A Novel thought about the Pole

Not to sound unyouth ministry but is there a reason student ministers and parents HAVE to be at the pole on Wednesday morning for See You at the Pole? If we have done our jobs in the years, months, and weeks leading up to it by discipling our students in regards to prayer and training the core students to be leaders of students, then I have trouble coming up with a good reason.

"We supply the donuts." Is it a fellowship meeting or a prayer movement?

"We have to take pictures for the Saw You at the a Pole rally that night." Are we worshiping students for praying or seeking the Lord to protect a school and its students? I don't want all the clicking to be a distraction nor do I want students to perform for the camera.

"We like to pray with our students." I am going to assume that happens the other 51 weeks out of the year as well: at church .... on Sundays and Wednesdays ... and the prayers are more than prayer requests. We do seek the Lord with our students beyond prayer requests ... outside of See You at the Pole ... don't we?

At what point do we step back and turn our students loose? Why not the one event even nominal Christian teens show up for? Let's give our students, who were created for moments like these, the opportunity to shine.

Not every youth minister, pastor, or parent will understand. I get that. We should be everywhere the teens are. I just wonder the possibilities if starting next Wednesday night we started teaching and planning with the thought in mind, "My students are capable of leading a movement of God. If I seek the Lord, God can use me to help prepare the way." Who knows what could happen next year, if SYATP returned to its student led prayer movement roots? 

The Distance is Growing

There is one alarming trend I see occurring in youth ministry.  That trend is how culture is shifting the language and thought processes of teenagers away from any connection to biblical truth or thought.

Some of you may think that I am behind on this reality, but even ten years ago a youth minister could at least teach the Bible to "church kids," and they would understand. In today's youth ministry, this task is becoming more difficult even to reach the "church kid."

Let me give you two examples.

A few weeks ago, I presented the gospel message to a group of students. In the Bible Study, I mentioned that the Holy Spirit provides conviction for sin to help us realize our need Jesus.  I probably said it in the course of a 25 minute Bible Study five or six times. Fortunately, for our ministry we end our Bible studies with a 20 minute small group discussion in which students can ask questions.  Most groups spent their 20 minutes talking about what conviction meant.  Not to brag (but I will a little), I have some top notch academic and spiritual students but even they struggled with the understanding of the term.  I am blessed with some great adults that were able to help provide clarification.  Can you imagine the missed opportunity if we had ended the Bible Study with prayer and everybody went home? I would have left thinking, "I brought it! Holy Spirit do your work." Instead, I left with a greater sense of humility wondering how are youth ministers going to be able to reach future generations of students who do not understand the word convict or conviction much less the need for it.

Second example.

Every now and then, I will sit down with a small group of students on Sunday night and discuss the cultural needs of students in light of an upcoming Bible Study.  Sunday night we discussed the word "hope." Hope is another one of those Bible terms that is growing farther and farther apart from cultural meaning.  If I stood up in front of students and said "you have to have hope in light of what Jesus did for you" two thoughts were brought to the table from my students.  One was hope means wishful thinking.  "I hope I get to be on American Idol." In light of YouTube anyone has an opportunity to make it big and get paid big for doing.  Students are lead to believe this world has so much to offer them and when they quickly realize it doesn't, despair and hopelessness sets in.  The other idea was getting lucky. "I hope I win the lottery." Hope is left to chance.  It may or may not happen.  More than likely it won't so when it doesn't disappointment sets in.

Neither one of these ideas comes even close to what biblical hope means which leaves us with the difficult task of explaining it to students.  Hope in the Bible is longing for something we know WILL happen. Hope has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God and his actions.  His actions of salvation and miracles give us small glimpses that what we hope for will take place.  What are we hoping for?  ALL OF GOD. In this world, we only catch glimpses of what it will be like in Heaven.  Our salvation has come but it is also coming.

The Holy Spirit is needed now more than ever in our ministry to students.  He is the only one who can bridge the gap between truth and culture.   Students need something firm and consistent but in light of all the inconsistency in their lives it seems hard to believe. The divide is growing wider. Truth appears as a foreign concept that is difficult to understand.

While I am worried about this great divide, I do have hope because the message of salvation does not return void.  It will take a greater understanding of Scripture and culture so that the Holy Spirit can speak to and through us to reach students. The Holy Spirit allowed the apostles to speak in multiple languages in Acts 2.  May He allow us to speak a language that reaches this generation as well.

A Humble Response to Ohio Shootings

Over the last few months, I have been been immersed in the real truth about the hurts of today's teenager. We try think back to the days when we were teenagers.  "It really wasn't that bad.  Those experiences made me a stronger person today." It's what we tell ourselves in order to convinces us that the hurts our students face today are not as bad they are making them out to be. Telling ourselves that its a phase all teens go through makes us feel better when we ask them what's wrong and they say "nothing."  

