how can you pray for us?

Tomorrow evening, I will leave for Red Lake, Minnesota with 25 students, 6 of my youth leaders, and one bus driver.  We will be working on home repairs for on the Chippewa Indian reservation in Red Lake.  There is a heart stirring video below that will play a orchestral piece on your heart strings if you watch it.  I dare you to.  Now, I've never done anything like this before.  I've been to camp, but as a person of Jewish decent, I have avoided anything called a "workcamp" for my whole life.  The good news is that we are taking a luxury charter bus.  If we were going by train, I would be suspicious, but as of right now, I am not.

Here are some specific ways you can pray this week:

• Pray for traveling safety.  If you only want to pray for one person from the prayer card above, please pray for Matthew Headley.  His safety directly affects everyone else's.


• Please pray for the lack of drama/infighting.  Everyone on the trip will be stressed out for one reason or another, and that usually turns to bickering (used that word just for my mom) with the people closest to you, or at least in closest proximity.


• Pray that we will be a good reflection of Jesus on the reservation.


• Pray that we will see God everywhere we look.


• Pray for the parents, spouses, and children left home.  Pray that God gives them peace and helps them not to worry.


• Pray that we see life change this week.

Feel free to pray for anything else you can think of.  All of your prayers are welcomed, as are your e-mails.  I know a lot of you that read my blog have never even met me, much less the students in my group, but if you have free time next week - and I see from twitter that many of us have more free time than we let on - please take a few minutes to send an encouraging note to at least one person in the group.  Instructions for doing so are on the picture above.  Click on it, and it will go to full size.

Thank you for praying.

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more about " Group Workcamps - Home Repair Youth...", posted with vodpod

why does it always have to be the wife's fault?

I see what you did there. You clicked on this and started reading, because you think I'm going to say something sensational about women causing all of the world's troubles. You might have thought I was going to blame Eve for bringing Adam down as my Biblical example. Didn't you? It's okay to admit it. That's not what I'm talking about, though. In fact, most of our (Sarah and my) troubles are mostly my fault. I wouldn't be the right guy to write on his wife bringing him down. I want to talk about an odd notion that seems to be prevalent - at least more prevalent than it should be, since 1 or more people believe it - among Christians that makes absolutely no sense to me. Thanks to MPT at Jesus Needs New PR, I had the pleasure of viewing Pat Robertson expound this odd notion. Watch the video, and then we'll discuss.

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more about "Pat Robertson tells woman whose husba...", posted with vodpod

Pat isn't the only one spreading this message of good news and make yourself hotter. Sarah attended a women's Bible study once - once was more than enough. She almost left early - at a church we attended in Florida. That day in particular, they were studying the book of Ruth - surprise! - and they were talking about Ruth attracting Boaz. She made herself attractive to him. Side note: I always thought this story was a little scary. If I were single, and a woman sneaked into my room while I was sleeping and laid by my feet to show her interest in me, I'd freak out. So Ruth's making herself attractive to Boaz led to the meat of the discussion: it is a wife's duty to make herself attractive to her husband. That sounds okay, I guess, just as a husband would want to be attractive to his wife sounds okay. But it went beyond that. Here's what Sarah learned:

• You are in competition with the women your husband works with. They dress nice for work and wear make up.


• If you do not make sure to get dressed up, made up, hair did, etc. before he gets home, he'll just miss the women at work.


• Besides, after a long, hard day at work, your husband deserves to see you made up, not looking all shabby in your sweats.


• If you make a habit of being not made up, he will start flirting. He may even cheat on you.


• His adultery will be at least partially your fault, because you failed to look pretty.


• To further prevent adultery, you should never tell him, "no." It doesn't matter if you are sick or tired or have any other trouble.

At least they didn't go as far as old Pat and tell Sarah "not to hassle him." They also didn't make any guarantees of my fidelity for me. Still, Sarah was more than a little put off. I heard all about it when she got home. I was equally offended. What a stupid implication. I don't have a requirement for Sarah. She doesn't have to be dressed to a specific standard when I get home. She hardly ever wears make-up (one advantage to being as naturally beautiful as her). She does pull her hair up in a pony tail a lot. It's easier that way with Jakob. If I get home from work today, and she's still in her pajamas from last night, has her hair pulled back, and isn't wearing make up, my heart will leap. I will hug her and kiss her. I will tell her that I missed her, that I love her, and that I am happy to see her, and I will mean it. No woman at any job I've had has ever stood a chance - not on their best day, and not on Sarah's worst day - because I love Sarah and see that she is more beautiful on her worst day than anyone I have ever met.  There is no competition.

Couple this line of thinking with the idea that if a man checks you out, it's your fault for dressing that way, and I'm just plain confused. If they don't dress attractively, their husbands might flirt and/or cheat, but if they do, they will cause someone to ogle them. It's a lose-lose.  I guess sometimes Christian wives can't catch a break from some people.

baggage full of failure

We have a new summer plan: teach every other YG week, and have an on-campus activity on the in between weeks.  With all of the crazy stuff we have going on for the summer (Father's Day, workcamp, fourth of July, workcamp celebration...and that's just the next 4 weeks), this lesson series should last most of the Summer.

