The most troubling thing about my church is...

I am becoming more and more bothered by this one thing in my church. At first, I didn't see a lot of it. Growing up, there was hardly any of it because there was no need for it. However, over the past few months, I am having a full blown, outraged, teeth clinched pit in the stomach battle with...GOSSIP!

I can't tell you how many things that I have "heard" are circulating in our church of around 125 people. There are talks about this person doing that, that maybe this person is a little fruity or that maybe this person should be doing this and they are wrong...wrong...wrong. It is a bunch of dung. I am really tired of it. I just want to jump all over that person and tell them a thing or two. Jesus told the Jewish leaders that if they didnt have any sin that they should throw the first stone! Still, we think that we are so high and mighty, or maybe we are just too full of ourselves to subject our lives to that kind of rule. Everything is relative so that means that I can say whatever I want because it really isn't gossiping it is just letting someone else know so that they can pray for that person! Bullhocky...liars!

We have people in our church that think some other people the church might be different than they are because they do this or that...we have people in our church who are doing this activity or that and you hear "someone should really talk with them about that". They never do, they only talk amongst themselves.

All that to say this, I am really tired of it. I hate when people but their biases into words and start speading them around like spoiled bile from a ruptured organ! So don't let gossip into your lives...it only leaves you with a nasty taste in your mouth!

SMYG.

Kick-off

Sorry for no posts...the internet was down and it was too busy before that to post anything.


The kick-off went really well. We didnt get 50 kids but our kids were there. The ones that are there every week...most without fail. It is amazing to have such a committed bunch.

Thanks to Terry and Matt for coming up and doing the worship.

We rented sumo suits and they were fun. I faced Terry, I didn't have a suit on, and I won.

Sarah was the only one that got hurt in them. She went after a girl and the girl moved and Sarah went crashing to the ground. She hurt her lip and chin...her neck was hurting but she still has all of her teeth.

I made the kids eat cloves of garlic and one of them threw up. I didn't know that raw garlic is really hot!

Seth and Missy were there...it was really good seeing him. She seemed really nice and something that Seth deserves.

So...praise God for the things he has done and thank Him for what is ahead!

No mohawk...

SMYG.

A note from a dummy...

Hey...so how did your day start? Good I hope. Nothing too bad or no one in your family sick and ill or anything like that. Those things really are things that make a day bad. I am being petty today. I have had a bad day simply because one thing went wrong. I failed to let it roll off my back. What happened you asked...well


When you are driving down a road and see really brightly, fresh looking yellow paint in the middle of the road indicating where you should be in the road...never...I repeat...never drive your vehicle over it.

Yes, I am the idoit who drove my truck over the line and got BRIGHT YELLOW PAINT on my truck. Thankfully, after some scrubing and a good high power washing it is back to its old self.
So whats the moral of the story? I don't know, just don't drive over fresh paint.

SMYG

Hurray!!!

It is that time of year again. Fall is around the corner. Blueberry Festival is here. Football is getting ready to start and basketball will soon follow. I am more excited this year than I have been in years past. I don't know why. I feel almost giddy because I know that Thanksgiving is coming up and Christmas and so many things between now and then that I am really looking forward to. I really hope that our youth group gets 50 people so that they can shave my head...I think it would be cool. I can feel the cool air coming. I love wearing fleeces and I love not sweating all the time! Boy oh boy....I can't wait for Fall! Bring on the cold...






This is what I could look like come September!

Marriage life...

I love being married. There is just something about knowing you are going to have someone backing you up and someone to tell you they love you everyday that is such a God thing. Sarah and I have increasingly become aware of the fact that we are a lot alike. We are both stubborn. Most young couples have fights and I have heard that the first year is the hardest yada yada yada...I have been pleasantly surprised at just how little we really have "actual" fights. The number one thing we argue over? It is what we are going to have for dinner. Food. At least it isn't over something petty! :)

Still, there are some things that still bug me. So I am going to list them here:

1. I get that "you did it again" look every time I see Sarah after we have woke up because I unswervingly will steal the covers...no matter what! I don't do this maliciously. I am just a wild sleeper.

2. I HATE Lifetime/Hallmark/ Oxygen / any other stupid after school special movie that Sarah is so drawn to every flippin' time she has the remote! I am not kidding. I go to get a drink of water...bam...she is watching a movie about some woman who is in some plight that is just emotional enough to hook my wife in. Annoying to say the least.

3. I have yet to realize that whenever I say something to my wife, I always have a tone. Now, if I have a good tone or semi-good tone I am good. But, if she asks me something and I have the wrong tone for a second...we are going to be talking about whatever it was she asked me for the next 10 minutes. Somebody should have mentioned this one to me.

