Brandon Shanks {dot} com

5 Essentials - Part 4 - Keep it Real

 (Welcome to our youth staff meeting. For more info about the 5 Essentials click here.) 

 

    Today is the day that students gather together at school flagpoles across America to pray.  See You At the Pole is a great annual event.  As I went to bed last night I was reminded of a See You At the Pole event from about 6 years ago. 

    I had not been a Youth Pastor for very long.  I had been working very hard that school year to develop relationships with some teachers in a local high school.  I had challenged our students to get involved in their schools like never before and some rose to the challenge.

    A couple of the students really took it to heart and actually organized the SYATP event at that school.     This was a great thing.  I was so excited.  The students from our youth group asked for me to speak and also to bring my guitar to help lead worship that morning.  I was so excited.  This was our first big opportunity to make an impact on this school campus.  

    I can remember going to bed the night before excited about the upcoming day, then you know what happened next....  

I overslept.  

    I woke up and looked at my clock which was blinking 7:40, 7:40, 7:40, 7:40.  

I had slept through the alarm that morning and had completely missed the See You At The Pole event. When I woke up the students were already in school.

    Of all days to oversleep!  I felt horrible.  I had missed a great opportunity to make a difference on a high school campus.  And most of all, I had let the students down.  I felt like a failure.  I was so disappointed in myself. The chances are, if you have been in ministry more than 5 minutes, you know that feeling.  

    You know what it feels like to make a mistake along the way.  I am not talking about sin.  I am talking about the times we have not been the greatest leaders.  The times we have not fulfilled commitments. The times we have missed opportunities.  The times we have let students down along the way.  The times we have slept in. This speaks to the reality that we are all human.  There will be times when we make mistakes.  

So, what do we do?  We keep be real!

Be real when you make a mistake.  Be real when you let yourself and others down.  This is one of our key essentials to leading students because it is all about authenticity. The greatest way we lead students is not through our perfection, but rather through our authenticity.When we are real we allow students to see themselves in us.  Saying, "I am sorry" is not a bad thing.  Telling a student, "I don't know" is not a sign of failure, but of honesty and vulnerability.  When your students see you being open like this, they will be more likely to do the same.

 

Here are some principles to keep in mind:

 

1. When you mess up...fess up - Sometimes you have to make the hard phone call like I had to that day  to students that were counting on me.  I told them that I was so sorry and that I felt so bad.  Sure, I was the leader, and I really did not "have" to give them an explination, but I wanted to be real with them and say that I was sorry.  Through being real with them and showing my sincerity they gladly forgave me and we saw God do great things on that campus that school year! 

 

2. Share your life...appropriately - Give students permission to be who they are by being comfortable in your own skin.  Share the stories from your life with them.  Share mistakes and miracles; sadness and success.  However, do not dump the dirt of your life on students.  Make sure you share appropriately in a way that is edifying to students.  Don't continually talk about things that you used to do before you came to Christ in such a way that it appears you are proud of what you used to be.  Remember, we are dealing with students that are very impressionable.  We must be sure to obey 1 Timothy 1:4 and not minister questions to students.  Seek to share your life in a way that students gain answers and not just more questions.

 

So, let's keep it real.  Some days we do accidentally oversleep. Just keep going. Don't be discouraged. Be encouraged.  Just set your alarm again and keep it real!

 

 

Free Student Ministry Resource: M90

(Check out this awesome Student Ministry Resource made possible through the GYD!  I love this resource and am so excited to share it with our students.  The fact that they can download the M90 app on their phones is amazing!  The following is an excerpt from an email from Matthew Johnson explaining The M90 Challenge.)

 

Psalms 119:11
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Throughout the scriptures we find verses like Psalm 119:11 that tell us the importance of hiding the word of God in our heart.  Many may ask, "Where do I begin?" when pondering the 31,000 verses in the Bible. 

Memorize 90 (M90) is a very easy-to-use systematic Scripture Memorization program developed by the General Youth Division. It is also a personal devotion guide. Who is it for? It is for anyone who wants to memorize and apply Scripture, especially our target audience of teenagers and young adults.

Starting October 1st, the GYD leadership will begin the M90 Challenge. We are looking for students & student leaders from around the country to join us in this challenge!  Perhaps you want to follow M90 on Twitter or Facebook as we take the journey through the scriptures.  The great part of the program: ALL THE MATERIAL IS FREE!  We have even created an app for your Android or iOS devices.  The app includes flashcards, memorization progress, and complimentary materials to make memorizing fun!

We hope you will join us starting October 1st as we take the M90 Challenge!  Download all the great resources here!

Check out the M90 promotional video here

 

5 Essentials - Part 3 - Fill-Up First

(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.  

 

5 Essentials - Part 2 - Time on their Turf

(Welcome to our youth staff meeting. For more info about the 5 Essentials click here.)

