Not A Mega Church?

College Ministry Q of the Week: Plugging In

Tom — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:01:43 +0000

Now that the Fall semester is in full force with socials and welcome weekends in the books, the Question of the Week is: What are you doing to plug the students you met (especially the freshmen and transfers) into your program? What did you do during that time that set you up to get them plugged in now and how are you following up with them?

Post a comment so that we can all benefit and learn from each other.

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Children’s Ministry Q of the Week: Kick-off Sunday

Tom — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:41:48 +0000

This coming Sunday in Northern Virginia is most churches Kick-Off Sunday. This where students move up in grade to their new classrooms. The reason why this may sound late to some of you is because in Northern VA, school doesn't start til the Tuesday after Labor Day.

So, the Question of the Week for children's ministry is what are you doing to Kick-off your Fall program? If you have already kicked off your fall program because school already started (i.e., I know in Georgia they start school in mid-August), what did you do to kick off your fall program and new year?

Post a comment so that we can all benefit and learn from each other.

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Youth Ministry Q of the Week: How are you keeping up with Former Students?

Tom — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:30:03 +0000

Now that most, if not all, of your former youth group students have moved on to college or a career, how are you planning on keeping tabs on them and encouraging them in Christ?

I know they are not longer in your "program" but they still have relationships with you and even though they will still get plugged into other ministries in college and as a young adult, you have had a huge impact in their life and you still have a solid foundation already.

So, what are things you are currently doing, have done in the past or have seen done effectively to keep in touch and encourage your former students in their relationship with Christ? Post a comment so we can all benefit.

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YM DEVO: Having Perspective

Tom — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:38:02 +0000

Read 2 Timothy 4:6-18

Questions to Process:

What kind of turmoil was happening around Paul and his ministry?
How did Paul respond to all this turmoil?

Paul is at the end of his life and people have started to desert him. BUT, despite it all, he remains focused on the Lord, the ministry that is happening and can happen. Basically Paul said, "My life stinks right now as these slackers are all deserting me, but I fought hard and to God be the glory of all that He allowed me to do". What a great perspective and attitude to have - still giving God the glory for all that has happened even in the midst of frustrations (verse 18 - "To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.").

This passage really caused me to do a reality check. In fact, I feel that God just slapped me in the face with this passage. See if this kind of stuff was happening to Tom, Tom would say something like this: "My life really sucks right now. How could this happen to me? Look at all I did and now THIS happens!?!". Now, that is a bit extreme, but I'd be lying to you if I said I never thought something similar to that.

The reality is all that God has allowed me to do in my life is for the glory of the Lord, not for the glory of Tom. God has an ultimate plan that may or may not go exactly how I want it or how I think it should go. That is why I need to be in tune with what God's plan is and see how He is working. How selfish of me to think that I should always benefit and prosper because I am doing God's work (i.e., a Youth Minister).

I need keep my focus on the Lord at all time and be content where where He has me. In his letter to the Philippians (Philippians 4:10-13), Paul talks about this. Paul had to learn the secret of being content. It didn't happen overnight, but over time, he became completely content with where God had him at that moment. So I have to learn and gain perspective in all situations and be content that God has me where He has me for a reason and I need to be good with that.

TAKE A MINUTE right now and think about where you are in life. Are you content where God has you or no? Spend some time meditating on what it means to be content. What is God trying to teach you in your situation right now?

A favorite verse of mine the past few months has been Proverbs 3:5-6. It says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

What we have to do is to trust Him, be content in Him, rely on Him. We may never understand His ways, but if we continue to keep the right perspective and trust God, He will bring us through it - one way or another. So, as you process and meditate, ask the Lord for the right perspective to have in that situation and that He would give you wisdom and discernment in how to move forward. Only He will be able to tell you how you can do that.

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Poop on your Shoes

Tom — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:46:56 +0000

I have a dog who likes to poop in my backyard. Actually, she only likes to poop there because I am too lazy to take her on walks more regularly. So, normally I don't mind her doing that except when I have to mow the lawn. When I mow the lawn, I have to usually take that extra step to pick up all the dog poop in the grass before I mow the lawn. If I fail to take this step before (or anytime in the days prior), something unfortunate happens quite regularly - I get poop on my shoes. That's right, brown, mostly wet, slick poop! UGH! I hate it when that happens. When that happens, which again is a lot more than it should, it actually takes me much longer to mow the lawn as I have to sit for a while afterwards so I can get all the poop off my shoe and/or the wheel of the lawnmower.

