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GEM-K Conference 2009 Hotel

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2009-05-20T11:39:15-07:00

GEM-K Conference 2009 is just around the corner. Everything is lining up to make this one of the best yet. The hotel is amazing. Check it out at Hotel Babylon. Funny name but great facility. We'll have our own waterpark, laser tag, mirror maze, bumper cars, bowling alley, restaraunts, cafes, shopping center, IQ science park, fussball, pool, climbing wall, mechanical bull, etc. The place is huge. When the managment was showing us around we walked for over three hours before taking a break! I got a blister! Can't wait.

The hotel is located in the Czech town of Liberec which has many cobbled streets with great little shops.

I've taken some photos of the hotel and town for those who'd like to see it: PHOTOS.

Pure Gospel

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2009-03-23T11:52:00+00:00

Below is a video interviewing a man named Shane Hipps who's on the road right now promoting his book. I'm intrigued by what he's arguing (partly because I studied similar thoughts in university) and wanted to share it with you. He challenges the notion that we can use different mediums to communicate the gospel without changing the central core message of the gospel. Does a microphone change the gospel? Does a digital projector change the gospel? Does a printed Bible change the gospel? Do stage lights change the gospel? Does the internet change the gospel? These are just some of the questions that Shane thinks we need to address and I agree. Tell me your thoughts.

Words of Wisdom From Einstein

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2009-02-11T11:30:51+00:00

Albert Einstein was a smart guy. More important than just his brains however was his ability to think different, to look at problems from a new perspective, to deny unperceived norms in his quest for truth. In the process of his life he fashioned a number of great axioms and I thought I'd share some of my favorite with you:

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Enjoy. Maybe try and make one of them your axiom for the day!

Winter Camp Roundup

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2009-02-11T10:59:59+00:00

Winter camp seems so long ago now but is still full of great memories. Whenever I hear "All the Single Ladies" I get sentimental for Camp des Cimes. I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the staff who helped make the camp possible as well as all the teens who made it a really fun time.

Here are some photos from the trip:

I also thought I'd share some of the agree:disagree's from camp with you to encourage your continued wrestling with identity and image:

1. “I can love another as I love myself even if I don’t know who I am.”
2. “I can only love someone as much as I’m able to love myself.”
3. “We don’t create community, we discover it.”
4. "When we love others, we are the gospel.”

Make A Wish

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-30T15:58:13+00:00

If you had one wish, what would you wish for? Below is the story of 15-year old John Halgrim who when diagnosed with a brain tumor was offered a wish by the Make a Wish Foundation. He chose to build an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. This is such a powerful story I've decided to reprint the entire article below. You can find the original here.

--------------------------------

Teen's dying wish brings hope for orphans
By MITCH STACY – Dec 21, 2008

A year to the day after she buried her son, Joanie Halgrim rode in a minivan down a rocky dirt road not far from the airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Her stomach turned from the stench of rotting garbage and raw sewage mingling with exhaust fumes and the acrid smoke from sizzling meat peddled by street vendors.

The van stopped in the midst of some bleak gray apartment blocks, their balconies festooned with drying clothes flapping in the sun. She and the other travelers got out and entered an austere concrete block building. It didn't look nearly finished, and yet in a week's time it would be a home to unwanted children, a place where they would sleep in neat rows of new wooden bunk beds upstairs, the first real bed many of them would ever have.

As she walked around the dusty interior of the orphanage last month, deep feelings welled up inside Joanie. On the second floor, she found a balcony and walked outside to be by herself. And she started to cry.

She thought about the many times she had prayed for a miracle when her son, John, was sick.

She realized that maybe now she was getting it.

___

It was a year and a half before, in April 2007, when the two ladies came to the Halgrim house in Fort Myers, Fla.

"Think of me as your fairy godmother," one of them, Sue Fenger, told 15-year-old John Halgrim.

He smiled. She was a volunteer from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the charity that helps dreams come true for children with life-threatening ailments. He was a boy with a time bomb in his brain.

"I've been thinking about this," John told her.

He had considered a trip to the Bahamas after hearing about an opulent resort called Atlantis, where guests get to swim with dolphins. That sounded like the coolest thing ever, he thought. And he knew his two brothers and sister would like it, too.

But as John's illness intensified, a wholly different idea came to mind.

Maybe the mission videos he'd seen at church planted the seed, the ones showing kids living in slums without running water. Or maybe it was the television program he once watched, where other kids who had lost their parents to AIDS were forced into slavery.

Whatever the reason, John become fixated on those children — and that place.

"I want to stop the hunger in Africa," he told the wish-granter.

Fenger didn't know what to say at first.

John went on: "I want to open an orphanage in Africa."

That, of course, wasn't what Fenger expected. Other kids ask to go to a movie premiere, visit the set of "American Idol" or even meet the president. That kind of wish can usually be granted. But this?

"John, that's a really big wish," she said. "I'm not sure Make-A-Wish can do a wish like that. Do you have a second wish?"

John got quiet. Then he made up his mind.

"Nope," he said, "that's my only wish."

"Are you sure there's nobody you'd like to meet?" she pressed. "Soccer stars? Singers?"

"Nope," he said again.

He was, in so many ways, an ordinary kid. He liked soccer and fishing with his brother Justin and had a crush on a girl at school named Katie. But John also believed steadfastly in God and faith and still, somehow, miracles.

He also believed that he would eventually be healed, that this thing in his brain was put there so he could do something important.

And this, he decided, was important.

___

The crushing headaches began more than a year before the wish-granters came calling, in early 2006, around the time John turned 14. On the soccer field, where he was used to being better than most other kids, he felt weird and off-balance. His mother started noticing that he looked too gangly and awkward out there, like a giraffe.

Doctors thought he might have allergies or migraines. One wanted to put him on antidepressants.

His mom insisted on an MRI.

The radiologist who performed the procedure in March 2006 knew right away what he was looking at.

He showed John's parents the thing in the boy's head, a black spot in the middle of the image of his skull. Joanie thought it looked like a little bomb had exploded in there.

"My mom came out 10 minutes later and gave me a big hug and kiss," John wrote later in a journal he started keeping. "I was stumped. What was wrong? My mom told me I had a tumor then, and that is when my journey with God began."

At first, John felt relieved. At least they knew what was wrong. Now, maybe, the headaches would stop.

Then he started to get scared. His Aunt Debbie, Joanie's older sister, had a brain tumor — and she died.

"Am I going to die?" he asked his mother.

"No," she tried assuring him. "You're not going to die."

But only a few weeks later, doctors at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis took John's parents into a room and delivered the unthinkable news: Their son had a malignant tumor on his brain stem that was impossible for surgeons to remove without damaging his brain or killing him.

Odds of survival were long. But John and his family believed he could beat it from the start. He spent six weeks at St. Jude with his mom for radiation and chemotherapy.

He would lie down on a table while a machine swirled around him. He had to wear a mask to keep his head still, which he hated. They even sent him to get the braces off his teeth so it would fit tight on his face.

