Today, April first at 8:30PM 2007… my blog was… the blog of the minute. beat that suckaz!

I have been thinking through our culture’s ideologies of parenting and comparing them to the issues this generation of young people faces. Now, before I go on, it is important that I state, I am not a parent or parenting expert. I am an outside observer who is idealistic at best. Maybe my theory has support, but maybe it doesn’t. But I believe that there is somthing essential that is missing in our society.

I have started reading a book that I recommended to the parents of the young people of Vertical Ministries entitles, hurt: inside the world of todays teenagers.  Within the first chapter I have been challenged, shocked, and filled with compasion for a generation that is experiencing more rejection and abandonement from the systems and structures our society has created for the express purpose of nurturing young people.

My first observation came as the author systematically walked through the progression ofthe American family unit, personal identity, and the individuals relationship to others. He describes that between the 1960’s and 1970’s two powerful shifts have occured that have redifined the roles of men and women in familial relationsips, thus leaving the child/ adolescent to fend for themselves (and again furthering their sense of isolation and abandonment.) And two, the redefining of family. Where once family was defined as “two or more person related by birth, marriage, or adoption who reside in the same houshold,”  to current definition of a freeflowing, oganic “commitment” to people who love eachother.

He goes on to say, ” We moved from a culture with a divorce rate that affected 2 percent of the married population in 1940 to a society in which 43 percent of first time marriages end with divorce or separation within fifteen years of marriage, as of 2002. I observed this new ratio first hand while attending a dance competition in Orlando with my daughter. Of the thirteen girls on the team, all from the high school where this study took place, more than half came from divorced families. Of the parents who attended, one forty-six year old mother brought her sixty seven year old live in boyfriend, and a fifty six year old father was accompanied by his thirty one year old girlfriend, while his ex-wife brought her live-in boyfriend. It is indeed a new day when it comes to what the word family means.For the adolescent who is trying to hold on to somthing, at times anything, that is stable and safe, societal choices concerning divorce, adult sexuality, and the experimentation of living together even while children are in the home have had a strong effect. In the course of my study I have found that this effect has been powerfully destructive.“

At one point he goes on to say, and I paraphrase, “that adolescents are desperate to have an adult show that they genuinely care about them.”

Our world has changed. Families, that were once sources for stability and personal identity have crumbled. As parents who have barley managed to define who they are struggle to fend for their own survival, young people are left to absorb identity, affirmation and  their understand of where they fit in todays “social landscape,” from whatever is stable at that moment.

The author also notes that todays institutions that have been established for the purpose of nurturing todays young people have strayed from their mission, essentially abandoning them in a world that is marked by social chaos, and a lack of relational stability.

This is a generation that is isolated. That is lost. That is struggling to make sense of who they are, where they fit, and why they matter.

“Behold in that day I will send you the prophet Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers.”

Malachi 4:6

I propose it is our responsibility, not soley as Christians, but as parents, to re-establish the creative order. Teenagers are clueless because the generation before them was clueless.  Teenagers today are rebellious because they struggle to connect to a world that lacks stability. Their deepest desires are for community, identity, and purpose.

It is our responsibility to recognize the need of the young people of our day, and find a way to bridge the gap. The second part of Malachi 4: 6 goes on to day that unless fathers and son, mothers and daughters, are not turned toward eachother, that God would strike the land with a curse. I believe we are living in that curse. Not in the sense of a hyper spiritualized cosmic consequence. But what we experience in the sense of isolation that both parents and young people alike are sensing.

It’s important to recognize what the passage says to turn. Our hearts.

 Right now I am listening to a song. It’s entitled point of difference, and it’s the opening track to United Live’s newest album. The CD actually came in the mail yesterday, and I was incredibly excited to get it and listen to it.

I think worship has a way of putting things in perspective like nothing else can. I have never been more challenged by a song like I have the songs on this album. In terms of putting into words an expression of what Christianity is, this adventure we talk about living. This calling the echoes from somewhere past eternity to live for somthing that is so extraordinarily bigger than ourselves.

A pursuit of love, hope, peace, and justice. Four words that are bigger than the world. Four words that are bigger than fear, hate, depression, hoplessness, isolation… four words that shatter all that this world has to offer and four words that are expressed through one Person.

