Church Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

No Dancing

Posted on: 05/12/09 1:10 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Sigh. No matter how this one turns out… it won’t be pretty. Christians are going to be dragged through the mud once again. It’s the age ol’ story:

Kid goes to strict Christian school that doesn’t allow dancing.

Kid signs contract agreeing he won’t dance.

Kid gets asked to prom at other school.

Kid asks principal if he can go.

Principal basically tells him, “If you don’t want to graduate.”

Kid goes to prom anyway (years of TV have taught him well).

School says, “Your suspended, you can’t take finals, and you can’t graduate.”

Kid shows up on CBS News whining about school, announcing he is going to sue the school.

There it is. Here’s the video:

Who’s wrong here? (how’s that for a discussion starter with your kids?)

The Christian school is definitely going to take a beating by the press with this one (the comments below the CBS video are hilarious. Wow. They remind me of the comments from 12-year-olds to my recent blog about ‘Twilight’)

Stupid rules aside… it’s sad… people’s word (even contracts) just doesn’t mean much to anyone any more.

That’s right. Even though I think this school might have some rules that are way more strict than I would have… the kid agreed to a contract. Don’t sign up for something if you don’t plan on sticking with it.

(ht to David R. Smith for the link)

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Angels and Demons

Posted on: 05/11/09 10:07 AM | by Jonathan McKee

This Friday Angels and Demons hits the theatres, another film based on Dan Brown’s bestselling novel of the same title. I saw a screening of the film last week… not much to talk about.

A few years ago Brown created a storm of controversy with The Da Vinci Code (some of you might remember my interview with Josh McDowell on the subject). Angels and Demons won’t bring more than a drizzle.

Angels and Demons features Tom Hanks once again as the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (the same guy we saw in The Da Vinci Code. In this movie, the Vatican asks for Langdon’s help after four cardinals are kidnapped by a secret brotherhood called the Illuminati, threatening to kill one an hour, sending Langdon on a wild goose… er… cardinal chase around Rome.

The film actually wasn’t as boring as The Da Vinci Code. The action was decent and the performances were top notch (Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard… how could you go wrong?). Unfortunately, the story was juvenile and predictable. It was a wanna-be National Treasure, with a religious twist.

I brought my friend Eric to the screening with me and he probably got tired of me leaning over and telling him what would happen in the next scene. Yeah… the film was that predictable. Its big surprises were not surprises at all.

This film won’t be as offensive to Christians, or more specifically, the Catholic church as its predecessor. Yes, it reeked of conspiracy theory, but the writer seemed to seek out some sort of “political correctness” this time around with a message that “faith” and “science” can coincide. Even though the film began with anti-religious tones, the church seemed to redeem itself near the end. One of the cardinals concluded, “Religion is flawed only because man is flawed.” Nothing wrong with that statement.

The Vatican doesn’t seem to find this film a threat. A Vatican editorial referred to it as commercial and inaccurate, but “harmless.” I chuckled at this statement from that same AP article:

The movie was “a gigantic and smart commercial operation” filled with “stereotyped characters.” The paper suggested moviegoers could make a game out of finding the many historical inaccuracies in the plot.

That sounds about right.

Don’t rush to the theatre for this one, but come DVD release, It’s probably worth a rent if nothing else is available.

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A Sunday School Teacher

Posted on: 04/13/09 9:18 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It seems that the words “pastor,” “priest” or “Sunday school teacher” used to bring good thoughts to mind. Unfortunately, it seems that the headlines of late are filled with bad examples of people that hold these titles.

Many of you have probably followed the story of the 8-year-old girl that disappeared on March 27th, only to be found last week in a piece of luggage pulled from an irrigation pond near her home in Tracy, CA… about an hour from my house. Sad story. Keep the family of this little girl in your prayers.

Last Saturday I woke up to reports from my local news announcing that her Sunday school teacher was just arrested in the slaying of the 8-year-old. The next morning, newspapers were filled with headlines like this article : Sunday School Teacher Arrested In Cantu’s Death.

Two thoughts about these headlines:

1. Regardless of how this turns out, the church’s reputation is being dragged through the mud once again. Thanks to a small percentage of weirdos, It’s getting more and more difficult to place positive adult role models in the lives of kids because of incidents like these. If a female Sunday School teacher- also a mom– isn’t safe… who is? (I touched on this before is this blog)

2. The church needs to be better about screening volunteers. It’s sad, but we sometimes get either too lazy or too desperate for help to go through the proper steps of recruiting and screening volunteers. I go through these steps in great detail in my book THE NEW BREED, a book about Recruiting, Training, Managing and Occasionally Even Firing Today’s Volunteers.

