After being in So. California for just short of 9 years, I moved here to Portland.  When I left I was saying I looked forward to having seasons (winter/spring/summer/fall).  My ongoing joke was that Southern California’s seasons are: summer/spring/fire/windy.  That’s the truth!  Don’t get me wrong, there are parts to living there that are great.  But if you like to have any sort of season’s, that’s not the place.  Fire and windy season are true “season’s” there.  Now I’m sitting here in beautiful Portland where everything is green, florescent leaves on tree’s, amazing!  Then, I got some pictures sent to me from southern California.  These, once again, affirmed that I don’t miss it one bit…

I’m doing something like this in our church. Not through this organization, but if you don’t already have something set up this could be a great opportunity for you and the people you work with.

Yesterday I received an email inquiring about teaching topics.  If you’re looking for a topic or series, here’s one idea of three I wrote about in an article called, “Top Topics for College-age People to Hear” that I think hits one of the core needs of college-age people!

I believe that a lack of understanding of our sin nature is the number one thing that will cause a college-age person to shrink back in his or her faith. During late adolescence, people are beginning to see much more of themselves—the good and the bad. Dealing with the guilt of sin, in my opinion, is the number one contributor to college-age people slipping into “mediocre Christianity” and the thing that most often will hinder them from truly engaging in a life of ministry. Most college-age people, like other stages, feel as though they’re the only ones struggling with that particular sin issue. They need to know they’re normal.

So, I’ve taught the following messages frequently in our ministry: 

1. Dealing with shame and regret (a walk through Psalm 51). Shame of sin causes us to run or hide from God, just like Adam and Eve in the garden. 
2. Putting sin in its place (Romans 7:14-8:1). This talk basically deals with wrongly identifying ourselves in sin, rather than in whom God has made us to be in Christ. 
3. I also typically will add two or three more messages to this series related to what I’ve heard or know specifically people are walking through at the time.

I’ve recently heard that some people are beginning to call our younger people (including college-age) “The Justice Generation.”  Everyone from major Christian organizations, campus ministers…to Mtv are all calling for involvement in the world and community.  On Mtv last night they were pushing record sales by having a portion go to an organization that serves the community.  My hunch is this will really help boost sales.  First of all, of course I think the support of such organizations is great.  But, I also have some thoughts/concerns/cautions/questions I would like to throw out about this recent push toward justice:

1. I’m bummed that, once again, the church isn’t leading this movement.  This type of service to our community and the needy in the world is no longer a way we can be different.  The reality is the secular culture is pushing this more than the church.
2. The push to serve the community we live in can be a biblical push, however I also think that Jesus can be lost in our push to serve.  This is a huge concern.  We have to be able to help our people understand biblically why we serve – beyond just being a part of a cultural or generational value.  If we don’t provide a biblical framework and reasoning for our service we’ll eventually lose.
3. Along with the push to serve, we have to equip our students with how to help their friends understand that this cultural movement was originated with Jesus!  The Church must begin to show the world that their concern with the needy and helpless is a biblical concern.  However, we must also be willing to face the push back that will come – people will automatically question us as to why the Church hasn’t been doing this all along.  Great question.
4. I’m concerned that young people will begin to understand Christianity as service rather than worship of Jesus.  Service is simply a form of worship.  Jesus defines Christianity and is the reason we serve.  We cannot lose Jesus in our serving.  

This is about Jesus.  I pray we can keep our focus…

When we’re doing budgets, there’s always the question of what we spend where.  So, I thought I would give some thoughts on allocating money from my years of preparing them.  Because we all have different dollar amounts, different line itemizations, etc. (if any at all), here’s a very basic breakdown by percentages that could serve as a general guideline:

35% toward Discipleship/Equipping - this included money for couple’s who host students on a weekly basis, anything that helped assimilation into adult-life of the church, one-on-one times of discipleship (coffee, meals, etc.), resources, etc.

35% toward Events - this is not high because we did a lot, it’s high to subsidize costs.  In fact, most of this would go into one winter retreat and mission trips.  This included student scholarships, money toward the expenses of older mature believers coming along to build relationships, etc.

5% toward Campus Ministry – this is a small percentage because the best campus ministry is equipping the students individually to reach the campus versus doing major campaigns, etc.  Those can be effective, but not necessarily on commuter campuses.  Generally, I never spent this full amount.

10% toward Weekly Gatherings/Programming - this includes anything that goes into the service you have or gathering point you put on, whatever the format (aka technology, atmosphere stuff, coffee, anything that goes into that time…)

15% allocated as miscellaneous - this is a cushion put in the budget.  Vision tends to change and evolve over a year’s time – at least it should – so this amount was allocated to allow room for those changes and additions to what God was doing in our ministry.

Ok, I have to let you in on this – and no, they’re not paying me to say this, nor do they even know I’m writing this.  Future of Forestry has come out with a new Christmas EP that is really, really, good.  Eric (lead singer) is a long time friend of mine.  Despite my friendship with him, he is truly one of the most creative song writers/musicians/producers we have in the Christian world today…for sure!  If you haven’t gotten their album “Twilight” I would highly recommend that as well – I listen to it frequently.  However, this Christmas EP is amazing.  They did a concert for my college ministry last year with these songs and quite honestly, blew everyone away.  Traditional songs, totally new perspective.  Here’s a clip of them recording the album:

Future of Forestry Christmas (part 1) from future of forestry on Vimeo.

