I finally delivered my first sermon at Lenepe Valley Presbyterian Church. ITs about my call to ministry and the calling that everyone gets to be a christian and at to take it one step further. I pulled a lot of it from YMIN 101 at Eastern University.
Posted on:
April 9, 2012
Apr 04
The other day I was approached by someone to talk about them maybe moving to another church. Instantly I was struck with a sense of, “no, you can’t go anywhere! You have to stay here! This is where you belong!” I will not go into too much depth of the conversation, but the gist was that they truly felt that they were no getting fed here. This led me to this realization.
Most of us church workers out there are human, and what comes with being human and being in america in particular is the overwhelming drive to be successful. Success can be measured in many ways, from the number of new members you are getting every month, the total number of people you have in your congregation verses the one down the street that always seems to have more, the number of new baptisms you have, to just the amount of money you are able to take in from the congregation. That’s what the american dream mentality is all about, the bigger the better.
I remember years ago when I was in high school our church went on a trip to creation fest at Agape Farm in PA. we brought about 50 people and 1 huge, yellow, Penske moving truck full of food, tents, and the largest gatherings of coolers I have ever seen. While we were there, a friend name Russ and I decided to play the game Bigger, Better, Best. If you have never been to creation fest or heard of it, basically it is a huge Christian music festival with probably 75,000 people or more camped out in tents on this huge farm used for just this event every year. We decided to go to different camp site group and see if they would trade something with us for what we had that was bigger or better. we started with 2 dead glow sticks and traded them for two cloths pins which we traded for 3 or 4 pieces of fun size candy pieces and so on and so forth. After about and hour and a half we ended up with a container of instant coffee, a 24 pack of bottled water, a solar shower, a lawn chair, AND a nice beach towel. To put it plainly, we won.
In all seriousness though, we were able to be the best and win because we got the best stuff. Just like churches ‘become the best’ and ‘win’ because they have the best facilities, the most money, and the most membership.
When a rich young man came to Jesus and asked him what he had to do to be saved,
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:21-24
Needless to say, I am learning more and more that it really isn’t about numbers or money or facilities. It’s really about the proliferation of the gospel! What I and we need to realize as church leaders is that if someone in our congregation isn’t getting fed by what we are going then maybe we need to send the sheep off to another shepherd that might be able to feed them with what they really need. Everyone is different and has different needs not only physically but spiritually as well! I remember being in DC and going to a different church on sunday nights than the one I worked at because I wasn’t being fed that they church I worked at. It’s not anything against the church at all.
We need to be ok with people leaving to go somewhere else. This doesn’t mean that we should forget them and let someone else deal with it though. The church should be a unified body across all beliefs and creeds regardless of the denominational title that you have after your name. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians of the danger of being divided.
10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16 … 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
1 Corinthians 1:10-15, 17
So I now urge you to let God do his thing with us. We don’t need to get in the way with titles like, “I am a Presbyterian,” or, “I am a Baptist,” or, “I am nondenominational,” or even, “I am a Christian.” We should all be one body with Christ as the head.
For those of you that are reading this thinking that you are stuck and are not learning anything. Please seek out a place or a person that feeds you. It could be right where you are now, all you have to do is take a look around and see who God has placed in your path.
Feb 27
I remember walking down the board walk in Ocean City (Maryland of course!) and seeing a t-shirt at one of those little shops on the side that said, “I know I’m not perfect, but I’m so close it scares me.” I remember thinking that it was really funny, so funny in fact that I decided to buy it as a gift for the girl that I was dating at the time. Mind you, I was only 14 years old and thought she would love it because she did think she was perfect. I know what many of you are saying, “What a terrible idea!” And needless to say, you are absolutely right! I think the worst part was that I gave it to her at her birthday party in front of a whole bunch of friends and family. From then on, I decided not to publicly humiliate my girlfriends…
The point to this is that the human mentality is to get as close to perfect as possible. We all say that perfection is impossible, but I don’t know if we truly understand that because everyone is still looking for that perfect job, perfect mate, perfect church, and perfect kids. The thing that bothers me the most is that we let this mentality slip into our Christian walks with Jesus.
I was talking to a young adult that goes to Lenape Valley Presbyterian Church with his girl friend, and his biggest problem with Christianity is that we are expected to be perfect and then told that we can’t. We are expected to lead a life as close to Jesus’ life as possible, but are told by Paul in Romans that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and that the only way to be saved from eternal punishment is to as for forgiveness, repent, and try again. But we continue to screw up again and again. I don’t know anyone that became a Christian and from that day forward could be perfect.
We are imperfect people and imperfect disciples. We try to imitate and follow Christ, the only perfect example that we can have, but continually fall short. That’s why the mountain top experience that people get from a lot of large Christian conferences can fall so quickly. It’s only a matter of time before we begin to screw up again, because we are fallen and human, and begin to feel the weight of sin on our shoulders.
We need to stop thinking that we are being asked to be perfect, we can’t be perfect, and the back of our minds we know this. Christianity is not about being perfect, it’s about love. Christianity is not about being perfect, it’s about how we handle our imperfections. The real question is, when we screw up, who do we run to? Do we run to God and seek comfort in the spirit, or do we run to seek comfort in the pleasures of this world?
