This is Church

I greatly enjoy college ministry, and think that I’d get along serving college students anywhere just fine. But one of the greatest joys of laboring at New Life Church is that I’m surrounded by a staff team full of people who stretch my faith in ways that very few people on this planet do (and trust me, I know quite a few). One of those people is Tim Courtois (pronounced Curtis, not Core-TWAH). He’s the only person I know who got a counseling degree just to be a more effective missionary to the campus. He’s a fascinating individual, and I have learned a great deal regarding matters of the heart by simply reading his blog.

So I thought I would bless you with his life an insights. This first part is mostly about who Tim is as a unique human being and child of God. Part II will be about the unique role in this world God is calling him to fulfill at New Life Church. Enjoy!

M: How do you think your story and character uniquely reveal the heart of God?

T: The first thing that comes to mind is the themes that have been prominent in my story.  My life has been a lot about loneliness and the struggle to find beauty and meaning – and even connection with others – in the midst of that.  I can remember from a very young age feeling alone and feeling a deep longing for something that would make it all make sense.  And then I remember listening to certain kinds of music and feeling such joy and a longing to exist within the beauty that I was hearing… So my life is, in a big way, about holding onto those two truths: that loneliness and pain are real, but so is beauty and meaning.

So I think my story shows that God doesn’t flinch at the difficult parts of life.  I kind of grew up learning that so-called “negative” emotions are just that – negative – and so it’s best to avoid them as much as possible.  But I couldn’t ignore that certain parts of my life were sad; it would have required me to cut off a huge part of myself.  I had to learn to find meaning in the midst of my feelings, even if they were “negative”.  And for me, out of that came a deeper sense of beauty and meaning – and intimacy – than I ever could have found by avoiding those things.

Through that, I’ve developed a passion to try and “incarnate” myself fully in my life.  I want to be as fully present as possible, celebrating wholeheartedly and grieving deeply as the circumstances of my life call for it. 

This is a passion that God has built in me over time, and it is a reflection of his character: He engages in life and relationships fully, with all of his emotions.  I can’t be only halfway incarnate in this world and expect my presence to have the redemptive value God intended.  I’m continually striving to learn about what it means to feel, to bring my whole self to bear on my life.

M: What are you all about?

 T: I’m all about life being full, abundant, and passionate.  One of my favorite verses is Ezekiel 16:6: “Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’”  I love that exclamation point!

There are many parts of myself that I exiled a long time ago, thinking they weren’t “good enough” for some reason: my creativity, my love for art, my love for rest and quietness.  In college I began to see them as a waste of time, a hindrance to all the things I should be doing for the gospel.  Inviting those exiled parts back into my life as reflections of God’s glory has been a huge part of my own healing.  That’s how God said, “Live!” to me. 

I love finding parts – either of myself or of other people – that have been lost, rejected or exiled, and inviting them back into the conversation. 

It’s like the guy with the lizard on his shoulder in “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis.  The lizard represents lust.  We think the lizard needs to be thrown out, because “surely something like that could never be allowed in heaven?”.  But what happens is that after the lizard is struck down, it becomes a stallion: it is reborn as something beautiful, powerful and passionate. 

I want to see Christians living full and passionate lives, seeing parts of their hearts that they’d given up for dead become something beautiful.

Second, I’m all about connection and intimacy.  Growing up, I felt very alone.  Until I was a teenager, I didn’t even know it was really possible to open up to another person about all the things that were going on inside of me.  And when I finally did, it was amazing and terrifying at the same time.

I long for intimacy and at the same time it terrifies me.  Every day there is a tug of war in me between the longing to be close to people, and the desire to avoid people.  The same is true with God: I long for his closeness, but at the same time, I avoid him.

I think this same tug of war goes on in all of us.  So I’m continually wrestling with this tension, wanting to discover how to really connect with others, and I long to see the Church grow in this, too.  And I think it’s really happening: To see men in the Church today being more and more able to look into one another’s eyes and show affection for one another …it’s a beautiful thing.

