Redlight Crossing

New Location

2010-06-10T21:43:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

If you follow this blog and enjoy reading my thoughts and every once a great while interacting with me. Please proceed over to redlightorphanage.wordpress.com

This is the new home of Redlight Crossing. Redlight Orphanage is the original idea where Redlight Crossing came from so I decided to go back to the source and begin there. It's fresh and gives me a new start on writing. Thanks for following and hope to see you over there.

Ryan

Waiting for the Drop In

2010-04-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

I love surfing. It's been one of my favorite sports since High School when I spent a short stint living in Australia. While living there I had the opportunity to learn to surf on some of the greatest breaks in the world. Surfing has always been an area of release and contentment for me. I never realized how much I took for granted living near the coast in Orange County until I moved to a place that is 3 hours from the ocean and a cold, windy, choppy, mushy one at that.

Why do I tell you this? Well, lately I've been feeling discontent. I'm not sure what it is but I feel like there is something coming, something great but I can't figure out what it is. There is an anticipation in my heart, a yearning for something more. The feeling I have is similar to the feeling of anticipation you get while waiting for the drop in on a wave. When sitting in the ocean on a surfboard there is a mixed feeling of contentment and anticipation. You are content because you are doing something you love, often in a group of people you like, but there is also a feeling of anticipation. The horizon is your view, your back to the shore. A rolling blanket draws near you, slowly rising and falling. You wait and wait until finally you see that one ripple in the blanket that you know is going to peak. Your heart jumps and you quickly rotate your body and board around anticipating the wave that is rising behind you. At the right moment you begin to paddle. You dip your hands deep within the water, pushing with deep strokes the water underneath. Suddenly, you feel yourself being sucked backwards and the tail of your board begins to rise. At the right moment you quickly pop and feel the momentum of the wave push you down the face of this powerful force of nature.

Suddenly, it is no longer your power that is pushing you but the natural momentum given by the wave. This feeling that I have, this discontentment/anticipation, is like sitting waiting for that wave to raise me up and generate that natural momentum forward. I feel like there is something greater that is supposed to be part of my life. I'm not referring to God, or my relationship with Christ, I'm referring to who I am as a person and where God is guiding me. I'm sitting, staring at the horizon waiting for that one peak to show its head so I can turn around and paddle.

The Developing Civil War

2010-04-26T22:21:00.001-07:00

It seems that there is a Civil War beginning to brew in the United States. This Civil War is not one that carries with it rifles, missiles, grenades or even death in the literal sense. This civil war carries with it apathy, action, words of meaning and words of fluff. This is a civil war between two opposing cultural movements: pop culture verses activist culture.

The season in political history that we are facing now is ranking up there with other divisive political eras that we have seen. Partisan politics are demonizing their opposition and creating an ever-growing schism with seemingly little hope of collaboration or compromise. This negative trend that we see occurring in our political theater is also creating problems between lay citizens who also demonize each other for supporting opposing agendas. But despite all these arguments, debates, fights and mudslinging there is a positive battle that is occurring.

Each generation is targeted by popular media and told to consume and buy and you will look cool, be popular and don’t need to do anything else outside of own the right things. Our entertainment is becoming more and more mindless, not challenging people from an artistic perspective but causing them to enter into a vegetative trance while they forget what is going on in their lives. Some may call this a healthy escape but I call it a tragic demise. Our brains are becoming mushy, our logic is becoming flawed and our desires are growing increasingly self-centered. At least that’s what popular culture wanted to happen. That is until people got pissed off. A righteous indignation has stirred among this generation. A desire to have a voice, be heard and change the world. Now not everyone agrees on what is the right side to be on in the political debate but people are rising to combat against the apathetic popular culture that contributes to materialism and consuming. The one thing that we can all agree on is that something has to change.

Finally, we are seeing people who were caught up in the apathy of the American Dream being moved to action. Grassroots organizations are popping up supporting various causes both political and social. People are actively pursuing change in most areas of the political, social, economic and even religious arenas.

I’m encouraged by these actions. I don’t agree with Tea Parties, I have my own political bent, my own religious beliefs, but beyond my personal views I would rather see people acting on their convictions than sitting by and allowing a media culture to tell us to just sit on the couch and watch people who live on the Jersey Shore ruin their lives. The war against the apathetic media is taking place. People are being stirred to action in relevant, meaningful areas rather than focusing on themselves only.

Is this war near an end? Not at all, we still see headlines about Tiger Woods overshadow real world issues. People are still more concerned with Jesse James cheating on Sandra Bullock than they are with the rise of obesity in the United States or the fact that children in Africa are being kidnapped and drugged into becoming child soldiers. The war is not over, the battles have only begun and right now the media and popular culture still have the larger army, more weapons and the overall advantage. But the people are rising, people from all walks of life, from different world views and these people will not settle for a meaningless life anymore. They will stand, they will fight, they will find meaning and leave behind those things that have held them in a personal prison. The Civil War is beginning.

The Beauty of God's Grace

2010-03-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was reminded of a wonderful song called Came to the Rescue by Hillsong United. One of my students was putting together the set list for Sunday's Altitude Worship Service and placed that song on the list. It's a beautiful song describing God's open hand reaching down to rescue us.
It reminded me of how our lives are nothing without the grace of God. A wonderful gift freely given. We don't have to earn it, we just have to accept it. How great is our God! I often hear this idea referred to in the negative, i.e. "Nothing we can do can make us worthy of God's grace.", however true that statement is I believe that it changes the emphasis of the wonderful act of God's loving embrace and open arms onto the depravity of man. Rather, view this idea in the positive. God loves us no matter what and we don't have to do anything to earn it. Grace is a beautiful thing, something that I can't truly comprehend. I do know that I need to extend the grace God has granted me to others and be a loving and gracious Christian who embraces people where they are not based on what they should be.

Came to the Rescue

Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high

Have you embraced God as your rescuer? Let us not forget His love for us!

I'm a Christian, I'm sorry...

2010-03-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I've often contemplated the idea of what it would look like if there were to be a mass apology from Christians to the rest of the world, I even wrote about it once (Read It Here)Now before I go further, please let me explain a bit. When I suggest the idea of Christians apologizing to the rest of the world I am referring to an apology that would be in regards to historical atrocities and a misalignment of the general praxis of many Christians that often times get the spotlight from the mainstream media. This idea first came to my attention while reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, where he tells a story of setting up a confessional to apologize for how Christians have hurt people. Today, while reading through my blog roll, I came upon a post by a blogger I highly respect, Carlos Whitaker (Ragamuffinsoul.com) Carlos is a fellow believer and a guy with great thoughts and insight not only in ministry but in all areas of life. He posted the video that you will see below and I truly made me think. I found the video to be profound and encouraging and I'm curious to see how you all feel about this idea of an apology. Just a fair warning, there is some profanity in it so if you are easily offended then please don't watch but also please don't let the profanity distract you from what this man is trying to say.