"When I went in, my mom always told me to imagine God zapping the tumor away," he wrote in his journal. "And you know what, I did. I did every day."

He also jotted down a Bible verse. Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

Before he got sick, John went to church most Sundays with his family but wasn't what you would call religious. He acknowledged that something happened to him when the cancer showed up.

"I learned I needed to change my life," he wrote in the journal. "I learned I needed to live my life through God's eyes and not my own. I learned I had been asking him for so much more than I had been giving him."

John thought about that at St. Jude when he learned that every kid with cancer gets a wish from the Make-A-Wish people.

Back home in Fort Myers, he bugged his mother for months to call Make-A-Wish so he could tell someone about how he wanted to help the kids in Africa. He thought the charity might help him raise money or even send him on a mission trip.

But his parents didn't want to hear about it. The tumor was still there, slowly killing their son, and they were desperate to find some way to stop it.

Calling Make-A-Wish seemed like giving up.

"John, let's worry about you," his mother would say.

Joanie spent hours on the computer researching possible treatments. She called specialists all over the country. She and her son flew to Los Angeles to spend 15 minutes with a top pediatric brain cancer man. She even took John to a faith healer, who grabbed his head, pushed him down and said he was healed.

The tumor was still there, of course, but the radiation and chemo seemed to keep it in check as John started his freshman year at Fort Myers High School.

Then one day in April 2007, a year after the initial diagnosis, John sent a text message from school.

"Mom, I'm seeing these spots."

John soon started to get dizzy at school. A few months later, doctors determined that the tumor was growing again and spreading out in his brain.

"I almost lost all my faith when I heard this news," John confided in his journal. "But later on that night I sat down with God and had a long chat. I asked him are you testing my faith, is it my time and what did I do? All those questions, though, I learned were from the devil, and all I had to do was keep faith in the Lord and he would heal me."

Meanwhile, a doctor's referral had put John on the Make-A-Wish radar. And that's how it was that Fenger phoned and finally persuaded Joanie to let her come by to talk to John, who was eager to tell her about his wish.

___

As Fenger tried to figure out how the charity could help, John's health got worse. But he never complained or moped or got mad. When people told John they would pray for him, he'd tell them right back that he would be praying for them, too.

One of those people praying for him was a young pastor named Orlando Cabrera. John's uncle attended the Summit Church, where Cabrera preached. John went there sometimes, and he liked Cabrera.

One day Cabrera asked if he could come to the house to pray with the boy. During the visit, Joanie urged her son to talk about his wish. John explained how he wanted to help kids in Africa somehow, maybe even go on a mission trip.

Naturally, Cabrera wanted to know why. Why wouldn't John want to take a vacation or do something else fun? The wish was supposed to be just for him, after all.

John propped himself up on the couch so he could look at the 33-year-old pastor.

"Orlando, God didn't allow this to happen to me so I would get something out of it," he said.

Cabrera decided then that other people needed to know about this kid — and his wish.

In early June, the pastor returned with a video camera. He thought he'd show the video to his congregation, then maybe appeal for donations to benefit the church's African missions and outreach.

John, as bad as he felt by then, liked the idea, too. This could work.

He sat down at the end of the dining room table and faced the camera.

"Hi, I'm John Halgrim. I'm 15 years old," he began.

His head pounded, he was dizzy and sick to his stomach, and his face was puffy from the steroids. Nevertheless, he sat for more than an hour to talk about his cancer and God and the kids in Africa and his dreams for them.

"I know that he's got something great planned for me," John said. "And I know he wants me to do this."

___

Doug Ballinger couldn't believe what he was seeing when a friend at Summit Church showed him the video. The 68-year-old retired businessman was moved by the boy's spiritual maturity and selflessness.

He also realized that he might be in a unique position to help.

Ballinger, who had moved to Fort Myers from Memphis, recently had taken his first mission trip to Nairobi, and he couldn't get out of his head the poverty and the suffering children he saw there. He and his son, J.D., who'd been doing African missions for years, formed a charity and called it Help the Least of These, the name taken from a verse in the book of Matthew.

Father and son had helped build a new church that doubled as a schoolhouse in a Nairobi slum. They decided their next project needed to be a small orphanage. So many children are parentless in a land where violence, starvation and disease kill most adults before they reach their mid-40s. But they needed to raise the money.

That's when Ballinger saw John's video. "It was like God did a certain thing," he said.

The video was shown during services at the Summit Church in October 2007. At the end, a pastor explained how the weekend's collection would be donated to Help the Least of These to build the orphanage and give John Halgrim his wish. Many who watched it were in tears. And they gave — more than $13,000 that first weekend.

That was just the beginning. As word spread and more people found out about John's wish, they gave more money to help build the orphanage for him.

Plans for a larger orphanage were put to paper, a project costing around $90,000. Sixty children would eventually live there, and local residents would come for church in the ground floor common room on Sundays. The building was designed so more floors could be built on top if it needed to be expanded.

John never got to see the video. By the time it was shown at church that fall, the tumor was stealing his ability to function. He could hardly talk or see anymore, and had trouble getting up and down out of the brown recliner in the living room where he spent most days.

But soon afterward, John's Uncle Ed came over with a drawing, an architect's rendering of the front of a building. The boy's grandmother, Jackie Streit, sat down next to his chair and held it out in front of him so he could see.

"John, look," his grandmother said. "This is the orphanage that you wanted. It's going to happen.

"Most boys your age are infamous," she joked. "You're going to be famous."

In neat block letters across the top of the drawing was the name of the building: The John E. Halgrim Orphanage.

John smiled. Then he lifted an arm off the chair and gave them all a thumbs-up.

A few weeks later, surrounded by his family at a Fort Myers hospital, the 15-year-old died.

At his funeral, Cabrera spoke and showed the video again as a tribute to the boy and his wish. Mourners donated another $15,000 for John's orphanage.

___

Joanie had promised her son over and over that she would be the shepherd of his wish.

That's why she and her mother went to Nairobi with other volunteers last month to paint the walls, buy supplies for the kitchen and help move the kids in, working amid poverty that was previously unfathomable to them.

She had T-shirts made for each of the orphans and volunteers that said, "Something Heavenly."

At a ceremony to dedicate the building a few days after they arrived, Joanie sat in a plastic lawn chair in the front row, cradling a small boy in her arms. She listened to people talk about John and his wish and how many obstacles had to be overcome to get to this day.

When it was her turn to stand and take the microphone, her emotions made it impossible even to speak at first. Lined up on rows of benches before her, the children waited quietly, their scrubbed faces looking up at this woman who lost her son and because of that came all the way to this place to give them better lives.

"I know John is watching this," she said. "He should be here."

Since he couldn't, his mother opened his journal and started reading aloud. It was the part John wrote on that day in June last year when the pastor came to make the video.

"Today was hard, but so have been the last couple of weeks," she read.

"But all you have to do is have faith and everything should be all right..."

AP writer Katharine Houreld in Kenya contributed to this story.

