August 24, 2010

Fairies, Bunnies and Santa Clause

I believed in Santa Clause as a kid. I argued with older kids at school, because I was convinced that he existed. Not only Santa, but the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny too. I loved believing in them! I got presents from Santa and from my parents- the tags said one or the other. There was NO WAY that my mom and dad could have got that tooth out of that envelope, especially because it was under my pillow! And seriously, where did all of those eggs come from?

I have been talking to some people about Santa, the bunny and the fairy this week… and I was really surprised to learn that they grew up in homes where those things were known to be fiction from the very beginning, and that their kids would know the same!

I thought everyone did the Santa thing!!!

Lindsay and I plan on telling our little boy that Santa exists, and all of the other characters too. We loved it, and we want our kids to love it too. We’ll tell them about Jesus, and the real reason for the seasons… but we can’t imagine not having kids that don’t experience that! We’ll figure out the best time to tell them that they’re not real. That’ll be a tough day, but it’ll be preceded by years of goodness.

What about you? Did you believe in Santa and the others? Do you plan on telling your kids that they are real? Why or why not?

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July 29, 2010

Serendipity

Two Sundays ago I was sitting on a charter bus on my way to Summer Camp when I received an email. It was from a sweet girl in California who wanted to talk to Lindsay and I about adopting her baby. I can’t remember exactly how it sounded, but I made a pretty loud/odd/happy noise right when I read who it was from! Everyone within ten feet of me on the bus heard it and looked at me. In the email she told me that the baby’s due date was November 20th, which is only three days before my birthday by the way! I told her to call Lindsay since I wouldn’t be able to talk much while I was at camp.

OK, so I get to camp and I’m super excited about everything. It was just awesome to be in a conversation with someone! I had tried not to get my hopes up, since I had no idea if it was going to work out with the girl in California.

A couple of days into camp I took about ten students to this huge craft shop where you can buy all sorts of stuff and stain it or paint it. Everyone started to look for whatever they wanted to paint and I said, “I think I’ll try to find something for our baby, or the baby’s room. I have no idea when we’ll actually bring a baby home, but I want to make something for whenever that is”.

I scan the first huge wall of items, and then the second huge wall, but I find nothing. I get to the last wall…

And I find this. <– click that sentence

There’s a whole wall of them, probably 50 of them! All of them are wrapped, and all of them are set to that date! It could have been 364 other dates… but no.

I said, “This is either the hugest coincidence of all time, or God sent me a pretty sweet sign! That or God is seriously, seriously mean. I think it’s a sign, haha!”

A week later we were asked to be the parents of that baby. Due date: November 20th!

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July 25, 2010

Summer Camp 2010

This was my 9th Summer Camp, and it was my favorite by a mile.

I took 90 students and 12 leaders with me to Forest Home last week. I’ve spent the past 8 summers at Hume Lake (minus 1 Summer). I love Hume. Every year was amazing. But this year was just different.

I don’t think it had anything to do with the location. It had to do with what happened among my students and leaders. I’ve never, ever seen a group this tight-knit. Usually when you take that many students somewhere it’s very difficult to feel a sense of unity, but not this year.

The theme of the camp was brokenness, and our students and staff bonded so deeply in their shared need for a Savior who can take what it broken and make it beautiful. Their transparency and humility was contagious. There wasn’t a faker among us. Everyone spilled their guts, and found so much hope in the acceptance of God and His people.

I’ve said it a thousand times… this has been the best year of ministry for me yet. I’ve never felt closer to a group of students and leaders- and that’s saying a lot because I’ve had some pretty remarkable students and leaders over the years :)

Enjoy.

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July 4, 2010

Our Match Letter

We just put the finishing touches on our Match Letter! This is the letter that the birth moms & dads will see, along with about 40 other couples’ letters in the “Match Book”. We made it using a Microsoft Word template, and I think it turned out pretty good! This letter is basically the first glance that they’ll get, and if they like it they’ll tell the case worker to set up an initial meeting with us. Feels sorta like E-Harmony for babies. What do you think?



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July 3, 2010

Babies, Babies, EVERYWHERE!

