Searching for Meaning and Purpose...

After a great weekend of master's classes and the Frequency conference at Indiana Wesleyan University, I am thinking, a lot! I am going to deviate from thinking about what it means to be a Christ follower into what it means to "minister" and what a "ministry" really is. Ministry is a broad term, covering anything someone does in the name of Christ (minister means to give aid not someone who is of the clergy, that's something we associate to it, not the original meaning!). So in theory, feeding someone who is hungry is a ministry (particularly as we fit both contexts, the idea of doing something in Jesus' name and the "professional" idea of someone who does things for the church) especially as it was something Jesus told us to do? However, should there ever be separation between the "professional" idea of ministry and the actual process of giving aid? I think not, but we've made it so. Is there a place for preaching? Yes. Is...

After reading more and thinking a lot, I keep wondering what it really means to be a Christian. If you haven't read it, check out the book "UnChristian" by David Kinnaman. It's a must read for those in ministry and for anyone with a heart to reach people who are disconnected. The book is based on research from people who are NOT Christians on their perspectives of the "church." The results are pretty scary, but there isn't anything uncorrectable or fatal there. The things he lists include: judgmental, hypocritical, anti-homosexual, too political, sheltered, and focused only on "saving" people. Each of those rebukes is true. Partially because the church isn't a homogeneous group, but mainly because it's true! People are turned off by us not being real or by putting on a persona. To quote DC Talk (yes, I am a child of the 80-90's): "The single biggest cause of atheism today are Christians who confess Jesus at church the...

I really like this idea: the current generation (Gen Y, iGen, whatever title you give it) is moving towards real change not just talk. Their focus isn't necessarily on themselves. In fact, I would say there is a concerted movement to focus on others! After the CORE (Dan Jessup was awesome and I think my students soaked up quite a bit) I am totally stoked about finding something we can DO (note: that means the students finding something not Matt) to change the world. Right now one thing is we're "adopting Grannies" from Vintage Place (isn't the name great? Doesn't sound like the normal nursing home, it's vintage, not old!). That is as simple as talking to them once every other month or so, baking cookies, making cards, just investing ourselves in their lives! And it makes a huge difference for the people we talk to. They might not have anyone visit them regularly, but my students do! However, I think there is SO much more we could do (in fact, it...

As I make choices and decisions for our student ministry, I am constantly reminded that grace is greater. No matter what we do, we can never make God love us less. Is that amazing? I think so. But, how does a greater grace play out in my life? That's the question that keeps bugging me. How does this incredible knowledge make me different? Or does it? It should, but it doesn't always work that way. However, if the knowledge of God's love for us doesn't cause massive change, did we really get it? The idea that one can be grabbed by the grace and love of Jesus and not change is insane. In fact, it goes counter to everything we have documented or seen! Jesus took regular, plain jane, guys and made them extraordinary. How? Because when they understood the love of God and the grace He extended through His son they responded the only way they knew how, telling everyone! In fact, the same guys who denied Jesus and ran off scared, later stood in front of the same le...