Youthworkers.net

Walking With Youth Through A Death

Len Evans — 2012-02-22 07:00:00.0 PST

Death is never fun to experience but we have to prepare to walk with our students through it in order to serve them well and honor God through it, also.

I don't enjoy it but I've become very good at dealing with death and helping people sort through the pain, anguish and emotional rollercoaster that it can have on a family. I deal with death almost every week, as a part time hospice chaplain. I’m still a one year newbie as a chaplain but I've been in youth ministry for over twenty years. This unique experience mix allows me to share a few things that you can apply and adapt in your ministry.

It's an honor to walk alongside families through the valley of the shadow of death.

It's extremely difficult and everyone is not cut out to be a hospice chaplain but as a minister in your setting, it's part of the pastoral ministry you're responsible for in your youth ministry. You walk alongside them through the gift of presence and often you don't need to say a whole lot. That'll be difficult for many of you but limit your words, because you can't fix the pain but you can carry some their burden for them by being with them and letting them know you care.

Death is around the corner for everyone, we just don't know how long till we reach our corner.
I've told a few of my patients that they have received a gift. In order to receive hospice care, some doctor diagnosed them as having six months or less to live. When you know your time is short, you make an intentional effort to make things right with God and with friends and family. We don't know when our time will be over on Earth so it's a good reminder that it could be any of us at any given moment.

We need to encourage our students to make the most of every opportunity because our life is a vapor.

Your job is to gently whisper to them the truth they already know or will acknowledge as true, once shared with them.

When we are in a crisis, of any sort but especially the death of a loved one, our hearts and our heads often disconnect and we go through a grief that is so deep, it's fair to say it's the closest we'll get to being emotional zombies because we are so numb.

It's during these times that they need someone to whisper God's truths to them as a reminder.  Even medical & mental health professionals need someone to do this for them because it's one thing to know the book answers but it's another level of pain when it's a member of your family that is dying or has passed.

God is good and faithful even when we don't understand it and he promises to be with us through the pain of life and he provides the Holy Spirit as our Comforter. I've seen it where our whisper can become the whisper of God's assurance to the family during their darkest days.

The only golden rule when it comes to grief is that people grieve differently and they need the space and permission to grieve accordingly.

I share that with every family I serve because I've seen too many families play the blame game on each other and no good comes out of that. They need to be warned of the dangers and given the freedom to grieve as they see fit.

Get to know and be able to accurately paraphrase Kübler-Ross' 5 Stages of Grief.

Because they are students, this may be the first time they are dealing with the death of someone they know or someone in their family. Consider Kübler-Ross' 5 Stages of Grief a course in Grieving 101.

The stages are DABDA -- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression & Acceptance. Truly, look it up and the only key thing to know and share with them is that grief is a continual looping cycle of these 5 things. Whether it's a teen romance breaking up, a puppy running away, a suicide in the school of someone they didn’t know or their own grandmother that passed away, the 5 Stages of Greif will be experienced by your students.

Pray for them and pray with them.

Public prayer during these sort of crisis often provides comfort for the family and can give them a step towards closure. I typically tell my patients or family members that I will pray for them as I drive to my next appointment.

It's encouraging for people to know they are truly being prayed for, so let them know.

Going Forward When Life Stops

Paul Fleischmann — 2012-02-20 07:00:00.0 PST

I went to Rolly Richert's memorial services in Detroit on February 15th. He was only 63, was recovering from his cancers and showed up in Atlanta three months ago to help produce the Youth Specialties Convention. Last month he almost went with his grandkids to Disney World. As we stood at his graveside, several of us agreed that it seemed surreal -- too young for his vibrant ministry to be finished, in our humble opinions. It was stunning to realize we'd never see Rolly again this side of heaven -- a gripping reminder of the treasure he was and how little control we have over our future.

How are we supposed to respond when a fellow-soldier in youth ministry is taken from us? Just shake it off, be glad it wasn't us and keep going? It's hard to know what to do with our grief, anger and sadness when someone dies that we love. But it's good to take time to process a little. Eccl. 7:2 says, "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart."

At the end of Rolly's memorial service, our friend Byron Emmert closed with a daily devotional by Henri Nouwen, released on the day Rolly died. Ironically, it was entitled, "Dying Well." Here's an excerpt:

"We will all die one day. That is one of the few things we can be sure of. But will we die well? That is less certain. Dying well means dying for others, making our lives fruitful for those we leave behind. The big question, therefore, is not 'What can I still do in the years I have left to live?' but 'how can I prepare myself for my death so that my life can continue to bear fruit in the generations that will follow me?'"

Food for thought, no matter how old we are. It's a challenge that will take a lifetime of preparation -- and since none of us know how long that will be, it would be wise for all of us to take this into account as we live each day.

"LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered -- how fleeting my life is." (Psalm 39:4 NLT)

Eleven Good Meetings

Mike De Vito — 2012-02-17 07:00:00.0 PST

"Build it, and they will come."

That may be a great movie tagline, but it doesn't necessarily work for building a healthy ministry network in your community.

If we want our networks to grow, it’s not enough to just open your doors once a month, invite a bunch of youth workers, set up chairs around a table, and expect that will result in more ministry to youth. We have got to give youth workers a good reason to leave their offices to share their lives and ministries, and to be part of a community-wide vision.

These 11 meetings are built on Prayer, Relationships, creative Resourcing and strategic Planning.

I'm confident that we can strategically plan meetings that will be of interest and will have a greater impact on youth workers and ultimately students.

I believe these meetings need to provide a safe place for youth workers to come and develop friendships where trust is being built.

What do these meetings look like?

These meetings must start and end on time.
Location, location, location! The location is crucial. Meeting in restaurants for the most part is too distracting, and moving from church to church has also presented challenges when people get lost. If you can find one location and stay there for six months, that seems to work best. What about the atmosphere?
- Atmosphere is important.
- Leaders need to be ready when youth workers arrive!
Do signs give direction to the location of the meeting and to also welcome them inside the meeting room?
Is the room arranged to optimize communication? For example, round tables facilitate better discussion and prayer.
Is there a table to display and share resources that the coordinator or others bring?
It's possible to provide a "free meal" for every meeting, getting someone to donate the meals, or having different churches provide funds. Youth workers can then come straight to the meeting and know that a meal is being provided.
Don't forget name tags. (Permanent ones that can be handed out and collected are the best.)

The Content:

Give minimal time for those who have come to make announcements about events that they are sponsoring. This has become the focus and sore spot for plenty of networks. Provide a resource table if possible.
Ask the group what kind of subjects they would find most helpful to be a resource to them, and whom they suggest for speakers. Only five to six speakers are needed if we provide other creative program ideas.
Creative ideas:
- Panel discussion with youth workers’ spouses
- Student panels
- Senior pastor panels
- Times of prayer and sharing only
It's time to have some fun!
Local amusement facilities love to host youth workers. They want to show off their facilities, and frequently will provide a meal.

For topical discussions, we have found the Network Covenant can give a Network some real focus. These six guiding values can provide great meeting ideas and can be found here.

These have not only sparked great meetings, speakers, etc. but have also led to citywide events. For example, one month our local Bible bookstore hosted our meeting (Field Trip!). It was a perfect fit. They gave out a few freebies, a group discount, and a great tour.

Another effective focus is on campus ministries, thus linking the entire community together for greater impact.

I believe that with "11 Good Meetings:"

Stronger relationships are built.
Youth workers are equipped with resources.
Specific citywide strategic planning takes place.

We must not settle for the ordinary; our students deserve better!

Note: The Network’s coordinator training site will have a worksheet to plan out a year’s meetings, as well as an idea list "Themes and Guest Speakers to Consider."

Rolly Richert - A Hero

Paul Fleischmann — 2012-02-14 08:00:00.0 PST

Rolly Richert was a hero to many of us in youth ministry -- an example of perseverance, creativity, commitment, humility and building others. He advanced the cause of youth ministries on hundreds of fronts and impacted millions of lives, most often from behind the scenes.

Rolly received his reward in the presence of our Savior on February 10, 2012 -- much earlier than we expected. His memorial service is on Wednesday, February 15. Here are some reflections of a few of us at our Network staff meeting.

Adding Dimensions to Prayer in Your Network

Kevin Boer — 2012-02-13 07:00:00.0 PST

In your networking with others does your prayer sometimes seem flat? it is easy to get into a rut in our prayer. Sometimes we think of prayer only as a to do list for God.

However, there are ways bring new dimensions prayer in your network. Last year at the Simply Youth Ministry conference Mark Orr, our New England Regional Coordinator, shared how networks can pray in three dimensions: up, across and out. Take a listen.

We have other resources for you in our Youth Leaders University to help with your network and keep coming back because we are making some changes.

5 Expectations Our Students Deserve

Rob Townshend — 2012-02-11 07:00:00.0 PST

In a world where students are rewarded for mediocrity I firmly believe that it is time for the church to set itself apart by expecting more from our students!  If Jesus could change the world using mostly teenagers (see Matthew 17 for a clue as to why I believe He did hint only Jesus and Peter owed taxes and to owe taxes you had to be over 20) than why do so many youth leaders, parents, pastors, and students themselves expect so little from students? I confess I was once a leader who expected too little from students.

I think there are some basic expectations we need to place on the students in our care!

We Should:

Expect them to be growing in Christ! The Lord calls us to be maturing in Him from the first day we experience the sweet salvation and regeneration offered to us through His atoning death on the Cross. There is no “holding period” or age requirement for growth, rather it is an immediate expectation placed on all believers (Luke 14:27)! We need to expect that our students will grow in the Lord daily by practicing the spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, tithing, worship, and service! It is essential that we provide them with opportunities to be held accountable in these areas and that we offer training to help them succeed.
Expect them to be serving Christ's cause in the Church! Along with this immediate growth requirement comes an immediate call to contribute to the Body life of the Church. We need to expect them to assume their position as ministers alongside and for the Body. (Romans 12:3-8) The longer we treat them like the future with no visible and viable present role the more their spiritual muscles will atrophy.
Expect them to be sharing Christ with the world! Disciples of Christ are to immediately begin the kingdom work of evangelizing the lost while creating new disciples of the King. Our students need to know that their work as evangelists is a present work not a future work (Matthew 28:16-20). Statistics show that the vast number of people who come to Christ do so before they turn 18 and yet we often seem content to hold back these peer evangelists from the work of the Kingdom that He has called them to! Let's release them and watch the Spirit Move!
Expect them to be leading their own ministry! Very few churches have women leading the Men's Ministry or single moms leading the Marriage Ministry and yet many churches appear content to have only adults lead the student ministry. The reasons are varied and I believe almost always stem from pure motives, however we need to seriously re-evaluate this thinking and challenge our students to step in and be the real leaders of their ministry (1 Timothy 4:9-15; 2 Timothy 2:22). Why not simply expect them to follow the exact same rules as the adult ministries? Make them accountable but give them ownership. Shepherd and train them, as we hopefully do with ministry leaders of all ages, but let them set the vision, agenda, and mission as they take all the human responsibility for ministry.
Expect them to expect more of themselves! Finally, let's stop allowing them to expect so little from themselves (Romans 12:1-2) Challenge them to defy the odds, challenge them to set lofty goals as they set high expectations for themselves and their peers. Allow them the freedom to fail while attempting the seemingly impossible plans they dream up for His glory. Encourage them to stop settling for compromise in their academic lives, their home lives, and their spiritual lives. Hold them accountable to His standards of excellence as we watch them grow deeper and more committed to Christ than those around them.

As Carly a 14-year-old student minister in our church recently stated: "There's a lot of expectation, even a sort of pressure, that both adults and our peers put on us. I think, however, that this pressure is necessary. If no one expected anything out of us, then we wouldn't strive to meet those expectations, and we wouldn't grow. We wouldn't have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes that we make. Living up to those expectations is a very rewarding feeling. To know that you are making a difference and really doing something for (and alongside) God feels great." And more importantly Carly and her peers are able to experience and realize that they have a current role in the church not merely a future role and this realization puts them in a position to succeed as they graduate and move out of our sphere of influence!

Expect much and I promise you will not be disappointed! Hand ownership, not just quasi leadership, back to the students and I promise you will see an explosion in your church. Trust your students to own their ministry and you will change His church!

Rob is the Pastor of Student and Family Ministries at Calvary Bible Church (CBC) in Rutland, Vermont and is the shepherd for the middle School through young adults in his church and has over 15 years experience working with "this generation of the Church". Rob's philosophy is to give ownership of the ministry to the students so that they will see their importance as both disciples and disciple-rs in the Kingdom! Rob also enjoys spending time in the great New England Outdoors with his lovely wife Jenny, energetic six year old son Jacob, and their miracle baby June Elizabeth (Born January 2012).

The Newsboys Prove "Better Together"

Rob Townshend — 2012-02-08 07:00:00.0 PST

According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, Vermont is ranked as the 50th least religious state, or stated another way, we are the least churched state in the entire country. This is likely because Vermonters see themselves as ruggedly independent, capable of making it on their own, and skeptical of any need for salvation other than one of their own making.

As the National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM) state coordinator for my home state this fact creates some interesting obstacles and unique challenges. I have wrestled through the problem of how do we find the youth leaders in our churches and get them working together when churches exhibit the same individualistic attitude and are often unwilling to meet with perceived outsiders. There is an overwhelming fear about networking in some, if not many, areas of the state that makes unifying seem impossible at times!

Enter the Newsboys with their God's not Dead Tour along with Evangelist Bob Lenz and we see the tide shifting! I have been honored to work alongside Jason Kaat and Life Promotions as a volunteer representative tasked with the honor of serving as a liaison between Life Promotions and the very able city coordinator Pastor Trey Cates as he prepares for the Newsboys arrival in Barre, VT on March 22.

As Trey and I have started preparing our state's Christian leaders for the potential response to the Gospel that we will see that night we are excited to witness an outbreak of cooperation and unity around the cause of Christ like we have never seen before. As our planning has progressed we are finding church doors opening throughout central Vermont and beyond. We have identified numerous youth leaders and pastors who have never joined or been made aware of the existence of the NNYM! We are hearing from churches all around the state that want to join our prayer support effort and provide counselors for the night of the show. Most importantly we are hearing from churches who want to join a network of like-minded churches to ensure that those who respond to the eternal message of hope and restoration that Bob will boldly proclaim have a church to attend where they can progress as disciples who make disciples. At our upcoming training and orientation meeting we hope to connect many into our evangelistic efforts as well as the National Network to show them that we are indeed "Better Together".

To my fellow Network coordinators I want to encourage you to connect with our friend and peer Jason Kaat to find out how you can partner with Life Promotions as the tour progresses to it's remaining cities! To the Newsboys and Bob Lenz I want to thank you for having a Kingdom vision.  Your willingness to place an emphasis on the person and message of Jesus Christ and to aid in building His church proves to this guy that you have your priorities inline with His call on your lives and I am grateful to you for providing our Network with a giant jump-start!

Broken for Community Impact

Adam Fischer — 2012-02-06 07:00:00.0 PST

I still remember my first day in youth ministry. I was a wide-eyed idealistic 17-year-old kid who was asked by his youth pastor to become a small group leader to a bunch of junior high boys. Wow! I had big plans. These plans included being used by God to revolutionize these kids thinking about Jesus and I was going to mobilize them to do ministry and reach a community for Christ.

Now 13 years later I'm much more cynical then I'd like to admit, I am not as wide-eyed as I once was and I’m thankfully not as presumptuous to think God needs me to revolutionize anyone or anything. The only thing that I still hold true and dear to my heart as I did that winter day is the desire to mobilize (if the Lord will use me) adults and students to reach a community for Christ.

After spending four years as a youth ministries volunteer I found myself inheriting my youth pastor's youth ministry. The four years that followed were made up of a 20 something kid not having a clue how to mobilize students but having a lot of love and passion for students. When I look back I see a lot of mistakes but I also see that God-given desire of mobilization.

The problem I had was I had no clue how to mobilize people to do ministry. When I tried it was always within my own strength, my own fortitude, my own abilities and my own knowledge. I was coming up with way in which Adam could convince some students and parents to catch my vision to reach a community without ever actually reaching a community.

One day while sitting in a restaurant with a close friend and a mentor of mine this person said something that I have never forgotten. As I sat there this wonderful gentlemen said "Adam, I have no doubt that you are called to youth ministry, I have no doubt that you are a good leader, I have no doubt that you will honor God with your life but I have serious doubts about your desire to change in order to become a better leader and fulfill your desire to mobilize people for ministry." I remember sitting there stunned. I was shocked, I was hurt, I was outraged, I was embarrassed, I was caught and I was loved.

Several months later I left full time youth ministry. The person who shared those words with me had not done so trying to kick me out or beat me down but he genuinely cared and wanted to see me grow. I however chickened out and left with my tail between my legs. I was broken. I was hopeless and I felt like an utter failure. I’ve never really shared that with anyone other then my wife but those were my heart-felt feelings.

Don't get me wrong I had awesome students. I had a great ministry team of leaders and I loved most of the parents but in my mind I had failed thus I needed to walk away.

In the three years that followed after walking away from full time youth ministry I became once again a youth ministry volunteer and starting working in the area of sales. I enjoyed selling and networking. I felt like I had finally accomplished something in my life. I was making money and doing okay. When I looked in the mirror I was pleased. This was a huge season in my life because I found out through sales that I could network with people and sell vision. It didn’t matter if I was selling a computer, furniture or airtime for a radio station. I could sell people my vision for the product that I believed in. What I realized was it wasn't necessarily my ability to sell vision but it was my love for the product that empowered me to sell.

I started wondering what if I actually sold a vision of reaching a community for Christ instead of jumping from cause to cause? The thought should have been common sense but for me it was like an epiphany! I was sitting at my desk in early 2010 taking a short mental break from doing sales strategies and I wrote these words:

"Magnify Christ by mobilizing the local church to multiply ministry in order to reach a community for Hope”

I still have that little piece of paper with those words. I realized that’s what I wanted to do. I didn't want to magnify Adam's ability. I still wanted to mobilize believers and I wanted to reach a community but all of sudden it came to me. I need to magnify Christ and I needed to sell a vision to the church, to youth, to parents, to teachers, to community leaders, to businesses and etc. To reach a community, I first needed, to magnify Christ. My love for Christ would empower me to sell the vision. The vision to reach a community for hope is first found in our desire to magnify the creator of the community.

At this same time I was in communication with Youth For Christ (YFC). I was talking to one of the National Field Directors and I realized that I wanted to see YFC come to central Wisconsin. The more I dialogued with YFC and eventually began to build the foundation to start this new chapter I realized that YFC could be a bridge to accomplish this strategy. My heart was to use YFC to facilitate ministry opportunity for the local church to reach a community for Christ. I believed with all my heart that if you reach young people it is possible to reach an entire community. Young people can revolutionize and saturate a community. I also believed that you could mobilize youth to reach other youth. Now the issue was to sell the community on this.

It took nine months to raise a budget and convince communities that YFC could help play a part in this vision. I had to do a lot of apologizing on behalf of Para-Churches being islands to themselves but the more I talked about facilitating ministry opportunity the more churches, businesses, schools and so on starting coming on board.

I had the great pleasure of launching YFC of Central Wisconsin in December of 2010. This last year I have seen first hand communities work together to reach out and bring the hope of Christ in tangible ways. In a lot of these circumstances it has been through using YFC but never limited to us.

To reach a community with the hope of Christ you must first bring together a group of individual people from vast backgrounds. You need to find the businessperson, the teacher, the administrator, the pastor and church along with the students. Once you put them all together you have a missional community or a team that is ready to tangibly bring the hope of Christ to the community. For us here in central Wisconsin I've seen that through working with students in the Juvenile Detention Center along with tutoring and so much more. I've seen students, youth workers, businesspeople, community leaders and etc. lock arms to reach a community and I've personally had the privilege to watch it all play out. YFC has been the facilitator but ultimately the networks of people involved have been the heart and soul of this ministry to reaching a community for hope.

Adam Fischer is the Executive Director at Central Wisconsin Youth For Christ.

YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2012-02-02 10:00:00.0 PST

Welcome to February.

It's time for the newest digital edition of the YouthWorker Journal.

This month has articles from:

Mark Oestreicher
Marv Penner
Syler Thomas
John Huckins

And the Winter 2012 College Spotlight.

Take Time to Ponder

Daryl Nuss — 2012-01-30 10:00:00.0 PST

We are all familiar with the wonderful story of Jesus birth in Luke 2. We are gripped by the trip to Bethlehem and the fact that Jesus is born in a stable. We marvel at the announcement by angels to the lowly shepherds. We appreciate the initiative of the shepherds to come and see the baby and share his arrival with others.

But, embedded in this chapter is a verse that seems a little out of place. In verse 19, we learn that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Notice that she didn’t allow these hectic moments to blast by her but that she took time to reflect and think about what had happened and what it meant in her life.

Please allow me some interpretive freedom, but I find something very helpful to us youth ministry leaders in Mary’s response “to treasure and ponder these things in her heart.” Before we blow right into another year full of hectic activities, let me encourage each of us to set aside some time to quietly think about 2011. Take out your iPad or your yellow pad and write down some of your thoughts.

What are the high points and low points of 2011?
What have you learned about God, yourself, and others? What have I learned about my closest relationships?
Are their practical lessons that I need to learn as I move into 2012?
How do I sense that the Lord is leading me this coming year?
How can I best use these things with my relationships with my fellow youth workers in my community?

Of course, you may have better questions for yourself. Whatever questions or techniques you feel comfortable with, let’s not miss this chance to ponder and learn what God has been doing in our lives this past year. You won’t be sorry you took the time.

May the Lord bless you in 2012.

Daryl Nuss serves as the Executive Director/CEO for the National Network of Youth Ministries. Daryl served in local and national positions with Student Venture/Campus Crusade for Christ, founded the Youth Missions Network, served on the World Evangelical Alliance Youth Commission, and the board of trustees for Sterling College.

Rooted in God's Love

Lynn Ziegenfuss — 2012-01-25 07:00:00.0 PST

This summer while visiting my favorite online devotional spot, www.pray-as-you-go.org, I heard a meditation that continues to stir my thinking.

The St. Thomas Music Group was singing a text by John Lane. The words are, “The meaning of life is the mystery of love. Just as the roots of trees hold firm in the soil, so it is the roots of love that hold the ground of our being together.”

The imagery immediately grabbed me. I meditated on this question: “What happens inside when I am consciously aware that the roots of my life are held together by God’s love; when I live from that foundational center?”

I thought about how I don’t seem to get as overwhelmed, I am more trusting, gracious and patient with others. I’m not defensive and am less inclined to hide my insecurities. I have more capacity to listen and give. For sure, I am more peaceful and joyful. As the Psalmist said, “If He is for us, who can be against us?”

Then why does it commonly and consistently seem so difficult to accept and appropriate God’s love?

My meditation turned to MANY conversations from the last few years. I saw pictures of my life and others’ lives that didn’t reflect the image of lives consciously held together by God’s love. Instead, I was struck by other types of “roots” that unfortunately seem to hold our lives: fears, addictions, anger, a deep lack of trust; to name a few.

These roots are like weeds that confuse and drive our motives and actions. They convince us we need to control, deny, put up a façade, overachieve, perform, be perfect…the list goes on and on. And, they usually hinder our ability to actually see, feel or even believe that God’s love is the true ground that holds our being together.

I’m sure the above meditation grabbed me because believing in and accepting God’s love has been the most common theme I’ve experienced in my spiritual direction practice the last two and a half years. In brief, spiritual direction is walking and praying with others to help them discern where God is moving in their life, what He might be saying to them, or how they can move closer to Him.

As I sit with followers of Jesus, many of them leaders in the church, the idea that God truly loves them, beyond the words on the pages of their Bible, seems to be a reality that is reserved for others. “Could He actually love ME?” is the often unspoken question – accompanied by a deep longing. The concept seems just a little too good to be true, or just out of reach.

I’m finding that our confusion occurs because of what we know in our heads to be true, but can be disconnected from what is experienced as real.

God’s love is reflected and taught from Genesis to Revelation. We know the Father’s love motivated Him to send Jesus. We know how much His love cost Him, but He loved us anyway. We owe Him a debt of gratitude for our forgiveness and eternal life. We know we love, because He first loved us. God is love and the author of love.

Yet, we still struggle to let His love be the powerful source within us that conquers our fears, guides our decisions, centers our relationships and informs our motivations. It is just easier to believe that God loves others, that His grace can reach far, wide and deep to cover over, lift up and forgive others, but not me.

What barriers tend to keep our head knowledge from traveling down to our heart, or become a deeper sense of knowing and living? Sometimes I find I’m trying to have a relationship with a concept and not a person. We have been taught and taught; and so it would seem we’re trying to relate to a belief system or have intimacy with an idea and not with the living Lord Jesus. We strive to know more and do more, and it is wearing us out and it leaves some with the sense they must be doing something wrong, or that God’s love isn’t really meant for them.

Which leads to another barrier: As long as the evil one can convince you and me that God’s love is only for others, then trusting and appropriating the foundational roots of God’s love will elude us.

This is a brilliant strategy of the enemy of our souls…convincing a follower that she isn’t good enough or that God is too busy for him; that His love is just enough out of reach to be experienced on a daily basis.

Recently, I asked a Christian leader, “I know you know God loves you, but have you ever felt loved by Him?” After he sharply looked my way and stopped to think, he said, “I don’t let myself think about that because I honestly wonder, ‘Why would He actually love me?’”

Have you ever asked a haunting question like that? Do you find yourself working hard not to disappoint God, in hopes that you will win His love?

I know, for me, I want the concept and the words on the pages of my Bible to sink in deeply. I want to consciously and confidently let His roots of love hold my being together. I know when His love saturates my life, my character, my motives, my relationships, my service, the more He will transform me from the inside out. I will be less pre-occupied with self, and free to obey and serve Him and hopefully reflect His love to others.

I’m sure that is what we all want as we reach out to young people and love them into God’s kingdom – and into a loving relationship with the King Himself!

Connect The Dots

Brian Aaby — 2012-01-23 09:00:00.0 PST

My three year old son is consistently drawing and coloring pictures for us to display on the fridge. Couple that with his growing ability to count and I believe he is about ready to take on the “connect the dot” exercises. C’mon, you remember those gems, don’t you?

