The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Scary Children's Sermon

Here's an idea for today. Bring out an extra alb, stole and cross on a chain.

Ask kids what they are doing tonight, what they are wearing, etc.

Then ask "What do you think would be the scariest costume of all?

The Old Testament text for Reformation Sunday is traditionally from Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a kid when God appointed him as a prophet to the nations. Imagine how scary that would be! You're just a kid and suddenly God stirs in your soul and you know you are suppose to speak for God. Being God's spokesperson might be the scariest costume of all!

(Dress a volunteer in the pastor's clothing, escourt them directly to the pulpit and ask "what do you think God wants these people to know?" Take notes and include their point in your sermon.)

Mary was probably just a teenager, maybe a preteen, when God called her to bear the savior. Talk about a scary assignment! Being called to bring Jesus to the world at such a young age! Being God's servant might be the scariest costume of all!

(Dress another volunteer in pastor's clothing and escourt a second into the pulpit asking "what do you think God wants these people to know?" Take notes and include their point in your sermon.)

Abraham and Sarah were old, old, too old when God called them to go out on a faith journey. (Ask a child to find someone who looks really old in the front pews and drag them up. Have the children dress this person in clergy garb and escourt them to the pulpit asking "what do you think God wants these people to know?" Take notes and include their point in your sermon as well.) Having to leave your home and family and venture out on a faith journey when it would have been much easier to stay home, that would be scary.

Now, God may be calling some of you to go out of your comfort zone and follow God's lead like Abraham and Sarah. Scary! (Invite them all to scream as long as you hold your hand up) God may be calling some of you to bring Jesus into your world like Mary. Scary! (Invite another scream as you hold your hand up longer) And God may be calling others of you to speak out God's word to the world like young Jeremiah. Scary. (Scream longer)

And here's the scariest thing: God may be calling some of you to be pastors some day. Wouldn't wearing a pastor's robe be the scariest costume of all? (Prolonged scream)

Maybe. Maybe not.

Senior High Apologetics, Take Two

We're getting ready to do a second test run on the apologetics course which we unveiled at Renaissance this summer. I've written a news release. If you have five minutes, take a look and send me any thoughts, critiques or comments on this before I release it.

Also, if you know of any sharp kids (or a carload of them) who might be willing to test the stuff and teach it as four adult ed forums in their church, let me know personally. Thanx.

RAM

“Why God?” Senior High Course Launched
New Apologetics Course Enters Phase II Test in LA & Denver

Faith Inkubators is looking for a few sharp sophomores, juniors, and seniors to help test a new Christian apologetics course.

“Why God?” is a senior high immersion into the latest and best scientific arguments for the existence of God.

Developed as an apologetics boot camp for young intellectual Christians, “Why God?” will invite senior high youth to explore the complexity of the universe, the origin of life, the uniqueness of the human brain, and the concept of the soul.

The Designers
Rev. Dana Hanson (www.transformationleaders.blogspot.com) from First Lutheran in Northridge, CA, is the senior researcher and main teacher for the project. Astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross from Cal Tech, biochemist Fuz Rana, and ethicist Dallas Willard from the University of Southern California are advisors. Hollywood actor and FINK Music Guilder Thomas Ian Nicholas has written the four NRSV-verbatim theme songs for the resources. FINK’s artist-in-residence, Dr. He Qi, from Nanjing Theological Seminary is painting four new Biblical scenes for the theme. “This course will use the latest of scientific research to explore the complexity of the universe from the micro to the macro, and equip critically thinking young people to enter college with intellectual integrity and confidence in the Christian worldview,” says Pastor Dana.

Faith Inkubators tested and tweaked the initial resources with a live audience of High School youth from coast to coast in July. For this second phase of the design, FINK is hoping to enlist two dozen youth groups to experience and critique the logic, arguments, and resources being created for the 2008 release. After spending three days with us, your youth will be commissioned to teach four adult education forums at your church on the “Why God” sub-themes: The Big Bang of the Universe, the Big Bang of Life, the Big Bang of the Human Brain, and the Big Bang of the Soul.

Youth involved in this phase of the experiment will also be invited to help Faith Inkubators design and create four nine-week small group studies and the home devotional materials in support of the themes.

