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Why I'm Not Tithing On My Tax Credits

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 23:12:00 +0000

Our son Noah turned 18 months old today, and it's kind of unfathomable how much the world has changed in the year and a half since I first held him in my arms. Each passing month (and sometimes week) brings some sort of significant change to some huge aspect of our lives like vocabulary, health and economy. Today one of the new changes hit our checking account: We received our first advance Child Tax Credits.

If you're not familiar with the idea read this article (that says the IRS paid out around $15 billion today 👀) or one like it but I'll summarize briefly:

Essentially every family with children is getting a tax credit of $3000 per child six and over and $3600 for every child under six on their 2021 taxes, but the default option is to receive half of the credit per child in monthly installments from July to December (so $300 per child per month under six and $250 per child per month over six).

To illustrate that I'll use our family: Today we got $850 from the IRS. $250 ostensibly to offset expenses for our 6 year old Judah, and $300 each for our younger children.

I won't get into the politics or economics of whether this is good or wise or sustainable but suffice it to say I am concerned about the massive amounts of national debt we are passing onto these same kids.

Chances are many of you reading this received similar credits today. And if you are a Christ follower hopefully one of the first questions you are asking yourself (and if married, your spouse) as you decide what to do with this money is "Should we tithe on this?"

(This will be a little detailed and technical, so if you just want the answer to the tithing question without the background explanation, skip down to the bolded line below.)

Let's pause for a moment and discuss some principles of the tithe then come back to the tax credits:

- Tithe literally means "tenth" and biblically means "first ten percent". The biblical principle of the tithe is to return the first ten percent to God to honor Him, advance His kingdom, and invite God into your finances.

- The ten percent is important but the firstfruit is even more important - giving God the FIRST ten percent requires faith that there will be enough at the end. In the Old Testament this was massively significant - they gave the first offspring of the cow in faith that there would be nine more, or the firstfruits of the harvest in faith that more harvest was going to come.

- Since the tithe is on the firstfruits I believe in tithing my gross income, that is, the amount I am paid before taxes are taken out (or retirement or child support or insurance or whatever else may come out of the check or direct deposit before you see it).

- I believe the tithe is still in place for New Testament believers for many reasons including a) the tithe predated the Law of Moses (we see Abraham offer the first tenth to Melchizedek all the way back in Genesis 14 - we see Abel offer the firstborn of his flock to God all the way back in Genesis 4). b) The New Testament never abolishes the tithe (not even when Jesus discusses the tithe in Matthew 23) c) Hebrews 7 establishes that Melchizedek was at least a symbol of Jesus (I believe he was the preincarate Christ) and that just as Abraham's tenth went to Melchizedek our tenth goes to "the One who is declared to be living" (that being Jesus, Hebrews 7:8).

Most of the time I can give a direct "yes" or "no" on whether money should be tithed on (yes if it's income, yes if it's a gift, no if it's a refund as long as you've already been tithing since in that case it's already tithed on). For instance with the three COVID stimuleses (stimuli?) that most Americans received I was a firm believer that they were income and the tithe belonged to God and in all three cases Melody and I tithed on our stimuli. For tax returns we do not tithe on our tax return and I generally tell people not to tithe on them since it's already tithed on (unless they are tithing on their net income rather than the gross in which case it hasn't already been tithed on).

These new tax credits are a little trickier because they are a gray area between income and a refund. Unlike the traditional tax credit you got for your children (most recently $2000 per child) this is not essentially a discount on your taxable income. Previously the federal government said "We know raising kids is expensive, so for every child you have we will knock $2000 off of what you owe us." That discount was most frequently paid via tax return (and again, if you're tithing on your gross income you don't need to tithe on that).

These new credits are different in that you will receive them even if you don't owe that much tax to begin with. So before they were a refund, now they are a refund for many but perhaps income (or at least partially income) for some.

And calculating out who they are income for and how much of them is income is going to be real tricky.

So what do we do? Well, that depends on your situation:

1. If you currently tithe on your gross: Look at your paystubs for the month. If the amount you send to the IRS monthly exceeds the amount you are getting for your tax credits you should be fine not tithing on it. The only exception to this would be if you normally owe on your federal taxes at the end of the year or perhaps if you normally get a very small refund. If the amount you are getting in tax credits exceeds what you send to the IRS monthly, I would tithe on the difference.

2. If you currently tithe on your gross but you are uncomfortable with the math involved in number 1: I think you are fine not tithing on your tax credits for now. When you get your tax return filled out in the spring you should be able to figure out if need to tithe on a little of the tax credits (and should most likely be getting a tax refund then that will help you do so).

3. If you currently tithe on your net income: Then you should definitely tithe on this as it's just an advance on your tax refund which hasn't already been tithed on.

4. If you currently give some but don't give a full tithe: This is a great time to take another step towards what God has for you and trusting Him fully. This extra money may be enough for you to take that step to a full tithe! God will bless you immensely for your faithfulness and obedience in this area.

5. If you currently don't tithe at all: This is a great time to start tithing! Even if you can't get to a full ten percent you've just been given new income that will allow you to start moving towards the tithe. Take advantage of that and watch as God blesses your steps towards honoring Him in your finances!

As a family who a. faithfully tithes on our gross income b. who pays more in monthly taxes than we receive in tax credits and c. typically gets a pretty decent refund each year (which will be smaller now but still solid), we are not tithing on our tax credits.

My guess is that this will be where a lot of others who tithe on their gross land as well, but certainly not all.

Lastly let me say this - we do our best to dig into Biblical principles because we believe God's Word is the best guide for our lives as followers of Jesus. This is my best understanding of how to apply the Biblical principles of tithing to the tax credits. You may be in a category where like us you don't need to tithe on the tax credits but if God tells you to give from those credits (or your tax return or anything else) then these principles never supercede God's voice. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. He'll never contradict Scripture or lower Biblical standards for us but He will often call us down roads He doesn't call everyone down. If he does that for you in this financial area, or any other area, trust in Him. Oftentimes God has told us to give out of our tax refund even though we had already tithed on it and we have always been blessed because we did. The place God leads is always the best place to be.

A Few Thoughts For CityChurch On The Coronavirus

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 18:49:00 +0000

You can't turn anywhere without hearing something about the Coronavirus. Whether it's the news, social media or just old fashioned in person conversation, it seems the topic is inescapable right now. Just today the Governor of Washington State issued an edict banning all assemblies over 250 people in three counties including King County, where I was born.

Everywhere we turn someone is freaking out, complaining about someone freaking out, or maybe both.

Sunday during our 9:15am service Shelby County announced it's first confirmed case of the virus. It is no longer an Asian issue or a West Coast issue or a big city issue, it has now arrived in our backyard and become our issue. As your Pastor, I want to address a few things in regards to this.

First of all you should know we are currently evaluating our plans and procedures to ensure we are taking appropriate precautions to protect you. While I am by nature one to default on the side of skepticism in regards to hysteria, I also understand we have a responsibility to ensure people can worship safely and without fear, and we are taking that responsibility seriously. Thankfully we live in a generation of mass access to information, and we are able to learn from churches in parts of the country where they have already had to respond to this. Northshore Church in Kirkland, WA has been especially helpful.

While the Coronavirus is generally not serious for those who aren't elderly and those with healthy immune systems, we have a Biblical mandate to love our neighbor as ourselves. Just because it may not seriously endanger most in our church family does not mean it would not endanger any in our church family (or our community at large). As good neighbors we should take every precaution to prevent spreading the virus as a means of looking out for those who could be endangered.

With that in mind we haven't settled on every decision we will need to make but we have decided during this season to stop asking people to shake hands as a precaution. So be warned this Sunday our First Impressions Hosts won't be shaking your hand and you won't be asked to shake anyone's hands during our Greeting Time.

There will undoubtedly be other adjustments as time goes on so be flexible with us as we navigate how this looks in our context. Whether at church or not we should all obviously use wisdom - wash your hands, work on not touching your face (I'm shockingly bad at this!), etc.

Beyond safety precautions there is the spiritual side to all of this. I would like to give a few spiritual principles that I foresee guiding us through this situation. While I don't personally foresee the Coronavirus becoming a massive issue for us in our corner of the world, there is certainly no guarantee that I am correct. Beyond that, there is no guarantee that there won't be a virus or other germ that becomes a major issue for us in the future. World History tells us that these things do happen and Church History tells us that we have a special role to play when they do (more on that later).

Biblical Principles To Guide Us In The Midst Of Public Health (and Other) Crises
We Will Love Our Neighbors As Ourselves - I have mentioned this already but it bears repeating. Matthew 22:39 gives us this great command. As believers this is not a suggestion but part of the deal. We signed up for this. We must take this seriously. Just because something doesn't affect me doesn't mean it shouldn't matter to me - if it affects my neighbor it must matter to me as a Christ follower.

We Will Place Our Hope In Jesus And Nothing Else - At times like these one mustn't look far to find the impact of fear. Health fears and economic fears are all around us. As believers our hope must not be in our health, though we understand health is quite valuable and we believe it is God's will for His people to be well. As believers our hope must not be in our economy, though a good economy helps our loved ones and neighbors and we pray that it will remain strong. But our hope can not found be in those things. Many generations of Christians before us have seen health fail and economies fail. No generation of believers has ever seen Jesus fail. Times like these are a great opportunity for us to check where we have placed our hope. As the great hymn says "My hope is built on nothing less, but Jesus' blood and righteousness". If you've placed your hope anywhere else, this is the time to transfer your hope to the One who will never let you down. Jesus is greater than sickness, He is greater than disease, He is greater than our economy and He is greater than death. Trust in Him and Him alone.

We Will Not Shrink Back From Sharing Jesus Or Loving Others - Historically speaking the Gospel spreads most rapidly and most powerfully in times of crises. There is nothing like the prospect of disease, death and destruction to compel people to wrestle with eternity. And there is nothing like the danger of infectious disease to open the door for followers of Jesus to demonstrate how unique faith in Christ truly is.