Right now I am electrified. Because all that Christianity is, all that it can be summed up into, all that it implies in one line from a song: “We live to make You famous.”

Just watched his golden globe acceptance speech. Hilarious. Period.

“7 the LORD God formed the man  from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Genesis 2: 7

rev·o·lu·tion

-noun

a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, esp. one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.

This year has been the most incredible year of my life. So much has happened in the span of 365 days. I spent three years of my life investing in some of the most incredible young people I have ever had the priviledge of ministering too. I became a husband. I developed some incredible relationships. I was called from the young people I served to serve another generation of young people. And I soon will become a father.

And while the theme of this year I believe was a year of regeneration. Of rebuilding. Of renewing. I believe that this could be a year of revival. Vision, specifically new vision has escaped me it seems. But what I have come to understand, is that vision is not in big names, big numbers, or even big dreams. Vision is in Big God.

It takes the spirit of God inside of man to accomplish vision.

I preached a message a while ago out of Ezekiel 37. The story where God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones. Totally dead. Totally dry. Totally useless. No hope. No future. God challenges Ezekiel with a question, and asks him if he thinks the bones could live. Ezekiels response is appropriate to anyone in his shoes. We struggle to know where the next check will come from to pay for some new unforseen expense, how would we know the answer to that question? “God only knows,” is his response.

God commands Ezekiel very specifically, to prophesy to the breathe or the “Spirit,” and that the breathe would enter the bones and so forth. But as Ezekiel prophesies the dramatic result is quite the opposite of what God said would happen. The bones come together in a loud shaking and rattling, sinews and flesh cover the bones, and then again God commands, “Prophesy to the breathe!” Ezekiel obeys and prophesies, and the breathe enters.

The point of the message was that God often speaks the end before the beginning when He prophesies to us. God does not tell us the way things will happen, but tells us what will happen, and then puts us in the way! Often times, God’s word to us is not the end but merely the beginning. After the word comes, God has got to mold and form a vessel in which to hold that word or promise.

In other words, God commanded breathe to come into the bones, but the bones themselves could not hold the breathe. God had need to create a vessel.

In the past year I have experienced alot of transition. And what I have relied on has been, what I thought, trying to conjure up vision by throwing out big names and big numbers. Specifically in terms of youth ministry. But I realize now, that what vision really is, is the breathe that God breathes into us.

I propose that as a youth pastor, my passion is not just in seeing our ministry grow and increase in size and number. But specifically in attracting the presence of God. I am not satisfied with living in mediocrity, spouting “vision” that has no breath and no life. My passion needs to be excited not at the prospect of reaching people for Jesus. But reaching people with Jesus.

Charismania has put a bad taste in alot of peoples mouths. But I am not proposing an all out pentecostal “revival.” I want whats genuine. And what is genuine is an encounter with Jesus. An encounter with God that changes from the inside out. An encounter that does away with all formal ideologies and philosophies about ministry and christianity. An encounter that creates revolution, not in the hyped up spiritual sense, but in my heart.

I’m sick of only pursuing forms of relevant ministry, refining and redefining the way church looks for my generation… for this generation. I want God. The God that supercedes dress code, communication style, and doctrinal beliefs. I want the Jesus that I can walk and talk with. The Jesus that isn’t portrayed as a distant historical figure, but Jesus who lives as an ever present reality in my life.

The Jesus that shook my world as a sixteen year old kid, and re-defined who I was, and what I was mean’t to do in the world. The Jesus that has held my hand, and kept me sane and solid for these past few years. The Jesus I believe wants to revive the hearts of highschool students, faculty members, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and awaken them to the essence of life: to be with Him.

The Jesus that was crucified on a cross, to redeem all of humanity from the sickness of sin, and the un-ending torture of hell and an eternity without Him. I need a revolution.

Vision is defined “the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be.” But vision has got to be greater than that. I say this because I am trying to write a message on the subject of vision. But the definition escapes me. I get the sense that I am awkwardly knocking on the door of some great mansion. I know that on the other side of that door lie more doors and opportunity to discover this mansion, but I can get past the door.  And to be honest, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating because you can sense the immensity of what vision is but yet cannot clearly make out or understand the vastness of what it is. Vision is a promise. But how big is the promise? Vision is a purpose. But how big is the purpose? And what exactly is the purpose? Vision is an idea. But what kind of idea?

