theoquest

3 Secrets to Seeing Maturity in Student Ministry

2012-02-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Last night, I got to hang out with some of our students here who've started a ministry night they call TNT. It's actually a mixture of a few of our WestWay kids and their friends from a few other churches and friends from no church at all. They get together every week and hang out for about a half hour, have some kind of devotional talk/thought, then break up into smaller groups to talk about issues with which they wrestle. As far as youth ministry goes, it's not really anything too out of the ordinary... except one thing:

From the beginning, TNT has been planned, promoted, and directed by students. They've been going for about a year now, and last night was the very first night I'd even been in the building for their time together. (There is an adult or two who are here just in case they're needed, but they were both tied up last night, so I got to be the substitute!)

Last night, after they hung out for a while, I have to admit that I was starting to wonder if they did anything else. I'm all for relationship building, but I was hoping to see them do something a little more meaningful with the relationships they were building. Just as I began to wonder if there was something else they needed to be doing to make the most of their time together, it was as if some silent signal went off. They put down the ping pong paddles and stepped away from the foos-ball table and everyone headed to the side room, where one of kids who's spearheaded much of TNT prayed, read a chapter from Blue Like Jazz, and started a pretty good conversation.

A year ago, if I'd asked him to get a bunch of his friends together and read to them and lead a discussion about what it means to follow Jesus, he would have thought I was nuts. (I may be, just for the record.) But last night, he did exactly that - and it was his idea. He's been reading and being impacted by what he's reading, and wants to share it. He's not the only one. These students are not afraid to step out and share how God is challenging them.

A lot of youth ministry is pouring yourself into young people and waiting. Rewards are delayed... gratification is anything but instant... It's so good when you get to catch a glimpse of the maturity that God is bringing about. I'm glad I was able to make it last night... If you want to see maturity developing in your student ministry, here are a few things to keep in mind.

If you're doing youth ministry...
Keep pouring. Keep chasing Jesus and allowing him to breathe His life into you, then keep sharing that life with your students.
Don't expect instant results, but treasure those rare moments where you actually get to see the difference Jesus has made through your efforts.
Don't do it all yourself. Let your students get out on that ledge where they can experience the joy of being a conduit of God's grace to their peers. (And find other adult leaders who can help them navigate life, as well.)

If you're not doing youth ministry...
Why not? You've got something to offer and the next generation desperately needs to connect with Christ in you. Chase Jesus and let him breathe His life into you, then find someone who needs you to share that life with them.
You probably don't like me that much, and I'm not sure why you're still reading my blog. But please come back often and keep reading - maybe you'll catch the bug!
Help us. Too many youth leaders are carrying too much of the youth ministry load. We need your help. We may not always be very good at asking for it (I know I'm not), but we simply cannot be everything that all of our students need us to be. Please help us fill the gaps.

Potential, Locked Up

2012-02-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't have been able to see him in the middle of the morning like that. He should have been in some class at one high school or another. But he wasn't in class. Instead, as I was buzzed through a series of solid steel doors, he was finishing an English test for his GED courses. Courses he's taking because kids in jail don't go to regular school. But he wants to finish.

As we talked, he asked about a Psalm he'd been reading and what it all meant and I babbled on about Old Testament history and fitting things into the right place in that history to understand better, and how David, the guy that wrote the particular Psalm he was asking about, had messed up really bad, but still was dubbed "a man after God's own heart"... And that was what he was looking for. He needed to know that there is grace enough that he could be forgiven.

I kept thinking about all the potential that is locked up in what we call a Juvenile Detention Center. What will become of these kids? Many of the kids I saw today will spend a lot of their lives in facilities like this. For some it already seems to be a pattern. As I was leaving, a boy who was probably about 13 or 14 seemed to be getting processed in. When I was 13, this would have been pretty traumatic for me - 4 or 5 corrections officers standing by, watching as the restraints were removed and pockets searched as I was ushered in to change into a prison uniform... I would have been wetting my pants! This kid, however young he was, already knew the routine. This was normal for him.

But back to the young man I'd met with... He wants a new normal. He doesn't want this to be the pattern for his life. And he's learning to lean on grace to make that possible. He's hoping to enter a treatment facility soon. 3 weeks clean has been a good start, but he knows he's only just starting a journey that won't be easy. (Please be praying...) Grace can unlock his potential to live a better story.

Which makes me wonder...

What potential have I locked up within myself because I haven't dared to let grace work there? What about you? What fear or bitterness or shame do we harbor, keeping us from becoming what God dreams we could be?

WestWay Staff's 2011 Study/Learning Highlights

2012-01-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

(That could quite possibly be the most horrible post title ever, but there's really nothing else to call a post like this, so... you're stuck with it.)

At the end of last year, I asked the rest of the staff here at WestWay for some lists of what had impacted them over the past 12 months or so. I intended to make it sort of an end of the year summary, but that went the way of most of my family Christmas letters and was unfinished until now. Instead of just giving you a list of stuff we read, maybe this can open a discussion in your own life. What's God been showing you lately? What's He using to do that?

I asked each of the guys, "What authors/books stood out to you from this year's reading? How did God use them to shape your heart and your ministry? What speakers is God using in your life right now?" I want to share with you below some of what God has been showing us. Some of these resources would be a great place for you to continue your own growth as well. Get a few friends together and dig in.

Joe replied that he'd enjoyed an online audio series on the book of Revelation. The series was led by Shane Wood and can be found here in the free audio resources section. I also know that Joe enjoyed Mark Moore's Acts series that can be found at that same site a while back. If you're looking for some great teaching about the early church, and what it means to us 2000 years later, this is a great place to start. Joe also spent some time this year listening to messages from Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, and he commented that "Their love and passion for taking Christ to the lost is contagious."

In his reading this year, Joe mentioned Soul Cravings from Erwin McManus, Elijah from Charles Swindoll, and Max on Life from Max Lucado. He noted that what stood out in these books was how God is in control and we can be willing even when we don't understand all the details of what He's doing.

Willie noted Max DePree's Leading Without Power, Jim Putman's Church is a Team Sport, Mike Cope's One Holy Hunger, and Juan Carlos Ortiz's Disciple. He said he was also encouraged or challenged by messages from Shane Philip of The Crossing in Las Vegas, Andy Stanley of North Point, Steven Furtick from Elevation Church, Erwin McManus of Mosaic, Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill, and Tom Gerdts of Rockingham Christian Church.

Shane said that 4 books came to mind:
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning was a great reminder that God's love and grace are so much bigger than our self-doubt and hate and shame. He desires the best for us.
Radical from David Platt and Sun Stand Still from Steven Furtick were both used to teach that God is strong and mighty and desires us to join Him in His holy plan. We need to follow and obey to the best of our abilities and depend on Him for the impossible.
Activate from Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas was a very practical book in planning for small groups ministry.

Marshall said, "I only read the red letters." Just kidding - he didn't say that at all. He did mention Celebration of Discipline from Foster, which he called the "best spiritual growth book I have studied," and Terry Bowland's Make Disciples (which offered some help understanding some steps to grow in our own discipline & help others at the same time).

For my own part, I'd put Platt's Radical at the top of the list. I haven't commented much about this book here because I'm still chewing on the implications, but this was definitely the highest impact book I read this year. It's very challenging to someone like me whose grown up in the church and just accepted as normal some things that Jesus would probably rather do without in His church. The American Dream has blurred the vision of the North American church in ways that we have to correct. Now. What kingdom are we working to build? This is a great book that you should read.

I also liked 10 Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing from Geoff Surratt. If you're serving the church in any kind of leadership capacity, it's a good look at some things to avoid. I posted more about it in a series of posts

I didn't ask about it, but if I had added film category, Love Costs Everything would be at the top of my list. It's an eye opening look at what it's like to follow Jesus in parts of the world where doing so is not the norm, but rather is a dangerous & persecuted act. We'll be showing the film here at WestWay on March 11th.

"Love Costs Every Thing" Trailer from CIY Move on Vimeo.

If I had to pick a theme from all of this from our staff, it would be digging in to the question of what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus. Pray with me that in 2012 we'll continue digging and finding what God wants to show us.

So, what's God teaching you?

Don't Just Stand There

2012-01-24T11:23:00.001-07:00

It was a huge mess. After watching their oppressors being hounded by bloody water, frogs, flies, gnats, hail, dying animals, locusts up the wazoo, darkness, festering sores all over their bodies, and the deaths of their firstborn sons... now they were free. Well, they were on the edge of the wilderness loaded down with loot, with no homes to which to return, but at least they weren’t slaves anymore, right? Then it all started to look really bad...

Camped along the shore of the Red Sea, happy to be out of Egypt, the Hebrews looked out in the distance and saw the Egyptian army marching toward them. In terror at the realization that they were stuck between an army bent on their destruction and a Sea that left nowhere to run, they cried out to God and turned on Moses. “Why did you lead us here? We could have died just as well in Egypt! Why couldn’t you have just left us alone?”

Moses kept a calmer head and offered what seemed to him to be good advice, “Don’t be afraid of them, just stand firm and watch what God will do. He’ll fight for you, just be quiet and watch.” Doesn't that sound comforting? "God's led us here & it's His fight - just watch." I’ve got to admire Moses’ trust in God at this point. He knew that God had led them there, and he knew that God would deliver them. But his fight or flight response must have been broken by the burning bush experience or something. When the army’s coming after you and you’ve got nothing with which to defend yourself, you run! Hide! Hey, maybe you pick up some rocks and prepare to do your best to buy some time for your wife and kids to get to safety, but you don’t just stand there!

“The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” Those are the words (NASB) Moses said to the people in the face of certain death. Does that not sound crazy to anyone else? I bet it did to a lot of them! Now, several thousand years later, we know he was right. We know what they could scarcely hope for as they stood near the sea, waiting to die. God did rescue them. But He saw the whole episode a little differently than Moses did. He said to Moses, “Why are you crying to me? Tell the people to get moving!” Essentially, He said “Don’t just stand there dummy. Go!”

Sometimes, we’re tempted to think there’s nothing we can do to make a situation better. We’re stuck, and we think the only thing we can do is sit there and cry (to God?). Or maybe we think we need to just wait out the storm and perhaps, somehow the impending army won’t crush us and we’ll survive. So, we whimper on the shore when God’s ready to break open the waters and let us escape to life with Him - if we'd only get moving...

I don’t mean to make light of asking God for help - we do need to be desperate for Him to rescue us. Some of us need to be a whole lot less self-reliant. But we also need to get moving. When God tells us to move forward, into that brick wall, or perilous sea, or whatever obstacle is in the way... we need to get moving!

I wonder if Jesus had something like that in mind when He told Peter that He was going to build a church that even the gates of hell couldn’t stop? When He told His disciples to “Go into all the world...” did He hear His Father’s words to Moses echoing through time, beckoning this tiny band of misfits to turn the world upside down?

Church, are we stuck between the army and the sea, just waiting for God to do something? Are we desperate for God to act on our behalf? Maybe it’s time that, in our desperation, we move AND see Him act... Maybe it’s time to take that first step toward the water. It sure beats dying on the shoreline. May we charge the gates He’s brought us to, following Him as He’s led the charge on His mission to rescue and reconcile.

12 in '12 Tuesday

2012-01-24T09:07:00.003-07:00

12 in '12 is a series of posts talking about life in youth ministry with a 12 year old in the family this year.
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This weekend, Emily got to go to her first Winter White Wash. It's a ski retreat we take our Middle School and High School students to each year. This year, we skied at Snowy Range just outside Laramie, and had the main sessions at the new building of White Water Christian Church. (It's awesome to see this new church continue to develop.) Emily wasn't a huge fan of the whole skiing thing, but had fun the rest of the time. I'm tearing her away from the Republican debate to answer a few questions for you. Just for clarity's sake, my comments/questions are italicized and Emily's answers are in bold. (Like you wouldn't have figured that out!)

What was the best part of the weekend?
Pretty much the entire weekend was fun. NOT skiing though. I got ran over by a guy on a snowboard. It hurt. Very bad. [At least the kid felt guilty about it - I think he may have been crying as bad as you were.]

What was it like being the only 6th Grader in our group? Terrible I bet, no one to talk to at all, right?
Actually, it wasn't that bad. Most of the time I hung out with the high school girls. And some 6TH GRADE friends from Bayard. [...and Laramie, and some tiny place with no name, and some kid from Rapid, and... I told you not to worry about it.]

How was the van ride? I heard your driver was pretty awesome.
The van ride was fun. Except when we got caught in a blizzard (Not the DQ kind) and couldn't see anything. Except white. It was scary. And by the way, the driver wasn't that awesome. (It was you, Dad!) [I know! And I thought it was pretty good driving for not being able to see ANYTHING.]

How was it being the daughter of the youth pastor? Any specific challenges to being my kid? Or benefits?
It's OK being the daughter of the youth pastor. Not really any challenges. There are benefits though. Like you paid for my lunch even though I had my own money. And I know all the songs on your iTunes list and I can bug you until you play Lecrae. [It doesn't really take a whole lot of bugging to get me to play Lecrae. He's awesome. I'm sure there will be some challenges sooner or later - but I'm sure you'll be up for them, too. Oh, and you owe me a lunch!]

Any advice for other youth ministers who are taking their kids on trips with their youth groups?
The only advice I have is: Don't embarrass them or they'll just embarrass you right back. And trust me, you don't want to be embarrassed by a Jr. High or High School kid. [Is that a threat? Alright, go to bed young lady, right now.]

Winter White Wash 2012 Day 2

2012-01-21T20:16:00.001-07:00

What is our focus? What are the things for which we hunger and thirst?
Today was Emily's first skiing experience. Conditions weren't great for first time skiing, but she gave it a go anyway. After lunch I talked her into one last run on the bigger slopes, but on the way down, there were a few places that were a little more steep than she thought she bargained for. (I may or may not have given full disclosure before I got her on the chair lift...) To keep her from taking off her skis and walking the rest of the way down, I skied backwards right in front of her and tried to keep her looking at me instead of the "gently rolling slope" behind me.

It reminds me of life with Jesus. When I chase after anything but Him, it's easy to notice a lot of stuff around me that I know I can't handle. It's easy to get all wrapped up in my own "stuff". (By the way, if you don't notice anything that you can't handle in life, you probably need to let your Dad coax you off the bunny slope for a change of pace...)

It is the living water of Jesus' transforming power that we should be chasing. It's only His provision that will really satisfy. We need to be "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 NASB) Let's be done playing the game.

Winter White Wash 2012

2012-01-20T15:20:00.001-07:00

After what had to be one of the most wind blown drives I've had, we made it to Laramie for Winter White Wash. Hopefully the skiing will be good tomorrow, but even if not, the first session has been a blessing for our students.

We're looking at Matthew 5:6, where Jesus said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. What does it mean to be filled? What is it that can really offer the satisfaction humanity craves?
The wind blowing the van around the road always reminds me of the Holy Spirit. You can't control it, you can't really make it do what you want it to do... You can fight it, but do you ever really win? But could we simply surrender to Him and let Him move us wherever He wants to move us?

Would we find there what we've been looking for all along?

12 in '12 Tuesday - Launching

2012-01-17T13:50:00.002-07:00

12 in '12 is a series of posts talking about life in youth ministry with a 12 year old in the family this year.

Our twelve year old, Emily, has entered Middle School, which puts her into the youth category as far as our church's ministry is structured. Actually, we are pretty flexible with our 6th graders, and most of them have some involvement in both the youth ministry and children's ministry. As a first born, Emily's always thought of herself as a few years older than reality says she is, so she's been eager to get to be a part of the student group that I oversee.

As her father, I probably see her a couple years younger than reality says she is! This can cause some tension as she strains to exercise a growing amount of independence, so I'm trying to think of this in rubber band terms. She's stretching out, I'm holding on, and when I let go, she's going to fly. My job, as both a youth pastor and a dad, is to make sure that flight is a healthy one in a couple ways:

1. She needs to land where God's intended her to go. Right now, as I hold on, I can still assert some influence. I can still "aim" her in the right direction. Once the launch sequence has reached its end and the tension is released to be kinetic - her flight path is largely decided. I need to make sure she's learning how to handle the tools she'll need to make course corrections on her own. Mostly, that means asking the question, "Does she know how to recognize God's voice and is she willing to do what He says?" and doing everything I can to make sure the answer is "Yes."

2. I need to also make sure the tension created as she's pulling away isn't so great that the rubber band snaps. I see so many parents hold on so tightly that when launch day comes, the excitement fizzles quickly and their kids are shackled by the doubts and fears their parents have unwittingly planted by refusing to let them make any choices of their own. Sadly, these flights look more like a balloon with all the air let out, often ending up in a stretched out shell of what could have been, lying around on the basement floor.

So how is a parent (or youth pastor) supposed to manage this tension? Here are a few critical questions to help:

Am I helping my kids understand God's Word? If they can't recognize His voice there, they're not likely to recognize it in their day to day living either.
Can they see that I am following? If I'm telling my kids to listen and follow, they need to be able to tell that I'm doing what I'm doing because it's what God wants done. (i.e. I didn't stop and help the guy that was stuck just because I'm such a nice guy - but because God wanted him to be helped and I was there.)
Have I established clear boundaries within which my kids feel confident in making decisions? My 5 year old wants to go ride her bike. She may ride as she pleases, as long as she stays in the driveway. My 12 year old's bike ride boundaries have extended far beyond the driveway, along with her capacity to make good decisions about where to go and where to not go. Most kids don't misbehave because they're bad - it's because they don't know where the boundaries are. Clear boundaries early in life really help kids later on.
Do I realize whose kids these really are? This may be the toughest question of all. Last night we caught a couple minutes of The Bachelor waiting for the next show to come on. (Horrible show, by the way - why would anyone think that situation would work out to be anything other than the emotional train wreck that it is? I digress...) Emily was sitting next to me on the couch and I found myself getting defensive on her behalf. "If you ever let a guy treat you the way he's treating those girls, I will hunt him down..." actually came out of my mouth. But as much as I love and want to protect my kids, someone else's image is stamped much deeper in their lives than mine is. Our Father has a capacity to love and protect His own far greater than mine will ever be. We need to trust God with His kids.

How else have you seen parents preparing their kids for launch?

Hypothetically Church

2012-01-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

Let's play a little hypothetical Monday afternoon:

Imagine with me... a group of people, mostly in their mid to late 20's, living in the same apartment complex near the hospital where most of them work. There are a handful of single med students, several newlywed couples, a few widows & widowers, and even a couple families with young children (though, their apartments are getting a bit crowded so one of them may be moving out soon to a place with a yard where their kids can play).

It's not a huge complex, so they see each other often, and there seem to be several running conversations in the group that are always picked up and left off as they pass in the hall and hang out in the lobby. These people know each other really well. It's not uncommon at all to see one of the younger set helping out the older folks by carrying groceries or doing whatever else may be needed. The youngest kids talk excitedly about the grandmas and grandpas they have in the building, and if you had to guess, you'd probably think they really were family. And they are... just not in the way that has anything to do with genetics or legal agreements.

I go to church in their neighborhood, and have visited their building a couple times. When Bill got sick and had to retire from his work in the hospital's ER, they threw him one of the coolest retirement parties I've seen. It was amazing to see people whose lives Bill had saved or whose broken arms he'd set get together and talk about what a difference he'd made to each of them. He never stopped at just the basic care they'd expected. The apartment crew, as I've come to call them, also went way above and beyond to celebrate Bill's work over the years. The extra mile seems to be a pattern for all of them.

These people really seem to love each other, too. They don't just live in the same space, they genuinely and excessively care about the well being of each one in their community. Several times a week, all of them who can get there will share a meal together in the courtyard (or the lobby when it's cold), and no one ever eats alone. I was surprised at one visit to hear them talking about some Bible passages they'd read lately, and how it motivated them to love even others outside their community the same way they loved each other. They've taken the word neighbor to a whole new level...

My neighborhood's not like that, so I pressed them once about what the difference was. They said the difference was that they'd each committed to loving Jesus, loving others, and doing the things Jesus said to do - which I thought was kind of odd because most of them hardly ever go to church. I asked why they don't go to church and they said they'd each chosen to work Sunday morning shifts so that other people could go if they wanted to. They did point out that they had been taking turns leading devotions in the lobby every morning before the kids had to be at school, and they'd built a prayer wall in one of the halls where they'd post stuff to pray about with each other. They showed me the board, full of notes from just about every one in the building.

As I visited yesterday, one note in particular really hit me. It was from Jake, one of the boys who may be moving soon. He only asked for two things:

That they could find a house big enough for the whole family. By the picture he drew with the note, I could tell 'family' didn't just mean his brother and parents!
That moving to a house didn't mean they'd have to stop helping at the homeless shelter the 'family' had started around the corner from their building.

Leaving the apartments, I noticed our church building just down the block. The parking lot was empty and I knew the doors would be locked, but I walked down anyway and sat down on the steps for a bit. I couldn't help but wondering about myself and all my friends that get together here every Sunday. We talk about Bible passages and sing songs telling God how awesome He is and how much we love Him. We pray together and some of us chat a little bit after services. But then we all go home and mostly don't see much of each other until next Sunday. I think we're trying to love Jesus in all of this, but the more time I spend with those people in the apartment building down the street, the more I wonder if we might be missing something.

Why is our group called 'church' but theirs is not?

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Just a quick, non-hypothetical point: This is not about the guy who claims to be worshiping God in nature because he'd rather go golfing on Sunday mornings. It's not about Justin Bieber saying he doesn't have to go to church because somebody else just religiously goes to church to go to church (more perspective on that here from Scot McKnight & Dan Kimball). It's about the essence of church. When you strip everything away that's superfluous in the church, what's still there? I know this apartment dwelling group is fictitious. But the question remains: should it be?

Driscolls' Real Marriage - Review

2012-01-10T12:03:00.001-07:00

Last week, I received a free copy of Mark & Grace Driscoll's Real Marriage from BookSneeze. Basically, the publisher sends bloggers free books in exchange for their honest reviews. (I haven't been required to give a positive review, just honest feedback.)

Having been married for 17 years, I'm always interested in teaching that deals with life together as husband & wife. We want our marriage to be continually growing, and that doesn't just happen by accident. Having worked in the church for most of that time, I'm also always looking for resources to help me help young people prepare for that life together as well. In addition to these reasons, I am usually pretty challenged by Driscoll's forthright approach, so was looking forward to the book.

It's broken into 3 sections, and while the 2nd one will get all the attention and spark a lot of debate (it's the section primarily about sex), I found a lot of more practical teaching in the 1st section, and some great points of discussion in the 3rd.

Part 1 is essentially focused on the relational aspect of marriage. It talks about improving your marriage by being a better friend to your spouse, understanding differences you may have with your spouse, and dealing together with the sin in your lives. There's a great emphasis on being more than just two people living parallel lives.

As I mentioned, Part 2 is about sex. I wonder how many readers will be either so distracted (because they're too focused on sex) or offended (because they don't want to hear anything about sex, or at least not that much) by this section that they'll miss out on a lot of really good stuff in the rest of the book. The Driscoll's didn't write to avoid criticism, so this section will be too much for some. Which is too bad, because the book has some helpful things to say about this important part of the marriage relationship. While many in the church are uncomfortable talking about sex, this section will probably swing the pendulum too far for some to find the real message.

Part 3 makes the point that the most important day of your marriage is the last one. This is a point I could not agree with more, and one that I emphasize with young couples a lot. Our culture places so much focus on the wedding day... but what about the last day? Will it be full of regrets or bitterness? Or will it be a day where life together can be celebrated even amidst the sorrow of the death of a spouse? The Driscolls give a great list of questions for couples to discuss as they seek to live a life that makes the last day the best day. This section of the book will lead to some great (if difficult) discussions and in my opinion is the highlight of the book. It's unfortunate that many will stop reading before they get here, or won't be willing to do the work to actually have this conversation.

Some critics will be put off by the Driscolls' frankness when it comes to talking about sex, but overall, I think Real Marriage could be a very useful tool. Going through the last chapter alone could be invaluable in helping young couples avoid becoming just one more set in the discard pile of broken marriages.

Please Don't Call It A Miracle

2012-01-09T09:34:00.001-07:00

I'll try to keep this short, for my non football following friends... If you missed the Broncos-Steelers wildcard game yesterday, you missed something pretty awesome. A Broncos team that lost it's last 3 games pulled out the victory over a defense built to force what everyone said the Broncos couldn't do. The Steelers have been stopping the run all year long, and the Broncos have consistently depended on their run. The Broncos managed to plug away for about 130 yards, but had none of the huge back breaking type of runs that seem to have become a staple again this season. They HAD to be able to pass.

