2008…

So I realize that it's January 5^th, thus we're 5 days into the New Year, but I'm excited to see what God brings for this New Year.

2007 started in a weird way. Kristi and I spent X-mas with family on the Central Coast, and since her car hadn't sold, I was going to drive it back to TN by myself while Kristi stayed for her mom's wedding then she would fly back with her little sister Jen. So I drove down through the OC and caught up with some old Friends, Jonathan and Chad. I left the next day, December 29^th, I was going to be back in East Tennessee in time to have dinner with my parents and sister in Knoxville to celebrate my mom's birthday on New Year's Eve. That is until New Mexico decided to crush my dreams. I should have looked at the weather and avoided Albuquerque, but it's the middle of the desert, what could go wrong. Well they got the biggest snowfall ever in the history of mankind (well not all of mankind, just in New Mexico) so Zach got stuck for 2 miserable days in Albuquerque. I had my trip all planned out, I was going to get to Amarillo, TX, then Memphis, then home. Well that didn't happen. Here's what Kristi's Rodeo looks like under 2 feet of snow. I did see an amazing sunset though in Albuquerque.

So I finally left Albuquerque on New Year's Eve, and I headed south through El Paso, TX and all the way across the God Forsaken state of Texas, if you can avoid driving across it, my advice is not to. So I finally made it home New Year's Day, only a day late, but I was mad not because I was a day late, but because I couldn't watch the USC/Michigan Rose Bowl. Although, I don't think I'll ever be as glad as to see Tennessee as I was that day.

In March, Kristi, Chris and Danielle Csergei, and I went to Lexington, KY, which was a great trip, it was nice to get out of East TN for a night, even if it was Kentucky. The rest of school year to that point was rather uneventful, other than the fact that I was probably the worst student of all time, but hey, you do what you can right? I sold copiers for 2ish months in there somewhere, but I've blocked that horrible time out of my mind. Churches are jerky, and I never want to be as rude as the people were at these churches. In June, I got the coolest B-day present of all time and Kristi took me to Cincinnati to watch the Angels play the Reds. Of course the good guys won both games. Here we are at second game. For vacation the next week, we rented a cabin in Gatlinburg, and it was the most relaxing vacation of my life. We just hung out and enjoyed each other's company.

Anyways, I tell you all of that to get to where I am now. I don't know who's aware of it or not, but Kristi and I have moved back to California. I spent the first 8 month of 2007 waiting tables at Applebee's in good 'ol Elizabethton, TN. Well in June I was asked if I wanted to go to the North American Christian Convention in Kansas City, MO. Of course I said yes because I love to travel. While I was in KC, I had a few duties to perform on behalf of ESR and one of those duties was to man this lovely booth. Other than that, I basically had free reign. I went and saw Transformers at a theater in a rough neighborhood, and let's just say that people do yell at the screen, and really it was great.

I also had the distinct pleasure of going to a desert hosted by my alma mater, Hope International University. I got to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen in a while, but I also met two guys who were interested in interviewing me for the Youth Minister position at their churches. Well one was in Hisperia, and I was interested, but not as interested as I was in the other guy, John, who was from Hemet. For a visual, here's John's ugly mug. Gary, from Hisperia, took me to an amazing restaurant, Morton's, and if you have a chance to go I would most definitely recommend it.

Back to the topic at hand, John and I talked, but didn't get a chance to get together again before the Convention ended, so I sent him my resume, but didn't hear from him again. It was at that point that I didn't really worry about it, I had resolved to go back to East Tennessee and finish school and then see where God would take me. Needless to say, I didn't expect what happened the first week of August. I got a phone call and the caller ID said John Scott, and I was floored. He had said that he was going away with his fam for few weeks of vacation, but I just figured he'd forgotten about me (which had happened too many times in TN so I guess I expected it). Well John and I talked for at least an hour, and he asked me to send some references so I did, and I got a call 2 days later and John said he'd like to fly my wife and I out for an interview. I've already killed you enough with details so I'll give you the reader's digest version, we came out for a weekend and I was offered the job the following Wednesday. So Kristi and I gave our respective places of employment 2 weeks notice and we packed up this big ugly truck and hit the road. We've been in Hemet for 4 months and we absolutely love it here. It was difficult to leave family and friends and East Tennessee, but this has been an amazing place to get started in Ministry. Truthfully, Hemet is a place that Kristi and I look forward to starting our family and a community that we look forward to being a part of for many years to come. Here's our church, Community Christian Church.

As 2007 closed, we got to meet our niece Aidan Grace Cybulski for the first time, and she's absolutely amazing. 2007 we said hello to a new member of our family and we said goodbye to an amazing woman, my grandmother Marjorie Tovatt, the matriarch of my family, the reason that any of us are walking with the Lord. I'm excited to see what sorts of adventures that 2008 has to offer.

Z

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope you were blessed with a beautiful day. I'll leave you with a little JJ Peterson as Santa.

