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I know some people have read my blog. I'd appreciate if you leave a comment. I welcome disagreement just as well as agreement. I just want to know what others are thinking. Tell me if you think I'm out of my gourd or that you think I need counseling. Obviously don't be vulgar or disrespective to me or others who leave comments.

Youth Ministry

We are going into a new season at my church regarding our youth ministry. Things are starting to change. I think change in this case is needed. I've felt for a long time that the way we've done youth ministry ceases to be as affective anymore. We just had are leaders appreciation dinner and I pondered often throughout the night how to reach a jr. high or high school student where they are at. What does it mean to swim in the jr. high or high school ocean. I think that is a big key to communicating with them. I have a few teachings that I will be doing this summer and I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure how to do that. I'm not sure how to reach them where they are. Sure it's easy to talk at students and tell them they have to be doing this or that. It's easy to try to guilt kids into witnessing or reading the Bible or doing christian things. It's a lot more difficult to help them integrate it into their lives and take the time to train them.
I want a youth ministry that is God-honoring. Who doesn't? I want it to be a place where God wants to come and dwell. I want it to be a place where leaders intercede on behalf of the youth and cry out to God for His healing to be over their lives. I want a youth ministry where kids can come and loved away from the ugliness of this world and learn by themselves (with a little coaching if need be) by the leaders. I don't want to just teach kids. I want to learn kids. Some people don't believe in short cuts I guess. Or atleast don't take any heed to them.

I've been working on a........

I've been in the working world for almost a year now. It's kind of weird to say that because I haven't kept a job for this long ever in my life.
The working world is a weird place to get used to. In the past few months since starting at my job I've had some great highs and some extreme lows. And the funniest part of it all is that I work in a "christian environment".
I'm learning that being an adult is not all it's cracked up to be. Ya you get to do more stuff and have a lot more freedom but now you can't claim innocence and you're held accountable for your spills with little grace or leniency.
I've had some crappy stuff happen at my job. Really crappy! In fact, crappy would be putting things nicely. And as time goes by things seem to get worse and worse.
One could wonder where God is in the working world. Christian or non-christian. The post I wrote a few days ago about my frustration with those of the caucasian persuasion mostly come out of my work experience at my job. I got placed under the authority of a person that has less experience than me in my own job, less knowledge of how things are run, and less ability to do the job. Hmm, would that not frustrate you? Now I can see why affirmative action was needed (mot that I neccesarily agree with it).
You ask why do I stay if it's so bad? Meerly because I feel I need to be obedient for once in my life to what God wants me to do instead of doing what I want to do and passing it off as "from the Lord", as was often the case. I'm no longer taking the easy way out all of the time.

Not sure about a title

I feel like the world is always passing me by. It seems like I've missed out on a lot because of pure youthful stupidity. I could've have been done with college already. I could be a youth pastor already. I could be owning my own home and car already. I could be a lot of things. But instead I'm single, I don't have a degree, a career, a house, or even a car. I know that the worlds says that I should have all those things and I need to set my mind on things above, but I also know that there are people younger than me that have passed me by. And it's really all because I've made some poor decisions in the past. Whoever says that past can't haunt is dumb and they don't know what they're talking about so don't listen to them.
My saving grace is that I've taking some major steps in getting to where I want to be and feel I should be. It's a hard road and the learning curb is steep but I'm doing it. I just hope that in a year from now I'm a lot closer to where I should be and am trying to get to than I am now. Only time will tell.

And Now back to White People!!!

Let's get right to it. You have all of the power. Whether you like it or not. Whether you know it or not. You have all of the power. You've got the money. You've got the high positions. You sit on the boards of many organizations. You are primarily the CEO's. You frequent colleges and graduate. You are the ones that primarily have the corporate jobs. You basically lead this country.
So, a big part of the responsibility lies on you to change things. To not just ignore this problem because it's too big. To not just donate some old clothes or a little money or volunteer for a little while. Everyone of us should all get involved with this issue and seek the Lord for a response. This issue is big. Every single person on the face of this planet has some sort of racism in their hearts. Every single white person I bet has at some point in time or another either made a derogatory comment towards a person of another race or has heard someone in their family make a comment. Just as I'm sure everyone from other ethnicities have.
Just because you know a black person (probably me) or ate dinner a few times, or went to the movies once, or had a few people from a different race over to your house for dinner doesn't exempt you. Get involved. This says the Lord, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

It's a huge issue!!! It runs really deep!!! It may seem like trying to stop a boulder that's coming downhill and seeming to pick up speed. But if enough of us, following the leading of the Holy Spirit, stand against that along with all of the other injustice, we can atleast slow it down. God willing!!

And another thing!!!

