Why The Rules Make Sense

Christianity is nothing more than a set of rules! Have you ever heard this before?  The question or objection, depending on how it is phrased, comes from both Christians and skeptics.  So what does Christianity have to say to this?  Here are a few thoughts on how you might begin answering this question:

It is helpful first to acknowledge that the Bible is indeed full of commands and instructions.  But the role that the rules play is often misunderstood. Rules, even going back to the Ten Commandments, were not meant simply to tell us what to do and what not to do.  They were intended to be a means by which humanity could come close to God and relate to him.  If we think of how rules are applied in other areas of life, it is quite easy to understand how this works. Discipline, guidelines or putting deadlines in place are not an end in themselves; they are the means by which we achieve what we want to accomplish. 

While I was doing undergraduate studies in Toronto I worked for the Toronto Blue Jays ground crew. While working there I noticed that the elite players would always be the ones to arrive at the ball park early and leave late.  They would come in early for strength and conditioning purposes, then perhaps look over strategies or game plans.  Then they would join the rest of the team once the normal daily routines began.  This was hard work and made for long days.  Here is the point: the discipline of getting to the stadium early, doing an extra work out, working over game plans were not the goal.  These were the means by which this player would attain the ultimate goal: victory. 

The rules set out in Scripture were never meant to inhibit pleasure or desire, but to do the exact opposite.  Desire gave birth to commands, but somehow we have understood it the other way around, as if the commands were meant to create desire.   

There is actually a moment documented in the Old Testament in which the people of Israel say that they would like to follow God’s commandments.  However, Joshua, their leader at the time, turns them down.  Effectively, he says, ‘You don’t have what it takes.  You will turn away from God.  So, please, don’t commit to it.’  They push back and insist that they truly want to follow God.  Joshua reluctantly gives in and grants them their desire to form a covenant binding them to follow God’s rules.

The rules and statutes implemented into the life of Israel stemmed from a desire to serve the Lord.  Rules were not put in place to prevent desire from finding its fulfillment.  Rather, the rules were put in place to fulfill desire and avoid destruction.

A question that we need to ask ourselves is, ‘Where do rules find their starting point in our Christian life?’ Does obedience come from a sense of duty or from a desire for God? If our drive to live for God comes from a sense of duty, our faith will become one long arduous journey.  But duty is not where we begin.  We begin with a love and desire for God. 

Imagine that I have just been away from home on a long business trip. When I return home I decide to stop off at the florist’s near my home because I want to get flowers for my wife. I purchase the flowers, then walk up to the door with flowers behind my back and knock on the door.  My wife opens the door and I reveal the flowers to her.  She says, ‘Nathan, you shouldn’t have done this!  Why did you get me these flowers?’  I reply, ‘Because it is my duty!’

What do you think her response will be after she hears this?  What if I respond to her question by saying that I got her those flowers because I love her—that there is nothing more I love than the sweet fellowship I have with her. [1]

This gets at the heart of Christian discipleship.  Christianity does not start with rules, but the rules do make sense. They are put in place to fulfill our desire for God; not to coerce us into loving God.

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[1] I am borrowing this story from a good friend of mine, Michael Ramsden.  Michael is an evangelist and the director for the European office of RZIM.

Hustle

Life is busy.  It is a saying we use all the time when people ask us how things are going.  You have probably have even read quite a few articles already on how we are busier now more than ever.  This is especially true now that we have 100% constant access to the internet on our phones.  While I am a complete advocate of making sure we slow our lives down and take time to rest what I want to touch on briefly today is what I consider the difference of being "busy" and "hustle".

So many times in my life I have been "busy" but feel like I get nothing done.  When I look back on those moments it feels like a majority of those moments while I had lots to do, I could always find time to waste surfing the net, reading twitter, playing the latest video game release.  Then I also look back at the times where I was "busy" but felt like I got lots done.  If you asked in me in the middle of both of those periods I would have given you the same answer to the question of "How is it going?" "Oh you know busy as always".  In retrospective I think the real difference between getting stuff done and just always feeling behind was my attitude and a sense of hustle.  The times that I accomplished the most was when I would put my mind to it, not waste time and focus.  Getting ahead in your youth ministry is going to take a lot of hustle.  

A couple tips to increase hustle and decrease wasted "busy" time.

1) Track your procrastination on a PC with http://procrastitracker.com/ - Find out where you are really spending you online time.

2) Use a task tracker and keep it up to date.  I like to use Wunderlist (http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/) It is free, easy to use, works on your phone and has cloud syncing.  This has helped me keep on top of my large pile of ToDos.  You can even share your task list for accountability or help if you need that extra step.

3) Set aside some time in your day to block out everything and focus.  I find if I really focus and can get away I'll be able to get as much work done in 2 hours as I can sometimes in an entire day.  This phenomena can be noticed especially when you are ready to leave for vacation.  If you can find a way to work like that all the time, you'll be way ahead of your goals.

