For those of you who write – let me give you a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes of writing DiscipleTown.
When I write these units, I am given a collection of raw material from Mark Steiner, the creator and author of the DiscipleLand Core Bible Curriculum, since I am creating a children’s church curriculum based on the 24 Disciple Skills that are part of the overall Disciple Making Strategy created by Mark.
As part of the Level Three, Second Quarter Curriculum, Mark provided a collection of character traits for the teacher to cover as part of the Disciple Skill of Building Character. They were:
Positive Character Qualities
Negative Character Qualities
Honest, truthful, fair
dishonest, false, corrupt
Caring, compassionate, merciful
unconcerned, insensitive, judgmental
Loyal, devoted, steadfast
unfaithful, disloyal, uncommitted
Respectful, courteous, polite
rude, impolite, disrespectful
Diligent, hard-working, determined
lazy, procrastinating, undisciplined
Courageous, bold, brave
fearful, timid, cowardly
Holy, pure, set apart
impure, polluted, tainted
Trustworthy, responsible, dependable
unreliable, irresponsible, undependable
Cooperative, teachable, helpful
disruptive, unruly, troublesome
Humble, servant-hearted, unselfish
proud, selfish, arrogant
Generous, gracious, giving
stingy, miserly, tight-fisted
Peaceful
troubled/agitated/worried
All 12 came with matching scripture. (I love the biblical depth of DiscipleLand)
MY CHALLENGE:
Match these 12 traits to the 4 lessons, 3 each! They needed to match, and not be contrived, if possible. It took some work, but I was pretty excited with the way it worked out. They fit quite naturally!
TRUE (When No One Is Looking)
BE HOLY (impure) Deuteronomy 7:6
BE DILIGENT (lazy) 2 Timothy 2:15
BE COURAGEOUS (fearful) 2 Timothy 1:7
OUTER (Toward Others)
BE COOPERATIVE (disruptive) Philippians 1:27
BE GENEROUS (stingy) Proverbs 19:17
BE CARING (unconcerned) Ephesians 4:32
INNER (Ones No One Can See)
BE HUMBLE (proud) Philippians 2:3-4
BE HONEST: (dishonest) Psalm 15:1-3
BE PEACEFUL (worried) John 14:27; John 16:33
REPUTATION (Known For)
BE TRUSTWORTHY (unreliable) Exodus 18:21
BE RESPECTFUL (rude) 1 Peter 2:17
BE LOYAL (unfaithful) Proverbs 17:17
MY FINAL CHALLENGE:
How do I visually communicate these traits in a way that would be FUN and ENTERTAINING, yet really illustrate to kids the differences among TRUE character (who you are when no one is looking), INNER character (those traits no one sees), OUTER character (those traits that impact others), and your REPUTATION (those traits that impact how others view you?)
I ended up deciding I needed to break the mold from my usual Object Talks, and do something entirely NEW!
Here is the first of FOUR YouTube-style videos of a puppet named Luke, video blogging about his week and the lessons he is learning about character. Each explores character very uniquely and covers TRUE, INNER, OUTER and REPUTATION.
Children grow up being told what to do and what not to do, learning behaviors that keep them out of trouble and earn them rewards. In this short-sighted approach, their walk with Christ becomes limited to seeking to please the adults in their lives. Remove those adults, and the kids’ pursuit of Jesus evaporates as well. Teach children to build solid Christian character, however, and you have disciples who can live victoriously, independent of adult supervision yet dependent on God. Isn’t that our ultimate goal? This unit trains children to evaluate and take ownership of their spiritual growth, following the model of Jesus’ growth in the short but powerful verse, Luke 2:52. In this verse we discover a comprehensive formula for Christian character in young people—wisdom, character, integrity, and reputation. Children can intentionally develop in these same areas, if we are willing to guide them!
I remember when I started my previous ministry, our curriculum situation was a mess! Here was what we were facing:
Every teacher used what they liked, over five published curriculums were in use, some taught without any published material.
Repetition and Omission of Bible stories was not only likely, but expected.
No idea what was accomplished in the years spent within the Children’s Ministry.
Lots of good ministry going on, but no way to know what was going to happen, or to evaluate results.
