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Archive - February, 2008

If you think “hooking-up” isn’t a big deal…then you should start reading some of these books!

February 28, 2008 in Marriage-Family with 0 Comments

As more and more studies, surveys and research is being done on the “hook-up” culture, especially in college, there are a slew of books that are beginning to emerge. One of the interesting things about the “hook-up” culture in college is that it is producing young adults who carry on the same behaviors, and are unable then to carry on any meaningful committed relationships.

RO just blogged about it at our collaborative youth ministry blog Collection of Crumbs. In the book Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both, she writes:

Young people have virtually abandoned dating and replaced it with group get-togethers and sexual behaviors that are detached from love or commitment–and sometimes even from liking. Relationships have been replaced by the casual sexual encounters known as hookups…Hooking up’s defining characteristic is the ability to unhook from a partner at any time.

Recently I blogged about the book Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student. She states:

More relevant to my patients at this stage in their lives is that oxytocin is released during sexual activity. Could it be that the same chemical that flows through a woman’s veins as she nurses her infant, promoting a powerful and selfless devotion, is found in college women ‘hooking up’ with men whose last intention is to bond?

I then saw this today at Ivy Jungle’s Campus Ministry Update. It says:

A Textbook on Hooking Up: Kathleen Bogle has published her book, Hooking Up as an analysis of research into the dating and sexual behaviors of college students today. Conducting in depth interviews with students at two unnamed universities – one large public school and one smaller Roman Catholic school, she describes the casual hook up as the “center for college social life.” Her research shows that students overestimate the frequency of hook ups among their peers as well as “how far” those encounters go (kissing, intercourse, etc.). She is quick to point out that such behavior is not new to campus life, but technology and informality have turned it into what she calls “the dominant script for forming sexual and romantic relationships on campus.” She also points out the damage of a hook up culture on women. First, women are much more likely to receive a bad reputation for hooking up. Secondly, her research shows that women do not get what they want (i.e. a relationship) from the casual sex of a hook up – but believe it is the only way to meet men. The culture is also affecting young adults after graduation. When these young adults enter more formal dating environments, many say they do not know how to go on dates and establish relationships outside of “hanging out” and “hooking up.” A full interview with the author is available at www.insidehighered.com (Inside Higher Ed January 29, 2008)

Books:

Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both

Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student

Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus

There are plenty of more books out there on this topic, plus the books that are in favor of hooking up and how to go about having casual sexual relationships. I think that I am concerned more and more for the students I work with who really don’t think it’s a big deal, and fail to think about the long term ramifications of their actions. And usually in the process it is the woman who gets hurt the most as the research is showing.

I think Bogle’s statements are pretty telling:

“center for college social life.” Her research shows that students overestimate the frequency of hook ups among their peers as well as “how far” those encounters go (kissing, intercourse, etc.). She is quick to point out that such behavior is not new to campus life, but technology and informality have turned it into what she calls “the dominant script for forming sexual and romantic relationships on campus.”

Let’s Talk About Music

February 28, 2008 in Uncategorized with 5 Comments

The Habanero Hour Podcast: “It Won’t Change the World, But it Might Change The Way You Think of Christian Music”

I rarely talk about music because I don’t really feel like I have anything ever valuable to say about it, except, “That band was good” or “I love that song.” But that’s the extent you will get. No insight in the the songwriting, or musicianship, or the impact of the music upon the culture, etc. And there are people who do a great job of this.

For the last couple of years I have been reading my friend’s blog Colossians Three Sixteen. Brent and I went to college together and I knew he was always interested in music. He was always the guy with the huge CD collection. (For those of you who don’t know, a CD was something before the iPod…never mind). Almost every week Brent puts up a great post about music and through this he has turned me onto some artists that I never would have considred listening to, and he has helped me understand and appreciate more fully the depth of the music that he writes about and that I listen to.

All that to say, that it only makes sense that his love and passion for music, and writing about it, would be translated into a podcast. Brent and Mark Whiten have created the Habanero Hour. You have got to check it out. Here is what they say about the endeavor:

It won’t change the world, but it might change the way you think about “Christian” music. The Habañero Hour is a periodic music and interview podcast dedicated to exploring and challenging the idea of “Christian” music. All selections are played with explicit permission from the artists. We make no profit from the creative pursuits of others and make every effort to direct your attention to the artists’ own websites whenever possible.

They just completed Episode 1 which featured interviews with Steven Delopoulos and music from Doug Burr, Jeremy Casella, the Trees Community and some others. The featured artist for this episode is Steven Delopoulos, who is formerly of Burlap to Cashmere.

Please check it out, and let Brent and Mark know what you think. If you know of any artists that would make a good fit for their podcast then let them know.

“Grace gives life. Lift is art. Art is Grace.”

One of my student leaders, James Schoensiegel is a very talented musician, and he has recently been experimenting with the worship music, wanting to redefine it in some very different ways. He has been recording a more ambient sounding style of worship music that he describes this way.

