Rick Nier...Woo!

‘He who has ears, let him hear.’   I always thought that was an interesting statement made by Jesus. I have ears. Doesn’t everyone? I don’t think I know of anyone who doesn’t have ears. I guess some people are deaf, which is something my dad would accuse me of being. In my more dense moments as a child, my dad would also accuse me of lacking for brains. Apparently there was this assembly line for handing out brains. He may have insinuated that I heard 'train' and assumed I was going on a trip somewhere. He also said I had a brain like a strainer, which I didn’t get for the longest time, but that may have been proving his point. Before you think my dad unkind, let me assure you I am glad he said stuff like this to me. Otherwise I might not have anything to say to my kids when I am most dumbstruck by some of the things they do. But what’s most interesting to me is where I recently found a similar line from Jesus regarding the having of ears. To be sure, he said ...

I like great questions. Questions that require thought. Questions that have no answers until Heaven. Questions that make me shake my head, sometimes with laughter. I like questions. Last week I gave a shout out to a good question. Here's another one. It comes from a pastor friend of mine, Stevan Sheets. I think his question here is one of the reasons why pastors don't ask for volunteers in front of everyone. If you ask the congregation for people who want to sing, be prepared for everyone who has only heard themselves in the shower. And let's face it, everyone sounds great in the shower. So when Stevan asks if the thought always counts , I think it's a great question. Woo!

It's a weird feeling getting older in youth ministry. I don't see myself as 'old', and yet when you can measure your ministry in double digits, you're clearly past novice level. I sensed I was a veteran of sorts when I started seeing advice requests and didn't quickly think to myself, 'How can I help them when I am drowning over here myself?' To be sure, the transition comes quickly. I passed quickly from the stage where you are told lighting things on fire may make for a good visual but is frowned upon by insurance companies to where teens stand in shock at the realization that you are older than their parents. Yeah, there was a happy middle ground where I think people were impressed by possessed wisdom that seemed beyond my years. That lasted about 15 minutes until they realized I was older than the parents of the teens I work with. But when people seek advice about youth ministry, I still have the same to offer. There are 2 rules and only 2....

If someone out there keeps up with all of the current things with culture and then fell asleep for 4 months, they might assume I was keeping current. For everyone else, you know I like to comment on things after everyone else is done. Keeping to form, I'd like to mention Spotify, the music listening service that appears to let you listen to anything at anytime. I'd noticed people using the service and figured out that Spotify is connected to Facebook so you can read about all the music your friends are listening to. Look at me explaining to you what you already know. It's like explaining strikes and balls to Derek Jeter. It strikes me that I use Spotify's 'private session' all the time I want to listen to my guilty pleasures. I could tell you it was Glee remakes, but that would ruin my secret. I thought about attempting humor and going public and listening to 8 hours of Michael Bolton. But there's two problems with this idea. The first, obviously, is...

I am sure there have been times that if someone asked me a question, the answer they received depended on the mood I was in. Surely I am not the only one who just gets in a mood and wants to see what happens when he says what he's really thinking. (Never mind the fact this would be called honesty and can be done with class.) Whether or not I should answer questions based on feeling, I can't help but wonder if God is doinga  little of the same in Ezekiel 20. Check this out; On August 14, during the seventh year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, some of the leaders of Israel came to request a message from the Lord. They sat down in front of me to wait for his reply.2 Then this message came to me from the Lord: 3 “Son of man, tell the leaders of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: How dare you come to ask me for a message? As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will tell you nothing!’ ~Ezekiel 20:1-3 Uh-oh, the silent treatment? Not exactly, beca...

It's Monday morning and I'm reading early in the morning when my son, in third grade, comes out and asks if there is a 2-hour delay for school. I look outside. Though it's early morning, the sky could not be bluer. Oh yeah, it's only the second week of school. So not only is the likelihood of a school delay slimmer than every 8-foot basketball star I've ever seen, but my kids probably shouldn't be tired of school this early in the year. At this rate, he might get senioritis by the time he hits sixth grade. That's probably something we want to avoid, right? Here's something else we want to avoid. Fairness. You read that right! Fairness. We cry foul an awful lot. We should stop that. I wrote awhile back about how my kids cry foul. You can read that and smirk since I am sure you have been there. But here's what I've been thinking. Had my kids cried fair to my parents, they would have told them stories of an Earth shaped so oddly tha...

I get attracted back to some of the same writers. I know there's danger in that. I'm also working on continually expanding the influences. But that won't mean leaving some of my faves behind. Here's one who continually makes me pause and rethink things. It's Matt Mcgill, youth pastor in California, asking a good question . And since we should probably pause to actually consider it, I'm gonna make that my one link this week. Enjoy!

Recently my family traveled to Wisconsin. We'd never been. Now many people know this state as a place to find great cheese. But I am here to reveal the truth. Wisconsin is the land of opulence! We went to Wisconsin Dells, home of many great resorts and land of great water parks. It was a good thing that the slides were big and some distance from one another. Because I needed to walk to work off the buffets that I continually found myself at. But buffets can be found anywhere. The overindulgence continued everywhere, including this hot tub, able to fit 5 normal sized children. But just as the water spilled out of this tub, the opulence of Wisconsin spilled over into the next state, Minnesota. Just below, at the Mall of America, you can see Mr. SquarePants welcoming us to the famed indoor theme park. If you have not been, you may have been like me and assumed it was one roller coaster. That would be impressive enough, but nay my good friend. There were 36! The...

