Third-Culture Kids

With us preparing to go overseas, we’ve been hearing a lot about raising your kids overseas, and how they become “third-culture kids.”  Recently, we were reading a book, and it brought something to our attention:

Jesus - the greatest third-culture kid ever!

Austerity and Impoverishment

The other day I picked up the book “The Testament of Gideon Mack” by James Robertson. The book is about a presbyterian minister who, despite his position, is an atheist. One day he falls down a ravine into the river below. Instead of being killed, he miracously survives and is rescued from the river by a person he believes to be the Devil. He spends three days the Devil talking about numerous thins about life before returning to the city he serves in. When he shares his story with the town-folk, he is expelled from his postion, and he disappears in order to write his “testament” before escaping into the woods to die. It is really a fasciniting read.

I was sitting at Starbucks reading the other day, and there was a passage from the book that really stuck out to me… something that I thought was a very profound insight, especially considering it was written from the perspective of Gideon Mack coming from an atheistic point of view. He was talking about his father and two things he respected about him. Mack says:

“From my father I learned many things, but two in particular stand out. The first was the beauty of austerity. As a child I didn’t like the sterile, unadorned barrenness of the manse, but now I have greater respect for this dedicated rejection of possessions. Austerity is not highly regarded these days: not to have things is considered a mark of poverty. But there is more than one kind of poverty, and I have not seen more wretchedly impoverished people than the desperate crowds shopping for the sake of shopping in the post-Christmas sales.”

I have been in California for a couple of weeks now. About two days ago, I was given a tour, driving down Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Strip, and then up into Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Yesterday, I spent some time in the Santa Barbara area, looking at these multi-million dollar homes dotting the cost. On both of these occassions, I had to stop and ask myself “whats the point?”

Seriously, what is the point? To demonstrate that you have wealth? To show the world that you have the most toys? All though your financial statements and your bank accounts may show that you’re way above the poverty line, it doesn’t tell me that you’re not impoverished.

All of those things mean absolutely nothing if your soul is living below the poverty line. There is only one way to make your soul rich, and it has nothing to do with the things you own. Heck, it has nothing to do with how good of a person you are either. It has to do with your standing in Christs eyes. Are you a child of God? Do you commune with the Holy Spirit? Are you thankful for the gift Christ has given us in eternal life? If not, the you are truly poor.

This is America…

Around 12 o’clock this morning, I got really sick. Sick enough that it kept me up all night.

Anyway, I spent most of the night watching tv cause I just didn’t feel like I could do much else. Our apartment complex provides basic cable to all of its residents. through this, we have CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and one other 24 hour news network. Anyway, I spent some time switching back and forth between these networks last night, and I was sickened by what I saw.

Yesterday, there was a fairly large riot at a prison in New Castle, IN. While I was watching the news last night, Fox News was the only one that reported on this incident at all. The other news networks spent the rest of the night talking to psychologists and lawyers about the Alec Baldwin message that he left for his daughter. They kept talking about how much damage that message would do to a 11 year old, especially having to hear it over and over again on tv. They would then go and play the message over and over again. Apparently, they are concerned about the welfare of the child, but not enough to keep from playing the message repeatedly.

What kind of country are we living in that would neglect to report something like a prison riot (big news) and instead, spend an entire night gossiping about a celebrity, and in the process, hurting more than just him?

New Life Missions Conference

Tomorrow Sarah and I will be heading up to the New Life Missions Conference in Bay City, MI. I’m really looking forward to it. I will have several opportunities to speak and share about what God is teaching me.

Pray about this. People are either going to really embrace what will be taught, or they’ll stone me I’m not sure which!

A Sanctified Salesman?

This is an excerpt from our April newsletter:

Most of you know that I graduated from
Bethel with a youth ministry degree in December 2004.  The average stay of a youth pastor at a church is two years.  This constant fluctuation of ministers within a church has a tremendous impact on a youth group, often causing instability in the group.  Since Sarah and I knew that we would be going overseas as missionaries, when I graduated we decided that I would get a non-ministry job.  We did not feel like we could enter a new ministry knowing that we would be leaving the country in a few short years, thus contributing to the statistics and instability.

