Month: February 2005

i’m basically a liberal conservative. what this means is that my default pattern of thinking has be conservative from my childhood but it has been progressively becoming more liberal as i grow older (the exact opposite pattern of typical american political thought – more liberal at an early age becoming more conservative as a person grows older). the main part of the growth of the more liberal thought within my life has been centered on social justice issues. my desire for the poor to be taken care of is beginning to be the determining factor within my political thought. it is with that in mind that i want to talk for a second about the privatization of social security.

the typical conservative stance on this issue is to support privatizing social security as a means of getting the government out of another area of life. the standard liberal stance is to demand that social security stay non-privatized. personally, i want to see social security privatized but it has nothing to do with conservative thought. nope it has everything to do with social justice. right now minorities (especially african-americans) have a lower life expectancy. the average white male has a life expectancy of 74.8 years. the average black male has a life expectancy of 68.2 years. this means generally that african-americans who pay into social security get much less back from it than do anglos because they will must likely live 6 years less. african-americans are paying into a system that they will receive very little from. when they die none of the money that they paid into the system will go to their survivors, unless those survivors are below the age of 18.

privatizing social security will begin to provide an inheritance because a large portion of the money you pay into the system will be in your own private account. when you die that money can go to your survivors as an inheritance. think of the difference that could make. thing of the impact that it would have on a family to receive $50 to $60,000 at the death of their 55 year old dad. that money could buy a house and move a family into a better area of town and schools. this could change an entire family’s life. i see this as a religious issue because i believe we should look out for the interests of the weak. right now the weak whose life expectancy is less are paying for the majority to be able to receive social security.

my mail today consisted of nine different opportunities for me to involve my kids in some “ministry opportunity” that is going to change their lives, or change the way they view GOD, or shape them into leaders who will change the world. all i have to do is shell out $265 for the conference fee or $99.95 for the leader’s pack or $350 for the whitewater camp experience. it’s really that easy? all i have to do is bring or buy something for my youth and the youth ministry has accomplished it’s goal? all of the offers came with outstanding advertisements. the promotional materials were full of great testimonies from other ministers who had been smart enough and sensitive enough to the SPIRIT to take their kids to these programs or use the right material. the ads were full of pictures of cool looking teens having a great time. it was all hip, cool, and definitely appealing.

it all made me sick.

how much do we spend in promotion to get out the message that our standards are no different from the world’s? the contents of my mail showed the truth. the advertisements and promo packs told the story of what we really think is valuable. we value flash. this is why our churches are so busy going to national programs rather than doing things together, locally, relationally. this is why our kids are convinced they must have an “experience.” if they didn’t have an “experience” then it was a trip or event that GOD was a part of it? rather than us growing closer and closer by being in the whole process together we sell out and just take our teens to things.

we “ministers” really like to buy into all this stuff. we love the “big events” just as much as the kids. we love the hype, the great “summary” videos, the t-shirts, and crap. we buy right into it all. i know i do. give me some free stuff and i think much better of you. free stuff dismisses allot of my questions. i’m such a whore.

i’m really not opposed to all the “big things.” i think they have their place. i think they can be great tools. but that’s all they are … tools. they’re not ministry. they’re events. the real ministry takes place in the youth ministries that bring the kids to the “big events” and are there when the real problems of life occur. that’s the important stuff.

i just hope i can remember that next time i’m given some cool camp item for free.

i just finished taking a test on my “nerd rating” and figured i would paste it for y’all to be able to see. nothing really surprising personally. you can take the test for yourself by clicking the image below.

i am firmly convinced that most youth ministry is far to masculine in nature. because of this a few years ago our student ministry came up with the idea of doing a “feminar”. basically it’s a mini-retreat dealing with feminine issues. so of course, i have nothing to do with this retreat. i give the whole thing over to a group of ladies (led by my assistant, jessica) and they work through all the details. all i do is make an appearance to say “hi” and then hear the reports afterward. the ladies make the whole thing into a huge slumber party.

this year the feminar was february 4th-5th and it was tremendous according to all reports. we had about 65 girls that were a part of it. my wife, pam, was a part of the weekend and she came back talking about seventh grade girls talking about their lives being full of thinking that they have let people like their parents down and how hard it was to live under that pressure. they had deep conversations and CHRIST was continually brought into the midst of those conversations. it was a great weekend. i’m very proud to have those ladies on our team.