Green Day

It's Green Day again. Today, I'd simply like to relay a fascinating link. The Breathing Earth simulation... "This real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates." In real time, you can see an aproximation of how the world changes as you look at it.

"Please remember that this is just a simulation. Although the CO2 emission, birth rate and death rate data used in Breathing Earth comes from reputable sources, data that measures things on such a massive scale can never be 100% accurate. Please note however that the CO2 emission levels shown here are much more likely to be too low than they are to be too high."

Of note: While the image of a changing earth is fascinating, I disagree with some of what this website has to say. For instance, it claims polution is mostly a problem of "The West" despite the large contributions of Russia and China and that while countries like Luxemburg and Australia have huge "per capita" pollution problems, they aren't as serious because they have smaller populations. It also claims that when developing countries are high polluters, they are simply emulating the West. However, many researchers point out that these countries have adopted these practices for economic reasons and will never make an attempt to be more green so long as they can pollute the earth more cheaply than helping it. We can all hope for and work towards cheaper solutions to protecting the earth and working together as a global community to be better stewards of creation.

The Man in the Big Red Suit

My good friend Pattie mentioned the other day how she'd like to reclaim St Nicholas as opposed to either the over-commercialized version of Santa or the aversion to all things other than Jesus. I think there's a lot to be said for that. I just read a wonderful post by Jonathan Acuff over at Stuff Christians Like that ran the gauntlet of modern Christian views on this topic. I'd like to share an excerpt because it touches on something my sister mentioned in her blog about the relationship between believing in the big guy and believing in the big guy upstairs...


One caller said something I have heard often from Christians when it comes to the man in red. She said, “We’re not telling our kids about Santa, because when they find out he’s not real, they won’t believe that God is real when we tell them about him.”

Have you ever heard that? I’m not sure if it’s a Baptist thing or a Bible Belt thing but this show was out of New York and Canada so maybe that theory is national at this point. Regardless of its popularity though, I think there are two flaws with it.

The first is that in no other aspect of imagination do we put the same constraint. For instance, for a solid year, I’m pretty sure my kids thought the Wiggles and the Doodlebops were real. They watched their shows, they sang their songs, they loved those brightly colored/oddly terrifying characters. And not once did my wife and I say, “When they find out Captain FeatherSword isn’t real, they probably won’t believe in an all powerful God later on in life.” Sure, the Wiggles are different than Santa and we imbue a lot of “belief” language around him, but we only talk about him for six weeks a year. We wiggled for a solid year and discussed the Wiggles far more than we do Santa in an average Christmas season.

Kids are imaginative, that’s what they do. If I play along with their American Girl Dolls or take my oldest daughter to a Narnia film and she really believes it, I’m not afraid that I’ve effectively prevented her from believing in God. We’d never say, “I’m not taking my son to see Lord of the Rings, because if he ever finds out Gandalf is not real, he won’t believe in God.” We might rail against Harry Potter, but even that is not because we’re afraid if they find out Harry Potter is not real our kids won’t believe in God.

The bigger issue though with the Santa problem is that I’m not sure it really ever comes to fruition. For instance, I’ve had dozens of people tell me that they have a hard time seeing God as a loving father because their own father was not loving. They feel stuck and trapped with a broken filter of their own father that they apply to God. I completely believe that happens and have heard it a lot. Do you know what I’ve never heard? I’ve never had a friend tell me:

“I want to believe in God, I do, but I can’t get beyond my Santa Claus issues. I have ‘Kris Kringle complex.’ When I found out Santa wasn’t real as a 7 year old, I swore off God that day with a kind of a Charlton Heston final scene of Planet of the Apes anger.”

No one says that. And we’re also not seeing the damage of a generation who grew up believing Santa was real only to learn he’s not. By that I mean there aren’t any books for adults designed to help you get over your Santa problems. Zondervan hasn’t published “Get the man in red out of your head.” Thomas Nelson has not published “Empty stocking, full heart.” Lifeway is not doing a ladies conference called “Deeper Still Than Santa.” There’s not an industry to support the thousands and thousands of 30 year olds struggling with Santa Claus, because there are not thousands and thousands out there who do.

Now clearly this will be the moment I hear from the 17 people on the planet who have in fact confessed to a Christian counselor that Santa Claus shotblocked God for them, but I still think we’ve blown the problem with Santa out of proportion. I think most folks will say that the Santa vs. God thing isn’t an issue, but instead that they don’t want to “lie” to their kids. I understand that point and know that some kids have said “you lied to me mom and dad,” but we also have to be careful that we don’t miss out on the word “pretend.” I’d never say to my kids, “I don’t want to create a house of lies. I need to be honest with you and confess that My Little Pony is simply a lump of hard plastic not a real pony, when I did that magic trick and took your nose, I really didn’t take it, and I always know the end of your knock knock jokes but have been living a lie by acting like I didn’t all these years. To be perfectly honest with you, ‘Knock, knock, who’s there, a tornado of spanking’ is not that funny. I fake laughed. I hate to say that, but I refuse to lie to you kids.”

I think every parent needs to be deliberate and smart about how they handle Santa and Christmas in general, but lets not throw him under the God bus. Don’t talk about him for a million other reasons, but I’m not sure the God reason is the best one.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I was wondering what to write this year for Christmas. This year I was really moved by what my little sister had to say in her blog. The following was written by her on her own blog and reposted with her permission...


I've been giving Christmas a bit of extra thought this year. Every year I hear people trying to remind everyone about the true meaning of Christmas and berating the world for its consumerism and greediness. I guess I've never really felt that at Christmas. See, in general, I think Christians are a bit too hard on themselves and the rest of society. I hear Christians with young children trying to make sense out of the best way to communicate Christmas to their kids, sometimes giving different types of presents or questioning the introduction of Santa.

The thing is, I think it's totally awesome that the population at large participates in Christmas. We frequently remind our fellow Christians of "the reason for the season" and we know that's why we celebrate, but others do too. And basically, that's an open door for us. How great an opportunity that our holiday so central to our faith is publicized and promoted. Maybe instead of lamenting the loss of the religious aspect of Christmas to the secular world, we should rejoice in the opportunity it gives us to evangelize our fellow man.

Christians express frustration that they are unable to focus their faith during the season and parents stress about raising their children to understand Christmas properly. Well, let me share...

I grew up giving and receiving gifts on Christmas day. I grew up expecting Santa Claus on Christmas eve and watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I also grew up reading an advent calendar daily during the month of December, attending a candelight service on Christmas eve, and finding at least one way to give to someone in the name of Christ each year. For anyone who wonders if you can meld the secular and religious traditions of Christmas, you can. My parents and family did, and they ended up with a minister and an ever-more faithful daughter.