Stop being "busy" and start hustling.

Spiritual Practice of the Week:  Come Dance

I love these words by Hafiz, a mystic and Sufi poet who lived in the 13^th century:

Every child has known God, 
not the God of names, 
not the God of dont’s, 
not the God who ever does anything weird, 
but the God who knows only four words. 
and keeps repeating them, saying: 
“come dance with me, come dance”.

May these full and rich last days of summer present opportunities for you to DANCE. Dance under the stars, dance with your love, dance in fields as you are picking tomatoes, dance at the bus stop, dance with your youth, dance with God in this glorious creation.  Move, dance, be, now. 

© This prayer practice and all of those on the Sunday Morning Blog Post can be found in:  "Go Deep: Spiritual Practices for Youth Ministry" Wood Lake Publishing
Doris is the Youth Director for the United Church of Canada in BC and the Director of World Pilgrim Awareness Travel.

Going Slow with Dr. Low

I've never played Angry Birds.  No, really, never!  I mostly play games on the computer that I play in real life such as Hearts, Scrabble and Wizard.  The problem is I've played all these games on my computer so much that it's getting harder and harder to break my previous scores.  It's gotten to the point where if I don't see myself beating a record I will often restart the game, even if I'm only a few minutes into it.  Sometimes I feel like a bit of a poor sport doing this but I figure if I'm not having fun or beating a record, why bother?

While thinking about this week's blog I thought about writing an entry about how life is not like a game of Hearts where you can just throw your cards back if you don't like them and start again whenever you want.  But then as I began thinking about it more I began to wonder if life might actually be more like that than we may think.

That's the amazing thing about God's grace being new every morning, new every moment.  His love, forgiveness, grace and strength allows us to make daily changes to follow Him more closely.  This doesn't imply flippantly discarding relationships, jobs, commitments and so on as readily as I throw back my Hearts cards or Scrabble tiles, but it does mean we do get fresh chances to align ourselves with God on a regular basis.

Sometimes we do need to toss things back, especially attitudes, patterns, addictions and words we've let slip out.  Sometimes even relationships need to be traded in for something new.  I'm not talking about carelessly throwing away committed relationships God has called us to but there are some relationships God has not called us to that we remain stuck in for whatever reasons.  Or sometimes we're stuck in the wrong attitude or pattern in a relationship so we're not supposed to discard the relationship but we are invited to change it.

Without being careless, what in your life may need to be realigned so that you can start enjoying more of God's abundant will?  Don't feel stuck - there's more we can change than we often think.

Twitter for Youth Ministry

One of the challenges of using social media is its incredibly rapid evolution. How we use any given medium changes rapidly, and keeping ahead of the curve is challenging.

Twitter, for example, started as a way to check in with friends and tell them what you what your were doing at any given moment, in 140 characters (including spaces) or less. And of course, many people continue to use it that way. The short 140 character posts are called “tweets,” and anyone who “follows” you on Twitter can see them.

People quickly realized the marketing power of these short updates. Because you can include links to other websites in your tweets, they’re terrific for authors who want to stay in touch with a large group of people (your readers). The fact that you can link to photos, videos, blogs and websites makes it a fantastic portal through which you can connect readers to your other content.

Like any social media, Twitter can be something you do just for fun. It can also be time consuming. In order to use it well, you need a strategy.

Decide on a specific amount of time each week you’ll spend on Twitter. After all, you are a youth worker and you need to create content for the youth, parents, and ministry updates. Twitter allows you to share that content with a larger group of people, but you need to make actually creating content a priority. You may want to start with just 10 minutes a day. Make sure you do at least 10 minutes, but no more than, say 20 minutes. While you need to engage with people via Twitter, you can’t let it take up so much time that you don’t get a chance to create longer content.
Jeff Smyth is a youth worker who has been involved in both the local church and non-profit areas of Canada. He works with DOXA Toronto, providing resources, training and coaching for local churches. Jeff lives in Toronto with his wife Heather and son Nathan. Jeff's blog ThinkYouthMinistry.com

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

On our recent family vacation to Las Vegas we were blessed to see a few shows.  One was the Jabbawockeez (that I wrote about last week) and another was MJ Live – a tribute to Michael Jackson.

It was a great show, made even more entertaining by the fact that the performer had a hole in his pants (right where you don’t want a hole in your pants) for the first-half of the show.  My family and I marvelled at the actor’s physical resemblance to the late “King of Pop” and needless to say, his vocals and dance moves were spot on.

The entire audience loved it.  In fact, screams of “We love you, Michael” cascaded throughout the theater.  In retrospect, I sure hope they know they were watching an impersonator.  In a nice ironic twist, the actor’s name is actually Michael.  But I digress.

