Semester is over!

Man do I need to post a little more often. I looked this week and the last time that I posted was at the end of February. I should post a little more often.

But this morning, this is a post with a purpose! My first semester of Masters of Divinity (Old Testament) work is complete at Lincoln! And I'm pretty sure that I got A's in both classes that I took!!!! I don' t think that I've ever had a semester when I got all A's. Granted I only took two classes... but still... A's are A's.


Sweet!


JC

a call

The question of what to do with one’s life is a question every individual faces at some point in his life. For most individuals the issue of life purpose surfaces sometime during the early years of high school. During my freshman year of high school as I participated in various career tests and met with the school counselor to discuss my future, I began to consider what I wanted to do with my life in the coming years.

During those high school years playing football always seemed the way for me. I had loved the game since I was a child. My parents started me in Little League as soon as I was old enough to play, and I played every chance I could. A natural progression of playing football in Little League to Junior High to High School followed for me. I continued to play and love the sport. So, when it came time to think about careers, I naturally thought football.

Although I spent much of my time playing football, I was involved with another extracurricular activity, Bible Bowl at my home church. Bible Bowl provided me with year round competition as I traveled and connected with other students from my church. It also provided me with the opportunity to memorize a massive amount of God’s Word. Unbeknownst to me, through my Bible Bowl experience I believe that God began his heart work and call in my life. One of the best things about my years in Bible Bowl was the trips that our team took to round robins in various cities and tournaments at colleges around the country. Our team had a strong connection with each other similar to the one I experienced on the football team.

Although I greatly enjoyed Bible Bowl, I never would have considered joining it without encouragement from my youth minister, Dale Harlow. Dale seemed to see something in me that no one else saw. He encouraged me, helped me, directed me and even challenged me. I believe that years before the official call would come on my life, Dale saw a glimpse of it from a distance. Shortly before I entered high school, Dale departed from the Caldwell church to take a new position elsewhere. Even though my faith was shaken by his departure, God had begun a process in me that eventually would be completed.

It was during my senior year of high school that the future as I saw it became terribly shaky. In the third game of the football season, I sprained my right ankle very badly. The sprain was so severe that I could not play for three weeks. As a result, I lost my starting position to another player on the team. I never regained my position on the field and started only one game the remainder of the season.

I now stood at a crossroads in my life. Football seemed a distant hope as most colleges did not want to take a scholarship chance on a player who was hurt the previous season. God’s call, however, had already begun to work itself into my life. Years earlier, in my first year of Bible Bowl as a junior higher, our team from little Caldwell had gone to the North American Christian Convention, the site of the national Bible Bowl tournament. That team made up of older students made it to the final round and lost finishing second. As a result of being part of that team, many of the Christian and Bible Colleges around the country sent scholarship offers to my door. Now standing at the crossroads of my life with football hopes fading into the shadows, the only scholarship offers that I had were to Christian Colleges. Eventually I accepted an offer from Milligan College. Looking back, I now realize the beginning of God’s call on my life was to get me involved with Bible Bowl which would deliver me to the next part of God’s call on my life during college.

While attending Milligan, I was not sure what to do with my major and career options. Having spent so much time in God’s Word playing Bible Bowl, it seemed only natural to me to major in Bible. During my freshman year, I met and became friends with a non-traditional student in my humanities class named Nathan Dunman. We became friends because he would invite a couple others and me over to his house to study the night before an exam.

Nathan was the student minister at Ninth Street Baptist Church in Erwin, Tennessee, about thirty minutes south of Milligan. Over the next couple of years, Nathan began to include me in some of his student ministry events. He would take me to football and basketball games. He invited me to hang out with him when he had students over to his house. On several occasions, Nathan even hired me as the “bouncer” for his fifth quarter events at his church following sporting events. He would invite any student who would come to an event providing food, drinks, and games like Ping-Pong and air hockey. They would also see a special drama designed to share the Gospel. He needed me there to break up an occasional fight.

