More Pics From the Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park

We arrived in Townsend Tennessee last night.  We quickly set up the camper and went straight for the creek.  Today we drove through Cades Cove and saw the beautiful mountains that I saw when I camped with my grandparents when I was a kid.  This may sound a bit funny but I remember the smell of these mountains and streams.  I have felt something stir in me that I can't explain.  A hint of renewal.  A ton of memories.  A bit of bringing my childhood family's past into my adulthood family's present.  We are only into our second day and I'm feeling tremendously blessed to be in Tennessee with Amanda, Abi, and Clay.  Everything here touches the memory senses.  Even the grocery store brought back great memories of spending a few days in the mountains of New Mexico with Neil, Julie, Justin, and Kimberly.  I guess the stores were similar but I smiled through each isle as I recalled what great friends I've been blessed with.  A great past...A great present...What does God have planned for my future?

Tomorrow we are off to visit Paint Creek and Horse Creek where we camped and played when I was a kid.

Trying to drag Clay down to the creek

Once at the creek, Clay wanted to throw rocks and Abi wanted to get in!

I had forgotten how tall these trees are here.  As soon as I looked up to take this picture I remembered the many times I looked up and saw this picture as I would sit with my Papaw around the campfire.

A Youth Ministry Chapter...

Youth  Ministry has its ups and downs.  There are highs like graduations, birthdays (i.e. drivers license), sports victories, theatrical performances, band and choir number ones, salvations, baptisms, and life callings.  There are lows like death, crime, drugs, alcohol, the wrong kind of parties, accidents, poverty, and parents' divorce.  There are students who are selfish, indifferent, uncaring, uninterested, unresponsive, apathetic, unsympathetic, unconcerned, and/or unmoved.  There are students who are loving, kind, compassionate, joyful, peace makers, patient, selfless, good hearted, generous, caring, interested, responsive, sympathetic, and concerned.  


I am on a purposefully slow journey through the book of Romans interpreted by Eugene Peterson in "The Message".  In Romans 12, I found some of the most interesting and thought provoking verses that easily pertains to youth ministry.  I'd like to break down some of it here:


Peterson entitles the chapter "Place Your Life Before God" (You will be ineffective in youth ministry if you fail to do this!!!)


 ^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.


Paul tells us here that we must offer ourselves as a gift offering to be used by God every minute of every day.  We must realize that we must be focused on God in whatever we are doing.  If we aren't focused on him, the weight of the "downs" of youth ministry will drag us down to its level.


^6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.


I would like to begin here by defining "disadvantaged" as a someone who is/was birthed into a household who does not worship Jesus as Lord.  I have known several youth workers, including myself, who have been spiritually and emotionally effected by the disadvantaged.  I would say that I have been irritated by students and to a point have even been depressed with the weight of asking myself "What could I have done differently?" when a student walks away from God and the church.  This portion of Scripture challenges us to remember who is really in control.  It isn't us.  It is God, and since He is in control we can keep a smile on our face.  Let's keep our faith in the One who created each student and the One who knows each student deeper than we ever will.  This is also great encouragement to each part of a youth ministry team.  If you are preaching or teaching...stick with Scripture.  If you are helping, don't be trying to undermine the leadership, just show up (with a smile on your face) and help.  If you are an encourager or someone the students look to for advice...be sure to just advise...and not take it too personally if they don't use your wisdom.  If you are called to be generous with your time and money, don't over think it...when God presents a need or a cause for you to get involved in or with...jump in, don't wait for your worldly conscience to talk you out of being generous.  Don't let those disadvantaged students (who talk more like sailors than Christ followers) drive you to the point of leaving youth ministry.  Keep smiling!!!


^9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.


A student can always spot a fake!  Always!  I believe it is important to note that you have to run from evil because it is always running towards you.  You have to hold on to good because the desire to always do good is running away from you.  Be a good friend, love deeply, give someone else the spotlight!


^11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.


