There is an interesting article at CNN.com today about people who are choosing to give up their Facebook and Myspace addictions for Lent — sort of a 21st century way of observing the practice.

I think it is a great way to participate in the practice. I think it could really help those of us who might usually consider our time on the internet or email as nothing more than fun or work when really we have a similar adiction to it as others might with certain foods, sweets, coffee, tobacco, etc.

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/03/29/
no.facebook.lent/index.html

Here is a link to more info on Lent if you are not that familiar with it:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09152a.htm

Lent is nearly over — but that doesn’t mean you can’t begin your 40 days now and ask forgiveness for being tardy! :>

A few weeks ago I posted about Doug Jones’ (one of my good friends and colleagues) blog at www.perigrinatio.com. Lately Doug’s posts have been great. He encourages, inspires and challenges with his writing. I want to — again — encourage you to check out his blog if you haven’t already.

I met Doug about 10 years or so ago at a Sonlife sponsored event in Baltimore, MD. From the first time I met him I was drawn towards his humble, sincere and steadfast commitment to serving the church (specifically youth workers, students, volunteers, etc.).

Doug and I have worked together on several writing projects over the years, consulted together on occasion, co-led concerts of prayers together and I have consulted him on much of what we have done to reculture Sonlife the last three years.

Here is his latest post…

You know the drill… after watching a very full flight go through the necessary hustle and bustle of shifting carry-on’s in the overhead and people get latched into their seats, you finally pushback from the gate. Then the real “entertainment” begins either live or on memorex - how to latch your seatbelt, the seat becomes a flotation device, yada yada yada.We can become so jaded to this presentation of life-saving instruction. There are lessons that stretch into many areas of life from this observation. The one that I have been thinking about lately is when they say, “in the unlikely event of temporary loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend; secure your oxygen mask first, before helping others.”

Secure your oxygen mask first, before helping others. Boy, why didn’t I think of that? Why did I think that I must take care of everyone else, before I tended to my own soul? How did I overlook that from the very beginning we have been admonished to ensure we were “well” before we cared for others? I Tim. 4.16 is very clear on this idea of securing your oxygen mask first,

“Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

May we save both ourselves and others. Take time time to breath. Take time to be with The Mystery. Take time to care for your soul. As we are diligent to care for ourselves; we ensure we can faithfully finish “the race” that is before us.

Today I had the privilege of joining two of my friends for a vespers service and a meal at Conception Abbey which is about an hour or so north of Kansas City. You can learn more about the Conception Abbey here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conception_Seminary_College

The Vespers service lasted about 30 minutes or so and it was incredibly sacred and full of reverence, beauty and inspiration. The sound of the monks singing was very calming and provided some much needed solitude.

The Basilica was beautiful. I would have loved to take some pictures but I didn’t out of a respect for the other worshipers. Here is a picture of part of the ceiling I found when I googled the Basilica. It is not the greatest picture and it certainly doesn’t do it justice… but perhaps it will reveal just a taste of the beauty.

Watching the community of monks interact with each other was very warming. I was deeply encouraged and moved by their obvious love for God and one another.

I also spoke for a few minutes with a guy from Kansas who was there exploring the possibility of becoming a priest. I asked him, “What is drawing you to this?” He said, “I am just really passionate about people meeting God for the first time and regularly meeting with him.”

I needed the time with God and the peace and rest that those few hours brought. I wish I could have spent more time there…

When was the last time you had a few hours with God? Can’t remember? I think you know what that means… Let me know how it goes :>

One of the former students — Eric Siewert — from Berean Church in Minneapolis (where I was serving before coming to Sonlife) is a student at Wheaton College. He recently published the following article in the Wheaton Record and I thought it was very interesting. Here it is…

I remember lying in my bed at eight years old and being afraid of Heaven. At eight years old, Heaven was a vague concept representing the end of life that I couldn’t quite seem to grasp. Something about Heaven being the end scared me.

Ten years later, I still can’t claim to have a good grasp of what Heaven is, how it works or what it will be like. And even 10 years in the future, I will still have a fear of endings.
True, I don’t worry about Heaven as much as I used to. Somewhere along the way, I was able to let it go and leave it to God.

