Filed under: Vision/Strategy
So I read this very scary article today…
read here
Here’s the deal, kids.
If you don’t start getting serious about your relationship with Christ RIGHT NOW, then you are not going to make it. This includes: giving your heart to Jesus, surrendering your future to him NOW (not when it will be convenient), devouring and memorizing your Bible, coming out to youth/church, and telling your friends about Jesus. If you don’t do this, then you will become a statistic.
Youth Pastors and Workers:
Take this article seriously. Those percentage numbers are souls that God cares about. He cares about each and every person represented in those drops in numbers. Don’t let your kids become part of those statistics! Work hard to make sure that your kids are serving Christ!
August 11, 2010
Last weekend, my mom and dad came into town. I love it when family comes to visit. We get to share our lives with them for the weekend and see parts of the city that we normally drive by without thought. Since they were purging their house of some unwanted furniture, they brought in two dressers for Brett and I to use in our home. Nothing special, but they came from my grandma’s house and smell just like her place. The smell instantly takes me back to sneaking into her room as a little girl and admiring her beautiful brush and hand-held mirror from the green bedspread she had carefully laid on the bed.
I decided that, since the dressers were not aging as gracefully as one would hope, that they deserved a fresh stain and some TLC. Thinking to myself “this will be a fun day project!”, I headed to my local Home Depot for supplies.
Upon starting the project, I discovered that the perfectionist in me was turning this into MUCH more than a day project. Brushing, scraping, wiping and sanding are all separate crafts which must be perfected to make a piece worthy of a new stain.
During some sanding that I was doing yesterday, I was reminded somewhat of our jobs as ministers to students. Sometimes our kids come in looking like an old beat-up dresser. They are offensive, stinky, and have obvious cracks and nicks in their character. God, in His ultimate grace, allows us to be a part of a process where we take these kids, go below that ugly surface layer, sand them down, and help them to become beautiful pieces of art.
God, being the perfectionist that He is, does not make perfect students from a “day project.” It takes several years of brushing, scraping, wiping and sanding to shape them into better individuals.
I’m not sure about you, but with the drama that has taken over for the summer, it can be hard to see those potential gems below the surface. But God sees it. He sees every single student in our group for who He created them to be, not who they are right now. He loves them unconditionally. He could not love them more. He will not love them less.
God, help me to see below that top layer. Use me to help grind off stuff that is offensive. Wipe away all the crud. Help these kids to become who You created them to be!
July 28, 2010
I always think it’s pretty entertaining when people ask if I am going to have a relaxing summer. Sure, if you call tripling your ministry time, and provide an only means of connection for students to have with their friends, tossed in with a bunch of drama-magnets over the most boring part of the year “relaxing!” I kid about how dramatic they are (sortof), I really do love hanging out with them, having them take over our offices and building, and seeing them every day. I probably would feel very strange if summer went any other way. But relaxing, it is not!
One thing I love about summer though, is that it is an amazingly easy time to get new kids out to our drop-in or regular youth events. Kids crave to be around each other so much that they’ll meet even in a church if they have to (lol). So with the idea that kids are going to invite their friends so they can see them all summer, why not leverage that to grow our ministry and introduce those newbies to Jesus Christ? Why not create an environment that is so irresistible that they will still want to come in the fall when their schedules begin to fill up?
Here’s our simple vision for the summer:
3 Environments to encourage kids to prioritize their relationship with Christ, influence their friends, and experience personal ministry!
1. Junior High Ministry- A lot of research on middle schoolers will tell you that their attention span does not go much further than their age (in minutes). It’s extremely difficult for an 11 year old 6th grader to sit through a sermon, even if it is engaging and interesting and life-changing to them!
Junior High night will be exciting, fun, silly, engaging, and best of all, short bursts of energy and attention that will make a night fly by even for the shortest of attention spans! It is our vision over the summer to double the amount of junior high students in our ministry from 30 to 60 kids, even triple to 90 (God is a very big God, right?). We want to introduce these kids to Christ while they’re still young!
2. High School Ministry- We hear it over and over again: “those little kids are annoying!” As much as Jr High students look up to their older friends, the need to have an environment where high school students are challenged to grow has become more and more apparent to us.
High School Ministry night (or, simply, HSM) is going to accomplish that this year. We are not going to be as focused on numerical growth as our junior high ministry is, but more on spiritual growth. Over the summer, we are doing an exciting small group driven series entitled “T3: Time, Talent, Treasure” which is going to challenge our students to take a look at the world around them and start meeting some of the needs represented (think along the lines of our “Do Something” series we did back in January).
3. Friday Night Drop-in- This year marks the fourth summer of drop-in, and every year it gets bigger and better! This year we are open an hour later than any other year (11pm) and are still offering some of the same awesome things for our students to kill time with: team sports, video games, board games, chilling in the cafe!
