childlike faith

Today I went to my son’s program in which he got his certificate for completeing kindergarten. It was interesting. As you have maybe experienced if you are a parent you will notice that each and every child excited to see their parent. (If they know that they can expect one there.) Each child is very anxious to see their parent. As soon as they walk into the auditorium they look all around to find you. Brennan did that today. It was if once he knew I was there and where I was sitting he could remain calm. Every few minutes he would look over his shoulder and I would catch him looking at me and he would just smile. He just wanted to make sure his father was there. As always I ask you the question, ‘what about you?” Do you know of times in your life in which you are like a child and you are looking for your Father? Do you notice whether He is there or not? Are you sensitive to His presence? Do you have the faith of a child to anxiously realize that the Father is there to cheer you on in whatever is your endeavor? My hope and my prayer is that you would. The heavenly Father wants you to know that He is ever-present and He is watching and He is so very proud of you. I hope and pray that as you live a Spirit led life He is proud to be called your Abba Father.

The ANSWER

The other day I had an interesting thought. I was sitting in church and the couple next to me was sitting with their teenage daughter. I did not recognize her or them even though I am the student minister at my church. As I sat there through the service I noticed that the parents were very engaged in everything that was going on in the service. The interesting thing is that the daughter didn’t seem to be engaged at all. As a matter of fact it appeared as if she was getting ready to go before a firing squad! She was not interested in what was going on at all. It was obvious, she did not want to be there. So I began to pray. (All the while trying to pay attention to the sermon. Me multi-task? Failure!) Anyway, there was one word that God began to tattoo on my mind. It was really weird actually. That word was – ANSWER. You know, you would think that because I am a youth minister I could easily step in and talk with people to ask them about there daughter. But I have to admit, there are times when it just does not come easy, and for some reason this was one of those times. But there it came to my mind again – ANSWER. I even thought of a situation in my own family in which parents had struggled with a teenage daughter at one time. (This daughter is now incredibly passionate about the Lord, yay!) And there it came once again…ANSWER. What if there had been a time in their lives in which they sat in church with their daughter and someone noticed this same kind of attitude from a teenage daughter sitting in church with their parents or sitting anywhere for that matter. What if it was just at a restaurant. Remember the word – ANSWER. So back to my experience on that day. God compelled me after the service to talk with these parents and introduce myself to them and ask about their daughter. (The daughter had walked off immediately once the service was over.) To be quite honest nothing major came from me talking to them other than just getting to know them and also letting them know that I was the youth minister and I would love to have their daughter involved in the youth ministry. But here is the thing, ANSWER. Why the word ANSWER? Well here is why: God laid it on my heart because He wanted me to realize too often that I could be the ANSWER to someone’s prayer. Too often people are persevering in prayer that someone, anyone, will reach out to them, a relative, or even a friend. They know that they have talked and talked with their loved one or friend until they were “blue in the face” and that the person they love shut them out. It is like the prodigal that would not listen to his father. But what if someone else had come along and been the ANSWER to a prayer to reach out to the prodigal? I believe too often we get stuck in our own fears and insecurities to step out in faith and trust that God wants us to be an ANSWER in someone’s life. So who is it? You know, right now, there is someone that you need to reach out to and BE THE ANSWER to someone’s prayer. The question is, are you willing?

where two are joined

I love weddings. I know, I know. It’s rare that a guy says that I think. But I am at a point in my life where I really enjoy them. Actually when I really care about the two people getting married of course it is even more meaningful. I love to be a part of a worship service in which two people spiritually become one. God is taking two lives that previously were separate and He is making them one. Isn’t God cool? I mean I am reminded of who I was and what I was like before marriage and I have to admit that it was pretty scary. Keep in mind I was a Christian but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t still completely selfish about life in general. Marriage for the first time really forced me to think through what it meant to be completely selfless. For the first time in my life I had to think about someone else’s needs and wants. Then came children and my world really got rocked! Anyway, so marriage is a supernatural event. I really found myself in deep worship just yesterday. I got to witness the joinings of two lives. Faith McKinnon and AJ Parry were married yesterday. It was awesome to see and hear how God worked in their lives and brought them together. It was also awesome for Christina, the boys, and I to be there and to see so many friends. One really cool part of the ceremony was when Pastor Dave Rhodes spoke about what it means to enter into a covenant with another. These two people were standing before all of us and making a covenant agreement with each other, us, and most importantly God. God is always doing His part if we would just be willing to do our part and fully commit to Him. I wish it was easy to stay fully committed. Reality is that it just is not easy to always be fully committed. Marriage is a commitment that takes work and so is our relationship with Christ, it takes work. It was interesting in our worship service today that one of our pastor’s spoke on this very issue, commitment. The interesting thing is the very pastor was Greg McKinnon, the father of yesterday’s bride! So just as a wedding reminds me of a union between two souls and God, it also reminds me of my union with Christ. I must be willing to stand before him and say that I am willing to “forsake all others.” How about you? Are you forsaking everyone and everything else for Him? Here comes the bride.