But my ongoing hatred of endings embodies itself in the end of journeys and characters and in my love of “continuation” stories; sagas that go past the first book, stories that are too interested in the journey of the characters to come up with a fitting ending within the pages of one tome.
I know I’m not alone in my love of this type of journey, either.

Proof of the popularity of “continuing” stories is all around us. We see it every time we enter a bookstore or check out a sequel to a popular movie. Masses of people flock to these journey-oriented tales. Millions of readers are attracted to the seven-book phenomenon of Harry Potter that will be completed this summer.

Something inside of us recognizes the importance of the journey in life even though we so often seem to care more about the end than we do about how we get there. This especially rings clear during the school year—for a student, life is marked by weekends, the end of quads, the end of semesters and the end of the school year. Dates are set for events and when the advertisements go up and our excitement is bubbling—we forget about everything else and start counting down the days.

It’s as if we think life will be magically complete when we hit that end point. This attitude reminds me of the books I read as a little kid which always seemed to end with “and they lived happily ever after”—as if it could really happen that way. Life can’t be Heaven on earth, but if we step aside and accept that then we can enjoy the beauty of the journey.

The end is coming. No matter what we do in life, there will be an end—it’s inevitable. But rushing towards it and anticipating it more than caring about what we do with our lives just adds needless commotion to our lives. Our days are marked by rushing on to class, Saga, and chapel, but at the end of the day we’re still in bed with worries and aspirations—the same worries and aspirations we would have even if we took life at half the pace.

Instead, we should acknowledge a lifestyle and mindset that “embraces the journey.” The appeal of the continuation stories shows that it isn’t that hard to embrace the journey because we’ve already been wired to enjoy it.

No one’s journey is the same so there is no blanket secret to enjoying the experience of life. I certainly can’t give you a three-step formula for embracing your personal journey.

Still, sometimes when we look too far ahead, it seems we only end up holding ourselves back. If we are constantly looking too far down the road, we’ll forget the journey and without the journey there can be no end. Perhaps it’s best to enjoy the journey as God intended, a day at a time.
Stephen King writes in his Dark Tower series: “I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through the pages for the ending.” He’s referring to his own book, but I think that God’s up there saying the same thing to us—I hope you came to live the life and not just munch through the days until the ending.

Congrats Eric… It is so good to see you pursuing your dream to be a writer!

A few days ago we put a newly revised devotional (short — 8 days) called, Inspired up for free on our website. A friend of Sonlife named Jeff Frazier wrote it. Jeff is a teaching pastor (youth pastor for a bunch of years) here in the area at First Baptist Church — Geneva, IL. It is a good resource for you to pass on to your students.

You can download it for free at this link:
http://www.sonlife.com/store/images/pdf/
Inspired_Devotional.pdf

I hope your students find it helpful.

My good friend Doug Jones has a new blog. He has blogged on and off for the last few years but now I think he has really found his groove. So — I think we can expect this blog to be around a while…

I wanted you to know about this blog as I think Doug’s thoughts are often deep, inspiring and formative. Doug works with me a bit at Sonlife as our director of spiritual formation. He is currently working on a new experience for youth workers that we are planning to launch in the fall called, Refresh.

You can check out his blog here: www.perigrinatio.com

I’ve spent the last three days with some really wonderful people in Richmond, VA. I have been speaking at a convention to a couple hundred youth workers and students from all across the state. The gathering is called the Virginia State Youth Convention (Church of God).

A youth pastor by the name of Adam Shepherd from near Virgina Beach, VA, led the convention and did a fine job. I really appreciated his spirit and his laid-back style.

While the speaking schedule has been semi-demanding the interaction with the youth workers and students here has made it feel more like a respite in many ways. It has been a long time since I have been invited in and welcomed at an event like I have this past weekend. I led a communion service this morning along with the worship band called, Universal Royalty. They (a large family of all brothers) are good artists but GREAT people…

My daughter Megan came with me this weekend. Her company has also made the trip very special. She is a very bright, observant, reflective and insightful young girl so her interactions with the students here opened up some great conversations between her and I. I am really looking forward to getting back home tomorrow to see my wife, Gina and my two sons — Drew and Luke.

Some interesting comments/conversations from over the weekend…

“You are going to do an altar call aren’t you?”

