1 year. 250 posts. Have you read all of them? Probably not. That’s okay…here’s some of our favorites as we close out the year 2019 with the fabric of what makes the YS Blog so powerful and connective: Youth workers serving youth workers with their best thoughts, ideas, and inspiration to help you do youth work better for students and Jesus.
In no particular order, here’s some of our favorites from the year:
We’re convinced that for a church to grow young, its families need to grow with one another. Growing With encompasses multiple aspects of family relationships, but parents are especially eager for your help in growing with their teenagers’ and young adults’ faith journeys. Here are three Growing With tips to help you support the parents in your ministry.
How do youth workers navigate through the challenges of church + leader wrongs, both personally and professionally? How can they help the young generations of church find a way forward? How can youth workers reach for healing if they themselves wronged or even the wrong-doers? Here’s some drivers and handles to help navigate challenges that come with the conversation about “when we get it wrong” with church and leadership.
Part of development may mean you are interested in exploring possibilities for a new youth worker or ministry position, or even as a graduate from seminary/college and are looking for your first one. Either way, there’s some common themes that run through the practice of exploring and actually getting that new opportunity in ministry.
The things that they’ve always done just aren’t working anymore. At some point, every youth ministry leader experiences that jarring moment when they realize their reliable, go-to program activities are losing effectiveness. That’s when we need to look beyond the limitations of our own vision and think bigger.
We live in a fad filled, trend heavy culture. From fashion to sports, news to influencers, we are always looking for what is #trending. While youth ministry may not have such fleeting trends as Instagram or Twitter, there are still trends that surface and disappear slowly over time. Below, I have compiled a short list of 5 dying trends in youth ministry.
I wonder if “what makes a teenager choose youth group over sports or sports over youth group?” is the wrong question? What if the question were “what makes a youth choose youth group or sports?”
Corralling teenagers can be exhausting, frustrating, and even a little bit exhilarating at times. Honestly, managing a roomful of teenagers is an art. But when you learn to do it well, you’re opening the door to communicating the truth of Scripture clearer and louder than before, cultivating an environment where teenagers want to listen.
As I have moved to a church that is intentionally and unapologetically multi-ethnic, I have been able to lower the double consciousness and be (no pun intended) a bit more comfortable in my own skin. However, occasionally, well- intentioned people will say something they don’t realize is subtly racist or post things on their social media that is racially insensitive towards others who look like me. I think as long as there’s sin in the world, this will be the struggle all ministers of color will deal with.
We had a great year for the YS Blog! We look forward to posting and sharing more life-giving content and ideas for youth workers in 2020! Close the book on 2019 and welcome the new decade with all the excitement being a youth worker in the 21st century can bring!
Does your community know your youth group exists? If you live and serve in Manhattan, we’re not talking about the whole city. In that context, maybe your community only extends as far as the boundaries of your neighborhood. If you live in a small town, then maybe your community consists of everything within the city limits. In any case, does anybody know about your youth group outside of your kids and their parents?
Before you play the, “I don’t care what people think, I only care what God thinks” card, you might want to check out Matthew 16:13, where Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” Apparently, sometimes this kind of question is important. So once again, does your community know about your youth group?
Some of you still might want to push back, asking, “Why is this important?” Again, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16) The point is that you’re probably doing some pretty cool stuff with your ministry. But if the light from your work never escapes from the room where you meet then you’re depriving your community of an opportunity to see God at work. So, a new year is about to start. If your group is invisible to your community, you might want to change things up a bit. Jesus says the Father will be honored. Give it a try and see if He’s right (spoiler alert: He is.)
So how exactly do you do this? Actually, the idea isn’t complicated. You can get some clues as to how to proceed by asking two simple questions: 1) What do the kids in your group do really well? 2) How can you leverage those skills to help people out in the community? Here are some examples:
- Got a bunch of jocks in your group? Have ‘em put on a sports clinic for some grade school kids (maybe some that live below the poverty line) who want to get better at baseball, soccer, etc.