Check out the spiritual legacy that we are walking in! (Excerpted from When Heaven And Earth Collide by Alan Cross, as posted on his blog from 2014):

In 260 AD, a great epidemic devastated the Roman Empire. These epidemics had been ravaging sections of the empire for a century and when one hit, the death toll was extraordinarily high, at times up to a fourth or third of the people. The common reaction to the onset of an epidemic was for the pagan Romans and Greeks to remove themselves from the sick and leave the cities as quickly as they could. They would leave the dying behind in the hope that they could save their own lives. But during these epidemics, a miracle of sorts happened. The Christians saw things differently.

Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, wrote to the church in an Easter letter that Christians saw this epidemic differently than the pagans did. He said, “other people would not think this a time for festival [but] far from being a time of distress, it is a time of unimaginable joy.” Rodney Stark, in The Rise of Christianity, writes:

Acknowledging the huge death rate, Dionysius noted that though this terrified the pagan, Christians greeted the epidemic as merely ‘schooling and testing.’ Thus, at a time when all other faiths were called to question, Christianity offered explanation and comfort. Even more important, Christian doctrine provided a prescription for action. That is, the Christian way appeared to work.

The attitude of the Christians in Alexandria causes one to think of James 1:2–4 which states:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let en- durance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Instead of running away from the plague so they could be healthy and prosperous, the Christians of Alexandria reacted in the opposite way. They saw it as their duty to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. They saw the plague as an opportunity to depend upon God and to see God do miracles of love in people’s hearts.

Dionysius paid tribute to those Christians who loved their neighbor even to the point of giving up their own lives. He wrote:

Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead . . . The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of martyrdom.

Dionysius then explained how the heathen acted. It was very different from the church:

The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape.

There is a lot more out there on this than just this book and blog, and it wasn't just the Plague of AD 260. The Early Church was marked by it's compassion and boldness to run to the sick while the world ran from them. Which sounds a lot like Jesus to me.

CityChurch, please hear me (read me?). Through this and whatever other bugs the future may hold, we will be wise, we will take precautions, but. we. will. not. shrink. back. These are the times that demonstrate to the world that we do not simply profess faith in a Savior who has risen from the grave but we choose to boldly follow His mandate to love others with full confidence that the grave has no power over us either.

Two of my favorite verses in all of Scripture sum up this mentality:

Hebrews 10:39
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Revelation 12:11
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

I don't believe this outbreak will bring a large amount of death to our area. But even if it does: We will love our neighbors as ourselves, we will place our hope in Jesus and nothing else, and we will never shrink back from sharing Jesus or loving others.

Don't forget our mandate to be intercessors this week. The timing was coincidental on our end. Certainly not on God's.

I love you and I'm very honored to serve this city alongside you.

PT

I'm back and better than ever...okay I'm back anyway

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 22:17:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I blogged. LOOOOONG time. Life's been busy and stuff. :)

But I promised CityChurch of Olive Branch I'd be posting the answers to a couple of questions that were more in depth than the time I had available for them this past Sunday, so here I am. I will release these answers one at a time, the first one today (Friday, December 6th) and the second one tomorrow (Saturday, December 7th).

If you're not a part of CityChurch know this: God loves you and He wants you to have a church family where you can grow and help others grow. If you are part of another church, get as involved as you possibly can there. If you are not part of a church and you are in the Olive Branch area we would be honored to have you check us out - we meet every Sunday at 3591 Bethel Road in OB at 9:15am and 11am. If you are not in the Olive Branch area and need a church home feel free to comment with your city or town and I will do all I can to help you find a life-giving church in your area.

Okay, so throughout our recent Searching For Answers Series where our people submitted questions on a huge variety of questions, we had three guidelines to providing answers:

1. Where the Bible speaks clearly, we will speak clearly.

2. Where the Bible gives us a principle, we will seek to apply that principle.

3. Where the Bible is unclear, I'll provide my opinion.

With those same guidelines in mind, let's get to the question!

Who do you think are the “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2-4?

This is a great question I’ve often wondered about myself. For some context, here’s the passage in question:

Genesis 6

6 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The passage doesn’t tell us much. It makes it clear these “sons of God” weren’t human (as opposed to “the daughters of humans”). And that’s about it. We know the Nephilim were a people group of giants (Numbers 13:33), but that’s about all we know for sure. So, who are these “sons of men”?

There are a few theories that have been thrown out there:

Humans. This seems unlikely since it says they married with the daughters of humans, which in context seems to be unexpected, and human men marrying human women doesn’t seem to warrant mention let alone surprise.

Demons. This is the opinion I held most of my life. I couldn’t tell you why they would be called “sons of God” other than that demons were originally angels, but it seems that this marrying is a bad thing and attributing bad things to a demonic source always seems to make sense, so that’s what I went with.

Angels. This is the theory I hold currently, and makes the most sense to me currently. Angels are not literally “Sons of God” (only Jesus is that in the literal sense and then redeemed humans after we have been adopted into His family), but as a euphemism it seems to add up. Angels came from God, they always appear in Scripture in masculine form, and as far as we know they existed before any other created beings. Sons of God feels like a good title for them, even if it’s not literally the case.

Now, angels marrying human women sounds like something out of a bad Nicolas Cage movie (though I’ll always love “Iris”), but it’s my best guess at this point. And if it is correct, I’ll submit that it could go a long way to explaining two other mysteries in Scripture as well.

First, the declaration in Genesis 6:3 that “their days will be a hundred and twenty years”. As a kid I was taught that this meant no one would live longer than 120 years anymore. The problem is, immediately after this we have Noah who goes on to live over 600 years. So if there is a cap on humanity’s life span, it wasn’t instituted in Genesis 6:3.

What does make sense is that this intermarrying of celestial beings and humans was a massive breach of God’s commands by these angels, and God knew this had to be eliminated from the human gene pool. So the declaration that “their days would be 120 years” was the time limit from Genesis 6:3 until the flood.

Secondly, if these were angels that violated God’s commands for them not to partner with humans, then these angels would have to be punished. After all, the other angels who violated God’s laws were cast out of heaven along with their leader Lucifer. This would potentially explain the four angels we find in Revelation 9:

Revelation 9

13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

So my best theory is that the sons of God were angels, they were punished by God for their rebellion by being bound up at the Euphrates River, and at some point in the future they will be released to unleash their wrath against mankind (because of course they aren’t going to blame themselves for their plight).

What do you think? Am I on the right track? This is definitely one that I inserted a lot of opinion into because the Bible doesn't make it clear. I'd love to hear your thoughts, leave me a comment!

How I Disagree With The Christian Right's Response To The Legalization Of Gay Marriage

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 21:44:00 +0000

I've said before that when you're offending people on both sides of an argument then you're probably close to being right. I might be way off on my opinion here, but at least I'm assured to offend people on both sides of the political aisle, so I have that going for me, which is nice.

I suppose I should get this out of the way first; I lived in Oklahoma in 2004 when the (state) constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was on the ballot. I voted yes to ban it. If I had to do it over again, I would make the same vote. I absolutely believe God loves gay people and has a plan for them, and I believe the Church should be a place they are welcomed, but the Bible is clear that homosexuality is sinful and never God's best. (For a review of the seven Bible passages that discuss homosexuality and more on my thoughts on homosexuality click here to listen to a message I did on the topic in the fall of 2013). It's been disappointing to watch a few of my Christian friends celebrate and applaud last week's Supreme Court decision (and those in this category should definitely read this).

But as a pastor, I have much less to say on any one particular sin issue and much more to say regarding the Church's response to it. And this is ultimately my reason for writing.

I was away at camp when the decision came down last week so I'm sure I've missed some of the reactions, but what I have seen from Christians on social media has largely fallen into three buckets:

A. Celebration. "Love wins!" etc (this is the smallest bucket but is far from empty).
B. Silence (this is the bucket I usually prefer to be in on social media political issues).
C. Hysteria. "America is destined for judgement!" "How could God continue to bless America if he destroyed Sodom and Gommorah!" "Five Supreme Court justices just destroyed the fabric of our great nation!" etc.

It is Bucket C I would like to address. Bucket A is sadly off base, Bucket B is impossible to evaluate, and Bucket C is the most vocal (in my news feed anyway), and while they are sort of right, they are right for very wrong reasons. Hopefully I can unpack some of that.

In short, I agree that there is little good to be gained from the legalization of gay marriage in our country, and I sort of agree that things are going to get pretty bad from here (though I think it will take longer than your average apocalypse monger). Where I disagree ever so strongly is with the reasoning behind the impending disaster.

To further break down the average conservative Christian in Bucket C's opinions on this, here are three general premises they seem to accept:

1) Legalizing gay marriage is a terrible decision for our country.
2) "Liberals" are to blame for the legalization of gay marriage - liberal judges, liberal president, liberal media, liberal homosexual activists, Hollywood, etc
3) We must continue to fight against gay marriage no matter what the law says.

I agree with point 1, and mostly disagree with point 3 (I agree we shouldn't endorse or conduct gay weddings but I think the political fight is a waste of time, energy and finances and needs to end). But it's point 2 that I haven't seen anyone address.

Liberals are not to blame for the legalization of gay marriage. Supreme Court justices are not to blame for this. President Obama is not to blame for this. Sure, all of those individuals and groups have contributed to accelerating the process, but legalized gay marriage in the US has been inevitable for quite sometime. This decision just stopped delaying the inevitable.

The American people overwhelmingly want homosexuals to be allowed to marry. Per this poll earlier this year, 61% of Americans support gay marriage while only 35% oppose it. Other polls have found similar results. This has happened quickly, as just a decade ago it was 58% against to 39% support. When 61% of our nation supports a law, it's going to become the law one way or the other. We can debate the constitutionality of the Supreme Court making it the law, but I'm not writing this to address politics, I'm writing to address the Church.

So let's get to it. If liberals aren't to blame for this, who are?

WE ARE.

Christians. And not just the ones who are celebrating the legalization of gay marriage. Hardcore, blood-bought, spirit-filled Christians who value the literal interpretation of the Word of God are to blame for the current state of our nation.