“Many of our brightest and best kids go off to college with a Sunday school level faith and, within three years, have drifted away from the church or lost their faith completely," says Rich Melheim, FINK’s Chief Creative Officer. “Send us your brightest and best kids – kids who could easily be agnostics five years from today if they leave home without asking and answering the difficult questions of faith – and we’ll see if we can change that!”

The Sessions
Students experiencing the Friday through Sunday event will study:

Friday Night (Session I) - “The Origin of the Universe: Big Bang of the Universe” (Cosmology) How can there be a God? How can there not be a God? A moment before creation there was no space, matter, energy or time. Then suddenly everything in our physical universe exploded into existence. In the words of David Letterman: “If there was no space, energy, matter or time, then what, for the love of God, banged?” There are two basic laws of physics. 1. Nothing comes from nothing. 2. Something had to. We call that something God. Mathematicians and astrophysicists know that it takes much more faith to be an atheist today than a Christian. Without cracking the Bible, people of integrity are searching for the answers to the start of it all, and the latest research is sounding a whole lot like what Christians have known all along.

Saturday Morning (Session II) - “The Origin of Life: Big Bang of Life” (Biology) One cannot speak of the origin of life. Today one must speak of the origins of life. The carbonaceous deposits in the oldest known rocks on the planet suggest that life appeared shortly after the earth cooled, then disappeared, then arose again, then disappeared in a series of multiple spontaneous eruptions and mass extinction events. Recently, science has made it disturbingly clear that the conditions on earth were hostile to life arising at each of those times. The chemicals for the “primordial soup” did not exist for the recipe and the UV radiation bombarding the earth would have killed off anything organizing into strands of life without some thing or some one “hovering over” the whole experiment. That life would arise by chance even once is mathematically improbable. That it would arise again and again in absolutely hostile conditions is cause for great skepticism. So how did we get here? Where did we come from? And where are we going?
Saturday Afternoon - Critiques of Sessions I & II, and workshops on: 1. Asking the Tougher Questions, 2. Practicing Apologetics, 3. Creating the Weekly Small Group and Nightly Home Huddle materials.
Saturday Evening (Session III) - “The Origin of Humanity: Big Bang of the Brain” (Psychology) For a million and a half years the bi-pedal primates that roamed the savannah and tundra were using the same rock chopping tool to crack open shells and bones for food. Then, suddenly about 45-50,000 years ago there was art, music, burial with religious artifacts, architecture, cities, law, and government. In strict natural selection theory, this is impossible. Change only happens in slow, plodding, random trial and error processes where most mutations render the changed individual sterile or dead. How did the human brain suddenly explode on the scene when the very fact that it did breaks every law of Darwinian evolution?

Sunday Morning (Session IV) - “The Origin of the Soul” (Morality) Is there a reason for human life? Is there any meaning and existence beyond these seventy years we spend on the planet, or do we die and cease to exist? Are we more than the sum of our biological parts? Simply a higher form of animal – a naked ape who by chance developed an opposable thumb and happened to figure out how to eat the marrow from bones and thus, developed a better brain and a language that could pass our learning down from generation to generation? There is a certain soul-ishness among the higher forms of life on this planet. Dogs, cats, porpoises and apes all seem to have an intellect and feelings that go beyond mere instinct. Are we the same as them? The ultimate question of human meaning comes down to this question: Are we a soul housed inside a physical body, or are we simply a physical body with a certain soul-ishness that disappears when we turn to dust? Exploring this question leads us to the doorstep of a different type of ethics, morality, and ultimately, a reason to get up in the morning. It leads us on a life-long quest for meaning, and toward the One who started and will end it all.
Sunday Afternoon - Critiques of Sessions III & IV, and workshops on: 1. Creating the Weekly Small Group and Nightly Home Huddle, 2. Teaching "Why God" as adult education forums in your church.

Long Term Plans: Two Additional Apologetics Courses
After the “Why God?” course has been properly tested and tweaked, Faith Inkubators plans to unveil “Why Jesus” and a “Why the Bible?” senior high resources to complete a three-year series for sophomores, juniors and seniors. All courses will include 4 PowerPoint major themes, 36 weeks of small group materials to reinforce the themes, nightly home devotional resources, as well as the once-a-quarter “Adult Education Forum” for the teens to teach their parents.

