In recent times many leaders within youth ministry have started to challenge the idea that we should encourage teenagers to dream big dreams. They seem to believe that by doing so, we are setting teenagers up to fail. Lucado and Lucado Bishop take a very different approach and suggest every single person was made to make a difference, they just have to discover what that difference is. With a heap of real life stories and recollections from their past and present, they present a compelling argument for taking another step forward in motivating teenagers, rather than taking a step back. I enjoyed this book and found it so helpful I went out and bought a copy for each of my graduating teenager youth members. Thoroughly recommend it.

In this next week my big focus is on planning. Planning for The Hub, with the launch now just 21 weeks away. Planning for Sync Youth, which has been growing nicely and is starting to form a really good culture amongst the youth we have coming along.

Amongst all the hussle and bussle I am trying to keep a little ahead so as not to cause any ‘stop’ that doesn’t need to be there. Keeping the dynamics of youth, leaders, parents, effective communication and engaging experiences in line is proving to be a challenge but one that I am enjoying.

God is also talking to me a lot about prayer. Yes, that is right, God is talking to me about prayer, which is kinda what prayer is all about (speaking AND listening!) In particular I have been feeling him say to me that The Hub will not succeed based on whether we do everything ‘right’ or not, but on whether or not we get down on our knees and pray this new church plant into existence. This is hard for someone like me who likes to put shape and structures to things. This isn’t to say we won’t be doing that, but the focus I feel needs to be on prayer, not necessarily getting everything ‘right’.

We’ll see how this week goes

Just this past week I spent more time in one of one meetings/catch ups than I spent in the office doing program stuff. This is only going to grow as I continue to find and start to develop young leaders in the ministry. I am also getting the opportunities to get alongside 2-3 youth at a time, as opposed to the whole group. This also will continue to grow as time goes by.

One of the biggest reasons I have started to be able to do this is because I have more people involved across a broader spectrum. Last year we actually had more ‘leaders’, but they were all involved in the one area. This year we have slightly fewer (though that is looking like it is about to change too), but they are involved in a broader spectrum of activities. It isn’t that they are themselves doing more (though a few are), but that we are being specific and strategic about what and how our leaders operate. We’ve looked closely at where they are gifted and passionate and looked at how these things best fit within the ministry.

I spoke about rhythms in a previous briefing, which is very similar to seasons. There clearly are seasons in developing a youth ministry. I just so happen to be really enjoying the current season that we are in! I can see some challenges coming that currently are in the distance, but which I know will arrive. I am already beginning to formulate plans to tackle those challenges when they arrive but for now I really am enjoying being involved in more peoples lives and less administrative matters (as much as I do love to organise things!)

Tonight is a big night for The Hub. By big I mean we will learn a fair bit about how we will approach the plant from here till August. We are doing a bit of a special event tonight. If it goes well, we will likely look to do a few more special events (perhaps 1 every 6 weeks) between now and August. If tonight doesn’t go so well then we’ll have to reflect on our strategy and seek God again for guidance about what he would have us do. For now we feel confident that we are doing as God would desire, but I suppose we will see tonight.

Sync Youth is also really starting to kick off. We are close to what I would consider a ‘critical mass’, which is very exciting only two weeks in. What excites me more is that the youth we have appear to have a real openness to going deeper. I don’t just want to get lots of kids along, I want to challenge our teenagers to really go deep and grapple with what faith is all about and what it could mean for their lives.

This week should allow me a little time to reflect and get set for the next few weeks. I’ll be looking to consolidate over the next little while, in every area, and I am looking forward to that.

Basically it will operate from the cloud, allowing multiple people to work on the same presentation throughout the week from both Mac’s and PC’s. For more details on the program itself, click the following link.

What is ALSO exciting is to mark this release, Proclaim is offering $25,000 worth of give away prizes! All you need to do is go and watch the video on their website to find out how to enter. There are some great prizes on offer which could really benefit your church worship ministry. Why not check it out?

Disclaimer: This blog entry is part of my entry to the competition. HOWEVER, what i have written accurately reflects my own thoughts on this product and competition.

During the cleanup, I was struck by the students’ inbred consumerism. We leaders set up, led games, taught the lesson, and cleaned up when it was over. The youth simply “consumed” the program and went home. Why couldn’t they feel more like it was their ministry? Why couldn’t they lead most, if not all, of the activities? We decided to give it a shot.

