YAHWEH and Jager Bombs - PART 2

So it's time for part II.

Disclaimer: I thought this would be an interesting blog topic because it is something not too spoken of in church circles. I am not for nor against the issue, just looking to gain a better insight being I am now a 21 year old church leader.

I figured it would only be appropriate to write this post immediately after going to an O.A.R. concert at Penn's Landing in Philly. Which coincidentally is the largest gathering of drunk college students I have ever seen. (Second maybe to a Penn State football home game) This post is going to be some of the evidence I have put together against drinking alcoholic beverages. Don't worry though, it will be followed up immediately by thoughts on the positives!

1) What the Bible says about drinking:

-The Bible speaks mostly of drunkenness, in verses such as Ephesians 5:18 it says, "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit."
Notes: This speaks of drunkenness as a problem, therefore noting that drinking is not bad, excessive drinking is however. The reason being is that it leads to sinful nature. If you've ever been drunk, you can most likely attest this being a true statement.

Proverbs 23:20 states, "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat."
Notes: Once again this idea that TOO MUCH is the issue here. But then you have to ask the question... how much is too much?

2) Negative Personal Experiences.

As many of you know, and some of you do not, I also have an interesting and up close and personal experience with alcohol, and what negative effects it can really have. I am a proud son of an alcoholic mother who has been sober for over 3 years.

I can't however always say that I was a proud son. There was a day and time when alcohol and it's addictive qualities ravaged my household. It had some type of power that is almost impossible to explain to someone who hasn't seen it's damage. Or to explain to someone who hasn't seen it in someones eyes, or in their excuses, or in their sneaking around. Watching that happen in my own family was a nightmare. I stuck with my sister through a bulk of the problems, but when she shipped off to college it just added additional strain to our already damaged family. Watching your mother leave for months at a time to go to rehab is not something any adolescent should have to deal with. Luckily for my situation, on for those months she got to experience Christ for the first time. I am convinced she would have never been able to break the cycle had it not been for the redemptive power of the Spirit.

STATISTIC: Latest estimated number of alcoholics in the US hangs around 1 of every 50 people. Putting the number around 6 million, 76 thousand alcohol abusers. A force to be reckoned with...

Several months ago our church ran a series called "Switch Stories". The series was about people who have just had their life flipped upside down by God. My mom was one of the people to share her story... You can watch her story here:

YAHWEH and Jager Bombs - PART 1

So here we go, you can guess by the name of this blog that we are going to be discussing something a little bit out of the ordinary. BUT here is what I need from you.
PARTICIPATION!

If you could comment on this one, it would be a huge help to lead the direction of the whole series.

And I say series because I want to do more than one blog as I see what people are saying.

This is going to be a post on something that is somewhat an unspoken, alcohol. I want to see what people in the church think about drinking, and I want to hear what people outside of the church think about people inside the church. I want to look from all angles and I want to look at pros and cons.

First question: Does alcohol disable you from being beyond reproach?
I asked a pastor friend of mine from a local church why he had decided to not drink anything that has any alcohol in it. To my surprise he said "because of what non-believers might think of me if I have a drink. Many non-believers or people from different backgrounds would probably not trust me or believe in me because they think a man who is the head of a church is better than alcohol." Now this is the twist... I asked him about drinking and if it was a sin.

His Answer - "No... but it is for me to do it..."

Which leads me to wonder... is it for me as well? I mean, I am involved with leading a youth ministry. Students do mirror what we do. Or is showing them that it is okay to drink once you are 21 and can use it responsibly a good thing to mirror as well?

That is for you decide... Stay tuned as I dive into what the Word has to say about the issue.

Learning First Hand...

The irony of my situation just sometimes brings me to laughter. So I am a super-junior at Eastern university in their Youth Ministry program. I spend about 32 THOUSAND dollars a year to learn how to properly do youth ministry.

This is where things get funny.

I also work at one of the most cutting-edge, sophisticated youth ministries in the country.

So if I put things together, I am going to school for all that money to learn exactly what I am learning right now. I am learning just as much from being surrounded by your Frank Chiapperinos, your Terri and Kevin Stones, your Brian Joneses, your Steph Carters, your Kelly Clarks and many more. Sometimes with schooling an small warnings you just can't be prepared for what is going to happen in ministry. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure you can be prepared for most of ministry.

For example, this last week we threw a conference for our high-schoolers called "Escape" at Black Rock Retreat center in Quarryville. Frank came on the trip, but for most of the retreat he left it up to myself and the other interns. I couldn't have learned what I did in a few days in 4 years of college, especially when things got really out of the ordinary. On the last day we had to deal with some discipline issues with a couple of our students. All I could do was wonder when I was going to be warned or prepared that this job is like this... And then I came to realize... you won't.