I give gifts every year and not out of obligation, but a desire to give my family and friends something I carefully crafted, worked hard to find, or carefully chose. One year, I gave everyone a gift of a donation to a charity I selected specifically as something that person supported. The same feeling that went with that year is the same for more traditional gifts--a sense of thoughtfulness. Gift-giving does not have to be something you feel forced to do by the shopping industry. If it is for you, then don't do it. It's not for me.

Santa is also not the worst concept. I think the best defense I heard was on an old episode of 7th Heaven where Simon prayed for his younger sister Ruthie to have some way to believe in Santa Claus that year. He said she needs to believe in Santa, it's how she works her way up to the big stuff, like you. Include Santa or don't, but have a little faith in yourself that your child's belief in Santa will not be their downfall when you consider everything else you'll teach them.

While all of my ideas are good for me, I have come to realize in the past couple of years that maybe it's easier for me. You see, I think I finally understand that I have an above-average love of Christmas. And while it may just be coincidence, I say it's because I was born around Christmas. I really think there is something to this.

I have assumed my entire life that others love Christmas just as much as me. But the older I get, the more I realize that many people see it as simply an annual time of stress or disgust at the world, as mentioned above. But to me, it's such a time of renewal.

Winter has always been my season. For most of my life, I have preferred the cold. I love snow, I love sweaters, hats, gloves, hot chocolate. I think an extra-special thing about Christmas is that it is during a time of cold. The fact that we create such warmth and joy in the midst of all the cold and bleakness is a paradox that is quite beautiful to me.And Christmas carols--oh, how I love. I have a deep love for singing the most traditional songs. The words seem more simple and the praises more authentic. They fill me with hope, graciousness, and love. The First Noel regularly makes me teary-eyed, along with flawless renditions of O Holy Night (I refuse to sing this one personally since I do not have the voice to do it justice).

And finally, there is my Christmas "miracle". Every year, there is something, a moment, a person, an action, a statement overheard, that once again centers me in this "true meaning of Christmas".

I think more of us get it than we realize.

Foresight and Hindsight

When I was choosing a college, I was in a unique position in many ways. Most of my church and high school friends were not even considering out of city or state. In fact, many from my high school weren’t considering college at all. It was weird to be traveling to VA and DC and SC and NY to see colleges. It was even stranger, having grown up in NC to have Yankee parents who didn’t really know a thing about NC schools.
Although, like many young people, my college prerequisites had little to do with tuition, strength of reputation, campus ministry groups, class size and professors and so on. And unlike many young people, I didn’t know or care about the sports or majors offered, etc. I do recall being impressed by the dining halls at a few places and the ratio of women to men at the liberal arts schools. I was as unimpressed by the schools surrounded by cow fields as those squeezed into big city areas. I guess growing up in the burbs made me appreciate being near cities without being in the midst of one.
I knew my parents had some idea about what made for a good school. I knew they knew more than I did. And I knew that was highly colored by the price tag (rightly so). My goals were finding a school far away and preferably one that was fun and had a good shot at getting me into the FBI. I was under a vague impression that this school should “have the right feel” as I walked around campus. Until it came down to decision time, it had not even occurred to me to either take my spiritual needs into account or to pray about the decision. But somewhere in the back of my mind, being so stressed about the biggest decision I had faced yet in my young life, was the impression I should.
I had the presence of mind to call and ask for prayer from several close friends and my youth minister. Again, I think that was more God’s leading than my brilliance. I went to bed that night sure of one thing and woke up sure of something completely different. My college choice had nothing to do with my best visit, best feeling on campus, best programs or professors or even money. I made a decision based on prayer. That was good foresight. In hindsight, I never would have had the campus ministry group or internships I ended up having at churches if I’d gone to my first choice. I probably would have a different career path and an entirely different relationship path.
I feel very fortunate and very blessed that I was guided this way. I had a lot of guidance when it came to choosing a college and the merits and pitfalls, the things to look for and what to avoid and how to get in to whichever I wanted. What I didn’t get much guidance about was how to pray about it and seek God’s guidance. I didn’t get much encouragement to find a place that could be a spiritual home. Growing up Presbyterian, education, career advancement and opportunity were highly valued and encouraged, but the step by steps of discernment were not well laid out. The idea of following God’s leading for where to go to school and to what career God might call me were novel concepts until college.
I continue to believe in the importance of time and energy set aside leading our young people in discernment and self-reflection. By the grace of God, I have had experiences that have led me to my call more quickly than I could have planned on my own. I do believe that the Church, our denomination especially, pastors and educators and the most important educators of all… parents, need to provide this time and energy and space and allow young people to explore their calling. Discernment is most important in times of transition and there are few transitions as big as from high school to college and vocation.
Aside from my work in youth groups, my most rewarding experiences have been working with the program and alum from a project that is targeted at immersing young people in discernment and call. If you want to learn more about it, you can click here. My hope would be to see more programs like this and more churches involved in this and more families encouraging this. I just don’t see how we can encourage our young people to be who God calls them to be without encouraging them to spend time with God to discover what that is and supporting to the best of our abilities what they find for themselves.
As you or young person comes up on their college decisions and college searches, I hope you’ll find ways and people and programs that do just that. College is not just a destination or a step toward a career, but a transition that requires some deep discernment. And if you have the opportunity to deeply discern your path and God’s hope for you in early decisions in life, will you not be more prepared for the other decisions, maybe bigger decisions later on?

Rejoice in the Lord

The scripture:

Luke 1:46-55 (English Standard Version)

Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificat 46And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

53he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

54He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55 as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

My sermon this week:

When John told me I’d be preaching this week, I was overjoyed. Because I was going to get to preach… and because this week, I only have to preach one time. At this week’s 11:00 service, the choir is performing the Magnificat, the musical arrangement of this morning’s Gospel reading from Luke. Magnificat is simply the Latin for magnify, extol or praise, and in the Latin Vulgate, that is the first word in Mary’s song here, her soul “magnifies the Lord.” In fact, her song is not the only one in chapter 1. Zechariah sings to the Lord as well after the birth of John the Baptist. Francis Taylor-Gench, Biblical scholar and professor, says, “you can practically hum the first chapter of Luke.” And hum along we do…

The Christmas story is so familiar that we often don’t sense just how unlikely it really was or how absurd to those who were a part of it. Our feelings at Christmas are colored by fond memories, traditions, presents, decorating, copious food and merriment, topped with melancholy and loneliness for those absent and a twinge of guilt for the less fortunate and overspending… and… that copious food and merriment.