1 Thessalonians 2:8
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

In this passage, Paul shares with us his heart toward the church at Thessalonica.  Paul loved the people so much that he shared both his life and the gospel with the people.  I pray that we too can have this same love for the students Jesus has called us to serve.  May we too share both the gospel and our lives.  To truly share our lives with students we must spend time with them beyond our youth services.  We must spend time on their turf.

The principle of time on their turf is simple. The ultimate relevance is relationship.  We are going to do our best to have the most welcoming and excellent student enviornments here at the church.  However, we must be like Paul, we must share life with the students.  Our ministry must extend beyond what heppens on Wednesdays and Sundays.

When we spend time on the turf of a student we connect with them outside the church enviornment.  This could be attending an event at their school or attending a birthday party.  This could be meeting them at T-Bell or hosting an X-Box night.  

Spending time on their turf is powerful.

1. Time on Their Turf Changes Students:

There are some students that I would never have influence with unless I spent time on their turf.  It is amazing how some students respond in church enviornments after I have spent some time on their turf. In these times we become real to them.  It is one thing for us to be in front of them teaching on Wednesday nights, and it is another thing for them to know who we are on a personal level.  Also, when we spend time on their turf students have a chance to ask us real questions about their life and faith.  We, in turn, also have the opportunity to ask them about their faith and relationships.  It makes all the difference.

2. Time on Their Turf Changes You:

Just as much as spending time on a student's turf changes them, it changes us too.  Spending time with students causes me to have compassion.  I see their stories.  I hear the things that they are dealing with and my heart goes out to them.  Burden is a byproduct of exposure.  If you do not have a burden for students, you probably need to spend more time on their turf.  Time on their turf causes me to have faith for the future.  When I spend time with students I see their potential in Christ.  It is easy to believe in students when you spend time with them because you are able to clealy see the fingerprint of God on their lives.  Time on their turf makes us more effective because we know those that we serve.  Ministry becomes personal when we spend time on their turf.

Some things to keep in mind:

- Share everyday life - You do not have to have a big event to spend time with students.  Simply involve them in your daily life.  Look at your schedule this week and see if there is any thing you are doing that you could ask a couple students to tag along with you.  Are you going to the mall or to the grocery?  Involve students in your everyday life.

- Establish boundries - Sharing life with students does not mean that you spend time with them 24/7.  If you do we may need to get you a straitjacket for your birthday.  You must establish boundries to make sure spending time with students does not encroach on your time with family and other priorities.  Also, you must establish boundries to you don't allow time with students to replace your time with God.  We can't allow our work for God to replace our walk with God.  You cannot give someone what you do not have. 

- Two final principles - When we spend time with students outside of church we must have the permission of the parents.  Make sure you communicate with the parents of the students that you are spending time with.  Don't let the parents hear it from the students.  Talk to them and ask their permission.  We are called to partner with parents (Another essential we will talk about in another meeting).  Also, guys do not need to spend time alone with girl students and neither do ladies need to spend time alone with our guy students.  These are boundries that are non negotiable.

Each of you do a great job at spending time on the turf of students.  I am encouraged as I hear the stories week after week of the impact that you are having.  May we continue to share both the gospel and our very lives with these students for the glory of God!

 

(For more thoughts about relational student ministry check out these other posts here & here.)

 

"The Truth About God" Video

This is a video that we used to introduce our new series "The Truth about God."  The idea is that in this series we are shreading our false images of God.  It was a fun video to make.  

Reverb in Review 6/29/11

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.

The 3D Challenge

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. 

 

GUEST BLOG: David McGovern "Seven (plus or minus 3)"

This is a blog from David McGovern's blog!  David is a great Student Pastor from escondido, CA!  He is one of the most creative people I know! He has such a heart for student ministry! Check out his blog here!

 In 1935, Henry Gustav Molaison was an average 9-year-old boy riding his bike down his street. Suddenly, as 9-year-old boys often do, he crashed. But tragically, Henry hit his head and suffered significant brain trauma. From that day forward, Henry’s life began a course plagued by frequent epileptic seizures.

Before you give up on the story, you should know that it has a pretty cool ending. In fact, Henry would go on to make great contributions to cognitive psychology and marketing. Oh, and by the way, Henry was the guy who influenced the length of our phone numbers.

After his traumatic bike accident, his doctors attempted to localize his seizures, so they removed part of Henry’s medial temporal lobes. The surgery left Henry with severe retrograde amnesia.

Here’s the thing about Henry: he could remember everything prior to the surgery, but his brain could not encode new long-term memories. Although he could never remember anything from 5 minutes beforehand, the last 30 seconds were crystal clear to him at all times. Henry’s curious case provided science with the first pieces of evidence that humans have a uniquely powerful yet concise short-term working memory. But here’s the kicker: our short-term memory has a finite capacity.

