Regulating Morality

I read this interesting quote today by Martin Luther King Jr. that is definitely challenging some thoughts as I continue, like many of you, to evaluate the presidental candidates and whom I will vote for.
Read:

Now the other myth that gets around is the idea that legislation cannot really solve the problem and that it has no great role to play in this period of social change because you’ve got to change the heart and you can’t change the heart through legislation. You can’t legislate morals. The job must be done through education and religion. Well, there’s half-truth involved here. Certainly, if the problem is to be solved then in the final sense, hearts must be changed. Religion and education must play a great role in changing the heart. But we must go on to say that while it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me and I think that is pretty important, also. So there is a need for executive orders. There is a need for judicial decrees. There is a need for civil rights legislation on the local scale within states and on the national scale from the federal government. [emphasis added]

Taken from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s address at Western Michigan University, December 18, 1963, cited in The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture by Scott Klusendorf

Thanks

Classifieds, Resumes & Questionnaires

So most people who know me know that I am currently on a quest to find a church where I can serve.  I currently have my resume out at couple of churches. 

To give you an idea how this process works I thought I’d write up a post describing the how I’ve seen this work.

To start a ministry search you have to know where to begin.  This is fairly easy, but not really.  I use three main sources for finding open ministry positions. 

-          First, my Bible college, Ozark Christian College, has on their website a page with opened ministry positions. 

-          Second I use Youth Specialties’ website.

-          And third and probably most importantly I use word of mouth. 

I say this is easy, but not really, because while you may have some useful sites to find openings, it doesn’t necessarily give you a good idea on which church will be best for you.  Plus I’ve found it more difficult to hear the Spirit’s influence when I have a list like that in front of me.  Generally this is why I prefer word of mouth best.

Depending on whether you cold call or not will determine the type of immediate response by a church.  Sometime it results in a form letter (via e-mail of course) stating that they have your resume on file and are currently collecting additional resumes.  I don’t exactly know how to read these responses, sometimes I like to believe they are truly considering me and other times I quickly move on. 

This job search is rather unusual for me, in that every church I’ve worked with the position came to me rather easily.  Either I had one interview and I was quickly hired, or they cold called me offering the position on site (practically).  But for the past few years this has not been the case. 

Once contact has been made with a church, at least on several occasions, the church will try to gain some insight into me by having me fill out a questionnaire.  This will help them weed out candidates before they ever get to the actual interview process.  Here is a current questionnaire I am working on to give you some idea:

1.        Have you read the vision, goals and statement of faith I sent you?  Do you have any questions about any of these?  Do you agree with them?  (if not, please explain what you disagree with and why)

2.        How did you come to Christ? 

3.        What is your church background?

4.        What is your family background and how has that or does that effect your spiritual walk?

5.        Tell us about your relationship with Christ and how it’s grown recently?

6.        What discourages you, and if you are attacked spiritually, where are you first hit?

7.        What was the most exciting part of your last job in youth ministry?

8.        Why did you leave (or are you leaving) that position?

9.        How long do you see yourself at your next position in youth ministry?

10.     What are your long term career and life goals?

11.     What is your philosophy of ministry? 

12.     What do you see as your strengths?  How do you plan to capitalize on these strengths?

13.     What do you see as your weaknesses?  How do these weaknesses effect your ministry and how do you plan to compensate for them?

14.     Share a little about your last experience recruiting and training volunteers, including how many people you started with, and how many joined your team.

15.     Share a negative experience managing a volunteer.  How did you handle it?

16.     Do you consider yourself teachable?  Give an example of this trait from your last job.

17.     What areas do you see a need for growth in your next youth ministry experience? 

18.     What do you enjoy reading?  What have you’ve read lately?  What books or articles have greatly impacted you?

19.     What do you do to stay current with youth culture today?

20.     Have you ever written your own curriculum, discussion questions or training material?  Briefly share with us an example of something you wrote/developed and how it was received.

21.     Give an example of a positive quality or characteristic that you modeled, and as a result, saw it in the lives of your students.