They say that ignorance is bliss. Even Solomon, this wisest of all guys, ranked the ignorant as being better off. Yeah, in one of his more cheery moments, Solomon said the dead are better off than the living, but even better than that is not even being born. (Ecclesiastes 4:2-3) I guess that makes sense. There's experiencing the darkest stuff in life. There's remembering it. Then there's not ever actually knowing about it. Isn't this why we try and protect our children for so long? The problem is this is not the entire story. With much respect to the wise King Solomon, he probably should have paid a bit more attention to his dear old dad, David. In a Psalm that is better known for the actions he was apologizing for than for anything else, David made a very intriguing statement. In Psalm 51, in the midst of wanting to be purified, forgiven and restored, he also said this; "For I recognize my rebellion..." Psalm 51:3a Ok, let's not sugarcoat t...

Ummm, this may cause some problems.   This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!   ~Jeremiah 9:23-24 We're not told we can't be smart, witty and great-looking. This of course, is good news for me. We can be wise, we can be powerful and we can even be rich. And as I read Jeremiah here, we're even told we're allowed to boast.  We can boast, just not about ourselves. D'oh! Can you imagine if we took this to heart? We could be the ultimate one-up guy. You know, of course, about the one-up guy, right? He's the guy that hears about your achievements and then shares his bet...

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish. ~Matthew 18:12-14 How important are the lost sheep? (vs 12-14) The pasture land in Judea is narrow and located on hills. This means there were at least two sides which sheep could wander off, to their own peril. In Jesus’ day, it was common for the sheep to be owned communally, which explains how one shepherd would go off to look for the lost sheep while the remaining shepherds would watch the other 99. The lost sheep, once found, would have been celebrated by that community. But perhaps the problem is that we don't connect with sheep. Even though we have been compared with...

Here we go, folks! The other night my kids were very  hyper, which is saying something for my kids. My wife commented that we should have a reality show. I asked what it would be called and my 9-year old son, without batting an eye, answered, 'Rick-diculous!' I swear if MTV announces a show by this name I will be asking questions. But this first link is, quite easily, Rick-diculous. It's a premium fast food line , way beyond the McDLT, for those of you remembering how important it was to keep the hot side hot and the cool side cool. Greg Stier, the guy who runs Dare 2 Share, frequently comes out with Top Ten lists. This one on the Olympics was timely. This last one is also random, seeming to be the theme for today. But it's also not for the faint of stomach, as Matt McGill, long time California youth pastor, busts out a Sports Instructional Video . Yes, he's qualified. Woo!

When people find out I am a youth pastor and that I have been so for more than 6 months, I am often asked if I have aspirations for being a 'real' pastor. I have so many answers to this but that is an entirely different post. I think the questions comes partly from people's disbelief that anyone would actually choose to be around teenagers. After all, we remember our teenage years and the limbo we often battled with. Some have raised teenagers in their own home and wondered what happened to the sweet little toddlers. Because the terrible two's weren't so bad, right? It is for this reason I am glad to recommend Walt Mueller's book The Space Between: A Parent's Guide to Teenage Development . It's not his newest book, but this one is still timely.  Walt tackles the gamut on teenagers, from how they are changing physically, socially, intellectually, emotionally and even morally. He's got something here for everyone, from stats and figu...

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” ~Matthew 18:1 There are eternal implications in how we treat one another. The disciples should not have been arguing over who was the greatest. Not simply because it was the wrong question, but because it shows a great lack of concern for one another. The other day, and honestly this could be any and every day, I came upon my 3 children having an argument. That sounds very pastoral, doesn’t it? It makes it sound like I was walking around quoting scripture and I happened upon my 3 little angels who happened to be having a disagreement which could only be solved by someone with great wisdom. In reality, I was trying to finish supper when my 3 hobbits, who always scarf down their own meals, started fighting with one another. Interrupted and slightly annoyed, I asked who started what, whereupon I received 3 different stories, all, of course, blaming one another. After doling out ...

In case you're reading this early on Monday morning and are in no mood for long blog posts, fear not. I'll highlight and merely encourage you to read the rest. But as I read Isaiah 56:1-8, I realized that it's possible for us to attempt false humility. I know I'm not the first to say that, but I imagine it even possible for me to only say I want insignificance for the sake of gathering a crowd. 'Look at the self-deprecating monkey!' But truly giving focus to God means realizing how little our position in life means in connection with what God is doing. Here are two examples Isaiah gives us. “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’ And don’t let the eunuchs say, ‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’ ~Isaiah 56:3 Understand that as far as exclusive groups went, the Israelites of Old Testament fame were the best at leaving out others. But God had other plans, even wh...

