StretchyChurch

Well, I’m off again on another youth trip, this time to the mountains and hollers of West Virginia with our high schoolers. We’ll be in McDowell County, way down south. Click on the map to see where it is (if you’re interested). But rest assured, I’ll be back again next week!

Not that I post all the time, but my posting will be even less for the next two weeks. Tomorrow morning I head down to Cleveland, Tennessee, with our middle schoolers to The Great Escape, the middle school summer camp of Youth Conference Ministries (the youth ministry division of Presbyterians for Renewal).

I’ll be there most of the week, and then I head out to again for a week, this time to West Virginia to do a mission trip with our high schoolers.

I’m really looking forward to these trips. Not only are they the last trips I’ll get to do with the kids from Union, but The Great Escape is always tons of fun! The mission trip is also put on by Youth Conference Ministries, so I’m expecting that it’ll also be a great time.

If you think of it, keep Robin in your prayers. I feel kinda bad leaving my wife–seven months pregnant–alone with my two-year-old son, Micah, for almost two weeks. I know they’ll be ok, but… y’know….

And keep me, our leaders, and our kids in your prayers, too, if you think of it! Over and out.

Sometimes I feel like I’m starting to get old. I just got back from our annual high school ski trip to Hidden Valley in Pennsylvania. And I am pooped!! I didn’t used to get as tired on these things–but now I do….

But it was definitely a great time! And while I don’t want to boast, I must admit that my snowboarding skills increased significantly!! Evidence: 1) I can now get off the ski lift without falling every time, and 2) I can ride down fast and straight without having to carve back and forth (I even outran a couple of buddies who were pursuing me with snowballs!).

Anyway, a great weekend! And a great time hanging out with our high schoolers, too!

I was planning to post something of substance tonight, but I think that’ll have to wait till later…

(BTW… No, that pictures is not of me. Neither is it anyone I know…)

Another seminar I attended at the National Youth Workers Convention was called More Than Noise: How Yoday’s Music and Media Impacts Your Students, led by Walt Mueller of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding (CPYU).

This was a phenomenal seminar! Mueller takes the approach that we as parents and youth leaders need to be aware of what our kids are listening to, watching, etc. He doesn’t suggest that should try to shield them from the media, but think through with them how they are being influenced by the media.

Mueller talked about the fact that, according to a Johnston Company survey, in 1960, adolescents were being influenced by family, school, friends/peers, and church (in descending order of influence). In 1980, the Johnston Company found that the top four influences (again in descending order) were friends/peers, family, media, and school. He noted that the advent of MTV in 1981 was a huge factor in terms of the media’s influence on teenagers.

Today, Mueller suggests that (based on his own research) the top four influences among teens are media, friends/peers, family, and school. In regard to media, Mueller said that a few years ago he would have said that most powerful media influence was music, but today he would say it is advertising.

Now… Here’s the best–and most eye-opening–story Mueller told:

He recently attended a marketing-related convention targeted for marketing executives. Mueller went as a researcher.

One of the seminars he attended was called something like, “Creating and Marketing a Pop Star.” The person who led the seminar introduced herself as the person who “single-handedly engineered the Britney Spears phenomenon” (as Mueller put it).

She said that what they discovered back in the 70’s was that a pop star marketed to teens had a shelf life of only a couple of years. For instance, girls who were in love with David Cassidy as 10-year-olds were incredibly embarrassed to have been a Cassidy fan by the time they were 13.

So here’s the solution they discovered. For the first two or three years, the pop star (think Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake) is marketed in such a way that parents love the star–cute, wholesome, pure. Moms are more than happy to take their daughters to concerts, buy them CDs, etc. But after a couple of years, the pop star is reinvented in such a way (and these are this woman’s exact words) “that it pisses the parents off.”

Now that Mom and Dad no longer think Britney Spears is a good influence on their daughter, daughter continues to think that Britney is really cool–because now she’s a bad girl!

