Is all Sin Equal in God's Eyes?<< MORE >>

Our Student Evangelism Conference concluded yesterday afternoon at the Arlington Convention Center. We had an awesome time! Our program included speakers Jay Lowder and Jose Zayas, bands Spur58, Leeland, and Hawk Nelson, and illusionist Jared Hall. We had over 2500 in attendance << MORE >>

A new thought came to mind recently. I started looking at some of the student ministries I've travelled to recently and in the past. I also started looking back at some of the various church ministries I've been a part of over the years and I began to wonder...have our churches become more of a catering service than a beacon of light? Have we allowed society to change what we do and how we do it so much that we can barely recognize who we are? Have we taken on such a seeker-centered mentality that our ministries have taken on an "anything goes" mentality? I wonder, have we become more of a catering service than a church? Have our student ministries been so focused on getting students interested through games, programming, etc., that we no longer preach the Gospel or when we do preach the Gospel, we water it down to a point that there is no conviction or cost involved.

So I spawn a question to all who read this, have our churches and more specifically, our student ministries, become more of a catering service rather than the body of Christ whose sole purpose is not to bunker down, but to push back the forces of darkness? I would love to hear any thoughts that you have on this question whether you agree or disagree. Maybe we can even throw out some alternatives to correct this slippery path we're on.

Well, we have almost completed the first leg of our 2008 Disciple Now Tour. Our tour began a few weeks ago when I led a small group of junior guys at Wedgwood BC's DNow in Fort Worth. The following weekend we travelled through over 8 hours of ice to finally reach the final destination of the buzzing metropolis of Dumas, AR (just Google it, but you may have to squint to actually see the dot on the map). This past weekend I was at Parkhills BC in San Antonio, TX. Next week our team will be at Allen Heights BC in Allen, TX.

God has been great! Two weeks ago when we were in the cotton fields of Dumas, AR, God truly worked. When we arrived in Dumas and met some of the students, I thought that they were the most stuck-up group of teens that I had ever met! I was really shocked. Well, either my perception was totally wrong or God really did a miraculous work because when we left there, that youth ministry was completely changed! Now I've seen some miraculous changes among individual lives, but I don't think I've ever seen an entire youth ministry change like that! It was awesome. The church decided to use our FOCUS bible study which has a session that teaches students how to share their testimony. The group of 8th grade guys decided to take this new found knowledge of sharing their testimony and sharing the Gospel to a new level. They decided to go into the Fred's department store in town and share the Gospel. Now, earlier that day the employees of Fred's had asked our group to leave because they were simply doing an act of kindness by pushing all of the carts from the parking lot back into the store. They experienced rejection, but they didn't give up. Later that day they returned, but this time equipped with the Gospel! The proceeded to share the Gospel with a woman in the store. Tears nearly immediately began to pour down her face as the news of what Jesus did for her and us became more real. Later that night, that woman attended the Gathering worship service. She came up to me afterwards and told me this story. She said that earlier that morning she was reading in a devotional book that she had at her house. She hasn't read the devotional book very much, in fact, it had a good amount of dust on it. The section that she chose to read that morning was in Daniel 3. Well, the sermon that I preached that night was also Daniel 3. She approached me afterward knowing that none of the events of that day (the reading of the devotional, the 8th grade guys sharing the Gospel with her, or even attending a youth worship service) were just random circumstances. She knew that God had intended. 3 students accepted Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior of their lives that night! Praise God!

This past weekend in San Antonio, I had the awesome opporutnity to speak at a church's DNow which they call Revolution Weekend. Now, this church is in an interim period. In fact, the interim youth minister doesn't have a college degree, isn't married, nor does he have an extensive background in youth work. I'm sure the church thought that this event would be a numerical and maybe even a spiritual failure. 160 students signed up and a total of 221 people were involved in the event. This was the second highest number in the churches history. Even beyond those attendance statistics, 6 people came to know Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior of their lives on Saturday night.  Isn't our God good?

Two blog entries in three days isn't too bad. So the journey begins. Many people would probably label me as baptist, more specifically Southern Baptist. In fact, some people would probably assign that label to me before the Christian label. This does not mean that my life doesn't reflect Christ. Rather, my denominational involvement and doctrinal stances sometimes have precedence with some people over the real issue of Christ residing within me. Yes, I attend an SBC seminary. Yes, I lead a ministry for an SBC state convention. And yes, I agree with the doctrines and beliefs of the SBC(though I sometimes disagree with the method that these beliefs are used and abused). However, I do diagree with some of the ministry approaches that some of our SBC entities utilize to spread the Gospel to the lost both nationally and internationally.

Church planting is a definite must when attempting to accomplish the Great Commission. Church planting is also very effective! This was the model that the early church used to spread. The churches that we are a part of today were likely birthed out of church plants. The problem I have seems to be a relatively new shift and is most definitely not exclusive to the SBC.  People and organizations seem to give up more easily now on existing, struggling churches than they did merely a decade ago. Disgruntled church members often say they don't like what's going on so they either move to another church or take a group of people and start a new one. In regards to the SBC(since this the denomination I am most knowledgable of), they examine the effectiveness of the existing churches reaching the lost. After seeing how ineffective our churches often are, they fund and create new church plants that will hopefully be effective. With many church planting strategies in the U.S.(urban and western) and in some foreign lands this works. The abyss, however, seems to increasing.