22.     Share an example of a time when you modeled a negative behavior.

23.     Are there any areas of your life that may cause others to ask questions (i.e. use of alcohol, tobacco, entertainment choices, etc.)?

24.     Share a positive experience from your last youth ministry position where you acted as a team player.

25.     Share a negative experience with one of your co-workers and how the situation was handled.

26.     Give an example of a successful outreach program or event you put together?

27.     Give an example of programs, activities or events that you created to help kids spiritually grow.  What were some of the elements of these programs?

28.     Have you been involved or lead a short term mission trip with youth?  If you have tell us about how it went and what you would do differently. 

29.     In your last youth ministry job, how much one-on-one time did you spend each week with kids?

30.     Have you ever made an effort to contact “unchurched” kids?  If so, tell us about that experience.  How did you maintain the relationship?

31.     In the past, what avenues of contact have you used to connect with parents?  Which of these were most effective?

32.     How have you gone about setting a budget in your past ministry?

33.     What are your thoughts about fund raisers, sponsorships, and scholarships for youth trips/conventions/events?

34.     In your past youth ministry, how did you help students get involved in the church as a whole, not just the youth ministry?

35.     What else should we know about you?  What are your hobbies?  What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Yeah…not necessarily a multiple choice thing is it?

Once you arrive at the interview I have on a few occasions had two levels of interviews; a phone interview followed by the face to face.  I hate phone interviews.  I love my phone, but primarily for the texting, e-mailing, internet purposes, not for actually talking.  I always feel like a phone interview goes horrible, but after a face to face interview I tend to be rather confident. 

Now of course during this whole process prayer is essential.  No Christian wants to do something out of God’s ultimate will, and while I believe in our freedom to make choices, you still want to be guided by the Spirit in these choices.

After you have worked through all that and the church comes back and possibly offers the position, this is where listening in prayer and listening to your counsel play into actually making a decision.  Where rubber meets road. 

Hopefully you and the church have done the best to make sure long before an offer is made to ensure that you would be a good fit and a essential piece to their staffing puzzle, but sometimes the Spirit guides us away from both our heart’s desires and our head’s logic.    I would hate to arrive at a church and within months sudden feel like I was in the wrong place.  That would be both unhealthy for me and for the church. 

 

Anyways….this is extremely brief, but hopefully insightful. 

 

If any of you have some insights into the above questionnaire please feel free to help me.  Specifically on questions 12, 13, 16, 20, 21, 22 (be gentle), 23 or 35…

Who's Excited

Yeah I know Jack Bauer has reaching mythological status, but he's still the man.
Looking forward to the new season?

The More Things Change...

…the move they remain the same.  Maybe my generation isn’t that different from my parents and grandparents.  Or maybe my generation isn’t anything at all.

I just read this article:

YOUTH & TECHNOLOGY

Generational Myth

Not all young people are tech-savvy

Very interesting, and for those who work with students this is a tension that we feel and struggle with often.  There is undoubtedly a massive curve of technology and the demand, need and responsibility to provide technological responses to our students.  However, while they are often referred to as the Techno-Generation (Technology Generation, Media Generation, Digital Generation), that may not necessarily mean all that it implies.  Our desire to categorize or label or generalize the characteristics maybe de more detrimental than helpful, especially when our aim is to bring individual students into a cooperate relationship with Jesus. 

Just because we’ve defined them as technological we should not assume them to have the capabilities or tools, understanding the processes or terms, or even desire to use such resources. 

Here are some quick highlights from the post.  I definitely have some thinking and processing to do…

 

“Every class has a handful of people with amazing skills and a large number who can't deal with computers at all. A few lack mobile phones. Many can't afford any gizmos and resent assignments that demand digital work. Many use Facebook and MySpace because they are easy and fun, not because they are powerful (which, of course, they are not). And almost none know how to program or even code text with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Only a handful come to college with a sense of how the Internet fundamentally differs from the other major media platforms in daily life.

“College students in America are not as "digital" as we might wish to pretend.

