Out with the old...

Good bye 2007! Let us pray that 2008 brings as many blessings and fewer curses. So as the old year draws to an end and the new year lays before me a blank page I must take a few moments to reflect.

Things I learned in 2007:

1. No matter how hard you try you can never get the tooth paste back in the tube, and you're just going to get really very messy if you try.

2. Having a child changes everything but not as often as the child needs changing.

3. No matter how rough your day was, a cold Pepsi, a sincere prayer, and 30 minutes of Family Guy will fix everything.

4. God is sovereign. I may not understand or agree with everything he does, but I don't have to. He's the perfect one not me.

5. No matter how long you go without seeing them you're true friends will always be your friends, and there's nothing that will change that.

6. Family is what it's all about. As long as you have your family, you don't need anything else.

7. The phone will begin ringing ass soon as you put your key in the lock and will cease ringing 1 second before you answer it, and they won't leave a message.

8. My mother will send me exactly 2 important emails each year and over 300 forwards and other junk. None of which do I read, and she wonders why.

9. Just when you think you've got it all figured out...

But by far the most important thing I've learned this year...

10. Ministry, any kind of ministry is about one thing and one thing only. Serving God! It isn't about the people, it isn't about the church, it isn't about the pastor, nor the congregation. When we loose sight of this simple truth ministry ceases to happen. All it is about is serving God and working to bring about His will, His plan, here on this His earth just as it is done in heaven. When we make it about the church, the people, or the ministry itself, we put those things in the place of God. We make the same mistake the people of God have been making since the dawn of time. We begin believing that we are what is important, we make ourselves little gods and worship at the altar of ministry.

So as we enter into this the 2008 year let us remember and live it out as the 2008 year of our Lord.

The true secret of life.

Greetings my cyber-friends, sorry for the extended absence. Life has been crazy nuts the last month. I picked my battle, stood by my principles and beliefs, lost my job, and won the victory. Yeah well who said life was easy or predictable?
Over the course of the last month I have done a whole lot of soul searching. I guess it's only natural when your a part of your job is care for souls and that job ends against your desires. The first realization I came to was that God's ways are an ever evolving and deepening mystery which I will never fully understand until He himself reveals it to me. The second thing I discovered is that I would have it no other way.
I had been growing increasingly more displeased with my position over the past several months but took comfort in knowing that God had me where He wanted me. My students we're growing both spiritually and personally. We were experiencing numerical growth as well. The ministry was good and thriving. God was present and at work in our ministries, unfortunately the Pastor and other members of the church leadership were not.
So I found myself suddenly without my job but with a huge weight lifted from my shoulders.
In the days that followed I came to my third realization. I found the true secret to life, or more accurately I was reminded of it. It's the reason I was so successful in my job and it's the reason I lost it. PASSION!
Whatever you do pour your whole self into it, no half hearting it. As the old cliché goes, anything worth doing is worth doing well, but it's more than that. It's the missing element in so many people’s lives and faith walks.

In our busy lives it's so easy to just phone it in, to just go along with the crowd to flow with the motion. That's been God's most consistent complaint against man since Adam first looked upon Eve. We like to live our lives without complication even if that complication is getting off our lazy rear ends and spending time actually working on our relationships, especially our relationship with God.

It's crazy if you think about it. Everything we have, everything we are, we owe to God. When we first recognize this we are astounded and awed and we fall on our knees and praise God and promise our lives to Him. For a time we live full out for Him and life is great, full of joy, full of meaning, full of life. But as time goes on we forget that sense of gratitude and start letting other things stand in between us and God. We begin justifying missing our daily quiet time, or prayers become shorter and shorter and more and more self centered. Sound familiar?

It's nuts, and yet we are all guilty of it, and not just in our spiritual lives, but in our work, our play, our friendships and even our marriages. That "new car smell" fades and we become complacent and lazy.

So are you tired of just phoning it in? Then stop! To paraphrase Popeye, you are who you are, so be who you be! Give all you are to all you do. How, you ask? Good question, I'm not sure I have the full answer yet, but I'm not going to rest until I do. Stay tuned, join me again in the Back Pew, I'll share my thoughts and heart with you and together we'll find the answer to this and other mysteries as we devote our lives to living fully for GOd and he opens our eyes to wonders anew.

