Hi-Tech Flirting Turns Explicit, Altering Young Lives
Parents and those who work with youth should read this important article from The New York Times. Here is the lead:
LACEY, Wash. — One day last winter Margarite posed naked before her bathroom mirror, held up her cellphone and took a picture. Then she sent the full-length frontal photo to Isaiah, her new boyfriend.
Both were in eighth grade.
They broke up soon after. A few weeks later, Isaiah forwarded the photo to another eighth-grade girl, once a friend of Margarite’s. Around 11 o’clock at night, that girl slapped a text message on it.
“Ho Alert!” she typed. “If you think this girl is a whore, then text this to all your friends.” Then she clicked open the long list of contacts on her phone and pressed “send.”
In less than 24 hours, the effect was as if Margarite, 14, had sauntered naked down the hallways of the four middle schools in this racially and economically diverse suburb of the state capital, Olympia. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of students had received her photo and forwarded it.
In short order, students would be handcuffed and humiliated, parents mortified and lessons learned at a harsh cost.
If You Don’t Make The Sacrifice, Your Kids Will
The only way that your children will grow beyond their dependency into self-sufficient adults is for you to essentially abandon your own independence for twenty years or so…You can make the sacrifice, or they’re going to make the sacrifice. It’s them or you. Either you suffer temporarily and in a redemptive way, or they’re going to suffer tragically, in a wasteful and destructive way. -Tim Keller, King’s Cross
Garden City Church Starts Meeting this Wednesday
Garden City Church starts meeting this Wednesday night!
This Wednesday at 6:30pm the Garden City Church core group will gather for our first meeting. We meet every Wednesday night at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1100 Shasta Avenue in San Jose. Tell your non-Christian friends and your friends without a church home in San Jose to join us this Wednesday. I’m starting our Wednesday nights together by leading us through the story of the Bible in a way that is non-threatening to non-believers and edifying to believers. Unless you have one of these issues, you’re warmly invited to join us. It’s going to be fun. God is going to move. If you live in Delaware, just pray for us.
NorCal Network
I’m privileged to serve with a great group of guys on the board for the NorCal Network. Take a minute to check out the NorCal Network website.
Welcome to the web site for the NorCal Network for Church Planting. The NCN is a group of gospel-centered evangelical churches that are working together to promote the planting of churches in Northern California. We hold regular events to help train up new church planters, assessment for those wondering whether church planting is what God is calling them to do and counsel and mentoring for those already planting a church.
And, if you live in the Bay Area, mark your calendars for our upcoming Bay Area Conference and Boot Camp with D.A. Carson, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Scott Thomas, and Jeff Vanderstelt.
Top 10 Reasons NOT to Join a Church Plant
On February 1st I moved my family to San Jose to start Garden City Church. The day we moved we had three adults committed to the church plant. It was a move of faith.
After getting settled, the first thing I did was hold an informational meeting about the church plant. I hoped twenty people would show up. Sixty-one people attended the meeting. The turnout was comprised almost entirely of Christians from a variety of other churches in the area, the vast majority of whom had never been involved with a church plant.
After speaking for about an hour on the vision of Garden City Church, I shared this top ten list. I spent ten minutes sharing and unpacking this list I’d created in order to de-romanticize church planting for all the Christians in the room. As people were growing excited about the possibility of joining our church planting team I wanted them to have a realistic picture of the difficulty of church planting, to be aware of some of the wrong reasons why people join a church plant, and to take an honest assessment of their own expectations and motives in considering joining the team.
Coming up with and sharing this list has proved very helpful for me, for the people who have decided to join me, and for the people who have decided not to join our team.
1. If you’re looking for the next cool thing in town (We want to grow by conversion growth, not church-goer transfer growth).
2. If you’re a Christian and you don’t like your current church (You will find reasons to not like this church).
3. If you have a bad track record at churches of being unteachable and causing problems (You won’t change here, you’ll repeat the pattern).
4. If you’re a consumer wanting to “go to church” 1x a week for a nice show (We are not a Sunday show, we are a community of disciples on a mission).
5. If you want religion (This church will be built on the radical gospel of grace).
6. If you have an agenda (We have our vision, our mission, and our values–your private agenda does not supercede them).
7. If you’re a wolf (We will sniff you out).
8. If you think this will be a nice little church that stays the same size, where everybody knows your name and you have my cell number on speed dial and we have a picnic lunch together every week (By God’s grace, we want to grow).