If you’re interested in purchasing this (which I would highly recommend), click here.  Although they’re signed with EMI, this is currently ONLY available on their site – at a discounted price.  If you would like to listen before you purchase, click here.

Well, I’m extremely excited to announce this first, here!  If you could benefit from some training in the area of college ministry, more connection with others in similar contexts you’re in that you can share learning experiences with, access to more practical resources, etc…it’s on the way!  At CollegeLeader we’ve developed a Learning Network just for these purposes!  We’re set to launch in March 2009.  Here are some of the things you’ll be a part of in the learning network:

1. Monthly 90 Minute interactive web-based seminars, covering topics specifically for church-based college-age ministry.  This is web-based where there will be a seminar given (you’ll have powerpoint, notes, etc. as you watch the seminar) and a time for Q&A – you can ask live questions – anything, anytime you want and we can discuss it.
2. Q&A sessions with prominent leaders in the American church today. You and I will sit down with these people and ask them their thoughts on the church today, college ministry, books they’ve written, etc.
3. You’ll be a part of the learning networks cohort system - a smaller network of approximately 10 people in similar ministry contexts that meet together monthly with a CollegeLeader mentor for Q&A and deeper discussion through the Monthly Seminars (and any other unique needs you might have in your ministry at that particular time).  This provides you with a network of people you can learn from as well as teach through your personal failures and successes.  It also provides you with ongoing connection with a college ministry veteran that can give you advice and perspective from their years of experience.
4. As a part of the Learning Network you will of course get a bunch of free resources, as well as ongoing discounts on pretty much anything we do through CollegeLeader.
5. You’ll also get exclusive articles that are not published anywhere else, written by college ministry veterans from around the country.

This has not much, if anything, to do with college-age ministry.  But I saw two pictures today and various thoughts ran through my mind with each one.  This first one is a bit more serious, while the other is not so much.

The first thought that ran through my mind with this was, “I wonder what Christendom in general would be like if we had to have guards while we gathered for prayer?”  The second thought was, “I wonder how our service’s and ministry philosophies would change if we were actually persecuted here in the US?”

On a lighter note…

This picture, well, I had a number of thoughts race through my mind.  The first was, “Oh my gosh, that guy has huge ears!”  Second, “I wonder if he had to get that hearing aid specially made?”  The third thought was, “I’m pretty sure they all have to be made uniquely for the person.”  Fourth, “That really stinks I’m laughing at this guy in the picture.”  But I left the picture with, “Well not knowing anything about the picture or guy, it is a pretty funny looking picture.”

I’m sure if you looked at some pictures taken of me you would be able to laugh as well.

Twitter has been around for a while and people have been trying to get me to do it.  But I’ve firmly resisted. But I had a long day today at DMV and thought that I could’ve used twitter to humor me and a few others while sitting there, waiting FOREVER only to find out I couldn’t do what I needed to do.  Anyway, I thought, “Man, if I had twitter right now I could at least make fun of DMV and people could at least laugh from my experiences.”  So, I’m now twittering.  Signed up.  Done.  username: chuckbomar 

oh man, didn’t think I would get to the point of doing that…but it could’ve given me something else to do rather than return some emails and play “brick-breaker” on my blackberry!  I’ve gotten to level 29.  Ok, so that lets you know how much I play – but truthfully, I (usually) only play it on planes.  If my ADD-like brain isn’t motivated it can help time go by a little faster – and certainly could’ve helped me today at the DMV.

I’m sitting here in a great little coffee shop in Portland.  I come here often – it’s about 1 mile from my house.  I come here on colder days because there’s a fireplace with leather chairs around it and I love sitting in front of the fire writing, reading, working on messages, etc.  Of course today there’s someone sitting in my seat – so I’m eavesdropping on his emails…you know what they say about paybacks. 

All that aside, this morning was a painful time for me.  My immediate family is doing great, but I can’t say the same for the rest.  My mom just left her 3rd husband and is trying to justify it as being God’s plan for her.  There’s nothing more frustrating for me than hearing her justify her actions this way.

My sister has been having marital issues for a while, but I just found out that she is separating from her husband, leaving her 4 year old daughter distraught as to which clothes she’s going to leave at daddy’s house and which will she bring to mommy’s.  This little girl is completely confused and even though her parents think they’re protecting her heart, the fact is they aren’t.  They’re seeking the selfishness and arrogance of their own.

I’ve told them this in as loving way as I know how.  I no longer know what to say.

Many college-age people have this type of life experience and suffer from a tweaked view of marriage.  They were that little girl (or boy) at one point.  They’re now gun-shy, afraid, and in fear of making the wrong choice in a spouse.  But, although these feelings and emotions are real, they’re not from God.  They are rooted in the sinful decisions of sinful people – not in confidence in God’s original design and intent for marriage.

If you work with college-age people, you MUST help them prepare their hearts and minds in the area of relationships, but more importantly God’s design for them.  It starts with changing their thinking, giving them models to follow, and walking alongside them as they prepare themselves to be “the right person.”  It’s much more effective than trying to “find the right person.”

If you need a resource on this, I have a 3 part sermon series I taught to those in my college ministry called, “Relationships by Design” and one on the book of Song of Songs that you may want to check out.  But, whether or not you use these resources, we do have the responsibility of helping our college-age people in this area.  Effectiveness in college ministry always includes helping people think through relationships from a biblical perspective.