M: (much more to come in Part II…I know you’re all stoked)

There are a million and one bloggers weighing in on what has transpired in Haiti’s earthquake and its aftermath. I’m not here to talk about Pat Robertson, the U.N., the Haitian government, or the relief efforts, because there are way too many people who know much more than me about all of that. Instead, I want to share some personal experiences in the country, and what it has meant for the life of someone very close to me. I had the privilege of sharing a trip with her to Haiti in the spring of 2008 with an organization called Raincatchers. So without further ado, a guest post from Jessie Aja:

We left for the Detroit airport at 3:30 a.m. I had finished packing for the week-long, University of Michigan Spring Break trip to Haiti around 3:00 a.m. I was nineteen years old – my sophomore year at U-M. To be honest, my biggest motivation for going to Haiti that February was to see my best friend, who had moved there a few months before, on the last day of the trip. We’d be staying near his new residence.

One week passed.

Our group began to board the flight out of Port Au Prince. I lingered on the runway, looked out toward the mountains, and left a portion of my heart there. In the beauty. In that place. I returned one . . . two . . . three more times throughout the next couple years. I went to different cities and with different people and helped aide in water purification efforts and health needs. I did this, largely, because of the prompting of the Spirit of God and of Teresa Price (T).

On the last night of my first trip to Haiti, T, a twenty-something year-old P.A., said this: “When you return home from Haiti, don’t look around at your plenty, your excess, and your privilege and feel things like guilt or pity for the Haitians. Those are unproductive emotions. Those negative emotional responses ultimately allow you to – force you to – shelve your experiences here and move on. They move you toward nothing beneficial and nothing helpful – either for the nation of Haiti or for you. Instead, I want to urge you to feel a sense of responsibility. You are God’s children – you young people attending the University of Michigan – and these are God’s children – these struggling infants, malnourished kids, and ailing people in this broken nation of Haiti. God’s Church does not have state lines, national borders, or distinctions of any kind. There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. I want you to return to your homes in Michigan and feel, not guilt for what you have or for where you were blessed to be born, but, rather, RESPONSIBILITY to care for and be a blessing to your brothers and sisters (and brothers-and-sisters-to-be) throughout the world. Feel empowered, feel a sense of urgency, and take responsibility.”

I have a heart for the nations – I dream that the nations would know the unfailing love of the Lord Jesus Christ and that all would be cared for, healed, and satiated in body and spirit. I am committed to living my life – whether I am stateside, in Haiti, or elsewhere – proclaiming the death and resurrection of the One who saves, defending the poor and oppressed, caring for the widows and orphans, and living to hasten the day when all tears are wiped away and when unending joy replaces all sorrow.

I am not sorry that part of my heart lives still in the mountains of Haiti.

I have a pastor friend (at H2O church at Ohio State) who is probably the world’s greatest expert in the study of mankind’s eternal longings expressed via ESPN. 

High praise, I know.

Most recently, he pointed me to this video as an illustration of the Church’s adoration of Christ:

I have to applaud Nike for this campaign…they have tapped into something very deep within the human soul. We all long for heroes. Someone to adore. Our heart cries out for a superman, someone who can conquer any foe effortlessly. We want to tell his story. We want to boast in Him. And LeBron James is the closest it gets to immortality for many.

Here’s something humbling:

LeBron James misses over half his shots.

And yet we can still get pumped by idealizing him, singing his praises. It inspires us to buy Nike products, hearing from all kinds of people from different walks of life who have caught unique glimpses of his greatness. The testimony of his witnesses makes us long to see his glory ourselves, and we believe for a moment that we might even share in it if we buy Nike.

And they’ve actually convinced me in the moment that LeBron James is something more than human. Until I watch a game, that is. Then I’m reminded that he still misses over half his shots. Like most every other professional. I wonder if that makes the people in the video feel at all silly for how great they made him sound. I wonder what it would look like if they could do the same for someone who could back up every praise, every time.

How about you? Do you dare sing the praises of someone who is actually worthy of them? Someone who will never put to shame his worshippers? I think that just maybe the testimony of his witnesses will be strong enough to make the world long to see, experience, and share in his glory.

