Wikiworship

This past Sunday, we launched at St. Stephen the Martyr an alternative worship start for teens with something I call "Wikiworship". I thought I had made the term up since I'd never heard or read it anywhere before. But before I sat down to blog, I googled "Wikiworship" and found a few people already using the word in much the same way as I envisioned it to denote an open source, participatory worship experience built upon user created content.

Find out more about it on wikiworship.blogspot by clicking here and here (from where I got the above image); read what this mission leader is doing in his own context; you can also learn more by clicking here here.

Anyway, here's the short blurb from the promotional flier that went out to teens and their families plus lay leaders in our congregation:

Open Source
User Created Content
Discussing God in
the Real Lives of
High School Students
thru Ur pics, vids,
YouTube, Facebook
and 2daz Music

Introducing a new alternative start to worship for High School Students!

Youth have been talking a lot about worship: it's boring; we want modern and upbeat music; the language of scripture and sermons can be over our heads; we want something more at our level.

Well, we've been heard loud and clear. Now high school students may choose to start worship together in our own style, in our own culture. We'll discuss the scripture text, and share the message God is speaking to us using blogs, pics, vids, and music we creat.

Then we'll join the rest of the congregation in the sanctuary for prayers, communion, and benediction. If you're already active in worship, feel free to continue worshiping in the sanctuary if you prefer. But if you haven't been in worship every week, now there's no more excuses. See you this Sunday @ 9:30!

The impetus behind this new ministry is to respond to the feedback teens give us concerning why they aren't in worship regularly. On a typical Sunday, we have 0 to 2 teens in worship. On our first Sunday of Txt Msg, we had 4 teens plus two of our most active teens were out of town. We'll see where it goes from here. If they take ownership of this ministry by sending me pics, vids, and blogs about where they've experienced God's presence in their lives throughout the week and how they've followed Jesus, then we'll most likely continue this ministry in the summer. But if teens in the church still aren't worshiping or taking ownership by contributing content then we'll most likely discontinue Txt Msg after the summer.

While Txt Msg is responding to the needs and opportunities for raising disciples at SSM, this ministry is also helping to form the vision we're discerning of the postmodern mission congregation in Milwaukee. The vision team will start drafting our Mission Plan document soon, and as we embark on this adventure, Txt Msg is helping me to discern how God is gathering people to worship in a postmodern culture.

I suppose that's enough about Wikiworship for now. There's so much more to say, so I'll keep posting about it throughout the summer as our journey following Jesus unfolds -- both thru Txt Msg at SSM and thru the Vision Team for a postmodern mission congregation. If you'd like me to respond to specific questions you may have, feel free to post on the comments link below, or email/facebook me.

Fear God

This past Saturday, I accompanied 8 youth and 2 other adults to FrightFest at Six Flags Great America. Below is a copy of the Bible study we discussed during dinner. If you are leading a ministry event related to this Halloween season, feel free to use it or adapt it as you wish.

What was the scariest thing you’ve seen or done so far at FrightFest?

Is there a difference between being scared and being afraid / fearful?

Do you have fear about something in real life? If so, how is that different than being scared?

Martin Luther explains that the First Commandment (You shall have no other gods) means that we are to fear and love God above everything else. What do you think he means when he says we are to fear God?

The Bible tells us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. What could this possibly mean?

The Gospel of Mark ends with three disciples seeing Jesus’ tomb empty and a young man instructing them to go tell the other disciples and meet Jesus in Galilee. But the last verse reads, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (THE END)

Why were the disciples afraid when they discovered Jesus was risen from the dead? How would you have reacted in that situation?

Thinking back to your answer about having fear for something in real life, did this involve something you really care about or somebody with whom you have an intimate relationship? How might that help us understand what it is like to have an intimate relationship with God by following Jesus?

What a Trip!

At St. Stephen the Martyr, we dared to be different. And boy was it worth it. We started almost a year ago exploring ways to do a congregational mission trip, a cross-generational experience for following Jesus together and sharing our faith.

