I am going to Romania in a few short hours.
I hope to see all of you when I get back.
Wednesday Night was one part awesome, many parts fun, and too many parts frustrating. We talked about friends. That was goodness.
Kevin and I also talked about church yesterday. I'm beginning to become more RCC than I ever thought possible. I think it may have to do with the fact that I'm growing up missional in a world that's still fighting to hang on to what it's known and done for so many years.
I've got to go. I hope to have a good long conversation with somebody on the plane, or else Hayden Panetierre or somebody else freaking hott better be on the plane too because I'm not sure how I"m going to survive 13 hours on a plane.
Love you guys
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Ephesians 4:11-16
I've called it "The Missional Message" in my mind. I've never actually spoken those words out loud, but I've had them bouncing around inside my head.
I've been struggling for a while, as you may have noticed, with where to go and where to take the youth. I want the work that I do to amount to something, but at the same time, I don't know what that something is. Well, now I think I might.
It came to me last week as I was mowing the yard. La Familia. I had no idea what it was, but at the same time it wasn't exactly mine so how could I? How does a father know another man's child? He doesn't, at first. Somebody has to teach him, break him in, let him see what the child is. That's how it was with me and La Familia, at first. La Familia is a ministry. It's a family. It's a group of people drawn together by common life experiences where they can learn to relate to one another and experience the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ in community. In a healthy and growing church community.
It's what I think God wants me to do with the youth I'm working with. It's what I think He is showing me so that I can begin to show the youth a way of loving God and loving others. It is a place where youth can be equipped "to do [God's] work and build up the church...that [they] will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ...[they] will no longer be like children...becoming more and more in every way like Christ...so that the whole Body is healthy and growing and full of love."
Really, what it's coming out to be is a Wednesday night bible study that can develop and grow into more, smaller Familias in time. It is the step before small groups. It is the transition period in between all that they know church to be right now, and what a small group can do for them in the future.
But before La Familia can be properly inaugurated, the -- the youth -- need to be shown the values of such a community where people can be drawn together. They need to see what measure of stature they'll be growing into and know what kind of truth and love is out there for them to give to the lost.
That's what I'm doing this summer. Preparing the way for La Familia.
I really wish I could write more, but I have got to go.
I've been struggling for a while, as you may have noticed, with where to go and where to take the youth. I want the work that I do to amount to something, but at the same time, I don't know what that something is. Well, now I think I might.
It came to me last week as I was mowing the yard. La Familia. I had no idea what it was, but at the same time it wasn't exactly mine so how could I? How does a father know another man's child? He doesn't, at first. Somebody has to teach him, break him in, let him see what the child is. That's how it was with me and La Familia, at first. La Familia is a ministry. It's a family. It's a group of people drawn together by common life experiences where they can learn to relate to one another and experience the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ in community. In a healthy and growing church community.
It's what I think God wants me to do with the youth I'm working with. It's what I think He is showing me so that I can begin to show the youth a way of loving God and loving others. It is a place where youth can be equipped "to do [God's] work and build up the church...that [they] will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ...[they] will no longer be like children...becoming more and more in every way like Christ...so that the whole Body is healthy and growing and full of love."
Really, what it's coming out to be is a Wednesday night bible study that can develop and grow into more, smaller Familias in time. It is the step before small groups. It is the transition period in between all that they know church to be right now, and what a small group can do for them in the future.
But before La Familia can be properly inaugurated, the -- the youth -- need to be shown the values of such a community where people can be drawn together. They need to see what measure of stature they'll be growing into and know what kind of truth and love is out there for them to give to the lost.
That's what I'm doing this summer. Preparing the way for La Familia.
I really wish I could write more, but I have got to go.
So I've got problems
Today is the day that shall be known as Dia de los Distractions.
I have been distracted all day long, and I needs to be leavin's in 'bout 'n hour. Somebody please pray for me.
Can I get an amen?
I promise to blog up last week and this when I get home. I needs to.
I have been distracted all day long, and I needs to be leavin's in 'bout 'n hour. Somebody please pray for me.
Can I get an amen?