And they did. Broncos receivers caught 316 yards of Tebow passes, including several HUGE connections. They finally exorcised their 2nd Quarter demons and scored 20 points in that quarter alone. Despite holding a lead going into the half, the Steelers worked their way back into the game and tied it up by the end of regulation.

For the first time in the league, the new overtime rules would be in effect: no more sudden death in the playoffs. Each team would swap possessions - UNLESS the team with the first possession scored a touchdown. Should that happen, the game would be over. It took the referee a while to explain... then Denver won the toss & chose to receive the ball. They started at the 20, where Tebow threw a great 15 yard pass to Thomas that sailed precisely where it needed to be. Thomas pushed his way away from the defender and outran the safety to the corner of the end zone 65 yards away. TD. 11 seconds off the clock. Game Over.

I'm a big Broncos fan, so the excitement level here was pretty high. But almost immediately, a thought came to mind that made me groan: they're going to call this a miracle. All season long we've heard how Tebow isn't an NFL quarterback, then how he can't even throw a football, then how he can't win in the NFL, then how he can't win consistently, then how he'll never make the playoffs, then how there's no way he can win in the playoffs... it makes you wonder what they'll say next. (At some point you'd think people would stop embarrassing themselves with their claims of what can't be done by a VERY determined young man.) A lot of people have uncritically bought into the dominant media meme about what Tebow can't do...

So a win like this is called miraculous. There's no other explanation, right? Only divine intervention in the natural order of all things NFL could account for this kind outcome, right? Wrong. Please don't call it a miracle. It discounts a lot of hard work that's been done by players and coaches to make it to this point... It ignores the way this team has pulled together and united to win football games... It ignores a game turning horrible call that allowed the Steelers to score on a drive that should've ended with a fumbled lateral toss... It ignores a dropped interception by All-Pro, future Hall of Fame cornerback, Champ Bailey that would've crushed the Steelers late game hopes... It ignores the fact the men of God were roaming both sides of the field... This was no miracle. This was the result of a LOT of hard work, good planning, and gameday execution.

Again, I'm a big Broncos fan. I have Tebow's biography on my table right now - I'm a fan of his, too. Above that, I'm a follower of Jesus and owe Him everything - I always want to give credit where it's due. But to make a big deal about whether God is on the Broncos side and how Tebow threw for exactly 316 yards and his favorite verse is John 3:16 is just ridiculous.

Church friends, don't make yourself look silly, if God really was for the Broncos, he'd throw for 316 yards every game, right?

Football friends, please don't call it a miracle.

Broncos friends - Enjoy the postseason!

(Sorry, I guess I lied about the 'keeping it short' thing...)

A Church Planting Mindset in Youth Ministry

2012-01-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

I read a great question on twitter the other day from Eric Bryant - ~~who oversees the leadership team at Mosaic in Los Angeles~~ (Eric is now a part of the team teaching and leading at Gateway Church in the Austin, TX area). He asked something to the effect of "If you were planting a church with the same number of people you have at your church and with your current income, what would you do?" I ponder this question on a couple different levels:

1. How would WestWay be different if we had a team of 300 church planters instead of 300 attenders? How would our system (the way things get done) have to change to support that kind of mentality? One of the things that I think would have to change is the under-utilization of gifts in the church. We need to do better at helping people maximize the gifts God is giving them. Instead of recruiting volunteers to fill the positions to maintain what we're already doing, we would channel energy into developing, empowering, and releasing leaders to do ministry as the church. (Also, I'm not sure a church planting team of 300 people would only be planting one church at a time!)

2. What if I really viewed the students and adults involved in the student ministry as a church planting team? Could we effectively plant a church within a church in a healthy way that doesn't just start separate churches for separate ages? Again, our system would need to shift from thinking about filling volunteer slots to unleashing creative leadership. Helping students identify and develop their gifts and channel their passion into Kingdom ventures would be vastly more important than talking more kids into going to camp every summer. The expectation of and dependence on God to be at work among us would have to be cultivated to become strong enough to quash the apathy that invades the soul of so much of youth culture... and that would be a very good thing.

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I originally wrote this post about 2 years ago. It keeps getting visits, so I wanted to update it a little bit, but as I started to do that, I began to evaluate as well. What's changed in the last 2 years?
- While adult attendance on Sundays has dropped lately, our Wed. night Middle School & High School group is 2 - 3 times larger in terms of attendance. The low count weeks are higher than previous highs. While there are still weeks when I feel like no one's paying a whole lot of attention (to me or to what God has to say that night), they're much less frequent.
- Students aren't just "bringing friends to youth group" but are actively sharing Christ with them outside of our organized meeting times/activities. But I wouldn't quite say they are passionately engaged in being a church planting group.
- There is a strong group of students that are committed to living by faith, but many of the students are still mostly concerned with their own little worlds. A lot of eyes & hearts are still pretty focused on themselves. We're not "there" yet...

And so, I continue to ask: If I were planting a church with the same number of people I currently have, what would I do? Have I really wrestled with this question deeply enough to have forged convictions that make a difference? How would things be different if I viewed my 50 - 60 students as a team of 50-60 church planters?

Marks of Manhood

2012-01-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

I know in our society, manhood is esteemed somewhat on par with slughood or renal infection, but that is only serving to snowball the problem, and I want to offer an alternative picture. Being a man is something that popular media seem to equate with an uncontrollable sex drive, killing stuff, and a general oblivion to all things outside of myself. Our culture has defined manhood in a way that's not just unhealthy, but also actively corrosive both to men and to society as a whole. In short, we'd be a lot better off if our boys had a better way to figure out what it means to be men.

One of the best possible methods that I've ever observed functioning toward that end is mentoring: Someone who knows what it takes and has experienced the transformation, consistently walking through life with someone who hasn't. In a workshop last summer at CIY, Mark Moore outlined these 10 characteristics to mentor boys in becoming men that contrast with the picture painted on the big screen (and small screen).

Honor vs. Selfishness - This means doing what is right because that is who you are, not because it's the easiest option. It is radical obedience to a standard that places value on others, not just on me.
Respect vs. Self-Centered Myopia - This echoes Honor is placing a high value on others. Boys see what affects them and their own little world. Men see and consider the effect their actions will have on those around them and are able to make a deeper impact on the world because they do.
Gratitude vs. Entitlement - Boys are concerned with getting what they can. Men live lives filled with an attitude that is thankful regardless of circumstance.
Generosity vs. Greed - A boy will hold on to everything he gets. A man freely gives everything he has in terms of time, talent, money...
Discipline vs. Unreliability - Part of being a man is disciplining yourself to carry through when someone's counting on you. Prioritize your life in able to consistently be where you're needed when you need to be there.
Priorities vs. Mediocrity & Frivolity - How many boys do you know who are great at things that don't matter but who barely scrape by when it comes to more important aspects of life? Being a man means learning to understand what is really important and working to excel there - even at the expense of your golf game (or Halo addiction).
Humility vs. Arrogance - We need to teach our boys to view themselves through the lens of God's grace, not some crap philosophy that artificially inflates their self-esteem to a point that blinds them to their need of that grace.
Honesty vs. Deceit - Our culture is a lying, deceitful culture. From relationships to tests at school to national scandals about SATs, boys seem to think that if it'll get them what they want, then butchering the truth is no big deal. We need to mentor them to honest integrity that holds up the truth even when it's more difficult to handle the consequences.
Purity vs. Swayability - A man has learned what is right and good and will not easily be dissuaded from that path. A boy may be easily distracted by the shiny and new (or scantily clad).
Wisdom vs. Foolishness - This is an overall quality that a man possesses helping him know what to do to act and live in agreement with the nature and character of God. It's knowing and doing what's right vs. doing what will often make the situation worse.

What are you doing to help boys know what it means to be a man? What if you chose a few teens in your family or church and mentored them over the course of the next year in these 10 characteristics? Model the traits and walk through life with a couple guys who need your help. Paint a better picture for the next generation of men.
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(Just a quick disclaimer - the list of characteristics came from Moore, but the descriptions are my own embellishments and aren't meant to be technical definitions of those traits. Don't hold them against him.)

EDIT: I just found a pdf called Boys to Men on Mark Moore's site that succinctly outlines these 10 characteristics in his own words. Check it out.

12 in '12 Tuesdays

2012-01-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

A little more than 12 years ago, I was six months into my first ministry. I was ready to give a report at my first annual meeting, when a little interruption came into the picture and shifted pretty much everything in my life. Suddenly, a meeting that seemed to be a high stakes, high pressure affair was put into a completely different light. I gave a report that night about where I wanted to take our student ministry over the next couple years, sharing my vision for a church that was touching the lives of students in ways we had only dreamed of until then. I did my best to make it through the meeting, but the interruption was already casting her own hue on what I said - It was pink, and it didn't put much stock in Robert's rules.

For the past 12 years, my life (and ministry) has been tinted with various shades of pink as I've sought to be Emily's dad while doing the best job I can as a youth pastor. With Emily being 12 for most of 2012, I thought I'd do an ongoing series on what it's like fathering a 12 year old girl as I lead students who are now her peers to be the church He's calling them to be. I've already asked for her help, and I'll have her do a few guest posts throughout the year. (When I asked for her help on my blog, she just grinned and tried to negotiate a deal to get her own blog; I'm sure you'll enjoy what she has to say.)

Be watching for the 12 in '12 posts on Tuesdays this year. I'll be sharing what I learn about parenting a 12 year old (who thinks she's 22), being a youth minister with your own kids in the student ministry, and letting Emily give her perspective on growing up with a middle aged dad who likes to hang out with her friends as well. Anything you want to ask along those lines? Throw out your questions in the comments section and they'll become the fodder for Em & I to knock around in the coming weeks' posts.

Gracenomics & Creativity in Youth Ministry

2011-12-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

One of the last books I read this year was Gracenomics from Mike Foster. In a chapter about putting grace into practice at work, he describes a scenario:

"The boss pretends the company never fails. Never has, never will.

The employees know this is a bunch of bull. Always has been, always will be.

But because they know their boss is fixated with erasing all evidence of the company's failures, the employees trade in the goal of advancing the company for the boss' real goal: covering up mistakes - along with anything that might've been learned from them.

Creativity is choked out.

Innovators are handcuffed.

Dreams die."

Grace allows creativity and dreams to flourish because grace makes room for failure. I know that he was talking about the workplace with this picture, but I can't help but forward this dynamic into the church (maybe because that's my workplace). In a group of people who are admittedly depending on God's grace, what if we're so intent on covering up mistakes (or maybe we just ignore them and hope they'll go away) that we don't really let anyone learn and grow from them, that we don't learn to give grace ourselves?

I believe the result is the same: creativity is choked out, innovators are handcuffed, and dreams die. Only, in the church, instead of continuing to punch the clock and collect a check, a lot of creativity will look elsewhere for an outlet and the less patient of the innovators will walk away long before the dreams die.

Through youth ministry, I have been given the chance to shape both the church that is now and the church that will be. I want to make sure I'm giving students and other leaders the freedom to fail. I'm not sure I've always done that well, and I can't help but wonder what dreams and creative ideas have been stifled by my bottling up of the grace that's been given to me...

What were the latest mistakes you or your church has addressed with grace? What did you learn?

Social Media Awkwardness

2011-12-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what social media are doing to us? What are we becoming as a people who are so pixel connected? There are a number of aspects of social media that I've noticed:

Twitter Trolling - If you followed me, just so I'd follow you, but I didn't on any of the 16 occasions you've tried to get my following attention, what are the chances that I'll follow you on attempt number 17?

Begging for Celebrity Retweets - "Hey Mr. Famous with your thousands of followers who don't really pay attention to what you say, would you include my name in your next tweet so some of them can come ignore me, too." I don't get it. Maybe there's a famous for being famous gene I didn't get or bug I didn't catch, but if I'm going to be known, I want to be known for doing something - not for having my name mentioned by someone who's done something. I don't know how @BrianDawkins puts up with it.

The Declaration of the Unfollow - If you don't want to read what someone tweets, just don't follow them. No need to announce it or threaten to unfollow them. Just leave the room. @markschlereth takes all kinds of crap because his football followers don't want to hear about his chili, or some food snob chili fan just found out he was a gridiron gladiator, or because his son didn't pitch away from some hitter, or because he just posted another of his 'churchy thoughts'. "Sorry Mark, if you can't be as one-dimensional as I am narrow minded, I'm not following you anymore." What kind of person finds it necessary to tell someone that you're not going to read their tweets anymore?

Facebook Relationship Status - Let's just all put "it's complicated" and leave it at that. (I would follow my own advice here, except that I'm already statified as married, and the switch would REALLY freak people out.) Relationships are ALL complicated, why complicate them more with this feature?

MEdia - What makes us think it is ok to be SO self-centered just because we're digital? Even in the digital universe, other people exist, and they don't just want to talk about me(you)! But I really am glad you told me how good your toast was this morning, do you put the jelly on with a knife or a spoon?

There are a ton of other strange moments in social media I'm sure you've noticed. The Old Flame Friend Request. The Terribly Public Argument That Should Have Been Behind Closed Doors. The Wall Post of Passion That Definitely Should Have Been a Private Message (closely related to the Tweet That Should Have Been a DM).

Which ones are most awkward for you?

Content To Be Frustrated?

2011-12-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling to manage a tension lately between contentment and my constant (and perhaps idealistic) desire for improvement. I seem to always want things to be better. Call it perfectionism or whatever you want, I just always seem to see ways to improve and desire to implement those ways. I remember getting my ACT scores back when I was in high school and paying the extra money to get back my answers. I wanted to see where I'd fallen short, and when I realized the silliness of the mistakes I'd made, I knew I could do better. I even thought about taking the test again to improve my score, to reach that perfect 36, even though doing so would have had absolutely no bearing on my college choices or scholarship options, my upcoming marriage (yes, I was processing wedding bells and Pomp & Circumstance at the same time), or any other aspect of my life. It was just a desire to do better.

I've carried that penchant for improvement with me throughout my life and work, which has mostly been helpful, but is sometimes really frustrating. (Maybe even more frustrating for those that get stuck working and living with me... sorry.) People sometimes get annoyed with my tendency to expect better, because in the church, contentment is held as one of the highest of virtues. Paul, himself, hoisted the banner of contentment several times in his writings to the Christians in Philippi and to Timothy.

I've asked friends to be praying for how I handle the frustrations that have come up in the current struggle, but lately have come to a conclusion: Contentment with anything less than what God wants is not a virtue. It's sin and I don't want to go there.

Doesn't God deserve our best? Not just settling for our "best efforts", but working diligently and intelligently for the best results possible. I know I don't earn anything from Him with my incremental improvements in ministry techniques or tactics. I'm not trying to get a better score on some Kingdom entrance exam - in Christ, my score is already a 36. I'm in! But in light of what that has cost Him, doesn't He deserve me doing my best AND working to gain the capacity to do better?

It's one thing to be satisfied with a job well done, but it's something else to think we're finished with the work. When does contentment creep its way into that dank and squalid hole of complacency?

The Future Is Orange, Predominantly

2011-12-12T15:24:00.003-07:00

The other day, I saw a bunch of lemmings patting each other on the back and celebrating how awesome their collective lack of perspective was. As their bandwagon rolled along, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of compassion for them as they mindlessly followed their own tails. I was in my truck, so I compassionately ended the misery that was their bandwagon existence. I'm not really a bandwagon guy.

Having said that (fictitiously of course), this post is going to sound a little bandwagonesque - ok, a lot! There, you've been warned. When it comes to the Denver Broncos, I have no shred of objectivity. I've mentioned here the pain of watching them crumble the past few years, but I'm glad to say the pain has subsided considerably.

Actually, the past couple months have been the most fun I've had watching the Broncos play since I sat in my grandma's living room and listened to her cuss out John Elway's gunslinging comeback ways. It's a little scary that we now have to worry about the 4th quarter heart conditions of the elder set of Broncos fans again - and a little refreshing. Take some aspirin before the game - I hear that helps the heart...

A few quick Broncos thoughts:

- Tim Tebow is just inexplicably getting it done. 3 completions through 3 quarters of play? No problem, what if we just have 18 completions in the next few minutes, okay guys... Win. For the record, McDaniels did a lot of crazy stupid things in his time in Denver, but drafting Tebow was not one of them. I loved the pick then, and I love seeing Tebow lead this team after waiting a year and a half for his shot. The lack of off season work put him in a bad spot, but he seems to be making up the learning curve pretty quickly. Character matters - A LOT.

- The Broncos are not winning in spite of his first 3 quarters of play as some have suggested. What the Broncos are doing on offense is what they have to do on offense. They are playing for first downs and field position. Tebow's throws are much more consistently getting where they need to be, and the offensive line is working like some kind of dump truck tank the A-Team would've put together is some rancher's barn in New Mexico. (Sidebar: What would you give for a Mr. T sideline sighting with about 10 minutes to go? Sidebar spawned afterthought: What would you give to see Tim T. with some feather earrings and a mohawk!?)

- When the receivers catch the balls they should be catching, Denver could be putting good teams away early. I know Marion Barber helped out in a big way by not going out of bounds yesterday, but if the Broncos receivers had caught 6 or 7 more passes (that were right to their hands!) earlier in the game, he wouldn't have been in a position to gift-wrap the final moments for the Broncos. Can you imagine Dumervil/Miller/Williams getting after a quarterback who HAS to throw because his team is down by a couple TD's?

- The defense is looking stronger than it has in a long, long time. I loved the draft pick of Von Miller. Along with a couple other pickups and health improvements, the front of this defense improved in a big, big way. Champ & Dawkins are still playing like they always have and offer an incredible amount of leadership and work ethic to the young guys. If those young guys are listening and learning from that tandem, the defense could be back to the Orange Crush standard for several years to come.

- I love watching a quarterback run over DB's and shove linebackers to the ground with a well placed stiff arm as they desperately try to dive at his legs. (The Revis Matador was pretty sweet to watch as well.) I know, I know, the purist NFL fans want to see the QB stay in the pocket and look pretty, but I'd much rather see my field general crashing the front lines. Injuries happen, so depth is important, but then again, how many pocket-passing QBs are currently sitting around injured because they got blindsided standing 6 yards behind center?

It's good to be a Broncos fan. And it's enjoyable again too, now that every week doesn't bring another beat-down. There's hope again in the Mile High fan base. The future is orange... predominantly.

/fan boy ravings
/band wagon basking

Compassionate Christmas Sharing?

2011-12-09T14:42:00.001-07:00

When it comes to food, we have some pint-sized picky eaters in our house. They're often hearing from LuAnn or I that they need to be content that they have food every meal, even if it's not something they like. I remind them that while they complain about their potatoes, there are kids all over the world who are going to bed hungry... again. Today, we got confirmation that the message is getting through. Sort of.

Lizzie's preschool class has been gathering food for an elderly lady, so before we left this afternoon, she took a couple cans to donate from our pantry. Noticing what she was happily providing, I asked Lizzie if she thought the lady would like the green beans.

"Yeah, probably..." was her first reaction as she hurried to get the cans into her backpack. But as we left the room, she expounded upon her initial enthusiasm (to herself in a very matter of fact manner):

"She should just be happy that she has food."

As LuAnn and I overheard from the next room, we humorously wondered how we've warped our kids in so many ways... I'm afraid the compassion runs so deep in that one that is has yet to fully surface.

What They Don't Know...

2011-12-08T15:26:00.001-07:00

Last night, after our youth group met, I noticed one of our kids sending home another student with one of the well worn Bibles our children's minister keeps handy. Why would this 16 year old kid in western Nebraska be needing an overused Bible? Because he didn't have one. Last night we were talking about what the church is supposed to be and how we can only really find out who we are by paying attention to Who made us. How we find ourselves when we find Him in His Scriptures...

Img: Ron Loveday at CreationSwap

But this kid had no Bible until last night, and he's hungry to know more because the whole idea is new to him.

Let that sink in for a minute.

He has 16 years of life surrounded by steeples and church-goers, but without an understanding of who God even is... or maybe even that God is. This is the second time recently that I've been confronted with the stark reality that my generation is largely failing when it comes to teaching the next generation. We can no longer continue to think (or maybe it's just pretending) that everybody already knows who Jesus is and that every upstanding American has already chosen to follow Him. How can they believe if they haven't even heard? And how can they hear unless someone is sent to tell them? (Check out a bit of Romans 10 for more on that.)

Still think we're living in a Christian nation?

Wake up.

The mission field is right outside your front door. Your community is full of people who have no clue who Jesus really is. Go make disciples.

Generation iY

2011-12-07T11:19:00.001-07:00

I seem to have a perpetual stack of books that I keep hoping to get to that sits on my desk. The stack often gets interrupted by some other new entry into my reading whims, so sometimes books will sit in the stack for quite a while. Last year at Christmas time, one of the books I was wanting was Tim Elmore's Generation iY. I got the book in Decemeber, but it has sat for almost a full year, waiting...

The subtitle of the book "Our Last Chance to Save Their Future" may seem a little overdramatic, but when you think about what's really at stake for today's young people, it's not such a grandiose statement. The book does a really good job laying out a description of the Millenial generation (especially the younger half), the cultural influences that have shaped them, and what we as parents and teachers and youth leaders need to be doing to help them launch into adulthood.

It was a great reminder of the potential that lies latent in young people and the need for mentors to guide this potential into fruition. Sometimes, I can get distracted by so many secondary frustrations in my job that I forget... We have an incredible generation of young lives who are hungry for authentic direction as they emerge into adult life. They are hoping to mean something to the world around them, but too often we adults are doing a poor job helping them understand how to do so. I was reminded that a huge part of my job is to identify adult-student partnerships and construct frameworks to facilitate the unleashing of potential within those partnerships - making the most of our students' current gifts and opportunities and preparing them to launch into lives of ministry of their own.

If you work with young people or have them in your home, the insight Elmore shares from his years of experience developing young leaders is invaluable. Check out the book for yourself and get some practical strategies and ideas for parenting, mentoring, & employing Generation iY. Also check out Save Their Future Now for more.

Healthy Church Culture

2011-12-01T09:18:00.001-07:00

I'm listening to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast from last month and hearing some great stuff I wanted to pass on. He's talking about organizational culture - the way a group/organization expresses values/vision. It's the way things are going, the way people are feeling/acting/reacting, the way we do things, attitudes... "This is who we are & how we do things."

We can say whatever we want in describing our vision, but if the culture of our church or ministry doesn't support what we say is important, then even the greatest statements have very little real value. For example, I say the highest priority for our student ministry is to 'reveal God to students'. But if the culture of our ministry doesn't lend itself to eye opening moments and conversations where God is held up to be noticed, then there's not much hope that we'll actually be revealing God to students. So we need to make sure we're consistently showing students where to look for God and helping them learn to recognize Him when they notice what He's doing around them.

Every organization has an organizational culture & the leader is responsible for shaping that culture. Are we just operating by default or are we purposefully shaping our culture? The longer a leader has been in an organization, the more responsibility they carry for the culture of that organization. They also become less aware of the culture of the organization. This is why the 'new guy' notices things that no one else may notice. Too often, we are just doing things because that's what we've always done and we stop noticing the broken tiles and screeching hinges and horrible signage to which we've become accustomed. The problem is those blind spots may be hindering our ability to accomplish what we've set out to accomplish.

Healthy cultures attract & keep healthy people, so the culture of an organization impacts the long term productivity of the organization. Who wants to work in a place where co-workers hate their jobs, shoddy work is passed on to the next department to clean up, and the proverbial floor is made of eggshell? I know I don't. It's de-motivating. A good worker who wants to be productive can only stay in that kind of environment for so long before they either begin to hate themselves as they slowly resign to wallow in the slop... or leave to be a part of a more productive team. In some cases it may be possible for the worker to begin to reshape the culture around them, but unhealthy cultures are very slow to adapt to change, so it's a rough road... This is no different in the church. People who have gotten serious about accomplishing the mission passed to us from Jesus won't be able to hang around very long in a church where not much is happening to further that mission.

Some indicators of unhealthy culture:

Lots of drama - There always seems to be some big issue to deal with that's not really a big issue. Small things are consistently blown out of proportion, but the underlying issues are probably not dealt with at all. Lots of elephants standing around everywhere, but everybody's pretending they're not there.
Inward focus - The organization spends most of its focus/energy on itself. Questions like "What do our people want/deserve? What do we owe our people?" are given precedence over matters of outward mission.
Sideways Energy- There's seems to be lots of motion, but not really any movement. People may feel like they're spinning their wheels without getting any traction... Lots of bull, but no buck - it may look good, it just doesn't accomplish anything.