So what did we do? I called for a planning meeting and asked our teachers to determine what we wanted for our children. (without looking at a single curriculum sample!) Here is the list of what these godly and experienced teachers determined we wanted:
Gospel Oriented
A comprehensive overview of the entire Bible
Specific Goals and Objectives for Each Age
Progressive, and not Repetitive
Get children into the Word themselves
Emphasis on Scripture memory
High Quality Materials and Helpful Resources
One year cycle (meaning teachers teach the same thing every year)
Missions Focus
Flexibility for teaching styles and holidays
Tools to help parents engage in the process
THEN we hunted to see if any curriculum met ALL of these criteria.
Only one curriculum offered all the things above that our teachers wanted:
NOW IS THE TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR CURRICULUM. We used DiscipleLand long enough to see kids go entirely through the process and could see the results.
They have since added AMAZING on-line tools for kids and parents to further engage in the learning going on at church. You MUST check out DiscipleZone.com
If you haven’t done so already, NOW is the time to re-evaluate what you are using this fall in your educational ministry. Here is a quote we had posted in the forum discussion on DiscipleLand:
We ended up dividing our kids 6-9 and 10-12 and used DiscipleLand with the younger and it was amazing! The kids loved it, which is totally cool because it didn’t have any “high techy” stuff, but kept their undivided attention. I loved that during our review this past Wed the kids retained most everything! This is 2 thumbs up! Thank you Karl for introducing us to this. I would not hesitate to tell anyone to give this a try. They will be hooked.
For some VERY HELPFUL TOOLS for evaluating your ministry, be sure to see the evaluations available on the DiscipleLand Equipping Center. Every ministry ought to work through these tools WHETHER OR NOT they use DiscipleLand, or DiscipleLand will fit their ministry structure or needs.
Check out DiscipleLand, you’ll be glad you did! There is a reason more and more churches and switching to DiscipeLand!
If you would like some SAMPLES, check out the Discover DiscipleLand Kit and save over 40% and get a good variety of DiscipleLand materials to hold them in your hands and check them out.
June 9, 2010 at 10:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized
It’s that time of year again – you may be evaluating your curriculum and determining whether you want to make a change. Let me suggest of ways you SHOULD NOT choose what curriculum to use in your children’s ministry:
Use what you have always used.
Traditions might be great at Christmas time, but using a curriculum “because you’ve always used it” is a terrible reason – unless you can explain its scope and sequence and the strategy for why it was put in place. But if it is “just there” because Moses brought it down from Mt. Sinai, or some other long gone leader who is kickin’ back with Jesus by now… it is time to re-evaluate!
Let your teachers each pick their own.
Love your teachers, support your teachers, but DO NOT let them each pick what they want to teach in their classroom. This is a formula for educational disaster! Why? Your students may end up learning about Joseph and Jesus six times to Sunday and never even find out who Moses or Abraham are! You need a comprehensive strategy for what content you want covered throughout the entire range of your educational program, so you need a curriculum strategy that encompasses all your classes.
Look at tons of samples and pick based on what appeals to you.
This is a popular method – but I it appeals to the eyes and the company with the slickest marketing budget wins, not necessarily the company with the best materials. Slickness is not the goal, biblical content that covers the most of the Bible, while addressing as many of your educational goals as possible is your goal. So leave the samples aside until you have determined what you are looking for.
Depend on curriculum promotions.
We all want a good deal, but the best deal is a Disciple of Jesus Christ who makes it through the snares of this world without the high cost of sin! Don’t fall for promotions – be objective enough to know what you are looking for and hunt for it. If it’s on sale, or you can find a way to get it at discount, more power to ya. If not, and its the best – pay top dollar for it. It’s probably worth it.
Use what some other great church uses.
If such and such church or some well know CP uses it, it must be the best, right? The best for that church, sure – but that doesn’t always translate to your church. It could be a disaster in your church, or not worth the time and effort to modify. More important that WHAT curriculum another church uses is WHY do they use that curriculum. That will better lead you to WHY you should choose your curriculum.
Lay a SOLID Foundation!
Don’t under estimate the importance of the curriculum you choose. Everything else hinges from and is built upon the foundation laid by your teaching material. How high and how deep and how broad your educational ministry will be is greatly determined by curriculum. What you TEACH your children will ultimately determine the long-term impact of your ministry.
It won’t matter how many kids you reached, how many prayers they prayed, how many prizes you awarded, how much fun they had, or how happy the parents were – the measure of your ministry is what they learned and applied to their life in the years after they left you and that is greatly determined by the curriculum you choose.