This is the model that a lot of youth groups run with, where adult leaders do everything, and in an effort to be up front and honest about it, the youth group I run currently functions a fair bit in this way. HOWEVER, as Olsen asks, why couldn’t other students lead a lot of this?

One of the major changes that we have made at Sync Youth this year is we have ‘graduated’ our 16 and 17 year old’s into a new Young Adult group. As part of this I have offered our new young adults the opportunity to be Youth Leader Apprentices. The aim of this position is to start to HEAD in the direction where we get more of our younger youth/young adults developing in their leadership and helping take charge of their own youth program. Though for now we still require quite a bit of adult help, my goal is to get to the place where our Adult Leaders can do more of the relationship building and allow some of our older teenagers the opportunity to help set up and lead the games and activities.

Why?
You might be asking why is it important to get our students in their final years of high school involved in leadership? Don’t they have enough to do already? Isn’t there a problem because not all students are equipped or gifted with ‘leadership’. Well, yes and no.

I definitely believe there is a ‘gift of leadership’ that not everyone possesses, but I am starting to come to the belief that all of our kids can, if they want, help grow our younger youth in some way. They won’t necessarily be ‘leaders’ in the strictest sense of the term, but I am finding that some kids who otherwise wouldn’t be seen as leaders, are really great at ‘serving’…is this not one of the main roles of leadership? They may not all be the up the front, loud, proud leaders…but some of the better student leaders I have seen have quietly gone about cleaning up, making sure all the new kids feel welcome, encouraging the other student leaders. These are leadership qualities often missed when we look for up and coming leaders.

I had a really good discussion today with a friend on many of the topics I am mulling over for my book. We were particularly talking about rights of passage and effectively transitioning teens from youth group to adult church. One of the biggest problems I think we have had is in the ability to help our teenagers see themselves in 5-10 years time as they will be. NOT so much what they’ll be doing, will they be a Doctor etc…but more who they will BE as people. Student leadership, in many ways, is about helping equip and empower our teenagers in their giftings NOW, so that they can start to operate in them and see a glimpse of what they could be like in 5 years time. Not that they will see themselves as youth leaders, though they might become that, but that they can see they can be loving or they can be caring, or they can serve, or they can insert character trait here. A lot of what we have NOT done, from my observations, is help our teenagers to start operating in their adult ways earlier.

I believe this is an important step in moving INTO adult hood, as opposed to following the Peter Pan idea and never growing up. As much as there is a lot of talk about ‘our kids are being turned into adults too fast’ I almost wonder if that is only a half truth? Yes, we have tweens now (pre-pubescent teens, so 8-12ish) acting ‘like adults’ or dressing ‘like adults’ but equally, we have 20+ adolescents who have never grown up. Perhaps we need to help them around the ages of 16-17 start to OPERATE in some ways like their adult selves, so they can actually start to grasp what adulthood means for them. I believe this would help adulthood be less of a scary thing, which it is to many teens, and more a natural progression in life.

The more I think about all of this, the more I see how intricately everything is linked. From channeling the passion of teenagers for good, to transitioning them from teenagerhood to adult church and adult life, to creating and continuing rights of passage for our western cultured teens. And in all of this I believe the Church can play a pivotal role in helping to positively influence youth culture. To be known for how it is changing the lives of teenagers for the BETTER rather than what it is stopping teenagers from doing.

And in all of this I believe equipping our older teenagers in leadership, or possibly more truthfully just in their giftings, should play a large role in the future of our youth ministries.

One of the big things that my bible college education taught me was self preservation. They were very big on not just filling my head with knowledge but building me as a person, helping to teach me good characteristics and also teach me good self care. I know, from this training, that last week is ok as a once off every now and then…but it cannot become my regular rhythm, as I discussed last week.

One of the best self care principles that I have in place is that I regularly meet up with a mentor. This is something I did in the last week and, as usual, has proven to be very beneficial. Though a lot of our meeting was spent catching up as we have not met over the summer, the last 15 minutes basically made the meeting the most worthwhile thing I did all week because in that 15 minutes we discussed time management and in particular we discussed a system that my mentor uses to help him keep on top of all the ‘tasks’ that are in his life AND, more importantly, make sure he is using his time doing the things that are most important, that he is best equipped to do. ‘To do lists’ can grow very easily and without some sort of structure in place you can quickly find your time disappearing, and you can also find yourself spending a lot of time on tasks that are probably not as important as others.