A Hopeful Christmas

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-28T09:53:19+00:00

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Here's Bono hoping the same:

Have a Microwaveable Christmas

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-23T09:55:38+00:00

You must watch this all the way through to get the effect. I hope you enjoy.... hmmm, I could go for some microwavable popcorn right now...

Advent : Waiting

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-22T12:44:33+00:00

Do you remember being young and unable to sleep in anticipation of Christmas? Do you remember the deep groaning desire for December 25th? Do you remember that agony of waiting? Now maybe our reasons for waiting back then weren't exactly holy and pure (more presents anyone?) but there is something essential to the Christian life we miss when we forget to wait. The act of waiting forms us and focuses us. It is an act of hope. Kester Brewin has some great thoughts on the subject in his book The Complex Christ:

"Before the Church can change, before I can change, before anything changes, comes waiting.

A pause. A rest...

It is difficult to write about waiting; we turn from Malachi to Matthew without a thought... We read from Matthew 1.24 to Matthew 1.25 with no pause for breath, when perhaps we should also symbolically stop, hold our breath and consider the unwritten wait - Mary's nine months of pregnancy, skipped over. How did she feel? Excluded? Rejected? Shunned? Frightened? Excited? We simply do not know. All we know is that she descended the small peak of her simple girlhood into the valley and clouds of unknowing, the mystery of her faith apparent in her certainty of the higher peaks she could not yet see. Perhaps we should insert blank pages between these unpaginated moments, pages we would have to turn so that our thoughts might turn too and consider these punctuation marks, where God stops and waits before birthing something new."

(HT: Brad)

Hopefully in this unfortunately chaotic season you're able to take some time to stop, sit, wait, anticipate and in doing so join with the Israelites who waited for so long without hearing God's voice until John the Baptist or with Mary who waited for 9 months for Jesus, all the while being outcast from society for being pregnant outside of marriage. Advent is about waiting. Waiting is about spiritual formation. Stop...... Wait......

GEM-K Winter Camp is On Its Way!!!

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-19T14:34:55+00:00

That's right, GEM-K Winter Camp 2009 is just around the corner. If you haven't signed up yet there are still a few spots left but you'll have to run fast to get them. Here are a few pics from last year to get you excited:

Jesus Vs. Santa

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-18T16:56:51+00:00

Some great videos exploring the similarities and differences between Jesus & Santa (or perhaps how we perceive Jesus & Santa):

Koobface Facebook Virus

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-12-09T07:57:59+00:00

Reports have been circulating about a virulent worm spreading through Facebook. The virus has been around since August but now targets social networking websites only and is currently making the rounds on Facebook.

The virus can spread fast because they travel through messages which appear to come from your friends.

The Koobface messages carry subject lines like “You look so funny on our new video” or something similar, and contain a link to a video site that appears to contain a movie clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that he or she needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to play the clip. This tricks users into downloading a file carrying the malware.

Facebook says that users should use antivirus software and change their password if they’ve been affected. The company also appears to be resetting passwords pro-actively and notifying users per e-mail about the possibility of having a virus on board.

Advent Conspiracy

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-11-12T10:51:57+00:00

November is when Christmas starts. So, think about how you want to celebrate the birth of Christ this year:

GEM-K Winter Camp

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-11-03T19:50:48+00:00

If you haven't gotten your sign ups in for this Winter's GEM-K Camp, do so ASAP. Everything is in place for a great experience. We have a team from the US set to help us run the camp. In case you haven't noticed, we've actually extended Winter Camp by a day from previous years. I hope this will give everyone more opportunities to enjoy the Alps and the company. We have officially opened up registration to non-GEM-K MKs so if you know someone who would like to attend, please let them know. See you soon.

Art & Environment

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-11-03T10:49:40+00:00

This is a stop motion, timelapse, motion control in a circular canvas film made for the Discovery Channel. The theme was environment and the artist's responses to it. Numerous street artists, musicians, painters and animators contributed their time over a non-stop 12 hour period to make the final 2 minute film. Enjoy, "Fly on the Wall."

Circular Painting from Fly on the Wall on Vimeo.

Lessons From Social Networks

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-11-02T19:27:37+00:00

There's a great post over at On Movements that I'll post here. It begs us to look critically at the benefits and pitfalls of social networks (like Facebook) and to question whether we're addressing church and mission in the same manner.

1. Homophily: People like to hang out with others who are similar to themselves. This homophily is a source of connection because it allows you to find people with whom to work and socialize. But it can be also a source of stagnation if it means you don’t expose your thinking and your work to different opinions and perspectives and information.

2. Clustering: Homophily leads to clusters of people who know each other. Within a cluster, information and ideas are shared and in many case opinions become aligned to a certain way of thinking. Also, if you know one person in a cluster, you are very likely to know or to be able to be introduced to someone else in that cluster. Again, like homophily, the principle of clustering is good in providing shared frameworks of thoughts, ideas, and methods but bad when it keeps you from seeing other ways of thinking that might bring more success and progress.

3. Multi-dimensional Identities: Fortunately, this principle of multi-dimensional identities implies that people can be part of many clusters at once. Networks flourish as members willingly connect to other clusters by tapping into the other dimensions of their identity (hobbies, professions, religious practice, political beliefs, professional work, etc.).

4. Small worlds: Big worlds are made small by multi-dimensional people joining with clusters along their many dimensions. As people join into different clusters based on their multi-dimensional identity, they increase connections within the network and make the world smaller and more collaborative. Diffusion of innovation and the practice of collaboration happens as we create short paths between different people in a small-world network.

5. Innovation Thru Cross-Pollination: When ideas or patterns are translated across clusters, cross-pollination occurs. This leads to creativity and innovation. Networks work best when clusters interact regularly and align thinking and ideas with each other while at the same time allowing new ideas and patterns to be transferred from one cluster to another.

6. Stagnation: Networks can become stagnated when they are too highly connected–particularly at the cluster level. Even “hubs” with high numbers of connections can stagnate because with so many connections, each connection means very little to the hub. Thus, new ideas are never given a chance. Hubs must consciously seek connections to clusters from other communities that aren’t over-connected and closed.

7. Dilution: On the other hand, networks can suffer a dearth of connectivity, leaving too few relationships for ideas and information and support to move. Networks must seek clusters with enough connectivity to introduce fresh ideas.

8. Weak ties: Networks take advantage of weak ties between people–the casual acquaintanceships and friend of friend relationships. Strong ties imply membership in the same clusters; weak ties lead to more connections across clusters. Networks must activate these weak ties to find new opportunities, stretch thinking, and exchange support.

So what do we take from these ideas?