Over the course of these four college years, I began to see the in’s and out’s of student ministry in a local church from the perspective of the leader. I had seen plenty of student ministry events, but all of them from the perspective of a student. God continued his heart shaping call on my life as I began to look forward to and take great pleasure in times that I spent with the students of Ninth Street Baptist. Looking back now, my only regret is not having spent more time with those students and Nathan.

As my graduation from Milligan approached, I was again faced with the question of what to do with my life. I began to submit resumes to churches and went through the interview process with several congregations with an unclear call of what to do. At this point, I only had two of the three pieces of God’s call on my life. The final piece would not fall into place for another five months.

Although I did not realize it at the time, God had already orchestrated the events leading to the final piece of His call. From the time I began school, my parents felt the importance of having me at church camp in the summer. I attended a week of church camp every summer until I graduated from high school. Following high school, I felt the emptiness of not having a week of camp so I volunteered to work as a counselor. I picked up a brochure and made a cold call to the dean of one of the weeks of Junior High camp at Round Lake. He accepted, and I became a Junior High counselor. I continued to volunteer each summer at Round Lake from then on. In most cases, it was the highlight of my summer. All the while, God was preparing the third piece of my call experience.

Having not been successful at securing a position in a church following graduation, my parents made the statement that should I not find a job by graduation time, they would be moving me back home to Ohio when they came for graduation. Their reasoning was simple economics. If I could not support myself financially, they were not going to pay for me to live in Tennessee when I could be living in Ohio for free. Not wanting to return home with my parents, I turned to the fast food industry and acquired a job at McDonald’s. I also decided to continue my education at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City. I spent the summer working and preparing for graduate school until August.

When August arrived, I was back at Round Lake as a counselor at a junior high week of camp. The final piece of God’s call puzzle fell into place there. All of the time spent in Bible Bowl, my college experiences with Nathan and the realization of my love for students came together in a single mental thought that week. It hit me that the other youth minister counselors who were helping that week did everyday what I would love to do with the rest of my life.” Suddenly everything made sense. Neither graduate school nor McDonald’s was my life passion. I was called and gifted to encourage students into a real relationship with Jesus Christ. The call was now complete although it took several years for all the various pieces to come together to see how God had led me to that point in my life.

Following that week of camp, I returned to Johnson City to the room that I was renting while I attended Emmanuel School of Religion. I came back, however, with a fresh passion. Emmanuel and McDonald’s were not the path for me, but working with students was. I followed a lead from a friend at that week of camp to check out a website listing the names, addresses and phone numbers of churches who were searching for ministers. Soon thereafter, I sent out about ten emails to churches listed on that site inquiring about their positions. Two of those churches replied with requests for a resume. By the end of the month of October, I had interviewed over the phone and was scheduled to visit both in person. By Thanksgiving, both churches had made me offers to join their church staff and I made the decision to join a church in Pennsylvania.

Over the next six years as I reflected on my call experience I identified several lessons from my life. First, God never wastes pain. It was a very intense time for me when Dale Harlow left our church in Caldwell. But it instilled in me the importance of a solid minister in the lives of students. Secondly, God often brings into or takes out of a situation just the right person at just the right time. Nathan Dunman and the other counselors at Round Lake came into my life at just the point at which I needed them. Dale Harlow went out of my life at just the point at which it would make an impression on me without harming my faith. If they would have come earlier or left later, I may have missed their influence. Third, events in our lives are not always as meaningless as they may seem. At the time, Bible Bowl just seemed like a fun thing to do with my church friends. Now I realize that I may not have made the choice to go to Milligan or a Christian College at all without those scholarship offers. I also may not have made the choice of major that I did without all of those hours spent memorizing God’s Word. Finally, I learned to never rush God’s plan. It was a serious temptation to take any church position that I could in the months before graduation so as to avoid working at McDonald’s. Had I chosen to do that though, I would have missed the final piece of my call puzzle.

