Faith Archives - Page 7 of 12 - Jonathan's Blog From The Source

Gaining Trust, Connecting, Sharing…

Posted on: 05/5/11 3:10 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Yesterday I shared with you a snippet or two from an interview I did where I was asked about everything from “taking care of visitors to our youth group” to “spiritual growth in today’s teenagers.”

You can catch my responses to those questions in yesterday’s blog, PART I.

Here’s the remainder of my answers during that interview. PART II:

Michael – OK
-What are some of the best ways to gain the trust of new unchurched students?

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
Go beyond shaking hands and exchanging names. Actually take an interest in them. Sit with them. Invite them to join us in our small group. “We’re going to coffee afterwards- come with us.” “Text me- I’ll text you this week.”

I could go on, but honestly, my entire book CONNECT is devoted to helping us learn how to do this.

Jason – Dallas
– In your book “Connect” you talk a lot about getting to know kids on a one-on-one basis. Do you believe its possible to become so connected with students that they see you more as a peer and you lose your influence in their lives

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
I think parents struggle with this as well. “If I spend too much time being their buddy, will I not be seen as their parent?”

I wonder if Christ was accused of that when he descended to earth to become human.

There’s no danger in humbling yourself to be relational- to listen, to laugh, to play. The only danger would be if you lower your standards and try to be something you’re not, or allow yourself to do something inappropriate in effort to “be accepted.” This is a twisting of a good thing. There’s never anything wrong with a coach, a parent, a teacher, or a youth worker spending time listening to a kid share their heart, throwing a Frisbee, cheering together at a football game, laughing through a comedy. I bet more kids wish their dads would be there to do these activities. These activities actually earn trust and help the kid respect dad, or coach, or pastor Jason when he has to put the foot down and say, “Sorry, but you’re not going to do that.”

Ashley – WI
-How can we equip and train our youth to witness and share the gospel with nonbelievers in their everyday lives?

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
I think the reason most kids don’t share their faith is because they have nothing to share.

If we allow God to fill our cup, he’ll overflow it so much that it will spill everywhere and get everyone around us smelling like coffee.

My friend Kierra is so in love with God. She’s not an evangelist by any means. She’s just in love with God. Everywhere she go, she literally “reeks” God. She can’t help but talk about him. She went into a computer store to get her Dell fixed… as you need to do with any PC. A Muslim guy worked the counter. After talking with Kierra for just two minutes, he couldn’t help but say, “You’re really religious, yes?” It’s not because she wore cross ear rings or a shirt that said, “Kiss me, I’m Christian.” It’s because she couldn’t even turn in her computer without talking about how much she prayed that it would be fixable and how much she needed it for ministry, etc.

Next thing she knows, she’s in a conversation about God.

Everybody worships something. Think about it. What do you worship? Movies? Cars? Yourself?

We’ve all met people who worship their cars. All they can talk about is cars. You can’t have a conversation with this person without it touching the subject of automobiles.

Some people are hung up with their own sexuality. They can’t finish a sentence without talking about who they are sexually.

Kierra was that way with God. And guess what… she ended up talking with people about God.

We need to introduce people into a loving God, let them experience who he is so that God’s hope will be overflowing out of them. It’s only then that verses like I Peter 3:15-18 make sense when

1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
So many people miss that in the verse. They concentrate on the “always be prepared” and they miss the golden nugget of how the conversation will start in the first place. “ask you to give a a reason for the hope that you have…”

Why would someone ask you to give a reason for the hope that you have???

Because they see it!

Now that they see it… now talk!

Oh… and as for the question, how can we train and equip… that’s how. Get them to “reek” hope! But yes.. then when someone asks them, “What’s different about you?” “What’s that hope?” then we need to be ready to answer. So read a book like my DO THEY RUN WHEN THEY SEE YOU COMING? Which is all about sharing our faith with “unchurched” people. Or Greg Stier’s “DARE TO SHARE” book. Great ways to articulate your faith.

If you enjoyed this, you can listen to the entire podcast here on the Students and Culture website.

