Legalism, Lawlessness & the Gospel of Grace

This past weekend over a hundred young adults representing at least 6 different churches attended this first annual Young Adult conference. It was a good turnout for the first time and we hope it only gets bigger as we go. Personally, I loved seeing the expression of unity among the churches since that's such a rare thing around here.

Pastor Conrad Mbewe from Zambia came as our speaker to address the topic of Legalism, Lawlessness & the Gospel of Grace. He went through the Parable of the Prodigal Son and used the three main characters to speak to each area of that theme: the older brother was the legalist, the younger son was the lawless one, and the father taught us about the gospel of grace. After the talks we split up into small groups to discuss what we learned and how to apply it to our lives.

My role was helping lead worship which I thoroughly enjoyed. I recruited my friend Riko from my church to play guitar and sing along with me. Initially it was a challenge to come up with songs that people from multiple churches would be familiar with, but it ended up going well as there was at least something that everyone could connect with. We got lots of good feedback and look forward to putting together a full band for next year!

But as they say a picture speaks a thousand words, and you don't want to read a thousand words, so here's a few more photos for you to enjoy!

Our conference theme t-shirts

Hanging out at the conference

One of the church choirs leading us in worship

Discussion groups after the main sessions

Q&A panel with Pastor Mbewe and Pastor Spencer

With Pastor Mbewe and some of my NETS students

Staff Training Week

"First and second are tight halfway through our 10 laps followed closely by Knight in third. The car in first tries to take a tight corner and...Oh No! He spins out and the car in second broadsides him! Knight opportunely avoids the wreck and jumps into first place!"

That's how the commentary might have gone if we'd had an announcer during our staff outing to the go carting track as part of our staff training week. No it wasn't extreme driving training, but a chance to get out of the office for a little team bonding. We had 3 seeding heats where everyone participated, even those who had never even driven a car before. Then the top 8 drivers advanced to the 10 lap Grand Prix for the ultimate prize and bragging rights. It was a fun outing, and yes I did come in first, but only thanks to a little help from someone in front of me!

Standings for our go-cart Grand Prix

The victors on the podium

Staff training week did also include some work. We met together for sessions about our vision and mission as a school and had some profitable discussions about how we can do what we do better. We also had plenty of planning meetings for the upcoming semester. So after all that hard work you need some time to blow off a little steam on the race track! :)

There and Back Again

Up to now, going to Namibia had always been the visit. Whether for 2 weeks or 12 months, I knew I was coming home afterward. But this was the first time for me that going to the States was the visit.

This summer my mom was throwing my dad a big birthday party and invited a bunch of out-of-town friends and relatives, so she asked if I might be able to come back for it. It happened to land during our winter break in between semesters at NETS. So as soon as we wrapped up our semester I jumped on a plane to head home for 3 weeks.

I spent the first week in beautiful New Hampshire. It's been a looong time since I've experienced a good NH summer. People asked me if it was weird being back, any reverse culture shock, but what surprised me was how normal everything was. I walked into my church and it felt like I could've just been there last week. I visited with many friends and picked up right where we left off. I had no restaurants I needed to rush out to eat at. I wasn't overwhelmed at the incessant overabundance or wealth of America. It was all just . . . normal. Not that nothing's changed over the last year, but I wonder if I've just been back and forth so many times now that I've learned what to expect and to accept each culture for what it is.

In NH, I had opportunities to share with groups from a few churches about what I've been doing this past year. I got to visit my church small group and hit up the youth group pool party (they all grew up so much in the last year!). It was nice to be back helping lead worship and catching up with this community that has been my extended Christian family for so many years.

After a short week in NH, I flew down to North Carolina to spend time with the fam and visit with friends from my seminary days. I stopped in at the B&G Club where I used to work to see how much those kids have grown. I got to share with a few other churches and small groups. I know it's only been a year away, but it was so great to be able to reconnect with so many people who've helped make it possible for me to serve over here in Namibia.

Just like old times, except I didn't win	Visiting with friends in NC, who made many Cheerwine desserts!

By my last weekend, lots of extended fam had come into town to celebrate my dad. It was the first time in a long time that my whole immediate fam was together so naturally we had to take family photos. The rain held off all afternoon and we had a nice party out at the park, complete with pirate minstrels. That evening we took a little too long to make plans, so after rushing to get there we only caught the end of the fireworks show through some trees. But to make up for it we went for Cook Out milkshakes and saw some fireworks over the Family Dollar parking lot (classy!).

Helping my youngest nephew learn how to walk	Fun family photos

I wasn't joking about the pirate minstrels!	Family Dollar Fireworks

It was a whirlwind tour, but it was still great to see people again, even for such a short time. Hopefully next time when I come back it will be for a bit longer so I can spend more quality time and see more people than 3 weeks would allow.

Spiritual Formation

What does spiritual maturity look like? What are some markers or gauges of how you would identify spiritual maturity? How would you diagnose your own spiritual condition? What strategies do you have in place to grow in spiritual maturity? These are just a few of the questions we addressed this past weekend at our youth seminar on Spiritual Formation.

