Inspiration

Do you need inspiration today? I do…everyday. Whenever I need a jumpstart of inspiration I go to this video: Orange Conference 2008 Intro

What do you use to inspire you?

Forgiveness

I’m working on forgiveness. It is extremely hard. Something that helps me is 2 Corinthians 2:10 -

What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ.

I have been talking with a lot of students lately who are dealing with the same issue: Conflict Resolution. In Matthew 18 Jesus speaks to this issue when He explains the parable of the ungrateful servant. In the end the ungrateful servant was worse off than before because even though he was forgiven, he wouldn’t forgive someone who owed him a small amount. Matthew 18:34 says:

Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

That’s what I feel like when I don’t forgive…torture, imprisonment. You see, the people I haven’t forgiven (including my amazing wife) are trapped in a prison because of me, and they don’t even realize it. But, when I see them in the prison and leave them there I find out that I can’t leave when I try to. I’m trapped in my own jail.  My unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy and anger have enslaved me. When I don’t forgive I’m really the one in danger.

Too man times I tell myself, “they really hurt me and don’t even care” or “they are blaming me for something they did!” But forgiveness doesn’t absolve anyone of blame. It doesn’t clear their record with God. It just clears you of having to worry about how to punish them. When I forgive people I am not turning them loose…just turning them over to God to deal with them.

Now, I’ve released my anger and responsibility for judging this person to the Lord! I’m free! I can love my wife the way Christ tells me to. I can care for others without judgmental attitudes. I can not worry about how people have wronged me. How do I know this? When I think of them I don’t get enraged and my temper doesn’t flare up.  I hope this helps someone out there dealing with this as well. Christ wants you to be free!

I once was lost

Have you ever read the book I Once Was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp? I was required to read it for my job and to my surprise I loved the book! I’ve written a one page review here (.doc) but for those of you who are like me and want a super fast summary…

The book explains how people go through five thresholds to come to the faith and now I realize where people are on their faith journey. Evangelism now is more like tailoring conversations to where people are. The book explains how to do this and helps readers understand that people are not projects nor give s specific method to the madness of evangelism. The five thresholds are:

1. Trusting a Christian
2. Becoming curious
3. Opening up to change
4. Seeking after God
5. Entering the Kingdom

I highly recommend that if you work in ministry, especially with college students, to read this book.

Are students even learning anything?

What do you think?

Leadership – Doing well with what you have

Wow, I needed to hear this today. Do you do well with what you have? No I don’t mean possessions. I’m talking about with what, as a leader, you’ve been entrusted with. Over at Swerve Bobby talks about Leading Up. However, you can’t lead up if the person above you can’t trust you with what you already have. I feel this right now as my brain is slap full of ideas of everything that I WANT TO DO. But, sadly enough I can’t even keep up with what I have RIGHT NOW. What do I do? Should I pursue my ideas? No, I need to do well with what I’ve been entrusted to do NOW. What about you? Are you stuck in a rut and want to break out? Here are some questions I am asking myself currently:

1. Can I plan for the Fall yet? (no, I’m barely keeping up with last week)
2. Is my inbox empty? (nope, not even close)
3. Have I invested in the people God has told me to? (yes!)
4. Do I prepare for my LifeGroup/Message/Service more than 1 day before it happens? (no! In fact I prepare for my LifeGroup 1 hour before ugh!)
5. Am I behind on deadlines? (almost)

How can you or I expect to lead up when we can’t even keep up with what we have now?

Unemployed college students

Working with college students helps me see trends in the world. One of which is the economy. For example, students live in this “college” bubble where they really don’t understand what is going on the world. This is good and bad. Good because they don’t fear many things and their passion is not supressed as a result. However, when they graduate reality sets in. Seth Godin states in his blog “that 20 percent of 2009 college graduates who applied for a job actually have one.  So, what should the unfortunate 80% do?”

Here’s when I get many meetings and facebook messages from grads asking “what should I do?” That’s a tough question to answer as the job market really is tough right now. Seth Godin’s post titled “Graduate school for unemployed college students” talks about some charity events, volunteer opps, and how to stay sharp while a student is in this position. What do you think? Are you an unemployed grad? What are you doing? What as ministers can we do to help?

Project Natal

Have you seen Project Natal for the XBOX 360? I don’t know about you but i am blown away right now. The fact that we can truly interact with technology with our whole body in our home fascinates me. Watch this video as Project Natal is able to detect movement, physical objects and even emotions.

Project Natal Demo

How to start a movement

How do you start a movement? Over at Ragamuffin Soul Carlos Whittaker talks about 7 steps to creating a movement. Along with it is an incredible video of a guy dancing by himself in the most awkward way possible (think Elaine from Seinfeld) but then starting a giant dance party. Check it out here.

Here are the seven steps
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

Don’t ever give up…keep going

Awkward Questions

Do you ever wonder what kids are thinking when you have a theological discussion? This has to be one of the funniest videos that puts my thoughts to words. I would love to ask these questions to someone like the Pope!

Digital Natives

Digital Natives is a term being used for people under the age of 30. I just make it into this realm but am not sure if I totally fit the profile. A post by Scott M. talks about how they/we think and react. This generation is definitely different to previous ones in values, communication, expectations and familiarity with tech. Scott posts a list of the most notable aspects of Digital Natives so check it out. But the one that hit me the most was this one:

• Consumers are being replaced by creators. (This might be more of an economic issue, but it will effect you, to be sure.)

Even though this could be considered a more economic issue it does affect me and the BCM and all of college ministry. Onlookers and bystanders are gone. This generation craves to mashup, create, destroy, re-tweak, de-engineer, CHANGE. As a “student run” ministry this is great! I want students to constantly be challenging the mold of ministry, especially the BCM.

What will you do different? How does this affect discipling? evangelism?