2 weeks ago I was privileged to spend the week with the monks at Mepkin Abbey.  I went on a fast of sound.  I did not speak a word to another soul for 4 days.  In a world of noise and constant activity this was to say the least surreal.  I first of all want to say that the commitment that these men of God have to prayer and hospitality is amazing.  Many of these moncks have been part of this life of service for decades.  I chose this as the sight for my week of sabbatical because deep down I did not need anymore sun, I didn’t need any more teaching or encouragement.  I needed to be quiet and listen for God.

Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen and I will be exalted among the earth.”

It is difficult in our culture to be still not only physically but to be still in our spirits.  To quiet our hearts…to be honest it took hours for the noise of my thoughts rumbling around in my head to subside before I really felt like I was in silence.

For 4 days I walked, rested, prayed and read.  I fasted noise, breakfast and lunch.  My desire was to purge sin from my heart, seek God for direction and enjoy his presence.  All of those things were accomplished.  I absolutely recommend all pastors do something like this in the next year of your ministry.

Some of the books I read were…

Doctrine by Mark Driscoll

In a pit with a lion on a snowy day by Mark Batterson

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

Switch by Dan and Chip Heath

Over the next days I will share some insight to what God revealed to me out there…however not all because some of it aint your beezwax.

So, without being judgmental when was the last time you were still and simply knew God?

I have a confession to make…as a youth ministry veteran I am very lack in a crucial area of youth ministry and that is video gaming.  However, I just purchased a new PS3 and with it I purchased the must have game…Modern Warfare.  I am really bad at this game.  I play with Sean Gajda and Skyler Alexander and it is immensely embarrassing.  Although I am getting better…no really.

This morning during staff devotions Pastor Cal spoke on Spiritual Warfare and I slipped into a daze of video games and youth ministry…during that daze I thought of some pretty cool parallels of MW2 and youth ministry…enjoy.

The grenade is a crucial weapon for beginners.  One press of a trigger and when someone is shooting you they go out as well.  It is a bush league move but it works.  This is the easiest weapon to use.  You don’t have to aim, you don’t have to have any skill.  You just lob away and watch the impact.  This is done in youth ministry often.  I am the king of it actually.  You see we have a youth ministry that runs between 300 and 400 students.  I stand on the stage and lob my grenades with spunk!  It takes no more than a solid message and a good delivery and throw in some funny jokes and BAM!  Impact.  You get a lot of people that way but often you leave a mess as well.  There is very little chance of follow up and if a student heard a scripture wrong (or God forbid you misquoted scripture) there is often little chance of correcting that perception.  So a great weapon for large impact but also must be handled carefully and SHOULD not be the only weapon in your arsenal.

The sniper rifle drives me crazy!  By the time I find a good location and get a bead on someone I am playing against someone else already finds me and pegs me in the forehead.  This is an extremely powerful weapon that has huge advantages if you are willing to be patient and learn to use it.  This ministry is discipleship and accountability.  It means looking at a student and talking with them and not at them.  It means hurting when they fail not getting angry.  It means long talks over a coke about a struggle that they fell to AGAIN.  There is little chance of collateral damage and has an almost 100% success rate…even if they don’t get it now the time you pour into them will resonate for years/decades to come.

The annoying thing about playing this game with people who are “gamers” is that they know all the cool hiding places and the cool shortcuts to sneak up behind you and get you.  Knowing your terrain is vital in youth ministry.  Who are your kids?  What is their background?  How does your ministry experience line up with your students?  Knowing them is knowing what to teach them and how.  Knowing the terrain of your area will keep you from making rookie mistakes and having endless foolish conversations with parents because of a seemingly benign comment.  What can be said in Atlanta may be taboo in Augusta.  What is perfectly fine in Charleston may be out of the question in Greenville.  Your maps are important.

I am still learning this game.  I am trying to get my kill rate up and am learning my maps and weapon strategies.  I want to make an impact everytime I get in the game.  Wait…what game did you think I was talking about?

The pancakes are eaten and the coffee is brewing, the wife is asleep and the kids are glued to Spongebob.  It is Saturday morning in the Rheaume home.  I am sitting in the sunroom channel surfing and I came across a NASA documentary on NATGEO.  After the Apollo 1 caught fire killing 3 astronauts NASA did a bold thing directly after.  They declared that they would be the first to put men on the moon that year!   They declared that after they just burned 3 of their own alive.  They didn’t scrap the program because it was too dangerous.  They didn’t postpone for years so they could figure every detail out.  They didn’t make the day that those men died the focus, but the vision of what they died for became the focus.

