Hello to all! Yes, that is a picture of my beautiful niece Iris who will turn ONE YEAR OLD on Friday, unbelievable!

This past Saturday night I had the opportunity to see Over the Rhine in concert at the Olde Town School of Folk Music and boy was it an incredible show! If you have the opportunity to see them in concert do so immediately. They create some of the most beautiful music you will ever hear, my highest recommendation! Please check them out and support them in any way possible. If you're in Indiana, they will be in Goshen on December 9 and in Indianapolis on December 12. Trust me, it's well worth the drive!

I am in the library and should be writing a speech outline... but I'm not. Here's my topic:
"In order to be effective and true to its Biblical mandate, the church of today must learn how to effectively communicate with and minister to a postmodern culture that seems foreign."
Do you agree? What do you think?

I recently directed my first ever youth retreat with the Senior High youth group at Kankakee First Church of the Nazarene. I think it really went well. We did things a little differently than most retreats, including watching a movie one night and having live feedback from the students. Have you seen the movie "Thirteen"? It's an incredible insight into what it means to be a teenager in current day America. The pressures and pains are incredible to watch and I really think a lot of teens identified with Tracey, who was the main character in the movie. What I really loved, though, was the input of many adults who were sponsors on the retreat. They had some great insight and, even better, were able to identify with Tracey's mom in the movie. We also utilized some experiential worship times throughout the retreat, had many moments of silence (silence isn't scary!) and joined together in the Eucharist on Sunday morning. I tried my hardest to think through every aspect of the retreat and not do anything for the simple sake of doing it. One question I asked a lot during our preparation time was "What is the difference between intentionality and manipulation?" I would love to hear some responses on this. I wanted to be intentional in everything during our sessions, from what was going on up front, to the layout of the room, to the light levels. When do we become so intentional that we begin to manipulate our students in order to achieve the response we want? The movement of the Holy Spirit requires a voluntary response, how do we create an environment for the Spirit to work without eliminating the voluntary aspect of that response? I don't think we tipped the scales toward manipulation during the retreat, but the question stayed in the back of my mind a lot.

Thanks to Steve Spangenberg, the senior high pastor at Kankakee First for believing in me enough to allow me to take ownership of this retreat. The faith he put in me allowed me to continue to validate the call of the Holy Spirit upon my life. It was a great experience.

Okay. Back to the grind. I'll try to write in here more often as I continue down this path. Much love to you all!

I'm grooving to Radiohead's "In Rainbows"

it's beautiful


nothing brings me joy like seeing a public safety truck with the "L" scraped off, seriously it makes my day

Growth

Another school year has begun and thus, we have another opportunity to pinpoint areas of growth in our lives. In the past year I have embraced responsibility, felt heartache, been a hypocrite, learned more about what it means to minister to people (especially young ones), learned more about myself and my passions, and focused on developing confidence. Right now I need to learn how to love people better, especially the ones I don't like, and I also need to pray more. One issue I have struggled with lately is holiness. I believe one of our greatest responsibilities is to build and form relationships with others and meet them where they are at and not lord ourselves over them. I also firmly believe that holiness is the best lifestyle one can live. My question is, at what point are you sacrificing your own holiness in order to meet others where they are at? I really don't know the answer to that question...

I get the privilege of being a student mentor to about 25 freshmen this semester and this has turned into one of the areas of my life I most look forward to. We have a great group and I really want to concentrate on how best to minister to these freshmen that I have come to love.

May God continue to bless us through molding us and pruning out our unfavorable characteristics until all that is left of us can be labeled as "Holy." Amen.

Currently listening to: Over the Rhine "The Trumpet Child"

What a surprise I received today when I check the mail and see my pre-ordered copy of "The Trumpet Child" around a week before release!! It's an AWESOME album, but what else have you expected from Karin and Linford? PS, I also received something else in that package and it currently resides on the rear end (insert butt joke here) of my car

Quick notes:

-Home now, kinda sucks, but only because my internship was so great. Trying to unpack it now into a paper and experiencing difficulties. How can you take so much and put it into a nice neat collection of words? This is harder than I thought it would be...

