lives transformed...

*Warning: It's a long one (but worth it)*

Somedays it's hard to channel the whirlwind of thoughts that fill my cranium through my fingers-to the keyboard-onto this blog. Living a life entrenched in Youth Ministry never allows for a dull moment...let me explain:

This past Sunday I had the glorious priviledge of baptizing one of my youth. This was the first time I had ever baptized someone, and I can assure you that the flood of emotions that I experienced will stick with me for a lifetime. It's for those moments that any youth pastor lives for: forget the piles of administrative crap that we all have to unfortunately live with-can't I just equip students to grow into mature followers of Jesus? The question that I am wrestling with is this:

How can we tangibly recognize that the lives of our students are being transformed?

You can throw out the Sunday school answer here and say "hey, did you not just baptize someone?...that's a pretty good sign!" But it's got to be more than that. Baptism at its litteral sense is someone getting dunked while laying in a luke-warm pool of stagnant water. It's not until we give meaning to the experience that makes it more than just taking a bath in church. We talked about this "giving meaning to something" at our Fall Retreat a couple of weeks ago at Camp Qwanoes. We had students write out their burdens onto rocks and then we gathered down at the beach and hurrled them into the ocean. The rock is just a rock--the ocean is just salt water--but with meaning they metamorphosize into something more!

It's this metamorphosis that I long to see in each of my students lives. But I still wrestle with how we tangibly recognize growth since each student has their own uique relationship with their Creator. One area of significant growth that every youth pastor longs for is when a student decides to stop living for the world, and to start living their lives for Christ. But how do we determine when that person "is a Christian?" Do they have to pray a prayer? Some of you may say yes...some may say no-I think you both have grounds to camp there. Maybe I need to direct you to someone who's recently been wrestling with the same sentiments as I have:

Thoughts on conversion... by Walt Mueller

Coming to faith and being transformed. . . . isn’t that what we hope to see happen in the lives of the kids we know and love? Sure it is. For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we facilitate this reality in our youth ministries. I know there are differences in how we all communicate the Gospel and invite kids to “make a decision” for Christ. Of course, then we spend time counting up the numbers so that we can judge our “success,” validate the effectiveness of our methodologies, and look good when we report back to our supervisors and church boards. Okay. . . . if you know me well you were able to read that last sentence understanding the appropriate measure of sarcasm in my voice. I think what’s prompted my thinking on this matter is a publicity piece I recently read regarding a youth evangelist who’s had “success” by leading over 1 million kids to Christ. Sorry, I just can’t take that too seriously. If he’s led over 1 million kids to Christ, where are they? Perhaps it would be better if we were just honest with ourselves and we reported back to headquarters with something like this. . . . “He’s convinced over 1 million kids to come forward or raise their hands.” Let’s be honest. When push comes to shove we ask for a lot of commitments to Christ, but have we really taken the time to warn kids about what a life of following Christ is all about, how difficult it is, and what it requires. Do we ever talk about the fact that following the God-man who was on the cross requires “taking up” a cross of our own? Do we ever get beyond the promise of heaven to talk about what life as a follower is all about here on God’s earth? Do kids really know that there’s a life of integrated faith to be lived between not going to hell and going to heaven? I hope my random thoughts here are making some kind of sense. I’ve always been skeptical of easy evangelism that requires a few minutes with someone lost, a formulated method, an invitation to pray according to a script, and a quick “goodbye” to move on to the next project (I mean, person) whether our prior project (I mean, person) has said “yes” or “no” to our invitation. Okay, so maybe we aren’t doing evangelism this way. But then again, maybe we are. Because something about this hasn’t been sitting right with me for years, I’ve tried to direct some large blocks of reading, thinking, and praying time in this direction. I’m currently reading Turning To God: Biblical Conversion in the Modern World by David Wells, one of my seminary profs back at Gordon-Conwell. Wells approaches this important subject (important because what we believe about conversion will impact how we do ministry) asking the most important question. That is, “What does the Bible teach?” rather than “What have past generations thought?” or “What sort of conversion experiences have people had?” Here are some of Wells’ thoughts on conversion based on what the Scriptures teach: “True conversion is not an isolated experience but one that is related to a life of discipleship. It is the point in time and experience at which we enter into such a life. Discipleship belongs to and should follow from conversion the way that natural life belongs to and should follow from live birth. Just as there is no life without birth, so there is no birth without an ensuing life, however long or short that life may be. And just as there is no discipleship without conversion, so there is no conversion without an ensuing life of discipleship that involves growth in moral maturity, a deepening faith, and loving service.” So maybe our numbers have been way off! I think so. Wells goes on to talk about our all too common measure of faith. . . . the testimony!: “Conversion is not an isolated event but is related to the entire life of faith that follows from it. It is the moment of birth into a new life. It is like a doorway into a room. A person is born to live, not to linger on the edge of the womb in a time limbo. A person opens a door not for the pleasure of standing forever on the threshold but to enter the room. The evangelical world has strangely perverted this truth. Evangelicals often make the test of spiritual life one’s willingness to testify about the moment of birth. Describing one’s sensations in passing through the doorway is considered proof that one is in the room! This shifts the focus from where it ought to be – the evidence of the Spirit’s renewing work in producing a God-centered life, a God-fearing heart, and God-honoring character and witness – and places it on a person’s autobiographical account of the conversion crisis. The only real proof of our conversion is an obedient and fruitful life.” And on the all-important “decision,” Wells says, “. . . . a decision for Christ is not the real measure of a conversion, although a conversion may occur in and through such a decision. Decisions undertaken with insufficient self-awareness, awareness of ourselves as sinners before God (however that awareness translates into felt needs), are decisions whose reality will be hollow. Decisions undertaken in the absence of a sufficient knowledge of God, his truth, and his Christ are decisions that will likely be malformed and so will probably lack direction and hence staying power. Decisions that occur in either of these ways are decisions brought about by pressures that should be considered manipulative: the crowd or circle of friends who exert psychological pressure or the evangelist who does a ‘hard sell’ and is so charismatic in personality or in presentation that the convert is drawn to the point of decision irresistibly. This person, let it be noted, is also being drawn foolishly and, perhaps, unethically. Decisions are not what counts. What counts is that there are men and women who, knowing themselves to be rebels and alienated from God, have sought in his Christ forgiveness and acceptance and, having sought and trusted, have been renewed by the Spirit and are impelled on to a life of truthfulness and love.” Hmmm. Maybe what we need to do to stop the epidemic of spiritual “still-births” and “birth defects” might be to add some serious “birthing classes” to our youth ministry efforts. Then, and perhaps only then, will spiritual births be healthy and followed by life.

*taken from www.cpyu.org

This stil leaves me with plenty of questions...but is deffinately helping me (and I hope you too) find some answers. I'll leave you with a verse that means the world to me: and I think is paramount in relating our love for Jesus with our love for students so that they have a similar love for Jesus.

"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2:8