We sputtered along for a while in our research places that could accomodate the youngest and oldest alike, until we talked to Imago Dei Village, an ELCA camp in Clintonville, Wisconsin. They liked the idea of a cross-generational trip and thought that their week of family camp could provide a way to make it happen. Sure enough, the program director of the camp used his contacts in the area to find a service project where we could work in the community during the afternoons. The bonus was that we could still also have the spiritual formation of camp, like daily worships, Bible studies, and campfires. It was AWESOME!!!

Our 7 adults and 5 teens worked in the thrift store in nearby Marion, transitioning out their summer stock and organizing their winter displays. Above the store are two apartments which are being remodelled as low-income transitional housing. We were able to finish one of the apartments to get it ready for tenants to move in this fall.

Our youngest kids were busy too. With the assistance of some parents and counselors, 5 kids ages 1 through 5 shopped for dry goods and dropped off their donations to the food pantry; they created photo books entitled "God Made the ABC's" and made "peace" wall hangings to welcome the tenants to their new homes and show God's hand in preparing their fresh start.

As we sought to get involved in God's inbreaking kingdom through our service project, we were constantly being blessed ourselves. People we met in the community, old and young alike, inspired us and offered their help. The growth in faith was obvious by the end of the week as people went deeper into their prayer lives, encouraged fellow disciples, and even found the healing power of Jesus by trusting in his followers.

When we returned home, the congregation welcomed us with a potluck dinner as we shared our witness and displayed our photos. We received back from many people the prayer cards they had with a name of a person on the travel team. The support of their prayers was evident all week. People made donations for next year's trip. The congregation joined us in a worship experience much like what we enjoyed at camp. And already we have as many new people saying they want to go next year as we had go this year. Perhaps we could even double or triple the size of our group. In all, a low estimate suggests that we had around 200 people directly involved in our congregational mission trip in some aspect of the collaboration.

The kingdom of God has come near. Turn and see.

Mission Trip

OK, so it's been a while since I've written. Not that there hasn't been much going on to write about, but rather just the opposite. God's been busy in southeast Wisconsin, and I've been trying my best to keep up with the action. The few down times I find myself wanting to blog, I'm deterred by the 90 degree temperature in my study.

But no more excuses. I'm bursting at the seams in eager anticipation for our congregational mission trip to begin tomorrow. I say "congregational" because it's not the typical trip with a group of teens and a few chaperones. The travel team heading out consists of 7 adults, 5 teens, and 5 young children. The youngest child is 13 months, and our group spans 6 decades.

While the travel team is away for the week, there are opportunities for others in the congregation who can't travel still to participate. We'll have a commissioning service in worship tomorrow and on the following Sunday, the travel team will lead worship by integrating their experiences from this week. Each worshipper will receive a prayer card with a person from the travel team's name on it, and an invitation to the homecoming dinner on Friday to hear the witness and see pictures from the travel team's service.

We started looking for ways to do a cross-generational mission trip, way back in September. But we found few possibilities for children below the age of 7, and even those were very few. Then in January I spoke with the program director of Imago Dei Village, an ELCA camp in Clintonville, Wisconsin. We worked out a plan for our church to stay at IDV the week of summer camp and travel off site each day to our service project. By March, we had the plans made and we could start forming a travel team from the congregation.

The camp director then connected us with St. John Lutheran Church in nearby Marion. We will be working with their food pantry, thrift store, and remodeling apartments for their low income housing. Even the youngest kids will be part of the service by shopping for food donations, sorting clothes, and making art projects to welcome the soon to be tenants into their new homes.

Not only will the service ministry strengthen our faith and share our witness, but on top of all that we get the wonderfully spiritual experiences of family camp, like worship, campfire, Bible study and more! We're in for a wild week filled with Holy Spirit. Keep our 17 missionaries in your prayers this week. I'm sure I'll have much to share with you when we return.

