the encounter

momentum students began a new study last night – what does it mean to be a real men & women? 

there are many confusing images presented to teens today.  women are bombarded with the message that real women are a perfect size, have a perfect look, dress with the perfect clothes, and have the perfect man at their side.   searching for the “look” many girls end up discouraged, depressed, starved, and empty.  finding little acceptance and the inability to achieve perfection they crash and burn in despair.

for young men the pressure mounts to be tough, muscular, popular, dripping with girls, and cool.  they run from could make their image seem weak, caring, sensitive, obedient, or humble.  in search of their media image they too struggle with depression, hopelessness, and despair.  they give-in to the crowd and become something they can’t escape.

for the next 7 weeks we’re separating guys/girls and jr. high/senior high to provide a setting where students can discuss and face the real issues of teen life today; a setting where they can learn how to live as Godly young men and women.  

we’re confident that God is raising up teens in our group who will be difference-makers.  they will find their identity in God’s purpose for their life.  they will live with confidence and assurance of Christ’s love for them.  they will live with conviction and passion.  they will live surrendered and grace-driven. 

they will do more than know – they will live as Godly men and women.

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The people of encounter will be using the book, “enjoy the silence” during the month of May as a 30-day experience of hearing in hearing from God.   Authors Duffy and Maggie Robbins take readers through 30 days of Scripture readings, devotional thoughts, and questions.  They suggest the lectio divina approach in personal time before God in the Scriptures (reading, meditating, listening, contemplating).   From the book:

Cultivate my heart, Lord, so I may catch every word that falls from heaven – every syllable of encouragement, every sentence of rebuke, every paragragh of instruction, every page of warning, help me to catch these words as the soft, fertile soil catches seed.

- Ken Gire, U.S. Author and Speaker

Join us in the journey of hearing from God!

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John Ortberg recently released a series of snapshots of America and faith.  To many his findings will be surprising, shocking, and alarming.  To others it will be a continued confirmation of a severe weakness of the American church in this generation. 

Snapshot: The recently released American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) indicates that faith is going down across the board. The number of people who identify themselves as Christian has decreased by 11 percent in a generation. The single fastest-growing category when it comes to religious affiliation is “None,” which grew from 8 percent to 15 percent since 1990.

Snapshot: In the entertainment section of The San Francisco Chronicle recently, someone asked Mick LaSalle, the movie critic, what kind of movie will never be re-made. He said that the one kind of movie that is most unlikely to be re-made today is one that assumes faith as a kind of national backdrop.

Snapshot: I was talking to some young church leaders recently about how, twenty years ago, if someone wanted to look for a model of what an effective church might look like in the future, they would generally go to a place like Willow Creek or Saddleback. But these younger leaders said it was no longer apparent where they should go to see what church might look like in another twenty years.

Snapshot: Tom Klegg and Warren Bird noted that if the unchurched population in the US were its own nation, it would be the fifth most populated nation on the planet, after China, the former Soviet Union, India, and Brazil.

Snapshot: A religion reporter for the LA Times wrote an article, and later a book, describing how he lost his faith in the process of covering his beat. He said that article brought in exponentially more positive emails than anything else he’d ever written.

These snapshots are not an indictment against the world, but against a generation of Christians who are asleep, afraid, and self-focused.  May they move us to greater humility, sacrifice, dependence, and grace.  May we quit our “church-going” and start “church-being”.

It is time for a new expression of broken attempts at what we have called outreach, fellowship, discipleship, and church. 

When will we finally “get” it?

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Recently on This American Life:

Act Two. Team Spirit in the Sky.

This past Christmas a story swept the internet about a football coach at a Christian high school in Texas who inspired his team’s fans to root for the opposition: a team from the local juvenile correctional facility. Among the thousands of emails that the coach received in response to his actions, one stood out to him. Trisha Sebastian mentioned her loss of faith, and coach Hogan got a message from God that he was meant to bring her back. We eavesdrop on their phone calls. (19 minutes)

Click here to listen to the audio of the story. It starts at 20:02 into the show.

I love the initial story here of the fans cheering for the other team. Great work coach! We need lots more of that! Even just in regular high school games.

But as you listen to the story, you hear Trisha tell Ira Glass that she’s leaning towards agnosticism after the loss of a dear friend. She shares this with the coach and he attempts to change her mind with apologetics and logic.

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I love to read books.  I’d also like to write a book sometime.  If I ever do, it will be about the power of creating desire in others – desire to do right, to love their spouse, to love their kids, to love one another, to love Christ.

Its one thing to tell people what they ought to do.  Its quite another to stir them with desire to want to do it.  Having the ability to do that is a skill, a gift, and a calling from God.

It seems with every corner I turn, this principle plays out over and over again.  It is necessary for parents raising their kids and their teenagers.  Its necessary for husbands and wives in loving one another.  Its necessary for leaders who influence others.  Its necessary for those who are faith leaders. 

Don’t just yell at them.  Don’t just give them a list of rules.  Don’t just tell them had bad they are.  Don’t just tell them what they ought to do.  Don’t refuse love until they do right.  Don’t guilt them into doing something.

Stir them.  Encourage them.  Model it before them.  Sacrifice for them.  Grace them.  Incite them to action.  Praise them.  Ignite them. 

Then sit back and watch what God will do through them.

Maybe one day I’ll write that book.

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