This realization is obviously incredibly eye-opening. I will never look at a pop star gone bad the same way again. You know that something like this is going to happen with the latest batch of cute kid stars–JoJo, Jesse McCartney, etc. I’m actually kinda looking forward to seeing them turn “bad”–now that I know what’s going on.

Later on I ran into Walt Mueller in the men’s room (great place for casual conversation!) and asked if I could have permission to make copies of that seminar for parents. He said, “Of course! You don’t even need to ask about that.” So, I’m gonna try to get this seminar into the hands of parents in our church. I’ll also see if I can get an mp3 of just that section about Britney Spears and post it here. No promises, though…

The National Youthworkers Convention starts tomorrow here in Cincinnati. I’m pretty excited about it, especially the fact that I’m taking three of our youth leaders with me!

I’m such a big fan of training events like this. They’re great for 1) inspiration and 2) education. There’s nothing like being with thousands of other youth workers to get your arteries pumping! And there’s nothing like getting excellent training from youth ministry experts like Chap Clark, Doug Fields, Jim Burns, etc.

I’m especially looking forward to saying hi to Chap Clark, who was my youth ministry professor at Fuller. And he continues to be somewhat of a mentor to me–I try to get together with him for lunch or coffee whenever I’m back in California.

So I probably won’t get a chance to post again till next week, but I’ll let you know how it goes when I’m back.

I know, I know… I took way too long to write this post. But I’m not gonna waste any time with excuses, so I’ll just jump right in.

I wanted to share a couple of thoughts about my time in Belize (beyond what I’ve already shared). I learned a lot about the culture, economy, government, etc. out there, and it makes me really grateful for the country that I do live in.

A lot of times the U.S. gets a bad rap for being too capitalistic or materialistic or consumeristic or imperialistic or whatever. And sometimes there’s truth to that. But I have to admit, the U.S. is definitely the lesser of two evils. Or, compared to most of the world, I think it’s probably among the least of many evils.

I readily admit that what I learned was mostly from one local guy named Calvin, so there may or may not be some inaccuracies. But let’s start with the facts.

Calvin, who worked with us on painting a school in Caledonia and a community center in San Narciso, is a very educated man. He got a full scholarship to a university in Santa Fe, New Mexico (can’t remember which university) where he was able to earn his Associates degree. While there, he and other international students took trips to various cities throughout the U.S., allowing him to see much more of the U.S. than many Americans ever see. He then returned to Belize to be a high school teacher.

At the end of one of our work-days, we swung by Calvin’s house to pick up some mangos from his mango tree. His house was fairly nice by Belize standards–it had an indoor kitchen! But I have to admit that by U.S. standards, it very likely wouldn’t have passed inspection. As we left, it occurred to me that no matter how educated Calvin is, no matter how good he is at what he does, no matter how intelligent he is (and he is very intelligent), Calvin will never have a house like the one I live in. And mine is nothing spectacular by any stretch (heh… at least by U.S. standards).

It must be so frustrating for Calvin.

Some other things I discovered. All of our meals were prepared by one particular family in San Narciso. Howard Storm said that they were one of the wealthier families in the village. And that was obvious–their house was much nicer than most of the others. I asked Howard what “wealthy” meant in a village like San Narciso and he responded, “Less than $10,000 a year.” I was shocked.

That means that Calvin, who is not one of the wealthier people in his village, probably makes around five or six thousand a year.

It gets worse.

A lot of times people will say that the cost of living is much cheaper in developing countries. Not true.

A gallon of gas costs $6.00 ($12.00 in Belize currency). That’s about twice what we pay in the U.S.

A 3-liter bottle of generic cola costs $2.50 ($5.00 Belize). I only pay 59 cents for a 2-liter Kroger brand soda.