When we think of the church, we don't always think in terms of organization/leadership, and it may even be a little uncomfortable to talk about the church this way. The church is a different kind of organization, where the leader is the servant, where top-down strategy was flipped over when the "head honcho" got off his throne and picked up a cross. And while we are a living, breathing Body with Jesus as our head, we still function organizationally. We can benefit greatly by shaping healthy cultures in our churches and ministries.

Maybe it's time we learn to "be still" instead of spinning our wheels - to wait for God, listen to Him, then do what He tells us to do...
Are there ways we need to shift our focus away from our own members?
Could we cut down the histrionics if we'd deal with the underlying issues that are causing people to grumble at the slightest annoyances?

Let's get healthy.

Facial Intertia

2011-11-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

The month is almost over, which means semi-psychotic shoppers who had way too much turkey being incredibly stupid to beat the rest of the half-crazed commerce corps to that greatest deal ever on that one gadget that will be completely unappreciated and probably forgotten by the spring thaw. (No, I'm not cynical at all, what are you talking about?) In happier news, it will also mean a merry end to all the No Shave November hoo hah.

I know most of the rest of the civilized parts of our nation have already forgotten that this was a thing, but we're more than a little trend-challenged here, so No Shave November hasn't become last week's news yet. Young guys are sporting shaggy chins with pride for another week or so, but I have to admit - I don't get it.

Is manhood really something to celebrate by letting the inertia of life just take over your face? Do we really think it means something that we can grow hair on our faces? (And if so, what does it mean when we can grow hair on our backs?) Is there some kind of statement being made in all of this? I have a suspicion, that culturally, it has something to do with guys trying to assert their manhood without having anyone to help them do so in a meaningful way. If you're a man and you know you're a man, would you do something to help a younger guy figure out how he can be one, too? Would you see, in the scratchy young faces of No Shave November, an invitation to mentor boys (even boys who can shave) as they learn the essence of manhood?

Near the beginning of the month, I quipped that guys should put down their moms' mascara and stop pretending if no one had noticed their participation in the no shave lack of activity yet. Conversely guys, if they still haven't noticed, either a) you're kidding yourself about that peach fuzz, or b) you already had the hobo look nailed before the month began. Either way, being a man doesn't have jack to do with facial hair.

What does it mean to be a man? Comment below with how you'd fill in this blank: "Being a man means ________________."

What Do I Teach In Youth Ministry?

2011-11-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

Image via DcJohn on flickr

I recently posted some thoughts about Teaching In Youth Ministry. I talked about personally not having good results using pre-packaged curriculum and summed up by saying that I basically try to pass on to my students what God is teaching me. That post wasn't meant as a knock on curriculum writers. I don't want to be arrogant and think that all my lessons are better than all of theirs. In fact, for the most part, I think they are providing valuable resources for those who are trying to teach youth in the church today. My approach is not the one that every youth leader should take. To raise the level of transparency a bit, I'll say that my own questioning of whether it is even the way I should be doing things is part of what precipitated that post.

So, having said that, I want to share a framework I've used to answer the question, "What should I be teaching in my youth ministry?" I don't offer this as a definitive scaffolding for other youth leaders to build on, but as a glimpse into my own heart and mind when it comes to teaching.

First and foremost, I consistently reinforce that it is not me and my teaching that students need. It is God - so the primary task I have when it comes to teaching is to answer the question, "Who is God?" Our spiritual development process starts with "revealing God to students". He is the one who makes the transformation in their lives and mine. I often use the metaphor of Wind & Water to capture this concept. Wind and Water both shape the landscape around us, sometimes subtly over the course of many years, sometimes drastically and suddenly. My teaching needs to depend on His Spirit to blow away the layers of sediment already building up in young lives and on His life-giving Son to cause growth.

With that aim clear (to reveal God), there are 5 characteristics that I want my students to carry into life that I teach toward:

1. A permanent attitude of worship. Worship is not what we do a couple times a week when we're with all our church friends - it's the life we live. I want to teach my students to offer every moment and act of living to their Creator. I want to teach them to make Him their 'magnificent obsession' for all of life.

2. A kingdom view of the church and the world. As globally connected as we are, we can have a pretty narrow view of what's going on in the church. I want to teach my students to look beyond our own front doors and labels to see what God is doing in His church all over this planet.

3. A passion for revealing God to people who don't see Him. Just as I am not the change agent for my students, they are not the change agent for their friends, either. Their responsibility in evangelism is to let their friends see what God is doing in their lives. I want to teach them to notice His work and be able to point it out to people who don't notice.

4. A commitment to local service as the church. It's been too long that youth group was some side-light ministry of 'big church'. We've mirrored our culture that pushes kids aside as the adult world busies itself with its own stuff, then wonders why they're not ready for 'the real world' when they hit 18. In the church, we wonder why kids leave when they hit college. Often, they never really were connected to the church in the first place - only to the youth group. I teach my kids that if they're disciples of Jesus, they are the church. Now. Are they complete? Mature? Fully formed? No, not yet. But then again... am I? Are you? I want my kids to know that all of us who have allied ourselves to Jesus and are living our lives in service to His mission are the church, young and old. They need to know they have a job to do now, and they need guidance in figuring out just what that is. The local church is a great context for doing that.

5. A desire for depth in their relationship with God. I don't want my students' relationship with God to depend on them getting a fresh dose of Scripture and some good worship music out of me once or twice a week. I want them to develop a hunger for His Word that's only filled when they dig into it themselves. (I've found some of my most significant teaching moments have come as a direct result of my students poring over their Bibles, then coming together with questions that come up from what they're reading.) I don't just want to tell them to read their Bibles, but I need to help them understand what they're reading, and even how to read it for the highest impact.

I know these 5 characteristics are a better representation of the intended outcomes of what I'm teaching than the actual content that I teach. But that's kind of the point. When I find a passage or resource that can effectively move my students toward adopting one or more of these characteristics, that's the content I'll use.
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As a youth pastor, I'd think this would be self-evident, but I'm not new at this... I know someone will question it, so let me just say that throughout my teaching toward all of these characteristics, the primary source of teaching material is the Bible (just as it is for any good Bible curriculum writer).

Question: What are you teaching toward? How do you decide what to teach?

Thoughts on Klout & Influence

2011-11-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I was invited into a beta of something called Klout. That may sound kind of cool and trendy, but I think it just means I write a blog and have a twitter account and Klout found my e-mail address somewhere. Regardless, it's a site that aims to measure the amount of influence a person has online. By analyzing "pieces of content and connections" (2.7 billion of them each day), Klout formulates a person's online influence.

I hesitantly decided to splash around in the Klout waters a little bit. I jumped in because I'm generally curious, plus I'm a sucker for something new and techno-social; but I was hesitant because it just seems weird to be trumpeting how much influence I have or don't have. Self promotion has never felt right, even when the darker parts of me crave the adulation it brings from time to time. And self humiliation is something I'm already pretty good at and with which I don't really need the help of another web site. Besides, if you have to tell everyone you're influential to get them to listen to you, are you really that influential?

One of the interesting aspects of the Klout site is that they'll designate certain topics in which you are most influential. There are a lot of different topics. A couple days ago, I received notice that my influence was being recognized in a new topic. Thinking of all the things that are important to me and that I blog or comment about, a list of possibilities flitting through my mind. But when the site loaded and I saw what the topic actually was, it was nowhere near my list of possibilities: Mascara. Yes, friends, it seems I am influential in the realm of mascara. It dawned on me that I'd made a flippant comment on twitter about boys trying too hard to make something of no-shave November that was re-tweeted by a couple guys (Thanks Drew & Robert). Because they repeated what I said, that must mean I'm influential, right? Ok, maybe not!

So anyway, I'm currently sporting a Klout score of 26, with a 'conversational' style, influencing 53 people (one of whom apparently clubs baby seals with sticks of kittens). But what the heck does that really mean? What does it really mean that I have 168 'followers' on twitter? (It was 170 before I re-tweeted Rick Warren this afternoon, but that's a whole other issue.) What does it really mean that there are 531 people who 'friended' me on facebook?

What this really has me thinking about is the relationship between online connections and real life influence. There are people whom I know I heavily influence in some areas who will never show up on some websites radar. There are others who, according to the data, appear to be being influenced, but are they really?

What do you do with influence when it's granted to you?

How do you handle influence?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of measuring influence?

Teaching In Youth Ministry

2011-11-09T10:27:00.001-07:00

Image via DcJohn on flickr

I have a confession to make: Despite teaching students for 20 to 30 minutes every Wed. night and 45 minutes or so every Sunday morning, I haven't used a youth ministry specific curriculum in a really long time. For that matter, outside of a 1 week curriculum that was provided at a conference (CIY Move) I haven't used a pre-produced teaching curriculum of any kind for quite a while. It's not that I'm a curriculum hater, or that there aren't any good options (and there are TONS of options), but there are several 'hangups' I usually have (some of the problems are my own, some are not):

The publishers and writers do not know my students. In writing lessons for an unknown audience, lesson writers are forced to keep things fairly vague and general. Sometimes so general that there just doesn't seem to be much substance.
I have a personal aversion to short-cuts. I can be guilty of re-inventing the wheel when it comes to teaching time, but I would rather wrestle with a tough passage and how to interpret it for my students than just parrot someone else's thoughts. I don't think I can really help my students effectively apply a lesson to their lives unless I've already applied it to my own - and often, a canned lesson offers a mechanism for trying to do just that.
Often, there are better alternatives. One of the things that's kind of prickly for me in the youth ministry world is the 'youth edition' of whatever the new thing is. Someone writes a great book, so let's have someone else put together a replica that uses smaller words and video game illustrations and call it a youth ministry edition... Why not challenge our kids to struggle with the original if it's something through which they'd grow? Are we really doing them any favors by 'dumbing down' what we really want them to know?

"So how do you know what to teach?" Without having a weekly topic decided for me, how do I decide what to teach? Thanks for asking...

As a rule of thumb, I teach what God is teaching me. At times, this may look a little haphazard, and it's certainly a messy and difficult way of doing things. Every lesson is always "in process" and not quite finished - because I'm not quite finished. I'm ok with that because I don't want my students to think I've got it all together and everything will someday be wrapped up in a nice little package for them like it seems to be for me (which is the impression sometimes left with pre-packed lesson plans). I want them to be engaging in a life-long pursuit of knowing God more fully.

There are some difficulties with doing things this way, though.

- It's too easy to wing it. If we're working through a curriculum book and I'm not well prepared, it's obvious. But after 12 years of ministry, I can stand in front of a room of students and buffalo my way through a lot of stuff if I have to. This is a dangerous place to be, because it lets me fake it if I don't really have anything to say. Instead of winging it, I want to spend significant time in prayer begging God well ahead of time for something to deliver.

- What if I'm not really learning anything or if what I'm learning isn't really applicable to younger lives? This gets back to the last point a little bit; if I'm humbly asking God to use me, His grace is sufficient. He knows my students and knows my heart better than I do and wants them to know Him even more than I want them to know Him. I have to spend time seeking His heart for my life and my teaching. He'll deliver. But if I'm not doing that, I won't really have anything to say worth hearing.

- I have to be vigilant to not get stuck on a few issues. All of us have pet issues that we like to pull out and pass on. Often, they are things that we are very passionate about and can be more easily taught that some other issues. These are ok, and we should teach about these things, but not exclusively. This is why, for the Sunday morning class that I teach, we have been walking through books of the Bible. The last 2 we've done have been Revelation and Acts. We go through verse by verse, week after week, talking about whatever those passages bring to light. Often, these issues are not things I would have naturally brought up myself, but are exactly what the class needs to hear. This approach also opens the door to talking about issues that are tough to bring up without seeming like I'm calling out specific individuals. Our rule is that if it's in the text, we'll talk about it.

There are some specific touch points that I seems to gravitate toward regularly in my teaching. These are foundational to everything else, and we can dig into that in another post. But for now, what are you teaching? More importantly, how do you decide what to teach?

Traditions & Alternatives

2011-11-01T12:14:00.000-06:00

When I was growing up, "church tradition" was a term in my mind that had more to do with old habits from the 50's and 60's than anything from previous centuries. Singing verses 1, 3, & 4 in the old green hymnals (Did anyone else secretly feel bad for verse 2?)... Vacation Bible School and camp in the summer... Mercifully shipping off the kids to children's church right before the sermon (that must've been so long and boring as to warrant our exodus)...

Most of what I thought of as traditional, I decided I didn't like. I still have this propensity to dislike stuff that's done just because 'that's what we do', but I'm realizing that my problem isn't really with tradition; it's with pointless tradition. If you want to observe something traditional, that's fine, but if you want me to participate with you I have to know why. I just cannot bring myself to get into something just because a bunch of other people like it - and have liked it for the last 30 years. Tell me "Why?"

But I'm also thinking today about another side of tradition. It's a side where the point is not missed - a side where the reason still matters, and still shapes action. And here is where I'm finding myself a little dis-advantaged. In the big picture, is a practice that's 30 or 40 or even 50 years old really worthy of the label 'tradition'? The church has been around about 2000 years, so what we're calling tradition is probably BRAND NEW! And in the eddies of independence in which most of my church family swims, our traditions often extend about as far as the nozzle on our self inflated floaties.

Yesterday and today are a great case in point. It's become traditional in many church circles to have some kind of alternative to Halloween. So instead of staying home and connecting with our neighbors, we can all get together in a safe environment to have some safe Jesus fun together. It might be called a Fall Festival, or a Harvest Party, or even Jesusween (I didn't make that up, it's actually being used), but I wonder if this new tradition could be reshaped to be more than a means to duck & cover from the biggest pagan bomb in our culture? Could a deeper look at history offer us anything?

Enter November 1st. It's just November 1 to most of the people I know, but for hundreds of years, this has been a huge day for the church: All Saints' Day. A day to celebrate the church through the ages - to realize our connection with the 'saints of old' who are collected with us into that 'great cloud of witnesses'. But, at least in the church circles I've lived in, All Saints Day was a tradition that had long ago lost it's purpose, fell out of practice, and which is now collectively forgotten. (Check out this interesting article for more on All Saints' Day then come back and let me know what you think.)

If we could recapture the purpose of Nov. 1, could Oct. 31 become more than something from which we think we have to hide? Could there be more to anticipate than a boat load of candy and sugar tainted dreams at the end of the night? I don't really offer an answer here, because this is something I'm still wrestling with. And I don't mean any disrespect to those who want an alternative to Halloween as it is. I just wonder if there's a more meaningful alternative to the alternative we've come up with...

One Meal One Day

2011-10-28T11:00:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I showed our students a quick video introducing One Meal One Day. It's a program put together by Compassion to encourage students to skip 1 meal and donate the money they would have spent on it to feed hungry children. I showed the video to sort of gauge interest and see if it was something my students wanted to pursue. The response was pretty positive, so we're going to do it, but sometimes you just can't wait for something, right?

I just heard this morning that one of our students has already raised about $500! After seeing the video, he did his own checking online and took the information he found to a teacher at school. From there, he went to the principal and finally to the school board to pitch the idea. This little K-8 school has primed the pump, and I can't wait to see what God will do throughout our other schools!

This is what happens when you let kids try! (Or when you plant seeds and don't get in the way...)

58 - The Film & A Call to Act

2011-10-27T10:38:00.000-06:00

Last night, I introduced our students to 58. It's a "global initiative to end extreme poverty by living out Isaiah 58." Some of the scenes are pretty difficult to watch, so I was a little hesitant to show the film. I decided to go ahead with it, though, because I really do believe that today's young generation can make a difference with this huge issue. Heads have been buried in sand long enough.

In Isaiah 58, God is critical of the way His people got all the externals of religion right while missing the whole point. They acted pious, as if they would never abandon God, pretending to be near Him, all the while ignoring God's heart for humanity. To turn a blind eye to the extreme poverty in the world today is to repeat the arrogant folly of ancient Israel.

I've challenged my students after watching the first part of the film last night to read Isaiah 58 each day this week and ask God to reveal His hopes for them in relation to that passage. What does He want our response to be? Watch this trailer and join us in digging into Isaiah 58 this week. Parents who are local are welcome to join us for the conclusion of the video next Wed. night as well.

58: THE FILM Trailer from LIVE58NOW on Vimeo.

Our Family Identity

2011-10-25T13:56:00.000-06:00

A couple articles caught my attention yesterday that I keep thinking about.

First, this one from India: almost 300 girls in a particular district have had their names legally changed, complete with a renaming ceremony last weekend. You may think that out of the millions who live in India this is no big deal, but these are 285 girls who were previously named "Unwanted" who are taking new names. In our culture, names don't always carry the meaning they do in others, but can you imagine growing up with a name like that? Every assignment turned in, every application or form filled out, & every check you write reminding you that you're not wanted.

The other article, out of eastern Russia is the story of two 12 year old girls who have just found out they were switched at birth. After 12 years within a few miles of each other, they've discovered they are not biologically connected to the people they've been living with all their lives. They are getting to know their/each other's families and both girls are staying in the homes/families they've always known, showing there is more to family than biology.

It reminds me of the prophet Hosea, who was instructed, as a life size object lesson for Israel & Judah, to name two of his children "Not Loved" and "Not My People". But God promised a day when they would be given new names, they would be called "The One I Love" and "My People". His people had rejected Him, but He promised to once again restore them and remind them of His love.

In Hosea 8, the very altars they'd built to make sacrifices to atone for their sins had become just another place to further their sin. Verse 13 states that the people "love their rituals of sacrifice, but to me their sacrifices are all meaningless." It wasn't their ritual that made them part of God's people. In fact, their ritual meant nothing because they had "forgotten their Maker." How often are we in danger of doing the same thing? How often do we show up for Sunday services, or youth group, or small group, or Easter or Christmas services as a matter of ritual, but ultimately forget our Maker? Do we really think our traditional observances make a difference to God? How often do we plan a message or lesson or service just because it's that time of the week and we have to have something to say or do when we stand up on the stage again?

If we forget our Maker in deference to personal preferences or traditions or weekly schedules, how much different can we expect our fate to be from that of the ancient Jews? Although, their consistent rebellion would leave its mark on their relationship with God, it could not kill the Father's unquenchable hope. "For someday the people will follow the Lord. I will roar like a lion, and my people will return...And I will bring them home again." (Hosea 11:10,11) He knew He would one day call His people together to bring them home again - people from every tribe and nation who'd been adopted into His family.

Church, we've been given a place in the King's family to which we don't naturally belong. May we never take for granted the new identity He's giving us as His children. And may we live every moment seeking to know Him and make Him known.

"I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6)

6 Adults Every Youth Ministry Needs

2011-10-17T16:15:00.001-06:00

Youth ministry is not healthy when it's a one man show. Every youth ministry takes a team of people to function well and to build healthy disciples. Also, I need to think about something a little light-hearted today so I'm giving you 6 Adults Every Youth Ministry Needs:

1. The Mom - She's perturbed about the stain you just left on the church carpet, but you know she loves you anyway, and she'll probably start bringing treats again in a couple weeks. She can't help herself. It's amazing how aware she is when it seems like she's distracted with something else, and a split second of raised eyebrow eye contact from her will calm even the most savage of sophomores.

2. The Janitor - That stain on the carpet? Oh, he'll get it out alright, but you're now on his list. He will spend the next 17 months showing you every brand of blemish remover known to man, following you around with 4 different types of cleaning rags (all of which look suspiciously like cloth diapers from 1987), and explaining which combination is best for each and every surface in the church building. And before you even ask, "No, you can't just spray paint over that!"

3. The Magnet - This is the adult that walks into the room and immediately is swarmed with a hive of students, eager for a shred of attention. His ideas are always right in their eyes and his stamp of approval will immediately boost participation by 37%. If you can manage a couple of these, you're going to need a bigger youth room, but be careful, Magnets can do some really weird stuff to each other if they're not properly aligned.

4. The Juggler - She can tell you where your youth ministry schedule will put you at any given moment over the next four and a half months. Balancing student activities with carpool duties is more natural to her than stink to a muskrat (Ha! You thought I was going to say skunk, didn't you?) and she'll know every detail about every upcoming trip on the docket. The Juggler is often an indispensable ally and translator in contacts with the outside world (i.e. real people who don't speak youth ministry).

5. The Driver - The Driver knows how to get there from here. He knows where the potholes are and the best routes to avoid them and he'll tell you both enthusiastically. Also, he can tell you the location of every Chic-fil-A and Krispy Kreme on the continent! The Driver is the epitome of the no-nonsense kind of guy in every other situation, but he's willing to overlook the nonsense of youth ministry in order to get some kids where they need to go. Your students have no idea how awesome this guy really is until The Magnet draws him in to some crazy scheme where he becomes their hero.

6. The Cheerleader - Every student needs to hear that they've done well and the Cheerleader will deliver that message with fervor! She's constantly scouting facebook posts like an eagle soaring high above the prairie dog town - except instead of swooping down with crushing talons for a quick, furry snack, she's always the first to comment with an encouraging word and just the right emoticon!-) (Pathetic attempt, I know, but give me a break, I'm not the Cheerleader!) I guess that's not really like the eagle at all, but you get the point. If not, ask the Magnet - He's married to the Cheerleader & he'll convince you I know what I'm talking about.

So, there you have my authoritative, qualitative summary of necessary youth leaders. Which one are you? I'm sure you can think of other adults that youth ministries need. Share them in the comments section, because it really does take a village, not just the village idiot!

Occupy Reality

2011-10-13T11:32:00.000-06:00

Anyone else a little less than clear about just what the whole Occupy Wall Street thing is all about? The message seems to be "Big corporations, bad; individual, good." but I'm sure that doesn't exactly capture the whole heart of the protest. I checked out the Occupy website and found some interesting thoughts, and I've watched some of their livestream footage to see if I could get a better handle on just where OWS' focus is. Incidentally, it wasn't live while I was watching due to weather problems, so it was a montage of produced footage and brief clips, which would presumably be filtered so as to present 'the message' as clearly as possible. I still can't quite get the pulse of what the point of the protestors is, but some of the highlights are here:

1. Don't tell us what to do - we just want to be free.
2. Let's get together and be upset... about anything.
3. "Fight the power." Whatever that power may be...
4. 1% of Americans are too rich and couldn't have possibly got that way legitimately.
5. 99% of Americans are too poor because of the greed induced power manipulation of the 1%.
6. "We demand a democracy that has zero tolerance for corruption."
7. People before profits.

Among some recycled socialist mantras there are some really good things to say, but I could see the lack of a well articulated vision for what they want causing the degeneration of these peaceful protests into something much worse. Maybe I'm wrong, but the overriding feeling I get from what I've seen and read is "We're mad." If there's no other motivation for being together, sleeping on concrete and under tarps is going to get old quickly.

While my more liberal friends will celebrate the stand for freedom they see in OWS, and my conservative ones will decry all the pot & pooping on the police car, I wonder if we'll all miss something deeper. I wonder if any of us will listen well enough to hear the root of dissatisfaction. What's really going on here?

Is there corruption in the highest echelons of corporations and government? Sure, just as there is corruption in the hearts and minds of people of every income level - and it needs to be dealt with. Is the gap widening between those who have a lot and those who have a little? Probably, in terms of how much they have, but the problem isn't that some people make too much. The problem is most of us aren't very generous - we're looking out for ourselves first. Whether we live in luxury or near poverty isn't the issue as much as our attitude toward what we have. When "what's mine is mine" and you can just go get your own, it doesn't matter whether the system is capitalist, socialist, or anything else. The solution is not a political one.

Church, the unrest in the world today is an open door for us to exhibit something better. What if the world could see a 'peculiar people' who love unconditionally, share whatever they have that's needed, and genuinely look out for their neighbors' best interests? What are we doing to show people that, while they may not feel like they matter to whatever corporation they vilify, they do matter to God and they do matter to us?

I don't make a lot as a youth pastor. I'm definitely not in the top 1% of America's wage earners. But here's a reality check for me (and you): check out this Global Rich List. My family, and probably yours, is a lot closer to the top of the scale than the bottom. What are we doing with what we have earned to benefit someone else?

Making Our Own Heaven

2011-10-11T15:57:00.000-06:00

I had a strange dream last night that keeps flickering across my synapses. I don't make a big deal out of dreams I have when I'm sleeping, but this one just brings up some questions...

I was working at a church and was trying to explain heaven to my students. They discovered that heaven existed in a closet at the church building. (Umm... not like that guys.) We weren't able to see into the closet, we just knew that heaven was in there. They were all trying to figure out how to get in, but no one could get the door open. As I was explaining the Way in, one student found an air vent and crawled through to sneak in. (Just for the record for those of you who will wonder, it was... nah, you'll just have to guess!)

