Youth Ministry Forum

Anyone watching High School Musical 2?

2007-08-17T13:54:00.000-07:00

What are your thoughts on preteen culture?

Top 10 things to get you fired in Youth Ministry!

2007-07-05T11:28:00.001-07:00

Info Here

Thoughts?

Consulting a Church on Hiring?

2007-06-14T10:48:00.001-07:00

If asked to do this, what advice would you give?

VBS, rant and complaining

2007-05-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Heard some of this conversation about someone complaining I was letting Satan win because I wasn't doing VBS this year due to Year Round schools and here is some of my response and further ranting. Thoughts?

Just because you don't do VBS doesn't mean you make Satan win. My daughter starts school July 9th. Most of our Camps are in June so we support our kids to goto camp - for us to have an evening VBS just isn't beneficial or ideal to our situation. I think some people think that being at a "Church" building all the time is what God created us to be ... and it isn't ..I see families and churches get torn apart because of church programs of Sunday Am, PM, Wednesday nite and then something else ... when will we recognize that Church is about Being rather than doing? When will we recognize it isn't about coming to church but being the church?

I guess we try to compete with the world and complain about all the volleyball, softball games, and then make the parents feel guilty because their children are involved in the community trying to be salt and light but weren't at church on Wednesday nite ... I like to know where in the Bible it says though shall be at church 24/7? I'm just getting starting. Of course this makes Satan happy and lets him win because we're making the Church programs be an US versus Them rather than a community of faith.

So why is that churches complain about lacking attendance and that people are letting Satan "Win" when they don't do VBS or Wednesday nite or there are such things going on to conflict with church activities - sports etc.

Is it that we are letting Satan win - when we complain about such? Are programs important and the attendance or the Church?

I'm seeing more and more people complain - oh my youth group is suffering because little Timmy had a ball game tonite or lots of the teens don't come due to Soccer on Wednesday nites or Sundays or when have you.

Maybe it is time to look at your programs - what are their purpose? Do you have too many?

Do you make people feel guilty for not being there?

I've heard tons of complaints and youthworkers making parents feel guilty because their son or daughter was in a certain sport and couldn't be at church all the time? Is the point the church building or Being the Church?

Thoughts?

The Lowest Denominator

2007-04-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hello there Forum friends. It's been a long time since I posted anything here, but I still regurally check on what's thrown up here.

I wanted to share an excerpt a friend of mine (who isn't in ministry) sent me from a post calledWhy I've Given Up On Youth Group:

I've always been frustrated with my youth group and youth groups in general. Am I completely knocking the youth group model of ministry? No. But, I do believe that it too often and too easily becomes a place to entertain. Youth group morphs into a social club disguised verbally as "fellowship time", exclusive cliques form, and God ceases to be the obvious focus. Once this happens, it's terribly difficult for the people deeply invested in the group to acknowledge.

This came from a blog written by a teenager growing up in the Methodist Church. The blog is called Take My Hand and it's author is named Natalie Stadnick. You might think that the post above, and quote in-particular would be discouraging to me. It isn't, but it is still convicting.

This post, and infact her entire blog is a reminder to me that there are young people out there who are capable and desire to have a transformative relationship with God. My struggle when I come in contact with those kids is that I generally feel like they will be ok if I don't end up being as focused on them as other kids who aren't as engaged. So I guess in someways I play to the lowest common denominator in an effort to not alienate those kids who aren't so keen on Jesus. Maybe that should be different. Maybe I should raise the stakes more not less. Perhaps the kids like Natalie have more power to pull those kids up than I ever would by playing down to them. Definitely something I am going to ponder.

The fact that this post came into my life is interesting in light of the fact that his weekend MCOC, Stamford, and Shiloh are co-sponsoring an event called Revolution. We are going to have some great worship time, a Christian illusionist, and a whole host of other activities. It's definitely not a Taize service, but it will be presenting the Gospel of Jesus in a way that kids will soon not forget. But after it's over I will definitely reflect on it through the lens of the post above and see if what we did was in-fact effective in bringing Jesus into the lives of kids.

Top 10 List

2007-04-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

So there is debate on Top 10 Youth Workers in the Nation. Some poking fun of it etc.

So who would you have as your top 10?

Me - I'd have probably 93yr old Marie Ward (who has since gone on to be with the Lord) she didn't teach, she didn't drive, she didn't even come to youth group ... there was 2 things I can count on her for: Her pies and her prayers.

Poking out from my little World?

2007-04-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder if students get it? In prelude to the previous post (YM is hard Work) - sometimes I wonder if I'm just spinning my wheels.

The hard road is the right road

2007-04-12T08:43:00.001-07:00

Last night, our students and I embarked on a journey of newness. I hope it is new to them. I began a series of Wed. night classes using the popular videos from Rob Bell, the Nooma series. It has been a while, since I have viewed any of these vidoes. There is something strangely nerdy and yet drawing about Rob's videos. Anyway, the first video in the series is titled "rain." It has been one of my favorites. I love the part at the end where the dad holds his son close and says, "i love you buddy, where going to make it, dad knows the way home." This phrase means more to me as a parent then it did just out of college, with no children. There is something special that takes place when a father holds a child close and whispers words of encouragment, and the child finds those loving arms to be safe, secure, and strong.

We talked about storms in our lives, and how we will all have them over and over again in our lives, we talked about suffering and how it draws us close to Christ, and how God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses. I thought all in all, it was a good class.

But, having said all that, here are some observations I have about class, and youth ministry in general:

1. we spend all the time preparing lesson, studying, praying and thinking how best to craft our messages to our students, then class starts and one or more kids are more interested in their cell phones and texting a friend than they are listening to your well thought out lesson. This is called a reality check. Not all of our students care, not all of our students hang on every word we say. Actually, there is so much going on around them, that our time together on Wed. night would be better spent if we could capture the essence of their culture, and use it in a positive way. Could we have a class devoted to communicating through text messaging? I don't know if it would work, would it draw more interest? I think a lot of us in youth ministry miss opportunities to connect to our students in meaningful ways. We have to be looking for bridges all the time, to help connect the reality of gospel with their reality of selfishness and materialism.

2. Youth ministry is hard work. I think I have already alluded to this above, but working with youth and families is hard work. It is never ending. Sometimes, it is hard to see any headway, and we can't define success on big numbers, big budgets or big buildings. I think culturally where we are is at a place where autheniticity and experience are hugely important not only for our students but also for our parents. However, some of the experiential things are kids may go for, their parents may not like it, and certainly the older generations wouldn't buy into it either. But, there remains the fact that the emerging generations are wanting real experiences of God, and not just a 45 minute lecture in a class. In addition to being a chaffeur at times, and a janitor, we must also be architects, looking for ways to build authentic encounters of God into our youth ministries. I don't think this happens over night, I think it is something we must stumble into haphazardly even for some of us. But, nonetheless, looking for ways to allow our kids to experience the truths of Scripture and the presence of God with all of their senses is more and more important these days. With our postmodern culture, and a general decline in people's general acceptance of the Bible as the sole truth, and seeing Christians as biggoted, hypocritical, hate mongering followers of God, and protectors of an institution of power and politics it is vastly important that we win back what it means to followers of Jesus Christ. The essential element of discipleship for all time and all believers is love for God and neighbor (stranger). We can't loose sight of the fact that we are called to be selfless, humble, reverant, aliens and redeemed people. When we lose sight of the radical call to abandon self and follow Jesus, and we loose ourselves in institutional politics we will loose a voice in our culture, and we certainly have a lot of ground to recover in our world today.

3. Youth Ministry is worth it. Hard work aside, the thrill of working with emerging generations is invigorating. With all the muck of postmodernity, we are working with generations of students that are hopeful, that want to be active in their communities and globally. We need to be tapping into this interest and harnessing it for the good of the world. Youth Ministry in a nut shell is summed up in the parable of the sowers. The important point in the story, at least in my mind this morning, is that the seeds are being planted. Some of that which is planted may never produce a crop, for the seed that does, watch out and be amazed. So, wherever you are this morning and whatever flavor of church you find yourself in, don't give up youth work. It is worth it. For many students, we are the only Jesus they will see and experience, and who knows the full impact of what their futures hold and the lives they will touch because your influence. God bless you brothers and sisters!

Teen Behavior

2007-04-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

A recent article in USA Today entitled, "Expert: Risky teen behavior is all in the brain" states that "Adolescents are at an age where they do not have full capacity to control themselves," and that we as adults need to do a better job of controlling their actions. It goes on to state that we are wasting billions of dollars on education and intervention programs to dissuade teens from risky behavior simply because their brains have not yet developed to the point in which they can avoid such risky behaviors on their own.

While I agree with the neurological research that has been done that shows that the human brain is not yet fully developed by the teenage years I am left wondering how scriptures like 2 Corinthians 10:5 that tells us to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." factor in. What about the words of 2 Peter 1:5-7, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."?

Yes I agree, it is important for adults stand with teens to help them navigate the difficult pressures of life. That is what I have given my life to. I also believe that we need to believe in them a little more, and believe that they have the ability to allow God to transform their lives and form them into the people He desires them to be. I believe students have the ability to "not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their minds, so that they will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:2

What do you think?

Where Youth Ministry Must go

2007-03-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

Talkpoints and downloads

Thoughts of where YM must go?

HT to Tony Myles

Ad I came Across

2007-03-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Wanted:(Name of Church, person, email, phone number) "minister with an evangelist’s heart, a shepherd’s walk, and a physician’s care who accepts mature responsibilities and possesses youthful vision; dedication to the cause of Christ’s Kingdom should be equally or more important than Canadian or American citizenship;should be ready to accept challenge of living on an island and a bit of culture shock; less than one hour from major shopping centers"

Here's the translation: "You do all the work, you help the elderly, you are to blame if anything goes wrong, want you to be young to hire you cheap, work you to death for the cause of Christ (No life but Church work), we're patriotic much like the next guy, challenge of living on an island, beware of the sharks, and well there isn't a Super Walmart nearby and good luck"

Finding God in the Outdoors

2007-03-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Story

Just when I thought we were done with the use of the word Xstream!

The Core

2007-03-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

Any of you taking your youth staff to The Core this year? The Core is a one day training event for youth workers put on by Youthspecialties. This year's focus is on hurting kids. Looks real good. I take my team each year and it always proves to be a valuable time. It's valuable for both the good content, as well as the time with my team.

There's a good promo video you can watch here.

creating a leadership team

2007-01-13T16:17:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges of youth ministry has been creating and sustaining a viable youth ministry leadership team. I am 3.5 years into full time youth ministry, and the hardest lesson to have been learned is that you can’t do youth ministry by yourself.

So, this past year and into this year I am looking to equip my small group leaders and other adults for further, better, and deeper ministry. So, if we aren’t developing other leaders we are aren’t really leading. I don’t think there is magic formula for training leaders. But, as leaders ourselves we are called to equip God’s people for works of service.

So, what I am looking for are people who desire to work with students. I am looking specifically for people who are called to this unbelievable task, we call youth ministry. I think a related component to desire or calling is committment. I am also looking for people who are committed to Christ, His Word, service and understanding youth culture. I think one other area that I will be praying about in this search for leaders is availability. Leaders have to be available to their flock.

To Quote

2007-01-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

“AT THE worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.”
—Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay (1881–1958), English novelist

“A PARANOID is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.”
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97), “Beat” author

When Looking for a New Ministry

2007-01-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are currently looking for a new ministry remember a few things.

1. Interview the Church thoroughly.

2. If a church acts like its a privilege just to grace their pulpit, then walk away.

3. If you feel like your getting the 3rd degree then walk away.

4. If they will not give you a copy of the past 3 years budgets, then don't even go to the interview.

5. If they act a little skiddish when talking about pay, then pay attention to that.

6. Ask them what an acceptable yearly increase should be.

7. Make sure they completely define your role before you walk in the door.

8. Ask if any 1 person runs the church and then watch everyones body language very carefully.

9. Ask every leader who interviews you what they exactly do in the church. This will allow you to see how motivated they really are.

10. If you are frustrated by the overall process of one church, then walk away. Spend a lot of time in prayer and make sure that you only proceed in God's good timing.

