Monthly Archives: August 2011
Divided about Divided!
I had been introduced to the movie, DIVIDED a few months ago. I watched it and honestly thought there would be no way that this movie would get much traction. But, thanks to social media I’ve found it posted in lots of various places. I’ve had several youth pastors email me asking if I’ve seen it yet.
Youth ministry in the last 5-7 years has taken a lot of lumps. And although this film spoke to an important issue about a parents as as disciplemaker in the lives of their children; it also made some incredibly ignorant statements.
A few days ago I read Greg Steir’s response to this video and I couldn’t agree more with what he’s said. Therefore, I encourage you to read Greg’s thorough,biblically grounded response to this film calling youth ministry un-biblical.
In the days ahead I’ll post 11 reasons why I believe why putting young people as the bulls-eye of our missional focus is critical. Until then, be encouraged that ministry among young people matters and brings great glory to God. Thank you for the part your play alongside students and families!!
Parent Connect…
“I am a youth pastor!” It has taken me too long to understand the limitations I put on my ministry if I let that sentence, and nothing more, define my role. I am not talking about the overload of work a church can give or expect, I am talking about the 360º view of my role as a youth pastor. Just off the top of my head I would say I am a shepherd, teacher, pastor to youth pastors (my adult leaders). I am a pastor to the church (not just to teens), and I am a parent pastor. The list could go on but you get the idea.
How are you succeeding in your role as a pastor to the parents of your teens? Our team recently processed through this questions and developed a new resource for our church. The idea we came up with was a…wait for it…wait for it…(EPIC DRUM ROLL PLEASE)…Parent Blog!!! I know, right? Not real ground breaking ministry. The point is not that it’s never been thought of before, the point is connection with and equipping our parents.
Keeping up a blog can be a lot of work and if you stop posting for a period of time you risk losing your readers. Here are a few of the steps I took in creating this connection point with our parents.
Volunteers: 3 Questions to Ask About Your Greatest Youth Ministry Asset (Part 4 of 4)
This is part 4 of a 4 part post. Click the following links to read part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Question #3: What will move us from being merely a group of volunteers who “help out” to a disciplemaking community that is living on mission with Jesus, together?
- Follow Jesus, Together! It can be easy to view a volunteer team simply as a means through which to accomplish our vision, get more done or touch more students. But something happens when we move our vision and personality from the center and put Jesus at the center of our volunteer team. The playing field is leveled as we seek Him together in prayerfulness and wrestling over the Word together and its application to our own lives as well as to the lives of students. (Note: A current series of posts on Jesus-like Disciplemaking Learning Communities will help you drill much deeper into what this could look like.) Read the rest of this entry
The Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus (Part 3): Learning Together
By Bill Allison and Dave Garda- Cadre International Minisries(Posted with permission.)
Learning Happens in Community
When I went back to college later in life, I was told that I had a “math deficiency.” (Iʼve been told worse.) I ended up having to buy an elementary mathematics book and re-teaching myself some basics. Everyday I worked through a portion of that pitifully boring math book—alone. However, once a week I met with a tutor who monitored my progress (or lack thereof) and tried to answer my many questions. (“Why would anyone plant a garden in the form of a triangle and then use the Pythagorean Theorem to measure the hypotenuse?”)
One day I asked my tutor, “Help me understand integers”—and I pronounced it exactly like itʼs spelled: “in-TE-gers.” My tutor smiled and said, “You mean, integers”—and she pronounced it “IN-ti-jers.” Sensing my embarrassment, she said, “Itʼs okay. You couldnʼt have known this simply by working through the book by yourself.”
Right then and there I realized this: solo book learning is a good start, but a fuller, deeper learning happens in community. In my math community (with a tutor and few other struggling students), I learned to correctly pronounce mathematical terms Iʼll probably never need—such as “integer.” (My math is up to speed these days, but you may have noticed that I still have a significant math deficiency in my attitude.) Read the rest of this entry
College Debt: The Financial Burden Many Students Can’t Afford
Last spring I was driving a recent college graduate to lunch to celebrate the completion of his degree. He had a very difficult four years of college and was excited about the next chapter of his life story. I asked him if he was graduating with much debt. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” he responded. “I’m only graduating with $50,000 of debt from student loans. Many of my friends have a lot more debt than me!”
