This weekend marks the beginning of a new series in 3:12 called “Collide.”

Ask anyone who’s ever run into a sliding glass door that was closed, or went for the same baseball as a teammate, or experienced a fender bender at a stoplight-a collision changes things. Whether it’s a bump on the head or a cracked bumper, something is not the same as it was before. The same thing happens when we collide with God or His truth or even other people. We’re changed. But unless we put ourselves in a position to collide, everything will stay the same. So are you ready to change, are you ready to collide?

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A HIGH VOLUME OF IRRITATION & SARCASM

If you go to Journey, for many of you this has been the elephant in the room. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. The elephant in the room is the thing that everybody knows about but doesn’t talk about. Reports keep getting back to me on people who “have issues” with my tattoos. This, of course, means they ARE talking about it, they just aren’t coming to me about it. I’ll ignore for the moment they are violating the biblical principle of going directly to your brother if you have an issue with him. So let’s settle this here once-and-for-all. And if in the future anyone says anything to you about my tattoos, I would strongly urge you to kindly send them this link.

Do I have tattoos: Yes, I do.
Do I think tattoos are bad: Obviously not, or else I wouldn’t have gotten them.
Do I plan on getting more tattoos? Yes, as a matter fact, I do.
What does the Bible say about tattoos? I’m glad you asked…

Are Tattoos Sinful?

Well, to be honest, the issue is pretty simple and straightforward. There is one verse in Scripture that is often used to support the idea that it is sinful to tattoo your body. Here it is.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with the question of what are realistic expectations to place on students. Let me explain. The goal of Journey Students is to “reach students who reach students.” We believe that it is too small a goal to simply reach students who are far from God. We want to reach those students, lead them to life in Christ, and then raise them up in such a way that they become a part of reaching others.

That’s the goal. Now with the goal clearly in focus, we’ve been strategizing about how to get there. The proverbial “bump” in the road that I’ve continued to run into over and over again is that all of the so-called “tools” of evangelism feel so wooden, stale, and inauthentic in the hands of my teenagers. Recently, a girl confided in me that she has friends that don’t know Jesus, and she doesn’t share Jesus with them. She said “if I were to say, ‘If you were to die tonight do you know for sure you would go to heaven,’ they would look at me like I’m stupid because nobody actually talks like that.”