A Very Peculiar People

Have you ever noticed that Christians are strange? We fight like cats and dogs about things Jesus never even talked about. We spend way too much time trying to impress each other. We worship a carpenter. Christians are a pretty peculiar bunch. In fact, the Bible even says so. 1 Peter 2:9 (The Message) tells us that we are a "peculiar people" who have been "called out of darkness into His marvelous light." But in this case, peculiar doesn't mean strange, as it so often does when our society describes us. It means special. More specifically, in this instance it means we are special to God, who loved us so much He sacrificed his only Son so that we might spend eternity in communion with Him. Jesus died so that we could follow his example and show others how to walk in the Light. What a peculiar thing to do...

Demonstrating God's love is the whole reason the Church exists. It isn't intended a private club where members go to uphold sacred rituals and traditions. It isn't a supposed to be a place to argue about whether my way of worshiping is better than yours. It isn't a building where people who think they have all the answers and are better than everyone else hang out. It isn't a place where we attempt to dictate the politics of our nation. The Church was designed by God to be a living organism- a body of believers - who bring the light of Christ into a dark and hurting world. When the church gathers our message should not be "we are right and you are wrong." Instead, we should resonate with a message of hope and love. Our very lives should scream that God is love, and that is worthy to receive all the honor and praise we can possibly give our Creator!!! We worry so much about "converting" people to our way of thinking. Our job is to love them and show them Jesus. God still handles all the conversions...

When our churches are truly being the Church, working as God planned, then we are like lighthouses. When we worship God through our music, our messages, our giving and our service it is like we are shining the Light, showing all of the world what a glorious and mighty God we serve. It is true that people cannot see God. It is also true that they can, if we choose to be lighthouses, see Jesus shine through the Church and through each of us. It is not our light, not our wisdom and not our love that the world needs. It is his. Through Jesus, we are God's Plan A for lighting this dark world. There is no Plan B.  

I have heard so many people lamenting lately what a terrible place this world has become. The darkness is thick and heavy all around us. But John 1:8 reminds us that "the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it."  The question, Church, is this: Are we still peculiar enough to believe that? Have a blessed Sabbath, my friends.

Because of Jesus,

Thank You, Readers!

As I have mentioned before, this little blog is not like the big boys. I don't get hundreds of thousands of visitors each day. I have gotten nearly 500,000- spread out over almost 6 years. You are currently reading a proverbial little fish in the blog pond! And yet somehow the number of readers we do attract here continues to surprise me. July has been a good great PHENOMENAL month so far. Over the years my most read posts have occasionally drawn 500 visits in a 48 hours period, an event which in my mind qualifies a post as Certified Gold. In the very best of times there have been two or three of those in a month. The normal visitor count is more like 275. In June we had a record month and there were 11 that hit 500, including 6 in one week. So far in July, fueled by my popular (and often commented on) countdown of songs from The Beach Boys...well, let's allow the posts and the numbers to speak for themselves. Here are the 48 hour totals for my July top 7...and it's only the 18th. Links are included in case you missed any of them.

1. 10 Things I DON'T Miss About Youth Ministry (593 views)
2. Do We Really Believe in Grace? (572)
3. Celebrating THE Great American Band (559)
4. My Beach Boys Countdown: 55-45 (547)
5. My Beach Boys Countdown: 44-34 (521)
6. Saturday Shout Outs! (506)
7. Fun With Flags (504)

#1 and #3 have both passed the 1000 view landmark at this point, with THE Great American Band becoming top 5 all-time. Several others have approached the magical 500 plateau, making this already one of my best months ever, and I am pumped!!! The analytics on my blog allow to me to see from which states and countries people visit, and what link they clicked (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) to find us here. What they cannot tell me is WHO is stopping by! I know there are new people reading the Beach Boys posts, because they are leaving comments. I sometimes know when Facebook friends are reading because they comment there or *like* the links we post. Ditto for Twitter, just with *favorites* and retweets. This modest effort of a blog began in 2009 in the hopes that old friends and former youth might enjoy hearing some of my old stories. It has become much more than that, especially to me, and I confess I do love to discover who my readers are. It is my mission now to inspire, entertain and occasionally even educate through my writing here. This month has revitalized me, and I look forward with great anticipation to what lies ahead.