“In a world of science and skepticism, it is interesting to note that the highest percentage of faculty at universities who consider themselves Christian are mathematicians and astrophysicists. Do they know something we don’t know?" asks Melheim. "And can their latest research into the universe, life, and the human experience help our young people walk out of high school with a confident faith in the God of the Bible? Can we send our brightest and best young people out equipped to discuss their faith with sound logic and an articulate, informed defense? What if we do? And what if we don’t?”

Registration
Registration is limited, so if you have a carload of sophomores, juniors and seniors who could break away for a transformational weekend in January, please take them out for ice cream ASAP and ask them to consider helping us change the senior high world.

Hey Bert!

Here are some good thoughts by Bert Eyster, Interim Pastor at Stockton Presbyterian Church on the "Life of the Mainline after the Death of the Mainline".

I am particularly intrigued by #2. Role-playing faith stories! I love it. Maybe every parent, every teen, every child should not only do this as practice, but do it in worship after practicing. (Always open "off broadway")

"I am so committed to the mainline that just before I die, I'm going to speak in tongues and join the Pentecostals just so a Presbyterian be listed as dying.

In reading Mike's rather racy article about reproduction, I thought of my favorite hymn, "Precious Memories." Then I noticed the same anger I felt when I read in a stewardship article, "there are no quick fixes." Yes, I know that but when we say it over and over, we forget that there are certain fundamentals (not theological) that every church must observe, if they want to grow. If they don't want to and have set in place self destructive behaviors that forbid change, then they must die. But let's say the are willing to put up with new members and the changes they bring. Are they doing what any successful sales staff is doing.
1. Do they have a prospect list that is the treasure of the church. One that the evangelism committee updates at every gathering of anybody who meets anywhere in or around the church?
2. Does each member know their faith story well enough to tell it. (notice I didn't say share it. Best if a person can listen but better if the talk than if they stay silent.) Has anyone role-played their story interaction so that each person knows how they come across?
3. Is there a flow chart the tells everyone the process by which a family member, visitor, or lost soul is introduced, mentored, educated, and enrolled in the programs that best use their talents.
4. Use Imagination: Is the pastor and leadership sufficiently grounded in their faith to stay on edge. No two Presbyterian churches are alike. I have seen Halloween festivals, kite flying, non competitive family volley ball, fooseball, and other crazy things that really work at the time and place for those who are willing to ignore, "we never did it that way before."

There are no quick fixes but I strongly believe there are certain basics that we ignore. If we are to label a church one that is willing to grow, then these basics must be there.

You asked for words - here is a very quick response."

Bert Eyster, Interim Pastor
Stockton Presbyterian Church

Deer Hunter Blessing

Whether you are a card-carrying member of the NRA or PETA, you might want to check out how Pastor Paul, our partner in Alpina, MI shares a quiet blessing on his web site. He seems to be out front of many congregations in his use of technology in a number of areas, and this is one example.

"Jesus Christ has an unrestricted tag with your name on it and he aims to fill it." - Paul

Right click on and then open this hyperlink, www.stpaul.org and then select the speed you wish for “A Deer Hunter’s Blessing.”

Blur

Along with cartooning for Bible Song Sunday School and working on The Fifth Church book, I brought my favorite 20 business books along on this Sabbatical. I'm trying to reread them week by week, checking out the notes I left for myself to see if they'll inform my new work.

Today I'd like to tell you about the book Blur by Meyers and Davis. It is on my 'top ten of all time' in terms of practical, applicable and helpful books in my evolution as a faith entrepreneur.

The best advice from Blur is that you don't have to know how to do everything well. You don't have time to learn how to do everything well, so pick what you can do extremely well (something you love) and do it. Then connect yourself to a team/cadre of quality folks who can fill in your weaknesses and make real partnerships with them.

In this way you can provide excellence, but you personally don't have to be excellent in every way.

For the creatives among you, Blur also gives this advice: Whatever time it takes you to create it, cut that time in half and do it again. Then cut that time in half. Then again. Then again. Soon you'll be living in a constant flurry of a creative state.

We did this with our music albums. It took a year to do the first. A half year for the second album. Now we're in a constant creative state.