HT to my friends @ CCT

Issues in Youth Ministry

2006-12-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Saw this series here

Here are some of my thoughts of issues in Youth Ministry that needs to change:

1. The role of the youth pastor. He is no longer a buddy buddy to students - let him equip students and families.

2. The role of Family. Family is HUGE!! Get their involvement.

3. The role of God. Sure God is said to be central but let's focus on the triune roles of God.

4. Exposing the lies. Let's give Hope to our Students - none of this Battle cries or all students are abandoning the faith.

5. Pride. Don't depend on the youthworker or the church even to Rescue students ... God is still in control.

6. The role of the church. Get away from programs. Be the Church.

7. Comparisons. Recently I asked a fellow youth pastor, how many kids do you have now (I haven't seen him in awhile) His response: 35. I was like WOW ... you must of adopted some. His natural response was to compare and say youth group size - not his Family.

8. Soulcare. Leaders need to tend to their souls to help in turn point people to the one who is healing them.

9. Leadership. Too often good leaders are hard to find.

10. Theology. Theology and methodology is a big issue either helping or hurting the youth ministry as a whole.

What is the future for youth ministry? Only time can tell. My prayer is that youth ministry reflects the Church and Jesus to the World.

How are you spending this Christmas season?

2006-12-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

How are you spending this Christmas season? What are your family's traditions, if any? Will you travel, how far, and how do you decide where you go each year?

What does your family do to honor the Spirit of Christmas?

The Ideal Youth Ministry

2006-11-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

What does it look like?

And don't someone say Saddleback or I'll ... anyways ...

Thoughts?

sorry for the large number of spam comments

2006-11-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

I have tried to regulate comments in the past, and well, previously no one could comment period. Which defeats the purpose of ymf. So, I have tried something, else in relation to comments and the like.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

2006-11-06T11:40:00.000-08:00

What are some things you've recently read that have been influential to you both personally and from a youth ministry standpoint?

Time Magazine Article

2006-10-31T10:52:00.000-08:00

Good article in Time Magazine on youth ministry. Very well done. Read it here.

2006-10-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Anyone have ideas on how to encourage/challenge students in the spiritual disiplines? Maybe even incorporate some of them into Sunday morning teaching times? I've been looking at Doug Fields' "One Minute Bible" but haven't decided if I like it or not. Any of you use this resource in your ministry?

Apples and Oranges

2006-10-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

Gimmicks. (Prior post gave me some thoughts)

It is so easy to fall into the Trap - oh, whoa is me (Almost an Elijah whining session 1 Kings 19:10) I dislike Entertainment Youth Ministry. What you win them with is what you have to keep them with. I dislike the comparison game. Why? Because I feel it does disservice to the Kingdom.

So why not be ourselves? When students see the cool youth ministry down the road, why not ask them, so what are you doing here? Why not involved.

I think comparing churches (And we do it ourselves and as people ..I mean come on ...how many of us compare ourselves to good ole Doug Fields?) is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit. Both are round. Both are very different. Maybe that is what it is about our churches. Both are trying to be the Church. But both come with different contexts and cultures to consider.

So the next time you find yourself wandering and wondering how I can be more like Church X, why not just wonder how you can just be the church and person God called you to be, and not this imitiation.

Otherwise we'd be too loose with the facts ...See these quotes below.

Came across this quote from YWJ:

"Youth Ministry Is in the Spotlight
There was a great story on youth ministry by Austin American-Statesman religion writer Eileen Flynn. And did you see the front-page story on the Friday, Oct. 6, issue of The New York Times? The headline said it all: “Fearing the Loss of Teenagers, Evangelicals Turn Up the Fire.”

“Despite their packed megachurches,” said the article, Christian leaders like Teen Mania’s Ron Luce are sounding an alarm that “their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.” The National Association of Evangelicals has even warned about “the epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church.” But Christian Smith (author of last year’s acclaimed Soul Searching book) thinks people who claim that only four percent of teens are “Bible-believing Christians” are being too “apocalyptic” and too loose with the facts. "

beyond the gimmicks

2006-10-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

I live in an area with a multitude of church choices. We have almost every variety. We are a rural/city smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt. I think we could pass sometimes as the belt buckle.

Our youth group isn’t the largest in town or in our county for that matter. We don’t have the biggest budget or do even the coolest, latest things. I guess I would peg us as middle of the road. I am in many ways a middle of the road kind of guy. I am not overly creative, so I don’t have a fancy youth logo. I am not all that tech-savy so we don’t have cool youth mininstry videos. I am not even that good of a speaker so our attendance is sporadic.

I am sure like many of you, my teens are typcial American teens. And from time to time they go to their friends “churches.” I guess I am confessing. I get a little jealous when our kids aren’t around. I even get to feeling like our youth ministry is boring when our kids tell me what church so and so is doing.

I know in those moments, when I am judging the effectiveness of our ministry on numbers and gimmicks I am looking at the wrong thing. I have allowed the emphasis to fall on numbers and not Christ. In those moments, and I think all youth ministers wrestle with these times, we have to reorient our vision to what God is doing in the world and seeing our selves as partners with Him to further his kingdom. Numbers, cool events and the latest gimmicks aren’t changing the world. Teaching students about their role in the body and life in the kingdom is. Having them catch a sense that they too can partner with what God is doing in the world is.

So, for all of us who sometimes worry about whether or not we are making a difference for the kingdom. Be reassured our impact on just one life is impacting the lives of countless others. Even though we can’t see it, we are changing the world for the good. Even us youth ministers with youth ministries that are mundane and ordinary.

2006-10-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

Anyone have any ideas for the walls of a youth group room? I get to completely design a 30x30 room and am looking for some ideas.

something fun from Austin

2006-10-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

I got to hear Tony Jones, the national US coordinator for emergent-village share the history of the emergent movement. It was an interesting and informative session with Tony Jones. One of the questions that we were discussing was whether or not all questions could be allowed on the table of discussion. Tony provided an example sighting the difference of opinion he has from others, such as John Piper on penal substitutionary atonement. One woman sitting in the back of the room raised her hand and asked, “yeah does this mean like male domination or something?” You have to keep in mind that this was a room of youth workers, some like myself are probably immature and laugh still at body functions and the like. Hearing the honest question asked by a sincere believer in Jesus, caused quite an eruption of laughter from the room. It was truly hilarious and the funny thing was it is on tape and somehow, Tony Jones kept his composure. I lost it.

I guess you had to be there.

The State of Youth Ministry

2006-10-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

The past few days has seen contrasting articles published in newspapers.

1. The Sky is Falling attitude: NY Times Article

2. We're making a DifferenceAustin Statesman Article

Which category are you?

My Latest Article.

2006-09-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Article here

Thoughts?

Youth Ministry Revisited Pt. 2

2006-09-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

In my ongoing rethinking of how we approach ministry to students, I have come across a great article written by Walt Mueller, the President of The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding.

Read the article here.

In it he gives 13 ways to effectively reach today's postmodern youth culture, many involve changing the ways in which it has "always been done." I appreciated his calling to continually evaluate our approach.

He states, "While the content of the Word always remains unchanged, the way we do ministry should be constantly evaluated. There is no room for sacred cows. If the message isn’t getting through because of dated methods, new ones should be prayerfully sought and adopted in order to effectively communicate the Good News. However, we must adopt only those methods that are faithful to the unchanging Word. And we must never assume that methodologies can do what only relationships can."

May we never get so trapped in our methodology, and even traditions, that we fail to see that continued evaluation is needed.

Thoughts??

Youth Ministry Revisited

2006-09-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

I have been in youth ministry now for over 20 years. It has been a great 2o years and I have seen many lives changed and have seen God do great things! As great as it has been, I see a need for change.

Over the last year God has been showing me that we need to re-think how we do ministry. I believe we have in many ways alienated students from what God desires of the church. We have in essence created a church within a church. A church in which we temporarily attract students, and then ask them to leave upon graduation. This is not right.

For many years we have used an entertainment model of ministry designed to keep students engaged and happy. This model of ministry inspired by parachurch youth ministries from the 1950's is the chief model in which most youth ministries are built on. Through this attractional model we have atttracted many students, but are they really following after Jesus and engaging with the church as God desires? Sadly many, dare I say most, are not. There is someting wrong when we see statistics like this:

According to Dr. Gary Railsback up to 50% of evangelical college freshman will forsake their Christian beliefs by their senior year of college.
According to George Barna (in Third Millenium Teens) 2 out of 3 Christian teens will evacuate the church after they graduate from high school. In addition 63% of our teens don’t believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God, 58% believe all faiths teach equally valid truths, 51% don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead and 70% don’t believe an absolute moral truth exists. (Taken from www.gregstier.org.)

I am also bothered when I read the honest thoughts of this high school student who worte a post on her blog entitled, Why I've Given Up On Youth Group. I agree with her. Students want to go deeper with their faith; students deserve to go deeper. We must get away from the "entertain me" mentality that has defined youth ministry for so long and get back to what Jesus desires...sacrifice. He desires that we fully and completely seek after Him and serve Him with our lives (Romans 12:-2).

Mark Yaconelli puts it well in his book Contemplative Youth Ministry when he says, "While such ministries may keep youth entertained, they often keep youth distracted from the deeper rhythms and practices of the Christian faith. Programs and activities are chosen based on the level of excitement that's generated. No one wants to act like an adult for fear of scaring the kids. Leaders become hesitant to engage youth in any activity that is in contrast to the consumer culture. Prayer, spiritual exercises, theological conversation, and spiritual disciplines that challenge the status quo are dumped out of fear that youth may cry 'This is like school!' or 'You're just like our parents!' or (worst of all) 'This is boring.' So the ministry never addresses the deeper needs of youth, never challenges them to explore the alternative way of Jesus. Like children's television programming that seeks to keep kids attentive so they'll watch the commercials, our ministries of diversion respond to young people's most carnal appetites so we can slip in a five-minute Bible study or parade them through the church building." (p. 45)

Should youth ministry be fun? Absolutley! Should it attract others? Absolutely! The question is what are we attracting students to...entertainment or ministry? It is my prayer that the church begins to closely evaluate how we are ministering to students and thus begin to develop models that draw students into a lifelong love relationship with Jesus that is producing fruit for the Kingdom of God.

Thoughts??

Don't Buy the Lies.

2006-08-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm reading Group Magazine's latest issue. Sept/Oct. 2006. And in it is 3 Dirty YM Lies and a Fourth.

Here are the lies:

1. YM is a meat grinder that will destroy you.

I like How Rob Bell puts it in Velvet Elvis, you can be cynical, and bitter or you can choose to reclaim your innocence.

2. "Do it all myself" is the best way. - UMM ever hear of working yourself to an early grave?

3. Close Relationships are the goal of Youth Ministry. Umm isn't the goal about presenting Jesus?

4. The percentage if young people who are Bible Believing Christians has now dropped to 4%. Funny thing is it is based upon sampling polls from Barna and even the Data from that April 2003 Report is different. I think there is more hope.

Here are some more lies (The above 4 were discussed in the issue but I gave them and my opinion)

5. The average Tenure of a Youth Minister is 18months. Where did this come from? I still haven't seen the stats for this. And if it is? in 6years to have 4 churches ... Might invest in U-Haul rather than Youth Ministry."Youth Ministry Tenure

Most of us have heard it quoted that the average length of a youth minister's stay at any one church is a year and a half. GROUP magazine reports, "The 18-Month Myth is now part of youth ministry lore. It's been used over and over to describe youth ministers as easily scared gypsies who bolt at the first sign of trouble. And it's all a bunch of bunk. We here at GROUP asked our research staff to complete a scientific survey of North American churches using a representative sampling of denominations. We discovered that the average paid youth minister has been at the same church for almost four years (3.9 years, to be exact)." From Group.

6. Most High School Christian Teens Desert the Church. Over 66% or more in their freshmen year. Where Does this come from?

7. Bigger is Better. Mega Church Student Ministry is the way to go.
Umm didn't Jesus start with 12 ordinary men who turned the world upside down?

8. If you build it, they will come. Now come on. What you win them with is what you have to keep them with. So gimmicks, games, and prizes ..guess what you have to keep doing.

9. Youth Ministry is easy. Umm, ever do a lock-in, ever deal with teens' issues. It isn't easy but the rewards are worth it.

10. You will get Rich in Youth Ministry. Book deals, meeting Doug Fields, everyone will like you. Ummm hello, McFly .... you are in it due to the calling not some Christian celebrity bit.