For those of you who don’t memorize all of my blog posts, let me remind you that StrengthsFinder calls me a futurist. That means I’m always thinking about what’s next. I think God knew about my futurist tendencies when he decided to begin calling me toward relationship with him. Not many people know this, but my spiritual journey actually started when I heard a pastor preach on Mark 13 about the “signs of the end of the age”. I was fascinated by what the Bible said about the end of the world, and that led me to begin opening the Bible on my own, starting in Revelation (an interesting place to start, I know…but God totally used it). Then I went back to read the rest of Mark, and upon reading Mark 2:17, I understood for the first time that Jesus wanted a relationship with me and offered me a great journey, calling me to follow him. But my fascination with the end of the world continues today.

So let’s talk about the future then. As a Christian, my greatest hope for the future is that Christ would return to earth and establish his Kingdom, and the Bible says that is going to happen once the Church brings the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations (Matthew 24:14, Mark 13:10). Combine this promise with my futurist tendencies, and you might soon realize that I live much of my life mentally pre-occupied with what’s next for the Church in her process of fulfilling this promise.

I wanted to let you in on my future-obsessed brain and tell you about what I think is a “sign of the times” in the Church today. You see, I’ve heard quite a few sermons on Jesus’ return and how we should be watching for signs and waiting in expectation, but there’s one sign of Jesus’ return that I think the Bible teaches that I’ve never heard mentioned in a sermon. Or by anyone, for that matter. Perhaps because you have to do some digging around and piecing together in the Bible first. Are you ready? Let me take you there.

I believe that the Bible teaches that the future situation surrounding Jesus’ return will be marked with an unprecedented movement of Church unity. And if we’re looking to be alert and keep watch for these signs (Mark 13:33-37), then I want to put this one on your radar, because I think it’s big.

Let me begin in Genesis (another obsession of mine is starting in the beginning and telling the whole story through). In Genesis 11, all human beings have the same language, and assemble to build a tower in honor of themselves. God sees that his little image-bearers have become quite powerful, and in honor of that power, have begun to worship themselves. Knowing that such self-worship runs contrary to what He designed them to do and will only serve to destroy them, God, in his relentless grace, decides to confuse their language and scatter them so that they might not so easily go down this path of self-worship leading to self-destruction.

And from that day of scattering, it seems that God has been working out a plan to re-unify human beings back into a place of communication and collaboration. God’s plan is to be patient in returning (2 Peter 3:8-10) until all nations have heard of his great work in bringing the Kingdom of heaven to earth in the form of Jesus, his Messiah and Son. But in order for all nations to hear, there would first have to be some way of getting this message to all nations. God had a plan to re-connect humanity, and it’s being executed to this day at ever-increasing rates.

But let me talk about the Church. You might think that Jesus’ last words regarding the Church that would come after Him might reveal his plan for the future. And I think you’d be right. In Jesus’ only recorded prayer for us believers today, Jesus prays that the Church might be brought to complete unity so that the whole world would know the Gospel of the Father’s love for them (John 17:20-23).

Think about that for a second.

Jesus is leaving the world and he’s praying for the future Church in order that they might reach the whole world with the Gospel. And what one thing does he spend his time praying for?

UNITY.

That is the prayer of our Savior for the Church. That we would “be brought to complete unity”. Because then we will reach the world. You can almost hear echoes of Genesis 11:6: “If they’re all on the same page, then nothing will be impossible for them.” It’s been the lesson from Day 1 after the Flood: A movement is effective only insofar as its people are unified.  No wonder Jesus said Church unity would be the one thing necessary to bring the gospel to the world.

So what are we to look for as a sign that the end is coming? The Gospel will go out to all nations. And how will it do that? The Church will need to be brought to unity. Take a look around at the Church today and tell me we aren’t more unified than we’ve ever been. Hillsong United writes a song, puts it on an album, and overnight, thousands of churches on every continent are singing it. The Willow Creek Association puts on a leadership conference that reaches 65,000 church leaders in North America and an additional 46,000 overseas in 114 cities in 50 countries, and those numbers are growing every year. All hearing the same message. Being brought to complete unity. This wasn’t even possible 20 years ago. And it’s only accelerating. Be watchful. Because as the Church unifies, the Gospel will go out in power. And we all know what comes next…

I am eternally grateful for the amazing musicians God has put at New Life Church. In so many ways, they’re the unsung heroes of our church. It might seem weird to call them the “unsung heroes”, first because “unsung” is a funny word for people who sing, but also because we generally don’t think of people on stage as people who don’t receive honor for what they do. 

