It’s been a while…

I’ve said that a lot lately huh?  But, I am getting back into the blogging thing for good.  I really have always enjoyed writing.  It brings me joy…especially when I am able to express myself and bring others a source of joy or encouragement.  I have always been complimented as a writer, but have never really made it a priority.  Lately, I’ve felt an urge to write and update my blog.  I have been a little “off my game” since my big transition to Florida.  I’m still adjusting to new schedules, routines, environments etc.  But, my thoughts on ministry, our Creator God, sports and family are on the way!  Thanks for those who have patiently encouraged me to write more often!

 

What You See is Either Taught or Allowed

“What you see is either taught or allowed.”

A simple phrase that has stuck with me.  I first heard it from a varsity football coach who hired me as a head 8th grade football coach.  The point behind this statement is pretty powerful:

As a coach, whatever product I saw on the field was the result of what had been taught or allowed.  If my players lacked discipline, it was because it was either taught or allowed by me or my staff.  If my team looked unorganized, or disinterested, it’s because it was either taught or allowed.  In football, this is why fundamentals, organization and discipline are so essential for success.  In short, this statement is a great teaching point for leadership of any kind.

Think about this statement in these environments:

 

Hurt

I recently started to read a great book that provides wonderful insight into the world of teenagers. Hurt: an inside look of today’s teenager by Chap Clark is a great book so far. The writing is packed full of study and insight into the reality of teen culture, which has been wounded by neglect and adult-driven focus in many institutions. For those of you who work with teens, I strongly recommend you joining me in reading this book. I would love to share comments and have some insightful conversation from the reading. Here is the way Clark ends chapter 1 (this should give you a great snap-shot of the content of the book):

 

Choosing the Right People…

As a young leader, I am very interested in finding someone to mentor me right now.  I am hungry for someone to heavily invest and challenge me as a follower of Christ, a man, a husband, father and a pastor.  There’s also a strong desire in me to find someone willing to stretch me as a leader.  As a youth pastor, I see the HUGE need to invest in a few…and go far deeper with a couple of students than what you normally would in a program.  Last year, I even attempted a relationship like this with a few students.  My goal was to: awaken and inspire them to God’s reality.  I also focused on unleashing their dreams and visions. But, I remember thinking this: “I have no idea how to mentor these kids because I’ve never been mentored.”  However, I quickly realized that this kind of thinking can often be an excuse for not investing in anyone…so I did what came natural to me and it seemed to have an impact.

So, my question to you is this: Do you have a mentor?  If so, how did you go about finding one?  Did they find you?  Or, did you seek someone out?  If you sought someone out, what qualities did you look for?  Any feedback you could lend me would be greatly appreciated.

Steve Carter (Student Ministries Pastor at Mars Hill) recently wrote a very good post on more of a professional-type of mentoring relationship.  His post talks about people in his life who offer both healthy critique and encouragment for his teaching.  You can check his thoughts out here.

 

I’m Loving It…

I recently saw a commercial that completely articulates how I often feel.  Believe it or not, this commercial was for none other than…McDonald’s.  That right…McDonald’s.  The advertisement focused on the fact that they now offer cappuccino.  Now, you might be thinking, “big deal”, but let me tell you why this commercial was both hilarious and packed full of truth.

The commercial starts out with two trendy looking guys sipping cappuccino together, while engrossing themselves in some deep, philosophical literature.  The setting appears to be your typical “artsy” or “intellectual” coffee shop or cafe.  I am not saying these places are bad, but you know the ones, where if you aren’t feeling especially “cool” that day, then you probably should go through the drive-through, or if you don’t have the right lap-top or reading material, then you might as well be ready to get stared down by the regulars (if you’re smart, you can just forget to shave for a few days and stop combing your hair…then you’re good to go ).

Anyway, the environment appears to be one thing, but the scene is set in such a way that the two men in the shot have a simultaneous Epiphany.  One of the men blurts out, “McDonald’s sells cappuccino now?!” And this is where the commercial get hilarious and spreads some serious truth (at least in my mind ).  The other actor looks up from his reading and says, “You mean, I can shave this thing off of my face?” (making reference to his dark, thick soul patch forming a nice triangle between his bottom lip and chin)   To which the other actor responds, “Yeah and we can stop calling movies, films.” And then the conversations goes back and forth like so:

“Yeah, and I can watch football…I really like football!”