Why do I say all of this today? It's my typically long-winded way of saying "THANK YOU!" to every person who has taken time to read one of my posts. You have blessed me in ways you cannot know. Enjoy you weekend, and live life with passion and gusto. Love you guys!

"Enjoy Every Sandwich"

Remembering the Youth Ministry Hotline

Greetings and Salutations (or as they say in NC, "Howdy Ya'll!) out there in Blog World and welcome to another Flashback Friday edition of Carl's blog! Today, kiddies, we are going to take a trip in the Wayback Machine, all the way back to 1988. Think back to this time, before many people had home computers, before churches had websites, before cell phones and before online social networking sites. Even in those dark days, we still had to communicate with one another- and we often did it with this thing called a telephone.

After the epiphany about more active summers and better communication I received at the 1987 NYWC, I had spent much of my time in the following months working on ways to let my youth and their families know what was going on in our ministry at Springfield Friends Meeting. I had improved the monthly newsletters, sent out more postcards, and put up more bulletin boards in the facility. This all culminated in the summer of '88 with the publication of my first Summer Ministries Booklet and the introduction of the Youth Group Hotline. The concept of the Hotline was not new. The idea was to have a separate phone line with an answering machine (get Grandpa to explain that contraption to ya!) attached where people could call and receive information on youth events. But I wanted to take the idea to another level. I found an answering machine with a 1 minute message tape, and advertised that the message would change every day! And from June of 1988 (887-8366 at Springfield) until March of 2000 (847-XLAX in Kissimmee-"get a new message every day that will really MOVE you...") I did just that- at least most every day. It was much more than just information- it was entertainment, it was interactive, and it was a great means of connecting with students. Here are just a few of the things that happened on the Hotline over the years:

• Al Sleet, Hippy-Dippy Youth Leader-  Stolen from a George Carlin character, Al sounded a little stoned, and delivered the youth news along with great lines like "The forecast for tonight is dark...continued mostly dark tonight, ending in widely scattered light tomorrow." Al was a favorite for years.
• Chicken Man-  With his famous cry of "He's everywhere, he's everywhere," Chicken Man's heroic tales (as told by me, the narrator) would always include some of the youth and the upcoming events in our program. He was a weekly character for years.
• The Student Spotlight-  Once a week I would highlight one of our youth, giving true facts and some humorous stories- or facts I would just make up! "Bob's favorite subject is basket weaving; he loves football and chinese checkers; and his hobbies include eating cheesecake and knitting sweaters for senior citizens."
• Contests-  There were all kinds of contests designed to get kids to call in and leave messages, and they did. I would publish the contests in our newsletter and get them hooked on calling.  They were having fun and hearing what we were up to as a ministry- hmmm this idea just might work...
• The DJ-  I would play a corny AM-radio style disk jockey, giving the youth news and singing songs like Carlin's One Last Pimple (I've got one last pimple from going steady with you, don't know whether to break it or leave it alone, it's the only one I call my own...") and Put Your Hand In the Fan ("Put your hand in the fan and you could lose a finger.  Put your foot in the fan and you could lose a toe.  Put your face in the fan and you will look at others differently, put your body in the fan and alter your anatomy!"). Always a favorite.
• Top 10 Lists-  I would do lists about our ministry, about events, and about individual youth. I would also borrow directly from the master, David Letterman!
• Mocking Culture- From time to time I would latch on to something that was huge in the youth culture and make fun of it in various ways. For instance, during the Titanic craze of 1997 I introduced a recurring character named Leonardo Decappuchinobreath to torture all of the young women who were madly in love with Leo. I had so much fun with this one...

The Hotline accomplished everything I ever hoped it would until it was replaced by the website. It fostered communication and contact with the youth I served, and helped eliminate moments like a youth walking in and asking when the Atlanta trip was going to be, only to be told we had just returned the day before! And websites, as great as they are, cannot replace the intimacy of hearing the excited voice of a youth responding to your work and the upcoming events. It was just one of the many ways we used to try to help connect students to our ministry, and hopefully, to Jesus. And by the way- even with this "new" computer technology, comments are still appreciated!  :) 

Because of Jesus,

My Beach Boys Countdown: 44-34

Happy Birthday, Will Jones!!!

