Slightly Distracted

Family traditions are straight up random when they don't belong to your family. We had an "Awkward Family Christmas... Party" for our youth kids this week and we spent part of the evening sharing traditions. A lot of people all wear new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Several families actually hide pajamas for everyone to hunt. One family plays a giant game of hide and seek in the dark late Christmas Eve - this includes Grandma.

I didn't ever think of our family traditions as odd... until I verbalized them to several people this year and everyone shook their heads knowingly. "Yep. Your family is weird too." Perhaps it was the fact that all of the kids slept in the same room (even as recently as just a few years ago), or the random assortment of goodies in our stockings (batteries, tic tacs, and a lint roller), but I think it was the fact that we still claimed our spots for our Santa gifts when I was 20 years-old. We also used to identify the earliest time everyone could wake up on Christmas morning. As soon as we stepped out of the Christmas Eve service at church, the bartering would begin. When we were really young we used to open Christmas gifts around 6:30am. We've now progressed to roughly 8:30 or 9:00am. I think Clay would still prefer for it to be earlier.

Christmas Eve for the past few years has been spent at my Aunt and Uncle's Church. We usually attend a later evening service. It's beautiful. They usually have a professional vocalist from the Houston Opera, a full orchestra, and a massive choir. The pipe organ is gorgeous. As I look around and see teenagers checking fantasy football scores and texts on their phones, I can't help but notice my own distractions. I have to turn off my desire to wonder about the fonts chosen for the bulletin or the turn-around for the next service. "You do not work here. Stop worrying about child-care." The distractions of the season are everywhere and they beckon us to concern ourselves with just about anything but the Christ-child in the manger.

We started a new sermon series in youth this past weekend entitled "Unwrapped." Our hope is to strip away everything that's been added and pull out just the story from Matthew and Luke. We spent this past weekend remembering that Mary was not chosen out of her perfection, but out of her willingness. This weekend we will examine that first "Silent Night" that was probably anything but silent. For while our Savior was sinless, he was most certainly fully human... and much crying he probably did make. You get the idea.

All this to say, in ten days, when you sit by yourself... or with your crazy family - in front of a tree, around a table, in a wooden pew, or on a cushioned chair... remember the 42 generations who awaited the birth of the Messiah. Recall the young teenage girl who gave up her expectations for God's amazing reality. Picture the infant breathing his first gulp of air and wailing - and then the man who cried out and gave up his last breath on Calvary. This God made flesh has come.

"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isaiah 25:9

Tasting and Seeing

I'm gushing this morning.  I just can't contain how high, how deep, how rich, how personal the Father's love is for me... for you... for us.  I feel like I took a deep breath and then swam the length of the pool twice and am now internally gasping.  I can't fit in any more air, but I know I need more.

Francis Chan in Crazy Love writes, If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can.

Foolish indeed.

For my can is full and I am brimming not just from feeding on the Word, but brimming from the fragments of his light that seem to pour into my life through the presence of his people.  It's been everything this week.  It's in opportunities bigger and greater than I could imagine.  It's found in the kindness of strangers, and the love of friends.

I received the call from the theatre this week with at least ten co-workers leaning in to hear the results of my auditions.  (Holy moly was not expecting to end up with a role, much less a good one.)  My joy was overflowing simply because of their joy for me.  The woman on the phone could have told me that I didn't get cast and I would have still walked away from yesterday absolutely and delightfully in love with this, whatever this is.  I saw in that moment how God has skillfully and perfectly woven together my desire for community and his plan for fellowship.  It works when we desire good things, heck,  greatness for those around us, and we relinquish our needs and trust his design.

As I learn to check fear at the door I find that there is nothing, nothing that can keep us from realizing and seizing those works that he prepared in advance for us to do.  (Eph. 2:10)  That power, that freedom, that belief is energizing to every aspect of life.  As I drink my coffee and read a book, or speak to my grandmother on the phone, or sit in quietness as someone waits to hear about their mother in the hospital - there is seasoning to be found in it all.

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:13-16, The Message)

I can't even put in words all that is stirring within me, but I know that he has gifted you.  He has called and is calling to you.  Shine on church.  Let them taste and see.  Open up.  

I have tasted and I am satisfied.

Erica?

The lesson this weekend came straight out of Joshua chapter two. I was teaching through the story of Rahab hiding the spies in Jericho to my third through fifth graders. The main lesson point: Take a risk in His name. The verse: "God is no mere human. He does not tell lies or change his mind." Numbers 23:19. The kids were tracking with me during all three of the services, or at least they seemed to be. At the end of the lesson we proceeded into our weekly trivia challenge. The questions are easy enough if you've been listening to the lesson... IF being the operative word. Holy moly 11:00am service... what in the world?


Me: What was the name of the woman who hid the spies.
5th grade girl: Umm...huh....uhh...
Me: I know you know this. Is it on the tip of your tongue?
5th grade girl: Yes.
Me: What letter does her name start with?
5th grade girl: A c....
Me: Let's go over to the fourth grade.
Child who is madly waving their hand: Erica!
Me: Umm. Not really close. I'll give you a hint. It starts with an R.
4th grade boy: ...Rerica!!
Me: Oh gosh. Third grade?
3rd grade boy: Ray.
Me: Halfway there. Where were you guys this morning? I've failed you.
5th grade boy bursting at the seams: RAYA!!
Me: Nope.
4th grade girl: Rahub.
Me: Close enough. Everyone say RAHAB. Now everyone say RAHAB! One more time...


I had hoped this might have been the only problematic question of the morning, but perhaps I was aiming to high.