Christianity and Education

2010-01-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years I've been troubled by some of the things that I have seen while in ministry and, outside of that, what I've seen presented by those who have platforms within the Christian community. I've become quite frustrated with the lack of education or the complete disdain for education in the Christian community. (Please keep in mind that I will be speaking largely in generalities and I realize that there are exceptions to my frustration.)
It seems that many people are presenting Christianity inaccurately to the world from platforms that they have been given for various reasons. When people speak for God they must be sure that they have given themselves over completely to the study of His word and also realize that we, in our human condition, can never comprehend the glories of God or how He works. Why is it that there are so many people who have such large platforms and speak out for the Christian community yet they have no formal accredited education regarding Christian ministry or Biblical Studies? There are many people who have no background in Biblical Studies and yet seem to think that they have somehow stumbled upon the correct interpretation of Scripture. I saw this in the last few days with remarks about Haiti coming from Pat Robertson. It troubles me that I have seen so many pastors and Christians who have no idea how to properly study the Bible speak out with such authority and legalism that it has done immense damage to the Christian community.
The problem for me lies (and keep in mind that I realize that I don't have the complete education either) in the fact that too many denominations, especially non-denominational denominations don't push their clergy to pursue proper education. I've been impressed by many mainline denominations that require Master's of Divinity degrees for ordination, while I don't think that this is completely necessary, I do regard their high view of education as worthy of applause. I've seen too many people speak out against behaviors, tragedies, and events because of their perspective on Revelation, yet they have no proper understanding of how to study Scripture. I'm not trying to say that these people are evil or ne'er-do-wells, but rather that we as a community must value the teaching that comes through education process and we must be looking to equip ourselves to the fullest degree possible in order to best interpret, translate, and communicate God's word.
But rather than churches looking to push their clergy to get and educational background they would rather form their own "schools" to promote their teachings instead of allowing people to grow through deep discussion and disagreements. It also disturbs me that there are schools out there that don't even provide proper teachers to teach in them. For example, I recently looked at a school in my area to see if I would encourage our youth to attend, I was shocked to see that the "professor" who was teaching Greek only had their Bachelor's degree rather than the many Christian schools out there that require at the very minimum a Master's but more commonly a PhD or Dmin. I believe that we need to step up as a community of believers and push forward, supporting Christian education that promotes dialogue, discussion and disagreements while at the same time equipping students with the tools to study for themselves and come to their own conclusions. I realize that my thoughts are a bit jumbled here, and really I shouldn't even be posting this until I have more clearly outlined my frustration but I'm a reactionary person and needed to vent. Please know that I am not saying that every Christian needs to have an academic degree regarding faith subjects but I do believe that the leaders of our churches need to have a higher education degree in Christian studies from an accredited institution in order to guide their flocks with the utmost care.

I have a feeling that my thoughts in this post will provoke some people due to their disagreements with me, I welcome that as iron sharpening iron and hope that any conversation that ensues will be full of grace and love.

Preach for their Life: What I've Learned from Preaching to Students

2009-12-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

My wife, Lauren, likes to watch the show "So You Think You Can Dance". During the tryouts for this dance show they have a section for people who are about to get kicked off to "Dance for Their Life" in order to save themselves from elimination. As I was sitting on my couch tonight I realized that there are times when teaching/preaching to students that you are preaching for their lives. So here are a few of the things that I have learned over the past 6 years from teaching students.

1. Preach For Your Life
You may only have one chance to draw a student to Jesus, therefore each time you get up to teach or preach you are preaching for their lives. It's easy to try and throw something together last minute but if you're doing this you aren't really preparing to impact a students' life, it's just lazy and careless. Each time you preach you have that one shot to draw a student in, so make sure that you are giving it your all each time you get up there.

2. Time Doesn't Equal Clarity
If you can't summarize the main point of your sermon/lesson in two sentences then it's too complicated. It's easy to get carried away when you see that a point isn't resonating with students and so you keep talking. The longer you talk does not mean that you are making things clearer, in fact you are probably creating more confusion. Typically students don't last more than 20-25 minutes listening to a sermon, if that's not enough time then break down your sermon into multiple parts.Don't buy into the cliche that all pastors are long winded, you run the risk of blowing point number one. (I especially struggle with this one because I love to teach.)

3. Don't Water It Down
Students are smart, they understand more than we give them credit for so don't water down your message. When teaching try to give them all the necessary tools to understand the point of the sermon, whether it's context, definitions or theology, they can handle more than we give them credit for.

4. Don't Over Complicate
I'm a student of theology, I love it, it's what draws me near to God. I enjoy reading it and studying it, however not all people do. Don't bring in theological concepts that aren't necessary for your point. This may seem contrary to the last point but it's not. You can't keep your sermon from being watered down without using unnecessary theological concepts and tools. When we throw in complexities that aren't needed it's typically us stroking our own egos than trying to effectively communicate. Keep it simple, but keep it strong.

5. Interact with Them
Students enjoy participating in your teaching, they don't want to sit and get lectured like they do at school. Utilize your students in ways that allow them to engage your teaching, it draws them into the sermon and allows it to become their story. Obviously be cautious with this and never put a student on the spot that isn't comfortable with it and never bring up things that would spotlight a student for their shortcomings, but rather use their for positive examples and interaction.

These are just a few of the principles that I've learned in the last 6 years, many of which I've learned in the past few weeks. I don't have it all figured out, but I'm doing my best to grow and reach students in the best way I can.

Losing Focus

2009-12-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days my mind has been mulling over the sermon topic we had for this morning during our student ministries services. The topic at hand was "Where's Your Focus?" particularly with Christmas. As I was prepping for this sermon I was looking at the traditions we have for Christmas and where they came from, most of which were not of Christian origins and have somehow infiltrated Christmas and taken the place of Jesus as the focus. This study led me down a parallel path in my teaching this morning as I felt that not only have we lost focus during Christmas but often times we lose focus during our Christian lives in general. Whether it be with things in life like materialism, politics, or relationships or the church related things like theology, doctrine, and dogma, we often times lose focus of Jesus. This isn't easy for me to say because I believe that I'm the guiltiest of them all when it comes to losing focus expecially with theology and doctrine. Sometimes we get so caught up in being right that we lose focus on Jesus and end up doing more damage than good.

During the sermon this morning we showed clips from A Christmas Story, where the boy focuses solely on getting his "Red Rider BB Gun" and doesn't even realize that the holiday he is celebrating has a much deeper significance. As we covered the topic of Christmas and what it would look like if we actually removed everything and focused solely on Jesus a whole new world opened up. A world where presents weren't the focus or trees, lights, or misletoe but rather on Jesus and how even as a baby he turned the world over by lifting up the poor and the oppressed. This in turn led to talking about the latter half of the above paragraph where it's not only at Christmas that we lose focus. When we lose focus of who Jesus is as Christians it can do some major damage. I showed a slide show of various images that most of the students were familiar with. Pictures of Buddy Jesus, Bobble Head Jesus, and "Jesus is My Homeboy" t-shirts, all of which received giggles in the crowd. The demeanor of our students changed however when I switched a picture of two little girls wearing shirts that say "God Hates Fags" and then to a Crucifix that was displayed in a bottle of urine (which was considered "fine art"). We closed the slide show with a picture of a man holding a sign that said "If Jesus returns, kill him again."

