You can follow me on twitter @brockmorgan or check out my website at brockmorgan.com
Currently I am taking a break from blogging... I'll begin again soon but until then, catch you in twitter land.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
An open letter to my dad - Happy Father's Day!
Dad,
Today I walked into the living room and found Dancin watching The Cosby Show. It was the episode of where Bill Cosby was giving advice to Theo about school and his grades. Theo went on about the fact that his father was expecting too much from him. Theo thought that maybe he wasn’t meant for college and that he, his father, should just let him do what he wants to do and just except him for the way he was. Cosby responded by saying these awesome words, “that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”
Cosby went to say how Theo was meant for greatness and that he was blinded because of the struggle, the hard times. But that if he hung in there, worked hard and never gave up, then he would find true success. Theo would become great and character would be built.
It reminded me of our relationship and how you have always seen in me what I couldn’t see in myself. When I thought I was too dumb, too ignorant, to slow, too undisciplined – you have seen in me who I really am. Dad, I love you so much and I am so proud to be your son. My prayer is that your life would be repeated in me. My prayer is that I would live in a way that Jesus would be glorified, just like he is glorified in you.
I long to be a man of wisdom like you are. I was telling Paul Cook, our summer intern, about you the other day. We were hiking in the back country of Greenwich and came upon a brook. We sat there by the water and he began to tell about how his father left the family when he was 12 years old and how his relationship with his Dad is at best cordial. I began to tell him about what an amazing father you were and about how I always felt like I was the apple of your eye. I went on to tell him that because of you and how you saw me, how you loved me, accepted me, and truly saw me, I have always been able to receive love from God. That because of your love, I just knew God must love me. That because of your acceptance, I always felt accepted by God. Because of how you watched me, cheered for me, listened to me, and tenderly gazed over me, I have just known, my whole life, that God must deeply care for me, that He must overwhelmingly love me, and that he actually likes me. You have made my view of God, you have inspired my interactions with Him, and you have lived in a way that I have felt safe with Him.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I have never, not for one day, questioned if I am loved – this is because of you and Mom. Thank you! Thank you Dad for leading our family this way. You have made it easy to live a life wide open to Jesus because I have watched you. I have been watching since I was in the crib. I have watched how you treated Mom, I’ve watched how you listened to people and loved them, I have watched how you have sought after Jesus’ heart for people, I’ve watched you live it out, and I’ve watched you, every year, grow in wisdom, mercy, patience, goodness, and in extravagant love. God is so proud of you – I feel it from Him Dad. You are His man and He trusts you! You, the one who has been faithful, the one who has lived radically, the one who has challenged small thinking and small living, you! I love you and I am the proudest son in the world!
When you put your head on the pillow tonight, sleep well. Rest knowing that your children love you; we respect you, we honor you. We absolutely adore you. You and Mom have been absolutely incredible – Incredibly detailed in how you have modeled Jesus to us. Sleep all night Dad, rest like you’ve never rested before. Put your head on your pillow knowing that what God has entrusted to you, you have been faithful. Rest knowing that this God, who has used you in remarkable ways, ways that are worthy of a movie, He isn’t finished with you. But you don’t need to wake up with worry and anxiety. He’s got you. The One that you have been faithful to, He will NOT let you down. He has not forgotten you and you are the one he brags about. He brags about you to Peter, Gabriel, Grandpa, all the Saints, and all the sinners. You are loved. Paul Vernon Morgan, my dad, my hero! Happy Father’s Day Dad!
Your beloved son,
Brock
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
My new article for Immerse Magazine
I went to an AA meeting recently with a friend of mine. I loved how the meeting began. The leader got up and said, “My name is Brian, and I am an alcoholic.” I thought, Maybe church should begin like that. It is just so real and reminds everyone in the room, especially the person saying it, how desperate they all are.
I long for the real. I am ready for the work of God to truly transform me. Recently I wrote this in my journal:
Sometimes I wake up and just feel empty and unhappy, but I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Sometimes I’m full of joy and feel goofy, and I dance around the house singing made-up songs and annoy my family. Sometimes I feel like a great youth worker. Mostly, though, I feel out of my depth, inadequate, and I have no clue how to reach students. Sometimes I feel so good after walks with my 17-year-old daughter, and I feel as though God has spoken right through me directly to her. But lately I don’t have any idea what to say. Sometimes I say to the Lord that wherever he leads me I will follow, but then I don’t want to get out of bed. Sometimes I feel God’s hand is upon me. Sometimes I feel as though he wants nothing to do with me.
