(8432,204,'2013-02-10 20:23:55','2013-02-11 04:23:55','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\r\n\r\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\r\n\r\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\r\n\r\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and still be new—like old songs sung in a new way.\r\n\r\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\r\n\r\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\r\n\r\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\r\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\r\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\r\n\r\nYou leave us.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\r\n\r\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\r\n\r\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\r\n\r\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\r\n\r\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\r\n\r\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\r\n\r\nAnd when we embrace this, that\'s when the adventure begins.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n*photo by bokkels\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-28','','','2013-02-10 20:23:55','2013-02-11 04:23:55','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/10/8398-revision-28/',0,'revision','',0),(8433,204,'2013-02-10 20:24:09','2013-02-11 04:24:09','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\r\n\r\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\r\n\r\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\r\n\r\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and still be new—like old songs sung in a new way.\r\n\r\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\r\n\r\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\r\n\r\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\r\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\r\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\r\n\r\nYou leave us.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\r\n\r\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\r\n\r\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\r\n\r\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\r\n\r\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\r\n\r\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\r\n\r\nAnd when we embrace this, that\'s when the adventure begins.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n*photo by bokkels\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-29','','','2013-02-10 20:24:09','2013-02-11 04:24:09','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/10/8398-revision-29/',0,'revision','',0),(8434,204,'2013-02-10 20:32:04','2013-02-11 04:32:04','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\r\n\r\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\r\n\r\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\r\n\r\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and still be new—like old songs sung in a new way.\r\n\r\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\r\n\r\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\r\n\r\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\r\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\r\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\r\n\r\nYou leave us.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\r\n\r\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\r\n\r\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\r\n\r\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\r\n\r\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\r\n\r\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures, and in Scripture,  you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\r\n\r\nAnd when we embrace this, that\'s when the adventure begins.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n*photo by bokkels\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-30','','','2013-02-10 20:32:04','2013-02-11 04:32:04','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/10/8398-revision-30/',0,'revision','',0),(8435,204,'2013-02-10 20:35:40','2013-02-11 04:35:40','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\n\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\n\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\n\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and still be new—like old songs sung in a new way.\n\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\n\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\n\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\n\nYou leave us.\n\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\n\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\n\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\n\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\n\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\n\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures, and in Scripture,  you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\n\nAnd when we embrace <em>this</em>, that\'s when the adventure begins.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n*photo by bokkels\n\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-31','','','2013-02-10 20:35:40','2013-02-11 04:35:40','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/10/8398-revision-31/',0,'revision','',0),(8494,1,'2013-03-22 15:27:12','2013-03-22 22:27:12','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\n\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\n\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\n<h2>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</h2>\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\n\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least <em>somewhat</em> relevant through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, You-Tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?\n\n<i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>\n<h2>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</h2>\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\n\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swim, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\n\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\n\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\n<h2>3) Whose Gonna Lead It?</h2>\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\n\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  <em>Or</em> makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  <em>Or</em> has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or a parent on the youth committee.\n\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\n\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  <em>Or</em> the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  <em>Or</em> basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\n\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>\n<h2>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>goal</em> of a youth ministry.\n\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\n\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT <em>and</em> a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\n\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\n<h2>5) Theology or Ethics?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>content</em> of what we teach our youth.\n\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\n\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  <em>Or</em>, even worse, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\n\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n<h2>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>tenor</em> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\n\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\n\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\n\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\n\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\n<h2>7) How Do We Do That at Our Church?</h2>\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about by visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\n\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <em>reproduceability.</em>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\n\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you <em>really</em>?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\n\n<hr />\n\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\n\n<strong>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</strong>\n\n<hr />\n\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Relevance: The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-autosave','','','2013-03-22 15:27:12','2013-03-22 22:27:12','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8472-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8439,160,'2013-02-28 08:00:44','2013-02-28 16:00:44','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8442\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8442\"><img class=\"alignleft\" alt=\"nixon-victory-sign\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nixon-victory-sign-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\r\nOkay, this is an easy one. I was getting tired of all the polling and endless speculating before the 2012 elections.  Two days after President Obama was re-elected, the Republicans were threatening to run us off the fiscal cliff and were still trying to find a cover-up in Benghazi.  It’s draining and, frankly, I’m bored with the same old arguments that bounce around the media echo-chamber by the same old talking heads.  I feel like I’m watching one long rerun.  So I’ve decided to give up politics for Lent.  (Just in case you think I’m getting off easy, I’m also giving up eating chips.)\r\n\r\nIt’s not that there aren’t important issues that are being decided, such as how to reduce the national deficit, how to create more jobs for more people, instilling reasonable gun control laws, and reducing carbon emissions.   The list goes on and on.   I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to stay emotionally connected with the outcomes, much less all the political wrangling to get there.  Basically, I trust the guy in the Oval Office.   I think he’s a reasonable person who is willing to compromise for the greater good.   Maybe, sometimes, too willing to compromise.\r\n\r\nBesides being weary of the rhetoric, I’d like to think I’m abstaining from politics because I have better things to do with my time and emotional energy.   For example, I’ve got a job that requires some attention.   I sell residential real estate and the market is starting to come back.  As most of you know, I like to write and I’ve been editing a couple of projects that I hope to put out there someday soon.  I started volunteering as a counselor at a food pantry/emergency relief center in our area.   On top of that, I try to walk my dog and have dinner with my wife and occasionally get to the gym.\r\n\r\nMy point is I feel like I need concentrate on myself and my immediate circle.  It’s not as exciting as the stuff that makes national news, but it’s real to me.   I like to think I deeply care about this country – and this world for that matter.  At the same time, I feel somewhat disconnected from immigration reform or budget debates.   While being aware of the issues is important for a healthy functioning democracy, I cannot lower the deficit, or provide someone with a work visa, or put a background check in place for a person purchasing a gun.  I can have an opinion (and a vote), but that’s about it.\r\n\r\nI used to live in Texas when I was a kid, so I grew up being a Dallas Cowboys fan.  All these years later, I still pull for the Cowboys.  Sometimes, I pull so hard I actually pull something.  And then it occurred to me: I can’t change the outcome of the game one iota, especially not from my couch in Tennessee.   So, what’s the point in being so emotionally invested?   Of course, politics has much more serious ramifications than a football game.   The policies and laws can affect millions of people, for good or bad.   And, it’s important for the media to referee the game and keep us informed of the score.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, I feel an overwhelming need to refocus my energies on me.  I hope that doesn’t sound selfish.   I don’t think I mean it that way.   Let me try again… I need to focus my energies on the things that I can control and the people that I know.  The good news is, if I want to get something done, I don’t have to scrape together the votes or wait out a filibuster.  There is no one who can stop me, because I have executive privilege of my own life.   And that’s pretty empowering.    The only question is - what to do with all this power?\r\n\r\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville TN and is the author of the book <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">“Hometown Prophet.”  </a>','Why I\'m Giving Up Politics for Lent','','publish','open','open','','why-im-giving-up-politics-for-lent','','','2013-02-27 19:18:34','2013-02-28 03:18:34','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8439',0,'post','',0),(8440,160,'2013-02-12 06:32:18','2013-02-12 14:32:18','Okay, this is an easy one. I was getting tired of all the polling and endless speculating before the 2012 elections.  Two days after President Obama was re-elected, the Republicans were threatening to run us off the fiscal cliff and were still trying to find a cover-up in Benghazi.  It’s draining and, frankly, I’m bored with the same old arguments that bounce around the media echo-chamber by the same old talking heads.  I feel like I’m watching one long rerun.  So I’ve decided to give up politics for Lent.  (Just in case you think I’m getting off easy, I’m also giving up eating chips.)\n\nIt’s not that there aren’t important issues that are being decided, such as how to reduce the national deficit, how to create more jobs for more people, instilling reasonable gun control laws, and reducing carbon emissions.   The list goes on and on.   I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to stay emotionally connected with the outcomes, much less all the political wrangling to get there.  Basically, I trust the guy in the Oval Office.   I think he’s a reasonable person who is willing to compromise for the greater good.   Maybe, sometimes, too willing to compromise.\n\nBesides being weary of the rhetoric, I’d like to think I’m abstaining from politics because I have better things to do with my time and emotional energy.   For example, I’ve got a job that requires some attention.   I sell residential real estate and the market is starting to come back.  As most of you know, I like to write and I’ve been editing a couple of projects that I hope to put out there someday soon.  I started volunteering as a counselor at a food pantry/emergency relief center in our area.   On top of that, I try to walk my dog and have dinner with my wife and occasionally get to the gym.\n\nMy point is I feel like I need concentrate on myself and my immediate circle.  It’s not as exciting as the stuff that makes national news, but it’s real to me.   I like to think I deeply care about this country – and this world for that matter.  At the same time, I feel somewhat disconnected from immigration reform or budget debates.   While being aware of the issues is important for a healthy functioning democracy, I cannot lower the deficit, or provide someone with a work visa, or put a background check in place for a person purchasing a gun.  I can have an opinion (and a vote), but that’s about it.\n\nI used to live in Texas when I was a kid, so I grew up being a Dallas Cowboys fan.  All these years later, I still pull for the Cowboys.  Sometimes, I pull so hard I actually pull something.  And then it occurred to me: I can’t change the outcome of the game one iota, especially not from my couch in Tennessee.   So, what’s the point in being so emotionally invested?   Of course, politics has much more serious ramifications than a football game.   The policies and laws can affect millions of people, for good or bad.   And, it’s important for the media to referee the game and keep us informed of the score.\n\nAt the same time, I feel an overwhelming need to refocus my energies on me.  I hope that doesn’t sound selfish.   I don’t think I mean it that way.   Let me try again… I need to focus my energies on the things that I can control and the people that I know.  The good news is, if I want to get something done, I don’t have to scrape together the votes or wait out a filibuster.  There is no one who can stop me, because I have executive privilege of my own life.   And that’s pretty empowering.    The only question is - what to do with all this power?\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville TN and is the author of the book <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">“Hometown Prophet.”  </a>','Why I\'m Giving Up Politics for Lent','','inherit','open','open','','8439-revision','','','2013-02-12 06:32:18','2013-02-12 14:32:18','',8439,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8439-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8441,160,'2013-02-12 06:41:01','2013-02-12 14:41:01','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8442\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8442\"><img alt=\"nixon-victory-sign\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nixon-victory-sign-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\nOkay, this is an easy one. I was getting tired of all the polling and endless speculating before the 2012 elections.  Two days after President Obama was re-elected, the Republicans were threatening to run us off the fiscal cliff and were still trying to find a cover-up in Benghazi.  It’s draining and, frankly, I’m bored with the same old arguments that bounce around the media echo-chamber by the same old talking heads.  I feel like I’m watching one long rerun.  So I’ve decided to give up politics for Lent.  (Just in case you think I’m getting off easy, I’m also giving up eating chips.)\n\nIt’s not that there aren’t important issues that are being decided, such as how to reduce the national deficit, how to create more jobs for more people, instilling reasonable gun control laws, and reducing carbon emissions.   The list goes on and on.   I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to stay emotionally connected with the outcomes, much less all the political wrangling to get there.  Basically, I trust the guy in the Oval Office.   I think he’s a reasonable person who is willing to compromise for the greater good.   Maybe, sometimes, too willing to compromise.\n\nBesides being weary of the rhetoric, I’d like to think I’m abstaining from politics because I have better things to do with my time and emotional energy.   For example, I’ve got a job that requires some attention.   I sell residential real estate and the market is starting to come back.  As most of you know, I like to write and I’ve been editing a couple of projects that I hope to put out there someday soon.  I started volunteering as a counselor at a food pantry/emergency relief center in our area.   On top of that, I try to walk my dog and have dinner with my wife and occasionally get to the gym.\n\nMy point is I feel like I need concentrate on myself and my immediate circle.  It’s not as exciting as the stuff that makes national news, but it’s real to me.   I like to think I deeply care about this country – and this world for that matter.  At the same time, I feel somewhat disconnected from immigration reform or budget debates.   While being aware of the issues is important for a healthy functioning democracy, I cannot lower the deficit, or provide someone with a work visa, or put a background check in place for a person purchasing a gun.  I can have an opinion (and a vote), but that’s about it.\n\nI used to live in Texas when I was a kid, so I grew up being a Dallas Cowboys fan.  All these years later, I still pull for the Cowboys.  Sometimes, I pull so hard I actually pull something.  And then it occurred to me: I can’t change the outcome of the game one iota, especially not from my couch in Tennessee.   So, what’s the point in being so emotionally invested?   Of course, politics has much more serious ramifications than a football game.   The policies and laws can affect millions of people, for good or bad.   And, it’s important for the media to referee the game and keep us informed of the score.\n\nAt the same time, I feel an overwhelming need to refocus my energies on me.  I hope that doesn’t sound selfish.   I don’t think I mean it that way.   Let me try again… I need to focus my energies on the things that I can control and the people that I know.  The good news is, if I want to get something done, I don’t have to scrape together the votes or wait out a filibuster.  There is no one who can stop me, because I have executive privilege of my own life.   And that’s pretty empowering.    The only question is - what to do with all this power?\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville TN and is the author of the book <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">“Hometown Prophet.”  </a>','Why I\'m Giving Up Politics for Lent','','inherit','open','open','','8439-autosave','','','2013-02-12 06:41:01','2013-02-12 14:41:01','',8439,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8439-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8442,160,'2013-02-12 06:39:29','2013-02-12 14:39:29','','nixon-victory-sign','','inherit','open','open','','nixon-victory-sign','','','2013-02-12 06:39:29','2013-02-12 14:39:29','',8439,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nixon-victory-sign.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8523,1,'2013-02-12 06:33:54','2013-02-12 14:33:54','Okay, this is an easy one. I was getting tired of all the polling and endless speculating before the 2012 elections.  Two days after President Obama was re-elected, the Republicans were threatening to run us off the fiscal cliff and were still trying to find a cover-up in Benghazi.  It’s draining and, frankly, I’m bored with the same old arguments that bounce around the media echo-chamber by the same old talking heads.  I feel like I’m watching one long rerun.  So I’ve decided to give up politics for Lent.  (Just in case you think I’m getting off easy, I’m also giving up eating chips.)\r\n\r\nIt’s not that there aren’t important issues that are being decided, such as how to reduce the national deficit, how to create more jobs for more people, instilling reasonable gun control laws, and reducing carbon emissions.   The list goes on and on.   I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to stay emotionally connected with the outcomes, much less all the political wrangling to get there.  Basically, I trust the guy in the Oval Office.   I think he’s a reasonable person who is willing to compromise for the greater good.   Maybe, sometimes, too willing to compromise.\r\n\r\nBesides being weary of the rhetoric, I’d like to think I’m abstaining from politics because I have better things to do with my time and emotional energy.   For example, I’ve got a job that requires some attention.   I sell residential real estate and the market is starting to come back.  As most of you know, I like to write and I’ve been editing a couple of projects that I hope to put out there someday soon.  I started volunteering as a counselor at a food pantry/emergency relief center in our area.   On top of that, I try to walk my dog and have dinner with my wife and occasionally get to the gym.\r\n\r\nMy point is I feel like I need concentrate on myself and my immediate circle.  It’s not as exciting as the stuff that makes national news, but it’s real to me.   I like to think I deeply care about this country – and this world for that matter.  