When I speak to young people about image and imitation, I talk about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.  That is, when someone copies you, generally it’s because they want to be like you.  I then go on to share stories of my kids and how they flatter me (good, bad, and ugly) but imitating me. 

But regardless of good, bad, or ugly, I know that I am not the BEST example to my kids all the time. For that example, we all need to look towards another loving Father: that is, God. And in imitating God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, lies our challenge as Christians: to be the face of Christ to everyone that we encounter.

Wouldn't it be cool if every single person that we meet walks away thinking to himself: “Man…what is up with him? Where does he get that sense of joy and love from? Whatever it is…I want some of that!” Whether our family and friends are churched or unchurched, the way that we carry ourselves is a true form of evangelization.

Now that I think about it…it’s more than being the face of Christ. It’s being Christ-like completely. Compliments like “you’re awesome,” or “you’re a good friend,” or “you look great,” or "nice haircut" pale in comparison to the one that says: “You were Christ to me.”

That’s what I often tell people: the essence of being a good Christian is BEING, and not necessarily DOING.  After all, we are called human beings and not human doings.

Yes, imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery. 

God doesn’t need to be flattered.  But He does need to be imitated.

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 Worker Alert! Avoid These 13 Ministry Traps

Student ministry is an interesting beast. It’s loaded with good memories, fun trips, prayer times, students hopped-up on Red Bull, and significant moments with students who you share your life with. To reach, lead, and mentor students is a high calling youth workers respond to, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.

With all of your best intentions and purest motivations it is still very easy to fall into a host of ministry traps that will sabotage, blindside, and wreak havoc on your youth ministry. Here are just a few ministry traps to watch out for:

1. Self-Importance

Leading in student ministry suddenly gives a young person a little bit of power and, with any success, the potential for pride to take over. In youth ministry, what’s important isn’t you, how many Twitter followers you have, how cool and hip your clothes are, or how big your ministry is. What is important is making Jesus’ name great, not yours.

2. Over-Scheduling

Filling up the schedule burns out students, parents, volunteers, your family, your ministry, and you. Don’t be lazy, but intentionally leave blank space in your weekly, monthly, and yearly youth ministry calendars. You get to set the pace so make it sustainable. 

3. Guard Your Social Circle

The students you lead should not be your primary social-circle. You need friends, adult ones, because you’re an adult – right?!

4. Comparison

Comparing yourself to other leaders and other ministries is an easy trap to fall into. There are multiple reasons why comparison hurts your leadership and ministry.

5. Undermine Parents

As youth workers we are on team with parents, DO NOT undermine them! As soon as you do, not only have you lost credibility with the parents but you’ve also lost the credibility to lead that student.

6. Become an Island

The larger a youth ministry grows the easier it is for you and your youth ministry to become an island unto yourself. Student ministries need connection with each other.

7. Under Administrate

A common trap student ministry leaders fall into is to under administrate. Email replies that should have been taken care of last month, unreturned voicemails, and expensing receipts from 2006 are surefire ways to drop the ball. Many young pastors sabotage their best efforts and their natural charisma by not learning to administrate well. Structures actually release leadership to work smarter, not harder.

A rule of thumb: the younger the age of those you lead, the tighter your administration will need to be. This will settle any parent’s worries, keep you out of jail, and will help you build trust and credibility with those you lead.

8. Tick-off Local Principles & Teachers

Don’t do this! Local campuses are the mission field and school administration hold the key. Bless them, don’t tick’em off.

9. Be Unsubmissive to Your Lead Pastor

This connects back to point number one; the more highly you think of yourself the more likely you’ll begin to resent and be unsubmissive to your lead pastor. Serve your pastor well by being a good follower.

10. Dream Too Small

Expand your vision.

11. Poor Delegation

Leaders of every age struggle with ineffective delegation. If you delegate a job to a capable person and then proceed to micro-manage the job, you’ll lose credibility. If you delegate a job to a person unfit for the task and offer no direction or help, you lose. 

12. Get Lazy

I cringe when I see youth workers not giving their best to youth ministry. What happened to the call, the vision that God gave you, and the passion sparked in your heart? Why would you rather distract yourself with meaningless things and avoid the task of student discipleship? If this is you, get back in the game!

13. Under Value Volunteers

Try this experiment: plan a huge event, invite tons of students, and give every single one of your volunteers the night off. The next morning (or the next month) after you’ve recovered from your near-death-experience, re-evaluate your plan for encouraging, inspiring, and valuing your team of volunteer youth workers! 

What about you? What ministry traps have you fallen into or have seen last minute and avoided? 

Jeremy Postal is the director of Whistler School, a bible and discipleship school based out of beautiful Whistler, BC. He is passionate about building communities of restoration & creativity with Christ as the focus. You can also catch him regularly on his blog at www.jeremypostal.com.