I preached recently from Matthew 18. I was actually glad, when my senior pastor assigned the verses, that he stopped before verses 15-18. Then I read the first 14 verses of Matthew 18. Now I can't get these images out of my head. I believe you can hear the passion come from Jesus distinctly in 2 places in this section. Verse 6, where the alternative of hanging a large rock around your neck and jumping in the ocean is seen as desirable compared to facing Jesus after having caused a little one to sin. I imagine that this conversation to be a time when the disciples could see the face of God in Him.    You know how children take on the characteristics of their parents? I imagine this to be one of those times people could clearly see the face of God in Jesus. This would not have been said lightly. Imagine any parent protecting their children and we begin to get an idea of how serious Jesus is here. The second place we hear passion ring through is verse 14. He says, “The Fath...

Wait, isn't this old news? Well yes, but I would like to add two things. First, I am often late to discussions. I'm ok with this fact, because I like to give a lot of thought to a matter before I simply go public with my thoughts. (Insert comments about Rick being a slow thinker here.) Secondly, and more importantly, this issue of how Christians treat the world and how the world views Christians, is not going away anytime soon. The incident with Chik-Fil-A is just the biggest spotlight on an already viral issue. There were many things said on both sides of the argument, but the one I found to be very insightful can be found at Perry Noble's blog. Here you go - BEN & JERRY’S, CHICK-FIL-A & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS What do you have to add?

Let us consider how we may spur one another on…~Hebrews 10:24   Can you picture this? If we took the Bible literally here, we’d have a lot more cowboys in Church. Plus, we’d have a whole lot of people with spur marks on their body. Spurs hurt. That’s why we don’t just use them right away. Actually, we don’t use them on people. But maybe we should. We’re told to consider how to spur one another on. Let’s face it, sometimes we need to be jolted in order to get something done. What if, instead of spurs, we used funoodles? You know, those pool noodles that can be used to help you float or to beat your friends upside the head. We leave a few marks and cause mild irritation, but I don't foresee lasting change happen. Love and good deeds don’t just happen. They have to be acted out. And they should be acted out by us. We should be loving and doing good deeds. This doesn’t make it about us. Rather we do good deeds to point others to God so that they can draw near and we can wa...

I replied, “But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.” ~Isaiah 49:4 Yeah, ever had a case of the been there, done that?  I was actually feeling pretty good about myself and my job the morning I read this verse. I know it's not supposed to work this way, but it did make me pause.  And as I paused, I realized that, of course, many people feel this way. This is bound to happen when we apply ourselves and set goals that seem to make sense. But I'm pretty sure God said something about the ways and plans of man.  This is putting God first and myself second. I have felt this way many times in ministry. But my calling is not about bringing me glory. It is all for God and so I am able to trust Him for my reward. The same goes for you. So be encouraged. The strength spent is not for nothing and the purpose is not wasted.

(Actual counter top not shown) Recently my wife and I redid our kitchen counter tops. Which is to say, we had them redone. I bring many great qualities to the relationship. The ability to fix things well is not one of them. I think my wife would agree that I make up for this lack in other ways. For instance, making her laugh. Ahem. We picked a company and started the process. I would share the name, but I now have a fairly Lowe opinion of them. But here's the thing. They did great. As we worked with them and picked out our products, they were very helpful. They were patient as my wife painstakingly chose between various sinks and then saw the hundreds of choices for faucets. They helped us see several places where we could save money. They served well. Then came the time for actually placing the order and having the work done. We were given a timeline for certain steps to be done. We were given the name of the third-party company who would actually be doing the building...

You might think that after several weeks of silence I would have TONS of stuff which inspired me and blah, blah, blah.. I did read. Stuff has inspired me. But I am choosing not to bog you down with everything which may or may not have brought a tear to my eye. For this first Woo! of the week, all I can say is, 'Holy cow, Jon, get out of my head!' Sometimes I feel like my blog is one big example of failure, but Jon Acuff, of Stuff Christians Like  fame, puts the spin on that which I have been looking for. (By the way, I say failure in a ok way, not the please-pity-me way.) Anyway, here are 4 words Jon says when he fails. The other post I will  Woo! about comes from Doug Fields, the godfather of youth ministry. His new mantra, and my newest goal, has to do with paying attention to your marriage and family as much as you might your ministry. Here he gives 10 reasons not to date your spouse . I bet he's using reverse psychology. Both of these posts are older, but ag...

"Genesis 2 reminds us that we are all created to connect on a personal level in significant community. Yet, being one virtual profile among a sea of millions creates a competitive atmosphere where successful individuals become intuitive experts at self-branding." --Brad Howell, " Finding Love One Byte at a Time " I haven't read this book, or anything else by Brad for that matter. But I think this quote says something about us. Something is deeply wrong.  What I have read is Viral  by Leonard Sweet. As he puts it, "this book is a tale of two tribes." The tribes he identifies are Gutenbergers and Googlers. The Gutenbergers are those people who have been influenced and live in a world created by the invention of the printing press. Yes, that happened a long time ago, but the world of pre-Google was heavily influenced by this sudden spread of information. Speaking of a spread of information, we'e living a new digital age where everything has...