A Jester’s Promenade

Really neat stuff is happening, and I thought I’d share a bit.

First: The Livonia church is coming ever-closer to hiring a new YM.  I’ll be relieved when this process concludes.  I can tell that the teens are getting excited; they really liked the first guy, and this past Wednesday night they talked about some of the stuff he said and did while he was here.  I think they are looking forward to getting a guy who has a good amount of energy.  I think we’re all looking forward to that.

The final two candidates will be here April 4-6, and April 11-13 respectively.  I’ve been told that the YM Search Committee hope to have a decision/offer made by the end of April so that our new YM can be here some time in June.

Second: Samaritan Counseling Center has been given some space at the Allen Park Presbyterian Church.  Our Executive Director (who also happens to be my clinical supervisor) Paul Melrose, has tapped me to staff the new office.  My first day there will be April 15.  I will be maintaining a Monday schedule at the Farmington Hills location, and gradually opening up more time in my schedule for clients at the new Downriver satellite.

There’s a lot more to this new position than meets the eye, I’m sure.  I’ve chatted briefly with two SCC therapists who staff/manage satellite offices.  They assure me that I will face some interesting challenges, but that there are some wonderful benefits which will accompany them.  They both have spoken of the absence of extraneous noise being a major benefit.  The Farmington Hills office is nowhere near chaotic, but it can certainly hum with activity at times.  I contribute to the activity level, especially during family therapy sessions.  Those are really active and interesting hours.

Third: I’ve been selected to take the lead in SCC’s new Clergy and Congregational Care (CCC) program.  While valuable CCC has been happening at SCC for a long time, this will be the first time such a program has been formalized and given concentrated focus to this degree.  It represents, for me, an opportunity to create something which is potentially quite powerful in how it may impact religious congregations in the Metro area.  The more I think about it, the more excited I get.  Healthy, empowered, and well-supported pastors and ministers must be highly correlated with healthy religious congregations.  If there isn’t research available indicating such a correlation, I’ll be shocked.

I’ve been working through the grant application process with Paul.  If the Samaritan Institute approves the application, I’ll fly out to Denver at the end of July for a 3 day colloquium of CCC leaders, and learn what’s expected, etc.  Maybe JMac will meet me for lunch, too.

Cheers!
Mark

I’ve been to lots and lots of Christian pep rallies.  Sorry if that characterization offends anyone, but that’s pretty much the way they’ve seemed to me.  Most of these rallies have been with, and for, teenagers.  When I was a teenager, a few of them planted a little something in my heart and/or mind which made a difference in my life.  Most of them were exercises in “being there” in a Chauncey Gardner sort of way; just sort of swept up in the moment, reaping its benefits, but quite differentiated from it all.

Most of these rallies have been Church of Christ rallies.  I don’t know how else to say that.  They were run by, sponsored by, attended by members of our little idiosyncratic tribe.  I have never….repeat never….witnessed what I witnessed during Winterfest 2008.

Jeff Herron and I were walking down Main Street in The ‘Burg, discussing where we’d like to eat dinner, when from across the street the voices of two teenaged girls rang out: “Jesus loves y’all!”  They were walking by themselves on the other side of the street….as “by themselves” as they could get, anyway….sticking close to each other as if the smallest bit of space between them might make them vulnerable to attack from some unseen enemy.  Some people on our side of the street laughed at the “y’all” part of their blessing; others just laughed uncomfortably; but a few others called back, “Jesus loves y’all, too!”  I looked at Jeff, who was looking at me, and I said, “Wow.”

Later that evening, after dinner at La Carreta on Airport Road, Jeff and I were walking back to the hotel.  I’d asked him about his job, because he’s a very good friend of mine and I think it’s important to know about the important parts of a friend’s life, when suddenly from the edge of a group of approaching people came another teenage girl’s voice.  “Hey!  Jesus loves you.”  My earlier “wow” had evolved ever-so-slightly into a “Thanks.  You too.”  So, I said that over my shoulder while Jeff and I continued toward the hotel.

This stuff may not be anything new to you, but it was very new to me.  I’d seen it at events like Acquire the Fire, or at some Christian concerts, but never ever at a Church of Christ youth rally.  Never.  Maybe I just haven’t been to enough Church of Christ youth rallies; but you’d think that in 17 years of doing this I’d have a “Jesus loves y’all” moment more than just once.

