One More Way The Bible Freaks Me Out...

Does the scripture freak anybody else out?

(Judges 11)

32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."
36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."
38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed.

Or am I just spiritually immature?

Remnant Promo

Here's this week's promo for Sunday night's Remnant.

Remnant This Week!

If you haven't been over to the Remnant blog, you missed our promo for this week's service. We opted for a "words and music" approach for this one and I think it turned out pretty cool. Check it out:

Working super-hard promoting Remnant today. Think I accidentally sent our YouTube promo video to everybody twice. Oops.

Gonna' be a good one this week. Kate's back to lead worship and we're gonna' have one of our church members there taking pictures. (Hope folks show up.)

Currently, we're using a blog, a big email group, Facebook events, YouTube videos and we talk about it all the time.

Anybody got any other creative ways to spread the word? Come on...you're all a bunch of marketers at heart. Let's brainstorm!

Remnant Report: 20 people total, worship was good, sermon went okay. Learning a lot already about flow, greeting, setup, sermon prep. I think we're on the right track, though.

If you're in Lufkin on Sunday night, March 2nd...you should check it out.

Sitting in the sound booth for youth service...2 hours 'til theRemnant...listening to Robbie and the boys play "New Day." What's better than that? (Minus the youth ministry part...)

Well, Here It Is Again

Remember a few days ago when my blog collapsed on itself? This, apparently, is the upload that made it happen.



Let's hope for the best, huh?

What I'm Doing, Part II

I mentioned briefly in the last post that my theory is that young adults tend to value powerful presentation over pastoral care. While that's probably not the healthy way to live, I think we can extract some 'good' out of it.

Let me explain: I think its amazing that young adults who are Christians are so familiar with guys like John Piper or Rob Bell or Matt Chandler or Andy Stanley or Neil McClendon or Voddie Baucham. (That's quite a varied group, ain't it? Wouldn't you love to see all of them around a dinner table?)

Here's what I mean: I think that for the first time in a long time, young adults are more passionate about finding teachers that actually know their stuff. We've got an entire movement of Christan college students who are reading, hearing and studying deep, theological issues. I realize that all college students get a bit pretentious, but I'm willing to bet that Christian college students are better-read these days than, say, fifteen years ago. And that's what we're factoring into the Remnant.

Understanding that we are probably going to be dealing with a group of people who are used to, and expect, a certain level of quality in sermons, classes, studies, lectures, we've decided to invest our time in crafting study of the Bible that is going to be thoughtful, prepared, and well-delivered. In addition to that, we're intentionally playing down the "show."

The Remnant will be held in the "chapel" of our church, a small space with stained glass, pews, the whole deal. To be honest, the idea of "postmodern" or "ancient future" never occured to me as we picked this location. Frankly, I just love the room and have wanted to have more meetings in there for two years. (I'm a sucker for the stained glass at night.)

Lufkin has had multiple young adult outreaches over the years - all with full bands, projection screens, video clips and lots of pseudo-momentum - but none of them have lasted. I'm not against bands or screens. I like them and use them on every single Sunday morning. But I think there's something to be said for trying something that's more low-key in its approach. My prayer is that each of these services will communicate a relaxed atmosphere while also being very focused on the study of scripture.

Oh, did I mention that I'm the one preaching? Yeah...I'm not leading worship at this one, folks. That's worth the price of admission right there!

What I'm Doing, Part I, or more realistically, "The Problem."

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Alright, this new young adult service thing we're doing seemed to be an interesting topic to a couple of you, so I figured I might as well write a blog or two as we get ready to kick it off.

First, let me give you my theory on The Problem. Now, you have to understand that I'm writing this blog and pursuing this ministry based the specific young adults of the Lufkin/Nacogdoches area. (We all know what happens when a church tries to cookie-cutter something that worked in College Station or San Diego or Nashville or D.C.) It should also be mentioned that I'm just a dude who's trying something that may totally fail.

If you'll allow me, I'd like to reference my favorite TV series and one of the greatest dramas to ever be produced on television, The West Wing. I've just started watching through Season 4 and that particular season actually has quite a significance to what I'm doing with "the Remnant."

In Season 4, President Bartlett is running against a governor from Florida. This governor is everything that the President is not - conservative, Republican and an idiot. When the Governor first began the election, the whole White House thought the election was a shoe-in, but they're currently finding that "Governor Ritchie" is actually making tremendous strides with his regular-guy-I'm-doing-my-best campaign.

I'm kinda' like Governor Ritchie. I know very little about young adult ministry, but I'm a regular guy and I'm doing my best and strangely, folks seem to be supporting me. (Go figure.)

On to The Problem.

Like every church in Lufkin, mine is struggling with ministry to folks in the 18-30 age group. It's no wonder - that particular age group comprises college students, college grads, singles in careers, married couples, married couples with children and those already divorced.

With college students, the problem is pretty obvious. The majority of those folks attending college IN Lufkin live at home or at least in close connection with their parents still. This changes church - these students don't need a "service," because they almost always attending church with, or at the urging of, their parents. So creating a seperate ministry option often flops. It would be different if they were 200 miles from home, where they could actually choose their worship option. Many of them can't, or don't.

For those outside of college, the problem is really one of options. Let's face it - many churches don't even have ONE good ministry opportunity for young adults, let alone multiple options for the various groups.

The third, and more general, problem is entirely cultural. These "millenials" or "gen z" or whatever-they're-called-these-days don't generally want a pastor. Those of you who follow church ministry at all know that the pastor role is quickly vanishing. And I can attest to this because I see this in my own life. Folks in the 18-30 aren't typically for someone who's going to come visit them in the hospital if they get sick or call them on their birthday or actively engage in ministering to them in their specific problem. I'm not saying this is right - I'm just saying this IS. Most folks in this group have either extended networks of friends or co-workers who operate in this community-support aspect. Because of that, the 18-30s tend to look at church as more of a give-me-the-stuff-i-need-and-i'll-see-you-next-week mentality.

So the problem is that you've got a culture that really actually needs some Biblical pastoring but would rather value powerful presentation and living in a local-family system that doesn't emphasize the need for much ownership of spiritual discipline.

That, in my opinion, is the Problem. How the Remnant fits in? We'll save that for the next time...

working title...

Starting in February, I'll be heading up a new young adult outreach at our church. I'll be "hosting" the service - preaching, leading discussion, connecting with guests, etc., while the worship will be led by a host of volunteer folks from around town.

We'll probably be throwing up a facebook or blog site for the service pretty soon. I'm really really excited about this new venture in ministry. I'll try to keep you guys posted on the progress.