"But we fought against gay marriage harder than we've ever fought against anything!" "But we pounded on the the Word of God and shouted it's truths to anyone who would listen!" "But we gave our time, talent and treasure to organizations and political candidates who would stand up against gay marriage!" "How are we to blame for this?"

We are to blame for this because we've drastically missed the point.

Alexis de Tocqueville famously said that "in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." And I can already hear my conservative friends protesting "we're not a democracy we're a republic!" but the point stands. Regardless what you think America should operate as, it has operated as a democracy for quite some time. And we, the Church, have gotten the government we deserve.

God has given the Church spiritual authority for our nation. As such, it is my opinion that gay marriage would never have become the law of our land unless we allowed it. How have we allowed it? Not by being too inactive politically. No, we've been plenty active politically. We've allowed it by being too inactive spiritually. And when I point that finger at the Church, I point it squarely at myself.

We've fallen down on the job, Church.

In Acts 4 when Peter and John are arrested for healing the paralytic by the temple gate called Beautiful, they are brought before the Sanhedrin, flogged, and sternly warned not to speak anymore about Jesus. Then they are released. Upon their release, they return to their brothers and sisters in Christ, tell them what happened, and organize a political rally to stand up for their freedom of religion. No wait, that's not it. They invest in picket signs to campaign for free speech. Nope, not quite it either.

Oh yeah, they prayed!

Acts 4

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

And they went on to pray for God's protection from the authorities and God to raise up better authorities in the future....Except that's not it either. After giving glory to God and reminding Him of His past goodness to them, the early Church makes two simple request of God:

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Instead of asking God to make their circumstances easy enough for them to bear, they asked God to give them strength equivalent to their circumstances. "Enable your servants to speak with great boldness." And then they asked God to do healings and miracles through them. Not once did they even speak to the political situation except to ask for boldness to not back down from the threats.

This, of course, is the opposite of how we react when our "rights" are violated. We organize a rally, we put together a committee, we form a Facebook group to stand up for our rights! And in the process we treat God like a last resort.

Again, I'm pointing the finger at myself here.

But I firmly believe prayer never would have been taken out of schools (to use another hot button issue for conservative Christians) if it hadn't first been taken out of the home. We get the government we deserve. And I believe that reinserting prayer in schools right now would be a colossal waste of time. God does not respond to the dead rituals of a people whose hearts are far from Him. He responds mightily to the fervent prayers of a people whose hearts are His.

And just as I believe this about prayer in schools, and abortion, and every other movement of our culture away from God's best, I believe it about gay marriage.

These issues and decisions are simply symptoms. They are not the disease.

The disease is not in the culture. The disease is in the Church. If the 25% of Americans who claim to be Christians who believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ would invest their energy spiritually half as much as they have politically we would run this nation again within 20 years (which is half the time abortion has already been legal). Why? Because if the 25% started seeking God's face and His will, we wouldn't just be 25% anymore.

What America needs is not more picket signs, nor more petitions, not more Facebook groups nor more political campaigns. It needs a blameless Church without spot or wrinkle that actually believes the God they claim to serve is worth seeking. It does not need more truth declared but much more truth demonstrated. It needs followers of Jesus to daily deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus.

If this had been going on for the past 50 years in our nation, gay marriage wouldn't even be a debate in the culture let alone the law of the land. But because of the mediocre, lukewarm, Biblically illiterate Church (that I have firmly been a part of), we have arrived at this point.

Many serious Christians can quote to you 2 Chronicles 7:14, which lays out for us a prescription for God's healing on a nation.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Notice it says "if MY people" will do these things. Or as 1 Peter 4:17 says "Judgement begins in the house of God." While the Church is so worried about a culture that's turned from God, God is simply waiting for His Church to turn to Him. If HIS people do these things, He'll heal our land.

Well, what things? Pray. Seek his face. Turn from our wicked ways. We need ALL of that.

But I skipped one, and I think it might be the most important, simply because it's the one that allows us to do the rest.

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves..."

It's time for the people of God to humble ourselves. To humble ourselves and acknowledge that our human efforts aren't getting the job done. To humble ourselves and acknowledge opening the Bible once a week isn't enough. To humble ourselves and begin to pray. To humble ourselves and begin to seek the face of God. To humble ourselves and turn from the wickedness in our own lives, the "practical atheism" that infects us all.

We must humble ourselves.

And we must humble ourselves and admit the mess that American culture has become is no one's fault but our own.

It's time to stop pointing fingers, and time to start hitting our knees. American culture is only going to get as bad as we allow it to. If Christians are bothered by the developments in our culture and political system, we must respond by humbling ourselves and owning it. Just as Daniel (who walked in far more purity than the American Church has) repented for the sins of His people, it is time for Christians to repent, first for our own junk, then for the junk in the Church, then for the junk in our nation.

It's not too late for America to return to God. But it is far too late for us to think that a better political plan is the solution. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds..." God never promised we would win when we fight with the weapons of this world. But He did promise we can do all things when we walk in His strength.

When it comes to the war for our nation we now have two options. Own it. Or give up.

The ball is in your court, Church. Let's show ourselves worthy to stand on the shoulders of the men and women of Acts 4. Let's turn to God with our whole hearts. He's still in the business of forgiving sin and healing lands.

Free Will or Predestination?

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:03:00 +0000

NOTE: What follows are my notes, loosely reformatted, from a message I did to a group of young men discussing why I do not believe in Calvinism. I want to be clear that I did not pick this fight - I am hesitant to enter into such doctrinal debates because I find them unnecessarily divisive. I believe that heaven will be full of Calvinists and Arminians, Reformists and Methodists, Cessasionists and Charismatics It is my belief that if we can worship together in eternity, we should be able to worship together on earth, despite doctrinal differences.

However, this group of young men (a group that leaned heavily towards the Calvinist side of the debate) repeatedly asked me for my views on this subject to the point where I knew they deserved an explanation of my thoughts. This is that explanation.

Quotations from outside sources, Scripture included, are in italics. As I have not gone through and reedited this document for a blog rather than a sermon, I apologize in advance for any points that may not be fully developed. Feel free to ask in the comments if you come across any section that is confusing or incomplete. Also, whereas I typically use the NIV, I used the ESV for this message unless otherwise noted, as the ESV is the translation Calvinists use almost exclusively.

Discussing Calvinism

This morning I want to share with you why I oppose Calvinism both on the grounds of theology and history. I will address both of these, beginning with the most important: theology.  We will examine each of the five foundational Calvinist doctrines, which are popularly known as TULIP though most in the reform movement would call the doctrines of grace.

I’m going to use definitions here from the Grace Online Library, a Calvinist apologist organization. I selected this site specifically since it works to present the doctrines of grace in the best possible light. The last thing I want to do is knockdown theological strawmen, I want to address the doctrines that are put in ways that those who believe them genuinely embrace.

Total Depravity (aka "Total Inability")
Because of the fall, man is unable of himself to savingly believe the gospel. The sinner is dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God; his heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt. His will is not free, it is in bondage to his evil nature, therefore, he will not — indeed he cannot — choose good over evil in the spiritual realm. Consequently, it takes much more than the Spirit’s assistance to bring a sinner to Christ — it takes regeneration by which the Spirit makes the sinner alive and gives him a new nature. Faith is not something man contributes to salvation but is itself a part of God’s gift of salvation— it is God’s gift to the sinner, not the sinner’s gift to God.

It seems from all of my readings that of the five core Calvinist doctrines, this is actually the most foundational. I suppose that makes sense, as how one approaches the fall of man certainly affects how he approaches man’s redemption.   Beginning something of a theme, there is some here that I agree with and some that I do not.   Let’s start with the common ground. I agree with the doctrine of Original Sin which this is founded upon.

 Romans 5:12 “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”   Thanks to Adam, we are all born sinners.

I also agree that man is incapable of believing on his own. For one example, 2 Corinthians 4:4 says “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Calvinism goes on to teach that we will not, indeed, cannot, choose spiritual good or evil and that the Spirit must do all the work of opening our eyes and giving us saving faith.   I see it differently. I believe God opens the eyes of unbelievers but that they still must choose to accept or reject the Lord as an act of their own will.

I believe Scripture repeatedly affirms choice. Joshua, one of the most direct OT types of Jesus, in fact the one who shares his very Hebrew name with our Lord, says this:
 
Joshua 24:14-15
 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Obviously the nature of the redemption of the OT saints was different, but there’s a clear affirmation here of the power of CHOICE.

Perhaps an even greater affirmation of that power occurs in Deuteronomy 30:19-20  

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Choice is not just an Old Testament doctrine. It appears repeatedly in the parables of Jesus. The tale of the Prodigal Son hinges on this statement ... when he came to himself...the NIV says “when he came to his senses”.

In both the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great worth, there is an item of great value representing the kingdom of God, and the thing representing the kingdom is found by someone, who gives up everything to obtain the kingdom. Notice that in neither story does the kingdom of God find them, they find the kingdom.

 In the Parable of the Sower it’s not the one who sows who chooses who grows. The difference is in the soil itself. In fact, Jesus summarizes the good soil this way ( Matthew 13:23):

“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, five virgins were ready, five were not. It was their own preparation which determined which virgins would go with the bridegroom, who obviously represents Jesus.

I don't completely reject total depravity, I completely affirm that all our righteousness is like filthy rags, that there is no one righteous, no not one. I just disagree with the idea that we are so far gone we cannot choose the One who is righteous.

Unconditional Election
God’s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before fore the foundation of the world rested solely in His own sovereign will. His choice of particular sinners was not based on any foreseen response or obedience on their part, such as faith, repentance, etc. On the contrary, God gives faith and repentance to each individual whom He selected. These acts are the result, not the cause God’s choice. Election therefore was not determined by or conditioned upon any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. Those whom God sovereignly elected He brings through the power of the Spirit to a willing acceptance of Christ. Thus God’s choice of the sinner, not the sinner’s choice of Christ, is the ultimate cause of salvation.  