And why is soda so expensive. Because Coca-Cola holds a virtual monopoly in Belize. A couple years ago, Pepsi was forced to close its bottling plants, making Coca-Cola the only legal soda in Belize. Other sodas can be imported, but there are huge taxes on imports (which is another reason why the cost of living is so high in Belize–impose taxes, raise the price of imports for the end-consumers, generally the poor of Belize).

The funny thing is that generic colas are smuggled into Belize all the time. The 3-liter bottle of generic cola that some locals shared with us was considered contraband. Yup. That makes me a criminal in Belize. The funny (or sad, or maddening) thing is that Coca-Cola is putting huge pressure on the Belize government to stop the smuggling of contraband colas.

So, there you go. Life just isn’t fair for people in Belize. It is truly a country where the rich are filthy rich and the poor are dirt poor.

How do you fix something like that? I suppose the government could take steps to bring more prosperity to the people of Belize. But take one look at the roads in Belize (worst roads I’ve ever experienced) and it’s clear that the government really doesn’t give a rip about it’s people. If they did, they’d fix the potholes.

So, I’m not gonna complain about my paycheck anymore. I’m not gonna complain that my house is too small. I’m not gonna complain that I don’t have a home theater in my house. I’m just gonna be thankful for what I do have and do my part in helping make life a little better for those who don’t have as much.

And I’ll go back to Belize next year.

Woohoo!! I’m home!! I had a great time on our mission trip to Belize, but I gotta tell you… it’s so great to be home again. I missed Robin and Micah (my wife and son) so much during this trip. The last couple days were the hardest because I just wanted to hold my little boy again and give him a kiss. But it was all worth it when I arrived back home and when Micah saw me got all excited and ran to me! I almost started crying… sniff….

Anyway, the trip to Belize was great. We completed construction on a house for a family in the village of San Victor. We painted two classrooms and a snack shack at an elementary school in Caledonia. And we painted a Community Center and a church in San Narciso.

We got to be fairly immersed in the culture, which was really neat. All of our meals were provided by a local family–and, man, the food was good!! Yeah, it was hard work. And, yeah, it was hot and humid. And, yeah, we all got our share of mosquito bites (my feet are covered even as I write). And, yeah, the sleeping accommodations were by no means 5-star (or even 1-star for that matter…). But the food was always spectacular! I was hoping to lose a little weight on this trip. Sadly… I gained about three pounds! Yikes!!

We also had some time for recreation. We went scuba diving one day and I got to touch a nurse shark and a sting ray. Another day we visited Altun Ha, ruins of an ancient Mayan city, followed by a trip to the Belize Zoo.

But the coolest excursion was totally spur of the moment. One night after dinner, Howard Storm (who led our trip) said, “Hey, guys. You wanna go try to find crocodiles in the lagoon?” And of couse we all said, “Heck, yeah!”

So, off we went with a few locals to pick up their boats. One of the boats was a good size and held most of our group. The other boad was not designed to hold four large men. Unfortunately, I was in the smaller boat. The edge of the boat was only about 2 or 3 inches above the surface of the water. A couple of times, we actually let water into the side of the boat, and Shane (my high schooler) and I started freaking out!

It was pretty spooky out on that lagoon in the dark of night. There was a full moon, so we did have some natural light. But the water was perfectly still, adding to the eeriness of it.

At one point, something wet and slimy touched my hand! And I of course jumped, rocking the boat way more than it was meant to be rocked. Turns out a small fish actually jumped out of the water and into our boat, landing on my hand and then falling onto the bench in front of me.

The coolest thing is that we did end up finding a crocodile! We saw the eyes glowing as we shined our spotlights around and made our way toward the eyes. We found the croc submerged just below the surface, but we could see him perfectly with our spotlights. Fortunately, it wasn’t a huge one–only about four or five feet long from nose to tail. Not a baby croc–more like a teenager. We looked at it for a while, then one of the locals pushed it with his pole and off it swam into the lagoon.

Anyway, a very cool trip. I’ve got some other thoughts on the culture, economics, etc. of Belize and I’ll try to mention those somtime in the next couple days.