The countdown of my 55 favorite songs by The Beach Boys arrives at week 2 with lots of goodies featured in today's 11 songs. In response to some whining after last week's post each song title is now also a link to a YouTube clip featuring the song to allow you guys to more easily explore some new tunes. Just click a song title and go!  To check out 55-45 (which now also all have links!) click here! 

My featured album for this week's post is the 1970 classic Sunflower. By the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, The Beach Boys had survived a great deal of turmoil and change, both in the band and in the world. Sunflower was a new coming of age effort for the band as a whole. Carl handled much of the production work, while everyone contributed songs. Among my favorite tracks are Slip on Through and Got To Know the Woman (both with Dennis on lead vocals); Deirdre and Tears In the Morning, two especially sweet songs from Bruce Johnston; and Cool, Cool Water from Mike and Brian, sections of which were pulled from the SMiLE tapes. You can find four songs from Sunflower- Add Some Music To Your Day, This Whole World, Our Sweet Love and Forever- in various places on this countdown. If Pet Sounds is Brian's masterpiece with little help from the band, then this is the band's masterpiece without Brian in charge. Now on with this week's list!

44)  Palisades Park/Susie Cincinnati (1976) - From the album 15 Big Ones. We're only to #44 and I'm already cheating, but I just can't separate these 2 songs. They were the first 2 songs on side 2 of the first album of new Beach Boys songs I ever purchased- and I still love them both! Favorite Lyric (from Palisades): "You never know how great a kiss can feel until you stop at the top of a ferris wheel..."  Favorite Lyric (from Susie): "Her looks aren't exactly a plus, but it doesn't matter to us 'cause she knows where it's at and she gets you there in seconds flat!"
43)  Wake the World (1969) - From the album Live In London '69. The song was first featured on the 1968 album Friends, but it's this live version that has always stuck with me. Mike tells the crowd that they usually begin it in total darkness, which given the lyrical content would be amazing. I cannot overstate what an amazing live band they became over the years.  Favorite Lyric: "One by one the stars appear, the sky grows brighter and we're in another sunrise- Wake the world with a brand new morning!"
42)  Forever (1970) - From the album Sunflower. This beautiful love song, the magnum opus of Dennis Wilson's career, should have been a much bigger hit that it was in 1970. Some 22 years later the song received renewed attention when John Stamos' band Jesse & the Rippers and a few of The Beach Boys performed the song on the sitcom Full House. Truly a beautiful song. Ashley, please forgive me for having this so far down my list...  Favorite Lyric: "If the song I sing to you could fill your heart with joy I'd sing forever."
41)  Cottonfields (The Cotton Song) (1969) - From the album 20/20. Originally recorded by the artist Lead Belly in 1940 and considered a folk music staple, this song is a classic example of the struggles the band had in the U.S. in the post Good Vibrations period. It barely charted here, but reached #2 in the UK. That happened often. A shame- it's a great song. Trivia alert- the single version of the song you can hear below is very different from the album version. The Boys did that quite often.  Favorite Lyric: "Don't care if them cotton balls get rotten, when I've got you baby who needs cotton."

