Published in Connections Magazine (March/April 2012)

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Living in the Resurrection

by Rev. Marcus J Carlson

Jesus Christ is risen! In this issue we celebrate Easter, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each year after spending the season of Lent reflecting on Christ’s journey to the cross, I am ready for the celebration of Easter Sunday. As Lutherans, we have a tremendous theology and understanding of the cross, yet we must always remember we are a resurrection people. We believe Jesus rose from the dead, and so we must live in the resurrection. What does it mean to live in the resurrection? What does it look like for individuals, families, churches and the world to live in the resurrection?

Several years ago, a television show came out that has since run its course called My Name is Earl. The show was about a man who won the lottery and as a result felt that fate, or Karma, required him to make up for every bad thing that he had done in his life. The show shared a variety of stories that affirmed this line of thinking. The basic gist of Karma is that if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. If you do good things, good things will happen to you. When we, as followers of Christ think about this, we readily recognize that this is a false line of thinking, especially the preposterous way that this show often depicted Karma. Karma is the New Age, postmodern version of a works theology. If we are to be honest, however, we at times hold a view incredibly similar to Karma. When something bad happens we wonder why God is doing this bad thing to us, or why God is allowing it to happen. We wonder what we have done wrong. We feel and live in tremendous guilt when we sin and often look for ways to make up for our sin, while living in our mistakes instead of grace. I am not suggesting we not have remorse for our sin, nor am I suggesting we not engage in authentic repentance. What I am suggesting is that oftentimes we allow suffering and sin to have more power in our lives than grace. When we do so, we fail to live in the resurrection.

The resurrection is the story of new life. Christ died for our sins. We are saved and as we are reminded in 2 Corinthians, we have new life in Jesus Christ. This new life does not exempt us from sin or suffering, but it does guarantee that sin and suffering do not get the final word. Christ was victorious over death. God has made a promise to His people fulfilled in Christ, and it’s a promise God is not going to break. When we live in the resurrection, we recognize that God can redeem all things. God can make all things new. Whether is a major event or a minor issue, regardless of whether is a story of joy or suffering, God is redeeming all things. God wants to take every event, experience, and part of our lives, our families, our churches and our world and make them new creations.  It can be tremendously difficult in a time of pain, grief or suffering to see the good; there is no denying that. One of the greatest tools we have in healing from these situations comes when we are able to look for the good that God is, has and wants to do in the midst of the difficulty we are facing. Every individual, family, church and community faces difficulty, but those who live in the hope and promise of the resurrection are able to find not only healing, but also new life.  To say that God redeems all things recognizes that through the resurrection, God has promised to take all things, the good, the bad and the ugly, and make them new. To live in the resurrection is to look for the ways God might be redeeming every circumstance, experience and relationship. To live in the resurrection is to reject Karma and believe that even in the midst of sin, suffering, grief and pain, God can write a new, better and more powerful story that not only brings healing and hope, but a new life as well.

Recently, we had one of those weeks in our house where almost everyone had some sort of health issue or ailment. It is one of those frustrating times where you wonder why everyone has to be struggling all at once. Even though it is not terrible, you secretly wonder if it can get any worse, but don’t want to say it out loud for fear that it will (a different form of Karma thinking). I did not mind much when I was feeling terrible, but when my wife Jessica got sick, I suddenly felt a lot worse. Then, when my precious little four-year-old princess Abigail got sick, I felt awful. Jessica and I (suffering from different ailments) both wished that we could take away Abby’s sickness. We hated to see her sick, uncomfortable and in pain. We would have gladly taken her illness from her. Ironically, this gave us a rather simple glimpse into the power of story of the cross. As parents and as human beings we often wish we could take on the suffering of those we love. It’s the beauty of the human story, it reminds us of the holiness and power of love and it demonstrates the potential of human beings.

The great news is that the story does not end with our desire to take on the suffering, because there is more to the story. There is the story of redemption that profoundly and mysteriously declares that God will make all things new. To live in the resurrection means we believe with our whole being that God can take anything and not only create good from it. God can, will and desires to make all things new so we might experience healing and live in hope and so that God’s grace may be known to all the world. It’s hard to realize this when you marriage is falling apart or when your son or daughter has wandered off in ways that makes the story of the prodigal son look like a walk in the park, but it is the truth of the Easter story. Somehow, in some miraculous and mysterious way God is going to take these situations and others and make them new in a way that not only brings great joy, but proclaims his love story to anyone who is willing to watch and listen.