One of the main systems my mentor uses is a website called ‘Remember The Milk’. I’ve provided a screen shot of my set up to the right. It won’t mean much to people who haven’t used the system, but it is definitely helping me keep on top of things.

One of the key things I have decided to do is, as much as possible, make my Sunday Afternoons a ‘organise my week’ time. This will ebb and flow because I know there will be times I have things on during Sunday afternoons, but in general it will be a good time to do this. As I have church Sunday morning and then The Hub on Sunday nights, I find it works best to consider Sunday a ‘work day’ because I don’t tend to get to ‘rest’ in the afternoon, which means I have often wasted that time. This way I can use my Sunday afternoons productively and get myself set up to use my week times as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Now, a quick aside to end this entry. To some people, the words ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ cause red flags to go up all over the place. Isn’t ministry about relationship? Isn’t ministry about building the Kingdom of God? Yes, absolutely! However I am someone who BEST is able to do these things from within a structure. I like to put structures in place BECAUSE it is very easy to move away from a structure, where required (well, personal structures that I have set up) but I have found it doesn’t tend to work the other way, adding structure ‘on the fly’ doesn’t work for me. I feel most stressed and most out of my depth when I KNOW I have a lot on, or at least ‘feel’ like I do. If I put a structure like I have suggested in place, I tend to find the stress levels decrease and I actually find MORE time to be relational and more time to sow into building the Kingdom of God. It is just how I work best, and I want to give my best to God!

So onto another week.

This week also marks the beginning of Sync Youth for 2011. I am really excited for Sync Youth this year because it really will start to ‘look’ how I am wanting it to. We’ve made some fairly big structural changes after just 12 months and one can never really be sure how change on this scale is going to go until it happens, however I feel very positive about it. We’ll have a totally new group of youth at youth group and our older youth will be learning what it means to be youth leader apprentices. I’m very much looking forward to working with this older group, hoping to instill in them some skills that are worthwhile for life whilst also helping them discover their gifts and talents and equip them for service in those area’s.

The Hub really is starting to move now as we have begun to work with students at the ECU Student Village. On Saturday we took a group of students to Ikea so that they could furnish their units with little odds and ends that were not already provided. What was most amusing about this trip was that the majority of the students were from Sweden (the home of Ikea) and so it was quite fun learning what all the names of the furniture actually mean. Some made sense, some were quite ironic and some were just plain weird!

It felt great this last week to actually be out and about ‘doing stuff’ with people. I helped cook pancakes, helped about 10 students move in and met many more, discussing life and what courses they were studying. It is still very much early days but I sensed some really good connections and am feeling very positive about the prospect of this church plant really taking off at ECU Mt Lawley.

This week the rubber hits the road, let the journey of 2011 truly begin!

At age 4 I began to go to a kindergarten on Richmond St in Leederville. I also, for some reason, remember the lady who would be my Grade 1 and 2 teacher coming to visit when I was 5, to see what her future students were like! I didn’t really like her then…and didn’t exactly love her once I made it to school! I did however love school. My Grandma often reminded me how I wanted to camp at school because then I wouldn’t have to leave.

From 0-4 I went with my parents (you don’t have much choice at this age!) to Wembley Church of Christ. The year I had turned 4 we moved to Subiaco Church of Christ. At the time I didn’t really understand why, I just remember that I really enjoyed Sunday School at Subiaco so never really looked back to Wembley.

Adound age 7 I began to really care about my faith. Yes, you read that right, about age 7. I remember talking to my Dad in the car about baptism and what it meant. I even signed up to be baptised, though later on i informed my Dad that I was not yet ready. Still, something very strong was going on inside of me. I can’t really explain it now, but I knew God better when I was 7-8 than I would say I even do now! As such, at age 8, on May 2nd 1993 I was baptised by Graham Johnston. I look back at that time now with great fondness. I was still to face many challenges to my faith and much was still to happen…but I do not think i trust in God as much now as I did then. I don’t think I pray now with as much certainty as I did then. I don’t think I expect as much of God, in the good ways to expect of God, as I did then. I almost feel like I’ll forever be chasing that time in my life…but probably won’t get there until Jesus returns.

