Fear or Love - Two Ways to Engage Culture

Photo Credit: dryhead (Creative Commons)

I was hiding. The coffee shop in Fort Langley was supposed to be a sanctuary of sorts, a place where I could quietly study, my headphones and americano protecting me from distraction and sleepiness. I was finishing the final chapter of Richard Mouw's When the Kings Come Marching In, a brief theological study of the vision of the heavenly city in Isaiah 60. Mouw identifies this city with the same heavenly vision from Revelation 21 and 22, examining the city's description and the implications for our present cultural engagement. Mouw contends that the kingdom city will be filled with redeemed culture--art, commerce, technology, politics, race relations, all redeemed by the salvific power of Jesus.

This is when I noticed her talking to me. The woman at the adjacent table was looking at me, her mouth silently moving in the rhythm of speech, drowned out by my in-ear headphones and the latest album from The War on Drugs (a fantastic record, and one worth purchasing). I removed my headphones and apologized. "Sorry, I couldn't hear you." 

Apology quickly accepted, she began her speech again, sharing about the article she was reading about the pending economic crisis. Interest rates would spike, houses would be foreclosed, food would be in scarce supply, and no one sees it coming. She introduced herself as Mary, and asked me what I was reading. I shared that it was a theology book, and she wondered aloud if I was a Christian. I said I was a pastor, and she shared her own brief testimony of faith, how she had been connected with a local church, but currently was searching.

At first, I quietly considered her words with a calm understanding and propriety, though I honestly was looking for an opportunity to place my headphones back in and continue my studies. Then the conversation took a strange turn as she moved from the economic crisis and her faith to the need to hoard food and supplies, buy stock in gold, sell our homes, and move to the north of British Columbia to escape the impending tragedy. She spoke of concentration camps being built in California intended to round up the majority of the population; how electric hydro meters were instruments installed by "them" in higher government agencies to cause cancer; how she met a former Pentagon agent in South America who confirmed all her suspicions, that the conspiracy goes "right to the top." She had "connected the dots" and passionately implored me to tell the church so we could take care of our own. Would I tell my church? Would I help save the Christians from the impending disaster?

My articulate response: "Uh....."

While she shared her paranoia and fear with increasing fervor, I silently prayed, "Jesus, what do I say to her? How can I respond with grace and truth?" Her mindset was such a contrast from the book I had before me. While Mouw was speaking about the beauty of the heavenly city, with its rich heritage of art, language, and commerce, Mary was frightened by the very powers of the city and technology (ironic, as she was reading her articles on a MacBook in a coffee shop). She stared at me with frantic eyes, searching mine for a sense of fraternity, hoping for a kindred spirit in her fear.

Then the answer came to mind, a passage from 1 John:

This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I looked into Mary's eyes and said, "I hear a lot of fear from where you're coming from. And I don't think Jesus calls us to be afraid. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. So, I'm convinced nothing can separate us from this love. And I hope you'll experience the love and peace God gives us in Jesus. I think if we're seeking the kingdom of Jesus and entrusting Him with our lives, deep down we have nothing to fear."

She silently nodded, then sighed with a sense of defeat--I clearly hadn't been convinced. I packed my things and turned to go. She thanked me for listening, then turned back to her articles of fear.

I want to be more like Mouw and less like Mary. 

I believe we're called as Christians to engage and redeem our culture, not condemn or flee from it. I want to be a part of what N.T. Wright calls "building for the kingdom." This requires recognizing that we'll never full bring the kingdom of God to Earth, but that doesn't mean we're to be passive or paranoid about culture. Instead, with grace and humility, we work hard to create and promote justice, beauty, and truth in our world as signposts for the kingdom of heaven. This means moving past the fear, recognizing it's still present, and choosing to allow the love of Christ to be our primary motivation behind all we do. 

We don't avoid the fear; we redeem it as we step out in love. Let's live by love, not fear.

What is your primary motivation--love or fear?

(This post appeared at The Mayward Blog)

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B.C. Youth Workers: Open Vancouver is coming to Trinity Western University on September 26-27. Check out the lineup of speakers and register here.

Manic Monday

OVERFLOW

Moses raised another objection to GOD: "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer."

GOD said, "And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn't it I, GOD ? So, get going. I'll be right there with you—with your mouth! I'll be right there to teach you what to say.” - Exodus 4:10-12 (The Message)

Do you ever wonder why God chose you to work with teenagers? Have you questioned whether you have what it takes, whether or not you’re relevant enough to relate to them? By yourself, you’re not. With God, you are.

God wants the grace, love, and truth he poured into your life to overflow into their lives. On your own you are not

enough; with God’s grace you have way more than enough. With God’s help, Moses, who was not very good with words and who got tongue-tied, confronted Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of Egypt. If God can do all that, he can use you to share the great news of God’s love with teenagers.

Life Coaching
What concerns do you have about your ability to relate to teenagers?


How has God shown himself faithful to be more than enough fo your needs and the needs of your students?