Me: What was the name of the city that the spies were sent to check out especially? The one that RAHAB lived in?
3rd grade girl: Jerusalem!
Me: Good guess and correct first letter!
5th grade boy: Ginger?
Me: Are you guessing the name of the city?
5th grade boy: Yes.
Me: And Ginger is the name of the city?
5th grade boy: I think so.
Me: Ginger is my name. Rahab was the woman in the story, and NOT Erica, remember everyone?!!
5th grade boy: Oh. How about Jericha?
Me: What about 4th grade?
4th grade: JERICHO!!
Me: Thank you!! Now everyone say JERICHO...and again... now say RAHAB LIVED IN JERICHO!

Say What?

I have the joy of spending my weekends with hundreds of kids between the first and fifth grades. Over the course of working in Children’s Ministry these past few years I’ve had the opportunity to amass quite the array of amazing quotations. Today I present to you… conversations in the key of E.

Me: Who can tell me the signs that God gave Moses to use when he spoke to Pharaoh
3rd grade girl: Moses threw his staff on the ground and it turned into a snake. And then Moses took his hand and put it under his cloak and when he pulled it out it became leopard skin.
Me: Or leprosy. Either one.

Me: Who can tell me the job that Zipporah had? Remember, she was Moses’ wife.
5th grade boy: She was a Shebrew.
Me: Close. A shepherdess. Moses was a Hebrew. But very close.

Me: Can anyone tell me what it means to sacrifice?
Girl: To sacrifice.
Me: Okay…anyone else?
Boy: To sacrifice something.
Me: Let’s try to use another word other than sacrifice!
Boy: It’s like if there was a chicken and a farmer. And the farmer was hungry. And the chicken was like, ok, you can eat me. So they kill the chicken and cook it. And it’s on a stake, and it’s cooking, and getting brown, and golden, and crispy, and it smells amazing. And then the farmer eats it.
Me: Exactly.

1st grade boy: Miss Ginger I pooped my pants…when I was a baby…in my sleep.
Me: Cool.

While stretching before a Christmas Musical Rehearsal-
Me: Reach over to your left shoe. Remember, we want to be all ready to go at 10:30am!
Girl: This is stretching my tibia.
Boy: This is stretching my rectum.
Girl: That’s not a bone. That’s a muscle.
Boy: Oh.
Me: Umm... go ahead and reach over to your other foot.

Me: If you could invite any person to your house for Christmas this year, anyone in the whole world, who would it be?
Girl: Joe Jonas!
Boy: Shaq
Another Boy: Pierce Brosnan
Me: Really? Um, ok.

The culture is calling...

I work in the Children’s Ministry of a large church in Arizona as a writer and producer of video curriculum. My goal is to create relevant work that is eternally significant.

My specific audience are children, but my area of supposed expertise is the tween generation. I’ve had my fill of Hannah Montanna, The Jonas Brothers, and High School Musical. So the question I face on a weekly basis is how to respond to the culture and to my kids. My hope is that these cultural trends motivate me to reach kids in innovative ways.

Ephesians 2:9-10 says that we were created to do good works that God prepared for us in advance to do. We are God’s “poiema” – God’s work of art, and we’ve been created to create.

I feel and believe that we’ve all been called to play a part in the eternal story of God. As believers, we quite literally have the Master Creator, the divine, dwelling within us. Therefore, we are called to a higher level of creativity – for our purpose is greater than just entertainment alone. There’s more to reaching this generation than just re-packaging secular material. Why should the material we produce be merely a marked down version of popular culture? We must step up and take up the challenge this entertainment saturated generation presents us.

I don’t think I need to give specific examples, but I want to know how throwing the word Christian into a secular slogan does not constitute ripping off someone else’s creativity. Stealing the marketing ploys of the general culture does not make us relevant or remotely original.

How do we reach them when Ecclesiastes laments that there is “nothing new under the sun”?

Every generation is unique. Cultural historians can look back and define entire decades with a single word: hippie, punk, grunge. It can be overwhelming to consider that the generation we’re building now will be defined in a particular way in ten or twenty years because of the impact we are making in their lives today.

For this reason, I’m a part of a team that writes and produces its very own video curriculum. This is not a role we take likely, especially in a world that seeks to influence their every move. Why our own? It’s the same reason I sought a degree in Theatre Ministry. While the roads have been blazed in the past 30 years to open up the church to the arts, there is still a long way to go. My desire has always been to communicate Christ in effective and exciting ways. My desire is to take my cue from Christ – as the story-teller, and to change up the methods, but always hold to the message.

John Piper in his book “Don’t Waste Your Life” writes, “the word cool…it’s cheap. And it’s what millions of young people live for…Who takes them by the collar, so to speak, and loves them enough to show them a life so radical and so real and so costly and Christ-saturated that they feel the emptiness and triviality of their CD collection and their pointless conversations about passing celebrities? Who will awaken what lies latent in their souls, untapped – a longing not to waste their lives.”

Every weekend we strive to show our kids that Jesus did not ask us to be cool, but to be servants. He did not require us to be number one, but asked us instead to be humble. So, how do we challenge children to release the hunger for popularity and possessions? What if this next generation could be setting the culture rather than simply following it?

We start with what God has given us, the mighty power of his Word. In a fun and exiting format we promote scripture memorization and sharing with friends, provide tools for Bible reading, and build genuine community. Every piece of the service is carefully planned and purposed around the theme of the day. From the worship music to the videos, our ultimate aim is to see our kids mature spiritually and challenge the status quo. As ministers to this next generation, we have a calling to originality, relevance, and truth.

The culture calls, but we must be louder.