With so much celebrating, with so many festivities… happiness can be found on every corner… but Joy… can be elusive.

In our culture, joy has come to mean much the same thing as happiness. However, happiness is merely an emotion, temporary at best, however wonderful it may be. Joy… requires our participation.

Just as love does not merely mean fondness or affection, joy is not just feeling happy. If love were merely fondness or affection, then Christ’s command to love one another would be fully lived out simply by spending time with people we like the most and continuing to think highly of them and feel comfortable around them… choosing new people to spend time with as we grow weary of the old ones. It would not require us to be good to one another or kind or supportive or patient or humble or share all we have.

As Jason spoke about just last week, hope… is not merely optimism. Hope is not just feeling positive or wishing for the best. Hope takes work, it takes community, it takes… God with us.
And this is from where Mary’s joy comes as she sings her psalm of praise, magnifying, extolling, praising God for what he has done for her and for his people. Her joy is born out of a love for her God, a hope for her people and the peace her son will bring to her world. It’s a great deal about which to be joyful indeed.

Stan Toler tells a story of his good friend, a brilliant public speaker who was asked to recall his most difficult speaking assignment. “That’s easy,” he answered. “It was an address I gave to the National Conference of Undertakers. The topic they gave me was, ‘How to look sad at a cheap funeral.’” Stan went on to say that certainly this must have been a tough speech, but that it would be far more difficult to give one on “How to be miserable” to the early Church. He says, it would be impossible, for they had an uncontainable joy. In other words, the early Church couldn’t help it!

Mary, Joseph, the Wiseman, the shepherds and angels… none of them could keep from being joyful! But there’s more going on here than a gut emotional reaction. They all got up and went somewhere! Some of them sang, some of them brought presents for the new baby. Even Mary and Joseph crossed the desert and delivered their first child in a barn. From each of them, there was an intentional response.

Paul tells us, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say, ‘Rejoice.’” When I was being installed at this church, Paul Neshangwe of Zimbabwe who works for our Presbytery office and has preached here before, charged me with these very words. His point was that though life and ministry may bring challenges and hard times, God calls us to rejoice. Joy takes work. He told me I would need reminding…

Here I spoke about this sign that hangs in my office. I gave a yellow square of construction paper to every member of our staff and asked them to make a specific letter. One of them went to a youth and one to a young adult as well. I put them together to make this...

You can guess which staff members made which letter.

It’s hard to remember in the midst of the day to day grind and this is my reminder. We all need things and people to remind us. Joy is not just the happy feeling we get when things go our way. It is our reaction, a decision to seek God. Joy requires our participation. Joy can be celebrating with others when things go well for them or coming through for others when you feel stretched thin… and doing so in good spirits. Joy can be as simple as having a bad day… and not taking it out on anyone else.

Joy is choosing to be thankful and relying on God when it’s too hard to do on your own. Joy is acting out confident exuberance in the face of darkness, logic and reason. Do you suppose for the young girl Mary that it was easy to receive the news that she was about to be a mother? Much less a mother out of wedlock? Do you suppose it was easy for to approach her parents, to approach Joseph with this news, knowing the consequences? Do you suppose it was easy for Joseph to get the news? It always bothered my mother that this young coupled traveled to their “home town” and had no one with whom to stay. “Didn’t they have relatives?” Perhaps not everyone in their family was quite as convinced of Mary and Joseph’s story of impregnation by Holy Spirit. The trip they took, the barn in which they delivered their baby, the early years of fleeing to Egypt and raising Jesus could not have been what either of them dreamed.

And yet… they were joyful. Not just happy… joyful. That takes work, brothers and sisters, that takes participation… an intentional response. It’s difficult for us to fathom. It’s hard for us as observers, so far removed. It takes a retelling of the story. Joy requires our participation.
Some of you may well remember the book, and the TV adaptation of The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. It’s a favorite of mine, and a favorite of my mother’s, a life-long teacher who had had many Herdmens of her own. The story recounts the tale of a Sunday school teacher who takes on the traditional Christmas play. It has always been the stereotypical parade of young boys in their fathers’ bath robes and fake beards, girls in choir gowns and the two most responsible older children playing Mary and Joseph.

Well, of course, being her first year, this teacher botches the entire production. She infuriates all the parents, breaks every precedent and even alienates her own children. Most of this is due to including one particularly troublesome family in the play… the Herdmens. And a herd they are. They are all of the worst sort. They are a veritable clan of misfits and criminals. They have no morals, no patience and no self-restraint. They are bullies and thieves and they have no idea what the Christmas story is all about.

This teacher does her best to teach them about the story and because of their bullying, they end up with all the leading roles… to the chagrin of all the other children and parents. But of course, this eventually brings the Christmas story home for all of them. In a touching moment the night of the play, the teacher peeks into the dressing room to see Emma-Jean Herdmen, easily the wildest, toughest and most heinous of the bunch… cradling the baby Jesus doll. As she imagines what it truly would have been like to be 14 and having just given birth to a baby… a baby who would be the savior of our world, she cries quietly. For all her toughness, for all her bullying and posturing and antics… Emma-Jean comes to know joy in a way many of us can only glimpse in those rare moments. Emma-Jean participates in the story of our God with us. This unlikely girl enters the unlikely story of God’s love for all of us. In the face of all she’s experienced… abandonment, marginalization and hopelessness, she steps out of her experiences and into joy.

I don’t know what joy looks like for you. I don’t know if it’s deciding to spend more time with family and less at the mall or in long lines. I don’t know if it’s spending your money on Operation Christmas Child or your Saturday morning and afternoon in the Fellowship halls packing boxes with Hunger Task Force. Perhaps it’s raising your voice in song here in church, all through your neighborhood or in your kitchen as you teach your siblings and children and grandchildren about the Christmas story… our story. Perhaps it’s a new appreciation for all you are blessed with. I do know joy can be hard work. And I know we can get too busy to rejoice. But I encourage each of you right now to allow God to give you great joy this advent and for each of you to respond to it. Because joy requires your participation. Rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say… rejoice.

Green Day

When a little kid makes breakfast for his mom in bed and the eggs are too runny and the pancakes are made with sugar instead of flower, we say, “Well, his heart was in the right place.” And this is acceptable for children and even adults when we make errors in judgment in our attempt to do the right thing.

However, this line of thinking hinders the progress of one of the most important movements in the modern day… the Green movement or Environmentalism. Too often we pursue ideas or fund technologies that only make us feel good and don’t do anything worthwhile for this effort.
It’s especially in vogue to be environmentally friendly (popular among members of the Sierra Club, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for decades longer). The last thing I would want is for hurting the environment to be in vogue, but more than environmentally friendly, we need people to be environmentally conscious. What’s the difference?