As a youth pastor and a so-called professional Chris- tian, the environment I live and work in can be just so darn inauthentic. If I said to people in my church what was really going on beneath the surface, I’m afraid I would lose respect. So, I just hide. I act like everything is okay. And the words I preach—I act like I am honestly living them.
I was talking the other day with a friend who is a pastor, and I asked him how he has been—like, really, how he was. He answered me in such an open and vulnerable way that it shocked me. He said, “My marriage is a
mess; I have no discipline; and I have no idea how to change anything in my life.” The way he talked was so refreshing, and the thought hit me: I think this might be the first step toward freedom and wholeness.
Honesty. Just saying it. “I am struggling, and I am not who I want to be.” This sets us free, and this is what the church needs—leaders who lead from honest brokenness. Paul did it; Peter did it; all the greats did it. Jesus even did it.
I love the passage where Jesus, the God-man, begs his closest friends to stay up and pray with him. He is being tortured in his thoughts by what is to come. That, in just a few moments, he is going to be arrested, tortured and slowly killed. He feels alone, and he invites his closest friends into his struggle, his worry, his anxiety and his doubt. If Jesus was vulnerable, maybe I should think about it a bit myself.
But I’ve got to go beyond telling people how screwed up I am. Many Christians are good at that. And it’s funny because, even though it’s honest, it’s also shallow. If there is no desire to move beyond it, it’s almost hopeless. It’s just a blanketed, self-accepting statement. There’s no depth beyond the words. It’s defining. “I am a screw-up, and I will always be a screw-up.”
As youth workers, we all want God to change students. We want them to recklessly abandon everything and run to Jesus—and not just on mission trips, retreats and at camp. We want them to experience Jesus in the day to day of their lives. But I also want this for myself, and this is way easier said than done.
One week recently, I was feeling dry in my spirit and kind of numb inside. I knew what I would tell my students to do if they were in the same situation. So I decided to do it myself. I decided to take a retreat, just for the day. I canceled some appointments and just got away. I sat there with my journal and Bible, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t journal. I just couldn’t focus. I had no attention span. I felt restless, and it was grueling.
There was this battle inside, and I noticed something about myself in that moment. Everything in me wanted to avoid God. So I did what any great minister of the gospel would do. I got out my laptop and went to ESPN.com for some light yet very important reading! By the end of the day, I had accomplished little... except for this one thing. At the end of my time, I wrote a prayer in my journal asking God to invade me. I realized I was incapable of doing it, of bringing change, of waking myself up. I just really needed him. It’s funny how, the following week, I felt God answering that prayer little by little. I felt myself slowly coming back to life. I sensed him inviting me to “wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).
I love the passage in Colossians 2:6. It says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Maybe that’s it! I remember running to the altar to accept Jesus on a Wednesday night when I was 13. I think maybe over the years I have just stopped running. I think I am like my students, or maybe they are like
me. It’s too easy to only run to Jesus on mission trips, at retreats, camps and the occasional Wednesday night. God, forgive me!
I remember when my dad was my age and I was 17, and I remember thinking how he had it all together and how, by the time I got to be his age, I would have my stuff together as well. But when I look at who I am—who I really am—it seems that when I invited Christ into the darkest recesses of my heart, I was oblivious to the fact that he carries a flashlight, maybe even something more like a spotlight, and the true cracks in my character are more obvious to me now than they were then. It’s really no wonder I feel even more desperate for the hand of God to move in my life. My heart cries out for God to invade me completely, to raise me from the dead.
So I remember with thankfulness that I am fragile, cracked. I sink my roots into the rich soil that is my daily dependency on God. I refuse to believe the lie that I’ve got my life under control, that I’ve got it all together. I think maybe I need to begin every day with these words: “My name is Brock Morgan, I am broken, and I desperately need Jesus today.”
For six years Brock was a member of the Youth Specialties One- day national speaking team and has been working with students for over 20 years. He is a popular speaker for camps, retreats, and conferences and has overseen youth ministries in big and small churches on the west coast but is currently the youth pastor at Trinity Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. Brock has been mar- ried to his wife Kelsey for 15 years and they have 2 daughters. He loves to surf, play golf and tennis, and hang with his wife as much as possible. He also watches NFL network way too much.