- Got some crazy-good musicians? Do a pop-up concert somewhere. Do a benefit show for a local charity. Give some free music lessons to some of those (maybe impoverished) grade school kids.
- Got some car guys in your group? Organize a day where they do oil changes and minor maintenance for some cars that belong to senior citizens or people who don’t have a lot of cash.
- Got nerds? Computer classes.
- Smart kids? Tutoring.
- Artists? Writers? Foodies? You get the picture. The possibilities are endless.
In addition to this making your invisible youth group visible, it can also have a major impact on the kids doing the serving. Lives could be changed in every direction. God’s very clever in that way. You think you’re doing one thing. He’s using your efforts to do ten things, seven of which you’ll never know about until we’re all trading stories up in heaven some day.
While the above ideas are pretty simple, their implementation may be complicated. So make sure and put your best people on this. If the community is watching, you want things to run smoothly. Also, check with your church’s business manager to make sure everything is properly insured. And finally, think about reaching out to the local media. They could significantly multiply the number of people who hear about what you’re doing.
If all this makes sense to you, get busy! 2020 is almost here. Plan to give your community something to talk about in the New Year. Watch God change some lives in the bargain. It might just be that the first life God changes is yours.
All month long has been the season of anticipation, and as ministry workers, we are certainly anticipating what is to come in the New Year. When looking ahead, we must start with taking inventory of where we have been. Our culture is shifting at a rapid pace, but recent trends and events still help us minister to the next generation.
Here are some trends, stories and ideas for us to reflect on from 2019.
Identity is More Fluid Than Ever
Merriam-Webster recently announced that “they” is the 2019 Word of the Year. The word saw an increase in online searches by 313% compared to 2018. Wherever you stand theologically on the issues of gender, sex and LGBTQ+, the cultural permeation of fluidity in our concept of identity is undeniable. This permeation has been a steady process, highlighted by Facebook announcing a list of options for gender identification with at least 52 options back in 2014. I have seen and heard more requests than I can count regarding how to minister to LGBTQ+ students from ministry workers this year than my last 14 years in ministry combined. How are you handling the reality of these students in your ministry? If you’re not sure, start with this question: “Would these students feel welcome and safe here?”
Games Aren’t the Only Thing Going Virtual
A recent YouGov poll concluded that more than 20% of millennials claim to not have a friend. The most revealing insight might be that among the 31% of Americans who say that making friends is difficult, more than a quarter of them say they “don’t feel like they need friends.” Imagine how much these figures will climb with our current Gen Z youth groups! The alternative of having a friend, however, isn’t necessarily what you might think. The Wall Street Journal published an article this past summer about the upward trend of online relationships, primarily romantic ones (that go way beyond dating websites). Online platonic relationships aren’t automatically bad, but the amount and perceived depth of them can be signs of extreme social anxiety and/or ineptitude. Notice the word perceived, as the depth of an online relationship has a shallow limit (romantic ones even more so). Healthy relationships require in-person interaction to flourish, which is hard and messy. Therefore, avoiding them by relegating one’s community to a primarily online context is more comfortable, but also more isolating. Communication and presence are not synonymous. Personally, I have experienced a few students in recent years involved in these relationships. This gives us an opportunity to talk with our students about how God has placed them where they are with purpose, and how those around them benefit from their presence and learning about God’s love for them. How are you helping students see the value of who God has placed around them?
If You’re Not Completely For Me, “Go Home.”
Polarization in the United States is at all-time high, and Christian leaders in 2019 not only participated in it, but even led the way at times. If the 2016 presidential election was the cultural stirring spoon for what we experience today, the issues of women in ministry and theological purity have been Christian ones. You probably recognize the “go home” reference from what John MacArthur said when asked about Beth Moore a few months ago. What culture and unfortunately some Christian leaders project is that absolute alignment is necessary for relationships to exist. To put it in terms that fans of The Mandalorian would understand, this is not the way. What would it be like if those outside our faith recognized Christians equally or more for what we are for rather than against? Moreover, can we unite with brothers and sisters in Christ on salvific issues while offering an ear instead of a sword on other issues? There are important hills to die on; however, you shouldn’t die on every hill…or even most hills. Are you teaching your students to listen and love on middle ground, or to throw rocks from deeply divided sides? Better yet, are you modeling it for them?
