Fantasy Football

Hey...I have set up a league and I need a few more people to fill it out. So if you are interested leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an invite that you just click on. This is a head to head league and the draft is automatic. Just let me know ASAP so we can get the league set up before the season starts.

The latest test...

Last Tuesday, we took the youth group to Six Flags Great America. You have to go through traffic because there is always construction in/around/by Chicago. We were going good. Then we seen a sign that said major delays ahead. I was driving one van and another sponsor was driving the other and he decided to take the alternate route while I stayed on the road we were supposed to be on. We get about 30-40 minutes from Six Flags and we get the call. The other van had broken down and they were somewhere in Chicago's north side. We took the kids we had to the park and drove roughly another 45 minutes to find the rest of the group. They were in Chicago! On top of all that, it was 101 degrees. Fun times.

However, I struggled with my feelings. I felt very, very, very frustrated and most of all just down right grumpy. It is cool to see how God gives us a test every once in a while to see how we are doing. Sometimes we pass, and on some days, sometimes we fail. Still, those times show us that we need to just slow down and always try (at least) to reflect him at all times...even when you want to pull your hair out and just fall down on the ground and throw a fit!

God is good. He kept us all safe and we ended up having a pretty decent day.
SMYG.

Pic update

Here are some pics of the past and present...

Old School ...rantings that have been a long time coming(LONG)

Times have changed. Things that once were just the norm are now being tabbed as old school or worse yet for my generation, "tradition". I know that I grew up different. I have known for about 5-6 years that I grew up in a time capsule. It was like my parents, family and church that I went to throughout my adolescent years was put in a box by Doc Brown as he fired up the flux capacitor. As I went to church, there was no missing church for sporting events. Not even Wednesday nights. We didn't have "other responsibilities" that trumped church. I wasn't involved in 4-H or anything else that would have stopped me from being at church Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. That is not even counting another thing that seems lost among this generation, revival. We have had one since I have been here at Shiloh. Why don't we have more? Because the people don't come! We have the same people that were not stuck in a time capsule that always went "whenever the church doors were open".

Now, there are some things that bother me with this whole thing. I will list them in bullet form so you won't get bored.

• I don't understand how someone puts extra curricular activities above the church. I know I know...I have been told that I don't understand. Times are different now and that's just the way it is. I don't like it and I never will. Am I saying that you need to be in church every time the doors open? No, but church SHOULD BE HIGH ON YOUR PRIORITY LIST!!! It is not optional for a Christian. Why? Because Christ ordained it...it is his bride, who he is coming back for.
• We never went on too many vacations growing up. We never had family reunions because every sunday was a family reunion at church. So I can't say much about things like that because we never had them.
• My grandpa is 80+ years old. He worked in the coal mines in West Virginia. The best word that would describe him is solid. He is a rock. However, time and age has caught up with him and sometimes seems to pass him. Whenever I visit him he talks about how much it upsets him to not be able to go to church. He can't sit there for very long or else he would be in pain for the rest of the week. I call that dedication! What is going to happen when all of the people that are dedicated to church like that are gone? I'll tell you what...it has already begun: sunday morning church only lasting 1 hour or else people get irrated because they have places to go, sunday night services are vanishing like Jimmy Hoffa and I don't know if they will ever be found again...revivals are a thing of the past it seems...soon, sunday morning services will be just done through podcasts and the person never has to step foot in a sanctuary again.
• Oh for more people in my generation that call themselves missional, and all of the rest of the emergent gooblygook...would step up and realize that relevance is not important as they think. We are, in my opinion, too caught up in trying to be relevant to all people. What ever happened to preparing and letting God make it relevant to the people? It seems that sometimes we try to become the Holy Spirit and spoon feed our congregations.
• Two more things and I will be done. One, the Wesleyan Church and holiness or rather entire sanctification. When I went through my ordination meetings with the different pastors from the district, I had to fill out all this paperwork and then I came to this assignment page. Here is what it said that I needed to do: Write a reflection paper on entire sanctification, and list 20 books that I had on the topic. I am all for preaching a second work of grace. I am all for living a holy life. I am all for people striving for entire sanctification. However, are we so focused on the second work that the first one isn't something we are interested in anymore in America? It seems to me that we have relegated that to "missions" work. Pastor John read a quote a few months ago and I adapted it: " We have become so worried about the second work of grace while half of the world hasn't heard of the first one yet!" Preach holiness, live holiness, just don't forget salvation.
• Lastly, church planting or church growth. This is a thing that probably is old school in me so skip it if you want. The Wesleyan church is all about church planting. I think it is great...peoples lives have been changed and people have been reached that otherwise wouldn't have. I realize that. However, I feel that we put more energy, money and time into church planting than church regrowth. Like the church that recently closed in Wabash, Indiana. I think it might have been the church that my dad and mom pastored in the late 70's. We need to do CPR on some of these churches instead of essentially throwing them away and having more "children". Have more church plants but don't forget about the struggling churches in the district while you are at it.