This one is super basic. I believe that salvation is incumbent upon belief. It is absolutely conditional. Scripture teaches this consistently. A few examples include:

  John 3:16-18 
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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. 

Romans 10:9-17 

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Limited Atonement (aka “Particular Redemption”)
Christ’s redeeming work was intended to save the elect only and actually secured salvation for them. His death was a substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners. In addition to putting away the sins of His people, Christ’s redemption secured everything necessary for their salvation, including faith which unites them to Him. The gift of faith is infallibly applied by the Spirit to all for whom Christ died, therefore guaranteeing their salvation.

  This is of course the most controversial element of TULIP. It’s the one that people like me push back against vigorously. While Calvin is obviously viewed as the chief expositor of the Calvinist dogma, there are many voices who have contributed to it’s formation. Prominent in that group was Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor at the University of Geneva. Beza, like many in the reformation, looked to Augustine as the church father with the purest theology, but we'll discuss Augustine more later. However, it was on this point that Beza took Augustine’s teachings one step further. 

At this point we must define some foreign theological terms:

Sublapsarianism - This is the view held by Augustine that Adam's sin was freely chosen but that, after Adam's fall, the eternal destiny of each person was determined by the absolutely sovereign God.

Supralapsarianism - This is the view popularized by Theodore Beza that before the fall, indeed before man's creation, God had already determined what the eternal destiny of each person was to be.

  Beza’s view became the Calvinist view. It is what Calvin himself taught, summed up in the title to chapter 21 of book 3 Institutes of the Christian Religion:"Of the eternal election, by which God has predestinated some to salvation, and others to destruction".   This is commonly known as “Double Predestination”: that before the foundations of the world God chose who would receive salvation AND who would not.

 There are some members of the modern reform movement who reject double predestination and embrace only single predestination, rejecting that God chooses some for damnation. I did not have time to thoroughly research single predestination, but on its surface I have a much easier time with it.   What I believe is this - yes, God chooses believers. I believe a strong part of our spiritual identity is that we are chosen, we are adopted into His family.

 Where I disagree is that this choosing is exclusive. I believe that we are chosen not to exclude others but to be agents of God’s inclusion. We are adopted to adopt others. As Pastor Perry Noble says “found people find people”.

There are at least two verses that blatantly oppose double predestination, in my view: 

2 Peter 3:9 
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 

1 Timothy 2:4 
(God) desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Reconciling Beza and Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination with a God who wants all to be saved is basically impossible. In fact, in Systematic Theology Calvinist Wayne Grudem goes so far as to declare that there are “two wills in God”, affirming that God desires everyone to be saved but declaring that his GREATER will is for some to be destroyed, and that God’s greater will wins out.  

Arminius said the arguments against predestination all boil down to one, basically “that unconditional predestination makes God "the author of sin."” I have to agree with him. If God is creating people for damnation then He is creating them with no choice but to sin. I just don’t see that in His nature.

 4. Irresistible Grace (aka “The Efficacious Call Of The Spirit”)
In addition to the outward general call to salvation which is made to everyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special inward call that inevitably brings them to salvation. The eternal call (which is made to all without distinction) can be, and often is, rejected; whereas the internal call (which is made only to the elect) cannot be rejected; it always results in conversion. By means, of this special call the Spirit irresistibly draws sinners to Christ. He is not limited in His work of applying salvation by man’s will, nor is He dependent upon man’s cooperation for success. The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ. God’, grace. therefore, is invincible; it never fails to result in the salvation of those to whom it is extended.

 I Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9 are again undeniable here. If God wants everyone to be saved (and he clearly does), how are so many unsaved if grace is irresistible?   I affirm that the Holy Spirit must make this inward call to us to repent, that God takes the first step, but I do not believe it is irresistible. I don't see any Scriptural evidence of this idea. Man, in his free will, has the ability to  choose to believe or reject God.

5. Perseverance Of The Saints  
All who are chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, and given faith by the Spirit are eternally saved. They are kept in faith by the power of Almighty God and thus persevere to the end.  

This is the one point of Calvinist doctrine that I can most embrace, and it is ironically the one that I grew up most opposed to. The Assemblies of God and non-denominational Pentecostal churches I grew up in believed and taught that one could lose one’s salvation. I was so steeped in this doctrine that once I arrived in the smalltown south and was surrounded by Baptists, this became the key debate. I had no clue who John Calvin was, let alone Jacobus Arminius, but I fiercely argued that salvation was losable.   

It got so bad that my Baptist friends would introduce me to their Baptist pastors and youth pastors to try and get them to convince me that I was wrong, but these discussions just more fully steeled my resolve.  When I was 20 years old I “took a year off” from Toccoa Falls College to complete an internship program at Church On The Move (henceforth “COTM”). Little did I know that I would be there four years, or that God would rock my theology while I was there much more deeply than he did in my two years at the bible college.

  It was at COTM that Pastor Willie George significantly deepened my understanding of salvation. He helped me see that upon salvation we are given a new spirit, that our old spirit is dead and discarded and God gives us a new spirit which is in contact with the Holy Spirit.

Once I really digested this, it made sense to me that we’re not gaining and losing salvation willy-nilly. Our new spirit that is in relationship with the Holy Spirit is not dying and being discarded only to be replaced again. 

There is, however, one section of Scripture that still really gives me pause:

Hebrews 6:4-6 
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen[c] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  

This seems to suggest that it IS possible to fall away, it’s just not possible to return. To me, this is the extreme of the extreme situations, something that most Christians would never have to really fear. I would say I am 99.8% Calvinist on perseverance of the saints.

CHURCH HISTORY

While we must build every theological understanding from Scripture, in instances where Scripture seems to teach both sides as it does with some of this, it can be instructive to turn to our church fathers to see what they believed, as the closer they were to the apostles, the more likely they were to have the apostles’ theology.

This look does not turn out so well for the Calvinist. The earliest church fathers who are respected and studied today were unanimous in their belief in free will. To wit:

Justin Martyr said that "every created being is so constituted as to be capable of vice and virtue. For he can do nothing praiseworthy, if he had not the power of turning either way." "Unless we suppose man has the power to choose the good and refuse the evil, no one can be accountable for any action whatever." (The First Apology, 43).

Tertullian also argued that no reward can be justly bestowed, no punishment can be justly inflicted, upon him who is good or bad by necessity, and not by his own choice. (Doctrine of the Will by Asa Mahan, p. 61).

I could go on. Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus, Origen all made strong statements in support of belief in free will. Perhaps most indicative to me is the teaching of Irenaeus. Irenaeus studied under John’s disciple Polycarp, putting him just one generation removed from the apostle. Irenaeus is perhaps most well known as the first church father to recognize that the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were canonical while rejecting the canonicity of all other “gospels”.

Irenaeus said, “ 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds’…And ‘Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?’…All such passages demonstrate the independent will of man…For it is in man’s power to disobey God and to forfeit what is good.”

Free will was universally the view of the earliest church fathers. In fact, predestination was not embraced by any prominent church father until Augustine of Hippo.

Augustine got saved in his late 40’s out of the Manichaen faith - a gnostic religion that teaches duality of good and evil. While I absolutely affirm that Augustine’s conversion was real and he effectively argued against the Manichaen’s, he certainly brought some of his past with him. And of course, the doctrine that he introduced to Christianity that we’re discussing today, predestination, was a foundational doctrine of the Manichaen’s.

Those church fathers closely connected to the Apostles believed in Free Will. Augustine, some 350 to 380 years after Jesus, began teaching the idea of predestination. We can never build a theology simply off of what the early church believed, we must always build theology in scripture, but it is certainly informative to find where any doctrine originated.

CONCLUSION
Ultimately I believe this - there is definitely truth to both sides here, but there is a point on the Calvinist-Arminian spectrum that represents the complete truth. I don’t pretend to have figured out where that point is, but for me I would say it's somewhere around 75 or 80% on the Arminian side. In my opinion, much of this debate hinges on a difference in the understanding of the idea of sovereignty.

I believe God is omniscient and sovereign. However I don’t see sovereignty meaning the same thing Calvinists do. In earthly terms, soverieignty means that you are in charge, that you are self determining, that no one else's decisions control yours. You are in control of yourself.

  I absolutely affirm God’s sovereignty. God is absolutely in charge. He is on the throne. There is no one higher, no one greater, no one who is even comparable.   I do not, however, believe that God is in total control. Satan is the prince of this world. He has some authority here. The cross of Jesus reclaimed much of that authority but not all of it - that will not come until the return of Christ and the victory at Armageddon.

And much of what Jesus reclaimed on the cross He then turned around and delegated again to man. We are in control of evangelism - Romans 10 makes this clear. We have authority over spiritual matters - Matthew 18 tells us that whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven and whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven. We have authority to live our lives as we choose. Some would call this free will.

 Now, I do believe that God is ultimately in control, meaning that He holds the outcome in His hands and cannot and will not be stopped from achieving total victory. In the end, He will wipe away every tear, He will defeat Satan and bring in a new heaven and new earth for His people. Until that day, I believe we must exercise our free will, and be agents of God’s inclusion.

What's So Uncool About Cool Blogs? A response to mattarino

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 21:38:00 +0000

What’s So Uncool About Cool Blogs?

Recently, I have had two people who don’t know each other send me the compellingly titled blogpost “What’s So Uncool About Cool Churches?”

First off, let me address the title. Someone once said CityChurch is a cool church and I about threw up. First of all, I don't really think that's true, there are good churches that are much, much "cooler" than we are. Secondly, it's not something I necessarily aspire to. I don't see relevant and cool as direct synonyms.

Regardless, since it seems that that this article is somewhat making the church cyber rounds, I felt the Internet was the best location to respond to it. Besides, I was bound to start blogging again eventually. What follows is my semi-comprehensive response to this piece. I should start by saying I know nothing about the author other than what is stated on this page. I’m not even sure if his name is “Mat Tarino” or “Matt Arino” (Edit: Apparently, it's Matt Marino, who has been gracious enough to visit the comments section. My apologies to Pastor Matt).