It's one of those things that you just learn as you deal with it. It's one of those things where experience creates wisdom. I am thankful for Franks guidance as we worked through the problems. I am thankful for my fellow interns, who handed the situation incredibly well, and I am thankful that next time, and there will be a next time, I will be better equipped for the job.

Here is the new video from our high school retreat ESCAPE!

I saw the sign... and it opened up my eyes.

So, I find myself faced with a whole new challenge. If we are to continue talking about this whole life of dangerous wonder, there is another part of life we are going to have to learn how to deal with... problems.

You would be surprised how someones personality can drastically change when they become stressed or angry or when they are dealing with real challenges or losses. Even today, I became very grumpy from being at work longer than I wanted to or had planned to. I then proceeded to treat someone in a manner that is definitely not in a way that Christ would treat someone.

This all came up when I had a little bit of a problem yesterday...

Driving home from a friends house in the pouring down rain on a road I have been on only like once, I had a little accident. I WAS going the speed limit, but it didn't matter. I tried to turn, but I was already in a massive puddle, and was hydroplaning off the road. I then basically sat back and held on for the ride. I flew over a sidewalk and right into a massive sign.

Good News though!

My fender and hood I was able to just bend back, I also didn't break anything major in my engine compartment. The only damages I really have to fix is a smashed headlight. I am okay with having an ugly car for now, I always have.

But here is the deal, I had plans to head to the beach early this morning. I knew from the second I hit the sign that I wasn't going to make it to the beach.

This would make it easy for anyone to jump out of character and get super pissed. But something was different this time. From the second it happened I told myself "Adam, stuff happens... This isn't even that bad, it's just stuff..." It made a huge difference.

In a life of dangerous wonder, you have to learn how to deal with the little crappy things that are always going to happen. You are going to have to learn how to stare trouble in the face and say... "This is not a salvation issue, so it's not such a big deal!"

In student ministries we just finished our James series called "Pimp My Life" which was kicked off with a sermon on Joy through Trials. James says in verses 2 through 4:

"2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Perhaps the joy of this trial is that it is finally time to buy myself that jeep that I have always wanted. I mean, I've wanted the same thing since age 7, who knows... who knows.


Let us persevere and grow together. Let us find joy through trials...

More than just music.

If you know me any bit, then you know that my favorite band of all time is O.A.R. After a long wait, O.A.R. (of a revolution) has finally dropped their latest album titled "all sides". Their newest album is called All Sides to cover all the different things that someone goes through in their life. They have songs that are fun and uplifting, songs that are about missing things, songs about faith, songs about being lost, and their newest single "Shattered". This is my new favorite song, a song about things falling apart. A song about things not being together how you want them to be. Here are a few lyrics...

"How many times can I break till I shatter?
Over the line can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around
Give me a break let me make my own pattern
All that it takes is some time but I'm shattered
I always turn the car around"

Here is the song, and the video, check it out and tell me what you think.




It's crazy how songs can sometimes describe how you feel so much better than plain words. I love these guys because I feel like their lyrics are always talking about my life. I feel sometimes like I am a little shattered after taking all that I can, and I need to make my own pattern. I too always turn the car around.

The funny thing is, I find God so clearly in their songs and music sometimes. They aren't some crazy Christian band, but they can give me some of my most spiritual moments. It's the same thing with nature. You see something beautiful, or you hear something beautiful, and there God is. Don't ever stop God from being able to reveal to you in the every day things that you enjoy.

I have seen O.A.R. 5 times in concert, but I haven't recently. Luckily I will be going to see them next Wednesday the 30th, and I can't wait...

Picture with lead singer of O.A.R. Mark Roberge at East Straudsburg

Up and Running!

Sermon page working again! Check it on the side bar!!! --->

Technical Difficulties!

Working to make it work! Keep checking back!!!!

-Adam

Sermons Finally Online! (Link in Post)

So I went ahead and finally built a small site to host the messages that I have been giving for Student Ministries. For now I will only be posting high school sermons.

The first one I have up is my FIRE and Brimstone Message.

I want to give a disclaimer before you listen to it: This message seems like a somewhat harsh sermon, but the students in our ministry were coming off of a high from their trip to Tennessee... so I fed it to them Strait. Another thing to remember is you cannot see my visuals. They are a Trunk and a Mirror. This was from 2 weeks ago on Faith without Deeds... Enjoy!

YOU CAN HEAR THE MESSAGE HERE. You will also be able to find them in a new sidebar on my main page.

Switching Gears...

So we just finished up Stretch with a Sunday service and NOW we are in FULL blown Kids Camp Big Top mode. I am also going to celebrate today being the first day working less than 12 hours in weeks! Woo Hoo!

But, besides all of that, Kids Camp kicked off without problems today. We hit a record number of pre-registered students, hitting over 800 kids! That is incredible! It's amazing the outreach capabilities our church has just from a kids camp!

