I’d be willing to bet that the majority of patents are for technology related inventions. Since at least 2005 and in many cases earlier, we’ve seen the rise of new local Valley companies like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Netflix, TiVo, and even WordPress – not to mention old stalwarts like Apple, Google/YouTube, Yahoo, Cisco, Intel, HP, Oracle, Adobe, Amazon, Pixar, and eBay to name a few. There are literally thousands of other smaller companies (Evernote, Dropbox, Box.net, Orchestra, Pandora – 9 out of 10 apps on your iPhone probably) start-ups looking to make it big that began in a garage like many of the heavy-hitters (or as a Stanford computer science thesis project). Layered on top are the VC’s – venture capitalists or angel investors just waiting to drop serious cash into the next big thing. Add it all up and you get a crucible wherein an entrepreneurial spirit reigns and sticking with the status quo means being left hopelessly behind. It’s the California Gold Rush all over again with a touch of Vegas and a smidgen of Hollywood self-promotion. Reminds me somewhat of another part of California I know well – if Orange County prides itself on being hyper-cool and ridiculously good looking, Silicon Valley prides itself on being hyper-smart and innovative.

So what does this all mean for the Church? Especially churches in the Valley? If the Church is the light of the world called to influence not only individuals but societies, cultures, governments, businesses, and institutions, how do we go about speaking the language of the culture we find ourselves in like Paul speaking to the Greeks in Athens (see Paul’s brilliant re-framing of the Gospel message to Greek philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17)?

Furthermore, what does reaching out with the Gospel to this kind of culture look like? What does discipleship look like for ultra-creative types at the top of their fields? What does the coming of God’s Kingdom and taking seriously the claims of Jesus in the Bible look like in a place where 2010 is ancient history? The culture within which any church exists should serve to shape the style and presentation of the Gospel – the Gospel story doesn’t change, only the way it’s presented. As with many things, context is everything. We speak of the same Jesus in Europe, Africa, and Asia, only with different, nuanced language in response to different cultural questions.

I’ve got a few thoughts but wrestling with the questions is equally as important as answers and this post is getting a bit long already. What are the defining characteristics of the culture in your area and how does that shape your ministry?

More to follow soon…

Here’s a great video from our friends at the Fuller Youth Institute describing the split between generations that characterizes many (most?) churches in America. I love the controlling metaphor of sitting at the dinner table – reminds me of Jesus’ description of the Kingdom feast in Matthew 22. For more compelling statements on integrating generations within the church and the role that youth ministries can play, visit Sticky Faith.

Here’s a repost from last year that I came across and still get excited about:

I saw “The Social Network” on opening night but with all the Oscar buzz recently around this amazing film I figured this was a worth repost. I was skeptical going in, having not read the basis for the film (“The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich) and wary of anything looking to capitalize on such a trendy topic.  But then I noticed it received an astronomical 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ll leave others to critique the accuracy of the story, screenwriting, performances, etc but I do believe that people will be talking about it for a long time for many reasons…at least around here in Silicon Valley.

I’ve had a difficult time for many years watching or listening to something without looking for ministry or leadership applications. It’s just something that’s on my brain a lot, I suppose that any work of art can be somewhat of a Rorschach. The rest of this post will make a great deal more sense if you’ve seen the movie, not enough space here to give the full run-down. So with that in mind here are a few interesting nuggets related to youth ministry that I noticed in the film:

1. Entrepreneurial Energy – There’s a level of energy and enthusiasm inherent in discovery, risk-taking, and the forming of great ideas that you can’t help but get excited about. This in itself was obvious and inspirational in the movie. We saw a group of students portrayed as unsatisfied with existing structures and yearning for more purpose, connection, and significance.   This kind of energy and enthusiasm is vital to our work with students and our teams. If you or your team is struggling with being excited about your current plan, existing structures, or roles, it may be necessary to try something new, shake things up, take a risk.  Even if you fail in the short term, it may point you in the right direction. Neo didn’t make the jump on the first try because no one makes the jump on the first try.  Just like in this movie, often it’s not the first idea that generates a movement but the outcome of many drafts and hard work.Excitement runs downhill, if you and your team are excited about what’s happening, your students will be too.
2. Priority on Intention – All dubious ethics and betrayal portrayed in the movie aside, it was interesting throughout that the primary motivation for the lead character was not necessarily money but the integrity of the invention.  While the more business-minded folks encouraged monetizing almost immediately, it was the visionaries who kept the inner circle focused on the design and intention of the product. For youth-workers trying to stay focused on The Call with a ministry plan strategically designed to produce a certain outcome (disciples of Jesus), the application writes itself: namely, distractions and rabbit trails even with good intentions are still distractions and rabbit trails. Being great at a few things often leads to a greater yield than being mediocre at many things. Not always, but often. How can we stay focused on being great at the few things we’re called to do rather than spreading out our time, energy, and resources on too many activities that have a tendency to produce vision-drift in ourselves and our teams?
3. A small group of people with an unstoppable idea can still change the world – Who would have thought that three 19 year olds in a college dorm room would revolutionize the world? Facebook stands at a valuation of 25 BILLION dollars. Its 500 million participants makes it the third largest nation on earth. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history. We’re all aware of the impact of this initially small, simple idea that came from the mind of a kid. A few people with a great idea can make a difference. Reminds me of a small, motley group of people in the Galilean outback that eventually reached Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Student ministry is tough. For many of us, we’re handling what seems like 4 job descriptions on a daily basis. Navigating politics, dealing with conflict, leading different teams, walking with parents, school administrators, teaching, coaching, programming, planning, goal-setting, and on top of it all pursuing the spiritual development of our students…it really goes on, you know the feeling. Sometimes it can feel like we’re running uphill in quicksand and true change happens way too slowly. But we have a trump card, the ultimate unstoppable idea: the Gospel is THE original, greatest, revolutionary idea that can change the world. God broke into our world in the person of Jesus and the world has never been the same. What cool things is God doing among your small group of people as you share His unstoppable idea that can change the world? May we continue to be the tellers of this great, unstoppable story to a generation that desperately needs to hear it.

P.s.: I also saw numerable negative lessons as well in the film – the ends doesn’t justify the means, loyalty DOES matter, people DO matter, narcissism is alive and well…but that’s for someone else to post about.

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Life is often a crazy balancing act. Family, work, school, relationships, hobbies – finding balance somewhere in there is an arduous process.  More often it’s simply a reminder that there’s not enough time to do it all. When I was younger, I used to think that there’d be a time in my future when balance would naturally happen as a result of maturity and life experience. Not so much. The older I got, the more complex and complicated things became. As you’ve probably experienced in your life, along with age comes growth, maturity, and increased responsibility. Add in a spouse, children, a mortgage and, well, there you have it.  You might be able to manage more stuff because you’re all grown up but that doesn’t make life easier.

And so the search for that ever-elusive balance continues. When I’m out of balance, I tire easily. I snap. I lose my temper regularly with the people I love the most. I lose focus on the things that are most important. My priorities are out of whack and I usually start spinning my wheels. You get the idea.

I recently brought this struggle into my time with my spiritual director and as usual he turned it around on me in a very subtle, wise way. Try this one on: he said as far as he can see there’s no reference to “balance” in the scriptures. I had to stop and think about that. No mention. Not in the Gospels, Proverbs, anywhere.

He described that if I’m holding 50 lbs in my right hand and 150 lbs in my left then balance is shifting the excess weight from my left to my right hand. The problem with balance is that either way I adjust the weight, I’m still holding 200 lbs. Balance simply forces me to continue to bear whatever immense weight I’m holding, just in a different way. Balance might give me the illusion of rest as I shift weight from one set of muscles to the next but I’m really just using different muscles. The result is a subtle, growing fatigue as I choose to focus on whatever weight is demanding the most of my energy in the moment.

