What Has Transpired

Supporters,

Some of you have noticed that you have not received your November newsletter. This is because right when we were going to write it, some things transpired. We are writing a letter early next week. Many of you already know the events that have transpired. For those of you who don't,

What has transpired:

For the past 2-3 months, our other youth pastor, Gabe, has been getting ready to leave for a new position at a camp 2 hours North of us. As far as we knew, The Bridge was going to hire his position and I was going to remain doing what I do: stay involved with the youth ministry, pastoring youth; along with some new direction of telling the story of The Bridge via videos, blogs, etc... During this time, we have been planning how and when we were going to break the news about Gabe to the students. Well, the date was set that he was going to work it into his message and tell the kids on Thursday, November 17.

After Gabe gave his message to the students on the 17th about leaving, it was all very sad and all, but everyone was joyful for him and felt like God had something good planned for him. That night after youth, I was approached by one of our board members who invited Kylee and me to join them at their board meeting that next morning, November 18th, at 9 am. We didn't really know what we were going into and prayed for God to have His way, that we would be quick to listen and slow to speak, that we would not react on emotion. We entered the back office to be told that they were in over their head financially, they wanted to rework the structure of The Bridge, and at the beginning of the year they were going to cut our positions. They wanted us to stay until the end of the year but would understand if we felt we had to leave.

Thursday, December 1st, I spoke to the youth ministry with a message that incorporated the events that have transpired, the fact that we need to leave The Bridge, and that we love them dearly, and that we want to stay in Anderson, so it's not necessarily goodbye. It was heartbreaking to give and there were a lot of tears. We are staying on with the youth ministry for what we have scheduled out for the rest of the year.

December 4th was our last Sunday at The Bridge and it was announced to the church our current situation financially and the changes that are being made. They played a picture video as a tribute to us, prayed for us and then had cheesecake. There were a lot of tears and hugs to go around. 

What has been so hard is that we have to leave this beautiful family that we've been so fortunate to be a part of for so many years in order for there to be some healing to occur. The Bridge has been a wonderful place of employment and calling and ministry. It just hurts that this situation we got stuck in got so bad so quickly. It has really been a good situation we've been in for over 4 years now. We've done and gained experience in things that we would not have gotten anywhere else. We don't regret any of it!

Kylee and I have been so so so so grateful of ALL the support we've had over the years at The Bridge. God has blessed us so much by you and by all the hundreds of people we've come in contact with. This is a time of our lives we will cherish very dearly for the rest of our lives. Please keep us in your prayers, as we move forward, for God to clearly reveal what's next for us. We love this town and don't want to leave it if at all possible. We have a great community of love and support around us here in Anderson and would hate to see that go.

I've been dreading writing this email because our supporters have been so much to us over the years, we don't want you to think that it was all for nothing. The Bridge has really been incredible and what hasn't been incredible has really only transpired over the past couple of months. This is a ministry that we pray will continue to grow and change lives. It's a beautiful church with beautiful people with beautiful hearts. It has an incredible vision and a desire for openness that many churches fail to have. And we may be back. But for now, we will begin church-hopping and begin the healing process and pray for God to provide a clear direction of what's next. With each new day, our spirits slightly rise to a new level of excitement for what's next. This is progress and a process.

If you have ANY questions at all, feel free to contact us about anything! We plan on sending out one more letter for this year (next week) and perhaps one more once God reveals what we do next, so that everyone can be informed and praying! He'll provide for us. He always has. We were in this position right after we got married and He provided for us then: He provided you guys. Thank you.

Much inexplicable love,

Phil & Kylee

To Make The Lame Walk

Last week, I told of a situation in a blog post about a friend who was mysteriously paralyzed and the need for deeper prayers.

I get to update you on how God used us to heal this man. Truly God has the power to make the lame walk. I posted an update on that story on our church's storyline site. Go and read it. 

Be encouraged. God is active and moves mightily.