What? I almost drove the car off the road. $50,000! I knew the type of degree he had earned, and I knew of his plans for graduate school. I couldn’t imagine being 22 years old, carrying that much debt. And he is one of the lucky ones? Read the rest of this entry
Volunteers: 3 Questions to Ask About Your Greatest Youth Ministry Asset (Part 3 of 4)
This is part 3 of a 4 part post. In part 1 I suggested that we need to see our volunteer team as our greatest asset in youth ministry. I shared three questions that can help us think about how we are stewarding and developing this team in fresh ways.
In part 2, I touched on the first question. In this post, I’ll drill down on the second question, again with the hope that it will both affirm some things you are already doing as well as prime the pump for fresh intentionality and creativity as you steward the gift of your volunteer team and grow together in being disciples who make disciples who also make disciples…among the emerging generation.
Question #2: What is my plan to intentionally develop our student ministry volunteers this year? Read the rest of this entry
The Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus (part 2): Study and Live Jesus-like Disciplemaking
LI #1 A DLC exists to study and live Jesus-like disciplemaking.
By Bill Allison and Dave Garda- Cadre International Minisries (Posted with permission.)
Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus part 1
When I think of Jesus-like disciplemaking, I think of these six words:
Loving God, loving people, making disciplemakers.
These six words not only tell us what Jesus made (disciplemakers) but how he made them (by loving the Father and loving people). But what you might miss in these six words is that Jesus didn’t go about disciplemaking with individuals. Yes, Jesus had one-on-one encounters with people. However, when it came to making disciples and disciplemakers, Jesus did something different. For about three-and-a-half years, Jesus made disciples and disciplemakers by pulling them together into a Disciplemaking Learning Community. It’s important to note that Jesus wasn’t just conducting a learnining community–he was initiating a Disciplemaking Learning Community. Read the rest of this entry
Volunteers (Part 2 of 4): 3 Questions to Ask About Your Greatest Youth Ministry Asset
In part 1 of this post I shared three questions that I think are helpful for the point leader of any student ministry to be asking as you walk into a new school year. In the following three parts I’d like to drill down with some of my own thoughts and practices over the years in regards to these questions.
In no way is this mean to be an exhaustive list, but here are a few ideas that I hope will both affirm some things you are already doing as well as prime the pump for fresh intentionality and creativity as you steward the gift of your volunteer team and grow together in being disciples who make disciples who also make disciples…among the emerging generation.
Question #1: How will I go about recruiting my dream team? Read the rest of this entry
Volunteers: 3 Questions to Ask About Your Greatest Youth Ministry Asset (Part 1 of 4)
What would you say is your student ministries’ greatest asset?
How you answer this question will probably determine what you give the majority of your time to in the next month before the new school year starts. For instance, if you see your mid-week program as your greatest asset then you’ll probably spend a lot of time and effort working through the various series, creative elements and ways to refine the program to make it even more effective than it was last year.
For me, it didn’t take me too long in youth ministry to come to the realization that my greatest ministry asset was my volunteer team. Early on I’d spend the majority of my time planning for the following school year by wrestling through: planning series, retreat themes, events calendars, fundraiser dates, the following summer’s mission trip, etc. Then, once I had landed all that, I’d try take the little mental energy and calendar space that was left and consider give my leftovers to the volunteer team who would help me “get this all done.” Read the rest of this entry
Disciplemaking Genius of Jesus (Part 1): Are You Confidently Walking in Circles?
By Bill Allison and Dave Garda- Cadre International Minisries (Posted with permission.)
Are You Confidently Walking in Circles?
Scientific researchers studied what happens to people who get lost while walking in a desert or wilderness. It turns out that lost people literally go around in circles, but they don’t realize it. Worse yet, lost people tend to feel confident they are walking in a straight line, but they’re not. The study stated: “…participants were only able to keep a straight path when the sun or moon was visible. However, as soon as the sun disappeared behind some clouds, people started to walk in circles without even noticing it.” It seems we are in continual need of a reliable point of reference to keep from walking in circles.
Here’s a question for you: When it comes to disciplemaking, could it be that we have lost our point of reference and are spending a good deal of time confidently walking in circles and we’re not even aware of it? Read the rest of this entry