Currently, I am staying true to my call of encouraging students into a relationship with Jesus Christ. I continue to be extremely passionate about that as well as developing new passions in other areas of student ministry. I have always believed in long-term student ministry. I am taking steps, therefore, like graduate school, to ensure that I stay in student ministry a long time. I also believe my calling requires me to join others in a team approach to ministry. One way I further a team approach is by spending a great deal of time training and encouraging the student ministry volunteers at the church for which I work. I believe my volunteers are also called by God to minister to the students we encounter. Outside of my church I take a team approach by working with other student ministers and not competing against them. I make it a priority to build connections with other student ministers locally and nationwide. Finally, I realize that I will not live forever so I am attempting to help make the next generation of student ministers realize their own calling.

In many situations of my life it takes several exposures to the same fact for me to understand the concept. My call experience was no exception. God used several events and people over a period of time to call me into full-time service. In my opinion, there is no better place to be. I have the best job in the world.

Never knowing the Impact

Recently, my wife and I were driving home from small groups. As we drove, the conversation turned to how the night had gone. Typically, we talk in terms of whether the students were attentive, how certain aspects of the lesson went (or didn’t go) and the overall feeling.

Tonight, though, she surprised me by saying, “I don’t think they got it.” The lesson was on purity, which is definitely a big issue with students, and so it was an important small group topic. But being not only her husband, but the lead youth worker, I wanted to encourage her, not just as my wife but also as an important part of my student ministry team.

So I asked her, “Why don’t you think it went well?” Her response was similar to what I’ve heard before… I don’t think they got it… They didn’t seem to be listening… They mentioned that they were coming for reasons other than the “stellar lessons and in depth Bible Study.” All of that is usual for small groups. We’ve been doing small groups for a while and I have felt that way myself from time to time so I’ve come to expect that feeling. Then she said something that caught me a bit off guard.

Back in September and October (it’s now February), we got connected with a seven or eight week series at Willowcreek Community Church dealing with the Seven Churches in the book of Revelation called “We’ve Got Mail.” The messages were very good and since the church isn’t too far of a drive, we made the weekly trip to catch them.

My wife’s comment to me related to that. She said, “I wish my students would feel the same way about this material as I did about the Revelation series at Willow. It was life-changing and I’m not sure they feel that way about this stuff.”

As I thought for a moment or two, the Holy Spirit gave me just the thought I needed. I asked her, “After the messages were over, did you go down front, shake the speaker’s hand and tell them how powerful and impacting the messages were?” It was a rhetorical question because I had been with her and I already knew she didn’t do that… in fact, we often couldn’t wait to get to the car to begin discussing them between the two of us and how we might apply them. Not a word was said to the speaker that night, but the impact in our lives was unmistakable.

After I asked the question, she caught my drift. We don’t often share the life-changing impact with those who bring it about… a college professor… a speaker at a conference… a friend at small group… or even someone closer… a family member… or even our spouse. But the impact is nonetheless real. As she caught my drift, she began to giggle

As someone who speaks regularly in my student ministry weekend service, occasionally on Sunday morning in main worship and in other situations, I know that there are times when I feel like I totally bombed and messed up a great message that really needed to be heard. In some of those times, God puts just the right person in my path to remind me of the impact that I had but didn’t realize. She began to realize that on any one of those nights Mike Breaux, Gene Appel or Bill Hybels may have gone home from the same service we did feeling like a complete failure and never knowing the incredible impact that they had on us.

What’s the learning? Simple: Never discredit any Godly effort. You never know who is listening, taking mental notes and then applying what they heard and learned even if they don’t act like it in the moment. God’s Spirit can do some incredible things with our efforts if we will just trust him. Even Jesus had to remind his followers that it’s not about our efforts, but more about God’s, “Jesus looked at them (the disciples) and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26 NIV). Keep that in mind the next time you feel like a failure.

an unexpected Christmas gift

Yesterday I picked up a Christmas present for my wife. (I'd rather not say what it is in case she happens to read my blog.) But it was neatly wrapped last night while she took a nap on the couch. I put a pretty little bow on it and placed it under the small apartment Christmas tree we have on top of our entertainment center. All was done while she slept. So, she goes to sleep... no present... she wakes up (we went to a most excellent band concert last night) to go... there's a present.
As she walked past the entertainment center, something on the center caught her eye. (I didn't say a word about it... just woke her up to go... in fact, I was hoping she wouldn't notice.) As she walked past, she stopped... and slowly backed up... picked it up and then got this look of excitement and wonder on her face that was pretty priceless.
She has to open the present before tomorrow (Santa's rules) and I'm excited to see what she'll say about what's inside.