40) Good Time (1977) - From the album Love You. Like Susie Cincinnati, this was another song from the 1970 Sunflower sessions that never made it to an album until Brian got back in the studio in the late 70s. Love You was full of simple, underproduced songs that showed Brian at his most playful, and Good Time fit right in. Another song from near the bottom of the vault to be sure, but it's clearly one of my favorites- it made the list!  Favorite Lyric: "Maybe it won't last but what do we care, my baby and I just want a good time."
39) It's Ok (1976) - From the album 15 Big Ones. While it was the hit single Rock and Roll Music that made this the Boys best selling album in over 10 years, this follow up also charted. going as high as #29. It's just another example of how they had the market cornered on great, fun summer tunes.  Favorite Lyric: "Lookin' good down the hood of a funky ride, on the way to the tide just to tan your hide..."
38)  Disney Girls (1957) (1971) - From the album Surf's Up. If every contributing member of the band has one song that is their major claim to fame, this one is Bruce Johnston's. It could easily have been on Pet Sounds with it's beautiful melody and soaring vocals. A true classic from the man who would eventually "write the songs that make the whole world sing." Seriously. Bruce wrote that.  Favorite Lyric: "All my life I spent the night with dreams of you, and the warmth I missed and for the things I wished, they're all coming true."
37)  This Whole World (1970) - From the album Sunflower. From the opening line sung by Brian- "I'm thinkin' 'bout this whole world!"- and straight into Carl's killer vocal for the rest of the song there is not one thing I don't love about this epic piece of music. Brian wrote the words and music, and it's one of his best. Which is REALLY saying something... Favorite Lyric: "Late at night I think about the love of this whole world, lots of different people everywhere. And when I go anywhere I see love, I see love, I see lo-uh-uh-ve."
36)  Barbara Ann (1965) - From the album Beach Boys' Party! The concept of the Party album was that we would all feel like we were in the living room hanging out with The Beach Boys and their friends. We weren't, of course- it was all very carefully recorded in a studio and the background noise was mixed in later- but it sure was fun. I love the entire strange little album. And it gave us their version of Barbara Ann. An instant classic, and in the early 1980s a favorite at Quaker Lake Camp, often nearly taking the roof off the old Lodge when I played it.  Favorite Lyric: "Went to a dance lookin' for romance, saw Barbara Ann so I thought I'd take a chance." 
35)  Lady Lynda (1978) - From the L.A. (Light Album). Remember how I said every member of the band has that one song? Ladies and gentlemen, Al Jardine! A moving song about his long-time wife Lynda that uses Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring to open and close the piece. A great song from another terribly underrated album.  Favorite Lyric: "Darlin' you know you make my heart sing, now won't you come along and sing a song. Sing the song of love"
34)  California Saga: California (1973) - From the album Holland.  The third part of an epic saga featuring poetry and spoken word set to somewhat subdued music, this song comes crashing in (if you listen to the entire saga its lead-in is a sweet, swirling flute) with all the life of a Beach Boys song from 1963, but with banjo- "On my way to sunny Californ-i-a, on my way to spend another sunny day!" A great moment from a great album. The vocals on the chorus blow me away every time!  Favorite Lyric: "Have you ever been down Salinas way where Steinbeck found the valley, and he wrote about it the way it was in his travelings with Charley?"

I warned you, dear readers, that we would be drilling deep into The Beach Boys massive catalogue of songs to find my favorite 55- I trust you are nodding in agreement after that list! Stay with me, because there are 33 great songs still to come before July is over. And here's a final cut for today, our Almost Song of the Week - one that almost made the countdown. Check out Rock and Roll Music, the old Chuck Berry classic that the Boys took to #5 back in 1976. See you next Thursday!

5 Things I Would Rescue

Back in the earliest days of my ministry we used to occasionally build youth group meetings around exercises found in the great book by Dr. Sidney Simon, Values Clarification. The scenarios provided were designed to help us understand what things, which people and what skills and personality traits were important in our lives. We would then hold our thoughts under the microscope of the teachings of Jesus and see how we were doing when it came to getting our priorities straight.

One of the more popular exercises (and one that is often used by people who have never heard of the book) is this: Your home is on fire, and you have time to save only 5 things. Assume that people and pets are already out. What would you go back and retrieve? We used to revisit that scenario on a regular basis, seeking to discover what really mattered to us.

This was brought back to my mind recently when my friend Lisa Jewett told me of a dream she had in which she ran back into a burning home to rescue her son Scott's prized hockey jersey collection. We laughed about it, but it once again begged the question in my own mind. What would I save?  So today I'm making a list of 5 things I would seek to save if my house was burning. Marilyn, Will and Conner are safe. What am I going back for?