SMYG.

Cliques

I know that some people might read this blog that are part of who I am talking about but oh well...it needs to be out of my heart and head...

I love the Indiana North District...I love my church...but there is this one huge pimple that keep coming to a head in my mind and heart when the youth pastors of the district get together. There is definitely some things that are rough in our IND youth leaders. There are a group of youth pastors that have formed a clique. They know who they are. I know who they are. Any one who spends one day in the group at an event knows who they are. The group sometimes feels like an alliance from a reality show that you know they are working together and they know it too but there is nothing you can do about it. I could care less about being in a position of leadership in the district...that is not my heart. My biggest issue with this whole thing is this: how can I preach and talk to my youth group and tell them not to be in cliques and include everyone if the Youth Pastors of our district are doing that very thing? It is incredible. They only want their group working together and thats the way it is. Why did I write this? Because my best pastor friend has a hint of apathy in his voice when we talk about the district...and I guess I do to. It is tough to sit around and watch that and try to fit in...my first year, I wanted people to like me and think I was a good pastor. I wanted that. Now, God has shifted my vision to only worrying about making a difference in the lives of the teens that he has entrusted to me. I can't help with, fix or change things that I am not privileged to. So why bellyache about them? So all that to say, well, just that...we have a clique of youth pastors in our district and I think that it is not right and dare I say sinful. Again, just for clarification, I did not write this because I want to be in leadership...I wrote it because I see it. No hidden agenda. If you don't like it, stop reading...

The End.

Living life...

I have found that it is hard to keep posting. I don't have an overly exciting life and I don't have kids so that means I don't have a lot to post.


Here is what has been going on in my life:

1. 3 kids that went to Sr. High camp made committments to Christ! One did for the first time...

2. Our students are busy...doing a ton of things so it is a campaign every week it seems to try and get them to church

3. I am getting ready for Family Camp...July 23-30 and to get ordained the 23rd

4. We are having an overnighter this Friday...I really love overnighters...I know I am nuts but...

5. My Dad and the family is coming to Shiloh this Sunday to sing and preach. I am really looking forward to that

6. Sarah is working today(July 4th)...that stinks but that is life.

7. Sarah and I have started to try to eat better...overall...we went on the 2 week South Beach purge and it was horrible! Still, I have lost 15+ pounds since we started it so I suppose it is worth it

8. The summer being a pastor has made me feel disconnected with the church. I know that that is when people are on vacations and spending time with family etc etc...still I can't help but feel a little disconnected when people are not here.

9. Lex doesn't like fireworks...he shakes like a cell phone on vibrate!

10. I am in love with chocolate milk and I don't know why. I have just been craving it a lot lately. Weird because I don't drink milk. I do now...