Family Covenants

During the weeks between Mother's Day and Father's Day, St. Stephen the Martyr is promoting our first "Faithful Families" campaign. Every family of the church is encouraged to schedule one hour sometime this summer, to invite one of our adult mentors from family ministries into their homes to creat a family covenant.

These visits have two goals. First, families will talk about hopes and expectations they have for their children. Most parents make clear what their expectations are for their children in various realms of life: education, friends, family, jobs, etc. But often we don't take the same approach when it comes to raising up disciples. It seems that the norm in the Lutheran church is for parents to tell their children that once they are confirmed, they make their own decisions regarding their faith life.

This is absolutely absurd! When our kids first get their driver's liscense, do we hand them the keys to the car and say, "what you do with it is now up to you"?! Do we shake their hands at junior high graduation and say, "whether you put your knowledge to use or want to learn anything new for the rest of your life is up to you now"?! Is it any wonder why Lutherans have the highest ratio of inactive teens post-confirmation?

We need to reverse this trend. I've been confirmed for 14 years, and I'm still actively living my faith because I have more and more mentors holding me accountable to expecations. Goal #1 is to help families discern what God's expectations are for living the faith and what it will take in the children's daily lives at home to communicate clearly and lovingly those expectations.

The second goal of cutting a family covenant is to develop a plan for the home and the congregation to work together in shaping disciples according to God's expectations. Every child is unique. This is true not only in a group of many different children such as in a congregation, but also even within one family. God gives various gifts that are unique to each person, and each person finds him or her self on a one of a kind path in life.

For this reason, a different family covenant is made for each child between 7th and 12th grades. Some people flourish in a group setting and others do so with a one-on-one mentor. Some are ready to take on leadership responsibilities and others are just getting their feet wet. Family covenants ensure that the church can journey with each youth on his or her unique path in life and help the youth to grow in the unique gifts given by God.

Forgiving Myself

I think I may have forgiven myself for my responsibility in the car accident involving youth from our church. It's hard to tell for sure, because there wasn't one magical moment when all of a sudden I felt the burden of my guilt float off of my shoulders. But there have been many moments when I've noticed the weight of the load decrease. And I can say now that I'm in a place in the forgiving process in which my burden feels light.

I got to this place of feeling forgiven by being witness to God's reconciliation. Here's how, through Holy Spirit's inspiration, I've seen Jesus reconciling the world to his Father:

First, at the scene of the accident I saw God protecting and caring for us. In the moans coming from the boys in the back seat, Holy Spirit dwelling within them cried out in sighs too deep for words, "Abba! Help us!". A few firefighters and paramedics said that having seen the two cars in the nature of the t-bone collision they were surprised the consequences of life were not much worse. God sustained the structure of my little 1990 Corolla against a 45 MPH impact of a Suburban. God acted through the woman who hit us, manifested in her compassion and concern for our well being. She took off her white glove in -25 degree windchill to help stop one of the boys' bleeding. God acted through the stranger, our good Samaritan, who stopped and offered for us to sit and stay warm in his vehicle. God acted through the police and paramedics who arrived on scene at the blink of an eye. I was so overwhelmed by their care that I thanked the officer when he gave me a citation. God acted through the boys and their parents who remained calm and helped the professionals do their work. Already God was busy reconciling a broken scene of humanity.

The next morning -- before I went to bed -- God spoke to me saying, "seek first my reigning and repent before my congregation." So I did just that, and I saw God's kingdom emerge from the hearts of people I see on a daily basis. Their words of forgiveness, love, and grace began to lift my burden. I knew then that my ministry could continue in partnership with all of them, free from an unspoken elephant of suspicion lurking every time youth are entrusted into my care. God reconciled me in my relationship to the boys and their parents. The depth of their faith was evident in their quickness to forgive. Once I was finally able to speak to the boy who sat behind me and suffered the worst injuries, I asked for his forgiveness and received it from him. Then I felt Jesus opening my own heart to forgive myself.