I long for the real. I am ready for the work of God to truly transform me. Recently I wrote this in my journal:
Sometimes I wake up and just feel empty and unhappy, but I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Sometimes I’m full of joy and feel goofy, and I dance around the house singing made-up songs and annoy my family. Sometimes I feel like a great youth worker. Mostly, though, I feel out of my depth, inadequate, and I have no clue how to reach students. Sometimes I feel so good after walks with my 17-year-old daughter, and I feel as though God has spoken right through me directly to her. But lately I don’t have any idea what to say. Sometimes I say to the Lord that wherever he leads me I will follow, but then I don’t want to get out of bed. Sometimes I feel God’s hand is upon me. Sometimes I feel as though he wants nothing to do with me.
As a youth pastor and a so-called professional Chris- tian, the environment I live and work in can be just so darn inauthentic. If I said to people in my church what was really going on beneath the surface, I’m afraid I would lose respect. So, I just hide. I act like everything is okay. And the words I preach—I act like I am honestly living them.
I was talking the other day with a friend who is a pastor, and I asked him how he has been—like, really, how he was. He answered me in such an open and vulnerable way that it shocked me. He said, “My marriage is a
mess; I have no discipline; and I have no idea how to change anything in my life.” The way he talked was so refreshing, and the thought hit me: I think this might be the first step toward freedom and wholeness.
Honesty. Just saying it. “I am struggling, and I am not who I want to be.” This sets us free, and this is what the church needs—leaders who lead from honest brokenness. Paul did it; Peter did it; all the greats did it. Jesus even did it.
I love the passage where Jesus, the God-man, begs his closest friends to stay up and pray with him. He is being tortured in his thoughts by what is to come. That, in just a few moments, he is going to be arrested, tortured and slowly killed. He feels alone, and he invites his closest friends into his struggle, his worry, his anxiety and his doubt. If Jesus was vulnerable, maybe I should think about it a bit myself.
But I’ve got to go beyond telling people how screwed up I am. Many Christians are good at that. And it’s funny because, even though it’s honest, it’s also shallow. If there is no desire to move beyond it, it’s almost hopeless. It’s just a blanketed, self-accepting statement. There’s no depth beyond the words. It’s defining. “I am a screw-up, and I will always be a screw-up.”
As youth workers, we all want God to change students. We want them to recklessly abandon everything and run to Jesus—and not just on mission trips, retreats and at camp. We want them to experience Jesus in the day to day of their lives. But I also want this for myself, and this is way easier said than done.
One week recently, I was feeling dry in my spirit and kind of numb inside. I knew what I would tell my students to do if they were in the same situation. So I decided to do it myself. I decided to take a retreat, just for the day. I canceled some appointments and just got away. I sat there with my journal and Bible, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t journal. I just couldn’t focus. I had no attention span. I felt restless, and it was grueling.
There was this battle inside, and I noticed something about myself in that moment. Everything in me wanted to avoid God. So I did what any great minister of the gospel would do. I got out my laptop and went to ESPN.com for some light yet very important reading! By the end of the day, I had accomplished little... except for this one thing. At the end of my time, I wrote a prayer in my journal asking God to invade me. I realized I was incapable of doing it, of bringing change, of waking myself up. I just really needed him. It’s funny how, the following week, I felt God answering that prayer little by little. I felt myself slowly coming back to life. I sensed him inviting me to “wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:14).
I love the passage in Colossians 2:6. It says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Maybe that’s it! I remember running to the altar to accept Jesus on a Wednesday night when I was 13. I think maybe over the years I have just stopped running. I think I am like my students, or maybe they are like
me. It’s too easy to only run to Jesus on mission trips, at retreats, camps and the occasional Wednesday night. God, forgive me!
I remember when my dad was my age and I was 17, and I remember thinking how he had it all together and how, by the time I got to be his age, I would have my stuff together as well. But when I look at who I am—who I really am—it seems that when I invited Christ into the darkest recesses of my heart, I was oblivious to the fact that he carries a flashlight, maybe even something more like a spotlight, and the true cracks in my character are more obvious to me now than they were then. It’s really no wonder I feel even more desperate for the hand of God to move in my life. My heart cries out for God to invade me completely, to raise me from the dead.
So I remember with thankfulness that I am fragile, cracked. I sink my roots into the rich soil that is my daily dependency on God. I refuse to believe the lie that I’ve got my life under control, that I’ve got it all together. I think maybe I need to begin every day with these words: “My name is Brock Morgan, I am broken, and I desperately need Jesus today.”
