Guilty Post

So I feel awful, I haven't post in a long time (Ok, so I don't really feel that bad, but a remorseful tone might help right?). Anywho, a lot has happened in the life of the Gibsons lately. If you're not in the loop, and I apologize if your not, we still love you; we just finished signing papers to make it official, we bought our first house in Hemet. We're pretty excited to have a place that's ours and it'll be paid off in just 30 short years, June 2038 baby! It even has a pool! We absolutely love it here. The Church that I work for is doing amazing things. We're growing in a healthy way, which is extremely exciting. I love that I get to come into work everyday and work with people that are passionate about seeing people's lives changed. If you live in So-Cal, once we move in you'll have to come out for a ride on the slide (rhyme unintended, but you're welcome). Other than that, life is status quo. Summer's about to explode and I can't wait to have a great time with the kids in my youth group. Until next time.
Z

The Travesty of Iraq

The death toll in Iraq has reached 4,000; I have mixed feelings about that. As a nation, we've toppled the government of another. A tyrant was removed from office, a good thing. But 4,000 American men and women have died for what, a fledging government? As a Christian though, I'm pretty sure that Jesus said that we're supposed to turn the other cheek when provoked, not topple two national governments. So in honor of the 4,000 people that have died, let's figure out how to quit wasting taxpayer money and get our troops out.
Z

Reflections on Easter

So this weekend is Easter. Easter has been my favorite holiday since I was about 10. For some kids, it was [insert favorite holiday here], but for me it's always been Easter. I remember a buzz in my soul on Easter, not because when I woke I got an Easter basket full of good stuff, but because I knew that Easter was the day that Jesus rose from the grave. So this weekend, rejoice in the great glory of the Risen Christ.

Z

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.