Joel Young Blog.com

Tuesday is the new Monday, at least for this week. Because of our Memorial day observances, most of us haven’t started our work week until Today, which is Tuesday. For me, Monday represents a time to regroup before I hit the week’s work really hard. I usually use it to re-focus myself and re-energize my mind as I prepare for the upcoming Sunday’s teaching. Sometimes the weight of a message can really beat you down and you need some time to recoup before you can do it again, but this week I’m already in the hole by one day and need all the time I can get.

So, I skipped my rejuvenation period and went right to work….NOT! That’s what I would have done six months ago. Now, more than ever, I realize that if I am going to be available for God to use in my weekly preaching I need time to re-focus myself and clean my pallet so God can use my freshly prepared mind. God’s message demands a fresh mind and deserves a prepared heart.

Martin Luther once said (and I’m paraphrasing), “I begin each day with two hours of prayer. And on those days when I have a lot of work to do I begin with three hours of prayer.”

Realizing that God can use a half day of work that is fully focused on Him more than He can use a full day of work that isn’t can change everything.

Most of you are probably aware that Newsweek recently published an article that stated the “decline” of Christian America. Well, they gave Mark Driscoll an opportunity to respond to the article and its content and I really appreciate his point of view so I wanted to share it with you all.

What he talks about is this article is spot on the point of our latest series at Horizon called “Practical Atheist (Are You Who You Say You Are?)”. Check out the entire article by following the link below.

“Has Christian America Come to an End?” by Mark Driscoll, Pastor – Mars Hill Church

Since our move back to Cincy my wife has re-entered the work force on a part-time basis. This has really helped me to realize in many ways how unequipped I am to do what she does on a daily basis with our son. To say that she is amazing is an understatement. However, it has also allowed me to get to know my boy a lot better which I am grateful for. It seems like I have stories to tell Jenna every time I spend the day with Reed. So, in honor of these things I thought I would share what a Tuesday with Reed is like. I must warn you: if you have to go to the bathroom…go now, some of these are really funny.

We made a Wal-mart run this week. Reed, who recently figured out how to make the “tickle, tickle…” sound, thought it would be funny to try and tickle random people as we walked down the isles. Good thing everyone loves a cute red-headed toddler.

When Reed knows someone is watching him eat his food he will loudly exclaim, “Mmmmmmm,” after EVERY bite.

Reed throws everything he touches, and he’s got a good arm. We’re hoping for a sports scholarship. So, during a mid-afternoon diaper change I should have been alarmed when he picked up the baby powder, but I wasn’t. Seconds later it was flying across the room. When the bottle hit the floor it was like a baby powder grenade had gone off. It was everywhere, and it took me a half an hour to clean it all up. He thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Reed can be eating a bowl of goldfish crackers and will smell or taste a seemingly perfectly good cracker only to reject it. For what reason I am unsure, but it must be warranted. Even if that cracker is mixed back into the bowl or left to sit there for hours when he gets back around to it he will reject it again. I think he has a sixth sense or something.

Over the past few weeks God has really convicted me to assume less, and make no apologies. I need to quit assuming that people are unable to step out of their situation into a situation of faith, and quit apologizing for asking them to consider it. Since I’ve become a church planter I have “encouraged” everyone in my path to consider becoming a part of our work at Horizon. Not because I want to put butts in the seats on Sunday morning, but because every church needs people to do the work of reaching a community. Previously, I have been apologetic about this. I would say things like, “I know you’re in a comfortable place right now, but…,” or “I don’t know how this fits into your life, but…” I was basically saying, “I’m sorry that I have prompted you to consider God’s true calling for your life.”

What I have come to realize is that if we are ever going to reach the world of people who are nonbelievers we have to be unapologetic about our approach. We can’t prompt someone to react to God’s calling and then say we’re sorry. As I personally, and our church corporately, continue to search for people who feel called to make a HUGE impact for God’s kingdom at Horizon we will remain unapologetic. We’re not sorry God is challenging you. We’re not sorry God is stretching you. We’re not sorry that God is causing you to deny yourself, your desires, your direction to follow His. Doing these things will all benefit the kingdom of God whether it’s your very first step of faith to accept Christ through baptism or a mature believers decision to follow God in an uncomfortable direction.

I’m NOT sorry. Are you?

If you’ve been in a modern church over the last five years, chances are you have been offended. Some of you have been offended because you were convicted of sin (that’s good), but some of you have been offended because a preacher tried to be edgy and crossed the line of appropriateness (that’s not good). I truly believe that this is a slippery slope for many young guys, like myself, and so I really appreciated the words that I read this morning from Craig Groeschel. Check it out.

Craig Groeschel – “When Edgy Becomes Offensive”

I wanted to share something that Perry Noble posted on his blog recently. This is the same question I have wrestled with many times in my life, and it’s one you need to wrestle with too. Here’s the conversation he shared.

