“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Isaiah 52:7).

We commissioned our student Spring Break Mission teams this week in worship. The band led us in “O, For A Thousand Tongues” as hundreds of students and leaders paraded into the worship service behind the flag of the people they go to serve. Isaiah was right: beautiful.

345 students giving up their Spring Break to serve.

85 adult leaders giving up a week of work to serve.

Our juniors and seniors to Guatemala. About 90 students and leaders.

Our freshmen and sophomores to Mexico. About 100 students and leaders.

Our eighth graders to Redbird, Kentucky. About 70 students and leaders.

Our seventh graders to inner-city Houston. About 80 students and leaders.

Please join our prayer vigil for these generous students and leaders.

Here is what trust in the Lord may have looked like to one of our heroes from the Bible:

Four Reasons Social Media Should Matter to Ministry Leaders

Young Adults Doing Religion on Their Own? Blame It on Politics — Politics Daily.

Last week, the number-crunching folks at the Pew Center released a report titled “Religion Among the Millennials.” It’s part of an ongoing analysis of the generation of young adults between 18 and 29 years old.

This report was a meta-analysis of lots of surveys done over the past several years, some by Pew and some not. Many of the results seemed pretty “duh” to me: Young people tend to lean left politically, be more open to change, more tolerant of differences than their elders. It has ever been thus, ain’t it? ….[READ MORE]

John 15:1-8 is the text in question. Jesus says things like: “I am the True Vine…Remain in me, and I will remain in you…no branch can bear fruit by itself…neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…apart from me you can do nothing.”

I’m an avid distance runner. I’m fairly accomplished and have some natural ability. When I want to accomplish something in my running, like run a certain time or distance, I know the formula: up my mileage, increase my pace, stretch well, eat well, etc. I often translate this kind of formula to my spiritual life: read my Bible more, pray more, have more self-control, etc.

It just makes sense that I follow that kind of formula because it is what works in other parts of my life and it is what I’ve been taught over and over in my life. But that is not the formula for Christian spirituality.  Holiness in my life is not going to come through my ability, my hard work, my willpower. Holiness will only come through how I relate to the True Vine.

Do you see why I am left scratching my head? Grace is just so confusing. It runs counter to everything I know. It challenges me on every turn to let go of my perceived ability.

I’m challenged in this to rid myself of the ways I’ve been taught to improve myself, and embrace the only means I know of fixing anything, which is reliance on Christ.

The question then is not ‘what am I doing to bear fruit?’. No the question is ‘how am I intentionally allowing God’s life into my life?’.

You can find the UMCOR website here.

I’m sure you, like me, are highly engaged in the latest news coming from Los Angeles about The Tonight Show. I never get into entertainment news, but this debacle of Leno vs. Conan is just too much. As I hear the plans of NBC, I just can’t help but think how this is a move I would expect from an organization like the United Methodist Church. Let me explain.

Why invest in Leno at this point to the exclusion of Conan (and especially Fallon)?Leno’s show is tanking. Conan’s show, while not doing great, is not nose-diving down in complete failure. So, I do admit that it makes sense to help Leno achieve success, but at what cost? Do you sacrifice a relationship with Conan? How many more years does Leno have in him? He’s already retired once. Conan has another 15 years for the Tonight Show and he is able to connect with a younger generation, which the Tonight Show has basically just handed over to the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

The short-sightedness of this move is something I would expect from the United Methodist Church. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve heard and articles I’ve read about developing future young leaders.  But I see so little action. Appointments are often made as a metaphorical Leno and Conan. The assumption is that “the Conans” in our system (or any system) will stick around until the metaphorical “Lenos” are finally done. Very short-sighted.

At some point, the “Conans” are going to jump ship. Can the larger organization fault a Conan for leaving? Is there a place where you will receive a chance to succeed then why not follow that path?

(by the way, I’m not trying to say that I am currently thinking about pulling a Conan and leaving the organization)

All at once with those words everyone stands in the same shoes. The woman and the religious leaders are in the exact same condition: guilty. Guilty not by some relative standard of religious righteousness. Guilty by the standard of the Holy One.

I AM the Light of the World.

In Christ, our lives stand exposed. Bonhoeffer says that “man only knows who he is in the light of God.”  All of our hiding, all of our masks, all of our self-righteousness falls away because the Holy One, the great I AM WHO I AM judges our lives. There is a certain agony to this kind of exposing light. I would much rather lurk in the shadows than come clean about my issues. I would much rather shirk back in shame, than confess what the light exposes.

But in this agonizing light comes freedom as John chapter 8 leads us to these words of freedom, “then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Specifically, we are looking at the seven I AM statements of Jesus in John:

I AM the bread of life

I AM the light of the world

I AM the gate

I AM the good shepherd

I AM the resurrection and the life

I AM the way, the truth, and the life

I AM the true vine

When this series was first brought up as an idea, I thought it sounded great to have a Christologically focused series. Quickly, I discovered that a series like this is very difficult to articulate. A series like this is steeped in good amount of heady theology. The first week (I AM the bread of life), I tried to set up the whole series by remembering the Moses story of Exodus 3. It turns out that trying to explain I AM WHO I AM as a 7 minute part of a 25 minute sermon is very difficult!

Throughout this series, I want to continually point to Exodus 3 ( the revelation of I AM WHO I AM), because Jesus is I AM. But however mysterious we may find I AM WHO I AM, we find description (even flesh) in Jesus. I think of Paul’s words “He is the image of the invisible God.” I AM WHO I AM is utterly mysterious, but in Jesus I get a glimpse of mystery made flesh. In Jesus, I AM is explained to me in terms of metaphors I do understand: bread, light, gates, etc.

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only” (John 1:14).