As a much-older than 3 year-old, I still like connecting the dots. As a local Network Leader, I love connecting the dots with ministry leaders in our area. I do believe the Christian world can be better connected so we can see a complete picture of the gospel lived out in our picturesque world! We truly can be better together!

My own personal and ministry dots connected recently when one of my local Youth Leader Networks was invited to have our lunch at Adelphia Bible School. This was a brilliant move by the school and one that has already led to many ministry dots being connected.

My thought is that a silly little lunch will lead to many ministry dots connecting for a long time. Additionally, I bet our network is not the only one that could benefit from this sort of relationship--thus this blog post to get your juices flowing! 

The following is just a sampling of the dots I have already seen connected:

Adelphia students need and want to get out of the Christian College bubble (if you went to a Christian College, you know EXACTLY what I mean). Well at Adelphia, many of the students serve as interns or on the volunteer staff for the Youth Pastors/Ministries represented by our network.
Youth Pastors are consistently asked about colleges and universities, having the Youth Pastors on their side is a wise move by the college.
As I mentioned, this was a bonus ministry-dot connection for me personally, I am a consultant for the college and the school is doing their year-end mission trips through my organization, Youthmark. Well, because of this lunch, it looks likely that one of the local Youth Ministry interns is going to help lead one of these missions so that he can gain valuable experience to help propel his future career as a Youth Pastor.
Adelphia plans to expand the ministry dots by inviting these local Youth Pastors to speak into the lives of their students through future seminars and trainings.

Bring it home:

Is there a Christian College or University in your area that you could work out a relationship like this?
Perhaps you represent a Christian College, what would it look like for you to reach out the local Youth Pastors and provide a great place for a meal (or coffee) and just see where the ministry dots may connect.
Colleges are not the only avenues to explore, think of the ministry-dots you can connect with a camp, a community center or local coffee shop!

I am ready to see a grown-up version of Connect-The-Ministry-Dots create a beautiful picture of the kingdom come!

Brian is the Founder and President of Youthmark. After 16 years of serving as a Youth Pastor in the local church the Aabys stepped out in faith and launched Youthmark. Brian and Elisabeth started their family on July 20, 1996 and have since expanded the family with the addition of their three children. The Aabys make their home near Seattle.

An Issue of Identity

Rob Townshend — 2012-01-16 10:00:00.0 PST

I recently had a conversation with a student - leader about dating and relationships. Nothing earth shattering there of course. We all can recount endless counseling sessions with students about this extremely prevalent topic in our youth groups today.

What makes this conversation interesting has more to do with a realization I had shortly after it was over: this little impromptu talk may indeed have been about dating, but another thing it revealed goes much deeper and can teach us a great deal about the dilemma our students face each and every day.

The interaction went something like this: the student asked “Hey what do you think about Christians dating non-Christians?“ My answer included an Impressive dissertation on the dangers of “being unequally yoked” and continued into a series of mini sermons on topics such as purity, Christian, commitment, and honoring thy parents that would have made my Moody Theology professors proud; all of which the enlightened student of course agreed with.

She then informed me that “insert generic student name” here doesn't understand what the big deal is; after all “I'm only in High School and it's only a short term high school thing….”. This conversation went on for quite some time and as we finished I felt very confident that the student who had come to me for advice was well equipped to give wise and Godly counsel to her friend.

As I was patting myself on the back for a job well done, it hit me like a brick across the face: I had missed the bigger issue! The student who wanted to date the non-Christian is unwittingly faced with a dilemma far bigger than choosing someone to date, though of course this is an issue.

She is viewing herself through the wrong filter -she is suffering from an identity crisis! She sees herself as merely a high school student who is allowed to make bad decisions and accept less than God's best. She doesn't believe in her core that she is the current generation of the church but rather sees herself as merely the future with time to “live it up” until the time comes for her to become an active minister after she grows up.

As youth leaders, it is imperative that we assist all our students to see the danger of this thinking. We need to trumpet John 12:26 to our students so that they see that “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My father will honor the one who serves me.” Our students need to embrace the truth found here and choose the Bible way over the world's way. Not to legalistically earn favor with God, but rather because they realize that their salvation was immediate and that their assignment as a kingdom warrior or servant with a mission is also immediate!

My friends we need to see this issue as one that needs to be addressed and we must begin to change this thinking in our students! If we do, we will see a generation empowered by Him to make a difference now. We need to help them see themselves as full heirs of the Gospel with an assignment to further His kingdom. This begins at that blessed moment of salvation and not at some future date that allows them to choose anything but His best while they are “merely in High School!”

Will you join with me in calling our students to live out their calling and fully experience His blessings as the embrace their true identity as present day participants in the Kingdom of God?

Lean Times

Doug Clark — 2012-01-09 10:00:00.0 PST

So much is in the news about the economy these days. The daily roller-coaster ride that has characterized the stock market. We're wearied day by day with talking heads debating whether the measures of our economic well-being shows we are in recession, coming out of it, headed back in…are you dizzy yet? The media argues about how the government should handle the crisis, and more. And more.

Many people are discouraged, even if they haven't taken a hit personally or lost their jobs outright. And it is impacting us: the Network sent out a plea before Thanksgiving for our members to pray about helping. We've felt the pinch, just like many of you.

No doubt we are in some lean times, and it does not appear to be going away any time soon. Another point of debate in the “drive-by media.”

But in the midst of the doom and gloom, what are the signs of hope? What would God have us to think and do in times like these? Many have commented, including John Piper, who blogged a while back about the value of an economic downturn on global missions. He reminds us that there is a clear “upside” to a downturn.

During an economic downturn we are more dependent on God. That is the most fertile soil for creating missionaries.
During an economic downturn unreached people around the world do not expect you to come, but to look out for yourself. So they may more likely see your risk as love rather than exploitation.
During an economic downturn those who need Christ around the world may be less secure in earthly things and more ready to hear about eternal life.
During an economic downturn people at home may be wakened to the brevity of life and the fragility of material things, and so may become more generous, not less. And when they give under these circumstances, it will make Christ look all the more like the all-satisfying Treasure that he is.

But as believers in a God who has demonstrated His faithfulness throughout Scripture, our history, and in our own experience, we can apply Piper's comments to our own lives and ministries. The TRUTH is this:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

So how can lean times be good times? Here are three simple observations:

Lean times are good, because they lead to self-examination. In our hurried lives, being deprived of things we tend to take for granted slows us down and prompts us to ask “Why?” I don't mean the shake-your-fist-at-God or hand-wringing kind of “why,” but the healthy kind of sober evaluation that is purifying and humbling. This has been true personally; I raise support to do the ministry to which I am called, and have experienced some leanness in 2011. It's also true in our ministries.

In some of our staff prayer times, our NNYM staff team has been encouraged by an intercessor to examine ourselves as leaders and make sure our hearts were right before God. It's a good thing to do a “heart check,” using the plumb line of Scripture and a keen ear to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to discern if “sin in the camp” is part of the problem.

Although many times of laying our souls out for God to examine does lead to conviction and repentance, there is nothing like the freedom of knowing all is right in our relationship with God. Talk about joy and confidence!

Lean times are good, because they are “lean into” times. That simply means we recognize afresh the sufficiency of God (read again the verses from Lamentations), His promise to meet our needs (Matthew 6:33-34), and His adequacy as our bulwark (Psalm 91:1-4). He wants to give us direction, and waits for us to seek Him wholeheartedly (Proverbs 3:5-6; James 1:2-8).

This alone could be the best reminder in this article. In the Network's times of prayers, we've often echoed the prayer of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:12: “We are powerless…nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee.”

Personally, the stress of the economy has brought my wife and me closer, leaning into one another as we've prayed for God's provision and talked more deeply about the “stuff” of our lives. I believe it has had the same effect on our staff team. I want that more, and pray the same for you as well.

Finally, lean times are good because they help us make our ministries “lean and mean.” One question we are asking around the NNYM office right now is where we might need to trim what we are doing, without sacrificing the core mission of who we are, nor abdicating our role in building the kingdom of God. This has led to a more laser-like focus for NNYM that we feel really good about. How do we stimulate the development of healthy networks, and what services and expenses are essential to help us do that? It's not a bad thing to “eliminate and concentrate.”

Ultimately, I'm so grateful that in this or any other crisis, God isn't sitting in heaven, anxiously watching the stock tickertapes to see His bottom line. Now if I can just keep my eyes on Him...

Doug Clark is the National Network of Youth Ministries’ Director of Field Ministries and lives in San Diego. Doug was a youth pastor at an evangelical Friends church for 16 years before joining the NNYM staff team in 1990. Besides helping youth workers cooperate to reach teenagers in their cities, he coordinates promotion for See You at the Pole.

John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Find the whole blog at: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1464_Bad_Times_Are_Good_for_Missions/.

Silence: Creating Space to Pay Attention

Kristi De Vito — 2012-01-04 10:00:00.0 PST

God loves having relationship with me! But I miss God’s attempts to capture my attention. My life is so busy and noisy that I hardly notice God’s constant presence.

Henri Nouwen said, “There was a time when silence was normal and a lot of racket disturbed us. But today noise is the normal fare, and silence, strange as it may seem,silence has become the real disturbance.”

In my own Christian journey the need for silence and solitude has seldom been spoken of or practiced. Much of my training and experience has been about working hard and accomplishing things for God.

Working hard is good. But I didn’t realize that all of this doing is much more rewarding when it flows from my being – that place inside where God loves and lives in me, and I love and live in God…Jesus calls that abiding.

Often I’ve been impressed with the Psalmist’s words: “Be still and know that I am God.”In recent years I’m embracing the practice of “stillness” or silence. In the beginning, and sometimes still, it feels awkward; I wonder if I’m doing “it” correctly. My mind may be everywhere, and it can even feel like a waste of time. But God continues to draw me to silence, and I’m feeling more and more comfortable being still in God’s presence.

So what is silence? I’m learning that it is one of the ways I create space in my life to pay attention to God. God is always paying attention to us; always present to us. It is we who are seldom attentive and present to God. So as I create space for silence, I’m providing myself with the opportunity to listen to God;and listening is necessary for growth and love in any relationship.

Why is silence important? The Bible encourages us to embrace solitude and silence (Psalm 46:10; Isaiah 30:15; Exodus 14:14). Jesus took time for silence (Luke 4:42; Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12).

From early Christian history, men and women of God have observed silence as an integral part of their daily lives. Dallas Willard writes, “Of all the disciplines of abstinence, solitude is generally the most fundamental in the beginning of the spiritual life and must be returned to again and again as that life develops.” Even as I write this, I’m still amazed at how little I have seen this practiced throughout my years of following Jesus.

What role can silence play in your life? Larry Warner says, “God desires to communicate His love, grace, peace and very self to us, but sometimes we move too fast and live with too much noise to receive them. In silence and solitude we slow down, extend our open, empty hands of faith and ready ourselves to receive from God whatever God may have for us.”

I like that; especially the last phrase, “receive from God whatever God may have for us.” That says to me that there is nothing manipulative or magical about silence. God’s presence to us is always a gift. We can only provide the opportunity to pay attention, listen and receive.

In my practice of silence and solitude I have run across some helpful suggestions to encourage me along the journey. I hope you will find these encouraging, too.

Suggestions for those who are new to silence…from Larry Warner

Let the time be a gift to you with no expectations. God is with you even if you do not “feel” like God is with you. Scripture is clear that there is no place where God is not present. So even if you do not “feel” God’s presence, to the extent that you are able, settle into and rest in God and in God’s presence.
Offer yourself to God just as you are in this moment. Actually, that is all you can do. One of the most common mistakes is to think we must somehow be different or have a different history or have in some way cleaned ourselves up a bit before we can come to God. None of this is true. The very best you can do is to offer yourself to God right now just as you are. Now of course, God is not going to leave you as you are. Rather, God is going to help you become the magnificent child of God you were always meant to become. In truth, this is what we most desire.

More suggestions…from Karen Cooper

How do I begin to practice silence and/or being alone?

Start small and build.
Take advantage of available space for silence in your daily routine (i.e. walking/jogging, showering, driving, etc.).

What do I do once I get alone?

Invite God’s presence and end with gratitude.
Practice silence.
Notice, notice, notice.
Have conversations with God.
Write in my journal.
Sleep if I’m tired.
Be emotional.
Have fun.

What do I do when my mind won’t stay focused?

Don’t fight mental distractions – this will make it worse!
Jot things to do later on a piece of paper.
Express or write your anxieties, emotions, fears to God in a journal.
Return to prayer when I have released my distractions.
Dealing with troublesome thoughts in prayer:
- Don’t be discouraged or even shocked at my thoughts. God knew them before me and is not surprised.
- If sin is revealed, confess it, allowing God time to show me its source.
- Return quickly to God, thanking Him for His presence and love and rest in Him.
Declare my helplessness and my desire to be more whole.
Keep practicing silence… it will get easier.

Mother Teresa wrote, “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we care in our active life. We need silence to touch souls.”

O God, I thank you for experiencing You anew in silence. Help us touch more souls with Your active love.

YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2012-01-02 10:00:00.0 PST

To welcome you to 2012, we are offering the new digital issue of YouthWorker Journal themed “Loving God.”

Check out features such as “Higher Love,” the roundtable discussion with Mark Matlock, Lilly Lewin, Neely McQueen and Fred Edie.

There’s also a feature on the big impact of small groups, a group study about how “God Loved Us First, going from "Control to Communion," "Loving God in Your Own Language," a charge to "Worship Like You Mean It" and more.

Wishing you all the best in 2012. Have a safe, prosperous and happy New Year!

God is Faithful!

Daryl Nuss — 2011-12-27 10:00:00.0 PST

I was down to my last two dollars. It was during my third year on the staff of Student Venture/Campus Crusade for Christ and I was the director of the ministry in Riverside, California. It was the mid-1970s (okay, do the math and guess how old I am), and the economic times were much like today.

On a Thursday morning, I was scheduled to attend a monthly pastors’ luncheon. I felt impressed that I should attend, but struggled with the fact that paying for lunch would take the last bit of money I had before my next paycheck. After some prayer, I finally decided to be obedient, go to the lunch, and trust God to provide whatever I needed.

I pulled into the parking lot of the meeting place and headed to the door. Just as I rounded the corner of the building, I ran into Father Dick Bellis, a wonderful Episcopalian pastor, who was coming to the meeting from the opposite direction. We reached the entrance at the same moment. Father Bellis put his arm around my shoulder and exclaimed, “A couple of months ago, I promised to take you to lunch. So, today is your lucky day. Lunch is on me.”

Although this incident happened over 30 years ago, it is as vivid in my mind as if it happened yesterday. God had proved Himself faithful, and I learned a great lesson that day. God is faithful and I can trust Him.

When we ponder what God is like, we immediately think of God’s love, God’s mercy and justice, or God’s sovereign nature and power. Yet, at the core of God’s character is His faithfulness. In fact, I’m realizing that the prominent character qualities of God are greatly diminished without His wonderfully reliable “faithfulness.”

Although God’s faithfulness is clearly stated in other passages of Scripture, the author of Hebrews links God’s faithfulness to a steadfast hope which can carry us through the dark days that come. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

As I reflect on the valleys in my life since that incident in Riverside, it is God’s faithfulness that has brought me hope and sustained me during the challenging times. In his book of Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah portrays the emotions of those who experienced the devastating decline of Jerusalem. Right in the midst of ruin, renewed hope springs up within his heart as Jeremiah looks away from his affliction and contemplates the faithfulness of God which leads to hope.

“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.’” Lamentations (3:19-24 NIV)

In 1923, Thomas Chisholm penned one of the greatest hymns regarding the faithfulness of God from this profound text. In stanza one he writes of God’s unchanging character and unfailing compassions. The hymn continues by considering God’s faithfulness in maintaining order in the universe and concludes by reflecting on God’s faithfulness in forgiving our sins, providing strength for today and hope for tomorrow. Each stanza leads to the great culminating chorus that declares “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

As the uncertain future of  2012 unfolds, I pray that we might lean into God’s steadfast faithfulness so that we can confidently proclaim this to be our personal testimony, “Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.” May the words of this hymn be a source of hope and encouragement to each of us today.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

One Step Further...

Kevin Boer — 2011-12-23 10:00:00.0 PST

I love encouraging students in rock climbing. There are many spiritual breakthroughs that people accomplish on the side of the rock. They are stretching their mind and bodies beyond their perceived limitations. I have been privileged to be a teacher's assistant for climbing classes through Biola University for the last five years.

We take groups of students out to Joshua Tree National Monument where everything is a climbing wall. However, the bigger obstacle is not the rock. It is fear. Many students hit their mental limitations way before their physical ability. One phrase I use to help is "Go one step further than you can think." It is reaching for that next ledge or trying one more time after you think you are done.

The same principles hold true for students in our youth ministry. Life pushes them further than the limits of their faith. So how do we encourage students in our ministry to go one step further?

Encourage Them Every Step

Students have so many negative images in their lives both externally and internally. We need to create safe relationships for them where they feel loved and accepted. This helps students experience security, belonging and significance in their relationship with Jesus. With our climbing classes we encourage students every inch of the climb. My greatest sense of accomplishment is when someone who never climbs before reaches the top for the first time. Experiencing the joy, the exultation and glory with them is the best feeling.

Hold the Rope for Them

When we are doing our climbs everyone has a belayer. This person holds the rope for the climber and protects them when they fall. In youth ministry, we need hold the rope for teenagers. Be their greatest supporter. Give them everything they need to succeed. We become the coach and students become the stars. In this way youth ministry moves from entertaining teenagers to equipping them for a life of evangelism.

Allow them to Fail

Freedom to fail is vital in equipping students. The image students sometimes have of Christianity is a list of rules and laws that they must not break. We need to overcome this legalistic perspective and help youth embrace the relationship Jesus desires to have with them. By allowing them to fail we give students grace wrapped up in a relationship of love. I love Thomas Edison's perspective on failure. When his laboratory went up in flames with his life's work he talked about how all his mistakes were burned up and he was ready to start fresh.

Go One Step Further

In helping students reach their potential we need to do the same. It is valuable for youth leaders to have a team who encourage us as we equip students. That is why I am such a huge fan of local youth worker networks. The youth leaders in those networks hold the rope for one another. If you are a youth worker and not in a network I would encourage you to vist National Network of Youth Ministries and join a network.

Step Into the Pain

Doug Clark — 2011-12-21 10:00:00.0 PST

I was speechless.

In an airport on a trip recently, I listened to a halting voicemail message from a close friend, telling me of another friend's unexpected death. Scott had died very suddenly while working a second job. He was 44 and seemed in the peak of health. He was an athlete and a radiant believer who lived his faith as a basketball coach (his first job) and deeply loved his wife and family.

My heart ached as I considered the plight of his widow, who has been a close friend since 1973 and a part of myhome church's ministry on many levels. Traci was left with three daughters. The loss is devastating.

My mind whirled as I sought a quiet place from which to call my friend. I pondered the fact that she is a counselor who can easily recite all the stages of grief. She has comforted many who have faced loss themselves. But this time the agony was hers, not someone else's. When she picked up the phone, I heard the pain and emotion in her voice and realized I had no idea what to say to her.

I mumbled and fumbled around awkwardly, letting her know how much my wife and I loved her. There was not much else that could be said at the moment. I longed to put my arms around her and share her pain, but couldn't do that from 1,000 miles away. I promised to see her when I got home and hung up.

How does someone handle that kind of loss? How do you survive when the bottom drops out?

At the risk of being simplistic, I believe one key that I've seen modeled by people who have weathered deep pain, and emerged better for it, is that they lean into the pain.

I've watched how two other close friends, Rex and Connie, have processed and grown through the loss of their young adult son – their only child – to suicide five years ago. Here's what I've observed in them and others:

They stepped into their pain honestly. Sitting with Rex (we're in a small group together each week with a couple of other men), he never sugar-coated his situation, questions, or feelings. He demonstrated to our group that He has enough faith in God to tell Him straight-up what he thought of allowing his son to die. That kind of honesty can be brutal. It's messy. Rex knew he had permission to say pretty much anything with us, and still be safe. Wounds don't heal if you just cover them up.

In the Old Testament, David lived in this kind of transparency with God. Phrases like “how long, O Lord?” echo throughout his Psalms. His words were painfully honest. And yet, God called him “a man after My heart.” He wrote in Psalm 22: 1-2:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent (NIV).

It's important to remember that although these words were prophetically pointing to what Jesus said on the cross, they were first poured out of the heart of David as coming from his own experience. David leaned into his pain honestly.

They stepped into their pain in community. Rex and Connie are part of prayer groups, support groups for survivors of suicide loss, and other small groups. With believers and unbelievers who share this common thread of suicide loss or care for loved ones with mental illness, there is a safe place to practice being honest with others who understand. Sometimes friends want to love you, but simply don't “get it.” There is a unique fellowship among others who have experienced the same wounds. People heal more quickly when they are intentional about “bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

They stepped into their pain redemptively. As they have deepened in their growing understanding of the power of God's Spirit to heal their hearts, Rex and Connie have sensitively shared that reality with others who have faced a similar loss. They are salt and a hopeful light in relationship with people who know only the salt of tears and little hope. I've thought many times how they are living examples of 1 Corinthians 1:3-7, “comforting others with the comfort with which they have been comforted.”

You probably have sung the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul” many times. The words were penned by Horatio Spafford in the midst of gut-wrenching pain and loss. Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer and friend of D.L. Moody. The Chicago fire of 1871 almost ruined him financially. His only son had died right before that. In 1873, he planned a vacation to Europe with his wife and four daughters.

At the last minute, Spafford had to stay back in Chicago, but put his family on a ship, intending to follow as soon as he could. The ship went down in the Atlantic in 12 minutes after a collision with an English ship, and only Anna, his wife, survived. She sent a telegram of two words: “Saved alone.” But in a time before cell phones and the Internet, he had to wait nine days in anguish for that message.

Horatio Spafford boarded the first ship he could get on to reunite with his grief-stricken wife. The story goes that he asked the captain of the ship to tell him when their craft was passing near the site of the collision, and it was there that he wrote:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Spafford could have buried his sorrow in a bottle of whiskey in his bunk. Most of us would have understood if he had. But he chose to step into his pain instead. Spafford poured out his heart at the cross, and found that the cross was enough…that God's well was deep. How many multitudes have been ministered to by that decision?

Another heroine of the faith was Corrie Ten Boom, who survived the horror of several Nazi concentration camps. She lost her sister Betsy…her father Casper…and other family members. But she stepped into the pain, and her words ring true with us today: “There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.”

Rex and Connie…David…Horatio and Anna Spafford…Corrie Ten Boom…they show us that when we lean into our pain, God is strong enough to hold our weight.

I'm praying my friend Traci will be sustained by the same truth. I'm praying you and I will, too.

The Adventure of Faith

Diane Brask — 2011-12-19 07:00:00.0 PST

When was the last time God asked you to do something that seemed totally absurd, even outrageous to you?

Does an example pop into your mind? Then perhaps you will be able to understand how Abram must have felt when God said, “Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” With no more clarity than that, Abram packed it up and left the familiar behind in response to what he was sure was God’s voice.

What a life-changing adventure Abram embarked on! First, God chose him. Then God called him. Abram said “yes” to God, even though he did not have all the answers, and launched out on this historical pilgrimage. He blazed a trail for all of us, a model of what it looks like to be a person that walks with God by faith.

Like any good trailblazer, Abram left us some signposts that make it easier for us to follow this wild and crazy path of faith.

Abram knew God had called him. He was certain of that. He could mark the time, the place, and the day that he heard God speak to him. How about you? Are you sure of our call as a youth worker? Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God called you into a ministry to youth? I know I would have thrown in the towel and walked away from youth ministry a hundred times if I could not go back to the time and place where I knew God spoke to me and said, “Diane, I have something else for you to do. I want you be a youth worker and start in your own hometown.” It was at Urbana ’79 – and I can still see in my mind where I was sitting at the stroke of midnight when God called me into youth ministry.
Abram found out early on that following God wasn’t easy. Oh sure; there were good days, even some extraordinary ones. But a lot of days were routine and mundane. There were definitely long stretches of chaos and confusion. He must have had a lack of clarity as he struggled to understand what God was asking of him. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We can all relate. It doesn’t take us too long in our own journey of faith as youth workers before we inevitably ask God, “Why does this have to be so hard?” I know I have asked that same question scores of times. I still remember the time early on in youth ministry when I complained to Dawson McAllister about all the ways I was suffering as a youth worker. His answer was painfully blunt. “Are you in this job for strokes? If so, suck it up! You need to keep doing this simply because God called you and God loves these kids.”
As Abram continued to faithfully follow God, it became clear to him that God was using the day to day experiences, challenges and circumstances of life to change him. Life was a series of tests and choices, each uniquely designed by God to change Abram’s character. Abram continued to follow God and allowed God to change him. Over time, he changed so much that God even changed his name to Abraham. How about us? Are we allowing God to change us and change our character as we follow Him? Can the kids in our youth group see that God is changing our lives?
During this amazing journey of faith, God sealed His relationship with Abraham with a Covenant; and made a special, unforgettable, unchangeable promise to him. How about you? Do you recall those special moments in your ministry when God’s promises became clear to you? Do you remember some moments in your ministry when God spoke clearly to you and said, “Because you have faithfully followed me, this is what I am going to do for you.” And then you watched in humble amazement as He did just what he had said.

Abraham continued to follow God faithfully day after day. Miraculously, mysteriously, surprisingly, he began to realize that he was actually getting to know God – really know Him. God told Abraham, “Don’t be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield and your very great reward.” (Genesis 15:1)

God was becoming his friend; his best friend! At that point I don’t think Abraham would have traded his relationship with God for anything in the world. Because he came to realize that he was born for this. He was made for an adventure to be lived. Made for intimacy with God. Made to make a difference in the world. He came to realize that God’s still small voice and his simple life of faith and obedience in Him were the keys to open the door into a whole new way of living and a whole new world

There is so much more we could glean from Abraham’s life. But one thing we know for sure from looking carefully at his life: faith doesn’t have all the answers on the front end. It is not supposed to; if it did, it wouldn’t be faith!

