The Time I Almost Moved to Japan...Forever.

I loved Mario Lopez in "Saved By the Bell".
I tolerated Mario Lopez in "Saved By the Bell: The College Years".
This was all roughly 25 years ago.

So it's interesting to have Mario coming up in conversation again under the headline, "It's 'dangerous' for parents to support transgender kids." This is the common headline I found in nearly every story regarding Mario's comments.

Two quick thoughts:
1) Read people's quotes for yourself.
2) Mario's actual comments are correct.

When asked about the high number of Hollywood parents who are allowing their children, even at elementary age and younger, to choose their own gender, Lopez responded thoughtfully.

"I'm never one to tell someone how to parent their kids...If you're three and you think you're a new gender, it's dangerous as a parent to make that determination then. There are potential repercussions later...allow kids to be kids, but you've gotta be the adult in the situation.

You can watch the interview here. Start at the 11:30 mark: 

When I was seven, I wanted to be a ninja.
I high-kicked and screamed "hi-ya" all over the house.
My mom made me a ninja costume for Halloween that year.
My parents did NOT send me to Japan to start my training.

Why not? Because I was a child! The ninja thing didn't last long because later I wanted to be:

• Astronaut
• Pro Baseball player
• Archeologist (height of the Indiana Jones craze)
• Teacher
• Several other ideas before answering the call to ministry when I was 19.

Lopez is right. Parents have to be the adults. It's not unloving to prevent the uninformed and poorly formed ramblings of small children to determine their lives. We must train them up. We must let them know that gender is an awesome part of God's plan for every person. That child is no accident!

We are called to love our kids. 
We are called to protect our kids from their own immaturity.
Lopez makes both of these points clear in his full comments. 

Allow kids to be kids. They stand at the threshold of a million possibilities. Our job is not to stomp them into a mold, but to guide them into adulthood. The only apologies that should have been offered in the Mario Lopez saga should be for "Saved By the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas", and by those who unfairly summarized his thoughtful comments into an inaccurate one-word portrayal.

I Agree with a Pro-Choicer

I finally found something I can agree with Alyssa Milano on. 

Milano is deeply grieved over a new Georgia law that outlaws abortions once an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected. Don't miss that word...heartbeat. Those making arguments of support for killing a "fetus" generally are not fans of words like head, hands, or heartbeat.

So Milano has proposed a shocking solution to awaken lawmakers and voters alike to these restrictions of abortion...abstinence.

Mrs. Milano, and those of her leanings, have long maligned evangelicals like myself who advocate for a women's right to choose NOT TO HAVE SEX IF SHE'S NOT READY FOR A BABY. We've been told promoting abstinence is an unrealistic expectation, too drastic to ever work.

Yet, Milano and many of her supporters believe that abstinence is the best answer to prevent pregnancies until they have the right to forcefully terminate those pregnancies at any time. 

Wo to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness
Isaiah 5:20

I 100% agree that abstinence is a great solution to avoiding unwanted pregnancies. How it pains me that some women may finally choose to exercise self-control in order to regain some tragic right of infanticide. As a child once schedule to be aborted myself, my life argues for the value and impact of every pregnancy.

Don't post angry tweets or facebook messages in response to this effort. While the world's message remains painfully inconsistent, let us as believers in Jesus remain as advocates for what is timeless and true. We are not fighting against flesh and blood people, but against dark spiritual powers that have always devalued human life (Ephesians 6:12). Let our message be clear as heartbreak, not hate.

Be a person of prayer for legislators taking these kinds of stands. Be in prayer for men and women who are in confusion on this issue. Be in prayer for the Supreme Court which will very likely be weighing a constitutional challenge to these state laws. Most importantly, be in prayer for the furtherance of the gospel of Christ to those who desperately need to understand they've been created in the image of God who desires to redeem them from their lives apart from Him. 

Lessons I've learned over 2000 miles

After 8 years and 2000 miles run on my personal health journey, I reflected back over what I've learned from "running" that first mile, to my first 5K, half-marathon, and hopefully the Chicago marathon this year.

Here are a few lessons I've learned along the way that are key for running the physical race as well as the spiritual one.