            Right after we got married, I started looking for job that I could do until it was time to leave.  At one point, I was interviewed by a Christian man.  When he found out that I had a youth ministry degree, he said “I’ll see if I can get you into the sales department.  That’s basically what a minister is, a salesman.  You’d do great there!”  When he said this, I couldn’t help but step back and say, “Yeah, he’s right.”  I suspect many of you are thinking that very thing, and that’s a problem.

            Do you really want to be attending a church in which the man responsible for shepherding your flock is nothing more than a salesman?  Most likely the answer is no, but that is exactly what we expect our pastors to be.  Our churches have accepted a business approach, and as a result our church system is based on nothing more than transactions. 

            Think about it for a second; our churches are run by business-like boards using a business model, we advertise our churches and we develop programs to attract new members.  According to the book “World Christian Trends” by David Barrett and Todd Johnson, the church spends $1,551,466 on every person baptized in this country and George Barna report shows that
U.S. churches have spent $500 billion on domestic expenses.  Our pastors are even expected to “sell” the gospel to unbelievers, it is perfectly acceptable practice to “church shop,” and the sad truth doesn’t stop there!  We go home from church talking about what we did or did not “get out of it,” we go to be served, not to serve.  We enter into our services, whether we know it or not, with a mentality that “I’ll give you…. in exchange for….”

            I may sound pretty harsh in regards to this church system, so I want to clarify something; this system has worked.  But this next generation is not interested in the transactional.  They are not interested in this formulaic infomercial we call a Sunday worship service hosted by the sanctified salesmen we call pastors!  They want to be transformed.  This next generation is looking at our services and seeing that they could go off without a hitch even if God never showed up and that is not good enough for them!  It shouldn’t be good enough for us!  They want to experience the supernatural on a daily basis.  We claim to live with a belief in the supernatural but our lifestyles do not reflect a belief in the supernatural and this generation is calling us on it! 

            The Spirit of God has to be real and alive in our churches if we are going to reach our youth.   They are not interested in the way that we do church.  This formulaic approach of 3 songs, a message, and a couple more songs simply is not good enough for them.  Their church is not confined to a meeting in a specific building at a specific time.  Their church is a church spontaneity, a church that can happen at Burger King just as easily as it can in a sanctuary.  Their church is a church that embraces the Spiritual Gifts and expects to be used by God to do something bigger than we can imagine.  Their church is a church in which fellowship is unceasing.  Their church is a church that is not about transactions, it’s about transformations.  They expect transformed lives!  Can our church say any of that?

Welcome to our new blog.

Hello. Welcome to our new blog. Many of you may be wondering about the name of our blog, so I want to take this first post to explain why we chose this. Several years ago, I was attending the the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville. Rob Bell shared during one of our general sessions, sharing about the nature of God. Before Noah recieved the name “Yahweh” at the burning bush, God was simply known as “YHWH.” Bell explained that “YHWH” is an unpronouncable word that, when read in Hebrew, sounds like a rough breathing sound. He then went on to explain something that has always made a major impression on me. When we are born, the very first thing we do is say God’s name. When we stop saying God’s name, we die. Everytime we take a breath, we are crying out to God!

Our blog is also named after the song “Breathing” by Lifehouse. Lifehouse is one of our favorite bands (who we will be seeing in concert on April 29th), and this song has been a part of our relationship. For me, it describe a willingness to wait on each other, and to be content to merely be in each others presence. It also serves as an amazing reminder for us in our spiritual walk. We may not sense God moving, we may get impatient waiting for His timing, but we can always trust that he is there with us, breathing gently.

We hope to develop this more, to give updates about us, our walk with God, where He is taking us, and pretty much anything else we have to share. Feel free to read along, comment on anything you like.