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The Children’s Song I Don’t Sing
Today’s post may sound like I’m splitting hairs, but I hope it causes all of us to think. For one thing, we always need to be mindful of the words we sing. While we need to allow for poetic license and we also need to realize that some lyrics might mean something slightly different to one person than another, the words still mean something, so we need to be very careful about what we sing. For a long time now, there has been a children’s song–often sung at VBS or other gatherings with little children–that I simply do not sing. And I am not saying that it should just go…
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A Word on Awareness
I tell the following story not to toot my own horn but to demonstrate the power of the Gospel as it is working. Any minister worth their salt will tell you that the messenger doesn’t matter nearly as much as the message, and this story is no exception. Recently, I presented a lesson at West Side on the concept of awareness. The lesson came from 1 Samuel 3, the account of Samuel hearing the Lord calling to him in the night for the first time. There are several levels of awareness at play in that story – Samuel’s awareness of the voice and of whose voice it is, Eli’s awareness…
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Finally
If you are a regular reader of the thoughts I post on A Legacy of Faith, you may remember a recent post about a series of things I have experienced with my family for the last time. Due to the fact that our two youngest grandchildren have just completed their high school education, we went through what seemed to be a flurry of “last events” in a relatively short time. I am typing these words as another one of those types of events is winding down. At the time that I’m beginning this post, I am the only one up. Our two female Cousins’ Camp “counselors” (our daughter and daughter-in-law) are…
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Faces in the Crowd
The focus was on her. At least, our focus was on her. All the pictures, videos, and cheers were for her. At least, ours were for her. As I was looking back through the photos we took at Lyssa’s graduation, I couldn’t help but notice something. In the background of my glowing graduate’s pictures were the faces … of people not paying attention … at all. They weren’t even looking! You see, she wasn’t their graduate so they didn’t care. If I weren’t just as guilty during roughly 499 other names, as her mother, I might be offended. That is my child and she is important! What she is doing…
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The Most Difficult Thing about Being a Father
If you ask a number of dads what the most difficult thing about their role is, you’d like get several different answers. Some might say that being consistent in discipline is the hardest part. Maybe the most common answer–especially among dads with kids in high school or college–would be “letting go.” I don’t want to say my answer is “the” right answer, but I want to share what I have found to be the hardest part about being a dad for, now, almost 20 years. The most difficult thing for me has been knowing how woefully inadequate a picture of my kids’ heavenly Father I have been. When a child…
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Here We Go Again
Well, we made it. At long last, the reality that every youth minister simultaneously longs for and secretly dreads has manifested again. It’s summertime. If this is anything like the summers I have spent in youth ministry before, it’s going to be a long two and a half months. There will be a lot of early mornings and late nights. There will be a lot of hard conversations, some because they are very deep and challenging and some because they are about subjects that are difficult to discuss. There will be a lot of hard work that is both physically and mentally strenuous, on top of the hard work that…
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A Short Reminder for Father’s Day
I remember hearing or reading on one occasion that Father’s Day is just Like Mother’s Day except for the fact that fathers don’t get nearly as many presents as mothers. If that is true, maybe the title of this post should be “A Reminder that Sunday is Father’s Day.” Maybe that would have reminded/encouraged some people to buy something before next Sunday (if you are reading this when it is scheduled to be posted). Fathers come in various shapes, sizes, and colors. They speak different languages and dialects, live in a variety of places, and have varying backgrounds. Each has his own unique interests, talents, etc. They don’t all like…
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When the Goin’ Gets Tough
It’s that time of year for me. Vacation Bible School was this week and Cousin’s Camp begins this Saturday. The week before VBS, we spent celebrating our two youngest grandchildren as they graduated from High School and the birthday of our daughter. It has been a busy time around here and I seem to move more slowly everyday. I am prone to be a little grumpy when I have a lot to do, but I have no one to blame but myself. I’ve never been one to think ahead and prepare early for very many things. I call a time like what I’ve described as a time when the goin’…
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The Battle You’ll Never Win as a Faithful Church
I sometimes hear people talk about how to draw people. In fact, since Central has become laser focused on evangelism over the last couple of years, I am fairly tuned into hearing about that. Spoiler alert: what truly draws people is the Gospel. That said, I hear people regularly talk about how people need to come to worship where they are because the worship is exciting. “You’ll leave feeling great.” “Our singing is outstanding.” “The sound is fantastic.” There is nothing wrong with wanting our worship to be the best it can be. But the reason for that is vital. We should want worship to be the best we can…
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Salvation: Paul’s Lock and Key
Having grown up in the church, I’ve heard many, many scriptural arguments for the New Testament’s pattern of salvation over the years. Given that our main goal as a church is to reach the world with the Gospel of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20), it’s certainly a good sign that we have become familiar with many of the key passages in the New Testament that delineate God’s path of salvation. At the same time, I have also repeatedly heard the accusation lobbied against members of the church that our understanding of salvation according to the New Testament pattern is based on our holding to a few scattered “proof texts” that have been…