At the same time, I feel somewhat disconnected from immigration reform or budget debates.   While being aware of the issues is important for a healthy functioning democracy, I cannot lower the deficit, or provide someone with a work visa, or put a background check in place for a person purchasing a gun.  I can have an opinion (and a vote), but that’s about it.\r\n\r\nI used to live in Texas when I was a kid, so I grew up being a Dallas Cowboys fan.  All these years later, I still pull for the Cowboys.  Sometimes, I pull so hard I actually pull something.  And then it occurred to me: I can’t change the outcome of the game one iota, especially not from my couch in Tennessee.   So, what’s the point in being so emotionally invested?   Of course, politics has much more serious ramifications than a football game.   The policies and laws can affect millions of people, for good or bad.   And, it’s important for the media to referee the game and keep us informed of the score.\r\n\r\nAt the same time, I feel an overwhelming need to refocus my energies on me.  I hope that doesn’t sound selfish.   I don’t think I mean it that way.   Let me try again… I need to focus my energies on the things that I can control and the people that I know.  The good news is, if I want to get something done, I don’t have to scrape together the votes or wait out a filibuster.  There is no one who can stop me, because I have executive privilege of my own life.   And that’s pretty empowering.    The only question is - what to do with all this power?\r\n\r\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville TN and is the author of the book <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">“Hometown Prophet.”  </a>','Why I\'m Giving Up Politics for Lent','','inherit','open','open','','8439-revision-2','','','2013-02-12 06:33:54','2013-02-12 14:33:54','',8439,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8439-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8445,12,'2013-02-12 22:57:55','2013-02-13 06:57:55','','endnear','','inherit','open','open','','endnear','','','2013-02-12 22:57:55','2013-02-13 06:57:55','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/endnear.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8446,12,'2013-02-12 23:00:12','2013-02-13 07:00:12','','usagun','','inherit','open','open','','usagun','','','2013-02-12 23:00:12','2013-02-13 07:00:12','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8447,12,'2013-02-12 23:03:48','2013-02-13 07:03:48','','conspiracy','','inherit','open','open','','conspiracy','','','2013-02-12 23:03:48','2013-02-13 07:03:48','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8448,12,'2013-02-12 23:06:37','2013-02-13 07:06:37','','tippi','','inherit','open','open','','tippi','','','2013-02-12 23:06:37','2013-02-13 07:06:37','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8449,12,'2013-02-12 23:08:20','2013-02-13 07:08:20','','lax','','inherit','open','open','','lax','','','2013-02-12 23:08:20','2013-02-13 07:08:20','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8450,12,'2013-02-12 23:10:43','2013-02-13 07:10:43','I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\n\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\n\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\n\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\n\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\n\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\n\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against it, but people did</a>.\n\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the fabled \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\n\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\n\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\n\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of\n\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\n\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\n\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"Did you notice the thing about terrorism?\" or \"Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?\" or \"Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country?\" I finally said, \"Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me.\"\n\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\n\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\n\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\n\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\n\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-revision','','','2013-02-12 23:10:43','2013-02-13 07:10:43','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8444-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8451,12,'2013-02-28 18:52:52','2013-03-01 02:52:52','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8452\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8452\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8452\" alt=\"fbfridge\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fbfridge.jpg\" width=\"331\" height=\"162\" /></a>I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\r\n\r\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\r\n\r\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\r\n\r\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\r\n\r\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"<em>You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first</em>.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\r\n\r\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\r\n\r\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against such stupidity, but people did</a>.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\r\n\r\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\r\n\r\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\r\n\r\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of course not. They\'re going to administer it in our children\'s vaccines. Or in our booster shots. Or in other nefarious ways. That\'s how. Deep breath. There you go.\r\n\r\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\r\n\r\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\r\n\r\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"<em>Did you notice the thing about terrorism</em>?\" or \"<em>Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?</em>\" or \"<em>Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country</em>?\" I finally said, \"<em>Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me</em>.\"\r\n\r\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\r\n\r\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\r\n\r\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\r\n\r\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-autosave','','','2013-02-28 18:52:52','2013-03-01 02:52:52','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8444-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8452,12,'2013-02-12 23:13:59','2013-02-13 07:13:59','','fbfridge','','inherit','open','open','','fbfridge','','','2013-02-12 23:13:59','2013-02-13 07:13:59','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fbfridge.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8455,134,'2013-02-14 13:18:56','2013-02-14 21:18:56','','circumcision','','inherit','open','open','','circumcision','','','2013-02-14 13:18:56','2013-02-14 21:18:56','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/circumcision.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8457,134,'2013-02-14 13:39:13','2013-02-14 21:39:13','500px-circumcision (genital mutilation)','500px-circumcision (genital mutilation)','','inherit','open','open','','500px-circumcision','','','2013-02-14 13:39:13','2013-02-14 21:39:13','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/500px-circumcision.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(9312,67,'2013-11-21 12:21:39','2013-11-21 20:21:39','','9780830836628.jpg','','inherit','open','open','','9780830836628-jpg','','','2013-11-21 12:21:39','2013-11-21 20:21:39','',9311,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/9780830836628.jpg.gif',0,'attachment','image/gif',0),(9313,67,'2013-11-21 12:22:20','2013-11-21 20:22:20','','coffeewithjesus217','','inherit','open','open','','coffeewithjesus217','','','2013-11-21 12:22:20','2013-11-21 20:22:20','',9311,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/coffeewithjesus217.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(9314,67,'2013-11-21 12:22:56','2013-11-21 20:22:56','It\'s often true that the obviously simple is found in the often deceptively complex. When weeding through the trivialities of life and faith, one often finds that the unnecessary usually obscures the fundamental truths of our religious beliefs. When broken down to the essential aspects of spirituality, most of us unite on common beliefs and aspirations.  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Jesus-David-Wilkie/dp/0830836624\">Coffee with Jesus</a>, the book version of the popular internet comic strip from <a href=\"http://www.radiofreebabylon.com/\">Radio Free Babylon</a><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/coffeewithjesus217.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9313\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/coffeewithjesus217-300x107.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"107\" /></a>, not only brings simplicity to the often convoluted tenants of Christianity, but does so in a manner that will make you laugh while encouraged to think as well.\r\n\r\nThe just-released Coffee with Jesus from InterVarsity Press and written and illustrated by David Wilkie, is a series of sarcastically humorous comic strips developed from old advertising clip art and Sunday school illustrations. With a demeanor that never changes, Jesus guides, advises and occasionally reprimands five main characters that seem to be constantly stumbling through their faith journey with clumsy ignorance. The reader will find it easy to warm up to these Christian misfits. They might seem all too familiar to the typical church folks that we all know, and at times their antics may hit closer to home, as the mirror stands in full view. You\'ll find no stones to throw at Kevin, Carl, Ann, Lisa or Joe, but can reserve any judgement at Satan, who occasionally shows up for heated debate with Jesus and a hot cup of jo.\r\n\r\nIn this four panel comic strip, the characters are often found to be self-centered, hypocritical, materialistic and at times a bit arrogant. They begin their discussions with Jesus with innocent requests, trivial frustrations and child-like blissful comments, but as clueless as they often appear, Jesus never loses his cool. With unending patience, he never belittles and always seems to make the character comfortably feel as if their presence is the most important to him. And this is the juncture where humor intersects the thought provoking aspects of faith. Where the unnecessarily complex can be made simple.\r\n\r\nFor as you will find yourself chuckling at these ridiculous comic prayers answered by a sarcastic Christ, you will also find that fiction resembles truth more than we like to admit. There is a comforting aspect to Coffee with Jesus and a refreshing image of how our conversations with God can be. At a time in Christendom when the faithful are often force-fed a steady diet of everything from deep theological discourse to transparent self-help, it\'s refreshing to find resource that encourages the reader to not take themselves too seriously.\r\n\r\nJesus said in <i>Matthew 18:3</i> that <i><span class=\"text Matt-18-3\" id=\"en-NIV-23731\"><span class=\"woj\">\"unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\"</span></span></i><span class=\"text Matt-18-3\" id=\"en-NIV-23731\"><span class=\"woj\"> Perhaps there is much that we can learn from these childlike characters and Jesus\' untiring patience. For as they often seem to be caught up in their own little materialistic and often selfish man-made kingdoms, perhaps they\'ve haphazardly stumbled upon access to a Kingdom that needs to be realized more often than it is. And they found it in their goofy request, superficial observations, silly frustrations and over a simple cup of coffee with Jesus.\r\n</span></span>','Review of Coffee With Jesus by David Wilkie ','','inherit','open','open','','9311-revision-v1','','','2013-11-21 12:22:56','2013-11-21 20:22:56','',9311,'http://provoketive.com/2013/11/21/9311-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8551,0,'2013-03-14 14:56:34','2013-03-14 21:56:34','Mostly Film, Hollywood, music, Tv Shows, Actors, famous Icons, Philosophy, current affairs.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Rao Jahanzaib Saeed\nAUTHOR EMAIL: raojahanzaibsaeed@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 182.173.72.254\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Rao Jahanzaib Saeed\n    [Email] =&gt; raojahanzaibsaeed@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; \n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Mostly Film, Hollywood, music, Tv Shows, Actors, famous Icons, Philosophy, current affairs.\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; raojahanzaibsaeed\n)\n','Rao Jahanzaib Saeed - 2013-03-14 14:56:34','','publish','open','open','','2fa15dfff78bb126e2d4f93269e78e9e','','','2013-03-14 14:56:34','2013-03-14 21:56:34','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8551',0,'feedback','',0),(9334,0,'2013-12-24 06:26:55','2013-12-24 14:26:55','Social justice, gender equality, economics, books, music, movies, philosophy, interfaith dialogue, theology and sports etc\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Ali Ahmed Qureshi\nAUTHOR EMAIL: alikureshi46@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://ali-kureshi.blogspot.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 182.173.72.254\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Ali Ahmed Qureshi\n    [Email] =&gt; alikureshi46@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; ali-kureshi.blogspot.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Social justice, gender equality, economics, books, music, movies, philosophy, interfaith dialogue, theology and sports etc\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; ali-kureshi\n)\n','Ali Ahmed Qureshi - 2013-12-24 06:26:55','','publish','open','open','','8de9d0cd64092ec9ee831daa3bd70ded','','','2013-12-24 06:26:55','2013-12-24 14:26:55','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=9334',0,'feedback','',0),(9311,67,'2013-11-21 12:27:21','0000-00-00 00:00:00','It\'s often true that the obviously simple is found in the often deceptively complex. When weeding through the trivialities of life and faith, one often finds that the unnecessary usually obscures the fundamental truths of our religious beliefs. When broken down to the essential aspects of spirituality, most of us unite on common beliefs and aspirations.  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Jesus-David-Wilkie/dp/0830836624\">Coffee with Jesus</a>, the book version of the popular internet comic strip from <a href=\"http://www.radiofreebabylon.com/\">Radio Free Babylon</a>, not only brings simplicity to the often convoluted tenants of Christianity, but does so in a manner that will make you laugh while encouraged to think as well.\r\n\r\nThe just-released Coffee with Jesus from InterVarsity Press and written and illustrated by David Wilkie, is a series of sarcastically humorous comic strips developed from old advertising clip art and Sunday school illustrations. With a demeanor that never changes, Jesus guides, advises and occasionally reprimands five main characters that seem to be constantly stumbling through their faith journey with clumsy ignorance. The reader will find it easy to warm up to these Christian misfits. They might seem all too familiar to the typical church folks that we all know, and at times their antics may hit closer to home, as the mirror stands in full view. You\'ll find no stones to throw at Kevin, Carl, Ann, Lisa or Joe, but can reserve any judgement at Satan, who occasionally shows up for heated debate with Jesus and a hot cup of joe.\r\n\r\nIn this four panel comic strip, the characters are often found to be self-centered, hypocritical, materialistic and at times a bit arrogant. They begin their discussions with Jesus with innocent requests, trivial frustrations and child-like blissful comments, but as clueless as they often appear, Jesus never loses his cool. With unending patience, he never belittles and always seems to make the character comfortably feel as if their presence is the most important to him. And this is the juncture where humor intersects the thought provoking aspects of faith. Where the unnecessarily complex can be made simple.\r\n\r\nFor as you will find yourself chuckling at these ridiculous comic prayers answered by a sarcastic Christ, you will also find that fiction resembles truth more than we like to admit. There is a comforting aspect to Coffee with Jesus and a refreshing image of how our conversations with God can be. At a time in Christendom when the faithful are often force-fed a steady diet of everything from deep theological discourse to transparent self-help, it\'s refreshing to find resource that encourages the reader to not take themselves too seriously.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Jesus said in <i>Matthew 18:3</i> that <i><span class=\"text Matt-18-3\" id=\"en-NIV-23731\"><span class=\"woj\">\"unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\"</span></span></i><span class=\"text Matt-18-3\" id=\"en-NIV-23731\"><span class=\"woj\"> Perhaps there is much that we can learn from these childlike characters and Jesus\' untiring patience. For as they often seem to be caught up in their own little materialistic and often selfish man-made kingdoms, perhaps they\'ve haphazardly stumbled upon access to a Kingdom that needs to be realized more often than it is. And they found it in their goofy request, superficial observations, silly frustrations and over a simple cup of coffee with Jesus.</span></span>\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/coffeewithjesus217.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-9313 aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/coffeewithjesus217-300x107.jpg\" width=\"338\" height=\"102\" /></a></p>','Review of Coffee With Jesus by David Wilkie ','','draft','open','open','','','','','2013-11-21 12:27:21','2013-11-21 20:27:21','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=9311',0,'post','',0),(9278,0,'2013-09-29 08:23:15','2013-09-29 15:23:15','I\'d love to write an article about my experience immediately surrounding the death of my son and use what I went through to help others understand what to do and what not to do in regards to a grieving parent.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Carla Gardner\nAUTHOR EMAIL: findinglife4me@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://en.wordpress.com/read/blog/id/58557264/\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 24.140.18.46\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Carla Gardner\n    [Email] =&gt; findinglife4me@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; http://en.wordpress.com/read/blog/id/58557264/\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; I\'d love to write an article about my experience immediately surrounding the death of my son and use what I went through to help others understand what to do and what not to do in regards to a grieving parent.\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; CarlaRG2013\n)\n','Carla Gardner - 2013-09-29 08:23:15','','publish','open','open','','2c4911da4ebe7f00fa32616f604e3678','','','2013-09-29 08:23:15','2013-09-29 15:23:15','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=9278',0,'feedback','',0),(9202,0,'2013-07-23 09:23:33','2013-07-23 16:23:33','Hello.  I am interested in talking about social issues.  I have been looking for this type of forum for some time.  I would like to discuss controversial social issues and current events if possible.  I would like to learn more about what type of compensation that you offer writers (if any) and what type of deadlines you have.  I would also like to know if specific stories are assigned or if I would be coming up with my own stories.  Thanks!  \r\n\r\nI have worked as a freelance writer for over the past five years.  I currently am a featured blogger on Loud Whisper Music and write articles for my local paper, The Canton Daily Ledger.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Amanda Walton\nAUTHOR EMAIL: amandamillerwritingservices@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 68.57.250.34\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Amanda Walton \n    [Email] =&gt; amandamillerwritingservices@gmail.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; \n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Hello.  I am interested in talking about social issues.  I have been looking for this type of forum for some time.  I would like to discuss controversial social issues and current events if possible.  I would like to learn more about what type of compensation that you offer writers (if any) and what type of deadlines you have.  I would also like to know if specific stories are assigned or if I would be coming up with my own stories.  Thanks!  \r\n\r\nI have worked as a freelance writer for over the past five years.  I currently am a featured blogger on Loud Whisper Music and write articles for my local paper, The Canton Daily Ledger.\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; Amanda Walton \n)\n','Amanda Walton - 2013-07-23 09:23:33','','publish','open','open','','8860c7f0efd7f022fddbbc46deb024bb','','','2013-07-23 09:23:33','2013-07-23 16:23:33','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=9202',0,'feedback','',0),(8461,125,'2013-02-24 10:13:36','2013-02-24 18:13:36','Dear Megan and Grace,\r\n\r\nI understand, in I’m sure a merely limited way, you have left Westboro Baptist Church behind. I also understand that this means, for both of you, that you have left your family behind.\r\n\r\nI want to first and foremost commend you both for the courage it took to take that step. Not only did you step away from a church that will now actively seek to distance itself from you, to preach your damnation, to make you doubt your choice at every turn…\r\n\r\n…you stepped into a world, out from under that same church’s umbrella, that has been the target of attack from a body of people, into a world that holds the two of you among that body’s representatives.\r\n\r\nThere will need to be healing on both sides. You both will need time to heal from the deep wounds of a life represented by hate and bigotry. The world will need time to heal from the misunderstanding of Jesus and His truths that you so vocally preached.\r\n\r\nBut God is in the business of healing.\r\n\r\nYou have both chosen to love. You have both chosen, taken a stand, to remove yourselves from a system that preached a warped version of the book I believe in.\r\n\r\nAnd love is bigger.\r\n\r\nLove is big enough to heal you both, and love is big enough to use you both. Love is big enough to heal Westboro Baptist Church, and love is big enough to use Westboro Baptist Church.\r\n\r\nYou were the first two to respond to that call to love…and I honestly hope there will be many more.\r\n\r\nDon’t take your time at WBC for granted. Just as the apostle Paul looked back on his time as a persecutor of Christians, you can look back on your time spent at WBC…to learn, as we all learn, how to grow from mistakes…\r\n\r\n…and to learn how much stronger God is than we are.\r\n\r\nAlso, don’t allow yourselves to live lives dictated by guilt or shame. What is done is done. Repentance means recognizing our mistakes, and turning from them…not making up for them. You are on the road of love now. Don’t let yourselves swerve back into the oncoming traffic of hate.