Posted in Faith, Speaking/Training, Youth Ministry Philosophy | | Leave A Comment

Students and Culture Interview

Posted on: 05/4/11 10:19 AM | by Jonathan McKee

I was interviewed recently on the Students and Culture podcast… some of you might have wanted an opportunity to peek in on that interview. For those that don’t have the time to listen to it, I’ve provided some of the highlights of it transcripted below.

Fun conversation. I start by giving a brief (60 second) history of THE SOURCE FOR YOUTH MINISTRY and how it came to be (by accident, actually). Then we chatted about churches reaching beyond their church walls… then I answered the following questions:

– What is the best thing student groups can do to have return visitors?

– If you only had one lesson left to teach a group of students, what would you teach and why?

– What are some of the best ways to gain the trust of new unchurched students?

– In your book “Connect” you talk a lot about getting to know kids on a one-on-one basis. Do you believe it’s possible to become so connected with students that they see you more as a peer and you lose your influence in their lives?

– How can we equip and train our youth to witness and share the gospel with nonbelievers in their everyday lives?

You can listen to the podcast here on the Students and Culture website, or if you would prefer to just read the highlights, here’s a snippet of what I answered to those questions:

Jason – OK asked:
-What is the best thing student groups can do to have return visitors?

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
First- this question assumes that people are actually visiting! An aside… I think we need to be proactive to think of outreach as reaching more than those who actually DO show up. But yes, let’s definitely try to KEEP the ones that actually DO show up.

Last year a church brought me in to train their student leaders, but I first got an opportunity to attend their morning youth service. The first thing I did was simply sit in the back of the room and observe. I especially paid attention to “the door.” I tell youth workers this all the time. If you ever get a chance to just take a week where you can just sit in the back and watch the door– you’ll learn a lot. It’s fun to watch kids come in and look around. You can almost see what they’re thinking. “Where do I go? Are any of my friends here?” Sometimes, after a moments hesitation, you’ll actually see kids turn around a leave.”

What are we doing to make people think, “I belong!” I’m welcome here. I’m safe.

In my new book MINISTRY BY TEENAGERS, David gives an example of a youth ministry that decided to be proactive about making new kids feel like they belong. They did this with colored name tags, of all thing… our book is full of ideas to do just that.

Noah – KY
– If you only had one lesson left to teach a group of students, what would you teach and why?

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
It depends on the students I’m talking to. I know that might sound like a copout answer, but I just need to at least know who I’m talking to. For example, am I speaking to a bunch of unchurched kids on campus? Or am I speaking at a Christian camp?

ON CAMPUS- I think I’d give them a talk that basically address the feeling we all get when we’ve tried to find fulfillment in all the temporary thrills of life, and when they don’t work, we finally proclaim, “There’s gotta be more than this!!” Basically, I speak to them about the unfulfilling temporary vs. the permanent love of God that comes through knowing Jesus Christ in a personal relationship.That passage so accurately describes the lies of this world, “lies that sound like the truth.”

AT A CAMP- I’d probably talk about the importance of letting God sit in the driver’s seat of our life- and what that actually looks like. I’m speaking in layman’s terms here. This is actually a lesson on how we need to give the Holy Spirit control. How the fruits of the spirit are not things we are to “TRY” to do, but qualities that flow from us when we let the Spirit in our life- when we “let God drive.” When we let him control the radio… you get the idea.

Noah – KY asked a second question:
– What do you see as the biggest deterrent to spiritual growth in today’s teens?

JONATHAN’S ANSWER:
We allow ourselves to be distracted by the world’s lies. In Ephesians, Paul talks about what it will be like when we mature in Christ. He says…

Ephesians 4:14-15 (NLT)
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church

We get comfy like David (II Samuel 11) did when he decided to give in to laziness- sleep in while his men were fighting. Give into lust- and turn on late night cable tv- women bathing- great view from the rooftops. Feed those desires- invite her over. Give into adultery. Sleep with her. Give into deception- plan a coverup where it looks like Uriah got her pregnant. And finally… commit murder.

I’ll post the rest of it in my next blog.

