Regener8td's Blog

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

As I write this blog I am currently 3 weeks into a 6 month missions trip to Westerly, Rhode Island. I came to Westerly for the first time 8 weeks ago to speak at a church and do a leadership training seminar.

I learned that New England was infamous for chewing up and spiting out churches and pastors. It seemed the devil had a stronghold over this area and claimed victory. This did not sit well with me. My wife and I discussed the possibility of moving here and running Satan out of town with the power of the Holy Spirit working through the church.

We have seen tremendous results in the 3 weeks we have been here. Before I share with you what God is doing, I want to state a disclaimer: I am not a professional speaker. I am not a Bible scholar. I have never been to seminary. I am not book smart. I hold no degrees. I am not special in any way.

Now that you know what I am not, let me tell you what I am. I am a 46 year old house painter, 47 this Christmas. I came from an abusive childhood and had many run ins with the law as a teenager. I am average. I have a high school diploma. But I possess something valuable to God, A completely surrendered heart and belief that all things are possible, These are the only qualifications I have. This enables God to accomplish great things through me. God truly uses the foolish things of this world, I am proof of that.

So I want to share with you what has happened in the last 3 weeks and the methods we used.

Nerf Gun Fight

Our third day here my 10 year old son, Christian, saw 6 boys playing in a yard across the street. He said, “Hey dad, should I go build some relationships with them. We taught him the value of building bridges his whole life.

He went out and joined their game of football. After a bit, I carried out a bunch of Nerf guns that we purchased for occasions such as this. They were a huge success. After the war I invited the boys to church on Sunday and also told them to stop by and we would do this again.

An 11 year old boy came to my house several more times that week. We met his mom that week and I invited her to church with us. My son stayed over at their house Saturday, which enabled me to visit them Sunday morning to remind them of church. The family, minus the father, came to church. The second Sunday, the father joined his family at church. I preached that Sunday and he said God spoke to him through me. He returned this past Sunday and accepted Christ as his Savior. We have only been here 3 weeks!! This started because a 10 year old boy went out to build relationships. A Nerf gun war resulted in a soul spending eternity with Christ.

During this same 3 week time period we started a Friday night game night at our home complete with brownies and board games. This same 11 year old boy invited a friend and he attended church with us this Sunday as well.

We started a Saturday night community group in our home and we provide dinner and guests bring dessert and drinks. This enables us to invite our neighbors and build meaningful relationships.

Out of all these activities, we launched multiple Life Transformation Groups, (For info on these just Google Life Transformation Groups.)

God is moving and people’s hearts are being changed. We didn’t beat anyone over the head with our Bibles. We didn’t judge our neighbors or bash their lifestyles. We simply loved them like Jesus did. We cared for them, met some needs and shared our lives over spaghetti. We bought bright orange plastic guns that shoot foam darts and slayed the enemy and destroyed his strongholds.

Can you do these things? Can you have a Nerf gun war or something similar in your neighborhood? Can you open your home and play Monopoly? Can you boil some noodles and drown them in sauce and smother the enemy’s plans for your neighbors?

It’s so easy, a child DID it.

There are many ways to be distracted these days. Companies are in an epic battle competing for our mind time. We are bombarded with media overload and we don’t seem to care. Need proof of this? Just visit any restaurant and observe your fellow diners. 7 out of 10 people will have their noses buried in their smart phones. Husbands and wives, even children, will sit at the same table in silence, glued to their screens. They are oblivious to their surroundings as they update their Facebook statuses, send tweets, view emails and read the news. Sound unbelievable? Go see for yourself. Every corporation wants your attention and your dollars. As a result, we are over stimulated. This epidemic is out of control. They’ve now decided we cannot even pump gas for two minutes unless we can watch a 26 inch HDTV mounted to the top of the gas pump.