Months ago, I blogged about the Green Lantern who writes columns comparing various choices to be made and their environmental impact (hand washing dishes v. dish washer, bottles v. cans, etc.). There’s more to a decision than many people realize. For instance, taking the totality of a bag’s impact on the environment, plastic grocery bags tend to be better than paper. Why? Paper is heavier and more costly to ship because of the fuel expense. More fossil fuels are burned in transporting them then are used in making plastic bags. In addition, plastic bags do not cut into our forests and take up less room in landfills. It’s counter-intuitive, but an important process to think about. Of course, the best thing you can do is bring your own reusable plastic or canvas bags.

The last thing God’s good creation needs is our meager good intentions. God gave us brains, intuition and imagination. It is our responsibility to think through all the consequences and possible environmental impacts of our efforts to be green. The big national story recently has been the debacle of bio-diesel. It was so promising, very few people wanted to admit that while it had a great impact on our farmers, it was hurting the environment. The energy cost that went into it was far higher than what it yielded.

"First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. (See: non-existent or harmful) It's hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going." – Al Gore

"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president." – Al Gore

In his zeal to find ways to save the planet, Al Gore backed technologies that did it more harm than good. I would encourage everyone to look at the best research available when making decisions that have long term consequences for God's green earth.

Green Day

Today in the news is an exciting release by Puma. I am not endorsing Puma, but I am excited about their strides toward lowering their environmental impact. The video is really neat. Enjoy...

Green Day

This week, I'm going to redirect you to NPR. There's a man who travels the world photographing... bark. Yup, bark. His shots are beautiful. Please enjoy his work...

Green Day

And we're back! After a long hiatus, the blog is back. Last week, Wellshire hosted its yearly Blessing of the Animals. To my knowledge, we're the only church in Denver who does this inside. We had canines and felines, ophidians (snakes) and even a dwarf hampster. There are some pictures below.

This week, John went to the Dumb Friends League to bless their animals. They took wonderful pictures of this event and I highly encourage you to go visit their link: Photos at The Dumb Friends League.

Sleep & Eat

For the parents: Studies released this week show what has been touted for years (children need 10+ hours of sleep per night and toddlers and infants even more) for entirely new reasons: children who do NOT receive this amount per night are TWICE as likely to become overweight or obese, TWICE. They also found that nap time has no effect whatsoever on decreasing this likelihood. There is no substitute for the at-night sleep children need.

This could be for some of the same reasons that adults gain more weight when they do not sleep enough. Adults seem to produce improper amounts of the hormones they need, causing them to crave junk/snack food over healthy food. Lack of sleep actually changes your cravings. Another no-brainer? Lack of sleep at night contributes to lack of energy during the day. Adults and especially children are less likely to engage in physical activity which would keep them in shape when they don't have the energy for them.

NPR released data a few months ago on the need for teenagers to get at least 10 hours of sleep per night. Since most teens would have to be in bed by 8pm for this to happen, it's unlikely. The only solutions proferred were later school start times and sleeping in on weekends. I share this news because of how few adults are willing to try either solution. I, myself, do not ever recall being allowed to sleep past 9am on weekends until I left for college. Duke University made headlines when I was in school for eliminating classes that start before 9am in response to these studies.

The result of teens not getting enough sleep? Teens lose the ability to concentrate, learn and remember what they study, and this effect is cumulative and long term. So, scientific advice for children? Get them on a schedule. For teens? Continue the schedule when possible and let them sleep.

Tony Campolo - PYT 2010

Tony Campolo delivered the final closing sermon at Presbyterian Youth Triennium 2010 this summer. It's the best sermon I've ever heard...

Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo - July 24, 2010 from Presbyterian Youth on Vimeo.

How to Learn

Read this for the 100th time today: Listen... no one ever learned anything by talking.

I'd have to disagree. Should more people do more listening and less talking? Almost certainly. However, therapy would be useless and friends would be unnecessary, if nothing were learned by talking. Much can be learned by talking. Talking to a friend, a pastor, a mentor or a counselor, or even to yourself puts ideas and feelings into words that can then be explored, analyzed, contradicted or understood. I tend to believe that exploration, analysis, contradiction and understanding are powerful tools for learning.

Ever learned anything powerful about the world, someone else or yourself by talking?

Just the Stats, Ma’am

It’s been said that statistics are like swimwear, they’re revealing but what they don’t reveal is what’s most important. The natural reason for statistics is to draw conclusions about the world around us. As a person who is fascinated by stats, whether in sports or society, it pains me to see people muck up the interpretation of what studies conclude.

Many people (people who get paid enough to know better) confuse “correlation” with “causation.” A good example of the difference would be to look at people who eat salad every day for lunch verses those who do not. If your results showed that people who eat salad every day for lunch are healthier than those who do not, you could say one of two things. You could say salad makes you healthy (causation) OR you could say that people who eat salad every day for lunch are more likely to be committed to a healthy lifestyle and are noticeably healthier because they’re more likely to eat right at other meals and exercise (correlation). In other words, salad isn’t the only contributing factor to their health.

A recent joint study by the University of California and the University of Minnesota revealed that high school teens who have casual sex are likely to have lower GPA’s than average, while there is no noticeable difference between those who are sexually active in “committed relationships” (a not-clearly defined term) and those who abstain entirely. One of the conclusions drawn by the folks who ran the study was that this “hooking up” resulted in lower grades, while a “committed relationship” protected teens from the damaging effects of sex.

They didn’t seem to consider the idea that those with lower GPA’s might include kids who had an all-around disinterest in academics and an interest in things like delinquent behavior, drug use or casual sex. These might be the same kids who were more likely to TP houses or spray paint overpasses, but it seems unlikely to me that a study would conclude that those students who buy more spray paint and toilet paper are risking a hit to their report card.

In other words, the conclusion seems to be that casual sex leads to bad grades while a string of monogamous sexual relationships early in life does not. No one seems concerned with the values and morals modeled in families of origin that might include casual attitudes about school, work, drugs, crime and sex. A strong correlation between casual sex and bad grades is not surprising, but causation is a harder case to prove.

More importantly, the findings indicated to many people that the solution for teens is to teach them the importance of relationships. Apparently, the only negative or important consequence to sex is bad grades. Who knew? You know what I think about that, if you read my previous post on the social justice implications of that mindset in middle class America.

What conclusions do you draw from this study?

