Rick Nier...Woo!

In the beginning there was an idea. It wasn't our idea. The idea stemmed from the Creator of all things. Being relational, God let His idea come to fruition. This idea, to create people who would love their Creator, was a good idea. It is a good idea. But it was not the only idea.  Some may have assumed the idea's next part. Because we were made in the image of One who loves, we were also intended to love one another. This idea was also good . And it makes sense. If we love our Creator and understand that He meets all our needs, we are then set loose to freely give of the love born in us.  via GIPHY In theory, these ideas can work together seamlessly, with the creation crying out to the Creator. This alone should fill us up. At the same time, we can express unique qualities given to us by a very imaginative Creator. After all, we are better off when each part of the body does as intended. "This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members car...

There are many benefits of the job I have working for a Christian college. One of them is to pull out the trump card and say, I thought you loved Jesus , whenever they say something I don’t like. Ok, I’m kidding. I don’t actually say it out loud.  The real benefit is working among like-minded believers who know we are all in this mission together to serve the King. Oh, we surely forget from time to time, and we all have our levels of maturity in the faith. But when we stumble, we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who can pull us aside and say, I thought you loved Jesus . (Kidding. Again, no one says it out loud.) But here’s something that, seriously, does keep us all grounded. The faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the chapel services alongside the students. Yes, we all have much to keep us busy and it would often be easier to keep plugging away on a project or two.  Yet there is no greater equalizer when people of different levels of authority g...

15 years. In most areas of life, that might not seem like a long time. But in the world of youth ministry, that can seem like a couple of lifetimes. I saw 7th graders become high school graduates and then repeated that cycle. 15 years. That's 780 Sundays, not accounting for vacations and other days missed for any number of reasons. Granted, in a church where many people have lived their whole lives in this community, I was still on the young side, but still, I became a mainstay. It began in July of 2002 and ended just this year, in June of 2017. Now that I'm on the other side of it all, it seems that it was both all too brief while also, at times, felt much longer than it actually was. There is so much that can be said, that I feel should be said, that it seemed appropriate to share in this space. Even if no one were to read this, I find that my thoughts find a way of easily being leaked through my fingers as I write. 15 years. What lessons would I pass along that I hav...

This isn't what I expected when I made the announcement . To be fair, I'm not sure exactly what I expected. I knew I was taking a step out in faith. Whereas Lebron James was able to famously say he was taking his talents to South Beach, all I could say was that I was taking my talents... To where? Who knows! So yes, I have sent out resumes and cover letters. Yes, I have followed up on those contacts. I have done my due diligence. Nothing yet. I have been to an interview that looked promising . I have heard back from churches where I didn't make the next step of interviews. Meanwhile, I'm left with my unwritten expectations of what searching for a job would look like. As it turns out, not getting a job right away to move towards might be the best thing that's ever happened to my family. And it might be the best thing for your family too. Let me explain. When I first started having this conversation with people, I got lots of strange looks. So you...

All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for coaxing, relaxing, sharing and making people feel good about themselves.  You don't remember Paul writing that to Timothy? Me neither. But by the way people act in church, one might assume this is what we believe about scripture. We all like using a scripture verse to prove something we already believe. But when one is used against us and our personally held, but not well thought out, convictions, then we begin to squirm. Actually, we do more than squirm. We cry out. We blame. We point fingers. We shoot the messenger. There must be something wrong with the other, because otherwise I might have to look inward. How dare that pastor try to teach me something new? Doesn't he realize that might cause me to change? And when those same scriptures are used to rebuke me? Get off your high horse pastor! We can be friends, but not if you're going to meddle in my personal affairs. If I wanted to be corrected, I'd go see ...

I want to remind us what Church can look like, by viewing a few different examples of the early Church in the book of Acts. Before Paul was standing before Festus, a group of people were making a name for themselves, living out their mission, sometimes in ways that look very differently than anything we would be comfortable with. As we glimpse at these truths, it will be up to each one of us to decide what we will do. And my hope is that if we, like the crowd in Acts 2, ask 'what shall we do?', then we'll be quick to respond as well. For when Peter told that crowd they should repent and be baptized, they did, and 3,000 people were added to the Church that day. Point 1 - We should never shy away from the Truth. Tell the Truth In Acts 3, Peter and John are heading to a prayer service (something Rick Hurley is wishing more people would do) and they run into this guy who was totally lame. I mean, really uncool. Just kidding, the guy couldn’t walk. So Peter heals him in the name...

I got the privilege of preaching this past Sunday. This was just the intro...if you like it, I may post more of it later this week.  Do you want to hear one of the saddest verses in all the Bible? Let me tell you a story. Paul had been arrested for preaching Jesus and he is being tossed from one court to another as Roman judges spent their time coaxing one another's egos and skirting around justice by passing the question of what to do with Paul on to each other. In Acts 25, we find Paul standing trial before Festus, who is planning to pass him along to Caesar. Before he does, King Agrippa comes along and they discuss Paul's case. Festus admits that Paul's case has to do with religion. 17 “When his accusers came here for the trial, I didn’t delay. I called the case the very next day and ordered Paul brought in. 18 But the accusations made against him weren’t any of the crimes I expected.19 Instead, it was something about their religion and a dead man named Jesus, who Paul ...