You may be wondering right now, "Is this post really just about poop?" Well, no. But I started this way because the other day I got poop on my shoes while mowing the lawn and I was so annoyed with myself that I didn't take that extra step before I mowed the lawn to actually pick up the poop! That made me think of TAKING THE EXTRA STEP in ministry.

Taking the extra step in ministry is anything you can do that will help you pull off what you are trying to accomplish completely without forgetting or sidestepping a step to achieve your goal. I am embarrassed to say, but sometimes I have skipped steps in ministry that have proven to be costly. Whether it was not fully prepping on a talk or forgetting an item that I needed to pick up for an event, I did things without thinking through all that need to get done. And because of that I was scrambling to adjust at the end. When I have done this I feel that I have let students and the Kingdom of Heaven down because I have failed to provide them the best.

Taking the extra step is doing everything fully and appropriately so that you don't step in a poop landmine while you are doing ministry. For instance, it could mean:

talking to all your leaders before scheduling an event to make sure you have adequate leader support for that day, rather than finding out after you schedule and promote it that you will be the only leader, thus causing you to scramble for help.
giving your message to 1 or 2 other people a day or two before you give it to the people you are ministering to so that you can make sure it sounds good and that you are not missing something.
checking over all the details on a flier to make sure you have the correct information on it.
calling a parent back rather than simply emailing them your response.
planning far enough in advance so that you can make your events and messages the best they can be so that the people you are ministering to can hear about Christ in the best way possible.

If you sidestep things like these above (and many others) you might be endanger of getting poop on your shoes. So, to help prevent getting poop on your shoes, TAKE A MINUTE right now and think through your September and October calendar. What are your plans and how are you going to accomplish all that you need to do? Make a list of things you need to do or delegate so that you do not forget something or are not scrambling at the end.

Since none of us like getting poop on our shoes I pray that you do whatever it takes to make sure all the steps are taken care of beforehand. Believe me, not only you will benefit from the reduced stress, but the students and the Kingdom of Heaven will benefit as well.

Do you have a "poop on your shoes" story that you learned from? Post a comment and share it so we can all benefit.

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3 characteristics needed to start a new ministry

Tom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:16:13 +0000

As I wrote in my earlier in the week, I am a Ministry Starter.

What I love about starting from scratch is the clean slate you have, the blank piece of paper where I get to try new events and strategies to try to make an impact. But although I love to do this, starting from scratch is not something everyone enjoys or even knows how to do effectively. In fact there can be many challenges as changing things that are “broken” or starting something, there can be resistance from others. That is why starting or rebuilding a ministry needs to be done properly. In order to start or rebuild, a youth minister needs to be:

Teachable – After all these years people have been doing youth ministry, there has yet to be a formula or way that has proven to the be only right direction to take for reaching students for Christ. That means that there can be many different ways to reach students, you just have to figure out which one way works for your current ministry. Just because it worked before or in another ministry does not mean it will work in your current ministry. So remain teachable and always look for options to reach students.
A Relationship Builder – starting from scratch and building a program means that you need to work well three different sets of people: students, other staffers and parents. Building good, healthy strong relationships with these three sets of people will go a long way to establishing a great start to your work.
God Reliant – The only way anyone can be successful in ministry is to be reliant on God alone. I believe that He has a specific plan for each ministry. All we have to do is to seek Him daily and rely on Him to make it perfectly clear what direction we need to take. It is when we stop seeking Him that our path becomes more cloudy. As James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” Be God reliant and He will provide.

What else would you add or subtract, if anything? TAKE A MINUTE and process through this and examine your ministry experiences. Has there been a characteristic that you have used that has helped you start new work? If you have post it so we can all benefit from it.

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Feeling Refreshed

Tom — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:27:47 +0000

This past week I was on vacation. It was actually the 1st vacation in a long time that I didn't do any work! Ok, well maybe I sent out 1 email for a pretty important meeting on Monday, but that was it. Seriously, I didn't bring my computer and with the exception of that email, I only check my phone for non-work related stuff (like fantasy football draft scenarios). Even though I posted and tweeted about those posts, those were all set up beforehand.