October 2011 and Why I Love Story

Hello to our amazing supporters! This month's newsletter will be in your hands either by the end of this week or by early next week! Hang with us. Sorry for getting a little behind. Our goal is to get out a letter once a month. We've done that for 50 consecutive months now since August 2007. Some later than others and this will be one of those months. ;) For the time being, I'm going to include a post from my personal blog at PhilWrit.es including 2 testimony videos from our students:

Why I Love Story

When I read a book, I am told something about the author. All the lenses and paradigms that the author uses to view life goes into the formation of their ideas and their way of storytelling. If we enjoy a particular author, we research them and gain insight into their upbringing, struggles, successes. We now understand why they are the way they are; why they write the way they do.

Our lives are stories. Unlike a book, however, you can't devour it in a matter of hours. Often times why things are hard to go through is because we can't see past where we are, and we seem to be there forever. The nice thing about a book is that you know it is going to come to a close. When we are "in the thick of it" with our lives, we are often convinced or find it hard to believe that the thick with thin out, that the things that are difficult now will, indeed, come to a close. However, when they do, we are able to see the why's of our hardships and are able to feel better about going through them.

This is because we read our live, our stories, backwards. Because we are human and constrained by a measly two-deminsional timeline, we can only read present and past. In our eyes, the future is "yet to be written." But to a God not constrained by time, He has it laid out, and it's good (check out Jeremiah 29:11). I heard a quote once that said, "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." God redeems all. If not in this life, He has all eternity to work it out. He's that good and our stories are that worthy.

Our lives, our stories - the good, bad, beautiful, ugly - should be embraced. Without embracing them, we are saying they aren't good enough works. To say they aren't good enough works is to say God is a bad Author, that He truly isn't, as the Bible refers to Him, the "Author of life." However, just like a book reveals characteristics of its author, so do our lives reveal the true character of the living God. Our stories must be told; all of our stories -the more, the better.

Here's why:

In 2nd grade, I pooped my pants in gym class. We had to line up to leave in alphabetical order by last name and I didn't want to because "L" was in the middle. So I stood back and refused to participate. A couple of the kids at the end of the line were snickering. They could smell me. Now if some of those 2nd graders today were asked to tell someone about Phil, and that's the only story they knew, they wouldn't be able to give an accurate description...thank goodness.

In the same way, to truly gain a better understanding of who God is, we need more stories about Him. The more stories that are told, the more accurate picture of God and His character is attained. As we do so, and experience our own stories with Him that are worth telling, having a "personal relationship with Him" becomes much more meaningful and true.

The following is a video of a youth student from our church. I've been able to witness a lot of this guy's story, and through "the thick of it," it has been hard to see God. Now that we are beginning to read it backwards, it's incredibly evident that God is all through it. I love Dylan's story, and what it tells about God and His desire to rescue. Dylan is writing a beautiful story. Here's just a bit of Dylan's storyline. Hope you are blessed by it.

Can't see the videos? Go here.

Video of some of our Student Testimonies from the Missions Trip!

Can't see it? Go here: http://andersonyouth.blogspot.com/2011/08/video-of-some-of-our-student.html

Recounting The Missions Trip And The Power Of An Eternal Love

Last week I was on a missions trip with 20 high schoolers through the Minneapolis-based missions youth ministry called YouthWorks.

I got little sleep. It was well worth it.

We went down ready to help change some people's lives. Little did we know the affect it would have on our own.

Somehow I've been entrusted to preach every week at my church. These kids come and they listen. Some of it penetrates their hearts and sticks. But they sit, hear, and talk a little in small groups afterwards. The putting-it-into-practice part comes when you are immersed in it. Rarely will one sermon on one day a week at church cause an immersion, especially when, for many of these kids, going to church is a fairly new concept.

But on a missions trip...oh, on a missions trip, you get immersion. You almost have no choice. You are thrown into it. On a missions trip, you get to see why the Bible compares a church to a body. Church was meant to do, to be active and be alive. To change other people's lives is to change our own lives is to allow God to move. To love one another is to love ourselves is to love God. When we are living this way, we are living at the highest level. We are living in 3 dimensions: Others, God, You. I can honestly say that many of these students have gotten more out of this week of missions than I ever did in high school going to a church camp (...though camp has its place. I love camping ministry. Let's make that very clear).

We were designed to create community and live in it. That's what this week was. We created community and we had no choice but to live in it. We were thrown into it. And at first it catches you off guard. You are doing life differently than what you've become accustomed to, what you've become used to.