But you can't cheat your way into heaven. You can't just sneak your way in. As he popped through the air vent, we were all suddenly in the same room and the students began "rearranging heaven" to be more what they wanted. I got really angry - my students don't get to see angry Mike very often, but they pretty much didn't notice anyway, which made me more angry. They just kept laying out this fluffy white carpet and messing around. It turns out, heaven wasn't in there at all, so they just made their own.

I wonder how often we settle for what we can do instead of waiting for God to do what only He can do? How often do we just do what we want because 'the way is narrow' and His Way just seems too abstract or difficult? When Jesus talked about being "the way, the truth, and the life..." in John 14:6, what do we really think He meant?
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Funny little side note: When I got to the office this morning I started reading the next passage after where I left off yesterday. It started with John 10, where Jesus talks about anyone who sneaks over the wall to get into the sheepfold is just a thief and a robber.

Always With You?

2011-10-10T06:11:00.000-06:00

When you start talking about poverty, a lot of Christians immediately think of the words of Jesus (from Matthew 26), "You will always have the poor among you..." There seems to be a sense of hopelessness to be able to do much about it. Kind of like we're all just thinking, "Some people have a lot, some people don't have much at all... that's just the way it goes." But is that the way it should go? Is that His "will on earth as it is in heaven?" Was Jesus telling His disciples to waste their resources on extravagant gifts for him (like the alabaster jar of expensive perfume that "could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.") and not worry about the poor, because, "Hey, they're still going to be there tomorrow, right..."?

Who are we to argue with the very words of Jesus? But was He really saying what we seem to think He was saying? Have we maybe misunderstood because we don't hear those words in their context? Or, even worse, are we guilty of twisting Jesus' words to justify the pleasures to which we think we are entitled? Is there some latent greed within us driving us to hoard all we can get a hold of and let everyone else fend for themselves?

"You will always have the poor among you..." Jesus was scolding His indignant disciples who were mad about a woman's "waste" and seeming lack of concern for the poor. But Jesus next words may surprise you: "but you will not always have me." Jesus saw her act as an anointing in preparation for His burial. So, even though any money gained from the sale of the perfume could have gone to the poor, this woman had chosen something more important. What are we doing with our resources that is more important than ending extreme poverty?

Right now, I can't help but think of the upcoming Christmas season. I remember coming across a statement at Advent Conspiracy's site a couple years ago about how Americans spend about $450 Billion each year at Christmas to "celebrate the birth of Jesus". Holy holly, that's a lot of tinsel and presents... but at least some of it could have been a lot of food for the hungry or clean water for the thirsty. One of those two possibilities is pretty important to the man whose birth we celebrate, but if you want to see some "indignant disciples" today, just suggest to your church friends and family that you want them to donate whatever they would have spent on a gift for you instead of buying you that gift.

I don't think it has to be one or the other (live comfortably or help those in need), but I can no longer pretend these are Jesus' only words about how I should think of the poor. What about what He had to say about how those gathered in Matthew 25 had treated "the least of these"? What about all the talk of the minor prophets about justice and mercy for the widow and the orphan? The way we think and what we do about extreme poverty does matter to God. He loves those people, just as He loves us.

"But wait, Mike... what they really need is Jesus. We need to tell them about Jesus." While I agree wholeheartedly with that statement, they also need food and shelter and water. Both needs are significant, and the church is equipped to address both sides of this issue. Watch this video and let me know what you think.

6 Things You Should Think About (But Not Too Much)

2011-10-07T14:43:00.001-06:00

1. Tonight's football game here in Scottsbluff is homecoming... and the cross-town rivalry game with Gering... and the first game of this season against a district opponent... Just another game? Yeah, right. Big deal for Monument, NE tonight!

2. The homecoming dance is almost as bad an idea as prom, but not quite. There - I said it.

3. You actually CAN teach an old dog new tricks, especially when his cup of tea is all lukewarm and stale.

4. This post is the six hundred & sixty-sixth one here.

5. I secretly laughed a little bit at my friends who were whining about facebook's changes a few weeks ago... the real changes are yet to come. You're probably going to hate it. You might want to be ready to return to myspace or something... and Jr. High.

6. Monument, NE would be a great name for two towns and a townish village that would do well to tear down some fences.

Needing Feedback? I Confess...

2011-10-05T11:56:00.001-06:00

Confession: I am a feedback junkie.

Every time I lead worship or speak or teach a class or write something, I am immediately asking, "How was it? What did you think? Did that make sense?" or something similar. I eagerly wait for editorial responses to articles submitted, and I watch for follow up comments to those that get posted (either to bask in or maybe to argue with). It would be tempting to seek out people that I know will assuage my insecurities and tell me how great I am, but I know that wouldn't do any good, so, among others, I always ask my wife. I can trust her to tell me the truth even if the truth isn't what my ego wants to admit. Then I can fix what needs fixed and be satisfied with what was done well.

Right?

In John 5, a couple verses are really standing out to me right now that show Jesus taking a very different approach: "Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me..." (v. 41) Ouch! The Jewish leaders were ticked off with Jesus and trying to find a way to permanently shut him up. Essentially, He told them He didn't really care if they liked what He did or not because He was only doing what His Father wanted done, and "because I know you don't have God's love within you." (v. 42) BIG Ouch!

Jesus wasn't taking exit polls and checking His numbers all the time. He couldn't have told you what search term on Google or Bing led the most people to His latest post. He had no idea what His Klout score was and couldn't have cared less.

And all of that confidence rested in His knowledge of His Father. He knew who He was and what He'd been sent for. "I do nothing without consulting my Father." (v. 30)

How are we doing consulting the Father? Is our ministry functioning the way it does because "that's what people want/need," or because "that's what God told us to do," or maybe because "that's what works," or "that's just the way we do things around here"? There is a right answer here, I think. If we want our ministries to look like that of Jesus... If we want the character of Christ to show through our own actions, we need to be consistently consulting our Father.

Does that make any sense?

Praying With Strangers on the Phone

2011-10-04T12:52:00.000-06:00

I just got off the phone with a representative from a well known youth event/evangelism/promotions organization. I have to disclose that I'm predisposed to simply flush when the hype seems to be getting too high, and I get that vibe a lot with this particular organization. I'm also, as a full fledged member of the human species with a fully developed frontal cortex, predisposed to say no to sales calls. Consequently, I was probably looking for the exit sign very early in this conversation. The easy out presented itself when I learned that the end of his spiel concludes with an invitation to bring my students to an event whose date conflicts with another event to which we're already committed.

At the end of the phone call, he asked, "Is there anything I could pray for you about?" I'm not sure I can articulate exactly why, but this felt really strange. Does this seem awkward to anyone else? Am I an unspiritual jerk because I didn't really want to tell him anything to pray? Anybody else experienced a 'sales' type call that ended in prayer when you actually did want to share requests and pray with a stranger on the phone?

See You At The Pole - Scottsbluff

2011-09-28T10:32:00.001-06:00

Huddle at Bluffs Middle School

I remember a sort of nervousness as a high school student heading out early for See You At The Pole. Who would be there? What if I'm the only one? What are they thinking as they walk by? Hey, why didn't that kid stop and pray with us? As a youth minister, I've seen the same anxious thinking in my students when they start thinking about SYATP (or other very public evidence of their faith). They deeply want to know they're not the only one...

This is my first year as a parent of a Middle Schooler, so I got an even closer look at that angst in my own house this time around. Emily was nervous that she'd show up early and be stuck like "the cheese", standing alone. Her fear was assuaged a little bit by the fact that her friend Faith was riding with us and would be there, too, but it was obliterated when we rounded the corner and she saw several of the older Middle School students already there. "There's Austin... and Maddy... and Emily... and Liz..." The list continued.

Praying at Bluffs Middle School

After dropping the two girls off with a handful of friends, I drove a couple blocks to a coffee shop where I've been meeting a group of men for our own time of prayer on Wed. mornings to let them know I wasn't going to be staying today. I was hoping to stop back at the Middle School to pray and take a couple quick pictures. By the time I got back, the cluster had grown to include more students, a couple teachers, and a few parents and younger siblings - and everyone gathered to pray.

The SYATP Remnant at Scottsbluff High School

Hoping to make it over to the High School, which was starting a little later, I snuck away as the students prayed. As it turned out, the High School kids had bumped the time back up so that the band students could be there. They were mostly done when I arrived, but half the group was still there, so I got to wrap up the prayer time. I'm proud of our students who've stepped out and brought people together to pray. God is working in our students and they're eager to see what He will do.

I enjoyed stopping by the closest 2 schools this morning to pray with my students and their friends and teachers and a few parents. I wish I could have made it to my students in other schools that aren't so close, but I'll just have to wait until tonight to see how their mornings went.

Youth Ministry with Guys

2011-09-27T13:35:00.000-06:00

I've had a series of articles posted lately over at YouthWorker Journal about ministry with guys:
- The Risk of Discipleship - raising the risk level in youth ministry
- Have Fun - making ministry enjoyable
- What Did You Expect? - raising expectations of young people

In each of the articles, I've brought up some issues that I think is important in regards to working with boys in my own youth ministry: doing things that are risky, having fun, expecting great things from and for our students. These aren't necessarily the three most important things about boys ministry, but they've been among the first to come to mind. I'll be sharing more from these articles here on the blog at some point, as well as other thoughts from the rest of the series, but I also want to know what you've seen in ministry with boys.

What are the greatest successes and failures that you've seen or experienced in ministry with boys? Whether you're looking at it from the perspective of a student or parent or youth leader... what have you seen that's worked well and what have you seen that's flopped?

2011 See You At The Pole

2011-09-26T16:23:00.002-06:00

During my freshman year of high school, a small group of kids in TX had decided to go pray at some area schools one night. They went and prayed for their friends and teachers at school during a weekend discipleship retreat they were having. I didn't hear a thing about it. Why would I? It was just some kids a thousand mile away, praying for their schools like God was urging them to.

I may not have heard about it, living several states away, but God was up to something that I did hear about not long after that first year. Their little prayer time together became the epicenter of a movement of prayer that is still re-shaping lives and schools, not only in Texas, but around the world. Later that year, about 45,000 students in several different states met at their school flagpoles for the first See You At The Pole. This week, over two million students worldwide will take part in this time of prayer.

"I am there with you."

-Jesus

SYATP isn't about taking a stand or some political agenda for forcing God back into schools. It's not about staking a claim to anyone's rights... It's about the dependence of God's people on Him. It's about young people humbly begging Him to use them to reveal Himself to their generation. It's about recognizing His powerful presence "where two or three are gathered..." It's about depending on that powerful Presence to help us become what we've been created to be.

This Wednesday (the 28th) is the official day of See You At The Pole 2011. Take some time Wednesday morning to pray for students you know, for their teachers and administrators at their schools, and for the leaders of our communities. (If you're a student, get to school early and meet the others at the flagpole to pray.) And listen with an open heart for His side of the prayer conversation. God used the obedience of a handful of school kids about 20 years ago to spark something that's still burning bright. What will He do with yours?
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Here at WestWay, we're getting a number of community youth groups together that night at 7:00 to celebrate what Jesus is doing as His people converge to reveal Him to the world around us. If you're in the area, you don't want to miss it. (Our building is located at 1701 W. 27th St. here in Scottsbluff.)

Where's Our Focus?

2011-09-22T09:36:00.000-06:00

All of life is flavored or colored by our focus. Two people can see or experience the same thing and walk away with completely different descriptions, feelings, & thoughts because of what they were focused on.

Check out this post from Perry Noble about focus.

Where's your focus in life?

What Do You Do When Everything Sucks? Pt. 2

2011-09-15T06:11:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd follow up on a previous post sparked by the struggles of my favorite football team. What Do You Do When Everything Sucks? I offer a few suggestions:

1. Walk around with a tragic look, so people can tell that everything sucks. Black turtlenecks can help with this, but not those cool Steve Jobs kind - keep 'em sloppy and a size or two too big. Be sure not to offer any real clue when people ask what's wrong, though. They might just do something helpful and mess up the whole suffering vibe you've got going. Just embrace the suckiness and let life take shots at you like a fish flopping around the bottom of a dry barrel.

2. Frequently let out heavy, audible sighs. These are kind of wasted when you're alone, but try a few for practice anyway. See how long you can keep the exhale going and experiment with a little bit of vocals thrown in for good measure. If you work in a cubicle, you can learn to bounce these off the ceiling into some neighboring boxes, while not alerting some others to your plight. This way, you can ensure a little sympathy from that nice looking hamster in the next wheel over and avoid any awkwardness with that guinea pig, Stan, on the other side. Be really careful with the vocalizing though, too much and you're just going to start laughing at how ridiculous you sound and the levity of the moment may make you forget that everything sucks.

3. Lie around and don't really do anything productive. Being productive may actually change something about your circumstances, then what would you have to feel crappy about?

4. Turn off the lights and walk around in semi darkness - in your sloppy dark turtleneck, of course. When anyone asks why the lights are off, just shrug your drooping shoulders and tell them you didn't notice... must be because of all the darkness you feel surrounding your soul these days.

5.Write a blog post that will remind yourself what a moron you're being as you go around as if everything sucks, when in fact, ever thing does not suck. Actually, while it is true that some things do suck, there are many things not sucking in the least. Then turn the freakin' lights on, ditch the "sackcloth and ashes," grab hold of just how deeply you are loved by the one who made you, and get back to work living the life He dreams for you. (Also, throw that stupid turtleneck away and get some clothes that fit.)

Blogging Mojo Book Review

2011-09-14T12:08:00.002-06:00

A while back, I came across this guy from Intercourse (PA) who posts pictures of Amish people, blogs a series of cartoon videos, drinks vinegar on camera, and mixes some of the most humorously random metaphors ever known to woodchucks. Bryan Allain is a funny guy with a funny blog. As I first read his blog, I shouted out, "Wow, this guy has some serious blogging mojo! I wish I could find my own blogging mojo like that." It was a big moment here in the office...

Ok, that last part is a total fabrication; I don't think I've ever actually said the word mojo because it confuses my mouth. Wait, was that a Spanish word, or are we just making stuff up now? Do you really think you're cool enough to pull off a word like that? Regardless, you should check out his blog. If you're a blogger, or if you just like funny stuff, you should also check out his new ebook - 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo. You can find it on the book's site as a pdf, or on Amazon in a Kindle edition.

Lost your mojo?

The books offers a 31 day walk-through before jumping into the big blogging game. Or maybe it's more of a quick series of timeouts in the middle of the game to remind you what the heck you started out to accomplish with this whole blogging thing. Either way, it's full of really good, practical blogging suggestions and ideas for making your blog better.

Allain begins by re-acquainting you with the core elements of your blog (the audience, the content, and... you'll have to get the book for the other one) - these are the foundation of what will make your blog something someone else will read and to which they'll actually return to read some more. He spends another 10 short chapters or so helping you tweak your content and focus in on what you really want to write, then fills the last third of the book with helpful tips on getting people to visit your blog and keep coming back for more.

Each chapter is only 2 pages and contains a short exercise that will help to put the idea of that chapter into practice on your blog. It's written to probably take about 10 minutes a day, plus another 10 to 20 on the exercises, but it's also pretty easy to read in longer chunks - you'll just have to be careful not to miss the benefits of the action points.

I've been thinking about shuttering this blog and restarting a more focused blog, so I was glad to sign up to receive a free review copy. I was really glad when I found out I was lucky enough to be getting one. Bryan Allain will be even more glad when lots of you spend a measly $4.99 for your own copy. That's like a couple boxes of really cheap cereal. Or one box of expensive cereal. The book's definitely worth it.

In fact, if it was cereal, the box would say: Great Stuff! Start your blog off right. Dig in and find your blogging mojo.*

*CAUTION: Contents will not stay crispy in milk.

What Do You Do When Everything Sucks?

2011-09-13T10:52:00.000-06:00

I'm a Denver Broncos fan. Last season was brutal. Watching the team implode the way it did was awful. I guess they didn't implode so much as they just sort of forgot how to play football against any other team... I don't know. I remember some bad games when I was a kid, even tough seasons, but nothing was ever like that. I remember watching with my grandma and laughing as she got so irritated with John Elway that she'd be yelling at the tv. Grandma was little, but I think she was ready to step through the TV and put on a helmet a few times and show those boys how it's done. I loved watching games with Grandma. Even the tough losses. But last year... all the fun seemed to be sucked out. There wasn't much to enjoy.

I didn't get to watch the game last night, but as I checked my twitter feed occasionally, I saw lots of updates (thank you @milehighreport). There seemed to be signs of life at times, but the end result was still a loss. I bet it's tough to get the tar knocked out of you and have nothing to show for it but a loss, knowing you're going to get back out there and work to do it all over again.

But life is like that isn't it? We have "seasons" where it seems like everything sucks. Maybe every single thing doesn't actually suck, but it sure feels like it. After the horrible season last year, a time where nothing seemed to be going right, the Broncos fired staff, rearranged responsibilities, brought in fresh ideas to the organization, all in attempting to defeat the suckiness and bring back the joy (and hopefully some wins!).

What do you do in those times? How do you regain a perspective that lets you enjoy life again? Do you need to "fire some staff" in your life? Or rearrange your priorities? Where can you bring some fresh thinking into your day?

Does 'reality bite' or 'life suck'? You can't change it until you refuse to accept it. Make some move today to make it better.

How to Save Money Like An Idiot

2011-09-06T15:30:00.000-06:00

For some reason, Sunday afternoon seemed like a good time to start a project that's been looming at our house since the city of Scottsbluff repaved our street several years ago. They'd contracted a landscaper to re-sod all the right of way areas when the job was complete. (You know that section between the sidewalk and the street that runs the full width of your house.) Since we've got no water to that area, we asked if they'd just put in some landscaping stone instead. They were glad to do so, but unfortunately spread the stone without putting any kind of weed barrier down.

So, for more hours than I care to admit on both Sunday and Monday, I got to partake in a level of work that is completely inappropriate for any holiday, regardless of its name. This weekend's project essentially was this: move rocks, put down rolls of weed block, replace rocks. We also threw in a handful of shrubs for good measure.

One shovel at a time...

It was not fun work. It was not easy work. But it needed to be done. And now, it has been done. It's nice to have a project started and completed. We seem to have a number of "less than finished" projects. Several times, LuAnn commented on how it would've probably been easier to just finish one of them (or two or three) instead of shoveling all those rocks only so I could shovel them again.

She's probably right. This project could have waited. Why did we do this now?

Because I found some shrubs for sale for less than 3 bucks... So, because I could save roughly $15, I bought the bushes and started digging...

What an idiot.
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Ever done anything dumb to save a few dollars? Share your story in the comments...

Wanna Race?

2011-08-31T10:46:00.001-06:00

- Pad roll cage
- Bolt two doors shut
- Paint number on car
- Tow car to track

Things I have left to do before racing Friday night!

My car is finally ready... almost. I'll be back out to Hiway 92 Raceway this weekend ready to go again. I had a blast racing a couple years ago, but when my car refused to be resuscitated, I put my helmet on a shelf in the garage and closed the door. But my friend Greg, found an old Neon that we were able to put a good roll cage in and get ready to race over the past couple months.

We've taken out a less than adequate roll cage, replaced it with a really good one, installed a racing seat, stripped off former sponsorship decals, rerouted the airbox, replaced a rusted out fuel tank and refinished some wiring that had gone bad. There are still a few minor things, but for the most part it's ready to race. This Friday we'll put it to the test.

I have to admit, as much of a redneck as it may make me sound - I've missed racing. I've learned a lot from working on the cars, and that's nice (especially on days like yesterday where I saved about $130 just by changing my own brake pads on our van)... I love having the chance to get to know people outside the church and hopefully redefine for them what it means to be a Christian (or at least open the door to the possibility that church people aren't all boring)... But mostly, I've just missed having something where I just go have fun.

So Friday night - I'm going to fight life's capacity to suck the fun out of me and force me into cubicles of bland repetition.

Wanna race?

Overhauling the American Family? Replace the American Dream.

2011-08-29T16:41:00.000-06:00

In The Problem No One Wants to Talk About, Paul Williams (an editor at Christian Standard) connects some educational dots that need to be faced. The short version: the education of a child is ultimately up to the parents. You should read the full article, too, especially if you have school age children. We can blame bad schools and administrators and standards all we want, but the bottom line is that it is up to me and my wife to educate our own children. We've considered ourselves fortunate, even since Emily's first day in Mrs. Riggins' Kindergarten, to have our kids in public classrooms with good teachers who really cared AND were well equipped to teach their students. I know not everyone would share that sentiment, but we're glad to have had most of the teachers we've had and even keep in touch with a number of them.

Williams talks about how one of his wife's "greatest frustrations was parents who did not even bother to attend the school's open house or parent-teacher conferences. Even those who valued education were so busy trying to stay alive they were happy to leave Johnny's ABC's up to the school." In the end, he says, "It is not the American education system that needs an overhaul. It is the American family."

Parents may be too busy to show their kids which way to turn.

Ouch.

Families are definitely being stretched dangerously thin today, but before we throw parents under the bus, notice something tucked away in that statement: Parents are "so busy trying to stay alive" they've abdicated their responsibility. Just to be clear, most American parents are not busy dodging bullets or hiding in foxholes. Most American parents don't fill their waking hours clinging to literal last ditch efforts to keep breathing and pumping blood. So what are they busy doing that Williams refers to?

I'd argue that what we fill our time with is not so much "staying alive" as it is "getting ahead." The elusive American Dream was perhaps a noble ideal in previous decades, but the modern version of it is nothing like the simple original. It's not just the American family that needs overhauled, but the American value system that says "What I have is never enough. I must have more - even if that means burying my family under a truckload of Visa bills."

I read an article this morning about elected officials who were having a tough time making ends meet... just barely scraping by... struggling to keep their children well clothed and properly fed... "living paycheck to paycheck"... on $174,000 a year!

But this isn't about politics (I say as I choke on that last statement). It's about you and I and contentment. Are we sacrificing our children for a newer car in the driveway? Are we leaving our children to fend for themselves so they can sleep in a bigger house?

I have to admit I struggle with this. I never go to bed hungry, but I struggle with wanting more - wishing I made more money and could afford better stuff. Wishing I could go visit more exciting places and eat better food. But my kids don't need me to get a second job so they can ride in a truck with power steering as much as they need... me. They need me to coach their teams and be at their games. They need me to show them where the boundaries are in life and how to tell which ones are good boundaries and which ones were put there by some goober and need to be moved. They need me to help them know what it means to be a man, what it means to follow Jesus, and two of them need me to explain to them once and for all that men will never really understand them. (The other two need me to explain how to have fun trying!) I'd go full circle and say they need my help with homework, but... not so much. Not yet anyway.

How do you balance the desire to provide for your family with the demands that places on your time? Are you educating your children well, or have you left that up to "the professionals"? What could we do to help you "train up your child in the way he should go"?

Image via Agatha Villa at CreationSwap

What are you writing?

2011-08-25T16:05:00.000-06:00

I came across a post on Tentblogger today about notebooks. He lists 10 of his favorite writing notebooks and that got me thinking about the pages I've used over the years. As a kid, I missed out on the typical black and white composition notebooks (which are number 10, by the way) because we were always well stocked with those really inexpensive spiral notebooks - the ones you see the ~~cheap~~ frugal moms lugging around at Target at back to school time for like 17¢ each or something (like my wife). I didn't know what a Moleskine was until just a few years ago (and still wouldn't mind a good debate about the proper pronunciation of that brand), but I have at least seen most of the options on the list.

Though the usually smashed spiral inevitably made page turning a little tricky, I was at least privileged to write almost exclusively in college rule notebooks. This was necessary mostly because I write tiny (not small - tiny), which some handwriting expert will probably tell you indicates a lack of self confidence or an introverted and academic personality. I hated Big Chief, with his cocky wide lines and paper that was impossible to erase without burning a hole through 3 pages. I secretly looked down on teachers that accepted assignments on wide rule. How could they be at peace with such sloppy arrogance?! Ok, maybe that's exaggerating a little bit...

I've never been a die hard journal keeper, but have filled more than a couple notebooks with what would pass as journal entries. Someday, someone is going to read them and say, "Wow, I always thought he was more well adjusted than that." That's because my journals are often filled in mildly distraught moments of prayer - pouring out to God what I don't think I should dump on others. A lot of people don't notice the rougher edges of me because I've learned to tuck them away in writing that doesn't usually see the light of day. I can imagine my grandkids finding an old box of my stuff and thinking, "Grandpa was really weird and moody. With all those years being unhappy, it's no wonder he's so grumpy now!" Part of what may make me seem well adjusted (whatever that means) is that I don't go around spewing all my garbage because I've found a better dumping ground than in your lap.