“Talk of a "digital generation" or people who are "born digital" willfully ignores the vast range of skills, knowledge, and experience of many segments of society. It ignores the needs and perspectives of those young people who are not socially or financially privileged. It presumes a level playing field and equal access to time, knowledge, skills, and technologies. The ethnic, national, gender, and class biases of any sort of generation talk are troubling. And they could not be more obvious than when discussing assumptions about digital media.

“As Henry Jenkins, a media-studies professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote on his blog last year, "Talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered, rather than seeing the online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us." Such discussions, he said, also risk ignoring the different ways young people use digital tools, from listening to compact discs to blogging to posting clever videos on YouTube to buying stuff on eBay.

“In reaction to Jenkins's post, Leslie Johnston, now at the Library of Congress, wrote on her blog, ‘I have worked with faculty in their 60s who saw something in being digital decades ago and have worked in that realm for years. I have worked with colleagues — librarians and faculty — in my own age group (I'm 44) who hate all technology with a passion and others who embrace it in all ways. I have worked with students at three different research universities who could not care less about being digital.’

“Once we assume that all young people love certain forms of interaction and hate others, we forge policies and design systems and devices that match those presumptions. By doing so, we either pander to some marketing cliché or force an otherwise diverse group of potential users into a one-size-fits-all system that might not meet their needs. Then, lo and behold, young people rush to adapt to those changes that we assumed all along that they wanted. More precisely, we take actions like rushing to digitize entire state-university library systems with an emphasis on speed and size rather than on quality and utility.

“I realize that by puncturing the myth of generations, I am pitting myself against one of the giants of 20th-century social theory, Karl Mannheim. In his 1927 essay, "The Problem of Generations," Mannheim answered Hume by positing that generations are not dem-ographically determined, but historically. Big events forge common identities. And proximity to an experience matters more than birth year. In other words, a Mannheimian generation might exist among all people who breathed in the ash and dust of the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001. But it might exclude people of the same age who merely watched the event on television from a comfortable couch in Madison, Wis.

“The concept of ‘born digital’ flattens out the needs and experiences of young people into a uniform wish list of policies that conveniently matches the agenda of digital enthusiasts and entrepreneurs of all ages.

“We should drop our simplistic attachments to generations so we can generate an accurate and subtle account of the needs of young people — and all people, for that matter. A more responsible assessment would divorce itself from a pro- or anti-technology agenda and look at multiple causes for problems we note: state malfeasance or benign neglect of education, rampant consumerism in our culture, moral panics that lead us to scapegoat technology, and, yes, technology itself. Such work would reflect the fact that technologies do not emerge in a vacuum. They are subject to market forces, political ideologies, and policy incentives. More important, such work would not use young people as fodder for attacking wider social problems.”

Guy with Spoons

My dad sent this to me today. He said it reminded him of me and my two brothers, Trent and Todd. Of course I would not be the fella in the middle. My guess is that's Todd (only cause he reads this and Trent doesn't).

Book Review: Wild Goose Chase

I've been really behind lately with some book reviews. This one is a couple weeks past due.

Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson

Here is a much better review than anything I could come up with and will probably inform you on a much greater level. Actually check that...first what would help you out more would be this introduction video by Mark himself.

When we decide to pursue the Wild Goose we often what we often find out is that there are obstacles that we may have to overcome. Actually the imagery that Batterson uses is cages. After Batterson invites us to reimagine our faith pursuits he begins to help us define and guide us out of these many cages. Some of the cages that Mark leads us through are responsibility, routines, assumptions, guilt, failure and fear.

I don't know about you but I often times find myself in one or more of these cages.

Why Republicans Hate Wal-Mart

A former professor of mine, Mark Moore, recently post a short essay entitled "Why Republicans Hate Wal-Wart."
A good little read. Trust me it's short it won't kill your day to give a quick read.

-t-

Quotable TV Quips

According to a Entertainment Weekly polling these are some of the greatest TV Quotes.

I saved you the time of having to go look through them by just typing them up here.  [Don’t sue me EW.]