He went on to describe that while there’s no mention of balance there is a great deal of talk in the Bible about “rhythm.” In a super-short explanation of a massive Biblical theme, he outlined that we see God creating the earth in six days, resting on the seventh. Sabbath. Then, every seven years, the nation of Israel was to observe Shmita or a Sabbatical year where there was to be no planting, plowing, growing, or reaping. Rest for the land, rest for the workers. Then, every seven Sabbatical years (yes, that’s forty-nine years) no work was to be done, land borrowed and sold was returned to its original owners, and slaves were set free. The year of Jubilee. Rhythm. It’s all there in Leviticus.

Now, I’ve heard this Sabbath and Jubilee stuff before but never put in these terms: If rhythm is God’s process for restoring creation, his personal and preferred method for creativity, production, and work in the things that he made and the people that follow him then shouldn’t it exist in my own life? I know I’m supposed to take a Sabbath and I usually do. But beyond observing a day of rest, what is all this talk about rhythm in the Bible supposed to look like day to day, hour to hour?

Back to the metaphor. Rhythm is putting down all 200 lbs for a period of time so that you’re holding nothing. Put it down. Empty your hands. Hold nothing. Engaging your faith in this process means trusting that when it’s time to go back and pick up your 200 lbs that it’ll still be there waiting for you. Here are the personal applications I’m working on. It’s not rocket science:

1. Work hard when it’s time to work. Stop working when it’s time to stop working.
2. Grazing on technology at home takes away from family and real-life relationships.
3. Put everything down – One hour a day, one day a week, one weekend a quarter, one week a year.

I’m finding that rhythm is a discipline. But its rhythm, not balance, that restores the soul.

Turns out, I don’t want balance at all. I want rhythm.

Where in your life do you need to create rhythm rather than pursue balance? What rhythms do you have that restore your soul?

If rhythm is anything like physical exercise, you know what happens when you’re rested and recovered? You come back stronger. After putting everything down, when it comes time to go back and pick it up, you might just find you’ll be able to comfortably lift 300 lbs. Just remember to put it back down again.

Give your family the first 30 minutes of your time as soon as you walk in the door

Your kids may be younger or older than mine but they need us dads and moms to be present with them at the end of a long day – something that gets increasingly more difficult as life becomes increasingly more complex.

The ostentatious title of this post aside, what if this was actually possible? And how would you gauge it? Wherever you fall on the “numbers don’t matter” or “numbers are everything” spectrum, it’s safe to assume that youth workers would generally love for as many students as possible to hear the message of a great, big God who loves them unconditionally and desires to be in relationship with them. And whether you count every student who walks through the door or never count anyone, I think someone once said, “We count people because people count,” and I think there’s a little bit of truth to that. So this idea assumes that there is at least some wisdom in knowing how many students that we actually reach.

Of course, you could define “reach” in a hundred different ways. I’m not necessarily talking about positive responses, “I believe” moments, or conversions (whatever you want to call saying “yes” to Jesus). I’m simply talking about walking a student through the Gospel – either at one sitting, over many sittings, through conversations or examples – however it happens, I think it has to be a verbal discussion about the story and reality of Jesus, including when he walked the earth and the implications now.

Without delving into the “What is the Gospel?” dissertation, I’ll simply define it as the story and reality of how God has, is, and will continue to restore and redeem a lost and broken creation through the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’s obviously more to it than that but for brevity’s sake, let’s simply start there. So let’s agree that communicating this message and helping students to exist in this reality by living out a daily, growing relationship with God is at the heart of student ministry. The Great Commission describes “making disciples” but of course disciples can’t be made without first hearing the Gospel.

Romans 10:13-15 – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?

I’ve written HERE and HERE about how it’s vital in student ministry to engage others in your community who are doing the same thing. This will test your belief on that subject.

So here’s the idea: suppose your school district population numbers 10,000 high school students. There’s your mission field. Here’s how to tell 5,000 students about Jesus in one school year:

1. Find 20 other youth ministries/churches/parachurch organizations willing to commit to the vision.
2. Each ministry commits to recruiting and training 25 volunteers (total leader count=500).
3. Each volunteer commits to sharing the story of Jesus with 10 students who are unfamiliar with the Gospel throughout the year .
4. Avoid “double-dipping” by figuring out a way to track the plan and communicate progress.