These images show what can happen when we neglect Jesus and focus on other things. Each of these images showed a persons view of either Christians or Jesus, each of which lacked respect and reverence. Somewhere along the way, some Christians lost focus and gave the world the wrong image of what Jesus was about. If we as Christians can maintain focus on Jesus then the world can truly change, not just at Christmas but throughout our entire lives. It's not an easy task to focus on Jesus all the time but if we can remove the distractions, if we can remove ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to work then it can happen. My challenge to our students this morning and to myself was to see where I need to refocus my life so that Jesus would truly be the center and ask God to lead me to becoming the Christian that he desires me to be; one who loves God and loves others.

I can only pray that when it comes to the times that I lost focus of Jesus, whether at the holidays or anytime, that God's grace will redeem any damage that I have done and that He will use me to accomplish more now.

Grace

2009-12-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

"Fear nothing and never be afraid. And don't worry. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin which could exceed the love of God? Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that GOd loves you as you cannot conceive; that He loves you with your sin, in your sin. It has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heave than over ten righteous men. Go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. Be reconciled to him in truth. If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others." - Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov

This sums up completely what I believe of God (excluding blasphemy of the Holy Spirit), and if I as a sinner can accept that grace indeed I should return it to others.

Deceived

2009-10-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we talked about Matthew 5, particularly the references to being a City on a Hill. As I was preparing for that sermon I came to a conclusion about who Christians are and that we've been deceived. Often times we believe that in order to be a light we have to appear in a certain way, live our lives in a certain way and essentially all together.

What I realized is that our culture has conditioned us to appear a certain way. Christians are always called hypocrites, that we preach things we don't live. Not surprisingly, it's true. We live by a standard that we rarely live up to and we are hypocrites, it comes with the territory. However, recognizing that truth has led me to believe that we have bought into the lie that since the world views us as hypocrites we must have it all together in order to be a light. I have come to an entirely different conclusion.

I believe that being a light to the world means two things:

First, when we accept Christ we come to be a light to the world around us because the Holy Spirit now dwells in us and we are now a new creation.

Second, being a light means that we are true to who we are. We become vulnerable. Light pierces the darkness. We don't have it all together, and in order for the world to see the light they must see it penetrating the darkness, but not just in a broad sense like we always like to believe but also in a smaller sense. In our lives! If we act like we have it all together then people can't see the light of God working in our own lives. In order to truly be a city on a hill we must see allow people to see God's light shining through the darkness in our own lives. It's not about how we have it all together, it's about how we allow God's grace to work in our lives and let the light shine through our own darkness.

The world wants authenticity, not perfection! Are you allowing God's grace to work in you and show others his light in you?

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

The Dark Night of the Soul

2009-09-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough few days up here in Washington. What started out as a great weekend with friends visiting for Lauren's birthday turned into a weekend of stress and tragedy. Fortunately, the stress was only on my end and Lauren was able to still have a nice weekend.

RVCC lost a dear friend over the weekend at too young of an age. To say that his life was lost is truly an understatement. He invested in our youth and in others around him, he was loved and will be dearly missed.

Processing death is never an easy task especially when it happens to someone so young, it's so easy to question and blame God for tragedies in our lives even when we know that God is on our side throughout the hurt. When I was informed of the potential tragedy on Sunday morning I was blessed to have an awesome leader who helped me to see that no matter what happens the day will end in joy. Either he will be found alive and well and we will rejoice or we will know that he just celebrated his first day in the Kingdom face to face with Jesus. The latter turned out to be true. Having that perspective was not easy and seeing the hurt in our students eyes didn't help either, but it is a reality that I now take comfort in after having processed for a few days.

This weekend left me feeling defeated and broken, but God's grace is sufficient and His guidance never waivers. Latin writers refer to the times where God feels distant as "The Dark Night of the Soul" and this weekend flirted with that for me, but God is faithful and was there the whole time. Our students however are struggling with their own "dark nights". I have my thoughts on how to help them through this but I'd really like to hear your thoughts on ministering during tragedy.

How do you minister to your students who are hurting and going through their dark nights?

Celebrity Pastors

2009-08-11T20:30:00.001-07:00

I was having a conversation with one of my students this afternoon when I mentioned to him that sometimes even pastor's struggle with a desire for recognition within ministry. I mentioned for example how I have often wondered what it would be like to have the influence that Rob Bell has in society, upon hearing Rob Bell's name the student responded, "Oh, I can't stand that guy. I really don't like his theology." It wasn't the first time that I had heard a response like that at the mention of Rob Bell's name, but it made me think of a couple of things.

First, I find it interesting that people choose to dislike someone based on whether or not they agree with an individual's theology. Since when are our relationships with each other based on whether or not we agree with each other's theology. Seems like theology should be one of the lesser criteria on our list being that most of theology is purely speculation anyway. There are certain things that we will never have definitive answers to when it comes to God, yet we base our opinions of others on whether or not we agree on those speculations? Weird...

My train of thought then proceeded to how I am guilty of the same behavior due to my opinions of Mark Driscoll. I disagree with his conservative stance on many issues and his Calvinist theology, thus I have made comments about not liking him. Following that train I remembered how there has been a fairly public feud, fed from the Driscoll side, between Driscoll and Rob Bell. Ultimately this thought train led me to the question of... Why are our pastor's becoming more like celebrities to the point where they even have public feud's with each other? They can disagree with each other but shouldn't those disagreements be kept personal rather than public outbursts of opinion? The Driscoll/Bell situation seemingly resembled Oprah/Letterman. Shouldn't our pastor's be presenting an entirely different image than those in popular culture?

Influence...

2009-06-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here watching "Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks, it's a great movie that I always enjoy. It has some great lessons in it about relationships and redemption. There is a particular scene after Tom Hanks' character gets shot where he is recovering in bed, he opens his eyes to see his son holding his gun and essentially mimicking him in the mirror. That scene brought to mind questions that I think present interesting conversations.

1. How has your father been an influence in your life, or how do you think the absence of a father has influenced your life?

2. As you get older are you seeing yourself turning more and more like your father?

3. Do struggles translate down from father to son?

Just some thoughts.

If You Could Build It...

2009-06-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

If you could build your dream ministry what would it look like and what would it consist of?

Why would you choose the things you do and what would you hope to accomplish?

Summer's Here...

2009-06-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and things are getting chaotic at work. We have an awesome summer schedule planned for our students but in the midst of that we are juggling vacations, other trips, and maintaining our week to week operations. It can get pretty chaotic. I've noticed that getting bogged down with all of this is starting to take a toll on me and to top it off my car is not starting...
Amidst all of this chaos I'm finding that I need to rekindle some of my old passions that have fallen by the way side since moving back to Washington, not due to disinterest but rather to a busy work schedule and school. This summer I plan to start climbing again and working out more. I've also found a new passion in yardwork, I know it sounds weird, the one thing that every teenage guy despised growing up is now something that is quite therapeutic for me.

So I'm curious...what do you do to maintain sanity amid ministry chaos and weeks away from home during the summer?