The thing is, what I write in notebooks can be easily misunderstood, especially since it's because a sort of salvage yard of my broken pieces. If parts of it are taken out of context and the rest of it ignored, those parts don't really accurately represent who I am. Whether it's a song (which are mostly written upside down from the back of the notebook for some reason that still escapes me), a prayer, some sermon or lesson notes, a rant, or just a catchy line I wanted to remember... you can't know me fully from just that piece. If you only know me from this blog, you see me only through the limited lens this blog affords. My private writing gives an even less illumined view.

This leads me to how we treat the Bible. There's no doubt in my mind that reading God's Word can help a person get to know Him. (And yes, I realize the Bible is much more than God's personal little journal.) But we will not get to know God fully by taking our favorite bits and pieces of Scripture and divorcing them from the context of the rest of Scripture. We won't even get a very full picture by reading the whole text year after year. The Bible isn't a compilation that's meant to only be read and discussed - it's meant to be done. It's meant to be lived. It's meant to be demonstrated by His kids.

It's only when we act on the Word that we really understand the Author. Write that down in your hand-crafted Ciak or your bamboo Writersblok... scribble it into your spiral bound cheap-o college rule... maybe even scrawl it in your Big Chief (use a crayon)... but don't forget what James wrote, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." God doesn't just write in notebooks - He writes in you for all to see. What's He writing?

The Book of Ax?

2011-08-22T14:18:00.000-06:00

Our high school class on Sunday mornings has been studying the book of Acts for the past couple months. I love the look in their eyes as our students hear how the Holy Spirit was moving in the first century church and as they come to understand that the same Spirit lives in the church of this century as well. But I was caught off guard a little bit yesterday.

We're just getting into the shift between Peter's meeting with Cornelius' family and Paul's travels through Asia Minor and his hope to reach Rome. It's amazing how a little splinter cell of Jews loyal to a carpenter became the multi-cultural church stretching throughout much of the known world so quickly (all without the help of blogs, mass-texts, or facebook). I wanted to recap the first several chapters that we'd covered up to this point, so I started at the beginning and asked them to "Tell me about the book of Acts."

As they began talking about Jesus ascending into heaven and the Apostles waiting in and around Jerusalem, I asked about the name of the book. "Why is it called Acts?" The one student who piped up first offered only a shrug, a confused look, and a frustrated "I have no idea what any of this has to do with an ax."

The Ax of the Apostles. The Ax of the Holy Spirit. Ax.

You need to know this is not a dumb kid. He's been to church all of his life and reads his Bible more than most adults I know - by a lot. He's not Biblically illiterate and often leads in our student ministry in many ways. He's a great young man. But somehow, when he was a little kid his mind latched on to an "Ax" metaphor instead of more of an "Actions" picture - and it stuck until yesterday!

I've been reflecting on this in a couple ways:

1. A church that doesn't Act with the Holy Spirit will soon see His Ax. That's cheesy enough to fit on a church marquee (sorry), but we have to remember the stakes are high. When we stop following His lead we're not really being the church.

2. Spelling Matters.

3. Don't assume everybody knows what you know. Cover the basics and re-cover them frequently.

4. There may be more teaching going on than learning - and that's not ok. If you teach or lead a group, be prepared when it comes time to deliver and fill in the gaps that even the best curriculum will leave. Don't settle for the Saturday night, flip through the workbook then read it Sunday morning approach. The way you fill the role (whether it's in the nursery or the nursing home or anywhere in between) is shaping the church. Shape it well.

Take Me to Your Leader

2011-08-19T15:33:00.000-06:00

Since the 50's, cartoon aliens have been making the demand, "Take me to your leader." Get me to the one in charge because I'm too important to be dealing with a peon like you. You can't possibly be able to answer my questions or be interesting enough for conversation, so take me to someone who is. Take me to your leader. The phrase has entered our culture so deeply that it's been used by everyone from the Newsboys to Ninja Turtles.

But, what if you and I were really asked that question? Who are your leaders? Look back over your life objectively - what is it, or who is it that has led you to where you are today?

Shifting away from an individual focus for a minute, I want to ask the church something. Together, who are our leaders? Who are we following? I know the easy answer to throw out is 'Jesus', but if Marvin the Martian showed up Sunday morning with his ACME ray gun and demanded to know who's in charge around here, would we all point to the stage? The elders & staff? Teachers and small group leaders?

As followers, how do we balance our loyalty to our flesh and blood leaders (and our own preferences) with being disciples of Jesus? As leaders, are we doing everything possible to lead people to follow Him, not just us?

A Quick Message for my WestWay Students

2011-08-18T10:43:00.002-06:00

As I was thinking over what we talked about last night, I began reading in 1 Peter this morning and came across some stuff I wanted to share with you guys. I noticed some things there that I think you need to know as you get back into school.

You may not think you're much, but together, God is making something amazing!

"And now God is building you, as living stones, into His spiritual temple." Guys, I think that verse is for us, not just the Christians in the first century. It's for you. God is still building His people into a living, breathing, dynamic place where He makes Himself available. As you check out your new classes and new teachers and teams... make sure you're letting Him live in you AND make Himself known through you.

"They stumble because they do not listen to God's word or obey it... But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, His very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light." As you finish up Filter over the next couple weeks, finish strong. But don't just read your Bible - live it. Obey it. Let His Word sink into your soul and reshape you from the inside. Then, you become more than just a youth group, more than just a bunch of kids who like to hang out together and stay out of trouble - you become His Church (His priests, His nation, His possession...) - an unstoppable force of light, showing others the goodness of God.

Whether this is your first year at a new school, or your last year as a Senior, make this year a time when you really step out to shine Christ's light. Make Him known. Your schools are your mission field: show His goodness there.

img: Jono Hale @ creationswap.com

The Middle School Milestone

2011-08-16T14:24:00.001-06:00

Earlier this summer, for the first time, one of my own kids was with me as a camper for Middle School camp. This morning, I took her to middle school orientation. I spend a lot of time around middle schoolers, so the mix of excitement and nervous fear in the building today wasn't too surprising - but it's been "interesting" making adjustments to actually having a middle schooler of my own (who thinks 11 is way more adult than her father does, by the way).

Emily's looking forward to getting back to school and is excited about the schedule. We got to walk through the building this morning, finding classes and seeing friends who haven't connected much over the summer, as well as meeting teachers. She seems to have a really good group of teachers, so as a parent and a youth pastor, that's something for which I'm very grateful.

And just as my daughter's entering a new phase, I think I am too. For 12 years, I've done ministry with other people's kids, but now, the first of my own kids will begin a wave that will have them being more present than they have ever been. Here's what I'm hoping:

I hope having my own daughter in my primary ministry group won't cause me to hold back in challenging my students to fully chase after God. It's one thing to encourage someone else's little girl to listen when God's telling her to go into dangerous situations on His mission, but what about my own daughter taking that risk? Will I still be willing to nudge my students toward the God-led risks they need to take? I think so, but I have a lot more skin in the game now - my own flesh and blood...

I hope I can be even more present for her peers without sacrificing the special relationship a daughter should have with her dad. As a youth pastor, I want to take advantage of every opportunity to help young people see Jesus, but I don't want to manipulate my daughter's relationships toward my own ends. She's not my little spy into the world of youth culture. I have to admit, sometimes I feel a little awkward as a mid-thirties guy showing up at a Jr. High band concert/football game... If I didn't know my own motives, it could be a little creepy.

I hope I can be the dad I need to be and the pastor I need to be. The tension between what my family needs and what my ministry needs is not an easy tension to manage. I hope I can leverage that tension well to propel both my kids and the other people's kids that I'm privileged to serve into the life Christ dreams for them.

What's a Healthy Youth Ministry Look Like?

2011-08-03T15:36:00.003-06:00

I had a brief discussion the other day with another youth minister about where youth ministry is at today - where things are going well and where youth ministry in general could improve. I'm not one to say that youth ministry is a total failure and may not have even been a good idea in the first place, but I have seen some practices that I think are unhealthy habits at best that we need to stop doing or do better. There is room for improvement.

But this has me thinking... I've been in youth ministry full time since before the Y2K bug failed to hatch. Before that, I read and studied about everything youth ministry related I could get into my paws for 4 years of college. I live and breathe in the waters of youth ministry and like a fish doesn't know it's wet, maybe my perspective is skewed.

I know some of you who read this blog regularly have a similar place in the world of youth ministry and some do not. Some of you are parents, some are students, some are curious relatives, and some are secret agents of enemy forces keeping tabs on me (ok, maybe not so much of that last one). Your vantage point on youth ministry may reveal something to you that I don't notice, so I want to know...

What are you seeing in youth ministry?

What needs to be better?

What are the marks that help you recognize a healthy student ministry?

For the Sake of Argument

2011-07-13T06:11:00.000-06:00

"Why shouldn't we quarrel about a word? What is the good of words if they aren't important enough to quarrel over? Why do we choose one word more than another if there isn't any difference between them? If you called a woman a chimpanzee instead of an angel, wouldn't there be a quarrel about a word? If you're not going to argue about words, what are you going to argue about?"

G.K. Chesterton's MacIan in The Ball and the Cross

My kids seem to have a great propensity for arguing about really stupid things. Not just my kids at home, though... I have a couple guys in my youth ministry who love each other like brothers. And by "love each other like brothers" I mean they "feel obligated to disagree with anything the other guy says." Seriously these two are good friends, but they argue incessantly.

For the first few hours of any trip, I usually just laugh at the arguments. I'm a patient guy, but usually the rest of the van is ready to trade them for the next bit of roadkill within the first hour. I'll often step in just before someone opens the door to push them out with what seems to me should be an end to the argument (it never is).

Usually, it's like this: "Guys, you both are saying the same thing! Shut up and listen to each other." I know "shut up" is not proper youth minster etiquette, but sometimes, it's just the most appropriate phrase. It amazes me how often these guys will escalate an argument where they both are saying THE SAME THING because they're not really hearing each other. They're ignoring the words each other are saying with their eyes set on winning some imaginary argument trophy. Sometimes I just throw out something really contradictory to get them to realize they're on the same side.

Some arguments aren't worth having. But some are. What is something you're willing to argue about? What's something you currently are in the middle of arguing? Is it worth the quarrel?

NewsMakers?

2011-07-11T11:14:00.002-06:00

"It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is fundamentally more exciting, as indicating that that moving tower of terror and mystery, a man, is still abroad upon the earth... Hence, the complete picture they give of life is of necessity fallacious; they can only represent what is unusual."

G.K. Chesterton in The Ball and The Cross

Two things have been rattling around in my head since a couple days ago, when I came across this passage:

1. If we rely solely on media to define our perception of the world around us, we won't get a very clear picture of that world. Even with the wide array of media choices available to us, we'll only be getting a few of the most unusual pieces, pieces which someone else has deemed most important. If you want to know what the world is really like, get out there and do something - experience it! Better yet, shape it.

2. Chesterton's description of man as "that moving tower of terror and mystery" points to the great capacity that each of us has. Our actions have the potential to change the very world we live in. Each breath that fills our lungs carries with it one more opportunity for meaningful action. The fact that our lives may never make headlines should never deter us from doing what we can to make a positive impact wherever we are.

Anybody made any good news, lately? Share your story in the comments - you can even start with the fact that you're still breathing!

8 Random Reflections After CIYMove

2011-07-06T15:37:00.002-06:00

Some summary thoughts and random reflections from last week's CIY Move in Durango:

1. CIY is awesome. I love what this organization has been doing in the world of youth ministry. It's not just about a 1 week summer conference, but about building platforms for launching young people into kingdom work as they reframe their lives around His Word and His mission.

I love the crepes in that little wagon!

2. For the first time in my life, I was complimented on my handwriting! I've always seen my handwriting as fairly crappy, very tiny, and barely legible. There's a long and traumatic story about how I held my pencil wrong in 2nd Grade, but I'll spare you the graphite details... But this week, adult leaders hand wrote brief letters to the students, noting a verse or two of Scripture that we are praying for our students. And despite cramping fingers (I rarely actually write anything anymore) from an afternoon scribe session, at least one of my students gave my penmanship an A. Take that Mr. D. Thanks Jadie!

3. On Friday night, after the girls left group time, I kept the guys behind for a little while and had a moment where I spoke "heart to heart" (and very bluntly) to each of them in an effort to individualize some of what had been going on in our group throughout the week. I want to see these guys be men who passionately honor God, so this was a chance to point out some personal obstacles they each will face and some gifts I can already see in them. They enjoyed the praise, and took the criticism pretty well. This was difficult to do, but I'm praying for those seeds to germinate and grow. I know that's a little vague, but I have huge expectations for these guys. They're filled with incredible potential, and we're kicking out the chocks that keep them parked in the hangar. Time to fly, boys...

4. I love how guys like Kevin Greer and Mark Moore continue to pour themselves into young people - in teaching settings, but even more deeply as mentors for a small handful of guys at a time. The most lasting life change I've seen in youth ministry has happened in the context of a committed adult dumping truck loads of love and experience into a young person's life in a small, discipleship group. (WestWay, this is one of the deficiencies in our youth ministry that we need to improve. Be watching for how you can help.) None of my time in youth ministry could have possibly been productive without teams of people like Jackie and Harriet and Matt and Melissa and Debbie and... many others who loved a few kids enough to disciple them.

5. Lights off laser tag is hazardous. I should have taken the cue when she asked if anyone had a fear of the dark. We'd played a couple rounds already, so the laser tag attendant upped the ante a little bit by going dark. As I was being chased by Michael, I thought I was running full speed down a long corridor. Turns out, I was not. Like the jaws of an alligator, the walls pulled closer and closer, but by the time I realized I was being swallowed by an acute corner, it was too late! Ouch.

6. Our perspective needs broadened continually. Think of the church. What do you picture? Does it include this?

If you're here at WestWay, you'll be hearing more about this film. CIY has highlighted these snapshots of the persecuted church, but there is so much more. We are comfortable here, but don't forget that our family is attacked in much of the world.

7. While I was still in college, I attended a convention CIY used to do for youth leaders. The theme that year was "Standing in the Gap." It was 1997 & I knew nothing about leading a church in youth ministry, but I felt pulled to become someone who would stand in the gap to help young people connect with the Body of Christ. It's really hitting me right now that (at least in part) the reason I feel so out of place all the time is because I've chosen to live my life in that gap. Duh. Hey, guess what? If you choose to place yourself where no one else wants to go, you'll feel alone sometimes. I was reminded this year that there are others who live in that gap - we're not alone there. I was also reminded of some of the strategic thinking I did back then in order to narrow the gap. I'd been given an essentially blank slate and told, "Let's do what needs done." As I sat in an elective class with other leaders this year, I was really convicted that I need to return to being more strategic. I have to admit that some of what we do in our youth ministry is only done because that's what we do. Even worse, some of it may be producing little more than another generation of consumer Christians who whine when we don't sing their favorite song and do little else than show up a couple times a week. I hate that. I'm not a rinse & repeat kind of guy, but I've fallen into that mentality in a couple areas, maybe been lazy with a few things... that has to stop.

8. Sorry about the graphite pun in #2 - I blame sleep deprivation!

Being a Disciple Means Love

2011-07-06T11:59:00.000-06:00

Hi guys. I'm leading worship here at WestWay this weekend and want a little help. The theme of Willie's message is that a disciple loves the church family. I'm looking for ideas to incorporate into the service: specifically stories of how you've loved or been loved by the church.

So in the comments section here, tell me your best stories of seeing the church's love on full display... of loving the church even when it was hard... of being loved by the church even when you were undeserving...

Thanks.

Trip-Notes at CIYmove

2011-06-28T17:14:00.001-06:00

For those of you keeping track at home, we're into the second day at CIYMove. Vehicles and weather have all been pretty cooperative to this point, and things are going well. I'm hearing some positive feedback already from the first elective sessions this afternoon. Please be praying for the 18 of us to be focused in on what God has to say and courageous enough to follow.

Last night's session focused on young Eli's answer to God's voice: Speak, Lord - I'm listening. This fit amazingly well with what we've been talking about (and hearing) for the past couple months, getting into Filter! Our students are hearing and responding, and it's exciting to think about where God is leading.

Today has been about trusting God when He calls us into something. We talked about Rahab this morning and the amazing change God brought to her life when she responded in faith. She went from "hooker in a town about to be destroyed" to "ancestor of King David - and Jesus, the Messiah." If God can do that with her, there's nothing the rest of us have done that places us beyond the hope He brings.
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On a side note, the adult meeting this morning included a great reminder from Kevin Greer that we're planting seeds that change the world. Some of you at WestWay may remember Kevin - he led adult sessions at Spring Thing several years ago. I always appreciate his long term perspective on youth ministry.

He also led a section later that reminded me of the importance of strategic thinking & planning in youth ministry. There are too many things that we do just because 'that's what we do' in youth ministry. I've always hated that, even though I can fall into the same monotonous sinkholes of pointless activity, and it's always good to be reminded to step back once in a while and evaluate. Youth ministry's hard enough as it is, even when you do know exactly why you're doing it. There are some things I need to do to stop making it harder on myself than it needs to be - hope you'll help...

2 Obstacles & 1 Solution for Effective Preaching, Teaching, & Youth Ministry

2011-06-20T16:50:00.000-06:00

If you've been involved in youth ministry in just about any capacity for very long, you know 2 feelings all too well... The feeling that nobody is listening & the feeling that you're on your own. You can hear the words coming out of your mouth. You know it's English (or whatever the first language is of the students you're with) & you've even taken out the confusing words, but as you look at your kids, the glazed eyes looking back toward you (or not) cause you to wonder, "Is anybody listening?" Sometimes, I'm amazed when a student that seemed completely checked out was actually paying more attention than a hawk locked in on an absent minded jackrabbit. But still, the feeling persists that what I'm saying just isn't getting through.

Img: "Let God Speak" via Justin Stagge on creationswap.com

Couple that with another feeling I often come across and you have a train-wreck waiting to happen - the feeling that we're on our own. It's just you and a couple semi-neurotic volunteers to ensure the spiritual well-being of the next generation. Where is the rest of the church? Why don't the other leaders care more about the teens? Why is the single ladies' knitting guild so concerned about the 20 year old carpet? Stain is ok for the benches and windows, why not the floor, right?

I know that sounds a little over dramatic, but feelings aren't objective. Feelings don't just stick to the pure, untainted facts. Sometimes, they lie. But, the truth in your ministry is they ARE listening. They may not be hanging on every word you say, but they are hearing the message of your life loud and clear. The truth in your ministry is you're NOT alone. The leadership may need some explanation of why you just spent $200 with your kids at a pizza place, but they're not against you. The people in your church may not be knocking down your door to volunteer for the next youth group lake party, but that doesn't mean they don't care.

The Spirit pulled Ezekiel aside to begin his prophetic ministry and God gave him some words that we need to live by in youth ministry:

Do not fear them... Do not be dismayed by their dark scowls... You must give them my messages whether they listen or not.

To be clear, these messages that God wanted Ezekiel to deliver weren't received as good news around the campfire. He warned of impending judgment and implored the people to repent of their rebellion and turn once again to their God. Ezekiel was opposed... fiercely. God told him people would reject what He had to say, their hard hearts unwilling to accept his instruction.

But look, I have made you as hard and stubborn as they are. I have made you as hard as rock! So don't be afraid of them... Son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first. Listen to them carefully for yourself. Then go to your people in exile and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says!'

I wish every preacher, pastor, teacher, youth speaker, & volunteer would hear that well. Let His words sink deep into your own heart first... Then go. Then speak. Then teach. We only have something worth saying after we've allowed His message to take root within us. Don't just speak because it's Sunday (or whatever your main teaching day is). Speak because His message has grown within you to the point where you can't hold it in. Teach because there is no levy strong enough to hold back the grace you're being given. Then, you'll have something to say worth hearing and you'll know you're not standing alone.

WestWay Student Ministry's Filter Update

2011-06-17T12:30:00.002-06:00

As I write this, it is Day 23 of Filter - our summer Bible reading challenge. In case you don’t remember, I’ve challenged our students here at WestWay to read the Bible for 1 hour each day for 100 days. About a quarter of the way in, and some great discussions are already happening centered on what’s being read. Even those who’ve fallen behind keep moving forward and deepening their understanding of God through His Word. A large part of what has motivated this project has been this desire for depth.

I believe that students who have given themselves to Jesus are more than just the church of tomorrow. They’re the church, period, and they’re called into Christ’s mission, not just to hang out and be well-behaved together. Instead of teaching them to wait quietly on the sidelines until they’re “old enough”, what if we trained them to hear the voice of God today and equipped them to respond immediately? What if they began to see themselves, not as the church youth group, but as young, vibrant cells of the Body of Christ? What if we cleared the runway for them to launch their own new ministries, putting their passions and energy to work to make His Kingdom known?

These aren’t just hypothetical questions. I really wonder what the church would look like if all of us could see young Christians the way God sees them. I pray for His perspective. That’s really what Filter is about for us - understanding the mind of Christ like Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 2, knowing what He wants, walking in step with His Spirit to reveal His greatness to a world that rarely notices.

Please be praying for our students this summer as we dig into God’s Word together - and take a deep look into how you treat the Word of God in your own life. The church that can’t hear the Shepherd will wander aimlessly and ineffectually. Let’s not be that church.

4 Quick Thoughts about Being a Disciple

2011-06-16T15:02:00.000-06:00

I've been hearing about and talking about discipleship a lot lately with friends in several different contexts and thought I'd share a few quick thoughts here that have come up:

Being a disciple is as simple as hearing the voice of God and doing what He says - seeing Him move and moving in response. I didn't say easy... but simple. When did you last hear Jesus saying, "Come, follow me."?
Discipleship is costly. It's not supposed to be easy. Being a disciple does not mean you agree to give 52 hours per year to the practice of sitting on your butt in a church building taking notes you'll lose in a few weeks and pretending to mean the words that show up on the screen. It means you've given every fiber of your being to the pursuit of Jesus. If your hobby gets in the way of that, get a new hobby. If your job keeps you from following His lead, find a new job, a new excuse for your disobedience, or a new label to wear besides 'disciple'. Jesus didn't just ask you to follow when it's convenient, but to "take up your cross and follow..." Crosses are for dying. Discipleship costs everything. Are you ignoring His invitation to come and die?
Discipleship is rewarding. There is no life like a life lived in surrender to our Father and Maker. He knows His plans for you - to prosper, not to harm. He knows how your life would be best lived. So listen and follow, learn what you can in difficulty and celebrate the victories only He can explain. How's life?
Making disciples is not optional. If you are following Jesus, you will be making disciples. If you're not making disciples, you're not being a disciple. That's the standard He raised up; we don't get to change the rules in the middle of the game to make discipleship something else. We need to refuse to accept anything less for our lives - even if the religious leaders of our day want to settle for attendance, compliance, and donations. God deserves more. Have you moved beyond making introductions to making disciples?

I want to challenge you a bit today. If you consider yourself a disciple, what does that mean? How does that play out in your life?

What do you think of discipleship?

2 Keys to Making Disciples

2011-06-01T12:04:00.001-06:00

This post is a summary of the message from Sunday for those who missed it (sorry for the delay).
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Jesus told us to go and make disciples, but sometimes we settle for making introductions. We can mention Jesus, or invite someone to a church gathering, but how are we doing at actually making disciples? Last week Willie shared that here at WestWay we've had 370 baptisms in the last 10 years. That's about 1% of our area population and should definitely be celebrated. But our average attendance this year has been about 350, so I wondered with the congregation Sunday, "Where are they?"

We have about 165 people in small groups and about 100 come to classes on Sunday morning (there is a fair amount of overlap in those numbers). I wonder, what would happen if each of those 370 had been plugged in to a discipling group or class? What if each of the 370 had been paired with a spiritual mentor to help them grow in their new faith?

Why do we not do a better job discipling?

Are we lazy? Too busy? Is our faith just too weak? Are we just not bold enough in our faith and lacking confidence in our ability to do what Jesus has told us to do? We need to be a disciple making church. We need to go beyond only making introductions to making disciples. That involves each of us learning to boldly help people in our personal lives know Jesus more deeply. But a disciple making church can be bold only because it recognizes two things: Jesus' Authority & Jesus' Voice.

