Gospel.com Blog

The Youth Specialties blog is written by and for youth workers. As someone whose last involvement in youth ministry was attending youth services in high school, I find it a great place to read about the issues youth leaders face today.

In a recent post, Brooklyn Lindsey discusses some of her thoughts on cell phones and youth ministry:

I recently returned from a summer mission trip where we made the unfathomable decision to collect cell phones for an entire week. A few students needed us to help them through the night sweats and uncontrollable shaking, but for the most part, by day two, all was well in the world.

We ended up having a week of deepened relationships, focused conversation, and focused service to others. Students could call their parents from the adult leaders’ cell phones but other than that, they were free…so to speak.

Three days after our trip I found myself in our local college/ young adult ministry setting. We meet in a local coffee bistro with live music and awesome discussion. My husband is the leader, so I love the ministry, 30 Below is something I look forward to every week. However, one thing was really obvious to me after having a week free of technological interruption, everyone around me (dozens of people sitting around tables) sat in this all too familiar conversation with eyes darting every few minutes to their lit up phones. Even if it was to simply “check the time”, we were all there…but not really. I started to wonder if I too, if our phones have become our safety, our fall-out plan.

We’ve all been around someone who can’t stop fidgeting with their phone or some other piece of technology, and I’m sure we’ve all wondered if they were really paying attention or if they were off in another world. It’s interesting to hear of youth ministers physically taking devices from teenagers in an effort to bring about some semblance of normalcy to their lives. Perhaps it’s a discipline we should all practice from time to time.

Do you think technology can keep us from fully experiencing our relationships with people? Or do you think our relationships can be made better through the use of always-on tech? And more importantly, what about your relationship with God? How do those bundles of circuitry help or hinder your connection with God?

The June/July issues of Uplook magazine is out, and available for free online! The new issue features over a dozen new essays and articles which cover topics ranging from the creation/evolution debate to the importance of focusing on the right things in life. There’s also a provocative article by by Donald Norbie asking a question Americans generally prefer to sidestep: is obesity and overeating a sin?

Grab the new issue in PDF (and browse through the archive of past issues) at the Uplook magazine downloads page.

A report that 170 Christian leaders and pastors recently viewed the Jesus Film in their mother tongue is already a noteworthy event, but what makes this story even better is that this was the first time any of those leaders had ever seen any movie in their own language. Read Clark Farley’s story about his recent missions trip to Nicaragua on the Jesus Film blog:

“… Back in January, at the very last minute, we contacted you about getting a copy of the “JESUS” film in the Miskito language. We were headed to the [Mosquito Coast] on the east coast of Nicaragua with a group of physicians and dentists and helpers to put on medical clinics and evangelical activities. … it was an unbelievable blessing to the native Indian population of Nicaragua. We held a pastors’ seminar for four days in Puerto Cabezas. We invited 100 pastors, and 170 showed up. Some traveled for over two days down the Rio Coco. Two came all the way from Honduras. These pastors were starved for some training. But the “JESUS” film in their native language was, by far, the hit of the conference. These men and women had never seen ANY movie in their native tongue. They watched the “JESUS” film with their mouths open. They did not move till it was over. We selected a pastor who had traveled the farthest, and we gave him a copy of the film and a Sony portable DVD player so he could take the film back to his village in the jungle. I just want to thank you for all you do. You are truly a wonderful blessing to this world.”

You can watch the film in the Miskito language, or watch it in the language of your choice here.

(HT: Mission Network News)

It’s been several weeks since the death of uber-entertainer Michael Jackson, and as time has passed, so has the media frenzy that surrounded the event. Few bloggers and pundits have not had something to say on the topic, but I think there’s room for some reflection on Jackson’s life and death from a Christian perspective.

To that end, there’s a good post at the Digital Evangelism Issues blog about the Jackson media frenzy, with some solid links (one dispelling a Christian myth that’s already sprung up around the story of Jackson’s death—that didn’t take long!). James Watkins has also blogged a bit about Jackson’s passing. Good starts to what I hope is a broader conversation in the Christian community about fame, celebrity, and the way we relate to cultural icons like Jackson.

The most difficult thing about singing the song ‘Jesus Loves Me’ is believing that the words are true for you—and everyone else who sings them.

XXXChurch founder Graig Gross and pastor Jason Harper are exploring the notion that Jesus loves everybody in their upcoming book, Jesus Loves You this I know. To gear up for the book’s release, they’re traveling the country to speak with the very people we suspect Jesus might not actually love.

From Jesus Loves You website:

The constant noise of contemporary life makes it easy to miss the most profound message the world has ever known: Jesus loves you. Innovative teachers Craig Gross and Jason Harper will separate the religious from the real as they show how this simple truth is worth our undivided attention. The authors weave Jesus’ narrative with their own stories of serving among the “least of these” in this inspiring summons to world-changing faith. Join them as they encounter shut-ins, drunks, inmates, porn stars, and others while striving to follow Christ in their daily lives.