Prayer
Lord, you made me and you know me better than I know myself. Fill me up until your love, your power, your grace, your truth, and your presence overflow through my life into the lives of students I work with. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Jeff Smyth was a youth pastor from 1996 - 2009 and is now working with Youth Unlimited (Toronto YFC). Jeff is married to Heather and they one of the most energetic boys in the world. Jeff is also a loyal fan cheering on the Blue Jays & Canadiens.
You can connect with Jeff online: Jeff Smyth Blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+

Go Light Your World

They say that there are two types of people in this world:  those that light up a room by entering it, and those that light up a room by leaving it.  

Let this be a reminder to us of our important role as youth workers:  to “illuminate” the lives of young people by being a reflection of Christ’s abundant and never-ending love.  Let us be affirmed in our role:  to lead young people closer to Christ and his Church.  

This is simple in theory, but not always easy in practice.  We should never underestimate this great responsibility.  Yet it is a blessing, a privilege, and an honour.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo     

Youth Ministry is So Advent

Source: www.thepracticingcatholic.com

Advent is about waiting.  Anticipating.  Expecting.  Preparing.  Hoping.  This sounds a lot like youth ministry to me.

We wait for youth to commit their lives to Jesus.  We wait for them so we can start our youth gatherings.  We wait for their parents to come pick them up at the end of our events.

We anticipate the arrival of youth at our gatherings with our eyes fixated on the door.  We anticipate their confusion or their silence when we are preparing small group discussions.  We anticipate their excitement when we announce the dates of retreats and rallies.

We expect the youth to behave when they are at Church.  We expect that more youth will come out to social events than teaching nights.  We expect that Father will ask us “So how many people came to youth ministry last night?”

We prepare prayer services, social justice excursions, and skits.  We prepare snacks to serve the youth either before, during, or after the gathering.  We prepare them to be able to share their testimonies with a world that so desperately needs to hear them.

We hope that we are making a difference in the youths’ lives.  We hope that they make good decisions especially in the face of temptation.  We hope that their homes are stable and that their friends are good.

Most of all, we love them where they are at and we lead them to an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Just as Christ entered the world to love and encounter us.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo   

Untouchable in Youth Ministry

There are many topics that we cover over the years of our youth ministry careers. Topics that bring hope, challenge, truth, salvation, theology, belief, social justice, and so many more.

I have come to realize that those of us in youth ministry also have topics that we will not touch. Oh we might brush over them or mention them but we not get deep down and research them enough to make them a topic or series for our kids. Topics like:

• homosexuality
• abortion
• bullying
• disability
• prejudice
• finances
• gluttony
• cutting
• etc…

We must embrace all topics from a biblical standpoint, yet we must tell the truth in love. If we tell the truth without love, the truth becomes irrelevant.

We must be willing to tackle these and other topics that our youth are talking about, hearing about, experiencing, and wrestling with so that you can teach them to see love in action from a biblical perspective.

Tackling any one of these issues will take great courage. You will need to be well researched, submit it to prayer and God's leading, as well as having others praying for you. You are heading in to uncharted waters.

The one thing I beg of you is this; if you cannot talk truthfully about any of these topics without love, please don't. We have had too many others that have spoken about these topics without love and they have made us all embarrassed that they are claiming to represent the rest of us by calling themselves Christians.

What untouchable topics have you opened up in your youth ministry?

What topics or research are you currently doing on and untouchable?

What questions do you have about these untouchable topics?

Knowing Your Father

Father’s Day is always a bittersweet day for me, and this past one was no exception.  While I celebrate the blessing of my three kids, I also spend some time reflecting on my late father Larry who passed away on October 11, 2004 when he suffered a heart attack on the 17^th fairway at Burnaby Mountain Golf Course.  Not a bad way to go out all things considered...at least he was doing something he loved! :p

It goes without saying that I love Dad very much and I miss him dearly.  Every day, I feel his imprint on me whether it’s how I parent, how I don’t take myself too seriously, or how I think I’m a decent athlete.

In a conversation I had with my dear friend Megan over dinner last night, I lamented that I wish that my daughter Kayla, born in December 2007, had a chance to meet my Dad.  As she is the first Imoo girl in 75 years, there’s no doubt that he would have doted over her and likely spoiled her.  My son Jacob, born in September 2003, was barely a year-old when Dad died so at least they got to spend some time together.  And my eldest Sean, born August 2001, was the lucky one as he spent quality time with Dad playing golf, hockey, and basketball among others.

Megan and I both volunteered for an event that evening that focused on getting fallen-away Catholics to return home to the Church.  It was an inspiring night of testimony, faith, and hope.  During the evening we heard countless stories of people returning to the faith and encountering God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

In my evening prayer, it struck me that it wasn’t by accident that Megan and I had our deep conversation earlier in the evening.  I realized that the sadness I have for Kayla never getting to know Dad is the same sadness I feel for someone who doesn’t get to know God the Father...albeit intentionally or by circumstance.

That’s our primary goal as youth ministry leaders:  to lead young people to an encounter with God the Father.  We may do good relational ministry.  We may have awesome small group discussions.  We may model cutting-edge social media initiatives.  We may make professional promo videos.  And we may perform the most memorable skits and play the craziest games.

