Youth Ministry and Me

I'm not a Youth Pastor anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:48:00 +0000

So this Sunday just gone marked my final sunday as the Youth Pastor at Holy Trinity Doncaster. It means that I'm now two days into not being a Youth Pastor of a church. It is a bit of a strange feeling. I've learnt so much about God, myself, ministry, leadership, time management, motivation, situation depression, marriage, practical theology, youth ministry and a whole lot more over the last four years. It's been a time of emotional highs and lows and we're looking forward to taking some time to sit and reflect as we work out the next step.

We've got a bit of a holiday planned now (I'm currently on the lovely Phillip Island about 2hrs south of Melbourne). We then head to Tassie for three weeks of holidays mixed with some ministry. The ministry part will be preaching two sermons on New Years Day and then speaking on a 5 day youth camp about two weeks after that. These are both at my old/home church. So I'm very much looking forward to heading back there to share with them as well as spending time with the extended family and catching up with old friends. It's a nice bracket to the end of my time at HTD, to return to the place where my passion for ministry was first kindled!

After the summer break I start full time study at Ridley with a hopefully not too nasty three week Hebrew intensive. Followed by my first ever full time semester of theological study. While I'm at that I'll also be making some big decisions about my future and what ministry options might look like for us in the future. Pray for God's wisdom and guidance for us would be much appreciated.

Final sermon at HTD

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:30:00 +0000

Two Sunday's ago (11 Dec) I preached my final sermon. It was a charge from Philippians 2 to live united humble lives so that our community would grow and the gospel would grow.

You can listen to it here

What are words?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:27:00 +0000

Ok. So here is a developing thought that I've been playing with for a while now and it has to do with the nature of words and I suppose language and the way we use and interpret the Bible.

This is probably nothing new, and is most likely well researched by linguists and the like so i'd appreciate anyone who can point me in a direction of something to read. I think my thinking is somewhat shaped by my sociology degree.

So let me try and outline it, this is my first attempt so don't shoot me! The bible uses words (in the New Testament it uses Koine Greek words). These words don't actually mean anything in and of themselves but their context, culture, and the idea behind them give them meaning. So when we argue about what a particular word means we are arguing about what big idea in the stream of consciousness of the day was trying to be conveyed by the uses of that word. Often we can figure that out by the surrounding sentence or sentences or book or books.

Now, we read an English bible. It also uses words. It uses words that in our context and culture portray the same meaning to our stream of consciousness. So we have words like gospel or worship or church or marriage or grace that are used in the bible to convey particular meaning.

Now, there are some who get pretty revved up about correct use of words. So we can have big long conversations about the word 'worship' or 'gospel' or 'church'. Or some will prefer not to sing songs that use words like 'lovely' or 'fully sick' or something to describe God because the bible doesn't use those words. On one hand I get where they are coming from.

But I think I'm starting to think that perhaps we just need to become as good at reading our culture and interpreting it (cultural exegesis if you like) as we are at doing biblical exegesis. Perhaps we need to be less hung up on words and more hung up on ideas. Words change, meaning changes, contexts change. If we are hung up on defining everything in the exact same way as a word is used in the bible (or with different words that are not explicitly used in the bible, but might fit the big idea) then perhaps we are missing something of the richness and deepness that is life with Jesus and we are missing opportunities to take the good news about life with Jesus into our contexts.

After all english words in the Bible are just someones attempt to communicate an idea from a different context (1st Century Greek speaking Paul for example). And Paul was using greek words to communicate an idea that was in some sense beyond the words he used.

Just thinking philosophically. I still believe in Jesus' real life and death for my sins and reading the Bible as the primary way to know about Jesus. I'm just trying to work out how language works or something.

The research shows

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:39:00 +0000

The Research Project argues that Sydney Anglicans have done better than most other denominations and dioceses in resisting decline not so much because we see vastly more people converted as adults, but because we have done a better job at ministering to the young people of our church families. Proportionally, we have many more young people in church than other Anglican dioceses. And this is largely the reason we have not declined...

See an interesting article here

10000 Reasons by Matt Redman

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:00:00 +0000

This newish album by Matt Redman has been on constant repeat in my car and on my ipod for the last few weeks now. And I can honestly say, it is fantastic! I really love it. A great worship album with plenty of songs that are totally appropriate to sing in church!