4. Finally, my competitive nature. I hate to lose. Simply, losing is not an option. This is something that I have been aware for some time now. I try to win at everything. BUT, if there were a time when I would say, lose something on purpose and she found out that I let her win? Watch out!

Now that I've said all of that let me say this:

1. I don't like making my wife cold. It does me no good, because what does she do to warm up? Yep, put her now freezing toes on my warm leg.

2. I bet she hate sports just as equally as I hate those awful movies.

3. Every word we say has some tone to it. So I guess I am learning that words just are not words, it is how you say them.

4. I don't like making my wife lose. So this one is still up in the air. I hate losing, I don't want her to lose...dilemma of dilemmas.

SMYG.

Missing the point...

I was reading the book, "Adventures in missing the point" and I came across the chapter on culture. It was an interesting chapter for a young man now, that grew up being isolated from much of the culture (save my uncle taping the Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune). I was not exposed at all to much of anything that wasn't "Christian". I was born in 1981 and other than the occasional country music that my mom (I think secretly) would listen to, the first music that I really heard was Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi (thanks Kerry). We were allowed to watch some sports...not all that much and some cartoons, on Saturday mornings. I played Little League baseball, went to the Boys Club some days, but other than that...I didn't come into contact with anyone or anything that wasn't "Christian". I fear that, as the author puts it in the book, that has made me too much of an isolationist. I understand what my parents were trying to do, protect me and keep me from "worldly" things. I can still remember my grandma giving a lesson on the flannel graph with all these things you shouldn't do, like go to the bowling alley or to the movie theatre. "Sinful", she would say. The devil is just trying to lead you down a path you don't want to go to. I can almost hear her say this one line that, unbelievably I have said since becoming a pastor..."Sin will take you farther than you'll ever want to go". While that is true...I feel that I have become close-minded on some things and that is one thing I swore I would never do.

Christians should be in the world. Does that mean that they shouldn't stay away from places that might cause them to slip? Of course not. But as the author puts it, Christians can go to these places and still be on a mission. A Christian is to go into the world and show God's love to those who don't know Him. How are we to do that if we are being bigots standing outside those
places with tracts and judgemental glances and all? Is that true love? I don't think so. Am I saying that we should go wherever or see anything we want to? Heavens NO! As the other author of the book states,

"To act as though there is some profound truth waiting to be uncovered in
cheap and tawdry stuff is hardly Christian."

Most of the entertainment out there is garbage...useless things that are just fluff. Still, that doesn't mean that we should remove ourselves so far from the world that we become no longer relavent to their needs and hurts. If we go too far the other way, we are in danger of falling into things that equally as bad as what we are trying to get away from. If we go too far either to protect ourselves from "worldly" things or we become so into world that no one can tell us apart, we are breaking a command either way. My prayer is that God would help me stay in the middle. A middle that is full of love, grace, understanding but also discernment, passion and convictions. I believe there is such a place, it is called being a Christian. Now we just have to work on living that out.

SMYG.

Fall Kick-off 06

Last year I challenged our teens to get a certain number of teens to the fall kick off. They failed. I told them I would dye my hair if they were successful. They failed. This year, I think that our youth group is much healthier than it was a year ago. So I lowered the challenge to get 50 teens here on September 17th. 50...that is about double of where we run. So if everyone brings one friend, they will have their number. IF...and that is a big IF...they get 50 I am going to have my head shaved into a mohawk...yes, a mohawk...my wife and I thought this up about a month ago and I thought we were just joking until she announced it to the group one night and now there is no backing down.

50 or Bust!

September 17th...we will see. We will see.

Pulse Fest fun and the night before

Last Saturday, Sarah and I went with the SPEDS and Roger and Brandy Blair and their youth group to Pulse Fest in South Bend. It was a blast. The night before, they all came up. The girls came to the house and stayed while the guys stayed at the Oasis. We played ball and some wiffle ball and nobody wanted to sleep. So...I only got 1 hour of sleep. I think the day would have been better if I would have had more sleep. Nonetheless...it was still awesome. Here are some pics. The lines to get into the port-a-poo's were really long. Good thing I only had to use them once.


The spooning speaks for itself. I think the order was Terry, Jon, Matt and then a guy named Andrew (not me).

Fun times...fun times.

Pic update

I got three of these pics ...My brother/sister" , Aaron and myself, Sarah and the angry man, my mom singing kareoke and Nate Beals and myself at Family Camp 06.

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