Rick Nier...Woo!

Dear Indiana,  I know I've lived here for most of my adult life, so this may seem a bit late in coming. I understand that living in Indiana means loving, or at least tolerating, basketball. Don't get me wrong. I've watched Hoosiers. It's good.  I do love basketball. I enjoy playing it, watching it and even talking about it. I don't root for your teams, but I get the love for this sport.  But there's a few things we need to clear up. You see, my middle school son started playing for one of your teams this year. Needless to say, the experience has only confirmed what I already suspected.  The place in your heart that this sport holds, at least borders on idolatry. I should also mention that I am a youth pastor. So I have watched time and time again as basketball crowds out the space for anything else. I know what lessons can be learned when our sons and our daughters learn to sacrifice and work as part of a team. But I also know the lessons that a

Over and over again, God’s love for us has been proven by action. We are called to reciprocate. We are called to commit. And most of us will nod our heads in agreement, believing we have committed. We talk about commitment. I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah recently and came across this little pearl. In the year when King Sargon of Assyria sent his commander in chief to capture the Philistine city of Ashdod, the Lord told Isaiah son of Amoz, “Take off the burlap you have been wearing, and remove your sandals.” Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and barefoot. ~Isaiah 20:1-2 Oh, ok. Now it’s not enough to simply declare and teach the Word of the Lord. There’s a uniform. But wait, there’s more. Then the Lord said, “My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. ~Isaiah 20:3 Hold on. Three years?!? Isaiah walked around in nothing but what God gave him for 3 years!?! On the bright side, you’d save time doing laundry. But

Opening a Jonathan McKee book is like starting a conversation with a friend. I know, I know...he has written several parenting books (many of which I own) and he has written lots of youth ministry books (most of which I own as well). It would be so easy for Jonathan to come across as the guru who knows all. But the very title of the book, If I Had a Parenting Do Over , reveals his heart and authenticity. Jonathan is the friend who is in the trenches with the rest of us. He writes this book about 7 Vital Changes I'd Make . The book reveals some parenting mistakes Jonathan has seen through his years of working with families with teenagers, as well as mistakes he made personally. Parts of this book were really convicting, as if there were cameras in my own home. But that's the point. Teenagers everywhere have common struggles. So do their parents. This book comes along with some very practical advice on how to honor God in our parenting. Along the way, we should experience

There’s a pivotal scene in the superheroes movie The Avengers, which I think we can all agree is now a classic, along with other greats such as Gone With the Wind and Rocky.  That's right, I just compared a superhero movie, to a classic sports movie, to simply a classic. That's the kind of ridiculous I am. Without revealing all of my geeky knowledge of superhero movies, suffice it to say there is a bad guy, Loki, who is bringing an army to earth. And there are the good guys, the Avengers, who are trying to stop him. One of those good guys is Iron Man. And just before the big battle begins, Iron Man makes a speech to Loki, where he concludes, It's all on you, whether your plan succeeds or fails. How is our focus on God like this? Not in a combatant way, of course, but our whole trust should be in God. This is His plan, His mission, and it's all to His glory. So the plan, whether it succeeds or fails, is all on Him. And of course, we can have confidence that it wil

Like many other pastors, and especially youth pastors, I like to pick a title that catchy, and perhaps bordering on irreverent. Here was the idea I had for my most recent sermon. People Jesus liked hanging out with more than he liked hanging out with people at church. Maybe that's too wordy a sermon title. But read through the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you’ll discover a list of people that Jesus liked spending time with; sinners, kids, smelly fishermen, prostitutes, drunks at weddings, women with shady pasts, tax collectors, .... I speak slightly with tongue in cheek because the truth is that we are those sinners and people with shady pasts, no matter how much we try to play dress up. The truth is we worry about a lot of stuff. If the stuff we tend to worry about had as much impact on the kingdom of God, compared with the commandments and commission of Jesus, then maybe we’d have a reason to stress ourselves out. But it doesn't. Sorry . It just doesn't. D

Matthew 3:13-17 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Jesus is doing a pretty cool thing here, being baptized. This marked the beginning of His ministry and connects Jesus to the people He came to save. I work with teens and, of course, have a couple of them in my own home. There is this fascinating dance between parents and their teenagers. Parents have to somehow impart wisdom to teenagers without it sounding like a lecture. Their best bet is to somehow trick the teenager into t