Death's Serenade

Tonight I stood in the very spot where a kid who once attended Youth Church at Hilltop was gunned down.  It was on an asphalt pathway that winds through a park where no children were at play, and mammoth eucalyptus trees cast vast shadows even on this cloudy, cold, windy late afternoon.  It was the one year anniversary of his death and was well attended by over 75 friends and family members.  Faces were brightly lit by candles as the sun's light, though hidden by the "scattered shower" rain clouds faded into the night, and the cries of a mother could be heard above the wind howling through the trees.

I had been called on to speak at the service.  "What do you say at a time like this?" I asked myself... It wasn't a funeral or graveside service.  It wasn't a formal setting with cozy chairs and a sound system.  God forbid I didn't have any control over the environment or a powerpoint on display to back me up.  I didn't even have an outline.  But what I did have was possibly one of the most teachable moments that pastors ever get: the shadow of immanent death, of which every person present has a date. 

With my heart broken over the sad, senseless death of another young person, I prayed with close relatives and chatted with cousins on the sidelines.  And as the crowd gathered, I opened with prayer and asked God to smile upon us from Heaven. Then I read from Hebrews 12 about Jesus enduring death because of the joy He had in knowing that he was going to a better place where he'll be united with everyone who calls Him Lord.


I tried to imagine Jesus standing there, using his surroundings to preach to the crowd: "These trees witnessed the whole thing, they were here long before any of us and they'll be here long after we're all gone.  Our lives are more like the candles you hold in front of you, alive and bright, but in a moment - a gust of wind or the wax running out, our lives will be snuffed out quickly. We have only a short time here, like a vapor."

And with the picture of the deceased right behind me, I picked it up and said that "right now, he knows that everything in this book (the Bible) is true... and if he could speak to us, I believe he would tell us: 1) 'Make it Count, - don't lay your life down for a government owned piece of property or for a gang of thugs on your block, but live it in the fullest potential of what God has created you for. 2) You must give up your right to get revenge and your right to feel hatred, and forgive those who are responsible for this murder. Without forgiving them, you will not be forgiven of your sins. 3) Do everything you can to get to Heaven. Strive to get there.  Nothing on earth matters as much as knowing God and making him Known. 


With a closing prayer, and my heart relieved of the angst of what to say after letting everything out that God had put there, I stepped back into the quiet circle of candles.  And waited.  After about ten minutes of silence, his mother came forward, having given up on the fighting-back of tears, thanked everyone for coming out.

As I walked away that night, I remembered that God has given us a ministry of reconciliation and that "ministry" comes in moments, not in the day-to-day activities of administration and programming.  And I had that overwhelming sense of my own mortality - that I too will breathe my last breath one day - the same sobering thought that I'm sure everyone present sensed that evening.  So with the fresh reminder that death has a date with all of us, and sings to us from beyond the grave, comes to us with swiftness and certainty, and has spared nobody since the beginning of time; it is all the more opportunity to re-affirm the relationship with the one who conquered death, hell and the grave.  And to be thankful that nobody really "dies" in this life, we just make the transition from mortality to immortality.

"YOU Can't Loose" - Coffee with the Campus Guru

I had coffee with Jeff Devoll this morning at Peet's coffee in Fairfield. Apparently coffee is the catalyst for all things youth ministry related.  I think all of my meetings with other youth ministry "professionals" (if you wanna use that term) have been at a coffee shop.

This guy has years of experience in the public school setting, and has dealt with literally hundreds of issues with principals denying Christian clubs on campus.  He tells me that most of the issues come out of a principal's desire to stay out of any kind of trouble in an effort to keep the peace on campus.  I agree with that for the most part having been a teacher - realizing the difficulties and challenges of being principal of any school.  He referred me to a letter from the Secretary of Education, who has every superintendent of every school district in the USA receiving federal dollars sign-off on a letter which states the following:


"..."[a]mong other things, students may read their Bibles or other
scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow
students during recess, the lunch hour, or other noninstructional time to the same extent
that they may engage in nonreligious activities." Public schools should not be hostile to
the religious rights of their students and their families...."

So, if after the presentation of the students to the principal, and after the calls from parents, the principal still doesn't respond, it can be appropriate to ask the school superintendent if the district wants to continue either receiving federal dollars, or close the school down.  Which is probably why Jeff bats 1000 - and has lawyers lined up for days who take cases like these pro-bono because they can't loose. Of course we don't want it getting to this point, but if this is what it takes for the club to move on (in the words of Principal Kahn), "so be it."

And as is customary, after chatting over coffee about this business, we changed a few topics and landed on missions.  Apparently Jeff has been taking kids south of the border for years to a small town called Vicente Guerrero.  They drive six hours into Baja and build homes in this small, under-resourced beach community; the perfect blend of work and leisure for young people to have a cheap, transformational time of missions.  We'll most definitely be joining him this summer.  And I'll keep you posted on the events at PVHS this week.   