What abyss am I writing of? The black hole that continues to suck in ineffective churches. I'm the first one to agree that it is likely more difficult to change an established church into being more evangelistic or to take up this ministry strategy than it would be to start a new church with that ministry strategy. The reason for this--the church is not a building, rather it's people!  Our denominational organizations also exude the same steadfastness(or lack therof) that some of our church members do--when the going gets tough, we move on and create something new.  In North America this doesn't seem to be as much of an issue due to the NAMB, State Conventions, and local associations. Such entities continue to fund ministries focused on helping exisiting churches reach children, youth, adults, etc. "The Ezekiel Project" is a new ministry of our state convention that is focused on strengthening the 90% of our churches that are in decline or are ineffective. The international arm of our denomination, however, seems to be focused mostly on planting churches so much that often recent church plants are neglected. Foreign mission trips through the IMB are more often focused on doing the leg work of eventual church plants or recent church plants. Now I am not saying that we should decrease our church planting efforts. I just think we need to re-evaluate.

This whole through process began over a year ago when I began prep-work for starting a youth worker training conference in South Africa. The goal of the conference was to train existing church leaders and even church plant leaders how to better understand and minister to teenagers--an ever-increasing unreached people group. This was NOT going to be a conference to teach an American style of student ministry. I met with quite a few non-SBC church leaders about this and they were very excited. When I contacted the local SBC missionaries, they would only support the conference if it planted new churches. When I mentioned that it would also strengthen existing churches, they backed away. Similar issues have risen with leaders in other countries as well. In understand that this be a personal issue with those individuals as much as it is an organizational one. However, money often reveals where your real passions are. I think this is the case with the IMB.

I do want to make sure taht I'm clear, even to myself. I am not bashing the IMB. Their ministry success has been tremendous! Hundreds of thousands if not millions have been added to God's family through these church planting efforts. My question is how many more hundreds of thousands might be added if we didn't give up so quickly on so-called "ineffective" churches? Could we not also encourage, fund, and provide resources(conferences, materials, etc.) to existing churches that may be seen as ineffective so that they can once again be effective? The IMB may in fact offer this, but from my contact with some of their personnel, they are not very supportive of such ministries.

So here is the idea...the vision that God gave me and a friend awhile back....
Create a youth worker training conference that teaches (1) existing church leaders, (2) existing church members, and (3) church planting leaders in foreign countries to better understand teenagers and how to minister to them. Teaching topics will focus on developmental issues and biblical models as opposed to teaching an American style of student ministry. Indigenous church leaders will then bridge how to apply this adolescent information to their particular cultures and churches. American youth groups will then come into the host country/region and help the churches that attended the conference begin the new ministry to teenagers--teens reaching teens for Jesus Christ. This conference would then expand throughout the country, region, and continent and will eventually be lead solely by indigneous church leaders.

That's the brief version of the vision. We have created a file that provides more details to some of the plans including goals, etc. You may be wondering, "but what about children, adults, etc.?" Well, that's a vision for God to give to someone else or maybe even me in the future..maybe it's you?  Only God knows!

I would love to hear feedback from you guys on this thought process whether you agree or disagree.  Maybe some of you have experienced circumstances that with the IMB that differ from mine. I'd love to hear your side. I really do love what the IMB's doing, I just would like to see a few changes, but who wouldn't. Any thoughts on the whole vision thing, send them on!  If you want, I can send you the more detailed MS Word document.  Peace out!

I'm sure that many of you that read my blog...which is what...2(including me)...started your blogging adventures with the archaic method of handwriting journal entries onto paper.  Well, I have taken up the art of journaling once again.  I've never been disciplined with it which made me horrible at it.  With that said, here is my handwritten journal entry from today.  I would love to hear any of your thoughts, suggestions, or prayers regarding this matter.  Most likely my upcoming blogs will involve this subject and others like it.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Journal Entry 1/14/08…

 

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Well, it's been a long while since I wrote something on my good ol' blog.  I hope to be updating this more often throughout our Spring DNow Tour.  Well, I did want to tell you a little story about an event I spoke at a few weeks back.  I did a lock-in for a church north of Denton, TX just before New Year's.  Lock-ins and me often don't get a long.  I'm one of those guys that consider lock-ins to be ministry suicide.  There just seems to be too much that can go wrong and we all know about that rule (what can go wrong, will go wrong). 