Tonight, we started our Baggage series (*ht lifechurch.tv) with a lesson on overcoming our failures.  Much of the lesson came from Steve Somers, one of our youth leaders, who shared his testimony.  It was in interview format.  I'm just going to paste the transcript to that underneath this video, which we used to start the service.



Q: What was life like during high school?

A:  During high school I was a good kid.  I didn't drink or smoke, got good grades, played sports and never got into trouble.  I got heavily involved with the church my girlfriend at the time was attending and was eventually asked to be the Associate Youth Leader by the person who was a mentor to me.

Q: Where did you see some of this stuff changing in your life?

A:  After I graduated high school, I started drinking in social settings.  The youth leader was eventually let go by the lead pastor on terms that were less than amicable.  That lead to me leaving the church as well as a few students from that youth group.  What followed was alot of misplaced anger and frustration with the church and God, and me turning to alcohol and partying to fill that void.

Q:  Where did that lead you?

A:  It led to me wanting the Rock and Roll lifestyle.  Partying until morning and losing all my inhibition.  I did things, shameful things that I never thought I would do, including one night stands and driving drunk.

Q:  Ultimately where did that lead?

A:  January 30, 2007 started out like any other night.  I shot pool at Playtime Billiards on Tuesdays, so I went to my pool league.  While at pool I had a few beers with my team and friends and of course shot pool.  After league was over we all decided to go to another bar.  At the bar I had a few more beers and shot some more pool.  Just before closing we decided to go to a party.  On the way we stopped at the store to grab more alcohol.  We arrived at this party and I lost count of how much I had to drink.  I remember stumbling to my car in the snow and getting in.  I started my car and pulled onto the road.  I was driving home going down Sprinkle Road at roughly 5AM when tragedy struck.  I was swerving due to the intoxication and struck and killed someone riding a bicycle.  In a split second my world, the world of my family and the world of someone's family I didn't know was turned upside-down.  I was given roadside sobriety tests which I failed miserably and a breathylizer and was placed under arrest.  I was first taken to Borgess Hospital to have my blood drawn and then to the Kalamazoo County Jail to sober up.  I was released for a year and a half and then on May 12, 2008 was sentenced to 1 year in county jail, probation, and fines.

Q: You went to jail, what happened?

A:  More importantly though I accepted Christ into my heart.  It wasn't an immediate though.  I started reading the Left Behind Series and got very interested in the Bible and His word.  That's where I came across John 3:14-21.  Finally one day in a Bible Study, I accepted Him and salvation.

Q: What did God teach you, what has He brought you?

A:  He taught me its ok to fail and fall. He taught me that no matter my short comings as a person, He loves me anyway.  He's brought me some of the greatest gifts I could ever ask for.  Close friends who I would be there for no matter what, a better relationship with my family and with Him, my beautiful neice, and the most amazing woman I could ask for.   As terrible a tragedy as my accident was, its given me some of the greatest things in my life.

Here are the verses for the night:



One final note: Steve announced to the YG tonight that he has decided to go to seminary (my Alma Mater) and has been called into full time youth ministry.  I couldn't be more proud of my friend.  God's brought Him a long way and plans to take him even further.

friday flashback: the Supertones, Metallica, and a young Jeff and Sarah

The first rock band I ever got into was The O.C. Supertones (they may have been preceded had I been allowed to listen to rock sooner).  I remember sitting in the backseat of my parents car with my discman (or some generic rip off, most likely), my headphones, and "Adventures of the Orange County Supertones" and "Supertones Strike Back."  I couldn't get enough.  I couldn't even pause my CD player to ask my parents a question, which meant I would talk really loudly over the music without even realizing it, and that usually meant I'd get told to be quiet.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Supertones in concert 6 times.  If they ever came near where I was living, I was going.  I even went to their farewell tour.  Five years later, they are doing a reunion tour, but as they will not be coming within 11 ours of where I live, I will not be seeing them live this time around.

I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music growing up, so there was a trend I didn't pick up on.  In fact, I didn't even know about it till Grant told me I should listen to "Creeping Death," by Metallica.  The Supertones, on three occasions, used intros from Metallica songs for intros to their songs.

Supertones Strike Back was taken from Creeping Death.

Adonai was taken from Am I Evil.

And Fade Away was taken from Damage, Inc.

If I had learned this when I was a young pharisee, I would have been really let down.  When I found out yesterday, I was pretty happy about it.  The Supertones have been one of my favorite bands for almost 15 years.  Metallica is climbing my Top 40 chart quickly.  Even though one is heavy metal and the other is ska, I have learned that they have much in common.

Over/Under on negative comments about Metallica: 3.  What do you think?

