Underground ReLOVEution

Here's a new question for your answering pleasure.

What are the most important things (only three) that our youth group/church is supposed to focus on/be about? If you had to choose three focuses or "ethos", what would they be? Not a right answer here, just looking at what you guys think.

Go.

Exodus 34:6-7 - "And He [the Lord] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' "


I was trying to find another funny video for you guys. I remembered that my dad was the sound guy for a Christian band in the 70's so I started to look up some of their stuff on YouTube....because I figured it was more legit to make fun of my dear old dad than anyone else. What I ended up coming across were a series of videos called Jesus Freaks, from a tv show in the 70's. Clicking on the first one I began researching this one guy called Lonnie Frisbee. Ok I don't think I need to say anything else...his name says it all.



You may be wondering, what my problem is or why anyone would find something like this interesting? I love learning about church history. I am sure many of you are familiar with the Vineyard Church. Mr.Frisbee was very active alongside John Wimber in pioneering the Vineyard Movement.Lonnie Frisbee however, was a homosexual and eventually left his wife and kids to pursue a homosexual lifestyle. And it wasn't exactly a secret to anybody.I grew up going to a Vineyard church. It ended up crashing into pieces when it was discovered that the pastor had a second identity and was having phone sex with young girls, and a huge pornography problem. I am not excusing his sin, but it makes me wonder about the origin of his sin. The Bible speaks about generational sin, and I wonder if sexual sin became prevalent in the Vineyard churches by being launched alongside a man deep in sexual sin? Maybe that is why so many establishments that are made in Jesus' name eventually suffer a heavy blow, because it was not founded completely under people who have died to their flesh.

Getting into all of this reminded me to keep allowing God to search my heart for any dark corners I don't want him to see, even if dealing with it involves too much pain or humiliation.

I wanna use this as a discussion tool and not just as an essay writing tool, so here's the question of the day.

What struggles do you have in evangelizing/talking to your friends about Jesus? How should Christians go about evangelizing?

Go.

...and the word fell out of its leather binding.

The inner pages of my Bible have wrestled free from their constrictive outer shell. I usually try to keep them together in order to prevent further mutilation of the curled, gold-edged sheets. The inscription on the inside, printed in neat architect-style handwriting, are words of blessing from Pastor Steve as I graduated high school. It begins thus:

"MY HOPE IS THAT YOU WEAR THESE PAGES RAGGED FINDING THE ANSWERS TO YOUR SOUL- SEARCHING QUESTIONS. I PRAY THAT YOU NEVER LOSE THAT ABOUT YOURSELF..."

Confession: I have intentionally abused this Bible. Sometimes I throw it around in order to speed the fulfillment of Steve's hope for me. I wear his words as some sort of spiritual identity. I want you to look at my Bible and be impressed by how much I love God. I like that it looks well-used. Makes me feel proud.

Is the better way that someone would look at my life and know that I love God? I think we can fake spirituality by adopting the right Christian words or being seen at the right youth group events or destroying our Bibles. I sometimes even deceive myself in this way. But to know God and be known by Him... this is what I desire for me and encourage for you this week. Can we agree to stop playing games?

God, give us courage to be seen by you...and others...for what we truly are.

Today I watched the Outreach Team work on a skit and here are a few photos I took while they were practicing....

Sierra Green as The Girl and Sam Hathaway as Jesus
Pat Dinneen, as The Boy, steals The Girl away from Jesus...


But then he trades off for another girl, Kayla Zacharias 

Connor Trimble came along and gave her a drink....
...and left her on the ground....

Brooke Menzies, the Devil, began to torment her mind.... 


....and gave her a knife....

After hesitating, she threw the knife away and ran towards Jesus....

but all of those past things clung to her, throwing her back...she fought hard but couldn't make it....


Jesus, who all along was cheering, pulling and calling her, finally jumped in... 



Jesus threw aside everything that was attacking her that had kept her from him...

She was ashamed...but he covered her...
...and held her close...
This is another version of the skit where the boyfriend just beats up Jesus....
Umm...just kidding... but they look goofy.
And Connor....

Now you should be excited for what the Outreach Team is doing and look forward to the first showing of this skit! Because pictures don't quite cut it for a skit, but they wanted to see the pictures I took of them...

So, I had this thought last night, and it might be totally random and not a very good point, but I want to spill it out.

Why don't we get excited about Jesus?

Recently I went camping with a whole bunch of my guy friends, and one of the guys who came was not a Christian. We had an awesome time hanging out, fishing, camping, making fires and talking about how we would fight bears.

The whole time we didn't mention Jesus once.

Why?

Because we were scared, or at least I was scared.

I figured that if I talked about Jesus, this guy would get annoyed/scared/frustrated/angry at the mention of Jesus. I'd been so turned off by Christian culture that made evangelism this fire and brimstone yelling in the streets with a bullhorn, that I was afraid to mention the name of Jesus around this guy. Not only that, but I've realized that I'm afraid to talk about Jesus amongst my Christian friends.

I have no problem talking about youth group, and how exciting the "movement" is and what awesome social change is going on because of Jesus, but when it comes to just talking about how much I enjoy Jesus, the words don't come out.

These last few months, my relationship with Jesus has been in a really good place. God has been showing me more of himself and showing me my own sin, and it's been REALLY good. So why don't I share it. When I'm sitting around, why don't I say stuff like "man, Jesus is so good." or something like that. I'm not talking about ramming a worldview or theology down someone's throat, but does the world know that we enjoy being Christians or that we enjoy Jesus. Why won't I let my joy overflow into words of praise around people. Maybe if people were to hear me get excited about Jesus, they would be more willing to love him too, or wonder about him.

I think sometimes we get afraid of sharing our faith. When I was in high school there was this Christian who wanted to share his faith with his friends, but he didn't want to say anything. He wanted his words to do the talking. James talks about our speech and our actions lining up, but I think that this guy missed the point. Talking about Jesus isn't bad. It isn't. Maybe it doesn't have to be arrogant or manipulative, but why can't I just share what Jesus has done in my life or share my joy about Jesus.

Anyway, that is what I'm thinking right now.

This question keeps nagging at me: Do I really want to love selflessly?

I mean, let's be honest. If I love people without caring about getting anything back, I'm taking the risk that...I might not get anything back. I know that might sound shallow, but I'm just trying to be real. If I pour myself out in love, more concerned about caring for others that I care for myself, I'm afraid that I won't be cared for. If I don't meet my needs, who will?

God asks us to trust that we will be provided for. He wants us to love unconditionally and selflessly, like Jesus. I'm realizing once again what an amazingly difficult call it is to love others like myself. Such a high standard. I love me so much! =) So, with that said...

Anyone who is interested in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, who has a crush, who is in a relationship, whatever...you should check out this podcast I just listened to.

You can find it on iTunes, under DISCUSSIONS by Patrick Dodson. The episode is called "Unconditional Love."

It gives really good ideas for people who want to date and lays out what it means to be godly within a relationship. It will rock your world, I promise.

Thanks, Bekah and Charlie, for letting me know about it.

Peace.