Brian's Blog

I have been teaching about Grace the past couple weeks at church.  So, I have been studying and reading up on Grace as much as possible.  But, I have been experiencing and wrestling with it in my life the last couple weeks as well.  It was interesting timing to say the least, I am teaching on the ideas of Biblical grace and then get a call that requires what feels like more grace then I can give.

I am immediately put the test, do I really believe what the Bible says about Grace?  What about sin having consequences?  What about trust, and friendship, are they part of Grace?

Grace is misunderstood, misused, confused for other things, and generally abused by a lot of Christians.  But, even when I am intentionally learning all I can about Grace, reading books on it, studying it in every way I can, it’s different when you get that phone call requiring buckets of grace.

But that’s Grace right, it’s not Grace if it’s cheap.  It’s not grace if it’s easy.

This week I am going to write a couple posts about Grace, some of the things that I am learning about Grace and some of the questions that I am still working on answering.  I hope you will join in the conversation and let me know your feelings and thoughts on the subject.

Here are a couple random thoughts from day 4 of the Detroit Mission trip.

-It’s amazing how friendships are formed during this trip. It happens every year.  Some students that have barely talked to each other all year, leave this trip as friends. It’s cool to have been doing this a while because I can now point to friends in high school and even college (am I aging myself now?) whose friendship started during this middle school Detroit mission trip.

-It’s amazing to me how much fun the students have given that they do not have access to any electronics and how electronics have become such a part of their day to day lives.

-It’s also amazing to me that people don’t see how those two things are connected.

-I was struck today by the passage where Jesus talks about allowing the children to come to Him. And how there is a special place in Jesus’ heart for children. And it is incredible to see our students develop that same heart for kids.

-I’m going to be honest, I don’t know what’s worse…our students’ rhythm (the kids here play a lot of hand clap games and whenever they sit at a table it becomes a drum) or their sweeping/mopping abilities. Both need a little bit of work

-A big thanks to those parents who have prepared and brought food. We really appreciate you guys, it is so nice to not have to worry about food after a long day chasing kids or demo-ing houses.

-Today is the last normal day of VBS and last day of work project, please pray for energy for our students and that we would be able to get our work project all wrapped up and stay safe.

Here are a couple pics from the work site we took yesterday.

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Eight weeks ago we introduced our water. campaign to the Herd and Crash ministries.

As we were studying what it really means to follow Jesus, living sacrificially and generously, we wanted to have a powerful application to bring this truth to life.  We wanted to give students a glimpse of what God can do in and through us when we align our hearts with His and take seriously His call to love others.  We prayerfully decided to partner with Charity Water in building a well for a town that doesn’t have access to clean drinking water.  We (the staff) got really excited when we first started thinking about doing a water campaign but we didn’t know how the response would be with the students. Each well costs $5,000 to build and provides around 250 people clean drinking water. We really wanted to pledge two wells but decided to stick with one so we wouldn’t overcommit and then come up short. After all…$10,000 is a lot of money….and we are talking teenagers here.

We encouraged students to live as living sacrifices and to give money until it affected the way they lived.  We gave them ideas (like eating beans and rice for a meal a week and giving that money that you would have spent on food) and encouraged them to get creative on their own.  We sold water t-shirts and wrist bands, and water bottles.

After we introduced this, we were blown away by how many students wanted to get involved and how much they were pledging. Each week more stories came in about what the students were doing to make enough money to meet their pledges.  Students were doing extra babysitting, weeding, can drives, pretty much anything else you can think of to raise money. Week by week as the money was coming in, we got more and more excited because it looked like our unspoken goal of two wells was looking more like a reality.

Fast forward to last night…

By the end of the evening we had raised $14,261 – enough for almost THREE full wells!!  Our little band of high school and middle school students have worked together over a span of eight weeks to give 700 people clean drinking water.  People’s lives may be saved as a result, little girls won’t have to spend all day hiking to get water, moms won’t have to worry if their kids will get sick from the water they are drinking….because a group of students in south east Michigan decided to start living lives of true worship.

And while I am so excited to have been able to be a part of our water. campaign, I am even more excited to see our students start to understand what it really means to live their lives as Christ followers.  I am seeing students alter their spending to give more, adjust their time to serve more, and start to understand that true worship is not singing songs in church but living lives of love (James1:27).

Eight weeks, $14,261, 700 people (with clean water) later…I am so proud of our students and thankful that God allowed us to be a part of this.

Please check out Charity Water, they are an wonderful non-profit founded and run by Scott Hairston who is redefining how to run non profit organizations. You can also partner with us by giving online at www.mycharitywater.org/HPBCwater. We are less than $1,000 short of completing three wells.

And a special thanks to all of you parents, grandparents, family members, neighbors, etc. who paid our students to do odd jobs, participated as a family in eating beans and rice and encouraged your student to meet their pledge goal.  We appreciate your support!

There are few things better in the life of a youth worker than seeing when students “get it”.  When they start to realize what Christianity is really all about.  That is why I love mission trips so much.  We get out of the destructive systems that always seem to be distracting us and we get back to just running after Jesus.  Students are already getting there this week.