But the thought that occured to me during this exchange was, "I wonder what the response was of those who happened to be in Bethlehem during Jesus' birth to the birth of this Messiah and Savior." See the shepherds and the wise men (if they were even there... the wise men that is) had an advantage. A whole host of angels shared with the shepherds the meaning of this child who was born in a barn.
Most folks didn't have the advantage of a heavenly message service. I wonder if they were filled with excitement and wonder as they beheld the Messiah born in a feed trough. Maybe we'll never know. But for each of us, we have the opportunity this season to be filled with wonder and amazement anew.

just a thought for the season...

JC

getting older...

Today is my wife's birthday. And no, I won't tell you how old she is... she's still young enough to kick my butt. Althought that was never all that hard anyway since she holds the check book and hands out the allowances...
But it's got me thinking a little bit about getting older today. I'm just 28. Now to me, that seems pretty old and mature. And I realize that some of you who may read this may think that's not all that old or I never act mature, you may have a point.
But as I get older, something that I've always heard is proving true. I'm not as young as I used to be. I hate lock ins... They are just a waste of good sleep. But one of the things that I am enjoying as I get older is that my job just keeps getting better. Church leaders take me with a little more seriousness (I did say "little"). Parents see me differently (and most of the time in a good way). Althought I'm still the same jeans and T-shirt wearing, gotee sporting, tennis shoe wearing, youth pastor I've always been. There's just something about getting older that makes youth ministry better.
Several older youth ministers (those in their mid to late 40's who shall remain nameless least I get accused of name dropping by others on my church staff who are jealous... Steve...) have told me that the older I get the better it will get. And in a lot of respects it is...

Then this morning I pick up the last copy of Relevant Magazine and there's this article that's pretty good by Jason Boyett... Which is the reason for this blog entry... (To check out more about Relevant... go here: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/index.php)
He lists 9 things that you should know before you hit 30. I thought I'd throw them in here... I haven't mastered any of them yet... but maybe I'm on my way to getting them down before the big 3 0.
1. Life is so not about you.
2. Credit cards are dangerous. (Man, did I learn that!)
3. Stuff will never satisfy.
4. Save now while you're young.
5. You probably should read more.
6. Pay attention to what you eat. (Don't do good at that one at all... especially with chinese day being today.)
7. Stop comparing yourself to others.
8. Get used to saying "no."
9. Maintain close relationships.

I think Jason's got some good things there in that list. And going with my thoughts for the day about getting older... I guess I still have some work to do.


JC

a fresh perspective on Matthew 7

As I was thinking about the incredible tragedy down in the Gulf Coast.

Jesus told those standing nearby:
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
"But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27 NIV

As I was thinking about the hurricane devastation going on down south, these verses came to mind. As I was thinking about it, the word "house" took on a little bit of a different meaning. We tend to think about the word "house" in the context of a physical structure (i.e. wood, nails, plaster, shingles, etc) and we have good reason to think of it this way. But there is another context in which we use the word "house." We also tend to use it as a category describing our personal life, both physical and nonphysical items. For instance, when a person dies, we say his or her "house" was in order (i.e. they updated their will, took care of important conversations, etc).

What if (just ideas here) Jesus wasn't talking about a physical house in these verses, but the sum total of a person's life... physical and nonphysical... in his story about two men who heard his teachings.

As I have listened over the last couple of weeks to the comments of people on TV or on the radio, two phrases seem to repeat (and I have no doubt to the degree of passion and truth and seriousness with which they say it), "I've lost everything. I have nothing left."