I’ve been thinking about what was different in this year’s Winterfest.  I’m still thinking about it, and I may come up with an answer I’m comfortable with in a few days, but until then this section from Thomas Merton seems to resonate with the message preached in The ‘Burg this past weekend:

Thus if we ask the Bible, as we ultimately must when we enter into serious dialog with it: “Who is this Father?  What is meant by Father?  Show us the Father?”  we in our turn are asked in effect: “Who are you who seek to know ‘the Father’ and what do you think you are seeking anyway?”  And we are told: Find yourself in love of your brother as if he were Christ (since in fact he ‘is Christ’) and you will know the Father (see John 14:8-17).  That is to say: if you live for others you will have an intimate personal knowledge of the love that rises up in you out of a ground that lies beyond your own freedom and your own inclination, and yet is present as the very core of your own free and personal identity.  Penetrating to that inner ground of love you at last find your true self.  (Merton 1970, Opening the Bible)

I’m beginning to think that the reason for the “Jesus loves y’all” moments, and the multitude of small transformations I witnessed in all of those kids, and in myself, might be due to the message of ultimate identity which was preached during the weekend.  It was preached without being said as directly as Merton said it.  Somehow, approached obliquely (as most profound or eternal truths must be approached) the message got through.

Identity.  It’s funny how we never seem to stop wondering about it for ourselves.  Erik Erikson developed a whole theory which outlines eight developmental stages through which we proceed as we formulate our identity over our lifespan.  His work is predicated on the notion that identity formulation is never really completed.  He suggested that there are challenges in each of his eight stages which we must successfully resolve in order to develop a healthy sense of who we are.  He called the challenges ”developmental crises”, and said essentially that ideally there would be a time during each stage when that stage’s crisis would be resolved.  I can’t help but wonder if the messages of Winterfest were that time for a lot of people.

Or maybe–and I suppose this is more likely, really–the messages of Winterfest were that time for me.

Cheers!
Mark

I suspected that God was up to something before we got to Gatlinburg.  My suspicions were confirmed.  God delivered!  There was a time when I, and others from Livonia, wondered why we attended Winterfest.  Candidly, previous years’ programs lacked the power it takes to justify such an expensive and time-consuming trip.  I don’t know what the issue was: format changes, overly-complex messages, attempts at “apologetics training” for 10,000 at a time.  All those things can wreak havoc on even the most successful of programs, and all of those things were tried during the last 5 Winterfests.

But this year….this year the Winterfest crew “knocked it out of the park”.  And lest anyone think I’m saying that credit is due solely to them for this year’s terrific program, let me say right now: the Winterfest guys can be commended for being putty in God’s hands.

Glory, thanks, honor, blessing go to God.

Just what He delivered has yet to be seen.  A powerful message of the incarnational ministry we Christians have was planted in the hearts of 12,000.  Now it’s up to the Spirit’s work through others to nurture the seed which was planted.

Mark

This weekend will be my final Winterfest trip as the Livonia youth minister.  Any future Winterfest trips I might make with Livonia will be done as a volunteer.

How does one describe Gatlinburg?  How about “the travelling carnival which refuses to travel”?  If you can find it at a carnival, you can find it in Gatlinburg.

• My friend Keith had a license plate frame customized as a breadbox ad.
• My friend Jim had to bail out (from jail, I mean) a couple of kids who bought crossbows.
• One of my students got his tongue pierced.
• Just try to walk 20 feet without catching sight of powdered sugar on some kid’s face.

And it can get worse than that.  What people will buy to remind themselves of the place never ceases to fascinate me.  Jesus t-shirts and 3 Stooges magnets, BB guns and throwing stars, fudge and funnel cake, timeshare memberships and birdhouses, windchimes (and fruitbats, and breakfast cereals, and orangatans, and sloths….).

What amount to carnival barkers line the main street, calling out for the attention of tourists wearing “I’m with Stupid” shirts or “Gatlinburg is for Lovers” ballcaps in the loveliest shade of camouflage.  The barkers ask “So, where are you from?”, or ”How long are you here?”  Polite people get sucked in by the innocent-sounding questions.  Pretty soon–BAM!–they own a timeshare.

There’s a creepier barker near the Convention Center: the guy at the Ripley’s Haunted House who, pulpited 5 feet above the crowd, looks as if he’s had his lower body ripped away from him; stovepipe hat, head, upper torso, and dangly spinal column are what the crowd sees.  Very nice.  Great on a first date.  Bring the babies, too.