In Matthew 28, when the disciples saw Jesus, "they worshiped Him - but some of them still doubted." Like Peter flailing away in water he'd just walked on, they were terrified at the impossible circumstances surrounding them. Jesus had taught them about establishing a kingdom unlike any other other kingdom... a kingdom that would turn everything upside down, making princes of nobodies and brothers of enemies. And now, He was leaving and the kingdom would be in their hands. How are we supposed to handle this? How can we make it without you here with us? Their doubt was a reflection of being faced with 'the impossible'.

But Jesus' answer to their doubt was His authority. It's like Jesus sees his band of followers freaking out a little bit and settles them down. "Guys, I've got this. You just go teach people what I've taught you. Go make disciples." This is the first key to being a disciple making church: recognize Jesus' authority. This is His church, He is building it to prevail over even Hell itself - what can stop Him?

The early church made disciples against all odds because they recognized His authority and did what He told them to do. Which begs the question: How do you know what God wants you to do?" In Galatians 2, Paul said he'd gone to Jerusalem "because God revealed to me that I should go." How do we gain that kind of clarity? Can we learn to recognize the voice of Jesus?

We definitely CAN. In John 10, Jesus talked about how He is the Good Shepherd and His sheep hear His voice and follow. One of my favorite passages, from Romans 12, contains a clue to learning to hear His voice when it talks about letting God transform you "by changing the way you think." We don't normally give a whole lot of thought to just how we actually do think, so this is where I had to get a little bit nerdy.

In the planning stages, I was a little afraid of people's eyes glazing over and a spontaneous congregational coma overcoming us all, but it was interesting to see what actually happened next. When I said the words "Reticular Activating System", it was like the crowd got a foot taller and two feet closer all at once. People perked up and leaned in... maybe they sensed an end was near! A few mentioned later they really liked the science part.

The RAS is a really dense bundle of nerves at the top of your spinal column that sort of acts as a filter, regulating which stimuli actually get your brain's attention. We're bombarded with more bits of information at any given moment than our brains can handle, so the reticular activating system keeps most of it at bay so we can concentrate on what's important. We form categories in our minds for what's urgent or important or meaningful and deserves our attention.

And the great thing is that we can influence how our RAS categorizes our lives. By spending time with His Word and giving it importance in our lives, your mind can build a category labeled "what God wants". When you spend time listening to His voice in the pages of Scripture, you can learn to recognize His voice in the moments of your life.

What if you can't hear the voice of Jesus simply because you haven't formed a category in your mind for it? What if you could actually hear God's voice? What if His voice broke through the clutter of your day? What would He say? What would He want? What would you do?

I ended by sharing the Filter challenge that I've given to our students. 100 days, 100 hours of Bible reading. Transformation... Depth... Voice Recognition... (Today is Day 7 by the way if you're tracking your reading.) Our students are learning to hear His voice. They're learning to be a disciple making church because they're recognizing His voice and His authority - learning that the big picture isn't really all on their shoulders, but on His.

Filter Bible Reading Challenge Day 1

2011-05-26T10:49:00.000-06:00

Today is Day 1 of Filter, the 100 hour Bible reading challenge I've put up for my students. 100 hours in 100 days - reading the Bible for an hour each day. Why? Why would I ask my kids to trade a hundred hours of their summertime freedom to read the Bible?

It's because we need to hear God's voice. In a world of Biblical illiteracy, the church runs the risk of losing touch with our Maker. We have more translations and study resources than ever before, yet many Christians never read the Word beyond what's read to them on a Sunday morning. It's no wonder so many churches aren't actually making disciples.

But I think the church is poised for some amazing things that God will do through this next generation - if they can hear Him calling... Young people have some serious questions and some difficult issues with how the church seems to be functioning. But they often are beginning to take their faith very seriously, digging into those questions and issues for resolution. If they can learn to recognize His voice in their lives, God will use them to take the church to places we never dreamed we'd go. It will take a lot more than 100 hours, but it's a start.

10ST - 6 More Stupid Things in Youth Ministry

2011-05-20T11:48:00.004-06:00

I recently completed a series of posts reflecting on Geoff Surrat's book Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing, and how those stupid things relate to youth ministry. I want to add one last post to sum it all up and add a few extras. The book primarily addresses lead pastors and the stupid things they do, but we youth ministers do our fair share of stupid things, too. In the previous posts, I've noted how each of Surrat's 10 things may pertain to youth ministry, so I won't rehash all that, but I will add a few to the list for youth ministers:

1. Thinking parents are 'the other side/team'. Youth ministers, please hear me on this: We are supplemental.
I'm not saying youth ministry is a superfluous luxury, or that we aren't integral to the spiritual growth of our kids. But the families of our kids will have far greater influence than we will. We'd do well to structure our ministries to facilitate and maximize parents' influence on their own kids rather than setting ourselves up as the main portal of spiritual growth for the next generation.

2. Failing to communicate. Do the leaders of your church know what God is doing in ~~your~~ their student ministry? Whether they ask you for it or not, you should be regularly reporting to the rest of your leadership what's been happening in the student ministry. Maybe it's a written report filed with the elders or lead team, maybe it's a monthly verbal report... but let them know in whatever way possible. Do the parents and students know what's coming up and what's been going on when they've gotten out of the loop? How many times has a parent come to you and asked for details of an upcoming event for which it's already too late for their son or daughter to register? It happens. Sometimes, they just haven't been paying attention - but sometimes, we haven't clearly communicated what's coming up and what's the timetable for getting involved. Never assume everyone who needs to know actually does know.

3. Operating in silos. There may be no other area of ministry in which it is easier to segregate your work from the rest of the church. Make sure this doesn't happen. If your youth ministry kids aren't involved in other areas of service in the church and are disengaged from the life of the Body, stop what you're doing and refocus on connecting kids with Jesus AND His Body - not just with your youth group. Get them serving in the band, in the nursery or children's church, in greeting... in anything they can do with the rest of the church. Their spiritual growth will be severely hindered at best, if you keep them in your little youth ministry silo.

4. Having low expectations. They're just kids, right? No that's not right; the 'just kids' mentality is crippling a generation by expecting nothing, equipping for nothing, then complaining when nothing is delivered. Raise the bar! This generation is sailing solo around the world, shaping political campaigns, starting successful businesses, working creatively and tirelessly for a whole host of causes that matter... are we really doing them any favors by expecting them to come chug milk and be nicer people? Raise the bar! (I know I said that twice - it's important.)

5. Letting kids drive the church van. Umm... yes, I have literally done this, though not by choice. On the way to interview for my first full time youth ministry 12 years ago, I got a speeding ticket. That blemish on my record was enough to cause the insurance company to say I couldn't drive the church van - which was brought to our attention about 4 days before a 1400 mile trip. Apparently, they were more comfortable with an 18 year old girl driving a van full of kids across two states than me. To be totally honest, it was pretty humiliating - I'm a good driver... on the racetrack. But I'm not as concerned with literally letting kids drive the church van as I am about what that metaphor represents. If you're shaping your ministry based only on what kids want, you can easily miss God's vision for the young church. If God's not driving your ministry, you better be praying for good air bags.

6. Rinsing/Repeating. When something goes well in ministry, it's tempting to just do it again next year. Don't. Don't just repeat the calendar year after year because it worked before. Evaluate where you've been, and pay attention to where God is leading. Your students are different every year. Their world has changed every year. Don't assume that the awesome camp/retreat/conference/series/etc. that you've scheduled for the last 6 years is still going to be awesome. If it's not, and if something else will be a better next step for you and your students to be taking, don't be afraid to get out of the spin cycle and find some fresh water. That's not to say we should mindlessly innovate and have to rhythm to our ministries - just that we shouldn't mindlessly imitate last year's success.

I'm sure there are a lot more stupid things we could add to the list, so I'm going to open myself up again for your best shots: What are the most stupid things you've seen in youth ministry?
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Also, if you haven't seen them, check out these links to the rest of the 10ST series:
Ten Stupid Things
Doing It All
Misappropriating Your Family
2nd Rate Worship Experiences
Settling for Low Quality Children's Ministry
Promoting Talent Over Integrity
Bad Location
Copycat Church
Discipline Over Reconciliation
Mixing Ministry & Business
Committees

Help Wanted

2011-05-19T14:15:00.001-06:00

Her face said enough. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know she needed help as she sat there in traffic with the hazard lights on and her head mostly buried in the steering wheel. She looked like she'd been there for a while... waiting.

I wondered what was wrong and if there was actually anything I could do to help. Did she hit something? Had she been told to stay put? There was a dent in the front fender, but no glass or parts or another vehicle or anything to suggest an accident. Must be something else...

As I pulled into a nearby parking lot and reached for my door handle, some doubts flashed across my mind. Mind your own business. Go home, this is your lunch break. You're going to feel pretty dumb when she says she doesn't need help. What if her problem is too big for you? You're going to look stupid...

The last thought almost kept me in my nice dry vehicle. Do you have any idea how ridiculous it looks to see a 5'5" scrawny, nerd-looking guy pushing a Suburban across one of the busiest intersections in town? I didn't really want to look ridiculous. I was on my way home for lunch. She probably didn't really need my help. Surely she'd called someone already and help was on the way, right?

In the few seconds it took me to have all those thoughts and more poke holes in my altruistic cranium, I kept seeing her face as I'd driven by (she was headed the opposite direction): dejected, defeated, helpless, embarrassed... I recognized so many emotions I've wrestled with myself. But still, I almost didn't help. I almost backed out of the parking spot and headed home.

I'm sure I did look pretty pathetic pushing the SUV out of traffic and into a safer spot. But once she was out of harm's way, a whole new face appeared: grateful, hopeful, encouraged... Someone had actually stopped to help. I almost missed seeing that face.

As I caught my breath on the way home, it occurred to me that probably 100 cars or more passed by that intersection while the hazard lights flashed. Able bodied high school kids on their way back to class... workers on their lunch break... underemployed people with nothing much going on at all... Why didn't anyone stop?

I wondered how many of Jesus' followers "passed by on the other side of the road" today? I'm not patting myself of the back at all, because I know how close I was to doing nothing either, but Church, we can do better. With the grace we've been given, we can extend ourselves to people who need help of all kinds.

Slow down.
Notice.
Help.

God, let us see with your eyes...

Bio?

2011-05-18T14:16:00.002-06:00

I was asked to write a bio a few months ago for an online youth ministry publication called Youth Ministry Today that wanted to post an article I'd written. Writing a bio of myself seemed kind of like writing my own obituary, only I get to keep breathing! I was happy to have something I'd originally posted here published for a wider audience, but it was kind of awkward writing a really short bio of myself. I'm not really sure why - maybe I think too much of myself, maybe too little (or maybe both). Now I need to provide another bio for another youth ministry site that I may be writing for regularly (Youth Ministry Ideas), and I'm faced with the same dilemma:

How do I sum myself up?

Here's what I wrote:

Mike Andrews has spent most of his life in Wyoming and Nebraska, but he doesn't have cowboy boots and he doesn't love corn. He does love his wife, whom he married a few weeks after their high school graduation in 1994. They packed up their little Dodge Omni and headed off to Nebraska Christian College. They now have four kids and live in Scottsbluff, NE where Mike is the youth minister at WestWay Christian Church.

Mike loves working with adolescents and developing them to lead the church. He loves seeing them come face to face with God and discover who they really are. He thinks it's amazing to be able to help students realize they don't have to settle for normal and that things don't have to stay the way they are. Mostly, he loves it when they figure out they're made for another Kingdom...

You can find Mike on twitter (@6drews) or on his blog.

(It's sort of just a summary of what I wrote on the Who's Mike page here on the blog, but I'm thinking of shortening it even more based on a tweet I saw yesterday from a friend to #oneofthegoodguys.)

I need a little feedback, friends.

How would you write my bio?
How would you write your own?

10ST - Committees

2011-05-16T14:37:00.000-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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Ok, so technically, committees themselves aren't the stupid thing as this title may suggest, but "letting committees steer the ship" is. Surratt suggests that letting committees lead decisions ineffectively slows the decision making process so much that it qualifies for stupid thing status. I'd have to agree. Vision (which is critical to leading well) comes from God, not from a committee. Instead of having committees to determine direction, we need God to tell us where He's leading... then we need courageous people to step out and follow, and we need effectively led and resourced teams to implement action.

At least in the circles I've grown up in, this stupid thing may be one of the most common. Our churches strongly (and sometimes even to our own detriment) maintain the independence of each congregation and choose our own leaders. Our system of choosing leaders can (but doesn't always) lead to a multitude of committees and meetings and agenda items. Without a compelling vision from God, these committees often degenerate into meetings with little sense of the need to actually accomplishing something. We came. We met. See you again next month/week/year...

Surratt offers a four pronged approach to leading well in a team environment that will benefit about every youth minister & pastor I know. (Remember, the committees aren't really the problem; it's when the committees lead rather than implement.)

Get a vision. Be alone with God enough that you know what He wants. If you don't have a clear and compelling picture of what God is calling you to do, it will be nearly impossible to see the team/committee you're leading flourish and grow.
Share the dream. Once the vision is clear, begin to share it with key leaders in your ministry.
Define the mission. As the team understands and buys into the vision, you need to be defining the specific roles and pieces and how those play into that vision. It's awesome when a team is able to put people into service in areas where they are genuinely gifted and passionate about serving to reach the mission.
Empower the missionaries. Keep the vision fresh, keep the team on mission, keep the path clear, and give the team what it needs to accomplish the mission.

Could You Repeat That Please

2011-05-16T09:00:00.003-06:00

Blogger was having issues while I was at Catalyst, so I parked this post in a temporary spot and am now moving it back over here. I have issues, too, so I'm not bitter. A little disclaimer though; my filter breaks when I'm tired, and... I was tired when I posted, plus LuAnn wasn't there to preview this and tell me how bad it sounds, so please take it with a grain of dragon salt (which Ted and I had at a Mongolian grill that night)...
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Do you ever wonder if you're really picking up what God's dropping for you? Like He's told you something, but you're maybe not quite getting it... Today at Catalyst I had that feeling.

A lot of the sessions today were messages I've heard from speakers I've heard. Not just similar messages, but nearly identical messages. I wasn't upset about the repetition (because these were great the first time and I had no worries that they wouldn't be great this time, too), but I wondered if I didn't get it last time or something...

As Scott Belsky talked about making ideas happen, I went right back to my thoughts (and notes) from last year. A key component of making ideas happen is creating a culture that is biased toward action. I remember thinking last year how I didn't feel like our church's culture was biased toward action. We have lots of analysis and discussion and contemplation... then, if everyone hasn't given up on the idea, there can be action.

This is something that is a constant source of friction for me, like a little rock in my shoe that just isn't coming out. You can live with it, it's just annoying and may cause blisters. My kids come home with pebbles in their shoes all the time. (I think we could solve school budget issues if my kids would stop stealing the playground.) I don't know how they do it, but they just ignore the rocks. Our lack of a bias for action was something that, last year, I couldn't ignore anymore.

But I questioned if culture-creating was really my role? New guy on the ministry totem pole... youth minister... younger than all the other leaders... Am I overstepping?.. I used all kinds of thoughts and labels and self-doubting questions to make myself feel like it was ok to hide from the burden I felt to change our culture, but I recognize now that partially because I did so much hiding, our bias is still not toward action. But today, I also realized that a shift has been happening. There is a holy discontent that seems to be welling up and fostering more of a desire to act.

Some other statements and thoughts that really struck me today:

God didn't just let a bunch of crap happen to Joseph - He WANTED it to happen in order to teach Joseph what he needed to know to be what God would call him to be. From Donald Miller, but he didn't say crap - Tripp & Tyler would have probably bleeped him out if he did.
What do I need to be learning on the path while it's difficult?
When did it occur to you that following Jesus would be dangerous? It is, so don't seek to be safe, but rather, seek to be brave.
The Isolation of Obedience: Am I willing to step into isolation when that will be the result of obedience? (this will warrant it's own post)
Lecrae was awesome.
Propaganda kicked off the morning in an amazing way. "This ain't a conference. IT'S A RUNWAY."

Catalyst Labs Dumping Off Place

2011-05-11T21:14:00.000-06:00

Only 5 sessions into Catalyst Dallas, through the pre-labs, and I've already been wrecked. Maybe I was damaged to begin with, but I don't remember this much inner wrestling this soon into the previous two Catalyst's I've been too. It probably more a reflection of my own spiritual-mental state at the moment than anything Catalyst's done different but it felt different today somehow. Or maybe it's the abscence of Grumpy Jim and a bumpy ride in a rented Mustang... or the acute Rodd deficiency our group is currently experiencing.

Scot McKnight opened the first session talking about the need for us to "paint the leaves" (ref. to Tolkien's "Leaf By Niggle"), to paint the small, insignificant details of our dreams and leave the significance to Jesus. As he talked about the way Jesus' parables subvert our grandiosity, our values, our plans... this was the first point where I found myself slammed to the mat. How often do I miss the details of God's dream for my life because I'm too busy trying to see the whole tree? What are the dreams I'm painting in the Kingdom?

Since I'm so deeply saturated in the hip-hop culture (cough-cough), I was excited to go to Lecrae's lab in the next session (no joke about that part, the guy is pretty awesome). His message was to engage your city, love your city, and work to bring about redemption and rehabilitation. I loved how he began his lab by saying he wasn't going to rap, he isn't a great speaker, and he isn't very entertaining without a beat track. His lab, however was deeply reflective of Acts 17 and the idea of Paul being "provoked in His Spirit." He didn't just walk away disgusted with the sin he saw, but sought to redeem and rehabilitate - to reconcile and push back the darkness.

In the midst of what has kind of been a dry time for me, I almost opted for a safer alternative during the next lab session, but ultimately went to Jon Acuff's lab talking about his new book Quitter. He talked about "closing the gap between your day job and your dream job." I love youth ministry, and the last year has seen some huge strides with a number of my students, and I'm really excited to see what God is going to do with them/us next... but I've had to face a pretty large gap between my day job and my dream job recently. He talked about defining your dream as the first step to closing that gap, and I probably haven't done that very well to this point (or maybe I have and not admitting it is a way to let myself off the hook). Dreaming is a process of recover, not just discovery: What have I done that I loved? What passion have I lost? Just as Acuff's humor had me laughing, I found myself on the mat again, choke slammed by the thought that "maybe the desert road is a gift from a loving Father." I'm tired of being patient. Thankfully, his next statement was that wrestling with God is a sign of intimacy - you can't wrestle from a distance.

Pete Wilson's lab was on transformational leadership and focused on Joshua's faithful reliance on God even when it didn't seem to make sense. He talked about how transformational leadership always requires more than you have, requires you to avoid the path of least resistance, requires God sized obedience not me sized solutions, and always relies on God promises (not on answers). I loved the thought that "every opportunity has an expiration date" and missing out will often cost more than messing up. So stop playing it safe, stop hiding, and choose to be with God.

The theme of hiding was one that stood out to me today. In several instances, I found myself being challenged - How am I hiding? Why don't I just trust and do what He's telling me to do? Am I still consecrated to Jesus, or am I just doing what I've been doing for the last 12 years because I'm comfortable with it? This last thought of consecration was the crux of Mark Batterson's message in the last session, which had me thinking back to the first Catalyst Lab I attended two years ago in Los Angeles. Then, he seemed to ditch his notes in response to God's prompting to talk about Numbers 11, where God miraculously provided what His grumbling people really didn't deserve. It was a great session that I still remember vividly. After 2 years of simmering, the message to live in a place of complete dependence on a God who is big enough to do what He says He will do was just as convicting and encouraging.

I just wonder if I'll even be able to get up off the mat tomorrow...

10ST - Mixing Ministry & Business

2011-05-09T12:06:00.000-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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This stupid thing is a little tricky. It must have been difficult to write - mixing the business of authoring with the ministry Surrat was leading at the time. (He does mention writing on vacation time to avoid an improper mix.) I'm inclined to think that this issue isn't quite as black & white as the title implies (and the actual content of the chapter indicates as much).

The point is still valid: It's stupid to use your position in ministry to gain a business advantage for yourself. Many pastors work bi-vocationally and do so with integrity. A list of my favorite pastors would include people who also make money as authors, entrepreneurs, film-makers, and a geologist. But very clear boundaries have to be established in order to successfully mix business and ministry.

In youth ministry, these boundaries may need to be even more sharply defined. A youth ministry friend of mine had a roofing business. During summers, he spent a good deal of time shingling roofs with his small work force, which was primarily made up of his students. It would have been really easy to develop a division between students that worked with him and those who didn't. He had to be careful not to create that kind of atmosphere, while at the same time make the most of the opportunity to develop those relationships by working together. He did a good job on both fronts, but I know that's not always the case.

If we're employing our students in any kind of outside business, at what point do we diminish our capacity to pastor them? If they decide to leave our group, do they lose their job as well? Are they only participating in our youth ministries to keep their part time jobs?

On the other hand, working together could be a great opportunity for building relationships. I've worked part-time coaching soccer at a high school, where I was able to meet students I'd never have contacted otherwise. As some of my players got involved in our youth ministry and came to know Jesus and be a part of His Body, I wonder if I was always maintaining a healthy mix. Did the players and managers who never connected with the church still feel like they had "equal access"? For a while, I also worked part-time at a go-kart place where some of my students also worked. I wasn't the boss or anything, but I wonder what the effect was on our group dynamics... (I think they secretly enjoyed getting to tell me what to do since I was the new guy!)

Lots of good stuff in this chapter to keep in mind.

10ST - Discipline over Reconciliation

2011-05-07T06:11:00.000-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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This chapter may have been one of the most obviously relevant chapters to youth ministry. How do we respond when discipline is necessary in our ministries? It's often tempting to give in to the knee jerk & tell them they can't come anymore. It would often make our lives easier to do exactly that.

I once had a couple guys start coming to youth group who had a reputation for being in trouble a lot. I thought it was awesome that these guys wanted to be there at all, and prayed they'd quickly find a deeper connection with God. But, the parents of some of the other kids in the group didn't want them around. Actually, they threatened to stop bringing their kids if I allowed these two guys to keep coming. There was a real fear that I was allowing the bad influences into our group.

But isn't that part of what we're here for? Why are we surprised when Godless people act Godless? Why does it shock us when an unexperienced kid makes a dumb decision to get himself in trouble? A huge part of youth ministry is helping those students learn from bad decisions and learn to avoid compounding the trouble with more bad decisions in the future. It's helping them understand the life of a disciple of Jesus and how to trust and share His mercy without cheapening and abusing it.

Don't get me wrong. It's important to discipline students who are out of line. But the intention isn't to punish them or kick them out of the group or keep them away from the "good kids" - it's to build and to restore and to reconcile their relationship with Jesus. A thought that was central to this chapter is the familial nature of the church. If we think of our youth ministry as our family, we'll be much more likely to offer mercy and extend the grace needed to restore relationships.

The Envelope Fundraiser

2011-05-06T16:50:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, I had my students number 100 envelopes (1-100). We put the envelopes on a display board and explained to the church that they had a chance to help the students with the cost of registration for CIY Move this summer. We have a group of 15 going this year, so this will be a costly endeavor, so we need help. The intention is to take an envelope and donate that amount of money toward the trip as well as pray for the group.

I was hoping for a hundred people to get involved. Not just for the money's sake, but a hundred people to invest themselves in the lives of our students. I was hoping to be able to cover the cost of the trip with the fundraiser, but we're well short of that hope. I just finished totaling everything up and thought I'd share some quick stats.

100 envelopes available.
Gifts given in increments of $1 from $1 to $100.
35 envelopes taken.
30 envelopes returned (maybe the other 5 will still make it back).
$1746 given.

I'm really grateful for the 30 people who've given. God will use what you've given to build into the lives of these young kingdom workers. This is a great start to this summer's trip - please be praying and watch how God will provide for the rest. Let me know if you'd like to sponsor a student.
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So, I need your opinion. This was the first time we'd done this type of fundraiser and I'm trying to evaluate whether it's worth doing again. About 30 people seemed to feel pretty good about it, but what about the rest? We raised way more money than we've raised with any other single fundraiser but one, but we were way short of the goal. So is this:

a bad idea... If you fall that far short of the goal, it was a bad idea to start with.
a good start... $1746 dollars is a great first step.
a stupid way to raise money... Why would I want to just put some money in an envelope without the kids doing anything to earn it?
a good idea... I just didn't have anything to give this time. We should do it again sometime & have the envelopes out longer.
huh... What envelopes? I should show up more often 'cuz I don't even know what you're talking about Mike.

What's your vote?

