A New Chapter

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
    he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
    and he delivers them. - Psalm 34:4-7

After many months, many letters written, and many meetings, it's (temporarily) official! Starting October 1st, I will be employed by St. Mark's U.M.C. full-time! The Executive Council voted last Tuesday to proceed with my proposal for the remainder of the year until the committee, which has been assigned the task of sorting through current employee roles, can make their official recommendation.

This is great news for me, as I was recently laid off of my "other" half-time position and was left looking for other part-time or full-time employment. I was concerned that I would not be able to find a job that fit with my current work schedule for the church, and I would be forced to make an unfortunate decision between staying at the church part-time, or working somewhere else full-time. Fortunately the Executive Council came through and I will now be spending all of my time working at St. Mark's in both the Music Ministry and Youth Ministry positions.

This (I hope) is great news for the Youth and Music ministry areas of St. Mark's as well! I will now have more hours to dedicate to the Youth of the church, which will increase the opportunities we have exponentially! Some of my preliminary ideas include: separate Jr. High/Sr. High meetings, (not all the time, just on occasion) and more one on one time with Youth and their families. The possibilities are really limitless.

I should, of course, say thank you to all of you who supported me in this time! I received some AMAZING letters of support from parents and Youth alike! I am not in the habit of asking people to write a letter telling me how great I am, so to say I felt uneasy about it is an understatement. But, wow! What great things to hear from such great people! To know how much support I have from the church community was probably the biggest blessing to come out of the whole ordeal. I cannot thank you all enough for your kind words of support!

I started working in Youth Ministry as a calling I felt. I didn't know when I started how long I would work in Youth Ministry. The average Youth Minister stays in the field for an average of 1.5 years, and frankly, if you had told me that's how long I would have worked as the Youth Director at St. Mark's when my time first began, I probably would have believed you. But now, more than three years on, I feel more than ever that I am in the right place. I am so excited for the future of this Youth Group!

Blessings,
Rob

Day ??

Another work day in the books! Most of us returned to our previous work assignments, but some got new assignments. Alexia, Libby and Ryan went back to the Boys and Girls Club, Megan, Annika, Trevor and Angie (mom) were at a retirement home; Rob, Leah, Duncan, Rachel and Maddy are at the New Wineskins Ministries' food bank; Jan and Ana are at a different retirement community, Michelle, Emily and Moose (Chris) returned to the Third Phase shelter and food bank.

Everyone seemed to have good days today. It rained really hard in the morning, and lightly for the rest of the day, which meant we all got to (or had to, depending on your perspective) stay inside. Tomorrow is the big day for the food bank and we're really looking forward to seeing the people that we've been preparing to help all week.

We came back to the church after our work assignments and grabbed showers and got ready for dinner. After dinner we had our evening program/worship time, followed by devotions.

Last night we got to have our free night, so we went downtown to check out the Circle Centre Mall. We ended the night by going to Dairy Queen and Youth Group Devotions before heading back to the church for the night. Below are pictures of the group at the War Memorial, My work crew and one other on the way to our site.

Today was a hard day... for me...

Speaking from the perspective of my work-group, who is spending the week at the large food-bank, today was a hard day. We arrived at our location right on time this morning, ready for whatever they were going to throw at us, or so we thought. The day started off great. The Executive Pastor, Pastor David gave us a tour of the worship space in this large and impressive church (which actually used to be a large department store) that holds 1,500 congregants on Sunday mornings. We got to hear the story of Pastor David's life and where he was born, his experience in the Army and the time trials he's faced with segregation in the south and being in the Vietnam war. It was amazing and inspiring to hear about some of the trials of his life and how he used them as growth opportunities, rather than moments of pity. It set the mood for a great day of helping.

After that we were told we'd work outside for a little while, while it was "still cool." Unfortunately, none of us even knew that it was possible that we might work outside, so most did not have work gloves. None of us had bug spray or sunscreen, and we were just not in the mindset to cut and haul brush. We worked for about two hours cutting and hauling brush and branches and picking up some truly filthy garbage. We took a break for lunch, then had our time for devotions. After lunch we spent a lot of time moving from task to task, getting a little bit done here and there, but not enough to feel like we'd really accomplished as much as we could have.

At the end of the work day it felt like a bit of a wasted day. I'm still looking forward to the other days because I know there will be a lot more work to be done before we open for the public on Thursday. Hopefully I, and the rest of my group can be inspired by the words of Pastor David and take this set-back and use it to our advantage.