My dad, who co-authored that volunteer book with me, recently pastored a church where they needed to implement some policies and procedures to screen volunteers. They all used GROUP’s Church Volunteer Central – an online package for background checks, etc. I highly recommend using something like this to screen our volunteers.

I just started coaching track as a volunteer for my daughter’s middle school. I had to get fingerprinted, a background check, the whole deal. As churches, we need to provide the same sort of care and professionalism with our volunteers.

Posted in Church, News, Youth Ministry Philosophy | | Leave A Comment

Missions Trips

Posted on: 03/31/09 1:00 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Spring break varies in date around the country. For most of us out here in California it’s the week before Easter (once called “Easter Break”… in the great days of old).

For many of us in youth ministry, Spring Break means missions trips, a growing trend. My three kids are all going to missions trips around Spring Break this year.

My 11 year old, Ashley, went on her missions trip last Saturday. All the 6th graders went to downtown Sacramento where they served food to homeless people at the Sacramento food bank. Ashley said that the homeless people were very polite and said nice things like, “Your smile brightens up my day.” She saw a guy wearing a “Chelsea” shirt and ended up talking soccer with him for quite a long time. (How many 11-year-old Americans do you know that can name a bunch of Chelsea’s starting players?) 🙂

From there they went to the grocery store. They were divided into groups of three kids and were given 15 dollars to try to buy food for four: the three in the group and one other person. They then set out to find a person to give the third meal to.

They finished the day by walking around the city and praying for Sacramento. It was a great experience for Ashley.

My 13-year-old, Alyssa, leaves for her trip this Thursday. Alyssa will be going to downtown San Francisco where they’ll be helping out the homeless, serving food and washing feet. Yes, washing feet! The 7th and 8th graders serve all weekend. This is an amazing experience for them.

My 15-year-old son, Alec, leaves Sunday for his trip, a weeklong trip down in Downtown Los Angeles and Watts. They will be serving the homeless, loving people on the streets and initiating conversations with many people they encounter.

I’ve been so impressed with these missions trips that I actually interviewed the guy behind the whole thing. Last year we recorded this as a podcast, Episode #16 on our Podcast Page. I encourage you to give it a listen.

Prayer warriors: pray for my kids and the others that will be on missions trips this next week!

Posted in Church, Personal | | Leave A Comment

Diversity in Ministry

Posted on: 03/25/09 11:24 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Many of you have seen our FOUR MINUTE videos, bringing you a four minute glimpse of various aspects of ministry. Our most recent video was launched last Sunday, a video from my good buddy Fred Lynch.

Fred is well known in urban youth ministry settings with almost 20 years of youth ministry experience. He is the founder of Urbnet, a National Network of Urban Youth Workers. Fred is also the editor of our SLANG DICTIONARY and co author of our hit e-book, What’s a Fo’ Sheezy, a book with over 300 questions from “slanguage” to get teenagers talking.

In this quick little video, Fred addressed the need for the Church to become a safe haven where diverse groups can become connected.

(If you receive this blog via email, click here for that YouTube video.)

You can see past FOUR MINUTE videos here.

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America Becoming Less Christian

Posted on: 03/10/09 10:03 AM | by Jonathan McKee

America is becoming less “Christian” according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Really? I would have never guessed. (sarcasm implied)

75% of Americans call themselves Christian, according to the survey, where in 1990, the figure was 86%. (CNN, March 3, 2009)

I’ve been looking at these stats for years, and they always seemed to land around 80%. Newsweek did a survey a few years ago and 81% of believers called themselves Christian. About 5 years ago I posted an article on our website about reaching out to the “unchurched” and quoted a stat from 1999 when 82% said they were Christian. But as I stated in that article, many of these proclaimed Christians have no idea what this word means. It seems to mean a lot more about the religion that was handed down to them, rather than being a follower of Christ and his beliefs.

I found it fascinating that the CNN article sited a difference between “evangelicals” and others:

The survey also found that “born-again” or “evangelical” Christianity is on the rise, while the percentage who belong to “mainline” congregations such as the Episcopal or Lutheran churches has fallen.

One in three Americans consider themselves evangelical, and the number of people associated with mega-churches has skyrocketed from less than 200,000 in 1990 to more than 8 million in the latest survey.

The article goes on to note an increasing divide between evangelicals and those turning away from “religion” as a whole. fascinating stuff. I encourage you to read it.

It’s interesting to watch religious (and anti-religious) trends. Last year I blogged about Americans treating religion like a salad bar where they take what they want, and leave what doesn’t match their lifestyle.