Priorities and Perspectives
Gen Z in 2019 has taken millennial trends to all new heights. They care even less about getting a driver’s license. Suicide and pornography have moved from taboo to the norm. Jobs are not a priority (2019 had the lowest youth employment rate since 1966.) Anxiety and depression are rampant and still rising. Their skulls are growing horns from looking down at phones. Topping it off, regardless of actual age, anything can be dismissed with “Ok, Boomer.”
This post may seem pessimistic, but ministry requires us to examine how our world and sinful nature is affecting those in our care. Undoubtedly, we have teenagers who are generous, kind, receptive, and living changed lives because of the gospel. Let’s make sure we help them find their identity in Christ, traverse mountains and valleys to build relationships, learn to reach out without lashing out, and know how to care for the temple of the Spirit.
Here’s to a new decade of being in the trenches with the resurrection hope that surpasses all obstacles.
My first several years in ministry, my training as a teacher/preacher included many books on the topic. It also included the teaching/preaching classes that I took as part of my seminary education. All of these resources were great at helping me perform better as a public speaker and my ability to formulate my thoughts while expositing the Scriptures. It was 4 years later when I was deeply convicted of an important aspect of teaching and preaching. I had neglected this in my sermons: Directing every passage back to the Gospel.
I have come to realize that the vast majority of teaching/preaching resources that I had used all had a basic assumption that I (the preacher/teacher) was already doing well at articulating and communicating the gospel. Furthermore, a dangerous commonality I began to notice in the church-growth and preaching materials is that they are based upon the assumption that everyone who reads them are effectively preaching the Gospel.
I started to listen more closely to many sermons by many different preachers, some local and some nationally/internationally known, and I noticed that many sermons I considered “good” did not communicate the Gospel to their audience. This makes it impossible for unbelievers to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. What these sermons ultimately communicated to their audiences was either instructions for living, that only Christians could understand, or a message of false hope for unbelievers by promoting a moralistic gospel. A gospel that teaches a lifestyle of conventional wisdom apart from total reliance upon Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
I then assessed that my sermons were no different than the ones I was criticizing. Here are some questions I was confronted with:
- How will teenagers know how to be saved based on my sermons?
- Am I assuming that the teenagers in the youth ministry have a proper understanding of the Gospel and what it means to be saved?
- Am I reminding the students of what the Gospel is, especially for those who are dealing with critical questions about their faith (or their parent’s faith?)
As a result of answering these questions, I started to give more special attention to my teaching/preaching. Here is how I did that (For the sake of space in this blog entry, I will keep them short and sweet, even though I would love to give fuller explanations for each one):
I stopped using resources that essentially had already done the “hard work” of preparing a sermon/lesson.
The Apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy says in 5:17-18, “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’”
I’m a full-time youth pastor and elder with a seminary education. I have no excuse NOT to write all of my own material. In youth ministry, it is easy to justify delegating teaching responsibilities for the sake of “training up future leaders.” However, I see much more Biblical evidence about the weighty responsibility of teaching God’s Word. I do not feel comfortable delegating that weight to those who are not in the same position of leadership as me.
I started preaching verse-by-verse through books of the Bible.
I want to set a precedent for the students in our ministry. One that supports the idea that part of being a Christian is loving and relying on the Word of God. Christians should understand that proper Bible study is much more than jumping around the Bible between the most popular memory verses. They should learn how much depth there is in just a few verses of Scripture and how important lifelong Bible study is to the Christian. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
I try to preach the Gospel from every passage.
