Archive for February, 2009
Explaining Lent
Like many of you, I grew up Baptist. Warmer weather meant Spring was here. Spring meant Easter was coming soon. Easter meant…well, to be totally honest, it meant new church clothes. Of course we celebrated Easter at church on Easter Sunday. Our church usually did a huge Easter musical of some kind. We sang “Up from the grave He arose!…” People came to church who hadn’t been since Christmas Eve. It was a good day. A Happy day. But that was it.
Jump ahead 30 years. 2 Years ago I was challenged in my church to participate in “40 Days of Prayer and Fasting” during the 40 days immediately before Easter. I reluctantly decided to participate. Essentially we were observing Lent even though we didn’t call it “Lent.” Since then I’ve studied Lent and have been deeply convicted of the importance of this time in the life of all believers as we prepare for the Easter celebration. I’ll be teaching on Lent tonight. Not so much as an obscure (at least to us Baptists) part of the liturgical calendar, but more as a practical means of spiritual growth.
I came across this article titled “Explaining Lent to Non-Liturgical Christians” today. It’s written by a Baptist pastor. He does a great job of explaining very clearly the history and meaning of Lent.
Sticks & Stones…
Do you remember the old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? I remember trying to convince myself that this was true as a boy who was often on the receiving end of the jeers and laughs of my peers. I still try to convince myself of this sometimes. But the truth is: words hurt. To be honest, there are times that I would rather be beaten with sticks and stones.
Tonight we are going to be taking a look at the power of words in both TM 412 and Escape. The Bible is really clear in teaching that our words are to be life giving. Sometimes life giving means encouraging, sometimes it means a loving rebuke, sometimes it means to simply bite your tongue and say nothing.
Our scripture focus for tonight: Proverbs 18:21 and Ephesians 4:29
How about you…What are the most life-giving words you’ve spoken lately?
What is Worship?
This Sunday our youth lesson is about worship…specifically what worship is and isn’t.
What does worship mean to you?
Death and Taxes
The only thing certain in life is…Benjamin Franklin made the profound statement about the 2 certainties of life that we are all familiar with: Death and Taxes. I barely made it through my college accounting class and rely heavily on other professionals to help me with my annual 1040, so I am definitely not the person to be addressing taxes. But I have dealt with death…a lot…too much…as a youth minister and as a hospice chaplain.
In the past few days a local student lost his mother and one of our own dear church members went to be with Jesus after a battle with cancer. If it hasn’t yet, death will affect all of our lives. Tonight we talked about death and how it is a part of life. And if we are going to allow our faith in God to saturate all of the other parts of our lives we can and must approach death with an understanding of the peace and comfort that Jesus offers us.
Death is never easy. We grieve. We go through a laundry list of emotions. It affects us deeply. But we have the peace of Jesus available to us. It’s going to be a hard few days for many in our community and in our church. Remember and remind others of these words of Jesus:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled…” (John 14:27).
TM 412 Tonight
We are learning the books/sections of the Bible in TM 412. I am rock solid in believing that every Christian needs to actively and passionately learn the Bible backwards and forwards and learning the basics of how the Bible is put together is foundational. Hopefully all of our TM 412ers will be able to say all 66 books of the Bible in order soon. I’ve put together a booklet that we have been working through to help us learn the basics of the Bible. They should be bringing that home tonight. Be ready! I’m going to tell them to ask you if you can say all 66 books of the Bible in order. Can you?
ApParent Privilege Now In Our Library
Just wanted to let you know the book ApParent Privilege by Steve Wright is now in our church library. I encourage you to stop by tonight and be the first to check it out. We will be offering a small group for parents to really dissect and discuss this book soon. Be watching for details. (By the way, the book and the class are for all parents…not just parents of teens.)
Sports and Faith
Walt Mueller of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding wrote this article titled “Turf Worship” last fall. The article is a great reminder and encouragement for those of us who have kids that play sports as well as for those of us who have kids that may someday play sports.
