I got to spend this past weekend at NYWC (National Youth Workers Conference).

IT WAS AWESOME.

Basically it’s a bunch of Youth Workers from all over the country getting together in one place to worship God, encourage each other, and hear some fantastic speakers (Mark Batterson, Rachel Held Evans, Bob Goff, Shane Claiborne, and Pete Wilson all spoke).  It is always great to hear about what God is doing in His church and praying about what He will do.  It was such a blessing to get to worship with people from all over the place who have such a heart for both Christ and teenagers.

Here are some of the quotes from the weekend that I was quick enough to write down:

“We want more revelation, God wants more obedience.” -Mark Batterson

“GET OFF YO’ BUTT! GO CHANGE THE WORLD!!!” -Harvey Carey

“We (Christians) want to be known by what we’re for, not what we’re against.” -Rachel Held Evans

“Want to know your calling? Do less of what you stink at.” -Bob Goff

“Jesus didn’t hold everyone accountable, He held them close.” -Bob Goff

“God doesn’t pass us notes, He passes us people.” -Bob Goff

“If we keep telling people that they’re thirsty when they’re not, they won’t know where to go when they are.” -Bob Goff

As you can probably tell, I really wrote down a lot of what Bob Goff said. #LoveDoes #AMEN

I left the convention center on Sunday feeling renewed and energized in Christ Jesus.  God is so good! And He’s got me.  I pray that I will never lose sight of that fact.  One of the great things about being a follower of Christ is that I get to wake up every morning knowing that what happened yesterday doesn’t matter, that God has got today under control, and that tomorrow can worry about itself.

“WE ARE YOUR CHURCH, WE PRAY REVIVE THIS EARTH!” -Rend Collective Experiment

TAKE IT EASY!

-MC

P.S.: If you want to see some serious white boy dancing, check out the link at the bottom.  This is me prior to the final session on Sunday afternoon.  Video Creds go to  my dude Devin Clark (@DevPClark on that twitter).

I consider myself a creative person.

There really is something about creating something that is from my own thoughts and imagination that I find to be incredible.

That’s why I love to write.

For me, writing is how I express myself.  My thoughts flowing from my head through my hands and down onto a piece of paper or onto a screen pumps me up.  Reading something that is completely mine, that came from my own head, is so cool whether anyone ever reads it or not.  Taking a blank sheet or screen and filling it up with whatever I want gets me excited.  There really is something beautiful about being able to take something that has absolutely no prompt, no expectations, no grade coming in the future, and do whatever I want to do with it.  Having complete control over the outcome of something gives me comfort.  I am the only person who can make it awesome or can screw it all up, and I know that going in.  It’s exciting, plus if I do screw up, nobody will ever find out, and I can start over or throw it out.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s mine, and I like it like that.

I don’t want to give anyone else the pen (or the keyboard).

Isn’t that the problem with God sometimes?

God wants the pen.  He wants to write our story.

We come before God with a lot of stuff already written on the page of our life.  Stuff we’re not always proud of.  Stuff that keeps showing up.  Stuff that is holding back the story that we are trying to write.  The beautiful thing is that God doesn’t care.  God can crumple up that piece of paper and start over.  It’s God’s story after all.  We are all God’s creation.  He created us.  We are in His image.  We are God’s paper, and when we let Him, He is going to write some awesome stories with us.  We are a blank sheet before God, and He can do whatever He wants with us, we just have to surrender the pen.

Let’s let Him write our stories, and some crazy awesome stories they will be.

God is Good!

-MC

This past Tuesday, there was a youth ministry internship fair here at Lipscomb.  Basically a bunch of Youth Ministers from all over the country come and do 30 minute interviews with Lipscomb students for summer internships.  It really is a great thing, and if you are a Youth Minister reading this, I fully, 100% endorse you coming to the event next year.

I was one of those college students walking around “speed dating” with churches this year.  I really wasn’t too nervous or anything, but man did some of these churches put me at ease.  A few churches specifically really stuck out to me.  Just hearing them talk about their ministries, it was evident that God is at work in what they are doing.  I could see the passion for what they do in their eyes.  Passion for God and what He can do in the lives of their students was flowing straight from their hearts.  It was so refreshing to be around these people who have a vision for what God can do, not only in their own lives, but in the lives and hearts of the church.  Because of their great passion for God and where His Spirit leads, I want to work with these people in the kingdom, whether it be at their church or not.