Outside of his statements in this piece, I do not have any feelings towards the author or knowledge of him, good or bad.   I intentionally didn't do any research on him or his ministry as I didn't want that information to bias my response. I was asked to respond to the article itself, and will try to that as best as I can.

“Unintended Consequences: How the “relevant” church and segregating youth is killing Christianity.”

Pastor Matt (I’m going with my gut on this one) starts out strong and clear. He obviously knows the power of a thesis statement. He thinks Christianity is dying, and that the contemporary church and modern youth ministry are to blame. Points for not burying the lede. I'm going to disagree with a lot of what he says, but the man knows how to write persuasively. Kudos.

Today I have the sense that we are at the same place in the church. The church may look healthy on the outside, but it has swallowed the fatal pills. The evidence is stacking up: the church is dying and, for the most part, we are refusing the diagnosis.

The anecdote leading up to this paragraph is powerful. I applaud Pastor Matt’s service in the hospitals. I can’t imagine the devastation he deals with on a regular basis. Great ministry.  

All that said, I strongly disagree with his conclusion here. I don’t believe that “the church is dying" in anyway shape or form. Any look at the impact of the global church - particularly the rapid evangelization of the African continent and the flourishing house church movement in the parts of the world where the Gospel is under persecution - tells us that the universal church is thriving. It appears that “the church” Pastor Matt is referring to is the American church, or at least the Western church. The supporting statistics he presents seem to be indicative of American specific studies. And while his evidence is compelling, I don’t even necessarily agree that the American church is dying. I do agree that the numbers are bothersome, and the American church is, at the very least, at a crossroads.

What evidence? Take a gander at these two shocking items: 1. 20-30 year olds attend church at 1/2 the rate of their parents and ¼ the rate of their grandparents. Think about the implication for those of us in youth ministry: Thousands of us have invested our lives in reproducing faith in the next generation and the group we were tasked with reaching left the church when they left us.

2. 61% of churched high school students graduate and never go back! (Time Magazine, 2009) Even worse: 78% to 88% of those in youth programs today will leave church, most to never return. (Lifeway, 2010) Please read those last two statistics again. Ask yourself why attending a church with nothing seems to be more effective at retaining youth than our youth programs.

I’m not sure if this blog is getting so much attention because the general populace is unaware of these numbers, but as someone who has spent the last 14 years in youth ministry, most of it full-time, these stats aren’t exactly news. When we started the662 eight years ago we directly targeted the statistic that was prevalent at that point in time - that 80 to 85% of young people will walk away from church during their high school years. We took aim at flipping that number upside down, and while it is too early to declare any sort of victory, a cursory look at the students who have graduated high school out of the662 in the past 8 years tells a great story. With the exception of but one graduating class (2011), the graduates who have come out of our youth ministry are overwhelmingly still not only in church, but serving God and even involved in their churches.   

The glaring difference between 2011 and the other classes is that the vast majority of our 2011 graduates floated into our youth ministry at the end of their junior years or beginning of their senior year, and more importantly, never went through our discipleship program, went on a mission trip, or even attended a camp. In other words, they were only peripherally involved, in stark contrast to the classes that came before.

Zooming out to the bigger picture, the statistics in point two sound awful, and there may be some truth to them, but any amateur statistician knows the dangers of combining results from two different studies to form any conclusion. The idea that students in youth ministries are more likely to leave church than those not in youth ministries is far from proven by those two stats, though it certainly gives the author a great base to launch his ideas.

Two quick questions immediately come to mind about these studies. First, in the Time Magazine statistic it suggests that 61% of churched HS students leave graduate and NEVER go back. The follow up stat says “78-88% of those in youth programs today will leave church, MOST to never return”. What percentage is most? (WARNING, MATH TO FOLLOW) If most is, say, 60% of those in the 78-88%, then we’re talking 42% to 53% off those in youth programs who will leave and never return, or as little as 3/4 of those who are not in youth programs.

Please note: A) I’m not trying to build an argument that it’s only 60% of those who represent “most”. I have no idea. My point is that it appears that neither does Pastor Matt. It’s a terrible misuse of the stats he presents to draw the conclusion he does, and that conclusion is basically used as the foundation of the entire argument that follows.

B) I’m not suggesting that even if it is 42% to 53% who will never return that this makes it okay. That stat is still massively disturbing, even if it does seem to ignore the Holy Spirit’s ability to overcome our shortcomings and turn things around in the future.

The second question that comes to mind is more general: Did these studies use the same methodology? Did they study the same individuals? Did their survey cover the same demographics, the same churches, the same denominations, etc? The answer is almost certainly no, which again, means you can’t marry the conclusions together and pretend they prove something.

We build big groups and count “decisions for Christ,” but the Great Commission is not to get kids to make decisions for Jesus but to make disciples for Him. We all want to make Christians for life, not just for high school. We have invested heavily in youth ministry with our lives specifically in order engage youth in the church. Why do we have such a low return on our investment?

I don’t disagree here at all. The Great Commission is to make disciples (who in turn make disciples), and the American Church is doing a poor job of this. In my observation I would say this is a problem across age ranges as well as methodologies and denominations, though I admit I don’t have a handy study to back this up. But I do not see great discipleship processes at work in much of the American Church.

What are we doing in our Youth Ministries that might be making people less likely to attend church as an adult?

I see this as a false premise on multiple levels. First, I don’t agree with the conclusion that youth ministry is making people less likely to attend church (at the very least, the evidence presented here is very weak). Second, I don’t agree with his assumption that youth ministry itself is the problem. It’s very possible, perhaps even likely, that the problem is what happens after young people graduate high school. It’s long been my belief that the American Church has done a very poor job of assimilating students out of youth ministry and into the greater church, as well as a terrible job of helping college students handle the unique challenges of their season of life. The latter is certainly not a youth ministry issue, the former is one that youth ministry likely shares the blame with the greater church structure.

When it comes to assimilation, I believe it can and should start during the youth ministry years. At CityChurch of Olive Branch, we strive to plug our students in to various other aspects of our church as early as sixth grade (and we’re looking at ways to do it sooner). We tell students almost every week that they need a church, not just a youth ministry. We find ways to get them ownership in the greater church by serving in virtually every type of ministry that our adults do. By the time young people graduate high school, they are not stranded without anything to grab hold of now that youth ministry days are behind them, rather they have great relationships with other believers of various ages, a sense of pride and purpose in the church as a whole, and a great understanding that they NEED a church not just a youth group. 

What we are doing has been highly successful, but it is hardly revolutionary. There are churches all over America doing this very thing, and experiencing the same wins that we are. It might be the rule rather than the exception right now, but from my perspective the American Church is trending in the right direction in this area.

What is the “pill” we have overdosed on? I believe it is “preference.” We have embraced the idea of market-driven youth ministry. Unfortunately, giving people what they “prefer” is a road, that once you go down it, has no end. Tim Elmore in his 2010 book entitled Generation iY calls this “the overindulged Generation.” They ask for more and more, and we give it to them. And more and more the power of God is substituted for market-driven experience. In an effort to give people something “attractive” and “relevant” we embraced novel new methods in youth ministry, that 20 years later are having a powerful shaping effect on the entire church. Here are the marks of being market-driven; Which are hallmarks of your ministry?

Again, I’m not sure that youth ministry has overdosed on any pill. At the very least, I think that’s a major over-generalization. However, are there youth ministries out there that have gone too far in the area of preference? Most assuredly. Are their places that are more concerned with getting kids to show up than getting their lives to change? Certainly. I just don’t agree that being attractional or relevant is the problem in and of itself. But I’m sure we’ll get deeper into the that as we go. Here are his “Hallmarks” of youth ministry:

1. Segregation. We bought into the idea that youth should be segregated from the family and the rest of the church. It started with youth rooms, and then we moved to “youth services.” We ghettoized our children! (After all, we are cooler than the older people in “big church”. And parents? Who wants their parents in their youth group?) Be honest: Have you ever thought you know more than your your student’s parents? Have you ever thought your youth group was cooler than “big church”?

A few things here. First, this is obviously a slippery slope. If it’s wrong to have a “segregated” (GREAT persuasive word by the way, very inflammatory!) youth room is it wrong to have a segregated children’s ministry? What about a nursery? Should all people of all ages be present in the same room at all times? What are the implications for small groups?

  I of course can not speak for “YOUTH MINISTRY” as a whole and I don’t intend to. But I can speak for my experience. When I started as youth pastor at the662 our well-meaning Lead Pastor asked me to begin a separate Sunday morning youth service and I told him I would do whatever he asked me to do, but that I hated the idea. I told him that our students need to be connected to the full body, and that separating them from the Sunday service would risk making make me their pastor, not him. I told him my goal was the opposite - I wanted HIM to come be with us on a semi regular basis on our Wednesdays youth nights. I told him our students needed to hear from their pastor and be connected to him, not just to their youth pastor.  

Thankfully, that pastor was very gracious and listened to me, and he agreed to both of my suggestions - we kept our students with the church body on Sunday mornings and looked for opportunities to get our Pastor (and later, our Associate Pastor) connected to the students on Wednesdays. I believe we made the right call in both cases. And in my experience, while there are some youth leaders who think they are “cooler” than the older people in the church, there are also pastors who want the teenagers out of their hair so they can lead the “real” church. In my opinion, it is in THIS area that the greatest damage is done to teenagers - Senior Pastor abandonment and neglect, rather than Youth Pastor arrogance.

And yes, I have thought I know more than some of my student’s parents from time to time, and if you knew the situations those students were in (parents having them smoke marijuana with them, one poor guy whose parents have had a combined 13 marriages at last count, etc) then you would probably think you had some better wisdom for the child than mom and dad did, too. That said, we have ALWAYS upheld and affirmed parental authority to our students, to a fault.

“Have you ever thought your youth group was cooler than “big church”?