Last week I wondered how I could forgive myself, and the answer I found is that I can't. What I can do is seek first God's kingdom and it's righteousness, and all the care of my concerns will be granted to me by God. I saw God reigning in the world all around me. I was invited to see Holy Spirit gifting people to follow Jesus in his mission to reconcile the world to his Father.

Forgiveness came to me through God's reconciliation. When I spoke to the boy with the severe injuries, what lifted my burden even more so than his words of forgiveness, was his genuine enthusiasm when I offered to visit him at his house each week to tutor him in the confirmation classes he will miss. In his excitement to spend time together I knew we were in the right relationship of God's righteousness. Shortly after that, word came to me that one of the disciples in our church was organizing a letter writing campaign to the city aldermen and county officials to change the traffic light at the intersection of the accident so that it will be a standard, solid light at all times. It is a dangerous intersection when the light is blinking -- even with fatal accidents in the past. St. Stephen the Martyr is the church in the world participating in Jesus' mission by the power of Holy Spirit to reconcile all things (from relationships to traffic patterns) to our Father.

And finally, I thank you for showering me with emails, cards, phone calls, and even unexpected gifts. You wouldn't leave me alone long enough for me to wallow and beat myself up emotionally. You kept my eyes open to seeking first God's reign. So, I think that I have forgiven myself thanks to all of you, because I am looking forward with excitement to partnering in ministry again; I am looking forward to the future God has in store for us.

Seeking Forgiveness

Last Saturday night, I was in a car accident. Everyone involved will heal from their injuries. We all can see God's hand protecting us in this tragic experience. But I'm still keeping my eyes open for what God continues to do in our midst after the accident. Indeed, we all feel Holy Spirit's gifts of healing and comfort. Yet as these gifts unfold, I'm thirsting for forgiveness.

You see, I made a judgment error on the road that night. With four boys from our church in my car, I proceeded through an intersection after stopping at a blinking red light, not seeing any cross traffic coming for a while. I didn't realize until after we all climbed out of the car that the cross street only had a blinking yellow. For my mistake, the boys under my care paid the price in the form of bruises, soreness, and broken bones.

I woke up early the next morning to attend both worship services. I wanted to tell the congregation myself about the accident. This isn't something I wanted people to hear through the grape vine. I thought my presence -- though slow and awkward -- would reassure the church that we will be o.k. And more importantly, I wanted to ask for forgiveness. These boys are sons of the congregation; we are all bound together in love as a church family who raises up disciples. My mistake affected everyone who partners with me in ministry, who entrusts the safety of their children to me, who respects me as a responsible leader. So I confessed my sin to the congregation and apologized.

Before I could step away from the microphone, I was already hearing people say, "We forgive you." Following worship, more people than I can count came up to me one by one to express forgiveness, love, grace, and encouragement. Then over the course of the next two days I visited the boys and their parents. They too, were quick to forgive and shared their concern for my well being -- physically and spiritually.

Some people have said to me that I didn't need to apologize to the congregation. But I did. While it's nice to hear people's understanding that accidents happen and as long as everyone will be o.k. then everything else isn't as important, still that's not the same as forgiveness. Only by owning my responsibility and asking for forgiveness could the church be the church. By living in the community of reconciliation, we witness the presence of our risen messiah reconciling all things to his Father. That's the community called and gifted by Holy Spirit, not the spirit of "all's well that ends well."

So as I lay on my couch resting my sore back for the next few days, I see God's reign breaking in all around me through the ministry of the baptized at St. Stephen the Martyr. They have been given the office of the keys, and they're happy to unlock heaven here on earth. My prayer is that I can learn from them, that I can come to forgive myself.

I don't know how to forgive myself. Everytime I receive absolution for my sin from one of the boys and their parents, my heart turns ever more toward forgiving myself. But there is one boy I haven't been able to speak with directly. He's the one who was sitting behind me and suffered the worst injuries. Maybe after I am able to ask him for forgiveness I'll be able to forgive myself. Maybe it will just take me time. Or maybe being surrounded by Jesus' body, broken and given for the sake of the world, will lead me to forgive myself.