To live in the resurrection is to look for and engage with the glorious, redemptive work God is doing in our lives, in our families, in our churches, our communities and the world. Living in the resurrection is trusting that God is going to do amazing things in our lives, our children, our families and our churches even when things seem dark and hopeless. After all, that is the story of Easter when after the darkest hours of the history of the world, the greatest story of redemption broke forth in a way that will never cease to amaze all of creation.

Jesus Christ is risen! May we be a resurrection people. May our lives, our families, our churches and our world reflect the power of the resurrection.

Published at Youthworker Online (A part of Youthworker Journal)

Read the online article here

Review:

Creative Bible Lessons on the Trinity

Andrew Hedges

Creative Bible Lesson on the Trinity is a curriculum tool and resource for youth workers and youth ministries that looks at the Trinity. This is not an easy topic to teach or understand and this curriculum tries to use a variety of teaching approaches and tools to talk about the Trinity with youth. The twelve sessions cover a variety of aspects of the Trinity. The curriculum could be used as a series or independently as it does a good job of looking at the character and nature of God. Creative Bible Lessons on the Trinity would probably work best with smaller groups (such as Sunday school or a small group Bible study), especially if you intend to go through the who book. It might be too deep for middle school youth, but could also serve as a great introduction. Like all youth ministry curriculum there is more here than most youth workers would need for a youth ministry program, and it is certainly not a perfect tool, so its important to plan, prepare and choose the pieces of each lesson that best fit your context. I would recommend this curriculum for youth ministries looking for a good, fairly easy to use resource on the Trinity.

Rev. Marcus J Carlson has worked with children and youth for over 13 years and is a spiritual director. He current serves as Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, CO. (marcusjcarlson.com)

Published at Youthworker Online (A part of Youthworker Journal)

Read the online article here

Avoiding the Perils of Fundraising: Five Tips

Most youth workers do not get excited about fundraising. Whether it is for the ministry budget, for the youth trips or to help fund something else, it is not in most youth workers’ nature to enjoy fundraising. Sometimes money can be seen as a necessary evil in ministry and rarely do we ever feel as though we have enough in churches, especially in recent years. Youth workers should not see fundraising as an enemy or a necessary evil. It is not the most meaningful or enjoyable part of my work with youth, but I have learned some things over the years that have helped with this area of youth ministry programming and leadership. These five tips are not the only things that need to be considered as we look at fundraising in youth ministry, but hopefully one or more of them are helpful to you.

Tip #1: Be Organized

Many people do not see youth ministry or youth workers as the organized type. While that can be an unfair characterization, the nature of youth ministry along with the personality of youth workers can tend to lead to more chaos than organization. Pulling off an event or youth group lesson at the last minute is very doable. Pulling off a fundraiser at the last minute is ill advised for many reasons. Chaos is difficult when you are raising money and failing to be organized often creates frustration amongst youth, parents and the congregation. The last thing you want to do when fundraising is to create negative experiences and emotions. Failing to be organized can hurt a fundraiser, but more importantly it ruin relationships as well as future fundraising efforts.

Tip #2: Know your Context

This tip applies to everything in ministry, which should be obvious to us, but I have often forgotten about context when planning fundraisers for youth ministry. For example, a youth auction (for the youth to work) is going to go well in a congregation with a lot of older members, but if most of the people in your church are under 60, it will not go so well. You are not likely to pull off a car wash if your church is located close to a car wash that has great prices and a great reputation, especially if its January and you live in Minnesota. When planning for your fundraisers, think about your church, your community and consider what other fundraisers are happening in the schools before you plan you fundraising efforts. Build fundraising traditions that will last and can best engage your youth, families, church and community.

Tip #3: Diversify

Make sure you have diversity in your fundraising efforts. I write about this in ‘Taking a Balanced Approach to Fundraising’ if you want to know more, but the summary of this tip is that you need to have variety to your fundraising. Offer different types of fundraisers at different times of the year. If you do not have diversity in what you do in fundraising, you will often miss a portion of your youth, church and community who may want to participate. Not everyone is good at selling things, nor is everyone’s life built for giving up a Saturday to work. Some families do not have much money to give, but have plenty of time, while others are just the opposite. If you do all your fundraising inside the church, you will miss out on opportunities to have visibility in your community. If you fundraise only in the community you miss the chance to build support for your ministry in your congregation. Make sure when you think about fundraising to mix things up.

