I am a huge Phoenix Suns fan. I know that some might call me crazy to say this is their year and I understand. After all, they have a new head coach in Porter and the entire system has changed. I don't think we will be seeing the fast paced run and gun offense we have come to know and love. However, I do believe the offense and defense will both be better balanced and more stable. I think we picked up some promising young players and if they can step up this year and be good supporting guys then I really believe we have just as good a chance as anyone else in the west.

This season will be exciting and I can't wait to see how it all plays out this year. There is no doubt that the fans are growing restless and desperately want a championship. If things don't happen within the next two years as our already old team gets older, I don't know if we will have a better chance for a long time. GO SUNS!

We now have confirmation that metal has arrived. It is no longer the music of angry youth, it has now spread to the rural areas. Enjoy!!

As I sit inside the Barnes and Noble in Flagstaff, Arizona, I am learning the importance of rest. Have you ever been so involved and focused on one specific thing that you tend to loose perspective? I think artists encounter this problem frequently. Eventually, you loose vision, creativity, and feel trapped(aka: writers block). Sometimes the best cure for this is simply stepping away and focussing on something else. When you come back you will find a sense of renewed vision, creativity, and passion for what your doing. 

Every year our youth group takes a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Nazarene churches from several districts are invited to Christian Family Night. This trip is going to be amazing. Aside from all the short lines and having the park to ourselves, I am most excited about seeing old friends from San Diego. I have not been able to visit for a long time and this is a great opportunity to catch up with those I have missed. I am especially excited for our youth. Every year we have a great time at the park and the beach. I used to be a huge roller coaster fan but in recent years I find myself enjoying the beach much more than the rides. Im pretty sure I have the best job in the world. My "work" involves me investing in the lives of teenagers, taking trips to the beach and riding roller coasters. Yep, I have the best job in the world.

I have just recently been hired as the new youth pastor for Turning Leaf Community Church of the Nazarene. When I first accepted my call into the ministry during my second year of college, I decided to become the full time intern for the two youth pastors at my local church. I learned many things about life and ministry but soon realized I needed to be formally educated in such matters. I then left my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona and moved to San Diego to attend Point Loma Nazarene University. During the summers I worked and interned for a couple different youth pastors getting opportunities to plan events, preach, and minister to youth. After graduation I still needed a formal internship credit so I decided to commit to serving one year under my youth pastor Breck Sneed. I learned some new things but for the most part felt very confident about accepting a ministry as youth pastor somewhere else.

Then the call came. A new church plant in the west valley wanted me to be their youth pastor. After much prayer, I accepted the call and became the new youth pastor for Turning Leaf.
Soon following my acceptance of this new position I suddenly felt this sense of inadequacy and anxiety. Before, I was simply the intern, all responsibility fell to the youth pastor not me. Now all the responsibility for these students was on me. It was in this moment that I felt the weight of such a call and have not taken this call to ministry lightly. Each morning I wake up and feel the wonderful responsibility of being a shepherd. I have all the same knowledge and ministry philosophies that I did before, my perspective has changed. Suddenly, this thing called ministry became so much more serious. My task was no longer to observe, but to lead.

I constantly worry about my performance, this may not seem right, but it keeps me sharp, growing, stretching, and accountable. I don't want to let these students down. I don't want to blow it. So I am constantly seeking God through the process, in the process, and just giving Him praise. I know that as long as I am in Him, grace is abundant. We are only two months along in this new church, and I couldn't ask for better support. My students, parents, and church family are simply amazing, authentic people seeking after God and loving one another. It truly is amazing how a simple title can change your entire perspective. I couldn't ask for anything more.

