You Only Fail When You Quit Trying

After Katrina's full impact was revealed, and the local government's failure to provide leadership for their people's safety was obvious, the federal government sent Lt. Gen Honore to take charge of their efforts to help. This was a general in every sense of the word, and he hit the ground running and had everyone else scurrying to do - something - anything - right. His words when asked about the magnitude of the failure will live forever. "Some people are just stuck on stupid."

Well, after a flood of reality about just who our youth at New Hope really are, and what they believe, today I shared with our youth team my heart for change. Kids in my era did stuff, but we were cloistered in our neighborhood or in our schools. But now the internet and MySpace and the like, coupled with this generation's desire for everyone to know them for the geniuses they are have given me a long dark look into their souls. And it ain't pretty.

So we're dealing with it by going back to basics - discipleship, accountability, relationship.

It should be odd if a regular attending member at New Hope isn't growing in their faith - not the opposite. It should be odd if a member at New Hope - whatever their age - is caught in a sin - not the opposite. Yes, we seek to be different - not conformed to this world.

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12

We've allowed the culture to be dragging our kids down to its level of immaturity - even at church, and even in our homes. That must end.

Opposition is already building within. Pray for me, that I declare the gospel fearlessly, as I should, and that I help people grow deeper and move away from the world.