As I reflect on my life I realize that there haven't been very many positive black role models in my life. In fact, I've been meaning to write a letter to my dad asking, "Where the hell have you been?" Of all the males my family, one is finally a recovering alcoholic, one just got out of jail a year ago and practically missed his sons whole childhood. My biological father has been married 3 times and still hasn't paid all of his child support that he owes his 4 kids and to this day still doesn't call to check up on us. The only real positive influence I've had is from my step-father and I use the term positive loosely (although to his credit, he did have good ideas on raising kids but just bad execution) and my grandfather (who has some very warped views about life).
And unfortunately I'm sure a lot of black males my age have had similar experiences. The kids that go to our school and are in our programs are probably a bit worse of than I am. They've either seen their dads beat, murder, rape, or disrespect their moms, or they haven't even seen their dads at all, and everything in between. BLACK MEN!!! What are we doing here? Why is it like this? Why don't we aspire for more?!! Why arent' there more blacks volunteering and investing in the lives of young people? Why aren't there more board members and teachers and mentors and godly male leaders? Why is it that one of the leading candidates in the presidential election among black voters is a white woman (nothing against women so please don't go all politically correct on me)!!!!!! SOMETHIN' IS GOINZ ON, AIN'T RIGHT!!!!

Black.White 2 (Warning! This post might be offensive to some people. Pride discretion advised!!)

This is a vent about things I'm noticing in the working world. It might be offensive to people and I'm sorry if it is but this is just what I'm noticing and if you wish to talk with me about it I welcome conversation. Ok here goes!!

For a good portion of my life I have believed the following:
All people are created equally; there aren't huge issues of race discrimination; I have just as much ability to succeed in life as people of other races (specifically white people); white/black issues are a thing of the past, etc; and most of all, while there may be some issues in the world, the church is devoid of all of that and it's a very loving and equal environment.

I have strongly believed this, even inspite of hearing my parents, grandparents, and other people dear to me talk and complain about these issues. For years I would hear my step-father complain openly about how "white people take care of their own." Or that "there is politics in the church concerning this issue." And a host of other things. I've heard my grandfather make comments about whites and how he doesn't trust them and how they are crooks. I'd hear him talk about how they have the power and they don't want to share it with blacks or anyone. They just want to keep it to themselves. I've heard all of this stuff for years and I just thought it was a load of shit (for lack of another term that could describe what I'm feeling right now). Everytime they talked about these issues I would roll my eyes and turn them off, thinking in my head "They don't know what they're talking about, they're just looking for racism."

But. And this is a big but. As I get older, and as I've become part of the workforce, and I see what's happening around me, I'm realizing that there is truth to what they have said. There is still racism. There is still discrimination. It is harder for me to succeed as a black male than it is for white people. There is still racism in the church. There is politics in the church. There is racist politics in the church. White people have the power and they aren't sharing it very readily or freely but in fact are hording it and doing whatever they can to make sure that it stays in the family.

Disclaimer Time: please realize that this is a generalization and that it doesn't necessarily reflect all white people. It is meant to reflect white society. I don't hate white people and I'm not going to join the BPPM (Black Panther Party of Milwaukee). I'm just saying, I'm getting clues that are starting support the verdict and it's utterly disturbing.

Here is where I'm coming from:
I work at a homeless shelter. The majority of the people that we serve are ethnic minorites (non-white people). The top dogs in our organization are the ethnic majority. The hire people that are of the ethnic majority. For example: we had lunch today to celebrate the teachers and how much they've done with the kids at the school. The director and his wife were there, our teachers were there, a few board members were there, one of our administrators were there. Of all the people that were there who make decisions about operations of our organization there were only 2 black people there and neither of us had very much influence. Now someone please explain to me how an organization that serves primarily ethnic minorities could possibly know in a true sense how to minister to ethnic minorities without having ethnic minorities atleast being part of the decision-making process? In other words if you work in a cotton factory but are primarily an auto parts specialist, doesn't it make sense to go hire some cotton pickers to help you decide what's the best way to do the job?
Granted, it can be done but that doesn't mean that it should be done. Like Chris Rock says,"You can drive with your feet but that doesn't mean it should be done."

At my organization we have a school that consists of primarily black kids. In our summer program we have mostly black kids (I say primarily just to be nice but in reality it's all black kids). Our tutoring program that we have during the school year consists of mostly black kids. How many black staff do you think we have? Yea...um....3. I'm sure by now you're thinking I've gone postal loco. You might be asking the question "well Will, why don't more black people get more involved?" Well, I'm glad you asked that question because I would like to know myself. Where are all the black people that have gone on to be successfull in sports,medicine,journalism? Where are the rich black people? Where are all of the black people that have gone through this program and have become successful because of what others did for them? Well I've asked myself those same kinds of questions!!! Where are all the black people who've been helped? Why don't they come back an invest so that others can get the same chances they have. And unfortunately, I don't know. I could say that black men have been given a bad rep but I think we've earned it. People say to me all that time, "You're such a godly man. Those kids look up to you." They would say it with a sense of awe!!!! I hear so often I started to get sick of it. I remember making the comment "You act like you've never seen a black man invest in the lives of kids before." But then it dawned on me. I really haven't either. That is sad. It's unacceptable!!!! Where are you strong black man? Where are you strong black women? Why aren't you making an impact on society that is positive? Why are you being fruitful and filling the earth but not subduing it? You know why people have such stereotypes of us? You wanna know why people hold their purses closer to them when I walk by? You wanna know why you're accepted in society but not included?
I've said a lot and I'm still now saying all that I've wanted to say. But this is just a start.