What would happen in your community if 5,000 students heard about Jesus in the context of authentic friendship and life-sharing? What if just 10% of those students said “yes” to following Jesus? That’s 500 new followers of Jesus – the world’s been radically changed by much smaller groups of people.

Of course, then the issue becomes making disciples but isn’t that why we’re here?

What do you think? Does all this counting make you uncomfortable? Does the possibility get your blood going? What recruiting and training would this take? What would be some practical steps towards getting other youth workers in your area on board? At this point, it’s just an idea but I really want to try it.

In reference to my previous post “We Are Better Together,” I’d like to follow up with a few ideas on how youth workers can Be Better Together. This post is Part One and will be followed by additions. My hope is that these ideas will also highlight why it’s absolutely necessary to connect with others doing youth ministry in your town.

#1 Think Like a Missionary

Often, when a missionary lands on the ground in a far off land, the first order of business is to find out where God is already at work. While the missionary may enter the field with lots of training and ideas regarding how they can best accomplish the specific work they’ve been called to do, it’s guaranteed that there have already been faithful people of God at work for years in the location the missionary finds themselves. Thinking like a missionary for a youth worker is simple – even if you’re ministering in your hometown, you’re not the first to do so and you most likely won’t be the last. Because no one ministers in a vacuum, God’s plans often call for a community of people to come together to accomplish something for the Kingdom. By not connecting with others in our mission field, could we inadvertently be limiting what God’s trying to do in an area? Maybe. Our starting and on-going points should always be connecting with where God is already at work. We do this through connecting with the people that God is already using.

#2 Be a Cultural Anthropologist

Cultural Anthropology is a particular field of Anthropology that deals with the study of the customs, backgrounds, history, traditions, language, and meanings of a group of people with the aim of more holistically understanding the true nature of the studied group (happens to have been my major in college). This kind of study by Cultural Anthropologists utilizes the methods of ethnography in collecting data. The more we see how those in this field study people and culture, the more obvious the applications to youth ministry. You can read up on the science if you’re interested but the bottom line is that in order to reach high school students with the Gospel, we must understand the specific nature of the youth culture not generally in America but specifically in our town. This is where we can be like cultural anthropologists but this is also where many youth workers take certain knowledge for granted. In a sense, kids are kids wherever you go. They have similar needs, developmental stages, customs, and language. As our worldwide use of certain media increases, adolescents receive the same messages regarding their culture and so kids can appear to be similar both in different places around the country and in certain years. But is it possible to have a certain understanding of American youth culture without really getting to the core of kids in your town in 2010? I think so. The students in your town are different than the kids in my town and the kids in your town are different today than they were 5 years ago (or even last year!). As we come to a deeper understanding of where our students are coming from, the uniqueness of their experiences, backgrounds, and histories, then the better we’re able to contextualize the Gospel to their situation today. Connecting with other youth workers enables us to check our impressions and get a clearer picture of students in our unique area. Knowing your high school or middle school inside and out by comparing notes with others is vital.

#3 Let Your Theology Inform Your Methodology…

…not the other way around. The methods, applications, and programs that we use to reach and disciple students are simply tools but have a tendency to become sacred cows. What’s most effective today might not be most effective in 2 years and what worked 5 years ago may not work as well today. But how many times have we felt slave to a certain program or paradigm because “it’s always been done this way?” We minister within certain church & organizational cultures and cultures like these resist change. Like it or not, our churches and organizations have brands and brand loyalty. “We’ve always done it this way” may be code for “don’t mess with the program because our identity is wrapped up in it.” Additionally, youth ministry is difficult enough and when we stumble on an effective method it may feel it’s impossible to consider changing things up. While the authority of scripture and God’s message to a broken world remain unchanged, the many applications of scriptural truths are able to be contextualized in a given culture. So when culture shifts, applications shift. Or at least they should. For a fascinating commentary on recent cultural shifts and effects on youth ministry, check out Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestreicher or related thoughts in my previous post Youth Ministry Models. Adam’s blog also has great insights on recent generational shifts and applications to ministry. And what works for the megachurch across the country may not work for you. Nothing against the exportation of systems and designs by those reaching thousands – while many are exciting, relevant, and highly effective, your town and your kids have a unique context. Systems and models of ministry developed in another context may not necessarily be “plug and play.”