But all of these are for naught if we end up pointing young people to ourselves instead of to God.  It’s not about us; it’s about God.  Yet we sometimes forget this. 

It’s heart-breaking for a young person to come to your youth ministry events regularly yet not know who God is.  Not know all the great and mighty things God has done for him.  Not know how much God loves him.

Thus, let us all renew our commitment to enable young people to get to know and love God.

Before it’s too late.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo

Love Does

Ellen says...

Reading through Donald Miller’s books over the years, I’ve been intrigued by his ‘friend Bob’. “Love Does” gave me a glimpse into the life of this extraordinary man – and now I understand why he has been such an important part of Don’s life. If you, like me, are sometimes tempted to take life and yourself too seriously, hopefully you’ll find this call to whimsy and a much more adventurous life inspirational as well. 

About the resource...

Love Does
Bob Goff
Paperback • Thomas Nelson • 9781400203758


As a college student he spent 16 days in the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office for seven days until they finally let him enroll.

Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world’s most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it's not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob's love takes action. Bob believes Love Does.

When Love Does, life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don't want to miss.

Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.

An excerpt... 

More videos here:
http://youtu.be/kFV25I2ic20
http://youtu.be/TDJHfRntv0M
http://youtu.be/lRxNZN5PQdY
http://youtu.be/SaPZGM9ksvM
http://youtu.be/mn4ODMj4H30
http://vimeo.com/44430503

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Ellen Graf-Martin now lives in the heart of Ontario’s Mennonite country with her husband Dan, where she continues to work in publishing and ministry.Learn more about her work at www.grafmartin.com

You Lost Me

Ellen says...


Is the North American church overprotective, repressive, and shallow? "UnChristian" looked at outsiders and their perceptions of the church, and what we could do to respond to these very real concerns. With "You Lost Me", Kinnaman examines young insiders who have left disconnected from the church, giving them a voice and an opportunity for the church to respond in love.

About the resource...


You Lost Me by David Kinnaman
Paperback and Hardcover • Baker Publishing Group • 9780801013140

Millions of young Christians are disconnecting from church as they transition into adulthood. They're real people, not just statistics. And each one has a story to tell. The faith journeys of the next generation are a challenge to the established church, but they can also be a source of hope for the community of faith. Bestselling author of "UnChristian", David Kinnaman, with the help of contributors from across the Christian spectrum, offers ideas for pastors, youth leaders, parents, and educators to pass on a vibrant, lasting faith, and ideas for young adults to find themselves in wholehearted pursuit of Christ.



An excerpt... 

A generation of young Christians believes that the churches in which they were raised are not safe and hospitable places to express doubts. Many feel that they have been offered slick or half-baked answers to their thorny, honest questions, and they are rejecting the “talking heads” and “talking points” they see among the older generations. You Lost Me signals their judgment that the institutional church has failed them.

Whether or not that conclusion is fair, it is true that the Christian community does not well understand the new and not-so-new concerns, struggles, and mindsets of young dropouts, and I hope that You Lost Me will help to bridge this gap. Because of my age (thirty-seven) and my position as a researcher, I am often asked to explain young people to older generations and advocate for their concerns. I welcome the task because, whatever their shortcomings, I believe in the next generation. I think they are important, and not just because of the cliché “young people are the leaders of tomorrow.”

The story—the great struggle—of this emerging generation is learning how to live faithfully in a new context, to be in the world but not of the world. This phrase, “in but not of the world,” comes from Jesus’s prayer for his followers, recorded in John 17. For the next generation, the lines between right and wrong, between truth and error, between Christian influence and cultural accommodation are increasingly blurred. While these are certainly challenges for every generation, this cultural moment is at once a singular opportunity and a unique threat to the spiritual formation of tomorrow’s church. Many young adults are living out the tension of in-but-not-of  in ways that ought to be corrected or applauded, yet instead are often criticized or rejected.

In the vibrant and volatile story of the next generation, a new spiritual narrative is bubbling up. Through the lens of this project, I have come to understand and agree with some, though not all, of their grievances. Yes, we should be concerned about some of the attitudes and behaviors we encounter in the next generation of Christians, yet I also find reasons to hope in the best of what they have to offer. Apparently they are a generation prepared to be not merely hearers of doctrine but doers of faith; they want to put their faith into action, not just to talk. Yes, many young dropouts are stalled in their spiritual pursuits, yet a significant number of them are reinvigorating their faith with new ideas and new energy.

From this generation, so intent on reimagining faith and practice, I believe the established church can learn new patterns of faithfulness. You Lost Me seeks to explain the next generation’s cultural context and examine the question:

How can we follow Jesus—and help young people faithfully follow Jesus—in a dramatically changing culture?

Excerpt from You Lost Me by David Kinnaman. Copyright 2011, Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.


DVD Resource coming Oct 2012

More free resources:
Video Interviews on New Day TV
Video Interviews on 100 Huntley St
Publisher's Page
Tables and Charts from the book

Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Ellen Graf-Martin now lives in the heart of Ontario’s Mennonite country with her husband Dan, where she continues to work in publishing and ministry.Learn more about her work at www.grafmartin.com