Thoughts? Other lies to add?

Thank you Jethro: Lessons learned about Leadership

2006-08-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

I was reading Exodus 18 the other day and a story I've read before, but didn't really equate to anything from this text to my ministry and then it hit me like a ton a bricks. Moses has been leading the people out of Egypt and he is running like crazy to keep up with the work. I firmly believe that Moses had convinced himself that he was doing God's work.

Along comes his father in law and observes Moses' frantic pace and I think offers advice that saves Moses' life and the ultimately the life of the community.

The advice goes along the lines of this:

-Leadership is a heavy load

-Leadership is to big to go about alone

-Leaders must be prayerful

-Leaders raise others up and pour into them so they can pour into others.

The phrase that just nailed me was the words from Jethro to Moses that what Moses was doing was not good. Do you believe that? Doing God's work was not good? It's not that doing God's work isn't good, but that doing it the way Moses was going about it, franctically, operating from any empty well unable to be replenish himself, and not being able to rest is unhealthy. It is certainly the fastest way to burnout.

So, I was reading this story and then it floored me. I have been Moses over the last three years as a youth minister. I have been spinning my wheels and busying my self with all the work that needed to be done that what I have been doing has not been good. It has come at great cost to my family and my health and even my out look at times on ministry.

So, tonight at my August parent/teen meeting I shared my discovery from Exodus 18. And then I got done with the time in the Word, I began to recruit parent volunteers to take over certain areas of the youth ministry. My wife and I have decided that this meeting really would make or break us in our ministry. This meeting for us was either sink of swim. I had really asked God to show up and fill in the gaps where they were not being filled. The response from our meeting was awesome. The outpouring of volunteerism from my parents was overwhelming. The help I have been craving for the last three years surfaced and my wife and I left the meeting encouraged.

If you want parent involvement. You have to ask God, pray and set a vision for the youth ministry and stick with it.

YM Article I saw

2006-08-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Thoughts?

The Grand Slam Secrets of
Getting (and Keeping) Parents On Your Team

After just two months into his new role as youth pastor, Jack had hit a wall. Frustrated and confused, he had called me, hoping to get that a little perspective from the oldest youth pastor he knew.
I suggested what I almost always suggest at times like this… food And so, over a Grand Slam breakfast, Jack unraveled his story:
"You won't believe the program I walked into. Get this…this church has 'always has' youth group on Thursday nights…Thursday nights! When the church interviewed me, the parents used all the right buzz words…purpose-driven, family-based." Agitation rose in Jack's voice.
"So what happened?" I asked.
"When I sent out the newsletter announcing that we were moving to a gender-specific small group format on Sunday nights, you'd have thought I'd just committed murder! The parents started burning up the phone lines. And to make matters worse, my pastor sided with them. I've always been told that if I do youth ministry the way it is supposed to be done, I'll likely get fired. I finally understand."
"So what are going you to do?" I wondered out loud.
"I'm going to make the changes that need to be made. If the parents don't like it, that will just be their problem."
I was quiet for a moment, and finally responded, "No, my friend, if the parents don't like it, it will be your problem!"
"So what?!" Jack asked, "Am I supposed to run a program I know won't work…just to keep the parents happy?"
And with that one question, we were launched us into a series of breakfasts in which we would make the four "Breakfast Discoveries" for moving parents from adversaries to allies:
Breakfast Discovery #1: There's More Than One Way to Cook an Egg
Jack had become infatuated with the idea of changing the night and the format of his youth ministry, eventually convincing himself that this change was the only way to accomplish his vision. But the more we talked, the more Jack realized what he had known all along: Effective youth ministry happens with all kinds of models, in all kinds of formats, at all kinds of meeting times.
Jack's programmatic obsession had led him to demonize the parents, to question their motives, to assume that they simply didn't care about the spiritual lives of their kids. The truth is that these parents desperately wanted the youth ministry to succeed, and they loved the fact that their kids wanted to be at church every Thursday night.
As he thought about it, Jack had to admit that the Thursday night gatherings did at least have some momentum. The kids did love coming. They were bringing their friends. In fact, being together on Thursday nights was the only part of the youth ministry they did like.
In the churches I have consulted with, I have repeatedly observed this fascinating, ironic rule of thumb: The first program a new youth pastor tries to change is almost always the one that is working the best.
In most churches, there are plenty of things the both parents and kids hate about the youth ministry. New youth pastors always have a choice to make: Rush in. Make indiscriminate changes that result in tremendous resistance, or Strategically build partnerships with parents by focusing first on making the changes they actually want.
In the long run, youth pastors who choose the second option find themselves in ministries that are enormously easier than those who choose the first.
Breakfast Discovery #2: A Clean Plate, Please
My bride Susan couldn't miss my stunned expression. "Annie just got fired," I said as I hung up the phone. "All she said was 'church politics.'"
Church politics…the dirty word of youth ministry. How many youth pastors have fallen, never to return to ministry again, all because of the ubiquitous power of "church politics." But what I find most surprising about church politics is how surprised most of us are that we should ever have to deal with them.
Some youth workers pride themselves with the naïve notion that they "don't play politics." But, as Jack learned, the second we join a church staff, we step onto the political playing field. The question is not whether or not we will play, but whether or not we will play well.
Like a football player who says, "I don't play games where people get knocked down," a youth pastor who insists on not playing the game will quickly find himself hit, blocked and tackled; growing increasingly critical of very game he has chosen to play. The answer is not to be found in complaining but in learning how the system works and then working the system.
Does that sound distasteful to you?
It did to me too, until the day of Annie's phone call, the day of Susan's discovery of the real meaning of politics.
As soon as I hung up the phone, Susan walked to the bookshelf and pulled out the dictionary. Now after almost 25 years of marriage to this woman, I have learned that when she does something weird like this, she is usually on to something.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm looking it up." I want to see what "politics" really means. She read the definition, her brows furrowed, her eyes fixed on the page. Suddenly, her face brightened, "Guess what word comes right next to 'politics.'" She held out the dictionary and said, "Just take a look!"
"Polka?" (this was getting weirder by the second).
"No, the word before "politics!'"
Her index finger rested just beneath the word…'polite.' "Don't you get it?" she pressed. "Working the political system is simply doing the polite thing."
Slowly it began to sink in. I know you may get nauseated at the sound of the dirty word, but if we hope to keep parents on our side, we need to think politically, to act politely. And politeness requires that we never move forward with a new initiative until there is a critical mass of parents who support our decision. Here's why:
I would never make a structural change to my home without first getting input from Susan. She is my partner. I don't ask for her input because I am "being political." I ask for her input because she has as much invested in our home as I do.
We are foolish to make changes that affect our youth without first consulting the people who have the most investment in them. They are the senior partners, the ones who will be doing ministry with "our kids" long after we have gone.
You will know if you have sought the counsel of a significant number of parents when you initiate a change and the momentum of parents is flowing with you instead of against you. This process will take longer than closing your eyes and charging ahead. But in the long run, you will have saved yourself an inordinate amount of time and headache.
Breakfast Discovery #3: Stick to the Menu
At the first sign of resistance from parents, many of us, like Jack, seek solace in the most popular myth floating around youth ministry these days: If we are faithful to the mission of Jesus, we will likely be fired.
Though there are times when the gospel does put us in opposition to the powers that be, more often than not, it is not simply gospel that creates the opposition.
In my experience, there is one reason, more than any other, that leads senior pastors and parents side against us: When they see a youth pastor neglecting the very job he or she was hired to do.
Perhaps a parable can help explain what I mean.
Imagine you have a job installing water filters. Your boss comes to you, after your first week, and asks how things are going.
You respond with boundless enthusiasm, "I LOVE this job. This week, I rescued three cats from trees. I unstopped five drains. I helped two different people stranded beside the road, and I installed a new hard drive on my computer."
We wouldn't be surprised by a boss responding, "And how many water filters have you installed?"
Miss the number one priority of your job, and that warm, encouraging boss of yours will no longer "on your side."
Since most youth ministry job descriptions are fuzzier than the dice that used to hang from the mirror of my 1962 Volkswagon, let me clarify the single expectation that almost every church has for its youth ministry, regardless of what the job descriptions might say:
Unless the church has hired you exclusively to reach out to students outside the church, the first result that your church is looking for is the engagement and discipling of the youth people of the church.
Fulfill this responsibility, and your senior pastor and the parents will give you immense support and freedom to do whatever else you might feel called to do with the youth ministry. Neglect this responsibility, and there will be no end to the obstacles you will confront.
Someone might respond, "But I have the gift of evangelism. My heart is focused on reaching kids who might never darken the door of a church." Another might say, "God has called me to be a prophet, to speak against shallow pastors and faithless parents.
Wonderful! These are marvelous callings. And if you have one of them, thank God for it. Just don't expect the church to pay you for it.
Breakfast Discover #4: A Side Order of Grace, Please
Let's face it. Parents are the easy target in youth ministry.
You won't have to read far in contemporary youth ministry mythology to find parents caricatured as shallow, faithless, materialistic, interested in nothing more than seeing their daughters elected cheerleader and their sons earning the highest possible SAT scores.
Enough already.
I'm a parent of two teenagers. I know I don't pray with them enough. I'm quick-tempered. I lecture too much. I rescue them when I should let them suffer the consequences. I know I'm not doing enough and worry that what I am doing is the wrong stuff.
When it comes to this whole mission of parenting, I am hopelessly, helplessly in need of grace…from God and from the youth leaders in my church.
I need help. And the parents in your church are a whole lot like me. Getting us on your team will help us, but it can't help but help your youth ministry even more.
And we'll be the ones cheering the loudest when you knock one out of the park.

Marketing Jesus?

2006-07-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

What are your thoughts on Christian becoming an adjective rather than a noun?

YM & The COC

2006-07-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at the COCOnline site about youth ministry. Almost looks like it needs to be updated. Articles from 2001?

Though some good links there. Check it out.

Here

Thoughts? Any links or articles you would add there?

Mission: Homelessness

2006-07-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Article

The article helps on how we can use our ministries to maybe stage a real life situation to help our students combat and focus on the issue of the homeless.

Reflections from Afar.

2006-07-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

So Jason got me thinking from his first 2years post, and the disconnection of teens of what I would do differently starting youth ministry. After doing this thing called youth ministry for over 12 years as an ordained minister, and then several years as a volunteer and youthworker. And entering into my 4th year here at my current ministry, here are some things I'd do differently.

1. I would definitely Pray more. Spend more time in prayer.

2. Delegate more. The better you can inspire and administer things, the better balance to your own life.

3. Have better resources. PDYM, and My First 2yrs in YM weren't written yet. I wish someone told me these things long ago.

4. Take care of my own soul. So often I so busy trying to save the world, I forget to feed myself.

5. Take more retreats. With my family, youth, and feed students. There is nothing like NWYC, CIY, Marriage conventions.

6. Choose wisely. I think some of the ministries I went to, I didn't choose wisely until recently.

7. Leadership is everything. Be a leader. Influence. And make sure your leaders are behind you.

8. Make the most of every moment. Today for example I hung out with a youth intern @ another church to build a relationship and encourage. Having the parents more involved.

9. Know your strengths and weaknesses. I think knowing thyself is a good thing. Personality tests, and such come in handy.

10. Loving God and loving students more. I think this essential helped me stay on focus and wish I did it more.

Any others you would add?

Teens and a faith disconnect

2006-07-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

In my observation working with youth, the biggest challenge that our young people are dealing with is the disconnect of their faith between Monday and Sunday. It seems that many of the teenagers in our congregations have a form of faith, or religious devotion, but to them the faith they embrace is more similar to the gadgetry they toy with than the transformative relationship we witness in Scripture.

Let me explain. In the big NSYR study of spirituality in the lives of American teens, what they observed is that kids have a faith that resembles moral therapeutic deism. In other words, Jesus is a "get out of jail free card," with little or no active involvement in the world today. Spirituality for most American teens is just merely furniture in their lives, or like I observed above just another gadget they toy with.

I am not saying that all teens fit into this mold, but our young people are buying into the allure of what the world offers, and missing the radical call to revolution that Jesus teaches (Matthew 5-7).