11. People in churches have some interesting expectations of the youth pastor...(I still get that, "in a few weeks he will be an official pastor" lol)

12. I love my wife...she is brilliant, smart, amazing, beautiful, loving, hard-working, kind, thoughtful, sweet, caring and beautiful...I couldn't be who I am without her, PERIOD.

SMYG.

free-dumb

Growing up through the 80’s, 90’s and finally graduating in 2000, I didn’t know what it was like to have the country in a war. Sure, we had Desert Storm but I was like 10 so I didn’t get it. First, I want to thank the men and women who have fought and died and those that fought and came home. You are the reason we live where we live and we do what we do. You fought for your country and yes, freedom. Going deeper, what does it mean to be a Christian and to have freedom in Christ? I grew up in a Pastors home and could probably win many a bible trivia game. I know the Bible. Not all of it, but I got a good chunk down. Still, I struggled with what freedom meant.
I was listening to WFRN this week, which I usually don’t but because PULSE was oddly off the air, I had turned to that channel. The verse they were talking about was John 8:36 which says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” They went on to talk about how as a Christian we can be free from financial strain, free from worry about this or that; simply, if we are in Christ we are free. I have no doubt that God loves me and has the best for me in mind. However, on a daily basis that is hard for me to live out sometimes. I guess I didn’t get it. Freedom releases you from one of the devils greatest tools: worry. I know, I know. You are thinking that Christians are not supposed to worry and every time someone tells me that I agree but when I get going during my week and things start to pile up the worry comes rushing back and I don’t have the strength to push it away. I know.
Freedom means that we are free from fear, doubt, worry, guilt, shame, and all of the other things that cause God’s children to spend more time looking at their check books than the Bible. If Jesus has set you free, you are free. If you have been freed and are still dealing with these issues you are like a caged bird that longs to fly and the cage door is open. A lot of us are free-dumb. We don’t get it. We cannot understand that we don’t have to doubt and be bound by earthly things. Sure, not everything in our lives are going to work out, God never promised that. He did say that whoever Jesus set free, they are FREE!!! So this month as we celebrate our freedom and liberty remember that you don’t have to worry anymore. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he has given us the greatest freedom we could ever ask for. Now use it!

Who the Son sets free is free indeed!

South Carolina PIc update...

Sarah was enjoying some ice cream...

We went to Planet Hollywood

And is that a great pose or what? My wife is beautiful...









What a great, amazing wife I have. This vacation has just magnified how great she really is. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend and the most beautiful woman in the world!!!

Myrtle Beach

Hey...we are at MB, South Carolina...we hit the beach yesterday and I already got a little toasty. It is around 95 degrees down here. The 12 1/2 hour trip with my wife, brother and mother was quite the lesson in patience :)


Myrtle Beach is beautiful and I am so glad that I will be able to relax for this entire week! Talk at you later



SMYG.

My Jesus by Todd Agnew

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?...


Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Cause my Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the rich
So which one do you want to be?

Who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him

Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable
So which one do you want to be?

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet would stain the carpet
But He reaches for the hurting and despised the proud
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus!
I want to be like my Jesus!

Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus

Artist:	Todd Agnew
Album:	Reflection Of Something
Song:	My Jesus

As I heard this song on the radio this week I had to question my thinking and relationship with Christ. The line that I bolded "Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him" really hit me. Do we have a vision of Jesus that is so dry, clean and pretty that if he were really in our church we would fail to recognize him? I wonder...we get so moved by the movie "The Passion of the Christ" to see all of the brutality and blood and pain that Jesus went through. Funny isn't it. We have candy-coated the real Jesus. The real Jesus didn't wasn't a carpenter. He wasn't as we see him working in a nice home and making tables for rich people. He was a handyman...doing odd jobs throughout his region. But being a Jewish Carpenter sounds a lot better than being a Jewish Handyman, doesn't it?