Okay, so I’m not enamored with “The ‘burg”, but Winterfest is pretty cool.  I’m told that it’s the largest gathering of the Churches of Christ in the nation.  Cool part is, it’s nearly all students.  The program is always good quality.  It seems that God always uses Winterfest to touch people’s lives in some way.

This year, the program is sold out.  SOLD OUT!  Not that it’s never happened before.  The Winterfest organizers had to add a second Winterfest site (someplace in Texas) to accommodate the demand for tickets.  But this time I think the sell out caught everybody off-guard.

I have a feeling that God has special intentions for this year’s event.  I’ve been praying about it.  I’d like to invite you to pray about it, too.  Livonia has a handful of students attending the event.  For some, it will be their first Winterfest.  For some, it will be their first time away from home for more than a couple of nights.  For some, it will be their first time in a crowd of Christian students as large as this one will be.

For some, it may be the first time they’ve really heard the good news about Jesus.

Please pray.

Cheers!
Mark

Funny…I just thought of Cher singing “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves”.  I have a feeling that will occur to me a few times this weekend, too.

Giants fans and bookies….two happy groups of people.

Some friends at church asked for the PowerPoint slides from today’s sermon.  You’ll find them in the sidebar to the right.  I’ve included the list of “Repair Attempt” phrases as well.

Cheers!
Mark

So…Joggels.

It’s a website which asks people to take a picture of themselves as they shake their faces around, and then post it.  Those with the highest average “star” rating make it to the Top 20 page.  There are only a few pages on the site right now, and a couple of people aren’t playing along (they’re just posing and looking pretty).  But some of them look like this guy….

I don’t know about you, but I’m tempted to try it.  (Who thinks of this stuff?)

Cheers!

An acquaintance of mine told me that he has a “Rah! Rah!” file.  It’s a file folder into which he’d put stuff to remind him that life’s good and that he’s a decent person.  He’d go to the file whenever things were going a bit off-course; times when it seemed the odds were against him and he couldn’t do anything right.  He showed the file to me once.  There were thank-you cards and letters from people he’d helped.  He had things his kids drew for him, and special “coupons” from his wife (stuff like “This Coupon is Good for One Romantic Evening of….” and I stopped reading, because, you know….).

I don’t have a physical file.  (Maybe I should.  It’s a pretty good idea.)  I just try to find good stuff in the moments as they happen.  When I find something good, I try to celebrate it a little bit.  Maybe it’s something like, “My wife’s gorgeous and she loves me.  Woo hoo!”, or, “What a great cup of coffee that was.  Yes!”, or, “My kids are terrific.  That rocks!”.  Sometimes it’s just that I’m already feeling pretty good, and I give myself room to feel good about feeling good.  It looks like this: “Hey, I feel pretty good right now.  Alright!  I feel good!  Woo hoo!  I like this.”

Sounds a little silly, I know.  But it’s tapping into mechanisms God put in each of us.  If I do something and get rewarded for it, I’m more likely to repeat the thing that got me the reward.  So, if I reward myself for finding good stuff about my life, then I’m more likely to do it again later on.  That last part (feeling good about feeling good)…when I do that I have my best days.

So I was thinking: what if we compiled our own little virtual “Rah! Rah!” file right here.  I’ll start:

• I make a great cup of coffee (and you can, too).
• I know how to make those cool cross hatch marks on hamburgers, steaks, and chicken.
• I really enjoy what I do.
• I have the best friends.
• My family loves me.
• A kid in my youth group just shared how excited he is to turn 14 this Saturday.
• Another kid in my youth group told me that he didn’t want me to stop being his youth minister.  Okay, he punched me in the arm a few times…but that was the message.

It just occured to me that “and you can, too” could follow the first few of those statements.

Your turn.

Cheers!
Mark

Sox are World Champs.  The C’s are steamrollers right now.  And the Pats?  Oh my!

My sister bought me a Pats shirt for Christmas.  I’m looking forward to wearing it at our church’s annual Super Bowl party.

Cheers!

And, I’m done….with the degree.

I turned in my final assignment on December 7th, attended my final class on December 11th.

I’ve been waiting for a sense of celebratory elation to overwhelm me ever since…like a pitcher’s mound celebration by World Series champions. Probably not going to happen that way; more like a gradual dawning, I’d guess. [shrug] Whatever. Point is: I’m done.

Just thought I’d share.

Cheers!
Mark