StrategicMonk Interview: Jared Callahan: Part Two

Last updated on: July 12, 2012 at 4:45 am by Greg Richardson

StrategicMonk Interview: Jared Callahan: Part Two 2012-07-12T04:45:53-08:00 Greg Richardson

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I wanted to learn more about my friend Jared Callahan, who is a youth pastor in San Diego, and he agreed to answer a few of my questions. Here is the second of two parts:

6. Jared, when do your feel most present to God? When does God seem most transcendent?

I feel most present to God when I stop moving. I think that my life and schedule are so built around my heart to serve that the good works themselves can become the idol. The desire to produce or achieve becomes the idol. Busyness becomes a sort of badge we wear to show that things are good. What a lie. I feel God when I stop to look around and listen. God’s transcendence screams out to me through nature and story.

7. What is the biggest challenges you deal with in working with young people? How have they changed over time?

The biggest challenge now is the busyness that parents allow their students to participate in. Teens are expected to play two sports each season, excel in the band, get great grades, apply for schools, do secular philanthropic work, be good members of their families, be in a club or two, have a social life, and on top of all of that follow God!?! Not possible. We need to teach parents to slow down and do less, so that teens have permission to slow down and do less.

The other main problem we are facing in the church is Moral Therapeutic Deism. We have allowed God to become a philosophy of being “nice” combined with calling on a higher power when we need something. That message is not the Gospel, and we need to figure out ways to preach the true message of obeying and serving God with our whole selves, not just what fits into our regular busy lives.

8. You live in San Diego. How did you get to San Diego? So, you like the Chargers and the Padres?

Ha, ha! No, I am very much still a San Francisco Giants and Forty-Niners fan. I was born in San Diego, but grew up in northern California in a town called Lodi. I grew up in a great Baptist church and then came to Point Loma Nazarene University for school. Once you come down and live on the beach it becomes fairly difficult to leave.

9. What creative outlets do you have in addition to youth ministry?

I write and make movies as often as possible. I work with students to develop their ability to tell their own story or to tell God’s story thought the lens of their lives. I get to spend good chunks of time investing head and heart space into film. I have worked with a solid group of filmmakers since college on a number of projects. A couple of those have had some success around the festival circuit, screening at Sundance and whatnot.

I am currently producing two feature documentary projects. One is about a friend of mine who passed away from ALS. It is an incredible story about purpose, love, and death. It is mostly filmed and I am in the fundraising stages for editing, etc. The second project is being filmed this fall. It is the story of a small town who is producing original community theatre in the face of rabid unemployment (over 20%) and budget cuts to the arts. It is incredible. That story should be hitting Kickstarter for funding/purchase early in 2013. You can see some of our films on my websitewww.jaredcallahan.com (shameless plug, haha).

10. Is there anything you would like to ask?

Are you following God today with your whole heart, soul, strength, and mind? Are you loving others as you love yourself? If so, there isn’t a whole lot else to ask : )

[Image by SD Dirk]

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