\r\n\r\nUnderstand that taking up that banner of love requires much of us. No one, Christians specifically, should ever say we are better or worse than either of you. We are all equal, all equally in need of forgiveness, and all equally capable of hypocrisy and hatred and resentment and judgment. The step you have taken requires you to lean even more deeply into the understanding of God, into what He has for you.\r\n\r\nThere is a reason that Jesus reserved His most abrupt and angriest language for the Pharisees. It is because they knew better. They had spent their lives nitpicking the minute details of the law in order to work their way forward in the ranks of heaven.\r\n\r\nThey knew better.\r\n\r\nAnd you know better.\r\n\r\nYou know what it looks like to read the Bible the way you want to read it. Now you need to read it the way God wants you to read it. You know what it looks like to judge people based on a system that even you cannot perfectly uphold. Now you need to live a life in gratitude that God does what we cannot.\r\n\r\nI thank you personally, for what you both did. You reminded me that zealotry is a dangerous temptation for even the most devout of followers. But, moreso, you reminded me that God has really long arms. He has a really wide hug and is waiting in just as much expectation for even the most seemingly unlikely of Prodigal children to return.\r\n\r\nWelcome home, says your Father. Now it is time to get to work.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nJeremy Stephens','An Open Letter to Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper','','publish','open','open','','an-open-letter-to-grace-and-megan-phelps-roper','','','2013-02-24 10:18:16','2013-02-24 18:18:16','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8461',0,'post','',2),(8513,204,'2013-03-19 11:52:16','2013-03-19 18:52:16','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\n\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\n\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\n\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and<a href=\"http://on.wsj.com/M2CTjj\"> still be new</a>—like old songs performed in a new way.\n\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\n\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\n\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\n\nYou leave us.\n\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\n\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\n\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\n\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\n\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\n\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures, and in Scripture,  you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\n\nAnd when we embrace <em>this</em>, that\'s when the adventure begins.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n*photo by bokkels\n\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-autosave','','','2013-03-19 11:52:16','2013-03-19 18:52:16','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/23/8398-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8469,176,'2013-02-16 02:31:40','2013-02-16 10:31:40','What is the truth? This question has captivated and perplexed humankind since the beginning of recorded history. Why? Because it’s a question unlike any other. Unlike asking about the political situation in the Middle East or how to pursue a better life, it’s a deep yearning for knowledge, not information. Information that is gained can just as easily be lost. The truth is not about gaining something, but realizing what is already known.\r\n\r\nAt our core is an intent to truly know the Self. Rather than an end goal to strive for, it’s a process of revealing the truth that we are something greater than our limited, material selves. This intent towards liberation is unavoidable because it is our very essence.\r\n\r\nOn the bumpy road of truth discovery, we have to get lost once in a while to really know where we’re going. Many seekers strive for instant gratification or the easy route to happiness—to find something, anything, to satisfy this deep inner urge. Though the path of liberation requires a strong will to set it into motion and to continue on the path, it’s a gradual process that takes time. When there’s no rush, letting replaces getting since there isn’t the same kind of attachment to attain something—the kind of attachment that causes many to wander off the path or avoid the truth altogether because it’s too difficult to bear.\r\n<h2>Avoidance</h2>\r\nIn our world of stuff-attainment, it’s sensible to avoid seeking the truth. It’s not like the path of truth discovery benefits us in any material sense. Quite the opposite in fact. Many truly committed truth-seekers choose to live in voluntary simplicity or live a monastic life of complete renunciation after finding that material comforts serve no purpose in realizing the truth. When realizing this many seekers hit a red light. Do we follow the green, moving forward along this path that will likely cause us to toss our desires out the window or do we pull a U-turn and hightail  it back so we can cling to the same comforts in familiar surroundings?\r\n\r\nMany resist their will and suppress the urge. Others wait until having “time on the schedule.” But if that means putting it off for many years, the inevitable crap that comes up from questioning a lifetime’s worth of conditioning gives the ego a major edge. It’s just too great a mental burden for most to bear. But even if committing ourselves to the truth, the ego still sets clever traps on the most subtle levels to catch and confuse us along the way.\r\n<h2>Doubt</h2>\r\nDoubt is the most insidious <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2011/equanimity-higher-state-happiness/\">ego trap</a>. It has a way of overwhelming and knocking us out, in some cases for an entire lifetime. Paradoxically, the same doubt that pulls us from the truth can also push us back to it as a way of saying “Nope. This isn’t good enough either”—back to being discontent with material comforts and questioning life again. It’s the ego’s way of remaining king so it can continue imposing a constant state of unease in its empire.\r\n\r\nWhat is it about doubt? Just when the sand castle starts to take shape, the universe flings out a wave to knock it over. The truth is elusive. It cannot be found simply because we already <em>are</em> the truth. It’s just a process of revealing. And through the process of revealing, deeper and deeper layers of our Self get exposed until ever subtler bits rise to the surface. And the more knowledge we gain, the more ignorant we become because we realize just how little we actually know. Frustrating at times, and a big reason why doubt walks onto the scene so often.\r\n\r\nDoubt has a way of creeping up without warning, whenever and wherever. But doubt, like anything else, is impermanent. As real as it may seem, and it does have ways of appearing really real, it too will pass.\r\n\r\nBut doubt, however, is far from bad. “Our difficulty is we are so heavily conditioned that we never look, never ask, never question, never doubt. We are all followers, we are all yes-sayers,” says J. Krishnamurti. Without doubt we’d never question what the truth is in the first place. And when the swarm of desires and aversions come knocking on the door to distract us, without doubt we’d avoid the truth until a major life event happens. And if not this lifetime, the next.\r\n<h2>Courage and surrender</h2>\r\nA wanderer was walking aimlessly through a park, eyes fixed on the ground with a dejected countenance. A wise sage sitting under a banyan tree saw her and offered a smile. The seeker accepted the welcoming smile as an invitation to talk.\r\n\r\n“Why do I keep on walking in circles in this park?” the wanderer asked.\r\n\r\n“Ask who is doing the walking and you will know,” the sage replied.\r\n\r\nThe seeker went off to contemplate the question and returned the next day with an even greater desperation bred from utter hopeless confusion—the desperation of someone who cares greatly about something, but despite being stuck, resolves with incredible will to push forward. In the depths of this misery, she returned to see the sage sitting under the same tree.\r\n\r\n“I do not know who I am, where I came from, how or when I came to be. I know nothing.”\r\n\r\n“Good. You accept not knowing with surrender. Now you will know.”\r\n\r\nImmediately a calm came over the wanderer. A feeling of Being-ness unlike anything she had ever experienced. At that point she knew. Though it was a temporary hint of knowing that quickly escaped, the potent jolt was sufficient—she knew what before she was trying to figure out.\r\n\r\nThe wanderer possessed the much-needed virtue of courage to face her difficulties until she could overcome them. Without courage there’s no chance to know the truth because there are too many distractions, too many reasons to give up, go elsewhere, do something else or get sucked into the “easy” life at some point on the long road.\r\n\r\nThe sage acknowledged the wanderer’s strong will, yet her mind was getting in the way, trying to figure out what could not be figured out. She was at a point that Karl Krumins in “Purification of Intent” refers to as the beginning of transformation. “Really understanding that ‘you can’t <em>do</em> what you think you can’ is the beginning of transformation. It’s the beginning of self-honesty.” Her mind was running mental laps until she exhausted herself. The great wealth of information she had stored in her head frustrated her because she couldn’t absorb any meaning from it.\r\n\r\nA dose of the truth came to her as an experience, facilitated by the teacher’s presence. In the ancient Indian science of Vedanta, it’s believed that awareness of Self is unexperienceable. All experiences are temporary, but the Self, being everything there is, is limitless and eternal and cannot be experienced. It is knowledge that has to be developed.\r\n<h2>The spiritual high</h2>\r\nThe wanderer experienced a breakthrough moment that gave her the necessary nudge to break free of her mental bondage. But despite its potency, it evaporated. Why is it that perfection can be experienced then so easily lost? Quite simply, because whatever can be gained can also be lost. That’s the impermanence of duality.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/self-inquiry-vedanta-james-swartz/\">Non-duality</a> is that which cannot be divided. There’s no good or bad, come or go, one or another. Everything just is. There’s no separation in the Self. According to Vedanta teacher James Swartz, “The Self is whole and complete actionless awareness.” Different spiritual traditions speak about this reality of the truth in different ways, but the underlying essence is the same.\r\n\r\nTo minds clouded with conditioning, the veil of ignorance needs to be lifted before seeing the truth. Though even when that veil of ignorance gets lifted, the momentum of our conditioning covers our eyes time and again. We can derive benefit from the highs just as the wanderer used her experience to get jolted out of stasis, but the ecstasy needs to be paired with the realization that those experiences are impermanent.\r\n\r\nUnlike experiences that come and go, the inner urge for truth is permanent. There’s no point fighting it. It drives us in the background, compelling us to experience love or connect to nature. Just as we go through the motions of the day to satisfy our physical needs, our Being subtly drives home the truth. So to stifle the search is to stifle life itself, manifesting in depression, addictions or a subtle feeling of discontent, a constant want to satisfy the hungry ghost that just cannot be satisfied.\r\n\r\nWhen approaching the intersection of truth we have apparent choices. Stop at a red. Show caution during a yellow. Proceed through a green. Fundamentally, we cannot choose to avoid the truth because it already is us. Like watching a pot of boiling water, the longer we sit at a red light, staring at it in a trance, the longer we hang out in<em>samsara</em> from one lifetime to the next. In the end, every red eventually turns green.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> writes for and edits <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a> journal of engaged living.</em>','Liberation is Inescapable','','inherit','open','open','','8247-revision-5','','','2013-02-16 02:31:40','2013-02-16 10:31:40','',8247,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8247-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8470,176,'2013-03-21 08:00:35','2013-03-21 15:00:35','A friend told me about a time he met a Navajo Indian on a reservation in Arizona. The Navajo man tossed a can he was drinking from out onto the open ground. Taken aback, my friend questioned him about his act of littering, asking him if he cared about his land or not. The Navajo man responded by saying, “Over here, over there, what’s the difference? Are we really doing something by burying it?”\r\n<div id=\"content\">\r\n<div id=\"post-10007\">\r\n\r\nSo true. The idea of taking our garbage to the landfill, burying it or burning it doesn’t solve the problem of <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/food-waste-nrdc-report/\">waste</a>. It only manages it. We’re only fooling ourselves by hiding our junk. This man had the foresight to see that we as a society are immature children unwilling to clean up our rooms, opting instead for the easy way out: hide our mess in the closet. Hide it for another day—another generation will deal with it.\r\n\r\nUnlike the child who has a mother to nag him until he cleans his room, humanity has no such watchful eye. We can go ahead and pollute as much as we want, wherever and whenever we want, but we’re not fooling anyone.\r\n\r\nA messy room means a messy mind. So why not expose the mess for all to see. That messy room is much more likely to get cleaned up and dealt with than the junk in the closet that can collect dust for lifetimes until it becomes so overwhelming we explode in a sneezing fit. And in acknowledging the mess and dealing with it we inevitably heal ourselves.\r\n\r\nMuch of the world lives surrounded by its own litter. Seeing garbage strewn across the banks of an otherwise beautiful river or padding the green grass of an urban park are sorry sights. But they are <em>truthful</em> sights. They expose the truth of our highly consumptive, wasteful ways. And in exposing the truth, they make us think. Seeing this can touch the disgust within, causing us to think twice before consuming mindlessly. And the ever-present reminders follow us wherever we go: consume less, consume <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/\">mindfully</a>.\r\n\r\nConsumption has a price. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly the packaging is or how advanced the incineration system that deals with waste, there is a cost to all waste because, according to the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. And what of the energy of conversion? Converting things to trash can’t do anything good for our energetic space since we see waste as a negative thing.\r\n\r\nConsumption and waste are two sides of the same coin. We waste largely because we overconsume. And we overconsume largely because we waste.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> edits and writes for the Engaged Living Network. You can read his writing at <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a>, <a href=\"http://greenbuildingcanada.ca\">Green Building Canada</a>, <a href=\"http://www.greenhomegnome.com\">Green Home Gnome</a> and <a href=\"http://www.greenhousegnome.com\">Greenhouse Gnome</a>.</em>','Exposing The Waste For All To See','','publish','open','open','','exposing-the-waste-for-all-to-see','','','2013-03-19 11:35:06','2013-03-19 18:35:06','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8470',0,'post','',0),(8471,176,'2013-02-16 02:41:02','2013-02-16 10:41:02','A friend told me about a time he met a Navajo Indian on a reservation in Arizona. The Navajo man tossed a can he was drinking from out onto the open ground. Taken aback, my friend questioned him about his act of littering, asking him if he cared about his land or not. The Navajo man responded by saying, “Over here, over there, what’s the difference? Are we really doing something by burying it?”\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div id=\"post-10007\">\n\nSo true. The idea of taking our garbage to the landfill, burying it or burning it doesn’t solve the problem of <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/food-waste-nrdc-report/\">waste</a>. It only manages it. We’re only fooling ourselves by hiding our junk. This man had the foresight to see that we as a society are immature children unwilling to clean up our rooms, opting instead for the easy way out: hide our mess in the closet. Hide it for another day—another generation will deal with it.\n\nUnlike the child who has a mother to nag him until he cleans his room, humanity has no such watchful eye. We can go ahead and pollute as much as we want, wherever and whenever we want, but we’re not fooling anyone.\n\nA messy room means a messy mind. So why not expose the mess for all to see. That messy room is much more likely to get cleaned up and dealt with than the junk in the closet that can collect dust for lifetimes until it becomes so overwhelming we explode in a sneezing fit. And in acknowledging the mess and dealing with it we inevitably heal ourselves.\n\nMuch of the world lives surrounded by its own litter. Seeing garbage strewn across the banks of an otherwise beautiful river or padding the green grass of an urban park are sorry sights. But they are <em>truthful</em> sights. They expose the truth of our highly consumptive, wasteful ways. And in exposing the truth, they make us think. Seeing this can touch the disgust within, causing us to think twice before consuming mindlessly. And the ever-present reminders follow us wherever we go: consume less, consume <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/\">mindfully</a>.\n\nConsumption has a price. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly the packaging is or how advanced the incineration system that deals with waste, there is a cost to all waste because, according to the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. And what of the energy of conversion? Converting things to trash can’t do anything good for our energetic space since we see waste as a negative thing.\n\nConsumption and waste are two sides of the same coin. We waste largely because we overconsume. And we overconsume largely because we waste.\n\n</div>\n</div>\n&nbsp;\n\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> edits and writes for the Engaged Living Network. You can read his writing at <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a>, <a href=\"http://greenbuildingcanada.ca\">Green Building Canada</a>, <a href=\"http://www.greenhomegnome.com\">Green Home Gnome</a> and <a href=\"http://www.greenhousegnome.com\">Greenhouse Gnome</a>.</em>','Exposing the waste for all to see','','inherit','open','open','','8470-revision','','','2013-02-16 02:41:02','2013-02-16 10:41:02','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8470-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8472,202,'2013-03-25 08:00:19','2013-03-25 15:00:19','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n<h2>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</h2>\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least <em>somewhat</em> relevant through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, You-Tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?\r\n\r\n<i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>\r\n<h2>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</h2>\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swim, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n<h2>3) Whose Gonna Lead It?</h2>\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  <em>Or</em> makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  <em>Or</em> has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or a parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  <em>Or</em> the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  <em>Or</em> basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>\r\n<h2>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>goal</em> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT <em>and</em> a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\r\n<h2>5) Theology or Ethics?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>content</em> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  <em>Or</em>, even worse, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n<h2>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>tenor</em> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n<h2>7) How Do We Do That at Our Church?</h2>\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about by visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <em>reproduceability.</em>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you <em>really</em>?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<strong>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</strong>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Relevance: The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','publish','open','open','','relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2','','','2013-03-22 15:26:08','2013-03-22 22:26:08','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8472',0,'post','',6),(8473,202,'2013-02-16 08:55:06','2013-02-16 16:55:06','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li><b>Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b></li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li><b>Whose Gonna Lead It?</b></li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\n\n&nbsp;\n\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\n\n&nbsp;\n\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n<ol>\n	<li><b> How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b></li>\n</ol>\n&nbsp;\n\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\n\n&nbsp;\n\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>','To Be Relevant or Not','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision','','','2013-02-16 08:55:06','2013-02-16 16:55:06','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8474,202,'2013-02-16 09:02:51','2013-02-16 17:02:51','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\n\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\n\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\n\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\n\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\n\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\n\n<b>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\n\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\n\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\n\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\n\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\n\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\n\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\n\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\n\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\n\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\n\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\n\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\n\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\n\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\n\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\n\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\n\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\n\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\n\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\n\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\n\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\n\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\n\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\n\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\n\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\n\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\n\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\n\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\n\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-2','','','2013-02-16 09:02:51','2013-02-16 17:02:51','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8475,202,'2013-02-16 09:16:01','2013-02-16 17:16:01','','Concert Cropped','','inherit','open','open','','concert-cropped','','','2013-02-16 09:16:01','2013-02-16 17:16:01','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Concert-Cropped.