In 1956, cognitive psychologist George A. Miller suggested that this capacity was SEVEN (plus or minus 3) items. Decades later it was determined to be roughly 2.5 seconds of information. In English, that equates to SEVEN (plus or minus 3) words.

The implication is that people are remarkably better at remembering messages with 7-10 words or less.

The concept of “7 words” is so powerful that some marketing boutiques, like BluePrint, do nothing but help companies arrive at 7 words or less to answer the question, “Why should I choose you?”. Because while companies like Southwest become successful with their consistent answer, the fact of the matter is most organizations lack a concise communication of their purpose.

The challenge for student pastors is this – know your 7 words. Spend some time thinking about some simple words or phrases that clearly communicate what your student ministry is, what it does, and why it’s important. At Solid, we have what we call “The Solid Life”. The Solid Life is a foundation of 7 (plus 3) simple words that define our student ministry. From the time a student enters Solid in 7th grade, until they graduate from Solid in their post-high-school years, at the very minimum, each student should have a firm grasp on these 7 (plus 3) principles and see them in consistent practice in their everyday lives. (Andy Stanley’s “7Checkpoints” and Jeremy Gutshce’s “Exploiting Chaos” helped me out alot with this!)

1. Fearless Faith
2. Disciplined Devotion
3. Moral Boundaries
4. Real Relationships
5. Wise Choices
6. Spiritual Authority
7. Selfless Service
8. Unapologetically Evangelistic
9. Living Worship
10. Apostolic Identity

What are your 7 (plus or minus 3) words? I’d love to hear em. Love you all.

Read more of David's blog here!

The 40 Year Student Ministry

Yesterday another Student Pastor that I follow asked a question on twitter that really captivated me.  He asked, "How do we as Youth/Student Pastors determine the success of a Youth/Student ministry?"

Wow!  Great question.

What is a WIN for us that work with students? 

So many things came to mind about what defines success for student ministry.  However, I don't think the true success of student ministry can fully be measured TODAY.  Wait a minute, I understand that there are things that we MUST look at like numbers, student facilities, involvement, cool praise bands, students receiving the Holy Ghost, students baptized in Jesus Name, community involvement, just to name a few.  All these are great and vital today.  We can't be satisfied with complacency. We have to move forward.  The task demands it.

But what I can't get off my mind is, "What good is all that if in 40 years these students that I am working with are not still in the church?" 

The true win is students that become fully functional members in the body of Jesus Christ.  The true win will be when you see students that grew up to raise their families in the church.  You say, "I don't think we have control over that."  However, we can put things in students that will help them stand the test of time.

We have to change our perspective from 4 to 40! From "What can I do to impact students for the 4 years they are in High School?" to, "What can I put inside students that will last 40 years?"

I tell the students at revolution that I am not preaching to them at age 16 with a girlfriend that you have been going with for two months.  I am preaching to the 22 year old college student that is making decisions far away from your parents and loved ones.  I am preaching to the 40 year old Dad with three kids a wife and a dog.  Is that adult still serving God.

Questions?
What are we putting in students?
Are we teaching things that are doctrinally sound and in alignment with our Senior Pastor and church?
Is our preaching/teaching a well balanced? this book is great for that.
Are we teaching students rebellion by our actions?
Am I teaching students how to be a Godly husband/wife through my example?
Am I opening opportunities for students to be involved in leadership in student ministry and/or other parts of the larger church?

"God, help us, by your Spirit, to instill in the hearts of students something that will cause them to be in your kingdom all the days of their lives."

Help us to have a 40 year student ministry.

I would love to hear some of your thoughts about what success looks in student ministry.

Great places for FREE resources!

When I first started working in student ministry I remember meeting a fellow student Pastor who I thought had a lot of cool and innovative things going on.  He had awesome software that he used in his youth services.  He even had motion backs (oooohhhh....aaahhhhh) that he used behind the words during service.  I thought he was really cool.  I, on the other hand was not cool.  I did not have any media, cool graphics,  videos, or motion backs to use.  I had just bought my first laptop. Sad to say it was an emachine (or e-doorstop as I call it now!). I remember asking the other student Pastor if he could share with me some of the videos and software that he had, and totally surprised when he told me no.  He said that he had looked and looked to find it and that I would have to do the same if I wanted to be innovative. 

That day I made up in my mind that I wanted to share everything that I have with other fellow student Pastors.  Whether it is advice, sermons, series, graphics, videos, ideas, ect... I want to be a collaborator with fellow student workers.  I am so encouraged as I meet more and more student workers who feel the same way!  This is not a competition!  This is the mission of taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a generation of students. Let's work together.  Let's collaborate and not compete! 

Here are some sites that I have found that have some great free GRAPHIC/WEB/PRINT/VIDEO resources that can be used for student ministry.  

CreativeMYK 

mynorthside.com/creative/

thechurchbox.com/beta/

open.lifechurch.tv/resources

What resources are you using?