Burlington Rodeo

Colby, Trey, and Quinten Rodeod in Burlington this weekend here's the video.

Restore: Hope

Today was a very good day.  We started it off at morning wake up, with underwear races.  The kids were significantly better at it than the sponsors; but we held our own.  The band once again was awesome and did a great job of leading worship.  During d-group each student was told to write down some pressure, stressful thing in their life, or a sin on a piece of tile.  They were told to carry the tile around with them all day.  At night in closing his message, Cody challenged them to bring foreword their tile and lay it at the front of the stage, like they are giving it over to Jesus.  Cody once again did an excellent job of challenging them from Nehemiah 4.  We ended the night by beating each other up on the hanging log.

Restore: Vision

We are in the middle of our first full day of camp here at Horn Creek.  We arrived yesterday at 11.30.  The kids are having a blast.  So far this has been a great camp.  The worship last night was phenomenal.  The kids are doing awesome and I think that they are having a lot of fun.  Our group is growing very tight so far, this is a great thing.  

The first nights theme was Restore: Vision.  They were challenged to see the world around themselves and to open up their eyes to the suffering in the world around them.  It was very powerful.  Ben, Storm, and the band led some rocking worship to start the night off.  Cody came in and really challenged them from Nehemiah 1 and 2.  Then we hiked up to the tubing hill where we looked up at the stars.  It was a great night. 

RESTORE: Jr. High Camp 2009

I am ready to go.  I finished the book today.  Finished my sign and mosaic last week.  Now Jr. High Camp is a short 12 hour bus trip away.  WOO HOO!!!

Do you ever get that feeling...

Its not really of discontentment or regret; dissatisfaction or of worthlessness; but more a curiosity about life.  The last couple weeks seem almost like an out of body experience for me.  It is almost as if I have been watching my own life unfold like a television show.  You can watch the highs and the lows, hearing the music subtly rise and fall with the change in energy level.  

I have been able to take a vacation and fight bulls; seen a lot of kids activities; taught some lessons; and even get ready for the summer; over the last couple weeks.  Still there is a question of unfulfillment surrounding everything that I do.  I reading the other day and one thought kept running through my mind: "I don't even know who I am anymore."  So many things have been happening that are out of my element, it seems as though my personality and who I truly am have been swept aside in the currents and rip-tides that life seems to hold.  

Hear me on this; this is not a crisis of confidence or a question of belonging or worth; but simply a look into the depth of soul.  Charlie Brown is the only other person I have heard voice these thoughts.  It cant be just me and big headed charles brown!

Along the Dividing Lines of Hostility

A school not to far from the church is having an end racism rally this next weekend.  I really don't know why, but they keep sending stuff to me.  Its not that I don't care about racism or that I am racist, I just find it interesting that schools, by whom most are attempting to free from all relgion, would ask me to come to an end racism rally.

Here are my thoughts on this issue.  Any school that teaches the merits of evolution and attempts to free itself from religion, should see the repercussions of racism via this teaching.  Race was a vital factor within the rise of evolution.  Hear me on this, I am not trying to absolve the church from any wrong doing in the manner of slavery during the 1800's.  I know that many churches in the south preached slavery from the pulpit and defended it with the biblical text (some have even gone so far as to suggest black skin as the mark by which we can identify descendants of Cain in Genesis 4.15).  However, when you look at the movements for equality and civil rights, it is impossible to distinguish them from religious movements during those times.  The civil rights movements of the 60's and 70's were championed and birthed from the pulpit (and possibly stunted and starved by social groups like the black panthers, who based their movement upon Marxist philosophy, and other religiously unaffiliated groups).

My point is this: The only equality that can ever be found, arises in our relationship with God.  Only when we view all people as created by God, can we ever begin to put aside the petty differences that we have between men.  The ACLU cannot provide equailty; neither can Legislation.  Marches and hearings can only change things, if the views behind them are equally founded.  The issue at hand is not of rules or actions, but of world-view.  

So any school that would like to end racism or any other problem for that matter; please make sure that your own teachings with in the walls help your cause, not hinder them.  

The only reason to ever view each other equally, is if we all began at the same point, in the same image, with the same purpose.  Without an equal beginning, we will never live in equal living.  Only when we we realize that we ALL were created in the image of God (Gen. 1.27); that we ALL have sinned and fall short of what we were supposed to be (Rom. 3.23); and that God desires to have relationship with ALL of us.

Generational Gaps

I would argue that the world cannot continue to change at its current pace.  Interestingly enough the generational gaps are widening, while the generations are narrowing.  A look over the last 15 years has brought remarkable change to technology, relationships, and life as we know it.  While I do think the rate of change can quicken, I believe that at some point the pace will cease to be improved upon, such as the natural limits for a sprinter in the 100 meter dash (The record can still be improved upon, but will never be 7 flat).  Along with technological advances, generations have been mutating faster than we could ever have imagined.  From the 1830’s to the 1930’s roughly the same style of dress was worn and the same values adhered too.  Likewise, there was little change prior to 1830.  Fashion and values have change greatly over the last decade, at constantly increasing rates.  Technology, in the same way, has slowly been changing quicker and quicker over the last decade.  Cassette tapes held on for 20 years, CD’s are becoming obsolete after 15 (kind of makes you rethink the $300 you dropped on your new ipod, knowing that it might be obsolete in 5 years).  VHS tapes went strong for a long while until usurped by DVDs, only to be supplanted by Blue Ray (if you don’t know what that is, ask your kids). 

            Why the sudden influx in advances and the constant need for change?  Walt Mueller in his book Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture, would attribute the change to a fateful day, November 22, 1964, when Kennedy was assassinated.  Between the atom bomb and Kennedy’s assassination, the world (and most prominently America) no longer believed in the rise of civilization and the upward trend of humanity.  He accredited the rise of postmodern thinking to this twenty year period in America. 

            I say all this for this very reason, the generations are changing at an ever increasing pace due to a lack of respect for truth and a constant Technological advancement.  If the church is unable to keep up and stay applicable; our churches are one generation from dying.  The search for answers; hope; and meaning are what the very church was created for.  

Just something to think about.