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8476,202,'2013-02-16 09:06:29','2013-02-16 17:06:29','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\n\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\n\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\n\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\n\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\n\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\n\n<b>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\n\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\n\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\n\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\n\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\n\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\n\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\n\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\n\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\n\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\n\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\n\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\n\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\n\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\n\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\n\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\n\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\n\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\n\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\n\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\n\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\n\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\n\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\n\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\n\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\n\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\n\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\n\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\n\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\n\n&nbsp;\n\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\n\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-3','','','2013-02-16 09:06:29','2013-02-16 17:06:29','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8477,202,'2013-02-16 09:16:37','2013-02-16 17:16:37','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-4','','','2013-02-16 09:16:37','2013-02-16 17:16:37','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8478,202,'2013-02-16 09:23:05','2013-02-16 17:23:05','','Crowded Church','','inherit','open','open','','crowded-church','','','2013-02-16 09:23:05','2013-02-16 17:23:05','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8479,202,'2013-02-16 09:16:55','2013-02-16 17:16:55','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-5','','','2013-02-16 09:16:55','2013-02-16 17:16:55','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8480,202,'2013-02-16 09:27:56','2013-02-16 17:27:56','','Safe Racoon','','inherit','open','open','','safe-racoon','','','2013-02-16 09:27:56','2013-02-16 17:27:56','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8481,202,'2013-02-16 09:23:54','2013-02-16 17:23:54','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8478\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-6','','','2013-02-16 09:23:54','2013-02-16 17:23:54','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(8482,202,'2013-02-16 09:28:19','2013-02-16 17:28:19','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8478\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8480\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-7','','','2013-02-16 09:28:19','2013-02-16 17:28:19','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8483,202,'2013-02-16 09:37:56','2013-02-16 17:37:56','','Questioning Monkey','','inherit','open','open','','questioning-monkey','','','2013-02-16 09:37:56','2013-02-16 17:37:56','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8484,202,'2013-02-16 09:30:25','2013-02-16 17:30:25','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-8','','','2013-02-16 09:30:25','2013-02-16 17:30:25','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8485,202,'2013-02-16 09:38:28','2013-02-16 17:38:28','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-9','','','2013-02-16 09:38:28','2013-02-16 17:38:28','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(8486,202,'2013-02-16 09:39:23','2013-02-16 17:39:23','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-10','','','2013-02-16 09:39:23','2013-02-16 17:39:23','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(8487,202,'2013-02-16 09:43:02','2013-02-16 17:43:02','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  On a personal level, it requires a lot of commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by Roland Martinson about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, has a goatee, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth camp planning worship and doing leadership development with exceptional high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-11','','','2013-02-16 09:43:02','2013-02-16 17:43:02','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(8490,202,'2013-02-16 10:38:08','2013-02-16 18:38:08','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least \"somewhat relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT and a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-14','','','2013-02-16 10:38:08','2013-02-16 18:38:08','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-14/',0,'revision','',0),(8488,202,'2013-02-16 10:01:27','2013-02-16 18:01:27','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIts also a tough needle to thread because its a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and frequently conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least somewhat “relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  But when they finally get to swim for themselves, it was incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will loose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry separate from the “big church,” an entity all its own that keeps the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they make the transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>Who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then evangelize to them and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT or a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  What priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical things kids can do in their lives to live better than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “loose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-12','','','2013-02-16 10:01:27','2013-02-16 18:01:27','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-12/',0,'revision','',0),(8489,202,'2013-02-16 10:35:48','2013-02-16 18:35:48','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.  Still others seem to suggest that a ministry’s degree of “relevance” is determined by what the youth minister finds interesting, as in this post <a href=\"http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/\">decrying the mythic hipster-youth-pastor-in-skinny-jeans</a> as too relevant while borrowing copious numbers of illustrations straight from popular youth/college culture.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least \"somewhat relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, you-tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swam, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT and a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  Or, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about from visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-13','','','2013-02-16 10:35:48','2013-02-16 18:35:48','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-13/',0,'revision','',0),(8578,0,'2013-03-20 21:27:12','2013-03-21 04:27:12','Hi,\r\n\r\nI am ken.  I like the  webazine.  I was wondering  if the magazine holds social gatherings in the metro-detroit area.  If so may i come please? Thanks.  Please be nice in your reply no matter what the answer.\r\n\r\nThanks,\r\nKen\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: ken murphy\nAUTHOR EMAIL: writetoken@yahoo.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 174.141.213.63\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; ken murphy\n    [Email] =&gt; writetoken@yahoo.com\n    [Comment] =&gt; Hi,\r\n\r\nI am ken.  I like the  webazine.  I was wondering  if the magazine holds social gatherings in the metro-detroit area.  If so may i come please? Thanks.  Please be nice in your reply no matter what the answer.\r\n\r\nThanks,\r\nKen\n)\n','ken murphy - 2013-03-20 21:27:12','','publish','open','open','','bcd1ced143477a7be3827524793ef9c2','','','2013-03-20 21:27:12','2013-03-21 04:27:12','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8578',0,'feedback','',0),(8549,202,'2013-02-19 11:40:25','2013-02-19 19:40:25','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n<h2>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</h2>\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least <em>somewhat</em> relevant through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, You-Tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?\r\n\r\n<i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>\r\n<h2>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</h2>\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swim, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n<h2>3) Whose Gonna Lead It?</h2>\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  <em>Or</em> makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  <em>Or</em> has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or a parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  <em>Or</em> the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  <em>Or</em> basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>\r\n<h2>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>goal</em> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT <em>and</em> a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\r\n<h2>5) Theology or Ethics?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>content</em> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  <em>Or</em>, even worse, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n<h2>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</h2>\r\nThis question has to do with the <em>tenor</em> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n<h2>7) How Do We Do That at Our Church?</h2>\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about by visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <em>reproduceability.</em>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you <em>really</em>?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<strong>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</strong>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-16','','','2013-02-19 11:40:25','2013-02-19 19:40:25','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8472-revision-16/',0,'revision','',0),(8495,202,'2013-02-16 10:51:26','2013-02-16 18:51:26','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\r\n\r\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\r\n\r\n<b>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</b>\r\n\r\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\r\n\r\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least \"somewhat relevant” through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, You-Tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?  <i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</b>\r\n\r\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\r\n\r\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swim, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\r\n\r\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\r\n\r\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Whose</strong><b> Gonna Lead It?</b>\r\n\r\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\r\n\r\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  Or makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  Or has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or a parent on the youth committee.\r\n\r\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\r\n\r\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  Or the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  Or basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\r\n\r\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>goal</i> of a youth ministry.\r\n\r\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT <em>and</em> a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\r\n\r\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\r\n\r\n<b>5) Theology or Ethics?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>content</i> of what we teach our youth.\r\n\r\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\r\n\r\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  <em>Or</em>, even worse, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\r\n\r\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\r\n\r\n<b><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</b>\r\n\r\nThis question has to do with the <i>tenor</i> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\r\n\r\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\r\n\r\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\r\n\r\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\r\n\r\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\r\n\r\n<strong>7)  </strong><b>How Do We Do That at Our Church?</b>\r\n\r\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about by visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\r\n\r\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <i>reproduceability.</i>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\r\n\r\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you really?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\r\n\r\n<b>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</b>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-15','','','2013-02-16 10:51:26','2013-02-16 18:51:26','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8472-revision-15/',0,'revision','',0),(8508,67,'2013-02-19 18:39:57','2013-02-20 02:39:57','I met <em><a href=\"http://caseycease.com/\" title=\"Casey Cease\">Casey Cease</a> </em>while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <a href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\" title=\"Tragedy to Truth\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.\n\nCasey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in T<a href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\" title=\"Tragedy to Truth\">ragedy to Truth</a>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part.\n\nCasey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “I was just like you.” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. \n\nThings inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"Tragedy\" of this story.\n\nDeath has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       \n\n                               \n\nCasey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.\n\nAs Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. \n\nAs Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In Acts 17:22-31, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: “We shall hear you again concerning this.” \n\nIn reading Tragedy to Truth, some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, “I will hear you again concerning this.” Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.           ','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-5','','','2013-02-19 18:39:57','2013-02-20 02:39:57','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8501,67,'2013-02-19 16:18:32','2013-02-20 00:18:32','','t2t_bookcover_1024x1024','','inherit','open','open','','t2t_bookcover_1024x1024','','','2013-02-19 16:18:32','2013-02-20 00:18:32','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/t2t_bookcover_1024x1024.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8503,67,'2013-02-19 16:21:41','2013-02-20 00:21:41','','150668_277219802405569_284936343_n','','inherit','open','open','','150668_277219802405569_284936343_n','','','2013-02-19 16:21:41','2013-02-20 00:21:41','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/150668_277219802405569_284936343_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8498,67,'2013-02-19 16:14:00','2013-02-20 00:14:00','','Casey_Cease_-_2009.medium','','inherit','open','open','','casey_cease_-_2009-medium','','','2013-02-19 16:14:00','2013-02-20 00:14:00','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Casey_Cease_-_2009.medium.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8499,67,'2013-02-19 16:11:41','2013-02-20 00:11:41','&nbsp;\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a></em> while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is <i>the</i> most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <a title=\"tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “<i>I was just like you.</i>” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Things inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"<i>Tragedy</i>\" of this story.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Death has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">                                </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\"><em>Acts 17:22-31</em></a>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: <i>“</i><i>We shall hear you again concerning this.” </i></span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">In reading <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a><span style=\"color: #ffa500\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">,</span></span> some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, <i>“I will hear you again concerning this.”</i> Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.\n</span></span>\n\n</div>','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision','','','2013-02-19 16:11:41','2013-02-20 00:11:41','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8502,67,'2013-02-19 16:18:20','2013-02-20 00:18:20','&nbsp;\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a></em> while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is <i>the</i> most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <a title=\"tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “<i>I was just like you.</i>” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Things inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"<i>Tragedy</i>\" of this story.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Death has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">                                </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.</span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\"><em>Acts 17:22-31</em></a>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: <i>“</i><i>We shall hear you again concerning this.” </i></span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">In reading <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>[gallery]\n\n</span></span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #ffa500\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">,</span></span> some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, <i>“I will hear you again concerning this.”</i> Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.\n\n</div>','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-2','','','2013-02-19 16:18:20','2013-02-20 00:18:20','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8504,67,'2013-02-19 16:18:51','2013-02-20 00:18:51','&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a></em> while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is <i>the</i> most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <a title=\"tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “<i>I was just like you.</i>” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Things inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"<i>Tragedy</i>\" of this story.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Death has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">                                </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\"><em>Acts 17:22-31</em></a>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: <i>“</i><i>We shall hear you again concerning this.” </i></span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">In reading <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>[gallery]\r\n\r\n</span></span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #ffa500\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">,</span></span> some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, <i>“I will hear you again concerning this.”</i> Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.\r\n\r\n</div>','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-3','','','2013-02-19 16:18:51','2013-02-20 00:18:51','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8505,67,'2013-02-19 16:23:20','2013-02-20 00:23:20','','tttbook','','inherit','open','open','','tttbook','','','2013-02-19 16:23:20','2013-02-20 00:23:20','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tttbook.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8506,67,'2013-02-19 16:21:54','2013-02-20 00:21:54','&nbsp;\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a></em> while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is <i>the</i> most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <a title=\"tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “<i>I was just like you.</i>” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Things inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"<i>Tragedy</i>\" of this story.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Death has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">                                </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Casey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.</span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">As Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\"><em>Acts 17:22-31</em></a>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: <i>“</i><i>We shall hear you again concerning this.” </i></span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"> </span></span>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-family: \'Helvetica Neue\',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">In reading <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>[gallery]\r\n\r\n</span></span>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #ffa500\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">,</span></span> some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, <i>“I will hear you again concerning this.”