But the truth is, their music has been behind so many intimate moments of worship that no one will ever hear about. And I can’t tell you the number of people who have said, “At the beginning, I just kept going to New Life because the music was awesome, but then pretty soon I got plugged in to the community, and God really started working on my heart.” 

The crazy thing is, our band will never know how many secret, intimate moments of worship they were involved in. They will never know how many people wouldn’t have given God a chance if it weren’t for that glimmer of holy worship they heard in the music and saw in the musicians on stage. And for that reason, they are unsung. What they do is on stage is very public and often acknowledged, but what happens in individual hearts as a result is less known. Yet it is of infinite worth. So I wanted to introduce you, my blog audience, to these heroes via pictures taken at this year’s GCMC’s Christmas conference, Ignite 2009. 

Karen O.

Andrew

Dave, Christia, and Brandon

This post is meant as a follow-up to to Empty Promises Part I, which I published about a month ago (before a hiatus for my marriage proposal and the holidays). So if you don’t remember the thoughts there, go ahead and re-read Part I if you would like this to make sense.

I guess I want to start with a question. What’s the Church to do when the music industry churns out 15 year-old pop stars who generate 22 million hits on a single YouTube video all on the premise of exploiting the eternal longings of teenage girls? I can think of a couple that might be helpful:

1) Tell the better love story
Justin Bieber is making millions by performing songs written by people who know the formula for stirred teenage emotions all too well. They’re sort of poets of corruption; people well-acquainted with the desires and longings of the human heart who can weave words masterfully to illustrate a compelling, yet unattainable solution for them. But we can do better.

As followers of Christ, we have been been awakened to the deepest needs of our heart by the God who satisfies every longing. And He removes our need for the hiding and denial we relied on when we knew no one who could meet them. I think that means we should have the most compelling songs in the world. The Church should be the ones writing most beautifully of the perfect solution to our heart’s longings because we’ve actually experiencing that longing being met; its not mere fanciful imagination as it necessarily is with other songwriters.

I would love to see preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ begin to put the music industry to shame in terms of their ability to proclaim of a lover who satisfies. Imagine if Justin Bieber’s second album absolutely tanked because the next generation of young people has instead been captivated by a community of psalmists and storytellers who proclaim a love infinitely more beautiful than anything heard in a pop song. We already have the Scriptures (which tell of the greatest love story ever known to man) for inspiration. Now if only we would let the creative spirit of the Imago Dei work in us.  That’s what I mean when I say we could use to sharpen our storytelling.

2) Teach a Theology of Love
I think there needs to be an active effort in the Church to teach teens what true love actually looks like. Older (especially married) believers know that the expectations of romance cast in Justin Bieber music videos are fanciful, ridiculous, and extraordinarily unhealthy. It’s why you don’t see screaming 40 year-old women at Justin Bieber concerts or Twilight premiers. But our teens deserve to know better also.

Our youth pastors need to preach compellingly on what biblical love looks like. Yes, it looks like sacrificing greatly for the joy and benefit of another. Yes, romance is incredibly beautiful and meant to mimic the way Christ relentlessly pursues His Church despite all her failings. But we need to teach a clear understanding of depravity also. Another human being can bring you great joy, but not all the time. And if your expectation is that someone would make you happy all the time or deeply fulfill you, you will be a very depressed person.

You’ll be depressed because you’re practicing idolatry: putting a created thing (a human being) in the Creator’s proper place (Romans 1:25). Idolatry destroys the self because our heart and soul were not made for fulfillment to come from another human, they were made for fulfillment to come from knowing God.  Thus our deepest longings are necessarily left unmet if we expect another person to bring us that fulfillment. To put another human being in that place not only robs the Lord of his proper place in our heart, arousing his righteous jealousy, but it’s horribly unfair to the other person to put such a great weight on them. No wonder the first year of marriage is so often the most depressed year of a person’s life and the divorce rate is what it is in America. Our expectations (most of which come from popular media) have set us up for monumental failure.

The good news is that we can actually restore the deep satisfaction and joy that come from great relationships with one another by teaching young people what relationships can and cannot rightfully fulfill in this life. I truly believe that we could see the divorce rate in the Church plummet simply by teaching on relational idolatry from a young age. But as it stands, it seems that Justin Bieber is our teacher on relationships.