1. Computer Tower - The hard drive to our desktop computer contains many important documents and pretty much every picture we have taken since the dawn of the digital age. It has the manuscript to my book, Will's screenplays and many other valued items. I should probably have all of this stuff on a Cloud somewhere, but since I don't even know how to find a Cloud I better grab the Tower. 
2. Wedding Certificate - Marilyn and I were married in 1986 in a Baptist church, but part of the ceremony was also from the Quaker tradition. Among them was the reading and signing of a Wedding Certificate, the official marriage license of the Society of Friends. The calligraphy was done by Jennifer Bills, one of my former youth, and it was signed by everyone who attended the ceremony. It's irreplicable and irreplaceable.
3. My Guitar & My Songs - Will plays my guitar far more often than I do these days, but that beat up old acoustic Washburn has been a part of me for a very long time now. I couldn't leave it behind. And with it comes a faded old orange folder containing over a 100 songs I have written over the years, going as far back as high school. There is no other record of the vast majority of those chords and lyrics so it needs to be saved, because I have no idea how much longer I will be able to remember all the words.. Plus, on the folder in a rather historic sticker. It has the U.S. Olympic Committee logo and it reads, "Win in '80!" Some of you will remember that in 1980 we boycotted the Olympics...so we did not win! It's a relic of days gone by for sure!
4. Photo Box - In our garage there is a large container of pictures from the many pre-digital years of my life. Family photos, ancient youth ministry pics and remembrances of great moments from the past fill this box- and it's going with me!
5. Only A Fool - In 1997 I attended a National Youth Workers Convention in Philadelphia and was presented with a wall-hanging honoring me for having spent 20 years in student ministry. On it are the handwritten words to the great Geoff Moore song, Only A Fool, which is a reminder that when God calls us quite often the rest of the world doesn't understand. It is the one token of my many years in ministry that I would desperately want to save.

To complete the exercise I need to ask myself the following question: What did I learn about my values and priorities from this? For me, the answer is simple. It is clear that while I seek to live for today and that I have hope for the future, the things that I treasure most are a part of my past. Our personal histories cannot be repeated or recreated; they exist only as memories. The older I get the more I treasure those memories and love to be surrounded by reminders of the people, places and events that have shaped my life. Everything I would go into the fire for is just such a reminder. We shouldn't live in the past, but we also should never lose it. The stories represented by my 5 items will live on in part because of the presence of those items in my life.

I would encourage you to play this little game as well. What is it that you treasure, and what do those things tell you about yourself? Think of it as a Hump Day Challenge! Be well, my friends.

Because of Jesus,

Fun With Flags

If you are a fan of The Big Bang Theory then you are aware of Dr. Sheldon Cooper's popular (in his own mind) web series called Fun With Flags. The purpose of the show is to discuss the rich history and variety of flags from around the world- or from his favorite sci-fi shows like Star Trek. He did an entire episode around the flag from the United Federation of Planets. Sheldon loves flags and the stories they tell. He is a true vexillologist. 

Lately it seems that the whole world is made up up amateur flag enthusiasts, all telling us which flags are important, which are offensive and which flags Jesus would have us waving as we walk the #NarrowRoad. The Confederate Flag, long considered a symbol of hatred by many and a symbol of heritage by others, has become a flashpoint in heated new discussions about racism. The Rainbow Flag, long a symbol of gay pride and the search for equality for LGBT community, has been both raised and ridiculed over the past few weeks as the "debate" over same-sex marriage continues even as the Supreme Court has "ended" the discussion. There is discussion of how our nation's flag is sacred and should be "worshipped" as a symbol of freedom, even as many citizens feel left out and left behind. Many churches have the USAmerican flag in the sanctuary; others find that to be offensive in a house of worship. Flags are in the news, and they are controversial. So the question here today is simple- which flag should we carry we with us as we walk the #NarrowRoad? 

There was recently a story about a family in NC who decided to fight this battle by flying the flag of Christianity on the flag pole of their home. They wanted to make a statement on behalf of her family that their citizenship was in the nation of God, a loyalty much more important than any political or geographic flag. And I get that, and agree with the point. The problem is, for many the Christian Flag is a political statement. Faith has been co-opted by too many politicians and organizations that seek to use the people of God and the name of Jesus for their own benefit. Christianity in 2015 can be the cause of discord in society just as often as it is the cure. The institution of the church, as represented by a flag, cannot save us. Only Jesus - his life, his love, his grace and his mercy- can do that.

So if not the flag of a nation or a cause or the church, then what flag do we wave on the #NarrowRoad? The answer is very simple. Christ-followers need to carry the white flag of surrender. Not to this world, or to evil, or to sin or to culture- surrender to Jesus. When we forget the power struggles of this world and surrender to Jesus, we take on the greatest of causes. When we model his love and mercy, we become the church as it is intended to be. And when we recognize Jesus as King, we become part of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom worthy of flag waving celebrations. The white flag of surrender may seem like symbol of weakness to many, but to those who get it- who understand that to be first you must be last and to be greatest you must become the least- it is the ultimate symbol of freedom and power. Because it is (like another "failure," the cross) the ultimate symbol of Jesus!