Blessings,

Rob

Day 1 of work

All of the Youth and adults got to see their first working action of the week today. Three of the work crews wound up at the same location this week, the New Wineskins Ministry which serves as a food/clothing bank. This food bank serves 50,000 families every month, and they're only open on Thursdays! We spent a large part of the day folding and sorting through clothes that had come in from a clothing drive that the church held on Saturday.

We also helped to unload and repack large quantities of frozen bread and creamed corn. We then sorted through several pallets of toiletries and a large pallet of bottles drinks. We've just begun to scratch the surface of all of the items that we'll sort through this week before the public is allowed to come in and select items on Thursday. 

The director of the organization, Reverend David prayed with us and help us to understand how much we were helping the people of Indianapolis, but also how much we would be served in the process. How we would see the face of Jesus in the people we meet. How handing someone food when they need it will change us forever. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week, and I know the Youth are too.

Blessings,
Rob

Megan's Blog

Today is Monday, the first official day of work for our Week of Hope mission trip in Indianapolis. Today we all got to go to our assignments for the first time and see what we'll be doing for the week. Megan got to go to a retirement community where she got to meet the residents and talk with them and learn about them. The highlight of Megan's trip was looking at a scrapbook of one of the resident's 90th birthday. It made Megan happy to share he new friend's memories because it made her happy to have someone to talk to and share with.

Megan will go back tomorrow and make more memories with more new friends and continue to love this new adventure.

We made it!

Wow, it's been a crazy twenty-four hours. We managed to get ourselves safety (and relatively efficiently) to Indianapolis! We started out with tours of our host church and a little circle soccer in the parking lot for good measure. We had our first evening program at 7 PM which included a lot of pertinent information for the week. Emily and I played and sang three songs, which was a lot of fun! We were divided up into work crews, so we all got to find out who we'll be spending the week with and approximately what we'll be doing. A lot of us wound up in a food pantry, so we'll be sorting, cleaning and organizing a large food pantry within a church in Indy. Some from St. Mark's are going to a homeless shelter and at least one person is going to help with a children's program at an inner city church.

Our theme for the week is "repair." We are to see not only what types of physical, mental and emotional repair we can have with/for others, but we'll witness first-hand the repair that Jesus will have on our lives if we are open to it. "God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." - Ephesians 2:10 We have all selected titles within our work groups and been given different responsibilities within our group. (We brought a lot of "organizers," go figure.)

We had Youth Group devotions after our meeting and then we stayed up too late playing knock-out in the gym/multipurpose space.

All in all things are going as well as can be expected. I'm excited to see what the week holds for us all!

The picture below is us at dinner and before the opening program/worship.

Rob

Indy is right around the corner!

Alright folks, this is it! In a few short days we'll depart for our mission trip to Indianapolis! I am very excited that 13 Youth (and four adults) have chosen to make this journey. Some of you (Youth) have been on one or more mission trips before, so you pretty much know what to expect. Some of you are mission tripping for the first time, so perhaps you don't know what to expect.

Picture this, we will spend a week "camping out" inside a local church in the heart of Indianapolis spending every waking moment together! We'll help prepare meals, clean our space and play games together. There will be Youth there from other churches and states, we'll get to make new friends. We will worship together everyday, briefly in the morning, then for a longer time in the evenings.

Every morning we'll pack our lunches, then pile into separate vehicles with our work groups and make our way to our destinations. Each day will be a new adventure. We might be working with the elderly, or animals at an animal shelter. We might be leading a Vacation Bible School or making food for the local food bank.

There will be so many opportunities to help, but also opportunities to see God at work. As Christians we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We are called to be His hands and feet everyday, and I know we try to do this in our everyday lives, but it's easy to get complacent. That's why we mission. That's why we will be pulled out of our collective comfort zone and given a task, or tasks, that stretch who we are. We will find out what we're made of, and what our friends (old and new) are made of. And we'll see that we are not alone in our walk with God. People from all walks of life, geographic locations and socioeconomic backgrounds will gather together to serve and be served. We are all connected be the One True God we serve.

Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV)

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I am so excited to see all that this trip has in store for us, I know we, together with God will do awesome things!