For six years Brock was a member of the Youth Specialties One- day national speaking team and has been working with students for over 20 years. He is a popular speaker for camps, retreats, and conferences and has overseen youth ministries in big and small churches on the west coast but is currently the youth pastor at Trinity Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. Brock has been mar- ried to his wife Kelsey for 15 years and they have 2 daughters. He loves to surf, play golf and tennis, and hang with his wife as much as possible. He also watches NFL network way too much.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Youth Ministry Coaching Program
So I am leading a cohort in New England and we still have more spots. If you live in the New York City area or in New England, I'd love for you to be a part of it. Read below and follow the link to youth ministry coaching program. There are limited spots, so sign up now. Oh and by the way, I've kept mine a bit cheaper than others - I know we are pretty tight financially as youth workers and our youth ministry budgets aren't exactly over-flowing. I hope to hear from you!
Brock's Leading a Cohort in New England
zack weingartner is a youth worker you haven’t heard of, but should. brilliantly gifted, super fun and relational, and deeply insightful, zack has just made a move to flatirons church in boulder, colorado. he’s a blogger, and just completed a year in my youth ministry coaching program. i’m so glad to have gotten to know zack. my life is richer for it. here’s zack’s post about his involvement in ymcp this past year.************
2010 and into 2011 has been a big year for me in a lot of ways. The only reason that I am using a timeline of last April to this March is because of an incredible program I just finished called the Youth Ministry Coaching Program (YMCP). Teamed with the leadership class I took at the Air Force Academy on Dynamic Leadership, focusing on character development in leadership, and the weekly meetings with a mentor that shook my perspective, challenged my notions, and pushed my boundaries, I came out way ahead.
A year ago I knew a few things about myself: I loved the students in my ministry (I still do), I was pretty good at being a youth pastor, I had a wonderful family (I still do, of course), … and I was dissatisfied, frustrated, tired, and above all, just plain wanted to get better at being all of the things I am – husband, father, pastor, leader, friend, mentor, protege, etc.
The first step happened a while earlier when the father of one of my high school guys approached me on a mission trip and told me that he saw potential in me above where I was professionally and personally and that he could tell I wasn’t being developed to my maximum (which was like having someone tell me I wasn’t crazy and that the emperor truly had no clothes). I began meeting with him regularly, nearly every week in September 2009. It started hard … I had to break some bad habits and look at things differently if I really wanted to get better. After a rough, honest meeting the very first time we had coffee, I sat and gave myself the space to ask if I truly wanted to have my heart wrung out and reanimated with stronger things. I did, and I grew immediately and quickly.
Next, I found out about the Youth Ministry Coaching Program run by Mark Oestreicher, whom I have read for years and admired as the former president of Youth Specialties and a thinker that I have always wanted to be more like. After reading about the launch of it, I knew I had to be involved. My church graciously paid the tuition and Josie and I made the sacrifice to pay for the travel expenses of going to San Diego every other month for a year. It definitely helped that I got to travel to the area I grew up in. Those who know me also know how deeply sentimental and borderline cheesy I am about all things, but especially San Diego. Of all the experiences of the last year outside the program, which I’ll get to in a second, the capstone was taking a run on La Jolla shores along the ocean as the sun set my last night in town after the closing YMCP. There is a metaphor about endings and beginning in there, but simply put it was inspiring and one of the moments of my life as a movie that will replay for the rest of my days. Like all of the coaching cohort experience, it was just a spiritual moment.
The program itself changed me in rich and profound ways. Marko has an uncanny ability to state things that are complex in ways that are penetrating. Or, said another way, my soul was pierced by the application of simple truths both about God, but also about myself. And the marriage of those concepts is really where ministry comes from.
I found a new confidence, a new clarity, a refreshed inspiration. I rekindled my love affair with the craft of youth ministry, challenging thinking, and vigorous application. My students benefited, my family benefited, my career has flourished and is taking new directions that have given me life in places that were at least dying if not dead. In all honestly and without hyperbole, I don’t know what kind of rut I would be in if I had not pursued this opportunity.
If you are a youth pastor, go. Do this … now, not later. Sell your car or whatever, it’s well, well worth it. Your life will change, I promise.
************
all of the cohorts still have space in them; but unless the san diego cohort (scheduled to launch in may) fills up soon, we’ll have to postpone or cancel it. if you’re interested in the san diego cohort, please let me know soon.
Friday, December 24, 2010
YM Video 1
Great youth ministry video. They have a couple of these on you tube - this one is my favorite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
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