Does the Guinness Book of World Records track fertility? Not like “Hey, my corn’s growing good this year” fertility… I mean the baby-making kind. Because if they do, Gilbert has got to be the most fertile city in the Universe. I can’t remember if you’re supposed to capitalize universe. Anyways

We just got back from the mall, and I’m pretty sure everyone there had a baby. Employees working had babies. Janitors had babies. The guy who scooped my orange chicken onto my plate was holding a baby. Even babies had babies. We turned one corner and there were babies literally wall to wall. It looked like someone opened a huge box of happy babies and poured em out right before we turned the corner. And every one of them was adorable… like fictional adorable. I know that real babies poop and cry and poop, but none of these babies did. They all had Baby Gap outfits on and were chasing butterflies while singing about Jesus. Singing quietly and on key.

Then we went to Pottery Barn Kids, and they literally had babies swinging from ropes. None of them were crying… all of them looked like little baby models. They weren’t all white babies, it was like a rainbow of babies. We saw two babies that were obviously adopted (or she’s got some SPLAININ TO DO!). Adoptions and babies were everywhere.

And here we are… preparing for Baby Guard to come home. Everywhere we look is babies. We’re two weeks away from being in the adoption match book.

And all we see is babies.

I like what it’s doing to my soul.

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May 18, 2010

What Does a Pastor Look Like?

I had heard about this sort of thing happening to other youth pastors, but it had never happened to me… until yesterday.

A guy came into the church office and asked to meet with a pastor. He needed some counseling, and he didn’t know where else to go. He was probably in his 50′s, well dressed, and visibly shaken from whatever was on his mind. I was the pastor that they called to come and talk to him. Usually our Mercy Pastor gets the call, but he was unavailable.

As soon as I turn the corner he looks at me little bit funny. He literally looks me up and down, reluctantly shakes my hand, and then follows me into our conference room.

Guy: “What do you do here?”

Me: “I oversee our Student Ministries Department.”

Guy: Sigh

Me: (Trying to ignore the sigh) “So, what’s going on? I can see that you’re pretty shaken up by something.”

Guy: “Is the Lead Pastor around?”

Me: “I don’t think so, but I can check for you.”

I go look for Mark Connelly (who looks like a surfer more than a pastor). I find our Executive Pastor of Spiritual Development Paul Fischbach (he has a goatee and a bald head so he definitely looks like a pastor). Paul’s busy so he can’t talk to him. I go back in with him…

Me: “I couldn’t find our Lead Pastor, but I’d be happy to talk with you. (Long pause) I’ve been in ministry for about a decade now.”

Guy: (Spends about ten seconds trying to figure out what to say to me, and then…) “I’m sorry… I just can’t… thank you for your time.”

This story is part funny, but part sad too. Funny that I got completely judged by my age and appearance, sad because this guy left our church hurting when he didn’t have to.

The funny part is that THIS IS OUR LEAD PASTOR. He looks like he’s on his way to his Senior Prom.

Do I need to look more like beefcake up above?

Or maybe this guy:

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April 29, 2010

Baby Guard Yard Sale

Let the fundraising begin!

We need to raise about $17,000 to bring home Baby Guard. :: gulp::  I was gonna use expensivebaby.com as our fundraising page, but Lindsay said that was insensitive; I thought it was funny. That’s usually how our conversations go, ha! I guess I wasted $10 on that domain.

We, along with our friends Matt and Ally, are having a huge yard sale at the Guard casa next Friday AND Saturday the 7th and 8th.

We’re going to split the profits from the day with Matt and Ally, since they’re adopting too!

If you would like to donate something that we could sell at our yard sale, we gladly accept! We can come pick stuff up, or you can drop it off at our house any time between now and then.

If you can’t make it to the yard sale, but would like to support our adoption financially, please use the “DONATE” button on our Dear Baby Guard blog.

Our address is 2680 East Brooks Street, Gilbert AZ, 85296 (Google Map Link).

Side note: Lindsay is worried about me putting our address up online, so I just wanted to remind everyone that, although I’m a pastor, I have a criminal history. If you break into my house you will likely evoke the 1998 version of Ryan. I also want to remind everyone that I’m kidding… sort of.