Everyone seems to be marching for a cause these days. There is only one cause on the #NarrowRoad. Love like Jesus loved. Surrender to him. And we WILL make a difference!

Because of Jesus,

Do We Really Believe in Grace?

I read again yesterday (and I see tweets with similar messages almost daily) that we need new leadership in our nation if we are to return to being a Christian nation. It makes me laugh to think that anyone still believes that changing politicians has any effect on that issue. I long ago came to the realization that anyone who thinks that USAmerica is a Christian nation is fooling themselves. I am not the first to say this; others have long held that we are a non-Christian nation. Depending on their point of view, they point to things like illegal wars, legalized abortion, R-rated movies, an unwillingness to take care of the poor and under-resourced, sexual immorality and a Democratic president as signs that we have abandoned God. I am not going to discuss or even consider any of those points today. You see, I think we are way beyond being non-Christian. I think we are Anti-Jesus at the core of our culture, and here's why- we don't really believe in grace.

Grace is at the heart of the teachings of Christ. Every other religion in the world is based on people trying to "earn" their way into the presence of their god. It's all about what you can do, about living your life by the religious law. Religion is about man's search for a deity. Christianity is based on what Jesus has already done for us. It is about God's search for us. If we confess, repent, and bow to Jesus as Lord and Savior, then our sins are forever forgiven. In fact, they are forgotten. And this is true everyday of our lives. With Jesus, whatever we have done in our past, be it good or evil, is irrelevant to God today. It is only NOW that we are in the presence of God. And it is now, because of grace, that we are forgiven- yet again.

The culture we live in, however, has little concept of grace. There are plenty of individuals who understand and offer grace; I have seen them first hand in my own life. But in our culture, they are seriously outnumbered. People who fail, people who sin, and people who make mistakes that have tragic consequences are people to be condemned and reminded of what they have done for the rest of their lives. They may confess and repent, but there will be no grace. They may even receive a second chance, but there will be no grace- because we will always remember. We love to remind people how they have failed and how we have "forgiven" them. Mike Foster, one of the founders of People of the Second Chance, says that we live in a "Vulture Culture." There is an entire wing of the media built around waiting for people to fail- and then it becomes must see TV. We can't wait to hear the stories. In our society, we are never free of our transgressions. Someone will always be there to remind us. With Jesus, we are free everyday- "and he who the Son sets free is free indeed!"  

Stop me if you have heard this before, but I am a sinner, and unless Jesus is reading this today, so are you! As the brilliant theologian and musician Michael Card wrote,"I belong to Jesus, and I realize that He loves me- a ragamuffin like me!- just as I am and not as I should be." Confess your sins to your neighbors and see how many of them would love you "just as you are."  We, as a culture, are all about people getting what they deserve. And Jesus, as a Savior, is all about people NEVER getting what they deserve! No matter what our sins may be. Brennan Manning wrote in The Ragamuffin Gospel, "The sinners to whom Jesus directed his messianic ministry were not those who skipped morning devotions or Sunday church. His ministry was to those whom society considered real sinners. They had done nothing to merit salvation. Yet they opened themselves up to the gift that was offered them. On the other hand, the self-righteous placed their trust in the works of the Law and closed their hearts to the message of grace." Grace defines our relationship with Christ, but I cannot find it many places in our culture. Even our churches often reject those who are considered to be "notorious sinners"- when that is EXACTLY the group with whom Jesus hung out. If we find grace, the "tent pole" of our faith, to be a foreign concept, how can we be anything but Anti-Jesus? Not because we deny the Nazarene, but because we just don't get it!

I have come to grips with the fact that the world I live in will continue to punish and seek revenge against us when we fail and when we fall, but that does not mean I cannot do better. Society will continue to remind me of my sins long after I confess and repent of them, but I must be a messenger of grace to a hurting world. Our culture will continue to throw stones and misinterpret the teachings of Jesus. All I can do is try to show love, compassion, forgiveness and grace to each person with whom I come in contact each day, and demonstrate this truth-  because of grace I walk everyday with a Savior who loves me just as I am...and what could be better than that?

Because of Jesus,