So what is your theology of the following things: ministry, community, the kingdom of God, evangelism, discipleship, calling, and the church? What is your current understanding regarding: youth culture in each particular high school, resources available to you, leadership/calling in your ministry, and how your ministry fits within the overall landscape of youth work in your town? This is where dialogue with other youth workers is essential. What are other folks in your town doing that’s effective in reaching kids? What can you learn? What can you contribute to the overall effort? What do you need to change in your methods in order to be more effective today while remaining true to core theological beliefs? What do you need to hold tightly to and what can be held a little more loosely?

Building a movement and navigating change are two of the most difficult issues we face in youth ministry and honestly it may just seem like too much work to consider changing methods. But ultimately it’s worth the investment if we can reach and disciple students more effectively.

More to follow. Would love to hear your thoughts.

The following post is by Elton Sherwin (pictured above), a great leader and parent at MPPC who is part of the Mexicali 2012 leadership team:

Should you take your child someplace where the water is not safe, where they could be injured far from an English-speaking doctor and where the police might take bribes?

Yes.

And it might save their life when they are a teenager.

My wife Katharine and I have gone on four church mission trips with our daughters: twice to Mexico and twice to Guatemala. Our first trip was a short hop across the border to Juarez for two days. Twenty-one children, twenty parents and one grandparent built two “houses.”  The homes had three rooms, each 12 feet by 12 feet.  Our younger daughter had just turned seven.

I don’t know which was scarier: watching her climb up on the roof with a hammer or run around playing with barefoot children who lived in cardboard boxes in the desert.

She is now a senior in high school and we just returned from a church mission trip outside of Mexicali.  These two busloads of teens have a changed view of life.  They are less concerned about designer jeans. They are less worried about their problems—which somehow seem smaller.

How can short trips like these save your child’s life? How can trips that immerse our children into a world with less safety and comfort actually protect them? Because it builds compassion and it builds character. Because it inoculates them from consumerism. Because it helps protect them from depression.

Is playing on an unpaved Mexicali road actually safer than the keys to your car on a Saturday night?

Take your child someplace dangerous and find out.

Elton Sherwin is a venture capitalist investing in “clean tech” companies.  His first book, The Silicon Valley Way, describes how to develop a business plan on a napkin and an elevator pitch on the back of a business card.  Translated into Chinese, Korean and Japanese, it is widely used around the world by entrepreneurs and business schools. Elton’s new book, Addicted to Energy, is a venture capitalist’s perspective on how to save our economy and our climate. Written as a letter to a fictional governor, it describes practical steps that governments, businesses, and individuals can take to lower their energy consumption. Mr. Sherwin regularly speaks at conferences and occasionally guest lectures at Stanford University. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and has been granted eight patents from the U.S. Patent Office.

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I got my start in youth ministry in the ’90’s with Young Life.  Parachurch ministries occupy a unique and challenging place in the world of youth work.  As an evangelistic arm of the church, I appreciated the single-minded focus on reaching lost students with the Gospel.  However, if there is something like an end goal, it’s not just winning students to Jesus but connecting new believers with a church community.  The reasons for this are many but one of the most significant is that students are not always students and when they leave our sphere of influence they should understand the importance of being connected to a church body as they move into adulthood. Additionally, students moving into adulthood should be familiar with what to look for in a church when it comes time for them to seek a new home when they’re on their own.

