As I posted yesterday, I want to thank our former college worship leaders as they always did a wonderful job in a very difficult area of ministry.

Yesterday I highlighted the 2002-2003 worship band and the many people in that group who are either playing professionally now or pursuing music.

From 2003-2004 Ed Rhee led our worship team and did an amazing job. Ed is a friend and a leader whom I have watched mature and develop in amazing ways both personally and musically over the last few years. He is a very humble person and is always willing to serve. I often end up calling him at the last minute a lot of times to lead worship for us, and he is always willing. I love working with college students and being able to continue that friendship when they graduate and watch it develop in new and exciting ways post-college. Thank you Ed. Please check out Ed’s music and go out and see him perform when you get a chance.

From 2004-2006 Kevin Carey led our worship band. Kevin is a great friend of mine and eventually interned for me this last year as well. I have always been impressed with Kevin’s passion both on and off stage and his pursuit and desire to seek after God. It has been a joy to watch Kevin develop as an artist over the last few years, and I was so excited one day when I was driving home from work and I heard Kevin’s music being played on the Hugh Hewitt show. Hugh met Kevin at our college group one night and was really impressed with him and his music and decided to play it. Kevin, thanks for all of your hard work and leadership.

Living in Los Angeles makes for one of the greatest opportunities and one of the most difficult ones, when it comes to worship music. Since I have lived in Los Angeles (5 years now), I have never before in my life exprienced such a mass number of talented people musically. I never would have thought that the majority of worship leaders and musicians that come through our group go on to record and album and do it professionally. That’s always been good news for our college ministry as our college band has always been led by amazing musicians, some college students who pursue music as a hobby or a life vocation…while others are not your typical students, but have come out here to go to a musicians institute, etc. Regardless of how they ended up in LA, these college aged students and non-students have blessed our ministry with some amazing music, as well as amazing worship leading…doing it in humble, Godly ways.

That can be a tightrope to walk at times…trying to balance musicaly excellency, while not allowing that to overshadow the act of worship, etc. Sometimes we have probably done it right as a group, and there are probably times we haven’t…but overall, these students and worship leaders have been the key figures in teaching me about worship…teaching me about the high call of bringing God’s people before Him in musical praise.

For the five years I have been at Bel Air, I have never had to worry about our worship, or who would lead, or who would step up when that leader was gone. So I want to thank those leaders and bands for their humbleness, grace and high calling to lead worship and to do it in an excellent way.

I can mention names, but I can’t point you to everyone since not everyone has a blog, or MySpace page, website, etc. But I hope that you check out their music, because nothing has been more joyful for me as a pastor than to watch these students pursue their passion and in doing so, bless not only me and you, but God in the process.

So for the next few days or so, I want to highlight and honor those who did a very difficult job/ministry, and who did it with passion and humblness and grace.

Today I want to thank the praise band of 2002-2003, and I hope you will check out their awesome music.

When I took over as director of the group in 2002-2003 we were in a transition from one worship leader to the next, and God definitely provided. Laura Scott who was a senior at USC co-led as a worship leader with UCLA junior, Ed Rhee. They were absolutely amazing and were part of a worship album that year. Laura has one of the most amazing voices ever and when she would lead on guitar chills went through the chapel. When it comes to Ed, there are some songs that I can’t imagine anyone else singing, and his demeanor and gentleness and talent on the piano were amazing. The rest of that band was made up by Sam Knaak who recorded our worship album at his studio, EarWitness Studios. Sam is also now married to Laura. We also had an amazing drummer that year, Mark Chipello, who is now the drummer for Tyrone Wells, who has also led worship for us a few times. Rounding out that band was bassist Dave Ross who is one of the most gentle and humble guys that I know, and who is gigging out his skills everywhere. Then there was Bryan Colmery who blogs at that page and has planted a church in Santa Monica. And last, Chris, our violinist, also known as “center stage.”

You guys were amazing and we were blessed to have you lead worship. Thank you for sharing your gifts with others and helping us better enter into worship before God.

Please check out their music at their sites, because if you haven’t heard of them yet, you will be hearing about them soon.

Sunday at Bel Air Pres was Student Sunday, so I and the high school and middle school directors had the privilege of our ministries leading our congregation in worship and teaching. It was a great day and I am so blessed to be not only a part of this church, but to be a part of a great youth discipleship department. Two people that I am so impressed with and that are great friends are the middle school directors, RO and Mindy Smith. They run The Element and do a phenomenal job. When I have Jr. High kids one day, I want my kids in their program. That’s how highly I think of them and I have a lot of respect for them. They are not only concerned with games and fun, but the theological content in their ministry and the way they communicate the Word. This last week they wrote an article for our Bel Air Pres Magazine called, The Abandonment of the Teenage Soul. It is a great article and a must read for parents and for anyone working with youth, etc…

As you read through the article you might notice the influence of youth ministry “guru” Chap Clark in their writing and thinking.

