Invisible Children

I just spent the last hour watching a movie/documentary called Invisible Children. It is a story that 3 guys documented in the spring of 2003. These guys went to Northern Uganda and dicovered a story where children are the weapons and the victoms of a 20 year-long movement called the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). The movie exposes the effects of the war on the children of Northern Uganda. The children there live in fear of abduction by rebel soldiers, and are being forced to fight as part of a violent army.
Thousands of these children travel by foot each night from their homes to the near by towns to sleep in public places like hospitals so that they will not be abducted by the LRA. The movie made me wonder why I was born in a country of freedom and not a country where I have to fear for my life. It also left me wondering what my response should be. I want to encourage you who are reading this post to check out the web site, get and watch the movie, and figure out what your response should be. With knowledge comes responsibility and we can't ignore injustice forever.
If you are a pastor or youth worker I would encourage you to get this and watch it with your youth. On Sunday the 8th a group of us we will be watching it with The Gathering and I hope that people are moved to act. Once again, thanks for taking time to read, I pray that your life, as I pray mine, is changed.

Protection

On Saturday Amy and I went to see Serena Maneesh. Serena-Maneesh is a Norweigan band whos music sounds like a "pop symphony of dragged out psychotic rock n roll" or as I like to call it, "Melodic Distortion." Why am I blogging about this, well here goes. I got on the guest list to see the band from my friend Ben Sand, who is the manager. I was sitting at home with Amy on Saturday afternoon figuring out who I would bring to the show. "Maybe I could ask Ben, or Bubba. I think that they would love that." The I looked at Amy and she asked me why I don't just ask her. So, have you ever just felt like poo? This was my I feel like poo moment of the day.

The reason that I didn't ask Amy was that I didn't think she would want to go. She doesn't like their music, she doesn't like going to shows, or clubs and I knew that it was going to be totally loud. What I didn't think about was the fact that maybe Amy would just want to spend some time with me. Don't worry, I am going somewhere with this.

I loved going to the show, because I felt in my element. I love the loudness of it, the busyness of it and the whole atmosphere. What was totally cool though was that I realized that I loved my wife way more. I felt myself protecting her. I usually would go straight to the stage, but I knew that Amy would want to sit down and the chairs were in the back. So I gladly stood in front of her protecting our little baby in her tummy from the loudness of the show.

There came a point in the show where I was thinking more about Amy than the music, so I asked her to come upstairs with me and we hung out in the lounge away from the stage where it was quieter. It was great just to sit there and enjoy my wife and the music.

This night was very significant for me as it showed me about myself and Amy. It showed me that I realy love my wife and want to do things to protect her, even without her asking. It also showed something about Amy in that she was willing to do something with me that she normally does not enjoy because she loves me. I love that and obviously thought you would to.

Bono: The Prayer Breakfast

"Stop asking God to bless what you are doing and get involved in what God is doing as it is already blessed." This is one of the things that Bono said during his address at the Washington DC prayer breakfast on Feb. 16, 2006. Bono gave a 20 minute challenge along with some personal testimonies of his life to the attendants at the breakfast. To me it was beautiful to hear what he said about religion and God. He also challenged the US government to give more to Africa. He talked about the difference between mercy and justice. He challenged us to be about Justice, to get off our donkeys and fight for justice. I have attached the link here so if you have 20 minutes or so it is a good listen.
Bono: Prayer Breakfast

The overflow of who we are.

I was talking to my friend today about ministry and the idea that who we are when we are not around people has direct affect on the ministry that we are running. What do I mean by this? I believe that if we are leading some kind of ministry, but our lives are not lived with integrity that the ministry we are running will not reach the highest place that God intends for it. I am not sure how this works, or if I am correct in my thinking, but I feel convinced of it.
If we are leading a group of people into what God has for them, but we are not living out the life that God has for us, how can we even lead? How does it look to not live out the life that God has for us? Well it is living in pride or perversion, or gossip or gluttony, or laziness, etc. Can we truly believe that we can bring people to a place that we are not at ourselves? There is no way.
Now I am not talking about seasonal purity, I am talking about a life of purity and holiness. If we just purify ourselves because we are running a ministy, what happens when that ministry ends? We go back to our sin, and we probably go back to it even worse than before. This is a scary thing. I am involved in ministry full time, it scares me that my life has a direct affect on the people that I am leading, even if they don't see my life. I guess that is another thing, how can we expect growth, authenticity and transparency if we are hiding ourselves?
Now if you are reading this and thinking that I am messed up, you are correct. I am messed up and odds are that you are too. What we need to do as leaders is to live lives of purity, holiness, faith and love. We need to be transparent and live out our lives in full view of the people around us. We need accountability, community and friends if we are to make it as leaders. We cannot hide our secret lives anymore, we need to bring them out into the open and kill them.
Thanks for listening to me go on, your comments are more than welcomed.