You can listen to the entire interview here.

Posted in Discussion Ideas, Faith, Speaking/Training, Youth Ministry Philosophy | | Leave A Comment

David’s Debate Results

Posted on: 04/8/11 9:49 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Well, David has finished his pornography debate at the University of South Florida. Late last night, he emailed me to let me know of his immense gratitude for the prayers from The Source’s users. He also gave me some details about how the debate panned out. I’ll let him describe it to you in his own words.

Jonathan,

The porn debate is over, and I’ve got great news!

But first, thanks again for all the prayers. I received emails, text messages, and Facebook comments from all over the country thanks to your previous blog about the porn debate. I cannot describe to you the incredible amount of support I sensed from knowing people all over the country were praying specifically for me during a specific timeframe. Leaders from churches I’ve trained at or spoken at over the years – who are also users of The Source – were also chiming in with Bible verses and prayers. In short, incredible! I jokingly told our student body I wanted to face another tough task this coming week just so I’d have this much prayerful support.

And now, time for some good news. To begin with, we had a record-setting attendance. Close to 200 college students poured out to hear the debate…and eat free 5 Guys Burgers and fries. Our facility had students jammed into every corner, with standing room only, as well as a lobby (used as spill over space) crammed full of bodies. Great crowd!

More importantly, that crowd allowed each of the three panelists the opportunity to share their perspective on “the effects of pornography.” (Yes, that’s right; three. At the last minute, a third panelist, the General Manager of The Todd Couples Superstore, a local adult retail store, joined our discussion.)

Because I come from a generation that actually kept score, we passed out tally sheets at the end of the night to gauge where students were at, what they thought, what they learned, and how the debate had impacted them. We asked 4 simple questions that allowed students to describe (1) what they thought about porn BEFORE coming to the debate, (2) what they thought about porn LEAVING the debate, (3) what they were going to do about porn AS A RESULT of the debate, and (4) who WON the debate.

I’m quite pleased – and very humbled – to say that I won the debate. Scratch that; God’s truth won the debate! Without even letting our regular students participate in the tally, our position was found to be “the most compelling” by 52% of the students in attendance. The second place position secured 28% of the crowd’s support, and the third place position garnered 20% of the students’ support.

Even more exciting, we’ve got score cards essentially saying, “You guys have helped me understand I cannot live with the effects of porn any longer. I want help.” Because of this ministry event, we now stand poised to help dozens of young men and women who silently struggle with this serious issue. Praise God!

But, it gets even better! Several of our board members – myself included – strongly believe the young man who participated in the debate (from the adult retail store) is open to further discussion about the effects of the products he sells at his store. I have lunch planned with him next week. Our board is already praying about that conversation over BBQ.

Please join our leadership in praying for Shayne. He was raised in a Catholic household and knows the truth…even though he doesn’t live it. Pray the Gospel is clearly communicated to him through me. Pray that he receives Christ as his Savior…and Lord. Finally, pray that his lifestyle mirrors his newfound faith.

Thanks so much for all you’ve done, and for all you’ll do. You’re an incredible blessing to me.

Like David, I want to take a moment to thank you for praying. He and I travel all over the country and we speak on behalf of God’s truth several times each month. It’s great knowing that you are praying for us. In this blog, I just wanted to update you guys about the effects of your prayers: they worked because God is good, all the time.

Posted in Faith, Personal, Prayer | | Leave A Comment

David vs the Strip Club Owner

Posted on: 04/6/11 5:37 PM | by Jonathan McKee

David R Smith, the guy who writes well over half of our Youth Culture Window articles, was talking to me on the phone earlier this week about an upcoming debate he has at his college ministry on the campus of The University of South Florida. He told me that he was hosting a debate on pornography at his ministry facility with Joe Redner, owner and operator of the Mons Venus, a world-renowned strip club in Tampa, FL.

The debate is going to center on the effects of pornography; are there any, and if so, are they good or bad?