-Entourage is great

-Coming from experience and from outside observation, there is very little in this world stronger than the desire of a man to save someone. Sometimes that's great... and sometimes it turns into a disaster of epic proportions

-Home is no longer home, and its been that way for awhile.

Currently listening to: The Rocket Summer - "Do You Feel"

*whew*

NYC 2007 is O-V-E-R

what an experience. i'm still trying to digest how transformative this experience has been for me personally, let alone thousands of teenagers across north america. now it all begins. the groundwork has been laid, the vision has been communicated, God has shown up, now its time for the revolution to begin. i truly believe that revolution is possible. it can only happen when God's people unite and give their very best for the Kingdom. i met so many incredible men and women in these past two weeks. i've worked beside some of the best in the church today and i'm feeling more and more ready to do something great of my own. it's time for us all to think Kingdom!

this revolution transcends the "church of the nazarene." one aspect i have tried to communicate over and over again in this blog is the communal aspect of revolution. i cannot stress it harder... one man can do nothing, this is only possible when we work together.

from this moment forward, i am dedicating myself to forming partnerships between Kingdom-minded people with the end goal being complete revolution.

will you join me on this journey?

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

what happened to common sense?

what if, for a moment, instead of debating what the book of revelation means and when Jesus will come back and trying to decide who's right between the Calvinists and the Arminians and the Catholics...

what if we just built Kingdom relationships?

what if?

if every Christian got as upset about social injustice as they do about "bad words" in movies or homosexuals, there would be no such thing as poverty.

you see, sometimes i am disgusted

"Change the World"

Everyone wants to change the world. How often do we actually have a chance to do that? When God opens doors for you and gives you the tools to actually do that, you cannot be passive. When given this opportunity, you must persevere with excellence. Excellence is something we are all called to. Why do anything half-heartedly? If you see benefits to what you are doing, then you have no reason to not do it with excellence. I will not take this for granted. Rather, I will focus on excellence and do everything to the very best of my ability so that we may have a chance to actually change the world. How exciting is that?

God provokes an attitude of awe. It is amazing to actually be able to see the tangible effects of God's working in this world. How can anyone be pessimistic? Pessimism is a tool of satan. Too often we, as the people of God, look at this world, our world, His world, and declare it to be in ruins. We decry society and run with our tails down into our safe and secure bubbles, afraid to interact with this world. Nothing is more destructive to the Kingdom of Heaven than this. Rather, we can help usher in that very same Kingdom of Heaven, but only if we do so actively and with excellence. Do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, but only if we do not give up.


His Kingdom come, His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. It is possible to see glimpses of heaven on this earth, let's work together so that those glimpses can be seen with increasing frequency.

Currently listening to: Rufus Wainwright "Release the Stars"

hmmm, i wish blogger had a "currently listening" feature. am i just missing it? i guess i'll just throw that up in the title for now. you should all hear the new rufus wainwright album. beautiful orchestrations, mixed with rufus' unique and beautiful vocals, equals an excellent piece of work. too early to label as a "masterpiece," but not too early to recommend wholeheartedly!

blog rule change: i want to post some serious thoughts and reflections on here, so i'm making an amendment to the "no capital letters" rule. if i write in no capital letters, i'm just recording my casual thoughts. however, if you see proper punctuation, you know this is something i want to be taken more seriously. i want to start a series of articles, if you will, discussing the exodus of emerging adults from the church. it's a topic i have been very fascinated with ever since i heard chuck bomar speak at YS last year. being one of those emerging adults, i think i can offer some insight to the discussion, so i'm going to start a series of articles on here identifying this whole relatively new "emerging adult" phenomenon, and offer some ideas on how to get my peers back into some sort of worship setting.

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Part One: What is an "Emerging Adult?"

