The Latest

If you’re curious as to what I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been working as a substitute at Carver Early Childhood Center.  It’s a preK center for Bryan ISD.  I will be there through the rest of the school year.  I really enjoy working with young children in an educational setting.  Who would have guessed?  Certainly not me, but it’s really something I enjoy.

I haven’t had much of a chance to push my support raising campaign yet.  I didn’t intend to take such a permanent position, but it really fits right now.  I will spend the summer doing ministry and raising support as well.  In the meantime, I’m of course working closely with the youth group, managing the media communications aspect of our church, and fielding as many elder type situations as possible.  I’m also meeting with a couple of guys who have become great friends.  We are looking to develop a men’s ministry series for the fall.  Since our goal is first of all to create a platform for men to develop genuine friendships, we are doing a lot of things to cultivate our own friendships.  We will probably use a dvd series by John Elderedge called Wild at Heart “Band of Brothers”, which is an 8 week series as a launching point to rally men together.  Hopefully we can top it off with a retreat that will seal some of the seeds sown.

Also, last but not least, Laurie is 11 weeks pregnant!  The due date is November 23rd.  We are so excited.  We are also preparing as much as possible.  It’s gonna be a great year!

Here’s a picture of me in action at Carver, where I’m presently working.  We were dancing at the Cinco de Mayo celebration.  I have been working with all the bilingual classes though I’m not bilingual, but we communicate so well nevertheless.

Gracie’s Baptism

Today I had the honor of baptizing Gracie Duke, a member of our youth group.  A few weeks ago she expressed a desire to get baptized.  She is 14 years old and has a long-standing walk with the Lord, but she is at a point in her life where she wants so much more.  It’s exciting to see this kind of hunger in such a young lady!

We had a great turn out this afternoon.  We met at our pastor’s townhouse community pool.  It was such a beautiful day, and we had a great time of worship and prayer.  I am excited to see what kind of effect this will have on the rest of the youth group.  We have so many young people that are hungry for more of the Lord.  Praise God!

Campout Was a Success

I took the youth boys on a campout last weekend. We had an a great time. We had several adults along with us, and we had incredible weather as well. We camped at Still Creek Ranch, a boys home just outside of town. Three boys from this home actually attend our youth group. We only camped for a night, and the weather was incredible.

In the future I intend to take the boys on more campouts, so this was like a trial run. I got a better feel for logistics and how I would do it next time. So many of the boys had such a great time that I would bet next time there will be several more who won’t miss it.

Youth Group’s thoughts on Prayer

Two weeks ago at youth group we took fifteen minutes to journal thoughts and questions about prayer. I have compiled a list of quotes that came directly from the youth at LifeChurch. Check out the honesty!

• I pray in my mind; it kind of makes it feel like I’m hand delivering a message to God, but I don’t feel like it’s real. I feel like it’s just a beautiful story that only I get to read about. I don’t see or hear of feel God but I want to so badly. I wish God would just let me see him and touch him so that I know that this is my book, a real story — one that I am in.
• Is having a good/strong prayer life directly correlated to my relationship with God?
• Prayer is a very selfish action for me right now, “just use it when I need it.” Gross
• How do we know for sure that a prayer leaves us at all?
• Is prayer real? Or did someone decide to write it in a book? How do we know at all

Male Initiation

I am devouring research about male initiation.  I truly believe that this accounts for so much of the social disarray among our young people.  And I am enamored with the possibility of rallying the men of our church to first of all submit to God our Father’s initiation process for our own lives, and secondly, to take our young men on a journey into manhood.  If we do not fill this role, then they will turn to follow peers and cheap thrills just to feel alive.

John Eldredge claims that the masculine soul was designed to long for an adventure to live, a battle to fight, and a beauty to rescue.  This sounds like young men to me!  However, most men do not live epic lives that embody these traits.  It’s no wonder that youth are often repulsed by the spirituality of men.  Besides, most young men are essentially fatherless.  Either the father is absent, he’s present but disinterested, or he’s present and abusive.  Any which way, it leaves a boy alone to face the world on his own.  Fatherless.

Eldredge also claims that every boy is asking two questions.  Brace yourself.  1.  Am I loved?  When Jesus was baptized the father’s voice came from declaring “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”  Every boy needs this question answered.  2.  “Do I have what it takes.”  Boys need the opportunity to test their strength, to take risks, and to demonstrate courage in order to answer this question.  But they need a man to initiate them, and help them interpret their victories and failures so that they can rightly discover the answer to this question.  Therefore, boys need validation and they need initiation.

I’ve also been reading a book called Adam’s Return by Richard Rohr.  Wow.  He’s got some brilliant research and insight, but every once in a while he says some really dumb things.  Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water though.  He takes a raw and honest look that is quite refreshing.

