Saw this on the blogosphere:

5 Tools to reach teens today:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/04/23/5-tools-needed-to-reach-todays-teens/

I thought 1-4 were spot on. Now to work on developing those.

Stones into Bread.

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. After a fast of forty days and nights he was very hungry.“If you really are the Son of God,” said the tempter, coming to him, “tell these stones to turn into loaves.”

There is much to be learned about our own journeys in ministry from the way that Jesus molded ministry - especially as he begins his journey.  As Mathew describes - straight after his time of baptism,  Jesus was lead by the spirt to his ordeal into the wilderness. For forty days he fasted, and we find Jesus in this passage of scripture tired, hungry and weak. “If you‟re the Son of God,” Satan whispers, “turn stones into bread!” This taunt is not just trying to trick Jesus into getting rid of a few hunger pains. It's more of of the demonic voice asking: “Did your Baptism mean anything? What do you have to show for it?  What's the point?

Bruner frames this for our ministry as this: The form this satanic voice assumes in addressing disciples is something like"How can you claim to be the child of God when you are struggling with big problems instated of victories over them. Get rid of your problems [turn your stones into bread], and then we can believe you are in a strong relation with God." …. The issues is sharp and clear: either we believe the Voice of baptism -- "You are the son [or daughter] of God or we believe the other voice -You are the son [or daughter] of God  when you can prove it by signs" 

In Christian circles, we want to prove that we are worthy of the call of our vocation of ministry. Often times, outsiders are asking "how is Youth Form doing?" People like good news and I like being the guy who is doing good work. But, I often feel like if they only knew the real me, my struggles, my insecurities, my failures I would never be trusted with this organization or really more accurately be trusted in any way as being a representative of God. 

The simple truth is because of what Christ did on the cross, we are adopted and grafted into the family of God and we need not buy into the lie that we need to be anything less than who we are today for God to accept us. No shortcoming can pluck us from a relationship with him. We are nothing less then daughters and sons of the king on high. God loves us and calls us to follow him - even when we don't have our shit together.

How is God calling you today to follow him? 

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

― Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Wanderings

1. I joined a snap fitness and now I work out a lot. It's been great for my insomnia and stress management.

2. Durring Christmas Alex and I started refinishing an arcade cabinet. We've got a ways to go, but it's been a pretty sweet project. 

4. Witty and I are co-captains for our Trivia Team "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" We placed 1st for the first time in about two years ago. We cashed in last week and had a fun party at Fridays.

5. With some christmas money I bought a new LED backdrop hopefully it will be making an appearance at the Dan Ochs wedding. The picture doesn't do it justice. Just know it's pretty cool.

6. Youth Forum stuff is going well. The ministry is busy - we are spending a lot of time promoting the events and rental side of the ministry. I've been running a ton of gameshows recently and love it! Here is a shot of a bunch of our volunteers and staff hanging out in my living room. They are so awesome and when I spend time with them, it reminds me why we do, what we do. 

Onwards and Upwards

-T. 

Homebrew Arcade Machine Part #1

Three summers ago, I thought it would be fun to refurbish an arcade cabinet  On a whim, I bought a almost gutted case of an old bowling arcade machine off of craigslist. That cabinet sat in three different warehouse spaces and quickly became a constant topic of razzing by coworkers.

Typically over Christmas break I like to take time to work on a project that I might be too busy to tackle durring other parts of the year. This Christmas season, at Alex's urging we deiced to finally redo that arcade cabinet. So Dad, Alex and I have started on the sweet project. Alex and Dad are working on the refinishing, construction and general design aspect. I'm in charge of the guts, wires, and making the video game pieces come together.

The first step was gutting all the junk out of it and then lowering the shelf 3 inches to fit the TV we bought.




More updates coming soon.

Remembering Darby

Two weekas ago, one of my hero's passed away. Phil "Darby" McDonald

I first met Darby at a picnic bench in the quad of the campus of UW:Stout at Summer Festival my 9th grade year. I had been going to camp for a few summers, and had met the lord at my first Summer Festival as a 7th grader. Carolyn Bossen, one of my youth leaders introduced us and after our quick introduction I hustled off to whatever fun event the program team had cooked up for the day. As I took off Carolyn told me if I have ever had the chance, that I should spend time with Darby - I could sure learn a lot from him

Prophetic words.

For the last 8 years I had the privilege of spending most monday morning praying with Darby. Most of my peers would dread Monday mornings, because it meant going back to the grindstone. Not me, I know it would be a time of sharing tales of the weekend, grumbling of how disappointing Minnesota sports teams are, talking about what we'd want to accomplish at Youth Forum that week, that summer, that year and it'd be a chance for Darby to share one of his Devotions. Darby had such unique insight and such away of making stories you've heard a 1,000 times become fresh and relevant. After prayer we'd often go to get chow mien or a burger at snuffies and we'd continue the conversation, the dreaming and the strategizing. 

I'm going to miss his wisdom and counsel, his jokes and his disarming sense of humor.

Last winter, Darby invited myself, Seth, Kelley and Kelly down to come spend a few days with him in their condo and Florida. We jumped at the opportunity and while we were down there - we joined with Joan, Reid and Carrol carpenter for one of the most powerful times of prayer that I've ever been a part of it. In that moment - everything was right with the world. We were reminded of God's promises of his faithfulness. 

Darby was a visionary - he knew that teens needed a safe place, where they could be themselves, where they could laugh and have fun, where they could build trusted relationships with adults, but most importantly where they could come to have an understanding of who Jesus was. That passion that the lord put in him was how castaway got built, how Youth Forum thrived and how many teens, including many of in this room got to know Jesus. 

I want to leave you with a line from the last devotion he gave at Summer Festival

If God is for us, who can be against us. If Jesus christ is on my side, who is on the other side! WHO CARES! - If you pardon my english, it don't matter. It just doesn't matter because Jesus is on my side. 

Darby - I can't wait to see you again some day. Thank you for your time here. The way your trusted Christ in all things was inspiring and something I wish I could have an ounce of. 

What's a Hollister?

My friend Phil started working recently at the Hollister clothing store in the Mall of America as a manager. In his short time there, he has shared some remarkable things from his experience. 

#1. On Friday, Hollister at the MOA location sold over 16,000 individual items. That's about an item every 2.5 seconds that the store is open. It's simply mind blowing to me that a store could sell that many articles of clothing. 

#2. Besides print ads, the major way that Hollister advertises is by decking their employees in their brand of clothing. Technically they are only required to wear clothing that "looks" Hollister and can at least correspond to something similar that is available at Hollister. However there a huge discount price being given to the employees in exchange for representing the brand. You must imagine, that if you are getting such a good deal on clothes, that you'll wear those clothes out in public a ton and basically be a walking billboard. It's really smart marketing: hire young, attractive people and deck them  out in something "cool" and then have them just live life, while helping you sell jeans. Hollister has decided that the best way to market clothes, is through it's employees - just living life, but in all moments wearing Hollister. 

In church today, Steve Weins shared that he strongly believes something that has a similar ring to Hollister marketing style. He said:  The best program our church has is Christ in you. 

What a strong and powerful claim. Christ is working in us - to further his mission of ushering in the Kingdom now and forever and it's better then any program or scheme of the church. The challenge is being open to how God might be at work inside and outside of "regular church time." It's about walking a faith in both Karios and Chronos moments. As Hollister wants it's employees to be a channel for the Hollister brand at all times - to follow Christ is to be open to what Christ has for us at all times.

Scripture to chew on: Colossians 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.