24.  “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” – Jan Brady, The Brady Bunch

23.  “Maybe the dingo ate your baby” – Elaine Benes, Seinfeld

22.  “The tribe has spoken” – Jeff Probst, Survivor

21.  “Save the cheerleader, save the world!” – Hiro Nakamura, Heroes

20.  “We were on a break” – Ross Geller, Friends

19.  “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” – Eric Taylor, Friday Night Lights

18.  “It's going to be legen — wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is dairy — legen-DARY!” – Barney, How I Met Your Mother

17.  “Pick me.  Choose me.  Love me.” – Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy

16.  “We’re not worthy!” – Wayne and Garth, SNL

15.  “Oh my God, they killed Kenny!” – Stan and Kyle, Southpark

14.  “If the apocalypse comes, beep me!” – Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

13.  “They’re called illusions, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money.” – Gob Bluth, Arrested Development

12.  “Idiots are fun; no wonder every village wants one.” – Dr. Gregory House, House

11.  “Make it work.” – Tim Gunn, Project Runway

10.  “Here’s to alcohol, the cause of – and solution to – all life’s problems.” – Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

9.  “The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself.  And if you find someone to love the you that you love…well, that’s just fabulous.” – Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City

8.  “The sea was angry that day, my friends.  Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.” – George Costanza, Seinfeld

7.  “So what, no f—in’ ziti now?” – A.J. Soprano, The Sopranos

6.  “If we can’t live together…we’re gonna die alone.” – Jack Shephard, Lost

5.  “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” – Les Nessman, WKRP in Cincinnati

4.  “Oy with the poodles already!” – Lorelai Gilmore, Gilmore Girls

3.  “Make it so.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

2.  “You expect to get screwed by your company.  But you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.” – Michael Scott, The Office

1.  “You’re got spunk…I hate spunk.” – Lou Grant, Mary Tyler Moore

 

Not a bad list…but I’m curious what you and I would add.  I lighted the ones in red that I really like, and below are some that I would add.  You might notice that they are Seinfeld heavy…

 

-          "Nip it!"  - Barney Fife, The Andy Griffith Show

-          "Suit up!" - Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother

-          "How YOU doin'?" - Joey Tribbiani, Friends

-          "No soup for you!" - The Soup Nazi, Seinfeld

-          "Jane, you ignorant slut" - Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, Saturday Night Live

-          "Yada, yada, yada" - Seinfeld

-          “That’s what she said.” – Michael Scott, The Office

-          “Excellent!” – C. Montgomery Burns, The Simpsons

-          “Serenity now!” – Frank Costanza, Seinfeld

-          “I got hand!” – George Costanza, Seinfeld

-          “You know we’re living in a society!” – George Costanza, Seinfeld

-          “I could get uromisotisis poisoning and die…that’s why.” – Jerry, Seinfeld

-          “These pretzels are making me thirsty.’ – Kramer, Seinfeld

-          “So I bowl.  What’s really disturbing is that I’m good at it.” – Dexter, Dexter

-          “Do something to make me hate you.” “Um, go Hitler.” – Rory and Lorelai, Gilmore Girls

 

What would you add?

 

Woody Allen & Billy Graham

These are both interesting and entertaining. Enjoy.

Evil in Our World

This is a sad story.

Satan worshippers kill and eat four Russian teenagers after stabbing each of them 666 times

“One of the gang said, when asked what made him do it: ‘I tried to turn to God, but it didn’t bring me any money. I prayed to Satan, and things improved.’”

 

When we say and sing that Jesus is “Enough” or “Everything” or “All I Need” do we really mean it?

Without Christ in my life, where would I be?

Kid from "3rd Rock from the Sun"

I just watch "The Lookout". Between this and "Brick" why isn't Joseph Gordon-Levitt a bigger star? This guy is a good actor.

Today I Really...

...want to see the movie "Eagle vs. Shark"
...want to be a morning person
...want to be able to read faster
...want to be more tech savy
...want to trust more
...want my career back
...think i should hurry up and get my pedicure with the princesses
...really enjoyed Talia's worship leading
...need to forgive and forget
...miss not having a best friend here in San Antonio
...wish my church was more creative
...hate that the Astros got served a no-hitter by the Cubs

I love...