God never rolls out the whole blueprint when he calls us into youth ministry. He merely invites us on a journey, a pilgrimage, an adventure with Him. The details get worked out along the way. That is exactly what makes faith so radical, so fun, so scary, so demanding, so exhilarating, so wild and crazy, and so frustrating all at the same time.

How about us? Are we truly living by faith as youth workers? Are there things happening in our lives and ministry that have no human explanation except authentic faith in God and His supernatural working in and through our lives? Are we calling our young people into an adventure of faith with God?

I believe that a generation of young people is yearning for modern-day examples of youth workers who will walk an authentic life of faith before them. Young people are dying be a part of the unfolding stories of God’s work. They want to see the Bible come alive.

There have been enough slick programs, enough well-packaged materials, enough gimmicks, enough concerts, enough conferences, and enough weekly meetings. The need of the hour is for youth workers and young people alike to hear from God and then step out boldly together to trust Him and obey Him in an unfolding adventure of faith.

Countless stories are still waiting to be told by this generation. Abraham’s story of faith will not go down alone.

You Packed My Parachute

Keith Krueger — 2011-12-16 07:00:00.0 PST

Do you have days when you question the call of God on your life to do youth ministry? Perhaps you are wondering about your purpose and the worth of what you are doing.

Take heart! We have all had days like that, and it would be tragic if you listened to the lies of the heart often prompted by Satan. As a “lifer” in youth ministry, I have seen God’s faithfulness and promise to those of us doing a mission that no one else can do!

When the Apostle Paul struggled with such thoughts, he would clarify what he was doing. He saw himself and all of us in ministry as “shining stars holding out the word of life in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation,” and that he could boast that he “did not run or labor in vain!” (Philippians 2:15-17).

Paul also wrote: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

As a veteran of 42 years in youth ministry, I want to cheer you on to not lose heart. You need to stay long enough to see the fruit.

So what’s that have to do with packing a parachute? The other day, 23-year-old Natalie, who had been one of the students in my ministry, insisted that we go out for coffee (she didn’t like Mountain Dew, my favorite drink). She was about to spend the next two years teaching English to students in a Christian high school in Venezuela. For her, it was a meeting she had wanted to have for a long time.

I listened with my whole heart. She welled up with tears as she spoke (and that’s not like her…she’s strong and not usually prone to tears). This caused tears to roll down my face as she said, “Pastor Keith, whenever I write my resume or give my story, you are in it. You packed my parachute.”

She had been at a Young Life staff retreat (where she had served as a leader for the past four years), and the speaker asked them whose parachute they had packed? As she pondered that question for herself, she looked back on who had helped her get ready to leap into ministry.

Jesus spoke to me through this young woman, whom I watched grow. I had hoped that I had helped, and now it was confirmed that my labor was not in vain. It turns out that while in junior high, she was with a group of us in Appalachia as we served the children there. God used a message I gave there to help her decide to make Jesus the Lord of her life!

She took part in all that we had to offer in training and equipping students through the rest of junior high, but had moved with her family to Germany during her high school years. I was worried for her spiritual health during those days. Yet, here she was sitting in front of me, heading out to do youth ministry for Jesus.

The image of a parachute is profound to me since our youngest son was a skydiver for the Air Force Academy. The first year of his experience there was someone else who was a professional who would pack his chute to keep him from “falling away” or being killed. Sounds like your job and mine, doesn’t it?

Natalie wanted me to know that now she was ready to help pack other young peoples’ parachutes as she introduces them to Christ.

Honestly, God has given me many stories like that to remind me that what you and I do is critical to the kingdom. Take some time to look at the fruit of your ministry with students. Thank Jesus and then realize the profound truth of what you are doing for the cause of Christ.

If you have time, I'd love to hear the stories of the students whose parachutes you packed!

Why Equipping Is So Important

Kevin Boer — 2011-12-07 07:00:00.0 PST

On Mt. Everest, 28,000 feet above sea level, humans are not designed to live. The brain is oxygen starved and the body is only a second from being freeze dried. In these conditions it matters not your good intentions or happy thoughts. It only matters how you have been trained and what you have brought with you. Thankfully youth ministry is not that brutal; but some days it sure feels like it!

In order to survive and thrive in discipling students to be disciple makers, we need to be properly equipped for cross cultural, sub-cultural ministry. So why is it so important to be equipped for youth ministry? There are three factors.

1. Youth need equipped leaders.

Today we live in a global culture that in many ways is driven by the teenager culture. However, throughout history youth have been seen as a world unto themselves. For instance there is a quote that may or may not be Socrates that goes like this,

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

In other words, they need guidance and direction from those who understand their culture to mature in who they are in Christ.

In order for us to connect and build a faith sharing community of students we need to understand thier world and how to disciple them. For instance, in looking to recruit a volunteer youth worker look for someone who can "speak youth", one who can connect with teenagers in their world and love them unconditionally. Or better yet, develop a training program for prospective recruits to learn how to love teenagers and speak their language.

2. Leaders need mentors to train them.

To create a leader you need a leader to effectively train them. There are those that may have innate leader-like qualities, but true leaders are made not born. There is the need for attitude, skills, knowledge and relationships to be developed in the leader through the intentional encouragement of others. Each of us have strengths like our spiritual gifts or natural abilities. However, an effective leader is well balanced in their character, competence and connection. This is done through a process of life on life modeling.

3. Jesus models leadership training

Throughout His ministry Jesus actively searched out individuals to equip so that they could equip others. He spent a night in prayer and then chose his first disiples. he taught them and then sent them out in his name to share with others. He even commands His disciples at the end of His time on earth to "make disciples."

In creating a thriving ministry to students our primary focus needs to be equipping saints for the works of service (Eph 4:12). By following Jesus' example, we are developing mature multiplying disciples. As we focus our ministry on this process not only will the students grow but our leaders will as well.

Ministering to The Whole Teenager

Kevin Boer — 2011-12-05 10:00:00.0 PST

We are multidimensional beings. Now I am not going to launch into a Star Trek episode to boldly go where no one has gone before. What I mean is we are created with different facets of our being. Even Jesus refers to this when He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." In leadership literature the same concept is shared by Stephen Covey in his "7 Habits for Highly Effective People." He speaks of the "4 Dimensions of Renewal" being Physical, Spiritual, Mental and Social.

As we look to deepen teenagers relationship with Christ and maturity in life, we need to interact with all four attributes. Youth are growing in wisdom and stature just like Jesus did. So lets take a deeper look.

Mental

We are obviously dealing with the brain on this one. It is developing the intellectual capacities of students in thought and action. Our time with students need to help students to think and build their ability to learn. We need to help students struggle with the reason to believe and not just give them pat answers.

The vehicle for encouraging the mental development is discipleship. Discipleship is characterized by life to life ministry interacting with the truth of our faith. It is applying truth into the lives of students and our own lives. The real question becomes, "How do I live my new life in Jesus?" In our teaching and ministry we need to engage their brain. Don't just preach at them, involve them in what you are saying and have them teach you. Students need to be equipped to learn by teaching others.

Physical

We not only worship God with our brain but our body as well. Scriptures say that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. In developing disciples we need to focus on how students use their physical nature to glorify God. You see this at work in the lives of Junior Highers especially the ADD ones. They have a hard time sitting because that is how they are wired. By engaging students physically in what they are learning we go beyond their limitations and have the teaching stick. For instance, rather than just preach on serving, involve them in serving others.

I went to Cal Poly SLO where the motto was "Learn by Doing." In my agriculture classes we would go out of the classroom and work hands on with tractors, concrete, cows and crops. Jesus mastered this concept by using what was in his environment to teach. "Fish" became "Fishers of Men." He sent out his disciples to do it not just talk about it. So the question becomes, "How can I involve students physically in what we are learning?"

In dealing with the physical realm we must focus on the need for healing and growing. Many students are broken and hurting and need healing. Youth need to experience the reality of truth lived out in relationship. It may be giving them a meal or a listening ear or even a ride home. It is also getting onto their turf at their school or neighborhood. Youth workers need to be physically present to show that they care. As the saying goes, "I don;t care what you know until I know that you care."

Spiritual

The spiritual component deals with the unseen realm. God created us with a soul that dwells in a higher plane of reality. On that plane is where angels and demons also dwell. There is spiritual warfare that is happening all around us. Most youth (and adults) are oblivious to this world. Many students are being influenced by spiritual forces they do not even comprehend. My hair stylist once shared with me that she was hearing voices in her room that were scaring her tremendously. And then someone shared Christ with her and she gladly accepted. She was literally scared into becoming a Christian!

While all experiences are not so extraordinary, each of us deal with spiritual realities on a daily basis. God has placed in our soul a spiritual longing to be with Him. At one time we were all spiritually dead and in need of deliverance through being transformed by Christ. And every choice we make to be in community with Him or live like a practical atheist has spiritual ramifications. So the question becomes "How do I minister to the soul of the youth with whom I work?" Even closer to home is the question, "Does what I do minister to my own soul?"

Social/Emotional

Teenagers are social beings. They have multiple opportunities to connect with others each day. Our ideal is to have socially and emotionally mature youth who can develop healthy relationships and teach others to do the same. Sadly, many teenagers have the same track record as adults with broken relationships and emotional issues. We live in a society with dysfunctional families, relational conflict and pressures on teenagers to both grow up to fast and not grow up at all.

A well rounded ministry creates an environment that serves the relational needs of teenagers. If you look below the surface you will see their need for wise counsel. They need mentors who care for who they are. Kara Powell from the Fuller Youth Institute talks about the idea of "Sticky Faith." In her research she finds that students need 5 significant mentoring relationships to make their faith "stick."

Also, youth workers need to know when to counsel students and when they are in over their heads. It is always good to refer to a counselor who understands the needs of Christian teenagers. in conclusion, the question becomes, "How could we more effectively minister to the social and emotional needs of teenagers?"

The Whole Teenager

When we serve the needs of the teenager in all dimensions, our ministries will produce well rounded students that will be effective leaders in their church and community. They will develop the attitude, skills, knowledge, and relationship necessary to love God and love others with their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Want to Network with the Newsboys?

Jason Kaat — 2011-12-05 10:00:00.0 PST

The Newsboys are being intentional about evangelism on their "God's Not Dead" tour for 2012. They have asked gifted evangelist and my boss, Bob Lenz, to partner with them by giving a clear Gospel message at each city they vist. In order to keep this from being a tour that simply passes through an area entertaining folks, I will be working with friend and colleague Kris Wood to network in each city on the tour.

Our goal is to mobilize local churches to follow up with students who respond to the Gospel at the concert. We are looking for Participating Churches, Prayer Partners, Local Coordinators and Data Entry Gurus to ensure that each student who responds to the Gospel is contacted by a local church. We have enlisted the help of Rick Kindschi from Community Impact Center to design a website that will give local volunteers a central hub and collaborative tool in helping us ensure students are shared with, cared for and prayed for in each community the tour passes through.

As a 16 year veteran youth worker I know there are many out there who have been critical of Christian concerts and entertainment industry for not taking evangelism seriously. RIGHTLY SO! Thats why I am excited to see a band the caliber of the Newsboys taking their commitment to evangelism to the next level. My prayer is that we will be able to meet local churches half way and work together to make sure our young people are followed up with and get plugged into a loving community of faith in order to grow more in love with Christ. Will you join us?

If the Newsboys are coming to your area please drop me an email and we can start the process of networking together so that students who are impacted in your area will have a chance to get plugged into a local church. To find out if they are coming to your area visit the Newsboys tour page.

I am so excited to see what happens when the National Network of Youth Ministries partners with the Newsboys and Life Promotions for the one purpose of reaching students in each city with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

December YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-12-02 08:30:00.0 PST

Where does the time go? 2011 is almost gone! We’re bringing you the final 2011 digital edition of YouthWorker Journal.
 
This issue includes:

A look at “The Gospel According to Twilight”
Matt Redman’s argument that “Passionate Worship Is About Living, Not Merely Singing”
Walt Mueller’s look at the teachable moments offered by celebrities’ lives and deaths; Terry Linhart and David Livermore on “Going Global: Empowering Your Students to Make a Global Difference”
Syler Thomas on “Helping Parents Get Their Students Plugged In.”

Plus, there’s a ton of reviews of new books, resources and movies.

We hope this helps you ride out 2011, and we look forward to seeing you in 2012! 

A Free Lesson From ym360

Alon Banks — 2011-12-01 07:00:00.0 PST

A Free Lesson From Your ym360 Team 
complete with Student Handout

Title || The (Giving) Spirit of Christmas

Objective: To help students understand that Christmas is more about a spirit of giving than receiving, and that this concept goes way beyond gifts.

Scripture Focus: Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-15, Matthew 2:7-11

Overview: The arrival of the Christmas season is hard to ignore. The rush to let people know "it's that time of year" is ushered in with decorations, seasonal commercials, a blitz of specialty products, and that shopper's nirvana known as Black Friday. Your students know the drill when it comes to Christmas. The "spiritual" part is the Bible stories, and church musicals and the "commercia" part is the wish lists and the tinsel. This year don't let your students pass off the birth of Christ as just a story from the Bible. Lead students to see that the idea of a giving spirit is one of the keys to finding the real meaning of Christmas. This lesson will help you do just that.

What's Included? Teaching Plan, Student Hand Out
File Size: Approximately 1.5 MB
High-Speed Download Time: A jiffy. A nanosecond. Maybe a few. Seriously, less than a minute for most.

To download your FREE Christmas Lesson:

CLICK HERE

This Freebie powered by the:

To see more freebies, tools, tips and training articles, just click the above logo.

Sheep on Main

Mike Higgs — 2011-11-29 08:30:00.0 PST

About a hundred years ago, the area in Idaho to which we are moving was the second-largest sheep producer in the world; over a million of the wooly beasts used to graze the Pioneer Mountain foothills. To celebrate their rich heritage, area residents celebrate the Trailing of the Sheep Festival each year in early October, traditionally the time when sheep are moved to lower ground before winter snows come.

The weekend, which was founded by our Flattop Ranch neighbors, is activity-packed and attracts tens of thousands of visitors. The main event is a parade down Main Street in Ketchum, which includes ethnic dancers and musicians (area shepherds are often Basque or Peruvian), homemade floats, cowboys on horses, and school marching bands. Towards the end of the parade come 1500 sheep that are clearly freaked out because they have not seen more than two or three humans in the past year. When that many freaked-out sheep are herded through the middle of town, a street-sweeper is mandatory.

After a wonderful weekend - featuring sheep meals, sheep seminars, sheep movies, sheepdog championship trials, a sheep apparel and art fair, and perhaps even nights spent counting sheep – the reason for the frequent use of sheep/lambs as a biblical metaphor becomes all the more clear. I have heard more than a few sermons on sheep and have both preached and written about the little woollies myself many times. But a few truths took on a fresh meaning after the Trailing Of The Sheep Festival.

Sheep need a shepherd. Early on (as in Genesis 1), the Bible makes a distinction in the original Hebrew between “wild animals” and “livestock”. While livestock need human help to thrive and often even to survive, they are of great value to their helpers as a much more readily accessible source of food and clothing than the randomly hunted wild animal. Similarly, though we often live, metaphorically speaking, as “wild animals,” we were created to need Divine help. As sheep find safety and provision in their shepherds, so also we will find safety and provision in our Shepherd.
Sheep know their shepherd’s voice. In his Trailing Of The Sheep seminar, Flattop Ranch owner John Peavey spoke of the ability of sheep to discern and respond to the voice of their shepherd above all other voices; their little sheep-ears become attuned to his voice. How does this take place? Repetition. The same is true with us (more on this below).
Sheep fare best when they obey their shepherd. I’m not sure sheep are as stupid as they are often depicted, but they are no Mensas (society for those with a genius IQ), either. Like I said above, they, and we, do best when we follow, and obey, a Shepherd.
Sheep have a childlike faith. I will repeat a recurring theme in my recent writing: contemporary western culture youth ministry has at its disposal more resources, more biblical philosophy of ministry, more understanding of culture and adolescent psychology, more books, more training opportunities, more blogs, more networking, and more stuff than at any time in the history of the ministry. So why do those who do polling and research about such things tell us that kids are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers, and the ones who stick around are not spiritually well-grounded? I’m painting a picture here with a very broad brush, but it’s a picture that is not inaccurate.

Not long ago I heard what for me is a new phrase: “out-thinking the room.” It means, more or less, an application of logic, reasoning, and intellect that that is excessive and/or beyond the scope of the conversation, discussion, or issue at hand.

Are we “out-thinking the room” when it comes to youth ministry, and perhaps when it comes to living out our faith in Christ as well?

I do not believe Jesus out-thought any room of disciples or Pharisees or curious onlookers. I believe He practiced the same simple, childlike faith that He preached. He listened to His Father and did what He said. Period.

I have known this for some time, but come on. I have a seminary degree. I taught college-level youth ministry philosophy. I have written books on youth ministry! I possess hundreds of books on youth ministry, prayer, spirituality and many other topics of Christian thinking and practice. And because God knows all this, He gave me a marriage partner with a childlike faith. Terri does not out-think the room. She spent 20 years in the cave with Jesus, dealing with her serious health issues and those of our kids, until He told her to quit trying to out-think the health issues. She obeyed Him. Then God healed all three of them. As a result of this and her many years in the cave, she knows the voice of her Shepherd, and she does whatever He says. Period. She does not over-analyze His voice to make sure it is theologically sound, or worry about hearing the “wrong” voice. She simply hears and obeys. In a newsletter from many years ago, I wrote about Paul Yonggi Cho, the pastor of one of the largest churches in the world. When asked about the secret of his success, his answer was in a similar vein: “I pray, and obey.”

I do not believe that a seminary degree or shelves of books or computer access to a plethora of software and online resources are wrong. But if they distract me from childlike faith, they have become a hindrance, and Hebrews 12:1 is clear about what to do with hindrances: throw them off. So, in obedience, 40% of my library has been recently “thrown off” into the hands of the used book buyer at Powell’s, or friends, or thrift stores.

And during this season of transition for the Higgs family, when most of my remaining books and other possession are packed in boxes and will likely stay there for some time, I have not (often) missed them all that much. I can still pray, read the Word of God, hear His voice, and obey. I can still do ministry, even without much of an office. Imagine. The Sheep on Main, and my wife, remind me of that.

Mike Higgs and his wife Terri are founding partners of sondance, a nonprofit with a focus on spiritual formation, family restoration, and community transformation. After 35 years of youth ministry and networking in the Portland, Oregon area, God is in the process of uprooting Mike and replanting him in Carey, Idaho. To receive his free monthly newsletter, contact him at: sondancemike@gmail.com.

What Student Led Ministry Is Not

Rob Townshend — 2011-11-28 07:00:00.0 PST

Over the past couple of months I have written several short blog posts and have been honored to speak in several venues in New England urging my fellow youth workers to join the growing movement toward handing ownership of Student Ministry back the rightful ministers: the students.

It is my main assertion that Student Ministry needs to be run on the same model with which most other ministries in the church are run. We need to see that our role is that of a mentor and shepherd who creates disciples who in turn minister for Christ's cause.

I have identified five principles that we have seen bear fruit in our ministry; for the sake of those who may not have seen my previous writings, I will repeat them here.

The Five Principles are:

The Bible must be the foundation upon which our ministry stands! We need to become solid teachers of the word who live out what it says and not see ourselves as merely entertainers who sacrifice depth for numbers and popularity.
Have a clear mission and vision that is created by your students. Don't expect them to merely follow your vision or mission. Expect them to own their dreams and goals!
Create an atmosphere of “Present ministry” within your church. It is not enough to say Youth are the present; your church must also create opportunities for them to function as the present in more visible servant roles.
The Ministry needs to be relational and not programmatic. While Jesus was among us, He modeled incarnational ministry. We need to equip our student ministers to live out their faith while proclaiming that faith among the lost through relationships, not simply through “youth events.”
The ministry needs to include a succession plan. Just as Moses passed on Ministry to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, and Paul to Timothy, our youth need to be training their replacements in order to create ministry longevity.

As I have traveled around New England with students, written my short blog posts, and met with many by phone, it has become clear to me that many if not most youth leaders agree with my basic principles of ownership by the students. However, I am also hearing concerns and fears that are similar to some of the very fears I had six years ago when I first started my journey toward the current model of Student Ministry our church has embraced.

In an attempt to address these fears and concerns I thought it would be good to identify three things that Student Led Ministry is not:

It is not something to be done lightly or as an easy way out. As with any real and vibrant ministry, it takes a commitment of time, energy and resources by the shepherd. Every one of our student leaders is engaged in at least three key mentoring/discipleship relationships. Our student leaders have a one on one relationship with a dedicated adult who walks alongside the student in ministry as an equal. They all are required to be actively engaged in a same sex accountability and bible study group. And each one must attend our core group planning, study and fellowship meetings on a regular basis. In short, we expect spiritual commitment and growth and we provide an environment that protects these student ministers as we would any other minister of the church. Our current team of adults invests more time and resources into the student ministry today than we did 5 years ago.
It is not a ministry with no plan or with no adult supervision. Our students expect much from themselves because of our investment in them. They therefore have an amazing passion to shepherd their spiritually younger peers and to see their unsaved friends embrace Christ. In our model, each student engages with a team (with adult interaction) in the ministry they are most passionate about. We have a youth group team, a service team, an evangelism team, and are currently developing several other teams based on the callings of students. Youth Group is merely one of several branches of the student ministry at Calvary Bible Church. We help them create ministry instead of creating it for them. We provide the framework for their spiritual growth but they create the direction of the student ministry as the Holy Spirit leads them.
It is not a Biblically soft ministry. Our students engage each other and their peers in deep biblical study. Each ministry team has three guidelines they must follow:
- The Word of God and the deep truths found within MUST be central to all teaching and ministry work. All ministry starts with an assumption that it will be, at its core, theologically solid.
- The ministry is about furthering the work of the Kingdom and not building personal kingdoms. They are service minded and guided by the principles of servant ministry found in The Gospels and throughout the Epistles, especially Philippians. It is not through them that anyone gains access to the Father, it is only through faith and belief in Jesus that one can gain this magnificent gift. Thus their allegiance is to Him and not their own personal wants or agendas.
- Concerted prayer is the fuel that feeds the ministry. They engage in both personal and corporate prayer as a regular life pattern and habit. Our students know that we trust them implicitly as equals in Christ. Therefore they know that we will guide them and allow them to call all the shots so long as they stay within these guardrails of Biblical ministry. In this we treat them no different than the people in any other ministry in our church where an elder is assigned to ensure this biblical focus remains central to the ministry.

I believe with all of my heart that if more churches started to trust their students with ministry ownership and treated them as the current generation of the church and not merely “the future,” we will stem the tide of young people leaving the church. Christ did not say, “wait until you turn 18 and then go therefore and make disciples.” He called our students, along with all believers, to heed the call of Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Does all of this sound like a lot of work? Absolutely!

Is it worth it? Absolutely!

Let's empower our teens as equals, and give them the biblical oversight and training all believers need to become active Kingdom Warriors for the Cause of Christ!!

Top 10 Networking Benefits - Part Two

Brian Aaby — 2011-11-21 10:00:00.0 PST

Top 10 Networking Benefits part 1 can be found here

Do you have your elevator speech ready? You know, the speech you give when someone asks what you do?  Take 30 seconds to describe yourself are and what you do (the approximate length of time you have with another person in the elevator). This past weekend I gave that speech a number of times at the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC). Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing the story of Youthmark, but, I long for the deeper conversations with trusted friends.

Though the national reunion at the NYWC provided some fantastic networking opportunities (and in-depth relationship) I was continually thankful for real-life being shared in my local networks! So, by way of transition (with focus being more on local) I’ll continue my TOP 10 Networking Benefits by giving you the countdown from five to one (10 to six are posted here).

Five: Shared Discipleship - We share students. Some of our students attend one church on Sunday with family and another one on Wednesday for Youth Group. Tag-teaming in discipleship through networks allows us to be on the same page with families and with individuals. We’ve been amazed at some of the discoveries we’ve made in network that have led to reconciliation of families, sexual abuse being reported and many positive spiritual advancements!

Four: Accountability - There are so many common struggles with relationships, sin, ministry issues and much more. At times of weakness I have been gently rebuked, uniquely encouraged or just spurred on in love and deed. Accountability isn’t always about being asked the “tough questions,” it’s nice to know I have a place I can safely go and make the “tough confessions.”

Three: Witness - You don’t often see a group of three to 10 folk gathering, laughing, talking and then praying. Our network gatherings have brought about a number of gospel opportunities with onlookers asking “who are you people?” In one situation we were able to follow up with an onlooker and lead him to a relationship with Jesus.

Two: Network Missions  - On a few occasions our groups have gone out on mission trips together! This has been awesome especially in light of the philosophy that I believe in--Mission51! That is, I believe the mission trip is not the end-all, in fact, we ought to be training our students for the 51 weeks beyond the mission. Well, in a network context, these students who went out to Mexico, California, Costa Rica or Alaska together and served on a mission trip, are coming back to the same campus, clubs and community together for the mission at home! I’d love to see Youthmark do this with more networks!

One: Refuge and Prayer - Our network is safe. I am known in this tribe and I know that I am supported in prayer. If our group “errors” on one side, it’s that we want to love on each other and pray for one another more than anything else. This, of course, is not an error at all. We are trusting the Holy Spirit for great things in our own lives, ministries and geographical area; getting together to lift one another up is enough reason for a network to exist these other 9 (and others) are just the icing on top!

What have been some of your fun stories? What are the benefits that you’ve seen come out of your connections? Let’s see this virtual network influence the other national and local networks!

Top 10 Networking Benefits

Brian Aaby — 2011-11-18 05:00:00.0 PST

Student Ministry Leadership in many ways is a culture in and of itself. I love being a part of this unique and diverse tribe! I am a firm believer that we (Youth Leaders) are better together. In nearly 20 years of being “in charge” of a variety of ministries (church and parachurch) I have found great value and blessing in being connected to other youth leaders through gatherings of all sorts-- local, national and virtual.

Though all three avenues of networking exist, the one that I value and push the most is the local network. Over the last 15 years of ministry, the local network has very much been a refuge, resource and sometimes a prime ministry outlet. If you’re reading this  and don’t feel connected, please consider linking up with others in your area...perhaps you will experience something similar to my top 10 reasons I network.

