All posts in Culture

Decisions students will make

by Adam Lehman on May 27, 2009 in Culture with No comments

In Romans 1, Paul writes several things to the church in Rome. One of the things he repeats several times (verse 24, 26, 28) is that God hands people over to their sin. Essentially, I understand this to be Paul explaining that sin is its own punishment and righteousness is its own reward. God didn’t punish these sinners through plagues or death, he simply let them have what they wanted.

I explained to the students that this principle means that every decision we make is critical. It means that when we rebel against God, we’re going to get what we’re searching for.

After that discussion, our students broke up into groups and brainstormed lists of decisions they’ll have. They were to come up with a list of choices they could make that would be opportunities to move towards God or away from God. Here is one group’s lists:

  • respecting teachers
  • respecting people that don’t respect you
  • choosing who to hang out with
  • going to parties
  • choosing what to do at a party
  • what friends to trust
  • complimenting people
  • gossiping
  • telling the truth
  • helping around the house
  • not watching inappropriate things on TV/Internet
  • inviting people to hang out
  • choosing to talk to people
  • screening your calls
  • being a good role model
  • saying “hi” to older/younger people
  • standing up to people
  • encouraging people
  • choosing to be nice to strangers
  • being willing to give away things/money
  • choosing what to wear
  • being fake
  • letting friend know what you think
  • accountability
  • helping w/ younger kids at church
  • respect others opinions & decisions

sloth: self-diagnosis

by Adam Lehman on May 20, 2009 in Culture, Ramblings with 3 Comments

I just listened to Tony Campolo talk about the seven deadly sins. In this podcast, he talked about sloth.

Let me just say this: I suck.

But wait, I’ve got an excuse: Our culture sucks.

Sure our culture is full of business and hurried life and over involvement. But what is the ideal? A vacation. The more vacations you take, the longer you take them, the better off you are. How sad is it that some people dislike their current life so much that they long to get away from it?

My problem is that I think I soak up too much time. I stop and smell the roses a bit more often than I need to. I’m just being honest. There are times where I find myself working 12 or 14 hours days consecutively. But there are other times where I find myself just hanging around.

I need to have a predisposition towards action. My default mode must be to work.

Student Leadership

by Adam Lehman on May 6, 2009 in Culture with 2 Comments

I keep sensing that the next natural step for our student ministry is to develop some sort of student leadership something or other. I took some notes over my ideas on having a formal student leader program/group/meeting/etc. Here ya go:

  • CANNOT turn into an “insider” clique
  • must be centered around service, growth, and discipleship
  • shouldn’t be “easy.” Set the bar high for student leaders
  • it isn’t for everyone
  • what would are gatherings look like? why would they exist?
  • could potentially be a great place for adult leaders to jump in

i’d love some thoughts on this as I’m pretty new to the developing student leaders game.

Society has Absorbed our Action

by Adam Lehman on April 15, 2009 in Blogs, Culture, Politics with No comments

Nice article over at the Jesus Radicals blog. This piece peaked my interest:

the words of Jacques Ellul: “Each time the people of God becomes effective according to the world´s criteria, this only implies that society has absorbed our action and is using it for its own ends and for its own profit. …The efficacy we think we have is simply a power in the world´s service, for the perfecting of its own being, for its better organization….”

And I am also reminded that Jesus sent out his disciples, not only poor, but humanly powerless, “as lambs in the midst of wolves.” I recall how he squandered his popular following and fell prey to the religious authorities of his time, because he did not respect the power of the crowd or the power of rulers. Jesus did not need their power to build his kingdom. God had given the kingdom. It existed in the lives of Jesus and his disciples as a gift to them, and they announced it as a gift wherever they went: “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

no matter what

by Adam Lehman on March 30, 2009 in Culture, Ramblings with No comments

In ministry there are a thousand things that you do that are simply details. You could choose one course of action or another. It’d merely be preference.

No matter what, people will complain. If you choose to keep your logo the same, no one will notice. If you change your logo (pepsi) some people will love it.

No matter what, people will find faults. If people didn’t like your music, they won’t like your music when you re-invent your sound (coldplay).

With everything thing you do, you’ll lose fans and gain fans.

The real battle is this – according to Seth Godin:

You should listen to the people who tell the most people about you. Listen to the people who thrive on sharing your good works with others. If you delight these people, you grow.

ain’t no reason things are this way

by Adam Lehman on February 25, 2009 in Culture, Media, Music with 1 Comment

there ain’t no reasons things are this way
its how they’ve always been and they intend to stay
i don’t know why i say the things i say,
but i say them anyway.
but love will come set me free

~Brett Dennen in “Ain’t No Reason”

why i throw everything away

by Adam Lehman on February 24, 2009 in Culture, Ramblings with 2 Comments

I throw most everything away. I don’t hang onto things. I’m no pack rat. There are several reasons for this:

  1. I can remember my high school principal talking to me about a great vacation he’d been on. I said, “I bet you took a lot of pictures.” He said, “I don’t take very many pictures. I try to take it all in and remember what I remember. Taking pictures distracts me from actually appreciating things. Also, I think not taking pictures makes my memory work harder and keeps it stronger.”
  2. During college, I saw how easy it was for Christian Ministry majors to turn in mediocre work that sounded and looked very “spiritual.” Anyone who is trained can pull off a bible study, or a talk, or spouting off wisdom they’ve rehearsed. You can do all of those things without much thought and passion. I want everything I do in life to be filled with thought and passion, so i don’t keep things.

