Jesus: the Seven Star General

There is a certain phrase you will hear most Christians say sometime in their lifetime. I'm not talking about the occasional, "amen!" or the spur-of-the-moment "Hallelujah." I'm talking about, of course, the phrase, "This is my favorite worship song." Now people can have all kind of favorites. My favorite ice cream is Cookies-And-Cream. My favorite season is Spring (with Fall coming in a close second). And my favorite Spice Girl is Ginger Spice. I'm sure all of you have different kinds of favorites out there, but can someone really have a favorite worship song? If I'm not mistaken, the whole purpose of worship is to give glory to God...not to bring us enjoyment because of a song's lyrics or rad bass line. Now I know this really is not a big deal, but every time someone says something about how a certain song being their favorite worship song it just makes me think. Maybe a certain song can be someone's favorite way to express to God their feelings and thoughts to Him, but I think we should be hesitant to say a certain song is our favorite. And I am not excluded from this. For those of you that know me personally, I LOVE Hillsong's With Everything. It is a very powerful worship song, but I don't think I should elevate that about any other worship song, because in the end the song is for God, not me.

The reason I bring this up is because the other day we had a high school gathering at The Block (Southeast's crazy youth building). Ryan Post and Matt Bayless led worship for everyone and they played my favo...I mean a great worship song called With Everything. As we were walking out, I heard one of the students say, "Man, they didn't play my favorite worship song!" I then went on to ask which song he was talking about, and he told me it was Mighty to Save. I nodded my head and went away thinking, "He is just so confused. He doesn't know what he is talking about. His favorite song should be Mighty to Save." Okay. Okay. I made up that last part, but the student was literally frustrated because they didn't play his favorite worship song!

That same night, Mark Moore spoke and he paralleled the life of a Christian in school to the battle front for a soldier. He went on to explain the importance of the Phalanx the Romans used to conquer much of the known world. Basically, the Roman soldiers would march in a rectangular formation into battle instead of the lining up like they did in the movie Braveheart. This was the perfect fighting formation because if the first line of soldiers died, there would be someone right behind them to kill the enemy. Mark's whole point was that we as Christians need to fight for our school in Phalanx where we have each other's backs.

This whole idea of Christianity and military reminded me of something one of my professors once discussed in class. He talked about how awesome of a military leader Jesus would be, so I thought I would kind of expand on that. In John 6:15, Jesus has just fed the 5,000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and then is says that Jesus knew the people intended to make him King so that He would overthrow the Roman rule. Now, if you think about it, these people are smart because Jesus would be an excellent General. The following are statements that point to that very truth.

1) Jesus could feed Hungry Soldiers.

When his army would be surrounded by the enemy, they would cut off all food supplies. The soldiers would not know what to do because they would soon run out of food. However, if you have Jesus as your leader, there is no need to worry. He could take the last couple crumbs of bread and wave His hand over them and voila...Texas Roadhouse bread appears with a side of honey butter! And you know soldiers can get kind of low in their spirits because fighting can be a little depressing...so what would leader Jesus do? He would turn the water into wine to cheer up his fighting men!

2) Jesus could maneuver natural barriers.

Ever heard of the saying "Faith can move mountain"? Well, you are just in luck if your commander-in-chief is the Savior of the World. We are told by Paul in the book of Romans that we must have faith in Jesus Christ. And who has more faith in Jesus than Jesus himself? So lets say that your army is chasing a foe and comes to a Huge mountain, but it would take days to travel around the mountain giving your enemy days to run away. But Jesus just moves the mountain on pure faith and then you are right on their tail! Or maybe you need to forge a river or stream, because your enemy is on the other side. Forget about trying to take days to find a part of the river where it is able to be crossed. Jesus just walks along water building a make-shift bridge as he goes! Jesus would be the ultimate General when it came to natural barriers. Yet there one more skill of Jesus that would be especially helpful for a military leader.

3) Jesus could bring dead soldiers back to life.

Have you ever played Halo or Call of Duty on x-box or playstation? If you have not, let me fill you in. Basically, you play as one person and you try to go through the story line the game has plotted out for you. If you die, you get a chance to start all over. It is not like if you die, you can't play ever again. Now think about if this was real life! As soon as a soldier peels over dead, Jesus walks up behind them and they rise back up to fight some more. This would be worse than any massive zombie attack. Zombies do seem relentless, but you can cut off there head. If you cut off the head of one of Jesus' men, he just sticks it back on, and then you have one mad soldier coming at you. And if someone loses an ear...just ask Peter.

4) Jesus has twelve legions of Angels on stand-by.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this point. Jesus says in Matthew 26 that he could have twelve whole legions of Angels at the snap of his fingers. Just to put that in persepective, a Roman legion probably had about 4,000 soldiers an 300 soldiers on horseback. So that is roughly 52,000 angels. Now if we look back to Isaiah 37:36, we see that only one angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians. So that means Jesus would have 52,000 heavenly soldiers who could kill around 9,620,000,000 men! That is the entire population of the earth plus about 3 billion people. So forget Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, or Caesar...Give me Jesus!