Priorities whacked out

People will let a roof leak go for months before repairing it. They will suffer for weeks with a toothache, but less then a minute without cable or internet. They panic as soon as the connection is lost and scramble for the phone to call for service. Even moving day has been affected. Top priority is getting cable and internet hooked up before they move in. People can live without water but not without internet and cable. I realized my 10 year old son will never know life without cell phones, tablets, streaming 24/7 media, online gaming and movies delivered to your portable devices instantly. They’ve taken the guess work out of life along with imaginations and face to face playtime. I’m not against technology but I can’t help feeling that, with all the things we’ve gained from it, we’ve lost as much in some ways. But of all the things we’ve lost to the never ending onslaught of stimulation, is our private quiet time with God. We are willing to sacrifice our spiritual growth in the name of social media where we build imaginary farms, invite people to play solitaire, which makes no sense, mafia wars, candy crush, Texas HoldEm and the list continues to grow. We cannot hear the voice of God among the chaos. It has been drowned out. Our vessels are so full of worldly things, that we put God away in a box on a shelf in our closet with the thought of “someday”. This is exactly where Satan wants God. Distractions are how he operates. How he gets your mind off God and his plans for your life. He slitters up on you without much fanfare and entices you with things you think you can’t live without, all the while forsaking the very things that give life. Do not be fooled. Satan will not try to get you to stop serving God because it’s so much easier to just make you forget about God altogether. His plan is working. Now that you know his plan what will you do about it?

How many pastors does it take to screw in a light bulb? I already told you. Yes I did. Look at the title of the blog. See now you get it. Okay it was lame but on a serious note, regardless of the translation of the Bible we have, why are we so far off base when it comes to imitating Christ?

It’s not like the Bible and the Church of 2015 are just two ships passing in the night, they are not even sailing in the same ocean. So how do we navigate our way back to the shores of truth? How do we escape the waves of compromise?

Let’s look at some of the differences between the actions of Christ and the behavior of the 2014 Church. This will hopefully show us some action steps to reconcile the differences.

Jesus called us to be fishers of men. We want to be cleaners of fish.
Jesus said to go and make disciples. We sit and wait for people to come to our churches.
Jesus created disciples that were willing to die and many did. We create teens who are indifferent to God.
Jesus hung out with sinners. We avoid them at all cost.
Jesus loved his enemies. We boycott ours.
Jesus loved people, met their needs and taught them in interesting and practical ways. We tell people to say a prayer or burn in hell.
Jesus was about his Father’s business. We are about everything else but that.
Jesus spent countless hours alone in prayer and communion with his Father. We don’t have time for that.
Jesus said to hide God’s word in our hearts. We update our Facebook, Twitter, and other social media pages and watch countless hours of television.
Jesus said take up you cross and he led by example. We avoid suffering at all cost.
Jesus preached the Peter and Paul package of discipleship. We preach the feel good Jeremiah package.
Jesus commanded us to make disciples. We make churchgoers.
Jesus did not say make disciples and if you can’t make disciples, just make Christians.
Jesus said not to be ashamed of him. We are embarrassed to tell our friends and colleagues about him.
Jesus warned us not to store up treasures on earth. Our basements, attics and garages are so jammed packed with stuff that we are forced to rent storage units for the overflow.

Jesus commanded us to take care of the poor and widows and orphans. We walk by the homeless on our way out to dinner and let government programs supplement the poor.

Jesus said we should produce a crop 30, 60, 100 fold. We produce nothing.

Jesus said people will know we are his disciples by how we love each other. We are known more for what we stand against than who we stand for.

As you can see by just a few of the examples I’ve listed, we are far better imposters of Christ than imitators. How do we turn the ship around, re-chart our course, point the compass of our hearts towards Christ and reach our desired destination?

Study, Study, Then Study
Every actor studies for the part. When Will Smith played Muhammad Ali he not only under went extreme physical exercise but he trained with professional boxers. He studied videos of Ali’s fights. He learned Ali’s mannerisms and facial expressions. He probably knew as much about Ali as Ali knew about Ali.

This is the same approach we need to take when it comes to imitating Jesus Christ. But we cannot genuinely imitate someone we don’t know. We cannot act like Jesus if we don’t know how Jesus would act in a situation. Makes sense, right? The thing that turns most people off from hearing about Jesus is us and our attempt to “act” like the way we think Jesus should act or how he would treat someone, based off our lack of knowledge of Jesus himself.

I want to challenge each one who reads this blog to join me in a journey, through a series of blogs to help us better understand Jesus and how he really lived and taught. I also want to challenge you to dig into your Bible for at least 30 minutes a day with the specific purpose of studying the ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Ready, Set, Study

Has Rob lost his faith or his mind?