If you have any helpful suggestions for self-forgiveness, I'm all ears.

All In The Family

Tim, the servant leader at SSM who works with me in family ministries, has been receiving training through Youth and Family Certification School. He is developing a long range plan to help us strengthen our efforts to make youth ministry into family ministry, to make the home church too for passing on the faith. Here's what we are hearing God calling us to do:

~ Restructure our monthly cross-generational event called 2.B.1. This event worked well last year as a way to get people thinking and talking about discipleship. But this year we included time in 2.B.1 for mentors and young disciples to do their monthly discipleship coaching if they so choose. The good news is that they have been meeting on their own time (for the most part), so they don't need the time in 2.B.1 for their coaching. The downside is that they usually don't come to 2.B.1 now if they've already done their coaching for the month, so (1) our attendance of youth has fallen off and (2) parents aren't participating in 2.B.1 like they did last year. So we're going to move 2.B.1 to Sunday evening once a month opposite our monthly REVOLUTION! We'll hold the event in people's homes, rotating hosts monthly to encourage parents to participate. The first hour will be split time for youth to hang out and parents to mingle, learn about making the home church, and other adult specific topics. Then the second hour we'll come together for cross-generational Bible study and interactive games.

~ Meet families one on one in their homes this spring and summer to cut Family Covenants. The idea here is that parents are the primary bishops and apostles to their children, as Luther put it. We'll meet to discuss what the parents hopes are for their child(ren)'s faith. The conversation will be based around two questions: (1) Imagine your child is now 21, how do you hope s/he is living her/his faith? (2) What can we be doing together to help her/him to get there? We'll do this for two reasons. (1) Discipleship coaching works only for those who want to do it. It's not a "program" that's one size fits all. So if the child isn't interested and the parents aren't supportive, we don't want to do discipleship coaching with them at this time. (2) Families are so over scheduled that we don't want to play that game and twist peoples' arms to squeeze all of our events into their schedules. We'd rather have families commit to the ministries that they see are most helpful in nurturing the child(ren)'s faith so s/he grows to be an adult engaged in a life of discipleship. Some may want to commit to worshiping together regularly and not do any family ministry events. Some may want to do only 2.B.1, or only REVOLUTION!, or only discipleship coaching, or any combination thereof. Based on this conversation, we will then cut a covenant for parents and family ministry leaders to work together. We'll only expect them to participate in the ministries they commit to for that year, and parents will expect us to support them in their vocation rather than us being the "primary care-giver" for their child(ren)'s faith.

~ This summer we will do a cross-generational, congregational mission trip. People of all ages are encouraged to participate: retirees, single adults, couples without children, teens, and children 0 to 12 with their parent(s). We explored several options for doing a cross-generational mission trip rather than the prepackaged youth mission trips. (There aren't many options out there other than doing all the planning and leg work yourself.) We are happy that Imago Dei Village of Camp Crossways is excited to work with us. Together, we're forging a vision for a Family Camp -- Service Week. We'll all go up and stay at the Village for Family Camp. In the mornings we'll have worship, Bible study, an hour of free time, then we'll travel to our work site for our service ministry between lunch and dinner each day, returning for the all-camp game and camp fire. I can't imagine a better way to help families and various generations share their faith together, not only in words but in action! We're still working on what exactly our service ministry will be that week. One idea I had is to work with a nearby congregation who would like to start a faithchest ministry but needs help with resources. We could make faithchests, art, sewing, and other mementos for the faithchests. Hopefully, then, our people will become excited about faithchest ministry and we can return home eager to start our own.

So that's our plan this year, summed up by "parent partnership, mentor relationship, and student leadership." How we'll implement the first two is clear from what I've mentioned above. Later I'll tell you about how we're working toward our goal of student leadership.

Please leave a comment by clicking on the link below to share your feedback on our plan (pros/cons, have you thought of . . .) and share how your congregation is working to raise disciples.