Colossians 2:6-23
"My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving."
After a few temper tantrums & a bit of false starts, I really loved college. At first, in my youthful zeal, I wanted to have no part of it. "Why sit in a classroom and process when you can be out in the world practicing" was my early mantra. Several of my professors (wisely) sought to re-channel my impatience into a more vigorous embracing of my school work as something to be done "for the glory of God." And they were right. They also pushed me into internships so that I could immediately put into practice what I was learning.
I came to love the college experience. I loved learning & theorizing & philosophizing. I loved coffee shops & late nights & questions without answers. And so when graduation came around, while I was ready to go "live it," I was actually starting to think about grad school, something I'd mostly only swore I'd never do early on in college.
I haven't made it to grad school yet, though I hope to some day. But as I read Colossians 2 over the past couple days I was struck by, even without formalized "schooling," how easy it is to settle into talking about practices rather than actually practicing them.
Churches are one of the most guilty parties in this. Bring people into our doors where we can teach and instruct and equip and grow them and...and...and when do they actually live it out? Well, hopefully in their lives somewhere...in their vocation, in their neighborhoods, in their families. But is the church meant to be a place only of instruction or also a place of practice? Do we keep people at spiritual infancy by continually spoon feeding but rarely letting people handle the spoon themselves while still in the "safe" community of the church?
As I wade through re-designing the youth ministry at First Friends, these thought are ringing in the back of my head...
5.9.08
1.9.08
new blog topic, new youth ministry. change is in the air.
so for awhile i've been wanting to blog more specifically about things related to youth ministry, but just hadn't jumped on it. i don't really want to start another blog...i've got too many as it is. so i thought i'd hijack this one that's been laying mostly dormant anyway.
now also seems like a particularly appropriate time to start, as i'm also starting a new job. after 4 great years at The Chapel, i began just two weeks ago at First Friends Church in Canton, OH...the church i grew up in. i'm pumped to be back & looking forward to an exciting time there over the next several years.
one of the interesting things about starting at a new place is trying to find the right balance between continuity, culture, and your own individual personality. on one hand you don't want to overwhelm students or parents with a total overhaul of things too fast. it's also helpful to spend time listening, learning, and just plain "being" to get a feel for what the culture is of your new home. however, sooner or later (and the sooner or the later become the question) the youth ministry has to take on some individual & personal feel associated with who you are. oftentimes i've heard a sort of "one year" principle thrown around...keep things as they are for one year, until you can get a feel for it all, and then start making changes at an appropriate pace.
before i continue, one note of clarification. making changes to align things more with your personality doesn't mean simply pulling out your bag of tricks and putting it to work in a new place. instead, it has to involve a careful connection of the culture and community of your new locale combined with intrinsic pieces of you are, not necessarily extrinsic practices (programs) that you've done before.
at First Friends, however, i'm considering moving at a different speed. nothing had been planned or set up for the fall, so i already have a clean slate to work with (no cancellations needed). what's more, there's change occurring everywhere right now, due to a large staff turnover. while initially intending to wait for awhile before instituting any dynamic changes, i'm now planning on moving a bit faster (in about a two month time frame) with some changes, taking advantage of the current "ok-ness" there is associated with change. the Middle School youth ministry at FFC has looked pretty much the same since i was in it (16 years ago!), while a lot of culture has changed.
so...now the questions becomes what to change and why...
now also seems like a particularly appropriate time to start, as i'm also starting a new job. after 4 great years at The Chapel, i began just two weeks ago at First Friends Church in Canton, OH...the church i grew up in. i'm pumped to be back & looking forward to an exciting time there over the next several years.
one of the interesting things about starting at a new place is trying to find the right balance between continuity, culture, and your own individual personality. on one hand you don't want to overwhelm students or parents with a total overhaul of things too fast. it's also helpful to spend time listening, learning, and just plain "being" to get a feel for what the culture is of your new home. however, sooner or later (and the sooner or the later become the question) the youth ministry has to take on some individual & personal feel associated with who you are. oftentimes i've heard a sort of "one year" principle thrown around...keep things as they are for one year, until you can get a feel for it all, and then start making changes at an appropriate pace.
before i continue, one note of clarification. making changes to align things more with your personality doesn't mean simply pulling out your bag of tricks and putting it to work in a new place. instead, it has to involve a careful connection of the culture and community of your new locale combined with intrinsic pieces of you are, not necessarily extrinsic practices (programs) that you've done before.
at First Friends, however, i'm considering moving at a different speed. nothing had been planned or set up for the fall, so i already have a clean slate to work with (no cancellations needed). what's more, there's change occurring everywhere right now, due to a large staff turnover. while initially intending to wait for awhile before instituting any dynamic changes, i'm now planning on moving a bit faster (in about a two month time frame) with some changes, taking advantage of the current "ok-ness" there is associated with change. the Middle School youth ministry at FFC has looked pretty much the same since i was in it (16 years ago!), while a lot of culture has changed.
so...now the questions becomes what to change and why...