…the measure of your ministry is what they learned and applied to their life in the years after they left you and that is greatly determined by the curriculum you choose…
So how do you choose a curriculum? (I thought you’d never ask!)
Determine what YOU would like to accomplish in your educational program – what are you trying to accomplish?
List your educational goals – put it in writing before you ever look at publisher’s samples!
List the weaknesses you see with the current material you are using.
Make a list of what you are looking for and would like to see in the future. This is important so that if the curriculum you choose doesn’t have it, you know what you will need to supplement. (Using Kidology.org!)
THEN look at published materials to see if any match your criteria.
Choose the one that best fits what God showed you He is asking you to accomplish with the children He has brought to you. If none of them fit, you may need to write you own, or adapt something like Open Source.
Too many churches START by looking at curriculum assuming they have the answers, letting the curriculum determine the goals of their ministry. It is your ministry, they are your children, entrusted to your care by God – the curriculum is to serve you. Take some ownership and let the curriculum serve you, not the other way around. Have the confidence in the Holy Spirit’s ability to show you what HE wants to accomplish through you and your team in your ministry. The curriculum becomes a tool in your hand toward that goal.
Next Time: Find out why I recommend DiscipleLand Core Bible Curriculum for Sunday School and how my previous ministry went through this process, what was on our list of goals, and how DiscipleLand fit the bill.
We’re off! The guys have all arrived and we are ON OUR WAY! This is my final post! We will now we OFF LINE until next Friday other than checking in with our families. Pray for us as we head to Yosemite! Pray for safety and for the work God wants to do in our lives.
Proverbs 16:9 comes to mind as we plan to hike – we’ve made our plans, but we want God to direct our steps!
October 19, 2009 at 12:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
For the last two Sundays I’ve visited a church with an ATARI logo on the side of the building:
Compare to:
(Actually, it was my wife who pointed out the comparison!) and it made for a great twitter post.
While we are “church shopping” and I’ve been posting comments on churches on facebook, twitter, etc. I’m not posting names or links to churches so that I can be honest and respect the churches I’m visiting and save their church websites from being pulled down from massive traffic. (ha!) But I will say, that this church so far has been my favorite. And not only because of the “Atari” logo – but because of what it might hint at. I have no idea if this symbol is from some denomination or has any significant meaning (help me out in comments if it does) but like Atari, which is dated, there are some dated things about this church I liked, besides the fact that building was a bit old and obviously one they are eager to replace or move out of, so there isn’t much point in investing too much in improving it, and they were bursting at the seams. There was an energy and excitement that was contagious. If I had to choose one word to describe the experience, it would be Authentic. While they had all the “stuff” of a modern cutting edge church (band, PowerPoint, wireless mic, pastor in polo shirt, etc.) it wasn’t so polished you felt like you were going to a concert or a show. I liked that. The pastor prayed for people by name, and not from a list. He knew these people. He had visited them during the week. The children’s ministry may not have been one that prompted pictures to blog, but the children were smiling, and the volunteers were enthusiastic and welcoming. And unlike the church the prior week at another church that didn’t even ask me for mine or my child’s name (!) they had decent security and a lesson. (Though Luke said he liked the place the week before where he got to play cars the whole time. Eh hem.)
You know, when it comes to Atari, there is a funny thing. I get my ATARI out at kids overnights, and the kids LOVE it. Often, more than all the modern games despite being so old. Why? Because they can instantly play any game without reading a book first. There is nothing to learn, they can just immediately plug in and play. Church should be that way too. I think some churches have gotten too complicated. Maybe that’s why I liked this church. Like old fashioned Atari, it had all the stuff you could count on – solid biblical preaching, but that connected with the audience. Good worship, but contemporary too. Friendly, upbeat, easy to feel welcome. Small groups and a staff I could relate to. A children’s ministry I could see easily fitting into. Perhaps.
So we have been to the Mega Big Super Duper We Have Everything Church. The Bible Is Everything But Kids Aren’t Important Church, and now the a really awesome church I can’t make up a label for. And that’s a good thing. Not sure it’s the final one for us, but so far, we like it. We thought the church search would take longer, so we still want to see what other churches are in the area, but we are glad to have discover the….. Atari Church. I guess that can be my nickname for this church!