Ten: Events - I think the "knock," or reason some have chosen to not network is that they feel networks are always trying to do something together. I have NOT found this to be the case. Our groups have rarely done "all group" events--our meetings rarely are driven by an agenda to “do” things together. However, we’ve seen lots of partnerships (two to three groups) take place as a result of like-mindedness discoveries (i.e. three groups doing an all-nighter together).

Nine: Food and Beverage - Not going to lie, I have eaten well and enjoyed some good coffee at network gatherings. Just calling a spade a spade, networking has given me a good chance to feast.

Eight: Camps and Retreats - Over the last few years I have seen some of the best camps and retreats be prayed up, planned out and delivered as a result of the collaborative efforts of folks in our networks. For instance, one network I am a part of has two different winter retreats, the more pentecostal churches all link up and the less charismatic churches do a different one- but many ideas are shared all together as the planning is done! It’s a sweet gig that leads to two gigs!

Seven: Social - Of course the meetings are somewhat social, but the gatherings have brought about deep friendships, some of these friendships have gone far beyond the ministry connection as we socialize together with spouses and families and "do life" together (including babysitting swapping)!

Six: Spiritual/Ministry Retreat - Youthmark has a retreat called "Glean" that is specifically for Youth Pastors and Spouses. These getaways truly serve as one part marital retreat, one part ministry enhancement and many parts social! Gleaning is an old testament principle of leaving 10% of your best crop for others in need to glean from. At these retreats we bring our best 10% and share ideas for ministry, marriage and life! I have been honored to lead a couple of these for my own networks!

Let's hit the pause button for now as you digest, dream and think through how networking has or can benefit you. If you are not involved in a network, I think these first five give you enough reason to jump onboard, but if you are still not convinced, stay tuned and we will go live with the top five on Monday!

Students Reaching Their School

Travis Deans — 2011-11-15 11:30:00.0 PST

We believe that if students can live out their faith in school, they can do it anywhere! Not only that, but there's really no better way for students to know that their faith is genuine than to live it out at school. We are exctied to have some students in western Pennsylvania who are not only living out their faith, but they are coming up with some creative ways to share their faith with their friends at school. Here is the latest example from some students in our area... 

Thankful In All Things

Alon Banks — 2011-11-14 07:00:00.0 PST

A Free Lesson From Your ym360 Team

Title || Thankful In All Things

Objective: To help students understand that a thankful heart involves more than just words and thoughts; it’s a spiritual attitude that develops when we learn to give God thanks for all things.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 100 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Overview: Thanksgiving is unique among holidays in that it provides a time to pause and reflect on the things for which we should be thankful. As youth pastors and youth workers, we often use this special holiday as an opportunity to teach students the need to be thankful for the things they have, and to show thanks to God for all of the blessings He sends their way. In this lesson you’ll lead your students to learn that true thankfulness is expressed in more than just words, and definitely goes beyond a single day. A spiritual “attitude of gratitude” develops when we learn to give thanks in all things.

What's Included? Teaching Plan, PowerPoint, Student Hand Out
File Size: Approximately 6 MB
High-Speed Download Time: A jiffy. A nanosecond. Maybe a few. Seriously, a few minutes or less in most cases.

To download your FREE Thanksgiving Lesson:

CLICK HERE

Clicking the download link will begin downloading a .zip file.
If you experience any difficulty downloading this lesson, then it’s time to get a new computer. Just kidding! Don’t sweat it. We’re standing by with all hands on deck to help you. Just shoot us an email by clicking here and we’ll get you taken care of. Immediately.

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November YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-10-31 08:30:00.0 PST

Youth workers are famous for action, but less so for reflection.

The new digital issue of YouthWorker Journal addresses this deficit. Chap Clark, Scot McKnight, Amy Jacober, Andrew Root, Eugene Peterson, Mark Cannister, Dave Rahn and Gordon MacDonald offer their insights on the biblical and theological foundations of youth ministry.

Don’t miss this issue of YWJ. We hope it helps you answer the WHY questions before you get wrapped up in the pressing HOW questions of youth ministry.

Is Your Network "Average?" Plus...iTunes survey winners

Doug Clark — 2011-10-25 10:00:00.0 PST

 The National Network of Youth Ministries has tallied the results, and learned some things about youth workers' networking habits and desires. In addition, five respondents will walk away with iTunes gift cards for their efforts!

Random drawing winners

Almost 500 responded to the NNYM survey. Of those who submitted information at the conclusion of the survey, five were randomly drawn to line their iPhones with some new music:

Brian Neville, Toms River, N.J.
Ryan Lawrence, Bolingbook, Ill.
Mark (last name and location unknown)
Mike Kipp, Nampa, Ida.
Scott Smyth, Union City, Tenn.

Congratulations! The gift cards are being sent right away. 

What does an average network look like?

In September, NNYM announced a nationwwide, 34-question online survey in order to determine the level of participation and satisfaction with NNYM and other youth ministry networks. OneHope of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida helped with the survey and compiling the results.

We learned that among those who responded, the "average" network meets "often" or "very frequently," is more likely to include multiple denominations, and probably has at least one person attending who is not a full-time youth worker.

The groups tend to be somewhat balanced between outreach and "inreach" for those who come, with a slight leaning toward being more internally focused. 

Among those who answered the questions (from 46 states), networking is important: about 3 out of 5 said their local network is "important" or "very important" for both their success as a youth worker and to reach youth in their communities. Others expressed the desire to see networks available in their area (where they were not aware of one currently existing), or for existing networks to be more effort made by members to include them. 

Survey takers came from a diverse range of at least 15 denominations, or other ministries but did not state a denomational affiliation (28%). 

The Network team will be evaluating other findings and sharing them at a future time. 

While you are waiting...

Tim Downey — 2011-10-20 07:00:00.0 PST

Often I am asked, "What do I do to stay current and relevant while I am in-between ministry jobs?" In the current economic environment, that's a question that is being asked more and more and is a worthwhile conversation. Below are a few things that I would encourage if you find yourself in that situation.

Pray like crazy. I know this is obvious, but nothing you can do will ever supersede the power of God to accomplish His purposes in your life. We are called to be persistent in prayer (i.e. parables of lost coin, pearl of great price, prodigal son). It seems that our Father wants to see our desperation and dependence before He moves.
Stay connected through volunteering. Doing so proves that you are committed to ministry regardless of money. That is the #1 thing that you can do to communicate to others that you are a worthy candidate.
Stay current through reading books, blogs, articles, etc. about culture, trends, and streams of thought within ministry. This will enable you to have relevant conversations whenever the opportunity arises.
Develop relationships within the church. Depending on the church, they may frequently get calls asking for recommendations. If you are engaging staff in dialogue about ministry through casual conversations over coffee, in the hall, etc., your name will come to mind when they receive those calls requesting recommendations.
Network outside your church. If your pastor is going to a ministry conference, ask if you can tag along (however, these conferences are quite expensive, so it may not be possible). But, these are fantastic networking venues. If this is not realistic, find other ways that you can network with others.
Be faithful to your calling. I am keenly aware of your hopes and dreams of being in a paid ministry position. However, you must honestly answer the question: Did God call me to ministry to be paid for ministry or simply to minister? While often we are blessed by seeing both of those components integrated, that’s not always the case. Not to be a negative, but simply realistic. When I was in undergrad school, I tried to volunteer within our church. The doors were all shut. Then, I heard about a guy I knew who was pastoring a small church on the other side of town. I met him one day and asked if he needed anyone to help with students. He couldn’t believe it and was thrilled that I offered. My wife and I started attending the church and helping with the Youth Ministry. That eventually turned into a part time position for the next three years, which God used to provide experience so that after grad school I moved into a full time position at another location.

When we are faithful in the small things...

Unleashing the Power of Our Students

Rob Townshend — 2011-10-19 07:00:00.0 PST

As a Pastor of Student Ministries I firmly believe that we must stop making youth ministry about us and come to a place where we are brave enough to hand this vital ministry back to its rightful owners: the students. We must empower them to become the kingdom warriors Christ has called them to be. We need to realize that this ministry is not about us in any way. Nor should it be a ministry where we hand feed those we minister to; because quite simply it isn't working and it is wrong thinking.

Our role is that of a shepherd. We need to coach and mentor the true intended ministry leaders so that they can succeed and produce fruit. As my friend Tim Eldred says: “Life and leadership is about releasing potential in people—young and old—who are all gifted, talented, and called by God to lead the cause of Jesus Christ.” Youth leading their ministry is no more radical than men leading men's ministry, women leading women's ministry, or for that matter garden gnomes leading their own ministry. In fact, it should, and I pray it does become the norm throughout the church in the US, Canada, and beyond.

Still not convinced? Maybe my friend and ministry partner 16 year-old Jonah Bissell can shed some light on the benefits of this seemingly radical ministry concept: "The breaking point for me was when my friends started to accept Pastor Rob's call to step up and lead. I was always the 'young' kid in the group and the constant exposure to older students, has allowed me to mature at a quicker rate than many, though I am certainly still a work in progress. Seeing my older friends really focusing, listening intently, and leading during youth group really inspired me. In this case, God used my peers and my friends to transform my views about what the purpose of youth ministry truly is: learning about and growing in Jesus Christ, the focus of our faith, and ultimately, our Lord and Savior.

In the summer of 2010, God spoke deeply into my heart about a particular sin I had been struggling with for years and caused me to seriously evaluate my relationship with Him. That was a huge breakthrough for me and it was when this barrier was removed that I myself completely freed to finally fulfill the purposes Christ had for my life. In the months that followed God molded me into a strong and maturing Christian, with the ambition do my part to further the cause of Christ. He had inspired me to set aside daily time for bible reading and prayer, which has given me the desire to incorporate Him into every decision I make and this has lead to a deep compassion for my peers and realization that it is my responsibility along with other teens to make our ministry strong and vibrant.

Since then our church leadership has blessed me with the opportunity to preach during our Sunday morning service, to become a small group leader and core group leader in my/our student ministry and all of this has led to me finding myself sharing the gospel openly with my peers more than ever before. The advice that I would give to any student that is serious about taking this step into ownership of your own ministry is that even though it may seem scary, heavy, overwhelming, and unrealistic, it is the role that God created you for! Will you join us and Lead?" I stand with my dear friend Jonah and ask my fellow youth leaders to prayerfully consider unleashing the students in your church.

Jonah is only one of the many students who have accepted our challenge to assume their rightful place as the ministry leaders of the student ministry. As a church, we have made a conscious effort to empower them to take risks, expect much from themselves, and to make Christ their primary focus. In a time and culture where their peers are accepting mediocrity, we have been blessed to see a generation arise and assume their rightful place as kingdom equals. They represent the present of the Church and not merely the future and they have decided to expect much of themselves, their God, and their peers.

Will you join us and take the needed risks to prepare your students for ministry? Are you secure enough in who you are and what Christ has called you to do to change your job description? I pray that more and more of us are awakened to the need for this radical paradigm shift in youth ministry because I know from experience that if we unleash the passion of these young hearts and give them the freedom to be who they are called to be it changes everything and best of all, furthers the cause of Christ!!

What We've Gotten Away From�

Brian Aaby — 2011-10-18 10:00:00.0 PST

I've been involved with in Youth Ministry for just about 20 years now. Though there have been many tweaks and occasional shifts away from the norm, the typical youth ministry program has included some form of hang time, game time, worship time and teaching (“talk”) time. These four elements are about a predictable as my desire for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert!

Our youth ministry forefathers formed something that we’ve had a hard time re-inventing (and to be honest, may not be the primary area in need of an overhaul). I believe the real change in youth ministry doesn’t have anything to do with re-envisioning our mid-week programming, but an examination of some key things I believe youth pastors/leaders have gotten away from in the greater landscape of student ministry.

We’ve Gotten Away From The Campus. Most youth pastors haven’t even attempted to get on the public (or private) school campus. I hear them say “the campus is closed” yet they haven’t once made an effort with the administration of the said “closed” campus. I am telling you, I have NEVER been turned down by the admin to be a volunteer on campus. Be smart, don’t look at your time on campus as a time to proselytize, rather as a time to serve the school, the teachers, the administration and to build relationship with anyone God brings you in contact with. Just being present (even just an hour a week) will pay large dividends and build major trust! It will bring a whole new ownership when attending games, musicals, concerts and award banquets.
We’ve Gotten Away From Evangelism. A “discipleship-first” model is honestly the safe choice. Parents are quite happy that you’re providing a “safe” place for their child(ren) to participate in ministry. Service-based trips where we work with our hands building, cleaning, painting and serving meals are now called “mission trips.” I am a big proponent of service, it often creates an entry point into spiritual conversation, but I believe we’ve gotten away from sharing the gospel with our WORDS! I think youth missions can/should include evangelism opportunities because it is an extension of what we’re doing at home as well (what we call “Mission51″ at Youthmark). I believe youth leaders (and parents) have allowed youth ministry to turn away from evangelism because we’re typically not involved with it in our own peer-community. It’s hard to teach what we’re not doing. What if evangelism and discipleship were not mutually exclusive? What if youth leaders, pastors and parents began to model discipleship that included evangelism first?
We’ve Gotten Away From The Gospel! This may sound a lot like the last, but I believe student ministry as a whole has gotten away from sharing the gospel and settled for a “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”-message. The gospel is good news, in order to have good news, there must be bad news as well. This “bad news” is HORRIBLE news. Without Jesus there is no hope. No hope is hell (bad news)! Many of our programs talk about the bible, Jesus, prayer and accountability without talking about the “why” we need these things. A failure to share about the wonderful grace of God actually leads our followers down the path of works-righteousness. Students begin to “work” on the practices of faith without actually having grace-based faith.

I want to be part of a solution, not just point out what I see as some of the problems. So, I have a few suggestions for myself and other youth leaders (or pastors).

Start with prayer: pray for your own heart response and examine whether or or not these things are true of you and your ministry. Ask God for a peer-level harvest field for you to work in (so many youth leaders don’t even have non-Christian friends). Pray and ask for prayer. I believe your prayer will lead you to care and then your care will lead you to share!
Make contact today: Get up, drive to the local middle school or high school or make an appointment with the administration and simply ask the question “how can I serve this school… how can I help?” Don’t abuse the privilege to be there, keep the campus options available to other Christians by being a smart missionary if given the opportunity to serve the school. Your present on campus (or campuses) will lead you to opportunities to experience the harvest field.
Share the gospel in youth group! Don’t assume that even your core-students know and understand that gospel. Be clear in your presentation of the gospel. Always include the need for salvation (because of sin), Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection. As you share this more and more not only will it permeate your other conversations, but as more for your group place their trust in Christ, it’ll permeate their conversations outside of your group!

May your hang time, game time, worship time and message time be an extension of everything that is taking place outside of your program! I’m ready to see us get back to some of the things we may have moved away from.

Grace,
Brian

Why Bother?

Wes Trevor — 2011-10-14 10:00:00.0 PST

If you are on this site, chances are you are already well aware of youth worker networking.  You have probably come across NNYM, denominational networks or other grassroots efforts to rally the youth worker troops.  

But one of the major questions I hear (from those that I think have not benefitted from networking yet) is, "Why bother?"  "What is the point of networking?  I mean Wes, don't you know that I already have too much on my plate and I have parents knocking on my door, students needing my attention and a pastor who doesn't really get why I do what I do, not to mention my family at home?"....I hear you.

All of those are good reasons, at least on the surface, for why NOT to network. But let me respond to those questions with what I have seen happen in my local network (in Escondido, Calif.).

I would say that those that are a part of my local network are all busy, all have a lot on their plate and all could probably spend the time that they invest in the relationships in our network focused on the other various other aspects of their job.  Most of us have families that need out attention outside of the ministry that God has us doing. Many of us have senior pastors that expect a lot from us, and students and their families who need us.

We come from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds, from Foursquare to Episcopal, so there are some differences. But despite those forces tugging at us, we have still found the time to meet together, pray together and encourage one another.  

I have seen my local network, in many cases, be the lifeline for the youth workers in my community because we are united in purpose and get what each other are about: united in Christ to reach the young adults of our community.  We recognize that we serve the same King and that we are reaching the same schools and families.

So, why bother?  Because we get you.  We understand your mission.  We care about your soul, your effectiveness, your family and how you are translating what God is leading you to with your students.  

We want to encourage you, pray for you and be your friend. We want to foster the community that God expects of us. We want to buy you coffee and hear about the aspects of your life outside of ministry.  

Ultimately, it is because we are better together and no one should have to walk through ministry alone.  So won't you join us...?

Simply Youth Ministry Conference: Early Bird Discount is Oct. 31

Doug Clark — 2011-10-12 10:00:00.0 PST

As a Network member, you can receive a $25 discount on the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in March 2012 by using your discount code: nnymsymc12. Follow the links below, and don't forget to register by October 31 to maximize your savings.

NNYM is excited to partner with Simply Youth Ministry. Our team will be leading a seminar and have a special partner area set up where we can help attendees connect in their communities more effectively. Come join us!

Extended Adolescence And You

Adam McLane — 2011-10-07 10:00:00.0 PST

Adolescence cannot last from 11 years old to 29 years old. Our society will crumble economically & socially under the pressure.

I think most people understand that intuitively. They reflect on their teenage years and their early twenties as a time of coming of age.

But times have changed. Most sociologists believe adolescence stretches from the onset of puberty (11-12 years old) until the late 20s. In other words, the adolescence you and I knew is now 8-10 years LONGER than when we went through it just 20 years ago.

When I think of people in their 20s I think of two distinct subsets.

Those who move out and declare independence.
Those who don’t.

1. Declaration of Independence

For some, moving out and declaring personal independence happens after high school when they join the military. Even though I’ve heard NCOs refer to their platoons as “their kids” certainly they are not dependent on their parents any more. They are earning their own way in the world, they provide their own housing, and they are trained in complex adults tasks. A 20 year old Army Specialist repairing a Blackhawk helicopter on a base in Germany is an adult role.

For others, they go to college and pay their own way and handle all of the responsibilities of being a college student on their own. They reject the childish party life and are serious about their education from day 1. The young woman who watched our kids this summer was this way. She worked multiple jobs all summer to bridge the gap between student loans, grants, and her need. And she takes her studies seriously because she needs this degree to take her and her family a step closer to the American dream.

Still others, high school ends with a thud and they enter young adulthood when their parents either kick them out or they move out. They discover adult responsibilities when they realize that they have to work or starve. Or they have to work or become homeless.

2. Declaration of Co-Dependency

I’m no psychologist. But over the past 10 years I’ve encountered dozens of parents whom exhibit co-dependent tendencies on their adult-aged children. They track their progress at school. They call them daily. They financially support so their college students don’t work. They either directly or indirectly tell their adult-aged children that they can always live at home, they will never have to support themselves. So they don’t. They lightly attend college and learn almost nothing. They party like Paris Hilton. They don’t even do their own laundry.

Essentially, they are pets. They know it. And love it. They know their parents are co-dependent on them and they take full advantage.

Most of these co-dependent parents have one thing in common: Disposable income. Their adult-aged children hang around with nearly no responsibility… because their parents can afford for them to do so. 

Questions:

What role does responsibility play in extended adolescence?
If you serve in ministry, how do you help parents who exhibit co-dependent tendencies?
Do you agree with my premise that extended adolescence is tied to household economics?

Want to learn more about this topic? Want to wrestle with this and what it has to do with adolescent faith formation? Use this link to register for the Extended Adolescence Symposium on November 21st in Atlanta, Georgia and receive 15% off!

Digital YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-10-02 07:00:00.0 PST

Is it October already? It must be, because we’re sending you the October 2011 digital edition of YouthWorker Journal.

We think you and your students will enjoy these articles:

How youth workers can encourage “Spiritual Creatives” in their groups.
Walt Mueller says youth workers should quit dumbing down their teaching.
Mark Oestreicher’s “Middle School Ministry” column focuses on when it makes sense to practice segregation of the sexes in youth ministry gatherings.
How youth workers can protect their marriages.
Brenda Seefeldt’s article on Church- and Family-Based Youth Ministry.
Mark Cannister’s review of A Faith of Their Own by Lisa D. Pearce and Melinda Lundquist Denton (Oxford University Press).

And more!

Look for us at National Youth Workers Convention

Kevin Boer — 2011-10-01 10:00:00.0 PST

If you are at National Youth Workers Convention hosted by Youth Specialties look for us in the exhibit hall. Come by and get connected! We would love to meet you and see how you are working together to reach teenagers.

In San Diego you can connect with some our staff members like Len Evans, Mike De Vito, and Aaron Babyar. 

Also, take a look at the "We Love our Youth Worker" booth in the hall.  At this booth you can find out the 7 promises churches need to encourage healthy youth workers.

Here is a video from Kevin Alexander from the Irvine Network who came by our booth Friday. He shares why collaborating with other youth leaders is important to him. If you have networking stories to share come by and we woud love to hear them!

Cross-fire

Jim Wagner — 2011-10-01 10:00:00.0 PST

I had an interesting day today.... not really that different from others, but a day that brought to mind the reality of the work I have given my life to. A day that reminded me of the frailty of human life. A day that reminded me of my need for total dependence on my Savior, Jesus Christ! While working out at the gym this morning, I had no idea that this reminder would come. And, while not expecting it, I certainly wasn't thinking that I would be given such a vivid picture of the truths of God's Word.

I received two phone calls from a friend and ministry partner who has been experiencing some health issues. This friend was calling from the local ER, and from the sound of it, I could tell that there was concern. With a quick change in my plans, I rushed to the ER to be with this friend and family. On the way, I prayed that God would give me grace, or encouragement, or something that I could offer to them. One of the toughest parts of my work, for me in particualr, is to be the one who stays strong in the midst of discouragement, doubt, fear, and emotion. I felt I could hold it all together, once again, as I searched for the ER room. Then, in an instant, as I walked into the room, I locked eyes with fear, concern, emotion, doubt, tears... but, as I looked eye-to-eye with my friend, even STRONGER than the emotions that I saw and felt, was the reminder of the frailty of each of us humans. I was reminded that when all is said and done in ministry, planning and programs pale in comparison to PEOPLE! Ministry is people!

From that local ER I then traveled to a Children's Hospital about an hour from there to visit one of the students in my Student Ministry. During my travel time I thought alot about the reminder I had just received. That reminder colored the thoughts I had for this student and their family who have been dealing with a pretty major flare-up of a disease that this student has had for several of the 15 years of their life. This flare-up has changed the scope of what is normal, everyday life for this student and for the family. I sat and waited near this students hospital room catching up with my email from my phone while they were away from their room. Then again, just like an hour or two before, once eye-to-eye with this student and their mom, I was reminded that when all is said and done in ministry, planning and programs pale in comparison to PEOPLE! Ministry is people!

Each of these people and their families are dear to the ministry of the church I serve at. Each of these people and their families are growing in their faith and are determined to follow Christ even in these tough times! What incredible testimonies they share! Though neither of them are "out of the woods" concerning their health, each of them - through the frailty that each of us humans possess - shared that they will trust God for whatever their outcome!

On the way home today one more reminder came loud and clear to me. It is the reminder that as we determine to follow God with our lives... as we shepherd, encourage, love, equip and strengthen students and adults in their faith journey... we have an enemy who wants nothing more than to devour all the work that we do to further God's Kingdom (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus said that if His enemies want to trip Him up, and tempt Him, and even try to hurt or kill Him... then we should expect the same. In other words, as greater things are done through our lives and ministry, greater, too, is the "bullseye" on our backs!

Though my heart is heavy today, I don't mind being caught in the "Cross-fire" because "...greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world..."

Raising Our Expectations in Youth Ministry

Rob Townshend — 2011-09-30 08:00:00.0 PST

As I sit here at the Town and Country Resort on the Eve of the NYWC I find myself oddly contemplating a question I was recently asked by a student on the fringe of our youth group. She wanted to know “Why do you expect so much from us?”

This simple yet profound question caused me to reflect on what I see as one of biggest issues or obstacles facing those in youth ministry: the culture of low expectations that exists in our “feel good” and take no risks society. Our society tells us to coddle and protect our students lest we cause them to experience failure and suffer from low self-esteem. Yet even a casual reading of the bible shows us that we serve a God who expects much from His children and is to be the complete focus of every human endeavor. And sadly, far too often we in youth ministry and in the church have chosen to adopt the world's ways over the ways of the King of Kings.

In my opinion it is clear that until we cultivate an atmosphere of high expectations in our ministries we will continue to wallow in a ministry of mediocrity. We will continue to hold our students back from being the tremendous champions for the kingdom our Lord intends them to be and instead produce a generation of underachieving cultural Christians who wander through much of life with a weak or non-existent faith.

What is needed is for more youth leaders to become like Paul and expect more from our students than the world does. It is our duty and call to instruct them, as Paul so instructed Timothy, to “Practice these things; be committed to them so that your progress may be evident to all”. (1 Timothy 4:15 HCSB) Expect them to progress and they will more often then not progress. We must become coaches, mentors, and shepherds in the lives of our students who encourage them to meet the high expectations given by the Lord who called them into His Kingdom as equal partners with us in the Gospel.

It is critical that they be gently yet firmly rebuked when they neglect to meet His expectations. It is imperative that you and I step up and proclaim that we believe in them and that we expect that they will become the kingdom warriors He has made them to be. My answer to this student and every student therefore is simply “I expect much from you because God expects much of you and I believe you can; in the power of Christ meet His expectations!”

To my fellow youth workers I ask: Are you willing to step outside your comfort zone and expect more of the students you shepherd? Will you help empower this generation to be the great men and women of God they are called to be?

Do Elephants Network?

Rawd B. Jones — 2011-09-28 07:00:00.0 PST

The Elephant Graveyard

I recently watched a documentary about the Elephant Graveyard. Fact or fancy, the tale goes something like this (oversimplified is an understatement). Older Elephants get the sense of their impending demise and travel sometimes thousands of miles to die in the "Elephant Graveyard". The EG is rumored to be littered with thousands of tusks and elephant bones.