Here's the Rich Notes (things worth remembering) version of the book:

Make speed your mindset
Connect Everything with Everything
Push power to the periphery
Be Big and Small Simultaneously
Blur the line between church and life

1. What seems disconnected at your church right now?
2. What would be the value of connecting:
a. Pastoral Care with Education
b. Youth Group with Youth Education
c. Youth Ministry with Worship?
d. Teens with Elders?
e. Parents With their own children

I Will Survive

Okay, this is funny:

Chris Tiongson at Gethsemane Episcopal in Fargo offers this replacement for "God Will Provide" from our Old Testament lesson on the Sacrifice of Isaac, to the tune of I Will Survive:

GOD Will Provide
(finkified version of I Will Survive by Chris Tiongson)

Verse 1
Am Dm
At first my dear Isaac, I was petrified,
G C
Thinkin’ how I’m gonna live, without you by my side,
Am Dm
I spent oh so many nights, thinkin about that knife,
E
But now im stronger, GOD let me spare your life

Chorus
Am
And now know I,
Dm
GOD will provide,
G
Just as long as I know how to love,
C
I’m sure you’ll stay alive,
Am
You’ve got all your life to live,
Dm
And GOD had that ram to give,
E
GOD will provide,
E7
GOD will provide…

Verse 2
Am Dm
It took all the strength I had, not to fall apart
G C
Kept trying hard to find a way, to make this sacrifice
Am Dm
And I spent oh so many nights, just feeling sorry for myself
E E7
I used to cry, Now I hold my head up high

Chorus
Am
And now know I,
Dm
GOD will provide,
G
Just as long as I know how to love,
C
I’m sure you’ll stay alive,
Am
You’ve got all your life to live,
Dm
And GOD had that ram to give,
E
GOD will provide,
E7 Am
GOD will provide……

Snowboarding and Life

We're up at Loveland today. The kids have their snowboards ready to go and are itching to hit the slopes. I tore a muscle in my calf running a while back and am feeling every bit of my 49 years.

Maybe if I stretch a whole, whole lot I won't die prematurely.

So, what does snowboarding have to do with life?

Maybe if you stretch a whole, whole lot you won't die.

Prematurely.

(-;

Web Site Reviews

We're getting some interesting international buzz for our new web site from designers. This just in from our Chief FINKtechie Tom:

GERMANY: Even the German’s like our site. If my German is correct, their comment is “Beautiful design, beautiful use of color.” (Or, it says something about schnitzel. I only took French in college.) German Design Site

FRANCE: Speaking of the French, here we are featured on a French design site:
http://bestdesign.kalitee.org/bestdesign.php?zedate=2004-10-05

SPAIN: Here we are listed on a design site in Spain. You have to scroll down 3/4 of the way. We're right above the Disney site. http://www.nv30.com//mt/blogomania/2004_10.php


DESIGNER COUNTRY: Listed on a Designer’s Blog under the header “Purple that looks good.” (Another comment on the good use of purple on the front page of our new site.): http://www.bluism.com/sideblog/2004/10/

DESIGNER COUNTRY II: From a design firm linking to our site to show their customers samples of other sites.
Their comment: “Love the warm textured feel of this site. The color variation within different sections is really nice too.” http://project.adecinc.lightsky.net/prototypes/

CHRISTIAN DESIGNER COUNTRY: A mention on the “Christian Web Designers Community” website: http://">http://www.niphal.com

AND OF COURSE, the CRITIC COUNTRY: From someone’s blog: (???????)
10/7/2004— Matt @ 9:59 pm
I was going through the latest CSS Vault entries when I stumbled upon Faith Inkubators. Since I’m always curious to see a religious site online, I started to poke around. For the most part, I wasn’t finding anything that really I could raise an issue with until I stumbled upon part 2 of their mission statement.

9. It’s a sin to bore a kid with the gospel of Jesus. – Jim Reyburn

It’s only through reading their other stuff beforehand was I even remotely able to get at what they are trying to say. I understand they are trying to include more than just the gospel so the kids may learn it and have a better desire to do so, but holy crap the line by itself has to be one of the worst worded ways of saying that.

So, what do you like about our site, and now that you've clicked around it, what are a couple things we can do to improve the look and usability?

I'd appreciate your critique.

RAM

A Toon for Sunday's Bulletin

Out-Dated, Old and Boring

Allow me to vent.

I've never done this online before, so here goes.

I'm a bit pensive, introspective and annoyed today.