Relevant…

I've been thinking a lot lately about this new generation. I've been thinking about how out of touch they are. Sure they're more connected than any generation before them. At first I thought I was a part of this generation, but from my own experience and reflection, I've realized that people about my age (a year or two in either direction) were merely a transition point. We aren't necessarily Gen X and we aren't truly a part of the current generation of teens and young adults. I realize I'm not that old, 24, but my new position in Hemet has really caused me to delve deeply into the current generation of students.

    I realize, also, that it's probably the youth pastor in me that sees this generation and sees a group of people that's disconnected not only from their family and each other, but sadly from the church as well. Sure there's a hunger in a lot of them for the things of heaven, but there's an apathy that I've never seen before; apathy for Christ, apathy for the church. They show up and leave, they sit and text while someone tries to lead them to the throne of Christ, they talk and laugh. This goes on not only at church but in school. I think that it stems from apathy at home. Parents are having to work more and more, so they're burnt out when it comes time to dealing with their children and their needs. Because they're burnt out, most of the time kids get away with murder. It's something that can be seen in a number of places, the two most troubling being school and church.

    I just finished listening to a seminar from Youth Specialties by Mark Helsel, and he made a point that hit me. Everything we do needs to be authentic and excellent. Authenticity is something that this generation is longing for. They long for someone to be authentic with them. The other idea is the idea of excellence. To put it bluntly today's generation demands excellence. How many great shows have been canceled because of the demand for excellence? One season that's supposedly subpar can cancel an entire series. In a world of excellence, is the church attempting to be excellent, or is the church content being subpar? Is the church content with second, third or even fourth place? Yeah I'll go to church if I have nothing better to do? Francis Schaffer said that "The Christian Life itself should be the greatest work of Art." We need to create environments with authenticity and excellence so that people come in and let their guards down, to suspend their disbelief, to suspend their disbelief in Christianity for 2 hours, or however long, so that they see the gospel.

    Jesus understood that ideology. He painted the picture of His kingdom in such a way that people could understand what he was trying to communicate by helping them to suspend their disbelief. He used metaphor and allegory so that people could truly see who he was and the message he preached. If our goal is to be like Christ, then we have to break the mold. We have to be relevant. If we're not relevant, we're doomed.

Heroes pt. 1

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
-Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Right Back Where I Started From

It’s been a while so I thought that it was time for an update. If you haven’t heard, Kristi and I moved back to California, where I took a job as a Youth Minister at Community Christian Church in Hemet, Ca. It’s a rad church and I love the people that I work with. They haven’t had a Youth Pastor for a year so I have my work cut out for me, but I am very excited to tackle this challenge. So far the students are rad and I look forward to getting to know them, and getting to minister to them.

We got into a house as well. It needs a little bit of work, but it’s amazing. It’s three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, we have a backyard, and the piece de resistance, a SPA! We need to get something fixed on it, but hey, it’s a spa right? We painted our room on Labor Day, it looks amazing, I’ll have pictures soon. Then my grandparents hooked us up with a sweet fridge, and a washer and dryer that actually work. It’s been amazing to watch as God has blessed this move. We’re just working on getting Kristi a job, hopefully soon.

So if you live in So-Cal, give me a buzz, or drop me an email on here if you don’t have my new cell. Let’s get together, if you come out, I’ll even BBQ for you. Keep the faith.

Z

Don't Be A Hater

The word hate is one that I throw around a little too often I believe. We use it to say that we dislike something, or, worse, someone. Tonight I saw something that I absolutely and completely hate, ignorant people. These guys were nice enough I guess, but when they sat down I realized that I would have a problem. You see, one of the guys had a Nazi t-shirt on, which in and of itself may not be worse than any other piece of clothing someone could wear. It’s the symbolism and the baggage that it carries with it that I hate. This isn’t the first time I have seen this guy in my Applebee’s, I’ve seen him once or twice before, and every other time I’ve seen him he’s worn something similar, a shirt with some form of a swastika on it.
I say all that to say that people are terrible. It’s ridiculous to assume yourself better than someone else based solely on the color of one’s skin. In my humble opinion, the fact that someone is one color or another carries no significance. A person is a person and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of the language they speak, or where they live, or how much money they have, or their sexuality. I don’t want to say it hurts my feelings seeing people that wear their hatred on a t-shirt, but it really does. One of my best friends for the last 13 years is Columbian. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met are Mexican, or Honduran, or Zambian, or from Zimbabwe. And yet this kind of person can wear their hatred of anyone who isn’t the same as they are as a t-shirt in public. I realize that as an American, I have the right to free speech, and this person has the exact same right, but should ignorant people be allowed to express such demeaning ideals in the form of a t-shirt? I don’t think so.

Do I really hate what I say I do? I really do hate peas, and I really do hate mushrooms, and I really do hate ignorant people who think the color of their skin entitles them to anything.

That’s my two cents, take it for what it’s worth ©