I Know What I Hope

I preached this week's sermon mainly on Revelation 7:9-17, and touched on Acts 6...

John told me I didn’t have to start writing his till this morning. After all, if the end of the world were to have happened mid-week, I’d be off the hook. Though, it’s been pointed out that after this summer I may now be a bit of an expert on those left behind. And who better to talk about Armageddon and calamity and the end of the world than the youth pastor?

But what I want to focus on today first are maybe some of the things we dwell on a bit too much… and misconceptions we may have. What do you think of when you hear the term “Armageddon?” Do you think of fire and brimstone? Skies as dark as sackcloth and the moon as red as blood? Maybe the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Or even the 1990’s box office hit that was filmed at a time when oil drillers could play the team of unlikely protagonists saving the world from an asteroid?

John of Patmos relates a fairly intense and highly descriptive vision as recorded in the book of Revelation. It’s full of wildly popular imagery of death and destruction and animals and beasts and bowls and horns. Interestingly… the term “Armageddon” appears only once in the entirety of John’s book and there is great debate over what it even means. Some scholars think it’s a mountain, while others think it comes from ancient Hebrew words for “attack” or a “destroying mountain” referenced in other parts of the Old Testament. Regardless, both this word, Armageddon and the other vocabulary seem to play only a small part in his vision and yet so many of us know it. Armageddon, tribulation, rapture. There’s even a company, run by atheists, who provide a post-rapture pet care service so that you are insured someone will care for fluffy and spot when you are taken.

The vocabulary is all about our experience and familiarity as we glean from pop-culture. When I was a little kid, on rare special occasions, my father would drag his guitar out of the attic and play it. There were only a few songs he knew how to play that held any interest for me and my sister at our young age. At the age of four I walked by his guitar once in the hallway, saw it and remarked to myself in hearing range of my mother, “oh, Puff the Magic Dragon.” To me, that’s what a guitar was. It was an instrument that played a sad song about a dragon… not unlike the limited view many of us have of the book of Revelation.

I could just as easily have said the guitar was an octopus’s garden or secret agent man, as my father played those as well, but the point is that my understanding of a guitar and my understanding my father was limited by the experiences with which I was most familiar and had heard repeated the most. The artwork, the sermons, the book series and so forth about the book of Revelation all tend to focus on the sensational and gory parts of John’s revelation. The end times, the tribulation, the woes, the destruction, the Antichrist, and so on. But so much of what is contained in this book is different, and so much of it contains a vision of unity and peace and of hope.

Our passage today might not strike fear into your heart, but it should be incredibly inspiring and hopeful. I’d like to focus on three things in this passage that stand out. Firstly, how many believers stood before the throne… secondly, who was there… and lastly, what they are promised. How many? Who? What were they promised? To begin with… how many? The passage indicates that there were too many to count. For a man who could keep up with and write down that many sevens and could count at least as high as 144,000, it seems unlikely that here, early on in the vision, John is merely getting lazy with his arithmetic. This crowd is literally innumerable. Standing in their white robes… a symbol of victory… is a crowd he cannot count… Some scholars think this may be a reference to fulfilling the promise to Abraham that his descendants, his people would number like the stars.

It’s a common and well-loved idea that only a select few make it to the end or get into heaven and stand before the throne. If nothing else, humans love their exclusivity. A church of 144 people or a denomination of 144,000 righteous people is certainly easier for us to manage, but it’s simply non-biblical to think of so few people getting to stand before the throne… as the world ends. John makes it clear that a much larger number of people gain this privilege.
But who is present in John’s vision. Who is standing before the throne of the lamb here at the end of time? John says: Those from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. This phrase is present in John’s Revelation five other times. This is not a General Assembly gathering of PC(USA) folk or an AME Zion conference or a lone mega church from Seattle or Korea. This is a gathering of every possible people, nation state and language group. This is a multitude that has no other commonality amongst them all but a belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.

I worked for a non-profit organization last summer in Richmond, Virginia that endeavored every day to bring about racial reconciliation in their community. My mentor pointed out to me that there’s one big reason many non-church-goers are unimpressed with Christianity. We, for the most part, gather on Sunday morning in groups of people like ourselves… the same racial backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, socio-economic backgrounds… and languages, worship God separately and apart and go about our lives unchanged. The most segregated hour in America is 11am on Sunday each week.

Who would be impressed by this as an outsider? Anyone can do that. You can do that at a country club or a community center. In the early Church, as recorded in Acts 6, they had the same problems with ethnicity and cultural groups. The Greeks, who were a Gentile minority group among the first Christians, came to the disciples, concerned that their people were being shorted when it came to distributing food. The disciples talked and prayed about it, knowing that these concerns were legitimate and that they would never be able to lead the Church if they had to constantly settle logistical concerns. They decided they would choose leaders to distribute the food. What I’d never realized until recently is how important were the names of those leaders listed. Reading it in English and out of their historical setting, it’s easy to miss the importance of those names. From Philip to Nicolaus, every name on the list is Greek. Every single person was a minority.

Now, while it is not uncommon in the book of Acts to end a successful event with a phrase about how God added to their numbers daily, and in this case, God did add to their numbers, what IS unusual is that this is the only time that priests were also converted. This evidence of unity, of true racial and cultural reconciliation was the greatest evangelistic effort imaginable. It was evident to them that true worship… that authenticity of the message of God for all people… was best conveyed when all of God’s people worshipped together. And here in Revelation, it truly is a gathering of all people, true and awe-inspiring worship.

Here, all of God’s people can worship together before the throne of the Lamb. Those many differences have become unimportant to all who believe and worship Christ. When the end comes, all becomes as God intended and all is reconciled. They are there before God, serving only God day and night and so they are promised that God will: shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It’s easy for us in this day and age in a big city like Denver to be isolated from those who are truly hungry. At the most, if we don’t go seek them out, we may see them on a street corner with a cardboard sign. But there are hundreds of hungry and malnourished children in Denver alone. And it’s even less likely any of us will come across someone who has no access to water or even clean water, but if you’ve ever gone on a mission trip or with Greg on a Healing Waters trip, you know just what a real concern that is to so many millions of people today… the suffering that causes. It’s incredibly humbling to know just how great that suffering is, but perhaps even more incredible will be the day of hope when absolutely no one will hunger or thirst as they stand before the throne. The day when all physical suffering is gone… and we are protected… and not one child suffers from hunger or thirst… this will be the end of time of which John speaks.