</i> Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.\r\n\r\n</div>','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-4','','','2013-02-19 16:21:54','2013-02-20 00:21:54','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8509,67,'2013-02-19 18:40:57','2013-02-20 02:40:57','I met <em><a href=\"http://caseycease.com/\" title=\"Casey Cease\">Casey Cease</a> </em>while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <a href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\" title=\"Tragedy to Truth\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.\n\nCasey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <em>Tragedy to Truth</em>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part.\n\nCasey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “I was just like you.” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there. \n\nThings inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"Tragedy\" of this story.\n\nDeath has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.       \n\n                               \n\nCasey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.\n\nAs Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me.  If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation. \n\nAs Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In Acts 17:22-31, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: “We shall hear you again concerning this.” \n\nIn reading Tragedy to Truth, some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, “I will hear you again concerning this.” Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.           ','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-6','','','2013-02-19 18:40:57','2013-02-20 02:40:57','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/19/8496-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(8510,1,'2013-02-20 10:00:14','2013-02-20 18:00:14','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8501\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8501\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8501\" alt=\"t2t_bookcover_1024x1024\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/t2t_bookcover_1024x1024-200x300.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"195\" /></a>I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a> </em>while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.\n\nCasey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part.\n\nCasey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “I was just like you.” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there.\n\nThings inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"Tragedy\" of this story.\n\nDeath has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.\n\nCasey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.\n\nAs Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me. If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation.\n\nAs Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <em><a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\">Acts 17:22-31</a></em>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: “We shall hear you again concerning this.”\n\nIn reading <em>Tragedy to Truth</em>, some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, “I will hear you again concerning this.” Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-7','','','2013-02-20 10:00:14','2013-02-20 18:00:14','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/20/8496-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8511,1,'2013-02-20 10:00:16','2013-02-20 18:00:16','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8501\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8501\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8501\" alt=\"t2t_bookcover_1024x1024\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/t2t_bookcover_1024x1024-200x300.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"195\" /></a>I met <em><a title=\"Casey Cease\" href=\"http://caseycease.com/\">Casey Cease</a> </em>while we were both making our way through seminary. Our paths crossed from time to time as we shared a couple of classes together, but we didn\'t know each other very well past the superficial acquaintance. Other than the occasional greeting in the hallways while waiting for classes to begin, I don\'t think we shared more than a few words during those four years at Southwestern. This often happens as we journey through life. Our fast-paced culture drives us in different directions, with our field of vision focused directly in front of us. People pass on the left and right, quietly in our blind spots as we push the speed limit, hoping to \"get there\" without being bothered. Unfortunately, and much to our disadvantage, we often realize that we’ve missed scenery along the way that would have blessed our souls and made the journey all the more brighter. Casey was that scenery that I missed on my journey, and now knowing more of his story though his book <a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\"><em>Tragedy to Truth</em></a>, I wish that I would have slowed down just a bit and glanced through my side windows.\r\n\r\nCasey and I are also both writers who have been able to incorporate writing into our ministries. One of the most important elements of good writing is the ability to tell a story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the most important aspect of communicating through the written word. Casey has the ability to tell a story, and reveals that fact very clearly in <em><a title=\"Tragedy to Truth\" href=\"http://tragedytotruth.com/\">Tragedy to Truth</a></em>. As I began to read the first few pages, I was given the opportunity to be an observer and was transported into a story of which I felt I was part.\r\n\r\nCasey and I have also both battled anxiety through much of our lives. As the book begins, I read of a sensitive boy that is dealing with childhood anxiety and I share his fear. Through his vivid description of his early years of life, I remembered with sadness similar scenarios in my own life. As we walked together in the story through junior high, I began to get to know Casey. I remembered the similar experiences of awkwardness during these years of life and the struggles that most of us face in trying to fit in while developing an identity of our own. As Casey shared his first encounters with the opposite sex, I remembered that familiar feeling of indescribable joy in the pit of my stomach, and felt the pain that assuredly always accompanies it. Junior high is a tough time for many kids, and Casey does an incredible job of painting that picture with vivid imagery. He takes you back in time, puts his arm around you and confesses, “I was just like you.” You feel it. You hear it. You smell it. You’re there.\r\n\r\nThings inevitably change in high school, and Casey paints a picture of striking and contrasting ups and downs that make his story unique. I felt as if I was more of an observer at this point of his journey, but none the less felt captivated by the story. It becomes obvious that the path of his journey is becoming darker and I began to read with nervous anticipation of what was to come. Bad decisions, creating false personas, feelings of isolation and self-destruction become elements of Casey\'s story. The warning signs begin to appear in on the road. Yield. Proceed With Caution. Rough Road. Reduce Speed Now. Road Narrows. And although I could not relate to all of the particulars of his journey, I could feel the intense pain. I shared the fear, anger and frustration and was saddened by the turn of events that culminate in the \"Tragedy\" of this story.\r\n\r\nDeath has a feel to it when encountered face to face. I could feel death as I began to read of the life changing event that is the pivot upon which this story turns. The eerie cloud of unexpected death covered me as Casey shares this dark part of his life. Feeling as though I was standing at the scene of the accident, I could smell the gasoline, oil and engine fluids mixed with blood that must have been pouring on the street. I could feel the chill in the air as well as the chill upon Casey\'s soul as he became conscious of what had happened. I could hear the screams and panic in voices as others reacted to their surroundings. I could hear the distant whine of police cars and emergency vehicles and felt the fear that must have overwhelmed him at the exact moment that reality joined the unconscious. I felt as if I were the one sitting in a crashed vehicle, covered in glass and blood. I imagined the feeling of not knowing exactly what had happened, but knowing something tragic had occurred and that life as Casey knew it was about to be drastically altered. Casey\'s life was altered forever, and this is this is the point when truth begins to be ushered into his life.\r\n\r\nCasey earns the right to share his faith with you. By building trust in sharing his story, the reader senses that trust has been built and I found myself eagerly wanting to hear him out. I will admit that even though I work in ministry as well, I’m not a big fan of traditional evangelism. The “in your face” techniques never worked with me before I found Christ, and they don’t appeal to me now. I believe in building relationships and sharing my faith through my life, actions and love. From all practical perspectives, I could have tuned out during the second half of Casey’s book. But there is one element that kept me reading, engaged and connected with his story: Love.\r\n\r\nAs Casey shares the details of how he found Christ, you sense nothing but love for the reader; not just “readers” in general, but “reader”, because he\'s talking to you. As I read of Casey’s faith, I felt as we were sitting at a table in Starbucks. He clearly reveals how his story is intractably connected to his faith in Christ and this kept me listening and wanting to know more. I found myself wanting to continue reading because I felt that Casey cared about me. If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I may not be convinced, but I would have quite a bit of thinking to do about Christianity. I would dig deeper. I would read more. And had I not already been conversing with the God of the universe, I would definitely consider initiating a conversation.\r\n\r\nAs Casey shares his faith in Christ, I imagined the Apostle Paul, standing on Mars Hill while debating with the Epicureans and Stoics in ancient Greece. As he pleads his case with love and compassion, revealing the identity of the UNKNOWN GOD, the philosophers of the day listen with interest, fascination and anticipation of a new possible truth being revealed. In <em><a title=\"Acts 17:22-31\" href=\"http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&amp;version=NIV\">Acts 17:22-31</a></em>, the words pour from Paul’s heart because the truths that he speaks of are intertwined with the truths of his own life. The facts are presented, his heart is poured out, his case is made. And as he ties everything together in the truth of the Resurrection, some walked away unconvinced, but some opened the door for further discussion: “We shall hear you again concerning this.”\r\n\r\nIn reading <em>Tragedy to Truth</em>, some may walk away unconvinced. But many will close its pages, reflect on Casey’s story and resolve in their hearts, “I will hear you again concerning this.” Casey will be there; the pastor as well as the accomplished writer.','A Review of Tragedy to Truth: A Story of faith and Transformation  by Casey Cease','','inherit','open','open','','8496-revision-8','','','2013-02-20 10:00:16','2013-02-20 18:00:16','',8496,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/20/8496-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8517,1,'2013-02-24 10:13:36','2013-02-24 18:13:36','Dear Megan and Grace,\r\n\r\nI understand, in I’m sure a merely limited way, you have left Westboro Baptist Church behind. I also understand that this means, for both of you, that you have left your family behind.\r\n\r\nI want to first and foremost commend you both for the courage it took to take that step. Not only did you step away from a church that will now actively seek to distance itself from you, to preach your damnation, to make you doubt your choice at every turn…\r\n\r\n…you stepped into a world, out from under that same church’s umbrella, that has been the target of attack from a body of people, into a world that holds the two of you among that body’s representatives.\r\n\r\nThere will need to be healing on both sides. You both will need time to heal from the deep wounds of a life represented by hate and bigotry. The world will need time to heal from the misunderstanding of Jesus and His truths that you so vocally preached.\r\n\r\nBut God is in the business of healing.\r\n\r\nYou have both chosen to love. You have both chosen, taken a stand, to remove yourselves from a system that preached a warped version of the book I believe in.\r\n\r\nAnd love is bigger.\r\n\r\nLove is big enough to heal you both, and love is big enough to use you both. Love is big enough to heal Westboro Baptist Church, and love is big enough to use Westboro Baptist Church.\r\n\r\nYou were the first two to respond to that call to love…and I honestly hope there will be many more.\r\n\r\nDon’t take your time at WBC for granted. Just as the apostle Paul looked back on his time as a persecutor of Christians, you can look back on your time spent at WBC…to learn, as we all learn, how to grow from mistakes…\r\n\r\n…and to learn how much stronger God is than we are.\r\n\r\nAlso, don’t allow yourselves to live lives dictated by guilt or shame. What is done is done. Repentance means recognizing our mistakes, and turning from them…not making up for them. You are on the road of love now. Don’t let yourselves swerve back into the oncoming traffic of hate.\r\n\r\nUnderstand that taking up that banner of love requires much of us. No one, Christians specifically, should ever say we are better or worse than either of you. We are all equal, all equally in need of forgiveness, and all equally capable of hypocrisy and hatred and resentment and judgment. The step you have taken requires you to lean even more deeply into the understanding of God, into what He has for you.\r\n\r\nThere is a reason that Jesus reserved His most abrupt and angriest language for the Pharisees. It is because they knew better. They had spent their lives nitpicking the minute details of the law in order to work their way forward in the ranks of heaven.\r\n\r\nThey knew better.\r\n\r\nAnd you know better.\r\n\r\nYou know what it looks like to read the Bible the way you want to read it. Now you need to read it the way God wants you to read it. You know what it looks like to judge people based on a system that even you cannot perfectly uphold. Now you need to live a life in gratitude that God does what we cannot.\r\n\r\nI thank you personally, for what you both did. You reminded me that zealotry is a dangerous temptation for even the most devout of followers. But, moreso, you reminded me that God has really long arms. He has a really wide hug and is waiting in just as much expectation for even the most seemingly unlikely of Prodigal children to return.\r\n\r\nWelcome home, says your Father. Now it is time to get to work.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nJeremy Stephens','An open letter to Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper','','inherit','open','open','','8461-revision-2','','','2013-02-24 10:13:36','2013-02-24 18:13:36','',8461,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/24/8461-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8518,1,'2013-02-24 10:15:20','2013-02-24 18:15:20','Dear Megan and Grace,\n\nI understand, in I’m sure a merely limited way, you have left Westboro Baptist Church behind. I also understand that this means, for both of you, that you have left your family behind.\n\nI want to first and foremost commend you both for the courage it took to take that step. Not only did you step away from a church that will now actively seek to distance itself from you, to preach your damnation, to make you doubt your choice at every turn…\n\n…you stepped into a world, out from under that same church’s umbrella, that has been the target of attack from a body of people, into a world that holds the two of you among that body’s representatives.\n\nThere will need to be healing on both sides. You both will need time to heal from the deep wounds of a life represented by hate and bigotry. The world will need time to heal from the misunderstanding of Jesus and His truths that you so vocally preached.\n\nBut God is in the business of healing.\n\nYou have both chosen to love. You have both chosen, taken a stand, to remove yourselves from a system that preached a warped version of the book I believe in.\n\nAnd love is bigger.\n\nLove is big enough to heal you both, and love is big enough to use you both. Love is big enough to heal Westboro Baptist Church, and love is big enough to use Westboro Baptist Church.\n\nYou were the first two to respond to that call to love…and I honestly hope there will be many more.\n\nDon’t take your time at WBC for granted. Just as the apostle Paul looked back on his time as a persecutor of Christians, you can look back on your time spent at WBC…to learn, as we all learn, how to grow from mistakes…\n\n…and to learn how much stronger God is than we are.\n\nAlso, don’t allow yourselves to live lives dictated by guilt or shame. What is done is done. Repentance means recognizing our mistakes, and turning from them…not making up for them. You are on the road of love now. Don’t let yourselves swerve back into the oncoming traffic of hate.\n\nUnderstand that taking up that banner of love requires much of us. No one, Christians specifically, should ever say we are better or worse than either of you. We are all equal, all equally in need of forgiveness, and all equally capable of hypocrisy and hatred and resentment and judgment. The step you have taken requires you to lean even more deeply into the understanding of God, into what He has for you.\n\nThere is a reason that Jesus reserved His most abrupt and angriest language for the Pharisees. It is because they knew better. They had spent their lives nitpicking the minute details of the law in order to work their way forward in the ranks of heaven.\n\nThey knew better.\n\nAnd you know better.\n\nYou know what it looks like to read the Bible the way you want to read it. Now you need to read it the way God wants you to read it. You know what it looks like to judge people based on a system that even you cannot perfectly uphold. Now you need to live a life in gratitude that God does what we cannot.\n\nI thank you personally, for what you both did. You reminded me that zealotry is a dangerous temptation for even the most devout of followers. But, moreso, you reminded me that God has really long arms. He has a really wide hug and is waiting in just as much expectation for even the most seemingly unlikely of Prodigal children to return.\n\nWelcome home, says your Father. Now it is time to get to work.\n\nSincerely,\n\nJeremy Stephens','An open letter to Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper','','inherit','open','open','','8461-autosave','','','2013-02-24 10:15:20','2013-02-24 18:15:20','',8461,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/24/8461-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8519,1,'2013-02-24 10:17:26','2013-02-24 18:17:26','','megan phelps','','inherit','open','open','','megan-phelps','','','2013-02-24 10:17:26','2013-02-24 18:17:26','',8461,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/megan-phelps.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8520,1,'2013-02-24 10:14:10','2013-02-24 18:14:10','Dear Megan and Grace,\r\n\r\nI understand, in I’m sure a merely limited way, you have left Westboro Baptist Church behind. I also understand that this means, for both of you, that you have left your family behind.\r\n\r\nI want to first and foremost commend you both for the courage it took to take that step. Not only did you step away from a church that will now actively seek to distance itself from you, to preach your damnation, to make you doubt your choice at every turn…\r\n\r\n…you stepped into a world, out from under that same church’s umbrella, that has been the target of attack from a body of people, into a world that holds the two of you among that body’s representatives.\r\n\r\nThere will need to be healing on both sides. You both will need time to heal from the deep wounds of a life represented by hate and bigotry. The world will need time to heal from the misunderstanding of Jesus and His truths that you so vocally preached.\r\n\r\nBut God is in the business of healing.\r\n\r\nYou have both chosen to love. You have both chosen, taken a stand, to remove yourselves from a system that preached a warped version of the book I believe in.\r\n\r\nAnd love is bigger.\r\n\r\nLove is big enough to heal you both, and love is big enough to use you both. Love is big enough to heal Westboro Baptist Church, and love is big enough to use Westboro Baptist Church.\r\n\r\nYou were the first two to respond to that call to love…and I honestly hope there will be many more.\r\n\r\nDon’t take your time at WBC for granted. Just as the apostle Paul looked back on his time as a persecutor of Christians, you can look back on your time spent at WBC…to learn, as we all learn, how to grow from mistakes…\r\n\r\n…and to learn how much stronger God is than we are.\r\n\r\nAlso, don’t allow yourselves to live lives dictated by guilt or shame. What is done is done. Repentance means recognizing our mistakes, and turning from them…not making up for them. You are on the road of love now. Don’t let yourselves swerve back into the oncoming traffic of hate.\r\n\r\nUnderstand that taking up that banner of love requires much of us. No one, Christians specifically, should ever say we are better or worse than either of you. We are all equal, all equally in need of forgiveness, and all equally capable of hypocrisy and hatred and resentment and judgment. The step you have taken requires you to lean even more deeply into the understanding of God, into what He has for you.\r\n\r\nThere is a reason that Jesus reserved His most abrupt and angriest language for the Pharisees. It is because they knew better. They had spent their lives nitpicking the minute details of the law in order to work their way forward in the ranks of heaven.\r\n\r\nThey knew better.\r\n\r\nAnd you know better.\r\n\r\nYou know what it looks like to read the Bible the way you want to read it. Now you need to read it the way God wants you to read it. You know what it looks like to judge people based on a system that even you cannot perfectly uphold. Now you need to live a life in gratitude that God does what we cannot.\r\n\r\nI thank you personally, for what you both did. You reminded me that zealotry is a dangerous temptation for even the most devout of followers. But, moreso, you reminded me that God has really long arms. He has a really wide hug and is waiting in just as much expectation for even the most seemingly unlikely of Prodigal children to return.\r\n\r\nWelcome home, says your Father. Now it is time to get to work.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nJeremy Stephens','An open letter to Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper','','inherit','open','open','','8461-revision-3','','','2013-02-24 10:14:10','2013-02-24 18:14:10','',8461,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/24/8461-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8521,1,'2013-02-24 10:17:39','2013-02-24 18:17:39','Dear Megan and Grace,\r\n\r\nI understand, in I’m sure a merely limited way, you have left Westboro Baptist Church behind. I also understand that this means, for both of you, that you have left your family behind.