A relatively new phenomenon has occurred in developmental psychology in the past two decades. An entirely new age group has cropped up, cementing itself between the life-stages of adolescence and early adulthood (18-25). Some have described this group as simply a later version of adolescence, but the majority of scholars have termed this group as "Emerging Adults." Meanwhile, study after study has shown that the majority of adolescents in the church leave after high school graduation and, if they even come back to the church, don't come back until age 30. Why is this? I believe that the church has not stayed on the forefront of developmental psychology and is now having to understand, rather bluntly, that there is a whole group of young people that are being neglected. I have two objectives for this series: 1.) to identify just exactly who an emerging adult is and how they think, and 2.) to offer practical initiatives for the church in order to minister to this age group and bring them back into a worship environment. I should note that a lot of this information was first brought to my attention by Chuck Bomar, family pastor at Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA. He has an excellent website with a lot of resources for college ministry, you should check it out. So, who is an emerging adult?

1. An emerging adult thinks abstractly

This is really a fundamental understanding that needs to be addressed right away, as it has a huge effect on all cognitive aspects of emerging adults. The process of abstraction begins in adolescence as kids begin to think more and more in terms of theories rather than actual concrete reasoning. This process of abstraction, however, is not fully realized until the college years. College students are fully able now to articulate and understand the meanings behind why we do what we do, as they are constantly bombarded with abstract thought in college classes. This abstract thinking process shapes all decisions for the emerging adult. Emerging adults run far, far away from legalism. This is extremely important for the church to understand. We don't want to be told what and what not to do. Speaking in legalistic terms to an emerging adult ensures a loss of rapport between the two. Our response to "don't do that!" is why? We want to know the reasoning behind the actions of our faith. Because of our abstract thinking, we are no longer interested in solely actions, but rather the purpose of those actions. That is why, when meeting with an emerging adult, you do not ask them if they've sinned in the last week, or something akin to that notion. Instead, ask "How is your faith?" This gives them a chance to practice that process of abstraction and allows them to think through the large concept of faith and deliver an honest response. Take advantage of this abstraction tendency and use that as a discipleship tool! Speak in theories and complexities. Not only does this enhance the emerging adult's cognitive capacity, but it also communicates a sense that the emerging adult and the elder person are on the same plane, rather than feeling inferior. The biggest issue in the emerging adulthood stage is identity. Every emerging adult is trying to discover just who they are and what their role will be in this world. The language of this quest for identity is abstraction. I will elaborate on the identity issue at a later time, but realize that emerging adults are thinking, "What will my life look like?" and "What do others think of me?" Facilitate this journey by forcing the emerging adult to think through the highly abstract notion of faith.



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there you have it, the first part of my journey to try and communicate the process of how we, as emerging adults, think and act. this is designed to foster discussion, so please let me know what you think. i'll be back sometime in the near future to try and explain another part of this issue.

FIRST POST!

well then, here i am at my new digs. i'm gonna try a new blog. i'm kind of nervous about starting a formal "blog" because i don't want to come off as pretentious. one of the reasons i am starting a new one is because my old xanga username was genius33, a nickname i started as an egotistic middle schooler, and has stayed with me to this day. it doesn't get any more pretentious than that so i guess anything is an improvement, eh?

i will fully admit that i have no giant revelations to share with you. i'm just a young man gradually grasping onto his identity and this is a chance to document that. lately i have been so blessed to see God reveal parts of myself to me that i never knew were there. isn't that exciting? we are so beautifully complex.

i named this blog extraordinary hope after a phrase i have increasingly seen as a great descriptor of my life's journey: "hope, no matter how vain, exists in the possibility of the extraordinary... and that hope is necessary for living." hope is my fuel. it is what allows me to wake up in the morning and actually want to face the day. without hope, we would all be dead.

quick summary of myself: i am 21 years old, three years into my undergraduate work in youth ministry, and seeking God's will for my life. i sometimes wonder why God has gifted me in some of the ways that he has, it's scary to know the expectations of God's gifts. however, i can only try my hardest to live each day up to the example God gave to us in the person of Christ. i really appreciate your visit here and hope you can come back when something a little more exciting is here.

by the way, get used to the lack of capital letters. this blog is home to my personal reflections, and i wish for them to be as informal as possible. i'm much more comfortable writing without having to worry about hitting that danged shift key every few words. you should try it some time, it's quite freeing.