A Brilliant Moment of Faith Sharing - Well Done Chris!

An open letter to Chris Wallace, 

Dear Chris,

A couple weeks ago you gave your son an amazing gift.  I bet you didn’t even think all that much about it.

It was at the first communion class.  I gave each kid a Bible to call their own.  Your son Mitchell started to flip through the book, amazed at the sheer size of it (I mean, when has a second grader ever held a book that big??).  You took the Bible into your hands and got Mitchell’s attention.  I remember your words clearly:

 “Mitchell, I want to show you something.  You know the tattoo on my arm, the one that says Matthew 5:9?  Let me show you where that comes from.”  You found the verse in his Bible and read it to him, “’Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.’  A lot of police officers like me have this same tattoo.  It’s an important one for us.  It’s subtle, but it says what we want to say.”

 Chris, that simple action will have an enormous impact on Mitchell’s life.  It may not seem profound, but he saw you open a Bible and heard you share a word of faith.  You modeled the faith for your son.  You let him know that it matters to you.  Well done!

 When Mitchell came back for his last class on Sunday night I heard him turn to Kathy and say, “Mom, let me show you the verse dad has on his arm.”  He remembered and wanted to share! 

 You may not have said much, but I truly believe that Mitchell learned more in those two minutes with you than he did from the rest of the hour of hearing me talk about Jesus.  You’re his dad and he looks up to you and learns from you.  In that moment you hit a home run!

 At Peace we are going to work hard to provide more of these low-stress opportunities for kids to see parents and other adults opening Bibles and talking about faith.  This is essential to God ministry here.  You’ve shown how it can be done. Thank you!

 Sincerely,

 Pastor Pete

Bible Camp - A Place That Changes Lives

This past Sunday Chad Campbell from Good Earth Village (our Bible camp near Spring Valley) came to Peace and talked about the wonders of a camping experience.  Memories from my younger days flooded back to me.  Bible camps changed my life.

I’ll never forget the absolutely wacky camp counselors.  These college age men and women were the height of coolness.  They put on bizarre skits.  They played practical jokes on each other.  They led us in huge games like capture the flag and hide the counselor.  They loved Jesus.  I wanted to grow up and be just…like…them!

A Young Pastor Pete - The Camp Man with a Plan

As I look back on things, I was a typically self-conscious kid.  For 51 weeks of the year I obsessed about what others would think of me.  For that one week of camp, I felt free to be my wacky self.  I remember the time that some girls dressed me and my cabin mates in drag (hair…make-up…the works) as we shared our lip synching ‘talent’ with the whole camp.  Another time, my cabin got ‘dinged’ during cabin inspections for having too many shoes on the floor, so we proceeded to gather hundreds of shoes from people all over camp.  At the next inspection shoes covered the floor…the beds…even the rafters. One camp tradition was that people who received 3 or more letters from home had to sing to everyone before receiving them.  The day before I left for camp I’d mail 20 post cards to my buddy Craig, ensuring that he’d get nailed!  The fun that I had that one week a year exceeded anything that I experienced back home.

Bible Camp was a place where I felt free to be myself.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but this happened because camp provided a safe place for me to experience the unconditional love of Jesus.  Every aspect of camp, from swimming to singing, from laughing to reading the Bible, from counselors to cooks, oozed with the deep message, “God loves you just the way you are.”   As a kid, I desperately needed to hear that word.  I didn’t have to conform to someone else’s definition of ‘cool.’  God gave me my weird sense of humor, and at camp I could use it.

Bible Camp became a place where I grew deep in my relationship with Jesus.   The awesome counselors provided wonderful examples of people who loved their Lord.  They put on goofy skits that told the story of God’s work in the world.  They led us in times of quiet reflection on our lives of faith.  They sat us down and taught us about the God who has done so much for us.  Every year I left camp with a deeper relationship with the God who claimed me.  I found that following Jesus wasn’t just about rules and regulations!  I experienced the absolute joy of the Lord.

A week at Bible camp can change a kid’s life...it did for me!  That’s what happens when the unconditional love of Jesus washes over people.

For more information about Good Earth Village, check out their website at

www.goodearthvillage.org. 

Life Isn't Fair

Life isn’t fair.

Last Thursday afternoon shouts echoed through my family room.  Big Ten Basketball Tournament time had come, and the Northwestern Wildcats (my alma mater) were on the brink of making the NCAA tournament.  Never in the history of the NCAA tournament (which began in 1939) have the ‘Cats made it into the Big Dance, so this was a HUGE game.  I felt fortunate that we got to play the Gophers (face it; they’ve been embarrassing this year).  Conventional wisdom held that Northwestern just had to beat the Gophers…and history would be made!  The monkey would be off our backs!

