Lasers, Lightsabers, & the Church

I heard Phil Dooley from Hillsong discuss this topic, here's some of what he said. Recently, I was considering how supremely cool Luke Skywalker is. You may remember him from Star Wars...he was the coolest guy ever to wear a bathrobe, simply because he had a LIGHTSABER!!
At the start of the year we talk about vision; this stirs our hearts and builds excitement about the year ahead.

But...how do we see this vision become a powerful reality?

Well let's consider a LASER...(yes, time for a science lesson).

A laser is simply super-focused light which creates extreme power (especially in the hands of Mr. Skywalker).

So, what does that have to do with church vision?
I discovered 4 KEY ingredients to create a LASER, (you want to know this, because secretly you want your own laser...)

1. A Light Source
2. Monochromatic light
3. Organized
4. Directional

1. Church vision, personal vision, all must have a 'light source'.
A light source stirs up atoms, as the atoms get excited they emit photons...creating more light.
God is light (1 John 1:5), He is the source...when you connect with His light it stirs vision inside you, and it stirs vision within a church. Your spiritual atoms get excited and start producing more visionary light!

Problem is, we stop there - but you can't stop there! If you do, then you will have a mass of visions but no focus, therefore little power and little effectiveness.

2. Laser light is 'monochromatic' this means it's ONE color. There's no power if we see each other differently. For the church vision to be focused and powerful we've got to realize were ALL one colour...sinners saved by grace. When we focus on our differences - different racial groups, languages, doctrines, education and backgrounds, we lose. When we focus on Christ's blood that colours us all the same, we win!

3. Normal light is random, where as laser light is organized. This increases its focus and it's power.
Sadly, in church life there can be many random visions but no strategy, no plan and lack of working together to make it happen. Organization requires developing a strategy to outwork the vision, a humble spirit to submit to others and a commitment to work together.

Someone wise once said, 'Vision without strategy is just a hallucination!'

4. Directional...again normal light is random. It heads in all kinds of directions, where as laser light heads in only ONE direction.

Imagine how powerful our church vision would be if we all headed in the same direction! This is called UNITY...unity sounds great until you have to die to your own agenda for it - then it becomes painful and powerful all at once.

There's no power in vision without the cost of unity. Heading in the same direction creates incredible momentum over time.

Everyone wins and everyone gets to celebrate, as vision becomes reality! (Now, go out and buy yourself a nice bathrobe.)

Good Experience #6

Adopting a Little Sister

            I love family – it means everything to me. I’ve gone through a few family divorces, but 11 years ago, my mom and step dad decided to adopt a girl from Korea, which is awesome because I am adopted as well. So they adopted a baby girl when I was about 10. I cannot tell you how overjoyed I was to have a sister because I already had two brothers who annoyed the snot out of me! I remember the day that we picked up my sister from the airport. My family, along with extended family all waited at the terminal anxious to get their first glimpse at my sister, Lexi. When she arrived, everyone was speechless, but still full with emotion and lots of tears.

            As I grew older, so did she, and it’s been an amazing experience to have a little sister that I care so much for. She always wanted to be around me and hangout with me, and she still does. In a way, it is a glimpse into what it’s like to have a daughter someday. Loving someone so much that you’d do anything for them. 

a          I love what 1 Corinthians says about love – its patient, and kind, not envying, proud or boastful. I love that because that is exactly the kind of love that I have for my sister Lexi. She always says that I’m her favorite brother (I tell her that she can’t have favorites and that she has to love us all the same), and sometimes I don’t know if that’s because we are both Korean and both look the same, or if its because I show that I care about her more than my brothers do, but, I love her with everything I’ve got. Even today, I go home once a week just so that I can hangout with her and spend time with her. I text her daily so that she knows that I love and care about her. Sometimes she’s annoying and just wants to make me mad, and sometimes I’ll blow up at her, but I still love her. I probably spoil her just a little to much, but I love doing things for her. We make sure that we have our monthly dates where I take her out and we do something fun just the two of us. Being a big brother has been such a great experience.

Good Experience #5

Being a Youth Pastor

            As I said in my good experience post #4, this past year has been vastly different for me. I am completely in it to win it for the local church. Not only do I lead worship for a church of 4,000  plus, but I am one of the youth pastors for a youth ministry of 600+! Leading worship is easy compared to youth ministry, let me tell you! This past year I’ve been so fortunate to be able to step into a different role besides worship. Being a worship pastor is second nature to me, but being a youth pastor is completely different. What I do in the youth ministry is that I am the gatherings pastor which means that I am responsible for every aspect of our gatherings. I lead our student leadership in which we have 40 student leaders and I am responsible for them and our training times. I oversee worship as well partially because I know what needs to happen in that department and I make sure everything goes well in that department.

            But this year has been an amazing experience because I get to help shape and develop the future leaders, pastors, businessmen and Christians of tomorrow. I preach every other week and  I get to speak life into these students, who before hearing about Jesus, didn’t have a life or a future. It’s a huge responsibility and I do know it. It’s a great feeling knowing that I am doing what God has called me to do, but, I know that these students take everything I say seriously which means that I am under a lot of scrutiny! I have to watch what I say and do. That feeling brings a lot of pressure and sometimes its overwhelming.