Normal today is not the normal you and I grew up with.  The normal now is filled with more hurt.  The busyness of life is now normal.  Not being able to spend time with mom or dad because of their schedules, no longer living in the house, or lack of desire is normal. It is the new normal so we treat it as normal.  Yet, this normal is far from healthy. It does hurt and students are not crying out for help because they believe "it is what it is."

Then this week another school shooting happens.  I sit back and I think about Columbine, Jonesboro, and Paducah and wonder what causes a student to resort to such violence as to cause more pain to innocent classmates. It would never happen where you live . . . would it?  I provided a link to the ABC article. The second video on the left hand side of the screen entitled Ohio School Shooting Suspect: Why'd He Do It? is what I want to encourage you to watch.

Nobody saw it coming.  Mixed signals: did he or did he not have friends?  Was he goth or not?  Was he shy or friendly?  The family was a broken but grandparents, aunts and uncles didn't see the signs. 

I wanted to give you a couple of signs that can serve as an indicator that something may not be right.  Please hear me. These are not signs your student is about to be a gunman at school.  These are signs your student is hurting and needs prayer, an ear to listen, and love.  

1. Changes in wardrobe.

2. Changes in personality.

3. Changes in friends.

4. Mood swings. Anger is actually a sign of depression in boys.

5. Secretiveness.

6. Change in grades.

7. Your "gut" tells you something is not right.  Trust it.  God put it there for a reason.

This is not an exhaustive list but some of the more common symptoms. Your student may not be willing to talk to you, but they might talk to a counselor. They need to know by talking to one it doesn't make them weak. It also doesn't mean you have done anything wrong either.  In fact you would be doing something right by making sure your student is healthy.  Many health insurance plans offer co-pays or free visits for family members.  If you are concerned or need a referral, I would love to talk and pray with you.  I don't want to see our students reach a point of no return. If we can catch the hurts early, we can see them thrive as teenagers.

Are we serving too much?

One thing I enjoy about ministry is there are people willing to serve.  There are actual moments when ministers do not have to do it alone. Unfortunately we are so willing to serve that sometimes we can stretch ourselves in many different directions.  Ministers also run the risk of asking the same people to do everything.  In smaller churches, it is quite possible your time could be given to many different ministries that all meet at the same time.

With that in mind I want to encourage us to take a step back from all those commitments and evaluate our ministry contribution to our churches.  Everybody has one thing they are passionate about.  Sometimes we can get so busy doing ministry that what we are passionate about becomes blurred. Our passion is what drives us to keep doing ministry. Rather than drain us it fuels us.  It usually ties into our spiritual gifts. I want you to serve where you "fit."

Sadly, we often feel the pressures to contribute to ministries in order to keep them going.  Have you ever volunteered for a ministry when a pastor got up and said something like, "Church we are going to have to cancel Vacation Bible School unless one of you volunteers to be the VBS director after this service."  To all the minister wives out there a big apology to you because more often than not this type of ministry gets dumped on you.

I do not want void fillers.  If we fill voids, two things will happen.  1) We will miss the possibility that God is closing the door on that area of ministry in order to open another one.  2) It will drain us and we will not be fresh to do what God has placed in us to do.  We all have areas that we "help" in because we are needed.  We do it to help someone else's passions succeed.  That's a part of being in the body of Christ.  We serve and assist others.  This not about that. This is about over extending which is not a help but a detriment to our ability to do ministry effectively.

So a couple of questions for you.  What are you most passionate about in ministry (you may not be doing it yet)? Is it a specific program, age group, gender?  Does it even exists yet and you have been waiting and hoping your church would start it? Is someone else doing what you feel passionate about (It's possible they are void filling!)? Are your ministry passions outside of an area you are serving and you are merely the "help" to assist others in their passions succeeding?  How can I help you fulfill your gifts and passions for ministry? Do you need resources or contacts to make it happen? You may want to do multiple things in the church. That is absolutely okay.

All I want you to do is make sure 1) You are doing what God has placed on your heart. (I want to champion that for you.) 2)The other ministries in which you serve do not get in the way of your passions. Take the time to think about it. Do you need to give something up in order to give more time to serving in your gifts with excellence?

Too busy

I wrote this as an e-mail last week without really pondering its reality. After I sent the e-mail, I really had to sit and think about the realities of it. Here is the quote from the e-mail.

Students in general are busy.  How many adults do you know who have to be at work at 7:30 a.m., get a 30 minute lunch break, work an 8 hour day, then have to spend two to three hours at a second job, then come home and spend two to four more hours trying to finish the first job. Not many I would suppose, but this is what our students do at school.  No pay. No overtime. For youth camp or leadership camp, we then expect them to have a nonstop schedule of 7:00 am to midnight for four nights in order to meet God.  When do students get to breathe. Psalms tells us to be still and know that I am God.  