“And, I can get rid of these glasses…they’re fake!”

The shot ends with a sense of freedom for the two men.  The reason why I love this commercial is because I think a lot of us struggle with identity and being comfortable in our own skin.  It’s tough when we feel that we have to live up to someone else’s expectation and lose the freedom to just be ourselves.  As a young adult Christian…and especially as a Youth Pastor, I often feel the pressure to be what is labeled as “cool.”  You know what the cool Christian looks like.  If you don’t, try opening an issue of “Relevant Magazine” or go to any 40 and under Christian conference.  You will see a lot of what is depicted in the McDonald’s commercial.  You will see the trendy hair, the trendy glasses, and the tight T-shirts.  Now, it’s totally cool if this is who you are, but I think a lot of times, people are just trying to fit a certain mold.  Well, if that’s the mold for what a young adult Christian or Pastor should look like, or read, or drink, or talk like, then I would be lying if I tried to live that way.  I’m just going to try and be me.

I am who I am.  I’m trying to love myself the way God created me.  I often speak to Middle and High School kids about finding their true identity in Christ, yet I still feel confused, at times, as to what I should look like, or how I should speak, or who I truly am.  Thank you McDonald’s for bringing me some clarity and reminding me of just how silly it can be to try and fit a “mold” that truly isn’t me.

I wrote some another blog post here that continues some discussion on identity.  You should check it out some time and give me your thoughts.  I would love to talk with you.

 

The Story — At Just the Right Time

I don’t usually do this, but at the encouragement of a friend, I thought I would.  I am posting a message I did for Middle and High School students yesterday during worship service.  The message was a continuation of a series we created called “The Story.”  During this series, we focused on Creation, The Fall and The Exodus.  Yesterday, our focus was on how Jesus entered the story at just the right time.  In order to hold students’ attention and to make them think, I wrote a story which had an “epic” feel and focused on some themes we wanted to concentrate on that morning:

- At just the right time, in the story, Jesus came to be with us.

- Jesus came to free us from all that holds us hostage.

Check it out and I hope that God is able to bless you through it (this is my entire message…so it may take some time to read through.)

 

What environment works best?

Student Ministry is tough.  Reaching a biblically illiterate generation of teens requires constant change and evaluation.  My team and I are going through some different thoughts of change right now — specifically dealing with our environments (a better word for programs) and the issue of discipleship.  Currently, we only have one environment for our teens on Sunday morning.  This environment encompasses 3 key elements: large group teaching, large group worship and life groups (a fancy word for small groups.)  A few years ago when we implemented this format, our thought was that every student who comes to the gathering would be connected to a life group.  This has been a positive, but we’ve come to a conclusion lately — we sometimes are taking the students too deep.  In other words, we sometimes tend to take students where we are Spiritually and they aren’t ready for it.  Sunday mornings draw a lot of Spiritual infants and students whose parents are “church shopping” so we have decided that we need to add another environment to aid in the process of discipleship.  Now, obviously a program cannot fully disciple students.  True discipleship happens in families and also mentoring relationships (which is one of our values in Student Ministries) but we’ve really started to kick around the idea of setting up another environment midweek (we used to have midweek programming that had an outreach focus.  It had a purpose and accomplished that purpose, but ran it’s course and we decided to end it when it was apparent that we were trying to compete with school sports, band practices etc) where we are upfront with students and say, “this is for kids who really have a desire to go deep spiritually.”  So, this environment, whatever it shapes up to be, will have an element of deeper teaching, with a heavy focus on life groups and mentoring (this will require special adult leaders who are interested in discipleship).  Sundays will be more basic and topical in nature (we are part of a larger church and Sundays do bring us a lot of kids — most of whom know little, if any of the Bible).  So, I write all of this to ask the question, “what environments work best for you for discipleship?”  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Let’s keep changing lives!

 

Speaker Accountability…

As I continue to strive to reach teenagers, I realize this more and more:  communication is a huge key.  I have to continually speak at their level.  So, in an effort to maximize my effectiveness, I came up with a “Speaker Accountability” sheet.  The idea is that this sheet will be used in our creative planning meetings as we develop series and weekly worship gatherings for Middle and High School Students.  Then, the sheet would be used as an evaluation after the worship gathering to determine whether or not the speaker stuck to the guidelines.  Check it out below and let me know your thoughts.