31.8.08
ethnocentric media
we live in a country that cares only for itself. if the rest of the world enters into the picture, it's only because of what it could give us (or what we could extract from it).
today, US media is totally caught up in Hurricane Gustav. this would seem worthwhile (and is a proper partial focus).
however, hop over the BBC and you find out that 1/2 a million people who live in India are stranded in villages that have been devastated by monsoon flooding. half a million. Gustav hasn't even touched land yet. oh. wait. it has. but "only" in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. 85 people have already died. and i haven't seen one story about it yet.
when will we care...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7591006.stm
today, US media is totally caught up in Hurricane Gustav. this would seem worthwhile (and is a proper partial focus).
however, hop over the BBC and you find out that 1/2 a million people who live in India are stranded in villages that have been devastated by monsoon flooding. half a million. Gustav hasn't even touched land yet. oh. wait. it has. but "only" in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. 85 people have already died. and i haven't seen one story about it yet.
when will we care...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7591006.stm
23.1.08
talking 'bout porn...
an email i sent out today:
Friends...
The other week I wrote some of you & let you know that I've had the opportunity to speak several times at The Chapel recently, particularly around the topic of pornography & intimacy. Thanks to many of you who have taken some time to pray for me...your prayers have been felt & encouraging. Some of you go to The Chapel and heard me in the morning, but I thought you might be interested in talk I gave at Illuminate. Anyway, I wanted to give you the links to the two different talks that I gave so that you can take a listen if you so desire:
Reconstructing Intimacy: Intimacy with Others
I co-preached this sermon with one of our Sr. Pastors, Paul Sartarelli. The main topic I spoke on was accountability.
http://www.the-chapel.org/audio (both the sermon on the 13 & the 20 are the same sermon, just different services.
Reconstructing Intimacy: The Fallacy of Intimacy with Self
I shared this talk with our Illuminate service, an evening service offered at The Chapel. It's sort of a service for young people, but we really have a range of ages there. But it allows us to to be a bit more outside the box with sermon style, so it's definitely a different style of sermon that what Paul & I did in the morning. I've made a photo album on Facebook so that you can see most of the slides that I used...they're in order, but you'll have to use context clues to figure out when I was showing them : ) You can look at them here:
http://malone.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012503&l=2210a&id=160801998
And the song we sang in response at the end, if you desire to really embrace the experience, was "Grace Flows Down." You can listen to it online here:
http://search.playlist.com/tracks/Grace-Flows-Down
The sermon is the January 20th one found here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/the-chapel/il_sermon
I'd love to hear your feedback & thoughts on either of these. For a variety of resources we're making available along with this series, you can go to http://www.the-chapel.org/purity
Hope this finds you well...
Joel Daniel
Friends...
The other week I wrote some of you & let you know that I've had the opportunity to speak several times at The Chapel recently, particularly around the topic of pornography & intimacy. Thanks to many of you who have taken some time to pray for me...your prayers have been felt & encouraging. Some of you go to The Chapel and heard me in the morning, but I thought you might be interested in talk I gave at Illuminate. Anyway, I wanted to give you the links to the two different talks that I gave so that you can take a listen if you so desire:
Reconstructing Intimacy: Intimacy with Others
I co-preached this sermon with one of our Sr. Pastors, Paul Sartarelli. The main topic I spoke on was accountability.
http://www.the-chapel.org/audio (both the sermon on the 13 & the 20 are the same sermon, just different services.
Reconstructing Intimacy: The Fallacy of Intimacy with Self
I shared this talk with our Illuminate service, an evening service offered at The Chapel. It's sort of a service for young people, but we really have a range of ages there. But it allows us to to be a bit more outside the box with sermon style, so it's definitely a different style of sermon that what Paul & I did in the morning. I've made a photo album on Facebook so that you can see most of the slides that I used...they're in order, but you'll have to use context clues to figure out when I was showing them : ) You can look at them here:
http://malone.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012503&l=2210a&id=160801998
And the song we sang in response at the end, if you desire to really embrace the experience, was "Grace Flows Down." You can listen to it online here:
http://search.playlist.com/tracks/Grace-Flows-Down
The sermon is the January 20th one found here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/the-chapel/il_sermon
I'd love to hear your feedback & thoughts on either of these. For a variety of resources we're making available along with this series, you can go to http://www.the-chapel.org/purity
Hope this finds you well...
Joel Daniel
11.12.07
5.12.07
new Narnia
from the looks of this trailer, the new Narnia takes an admirable first movie to the series and improves on it substantially. can't wait...
21.8.07
by the way...
I mostly just post on
http://bejustice.blogspot.com
*edit* and for those of you who either find it vexingly complicated to copy and paste or are to absurdly lazy to do so click here
: )
http://bejustice.blogspot.com
*edit* and for those of you who either find it vexingly complicated to copy and paste or are to absurdly lazy to do so click here
: )
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