Here’s a quote from Rohr’s book, From Wild Man to Wise Man:

In almost all cultures men are not born; they are made.  Much more than for women, cultures have traditionally demanded initiation rites specifically for the boys.  It is almost as if the biological experiences of menstruation and childbirth are enough wisdom lessons for women, but invariably men must be tried, limited, challenged, punished, hazed, circumcised, isolated, starved, stripped, and goaded into maturity.  the pattern is nearly universal, and the only real exceptions are the recent secular West.  Boy scouts, confirmation classes, Lions clubs and Elks clubs have tried to substitute, but with little spiritual effect.

Historically, the program was clear.  The boy had to be separated from protective feminine energy, led into ritual space where newness and maleness could be experienced as holy; the boy had to be ritually wounded and tested, and there experience bonding with other men and loyalty to tribal values, and then have something to give back.  The pattern is so widely documented that one is amazed that we have let go of it so easily.  The contemporary experience of gangs, gender identity confusion, romanticization of war, aimless violence and homophobia will all grow unchecked, I predict, until boys are again mentored and formally taught by  wise elders.

“Back to Basics Through Challenge and Adventure”

I just stumbled across this article in my computer’s archives. I had acquired this when I was working on my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction (which I never completed). I must say that most of the stuff I researched from the world of education was junk, but I found some really good research as well. I am posting the article here for anyone to read. It does use some education lingo, but for the most part it keeps to universal principles that I think you might find to ring true.

Lately, I’ve been studying up on the break down of rites of passage within our society, and I must say that this article seems to follow the pattern of necessary steps to restore social order. Again, the article uses different lingo, and is geared more in terms of social programs. Yet, I can only dream of what would happen if masses of individuals within the church, particularly fathers, would take up this great mandate to lead the youth of our society through this great forging process called adventure or rites of passage.

Download the PDF and read the article for yourself if you so desire:

Back to Basics Through Adventure

The local church and sacrifice

Church is a dangerous place often enough. I don’t know any honest person who hasn’t been burned by the church at one time or another. And I certainly know a lot of people who would never set foot back into a church for that very reason.

Yet I find there is a sinister irony at work. On the one hand, many people complain that the church is just an institution. Some follow Christ but aren’t part of the institutional church, and some don’t follow Christ at all for the same reason. I’ve certainly had my bitter moments with institutional Christianity. I agree that the church is the people and not the buildings and programs to which “church” so often refers. However, I find that people including myself oftentimes grow bitter with their local church because it’s not doing what we want. “This isn’t the way I want it” or “that could be done better”, and “why don’t we (meaning “they”, i.e., the leadership) do x,y, and z?” It’s as though there is this passive force within the human soul that wants a welfare institution. Now, I don’t doubt that some churches have power structures that would never allow regular lay-people to do some new thing — that’s oppressive. But there’s plenty of unwarranted belly-aching that merely perpetuates the whole institutional cycle. We’ve got the clergy and the laymen. The clergy need to make me happy or I’m going to bail!

Honestly, I’m just pondering this phenomenon with a clear conscience. I am not involved in any situations presently that would fit this bill, so I’m not venting or anything. Instead, I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming of a church that would wake up and get it:

Ask not what my church can do for me, but what I can do for my church.

This morning, as I pondered how we’re ever going to become a relevant force in society, the Lord brought this scripture Haggai 1:3-8 to mind:

3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD.

This came to me not as a word written long ago, but as a word that is being spoken this very moment. It has the sound of responsibility and sacrifice. We might have given up on the dream for which the apostle Paul gave his life. We might even say like the people in verse 2: “The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built.” But it is time to consider our ways.

Bill Moyers Interview with Mayor Cory Booker of Newark

I just saw a great interview with Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, NJ.  INSPIRATIONAL!  I think I might go back and watch this one several times.  He spoke like a man who truly understands the responsibility of freedom.  No blame-shifting and empty promises here.  At one point he said,

“We have the statue of Liberty, but I believe on the other side we should have the statue of responsibility.”

Follow the link and you can watch the whole thing on PBS.  Or you can download the videopodcast on iTunes.

Crisis Chaplaincy Training

I am currently in Houston going through a Chaplaincy Crisis Certification training class. I first heard about this concept about two years ago. Rick Joyner wrote about the value of this training in retrospect of Hurricane Katrina. He and his staff had gone through this training, and they had also taken a FEMA crisis intervention class as well.

The primary reason is that the church might have good intentions, but we can’t go behind the lines if we don’t have the credentials. Since 911 this kind of training has sprung up on a wide scale. The particular association that I am going through is based in Harris County in conjunction with Dr. Haynes expertise and training. Check out the site: faith based counseling.

Youth Boys Campout

I am planning a campout for the youth boys on April 19th. Please pray that I would find several men willing to help make this event be all that it can be. I am only at the beginning of this ministry, and I know I must take baby steps. This is why I’m doing something now. I’m going to step out and step out again and again while believing the Lord for the increase.

My dream is to see a convergence of our men’s ministry with the youth boys. I fully intend to take our youth boys out on excursions and adventures as much as possible. And I hope to recruit more and more men to play a fathering role on these excursions.