…and we laughed

It was the Wednesday after our dear friend and brother in Christ was buried. The day before we had just attended his funeral. We all needed to be together and celebrate his life. As I have said before Taylor Haugen lived a beautiful life. It became very apparent on the Wednesday night after he died that he touched so many. We laughed and laughed. The night began with two of Taylor’s best friends sharing stories of absolute joy with “T.” Trenton Kilby and Taylor Nixon had us laughing very hard as they shared their stories of fun and mischief. Once we began person after person came and shared stories of fun and laughter. These were stories of which Taylor was at the center trying to figure out how to make the most out of life and fun. It was all nourishment to our very souls. We celebrated who Taylor was with tears of absolute joy. I could only think of how these students were doing ministry as they shared their stories about precious memories to sooth our saddened spirits. I prayed and thanked the good Lord that He was in the midst of it all. It was very obvious that the Holy Spirit showed up to commune with us and to minister to our spirits as students shared stories of life. It was an amazing night. There is no doubt that all of our lives will be different because of the impact that Taylor Reid Haugen had on all of us, adults and students alike. We will miss you my friend, but thank you for loving Christ, and loving life the way you did and sharing it with us with such joy.

Niceville weeps

wow…its been a little while. Not only that but I have put off writing for a few more weeks because the last two weeks have been really hard. Ministry has been kind of tough. In the midst of it all though God has been so good. It all began on August 29th when Niceville was playing football against Ft. Walton Beach. It was the second half of the game and a lot of the JV team were getting to play. (The varsity had played the first half.) From what I know and understand, Taylor Haugen went up to catch a pass and was tackled by two players that hit him from the front and back. Coach Hicks said afterward that it was not a dirty play. I think I even recall him saying that he has seen tackles like that very often over his years of coaching. So after getting tackled Taylor jogs off the field where he collapses. After calling an ambulance and getting him to the hospital for surgery the doctors realized that his liver had been lacerated severely. One of the doctors said that Taylor’s liver looked as if he had been in a massive car accident. He said he had never seen anything like it.

I arrived at the hospital around 11:30pm. I had gotten a knock on my door at home at about 11:00. Evidently people had been trying to call my cell phone for over an hour trying to get in touch with me to let me know what was going on. My cell phone had been on silent because I had spoken at a church event earlier in the evening and did not want my phone to ring while I was speaking. The hospital was pretty somber. Everyone was in an odd mood not knowing how bad Taylor’s injury really was. Many were very worried. I don’t recall the exact time but Dr. Fox came out to tell us how the surgery went. It was then that I think we all realized how serious the situation was. Dr. Fox was on the verge of tears explaining to us the severity of Taylor’s injury to his liver. He told us we need to pray because he is not out of the woods yet. We all gathered in the hall and prayed desperately for our friend Taylor.

Soon after that they came down to tell Mr. Brian and Ms. Kathy that they had Taylor in ICU and that they could go up to see him. (Taylor’s parents) The doctors were hoping that they could get Taylor stabilized so that they could go back in and try  to repair his liver in another surgery the next morning. I spent much of the night in Taylor’s ICU room with he and his parents. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do as a youth minister. We were hopeful through much of the night but realized that Taylor was in a precarious situation because he continued to lose blood throughout the night. At one point the hospital had even used up its supply of blood and had told Brian and Kathy that Taylor would eventually “bleed out” and would die. Soon after though, they had received more blood and gave Taylor four more units. (There is no telling how much blood he got throughout that night. Conservative estimates are 50-60 units.) Taylor was never conscious and probably never knew what happened once he collapsed on that football field sideline. At around 9:15am on August 30th Brian and Kathy said goodbye to their beloved only son, Taylor Reid Haugen. “T” as he was called by many was fifteen years old.

I don’t recall a time in my life crying as much as I did that weekend. By Tuesday, (The day of his funeral) I was all out of tears. The city of Niceville cried like you wouldn’t believe. We wept for our friend Taylor and his parents. As his mom said in his ICU room that night, “this is not real!” It was truely unbelievable and it still seems that way two weeks later.

Taylor was an amazing human being. He was just a beautiful kid. “T” loved life, people, and especially his God. Over the course of the next fews days after his death we realized what a huge impact this kid made for the kingdom. Story after story was told of how he invited other students to go to church, how he was a friend to those who needed one, and generally how he lived his life with such joy and passion that he inspired those around him. As I type this I think I am still a little numb about all of this. The Wednesday before his death Taylor was at the church having a blast with his friends during our annual water night. Taylor was in the middle of all the fun and was usually the reason for most of it. His life was such a beautiful life that was cut so short.