David has told me he’s taken a huge leap of faith in this arena. Redner has made millions of dollars through adult entertainment, and has spoken at hundreds of venues like the one Thursday night, espousing his views on pornography. Simply googling the name “Joe Redner” reveals tons of information about the guy; he’s also on Wikipedia. In short, this guy is a giant in the adult entertainment business.

David wisely met him for lunch earlier this week; at that meeting, Redner made many disparaging remarks about the idea of God, verbally embraced atheism, and promised David he’d embarrass him in front of the campus body.

Hmmm…sounds like another story involving a giant who hated God and a guy named David….

I’m using today’s blog to ask you to pray for David. He’s going to have audience with an incredible amount of college students Thursday night, and he’d greatly appreciate your prayerful support. Who knows what could come out of this night. Clearly, David has the truth. Let’s ask God to give him the words, the insight, and the clarity to communicate those truths to college students in South Florida.

The debate starts live at 8:15pm EST, Thursday night (for those in the Tampa area who would like to attend, it’s at the Crosswinds ministry building on 50th Street next to the new athletic fields). David has told me there’s a tech team in place to film the entire event so we can make it available to our blog and Ezine users at a later date. In addition to determining a winner and loser, college students will also be given a chance to state whether their belief AND USE of porn will shift as a result of this conversation. We’ll share that with you as soon as we can.

Thanks for your help in this. David has already expressed his gratitude to me on behalf of your prayers for him.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Faith, Personal, Prayer | | Leave A Comment

Not Soft on Hell… Nor Excited about It

Posted on: 03/8/11 12:25 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Why is it that when it comes to the subject of Hell, some people seem to either bring it up too much, while others want to suppress the truth of the matter?

A lotta hype about Hell in Christian circles lately, much of it is because speaker/author/pastor Rob Bell seems to be coming out with some pretty radical conclusions about Hell. This New York Times article provides just a glimpse at the controversy.

My response?

I’ve been watching some people throw some pretty big rocks at each other over this one. So I’m going to try to speak candidly, but without criticism. Seriously… I’m going to try!

And rather than just sharing my take on this, I emailed a couple friends and asked for their two cents because I really respect their opinions. So I’m going to chime in with my two cents, but I’m also going to share what Dan Kimball and David R. Smith shared with me. Then I’m going link some resources for your reference.

My two cents: We need more compassion, and a theology that is unchanged by emotions.

MORE COMPASSION:
Rob has always had a heart for the lost– a very admirable and Christ-like quality. If you’ve ever met someone with a heart for the lost, you might also notice, they grow very frustrated with people who are abrasive to the lost. It comes with the package. Rob reveals this frustration (not a bad thing at all, in my opinion) in his new video about his upcoming book Love Wins, telling the story of an incident at an art show at his church. One of the pieces at this show had a Gandhi quote and someone felt the need to post a note to that quote, writing, “Reality check. He’s in Hell.”

It’s really sad when God’s people forget about love.

Yesterday I was interacting with a few people on our Facebook page about this whole controversy. I commented to someone. People with good theology need to remember that even “good theology” is still just a clanging cymbal without love (I Corinthians 13).

So I praise Bell’s compassion for sinners. That being said, I hope that Rob also doesn’t put on emotionally-distorted reading glasses when reading the truth of God’s Word. As believers, we need to cling to the truth. We need…

A THEOLOGY UNCHANGED BY EMOTIONS
Let me start by going on the record. I wish I could go soft on Hell. The concept of eternal separation from God is an uncomfortable reality. I wish I could believe it wasn’t true. I really do.

But truth wins.

In Rob’s video he says the following:

“Will only a few select people make it to heaven? And will billions and billions of people burn forever in Hell?”

He goes on to say,

“Millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the Gospel of Jesus is that God is going to send you to Hell unless you believe in Jesus. And so what gets subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that that we would need to be rescued from this God. How could that God be good. How can that God be trusted. And how can that ever be good news. This is why lots of people want nothing to do with the Christian faith. They see it as a endless list of absurdities and inconsistencies.”

He concludes his thoughts with a nice pitch for his new book.

“The good news is actually better than that, better than we could ever imagine. The good news is that love wins.”