Not that I can recall but I’m sure I’ve probably had that thought at some point in time or them. But in general I’ve always been a big fan of the churches I’ve served in, or else I wouldn’t have been serving in them. In fact, that was the primary thing I looked for when interviewing to be a youth pastor - what church (and specifically, what pastor) could I get behind and wholeheartedly serve.

2. Big = effective. Big is (by definition) program driven: Less personal, lower commitment; a cultural and social thing as much as a spiritual thing. Are those the values that we actually hold?

I don’t necessarily believe that bigger is better, but I do believe that numbers matter. We count people because people count. Filling a room with people with no life change is not the goal, but an empty room automatically means no life change. The most effective ministries are the ones who have figured out how to, as Pastor Andy Stanley puts it, reach “deep and wide”. To evangelize and make disciples. To have quantity and quality. I do not believe quantity always equals quality but nor do I believe that quality equals low quantity. I’m idealist enough to think we can and should strive for both.

3. More programs attended = stronger disciples. The inventers of this idea, Willow Creek, in suburban Chicago, publically repudiated this several years ago. They discovered that there was no correlation between the number of meetings attended and people’s spiritual maturity. They learned the lesson. Will we?

It would be awesome if you provided a link or a direct quote. To my understanding this is a misuse of Willow’s backtracking, but I haven’t studied the issue enough to say so definitively. I’m not sure that Willow “invented” this idea either, though I suppose you could say they popularized it.

4. Christian replacementism. We developed a Christian version of everything the world offers: Christian bands, novels, schools, soccer leagues, t-shirts. We created the perfect Christian bubble.

We agree on something! I HATE Christian isolationism. We are called to be in but not of the world. Well said, Pastor Matt.

5. Cultural “relevance” over transformation. We imitated our culture’s most successful gathering places in an effort to be “relevant.” Reflect on the Sunday “experience” at most Big-box churches: Concert hall (worship) Comedy club (sermon) Coffee house (foyer)

Jesus met with people on a lakeshore in a fishing boat...and in the synagogues...and one on one...and on a mountainside...and walking down the street. Jesus was pretty “relevant” as far as I can tell.   Also, the idea that mega churches (or those emulating them) are simply comedy clubs when it comes to their messages is borderline offensive. I’m sure there are a few who value laughter over life-change but I have been a part of one and observed quite a few from a distance and have yet to see one that this descriptor would fit. They might tell a joke from time to time but that’s a considerably small percentage of their message.  Besides, I happen to believe Jesus wasn’t humorless.

And what about Transformation? Is that not missing from these models? Where is a sense of the holy?

What exactly is the implication here? That small = holy? That laughter is unholy? That music that people enjoy is unholy?   I’ve been in services that were massively irrelevant, and they gave me a sense of many things, but holiness was not one of them.

6. Professionalization. If we do know an unbeliever, we don’t need to share Christ with them, we have pastors to do that. We invite them to something… to an “inviter” event… we invite them to our “Christian” subculture. This feels like another false dichotomy to me.

Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church make it clear that it was to be expected that unbelievers may attend your services. I agree that many churches aren’t compelling people to share their faith, but I don’t think this is a problem unique to “attractional” or “relevant” churches. We have spent years and years and years teaching students to share their faith, and yes, a couple times a year we encourage them to invite them to something. I don’t think the two ideas are mutually exclusive.

7. “McDonald’s-ization” vs. Contextualization: It is no longer our own vision and passion. We purchase it as a package from today’s biggest going mega-church. It is almost like a “franchise fee” from Saddleback or The Resurgence.

Hmmmm. Both of those ministries share ideas and methodologies while expressly stating you have to use them in your context as the Holy Spirit leads. If we can’t learn from others in ministry, why would you have a blog to share your ideas? Classic plankeye syndrome.

8. Attractional over missional. When our greatest value is butts in pews we embrace attractional models. Rather than embrace Paul’s Ephesians 4 model in which ministry gifts are given by God to “equip the saints” we have developed a top-down hierarchy aimed at filling buildings. This leaves us with Sunday “church” an experience for the unchurched, with God-centered worship of the Almighty relegated to the periphery and leading of the body of Christ to greater spiritual power and sanctification to untrained small group leaders.  

Funny that he takes such a pro missional stance right after the shot at The Resurgence. I’m not sure who this guy does like. Also, if he actually thinks that attractional models value butts in pews I daresay he hasn’t have a good grasp of what attractional models actually are. But I digress.

As for the bigger point, yes, it is possible to overemphasize numbers and sacrifice life change, saint equipping and genuine, Christ-exalting worship. I happen to believe that the greatest attractional models will be inherently missional and the greatest missional models will be inherently attractional. I feel like many thousands of Christ’s hours have been wasted on this particular debate, so I won’t contribute anymore to it. Suffice to say, I am a both/and kind of guy rather than either/or.

Does not all of this work together as a package to leave us with churches full of empty people?   Great line. Like most of this article, there is probably some places this is applicable to, but I believe it’s a massive overgeneralization.

Here is an example: Your church. Does it look like this?  

No, though it wouldn’t bother me if it did.

If you look closely, you will see the photo on the right is of a nightclub, rather than a church. Can you see what I mean about “relevance” and the clean Christian version of what the world offers? Your youth room is a pretty good indicator of what your church will look like 15 years from now. Because of the principle “What you win them with, you win them to,” your students today will expect their adult church to look like your youth room.

I thought all the young people were leaving the church after finishing youth ministry, why would we need our church to look like the youth room 15 years from now?

In summary, “Market Driven” youth ministry gave students a youth group that looks like them, does activities they prefer, sings songs they like, and preaches on subjects they are interested in. It is a ministry of preference. And, with their feet, young adults are saying……“Bye-bye.”

Again, Pastor Matt is assuming that young adults are leaving church because youth ministry appealed to them, rather than addressing:

1) The church’s failure to engage young people (and yes, many youth ministry’s failure to push young people to engage the church).

2) The church’s failure to engage college students (perhaps the biggest part of this problem, IMO).

3) The poor job of discipleship in many churches as a whole.

4) The lack of relevance that many traditional churches offer their adults. It’s on this point we almost kind of agree - I do think part of the reason some young people leave after youth ministry is because youth ministry was relevant. I just think the problem is not that youth ministry in that church was relevant, but that the church itself was not. Young adults who cannot reconcile the dichotomy can be turned off.

5) The role of parents in all of this, which is huge. Kids who grow up being forced to go to church but have parents who model completely unChristlike lifestyles are often counting the days until they don't have to go to church anymore. The primary issue here is not with any church methodology but with parents who say one thing and do another. Young people see right through that. If they don't develop a personal relationship with Christ, they're going to leave, almost assuredly.

What might we do instead? The opposite of giving people what they want is to give them what they need. The beauty is that Christianity already knows how to do this.

Basic psychology teaches us that there is a hierarchy of needs (thanks Maslow!). In short, the more basic a need is (such as food), the more prominence that need takes when it is not met, and the less that higher needs matter. Spiritual needs are obviously our most essential, but they are rarely our most pressing. I’m a firm believer that when youth ministry meets young people’s felt needs (safety, food, social interaction, etc) it opens them up to discovering their deeper, more critical spiritual needs.

Obviously, I would never advocate simply using psychology to build ministry methodology. Thankfully, this is exactly what I see Jesus doing - twice he meets the masses physical need for food, often he meets individuals physical needs for healing, he meets the woman caught in adultery’s need for safety....and then he tells her to go and sin no more. How different does that story read if he tells her to sin no more first? How different is her response?

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9

19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

The counter argument to Pastor Matt’s, of course, is that many (not all) *traditional* churches have valued the traditions of men over people. Outside the above passage and a few others in Corinthians, the Bible is curiously quiet when it comes to methodology, but loud when it comes to the gospel, truth and mission. Personally, I don't see this as an oversight. Rather, I believe God designed the church to be a living, breathing organism that would be adaptable to any and all cultural contexts.

The greatest challenge facing the contemporary church of today IMO is not over contextualization, but the need to maintain flexibility when culture inevitably shifts in the coming decades. The methods that reach and disciple people best today will almost certainly not be the methods that are most successful in 2040. Relevant churches will have to be careful not to let today’s methods become the new normal, or else they will simply become a new type of traditional. My prayer is that we don’t let that happen, but rather continue to seek the most effective tools to reach people for the glory of God.

- PT

Chick-Fil-A

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:40:00 +0000

Warning, semi-annual political rant coming: Chicago, Boston and San Francisco claiming that Chick-Fil-A is unwelcome because of their stance on gay marriage and Hermain Cain and company campaigning to block the building of a mosque in Murfreesboro, TN (and claiming all communities have that right) are opposite sides of the same ugly coin. No government has the right to prevent someone from building something in the USA just because they disagree with their political or religious views.

It's nice seeing the right stand up against this nonsense, but sooooo many who are against government intrusion in this case were for it in the mosque situation (and, it must be said, vice versa). The hypocrisy is sickening, and both sides are equally guilty.

The government needs to do it's job and quit overstepping its bounds, and officials like Menino and Cain and Emanuel need to be put in check, no matter which political party they are aligned with. People on both sides need to wake up and quit supporting government overstepping its bounds just because they disagree with somebody, or we're going to quickly end up without the right to peaceable dissent.

There's a much bigger picture here than Sharia Law or gay marriage, we're talking freedom to openly disagree with our government (and/or popular opinion/conventional wisdom). When that's gone, we're no longer America.

/rant

Gay Marriage

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:10:00 +0000

The debate has become front and center in our culture, and it seems everyone has an opinion. This blog post by Geoff Surratt is the best article I've yet seen on the topic, and comes very, very close to articulating my position on it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

P. S. I don't have time to enter a complete discourse on my feelings on the topic, but I did enter a discussion on Facebook with a friend from NC who was frustrated with her opposition to gay marriage being labeled as "hate". Here was my response. This should illustrate fairly well how I feel about this debate:

The sad truth is that there IS a lot of hate spewed towards homosexuals, oftentimes from Christians. Obviously, those with an agenda have exaggerated that and leveraged it so that anyone who opposes the agenda is associated with that hate, but the hate definitely exists. I'll never forget talking to a guy I worked with who was gay and he told me I was the first Christian who ever treated him with any respect.