9. If you think this will be easy and smooth (This will be hard and difficult; this will be a fight, a battle, a challenging mission).
10. If you want to hold onto your comfortable life (You must lose your life).
I also shared a quote from Ernest Shakelton, from the advertisement he used when recruiting men for his expedition to Antarctica in 1914:
Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.
-This post also appears at Resurgence and the Acts 29 blog.
Church Planting is Not A Spectator Sport! Or is It?
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with one of my best buddies where he articulated the participant/spectator dynamic I’ve been noticing and feeling as a church planter. I asked my friend to turn his words into a blog post. This is a guest post by Toby Kurth.
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Church planting is not a spectator sport! Or is it?
Anyone involved with a church plant will undoubtedly feel the pleasure and the burden of their full participation in getting a new church going. It is easy to list off the many things that need to be done to keep things rolling. There is so much to do. So many people to meet, relationships to build, meaningful labor, and seemingly menial labor. It is non-stop action. And yet, in the midst of it all, you cannot help but feel that you are little more than a spectator—someone with the privilege of witnessing the power of God build His church, of seeing lives transformed in ways that only God can do.
We are 19 months into our church plant. When people ask me what church planting is like, the most common description I give is that I feel like I am equal parts spectator and participant.
Church planting is not just about getting out of the stands and into the game. You cannot afford to get so wrapped up in what you are doing that you lose sight of what God is doing. A church cannot be built without the supernatural power of God.
You need to be a committed spectator. You need to be committed to praying for God’s activity in your church plant and celebrating all that He is doing. Only God, in the power of His Spirit and through the redemptive work of Christ, can truly build a church. In that sense, any participant in a church plant—from the church planter to the new children’s ministry volunteer—is nothing more than a spectator witnessing God’s amazing work.
At the same time, God delights to use His people to advance His Kingdom. God builds His church through us and our labors. We do have to get out of the stands and into the game. He calls us to work, and to work hard. But, as we work, we must never forget that we are simultaneously spectators, watching in awe as God builds his church.
Why Siblings Make Each Other Better (And Younger Brothers Take More Risks)
From today’s Wall Street Journal:
…This unusually exciting and aggressive style has helped Griffin become the first NBA rookie to be named to the All-Star game in 13 years. But it’s also raised an interesting question: why does he play that way?
…A study published last year in the Personality and Social Psychology Review may shed some light on all this. The study analyzed performance data on 700 brothers in Major League Baseball and found a major difference: younger brothers were more than ten times more likely to attempt the high-risk activity of base stealing and three times more likely to steal bases successfully. It also found younger brothers were more likely to allow themselves to be hit by pitches to get on base.
One theory: risky behavior is a way for younger siblings to get attention and distinguish themselves, especially from someone who, for at least some period of time, has been the bigger and stronger competitor.
The Griffin brothers seem to be a case study for this. “He kinda plays with a reckless abandon—that’s probably the reason he’s been so successful,” Taylor said of his brother. “I’m a more conservative player, more methodical.”
This rings true for me and my younger bro (he is the bigger risk taker and, I will actually confess it, the better athlete). And this is already ringing true as I observe how my oldest son and middle son approach life.
The Pastor’s Wife
A helpful post from Mark Driscoll on the unique challenges a pastor’s wife faces:
The truth is, the Bible has no office or job description called “pastor’s wife.” This is because the pastor’s wife is simply to be a Christian church member like everyone else. Her first priorities are to be a godly woman, godly wife, and then godly mother, after which all other duties fall. If she is busy with her family and the ministry she and her husband have, to their children, and the guests they entertain, her plate is more than full. If she desires to use certain gifts to serve in the church and she and her husband think it’s a good idea, then that is fine, but not to be expected. Perhaps, as her children grow up, she may have more time to be involved in more ministry, if that is what she and her husband desire and feel called to.
Don’t Just Write Words, Write Music
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am sure the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals-sounds that say listen to this, it is important.So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.
-Roy Clark, Writing Tools.
Matt Perman pointed me to this quote.
Writers, don’t just write words. Write music. Make your writing sing.