So this isn't much of a fun or inspirational post. This is me saying, "guys, we're almost there...". Coming up all we have to do it Escape for a high school ministry, and then a day or two off! YEAH BOY. Gosh I am tired, I think I am going to nap. Perhaps I will get a post in later tonight.

Ps. I want to throw a happy 21st birthday out there to my fellow intern Brendon Foulke. We will be heading to Texas Road House tonight to celebrate before coming back here to swim with a bunch of fellow student ministry folks who have been helping with Kids camp. Keep praying for our camps and the families attending.

Love and Wonder,
Adam.

Letting Go, and Letting You In...

Well, that is a wrap for Stretch Full Circle 2008. We can all now take a great sigh of relief... alright and breath in real deep... and let it all out... Alright, nice job everyone...

Last night we capped off the middle school stretch conference reaching hundreds of students who have never walked into our doors before. I got to hear a story today of a family who had not been to church in over 10 years, but joined in with us today due to 2 of their 5 children hanging out with us at stretch. It's stuff like that, that screams to me I am in the right place.

We reached the pinnacle of our whole conference last night when we made it to our decision time that we wrap up the conference with. It's the time when we shut off all of the fancy lights and Travis (our hired speaker out of California) gave it to all of the kids straight. Guys... I am not promising things will be easy, or that you won't have to sacrifice, but this is what Jesus has done for you... what are you going to do about it...

He then asked the student to raise their hands and go to a leader if they are ready to make a decision. Maybe that decision was to come and to just ask questions or to pray. Maybe it was to repent, or maybe, just maybe it was to decide to be baptized. When he asked them to do this, so many hands flew up, to even the surprise of Travis. He even had to clarify that kids knew exactly what they were raising their hands for. Dozens of decisions were made, and it sent chills down the spine of almost every leader in the room. So from that point all of the students who made decisions left the room and went outside to talk about these decisions with leaders. (which is a brilliant idea to stray from being emotionally manipulative with a young mind, that will be a whole other post) From there Travis told anyone who had made a decision but had not gotten up to leave, or if you already have dedicated your life to Christ to listen to the last song for the night.

The song is called "At the Cross" by Foundation Red, and I have a bit of a connection with this song myself. This is the song that was playing 4+ years ago when I stumbled to the front of the room during worship to give my life to Christ.

You can listen to the song HERE.

To see these kids making these decisions, especially to this song really made me look back at where I have been. It's important at times to remember where you have been to get a clear look at where you are, and where you need to be.

I just remember my whole world being in that room last night, as the song echoes throughout the room, "I'm at this place in my heart, where I see the cross and I need to be forgiven... Laying down and letting go, and letting you in..." Watching middle school kids let go... God is good.

Pushing others to succeed...

The one thing that still continues to rock my world is just how many high school volunteers we have helping out. I know this kind of sounds repetitive, but this is why. I was thinking about this crazy adventurous life that is and should be Christianity. And I was trying to connect it with what I am seeing happening at Stretch. A huge part of being a Christian needs to be PUSHING others to be the very best that they can for God, and spending time praying for their ministry.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for a ministry is vision cast and push those students in leadership to really take ownership of what is going on. All of the interns have been taking some students under their wings and have also been preaching about standing up and taking your cross.

Soon enough these leaders will be ready to stand up and to push others to be the best they can.

I'll tell you what, we had a nearly flawless night at Stretch, and it was because a whole butt load of people were working together. This group of students is going to start a revolution, and it will all start with a bunch of them pushing each other to be the very best that they can.

Some Verses for Help:

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
-Galatians 6:2

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
-James 5:16"

Stretch 08' And We're Off!

2007 Day 3 Attendance = 190 Students

2008 Day 1 Attendance = 200 Students

That = Awesome.

It's so great to finally see all of the hard work we have been doing coming together. All of the extra hours, all of the tedious tasks, and all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into the production that is Stretch finally showed some of it's seeds.

It can sometimes be discouraging doing so much work, and feel like you aren't getting anywhere. But I will tell you what... finally getting to see all of that work executed with excellence felt very, very good.

We had a record amount of volunteers helping out the core crew that made everything happen, which was such a huge help. Some of these high school students helped out all week with the little crappy stuff that just had to get done.

Something we have to be focused on is Jesus in times like these however. It's easy to lose Jesus in the bright lights, the loud music, and the fun stuff we do for Stretch. If we do all of this, but ultimately the Kingdom is not effected, than this is all a waste. I just pray that throughout this week, we can really continue to set our eyes on Christ and to let him work the real magic that is our conference.

Some really cool things that I enjoyed last night:

Watching our high school ministry step up and serve.
About a month ago we had our very intense series on serving, so to see them doing what we talk about and helping make day one a huge success means the world to me as a speaker and teacher.

