Ok so here’s a simple thought.  Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how much so many churches and youth ministries base their worth upon how they feel they stack up against others.  What that looks like is that we talk a lot about the things that could be comparable. So we get stuck talking about numbers, budgets, buildings and other things like that. But let’s be honest. It’s not the way we should be doing things. I work at a church that has an amazing amount of potential.  Our members have more resources and gifts available to them then I have ever seen before.  If we compare ourselves with others we look pretty good and are doing a lot of great stuff.  But, if we compare ourselves against our potential we don’t stack up very well. So how do we go about this?  Do we beat ourselves up because we aren’t meeting our potential or do we have a way of somehow figuring out our how to reconcile all of this. Truth: I don’t know.  But I will say this.  Recently I’ve felt God telling me over and over again that I need to “dream bigger”.  I don’t think I’m being told that I need to be bigger or to seek a bigger thing but that the “dreams” I have need to be bigger.  What that means for my youth ministry or my church I don’t know.  I just know that for the last 6 months I keep hearing this same thing. What could God do with us if we stopped limiting ourselves and dreamed bigger? So there you go. I’m wrestling to figure out what our potential is. What’s yours?  

16 months ago I booked a vacation with one of my best friends in the world James. His family and my family are heading to Mexico in June.  I only tell you this to show you a little bit about me.  I love to look forward to things.  It’s always been that way for me as a youth pastor too.  I’m the guy who tries to create events that students think about for a long time and are so stoked to be a part of that I never have to “sell” them to sign up.  James and I text or call each other about once a week and talk about how stoked we are to take our families to Mexico. We’ve actually talked about how much we have needed this vacation as something to look forward to for the 16 months.  And he’s a Psychologist so he’s smarter than you so just believe that we’re right.  :) I stared planning the Highland Park Presbyterian Church Student Ministry summer 2011 about a year ago and I can’t believe that it all goes down in about 3 months.  I’m so stoked for the things I get to be a a part of I thought I’d share some of them here tonight. May 31-June 4 Houseboat trip: When I was a Youth Pastor at Bel Air Presbyterian Church and at North Coast Calvary Chapel we did a houseboat trip almost every summer.  At one point I did 9 years in a row of Houseboats I think.  Those trips are amazing because in my opinion they are the best way to grow community in your youth group.  This summer we’re bringing that trip to Texas (truthfully Arkansas) as we are heading out for 5 days to kick the summer off right.  The boats we are going out on this year are nicer than any I’ve ever been on. I’ve got an amazing staff and a great bunch of students signed up already. July 2-9 Seattle Missions trip: Again this feels like “retro” summer for me because this will be the 4th time I’ve taken teams to Seattle to serve the homeless and disadvantaged population.  Back in 2001 I met one of my closest friends Phil Cunningham on this trip as he was our leader for YWAM Seattle. Phil has gone on to do great amazing things like starting the organization Steps of Justice and I’m so stoked to introduce more students to his heart.  We’ll be staying at Seattle Pacific University (yea I’m a graduate) and serving downtown Seattle.  We’ll also be kicking it in my home town of Langley Washington on Whidbey Island at some point.  Most Texas teenagers have never been to the Pacific Northwest. I’m praying for sun and for Jesus to both be real to the Texas and the Washington folks. We’ll be introducing these Texas kids to Stand Up Paddleboarding. and to my Hippy Sister who sells pants on Ebay. July 18-29 Israel Family Trip: Last year was my first ever trip to Israel.  We took 9 high school students from my church Highland Park Presbyterian.  While we were there my high school director and I talked about what it would look like to do the trip in 2011 with families. So this year we’re heading back with 19 people.  I’m pretty stoked to have a bunch of families come with us and to have them experience Israel together.  Someday when my kids are older I want to take them on this trip. August 11-20 Kenya: This one is still tentative but I was asked to come and speak at the Presbyterian Church of East Africas summer Youth conference.  This is a big event for their denomination and pretty historic for us.  My church started an African fellowship 7 years ago that has become it’s own worship service at the 11am hour.  I told them I would only come if I could bring our Youth Pastor for the African congregation and also only if we were planning on bringing a joint team of both groups next summer 2012.  We try all we can to integrate our groups together and I love the idea of planning 15 months out to do a historic combined event for August 2012. Yea it’s a lot. In the midst of this I’m going on a 2 week vacation with my family to Mexico at the beginning of the summer and a 5 day trip with my family to Yosemite California right after the summer.  My family is also coming on the Houseboat trip.  I’m stoked as my kids are getting older too and able to go on more with us.

So this last weekend I was in a pretty isolated place on Orcas Island in the state of Washington.  I was there as part of the Post Doctoral work I get to do with George Fox Seminary as a part of their “Future Church Think Tank” During one of our conversations someone made the statement that it should be our goal as Christians to not “isolate” our students but instead to “Insulate” them.  That same person shared that the way they did that was to prepare their students from the “inside Out”  I’ve been thinking about that statement for the last few days and it really resonated with me last night. I was lying in bed with my oldest son Soren and we were having a good talk about life. (he’s 10)  We had just gotten back from an event at church where we got to listen to a guy who plays in the NFL share his faith.  Soren told me that he really enjoyed the night and loved that guy had grown up in a Christian Home but didn’t know what God was going to do with him.  But he was faithful and God revealed it.  He said he liked that Daniel didn’t know what God was doing but that he fully listened and God showed up. What does this mean? It means that my goal as a youth pastor and father is not to isolate my students from the world.  Isolation in my mind is a separate world where no one has any contact with the other. Insulation though is different it’s what I have a ton of in my attic that separates our bedroom from the really hot Texas summer heat.  We “insulate” our students when we give them skills to know how to best respond to the crazy stuff they see in the world. It’s  what we do when we teach parenting seminars and attempt to prepare parents to talk to their students about what they will be exposed too.  Insulation is a much better paradigm to promote as a Youth pastor because it says we are “in” but we are not “of” the world. Do I have anything figured out?  No. But I am convinced that God has gifted me in the area of discernment. I love it that I have the opportunity to think through this with you.  Tell me what you think.