DLC 2

My four highlights from today.

1. Starbucks for breakfast! I had a Venti White Mocha and an apple-ginger spice loaf (Aubrey would have loved the loaf).

2. Throwing a football on the St. Louis Rams field.

3. The evening worship time was what Dave Curtiss calls, "God-drenched." Dave spoke about the broken state of youth ministry (perhaps even the complete misdirection of it), which really struck a chord in my spirit. He said that Barna says that close to 88% of 20-30 year olds who were involved in youth groups are no longer involved in church. What happened? He pretty much left us at the sad point, but said it was time for youth ministry to be redirected or thrown out for something different. After he did that, our worship leader sensed a real need just to pray for direction for youth ministry and the brokeness of our kids. I got a major sense that I needed to seek the Lord, rather than go into my brain and try to pull out ideas. Then we had a prayer time for each other, which was really encouraging.

4. The 'emergent/whatever' conversation at Friday's, 2 blocks from our hotel. Brian Hull (check out his blog at http://gilborules.blogspot.com) gathered some people together, and we worked through some good issues. Main focuses were how to handle homosexuals with grace (or how to teach our people to handle homosexuals with grace), the importance of Scripture, and how to help the Nazarene church become more missional and open.