The Mission

2009-06-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

I just finished watching the movie The Mission with Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. I recommend this movie to everyone. The story is about Jesuit Priests in 18th century South America who fought to protect the Native Indians from Spanish and Portuguese invaders. The Roman Catholic Church abandoned these Priests leaving them to defend the natives on their own. It's a story of faith and action, of listening to the call of God and the few standing against many. It literally brought tears to my eyes at the end, experiencing both disgust at the apathy of "civilized"humanity and the extreme faith in a God who cares of a few priests and a newly converted tribe. There is much to be learned from this movie and from the history of the church. We can't let the Church repeat the mistakes of the past through inaction.

What the heck is this?

2009-05-26T22:17:00.001-07:00

Sorry guys but I have a new addiction, it's www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com. The picture below is from the sight and so is this one and it is completely awkward. I love when people try to be cool but it fails miserably.

This is just fantastic.

2009-05-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

Words cannot express how amazing this photo is.

Review: Unlikely Disciple

2009-05-05T22:05:00.001-07:00

The Unlikely Disciple is a book that I found to be more encouraging, humbling, and enlightening than any Christian book I've read in the last year. Kevin Roose accomplished a well-rounded assessment of the Fundamentalist Christian world while at the same time bringing a human element to figures and groups that most Evangelical Christians enjoy disliking. A self-proclaimed non-believer, Roose decided to take a semester off from his Ivy League School (Brown University) to attend Liberty University, a fundamentalist Evangelical school founded by outspoken Christian leader Jerry Falwell. Roose's journey into the life of the conservative Christian world is humorous, saddening, and hopeful all at the same time. He encounters Christians in every form, hateful, hyper-spiritual, balanced, and skeptical all the while maintaining a surprisingly well balanced opinion of those in this world that is so foreign to him. Although he disagrees with some of the core tenets of these people he portrays them with respect, care and compassion that hopefully will help Christians and Non-Christians alike to enter into healthier dialogues and stronger relationships with each other.

God's Lookin Out

2009-04-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've written anything on here and to be honest I'm not really sure why. I don't have some profound anecdote about how I've been fasting from blogging or have been on a retreat of solitude, rather life just gets busy sometimes and this isn't the highest priority. But I'm back and wanted to share a thought with you.

In our Student Ministry we are getting ready to start a new series in a couple of weeks called "The Darkness: Finding God in difficult times." I'm really excited about this series because I think all too often Christianity is presented as this faith where once you accept Jesus everything is going to be perfect and you won't have doubt, depression, or feel distance. It's one of my favorite issues to address, perhaps because i have often struggled with the dark times in Christianity during my journey in the faith. On Sunday afternoon I got home from church and really just felt in a funk. It seemed like nothing went right during church, my sermon was off, leaders were absent, and the whole thing just seemed to fall apart in my eyes. When I got home I just couldn't kick this weird down feeling I was having so I grabbed my Bible and went and sat on the porch. I decided to read Habakkuk and check out some good OT. I was stoked that I read it because it showed me that even though sometimes it seems like God's gone and he has left the world to the crapper, he's really looking out and that he will raise up people to accomplish his work even if it means using people that don't worship him. What a cool thought! Even if Christians aren't doing the job their supposed to by loving people and bringing them to know a Savior, God can use whoever he wants, including non-Christians to do it.

Here's my question to you...

Do you think that God is using people outside the church to accomplish his work because the church isn't doing a good enough job of it? I'm talking in the present, right now is God doing this. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Eyes Wide Open

2009-04-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Finally a book has been written that presents God's love and grace in an effective manner. Jud Wilhite has written a work that is a necessity in any Christian's library. There aren't many books out there that I would feel comfortable giving to a person who is checking out Christianity or new to the faith. Wilhite's book should be part of any seeker's tools that a church has. The Bible is the first book to give to a person looking at the faith and Wilhite's book is the second. Too many people perceive Christianity has a faith of rules and regulations, the more you don't meet certain standards the less of a Christian you are. "Eyes Wide Open" combats that myth and shows people that God has chosen the church and that the people who find Christ are accepted as saints.
This book may seem light and fluffy to those Christians who have an established faith, but this book isn't reaching towards those people. I believe that this book will help to take common themes in Christianity and make them a reality for even the most experienced Christian. Grace is available to all and even after accepting Christ, we still need to recognize that God's grace exists for us when we fall short.

If you are looking for a book to help you understand grace and love while drawing nearer to Christ and the way He can give you life to the fullest then check out Jud Wilhite's new book. It's a must have for any pastoral, lay Christian, seeker, and just curious person's library.

Self-Absorbed Sinful Pastor

2009-04-06T22:27:00.001-07:00

I've never thought of myself as a self-absorbed person, in fact I've prided myself on intentionally trying not to be. However, tonight I realized how truly self-absorbed I have been and how sinful that fact is in my life. I was talking to a classmate at Fuller tonight, getting acquainted since we both live in the Tacoma area. I told him that I live in Graham and he simply stated that our town was in the prayers of his church and the churches in Tacoma. It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about. Over the weekend and father shot and killed his five children ranging from 16 down to 7 and then killed himself, all because he thought his wife was leaving him. This tragedy has rocked our community but in my self-absorbed state I had pushed that out of my mind to the point where I actually forgot that it happened and was too focused on my own personal life and busyness.

This sin caused me to neglect my hurting community and those affected by this tragedy. I pray that I am forgiven of this and have the chance to show Christ in this time of hurt. How often do we get so caught up in ourselves that we neglect the hurting around us? I believe that in working with the hurting around us God works in the hurt and processes that are going on in our lives but our sin takes us away from that. My prayers are with the family and friends of the victims. God will see you through this time and will in some way beyond our comprehension work for the good in this tragedy.

Family Differences

2009-04-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

Quizzes on Facebook are hilarious. In the office the other day we were laughing about the"Political Ideology" quiz. After I took mine my brother decided to take one as well and the differences between us cracked me up. Check out the pictures below and the results of the quizzes. The pictures with the results match the politician that you are supposedly like.

Ryan completed the quiz "The Political Idealogy Quiz" with the result Very Liberal.
You are very liberal. You are about as far left as you can be before heading into Stalin's backyard.. (The picture is of Nancy Pilosi)

Chris completed the quiz "The Political Idealogy Quiz" with the result Moderately Conservative.
You're close to the middle, but more conservative than not. Maybe not Reagan, but you're on the right side..

This is a picture of the two of us the results will make sense to you now. :) This is an old picture from when I was in college but it shows our personalities.

How are you different from your family?

Oh King James....

2009-03-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

Bible authority is a topic that comes up often within the Christian world. Everyone has their preferred translation. What cracks me up is when people believe that a certain translation is written directly by God, I've most commonly encountered this with people who hold that the King James version is the ONLY version that God is involved in. I don't believe that the King James version is heretical, but I also don't believe that it's the best translation out there. We were discussing a brief history of the European Reformation tonight and some interesting facts came up about good ol King James.

1. King James authorized a translation of scripture because in his context Christianity represented power so he gained more power by having an authorized translation, but within that he also had control over how the scriptures were translated.

2. King James avoided having issues with scriptures and his religious background (Anglican tradition) by having words transliterated rather than translated. i.e. baptizo which means to dip under was transliterated to baptize because his Anglican background practiced infant sprinkling which wasn't supported by the idea of immersion.

3. Given that most conservative traditions hold the King James version in such high regard, I found it humorous that King James essentially violated one of their most core beliefs. He was gay.