First, many of us love to hang out with "people we like" which isn't a bad thing in itself. However, many of us choose to form our identity out of those with whom we hang meaning if I think someone's artsy and I want to be more artsy I try to hang with only the artsy. Or maybe you want to be desired by the opposite sex so you hang with those who are getting the attention. This can translate into Facebook friends as well. The problem with placing our identity in relationships with others is that it makes us shallow people. Not only do we begin to think like they do, act like they do thus narrowing our perspective but we also fail to acknowledge the goodness of God's creation in others that don't seem to help us create our identity. If our identity is in Christ, however, everything changes. We suddenly become drawn to those people who aren't like us as much as those that are. What's more, we find we're free. You're free from the need to be artsy or to be desired sexually or to be good at sports or have the most friends or the coolest friends or the weirdest friends, etc. It's tough to do, especially when we feel fragile, but we need to seriously ask the question, do my friends define me? To choose to follow Christ is to break free from homophily and clustering as identity issues.

Secondly, I hope you see this as a call to get out of your own universe, to explore relationships with people who see the world differently than you do. To share ideas, laugh and mingle with those you'd normally stray from. Your faith will benefit from it as will your character.

Confuse Your Feet

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-10-23T21:42:14+01:00

Try this…

Lift your right foot a few inches from the floor and then begin to move it in a clockwise direction. While you're doing this, use a finger your right index finger to draw a number 6 in the air. Your foot will turn in an anticlockwise direction and there's nothing you can do about it!

What’s happening?

The left side of your brain, which controls the right side of your body, is responsible for rhythm and timing. The left side of your brain cannot deal with operating two opposite movements at the same time and so it combines them into a single motion.

Try this with your right foot and left hand and you should have no problem!

Ebru

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-10-10T16:48:48+01:00

Ebru is the art of molding color dyes on water and then transferring them to paper. The process is amazing...

Colbert On Faith & Economics

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-10-07T23:28:05+01:00

If you know me and you read this blog with any regularity you know I like The Colbert Report. Below is an excellent example of why. Colbert pokes tongue-in-cheek at those who place faith in the economic systems that sustain us. The recent financial turmoil in the States is a reminder that our faith is not (or at least SHOULD NOT be) in the systems of the world but in the God who created the world. Watch the video, have a laugh and take a moment to ask where your faith lays.

In My Name

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-09-26T14:48:31+01:00

Christians are called to be mercy where there is no mercy, love where there is no love, and grace where there is no grace. In doing so we associate the name of Christ who is the embodiment of all these divine attributes with a cause that desires to see an end to extreme poverty - something that should be close to our hearts, because it's close to God's. Consider posting a video.

Helping

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-09-15T12:47:06+01:00

Here is a video of a guy who just helps people. What if we had more people like this on our streets?

Watch CBS Videos Online

Subculture VS. Counterculture

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-09-15T11:19:34+01:00

Have you ever been embarrassed by Christian subculture? Perhaps someone passed you a testamint, or you were forced to watch McGee & Me or Bible Man or perhaps you bumped into someone wearing one of those "Jesus Christ" t-shirts in the Coke-a-Cola script with the tag line "eternally refreshing." There is plenty of cringe-factor to be found in the Christian subculture. And let's not kid ourselves, there is a Christian subculture at play here. So much so, that when Disney promotes their Narnia movies it hypes them in the Christian market and when political figures want to obtain office they try to please the Christian vote. Dominant US marketing culture has recognized Christians as a culture to be targeted.

But don't think a subculture doesn't exist just because you're in Eastern Europe or Western Europe. As I've travelled around I've discovered that each country's contingent of believers has their own subcultures.

However, these subcultures are not what God has calls us to at all. Christians, if they are following Christ, cannot be a subculture, they must be a counterculture. A subculture buys into the values and ethos of the culture around it but simply adds their own style and view on its own things. A counterculture challenges dominant values not just by singing about a different way of life or by passing out mints with crosses on them but by living out the life Jesus lived.

If we don't, we might end up repeating something like this...

or even worse, this...

Agree:Disagree, September

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-09-12T15:57:57+01:00

OK, time for another installment of Agree:Disagree. Here's how it works: I post a statement below and in the comments you state whether you agree or disagree with it. If you want extra cool-points you can even state why you agree or disagree. OK, here we go...

"God's Kingdom needs some Christians to engage in necessary evils (i.e. wars, lies, stealing, etc.)."

So, what do you think? Do you agree with that statement? Do you disagree with it?......

Blacklight Breakdance

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-26T22:55:26+01:00

Watch and be amazed.

Office Olympics

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-25T09:37:02+01:00

At conference we had our own particular brand of olympic games going. The distance spitting, shoe tossing and two-person swim all come to mind. It would seem Dwight from the Office had a similar idea: a centathilon.

Agree:Disagree

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-24T15:06:31+01:00

I'd like to begin a monthly segment on this blog based off our conference and camp discussions. I'll post a statement and in the comments I'd love for you to state whether you agree or disagree with it. If you want extra cool-points you can even state why you agree or disagree. Hopefully we'll get a conversation going.

Agree:Disagree

"You are not truly following Jesus unless you've led someone to Christ."

We Are Winning

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-24T14:58:40+01:00

I love "We Are Winning" by Flobots, a band committed to seeing societal change. You shouldn't just consume music though because I (or your friends) like it. Question it. What is good about this song - musically, stylistically and in its message? What is negative? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I Love the Muppets

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-20T20:22:34+01:00

Conference Videos (Funny)

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-18T22:26:27+01:00

Thought you might enjoy some of the amusing videos from Conference:

Here is the Bobbing For Sunglasses video. Anyone figure it out yet ;)

Which is related to this video (that I didn't show at Conference) where one of the lads catches sunglasses with his face:

And lest you forget, Europe is a country:

Sheep (Mission) Vs. Cows:

What if Church Was Like the NBA?

Anyone have any other funny vids I should be aware of?

Recovering From Conference

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-18T12:52:03+01:00

Well, I don't know about you but I'm just now feeling like I've recovered from Conference. I had a great time. Eoin keeps asking where all his GEM-K friends are. There are loads of photos up on Facebook so be sure to check them out if you haven't yet (and if you haven't signed up for a Facebook account yet... now you have an excuse).

Winter Conference is on the horizon. I can't wait to snowboard (and ski) with you in France again. The dates this year are January 5th-10th 2009. So, please save those dates.

Matt

What is Shalom?

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-08-16T21:09:48+01:00

At Conference I used a word we don't often speak in daily conversation: Shalom (remember all those red arrows?). I tried to convey the idea that our personal missions are like windows into the reality of Shalom in this world.

But what is Shalom? We used the word "peace" a lot and Nina at one point defined it as, "the way things are supposed to be." I think both of those are great definitions but if Shalom is so central to the Christian life, we'd better be able to explain it a bit better. So, here are some additional thoughts:

Shalom is Non-Violent:
"And Joshua made peace with them, guaranteeing their lives by a treaty; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them." (Joshua 9:15, NRSV)

Shalom is Right Relationship:
"Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice."" (1 Samuel 16:4-5, NRSV)

Shalom is Prosperity
"And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them; they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it." (Jeremiah 33:9, NRSV)

Shalom is Justice
"These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD." (Zechariah 8:16-17, NRSV)

Shalom is Central to God's Story in this World:
Numbers 6:24-26 (NRSV)
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NRSV)
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Ezekiel 37:24-28 (NRSV)
My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children's children shall live there forever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations shall know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.