But it is also the emotional pain that will cease on that day. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. In no way are any of us isolated from the emotional pain that illicit tears. Each of us experience loss, tragedy and pain. So this verse is perhaps among the most powerful parts of that promise for each of us. My Hebrew professor in seminary once told us of a student in his class at a university. Her name was Jessie. In talking with her mother on the phone about her progress at the midterm, he suggested some study skills and that attending class regularly would benefit her the most. As their conversation ended, Jessie’s mother asked if he was the same Carson who signed the VA Benefits forms for students who had lost a parent in the line of duty. In fact, he was.

Jessie’s father had been a pilot, she explained and while she knew almost nothing of how he died, she took comfort in knowing it had apparently been quick. Her last memory of all of them together was in the park, Jessie being carried high on her father’s shoulders under a cloudless sky. Well, Jessie’s attendance improved after the break but soon returned to its original pattern. When she did come, she would take notes for a few minutes and then rest her head, seemingly very tired. It was clear that she was not well-liked by her classmates.
Just before exam time, they had their final class. The topic of the lecture was this passage in Revelation. Jessie, never having asked a question all semester raised her hand, and did not wait for my professor to call on her. “The verse,” she asked, looking around nervously at her peers. “That verse about God drying every tear… Does that mean every tear from that time on… or that God will go back into all of time and find every tear and dry all of them, too?”

A very bright and popular student on the front row rolled her eyes, checked her watch and hunkered down into her seat frowning. The rest of the class lapsed into murmurs and chortles. My professor racked his brain, considering historical context and the resistance to apocalyptic literature to linear interpretation and so on. Then he thought about that conversation with Jessie’s mother. My professor fumbled for an answer that he was sure was nothing more than the most polite way to address her and conclude class quickly. However, the next week, he put Jessie’s question on the final exam as extra credit, augmented by technical terms and literary and historical mumbo jumbo. Only two students attempted to answer it.

Jessie wrote the following: I called my mom and told her my religion professor didn’t really answer the only question I had all semester. I told her it was more like you talked about what you hoped the answer would be. My mom said that for some kinds of questions in life it might count more what you hope the answer is than if you have it all figured out. Do you think she is right?

She went on to talk about her father and her last memory with him in the park, flying high on his shoulders, much as her mother had told it. Then she said: I don’t know the answer to this question, professor. I really don’t. But I know what I hope the answer is. I know what I hope. Is that worth any points? …I think I really need this extra credit to pass this course. I’m transferring home next semester. I need as many classes as possible to transfer.

The only other person to answer this question was the bright popular girl on the front row. She of course wrote a brilliant exposition… literary and historical context… syntax and grammar and genre. She said that these texts “seem to be dipped in a special coating that makes them resistant to simple answers…” referring to Jessie, and that, “These writings deal not in the currency of verifiable fact, but in the currency of hope.” A currency of hope.

As she concluded her essay, she wrote: I know my answer is a good one… You know I don’t need any extra credit… please consider giving my credit to the student in the back row, the one who slept most of the time and who kept us late that day she asked this question that seemed to shake you so badly. I bet she needs it. I want her to have it. I think maybe so do you. I think I saw what you thought when a lot of us laughed.”

My professor told us that he didn’t know what became of either student or what caused this bright popular girl to descend from obscenity to compassion… but he did know… what he hoped. I myself don’t know whether you should be pre-trib or post-trib, how or if the rapture will occur. I don’t know if all the creatures and beasts and horns and plagues are literal or figurative. I don’t know what Armageddon means for sure. I don’t know how the end of the world will unfold, and I don’t believe anyone else does either. I do know who will be there at the end though, and that all peoples of all nations will be there and that we are promised God’s protection, and that there will be no more hunger, no more thirst and God will wipe every tear. And I know what I hope.

Let us pray…

Greenday

As a boy, I sat glued to the TV for a week for... Turtle Week. Yup, Reading Rainbow had a week on sea turtles and I... was... fascinated. This story really moved me this week.

CNN reports: Playalinda Beach, Titusville, Florida (CNN) -- One-day-old loggerhead turtles were set free adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center overnight, scurrying down a beach in the cover of darkness to begin their lives.

The baby turtles were hatched at a space center facility after being transferred from the beaches in the Florida Panhandle and Alabama.
Biologists believed 700 to 800 turtle nests were in jeopardy of perishing, with BP's oil lurking offshore.

"We would have 100 percent mortality if the hatchlings were not able to be translocated," said Jeff Trandahl of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "We are looking at relocating 70,000 to 80,000 turtle eggs."

So far, 13,000 eggs have arrived and more each day. Turtle power! You can see them scurrying across the night sands in this video...

Movie Review: Inception

In a word: INCREDIBLE. Though I'm still restling with the concepts and the questions, this film is probably the best I've ever seen. If you know me and movies, this is no small statement. A good movie is hard to come by, a great film even harder. It takes a lot to make it on my top 100, and must rank fairly highly in a number of categories including the music, the cast, the chemistry of that cast, the performances, the story, the ending and its ability to inspire, challenge and emotionally connect. Inception did ALL of that.

For many people, the Matrix delivered in many of those aspects. It did for me. Everyone left the theater looking up and around at the people with them, wondering if they were really awake or trapped in the Matrix. It was fascinating. It brought up that one question: what is real? But of all the questions or concepts raised in the Matrix, it all revolved around that. Powerful, but limited. Inception opened an entire Pandora's Box of concepts about reality, dreams, creativity, inspiration, hope and ideas. "What is the most resilient entity in the world? Is it a virus? An intestinal worm? No. It's an idea. Once planted, an idea can grow and spread and survive almost anything." This is just one of the many concepts into which Dicaprio and crew delve in the movie.

In the Matrix, when Neo asks if he can dodge bullets, Mopheus tells him that when he's ready he won't even have to dodge them. The concept of this changed and changeable reality is fascinating, but it's in a computer essentially. In Inception, it goes farther. It's all in dreams. Not only can you alter that reality. You can construct absolutely anything you want. Creativity is limitless. Time is no different. As in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it's very different inside this other realm. Just 10 minutes of dreaming seems like an hour in the dream and it's multiplied if you go into a dream from within the dream.

As with Avatar and the Matrix before it, this movie delivers on absolutely new and unique visuals that blew me away. The cast is all-star. Dicaprio delivers a performance between his ingenuity in Catch me if you Can and his madness in the Aviator, with a bite of something new that is insired by Chris Nolan's Batman and the grittier aspects of Bond. Chris Nolan chose Han Zimmer for the score (incredible) and 3 of his best actors from the first Batman movie (Ken Watanabe, Michael Kane and Cillian Murphy), besides rising star Ellen Page and a fast-maturing Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, 10 Things I hate about You, Brick) and old school Tom Berenger. The evil Picard clone from Star Trek: Nemesis even joins the team.