I promise to blog up last week and this when I get home. I needs to.
Monday, June 18, 2007
So much to blog and so little energy with which to do it
If the week before last was the week of physical and emotional exhaustion, then last week was the week of spiritual and mental exhaustion.
I have much more to say on this matter, however my brain is fried. Actually, my head is still hurting from this morning.
What I can say is exciting things are to occur within my circle. Exciting things.
Martha, if you ever read this, I love you. Don't call during nap times.
Good bye
I have much more to say on this matter, however my brain is fried. Actually, my head is still hurting from this morning.
What I can say is exciting things are to occur within my circle. Exciting things.
Martha, if you ever read this, I love you. Don't call during nap times.
Good bye
Monday, June 11, 2007
A Further Explanation Might Be Due At This Time
Allow me to expand on the Christmas Tree (if you can't see it my prayers are with you) of words I posted...was it yesterday?
Wednesday Night I spoke about Spiritual Gifts. Mainly, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. The more and more I prayed into it, and the more and more I allowed God to mold me and the message through His Spirit, the more and more I began to get out of what I was preparing.
"Now there are different kinds of Spiritual Gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us." 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (NLT)
This sounds vaguely familiar if you sat in on last Wednesday's discussion. When you re-read the parts in purple, and then compare it to verse 13, the argument for unity in diversity really comes to the forefront. We see that though we may be "Jews or Greeks," and though there may be "different kinds of Spiritual Gifts/service/ways for God to work in our lives," it is God that unites us all in His Spirit.
Call me crazy, but I find the Apostle Paul to be outright crazy-smart. The rest of Wednesday Night was built around this theme and verse 7, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (church)." (NOAB) The main charge of what I wanted to communicate was God manifests Himself in our lives in diverse ways through the power of the Holy Spirit, yet we are brought together by that Spirit and the manifestation in order to protect/preserve/expand the church -- or Kingdom, depending on your view.
It was good, at least, it was good for me.
Aside from this, I am struggling with my position. I feel like what I'm doing isn't really building into a part of a long-term vision. In fact, I've got about 2 months to the day left working with these kids. Add in the obvious that they're not exactly my culture and that I'm not actually a part of their church community and you find me at the state I'm in now. I'm not feeling as if what I'm doing is worth it. I am getting valuable training and experience that can be hard to get elsewhere -- even in Belton, of all places -- but it's really hard for me to get up every morning and have the burning desire to connect with the kids. I'm afraid that a month after I'm gone, most of what I'll have worked on over the summer will amount to a fun summer with a whiteboy who talked too much in their hearts and memories. The spanish church is supportive and excited about my presence and involvement with the youth, but I don't really know how much good I'm going to do.
In my opinion, if I were to honestly do some legitimate, lasting good for their family, I would need to take over teaching every Wednesday Night and Sunday Morning. Anahi, the pastor's daughter who has been serving as temporary "youth minister" for these kids, would take a passenger's seat to the summer's activities and I would devote most of my time with her to training her to cast a vision, develop a strategy to bring that vision to life, and then put it in action. However, that's not what's going on. Instead, I teach on Wednesday's and she on Sunday's, and our relationship is one of mutual status and respect. Works out fine, except it's kind of lazy, considering what I could be doing.
Don't get me wrong, I like that I have a good relationship with Anahi and that I'm getting to do as much as I am doing. The problem is that I'm starting to not feel content with the direction things are going and the effort I'm putting into it versus the projected returns I'm anticipating. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should consider some sort of meeting with Anahi and explain to her the change of plan and put into practice something more like what I described above; or if I should just keep my mouth shut, teach a mediocre lesson, talk the talk, and get my paycheck at the end of the month; or pray that God helps me figure it out, because I don't really feel like it's working.
That aside, Sunday Morning was interesting, to say in the least. The youth completed a Spiritual Gift inventory from Aubrey Malphurs' book Maximizing Your Effectiveness. The results were incedibly thought provoking. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 inventories turned in. There were 11 different gifts on the inventory, but the Top 5 were supposed to be the "Gift Cluster." There was a possible 5-25 points for every gift, depending on the answers given for various questions. So, if every youth had 25 points for one particular gift, the composite score of that gift for the group would be 350 (please note that this is not official according to Malphurs' book. I'm using my own method of adding all the scores for each different gift together. I made it up.), and the lowest it could score would be 0, if none had it (this is according their reported Gift Clusters).
