A Letter To Our Parents Concerning Summer 2015

Dear Parents of Youth,

I am writing you to let you know where we are heading this summer and into the fall. As we leave May and enter June, it seems time has sped up and the end of the school year is here and summer is going to be over before it began. I am very excited for this summer.  We are trying something new by asking families in the church to open up their homes and hearts to our youth and host us for special get “togethers” throughout the summer. 

I am also excited for this summer for another reason.  Youth ministry cannot be a solo act.  I cannot do this alone and so I have a team of youth leaders to help me out.  After much prayer and many conversations, I really see the need to take this summer to develop and pour into the leaders that I have.  If I were to position myself to bear the weight of the youth ministry on my shoulders alone, I would be placing myself and our community at great risk of becoming ineffective for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  An often over looked part of a youth pastor’s role is the development (the encouraging and equipping) of other youth leaders.  This is just as much youth ministry as running a Bible study or planning an outreach event. 

The purpose of our events this summer (you will find the summer schedule below) is to stay in contact with our students throughout the summer.  My focus will be on developing our leaders and redeveloping our ministry.  With our new vision in place, there are many good changes that need to be made.  The old "tried and true" methods and programs of youth ministry are quickly becoming more and more irrelevant to a post-Christian world.  The leaders, a select group of students, and I will be endeavoring to ask how can we build relationships, share Christ, and grow together with the lost and found teens of our community at this point in God's grand narrative of redemption.  This means come the fall our ministry will have a new direction, new programs, new values, and a new name to mark our transition into this new season God is calling us to.  Along with this new season will come many opportunities for you to be involved in what we are doing. 

What is this going to look like? I have ideas and dreams, but this summer will be the time to develop those ideas and dreams with our leadership team.  Before we re-launch in the fall, I want to meet with all interested parents to explain where we've been, where we are, and where we are going as a community of Christ-followers to see lost students found and the found students grow  in Him who is the head, Christ.  I need your prayers, your youth leaders need your prayers, and our students need your prayer, but I am confident that come the fall, we will be in a better position to see the Kingdom advance in the heart and lives of teens in Fulton, NY and the surrounding communities.  In the next week you will be receiving a schedule of our summer events, the dates are all but confirmed, but with weather and other considerations they may be subject to change and we will keep you apprised of all changes and further details.

In His Service, 

Pastor Tyler

Event	Date	Place	Time	Host	Details
Last Sunday Night CRAZE	June 14th	Fulton Alliance
Youth Service	June 21st	Fulton Alliance			No CRAZE
Chicken Night	June 28th	New Hope	6-8pm	New Hope	Drop of 5:30pm FAC Pick Up 8:30pm FAC
Bonfire Kickoff	July 1st	Fulton Alliance	7-9pm	FAC	Families welcomed to join!
Movie Night	July 7th		7-9pm	Joe and Kara Kule	Drop of and Pick up at location.
Curtis House Hang Out	July 19th		2-7pm	Mike and Shelly Curtis	Bring swimming clothing.  Drop of and Pick up at location.
Whiffle Ball Picnic	July 26th		2-4pm	Mike and Sue Malizewski	Hot Dogs and Salad will be available for a late lunch.  Drop of and Pick up at location.
Beach Day	Aug. 5th	Fair Haven	8:30am-5pm	FAC	Leaving FAC 8:30am, Returning to FAC 3:30pm. Families welcome to join. See Dress Code next page.
Burdick’s	Aug. 9th		TBD	Tim & Jan Burdick	TBD.  Drop of and Pick up at location.
Seabreeze	Aug. 19th	Seabreeze	9:30am-5pm	FAC	More details to come. See Dress Code next page.
Pizza Night	Aug. 28th		7-9pm	J and Karen Spurling	Drop of and Pick up at location.