So, as we saw at Conference, Shalom describes life at the beginning of all things (Gen. 2) and at the end of all things (remember the two trees?). Shalom thus makes its way into all aspects of our life, from how we shop to how we see shopping malls. It changes how we relate to one another and how we relate to ourselves. It calls into question how we treat the planet and how we treat its Creator.

There is much more to say. In many ways defining Shalom helps us see the world anew. I'd love to hear more descriptions from you.

Men in Coats

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-25T11:50:08+01:00

Imaginative humor...

Unconditional Love

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-21T15:15:44+01:00

Change

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-18T16:09:41+01:00

As followers of the Way of Jesus Christians need to be communities who not only demand change in this world but communities who become the change for this world. If you're sitting there wondering what needs to change and how you can change begin by reading this article entitled, "50 Facts That Should Change the Way We Live." Embrace change, no, demand it.

Introducing the GEM-K Conference Staff

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-16T10:18:42+01:00

I thought some of you might be curious as to who's running this year's GEM-K Conference. Allow myself to introduce them (and myself):

Liz Matthews (Ventura, CA) - (Liz's Facebook)
Liz was at GEM-K Conference 2006 as a staff member. She loved it so much that she is returning again this year. What's more, Liz is currently raising support to be a GEM-K Staff Intern for 9 months and will be living in Dublin, Ireland (not too far from myself).
Michaela Andrews (Ojai, CA) - (Michaela's Facebook)
Michaela was a GEM-K Conference 2007 Staff member. She has a real heart for GEM-Ks and Delice ;) - both of whom she visited back in February in Kandern, Germany. Michaela & Liz are putting together some pretty sweet T-Shirts for us this year!
John Lehn (John Brown University) - (John's Facebook)
John may single handedly hold the record for most attended GEM-K Conferences as an attendee. This will be his first year returning as a staff member. Be warned.
Patty Moore (Canada) - (Patty's Facebook)
Patty loves GEM-K Conference so much that she branded her email with it (no joke, ask her for it!). Patty, again a past GEM-Ker, can't wait to return as a staff member.
Cam Doughty (Malta) - (Cam's Blog)
Cam is about the nicest guy you'll ever meet (apologies to the rest of us). He and his wife Shanna serve with GEM in Malta where they work with university students. Cam & Shanna have two amazing kids of their own.
Tagg Wolverton (Amsterdam, Holland) - (Tagg's Facebook)
Tagg is the most relaxed guy you'll ever meet and he loves working with youth. He's living in Holland at the moment with his wonderful wife Susan and their four kids.
Rod Taylor (Denver, CO) - (Rod's Facebook)
Rod is in charge of GEM-Ks returning to the States for college. So, if you're a junior or a senior you'll be wanting to get to know him a bit better. He has worked with GEM-K ministries the longest and has a deep love for you guys. Rod lives in Denver, CO with his amazing wife Dawn and their two children.
Matt & Hailey Kingsley (Dublin, Ireland) - (Matt's Facebook & Hailey's Facebook)
Matt & Hailey have been running GEM-K ministries for nearly 3 years. Matt grew up as a GEM-K in Ireland and Hailey grew up in California. We have two amazing kids - Eoin & Moia (no Facebooks, sorry) who will also be at this year's GEM-K Conference.

Hotel Korona

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-16T10:12:11+01:00

Maybe you haven't been to Hotel Korona in Sopron, Hungary before and maybe you're wandering what sort of hotel this is. Maybe you've been there before and just want to get nostalgic/excited about GEM-K Conference. Either way, this post is for you.

A few years back I flew out to Sopron in the winter to have a look at the hotel. In the process I took some photos of the place. So, here is a slideshow of Hotel Korona for anyone interested.

Purple State of Mind

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-14T09:56:18+01:00

How often do you find yourself arguing your faith with your friends? Maybe you do it a lot, maybe not at all. Often we Christians can be so consumed with being right or feeling we have to defend God (as though he can't take care of himself) that we forget to love those who disagree with us, those who might even hate what we love. There is a new documentary coming out that I think will be worth our time. It is called Purple State of Mind and it tells the story of two lifelong friends, one a follower of Christ, the other an atheist and the conversations they've had. Check out the trailer:

Camp Theme

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-07-02T16:44:17+01:00

We're almost one month away from GEM-K Conference 2008! I can't wait. This year's theme: sheep. We'll be looking at what it means to be sent as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matt 10:16). What was Jesus on about? How many sheep do you see kicking butt? How many sheep do you see beating wolves? Is this just crazy talk? What was Jesus getting at?

So that's out theme.

Be warned.

Dancing

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-25T09:59:00+01:00

It's nice to see the world come together around dancing:

About the video:

Matt is a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny."

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal.

The second video made Matt even more quasi-famous. In fact, for a brief period in July, he was semi-famous.

Things settled down again, and then in 2007 Matt went back to Stride with another idea. He realized his bad dancing wasn't actually all that interesting, and that other people were much better at being bad at it. He showed them his inbox, which, as a result of his semi-famousness, was overflowing with emails from all over the planet. He told them he wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who'd written him to come out and dance too.

The Stride people thought that sounded like yet another very good idea, so they let him do it. And he did. And now it's done. And he hopes you like it.

Matt lives in Seattle, Washington with his girlfriend, Melissa, and dog, Sydney. He hasn't had a real job since Stride called him up. Matt doesn't mind working, but he doesn't much care for having to show up at the same place every day.

Matt is not rich. Matt also doesn't have some magical secret for traveling cheaply. He does it pretty much the same way everybody else does.

Matt thinks Americans need to travel abroad more.

For more info click here.

After Heaven

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-22T22:07:43+01:00

Not sure if any of you are Colbert Report fans but I sure am. The Anglican Bishop and theologian NT Wright recently stopped by the show to promote his new book, Surprised by Hope which asserts that Heaven isn't the end but merely a stopping point before the New Heavens and New Earth are created. I've been talking about this idea for a while ever since my theology classes with Dr. Ockholm in Wheaton and so was happy to see him give quite a succinct treatise on the idea while keeping his sense of humor. Check out the clip below and let me know what you think of his ideas.

GEM-K Anois Camp

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-18T11:17:44+01:00

Hold the dates of October 25th-27th and lets plan a trip to Ireland. Anois 2008 is a chance to meet other Christians, explore your faith and visit the wonderful country of Ireland. The promo video is below.

Awareness Test

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-18T11:02:43+01:00

Did I miss something?

Musical Talent

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-18T11:00:12+01:00

I own a guitar. It doesn't make these sounds so melodically.

This is Why it's on ESPN

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-06-03T01:26:09+01:00

The best part is that he ended up winning the entire competition...