Remember to keep your own batteries charged.  If God is not in your tank then how can you fuel others?  Be cheerfully expectant...even a bit giddy of what God is going to do!  Don't quit, pray harder, help students who are in need, be inventive in engaging with students inside and outside the church building.



^14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
 ^17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."
 ^20-21Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.



I'll let those words speak for themselves.  


Can't you see the calling and challenge of youth ministry just radiating from these verses?  The challenge with youth ministry is being as loving and patient with each student as Jesus is.  Are we?  We have to remember that Jesus is with each student during both highs and lows.  Are we?  Jesus is working to transform each student from the very onset of ugly behavior or motives.  Are we?  Jesus is working to challenge students who appear to "have it all together" into a deeper relationship .  Are we?


Take some time over the next several days to think about ministry as it relates to this chapter in the book of Romans.  Are you tired, empty, burdened, depressed, irritated?  Are you praying, being hospitable, being generous, being a good friend, loving deeply?  Are you focused on God?  Am I?

Ervil Austin

Gramps and Grandma with 2 of the grandkids and all 3 great-grandkids.  

This was Gramps taking Abi to pet one of the baby cows that she named.

Clay loved his Gramps (and his empty coffee cups!)

     Around eleven years ago I was introduced to Amanda's grandpa as I attended my first Austin family dinner.  I was captivated immediately by his enthusiasm for life, his passion for his farm, his fervent work ethic, and most of all, his love for his family; especially his grandkids, and later, his great-grand kids.  Over the years, I was more and more fascinated with "Gramps" as he invited me to work around the farm, take fishing trips to the farm by Competition, and I even had a chance to work on some construction projects with him.  There are many stories about Gramps that I could tell, but I'll just share a few:

Fishing:

On one trip to the farm by Competition, Ervil and I decided to go fishing.  I always take a 5 gallon bucket with me to fish ponds.  I am not a fish eater, I just like to count how many fish I catch.  (I also have a sneaky suspicion that if you catch and release immediately, the "released" fish tell the "yet to be caught" fish what not to eat!)  So on this particular day, Ervil and I must have caught 60 rather large bluegill.  When we were out of worms and about out of daylight, I began the "count" to see how many we had caught.  As I began tossing the fish back, Ervil caught me and said, "How come you're throwing my supper back when it took me all day to catch them?"  I thought he was just kidding, because I wasn't going to spend the rest of the night cleaning these fish.  So I just laughed and soon found out that he really wanted to keep all of those fish!  He cleaned them and gave some to Amanda's aunt Jeanette and kept the rest for his dinner.  For the next several months Ervil would tell everyone at the family dinners how I tried to throw all his fish that he caught back.

Farming:

I have never been an official farmer but I have always wanted to be one.  There were days that I could get my farm fix in by going to the Austin Farm.  One late Spring afternoon, Amanda, Abi, and I joined Gramps at the Farm.  Right away I was put in the big blue tractor and was taught how to rake the hay before it got bailed.  On another day, Ervil was having issues with his bailer.  Something on it was broke and he was bound to fix it before we left.  After spending 3-4 hours trying to make a replacement for the part that was broke, Ervil decided that it just wasn't going to happen.  We drove into town and picked up the replacement part for 75 cents at Vernon and Sons.  

Construction:

I was able to help Ervil with a few projects but the ones I remember the most are the deck and overhang on the Competition house that Amanda's uncle Neil and his family live in and the concrete sidewalk and porch at the Lebanon house.  For the porch and sidewalk, Ervil had recruited Amanda's dad Mark, myself, and a neighbor.   When the concrete truck showed up we went to work pouring and finishing.  We were about an hour into the project when the truck driver started complaining that we were taking too long.  Ervil, always with a smile on his face, never got angry with the pressure from the concrete company he just kept telling him that we were going as fast as we could.  Then he would turn to me so the driver couldn't hear him and say, "I don't know what they are complaining about, I paid for this concrete and they never gave me a time limit to pour it when I ordered it."  We continued at the same pace for at least 2 more hours.  I have never seen a driver so upset but Ervil never lost his cool with that driver.  