Whether kids have grown up going to church or not, I never want to assume they have a right understanding of salvation through faith in Christ. If students are living in sin, I don’t want to assume they are saved and just going through a rough time. It is very possible, if they seem hardened towards God and spiritual things, that they still have not truly believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Never assume a person’s salvation simply by their confession or attendance. Jesus says to look for fruit, so I want to do that. (Matthew 7:15-23)
Using videos in youth ministry goes back to the days when people would start with an idea and a camcorder with an actual video tape. In those days, you’d either have to get everything in one shot, or you’d just keep pausing every time you needed to get a new scene. Sure editing was possible, but it usually wasn’t worth the time it would take. I recall spending six hours with a student trying to learn how to edit videos using two VCR’s. Imagine trying to learn this skill without YouTube or Google to help. Ah, how times have changed!
Today we have ridiculous technology available, which allows youth workers to easily make videos for different platforms. What used to take hours can be done in a matter of minutes, and be quickly available to students.
We have opportunities to promote events, share stories of God at work, or communicate truth. Other times we just want to create content that will make students laugh.
As we work to engage students, there are some simple things we can do to better line ourselves up for success. Here are three best practices when you make videos on YouTube and TikTok.
Clarify your goal.
It’s easy to overlook this, but it’s essential. Is your goal to engage students, reach parents or maybe it’s both? Are you hoping to inspire them to share your content? Do you want them to comment or interact with what you are presenting? If you’ll take just a little time and clarify what you want to see happen, it will shape how you develop and share your content. Think of the awkward posts you’ve seen where someone asks a question and literally nobody responds. If we are representing our student ministry, we want to avoid the perception that we are disengaged from the realities of using social media.
Keep it short.
Consider some of the best viral videos and TikTok’s you’ve seen. Take a look at how long each of those videos run. Now realize you likely aren’t as good at this as they are. As much fun as you probably had making your video, it’s dangerous to assume people will enjoy watching it to the same degree. If you are running longer than the pros, you might be missing the mark.
Sometimes we feel like we have so much to say that we justify making things longer. When we fall into this trap, we lose our opportunity to quickly engage people. Do a little research to your previous posts and figure out the length of those that are most popular. Check out what others are doing. Maybe you find that when you keep your posts under a minute, your engagement is higher than then it’s over two. Remember what you are trying to accomplish and don’t take too long to do it.
Get students involved.
This can often present the greatest challenges for youth workers. Adults are simply easier to get involved, especially if you work at a church. It’s simple to get a few volunteers or staff to step into a video. Who among youth workers hasn’t done a video walking around church including other staff who happen to be present when they are filming? We can do better.
If we are being honest, sometimes we have more fun making the videos than people have watching them. One way to avoid this fate is to involve a student or two. Invite a couple of students to come be in a video after school. Find your technically inclined students and invite them to direct and/or film the video. Most of your students know the basics of video editing, so don’t take the time to edit videos yourself when you could be empowering one of them to use their gifts.
One Final Thought…
It’s far too easy for youth workers to justify putting minimal effort into creating YouTube and TikTok content. We have teaching to write, students to disciple, and leaders to develop. Consider the possibility the things you post could have the same, if not a greater, impact as the things you say during your student ministry programs. You are reaching people where they are at, in a setting where it can have multiple views. You are presenting content to people who might never step into your building. Too often we present ourselves like this guy instead of realizing the doors that might open if we approach the process with excellence.
God has given us some amazing opportunities to engage people when they are not at church. Let’s do everything we can to be people who strive for excellence as we make our YouTube and TikTok videos and seize the opportunity to speak into the lives of students, parents, and more.
I know it’s coming and yet somehow each and every year it blindsides me. High School graduation – the day that 12th graders magically go from being students to “real” adults. I find myself sad that our time together has ended. Anxious that I didn’t say or do enough to help them continue in their faith. Grateful for the time and memories we have created.
Let’s face it for 7 years (if you’re lucky) you have poured life out into these kids. Hoping and praying that you did enough to show them Christ and they hold on to it for the rest of their lives. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves with our students. Some of it justified, much of it not, but it’s taxing none the less.