I had the opportunity to speak for a few hours on Friday night and again on Saturday morning to a group of about 20-25 teens and young adults from two different branches of the Uniting Reformed Church in Windhoek. They were a very interactive group and based on their feedback they seemed to really enjoy the material.

One of my biggest concerns in youth ministry is the focus on external religion. Many churches have youth programs simply because they want their youth to look, speak, and act a certain way. As long as they follow the rules, don't get in to trouble, and don't embarrass anyone, then they are generally left alone, maybe even ignored. But the problem is that a bunch of rules don't make a relationship with God. Spirituality isn't about the external life. You can have great looking external religion and still have no inner spirituality. Those are fakers or what Jesus called hypocrites. He railed on the Pharisees for exactly that, being externally religious but having no inner spirituality. And most of youth ministry is about exactly that, it's busy addressing external symptoms rather than treating the heart disease.

The key to youth ministry isn't trying to shape externally religious people, but internally spiritual people. Because inner spirituality can't be separated from external religion. It's an internal reality that will inevitably manifest itself in the external life. As we shape and form our inner spiritual lives, it shows up in how we look and speak and act.

So our goal this past weekend was to understand how spiritual formation works, and by understanding it, to hopefully develop a strategy for our own spiritual formation. We started by looking at what spiritual maturity looks like. Most people have a conception of spiritual maturity as external religion, but we emphasized the inner spiritual life. Then we went through 10 questions for personal spiritual diagnosis. Then, after understanding our goal and understanding where we're starting from, we looked at strategies of how to "get there from here," things like addressing sin, changing our desires, intentional community, and spiritual disciplines.

Groups studying a Bible passage	Groups drew and labeled a picture of a spiritually mature person

At the end of the seminar some of the leaders told me that many of their youth were not available to come this weekend and invited me to come back another time to teach those others also. I handed them my course notes and said, "Now you know the material so you can teach it to those others." That's what multiplication is all about, training those who will train other also. Don't be impressed, that strategy is not original to me. The apostle Paul did it first (2 Tim. 2:2) and Jesus before him. That's what it takes to turn the world upside-down.

Rules for Driving in Namibia

1. Never indicate - it gives away your next move. A real Namibian driver never uses indicators.


2. Under no circumstance should you leave a safe distance between you and the car in front of you. This space will be filled by at least 2 taxis and a BMW, putting you in an even more dangerous situation. 


3. The faster you drive through a red light, the less chance you have of getting hit.


4. Never, ever come to a complete stop at a stop sign. No one expects it and it will only result in you being rear-ended.


5. Braking should be as hard and late as possible to ensure that your ABS kicks in, giving you a nice, relaxing foot massage as the brake pedal pulsates. For those of you without ABS, it's a chance to stretch your legs.



6. Never pass on the right when you can pass on the left. It's a good way to check if the people entering the highway are awake.


7. Speed limits are arbitrary, given only as a guideline. They are especially NOT applicable in Namibia during rush hour. That's why it's called 'rush hour....'


8. Just because you're in the right lane and have no room to speed up or move over doesn't mean that the Namibian driver flashing his high beams behind you doesn't think he can go faster in your spot.


9. Always slow down and rubberneck when you see an accident or even someone changing a tire. Never stop to help - you will be mugged.


10. Learn to swerve abruptly. Namibia is the home of the high-speed slalom driver thanks to the government placing pot holes in key locations to test drivers' reflexes and keep them on their toes.



11. On average, at least three cars can still go through an intersection after the light has turned red. It's people not adhering to this basic principle that cause the big traffic jams during rush hour!


12. It is traditional to hoot at cars that don't move the instant the light turns green. This prevents storks from building nests on top of the traffic light and birds from making deposits on your car.


13. Remember that the goal of every Namibian driver is to get there first, by whatever means necessary.

~ I don't know who the original author is, but it's brilliantly true so I'm reposting it!

Pressing On

This semester in NETS Community Devotions the lecturers preached through a series on the book of Revelation and are now finishing up the semester with a 3 week series on Haggai. This past Thursday I preached from Haggai 2:1-9, an encouragement for God's people to courageously continue God's work. You can download it here or listen below if you'd like.

NETS Fun Weekend

This past weekend, the Student Council at NETS planned a great community outreach weekend. On Friday night there was a Gospel Show. There were all kinds of acts like different dance groups and solos, church worship teams, spoken word performers, and some a cappella groups. I signed up for an act and recruited a friend from church to sing harmony with me. We performed "For The Moments I Feel Faint" by Relient K and "Your Hands" by JJ Heller. It was a great night with over 200 people in attendance!


Then on Saturday morning we were all back at NETS for a Volleyball fun day. The students had organized a volleyball tournament and we had food, and games, and water balloons. There were two teams from local churches, a team from Youth For Christ, a NETS student team, and I organized a NETS staff team. The NETS staff team had a very strong day and never lost a game, taking home the trophy in the end. The students already want a rematch. ;)