Trust Your Gut

Truth or fiction, the point is that there is something in our gut that tells us certain things. I know! You know it and Malcolm Gladwell (blink is an amazing book that needs to be in every thinkers library), among others have written books about it.

Gut, Networking, Health, Longevity

We all know that hanging out with peers, like minded and even those better than us makes us better.  We also know that we get further down the road by stealing (I mean sharing) ideas, praying for each other and creating deeper connections. So why dont we network regularly?

Important But Not Urgent

Some of the best things in life are like this. Important but not urgent. Several things come to mind; eating healthy, exercising , personal growth...anyone feeling me yet? We would all rather eat junk food and never improve ourselves with exercise or education and hope we would all look like we just jumped off the cover of People mag, but good health and looks are not accidental. Neither is being a good Youth Worker. We must work at! Almost everyone I chat with agrees that Networking is Important but they also dont attend local meetings as much as they should. Sound like passing on the burger for the tofu sandwich?

What to do?

Get involved in a local network.
Make a commitment to attend regularly even come early and bring some business cards to share with others.
Chant this...Better Together, Better Together, Better Together. Then believe it.
Play it forward. Thats just it, go first, lead the way.

The law of reciprocity is one of my favorites. When it comes to networking maybe we should think about others and not just ourselves knowning that we will receive way more than we imagined.

Lastly, I dont know if elephants network but if they do, I'm sure they wouldn't have to travel thousands of miles to do it.

Everyone Stay Comfortable

Doug Franklin — 2011-09-16 08:00:00.0 PST

I don’t know how students got the message, but they all know it.

“Your mission in life is to get the biggest home, nicest car and stay as comfortable as possible.”

There must have been a message because they all know it. Someone, somewhere must have sat them all down and told them the meaning of life because most of them are pursuing it.

The only way there wasn’t a direct message would have to be they got their purpose from watching us. Maybe it was a non-verbal message they received, or maybe every-time their parents kept them from any threat of danger they got the message to play it safe.

Or maybe when they saw no one from their church do any ministry in the city or take any mission trips to tough places they determined that the Christian life was designed to be comfortable.

Our actions as Christians have consequences and one of them is our students don’t know how to take any risks. When Christ followers stop taking risks, we stop living by faith.

Without faith we will do nothing.

Jeremy Riddle - Furious

Alon Banks — 2011-09-13 07:00:00.0 PST

Vineyard Worship artist and worship leader Jeremy Riddle has announced the release of his new studio album entitled, Furious. The album is set for release on September 20 via NewDay Distribution.

Riddle began production on the album nearly a year ago with Dove Award winning producer Ed Cash (Chris Tomlin, Matthew West, David Crowder Band) at the helm. Cash’s contribution forms the backbone of the album which also features production from Bobby Hartry, a long time Riddle collaborator. The project follows Prepare The Way: Live, an album recorded in front of a live audience in Corpus Christi, Tex., earlier this year from Vineyard.

Riddle describes Furious saying, “It’s hard to come up with words that depict the magnitude of Christ’s love – the depth and width of it. Furious doesn’t work outside of the context of love; we tend to translate the word as angry, but I see it as a super-powerful force; stronger, deeper, broader than our vocabulary can fully describe."

Four years on the road as a touring worship leader eventually took its toll on Jeremy, so in January 2011, the former jr. high youth pastor came on staff as worship community pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif. Working under pastors Brian and Jenn Johnson, Jeremy facilitates a worship community of over 200 people within the church.

“My wife (Katie) and I have always had a heart to serve the local church and never wanted to do the full-time travel thing for very long, so it felt like a good time to transition into something different,” Jeremy says. “I’ve developed such an appreciation for the fruit that has been sowed from my life – personally and artistically – by being part of a local community.”

Consequently, several of the tracks on Furious are also featured on Be Lifted High, the most recent album from Bethel Church.

“These songs are a reflection of being part of something bigger than just me,” Jeremy says. “Through some significant growth in understanding and living out humility from a very independent place, I’ve shifted into a place where I can’t even claim this record is completely inspired by me. There are so many elements of the album that could never have flowed from me had I not been connected to people walking out life with me.”

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 225: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Just One Youth Group...Like Yours?

Doug Clark — 2011-09-12 07:00:00.0 PST

You can’t always predict what will happen when you plan a simple youth group retreat. Sometimes, God messes with your plans.

Looking back, that’s the testimony of Rick Eubanks.

Who’s Rick, you ask? He was the Minister of Music and Youth at Crestmont Baptist Church in Burleson Texas from 1975-1995.

This was a “pregnancy” that was full of humble beginnings and wonderful surprises. And like radio newsman Paul Harvey used to say, “And now, the rest of the story.

Chuck and Loretta Sharp were adult volunteers in Rick’s youth group. Chuck was a guard in a jail; Loretta was a hairstylist. They had a special love for freshmen students, and so Rick put them in charge of the freshman class at Crestmont.

Rick had scheduled a “DiscipleNow” weekend for the entire youth ministry in early 1990. DiscipleNow is a retreat idea popular among Baptist youth ministries. Rick says that although the youth group met en masse at the church for worship, the real teaching of the weekend happened in six homes, where the students met with their adult leaders. The freshmen were hanging out at Chuck and Loretta’s.

There was another dynamic at work, though: the freshmen were hungry for God, and had caught the vision for praying for their schools from upperclassmen in the youth group throughout the 1989-90 school year. Some of the “discipling” had already taken root. Many were already claiming their campuses for Christ in prayer. One had started a campus Bible study.

The guest speaker at the Sharps’ home that weekend was a young man named Kelly, a youth minister from the Texas Panhandle. He challenged the ninth graders to surrender every part of the their lives, habits - the whole deal - to the lordship of Jesus Christ. They responded eagerly. Later that night they went to pray at some of the schools in Burleson.

The fact that they would go to a school and pray was not so unusual. That passion had been growing all year. But someone suggested they hold hands - in public, in front of the school! Some - including one of the football players - were nervous, and a little self-conscious. What if one of his buddies saw him? But Rick recalls, “When they started praying, they ‘got down to business.’”

The prayer times were rich. They felt God’s presence. And they told Rick about it.

That planted the seed in Rick’s mind prior to a meeting with Chuck Flowers and some other Baptist youth workers at his office. Chuck was the director of youth evangelism for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The question on the table was, “How can we help students follow up after SuperSummer (the statewide conferences for Texas Baptist churches) this year?” They wanted the impact of the summer camps to carry over to the schools. Rick Eubanks, thinking about his students, suggested: “Let’s have kids pray in small groups at their own schools - all on the same day.”

The quote of the day came from one of the leaders: “We might have 3,000 kids pray on one day!"

The brainstorming continued: Where should they meet? “Every school has a flagpole…you can say anything you want to under the American flag,” Rick observed.

Neil McClendon, one of adults, exclaimed, “Hey! ‘See You at the Pole’!”

After some more discussion came agreement: “We’ll try it for one year.” A date in September was set, and the challenge was extended by McClendon to 20,000 students at Reunion Arena in June.

Then came the surprises. First, youth workers in other states - Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi - heard about See You at the Pole and wanted to get involved. Like a Texas prairie fire, the idea was taking off.

Chuck Flowers set up a single cassette answering machine and asked people to call in their reports. On the night of See You at the Pole, he sat and wept as report after report came in. When the documented attendance was tallied, at least 45,000 students on 1,200 campuses were involved.

As Eubanks reflects back, the surprises kept coming.

He was stunned at how See You at the Pole became a time not just of prayer, but where kids led their friends to Christ. Denominational walls broke down at the flagpole.

“I broke down and cried when I heard about students planning their See You at the Pole in Moscow, Russia - near Lenin’s tomb - so that they would pray at the same time as us in the U.S,” he remembers.

A small town in Texas. Freshmen students. Working-class adult volunteer leaders. And a God who loves to take ordinary people and do great things through them. Could there be another ordinary youth group out there that is ready to be the birthplace of something extraordinary - maybe in your ministry?

Rick Eubanks is still kickin' it with youth as minister of worship and students at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Burleson. He was asked a while back what he would say to a youth worker who might feel, “God would never do something like that in MY youth group.”

He replied, “You’re the best God has in your place right now. It’s your calling. When we’re out in the trenches, we think we don’t have the credentials; we’re too old or too young; but as we’re available, there will be a God-given opportunity. We have to submit to Him and allow Him to use us.”

He also challenges youth workers to commit to long-term ministry, and share their very lives with the students they lead: “You can teach more about patience while changing a flat tire on a missions trip than in a Bible study in Sunday School.”

As in all historic movements of prayer, See You at the Pole did not begin in the hearts of people, but in the heart of God. God used the obedience of a small group of teenagers in one town to ignite what has become an international movement of prayer among young people.

But there will be other movements, in other towns - including maybe yours.

Learn more about See You at the Pole at www.syatp.com. The global date for SYATP is September 28, 2011.

6 Worries of a Youth Worker

Doug Franklin — 2011-09-09 11:00:00.0 PST

Youth workers always seem worried to me. It may be because they are in a stage of life that changes quickly or they feel like they are never settled because being a youth worker feels like you are always on the hot seat. I don’t know all the reasons but I do know that being worried doesn’t help you with confidence. If youth workers could identity and deal with some of these worries I think it would help them be more effective leaders. I have made a list of a few of the worries I see most often but I do believe there are many more. Here is what I got:

6. Worried about numbers
The number one question youth workers answer most is, “How many students were at youth group this week?” If that is the questions it’s no wonder youth workers are worried about numbers.

5. Worried about pay 
Youth workers don’t often make enough money and they are worried that they might have to change jobs or leave the ministry due to lack of funds. The money issues put pressure on their marriage. It also causes them to distrust church leaders and leads to conflict between them and the pastor.

4. Worried about fraud 
I talk with youth workers all the time that have no idea on how to do their jobs. They didn’t get any training before they started and no one is mentoring them now. They are scared to death that the parents and the pastors are going to figure they don’t have any idea on how to help students in their faith. They were hired because students like them, not because they knew how to lead students, volunteers, parents and the church in youth ministry.

3. Worried about marriage 
Single youth workers worry about getting married and how being single will effect their ministry. They struggle because churches often treat them like second second class citizens because they are the youth minster and they are single. Married youth workers worry about if they have enough time for their spouse. They are usually young marrieds and they are struggling with the first few years of marriage.

2. Worried about parents 
Most youth workers don’t have the experience to deal with parents and so they avoid them. They try and pretend like they don’t exist. For these youth workers most encounters with parents go bad. They don’t come across open and honest and parents don’t care for that. Until trust and partnership are created these relationship will go bad.

1. Worried about competition 
They say they have a desire for collaboration with other youth workers in town but their actions seem more like they are in competition with other youth workers. We all wonder if the program down the street will attract our students away and we feel pressure to have activites that are better than the others around us. This sense of worry is not helped by the pressure some youth workers feel to get a bigger youth ministry (YM), bigger church, greater impact in the YM world and to be seen as important.

The Youth are the Present

Rob Townshend — 2011-09-08 05:00:00.0 PST

Over the years I have found myself increasingly convicted that my main role as Pastor of Student and Family ministries is to empower our students to recognize and seize their God ordained position as a part of the “current generation” of the church. It drives me crazy to hear well meaning people state that the youth are the future of the church.

Though I certainly agree that our students are indeed a vital part of the future church; it is my opinion that to allow them to see themselves this way creates a passivity of faith that is extremely dangerous and I believe leads many of them to forgo their current role!

We need a paradigm shift in youth ministry and I am blessed to see fellow ministers and shepherds like Timothy Eldred, Kara Powell, Bo Boshers, and many others leading a charge to a radical and needed course correction in student ministry. I stand proudly with these cutting edge brothers and sisters and pray for a movement of youth leaders who will embrace discipleship, evangelism, and student ownership of ministry in our churches! In my own ministry in central Vermont we are seeing tremendous fruit as we hand over ownership of ministry to our students. I firmly believe that there are non-negotiable principles that must be implemented in any student ministry if we hope to see the needed transformation in the youth ministry culture.

I am not naïve enough to believe that these principles are solely mine nor am I an expert by any stretch of the imagination. However, I have been blessed to see the fruit created in our student's lives by implementing these principles.

The five principles are:

The Bible must be the foundation upon which our ministry stands! We need to become solid teachers of the word who live out what it says and not see ourselves as merely entertainers who sacrifice depth for numbers and popularity!
Have a clear mission and vision that is created by your students. Don't expect them to merely follow your vision or mission. Expect them to own their dreams and goals!
Create an atmosphere of “Present ministry” within your church. It is not enough to say Youth are the present; your church must also create opportunities for them to function as the present in visible servant roles.
The Ministry needs to be relational and not programmatic. While Jesus was among us He modeled incarnational ministry and we need to equip our student ministers to live out their faith while proclaiming their faith among the lost through relationships not simply some event.
The ministry needs to include a succession plan. Just as Moses passed on Ministry to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, and Paul to Timothy our youth need to be training their replacements in order to create ministry longevity.

I believe that following these principles and raising the bar of expectations on our students is the key to transforming student ministry! Thank you to all of you who have already started us in the right direction. I invite those who have yet to take the leap to join us as we create changed lives of faith that truly transform His church!!

NNYM Survey Has Been Resolved

Doug Clark — 2011-09-07 10:00:00.0 PST

Hey friends, if you got an email from us on Tuesday about taking our survey, and when clicking on a link, you were redirected to a warning page about "phishing," please know that the problem has been resolved. The links on the email are trustworthy and we would love to have you pass them on to other youth workers.

Here it is: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/612796/National-Network-of-Youth-Ministries

Thank you for your loyalty and help with our survey!

Doug Clark
Director of Field Ministries
dclark@nnym.org

Serving Schools through Beautifying Campuses

Kevin Boer — 2011-09-07 10:00:00.0 PST

How do you start your school year off in your ministry with students? Here in San Diego County we have started a tradition that opens eyes and doors to the school campuses. This year we partnered churches with schools so that students and members from the entire church body come together to do work projects on school campuses.  On August 20th the second annual “School Beautification Day” had over 1100 volunteers serving on 35 high school, middle school and elementary school campuses across San Diego.

Collaborative Partnerships

Locally, National Network of Youth Ministries has a countywide network called the San Diego Mission Team. Our network partnered with Urban Youth Collaborative and Vision San Diego to serve schools in administration approved ways. Nate Landis, the director of Urban Youth Collaborative, led the effort to partner churches with schools. He has a long term partnership with Matthew Parades an administrator with the San Ysidro School district. Together they organized 6 schools and one police station in San Ysidro alone. The Navy sent out volunteers to help this school district that has only 3 gardeners for nine schools! Nate also spearheaded partnerships on multiple inner city San Diego Schools. For instance, on Hoover High School, Nate worked to help bring the class of ‘64 alum group to clean up their Alma Mater!

Students Giving Back

The School Beautification Day gives the opportunity for teenagers from different churches to serve their schools. For instance, Jack McKee from Youth Vision America brought together volunteers from three different churches to Escondido High to spruce up the campus. They washed windows, mopped the gym floor and blew out the stadium.  I met Elliot, a student who goes to Escondido High school. His church youth leader got him out of bed to come serve on his campus! There were also students from other high schools that came out to serve. In talking to Ariel, the head custodian Escondido High, he shared that with his limited staff there was no way to get the clean up work done at the school. He stated how important it was that the churches actually did the work rather than just talking about it.

Developing Church-School Partnerships

One important function the School Beautification did for us was to develop a starting point for a longer term relationship between churches and schools. We acted like a “dating service” matching churches to schools.

For instance, At Knob Hill Elementary, Dawn Lopez, a friend of ours introduced us to Principal Carrie Geldard who was excited about the opportunity. We partnered the school with New Vintage Church. Their youth pastor, DJ Iverson, gathered 45 volunteers from the church and the school who came out and did painting and landscaping. The school district brought in supplies and even a tractor! We went beyond our expect list of projects and helped weed and clean the entire campus.

Before the day was through Carrie shared With DJ about other opportunities that were available to the church to serve at the school throughout the school year. The facilities manager form the school district said there are 17 more schools in the district that could use some help!

 Also, Mike Gilson, the associate pastor at Pathways Community Church in East County San Diego has developed an ongoing partnership with the Santee Schools District. Churches in their area provided 350 volunteers that put in over 1,500 hours of work on 32 projects on 6 campuses. They have another day planned at West Hills High School putting in an "Environmental Science Garden" that the school has the supplies but need laborers.  

Serving Schools, Sharing Jesus

By the demonstration of love and our long term partnership with schools we are building a relationship where we can proclaim Christ and demonstrate His love on campus. For example, Nate Landis shared how one administrator came to know Jesus after the first School Beautification Day. Also, through his long term partnership with Gompers Preparatory Academy, Nate now has an office on campus where they hold Bible Studies and youth counseling. 

In the same way, our goal is to have churches partnering with every secondary school across San Diego. And the School Beautification Day is one way God has opened doors for churches to work together to reach teenagers.

September YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-09-01 07:00:00.0 PST

Are young people really leaving the church in droves as some studies say? If so, what can we do to develop deeper ties between youth and communities of faith?

In this months digital issue of YouthWorker Journal we sought answers and articles from: Kenda Creasy Dean, Mike King, Heidi Hagstrom, Dick Hardel, Dave Rahn, Kara Powell, Brad Griffin, Drew Dyck, Lars Rood and more!

We pray you and your students find this material helpful!

NNYM Discount: YS National Youth Workers Convention

Doug Clark — 2011-08-31 00:00:00.0 PST

Youth Specialties' National Youth Workers Convention early bird discount is coming up soon! Below is information that will make it much easier to use the NNYM discount code with your churches and affiliates. This year, like last, our special partner discount code (NNYMNY1) will give you $25 off the current ticket price for 4 ticket types: Individual, Alumni, Spouse & Full-time Student. The Group (4+) rate does not qualify for this discount, but only because it is already LOWER, currently only $198/person!

Below you will see the links for both San Diego and Atlanta. Feel free to pass these on to others in your network. When you click on the link, the prices already reflect your $25 discount.

San Diego http://nywc2011-san-diego.eventbrite.com/?discount=NNYMNY1
Atlanta http://nywc2011-atlanta.eventbrite.com/?discount=NNYMNY1

San Diego NYWCis September 30-October 2, 2011.

Atlanta NYWC is November 18-20, 2011.

My Biggest Sin of the Quarter

Tom Miyashiro — 2011-08-30 10:00:00.0 PST

I am a work-o-holic. There. I said it. I admit that I love ministry. I love everything about ministry. I have used ministry to explore every interest I have under the sun and give a spiritual context for it. From media to music; academia to pop culture; I have used ministry to satisfy and stimulate my curiosity of a vast array of walks of life. I don’t mind working long days, weekends, nights and early mornings. Many times, it is my work that recharges my battery, especially when I see others stimulated by what I am doing. However, although ministry at times is an idol for me, it’s not my biggest sin.

I have a big mouth. From my gob I sometimes put together some great messages from the stage. I am quick on my feet. I have the gift of gab. Yet, my mouth gets me in to big trouble sometimes. I am quick to react in all things and I am so emotionally transparent that even when I don’t say what I am thinking, the silence that emanates from me  is so loud, I might as well have shouted what I was thinking. Further, when I demonstrate self-control over my tongue when I am feeling raw or ungodly, people that are even mildly close to me immediately know something is wrong because of the absence of my words. I constantly put my foot in my mouth, say the wrong thing in the moment, offend people on a regular basis and fill silence with meaningless babble. Despite my daily wrestling with my tongue, and the fact that it is always on my top ten list of offenses before the Lord, my mouth has not topped the chart this quarter.

I’m proud. There are two kinds of pride. The first is a healthy, warm emotion of something good that has been identified in others or even of ourselves. It has to do with ownership, sharing and thoughtfulness. The other version of pride is detestable before the Lord. It is an inflated ego. It is self-righteousness. It is ownership of things we ought not take credit for. It is overstepping ourselves and thinking we are more, deserve more, do more than others. I suffer from this kind of pride. I constantly am pushing away compliments for fear of feeding the caged beast that lives within my heart of flesh. And while this wrestling with pride may taint every good thing I am trying to do and is something that may even be a symptom of where I am at before the Lord, this still is not my biggest offense.

Where I have really failed over this last quarter is an issue of Lordship. Just who runs the show here? While my pride, my mouth and my work habits might contribute to this issue, they are really symptomatic of the fact that I have both deliberately and miserably taken control of my life and tried to alter its direction. I recognize that even in my prayers, I have been asking the Lord to bless the work of my hands without even consulting Him about what work I ought to be and ought not to be doing. I have worked around the clock even to the point of making myself sick because I saw windows of opportunity; windows that I did not for a second stop and ask the Lord whether or not they were opportunities for me. I believed that there was an important work for me to do and if I did not do it, it would not happen. I made inappropriate requests to those who follow my leadership to follow me down these roads.

So now, at the beginning of this new week, as I sift through my journals and examine my life, I see my fatal error. There has been no joy in this last quarter and no satisfaction even in the small victories that were achieved. There has been no communion with the Lord because, “How can I commune with the Lord when I have seated myself on the throne of my own life and asked of the Lord to serve my own wicked heart’s desires?” Now, at the beginning of a new week, I repent, I turn from my own desires and realign myself to God’s plan for my life. More than the work, other relationships, this life, I love you Lord. My heart is for you. All I want is you. I ask for your forgiveness and I willingly confess my sin. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me… (Psalm 51:10).”

Somewhere in between my mouth and my actions, is God’s Spirit. Although my mouth and my actions fail me all the time, God’s Spirit holds this mess together. I am thankful for salvation. I am thankful for the new beginning I have in Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, I am really glad that He is willing to take responsibility for all of this and that all I have to do is follow directions.

….All that I have to do is follow directions.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

Game Time: Tackling the Past

Alon Banks — 2011-08-29 09:00:00.0 PST

Pro football star Jake Walker is living the dream… or so he thinks. The veteran tight end is a fan favorite and on pace to set the all-time receiving yards record that will guarantee him a spot in the Hall of Fame. While working out at training camp, Jake receives an unexpected call from his brother Dean – their father Frank has suffered a major heart attack. Jake immediately leaves practice and returns to Riverton, North Carolina, the small hometown he’s avoided for nearly 15 years. Memories of glory and regret flood his mind as he returns to the family and friends he abandoned in pursuit of his career. Jake dutifully visits with Frank and Dean, but hurt and misunderstanding from the past begins to resurface, leaving him counting the days until he can return to his team.

A second unexpected call, this time from his agent, delivers Jake another crushing blow. His contract is not being renewed amid concerns about his surgically repaired knee. Suddenly, the life Jake knows is over. To avoid the media circus around this news, Jake reluctantly decides to extend his stay in Riverton. Attempting to make the best of the situation, he begins reconnecting with the community that once revered him. Jake is reintroduced to Sarah, his high school sweetheart, and helps Dean take over their father’s high school coaching job.

Surprisingly impacted by the people around him, the real Jake begins to emerge from behind his armor to see that life is much more than the accumulation of personal stats. But when Jake’s offered a lucrative new contract to play for another team, he is forced to decide whether to go back to the career he thought he loved, or stay in Riverton and embrace the people who always believed in him.

"You opened the door."

Paul Fleischmann — 2011-08-25 10:00:00.0 PST

Recently, I met with Larry Chapman, a businessman from a church in the Seattle area who is also a Christian writer.

In 2004, Larry offered to translate one of his books, Extreme Living, into Spanish for use by our Youth Commission leaders from all over Latin America. He traveled with us for a training consultation, meeting with Latin American leaders to adapt the content and graphics.

Larry told me that, since then, they have re-printed three times and have circulated about 10,000 Spanish version editions. As a result of the interest, he has developed a Spanish website (Y-Jesus.com) that has had about 600,000 hits so far in 2011. He thanked NNYM for opening the door! 

A Walk In My Shoes

Alon Banks — 2011-08-22 10:00:00.0 PST

Ever judge someone just by looking at them? Of course, we've all made snap judgments about people. But what if we really got to know them? How would our opinions change? And what if we were forced to become them... how would the shoes fit then?

Stressed-out high school teacher Trish Fahey can't understand her students' lack of effort and why their parents don't seem to care. This is especially true of Justin Kremer, a popular, skateboard-loving, basketball star who is underperforming in her class. Trish has him suspended from the team and quickly chalks up the situation as a case of bad parenting.

This perspective dramatically changes when Trish meets Molly, a mysterious stranger intent on helping her see things differently. When Trish wrecks her car, Molly is there as Trish wakes to find herself living the life of Cindy Kremer, the woman she has personally judged and criticized. Trish discovers that there is often more to the story and learns a powerful lesson that affects everyone she interacts with. Her husband, her daughter, the ex-Marine next door... No one is left unchanged.

Do Churches Contribute to Their Communities?

Stan Elder — 2011-08-19 09:00:00.0 PST

Recently I’ve been looking at a new Barna Group study that says, “Most Americans remain relatively upbeat about the role that local churches play in their communities.”  It continued to say “that three-quarters of U.S. adults believe the presence of a church is a “very” (53%) or “somewhat” (25%) positive influence for their communities.

In contrast, only 1 out of every 20 Americans believes that the influence of a church is negative—either very (2%) or somewhat so (3%). That leaves about one out of six adults (17%) who are indifferent toward the role of churches.”  People who tend to view churches in a more favorable view are the elderly, married adults, women, churchgoers, Protestants, African-Americans and political conservatives.

The first part of the study shows really positive results, but in the later part of the study, things are looking grim.  In the second part of the study it shows groups of people who have a less favorable view of the church.  These people are young (18-27 age), men, never-married adults, those living in the West and Northeast, unchurched adults, and political liberals.

Also despite people’s positive feelings about the church, only 21% of adults could tell how the church is contributing positively to their communities. There also seems to be a disconnect for most Americans between serving the community, and helping individuals find their way to God through Christ. A ministry-related goal such as teaching the Bible, introducing people to Christ, and bringing people to salvation seems to be missing.

I can see this problem play out in this generation. The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) show that most youth see church as just something nice. Many teenagers approach church like an extra-curricular activity.  Teens see it as a good thing to do, but not a necessity in their everyday life.  Kenda Creasy Dean talks about this in her book Almost Christian. “Many youth said religion was important…though most could not describe the difference it made to them personally.” Rick Lawrence from GROUP magazine interviewed students from different church youth groups and asked them one question “Who is Jesus?” Almost all the students answered “He is loving and nice”.

