(Welcome to our youth staff meeting. For more info about the 5 Essentials click here.)
I overslept.
I woke up and looked at my clock which was blinking 7:40, 7:40, 7:40, 7:40.
(Welcome to our youth staff meeting. For more info about the 5 Essentials click here.)
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(Welcome to our youth staff meeting. For more info about the 5 Essentials click here.)
When I first started driving I had an innate fear. I was terrified of running out of gas. So, in an effort to always stay full, I would stop by the gas station near my house anytime my tank got below 3/4 of a tank. The idea of getting close to "E" scared me. I can proudly say that I have never ran out of gas. However, things have changed since then. Now, my car hardly ever sees 3/4 of gas in the tank. I know this is not normal, but I hardly ever really get a full tank of gas. I usually just stop and get $20 worth or $30 worth after my car tells me that I have "0 Miles to empty."
There are two reasons that I usually drive on empty:
#1 - I don't want to pay the price - gas is expensive as all of you know, and I hate the idea of dropping $80 to fill up my Jeep.
#2 - I am too busy - It seems that I always need to fill up with gas at the most inconvenient times. Life is busy and I am never excited about detouring from what I am doing to fill-up.
I think it is the same in my spiritual walk. When I first felt the call of God on my life I was so terrified about running out of gas and I did whatever it took to make sure that my spiritual tank stayed full. However, as years go by, it is very easy to grow comfortable just living our spiritual lives on "E." Two things get in our way. We don't want to pay the price, and we allow the busy lives to crowd out our relationship with Jesus.
I want us to do an inventory of our hearts and see if we are living our spiritual lives too close to empty. Understand, we can't give students what we don't have. We can't take students where we have not been. We reproduce what we are, not what we want to be. We must lead others from the overflow of what God is doing in our own hearts and lives.
It is easy to allow our WORK for God to replace our WALK with God. When we allow our work to replace our walk then we are out of order.
Mark 12:28-31
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" 29 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Jesus says that the two greatest commandments are: #1 to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. #2 To love your neighbor as yourself. Notice their order again. The first commandment is to love God, then we love people. When we love people first we are in danger of having a ministry-centered life instead of a God-centered life.
As Doug Fields says, "We are called to love God and like students."
John 15:5
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Understand that without being connected to God we can do NOTHING of eternal value. We can do nothing that truly matters. If we are going to be effective in working with students understand the foundation is not our creativity, ingenuity, or our superb ability to relate to students. If we are going to have fruit that remains from our work in student ministry our foundation is our connection with God. In John 15 Jesus goes on to say that he wants us to go from a servant to a friend relationship. In other words, he wants us to be more than just task-oriented servants, he wants us to be relationship-oriented friends. We must develop an intimacy with God that is not dependant with him using us in ministry.
Low-Fuel Indicators
1. You have extended periods when you do not spend time with God alone.
2. You only spend time in prayer and study of the word when you are preparing to minister.
Ways to Fill-Up
1. Set aside specific times to connect with God through prayer.
2. Have a daily diet of scritpure not consumed for the purpose of teaching.
3. Place God's abiding Word in your heart through memorizing the scriptures.
4. Practice the discipline of fasting.
5. Utilize marginal time in your life to fill-up. (Spend time during your daily commute to listen to the Bible or a message.)
The warning from John 15 is clear. Without staying connected to Jesus we can truly do nothing. However, the promise is clear as well. When we do choose to abide in Him and allow His word to abide in us then we will bear much fruit. Let's choose to pay the price and set aside the business of our lives so that we can stay full of the Holy Ghost.
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Here are the notes/resources that were given out during my session at NAYC this year. I know everyone was not able to get a physical copy of the handout that attended the session so I wanted to provide it for those who were interested. It was such an honor to be able to meet and to speak with so many amazing youth workers this year at NAYC. I am so thankfkul for the GYD, and the great job they did this year with Youth Congress.
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Series: "3D"
Key Thought: Deep faith is developed through the daily decision to pray.
Understandable Message: This week we focused on the importance and power of daily prayer. We focused on the example of Jesus and the reality that it is impossible to have a healthy Christian life without the discipline of prayer. Each week in the series we are looking at a passage from Luke. It has been great because many students are following the "3D" Luke/Acts Challenge and reading their Bibles each day. The passage we focused on was Luke 11:1-4 when Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Our teachers shared the elements of this prayer in our different Middle School, High School, and College-Age environments: 1.Praise 2.Purpose 3.Provision 4.Purity 5.Power 6.Priorities.
Creative Elements: We kicked off the night in a fun way by playing a quick game of "Who Wants to be a Fraction of a Millionaire?" Donny did a great job hosting! Our grand prize was $10. Two lucky students walked out last night 1/100,000 of a Millionaire! It was fun! After this, the student band did a great job leading us in worship!
Songs: What the World will Never Take, Hosanna, There is Nothing Like.
Next Week: No Service due to FL District Family Camp.
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Last Wednesday night, with our kickoff of 3D, we issued a challenge to students and staff to read their Bibles everyday. We simply called it the "3D Challenge." This summer we are focusing on developing deep faith through daily decisions. One of the daily decisions we are making is the decision to read the Bible.
Everything changed when king Josiah found "The Book" in 2 Kings 22. The Word of God was there all along, however, Josiah was not aware of it. Our prayer is that this summer many students will discover "The Book" and be forever changed.