Drop-in isn’t just filler time, we take this night very seriously too. Drop-in is the perfect environment for our students to gain influence in their circles of friends. Invite them out to an easy, fun, relaxing and kid-filled environment. Have a blast. Invite them to a ministry night, introduce them to Jesus Christ. Meet an adult that cares about their life. Get to experience older youth and leaders in their relationship with Christ, and how they leverage their conversations and attitudes to attract others to Christ.
So there you have it: a simple vision to create 3 distinct environments that are irresistible to students and encourage them to grow, have influence with friends, and experience ministry!
June 16, 2010
So my friend Jordan McLellan recommended a great book for me to read a couple of months ago, entitled Church is a Team Sport by Jim Putman. It’s an excellent read as far as I’m concerned. Every church staff, board and volunteer base should read this book to get excited and understand the power of a team working together for a common Purpose. In chapter two, Jim presented some staggering statistics which led me to furious highlighting, underlining, flagging and note taking all at once. I was so moved by his findings that I felt this was worth sharing with the world! If you enjoy the paragraphs I’m about to post, please pick up his book; you will not be disappointed! Here’s what he had to say:
Many studies these days measure the church’s effectiveness in culture. The numbers are shocking. According to the Barna Research Group, there are about 360,000 churches in America. Current numbers tell us that only 15% of these churches are growing, and only 2 to 5% of the churches are experiencing new conversion growth. I interpret that to mean most of the churches in America are losing, those that are growing are doing so by transfer growth. This means that a small percentage of the bigger churches are getting bigger and the smaller churches are shrinking or disappearing altogether. We are merely reshuffling the deck with the same cards.
In that same study we also find that 50% of all evangelical churches in America did not have a single convert last year. We gain a little and we lose a lot. The death rate of elderly Christian accounts for some of this. The bigger contributor is a wide-open back door–we are losing people faster than we are gaining them.
The statistic that breaks my heart is the one Josh McDowell gives in his book The Last Christian Generation. In it he reveals that 85% of kids who come from Christian homes do not have a biblical worldview. Most of them are leaving the faith between ages eighteen and twenty-four, never to return. Many of the churches that do give their conversion numbers every year are usually giving the number of children that were baptized from their already-Christian congregations. Now we find that those young converts do not make it past their eighteenth birthday when it comes to their faith. (underlining added for emphasis)
Those numbers are devastating. If we as Christians have Christ living in us, the Person who changes our lives and futures and eternities, making all things new and saving our lives, all because of His love for us– if we are too bogged down by our mundane, puny, must-have-it lifestyles to spread that news, then there is something extremely wrong with the way we are living.
I listened to a sermon by Perry Noble the other day that just really set something off in my heart. The central message of his sermon: Jesus Changes Lives. PERIOD. If you are a Christian, just living a normal life and you can’t pinpoint the exact moment that Jesus changed your life and everything was turned upside down, are you sure you met Him? Don’t just be offended and skip over that sentence. Go back and read it again. Are you sure you met Him? Because He will tear things up in your heart, He will take the way you think about things and flip them upside down, He will take your ordinary life and job and turn it into a calling that reflects on eternity. When exactly did you meet Him? When did He change you? Why aren’t you excited about evangelism? Why is our church failing when we have a perfect Coach to guide us through the playbook? Have we strayed from His instruction? Do we even care that He wants to do amazing things, or are we more concerned with potlucks, politics and preaching? Are we more concerned with the volume of the worship on Sunday mornings than experiencing His presence?
The very heart of the matter is that Jesus changed me. My life would be very different and much sadder if Jesus had not picked me up and saved my life. He wants to do the same in every teenager that attends our youth ministry. He wants to do that in you. He wants to do that in your ministry. If you have not met Jesus yet and have not had your life turned upside down, all it takes is for you to take a moment and pray to Him: “Jesus, I am ready to meet you and have my life flipped upside down. I am soooo ready for you to forgive me my sins. I am soooo ready to receive your love, grace and gift of salvation. Change me and make me into your child, Amen.”
If Jesus really changes people, then our church would not be victim to the statistic of 85% of kids leaving the church after 18. They will be excited and vibrant and won’t be able to keep silent about what Jesus has done in their lives. That is exciting news!
What are your thoughts on these staggering numbers?
April 22, 2010
My best memory in youth ministry was _______________, because ________
April 14, 2010
Ok, so right now I am reading a fabulous book (amongst about 4 other books!) entitled “Sustainable Youth Ministry” by the very seasoned Mark DeVries. So far it has provided a lot of valuable information for me, as this is something I would desperately like to work towards. If you don’t have much of a structure to your ministry as of late, and are hoping to design a ministry that can be successful with just about anyone at the reigns, I would recommend using this book as a workbook to examine your ministry’s structure and programming (not that those are the big “must haves” in ministry, but when they are in place and working to their potential, relationships and discipleship can become the focus!).