When we fail in ministry, (or in life for that matter) we tend to focus on the failure.  Why it happened?  How can I keep it from happening?  Who was to blame?  Instead, how refreshing would it be to just get up, dust yourself off and keep plugging away at your purpose.  The goal should always be the focus.  The goal of our ministry is to bring people closer to Jesus.  We will sometimes fail.  We will at times make it about us.  We will fall flat on our faces.  In the future I hope we will not spend our time analyzing our failures but will get up and continue forward towards the audacious goal of influencing our community for Jesus.

Do you ever feel this way?

I was going to take several months off of twitter/facebook.  The reason was 1) I was becoming too addicted to it and 2) I needed to simplify and think through some things and didn’t want to be distracted.

The reason I am back earlier than normal is that as I was processing some things I realized how much I used/needed the networking side of these formats.  I have missed some stuff that is fairly major because for many twitter/facebook is the main medium for communication.  I mean I realized that Marko got canned from YS for crying out loud…a week late!

One thing I am still going to try to do is not worry so much about what others are doing…I am trimming my following list.  I don’t plan on tweeting my dinner plans or random factoids about my life, rather use the format to network, share ideas, inspirations and from time to time witty observations.

Some will think me weak…(like my best friend David).  I can handle that….because…well…I am.

There are some elements to every awards show that we can transfer to our Wednesday night experience.

1) The Red Carpet – We don’t actually have a red carpet but we do try to create a first impression that makes students feel excited and accepted.  We want them to know as soon as they enter the parking lot that tonight is a special night.  The music, the lights, the attention!

2) The Cold Open – This is what they call in the biz the BIG number that is almost set apart from the rest of the program…a BIG intro.  When students walk in there is a bold countdown in a dark room and lots of smoke and our first number is always a crowd pleaser.  An infusion of energy.

3) The Takeaway – we don’t give out awards but at the end of every service is a communicator that sums up what is most important in the evening.  This takeaway moment hopefully crystalizes what they have heard and allows the Holy Spirit to work it in their hearts.

BONUS) The interview – no award show would be complete without the interview…it makes the stars feel important and gives the reporters meaning…same applies at Alive.  We interview every student…it makes them feel special and gives the youth team meaning.

So, that is what I have learned from Awards shows.  Nothing hugely spiritual and many pastors will scold me for exposing myself to the evils of pride, greed, lust and vanity but it has helped me a lot.

Simple fact of the matter is that you can’t separate Church and Culture.  The religious influence on the people is one of the crucial marks of culture in society.  We should be asking not how is this culture affecting this people group or that organization but rather ask how is the New Testament Church affecting Culture.

The internet is here to stay, so are TV, Movies, Democrats, Republicans, Hate and Love.  How do we as a church navigate through this world and proclaim Jesus.  I strained a ligament in my knee a few weeks ago and last night I tweaked it playing with my 3 year old…holding it in pain she saw that I had a small scratch and went to get a band-aid for my booboo.   In her world if she fixed the scratch the pain would go away.  Church, stop focusing on the scratch…stop focusing on the surface level evidences of pain and let’s go deeper into the soul and offer healing. Healing that comes only from Jesus.   Then, the church will begin to AFFECT culture not simply be observing and commenting on it.

Study Jesus and you find someone who went out of his way to AFFECT culture not to comment on it.  Even when he commented on it he was stirring the pot of the establishment.  I pray that you who read this read it with it’s intent to encourage spiritual leaders to LEAD with love, compassion and mission.  Let other people study why.

Here are some quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and reasons why I love this man.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

”Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”

Take a moment and ponder things for a moment.  Ask a question.  That will be an appropriate way to remember a great thinker.

When is your down time?  Do you take advanage of it?

BTW on a side note…all down time is not voluntary, many of my friends have lost jobs recently and some of them have miraculously gotten new jobs right away.  You may or may not know Bobby Webster.  He lost his job about a month ago and has recently started a freight company.  If you know someone in the shipping/traffic line of work that could help him get this off the ground email him at webster2r@yahoo.com.  Otherwise keep him and others who are without work right now in your prayers.

This past week I heard some of the greatest communicators in Church and Youth Ministry and all of them had a theme.  Don’t hold on to your programs, numbers, or suppositions to what is important but lead people to Jesus.  Lead people to do ministry, to share the Good News, to love one another.  I know that I personally have to concentrate less on the programs and numbers of Alive Youth Ministry and focus more on bringing Life to the teenagers I interact with.

These are great times…people need Jesus and we have him!  People need love and we have it!  People need hope and we can offer it!  People need life and we know the giver of life!  What an incredible time we live in and what an incredible task we have before us.  Walk in freedom knowing that God is in control!  Leave the panic to the talkshow hosts…”Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots but WE trust in the name of the Lord our God” – Psalm 20:7