Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”–Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

I encountered this passage again the other morning and was instantly struck with a very specific question:

For those of us in youth ministry, what are the burdens our students carry with them?

The short list gets long pretty quickly. Our students are burdened by . . .

Expectations, both from adults and from within.

The uncertainty of the future.

And so on . . .

It’s easy to get disheartened when we go down this list, especially since it’s not exhaustive. But I believe we are in a unique position to make an impact in two ways.

The first and most vital thing we can do is to point to Christ and the perfect rest He offers. No other solution, no matter how effective it is today, carries with it hope. The hope of the Gospel is the ultimate solution to our students’ burdens.

The second is simply relationship. Just by our presence, we can help walk students through the burdens of their lives. It’s what Paul called “bearing each other’s burdens” in Galatians 6.

We can help, and we can help in a big way. But only Christ offers a lasting solution.

Let’s be people who offer both relationship, and lead students to Christ!

TweetShare via email

We have to first daily live out a desire to know God and His ways.

These words from Bonhoeffer speak to the real truth behind this concept:

God’s revelation in Jesus Christ–God’s revelation of His love–precedes all our love toward Him. Love has its origin not in us but in God. Love is not an attitude of men but an attitude of God.

“God’s revelation of His love precedes all our love toward Him.” That phrase speaks so strongly to me. And of course, Bonhoeffer is echoing the words of 1 John 4:10: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

There are times in our lives, many times in my case, where the burn of our desire for God seems to dim some. What a comfort it is to know that we don’t have to “bootstrap” our way back to desiring, or loving God. He loved us first. And this love compels and empowers our love for Him.

Great reminder for today!

TweetShare via email

Woo-hoo!

Been working on this book pretty hard for the last few weeks. But she’s finally done.

7 Best Practices is a really practical, really straightforward book that (hopefully) has somethign for everyone who teaches teenagers the Bible. The message comes out of the last 10 years of designing Bible Study resources for teenagers and equipping teachers to teach.

The heart of the book is pretty simple: as youth workers, the essence of our calling is to lead teenagers to know God and His ways, and to see their lives radically affected by the application of this knowledge. While we can experience God in many ways, the Bible is the primary way God has made Himself known. Thus, if we’re going to lead students to encounter God through the Bible, we need to be proficient at teaching it.

7 Best Practices gives teachers, well, seven best practices for helping their students engage with God through Bible Study.

I’m super excited about it, and praying it’s a great resource for teachers.

There will be lots more info coming about this book, and about several more. ym360′s launching four or five books between now and the end of the year, not all by me (thankfully!). So, be on the look out. Also, if you are a blogger and are interested in joining our resource review program, you can email me through the contact form in the link at the top of this page.

TweetShare via email

They look something like this:

Or this:

How do we choose? Which model do we listen to? Is one better than another?

Looking at these models, and searching for solid points or approaches to take in each of them, I sort of got tickled . . . I realized that the most effective model of discipleship, of spiritual development, is the Original (and still kicking) Discipleship Process. It’s model looks something like this:

Now, obviously my little crude model is a gross oversimplification of the sanctification process. And, I’m not saying that our processes or models are bad or wrong. I’m not saying that at all. I’ve had my own process for doing discipleship that I’ve adapted over the years. Heck, I’ve constructed some of my own models in the past, and may very well construct one in the future!

I’m not saying that our efforts at discipling are waisted or misguided. And I’m not saying that we don’t play any role in disciple-making. That’s not what I am saying at all. Of course we do. The Bible makes a very clear case from OT to the NT that people play a pretty big role in discipling one another.

HOWEVER, what I am saying is that we (we meaning me and you) often overstate our role in this process.

As I’ve written here before, it’s human nature to want to over-insert ourselves. We want to feel like we are doing something. And when we invest our lives in leading others to Christ, we ARE doing something. Doing something meaningful and awesome and amazing.

But when we lean too heavily on human-centered means and methods, and especially when we look for a clever way of describing process in order to make a name for ourselves, all we’re doing is putting drab putting window dressing on the powerful and eternal work going under the surface of our lives. It is a God begun, Christ fueled, Spirit driven process. All our discipleship efforts must be understood to be in support of the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Period.

As disciple makers, we play a God ordained role in the lives of those we lead in spiritual development. But let’s make sure we’re aware of the God-initiated good work that is daily being done in the lives of those who desire to follow Christ. Let’s not falter in our commitment to grow and to help others grow, but let’s keep our efforts in proper perspective.

TweetShare via email

Christ is greater than methodology, strategy, or philosophy.

We want to see change. We want to see change in us. We want to see change in our students. Or our children. Or our marriages.

And so we do what we know to do. We begin to try and fix it. We look to improved methods. We turn to our philosophy and begin to re-evaluate. We seek out improved strategies.

The problem is that if we turn to these things first, we always fail.

The first step in any new effort to see spiritual growth, or change, or renewal has to be to seek out Christ. This applies on an organizational level (such as a youth ministry) as well as a personal one.

