Dave Mackey's Christian and Ministry Blog.

Water Wars and Wasting Life.

2007-07-02T00:41:00Z

Today we had our second annual (last year was canceled because of weather) water fight. The first year the girls had beat the guys quite solidly, though we were heavily outnumbered. This year, while there were more guys, there were still many more girls. Still, we felt hopeful and in fact the guys did walk away the victors (though we were only able to play one game instead of two because of the excellent competition). Anyways, its a fun time. I like water wars, though I also like paintball. But water wars are nice b/c you can get wet, its funny, and it doesn't hurt. Paintball ensures that people don't cheat (by claiming they didn't get shot), but it hurts. I'm hoping maybe we can do a paintball game, for those interested sometime in the future. I'd like to use pumps instead of semi-automatics because you can play an entire day for only a few dollars in balls as compared to $20-$30 in balls with a semi.

Tomorrow is to be the first night the guys begin working through John Piper's new book, Don't Waste Your Life. I've been working a little bit through the book and the study guide. I am a bit scared, honestly. I know that Piper will go deep and it is scary when we are afraid that our lives will be exposed as less than they should be. But I was deeply encouraged by Piper's note in the Preface, "It was not always plain to me that pursuing God's glory would be virtually the same as pursuing my joy. Now I see that millions of people waste their lives because they think these two paths are two and not one." (pp. 9-10).

I must admit, that I probably have some of that wasting in my own life...But if Piper is correct, we have simply been deceived by Satan and sin into thinking that these areas we claim as our own are better than life in God. So, I am afraid (for the struggle) but also looking forward to the struggle as we embrace this study and are challenged in our beliefs and the things we value in our lives.

Don't Waste Your Life, by John Piper.

2007-06-27T02:19:00Z

I've been looking for a curriculum to use in youth group during the small group time. Its hard preparing two lessons in a single night, especially when there are so many other responsibilities in life. Finding a curriculum that would give some flow is always a major help. One of the individuals whom I respect most amongst modern writers is John Piper. A conservative, evangelical, charismatic pastor he leads Desiring God Ministries. He is probably best known for his manifesto of the same name, Desiring God. I highly recommend it (it took me several years to read, not because I am a slow reader but because of the depth of the material).

Anyways, Piper recently wrote a book entitled Don't Waste Your Life and his ministry has started an entire campaign centered around it. While I haven't read the book yet, I decided that it would make a good basis for the guy's group (we can always disagree with what he says and discuss that as well, should the occasion arise) and ordered a group package from Desiring God Ministries. The package arrived today and I must say I am impressed. While I received a special "phone-only" discount, the price still was extremely low. For $70-$80 I received ten copies of Don't Waste Your Life with an additional ten copies of the study guide (which is as hefty as the full volume). Then I received the small group kit which includes an additional copy of each book and a DVD with ten fifteen minute sessions on it. Wow. Now that's what I call quality.

See, thats one of the things that drew me to Piper in the first place. If you are an individual and you want to learn about God but can't afford to buy resources, Piper allows you to request his materials (a few at a time) for free. Now, even when he asks organizations and individuals to pay - the quantity of material is still great for the cost.

I'll let you all know how the book is and how it works as a guy's youth group kit.

Dysfunction and Vomit.

2007-06-24T02:41:00Z

I'm not a perfect person. In fact, one of the things about myself I most often write or talk about is my Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the co-morbid (occurring at the same time) depression. I struggle with both of these on a regular basis. I also happen to be an introvert, which means I recharge when I'm not around people. Its not that I don't enjoy being around people, I just can't always be around people. So, as I said, I'm far from perfect.

That said, I still get this deep nauseous feeling in my throat when I think about dysfunction. Why? Its not so much because I mind standing besides others as they battle their dysfunction, and as I have had others do for me. Its because of the simple volume of it. Its one thing to stand aside another individual, its another when so many become them. How to react? How to handle this volume? Finite mortals that we are, we find ourselves outpaced, we cannot handle it ourselves.

The Photo Walls.

2007-06-16T01:39:00Z

As a teenager one of the things I loved about my youth group at the First Baptist Church of Westerlo led by Rev. Bob Sheldon and a slew of volunteer leaders were the photo walls. In our youth room the walls were canvassed from floor to ceiling with pictures of us - caught by the leaders everywhere with humorous and encouraging captions underneath. It served several purposes. It helped us rejoice together in the good times we had shared, it gave us a feeling of ownership in the church, and it gave us a way to not look like a loner when we were standing all alone.

When I became a youth leader it was one of the first things on my mind, and we have kept up the tradition that Pastor Bob and the other leaders first taught me. Tonight was our second night within the last two months were we took the time to paste up hundreds of new pictures, write captions, and generally make our walls colorful. This is a youth group activity and takes around two hours each time we do it. Its a lot of fun. Besides writing the captions we constantly joke with each other, eat some chocolate chip cookies, spend a minute or two in prayer, and throw wads of damaged construction paper.