This music is the culmination of a long struggle with faith and faithfulness, with immersing myself in the pains and joys of life, and with trying desperately to understand God. Regardless of your spiritual views, please pray and think about the vast needs and sufferings of people all over the globe while you listen to this music. Use it to transform your heart toward living a life full of grace.

James is an amazing young man and someone who has given his whole heart to serving those less fortunate in Los Angeles. He has really inspired our community to give back and to make service a part of who we are, and not just something we do. I know this music comes from a very, very deep place in his relationship with Christ and I hope you check it out.

Go to Art Is Grace to listen to some of his music.

The Cobalt Season

I have just begun to listen to this band even though I have seen their name around for a little while. Ryan and Holly Sharp are the design team of Sharp Seven who did the art and design work for Shane Claiborne’s new book, Jesus for President, which I just blogged about below.

This is one of those bands, and these are the artists that will make you think more thoughtfully and critically about your faith. I just love the integration of their work, their music, and how it all seems to flow into the rest of their life. I don’t know them personally except for some Facebook messages between Ryan Sharp and I….but I’m really impressed with them. And I’m jealous in some ways. I wish I was more imaginative and creative in my daily life and work.

Check out their blog Pressing On In The Dark and you can check out their music site from there, as well as their MySpace.

A Must Read

February 26, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

Check out my latest post at Leadership Network. I posted on the new book Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw and the design team of Ryan and Holly Sharp.

How Much Time Do You Spend In Sermon Preparation?

February 20, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 7 Comments

Jon Sampson has a good post on what he is learning from other pastors. This particular topic is about what David Fitch says he wish he had done over the last several years of church planting. It’s a good read. I’m curious what you all think of David’s #1.

1. Spend less time writing sermons, more time listening and speaking truth relationally lovingly into people’s lives. My goal, when I am preaching, is to never spend more than twelve hours a week writing sermons. Preaching the Word is important. It takes skill and practice. Yet the sermon is for speaking truth over people’s lives, not for entertainment. Sometimes the “entertainment” piece takes too much extra work. The sermon proclaims the true reality as it is under the Lordship of Christ and calls people into Him. It is my opinion the reason why sermon prep takes so much time is that often pastors place too much self-importance into it. How many hours a week do you spend on sermon prep?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue recently. Let me outline it this way.

To be honest…I don’t think I’m a great preacher. But I do my best.
I spend less time on sermon prep now than when I used to, especially right out of seminary.
I don’t spend less time because of laziness, but because of the demands of work.
Either I spend 20-40 hours of prep on a sermon, or I actually do other things like hang out with students, counsel people, etc.
Who ever came up with that rule that I have heard about 1 hour of sermon prep for every minute of sermon?
And who are these pastors that have 20-40 hours a week to prepare a sermon?
Most pastors I know have lots of responsibility, and don’t have the luxury of everyone doing the work for them while they sit in their office or library all week buried in books.
How relevant (and I mean this in the best of terms), or grounded in the community can the sermon be if the pastor is holed up in his/her study all week?
When it comes down to it, ministry places lots of demands on us, and we have to choose ultimately between very important things. In doing this, I always try and keep people first. If someone needs to meet and it will interrupt my sermon prep, then that person is first, not my sermon prep.
Sermons sometimes seem to be an avenue for the pastor to put on a show or display their prowess. Not all, and hopefully not many, but I often feel like a pastor sometimes spends all that time in prep to impress with their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.

Full Disclosure: I should probably spend more time on sermon prep myself. But I don’t have a rule of thumb. Some weeks require more, and others require very little. Some weeks I am alone, looking through the Bible, commentaries and the language tools. Other weeks I’m just in prayer. And some weeks I have laid out my whole sermon in my head from my morning commute from Pasadena into work. We all have our methods and I think that is great. But to place a rule that every pastor should do this or that for a sermon is quite unrealistic.

There is a big difference between the pastor at a smaller church who preaches, counsels, does adminstrative tasks, vistis with people, etc., and the pastor at a large church whose only job is to preach. Sometimes I wonder that the large size of a church actually keeps us from putting our hand to the task of things that should be important and that keep us grounded in the daily realities of those we minister to.

Thoughts?

Full-Time College Director Position Available

February 20, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

This is a reminder that I will be stepping down as the college director of The Quest at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, CA. I resigned in January, but my final day is June 13.

It’s an amazing job, with some amazing students. If you are interested, or have any questions, please feel free to contact me. But if you want to apply, see the information below.

Bel Air Presbyterian Church is seeking a full-time Director of University Discipleship to lead a worshipping community of university and college students at BAPC and a dynamic ministry to students across the many campuses of Los Angeles.

The ideal candidate will have a healthy relationship with Jesus Christ, a passion for sharing his word, a desire to make disciples for him, administrative gifs, and an infectious enthusiasm to mobilize students to make Christ known in Los Angeles and around the world.

Please send resumes to: kelley.dundon@belairpres.org.

