Joel Young Blog.com

Well, after spending nearly 48 hours stuck in my apartment with my sick and whiny one year old I am glad to be back to my mobile office at Panera this morning. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but spending that much time in our small apartment together was insane. My wife had the privileged of leaving to go work on Tuesday (and the privilidge of keeping her sanity), but Reed and I were stuck there. Today marks my first day returning to the outside world, and I was happy to sit in a little traffic on the interstate this morning. It made me feel alive!

Cincy peeps: How long were you stuck in your house because of this weather?

A couple months ago I wrote a post about my efforts to tip-toe into the world of Macs (here’s the link), and today I am here to say that the Young household is officially PC free. That’s right, we’re an exclusive Mac household now. I found that once I looked into the world of Apple, I just kept wanting to look deeper.

It started with a small 12″ Powerbook, but led to the desire for the iPhone 3G, and the capabilities of the Apple TV. Then, I replaced my wireless router with the Airport Express router and wireless print server, and traded my workhorse Sony laptop for a new 13″ Macbook.

The funny thing is, I put off looking into the world of a better product because of the expense, like most people. But with the help of Craigslist and eBay I made the PC to MAC conversion for next to nothing.

This stuff has really turned me into more of a tech guy than I ever was, but there’s one thing for sure. After my experience I would definitely consider buying some stock in Apple. BTW – During our current economic downturn Apple’s first quarter profits were the highest they have ever experienced.

I’m not declaring myself a Mac warrior just yet, but I am beginning to develop a real loyalty to the quality of Apple products.

For some reason, every year when the end of January comes around I am just about to my breaking point with a lot of things. I find my distaste for weather in the Midwest growing, I find many of the changes I resolved to make falling through my fingers (i.e. P90X workout routine. Bryan, you were my rock on this one and you have failed me! Ha ha.), and I find my general overlook on life returning to the humdrum of what it was 30-60 days ago.

I’ve often seen this same thing happen to our churches. We get excited to start new programs with new ambitions in the light of a new year, but before we know it February is here and we haven’t made any real changes. We’ll say, “we’ll get there next year,” or “we’re just waiting for the right time. God will open the door when he’s ready for us to walk through it.”

I’ve been operating doors for over 25 years now and I have learned that there are two things that have to happen if you want to open a door. #1: You have to turn the handle, and #2: YOU HAVE TO PUSH IT OPEN. Even my one year old has figured this concept out. Too many of us are waiting for God to do all the work. Sometimes he has already turned the handle and all we have to do is push the door open. God is making things happen as we seek Him, but He is also expecting us to do some work to help the process along.

I said this is in a sermon a while back, but I think it’s worth saying over and over again. I believe that Satan’s greatest weapon against God’s kingdom isn’t hate, malice, jealously, anger, or anything like that; it’s indifference. To fail at our mission as Christians, and as churches, we don’t have to turn into something horrible. All we have to do is become indifferent about advancing the kingdom of God. All we have to do it become content with our current situation. All we have to do is become comfortable with the size of our church, our building, the impact of our programs, our outreach, the strength of our dedication to God, etc.

In five days January will be over. Will 2009 be a year of dramatic effort and change in your life/your church’s life?

Tomorrow we are wrapping up our Urban Legends teaching series at Horizon. I’ve been battling with this final topic for more than a week now and I can’t wait to teach on the myths that are commonly believed about Satan. It is not a widely discussed topic, but as followers of Christ if we ignore Satan we’re making a HUGE mistake.

Hope to see you there, and I hope to change your perspective on what Satan is really up to in this world with the truth of Scripture.

Sometimes being a father teaches you more about yourself than it does about your kids. As my son grows older it has become increasingly obvious that he is a carbon copy of me. His attitude, his demeanor, his temper, his mannerisms, and even his sense of humor typical Young guy through and through. At breakfast once this week we were enjoying his favorite food, a banana, when he spotted the blue sticker on the peel. He reached for it and I helped him peel it off and he proceeded, completely on his own, to place it on his face. As I went to tell him that’s not where it went I read the caption. “Place on forehead and smile.” Guess he knew what he was doing.

We have also found out that Reed is as much of an aspiring rock star as dear old dad still is. Whenever there’s a guitar around he has to have it, and he is really diggin’ on Rock Band lately. Guess he’ll be getting a mini Les Paul as soon as he can control those digits. What a great kid I have.