And on a funny and ironic sidenote….the ultrasonic teenage deterrent that they talk about in the first paragraph, is what teenagers are now using as their cell phone ringer because adults can’t hear it. Talk about teenagers pulling a fast one over on adults…if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the news that is all over TV today about this cell phone ringer, here.

In November 2005, The New York Times published an article about a device called the Mosquito that emits a high-frequency sound meant to drive youthful trouble makers away. The ultrasonic teenage deterrent has been acclaimed by police forces in the United Kingdom as the most effective tool in their fight against anti-social behavior. For roughly $1000, you too could join the further abandonment of the teenage soul by installing this high-frequency sound machine anywhere you don’t want those pesky adolescents to congregate. Hopefully you won’t have to actually engage in a conversation with them or initiate any type of interaction whatsoever; driving them deeper into what youth professional Dr. Chapman Clark calls ‘the world beneath’.

RO and Mindy both have their Masters of Arts in Theology in Youth, Family, and Culture.

“From the wilderness of Sin, the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages as the LORD commanded”(Exodus 17:1). This Old Testament text has been very reaffirming for me as the college director this last year, specifically because I am about to witness this June the first graduating class of seniors that I have had the privilege of journeying with these last four years. In July 2002 I was hired by Bel Air to become the full-time college director after a six month internship in the college department. As I look back on those four years I had little understanding of college ministry and sometimes that still seems the case. And I know that those freshmen coming in that year were not only unsure of me as the college director, but also unsure of themselves in the new life stage of college. But I have really begun to realize more than ever that life and ministry is process oriented and that we as people of God are on a journey from stage to stage. For the people of God in this text, their journey involved 400 plus years of slavery under the Egyptians, followed by a miraculous exodus from out of slavery and into 40 years of wilderness living. College students may not find themselves in the same predicament of being in slavery and wilderness wandering, but this life stage is a very disorienting process with its own type of wandering. This wandering consists of a multitude of conditions from the highs of mountain top experiences to lows of dwelling in the valley.

But over these four years the college students and myself have been on a journey together, traveling from stage to stage. And it is not a journey that we travel on alone, under our own desires and experiences, but we are led by the same God who has been leading His people through life throughout history. This is the beauty of Paul’s words in I Corinthians 12, when he talks about many members, but one body, the body that Christ is the head of. No matter where we find ourselves in our journey, and no matter what stage we are traveling through, we are a community of people that God is directing out of slavery and through the wilderness and into freedom. I want to thank the senior class of 2006. They have been a community of people that have been the foundation of our college ministry and a people who have come alongside others in our group, one another, and myself, and they have made this journey traveling from stage to stage a very remarkable one. My prayers and thoughts are with you as you leave the college stage and are being called out into another stage of life by God. God has great plans for your life and I am very excited for you, and I am excited about the community that he has begun in us and that will continue on.

This has been a very tough quarter in school. I didn’t know how difficult it would be, but managing full-time ministry, full-time gradschool and a counseling practicum has been nuts….but I have been learning tons. And though this quarter has been difficult I really feel that God has been stretching and teaching me a lot in the process…..it has been a refining process and I feel that I am growing and maturing.

Tonight was the last college night of the school year for us before we transition into our summer program. It was a great night but also very hard as we said goodbye to some seniors that we have been with for four years. These are students and friends that entered into the ministry in my first year as full-time director. I feel that we have all been growing together and that they are very much responsible for who I am today as a person and pastor. I think students often feel that it is the pastor that is supposed to do all the influencing and teaching and mentoring, but that is not always true, and ministry is a two-way relationship where both pastor and student grow and struggle and learn and mature together.

I am very thankful for those students who were the freshmen class of 2002. They have been a wonderful example to me and to our ministry of what it means to be in community…to care for one another…to love one another. It has truly been an amazing journey.