I couldn’t do what I was called to do alone, nor should I even try

The process of connecting new believers with a church is accomplished with varying degrees of success depending on structure, strategy, and vision of any given parachurch ministry in different areas of the country.  Some do it well and some don’t. But what I realized throughout those years was that I couldn’t do what I was called to do alone, nor should I even try.  When it came time to connect a new believer with a church community, I had to have a relationship with a church community (not just my own church) if not an outright friendship with the youth pastor – and so I set about to make connections with every church in the communities that I ministered to during my tenure. Non-denominational, Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, you name it; I felt the burden at the very least to know a name at every church with which I could connect a student. When a new believer finally darkens the door of a church, I think they should be welcomed with open arms, a personal invitation, and an “I’m so glad you’re here.”  I can think of many personal friendships with church youth pastors that started this way: John at St. Aloysius, Todd at Hope, Sean at Stanwich and Trinity, Jacques and Tyler at Rock Harbor, Dave at St. Andrews, the whole crew at Mariners just to think of a few. These folks love students and were just as excited as I when those newly born in the faith came to check out what church is all about.  They offered a new home to new believers. And I got some great friendships out of it too. But it can’t happen without relationships.  So knowing someone, having an ally, at every church became my goal. While this may be bordering on naïve idealism, one has to start somewhere.  I quickly learned which churches in the community had a sincere heart for students and new believers, which paid lip service, and which were too overworked to notice.

If you’re trying to reach a mission field for Jesus Christ then you’re on the same team regardless of where your paycheck comes from or how your organization governs itself

My attempts at connecting with church youth pastors were met with varied levels of acceptance over the years, ranging from missionary kinships to one pastor informing me that parachurch ministries were not biblical and didn’t have a place in the landscape of youth work.  The latter mentioned theological differences between Young Life and his denomination.  Little rant to get this one out of the way: we all have theological differences.  But if we can agree that Jesus is the reason then let’s leave the theological bickering behind and major on the majors. We’re talking about connecting new believers to the Body of Christ. If you’re trying to reach a mission field for Jesus Christ then you’re on the same team regardless of where your paycheck comes from or how your organization governs itself. End of rant.

So here’s what I noticed over time (the aforementioned arbiter notwithstanding), nearly all of the youth pastors I met over the years were at least interested in connecting with another ministry working in the same mission field (I say “nearly all” but honestly I can’t think of a single one off hand that wasn’t at least interested).  We’re obviously not in it for the money (i.e. we love seeing students meet Jesus, grow in their faith, and connect with other believers) so the interest was always there. But not all those interested were able to follow through. And it seemed in most cases that the reason for this was not unwillingness but that sustained partnerships with others working in the same mission field were not overtly part of the paradigm.  By “sustained partnership,” I don’t mean shared programs or even lunches to check-in and hang out but an ongoing dialogue about what’s up at the high schools, in the youth culture, with parents, in the mission field.  By “sustained partnership,” I simply mean being aware, recognition that we wear the same jersey, mutual support, and when necessary coming together to share knowledge or resources that will benefit the students in our collective mission field.  And maybe even praying together.  It was a challenge to make connections, stay in contact, and try to get something on the calendar with many church youth pastors. Because I was most often in the place of seeking allies, often I couldn’t quite understand why my attempts at connecting were not reciprocated. I don’t know if this is a common experience in youth ministries or not, it’s just what I experienced over the course of 10 years with a parachurch ministry.

Fast forward a few years, I went on staff at a church as a youth pastor in 2006.  Pastoring students in a church setting has some of the same challenges as a parachurch setting. In many ways, we all face commonalities in working with students, but it was immediately evident to me that my church setting was very different than my parachurch setting.  I finally got to see the other side of the folks I was approaching about building relationships.  Then it happened.  I found myself on the end of not reciprocating attempts by various youth pastors and parachurch directors to build new sustained partnerships simply because I had my hands full with what I was trying to do with my own job. I wasn’t able to follow through with others in our shared mission field.  Additionally, our church had its own way of doing things and the deeper I got into that the more I noticed the differences between the way we did things and the way others working in the same mission field did their thing.  It wasn’t better or worse, it was just different.  If I’m honest, I think ministry became more about winning students to Jesus for my church, to grow our faith community, than winning students to Jesus for The Church and supporting others around me doing the same.  Compound this with the hours spent focused on the spiritual growth of our volunteers, staff, and students already connected and I began to drift from the paradigm that says we can’t accomplish what we want to accomplish without other ministries.  Every youth pastor, parachurch director, and volunteer leader seeking to reach students for Jesus regardless of denominational affiliation or seminary affiliation in my town is on my team. But I wasn’t acting like it.

What could we do better together that we simply can’t do on our own?