Does this mean to throw out the KJV? No, it just means that just like any other translation we have to remember that the original manuscripts are inspired but that translations can have areas of fault, even though the core message is infallible.

More Snow?

2009-03-28T18:49:00.001-07:00

A lot of people up here don't like snow, we love it and are glad that we get to have it one more time before it warms up again.

Does Satan Exist?

2009-03-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Recently on ABC Nightline a debate over the existence of Hell and Satan was aired. It featured Mark Driscoll, Deepak Chopra, Annie Lobert, and Carlton Pearson. I watched the debate and it has some interesting arguments. I've never been part of the Mark Driscoll fanclub but in this debate I felt that he represented a solid view of the Christian understanding of Satan and Hell, he was respectful (at times you could tell he was biting his tongue, and for once I wished he move forward with his brash and blunt commentary). Unfortunately, there were some downfalls to the debate. Annie Lobert, the founder of Hookers for Jesus, was Driscoll's partner in the debate and to be quite honest she should have been left out of this conversation. I believe she has had a legitimate spiritual experience and is doing great things for the Kingdom, however in a debate you need more to go on than just personal experience and interpretation. On the opposing side was Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson. Deepak was much like Annie Lobert, he was making bold statements but backing nothing up and really had a shallow understanding of the Christian faith. He accused Annie Lobert of attributing her fallen acts in her former days of prostitution to Satan rather than taking responsibility for her actions herself. Obviously as Christians we believe that Satan is evil and a representation of all the evil in the world however as Christians we do, or should, take responsibility for our sinful actions because in our free will we choose to do those acts. The final member on the Anti-Satan team was Carlton Pearson. Pearson is a former Fundamentalist pastor who eventually rejected hell and Satan in his theology. He was interesting to listen to but at the same didn't say anything that profound in his argument. I encourage you to check out the video at ABC Nightline's website.

I'm curious to not only your thoughts about the debate but also your thoughts on the issue.

If Christianity should apologize...

2009-03-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend I preached a sermon on the simplicity of the call from Jesus to follow him. To just come and check it out, you don't have to believe first but just come and see. As my mind has traveled through this, I began to think how hard it has become for people to accept the call just to follow to check Jesus out because of things that have happened in the past, whether the Crusades or the Inquisition. So, I felt that this would be an interesting conversation starter and question, and simply, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

As a Christian, what do you feel that we as Christians should apologize to the rest of the world for? Be honest.
As a Non-Christian, what do you feel that Christians should apologize for? Be honest.

Keep in mind that just because someone is apologizing for something does not necessarily mean that they have participated in that event or activity but rather feel that it needs to be apologized for.

I'm excited to see your responses.

Amazing Leadership

2009-03-18T21:42:00.001-07:00

Today I was humbled in a way that I have never experienced before. I have been so blessed at my church by the awesome leadership and example that they set for me. Throughout my time here, and it's only been a short time, I have experienced leadership that I have had the opportunity to be a part of before. These men are truly seeking God's heart and desire to see what God's calling is on this ministry here in the Pacific Northwest. Everyday I am amazed by these Godly men and today was no exception. The vulnerability and transparency displayed by my Sr. Pastor today was awe inspiring. I'm not going to go into details because they are not important to this post. What is important is that God is truly working in the lives of our staff and our staff is responding to that. God has used our leadership to guide me into a new understanding of ministry and how God works. I learned today that it's okay to be transparent and vulnerable and that I work with a staff that is going to be right there next to me through everything.

I pray that God brings more men into ministry that are like the leaders that I have seen at my church. They have blessed me in more ways than they know.

How has the leadership over you affected your life? Has it been positive or negative? Looking at the leadership that you are under, how is God grooming you to be a better leader?

Seeking God

2009-03-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned before that I struggle with my personal devotional time, it's something that is hard if I'm not doing deep study. However, I often find great encouragement in reading early church literature and what those great men of God found in their relationships with God and their unique understanding of who God is. Tonight I was reading out of: The Major Works of Anselm of Canterbury. This passage was so enlightening to me:

"Teach me to seek You, and reveal Yourself to me as I seek, because I can neither seek You if You do not teach me how nor find You unless You reveal Yourself. Let me seek You in desiring You; let me desire You in seeking You; let me find You in loving You; let me love You in finding You."

God has revealed himself to us all, it's a matter of us seeking Him and finding Him in the ways He has revealed himself to us.

Missions

2009-03-16T22:06:00.001-07:00

Lately, I have been involved in several different conversations and meetings about missions. All of them are in different contexts but as I sit in these meetings or engage in the conversations the same question comes to mind. What exactly is missions? It's not a word we find in Scripture, rather a term coined for a particular action. But how do we define what missions is to the church today. I definitely have my opinion on what it is but I'm curious to see what your definition is. I don't believe there is any right or wrong answer here, but rather it all boils down to the same thing, evangelism and spreading the Gospel of Christ, however I am curious if you have a working definition for what it means to be a missionary or be involved in missions. Does missions mean you must be engaged somewhere outside of your country, continent, city, state? What cultural definitions are involved? This may seem like a mute point, but I really am curious.

Mad Church Disease

2009-03-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. For anyone who is in ministry, has a spouse or parent in ministry, or is volunteering in ministry you should read this book. It addresses the symptoms of burnout and what causes it and then how to prevent it from happening. Anne Jackson does a phenomenal job of making this book a page turner with stories, interviews, personal examples and statistics. Honestly, probably the best ministry book I've read in ages.

Solidarity

2009-03-08T06:44:00.001-07:00

I am fortunate enough to have some truly awe inspiring friends who are advancing God's kingdom. Solidarity is a ministry that knows what it truly means to be missional. They moved into a rougher community to start a teen center and build relationships with students and share Christ with them. Check out the video below by another awe inspiring friend of mine named Theo Love. You can check out Theo's work at www.goodnightsmoke.com. I hope you are blessed by this video.

Solidarity 02 from Theo Love on Vimeo.

Struggles and Transparency

2009-03-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

All of us have different areas in our relationship with God that we struggle with, areas of weakness. Being in ministry does not make one exempt to that. I want to be open and honest with you in hopes that you will share with me. I believe that sharing in these things allows each of us to experience God's grace and encouragement through one another.

The couple areas that I want to share are:

1. I believe in God's grace, I believe that his grace abounds more than I can even imagine. This is one of the greatest things about God and about my relationship with him. The struggle comes into play in the fact that I have the hardest time extending grace to those who don't extend grace to others. I have such a hard time expressing a gracious attitude in those situations and being gentle. The thing people often forget about grace is the fact that the beauty lies in the difficulty of it. It is far easier to cast people aside and condemn them rather than extending grace, forgiveness, and love to them. This makes God so amazing in the fact that he extends so much grace to us which is a greater feature of God than the ability to cast people away. I desire to have this characteristic be furthered in me towards other people and pray that God will work on my heart.