Students' lives are filled with busyness and constant noise.  There is either a cell phone, radio, tv, or computer always on.  With all the busyness and noise how can students listen to the Lord.

Chap Clark in his book Hurt 2.0 echos these thoughts.  He goes one step further.  He believes based on research that the reason for this frantic pace is the adult.  (Chap Clark, Hurt 2.0, page 30)  

Youth Ministers are in the same boat as what I am about to say. The above e-mail comment results from adults who want to earn more money, get a better job, and look good.  Those who do take the well being of the student in mind run the risk of losing games and/or jobs.  Youth Ministry can have the same risks on both sides.  On the one side we can have an incredibly busy youth ministry with the goal being to grow the biggest and most successful youth ministry in town.  The opposite is also true in that if you take the time to care for your flock and its not the right kind of flock or not the same results as what the other guy would have you might risk your job.

God's calling is to take care of sheep.  One off the wall idea I have to youth ministers is consider the youth ministry events you do.  How many of them are like the schedule I just described above?  Youth Camp (yes), D-Now (yes), Mission Trip (yes).  Have you ever done an event where the focus was on rest and silence in order to be fresh and ready to listen to God?  How about not having events every month but maybe once a quarter so you can focus on your own rest to listen to God and family?

Parents, it might be time to realize that full transcripts won't matter at the 10 year class reunion.  One less activity is not going to cost them the scholarship.

Students, quit buying the lie that says you have to be involved in every extra curricular activity and have enough college credits to be a junior in college before you graduate high school.  Jesus followers were unschooled ordinary men but they had been with Jesus and that made the difference (Acts 4:13)  Do something but you don't have to do everything?  I would also say do something at church but don't do everything. 

I know there are arguments against what I am proposing. I know it won't be popular either. I do believe less will get you more in the long run though. 

Missions

This morning I presented a paper on the History and Philosophy of the Assemblies of God student ministry.  While there are great ideas that can be gleaned from their youth ministry, there is one which SBC should take note:  Speed the Light.  Speed the Light is their student initiated and for the most part student-funded missions giving campaign to equip missionaries all over the world with transportation and communication equipment.  In the mid 1940's students put their money together and bought an airplane for missions.  While the dollar amounts are minuscule to the Lottie Moon offering (STL - $8.3 million in 2010; Lottie Moon - 150.4 million in 2007), STL over the past 65 years has pushed students to give to missions.

Student ministries of the SBC are encouraging students to go across the world in the name of the Lord, but we do not have to wait until they are late high school or college age to connect them with the nations.  Junior High and Middle School students can connect with IMB missionaries through their giving and prayers.  Many SBC churches are leaving missions education for a variety of reasons, many for a program with more glitz and glamor. However, the tragedy will be in 10 to 20 years when these students have no idea how our missionaries are funded and we continue to lose financial support to send more.  Then when students are ready to go who will support, guide, and train them when they arrive?

Mission projects and local, state, and national mission trips are important through the teen years, but how do we cast a vision for the nations to a junior high student.  Find a tangible way to connect that junior high student to the nations.  Here a couple of suggestions:

1.  Skype a IMB missionary.
2.  Discover their needs and allow your students to meet those needs.
3.  Have students give to the Lottie Moon offering knowing their money will support their "adopted" missionary.

Younger students need tangible or real ideas in order to understand and learn. These suggestions will give their giving and missions education purpose and meaningfulness.  Then in six years when they graduate more students will have a heart for the nations and more will go.  If you have other ideas, I welcome your thoughts.

So Why God's Youth Guy

So I thought I would start with explaining the meaning of the blog title.  I do not by any means claim to be God's ultimate youth minister.  There are some incredible youth ministers far better at this than me.  Steve Wright would definitely be one of those.  For me its a humble reminder like many other youth ministers out there that this is not about my fame and fortune but about His Kingdom.  I'm really His youth minister.  For my little corner of the world, I'm the guy He has placed there to serve.

People may attempt to criticize how I do things or question whether I'm really cut out to be a youth minister but at the end of the day when I lay my head on my pillow the only opinion I'm concerned about is God's. Is He pleased with my ministry?  The fastest way to lose sleep and end up on medication for anxiety is to live life trying to please students, church members, deacons, parents, and pastors with your ministry.  You can't do it.  In case you missed it let me repeat that . . . YOU CAN'T DO IT!  Trust God.  It won't be the easiest ministry but it will be the most rewarding.  It comes with the greatest experiences and opportunities.  Money and human approval cannot compete with that.  That is why I'm God's Youth Guy.

Brent