I have now laid out the reasons Jesus would make a great king or army general. So it makes so much sense why the people in John 6 would want to make Jesus king. He would be unstoppable! But we all know that Jesus did nothing of the sort while he was on earth. He told his followers to turn the other cheek and to not be served but to serve others. Jesus sacrificially died on the cross for us so that we would not have to endure the four things I just listed out. Because at the end of time, Jesus will totally wipe out everything evil and that includes that lying dragon we call Satan. So I can't wait to see Jesus, the seven star general, totally demolish every evil at the final battle!

I'm Changing my Last Name

Can I be transparent with you? I love money. The reason I know I love it is because every time I have to depart from it, it makes me cringe. Okay, I'm a little prone to hyperbole, but to some extent I think this love of money is true for a lot of people. Those little slips of paper and small coins determine whether or not we will have our next meal, a shelter over our head, or a fuel pump and fuel filter for you 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. You see, this past Sunday my car decided to quit working in the parking lot of the Meijer Grocery Store. I tried to start my car after buying some food for a 6th grade swim party, and it just wouldn't work. So come to find out $400 later, I need a new fuel pump and fuel filter. Oh Money...you little root of evil...I feel like we are always going to be departing, so I guess I'll just have to get used to you leaving me. *sigh*

*sigh* again for dramatic effect

Believe it or not, I have had a great week. Last week I had the great pleasure of listening to a man named Dann Spader on Wednesday for about 7 hours. He is the president of an organization called Global Youth Initiative (GYI). GYI is an alliance of organizations and strategic leaders around the globe who are passionate about seeing this next generation reached and mobilized for the cause of Christ and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This vision statement for GYI flows from Dann's DNA and his philosophy of disciple making. I took about 10 pages of notes so I am going to give you some quick bulleted points that Dann said.

• "A real disciple is one who makes disciples."

• Dann bases his ministry philosophy after the way Jesus made disciples, specifically his interactions with the Twelve.

• He calls his ministry philosophy/strategy "Movements of Multiplying Disciples." It is a 5-phase process that closesly lines up with Jesus' 3 to 3 1/2 years of ministry on earth.

• "It is wrong to compare Jesus to us. He was more like Adam before he sinned. We are sinful. He is sinless." -- Dann discussing the Phase #1 and Jesus' 30 years of preparation.

• He gave new insight into Matthew 28:18-20. There are three verbs (going, baptizing and teaching) and two imperatives. I was always told there was only one imperative (Make Disciples), but the Greek word for "Surely" actually means something like, "keep your eyes on me." So as we are making disciples, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus...we need to see how he made disciples if we want to make biblical disciples

• Jesus only performed 2 miracles in his first year and half of ministry (Water into wine and one healing). Most of this part of his ministry was spent in the wilderness with not that great of a following.

• "Jesus was focused on reproducing reproducers."

• "When Jesus said make disciples, he did not separate evangelism and discipleship."

• If you do not have a system to help your students share the Gospel, you are not making biblical disciples (Philemon 6)

• In Luke 10:21, we see that "Jesus was FULL of joy." This is the only time Jesus was said to be full of joy. In the context, Jesus had just sended out the 72 disciples, and was so joyful because he was making disciples who were making disciples.

• We are are not involved in discipleship, we are invovled in disciple-making. Basically, a real disciple is one who will make disciples out of others. There is an input and an output. Discipleship can tend to be inward focused.

When everything was over around 4:00, my mind processing so much information. Everything Dann had to say was so rich. There was nothing exciting about the way he presented the information; he was just full of Jesus and wisdom. He changed the way I look at youth ministry. I guess all along I knew it was about making disciples who make disciples, but I did not emphasize it as much. So according to Dann, a way to gauge your youth ministry's healthiness is to see if your students are bringing people to Christ. Is your ministry healthy?

Dann Spader had some great insight. He dug real deep, I am so thankful for his words and insight. But thinking back on the whole meeting, I shouldn't have expected anything less. I should have known he was going to Dig deep...he last name is Spader. So his last name literally means, "One who digs." Weird. I think I am going to change my name to Charlie Moneymaker.

The Clearance Rack and Zombies

Last October I wrote a blog about never seeing a shooting star. I can officially say that my drought of 22 years of never seeing a shooting star is now over! Last night I went out in the backyard about 12:15 a.m., laid down, and watched the Perseid Meteor Shower. They say the best time to watch the Meteor Shower was between midnight and dawn, so I stayed up to catch my first shooting star! Apparently, you are allowed one wish every time you see a shooting star. So I wished for...sorry, I can't tell you because then it wouldn't come true.

Besides picking up astronomy, I have been doing some thinking on women and shopping. (IMPORTANT: MEN ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT)

Well men, I have some insightful information for you. If you are of the female persuasion, please stop reading.....I mean it. Go stalk someone on facebook or go surf the internet for nice aprons or cooking utensils.

Alright guys here is a secret I have luckily tripped upon while hanging out with Christine. Have you ever been shopping with your lady friend? It is nice to be with her, and you are glad you are able to spend time with her....but...she takes 20 minutes just to look at the first rack she sees. Then as soon as you think you are going to leave the store, she says, "ooohhhh....look at that." Then like a zombie who sees a weak human and in a trance walks over to him or her to devour it, the girl goes to check out the clearance rack.

