one of the things that’s been on my heart/mind/stomach the past few months has been the notion of “going deeper”. one of the phrases i’d hear a lot from the oldest students when i began as youth pastor at my church was “i want to go deeper”. when they left, most would say they wanted something deeper. now, deep down in me, i always had a feeling it was usually a commitment issue, an apathy issue, and ownership issue, and really more of a choice than a hard need. even though i felt this, i never really knew how to communicate it, or even feel good about doing so.
the past few weeks i’ve starting to get blasted with some good insight about this whole mess. is it my shortcomings, their shortcomings, misunderstanding, what? what about my role as their pastor, their leader?
at this point, i no longer see it as an issue of Karl as a pastor keeping them “shallow”. if anything lies in my shortcoming (and the church in general, imo), it’s not enabling and teaching the church body to feed themselves. Perry Noble is quoted by Tony Morgan at a church planting conference, “Some people will ask, “When are we going to go deeper.” You can go deeper right now. Open your Bible. There’s some deep stuff in there. Read it.” There are some other great lines from that session, check them on Tony’s blog.
i read an article on Relevant Magazine a bit ago in the same vein. It’s titled On Using Your Own Fork.
As a leader and a teacher, there is a responsibility to teach truth, to dive into scripture, and to not just talk about theology and walk away confused, but know how to apply it! a better job needs to be done with shifting the sermon message…what’s going to reach more, a lecture (like we sat through in college) and is good for knowledge, trivial pursuit, and not much else; or enabling the church body to be able to feed themselves. if we cannot feed ourselves, are we not in a way building a faith base on a particular church, or even a particular pastor? that’s not the point. we’re missing the depth if we don’ know how to feed ourselves.
on February 28, 2007 by karlo
that’s right, i finally got a jeep. i’ve been dreaming of this day for years. gone are the two cars. later on.
check it out…
on February 27, 2007 by karlo
had a great weekend…well, a day, really. a crew of us went out to EJ’s lake house in the pocono’s to celebrate beth f’s birthday. it was a really good time hiking, playing games, talking church & youth ministry, eating pizza, and the like. got to spend some good time with spence & beth chatting youth min…it’s always good talking with them and brainstorming, since we’re serving very similar positions, just in different churches. there are some interesting inherent differences in youth ministry which differ from regular church; because most youth ministries are essentially growing a church within a church. i remember a line from a doug fields training resource (i don’t remember which one) in which he commented that youth are different in that you often have to go the extra mile not just to teach, but actually to convince youth that they need to be taught. good thought for an old guy working with kids (really, i love you doug).
on February 24, 2007 by karlo
this is an awesome post from marko’s blog about a guy seeking to restore the dignity of the homeless, while at the same time discipling. i love it. chec out the whole thing here.
Posted February 23, 2007 by karlo
attendance: average
topic: Jesus:teacher
fun factor: below average
volunteer involvement: average
music: above average
lesson quality: below average
student response: below average
set list
everlasting God : brenton brown
chasing cars : snow patrol
Jesus paid it all : i forget…
it was a rough night for me last night. i felt like i’ve been two days behind all week long. the worship team did a nice job pulling chasing cars together in our rehearsal. they’ve been growing a lot over the months as a group. our group was really reserved last night, no one wanted to speak up much at all. we spent time talking about first impressions and then seen needs in the areas of city/home/school. we put up a large paper sheet on the wall to write them down; my hope is to really look at how to meet these needs and do just that. when a need is met, cross it off. we only got four up last night, but they were good. i left the night feeling pretty discouraged from the seeming lack of involvement and apathy from the group, it really bummed me out. i’m praying and hoping, though, that what we started last night will build in momentum over the next weeks we’re in this series.
jr. high, on the other hand, were off the wall! they were in a lesson focusing on the rock of Jesus, and actually did some rock decorating…there were some sweet ones. as a group, they seemed to leave having really enjoyed the night, which is great.
