Great Ideas Are Worth Sharing

I follow this blog to sharpen my understanding of youth ministry. I tried the idea in this post, it worked, and I found it to be very effective. It was something that was simple, which is always best. Also it was a great team activity and it pushed the students to really look at the Bible. I say this is a winner.

RETHINKING YOUTH MINISTRY: Great Youth Ministy Idea: You Teach Me!

Comfortable Not Knowing

During this whole process of learning how to be the person God needs me to be, I have allowed myself to be mentored by my pastor. I say that I have allowed myself to be mentored because for a long time I have been resistant of such a practice (mostly because I have been let down hard in the past). Last night we sat in a restaurant and talked about the Trinity for a good hour an a half. What we talked about was really great and Biblical sound, but what I gleaned from the conversation far surpasses the content of it. Today I feel comfortable not knowing. I don't have to know everything about God; I just have to worship him. Instead of having such vast head knowledge, I need to have an understanding in my heart, along with knowledge, that I have a great and merciful God. That what I need to model for students.

Maybe where we find most of our problems is in the fact that as a society we try to figure out everything. That heavy burden is carried into our ministries. I have been trying to figure out ministry for so long I just need to accept the fact that I need to above all else worship my merciful God. Though in my heart it scares me half to death, I have the comfort from the Holy Spirit today to do what I need to do to worship God today, and only today.

May we all be completely unsatisfied with ourselves and trust that God has a great plan of provision for us today.

Humbly Admiting I Need Help

So I have not been a diligent blogger for many reasons, but there is one reason that has overwhelmed me the most since I started my position as youth leader at my church. My pride is a terrible issue in my life right now. The other day I had to take a cold hard look in the mirror and say that I have no idea what I am doing apart of what I have already experienced. Really, I have no idea what I am doing. It is the most beautiful place I could be.

Where it stands right now, I have the influence to create a whole new structure for our student ministries. I really do know that with some work that we can form something powerful at my church and be a force for the Gospel in our community. But is it really my role to head this up in the first place? I do not believe so. The Holy Spirit needs to be in charge. Any structure needs to flow with the Spirit, otherwise I am essentially going against God and not with him. I have to be lead by the Spirit in order to follow the will of God. The beauty of the trinity is that it all works together like a symphony playing in tune with each other. I think this is the first time in my life that I have ever truly felt that I need to be fully lead by the Spirit. It a feeling like I am relaxing in a field on a beautiful day with no sound in the air. I know that everything is going to be alright, but I'm moving forward and taking steps to seek the will of God more and more.

I also need to have a heart to reach the lost. Even deeper than that, I need to have a heart like Jesus. Actually, I think it goes even beyond that; I need to be one with Christ. My life has to be such that every action I take, every thought I have, every nuance of my being needs to be aligned with Christ. I'm nothing if i don't even smell like Christ. I am nothing apart from the one who has saved me. Part of who Christ is, is that he loves those who are lost. Lost seems to be negative in a lot of ways. But I'm beginning to see that there is a lot of hope for those who are lost. There is a way. There has to be! If there is not then I'm toast. I know that God is developing an urgency in my life to reach the lost. Right now its just like scraping off old paint on a house. Sometimes the old paint just falls off with little effort. Its the stuff that doesn't fall off right away that it where we stumble. I just need to keep running the race as if I have a finish line to cross.

I'm want to do it Gods way, but I am seeking out how. If you happen to read this and think that you can help, please comment on this post. Or send me an email upon request and I will be sure to get back to you as soon as I get it. I need help and looking for God and his children to help me.

May the devil be far away from our efforts and may Jesus be the King of our ministries.

Camp and The Aftermath

This summer I had the blessed oppertunity to take the students at my church to camp. It was a week of fun, but it was amazing to see God move in the lives of the students. I just wanted to share a few stories from this week:

First being the night were it all happened. I was praying for each student individually all week. That evening all my prayers were answered. I prayed that one girl will start to deal with her current family situation, another to have her heart break for the lost, few to really get serious about their faith, and that they group would come together as a family to support one another. After evening chapel, I had girls crying over what I had prayed about and a most everyone else saying that they want to take there faith seriously. That evening was spent us letting the students meet as a group to pray over one another and to encourage one another to overcome what they are dealing with. God just moved. He moved in a way that only he can. God proved to me that He shows up when his people pray. My faith has never been stronger because of that.

The next day is when the drama bomb exploded. I will not disclose all the details, but there was a conflict between two of the students for the majority of the day, which really only they could resolve themselves. But that morning I challenged the students to trust the Holy Spirit to guide them in the word for their morning devotion. At the heat of the conflict, one of the students (who was not involved in the drama in any way) wanted to share what she read that morning for her devotional. You know what she read? 1 Peter 4 where it say that "love covers a multitude of sins". After that they two students having the conflict resolved there issue for the most part because of the words of their fellow peer. God is good beyond my comprehension. When we choose to follow his ways and his decrees, there is nothing that stops his awesome power. He is even working when we don't choose his will because he wanted to see this world redeemed. Praise God that is alive and working!