And you don't know it yet, but you love it. You love things to be different because, though you don't know it yet, the way you were doing life before was very self-centered. It was not community-focused. It was You-focused. And You-focused is not active. A You-focused way of doing life is stuck, complacent, and desires only to satisfy You. We are not fully alive when we are You-focused. You love yourself before others and this never satisfies you, because you are only living in one dimension - You.

A little over halfway through the week, we began to look past ourselves. All the students received letters from a parent or guardian. And we had to look past ourselves. A lot of us felt undeserving of the love and encouragement found in those letters. So it caused us to look past ourselves. The rest of the week God opened doors to a new way of living. Doors to help us see past ourselves and discover that all people, young and old, poor and rich, of all cultures, backgrounds and races, deserve love if for no other reason than for the sake of love's existence itself. For, we have been changed by love when we least deserved it. Can't we offer the same to others?

And that's when we fell in love with one another.

The last night we washed each others feet; an act of service that made you feel the power of grace, putting you in the place of experiencing the odd combination of feeling both undeserved and honored at the same time. We prayed for each other, hugged and cried. The night ended in a group-hug prayer. We were literally one, leaning on one another, one organism, a body, the Church. Christ's presence, the head of our body, filled the room. Love overflowed in the form of tears and words of truth and encouragement from one to another. We could do nothing else but build each other up. To tear down would be uncharacteristic of the body of Christ. To be self-serving would be inappropriate. God's spirit is what revealed these things to us in that moment. Love really was the only answer. It all hinged on it. Everything mattered because of it. That was truly all that mattered. Love. That's it. Nothing more. For all else, pales in comparison to the Love that God has for us and that we have for each other when we find ourselves united by Love beyond our own understanding. A Love beyond what we are able to produce ourselves. A Love beyond a broken world. The Love that was present before sin, that creates out of a desire for relationship, community, and wholeness. A Love unconditional. A Love eternal.

This. Was. All. That. Mattered.

For God is Love.

My life is a medium to help bring about a bigger purpose; a purpose bigger than my own understanding, but a purpose worth living and dying for.
Blog Home | Twitter | Facebook | Subscribe to philwrit.es by Email

Phil & Kylee ministry update 7/26/11

Hey all. It has been a long time this I've updated you from this blog. In case you haven't noticed, we are reaching the end of July and there has yet to be a newsletter. If you have noticed, thanks for being the ones that care! ;) just kidding of course.

The last couple of weeks, the newsletter has been put on the backburner due to a couple of different reasons. A couple of weeks ago, Kylee's grandmother passed away. We made a quick trip back to MN after already being there for a week due to my brother's wedding. Kylee and her brother ran the funeral. This was a first for Kylee and they did it very well. However, it has been a draining week and a half. This Sunday morning, me, three other adults, and 21 students are setting off for a YouthWorks mission trip in Kansas City, KS. The last week has consisted of a lot of phone calls to students, parents, and people who have expressed interest in donating money for the students. I'm just trying to get everyone on the same page before we leave. There's not enough time in the day.

I'm really hoping to have a letter out by the end of Friday. This Thursday we are leaving ALL DAY with a bunch of students to go to the amusement park, King's Island, which is right outside of Cincinnati, OH.

Thanks for all your support! Pass the word on to those who didn't get this post/email. You are not forgotten about!

Please continue to pray for us. It's a busy time. But good things are happening.

Thanks,
Phil

I'm writing this one on my flight back to Indianapolis after a beautiful weekend of celebrating my brother before he gets married. I'm also heading home to a death of a local student and the debris it has left in the hearts of many people. Several students in my highschool ministry knew Derrick Wilson. I would say hi to him at lunch. I would salute him and call him by his last name. He wore a uniform.

My church brought in a rap artist. The turnout was great and Wilson was there. Wilson wrapped his car around a tree later that night.

I get off-kiltered at the stark detour of death. Certain things that seemed important earlier now seem to pale in comparison. I got off the phone at the Atlanta airport with a student who explained to me how his group of friends had been split in half as of late. A feud had been ensuing for some time now. Wilson's death made that look like kitty poo. Immediately they experienced a reconciliation of their differences and a common understanding of the things that paled in comparison.