Can we remedy this seemingly desperate situation? I think so. It won't be easy. We have got to heed the call in 1 Peter 2:11-12 to live our lives as aliens on this planet, not attached to the stuff that advertisers feed to our desires and wants. And we must live authentically in our world, and let our teens see how faith and the practice of that faith affects the entirety of our being and the world around us. I think part of the problem of our thinking has been a misunderstanding of the "kingdom of God," and a lack of emphasis on the cross for our lives today. The kingdom of God is the place where God rules, and if we are in Christ and the Spirit of Christ dwells with us we are to submit to the rule of God in our lives, and this should effect the way we live and interact with others. Because of the victory of the cross we can live with victory now. I think if we had a better understanding of the kingdom and lived with the cross in view we would be better disciples ourselves and I think we would be able to make better disciples also.

What I've learned in my first two years of youth ministry

2006-06-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

The last two years have been overwhelmingly positive and warm. I feel that I have gleaned a lot from our elders, and other ministry staff. I want to thank our elders and our congregation for taking a chance on my wife and I. I say taking a chance, because after they hired us, and we moved here, I had what was my first major crisis of faith. I was unwilling for the first several weeks to give things a chance, but our elders believed in me, my wife believed in me, and finally after much needed time in prayer and meditation, I chose to take a huge step of faith. I remained. I am glad. I would like to summarize a list of some of what I have learned from my experience in ministry in my first two years:

1. Over-communicate activites. Even after two years, one of the biggest gripes I hear is that teens and parents didn't realize that an event was coming up or had passed. At the beginning of the school year I pass out a youth group yearly calendar. In addition to the youth group calendar, there are weekly bulletin reminders of coming events, weekly e-mails, and our youth foyer bulletin board. However, all these various channels of communication still manage to miss a few. So, we have to look for various means to reach our student/adult population.

2. It is important for youth ministers to have a good work ethic, and to keep regular office hours. One of the ongoing questions that drives me crazy as a youth minister is the question, "what is it that you do?" I know there are some genuine, kind-hearted souls out there that think youth ministers are glorified Bible teachers and babysitters. We are more than Bible teachers and babysitters, we are followers of Christ. We are trying to be live out the kingdom ethics of Jesus while we are here. We are cultural missionaries. One of the ways we combat the false impression that good people have about youth ministers and what they do, is to have a good work ethic. Keep regular office hours, let your office staff know when you are leaving the office and let them know where you are going. I know that youth ministry is not just an 8-5 job, but make sure you are visible in the office doing the administrative stuff. Who knows, maybe even while you are in the office, you might get some study time. Also, we should have a "mop and bucket attitude." If we see things that need done around the church, do it. We musn't fool ourselves into thinking that we are too good for a mop bucket.

3. I can not please everyone. This is more of a work in progress. I know this is true, but I don't always remember this when I am in the hot seat.

This one is a hard one for me. I am by nature, a people pleaser. So, over the last two years when people have had a problem, I have taken things way to seriously and way to personally. I think you combat this through prayer, and knowing how to handle confict and conflict resolution. Maybe it would do us all good, to spend some time in Matthew 18 and read what Jesus tells us about conflict. We may need to read some books on conflict resolution. The Alban Institute has some wonderful resources for this sort of thing.

We have to remember the source of the criticisim. I don't think most people are out to get you, but we must be able to rise above the situation and remember that the brother or sister who voices their concern are first and foremost your brother and sister.

So, do your job. Live for the King of Kings and remember that Jesus constantly had people griping at him. We are to rejoice when we face persection.

4. Prayer is essential, necessary, and helpful.

We must be men and women committed to our relationship with Christ. We cannot effectively lead if let our relationship with Jesus backslide. So, we must be engaged in the process of spiritual formation. We are the children of God, and we are invited to come into the throne room boldly. As youth ministers, we get strained, our hearts get broken, and sometimes we make messes of our own lives. We must be humble enough to go to the King, and hungry enough to go often.

5. Youth ministers have the ability to change the world one life at a time.

Sometimes, it gets tough to see any progress among our young people. We are often faced with the reality that many of our kids are just going through the motion. But, we will have kids who get it. We will have those kids who will catch a vision of the Christ we are sharing and it will transform them. Listen, regardless of the problems your group is facing, they need to hear you teaching about Christ and his tender mercy and compassion. Model what this looks like to them, but also be firm.

As youth ministers we reallly are in the people building business. As God pours himself into us, we like wise empty ourselves and pour this into our students. We will impact students. And because of this, we are impacting future generations of young people and ultimately the direction of the church.

Remember, you have had an impact of those you serve. You may not always see the results right away. But by your being a consistent presence in the lives of the teens you serve, you are making a difference.

6. Family is more important than work.

I read an article one time that Jim Burns talked about the importance of family time. When it comes down to whether we cheat our families of family time or cheat the church, he said we always cheat the church. My wife is constantly reminding me that our family is more important than my work. This is and has been, will be a hard lesson for me to fully grasp. It is easy to get so busy that we miss out on important family things.

In the same article that I mentioned above by Dr. Jim Burns, he also shared how he is only gone three nights a week doing youth ministry stuff. The other nights are for the family. While ministering to teens is important, taking care of the spiritual, emotional, physical needs of our family is more important.

7. Your spouse needs to hear you say, "I love you," often.

Our culture is over sex-saturated. Marriages are breaking up left and right. Many of our teens know others who come from broken homes, and quite a few of our own teens are experiencing a family breaking apart as we speak. So, we must commit to modeling what a godly marriage looks like.

Our wives need to hear us tell them we love them often. We must go beyond using the "L-word" we must model the 1 Cor. 13, Eph. 5:25 kind of love that we read about in the NT. Love must be sincere, and we must constantly strive to put our spouse's needs above our own.

Is this easy? No, we are naturally selfish souls, so we must guard against our own self-absorption.

8. I need parental involvement for a successful youth ministry. In other words, parents are not the enemies.

Knowing this and practicing this are two different things. There is no way of getting around this truth: Parent's are the most influential people in the lives of our young people. Our job as youth minister's is to tap into that resource. We have to begin equipping our parent's to understand teen culture. This can be tricky especially for those of us who don't have teenagers of our own. So we approach this with humility and honesty. We need to educate our parent's that our roles as youth ministers is to supplement what they are doing. Deut. 6 teaches it takes a village to raise a child. So, we have to get over ourselves and let parent's have a place in our ministries. Maybe we need to redefine youth ministry to incorporate family ministry?

9. Find an accountability partner.

James in his epistle is quite frank, he writes, "when tempted…" He doesn't sugar coat the truth. When we are tempted, and let's be honest we all are. Our temptations come in different packages, but we are engaged in the battle between the flesh and the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). James also encourages us to "confess our sins to one another" (James 5:17). I encourage you to find at least one person who you can trust to share your struggles, hurts, failures and victories with. This person must be another adult. I know that some will vary on their opinions on this next piece of advice, but I would even suggest you find someone removed from your church setting who can offer a non-biased opinion.

My accountability guy and I talk weekly, or more as needed. We share our failures and vicotries and pray with each and for each other. We also share what we are learning in the Word.

10. God really will do what He says He'll do.

Our God is an amazing God who loves us so much He was willing to trade places with us. Our sin for His righteousness. He promises to be with us always, to equip us, to forgive us when we fail, to provide for our needs, to guide us, to heal us. Is there a request to bold for our God? No, we need to remember that God is a person who keeps his Word. I turn your attention to Gen. 15. God cut a covenant with Abraham. The way this worked was an animal was cut in half, and both parties would pass through. If either party failed to uphold their end of the covenant they were agreeing to let happen to them what happened to the animal. Abraham passes through the halved animal, and so does God. He seals the deal. His promises never fail and His love never ceases.

This is not an exhaustive list of all that I have learned, but I think it reflects my first two years. I am looking forward to this next year of ministry and all that God has store for our congregation.

YM as a Crutch?

2006-06-16T09:20:00.000-07:00

So I got thinking that there are churches that think Youth Ministry as a Crutch. They use, abuse, and misuse the idea of youth ministry. So here are some things that churches do that use Youth Ministry as a Crutch:

1. They see it as a way to Grow the Church.
2. They see youth ministry as glorified babysitting.
3. More programs, more outings = more fun, games and more of YMCA director.
4. They get what they pay for. So let's pay our youth minister poor, give him no Budget but we expect our church's youth group to be like Willow Creek, Saddleback or any other Mega Church (Insert Name here)
5. Isn't youth ministry just a stepping stone so young ministers can be "REAL" Ministers and get their own "Church" (Notice tongue in cheek)
6. Let's Sell. Fundraise and market Jesus. Afterall it will bring people to our church.
7. We don't want those type of kids. (What type is that anyways?) Just look after our kids. (Back to the babysitting mentality)
8. The Senior Minister is the final authority. (Translation: Don't you dare do anything to tick us off or you're fired and we'll talk to the Senior pastor before you because we don't have to come to you ...)
9. Why aren't you at all our kids events, and why did you have to have all these trips during my sons basketball season, and why is it my "Sally" can't be in the Praise Band but that girl with "Pink hair" can?
10. Everyone is your Boss.

Don't you just want to love God and love students rather than using the Crutches and politics of Church agenda.

Philosophy of Ministry

2006-05-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

In searching for a youth ministry job, my dealings with churches have included a question about your philopshy of ministry. So what is your philophy of ministry?

Here is mine: (what would you change, add, or delete)

I believe that ministry should be intentional, relational, Christ-centered, transitional, and supplemental. It is in the building of intentional relationships that the best chance for ministry takes place. If we want our kids to stay in church, it will not be programs that keep them there. A life long, life-changing relationship is what will add staying power to the lifespan of that young person's commitment. We build relationships with the teens by immersing our lives in their world, meeting them on their turf, attending school sponsored events, meeting them at school for lunch, etc. Another key aspect of relational ministry, is the building of a Youth Ministry team. Christ had a leadership team of twelve men. He spent considerable time with them, teaching them, equipping them, modeling how to live, and loving them. I believe that Youth Ministry works best when there is a community of committed Christians with a heart for young people, eager to serve.

Jesus was the presence of God in the world when He walked the earth, and as His disciples, we should be the hands, feet, and voice of Christ to those we minister to. In today's culture, people are looking for authenticity in the lives of those that claim to be a Christian. As a minister of the gospel of Christ, I believe that we are to live transparent lives, allowing people to see the heart of Christ in everything we do.

The writer of Hebrews urged his readers to "fix their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of their faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God"(Hebrews 12:2). Also Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). It is my goal to fix my eyes on Jesus in every area of ministry, and model Christ-centered living to my students, so that they can observe authentic Christian living.

As a Youth Minister, I believe that one of my main goals is to move students from a dependence on me -- the Youth worker-- to a dependence on God. The transitioning from dependence on me to dependence on God is a process that will include nurturing, modeling, and walking with the student through his/her Christian life, and above all things…unconditional love.

As noted in the first sentence, I named a few characteristics that in essence define my philosophy of ministry. The last of those things was that I believe youth ministry must be supplemental. What I mean by this is that I believe that parents are the number one influence in the lives of teenagers today. As a youth minister, I want to help families grow together spiritually and relationally especially through the critical years of adolescence. Certainly as a youth minister I realize the potential impact I can have in kids lives, but I also recognize that the number one influence is moms and dads, and I believe that it is my job to partner with parents on the journey of faith, and equip them to understand the world of today's teenagers.

blogger or bust

2006-05-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

We will stay on blogger. I appreciate the feedback and the work you do with young people. God Bless!

Question

2006-05-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

Do ya'll want to transition over to Word Press, as in move this blog to Word Press?

Please note!

2006-05-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

I am officially switching to Word Press. I will keep this blog open for re-direction purposes, but please make the change!

Thanks,

The Da Vinci flop?

2006-05-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

I think the movie was a let down. My wife and I went to see the Da Vinci Code this afternoon. Again, it was disappointing. This film is a testament to the notion that the book is better than the movie. The film plays down some of the harsher criticisms of Christianity, and there is a noticeable difference in the portayal of Langon and Sophie.

Prof. Langdon is no Indiana Jones. I give this movie two thumbs down and wouldn't recommend you waste your money. Instead, take the money you would spend on tickets, a coke and popcorn and give it your favorite charity.

Your youth ministry and the Da Vinci Code

2006-05-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

Have any of you had conversations with your students about the Da Vinci Code. What has been your church's stance towards it? Have you read the book, have your students read the book? Have you seen the movie?