I used Psalm 42:1-2 as a call to worship yesterday, but as I said then, it wasn't the whole story. The first 2 verses might seem like a nice scripture to put on a pillow, or a painting with a deer in a forest, to simply indicate we love being with God. But if you read the rest of Psalm 42, this is written by a guy who has felt abandoned by God and longs desperately to be in His presence. Better than picturing a deer, peacefully roaming the forest, we might rather picture a critically wounded person reaching out for one last grasp towards life. He recalls a time when he was happy, singing praises to God. He was with all of his people, singing, dancing and generally having a great time. Now, in verse 5, he asks his soul 'why are you so downcast?' One can almost hear the painful mock, as he knows why he is disturbed. Unlike many who abandon any hope to be found in God, this guy reminds himself that hope is eternally to be placed in God. Though the times are tough, a...

I couldn't believe it, even as it was happening. We bounced a rubber ball against a bell for an hour. Before you scoff, I believe you've been there yourself. Maybe it was before Netflix was a thing, and there were no Olympics to watch. Perhaps you were bored beyond belief. But all of the sudden you found yourself doing something that should be simple over and over again. Add a twist, and you suddenly find yourself challenged to do something admittedly less than spectacular. I doubt Whaley Ball will ever find its' way into the Olympics. (The game is named after the person at camp whose memorial bell we were using to play the game. Yes, we played on a memorial bell.) I also don't see myself training to get better. But on that last night at camp, teens and leaders worked together to bounce a small rubber ball against a bell. How was this challenging? We couldn't let the ball drop to the ground. And we had to throw the ball again while the sound of the bell still ...

Have you ever heard someone say, "I really like Jesus. It's His bride I can't stand?" Yeah, I used to laugh at that. Because it's ironic, right? Loving Jesus, yet disliking the people He has called us to love, which, by the way, includes you. Then someone asked me to consider saying that to any other man on the planet. Go ahead. Walk up to any guy, tell him how much you like him, then tell him you can't stand his bride. Better yet, try doing this on someone's wedding day. I can't imagine it goes over well. I also can't imagine any scenario where Jesus simply shrugs off the comment and laughs. So when I saw the title of this book by Ted Kluck and Ronnie Martin, I was hooked fast. The subtitle helped; What To Do When God's People Hurt God's People . Like anyone else who has been a part of a church for longer than 18 verses of I Surrender All , I have seen God's people hurt God's people. Ted and Ronnie have been a part of t...

Each Sunday our children collect change for missions. As we got closer to Christmas, the big bucket was emptied for year-end numbers. And this was how the great juxtaposition of Christmas and noise was about to be experienced.  As our ladies played a special number on the piano and organ, our kids collected change. Except now, the change they collected was dropped into an empty bucket. Can you hear the change thumping and clanging against the empty bottom of a 5-gallon bucket? I could.  The background to the noise was the playing of  O Holy Night , a soft and melodic tune. Or perhaps the background to  O Holy Night  was the change being dropped in the bucket. It's kind of hard to say which was which now.  But it was the familiar sounds of Christmas mixed with the familiar sounds of....noise. One might have wished us to plan differently and have the ladies play apart from the collecting of money. That would have been one way to go, I suppose....

When I became  youth pastor at my current church, I had a job description that probably looks very similar to many other youth ministry job descriptions. Maybe all job descriptions. There was a line towards the end of the list of my roles that said; other duties as assigned . It's a bad thing to have that line in a youth ministry job description for two reasons. First, you shouldn't use the duty  around youth pastors. After all, we hang around middle schoolers and this just begs us to chuckle at the use of words that can have double meanings.  Secondly, and more importantly, those other duties ( snicker) can begin to swallow your time whole. I digress.  I was leading in worship and shared some thoughts, but I thought I would use this space to expound. Have you ever had one of those Sundays when you simply wanted to get into the worship time? Maybe most Sundays are a battle between how your reality looked the rest of the week and your desire to engage ...

Have you ever been called out in church? I have and I’ll never forget it. I was sitting in the back row of church, safely away from my parents and, I thought, anyone who could see me not listening to the sermon. That particular Sunday, an older leader in our church was filling in while the pastor was away. A teenager at the time, I was doing what I’m sure none of the teens in our church do. I was passing notes and making jokes with my friends, who were very clearly being a negative influence on me. (Insert tongue in cheek here.) That’s when it happened. The substitute-preacher called out, “You boys may think this is funny, but death is a serious thing!” Fortunately he did not call us out by name, although that did not end up keeping me out of trouble from my parents after church was over. Since I could not actually tell them what the sermon was about, I had no defense. The only solace is that I’m sure I won’t be the last person to have been called out in church. Nor was I the...