Next, over the past few weeks I have spent an enormous time thinking about Sarah and myselfs budget and financial situation. Worrying about money and thinking about how to get more. The American Dream...peace...prosperity...freedom...all things of this world. My mindset is wrong and has been wrong for a while. I want God to work in my ministry but for what reasons? Do I want to be able to tell fellow youth pastors or people that ask that we have such and such a number of teens every week...or to tell them the big things that we have planned because I want to be in the "In crowd" (of which I am definitely not in)? Over the past two years I have had the wrong attitude about district things and even things at Shiloh. I have felt slighted a few times because this happened or this didn't happen. Even over the past few months I have had a few of these feelings. I have been in search, in my heart and head (not verbally) for success and popularity and that has left me empty and dry spiritually. I have said all of that to say this...I need forgiveness...it has been all about me...not on purpose but it has slowly crept in. Enough for now but I am definitely not done talking about this...

SMYG.

Youth Pastor vs other Pastor

Hey, I was just wondering...do you think of youth pastors different from other Staff or Senior Pastors? It is interesting because most of the church calls Pastor John...Pastor John. While most of them call me Andy...it doesnt make a difference to me I was just wondering.


I know some people think of Youth Pastors as just doing that and getting some experience to become a "real pastor". I don't think of Youth ministry as a stepping stone to something else. It is where my heart is and I love every minute of it.


So what do you think?

SMYG

Now that is what I call a fish!

This fish was around 15 pounds! It was a carp that I caught in the Yellow River in Plymouth...Sarah had one but it got away after it broke her hook off in its mouth...it was fun to catch

My fish story...

Things have quieted down here in Plymouth (for now)...it seems like everything is swarming to May for some reason...


So here are a few pics of the people and fish that I caught last week! Sarah was there but she took the picture!

SMYG.

Worried Christians...

Sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? Christ told us not to worry but yet I know a lot of Christians who are professional worriers (instead of prayer warriors). They see this happening or listened to Van Impe and he said something was going to happen soon...most likely June 6th of this year (6/6/06)...Oh MY GOODNESS!!! We had all better get some extra food and water because something is going to happen and we need to be ready.

You think I sound crazy?

The Christian world is worried about the Da Vinci Code movie and book that are causing such a stir. C' mon...Jesus had a relationship with Mary Magdelene? They had a child and the line lives on today?

The book/movie is not about rewriting the history book for crying out loud. It is about one thing and one thing only... $$$$$$$$$$!


Oh, and don't even go there with the Gospel of Thomas...as if it were something new that National Geographic just found in some Aboriginal tribes burial grounds! That info, along with many...many...many other pseudo gospels can be found on the internet...nothing new to those who know...look it up...www.goggle.com...19,800,000 hits in .17 seconds...really, come on.

All that to say this...I think that we need to stop worrying and fretting over things that first of all, we no control over...second that are not going to shake the foundations of our faith. It is like we are scared that something is going to come along and rip the rug from beneath our faith. Archeologist have never found anything that contradicts what the Bible says.

So as a song that I sang when I was just a wee little tot goes...

" The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me...I stand upon the Word of God...the B-I-B-L-E...BIBLE!"

SMYG.

Dreams

Last night, I talked to the teens about dreaming and their own dreams. I went around the room and asked each of them what they wanted to do when the grew up and then bashed them and pretty much told them that they couldn't do that. It got some mixed reviews and I think it really opened some of their eyes. I told them that if they thought what I did was rough, just wait until they graduate and see what the outside world does and says to them about their dream.

This was a tough topic for me to talk about because it has been hard for me to dream. I am not sure what I am supposed to dream about being a pastor and all. I have absolutely no dreams of becoming a D.S. or G.S. or anything close to that. I don't dream of being the pastor at a Mega church. I don't know what a pastor is supposed to dream about.

I don't think it is right for me to dream about the youth group to grow in faith, that should be a goal and something that I am working on.

I am not a very strong dreamer. I guess that shows me where I am at in my life. I mean, there are things that I want to see happen. I want to feel hunger for something big! I want to thirst for something bigger than me...larger than what I have the ability to do. So many times, it seems, that people (myself included) don't try something or do something that seems larger or bigger than what they think their skill set allows them to accomplish. Failure causes more action (or lack thereof) than does faith from what I have seen. People don't want to fail and so they don't even try.