The gift of Faith had a composite group score of 202. The lowest gift was Teacher, at 15. This caused me to wonder if gifts can be shaped by culture. Maturity is obvious, but I wonder if I gave the inventory to 14...forgive me "white" youth if the highest composite group score would be for another gift. Interesting thought for me.
The only thing else I have to add at this point is that I began my summer study on Greek last Thursday. My dad found out he had skin cancer (melanoma) Friday the 1st, and he had surgery to remove it on Thursday the 7th at Medical City Dallas. While we were waiting for his surgery time, he ran me through the basics of the Greek alphabet, the nature of dipthongs, breathing marks, and basic punctuation. I also made flash cards of the alphabet and practiced reading and pronouncing vocabulary words from the dictionary, starting with "Alpha." Pretty cool stuff. Daniel, if you're reading this, you're going to be so jealous.
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday Night I spoke about Spiritual Gifts. Mainly, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. The more and more I prayed into it, and the more and more I allowed God to mold me and the message through His Spirit, the more and more I began to get out of what I was preparing.
"Now there are different kinds of Spiritual Gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us." 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (NLT)
This sounds vaguely familiar if you sat in on last Wednesday's discussion. When you re-read the parts in purple, and then compare it to verse 13, the argument for unity in diversity really comes to the forefront. We see that though we may be "Jews or Greeks," and though there may be "different kinds of Spiritual Gifts/service/ways for God to work in our lives," it is God that unites us all in His Spirit.
Call me crazy, but I find the Apostle Paul to be outright crazy-smart. The rest of Wednesday Night was built around this theme and verse 7, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (church)." (NOAB) The main charge of what I wanted to communicate was God manifests Himself in our lives in diverse ways through the power of the Holy Spirit, yet we are brought together by that Spirit and the manifestation in order to protect/preserve/expand the church -- or Kingdom, depending on your view.
It was good, at least, it was good for me.
Aside from this, I am struggling with my position. I feel like what I'm doing isn't really building into a part of a long-term vision. In fact, I've got about 2 months to the day left working with these kids. Add in the obvious that they're not exactly my culture and that I'm not actually a part of their church community and you find me at the state I'm in now. I'm not feeling as if what I'm doing is worth it. I am getting valuable training and experience that can be hard to get elsewhere -- even in Belton, of all places -- but it's really hard for me to get up every morning and have the burning desire to connect with the kids. I'm afraid that a month after I'm gone, most of what I'll have worked on over the summer will amount to a fun summer with a whiteboy who talked too much in their hearts and memories. The spanish church is supportive and excited about my presence and involvement with the youth, but I don't really know how much good I'm going to do.
In my opinion, if I were to honestly do some legitimate, lasting good for their family, I would need to take over teaching every Wednesday Night and Sunday Morning. Anahi, the pastor's daughter who has been serving as temporary "youth minister" for these kids, would take a passenger's seat to the summer's activities and I would devote most of my time with her to training her to cast a vision, develop a strategy to bring that vision to life, and then put it in action. However, that's not what's going on. Instead, I teach on Wednesday's and she on Sunday's, and our relationship is one of mutual status and respect. Works out fine, except it's kind of lazy, considering what I could be doing.
Don't get me wrong, I like that I have a good relationship with Anahi and that I'm getting to do as much as I am doing. The problem is that I'm starting to not feel content with the direction things are going and the effort I'm putting into it versus the projected returns I'm anticipating. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should consider some sort of meeting with Anahi and explain to her the change of plan and put into practice something more like what I described above; or if I should just keep my mouth shut, teach a mediocre lesson, talk the talk, and get my paycheck at the end of the month; or pray that God helps me figure it out, because I don't really feel like it's working.