Certain things just don't seem very important when death puts life into perspective. I don't have a desire to jam to Party Like a G6. I don't want sober girls around me who "be actin' like they drunk." I want things that are of eternally valuable. Songs like that aren't. Its message has no eternal value. It's like those Magic Eye books where if you blur or cross your eyes just right, a colorful design that looked 2D now consists of some objects that pop out in 3D and the hidden meaning of the picture becomes more clear.

One of my students hasn't had a great relationship with his dad. And rightfully so. I wouldn't either coming in second to booze and being kicked out and left to find the friends that would let me live with them. However, this dad got wind of the death and met up with his son. Began to apologize for all that he has done and then noticed his son's Playstation. They played together till one in the morning.

When life is cruising right along how you think it should, it is 2D. When tragedy rears it's head, we get blurred eyes. Certain things pop out as 3D, as more important. What is important and what isn't is made clear.

It happens this way because dead things stink, and we get used to how they smell. It's like a stinky trash can you don't realize stinks until you go outside, get some fresh air, and return inside to be hit with a wall of stagnant stink. When life becomes fragile, we relearn to take care of it. The fresh air comes, the stink is no longer tolerable.

Students stuck a cross in the ground in front of the tree. Flowers and notes flooded the ground around it as the day went on. Some of my students loved on Wilson's family, expressing their deep gratitude for Wilson's life. A memorial was held after school Monday. The turnout was large. It was clear Wilson's life was one that changed other lives for the better, even through his death. And that's all we can do. Relearn to take care of one another, allow a tragedy to clean us of the trash and take advantage of seizing what pops out as more important.

A great article can be found here. Xavier Cortez (in the article) is one of my students.

Don't be Ordinary - Tell Your Story

This is a post from my personal blog from 2 weeks ago:

In youth ministry it is easy to get into the habit of sticking with what works, especially someone like me: I am afraid of change. My room in highschool never got rearranged. When my sister moved out to go to college, I had an opportunity to move into a bigger room – her room. I didn’t take it. My younger brother did.

But one of the greatest things I’ve done was one of the biggest acts of change in my life: I moved 600 miles from home to go to college. One of the hardest. But one of the greatest.

At youth, I got used to every week being the same – our youth event comes each week, and each week I speak. I got used to putting together talks. I got used to being “the face.” I got used to it all. And so did the kids. But this month has been incredible. We did something out of the ordinary. The month’s series was called “The Beauty in Story.” Every week a new adult volunteer would approach that scary stage with their story in hand. There they shared. They shared their life. And life is messy.

When God created the heavens and the earth, the bible tells us there was disorder – chaos. He spoke into creation an order among the chaos. When we look at our lives, it’s easy to notice the disorder – the chaos. It’s messy. But there is order created because of chaos existing in the first place. The lessons learned, the redemption, the healing – that’s the beauty in story. That’s God creating order in our chaos. So it’s still happening. Turns out that’s at the core of who He is.

For the kids listening, they were able to see a possiblity of order being created among their chaos. Turns out that telling our story may not need to be so scary after all.

I’ve seen so much fruit come of ordinary adults doing extraordinary things – but there’s the room for improvement. It’s too bad that sharing our story has become some extraordinary action, some special act that only some can do. But our world has made it hard with the lie it has bought into – that people will be repelled because of your story. The truth is the opposite. The truth is that those listening are drawn in. In the dark, shine bright your order-being-created-into-chaos. Like flies to a lamp in the deep of night, people come. They see that they aren’t so lost after all. They see that it is possible for beauty to come of it.

I’ve seen student/adult relationships go deeper than they’ve ever gone before, and you want to know the most humbling thing?

I had nothing to do with it.

Tell your story and watch God have everything to do with it.

How to Reach a Youth Group Full of Broken Homes

Recently one of my aunts emailed me asking for advice on youth solutions. They had recently experienced an influx of new teens into their church. On a Sunday the church hits about 150 in attendance, but, during the week, the youth are hitting about 40 and growing rapidly! A lot of the kids are from broken homes (divorced parents), and giving instructions to these kids have become a chore. Here's my response, I think it might be helpful to someone:

"Aunt Margie, Thanks for the birthday week wishes! ;) About your email, let me tell you I completely know where you are coming from. I feel for you and your staff... but I'm oh so excited for you! ... though my answer may not be what you're looking for...

