the struggle we all find ourselves as part of as we journey through life…can be better understood when we see that our story is part of a larger Story. love this really creative video that gives a concise picture of God’s story. enjoy. ht johnny baker.
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the story of everything – now and yet to come
is student ministry killing the church?
hmmm…not sure what to think about this new documentary. i stumbled on it today and have watched the movie. its free till sept 1. click here. there’s some useful conversation that it begins, but i’m thinking it may be too narrow. there’s some stereotyping and some assumptions that i’m not fully in agreement with. that said…if you’re in ministry – vocationally or not…its worth the watch and a conversation about it. would be interested in your thoughts. please leave a comment…and lets begin the conversation.
how champions lead:serve
ht tony steward - thor hushovd #51 in the pack at the tour de france
one of the brightest guys i know…tony steward has a really good post on his cycling blog today(actually all of his posts are great). lots of good take aways…but one quote in particular from his post about the current road race world champion thor hushovd who in this image from the 2011 Tour de France is shown carrying water bottles for his team. as a (leader)champion
I wonder if the rest of us, if in our best moments, would be as ready and aware of our chances to serve and help our team mates as Thor has shown he is?
there’s something here for any leader…lead by doing…serving.
Evangelical Teens and their Sexual Debut
Over the past month with two different mission trips i have some amazing transparent conversations with teens. Many of those conversations have touched on the issue of premarital sex. to be honest i’m almost dumbfounded by the degree of sexuality activity among teens who have a faith perspective. though i shouldn’t be surprised. my pal rudy carrasco posted a link to this article which led to a couple others that are worthy of any youth leader and/or parents reading. what i found especially troubling (because anthony is right) that Evangelicalism will certainly run from this topic.
Evangelicalism, in part because of the spiritual delusion created by youth ministry, continues to be an #epic fail on forming virtuous young adults some would argue, especially for women. This is, in part, because evangelicals have made sexual sin the highest form of deviance.
Dr. Eric Reitan,citing the research from Forbidden Fruit, by UT-Austin sociologist Mark Regnerus, notes:
“(E)vangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their ‘sexual debut’–to use the festive term of social-science researchers–shortly after turning sixteen.”
“(E)vangelical Protestant teen-agers are significantly less likely than other groups to use contraception.”
From the Archives: Evangelicals and Premarital Sex
Red Sex, Blue Sex:Why do so many evangelical teen-agers become pregnant?
mission:alabama ~ronnie’s story
Mission:Alabama 2011 New Hope Community Church
been a crazy couple of weeks. most important i was part of team of 18 students and adults who headed off to AL to help with Paul Turner’s Rebuild Alabama Paul is on staff at Pleasant Grove Assembly in Pleasant Grove. Rebuild Alabama is his effort to coordinate teams of student ministries who are willing to engage and help rebuild the tornado ravaged area.
I’m not sure any of us were really ready for the destruction we saw. its been 7 weeks since those EF4 monsters ripped through this area on the north westside of Birmingham. Our host at Pleasant Ridge Baptist, Fred kept saying it was like a “war zone”. having never been exposed to a “war zone” none of us knew what to expect.
one story that captured our memory was that of Ronnie. Ronnie lives in Adjer, AL and his area was equally hard hit. He lost his home and is currently living in garden shed from Home Depot. I took the team of guy students on our second afternoon to see if we could pull down some precariously perched tree limbs. Ronnie insisted on giving us a tour of what was left of his home. watch the video and you’ll see what we encountered. (more after the jump)
The high winds and storm freaked all of us out. And unfortunately we weren’t able to do any work for Ronnie on this trip. We did stop by on our way out to pray with him and offer him some encouragement. We were humbled by his disappointment, not in our inability of doing work, but in what he said was “not getting to know us better.” I was glad we returned after the storm passed and we were able to help him re-secure a canopy over his current shelter. He shared that the reason he wanted us to see his home wasn’t so much to see the destruction as to see the wall outside his mother’s bedroom. Like many homes, that wall was filled with photos and family heirlooms.
Ronnie's Cross - in video at 0:48
the only thing left on the wall, that didn’t fall off was the cross. He shared with me that several folks have tried to take it down, but he just won’t let them. what’s interesting too, is that a group from Indiana showed up several days after the tornado. During that visit, Ronnie made a profession of faith. He was humbled by God having saved his and his mother’s lives and for the kindness of complete strangers to show him Christ’s love. He’s story has been contagiously shared by the team. attitude is everything.
check this out