Stephen Colbert Vs. Philip Zimbardo

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-21T11:11:46+01:00

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, recently had author Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford Professor, on his show to share about his upcoming book, The Lucifer Effect. Colbert is known for his sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek humor but on this show he broke character for a few seconds when Philip Zimbardo said, "Lucifer was right, and God was wrong," Colbert, who teaches sunday school, responded, "Evil exists because of the disobedience of Satan. God gave Satan, the angels and man free will. Satan used his free will and abused it by not obeying authority. Hell was created by Satan's disobedience to God , and his purposeful removal from God's love, which is what hell is: removing yourself from God's love. You send yourself to hell; God does not send you there."

What does it mean to stand up for your faith?

You can see the interview here:

Facebook Song

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-20T11:15:43+01:00

We GEM-Ks love Facebook thus we enjoy this song:

How Much Did You Pay For Those Shoes?

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-20T11:05:36+01:00

Look down. How much did your shoes cost? They probably cost a lot. Check out this provocative video by Radiohead and MTV:

Perspective

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-15T10:39:00+01:00

Often how we look at our lives can result in what we see God doing (or not doing). These photo collections are prime examples of how perspective plays a part in what we see...

Li Wei shoots photos without any digital enhancement. He uses props, mirrors and perspective to achieve these amazing photographs:

Check Out Li Wei's Photos.

Or check out some sweet souvenir shots.

What is Poverty?

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-06T15:16:23+01:00

We know that the poor will always be with us but do we know who the poor are or why they are poor? I remember a few years back when Eoin was an infant Hailey and I were walking through Ventura, CA when a homeless man approached us asking for money. In a gut reaction I remember wanting to protect Eoin from any germs this man might have so we walked on. When I got home that night I felt ashamed and remember talking to my brother about it on Skype. I said, "Should I have given the man some money or let him touch Eoin?" My brother responded, "Before you give him some money or let him touch Eoin you should probably be willing to shake his hand." That story has always stuck with me.

So I have a question for you: "What is Poverty?"

Think through the answer to that for a few minutes and then,

WATCH THIS VIDEO

Do you agree with this man's definition? Why/why not?

Mr. Blue Sky

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-06T14:44:54+01:00

Not sure if this fits into the "Sweded" camp but it sure makes me laugh. Ian is a friend of mine and has put together a few of these videos. I post Mr. Blue Sky here for your viewing pleasure.

Once Sweded

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-05-05T00:33:17+01:00

I haven't seen the film Be Kind Rewind but the film coined the term 'Sweded' - referring to short remakes of famous films. The results can be quite funny...

Dispatch Zimbabwe

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-04-11T22:30:36-07:00

I just finished watching the DVD "Dispatch Zimbabwe: Live at Madison Square Garden." Have you ever heard of Dispatch? Maybe you have. I hadn't. They are a reggae-influenced band with no record deal but a great networked following. So networked, in fact, that they managed to sell out Madison Square Garden three nights in a row and give all the proceeds to helping the nation of Zimbabwe. Quite a challenge to those of us who think we have nothing to give, who think we don't have what it takes to join God in his mission of world reconciliation. Reminds me of a boy with fish and bread. But these guys put their offering out there and were blown away by the results.

Pray for Toys

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-03-14T10:41:55+00:00

We dropped Hailey off at the DART yesterday leaving me with the kids for the afternoon. I asked the kids what they wanted to do - go to Grandma's house, play in the park, get a bite to eat... Eoin pipped up, "Lets go to the toy shop!" Now I love the toy shop as much as the next guy but the kids had just received a ton of presents from their Grandma and felt they didn't need more toys in their lives just now. I explained this reasoning with the kids to which Eoin responded with little reflection, "I need lots of toys!"

Every bone in my body cringed. I'm always fearful of how consumerism effects the development of my children and hearing signs of greed creep into my sons cries for more didn't exactly encourage a trip to the toy shop. So I spoke up, "No, you have enough toys Eoin. Did you know there are some kids in this world who don't have any toys? Perhaps we should think about giving some of our toys to them? God doesn't want us to have too many toys."

What followed next was my first theological argument with Eoin, my three year old.

Eoin: "God wants me to have loads of toys!"
Dad: "Noooo, God wants us to love other people."
Eoin: "God...."
Dad: "What toys do you..."
Eoin: "I'M TALKING TO GOD DAD!"
Dad: "Oh"
Eoin: "God... Can I have loads of toys?... I can!... Thanks God!" "God said I could have loads of toys Dad!"

At a certain point you realize it's not the battle worth fighting and you think up other ways to explain God's heart to your kids. But I'll be honest, his method of prayer didn't seem all that different from my own at times or from friends of mine. So often we come to God with wish lists, pray the prayer and then step back for results. How often have you asked for God to give you something? I'm still praying for that Nintendo Wii.

Now I do believe that God still performs miracles, that God still works in this world, moving hearts and oceans but I don't think he's willing to engage this world alone. He wants partnership.

Here's what I mean. The Bible says we should to pray continuously. What I understand this to mean is not that we sit in our rooms with our heads bowed or even that we walk around never talking to anyone but God. Rather, I think Paul was talking about our posture towards life. Prayer is tied to God's heart for this world and we get to pray unceasingly when our hearts start to beat like God's. Prayer is about partnership in God's mission for this world. When we start to care for others or become generous we're joining in that mission. And when we step out in faith, we find we have little choice but to pray. I watched a Rob Bell DVD the other day and he put it this way, "Don't ask God to feed the hungry if you have plenty." His point was this: to pray that prayer would be to stand apart from God's heart for this world, like someone on the sidelines of a football game. Prayer only makes sense when you're actually in the match.

Now, I just have to figure out a way to communicate that thought to Eoin...

Urban Soul

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-03-10T13:11:30+00:00

I'll be attending an information meeting on Wednesday and hope to have some more details available for those of you who'd like to attend Urban Soul this summer in Dublin. I'd love to see five or six GEM-Ks aged 15 or older by July 1st attend. It will be three days of service in Dublin with nights spent learning from God's word. If you're a GEM-K, let me know if you're interested in joining us. Also, I think it would be fun if you wanted to stay on a few days and we could tour Ireland together! Good times ahead.

The GEM-K Podcast Comes Alive

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-03-08T01:57:46+00:00

The first GEM-K Podcast has just been released. You'd have to be silly to not give it a listen.

It's Good To Laugh

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-03-07T23:01:43+00:00

You have to wait for this one until about 1:45 but the wait is oh so worth it. Enjoy the chuckle.

Growing Up Online

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-21T10:59:00+00:00

I recently finished watching Frontline: Growing Up Online. It is a compelling look at how teens engage with the internet in the US. It looks at the effects of social network sites (like Facebook & MySpace) on youth culture and suggests that just as we learn social interaction skills so do we need to learn online skills. One of the biggest insights I felt was the distinction between how adults and teens interact with the web. For adults it is a place we go for additional services, be it shopping, emailing, or gathering information. For teens the internet is just a natural progression of their daily interaction with friends. To not have it is to be isolated. The 45 minute documentary is well worth your time and is available to view online for free or can be purchased from iTunes for $1.99.