Here’s the stark reality: if you take all the youth ministries in your town and add up all the students that are being reached and connected and then compare that to the overall population of students in your town then it’s obvious that we’re all just barely scratching the surface of reaching even half of our mission field.  Half? Are we all together reaching a third? A quarter? I don’t know what it is in your town but in the 6 regions of the country that I’ve worked in youth ministry that number barely approaches 20% and there were some big youth ministries in those places. How does that sit with you? It kind of bugs me. I feel uneasy knowing that in the last school district in which I ministered, of the 6,647 students enrolled in public high schools, we could only account for roughly 1,500 students city-wide in all our church and parachurch ministries (as best I could tell from personal conversations with all the people I knew leading Christian youth work).  What does it look like in your town?  Is it worth knowing or asking around?  Is it enough to be satisfied with the numbers or composition of your group on Sunday morning or Wednesday night? If all the folks trying to reach kids for Christ were on my team then I figured I needed to start acting like it.

If you work in youth ministry, I believe the question we should be asking is, “What could we do better together that we simply can’t do on our own?” Youth ministries deal in the commodity of relationships in a particular community and we’re in the business of reaching new students for Christ, connecting them with The Body, and facilitating an environment conducive to spiritual growth.  But all too often, we can have a propensity to drift into silo-building instead of bridge-building – not intentionally, mind you, but if we’re not intentionally building bridges with others then silos are the inevitable consequence by default.  We can no longer afford to pay lip service to building coalitions, sustained partnerships, and friendships with other youth workers in our town. Our mission field is simply too huge and diverse to plod along, head down, and assume we don’t desperately need each other in our collective pursuit of students with the Gospel.

As my friend Mike DeVito always says, “We are better together.”

The following post is a report from Janet Perez (pictured above), a fantastic leader and parent at MPPC who served on the Mexicali Missions Trip team last week:

Well, we are back!  We had a fabulous time! Thanks for all your prayers. We saw God at work in the joy of serving, and the hard work of serving! The students focused on loving the Mexican kids in the villages, learning to be selfless in giving of themselves, and giving hope for the situations the Mexicans found themselves in.

The students rode to the border on buses, and I, with several adults, flew to San Diego. From there we drove rented 15-passenger vehicles down to the border, picked up the kids and the luggage and drove to our hotel about an hour or so south of the border. We had the run of the hotel, a two-story C-shaped building with a huge middle courtyard. We parked, cooked, ate, fellowshipped and worshipped in that courtyard.  The group of 113 was divided into 5 groups, each of which was assigned to a different church in 5 villages within an hour’s drive from the hotel. We had construction crews, kid’s program crews, women’s ministry crews and translators in each village.

Each day we would have breakfast together then take off for the villages in the vans. We would work all day, then return to have dinner, worship and a speaker in the evening. We were challenged to practice reliance on Jesus, not on our own strength and love.

On Wednesday all of the village church families were invited to the largest church in our group for a BBQ and fun evening. It was a delight to have us all in one place!

In their villages, Steven helped hang sheet rock and play with the niños and niñas, David helped demolish a building and also play with the children. I hung out with the women and the children in my village, and participated in teaching Bible studies with the women of the church. We all were encouraged by each other! I am very grateful for the translators we brought along. They were great–and I needed a lot of help!

One of the prayer requests below was for the Tuesday pastors’ lunch. Oh, it was a precious time. The pastors felt safe to share stories of the difficulties in their ministries. They found common ground, and the truth of God’s grace in the midst of it all.

No real mishaps happened, and there was a minimum of illness in the camp! Our travels went well, and we felt carried along by God’s kind love and life–and humor!

If you would like to see pictures, Elton Sherwin and Michael Dittmar have many posted on their Facebook photo album (if you know them), or you can look at Matt  blog: mattinmenlo.com.

Thanks again for your kind support and timely prayers!

Janet, Steven and David

Janet sits on the MPPC High School and Middle School Ministry’s parent Vision and Support Team which provides key guidance, wisdom, and direction for student ministries. Steven and David Perez are a senior and sophomore respectively at Menlo-Atherton High.