That’s probably what you are wondering right now, but those of you who know me, know that I am going somewhere with this…as usual.

Last night as I was reading my Bible, I came across a story I have literally read dozens of times over the last 20 years. It’s found in the Book of Mark chapter 5. It’s the story of when Jesus caused a shortage of bacon when he sent 2000 pigs filled with demons over a cliff to drown in the sea.

You can read the whole story after you finish here but I want to focus on a small part of the story that I found particularly interesting. We will pick up at verse 19:

As Jesus was getting in the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Following Jesus would have been a good thing, but Jesus had a better thing for the man to do. His ways are not our ways. Jesus knew that the man would have a greater kingdom impact by staying right where he was because people in the town knew him, at least they knew the old demon-possessed guy. His testimony would have weight behind it. This once uncontrollable demon filled crazy man had an encounter with Jesus and it forever changed his life. There would be no denying it in his hometown.

I am certain you have heard stories of miraculous healings in far away places you cannot pronounce and you doubt them, even in a small way. You tell yourself that these are just clever emotional stories to illicit a monetary response from you. Sure miracles can happen but you’ll believe it when you see it.

But if Joe, your neighbor dying from 4th stage lung cancer is miraculously healed, that’s another story all together. You know Joe. You have prayed for Joe. In fact you had your whole church praying for Joe. You’ve spent countless hours sitting by his bed talking with him. You’ve laughed with him, you’ve cried with him. If he were healed the whole town would know the power of God. People’s faith would grow in leaps and bounds. No one could deny that God had intervened. Joe’s story would change the whole town. Many would give their lives to Jesus.

But what if Joe was healed and no one knew? What if he went to some other state or country and told his story? Many would doubt. There would be skeptics in every audience. No one knows Joe. No one saw how close to death he was. His story just does not pack the punch it would in his own home town.

Let’s see what happened to the demon-possessed man:

Mark 5:20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

If God has saved you from a life of sin and made you a new creation in Christ, use it. The people who knew the “old” you will see the “new” you and be amazed. They will have to concede that God has in fact done a mighty thing in your life. Your testimony in your own home town among your friends and family will hold more weight and make a greater impact then if you travelled the world telling strangers what Jesus did for you. Your family and friends are your mission field. All we have to do is live our faith out in front of them.

Jesus told the man to stay home and win souls. That’s great advice today too.

The title to this blog could mean one of two things; first I think attending a Christian writer’s conference is a waste of time and money or I believe they are not a waste of time and money.

I just returned from my annual trek to Langhorne Pennsylvania where I attend the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference and I decided after attending this conference for the last 5 years, it was time to put my thoughts on paper so to speak.

I have realized several things over the years:
If I was not a writer I would be a writer’s conference groupie. I would go just to hang out with some of the most amazing people I have ever come to know and love. I am so very blessed by the friendships I have made. The four short days we see each other seem to fly by in seconds and we head our separate ways across the country. The funny thing I have found is when we see each other again it’s as if no time has passed at all.

The second thing I learned was that we all struggle with fear and doubt regardless of our writing experience or lack thereof. We find encouragement and inspiration in the halls and classrooms on the campus of Cairn University.

The beautiful grounds of this campus, normally bustling with college students, becomes a retreat of sorts for writers in the Christian publishing world. We come from diverse backgrounds and all walks of like. The novice to the expert. We share ideas, successes and our failures. We laugh with each other and we cry with each other. We discuss how to take the message of the Gospel to the world through our writing but more importantly we share our love for our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love all the classes where I learn everything from how to write a book proposal that won’t end up in the trash to promoting my work through social media. But the thing I love the most is what happens at the end of every day.

After a long day of learning, after we listen to the evening keynote speaker enlighten us to an important issue we all make our way back to Heritage Hall. We gather around in comfy chairs and share our lives. We might even play a card game and every now and then someone will break out a guitar and sing. We build friendships that will last a life time and beyond.

If you want to experience the things that I have come to look forward to every year I suggest you go to http://www.Philadelphia.writehisanswer.com and register for next years conference.

As you probably figured out. I’m not wasting money on a Christian Writer’s Conference, I’m enjoying every minute of my investment.