I know I’m supposed to be taking it easy and recovering from near death and all that, but today we planned a whirlwind fun day that was relaxing and enjoyable – both because of the people we hooked up with and the sights we saw! We started out in Colorado Springs (where we are staying) and went up to Littleton to have breakfast with ToddLiebenow, the Top Puppeteer and El Presidente of One Way Street, and #1 puppet and creative ministry supplier in the world. (for real) I’ve long wanted to see the OWS headquarters, and finally got to!
Todd Liebenow and Karl
The extra treat was that I had Sara and Luke with me and my little boy (who adores all my puppets) got to see “where puppets come from” with a tour of the factory. I could not photograph much out of fear of compromising industry secrets, but here is Lukey with some eyeless lambs:
Luke among the Lambs
After One Way Street we headed up to Loveland to the Group Publishing headquarters where I had a meeting with Christine Yount who, besides being executive editor of CM Mag, has a new official title I love: Children’s Ministry Champion. (I guess there is room for another!)
Group’s Lobby has a TALKING moose head!
I also got to finally meet CM Mags managing editor, Jennifer Hooks who I’ve known only via e-mail as she has edited some of my writing for Group such as The New Deal article in the Jan/Feb ‘09 issue. Why was I meeting with these ladies? (I also met with a business guy about a deal on CM Mag for Kidology.org members that should be in place soon, just another perk for Kidology.org members!)
Ever wonder where the other end of the moose was?
ANYWAY, I was there to finalize the details for a column in Children’s Ministry Magazine. That’s all I can say at this time, but I’m very excited to be a regular contributor to the magazine now. More details soon! (I’m so sorry I forgot to get a picture with the Groupies – but I got the moose!)
After I left Group we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park hoping to see some live animals as well as some spectacular mountain scenes. I wasn’t disappointed! On the way out I caught this Mountain Goat on film:
It really is a mountain goat!
O.K., so that picture isn’t that great, but I had to turn on the camera and point fast! (And no, I was not driving, Sara was driving so I could enjoy the view and take pictures)
As you can see, the driving was a LOT of fun!
If I ever came to this park as a child, I don’t remember it, and I was very much impressed with how beautiful it is! Not quite Yosemite, but it’ll do!
Snow covered peaks above Rocky Mountain National Park
Lots of variety from the mountains to the landscapes and an abundance of roaming animals!
Unfortunately, Luke slept through most of the animal sightings – but we’ll be back! He just woke up when we got to Bear Lake and went for a short hike to see the snow covered frozen lake:
The Bastians on Bear Lake! (luckily, no bears!)
It was a short visit, but I considered it a teaser and plan to be back here many times in the not so distant future! I feel like I’m home here – as my earliest memories are from when I lived in Colorado as a boy.
Here’s a few more pictures from our special day (as we called it for Luke)
Mommy and Luke
Daddy and Luke
Sunset over the Rocky Mountains
Dusk in the Valley
Luke in his favorite spot – Dad in his.
I love Colorado. I am praying that God might enable me to raise my son here. I love the climate, the scenery, the culture, the people, the opportunities to explore God’s creation, and the presence of God I feel when I am here. Pray with me that my family might be able to call this home some day.
First, George Barna confirmed what those of us in children’s ministry have known all along – that the ripest spiritual field is children, and that the most strategic way to stop the disappearance of a biblical world view in our church is to renew our commitment to children.
Next, Larry Fowler established the biblical basis for churches not just value children, but prioritize ministry to children. Others then followed with a renewed call to broaden the scope of children’s ministry to include the entire family, the loudest voice being Reggie Joiner asking us to rethink ministry at the Orange Conference offering their virtue-based family time resources and strategy to incorporate complete families in the Sunday church experience.
Then Awana Clubs, long known for its success at reaching unchurched children and providing kids a solid biblical foundation surprised us by dramatically altering its approach and confessing its past “let us disciple your kids” attitude was insufficient and began to completely re-engineer its programs to better include parents in the process.
Soon many more, like Julia Duin in Quitting Church, began revealing stats showing just how poorly we are doing in translating Bible Quiz-Whiz kids into faithful disciples when they got old enough to choose whether to attend church or not.
While DiscipleLand has long offered a comprehensive home-based/church-supported curriculum strategy for discipling children, other companies all over the map are waking up to the need to engage the home rather than just keep adding to the programs and resources available at church. “Family Ministry” and “Partnering with Parents” are the buzz words appearing everywhere.