So I come back completely refreshed. I can't say that I really want to go and work (who really wants to do that ), but I can say that this time off was a great opportunity for me to get rejuvenated and ready to move into the fall.

Even though we all should take vacation time off, there are other ways to get refreshed without going on vacation. You could:

Go somewhere and do something you normally wouldn't go during a day off. For instance, go to a state park and go for a hike.
Spend a lazy day around the hood. Turn off your phone and your computer and just chill out. Go to the pool and/or read a good "non-work" book.
Take a nap! Seriously, the value of a nap in immeasurable (especially if you have kids).

Just 3 simple things that I have found helpful to getting refreshed. What have you found to be effective in your life? Post a comment so we can all benefit.

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What type of Minister are you?

Tom — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:52:29 +0000

Growing up I loved playing with Legos. Every time our parents got us new sets, my twin brother and I would eagerly put them together as quick as possible. Even though the sets were great to play with, after a while, we would destroy the set and use the Lego pieces to build something completely new or different. For instance, I remember one Christmas we got this great Fire Station set. It was very cool as it had 2 levels and 2 different bays for fire engines. However, after a short period of time, we got bored with it and felt that we could put those pieces (along with some other pieces from other sets) to better use to build a bigger and better set from scratch. After it was done, being completely biased, I think we did build something truly spectacular. That was a regular occurrence for my brother and I. We loved to create and design new buildings from scratch.

That desire to create and build stayed with me all throughout my childhood and into my professional life. In fact, I can remember the excitement I felt the day I started my first ministry job at Truro Church in September of 1997. It was a warm, humid day, and my stomach was full of butterflies because I had a ton of excitement about what lay ahead. Even though I was only a Junior High Intern, my boss had given me complete control of what would happen in the junior high ministry. See, at the time I was hired, the junior high ministry at Truro was run completely by volunteers. Although it was run very well, the volunteers did not have a lot of time to put forward a really good program. They maintained it well, but they could not take the program to another level where the youth were really engaged in what was happening. Therefore, I was hired to bring some focus and energy into the program. As I was getting ready to start that first day brought me back to my days of Lego building where I could create something from scratch.

Young Life provided another great challenge for me to undertake after I finished up with Truro. In fact, it was probably my biggest challenge. When I started working with Young Life, they had just launched their new initative – WyldLife, their ministry to middle school students.

What I loved about being involved with WyldLife was the ability to start something completely new. With WyldLife being new, fresh ideas were expected. The national leadership at Young Life didn’t want WyldLife to look anything like Young Life. So that caused me and all the other pioneers of WyldLife to think outside the box and try a lot of new things. Not everything worked, but I can tell you that we did hit some pretty big home runs. For example, we took two regular events, a Super Bowl party and a Lock-in and made them very unique and outreach focused. We didn’t want to just watch the Super Bowl or just hang out in a Church for an overnight. We added spice to them that made them more than just an event. It was a very exciting time for me as when we started WyldLife as it looked and felt completely different from Young Life. It was fun to dream and try new ideas.

Starting ministries from scratch or even rebuilding programs is something that I love to do. After I finished my two-year internship with Truro, I went on to work with Young Life and two other churches to do similar types of start-ups or rebuilds. Examining who I am and what I am both good and bad I, I have come to believe that you could be any one of the following:

A Starter - someone who enjoys starting a new ministry from scratch or with limited resources.
A Maintainer - someone who can take an existing ministry and keep the status quo going and bring stability to a very unstable situation.
A Lifer - someone who can take a ministry to the next level and develop the ministry that will last

What type of Minister are you? What makes you tick and get excited? I do not believe that one type of minister is better than any other. In fact, because each of us are different, that makes who we are necessary for the even flow of ministry. Ministry Starters are necessary to get new work or struggling work going again. However Ministry Maintainers are needed to keep the ship running smoothly and providing a steady hand, making wise decisions. And, Ministry Lifers are just as important because sometimes a Starter or Maintainer gets burned out or cannot provide long-term vision and direction that is needed. Lifers have to long term stamina and vision to carry a ministry through and provide the right direction for a long lasting ministry.