Jesus and the church is a nice thing to have in the community. Just nice? That is not what the first church was, and this is not what Jesus shows us.  We see in Scripture power and passion flowing out of the life of Christ. He welcomed sinners and ate with them. He corrected the self-righteous and turned over the money tables in the temple.  Then Christ was willing to be beaten and bruised, then nailed on a cross for the sins of all mankind.  The leader of the first church had such passion for the gospel of Christ that large numbers of people became believers in Christ.

The Church needs to be more than a nice fixture in a community. The body of Christ needs to work together in loving, powerful, and passionate ways to reach the community. The Church needs to show that Jesus is truly the Living God, and He is powerful.

Y-Jesus

Larry Chapman — 2011-08-18 09:00:00.0 PST

Are your high school students prepared for college?

Leading atheist Richard Dawkins warns his daughter, Juliet, to be skeptical of anything that lacks evidence. He writes to her,

Belief that there is a god or gods, belief in Heaven, . . . belief that Jesus never had a human father, belief that prayers are answered . . . not one of these beliefs is backed up by any good evidence.

And, next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them: “What kind of evidence is there for that?” And if they can’t give you a good answer, I hope you’ll think very carefully before you believe a word they say. Your loving Daddy

If Juliet asked any of your high school students one of the following questions, would he or she be able to provide her with evidence?

What evidence is there for Jesus’ existence?
Did Jesus really claim to be God?
Was there a conspiracy like The Da Vinci Code that invented Jesus’ deity?
How do we know the New Testament is reliable?
Is there real evidence for the resurrection?
Why was it essential that Jesus die for our sins?

These are the questions college students are asking about Jesus and Christianity today. As your high school students get ready to meet the skepticism prevalent on the college campus, are they ready with solid answers for such questions?

Sadly, my friend Bret wasn’t.

As a volunteer high school youth leader, Bret’s main interest became helping kids find Christ. He organized an early-morning prayer group. He recruited kids for both his church youth group and Young Life. Because of Bret’s dedication, I found Christ.

We parted ways when high school was finished and went to different schools. When Bret left for Oklahoma University we all assumed he would “turn the campus upside down” for Christ.

Tragically, when I saw Bret that summer after his freshman year, not only had his enthusiasm for Christ waned, but he had core doubts about the truth of Christianity. Bret’s philosophy professor had argued against the existence of God, and his mind became trapped in a maze of existential questions with no clear answers.

Today, many years later, Bret’s mind is still imprisoned by this maze of doubts and questions. He has become a recluse with no career, no relationships and no apparent desire for truth. We live on opposite sides of the country, but I’m still praying that he will rediscover God’s truth and grace.

I wonder if things would have been different for Bret if he had known the powerful evidences for Christianity before he launched from high school to college. 

Hopefully you can help equip your students so they won’t fall away from the faith like Bret. 

There are powerful and compelling evidences for the Christian faith, but sadly, most Christians don’t know what they are. Spend some time with your students, going over the answers to these questions. When they understand that Christianity is based upon solid evidence, they will be much better prepared to defend their faith and share Christ with fellow students.

One way to do that is to visit: www.y-jesus.com with your students and show them how defensible the Christian faith really is. This website deals with the main questions people today are asking about Jesus Christ.

May God help you in this exciting task of equipping the next generation.

Ask God to Bless Schools September 18

Marlae Gritter — 2011-08-17 09:00:00.0 PST

Last year, on the first Bless Our Schools Sunday, two high school sophomores and one freshman stood in front of more than a hundred peers during Sunday School to pray specifically for their schools, the staff and the students.

They were part of approximately 700 congregations in 20 different countries crying out to the Lord in one voice for students and schools on the third Sunday of September. This year’s prayer event will be September 18.

Bless Our Schools Sunday, hosted by Moms In Touch International, is a time for churches to pray blessing over the educators and students in their congregations and community. Imagine the impact this time of prayer will have on that worn-out teacher, the weary principal, the school board member that’s standing up for biblical values, as well as every school in your community.

After last year’s Bless Our Schools Sunday, one person shared, “It was just a great opportunity to show our students and school staffs that they are important to us.” (More testimonies from Bless Our Schools are available online.)

Ministers have the freedom to celebrate Bless Our Schools in a way that best fits the congregation, including participating at their Saturday services and in their youth groups. Youth ministers not associated with a church can encourage their students to share Bless Our Schools information with their pastors.

Moms In Touch International offers prayer prompts, posters and flyers under Bless Our Schools Sunday.

The 27-year-old prayer ministry, Moms In Touch International, has one goal: to gather women together to pray scripturally and specifically for children and schools. Moms in more than 130 countries around the world meet regularly, spending an hour praying through the Four Steps of Prayer: praising God for who He is, silently confessing any sins, thanking God for what He has done, and interceding on behalf of children, teachers and school staff.

Moms In Touch has created a special bookmark to encourage teens to pray. A Bless Our Schools bookmark is also available. 

For more information about Moms In Touch International, plase visit their website. The About Us section includes a Bio about Fern Nicholsa Fact Sheet about the ministry and the History of MITI.

Giving Teenagers a Hammer

Jim Snead — 2011-08-12 07:00:00.0 PST

Imagine teenagers, armed with hammers and paint brushes, descending upon dilapidated homes in Stark County, Ohio. Kevin Thomas, the coordinator for the Stark County network, has been steadfast in teaching his teens to serve the Lord by helping those in need of home repairs. Starting with yard projects, planting flowers and cleaning out gutters, they are now helping to paint houses.

Serving Together

The Stark County Youth Network (SCYN, pronounced “skin”) has existed for over 20 years in Canton, and is about linking up with other youth workers for mutual support, spiritual growth, sharing resources, and reaching young people. They have been helping teenagers serve the community through an organization called "Hammer and Nails".

Hammer and Nails

Hammer & Nails Inc.’ mission is to assist struggling Stark County homeowners with home and property improvements. But the excited teens who came in teams to do the work also made a difference in the quality of life and living conditions for these homeowners, often spending time with homeowners who shared their life stores, creating friendships and memories. These teens recognized that ministry is about relationships.

Here is what Darlene Leghart from Hammer and Nails has said about the Stark County, Ohio Network:

"Youth pastors from theStark County Network – and their students and families – have been instrumental in helping Hammer & Nails become a viable resource in the community. Each person made a difference in someone’s life. And they keep coming! Many of those churches have both teens and adults coming to serve in a variety of ways. On project sites, mailings, fund raisers, office work and finding supplies and project donations, the keep giving back to their community."

Empowering teenagers

For instance, Tammy Lawson brought her teens to work on yard projects, and is now painting interiors and exteriors of houses. Tammy first came as a student from Malone College, and is now serving at the Friends church in Hughesville, Penna. She has since brought youth from Pennsylvania for week-long mission trips and utilized Hammer and Nails’ retreat center for housing. They slept on the floors - and then ordered bunk beds for thecenter on the way out the door!

Also, Joe Troyer from Hartville Mennonite First, brought a team of teenagers to serve.  Now, the entire church is committed to several projects a year. They come in teams 50 strong, ranging in age from middle school age to 70  years and older! Some are highly skilled carpenters who have built porches and decks.

More than just serving

Now SCYN is not just about work projects, however. They also have cooperated to do:
   - “See You after the Pole” rallies
   - Praise & Worship Nights with prayer for student ministries
   - Consecration of prayer for local schools at the beginning of the year
   - “Seismos” retreats for youth leaders since 2009

Because of their leadership, the network is impacting the lives of people in their county for the kingdom.

Back From Camp; What's Next?

Brian Aaby — 2011-08-10 10:00:00.0 PST

I’ve read some amazing stories on blogs and Facebook of the things God has done at camps, retreats and on mission trips this summer! I believe youth ministry is alive and kicking and God is at work, but was it just there (on the trip) that the Lord moved? Of course not, but for some reason growth and change there seems more obvious, practical and tangible. I’d love to see these things here (at home) become just as evident.

Imagine with me some of the first century Tweets we might have read had the technology existed then ...

From Luke: As @saulpaul was preaching I saw a snoozing teen @eutychusrocks fall from 2nd floor 2 his death! PTL the dude was healed and now lives! #paulkeptpreaching

A ReTweet: RT @weddingcrasher Just saw the strangest thing, Mary’s son Jesus changes water into the best wine I ever tasted! #whoisthisguy

Of course a status update didn’t happen in real time back then, but rest assured, news did travel quickly. Praise God for people like Luke and John who recorded these amazing acts.

The wonderful reports of what took place on your mission trip have landed on the hearts and ears of parents and friends back home. Students have Tweeted about how great the camp was and they have become fast-Facebook friends with those they met at the retreat. But is that it?

How are you handling the transition off of the trip and into the next 51 weeks? This is a question I grappled with as a youth pastor. I got tired of students living for the “camp high” or the “mission trip great feeling.” But the bottom line is that those feelings produced are the things that often bring kudos from parents, other pastors and/or the board.

I believe a plan is needed to merge your students onto the freeway of life that has been flowing back home. We can help students navigate from commitment there to commitment here.

Three Tips for Merging Back Home:

1. Give them a Practical Way to Remain In The Word!

I believe God’s Word and God’s Spirit were key in the things that took place there. Hopefully your group was consistent in God’s Word on your mission trips; the Bible was teaching and challenging students, life was lived together in fellowship, service and witness; and students were responding to the Spirit in obedience: crucial components for life-change were merging together in amazing ways. And it doesn’t have to stop when your kids come home! Give them a practical way to remain the Word. I’ve seen it work, through our MERGE resources for returning home from the mission, retreat or camp (or other experiences). Of course I’d love to see you use our resource, but at minimum, give them a one or two week outline of passages to study, journaling questions and some practical questions to go through as they merge back home.

2. Throw a Better Than A Reunion Party!

There’s nothing that can kill a youth group faster than a holy huddle. Because your students who were at camp together came home with great inside jokes and other shared memories they usually think that these stories are funny to all, but we all know THEY AREN’T! As the leader, you should throw a “Summer End Celebration” to celebrate all that God did in and through the ministry as a whole, not just one specific event. Give ample opportunity for stories from those who went to sports camp (rather than the youth group camp), or those who shared Jesus at their summer jobs, for instance.  Invite them to share their stories of what God did in and through them, in their varied settings. This can be organized with specific testimonies chosen so that all participants can see and hear the collective work of God through the summer!

3. Invite them to the next Mission!

A body of water like a lake or pond becomes toxic when it becomes stagnant. So it is with a body of believers. The camp, retreat and mission were exciting and active because there was movement! The mission-high ceases to exist if the mission is complete. Help students to know that there is a new mission ahead as they return to their campus, engage in their clubs and reinvest in the community! This is something we at Youthmark coined Mission51--the 51 weeks beyond the mission or camp!

As summer comes to a close, perhaps you already sense that the momentum has been lost, but I urge you to jump back in now, it’s not too late! Your students are cause-oriented, give them a cause greater than reliving memories. Challenge them to get back (and stay) in the Word through something like MERGE, reunite them so they can testify and remember His faithfulness, and above all, invite them to fully invest in their new mission field at home!

Grace,
Brian

See You at the Pole Resources

Doug Clark — 2011-08-09 10:00:00.0 PST

The See You at the Pole store is OPEN!

The website store went live on August 8. Free and affordable promotional resources are available at www.syatp.com, including tee-shirts, promo videos, artwork, posters, wristbands and more.

The most efficient way to order is using the online ordering system. But orders can also be phoned in to the Ft. Worth, Texas office by calling 817-HIS PLAN between 9:00a.m. and 5:00p.m., Central time, Monday-Friday.

See You at the Pole is September 28, 2011. The theme for SYATP this year is CONVERGE (Matthew 18:20).

In a nutshell, SYATP is students (middle school, high school, college) gathering at their school flagpole before school on the fourth Wednesday of September to pray for themselves, their school, their community, and their country. It's student-initiated and student-led. It doesn't have to cost anything. It's not a political statement, protest or demonstration. It's simply about prayer. If another time or place works better for the students, they should do it wherever and whenever works best for them.

How See You at the Pole started

It's worth noting that the inspiration for SYATP was a small group of students who were meeting in a home for a weekend retreat in early 1990 with a volunteer couple as their adult leaders. When God "showed up" in a time of commitment during the weekend, the students felt led to go pray on a Saturday night at schools around their home in Burleson, Texas. They felt conspicuous and a little uncomfortable, but were obedient to what they sensed was the Holy Spirit's leading.

Their experience was shared with some youth leaders who were planning a state-wide conference for later that spring in Dallas. Looking for a way to unite students in prayer for their schools across the state when they were going to start the 1990-1991 school year, they took the example of the Burleson group, choosing one common day and suggesting the flagpole as an easy place to find other Christian students for prayer before school.

Although organizers of that event thought as many as 5,000 might take the challenge to get up early and pray, they heard reports of over 56,000 praying on 1,200 schools, spreading by word-of-mouth to three other states. In 1991, it spread all over the U.S. and in other countries. It was clear that God was doing something bigger than any of the original planners thought. Read the full story here.

Women of Faith and NNYM

Alon Banks — 2011-08-08 10:00:00.0 PST

WOMEN OF FAITH has a fantastic new program, called WOMEN OF FAITH GIVES BACK, they’ve implemented in efforts to bless their cities.

With 21,634 first time decisions for Christ just last year, they know that to maximize what God is doing they need to partner with others in their city with the “Same Heart”, in bringing more of Christ to our cities!  SO they are joining forces with NNYM  in efforts for their ticket sales to be able to bless us financially.

Our first opportunity is for the event in Anaheim, CA, but we must act FAST as our deadline for this offer is Monday, August 16th!

Would you consider sharing this with the ladies to join us at WOMEN OF FAITH which will in turn bless NNYM financially in some pretty significant ways.

HERE ARE TWO WAYS YOU CAN HELP US REACH OUR GOAL!

IF WE CAN GET 40 women to come we can offer you a ticket to the conference for $45.00, half the price.  But we have to hit 40 women coming to get this deal so please tell all your friends to join! And CALL US TODAY! (858) 451-1111 x105
IF YOU CAN PAY FULL PRICE, $89.00, (More money for NNYM), W.O.F will give a FREE HOTEL ROOM at the Marriot for every 4 tickets paid in full price by Aug. 16th! (858) 451-1111 x105

SO PLEASE CALL US TODAY!  If we make our goal getting 80 women to attend this could mean $3,000 to NNYM! (858) 451-1111 x105

The Women of Faith Event will Pour into your women in Deep ways, Refresh their Spirit and allow them to experience a bit of heaven while they stand alongside14,000 other Sisters In Christ – all races, denominations and generations worshiping our God together! We don’t have many opportunities to unify with others in the Body of Christ in our cities on this scale and there is power when we come together as “ONE”.

Check out the 2011 Women of Faith promo video right here.

A Voice that Needs to Be Heard

Travis Deans — 2011-08-06 08:00:00.0 PST

Many of you have, no doubt, heard about "The Nines" - a day long, online conference featuring Christian leaders from all over sharing 9 minutes worth of insights on the church, ministry, and building the Kingdom of God coming up on September 27th.

I recently nominated Daryl Nuss, the Excutive Director of the National Network of Youth Ministries to be a speaker for The Nines. Why? Because in all of the seminars, books, workshops, conventions, and discussion about growing the Church, almost no one is talking about churches working together.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about "churches-working-together" as a strategy for church growth. Almost all church growth 'talk' is done in as if your particular church is the only church in your community that needs to grow. We need someone to champion the message that churches are not islands, that we are in this thing together, that we need each other, that we grow best when we grow together.

I have no clue if Daryl will be asked to speak at The Nines, but I am praying that someday church leaders will begin to talk about doing this stuff TOGETHER! For the good of youth ministry, for the good of the whole church, and for the good of lost people the world over, let's get this message out there - we are better together!

By the way, you can give Daryl, and other youth ministry voices, a thumbs up here - http://thenines.cc/nominate-a-speaker/

Power in Weakness

Stan Elder — 2011-08-05 10:00:00.0 PST

In our ministry, we love when God uses our strength and/or giftedness because it is easy for us. Life is smooth and there are not very many bumps in the road. But!!! God also uses our weaknesses and the areas that we consider our failures. We beg God to please take this away. There are times when he says “no”, but also says “I will use it”. This is something we do not like. We’d rather have everything in control, and make sure our weaknesses are hidden. When God uses our weakness, it can be frightening to us.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul’s shows us a difficulty in his life. Paul had something that was so painful to him that he called it a “thorn in my flesh” and “a messenger of Satan”. We do not know what this problem was, but it was chronically debilitating to him. He pleaded to God to take it away. Basically God answered him and said “No! I will use it”. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I do not believe this was what Paul wanted to hear. No one wants to hear God say “no” after pleading to remove a painful issue in their life. In this instance, God was telling Paul his weaknesses
will lean on God’s grace. Paul saw the joy in letting God’s power be used in his weakness. In fact, he said that he was boasting, glad, and delighted in his weakness. Paul understood that allowing God to fill him with His power was greater than Paul doing it on his own.

I understand Paul’s request to God. It’s a prayer I have probably pray a million times myself. My thorn in my flesh is that I have two disabilities. I deal with a speech impediment and a form of dyslexia. I don’t see words backwards as some people do, but I will sometimes place words and letters out of order. I have struggled throughout my life with speaking, reading, and writing. As a five year old, I remember working with a number of therapists on both impediments. Through time and hard work, I found that I wasn’t stupid – in fact, I was intelligent (and I like to think still am). I could do everything other people can do; I just need to do things a little differently. I also thought that I would never have a job that included public speaking or writing for an audience. In the movie “The King’s Speech,” King George VI had to give a speech to England explain that England was heading into World War II. The problem was that the king had a severe speech impediment, and it was up to him to speak to his country. He quoted, “The nation believes when I speak, I speak for them. I can’t speak.” This relates to my life in many ways. There have been a number of times I’ve asked God “How can I do this? I slur my words and have hard time writing about it.”

God has done and is continuing to do amazing things in my life. I’ve been in youth ministry for 16 years now, which is a highly communicating field. I have spoken at youth retreats, conferences, sermons, and meetings. Now, with the Network, I speak to others to gather support for my efforts and to equip and train other youth leaders. In the Network, I’m writing articles, reports, and prayer letters every month. I have seen God’s works of grace and power in my weaknesses. I have discovered that when I recognize my limitations and turn to God in everything I do, I’m more effective. To this point, I can say what Paul said “I delight in weaknesses, and in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” This gives me courage, and deepens my worship because when I admit my weakness, I’m affirming God’s strength.

What is your story? Do you trust in your abilities alone? Are you afraid to step outside of you comfort zone? Are you allowing God to demonstrate his power through your weaknesses? The problem with working only with your strengths is that you are tempted to do it without God and that can become pride. Your weaknesses allow God to fill you with his power which is a lot stronger than your own. God never intend you to be passive or ineffective. Yes, in life, there will be setbacks and failures, but do not let them pull you down. Look at some of the great people in history who had weaknesses and failures. Albert Einstein’s parents and teachers thought he was mentally handicapped. He was also expelled from school. Isaac Newton never did particularly well in school either. Thomas Edison’s teacher said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” In the scriptures, Moses, Gideon, and Peter had weaknesses and failures, but God displayed His power in them. In all things, depend on God. In your weakness, let God’s strength shine in you. You will find that God will use you in ways you can never imagine

Depth

Hayne Steen — 2011-08-04 10:00:00.0 PST

This post was inspired by a question asked to me by one of my long term friends and fellow youth workers, Joel Lusz - Youth Pastor, Sun Tree UMC. "In your opinion, what must youth ministers do in order to create deeper youth ministries?" Here is how I responded:

Having an expanding but clear Biblical definition of “depth” is a healthy starting point. What defines depth for one person may feel like the shallow end to another - depending on the age and im/maturity. Does depth demand a growing orthodoxy (thinking)? A genuine orthopathy (experiencing)? A compassionate othoproxy (doing)? Every community pool in America is legally required to label the depth around its edges so it is evident to everyone. There is a standard for where the shallow end begins and the deep end begins. It would be deadly for the shallow end to be incorrectly labeled. The same may be also true of the spiritual life. When we have a strong working definition of what depth actually is, then we can know what it takes to foster it potential in our own lives as well as those we have been asked to lead. When we have a poorly defined understanding of “depth” we may be asking students to dive head first into the shallow end.
Depth can not be manufactured nor microwaved. It is a gift from God that we are not entitled to experience (ever) just because we desire to walk deeply with God.
Depth is more visible in youth ministries where; a) God's greatness is continually put on display front and center.
- Youth leaders are personally spending extended time alone with God (seeing and savoring Him in His Word and His World).
- Students are consistently taught how to read the scriptures for themselves and are taught how to pray boldly.
- Students and leaders are both actively committed to sharing God's greatness with the next generation (locally and abroad).
- Humor and vulnerability are both celebrated.
- Forgiveness is an action word.
- Parents are being actively discipled. This one is critical.
- The youth minister is not the only adult influencing depth but there is a growing community of adults whose lives are a working definition of depth regardless of circumstance and most often depth takes place because of it.

When You Have To Let One Go

Shawn Niles — 2011-08-01 07:00:00.0 PST

No, I don't have gas. I wish it were that simple.

I recently had to let a volunteer youth leader go. It sucked. Within our youth ministry community, leaders are not just church members – we are like family! And letting a family member know that it's time to step down from youth ministry is hard. Especially when it is not a cut and dried issue such as moral failure. Some poor choices were made that called for a period of time away from youth ministry leadership.

Before the dreaded conversation, much prayer took place. But I also spent some time looking around the internet for some guidance. To no avail. The only information I could find was on “when it's time to let go of a volunteer ministry leader,” but nothing on HOW to let them go. So I found myself in some conversations with God and with other ministry leaders I trust. And before I turned the key in the ignition to meet with the volunteer I was about to have a hard conversation with, I penned a plan.

I want to share that plan with you, so that if you ever find yourself in a position of needing to let go of a leader, you'll at least be able to find one resource. My prayer is that it will help you prayerfully and thoughtfully think through the process.

Make sure that the leader is valued as a person involved in the ministry. From the get-go, underline their strengths! Celebrate past victories. Let them know that you have seen and appreciated all the hard work and effort that they have put in as leaders in your ministry. It is important that they know and understand that you love and appreciate them for their friendship as well as standing next to you in ministry.
Make clear that their actions have necessitated a leadership conversation Outline specifically what they have done that is causing you to question their current leadership ability. If this is something that has built over time, make sure to bring up specific instances where they have been warned about the behavior. If the conversation is regarding one issue that warrants immediate dismissal, be sure to explain why it is big enough that you would ask them to step down. If you are basing your decision on something others have seen, be sure to have those witnesses provide written statements, signed. If your witnesses want to remain anonymous, DO NOT use them. Someone who is willing to give information and sign their name to it deserves to be taken seriously.
Revisit your vision for youth ministry Our vision is “to help students meet Jesus and be radically changed by Him.” My job and the job of my leaders is to carry out and protect that vision at all costs. Someone once said that two visions is division. Whenever you are on the verge of letting someone go from leadership, it is because, based on their actions, they are currently unwilling or unable to carry out the vision that you have set forth. It is important to make clear how that their actions have spoken this.
Separate two VERY important issues a – What is best for the youth ministry at this moment? b – What is best for the person at this moment? Too often we try to care for a person at the expense of ministry. I believe this is what causes us to do more damage in dealing with issues than good. For instance, if I allow a leader to get away with poor behavior, it is damaging to the youth ministry. But if I simply fire a leader without a second thought, for the sake of the ministry, it is damaging to the person. We must always separate the two issues. My goal is to do what is best for the youth ministry, and what is best for the person, but the two very well may NOT intersect. And when you have to let a volunteer leader go, this is the case.
Set forth your vision for their restoration and re-involvement Many times, our thoughts are “I just want the person gone.” And the truth is, that would be much easier! Fire them from youth ministry, and move on! But I don't believe that's a Biblical approach. The Bible is all about restoration, and we should be giving restoration a chance here, as much as we do with the teens we minister to on a regular basis. The truth is that it will probably cost you MORE personally in helping them through a time of restoration than if you were to just keep them on as a volunteer leader. But if Jesus is our example, then we are called to not only present the problem, but walk them through the solution, regardless of the cost.

As I spoke with the leader I needed to let go of, I asked them to allow me to walk with them through a 6 month time of restoration. To help work through some of the issues that led to our current discussion. My goal for them was that at the end of 6 months we would celebrate victories, plan for continued growth, and possibly reinstate them as a youth leader. I committed to no more than 1 year of growth and restoration for this person.

At the end of 1 year, if things hadn't changed, then that would be clear evidence to me that it was not appropriate for this person to re-enter youth ministry. Obviously, not every person will agree to this, and if that's the case then you're off the hook! But it should be the goal of every leader not just to present the problem and solve it, but to walk the person through the healing they will need based on their actions.

Issues like this are certainly a far cry from the fun and games of youth group, the joys of camp, or the incredible feeling of leading a student to Christ. And probably why there's not a ton of info on how to do it! But it's an important part of our role as leaders called to great leadership.

My prayer is that this will help resource you if you ever find yourself in that not so fun place. You know...When you have to let one go!

August YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-07-30 07:00:00.0 PST

Do you have any “broken” kids in your ministry? They’re the focus of articles in the August digital issue ofYouthWorker Journal, which we’re passing on to you thanks to our partnership with YWJ.

We start with “Kids At the Margins” by Chap Clark. This is a new chapter in Chap’s latest book Hurt 2.0.

Culture guru Walt Mueller takes on the tough topic of cutting and self-injury. Other articles cover interfaith activities at college campuses, how your temperament impacts your work and youth culture trends, along with reviews of new resources by Donald Miller, Rob Bell, Greg Stier, Brian McLaren and Derek Melleby, plus new music and DVDs.

Enjoy the issue—and the remaining weeks of summer!

Teaching Teens to Listen

Timothy Eldred — 2011-07-28 13:00:00.0 PST

Ever come to the point where you don’t know how to do anymore than you’re already doing? The frustration of ministry gets the best of you. So you stop. Sit down. Pray. Even plead with God.

