X-TREME!!

(I am sure that this is true in most professions) On any given week, at work I will receive between 5 and 20 pieces of mail that I never look at. This is approximately 60% of the total pieces of mail that I receive in a week. Inevitably, there are 2 or 3 a WEEK that have something (either in title or content) that mention how X-TREME the event will be.

This conference will be the most X-TREME conference EVER!!

In the interest of full-disclosure, I have never been an any conference with X-TREME in the title. So my opinion of X-TREME conferences is not one of full breadth.

It strikes me that in a generation struggling for identity, call, purpose, meaning, and sense of values, that the church is pushing them to the X-TREME. (for the record, I think every generation stuggles with these things at some point, this is not unique to THIS generation)..

I can think of a dozen parents over the last 7 years who have expressed their "parenting style" to reflect balance, diversity, logic, and even discipline. (in all the right ways parents use discipline).
We hear (maybe it is just the books and magazines I have read) about this generation (mine) in their 20s and 30's flocking to Taize f0r authentic worship, meeting outside of church walls in house churches for authentic community, joining "emerging churches" that are interested in a kind of Christianity that is loving and relevant. Nothing sounds X-TREME about that to me.

Radical, cool, meaningful, interesting, spiritual, different, revolutionary....but not X-TREME

X-TREME TAIZE!! I can see the brochure now!

While they are doing some good things, and I have no doubt that disciples are being made at these events, at the core, I believe X-TREME events are trying to accomplish 2 things - marketing to a X-games culture and making some money.

Living as a model of Jesus Christ takes an extreme passion. An extreme call. An extreme act of faith. Jesus was a radical and lived an extreme life. Not an X-TREME life. Following the One is extreme, not X-TREME.

I am interested in helping God make disciples that will last lifetimes, not through 2012 when they graduate from high school and X-TREME FAITH isn't relevant anymore.

X-TREME is great for "relating to the culture", something I am all for. And I am all for extreme faith, and living a crazy passionate life...just as Jesus did.

X-TREME seems very trivial and a "flash-in-the-pan" kind of faith.

Plus it is very bad grammar....

winning

competition...

I love it...

I have a hard time in life NOT competing. Pick-up games of basketball turn into Game 7 when no one is looking, kick-ball is not for leisure...it is for victory, and flag football...don;t even get me started!

Don't get me wrong, I know when to take it easy and when to distribute the ball evenly in a friendly game involving youth...

"Its for the kids" a friend of mine used to say..especially when one of the adults was playing a little to aggressive...

There are however, 2 competitions that I find most invigorating

1) Competing against people who do not know they are involved in the game
and
2) Competing against people I do not know

Lets break it down:
Competition 1) I think this is why I like MTV's Boiling points so much when it was on. It is fun to see people get hyped up, and then realize it was a game. oops...

I like being the first to go when the light turns green (while always looking both ways mom). I like kicking a rock further than people who don't know we are playing. I like following behind people and doing what they were not able to do, or doing it better/faster.

I would imagine a psychologist would have a good time breaking that one down, I think it just about being competitive.

Competition 2) Currently I am involved in a online promotion involving a large national food chain. (I would tell you who, but I want a better chance of winning...sorry). Each day I log-on and enter. (You will not be laughing when I win my cool million!) I can enter once per day, and every day as I hit that final "submit" button, I think about how one of us will defeat the others, and we will never know who we defeated. Sad really...

but not as sad as throwing a fit on the side of a mountain when you fall.....

EPIC

when it rains...

this week has been filled with bad news. Church members who have died, family who is close to death, and more family with "one thing after another" kind of news.

When it rains, it pours.

Sometimes it seems that life, both good and bad, comes in waves. I am reminded that God is faithful, and present, and alive in the midst all of it.

Last week at the end of the Nicodemus Project, someone wrote the question "Why do we feel so far from God sometimes?"

Here is what I know to be true, even though at times, I know it only in my head and not in my heart. And for lack of a better way to say it, I will say it bluntly:

god is there...you are the problem...

in those times we are feeling far away, or even when we feel realy close, it is our awareness that is what is changing, not God.

I know that is hard to hear, it is hard to say.

Sometimes matters of faith are hard...that is what makes it faith.

shhh...I am a.....

Many who know me well know that I am a ninja. I am not deep uncover like most ninjas, mostly because of my catlike reflexes and quick "ninja-style" moves often get me asked if I am a ninja. And since ninjas do not lie, I openly tell people that I am, in fact, a ninja.

I cannot however, accept any blame for this.

great weekend!

wanted to give a quick shout out to all the Cantate (youth choir) kids who made this weekend awesome for me. It was great to get to know you all a little better and begin to build some relationships with you.

I am tired and refreshed all at the same time

Also, a quick shout out to Kevin H for an awesome job leading us! It was a productive and spirit filled time. A unique combination of elements that is frankly, pretty hard to pull off!

a few more shout outs...

to Dex and Sarah H who got me "elected" as one of the mid-winter directors this year...guess that means you all should go!

More blogging later...now I need to get 400 postcards out!

signs, signs, everywhere the signs...

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine in the UCC church was one of the young adults spearheading a campaign for the UCC church, and thier "slogan" or tagline was:

"god is still speaking"

A group of us got into a discussion about this late one night. We all believed that in fact, God was still speaking, when someone posed possibly a more important questions, which was "then why aren't people listening"...

this is when the conversation got good....

After many hours (drifting well into the next morning) of conversations about

"what does the voice of God sound like" (to which there were 7 (out of 7) different opinions),

"people are too busy",

"people have not been 'trained' how to listen",

"people don't want to listen (especially men)", (to which I took great offense)

"people think they can hear it, but it is not a 'clear calling' (all 7 of us could site examples of clergy that should not be in ministry...)

but in the end, the thing that veryone settled on as the most common reason, is that people are too concerned with the "whoa" factor. Skeptics want to write things off as a coincidence, and even people of faith have moments of doubt (which personally I think a pinch of doubt makes faith all the more stronger and causes you to dig deeper) in the "voice"...

In my daily life, I think there is a "still, small voice" - sometimes not in my ear...

Today was one of those days when the "small voice" turned into a "oh yeah, I am pretty serious" voice...

god is good...

This is the Word of The Lord...

While for the most part, it was great (great numbers, good response from a bunch of kids, new folks, etc) last night was tough for me. we had some really disrespectful kids (talking while others were talking, not paying attention, not participating) and was bummed all night and this morning - having a hard time getting motiviated for this week and really struggling with what to do...

then I read in Matthew (12:48) "great gifts mean great responsibilities, greater gifts mean greater responsibility" - God has this amazing sense of humor, and timing, and has a clear reason and way to focus me...

...what an amazing responsibility we have (you and me) to share our gifts because they are great gifts! Keep working at it!

as my friend Joe just reminded me - stay with the system! (I choose to operate in the "God loves you" system) The "If you build it, they will come", "marathon not a sprint", "seed planting" business is a good business to be in, just need a reminder from time to time of what I really do...