Barack's Speech

If you did not have a chance to listen to Barack Obama's speech today, please don't miss a chance to read about or see a replay of it. It was one of the best speeches I have heard in regards to faith, politics, race, religion, America and how those issues effect our lives. I am not going to spend too much time going through it right now but I want to make a couple of comments

He is so authentic and real and that is a breath of fresh air in today's world of politics. Is he perfect, no. And he even said as much at one point by saying his campaign is anything but perfect. I was also so impressed by his ability to stay above the chaos. He clearly wants this campaign to be about all of America not just certain areas or issues. Lastly, he was masterful in NOT bashing the 2 people he is running against. In fact he gave them credence as worthy people and worth candidates.

I am fastly becoming a very devoted fan of this man. I will make more comments tomorrow.

Change In the Air

Well so I haven't finished my thoughts from a couple of blogs ago. I wanted to pick up on something I was eluding to: the FORWARD THINK idea. In specific I want to talk a bit about churches. I am both scared and excited about the future of churches reaching the next generation of believers. Now by believers I don't mean current church goers only. I mean those that go to church and those that don't and those that have but don't now and those that never did.

Why am I scared? Because I am afraid that churches just don't get that the next generation of believer can not be reached in the same way we have done it for years and years and years and years. I don't know how many times (as a youth minister) I heard the phrases: "I just don't understand this generation" or "Things aren't like this when I was their age. I was respectful to others when I was their age." or "Why don't you just have a devo?" or "These kids just don't know their Bible" I could go on and on and on. Let me say here that I agree and have felt each one of these questions coming out of my mouth as well. I have become more patient with folks when they ask these questions or make points about their teen and their friends teen. But I am now beginning to see that we have to get beyond these comments to the heart of what is going on with teens. We need to get into their world and their friend's world and to their friend's family's world. It is not just about having another devo or another shaving cream fight or another bible class--those have their place and need to be part of healthy programs. But we can't keep doing what we have done for the past 20 or 30 or 40 years and expect for this generation to come around. Right now most stats will tell you that around 6 out of 10 teens will not only not go to church after high school but most of those will leave God altogether. that is a staggering number of folks. Add in the fact that the age group of 18 - 30 is the most neglected group as far as evangelism right now in America. I am afraid and scared that if current trends hold, we will have lost millions of teens in the next 20 years.
Now, why in the world would I be so excited after saying all that negative stuff. There are 2 reasons. One, Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow (Hebrew 13:8--actually the writer says Jesus is the same today, yesterday and FOREVER). Isn't this something to be excited about. THE one constant throughout all generations is that Jesus is God's Son sent to save the world. Because of this I am very excited about the future. I have not always been this way. I can get pretty cynical at times but that doesn't change the fact that Jesus is still the healer of hurts, savior of sin, and lover of all people no matter who they are or what they have done. We have got to grab a hold of this and bring this message of hope to this next generation. This generation has witnessed (not just heard about) so many crazy, sinful, hurtful, and unbelievable things in their short life time. They need hope. They need reconciliation. They need people willing to walk beside them, listen to them, mentor them, love them NO MATTER WHAT.
Secondly, I am excited and hopeful because I believe this generation is ready, willing and open to this message of hope. I believe they are looking for someone to come in and love them for who they are. Why would I say this? Well lets take a look at the current political campaigns going on right now. Living in the DC area, I get plenty of politics and have become a bit numb to it all. However, there is something I have noticed lately. I actually heard MSNBC talk about it the other day. In the Democratic party there are 2 choices for Presidential candidate--Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton. I have already said I am a supporter of Barack and this is not a shout out to him or anyone. What I want to point out is that his campaign has struck some chord in the hearts and minds of young voters. Young voters have been coming out in droves. They have wanted so badly to have their voices heard. But why? I think its because Barack has hit a chord with them. He stands for change. Change in the political system, military, congress, white house, etc. Now we can debate 'til the cows come home if this will work or if its just empty words. I don't really care right now. Time will take card of that. My point is this: His message is resonating with a generation that is so callused and hardened and has the uncanny ability to sense UN-authentic messages. In other words he is offering a message of HOPE to a very hopeless world. Haven't we heard that message? Don't we know the originator of that message?
I get very excited talking about this. I wonder what you guys think? Let's hear it.

I Hope This Isn't Right

Ok, click on the title above and read that article. Then read this blog!

So I just read an article from USA Today

I really hope that this is not correct. I hope we have come further as a society but I am afraid we have not.
What do you think? (More on my last post later today).

What To Write About

Well, here I go. I am not even sure what I want to write about. I mean I have so much I want to write about but can't do it all in one blog. So this one will be random and crazy but should come clear in the end. So let me begin with politics. I like Barack Obama. No I don't think he is a member of Islam (but does that really matter; unless he is lying about being Christian then we have a problem in my view). But let's don't get caught up on that. A good friend of mine wrote a blog that I am going to reference. His wife pointed out the difference in the campaign signs that each Democratic hopeful uses. Hilliary uses the common everyday sign with her name there blah blah blah. Barach uses simply the word CHANGE in very large font. Now he has his name on the sign but what a glaring difference between the 2. One talks about change and uses her name to signify it and one uses the word change and then tells how things will be different. I believe there is something to this. I believe in him over her. Its not because I think she is evil. I know a lot of people that do not like Mrs. Clinton for various reasons. I am not necessarily one of those folks. I just happen to think he stands for something new, fresh, different and FORWARD THINKING. Notice I capitalized FORWARD THINKING. I did that ON PURPOSE because I think FORWARD THINKING is something that needs to be practiced on several levels of our world(myself included!!!!!!!!!).

What do I mean by FORWARD THINKING. Well, let me start by saying I don't mean: predicting the future, running over people to get things done because you think you can or should, change for change sake (though I am not always opposed to that), taking time to think through situations instead of reacting all the time. So what do I mean? I think FORWARD THINKING is looking beyond yourself to others. I think it means to make decisions based on what is right not on what someone else thinks is right. I think it means taking a look at the status quo and think about if it needs to be changed or adjusted then take the steps to do so. I could say more but I won't.

This brings me to the 2nd half of my time today. I will probably get a bit 'soapboxish' here in the next few lines so you may or may not want to tune this out. Let me just say that I am very passionate about our next generation. By next generation, I mean those young adults that are 30 and below. Their world is different from mine and the one they grow up in is different than the one I grew up in. I will argue with anyone that says different. The next generation grew up with: computers, cell phones, email, easy-access porn, TiVo, wealth, easy-access drugs/alcohol...the list could go on and on. The differences between our world now and 20 years ago are so glaring. Adults have more and more left these young adults/kids to fend for themselves, raise themselves, count on their peers more than their parents, etc. I will talk about this later. What I want to say right now is that it is time for some FORWARD THINKING when it comes to the next generation. In particular, its time for our churches to FORWARD THINK. The times are changing and have changed even faster when it comes to the way churches reached people 20 years ago versus today. And it is going to change even more drastically over the next 10 years. I believe that we could see hundreds and maybe thousands of churches either close their doors or be replaced by mega churches. I don't think this is an altogether bad thing but it is sad. I think for the most part most churches still think they can lure, reach, convert, save, minister to--insert your church's word here--the same way they were reached, lured, etc. Yet what worked 20, 30, 40, 15 years ago don't work and will probably not work again. It is time for some FORWARD THINKING. It is time for some FORWARD THINKING in the way the Jesus was a FORWARD THINKER or the way Paul, John, Mary, Phoebe, Esther, etc were FORWARD THINKERS. What do I mean? Tune in for more tomorrow.