porch for us to visit and connect in
• Society has given us relationship ministers (Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Oprah)...shows that we are hungry for relationships
• The first commandment in the Bible is to eat freely from any tree in the Garden; the last is to drink freely; everything in between is the table at which we sit and dine with Jesus
• His point: The church needs to be a place where people can connect with one another...also, it is not enough to make the church that kind of place...the Great Commission says to go, so we need to be creating that kind of community wherever we find ourselves

This is a very cursory summary of what Sweet had to say in the first part of the seminar...and not nearly as profound as what he actually presented...needless to say, he gave me plenty to chew on as far as what the youth ministry at La Croix looks like...so much to think about, so little time...

Lessons Learned From The Bunny Slope

This past weekend I went with my wife and her family to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia for my first ever skiing experience...I have never been a big winter sports kind of guy...my idea of winter sports is watching college basketball while I lay in the recliner under a blanket...I tried ice skating once and almost died when I fell head-first onto the ice...so I was feeling not just a little trepidation for what would happen...to make a long story short, I didn't break anything, contrary to what I thought would happen...granted, I didn't make it off the bunny slope, but people were still getting injured on it, so for me to not get a broken something was still an accomplishment...and while I was there, I recognized quite a few life lessons that can be gleaned from my skiing weekend...it's sort of like Everything I Needed To Know In Life I learned While Skiing (or if not everything, at least a few things)...in no particular order:

• Anything worth having is going to take some work and pain
• Our day started on Friday by getting suited up and starting off with a three-hour lesson...so here we are, in the fog and snow, learning how to do advanced things like taking steps and moving...our instructor, a former Baptist evangelist, was showing us how to walk sideways up a hill...that wasn't so hard, but I can honestly say that my feet have never hurt as bad as they were at that time...I don't know if there was just no support in the boots or if I was just using my feet in a way I had never done before, but I was literally leaning on my wife trying to take some of the pressure off (she apparently was in no pain at all)...I was tempted to quit, but I figured that giving it only a half-hour was not exactly the 'old college try'...
• Then later, as we skiied, going straight was great...but then, at some point, I would have to stop or turn...that was not as great...it wasn't as easy as turning or stopping when walking...I actually had to think about it to do these things..."O.K., now which foot do I put pressure on? What do I do with the other foot? Is it called a wedge or a pizza? Why does this snow taste so gross?"...and invariably, I would wipe out...fortunately, none of my spills were bad; I was, after all, on the bunny slope...but as I watched as lots of other people, young and old, glide down the hill, I thought, "I wonder how many times they fell down?"...I'm sure it took lots and lots of spills and wipeouts to get as good as they are...so I guess if you want to get good at something and get to the point where it is actually enjoyable, you have to put the time and effort in and be willing to deal with some pain along the way...
• Pride doesn't get you anywhere
  
• As mentioned already, I didn't make it off the bunny slope...Marcy's niece, who is eight years old, made it up to the next level, the green slopes...I think, in my past, I would have taken this as a challenge to my manhood..."There's no way I'm going to let an eight year old girl be better than me! I'm going to the black diamond!"...and then they would be picking up my remains off of the mountain...you know what, in certain things, I'm pretty much OK with being a wuss...I may get made fun of, but at least I can walk today...
• Focus on the goal, or the day to day will wear you out
• On the second day of our trip, we went to a tubing run...they had four runs on the side of this huge hill with a mound of snow and ice between each one so you were sure to stay in your lane...we each had an inner tube on which we sat or laid down while sliding down this hill...each of the lanes were basically solid ice, so we were flying down this hill...it was very much fun, even when a group of us hit the wall at the end and I fell on my back on the ice (ouch!)...off to the side was a cable system that would pull us to the top of the hill...we would give the handle of our tube to the worker and he would hook it to this cable and it would pull us to the top of the hill for another run...all except for the first time, I laid on my belly while being pulled to the top...my neck was kinda' hurting from skiing (wrecking) and it hurt to look up, so I was staring down at the ice as it whizzed past while I made my way up the mountain...not a great view, and not very relaxing...but then I forced myself to look up at the top of the hill...it felt very serene to do this as I glided up the hill...I could see the line of people as they laughed and talked while waiting for their next turn to go down...I am reading Visioneering by Andy Stanley, started it on this trip...in it he writes, "God is using your circumstances to prepare you to accomplish his vision for your life. Your present circumstances are part of the vision. You are not wasting your time. You are not spinning your wheels. You are not wandering in the wilderness. If you are 'seeking first' his kingdom where you are, then where you are is where he has positioned you. And he has positioned you with a purpose in mind. (p. 45)"...it's easy to look at the day to day and feel like I am spinning my wheels, like I am just trying to stay afloat, like the ice of life is just whizzing by...but in my life and in my ministry I must look ahead to the long-range goals and plans...the reason I am once again looking for a stupid game to play or video to show to the youth is because I want them to enjoy coming to church so they can begin and maintain a relationship with Christ...the reason I am doing the dishes again or doing another home project is so that I can serve my wife and be an example of what Christ is with the church (I don't always do this example so well)...focus on the finish line, not on the step in front of you...