10ST - Copycat Church

2011-05-06T11:00:00.001-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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Taking anything out of context is always a risky endeavor. Perfectly worded phrases in one book become nebulous mantras in another, devoid of the clarity that once was present. Appropriate attire for one occasion becomes awkward and even out of line for another. Best practices of one organization become the unexamined tradition of another.

In the church, this is stupid. We simply can't expect what God is doing in one place to function identically in another. Just because Rick Warren wears Hawaiian shirts on the West Coast doesn't mean the masses will come flocking to me in West Nebraska.
Yes, I know the shirts really have nothing to do with anything, it's just an example. If we copy some growing church or youth ministry's methods, programs, strategies, etc. without putting in the same thought, prayer, analysis, study, and more prayer that they put in prior to adopting those methods, we're short circuiting the real process by which God has caused the growth. We'll be left with a shell that looks similar in structure, with no turtle inside! No heart or soul.

But the power of a growing church isn't in their programs or strategies. Look around at the diversity of growing ministries and it's easy to see that there are a lot of ways to get things done. What works in one place isn't necessarily going to work in another.

We also need to realize that even copying our own church of 10 or 20 or 30 years ago is just as stupid. In youth ministry, the curve may be even steeper. I feel like I need to be constantly re-inventing and evaluating just about everything I do in ministry. 5 years ago, the group that I primarily work with looked incredibly different than the group today. 5 years from now, the shapers and leaders of our student ministry will be gone. New students will have taken their places and the ministry will need to take on new shapes and forms and strategies in order to continue to grow.

The counter-side is important to note also: don't just refuse to do something because it wasn't your idea first. That kind of pride & vanity will cause their own set of problems, but don't just copy another church or ministry.

Don't even just copy your past.

Look for what God is doing in the people of your ministry. Where is He pushing? Where is He going? Seek His direction with desperation and equip your people to follow His unique lead.

Sticks & Chisels 4.Bonus

2011-05-05T16:39:00.001-06:00

I know about 20 people who started blogging (or significantly increased the rate of their posts) about 5 months ago. They were all in the course I took which led to this Sticks & Chisels series of posts. Some of them have blogged before, some of them set up their very first posts on our first day of class. It's been fun to watch as they get into it (or don't) and I always speculate about the fate of their blogs now that the semester is coming to a close.

We were assigned a total of 17 posts - and my guess is that for a lot of the students, 17 (or maybe something less) will be the total number of their post count for quite some time. Some of the students only posted because it was an assignment. Now that the semester's done and the assignment due, the posting will stop. The motivation is gone.

Others will continue to post because they found motivation beyond the assignment. Maybe they've had something to say and blogging has helped them find their voice. Maybe, in writing out their thoughts and daring to share them, they've found a message worth repeating - and will continue to do so. Or maybe, they've been drawn in to a community of readers and writers who are enriching each other in the sharing of stories and struggles.

This has me thinking about 2 things: the church & my work.

First, the church: What is sufficient motivation for being a part of the church? Many people start "going to church" (a stupid phrase I wish I could strike from the contemporary lexicon and for which I will now loathe myself for using) motivated by curiosity, or nostalgia, or guilt. But are those motivators sufficient to sustain life as a disciple? What happens when the curiosity is satisfied? What happens when nostalgia is laid bare and revealed to be a self-centered longing for something that never really was?

Now, guilt I'll admit has some staying power. I'd guess there are many churches that subtly use the pressure of guilt and shame to subjugate attendants into weekly (or at least bi-weekly as long as you don't forget your offering) compliance. But that is not the same as truly being the church, so eventually the callouses born of constant guilt shield the heart from the true surrender upon which church belonging is really predicated.

Sometimes, I see kids grow up attending church functions only to walk away when life gets filled with places to drive, jobs to work, and colleges to visit/attend. Why do they leave? Despite "growing up in the church," they never found the real motivation for sticking around. So sadly, when finals are done, their posts are abandoned.

Which brings me to #2 - my work. I can struggle with losing the motivation deep enough to sustain me in the work I have to do. When my vision strays from Who brought me to this life and why, I become frustrated with so many distractions and lesser motivations.
The drive to fix what's broken...
The hope to show kids that church doesn't have to suck...
The attempt to give kids something better to do...
The desire to attract that one special kid into the group...
The longing to be remembered for something worthwhile...

Some of these are good - but not enough.

What motivates you? Will it be enough?

Sticks & Chisels 4.4

2011-05-03T09:08:00.000-06:00

This weekend, a couple van loads of WestWay students went to Cheyenne for a weekend focused on the Word - the emphasis was great and fits perfectly into the recent and upcoming flow of our student ministry. More and more lately, we're sensing God's challenge to dig deeply into the Bible and learn to recognize His voice there.

Weekend trips like that are almost always fruitful in developing relationships and intently focusing on spiritual development. But one aspect of these trips that always leaves me tired is this crazy thing that happens when you get to your housing assignment, throw down the sleeping bags, & turn off the lights on a room full of young guys: I'm still suffering the effects of a weekend of sleep deprivation!

This weekend I watched one Red Bull imbibing kid do everything possible to annoy another one, who returned the favor, another kid watch intently, while a fourth kid played with the dogs, another laughed at the whole thing (when he wasn't crying about the death of his cell phone battery), and a sixth (the youngest of the bunch) actually slept through the whole thing. Flickers of wrestling broke out, rolled up sleeping bags and small pieces of candy became projectiles, and an aging youth minister had to wrestle the ringleader of the mayhem into submission. Literally - I reversed a hold and got the kid to tap out! (To be fair though, he killed me last time we wrestled.)

This all happened (fairly quietly, I hope) in a living room way past bedtime. Which has me thinking about sleep. I watched several of these guys intently texting way past late. The kid who's battery was dying was frantic about the loss of his phone and several were obsessively compelled to check messages as soon as their eyelids fluttered open in the morning. And that part of the night was normal for them - they lose sleep to their phones, computers, and xboxes nearly every night.

Then this morning, I came across this:

Better grades. Better attendance. Fewer car accidents. Just because they've slept another hour or so...

I love the technology available today as much as the next guy. But don't let it run your life guys. Turn stuff off and go to bed.

10ST - Bad Location

2011-04-26T11:25:00.000-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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The 6th Stupid Thing that Surratt suggests will keep churches from growing is clinging to a bad location. He has some great examples of how location has hindered the growth of several churches he's known. A location that's difficult to find or located far from where the people of the church and those they're seeking to reach actually live can be a huge obstacle for a church to overcome. Inadequate, shoddy facilities, or even those that are simply not designed for the ministry the church wants to do can keep the church from moving forward.

The problem for most youth ministries is that we'll have very little input on location and facilities issues. If you're in a new church or a recently relocated church this may not be the case, but most of us haven't had much of a say in deciding our address. To make matters worse, this is a pretty complicated issue AND an emotional one. People get emotionally attached to buildings.

Currently, our church meets in what was once a lumber yard. The congregation was out of space in their building in one of the older neighborhoods in town, so they bought the lumber yard and began renovation. As growth continued over they years, the renovated showroom became less than adequate, so they built a larger auditorium which was finished about 6 years ago. The facilities themselves are good. We have plenty of room to grow and for the most part, the building space is very usable and flexible. But our location is not nearly as good.

We're in a fairly small town, so this isn't as huge an issue as it could be, but our location is out on the edge of town on the far side of a farm field behind a couple big box stores. Our "neighbors" are a beer distributor, an old bean elevator, some storage units, a furniture store, and an RV dealer. In my opinion, this is not a prime location - especially for youth ministry to kids who'd have to walk past all that to get here any time their parents can't bring them. I almost never have kids just drop by. But, it is what it is... we are here, not there, so what can we do to overcome the location? What can you do to overcome what may be a location obstacle?

Maximize what we've got. Because the new auditorium hosts most of the congregational activities, we've been able to reclaim the old one primarily for youth and children's ministry. We're working toward making this a great space for facilitating connections with students & with God.
Shift our thinking away from our facility. The church is not your building. When our student ministries are limited to what happens at our location, no matter how great that location & facility may be, we're missing an important component of student ministry. How are we training youth leaders to do youth ministry outside of the weekly event? Where else could we hang out with students for discipleship?
Establish outposts. Your church may be in a position to establish some kind of youth ministry center outside of your existing facilities (hopefully located within walking distance for most students)... Maybe you could partner with a few churches to establish a youth center... Check out what my friend Mike is doing in Norton, KS or The Bridge in Joplin, MO for a couple examples (but beware: the next stupid thing is "copying another successful" ministry).

How are you and your youth ministry challenged by your facilities? How are you responding?

5 Ways to Keep Easter Visitors from Returning

2011-04-21T15:12:00.001-06:00

I remember walking around at a football game once because I couldn't find a place to sit. You can't just shoehorn your butt between people you don't really know, so I scanned the stands for familiar faces. I thought I'd just walk across the front of the bleachers, sneaking surreptitious glances into the crowd, but it was no use. I couldn't find anyone except a kid in the band and there was no way I was sitting in the middle of the tuba section.

So I went to the snack stand, hoping to see someone on the way. No luck. So, popcorn and Mt. Dew in hand, I headed back and walked the gauntlet in the opposite direction. Still nothing. After a couple more trips, I was desperate: I offered a few M & M's to some kid if he'd pretend to know me and sit with me, but some lady came and pulled him away really quickly. I think he'd forgotten to do his homework before the game or something and was in really big trouble.

It's awkward to be part of a crowd and still feel out of place. Like a platypus in a gym full of penguins... what exactly am I supposed to do? How should I stand? What do I do with my hands? Wait, I'm a platypus, why do I have hands? Since Easter is here, attendance at weekend church services will swell across the country. "Regular seats" will be taken, parking lots will be full, and awkward moments will be plentiful. In order to isolate the uneasiness to just this 1 week (or maybe two if Christmas isn't on a Sunday), I offer these suggestions to ensure the guests who take our seats and park in our spaces won't be back next week:

Take the good seats. Regular attenders have a huge advantage here: You know exactly when the service starts. That means you can get there early and take the seats in the back. Church isn't like a football game or a play or something. You want the back rows - the outside chair in the back rows if you're really going for the ultimate in church chair positioning dominance. When they show up late and have to make the walk of Sunday tardiness shame to the front rows... it just sets the tone for a morning of stifling awkwardness that will make your church the last place they ever want to be again. What if some visitor actually shows up early enough to get a good seat? Just tell them that's your regular seat and stare at them blankly until they move. They won't be back anytime soon.
Holy Kiss. "Excuse me, sir... Paul ("He was an Apostle, you know.") instructs us in 4 different Epistles ("That's how we say 'letters' here.") to greet each other with a Holy Kiss. Here, I'll show you..." When he pulls away, he's still left his wife and kids vulnerable to the incredibly awkward bear hug, which isn't really as biblical, but still very effective. Enough said - they'll be back when the platypus flies with the penguins.
Beg for volunteers. Hey, let's face it, your church has a lot of work to do. And this weekend, you'll have lots of people there who aren't really pulling their fair share of the load. Easter weekend is a great time to lay on the guilt and recruit some new Sunday School teachers. Other positions of service you may want to load up on this weekend are groundskeepers, bulletin stuffers, and nursery workers. Nothing says "Don't come back." like the threat of diaper duty and formula "splatter".
Make sure the music and the message are the same as last year. We only have one message right? Jesus is alive! Make sure to say that in the same way it was said last year and every other year before that. All these new people won't know the songs, either, so make sure you sing the ones that have been sung every Easter since Moses came down from the mountain. That way, it's all familiar to them and they won't feel so out of place, but they'll be bored and think that's all we do every week. It's kind of an emotionally confusing mixed message. Just to be safe, think beyond the music and message, and don't do anything unexpected that they may find compelling. Be as churchy and boring as they think you are.
"He is Risen..." Ah, the traditional Easter greeting. If you want to make sure those Easter visitors don't get too engaged, walk right up to them, look them in the eye (blankly works best), and say "He is risen." To the uninitiated, this is the most awkward way to say Hello since the Eskimos discovered language. They don't know how to respond. Just be careful when approaching a group of visitors with the greeting. There's a good chance that one of them knows the jig, probably the matron of the group who's forced the rest of them to come by withholding ham and au gratin until after the service, and she'll answer with the customary "He is risen, indeed!" Look for fidgety eyes, not quite trimmed mustaches, and other signs of anxiety - then greet that guy. He won't know what to say.

Alternatively, you could relax a little bit and...

Treat your visitors as honored guests, being truly grateful that they're with you to celebrate what's most important to you.
Explain what you're doing during the service, and why.
Above all of that, live a life that is evidence that Jesus really is alive. Let them see Him in you, and learn to explain the hope that you have when they notice it.

Sticks & Chisels 4.3

2011-04-19T13:56:00.001-06:00

The following clip comes from a messaged titled The Cost of Discipleship from Mark Driscoll out at Mars Hill in Seattle. I found the message link as I was looking at their FAQ page for the Mars Hill Internship, which I was looking at after reading this article from Mars Hill intern, Ross Lester. The whole message is a good one for the church to hear, but this clip in particular sums it up for me. Don't quit following Jesus.

Remember when you first decided to become a disciple of Jesus? You probably felt there was nothing you wouldn't do for Him. But maybe the years have lulled you into something other than discipleship, something much more comfortable and much less costly. Ask yourself what price you're paying for your discipleship right now. If the price is low, you may be buying stock in some kingdom other than Jesus'.

As Easter approaches, take some time to evaluate what you're really following in your life. Are you still answering His invitation to come and die? Is there a price you've ceased being willing to pay?

10ST - Promoting Talent Over Integrity

2011-04-18T14:21:00.000-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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Marking the mid-point of our excursion through 10 Stupid Things is the promotion of talent before the reinforcement of integrity. Short version: if you make a habit of ignoring character flaws in the people you're working with, you'll cripple your ministry.

In youth ministry, this is every bit as dangerous as it is in the rest of the church. It's so easy to put that shining star student out front in some leadership capacity without critically thinking about where they're at spiritually. It's easy to ignore the evidence of serious issues when we don't want to believe that evidence. But we may be short circuiting God's refinement and reconciliation process when we do so. And we're certainly playing with a fire that will cause a lot of damage when the lack of integrity makes itself publicly visible. (It always does.)

At this point, I want to back up a little bit and address the issue of growing a youth ministry. We've been talking about things we do that may keep our ministries from growing, but this issue of integrity brings up the fact that there are some things that we could do that would actually grow our group numerically that are still, in fact... stupid. One of those is the subtle misuse of talented students. We know that there are certain kids that, when they're put out front, will draw in other students. Even if the lack of integrity induced train-wreck never happens to derail the involvement of our super-student and his groupies, we need to be careful to not use our students for our own gain and ego strokes.

Some of the most important aspects of youth ministry are helping students discover how they can contribute to the kingdom, working with them to make the most of their abilities, and crafting moments of opportunity for them to put their gifts to use. But when our focus subtly shifts from equipping them for God's work to getting their friends 'hooked' into our ministry, we are on dangerous ground. Youth ministry is not a place for an ego that needs bolstered by a bunch of teens that we treat as the players in "our" show.

Here are a few questions to ponder when asking your kids to step up to the "microphone" (or some other leadership capacity):

Is promoting this student into this leadership role going to help her grow, or just help me get more kids to report on an attendance list? Don't take the short cut to growing your group. Plain and simple: it's a type of exploitation that has no place in your ministry.
Does he have the kind of character I'd want my own sons to develop? Someone is always watching and modeling themselves after your leading students. Are they finding character worth emulating?
Is the talent I'm asking him to employ more important to the student than Jesus is? An all consuming ability can easily morph itself into an idol - and the most insidious idols are those that are hidden in the garb of church work.

How do you personally make sure you're not exploiting the students in your ministry?

Sticks & Chisels 4.2

2011-04-14T13:38:00.000-06:00

I came across an interesting study today dealing with the use of and attitudes held toward social media by college students. The study was originally done in a class of a couple hundred students at the University of Maryland, but was subsequently undertaken by a dozen different universities throughout the world. About a thousand students in Uganda, Chile, the UK, the US, China, Lebanon, Argentina, Mexico, Slovakia, and Hong Kong participated in a 24-hour assignment in which they used no media: no phones, no newspapers, no video games, no tv, no internet, no iPads... you get the picture. These students unplugged.

While the scope of the study isn't really broad enough to say this represents all young people, it's interesting to read their responses. Technology is everywhere and media is consumed in nearly every moment of many lives. Some students enjoyed the break, but many recognized what they called their addiction to media.

There CAN be too much of a good thing. A recent Fuller Youth Institute article talked about a report in Pediatrics (the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics) about the use and effects of social media on children and adolescents (and their families). In addition to the benefits of social media use, the report highlights a number of new problems that are coming up like online harassment, "facebook depression", sexting, & what amounts to manipulation via targeted ads.

All this should simply serve as a reminder. We shouldn't just blindly buy into whatever is next in the social media/technology world. Think about what we're doing and the patterns we're setting. What kind of mess are we making when we thoughtlessly plug in to whatever comes next?

10ST - Settling for Low Quality Children's Ministry

2011-04-13T11:36:00.001-06:00

10ST is an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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Chapter 4 of 10 Stupid Things handles the topic of children's ministry. I think that a church who is willing to settle for a mediocre children's ministry is wasting one of the best opportunities it will ever have to shape lives. If the children's ministry is essentially babysitting church kids so the adults can have 'big church' without all the fuss and noise - then 'big church' has largely missed the point. I know that there are very few who would actually SAY they want their children's ministry to just keep the kids out of what's left of the adults' hair (though I have met several) but there are many more who functionally treat their children's ministries this way.

From a youth ministry perspective, we need to be invested in our children's ministry as well. In many churches, one person oversees both sets of ages, so this may seems automatic - but it's not. This was the case for me early in my ministry. I'm way more comfortable with a group of teens than with a class of 7 year olds, and I often found myself so focused on the older kids that I had little left to offer the children's ministry. Thankfully, there was a great team of dedicated children's workers who could help lead the lollipop guild much more skillfully than I.

I don't want to imply that the children's ministry is some kind of farm team or feeder system for the youth ministry, but it is a great place to build a platform from which you'll later be launching young disciples into their own life-ministries. If you lead a student ministry, many of your students will be 'graduates' of the children's ministry, where they've been trained up and have come to a certain set of expectations of what church is like and should be. What if you're not on the same page?

A couple years ago, we noticed that our 7th Graders were having a tough time transitioning from our children's ministry to our youth ministry. There was too big of a difference in what was expected and what was happening, so we shifted our practice with the 5th & 6th Graders to be something of an intermediate shift. We've even allowed the 6th Graders to move between the two groups as they wish. This has really seemed to ease the transition and make the most of the challenge we want to bring to our kids.

Surratt leaned on his wife's extensive experience with children for this chapter to arrive at 4 lessons to which we in youth ministry really need to pay attention:

Build a strong team. Don't hog all the great volunteers for the youth ministry and treat the children's ministry team as a lower tier. Find people who genuinely care about kids and give them whatever tools they need to help communicate God's love to those kids. If you're the youth minister in a church that also has a children's minister, work together to maximize each other's ministries.
Work purposefully, creatively, and with excellence. Don't cut corners and be cheap because they're "just kids".
Find out what parents think. They ask their kids every week, "Did you have fun?" and "What did you do?" when they pick them up. Make sure the kids have a great way to answer those questions.
Listen to the expectations of local families. If they're dropping kids off at high quality day cares and well funded schools, then they show up to a nursery full of half broken toys from 1984, that's not going to make the impression that should be made.

How do you see your youth ministries and children's ministries being integrated and capitalizing on each other's work?

Three Reasons to Prioritize the Youth You Know

2011-04-12T14:30:00.002-06:00

I found this video last week on Compassion's blog giving some great reasons to make youth a priority. This was from their chapel service a while back. It reminded me of Wess Stafford's message at Catalyst West last year. Compassion is an organization that prioritizes youth like few ever will, but this was a challenge for the employees (I'm assuming that's mostly who was in attendance) to do so in their individual lives as well, and for the church to move beyond merely entertaining kids to equipping them to be disciple makers.

Lenz shares some amazingly painful statistics that reveal the need to prioritize youth. I'll leave you to hear for yourself in the video, but here's the bottom line:

2 out of 3 people who accept Christ, do so before they're 18. Where would our resources make the most impact?
The enemy is attacking children. Who will defend them?
It's the heart of Jesus to love children. "...it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" than to hinder the young from knowing Him.

How are the youth in your life doing? How are they being equipped? How are you helping?

Stop Procrastinating. Just Start.

2011-04-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

A few months ago, my 4Runner died. I had gone into a store, and when I came out and turned the key, just a bunch of clicking... no life. It was pretty obvious that the starter was the problem, so we got it parked in the driveway with the intention of getting to work on it when it warmed up a bit. A few warm days came here and there, but still the 4Runner sat, pathetically mocking me every time I passed by.

You see, I had a problem on top of my car problem. I knew what the car problem was, and I knew roughly what needed to be done to fix it: Take bad starter out, put good starter in. So simple, right? But I've been dreading doing it for a few reasons.

I didn't know exactly where the starter on my old 4Runner was. I knew what it was supposed to do, and roughly where it should be, but not exactly where or the best way to reach it, so I knew I'd have to do a lot of hunting before being able to make any progress.
The engine compartment of my 4Runner is a mess. 20 years of small leaks and dusty places have added up to be a thick black layer of sludge covering basically everything. It's hard to tell where one part stops and another starts! (Plus, grimy, greasy hands... I have issues.)
I'd read several horror stories of other 4Runner owners taking of entire suspension packages just to be able to reach their starter, then discovering the starter wasn't actually the whole problem anyway. Maybe it was the wiring, or a relay somewhere. I didn't want to do a ton of work to find out the problem wasn't really what I thought it was.

So, the 4Runner sat until yesterday at lunch. I finally decided to stop putting it off and start digging in to the mess of parts and pieces by taking off the wheel. Once the wheel was off, I took off a guard panel inside the wheel well to open up some more space and get a clear(er) view of where the starter was supposed to be. As I began to peak in and poke around a little bit, I noticed something strange - a bolt just hanging from it's perch in the engine block. Surely that should be tightened to something!?

Turns out, it was one of two bolts that holds the starter in place! The starter was just laying there, not bolted in - I have no idea how that can even happen, but I guess after almost 180,000 miles, a two inch bolt CAN revolve enough to fall out! Fortunately, the bolt was still hanging there, so I lifted the starter a bit and wedged my hands into enough space to tighten the bolt.

After some extra juice via some jumper cables, it started right up. A project I'd been dreading because it seemed beyond the scope of my mechanical acumen (which is rather limited, I'm told) turned out to be easily remedied. I just had to dig in... I just had to START to find that out.

I wonder how often we miss simple solutions because we're afraid to start.

Is there a tough question you've been afraid to ask?

Is there a hard conversation you've been putting off?

A potential conflict you've been avoiding?

A big project you just aren't finding time for?

Get some help and START.

You just might find it's not as difficult as you thought (and even if it is, you'll be one step closer to resolution).

Watch Your Step

2011-04-07T09:14:00.002-06:00

Found this link over at churchcreate. This place looks awesome... I need to visit Los Angeles again, soon. I'll probably have to take my brother if he sees this though!

Sticks & Chisels 4.1

2011-04-06T11:35:00.001-06:00

This is a recent shot at a map of stats from this blog. Notice anything unusual? Oui, that! Over a thousand pageviews from France in the past month! (Which is about a thousand pageviews more than in the rest of this blog's history.) "Hi, France." I don't know why there's been a sudden surge in French interest (the only French people I know live in Omaha & Lincoln), and to be honest, I suspect it's only some kind of exaggerated glitch in the stats reporting... but it reminds me, and you, that the reach of your message doesn't have to be limited to your local boundaries.

When I first started blogging, I didn't set out to build a worldwide following (not that I would say that's happened anyway). I just felt like I had a message to share, and blogging opened up the potential for me to do that with a whole new group of people. I have had interactions, both online and face to face, with new friends from far off and exciting places like L.A., Canada, China (where apparently my blog was banned at one time), and Intercourse, PA... because of windows opened in the blogging world.

I'm not out to be an international blogging sensation. Fame doesn't really interest me as a whole. Maybe I'm lying there, but even if you're a famous blogger, you're still viewed as some crackpot blogger. Even other bloggers downplay the significance of bloggers. But blogging has helped me share thoughts and encouragement with other people that I'd never have connected with otherwise. It's extended my reach.