Homosexuality is a sin, and as the salt and light of the world we must be willing to stand up and say that. However, Scripture compels us to speak the truth IN love, and while many conservative Christians get the truth part right (and many liberal Christians get the love part right), the amount of God's people who walk in both (particularly on this issue) is sadly low.

I'm not saying you aren't walking in truth in love. I'm just saying there's a reason we are being branded as haters, and it's not just because in the last days men will call good evil and evil good. A lot of it has to do with the unChristlike way the church has responded to homosexuality.

Gay marriage is going to be legalized in our generation, I think that's basically a given. I do continue to have hope that the church will rise up and not just proclaim truth, but show Christ's love. We tend to be better at hating the sin than loving the sinner. I believe we can and will do better.

Kony 2012

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Absolute must watch. Let me know what you think

Incredible Article On Arguing For Life

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:20:00 +0000

This is one of the best pieces I've ever seen on building a case for zygotic and fetal life on reason. Really well done, and a must read for believers, in my opinion.

Print Recommendations Part One: Vinyl Banners

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:52:00 +0000

Like many youth ministries, the662 has an extremely limited budget. In fact, for about the past 5 years we have had a $0.00 budget, up until around February when we started getting the small but extremely appreciated sum of $80 per month. Anything else we spend has to come from fundraising, which we are thankfully pretty awesome at (don't worry, we'll cover in another post).

Recently, I've been in need of a variety of different printing jobs, and with the slim budget I've been forced to really shop things around. I've been fortunate enough to find plenty of quality at what I feel are very reasonable prices that I'm sure would benefit others in ministry, not to mention those in business. Over the next couple of weeks I will run a series on different types of print projects that I've recently had done, with some examples of what I have had printed, who printed it and what it cost me. Keep in mind I did all my own design work for these - if you need a project designed and printed it will obviously run you quite a bit more.

Vinyl Banners

Perhaps no type of signage is both as versatile and universal as vinyl banners. I think vinyl is often overused, and prefer other materials such as coroplast for many outdoor jobs that are more permanent in nature and foamboard for the more permanent indoor jobs, since nothing looks worse than a vinyl banner that is not fully stretched out and is caving in on itself. That said, for signs that you can't leave up all week long you can't beat vinyl's ability to minimize required storage space, not to mention it's portability. I've recently ordered three vinyl banners from my overall favorite print company, splatprint.com, and have been very happy with each of them.

Project One: Two 1' x 2' Check In Desk Banners

For our Check In Desks, I ordered two of SplatPrint's Indoor Banners. I chose the 15oz. Super Smooth Scrim Vinyl Banner material. Since I used two different designs for the banners they were treated as two different projects. I suspend these from the ceiling grid with small bungee cords, so I had grommets put in the top corners of each banner. Splat put the grommets in for no extra charge.

Pricing Breakdown: $6.87 for the printed banner, $5 PDF upload, $9.20 standard shipping = $21.07 total cost (each)
Recommendation level: High

Project Two: One 8' x 8' 662 Front Entrance Banner

Our CityChurch front entrance banner is suspended on a pole that runs through the top and supported by a pole that runs through the bottom. To add some 662 branding to our Wednesday night experience we decided to get a 662 banner to put in that place for Wednesdays as well. I was so happy with the Check In banners that I wanted to order the same material for the Front Banner, but unfortunately Splat won't put Pole Pockets in their indoor banners, so, with some hesitation, I ordered Splat's 13oz Vinyl Matte Banner . Not to worry, the printing and material is excellent. I honestly can't see a difference in quality between this and and the 15oz indoor ones.

Pricing breakdown: $125.54 for the printed banner, plus $5 PDF upload, plus $10 for top/bottom pole pockets, plus $13.59 for standard shipping = 154.53 total cost

Recommendation: High

Summary

I cannot express how thrilled I have been with Splat's banners. I have seen banner printing as high as $8 per square foot, and we have typically paid around $4 per square foot in the past. Even if you include the extra expenses (pole pockets, upload and shipping) the 8 x 8 banner breaks down to $2.41 per square foot. When you're dealing with 64 square feet, that's a savings of over $100 over anything we've ever ordered before.

Obviously, price isn't the only consideration, but when you factor in how thrilled I am with the quality, I cannot recommend splatprint.com for your banner needs enough.

I would love to hear from those who have had experiences, good or bad, with printing vinyl banners. Who do you use? How well has it worked for you?

Youth Pastors: You Can Create Your Own Camp

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:58:00 +0000

You Can Create Your Own Camp

When I first took over our youth ministry of 15 students in the fall of 2005, I was 25 years old and had no idea how little I knew, but I was confident of three things:

1) I wanted our students to regularly experience serving and sharing their faith through short-term missions.

2) I wanted our students to have an incredibly fun and impacting camp experience that would both fire them up and give them a chance to expose their friends to Jesus each year.

3) I was in a small church and I had basically no budget, and the people in our church were not loaded.

I really felt like God laid it on my heart to give our students a mission trip and a camp each year, I just had no idea how I was going to pay for it all. We’ll get to the mission trip financing in another post, but once I started shopping around for camps it did not take long for me to realize that there are a ton of great options, but all of them cost $200 - $300 per student. I just didn’t feel comfortable asking for that on top of a missions trip (which have run anywhere from $600 – $1050), so almost by accident, I decided to try and create our own camp.

The first year was not without its hard lessons – we tent camped on the land of some church members which kept costs low, but we had some difficulty keeping teenage hormones inside their own tents. So the next year I was committed to finding some sort of a campground with cabins or bunkhouses where we could keep a tighter rein on comings and goings. So in the summer of 2007 we created and held our first full scale camp (complete with bunkhouses) and our youth ministry has not been the same since.

Producing our own camp has easily been one of the top 3 best decisions I’ve ever made in youth ministry. The beauty of the producing your own camp is that you can keep it to under $100 a student, which makes it possible for virtually any student who wants to go to either afford it, or find sponsorship. So each year we have the majority of our students attend camp, as well as quite a few of their friends. You can produce your own camp, too, and it’s easier than you think. Here’s how:

A) Find the right location – the location is the kicker. If you go to your local private campgrounds and rent cabins, you’ll probably get decent facilities, but the price can be sky high. The big key to this is the state park system. I cannot vouch for all 50 states, but I know Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi all have group camp facilities at various state parks. These facilities are not usually spectacular, but plenty nice. Scout them out before you book them.

Tip 1: Planning ahead pays off! These places can book up quickly.

Tip 2: If possible, get a place one to two hours from home. This is far enough to give your students the feel of getting out of town, but close enough that key leaders can get home and back fairly quickly if they need to.

B) Keep It To Three And A Half Days, Max – I learned this one while interning at Church On The Move. Dry Gulch, USA is as incredible of a camp experience as you will find for teenagers or kids, and they run two sessions every week, Sunday evening to Thursday morning, and again Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. Keeping the camp brief keeps it affordable, makes it possible for your adults to be a part of it (especially if you follow D), and most importantly, allows you to pack all three days with activities.

C) Understand Free Time Is Overrated – Counting spring break, fall break and summer break, I’ve overseen eight different camps, not to mention those I was a part of at Dry Gulch, and I’ve never once heard a student say “Why don’t we have more free time?” NEVER. Students want structure. They don’t want to have to think of what do to, they want you to do it for them. All free time does is give them a chance to get upset with you for not letting them bring their cellphones (which reminds me: DON’T LET THEM BRING THEIR CELLPHONES). I’m not saying to never give them a moment to catch their breath, but make sure they never have more than 30 minutes that is not structured or scheduled. Nothing good comes from bigger free time allotments than that.

Tip: Bring enough adults that you can make sure they don’t have to be working around the clock. Just because the students don’t need free time doesn’t mean the adults don’t. Especially if your adult force is heavier on post college, full-fledged adults, be intentional about getting them some rest.

D) Book Your Camp Over A Weekend – This year we are doing our camp over the students’ Fall Break, and our camp begins at 6pm Friday at our church. We will go over some ground rules, load up the vehicles and arrive at our bunkhouses by around 8pm, and then return to the church on Monday around 6pm. This gives us exactly 72 hours from the time their parents drop them off to the time they pick them back up, yet the majority of the adults we are taking will only have to take one day off work. If they are committed to your youth ministry almost any adult will take a day off work once a year without even hesitating. (Many will do more than that willingly, and those are the ones you take with you on missions.) You can bring a full staff of adults if you honor their time by telling them up front this will only cost you one day of work.

Warning: Run this by your Lead Pastor first. If he is not comfortable with you being out over a Sunday morning, then don’t be out over a Sunday morning. But be sure to go to him and show him how this schedule is a win for your people and your student ministry. You can even turn it into a win by setting up a Skype call from your Sunday morning camp service to the church’s Sunday morning service. The keys here are to be proactive and communicate.

E) No Camp Is Complete If They Don’t Compete – Nothing makes young people embrace the inherent, well, campiness of camp like competition. Guys who are otherwise too cool to stand up during your worship service will let you paint their face pink while they eat spam flavored jello and sing falsetto Justin Bieber tunes if there are points involved. Team colors are tried and true, flags are always a big hit and cheers bring cheer. Check out our 2010 camp highlight video for a peak at some of our competitions and how intensely our students get into them.

Camp662 highlights

Tip: Assign adults, preferably one of each gender, to lead each team. Coach these adults beforehand to get into it – if they don’t, the students never will. Everything rises and falls on leadership.

F) Build God Time Into Your Schedule – We require everyone to spend 30 minutes with God every morning. We usually do this after breakfast so they are all out of their beds, awake and at least semi-alert. Since many of them will be completely unfamiliar with what it’s like to spend time with God, give them a specific reading assignment, and/or prayer or devotional topic.