This past May I graduated my first group of students. What I mean when I say this is that this is the first group that I got to walk with from sixth grade through twelfth grade, at the same church. The groups before were special to me too, but this one had a lot more attached to it. Reflecting back on the 7 years that I was able to be their pastor caused me to think on the things that I said and did with them and evaluate what I could or should have done differently.
Ultimately here’s what we know, each student is going to graduate and become an adult and we can try and avoid it, but we are not helping them by doing that. We can and should be intentional about our conversations as we help them prepare for a life, post youth group and post high school.
Here are 5 can’t skip topics to talk with your students about before they graduate.
Growing Their Faith.
I have met very few students that know how to grow in their faith. The topic of growing in our faith can be a sticky one. We sometimes become fearful of turning students away from the faith if we put too many requirements on them. While reading the Bible, praying regularly, and being a part of the church as a whole aren’t what get you into heaven, they are essential to continuing to grow in our faith. And beyond doing these tasks, it can take work to really learn how to do them and to get into the discipline of them. Talking regularly with students about their personal faith growth can be awkward, but it’s essential for them to continue their faith journey into their adult lives.
Their Purpose and Identity.
We all want to be fulfilled, wanted and have a purpose. Our students are at an age that they are trying to figure out what and who God created them to be. If we don’t take time to affirm the God given talents, abilities and passions they have we are missing an opportunity to help them succeed in their future. The world is constantly throwing ideas of what makes them valuable and important to society, but what God has to say about them matters so much more. They are more than their gender, their age, their GPA, and their eventual job. The need to remember they are loved and known by God and we can help instill that in them.
Relationships/Sex.
Every single student and young adult you minister to is going to have relationships in their lives. Some of those relationships will be of a sexual nature. Teaching students about healthy relationships is vital to their growth. Helping them understand how to nurture and grow in relationships with others is a game changer. Teaching them to be the friend that they wish they had can and will revolutionize how they view themselves and others. And with the whole sex thing, the truth is there is a high likely hood that a lot of your students have or will have some sort of sexual experience. We must be able to share with them the truth of what God intends and give them grace when they may have not hit the standard.
Money.
Talk to most people in their early 30’s and they will tell you their biggest regret is not having more discipline in regards to their finances. For some reason in the church we often teach children what to do with money, then skip over the teen years and then expect them to be generous as adults. I would say the majority of student ministries don’t ever talk to their students about money. More than missing out of future givers, we are missing out on teaching them how to use one of the greatest tools God will ever give them. To ignore talking about money with students we are robbing them of understanding some of the basics of life as an adult.
Sharing Their Faith.
Let’s be honest, the majority of our students will not go in to full-time vocational ministry. In fact almost all of our students will work in a field completely unrelated to their faith. This provides them for a huge opportunity to learn how to share and live out their faith every single day. Not all of us are gifted at how to share our faith, we have conjured up theses ideas of what we need to say or how we need to say it, when sometimes we simply need to learn to live our lives in an authentic way with the people God surrounds us with.
Perhaps it’s because my daily commute is at least an hour in each direction. Perhaps it’s because in Seattle (yes, Seattle!), the smallest drops of rain on the road can add stress, anxiety and many more minutes and hours to one’s drive. Perhaps it’s because I made a pledge at the start to never let the frustrations of the commute get into my head. Or maybe it’s because, no matter the length of time I spend in the car, at the end of my commute I know I’ll arrive at the therapeutic high school where I work, supporting students with mental health issues as they navigate life with a constant background noise of stress and anxiety. Whatever the reason, when I think of stress and anxiety I’m reminded of my daily commute: It can’t be avoided and I need to learn how to navigate it well.
Stress and anxiety are things that all of our students will travel through at various key times in life. Some may have the natural ability to sail through with ease, while others may need to learn some skills along the way. But sadly, for some young people the journey will feel like such an insurmountable ordeal that they can find no next step, no way forward. In my work I come across many young people each school year for whom feelings of anxiousness and stress become a physical barrier. A barrier effecting everything from their activities, relationships, and even ability to attend school.
