My year working as a protégé at National Community Church is in the initial phases of coming to a close. I have been able to do some great work with family ministries and hope to stick around in a volunteer capacity once this year is out. In many ways, I feel I have come full circle to my ministry days with King’s Kids (Youth With A Mission). Creating discipleship moments for kids and parents to take part in together was something I left a long time ago. Coming back to it has meant the world to me.

So many of you have been a part of this journey through time spent over coffee or meals you’ve surprised me with. I have appreciated your encouraging words on the phone and over email or social media—not to mention the financial support some of you have provided in order to help me hit my monthly budget. For this I am forever grateful.

In July, I will be going on a mission trip to Congo (DRC) to work with kids at an orphanage and encourage and equip those who care for them. I am part of a group from NCC that will be traveling there for a week to check in on an orphanage we built and continue to support. My role on the team will be to help with kids’ programming, leadership training for local leaders and pastors, and—absolutely no doubt—French translation. I may be the only fluent French-speaker on the team!

I can’t promise you that donating to my cause will increase your life span or help you win the Publisher’s Clearing House. Even if you did, I would argue it was just a coincidence. But I can guarantee that in giving to this cause, it means that we’re in it together—you and me—that part of you is invested in ministry with me, and that we will accomplish great things together. Please prayerfully consider making a contribution, small or large, and join me in the Congo.

In Sunday school I was taught not to covet—it’s one of the Ten Commandments—but I do covet your prayers. In addition to this Congo mission, I will be sharing my testimony at a conference in California this summer. I know few whose lives are so equally laid bare. But, I cannot deny that God uses transparency to remind all of us that we are not alone in our pain, whatever that may be.

Thank you so much for your prayer and support. Below is a link to my Razoo giving page for the Congo mission. Please click on it, check out what we’re doing, and consider being a part of it.

Love you guys!
Tim

This has been quite the week! I have read and seen lots of news and lots of interaction—healthy and otherwise—on Facebook and other social media. I have even taken to avoiding riding my bike down 1^st Street, past the Supreme Court, like the plague. Why? Gay marriage is in the news, at the Supreme Court, and maybe even next door! Some evangelicals may feel like the Church has lost its fight, like we are being thrown too quickly into a world for which we are not prepared.

Conservative evangelicals, like me and so many others, find themselves digging in for a longer struggle against a culture that largely accepts gay marriage. So, how do we approach the issue with our gay neighbors or coworkers? Do we change? Or, do we need to find a new way to engage?

1.     You’re not in Kansas anymore!
Like it or not, the world will never be the same—the Church will never be the same. Saying you’re against gay marriage because you’re a Christian, because the Bible bans the behavior, or because it is “gross” doesn’t even earn you respect in a machine shop, let alone the public square. Everyone knows someone who is gay. And if they don’t, they probably have that uncle who always brings his friend to the family Christmas party—and everybody’s fine.

Being gay is not like being an alcoholic or a cancer patient. Being gay is merely, well, being gay. We need to let go of the analogies that fall far short in helping us understand it and accept it for what it is.

2.     Educate yourself.
If you are an evangelical Christian, against gay marriage, and have never read a book on the topic or listened to someone’s story, you are behind—far behind. Watching Modern Family won’t turn you over to the more colorful side, but closing yourself off to the world and not learning about your neighbor will certainly preclude you from being a light in the darkness. Don’t feel like you need to be able to argue in front of the Supreme Court, but also, don’t just sit there.

Challenge your views. Justin Lee and Alan Chambers each have helpful books (and head up great organizations) that will challenge you to consider things you may have not before. Understanding the other side of an issue is not only good for street cred, but grows your level of compassion for Christians who find themselves in what feels like an impossible situation: being gay.

If you’re a pastor, shame on you if your only research on gay marriage or homosexuality is for sermon prep! You are doing yourself and your congregation a disservice by being so small minded. God forbid someone in your congregation actually struggles with unwanted same-sex attraction! How equipped are you for pastoral care? Weave the topic into another sermon on relationships, loving others, etc. If you wouldn’t dedicate an entire sermon to the topic of abortion, you probably shouldn’t do the same with homosexuality or gay marriage!

3.     Watch your words.
When it comes to the gay questions, our favorite cliché, “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” is hurtful to gay people and is a load of shit. In fact, to steal a line from Tony Campolo, you’re probably more concerned right now with the fact that I just said the word shit than you are with this overly-used phrase being hurtful to gay people! When a gay person hears these words, they do not perceive your love for them, they hear that you hate them and everything they are. Calling sinners to run to the cross in an emerging post-Christian culture is not only ineffective, it is jarring and hurtful.