This was my devotional this morning:

Genesis 15:6 (NLT): Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Although Abram had been demonstrating his faith through his actions, it was his belief in the Lord, not his actions, that made Abram right with God. We, too, can have a right relationship with God by trusting him. Our outward actions - church attendance, payer, good deeds - will not by themselves make us right with God. A right relationship is based on faith -- the heartfelt inner confidence that God is who he says he is and does what he says he will do. Right actions will follow naturally as by-products.

As a leader that is always trying to figure out new and more effective ways to do things, I have found that there is no "system" to right something that has been wronged for so many years through nurture (or lack there of). There is no system to right a condition of the heart. God doesn't work that way. Galatians is incredible in getting this point across.

Here's where I understand where you are coming from. So many weeks I find myself yelling over the voices of these kids just to get them to play a game. I find myself getting frustrated and God reminds me of the bigger picture.

You mentioned broken families. Anderson is the 12th highest ranked city in the nation with the highest divorce rate. I think probably close to 65% of our kids are from families with divorced parents. Most of the kids that come to our church don't have parents that go to our church. In fact, we'll find some parents start coming to our church because their kids first felt accepted here. This is so cool!

We have also found that some kids that did grow up going to church became slightly annoyed with the disrespect and whatnot of these new kids. This is a great learning experience for them as well in the area of unconditional love and acceptance.

I lay down the rules. Share some tuff love. If they leave the building, then they left, for good. If they made the conscious decision to come here tonight, then they are in our custody and we are the authority. They have to do what we say, no questions asked. The nights that end up the best is when I then put on a smile, yell really loud and make it a party! Some may not play a game or whatever... that's normal. I pick my battles. You have to find that balance that works for you between being a parent and being a friend. In youth ministry I believe we have to lean toward the side of friendship. They have enough orders barked at them in their life and that'll probably hurt our ministry more than it helps. They have yet to understand our hearts and those who have barked orders have had a bad heart towards them.

Here we go about the condition of the heart. The reason they act the way the act is simply because they have yet to taste the unconditional love and grace of Jesus Christ. In order to be right in God's eyes, we are not required to keep to a list of do's and don'ts. We are saved by faith, not by works. BUT, works is a by-product of faith and keeps it alive (faith without works is dead). So it gets frustrating when we expect these kids to act all "church-like" when they've never experienced the life-changing effects of having Jesus in their lives. The change is from the inside-out. Confronting major downfalls in our lives are results of first allowing Christ to come in and reveal those downfalls to us. What I'm saying is that there aren't any quick fixes to the environments that get created with these beautiful kids. BUT because there are so many struggles these kids are dealing with, when one experiences the life-changing power of Christ coming into their life, it is SO beautiful...and worth it.

Over time they will get it. But it will require lots of patience. You'll get glimpses and that'll provide the inspiration to keep going. I find myself going away wondering if I did anything good for anyone. Then when I see their hearts one-on-one, I'm encouraged that God is always in it. The picture is bigger than me. We are providing a place that these kids don't even know that they are needing in their lives. Some kid may come for a few weeks then you never see them again. Don't worry, you are doing the work of planting the seed. Trust God will use someone to cultivate it down the line.

If these are the kids you are attracting, you are doing something right. I love the scripture when the Pharisees are scoffing at Jesus for hanging out with "those sinners." Jesus says, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have not come to call those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” And when those who know they are sinners confront their issues because you have stuck with them long enough for them to see it in you and taste it out of you, they will long for that same result. Christ's love is perpetuating. And it's like cool, refreshing water and when someone's in the desert, that cool, refreshing water is much more satisfying. It's frustrating for us who know our way out of the desert to be stuck in the desert with them. But this is what God did when he entered our sinful world as human and became a partner in the suffering. How patient was Jesus with those who didn't "get it." So we must also enter their sinful world as partners in suffering. But what a privilege that is, to be Jesus to them!

Stick with it long enough and you'll see the by-products of right action. It will be long and painstaking. But it'll be oh so worth it!

Don't know if that is what you were looking for. Hope this helps. You truly are doing something great!

Phil"