As much as we (and probably your student’s families) would love to circumvent the topic (or take away the problem altogether), we don’t do them any favors by acting as snow plows that force these sorts of obstacles out of our student’s paths. We need to help them develop healthy skills and practices for the journey ahead. As your students navigate stress and anxiety, I want to lay out 5 ways that you can help.
Know Your Regular Route
For some students, it is obvious to them when they are experiencing stress or anxiety because they find themselves behaving differently than usual. But in others, symptoms can be more difficult to detect. Some people naturally handle stress by bottling up their feelings and isolating themselves from others rather than showing visible signs that of struggle. Build real, healthy relationships with your students. That way you’ll know when students are deviating from their regular route or behaving in a way that is unusual. When I get to know my students well, I’m able to observe when they are displaying signs of stress and anxiety.
Prepare For Roadblocks By Understanding Coping Strategies
When I am working with students who struggle with anxiety and stress, I make sure to talk with them during times when they are in a healthy frame of mind. In those moments I encourage them to talk about ways they’re able to deescalate their feelings of anxiety. We talk about how they find safety in the middle of stressful situations. By taking the time to prepare for potential roadblocks before they happen, both you and your student can be ready to navigate anxious times in healthy ways. Where appropriate, and as much as possible, involve families in this discussion so that everyone is on the same page. You can work with your student to research coping strategies that may help reduce their anxiety.
Journey Together By Allowing Students To Process
Anxiety is actual a natural response to a perceived danger. Sometimes these perceptions can become distorted through experiences of trauma and crisis. Even in the middle of stressful situations, there is an opportunity for growth. The ability for students to put their coping strategies into practice, to deescalate themselves within a safe situation, can allow opportunities for them to process what they are going through and to use the experience as a growth opportunity for the future. One suggestion is to encourage your students to journal about key times of stress and anxiety. Not only does it give you the opportunity to talk and pray with them, but it’s also an opportunity for them to share their reflections with any professional support they receive, perhaps from a counselor or therapist.
Finding Distractions By Redirecting The Brain
In the middle of anxious and stressful situations, key areas of the brain shuts down. Logic and reason may disappear as one’s body goes into survival mode. Simply telling someone in an anxious state to calm down, or to logically reason with them, is probably not going to help them. After helping an anxious student feel safe, my team and I use distraction to steer their mind towards a place of safety. Sometimes that safety can be found in hot cocoa; for other students it may be taking them on a walk so that they are able to be in motion and giving their body a physical response to the stress and anxiety they are experiencing. Have a few ready distractions in mind when navigating alongside one of your students in an anxious moment.
Plan For Next Time And Find a Better Route
After a student has experienced a crisis situation, I try to sit with them to explore what we could do differently next time. They’ve made it through, but I encourage students to process for themselves and reflect for the next time they experience crisis. Each time students journey through stress and anxiety, everyone involved has an opportunity for growth and a journey towards health.
Thank you for being willing to journey with your students, to walk alongside them, in some of the most difficult times. Be sure that you also care for yourself as you go, remembering that helping others through stressful times takes its toll on you, too. Find people to help you decompress, who will lift you up in prayer, and who can support you as you navigate the difficult situations we face in our ministries.
I grew up with a ball in my hand. And, with the changing of the seasons, the ball changed too. In every sport I played, I was usually the biggest on the field or court. I realized very early in my sports-life, because of my size and ability, that I was going to be viewed as a leader. In athletics, it seemed to me that leadership was equated with size, skill, and dominance. So, that is how I started leading.
In my first ministry job, I led the way I learned from my experience in athletics. I demanded. I leveraged my position. I gave orders. I expected compliance. And, one day, I looked up and wondered where everyone was. They had all left. I was there, but had no one to lead. So, at first, I made excuses and started to blame them for lack of commitment – but then it hit me. I was the problem. Why would anyone want to follow me?
After some self-reflection and a lot of prayers, I came to a crossroads. I started to challenge myself to be the type of leader I would want to follow. This challenge changed my perspective on leadership forever. I knew I had to decide to change, or I would be without a group to influence. I knew that God had put it on my heart to disciple people and to help them follow him. If I were going to be an effective leader for God, I needed to change.