This is the time of “what’s in it for me?” This mindset creates a huge divide between true followers of Christ and the rest of the world. Christ’s actual followers believe in love, harmony and self sacrifice, where the world believes in lust, “my rights,” and self preservation.

This divide is not a rebellious divide where Christians make a bunch of noise. It’s a divide where people will see hope in the lives of Christ’s followers and notice something different. These Christians will be ready to answer when people ask about the hope that they have (I Peter 3:15-18)

If the people of Christ continue to grow, then the divide will only become larger.

Hmmmmm.

(ht to KJ)

Posted in Church, Evangelism, Faith, News | | Leave A Comment

More Loyal to Toothpaste Brand Than Church?

Posted on: 02/18/09 3:22 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Another example of “what the world thinks of us.”

USA Today puts it like this:

Some Americans are more loyal to their toothpaste or toilet paper than to their religious denomination, making those consumers more choosy about Charmin or Colgate than they are about church, according to a new survey.

According to a Phoenix-based research firm, 16% of Protestants say they would consider only one denomination, while 22% of them would use only one brand of toothpaste and 19% would use just one brand of bathroom tissue.

Sigh. I don’t think I’ll even comment.

(ht to Jamie L.)

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When Paparazzi Catch Miley… Going to Church?

Posted on: 09/23/08 9:23 AM | by Jonathan McKee

It’s amazing how many emails I get asking about Miiley as a role model for our young girls today. Yes, Miley’s been in and out of the news for good and bad. But you gotta love it when a celeb’s top news is, “Miley & Underwear Model Go to Church.”

Miley’s been getting all kind of flack lately for dating some 20-year-old guy (personally, I think that’s an issue to take up with her parents, not her). But hey… at least she took the guy to church. 🙂

I love this pic from msn.com’s gossip page!

This is also a pretty good representation of the “Gen Y” church apparel.

(thanks to Jamie Locklin for the forward)

Posted in Church, Music, News, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Overnighter

Posted on: 08/20/08 3:30 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… maybe some of you have all ready seen this video (someone told me they played it at GROUP’s NYMC). I hadn’t seen it yet…

This is classic, especially for anyone who’s ever done a youth ministry all night event. (I usually don’t watch entire videos when someone sends them to me. Someone sent this today in one of my blog comments. Funny stuff all the way through. I was laughing pretty hard at the two minute mark… the pastor’s van.) 🙂

Posted in Church, Humor, Music, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment

30 Day Sex Challenge

Posted on: 08/12/08 10:07 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Okay… this got my attention, a sermon series titled “The 30 Day Sex Challenge.” RelevantChurch.com, a Tampa area church, has the reputation of being… well… relevant. In this recent sermon series they gave a challenge: Married couples commit to having sex for 30 days, singles commit to abstinence for 30 days.

Pretty cool.

I called David Smith (David is our THE SOURCE speaker and writer who edits our games and event ideas, manages content, and authors the Youth Culture Window article most weeks) yesterday (he’s from Tampa) and asked him if he had heard of the church and the challenge. His response: “Yeah, I meant to bring my wife there that month!” 🙂

David emailed me a little more about this church. I thought you all would find it interesting:

“Relevant Church meets in The Italian Club in Ybor City (pronounced Eebor). Pastor Paul Wirth and a small staff lead the church of about 200 people, comprised mostly of 18-30 year olds. The very name of their church describes the way they operate, with relevance. They use rock music during times of worship, rely on a heavy use of videos in service, and place an emphasis on preaching towards needs. It truly is a place “Where Culture Meets Christ.”

They have all but mastered publicity. With most of their sermon series, they typically launch a new website. (Check out www.showyourmarks.com, their MySpace profile, or their Facebook page.) Almost every student at USF has seen their cool and catchy signs posted around campus. Their latest “sermon series” involved the whole church going to the movie theater together each Friday night to watch a film…so they could discuss its possible relevance to their faith lives on Sunday morning. (They watched The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, X-Files, Hancock, Wall*E, Kung Fu Panda, and The Dark Knight.)

Though they have two services meeting each Sunday, they are not afraid to mix things up on the weekends. Within the last month, they took advantage of the summer season, and moved their entire worship service over to the beach. There they taught on baptism and joined 15 people to the church through baptism.

Without a doubt, the church is most famous (or infamous) for their sermon series “The 30 Day Sex Challenge.” It received ample coverage by the local newspapers, radio stations, and TV news teams. Even though their book by the same title has yet to come out, a majority of people (and churches) in the Tampa Bay area have forged an opinion on Relevant Church and its message.”

Hmmmmmm.

Posted in Church, Sexuality, Youth Ministry Planning | | Leave A Comment