How do you help your students navigate the waters of fiction and stand on the bedrock of truth?

The Student Ministry Journal

2006-05-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

Anybody seen the new Student Ministries Journal put out by the old Youth Worker guys. Youth Worker is under new editoralship direction, and the Student Ministry Journal is a new magazine.

What do you think about the new journal?

My Latest Article

2006-05-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Why Youth Ministry - 10 Reasons

Brian McLaren on The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Brian McLaren on The Da Vinci Code
An interview by Lisa Ann Cockrel (www.sojo.net)

With The Da Vinci Code poised to go from bestseller list to the big screen on May 19, pastor and writer (and Sojourners board member) Brian McLaren talks about why he thinks there's truth in the controversial book's fiction.

What do you think the popularity of The Da Vinci Code reveals about pop culture attitudes toward Christianity and the church?

Brian McLaren: I think a lot of people have read the book, not just as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church. Why would so many people be disappointed to find that Brown's version of Jesus has been largely discredited as fanciful and inaccurate, leaving only the church's conventional version? Is it possible that, even though Brown's fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the possibility that the church's conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?

So you think The Da Vinci Code taps into dissatisfaction with Jesus as we know him?

McLaren: For all the flaws of Brown's book, I think what he's doing is suggesting that the dominant religious institutions have created their own caricature of Jesus. And I think people have a sense that that's true. It's my honest feeling that anyone trying to share their faith in America today has to realize that the Religious Right has polluted the air. The name "Jesus" and the word "Christianity" are associated with something judgmental, hostile, hypocritical, angry, negative, defensive, anti-homosexual, etc. Many of our churches, even though they feel they represent the truth, actually are upholding something that's distorted and false.

I also think that the whole issue of male domination is huge and that Brown's suggestion that the real Jesus was not as misogynist or anti-woman as the Christian religion often has been is very attractive. Brown's book is about exposing hypocrisy and cover-up in organized religion, and it is exposing organized religion's grasping for power. Again, there's something in that that people resonate with in the age of pedophilia scandals, televangelists, and religious political alliances. As a follower of Jesus I resonate with their concerns as well.

Do you think the book contains any significantly detrimental distortions of the Christian faith?

McLaren: The book is fiction and it's filled with a lot of fiction about a lot of things that a lot of people have already debunked. But frankly, I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends. But at the end of the day, the difference is I don't think Brown really cares that much about theology. He just wanted to write a page-turner and he was very successful at that.

Many Christians are also reading this book and it's rocking their preconceived notions - or lack of preconceived notions - about Christ's life and the early years of the church. So many people don't know how we got the canon, for example. Should this book be a clarion call to the church to say, "Hey, we need to have a body of believers who are much more literate in church history." Is that something the church needs to be thinking about more strategically?

McLaren: Yes! You're exactly right. One of the problems is that the average Christian in the average church who listens to the average Christian broadcasting has such an oversimplified understanding of both the Bible and of church history - it would be deeply disturbing for them to really learn about church history. I think the disturbing would do them good. But a lot of times education is disturbing for people. And so if The Da Vinci Code causes people to ask questions and Christians have to dig deeper, that's a great thing, a great opportunity for growth. And it does show a weakness in the church giving either no understanding of church history or a very stilted, one-sided, sugarcoated version.

On the other hand, it's important for me to say I don't think anyone can learn good church history from Brown. There's been a lot of debunking of what he calls facts. But again, the guy's writing fiction so nobody should be surprised about that. The sad thing is there's an awful lot of us who claim to be telling objective truth and we actually have our own propaganda and our own versions of history as well.

Let me mention one other thing about Brown's book that I think is appealing to people. The church goes through a pendulum swing at times from overemphasizing the deity of Christ to overemphasizing the humanity of Christ. So a book like Brown's that overemphasizes the humanity of Christ can be a mirror to us saying that we might be underemphasizing the humanity of Christ.

In light of The Da Vinci Code movie that is soon to be released, how do you hope churches will engage this story?

McLaren: I would like to see churches teach their people how to have intelligent dialogue that doesn't degenerate into argument. We have to teach people that the Holy Spirit works in the middle of conversation. We see it time and time again - Jesus enters into dialogue with people; Paul and Peter and the apostles enter into dialogue with people. We tend to think that the Holy Spirit can only work in the middle of a monologue where we are doing the speaking.

So if our churches can encourage people to, if you see someone reading the book or you know someone who's gone to the movie, say, "What do you think about Jesus and what do you think about this or that," and to ask questions instead of getting into arguments, that would be wonderful. The more we can keep conversations open and going the more chances we give the Holy Spirit to work. But too often people want to get into an argument right away. And, you know, Jesus has handled 2,000 years of questions, skepticism, and attacks, and he's gonna come through just fine. So we don't have to be worried.

Ultimately, The Da Vinci Code is telling us important things about the image of Jesus that is being portrayed by the dominant Christian voices. [Readers] don't find that satisfactory, genuine, or authentic, so they're looking for something that seems more real and authentic.

Lisa Ann Cockrel is associate editor at Today's Christian Woman.

+ Learn more about Brian McLaren's latest book, The Secret Message of Jesus

Top 10 Things to know when starting in a new ministry

2006-05-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

1. Get it in writing. Get a contract, job description. Know what is expected of you.

2. Get your office organized. The more organized chaos you have the better you have for administrative and relationship building.

3. Get to know your leaders. Know their giftedness, take them to lunch. Spend time together building a team. The more you support the Church Staff and stand united - the better.

4. Get to know the parents. Know what their expectations are. Get feedback on what they want for their child. Spend time building relationships with the parents (Moreso than even the teens)

5. Build your team. Get to know the sponsors. Slowly build your team. Get to what what they have do in the past, and what you are planning for the future.

6. Get to know your students. Especially your student leaders. Mentor, disciple, impact, have a plan and a purpose for every activity and lesson you do.

7. Don't change a Thing. At least not yet. Evaluate. Spend the first couple of months - maybe not even teaching but observing, look at the overall - what works, what doesn't. Be prepared to get your Senior pastor on board when you have to REVAMP, and possibly fire or rather re-assign other volunteers to other ministries. You are in charge - but that takes time to make the program Yours (After much consideration and prayer of course of where God would have you)

8. Have a network. Have some mentors, a network of youthworkers to rant, to bounce things off of, as well as some accountability. Build long lasting friendships outside even the congregation you are serving. Be Kingdom Building, not always Congregational. (There is a difference).

9. Build your resources. Have a library. Learn. Goto Conventions. Adapt, steal, borrow, use what might fit in your context of youth ministry.

10. Take Time for your own Spiritual Journey. Make sure you are feeding your soul. Don't get burnout. Be encouraged.

Other Resources That you might Find helpful:

Your First two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields.
Starting Right - thinking theological about Youth Ministry - Dean, Clark & Rahn.
The Top 12 Resources Youth Workers Want - Jonathon R. McKee
10 Things I wished I had known when I started Youth Ministry - Revellyn Pletcher

Daddy's Rules for Dating

2006-05-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

I found this over at Dean Hawk Ministries, and I thought you would get a kick out of this:

Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two:
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "Barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Four:
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Five:
The following places are NOT appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness.

Rule Six:
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house.

Useful Websites

2006-05-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

My brother just made me aware of these websites. He is majoring in graphics design and one of his professors made him aware of a couple of websites that offer free high quality jpeg photos. There is an unbelievable number of professional quality photos available for download. They will definitely aid your powerpoint and mediashout presentations. The first site is:

www.sxc.hu - You do have to create a profile to download on this site, but the profile is free. They will send you an email and you then activate the account.

www.morguefile.com - This one is completely free and ready for download. This is my least favorite of the two, but still a good site.

Hope these help your ministries!

Meet the Press

2006-04-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, Meet the Press on NBC aired an interesting dialogue regarding faith in America. 2 Catholics, a Jew, an Islamic, and 2 Protestants met to discuss the topic. If you are interested in watching the entire video you can click on the following link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

Even between such a diverse group, there was a surprising amount of agreement regarding the topic being discussed. It's definitely worth listening to.

Seth Barnes read

2006-04-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

Seth Barnes' blog

Has good entries lately on youth ministry. On makign disciples, and mentoring in youth ministry. Good insights.

New article online

2006-04-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Combating Generalizations of Youthworkers

Need somed help

2006-04-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

As a parent, I understand the importance of disciplining our children, I'd be interestered in hearing how you handle parents that punish their children from youth events?

Emerging Ministry to Students

2006-04-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last week at the Ohio Valley University Bible Lectureships, Adam Ellis and I spoke on the topic of Emerging Ministry to Students: Engaging Students in the Story of God. Posted are 3 sessions that we headed up. Thought there might be some interest in listening to this. Also we're allows up to some feedback!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND/OR DOWNLOAD THE SESSIONS!

Thanks!

Matt Wilson
www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com

warning: dangerous road ahead

2006-04-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ever had one of those nights, maybe even a year or so in ministry when you new there was a danger lurking out there, somewhere beyond sight, but nevertheless out there somewhere. And when you hit it, you knew it. Driving home tonight from our devotional, I hit a pot-hole in the road. I didn't really see it. But when we hit, we sure felt it. This is a great descriptor for what happened in our student ministry. I will call these moments or seasons "pot-holes." We all have "pot-hole" ministry moments. I had one this evening.

I need not go into specific detail. But, the signs for trouble have been there for awhile. I have seen it brewing. I think in hindsight I could have been more proactive.

Despite the hole in the road, and the jarring that accompanies such a surprise. After some cooling down, I left the kids alone for a short time on their own. When I got back to their group, they were singing. Even though there are some issues we will be addressing in our youth ministry, I was encouraged to hear them singing, and praying without my direction. I think they knew they had pushed me over the edge and the older students were standing up to take the lead. Even though our group isn't perfect, I wouldn't trade them for another group.

So, what I am asking from ya'll is how do you handle the "pot-holes" in your ministry? I would like to offer some suggestions and then hear from you:

1. prayer has to be essential -- I think in moments like these, we have to go to the Father with our hurts and frustrations. If we don't immerse ourselves in prayer we run the risk of becoming bitter and disenchanted with ministry and with adolescents.

2. recognize the source -- As soon as I stepped out of the church van, I was bombarded with several issues from some students. Issues I wasn't aware of or apart of. I was cornered and dumped on. When I confronted the selfish attitudes that permeated the moment, it feel on deaf ears. I noted to recognize the source. I don't think all issues that arise are just due to the teen years. We musn't forget we are in engaged in a spiritual battle (Gal. 5:17; cf. Gal. 6).

3. don't give up on the rough ones -- We don't fully recognize the impact we have on young people's lives. Most days I wonder what in the world I am doing. I ask the question often, "why am I doing this?" I am sure most of us have asked the same question. We must remember youth ministry is a calling, and our competence comes from God not in our Bible college degrees, or our years in ministry (2 Cor. 3:5). We won't see immediate results in the lives of our kids. We will see some results, sometimes. Each student is different.

4. youth ministry is tough -- Many of us our underpaid, work long hours, and go underappreciated. To this I would say "welcome to the crazy, upside down world of youth ministry." When we recognize how ill equipped we are to minister in our own strength we have arrived in a welcome place. A place where we are able to focus, not on ourselves, but on Christ. I am convinced that it is the norm to be beaten up emotionally, to carry the burdens of our teens and families, and to question our calling and our impact. Don't misunderstand, I am not advocating self-depreciation here. I think to many youth ministers fall into the trap of thinking that they are God's gift to youth ministry. If we think we are the gift, we will totally miss the greatest gift: a relationship with Christ and sharing that with students.

5. don't forget to take time for you and your family -- In this crazy world of youth ministry we need to spend quality time with our wives and children. They need to interact with us in a lot of settings outside of church related events. We need our family. Also, in taking time for ourselves, don't forget to exercise and eat well. We tell our youth group all the time not to fill their minds with the junk food of our culture. Why should we fill our bodies with junk too?