Blessings,
Rob

God's Terms

I got a new cell phone yesterday! My old one was limping along after three years, a dinosaur by smartphone standards. Of course I spent the better part of two hours configuring it and downloading all of the apps I wanted it to have. I discovered all of the new features that have been invented since the last time I got a phone, some of which I might actually use. Every time I downloaded or opened a new application, I had to agree to the "terms of agreement" or "terms of use" for each one and select the permissions. Some permissions are basic, i.e. the email app would like permission to read your email. Seems easy enough, but why does Facebook want to listen to my phone calls? Okay, I don't think that one was actually on there, but you get my point.

I am feeling unnerved about how easy it became to push the "accept" button on each of the "terms of agreements" that would continually pop up. Has anyone ever actually read one of those? They are dozens of pages long and written in a way that would confuse most lawyers!

This got me thinking. What are the "terms of agreement" for being a Christian? How about the bible? It's longer than even the longest TOA that Google writes.(Probably) It's often filled with confusing language and commands. Are we treating God the same way that we treat Apple? Are we saying "sure, I accept that," without really knowing what we've agreed to? Are we accepting the Terms of Agreement as they are written in our third-grade bible without reading them through?

I'm not saying that you have to have read every word in the bible by the time you're in the third grade, (or even the 12th grade or the 16th grade) but it is an agreement that we should get to know. If you're reading this right now, I challenge you to pick up your bible and read. Don't know where to start? Try 1 John, chapter 2. (toward the back :-)) Read for five minutes, or ten minutes, read a chapter or a whole book. Just spend some time with the word of God today.

Blessings,
Rob

On Fire for Jesus

Yesterday we celebrated Pentecost at the church. The birthday of the church, as it's often called, is marked because this is the day the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples. With a "violent rushing wind" and a "tongues as of fire" the Holy Spirit was given (or revealed, depending on who you ask) to the disciples. The Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to go out into the world, away from the upper room where they had been hiding and preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. As I eluded to in the service yesterday, I am not one who relishes the opportunity to speak in front of people. I will sing at you all day long, but to speak, especially without notes terrifies me. I hadn't planned to do much speaking at all when asked to lead the worship service in the absence of our ordained clergy, but then... The Holy Spirit.

The Disciples faced treachery, persecution and (in all cases but one) unnatural death for their evangelism; Surely I could face a crowd of friendly faces to commemorate this Pentecost celebration.

One thing that made it easier was my chance to talk about the way that I see the Holy Spirit at work in the Youth of St. Mark's. On Friday night, 20 Youth spent two hours working with the "Feed My Starving Children" non-profit organization packaging meals. Our table worked hard and fast and managed to put together 26 boxes (936 individual bags) of meals that are going to be shipped to places like Haiti, where they will be distributed to children and families who are in need of nourishment. As a group, over the course of the two hours we packaged 190 boxes (the new record for our site) of food! (I understand a group on Saturday managed to package 191 boxes!)

Our church community is filled with the Holy Spirit, indeed. But our larger community (Iowa City/Coralville, etc.) is also on fire for Jesus. It is easy to get discouraged by all of the news that we hear about more and more people, young and old falling away from the churches, the 40% of survey respondents who say that "none" is their choice of church/religion, but I am here to tell you, the hands and feet of Jesus are still at work. One only has to attend an event like "Feed My Starving Children" to see that.

That gift that was given so long ago to the disciples is alive and well today. The Holy Spirit continues to work in us and through us. Or as Dr. Hal Brady would say, "We've got spirit, yes we do. We've got spirit, how 'bout you?"

Rob

Superstar!

As most of you know, for the last two months I've been working with The City Circle Acting Company of Coralville in the show "Jesus Christ Superstar." I am an apostle in the show, and for character purposes, I assigned myself to be the apostle Matthew. I find so much to identify with in Matthew, the Apostle Matthew was a tax collector in his time before his call to follow Jesus. He would have been slightly older than the other Apostles and would have been well educated (speaking both Greek and Aramaic). Matthew would invite Jesus to his home for a meal which lead the priests and pharisees to criticize Jesus for eating with sinners and tax collectors.