As I closed the service tonight I gave a devotional, sort of charge to the students. I wanted to leave them with a Biblical image that has been powerful in shaping my own life and that I think would be helpful to them where they find themselves now and on their journey. In Genesis 32:30-31 we read of the wrestling match between Jacob and a man (i.e. angel of the LORD; GOD). The text says, “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.” I love this passage. It is a beautiful image of man wrestling with God….a beautiful image of the encounter between the divine and human. This embodies I believe the struggle that we all face, especially some of my students who are seniors and who are wondering where life is leading them next. In this encounter with God we often walk away with a limp, just as Jacob did. A limp, or a weakness, or a flaw or some failure is often a symbol to us of life not turning out right, or a reminder of mistakes, and hopes not fulfilled. But maybe a limp is really a reminder of our encounter with God….for who can truly walk away from an encounter with God and walk away without marks or scars…our life is preserved, yet an encounter with God is a life transforming process, and we are reminded of it.

We catch up in the following passage with Jacob who is in fear of his encounter with Esau. And we read this in 33:10: “Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God.” This reoccurring theme of “face” is a fascinating one in the Hebrew text and it is especially eloquent here. After seeing God face to face, Jacob responds to Esau that seeing him is like seeing the face of God. The student’s wrestlings with God plays out in their wrestling and encounter with others in their life. Wrestling with God is a transformative process that helps us see God in the face of those that we encounter in our daily lives. There is this correlation between Jacob’s wrestling with God and his wrestling with his brother. So too there is this correlation of our wrestling with God and our wrestling with those in our lives…with those people, those circumstances. Both of these encounters prepare us for one another and help make whole and complete the refining process.

To my students: May you continue to wrestle with God and with one another. And in this wrestling, may you be refined and grow more intimate. And may your encounter with the Divine prepare you for your encounter with the human…..and vice-versa.

I love you guys and gals……

So what top eight cities are the most “church emerging” in the world?

Here’s what Here’s what Google Trends says

1. Minneapolis, MN USA

2. Dallas, TX USA

3. Atlanta, GA USA

4. Seattle, WA USA

5. Chicago, IL USA

6. Los Angeles, CA USA

7. Sydney Australia

8. London United Kingdom

HT: Andrew Jones

If you have read my posts at all in the last six months or so you will have noticed a lot of conversation about My Space and some of the concerns I have about it. i.e. pornography, preying on young children, conflicting online/in person personalities and convictions of people. I was also concerned that you are somewhat limited by the content after you begin to sign off and invite people. Sure, you can control your own page, but once you begin adding friends the rabbit trail goes on forever through an endless web of connectivity. That has kept me from joining for a long time, though I have joined before in the past, but just found it too much work along with this blog.

But outside of me, I had concerns about my college students and so we have tried really hard to create a great website at The Quest, and my student designer has a great eye for design and aesthetics. But no matter how hard we tried, students just weren’t going to our site to post comments or visit the forums, and we were doing a lot of work for naught it seemed at times.

So for the last few months I have cruised around the different communities online, I have been having endless conversations with many people, trying to figure out what people are looking for. And I can’t specifically state what that intangible is outside of the big word “community.” But whatever it is, My Space has it. Many sites have better design, but when it comes down to the basics, the ease and functionality of My Space, especially joining it is hard to beat. And with the attention My Space gets, the community is already there and it is huge. So it’s no wonder that all of my students are already on My Space.

So what are my options:

1. I can continue to resist.
2. I can continue to plug our website and hope that there is a big turnaround.
3. I can join with them in their community.

I have chosen #3. There is no reason for me sit and expect tons of students to leave their online communities to visit our website and be a part of it. Maybe they would do both, but I’m not sure at this point. I tihnk there are some other online communities and some ones that are being designed that will attract students, but for now, My Space rules this domain.

As a Christian I often don’t like some of the content I come across and I am somewhat shocked at what people will say assuming they are speaking in anonymity. But I figured it was time that I went onto their turf instead of expecting them to come onto mine. So I not only updated my personal page, but I also created a group for our college ministry. I am hoping that instead of keeping my head buried in the sand that I can be more a part of their community online and that we can have a transformative effect online.

As Christians we often worry about appearance and what groups we belong to, and how people will perceive us. But My Space seems like a good place to go into and help be a transforming agent and a light for Christ, rather than conforming to the world. And it seems highly unlikely that non-Christians will want to come onto our territories, so maybe it’s time that we get out the Christian bubble we sometimes hole ourselves up in and go out into the world.

This is probably a 180 degree turn regarding My Space from my previous posts, but I have been convicted as of late, and I have been asking how we might utilize the good things with My Space as a Christian community.

Tony Jones, the national coordinator for Emergent responds to some of its critics.

Is Emergent the new Christian left?

Tony Jones takes on Chuck Colson and “true truth”