Tonight, we talked about why today was fun. It shouldn’t have been.  We got up early, had a pretty plain breakfast, worked our tails off all day in super hot conditions, chased kids that didn’t listen, mopped bathrooms, swept floors (side note- for you parents out there, some of you guys need to give sweeping lessons to your students – it has been tragic to see some of them work a simple broom ) tore down walls, etc….nothing that screams fun.  But when I asked them if they would rather relax at home, hang out in Birmingham with their friends or do this…. they all chose this.

Chasing after Jesus isn’t just the best option in the long run…it is also, by far, the better and more enjoyable option short term as well. There is something about loving other people the way that Jesus did…that gives you a feeling of accomplishment, of peace, of knowing that you are smack in the middle of what you are made to do.  

It is great to see students “get it”.

A couple other tidbits and some pics….

Today we really got to start doing some demo on a house CDC is redoing and the students did an amazing job.

I don’t know if we have ever had a group complain less.  They have jumped into every situation with a great attitude and are willing to do whatever is asked of them.

I was hit with the idea today that I need to do a better job of helping our students think for themselves.  They do a great job of following specific instruction but have a harder time when they are not given directions, even if they might be surrounded by pretty obvious tasks. Sure, on this trip, the context can be pretty basic but I think you can see how this can easily be translated to a spiritual level.  One that addresses life choices they might or might not make in the future, when there is no parent or staff person to help point out the next step.

Here are a couple pics from VBS, I will put some of the work project up tomorrow.

Ellie has not had the easiest time with me being gone on the trip this week.  I say gone, but really we are just at church and thankfully Jenni and the kids have come up to eat with us both evenings so far.  But both nights, when it has been time for them to go home, Ellie has had a really difficult time.  The first night she was really upset so Jenni said she could write me a surprise note to give me the next day.  This picture is of Ellie in bed asleep.  She fell asleep while writing me love notes and drawing me pictures.

Not only did it melt my heart (and maybe make my eyes well up a little bit) ….it also convicted me. I don’t get as upset when I don’t get to spend time with God.  I don’t stay up late until I fall asleep writing love notes and I don’t get as excited to spend time with God as Ellie does with me.

I know what good it does my heart the first time she sees me and screams “Daddy!!!” and comes running into my arms. She just wants to spend time with me…she doesn’t want to study me and figure me out…she just wants to hang out with me, have me love on her and give me lots of hugs and kisses.

I forget that about God.  I forget that our time together is not studying but it’s enjoying each other.  I think He wants me to hang out with Him a lot more, He wants me to get excited about spending time with Him….and maybe even fall asleep while writing Him a love note.

Today was a great day.  It’s always amazing to see how students react in an environment that will stretch them…and our students did a great job.

I spent most of my time at the VBS so I missed some of the work project drama (I’ll get to that in a second). The morning at VBS was split into four groups going on different field trips. My group went to Gleaners food pantry and packed up 48 family sized boxes of food.  It was hard work but the students did a fantastic job and had a great attitude.

Our students run the whole afternoon switching the two age groups through crafts and games. The gym where we played games was easily over a hundred degrees and our students didn’t complain a bit.

The work team got to experience a person with some “problems” today. Apparently he used to live in the house we were demo-ing and was not so thrilled about it. The neighbors called the cops for us and the guy calmed down. We are thankful for big staff guys who aren’t scared to handle those kinds of things.

Here are some other tidbits…

It’s amazing to see students come alive when they are given some responsibility and told that they are leaders. Sometimes I forget that.

The VBS team left their sandwiches at church today and only ate chips for lunch…and didn’t whine once about it. That is pretty impressive.

It’s always interesting to take the kids all the way up Woodward and let them see some stuff that they probably don’t see when they are going down to the ballpark. It creates some good discussion.

I love our staff. We have a number of people taking vacation time to go on the trip and a bunch of other staff that come up to the church and hangout with us each night. We couldn’t and wouldn’t want to do it without them.

Lastly we had a game tournament (Settlers, Uno, Ticket to Ride, Speed Scrabble etc..) tonight–B-rad’s team won why does that always happen?

To the parents out there…you have some amazing kids!  Thanks for trusting us enough to speak into their lives.  It is a privilege…one that we do not take lightly. I’ll update again tomorrow night.

I am writing this after tucking in 27 middle schoolers, and a couple tired staff people. I am on our annual mission trip to Detroit. This year we are taking 27 7th and 8th graders on a week long trip. We are helping run a VBS and doing a couple work projects. I am hoping to update some thoughts from the day here at the end of each day, we will see how it goes….

When we sat down to eat lunch all the boys sat at one table and all the girls sat at a different table. It’s funny that they still do that, I’m betting it doesn’t last long

Middle schoolers are incredibly mean at times but also very nice and tenderhearted at times. It is interesting to watch them interact with each other when they think no one is watching.

I was also reminded today how painfully self-conscious they are. I have been married long enough that I long ago stopped being concerned about dressing cool and looking hip (my wife just buys all my clothes, it’s better that way for everyone) One girl wore three different outfits today, we were only together for 11 hours.