I woke this morning and went out in my yard, Bible in hand, and climbed into my early Father’s day present, a new hammock. I’ve always wanted one and my amazing family delivered.

Once in my hammock I opened up my Bible to the Book of Mark and my eyes were drawn to Mark 1:40 because at some point I had highlighted it in bright orange. I didn’t remember why. So I read it again and I immediately felt God speaking to me. He asked me. “Is this what you see today among people who profess my name?”

I knew He was not talking about everyone. There are quite a few Christ-like disciples I know personally that live out the character and qualities of Christ, but sadly there are many more people who claim Christ in name only.

It is these people that I knew God was addressing in His question to me. God does this a lot to me and I must be faithful and write what He gives me.

So this morning as I lay in my hammock, God spoke again. And here is what I received and have obediently documented in my blog for those who need to hear this.

Mark 1:40-42 NIV

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing, he said, “Be clean!”

Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Here’s a more modern translation:

The Book of Stark Reality 1:40-42 (We are Jesus in this version because we are his hands and feet)

A filthy drunk came to Jesus and fell on his knees and begged him. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus was repulsed by the sight of him. The only thing worse was the stench emanating from the scraggly haired mess. Jesus instinctively pulled back so he wouldn’t  make contact with his grimy hands. “You did this to yourself.” Jesus said to him as he tried not to breathe in the arid smell. “Now you want me to fix your life?” Jesus scoffed. “You had so many chances, so many blown opportunities. How many rehabs did you walk away from? How many times did you fail the 12 steps? Do you know how bad you hurt your family when they staged that intervention and you stormed out cursing, spent the night drinking and woke in a gutter?

The man sobbed uncontrollably. “I’m sorry. Please, I beg you, forgive me.”

Jesus looked the man in his eyes, “Forgive you? You don’t deserve forgiveness. You destroyed the lives of your children. You made your wife’s life a living nightmare. What about them? You think sorry is going to make it all better? You are pathetic. A complete waste.” With that Jesus turned and walked away shaking his head in disgust.

The man wept bitterly and went back to the bottle.

To claim the name Christian we must be Christ-like. Here are some verses to show you what that looks like:

Matthew 18:21-22: Then Peter came to Jesus and asked. “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Luke 17:3:  “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

2 Timothy 2:25: Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change their hearts, and they will learn the truth.

Galatians 6:1:  Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

James 5:20:  Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering, will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

These verses are instructions on how to be Christ-like, to be Christian. If you don’t want to follow these instructions, please take off your Hello My Name Is: Christian, nametag.

Thank you.

Could we really be this insane? That’s the question that punched me in the face at 11:37pm as I lay in bed, fighting insomnia. What had me questioning the sanity of every youth pastor I know, including myself? What made sleep seem so illusive night after night?

We need only look at the definition of insanity, to see how I come to my conclusions.

The definition of insanity, at least the street version, is doing the same thing over and over and, say it with me, expecting a different result. What does this have to do with youth ministry? Only…everything.

Check this out. Statistics state between 68-98% of all churched young people leave the church when they graduate, never to return. We’ve known these dire numbers for 20 years, yet we have not changed how we do youth ministry in 30 years. What is wrong with this picture?

Why are we okay with this? Why are we okay collecting a paycheck even though we have such a low retention rate? I can’t think of anywhere else that this performance or lack thereof would be acceptable. Not is business. Surely not in our beloved sports franchises. What if Shaq only made 2 baskets out of every 100 attempts? Shaq who. What MLB team would give a multimillion dollar contract to a guy who could only hit the ball 2 times out of every 100 times at bat. I can round it off for the numerically challenged…0

It’s not acceptable for the world but for some reason it is for the church. Shouldn’t we have higher standards? I thought I read that somewhere in the Bible. Should we not be incredulous over these paltry retention numbers? Can we truly be satisfied with our “results”?

How do we reverse these numbers? Can we reverse these numbers? But more importantly, do we even want to? Do we really care? I believe we do but our actions or lack thereof, scream the opposite.

Our high failure rate shows we are really good, great in fact, at training kids to leave the church, forever. We create an adult that at best, is indifferent to God, at worst, hates God. We are doing Satan’s job for him. How did we get so good at turning kids off from God? Is there an Alienating Youth 101 class or Quitting Church for Teens class taught at seminary? It’s time to put the old ways of doing youth ministry to sleep. The future of the church depends on it.