Noah; Some Thoughts

Ok, ok, ok, let's all take a second and take a few deep breaths. There has been a lot of hate being flung at the new Darren Aronofsky movie "Noah" starring the very handsome, very manly, Russell Crowe, by many different Christian sources. Let's start off by addressing the topic everybody is dying to hear about, me. I want you, reader, to understand where I'm coming from. I do my best to avoid categorizing myself as this kind of Christian or that kind, or even identifying with a single denomination. I usually find it sufficient to say, "I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ" and then let my actions and interactions fill in the details. But, if I had to label myself I would say I am "reformed-charismatic". I hold to the traditional, orthodox teachings of the protestant church while at the same time being open to the unpredictable and amazing movements of the Holy Spirit in many different ways. While these two foci are not mutually exclusive, I am intentional about bringing the two together. All that to say I would not call myself liberal and I do not take liberty with the Word of God. So no, I do not believe that angles who wanted to help mankind after the fall were cast down to earth and imprisoned in awkward rock suits or that fallen angels can be redeemed (yes, all of which appear in the film).

I will add this, if you went to "Noah" the movie, expecting to see a biblically accurate portrayal of the story of Noah and the flood I have one question, "Since when does Hollywood do biblically accurate?" If you get your theology from Hollywood (even from films like "The Passion of the Christ" or "The Bible" miniseries) then we have bigger issues that we can talk about in another blog post. However if you went to the "Noah" film with the expectation that Hollywood would get some, if not many, things wrong, then I think there are many good things that God can and will use from this film. Again let me stress; I am not saying that I find no fault in this film, only that I expected it. And just like God can use us, faults and all, I believe God can use this film for his glory.Let me take the rest of this post to identify a handful of really positive things that can come from this film if we allow it.

1. An Increased Awareness of the Self Sufficiency of God and Faith; "God does not need us", that statement is extremely sobering! God does not need you. He does not need me. One of the most pervasive sins in creation is pride, it infects and corrupts everything mankind touches. It is at the heart of all sin as we look upon the King of kings and say, "I can do better, my way is best, I don't need you!" But the fact of the matter is that we desperately need God, it is He who does not need us; He doesn't need our worship, He doesn't need our gifts or sacrifice, He is sovereign, He is over all and in all and can handle things on His own. But while God does not need us, for some amazing reason that I cannot comprehend, He wants us! He wants you! He wants me! Isn't it ironic that God doesn't need us yet wants us, and it is so often the case that we do not want God, but we need Him. In the film Tubal Cain, the antagonist, has set himself up as the king of a rebellious people he leads underneath the rally cry mentality of "we make our own destiny". This barbaric horde is set up in juxtaposition to Noah who serves the King of king with out question, in faith, even to the detriment of his own reputation and the loss of his greatest treasures. Hebrews 11:7 says "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Noah's faith in the midst of a corrupt generation is certainly brought to the fore in this movie.
2. A Dramatic Portrayal of the Wickedness of the Earth; This verse from the story of Noah for some reason never finds its way onto the walls of nurseries, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart" (Gen. 6:5-6). Read that again. EVERY thought of man's heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY. Wow! Mankind was so corrupt in the sight of God that he regretted making us. Often times I find myself reading verses like this one and sterilizing them, not realizing the implications of the words. I think the movie did a fantastic job portraying the wickedness of man, and tastefully may I add, a verse like this could easily lead to an R rating, but the filmmakers were able to keep it to a PG-13 level and for that I take my hat off to them. 
3. An Emphasis on Mankind as the Stewards of Creation; Ok, right now just go and read the first three chapters of Genesis. I'll wait...One thing that is clear upon a close reading is that God gave man dominion over creation, not to abuse it, but to tend and care for it. Genesis 1:26 "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'"Then again in Genesis 2:15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it." We were meant to be stewards of creation, we have not and are not do this very well. The movie can easily be seen as a pro-green film by that crowd but I think that Christians need to be pro-creation. Our sin has not just affected man, but the creation itself groans in anticipation of redemption (Romans 8). In the movie the corruption of man has a direct effect on the corruption of creation. There is an emphasis in both the film and the Bible of the natural creation being represented of purity while industry based cities being connected to the corruption of the human heart, Eden verses Babel if you would. I rather enjoyed seeing this deeper element incorporated in the film.
4. A Demonstration of Progressive Revelation; Did you know that Noah never read the Gospel of Matthew or John? Nor did he read any of Paul's writings nor any of the great commentaries that have been written about his life in the last two thousand years. We look back on the story of Noah knowing how it ends, knowing how its incorporated into God's bigger story, knowing how it's all tied into the work of Christ. We look back on the story of with a fuller revelation of who God is because of the Cross, Noah did not have this fuller revelation, he had to have faith in what he knew, or rather who he knew. The movie communicates this progressive revelation of God in some really neat ways. God is most often referred to as "the Creator" this is so astute of the writers when we realize that God's name He chooses for Himself (YHWH, I AM) is not given until many generations later to Moses from the burning bush. So He is "the Creator" because this is how they knew him and it comes across through Noah's character. We see an echo of Adam (pre-fall) in Russell Crowe's adaptation of Noah, he knows God as the Creator and sees his relationship with everything through that lens. God is the Creator, mankind is (supposed to be) the caretaker.
5. The Inclusion of the Centrality of Oral Tradition; Church tradition says that Moses was the original and primary author of the first five books of the the Bible, the Torah. This includes a whole book that takes place many years before he was even born. How then were these stories communicated to Moses in order that he might write them down? It was through oral tradition from father to son. Some of my favorite parts in this movie is when the movie pauses while somebody tells about the Creator and all that He has done. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Psalm 145:4 "One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts."