You can grab a PDF sample from the book to learn more. They’ve also produced several videos introducing a number of the book’s chapters. Here’s the one for “Jesus Loves the Broken”:

If you’re interested in joining them, here are the Jesus Loves You tour dates:

August 30, 2009 – Topeka, KS
September 30, 2009 – Las Vegas, NV
October 7, 2009 – Los Angeles, CA
October 11, 2009 – Detroit, MI
October 23, 2009 – Folsom, CA
October 30-November 1, 2009 – Atlanta, GA

Happy birthday, John Calvin! 500 years ago today, the famous reformer and theologian was born in France. His preaching and writing—especially his most famous work, Institutes of the Christian Religion—have had an enormous influence on Christianity through the centuries after his death.

Here are a few interesting Calvin-related resources from the Gospel.com community and around the web:

• The Wikipedia entry on John Calvin is a good place to start.
• The sovereignty of God (on which the much-debated doctrine of predestination is based) was one of the central elements of Calvin’s theology. The Christian History Institute has a nice introduction to Calvin’s thoughts on God’s sovereignty, and an excerpt from the Institutes in which Calvin lays out his thoughts on the matter.
• Much has been written about Calvin online, but if you prefer to dive right into his original writings, you might try SermonIndex’s collection of famous John Calvin sermons in MP3. (Recorded by modern preachers, of course—alas, John Calvin himself had no iPod or MP3 player.)
• And if you’re feeling really bold, you can jump into the massive Institutes of the Christian Religion itself at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Now go enjoy your weekend. And if you figure out how to fit 500 candles onto that John Calvin birthday cake you’re baking, please send us pictures…

A big change is coming for one of our ministry friends. On July 10th, IBS-STL is changing its name to Biblica! For those that don’t know, IBS-STL is most recently famous for their NIV and TNIV translations of the Bible.

From the about page on Biblica’s brand-new site:

For 200 years International Bible Society (IBS) has been sharing God’s Word around the world. Through two centuries of ministry, IBS has provided Scriptures to soldiers on battlefields, inmates in prisons, immigrants, the poor, and anyone who needs the hope of the Bible.

For 50 years Send the Light (STL) has been taking Christian literature to the farthest reaches of the world, so that people everywhere could encounter Jesus Christ through the gospel message.

In 2007 IBS and STL merged to take the Bible and biblical resources to new places, in more languages, in ways never before envisioned.

IBS-STL moves into a third century of ministry as Biblica. But this is much more than a simple name change. Biblica is driven to reach those who have never experienced the transformational power of God’s Word in ways that uniquely meet their personal needs.

We are motivated by 200 years of passion and commitment to the provision of God’s Word, but with a fresh vision to reach the world with the Bible and resources that bring people into deeper relationship with God.

If you’re interested you can read a history of the organization here.

Over at ThinkChristian.net, Bethany Keeley is asking her readers to consider what stories are most important to them:

I think it’s interesting that we ask people more often their favorite bible verse instead of their favorite bible story. Favorite verses tend to be pithy commands, stories are more perplexing and complicated. I wonder what you would learn about people’s lives and their callings if you asked them about their favorite stories instead. I wonder what our church would be like if we focused on telling stories more. [...]

One story that is important to me is the story of Ruth and Naomi. I like that story because it reminds me of God’s faithfulness in bad circumstances, and how sometimes God’s faithfulness is expressed through loyal friendship. I also love to struggle with the book of Habakkuk. I love that Habakkuk asks so many hard questions, and that God responds, even if he doesn’t respond the way I would like. I come back to that story a lot, in part because I don’t understand it, and I think God has more to teach me there.

Her distinction between favorite verses and favorite stories is an interesting one. It’s easy to shoehorn a verse into a nice proverb or saying, but it’s the stories behind those verses that give them their weight. For example, the story of the Good Samaritan can be summed up by saying “love your enemies”–but truly living that idea from day to day, as Jesus taught us, requires an example. For the most part, we need those stories to fall back on.

What about you? Do you have a favorite Bible story?

Three new Just Thinking articles just went up at Ravi Zacharias’ website. Like previous Just Thinking pieces, they offer challenging looks at apologetics and faith:

• Of Isms and Rabbit Trails: J.M. Njoroge wonders if there is value in pursuing knowledge, or if it just distracts us from a relationship with God.
• Hyperseeing and the Towers of Babel: “Is Google making us stupid?” “Is Twitter bad for the soul?” “Is Facebook changing the way we relate?” All questions that have been endlessly discussed by writers and bloggers lately. Jill Carattini unpacks the issues of information overload and the social web.
• Inseparable Companions: what Charles Schultz’s Peanuts and the Great Pumpkin tell us about the never-ending debate about faith and the existence of God.

There are many more excellent essays in the Just Thinking archives if you want to explore further.

Lifetime Guarantee’s weekly program is now available via podcast! Lifetime Guarantee is the ministry of Bill and Anabel Gillham and aims to help you “see yourself as God sees you and live as He intended.” (Our friends at Soulation might call that “being appropriately human.”)

To that end, Lifetime Guarantee has quite a few resources worth checking out in addition to the weekly podcast: there’s a daily devotional (that you can subscribe to via email if you like) and weekly article series that touches on topics ranging from dealing with worry to learning from failure. That’s a lot of useful information already, but they’ve got yet more spiritual development resources if you want to explore the site further.