“Sonlife… That is an auto-insurance company isn’t it?”

“I’d like to buy some of your books”. “Why?”, I asked. “Because I am in to song writing” he replied.

“Marko seems really cool. What is he really like?”

“Is your Sonlife training from the bible or is it just about loving kids and making disciples?”

All in all it has been a great weekend. The people were fantastic and the response from the youth workers and students was overwhelmingly positive. I am privileged to have had the chance to help shape the lives of so many people…

So I am on the phone with a friend and fellow youth worker yesterday that I haven’t spoken to in nearly 3 years. It was really cool to catch up with him. At one point in our conversation I asked, “So what can you tell me about your student community”? He said, “Things are going great. I have been very successful here in my 8 years.” I said, “Really? What do you mean?” He responded by saying, “Dozens of my former students are now serving in some kind of vocational ministry. A couple of them are youth pastors in New England, one is a missionary in Mexico City and three are serving as Christian school teachers, and so on and so on.”

His comments took me by surprise. First, I thought that he was joking so I kind of joked back and when he said, “No really … I am serious. This is one of the ways I measure my effectiveness.” I just about fell off my office chair… Second, I was surprised because I always remembered this person as one of the most humble men I know. I was shocked. I never heard him talk in terms of ’success’. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with idea of success but they way he was measuring it was alarming to me…

I let a few seconds of silence go by and distance us a bit and then said, “Dude. Do you really measure your success by how many of your students leave your ministry and go serve in vocational ministry.” He said, “Absolutely. Don’t you?” I said, “No. Not really.” “So how do you measure success?” he asked. “Not sure, exactly.” I remarked. “I am not sure measuring success is for me to do…”

I told him that I would think about his question through the rest of the day and then post about it. I asked his permission to share our little interchange and he obviously was cool with it or I wouldn’t be posting… :>

So, here is what I have come to decide my dear friend (and all of you who are now involved)…

First, what is success anyway? Where does that take and drive me? Where or what does the pursuit of success take me from? Is that what I (and you) are supposed to be enamored with? I don’t mind thinking in terms of my commitment to God’s calling on my life, my desire to honor God with my faithfulness, my passion expressed through my gifts, etc. and assessing who I am or who I am not and possibly should be or could be. But determining what I think is and what isn’t success really isn’t my role.

Second, since success isn’t for me to determine then what is, right? Well, I think I need to assess who I am and who I am becoming. Hopefully I am (and evolving more deeply into being) an open, alert, honest, accessible, listening, caring, trusting, loving, God-dependent shepherd or guide that is concerned with helping students…

* on their way toward theosis
* realize that unique to how God has created them and called them, they are a significant part of his story and mission (no matter where they end up working)
* to critically think and journey their way to beliefs and convictions that ultimately determine their behaviors and practices that serve God in his passionate pursuit to restore people to himself and to each other
* to see that they are a part of God’s story and mission but also a part of his people or community — the church
* to realize that I am not concerned with them as a product coming out of my ministry but that I am concerned with their spiritual journey as a dynamic process for the rest of their life

So, my good friend, to answer your question I do not to measure success as it relates to how many of my students go into full-time ministry. I think that is a great calling – but it is not a better or worse thing so much as it is just how God chooses to place his servants. How will I know if I am doing a good job? I guess by assessing my faithfulness to what God has called me to do (the above). I think if I were to measure success as you do, I would become preoccupied with things like numbers, decisions, programming superiority, etc. How do I know? Because I would simply be returning to my old ways… Much love, brother.

For the rest of you out there… How do you feel about measuring/determining success? What do you use as a measuring device (or whatever)?  I know that “bearing fruit” is important but evaluated by what?  As always I invite you to comment or email me at chrisfol@mac.com.

This past week I spent a day and a half with Mike King and his associate, Topher Philgreen. Mike is the president of a well respected and high impact ministry out of Kansas City called, YouthFront. He is also the author of the book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry.

Mike and I met a few years ago (thanks to Tony Jones) in Minneapolis and have been developing our friendship as best as we can in the midst of our speaking/traveling schedules. Mike is a terrific person with a dynamic passion to see students find and follow Jesus. His 30+ years of commitment to serving God through one organization is rare to say the least. I am hoping to spend a lot more time with Mike in the days ahead, learning from him and finding ways to partner together in our efforts toward a new kind of youth ministry.