In my previous blog I wrote about the distinction of planes between spiritual and physical, the rise of the individual loyal to the nation state that has killed the church in America. But what is our hope. If the church is to be restored, renewed, or reformed, How do we go about doing this? I believe that the great german theologian Karl Barth describes this process best in his book "God Here and Now". Barth writes,

"The Church is threatened. Therefore it needs to be preserved...preservation, and therefore renewal, and therefore reformation of the Church, however, can come only from its living Lord. The congregation threatened with death can be protected from death only by Him. The congregation which is already dead can be awakened from the dead to new life and be rescued only by Him. THe hope and the only hope of the Church is that He so speak His Word that the corresponding answer is found among Christians, that He accept and make use of the witness of His apostles once again, that He make the exposition and application of this witness strong, deep, and contemporary in laying hold of men, both for the Christians themselves and also for the world, that he opperate as Lord of the covenant of baptism, that in the Lord's Supper He come and be our guest, that what He has given us be blessed. NO sure hope can be placed in good will, religious sincerity, or in Christian ideals. All this is exposed to temptation and already fallen. All this is the completely human realm of the Church and needs renewal. It can never be the source of its own renewal. He, Jesus Christ, who stands under no threat and needs no renewal, He, the Lord, is the hope of the Church. He-He alone-is its hope. That is what the Church has to express in its polity, to which we now turn in this connection. The polity of the Church must in any case be so formed that it present the least possible resistance to the renewal of the Church by its living Lord, and guarantee humanly speaking the maximum degree of being open, free, and at the disposal of HIm and the reformation which He accomplishes."

We must remain the physical and spiritual body of Christ to be formed and therefore open to renewal. We can not be formed as the Chruch when our individual bodies are formed to competing polities.

There is no hiding the fact that spirituality has become an interesting subject and practice in America today. The fact is that people are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives. They often believe religious disciplines such as yoga or prayer can lead them to self-actualization or enlightenment. People in America today go about the business of life and try to make sure they are balanced and making sure they are getting spiritually filled. It is important to have balance in ones life. We seek after balanced finances, diet, exercise, work hours, family time, intellectual engagement, and spiritual engagement. We seek for a balance between mind, body, and soul. However, our lives are naturally out of balance due to our distinction between the physical and spiritual, separation of church and state.
The good old USA has given its people the ability to choose which religion and spiritual fulfillment best suits their needs. Since we were born we have been taught to be self sustaining individuals. We embrace our individuation, after all, who knows what’s best for us better than ourselves. The problem is that our individuation causes a distinction of planes between the physical and spiritual which gives the church control over the spiritual realm, but not the physical. Therefore the church has no physical body in which to stand politically. However, by partaking in the Eucharist these planes of distinction dissolve and the church can fight for people’s bodies.
William Cavanaugh critiques the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain’s ecclesiology that becomes prominent with the rise of the nation state. According to Maritain, if the church is to survive and coexist with the nation state then there must be a distinction of planes. Maritain wanted the church to have control over the nation state by forming spiritual individuals who would be the moral conscience of the nation state. By distinguishing between spiritual and temporal the nation state and the church can co-exist because the spiritual is subservient to the temporal unless the temporal hinders or impedes upon the individual being spiritually connected to the church body. The church controls the spiritual realm. It is in the spiritual connections of individuals that form the church body. However, the temporal controls the physical bodies of the individuals. The problem with these distinctions is that the physical bodies of the church become subservient to the state because the church is seen only as something spiritual.
The distinction of planes individuates the body of Christ and places it subservient to the state. When the state begins to practice things that force Christians to perform and support non- Christian things, things that impede upon the spiritual, the church has no power to stop the state. The bodies are already formed and controlled by the state and when the Church chooses to stand in opposition to the state then it has no physical body to stand on. The goal of the distinction of planes is to provide the spiritual body of the church with a way to control the temporal, but the temporal always wins unless the church becomes united as a spiritual and physical body. Because the church has now became the spiritual and invisible body of Christ, the physical body of Christ in the world has naturally dissolved. The goal of the nation state is to create individuals because they are easier to control than social groups. By the individuation of Americans, the church has fallen subservient to the state because it no longer controls physical bodies.