1) Set Goals, but enjoy the run.
I've learned to have goals when leaving out on a run. Sometimes the goal is just to get moving or perhaps a specific mileage, but days I lack a goal I also lack perseverance and quit too quickly.

Commit to goals in your faith life. Not goals to simply try harder, but real measurables.

• I'm going to read the Bible for 5 minutes every day. 
• I'm going to make a personal prayer list
• I'm going to talk to 1 person about Jesus this week. 

You may not hit your goals, but without goals you'll never know if you're improving. 

2) Change your tactics and equipment.
Rafiki was right: "Change is good." (Unless you're making a live action "Lion King" that no one asked for.) I'm constantly changing things to keep my running fresh: switching between music and podcasts for longer runs, trying new trails and paths, or even completely switching shoe brands from what has been historically comfortable to what is actually comfortable today.

God promised Israel a new deliverance through the Messiah who would completely change everything! Some were resistant to the change and missed great blessings as a result. Look for new ways to pray, perhaps prayerwalking through your house or neighborhood. Listen to new preachers online for fresh perspective. Read the Bible out loud to yourself (my new favorite exercise) or listen to the audio features on YouVersion to force your brain to interact with God's Word in a new way!

3) Run with others.
Running is my "me time" and I had been hesitant to share it with others for years. In addition to being kind of a loner, I also was fearful of failing with an audience. Running with others has turned out to be for my benefit! Sometimes I get to encourage a new runner staying alongside them and providing encouragement. Other times I pace with my faster friends like Ethan, Travis, or most of the Fleet Feet lunch runners and find my overall times improving even when I later take a solo run!

Faith, like running, is better in a group. God has created the church for our benefit. We instantly have a group of people to make connections with who can help us run the race of faith. Perhaps your prayer life encourages someone struggling in that area, or someone else's Bible study method could be exactly what you've been looking for. We're all on different places of this faith journey and have much to teach and learn from each other.

One final encouragement from my years of walking with God. When you suddenly see multiple areas of life that you want to address, God's grace allows you to take them one at a time. Take the area that spoke most to you, and prayerfully pursue your opportunity to grow on that point even today!

An SBC Pastor's Statement on Sexual Abuse within the Denomination

I have been a lifelong Southern Baptist, spending my entire 19 year ministry within this denomination, and the last five as pastor of First Baptist Church of Machesney Park, IL. 

Like many, I was heartbroken by the recent reports from the Houston Chronicle regarding sexual abuse within our denomination. At the same time, I applaud the efforts of journalists and victims to bring these stories to light in order that others might not face the same experiences.

Machesney Park is located just miles from the Wisconsin border and there are many within the life of our church who have never been Southern Baptist prior to their membership at FBC. For their sake, and for the sake of anyone else reading this in our area, I want to offer the following statements on behalf of our church. 

1) We express, in no uncertain terms, our absolute abhorrence and sorrow that people who sought refuge, comfort, and guidance from a local church instead faced abuse and victimization. 

2) We absolutely agree with our SBC President, J.D. Greear, that any church "proving a pattern of sinful neglect — regarding abuse or any other matter — should absolutely be removed from fellowship from the broader denomination." While SBC churches are autonomous in hiring staff and creating church guidelines, autonomy is no excuse for the larger body of SBC churches to overlook such negligence and allow them to retain membership and influence within the denomination.

3) At First Baptist Church of Machesney Park, we take diligent steps to protect our members from sexual abuse, including:

• Leaders within our ministries to minors operate in teams where leaders and volunteers are not left alone in dealing with children and teens.
• I have created a system of background checks for volunteers to minors in my last three churches, including at the start of my tenure here at FBC. No one works among our children who has not been properly vetted. 
• As pastor, I do not meet with children unless their parents are present and ensure that meetings with an adult member are not happening alone behind a closed door apart from accountability. 

Jesus came to offer forgiveness to sinners. But that forgiveness must never be wielded as a license to sin or to coerce a victim into silence against an attacker.

In my personal experience, I believe the overwhelming majority of SBC churches to be staffed and served by Christians who unite behind the cause of the gospel. We can prove this by the steps we take from here. I will be at this year's SBC annual meeting with every intention of seeing our denomination create firm procedures to deal with any denominational leader or church that has protected their reputation more than their congregation. Autonomy is no excuse for abuse.