Thinking about the story of two people that Jesus told above, I have no doubt that those who were affected by the hurricane lost everything physically. But there are some things that can not be taken by a hurricane, storm or any natural disaster. The rock still remains even after the flood. Faith, hope and love still remain (according to 1 Cor 13) no matter what. Those who don't have faith, hope and love in the Rock (Christ) did lose everything. Those who have their "house" built on the Rock (Christ), still have their "house" of faith, love, perseverance, confidence, hope, courage, etc.

When the storms of life come, and Hurricane Katrina certainly makes it evident that they will, where is your foundation built? Self, home insurance, physical strength, brick structures, etc? Or is your house built on the Rock of Christ Jesus?

After the storms go through, the wise man and the foolish man from the above story may on the outside look the same, in that they lost their house, cars, clothes, personal belongings of this world... but on the inside, things are very different.

I'm praying for those down South. If you are reading this and don't have your foundation on the Rock of Christ, feel free to email me... I'd love to talk with you about it (jim@fvcc.com).

Tyndale

new blog spot

Hey all,
I've started this new blog. The purpose here is so that those who read can also post. So, I hope you enjoy. Stop by and feel free to comment away.

Tyndale

better from above

Last night, Jackie and I drove up to Willow Creek Community Church to catch their mid-week worship service called "New Community." One of the main reasons that we wanted to do that is their teaching pastor Mike Braeux (sp?) was teaching. And even though I can't spell his last name, he's one of my favorite speakers.

On the trip up, which is a fairly simple trip, I came to an intersection that looked like the right intersection. We needed to make a right turn and so we did. Seemed right. Only later, would be realize it was wrong... about 2 miles later. What seemed right wasn't. No problem. We just turned around and headed back the road and continued for one more block and then made the right that we needed.

But as I reflected back on that simple mis-turn, I thought of a couple of things in relation to my relationship with God. First, its easy to make a simple mistake that gets you way off course. Second, the turn seemed like the right one, even though it was the wrong one. So, what seems right can be very wrong and despite the fact that it feels right, that doesn't change the fact that it isn't.

Third, from above, the turn that I made must have been so very and obviously wrong. God has a different vantage point on our lives. Jeremiah 29:11 teachs us that God has a plan for our lives... not a plan to harm us... but a plan to give us hope and future. God has a great view of our lives from above. Often, we think we've got the best view... we know where we're going... and exactly how to get there. But much like my driving last night, we think we know where we're going and how to get there and even though it seems right... it's not.

It was nice last night because I could pick up my cell phone and call a friend to ask for advice on where I should have turned and got right back on track. The same is true with God. God can help me get back on track... by prayer... by reading the Bible... by good friends who can give me Godly direction and advice.

Often, we won't seek the help.

Just a few getting lost thoughts...

Tyndale

so much pressure

so much pressure...

Well, I'm not really sure what to make of this. I started this little blog thing a couple of weeks ago and I had no idea it was going to be as popular as it has become. At this point, 44 folks have taken a look at my little blog here. I'm not sure who you are, and that's cool... But I'm hoping that I don't dissappoint.
But now I feel somewhat pressured to give a good blog entry... I'm not sure that there will be as good of an entry as Monday's... but we'll give it a shot from time to time.

Last night we (myself, some of the staff and leaders in the children's program at FVCC) went up to Willow Creek to check out a program. And the question that I'm finding myself struggling with this morning (and last night) is: Are we doing enough to encourage families in their walk with God and their encouragement of their children's walk with God?

The statistic is something like... the church gets 40 hours of a child's life a year... Parents get 3000 hours of child's life a year (not counting sleeping, school, homework and sports).

And if we aren't encouraging them enough, how do we do a better job encouraging them? Is it a program? Is it a handout? Is it less programs and less handouts? I'm not sure.