We don’t know exactly how this is going to play out in his book, Love Wins, because it isn’t released yet. (Mental Note: This is a pretty dang good way to sell books. Raise a controversy that requires even your critics to have to buy your book just to try to prove you wrong.) That’s why I’m not going to go on the record and criticize his theology, because I haven’t read his book yet. But in his sermons and videos, I have to say, Rob is definitely treading on some dangerous ground here. His video alone seems to convey that mere “belief in Jesus” isn’t good news. After all, this is an uncomfortable fact to unbelievers.

Hmmmm. It seems to me that after Jesus laid out the “uncomfortable” truth to the crowds in John 6, a bunch of people didn’t want anything to do with him then either.

I’m not going to say anymore yet… because who knows where his book is going.

My friend, author/speaker, Dan Kimball, can’t comment on the book either, because he hasn’t read it. But Dan has wrestled with the topic of hell and other difficult subjects and says this: (giving me permission to share with you all)

I would love to be a Jesus-died-for-all-universalist. I would love to be an annihilist. I would love to be pro-gay theologically. But from the immense amount of reading, studying the Scriptures, praying, and reading different viewpoints. From looking at church history from the beginning and various beliefs and the culture they developed in…..and looking at contemporary doctrinal beliefs and their history…and personally having talked to scholars over the years that I respect about these very issues like NT Wright, Scot McKnight, Roger Olson, John Walton and the late Stan Grenz…… I find I personally cannot believe those things, although my emotions surely would like to. And it fits so well in culture today. It would be easier being in ministry in our culture today, holding those views for sure. But I cannot compromise what I am convicted that the Scriptures do teach about these things. But how we then teach about them, speak about them etc. is of great, great importance. I think many (especially younger people who don’t have a breadth of knowing church history and patterns of the past) are turned away from these doctrines often not even by the doctrine itself as much as how Christian leaders have taught about them and their attitudes towards others who believe differently.

David R. Smith chimed in as well.

It’s hard to know where Rob Bell will go with this. The videos certainly hint toward a universalist belief, and if they don’t go there, then the publicity certainly was misleading, which says something in itself.

If Rob Bell’s “new treatise” on hell claims a universalist mindset, then it is not new at all. In fact, it’s an issue that thousands of biblical scholars have wrestled with over hundreds of years. Universalists aim to make Christianity more appealing and/or convenient (whether they admit that or not). But if one were to strip the Bible of hell, he actually makes the Christian message far less appealing. That might sound strange, but consider these ramifications if there is no hell.

God is a liar. Jesus talked about hell far too often for it to not exist. It was in His warnings, amongst His parables, and even a part of His Revelation. There was no doubt in His mind that hell existed; He created it! So to concede hell is to concede a truth-telling God. Thus, I won’t concede either one.

God is a sissy. Everyone who’s ever experienced life on Earth has seen injustice, oppression, evil, sin, and wickedness. In many places around the globe, these dark forces run rampant and unchecked. But God, the ultimate Judge, has decided there will be justice and recompense for those who have suffered at the hands of unrepentant sinners. If God will not judge nations and individuals (as the Bible says He will), He’s nothing more than a cosmic wimp who needs to apologize to 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and millions more killed in tyrannies around the world. Again, this is a concession that is too expensive to make.

Ultimately, the reality of hell ties into God’s nature. Rob Bells sees this truth, too, and if his book goes soft on hell (we’ll see soon), then he just misinterprets its impact on God’s character. Regardless of what Bell says, I will continue to believe in a God who tells the truth and will one day judge perfectly and righteously.

I promised you some resources about Hell. Here’re two:

1. Dan Kimball, not only a friend, but a man who’s faith and knowledge of scripture I really respect, wrote an amazing article in Outreach Magazine last year, Teaching the Truth About Hell. This is a great resource to refer to.

2. You can listen to Dan and I talk about hell in our podcast last year, The Podcast from Hell.

Your thoughts?