2. The other area of struggle for me comes with personal devotion. I love the Word of God, it is a passion of mine. I love word studies and all aspects of exegesis. The struggle comes in the superficial devotional aspect. I am not using superficial in a negative away but rather in the fact that it does not require in depth study and just allows for the Word to speak to your life. I find this to be the most difficult thing. When I do sit down to read I find myself wanting to pull out my Greek New Testament and the entire series of Kittel (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament) to do an indepth study. I do derive a certain devotional aspect from my deeper study and it is the main way in which I encounter God but at times I wish I could just sit down and read. I find that the struggle with devotional reading leads me to only read for sermon prep, school, or any time I just want to study rather than a consistent involvement in the Word. I pray that God will allow me to find balance in both forms of reading.

These are my struggles, obviously it's not a comprehensive list but rather ones that I felt I needed to share and get off my chest. I pray that you will feel comfortable sharing yours so we can pray for each other and provide encouragement.

Blessings,

Ryan

Ministry and Fatigue

2009-03-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

I recently read a post on the Deadly Viper blog by Jud Wilhite. Wilhite and Mike Foster have been promoting this book called Mad Church Disease, of course I'm not sure what it's about but from what I gather, it addresses several downfalls within current ministry. Wilhite candidly confessed that he was suffering from this disease and he realized after seeing three different things happen.
1. He overheard his wife talking to friend about how she felt like a single mom.
2. His 5 year old daughter told him that she wished he wasn't a pastor as he was leaving to go to church.
3. He collapsed after preaching a sermon at his church.

Wilhite is the pastor of a church that is 14,000 strong and I'm sure his schedule is insane. But as I read this I get concerned about my fellow pastors and myself at my current church. We all put in long hours, we are all very passionate about our church and it's vision and ministry and yet are we falling into a workaholic trap. I know that for me I have been sick for the last two weeks and I can't help but think that this is in part to my hectic schedule. I also know that my wife struggles with the amount of time that I am away from home (not all due to church but also my master's work). I have several pastor friends that I worry may be in the same boat. The problem I believe is that when you are passionate about something you get overly excited about it and then it becomes all you think about, often causing you to forget to slow down and breath and relax. On top of that I don't believe that this only exists in vocational ministry but also in other careers and especially within volunteers in the church.

Are you experiencing fatigue in your ministry, not because it's tiresome but because you have forgotten to find the peace of God in your daily life?

What is your Context?

2009-02-26T14:28:00.001-08:00

Ministry is all about reaching people within your particular context. The way in which I did ministry in Los Angeles is very different from what I do now in Washington due to being in a different context. I'm very interested to find out what your context is and what you see as the greatest needs in the context that you live, serve, and work in.

Listen to your Lady

2009-02-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

This is a hilarious video used at Central Christian Church in Vegas for their series called "The Knot". I have to give props to my boy Josh and his soulful capabilities in this video: he's the guy in the white shirt with the hat. It's an awesome video.

What are you reading?

2009-02-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

I'm curious to see what everyone is reading right now. I love to get ideas for new books to read so please tell me what the best book you've read lately is or any book recommendations you may have. I'd also just like to know what you're reading at the moment and your thoughts on it.

For me, I'm reading several books right now.
"Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk rock thoughts on Buddhism, Sex, God, and Dogen's Right Dharma Eye" by Brad Warner
"Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas
"Why Guys Need God" by Mike Erre

So fill me in your reading so far this year.

Some May Find this Offensive

2009-02-17T21:32:00.001-08:00

Hey, you may find this offensive, but I think it's great to laugh at ourselves every once in a while. So enjoy it for what it is, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Essentials

2009-02-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

As a Christian or a non-Christian, I'm curious as to what your essentials are. Just like every other religion Christianity is a religion based on interpretation. However, outside interpretation the core of Christianity lies and what a person believes are the essentials to the religion. I was looking over some old college materials and came across a survey that I once took to show what a person feel was necessary to salvation. So I want to know what you feel are the essentials to Christianity and how those essentials play a role in you following or rejecting Christianity. For example, some people believe that speaking in tongues is essential to salvation, others baptism, some would say your millenial theology is essential. To give you a more specific example, some people believe that zionism is in an essential role of Christianity, that Israel plays a role in the macro plan of Christianity, but for me I don't believe in this aspect of Christianity, my understanding and interpretation has led me to a different conclusion. So for you and your Christianity or your rejection, what do you believe are the Christian essentials? I look forward to your thoughts, insights, and critiques.

When Hope is Lost

2009-02-13T23:09:00.000-08:00

Ministry definitely has its highs and lows. I've been at it long enough to know that you go through seasons in ministry, times where things are going perfect and times where it seems like nothing can go right. This week has had the essence of the latter. Being a youth pastor means that you are naturally connected to your students, even the ones that frustrate the crap out of you, you still hold them near and dear to your heart. The thing that I have realized as I've been in ministry over the past few years is that my heart doesn't only hurt or rejoice for my students but for students that I don't even know in our community. This last week has made this realization even more clear to me. Over the last week we had two students die in our community. One was a Jr. High student who went home sick and then two days later died. I'm not sure what from, but I know that my heart has been hurting for his family and his friends. No death is taken lightly in any situation but the second student that died has affected me more than normal.

The second student who passed away was a high school boy who committed suicide. The boy was found by his 6 year old brother (not even going to go into the damage that that will cause later on), and the letter left was to his parents. The boy had been raised in a home where the worse thing in the world was being a homosexual. In the letter the boy confessed his homosexuality and that he would rather die than be disowned.

There is so much to this story that bothers, hurts, upsets, and angers me that I can't even begin to express. However, the main thing for me is the lack of tolerance. Being in the Christian community, I can recognize that we have not been Christ to the Homosexual community. We have bashed, ignored, slandered, and belittled those who are a part of that community. We have elevated homosexuality to the number one slot on the sin list, of which there is no scripture ranking for sin. All of this has contributed to this intolerance. Regardless of one's personal opinion or religious belief there should never, in any situation, be a time where a child, friend, or other family member cannot come to you in all vulnerability to tell you where there life is and what it consists of. Christ has called us to love, if we are going to love people we need to love them for who they are, not what we, in our fallen opinions, think they should be. Our responsibility is not to change people, judge them, or condemn them, our job is to love them and welcome them, the rest is up to God. My heart breaks for this boy who felt that he had no other outlet, option, or choice than to take his life. I hope that other parents, friends, relatives, pastors, and leaders can learn from this tragedy to know that loving people comes above all else, and the inner changes that need to happen in someone's life come from God and his Spirit rather than human judgment.

Sometimes memories suck.

2009-02-13T00:27:00.000-08:00

So I got the opportunity to hang out with one of my close friends from California tonight. He flew up to record his new album with his brother, so I drove up to Seattle to hang out. We went out to dinner and go to just relax and chill for a bit. It was awesome to see him, yet the whole experience was rather bittersweet. I was so glad to hang out with a close friend, as I haven't had the opportunity to build many strong relationships since we moved but at the same time it was kind of a bummer because it really made me miss those that I was close to in California. The guys that I built relationships with down there are the friends you'll have for a life time but being far away from those guys has been hard. There is no doubt in my mind that Lauren and I followed God's call to move back to Washington, but at the same time we left behind some of the coolest people in the world. God's call can be the hardest thing to follow at times. Have you ever left close friends behind? What's your favorite memory with those friends?