So what needs to change? Everything. A few years ago Christian pollster George Barna documented that 61% of 20-somethings who had been churched in their teen years are now spiritually disengaged. They do not attend church, read their Bible or pray.

According to a new five-week national survey sponsored by the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches (NCFIC), the youth group itself is the problem. They believe modern youth ministry is too shallow and too entertainment-focused., resulting in an inability to train mature believers. Most are convinced church youth groups are not even biblical.

Here’s Why:

Adam McManus, a spokesman for NCFIC, says this; “Today’s church has created peer dependency. The inherent result of youth groups is that teenagers in the church are focused on their peers, not their parents or pastors. It’s a foreign sociology that leads to immaturity, a greater likelihood of sexual activity, drug experimentation and a rejection of the authority of the Word of God. Proverbs 13:20 says. ‘He who walks with wise men, will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.’ The result is that the youth stumble, they can’t see beyond their noses, and spiritual adolescence is prolonged well into adulthood. It’s crippling to the body of Christ. That’s why it’s time to return to the Biblical paradigm and throw out the youth group structure entirely.

Wow. When I read Adam’s statements today in a really great article, I was encouraged because I have been wrestling with the feeling I was wasting my time reaching young people for Christ. Through my para-church youth outreach I would spend countless hours building bridges between Jesus and teens and turning them on to the church, only to have the church turn them off to all of it. But Adam’s words gave me hope. I am not alone in my feelings. Maybe we will get it and change, Maybe we will focus on what’s really important; Jesus and helping young people to fall in love with him. After all we are told to Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

We seem to focus on everything but that. We teach bible knowledge to the teens in our care but not life changing passion. The teens partake in many activities like youth camp and weekly games but these can be found at the local boys and girls club as well. We have diminished the youth group to nothing more than a glorified four year babysitting service so parents can attend adult church and feel their kids are “involved”.

Let’s not forget the parents role in this whole fiasco. We expect the church to teach our kids about God and “make” them good upstanding Christians.

Wake Up Call:

Hey parents, we get your kids, what, maybe 2 to 4 hours per week on average and there is a total of 168 hours in a week. You get them a whole lot more than we do. Our role is to back up what you are teaching them daily. We are your support group. You are the Hero we are just your side kick. Get it? You are Batman. We are just Robin, the little guy in tights. We don’t even get our own movie. Go be a hero to your kids. Teach them what will last for eternity. Teach them to be immortal.

You probably read the title of todays blog post and thought, Yeah right. You may even be thinking that I can say this because I have never faced trials. I can assure you, nothing would be further from the truth. I have faced more trials and heartache then I can even remember.

I came from an abusive, broken home. I suffered sexual abuse from a close relative before I was even ten years old. After my father left, we suffered extreme poverty. I was bullied at school. I was arrested for the first time at 11 years old. I know the pain of infidelity. I suffered when my children’s mother absconded with them and I did not see them for over 18 years. And just a short time ago, my younger brother whom I loved with all my heart, hung himself. I know what it is to face trials of many kinds.

That’s why I can say with complete assurance that those trials prepared me for the calling God placed on my life. Just like Joseph, for such a time as this. These trials were not easy but necessary.

James tells us to consider it pure JOY, whenever we face trials. Say what? Joy? Really? And notice he did not say if you face trials but whenever, as in it will be more then once.

So let me get this straight. Not only am I going to face trials but I should be joyful when I do. Why?

Because these trials have a purpose. According to James, they develop perseverance. And perseverance MUST finish its work, (in us), so that we can be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Did you catch that? These trials are necessary. Yes the very trials that cause us to question God’s sovereignty or calling on our life. The trials that cause doubt to creep in. The situations that would have us believe God is asleep at the wheel are actually allowed by God for our benefit to bring about His will in our life.

Sounds messed up I know. But James tells us to embrace these trials because they are vital to our growth. He goes so far to imply, without these trials, we cease to grow. If you take nothing else from this, catch this, James says the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance MUST finish its work so that we may be complete.

Without trials we would be incomplete.

The next time you face trials, Satan would have you believe God is turning His back on you, but remember, God is perfecting you.