Till then...

- Roman

What have we done?

I'm having one of those weeks! Actually it's more like one of those months, I have to believe that I am doing what God wants of me because the world is certainly coming against me. And if I'm not doing this for Him then I must be crazy. Long story, short, I'm serving God within a godless community. I've seen it all too often! Mainline denominational churches becoming more like social clubs and country clubs than places where the word of God is proclaimed boldly and lives are being radically changed through righteousness and grace.
I praise God daily that the students I am in ministry with get it. How we must grieve the Father! Did he truly come to earth and die a hideous death so that we could take him for granted? Did he really eat with sinners and prostitutes so that we could wall ourselves up in buildings adorned with religiosity and look down our noses at those outside. What the heck? There are churches which lock the doors to their sanctuaries and chapels because they don't want people coming in and messing the place up, or worse yet stealing an altar cross or other vestment. There are pastors who deliberately water down their sermons so as not to offend anyone in their congregation because numbers in the pews seem to be more important than souls in the kingdom. Why? Dear God, forgive us! We have squandered and wasted your gifts. We have sullied and trampled your name. We have taken Your holy temple and turned it into a den of self-righteousness and irreverence. Help us to turn back Father before it is too late and we turn away yet another soul from you.
-Roman

Feasting on the Lord!

How great is our God! As I sit in my office today tying up all of the various task I had this week I can’t help but pause and reflect on the majesty of our Creator. There is a hint of fall in the air outside. The Sun is shining brightly through my window and there is a coolness in the air (it’s only 79 degrees outside right now) that teases me. I love the fall! Football games on television, family gatherings, and all of the warm colors of the fall foliage.

This Fall will be especially blessed this year as I get to experience it through the eyes and expressions of Ava. She will be just starting to experience baby food as thanksgiving approaches this year. What a time to come of age. She will be at the table joining in our feast, enjoying many of the same foods we are, albeit in a much different form, for the first time. The sights the smells the sounds of the fall season and the holidays will all be a brand new experience for her. I can’t wait.

I think that this must be at least partially what Jesus meant when he said we must approach Him as little children. Not that we should act like children or that we should come as helpless as infants, but that we should approach Him with total abandon, as if everything were new and fresh, with complete trust and reliance. May every word of God cross our palate and excite us as it did the first time we read it. May every blessing he pours out upon us be greeted with awe and wonder as though we had never beheld His greatness before. May we never become so accustomed to God that we become blasé and miss all of the amazing flavors he brings to our lives!

-Roman

And the children shall lead them!

I am blessed to have been called to serve the Lord with His students during this amazing period of history. We are living in a time when pregnancy and drug rates are catching up to the literacy rates in our nations inner city and rural High Schools. Ok, so maybe it's not quite that bad yet but literacy and comprehension rates are on the decline and teen pregnancy and drug use statistics continue to rise. The needle on our nations moral compass is spinning so fast it more closely resembles a fan than a tool for navigation, telling people how to stay "cool", rather than directing them to towards lives of holiness and purity. Where is the blessing in this? It's coming from the students themselves.
Last week millions of students around the globe joined together in prayer around their schools flagpoles to lift up their voices in unison to God to pray for change and holiness. And they didn't stop there. The students in our community continue to meet each morning to hold hands around their flagpole and pray. They are fed up with the way their elders are running the world. They are disgusted with the messages coming out of popular culture and the media. And they're doing the best thing they can do about it, they are asking God to intervene. I couldn't be more proud of these students. Like young Timothy they have taken what they have learned and become convinced of and are using it to help bring God's Kingdom and will to earth. They are tearing down the denominational walls which separated older generations and are joining together as a united front to reclaim this nation for God!

Way to go ladies and gentlemen!

-Roman

Mistaken Identity

Ironically enough, though this blog is titled "Notes from the back pew", I can normally be found sitting right up front on the first or second pew. That, thankfully, was not the case this last Sunday however. We had a special combined service this week and all 3 of our services met together in the fellowship hall at a mutual hour. I sat with some of the families of the youth group near the back of the Hall. The service started out beautifully with the entire congregation standing together and lifting up God's name in praise and adoration. I was transported through divine glory right into the very presence of God seeing our divided congregations singing out to God as one. It was magnificent.
Until...