Prayer Request (updated)

2006-04-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just got the message that one of my former students from when I was the Youth Minister for the Palo Alto Church of Christ in Panama City, FL has been injured. He is stationed in Iraq, and this morning he was apparently riding in a Humvee that drove over a landmine. The explosion injured both of his arms and one of his legs. The left arm apparently sustained the most severe injuries. My understanding is that he is in surgery, but was awake and calm when he was taken to the hospital. His name is Rex McKnight. I would greatly appreciate your prayers on his behalf.
AE

UPDATE: I just got this message from another former student regarding Rex:
"We just got a call from one of the guy that has been taking care of Rex in the hospital in Germany. Rex wanted him to call and let us all know he is okay and for us not to worry!
The guys name is Chris. He said that he has really enjoyed taking care of Rex and that he is a great guy. Rex has been talking to him alot and Chris told my mom that he seems to be really spiritual and positive! That's our Rex! Being Jesus no matter were he is and in all cirumstances!

Chris also told us that Rex's arm was pretty banged up but they are doing everything they can. In a couple hours they will be taking Rex into Surgery for his arm. Tomorrow night Chris is going to call and let us know how the surgery went ."

YM Insight

2006-03-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

Great Questions about YM

A Crisis in YM

Comtemplative YM review

HT to Marko

Also I know our comments section isn't functioning properly.

The Intentional Shepherd

2006-03-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

Received this article from the National Network of Youth Ministries. Real good article on shepherding our students, in particular our students that are about to graduate from high school.

THE INTENTIONAL SHEPHERD
By Jeff Schadt

In recent years, youth ministry has received the attention of many leaders, with George Barna and the National Survey on Youth and Religion analyzing the attitudes and actions of our youth.

National concern has grown regarding the loss of youth from the church during their senior year of high school and accelerating during their first year of college or career.

While no long-term longitudinal study exists that can conclude with certainty the exact percentage of youth leaving the church, evidence and reason indicate that a significant majority of our high school youth leave the church within one year of high school graduation.

Some in the church have said to me, "they are going to go wild in college no matter what we do" and "they will return to the church when they get married or have kids." Having personally interviewed on camera 120 college students about their transition from home to work or college, I am deeply troubled by this response.

In a short period of time, many of these students had created lifelong scars that will haunt them into their marriages, families, and careers, as well as their walks with God.

Jesus was the intentional shepherd - one whose voice alone could lead the sheep to safety (John 10:27-29). If you have ever watched a shepherd at work, you know how intentional they are.

Several years ago while backpacking in Colorado, I had the privilege to watch a shepherd at work. As the group I was with made our way through a valley at 10,000 feet between three 13,000-foot peaks, we found ourselves hiking though a herd of 1,000 sheep, all fairly close together.

We did not see the shepherd until we reached 10,700 feet. There we discovered a Native American shepherd, sitting on a giant boulder as he watched his herd, able to see all of his sheep and any predator approaching from quite a distance. As we climbed higher, we watched the shepherd gradually work his way around the herd, carefully surveying the mountains and the valley where they grazed.

Jesus was the intentional shepherd who felt deeply the loss of just one of His sheep. Like Jesus, we can be intentional shepherds, helping to prepare the sheep for their departure from our lives and ministries.

Jesus prepared His disciples by repeatedly reminding them about His need to leave to prepare rooms for them, and speaking of the One who was to follow Him - the Holy Spirit - who would counsel, comfort, remind and lead them (John 14:2, 16).

We can do the same for our students as they prepare to leave our youth groups to enter college, careers or the military. In this transition, they face a level of stress and uncertainty unlike any transition they have encountered previously.

They leave the known environments of their high school, youth group/church, their family, circle of friends and the relative privacy of their homes. This creates significant stress. Their God-given needs to be loved, accepted and to fit into a community go unmet on many levels for the first time in their lives.

Stress is defined by Dr. Gary Collins as "a force brought on by uncertainty and change which creates upset stomachs, gnawing fear, headaches, intense grief, excessive drinking and arguments. Stress dulls our memory, weakens our bodies, stirs up our emotions and reduces efficiency."

This leaves our youth vulnerable to the temptations and distractions of the world, given that they frequently leave home without a connection to Christian friends, roommates or the body of Christ. In short, they enter hostile territory without a shepherd of their faith.

In interviewing 120 students about their transition, I found that those who had been challenged and warned by their youth pastor about getting connected immediately to a church or college ministry were more likely to be walking with God. Just as Jesus prepared the disciples, we can do more by encouraging our students to locate Christian roommates where they are headed.

Since this is often a lengthy process, and schools require roommate requests by January, we need to begin preparing our students early, just as Jesus did with the disciples. We should begin to prepare our seniors (and even juniors) for the stress they will face and the importance of connecting with other believers - in October, not May of their senior year.

Data gathered from Fuller Theological Seminary's pilot transition study, and the 2003 Survey on Youth and Religion, indicates that the environment we provide for our youth is equally important. Are we providing an environment in our churches like the environment Jesus provided for His disciples? Jesus created an environment where the disciples freely questioned and challenged the teaching and actions of their Shepherd.

This "safe place" of love, grace and acceptance allowed the disciples to explore their questions, doubts and even failures without fear of judgment or punishment. Even the disciples' greatest failure - deserting the Shepherd at the cross - did not result in judgment. Jesus returned with words of encouragement, and offered even greater responsibility - the Great Commission.

Frequently, we see examples of godly men and women in the Bible whose failure was met by God with even greater responsibility: Moses, Abraham and Jesus' disciples. What an amazingly loving and gracious God we have!

Failing to provide the environment of a loving shepherd, as Jesus did for His sheep, will result in our students acting one way in church and another in the world. Helping our sheep trust the loving voice of the Shepherd will encourage them to bring their doubts and failures into the light, where they can be resolved and transformed, according to 1 John 1:5-7. If they continue to lead double lives, living in the darkness, the outcome will be blindness to the truth and a life filled with scars (1 John 2:9-16).

Pause and reflect upon how Jesus meets our failures daily with grace and forgiveness. Let us also make a commitment to become intentional shepherds for our students by providing a safe place for them to deal honestly with the Word of Truth.

Let's also prepare them for their departure from our leadership. Make them aware of the risks and dangers ahead! That will help them persevere in one of the most stressful transitions of life.

----------------------------

Jeff Schadt is the founder and president of Ministry Edge, an organization dedicated to decreasing the loss of youth from the church. He serves as the facilitator of the Youth Transition Network, a coalition of ministries seeking to address this alarming loss. Jeff currently serves as a licensed lay pastor for First Baptist Church, Tempe, where he and and his wife Deedee, along with their children Heather, Jennifer and Paul, worship.

A Forced Exit

2006-03-17T07:31:00.000-08:00

So a Website
had hosted one of my articles. Found here
- Basically suggestions on how to handle a Forced Exit.

Thoughts?

Hot topics

2006-03-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

According to the last quarter (and final) sales at Next Gen Publishing, youth ministers purchased the most materials related to:

holiness
worship
identity
realness with God
materialism
the Holy Spirit
God chooses the unlikely for his purposes

The best selling topic over the last 2 years - dating.

Words Can Hurt

2006-03-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Found this quote ....

"Words Can Hurt"

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Whoever made up that childhood phrase may have meant well, but they were misguided. Most physical wounds eventually heal. Words, on the other hand, can leave scars that never go away.

Adults forget just how much power their words have with the children in their lives. What may be a meaningless comment to you may be a devastating invalidation to your son or daughter. Remember, once it’s out of your mouth, there’s no retrieving a careless comment, and its impact could last a lifetime.

—Paul S. Williams

Next Gen Publishing shuts down on Tuesday

2006-02-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

hey everyone,
i just wanted to let you know that i'm closing down the company and website that i've run for the last 2 years. it has been great serving youth ministers and watching God move and work. anyway, if you've ever thought about buying some resources but have delayed ... make your purchases and then download the materials by Monday night (2/27). thanks.
http://www.nextgenpublishing.com

on youth ministry

2006-02-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest things I am learning in ministry is that you can't please everyone. I know that far older, and far wiser friends and mentors have shared this insight before with me. But for some strange reason, I thought I could do it. I am officially done trying to please every one. I can't do it. I was listening to a CD from NCYM, it was the roundtable that Dr. Oglesby did, anyway, it was an encouraging lesson. He shared several of his failures in ministry and shared how at times he would feel utterly defeated and worthless as a youth minister. But, what we see as failure with kids, doens't always have a bad ending. That's encouraing to me. For I am reminded that God isn't done with them yet. We get into the trap of looking for perfection when instead we should be looking for progress. I have ministered to several kids that are the one's that just don't seem to listen, they are constant sources of frustration and retreat is often the only seemingly viable option. But, there are those stories of the unruly ones, being stirred later on in life by Jesus, and commit their selves to him completely. I needed that message this afternoon. For I get so bogged down by what I am not seeing, that I miss the progress that kids are making. Another key insight from the CD dealt with how we percieve our ministry success. Do we rely on our ability and giftedness or do we rely on God? This may sound like a no-brainer, but I think many of us wrestle with this. For some it's an issue of competency, for other's it's an issue of pride. But, the bottom line is that we cannot effectively minister in our own strength. We need God's power, His Spirit empowerment and presence to truly be effective.

on spiritual formation

2006-02-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

I know that life is caught between the now and the not yet, and it's in that middle of time, the now, that sometimes seems to cloud of my vision of the not yet. I am sure you can relate. Like all of us with cloudy vision, I needed to see Jesus, and dwell on his words and dring up his love, grace and forgiveness. I wish I could tell you some amazing story of a shaken office, and a thundering voice from heaven. But instead, my story of renewed vision, purpose and grace came through a phone call from a trusted friend. We talked of spiritual formation, sin, and forgiveness. It dawned on me, that after messing up, and I often do that I love my guilt more than I love the free gift from God. I know that sounds absurd, but it's true. I have drug myself through the mud on many occassions, because I didn't think God would want to forgive me again for such and such. But you know what, I know that in light of all of this, that when I doubt forgiveness and dwell on guilt I am declaring that I don't believe in God's power or ability to do what He said He would do and does. Does that make sense? So, my friend and I were able to get to a place where we both caught such a glimpse of the Master that we couldn't help but bounce a little from the energy and excitement of just being a part of His family. I don't have the exact quote, but something from Brother Lawrence that has impacted me tremendously has been this: He writes about he when he sins, and he does, that he doesn't dwell on the sin and make himself pay for his mistake, he instead offers up his sin to Christ and moves on. I know that may sound simple and I am not trying to give license to sin freely because you can just confess it and move on. What I am saying is, is that through these words I am accepting my limitations and my weaknesses as a human being, but also realizing that as a new creation in Christ, God isn't through with me yet. I live as a new creation because of the Spirit's presence in my life, and through his empowerment I am able to be more like Jesus. Something that came out of my conversation yesterday was that spiritual formation isn't about doing, but it has always been about becoming. But we tend to gravitate to the former. If we just read more of God's Word, if we just spend more time in prayer. If we do this, and if we do that. What we are doing is living in a state of guilt, franticly racing to and fro and hoping to mature. What if less is more? What if we are already doing enough, but because we are so frantic about the way we do things that we haven't allowed God to communicate to us? In all of our other relationships, at least the ones that work, there has got to be two way communication. Do we really think it's any different for our relationship with God?

South of Louisville

2006-02-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

So I was in Louisville for a funeral. Visited Southeast. And also visited a church in the south of Louisville. A medium sized congregation of 300. I met their new youth minister. He was showing me around their "Impressive" facility. Gym, new carpet etc.

The one thing that got me was the lack of mention of names of his students (He knew I was a YM from NC, some of their achievements, and that.) The focus seemed to be more on facility, and group size rather than demographics and relationships. Maybe it was just me.

I think the next time someone visits our church facility - I'm not going to show them around the church "Building" I'm going to give them glimpses of the church. Show pictures of my students, tell about their stories being a part of God's. How about you?

The Winds of Revolution

2006-02-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

The following paragraphs are taken from one of my postings for grad school. The source of reflection is the book, "Grasping for the Wind" by John Whitehead. Some details may not be clear at first, but hopefully everything will make sense by the end. It definitely provoked my thoughts. - Doug

In the chapter on the "Winds of Revolution" I was intrigued by the general theme that was presented in that chapter that "what goes around comes around." On page 186 in the caption of Tom Hayden describing what was stated in the Port Huron Statement and the ideology of the New Left, there was a strong urge to resist the "American Materialistic Machine." As I read this, I was thinking to myself that this might have been their ideology of the 1960's, but where is that ideology now? Sure enough, Whitehead comes back to this at the end of the chapter in his section, "Hippies to Yuppies." Those who had taken such a prominent stand against the establishment had become, themselves, the establishment. I doubt that this turn of events was in their plans when their ideology was first drawn up.