Now I could go on but I will end with this. Take a second and think about how many people were involved in the making of this film; writers, producers, actors, extras, cameramen, sounds techs, etc. Now take a second and think about how many of these people picked up a Bible and read the story of Noah. I'll bet good money that if Russell Crowe, Emma Watson, and Darren Aronofsky take their jobs seriously, they did. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." This gets me excited! Pray that the men and women who opened up the Word of God for this project will see the Love of God in what they have read. Pray for Russell Crowe. Pray from Emma Watson and Darren Aronofsky. Pray for Hollywood. That they may hear the words of love and truth from our Lord and fall madly in love with the King of kings. Everyone wants a king like Jesus. Use this movie as a conversation starter with friends and family who do not know the Lord and let them known that the book is way better than the movie. 

Advent...A Season to Wait

It's not even a week after Thanksgiving and already the "traditional" Christmas songs that we all know and "love" seem to have been infiltrating our radio stations for close to a month now. The "Christmas season" has been slowly spreading out and consuming the preceding months and holidays. From October on we are encouraged by commercials and culture to get ready, start shopping, because before we know it Christmas will be upon us. Unfortunately in our rush to get to the "big day" on December 25th we miss out on an important element of the true spirit of the Christmas season, the waiting. I think in general our culture has a natural aversion to waiting, to being patient. We want our meals, our coffee, our relationships, with no inconvenience, no hang-ups, and no delays. We live in a culture of instant-gratification and so when we think of all the good feelings, memories, food, and (if were honest) gifts of Christmas, we want those things without having to wait for Christmas day get here.

In recent years, every Christmas Eve when our extended family gets together, someone will always remind me of what I was like as a child on Christmas Eve. Ignoring family and food (well family more than food), I would spend most of the evening sitting in front of the tree staring at the presents so clearly marked with my name. At the time the anticipation was too much to handle and all I focused on all evening was that moment when I would get to open those gifts. In hindsight I realize how much I missed out on while waiting for that moment to tear into those presents under the tree. I missed out on family and memories.

What do we miss out on as we rush to Christmas day? It think it's simply, the waiting. Anticipation and waiting is a part of the Christmas experience and a beautiful element in God's plan to redeem the world.

Israel waited for centuries for the promised Messiah. The 400 years leading up to the birth of Christ is known as "the Silence of God" because for all that time not once did God speak to His people through a prophet. During those 400 years the people of Israel waited for their God to speak and their Messiah to arrive. We are reminded of this waiting in the life of Mary as she waits the term of her pregnancy to deliver the Savior of the world.