That's enough for now...I'm sure there is more, but I'm feeling hungry and would like to go to lunch...until later...

Mark DeVries

He came to our church this past weekend for an Understanding Your Teenager seminar...I lined this up to be a ministry to our students by being a ministry to their parents...man, it was a great seminar!...we had close to 70 parents show up...if you are one of my youth ministry friends, or are in another area of ministry, I would highly recommend that you bring this group to do a seminar for your parents...the speaker takes the parents through twelve truths about teenagers and what to do about them...I'm not giving them to you...if i did, you wouldn't need them to come to your church...anyway, I think that the seminar was not only informative, but also very encouraging...Mark said two general things in particular that would be especially encouraging if I had teenagers of my own:

1. If your kids are acting like aliens and you think you are screwing up, you are not alone and you are actually doing your job well.
2. We Win (since the kids end up acting like their parents, much to their dismay, in a sense the parents win in the long run)...funny stuff.

On a side but related note, Mark also provided some very helpful info regarding youth ministry...he has been a youth a family minister in Nashville for several years...the two things that stood out in that conversation were:

1. Leave time each week for "balcony time" (taken from a business book)...what this means is setting aside a couple of hours each week to look at the ministry from above - from the balcony - and to look ahead...where do you want to take the ministry and how do we get there?...it is very easy to get caught up in the day to day and get wrapped up in the urgent...but if you don't take the time to get the birds-eye view, you/I will just be running on the treadmill but not really getting anywhere...maybe I'll start this next week.
2. Tips on recruiting...he suggested that I compile a list of 100 potential youth leaders (which means spending more time in the lobby before and after services and getting to know people)...categorize the list into the Michael Jordans (they would be so money if they were a youth leader, the 'they would be good leaders', and the 'probably would need some work but they would be OK'...this should be done in the early spring (now) to get ready for the fall...from there, start making phone calls, start spreading the vision, and start praying (I added that)...I have my work cut out for me...

On a final side note, Mark was a great guy, very warm and very funny...I was glad to meet him...kinda' strange that he wanted to be in bed by 8pm, but who am I to judge?...heck, he's training for a marathon and I just finished a cinnamon roll...

The Pressure is On

A while back, JD Walt asked me to check out the blog page for Asbury Seminary, which I did...I shot him back an e-mail asking when my blog was going to be featured on the site...mostly I was kidding because I read some of the stuff that was posted there and I knew that mine certainly did not belong...I mean, they talk about theology and important stuff...mostly I talk about sports and movies and junk...well, I glanced at their new updated site and discovered that my blog has been listed...the pressure is now officially on...I need to come up with some deep thoughts about preaching in a postmodern culture or some pithy commentary on the writings of Augustine or a thesis on expressing hospitality in a generation of relativity...or maybe I'll just keep being me and keep writing about Napoleon Dynamite and about how excited I am that the Browns will name a new coach next week...yeah, I like that option...