I am Jason Roth Next Generation Minister at Reedy Fork Baptist Church Greenville, SC. Our church is a long established church trying to find it's way into the future God has for us. This blog is to reveal more about me and to let you into my world. You may see some rather random and sometimes hard to understand thoughts on here. I use writing as an outlet for things that are hard to say. Much as King David did with his Psalms.
Jason is available to speak at your next ministry event. best described as energetic, passionate and intense, he would love to bring God's word to your group. If interested please contact him at RFBCNextGen@gmail.com
I saw a commercial for a new Kenmore washing machine the other night and it brought back memories of some early days working the floor in the Hardware and Tools Dept at SEARS. In those days SEARS was beginning a downhill slide and I left right before a major shake up of management and corporate structure occurred. Working there taught me an appreciation for retail and coupled with other various jobs I held I can no longer enter any retail establishment without critiquing everything from store layout to cleanliness to customer service. One thing that I have noticed that sets stores that I love to stores that I hate is what I term as “the difference maker”. ”The difference maker” is loosely defined as the ingenuity and motivation and innovation to do something that no one else is doing and to do it better than anyone else can. Which brings me back to the Kenmore commercial. It has only been recently that I have seen commercials for this brand that have been for products that seem innovative. I remember when I worked for SEARS Kenmore products had the reputation of being good but they were non-descript or bland. They were simply a copy cat. The other brands were more expensive but were offering new technology and were beating out the Kenmore products. That is, at least in my store. I don’t know facts and figures for that time or now so don’t come back at me with them I am giving testimony from where I was at. The point is now they are making it known that they are innovating new products and are trying to position themselves as a leader int he market.
I said all of that to make this point. How many churches simply blend into the background and are nothing special. They simply get by as a cheap imitation of someone else and because of that they are often passed over by the people who want the best. Let’s not fool ourselves, there is one body of Christ but there are enough choices for a person to make in where to worship and co-labor with that someone can be picky. If the church up the road is really reaching out and really making a difference why would I go over here to the inward focused do-it-the-same-as-always church. As church leaders we should be finding our “difference maker” the thing that sets us apart and makes us unique and valuable to the Kingdom and its work. When we find it we should pursue it and never look back only look ahead.
It is no secret I love facebook and twitter. I update my status more than anyone know. FB stays open in some window at all times when i am on the computer. I play games and send messages. I use it for work and for school and for fellowship. I talk to other youth pastors across the country and ask advice and give encouragement as well. It has been a great source of entertainment and relaxation. But what I never realized was the power facebook had to unite people or reunite people.
It has only been a short year and there have already been two miracles in our family through Facebook that I would like to share. The first happen in the closing days of 2009 and into the new year. My wife had long known that she had a sister from her father’s previous marriage. She knew her name and where she lived and where she went to school. What she did not know was how to contact her or how to make that initial contact. If you think about it, that is an incredibly awkward situation. Questions arise inside your mind and you stress on how you will be received. It must be an frightening experience. Well a few days before New Years my wife decided to do a search on FB for her sister and she found her. Through a number of messages they arranged a time to meet and will do that very soon. It is an amazing time for my wife and saying that she is excited is not an adequate expression of her feelings.
The next miracle that FB as but an integral part of is in my family. At the age of thirteen I lost my older brother to an untimely death. He was only 28 years old when he passed and left behind a beautiful family including a 2 year old son. That family lost contact with us over the years and we did not know where they were. For several years now we had searched in vain trying to find them. We found my nephew’s mother’s obituary on the internet a couple of years ago but still could not locate the kids. This week my mother called and asked me to search him on facebook using his whole last name. I did and there was one person on all of facebook with that one name. It was him!!! I add him as a friend worried that I might freak him out. Apparently as I did that my dad messaged him as well. I was worried that he might react negatively to us but he reached back and I got to chat on FB with him for almost two hours Tuesday night.
I have a whole new love for facebook now. Most importantly I have a greater appreciation for God’s grace to think that this was just a coincidence is foolish only God could orchestrate two such encounters in 3 short weeks. I look forward to the coming weeks and months as I get an opportunity to talk and get to know the family that God has given back to us after so long.
What is the one thing essential to the survival of our civilization? What one thing if left uncared for and ignored will result in a complete and utter destruction of everything we have worked to accomplish? The answer is CHILDREN. If a society does not care for and raise up children with values and integrity then the future of the society itself is in danger. So is the case of the church. The church today in most places is exceedingly aging. And while our adults and senior adults are valuable and still have a lot to give we must look toward the future and remember that when we are gone someone has to continue the work. Accept this is no ordinary work this is the honoring of our God and the salvation of souls. If you look around the congregation at Reedy Fork on a Sunday morning you will notice that there is a terrible lack of children and young families in our ranks. And contrary to belief it is not because they are hidden away in children’s church or nursery or somewhere else. It is because they are not here at all. It is an epidemic that is slowly chiseling away at the fabric of our future.