The movie is hard-hitting, deep, thoughtful, confusing (without being impossible) and absoluting stunning in every way. They filmed it in six countries. I don't recommend it for anyone who clings too tightly to reality or takes heavy anti-psychotic medication, but to anyone with imagination and curiosity, it could easily be the best film you see this decade.

Triennium Recap

If you've never been to a Presbyterian Youth Triennium, find a way to go! As a youth, I attended in 2001, and it was one of those most amazing experiences of my life. The attendance has dwindled in recent years from over 7,000 Presbyterian youth (many presby variations) from all over the country AND internationally to a mere 5,000. These high school youth descend on Purdue's campus in West Lafyette, IN every 3 years and it's mayhem.

I went again in 2007 as a small group leader. The experience was also awesome, though the drama and music at the worship services was confusing and distinctly subpar. This year... not so. Again, I went as a small group leader and every aspect was incredible. The lesson plans were great, the training was more streamlined. The worship was PHENOMENAL. The band was fantastically talented and the drama flowed well, illuminating the small group scriptures (the story of Esther) each day. Best of all, the preaching absolutely rocked the house. Bruce Reyes-Chow opened the week and really delivered. There were several more great sermons and messages from international attendees, including an earthquake survivor from Haiti with his story of child servitutde and rescue.

The week culminated in the final worship with Tony Campolo preaching. Easily the most inspiring and moving sermon I've ever heard. I laughed hard, I cried, I was so moved I was ready to go sleep on the streets with the homeless and proclaim the word in prison and congress. It was wonderful. If I'm able, I'm going to repost his sermon here.

Triennium is a wonderful experience. If you're an incoming freshman in high school through graduating senior the summer of Triennium, you can go as a youth participant. If you're 21 or older, you can go as a group chaperone from your home delegation as sent by your presbytery or as a small group leader. If you're between high school and 21, you can still go on work team. This is incredibly hard work, setting up events and equipment, etc, but very rewarding. The next Triennium will be in 2013. Get in touch with me or your presbytery office for more info.

It’s Who You Know

I worked for an urban non-profit in Richmond, VA, that among other goals, was striving for racial reconciliation. One day, a friend of mine, who is black, was explaining to a group of interns what it really means to have black friends. He said, “It’s not enough to have one black friend. You have to have two black friends… and they have to not like each other.”

He brought up a valid point. For many Christians, racial harmony is idealized personal hope of ours, but we make token personal daily efforts towards the realization of that goal (i.e.: I sometimes vote for black political candidates; I once went on a mission trip somewhere they don’t speak English; I occasionally listen to Gospel music; I play tennis with the Korean kid in my gym class; I had a crush on the Swedish foreign exchange guy in Western Civ.). While these are certainly steps in the right direction (mostly), it’s often much easier to just not make the effort.

In Acts, chapter 6, they were having disputes between the Jewish Christians and the new Gentile members (a minority at the time). They were worried about food distribution and equality. What was their solution? They appointed leaders to be fair distributors (administrators). What’s interesting is the list of names of these new admins: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus. Now if your Greek and Hebrew is as rusty as mine, it may take you a minute. None of those names are Hebrew. They’re Greek. Yup, every single one of the people the Apostles chose to be one of the new administrators of policy (after much prayer) was a minority. The fascinating thing is that for all the times in Acts that "many were added to their numbers," this is the only place that even priests were converted. Racial reconciliation can have powerful consequences.

What does this mean for you? For your church? Maybe it means that to gain a real perspective on things, you need to go put yourself in places where you are the minority. Maybe it means you need to visit a place where you’re the one with the strange accent and funny way of dressing, and I don’t just mean leaving Nashville for Newark for the weekend. Maybe your church needs to appoint leaders on session who represent your smaller groups (youth, children, elderly, handicap, single people, people who read the newspaper or this blog). Or perhaps, just inviting people from the neighborhood next to your church or holding your worship service at the soup kitchen once a month. The answer could very well be right under your nose.

A recent video from Improv Everywhere shows a humorous way one man tried to broaden his experience and those in a small town in my own state:




What are you doing to bring this part of the Gospel to life in your own church?

B@d W*rds W# S@y

I recently read a very interesting blog post on Taking the Lord's name in vain specifically, but also more generally on the bad things we say, including cursing or shouting substitutes for explatives. The author bemoaned both those who are ultrasensative to such phrases, as well as the silliness of those phrases. The most interesting part was on what it truly means to take the Lord's name in vain...

Christians take God’s name in vain the most

When people say “Oh my God,” they don’t even think about it. Sure, it’s rude. But what does it really mean to take God’s name in vain? I think God gets way more P.O.ed (cuss word ititials are dumb too) from Christians who sincerely take his name in vain. How do we do it? By showing up to church and praising him while we curse our neighbors. By sincerely asking God to do things that He has said he won’t do. By creating a false idol and calling it “God.” By worshipping God so He’ll give us more stuff. By calling ourselves “Christians,” which has the name of God in it, and not acting like we follow Christ. And God’s up there saying, “Holy shrimpcakes, you’ve got to be kidding.”

When it comes to cussing, maybe it’s not the words that come out of a man’s mouth that’s wrong, but the cause of it in his heart. If I can get so mad at the ATM that I let out a string of curse words at it, something is wrong with my emotions, and my mouth is just a symptom.

But instead of doing the hard thing by not asking God for stupid crap that’s bad for us, or getting our emotions under control, we do the easy thing and tell some new Christian that now that he’s a Christian he’ll need to stop swearing and “talk nice” so he doesn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of other Christians. We get riled up about non-Christians using the word “God.” But when you realize that Christians are the biggest abusers of God’s name, you know that we should really shut the smurf up because we don’t have any place being offended.

Great graham crackers.

SHY in the Rink

This week, the High School youth headed to University of Denver to go skating since it's been over 95 for a few days. Hopefully when it's cooled back down a bit in two weeks, we'll head back to Eisenhower for SHY in the Park. We had 15 youth come out tonight. Here are 14 of them and Terri!

Greenday

Brought to you by: The WellGrounded Life

On this Greenday, I thought I'd a little levity with a word on nutrition from another blogger. I've made the point before that food choices should be made primarily for reasons of faith and stewardship of the earth. Here's some news on choosing foods according to what will or will not give you a heart attack (all in good fun, but also true)...

Below is “The Last Word on Nutrition,” which combines the results of many independent scientific studies.