Tomorrow is the most stressful day of the trip, it’s always hard figuring out what we need to do and the kids are always a little nervous. Pray for us when you think about us tomorrow.

Hopefully I will update again tomorrow night.

A conversation Ellie and Jen had before bedtime last night:

Ellie: I’m sick mama….I need to go to the doctor…..and I need Jesus to help me.

Jen: Do you want mama to pray with you and ask Jesus to help you feel better?

Ellie: Yes…and He will look at my knee and my ear and my hair and my toes…Mama, my toes are painted!  Are your toes painted?

Jen: Yes, my toes are painted.  Jesus cares all about you!  But do you know what He cares most about?  Your heart!

Ellie: Yes, my heart is very, very messy.  Jesus needs to give my heart a bath….but I don’t want him to wash my hair!  Then I will be aaaaaall clean!

Amen!

Andy Stanley is the senior pastor of North Point Church in Georgia.  He is the author of a couple of my favorite books, Next Generation Leader, Visioneering, Principle of the Path etc…

I have been to Catalyst 3 times, all 3 times Andy has opened and closed the conference.  I have also heard Andy multiple times at the Thirsty conference which North Point hosted.  Of all the times I have heard Andy I would say this was the most encouraging.

It was challenging too, but I left feeling refreshed and encouraged which was just what I needed to start the conference.  Andy is brilliant when it comes to systems, programs and taking simple thoughts and making them memorable and applicable.  A lot of times I leave challenged and fired up to implement things.  This time I wanted to go and dream.  I wanted to take a notebook and write down all the ideas I thought were too crazy for my church.  I wanted to write down all those ideas that I thought would lead to too many phone calls.  I wanted to apologize to people for not chasing after the things that I should have been and instead settling for things that are safe and don’t cause too many waves.

I don’t want to steal Alex’s thunder (abartee.wordpress.com) who already wrote a blog on it, but it made such a big impact on me I thought I would give a couple of my highlights.  He started by asking a questions.  What if in the year 80AD you got a bunch of people together and told them about Rome right now, would they believe you.  Would they believe that it adopted Christianity as the state religion?  Would they believe that millions of people visit the city to visit the grave of one of Jesus’ followers?  Would they believe that Christianity would become as big as it is?  Would they believe that a cross is hanging above the emperors entrance into the Roman colosseum?  There is no way they would believe any of those things would happen.

here are some quotes that I liked…

• “there is no way that Christianity should have survived century?  it shouldn’t have, it only did because of God”
• “what if those people (first century Christians) let the reality of today affect their vision of tomorrow?”
• “the church in Acts preached crucifixion and resurrection, it worked for them, maybe we should do the same thing”
• “what made the early church stand out, they loved each other.  That was what carried it through, it is what made people want to be a part.”
• “we are stewards of the story now, we are stewards of love, what are we doing with the message now?”
• “more is possible, do you know how I know?  Because there is a cross hanging over the emperors entrance in the Roman colosseum!”

Here was my big take away.  If a cross can hang in the Roman colosseum, than all my dreams are possible.  Not my personal dreams like dunking, running a marathon, writing a book.  But my God goals, my church goals.  I need to start trusting that God can do things much bigger than I can even imagine.  And because He can do those things, I need to act accordingly.

So, I am going to dream big, trust that God can handle anything I come up with, and not stop….because there is a cross hanging in the emperors entrance in the Roman colosseum.

Scott Belsky
Scott is the founder and CEO of Behance, a company that develops products and services that organize and empower the creative world. He is also the author of a new book called Making Ideas Happen.

I was able to hear Scott not only in our Lab but in one of the main sessions as well.  I will combine both for the sake of this post. Here are the highlights…

• Most ideas never happen, those that do define the odds
• Most don’t happen for one of two main reasons (he gave more but talked most about these), jumping from idea to idea and lack of organization.
• Idea to idea syndrome happens because of the idea plateau. that feeling you get a couple of days or weeks after you decide to implement or do your idea.  The days that you are struggling through some of the boring steps of the project.  That is the idea plateau.
• Instead of plowing ahead and breaking through, we just decide to come up with a new idea
• New ideas are more fun, more interesting, more exciting.
• Creativity X Organization = Impact
• No matter how creative you are, if you aren’t organized you got nothing.
• Don’t let today trump tomorrow, don’t be reactive (email, twitter, facebook) be proactive.
• Spend time and energy staying organized, even though it takes time the rest of the day will be far more productive.
• What company recently won the award for best supply management?  Apple, you can do both creative and organized.
• Organize with a bias towards action, always capture action steps and reward action that is completed.
• You need both doers and dreamers to have a successful team, they complement each other when given the freedom to challenge each other.

I could keep going, if you are interested let me know I can send you the rest, that was just the beginning, but I realize that not everyone enjoys that kind of stuff.  All in all I thought he was great.  He has some really practical advice, especially for me given my new job responsibilities.

He is definitely worth a follow on twitter and his site is really cool.  It has tons of tools for organization and action, they even have an iphone app that is really good! Check them out and let me know what you think.