Matthew 18:2-4 says

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

I believe that a significant reason that I am involved in young adult, youth and children’s ministries is because I believe that they have so much to offer the Kingdom of God. I really do believe the amount of potential that churches have in their children is huge. And I don’t mean future potential. I don’t mean ‘they are the future leaders’ kind. I mean right now, make a difference in the world today kind of potential and I am committed to helping harness and unleash this potential in our children.

Finally, at age 8, one week and a day after I was baptised, we moved from Perth, WA to Albany, WA. This move would be a fairly significant move in my life and will lead on to the next chapter of this story, which will cover year 8-18.

This sounds a little more critical than I mean it to be. Really what it boils down to is I myself am committed to growing teenagers who will pursue an adult faith which is about serving Jesus, not pursue a church which provides an almost ‘adult youth ministry’ I want sustainable Christians faith that can revolutionise the generations to come!

I am not of the opinion that Youth Ministry has reached its use by date. I do believe we in the profession of pastoring teens have made errors and face a challenge to stop the tide of youth ‘dropping out of faith’ after their teenage years. I actually think there is a lot of benefit to reaching teenagers in teenage groups. Though I strongly desire to see more adult involvement in teenagers lives, I believe in youth ministry. I see this outgoing tide as a great opportunity to change up what has been the norm and to try new, or just different approaches to keeping teenagers in the faith in the post-teenage years.

So what then are the keys to keeping teenagers involved in the faith? What have been the big errors that have led to teenagers ‘jumping ship’ once they enter college and adulthood? Again, I believe the College Transition Project have come up with some very interesting findings that should help us in this area. Kara Powell, in an article entitled ”
‘When the Pomp and Circumstance Fades: A Profile of Youth Group Kids Post-Youth-Group’ suggests 3 area’s that Youth Ministries need to work on, based on survey evidence, if they wish to help teenagers better transition into an adult faith. They are;

1.       helping teenagers learn how to develope new friendships in new contexts,

2.       teach how to live responsibly when you’re away from home for the first time,

3.       teach how to find a new church or college ministry in which you can be both nurtured and challenged.

This is, once again, influenced by the American culture of college, though I can’t help but see similarities in the challenges we face in Australian Youth ministry.

I think over the years we have been good at building fun ministries that, while you are there, have great friendships, but I don’t know that we’ve been so good at encouraging deep friendships within youth ministry. I also don’t know how well we have done at helping people develop their own, new friendships as opposed to effectively ‘making’ people friends. Perhaps this is an area that can be developed?

If I could, I’d add a fourth area to Kara’s list, which she herself mentions in the article and that is ‘helping teenagers deal with doubt, and in fact thrive when doubts arise’. I’m going to make a bold statement here – Right teaching doesn’t necessarily equal right discipleship. We can fill teenagers heads with the ‘right doctrines’ which will make their parents happy, as long as those doctrines are what the parents believe, but I believe we should be doing more to challenge our teenagers to embrace doubt. To accept that questions will be raised throughout adult life. To be able to live with questions about how things they were taught could be true. This isn’t to say we should stop teaching the truth! Far from it. What we need to do is get our youth engaged in discussing the truth, and coming to their own position on different area’s as opposed to being spoon fed what they ‘should’ believe. I actually believe, in the process, truth will actually win out.

I remember when I was learning how to preach, my lecturer said something along the lines of  ‘if you have done your job right, by the time you give your big idea, your listeners already believe what you have to say. It isn’t so much about proving your point, but taking your listeners on a journey that makes your point for you in their minds, then bringing it home with the big picture’. I think this could also be applied to discipling teenagers. It is less about saying ‘You need to believe X and the reasons for this are 1, 2 & 3 and more about journeying them through the teenage years, helping them experience ‘the truth’ so that, by the time they finish high school and by the time you are possibly doing more intense discipleship, they can already see WHY you believe what you do, because they have seen the truth in action. We need more disciples of Jesus and less disciples of Youth Ministry who jump ship when the first challenge arises.