During college, I spent an amazing amount of time writing papers on spiritual things. One may thing that it would be wise for me to have those papers to reference. However, that requires no inspiration, creativity, innovation, etc. While some people might not care about being creative, I do, so i force myself to come up with good stuff. I force myself to re-learn and re-read things I’ve read before (very inefficient: but a very good way to learn, ask any teacher).

I force myself to stay very close to inspiring things, because I must be inspired. I must be around passionate people if I too am going to be passionate.

So far, it’s working out swell…..

creativity in ministry

by Adam Lehman on February 22, 2009 in Culture, Ramblings with 1 Comment

a few year ago i was living with a college pastor who had a couple decades of “ministry experience.” at one point he grew a student ministry from a dozen students to about 400 (so i guess that makes him “successful”). i asked him a lot of questions because i was hungry to learn and i learned alot.

hmm. i guess he was a great teacher. but i was hungry to learn. maybe we were meant for each other.

at one point we were talking and he talked about being creative. he said that he always thought he lacked creativity until one day…. one day he said to himself, “I’m going to start being creative and innovative.” (that is not really an exact quote, but this is my blog, my story…)

and after some time of setting himself to the task, he grew to be much more creative and innovative and original and remarkable.

now here comes my part in the story: i put a lot of effort into being remarkable. being creative. being original. If it has already been done, i don’t want to do it. i’m not sure if I’m really creative, or barely creative (some people will probably have differing opinions), but i sure as heck want to grow much more creative.

here are some things I do to grow more and more creative:

  • read blogs
  • start/join discussions on twitter
  • recognize and act like God can teach me things from ANY other human being on earth
  • use lots and lots of legal pads and moleskin journals to diagram my thoughts
  • watch lots of TED talks
  • listen to sermons and podcasts
  • set aside time each week to dream up future events, trips, experiences…
  • ask LOTS and LOTS of questions (to everyone: old people, kids, students, friends, annoying people, everyone.)
  • question things i hear
  • marry an artist
  • enter into discussions and allow my opinion to change
  • try to do things i know i’m neither skilled or qualilfied enough to do
  • don’t file away mediocre things (lesson plans, talks, papers, ideas). after I left college, I deleted every single assignment I’d ever done (more on this tomorrow).

bullying – 2

by Adam Lehman on January 29, 2009 in Culture, Ramblings with No comments

yesterday i described bullies.

today: how to deal with em.

in my opinion, you’ve got 3 options:

  1. bully them back. you can call em up, push em, get a mob surrounding their building, call their boss, tell their parents, etc. But whatever happens, you’ve merely become a force that makes the bullies feel and appear less “in-the-wrong” than they really are. in my mind, this is your worst option
  2. passively get walked on. while this is not fun at all, it is effective. while it doesn’t make you feel good, you are demonstrating to the world how much a bully someone is. you’re showing them just how monsterous their actions are. (for example, i get really frustrated with a high school student on a ski trip. i get in his face and tell him to shape up. if he comes back at me, then i will feel and appear more legitimate in my anger. however, if he simply sits their quietly and nods his head, i’m much more likely to apopogize and feel guilty for my anger later). i’ve begun doing this about a year ago. if someone ever made a joke or said something lightly that offended me, i wouldn’t laugh. i wasn’t going to reward the insensitivity or prejudice of others with an affirming laugh. instead they get akward silence.
  3. walk away. yesterday seth godin offered this solution on his blog.  and it’s a good one. bullies cannot exist without someone to bully. take your ball and go home. by doing this your showing the bully (and the world) that you were repeatedly mistreated and you’re not dealing with it anymore. i’m doing this to chase bank. i’m also doing it to specific car companies. and i’m doing it to political parties.

bullying

by Adam Lehman on January 28, 2009 in Culture, Politics, Ramblings with 1 Comment

Today I’ve been thinking about bullying.

I know when i use the word “bully,” certain images come to mind: images of a mean 4th grader telling another 4th grader that she’s fat, or a group of jr. high girls blatantly “shunning” another girl, or maybe the image of a cocky college football player comes to mind.

But bullying takes so many different forms. I see it everyday in so so many places. Chase Bank recently “bullied” me into following their policies even though i was told differently. Time Warner cable recently bullied a friend of mine by quoting him several different rates for the same cable package. The big 3 auto-makers bullied our governement into handing them tax-payer money, even though their collapse was based on their poor business model. Churches all over the world “bully” people into agreeing with them. Churches use hell, the bible, emotions, traditions, and membership as leverage to get people to follow. Renters use a well-i-own-this-property mentality to bully rentees into submission.

Notice that each of these “bullies” may use a different form:

  • Chase bank used their policies to “bully”
  • Time Warner used their costomer service department to “bully”
  • Auto-Makers use the personal stories of their employees to “bully”
  • Churches matipulate the words of Jesus and God to “bully”
  • Renters use their “ownership” to bully

    • I’m not saying that these “bullies” have no right to whatever they are getting, they do. I am saying that they could get the exact same thing without bullying. They could simply respect and love people.

    Also, people tend to leave and move away from bullies. Bullies end up as things of the past. I’m leaving Chase bank. MY buddy is leaving Time Warner. Millions of people are leaving the big-3 automakers and moving to something else (honda, toyota, etc…). And everyone knows about a dozen people who have been pissed off by churches in one way or another.

    So this is my new resolution: if people are bullies, i’m leaving (then they’ve got no one to bully) and also, i’m not going to be the bully.

    Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light. He scolded religious leaders for lording their authority over people. Jesus didn’t like bullies (even if they were “technically” correct). In fact, no one like bullies.

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