Slitting my throat is all I ever had...

Yeah, that was my reaction too. I enjoy the sound of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and have rocked out to them several times in my van with youth group kids, particularly the song "Otherside." I sang along to the parts I knew, which were only a few. Upon listening to it again and looking up the lyrics, I was able to surmise that the lead singer was either talking about suicide or a drug addiction, two solid things to be singing about with your youth group kids, Pastor Genius.

Don't worry if you think I'm too hard on myself, I'm really not. However, we have to think. I have kids in my youth group who I guarantee have considered suicide, and here I am sitting
and singing along joyfully with them. No wonder our kids are depressed, they live off of this stuff and identify with it. A lesson well learned today that I need to THINK a bit more often about what the heck I am doing. Do you?

I'm tired...

So, my dad was here this weekend, which was awesome! We played lots of golf (I got a lot better in 4 days, even beat my dad this morning), ate food, hung out with friends, went riding, and of course had lots of fun! That's why I'm tired. It's hard when you only see people occasionally, because you try to spend as much time as possible with them, and then you come away from it trashed.

Now my dad is gone, Katie's in MN to work for her dad, and I'm all alone. Maybe this is a good thing though, since I have a bigillion pages of reading to do before I start summer school on June 4th. Don't worry, I'm 10 pages in. Solid.

So as I sat in staff meeting this morning, we talked about sharing our faith. It was interesting to me that an elder in our church and a few ministry leaders found it really hard to share their faith, even with another believer. Are we doing something wrong here as a church? I went on a small tirade about how the controlling message of our lives should be something that we can explain at the drop of a hat. Why is it so hard? Do people really know what they believe in or why they believe it. I started getting visions of trying to teach some kind of a basic theology class at our church (after all, what's one more thing on the plate), making sure people really know what they believe. I have a problem with the 3 minute four step gospel presentation. I don't think it really does much in our present day society. I think we have an obligation to help people really understand what they are getting into; what kind of a God they are putting their "faith" in and what it means to put your faith in Christ. I don't think we should try to push somebody through to pray a prayer that they don't really understand or believe. How many of those types of conversion experiences are effective. Anyways, just some food for thought.

Continued Craziness

Is it really possible to keep up with one of these? Things change so fast I feel like I need to write a book every time I get on here! Katie got accepted into UIC for nursing, which was a huge answer to prayer! She was on the waiting list and wasn't sure if she was going to get in. This means a much shorter commute for her, less time in school, and she doesn't have to take summer school this year. All around, it's just awesome!

As for me, I'm always reassessing life and ministry. We are currently trying to recruit some new leaders for our youth group so that we can connect with students on a more consistent and meaningful level. It's such a challenge. We really are in a battle for the souls of young people, and there seem to be so many forces against us. It's great to know that it says "if God is for us, who can be against us!" But since you asked, culture is against us, the entertainment industry, school systems, human nature, and those darn cicadas (we'll have those in less than a week if the scientists are correct). I guess the point of that is that nobody can actually compare with the power of God, who is on our side, but it's just rough sometimes.

My dad's in town for the weekend, so I'm pretty pumped about that! There'll be plenty of motorcycle riding, golfing, chillin, and probably some monopoly too (I beat Katie for the first time ever last weekend, so she wants to play and school me once again to regain her dominion). Not much meaning to this blog, just updating you!