Tip #4: Plan Ahead

This goes along with both tip #1 and #3, but the possible redundancy is worth it because these factors are important in fundraising. When I started at one church, I was asked if I could do a fundraiser that was not in May or June. Apparently all of the fundraising for mission trips that happened in July was done in May and June. Besides being a terrible time for fundraising, the lack of planning caused a lot of stress for everyone due to the lack of planning. Even if you work in a context where money is not an issue for your families, most people need to know ahead of time about costs and fundraising. Make sure to do most of your fundraising so that it is completed at least one month, if not two months, before the event you are trying to fundraise for.

Tip #5: Don’t see Fundraisers as an Enemy, but an Opportunity

If you have an attitude that fundraisers are the enemy or that you should not have to do them, you have already lost. As leaders, how we view things always impacts how well we do them and how well others respond to them. Many of our challenges around fundraising in youth ministry are directly related to our attitude towards them. Everything in life and ministry can be an opportunity. Sure, a mission trip is much more likely to create life change than a car wash, but if we see everything as an opportunity to help our youth and families encounter Christ, then our fundraisers can become meaningful experiences for our youth ministries.

Fundraising is not going away, and we need to consider our approach to this piece of youth ministry often treated as an annoyance when we should see it as an opportunity. Hopefully these tips can help us all to not only be more effective in our fundraising, but also in how we approach the parts of our job and ministry that we are not as passionate about.

Rev. Marcus J Carlson has worked with children and youth for over 13 years and is a spiritual director. He current serves as Associate Pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, CO. (marcusjcarlson.com).

Published in Connections Magazine (Nov/Dec 2011)

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Simply Christmas

By Rev. Marcus J Carlson

Christmas is certainly one of my favorite times of the year. I would love to be able to say it is only because of the birth of Christ—but if I am honest, while that is the main reason I love Christmas, it is not the only reason. The reality is I love everything about Christmas—well, almost everything. I will admit I am not in love with all of the consumerism, nor do I enjoy shopping with the multitudes. Thankfully, I usually finish early. I enjoy the preparatory and anticipatory nature of Advent. I love Christmas parties, time with friends and family, sending and receiving Christmas cards, and eggnog, to name a few things.

I have a mild obsession with Christmas decorating, aspiring to be a slightly classier Clark Griswold. In fact, last year I had so many decorations inside and outside of the house, we could not have the Christmas lights on and operate our garage door without blowing a breaker. I have since solved the problem with an electrical upgrade rather than a decoration downgrade. Those who love Christmas usually have one thing they hang on to—and maybe take a little further than the average person. For me, that thing is holiday decorating.

The love for Christmas is rooted in my upbringing, even though my parents were not at all churched. While I have continued this love for Christmas, I have also found my love for the holiday has taken its own unique form, especially since I became a father. With children ages four and six, Christmas is filled with a very special magic that reminds me what it really means to celebrate: to anticipate and to have a childlike faith. I love the children’s excitement for Christmas—their inability to sleep Christmas Eve, the looks

on their faces Christmas morning, their joy in receiving gifts. My hope is that their joy is about more than gifts, but I am also realistic about the world in which I live. I, too, love gifts, and each of us—no matter how much we resist the consumer nature of our culture—have stuff we like. Like many men, I love gadgets, especially from a particular store that has a partially- eaten fruit as its logo.

In the midst of all that comes with Christmas—much of which can be a huge distraction from the real meaning of the holiday—there is always a moment where it finally feels like the coming of the Christ is upon me. The singing of Silent Night on Christmas Eve is the moment where I am most aware of the coming of the Christ child. It’s a simple song, full of power and beauty. Christ came to earth in such a unique, humble, powerful, unexpected and simple way. Our North American culture, including the church, has lost sight of much of the real meaning of Christmas, and even the most faithful Christ followers can get caught up in all of the other stuff surrounding Christmas. Our Christmas celebration today looks nothing like the first Christmas.

One of my good friends, a colleague and a brother in Christ I have known since college, once offered me a challenge regarding Christmas. He and his wife had made a decision to try and keep Christmas simple for their children. They decided that each year they would ask their children to find a toy they really liked—not a toy that was junky or never used—and at Christmas time have them give that item away to a charity to be given to a child in need. They also decided to limit the gifts for their children to three gifts to match the number of gifts that the Christ child received.

At first, I thought the idea was noble—but also probably too much for me. Upon further reflection, there was something about the simplicity of this approach that resonated with me. As my wife Jessica and I discussed the thought (and pondered how poorly this idea would land with the grandparents), we realized we wanted a different Christmas experience for our own children. One of our great hopes and dreams as parents is that our children would be raised to know, experience and live out those things that really matter to Jesus. We want our children to be missional, to see the world as Christ does: caring for the least, the last and the lost, and ignoring the world’s values and messages that are sometimes too quickly accepted by the church.