Then Larry Fowler was back with a strategy to build a comprehensive birth to high school strategy for preparing the next generation to be spiritually strong and healthy; to be “Modern Day Josephs” in an ever increasingly secular culture. Most recently, D6 (Deuteronomy chapter six) has splashed on the scene offering not only a family-wide church curriculum, but also devotional magazines from preschool through adulthood aiming to get the entire family in sync with what they are learning in the home.
Everywhere you look, from workshops at CPC to the newest children’s ministry leadership books, you are hearing a growing call: The spiritual formation of children must be done by parents, not for parents. The church’s role is shifting from one of serving and supporting parents to one of empowering, equipping and encouraging parents.
If you can’t feel the wave growing, you’ve either let it pass ahead of you – or should see the swell rising behind you. To best “surf” this growing ministry wave, you’ll need to carefully watch the swell growing, letting some of the smaller advance ones pass, position yourself in the best spot, start paddling in the right direction, and get ready to start pushing down at just the right moment. Soon you too can stand up and ride it in!
Perhaps you are convinced already. Children’s Ministry “as usual” isn’t cutting it. You’ve got to better partner with parents if you truly want to see children transformed into spiritual champion and modern day Josephs. But how?
Let me tell you this. The answer isn’t another curriculum, resource or program. That doesn’t mean you might not switch to DiscipleLand, send home FamilyTime CDs, encourage the use of D6 devotional magazines, or establish new programs or plan various family events. But these cannot be your solution. They can only be components of YOUR strategy. The solution for your church begins with you and your pastor.
As I wrote about in my article The New Deal, in the Jan/Feb 09 issue of Children’s Ministry Magazine, and expounded upon and detailed in my Kidology Leadership Lab: Partnering with Parents, the key is to start with a brutally honest and open conversation with parents as to what their needs, desires, frustrations, struggles, and hopes are for their kids and how they see the church helping or hindering their efforts.
Next, I would suggest, you’ve got to step back and ask yourself three key questions about every age level in your ministry:
1. What KNOWLEDGE do I want them to have?
2. What SKILLS do I want them to have?
3. What EXPERIENCES would I like them to have?
KNOWLEDGE: There is obviously a great need for teaching children the Bible and the truth it contains. Most ministries do this fairly well. Few can give you an overview of their strategy to ensure what their student will or should know at the various stages of growing up. A genuine strategy for forming disciples requires that the organizer of the process know what the long term goals are. As the old saying goes, “If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it!” Now extend this to families! What knowledge do families need to be successful? Do we run the risk of filling our kids with a whole host of biblical trivia and neglect giving families the knowledge they need in order translate what the children are learning at church into real life? Perhaps it is time to get out paper and pencil and start writing out what you believe your families need to know to succeed, and then start evaluating whether they do, how they can, and how you’ll evaluate if they do?
SKILLS: My experience has been that the vast majority of church, if they focus intentionally on what their children need to know, stop there. But knowledge alone does make a disciple. (James warns that even demons know the truth about God, and shudder!) A disciple is one who lives out the knowledge of God in their daily life, and to do so requires key skills. Bible skills, while often taught to children, are only the beginning. We all learned to drive a car while young, but would all agree there is much more to driving than operating a car. Likewise, being able to navigate a Bible is useless if one doesn’t know how to study, understand and then apply what is discovered to life. Have you listed, by age range, what you want your children, youth and parents to be able to DO as a follower of Christ?
EXPERIENCE: The third aspect touches on one of the weaknesses of church programming. In the creating of programs and planning of events, we are often quick to forget the PURPOSE of programs and events. They are not the end – they are the means to the end. The goal of a church ministry is not to create programs or events, it is to create life experiences that impact the spiritual growth of the individuals enrolled in the program or attending the event. This is an important distinction because not all experiences that a disciple needs on along their spiritual journey can be programmed or created via an event. Programs and events can only create a context for life experiences. So, again, I would challenge you to invest some time in asking and answering the question, what experiences do the children, youth and families of my church need to grow as disciples of Jesus?