Too many trips in too short at time!! Sheesh! Tomorrow morning I take off again, this time to Belize. We’re doing a mission trip with an organization called Mission to Belize, led by Howard Storm. I’m really looking forward to this trip–not only to bless those we’ll be serving, but also to be blessed by them. I’m praying that this will be a time of significant spiritual growth for, not only the high schoolers and other leaders, but also for me!

I wish I had time to write a full-fledged review of Superman Returns, but, alas, no such luck. I will, however, say that I loved the movie. It was just a little bit too long–and it took about an hour before it felt like something was really happening (there was a lot of exposition during that first hour)–but, all in all, it was a great movie!

It’s clear to me now why Brandon Routh was cast as Superman. To me, he looks a little too young to be Superman (although, Entertainment Weekly says that he’s the same age Christopher Reeve was in the original Superman), but he acts and sounds almost exactly like Christopher Reeve! It’s actually really cool! You could practically close your eyes and imagine that it’s Christopher Reeve.

The opening was pretty cool, too. They used the same zooming blue text as the original movies for the opening credits.

The part that I really wish I had more time to write about is the theme of Superman as Christ-figure. He’s actually refered to as a “savior” several times. I think my favorite scene (at least, for the sake of theological thinking–and for use in a sermon!) is the one between Superman and Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) in the clouds. Superman takes Lois up into the clouds and mentions that she had written in her article called “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman” that people don’t need a savior. Then he asks her to listen and tell him what she hears (from a mile above the city!). She says she hears nothing. Superman then tells her something like this: “I hear everything. All I hear is people crying out for a savior.”

Wow!! That’ll preach! I can’t wait to get this on DVD and use it in a sermon!

After seeing the movie, I read the article about it in Entertainment Weekly (I didn’t want to expose myself to any potential spoilers before the movie). In the article, Bryan Singer (who directed) says that he wanted to explore the biblical themes in this movie. Pretty cool!

Just another example that God is at work in all kinds of ways and through all kinds of people–not merely through the church!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve been internetless (is that a word yet?) for the past two weeks–one in Hawaii for my brother-in-law’s wedding and one in Cleveland, Tennessee, for The Great Escape, our Middle School camp.

I’m home till next Wednesday morning, so hopefully I’ll be able to post something of substance. I’m hoping to see Superman Returns tomorrow night, so maybe that’ll give me someting to reflect on. If the movie is anything like the first teaser, I bet there’ll be plenty to talk about.

Woohoo!! My vacation has officially begun!!

Robin, Micah, and I fly to Los Angeles tomorrow morning where we’ll spend almost a week hanging out with Robin’s family, my family, and all kinds of friends. Next Thursday, we fly to Maui for Robin’s brother’s wedding where (believe it or not) I’ll be officiating! This is gonna be my first wedding! Then we’ll fly back to L.A. on the 23rd, and then back to Cincy on the 24th.

So, I’m really excited about my vacation. But here’s the weird thing about vacations: it seems like there’s so much to do before and after a vacation just so you can have the freedom to take some time off. Hence, I spent several hours in the office today trying to wrap up all my loose ends so that I could enjoy my vacation and not worry about any unfinished business.

One thing that I’m learning (partly through this whole vacation preparation thing) is to delegate. I’m convinced this is one of the keys to good leadership. My personal tendency is to just do something myself because I can do it better and more quickly rather than letting someone else do it, giving them the opportunity to learn and grow.

One of the things I had to do this week was delegate out almost all of the youth events for the summer. I’ve got “point people” for some of the events, but not all of them yet. But I really believe that for the youth leaders to grow, it’s gonna require my inability to do everything–and them discovering that they do have the ability to do some (or even all!) of this stuff.

That, of course, goes for all areas of ministry (or any leadership position, for that matter). A growing, healthy church must learn to share the responsibility for ministry.