            I’ll end with this, youth ministry is hard! If only for the sheer fact that these 600+ students are real people and they look to me for advice and leadership. Every week I hear a story from a student about what they’ve gone through, or what they’re going through and it breaks me. I’ll drive home every week and be broken because of what my students are going through. A few weeks ago, one of our leaders came to me after the Friday night gathering at winter camp and told me that a student of hers told her a story. She goes on to tell me that this girl who is in Jr. High has made some bad decisions and that she her boyfriend did something to her that she didn’t want and this Jr. High girl is hurt and confused. She accepted Christ that night and although the scars and pain don’t just fade, she’s found true love in Jesus. These stories affect me as they do with every youth pastor, and these stories make me want to be the best pastor I can be and do everything I can to point them to Jesus, because what they need more than a friend or an open ear, is Jesus.

Good Experience #4

Traveling for Music

            I want to start off by saying that I do boast in anything that I am about to write, that is not my heart. It’s only by God’s grace that he’s used me in these ways. For the past four years, I’ve had the opportunity that not many students get to experience. I’ve been at a larger church where I get to lead people in worship every week and create a greater culture of worship, and I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the west coast leading worship for camps, conferences and churches.

            My freshman year, I had the opportunity to lead worship for the Assemblies of God network youth summer camps, I had the opportunity to lead at some churches in the area outside of Cedar Park like Timberlake, Eastside Foursquare, Newlife in Everett and Overlake. This was a sweet gig because not only is it a great experience, the pay is equivalent to a full time job. This helped my financially so that I didn’t have to have a job during the week and it allowed me to focus on ministry and school.

My Sophomore year was probably the craziest year of my life, but as far as ministry, I flew to Texas to lead worship for the Southern Texas A/G youth conference. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been to, they packed out a huge building with over 12,000 students! To say that I was nervous was a vast understatement. I had the time of my life and they stayed me in the nicest hotel I had ever been in – the 4 seasons. I felt unworthy to even pee in the toilet! But I still did because I had to J

            My junior year I had the privilege to lead for the A/G network youth camps, but also for the youth conference up here, along with flying from California, to Colorado, and Arizona to lead for conferences and churches. Side note, another benefit from all of this travel is the airline miles – I have accrued enough frequent flyer miles that it paid for my ticket to Hawaii this summer! And all of those times I flew were not paid for by me! Anyways, most people don’t get that opportunity in their lifetime and by God’s grace, I have been able to minister and help shape and grow the worship cultures at the various venues that I’ve been fortunate to lead for.

            My senior year (my current year) I haven’t traveled at all. I’m called to ministry and I love traveling, but I believe growth happens in the local church. So this past year I have been at a church in the area, leading, but more importantly raising up future worship leaders and equipping the saints of not only tomorrow, but today. I don’t want to lead worship in the long term, probably only for a few more years, but while I still am, I want to be completely intentional with raising up worshippers in the local church.

Good Experience #3

Full Ride Scholarships

            Piggybacking off of my story about myself playing sports in high school, another great experience took place after that, when collegiate Division I schools were offering me full ride scholarships for baseball. I had always saw the National Letter of Intent Days of signing for Division I football players, and I always thought it would be cool to do that same thing. I had the opportunity to do that.

            It started my junior year of high school, after we had won the state championship my sophomore year, and I was a All State First Team member for Washington 3A baseball. The summer of my junior year I had the privilege to play on a summer ball team with some of the best baseball players in the Northwest. We traveled to Omaha, NE – Honolulu, HI – Dallas, TX – Nashville, TN – Miami, FL – and China. It was such an honor and a privilege to be apart of this elite company. Every place we traveled to, their were scouts for all the Division I teams; Duke, Texas A&M, Texas, Cal, USC – you name a Division I team, and they had scouts at every place we played. It was towards the end of July when we went to China to play in the World Baseball Classic and that was the moment in the season where I was really picking up my game. The baseball conditioning coach for UW traveled with us and he took note on my playing.

            A few weeks later, after one of our baseball practices at UW, then baseball coach, Ken Knutson, came by and talked to me. He said he’d seen my highlight videos and that he liked what he had seen. We talked for only five minutes and asked if I and my parents would meet with him in the next week and of course I said yes! A few days later, I came back with my parents and we met Ken. He showed us around the athletic facilities and locker rooms and told me about how “prestigious UW is…” yadayadayada… The meeting took about an hour and a half and at the end of it, I got to meet former head football coach Tyrone Willingham and got offered a scholarship to UW! This was the happiest moment of my life. Words could not express how I had felt in that moment. I’ll be completely honest and say I kinda felt like a big deal. That summer I had received offers for scholarships to UW, WSU, Oregon State, Bellevue Community College and Cal – all of them were different, some were full rides, some were partial, but it still felt great to be wanted.