And just in case you forgot the implications of that, let me leave you with one thing…

Hopefully this isn’t an arrogant concept, because it’s one of the few original ideas I’ve had in my life. I realize that the vast majority of people who are interested in my life aren’t on twitter. And for those who are, most of you still only catch a fraction of my tweets. So I decided that, in light of 2009 coming to a close, I’d put my “20 best” tweets of 2009 all in one place for you to catch some great random thoughts/ideas I’ve been dwelling on this past year. Enjoy!

“Church is not a place you go, it’s a people you belong to.” - 12/25 at 6:02 pm

“Two nights ago I proposed to the most beautiful woman in the world, and she said yes. Still floored by that.” – 12/17 at 4:36 pm

“What element of God’s character do you uniquely reveal to the world? How is your essence bringing Him glory?” – 11/27 at 5:00 pm

“In the Body of Christ, someone needs to be the butt and dispose of the waste.” - 10/13 at 10:38 am

“’We are Christ’s dignity, and through Him we have reclaimed ours. We are not our depravity. That is not our identity.’ – Dan Allender” – 10/6 at 1:37 pm

“’The Church is the most captivating dream and vision on this planet.’ – @KevinLArmstrong” – 10/3 at 9:55 am

“’Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.’ – Hebrews 5:8” – 9/29 at 8:07 pm

“RT @TheLionPsalmist Wonder if Grace is the opposite of Betrayal. Betrayal: surprised by evil. Grace: surprised by love. Do you like surprises?” – 9/24 at 5:18 pm

“’That you were in the imagination of God before time began should make you optimistic, even if you life has been plain so far.’ – Erwin McManus” – 9/11 at 12:01 pm

“(Referring to Christians who trash-talk the Church) @PerryNoble said ‘If somebody said they love me but say my bride is ugly, I would punch him in the throat.’” – 9/9 12:49 pm

“’How cruel it would be if God never let us feel the consequences of our sin. We would never come to him.’ – Steve Hayes (@NewLifeA2)” – 9/8 at 10:13 am

“A must-see: Comedian Steve Harvey introduces Christ to a sold-out secular audience and gets a standing O. http://bit.ly/GGzQO” - 9/1 at 4:40 pm

“Two Sundays ago, @RealRobBell delivered another potential worldview-changer. I resonated deeply. Give it a listen. http://bit.ly/cEN2W” - 8/28 at 12:05 pm

“’As long as Americans are comfortable with debt, we will elect officials/politicians who are too.’  - Ray McCollum” - 8/26 at 9:08 am

“Spent 3+ hours sorting through past wounding with men. Then under 90 minutes creating the whole structure and vision for our house church next year. How I love the priorities at @NewLifeA2.” – 8/23 at 3:12 pm

“There are 100,000 orphans in the U.S. There are 350,000 churches. You do the math.” - 8/21 at 5:20 pm

“’And then the day came when the risk to remain tight within the bud became greater than the risk to blossom.’ – Anais Nin” – 8/21 at 12:16 pm

“A profound letter to a child http://bit.ly/13kT8g …I love my co-workers ” - 8/17 at 5:56 pm

“Is your church mentality ‘convert and retain’ or ‘train and send’? Thanks @MattChandler74” - 7/31 at 7:22 pm

“What if the Church redeemed the term ‘free radicals’ in our culture from meaning carcinogenic chemicals to meaning healing Christians?” – 5/16 at 11:30 am

Prompted by a suggestion from Bill Hybels’ book Axiom, I’ve begun to record poignant, original phrases of mine that I find myself consistently returning to in times of reflection or repeating to my friends. Obviously I find them somewhat insightful or else I wouldn’t write them down. Now that Fall season is officially over, I thought I’d share this season’s proverbs with you in case you also find some value in them.

“Wisdom means setting boundaries according to our weakness. Faith means taking risks according to God’s strength.”

“God does not move in small ways. He moves in big ways through small things.”

“I can do infinitely more good out of freedom and love than out of obligation or duty. This is the revolutionary power of grace.”

“Sabbath is meant to be peaceful and necessary, but never easy. The Lord wants His presence to come at a cost so that you will realize He’s still worth it.”