When you look at art work through the ages you can see many things that are very close to perfection. The paintings that Leonardo DaVinci finished over the course of his life are still revered today as some of the best ever. Although, close to his death, Leonardo was quoted saying that he regretted “never having completed a single work.” DaVinci was striving for perfection his whole life and was never able to achieve it in his own eyes.
We can’t be perfect and no matter how hard we try we, time and again, fall short. Christians should not be measured by how close to perfect they are, we should be measured on how we handle our imperfections!
We were created to be perfectly imperfect!
Nov 16
Let the plaid shirts, Starbucks coffee, and messenger bags descend onto the convention center in Atlanta, Georgia! Thats right, The National Youth Workers Convention is here once again and I will be there along with some other colleagues for the extended weekend. Jeremy, Adam, Thea, April, Nicole, Eric, and myself will be driving the 12 hours from Baltimore to Atlanta tomorrow morning at 6:00 am. I personally am not a fan of waking up that early, but a mans got to do what a mans got to do.
The best thing about being in atlanta for #NYWC is that youth workers from around the united states have the opportunity to join with one another in fellowship. We get the opportunity to network with people who love doing the same things that we are doing, and we get to share all our feelings, the good and the bad, about youth work with people who really understand where it is we are coming from. Not only do we get to experience the joy of being with so many other like-minded people, we get to worship together with a bunch of people who really truly love Jesus. They bring together youth workers from all different walks of life and denominations to worship God.
I love when you walk into the convention center and you see all the youth workers with their plaid shirts and messenger bags. You can always pick out the first timers by the ones that wear the bag that they give you during registration. I personally like to sport the large Timbuktu bag that you could probably fit an entire box of copier paper in. You need the room for all the free stuff, and if there is one thing that youth workers love, its free stuff!
So to all my fellow youth workers out there that will be at #NYWC, I am just as excite as you are. Keep in touch with me on twitter @bejones and maybe we can hook up in the exhibit hall for some networking! Much love and God Bless!
Nov 10
So I have had a window sticker on my car for the last 4 years that says, “Life is Short, Play Naked,” and has a picture of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs above it. I got it originally just because I thought it was funny, but recently I have been thinking about how much that applies to our lives as Christians. No, I’m not saying that we should run around naked because we are going to die soon. I’m not talking about physical nakedness at all actually. I was listening to a message from a friend that everyone calls Big Daddy Keas a few years ago and he was talking about Genesis and how during creation that Adam and Eve were not just naked physically but emotionally and spiritually as well.
Genesis 2:20-25
20But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Adam and Eve were created with nothing to hide from each other and they went and ruined it but eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They bared everything to one another: what they loved, what they hated, and what they were passionate about.
What an amazing feeling that must have been. Not having to hide anything from the people sitting next you to. To be able to bare everything to the people who you love most in the world and not be afraid of getting hurt for it. You would no longer have to wear your ‘happy mask’ everywhere you went. You could be who God created you to be. Instead we cover up with our fig leaves and hide our feeling and passions from the people around us. We are afraid that we will do something wrong or say something wrong and people will look at us the wrong way.
Now that question that I am posing and the question that Big Daddy Keas posed is, what is your fig leave covering? What is it that you are too ashamed to share with people? What makes you feel like you are not good enough? What is it that you think, if your friends see, they will make fun of you for. I know for a lot of us it’s our Christian faith or lack of Christian faith. There are some of us that walk into school or work everyday and try with all that we are to hide the fact that we are Christians from the people around us with our figurative fig leaves. Others of us come into church every Sunday hoping that no one will see that they seem a little out of it. They put on a pretty face and sing the songs and even pray out-loud when their youth leader asks them to, but they are hiding the fact that they are doubting everything. We think that we are the only ones and that our friends just wont understand. We think we will be made fun of.
Gods perfect intention for humanity is that we be ‘naked’ in front of each other, “soul naked,” and feel no shame. What are friends here for if not to help us thorough the times that we feel scared or ashamed or worse. “Life is short, Play naked,” means that we should shed our figurative fig leaves and open up to the people that we love about what is really on our mind. I’m sure you will be very surprised by the response.
Life is Short, Play Naked!
Oct 25
There are certain qualities that make up a great youth minister. These qualities include but are not limited to,
Oct 11
I have honestly never heard as much negativity about home town sports teams as I have heard around Philly in the last few days. It has been from people, radio stations, and television networks and its contagious. Maybe it is because I’m from Baltimore where we have a baseball team that hasn’t even made the play offs since 1997 and havent won a world series since 1983.
Oct 10
“People don’t make a list of websites they wanna see before they die. They don’t fill photo albums with pictures from an online search. ‘Like’ being there, is not like being there. It’s okay, the internet will be just fine without you. That’s why we built the first search engine for the real world. The Dodge Journey. And then we left 3 somewhere out there, if you can find one, you can have one. You won’t find any of them online But it might help you figure out where they might be.”
Sep 07
One of the many things that we were taught in one of our Youth Ministry classes at Eastern is to notice the youth culture that we were around. This was one of the very things that I didnt notice while I was living and working in DC. If I went out to a coffee shop in DC, all I would see is a bunch of young professionals or middle age women that dont work because their Husbands rake in all the cash. It didnt even cross my mind that after school hours, I should see kids around.
Loading tweets...
Recent Comments