So what is the solution? First, leadership must ask themselves “WHY”. Several weeks ago I sensed that things were declining in youth group on Wednesday nights and I had to take a tough look at what I was doing. I had to be critical of myself and it hurt. I had to make changes to things that I had all planned out and was quite satisfied with but I knew it had to change. We too need to take that same look churchwide whether it be in youth or children’s ministry or in our worship service or any other ministry we must ask the tough questions. Second we need to encourage our families to be here. Note the wording there is encourage and not scold. Fussing and fuming and condemnation will not bring people back into our fold only love, care and concern will. Thirdly if you are a young family reading this YOU need to be here. There is nothing more important than your commitment to God and His church and allowing yourself to drift into the apathy of casual church attendance will do nothing but harm to your relationship with God. I understand that the world is enticing you with all the wonders of what it has to offer but there comes a time when you have to make the decision that God is most important above all and that time is now.
I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.
And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .
Socrates posed the idea that the unexamined life is a life not worth living. The concept behind this rings true for me on a variety of levels. On a personal level the culture surrounding us continuously sells us a bill of goods on how to think act and speak. It is commonplace for a person to accept the “standards” of success, beauty and happiness that is flashed in front of them. In reality those ideals can be unattainable and leave us empty. On a professional level there are many who would qualify their work by certain benchmarks and the professional world would uphold those as the keys to success. But what if their is something more? What if success is more fluid and less concrete a concept? On a spiritual level as a Christian it is easy to fall into the trap of going through the motions and adhering to the “do’s and don’ts” list that we like to promote. But what if Christianity is more than prayer, study and going to church three times a week? Does abstaining from sex, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and foul speech really qualify me to be a golden boy of the Christian faith? To me a life unexamined means accepting the status quo which means missing the point and the greater things in life. Average is okay but in any arena in this world average does not accomplish much. As a avid sports fan I know that if your team is average there will be some changes made , usually starting with leadership. Average does not take much effort and as the adage goes “nothing worth anything comes easy”.
To question the truth of Socrates statement appeals for ,what I believe to be ,a complicated answer. At the core of the statement and the beginning of complication is the word “worth”. As I have learned in the few lectures that I have covered to date the principle focus of philosophy is to question and discover truth about fundamental ideas. So when we discuss the “worth” of something we have to ask “What is worth” and “Who determines worth”. There is also some problematic phraseology here at the end of the statement. Surely we would not advise someone to take there life if they were not willing to examine their lives. Could their lives make an impact if they simply accepted the status quo? I am positive that there are many people that have accepted th status quo that are dearly loved and treasured. They may find fulfillment in the status quo but may also be blind to what they are missing. It seems that from an outside in perspective that the statement has merit but their are many other co-factors that need to be addressed before it can be expressed as implicitly true
A friend posted this on youtube this morning and I found it moving
What we have here is the vision of someone to get an eclectic group of people from around the world and unify them in one voice and one song. What is sad is that as a Christian I am convicted that we are not that unifying force. No quite the opposite it seems that we cannot stop infighting long enough to focus on our message and purpose. My friend Gman blogged about the whining of churches. This is an example of how the infighting isn’t centered inside individual churches but amongst the church worldwide. What has to be done to become unified? What could we accomplish? I certainly hope that I get to see a great revival in my lifetime. I desperately want to be part of a massive movement of God. It is so obvious that the fields are ripe for harvest. in this day and age of disenchantment and cynicism people need something to hold onto something concrete that will not fail. The only thing they will find to fill that void is the love of Christ.
Steven furtick posted a great blog this morning here
It addresses a concern I have had for some time about motivations. To many times it is about where we stand as a little c church and not a big C church. That is why we are floundering. That is why 75% of my county is not attending church and not being productive Christians. We need to focus on reaching people for Christ no matter where they are or where they wind up attending church. I often tell people who either inactive or unhappy with our church that they need to be involved in a church and if they don’t like ours anymore find one they can be active in. In the end it is about the Kingdom expanding not my church’s roll
While serving in my first paid staff I served under a great man of God who enabled some shifts in my philosophy of ministry. One of those shifts was the concept of Ministering where the ministry was. That is to say that one should not get bogged down in a format to the point that is missing out on opportunities to reach people for Christ.
This is a plague on many churches that are either stuck in tradition or sold on a “model”. Too many times we force things that we think should work but don’t work in our situation. For example, if you have a youth ministry that meets on Sunday night but have more youth coming to your Wednesday night function that wasn’t meant for them then you need to shift your efforts to Wednesday night. This may seem simple but think about how mind blowing and earth shaking this would be in most churches. To take a long standing beloved program and eliminate it in favor of something new on a completely different night would make many church members take up arms. This is an unfortunate reality but a reality we must deal with. The fact of the matter is that many churches let decades pass before they make changes. In the end many people slip through the cracks and fail to be ministered to. This kind of tragedy is one that the church has far to long turned a blind eye to and is why Sunday attendance and church membership is slipping at an alarming rate.
When you get right down to it there is no Biblical mandate for when we minister only THAT we minister. So find where your ministry is and get going.