So again, who are you? TAKE A MINUTE and examine who you are. Don't get wrapped up in who you are not because like I said, I do not believe one type of minister is any better than another (if you disagree, feel free to comment on why). But this is mainly an opportunity for you to identify what type of minister you are and to feel comfortable with that. I am a Starter. No matter how much I try to maintain or be a lifer, that is now how I am wired. I'm ok with that as I know that is what I'm passionate about and am good at.

I hope and pray that this is helpful for you to be able to identify exactly what type of minister you are and that you excel at it in a God-glorifying way.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Feel free to post them as it'd be great to get a good discussion going.

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Where everyone knows your name

Tom — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:52:46 +0000

When I was younger, my brothers and I would watch the sit-com "Cheers" with our dad every Thursday night. It was a cool bonding experience for us. One of the most famous things people remember about "Cheers" is the character Norm played by George Wendt. Every time he walked into the bar people would yell out "Norm" because he was a regular there and everyone knew his name.

Well, I had a "Norm" moment the other day. Recently my wife has really grown to love a particular Bacon and Guoda cheese sandwich at Starbucks. So I have gone there my fair share of times recently. Well, this one particular day, I walked in and before I could place my order, she said, "Good Morning Tom. You are in earlier than normal". This blew me away that this lady that I see pretty regularly when I go into Starbucks would actually know my name. Even though I felt a little bit embarrassed because I felt I spent too much time there, I ultimately felt important. I felt that I have "arrived" in Starbuck-world. A Barista knew my name!

I remember years ago when I was doing just middle school ministry, I greeted a middle schooler by her first name. When I said, "Hello Tiffany" she did a double take. She said in almost disbelief, "You know my name?" And I responded by saying, "Of course I do. Who doesn't know Tiffany". That short little interaction made her feel like I cared and I wanted to know her. I don't know the world that all my students walk in, but simple little things like remembering a name and making someone feel like you care can go a long way in the life of another.

Do students feel like Norm when they walk into your event? Does everyone know their name? More importantly, do you and your other leaders know their name? I wish I can honestly sit here and say that I know everyone in my program's name, but the reality is I don't. I NEED to get better. What are you doing to make that happen in your ministry?

TAKE A MINUTE and...

Break out your ministry roster. How many people are on that list that you do not know who they are?
Start getting to know your students. Put the face with the name and see where the Lord leads that relationship.

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GUEST POST: Seeing beyond the Mirror

Tom — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:01:20 +0000

This GUEST POST comes from Mark Seager. Mark is the Associate Pastor at Cedar Run Community Church in Herndon, VA. He is a very gifted communicator as his passion for the Lord and people to come to know him is evident in all he does. I think the more he guest posts for me the better the chances are that he might want to blog & write more

¹²When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Judges 6:12-16 (NIV)

Life has a way of snaring our attentions so we lose sight of prime reality; God. We get distracted by our current events and lose perspective. We need to be reminded of how God sees things. He doesn’t get consumed by the moment, He has an eternal perspective. He sees through our reflection in the mirror to what’s inside. We need to do the same.

Gideon is introduced to us in Judges 6 and from the first part of the chapter appears to be a pretty unimpressive fellow. The kind of guy you’d meet at a party but never remember. But that’s not how God saw Him. Instead of focusing on the “what-is-now” of Gideon being low man on the tribal totem pole, God called him “Mighty Warrior.” How can a no-name cowering in fear and working in secret be a mighty warrior? Because God was with him and had a plan for him. Because God was with him, Gideon was unstoppable if He obeyed the Lord. That’s why the angel of the Lord could call Gideon “mighty warrior”.

We must do no less with one another. Too often we see and remember each other’s (and our own) foibles and screw-ups. Our churches and our world would be transformed if Christians saw each other as God sees us. Complete in Christ and equipped for every good work through the power of Him who raised Jesus from the dead living in us. God’s power is not hindered by our lack of popularity or intelligence or athleticism. He just wants us to see beyond our reflection in the mirror, believe the truth and trust Him. May God advance His Kingdom with a bunch of ordinary people whose eyes are firmly fixed on the vision of who we are in Christ!

So right now, TAKE A MINUTE and...

Think about who the “Gideons” are in your ministry. Kids who may not be in the in crowd at school…kids who seem like they’re on the fast track to insignificance…Kids for whom you can cast the vision of, “Since God is with you, you can do amazing things!”.
Write down some thoughts on how you will help kids to see beyond the mirror to who they are “in Christ.”

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