Camp Videos

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:27:07+00:00

I decided to post a few of the videos we used at our GEM-K Winter Camp for your viewing pleasure. I tried my hardest to make them deep and profound but I'm pretty sure I failed. We all got a good laugh though.

Choo Choo Train

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:25:52+00:00

I have to meet these kids some day.

Extra Steering Wheel

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:18:57+00:00

Don't try this on the freeway.

Image of the Invisible

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:17:37+00:00

This was the song we used at camp when we talked about holy anger.

Air Action Vigorsol

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:14:47+00:00

This ad makes me feel fresh every time I watch it.

Acupuncture Pain Ad

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-05T18:12:18+00:00

I forget how I worked this one into my discussion but I remember it working in my head.

What's The Point of Being a Christian?

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-01T02:22:06+00:00

I was speaking with a teen once when he asked me "what's the point of being a Christian?" He qualified the question by telling me about his friend who he had brought to a Christian event and at the end had said, "That's all great but why do I need God? Can't I just do the good things that the Bible suggests, like helping your neighbor, not having sex before marriage, not hurting anyone, etc. and reap the benefits of a well-lived life because I really don't feel anything missing in my life, or have any desire for God?" The teen had no answer and found himself haunted by that fact. The more he pondered it the more he questioned his own relationship with God. He didn't find himself depending much on God and wanted to. He began to reason that his lack of desire for God came from not actually experiencing the need for God in his life. He was born into a Christian family and knew nothing else. He figured that the healthiest action he could take was to walk away from God, to do life on his own. If he could make it on his own, then his friend was right. But if he found himself missing something, then he could come back to God, re-invigorated by his new realized dependence on God. He was honestly in a struggle of faith. He looked around at what he considered the "great" Christians, Christians who actually changed the world, who made a difference. In his experience, all of his heroes of the faith had become Christians at some later point in their lives rather than growing up in Christian homes. All of them had experienced depravity and so grace meant so much more. They were energized by being Christians, they were alive in relationship with God and their lives showed it. He pointed to the famous, like Billy Graham but also to members of his family and individuals he knew personally. If he was going to be a Christian he only wanted it in the form his heroes embodied, not in the way he was presently living life.

And so the question remained..."What's the point of being a Christian?"

I think it's a question that many of us ask but unfortunately not out loud. It is not really a safe question to ask in many Christian circles without being barraged with well-meaning bits of advice given to help encourage your relationship with God but often they just compound our disillusionment with Christianity.

I recently watched Rob Bell's Nooma DVD "Dust". In it Rob asks the question, "Believing in God is important, but what about God believing in us?" Do we actually believe we can be the people God saved us to be? He points out how the disciples didn't choose Jesus, Christ chose them, and what's more in the Rabbinic tradition that means that he thought they could do what he did, that they could carry his yoke. This is why when Jesus walks on water Peter got out of the boat and even thought about walking on water also. If his Rabbi was doing it and he wanted to be like his Rabbi, then why wouldn't he get out? But if you read the account, you read that Peter begins to sink and cries out to Jesus to save him. So Jesus reaches out his hand to him and says "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matt. 14:31). Rob Bell points out that we often think Peter was doubting Jesus, but Jesus was standing on the water just fine. Peter doubted himself, that he could actually be like his Rabbi and do what his Rabbi did. And to this, Jesus responds, "Why do you doubt that you can be the person you were meant to be?" I think Peter's doubt is in a lot of us, Christian or not, but especially those of us who grew up in Christian homes.

I think the teen I was talking to really put his finger on this issue when he observed that his heroes of the faith were all people who had not grown up in Christian homes. Often those are the people who have seen life without having life, who have experienced the darkness and now desperately grab onto the light, who have seen that living life their own way is totally out of tune with the way the world really works. They experienced God choosing them, saying "I think you can actually be like me" and believe it. But those of us who grew up in Christian homes, who experienced God choosing us in terms of choosing our family, grace has abounded in us. And so, I think, there is often a tendency in our churches and families to remind ourselves of our sinfulness, of our nothingness, of our simply being a vapor (James 4:14). The thinking behind this is that we have experienced grace and so must know what we are being saved from (i.e. sin and grace must be understood in connection). And thus, we start setting up rules/boundaries to help guide us through our lives, rules that we depend on. Rules like don't have sex before marriage, don't drink to get drunk, don't cuss, etc. The problem is that these "rules" only make sense when lived as part of a relationship. By themselves they are horrible as an emphasis, simply because it is not what God emphasizes. Religion is created by "don’ts" but Christ came to show us the "do's," to show us how life is supposed to be lived and to make such a life possible. By boiling Christianity down to do's and don'ts we have effectively created religion and destroyed relationship, a relationship where God comes down to us and says, "Because of what I've done and accomplished, I know you can be the people I saved you to be." God didn't come to earth for the sake of Christianity, to have a bunch of churches with crosses on them. He came to earth to make life possible for humanity, to show us true humanity at its core.

It seems to me that much of Christianity has forgotten this message or has never heard it. To be an apprentice of Christ (i.e a Christian) is to be a person who has what it takes to do what Jesus did. Even when I spoke with some other teens about this, they responded "yes, we can do what Jesus did, even though we are nothing." Why clarify this statement with the after thought of "we are nothing?" We clarify this point for fear that we will start to view ourselves as sinless or something but God has already made the point pretty clear when he sent his Son to die on the cross for us. We are of worth because God values us, you are of immense value to God. No "ifs" "ands" or "buts" - God sees you and sees someone who can live life the way it was meant to be lived. He believes in you. So perhaps we should start viewing ourselves as God does.

Perhaps if we started living like we couldn't fail (because we can't) we'd find less and less of us asking what's the point of being a Christian. Rather than telling people to have a relationship with God, perhaps we should live like we actually have one ourselves. Because, to be honest, I'm with the student. I too don't want a passionless faith, one where I feel restricted rather than being empowered. Such a Christianity must beg the question, "Why bother being a Christian?" When life is lived in response to what God has done for us, we realize that not only is it the only way to live, we realize it is such because there is no other way to experience life at all.

Matt

How Cool Is Your Jesus?

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-01T02:17:51+00:00

I remember struggling through Secondary school (middle school to high-school age) in Dublin as a Christian. I wasn’t (or at least didn’t feel) uncool in school. I was on the basketball team, had some solid friends and got decent enough grades but I was well aware that much of what I felt Christianity required of me was simply adding negative brownie points onto any chance of me attaining more popularity. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to be a Christian, even wanted my friends to be Christians but my understanding of what it meant to be a Christian at that point in my life meant that I couldn’t drink, couldn’t listen to certain music, go to certain places, make out with girls, etc. – much of which was associated with coolness in my school.

Then I remember feeling emancipated by a speaker who told me that Christians could be cool. In fact, he argued, Christians should be the coolest people around because Jesus was attractive to the people he met. A few of my Christian friends and I began to take this to heart. We started to convince ourselves that we could be cool with our friends and cool with God at the same time. So we pushed the previous boundaries a lot comforting any guilt with the idea that we might “win someone to Jesus” with our Jesus-like coolness.

