Revolution Archives | My Experience As...

Cultivating Culturally Challenging Children

Nick the Geek — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:00:02 +0000

Man look at the alliteration in the title. I think I used the word alliteration correctly, and I’m not really feeling like going through all the effort of typing it into Google. Yep that’s just how lazy I have become. Back in the day I would have had to get up, walk over to my book shelf and thumb through real pages to find the word. That was a lot of work but I did it and learned a ton. Now, meh not worth opening a new window and getting the answer in 0.51 seconds.

Anyways, this post isn’t about alliteration or my laziness, it is about my kids. Well not just mine, I’m also including my students in this as well.

We watched the show “Lemon-aid Mouth” with my kids the other day. One of the main characters gets in trouble because she is wearing a shirt that says “Challenge Authority” and actually follows her own advice. This led to a discussion with my wife about how we should handle that. She wasn’t too interested in the conversation because she assumed I would encourage this type of behavior and didn’t think she could convince me that I shouldn’t.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I don’t want to raise kids that are sheep. I don’t want rude or rebellious kids, but I want them to be passionate and follow truth, not authority. Of course a lot of the time following truth means following authority. Most laws are fair and just, they should be followed, but not all laws. If a rule needs to change for the betterment of all I want my children to know they can stand for right.

I want them to be the revolutionaries of their generation. Not in a violent way, more in the sitting in the front of the bus, standing up when everyone else sits kinda way.

I think the hard part is teaching them to express themselves in a way that promotes change but not hate. To help them find real truth and to follow that. To encourage them to challenge authority, but not be rebelious.

Is this something parents should encourage in their children or should they teach them to keep their heads down so they don’t get cut down? How would you encourage right minded protest?

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Sex is Amazing

Nick the Geek — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:00:00 +0000

So I was going to write about this shirt that I love for the blog carnival on “Church” today but I was making a comment at Stuff Christians Like and I realized something about Sex and the Church.

We tend to think that inviting people to church is the solution, and what’s worse we end up spending most of our time inviting people from other churches to our church so our church will grow. Think about it. It is much easier to invite a Christian to your church than a non-Christian. It is also easier to invite a non-Christian than to lead them to Christ yourself. This is the way the church acts as if it is growing when it is really full of cancer and is wasting away … at least in America.

Now what does this have to do with sex? Well think about this. If we make sex the goal, then lots of weird things happen. A single person starts chasing people to have sex with. Awkward dates lead to sex sure, but there is the anxieties leading up to, during, and after. Does this person like me? Are they willing to sleep with me? What do they think of the way I look naked? Are they enjoying this? They aren’t really saying anything. It all leads up to “so was it good for you?” Now this might be slightly alleviated in a marriage relationship, but even then these issues show up if sex is the goal.

Now compare this to inviting people to church. We try to look around and listen for someone to invite. Then we start sweating and nervously invite them. If they say yes we are almost shocked at we spit out the time and place. That morning we dress better and show up early when we are always late. Then we wait and think, “they aren’t coming.” When they finally show up we worry through the service. We watch them and try to figure out if they are having a good time. We try to help them avoid the sweaty hugger during the meet and greet. Are they bored? Did they get the joke? Is the worship to weird? Is the pastor performing? After it is all said and done, “so was it good for you?” Ok we might say, “so what did you think,” but I figure it is about the same.

So how do we fix this? Well with sex, if we focus on the relationship and build a strong healthy marriage then sex becomes a frigintastic benefit. It is great and something that can really draw a couple even closer. I think church is the same. What if we stopped thinking of church as the solution? What if we stopped inviting people to church? What if we started building relationships with people and helping them find Christ? Then Church becomes this amazing benefit to being a Christian. The community of faith will strengthen our walk as a Christian.

Ok, so here is the shirt,

This blog was written for the Blog Carnival at BridgetChumbly.com

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Stop complaining start a revolution

Nick the Geek — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

So a few weeks back I had a young man visit the church for the first time. He was wearing a shirt that was probably intended to get a reaction. I did react to the shirt but not likely the way he thought I might. I agreed with it and encouraged the notion.

Sorry if the language offends you but I didn’t design the shirt. With my students I try to be very frank and real with them. They are likely to say these kind of words so I guess I just don’t get offended by them. I don’t bother with them myself but I figure there are worse things in the world, and complacency is one of them.

Something is wrong when we get more offended that the short has a “bad word” on it than at the idea of complacency that allows us to complain about our situation without doing anything about it. I am personally ready to see a revolution in the church and in our culture. I am preaching word of Life from what Christ said and these teens are really getting onboard. I think they are ready for a revolution. I am tired of talking about change. I’m ready to make waves and ride them to a new place.

On a side note, Monday I saw a bumper sticker that proclaimed “Question Authority.” Actually the car was covered in bumper stickers to that effect but was a really nice $50k SUV … seemed ironic but whatever. It occurred to me that I am basically holding to that idea and even preaching it to some degree and yet I am now part of the authority. Anyone else think that is ironic?

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Some people always gotta swim upstream

Nick the Geek — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Just a note for birthday well wishers. Thanks for the visit, you will find that I do not have a birthday pos tup. Yeah I didn’t feel like writting about birthdays. It’s not that I feel old or anything. I am 31. I just don’t have anything to write about. If anything interesting happens today I might post it tomorrow. Anyways, thanks for dropping by, enjoy what I did write about, and leave a comment. I am one to respond to all comments

Sure, it might be easier to just go with the flow, and I have to admit there have been many times in my life I’ve tried to just be like everyone else, but I’m just not the kind of person that feels comfortable doing whatever the crowd is doing. Actually I’m not all that into crowds for that matter. They make me nervous. Crowds form a herd mentality. This is a proven thing. If one person starts to panic everyone starts to panic. In fact, you can make a whole group of people think they are sick to the point of exhibiting symptoms and everything. Want to mess with a crowd? Next time you are in a large crowd just start looking up. Soon enough everyone will be looking at whatever you are looking at.

The thing about crowds, though, is there is the outlier. The ones at the edge of the pack that don’t really fit in. There are two basic places these people fit in. They are either the villains or heroes when you get right down to it. Look at the fringe of society, you have on the one hand the people who go to extremes to help others when the crowd is afraid to act or you have those that work against the crowd.

In both places you find variety. Some heroes are political figures, while some are villains. Regardless, though, the ones at the real fringe are leaders. They inspire the more corporate minded to follow them to whatever end they are working towards. They are the freaks that either bring or stop change.

I think that is why Jesus spent so much time with the fringe of society. The ones who work so hard to fit in and run things are afraid of change, but without change we can’t move forward. He calls the freaks of society, the ones who are ready to bring the revolution. He is calling us today. Too long we have sat and watched our country go to hell in a hand basket. Too long we have focused on our legalistic judgment. Too long we have allowed Hollywood tell us what it means to be a Christian.

I have been hearing for years about a countercultural revolution that is growing underground. People who think like me. People who are sick of the status quo, but it is time to act. We must stand tall and let the crowd either follow us or get out of the way. If we just sit back and talk about change without bringing change then we are no different. If we are going to bring a revolution to the church, then it is going to be costly and painful. I am willing to pay the price.

What do you think? What can we do to make change? Are you willing to pay the price?

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