That aside, Sunday Morning was interesting, to say in the least. The youth completed a Spiritual Gift inventory from Aubrey Malphurs' book Maximizing Your Effectiveness. The results were incedibly thought provoking. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 inventories turned in. There were 11 different gifts on the inventory, but the Top 5 were supposed to be the "Gift Cluster." There was a possible 5-25 points for every gift, depending on the answers given for various questions. So, if every youth had 25 points for one particular gift, the composite score of that gift for the group would be 350 (please note that this is not official according to Malphurs' book. I'm using my own method of adding all the scores for each different gift together. I made it up.), and the lowest it could score would be 0, if none had it (this is according their reported Gift Clusters).
The gift of Faith had a composite group score of 202. The lowest gift was Teacher, at 15. This caused me to wonder if gifts can be shaped by culture. Maturity is obvious, but I wonder if I gave the inventory to 14...forgive me "white" youth if the highest composite group score would be for another gift. Interesting thought for me.
The only thing else I have to add at this point is that I began my summer study on Greek last Thursday. My dad found out he had skin cancer (melanoma) Friday the 1st, and he had surgery to remove it on Thursday the 7th at Medical City Dallas. While we were waiting for his surgery time, he ran me through the basics of the Greek alphabet, the nature of dipthongs, breathing marks, and basic punctuation. I also made flash cards of the alphabet and practiced reading and pronouncing vocabulary words from the dictionary, starting with "Alpha." Pretty cool stuff. Daniel, if you're reading this, you're going to be so jealous.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Longest Week Ever
Last week was just about the longest week ever, and, as it stands right now, I really don't feel like blogging.
Let's sum it up in a montage of words, okay?
Let's sum it up in a montage of words, okay?
The Dump
18 hr work week
Working with my people
$10 an hour and yet no payday
Manual Labor; Building Fences; Sunburn
Friends who aren't friends; and too many TMs
Skin Cancer; Melanoma, and the Longest Day of My Life
Spiritual Gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 18; Community Building
traffic in downtown Dallas; Graduation; attractive girls at DBU; free Sonic
Mattie Billington and the girl whose angelic face possesses mi corazon; burnt soup
playing in a rigged volleyball game and showing them up; X-Men \/; Alber and Pettijohns
finding my family at Lifepoint; teaching Spanish Sunday School; Roger Landon Taylor
Spiritual Gifts; liking my Lifepoint family; Valie; Valentin and Geoffrey
sending Anna off on her first Missions Trip; Craig's List
trying to get my life back in gear; reading
Blogger and sleeping parents
Graffiti sucks
Popcorn
The End
Friday, June 1, 2007
This Week
This week we talked about the Body of Christ, and diversity in unity, and the necessity for both. The scripture passage we used is 1 Corinthians 12. Specifically, 12-14 and 18-20. Sunday they will be talking and learning about how the members of the Body work together. The scriptures passage is the same, except the verses are 14-26 or 27, I think.
The verse that kind of carries the theme for this series is 1 Corinthians 12:18, "But as it is, God aranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose."
This verse really speaks to me for a number of reasons. One, because I'm a bit intoxicated with the "post-modern persuasion," to put it...rather amusingly. This verse totally suggests, to me at least, the idea of a "post-modern church," shall we call it, in which God has so deliberately and delicately placed each character in the narrative of the church family exactly where he/she should be. To me, this verse affirms the individuality of each church and each church's mission, and at the same time bestows upon each church the love and favor of God.
I really love this verse. There have been a few that I have read over the years that have spoken to me louder than a screaming baby on a crowded plane, and this one does just that. I'm in love with it. The only thing I wish was here was some serious character application. You don't get a whole lot of that out of this verse, except the affirmation and charge that God has placed us in the church for a reason, and we should be fulfilling that reason.
Anyway, to move on.
Something I'm struggling with -- maybe I shouldn't say struggle, maybe, working through -- is the fact that I'm working entirely with an hispanic community. Some are Mexican, some Peruvian or Venezuelan (sp?), some maybe even Dominican or Honduran. Growing up in Midlothian as a sheltered little white boy that went to a sheltering little white church and now working entirely with hispanics takes me way out of my league. Way out of my culture.