Other Gods

2009-02-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

Okay so here's the question for the evening. In early Jewish thought we see that they recognized other Gods, and it wasn't until Isaiah that we see the "there are no other gods" theology. So this practice known as henotheism, which is the worship of one God as superior while not denying the existence of others. Passages including the Ex. 20:3, Ps. 82:1, Gen. 31:53. So my question is as Christians we recognize YHWH as God and that there are no other Gods thus what is your opinion of this kind of theology? (Keep in mind that I am presenting the questions and do not necessarily embrace the thoughts mentioned, rather I'm here for the conversation.)

Misunderstanding

2009-02-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

I found this on Ragamuffin Soul's blog so I can't take credit for it, props to Carlos for finding this because it's hilarious. Be sure to look at the picture first and then read the letter below.

From the mom…
The names have been changed to protect the innocent…

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole. It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Home Depot

Does Church marketing ring of the indulgences of the past?

2009-02-09T23:34:00.000-08:00

So right now one of my classes at Fuller is Medieval and Reformation History. We are to the point in the class where we are discussing Martin Luther and his life. Of course with any discussion of Luther comes the topic of indulgences and the 95 Theses. Our Professor was quite pleased to hand us an article that came out recently about the Catholic church reinstating plenary indulgences after they were banned by the Vatican II council. For those of you who don't know indulgence is a release from punishment either shortening time in purgatory or, in the case of plenary indulgences, wiping the slate completely clean. In Luther's time indulgences were sold to people and the promotion of this was primarily to fund the campaigns for office of Bishop Albrecht. Fortunately, these new plenary indulgences are not being sold, rather you can earn them through "charitable contributions combined with other acts." (If you want to read the article you can do so at here.)

This post however is not about the theology behind indulgences nor is about opinions on them. Rather I want to continue the conversation that was started in my class:

Do you think that Christian marketing rings of the same substance of indulgences of the past?

As we enter this conversation I want to throw a few things out as food for thought to encourage your thinking...

Although we may not sell indulgences advertising "Forgiveness of sins" or "washing the slate clean" do people use Christian materials in the same light?
Do some people feel that the more Christian books, cd's, artwork, bumper stickers, and bracelets they own the better Christian they are?
Does the Christian subculture and it's subpar efforts (my opinion and generalization, I am not saying all of it sucks) at music, clothing, artwork etc... take away some of the recognition of our effort in our relationship with Christ just as indulgences took away responsibility for sin? (Example: If I read the newest Joel Osteen book it will make me a better Christian. If I listen to Christian music I'll be a better Christian for it.)

My opinion may shine through a bit in the questions I have posed, but please know that I value many aspects of Christian culture but most of it is junk. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Sacred Marriage Chapter 1

2009-01-26T23:09:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned we are reading Sacred Marriage in our small group at church and as promised I'm going to give you my input on the book as we go along.

I have to admit that I wasn't overly impressed with the first chapter of this book entitled The Greatest Challenge in the World: A call to holiness more than happiness. I can't make any judgments on the book yet and I still believe the thesis is sound but the presentation left much to be desired. Gary Thomas presents marriage in a way that I believe paints an awful picture of the current institution (not that it can get much worse). Thomas believes that the romantic portrayal of marriage has allowed it to become flawed and devalued. He doesn't believe that marriage exists in order to make people happy but rather to draw people in to a holy relationship with God. I agree with this point however he berates romanticism within marriage by merely suggesting that he may have an occasional good time with his wife and that the true purpose of their marriage is deeper than that. He bases his perspective on the biblical precedent for marriage and that romance was not a part of that but rather that the two becoming one was in pursuit of a deeper relationship with God. I can't argue that this is false but I can argue that the historical context presented a very different situation for marriage.

I believe that God instituted marriage for a man and a woman to join together in order to fulfill a relational aspect in our lives while at the same time pushing each other in their relationship with God. Happiness is a huge aspect of marriage and it does bring much joy, not to say that it's all perfect and that being happy is a constant because it's not. There are fights, misunderstandings and miscommunication but the ultimate goal of a selfless marriage is to bring happiness to another person by loving them enough to be selfless in all aspects including bring it to them through encouragement in their Christian life.

Thomas' definition of happy may be narrower than mine and he may broaden his perspective in later chapters but thus far I'm not overly impressed with his theory.

Sacred Marriage

2009-01-24T00:03:00.000-08:00

For our Home Fellowship Group at Rainier View we are reading the book Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. The premise behind the book is that marriage doesn't exist to make us happy, that is a byproduct of it, but rather that it is intended to help make us holy and draw closer to God. I plan on updating you all on each chapter as I read through it. Both Lauren (my wife) and I will be reading it and I will add some of her insights as well.

My Dream Blogging Tool Kit

2009-01-23T21:22:00.000-08:00

The Ancient Practice of Stoning

2009-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

I came across this article and found it very interesting for two reasons. It shows how heinous the practice of stoning is and also paints a strong picture for the practice used in the New Testament to kill Stephen. I don't agree with its practice today and think it should be removed from law, but to see an ancient tradition still carried out is interesting. Read the story and tell me what you think.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/13/iran.stoning/index.html

A new low in American consumerism

2009-01-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Twitter

2009-01-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

So recently one of the elders at my church suggested to those of us in the Student Ministries department that we should start using Twitter in order to allow for people to better follow and get to know us. At first I was surprised at how caught up with culture he was but then several other thoughts ran through my head. I'm pro being up to date with culture but is this idea with Twitter something feasible that people will actually look at and follow or will we be doing it for nothing. Being that I already had a Twitter account, I opened it up and started using it. Surprisingly, it has been an interesting experience. People from church aren't following it but I have started networking with guys in ministry that I have never met and with old friends from college. It's not a "Social network" like Facebook or Myspace but rather it's an informative way to keep up with each other and maybe even a shout out of encouragement throughout the day. My question to you is this, what are the benefits of using modern technology and cultural practices to enhance ministry and what are the draw backs?

Links Above

2009-01-02T21:40:00.003-08:00

Hey the links above don't work, so don't click them, I'll get them working eventually.

Reading List of 2008

2008-11-21T22:25:00.001-08:00

So the year is almost over and I wanted to post the books that I have read this year and my ratings of them. I've seen several other blogger's and friends do this and thought it was a great idea, so you'll see them all below. I'm rating on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being good and 1 being suck! (Keep in mind I'm doing this by memory, so this does not cover all the books over the year and I'll add the ones I forgot as I go along.)

Red Letter Christians by Tony Campolo 5

A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley 3

Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works by Bernard of Clairvaux 4

Confessions of St. Augustine by St. Augustine 4

Lamb: The Gospel According to Christ's Childhood Friend Biff by Christopher Moore 3

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins 2

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs 5

Four Views of Salvation in a Pluralistic World by Several Authors 4

Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila 4

An Emergent Theology...by Ray Anderson 4

The Shack by William Paul Young 4

The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins 5

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown 4

The Open Secret by Lesslie Newbigin 4

Missional Church by Darrell Guder 4

The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels 3

The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McClaren 4

Everything Must Change by Brian McClaren 4

Please keep in mind that my scoring of these books doesn't necessarily reflect my agreement of them but rather whether or not they made me think. (I just put a warning label on my blog. Sad...)