Happy Friday.  Go see the A-Team today.  And I hope you enjoy this picture.  It wouldn't be a flashback without a picture of me and Sarah in our Supertones shirts.  The picture was taken on May 5, 2000, just over ten years ago.

by their facebooks ye shall know them

I'm a Christian.  I hope you've picked up on that.  It's actually a quite necessary requirement of my employment.  I would venture to say that if I wasn't a Christian, my boss would probably have a sit down with me.  After witnessing to me relentlessly, making sure I said a prayer, and filled out a connection card for follow-up, he would probably have to fire me.  Those are just the breaks when you're a pastor.  If I were not a Christian, but wanted to make sure I kept my job, I would use facebook as a cover.

You can always tell a good Christian by their facebook profile.  I'm pretty sure that if Jesus were teaching today, He would have said that the world would know us by our fruit and our facebook profiles.  Some people produce a lot of spiritual fruit, but don't have a facebook, whereas some produce little to no fruit, while having the most Christian facebook profile around.  And of course, there are those who are sincerely totally into God, it spills over into their facebook page, and you question their sincerity. What's wrong with you?

Today, I will teach you  how to spruce up your facebook page with a little Holy Ghost power. You can use one or all of these suggestions to increase your spiritual swag. As a brand new youth pastor - when we lived in Florida - I felt obligated to follow all of the things I put below, because that would set the right social networking example for all of the students. If Jesus had a Myspace page, His interests and quotes would have matched mine line-by-line. I've backslid since then, and you will see that I really don't follow all of my own advice, but some of it can be found on my own page.

Let's begin, shall we?

It all starts with your statuses.  Make sure at least one time per day your status is either a Bible verse or lyrics to a praise and worship song.  An easy way to do this is to just quote one verse you liked from your devotions that day.  Your level of spirituality will determined by how many times per day this occurs.   You get bonus points for doing the entire Romans Road each day, even if all of your friends are Christians that you know from church.  I should say "especially if all of your friends are Christians that you know from church."

Under your picture, you have a box where you can write a quick blurb.  I'm really not sure what that is for, but on a Christian facebook profile, this is the perfect section to put your favorite verse.

Click on the info button on your profile.  What do you see?  I see a testimony waiting to happen.  Start with your religious views.  You should be very specific here.  If you only select "Christian - (Insert Denomination)," we'll feel cheated.  You need to put something like, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship," or "Washed by the blood of the Lamb," or even "My chains are gone.  I've been set free."  Chris Tomlin won't mind.

Wait! Did I really skip "Political Views?" No brainer, right? Please type, "Republican." You may also put the name of your favorite Republican politician and your desire to see him/her as our next president. Okay, just kidding here...but seriously, you'd better do it. lest ye be judged.

Next comes your bio.  Make sure you mention your relationship status with God, your church name, and do your Grammy acceptance speech thing.  You know what I mean, right?  "I just want to thank God.  Without Him, I wouldn't have fingers to type on facebook."

Now we're to the section where you can really shine: the "favorite quotes" section. On top of posting daily status updates, you should also put your favorite verses here. Little ditties from your pastor go perfect here, too. If you are a Christian equivalent to Superman, you will have the Romans Road here, too. You probably immediately realized that I am not a Superman, because I said something about being an idiot, followed by an off the wall quote from my dad. Sorry for letting you down.

Work and education is boring, but it's also a place where I can score really highly. I get points for going to seminary and working on a church staff. I'm not sure what else you can do in that section to bump your score.

And now the really personal stuff. What are your interests? Do you put "Jesus" here? Probably. You should probably put the whole Trinity in there. They are equal parts God, and equally relevant and active in your life. Go for it. Please also repeat the name of your church here. I will personally give bonus points to any teenager in my youth group who puts our youth group in there. I don't know where I'll get the points or how I'll transfer them to the students, but I'll find a way.

Music is variable. For the most part, it really doesn't matter what you put here, as long as you are sure to put one of three artists (or even all 3): Casting Crowns, David Crowder, and/or Chris Tomlin. You could probably put AC/DC and get away with it as long as it was sandwiched between any of those artists. I fail to put any of these in my section, but I make up for it by having only Christian bands listed. Facebook is not the appropriate place for me to proclaim my affections for the secular bands I enjoy. It would send the wrong message. Right?

Books are obvious. Please put "The Bible and anything by C.S. Lewis." You can be really specific, if you must. You could put, "Bible (KJV only) and Mere Christianity."

Movies are important, too. No matter how much you love the movie, you should never put "Pineapple Express," or really anything with Seth Rogan in it. His movies are a no fly zone. I literally have never seen one of his movies, because even I know this. So if you can't put your favorite movies, for fear of judgment, what can you put? Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and To Save a Life - even though everyone can tell that acting was not a required skill for the first two mentioned. I would like to see The Butter Cream Gang show up, too. That's old school cheesy and just the kind of movie you should list.

Television: just kidding. TV is the Devil's tool.

Lastly, make sure you become a fan of every page that mentions God.  Even if you get 100 invites per day, be sure to confirm them all.

So there you have it: tangible pointers to help you get your facebook profile up to par. If you follow these tips, you will be well on your way to having people "like" your statuses, leave you comments - especially ones including the word "AMEN!" - and talk about your spiritual turn around behind your back. "What's gotten into him? He's so into God lately." Nailed it.