Tip 1: Require everyone to bring a Bible, notepad and pen, and to have all three out and in use during God Time

Tip 2: Ensure your leaders are participating in this, too. Lead by example.

G) Do Your Services Up Big, With Your Team – I understand the allure of a guest speaker and worship band as they both give your team a break and offer a fresh voice for your students. With our commitment to keeping the price under $100 per student, this hasn’t been possible. And yet we’ve always had incredible services and amazing impact at our camps. Why? It’s not because I’m such a great speaker, that’s for sure. Here’s a few steps to making lasting impressions in your camp services:

1) Develop a camp theme. This is HUGE. Find one idea that the entire camp is wrapped around, and have every service refer tie to it in some way. This is essentially just like having a message series, you just need to ensure it’s powerful and impactful.

2) Have your worship team introduce two or three new songs to change things up, including one “theme” song that will preferably tie to your message theme and serve as a spiritual high point of the trip. Do this theme song every service.

3) Involve every creative area you can – dramas, videos, lights, etc. These services must feel like an event. Involve your competitions at every turn as well – points updates are always good, and you may even throw in a quick competition during the service.

4) Do communion at least once. Depending on your specific tradition, Communion aka The Lord’s Supper can be infrequent at best in youth ministry. This is the perfect setting to introduce it to students. You have to explain it to them and really make it special and sacred. We always do this during our last camp service and it is incredible the way our students respond to it.

5) In general, take risks. Camp is a great place to experiment and try new things. You don’t have to worry about a bad first impression causing a guest to never come back to your service as you have three days of captive audience to build relationships and get into their lives. Take advantage of it. Get new people involved. Let an older student preach a morning session. Change up your speaking style. Some of the greatest discoveries we’ve ever made for our youth services happened by accident by trying something new, just for camp.

For example, in 2007 our adult worship leader had to work in the mornings but was driving in for our evening services, so we asked our bass player, a rising senior, to lead one song for our morning chapels. He had never lead vocals before for anything. By the end of the camp, our adult worship leader came to me and said “you’ve got to make him your new worship leader”, and basically everyone agreed. That young man led worship for us for over two and a half incredible years after that, all because of a camp song.

I won’t sugarcoat it, developing your own camp takes work. But the payoff is incredible. You get a proving ground for new talent and leaders, an opportunity to energize the majority of your students at one multi-day event and the chance to see young people come to Christ who may never attend your church but get signed up because of the allure of the competitions.

Try it one time and I bet you anything you’ll never do anything else.

Armed To The Teeth

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:02:00 +0000

With missions, Go Big, and pastoring both our children's and youth ministries, I have been a terrible blogger of late. I haven't completely stopped writing though, as I've been dabbling again in some Mariners coverage. This screenshot was taken 5 minutes ago at espn.com's Mariners page. I'm sure my name won't be there long, but it's pretty cool to see for now. If you're interested, you can read an article I wrote for ProBallNW.com by clicking the title to this blog post.

A Little Fuel For The History Makers Out There

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Last night I shared this passage with a young lady who feels called into missions. This might be the coolest paragraph in all of Scripture. At the end of Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, the Holy Spirit, through the author of Hebrews (Paul?), goes from conversational tone to straight up black church preacher. You can almost feel the volume rise and the tempo pick up as the words start to flow. I freaking love it. (Side note: if you were at the662 lats night, notice verse 35 - so cool!)

Hebrews 11:32-38a

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them.

Are there any seven better words for your epitaph than those? THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY OF THEM.

I get chills everytime I read it.

God in heaven, strengthen me to live a life worthy of the call, that after my time here is up, my impact could be so great that it might be said that the world was not worthy of me.

Don't Sleep Through The Harvest

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:26:00 +0000

Tonight's reading assignment in our discipleship program is Proverbs 10. This chapter is full of fantastic wisdom, but one verse in particular grabbed hold of my heart:

Proverbs 10:5
He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,
but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

Obviously, this is a practical statement from an incredibly practical book. The young man who sleeps while he could be out helping his family bring in the wheat harvest (or whatever crop is in season) is disgraceful. Taken at face value, it's a great encouragement to all of us to seize the opportunities we have to help support our families.

However, that word "harvest" causes my mind to go to a bigger picture. In Luke 10:2, Christ tells us that "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few", and the harvest he's referring to is of a spiritual variety. He's telling us that people are ready to accept the Good News, if only a worker would show up and tell them.

Taken in this light, Proverbs 10:5 becomes so much more challenging, especially given David Platt's warning against functional universalism that I discussed a couple of days ago here. To summarize, if we truly believe that people who die without Jesus go to hell, this belief must inspire us to act, and to take Jesus to the nations, particularly those people who have never even heard His name.

A son who sleeps through the harvest is disgraceful. Are we sleep-walking through the harvest, or are we diligently giving all we have to take advantage of the harvest?

The harvest does not last forever. Let's not waste a day of the harvest season, but do all we can to reach all who are waiting for a chance to hear of Him.

Doing The Best You Can With What You Have

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:41:00 +0000

So this past Sunday at CityChurch, I led the Babies class for the first time in ages. Brianna Livingston was my assistant, and she was phenomenal. We had three darling little angels, and a great time was had by all. Of course, being my first time in there in years, each of our three bundles of joy left me a gooey surprise inside their diapers. I can't remember the last time I changed a diaper, but I did my best, plowed through it like a champ, cleaned each of them up, got them rediapered and redressed, and was pretty proud of myself. Now, as the Next Generation Director at our church I oversee our Children's Ministry, so perhaps I shouldn't have been proud of myself for three successful diaper changes, but, alas, I was feeling pretty good about my skills.

That is, until that night when one of the babies' mothers, Laurie Waring, shared with me on Facebook that I had put her son Tyler's diaper on ... backwards.

Whoops!

Unfortunately, this is no April Fools joke. It really happened. And as embarrassing as that is, I think it illustrates a great point (besides don't let me change your child's diaper). Sometimes we do our best, and we still mess up. One of our core value's at CityChurch is excellence, and I believe in that wholeheartedly. But excellence isn't perfection, excellence is simply doing the best you can with what you have. And as we pursue excellence in whatever we do, sometimes each of us will do our best and it will still fall short of the goal. That's okay! Just as Laurie Waring graciously laughed off my mistake, people will usually have patience for our missteps, as long as they see that we are putting our heart into it. More importantly, God always will.

Do the best you can, with what you have.

God will honor it.

David Platt nails the universalism debate

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:36:00 +0000

Do We Really Believe What We're Saying? from The Church at Brook Hills on Vimeo.

"If we believe that people around us...who have never even heard the gospel..are going to an eternal hell without Christ, then we don't have time to play games with our lives. And we don't have time to play games in the church. We have a mission that demands radical urgency.

Here's the deal. Intellectual universalism is dangerous. Thinking that in the end everyone is going to be okay. But functional universalism is worse. Living like in the end, everyone is going to be okay."

Incredible illustration I just stumbled upon

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:58:00 +0000

I've been working on a session for a brand new discipleship class I'm leading this Sunday about how Leaders are Learners, and really looking at Luke 2:52 and how even Jesus had to grow.

And in preparation I stumbled across this blog, which contains of the coolest stories I've seen in a long time. Here's the story, quoted verbatim from Matthew McDonald:

M. Dunham once wrote, “Sir Edmund Hilary was the first person to conquer Mt. Everest. The first time he tried, he failed. He was knighted by the Queen of England, and at the gala occasion, on the wall behind the head table, was a huge picture of Mt. Everest. The people gave him a standing ovation for even daring to attempt the climb. When they ceased applauding, Hilary turned his back to the audience, faced that picture and said, ‘Mt. Everest, you have defeated me once and you might defeat me again. But I’m coming back again and again, and I’m going to win because you can’t get any bigger, Mt. Everest, and I can.’”

Your mountains aren't getting any bigger. Are you?

Is The Church About Sundays?

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:46:00 +0000

Great challenge in Matthew Barnett's inaugural blog post. It's well worth the read (and not that long). Here's one great quote:

In fact, if every church in America cared for just 5 homeless people and housed them we could pretty much halt the epidemic of homelesness.

Definitely makes you think. It's hard not to have huge respect what Pastor Barnett is going on the streets of LA - I visited in 07 and was blown away. The question is, how does that look in the suburbs? How do we capture that same, "whatever it takes" attitude that has made the LADC an absolute force for Christ in it's city?

I don't pretend to have the answers. I would love to find them though. I believe the church needs to find them.

A Reasonable Argument For God's Existence

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:14:00 +0000

An excerpt from Rabbi Adam Jacobs' brilliant piece in the Huffington Post:

"Suppose you took scrabble sets, or any word game sets, blocks with letters containing every language on Earth and you heap them together, and then you took a scoop and you scooped into that heap, and you flung it out on the lawn there and the letters fell into a line which contained the words, 'to be or not to be that is the question,' that is roughly the odds of an RNA molecule appearing on the Earth." (Dr. Robert Shapiro, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Chemistry at New York University)

Vision Is Contagious

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:42:00 +0000

Sunday night we're at the FedEx Forum in downtown Memphis for Winter Jam. There is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 people there enjoying the concert featuring a great diversity of bands. As we're getting ready to leave, Nick Shackleford, one of our seniors leans over to me and says "one day we're going to have a church service here."

I love it when the people in my ministry stretch my vision.

Record breaking night at the662

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:55:00 +0000

Thank you to every student and leader who made this night possible. We're just getting started!

Remember, every statistic has a story and every number has a name. We celebrate the numbers because they represent students whom God is reaching.

Fresh Outta Tulsa

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 03:33:00 +0000

Great quote

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:03:00 +0000

"Oh we would write our record plain
And come in time to see
Our unsaved neighbors won to Christ
While reading you and me."

- Anonymous

What We Can Learn From The Snow

troysowden@yahoo.com (Troy Sowden) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:52:00 +0000

This is the video podcast we did last night for the662 since our Memphissippi winter wonderland forced us to cancel service. Enjoy!