Posted in Discussion Ideas, Evangelism, Faith, Personal | | Leave A Comment

Fox Rejects John 3:16 Ad

Posted on: 02/4/11 9:19 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Wow… that’s too bad.

Fox just rejected a Super Bowl commercial that shows a guy looking up the meaning of John 3:16– good commercial by the way. Check it out:

(If you don’t see the embedded video, jump on my blog to see it)

Hmmmmm. How do you feel about this?

According to the Hollywood reporter, the network rejected the spot because it advanced specific beliefs. I guess there are several ways to look at this. First- we might think that’s really unfair. But on the other hand… how would you feel if there were commercials for Buddhism or Hinduism? (Funny side note: I had to ask my son Alec how to spell Buddhism. He spelled it right the first time. I asked him, “How did you know that?” He said, “Well, after seeing that in our school textbooks a million times, I know how to spell Buddhism, Islam, Hindu, etc… but I’ve forgotten how to spell Christianity!” LOL)

(ht to Todd Pearage)

Posted in Discussion Ideas, Entertainment Media, Faith, TV | | Leave A Comment

Gaga Releases “Born This Way” Lyrics

Posted on: 01/28/11 11:33 AM | by Jonathan McKee

Lady Gaga’s Twitter fans received a tweet from her yesterday saying, “Maybe I should leak the lyrics to Born This Way today…” A few hours later, she released the lyrics to her song that will release February 13th.

MTV just covered the tweeting event, with the headline, “Gaga sings about love and equality…”

For those of you who haven’t heard, Gaga has become a huge advocate for LGBT (an acronym referring collectively to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people), specifically speaking against the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell,” and speaking loudly for LGBT rights, after all, she claims, they are “born this way.”

A glimpse at these newly posted lyrics:

DON’T BE A DRAG -JUST BE A QUEEN…

IN THE RELIGION OF THE INSECURE
I MUST BE MYSELF, RESPECT MY YOUTH

A DIFFERENT LOVER IS NOT A SIN
BELIEVE CAPITAL H-I-M (HEY HEY HEY)
I LOVE MY LIFE I LOVE THIS RECORD AND
MI AMORE VOLE FE YAH (LOVE NEEDS FAITH)

CHORUS:
I’M BEAUTIFUL IN MY WAY
‘CAUSE GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES
I’M ON THE RIGHT TRACK BABY
I WAS BORN THIS WAY

David R. Smith– my good friend, co-author of my new book, and author of many of our Youth Culture WIndow articles (including the brand new expose’ about Lil Wayne launching this weekend) — and I talked this morning for about an hour about Gaga’s release of these lyrics and upcoming song. We discussed the ramifications of speaking out about this issue. It’s an emotional issue for some, a political issue for many.

We’ve decided that we’re going to address the issue of homosexuality, despite the criticism that might come. Pray for us as we write a Youth Culture Window article this week. Pray that it would clearly communicate God’s compassion for everyone, but not stray from his unchanging call to holiness, even when it’s not politically correct.

You’ll see that article in one week.

Posted in Entertainment Media, Faith, Music, Sexuality, Social Media, Youth Culture | | Leave A Comment

Focused on the Important This Christmas

Posted on: 12/23/10 1:44 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Last week one of our “The Source for Youth Ministry” board members, John, and his wife Heather were hit by a drunk driver on the way home from a church dinner.

By God’s grace, both of them walked away from the accident… with a huge change of perspective!

Americans sometimes are distracted by materialism, especially during the holiday season. Events like this tend to wake us up to what’s really important in life. Here’s the email my friend John sent out the night of the accident- some great words of wisdom: (emphasis mine)

Last night on the way home from the (church) dinner Heather and were hit by a drunk driver. We were traveling west on Douglas Blvd towards home in my GMC Denali when I noticed in the rearview mirror a car approaching from behind very fast. I had just enough time to shout out to Heather that we were going to get hit right before the impact. The rear end impact was pretty violent and it put us into a spin pushing us over the curb and into the landscape/sidewalk. As we were spinning we struck a tree on the right front, deploying the air bags. Miraculously, we threaded and bounced through 5 other trees narrowly missing any broadside impacts, coming to rest backwards against the residential block sound wall. The truck is totaled but we were spared, praise God!