That change brought me to a moment where I decided on three essential questions. Questions I needed to ask myself every time I am given an opportunity to lead. These questions are what mark my philosophy as a leader today and still prove to be the rubric of measuring my effectiveness. There are three essential questions every leader must answer:
What is it going to take to get there?
Of all the questions, this one begins with you, the leader. If we ever expect anyone to follow us, we must be the first to step out and go. Therefore as a leader, we must work to calculate what it is going to take to get there. We have to be the first to “count the cost.” Once we have begun to understand what we need to accomplish our goal, then and only then, can we begin to articulate the vision for those we influence. As you know, leadership starts with sacrifice and knowing what it is going to take to get there is an excellent place to start.
Where are you going?
Every leader needs vision. If we want to head in the right direction, we must first know where we are going. And leaders, it’s not just our decision. We must know our group. If we are going to lead, we must have a goal to point toward, or we will never get anywhere. If people don’t know where we are going, they won’t follow. So, leaders must ask themselves where it is they want to go. Then work on getting there.
Why should we go there?
Many times leaders have a destination in mind. As a youth minister, my end goal is to create disciples of Jesus who will create disciple of Jesus. But why? Why should anyone want to be a disciple of Jesus and why would anyone want to create more disciples? In other words, why should they follow me? I have noticed answering the “why” question usually takes a bit more work than answering the “where” question. It causes the leader to do a lot of self-reflection, and as we know, self-reflection can hurt. But, if we are going to be effective leaders, we must understand the “why.” Understanding why we do something is the power that propels the ship. And, to start moving, you must know why you need to start moving!
In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he talks about a great many admirable traits of leadership. In my opinion, the gist of Covey’s book is this: To lead others; you must first be able to lead yourself. Leading myself and being the kind of leader I would follow was missing from my original understanding of what it means to be a leader. And, I will forever be thankful the Lord had a plan for me. That plan was to change my understanding of leadership. Leading must be from in front, and it starts with us. I hope these three questions will help shape the way you lead. My prayer is that your leadership will be fruitful and effective.
Youth Workers, It’s Time.
If it’s your first time to our ANNUAL GATHERING of youth workers, or you are returning once again to the annual pilgrimage of community, encouragement, laughter, and training — you are welcome here together with us.
Every year for the past 5 decades or so, youth workers have gathered under one roof for training, resources, spiritual refreshment, and community. Since before most of us were born, there have been youth workers laughing and learning, exchanging knowing glances, and learning from one another as one big happy family.
Join your fellow youth workers from across the country and around the world in Columbus, OH for NYWC 2020!
Did you miss out on pre-registration prices for NYWC 2020 a few weeks ago? Do you have some money left over in your 2019 budget? If you answered yes to either, you may want to join the thousands of other youth workers that have already registered for the National Youth Workers Convention 2020 on November 19 – 22 in Columbus, OH!
We are praying, dreaming, and planning for NYWC 2020 in Columbus, OH. This will be the last time to purchase tickets before NYWC registration officially launches in March 2020!
Want to know what other youth workers said about NYWC?
“I keep describing NYWC as the best family reunion imaginable. You interact with people nationally and then get to see them for 3-4 days. We’ve got a fantastic fraternity in the American church. NYWC is the chance to see it lived out”
“Coming alone I was so worried and anxious that I was not gonna find anyone to connect with, but I did. I now have resources and connections to other women and men in youth ministry. Please let everyone at YS know the impact they are having on my life and the ministry God’s doing through me.”
“You know it’s a good conference when everyone is too busy to spend time with everyone you’d like to see. You all created a celebration that just knocked it out of the park. My list of praises could go on and on; from my vantage point, it was top notch and I am once again uber grateful to have been a small part of it all.”