We had a guest speaker come to speak on the current situation in the holy lands between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I had had an uneasy feeling about this all morning. I did not agree with the decision to allow the pulpit to be used as a forum for a public service announcement in lieu of a proclamation of God's word, but had resigned my self to not "rock the boat". What I heard proclaimed from the pulpit shocked, frightened and saddened me. It almost made me physically ill. Our esteemed guest speaker first twisted scripture to imply that when Jesus mourned for his Children in Jerusalem He was referring to modern day Jerusalem and all of her current inhabitants, Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. This flew in the face of all I knew to be true about scripture. Every time Israel, Judah, or Jerusalem is mentioned in scripture it refers to the people who originally inhabited those lands under those names, more specifically the chosen people of God, the Jews. While this sat heavily upon my heart I was content to sit through the rest of our speakers presentation, because while this was a misrepresentation of scripture it was not yet heretical. I chose to believe that she could still be going somewhere good with her message. I pray I had been right, but what she said shortly after had me walking out of the service.
Our invited guest informed our congregation that God is known to many people by many different names. "Some call Him YHWH, others call Him Jesus, and others call him allah." My wife tells me that I turned white upon hearing this message proclaimed from the pulpit of a Christian Church. I immediately gathered my belongings and walked out of the service.
It pains me to think of the damage being done globally in the name of "love" and "acceptance". While I agree with the premise of our speakers message, that we should do everything within our power to help and support our Islamic neighbors and to attempt to bring peace to their region, I cannot sit idly by and allow their false god to be equated to The Master and Creator and Savior of the universe. Doing so goes against everything our speaker claims to want for these hurting and dying people. She was correct in her assertion that God has many names, and one of them is Prince of Peace. How can people hope to bring Him , the instrument of peace, to this region when they don't acknowledge that He is who He says He is, and who He is not.
As a member of the United Methodist Church I proudly acknowledge that our is the denomination of social justice. I firmly believe that we as God's children, brothers and sisters of Christ himself, are to act upon our faith and take God's love and compassion to the farthest reaches of this globe. We are to be His hands and Feet serving the least, the last and the lost. We are to champion the causes of the underprivileged, and to attempt to bring an end to needless bloodshed and warring. But we cannot forget or worse yet twist and pervert the scripture while we are doing so! Jesus the Christ is the Way, THE TRUTH, and the Life! Any one who believes that allah and He are one in the same is sadly mistaken and at greater risk of eternal damnation than those who believe that allah is the one and only true god. These "appeasers" and "deniers" hope to bring about social harmony by denying the deity of the One they claim to be serving, and in the process lead several people astray, preaching a false gospel and a false god.
Let us pray for these people that the One True God may speak to them and show them the folly of their supposition before it is too late. Let us pray for our brothers and sisters and neighbors in the war torn regions of this world that true Peace, The Prince of Peace Himself, may come and bring an end to these conflicts, after all He is the Only Way, the Only Truth, and the Only Life. Let us pray that His name stop being maligned and equated with false religion and dogma. Let us pray without ceasing for His will to finally, once and for all, be done here on this very earth which He created exactly as it is done in heaven. Let us pray!

- Roman

The power of prayer!

What an amazing week this has been! I just came from the High School where I witnessed 100+ students from all walks of faith gathered around a flag pole praying for their families, school, and nation. I was reminded of another group of believers who gathered around a structure thousands of years ago. Led by a simple man marching silently around the walls of as city. With a simple shout they brought Jericho to the ground in a cloud of dust and rubble. The power of our Lord is an awe inspiring thing when harnessed by His children, and these students did much more than just shout. They began congregating a few at a time around 6:30 am and by 7:15 had joined hands in a large ring of hope and grace. One by one their voices wafted heavenwards, a pleasing and fragrant aroma. Prayers for God to redeem and rescue lost and hurting souls. Prayers for God to come and move mountains and tear down walls. Prayers for God to begin a mighty act here in our schools which would spread like a wildfire throughout the county.