As a way to remember the challenge, we gave each student a bookmark to remember what we are reading each day. We also are posting the scriptures on a blog each day here and on facebook.
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Last night at our youth staff meeting we had a discussion that centered on two simple questions.
1. What is the greatest leader you have ever been around and why?
2. What is the greatest team you have ever been on and why?
The conversation that resulted from these questions was great. It was inspiring to hear all the stories of the great teams and leaders that everyone had been exposed to. Through this discussion our team began to develop a list of values for our youth staff.
The values that we want for our team:
Humility
Listening
No Sacred Cows
Play to your strengths
Cooperation
Everyone has a voice
Loyalty
Honesty
Any thoughts or values we could add to the list?
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"What are you doing in your student ministry that will outlast you?"
That is the statement God used from this book to wreck my thinking.
In working with students it is so easy to spend your time, energy, and efforts focusing on things that are flashy but not fundamental. Things that are good but not essential. Things that are relevant, but not lasting.
For me, I love creativity. I love things being fresh and new and all that. I love sermon series with nice graphics and videos that challenge students to think about and respond God like never before. I realize, that we are living in a media-driven generation whose attention must be captivated by any means necessary. I understand all that. I think we should have all that. I think we should speak the gospel in the language of students today. There is nothing wrong with that. That is incarnational student ministry. That is what Jesus did, he was not content just being a booming voice from a mountain, he wanted to come into the world so people could touch God.
I love all this, and if you came to reverb this past Wednesday, you would have seen all of the above. Flash, I use it. And I think you should use it too, but never at the expense of the fundamentals.
Prayer. That's fundamental.
Having a move of God. That's fundamental.
Reading the Bible. That is fundamental.
Being Holy. That's fundamental.
Preaching doctrine. That's fundamental.
Challenging students to share their faith. That's fundamental....
It is so easy for me to spend hours upon hours preparing flash for our student ministry and neglect the fundamentals. There is something wrong if I spend more time preparing flash for a youth service than I do in prayer and study for that same youth service. We cannot substitue the fundamentals.
I grew up hearing my Pastor make this statement,
"What God blesses as a supplement, he will curse when it becomes a substitute."
I want to put something in the lives of students that will outlast me. I want to see students making a difference in their world for Jesus, not just while they are in High School, but for the rest of their lives.
I want to think fundamentals, not flash.
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“Leadership is influence.” -Maxwell
If leadership is all about influence, then the real question is, “How do we gain influence?” I have found that influence with students is born out of the relationships you have with them.
Remember the story of Philip and Nathaniel? (John 1) Philip had a life-changing experience with Jesus and he wanted Nathaniel to have the same experience. So Philip tells Nathaniel about Jesus. Then Nathaniel, like many students that we serve, had some doubts. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he said. To Nathaniel’s doubts, Philip simply says, “Come and see.” Notice, Philip’s appeal is to the relationship that he has developed with with Nathaniel.
This is what we want. We want to see students have a life-changing encounter with Jesus. However, most students will not come to Jesus if we haven’t first developed a relationship with them so that they trust us when we say, “Come and see.” Come and see what Jesus made you for. Come and see how Jesus has called you to live. Come and see your purpose.
I have found that the ultimate relevance is relationship, and that “I Care” trumps “I’m Cool” every time.
Over and over, the moments that students say have impacted their lives have not been about the things that I had associated with my role. I haven’t heard one talk yet about the messages I’ve so carefully crafted, or the cool invitations I spent hours designing.
The things they said impacted their lives were all about relationships. A conversation over lunch after school. Taking them home from their basketball practice. A trip to the mall. Things that I honestly do not remember. However, it meant the world to them. It was those things, the relationship stuff, that caused them to respond when I asked them to “Come and see” in a youth service. It was those things that opened the door for me to speak truth into their lives. Because our lives are the greatest message we will ever preach.
This is what this generation is looking for. They are not looking for the coolest Youth Pastor on the planet. They are not looking for you to melt their faces off with the most powerful exegesis of the book of Nahum. They are just simply looking for a youth worker who cares. They are looking for someone that will be there for them through it all. They are looking for someone to talk to when their parents are fighting. They are looking for someone to talk to when they have doubts about God.
Think about it...you are where you are today as a youth worker because somebody somewhere thought it was cool to care about you. What if we became that kind of youth worker to a student today.
Are our roles important? Absolutely. This is what we are. We have responsibilities that go with our roles in student ministry. However, what God has been challenging me about is to not think that I am influencing students just because my business card says “Student Pastor.”
I want to think relationship, not role.
Join the conversaion...submit a comment..
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Thoughts are powerful. Everything began with a thought. The creative thought of God (John 1). Being made in His image, God has given us creative power though our thoughts. The chair you sit in was first someone’s thought before you ever had the chance to buy it. It’s color, it’s shape, all were ideas in someone’s mind. Now, you are enjoying the end result of that initial thought. Thoughts are powerful. They shape the future. They change the world.
This is why it is so important that we have the right thinking as youth workers. Our thoughts affect the next generation.
Listen to what Paul said about the importance of our thinking:
Romans 12:2 (NLT)
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.
The way that we are transformed is by changing the way that we think. I feel that God is continually challenging and transforming my thinking. Constantly renovating my mind; replacing old ways of thinking with new ways.
This week, I want share with you some of the ways that God has challenged and is challenging my thinking in Student Ministry.
But first a quesion:
How are some ways that God has been transforming your thinking?
I want to have the mind of Christ.
I want God to change my mind.
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