Want to see change? Resist the urge to revise or reinvent. Instead, rediscover Christ and lead others to do the same.

TweetShare via email

When our faith becomes obedience to our Savior, then it is true faith, indeed! The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instruction. Our problem is to get the consent of our world-loving minds to make Jesus Lord in fact, as well as in word.–Tozer

Tozer is the man . . . That one line kills me . . .

“The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instruction.”

That is so stinking true! I recently finished a book that we’ll be publishing soon centered on helping youth workers be better teachers of the Bible. My take is that discipleship is all about repeated and real encounters with God. The Bible is God’s primary way of revealing Himself to us. Thus, becoming awesome Bible teachers is really helping create for more and better encounters with God. Simple, right?

During the writing of it, I had several moments where I really came face-to-face with this vast chasm that runs through the heart of every Christ-follower . . .

On one side is what we know and what can be known about God and His ways. On the other side is this picture of a real follower of Christ.

The chasm in the middle is where we live our lives. Obedience, which is nothing but conformity to Christ, is the way in which we bridge this gap. It’s the means by which we become and are becoming Christ-followers.

Conformity to Christ, obedience, is Spirit compelled (thank God). But there is the large matter of our wills. As we become disciples and lead others in their personal discipleship journey, let’s keep the image of Christ in front of us. Let’s trust the Spirit to continue His work in bending and shaping us in Christ’s image. But let’s double our own personal diligence in seeking to live as Kingdom citizens, embracing God’s call to holiness and Christ-likeness.

And let’s call others to do the same.

TweetShare via email

This could be a mom or a dad. But it’s more than likely a youth pastor who has the ability to make strategic changes in the discipleship strategy and/or philosophy at his or her church.

A question: How big is your discipleship vision?

The other day I was running through the woods around our neighborhood. I came to an area where there are woods on the right and left bordering an open field, maybe 15 yards across. As I was running, I ran through a spiderweb that stretched all the way across this field.

I immediately thought to myself, “That is one ambitious spider!” I didn’t think anything more of it. Until the next morning when the exact same thing happened again! Same spider web, same field. It got me thinking . . .

Here’s what we know about this spider. He’s ambitious. That’s a heck of a goal! I don’t know what it takes to spin a web across a 50 foot span, but my hunch is that it ain’t easy. His efforts were rewarded by me crashing through it. But, we also know this about the spider: he wasn’t easily discouraged! The next day, another audacious goal. He went big, suffered a setback, and went big again . . . only to suffer yet another setback! (I really wish I had run the trail a third day to see if the spider had gone big once more.)

What can we learn from this anecdote? How can this example help us think of how we view our discipleship strategies?

First, I hope you’re going big. I hope you’re not satisfied with the way things have always been done. I hope that you’re so driven by wanting to see your students truly live dynamic faith lives that you’re dreaming big about how to make it happen.

Second, I hope you take your defeats in stride. Big vision is still big vision whether or not others undermine you. Keep aiming big. If you stumble?

Third, multiple setbacks might mean a change in strategy, not an abandonment of the vision. Maybe you could still spin a kicking web in another part of your field, just maybe not right across the main path. Maybe you can’t win the fight for getting rid of that sacred programming hour. But hey, dream big anyway. Come up with a plan, take a few stabs at it, and if you need to change approaches, do it. But don’t settle for less than your students deserve.

And finally, at some point you might have to spin your webs out of reach of slow-moving giants!

photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/ (c) photofarmer

TweetShare via email

Knocking programs is like knocking oxygen. We need programs (no matter how big or small) to do ministry.

(For the purposes of this discussion, I see a “program” as anything on your youth ministry calendar. Thus, that small, organic, Bible Study meeting at a coffee shop is a program, just as the large, mid-week, fully-staged worship/teaching event is a program.)

Without some sort of an organized approach to doing ministry, we can slip into a haphazard and unplanned effort at building relationships and shepherding students in their faith. Which doesn’t work for anyone. So, I’m not attacking this nebulous concept of “programs.” I am pointing the finger at a program-driven approach to doing discipleship. In specific, I’m pointing the finger at one of the unintended and often overlooked side effects of a program centered ministry approach.

Here’s a fact: When we operate program-centric ministries, we create a tremendous need for volunteers. And if we’re not careful, what we unintentionally create is people who serve our programs at the cost of serving the Kingdom.

If I am an adult volunteer whose understanding of an active faith is driving vans, or stage design, or meal coordinating, or running off fliers, and so on, what am I missing out on? For many, these type of program-supporting roles are the only way they ever really serve.

What if they never hand a meal to someone in another community, city, or country for whom it may be the first or only mean of the day, or . . .
What if they never lead another person to faith in Christ, or . . .
What if they never give medicine to the sick in the name of Christ, or . . .
What if they never build a meaningful relationship with a student, or a neighbor . . .
All because they see their work supporting the various programs at our churches as service to the Kingdom?