Well, I have found a solution to our shopping problems. You make sure you guys go shopping during a time for a meal. You tell them you will get something to eat while you are out...but you pick her up late. Then she will say she is hungry and wants to go shopping afterward. However, you tell her that you really want to go shopping first. Then as you are going through the stores, you begin to notice that she is spending less and less time looking for good deals, because she begins to hear her stomach grumble. Then finally, you are the hear those blissful words, "I'm done." And as the angels in heaven sing an immaculate chorus, you leave the store to go eat.

Guys, this is not always a guarantee. Actually, she will probably begin to catch on to your antics about the 2nd time, but I think it is well worth the try. Please let me know of your success. And we all know women cannot say "No" to food. I mean, look at the first woman. She couldn't say no to an apple. Now we have great things like Chocolate and P.F. Changs. Good luck men.

Thus Far...

2 months and 1 week.

This is not the duration of time since the Royals last won a baseball game, even though that would be a good guess. This is actually how long I have been on my internship. I am about 1/6 the way done, and it is flying by. I just wanted to take some time to write out some things that I have learned for the first time and other things that I have been reminded of while working at Southeast. This list is not exclusive...it is just what I can remember on a Monday morning.

Volunteers can make or break a youth ministry. I called my brother, Jim, the other day just to catch up, and this subject came up. During his internship in Oklahoma, he also was confronted with this truth. Here are some qualities that make up great youth leaders:

• They are selfless. They are not in the ministry to for themselves but for the students. A lot of people begin to help out with a ministry with an agenda, but it is so great to have a person who serves for the purpose of giving glory to God and not for themselves.
• They work hard. When I think about how I get paid to serve God, it blows my mind how fantastic youth leaders are when they serve for the soul purpose of serving God. I'm not in the ministry to make money, if so I'm in the wrong profession. But volunteers who work hard are great assets to the ministry.
• They are good people. It is never fun to work with people who you don't like. When you are able to recruit leaders who are good at working with students and love Jesus PLUS they are good friendly people, your ministry will just take off. Jesus said that unity is the pathway that leads to evangelism in John 17:21, so when the students see the unity and closeness of the youth ministry team it leads to a healthier ministry where evangelism can occur.

I pray for guts to live like Jesus. This might sound a little odd. I am not literally praying for the bowels and entrails of God's Son, but having the fortitude to live my life the way Jesus lived His life on earth. He did not give into the ways and temptations of this world, but he was focused on completing the will of God. I am reminded daily the need to live like a man of God in a world corrupted by sin, and I cannot do this by myself. I need God's Spirit and strength the have the guts to live like Jesus.

Be Me. I am working with so many gifted people here at Southeast Christian Church. I work with a guy named Cody Walker who is one of the most relational guys I have ever met. He can walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. Matt Reagan has a lot of confidence in what he does, yet he is one of the most humble guys I know. Jon McCallon is so creative. He is bursting at the seams with creativity. I look at all of these guys, and I envy all of them. They are doing great things for God in the field of youth ministry, but they all do ministry differently yet they are all successful. I just need to be reminded to by myself when it comes to serving God in youth ministry. I can't pretend to be Matt Reagan or Cody Walker; I just need to be Charlie Landis.

Definition of Success. The youth minister I'm working under gave me a great definition of success. He said, "Success is living faithfully to God." I know I could easily get caught up in the numbers in my ministry or the amount of pats on the back, but the true test of success is to see how faithful you are being to God in your ministry. What does this success look like? I think it looks different for different ministries. So I think it is important to always be asking the question, "Is our ministry successful?"

Deflect Glory to God. I love working with little kids! I was actually going to go into children ministry before I decided at the end of my sophomore year to go into student ministry. I have been working in the nursery the past two weekends, and I had about four people come up to me and tell me how great I am with kids. There are other situations where people tell me that I am good at this or good at that, and it is such a huge temptation to get a big head. But I've learned to start deflecting the glory to God, because everything I do should be to His glory...not my own. I still struggle with this whole not-hogging-the-glory-thing. I can be so selfish, but I've learned that I could not even do ministry if it wasn't for God's sustaining power and love.

Importance of Leadership. I have always that leadership was not the big of a deal, especially in ministry. I actually had to take a class at Ozark called Leadership in Ministry, and I paid no attention at all in that class because I did not see how it was relevant for me. I really did not see myself ever becoming the head pastor at a church, so I didn't think it was important for me to be a leader. Oh, how I was greatly mistaken. Leadership is an essential to a successful youth ministry. A youth minister needs to be able to lead his youth sponsors and the students in a direction towards Christ. If there is no leadership in the ministry, it is just a bunch of programs and dollars wasted. I have tried to become more educated on this whole idea of leadership, so I have started to read some blogs and books. A guy named Tony Morgan has a great blog on leadership, and I have found it to be very helpful.

Stay tuned for my next post. If you are a man, you will definitely want to tune in. I will be discussing a method us men can begin to use to decrease women's desire to shop. Until then, live easy...and die hard.