“To know where someone’s greatest wounds lie, look no further than their strongest opinions.”

“What is the one thing you believe will bring you fulfillment in life right now? That is the god you are serving.”

“Music can only be as beautiful as the reality it is illuminating.”

Hey friends. You may have noticed I haven’t blogged for about two weeks now. It’s not because I don’t like you. It’s because I was busy in the lab, hashing out the ultimate plot to propose marriage to the woman of my dreams. And, as you likely inferred from the title of the post, it worked. I proposed to Jessica Patricia Aja on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the Espresso Royale on State Street in Ann Arbor. I chose that location because it was the place where I had my first-ever conversation with her on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 2 p.m. You might think it strange that I know the exact date and time of that first conversation, but I made sure to record it right when it happened, because it marked the day I first fell in love with this woman I hardly knew. And I had a faint suspicion at the time that we might have a future together…

I decided that I wanted the whole thing to be a giant surprise, and that it would mean a lot to her to have her friends involved on her (hopefully) special day. So I gathered four of her best friends and told them that I was proposing to her, but that in order to make it a surprise, I told one of them to tell her that some of her friends were planning “Jessie Aja Day”. It was to be a day of celebrating her entrance into full-time ministry (on staff at New Life Church at U of M) and move to Ann Arbor by looking back over the last 4.5 years of her life together.

Each of the four girls was to individually take Jessie to a significant place in Ann Arbor; a place that marked a pivotal moment in their relationship and a story of redemption in their lives. There they told her how she had played a central role in their own personal stories of redemption, and also what they had seen God redeem in her life over the last few years. Then they passed her on to the next girl…and so on. I was stop #5. By this time she had spent the last 3 hours in the freezing Ann Arbor winter weather, hearing memorable, poignant stories of pain, brokenness, and spectacular delivery. She was feeling emotionally overwhelmed and generally unguarded…which was right where I wanted her.

Before she came to the coffee shop, I had to set everything up. I positioned a hidden audio recorder on a nearby chair so that we could have a record of this (hopefully) memorable night and the truths I was to soon speak to her. I asked students sitting at nearby tables if they could please study for their final exams elsewhere, because I wanted a private corner so I could propose to my girlfriend. It’s hard to say no to a guy who asks for that, so they all consented. Then they all watched. (A marriage proposal makes for a perfect distraction from studying for finals). Then I positioned my good friend Levi (my bouncer) at a nearby table (at her back) so that he could escort anyone who tried to sit near us and ruin our perfect corner. He did a great job.

We stepped into Espresso Royale at 6 p.m., and I told her that I wanted to take her here because it was where I first fell in love with her and first took a risk on her (I had first asked her to date me in that coffee shop as well). For the first time, I read her my journal entry from the night I first met her. It described my surprise at feeling such strong and overwhelming feelings for this remarkable woman I had just met earlier that day. I literally wrote that I thought I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Then I proceeded to read selected journal entrires about our relatinship from the last two years to tell her how the story of our relationship, which includes all the telltale marks of an amazing redemption story: rejection, betrayal, pain, loss, sacrifice, grace, and love…served to refine me into the man I am today. More than anything else in my life, my relationship with her has taught me what it means to love with a Savior’s love. And I let her know that.

Then I told her I wanted to continue that story with her for the rest of my life. I told her I loved her, got down on a knee, and pulled out a ring. She was shocked…to say the least. The response looked something like this: “Oh my gosh………holy s***!……(awkward laugh)…………OH MY GOSH!!!………(tears)……………yes.” Except that whole sequence took about 46 seconds (I have an audio recording, remember?). And yes, it was quite possibly the longest 46 seconds of my life. I distinctly remember having the presence of mind to take the ring and scoot it closer to her on the table, as if to influence her decision with its beauty because I literally didn’t know what else to do in such an uncomfortable moment. It was long, people. But she agreed. And then half of Espresso Royale began to clap for us and she got even redder than she already was. We then got up and left that place in a state of euphoria and an inability to comprehend what exactly had just transpired between us.

I’m still not sure why she said yes, but I know I could have never imagined a more perfect woman for me to spend the rest of my life with. She challenges, supports, wounds, heals, and loves me in all the right ways. I’m convinced there is no better ministry partner, lover, helper, or future mother for me in this whole world. Jessie, I cannot wait for the days that lie ahead.