Help. Please!

In over 20 years of working with students, I must confess more of those moments than I care to admit. We all find ourselves in those situations because we care. Deeply. Passionately. For youth. For more. We want more for young people than they want for themselves. Or so we like to think.

Throughout my season of youth ministry, I have offered opportunities galore. So have you. We have worked to provide environments and atmospheres where Jesus is present. And we hoped. And prayed. 

“Dear God, help them understand how much you love them.”

Sound familiar? Sound like you?

A few years ago, my ministry shifted. Completely. I found myself giving away my responsibilities. And even my job. I was letting young people do everything I once did before. And they were succeeding. They were actually doing my ministry better than me. It felt awesome. Because I came to realize that I didn’t have to work so hard. If they owned the ministry, they cared. They were vested. It was theirs. 

And I got to help them win!

My tasks took a different shape. I used my time to teach. Became a coach. Dropped the ball. Picked-up the clipboard. And helped youth do ministry. As a result, I became more effective than I ever dreamed. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took me weeks to train them to do everything I was paid to be doing.

During that period, I discovered how to do ministry like Jesus taught his disciples. By letting them. And I just had to tell others about the drastic shift. God opened doors for me to share with youth workers everywhere. He was changing our mindset and the youth ministry paradigm.

For the next 10 years of my life, I crisscrossed the country and other continents. The message he gave me to speak was simple.

“Give youth ministry back to young people.” 

Yes, back. You see that’s how youth work actually started. In 1881, a pastor gave the responsibility of meeting, teaching, praying, worshiping, and serving to a team of 57 teens. And youth ministry was born. 

The story goes like this: Pastor Francis Clark had a problem. Young people were leaving the church. Even walking away from their faith. And he was at the point where he didn’t know how to do anymore than he was already doing. So he stopped. Sat down. Prayed. Even pleaded.

Help. Please!

This young pastor was at a place where you and I have been. And a place the Church is today. But instead of doing more for youth, God simply said, “Do less. Let them do it. And trust me.” His mantra became, “Never do anything for youth in the church they can learn to do themselves.” That’s a powerful premise!

In 2007, I sat down at my desk at Endeavor in a similar moment. As I mentioned, I had beating the youth-led ministry drum across the world without making any real progress. So I stopped again and pleaded. My prayer went something like this: “Father, I have said everything I know how to say to change minds, but I’m not getting anywhere. Help. Please!”

Do you what I believe God said to me in that moment? “Shut up!”

Really. That’s what I heard. As I continued to pray, I wrote down these words as I listened:

pray with youth
get out of my way
support young people

That was not a message, strategy, or plan I ever heard in bible college. Never sat through that seminar at a conference. There was no book on my shelf with that process outlined. I thought must have heard the wrong message.

But I didn’t.

Instead of second guessing, I chose obedience. Risked failure. And told others.

Starting with my own church, we followed the process and began to pray. Not for. Not about. But with.

With youth.

Specifically, we partnered them with a mature, adult Christ-follower once a week for 3 weeks. Their task was simply to seek God together. Ask him to reveal his call on their young life. Simple. But incredible.

In the book of  1 Samuel and chapter 3, we read a story about a young man in the care of youth pastor per se. Samuel was under the spiritual guidance of Eli; a priest who could not see well anymore. In the middle of the night, God called to the young Samuel. Three times the boy went to his youth leader and said, “You called me?” It took some time, but finally, Eli understood that it was God speaking to the young man. And he taught him how to reply the next time he heard the voice.

As youth workers, pastors, and church leaders, we have a responsibility. No a small matter either. Huge. Our primary job is to help young people recognize and respond to God’s call on their life. We must teach them to know God’s voice. As well, we must be willing to make room to them to step into leadership. Even into the job we have been doing. Read the end of the story to see what I mean.

God is speaking to the hearts of the generation we serve today in a profound way. Or at least he’s trying. Often, it’s hard for them to hear because the noise of the world is loud. Maybe our ministries are loud. Even too loud. Louder than we want to admit.

As we have worked hard to create environments where Jesus is present, have we perhaps built ministries where youth do not know how to recognize God’s voice? Accidentally? Even if he calls multiple times?

I don’t know how God is working in your ministry. All I know is what was happening in mine. And I knew that with youth and then with youth workers I wasn’t making the impact God desired. Because I ran out of ideas and words. My ideas. And my words.

When I determined to pray with youth, get out of God’s way, and support his call on young people, my ministry changed in a way that I still can’t imagine or understand. And I will never go back.

Since that day sitting at my desk, God has opened doors for the Pray With Youth™ message to transcend the globe. Tens of thousands of youth in thousands of church in dozens of nations have followed the formula. The transformation has been astounding in their faith communities and especially in the lives of teens trying to find their place in the cause of Jesus Christ.

The challenge continues again this year. We have prayerfully determined to expand the Pray With Youth™ message and give away the original Pray21™ tools we created back then to any-church-any-where now for free!

You can register for free, too, and download all the materials immediately to make this campaign happen in your congregation. Participate in the Global Pray With Youth™ campaign on Sunday 9.11.11.

All I can do is encourage you to experience the results yourself and let God rebirth youth ministry in your church, as young people learn to listen, recognize and respond.

Young people are wanting more and waiting.

Put down the ball. Pick up the clipboard. Become a coach!

Leadership: Experience from the Road

Don Solin — 2011-07-28 10:00:00.0 PST

I was thinking about what it was like in my first internship as the only youth pastor of the church back in 1986-87. I knew a little bit from the youth pastors in my life. I knew a little bit from my youth degree, I knew a little bit from the ministry I grew up going to, participating in and there were some great things from my experience that stayed with me. I knew enough about God's Word to believe He gifted me, called me, and made me who I was and so... I just went and did it and to this day continue on with the same little ole steps that keep me moving forward, enjoying leadership, enjoying ministry, enjoying life. Hopefully you will be encouraged a little bit by reading this today and will ultimately look behind you and see a ministry following you!

Leadership comes with experience by hard knocks, mistakes, failure, trying, dreaming, believing, trusting, input from mentors that love you, experience, a little theory, with much heart and some big time...guts without an expectation of glory or the fear of not being loved or even liked. My dad used to tell me, “It doesn't matter how many times you fall down. It matters how many times you are willing to get back up.” A pithy saying? I used to read books on leadership; I used to wish that I could be a better leader. I used to wish I could lead like “those other guys.” I used to pray that God would make me a good leader. Then one day I woke up and realized I was leading. I was doing it.

Oh, I have had many, many failures. I have had some successes. I have done things that “ticked” people off. I have made decisions that people didn't like, I have led in ways that others have led. I have led in ways that I made up myself. But, I was leading. I was in the battle, I was doing what I believed was Biblical, honest, what I believed was right, what I believed was God's leading. How did I know I was leading? Someone once said, “A leader will know he is leading, when he looks behind him and can see the people following. Of course the flip side is “A leader will know he is not leading when he looks behind him and no one is following.” Another pithy saying?

I write to this NNYM not because I think I'm somebody. I write these little articles because I remember the early years in the trenches. The tough years when I felt like I was out there all by myself. I had a plan but I was scared to death to implement it. What if it failed? I remember the days when leadership was something others did and did it so much better than little ole me. Who would listen to this green horn? Who would follow this inexperienced, blue collar kind of guy? Who would follow my leadership? Then one day I looked back and there was a staff behind me with students behind me. There were parents that saying-- “Go man Go” and so it was time to leadership was on. Who, which great leader would I emulate? Which great youth ministry would I want my ministry to look like? What in the world was I to do?

I decided what seems a long time ago to go and do what I believed I was asked, called, paid to do-- To lead. To push on with what I knew in my heart was where God wanted the ministry to go. I had to develop what God had made me to be... and I was and am right now in continuing to be in process. There was no formula. I tried formulas but it just wasn't me. I tried other people’s ideas some good, some goofy, some not even close to who I was, how I needed to lead, or where I needed to go. Nevertheless the first couple of years, I can say I tried it all.

Personally, the street has been a great teacher. I learned some very important things by just hitting the pavement, the street if you will. I was not over confident by any means. As a matter of fact at my core, I can be pretty insecure. It was time for me to trust in what God was making me to be. It was time to believe that His little call on me was greater than I thought or tried to deny. It was time to take some small and large steps. It was time to get in the trench, to put my feet on the ground, to start leading period.

Step one: Knowing what I knew from Biblical studies, a good well rounded view of the Truth, where did I believe God wanted me to take the ministry? Would I read a book? Would I follow the leader Guru's? Well I took a few baby steps with what I believed the Scriptures taught. I shared, taught, and lived in front of my students and the adults around me what I believed and the direction I was heading.

I decided that since I believed God's word, God's leading, that I would have to move forward using the Scriptures as the basis for the where I was going, and the values that I firmly believed in. I'll admit it. I believe the Scriptures are the basis for doing what I do, where I go and if people don't want that kind of leadership then I don't fit. In the middle of that step on to the next step: Remember this; you are not a leader to be liked or loved. You are a leader to lead. You will have plenty of critics, people that are jealous of what you do, people that won't like what you do or say and the list goes on and on. Co-dependent leaders don't last long as leaders. Co-dependent leaders ultimately turn into followers. So do some self-introspection.

Step two: I talk with those ahead of me my mentor, my ministry friends that had been in the trenches and asked about possible “red flags” or issues I may be creating. In other words I prepared for the doubters, the naysayers, the back lash, the critics and those that just would not follow. I was prepared for worst and at the same time I will continue to push forward. Step three: I listen to only those that know me, love me, and have my best interest in mind. I wanted and want people that love me to let me know where I am blowing it, where I am excelling, where I can improve, but that is not for everyone. That will kill you.

To this day I don't really listen to the people that have no skin in the game. You know the students that only come when they feel you are doing things for them. You know the parents that stand on the sidelines and constantly complain. They complained before I came to the church, they complained to the last guy, the just complain. I will listen to those that have a track record with me with honesty, character, love and care for me. You can't listen to everyone-- choose wisely. Step four: If you believe in the direction you are to go. You have taken some steps, at some point you gotta put everything and go for it. Share the vision loudly, boldly, clearly, gather up students, leaders and parents that you see have skin in the game, want to go for it and go, go, go. Always encouraging others to join in, to pray with you, to live it with you.

Finally have the courage, the bravery, the trust in God, the trust in your leadership people you are specifically forming, trust in the fact that “hey you are the leader. You are there to lead. Now begin to go and lead. If you are already past this stuff and you are looking for some new ways to lead, by all means seek God on some new endeavors, some new vision, a renewed heart and believe you are there to lead, so lead on with new vision. Don't forget to bring people with you in the process. Bring them with you while you seek out God for some “newness”. Ask God to show you some key students that are ready to go with you. Note: Be sure of this. All your weaknesses will come out over time. You can either try to spend a whole bunch of time trying to fix 'em, find gifted people to help out or pretend you don't have weaknesses.

I have chosen through the years to know my weaknesses, not spend the time hiding them or denying them or some I didn't even try to fix. I just found gifted people around me and asked them to help me. I know many “leaders” that for their own sake would help their cause if they would just embrace their weaknesses and stop spending the time denying or fixing and get on with leading.

Who is Simon Miller?

Alon Banks — 2011-07-27 10:00:00.0 PST

We have partnered with Moms 4 Family TV, a bunch of regular moms working to make televesion relevant. Instead of complaining about the lack of good family programs they created the Family Movie Night initiative.

Family Movie Night has reached millions of viewers all across America. The most recent movie, Field of Vision, was a significant success on Saturday, June 11th. Over three million households watched the movie and many lives were touched by the messages of honesty and empathy.

The opportunity to watch great entertainment with "teachable moments" has created a wonderful way for families to interact and discuss important universal truths like trust and forgivness. Now the latest in the Family Movie Night series, Who is Simon Miller?, is set to air August 6, 2011 on NBC.

When unassuming geologist Simon Miller (Loren Dean) mysteriously disappears one night, the Miller family is thrown into a desperate search to find him. Simon's wife Meredith (Robyn Lively) and their two kids, Sarah, 18, and Kevin, 15, frantically search Simon's office for information. When they find a stash of passports, all with Simon's picture but each with a different alias, they realize that their father has been keeping more than a few secrets. Who is Simon Miller? And what has he gotten himself - and now his family - into? Not sure they can even trust the dad they thought they knew, the Millers embark on an international mission to get him back. It's a heart - pounding adventure that tests the limits to which families will fight for each other.

No more throwing stones

Dan Haugh — 2011-07-27 10:00:00.0 PST

As youth pastors, we can get frustrated with traditional churches, hierarchy, and politics.

We want to see changes happen, but often are not the ones in the position to speak about them...let alone implement them. Sometimes we hold in our clenched fists these "stones"...all of the problems we think need fixing: the worship, the structure, the leadership, the youth budget (or lack thereof), the rules and regulations, the atmosphere, the senior pastor, the parents, the theology, the hymns we have to sing, etc...

Over time, these lists can pile up like a bunch of stones. Before long the only thing we know to do with them is throw them at the root of the problem...the church. And if the church has stained glass windows, you might be in for a real scene!

But rather than standing outside in the parking lot throwing stones the church, we must get inside and try to bring change from within. I credit this phrase and idea to my friend and colleague John a.k.a "Bags" and our conversation at the Zoo Bar in Pittsburgh.

One way to begin change from within is to transition away from the programmatic and education-based model of traditional youth ministry towards a more holistic, missional, and emerging form.  I will delve into these areas and issues at a later date, but simply wanted to comment that we make a difference.  As our youth programs transform, as well as our students, the church at large will take notice. Remember,  a fire usually begins with a spark...or a cigarette butt.

I believe in the church...the body of Christ. I am not one to easily bail out of something imperfect.  I am imperfect...we all are imperfect. And the church is full of imperfect people like you and I. But I love the people at my church...not all of them mind you, but the vast majority!

I have made life-long friendships here and have seen countless students grow and mature from awkward and smelly middle schoolers to proud, confident, and solid college grads.

I have hope for the church, for your church and for mine. Rather than leave and start my own church or go the way of the "organic", unstructured, and non-denominational (none of which are bad in my opinion) I have intentionally and deliberately stayed at my church and within my denomination. I may not see eye to eye with members and elders in my church, and I may differ in matters of orthodoxy and orthopraxy with my denomination, but I believe that growth happens as a result of these relationships.

I grow in wisdom, knowledge, and humility all the time through accountability and differences. And hopefully, the church will begin to change and grow as the Spirit of God leads on toward a new generation of Christians. And who shall pave the way?

Youth pastors and the current students in our ministries.

So, don't give up or quite on the church. Anything is possible!

Shift happens.

Change happens

Rather than being a problem pointer, be a part of the solution.

Be the answer to your own prayers.

Instead of throwing stones (figuratively speaking of course), use them to pave the way towards the future.

Let God use your desires, plans, and vision to light a match under the church and be a catalyst for change.

You never know what beautiful thing God can make out of the mess. Places your stones in His hands, join with Him in hopeful confidence, and let him take care of the rest.

Creation Care Video Contest

Alon Banks — 2011-07-26 10:00:00.0 PST

As a high school or college student, your actions not only impact the world today, but you are the voice of tomorrow. You are the future, and all you are doing makes a difference!

At the NAE, they believe that caring for God's creation isn't just a good idea, it is a biblical mandate (see Point 7 of "For the Health of the Nation"). We were created by God to bring him glory. What a better way than caring for the world he gave us. We can all make a difference.

So, do you believe the Bible calls us to care for creation? Are you or someone you know working to take care of the environment? Do you have thoughts about God's creation that you would like to share? We would love to hear from you!

Submit a video about creation care that touches on these questions, and you could win up to $500!

Visit here to learn more about the contest.

Being an Authentic Follower of Christ

Don Solin — 2011-07-26 10:00:00.0 PST

I am a follower of Christ. I am a committed follower of Christ. I try as best I can to be like Christ. I know others that follow Christ with all they have and all they can give. I know many, many today that live their lives as though they are literally following the Christ and that is a great way to live one's life. But, is that it?

Is following Christ all about the first 4 books of the New Testament? Is following Christ only about the “red letters” in the Bible? Is following Christ only about how He lived? Is there anything else? Does following Christ include the writings of Paul or John, James, King David, Ruth and the rest of the Scriptures? Does following Christ only include the great writings of practical theologians that speak of being the hands and feet of Christ? Does following Christ exclude the hard things such as doctrine, theology and hermeneutics? Seriously? Really? Yes really.

I love the phrase “Follower of Christ”. I hope I can be honest here, I'm struggling right now as a student pastor, as a father, as a friend to many other followers that believe that “being like Jesus” is the only thing that matters as one follows Christ. Some may say, “Well, of course, if you follow Christ, that's all you need.” Is it? Does following Christ mean that what Paul states in his writings about authority, or his theology found in the great book of Romans is at best second or third to what following Christ means, or lives like? If one is a follower of Christ but does not view mankind as completely fallen and depraved, how well is this person really following Christ?

After all, if mankind can somehow fix himself, why follow Christ? Really? Romans chapters 1-3 speak of mankind's condition but if a follower of Christ is only about the lifestyle of Christ, who needs the rest of the Scriptures? That is a logical conclusion and I am watching not only my peers treat the scriptures (except the Gospels) with a “lil” disdain these days. Quite frankly, some of my peers are refusing to live, to speak, to influence about such things as the value of the local church. While Jesus may not have been overly strong about the “church”, the apostle Paul does speak about the local church.

After all, the local church movement came at Pentecost, after the death and resurrection of Christ. So, how well are we as youth pastors/workers helping student to embrace “following Christ” completely? My concern is not about thumping people over the heads with a “new list”. My concern is that following Christ is not just about the first 4 books of the New Testament or better yet just the beatitudes, or even better just about social justice. Doesn't following Christ embrace all of the Scriptures? Doesn't following Christ mean that Jesus, the Living Word cared about the Scriptures, so we should also? It is not enough anymore to just tell students and others to “just Follow Christ.” It's not.

I have seen, witnessed, been part of people’s lives that have loved, lived the term “following Christ” but when the tough things of life hit, they had no foundation to stand on. They had no church community to help-- “they didn't need the church, they don't need a pastor, they don't need anything but to follow Christ.” So when life got twisted, when life got whacked, when sin was hurting them, when they had no answers to why follow Christ, they had no foundation except that they were committed to being like Christ and following Christ. The tough answers to tough questions were side stepped, the P.C. Idiots got to them, the mantra of the day became their mantra, and they ultimately became disgruntled with church (they are all hypocrites) with people (they don't follow Christ like I do) with worship (it's not the way they like it) with just following Christ period.

We youth pastors/youth workers have to help students to get the big picture. The Scriptures help us to follow Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 Jesus used Scripture has he lived. Matt. 4.1-11 Jesus speaks of the foundation of Scripture. Matthew 7:25-27 John writes of the Words and Works of Jesus Christ. 1 John Hebrews is a book dedicated to the Priesthood of Christ Jesus. Of course there is so much more about Christ found throughout the whole Bible. The value of Following Christ is found not just in the following but in the knowing of Christ. The reason why He is the only way. The reason why the local church matters. The reason why the Scriptures are alive and have meaning for daily life. The reason why submitting to authority is part of following Christ. The reason why "doing and not doing" has eternal implications. The reason for giving, for caring, for being a follower of the Christ and many more found in the Scriptures.

I simply want to encourage, to exhort if you will, all of us that work with students to continue to teach the Word so that our students can be as Paul wrote: “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3. We must help students to engage, to pursue with passion, to obey, to live out with definition what it means to “Follow Christ.”

Monuments or Mileposts?

John Williams — 2011-07-25 10:00:00.0 PST

Is it strange that one of the banes of my existence is a Coke machine? That's right...a big heavy red nightmare. I walk in the church kitchen...it looks at me with a look that says, "Whatcha gonna do about it?" I answer back, "You're day is coming my friend and when it does I'll be there!"

This Coke machine has never worked right, and hasn't worked at all in years.  But there it sits...in all of it's contemptuous glory. Why? That's a good question. It serves no purpose, provides no value, takes up space but gives nothing back. So why is it there? Because it's "always been there". It has become a monument erected to the way things have always been...to comfort...to inertia...to a fear of change. After all, if we move that monument what will we put in it's place?  Where will we place the cornucopia of items found lying around the fellowship hall that no one claims? Isn't it just easier to act like it's not there.

So what's my point? The point is that monuments are most frequently built for dead people, objects, or causes. Monuments serve the purpose of reminding us of the past. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, when we focus on them, we fail to live in the present or look toward the future. Mile posts, on the other hand, let us know where we are, and point us onward...onward to bigger dreams and better places. Monuments tie us up, mile posts set us free. Monuments anchor us...mile posts remind us of what we can become. 

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, stated that if there is one thing that he knew he did well it was forgetting what was behind him and straining toward what was ahead. He pressed on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called him. Paul often remembered his past to his followers, but Paul never relived his past. He knew that was a loosing proposition. What about you? Do you tie yourself to monuments, or do you look forward to that next mile post? What has God set in your future? What amazing things are you destined to do for his kingdom?

Beyond See You at the Pole

Doug Clark — 2011-07-14 10:00:00.0 PST

“CONVERGE” (from Matthew 18:20) is the theme for See You at the Pole 2011, the Annual Global Day of Student Prayer. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 28, at schools across the United States and in many other countries.

In 2010, teenagers met for See You at the Pole in every U.S. state and many countries around the world. Other nations have launched SYATP movements with their own promotional efforts, including Australia (where it was observed in 2011 on May 26; see stories at www.syatpaustralia.com) and Canada (on the same date as U.S.; www.syatpcanada.com).

But the lesser-known part of the story of SYATP has been how, both locally and nationally, students and youth leaders have taken the event beyond one day to continue prayer, evangelism, and other student-led campus ministry.

The Campus Alliance (www.everyschool.com) offers a wealth of resources to help people adopt and minister to schools in their communities.It was started by the Network, but leaders include a broad cross-section of denominations and ministry organizations.

JoshMcDowell and other Christian leaders have endorsed Christian Endeavor’s “Pray WITH Youth” campaign (www.praywithyouth.com), which encourages churches (starting on September 11) to support the need to pray with teenagers.

ClaimYour Campus (www.claimyourcampus.com) was launched by a Michigan youth pastor, Jeff Eckert, who is driven by a vision to see students and their churches “own” on-campus prayer every day of the school week, all year long.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes sponsors “Fields of Faith” (October 12 this year; www.fieldsoffaith.com) to provide an opportunity for students to share the gospel with their friends as a natural follow-up to their prayers for their peers at SYATP.

The40 Day Challenge (www.40days.net) was started in Florida to encourage praying students to grow in their faith, offering support and resources to help them in a more vital walk with God.

These national efforts may not involve nearly as many people as the multitude of local “SAW You at the Pole” rallies, student-led prayer meetings, Bible studies, and clubs that are launched every fall as a logical extension of the prayer rallies on the fourth Wednesday of September.

PerhapsGod has given you or your students a successful strategy. If so, NNYM and SYATP this year will be showcasing them online. Please send details to Doug Clark at dclark@nnym.org or call him at 858-946-1410.

Everything necessary for students to plan and promote a successful SYATP is available free at www.syatp.com. Additional promotional resources can be ordered online or by calling (817) HIS-PLAN (817-447-7526) between 9-5 (Central Time), Monday-Friday. Brochures, a promotional DVD, and posters are some of the materials available for 2011. Media helps for print and radio are also available for download.

NNYM coordinates SYATP promotion. Daryl Nuss, executive director of the Network, commented: “SYATP helps launch teenagers and college students – in unity – to minister to their peers. See You at the Pole empowers students in prayer at the beginning of the school year to take leadership at their schools. What better way is there to begin a semester than to pray for their friends, community, and nation?”

Your church congregations can show support for students by sponsoring special “Campus Challenge Sunday” commissioning services September 24-25, the weekend before See You at the Pole. Participants can recognize and pray for Christian students and educators in their congregations. For resources, please contact Doug Clark.

Clark added, “See You at the Pole, at its best, has never been about oneday. It’s been about supporting students and helping them understand how they can be “campus missionaries” all year long.”

Dreaming Big For God

Shawn Niles — 2011-07-13 12:00:00.0 PST

You know, it's one thing to ask your students to dream big for God. It's another thing when they actually start doing it.

Last year, I was sitting with some key student leaders in a circle at our campsite during Creation. I said "guys, this year, I want you to dream big. Dream SO big that we won't be able to accomplish the dream unless God steps in."

Sometimes, as a youth pastor, I have great ideas that I don't always think through. I didn't realize that some of them were already dreaming big, and I was in for the ride of my life.

It started when one of my students, Brad, came up to me shortly after that circle talk and said "Hey, your wife and I had a great idea!"

"What are you doing dreaming with my wife?" I didn't say that, but I thought it. Instead, I said, "What's the dream Brad?"

"Well, what if we held an event to reach people who might never come to church?"

"Sounds great!"

"And what if we had Christian music, and Christian speakers?"

"Sweet!"

"And what if we raised money to fight human trafficking?"

"Okay, that could definitely take some time and work!"

"What if it was a cage fighting event?"

My eyes got wide, and my mouth was hanging down to my socks. As you can imagine, my youth pastor job and my love of MMA and cage fighting don't always mix. My response was weak; "Dude, that's cool, but how in the world would we make that happen?"

His response was crippling: "Shawn, you just asked us to dream dreams that were bigger than us."

Although I felt about two inches tall, I answered, "You're right. Let's start praying and researching." Which is what we did.

I had no idea where to start with this. I was telling everyone about this great idea, asking for input, and hearing a lot of great feedback. Finally, someone said, "Shawn, go talk to Rich and Julie Guerin, the owners of Yakima (Washington) MMA (read about MMA here). They do live events here in town once in awhile."

I agreed, and headed down to their gym, fully expecting to get laughed at for the silly idea of combining cage fighting and ministry. I walked through the doors and met Jule Guerin. Stumbling over myself, feeling lik a nerd in the locker room, I told her briefly about this idea of a cage fighting event mixed with ministry and doing something about human trafficking. Her eyes lit up as she replied, "Shawn, Rich and I are Christ followers; we go to Breaktrhough Christian Center. This is a great idea; let's talk more!"