\r\n\r\nI want to first and foremost commend you both for the courage it took to take that step. Not only did you step away from a church that will now actively seek to distance itself from you, to preach your damnation, to make you doubt your choice at every turn…\r\n\r\n…you stepped into a world, out from under that same church’s umbrella, that has been the target of attack from a body of people, into a world that holds the two of you among that body’s representatives.\r\n\r\nThere will need to be healing on both sides. You both will need time to heal from the deep wounds of a life represented by hate and bigotry. The world will need time to heal from the misunderstanding of Jesus and His truths that you so vocally preached.\r\n\r\nBut God is in the business of healing.\r\n\r\nYou have both chosen to love. You have both chosen, taken a stand, to remove yourselves from a system that preached a warped version of the book I believe in.\r\n\r\nAnd love is bigger.\r\n\r\nLove is big enough to heal you both, and love is big enough to use you both. Love is big enough to heal Westboro Baptist Church, and love is big enough to use Westboro Baptist Church.\r\n\r\nYou were the first two to respond to that call to love…and I honestly hope there will be many more.\r\n\r\nDon’t take your time at WBC for granted. Just as the apostle Paul looked back on his time as a persecutor of Christians, you can look back on your time spent at WBC…to learn, as we all learn, how to grow from mistakes…\r\n\r\n…and to learn how much stronger God is than we are.\r\n\r\nAlso, don’t allow yourselves to live lives dictated by guilt or shame. What is done is done. Repentance means recognizing our mistakes, and turning from them…not making up for them. You are on the road of love now. Don’t let yourselves swerve back into the oncoming traffic of hate.\r\n\r\nUnderstand that taking up that banner of love requires much of us. No one, Christians specifically, should ever say we are better or worse than either of you. We are all equal, all equally in need of forgiveness, and all equally capable of hypocrisy and hatred and resentment and judgment. The step you have taken requires you to lean even more deeply into the understanding of God, into what He has for you.\r\n\r\nThere is a reason that Jesus reserved His most abrupt and angriest language for the Pharisees. It is because they knew better. They had spent their lives nitpicking the minute details of the law in order to work their way forward in the ranks of heaven.\r\n\r\nThey knew better.\r\n\r\nAnd you know better.\r\n\r\nYou know what it looks like to read the Bible the way you want to read it. Now you need to read it the way God wants you to read it. You know what it looks like to judge people based on a system that even you cannot perfectly uphold. Now you need to live a life in gratitude that God does what we cannot.\r\n\r\nI thank you personally, for what you both did. You reminded me that zealotry is a dangerous temptation for even the most devout of followers. But, moreso, you reminded me that God has really long arms. He has a really wide hug and is waiting in just as much expectation for even the most seemingly unlikely of Prodigal children to return.\r\n\r\nWelcome home, says your Father. Now it is time to get to work.\r\n\r\nSincerely,\r\n\r\nJeremy Stephens','An open letter to Grace and Megan Phelps-Roper','','inherit','open','open','','8461-revision-4','','','2013-02-24 10:17:39','2013-02-24 18:17:39','',8461,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/24/8461-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8524,1,'2013-02-27 19:17:42','2013-02-28 03:17:42','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8442\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8442\"><img alt=\"nixon-victory-sign\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/nixon-victory-sign-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\nOkay, this is an easy one. I was getting tired of all the polling and endless speculating before the 2012 elections.  Two days after President Obama was re-elected, the Republicans were threatening to run us off the fiscal cliff and were still trying to find a cover-up in Benghazi.  It’s draining and, frankly, I’m bored with the same old arguments that bounce around the media echo-chamber by the same old talking heads.  I feel like I’m watching one long rerun.  So I’ve decided to give up politics for Lent.  (Just in case you think I’m getting off easy, I’m also giving up eating chips.)\n\nIt’s not that there aren’t important issues that are being decided, such as how to reduce the national deficit, how to create more jobs for more people, instilling reasonable gun control laws, and reducing carbon emissions.   The list goes on and on.   I’m just not sure I have the wherewithal to stay emotionally connected with the outcomes, much less all the political wrangling to get there.  Basically, I trust the guy in the Oval Office.   I think he’s a reasonable person who is willing to compromise for the greater good.   Maybe, sometimes, too willing to compromise.\n\nBesides being weary of the rhetoric, I’d like to think I’m abstaining from politics because I have better things to do with my time and emotional energy.   For example, I’ve got a job that requires some attention.   I sell residential real estate and the market is starting to come back.  As most of you know, I like to write and I’ve been editing a couple of projects that I hope to put out there someday soon.  I started volunteering as a counselor at a food pantry/emergency relief center in our area.   On top of that, I try to walk my dog and have dinner with my wife and occasionally get to the gym.\n\nMy point is I feel like I need concentrate on myself and my immediate circle.  It’s not as exciting as the stuff that makes national news, but it’s real to me.   I like to think I deeply care about this country – and this world for that matter.  At the same time, I feel somewhat disconnected from immigration reform or budget debates.   While being aware of the issues is important for a healthy functioning democracy, I cannot lower the deficit, or provide someone with a work visa, or put a background check in place for a person purchasing a gun.  I can have an opinion (and a vote), but that’s about it.\n\nI used to live in Texas when I was a kid, so I grew up being a Dallas Cowboys fan.  All these years later, I still pull for the Cowboys.  Sometimes, I pull so hard I actually pull something.  And then it occurred to me: I can’t change the outcome of the game one iota, especially not from my couch in Tennessee.   So, what’s the point in being so emotionally invested?   Of course, politics has much more serious ramifications than a football game.   The policies and laws can affect millions of people, for good or bad.   And, it’s important for the media to referee the game and keep us informed of the score.\n\nAt the same time, I feel an overwhelming need to refocus my energies on me.  I hope that doesn’t sound selfish.   I don’t think I mean it that way.   Let me try again… I need to focus my energies on the things that I can control and the people that I know.  The good news is, if I want to get something done, I don’t have to scrape together the votes or wait out a filibuster.  There is no one who can stop me, because I have executive privilege of my own life.   And that’s pretty empowering.    The only question is - what to do with all this power?\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville TN and is the author of the book <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">“Hometown Prophet.”  </a>','Why I\'m Giving Up Politics for Lent','','inherit','open','open','','8439-revision-3','','','2013-02-27 19:17:42','2013-02-28 03:17:42','',8439,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/27/8439-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8525,1,'2013-02-12 23:11:36','2013-02-13 07:11:36','I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\r\n\r\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\r\n\r\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\r\n\r\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\r\n\r\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\r\n\r\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\r\n\r\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against it, but people did</a>.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the fabled \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\r\n\r\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\r\n\r\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\r\n\r\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of course not. They\'re going to administer it in our children\'s vaccines. Or in our booster shots. Or in other nefarious ways. That\'s how. Deep breath. There you go.\r\n\r\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\r\n\r\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\r\n\r\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"Did you notice the thing about terrorism?\" or \"Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?\" or \"Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country?\" I finally said, \"Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me.\"\r\n\r\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\r\n\r\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\r\n\r\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\r\n\r\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-revision-2','','','2013-02-12 23:11:36','2013-02-13 07:11:36','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/12/8444-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8526,1,'2013-02-27 19:22:17','2013-02-28 03:22:17','','obama stern','','inherit','open','open','','obama-stern','','','2013-02-27 19:22:17','2013-02-28 03:22:17','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/obama-stern.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8527,1,'2013-02-27 19:19:00','2013-02-28 03:19:00','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8452\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8452\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8452\" alt=\"fbfridge\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fbfridge.jpg\" width=\"331\" height=\"162\" /></a>I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\n\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\n\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\n\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\n\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\n\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\n\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against it, but people did</a>.\n\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the fabled \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\n\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\n\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\n\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of course not. They\'re going to administer it in our children\'s vaccines. Or in our booster shots. Or in other nefarious ways. That\'s how. Deep breath. There you go.\n\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\n\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\n\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"Did you notice the thing about terrorism?\" or \"Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?\" or \"Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country?\" I finally said, \"Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me.\"\n\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\n\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\n\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\n\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\n\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-revision-3','','','2013-02-27 19:19:00','2013-02-28 03:19:00','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/27/8444-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8528,1,'2013-02-27 19:22:38','2013-02-28 03:22:38','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8452\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8452\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8452\" alt=\"fbfridge\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fbfridge.jpg\" width=\"331\" height=\"162\" /></a>I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\r\n\r\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\r\n\r\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\r\n\r\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\r\n\r\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\r\n\r\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\r\n\r\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against it, but people did</a>.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the fabled \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\r\n\r\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\r\n\r\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\r\n\r\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of course not. They\'re going to administer it in our children\'s vaccines. Or in our booster shots. Or in other nefarious ways. That\'s how. Deep breath. There you go.\r\n\r\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\r\n\r\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\r\n\r\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"Did you notice the thing about terrorism?\" or \"Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?\" or \"Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country?\" I finally said, \"Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me.\"\r\n\r\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\r\n\r\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\r\n\r\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\r\n\r\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-revision-4','','','2013-02-27 19:22:38','2013-02-28 03:22:38','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/27/8444-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(9137,0,'2013-06-20 04:01:48','2013-06-20 11:01:48','Hello, \r\n\r\nI am Joseph Atkins, webmaster and editor of the Gay Dating Blog. Our blog focuses on providing dating tips and advice to gay singles. In light of the pending Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of gay marriage, we have compiled a list of our favorite 100 marriage equality bloggers. I thought you and your site\'s audience might be interested in checking it out: http://www.gaydatingsites.net/top-100-marriage-equality-blogs/ . \r\n\r\nIf you do find this list to be a good resource, might you be able to link to it from your blog? Let me know if you have any questions or comments. \r\n\r\nThanks, \r\nJoseph\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Joseph Atkins\nAUTHOR EMAIL: josepha@gaydatingsites.net\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 117.197.236.249\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Joseph Atkins\n    [Email] =&gt; josepha@gaydatingsites.net\n    [Comment] =&gt; Hello, \r\n\r\nI am Joseph Atkins, webmaster and editor of the Gay Dating Blog. Our blog focuses on providing dating tips and advice to gay singles. In light of the pending Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of gay marriage, we have compiled a list of our favorite 100 marriage equality bloggers. I thought you and your site\'s audience might be interested in checking it out: http://www.gaydatingsites.net/top-100-marriage-equality-blogs/ . \r\n\r\nIf you do find this list to be a good resource, might you be able to link to it from your blog? Let me know if you have any questions or comments. \r\n\r\nThanks, \r\nJoseph\n)\n','Joseph Atkins - 2013-06-20 04:01:48','','publish','open','open','','e97433cb9078bbbf462c687b93c7bbc6','','','2013-06-20 04:01:48','2013-06-20 11:01:48','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=9137',0,'feedback','',0),(8534,12,'2013-02-27 19:23:51','2013-02-28 03:23:51','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8452\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8452\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8452\" alt=\"fbfridge\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fbfridge.jpg\" width=\"331\" height=\"162\" /></a>I enjoy living in rural Kentucky most of the time. Good people who are willing to jump at the chance to take care of you when you have a problem. People who care about one another. They smile and say \"hello\" at you, even if they don\'t know you. They take pride in themselves and their work. It\'s a lot like the town I grew up in Arkansas. I love small towns, people who love life and love their neighbors.\r\n\r\nRecently, there seems to be a growing outrage at the Obama administration and the direction it is headed in. Before the election, there seemed to be hope among people I knew that a new president would be elected and that would \"<em>fix</em>\" everything. That didn\'t happen.\r\n\r\nI have to admit, I\'m not the greatest fan of Facebook. But on my Facebook front page, there are an alarming number of posts on terrible things that appear to be happening.\r\n\r\nI thought I\'d just ignore writing about it until now, but today, I couldn\'t take it anymore. Let me state first that I\'m not a Republican or Democrat. I\'m a Libertarian. Moreover, I tend to care very less about the political things that are occurring than the people around me.\r\n\r\nIn recent days and months, I\'ve seen a large number of people accusing the government of coming after their guns. The <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8446\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8446\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8446\" alt=\"usagun\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/usagun-300x250.jpg\" width=\"236\" height=\"196\" /></a>Facebook posts read like this: \"You can come after my guns if you want, Obama, but you\'ll have to get through me first.\" The arguments stem from the idea that countries under dictator rule, like the Philippines, started with a gun nab from the general public.\r\n\r\nOver the past few months, I\'ve seen all kinds of maps, statistics, propaganda and statements made by gun owners. I understand the frustration, I really do. If I owned a large number of firearms and believed the hype of people thrown at me, I would probably believe the government was coming to get them.\r\n\r\nWorse, I\'ve seen some pretty horrible things lately. During the Sandy Hook massacre, some people rose up and said it was a farce. It was a conspiracy. Some said the government made it all up and staged it. There were no dead children. There was no \"real\" shooting. It was all staged so that the government could make a play on assault rifles and to impose gun control on the American people. <a href=\"http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/20640094/sandy-hook-conspiracy-shares-elements-with-others\">It seemed almost counter-intuitive to even argue against it, but people did</a>.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a new one popping up - Obama wants to put microchips in us and it\'s even in the Obamacare Act. Microchipping is nothing new. Rapture enthusiasts have been looking for the fabled \"Mark of the Beast\" before 1988 when Jesus was supposed to return then. Now, Facebook posts are coming in telling us that we will all have microchips installed thanks to the president. Really? Not so fast, my friend. According to people who actually read things: \"<a href=\"http://people.howstuffworks.com/obamacare-microchips.htm\">there is no language in the public law stating -- or suggesting -- that all Americans will be implanted with microchips.</a>\"\r\n\r\nBut in our Facebook, Twitter, fast-paced society of believe it first before you research it, we pass it along before we do the first Google search. We believe the worst conspiracy theory before we do the mildest bit of research.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8447\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8447\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8447\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" alt=\"conspiracy\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/conspiracy-300x300.jpg\" width=\"207\" height=\"207\" /></a>If you\'re really hard up for a conspiracy theory, check out one of the most popular conspiracy sites on the Internet: <a href=\"abovetopsecret.com\">Above Top Secret</a>. It\'s one of my guilty pleasures and has been since 2009. Every week, you\'ll find someone on there telling you that the end of the world is <em>this week</em>. The aliens are coming for us <em>this month</em>. The government is gathering people in secret prisons <em>as we speak</em>. Holy cow, we are all in for it and there\'s nothing we can do about it except write on a message board!\r\n\r\nIf we calm ourselves down and think about it does it make sense that Obama is going to mobilize all the federal resources at his call and come after our guns? Well, think about it. Since Obama took office, <a href=\"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2987775/posts\">over 65 million firearms have been purchased by Americans</a>. Does it seem rational that he\'s going to come after every single gun in the United States? Take a deep breath and answer that question. If you still aren\'t convinced, think about all the gun lobbies who have his ear and the ears of every legislator in the country. Really.\r\n\r\nAnd after that do we really think the government is going to line us up for microchipping? No of course not. They\'re going to administer it in our children\'s vaccines. Or in our booster shots. Or in other nefarious ways. That\'s how. Deep breath. There you go.\r\n\r\nYou may not like the way the economy is or the recent tax hikes. Lord knows I don\'t. You may not like the rising gas prices. I sure don\'t. But we have to control our emotions at some point. You know what a lot of the problem is? The people who vote. <a href=\"http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php\">Check out this chart that tells us how often we reelect the incumbents</a>.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8448\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8448\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8448\" alt=\"tippi\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/tippi.jpg\" width=\"260\" height=\"260\" /></a>In the past year, I\'ve become aware that people I know are \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivalism\"><em>preppers</em></a>.\" People who are preparing for the end of the world. They are building fallout shelters in their backyard, stockpiling water, food and supplies. Listen to a lot of right wing radio shows or conspiracy radio shows and you\'ll hear companies that specialize in food products that are \"<em>apocalypse ready</em>.\" Hey, more power to these people. I have a Barbie collection. So what? I\'m an all-American male that likes to have a Tippi Hedren Barbie from \"<em>The Birds</em>\" that has said birds attacking her. So what?\r\n\r\nMy dear, departed mother was a sweet mother, but she was an anxious woman. I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yet, I get my terrible anxiety from her. After my father died, she moved near me and lived alone. She didn\'t have a lot to do except take care of her cat, blog and watch CNN Headline News and The Weather Channel. All day long.\r\n\r\nAfter about six months of this, I noticed her getting very anxious about national events. She\'d say, \"Did you notice the thing about terrorism?\" or \"Do you think that the government is going to cut Social Security benefits?