I am so thankful for Pastor Bob and the other leaders who sowed so much time into my life as a teenager...and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a youth leader. I love teaching teens, but they also bring more joy into my life than seems imaginable.

The Church and Conflict.

2007-06-11T21:11:00Z

     I don't like conflict. In fact, I struggle significantly in dealing with conflict. Mainly because I hate anger. When people get angry I withdraw. Some people think of anger as a way to motivate others to perform better. This doesn't work with me. If you want me to shut down - get angry at me. Anyways, all this means that it is a struggle for me to enter into conflict because people get angry during conflict, yet I see conflict as an essential and healthy part of being a Christian and part of a Church Family.
    Oftentimes we leave churches when conflict arises. We are uninterested in dealing with the pain and discord that comes from disagreements about worship music, anger over differing parenting styles, differences in theology, or arguments over who gets to use what portion of the facilities and when. We want to find a better church - and end up hopping from church to church for the rest of our lives. I think, however, that church is supposed to be different. Not that we have to find the most dysfunctional church that we can, but rather that once we become committed to a church, once become a party of its "local body" we understand that it takes significant reasons for us to withdraw from this body and insert ourselves into another.
    When we have arguments and disagreements in the church we can respond in one of three ways:

We can remain silent and allow other's to decide on practical and theological issues.
We can withdraw from the church and find another group that better agrees with us.
We can dialogue and debate the issues, working through the mire of relating with people of different worldviews.

In most circumstances, I think it is the third that God has called us to practice. Painful, but effective. Through conflict we learn many lessons that we perhaps would not learn if we continue to avoid conflict such as:

Our response to conflict and how to modify it to better love others.
Learning to enter into dialogue with others rather than shouting matches.
Evaluating our own belief systems and modifying them as necessary.

As Americans, especially, we love our independence, but I believe that the Christian who walks into a room and reads his Bible without entering into communion with his fellow believers will eventually be led astray. He deceives himself into thinking that he is capable of understanding all that God has spoken, that God has not led other's and taught other's what we have not been taught. Kyle Strobel in his excellent book Metamorpha suggests that there are three aspects of the Christian life and that we must emphasize all three rather than any one. Namely, Scripture (the Word of God), the Holy Spirit (the presence of God), and the Christian Community (the body of God [Jesus]).

The Elder Generation.

2007-06-09T01:26:00Z

Marko Oestreicher, from Youth Specialties, recently posted a video of The Zimmers performing a music video on his blog. What is unique about the Zimmer's is that the lead vocal is 90, while many of the other members are even older. While being a heart-warming and entertaining music video I also think it has some important lessons to teach us as well.

As young(er) individuals - whether leaders or teens - we sometimes view the older generation as nothing but an obstacle to be bypassed. Stereotypically we accuse them of being "set in their ways" and "opposed to change." We sometimes see no positive value in them. Now before those who are older begin agreeing too heartily with me on this point, it is also worth noting that many of the elder generation look down upon the younger as inferior in many ways and disregard their opinion and abilities - seeing them as purely disruptive, sinful, and lazy. What this music video reflects is the need for inter-generational understanding. We must work to reach out across our generations and enter into the conflict that will necessarily result from differing worldviews/cultures to reap the benefits at the end of the conflict.

Men, Women, and Marriage.

2007-06-05T01:56:00Z

Michael Smalley, founder of The Smalley Family and Marriage Center, wrote an article entitled, "A Husband's Biblical Trump Card?" which seeks to deal with the difficult texts in Scripture which discuss submission within the marriage relationship. I thought one quote within the article was especially insightful:

"Often times spouses are resistant to this idea of being a servant because they fear the other spouse taking advantage of them. But this is a lie straight from the evil one himself! Just think back to a time when someone loved you unconditionally. Are you there? How did you respond to that person? Did you take advantage of him? Probably not, because most people, when served by unconditional love, return the favor! In a healthy marriage, mutual submission feeds on itself and turns your marriage in to something truly special – the kind of marriage God wants."

Working and Ministry.

2007-05-22T02:21:00Z

I think I've posted about this before, but I think I will post about it again. Tonight was youth group. It went pretty well. Charity had to drive one of the youth leader's home, so I stayed around to talk with the rest of the youth and wait for their parents to arrive. Once everyone had left I began the treck home - three minutes by car, fifteen by walking. As I walked the heavy burden of working with teens on a part-time basis struck my heart once again.

I love my job. As a Network Engineer at Collages every day is filled with challenges. I have the opportunity to architect solutions and work with technology many geeks only dream of. But at the end of the day there are only so many more hours left. And yes, I do what I do with those hours. We meet on a weekly basis. We have special events two to four times each month. We see the teens outside of youth group occasionally. But that isn't to say that that is all there is to do. There is so much more.