The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats, and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Ukrainians drink a lot of vodka, eat a lot of perogies and cabbage rolls and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Word on the Street

Tomorrow is SHY in the RINK! All high school youth, come on out to Joy Burns Arena at University of Denver. The public rink is downstairs from the hockey rink. We'll meet at 6:30pm, Wed, July 14th and skate until around 8pm. Bring $5 (and skates if you have them) AND any friends you wanna see fall on the ice.

The Rise of The Christian Left

A couple of years ago, a professor of mine in seminary in a class on Evangelism in the Congregation made an interesting point… Many ultra-conservatives in America are concerned about two problems: the rising secularization of their nation AND the immigration problem (specifically from across our southern border). He made the case that perhaps the best way for them to stop worrying about “problem” A was to stop seeing “problem” B as a problem at all. He made the observation that so many of our illegal immigrants are highly religious in their background and culture that they may in fact be the basis for a resurgence of faith in America.

So when The New York Times published an article recently addressing the surprising religious fervor in the Democratic party, it was less surprising than it should have been, but it raised some new questions about those implications on our two-party system.

The author of this new article in the Times posed the question, “Which political party’s members are most likely to believe that Jesus will definitely return to earth before midcentury?” You might have guessed Republicans, but you’d be wrong. Here’s what Charles M. Blow had to say…

“On the surface it may seem surprising, but, in fact, it’s quite logical. Blacks and Hispanics, two highly religious groups, are a growing part of the Democratic Party. A June 2009 Gallup report found that blacks and Hispanics constituted 30 percent of the party…

According to a Gallup report issued last Friday, church attendance among blacks is exactly the same as among conservatives and among Republicans. Hispanics closely follow. Furthermore, a February Gallup report found that blacks and Hispanics, respectively, were the most likely to say that religion was an important part of their daily lives. In fact, on the Jesus question, nonwhite Democrats were roughly twice as likely as white Democrats to believe that He would return to earth by 2050…

Welcome to the Religious Left, which will continue to grow as the percentage of minorities in the country and in the party grows.

People often ask whether the Republican Party will have to move to the left to remain viable. However, the question rarely asked is whether the growing religiosity on the left will push the Democrats toward the right…

For the most part, it seems to have made its peace with the mishmash of morality under the Democratic umbrella, rallying instead around some core Democratic tenets: protection of, and equality for, the disenfranchised and providing greater opportunity and assistance for the poor.

The unanswerable questions are whether these highly religious, socially conservative Democrats will remain loyal to a liberal agenda as they become the majority of the party and their financial and social standing improves. Or whether Republicans will finally make headway in recruiting them.”

Then again, as Blow points out, this could all be a moot point, if those in either party are right about the return of Christ being so soon…

YouthToob

If you haven't checked it out yet, there's a great new site up... YouthToob. It's got funny videos for youth groups. It's content appropriate to high schoolers and relevant to teens, college-age and young adults. It's a great way to segue between activities, lead off a discussion or simply waste time. There are goofy Jesus-dubbed movies, inspirational clips, comedians and more. Some are funny, some are moving and some really make you think. If you have video suggestions, send them my way and I'll get them added...

Eres Todo Poderoso

This is the youth singing Eres Todo Poderoso (You are all-powerful) on the roof of our hotel in Antigua at the end of our mission trip to Guatemala this summer...

Thanks to Greg for filming this.

Feed my Sheep

Just as in the days when Jesus was trotting around in his robe and sandals, as a faith, Christians love to focus on the "DO NOTs" of Scripture. Do not kill, do not steal, do not dress inappropriately and do not watch The View (that one really should be in there, if it's not). The Do Nots can be very hard to interpret sometimes. However, I like the "DO's" of Scripture. DO justice, LOVE kindness and WALK humbly with your God. FEED the hungry, CLOTHE the naked and VISIT the sick and in prison. Yup, I love those.

Two weeks ago, the Youth of Wellshire got back from BUILDING homes for the homeless. And last night, our YAX (Young Adult Christians) went to New Genesis downtown to FEED the hungry men at the shelter. Several young adults came to help prepare the caseroles on Sunday after church and then we took those casseroles, salad and desserts down to the shelter. Nine of us served dinner and ate with the men at New Genesis, sharing our stories and our food. We hope to go back again some time.

If you or a young adult you know would like to get involved with the ministry oppertunities for service, mission, fellowship and fun, contact Brian, Associate Pastor of Youth & Young Adults at: bdaoust@wpcdenver.org or search for YAX (Young Adult Christians) on Facebook.

Not so "SHY" in the Park...

We had our first SHY in the Park last night to kick off the summer. Our high schoolers, most of whom freshly back from Guatemala gobbled up burgers and dogs in Eisenhower Park, just across the Street from Wellshire. We had over 20 folks take over the small park there for food and then Ultimate Frisbee. We will hold these every other week or so all summer, usually meeting in the park, but with the possibility of a few other events and service opportunities. They will typically be Wednesday at 7pm on selected weeks and notices will go out ahead of time on here, in the e-mail and via Facebook, so stay tuned!

Also, if there is interest, we may add some Bible Study time before or after these evenings.

Oh, and i would walk 500 miles...

And i would fly a thousand more...

We're finally ALL safe and sound back in Denver. With the exception of myself and two young freshmen boys, everyone arrived back on Sunday evening and we were back by 9:30am, Monday morning. The best updates of the trip, ala play-by-play can be found on Greg's blog and much fun to be found on our other trip sponsor, Jenni's blog. Below are links to blog posts in chronological order...

Jenni's Blog - Great Map of Guatemala

Greg's First Post - Recap of travel and first day in Guatemala

Jenni's First Post - First Day

Jenni's Second Post - Traveling to Salama

Greg's Second Post - Reaching & settling into Salama

Greg's Third Post - Getting to work: On the Habitat Site

Jenni's Third Post - Intro to Team Jenni Salisbury/ Ashley Daoust

Greg's Fourth Post - More work and a little Soccer (futbol)

Jenni's Fourth Post - Work & Play (great soccer pics)

Greg's Fifth Post - Last 2 days of work and they're still smiling

i'll post more of our best pics here as i collect them from the kids and sponsors, so be sure to check back.

ALSO: This Sunday, we will be bringing a full report on our trip and leading worship at the 8:35 service time. As there are too many pictures and stories to share in a small time slot, we cannot share again at the 10:00 and all of the pastors and staff are encouraging people to attend BOTH services this Sunday.

Take me out to the ball game!

Last night, our new leadership crew of seniors (class of 2011) went to the ball park to see our Rockies take on the Huston Astros! We won 5 to nothing and ate more junk food than most NFL players keep on hand in their pantries. Here are a few shots...