I can hear you know, “Andy, are you saying that serving the Church isn’t serving the Kingdom?” Absolutely not. That’s not what I am saying at all. I understand that serving the Church is serving the Kingdom. I understand that people are gifted differently.

I’m simply saying that serving your church’s programs MAY NOT BE equal to serving the Kingdom.

How many of your go-to volunteers have volunteered in a way that minimizes meaningful life on life interaction with another person?

When we define our values, or our practices, and then ask if and or how programs can serve them, we set a path where volunteering is more inclined to lead toward kingdom service.

But when we think program first, we run the risk of becoming a Christian event-planning company. When we do this, we can unintentionally create a group of volunteers who believe that serving your church’s multiple programs is fulfilling Christ’s call to advance the Kingdom.

And all I’m saying is that this MIGHT NOT be the same thing.

(Photo Courtesy of Flickr/Creative Commons: avrene)

TweetShare via email

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading through the Gospels with an eye toward Jesus’ disciple-making values. You can read a couple of those observations here and here.

Today I was caught by this one verse, a sentence Jesus spoke to His disciples before sending them out to practically apply some of what they had been learning and observing. Re-encounter these familiar words of Christ:

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.“–Matthew 10:16

I think this is one of the most instructive passages for us as 21st-century disciple-makers. Here’s why . . .

I think the same cultural influences that have given rise to “helicopter parents” has given rise to “helicopter discipleship.”

You know “helicopter parents,” right? The ones who hover over their children, correcting their mistakes, smoothing out their paths for them, keeping things good, and safe, and happy. The same influences that have lead us as parents (and disciple-makers, teachers, coaches, etc,) to create cocoons of exclusively positive feelings, emotions, and experiences for our children (and students, athletes, musicians, etc.) lead us to similar practices in discipleship. Because we don’t want our children or students to fail, or to be wrong, or heaven-forbid, to be uncomfortable, we isolate them. We keep the life of a follower safe and sanitary. I don’t know that we do it on purpose, or always knowingly, but we do it.

And by doing this, we fail.

Listen, I long to build-up my children. I want to take care of them. I want them to be safe, comfortable, and happy, both in life and in their spiritual development. I want the same for the students I disciple. I don’t want my children or my students to be ostracized or picked on for their faith, or for taking a stand.

I don’t want those things . . . And that is precisely the problem. See, I know that risk, and failure, and discomfort are an inherent part of living the Gospel. How do I know this? Jesus said so.

. . . like sheep among wolves . . .

Jesus, the very one who created these men, who cared deeply for them, who knew them in their mother’s womb, who saw the entire span of their lives before they were even a thought . . . this Jesus looked at these men and said I’m about to put you in harm’s way. Sheep among wolves. What a vivid picture of the perilous predicament! Why would Jesus do this? Simple:

Jesus knew that test and trial are the incubators of real discipleship.

If you ask me, my hunch is that “helicopter discipleship” is one of the many factors that contributes to teenagers leaving the church in young adulthood. I believe that for many of them, faith has never been anything more than ideas, in part because we are unwilling as parents and youth workers to intentionally create situations that makes them rub their beliefs up against the world in a high-stakes environment.

Let’s work together to NOT be these types of parents or youth ministers.

TweetShare via email

I’ve found my efforts at disciple-making lately to be more motivated by wanting to see my kids act right. Or more appropriately, to want to see them not act wrong.

I want to see them live their faith. I want there to be no separation from what they believe to be true about God and His Kingdom and how they conduct themselves in this world. I want to see their identity tangled up and intertwined with Christ. In Paul’s words, I want them “hidden in Christ.”

And in my desire to see this, I do the only thing that is measurable. I do what I feel I can control. I focus on their “bad” actions, hoping that maybe in my misguided zeal I can pester them enough that maybe my voice ringing in their ears will keep them from hitting their sister, or talking back, or complaining, and so on.

Oh to be sure, I praise their “good” actions. Which is maybe the worst part of all.

Shouldn’t we be concerned about the way our children and our students act? Of course we should. We are called to imitate the character of God in this world. If this is so, what’s wrong with being motivated by the end product of behavior? Is there abetter way?

There is a better way. And I’m coming to grips that the better way is much harder for me to control. In fact, it has very little, if anything, to do with me at all.

The better way is to consistently unfold to my children who Christ is. The better way is to reveal to them through God’s Word Jesus’ message and mission. To talk to them all the time about what He did for them. About what He does for them. To model for them a life affected and impacted by this truth. The better way is to trust in the Spirit and His work of sanctification. The better way is to do all that I can to help my children abide in Christ.

If I will do this, if they can begin now to internalize the Gospel, and to be broken down and built up in it over and over again, their actions will be motivated by a love for Christ, not a love for feel-good morality.

There is a level of surrender in this. But if we trust God’s message to us in the Bible, we know that this is the better way . . . the only way . . . to see our children, our students, our selves, and our spouses own a faith recognizable to the faith Jesus speaks of in the Scriptures.

TweetShare via email