One of the values that we believe is a kingdom value, but not necessarily a cultural value, is simplicity. In the end, we decided to scale down Christmas, not exactly to the extent my friend suggested, but pretty close. It was interesting telling our parents that we were only allowing three gifts from them for each kid, and it has been interesting enforcing it as well. We had to make an exception for clothing, recognizing that most kids don’t see clothing as a “gift”—and without clothing from our parents at Christmas, our children might have to walk around unclothed.

Exceptions and enforcement aside, it has been a great gift to us and to our children. Christmas is cheaper, simpler and more focused on what matters. We explain the number of gifts to our kids, reminding them of what the holiday is all about. We hope that as they grow up, they might enjoy the gifts that come with Christmas, but more importantly to know the One who is the giver of all gifts and has given us the greatest gift of all, Himself.

Like any loving parent, I want my children to have the best life possible, but I must have the strength to remember that the best life is the life Christ has for them, not the life our culture tells me they “need.” In embracing simplicity, we connect in a deeper way to the power of Christmas and teach our children and youth a little bit more about God’s kingdom values.

I love all of the trappings of Christmas just as much, if not more than the next person, but I have also come to realize that as a follower of Jesus, a pastor, a parent and as a human being, I need to embrace a different way of seeing and experiencing Christmas. God sent the Christ child to earth in this unique way for more reasons than we will ever be able to comprehend, and I am convinced that one of those reasons is so we might constantly embrace simplicity in our lives. When we fully embrace our culture’s version of Christmas, we miss out on the abundant experience Christ has for us—and in some ways, we fail to be a light to those who need to experience the Christ child.

May all Christ followers be people who enjoy the gifts of the Christmas season, embracing simplicity and allowing the God of the universe to redeem this holy day for all. Amen.

Published at Youthworker Online (A part of Youthworker Journal)

Read the online article here

Relational Fundraising

By Rev. Marcus J Carlson

There are countess articles, books and sermons discussing relational youth ministry. Relational youth ministry has become more than a buzz word as church and para-church youth workers have emphasized and practiced some form of relational youth ministry for decades in many cases. While there are multiple definitions and forms of relational youth ministry and it is not without its strengths and weaknesses, there is no question about the importance of this approach to ministry. I recently read a book about youth for teachers that had Harvard influences and much of the thrust of that book was on a relational approach to teaching when working with youth. Recently it struck me that perhaps the relational approach to ministry should be applied to fundraising. As I contemplated this notion, I realized several things that have shaped how I view and approach fundraising in youth ministry.

If I look back on my own ministry career, it is obvious to me that quality of relationship has had an impact on my ability to raise funds. I have also found this is true for many of the youth I know with a couple exceptions. Those exceptions tend to be the youth who are either incredible at selling things or are very hard workers. My most successful fundraising has happened in contexts where I have the best relationships. In church settings where I was not as successful at building relationships with parents, congregation members and the community, I struggled more with fundraising. In contexts where I had more success at building relationships with parents, congregation members and the community, I had significantly more success with fundraising. In ministry settings where I had great relationships, I have found I was able to raise $12,000 when I needed $8,000; I would get at $5,000 donation when I wanted to ask for $500. If I look at all of the youth I have worked with over time, those who had more social capital (more significant adult relationships) had overall better relationships with adults and congregation members and raised more money with greater ease.

It all sounds pretty obvious when you think about it right? It should, but the reality is that many ministry leaders, especially youth workers, struggle to have a complete, healthy, theologically solid approach to money and ministry. Whether it is concern over salary or budget, an inability to manage our own financial resources and our budgets, or give financially to the ministry, youth workers can struggle when it comes to ministry and money. Healthy relationships build trust and ownership. Where there is great relationship, there is trust and ownership; where there is trust and ownership, there is support. Money in ministry is not as much about resources or management as it is about relationship.

I am not suggesting youth workers or youth build relationships for the purpose of raising funds. That would be ineffective and more importantly wrong. One of the fruits of good relationships with parents, congregation members, businesses and other adults is a willingness to share financial resources with those people we love and trust. Thinking about relational fundraising is just another reminder that relationship is at the core of what being a Christ-follower is all about.

As youth workers, relational youth ministry should not be focused solely on our relationship with youth. While should be a priority, our ministries are much more powerful (financially and otherwise) when we focus on relationships with parents, youth, congregation members, and other adults and businesses in the community we serve. Relational fundraising is not about the dollars and cents; rather it is about our ability to build trust and ownership in our communities.