First, there is learning. I believe that we teach out of the abundance of our own learning. If someone hasn't internalized material it is evident. Thus, every week I do my best to internalize my material. One way I have attempted to do this is by reading the portion of Scripture we will be working through every day of the week leading up to the event, as well a studying it using commentaries and bible dictionaries. But still, there is much more time that could be spent internalizing the material, as well as studying the intertextuality of the text. No Scripture passage is alone, rather it weaves a complex story interlaced with references.

Then there is the teaching. I can push myself, but there is a certain passion that comes with the well-rested soul, a certain clearness of thought, which must be ushered in through sheer willpower when exhaustion settles in, and cannot still make up for the real passion.

There is time spent in the community and in relationships. Attending sporting events and other school events - dramas, opportunities to tutor. There is establishing relationships with parents, teachers, and community leaders.

There is an insurmountable amount to be done, without even looking at duties outside of the youth ministry itself - assisting in a service, preaching a sermon, performing a visitation, assisting in communion, attending a funeral.

In my opinion, work and ministry should only be combined by those who desire "full-time" ministry when there is no alternative. Some have promoted the idea that one should perform both, and while I think it is a nice idea theoretically, it fails miserably practically. I would suggest that if we claim we can fulfill both roles without sacrificing something in one we need to re-evaluate the height of our work ethic or the comprehensiveness of our ministry.

For those of us who are relegated to performing both we must look to God as our strength, and as Paul and Barnabas did when they had to leave the believers in modern day Turkey after their first missionary journey - entrust their souls to the Lord, for He is capable even when we have nothing left to give.

Prepping the Youth Room Part II.

2007-05-11T22:47:00Z

On the 6th of May I originally wrote about moving youth rooms and some of the initial endeavors I and others had expended in this direction. I suppose it is now time to give a partial update. This past Monday we had our first guy's group in the new youth room as well as the large group. It went pretty well, though over the next few weeks we will need to continue to experiment with the chair setup.

Then this past Thursday evening Pastor Dave and I spent over two hours working on the youth room. This began by disposing of a lot of old stuff that would never be used again - broken desks, some old non-folding chairs, and other such junk. Thankfully, others could use it and most of it was rapidly picked up off the side of the road.

By doing so we were able to clear out most of the youth pastor's room (which doesn't really exist, since I'm the closest thing to a youth pastor and I don't use it). We then moved a large orange cabinet into the youth pastor's room and out of the youth room, as well as taking the copier from the youth room and placing it in the youth pastor's room.

At this point there is still lots of work to be done, but we are getting so much closer. A lot of it now is coordinating with other people how they want to handle certain pieces of furniture. Hopefully I can get some of that accomplished this Sunday...

Reflections on Focus on the Family's Action Newsletter for April.

2007-05-09T03:41:00Z

I receive an email from Focus on the Family with a link to a pdf of their April edition of the Focus on the Family Action Newsletter. It was an interesting read and I would encourage you, if you have a moment or two to read it as well. Focus on the Family has offered the church some excellent services through the years. The Adventures in Odyssey series was always a favorite as a child, and can still be entertaining as an adult. McGee and Me were informative and quality VHS short films. Breakaway and Brio offered a wholesome magazine for teenagers. But on the whole I don't really know a whole lot about Dr. James Dobson or Focus on the Family.

In this edition he wrote about several interesting subjects. The first was in calling out the Democrats for their plans to revoke the last few years tax cuts. While I would need to read the opposite side's literature, at face value he seemed to pull out a pretty embarrassing plan to raise taxes across the board. Not that I am necessarily against tax hikes, or anti-Democrat. But some of the items mentioned in the war spending bill were disconcerting.

Then he goes on to discuss planned childlessness and how some couples are choosing not to have children. I won't comment on this topic right now, as I want to write a developed theological article on this topic but don't have the time at the moment. But, in any case, its an interesting and provocative read.

Moving Youth Rooms.

2007-05-07T02:53:00Z

Around three months ago I realized we really needed a larger space for the youth group. In one small room with a single bathroom we were fitting twenty-five teens, several couches, two fooseball tables, and who knows what else. This began a process of discussing with the Pastor and one of the elder's the possibility of moving into the main church building. This was attractive for a number of reasons:

We'd be moving into a larger room.
We'd be in the main church building, instead of separated from it, making it easier to utilize the rest of the church.
The room had the library in it so we could merge the youth and normal church libraries into one.
We would no longer have to heat or cool the old youth room and the new one was part of the main building so it was always heated/cooled.
The guys and the girls groups could be in the same building, thus allowing us to better synchronize leaving small groups for different portions.