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April 24, 2010

Adoption

We’re adopting a baby!

The good news is, the kid won’t have my nose.

We decided years ago that we wanted to adopt our first child- and then we got pregnant- and then we had a miscarriage- and now we’re adopting. That’s the thumbnail description of what has been a remarkably bumpy couple of years.

A few things I’m thinking about as we start this journey:

  • I can’t wait to be a dad.
  • I can’t wait to see what happens to Lindsay as a mom. I’m picturing something like THIS.
  • I can’t wait to tell people that I’m exhausted because I was up all night taking care of my fussy baby.
  • I can’t wait to play catch (there’s always softball if we get a baby girl).
  • I can’t wait to change my very first diaper. Yes, that’s sarcasm, and yes, I’ve honestly never changed a diaper. I’m gonna barf on the kid.

Lindsay and I have finished almost all of the paperwork, but we’ve still got a handful of classes to take and a mountain of money to raise. We’ve got a couple of ideas (yard sales, armed robberies) to raise the money, and we’re hoping that our friends and family will consider helping us too. We set up a PayPal button on our adoption website that makes it really easy to donate. We’ll be writing letters to our baby all throughout the process, so we called it “Dear Baby Guard,”.

We’re open to a boy or a girl, but I have a weird feeling I know what it’s gonna be. We have a boy name picked out, but we’re not saying what it is because you’ll steal it. No girl names have grabbed us yet. Every time Lindsay comes up with a good name I ruin it. She’ll say, “How about Summer?” and I’ll immediately think that “Summer Guard” sounds like a feminine product. My last name is not very girly.

Holy cow, I’m going to be a dad.

:Gulp:

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April 13, 2010

The Whole Gospel

I believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins.

I believe that we are saved by grace through faith.

I believe in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

But… that’s not the WHOLE gospel. It’s the best part, but it’s not the whole thing.

The whole gospel is that God cares about the whole person. I’m pretty sure Rick McKinley was the first person I heard say it that way. Or it might have been one of the 2,103 verses in the bible that talk about the poor (financially), the oppressed, and the marginalized.

God cares that people don’t have clean, safe drinking water, about people who go hungry, about people who are homeless. He also cares that their souls are broken and thirsty, and in need of healing that I believe can only be found in Him. To be a pastor, you should probably care about both of those things too.

If I had to pick one of those two things as a priority, I’d pick the soul because it lasts forever. But, here’s my beef with that cropped gospel:

People need to live long enough to actually hear that part of the gospel.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. You can care about, and address both needs.

I write this because twice this week I’ve been questioned about the gospel by two pastors who used to know me pretty well. They asked if I prioritize the gospel enough.

Yes.

I know that Jesus offers “living water”, but you’ll never swim in that lake if you’re a 5-year-old, malnourished African boy who drinks dirty water every day and suffers from dysentery. If you show up in that kid’s community with a tract about 4 steps and a cute bridge, they’re gonna say YES to your gospel (because they’re polite). But what they really need is a holistic, comprehensive plan for restoration. Not a ticket to heaven. Jesus offers both.

A “gospel” that doesn’t care about physical needs isn’t good news at all.

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March 31, 2010

Grand Opening at Mission

The grand opening for our new buildings at Mission was last weekend, and it was a huge success.We opened a new Worship Center, and a new Student Center.

The initial thought for the weekend was to bring in a famous football player, which would likely draw a huge crowd, but we bailed on the idea after a new one was presented. We decided that we’d try to save a thousand lives instead of focusing exclusively on luring a thousand new people to our campus. Not that its a horrible idea to use a football player, but it just didn’t seem to resonate with who we are. Besides, the quarterbacks are already millionaires… they don’t need the money.

We decided to give all of the money we would have spent on the quarterback to charity: water. If you haven’t heard of them, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you back to civilization. How was it being frozen in ice all these years?

We sent them a check today for $26,000 today, which will go right to the people of Marialapas, Haiti. Apparently I’m going to Haiti to visit these lovely people when the project is done.

Best day at church, ever.

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