Category Archives: Youth Ministry

Scripture says that there is a season for everything. A time for every matter under heaven. Unfortunately, in ministry, we seemed to have missed the boat on connecting some of the seasons in the human life together. The transition to college and the young adult phase of life have and continue to be some of the biggest gaping holes in the ministry of the church.

Well, every season must come to an end and our team is declaring an end to the season of no support for the high school senior transitioning out of high school and into the next phase of their lives. I give you a new little series we call, “Move.”

It’s very simple. Move is a collection of our graduates congealed into like-minded groups based upon the next phase in their life. Whether a student is pursuing their education at a state school, a private school, a Christian college, or the workforce, we are creating groups for the class of 2011.

We are going to meet on four Sundays with the intent of preparing students, through conversation with current students for the next phase in their lives. Addressing topics like:

-What should I expect?
-How do I manage myself and my parents?
-What ministries or church opportunities are available where I’m going?
-How do I deal with the social issues (sex, alcohol, drugs, life)?

While I can’t tell you how this model will work in the long run, I can tell you that I’m excited to begin trying to find practical ways to better equip high school graduates for the next step in their life; one that they are most likely, ill-prepared for and have absolutely no idea what awaits them in the next year of their lives.

This is how I would have described a portion of my job recently:

Part of my current job is to be the Program Director for the Senior High Worship Service that takes place on Wednesday Nights. For most of the year this year, I have taken the approach of making the cue sheet to fit whatever we decide we have planned. It usually keeps us on track to get done on time and we can usually allow for some cool teaching moments inside that model. 

It seems pretty harmless at the outset and, in reality, that probably describes the role of many youth pastors around the country. But, recently, I have grown to almost hate that mentality. And I don’t mean that I think that that vision is flawed. No, I mean that I have discovered a distinct disdain for this philosophy of programming in the Church.

Even as I write this, I am frustrated with the line “It usually keeps us on track to get done on time and we can usually allow for some cool teaching moments inside that model.” Honestly, my first thought here is, “Who do I think that I am.” See, this thought process goes completely against what I tell my students I want us to be about. It is a clear effort to take God and His Holy Spirit and put it into a 75 minute, human shaped box. And that ain’t right, folks.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not a “we should have worship services that never end and we shouldn’t have end times at all and we should just continue to worship for 3 hours a night” blog post. Do I think that some of the examples I used in that scare quote would be awesome, you betcha. But if the church simply continues to sing empty songs that God doesn’t want to hear and preach half-hearted messages that don’t edify God, then we miss the point. But, in the same vain, if the church simply entertains the idea that we are going to try and box God in to a 75 minute timeframe because we have made ourselves so busy, or not prioritized the PRIVILEGE, the OPPORTUNITY, of worshipping Him, then we also miss the point.

All that to say, I’m changing my mentality on programming. I’m officially resigning as the Program Director and accepting the position as Tentative Plan Writer. I want to develop plans that engage our hearts with His; worship services that worship Him instead of our schedules. Holy Spirit guided plans that honor those serving in other areas of the church and yet disciple students to tune into the Holy Spirit.

I wonder how that changes things. I wonder what would happen if the Consumeristic American Church would create some space in her over-crowded, overly-busy life to just exist in the Spirit of God. Sure, that’s the Body’s decision, but it has to start somewhere. And Pastor, it takes a servant of Christ to lead His People toward Him.

What’s your role?
What area of your life are you worshipping on Sundays instead of Jesus?

Last night, we revisited our vision for the upcoming semester when it comes to prayer and our role in interceding on behalf of Teens in Crisis and those being Trafficked around the globe. You can find out more by visiting www.stopredlights.com. But, I have recognized a couple things about communicating vision.

1) Your “crystal” may not be “crystal.”
We put our best communicator on the stage. We even made it interactive. But we still had a few hiccups. A process that, at the outset, we thought was pretty crystal clear, clearly was not. Made me recognize that sometimes even the most clear messages can be clouded by distractions and some tweaks that could be worked out.

2) Repetition never gets old unless it is just repetitive. 
The reality is, when you bring 5th-12th graders together to communicate the vision that God has laid on your hearts, you can’t communicate the vision enough. It is going to benefit more students to repeat yourself a couple of times to make sure that each student has an understanding of what is going on. And as long as you are coming up with a different way to communicate that vision each time, you will most likely be effective. However, if you are just saying the same thing over and over, you aren’t being effective. You’re being annoying. Make sure to revisit vision, but keep it fresh.

3) Vision rarely can be communicated in a single moment or meeting.
Last week, we had somewhere around 350 students sign up to pray on a certain day of the week. But we asked them to commit to an entire semester. If we want vision to be carried through to the end of the semester, it’s pretty obvious that we are going to have to revisit that vision multiple times throughout the duration of that semester. Who knows, by doing that perhaps we get 500 “pray-ers” simply by revisiting vision.

Just some things that I have been picking up on and figured it might be worth sharing!

GC

Working on getting some ideas for this Wednesday and the future. I ran across these again. I think these would be great to use to promote just about anything. Have a day with these!

Haha…

GC

Found this on Josh’s blog about some students in his area of Southern California. This is so cool.

Now, what are we going to do next, students?

GC

An awesome brother in Christ and professor at Bethel College has started an organization that is worth your time. Dr. Ted Bryant has started a fantastic organization that looks to help students unleash their influence in their schools to transform the reality of many people in their communities. I love this organization because it uses students, entirely, to make a difference and they do it in their own communities AND around the world. Check out this video and then check out the greenLockers website here.

GC

Ran across a blog post by Steven Furtick that really peaked my interest. I’m not sure that I completely agree with everything that Steven thinks about student ministry but, I would say that He has some pretty good thoughts concerning this generation. I thought that his second point was pretty profound:

2. Authority
If this generation is lost, it won’t be because they lacked friends. It will be because they lacked leadership.
We safely assume that this generation has more potential than any other in history to change the world. We dangerously assume that they know how to unlock it. Or how to channel it for optimal impact. Or how not to get distracted by low-level pursuits.That’s where you come in. God hasn’t called you to be their buddy. And they don’t need you to be it either. They already had tons of those when you came around. He’s put you in their life to be their leader. Their mentor. Their guide. People believe that this generation is antiauthoritarian. They’re wrong. They’re just looking for someone in authority to lead them in a direction worth following. And to be a person worth following.

Be that person.

Very good post for any youth worker. Check the rest out here.

GC