I wear a few different hats at my church. That may be understating things, but suffice it to say I get to know a lot of different people in a lot of different age groups. One of the benefits is the relationships I build with multiple generations and the vantage point from which I can see where our church is at. On any given Sunday, I will have lots of different people that I would like to catch up with as several people that might seek out my attention. Yesterday was one of those days. But I should mention that one of the areas I oversee is that of children. And children will get your attention....ummm...whenever they can. I was leading in our worship service, which will involve leading the singing as well as calling ushers to collect the offering. This year in our church, we have children collecting change for missionaries. So while the ushers are collecting money in an organized fashion, we have about 20 kids running around the sanctuary, shaking people down for their loose c...

Here's a little something something I wrote up for our church newsletter. I figured you might like it here as well. Can we all agree to officially let go of certain phrases? I know everyone likely has their own peeve over a certain word or phrase. One of mine is “this is a busy season for us.” First of all, I don’t know if you’re referring to season by weather, by sport, or by when all your reports are due. That’s right students; reports never go away, even after you graduate college. Get used to it. I’m not here to judge our busyness. I’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all busy. For families with children, that’s just part of life, even when you limit each child to one extra-curricular activity per season. Yes, I said season. So, if we’re all so busy, how do we do anything? Perhaps without realizing it, we make time for the things that are important to us. Some of those things give us natural reasons to make time for them. For instance, a job gives us money, so we can pay for pesky th...

I just know that some of you saw the title and are reading now, hoping for lyrics to a Taylor Swift song. My apologies. Yes, T. Swifty does have a song titled Blank Space , where she writes about her ex-lovers and the apparent vacancy for the next ex-boyfriend. But I have a different picture of what a blank space can offer. Blank space offers a space for grace. I have conversations with people all the time where the unspoken request is for grace. Deadlines weren't met, relationships need to be restored, wrongs have been committed. While there is certainly an understanding of consequences in most people's minds, it occurs to me that the blank space we can offer provides a way out. This way out is not something people immediately consider. After all, what's done is done and there's no going back, right? But I see a blank space that says otherwise. New deadlines can be established. Relationships don't need to remain broken. Wrongs can be made right. The Church should a...

Here is what I find interesting. As Christians, we talk about Christmas in December, but that’s about it. To hear a lesson in July about the baby Jesus is like listening to Christmas music in January – nobody wants to hear about it anymore. It’s not that we don’t believe the story, but we basically read about it once a year. But Easter is different. As Christians, we talk about the resurrection story of Jesus all year long. Why? Because Jesus dying for our sins, and rising again (showing He had power over death) is the whole reason we are who we are. Paul wrote that without Jesus rising from the dead, we have nothing and our religion is pointless. Go ahead. Say those words out loud. Pointless. Nothing.  Say those words out loud while considering what it is you really believe. I can't speak definitively for you, but I know how I feel about things I believe. I know that I certainly don't want anyone considering my beliefs to be worthless or a waste of time. Think abou...

What do we expect? I mean, what do we  really  expect? I was looking at this info-graphic recently. You can click on the image if you want to expand it. Go ahead, I'll wait.  In it they show how very little even Evangelical Protestants agree with what has historically been perceived as absolute truth. Perhaps you've seen and read info-graphics like this before. Sadly, I can't say I was surprised by most of the numbers. What did catch my eye was the statistic that showed only 47% of Christians strongly agree that Heaven is a real place. While it is disturbing to actually consider that half of all Christians don't actually believe Jesus is preparing a place for us, did you catch the wording? Strongly agree? This tells me the question was: Do you believe in heaven? And the possible answers were; Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. I'm going to go ahead and assume Neutral was a possible response to keep survey-takers happy. ...

This is just a little something I shared with children's workers at my church. Children’s Ministries is an exciting thing to be a part of in the church. We get to take an empty cup and fill it with good stuff. The scripture is filled with promises of what happens when we follow God’s plan. We know that part of His plan is one generation passing along the stories and the good news to the next generation. We’re given the hope that by doing this, generations will continue to grow up and seek God. In this way, being among the first to fill a cup with the contents of our choosing is an exciting thing to be a part of. But there is a second reality in being a part of children’s ministries in this day. It’s the sad fact that not all the cups are empty. Some of them are dirty and have been damaged. Many have been filled with ugliness that we recognize as being ‘from the world’. Rather than discourage us from trying, it gives clarity to our call to teach children ‘the way they should go.’ It...

I'm looking at different children's curriculum resources for our children's ministry programs. It's not a task I enjoy. I sit on my youth ministry mountain and look down and make many assumptions about the things that happen in children's ministries. I have so very many thoughts while swimming through an ocean of options.  First of all, why are there so many options. Are you telling me children's classes are more than some kind of juice, a box of goldfish and a song with motions? Why do we even need a book to tell us how to do this? Should there really be crafts? If the church thinks this stuff is so important, they should invest in a hallway of refrigerators for all of this art to go on.  Why do all the advertisements for these resources show happy adults down on the floor with puppets and glue sticks and well-behaved children? If I used their curriculum, would my classrooms be magically transformed? Then we get to the curriculum itself. It...