Below are a few youtube videos of some of the songs. I really would happily have put pretty much every song on here. This first one is great. A good song to open a service with I think... Kinda like saying hello God we're here to praise you in this place today!

Then there is this great slow hymn like song (the title track)

And finally, this song about how God never leaves us alone even when it gets tough (this one is a live video of him actually singing it)

So I say thanks to Matt Redman for blessing the church with musically and lyrically good songs for singing as a congregation! Sadly that is rare!

A video of me preaching

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:18:00 +0000

Now you can see me as well as hear me. This was my sermon on Psalm 146

Preaching on Isaiah 53

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:52:00 +0000

I preached a few weeks ago on Isaiah 52:13-53:6.

You can listen to it here

This could well be my last sermon at Holy Trinity Doncaster! Sad times!

Preaching Psalm 146 - Trust

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:50:00 +0000

I preached last Sunday night on Psalm 146. The theme was trust and my goal was to be faithful to the text and short. I think I succeeded in both.

You can listen here

Who are people committing to?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Tim asks a really good question over on his blog: Are youth group kids committing to Christ or to youth group?

As I'm preparing to transition out of the Youth Ministry at Holy Trinity Doncaster I guess that's a question that I'm asking about our ministry. When I last left a church a number of the more fringe youth who came along to stuff did just stop coming after I left. So I'm hoping the same thing doesn't happen this time round.

The same thing can happen with youth leaders too. As I step out a number of the leaders are rethinking their future too. This is probably just a timing thing, but it serves as an important reminder that people need to be serving because of who Jesus is, and the gifts, talents and opportunities he's given them to be disciple making disciples.

So the question is, how do you help people to take ownership of their own faith? How do you help people invest in the community they're part of because of the community, not because of the leadership of that community? It definitely has something to with Jesus and people taking ownership of their own faith, but it's a very hard thing to do I think. Probably you've never really going to know really deep down why people are there until you leave.

Cross Cultural Ministry

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 23:02:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I engaged in some cross-cultural ministry. I donned some robes and spoke in 1662 English (I think I mostly understood what I was saying!)

Anyway, it was an experience, and like not wearing robes and speaking in current language to get the gospel out to youth if this is what works for feeding and growing the faith of older generations of Anglicans then I suppose it’s not all bad.

All for Jesus

I need this water bomb maker

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Ok this one is definitely for the Youth Pastors out there or those who've done youth ministry for a while. If you haven't, you really wont understand why I think this is probably the coolest thing ever!

It's a device you put on the end of your tap that means you can fill and tie water balloons in seconds! Who wants to buy it for me?

HT to the Youth Ministry Geek

Learning to Lead

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Hyatt posts 13 ways that you can frustrate those who work for you. I think the same thing could probably apply for those who volunteer with you as well.

A few of my 'favourites':

Cancel meetings at the last minute

Change your mind frequently

Don’t bother stating your expectations.

Assign them work, then micromanage the process.

Communicate that you are the fount of all wisdom.

Don't be a jerk

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A prophetic comic for evangelicals?

From Josh Harris

Reading the Bible

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

NT Wright has done a series of fascinating little videos over on the Alter Video Magazine site. I particularly enjoyed this one where he gives advice on how to read the bible. He talks compares the bible to a symphony. Taking little chunks here or there doesn't give you the whole feel for what's really going on. A good analogy I think.

Anyway, over the last few months Ellisa and I have been using a bible reading method which does a bit better at giving us a broader picture of the whole of scripture. I found it over on Communicate Jesus a while back. In this plan you read 10 chapters from different parts of the Bible each day. It sounds big, but it's actually not that bad. Takes me about 30-40mins to read. The greatest thing is there is never a dull moment. I always found with other bible reading plans that sometimes I would get bogged down in lots of 'boring' bits and therefore give up. This plan ensures I'm always reading something from the epistles or gospels or pslams or proverbs or acts, meaning if I'm getting bogged down in some confusing OT prophets or seemingly drawn out descriptions of who got what land in Joshua then I don't feel defeated.

It's a well worth a try if you're struggling to read the bible or want to try something different. There's also a facebook group you can join if you want tips or support.

(Note: If you're going to start doing this, I recommend downloading and printing out this list to help you keep track of where you are up to.)

Youth Pastors Wives

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Are you one? Or are you married to one? Or do you want to be one one day?

If so then you should definitely check out this blog: Youth Pastors Wives. Written for them, by them.