One of the best things you could do for your ministry is to mentally set aside all your programs, events and plans and answer the questions above. Then, after having answered them, take a look at your programs, events and plans and consider the following:
1. What is the best thing I could stop doing that doesn’t fit these objectives?
2. Does my curriculum support these objectives? (Beyond just teaching Bible knowledge)
3. How do my standing programs help or hinder these objectives?
4. What events do I need to create in order to provide the needed life experiences?
5. What events do I need to cancel because they may be good, but are no longer on target?
6. What experiences can no program or event create? How can I foster those experiences?
7. How can I help families develop the skills they need to keep growing?
In order to develop a ministry-wide strategy of making disciples, you must start to not only include parents in your considerations, but make them an essential ingredient. This will take effort, creativity, and a willingness to accept; even initiate change. “Ministry as usual” is certainly easier, but if long-term results are what we are truly after, then we must be willing to make adjustments now. If only one degree of change now can have incredible long-term results later, imagine the eternal impact of being more strategic now. Most ministries probably need more than one degree of change, but we’ll have all eternity to enjoy the results if we don’t hesitate. It all starts with asking the right questions. The answers to these questions will be different in every church. But if you don’t ask, you’ll never enjoy the results.
Because Jesus Loves Families,
Karl Bastian
Here are some helpful resources from Kidology.org to help you address this growing need to include parents in children’s minisitry.
Sermon Summaries are simply my sermon notes taken on my iPhone WordPress app during church. I love taking notes, but then they are lost in a stack of spiral journals. This way they are archives, searchable, and I can share them too!
I love my GPS, if used properly, can lead you to where you want to go, giving step by step directions. This is possible because of satelites in space that are looking down; they see exactly where you are, where you want to go, and all the possible route, hazzards and obsticles between the two.
Wouldn’t it be helpful to have GPS for our life?! If there was someone watching from above who knew exactly where I am, where I want to go, and all the possible paths, dangers and challenges along the way?
Yes! What I need is A God Positioning System!
The passage is: Jeremiah 39-42
Background: The Remnant of Israel were going to run to Egypt after the heir to the Jewish throne killed the Babylonian governor of the land, but first they consulted Jeremiah. This all looks very good – but in the end they didn’t take God’s advice and were later killed in Egypt!
For personal study; primary passages: Jer. 38:8-10; 41:1-3; 42:1-2; 5-7;
43:4,7 the people disobey, actions did not match their words
42:20 Their fatal mistake was not disobeying God, it was to ask for advice and then not take it treating God’s commands as a mere suggestion. It is worse to seek God’s council and reject it, than to never seek it at all.
Note in I Samuel 28:5-6, God didn’t answer Saul because he knew Saul wasn’t committed. Saul was asking with no intention of obeying God, unless God told him what he wanted to hear.
God promised in 42:7 If you stay here, I will build you up, not tear you down. But instead they ran, and later perished. Those who did stay, lived.
A Hammer: I love that our senior pastor often uses object lessons. He noted that a hammer is really two tools in one. One end is for construction, the other is for destruction. Our life in God’s Hand is constructive, in our hands life is destructive.
QUESTION: Who is holding the hammer in your life. Taking the hammer from God is a mistake. Perhaps you are fighting over the hammer?
God desires to be our Life Positioning System (LPS?) But we need to be listening AND obeying to his instructions.
As I write this, I’m hangin’ out at Ace Hardware w/ the boy to get some keys made. He’s been cooped up inside for a week due to the extreme weather so we gave him an early birthday present just to discover it needed D batteries – of which we had none! But it was a good excuse to get out, seeing as it was a warm day today at 18 degrees. (Warm compared to this past week.) I’m standing in line, so why not blog?
Anyway, turned out everybody and their mother-in-law went to Ace today for keys. (Perhaps I’m not the only one with the “buy 1 get 1 free” coupon!) But waiting in line and watching the Ace Man make the keys reminds me of when I worked at True Value in high school and got trained on key machine. It’s a pretty simple machine. There are clamps that hold two keys against two wheels. The only difference is that one wheel only rides the original key and the second wheel is a grind stone that cuts the blank. Both wheels are attached so as the operator runs the first wheel up and down and over the original while pushing down, the second wheel cuts into the blank key making a perfect duplicate.
Kinda reminds me of how God is working to make me in the image of Jesus.