I guess that as I wrestle with these thoughts, I come to realize that this is probably one of the most foundational elements of vision: frustration. I think that if vision were easy, and if it were small enough we would easily be able to communicate and clarify what it is. But for those who struggle to put words to their mental pictures, those who desperately try to help others understand what is at this point an expression of emotion and conviction that runs at the level of the heart. Somthing that is clear to them, and no one else. Somthing that is inspirational on a level higher than that of a greeting card or motivational quote. It is a revelation.

It is a purpose, a will, a plan, an idea that connects with the very substance of who we are. It was God who, after creating Adam and “breathing in him the breathe of life,” that God spoke to him revelation and vision. “Be fruitful and multiply.” And that’s why I think another reason why vision is frustrating to most is because we have not fully identified who we are. Vision always correlates to your identity. Vision, and mans focus on that vision, is what will drive him to be great. And vision, like revelation, will direct and guide man to meet that end. Vision is not just a destination, but it also defines the boundries and parameters a person with vision will live in. A man without vision lives without restraint. (Proverbs 29: 18).

Vision is more than inspirational, vision is the essence of what man is. It is purpose, but it is specific purpose. It is a destination, but it is a specific destination. And with great vision comes great action. It is impossible to have great vision without great energy. Vision is the driving force of humanity. Without it, it is impossible to drive forward, to improve, to subdue, and have dominion. To be fruitful, and multiply.

Vision is synonymous with faith. Hebrews says that faith is the essence of things unseen, and the evidence of things hoped for. Faith is tangible. Faith is the ability to presently possess what only exists in the future. But like vision, faith without action is dead.

But still, even as I think about the subject of vision, the necessity of vision, the price of vision, and the process of vision, I still find more questions than answers. More un-resolved ends, and not enough conclusions.

It was upon my arrival after a grueling day of fending of Vegas drunks, hotel clerks, airport security, cab drivers, exhaustion, anxiety, and hunger, that I arrived home. I had not seen my wife for seven days, and my desire to see her was finally satisfied at the end of the day, around 9:30 PM to be exact.

Upon my arrival, she relished me with gifts from her own travels. Homeland memoroblia, sweets, t-shirts, and really comfy shoes. She had however saved the best for last, and asked me to close my eyes, and hold out my hands. It was then that I felt it first. A light, plastic container, kind of like the ones batteries come in, but of course lighter, and rounder…

I opened my eyes to see a babies pacifier in my hands. Shiny, new, and foreign, for I did not have a child. Quizically, I looked up at my wife, who was smiling with such joy and glee, and said, “I don’t get it.”

Thinking the pacifier was some clue to some other, greater more elaborate gift. Or maybe some sort of gag that had not fully developed… I was lost. It was at this point that my lostness become disbelief, and finally led to joy and happiness. “I’m five and a half weeks pregnant,” she said… I was shocked. I was happy. I was thrilled. And I couldn’t believe it.

Coincidently, the title of my first blog had to do with firsts. And here my wife and I are at a first. We’re having a baby.

A first is a pretty spectacular thing. I think our very first “first” sort of sets the standard for what all firsts have the potential to create. This first is obviously birth. It’s your first breath, your first exposure to other people, to your parents, to the world. To sunlight and the sensation of air on the skin. The experience of digestion, growth food, sound language… and other things like love, nurturing, affection, care…

But this first, leads only to more and more firsts. More discoveries to be made, adventures to be lived. Stories to be told, experiences to be experienced… And so our very first “first” become not a one time experience to be had an forgotten, but a launching pad into the great abyss called life. The first adventure of many adventures to be had.

I think considering what the very first “first” was, we need to consider that life really is made up of firsts, because life is made up of potential. I think that’s what confirms the reality of destiny. Not as an ideal we conjure to cope with life and what could be explained as existence without meaning. The fact of first, lends only to the fact of destiny. That a first is not a “once and never again,” but an open door to more and more and more is what gives credibility to destiny.

Firsts are really BIG. A first step is hard and is often filled with failure. But even failures are firsts. But even with that first step, it leads to the first waddle, and the first run, and the first sprint finally lending way to what may become an incredible athletic ability.

The possibilities with firsts are endless…

so with that said. Here is my first. My first blog. And like any first, the possibilities are endless.