At MHS, I naturally adopted the similar arrogant disrespect of the white students for most all hispanic students that also carried with it a hint of fear simply because their culture was foreign to our own. Simply, I didn't like them because I thought I was better, but I was scared of them because I didn't know them.
Being at Lifepoint now, however, is really pushing those perceptions. I'm having to learn to see past that arrogant disrespect and shallow fear, and see these kids as my friends and family and love them as that.
Today, I worked alongside two Mexican gentlemen who send all their money home to their family to support them so they can live. One of these gentlemen was telling me that school in Mexico is too expensive for him to afford, so he never went. He came to America to make money to send home. The other guy I was working with was 17. When I was 17 I was a jackass, to put it bluntly. I was a jackass to my family and myself, and I almost ruined my life. I spent too much time wasting time. I blew off school even when I could have been making straight As and be in the top of my class. This kid doesn't go to school. He goes and stands out by the post office every morning praying that he gets picked up so he can work and make money and help his family afford a life he may never get to have.
I really struggled today when my supervisor told me to do nothing and "Let them do it." Am I not getting paid just like them? Did I not agree to work for the exact same wages as they did? Am I something more of a human than they are? I seriously struggled with standing around today, watching them dig holes through solid rock and tear out fragments of concrete and then mix80 lb. bags of cement while I measured a string line, or checked to make sure a post was level.
All day my supervisor would talk to me and engage me in conversation. I know him, he knows my family, he's letting me work for him because I need a summer job. Not once did he talk to them. I don't say this to give fault or discredit to my supervisor because he is a good man. I bring this up because this is exactly how I've lived my life for the past 19 years. "Ignore them...let them do it...that's what they're getting paid to do." It breaks my heart to place myself in a position above the people of the spanish speaking community when all that I am doing this summer is see myself as one of them. I really cannot deal with the fact that I'm supposed to accept some sort of preference over them, and yet at the same time I'm loving them as they were my own friends and family, and I'm being paid to teach that we are equals, just like my friends and family.
I can't love the kids, and ignore the parents. God speaks spanish too, and God loves those who speak spanish just as much as He loves those of us who speak english. How can I care about the youth of the church, and yet ignore the men in the streets? This summer is breaking me of some seriously deep reservations and some pretty serious culture barriers I've held pretty firmly for far too long. These cultural barriers are too prevalent in all of society. I cannot sweat and dig and work alongside these gentlemen and teach students who are not so removed from these men's very status and position in life and still think of myself and percieve myself as worthy of "letting them do it." If these men can recieve God's love just as I do, then I should be just as willing to give just as much of myself to get the job done as they do.
The people of the spanish-speaking community are looking for love just as much as those who live in a different community. I am grateful and glad that I'm getting the opportunity to labor and love alongside the people that I have worked so hard to ignore and forget.
The verse that kind of carries the theme for this series is 1 Corinthians 12:18, "But as it is, God aranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose."
This verse really speaks to me for a number of reasons. One, because I'm a bit intoxicated with the "post-modern persuasion," to put it...rather amusingly. This verse totally suggests, to me at least, the idea of a "post-modern church," shall we call it, in which God has so deliberately and delicately placed each character in the narrative of the church family exactly where he/she should be. To me, this verse affirms the individuality of each church and each church's mission, and at the same time bestows upon each church the love and favor of God.
I really love this verse. There have been a few that I have read over the years that have spoken to me louder than a screaming baby on a crowded plane, and this one does just that. I'm in love with it. The only thing I wish was here was some serious character application. You don't get a whole lot of that out of this verse, except the affirmation and charge that God has placed us in the church for a reason, and we should be fulfilling that reason.
Anyway, to move on.
Something I'm struggling with -- maybe I shouldn't say struggle, maybe, working through -- is the fact that I'm working entirely with an hispanic community. Some are Mexican, some Peruvian or Venezuelan (sp?), some maybe even Dominican or Honduran. Growing up in Midlothian as a sheltered little white boy that went to a sheltering little white church and now working entirely with hispanics takes me way out of my league. Way out of my culture.