I have a confession. I love Justin Bieber. I love his voice, anyway. And his songs are so darn catchy! To be honest, I cringe to think about the effect that millions upon millions of sceaming girls has upon the ego of a 15 year-old male, but you’ve got to admit…the kid’s really good.

But I’m not here to talk about his vocal abilities. I more want to dive into the content of his music. Imagine the scene: a 15 year-old kid auditions for Usher and it’s clear the kid’s got amazing talent. After a bidding war with Justin Timberlake, Usher gets the rights to raise up this pop prodigy into celebrity greatness. Put yourself in Usher’s shoes:

Now what? 

How do we make him larger than life? How can we maximize revenue given his talent? Who is his audience? What will he sing about?

The music industry has very calculated answers to those questions because there’s so much money riding on the right answers. And it appears that said industry has realized that Justin would do well to appeal to pre-teen and teenage girls by singing a certain variety of pop love song. The kind that guarantees masses of screaming girls in sold-out stadiums.

I’m going to show you what the industry machine produces when you tell it that it needs to pump out millions of lovestruck screaming adolescents. As you watch, I want you to try really hard to put yourself in the shoes of middle school you. I want you to process your own emotions and think about why this product so predictably churns out such intense emotions among one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations.

So what did it? What was the secret ingredient? If you came up with a list of elements that drive teenagers (especially girls) crazy, I want to take the question one step further: Why? Why do those elements drive teens aboslutely insane? I’ll actually extend the question to you: Did your heart flutter a bit as you watched? What kind of longings did this stir up inside of you? What seduced middle school you? I’d love to hear your response in the comments section.

The industry doesn’t want us to really think about or answer these questions, because once we start doing that, it’s not long before their master plan is unveiled:

1) Convince young women that their worth is defined by how many boys are physically and romantically interested in them.
2) Leave them to pursue romantic relationships before they’re mature enough to know what love means or look likes.
3) Wait for the serious heartbreak and emotional wounds that inevitably result when two adolescents invest deeply in one another romantically.
4) Prey upon their wounded hearts and shattered dreams by providing a hero (Justin Bieber) who claims the power to be the counter-example and love perfectly. Then let the money to pile up from the pockets of these broken dreamers. Now back to step 2, and let the cycle continue and intensify with each repetition.

It is one of the most twisted money-making schemes that our nation’s laws allow for.

I want to weigh in with how I understand this phenomenon on a spiritual level. I think this video is so appealing because it paints a potentially beautiful, even perfect reality. The intense pursuit, desire, and lack of conflict that epitomize the video relationship reflect deeper relational dynamics of the Kingdom of Heaven. Relational dynamics that satisfy the eternal longings in each of us (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11). And I think it’s created with the intention of convincing you that a romantic relationship that is typified by that kind of perpetual joyful intimacy is really possible here on earth. And we love believing that, so we buy it. By the millions.

The images and sounds are made to sort of lull you into this belief, so that you eventually begin to long for it yourself. 14 year-old girls, who don’t know any better, begin to believe that Justin can provide this for them since he promises it in his music. If you missed the promise, it took the form of the bridge:

I can fix up your broken heart
I can give you a brand new start
I can make you believe,
I just wanna set one girl free to fall,
Fall in love

But he’s lying to you. He can’t actually do any of those things. In fact, nobody can. No human being actually has the power to free you, fix you, or make you do anything. Especially celebrities. Of course Justin has no idea how to love a woman. He’s 15, people. The rates of martial dissatisfaction and divorce in America suggests that most full-grown men around here don’t even know how to love a woman. So the video makes a cripplingly empty promise that looks something like this: “You can find that unwavering perfect intimacy that always fulfills all of your heart’s deepest longings in a romantic relationship with another broken, hurting, selfish, sinful person.” You, being your mature, wise, experienced self would quickly call this promise ridiculous. But millions of young women don’t think it’s ridiculous when they watch the video. They want it…

(In Part II I’ll try my hand at what I think the Church can do to begin to repair the pain this pattern has caused our nation and restore our young people to a healthy place of hope and longing)