Looks good.

The end of an era at Holy Trinity Doncaster

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:54:00 +0000

With mixed feelings Ellisa and I have announced to all at Holy Trinity that this will be our final year serving at this great church. Mixed feelings because we are sad to be going, but also excited and hopeful for what the future has in store for us in this next chapter of our lives. The time is right but it is difficult to leave none-the-less.

Ellisa has been at Holy Trinity since she was about 8 years old. She has grown up through the great childrens and youth ministry.

I have been the Youth Minister since January 2008 and when we leave in mid to late December I will have been at the church for 4 years. These have been 4 years that have changed me heaps, driven me to Jesus more, challenged me and taught me heaps about ministry, church, people and life. I'm most grateful for meeting Ellisa during my time at Holy Trinity and it feels very much like my family church.

As for what the future holds Ellisa will be graduating at the end of the year as a fully qualified Physical Education (PE) teacher and working full-time in a yet to be determined school. I will be devoting myself to full-time theological study at Ridley and continuing the process I began this year of testing my call to ordained Anglican ministry. Your prayer for us as we sort out all these final details will be much appreciated.

God only knows what the future holds. I'm looking forward to a fast finishing momentum building 6 months at Holy Trinity to set it on the best footing for the future. Our recent Youth Camp was a great start to that goal.

Youth Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:39:00 +0000

Well, less than a year ago I posted this post about how I was hurting because due to a whole range of circumstances our youth ministry had more than halved in size and our youth camp was facing cancellation due to low numbers.

Thankfully camp didn't get cancelled but it was still relatively small. It ended up being a good time for our youth to bond and grow closer as a community.

Anyway, we moved our youth camp forward a few months this year and things have gone far better. We have 21 youth registered for camp. Which is excellent, well beyond my expectations. I'm giving talks from Colossians which I gave on a different church camp at the end of last year.

I'm really looking forward to a great weekend with our youth. Your prayers for safety would be much appreciated.

Anyway, I think the lesson is that a month is a long time in youth ministry and a year a very long time. In the space of a month our youth ministry hit some major hurdles. Now in less than a year it has grown to be of a more healthy size again. You can never rest in Youth Ministry. A big change, the natural flow of students in and out, is always just around the corner. Don't get comfortable like I did! If you do, you may find yourself spending the best part of a year wondering what happened and just what you did wrong. The answer might be nothing, you just haven't been prepared.

Shameless self promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:17:00 +0000

This made me feel good...

An article on another blog called: Top 50 Blogs by Youth Ministers

I may or may not have made the list

Preaching on John 11

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:32:00 +0000

A couple of Sundays ago I preached on the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It ended up being more a topic sermon on ressurection and the implications of our belief in that for how we live.

It was emotional and a bit long. But I'm passionate about this subject.

Listen to it or download it here

More on Joshua

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Many people are familiar with the story of Rahab the prostitute in Joshua (if not you can read about it here). My potted retelling of the story goes something along the lines of this. God's people are preparing for battle after many years of waiting in the wilderness. Finally the time has come and Joshua (the bloke) sends two spies (I'm presuming reasonably young blokes) to go find out about the land they are about to invade and attack. Now who knows what they get up to but the story tells us straight away they went and entered into a prostitutes house... Now this seems highly unexpected to me? Two young blokes go spy out the land and end up at a prostitutes house... Now I'm not saying they went there to have some naughty 'fun' while they were away from home but it certainly seems slightly suspicious to me. Certainly if they came back home and I was Joshua I would have been asking questions.

Now I haven't done a whole heap of hard work on this passage, and I have no doubt there are many more exegetically relevant points the passage seeks to answer but the passage got me thinking about the idea of being beyond reproach. The idea that we need to behave in ways that will mean people can't accuse us of things we haven't done. An example might be Ricky Nixon (for those not in Australia or Melbourne see here). Whatever Nixon did or didn't do with the 17 year old girl, the fact was he wasn't beyond reproach. It looked bad. Now I'm not suggesting that we go and seek out bad situations which make us look bad. Of course not. But I am wondering if sometimes we let this idea drive us away from doing things that are good but which might scare us, or make us feel like the price we pay is too high, because it's not behaviour that is, 'beyond reproach'.

Again, give me your thoughts either about the Rahab story or my 'beyond reproach' thinking. Iron sharpens Iron.