Family:

Last year we celebrated Gramps' 80th birthday.  I was always intrigued over the years hearing his stories of how he was able to provide for his family by owning and operating a bulldozer.  He was always interested in and attentive to every family member that walked through the doors of his house.  He knew that God had blessed him immeasurably.  One of the most proud moments for Gramps came at Mark's house last summer when Clay gave his now famous "campaign speech".

Ervil showed this video to anyone and everyone who would watch it.  Last December when Ervil learned that he had cancer, he went right into family mode making sure that everything was in order and ready for him to go.  Last week we had a chance to go visit for homemade ice-cream and visiting on the porch for the final time with Gramps.  He enjoyed watching Abi learning how to ride a bike without training wheels.  He glowed at watching Lennon hit every pitch that Evan threw him.  He laughed at watching Clay try to keep up with the big kids.  

I'm so thankful for the time I was able to spend with Ervil.  I had a chance to learn so much from him while we talked over many cups of coffee and while watching him love his family.  His many years and life experiences made him one of the wisest men I've ever known.  Yesterday, Ervil passed from this life to the next.  He was more than Amanda's grandpa.  He was more than Clay and Abi's "Gramps".  He was my friend, mentor, and the man I want to grow up to be.

Romans

After doing a pretty thorough study on the Apostle Paul and his missionary journeys, I am reading his epistles again but with a renewed respect and passion for the life Paul lived. Using Eugene Peterson's The Message translation this is what Paul writes at the end of chapter 7. "It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." Jesus Christ can and does!!!!!!

Crazy Love

Yep  you guessed it!  The second book that I'll be tackling on my Sabbatical is "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.  It is crazy to believe but Francis starts the book off by talking about the beauty of God that is prevalent in His creation.  A theme that has surfaced for me all ready during the last couple of weeks.  This week I have traveled to the Roaring River State Park.  I'm looking forward to some good fishing, reading, and journaling.  Let me know if you've read "Crazy Love" by clicking on the survey question to the right of the screen.

Recognizing The Creator...

In "Unbroken" Laura Hillenbrand talks about a time when Louie was on the raft and they were in the doldrums of the ocean.  He saw something so incredibly beautiful that he knew, right then and there, that there had to be a Creator.  Hillenbrand writes:

     "As he watched this beautiful, still world, Louie played with a thought that had come to him before.  He had thought it as he had watched the seabirds, marveling at their ability to adjust their dives to compensate for the refraction of light in water.  He had thought it as he had considered the pleasing geometry of the sharks, their gradation of color, their slide through the sea.  he even recalled the thought coming to him in his youth, when he had lain on the roof of the cabin in the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, looking up from Zane Grey to watch night settling over the earth.  Such beauty, he thought, was too perfect to have come about by mere chance.  That day in the center of the Pacific was, to him, a gift crafted deliberately, compassionately, for him and Phil."

During my first hike this week through Prairie State Park the very first thought that came to my mind was that I had taken for granted the beauty of this world.  The small things that God created that are "too perfect to have come about by chance."  The Apostle Paul talked about this in the book of Acts as he was trying to convince the Athenians of the One True God.  He put it like this:  

"The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don't make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near. We live and move in him, can't get away from him!"

This week I spent time focusing on the beauty of creation and focusing on the beauty of the Creator.  The following pictures share some of my journey from the colors and shapes of the flowers, to the shape and vastness of the clouds, to the size and strength of the buffalo, to the agility and speed of a deer, and finally to the most beautiful fish I've ever seen...the rainbow trout.  

Menacing Blackness: 

In the book "Unbroken", Laura Hillenbrand writes about the soldiers who came back from World War II.  She writes:

"For these men, the central struggle of postwar life was to restore their dignity and find a way to see the world as something other than menacing blackness."