Do you have something to say? Maybe a blog would help you say it (but if you spell like the blind chimpanzee in my last post, maybe not). Maybe you already have a blog, but it mostly sits idle. If that's the case, ask yourself why you started blogging in the first place. Go back and read a few of your very first posts and be reminded. Maybe you need to re-boot your blog. Maybe you need to scrap it and start over. Maybe you just need to write again. (Check out BlogRocket for some great new resourcing/encouragement for your blogging adventure.)

10ST - 2nd Rate Worship Experiences

2011-04-05T14:00:00.000-06:00

10ST will be an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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This chapter, the third, had 10 practical suggestions for "improving your weekend experience." While, Surratt's suggestions focus on the Sunday morning worship time, I think there is a lot to glean about the role worship plays in a growing student ministry. As a youth pastor, you may or may not have a whole lot of influence on what happens from one Sunday morning to the next, but applying a few of those suggestions where you do have influence could be critical to your ministry's health:

Ask the hard questions. What exactly are we trying to accomplish?
See the guest's perspective. What's it like for a new kid to walk in to your ministry?
Improve your music. (see below for more thoughts regarding this issue)
Update your technology. You don't have to rob a bank to get the latest and greatest, but if your sound system (or lighting, computers, projectors, etc.) limps along like the Frankenstein that it is... find a way to make improvements. Don't be stupid about spending, but don't just settle for the crappy old equipment that's no longer good enough for the adults to use anymore. Set your priorities, decide on a budget, and do what you can to sharpen your tech-tools.
Overhaul your preaching. Call it teaching, leading discussions, facilitating... whatever. The method you use to communicate the truth God reveals to you... get better at it. Always.
Get creative. As Surratt says, "Americans don't do boring." Enlist the help of a team of your students to creatively approach topics, passages, messages, etc. in your youth ministry. Why be lazy and just rinse & repeat?
Create an atmosphere. What can you do to make your place of meeting, a place where students want to be? (Ask them, they'll tell you...)

Within my first week of being full time on a church staff, I recognized a problem that I knew I'd have to address quickly: my students were not engaging in worship when the church met together on Sunday mornings. They were mostly quiet and polite, but they were enduring a service, not worshiping the Savior. Recognizing this problem was one thing, finding a solution was another.

I had quit piano lessons in second grade and read music about as fast as an average chimpanzee reads braille. I could sing, but how many middle school kids do you know that are just begging for some more a capella sing a longs? I had received a guitar for Christmas my senior year of college and had practiced enough that I could play along with any song that restricted itself to the 5 chords I actually could manage. (That guitar warped and was generously replaced by friends at the church we attended in Loveland, CO even though they knew we were leaving for my first ministry and had no responsibility or obligation to me or my guitar - an investment in the Kingdom for which I'll always be grateful!) But whenever I tried to sing and play at the same time - everything fell apart.

This was a huge problem. I knew that I needed to lead my students to worship their Maker and genuinely engage with Him together. I also knew that music was going to be a big part of facilitating encounters between the two. But I couldn't lead music, and I didn't know anyone else well enough to know who might be able to engage our students and God musically, either. I have a decent internal metronome (I keep it next to my compass), but the coordination was just not there to control my vocal chords, my left hand, & my right hand all at the same time. So I quit.

I quit trying to control myself musically and asked my Father for another gift. I don't have a lot of supernatural provision type of stories in my life, but this is one. I remember putting down my guitar after a frustrating couple hours of trying to sing and play at the same time and telling God I was failing (He wasn't surprised). "I can't do this - would you coordinate my fingers and voice, or do I need to find another way?" After a few moments of depression at not being able to do what I was convinced needed to be done, I picked my guitar back up. I have no other explanation for what happened than that God fixed whatever was dysfunctional in my timing, I sang & played simultaneously to lead music for worship with my students, then I held on for an amazing ride in which God re-engaged the young people in that church to worship Him not only with a few songs each week, but with their lives.

The music wasn't always great, but it was better. When we bought a trap set (another great story for another day), it improved even more... When we stopped hiding the trap set, God provided a great drummer to take turns and spur on a proficient drummer... Then a few kids started coming who were really good lead guitar players... Then more... Someone wondered why the kids got all the cool music, "Those drums are up there, someone should play them on Sundays, too..."

My students happily (though sometimes cautiously and even fearfully) obliged. Not only were my students engaging in worship, they were using their gifts to help others engage as well. It was so awesome to be able to see God work the way He did. When it comes to worship, don't cut corners.

10ST - Misappropriating Your Family

2011-04-04T11:02:00.001-06:00

10ST will be an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.

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This summer, for the first time, my oldest daughter will be a student at a week of camp that I'm leading. She'll be hanging out with our Middle School and High School group a lot more. (I'm suddenly rethinking our "6th graders as dual citizens of children's and youth ministry" approach... maybe I can just let Joe keep them all to himself for one more year!) It seems a little strange to me that I will have a child within the primary age group that I've been working with for the last decade plus. Like a penguin that realizes that egg on my feet just hatched and now I have to teach it something... ok, it's not really like that at all, but I thought this post could use a penguin in it.

The second chapter of Geoff Surratt's 10 Stupid Things is about establishing the wrong role for the pastor's family.
He explores the various ways that ministry can tax the pastor's spouse and children - and even wreck both the pastor's family and his ministry. As I think about Emily being part of our middle school ministry group, I've been thinking a lot about the roles I've asked my family to fill as the youth minister's family.

One key to overcoming this stupid thing, according to Surratt is to not allow "my ministry" to swallow up "my family." Let your family be who they are. My wife is not my automatic super-volunteer whenever I need something done in the student ministry. She's amazing with kids who still drool and chew on furniture, so that is a primary area of service for her. We'd have huge problems if I said, "No, no, I'm the youth minister, so get out of the nursery and come hang out with the Jr. High kids for a couple hours every week. She is awesome with other young mothers and their babies, so it would be incredibly stupid of me to steer her away from that.

As strange as it seems to be at this point, I'm actually excited to have my own kids in the trenches of youth ministry with me... like take your child to work day every day! But I know I'll need to be careful about the expectations I place on them. (I'll also probably have to stop telling so many stories about them!)

The bottom line is this - your family is a gift and it is gifted. When we force those gifts to be shelved in deference to some youth ministry protocol or outside expectations - no one wins. Our families begin to resent our ministries, we become more and more torn between both, and God receives less than what He deserves.

In addition to helping our families maximize their gifts for their ministry (as opposed to forcing them to take a backseat in ours) we need to make sure our ministry doesn't take precedence over our family. I have to admit to letting my priorities skew from time to time, but my family is my first ministry. Andy Stanley explores the management of this tension between ministry and family really well in Choosing to Cheat. Another resource that LuAnn has found really helpful is Leading and Loving It from Laurie Wilhite. Laurie is the wife of Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas and she's put together a team for "connecting, encouraging, & equipping pastor's wives and women in ministry." Really good stuff.

10ST - Doing It All

2011-04-01T16:07:00.001-06:00

10ST will be an ongoing series digging into Geoff Surratt's Ten Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing and how those stupid things keep youth ministries from growing as well.
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Surratt starts off with what may be the most common of all the stupid things that keep churches from growing: the pastor trying to do it all. Just to be clear, it's not the pastor himself who is the stupid thing, but rather the action of trying to do it all that's the stupid thing... well, usually at least. For a variety of reasons, many pastors are compelled to do way more than what is healthy, both for themselves and for the churches they serve. It didn't take long in ministry for me to get a harsh introduction to this stupid thing.

Less than two years into my first ministry, just when I had the perfect rhythm to youth ministry figured out (right!), the long time pastor of the church (and really of the whole small community) retired. After 38 years of ministry in that place, he needed (and deserved) a change of pace. In the first meeting with the elders after his retirement, we were talking about how to go about searching for a new pastor and what to do in the meantime. As a bunch of great guys who hadn't placed a 'pastor wanted' ad for almost 40 years, there were a lot of questions and a lot of decisions to be made.

One glaring query that demanded an immediate answer was, "Who's going to be doing the preaching until we hire a new pastor?" With all the wisdom and savvy inherent in the sum of a public school education, a Bible college degree, and next to zero experience, I wondered (out loud), "Have you guys considered just taking turns preaching? Each of you elders could preach one week for the next couple months while we search and..." I don't remember how I finished the thought, but it doesn't matter anyway - the sound of their laughing drowned out whatever else I said.

So as an alternative, I offered to dig into the vast reserves of my Biblical expositionary wells and preach until someone was hired. It's only a couple months, right, how hard could it be? With a few exceptions for guest speakers from NCC and tryouts by a couple hopeful applicants, I ended up preaching each week for the next 70 weeks or so. In addition to my regular youth minister duties, with almost two whole years of experience, I was allowed to speak to the whole congregation every week!

I'll be completely honest and tell you... I loved it.

Planning and leading worship most Sundays that went hand in hand with the messages I'd prepared with my own two wits (I had two back then), teaching youth and leading worship with them on Wednesday nights, teaching a Sunday school class, participating in small group... all while being the high school girls soccer coach. Did I mention that for about half that time, there was no church secretary... and we put out a weekly newsletter in addition to the Sunday bulletin.

As I look at the to-do list now, my stupidity is almost overwhelming, but in the moment, it was a rush! I was being productive and it felt good. And in all honesty, I think the time was good for the congregation as well. They heard stories every week about how awesome their students were and how God was working in the young lives they'd been praying for. They began to see youth and youth ministry a little differently. It was good.

But it was not sustainable. The grace of God is sufficient to fuel every move of God, and He was moving, but I was doing way too much. The results of carrying that load long term would have been disastrous for me, for my students, and for the church.

Today, I still struggle with the 'do it all' mentality. I am terrible at asking for help... I feel like I'm imposing, asking someone to do what I should be doing. I still have a long way to go, in practice, but I'm learning, by God's grace, that it's better all the way around when I don't do it all. Youth pastors, we need to stop robbing the church of her ministry by doing it all for her. (Check out Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries for more on how a church can build it's ministry to students.)

Students need to see themselves as vital contributors to the church's ministry to the youth of their community, not just spectators & consumers.
Families need to be networked into webs of influence for the benefit of each other's kids.
Students need adults in addition to their parents who will love and mentor them.
Students need to have a safe place to learn new ministry skills and try them out without the burdening expectation of perfection.

None of these occur when I plan everything, when I drive everything, when I make every meaningful decision for the student ministry. If you're making all the decisions for your youth ministry, picking all the songs, running all the games, teaching all the lessons... I know it may feel good for a time, your ego will be stroked greatly if you keep all the plates spinning well, but it will kill the growth of your ministry (not to mention the negative impact on your own growth and the welfare of your family).

Don't do it all.
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That got a bit long, didn't it?! Sorry... I'll try not to make each post as long as the 10 Stupid Things chapters themselves!

10 Stupid Things

2011-03-30T17:55:00.000-06:00

I started reading Geoff Surrat's book 10 Stupid Things that Keep Churches from Growing yesterday. I'm only at the first stupid thing, but already see a lot of wisdom in what he's saying. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to pull out the concepts of each chapter and reframe them a little bit to talk about some stupid things that keep youth ministries from growing. I'll use his 10 things in subsequent posts, because the same stupid things that stifle a church will also cripple a youth ministry.

In twelve years of youth ministry, I've been through some times of great growth. Students stepping out of the familiar, new kids catching a glimpse of God, students reaching out to their friends and the outcasts, serving with a genuine love... It is truly amazing to see what God can do with a handful of kids learning to recognize, willing to listen, and excited to obey His Voice. I've also been through times when the only growth happening was merely the physical consequence of adolescence and good nutrition. Few students engaged, very little actual ministry happening, no one really interested in what God might want to do, "Why aren't we playing dodgeball?"...

While it definitely is God who is at work in any flourishing ministry, and He can certainly overcome any obstacle we may present, there are some stupid things we do that keep us from experiencing the kind of growth He could catalyze. I look forward to digging through the book and talking with you about some of the stupid things that keep youth ministries from growing.
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What's the stupidest thing you've seen in student ministries? (Go ahead... hit me!)

Sticks & Chisels 3.4

2011-03-30T11:45:00.000-06:00

(Continuing thoughts regarding the use of media in ministry)

...First and foremost, the media ministry must always keep in mind that their function is to enhance the church's communication (internal, as well as external).

Anchored in that mentality, it’s best for a church to make use of every technology it can effectively manage. This will depend on a number of factors, like church size, location, and budget, and the personal expertise of the media ministry team. There’s little argument about the use of older technologies. Who would oppose the use of print in the church, or electricity? When it comes to adapting newer technologies, however, there is sometimes resistance to what can be seen as unnecessary innovation. The keepers of the status quo may even feel threatened by proponents of technology and media that they don’t understand. Balance is important here. We don’t have to always chase the latest and greatest, but we should certainly be aware of the pulse and pace of technology’s current advance. Imagine a preacher who carved out his messages with sticks and chisels. He’d be seen as a relic and much of his message, no matter how good it is, may be lost to the perception of irrelevance.

Which leads into my final assertion regarding media ministry. More important than any technology we use or don’t use is this fact: we are the media. We are the media that God is using to reveal Himself to the world. God has a message He wants to deliver, and He wants to do so through our lives. If a certain media technology enhances our ability to be used by God to communicate His love and ours, then we should take hold of that tool and put it to use. But we are by no means obligated to use any particular media just because it is there. And we should be careful to craft our use of any media technology to minimize our separation from the intended recipients of His message.

Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. -Paul

Stop Motion Fun with Cans

2011-03-29T16:23:00.011-06:00

Recently, we had a sweet Cloverton concert with Delusions of Pluto. The cost of admission was 3 cans of food, which are going to a local food pantry led by Panhandle Love In Action. As the pile of cans grew before the concert, I thought "It would have been cool to have set up a stop motion video of the counter as the cans were collected." Good thought... too late.

But, last Thursday morning, I stole my wife's camera, set it up on a tripod, and dumped out a box of cans to play. (Is it ever ok to play with someone else's food?) I've never done a stop motion video before... just thought it would be fun. It was. I learned a few things though:

Fewer moving parts would have been a good idea!
More pictures = better.
Small movements make for less stop, more motion.
Stop motion takes a lot of time.

It's fun to experiment, and just so I don't keep all the fun for myself, here is my first jerky jump into the stop motion world. Also debuting is the compositional skill of my soon to be 9 year old son, Dakota. He's been messing around with Pattern Music on my iPad and I used something he composed for some background music (based on his recent obsession with Phineas & Ferb). I'm much more impressed with the results of his technological experimentation than with my own!

Can We Go Out To Play? from Mike Andrews on Vimeo.

Sticks & Chisels 3.3

2011-03-28T16:13:00.001-06:00

We're closing out a missions emphasis period here at WestWay and had a guest speaker yesterday. Dave Robinson is a Bible College professor, an elder here at the church, one of my lifelong friend's dad, & my wife's uncle. More to the point, he's also very passionate about missions, having given several years of his life to translating Scripture for the Mbore speaking people of PNG (and many others to helping English speakers understand the Word as well). During Dave's sermon yesterday here at WestWay, he mentioned how we have to be faithful to the message of Christ AND creative in using every resource at our disposal to communicate that message. His statement reminded me of a paper I wrote a few weeks ago that I had intended to post here. I never got around to posting, but now I will... Here's what I think I think about using media in ministry.
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... And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. -Paul

The church has been entrusted with the greatest message known - that the reconciliatory love of our Maker has been offered to humanity in the atoning death of His own Son, and that the power that affected His resurrection is the same power available to work transformationally in our own lives. By any measure, that is a hugely consequential message to carry to an innumerably vast and diverse audience. Eternal life and death are at stake, so we should make the most of every available resource for the communication of that message. That is the essence of media ministry.

The word, media, is used to talk about a means of communication. Media is simply a conduit for the transference of a message from the giver to the receiver. Media ministry, then is not about the shiny, new toys of technology. It is about the effective communication of Christ. This is a key issue to effectively leading the media ministry of a church. It’s too easy to become so distracted by Dells and pixels that the technology can actually hinder our communications efforts. First and foremost, the media ministry must always keep in mind that their function is to enhance the church’s communication (internal, as well as external).
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I'll post the rest of the paper later this week, but for now:

What are some creative uses of media you've seen?
How are you making the most of the resources available to you to communicate Christ's message?

Guest Post: Young Thoughts About School (or Something)

2011-03-22T18:52:00.001-06:00

Last night, Emily walked through the room while we were watching Waiting For Superman and it caught her attention enough that she stopped and watched. She just asked me to set her up a blog, so I'm going to compromise a little bit and let her do a post here about what she thinks of the movie and school in general:
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My dad left the room so now I'm going to write what I want. On Sunday night I went to a concert by Cloverton and Delusions of Pluto. It was so cool! My friend, Brielle, and I sat on the steps by the stage, right next to the speakers! It was so loud! We had a blast!

Oh-no! Dad is back! Ahh! Bye!

Emily

P.S I did like the movie. You should watch it. But don't tell my dad.

Are You Waiting For Superman?

2011-03-22T14:04:00.001-06:00

Last night, LuAnn and I watched Waiting for Superman. Actually, Emily and Dakota watched most of it as well, even though it's not really a kids' show - they caught a few minutes and were hooked. It's an interesting look at the American education system - what's broken and some of what's working. Statistically speaking, we're falling behind, and the film takes a look at why that may be and what can be done to improve. There are some great examples of schools that are doing better - and some sad stories of the heartbreak for those who can't get in to them.

As I watched, I just kept thinking of how fortunate I have been. My kids have had some great teachers in the past few years. And that's really what it boils down to in Waiting for Superman; we cannot have great schools without great teachers. But our educational system doesn't do enough to foster great teaching... and often sticks rigidly to practices and procedures that inhibit them, instead. In most careers, if you do a good job, that merits a raise, a bonus... some type of recognition. Not so much in teaching. In most careers, if you don't do a good job, you don't keep your job. Again, due largely to the influence of the two major teachers' unions... not so much.

I am thankful for my kids' teachers, and the school systems that have given them enough space to teach well. I'm thankful for my own teachers through the years and the extreme efforts they gave to educate me and my peers. I think of Mrs. Washenfelder. I was a straight A student - but I was skating, and she knew it. She pushed me to do my best, not just settle for better than the next kid. I think of Mr. Staffileno who had a way of pushing into some of the less interested students and engaging us all - no one slept in our Algebra class! I think of Dr. Brown & Dr. McCoy who forced me to dig into ancient texts like I'd never done, and of Mr. Cravatt who drew our youth ministry classes deep into discussions that still echo in much of what I do every day.

I also think of the teacher who refused to give me anything to do. Nearly every Spring afternoon of second grade was spent staring at the back of the kid in front of me - done with my work and not allowed to even read an extra book or two I'd snuck in from home. I think of a Geometry teacher who didn't even care enough to brush his teeth or make eye contact with us - and still doesn't seem to 20 years later. I think of a teacher whose idea of American History consisted of little more than whatever video was easiest to pull of the shelf of the school library.

But this is not some vendetta against what I, or the filmmaker, perceived as a bad teacher. I hope Waiting for Superman will open up more dialogue about how education in our nation can be improved for everyone involved. Check out the website, watch the film, and do something to recognize and help a great teacher you know.

First Car a Benz? Really?

2011-03-21T16:52:00.001-06:00

When I turned 16, I wanted a Toyota 4Runner. I'd be able to go anywhere, get over any obstacle in my way (because there are a lot of those when you live a block and a half from the school), plus they were just cool. I wasn't completely impractical, I told my parents I'd settle for something used - a 1990 would be just right (this was in 1991). Needless to say, I didn't get my 1990 4Runner when I turned 16. I did buy one somewhere around 32, though, and it's still in my driveway... It's not that cool anymore, though.

My students may hate me after this, but... I'll have to live with it. I just came across an odd little article about The 10 Best Used Cars for Teens. It's definitely more of a subjective list than anything based on factual reality. At least the reality of growing up in a home financed by a youth pastor's salary - sorry kids. You can check out the full list here, but here are a few of their suggestions:

2007 Volvo S40
2006 Mercedes Benz C230
2009 Volkswagen Jetta
2010 Hyundai Sonata

I'll spare you the Porsche Boxter reference, or the shoutout to the Mini Cooper... (oops, guess I didn't). It's actually a good list. I'd rather have any of the cars on the list than what I currently drive. The problem I have with the list is this: you don't have to spend $15,000 (the price point used in this article) on a car to keep your kids safe behind the wheel. Maybe I'm just bitter because the combined value of all 3 vehicles in my stable wouldn't touch $15,000... Maybe this bugs me because my first car was a Dodge Colt with a gutless guinea pig barking orders under the hood... (when it got wrecked by my experienced, responsibly driving parents who borrowed it when I was out of town on a church trip, I got upgraded to an Omni... ooohhh).

Honestly, I'm not bitter, I'm just cheap. I don't want any of my students, or my own kids in a few more years, to get hurt driving or hurt someone else. But don't think that just because you bought your kid a "well equipped" Volvo that he's safer than my kid running around in well worn Pinto... ok, maybe the Pinto takes things too far, but you get the point.

Here's what you need to do with this list:

If your child is currently hunting for a vehicle - throw the list away. None of these cars are a good option for a first vehicle - unless you have way more money than brains. You don't need to spend $15,000 to keep your offspring safely behind the wheel. You need to actually teach them to drive. Sorry, that was rude. If you'd like to spend $15,000 dollars on a car for your kid that's none of my business, but don't do it thinking they're going to be more safe. Statistically speaking, my guess is that there's very little relationship between the price of a used car and its relative safety when operated by a new driver.
If your child is in Jr. High - Keep the list. In 3 or 4 years when your child starts driving, go shopping for yourself and save yourself the trade-in headache. Give him your old car (unless you're currently driving a Boxster or something).
If your child is in 1st Grade today, this is a great list. Print out the list of cars and let him hang it up on his wall, right next to his bed. Let him spend the next 9 years dreaming about that fun little Jetta. Let him get a job he can walk to when he's old enough. Teach him how to actually save money, and let him buy himself the car of his dreams when he's 16 - year, make, & model!

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What was your first car? You did survive it, right...

Gone Mobile

2011-03-17T10:14:00.000-06:00

I just enabled a mobile option for the blog here.

Mobilized friends, let me know what you think - and how the blog appears on your device. Thanks.

Things Can Change

2011-03-16T09:13:00.000-06:00

Things can change... but they won't change by themselves. Let's do something...

The Mentoring Project from DTJ on Vimeo.

Sticks & Chisels 3.2

2011-03-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

I've been enjoying the computer/ministry class I've been taking - getting to sharpen some skills that help me use technology for greater impact in my ministry. Over the past couple months, I've found some really good websites and articles outside of class that deal with issues related to ministry & technology. I thought I'd pass on a few links here to share what I've found:

8Bit - This is actually a network of sites led by John Saddington (who shares tons of blogging insight at tentblogger). The sites range in scope from creativity issues to IT tips to membership management systems. My favorites of the 8Bit family would have to be ChurchCrunch & ChurchCreate.

CreationSwap - This site currently lists itself in Beta, but there is already a great stock of images and graphics (many completely free) that I've found useful in ministry. In addition to finding images, there is a good network of artists who can provide feedback on graphics submitted to share.

Would You Recommend Yourself?

2011-03-09T06:11:00.002-07:00

I'm working on a reference form for a student who'll be enrolling in college next year. One of the sections instructs me to do this:

Rate the applicant's potential for success:
   -should be discouraged from going to college
   -below average
   -average
   -above average
   -outstanding

I have to admit, I'm struggling with the question a little bit. Not because of the qualifications of the applicant, but because of the nature of the question itself. What is success? How does the college define success? Who am I to determine whether or not a 17 year old kid has the capacity to achieve what someone else defines as success?

Partially, I'm just bristling a little bit because I've had to fill out other reference forms from another college that are identical to this one. Not 'closely related', not 'asking similar questions', but boiler-plate identical in their wording. Which makes me wonder how much thought is put into the potential freshman information gathering process.

But more than that, I wonder what damage has been done to young people who grew up hearing 'average' applied to their potential... Can you really say, at 17 years old, what someone's potential is? Maybe it's the idealist in me, but I want to say, "limitless". I want to say, "Stop pigeonholing people into the shells you've constructed and let them hatch." I want to say, "Teach them how to put their lives in God's hands and watch Him crush the limits everyone else seems to put on their potential!"

Then I remember that I was just filling out a college reference form that will get glanced at, filed, forgotten, then thrown out in 20 years when the secretary decides it's time to purge... and maybe I'm taking something a little too seriously. Or maybe... just maybe, I really do believe that anything's possible.
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If you had to write a reference form for your 17 year old self, what would it say?

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