Bel Air Presbyterian Church
16221 Mulholland Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Websites: www.belairpres.org, www.thequestbelair.org, Facebook: Bel Air Quest

Shane Claiborne lecture…cancelled by Baptist University. Unbelievably sad, but not surprising.

February 14, 2008 in Uncategorized with 3 Comments

About a month ago we hosted Shane Claiborne along with other ministries in our church. It was an amazing night, and Shane was an amazing humble person. He was not only the epitome of a gracious and loving person, but everything you would want in a lecturer. He understood his context and was able to present his message in a way that would be receptive and heard…he wasn’t there to cause a ruckus or anger people. That’s why I find the story below both unbelievably sad, though not surprising as I stated.

Christianity Today reports that The Baptist school, Cedarville University in Ohio cancels the lecture by Shane Claiborne that they had planned after a number of vocal bloggers speak up. (HT: Mike DeVries)

This is one of my favorite lines in the article:

Carl Ruby, Cedarville’s vice president for student life, told CT that although there was “a high degree of receptivity on campus” to the Claiborne lecture, he decided to cancel the lecture to avoid risking conveying the wrong message about Cedarville’s doctrinal beliefs.

“There was a tension between my desire to use this event to challenge students to take a closer look at a very important social issue, and the need to protect Cedarville’s reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university,” said Ruby. “There can’t be any confusion about our commitment to God’s Word and our historically conservative doctrinal position.

“Nearly all of the opposition to Claiborne’s visit came from off campus,” he said. “The reaction from both faculty and students has been along the lines of, ‘We are a university … We need to be having these kinds of conversations on campus if we are going to adequately equip the next generation of Christian leaders.’ “

What? I have a few thoughts running through my head right now.

“There was tension between my desire to use this event to challenge students to take a closer look at a very important social issue, and the need to protect Cedarville’s reputation as a conservative, Christ-centered university.” So protecting their reputation was more important that looking at important social issues that I would argue are part of God’s Truth.

They aren’t the only ones guilty of this…I know we all are, but it’s sad when our reputations are more important then exposing people to Truth, and I would argue that Jesus, at great risk to himself, took on important social issues of the day, rather than protecting his reputation or those that were bearers of the conservative theological tradition. If anything, he seemed to disorient and challenge those who believed that their reputations and ideas about their conservative theological doctrines were correct.

It’s not implicity said, but there is this idea that to have Shane would move them away from being “Christ-centered.” As if Shane isn’t Christ-centered.

So the opposition was from off campus, but they cancelled him anyway. That is confusing. If you really believed as a university that having Shane speak was part of “adequately equip(ping) the next generation of Christian leaders” as they state, then why would they cancel him? (I’m thinking donors with money most likely).

You can read Shane’s great response to this situation titled, “Don’t Fear Disagreement” here. But here are a couple of great excerpts:

A university must believe its students are able to “test the spirits” and work out their salvation “with fear and trembling.” We are not talking about junior high kids, but young adults who are capable of discerning truth from fiction, and who need to be trusted with and exposed to diverse perspectives.

If there is anything I’ve learned from both conservatives and liberals, it’s that we can have all the “right” answers and still be mean. And when you’re mean, it’s hard for people to listen to, much less desire, your truth.

I have been working with college students for about 10 years and I firmly believe that we have to entrust them and empower them when it comes to their faith. Way too many times schools, churches and families overprotect college students out of fear they might actually be exposed to a differing opinion. In my experience with college students, that type of protection only leads to rebellion and a faith that is not actually theirs, but rather a very fragile faith that must be continaully coddled out of fear that it might fall apart.

In closing, here is what Shane continued to say:

Unfortunately it’s difficult to communicate with folks who will not talk to you, who only talk around you, as in this case. I do not have time to hunt down every rogue Web site. There’s too much constructive work to do for the Kingdom for us to spend our energies constantly reacting to every destructive voice, especially those who do not honor Matthew’s admonition to speak directly with one another in love (Matthew 18). And there is too much brokenness in the world to spend time tearing each other apart.

Dealing with the criticisms of Emergent…

February 13, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 6 Comments

I agree with Andrew Jones that I AM JOSH BROWN is “the blog to watch this week.” Josh is dealing with the criticisms of Emergent.

Read:

Challenging the Critiques of Emergent: Introduction

Challenging the Critiques of Emergent: A White Man’s World

Challenging the Critiques of Emergent: Trend/Denomination

If this opening paragraph won’t get you to read, then I don’t know what will.

Here’s the deal. It’s become sort of fashionable to bash Emergent. It used to just be the crazy, old school guys like Dobson, MacArthur, and Carson. I think of these guys like my crazy uncle sitting in the corner who babbles on about conspiracy theories and minorities and the evils of the world. His behavior borders on tourettes and I sort of expect it. But then some guys, who oddly enough have a following among younger people, like Driscoll, jumped in on the pile-on. And then all the Puma wearing, soul patch, mid-life crisis, youth pastor-esque guys decided Driscoll was god and agreed with him. The trickle down from there has been that now even those who like and affiliate with Emergent like to throw a few punches every now and then.