The season leading up to Christmas day, when we celebrate the arrival of our Savior, can be filled with more then shopping and baking and clay-mation TV specials. The Advent Season can be filled with waiting! Maybe not the most appealing addition to the holiday season (humanly speaking) but I think when we meditate on and participate in the waiting of God's people throughout history we plug into an age old practice of waiting on God. All of this culminates in the celebration of the First Advent (arrival) of our Savior Jesus Christ on Christmas. My hope is two fold; first, that we would connect with the waiting of God's people for the Advent of Christ and second, that we would be reminded of our current waiting as we anticipate the 2nd Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ when he returns for His own at the end of history.

How do we do this?

Here is a daily scripture reading list and family activities that can be taken advantage of during the advent season.

And below is a short list of songs we can add to our Christmas playlist (or even make a separate "Advent" playlist like I have) I've come across that speak to this season of waiting and anticipating the Advent of our Savior. If I find any more good "Advent" songs I'll update this list. If you have any you might think would be good please tell me the name and artist in the comments below.

Songs;

• Passover Us - Andrew Peterson 
• So Long Moses - Andrew Peterson 
• Deliver Us - Andrew Peterson 
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 
• This Is Jesus - Brook Hills Music 
• Come Like You Promised - Ascend the Hill 
• Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing 
• Psalm 35 - Sons of Korah 
• This is War - Dustin Kensrue 
• Suffering Servant - Dustin Kensrue 

Tombs and Temples

In the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Gandalf and Pippin are walking through the levels of the city of Minas Tirith which is a massive seven-tiered city built into the side of a mountain. The white stones of the city shine bright in the rising sun and burn as with fire at the it's setting. On the highest level of the city is a courtyard in which stands the White Tree of Gondor, a symbol of the cities rich heritage and history. Unfortunately this tree has not blossomed since the last king sat on the throne many years earlier. Before the failing tree Pippin asks Gandalf why they still guard it if it's dead. Gandalf responds, "They guard it because they have hope. Faith and fading hope that one day it will flower. That a king will come and this city will be as it once was before it fell into decay. The old wisdom that was borne out of the West was forsaken. Kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living and counted the names of their descent dearer than the names of their sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry or in high, cold towers asking questions of the stars. And so the people of Gondor fell into ruin. The line of Kings failed, the White Tree withered, and the rule of Gondor was given over to lesser men."

While there are a ton of sermon illustrations in that single quote alone, one line has always struck me in a powerful way, "kings made tombs more splendid than the houses of the living". To me that is a very sad picture of the state of a once magnificent kingdom. When a kingdom venerates the halls of the dead and neglects the slums of the living there is something wrong. When Gondor placed a greater priority on remembering the glories of the past they neglected the suffering of the present and thus doomed their future. Now they are waiting and hoping for the king to return to Minas Tirith to bring life to a dying city and diminishing people. 

This line in the movie always reminds me of when Jesus said in Matthew 23:27-28, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." 

This stands in juxtaposition with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, when addressing the topic of sexual purity, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

What a contrast though, between being a tomb and being a temple. A tomb is filled with death and sorrow,  a temple is filled with life and joy. Though a tomb may appear beautiful on the outside the inside it is filled with "unclean things". Conversely, the adornments and decorations of a temple are superfluous, what makes a temple a temple is the living presence of God residing within it. 

These are two stark spiritual realities, we are either tombs or we are temples. This world has enough tombs as it is, people who walk around and behave as though they are alive but spiritually they are dead in their sins and trespasses. What this world needs is more temples, people who are spiritually alive because God the Holy Spirit has taken up residence inside their hearts. 

I could write a lot more (and I might at a later time) but these are just some thoughts that I have been having lately, but I want to leave you with some words from one of my favorite worship tunes and my hope is that this would be all of our prayers, that we would desire to be temples of the living God and not tombs of death....

"Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you."

Zombies, Plauges, and the Compassion of Christ!