MENTOR: “What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?”

PERRY: I knew the answer…I didn’t even have to think about it…it literally just flew out of my mouth, “I would plant a church.”

MENTOR: “then you are a coward if you don’t!”

Not all of us are being called to plant a church like Perry, but we still need to insert our own answer in the middle and realize that the only thing keeping us from doing that is cowardice. It doesn’t get any more true than that.

My wonderful wife is exploring the possibility of entering the world of blogging so I offered her the opportunity to cut her teeth here on my blog. She is a very talented writer and a woman with a keen perspective that has taught me more than a few things over the last ten years. Here’s what’s on her mind.

Get Your Hopes Up

In our seemingly never-ending house hunt, Joel and I ventured into a neighborhood we’d driven through many times before. As usual, we were looking for homes marked “For Sale By Owner” or homes that appeared to be abandoned and in need of tender, loving care. A property caught our eye that looked as though it would be perfect for our family and our current situation. It was on a safe street, in a very convenient location, and offered the privacy we are looking for. In addition, the house was small, meaning it had the potential to be affordable, a characteristic uncommon in the area we are hoping to land. Best of all, it looked empty. The yard was unkempt and the house appeared to be closed up tightly with purpose.

How different would our lives be if we remained ever confident of what God can, and will, do? Get your hopes up!

Just wanted to share a bit of late night insight that has been changing my views and methods on how to prepare and preach week in and week out.

What I’ve realized is that preaching is a profession. Many preachers might agree with that, but probably in a different way. I don’t mean that preaching is a job that pays my bills, even though it doesn’t right now in my life. I don’t mean that preaching is my occupation. What I mean is that preaching is a weekly profession of mine that states my confidence and passion for God, His will, His plan, and His word. It may sound simple, but once I realized that preaching is essentially my weekly profession of the truth that God has revealed to me and the message he has placed on my heart, then it becomes more natural and more effective.

What’s your profession?

Something that I have come to realize since my entrance into the realm of church leadership is that reformed thinking is a, “No, no!” What you learn to be true at age thirteen is supposed to be true for the same reasons twenty years later. Case closed. Church leaders are supposed to already have everything figured out and have all their answers dialed in for any situation that might arise. As long as you can spit out some scripture, then that will be enough. Never mind that we misinterpret and misunderstand it.

For many in leadership, their faith and the backing for it is nothing more than a regurgitation of what we were instructed to believe by their Pastor, Professor, or Parent. There has never been a personal thought or original concept drawn from scripture that lives inside of them, and to me that makes their knowledge as dead as their faith.

For many years I was a perfect example of this. I grew up with my church clothes on and a Bible in my hand, and did pretty good at playing the game and knowing the answers. There wasn’t a question I couldn’t answer from my close-minded, pre-packaged cereal box of knowledge. Sure, I had read the Bible and knew the scriptures behind my answers, but the logic wasn’t my own. My thinking was the application of others’ “knowledge,” and not my own.

I have recently been challenged very deeply by this truth. The mode of arrival to knowledge is just as important as the knowledge itself. Just because an answer is true, doesn’t mean we think it’s true for the right reasons. The right answer from the wrong thinking is really the wrong answer (are you confused yet?). What really matters is obtaining truth from scripture that is directly from God and not from someone else’s logic.

To quote myself (total inside joke), “I’ve said all of that to say this.” If we are not constantly reforming our thinking as it relates to the truth of scripture, then what we know to be true will become irrelevant. If our answer to why the world needs Jesus is, “otherwise they will go to Hell,” then this vital truth has been rendered irrelevant. Using this logic the most essential truth in all of the world has been demoted to a simple avoidance of pain and suffering, not the realization of sin and the measures Jesus took to remove its effects from our eternity.

I believe that as we learn, it’s logical to concentrate on the answers to questions first, but at some point we have to fill in the gaps. At some point we have to reform our thinking and transform our minds. Otherwise, we will remain infants in our knowledge and ability to transfer than knowledge to others.

Dang, I’m really not this deep in thought on a normal Thursday afternoon, but God is rocking my world and thinking with His truth today.

This morning as I am preparing my sermon for this Sunday I have come to a realization that has never hit me harder. Sunday will mark the start of a new series at Horizon called “Practical Atheist (Are you who you say you are?)”. In just the beginning stages I can tell that this is going to be a series that is very revealing for most people. The whole idea is that some of us claim to be followers of Christ, but practically speaking we aren’t. We don’t live like we fear God, we don’t give like we trust God, and we don’t set goals like we know God’s power. When it comes to the practical side of our lives we show a disbelief in God, and in the face of all the things we claim this is what really matters.

Our five week trip into the implications of our actions will be life changing and perfectly aligned with Horizon’s audacious vision and direction.

What could a more practical view of your faith do in your life? Would it change you?