Step One: Student-Delivered Legal Docs "Bible Clubs are Allowed"

The quest for justice begins at Pinole Valley High School, with the president of the SWAT hand-delivering legal documents containing the legal precedences below in their entirety.  What you'll read is only bits and pieces of the actual seven-page document. 

Mergens, 496 U.S. at 244-45 (quoting Mergens v. Westside Community Schools, 876 F.2d 1076, 1078 (8th Cir. 1989) content courtesy of ACLJ.org

"Schools may not discriminate against any students who wish to conduct a meeting ... on the basis of religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings... If a state refused to let religious groups use the facilities open to others, then it would demonstrate not neutrality but hostility toward religion.  The Establishment Clause does not license governemt to treat religion and those who teach or practice it, simply by virtue of their status as such, as subversive of American ideals and therefore subject to unique disabilities..."

The Supreme Court held that student-initiated Bible Clubs of Prayer Groups must be given official recognition on campus in order to satisfy the requirements of the Equal Access Act.  Official recognition means that Bible Clubs of Prayer Groups must be treated the same as other club meeting on the campus. Same treatment means equal access to the same media produced to advertise the club, including school newspapers etc... participation in the annual Club Day festival, permission to post fliers and posters in like manner as other clubs including the right to reference Christianity on all printed media. 

It is important to note that the "right to persuade or advocate a religious viewpoint implicates the very reason the First Amendment was adopted."  And in Tinker v. Des Moines ISD, 393 U.S. at 506, the Supreme Court held that "it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."  This simply means that school administration can only prohibit student speech if it "materially and substantially interferes with appropriate discipline."

In any light, the rights of religious persons to express their views publicly have been reinforced many times. The situation at Pinole Valley, as was made by the principal, was again based on her unfounded fear that the Muslims and satanic churches would be able to start a club. Which is, of course, their constitutional right. Being the thriving community of students that PVHS is with so many clubs, the only request of your students is that none of them are marginalized or discriminated upon by their princiPAL.

Ms. Kahn, what is at stake is far more than 25 or so kids meeting in a classroom at lunch time, but the rights of American students everywhere.  As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Stay posted for the next step.  We'll give Principal Kahn until the 19th of January to meet our request of allowing the SWAT club to regain full access club rights on campus.  Fighting the good fight with so many good people -Corey

Christian Club, SWAT, is kicked out of local high school

Today marked the beginning; and temporary end of my personal involvement - in the fourth month of the weekly S.W.A.T. (Students With A Testimony) club meetings at Pinole Valley High School.  The club, organized and run by students at the school is held in a classroom where all students are invited to hear a message based on the Christian Faith, coming from the MyCampus curriculum.  During the week, students post fliers and invite friends to come eat pizza during the growing, vibrant club meeting and hear a fellow student or one of several area youth pastors, who have been invited by the students, bring a relevant message blending youth culture with the Christian faith.

This afternoon, however, it all changed.  The principal of the school stopped into the classroom briefly during the meeting and told the teacher present that she wanted these sessions to end and to have me come to her office after it was over.

The senior student who initiated the club, Jacob "Bubba" Hernandez, Myself and another youth pastor, Josh Herndon from Central Assembly, went to her office.  The principal, Ms. Sue Kahn stated that the SWAT club was initiated several years ago as "a group that meets with a common interest in prayer. That's it."  Not Christian. "Because if it were one particular religion," she went on, "that would open up the scary door for every other religion to meet on campus, including the satanists and muslims."  Excuse me? They, too have a right to meet on campus.
"This is still America, isn't it?" I asked.  She told me that Bubba couldn't even hold a Christian meeting of any kind on her campus.  And I, a youth pastor, am "definitely not allowed on campus" at all. 

I told her that Bubba knew his rights and I know my rights, and we have a right to meet on campus as a Christian club.  Not to mention that the SWAT club's bylaws are written as a Christian club meeting.  When I told her that "things don't have to get any bigger than right here in this room if you'll allow us to continue meeting as we have been," to which she replied, "whatever that means, so be it.  I'll call the superintendent today."

Today, I too will contact the superintendent, the Lord, and if necessary, the media, the ACLJ... 

I'll see you in the classroom soon Bubba, standing with you and your fellow students to "Figh the Power" of the devil, Corey.  -I'm out-

New Leaders in the Church

The 20th century is the name of a train that quit running almost 10 years ago. But during that century, the "builder" generation (before the boomers) built strong ministries in the Christian faith. Many are now elderly and still in the ministry, but they have no successor. So the so-called "generational gap" is again at the forefront of the American Church's dialog...

What are your stories?