Well, I got out to the lodge where the lock-in was being hosted and started hanging out with the kids.  At around 11pm, a young lady lead us in music and I was scheduled to speak at 12:30 or 1am.  That's right...in the morning.  Might I add that this lodge's only heat source was the large fireplace.  Well, the musician was excellent, but she wasn't a Kutless or TFK which seem to get your adrenaline moving.  After an hour long "concert" it was my turn to bring the Word.  Now don't get me wrong, I love the Word of God, but sometimes students don't have the same passion for God's word that I have.  With the exception of some OT books and the first chapter of Matthew, God's word really invigorates me.  I knew that these students would have a hard time staying awake to hear some guy preach...I knew that I would have a hard time if I was the one listening at 1 in the morning.

Well, it was so cool.  After spending some time in prayer and starting off with some humor, these students seemed to be on the edge of their seats.  The students were incredible attentive not to what I had to say, but to what God was convicting their hearts with.  That night 6 students repented of their sins and gave their lives to Jesus Christ...3 of them stepped out publicly!  Praise God!  To be honest, when I heard what time I was to share the Gospel I got somewhat discouraged because I wasn't sure how effective the Gospel could be at 1 or 2 am!  God definitely fixed that mentality quickly.

You see, the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel at all hours of the day, with all kinds of people, from all walks of life, in all areas of the world.  Too often do we say "well, that won't work with that person...or that won't work there...etc."  The reality is the Gospel of Jesus Christ works anywhere and everywhere.  I have had numerous conversations with co-workers, ministers, seminary students, and even evangelists that say that certain types of evangelism don't work any more.  Some say that only relational evangelism work.  In fact this summer I had a pastor that said that and yet one of our teams still went out door-to-door doing confrontational evangelism.  The cool thing was that the overwhelming majority of the salvations that occurred during that revival week came not through the revival services but through an archaic style of evangelism that most claim doesn't work any more.  Now, I know the argument that a certain style may not work with a certain people group at a certain time, but the reality is that the Gospel works in every situation.  So why don't we just simply give the world that surrounds us the Gospel...or as one great person put it...Give'em Jesus!

OK...so part two of this blog entry took longer than a couple of days.  And since only one person actually responded to my entry I don't feel as bad.  Anyways, here are my thoughts on Embracing Accusations by Shane and Shane.

Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”
The song begins by setting up the scenario.  Shane seems to be struggling with an age old truth that the Father of Lies(of all people) tells us all.  Though God created us in His image, we have fallen, we do not meet the mark, the standard that God has set for His creation.  Ironic that the Father of Lies speaks truth...well at least partly.  Let's continue...

He’s right, halleluia, he’s right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation
OK, it's at this point of the song that I began to disagree.  In fact the first time I heard this song I was wondering what the heck he meant by this.  In fact, at YS, hundreds of people left the worship service at this time likely because they disagreed with the lyrics.  How can someone say that Satan is right?  Satan is never right!  Oh but he is.  He constantly tries to beat us down by saying that we're not good enough nor will we ever be good enough.  We can never gain salvation.  So instead of spurning these truthful accusations of the Devil, sinners need to embrace these accusations.  You may be wondering, what the heck are you talking about.  Well, let's finish working through the lyrics before you completely leave the blog.

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of
God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”
Shane now begins to think a little deeper.  It's almost as if what he has been taught at church, through ministry relationships, etc. seems to have left out the reality of who we're up against on a daily basis.  Could the Father of Lies twist truth to destroy us?  Is he that smart?  I think so!  In fact, Satan probably knows better than any living creature sho God is and who we are.  He knows the penalty of our decisions.  He knows how badly we have fallen.  He knows that when we fall consequences will follow.  This is often a truth we choose not to preach, particularly to students.  Is not the penalty of sin death, not in the physical sense, but the more weighty, spiritual sense.  Death is eternal separation from the God of the Universe.  Wait a minute, is the Devil really right?

He’s right, halleluia, he’s right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation
Oh but I think the Devil is right.  However, just like any good liar, he only tells half of the story.  What he doesn't realize is that he is in fact "preaching the song of the redeemed."  You may be wondering where is this redemption...this song only makes me feel like crap!  Well, as with any good story, song, etc. the ending is the key.  Let's look...

The devil’s singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He’s forgotten the refrain.
JESUS SAVES!!!
You see, the battle has been won.  The devil, just like most politicians tries to butter you up with how bad we really are and how there is no hope, we can never gain salvation.  And guess what...we are a cursed creation, we have ventured so far from the mark that it is impossible for us to ever get back to where we should be.  It's a song that has been around since the exclusion from the Garden.  Oh, but in the midst of trials, temptations, and tragedies we often forget the refrain.  The refrain...the ending...is what the devil doesn't want us to know about.  The devil doesn't want us to know that he has been defeated!  That the keys of death have been snatched away through the redeeming blood of Christ.  The devil is right...we are cursed...we have gone astray...but he's preaching the redemption song that because we are cursed, because we have gone astray, because the penalty of our sin is death we must have a redeemer.  This redeemer is the Christ!  Oh, my Jesus does in fact SAVE! 

This song is almost like Satan whispering in our ears while Jesus sits back letting Satan do his sweet talking.  Jesus knows that not matter how much sweet talking is done, the end remains the same...Jesus wins, Jesus saves!

Thoughts?

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