Posted February 22, 2007 by karlo
working like crazy getting prepared for AYF tonight. wednesday’s our big night, with both sr. and jr. high meeting at the same time. both groups are starting new series tonight
sr. high :: we’re going through a character study of Jesus, adapted from Beginning in Jesus by Doug Fields & Brett Eastman. tonight starts with Jesus:teacher. i’m really pumped for the study & series, but i’ve been really behind in getting things together over the past week, with my seminary class coming to a close on Sunday night. excuses, whatev. this is meant to be small group curriculum, which I’m not using it for; however, our sr. high group right now is only about 20 or so, so it should work out fine. i’m really trying to find some hands on ways to use this study to also hit an underlying focus of passionate faith. the level of passion among the kids for their faith right now is kind of lacking, so i’ve been brainstorming a lot of different ideas of how to attack that in the midst of what we’re doing.
jr. high :: starting a study called Built to Last by Kurt Johnston. It’s a little basic for the spiritual depth of our kids right now, so our leaders Duane & Maile will be supplementing around the outlines. not saying it to sound cocky, but a lot of our jr. high kids right now come from families good at leading their family spiritually; so, we’re just taking the provided material a little deeper and hitting some additional application points.
i also need to get some cakes or something for tonight. i told them we’d do a little birthday celebration bash-esque thing, since we’ve had a lot of birthday’s recently. woot. i’ll post a wrap up on tonight likely tomorrow sometime.
Posted February 21, 2007 by karlo
yesterday was a good day, for the most part. why you ask? i will tell you…now.
- i weirded hoffert out cuddling with him.
- lunch at waffle shop. not to be confused with waffle house, of southern fame
- randy gave me a sweet ski jacket. see word: gave
- aaron henning is the man. if you go to penn state, you need to check out Alliance Christian Fellowship.
- jon & emo made a great meatloaf. and brownie thing.
- the illusionist. decent movie. didn’t see the end coming.
on February 16, 2007 by karlo
my wife is cooking up some lunch while we listen to some jimmy eat world, futures. i love these guys. i saw them a handful of years ago at a festival before i really appreciated their music…all i knew was ‘the middle’, and while it’s catchy, it’s nowhere near their best. listening to this, i wish that there was more worship music written like this stylistically and less like ccm stylistically. ‘church music’ has been playing imitation and catch up to contemporary (what the general public listens to) for too long. we need more good music in worship. enough of singing the same line for 10 minutes…repetition certainly has its place in prayer & worship practices, but it doesn’t need to be at the expense of a lack of creativity. i like chris tomlin, crowder, redman and the like, but really so many churches are just moving from the traditional to a contemporary power point hymnal of the same songs. it would sure be nice to worship in church with more than just what i pick up at the local christian bookstore or (gasp) hear on the local christian radio station…yet another reason i don’t listen to the radio.
let’s stop being so narrow from the stage. creativity takes more than a projector, a fancy background, and a few candles.
for some further thoughts on this subject, tony morgan has a great article/discussion going on this in a post called ‘does worship music need to be fixed?’, found here.
Posted February 14, 2007 by karlo
there’s a lot of snow outside. what could the day hold…
on February 14, 2007 by karlo
my wife and i spent quite a but of time last week talking about vision for this youth ministry that we lead…where is it supposed to go, and how do we do that. vision has to come from God, and not myself. i’ve written before, everyone can have good -even great- ideas, but if it’s not from God, it’s not the right thing to do. to hear God, we must have intimacy with him, and if i’m not praying, not in scripture, not seeking, i’m not going to find intimacy. just like i can lose intimacy with my wife if i distance myself from her, the same happens spiritually.
there are beginnings of visaion for this ministry, a place to start, but there’s so much more. to be successful in leading a team, the vision has to be shared. i’m working on it, but i know i’ve got work to do in cultivating and leading other leaders. another point is to have a shared vision with my church…and not just saying that it’s a shared vision, but people have to believe it and be behind it. division in vision of a church won’t be fruitful.
in a smiliar vein, our sunday morning services are in a long series on spiritual gifts, looking at what they really are, and identifying which gifts we all have. i hope that people remain engaged in this series because i have high hopes of seeing a new generation of lay leadership arise in our church. i’m excited at the possibility that this holds for our church.
Posted February 13, 2007 by karlo