I love my friend Talia’s homemade soap.
I love MLB’s playoffs.
I love fresh sheets on a bed.
I love finishing a book.
I love having the perfect words at the perfect moment.
I love receiving personal mail.
I love teaching with confidence.
I love a pitcher’s duel.
I love relaxed conversations over good food.
I love tipping well.
I love cool evenings.
I love a well crafted sermon.
I love a new pair of socks.
I love gazing at the stars.
I love new shoe laces.
I love road trips; the longer the better.
I love the smell of rain.
I love putting things in proper order.
I love coincidental number patterns.
I love women in uniform.
I love warm clothes fresh out of dryer.

what do you love?

New Record: Saves

Now this is a record I can really appreciate. I loved to pitch when playing baseball, and I loved to just reach back and throw the ball as hard as I could. Seeing fear in a batter's eye as you located one inside - on purpose or not.

This is what I appreciate about Francisco Rodriguez. He is all passion on the mound, often displayed by his celebrations on the mound.

Way to go K-Rod! 58 Saves in one season (and counting).

NFL Picks: Week 2

Saints @ Redskins = Saints

Bears @ Panthers = Panthers

Titans @ Bengals = Bengals

Packers @ Lions = Packers

Bills @ Jaguars = Jaguars

Raiders @ Chiefs = Raiders

Colts @ Vikings = Colts

Giants @ Rams = Giants

49ers @ Seahawks = Seahawks

Falcons @ Buccaneers = Falcons

Dolphins @ Cardinals = Cardinals

Chargers @ Broncos = Chargers

Patriots @ Jets = Jets

Steelers @ Browns = Steelers

Eagles @ Dallas = Dallas

Ravens @ Texans = Postponed

Ray Boltz Comes Out

Former Christian music artist Ray Boltz comes out of the closet revealing that he is gay recently. Here is the article:

Key changes:Gospel singer Ray Boltz shares coming out journey in this Blade exclusive

Certainly his songs were huge hits in the Christian music world. I'm curious if any of you have any thoughts or memories of his music?

Revenge of the Beasts~

It seems that the wildlife were getting feed up and seeking revenge this week.

Check this out.

 

Shark tows Surfer out to Sea  HERE

Flying Fish breaks Teenager’s Jaw  HERE

Bears Jumps into boat and Attacks Man  HERE

Bees kill Six HERE

Now This Is Helpful

I couldn’t be President.  Outside of board games I struggle when to use aggressive force.  Inside the context of board/video games…I will destroy you!

How do we defend the cause of the powerless and balance the teachings of Jesus?  These aren’t easy questions or answers, and certainly this feeble mind won’t solve what the wrestled with since its inception. 

But I really appreciate these thoughts from a college professor of mine name Mark Moore.  Mark’s a brilliant thinker and speaker.  Check out his site, which contains some of his writings, sermons, and class lectures.

In this blog post Mark seeks to defend and define the pacifist.  He writes:

 

“Pacifism is not passivism—it is not sitting idly by while evil gains ground in this world…

“So what is pacifism? It is the uncompromising realization that we as humans are incapable of bringing about justice through violent retaliation. Hence, we relinquish all such acts to God in his sovereign and eschatological plan of judgment, justice, and mercy. Indeed, God have mercy on us.”

This is helpful as it gives me a clear interpretation of pacifism that I can attempt to get behind.  I’ve been guilty of understanding pacifism as “do-nothing-ism”, but in all fairness “do-nothing-ism” is how many pacifist live out their beliefs.  The pacifist here in America, much more often than not, does little to relieve the burden of oppression outside our own continent. 

My question today though is can pacifism be effective, or even displayed, without the counter balance of “righteous” aggression in our world?  

 

Rap: Translated

This made me laugh...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Church Dancing

I used to think Christians who banned dancing were just idiots. But this video has changed my mind. Now I know that they were just protecting us...

Thanks