\" or \"Do you think we\'re going to war in such and such a country?\" I finally said, \"Mom, I love you very much. You have a wonderful life and family. Do me a favor and please, please stop watching the news. As a favor to me.\"\r\n\r\nBegrudgingly, she did. But after a few weeks, much of her anxiety subsided and <strong><em>she wasn\'t so nervous about the things in the world she had absolutely no control over.</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI watched \"<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine\"><em>Bowling for Columbine</em></a>\" recently by Michael Moore. I\'m not a Moore fan and I thought about 95% of it was overdone and sensationalized. However, the one thing I did take away from it was that Americans live in fear. He went to Canada to compare how Americans live in a whole lot more fear than Canadians do. Our media shares much of the blame for that. We buy into that fear and it effects our hearts, souls and minds.\r\n\r\nWhat can any of us do? Stop worrying. Relax! Don\'t buy into those tacky Facebook messages when we see them. Don\'t <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8449\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8449\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8449\" alt=\"lax\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/lax.jpg\" width=\"183\" height=\"135\" /></a>believe anything we read on social media before we check it out from a real, critical source. Don\'t spend too much time watching the news. Be informed on social issues, but don\'t get too worked up. Live in the now with your family, your friends. If you do have a social issue that has an impact on you, call a congressman. Then take a deep breath and move on.\r\n\r\nWe need informed citizens. We need informed citizens who vote. What we don\'t need is fanaticism, misinformation, lies and anger based on fear.\r\n\r\nMy advice? Relax. Enjoy your life. Don\'t wait for an impending doom when there are smiles and memories all around you waiting for you.','Oh, Obama! Microchips! Gun Control! Is The End Near?','','inherit','open','open','','8444-revision-5','','','2013-02-27 19:23:51','2013-02-28 03:23:51','',8444,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/27/8444-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8556,1,'2013-02-15 20:21:57','2013-02-16 04:21:57','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\n\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\n\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\n\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and still be new—like old songs sung in a new way.\n\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\n\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\n\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\n\nYou leave us.\n\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\n\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\n\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\n\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\n\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\n\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures, and in Scripture,  you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\n\nAnd when we embrace <em>this</em>, that\'s when the adventure begins.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n*photo by bokkels\n\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-34','','','2013-02-15 20:21:57','2013-02-16 04:21:57','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/15/8398-revision-34/',0,'revision','',0),(8745,202,'2013-04-11 16:17:33','2013-04-11 23:17:33','','Student Eating Pizza','','inherit','open','open','','student-eating-pizza','','','2013-04-11 16:17:33','2013-04-11 23:17:33','',8738,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Eating-Pizza.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8746,202,'2013-04-11 16:23:00','2013-04-11 23:23:00','','Ray of Light','','inherit','open','open','','ray-of-light','','','2013-04-11 16:23:00','2013-04-11 23:23:00','',8738,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ray-of-Light.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8747,202,'2013-04-11 16:27:47','2013-04-11 23:27:47','','Inviting People In','','inherit','open','open','','inviting-people-in','','','2013-04-11 16:27:47','2013-04-11 23:27:47','',8738,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Inviting-People-In.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8585,1,'2013-03-19 15:27:23','2013-03-19 22:27:23','Mad Men, a term which is referred to the advertising executives of the Madison Avenue in New York City in the 1960\'s, which is also a popular and one of the greatest American period dramas ever. Mad men premiered on 19th July, 2007 and since then it has won many awards including Emmys and Golden Globes. Centerpiece of the drama is Donald Draper (played by Jon Hamm) who is a creative director at one of the prestigious advertising firms of New York City. The screenplay revolves around his life and the people in his life which, in fact, is an exact picture of the ups and downs of an ideal executive life. Moreover, drama successfully depicts the changing moods and societal mores of the United States in 1960\'s.\r\nThe San Francisco Chronicle described series as \'stylized, visually arresting, an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man\'s world\'. No doubt, the series grips the viewer in an old-fashioned way with its historical accuracy. Furthermore, truthfully acclaimed by advertising officials of that era. Not only this, Mad Men has also been acclaimed for the revival of fashion of the 60\'s.\r\nComing towards the depth of the characters, the series critically portrays every character to its depth. There are many tragic and funny moments in the series which would just pass by if you didn\'t pay attention. \r\nThe series, so far, has been entertaining its fan since 2007 with five consecutive seasons. Recently, it has been renewed for the sixth season and the mighty Mad Men is scheduled to premier this coming 7th April on AMC channel. Sixth season is a new wave on its own and if you are looking for action packed television shows or a laugh crack this is not the show for you but if you believe in the development of characters and the plot with a pace of its own, 7th April is the date to remember.<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ht_mad_men_amc_tv_show_group_2_thg_130124_wblog.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ht_mad_men_amc_tv_show_group_2_thg_130124_wblog-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"ht_mad_men_amc_tv_show_group_2_thg_130124_wblog\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8567\" /></a>\r\n','The Mad Men are returning','','inherit','open','open','','8565-revision-3','','','2013-03-19 15:27:23','2013-03-19 22:27:23','',8565,'http://provoketive.com/2013/03/19/8565-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8546,0,'2013-03-11 14:39:48','2013-03-11 21:39:48','A few weeks ago Daisy Rain Martin, one of your writers, submitted a suggestion that I write an article for Provoketive. So far I hadn\'t heard anything, and I would like to generate an article for you. \r\n\r\nThanks!\r\nHenry Stewart, DMin\r\nAuthor, Good Faith Hunting: How Baby Boomers Help Recapture a Biblical View of Journey.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Henry Stewart\nAUTHOR EMAIL: henrys29@cox.net\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 98.177.224.108\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Henry Stewart\n    [Email] =&gt; henrys29@cox.net\n    [Comment] =&gt; A few weeks ago Daisy Rain Martin, one of your writers, submitted a suggestion that I write an article for Provoketive. So far I hadn\'t heard anything, and I would like to generate an article for you. \r\n\r\nThanks!\r\nHenry Stewart, DMin\r\nAuthor, Good Faith Hunting: How Baby Boomers Help Recapture a Biblical View of Journey.\n)\n','Henry Stewart - 2013-03-11 14:39:48','','publish','open','open','','5be0a9e6f1a6c0cc8d8f587805093888','','','2013-03-11 14:39:48','2013-03-11 21:39:48','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8546',0,'feedback','',0),(8550,0,'2013-03-13 20:03:21','2013-03-14 03:03:21','\"Is Your Pastor Holding Your Church Back?\" At the moment, I\'m thinking about those churches in which only part of the Gospel is proclaimed - either through excessive focus on just inward looking performance based piety or on just outward action. I\'ll have more of the detailed direction after this week since I\'ll be up at Len Sweet\'s compound for his Advance and the George Fox DMin post-graduate get-together. I always come back with many new thoughts!\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Henry Stewart\nAUTHOR EMAIL: henry@henrystewart.org\nAUTHOR URL: http://henrystewart.org\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 98.177.224.108\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Henry Stewart\n    [Email] =&gt; henry@henrystewart.org\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; henrystewart.org\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; \"Is Your Pastor Holding Your Church Back?\" At the moment, I\'m thinking about those churches in which only part of the Gospel is proclaimed - either through excessive focus on just inward looking performance based piety or on just outward action. I\'ll have more of the detailed direction after this week since I\'ll be up at Len Sweet\'s compound for his Advance and the George Fox DMin post-graduate get-together. I always come back with many new thoughts!\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; henrystaz\n)\n','Henry Stewart - 2013-03-13 20:03:21','','publish','open','open','','072bd2b96336a6e1777502f6ce41f8bd','','','2013-03-13 20:03:21','2013-03-14 03:03:21','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8550',0,'feedback','',0),(8807,67,'2013-04-17 11:15:52','2013-04-17 18:15:52','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/9780310336693_p0_v3_s260x4206.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8804\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/9780310336693_p0_v3_s260x4206-195x300.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" /></a>Few books have been radically instrumental in changing my perspective of the Kingdom of God. Some caused me to think. Some caused me to ask questions. Some caused me to change opinions and some changed the course of my personal ministry as a whole. One in particular has accomplished all of these, and more surprising; that book happens to  be fiction. I don\'t read a lot of fiction and consequentially, I don\'t write a lot of fiction. It\'s difficult to write, takes more time and discipline and requires more patience than I posses. Reading fiction is just as difficult because when we give our selves and our time to fiction, we take on a huge responsibility. We can read fiction  at face value, skimming through the pages, simply for the purpose of entertainment. Or we can allow ourselves to enter fiction, being taken deeper than the surface. We become part of the story, an observer that sees the details of every aspect. When we do this, we open ourselves up to the imagination, and sometimes the imagination is more powerful in spiritual transformation than reality itself.\n\nSo it is with Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron. In reading the first few pages, I found myself transported into a new and unfamiliar story that was also far too real. The story is new, fresh and alive, but also very real and close to home. When introduced to the main character, Chase Falson, I met someone for the first time, but also felt as if I had known him for years. In many ways, Chase is diametrically different than I am; personally, emotionally and professionally. But I also found that Chase was me; a mirror that was reading back words and reflecting emotions that I have felt for many years.\n\nChase is the lead pastor of the largest megachurch in New England, and the quintessential picture of evangelical success. He has jumped through every hoop, crossed every T and\n\ndotted every I. From the time he entered seminary, he has accomplished everything he set his mind to accomplish. From all reasonable perspectives, Chase Falson has finally \"arrived\". But the reader quickly realizes that his arrival does not entail a permanent stay, but a possible departure. Not a temporary departure that can be found in a refreshing retreat or sabbatical, but a departure from all that he knows and has been prepared for.\n\nFrustrated and disenchanted with the modern church model and what he sees as transparent and empty, Chase begins to ask questions. He begins to feel more and more restless in his ministry, wondering if something more exists. Faith is diminishing for Chase and questions are outnumbering answers. The tipping point comes in the death of a nine-year old girl, daughter of a fragile thirty-five-year-old ex-con alcoholic who had recently gotten sober and become a follower of Christ. \"So where\'s God now? I gave my life to Christ, did everything you told me. How could he do this?\" The  words of a grieving mother push Chase to the brink of anything he has ever experienced emotionally, spiritually or ministerially. He buries a little girl and buries his preconceived ideas of what the Church was supposed to be.\n\nThe Sunday after the funeral, Chase reaches the point of no return admitting his doubts to his congregation.  He lays himself bare, wounded and angry. Chase is no longer a minister, but one who desperately needs ministering for himself. His brokenness, frustrations and anger are laid before the church; the sacrifice of a pastor that has nothing left to give. As the congregation stands before him, Chase comes to the realization that he doesn\'t have the answers they seek, because they are the same questions he is asking himself and of God. Chase wonders if he has ever actually had answers and if some questions simply have no answer. T\n\nhe past meets the present and for Chase, they no longer mesh. \"Maybe we\'re all fools.\"  And with those words, his pilgrimage begins.\n\nDesperate for answers and forced by his elders into a leave of absence, Chase finds himself crossing the Atlantic to visit his uncle, a Franciscan priest.  It is here, in Italy, that he encounters the teachings and philosophies of Francis of Assisi, rediscovering his faith from this spiritual leader that lived 800 years ago. Realizing that Francis faced many of the same radical cultural changes that we face today, Chase finds a refreshing perspective of what being a follower of Christ truly is, what the Church should be and what the Kingdom of God is really all about.  In the transition from the middle ages to Modernity, Francis gives us wisdom as we find ourselves moving from the Modern era to the uncharted territory of the Postmodern.\n\nIn a way that very few other authors are capable of, Ian Morgan Cron tells a story that transcends the years since Francis lived. Revealing surprising parallels, he skillfully illustrates the problems that Francis faced in his day; a Church in the midst of a radical cultural, economic  and  societal shift. Realizing that the Church of today faces very similar issues, Cron paints a fictional picture that eerily resembles reality. For it is through this story that a great comfort is found in the old rather than the new. Encouragement in simplicity rather than the complex. We find that wisdom calls to us over hundreds of years and assures us that there is hope for the Church. And that hope is found in liberating possibility that we can at least consider putting aside our endless pursuit of doing something new and different, and look at what has simply been laid before us. And that in itself could, ironically, be new and different.','Review of Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim\'s Tale by Ian Morgan Cron ','','inherit','open','open','','8783-revision-14','','','2013-04-17 11:15:52','2013-04-17 18:15:52','',8783,'http://provoketive.com/2013/04/17/8783-revision-14/',0,'revision','',0),(8557,1,'2013-03-19 11:28:32','2013-03-19 18:28:32','Is life an explosion of youth, then you reach your peak relevance, importance, and connectivity, and from there things taper off and then you get older and then you die?\r\n\r\nI\'ve been thinking about this a lot lately.\r\n\r\nI love Thai food and every week after yoga practice I eat dinner at a favorite Thai restaurant. All the servers know me, but there is one server that I enjoy seeing the most. I think she likes me too, not just because I tip her well, but I think she also enjoys the conversation. I recently learned that she plays in a band. She creates original material, but she also loves to interpret old songs in her own unique style.\r\n\r\nThere is a sense where something can be new in relation to time, but still be stale. And there is also a sense where something can be old in relation to time and<a href=\"http://on.wsj.com/M2CTjj\"> still be new</a>—like old songs performed in a new way.\r\n\r\nBut it seems in our society that if something is new it is relevant, but if it is old it is irrelevant.\r\n\r\nThe line goes something like this: You are young. Then you do something, hopefully something unique. You reach your peak, and then you taper off. For a moment, it seems, you have your glory, and then at some point it\'s over and then you die. You die because there is something new that has replaced what was once new—there is a new way to go, a new style, a new theory—the next new thing.\r\n\r\nThere are reasons why older does not necessarily mean wiser, however. I think George Packer\'s <a href=\"http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/youth-age-music-news.html?mobify=0\">comments</a> in the New Yorker are spot on:\r\n<blockquote>Something unusual stopped me in these sentences from a Times article about a state-by-state study of flaws in the American electoral system: “A main goal of the exercise, which grew out of Professor Gerken’s 2009 book, ‘The Democracy Index,’ was to shame poor performers into doing better, she said. ‘Peer pressure produces horrible things like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber and tongue rings,’ Professor Gerken said. ‘But it also produces professional peer pressure.’” It almost took my breath away: Professor Heather Gerken, who is in her early forties, felt free to tell a reporter that Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, not to mention tongue rings, are horrible. Gerken broke one of the unwritten rules of being middle-aged: don’t go after the young and what they love. Not in print, anyway. Don’t open yourself up to the charge of curmudgeonliness, because the inevitable retort—“You just don’t get it, Professor! You sound like your parents!”—is probably accurate, certainly unanswerable, and absolutely devastating. Few things in America are less forgivable than getting older.</blockquote>\r\nIf there is an unwritten rule not to go after the young and what they love, there is also an implicit question that asks, \"I am old, what do I have to say to the young?\" The answer, paradoxically, is that when you have the most amount of time, the most amount of wisdom, and sometimes the most amount of resources, you go to a place that guarantees you will not have influence on future generations—you retire.\r\n\r\nYou leave us.\r\n\r\nAnd this is the problem:  you can\'t leave us when we need you the most.\r\n\r\nIn 1978, Soviet geologists discovered a <a href=\"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html?device=iphone&amp;device=ipad\">family</a> of six lost in the Siberian taiga. Cut off from all human contact for 40 years, this Russian family lived on the side of a mountain 150 miles from the nearest settlement. It was an astonishing discovery because the Soviets had no records of anyone living in this area. Karp Lykov was an Old Believer, a member of a fundamentalist Russian Orthodox sect whose worship style has not changed since the 17th century. During Stalin\'s Great Purge of the 1930\'s, the Soviets killed Lykov\'s brother, and in 1936, Lykov fled to Siberia escaping religious persecution, retreating further from civilization deep in the Siberian taiga. Living in isolation from the rest of the world, Lykov and his family were unaware of World War II and lived on the edge of famine making survival next to impossible. Two of his children had never seen a human being that was not a member of their family. Perhaps the saddest aspect of the Lykovs\' strange story was the rapidity with which the family went into decline after they re-established contact with the outside world. Only Lykov\'s daughter, Agafia remains, and she will not leave her home in the Siberian taiga.\r\n\r\nMost people believe they are on the inevitable slide into irrelevance. I can see why: art, movies, culture, and even business reinforce this idea. When am I going to lose it? Can I keep up? There is some wisdom that you only get through having lived it and through years. There is an authority that comes from being older, but there is also a potential newness that is fresh as ever—a sifting and sorting of all I have experienced—creating a non-anxious, non-judgemental presence because I am older, and my roots run deep and I have seen it all.\r\n\r\nWe live the <a href=\"http://storylineblog.com/2013/01/28/when-you-fail-to-live-a-great-story/\">stories</a> we keep telling ourselves, and telling meaningful stories overlaps with living a meaningful life.\r\n\r\nThere was a time when humans intuitively grappled with aging rooted in the divine redemptive activity of God. But unfortunately we are telling a different story—a story about how religion has skewed our perception of aging.\r\n\r\nReligion is new to humanity. It\'s been around about 5% of humanity\'s spiritual journey, which, on a conservative timescale, began to unfold about seventy thousand years ago. Yet most of us have grown up with a religious legacy. Unfortunately, these religious legacies have nurtured the belief that when one group checks out, the other says, \"we don’t need you,\" and everything falls apart. In many cultures, and in Scripture,  you find the older need the idealism, energy and enthusiasm of the youth and the youth need the wisdom of the older.\r\n\r\nAnd when we embrace <em>this</em>, that\'s when the adventure begins.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n*photo by bokkels\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','When Does The Adventure Begin?','','inherit','open','open','','8398-revision-35','','','2013-03-19 11:28:32','2013-03-19 18:28:32','',8398,'http://provoketive.com/2013/03/19/8398-revision-35/',0,'revision','',0),(8558,1,'2013-03-19 11:30:37','2013-03-19 18:30:37','A friend told me about a time he met a Navajo Indian on a reservation in Arizona. The Navajo man tossed a can he was drinking from out onto the open ground. Taken aback, my friend questioned him about his act of littering, asking him if he cared about his land or not. The Navajo man responded by saying, “Over here, over there, what’s the difference? Are we really doing something by burying it?”\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div id=\"post-10007\">\n\nSo true. The idea of taking our garbage to the landfill, burying it or burning it doesn’t solve the problem of <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/food-waste-nrdc-report/\">waste</a>. It only manages it. We’re only fooling ourselves by hiding our junk. This man had the foresight to see that we as a society are immature children unwilling to clean up our rooms, opting instead for the easy way out: hide our mess in the closet. Hide it for another day—another generation will deal with it.\n\nUnlike the child who has a mother to nag him until he cleans his room, humanity has no such watchful eye. We can go ahead and pollute as much as we want, wherever and whenever we want, but we’re not fooling anyone.