In fact I thought our Jesus was so cool I convinced a friend of mine that we could have a club in the school (much cooler than the Christian Union club might I add) where we’d provide free food if people wanted to come and talk about God. We had our first meeting right after a huge evolution/creation debate so there was a lot of fodder to discuss.

We were really cool Christians in those days. Or at least that’s what I thought.

It’s only been as of late that I’ve seen what was so wrong with my school-boy thinking. I remember watching an episode of King of the Hill on the telly. For those not in the know, King of the Hill is an adult cartoon comedy centered around the Hill family who live in Arlington, Texas. Much of the humor is aimed at southern culture and the stereotyped characters that culture breeds. I love it. My wife loves it. We laugh a lot when we watch it.

But I digress… The episode that first got me thinking about this cool Christian idea involved the Hills’ son Bobby. Bobby was really getting into his youth group at church which had a new cool and hip youth pastor in tote. Now this youth pastor was an over-the-top stereotype, with piercings, cool hair-doo, and speaking all the right lingo. Bobby wanted to be just like him and really began living just for youth group. But his Dad, Hank, in a moment of genius pulled Bobby aside and told him he couldn’t go to youth group any more. Indeed, his worry was that cool comes and goes. If Bobby simply fell in love with this brand of Jesus, he’d be inclined to let it go as soon as its popularity faded. OK, not the deepest thought in the world but what do you expect from a cartoon. More to the point, however, this got me thinking about that coolness and Christianity weren’t as compatible as I’d previously thought.

Most Christians I know really like the film The Matrix. I like the film too. Just bought it actually. Conversations with my Christian friends on the film, however, almost always address Neo, the central character, as a Christ figure, saving the world and opening up our eyes to the way things really are. I remember chatting with my professor in college, E.J. Park about how I’d been sold on a cool God. E.J. began musing on the film The Matrix,

“I really like Neo as a savior. For starters, he’s reluctant and I can relate to someone who doubts himself. There’s a part of me that likes someone who’s cocky too but after a while I want nothing more than to see that high-and-mighty person taste the sweet humiliation of defeat. Take Joseph in the Bible for instance, I can resonate with his brothers when Joseph goes around telling them that one day they’ll all bow down before him. That would tick me off.

“But Jesus is even worse than Joseph. He claims that the whole universe (past and present) will bow down before him. I imagine these self-proclamations must have got under the skin of some people: I am the bread. I am the living water. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the Son of Man. I am the Son of God. Enough! We get the point! I’d take a self-doubting reluctant hero like Neo any day. I’d tell this guy that he’s more important than he could ever imagine. I can’t offer anything to the self-proclaimed Messiah.

“Second, Neo kicks butt. What’s better than the reluctant hero who can kung fu the crap out of the enemy? Neo is the perfect messianic combo package. He’s not afraid to pack some serious guns too. I’d gladly follow Neo to the center of the earth and the end of the Matrix, especially if I got to sport some of his cool shades.

“(Sigh.) But Jesus. Not only does he claim to be the one but then he refuses to kick butt. I mean how can a messiah expect anyone to follow him when he insists on suffering and dying? When Neo dies it’s because he gave it his all but didn’t realize the extent of his power. He comes back to life to kick more butt. When Jesus dies he’s fully aware of his butt-kicking powers and does nothing. He understands his power but refuses to use it.”*

You have to know E.J. to know that he was being facetious. In no way did he think Jesus was not worth following or someone who couldn’t grab his heart. He was simply pointing out how deep our desire is to make Christ in our image. Neo is actually the antithesis of Christ. E.J. went on to point out that Christ was actually killed because he was not more Neo-like.

You see God doesn’t want to redeem us to the world. He isn’t trying to have a bunch of followers who are cool. God has redeemed the world, he’s re-defined the world, allowing us to re-imagine the world, seeing it as it truly is. So it’s not that he wants us to be uncool either. He wants us to realize that in Him, these social systems have come to an end and we shouldn’t live our lives by them. He has very little time for being cool or right because these are both defined by the old social system where we compare ourselves to one another.

In God’s new social system we are all defined in terms of Christ. God speaks into our lives and transforms them, redefines them. This is why Paul can say, “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11). Or check out what Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). WOW! Hate your family and your life? But such a statement makes total sense when we realize that God wants us to define ourselves in terms of Him, not in terms of the old social system.

I wish I’d realized that I didn’t need to impress my peers, I just needed to love them. And while this might not always be the most popular thing to do I wish I’d realized that it always wins. It wins because this is how God has re-defined the world and it’s exciting because I now don’t have to live my life impressing others, I get to live seeing the world as God has saved it.

Matt

* Check out EJ Park's article on the Matrix.

Can anybody fly this thing? Memoirs from seat 28F

GEMKMinistries@Gmail.com — 2008-02-01T02:05:12+00:00

If you're an MK you're no stranger to flying. Eoin, our son, is not even four and has already been to the USA (including Hawaii), Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, Malta, Italy, Switzerland and of course, Ireland! It's funny to have a passport before you can walk. His passport photo is from his days as an infant and already looks little like him. Hailey Moia and myself have done our fair amount of traveling as well. One of our favorite places in the States is Chicago (not because of the weather). We spent our first married years near there in the quiet suburb of Wheaton. A few years back we travelled to visit with frirends and our church out there. As we flew home I had an epiphany and just wanted to share the thought with you. Here's what I wrote:

"As I sit here on the plane (seat 28F – the way back ughh). I’m reminded of just how much flying I’ve done in my pretty short life (24 years). This has been Eoin’s first flight ever – he did well. It has been interesting flying with an infant. Luckily he's cried little. But as I sit here in seat 28F I’m reminded specifically of how comfortable I am with flying. What is more, I’m not convinced it is because of all the flying I’ve done over the years. That might be part of it but the real reason is that it is "no-man’s land." The seat I’m flying in is located just behind the right wing by the window. We are flying over huge areas of land - some forested, some mountains with snow, some lakes, some desert. Playing on the earphones is U2s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” which always makes for some epic moments.

"You see, growing up in Ireland I always felt American, punctuated by the fact that my family was American, I loved chocolate chip cookies and my nick name was “Yank” (despite the fact that I still haven’t been to New York). I always felt American, that is, until I returned to California for furlough at which point I was decidedly Irish, punctuated by my desire for Cadbury’s chocholate and a belief that public transport should be better in Ventura, California. Not to mention the nick name “Irish” to top it off. At these points I felt decidedly Irish. And this, as many of you know, is the plight of many a missionary kid – not fully American, not fully Irish we are a third culture all together (we're often referred to as Third Culture Kids). And it seems to me, sitting in 28F, that the airplane is a place where I oddly feel very comfortable. It is the in-between. These moments of flying are often the only times where I didn’t have to think about my identity as an American in Ireland or an Irishman in America. I'm just a traveler on these days and because I’ve done it so much, I can play the part well. Eoin travels well. It’s as though he was meant to be a GEM-K"