I held my lucky Northwestern gnome and cheered as the ‘Cats took a second half lead.  Everything seemed to flow our way.  Then…Northwestern suddenly forgot how to play basketball.  Their shots fell short.  I grumbled.  They dribbled off their feet.  I complained.  The lead disappeared.  OK, I yelled a wee bit.  The game went to overtime, and the ‘Cats went from bad to worse.  I shouted more than a wee bit.  As the final buzzer sounded, with the Gophers winning the game and dashing my hopes, I fell into a stupor. 

Life isn’t fair.

Northwestern players are true student-athletes.  They go to class. They earn quality degrees.  They graduate!  The school has always done things the right way.  If there were justice in the world Northwestern would at least have made the NCAA tournament ONE time. 

Life isn’t fair.

Some people work hard in life and make very little income.  Others do next to nothing and sit on vast wealth.

Life isn’t fair.

Some people abuse their bodies in all sorts of ways and live long, healthy lives.  Other people watch what they eat, exercise regularly, and get the proper rest…and die young.

Life isn’t fair.

God never promised that it would be. Jesus didn’t come to live on earth to bring fairness.  Heck, he got put to death for crimes he didn’t commit!  Jesus came to live with us in the messiness of life.  We live in a broken world!  ”For God so loved [that broken] world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.” 

Life isn’t fair…but God loves us and claims us in the midst of the injustice.  Is that enough?

No Youth Group...No Problem!

“We’re looking for a church with a strong high school youth group.” 

Those words from a Peace Lutheran Church visitor a few weeks back raised my anxiety level.  I had to sheepishly admit that Peace really doesn’t have a ‘youth group’ for those in high school… but that we were working towards activities that involve the entire family (and high schoolers could be a part of it)!  What a lame attempt to justify what appeared to be a glaring gap in our ministry.

The church that I grew up in had a very active Luther League, complete with a full time youth director to lead us in many awesome activities.  I remember the camp-outs, lock-ins, youth trips, bowling nights, and doughnut sales. 

If only we could recreate that experience at Peace!!  I’ve dreamt of having a fun, camp-style youth director who could build relationships with the youth and shepherd them to faith.  Many larger churches get to have that…but sadly Peace just doesn’t have the resources to pull it off.   IF we had the resources THEN we’d make a positive impact on the faith of our youth.  For years I’ve felt the disappointment that smaller churches like Peace have let their kids down!  I suspect I’m not the only one!

It’s a lie!  My whole way of thinking changed last week as I had the opportunity to attend a “Nurturing Faith @ Home” class at Luther Seminary.  I went to find some creative ways to overcome our ‘smallness’ and help kids grow in faith (despite our lack of a cool young director).  What I learned shocked me!  Study after study reveals that the model of ‘cool youth director and lots of youth activities’ does a POOR job of raising kids in the faith.  And you know what kind of ministry actually impacts the faith of young people?  The very family ministry that I sheepishly offered!  

The research overwhelmingly shows that children (whether toddlers or high schoolers) grow in faith as they share in faith activities with parents and other adults.  For years there has been a major disconnect between ‘youth’ faith activities and ‘adult’ faith activities.  The youth had their own Sunday Schools, youth groups, and service trips.  Very few parents helped to lead them (and most parents were too intimidated to do it!).  Most adults took part in separate faith activities (leading worship, gathering in small group Bible studies, having personal devotional time).  We always made the assumption that the youth would make the transition from ‘youth faith’ to ‘adult faith,’ but the church provided few ways for that to happen.   Youth ministry focused on the personality of the leaders and the fun activities they attended.  As the youth grew and matured in life, those events faded away.  Nobody (including parents) had prepared them for an adult life of faith.

If youth ministry is about hiring a full time youth director and planning many activities…Peace can’t do that.  But if youth ministry is about gathering families together to grow in faith together…we’re all set!

In December and January many people from Peace gathered together to ask the question, “What is the goal of Peace’s faith formation activities?”  A group of people boiled the whole conversation into four core values:

·         Help people develop a personal relationship with a God who loves them.

·         All people are God’s children…so all should be welcomed and made comfortable.

·         Faith building activities can involve the whole family.

·         Providing a variety of faith building activities will allow the most people to take part in some of them.

For once, I’m not ashamed to not have a rockin’ youth group!  We build faith in our youth (and adults!) when we get families together to work at Channel One…when we take time to teach the whole family to pray (as we’re doing in our Wednesday night Lenten time)…when we gather families for movie nights at Peace… when families work together to usher or serve communion on Sunday mornings!   In the next few months you will hear all sorts of creative ideas on ways that families can come together to grow in faith (and it doesn’t matter if the family has toddlers or high schoolers at home…whether the family’s kids have grown and left the house…whether grandma now raises the kids…whether the family consists of one person or many…).

Small churches like Peace are perfectly suited to gather families to grow in faith together.  The time to be ashamed that we can’t have a youth group like someone else’s church has gone.  It’s time to hold our heads up high…and boldly lead families together in faith.