thelokey

This Sunday I'll be singing a song in our AM worship services. I've sung countless songs (literally), but this is by far the most difficult song I've ever attempted to sing. Here are the lyrics... i repent, i repent of my pursuit of america's dream i repent, i repent of living like i deserve anything of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife in our suburb where we're safe and white i am wrong and of these things i repent i repent, i repent of parading my liberty i repent. i repent of paying for what i get for free and for the way i believe that i am living right by trading sins for others that are easier to hide i am wrong and of these things i repent bridge i repent judging by a law that even i can't keep of wearing righteousness like a disguise to see through the planks in my own eyes i repent, i repent of trading truth for false unity i repent, i repent of confusing peace and idolatry by caring more of what they think than what i know of what we need by dom...

I grew up going to church. More correctly I grew up at church. It was the epicenter of my social world. My friends were at church, my girlfriends were at church, my family...you get the idea. I've always seen church as something I am supposed to attend because I am a Christian. I don't think so anymore. (Stay with me, this is going somewhere) It comes down to this one question... "Do I have to go to church, or do I get to go to church?" (Maybe that's two questions in one.) Your answer to this question will really determine whether your church-going (or non-church going) is healthy. Let me pause here and say explicitedly that I'm not "anti-church". Here's what I want to accomplish...I want to make people think about whether they can have a successful relationship with Christ without ever entering a church building. I've looked through a lot of scripture and here's the things I've found that characterize a growing disciple of Christ.....

Yeah, I said it!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! And here’s why I said it, because it doesn’t matter. I don’t really keep up with a lot of news, but being a minister I hear a lot about retail stores not using the term “Merry Christmas” but instead using “Happy Holidays”. Here’s my take on this… 1st, why wouldn’t a retail store want to make sure it wasn’t ignoring a portion of their customers. They’re in business to make money. Doesn’t matter if that money comes from a Jew, an atheist, a Buddhist, or even a Muslim, it’s all green! So from a business perspective, it makes sense. 2nd, as Christians when will stop being surprised to find out we’re living in a secular world. We do not live in a Christian society! As much as we’d all like to think so, we don’t! If anything I can see an upside to all this. I won’t use the term “persecution” because as American Christians we have no idea what the word means, but I will say it’s about time our faith became a little inconvenient. We as the American church...

Where to begin? I just finished reading "Contemplative Youth Ministry" by Mark Yaconelli. By far one of the best books I've read in my entire life. Not just because of the content, but mainly because it taught me how to connect with God in a way that's old, new, and refreshing all at once. Let me see if I can sum this up... The basic idea of Contemplation is realizing that God's presence is everywhere and being aware each moment of our lives of that simple truth. What it means for me is spending time in silence and listening, also using contemplative methods of Bible study and meditation. This allows me to apply the same type of calm listening with my interactions with students. Looking for moments when I can see God in them and in the things around me. I'm not there yet, and I may never be "there", but I can say that I'm on the journey. I'm looking at youth ministry and students in a whole new light. Maybe I wasn't called into youth mi...

Lately I've been talking to my best friend more on the phone. Usually we talk quite a bit but not really about anything important, it's more talking because we're working on something cooperatively or we need help with a practical matter. That changed in a way. He and his wife experienced a miscarriage recently and as selfish as this sounds, that may be the reason the two of us have found a reconnection. I'm in no way happy about the way the reconnection came about, but nonetheless, our friendship has started growing again for the first time in a while. So maybe "The days of old" isn't the best title for this posting, since we aren't just a couple of high school friends trying to relive the past. We are two high school friends who take our friendship seriously enough to not take our friendship seriously. We don't "work" on it, it just happens. There will come another season when we don't get to talk (really talk) as much as either on...

Every now and then I get the urge to write a little commentary on a particular subject. It's nothing spectacular, but it helps my understand my own faith a little better. Here goes... To know the love of Christ is to know Christ. Not just the person, but also the heart behind the person. How does one come to understand this love, which surpasses all understanding (Eph. 3:18)? First you must know that you will never comprehend the love of Christ. It is the goal of the Christian life that can always be strived for but never attained. The depth of the love of Christ is what keeps Christians always searching for more of God. And the more God that is in your life, the less there will be of yourself, which is God's goal. God's dream is to fill you with His Holy Spirit so that you may be holy as He is Holy. Many times in the Old and New Testaments God gives us that command. In the Old Testament the example was the Holy sacrifices of the unblemished animals. But those animals lac...