Homosexuality is a topic of discussion, and a homosexual is, well, an out-of-touch way to refer to a gay or LGBT person. When you say homosexual, you’re identifying yourself as the Golden Girl who didn’t make the cut—prudish, pretentious, and overly Christian—whether you intend to be or not.

Gay is not an adjective synonymous with retarded! Be vigilant when people say things like, “That’s so gay.” It doesn’t matter who you are or what your relation is to the person saying it—speak up! When kids hear this in our churches and youth groups, how are they EVER to see us as safe people to talk to should they find themselves struggling with same-sex attraction?

4.     Be the first to listen.
I still remember listening to a friend of mine in high school explaining how he realized he was gay. This was back in 1999, when very few of us were listening. People just want to be heard. When someone asks if you support gay marriage, as Andrew Marin suggests, they are not really interested in you—not yet anyway. Your one-word response to this question allows them to determine if you are worth talking to, what your values are, and just about everything else about you.

Whenever I am asked about gay marriage, I prefer taking the conversation a bit deeper. So, I respond with a question. I ask, “Do you mean gay marriage as a social and legal construct or gay marriage as a Christian sacrament blessed by God?” This lets folks know I have at least thought it through, and with most, it spawns great conversation and healthy dialogue. Everyone has a different story. Even if they’re not gay, they have a reason why they have arrived at their conclusion.

5.     Mutual respect is not conformity.
Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) publicly reversed his opposition to gay marriage this month, explaining that something led him to think through his decision in a much deeper way. His son told him and his wife that he is gay.

Honestly, I can’t blame the man. While I do not claim to know or understand his family life, I can be fairly certain that he, like so many of us, failed to really think this through before we started talking.

Where do you stand? What if your son or daughter or best friend told you today that he or she is gay? Have you thought that through? What would you say? Where do you truly stand when homosexuality hits home?

It is tough when someone close to you challenges your beliefs in such a deep and personal way. And if you do not waver, it is painful when they don’t understand why you can’t just be accepting. But, if you give it time and work hard at relationship, love and respect can grow without either side having to “conform” to what the other would have them be. Tolerance is not conformity—that’s too boring. Tolerance is fostered through love that refuses to accept division.

It is true that regardless of the level of compassion we hold for the gay community and supporters of gay marriage, some may view us as bigoted, uneducated simpletons. It is our job to carry that cross, to lovingly stand in a culture that does not understand us, to take outrageous accusations and pejoratives as a slap to the face, and to turn the other cheek.

Many of you are probably as dumbfounded as I am over Instagram’s continued success. The startup’s $1,000,000,000—yeah, that’s a BILLION—acquisition by Facebook earlier this year is a guarantee that the app will be sticking around in one way, shape, or form for a very long time. That is, assuming an underground fight club doesn’t bring an end to corporate America as we know it.

So, just pictures, right? Well, right, but as with any social media Instagram is 50% social, %50 brainless activity, and %100 analytics. While my ego gets a boost from the number of likes and follows I see every time I log in, your brand, be it your company, organization, or even yourself, could see a real good return on investment if you play your cards right.

It is hard to see any strong growth in the days following registration and posting the few chintzy photos you manage to pull together. But, I find that the ones that do pull to the head of the pack, like Charity Water, Zooey Deschanel, and Nike, follow these three general rules. Continue Reading…

Sometimes a nonprofit or church has a really good idea, a cause they want to go after. Be it digging wells in Uganda or launching a micro-enterprise network in South America, most groups drop off not in programming and organizaiton but rather in how they communicate their cause.

Working as media director of a small nonprofit startup several years ago, we talked a lot about how we wanted to communicate to our audience and potential donors and how we did not. The following are things I learned as a young media director of a nonprofit that grew exponentially in its first few years.

1. Find your 2-3 key branding points and stick to them.
Whether delivering clean water for better health or providing job training to women, a lot of nonprofits do well in the services they provide. The more your message gets out there, the more people will want to use your, and your organization, as a means to carry out their own ideas. In the organization I was a part of, we had people wanting to feed refugees and others who wanted to provide training to pastors in rural Africa. These were all very good ideas, but they were not our ideas. Continue Reading…