Hershel Greene; The Walking Dead

For those of you who have not caught the zombie virus yet, here is the quickest synopsis of AMC's  The Walking Dead that I can manage; The world is much as we know it, that is until, as usual, a zombie virus outbreak. People, lots of people, get infected die then come back as zombies. People get bit or scratched by zombies, die, then they too become zombies. People die of the common cold then come back as, yup you guessed it, zombies. If you haven't picked up on the common theme, basically people are becoming mindless flesh eating zombies creating a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by zombies and survivors. The show follows one group of survivors who daily strive to stay alive and create some semblance of normality in a world gone mad. A man named Hershel Greene eventually joins this group, a man of faith and a farmer, he was former veterinarian, who at first struggles to keep his faith in the midst of the madness but quickly emerges as a leader and beacon of compassion and humanity in this savage dog-eat-dog world. While taking refuge in an abandoned prison a flu virus begins to kill the survivors within its walls. Hershel's veterinarian training comes in handy but because of fear of more deaths the sick are quarantined and Hershel is not able to treat and comfort them, or else risk his life. Being the creature of conscience he is, Hershel can not sit idly by while people are suffering that he might be able to comfort, though he has no cure. He determines to enter into the quarantine to administer an elderberry tea in hope of reducing the fevers of the ill. Another leader of the group and Hershel's daughter try to stop him saying that its just too risky, Hershel might get sick and then the group would be worse of with him gone. Hershel stops at the door to the quarantine and turns to confront those who would stop him saying;

"You walk outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, you risk your life. Nowadays you breath and you risk your life. You don’t have a choice. The only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for.” Then turning back around he enters into the quarantine. 

In the third century, the ancient world was hit with a devastating plague (though let me state that nowhere do sources say it wasn't a zombie plague). There were many casualties, but perhaps the greatest casualty was that of the human spirit of compassion. In attempts to keep themselves from joining the dead and dying, many people threw infected family members out into the streets to die alone. It was the Christians in the community who took it upon themselves to care for the sick risking their own lives in the process. It's very likely that many of these brothers and sisters contracted the illness and died as a result. I am confident however that were you to ask those Christians who died as a result of risking their lives to comfort the sick, they would have no regrets. They were following the model of a radical self-sacrificing compassionate savior who they loved more than all the health and wealth of this world. 

Jesus was not one to throw the sick out into the street to spare himself. We know that he was able to heal from miles away (Luke 7:1-10), yet he choose to heal the sick, the blind, the "unclean" by touching them (Matt. 8:1-4). We know that Jesus was able to call back people from the dead by the word of his mouth (John11:38) yet in an incredible demonstration of compassion, when he saw the widow mourning over the death of her only son he went and touched the body of the boy and gave him back to his mother alive and well (Luke 7:11-17). 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too." 

How has God comforted you? I'm sure many of us can think of many times when we felt the warm embrace of our Heavenly Father in our time of need, weather an inner sense of peace, the kind words of a brother or sister, or in some other way. 

The verse above says that God comforts us in all our troubles so that we are able to comfort others in any trouble they are experiencing. 

How have you comforted others with the same comfort you have received?  How have you shown compassion to others with the same compassion shown to you by God? This is a topic that Jesus takes very seriously, we all who are in Christ long for the day when we see our savior face to face and hear him say "Well done my good and faithful servant". But what if you heard this instead; 

"Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me...Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Matt. 25:41-43,45). 

You have faith in God, good! Even the demons believe that God exist and shudder in fear (James 2:19). But unless our faith compels us into action, it is a dead faith that cannot save (James 2:14-26). Martin Luther once said, "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone". Faith results in action. 

Herschel and the early Church demonstrated their faith in God by risking their own lives to bring the comfort and compassion that Jesus modeled to "the least of these" in society with no regard for their own security or safety. 

Nowadays we walk outside our homes, we risk our lives. We drive down the highway, we risk our lives. We eat and drink, we risk our lives. We breath the air and we risk our lives. We don’t have a choice. The only thing we can choose is what we are risking it for. 

May we put everything on the line and expend our lives loving God and loving others with reckless abandon.