2,500 of the worlds leading economist, bankers, political leaders, and CEO’s are gathered together this week in Davos, Switzerland to address the urgent needs of the global economy at the World Economic Forum. The financial cricis we are facing in America with the US auto market, the housing market, the credit market, just to name a few, is only part of the global challenge.  According to many at this global event, as Groundhog Day looms just around the corner, we may have some long dark days ahead of us.

With a near bankrupt economy wavering out on the horizon, I can’t help but to notice the parallels between the state of the economy as compared with the state of the “lost connection” between church and home. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night we had time to catch up with Dr. Richard Ross for a quick meal.  I left our time with him wanting more…feeling a little cheated because an hour and fifteen minutes, just wasn’t enough.

Although he is a professor of student ministries at Southwestern Seminary, he spends many Sunday’s and Wednesday nights helping parents restore relationships with their teenagers all across the country.  I don’t have time to share the stories he shared with us, but I can say that we share a common passion.  The life transformation stories he shared with Ron Hunter and I nearly left me in tears.

You see the average Christian parent today doesn’t know how to authentically communicate with their teens, to affirm them, and to lead them.  Wounds happen, walls get built up, and it’s just too much work.  So let the distance and emotional scars begin.  He has found a way to heal and correct this process, and it’s completely biblical!  I wish every youth minister across the country would listen to him and implement what he is saying.

If we would integrate his message into our ministries, we could live out D6 like never before.  But if we don’t bridge the gap, healing won’t begin, and our students will not listen, and they will not own their faith (in mass numbers).

I will forever treasure the time that I spent with him last night.

Dr. Ross will be speaking at D6. I hope you will come listen to him and have the chance to meet him.

I wrote a post just a few weeks ago on December 22 about teaching our kids that our hope has to rest only in Christ.  Not in tradition, not in our status symbols, not in power.  Nothing, other than Jesus Christ.  Go back and read scripture and take Jesus at his word.  He clearly calls us to abandon all but him, and to identify with Him in His sufferings.

I saw this Piper video yesterday on youtube.  Matter of fact, Katie and I watched it together and when it was over, we felt a sense of “Wow, he just said, exactly what has needed to be said, for a long time.”

The American way is to fill our lives with comfort and happiness, yet it is such a facade. Fake. When Christians suffer in America, how do we cope with it?  We go shopping, we get a Starbucks, we go out to eat…something that will fill the void.  It’s not real. Not sustainable.

Christ tells us to identify with Him in our sufferings.  To need only Him.  How shall we then live?  How do we teach and model this to our kids?  What does this look like in my life?  Do we have an active and vibrant theology of suffering?  I’m not seeing much of this around me, yet I want to live it out.  I don’t have answers today…only questions.

I need wisdom.  His love is overwhelming and never ending.  I need to trust in God.

Jay Strother will be speaking at the D6 Conference.  Jay is the Emerging Generations Minister at Brentwood Baptist Church.  Essentially this means that he is oversees all ministries from birth to young adults.

I had lunch wiht Jay a while back and was blown away by how much he has wrestled with this issue of “faith transferance” between the generations.  Impressive guy.  He has put together an incredible strategy in place for Brentwood Baptist Church.  I look forward to hearing him speak in the power session on Thursday afternoon at D6.

Here is his bio:  Jay Strother is the Emerging Generations Minister at Brentwood Baptist Church.  He’s been working with students, children and their parents since he was 19 years old.  Jay graduated from Greenville (IL) College in 1997 and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2006.  Currently he is planting the South Campus of Brentwood Baptist in Spring Hill/Thompson Station, TN.  His favorite stories come from the adventures of life with his wife of 11+ years, Tanya, and their three lively little girls, Eliza, Lexi and Ella.

Welcome Jay!

Check out this article on Baptist Press about Tim Tebow and the way he was raised.  Nothing normal about them…that family is sold out to Christ.  When you are sold out to Christ, your family tends to look a little different.

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?Id=29633

Enjoy!

My youth pastor back home, Mike Harlow, is allowing a younger, better looking guy take over this next generation of students.  The following is a tribute to Mike.  Love you man.

Parents have such an impact in the lives of their children, especially when it comes to values, faith and spiritual matters.  As important as parents are, kids need others to come along-side them and reinforce what parents are speaking into the lives of their kids.  I had a few key men who filled this role at a critical time in my life, and Mike Harlow was one of them.

Mike became the youth minister at Rock Prairie at a time in my life when I needed another voice to speak into my human experience.  Let’s face it, when students become teenagers, parents suddenly become stupid!  Nothing they say or know seems to matter any more.  Although that’s not a reality, it’s a perceived reality.

For me, Mike was a rock.  He challenged me.  It’s almost as if he dared me to do the extreme and follow God no matter where He lead me.  God is giving me some unique opportunities at this brief moment in my life.  If it were not for my parents and guys like Mike Harlow, I would have drifted very far from the giver of life, Jesus Christ.  Mike, thanks for giving, even with others may not have noticed how much you really cared.  You have forever changed the direction of my life, and I am just one of many.