Our good guy Monty has been calling non-renewal members for Head to the Heart Adolescent Ministry System and one guy from out east sent him a critique (which we need to hear) saying our stuff was out-dated, old and boring. It was a valuable, if not painful, review. I'm hoping it can help us be better as we continue to design and redesign everything we update. The guy will continue using our system and finding it valuable - even transformational - but not the resources.

So we're breaking up.

On the same day as this rejection, we received the message below *(in italics), schizdoing my brain and making me wonder and mutter out loud "what the H-E-Double Toothpicks" is wrong with FINK, our image, human nature, our presentation - that two people could look at the same elephant and see two drastically different animals.

Maybe it is the second child pleaser in me that wants everyone to love FINK. Maybe it was my dating history - getting dropped so often and having so many broken hearts - that makes me spurn rejection. Maybe it's my overly optimistic view of the world and Pippi Longstocking-ego that makes me think everyone should think what we've created is not only the best thing but the only thing that will work in this wacky world because, after all, it's great and we know it.

(Monty also says, "You don't have to live in reality, but you ought to visit it from time to time.")

Anyway, skim through this quickly (or skim over it) and I'll conclude my tirade at the bottom.

I cannot put into words what H2H has done for the youth and the adults of Holy Trinity. And not just the people who are in the class or have children in the class. So many parents put their kids into confirmation simply because the parents went through confirmation and it seems like they should do it for their kids. But because of you, we actually have a confirmation goal. We want to enhance the faith walk of our children as well as the adults who are involved. We want kids "involved." We have had life line presenters that we would never even have thought of if it hadn't been for H2H. We've had parents talk about how important church and prayer were to their family when they lost jobs; we had a retired general come in and talk about how he went through confirmation in Viet Nam; we had a gentleman come in and talk about how his participation in church enhanced his relationship with his parents when he got older; we had a retired policeman come in and talk about faith in the police force. These stories are what brings the Bible to life for the kids as well as for the adults in the room. The Bible is no longer 2000 years old!

I love being able to tell parents that they will be a part of this ministry. That the church can't do it without them. And have statistics to prove that. I love how parents have gotten on board with the fellowship and service events. I'm able to tell them that they are actually doing much more than I am because when the kids get together and get "involved" they are living their faith.

Faith Inkubators is the greatest! I don't have a creative bone in my body, so for me this ministry is a God-send! You may use anything I rambled on about in your brochure.

I am a fan, your biggest cheerleader!!!

Ann from Holy Trinity

So, what gives?

Do we need to get everyone in the country to training so they know us better? (To know us is to love us.) Do we have to spend three days with them, walking them through the theory and philosophy, the practice and policy, before they understand that we're a learning organization, constantly updating thinking and resources based on their partnership and input and not just a curriculum?

Okay, I'm venting too much here. Way too much.

Get to 'da Pint, Edith

In the book "Cluetrain Manifesto" the authors suggest that the only thing people believe in the advertising/marketing world these days is someone's honest story.

If "old and out-dated" is the first story people hear about FINK, that's what they'll believe, until, of course, someone absolutely ga-ga about us tells them, "You're nuts! They have transformed my ministry!"

At that point, we are in good shape, because the dichotomy sticks in the craw of someone who had a certain set of preconceived beliefs about us. It is then that they may choose to enter the story and see for themselves.

We don't like to give up our preconceived notions. That's why most people vote "no" as a knee jerk reaction to something new. That is also why we must get our story - from the lips of our raving fans - into their minds first, before they imprint a negative from another source.

It is only when they are enticed, intrigued, and invited to come and see by someone they trust, that you have the best opportunity. ("Peter, I've met this Jesus guy. You've got to meet him!")

If it is someone else you know and trust opening the door a crack - rather than marketing and advertising pounding on the door demanding an audience - you've got a wonderful chance for an introduction.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Open the kid before you open the book.

So, whether it is my neurosis over the fact that I can't please everyone and don't know what to do about it, (you may share this if you are a second child in ministry), or your need to do a better job of marketing Jesus to a world of kids and parents who have already made up their minds that he is boring, here's a Cluetrain thought for today:

"We don't need more information. We don't need better information. We need understanding. And the only way to get understanding is to enter the world... of story..."

So, here's the Question for the Week:

What are we doing wrong with our story and what are we doing right with our story and what can we do better with our story?

And what can you do better today with yours?

RAM