Jesus said “let the little children come”, and “Unless you can approach me with the same deep heartfelt faith of a child you will not inherit My Godly kingdom.” Let us all learn from the example of these young men and women. It is time for all of us to fall down upon our knees and connect with our heavenly Father! Jesus promises us that whenever 2 or 3 of us gather together in His name that He is there with us. Just imagine what would happen if all of us joined together in prayer and earnestly and honestly prayed that His kingdom and rule come and His will be done here on this very earth, just like it is done in heaven. Why must we imagine?

-Roman

FEED ME!!!

We can learn so much from nature. Have you ever paused and watched baby birds in their nest? It’s amazing, especially when they are hungry. They throw their heads back in total abandon, open their jaws as wide as physically possible and wait for their provider to fill the void within their gullet. What an astounding example has God set for us in the simplicity of nature.

We must learn to approach our Provider in the same way. How long must I suffer from this deep spiritual hunger which I feel before I learn? I spend hours each day reading my bible to prepare lessons and sermons and yet do not drink deeply from it’s wellspring. I spend even more hours each day sitting in the Church, less than 30 feet from the altar, writing curriculum, creating publicity, tracking attendance,...and rarely do I pause to kneel at the feet of God and enter into his presence. It is an all to common malady, this spiritual malnutrition. We allow ourselves to get so busy with the mundanity of our daily lives, going to work, preparing meals, doing the dishes, laundry, shuttling our children around… We forge ahead day after day barely pausing even to sleep or feed our physical hunger, and we wonder why we don’t feel as connected to God as we desire?

Forgive us Lord!

Teach us Gracious One to rely fully upon you. Teach us Loving Provider to throw our heads back in total abandon, open our spirits up to You as wide as possible, and to wait for You to fill the deep chasm of our souls.

- Roman

"But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us."

2 Timothy 3:14-17

I love this passage, it's what I base my life and ministries around. Let us never forget from whence we've come. When I think back on all those in my life who have taught, mentored, and inspired me...well We would be here all week if I were to try to list them all and how they have shaped and molded me into the man of God I am today.

So to all of you, thanks.

Welcome to the back pew

Welcome to the back pew!

Having spent the last 12 years of my life in Student Ministry I've learned a few things.

1. In most small churches "Youth Minister" is synonymous with Janitor.

2. If it can go wrong, it will, and it will be blamed on the youth.

3. Never ask a rhetorical question in a youth worship service, unless you want a Junior High girl , who never speaks otherwise, to answer it.

4. If you serve red Kool-Aid it will be spilled

5. Every mission trip has at least one issue which will rear its head when least expected.

6. Every church has within it one person whose job it is to hate the youth minister, youth ministry, and everything involving students, regardless how nice and helpful you are to them.

7. No matter how many students you have in your ministry it will never be enough to satisfy the church elders, unless you reach that mystical number they have always had floating around above their shoulders. Then you will have too many students and the elders will become leery of those "fringe" students your ministries are attracting.

8. No matter how active your students are in the life of the church, they will not be "visible" enough to satisfy everybody.

9. Church policies and guidelines are unwavering, written in stone, until you have finally discovered them all and figured them out.

10. I wouldn't trade my calling and ministries for anything or everything in the world.

I was 17 years old when God called me to minister with students. I acknowledged the calling on my life right away, and immediately spent the next 6 years of my life running like mad. I kept trying to reason with God, trying to convince Him that my talents and energies could be put to better use in fields which would actually afford me the opportunity to both own a house someday and feed myself. His answer? To not only call me to Student ministry, but student ministry in small churches in flux. Small paychecks, and growing pains. Through it all I have been immeasurably blessed. Sure there have been days when I questioned what I had done to God to make Him hate me so, when I have been convinced that my sanity was fleeting, but always in the end He has amazed and enlightened me.

I'm naming this blog "Notes from the back pew" because that is closer to where true ministry begins than is the front pew. The back pew has the privilege of being the closest pew to the back door, and through that door, the outside world. That is where ministry is or at least where it should be, not shut up inside stuffy old church buildings where we are literally preaching to the choir. So stay tuned. I can't promise that this blog will always be funny or enlightening but I can promise that it will always be straight from the heart. If you read within these musings something that warms your heart, makes you think, or inspires you, give the credit to Him who inspires me, after all I am just a lowly Yute Preacher, here to serve His world, one student, one soul, one heart at a time...

Until next time.

-Roman