I'm just thinking out loud here, but it seems to me that this ties in primarily to society's search for an identity. I think it may have even been mentioned in this chapter...something to the tune of "we don't care what we become as long as its different than you (the establishment)." If you were at NCYM, you may have had the chance to hear John York's early morning presentation on "Identity." I just recently heard the presentation on cd and I was drawn back into the history of Protestantism and how our very name indicates that our identity has been shaped as a "protest" to the establishment. We've certainly not let go of that pattern, have we?

Over and over again, we have seen the pattern. Someone abuses someone else. That someone else hates the abuser and everything they stand for, but by some evil trick of the mind the abused in one generation becomes the abuser for the next generation. Certainly the winds of revolution are blowing in our churches and this needs to be handled with extreme care or we may just perpetuate the cycle of "abuse."

How about change being about how we can look more like Christ rather than how the postmodern church can distinguish itself from the modern church? Our identity is too easily manipulated by circumstance and our emotional reactions to a stimulus. I don't mind being a part of a postmodern church, but let's make sure it is for the right reasons and not a reaction to our frustrations with the establishment.

PROGRAMS?!?!?! YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PROGRAM!?!?!?

2006-02-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

I'm throwing this out there (it may kind of fit with the family youth ministry discussion---but if it doesn't sorry).

In my Directed Studies in Youth Ministry class this semester this quote from Chap Clark was brought up: "Youth ministry models in use at this time are ones that have been constructed from a Modern mindset."

So my question for possible discussion: In a "postmodern" time, are programs the answer to effective youth ministry? If so, describe the "program". If not, what will be effective youth ministry in a "postmodern" time?

This has probably been talked about before (I'm a newcomer to this discussion) but thought this might be an interesting topic.....

Family Based Youth Ministry

2006-02-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

What's up guys...long time no post...

Here is my lengthy respons to jason's question. I think it's a great discussion to have before you bite the bullet!!!

Complaints about your Ministry?

2006-02-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

So how do you handle them?

ramblings on family ministry

2006-02-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

Moving in the direction of family friendly youth ministry is not an easy task. It seems these days that there is a lot of conversation about doing youth ministry with families, or what we call family ministry. But, is anyone doing it? I know we talk about it, but where are those youth ministers at that are ministering to the whole family, equiping parents to understand youth culture and empowering parents to nurture the development of faith in their students.

So, if you are at a church or are in youth ministry and now of a youth ministry that sees the bigger picture, let me know.

The problem that I am having is not the justification for family ministry, but the "how to" of family ministry.

Just my thoughts!

ramblings on family ministry

2006-02-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

So, if you are at a church or are in youth ministry and now of a youth ministry that sees the bigger picture, let me know.

The problem that I am having is not the justification for family ministry, but the "how to" of family ministry.

Just my thoughts!

small group question

2006-02-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

Do any of ya'll do small groups that are parent groups? If so what material do you use? How are the groups doing? What has been the result?

Rollercoaster ministry

2006-01-31T08:14:00.000-08:00

The roller coaster of emotion. Maybe you've experienced. It seems that as a youth minister, with everything that we deal with and all the disappointment we see, experience and hear about that we live and die with our kids. Do you notice how your heart breaks when a kid shares a struggle with you, or they share some disappointing news, or you learn that a kid is struggling to survive becaus of a bad divorce?

Lately, I have been wondering what kind of impact are we having on kids? I mean we spend all the time, energy, late nights, shed tears, pray constantly for our kids, what effect is it having? Before you write me off as a pessimist because I am questioning our impact, I am being real. Any one else ought there get so discouraged about what we do, and how messed up our world is that you consider transitioning out of youth ministry into a secular job?

Please tell me I am normal. Even though we hurt for our kids and at times have our hearts stepped on, and often we are misunderstood, I am not giving up my passion for youth ministry or sharing the Gospel with them. I am just noticing how ministering to kids is more of an uphill battle than maybe I realized.

How do you deal with disappointment, frustration in ministry and particularly to adolescents?

Big Responsibility

2006-01-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

Last night in my middle school boys small group we were discussing the story of Joseph. I read the part of the story, found in Genesis 37:2-11. It is the section in which Joseph angers his brothers and father by sharing with them the dreams he had been having. Dreams that suggested that someday they would all bow down to him.

I then asked if they remembered the rest of the story and could recount it for us. One of the guys quickly spoke up and shared how Joseph was then taken by his brothers, who then staged his death (eaten by a lion), and then thrown into a well, in which he then floated downstream in the underground river to Egypt where he was sold into slavery.

That isn't quite the way my Bible tells the story but it sure made for a good one! Are there underground rivers that flow from wells? Love it!

I am thankful for the responsibility of discipling these young guys yet, I am also reminded of the seriousness of leading young people in Jesus' strong words found in Matthew 18:5-6. As well as the words of James, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

May we always be found worthy and responsible.

Born Again?

2006-01-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Saw the following - What do you think?

“PEOPLE WHO CALL themselves “Christian” hold a wide variety of beliefs, according to a national survey conducted by the Barna Group in October 2005. While 80 percent of American adults call themselves “Christian,” 68 percent would also describe themselves as “a committed Christian.” Fewer than half—45 percent—adopt the phrase “born-again Christian.”

Barna also asked about a two-part definition of a person’s faith that the research organization has consistently used to describe “born-again” people without actually using the term, in which they say they “have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important” and in which they claim they will go to Heaven after they die because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. That definition was claimed by less than half the respondents (44 percent).

One-quarter of those who call themselves born again did not meet the Barna criteria for born again. According to Barna, that finding generally indicates these people rely upon something other than God’s grace as their means to salvation.

Blacks were the ethnic group that used the generic “born-again” term most, with 75 percent embracing it, compared to 31 percent of Hispanics and 44 percent of whites. While only 14 percent of Roman Catholics were comfortable describing themselves as “born-again,” 23 percent actually fit Barna’s definition of the term.

The telephone survey among a random sample of 1,002 adults has a 3.2 percent margin of error.
—The Barna Group (www.barna.org), November 25

30 Hour Famine

2006-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

Does your ministry participate in the 30 Hour Famine? Our group has been doing it for many years and it always proves to be an extremely impactful event. I believe nothing brings a group of students, or anyone for that matter, into tight community like a service oriented event. This one does it!

The beauty of the 30 Hour Famine is it helps students take their eyes off of themselves and onto the many in our world that are in desperate need. With 29,000 children dying each day of hunger and hunger related causes it can seem overwhelming and may cause us to think there is nothing we can do, but there is, and the 30 Hour Famine is one of those things.

If you have not considered being a part of this incredible event I encourage you to give it a look.

If you have done the event what are some ideas, programs, activities, etc. you have used? Does your group do a service project? If so, what have you done? It would be great to share ideas here!

When the van won't start...

2006-01-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

"Be still and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10)

A word from the Word: Read Psalm 46 and Mark 4:35-41
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1)

The holidays and a busy travel schedule has kept me on the go. I am slowing down a bit, at least for a short time, so I wanted to resume our time together in God's Word. I hope your holidays were great and that your New Year has gotten off to a good start.

This weekend, our youth group and I am some amazing chaperones went to Arlington, Texas for a big youth rally. I love Winterfest and this year I believe was my 7th or 8th year of going as a sponsor or as a group leader. The kids that have gone before have been my biggest advertisement, and so we had quite a few new faces and the same could be said for my adults who give up their weekend to go with us.

Everyone began arriving at church on Friday afternoon, bags were packed, sandwiches were made, the trailer was hooked up, the vans had gas, we circled in prayer, and then Satan began to attempt to unravel our weekend before it really began. One of our vans wouldn't turn over. I had just taken it moments before to the gas station, and now it wouldn't start. We were able to swap out vans, and then when we stopped to eat our early dinner, we somehow forgot to pack half of our sandwiches. It's gets better, when we finally arrive at the convention center, we were actually 20 minutes early, all the kids and sponsors went to the first evening session and I went to get our hotel rooms. I didn't have enough credit on my church card to cover all ten of our rooms. Thankfully, I had another card.

After the evening activites were done, we all were going to go back to our suite for a devotional and some instructions in the morning. As I was preparing to order for pizza for some starving kids, a sponsor had called me and reported she and her girls were harassed by one of the hotel's security guards.

After putting out some small fires, I arrived in our devotional room 30 minutes late, and was greeted by one young high schooler, who was hungry and tired and asked for food. I was ready to pull my hair out, I guess his request was the straw that broke the camels back.

I write all of that to remind you what I was reminded of again...

God is in control. His plans are always best, and no matter what we experience our troubles are light and momentary. This weekend turned out to be one of the best weekends at Winterfest I have ever been a part of. The times of worship were great, the responses of the kids in our group who were moved by the Spirit to either accept Jesus or renew their faith was great.

I was reminded that Jesus turns messes into beautiful works of art. When things don't go the way we plan or intend for them to go, we shouldn't lose sleep over those things. I was forced to grapple with whether or not I would trust that God would take care of things or not. He always takes care of things.

I share this incident from our past weekend, because I know you have dealt with similar moments. When the car breaks down, or the unexpected bill comes that you can't pay. We all have those moments when we feel like we are on a storm tossed sea and our Jesus is asleep in the stern. We stress out over the waves and the force of the wind. But we forget that we aren't traveling alone. Jesus Christ not only goes with us, He speaks peace over our lives when we aren't able to handle what comes are way.

So, if you had a weekend like mine. Spend some time today, reading Mark 4 and Psalm 46 and be reminded of who is in charge. Life runs smoother when we let God run things. Amen.

New Team Member

2006-01-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

I would like to say "welcome," to our newest team member. Rick O' Dell comes to us with many years in youth ministry and works with a great church in Colorado. Welcome aboard brother. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Following up

2006-01-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

Some have been to Winferfest already, others of us are looking toward events in which some of our students will make decisions. What are some things you do to consistently follow up on decisions students make such as committing their lives to Christ, redecicating themselves, asking for prayers in areas they struggle? It's one of the most difficult aspects of what I try to do and I'm not effective at all in this area.

When just one church isn't enough

2006-01-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

Neela Banerjee, a writerfor the New Your Times wrote an article that ran in yesterday's Religion section of the Houston Chronicle about teenagers attending multiple churches. What are your thoughts or observations in your settings?

Best Quote from NCYM

2006-01-07T20:44:00.000-08:00

"Christians are like manure. Pile it up and it just stinks to high heaven. Spread it around and it fertilizes whole fields." (taken from Rubel Shelly)

Though not the most flattering metaphor, it probably hits many of our ministries pretty hard. We've been talking about resolutions recently...I resolve to be more of a fertilizer this year...instead of a stinker!

Assessment

2006-01-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

So as a new year approaches, so does assessment and goals.

So how would you evaluate your ministries?

I don't do resolutions that well.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

2006 is here. I am sure like many of you, my wife and I watched the ball drop. It was sad seeing Dick Clark in the condition he was in. But, the New Year celebration isn't the same without him.

With the New Year comes the chance to think about some goals, or resolutions for this new year. What are yours? I would be interested in hearing from you to see what your resolutions for '06 are.

Here are mine:
1. to deepen my relationship with Christ (getting in the Word more, and on my knees more)
2. to love my wife more deeply and compassionately
3. to be the best daddy to the two most wonderful girls in the world
4. to be a better youth minister
5. to be a better friend
6. to love those who are sometimes the most difficult to love
7. to lose weight, to exercise, and take care of my body
8. to be a better blogger.

Happy New Year to all of you. May 2006 be a year of many blessings and a year of going deeper into the heart of Christ.

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T19:25:00.000-08:00

Youth Ministry brothers and sisters,

Merry Christmas. I hope this holiday brings you a time of renewal and joy. Enjoy the time with family and do spend some time in prayer and the Word. For the arrival of the Christ child is truly a life changing and a life shaping moment, one we would do well to ponder.

Can you pass the egg nog?

The "MySpace" Generation

2005-12-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

Article

Thoughts?

Gulf Coast Mission Trip

2005-12-20T12:19:00.001-08:00

There is a group from the Newark church (along with our University of Delaware campus ministry: Blue Hens for Christ)that will be going to the Gulf Coast to help with hurricane relief December 28-January 3 and December 28-January 12. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to leave and as we are down there working. I will try to update daily (hopefully with pictures as well) on my blog (http://www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com).