We sat down a week later at Starbucks, where I met Rich Guerin for the first time. This huge dude, cauliflower ears and all, along with his wife Julie, sat down with my wife Tenielle and me, and dreamt about a big cage fighting event, unlike any other. It would be an event where incredible athletes would beat each other up, where the gospel would be preached, where Christian music would fill the atmosphere and money could be raised for human trafficking victims.

As I told Rich and Julie about human trafficking, its worldwide effects, and even its local effects, tears filled Julie's eyes. Her words will never leave me: "Shawn, I would do anything to protect my daughter. I want to protect other daughters."

That was last fall. As I write this, we are two weeks away from the first ever "Hits For The Helpless." In the last 9 ½ months, we've seen God open some incredible doors. I had the opportunity to speak with an MMA legend, Matt "The Law" Lindland, who is also a Christ follower. I asked if he'd be willing to come speak at the event and sign autographs, and his response was "I've been praying for the opportunity to fight human trafficking. I believe this is my answer."

Although not a star in the MMA world, The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase of WWE fame, was quick to want to help out as well, and signed on to become our main speaker, and the one who will present the gospel to our crowd. Miesha "Takedown" Tate, who will fight for the Strikeforce women's world championship three weeks after the event, came on board as well. As one of the top five women fighters in the world, we were and are humbled to have her presence.

And then there are the fights. Between 12-14 fights will take place on that evening, and all the fighters know and are excited about fighting for the human trafficking cause. It's an event we could have never dreamt possible.

But then again, we asked God to give us dreams bigger than us. And that's what He did.

Editor’s note: We wanted to report the results of Hits For The Helpless. Shawn shared that between 500-600 people attended, and more than $1,000 was raised to combat trafficking. Three of the competitors in the event prayed to receive Christ! As more details come in, they will be reported at www.hitsforthehelpless.com. And if your dream is similar to Shawn’s, he is glad to talk to you. Contact him at RevShawnNiles@aol.com.

Core Values on Youth Ministry

Doug Franklin — 2011-07-06 10:00:00.0 PST

What I believe about youth ministry:

1. Youth ministry is the ministry of students to their world
Church paradigms must change; churches with ministries to students must transform and become student led ministries to their world.

2. Youth workers are leaders
God has called us to youth ministry and placed us in his church. He has also given us everything we need to finish his mission in that church. I believe each youth worker can have confidence that God is by his or her side. With that confidence we should lead students, adult volunteers, parents and church leaders in the completion of God’s work.

3. Adult volunteers are key to youth ministry
The size of a youth ministry is determined by the number of adults that in significant spiritual relationship with students. Butts in seats don’t matter, relationships do. I believe we must spend significant amounts of time and resources equipping and training our adult volunteers.

4. Parents are the primary faith influencers in students’ lives
I believe parents are to take the lead role in the students’ spiritual growth. The youth worker is to come along side the parents to help them and provide resources to assist them in students’ growth. If students don’t have parents who are Christ followers (Or parents who don’t care) then the youth worker takes the lead.

5. Students can lead now
If we continue to treat students like participants they will continue to leave the church after high school and not return. If we allow them to lead they will become owners and will see how their giftedness benefits the body and brings joy to their lives. Students are not the future; they can lead now.

What are your core values?

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Editor's Note: Doug Franklin is the president of LeaderTreks, a ministry dedicated to creating tools and resources to enable youth workers to develop students into leaders. Doug's blog, www.dougfranklinonline.com, has a wealth of insights.

July YouthWorker Journal

Alon Banks — 2011-07-04 10:00:00.0 PST

Some youth workers struggle with organization while others expertly oversee vast youth ministry departments, programs, staffs and budgets.

No matter where you fall on the ministry management spectrum, we believe you’ll get helpful tips from Nancy Ortberg, Scott Rubin, Kara Powell, Steve Argue, Jim Candy, Syler Thomas, Larry Fowler and Lars Rood in this digital July issue of YouthWorker Journal.

We’re glad to provide this issue free thanks to our partnership with YWJ. May it increase your efficiency and your efficacy!

NNYM will be at Creation Northeast

Travis Deans — 2011-06-28 16:50:00.0 PST

If you are going to the Creation Festival Northeast, please stop by the Youth Leaders Only area, hosted by Interlinc, and say hi!

We'll have an NNYM information table there as well as a map to help youth leaders discover others who are near them.

The Creation Festival is one the largest festivals in the nation and the line up of speakers and bands this years is really good.

Check it all out at www.creationfest.com/ne. If you can come for the whole week, consider coming for just a day! Either way, stop by and say hello at the NNYM table!

3 FREE Devotions On Connecting With What God Is Doing

Alon Banks — 2011-06-17 11:30:00.0 PST

We have another great resource from our friends at ym360. They are committed to equipping youth workers with Bible Study resources that are Bible focused, creative, and culturally relevant. These FREE devotions are a simple way of demonstrating this commitment.

The newset set of FREE devotions are titled "Plugging In: 3 Devotions On Connecting With What God Is Doing."

The devotions focus on being on mission with God is the call of all Christ-followers. Yet, God can’t use us if we’re not plugged-in to what He’s doing.

This FREE series of 3 devotions is a simple, straightforward reminder to students that staying plugged-in to God is key to being on mission with God. What is God’s mission? To meet the physical and spiritual needs of the world. But we can’t be on mission with God unless our heart is in the right place. These short devotions will help your students do just that.

Each devotion has a specific purpose from getting you thinking about how sin can really hurt your closeness with God, and to help you think about any sin in your life that you’re not addressing, leading you to look outward, to see if you are fulfilling Christ’s call to use your life to meet the needs of the less fortunate, and helping you understand that love is the key to connecting us to both God and to what He is doing in our world today.

They are completely FREE and you are encouraged to:

Pass them out at your next youth gathering
Consider emailing them to your students and parents to encourage family devotion time
Post them as a downloadable link on your church/youth website or group Facebook page

Our prayer is that your students will draw closer to Christ as a result of spending time in His Word.

Oneness

Hayne Steen — 2011-06-16 07:00:00.0 PST

One of the banner passages of scripture we cling to at the Chattanooga Youth Network is John 17 where Jesus is recorded praying a dynamic prayer for believers and unbelievers. Our heart is to help the Church experience a dynamic oneness that will announce the reality of the Gospel.

In the 17th chapter in the Gospel of John we get to be a fly on the wall of Jesus’ prayer life. The Gospels record Jesus pulling away to be alone with the Father. This prayer flows powerfully from the well of Jesus’ deep heart for those who believe and those who will one day finally rest in the cosmic reality of God’s great invitation into holy brotherhood and sonship.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

   24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

   25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Last weekend I had the opportunity to officiate my fourth wedding. The words I crafted flow right from an ongoing interest of mine in the connection between Trinitarian relationship and Christian marriage. Within the personality of God we see a “oneness” that we are invited to experience when we bind our lives to another person. Speaking to the primary purpose of marriage at a wedding seems like a very relevant direction to head. Even as I was looking this young couple in the eyes as I spoke, tears formed in theirs (and mine) as I charged them to chase oneness every minute of every day. Oneness with God. Oneness with each other. During this message I was at one point very aware that I had not referenced my notes once. This message was flowing right out of my own life and marriage. Probably because this has been a place of radical challenge and change for me.

The morning after the wedding I spoke to about fifty students at my church. All week I prayed about what God might like me to share. Lots of topics floated through my mind during daily prayer times as I considered before God what direction He might like me to head. At least ten times throughout the week I had this same recurring thought that I should speak on marriage but each time dismissed it saying, ‘What would a middle or high school student care about marriage? Isn’t it a bit premature to teach on marriage? Do you really want to encourage students to know this information when they can not or should not access it for themselves?” After the wedding on Saturday night I sensed the Lord really press me hard to teach on Oneness and specifically related to marriage. So I crafted my message preparing to dive wholeheartedly into the Biblical purpose of marriage which is “Oneness.”

On Sunday morning as students were seated after worship I made a few introductory remarks to lighten up the mood in the room and then asked students to raise their hands if they have ever heard anyone teach on the purpose of marriage specifically to students. Not one single student raised their hand. I asked them a follow up question. “How many of you are interested in what the Bible says about marriage?” Every hand was raised. Interesting.

Clue #1 - Teenagers care about what God thinks about marriage. 

I laid down a foundation for students to understand Trinitarian relationship. I then shared with them the words that I had spoken the night before to this young Christian couple who were surrounded by their family and friends. Here is what I shared…

Each member of the trinity exists to amplify the strengths of the other members. Were any of the other members to to exalt itself above the others it would destroy the perfectly submitted relationship that they share together. Their oneness would be compromised. Here we have the image of God modeling for us the true purpose of marriage - Oneness.  Each member of the one plays a critical role in the fellowship and to the degree that they are faithful to pursuing oneness, maintaining this oneness will be blessed by the experience of oneness.  So God in His generosity, created us and He invites us into relationship for the primary purpose of experiencing perfect submission - first to Him and then with one another.  “Perfect submission” looks very different than we would even imagine in our post modern culture today. The word submission conjures up images that have very little to do with Biblical submission at all.  Submission is not one member being stronger and another weaker Submission is not one member being more and another less Submission is not one person losing their voice  Submission is not one person making all of the decisions Submission is not one person standing center stage while the other member lurks in the shadows.  Remember, all of the members exist to amplify the strengths of the other members.  Peter a disciple hand picked by Jesus writes to us about what perfect submission looks like. It has often been a text widely misunderstood and ripped out of context. The central image that Peter uses in the context of submission is “power.”  Basically you both want the other to win.  1 Peter 3 has this to say about “perfect submission.”  “Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands.” Our culture supports the lie that would tell us that the strength of a woman is completely external or that a woman’s power derives in her outward beauty alone. Look on the cover of any magazine targeting women (or men) and you will see the lie being perpetuated.  Does that mean that a woman can not be beautiful? No. Does this mean that these fine clothes are worthless or fundamentally wrong? Absolutely not. This passage simply amplifies the truth that aims at where really beauty and strength are formed in a woman. From the inside out.  Jess, you look absolutely beautiful. Everyone is in awe of you today. But I know this about you. You are a strong woman not because of your beauty but because of what God has done and continues to do inside of you. You have heard God call you His beloved and you have allowed him to resonate and renovate every fiber of your character and your heart. That is what drew David Hutton to you. Now, your outward beauty may have made him do a double take but it is your character that leads him to stand so resolutely beside and with you today.  Peter then addresses the husband. Husbands in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives. Treat them as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing can hinder your prayers. Our culture is just as quick to offer up their perspective as to where the strength of a man lies or does not lie.  In commercials men are often portrayed something like this…a woman is standing in the forefront shaking her head saying something like, “My husband is so stupid. He doesn’t even have a brain.” In the background the husband is all wound and wrapped up in the blinds like a fool, probably because he attempted some simple home repair project that failed and he can’t seem to find his way out of the blinds. There is no doubt a real misunderstanding where the power and lie for us as men and women.  Men get a bad rap when it comes to these passages on submission because they were penned by the hand of man. But the next passage was penned by Paul, a single man who went on to write most of what is called the New Testament in the Bible.  Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave herself up for her (1) to make her holy (2) cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (3) to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands out to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all noone ever hated his own body but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church - for we are members of His body.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.  What men are being called to as husbands is a dramatic surrender in order to amplify the holiness of their wife. It is compared to Christ and his sacrifice - which was a complete physical death to himself for his bride the church. That is an image of real power and real strength.  David, you are an incredibly strong man. Not because of your physical stature or your ability to strike fear into the heart of another person. You are strong because of your character that is reflected in your love for Christ. It is not your brawn that attracted Jess to you, it is your character. That is why she would risk in such a substantial way to stand here and unite herself with you for the lifelong adventure of pursuing oneness. 

I concluded my thoughts with a couple of anecdotal comments and prayed for students before they departed. A few minutes later I bumped into one of the high school guys I have come to know and love as a member of our Discipleship Group. Evan is an encourager by nature but is never afraid to let us know when things do not “land” on his heart and mind. He thanked me for the message and then proceeded to tell me that he wished we spoke about this topic more often saying, “We just can’t talk early enough about it. ” What Evan is saying here is powerful. The earlier the better. The more the better. That is when and how often he would like to learn about how to prepare himself for the holiest relationship we could ever experience with another person on this planet. 

Clue #2 - Teenagers really want to know what God thinks about marriage. 

Are you teaching on this topic to students? If you are considering it, please make sure the person you elevate to communicate shares Jesus heart expressed in John 17. That as the world would notice oneness in a marriage that they would know that God is real and that God is great. 

We do a substantial amount of teaching on abstinence. Have we really helped students see that oneness is at stake when we sin sexually. The bottom line is that your student want to hear about it. They are longing to know God’s heart on this issue. Let them know yours in the process as you lead them and love them.

the Gospel

Don Solin — 2011-06-15 07:00:00.0 PST

Can we talk? Can we talk about something really tough to talk about?
How P.C. Are you? How P.C. is your student ministry? Really?

I grew up playing pee wee baseball and pee wee football. I played hockey on a rink made in a park, on a creek, on a river, the street, the gym floor…where ever we could play. Oh, and we kept score. My friends to this day talk about all the fun we had. I played park district baseball. I didn’t play alone, all my neighborhood friends played on separate teams. When I stepped up to the plate and my very good friend was pitching he would throw big curve balls because he knew I couldn't hit them. I wiffed 3 times-- struck out by a very good friend. Did we laugh back then? No. Was it fun for me? No. In the moment was I glad I struck out? Of course not. Nevertheless I ultimately grew. I had to learn how to hit a curve ball. We kept score. We talked about it. We poked at each other about which team was winning more games and so on. Personally, competition was extremely good for me. I learned how to win graciously. I learned how to lose without hanging my head. I learned how to cooperate within a team for a common goal-- winning. I learned some very important things through winning and losing. Frankly, this P.C. ideal about not keeping score- about not hurting kids feelings is just plain screwy!  Is it not okay for a youth worker, youth pastor, or anyone to say-- “Be quiet already. I'm not following this way of thinking”?

Does anyone remember when calling a friend out for “bad” behavior was a good thing? When talking to a friend about their choice of friends or unhealthy behavior was part of being a friend? When talking about things that were “not acceptable” was a good thing in relationships and was the right thing to do? When going against the flow was considered “righteous”?

Does anyone remember when talking about sharing the Gospel was part of growing in one's relationship with Christ? That sharing the Gospel was part of what a youth ministry held as a high value? That reaching all students was part of the “why” one did this thing called youth ministry? That campuses were to be reached? That all students needed the Lord? How about this - when did youth ministry become about making everyone happy? Or keeping students safe? Or keeping the Christian student out of trouble? Or just taking care of the Christian student and leaving out doing ministry for those outside of the walls of the church? Oh, has that not changed? Are our youth ministries still about reaching students? Really? Or is that something that is done by a short term mission project where you go overseas for 2 weeks? Or by going to the homeless shelter once a month? Or by giving out food on a monthly basis? Is that really reaching out or is that something that we do because everyone else is doing it? Is doing all the above about really touching the lives of people or is it what we are supposed to be doing?

The question that keeps running through my mind and heart is this: Has P.C. entered into our ministry and we just don't know it? Maybe being P.C. is actually a new legalism that speaks of doing, and doing and doing without sharing the life changing Gospel that actually transforms lives. Maybe some have gotten past the Gospel because “that may offend people”, so just do and maybe they will see we really care. Don't offend people with the message of the transforming power of the Gospel. Get close, but God forbid, don't offend people with the message. The street corner preachers of the past have hurt us by their rants, their calling out sin, and their brashness. So now, we’ve gotta be cool. We’ve gotta be relevant. We won't step on toes. We ‘ll get our hands dirty and share all our stuff, but sharing the Gospel is too confining. Sharing the Gospel may mean that people won't take our stuff. That they won't accept our “doing” for them. After all, isn't it better to take care of the needs of those in need? The end result is not to know Christ but to make people less miserable. Is that too harsh?

Now, I know that rubs hard at some people. But many today forsake the transforming power in the Gospel (that will offend) to “doing” because “doing” is less harsh and provides earthly needs. In this P.C. world we think we can share the gospel later - but is there really a guarantee of later? No doubt it’s easier to “do”. Isn't it easier to get students to fill bags, give a few hours a week, go away for 2 weeks rather than live out their faith daily as they share what makes them tick-- the transforming power of Jesus in their lives? Or is He really transforming them? Is He really giving them the burden of the lost world? Is He really working in them to care about not only the needs of people but also the hearts of people?

In principle what the world is doing today is what we Christians are now doing. While we have the message, while we have the answer to the world's darkness, the P.C thing is to not rock the boat. To not be like those from the past that came on about sin and all that-- preaching the Gospel but not taking care of the needs of people. My mind and heart says that an effective student ministry teaches, demonstrates and helps students see that the people outside the church walls matter – both in their separation from God and their brokenness in their poverty, their loneliness, their need of help in the state in which they are living.

Is it now too harsh to believe like Paul…to be like Paul….and actually live out this truth?
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” ~Romans 1.16,17

Has P.C. Entered into student ministry? Do youth leaders today feel the Gospel is actually irrelevant. That the only way to reach people is by doing? That the transforming power of the Gospel is something that those old time holy rollers, those right wing people did back in the day?  Is the gospel just too politically incorrect?

Does Jesus still save? Do we still contend for the Gospel? Are we building student ministries that care only for the outside stuff that people desperately need while holding back on the only thing that can actually transform people? Is sharing the Gospel only about going to heaven or not going to heaven?  I don't think that is the only main reason. Doesn't the message of the Gospel when received actually connect broken humanity to the living God? Or is that really not important? Is there another way? Is good deeds the life changer? Or is good deeds a result of a changed heart? Really.

Has the day has arrived, that the complaints of the disenfranchised with the church – those that have said “we don't like the church”, “the church doesn't really care, they just preach about how bad we are or how Jesus is the answer or how this or that is missing” caused us to change and become P.C. in order for our message to be heard. Is the message gone now? Are we practicing a new outward appearance? Are we now teaching students that the only thing that really counts is how we “do” things for others and neglect going for the tougher thing that may turn people off, the sharing of the Gospel.

We live in a very tough time. A time of being honest enough to raise this issue, but also offending those that have made the crossover from caring about peoples broken relationships with Christ to only dealing with their external brokenness. A Christ follower lives out the life of Christ for sure. I know full well that reaching out to people, feeding the poor, taking care of those in poverty, “doing” for all people is vital to sharing the Gospel. But is the Gospel being shared? I'm not talking about making people better on the outside. I'm not talking about transforming the outside. I'm talking about sharing the Gospel so that people's hearts can be transformed or at the very least give people the chance to decide for themselves if the gospel is relevant.
Isn't it true that in the end we are taking nothing with us? That all people will be faced with how they responded to message of the Gospel? That in the end, all the “stuff” in the world will change no one? That God wants a relationship with all humanity and we have that message? Isn't it true that every day we walk into a student ministry room or someplace where we face students that say they love the Lord but have nothing to do with Him during the week at school or at home? And then they go out and give to the poor, take care of the needy, do all the stuff and could care less about the why they are there… to share the Gospel. But are they? If the answer is no, is that okay? Is it really the role of Christians to right the wrongs perpetrated on those that are without, those that are poor, those that are in need? Is the Christ follower obligated to only fix the injustices through out the world and not to share the Gospel?

Back in my day, (High School) I did all the stuff. I went to church, I dressed the right way. I memorized the scriptures. I did everything I was supposed to, but I didn't know the Lord at all. I was taught all the stuff without any understanding that I needed the Lord to transform my heart. After all, I could transform myself. I did all the stuff-- until it was time to leave for college. Then, no one was around to see my outward stuff anymore. I went big. I went for it. My heart was dark. I was a product of the youth group mentality. Do like we do and you can belong. Be like us and you are one of us. Do all the right stuff and I may just be able to save myself by my good deeds? After all, if I could do and be righteous by keeping all the “laws” of our group-- I actually became as good as everyone else. At least that is what I believed and that is how I lived.

I believe we have a new thing but the same old problem. Do what is deemed important and that proves you know the Lord. Do the P.C. stuff… take care of all the right stuff and you are walking with Christ. Now it's not about dress, rock and roll and all that stuff, we all got over all that. Now it’s about transforming the world by “doing” but isn't the Power of change found in the gospel?

The day is here when people need more than just students fulfilling a giving moment or just “doing” for those that truly in need... but, I dare say that the P.C. movement keeps us from going to the hard level. The daily level. The level of going out and sharing the Gospel with friends, with classmates, with the community. “Doing” without the Gospel is considered “righteous”. Not offending people is better. At least they will know that we are Christians by our actions, right? The message is now in the deed. But is it? Everybody is doing it. We are a generous people, but do our students really believe that mankind is helpless in their hearts? Do our students know that people, all people, need a relationship with the living Christ?

I have a little rule I have followed for years. Here goes. As the ministry leader I desire to reach every campus in our community. Is that really about numbers? Absolutely not. Am I trying to build a student ministry? Absolutely. Am I just interested in filling a room? Not at all. Do I believe that students actually need Christ to change them from within? You bet. And so, I believe that the students that get the life changing message - that get the reality of Jesus Christ in their life - as they live their faith at home, at school, at parties, on the street, where ever they live, they are ready to go and do the things that flow from their heart. I know that is not what is going on right now. It is a disservice to followers of Christ to make giving, missions, service projects, etc. that are fulfilled once a year, once a month or once a week the essence of being a Christ follower.

I desire for my team of leaders both students and adults to grab on to the life of Jesus that is lived out every day. I know that it could be argued that mission trips and “doing” are good training opportunities, and they are, but if a student ministry is solely focused on the “going and the doing” without a clear reason to share the transforming power of the gospel aren’t we just like all the other non-profit organizations in the world that give, that feed, that reach out?  I contend that the church, the Christ followers today have the answer for the ills of the world and that answer is in found in the gospel. Or is that too simple? Too politically incorrect? Too narrow?

Do our students believe that mankind outside of a relationship with Christ is without hope for peace? Real peace. The peace that passes all understanding? The peace of having a relationship with the living God through Christ Jesus? The peace that says in one's insides that God and I are connected because by faith I have received the life changing truth that the death and resurrection of Christ is a reality? That the only thing that can change a persons heart is a relationship with Christ? Or is that now out of the equation?

Why put this out there? Simply stated: I sense that the time is now to diligently do both. Sharing the gospel while reaching out, feeding the poor, and taking care of the needy. The time is now. The harvest is ripe for telling people of the good news that hasn't changed in 2000 years. Yes, we must put the hands and feet of the living Christ in our deeds with the message. This world needs followers of Christ to do both all the time as they live out their faith.

I believe the gospel has power to change people. Moreover, I believe people need to change internally. I believe that sin really keeps people from a relationship with the living God. I believe that it is not politics that will change the world but that Jesus came to change this world through His followers, the message they share, the good deeds they do, and the example they set. Let us not stop sharing the life changing message of the Gospel, regardless of how it is received.

 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  ~The Apostle Paul

When Others Hurt You

Len Evans — 2011-06-14 07:00:00.0 PST

People hurt each other.  We know that.  We even know that “Hurt People Hurt People“. That’s a great book that shares the majority of people who habitually strike out at others, are deeply wounded themselves.  Duh! But it’s by a Ph. D and it goes way more in depth, so if you have a chance, read it.

Being hurt by someone is never easy or fun but when we are hurt by people who are so hurt they need bellhops for their emotional baggage, it’s easier.The hardest hurts are by those that we are closest to.  The ones that we have shared dreams with, created positive futures and gone to battle with or for.  They can be family or people who we consider family from work, church, school, small groups, or anyone we are close to.

Hurting Youth Workers

A couple of years ago, I co-lead a “Help and Hope for Hurting Youth Workers” workshop at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference. Aaron Giesler was the other co-leader and he said something simple yet profound that I have remembered it and used it with others ever since then. He said, “Good people do bad things for good reasons.”

I’m sure he didn’t originate that idea but it has stuck with me, ever since.  Think about your own life and experiences, probably it was rare that someone sought to destroy you, crush your heart or betray you.

I often hear stories of betrayal and hurt from youth worker friends of mine.  It happens to everyone but that’s the circle of friends, that I work with and know.  There is some comfort when you know the pain someone caused you was not intentional, but it still stings.

We often hurt those that we are closest to the most. So it shouldn’t surprise you, when you are on the receiving end.

But how do you deal with that painful sting?

Live at Peace

For Paul it was straightforward, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18

Some people don’t want to leave at peace with you or anyone else and you can’t make them but you can try.  Control what you can control and surrender everything else. If you don’t surrender it, resentment and hurt can begin to control you. And you don’t want to bitterness to become the master of your heart.

It’s not fast, you have to be on guard and you have to monitor your heart, but you can forgive the people or person who hurt you.  Having a person or two that you can 100% trust, vent with and listen to is part of dealing with the raw emotions but if you don’t, it’s going to take longer than what is healthy.

Pray for those that hurt you.  It’s not easy but it’s how you begin forgiving them.

We often don’t know another person’s heart or intentions so we have to just go with what we know for sure. We should treat them the way we’d want to be treated even when they are not treating us the same way.

Ultimately, when someone hurts us, it’s just another reminder that this world is not what it’s supposed to be and neither are we or our friends.

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Just One Youth Group...Like Yours?

6 Worries of a Youth Worker

The Youth are the Present

NNYM Survey Has Been Resolved

Serving Schools through Beautifying Campuses

Collaborative Partnerships

Students Giving Back

Developing Church-School Partnerships

Serving Schools, Sharing Jesus

September YouthWorker Journal

NNYM Discount: YS National Youth Workers Convention

My Biggest Sin of the Quarter

Game Time: Tackling the Past

"You opened the door."

A Walk In My Shoes

Do Churches Contribute to Their Communities?

Y-Jesus

Ask God to Bless Schools September 18

Giving Teenagers a Hammer

Serving Together

Hammer and Nails

Empowering teenagers

More than just serving

A Free Lesson From Your ym360 Team
complete with Student Handout

Title || The (Giving) Spirit of Christmas