At MHS, I naturally adopted the similar arrogant disrespect of the white students for most all hispanic students that also carried with it a hint of fear simply because their culture was foreign to our own. Simply, I didn't like them because I thought I was better, but I was scared of them because I didn't know them.
Being at Lifepoint now, however, is really pushing those perceptions. I'm having to learn to see past that arrogant disrespect and shallow fear, and see these kids as my friends and family and love them as that.
Today, I worked alongside two Mexican gentlemen who send all their money home to their family to support them so they can live. One of these gentlemen was telling me that school in Mexico is too expensive for him to afford, so he never went. He came to America to make money to send home. The other guy I was working with was 17. When I was 17 I was a jackass, to put it bluntly. I was a jackass to my family and myself, and I almost ruined my life. I spent too much time wasting time. I blew off school even when I could have been making straight As and be in the top of my class. This kid doesn't go to school. He goes and stands out by the post office every morning praying that he gets picked up so he can work and make money and help his family afford a life he may never get to have.
I really struggled today when my supervisor told me to do nothing and "Let them do it." Am I not getting paid just like them? Did I not agree to work for the exact same wages as they did? Am I something more of a human than they are? I seriously struggled with standing around today, watching them dig holes through solid rock and tear out fragments of concrete and then mix80 lb. bags of cement while I measured a string line, or checked to make sure a post was level.
All day my supervisor would talk to me and engage me in conversation. I know him, he knows my family, he's letting me work for him because I need a summer job. Not once did he talk to them. I don't say this to give fault or discredit to my supervisor because he is a good man. I bring this up because this is exactly how I've lived my life for the past 19 years. "Ignore them...let them do it...that's what they're getting paid to do." It breaks my heart to place myself in a position above the people of the spanish speaking community when all that I am doing this summer is see myself as one of them. I really cannot deal with the fact that I'm supposed to accept some sort of preference over them, and yet at the same time I'm loving them as they were my own friends and family, and I'm being paid to teach that we are equals, just like my friends and family.
I can't love the kids, and ignore the parents. God speaks spanish too, and God loves those who speak spanish just as much as He loves those of us who speak english. How can I care about the youth of the church, and yet ignore the men in the streets? This summer is breaking me of some seriously deep reservations and some pretty serious culture barriers I've held pretty firmly for far too long. These cultural barriers are too prevalent in all of society. I cannot sweat and dig and work alongside these gentlemen and teach students who are not so removed from these men's very status and position in life and still think of myself and percieve myself as worthy of "letting them do it." If these men can recieve God's love just as I do, then I should be just as willing to give just as much of myself to get the job done as they do.
The people of the spanish-speaking community are looking for love just as much as those who live in a different community. I am grateful and glad that I'm getting the opportunity to labor and love alongside the people that I have worked so hard to ignore and forget.
God speaks Spanish too
I never realized that God spoke spanish until I saw Him speaking to His children in spanish.
If you're wondering what I'm talking about, allow me to explain.
I'm working as an intern for Lifepoint Church of Red Oak, Texas. Specifically, a youth intern. However, there aren't many youth within the Lifepoint body right now, so I now work with the youth of a spanish community church that happens to share the building with Lifepoint. I am the youth minister for approximately 16 hispanic youth-aged gals and guys for the summer.
This blog is about everything I learn, everything I encounter, everything I experience for the summer. I'm hoping to keep it updated as frequently as I can.
I'll put up a post later about the bible study we had Wednesday Night. I've got to get.
If you're wondering what I'm talking about, allow me to explain.
I'm working as an intern for Lifepoint Church of Red Oak, Texas. Specifically, a youth intern. However, there aren't many youth within the Lifepoint body right now, so I now work with the youth of a spanish community church that happens to share the building with Lifepoint. I am the youth minister for approximately 16 hispanic youth-aged gals and guys for the summer.
This blog is about everything I learn, everything I encounter, everything I experience for the summer. I'm hoping to keep it updated as frequently as I can.
I'll put up a post later about the bible study we had Wednesday Night. I've got to get.
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