As Niceville has wept there have also been tears of joy. In our selfishness we want “our” Taylor back. In the midst of all of this I think we have continued to realize that Taylor was never really “ours” anyway. He belonged to God then and he belongs to God now. As one of Taylor’s best friends said, “I’m not sad for Taylor.” (-Trenton Kilby) We know he is with the Father and that is why out tears of sorrow began to become tears of joy.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008. Over 2100 people came to say goodbye to our beloved friend and brother in Christ. We thank God for allowing us the opportunity to just say we knew him. He lived fifteen beautiful years of life and he lived them passionately. Taylor has inspired all of us to live with the same passion for life and God that he did. “T” has been a light in his life and will continue to be a light even in his death. My life is different because I knew him. Many of you can say the same thing. Father thank you for sharing him with us. And God, thank you for being with us as we weep though this difficult time. You will never leave us nor forsake us.

let us march

Since I am a youth pastor this particular quote hits close to home. The reason is how often students or people in general will say great job after you have shared God’s word. People will tell you “that was a really good message, thank you.” Thank you? For what? Pastor’s simply share what the Lord has laid on their hearts to share. The quote that I will share is from Adlai Stevenson. It says this, “In classical times when Cicero finished speaking, the people said, ‘how well he spoke,’ but when Demosthenes had finished speaking they said, ‘Let us march.’” Wow…let us march. That is the hope and prayer of most pastor’s. They have a desire for people to be moved into action. Too often people hear messages that are from the Lord and they do nothing. Keep in mind that hopefully the pastor is Spirit-led and therefore the message is not his own anyway. We must know that the message is coming from the Holy Spirit within. I unfortunately will evaluate messages that I hear. Should I? Why would I evaluate a message that came from the Lord? I shouldn’t evaluate…I should simply follow or not. What about you? Do you evaluate whether someones message is good or not? If they are sharing God’s word shouldn’t we ask whether we will follow wholeheartedly. That is the point here. Will you say “I must march.” It is time to move into action. Remember, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

life and death

So I got to thinking recently. Maybe it’s mainly because I am a youth minister and this is one of the biggest struggles that teenagers can have. What is it? The power of words. And I am not just talking about their use of words…I’m even talking about the use of words toward them. I love Ephesians 4:29. It says:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

So often the focus of that passage with folks is not letting anything “unwholesome” come out of your mouth. For example, bad language. Well, yes that is true and I can’t begin to tell you how important that was for me when I first met the Lord. But now, “unwholesome” has begun to take on a much deeper meaning. For me now it means when you are not speaking words of value, love, truth, and grace. So often we use our words to tear others down and not build them up as the scripture says. Adolescent culture is full of students who have a need to be funny, noticed, and popular. Often that means being the center of attention by getting all the laughs by being sarcastic, joking on others, or “ripping” on someone. Often the recipient of those words laughs them off as a defense mechanism and acts as if the words don’t really bother them. (I have to admit though…right or wrong, I have a few friends that are so comfortable and confident with each other that we can rip on each other with no problems.) With that being said though my friends and I still have to be very careful about who might be listening. Remember the passage says so that it would benefit those who are listening. Do not be the reason that someone stumbles by thinking that it is okay to use words to NOT build others up according to their needs.

So my question to you is how do you use your words? If you are a teenager did I describe you when I said that some use their words to tear down? If you are a parents how do you use your words with your teen? It scares me how often parents use certain words to “motivate” their child and they don’t even realize that they are tearing down rather than building up. Very often those same words are planting seeds of resentment that will come to fruition when a child leaves home. Unfortunately, I have seen it often. Then there are the situations in which a parents just have no idea what kind of damage they do with outright words of pain. For example, I had a student once tell me that their father said to them, ” you are a piece of s**t. Could you imagine? I can only imagine what was said to that father when he was a child. Vicious cycle.

To conclude I will just share this…Proverbs 18:21a – the tongue has the power of life and death.

Do you use your tongue for life or death?

Lord, examine our hearts.