But the interview wasn’t over.

Then they asked me about myself…

They asked me about different things that they saw on my résumé, if I had done an internship before, how old I was, if I grew up in church, where I went to church, and a bunch of other questions that were easy to answer, but some churches asked some other things.  One said, “I want to hear about your mission trip to Ukraine.”  More than anything, the way she said it caught me off guard.  She legitimately was interested in me, not just my ministry experience, not just whether or not I could lead a devotional for her youth group; she wanted to hear about something in my life.  So I told her and the rest of her ministry team.  I told them a lot.  I talked about how those thirteen days did a lot to me.  How my heart was captured, how I realized all that I take for granted on a daily basis, and how I learned that you can’t really care about someone or something until you have involved yourself with it.  And do you know the crazy thing about it? They cared.  Not only did they care, but they were genuinely interested in something that I was passionate about.

A member of a ministry team from a different church did something similar.  She (yes, another woman doing big things in ministry) said, “Tell us about this Sunday School class you have been teaching.”  I made a few jokes (sometimes I just can’t help it), then I told her and her two partners in ministry about how it was an honor to be asked to take it on, how I thought I would bless those guys’ lives, but how they and their families have ended up blessing my life instead, and about how my life has been changed because of the experience. And once again, They cared.  My passions were important to them.

I have been thinking a lot about my passions recently.  More and more I am realizing that I have a passion for writing.  Not writing 12-page exegetical papers on sexual immorality in Corinth, based on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (if you want to read it, I’ll send you a copy), but writing in my times of great feeling.  I do things like blog, journal, compose emails to authority figures that never get sent, leave long notes on my car begging Lipscomb Security not to tow my car, and writing things to make people laugh (whether they do or not is a different story).  I love to write.  But I don’t want to be a journalist (My grammar aint good enough to be no journalist).  I want to write about the incredible experiences that I am having while living in community with passionate people who are in all different walks of life.  I want to have something to write about.  So, yeah, that’s where I’m at.

“Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need” -Frederick Buechner

TAKE IT EASY!

-MC

Today one of my Facebook friends shared an article that was entitled “What Women Want in a Godly Man.”  Being the sucker that I am for stuff like that, I read it.  It had five things that women find attractive in a man outside of, you know, the muscles, nice facial hair, and, well, hair on the top of the head as well.  These things were honesty, purity, strength (not physical), compassion, and humility.  These were all great things, and it did help me examine myself a little, but it really has helped launch me into a thought.  How does a Godly man carry himself throughout the day around everyone, not just women?  

Throughout my life, I have been blessed to get to walk alongside and watch some incredible men of God.  By watching these men, I have learned so much, not only about how to behave, but how to serve God in a masculine, manly way.  I have heard a lot of great Christian men say things like “We have to protect these women and children,” and they say it like they want to go out and beat the crap out of the next guy that looks at anybody weird.  There really is something good about that, but doesn’t that miss the point a little bit?  One of the verses that sticks out to me from the whole Bible is James 1:27.  

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

This begs the question, “What does it mean to ‘look after orphans and widows in their distress?'”  Does that mean that we go around puffing our chests out in front of them and putting the beat down on anybody who poses a threat to them?  I don’t think so.  I really feel like James is saying something different here.  Looking after someone means taking the fall for them or with them, being with them in their times of trouble.  Meeting them in their mourning, and in their triumphs.  Doing everything to help them succeed, and being by their side even when they fail.  To me, being a man is a lot more than “speaking softly and carrying a big stick.”  True Christian manhood looks a lot different than the manhood presented in our culture.  Instead of manliness being decided by who can dish out the most punishment, manliness in Christ is determined by who is willing to take the biggest beating for someone else.  The words of Jesus from John 15:12-13 illustrate what it means to love someone, to look out for someone.

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus was a man of God if there ever was one.  He could have looked out for the marginalized by destroying the people responsible for their situations, but he didn’t.  Jesus could have put these people in their rightful place, but he gave these people something better than money, health, and power.  He gave them life.  Jesus died so that we could live.  If we truly are followers of Christ, we are not like soldiers marching off to war, but we are people carrying our crosses to Calvary.  Over 2,000 years ago, a man took care of His people in a way that people did not understand.  Will we be man enough to follow?

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”             -1 Corinthians 1:18