Good Experience #2

Baseball

            I went to a Christian School my whole life until 10^th grade when I started attending a public school. I came into public school with no friends, and feeling alone. I was always a band geek and never popular. I realized one day that I wanted to be popular and I wanted everyone to like me – so I tried out for the sports teams, although I had never really played. First came football – I tried out and made varsity as a running back / sweeper. I never knew how hard football was until I had to go through two a days. Practices were exhausting – practicing two times a day in 80 degree weather is close to hell. The first year I lettered and had a great time, but no one really knew me and I kept to myself, so then I tried out for basketball – I made JV, although basketball is definitely not my sport and I don’t really enjoy it, so I tried out for baseball.

This was it. There is no better feeling than stepping out onto the field for the first time in a season and playing baseball. If I had ever experienced a moment of euphoria, it would have to had happened on the baseball field. I tried out for baseball, never have played and I made varsity. I started out the season on the bench, but 2 games into the season I started. I loved every moment of baseball. I would stay 2 hours after practice twice a week to practice fundamentals, not because I had to, but because I wanted to- I loved practicing. My first year, my sophomore year, we won the 3a state title. I received all league honors and got the game winning double in the state semi finals.

For never had played baseball, I was pretty proud of myself. It was the most proud I had ever been of myself. The hard work paid off. I was on the front page of the sports section in the Seattle Post Intelligencer after my game winning double, and it would have seemed that it could not get any better, but it did.

My junior year, I not only received all league honors, but was All State First team. This was the highest honor that you can receive for high school athletics. I led the state in stolen bases, and batted .440. That summer, I played for a summer team, in which I played with people like Jake Locker – we graduated the same year. We had the opportunity to travel to China to play in the All World Classic, and although we didn’t win, it was still an tremendous opportunity.

It was when I started playing baseball that kinda felt like – this is what I was made for. I enjoyed every moment of it. My accomplishments in baseball are one of my greatest experiences.

Good Experience #1

Ministry

Ever since ninth grade, I knew that I was called into vocational ministry. It was a Thursday night at summer camp when I was at the altar and the preacher came up to me and called me by name and told me that I was called into full time ministry. I had never met the man and he had never met me, yet somehow he called out my first and last name. At that point I knew that this was something bigger than I or the preacher and it must have been God.

At that moment I couldn’t explain the feeling I had. It was so surreal because, how do you explain or comprehend something bigger than yourself. When you ask people how they felt when they were involved with something bigger than themselves, its almost like words cant explain it. After the 9/11 attacks, a reporter asked a woman who was in one of the towers what she had felt, and she said… I can’t even explain it. When you are apart of something bigger than yourself, words can almost not describe what you are feeling. It was a God moment.

Ever since that point I had my vision and I knew what God had called me to. After that moment I was very intentional about being involved and around in ministry, doing whatever I could to serve. I came early on Wednesdays before youth and set up chairs- whatever I could to serve and be around ministry.

Whenever I don’t wanna do ministry or I feel discouraged, I look back to that moment when God spoke to me through the preacher. In the Old Testament, when God spoke to his chosen nation Israel, or did something significant in their lives, they would build an altar of stones to signify that God had done something in their lives, and the altar of stones would help serve as a remembrance. For me, that night at summer camp serves as a remembrance as to God’s faithfulness and what he has called me to do and to accomplish.

Types in College Worksheet

Part One
List your four letter communication type code | ENFJ
How does your communication style based on your code relate to the following areas?

| choosing a major
I am a ministry major and my Myers Briggs code is really perfect for me and my major because I am an NF as well as outgoing and detail oriented. This works out great because I have also thought about going into business and to be a business leader, it takes someone who is NF and detail oriented.

| learning style
My learning style is to pound through tasks and be very detailed oriented. I have no problem with learning with people and can infact help learning. Interacting is important to me, as well as being hands on.

| reading, writing and studying
Like I said, I enjoy working in groups when it pertains to studying. Some would say that you get less done in groups due to socializing. But I like that. Sometimes its better to work with people, and be a little less productive and have fun, then to try and pound it out yourself. In a way, it kind of makes learning and studying fun.

| playing
I am an extrovert. I get my energy from being around people. I like leading groups of people and it energizes and pumps me up. I have my times where I like being alone, but those times are usually reflective only.

| stress
I enjoy stress, and a possible cause of stress is that I enjoy working under stress. I feel that I am more productive when there is stress and deadlines. It forces me to get my butt in gear. Although it isn't probably the most effective way to use and deal with stress, it works for me


Part Two | communication strategies

1. Select a person in your life who you would like to improve your communication with. (Roommate, boss, professor, parent, brother or sister, friend) | Father
2. Based on your observations of this person, guess their four letter code. Explain your guess. | ISTJ
My dad is introverted, he likes to be by himself and think about things more than going out. He likes judging and he is very structured and likes things as they always have been. Change is hard. 

3. Compare and contrast your code with them. |  
We are completely opposite. I am very outgoing and social, although we are both judging and like things very structured and like things as they always have been. 

4. List ways that you might adapt to their communication style to improve the relationship. | 
- Stay in more. Don't always ask that we go out and do something. 
- listen to what he thinks more