The CHP officer and a witness both estimated the speed of the car that hit us to be 90-100 MPH. The only skid marks at the accident were from our truck so we received the full impact of his speed. After impact, he bounced off us and went into the center median and struck a pine tree across the road. He stumbled across the street after the accident totally oblivious to us, I’m not sure if he knew he hit us. CHP confirmed he was very drunk, he was taken to the hospital and then most likely to jail. We were well taken care of. The first fireman on the scene was an old friend from (our church), our insurance agent and good friend Jeff came to the site with a jacket for Heather, we were on the phone with our pastor Ray within a few minutes of the accident and our Men’s pastor Greg came to check on us and give us a ride home!

We are both doing well today other than having soreness in our necks from the whiplash. Obviously we are very thankful for God’s provision of safety, I guess He decided that our work here isn’t finished. This is the first time I’ve been involved in an accident of this nature and it’s interesting to me how these things can be confusing and clarifying at the same time. Confusing in that we will always wonder why things like this happen, and there will be ramifications from this that we’ll have to deal with that don’t make sense. But more importantly, these types of experiences provide clarity about what is really important in life and who is in control. Our immediate reaction after the accident wasn’t to check the car for damage, but rather to get out of the car and hug each other, tears of joy and thankfulness to our God for sparing us from injury. Our minds jumped right to the “what if” scenarios. What if we had hit that tree? What if the kids had been in the car? What if we’d been in a smaller car? In the initial moments, and upon reflection today, we are reminded of how fragile life is and how quickly circumstances in life can change. Because of this experience, today my thoughts have been focused on the love of my God, my wife, my family and my friends. Is there anything more important? My prayer is that I won’t lose this perspective and that my life won’t be the same. I’m grateful to God for this gentle reminder of HIs love, and the love we share through the common bond of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I hear John loud and clear. Earlier this year I received a phone call from my wife that she and my daughter Ashley had just been in an accident (I tell that story here). These moments remind us of the important things in life: our relationship with God and our relationship with others.

I pray that you all experience some great time with family and with God your Father this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!

Posted in Faith, News, Prayer | | Leave A Comment

It’s Finally Here!

Posted on: 12/7/10 10:55 PM | by Jonathan McKee

Many of you have been asking when my new book, MINISTRY BY STUDENTS will be available– the book about developing spiritual growth in teenagers, and building into student leaders… it’s been a long time coming.

It just came in today!

Grab it from us here on our website… no one else has it in stock yet (authors always get it first!)

Those of you who have read my CONNECT book saw the importance of not just reaching kids for Christ, but helping them grow spiritually. This new book will help us focus on those “right column” kids that we identified in CONNECT.

We packed the book with ideas, advice and resources for:
•    fostering discipleship
•    building student leadership teams
•    identifying student talent
•    helping students discover and use their spiritual gifts
•    creating service teams
•    equipping students to reach their friends

Plus, my good friend David R. Smith (who most of you recognize as the author of so many of our Youth Culture Window articles) partnered with me on this book. He brings a lot of wisdom and experience to the table. Fun stuff! I’m really excited about this book!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

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Linus Reads Luke 2 This Week

Posted on: 12/6/10 10:02 AM | by Jonathan McKee

In a world where Christ is slowly disappearing from Christmas, we still are going to hear Luke 2 read on network television this week on Tuesday night… by a kid who still drags around his blanky.

Blog reader Adam reminded me that the Charlie Brown Christmas is on this week on ABC. For me the show is not only good wholesome entertainment, it’s nostalgic. This Christmas special is part of Christmas. Many of us grew up with it.

For those who were raised in a cave and haven’t seen this special, Peanuts character Linus actually reads Luke chapter 2. Powerful stuff!

It’s funny… the special was supposed to be on right after thanksgiving but got bumped by an important presidential announcement about Afganistan. So pray that it doesn’t get bumped again!

Tune in to ABC Tuesday night to see it.

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