Metal: A Headbangers Journey

Tonight I experienced something that is hard to put into words. It was a youthful dream come true, yet it was also an amazing revelation. I went to see Metal: A Headbangers Journey. This documentary on the history of metal on the outside seemed to be something that only a true Motley Crue fan would enjoy, but I went with my friend Bubba, who is anything but a true Motley Crue fan and he loved it as much as me.

It is directed by Sam Dunn who is a 30 year old anthropologist and a lifelong metal fan. Sam has spet much of his life studying diverse cultures, but in this movie he turns his camera to the culture of Heavy Metal Music. The movie is about his goal to find out why metal is consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned and yet still holds true. It is one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen on culture and a cultural phenomenon. It covers the origin of the name Heavy Metal to Ronnie James Dio marketing the metal sign. The movie talks about original metal (Sabbath), heavy metal (Maiden), glam metal (Poison), death metal (Slayer) and beyond.

The movie is revealing in parts, funny in parts and very disturbing in parts. It is a great look at a culture that we are around every day. It talks about why people do the things they do. It talks about why people hate their families, and it deals with hatred towards the church of Jesus Christ. It is not for the faint at heard, or for those easily offended by language, but I highly recommend this movie if you are interested in culture, people, music, history, religion, politics and making movies.

Check it out as it is only showing in select cities. Enjoy.

Worship

I am taking a class on the Foundations of Biblical Worship. I have just started and my first assignmen was to write a 250 word essay on what I think worship is. I wrote what came to mind and thought I would post it here. Enjoy.

I believe that true Biblical worship is to do everything we do, in all areas of our lives to the glory of God. Worship is an expression of who we are, glorifying who God is. It is recognizing that without God we are nothing and we would have nothing if it were not for Jesus.
We worship when we are in a church service by singing, raising our hands or speaking out our love and adoration of Jesus. We worship when we are training for a sporting event, either running, biking or swimming. We worship when we are studying for school. We worship when we are working a job, painting a picture, making a video or writing a book. I believe that when we live out our daily lives to the glory of God we are participating in acts of worship to Him.
I believe that to worship God is a choice that we make, but will also happen regardless of if we chose to worship God or not. In John 4:24 Jesus says to the women of Samaria “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." We worship God when we live out our lives for him. If we are living out our lives contrary to what God asks it is not worshipful to Him.
I also believe that if we don’t worship God that He will be worshiped regardless. In Luke 19:40 Jesus says, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” I believe that God will be worshiped regardless of if we worship him or not, but He has called us to a life of worship and worship Him I will do.

photos by Nathan Golden

St. Patrick

Yesterday was St. Patricks day. At my house and many other houses around the country, I am sure, we had some friends over for the occasion. I made Irish potato Bread, some fish and chips, shepherds pie and of course Guinness because "it is good for you." My friends and I had a great time, but the reason we celebrate this day is not so that we can eat and drink good beer, it is because of who this day is named. Below is a little about St. Patrick. I hope that his life not only helps you see St. Patricks day differently, but also helps you see your life differently and inspires you to greater things.

St. Patrick- great saint of Ireland.

Discipline your body.

It has been a while since my last post, I guess I have just gotten lazy.
I have recently started running. By recently I mean that I have run twice in the last two days. There is this half marathon going on in Seattle this summer and for some crazy reason I feel like competing. As I was running this morning I wanted so badly to quit and just walk the rest of the way. The think that drove me was this little voice in my head telling me to discipline your body and your mind. I kept repeating this to myself over and over and it gave me the strength to finish strong.
This summer we are running our Mission Adventures program at YWAM Seattle. The theme is DETOX: mind, body, soul, spirit. I really want to go through a process of detoxification if I am going to call young people to do the same. I feel like it can't just be a detoxification of mind and soul and spirit (internal), but also of body. I feel that in some strange way they go together. How can our spirit be detoxed if our bodies are just being wasted. I believe there was something said about that in the book of 1 John, they called it Gnosticism.
So, on I go, running around in circles, literally. I am excited about this new thing in my life. I hope and pray that I have the discipline to finish strong and run the race that is marked out for me, in this case it is a half marathon.
Peace.