Chosen Dance Company
Don't ask me how, but April pulled off getting a Christian dance company that does hip-hop, break dancing, and they are just all around incredible. They have performed half time shows at the super-bowl, they did the X-games, and concerts for huge artist. Watching them do their thing was awesome. I am going to take this moment to tell everyone that I am quitting ministry to join a hip-hop break dancing team... Well Not so much... but the idea was fun for that second. Check out this video of them:



Knowing that I was a part of something.
Everything that happens means so much more when you are making it happen. Frank, Ben, Melissa, April, Alex, Brendon and I worked our butts off to make it great, and it was great!

The Late Night E-Mail
Right before we headed home for the night Frank got an E-mail on his blackberry, basically was a mom stating that her son came home happier than she has seen him in a while. I told everyone that if we change one heart than this is a mission accomplished, so it's always great to hear the first of our many success stories.

I hope to hear more as we continue on with this huge production. Keep this ministry in your prayers.

Policiphobia?

So I will admit, I have a past. I used to have a fast car, and I used to have a really well... fast lifestyle? Anywho... those years lead me to find myself in trouble with the police many, many times. I think what it has done to me throughout the years is give me a fear of police. I have the worst luck in the world with police. For example when I was younger all of my friends would be involved in the underage drinking scene, and I usually avoided that mess. I finally went to one of those parties, and I get busted by the police. That is only one of many examples (and if you are a student and reading this post, then I encourage you to talk to me about those years so I can tell you how I wasted some of the best years of my life).

All of that just to say that I have a fear of a police. And of course it figures, I am the only one to get pulled over while handing out kids camp door hangers this Monday. I got pulled over for soliciting and because one of my students may not have been quite wearing his seatbelt while driving through a residential neighborhood... oops.

It figures that the one person who is more phobic of police than any of the other drivers is the one to get pulled over. Luckily I didn't get a ticket or anything, but it's still just my luck! Maybe you feel like sometimes you just have some crappy luck with stuff like that, who knows.

Just when you think you're getting somewhere...

So tonight I got hit with one of those moments where you just have to say... crap. Because that is pretty much the only thing you can say. You will probably get similar posts today from Frank, Melissa, April and Brendon.

Tonight was a Sunday much like other Sundays. We are obviously going into Stretch Mode (Our churches middle school conference) but besides that, pretty much the norm. Our high-school group is coming off of a very emotional trip to Tennessee, a fire and brimstone message from me last week about living out our faiths, and a message this week from Brendon about taming the tongue and using it to honor God. That is why what happened next hit me off guard a little.

Every Sunday we have a circle in the auditorium after youth group is over. We basically do a recap with the coaches, interns, student leaders, and whatever students are still there. We talk about what went well, and what we need improvement on.

Tonight after a night of watching students and how they have changed, something was brought up in the circle.

A student brought up the fact that three new girls attending youth group had not really been introduced properly, or treated nicely, and even talked badly about.

That... Sucks.

After really thinking we were getting somewhere, and really getting to these kids, this happens. Which makes us all ask the hard questions. What do we do to not just put on a show, but to really mold the hearts of our students. This is the question we are going to have to answer together over the next few weeks.

I don't want to sell short the like 10 baptisms that we have had in the last 3 weeks at all, and I don't want to sell short the change I have seen in so many students. But it opened all of our eyes up to a whole lot more work we have ahead of us...

Why do I blog?

The answer to that one is simple...

I told someone the other day that I blog, and their first remark was, "Yeah, my life isn't interesting enough to blog."

So I thought about it, and I just want to clear up any misconceptions. I do not think that my life is more worthy than your life to write a blog about it. If anything, I encourage anyone who can write to do a blog because I think everyone has something personal to them to write about.

Second, my initial reason for blogging was to let people know what I was doing when I was touring the country last summer... But ultimately I want people to see the world from a different point of view than they are used to. Foremost, I want people to see Christianity from a new angle than usual. I think so many times people see Christians as boring, soft, and just all around Mr. Rogers like. I don't see it that way. If more people saw the huge task that Christians have, they would see there is a lot more on the line and lot more adventure out there. Early Christians lives were really a dangerous adventure everyday because they were putting their necks out there for Jesus every day. I don't think we as Christians do that anymore. I am just now starting to get this little glimpse of the radical life that is Christianity. I hope you join with me. Please feel free to leave comments on anything as well!

A Mountain Top Experience... Literally!

I filmed this upon reaching the highest point of the mountain we were hiking up on the Appalachian Trail. You have to take advantage of those times when you are really feeling on top, and there is an opening to clearly see your next steps so you can take them head on! And far too many times people miss opportunities like this because they are just taking life way to seriously. Do you see God in nature especially? I know I do...