I am in the process of being made into a duplicate of Jesus, at least in His character. However, in order to be changed, I must submit to a process of being made in His image. There is some pain involved, but what is cut away is only that which does not exist in Jesus. And in order to be cut, there must be pressure into the nature of Christ – the Holy Spirit is the one running the machine, but I have to be willing to be clamped in and not to resist His guiding process. If I resist the downward pressure of the blade, I will miss out on being made more like Jesus. We’ve probably all had to return hardware store made keys for not working – a perfect match is careful work. In the same way, if I mess with God’s process by disobeying or not submitting, I will be a poor match to my Savior. My life won’t work right, just as a key half-made wouldn’t fulfill it’s purpose either.
As I stand here watching, I realize, it would be nice to start out as a blank, the reality is that there are a lot of influences in this world that have already cut notches and grooves into the character of my life, many of which don’t belong. I need to be willing to head to the “helpful place” and let God continue doing some cutting into my life. Often times He is correcting what has already been cut incorrectly. It may be uncomfortable at times, but in the end I’ll be a more useful tool for God and I’ll have the key to eternal life!
When it was finally my turn to get my keys duplicated, I saw a sign that said, “Ace is the Helpful Place” and I couldn’t help smiling as I thought, “Actually, Grace is the Helpful Place.”
First of all, congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama.
I won’t even pretend to imagine the significance and impact of Obama’s election to my African American friends and all those who never thought they’d see the election of an African American to the highest political office in world. It is a great testimony to the progress of America and especially to the color blindness of young Americans who, if they do consider race, lean more toward supporting minorities than fearing or resisting the progress of fellow Americans who are different than they are. I sincerely am happy for our nation in the sense that the election of Barack Obama proves that indeed any one can become President of the United States no matter their race or background, and that, in and of itself, is a good thing – and I am proud to live in a country where the People choose their leader and the transfer of power, even in a fiercely fought election, is peaceful. America continues to be the grandest experiment in human history.
Indeed, Obama was unstopable in this election. While I never gave up hope, and did my little part to support Senator McCain, I felt in my gut that Obama’s election was inevitable. His combination of his political skill, the nations appetite for “change” and the fear brought on by the financial crisis came together to bring about not only a historic election because of his race, but an incredible rise to power of a very unknown man whose many weakness were largely considered irrelvant by a nation blinded by a message they wanted to hear. The reasons Obama won are varied. On one hand, I think race was a huge factor. For a some what positive reason: America was eager to ease its collective conscience by electing a black president. On the negative side, Obama out-spent McCain and that was possible in large part due to him breaking his promise to accept public funds, but I’m not sure that really made the difference. There are many reasons and explanations, but I think at the end Obama won for ONE REASON: His Message of Change. That message was more important than the facts. The concept of “Change” was more important than even the details of what kind of change he would bring. Our nation wanted change at any cost. No one knows what they cost will be, or whether it will be a welcome cost or not.
For all the things that concern me about Obama, what he did best was set himself up as the American Hero – the Right Man at the Right Time. He was eloquent. His sweeping themes and wonderful sounding generalities were music to American ears. Unfortunately, he was never specific, but ironically, even when he was, no one cared. When he slipped and alluded to “spreading the wealth” people didn’t care. When he admitted he wants energy costs to “skyrocket” people didn’t care. When his associations and mentors were shown to be radical and even anti-American, people didn’t care. They liked the Message of Change without little consideration of what that “change” would be. It’s actually quite puzzling or impressive depending on how you look at it.
What I like about Barack Obama is his claim to be open to new ideas and to working with both parties to find solutions. I will pray it is true. I live in his home state of Illinois which is riddled with coruption. Our last goverenor is in jail, and our current one appears to be headed toward being in the next cell over. Obama has never even spoken against Illinois coruption, let alone done anything about it. He has never gone “across the aisle” to accomplish anything, and voted “present” often when a bill was contraversial. He has no executive experience, and now has the highest executive office in the country. It’s really rather amazing. I have to admit, as a campaign “executive”, he got it done. But I do hope that he has painted himself into a corner where he has to live up to the retoric and perhaps he actually will do some of the things he has so eloquently promised. If he does, he’ll earn my respect as a leader. Right now, my respect is limited to what he accomplished for his race and his party. As President, there is much more to accomplish.