More than the character, though, I find the most striking thing about being a part of this production is the crucifixion scene. We had been working on music and staging, blocking and dancing for several weeks, but we've only recently begun working with the actual props on the stage where we'll be performing. As a Christian, I am so used to the idea of Jesus being crucified, it's something that we talk and think about a lot. So much in fact, that it just becomes a word, a phrase, oh yeah, then Jesus "suffered, died and was buried." Just like that, rolls off of the tongue after so many years in church. But to be standing a few feet away while Jesus hangs from the cross, suffers great agony, while Mary and all of the apostles gather helplessly to watch him die, is powerful.

And awful.

I have been blessed to be a part of this show, not just for the new friends I've made, or the opportunity to sing some great music, but also to be reminded during this time of Lent, exactly what it was that Jesus endured. It's one thing to say, Jesus died for your sins, it's another thing to watch it happen. To see all those that witnessed the miracles Jesus performed, those who gave up the cushy tax collecting jobs and lives to follow Jesus, watch him suffer at the hands of Rome is truly moving.

I hope those that are coming to the show find it as moving as I do, I hope that you are reminded of God's love through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

Blessings,
Rob

Youth Sunday 2014

We did it! We survived "Youth Sunday" 2014!

Thanks to all the hard work of the Youth, this year's Youth Sunday went so smoothly! From the fantastic leadership and sermon of our seniors, to A/V to music, everything was put together in a relatively orderly fashion!

Everyone that helped out did a great job, but the biggest shout-out has to go to Leah and Annika for sharing their great message! It was truly inspiring to see how far they have come in their years at St. Mark's. The message was spot on, just a little funny, nostalgic, touching and informative (#Learning!).

Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and they got to experience God first-hand. I've never spoken to God, or heard God's voice. Like the wind, God's presence is felt and the effect that God has on us can be seen, and that's how I feel about these seniors sharing their message. Their journey, though still in its early stages, is inspiring and is the effect of God in their lives, and therefore, in ours!

The Youth Sunday crew!

Uh... Guppy?

Have you ever said to God, "I Love You?" Why/why not? Agape (pronounced a variety of ways, though I usually say [uh-'Gah-Pay]) is the love God has for us, and the love we have for God. See, even Wikipedia says so, so it must be true:

Agape (/ˈæɡəpiː/[1] or /əˈɡɑːpeɪ/; Classical Greek: ἀγάπη, agápē; Modern Greek: αγάπη IPA: [aˈɣapi]), often translated "unconditional love", is one of the Koine Greek words translated into English as love, one which became particularly appropriated in Christian theology as the love of God or Christ for humankind. In the New Testament, it refers to the covenant love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God;

In my formative years, (who am I kidding, spiritually speaking, I'm always in my formative years) when I wanted to pray, but didn't know what to say, or pray for, sometimes I would just say "Dear God, Thank You. I Love You. Amen." It's so simple, but it said all I wanted to say. And why not? When you think about it, it's kind of an all encompassing statement. And God said/demonstrated it to you first:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16 (NIV)

...so we don't even have to be embarrassed to say it. No fear of rejection here!

Love is a word that we use in a lot of ways: "I love pizza" or "I love your sweater" or "I would love to go to Blackstone for a Valentine's Day dinner!" There is nothing wrong with this kind of love, but it nothing compared to the kind of love we experience from God. I hope you see that. I don't think there's a person in this world that confuses the kind of love we have for food, even chocolate, for the kind of love we have for our family or for God, but sometimes I think it helps to sit and reflect on it.

So, on this Valentine's Day, I hope you will remember those friends you love as brothers and sisters, I hope you will express your love to your family, children, spouse or significant other, but I also hope you will remember to God "I Love You." For all that God has given you.

Say it with me now:

Dear God, 

Happy Valentine's Day

Thank You.

I Love You.

Amen.

Happy MLK Day

I was thinking about the MLK service, put on by the Consultation of Religious Communities, that we had at St. Mark's last night. Wow. I have to admit, I've never attended one before, so I didn't really know what to expect.

In case you missed it, there were over 200 people from many faith backgrounds, Islamic, Jewish and Christian. There were speakers, music and performances from a variety of groups, including the St. Mark's Chancel Choir, a mime act from Gospel Ministry Explosion, the Kayros band as well as many others.

The Youth of St. Mark's were able to contribute in several meaningful ways, including a skit that demonstrated part of the scripture of James. "Don't ask me how it's going, ask me what I'm doing for others!" The skit was very well received, and they all did a great job! Youth also served as ushers and greeters, and even sang with the choir. I have to say, the part of the night that made me the most proud of the Youth of St. Mark's was the way they welcomed visitors at the door. Everyone was smiling and enthusiastic and they really took their jobs seriously. I love that the Youth were able to represent the church to our friends and neighbors, because, who better!?