Are you doing ministry for Jesus or with Jesus? One of the questions that rang in my head thanks to Samer Massad at NYWC 2019. It was a question that I think I have been wrestling with for a numbers of years and haven’t really been conscious of it. Was I being Martha, striving to serve, to do things for Jesus, to use my gifts and talents but fail to see that all He wants is for me to sit at his feet and BE WITH Him?
Also at NYWC 2019 Albert Tate decided to hit me upside the head about the idea of remix. Does something old need a remix to be new again in your life? The week before that at Northview church, Steve Carter decided to pull out the scripture about remaining in Christ; “keep the remain thing the main thing”. Then a few weeks before that I had a moment of weakness, of doubt, of insecurity, of pain and broke down while talking to my amazing wife. She said, maybe its cause you always try to do it on your own. Echoing in my ears, was this thought of striving, pursuing, pushing, driving towards what I thought God wanted me to do, what my job was calling me to do, what people expected me to do.
I have been doing youth ministry for the past 13 years. I have had the privilege of serving with some of the most selfless staff, leaders, volunteers and students over this time. I feel truly blessed and honored to be around such incredible people. I didn’t go to college to study how to be a pastor, in fact, I did a pretty good job of running away from that direction. I had an incredible youth pastor growing up and he encouraged me to think about youth ministry. I had bigger visions of making lots of money and living comfortably.
As God always does, he put this longing in my soul for something that actually was a bigger vision for my life, working with this generation to help them see HIM, know Him & love Him. I knew in my heart of hearts that this was what I should be doing with my life. I stepped into the role of youth pastor at the church I grew up in, me Jesus in, was baptized in and loved. So… in typical Enneagram 3 fashion, I dove in and got after it. I had a chip on my shoulder trying to make sure everyone knew I could do it, even though I didn’t have the experience or the schooling. I kept pushing, driving and doing more with the ministry at church. I wasn’t good at asking for help, I needed people to see that I could crush it on my own.
So for the next 13 years that was my mentality, not on purpose, but in my humanity I fell into the achievement trap of ministry. This doesn’t mean that God didn’t use my misguided subconscious. God has done so much in the past 13 years and has shown up time and time again (like there was ever any fear of Him not showing up). I have had a front row seat to God working in students lives, transforming them from the inside out to be reflections of Him. I tear up just thinking about all the ways I have seen God work these past 13 years.
I’ve had moments of clarity along the way, where I was honest with myself. I’ve had moments of candid conversations with people I trust about my inner drive to be loved for what I got done, to be loved for what I can accomplish, to find acceptance for being great at whatever I do.
What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and pop 25 year old me in the nose. Pop him in the nose and let him know that all the striving, all the pushing for more, all the stuff you went after in your head isn’t really the main thing God wants for you. Jesus told Martha in Luke 10 that Mary had it right, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and was with her Savior.
I had been doing ministry FOR Jesus for far to long and it has to change. It has to change for myself and my own spiritual maturity. It has to change for my family and modeling what following Jesus actually looks like to my kids. It has to change for those I have the honor of leading, because they need to know the its not about what you can do, its all about what has already been DONE on the cross. No amount of striving can ever earn God’s love, it’s already been given to me. God loves me no matter what I can accomplish. My thick skull has been mulling this over for the past month or so and it was in TAMPA at NYWC ’19 that I think the hammer came down. I have to completely surrender all of me so that God has more to work with. I have to surrender my accomplishment attitude, my drive, my striving to Him in order for Him to get more out of my than I ever dreamed.
For anyone out there in the same boat, I feel you! I know where you are at and I know what the Enemy is saying in your head. Ignore the insecurities, rest in your identity being in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to actually lead your life. Control is a comfort, but not a way to live the fulfilling life God wants for you and for me!
I am going to start sitting at HIS feet.
I am going to start carving out time to just BE in His presence.
I am going to sit and listen to that still small voice.
I am going to be sensitive to His spirit and direction for my life.
I am going to lead from a place of Christ like surrender.
I am going to stop striving, pushing and driving to be perfect.
I am going to get out of the way and let God be what HE always should be in my life… the leader!
That’s my #NYWC19 moment…