Disillusioned

Wow…been awhile. One of my very close friends got on to me the other day about not being more consistent with this thing. Hey, this takes administrative giftedness! Of which, I do not have! The sad thing is that I always have things floating around in my head that I need to get out! (So I can think more clearly.) Anyway, been thinking a lot lately. Mainly about the church. You know, the organized body of the church. (Not the true definition of the church which is the peeps or well maybe both. You figure it out.) I’ve had some conversations with some folks recently and I’ve been reading a lot. (As I always have. Matter of fact I probably spend too much money on books!) One book I haven’t read yet but soon will is by Dan Kimball. It is called “They love Jesus but not the church.” Basically it is about emerging generations that struggle with the church as we know it and yet are passionate Christ followers. I know many young men and women that fit this profile. As a matter of fact I talk to them often about their struggles with the church. The interesting thing is that they are not alone. I struggle with the church as we know it and what is funny is that I am employed by one! I often say about church and ministry, “I hate it and I love it.” Often people look at me like I’m crazy when I say this. (I read into their thought process…”hmmm wait a minute, he’s a youth minister and he struggles that way!) Of course I do. There are times when I struggle with what ministry and church has become. But then there are other times when I am absolutely compelled to keep striving to love young people and tell them about the One who can bring them hope, grace, wholeness, and forgiveness. I don’t think I would trade it for anything in the world. The word that keeps coming to mind is disillusioned. There are so many young people that are disillusioned by the church. But because I have given my life to serving young people via the local church body I am challenged to encourage them not to give up on the church as we know it. I know I am preaching to the choir when I say this but we know that the church is the people. I read a book several years back with a great title and I often state this to people…”they smell like sheep.” (That is the title and it is written by Lynn Anderson) When I begin to struggle with what goes on in church, whether by laiety or clergy I will often sniff a little and say, “smells like sheep around here.” That is the deal…we all smell like sheep. And we are all disillusioned at times. It is when we are disillusioned that we strive to bring about change. Change from within the church, not cursing the church from outside. The church needs those who are expecting more to voice their concerns and to challenge the church to follow closely after Jesus’ heart and mission. So anyway, I will close with a great quote from Saint Augustine. Tony Campolo quotes him in the book by Dan Merchant. (It’s called “Lord save us from your followers”)

Here it is: “The church is a whore, but she’s my mother.”

And after that Tony follows up with this:

“You want to talk about unfaithfulness? The church is the unfaithful bride of Christ, but she’s also my mother. Without this thing called the church I wouldn’t know about Jesus. For all its unfaithfulness, for all its whoring, the church has kept the gospel story alive down through the ages.”

Amen.

The Will

I saw an interesting sign the other day right here in Niceville. If you live here maybe you’ve seen it. For those of us who have played and love sports you understand why I love this sign. Of course, it is applicable to much of life. The sign is right off of Palm Boulevard and it is near the high school practice fields. It says this: “The will to prepare precedes the will to win.” Amen! What a great sign and great reminder to all of us who want to take the shortcut. Part of me hates that sign! I often wish I could be more disciplined about things. How about you? That sign is of course about sports. It reminds me of how often we want to take the spiritual shortcut. Our will to prepare for the spiritual challenges and battles that we face on a daily basis is imperative. We must know that to win the daily battles we must train diligently. Training diligently means studying God’s word, praying, and living a life of worship. Listen to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:

” Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

So in other words, I live my life in preparation for the trials and temptations that will surely come my way. God doesn’t take us out of those situations and circumstances…He gives us strength and wisdom to grow through them. I think too often we haven’t prepared well for those times. Remember that Jesus’ prayer was not to take us out of the world. (see John 17:15) So my prayer for you and I is that we would have purpose in living our lives and we would train ourselves in righteousness. Lord knows, I need it. And just maybe you do too. So remember, “The will to prepare precedes the will to win.” 

Moving Mountains

Well, I did it. I made it through the weekend. I have to admit, I am very tired but at the same time so refreshed. It’s amazing how God can do that. This morning I thought about how God moves mountains. (see Job 9:5) Yes, I am fully admitting it. God has moved some mountains this weekend. Can you believe that I am stubborn? I know, I know. That is so hard to believe! God moved my stubborness out of the way so that He could get to my heart that has been healing for the last year or so. I guess sometimes stubborness can be a good thing. To Mary, Steph, and Lori thanks for being stubborn! You didn’t give up because you knew me and loved me enough to know that I needed this. For goodness sake…I’m a youth minister and I tell people about the fact that God loves them more than they can even imagine. You know what? I need to listen to my own message. There is something powerful when a large group of men come together to spend time with God and each other. Walls and barriers were breaking as God did His work in us. He was truly moving mountains in our lives. I haven’t laughed so hard in quite some time and I even cried a pretty good bit. (Or as some of the guys would say, “my eyes keep leaking!”) As to the laughter, God’s word says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. (see Proverbs 17:22) There really is so much that is going on in me right now that it is hard to explain. There really is so much more to share and I don’t have a ton of time to explain it all. (Of course, pertaining to the specifics of a Walk to Emmaus you will not hear anything. For those of you that understand…De Colores!) Anyway, I’ll share more in the coming days. The main thing I know is this: I have tasted of the Lord’s love and His goodness. I want to continue to taste of His living water today, tommorrow, next week, next year, forever! Thank you God for moving mountains!