I was touched by the reading from Dr. King's Speech/Sermon where he intimates the "An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality." This is why we (the Youth Group) need to stay involved in our community. This is why we go on mission trips to places like Detroit, and Tennessee and Cincinnati. We are going out and experiencing first hand what it is like to be the "other," and what it is like to focus on someone else for whatever period of time we can manage. It is my hope that by meeting people with lives so different (but truly, not that different) that we will gain new perspective on the world; that we will avoid the temptation to label the "other" as bad or weird and therefore we will lose that "self-centeredness" that Dr. King describes.

What a great night. It was a long service, to be sure, and I don't blame those who didn't make it all the way through, especially on a school night, but by the end of it, with the entire congregation singing "We Shall Overcome" while swaying hand-in-hand it was invigorating! So much so, that I went home and wasn't able to sleep until almost 11:00 PM, which is late for an "old" parent of young children like me. The only question I was left with was: "Do we really have to wait a whole year before we do it again?"

Blessings,
Rob

The Spark

"Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, 'I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12

I love the devotion for the day given to us by Lisa Cheater. She says that Jesus is the "Light in a dark, sinful world." And, while I think we can agree with that, I think we can also go one step further. We are the carriers of the spark. That is, Jesus is the fire, but a little bit of that fire is in each of us. We all carry the spark that is the love of Jesus in our hearts. That's what makes worship so powerful, that's what makes Youth Group so powerful. A gathering of a lot of little sparks makes for a lot of warmth.

That's what I felt last night when I saw so many faces smiling and enjoying one-another's company. We got together and we helped to put away Christmas decorations for the season, then we played games. Not exactly earth-shattering in terms of world impact or deep theological study, just fellowship. Just peace with one another and the chance to know that we are not alone in our belief, in our world. We matter to one another, each of you matters to me.

I hope that we, as a Youth Group, continue to strengthen this bond and that as all of us gain and earn trust in each other, that we can share more of our spark. More of our hopes and dreams, our thoughts, our beliefs. I hope that we can see in each other "encouraging examples of [Christ's] goodness..."

Blessings,
Rob

Summer Mission Trip

Hey everyone. I'm investigating summer mission trips and I wanted to update you on the progress.

This is the first year since I began working as the Youth Director for St. Mark's that a conference-wide summer mission trip has not been offered. Therefore I've been delving into the world of mission trip planning. The first thing I've discovered, the options are endless! Our destination is only limited by our imaginations (and finances, and our willingness to fly/drive)! The second thing I've discovered, I should have started planning this in July of last year... I could spend a month just wading through all of the options.

After many many hours of research I believe I've settled on a trip to Cincinnati, OH. Cincinnati has many opportunities to help with community projects, including shelters, food banks and children's programs. The week would be July 20th-25th (19th to 26th with travel days). The city also has many sights and fun things to do.

What do you think?

Rob

New Year's Resolution: Daily Devotions

For Christmas this year, I (read the church, with much input from my wife, Sarah) purchased daily devotional books for all of the Youth of St. Mark's UMC. If you are a Youth and have not received your book yet, come to church on Sunday, January 5th, (or any Sunday, really) and we'll get it to you. I also gave copies to Bob and Deanna and kept one for myself. My idea was that hopefully this could give us, not only a new opportunity to find a way to pray each day, but also to "be on the same page," if you will, though this year-long journey.

I am very excited about this book called, "Conversations with Jesus: 365 Daily Devotions for Teens" written by Lisa Cheater. It has 365 daily devotions that are very short, but very meaningful. Each one is accompanied by a scripture passage, which I hope to explore in more depth on those days where I find I have more time and/or more need to go deeper into the meaning of the scripture. I am excited by the length of each devotion because it gives me NO EXCUSE not to read it, and, if I were to miss a day, I could catch up in no time.

I will put the suggested scripture reading on our Facebook page each day, but reading the accompanying text will be up to you. I also hope to write blog posts on days where I feel particularly inspired/time permits.

I really hope you will join me on this journey. I don't mind telling you, there are a lot of things that I have started and intended to follow-through with over the course of the year that just never happened, but I think this is something that even *I* can do.

Blessings,
Rob