I want to encourage you to follow what Mike and YouthFront our pioneering. While their summer camps are almost always full, I would also encourage you to see about taking a handful of your students — but you’d better get on it quick! Known primarily as a ‘regional’ ministry, YouthFront’s ministry scope is actually much bigger than most as they draw students and ministries from 22 States. I am going to try and make it to a week of their camp this summer myself!

Recently I have been having some great conversations with youth workers (some of my friends and colleagues around North America) about the priority, purpose and practice of apologetics in youth ministry today. To be blunt, we are all over the map as to our opinions/beliefs regarding the topic. We wonder around questions such as, “What should apologetics look like in today’s youth ministry climate?” or “Has our traditional view of I Peter 3:15 been accurately understood and taught over the years?” or “Should we really be trying to equip students with answers about God before they even fully embrace the story of God?” or “How then, if helping our students to articulate and provide accurate responses to questions about Christianity, do we equip them?”

I am very eager to discover your thoughts surrounding the topic! I would love for you to respond to some of the questions above or ask different questions that you might be wrestling with in your everyday ministry. So I invite you, when you get a minute, to comment here or email me at chrisfol@mac.com.

In brief, here is my personal and developing take on it…

First, the priority of apologetics should be to help our students develop a life that supports our Christian claims. We can help them with this through imparting our life to them — teaching, modeling, mentoring and guiding them toward a life in the way of Jesus. That is, a life characterized by love, acceptance, justice, peace, generosity, hospitality, affirmation, etc. Our best apologetic is our life…

Second, the purpose of apologetics should not merely be to provide concrete facts, logic and reason to the interested or curious. The foundational truths of Christianity are of course the core of what apologetics is all about but how those core elements are presented is key. Rather, than seeing the purpose of apologetics as to present concrete (cold, gray, cracked and often ugly) hard facts that “defend” what we believe, our purpose ought to be to present the core truths in a peaceful, nonwarring, harmonious way that invites and welcomes people to discover and explore the unfolding drama of a gracious, mysterious, awesome and pursuant God that formed the Christian faith.

Finally, the practice of equipping students to be involved with apologetics might be most effective if we shift away from our tendency to give students the scripted answers and carefully guide them to discovering the answers and individual responses on their own. I think we need to help our students own their faith — not just borrow it for a while. The biggest objections I get to this statement are usually these:

• “We don’t have time to let students arrive at their own answers we only have them for 6 maybe 7 years you know”
• “If students are allowed to arrive at their own answers then how will they know the right ones!?”
• “If we left it up to students, nothing would ever get done.”
• “Students need to know how to respond to certain questions. There is no way that they can think fast enough on their feet at 13-18 years old.”

Here’s the thing — Do we really think students are not arriving at their own conclusions and answers about life and faith outside of your youth ministry? Do we really think that you have the ‘right’ answers and that our answers, passed down to your students to distribute verbatim, is the key to unlocking the mystery of faith for someone? Do we really think students can’t get anything done? Try telling that to Zach Hunter… And finally, teaching students to ‘think quick on their feet’ is a goal of ours? Really? I would like to think that what we are really working toward is helping our students be humbly present in the lives of their friends, determined not to ‘think quick on their feet’ but rather to slow their life down, enter into their friends’ life and patiently help them to explore our rich faith heritages.

When it comes to the practice of apologetics I am all for teaching students the facts about our faith. I am all for guiding them toward discovering answers that help them articulate what it is they believe. I am all for pushing students to reveal their faith by sharing and showing Jesus verbally and in their actions. I am all for guiding our students toward a lifestyle that reflects that of the life of Jesus. I am FOR a ton…

However, I am NOT inclined to give students a scripted set of answers to potential questions. I am NOT inclined to equip students to defend anything. I am NOT inclined to help students be able to ‘think quicker on their feet.’ I am NOT inclined to think that if it were up to students, nothing would get done. Rather, I am thinking that we have the privilege to guide students at the early stages of their life-long journey of faith, giving them the capacity to become an authentic and fruitful extension of Jesus’ life and mission.

Thoughts?