Joshua and the Holy Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Ok so the book of Joshua and the Holy Spirit are not two things that usually go together. But I've been reading through Joshua a few times lately and I was really struck by something which suggests to me the difference the Holy Spirit makes to us as New Covenant, Holy Spirit empowered believers.

See in the book of Joshua God's people carry out to it's full force (though not completely) God's command to destroy the other nations. They commit what looks like mass genocide. Wiping out completely from the face of the earth these other nations. Now putting aside our modern day difficulty with such a passage and such a command, the truth of the matter is that for God's people to remain holy and faithful to God they were required to wipe out the other nations so that they wouldn't be tempted to worship their idols.

Fast forward to the New Testament, post the coming of the Holy Spirit on the believers at Pentecost (Acts 2) and we have God's people being told in 1 Corinthians 9:19f to be like the other nations (those not following Jesus) in order that they might win some to the cause of Christ. This seems like a radical change. In fact it is a radical change, and I was wondering how is it that God's people move from being told to separate themselves off from the other nations to being told (within reason obviously) to be like the other nations.

And this is where the book of Joshua and the Holy Spirit come together in my thinking. It seems to me that the only reason why as Christians today in 2011 that we're not supposed to go round killing the infidels, is that God is now dwelling within us. That God has given us the power not to fall prey to the things that the world offers us. I take it that's why we're told we're never tempted beyond what we can get out of (1 Cor 10:13). God's Spirit is at work within us and will help us, there is hope that we will rise above the world around us now. There wasn't in the book of Joshua. God's people couldn't deal with temptation then and so they need harsh separation.

So that's my thinking. Do you think we should be encouraged by these thoughts or that you should write a blog post accusing me of a Rob Bell sized heresy?

Disconnected connection

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In the first week of March the staff here at HTD went away on a retreat to talk about our ministry and church and hear from our relatively new Senior Pastor some of his thoughts for the future. It was an excellent weekend. But it is not so much that weekend that I wish to talk about but rather something interesting I noticed happening when we went out for dinner. We went out to a restaurant and on the table across from us was a couple on a date. They were chatting away for most of the night but at one point I looked over and I saw the guy checking his Facebook while the girl was telling him a story about something going on in his life. Now this was not a subtle, keep the phone under your table and keep pretending to listen kind of check of the phone. No, this guy got his phone out and had it up in view for everyone to see (including his date!) and was scrolling through Facebook! I watched as he tried to listen to what the girl was saying, but we all know that (being a guy) this is pretty much impossible. I'm constantly getting into trouble from my wife for not disconnecting from my phone so as I can connect better with her. Here he was trying to connect with his girlfriend and as she was opening herself up and telling him a story about her life, he got out his phone and checked what others were doing on Facebook. Crazy!

Anyway, I'm reminded of this story because I just came across a promo for a new book by Tim Challies which looks like it's talking all about this kinda of stuff. Will probably be a good read. Check out the video:

More on Modesty

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A month or so ago I posted about a model who was going around speaking about modesty.

Then the other day I came across this post on the Worship Matters blog about addressing Modesty in church.

Whilst that post is specifically about modesty in a worship band context, the topic is a hot one for Youth Ministry as well. As youth wear what leaders wear. Especially the girls. I think that's partly because of the role model thing and partly because of culture. For example when I moved up to Melbourne from Tassie I was decked out in Polar Fleece jumpers and other sort of outdoorsy type clothing because that was the culture of our church, and Hobart. But in Melbourne I find myself wearing jackets and more city type clothing cause that is the culture here.

So people in churches and youth ministries tend to dress similarly and it's important that we do so in a modesty way.

Two good leadership ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Matt Perman over at his blog has been reading through a book called Sticky Teams. It seems to have some great insights and I particularly liked two of his posts.

The first was about "no theys". That is the leadership of the church decided that they would no longer listen to the so called annonomus group of people in the church called "they". This is a classic reason I think church leaders can avoid making changes. Because "they" won't like it. But who are "they"? Often we don't know, or "they" turn out not to be as big or bad as we thought. It's good advice!

The other post was about how getting 'buy in' from people is not always needed and can waste time and stop innovation. Sometimes all we need is permission. I liked the way he differentiates between 'buy in' and 'permission'. It's I think a subtle but very helpful difference!

Check out the posts and have a look round his blog while you're there.

Leadership is about people

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Bowditch) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Because great leaders build people, not just results