Where Does the Time Go?

I love timelapse video.

(and Sigur Ros, the premier Icelandic band you hear in the background!)

I love it because it reminds me of how short life is. How minutes slip into hours. Hours slip into days. Days slip into weeks. And before you know it it has been a month since you called you called your mom or read your Bible or worked on that project or wrote a blogpost.

(I know I am guilty on all accounts. How about you?)

Last night at 180 we talked about how life is short...and we can't stop time...and everyone dies...and how everyone is going to spend eternity somewhere...and why that makes it so urgent for us to share our love and the truth about Jesus with the people around us.

Today, it reminds me of how much I need to make relationships - not activities - the priority. It reminds me how I need to look my children and my wife in the eyes and tell them I love them and that they are important to me and ask them how their life is?

(And then keep looking and really listen...)

So I guess this post is just a reminder for us to stop and breathe and listen. It is a challenge to share love and truth with the people around us. It is a call not to miss using those minutes and hours and days and weeks to follow the God who Created us all. He is waiting. He has eternity. We only have this moment....

YourTube

Who doesn't like seeing themselves on the big (errr..that is little) screen?

180 Youth Ministries has just recently developed a new way for you to do just that - our YouTube channel, found on the High School page of buffalocalvary.com.

We will be posting our promotional videos, funny videos, iWorship intros, Testimonies (like the one above - which was used as an intro to last night's lesson), and maybe even a few YouTube only exclusives!

I hope this will be a place where we can use our lives and what God is doing in them to impact others. I also hope this will be a place where you can have more ownership of what we do at 180.

So start sharing with me your ideas. Tell me if you have a testimony. Or a promotional idea. Or some random craziness you want to film. Make this YourTube!

iWorship

Last Wednesday night, we introduced a new element to our Wednesday Night Services - iWorship. This will be a reoccurring (although probably not weekly) segment where a student can share how they worship God. This idea came from much discussion among our leaders (student and adult alike) about how do we show young people how to worship.

We decided the best way to communicate is to show young people how other young people actually worship! So each segment will include a video introduction and then the student will present their worship. In Frank's case, the video was followed with him singing "Consuming Fire" for the group. Which, the really amazing thing that happened was the whole crowd stood up and sincerely sang along with Frank without being asked. Now that is worship!

So if any of you have ways of worshiping God that you would like to share on Wednesday Nights, let me know. Call me, email me or just comment on this post. It doesn't have to be singing - it could be reading Scripture or sharing a poem or writing or artwork or some completely other thing that is a way you respond to how God is working in your life. We don't want to limit what iWorship looks like, so please share with us.

Also, as an aside, we will be featuring all our videos on 180's YouTube channel, which can be found on the High School page of buffalocalvary.com

How Wal-Mart Doubles as Church

So, after nearly three days of snowed-in-ness, my family was dying to get out of the house. To do something. To go anywhere. So we loaded up for an outing to the local neighborhood Wal-Mart. It quickly became apparent that everyone else in town had the exact same idea at the exact same time.

Now I will say that since I work for a church and our town is small, I never go to Wal-Mart without visiting with at least three people. But today's outing was unprecedented! We had good conversations with at least fifteen people about deep heart-felt things. There were also several head-nods, "hey, hiya"s and distant waves. It was truly a community event. And, as we missed Wednesday services this week due to weather, it really felt like our mid-week "church" experience.

Which leads me to today's pondering: what does it take to make a "church"? Since the church is to be a grouping of people who are trying to be supportive and redemptive in people's lives, our community, our culture, and our world, why couldn't my Wal-Mart trip be classified as "church". And since some of the people I talked to may have a hard time walking into a traditional sanctuary, maybe this is even more "church" than church.

So how do we start looking for these opportunities to have "church" where we live? Let me know your thoughts, experiences, and whether this messes with you like it does me.

My New Favorite Space

So this week I spent some time in my new favorite space...the updated College & Career Classroom.

(Let me clarify that location: It is the little upstairs room - not the big upstairs room - in the Family Life Center above the kitchen where the College & Career class used to meet before they met downstairs but where they are meeting again now. Clear?)

I went up to the room to do some reading and praying and found myself just inspired by my surroundings. As I have been doing a lot of evaluating of why and how we do ministry things at 180, I was keenly aware of all the elements in this room that created an inviting environment for people to connect and hear from God.

So I made a list:

*INVITING
*COMFORTABLE
*CREATIVE
*COMMUNICATES COMMUNITY
*ATTENTION TO DETAILS
*VISION & PASSION
*BEAUTY
*THOUGHTFUL & INSPIRING
*CLEAN BUT COZY
*WARM
*SERIOUS ABOUT COMMITMENT
*SOMETHING IS HAPPENING HERE
*ANCIENT & MODERN

I know. I'm a nerd, but I was just really excited about these things I saw. Excellent job to all involved in creating a space where people can be invited into a true relationship with God and get involved in a loving & real body of believers!

Amber's Video Blog

Ponderings on Culture

I would call myself a student of culture.

I am very interested in the things that make people and society tick. I am fascinated by the things people use to define themselves. I am intrigued by what glues people together. I watch a lot of movies, listen to a lot of music and surf a lot of web as a part of "research". And ultimately I look at these things to figure out how best to communicate God's love and connect people to a relationship with their Creator.

Now there are a lot of different opinions about how we as followers of Christ should respond to the culture we see around us. I would call this the "culture war".

Some people think we should mask or conform ourselves to what current culture looks like in order to reach those (to quote an old Relient K song) "the world just loves to hate". This week as a part of my "research", I've been watching this documentary called "One Punk Under God" about Jay Bakker & Revolution Church.
Jay is the son of the fallen televangelist team of Jim & Tammy Bakker. And, after a lot of struggles and soul-searching, Jay has come to grips with God's love and forgiveness and started a church that reaches out to people who have been turned off by religion. But I see Jay struggling with compromising truth in order to reach out to "culture".

On the other side you have this perspective that attacks our culture and says it must change. But those who hold to this thought pattern have a tendency to be judgemental and self-righteous.

So I feel that I have swung between these two perspectives, trying to figure out what the right response to "culture" should be.

But this week I read an article that challenged me with a whole new perspective. It said we shouldn't respond to culture but we should create culture. Wow. What a concept. Our responsibility isn't to look like pop culture or attack it, but to create the type of culture that people are longing for. Offering the things that are broken or lacking in the mainstream culture. Creating the environment that will define and connect people the way God intended.

So, let me know what you think that culture should look like. What does it look like for our lives to be 180 from the world's? What does it mean to turn ours and others lives right side up? Let's start creating that culture!