But one thing I am sure of is that parents and families are central to God's plan to reach out to the world. He (God) entrusted families with raising up and challenging kids/teens to a passionate relationship with God. "Hear, O Israel (and all of us): The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commmandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads (which sounds painful). Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deut 6:4-9
The point: It's parents' responsibility to share God and his love for us with their children. It's the church's responsibility to aide and encourage parents. Which brings me back to my orginial question... How do we best encourage parents?

More thoughts to come...


Tyndale

vacation was good

vacation was good...

Man. Vacation was good. It's great to just sit and relax with nothing to do, no schedule to keep and no phone calls or emails to make/write.
I feel very refreshed and relaxed and ready to tackle whatever comes my way.

I totally have a fresh appreciation for the event of Jesus calming the storm found in Mark 4. On Monday, we were hanging out at a beach on Senaca Lake called "Boater's Cove." While we were back in there, it's about 3/4 of mile from the camper we were staying in, the National Weather Service posted thunderstorm warnings for the county to our Northwest.
We didn't think much of it and kept on swimming. About 30 minutes later, they issued storm warnings for the county we were in. That was enough. We grabbed up our stuff and threw it on the boats, we had both a ski boat and a pontoon (sp?). Myself, my wife Jackie and my mom were on the pontoon. My dad, sister Addy and her husband were on the ski boat.
As we came out of the cove with the pontoon, you could see the wind blowing water through the air and huge waves rolling ahead of the wind. It was a really scary sight. There are a few times in my life that I have been scared... I was about to have another.
We began to take on some of the wind and the waves. The waves were crashing into the front of the boat and water was pouring onto the deck of the boat. It's a good thing that it was a pontoon and was flat, the water mostly ran off as fast as it ran on. The wind was pushing waves that were probably 6 to 8 feet tall.
Up ahead of us on the lake, we were attempting to get back to the camper, there was another pontoon attempting to do the same. As I caught a glimpse of it, I got really scared. There was a pontoon boat, completely out of the water, up in the air with only it's motor in the water. This boat was at least 10 or 12 feet in the air. That's when I started to get scared.
I told my mom, who was driving, that she should go diagonal over the waves, as she had been attacking them head on and to head for a bay. There wasn't much of a way we were getting back to the camper. After much wind, water and waves, we finally made it into a bay where we endured remaining rain, wind and waves. We waited it out and then headed back to camp. But for a few minutes, I wasn't sure if we were going to make it or not.
On the ski boat, my dad said the waves would crash over the front of the boat and when going over them, the wind would push them up and sideways. At one point, a huge wave crashed over the front of the boat and smashed out a section of the windshield. They, too, made it across the lake and into the beach area where they rode out the storm.
These words became very real to me: "A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, don't you care if we drown?'"
I certainly felt like I was going to drown. It was so bad on the other boat, that my dad made my brother-in-law and sister put on lifejackets.

Scary experience. Totally memorable. Definately humbling. I feel like we were blessed with life that day.

Tyndale

in the beginning

In the beginning...

There's a lot of power in those words... "In the Beginning."
We find them at the front of the Bible. And they bring with them an element of creation and excitement. Once something has been created, one would expect it to continue.
That's my hope here. I have made several attempts at this journalling thing (a collection of thoughts, reflections, dreams, ideas, etc) about my daily life. And this is the latest attempt.
But I have a couple of things that I'm going to put with it. First, I'm going to put it in my signature on the Ooze (a website full of friends). Second, I'm going to put it in my email signatures. My hope is that some would see it and hopefully help keep me accountable for posting.

We'll see what happens. This message might not only be the first, but the last... we'll have to see.

For now, it's a beginning...

Tyndale

vacation tomorrow

vacation tomorrow

Tomorrow starts a week's worth of vacation.
It's always funny to me. And I'm not sure why I still do it, but we all do. We work twice as hard all week to get ready to go on vacation and then work twice as hard once we get back to get caught up on our work, whereas if we would have just stayed home, we would have saved a lot of work. For some reason, vacation is supposed to be relaxing, but it ends in more work.
But we all do it.
And next week, or starting tomorrow, so will I. So, miss me while I'm gone. I will be missing you!

Tyndale