One of the things that concerns me about Obama is that no one seems to know this guy. Even Democratic political pundits are now saying they have no idea how he will lead. Will he lead as the most liberal President ever? (He was the most liberal senator.) Will he lead center-left since he has a democratic majority who will want to finally push its agenda. Or will he lead center-right, which is how he campaigned stealing many Repiblican themes – many of which he and his party were against before he was a presidential candidate. I find it amazing that even those who supported him, don’t know how he will lead. Yet they voted for him. Even Obama, in his own book, described himself as a “blank page” upon which people can write whatever they want to believe about him. You got to hand it to him, he is a master of being, not whatever he thinks people want to be, but being vague enough that you can think of him being whatever YOU want. Only time will tell what he actually does. You can’t vote “present” when you are President. He will have to take some stands.
Another thing I do like about him, is that he does seem to move slowly. Hopefully very slowly. But he has really painted himself as a centralist while his opponents have created a lot of fear around him. (and I think the fear is fair) I already think he is smart, if he is wise he will realize that his opponents are eager for some “I told you so” moments, and the best thing he can do for long term success is rob them of those moments, and live up to his retoric and promises to work together, to lower taxes, to reduce energy dependance, to win the war in Iraq, etc. If he does that, it will be good for America. If those were campaign talk and he leads as he used to vote (or not vote) and as his Democratic party used to vote, it will hurt our country.
Obama revealed a lot about America. His election shows just how badly our country wants change – and a lot of that desired change is change away from Christian ideals. How are we going to deal with that? In a godly way? I think this election, and how we deal with defeat, will tell a lot about us to a watching world.
Let’s be godly in how we handle the fears that Obama stirs up in Christians. Let’s be honest, when we’ve had Presidents we liked, it has never helped the cause of Christ as much as we hoped or thought it would. Lives are only changed when they encounter Jesus Christ, and that can happen in any country, in any political climate, and under any President. Amen?
SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN?
A lot of people “believe” in Obama… or believe in the “Change” he promises to bring. My biggest concern with Obama is not his belief babies born alive in a failed abortion should be killed or left to die. (and he does, don’t buy the rewriting of history going on). It isn’t his economic philosophies, though they are scary. It isn’t his anti-American statements and associations. (I think being President will cure him of his anti-American setiments.) It isn’t higher taxes, even though they are coming. (I won’t enjoy saying ‘I told you so’ but its inevitable now.)
My greatest concern is actually a secret hope. The concern is that too many people are looking to government to solve their personal issues so they will give too much power and control to the government that in turn will end up choking our economy and undermining our freedom even as it sincerely tries to help Americans. In the end, Democratic policies tend to hurt the very ones they are seeking to help by creating dependency, stiffling freedom, frustrating entrepreneurial spirit, burdening small business, and growing bureaucracy and with it taxes.
Why is this concern also a secret hope? Because I hope that more and more people (Christians included) will finally realize that our hope can’t be in government, it must be in God. Government can’t create the security it so often promises, God can. Govenment can’t create opportunity, God can. Govenment can’t solve the problems that ail our world, God can. Government can’t meet our needs, God can. Government can’t provide our financial needs, God can. Government can’t give us purpose, God can. Government can’t give us Hope, but God can.
And finally, no government or president can bring Real Change, or “Change you can Believe in” but God can.
While I still believe that Christians MUST stay engaged and ought to be the voice of Truth, morality and for the unborn, our energies most be primarily engaged in building the Kingdom, not our nation. Christians ought to vote – and I know many did. Now we must vote with our feet by going where God calls us to go. Vote with are hands by helping our neighbors. Vote with our mouths by sharing the Gospel. Vote with our wallets by financially supporting our church, missionaries and any ministry we can that is helping to reach the lost or further the Cause of Christ.
Best case scenario – Obama surprises those of us who opposed him, and things get better and the resulting econompic growth will help churches and the Great Commission.
Worst case scenario – things get worse, but as a result more people turn to God. After all, the Church has always grown more during times of distress and persecution.
Anything in the middle – keep your main focus on your walk with God, your family, being a light for Truth in our world, and praying for our nation.
Obama will soon be walking into the White House. As Christians we will need to stay engaged to seek to protect our freedom and help keep America a place where God is honored and glorified and where “In God we Trust” still rings true.
But more important is who sits in the ‘Oval Office’ our our heart and our homes.
Does OUR LIFE reflect, “In God We Trust?” Does our life honor God, honor life, and reflect the Truth we claim to believe in?
Let’s pray for our nation and pray for President Obama. He certainly needs it.
May God Bless America… but may we bless God in how we live for Him.
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