I wonder if being in the ministry or in church leadership for many seasons can change our view of the world around us.  Do we ever get jaded?  Do we begin to view the lost as enemies instead of P.O.W.s?  Do we ever stop our rescue missions because of our tainted world view?  Can we still recognize how beautiful the world is and the beauty of the people in it?  Do we try to huddle in our Sanctuaries hoping that the wooden walls and the wooden cross will keep the menacing blackness out?  Or do we throw open our doors and lives and let His radiant light penetrate the darkness?  When do we quit worrying about if the boogie man is going to get us and start worrying about rescuing the folks who are being held captive by sin?

I pray that the menacing blackness would be our next battleground.  I pray that the Church would step into the darkness and never quarantine it.  I pray that the Church will continue to see the most beautiful thing God ever created...when a person steps out from the menacing blackness and into His wonderful light.

Like a Crawdad out of Water...

When I was in cubscouts when I was a kid, we camped where I am camping now: Prairie State  Park.  While walking across the prairie with my cubscout pack, we came across a Crawdad claw.  We were no where around water.  We just assumed that something had eaten the Crawdad and had somehow transported the claw to the middle of dry land.  Today, while hiking on the prairie I came upon this Crawdad in the middle of the walking trail with no water in sight.  He looked very vulnerable and defensive.

In ministry, God calls people from something, to something.  For me, I was called from a construction career plan to a ministry calling.  Over the years, at times, I have felt like this vulnerable, defensive Crawdad.  Education can't prepare you for everything that comes your way in ministry.  College didn't teach me how to grow a church or youth group, how to comfort my students when their mom dies of cancer or suicide, how to handle church politics, or how to get along with the lead pastor. College didn't teach me that some church folk can sometimes be meaner than most non-church folk.  College taught me the basics of the Bible.  Everything else has been learned through experience.  There are still times in ministry when I feel like everyone is counting on me to have all the answers.  When I don't know what to do or say, I need to learn not to get defensive and get my claws out.  I need to learn that I am in a place I am called to...a place that is sometimes out of my element.

My New Friend

I just had a wonderful conversation with one of the locals here from Liberal, MO.  I don't know what his name was but he stopped by my campsite to give me this lovely firewood.  I was getting ready to do some forest rummaging but decided to read my Bible and write in my journals first.  Good thing I did wait because then my new friend pulled up.  He shared with me all about who he was, where he worked before he retired, and then he asked me what I did.  I told him I was a youth pastor in Springfield.  He said, "A pastor!!! And here I am with already 3 beers in me!"

I had the opportunity to then hear about how he attended church when he was a kid, his confusion with protestants and Catholics, his nephew who was in jail in forsythe and a nephew who was a Sheriff around these parts.  Although my new inebriated friend was hard to understand he reminded me of moments that we get with individuals who cross our path.  I pray that I was faithful with my moment and the next Christ Follower sent across his path will be faithful as well.

Lessons From Louie

One of the books that I'm reading during my sabbatical is called "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  This book about Louis Zamperini is "A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption."  So far I've traveled with Louie through is childhood, his High School years as a track star, his days as an Olympic runner, his first couple of years in the military, and now I'm floating with him on a life raft.  I first learned about the heroic Louis Zamperini through John Ortberg and the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.  John did an entire series on Lessons from Louie and at the end of the series interviewed the 90+ Louis Zamperini.  In the 150 pages that I've read, I have learned more about World War II then I ever learned in school.  I am so thankful to all the soldiers that served during this time of darkness.

The first lesson from Louie that I want to focus on is the fact that your mindset has a lot to do with what you can accomplish.  I've been learning this lesson over the past few months from the Apostle Paul and now from Louie Zamperini.  Why did both of these guys keep going?  Paul has an incredible list of the persecutions and trials that he went through in 2 Corinthians 11 after he became a Christ Follower.  Louie had an impressive list of his trials and tribulations before he became a Christ Follower.  Why in the worst circumstances, does it seem, that these two guys remained optimistic?  Why is it that sometimes, we can get so absorbed with the absence of luxury that we think life is so terrible?  One area that I will be working on in my spiritual life is my attitude.  I want to be more optimistic.  I want to have more faith that God is in control and my physical comfort has nothing to do with my spiritual optimism.