Hilarity and Truth

2008-11-19T20:40:00.001-08:00

I was reading another blog I subscribe to and the guy had this posted on there. It's so freakin funny and so true. Take the time to watch it.

Student Ministries

2008-11-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

So I've been working up here in Washington for 3 weeks now at Rainier View Christian Church. It's been awesome and I'm loving it. I'm working alongside a couple of guys that are great and we have a lot of fun working together. My co-youth pastor, Tomo, and I have been brain storming about upcoming preaching series for our ministries and are always looking for new ideas. The ones we currently have are as follows.

Santa Bad/Jesus Great: A Fresh Perspective on Christmas

Candy Land: The Lure of Sexual Temptation

Any ideas? Let me know I'd love to hear your thoughts.

RR

Devil Cat

2008-11-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

I swear cats are of the devil. Our cat, Lucy, is a pain in the butt, i can't stand her. We're gonna try and make her an outdoor cat, maybe a raccoon will eat her or something. Anyone want a cat?

The Move

2008-11-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

So Lauren and I have finally relocated to Graham, Washington. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's just outside of Tacoma, which is 30 miles south of Seattle. We moved up here two weeks ago and have been learning a lot through the process.

1. Depending on God.
A week before we were to make the move up to Washington from California our new church called to let us know that the economic crisis was hitting and that there was a chance that I might get laid off before even getting up here. Talk about a stresser. We were two days away from signing on our house and a week away from hitting the road. I don't think that Lauren and I have spent that much time in prayer in a long time. We made ourselves vulnerable to God and included our friends and family in on the situation so that we could be praying together. (As you can see it all worked out.)

2. Friends are hard to leave.
The hardest part of this whole experience has been leaving our friends, friends close and friends far. Saying goodbye to our friends in California was awful, saying goodbye, getting hugs and rushing to the car before any tears could be seen. Never have I questioned our decision to leave more than on that night. Not only was it hard to leave the friends that we saw almost every day in California but the ones that we saw even less but that were still within driving distance, particularly Vegas and San Francisco. Moving isn't easy and knowing that we were moving to a place without friends was even harder.

3. God works through the hard and difficult decisions and understandings.
After struggling with the possibility of losing my job and leaving our friends, God has truly brought blessings into our lives. I love my job and truly enjoy the opportunity to work for a church that is focused on listening to God's call and praying together as a staff. Leaving friends was extremely hard but in the midst of all that, my marriage to my amazing wife has only gotten stronger and I love spending more time with her. And one of the superficial things that I love is our house. In California it never would have happened but up here we have a wonderful house that we are the first owners of, which is pretty awesome. If you want to help me put in my back yard just give me a call.

For those of you we left, know that we miss you and want to see you all so badly.

Economic Backlash and the Church

2008-10-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

As we all know the Economy has taken a turn for the worse, record drops have been set and record increases but nothing is certain. One day stocks are up and the next they are way down. I've been observing this trend and in my own naivete purely thinking that it was not going to affect me and that i was outside of its reach, however all that has changed. With the economy being so fickle and low this has started to affect our churches, in times of financial crisis people are more conservative with their money and understandably so. So when the affects reach the church what do we do? That's a hard question to answer, and the tactics will hurt some people. But I believe that this should influence how we vote and what we do with our political alliances. As Christians be sure to think about what is going to benefit the community of Christ, not necessarily in promoting a particular agenda, but in how we will stay alive.

The Extent of God's Grace

2008-10-13T23:45:00.001-07:00

How far does God's grace extend? Does God's grace cover those who are ignorant of Him? One way to ponder this question is does God give people second chances who were ignorant of him? Now, I'm not talking about those who have had the opportunity to accept a relationship with him, but those who haven't ever had an an opportunity to enter that relationship. Obviously the mediation of God's grace through the Holy Spirit is not limited to church buildings or Christians, however can people who don't have a relationship with Christ receive grace?

Private Jets

2008-07-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article in World Magazine about Tele-evangelists who own private jets as part of their ministries. The article was rather disturbing because of the ethics behind these "evangelists". These men are all under investigation by congress for their non-profit status. Evangelists like Benny Hinn, Crelo Dollar, and others all use private jets for their commutes and events with their ministries. The amount of money spent to maintain these jets is insane and the money is coming from the people that they are exploiting in their ministries.

I have a really hard time with pastors like this because their only purpose in ministry is to exploit people and get money rather than spread the Gospel to allow people to find Christ and have a better life. The main problem with these pastors is that they are the ones who get the most press and thus give Christianity a bad name. It's damaging to the churches that are actually trying to accomplish something. Hopefully people will be wise enough to see that they are frauds and that true ministry exists to help people not exploit them.

30 Days

2008-06-26T21:13:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the most recent episode of 30 Days, a show by Morgan Spurlock (Documentarian who made Super Size Me). The premise of the show is for people to take 30 days and try life in someone else's shoes. Most of the participants are going into lifestyles that are polar opposites of theirs and they most likely have fairly negative perspectives of those respective lifestyles.

On the most recent episode my heart was broken. A women from the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) went to live with a homosexual couple who had adopted four children. She was completely opposed not only to their lifestyle as homosexuals but to their being parents. From her perspective marriage is between a man and a woman and therefore the only correct family environment was one that contained two parents, one from each sex. I can completely respect her opinion and know that coming from her background in that religion that this is what she has been taught, however I cannot respect the way she handled the situation of living with the homosexual men and their sons.

These men had adopted these kids out of the Foster Care system. After showing what life is like in the homes that these children often have to stay in I can only affirm their decision to adopt. Much like the home I grew up with heterosexual parents these homosexual men expressed a deep love and compassion for their children while at the same time maintaining a discipline and balanced home life. Contrary to this woman's perspective they were not raising their boys to be gay but rather to be who they are. She however could not handle the situation, was disrespectful and intolerant. As a Christian I was appalled to see someone from a religion that is often linked to Christianity acting with such animosity and dislike. We as Christians, regardless of disagreeing beliefs (of which opinions on homosexuality vary in Christianity), are called to love God and love others. We often focus too much on what we feel are sins in peoples lives rather than extending the grace that has been extended to us to those around us. These men even participated in a Gay Affirming Church every Sunday, these were Christian men raising their children to be followers of Christ yet this woman still couldn't handle it.

This episode bothered me because of the impression that it may have on people who aren't Christians. I hope that people will see that Christianity is truly based in love and that it is the actions of fallen people that give the wrong impression, not the ideals that we strive for.

Redlight Crossing

2008-06-24T00:10:00.001-07:00

For a long time now I have felt that I wanted to have a place where I could post my thoughts and have people feel comfortable posting theirs. This blog is really about the journey of life we are on and what's happening. It's not limited to anything so from time to time I may have posts that seem meaningless but they are part of my life and therefore I want to share them. This journey that we are on is full of questions and thoughts and that will be the main focus. I am writing from the perspective of a Christian but one that is still figuring things out and I don't want people to be turned off by my perspective but rather respond from theirs so we can learn from each other. I hope that everyone is blessed by this blog and that we can have an adventure exploring our lives together as we move from our Redlight pasts.