If you have kids, have you taken the time to notice their interests lately? What can you do to feed those interests and passions? Don’t have kids…how ’bout the interests of your spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, or friends?

This Sunday, to finish up our Urban Legends teaching series at Horizon, we’ll be tackling several myths about Satan. This is such an important topic that we’re not just limiting our exploration to one singular myth, but to a bundle of lies that are commonly believed about Satan himself.

One of the most dangerous things about the myths associated with Satan is that they lead us to let our guard down; to open parts of our lives to the schemes of the devil. It’s dangerous that the picture in this post is one of the first to appear when you Google “Satan” (which I wouldn’t recommend. There are some messed up things on the web). Seems pretty harmless to me. Doesn’t he?

Come join us this week at Horizon as we explore the danger of the myths that surround the prince of lies. It might just change your life.

Today I was doing some of my usual blog reading when I came across a report about a newly developed website called NiceCritic.com. This is an entire website devoted to giving people the tools to send anonymous email messages. That way they can confront their co-workers or friends about problems they aren’t brave enough to approach them about in person.

What you are about to hear might offend you or make you gasp, but it is nothing less than the truth. Stop reading now if you don’t think you can handle it.

PEOPLE WHO SEND ANONYMOUS MESSAGES ARE COWARDS! THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING BUT THEIR OWN PERSONAL AGENDA!

If you ever receive an anonymous message, destroy it without reading it. Don’t give someone the respect of reading the message when they couldn’t show you the respect of delivering it themselves.

It just infuriates me that a website like this even exists. We’re giving people a license to be overly critical with no consequences for their actions.

I’m case you’ve ever wondered, this is what the movie theater looks like at 8pm on a Sunday night. While my wife works and my boy spends the night at the Gparents house I figured I would take a little me time. Pretty much got a private screening. This is awesome!

When was the last time you had some good ol’ alone time with yourself?

Sometimes the way that God implements His word into my life is so profound and yet subtle that it allows me to appreciate His power on an entirely different level. For this week’s message I have been doing a lot of research and study on the leadership style and abilities of Moses, and I noticed some things about this man that I never had before; I see struggles that we both share as leaders.

One big problem Moses had was that he was in the habit of shouldering the entire burden of leadership himself. He was constantly being told to share his burden of leadership with others, but to maintain his visionary role for the people of Israel. He didn’t have to do all the work himself.

The time with which this spiritual truth has arrived at my door could not have been anything less than divine. The last couple months at Horizon have been pretty difficult. They have not only been a time of transition, but a time of truth for me; realizing where we are and seeing where we need to be. A big part of our transition has been me handing off a lot of the responsibility I once shouldered alone. Even in few short weeks this has changed my life and freed up more of my time to spiritually focus my efforts on being the vision caster and leader that the church needs me to be. But more than just sharing in the work of the church I have learned that I need help in shouldering the load of leadership. Moses had to learn to do this very thing in Numbers 11.

In every church there needs to be people who are sharing the Pastor’s load of leadership. That means there needs to be others who are sharing his level of passion, spiritual commitment, financial commitment, and ownership. Only when people are sharing the load of leadership will a church truly reach its potential and give their vision casting leader the confidence to be bold in the Lord’s work.

Who is helping your Pastor/Minister share the load of leadership? Do you need to help someone with this very thing?

Last night Horizon had our weekly family time at “The Summit” (aka the home of some of our coolest guys). We didn’t do anything special, or even out of the ordinary. We just spent some time together as a family. I really enjoy it when we’re able to do that.

During the course of the night we remembered that it was the premier night for American Idol. None of us could resist the promise of horrible singers and the inevitability of brutal yet honest remarks from the judges. Well, all I can say is that we were not disappointed.

This year might just have provided us with some of the worst singers of all time. But, through our tears of laughter there was one glaring question that we all pondered. Why didn’t anyone tell these people that they couldn’t sing? Why did they have family and friends waiting outside the audition room truly thinking they would make it to Hollywood? It really concerned us that no one had taken the time to be honest with these people and tell them that singing was not their talent.

This, along with what we discussed last week at Horizon, really got me thinking. Is there someone in my life that you have failed to be honest with from the perspective of their relationship with God? Have I ever challenged them examine that? Have I ever been honest with them about God’s plan for salvation vs. their plan?

I’m not saying we need to all become like Simon Cowell in our everyday lives (can you imagine?) but I am saying we should all take a cue from the Idol judges and their brutal honesty. Like them, we may be the only dose of honesty that some people get in this world.