\n\nA messy room means a messy mind. So why not expose the mess for all to see. That messy room is much more likely to get cleaned up and dealt with than the junk in the closet that can collect dust for lifetimes until it becomes so overwhelming we explode in a sneezing fit. And in acknowledging the mess and dealing with it we inevitably heal ourselves.\n\nMuch of the world lives surrounded by its own litter. Seeing garbage strewn across the banks of an otherwise beautiful river or padding the green grass of an urban park are sorry sights. But they are <em>truthful</em> sights. They expose the truth of our highly consumptive, wasteful ways. And in exposing the truth, they make us think. Seeing this can touch the disgust within, causing us to think twice before consuming mindlessly. And the ever-present reminders follow us wherever we go: consume less, consume <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/\">mindfully</a>.\n\nConsumption has a price. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly the packaging is or how advanced the incineration system that deals with waste, there is a cost to all waste because, according to the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. And what of the energy of conversion? Converting things to trash can’t do anything good for our energetic space since we see waste as a negative thing.\n\nConsumption and waste are two sides of the same coin. We waste largely because we overconsume. And we overconsume largely because we waste.\n\n</div>\n</div>\n&nbsp;\n\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> edits and writes for the Engaged Living Network. You can read his writing at <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a>, <a href=\"http://greenbuildingcanada.ca\">Green Building Canada</a>, <a href=\"http://www.greenhomegnome.com\">Green Home Gnome</a> and <a href=\"http://www.greenhousegnome.com\">Greenhouse Gnome</a>.</em>','Exposing The Waste For All To See','','inherit','open','open','','8470-autosave','','','2013-03-19 11:30:37','2013-03-19 18:30:37','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/2013/03/19/8470-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8559,1,'2013-03-19 11:33:10','2013-03-19 18:33:10','','landfill','','inherit','open','open','','landfill','','','2013-03-19 11:33:10','2013-03-19 18:33:10','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/landfill.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8560,1,'2013-03-19 11:34:02','2013-03-19 18:34:02','','landfill','','inherit','open','open','','landfill-2','','','2013-03-19 11:34:02','2013-03-19 18:34:02','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/landfill1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8561,1,'2013-02-16 02:41:16','2013-02-16 10:41:16','A friend told me about a time he met a Navajo Indian on a reservation in Arizona. The Navajo man tossed a can he was drinking from out onto the open ground. Taken aback, my friend questioned him about his act of littering, asking him if he cared about his land or not. The Navajo man responded by saying, “Over here, over there, what’s the difference? Are we really doing something by burying it?”\r\n<div id=\"content\">\r\n<div id=\"post-10007\">\r\n\r\nSo true. The idea of taking our garbage to the landfill, burying it or burning it doesn’t solve the problem of <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/food-waste-nrdc-report/\">waste</a>. It only manages it. We’re only fooling ourselves by hiding our junk. This man had the foresight to see that we as a society are immature children unwilling to clean up our rooms, opting instead for the easy way out: hide our mess in the closet. Hide it for another day—another generation will deal with it.\r\n\r\nUnlike the child who has a mother to nag him until he cleans his room, humanity has no such watchful eye. We can go ahead and pollute as much as we want, wherever and whenever we want, but we’re not fooling anyone.\r\n\r\nA messy room means a messy mind. So why not expose the mess for all to see. That messy room is much more likely to get cleaned up and dealt with than the junk in the closet that can collect dust for lifetimes until it becomes so overwhelming we explode in a sneezing fit. And in acknowledging the mess and dealing with it we inevitably heal ourselves.\r\n\r\nMuch of the world lives surrounded by its own litter. Seeing garbage strewn across the banks of an otherwise beautiful river or padding the green grass of an urban park are sorry sights. But they are <em>truthful</em> sights. They expose the truth of our highly consumptive, wasteful ways. And in exposing the truth, they make us think. Seeing this can touch the disgust within, causing us to think twice before consuming mindlessly. And the ever-present reminders follow us wherever we go: consume less, consume <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/\">mindfully</a>.\r\n\r\nConsumption has a price. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly the packaging is or how advanced the incineration system that deals with waste, there is a cost to all waste because, according to the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. And what of the energy of conversion? Converting things to trash can’t do anything good for our energetic space since we see waste as a negative thing.\r\n\r\nConsumption and waste are two sides of the same coin. We waste largely because we overconsume. And we overconsume largely because we waste.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> edits and writes for the Engaged Living Network. You can read his writing at <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a>, <a href=\"http://greenbuildingcanada.ca\">Green Building Canada</a>, <a href=\"http://www.greenhomegnome.com\">Green Home Gnome</a> and <a href=\"http://www.greenhousegnome.com\">Greenhouse Gnome</a>.</em>','Exposing the waste for all to see','','inherit','open','open','','8470-revision-2','','','2013-02-16 02:41:16','2013-02-16 10:41:16','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/2013/02/16/8470-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8562,1,'2013-03-19 11:34:42','2013-03-19 18:34:42','A friend told me about a time he met a Navajo Indian on a reservation in Arizona. The Navajo man tossed a can he was drinking from out onto the open ground. Taken aback, my friend questioned him about his act of littering, asking him if he cared about his land or not. The Navajo man responded by saying, “Over here, over there, what’s the difference? Are we really doing something by burying it?”\r\n<div id=\"content\">\r\n<div id=\"post-10007\">\r\n\r\nSo true. The idea of taking our garbage to the landfill, burying it or burning it doesn’t solve the problem of <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2013/food-waste-nrdc-report/\">waste</a>. It only manages it. We’re only fooling ourselves by hiding our junk. This man had the foresight to see that we as a society are immature children unwilling to clean up our rooms, opting instead for the easy way out: hide our mess in the closet. Hide it for another day—another generation will deal with it.\r\n\r\nUnlike the child who has a mother to nag him until he cleans his room, humanity has no such watchful eye. We can go ahead and pollute as much as we want, wherever and whenever we want, but we’re not fooling anyone.\r\n\r\nA messy room means a messy mind. So why not expose the mess for all to see. That messy room is much more likely to get cleaned up and dealt with than the junk in the closet that can collect dust for lifetimes until it becomes so overwhelming we explode in a sneezing fit. And in acknowledging the mess and dealing with it we inevitably heal ourselves.\r\n\r\nMuch of the world lives surrounded by its own litter. Seeing garbage strewn across the banks of an otherwise beautiful river or padding the green grass of an urban park are sorry sights. But they are <em>truthful</em> sights. They expose the truth of our highly consumptive, wasteful ways. And in exposing the truth, they make us think. Seeing this can touch the disgust within, causing us to think twice before consuming mindlessly. And the ever-present reminders follow us wherever we go: consume less, consume <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/\">mindfully</a>.\r\n\r\nConsumption has a price. It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly the packaging is or how advanced the incineration system that deals with waste, there is a cost to all waste because, according to the Law of Conservation of Matter, matter cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. And what of the energy of conversion? Converting things to trash can’t do anything good for our energetic space since we see waste as a negative thing.\r\n\r\nConsumption and waste are two sides of the same coin. We waste largely because we overconsume. And we overconsume largely because we waste.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em><a href=\"https://plus.google.com/101556749885182449997\">Kiva Bottero</a> edits and writes for the Engaged Living Network. You can read his writing at <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a>, <a href=\"http://greenbuildingcanada.ca\">Green Building Canada</a>, <a href=\"http://www.greenhomegnome.com\">Green Home Gnome</a> and <a href=\"http://www.greenhousegnome.com\">Greenhouse Gnome</a>.</em>','Exposing The Waste For All To See','','inherit','open','open','','8470-revision-3','','','2013-03-19 11:34:42','2013-03-19 18:34:42','',8470,'http://provoketive.com/2013/03/19/8470-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8563,1,'2013-03-13 17:53:40','2013-03-14 00:53:40','Youth ministry is a tough needle to thread.  It requires a lot of personal commitment and patience, an expectation that your target audience is going to show a general lack of interest and enthusiasm about most of the things you do for them, and a willingness to sacrifice sleep and earn your gray hairs early.\n\nIt\'s also a tough needle to thread because it\'s a field of ministry surrounded by towering questions and often conflicting answers.\n\nIn this article, I want to raise seven of what I think are the most pressing questions many  churches and youth ministers face when attempting to design and implement a ministry of their own.  Though I will share some of my own thoughts, the purpose of this article is less about what I think and more about provoking a conversation.  What I hope will develop here is a dialogue about creating reasonable and sustainable expectations for youth ministry that can work at any church, no matter its tradition, location, or size.  Then, in the second article of this series I hope to draw on some of those thoughts and ideas as well as my own experience observing, participating in, assisting with, and leading youth ministries to present the basic framework for a model that attempts to address these issues.\n<h2>1) To Be Relevant, or Not to be Relevant?</h2>\nThis has been a buzz-word in youth ministry for a while now, and everyone has an opinion.  Some think youth ministry should be all about replicating contemporary youth culture with a Christian spin.  Others think youth ministry should ignore the world outside the church and plunge ahead with the tradition that’s lasted two-thousand years.\n\nWhile my own feeling is that any ministry led by leaders genuinely invested in the lives of their youth cannot help but become at least <em>somewhat</em> relevant through osmosis, this doesn’t answer some of the bigger questions surrounding this debate:  do we need a rock-band or should we make our kids learn 11th century chant?  Do we use Powerpoint, You-Tube videos, Facebook, etc., or do we stick to old-fashioned snail-mail announcements and the hymnals in the pews?  Do we caravan kids from the church to the state championship game to watch other kids in the youth group play or do we hold a prayer vigil with the kids too nerdy to go to the game on their own?\n\n<i>Lots of different, well-meaning youth leaders have answered these questions in starkly different ways, how would you?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8478\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8478\"><img class=\"alignright  wp-image-8478\" title=\"Where Do We Put All These Kids?\" alt=\"Crowded Church\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Crowded-Church-300x225.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"203\" /></a>\n<h2>2)  Where Do We Put All These Kids?</h2>\nAt one of the first churches I worked for, I was told in no uncertain terms that the youth were expected to be in the pews for the service on Sunday morning.  And that was that.  Or so I thought.  That rule met with so much resistance from the youth it just about drove me crazy.  Finally one day I asked some of the kids, “why do you hate going to the service so much?”  “Its boring,” came the all-too-predictable reply.  While I still dragged them upstairs after Sunday School every week, secretly I agreed.\n\nThere is a wonderful analogy that I was just told recently by <a href=\"http://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=rmartins\">Roland Martinson</a> about a swimming club.  While the adults swim, the youngsters are taken to a back room and told stories about people swimming. Then they gradually move up to coloring pictures of people swimming.  Then they start watching videos and having discussions about swimming.  By the time they finally get to swim for themselves, it turns out to be incredibly anti-climactic.\n\nThese two stories illustrate opposite poles in a serious debate about youth ministry.  On the one hand, it sometimes feels like we will lose our youth if we keep making them sit through services they care nothing about.  Better to keep the youth ministry an entity all its own, separate from the “big church,” to keep the kids entertained.  On the other hand, what happens when youth leave that self-contained “age-appropriate ministry” and move out into the real world?  How many will decide that church isn’t for them after they transition from high school to college if they haven’t developed a relationship with what worship looks like on a Sunday morning while growing up?\n\n<i>So where do we put the youth on Sunday morning?  In the youth room or in the pews?  Are there ways to get the youth involved in the service?  Is there another solution?</i>\n<h2>3) Whose Gonna Lead It?</h2>\nThe stereotypical youth leader is between 23 and 28, <a href=\"http://www.outofur.com/archives/2013/02/the_beards_of_m.html\">has a goatee</a>, and can’t sit still for more than a second and a half.  The youth flock to them and their charismatic presence builds a solid program that becomes the pride of a local church.\n\nBut of course, such a program can crash and burn the second this young, boundless leader runs out of steam.  <em>Or</em> makes a dangerous mistake with boundaries.  <em>Or</em> has a falling out with a significant member of the congregation or a parent on the youth committee.\n\nSo maybe its better to rely on a team of volunteers to run the youth ministry?  A group of committed members of the congregation who are willing to teach Sunday school, lead a time of youth fellowship after the service every week, and take the kids on a trip every once in a while.\n\nWhich works great until the stories of infighting start making their way through the church corridors.  <em>Or</em> the senior pastor discovers that the name “Jesus” hasn’t been mentioned in youth fellowship in about six weeks because they are too busy playing dodgeball and eating pizza.  <em>Or</em> basketball season rolls around and 4 of the 6 parent volunteers can’t help anymore because their kids all have games on Sundays.\n\n<i>So who you gonna call?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8480\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8480\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8480\" title=\"Safe Racoon\" alt=\"Safe Racoon\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Safe-Racoon-300x240.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"216\" /></a>\n<h2>4) To Evangelize or to Create a Safe Space?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>goal</em> of a youth ministry.\n\nYouth ministry can be the core of a seeker-friendly church growth plan.  Create a fun, laid back environment where tons of kids show up to hang out on a Thursday night, then get them emotionally charged up with some powerful music, then share the gospel and get them “saved.”  When they keep coming back week after week, eventually their parents will wonder what’s up, check the church out themselves, and now you’ve added a few dozen families of 8 to your member roles.  Church growth dreams accomplished!\n\nOn the other hand, you might say, youth today are squeezed like lemons everywhere they go.  Between the demands of school, being a star on the soccer team, needing to get a 34 on the ACT <em>and</em> a 2100 on the SAT, applying for college, keeping up a social life, and having to plan their careers by the time they are 16, the last thing these kids need is to come to church and feel pressured into making a lifetime decision about eternity.  What they really need is a safe space to relax, let their guard down, and instead of feeling pressured feel loved and accepted for who they are.\n\n<i>So whose right and whose wrong?  Which priorities are more important?</i>\n<h2>5) Theology or Ethics?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>content</em> of what we teach our youth.\n\nThere has been a movement lately, especially among Reformed evangelicals, to emphasize the teaching of doctrine.  And not just in “big church,” in the youth ministry, too.  Youth ministry is seen as an opportunity to shape young minds into vessels for the perfect understanding of God.  If we make sure they know all the right answers to all the big questions of theology, we can be sure they will know what is important when they grow up, move away from home, and have to find a church of their own.\n\nSome youth ministers scowl at this kind of thinking, however.  Theology seems too heady for most youth, many will simply not understand, give up, and stop coming to church.  <em>Or</em>, even worse, join the big, fluffy youth ministry across town.  Better to keep things concrete than abstract, better to talk about practical ways kids can live better lives than to give lectures on the atonement.\n\n<i>Is this just a matter of preference or style?  Can both be done with integrity or do we have to make a choice?</i>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/?attachment_id=8483\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8483\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8483\" title=\"Questioning Monkey\" alt=\"Questioning Monkey\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Questioning-Monkey-204x300.jpg\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n<h2>6) Certainty or Room for Doubt?</h2>\nThis question has to do with the <em>tenor</em> of a youth ministry’s teaching.\n\nSomething that terrifies a good many Christian leaders and parents is the rate at which Christian young people leave home and “lose their faith.”  Two competing strategies have developed for dealing with this phenomenon in youth ministry:\n\nOption 1: Equip students to be absolutely certain of their faith, ready to fend off the dreaded atheist hordes, and have the solid foundation of a Christian worldview from which to assess every new bit of information they learn in life.\n\nOption 2:  Step back, give students the space to ask questions and doubt, and let them make faith decisions for themselves.  When their faith is actually their faith, not their parents’ or youth pastor’s faith imposed on them, students are much more likely to stick with it later on.\n\n<i>Which do we choose?  And why?  Will it work?  What are the risks?</i>\n<h2>7) How Do We Do That at Our Church?</h2>\nThe first thing I ever did in youth ministry was lead worship with the youth band at the church I grew up attending.  I learned a lot about what I thought musicianship and worship leading was about by visiting a huge youth ministry at another church in town.  When we tried to replicate that at our smaller church, it just never seemed to work out as well...\n\nThe last couple of summers, I have worked with the <a href=\"http://www.diomassyouth.org\">Episcopal Diocese of Massachussetts’ youth ministry</a> planning worship for their summer camp and doing leadership development with high school students.  One of the things we talked about there a lot was <em>reproduceability.</em>  How do we make what we do at camp-- with all the advantages of abundant natural resources, a packed out worship space, and a full-sized rock-band-- something that small parishes in the diocese can use at home?\n\nEmbedded in this question is an assumption which has emerged from the last few decades of mega-church dominated youth ministry: to do youth ministry well you need a big staff and an even bigger budget.  <i>But do you <em>really</em>?  How do you do youth ministry without these things?</i>\n\n<hr />\n\nIn part two of this series I will try to sketch out a model that addresses these questions based on my own experience and the thoughts of others.\n\n<strong>Let me know what you think.  How should youth ministry address these concerns?  What does your ideal picture of a youth ministry look like?</strong>\n\n<hr />\n\n<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','To Be Relevant or Not To Be Relevant?  The Youth Minister\'s Questions (Part 1 of 2)','','inherit','open','open','','8472-revision-17','','','2013-03-13 17:53:40','2013-03-14 00:53:40','',8472,'http://provoketive.com/2013/03/13/8472-revision-17/',0,'revision','',0),(8565,206,'2013-03-20 08:00:37','2013-03-20 15:00:37','Mad Men, a term which is referred to the advertising executives of the Madison Avenue in New York City in the 1960\'s, which is also a popular and one of the greatest American period dramas ever. Mad men premiered on 19th July, 2007 and since then it has won many awards including Emmys and Golden Globes. Centerpiece of the drama is Donald Draper (played by Jon Hamm) who is a creative director at one of the prestigious advertising firms of New York City. The screenplay revolves around his life and the people in his life which, in fact, is an exact picture of the ups and downs of an ideal executive life. Moreover, drama successfully depicts the changing moods and societal mores of the United States in 1960\'s.\r\n\r\nThe San Francisco Chronicle described series as \'stylized, visually arresting, an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man\'s world\'. No doubt, the series grips the viewer in an old-fashioned way with its historical accuracy. Furthermore, truthfully acclaimed by advertising officials of that era. Not only this, Mad Men has also been acclaimed for the revival of fashion of the 60\'s.\r\n\r\nComing towards the depth of the characters, the series critically portrays every character to its depth. There are many tragic and funny moments in the series which would just pass by if you didn\'t pay attention.\r\n\r\nThe series, so far, has been entertaining its fan since 2007 with five consecutive seasons. Recently, it has been renewed for the sixth season and the mighty Mad Men is scheduled to premier this coming 7th April on AMC channel. Sixth season is a new wave on its own and if you are looking for action packed television shows or a laugh crack this is not the show for you but if you believe in the development of characters and the plot with a pace of its own, 7th April is the date to remember.','The Mad Men are returning','','publish','open','open','','the-mad-men-are-returning-2','','','2013-03-26 13:16:15','2013-03-26 20:16:15','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8565',0,'post','',3);