Anyway, one idea from the book that I’d like to work hard at over this quarter leading up to summer is the idea of Organizational Charts. We don’t currently have one. Actually, we do, but we don’t have a strategic one. As far as our organizational structure goes, everything goes through me and I oversee it. Volunteers, admin, programming, retreats, drop-in, interns, you name it, it comes across my desk. I am starting to piece together a workable org chart for our ministry that eliminates me as the staff member at the bottle neck. Hopefully I’ll have something to share with you in the near future. But before I leave… I have a question! Are you involved in a church ministry? If so, do you know what that ministry’s org chart looks like? Can you describe it to me? Can you offer suggestions for me?
T
April 9, 2010
Ok!!!! So now that it’s April, I’ve begun looking at our summer. It’s going to be good times. We have some amazing stuff coming up these next few months. The only problem is that we are going to need help. Paid help, and volunteer help. Is anyone interested in working at the church as an intern? I promise to provide lots of fun and coffee and video games all summer long!!! If you know of anyone, or even just want to pitch in some volunteer time because you love youth, PLEASE let me know! This summer is going to OWN!
PS, Bible College students… I especially want you to come on down… we have an awesome youth ministry that you will love!
April 8, 2010
Seriously… just write a library of books already, Mr. Noble! I like your gumption!
#1 – Why is the church so content with being normal when God has promised the supernatural?
#2 – Why are some in the church obsessed with obtaining information but have no desire to live out the transformation that Jesus brings?
#3 – Why do some in the church excuse non excellent standards by saying phrases such as, “well, after all…it’s just church?” Our standards of doing things should not be lower than the worlds…they should be higher; after all, what the church does matters!
#4 – Why do we claim to follow a God who changes things…and yet often times we refuse to change things?
#5 – Why do we set our expectations on the lives that Jesus wants us to live so low when Scripture sets them so high?
#6 – Why does the church always try to control people when Jesus died so that we could be unleashed?
#7 – Why is it that so many church leaders would rather lead through imitation (becoming just like someone else) rather than revelation (listening to God and then doing what He says?)
February 3, 2010
I am working hard on this week’s message. There is a lot of scripture, and I think I might cut it down, but the general message of this week is that God is all about comforting those who hurt, and causing a little discomfort to those who are comfortable. Check out Luke 11:42-52 to see how Jesus made the very comfortable Pharisees squirm a bit!
January 28, 2010
I’m listening to an awesome message these days by @AndyStanley called “Taking Responsibility for Your Life” on iTunes. It is literally melting my face off, it’s so good! I highly recommend if you are under 25, go right now to your iTunes and download all three messages. They are life changing.
One thing I have noticed in the last couple of weeks that our actions (or inactions) have a heavy impact on the people around us. Even the things we think don’t affect anyone… ESPECIALLY those things.
I have been thinking about this within the team environment especially these days, because I spend my days in team environments. Whether I lead or participate, I am involved in a team, and people suffer consequences when I don’t take responsibility for my own life and portfolio.
Let me give you some personal examples:
-If I don’t communicate with my youth leaders about the week, they suffer the consequences of not knowing what is happening on a Friday night
-If I don’t print off music for my worship team, we suffer the consequences of not being able to reference sheet music while we play or practise.
-If I don’t show up on time on Sunday mornings to play my role, it reflects badly on the staff’s appearance of competency to execute a Sunday morning
I have been frustrated over the last two weeks with other peoples actions and inactions. Earlier this month, I gave my youth leaders an exciting opportunity to book off a couple of Friday nights per quarter so they could have ample break time from ministry to recover and tend to their personal lives. Great! All they would have to do is give me advance notice on an online google calendar that I set up for us to use. Very simple stuff.
Over the last 2 weeks, I have had numerous phone calls and text messages from leaders who choose not to play by the rules. Their actions affect me deeply. When a leader is late or skips out on the evening with short or little notice, it affects our youth. It affects my ability to lead because we have to pick up the slack. It affects our very mission at neXus Youth to lead students in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Frustrations with individuals aside, where are you dropping the ball? Are you honoring your commitments that you made to ministry and to life? Are you showing up early and putting in 100%? Do you see how your actions and inactions are affecting the people around you?
As a leader, and as a Christian, you do not have the option of saying “I don’t care about this”… Jesus wants us to be responsible people, and he can’t use us to further his ministry if we can’t be counted on.
Hope this melts your face as much as it did mine!
January 26, 2010
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