So what is a man like me suppose to do with this? During this week I became very fearful of what kind of leader I need to be and how to lead such an amazing group of students. I have to trust God everyday with this opportunity, because I will fail every time. So the aftermath is all about providing continual opportunities for these students to serve and live out their faith. If I don't I am a careless shepherd who will lead his sheep into a barren landscape than to the lush field of green right around the corner.

Simply Truth: Roll With The Unexpected

So I am inheriting a lot from the previous youth leader at my church as I start my new endeavor as being the new youth leader. One of those things is to make sure that everyone gets their shirts decorated for camp. The group previously decided that they will decorate shirts for camp; I'm cool with that. The shirts are already tie-dyed and ready to be painted; also I am cool with that. So I organized a time the students before Wednesday night church to paint the shirts; the plan is coming together. I get to the church a couple hours early to pray and prepare a little bit for this shirt painting project. I go to look at the shirts and all the guy shirts have hat brims on the collars; yes hat brims. The youth leader before me got a deal at a local close out store on shirts and all the guy shirts were shirts folded up into hats. Let me be frank, they were weird shirts. Now I'm not saying that it was the former youth leaders fault for buying these shirts because she had the best intentions when purchasing them, but I know my guys would not want to wear these shirts. So what am I to do? I go to the local fabric store, buy a stitch remover, and quickly remove the brims from shirts. It was hilarious. I remained flabbergasted about the magical transforming hat-shirts for the rest of the night.

The crisis was averted, but it was a reminder of a very fundamental truth with youth ministry: we need to roll with the unexpected. It is true that we try to expect the unexpected, but where is the fun in that? As human beings it is nearly impossible to try to expect everything. I want to encourage anyone reading this that we need to roll with the unexpected. There was no way that I was give these shirts to my guys and try to make them cool. But instead I had to find a new way to redeem these seeming odd shirts. We are to blessed to be stressed. Take the things that come your way in ministry and make the best out of them. Remember, when like gives your hat-shirts, make memories and make the most of the situation. God blesses us with the strange and unusually.

Laying the Foundation: Youth Need To Know How to Read The Bible

Youth need to know how to read the Bible, right? Seems simple enough. How hard can it be to make the Bible come alive to students? Well, its not easy. Now don't get me wrong, not every student will have a hard time being passionate about Gods word. I believe it is important as a youth pastor to make the word come alive in very real ways. My question is, how do we do it? What is the missing link between today's students and Gods word? Is it pizza and fun games? Joking aside, there are many answers to finding this link. One answer I do believe lies in the terrible tragedy of our bible illiteracy in our society. How can someone be passionate for the Bible is they do not know how to read it? This was a question I answered in a three part Sunday School series on how to read the Bible.

If you are unaware of a more academic approach to reading the Bible, there are two camps one could dwell in when reading the Bible. First is an eisegetical approach to reading the Bible. Simply put, this is taking the truth that you want from the Bible and forcing scripture to work within that construct. Sounds dangerous right? The other way to read the Bible is an exegetical approach which reading the word first and drawing truth from scripture. Exegetical approach is always going to be the healthier way to go. So how to do you teach something academic to teenagers? I had a great mentor for the last year of my life who gave everyone in the college group which he lead, including myself, an outline for this proper way to read the bible. The blessing was that it was simple and condensed for anyone to understand. Always use the resources that you are given. I simply used this to help my students to understand these concepts. Here is the run down on an exegetical study of the bible:

Step One: Observe: What does the Bible actually say?
* What is the context of the passage that you are looking at? Ask all the who? what? where? and when? questions of the passage and the author of that passage.
*What are the obvious themes in the passage? What are the words that repeat? What jumps out to you when you read the passage?

Step Two: Understand: What was the authors intention?
* Look at other translations to see what is similar and different. This will show what words stay consistent with the passage and what is up for interpretation; both things will reveal more about the author was trying to convey in the passage.
* Do some research! Search more about the passage of scripture to find out more about the intention of the author. There are plenty of bible help resources online (use Google for what its meant to do; find information you wouldn't normally find on your own). If you have Bible commentaries or any others Biblical resources that would be best, but the internet is a great alternative.

Step Three: Apply: What does this scripture mean for us?
* This is a very important step to do LAST, so that we do not lose the truth that that is found with the first two steps.
* Ask yourself after knowing what you know about the passage; what truth does this passage have for life today? (Don't be mislead, there is truth in all scripture for our lives.)


I know that by teaching this method and affirming this method in further Bible studies, that the students are going to have a deeper appreciation and love for the Word of God, even if its a slow process for them to get there. I'm ready to be patient to see what God does in their hearts.

The Monday Morning Debrief: Transformers & other movies

Now this is a great summary of how movies (and other mainstream media) can be used as ministry opportunities. God moves in big ways when we connect with youth on their level.

The Monday Morning Debrief: Transformers & other movies