Here is the list of members of the Gulf Coast Mission Trips:

Darrell Swanson
Tom Deadmon
Cliff Bates
Diane Bates
Dave Blackwell
Angie Blackwell
Jon Ginter
Naomi Ginter
Michelle Wood (U of D)
Christina Plack (U of D)
James Lansing (U of D)
Matt Wilson
Caleb Smith
Rachel Friedline
Alayon Friedline
Joel Friedline
Anna Henry
Sean Henry
Curtis Hull
Lindsay Robison (U of D)
Stephanie Robison
Jared Ali (U of D)
Tim Kim (U of D)
Sherol Chen (U of D)
Ryan Matthews (U of D)
Jenn Tretto (U of D)
Tony Francioni
Tiffany Button (U of D)
Gina DiScala (U of D)
Frank Hutton (Nashville)
Phil Williams (Nashville)
Don Knieriem (U of D)
Virginia Besche(U of D)
Laurie Rohm (U of D)
Laura Armstrong (U of D)
Anna Rogers
Kelly Potter
Sarah Kinsley

We will be staying at the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. If you would like to see the relief effort with this group check out http://www.toccrecovery.blogspot.com and http://www.whereisawjesus.blogspot.com

***A side note: we are looking at having another trip during University of Delaware's spring break. This will be a CAMPUS WIDE/INTERFAITHS trip. It will be a great experience for this campus to come together under one cause. Keep it in your prayers and as more details come together I'll keep you informed about it.***

'Twas the Night before Youth Ministry

2005-12-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

I wrote this last year and thought to share again Here:

'Twas the Night Before Youth Ministry

'Twas the Nite Before Youth Ministry,
When all through the church
Not a church was stirring, not even a pastor.
The budget minutes were done for the year with care.
In hopes that funds for the ministry next year would be there.
The church-goers had gone. All full of themselves.
With visions of only thinking of Thyself.
The Leadership wanted the last say on everything.
And the Senior Pastor had to be right on every theological thing.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter.
Several of us had sprung out of the church to see what was the matter.
As we entered the church parking lot What did we see?
But Angry parents and students wanting youth ministry for FREE!

More rapid than insults, the crowd made demands.
They had expectations of what they thought youth ministry looked like and added their demands.

They started to name the youth orgainzations by name:

Now "Youth For Christ, Young Life, FCA, and such, Campus Life, CEF, First Priority too let's put all these youth pastors to shame"

"You need to be like Bo Boshers, Doug Fields or some other mega church name ...maybe its 180 and putting all others to shame."

"To the top of the denomination, to the top of the glee of the crowd, we'd rather have glorified babysitting and we want it now."

So as the demands of the parents, full of themselves ....
Several others had cried as the silly demands had abound.

Youth Ministry is not a thing dressed up and made good.
It sometimes speaks of sex, drinking and peer pressure as one should.

It isn't about looking cool.
Or even having a Dodge Viper or Hummer or 2.

Youth Ministry is sometimes about stuff you don't have a clue.

It's about Jesus, church, loving God and others too.
And not another marketing tool.

All of the gimmicks make me want to laugh.
"Teach like Jesus" or get this item for half price and have your church grow without having the Spirit in it at all!

O the marketing - be the next Mega Thing rather than
Be Who God created you to be and not something else.

When will we learn?
When will we turn from this youth ministry as glorified babysitting thing?

Then I knew I had nothing to dread.
Jesus loved me, instead of these angry parents instead.

Jesus spoke such kindness and did such a good work.
He gave of Himself, and never was a jerk.
He was born as God's Son.
Human became.
Loved, died, rose, and is Coming Again!

As I think of Jesus, Youth Ministry and all ....
Its about being the church
And not this programming call.
So the next time someone gives you a complain.
Turn to them and proudly proclaim:

"I serve my Christ offering Him to all;
Love God and others is my Call."

Thus Youth Ministry is a calling and not sort of thing.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Parody by Gerrard R. Fess.

Copyright 2004. Permission granted to share everywhere just note the author

revisioning my youth ministry

2005-12-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

This school semester has provided quite a few unique learning opportunities. I am glad that the semester is over, and I am taking a break this next semester. As it stands I have 33 hours done in an 84 hour program. I am making progress.

I want to talk a few moments about my youth ministry class that I got to take with Dr. Fraze out at LCU. I won't go into great deal now, but through our class project I got to evaluate our current program and dream some. I realize that I haven't been very family friendly. I have not been an enemy of families, but have a lot of room to partner with parents as thier children navigate the tightrope of adolescence (this metaphor did not originate with me -- Dr. Chap Clark talks about it), I also want to equip parents to understand adolescent culture, as well as ignite a passion for discipleship and outreach.

The project looked at the what and why of the need for ministry to youth and family, and over the course of the next several months, I and my adult volunteers will be looking at the how in our setting. I am excited about this process, not real sure where it will go, but know that thinking theologically about our ministry to youth and families will lead to better ministry. A key question that must serve to guide this whole process is, "how am I doing according to God' s standards?" I think this question forces us to answer simultaneously another question, "what does succesful youth ministry look like?" I am advocating that what is needed, is a re-definition of what a successful youth ministry looks like. I don't think this will be a pain free process. As a matter of fact I am anticipating this being a little messy and uncomfortable as we all try to figure out our how. I will try to continually bring us back to the central question, "how are we doing according to God's standards?"

This post sort of piggy backs off what my grad. youth ministry class dealt with. I think we all need to to reevaulate our ministries from time to time. What and how do ya'll evaulate your ministries? If you have been through this process, how did it go?

Theology of Discipleship

2005-12-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I have been giving some thought to lately is a theology of discipleship. Thanks to some great discussion that was had in a grad class at Lubbock Christian University back in October and a recent article I read by Mike Yaconelli (you can read it at: http://www.youthspecialties.com/articles/Yaconelli/disciple_abuse.php), I have been challenged a great deal to adopt a higher view of discipleship than I have in the past. Here are a couple of thoughts that have challenged me in this way:

#1 - Yac writes in the article above: "I don't believe in student discipleship." His article makes it clear that he is not writing off the good things that adolescents are involved in, but Yac's view of discipleship is much higher than just doing good deeds, attending Bible class or going on mission trips. It is a deeper dedication than most youths are capable of giving at their age. They haven't lived life enough to fully comprehend what it means to be a disciple.

#2 - At the class that I attended back in October at LCU we were blessed to be able to enter into a discussion on discipleship with a member of the ICOC present. They are a disciples' movement. It was interesting to see how radically different our perceptions were of the discipling process. This particular classmate talked about how they would never encourage baptism until late adolescence (around the college age). He interpreted the Great Commission as first going and making disciples and then baptizing them. Traditionally, churches of Christ have joined the two together...disciples are made upon the committment to Christ in baptism. Not so, for my friend. Interestingly enough, its not very hard to accept the difference of interpretation.With these two experiences in mind, coupled with my observances of not just the youth in my ministry but many adults as well...I am quickly coming to the conclusion that I need to modify my teaching on the subject of discipleship. What's needed in our brotherhood is a higher view of discipleship. We have a lot to learn from Yaconelli, the ICOC, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others about the cost of discipleship. Baptism doesn't make one a disciple any more than throwing on a chef's hat makes me a chef. Discipleship is about understanding the cost, training in Christlikeness, daily self denial, and a step by step journey towards a hill called Golgotha...where the old is crucified and the new is revealed in us. It's radical...its hard core...it's so much more than what our tradition has made it out to be.

I know this view seems to make the road o so much narrower! Why would any one choose this? Because LIFE is at the end of the journey! That's why! For heaven's sake...who wouldn't want to choose this if they new what kind of gift was being given to them? I have died my first death and I am no longer afraid of the second death. What an awesome feeling!

Final words: If we adopt this view of discipleship...doesn't it rescue our faith journey from the flames of mediocrity? Though the path be difficult, this view of discipleship ignites in me a passion for a Christianity that is meaningful and relevant...in ways that we have forgotten in the modern world. Comfortable discipleship...comfortably Christianity is falling to the wayside in this post-Christian world. Those who will stand the test of time in our generation are going to have to fight to follow Christ...Could it be that this fight will separate the "disciples" from the Disciples?

What are your thoughts?

Kirk talks about his addiction to porn...II

2005-12-08T11:48:00.000-08:00

I have been so moved by the comments made from Gary that I took the time to encode the Oprah show into an mp3 that you can download by clicking here. Not sure about the legality of this, but the subject is just too important to be kept "analog." Don't worry the commercials have been removed and it's only about 40 minutes.

Theology from Peanuts

2005-12-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Originally published August 9, 1976 by Charles Shultz

Emergent Critics

2005-12-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

The Us versus Them

Saw this over at YSMarko's site
and thought contributed much to the dialogue of the Critics of the Emergent Church. Here it is:

"I feel with many critics, the talking and arguing goes on and we keep missing each other because of the words we use and the different meanings behind them. Conversations can sound a lot like this . . .

church?
emerging church!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . church formation!
ahhh . . . building?
no . . . pub-house-coffeeshop!
ahhh . . . small group?
no . . . church!
ahh . . . youth?
no . . . wider!
ahhh . . . GenX?
no . . . worldview!
ahhh . . . contemporary, CCM?
no . . . yuk . . . hell no . . postmodern!
ahhh . . . hate modern?
no . . . after modern!
ahhh . . . critical theory?
no . . . emergent theory!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . truth!
ahhh . . . philosophy?
no . . . culture!
ahhh . . . culture over Scripture?
no . . . Scripture before culture!
ahhh . . . hate church culture?
no . . . love church!
ahhh . . reforming church?
no . . . fresh expressions!
ahhh . . . traditional church is stale?
no . . . need contextual!
ahhh . . . compromise?
no . . . prophetic!
ahhh . . . charasmatic?
no . . . more holistic!
ahhh . . . new age?
no . . . one true church!
ahhh . . . ecumencial?
no . . . missional!
ahhh . . . overseas?
no . . . cross-cultural right here!
ahhh . . . mission project?
no . . . missional movement!
ahh . . . exploiting?
no . . . redeeming!
ahhh . . . dominating?
no . . . emerging!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . what? . . . shut up!
"

Kirk talks about his addiction to porn...

2005-12-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Oprah yesterday and I plan to show it to my kids this Sunday. It was very powerful and heartbreaking. You can watch and read the segment with Kirk Franklin by clicking here. If you are interested in showing it to your teens let me know and I could possibly send a copy to you. I DVR'ed it and plan to transfer it over to a VHS (remember those) tape.

Humor

2005-11-30T16:59:00.000-08:00

Here is something to use for you next parent meeting...

Potter laugh...

2005-11-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Need a laugh this morning, watch this spoof of Harry Potter. There is just something fun about puppets.

http://www.crosswalkmail.com/dlhgqyj_hekejjas.html

Youth Ministry Forum

Anyone watching High School Musical 2?

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VBS, rant and complaining

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The hard road is the right road

Teen Behavior

Where Youth Ministry Must go

Ad I came Across

Finding God in the Outdoors

The Core

creating a leadership team

To Quote

When Looking for a New Ministry

Issues in Youth Ministry

How are you spending this Christmas season?

The Ideal Youth Ministry

sorry for the large number of spam comments

Time Magazine Article

Apples and Oranges

beyond the gimmicks

something fun from Austin

The State of Youth Ministry

My Latest Article.

Youth Ministry Revisited Pt. 2

Youth Ministry Revisited

Don't Buy the Lies.

Thank you Jethro: Lessons learned about Leadership

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Marketing Jesus?

YM & The COC

Mission: Homelessness

Reflections from Afar.

Teens and a faith disconnect

What I've learned in my first two years of youth ministry

YM as a Crutch?

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Your youth ministry and the Da Vinci Code

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Prayer Request (updated)

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A Forced Exit

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Words Can Hurt

Next Gen Publishing shuts down on Tuesday

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South of Louisville

The Winds of Revolution

PROGRAMS?!?!?! YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PROGRAM!?!?!?

Family Based Youth Ministry

Complaints about your Ministry?

ramblings on family ministry

ramblings on family ministry

small group question

Rollercoaster ministry

Big Responsibility

Born Again?

30 Hour Famine

When the van won't start...