Anyways, its finally coming together. This past week I received the final go ahead and this past Saturday I spent six hours at the church - reorganizing the room and cleaning out closets (in order to make room for more stuff to go into them).

I'm pretty excited about all this...

Talking to the Pastor, Playing Basketball.

2007-04-27T03:35:00Z

Pastor Dave and I usually meet to talk on Thursday nights before basketball. We spend an hour, roughly, talking about ministry and life. Its been a good time that I have appreciated for the last several years. Its useful because it allows us to discuss our areas of ministry - for me to share about what is going on in the youth group, to strategize for Sunday mornings, discuss upcoming events, and share struggles. Tonight was no different, though we also had the chance to test out the new proector I purchased for the church. Its an Optoma EP-739 and it seems to work pretty well...

Then it was time for basketball. I only played two games, but in the process my big toe was severely mashed. It didn't hurt at the time but now that I am back at the house it throbs - and throbs. How exciting! But, I enjoy playing. It gives me a way to interact with others and exercise.

Sunday Morning Service.

2007-04-22T16:45:00Z

I graduated in May of 2005 with a Bachelors in Bible from Philadelphia Biblical University. I didn't get anything official - b/c it didn't count as a double major - but I was in the Pastoral Ministries program. In that spring semester of 2005 I interned with Calvary Community Church of Penndel. The church I had attended for the past several years and continue to attend to this day, and lead the youth group of. During that time I stepped up from leading the youth group to a number of other positions - such as assisting in the Sunday morning service. Once my internship was over, I just never stopped.

So, pretty much every Sunday morning if you were to come to Calvary Community Church at Penndel you would find me (for the first half of the service) sitting up on the altar, helping lead the service. I really enjoy it, and I would encourage anyone who attends church that it is a great way to take a low labor commitment at the church. One doesn't have to do it every week, or even for every part of the service. Taking part in one simple portion - a prayer, a scripture reading, a devotional thought, a song - is all it takes. As a community of believers we have the opportunity to show our diversity through our service, and each of us has talents and gifts we uniquely bring that can be utilized to encourage each other towards worship and growth in God.

It is always a struggle to be part of a service. It means seeking to bring one's heart to a place of real communion with God. Of course, we should always be doing these - whether leading the service or being a congregant. But as someone who partakes in the order of the service, failure to enter into that communion with God weakens the delivery of the service. Not that, in a very real sense, the actions of the congregants and their entrance or failure to enter into communion with God doesn't also have a similar effect. It is just that this effect is oftentimes more quickly noticed when reflected in the order of the service. In my mind each person who partakes in the order of the service - in each word and action - is attempting to not only enter into communion with God but also to offer that communion to each individual in the room.

This leaves a hard balance to be struck. On the one hand, we want to give everything we have in the service of our God, on the other hand, we are susceptible to bravado and pride. God has gifted me with a great speaking voice (can one say that with humility?) and this I attempt to use in bringing myself and others into communion with God. But I constantly have to focus myself on the text and the sharing of the communion and avoid becoming performance based and misusing God's gift for selfish praise.

A Day of Soccer.

2007-04-14T22:50:00Z

I've been working like crazy at my real job - Network Engineer for Collages.Net. Lots of night work in order to accomplish some significant and exciting upgrades (okay, you might not be that excited - but I in my geek role am). Anyways. Returned from work at 8 a.m. this morning and slept till around 1. Took a shower and then off to the church. Only a few teens were there, but we headed over to Mayor's Park anyways. When we arrived there were lots of teens there. In all we probably numbered twenty teens - then four adults.

After a word of prayer we split into two teams and commenced the game. Soccer. It was fun, but muddy. Several shoes went flying off, feet got stuck, people fell and slid. I was one of the muddiest, having been knocked down several times. Charity went to Genuardi's and picked us up water and fruit drinks. I was so thirsty I knocked an entire one down in less than a minute.

Some people might question the value of having a youth event like soccer. Where is the religion in that? To a certain extent, I'd say there isn't. But on the other hand, its all over it. How? Good question, glad you asked.

First, we began with prayer. We acknowledged God's provision - in creation, in our physical bodies, in our friends. Entertainment can be glorifying to God when it is done with a heart attitude that recognizes the movement of God.

Secondly, while physical exercise is not as important as spiritual exercise - it is still important. Especially for leaders like myself who spend their days at mainly sedentary jobs. We can improve our health, which can improve our attitude, which can help us focus on God.

Thirdly, fellowshipping and rubbing shoulders together is important. It allows us to ask questions like, "How do I act when someone steals the ball from me?" "How do I handle missing a shot?" "How do I handle someone else missing a shot?" Spending time together and developing our character is important. As unabashed Christians we have the opportunity to encourage each other in correct action - not only through direct verbal encouragement but also through our communal actions.

Finally, I shall conclude by noting, there are few things which bring me such joy as these teenagers.