I am no scholar and I don't want to be. You will never see a post from me about the missional church or social holiness or the emergent church. I am a pastor that is trying to dream big for his kids. They aren't doing it for themselves!

Pray that God helps me to dream big!

SMYG.

The God of the OT vs. the God of the NT

I am diligently trying to read through the One Year Bible this year...I am up to date with the reading...I just came through the section where God "gives" the land of Canaan to the Israelites. It talked about how God helped the people essentially wipe out a whole region of people, their towns and their existance. If that would happen now, we would think it a catastrophic event and wonder what God was thinking or even doing. We don't have to worry about that in this situation. God was there, helping the Israelites destroy men, women and children without a second thought. Now I get that God told Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses that he would give them that land. It was his word and he cannot go back on it. Still, as I finished the reading I thought to myself, "Did those people ever have a chance at redemption?" Did they know that what they were doing was wrong? Did God try to give them an opportunity to follow him and maybe just move instead of totally being killed? I don't know....that is why I am asking the questions I guess. I find it hard to relate this God who is seemingly blindly in love with a people who turn their back just as much as the rest of the nations did, to the one that Jesus and the NT books talk about being a loving, merciful God. The Bible even says that it is not God's will that anyone should die and go to hell. So how do you relate these two?

SMYG

Truck and dog...what more could a guy ask for?!

I am so content with my truck no matter how weird people might think it looks...it is different...but then so am I!!! That is our crazy dog Lex...yes, he always has those bug eyes!

Happy Easter everyone...He is Risen!

Update...

Things seem to be going...they are good and kind of seem to be moving in slow motion. With Easter this Sunday, it is bound to pick up.

Other news: with the purchase of new vehicles, Sarah and I have begun a budget program. At first, I was a little worried about it...you know having to document EVERY dollar that you spend and having limits and stuff...then, God really spoke to me and showed me that I need more discipline in my life. I need more discipline financially and spiritually. I asked a few weeks ago about leadership and stuff and I think that God has really answered me with one word: Discipline. I am not a very organized person and I don't think that that helps my ministry. I have gotten frustrated with Sarah because she keeps pushing me towards that and I didn't want to hear it. (that whole woman intuition thingy is creepy!)

I am just working on organization and discipline so that God can use me as much as possible.

I will try to take some pics this afternoon of the truck and dog maybe and the washer and dryer and such to get you caught up on the "new" stuff in our life!

SMYG.

New vehicles...yeah...

This is going to my first new vehicle, vehicle with 4 doors, my first TRUCK

(now I get to be a real man!)





Sarah is getting a new vehicle too, one that won't send her in the ditch! Pictures sure to come...

Am I thankful...

I am thankful that it is Monday and that last week is over!!! Actually, its been a couple of rough weeks. As I wrote the last time, it seemed like people were "jumping ship" and leaving and the sort. It has been a couple of character building weeks as Zig Zigler likes to call them. Last week I was an assistant pastor/ youth pastor/ van driver/ secretary. So am I glad that it is a monday? You bet! Last night we had a good chili cook off...we made about $300 dollars...I had some family at the event...and we had 89 people there! Those are the good things. It was a rough night for Sarah because it was her first night acting as the "I am the wife of the youth pastor so that means you can gripe at me if you want" position. I am used to getting critized and I feel that I deal with it pretty well. I vent and then move on. However, mess with my wife and it isn't that easy to deal with. I can handle someone coming up and griping that we are selling on Sunday and how could I preach from the pulpit and yet sell on Sunday! You can tell me anything, complain about whatever, but if you make my wife cry...it makes me want to protect her. Still, it is over...lesson learned...lump taken...stress felt...and the only thing that comes into my mind? NEXT!

SMYG.