Jimmy's Mission Trip To Jamaica

Jimmy playing soccer with some locals, during his recent missions trip to Jamaica. You can view more photos from his trip, looking at the Jim's Photos section of my blog on the right hand column.

US Soccer Match

Drew with Elyshia, sporting his new US Soccer jersey, during the United States vs Ecuador match at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, on March 25. The US won the friendly 3-1.

Gardening and Parenting

I was doing a little gardening today. Actually, I was pruning some azalea bushes. Now, seeing that it is spring time and I am pruning some azalea bushes, you would immediately know that I know very little about gardening and don’t do a good job with what little I do know. I think you are actually suppose to prune azalea bushes in the fall. At least that would be my guess. But these hadn’t been pruned for a number of years and they were looking very bad and producing a very little amount of flowering.

As I was doing the pruning, I began to think about how what I was doing was very similar in nature to the managing of relationships and in particular the parenting of my boys.

First of all, I know very little about gardening. While I would like to believe I am a good parent and I do the best I can, it often occurs to me that I don’t really know what I am doing. I don’t have all of the answers. I move from situation to situation with a sense of managing each issue and encounter with my boys as though “I have never been here before but I’ll figure it out as I go”. Sure, I’ll read a book, glean what I can from it and give it 100%. But, I approach each major issue with them really just relying on God’s guidance and some pretty good advice from Elyshia. The bottom line however is I am no expert.

Second, gardening should be constant. There was a movie a while back entitled “The Constant Gardener”. I never saw it, but I think it has a great title. As I was working in my garden, I realized that this should have been done a while back. If it had, the bushes may not have been in as bad a shape as they were. Gardens need continual care. I don’t think I parent continually. Sure I am there with them as much as I possibly can be. But, am I parenting? How often am I teaching them life lessons? When do I work with them on maturing their relationship with their Heavenly Father? How much time do I spend challenging them to grow in the relationships around them? How often has my inconsistency wounded them?

Finally, pruning hurts. I had planted those azalea bushes almost 12 years ago. I don’t recall ever giving them a good pruning over that time period. As I began to really prune them back, it was painful for me. I didn’t want to see the plant shrink or lose what little flowers it had. But, as we all know it was necessary. Parenting is sometimes painful. It would be easy and less painful sometimes to just let my boys grow on their own, unattended. However, in the long run the result could be much more painful.

Lord, help me to do the best job possible with the limited knowledge I have. May I be constant in my love and instruction and may it be done with as little pain as possible.

A Question of Conviction

What a great day yesterday in our church as we celebrated Jesus The Promised Messiah.

We had a Missionary Moment where we prayed for missions work throughout the globe and then sent off five of our young people in prayer, as they will leave for four days in Jamaica this coming week. My prayers will be with them throughout this week, especially since one of them is my own son. May God use them, challenge them and bless them during their time there.

Our central message for the day was taken from Mark 8:27-30. A familiar passage where Jesus ask Peter, "who do you say I am?". Our pastor, Ed Lee, made the point that this question is a question of conviction, who is Jesus to us? Wow, a powerful question. If he is our Messiah, Saviour, Redeemer, than how are we to respond to Him and how are we to live out our lives?

Serious Youth Ministries

I just finished reading the following article in the recent issue of Leadership Journal. It reminded me of the many conversations Elyshia (my wonderful wife) and I have had regarding our boys (13 and 10 years of age).

We have longed for a youth group in our church that would challenge our boys standing in Christ. One that would strengthen them for live. As we recently searched (forever) for a new Youth Pastor for our church we prayer for someone that would challenge our boys to be missional minded. That they would look at the world around them with love and seek to provide solutions for injustices. When their faith would be challenged, they would know how to respond, because they have been grounded in their relationship with Christ. We do our best at home to help our boys respond to life in light of these things, but help from a group of peers in this matter is always helpful.

This article, stresses the importance of youth ministries that are serious.

Youth Ministry Gets Serious
by Sam O'Neal

Conventional wisdom says teens don't like church because they find it boring. So they must be lured in with entertainment. Apparently, that strategy failed. A study published the Barna Group shows 61 percent of American twentysomethings attended church as teens but no longer attend, read the Bible, or pray.

"The point (was) not to do anything too weighty that would turn kids off," Chanon Ross, youth director at Knox Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois, said, challenging the concept in an essay titled "Jesus Is Not Cool." The old goal was to "keep it light; keep it fun … while simultaneously conveying a positive, family-friendly alternative to things like MTV." Ross blames this for the exodus. In that environment, "teens don't need Jesus to be crucified and raised from the dead in order to have positive outcomes and pursue family-friendly alternatives to MTV."

Even more alarming, many teens are now unable to differentiate between the gospel and the pop-culture box they receive it in. In Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, authors Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton identify most church teens as "at best only tenuously Christian." Instead of worshiping the holy God of the Bible, most teens follow "a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist"—someone to solve their problems and ensure happiness. They call this belief system "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," and claim it is rampant among American teenagers.

Going Hard Core
To reverse the trend, Time reports some churches are focusing more on teaching. Ben Calmer vetoed the purchase of a pool table after he became youth pastor of Shoreline Christian Center in Austin, Texas. The teens don't seem to miss the entertainment, as attendance doubled to 160 in the 18 months Calmer has been on the job.

When Chris Reed failed to convert a single student during a 12-month span as youth pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Bellflower, California, he decided to make a change. Reed restructured his program around heavier doses of doctrine and adult mentoring. Youth rolls expanded from 70 to over 200 in a period of 6 years, with 64 teens accepting Christ in a single year. More important, his students are growing spiritually.

"Teens have so much to give," he said. "People need to realize that youth are not the church of tomorrow; they're the church of today."

Sam O'Neal, with info from Time and www.christiancentury.org

Set Apart To Be A Part

The Salvation Army is a denomination with a long and wonderful history in being a part of the holiness movement. The standard definition of Holiness is being set apart for the worship or service of God. While we should separate ourselves for his work, we should not separate ourselves from the people that are in need of his love. Holiness should be lived out in the way we respond to those we come into contact with on our daily walk. The more I realize my unworthiness, the more I long to serve and be drawn unto him, and to minister to those I come into contact with on a daily basis. I have learned through the years to be less judgmental and more graceful in my interactions and relationships. How blessed I am to have an opportunity each and every day to serve in response to the love of the one who loved me.

"Wait" - A True To Life Showing

My production company, NFocus, recently produced a short film titled "Wait", which portraits an elderly woman who lives alone and is awaiting a visit from a volunteer. After winning an award at a film festival, posting it on-line, and a recent newspaper article in our local paper, the short film has received some very positive and heartfelt feedback. The film paints a very dismal picture of many who live in our world around us. Here is a sampling of some comments.

“This video certainly had an impact on me and I will try to spend some more time with the elderly. I am very aware of the loneliness of people now and this video brought it again to my attention. After writing this I realize that it is not just the elderly, but anyone who is ALONE. Thank you.”

“Very nicely done. I'd love the soundtrack of my anticipations, expectations and emotions to be as beautiful.”

“What a gut wrenching and sad video. Being 67 years old this is what I have to look forward too. Unfortunately we Americans feel the elderly are the throw aways. The orientals revere the old. We have a lot to learn. And this lady is one of millions what a sad picture of America. Thanks, I think.”

“The movie was wonderful. Made me cry, made me think of all the lonely people in the world that I ignore because I'm too busy, and made me more mindful of my mother's isolation.”

You can take a look at it at www.getnfocus.com/wait.html.