Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend time with one of my favorite people in the entire world, John Selbak. John is a long time friend (almost 10 years now) and one of my most important ministry mentors. Later on this week I will be posting an interview with John about his life/ministry and his thoughts on leadership and the church.

Today I want to take a moment to share 3 BIG REASONS why placing good mentors in your life will impact your youth ministry in powerful ways. 

1) YOU DON’T KNOW IT ALL!  Sometimes it can be hard for those of us who are in leadership roles to admit that we don’t have all the answers. But one of the marks of a great leader is having the ability to say “what am i not seeing?”. One of the huge blessings of having an older/wiser person speaking into your life is that they can help you avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that they have already experienced themselves. My parents always used to say “trust me…I’ve been there. I know what I’m talking about!”. You and I can save ourselves the trouble of certain failures (not all…but some) by learning the lessons from those who have walked in our ministry shoes before. In the book of Proverbs it says: 

“Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.” (Proverbs 15:22 NLT)

2) IF YOU ARE A LEADER, YOU NEED TO KEEP LEARNING! The truth is that as soon as you stop learning, you have stopped leading. Things in youth ministry are constantly changing. Youth culture is evolving at a very fast rate and we need to continue to grow/learn/engage culture as much as we can so that we can acquire the skills/knowledge necessary to reach students in the most effective ways. And one of the best ways to know where things are going is to understand where they have been in the past. Having mentors in our lives is like having a library of experience and knowledge right in front of us at our disposal! I believe having a strong ministry mentor is just as important as attending youth conferences/trainings/seminary. The Bible says: 

“Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.” (Proverbs 19:20 NLT)

3) YOU NEED TRUSTWORTHY PEOPLE TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH! For those of us in youth ministry, we need to allow certain people in our lives to hold us accountable. There are times when we are going to mess up and make mistakes (trust me, you will make mistakes!). And when those times occur, you need to have someone honest enough and strong enough in your life that can sit you down and say “Hey! Knock it off. You screwed up and you need to make a change!”. As youth workers we need sounding boards. We need to have people strategically placed in our inner circle who know our hearts/hurts/hangups/failures/successes, who can speak the truth in love to each of us and motivate us to grow closer to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews writes: 

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return in drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT)

Remember you weren’t meant to do life alone. We are better together! 

Pax, 

Rob

If you know me at all, then you know that I’m constantly thinking. I’m constantly asking probing questions of myself and of others as well. Just ask my wife! In a normal marriage (or at least this is what I’ve heard) the wife is usually the one who is always wanting to talk/discuss/bounce ideas off of her husband…but in my family it’s almost exactly the opposite! I’m the one who loves to discuss, to question and to discover. My wife says that she thinks it’s an endearing quality of mine…but I’m sure inside she wishes I would just take up napping or something. :)

Anyway, this week I’ve been thinking a lot about our focus in youth ministry. I’ve been thinking about the big question of “what does it mean to have a healthy youth ministry?” I recently finished reading a book by Kenda Creasy Dean entitled “Almost Christian: What The Faith Of Our Teenagers Is Telling The American Church”. In it Kenda describes the growing trend within the american teenage culture of being “spiritual” but not Christian. Teenagers today are focusing less on who God is and more on how connecting to a higher power makes them feel. Christian sociologists have used the phrase “Therapeutic Moral Deism” to define exactly how this paradigm plays out.  I don’t have time to get into everything about Therapeutic Moral Deism, but you can learn more by reading this article by Christian Smith who wrote the book “Soul Searching”. 

So how can we build a healthy youth ministry in the midst of our current teenage culture? What do we focus on as we build our youth programs? As I am sitting here in a cafe writing this, I’ve drawn two different strategies on some napkins concerning where we as youth workers can put our focus. The first is what I am calling a “God-Centered Youth Ministry”. Here’s the concept:

In a God-centered youth ministry all of our teaching/small groups/etc. focus in on “theology” which is the study of who God is. We focus on what the Bible says about God (what He is like, His characteristics, His plan, Salvation,etc.). From there we then move on to “anthropology” which is the study of human beings. Simply put, it means this: 

1) FOCUS ON JESUS & WHO HE IS

2) IN LIGHT OF WHO JESUS IS…WHAT IS A TEENAGERS RESPONSE?

So what is the other option? What is the opposite of a God-Centered youth ministry? Below is my doodle concept of a “People-Centered Youth Ministry”:

With a “People-Centered Youth Ministry” the focus in not on Jesus, but on the students. This kind of youth ministry will focus on particular types of teenage behaviors and how those students attempt to navigate the ideas of spirituality. Simply put, a “People-Centered Youth Ministry” looks like this: 

1) FOCUS ON THE STUDENTS AND HOW THEY FEEL

2) STUDENTS BECOME RELIGIOUS. 

The problem with the second model of youth ministry is that religion will never save anybody. In our world today there are tons of religions and I hear students (and adults) say all the time time that “as long as your are sincere about your faith it doesn’t matter what you believe.” However, no matter how sincere you are, you can still be sincerely wrong. Check out this event from the book of Exodus:

“When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp!” But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration.” (Exodus 32:17-18 NLT)

Moses has just come down from Mount Sinai where He received the Ten Commandments from God.  Suddenly he and Joshua hear the sound of the entire people of Israel celebrating together. They here a united people shouting and singing and worshiping. However, just a few verses before we here what God has to say about their worship:

“The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.” (Exodus 32:7-10 NLT)

Even though the people of Israel were being sincere, God told them that they were sincerely wrong! We have to be diligent in our effort to point the students in our ministry to Jesus and not to the world. We need to place our focus back on to the study of God and not on the study of ourselves. If we don’t, we can fall into the same trap that the Apostle Paul spoke of in the book of Romans: 

 ”Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-23 NLT)

Which model above can be seen in your own youth ministry? Which aspects of your current programs would you have to change in order to bring Jesus back to the center? 

Pax, 

Rob

Last weekend we wrapped up our 3-week series “The Beginning & The End”. We got a lot of positive feedback from students during this series. Since we were talking about science/end times/creation I think a lot of students came for the first time who usually don’t come to WILDSIDE. To close out our series, last weekend focused on “the end” which was a brief look at what the Bible teaches about the end of the world.  

Series: “THE BEGINNING & THE END” 

Pre-Service: Instead of a normal countdown video we had our student band perform a cover of R.E.M.’s “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It”. It was hilarious to watch our students try to sing the words of that song! If you haven’t heard it before you can check it out here.

Worship Songs: ”Take It All”, “Get Down (Audio Adrenaline Cover)”, “You Alone”

Grade Groups: In Grade groups this weekend we asked students some questions about what they think the end of the world would be like. We got responses like “…the aliens will destroy us all…” to “…I think it will be kind of like the movie W.A.L.L.E…we’ll destroy the earth and we will all get fat…” Ah. I love jr. high students!

Games: We played a really cool powerpoint crowd game called “The End Result”. Basically we showed them an object on the screen (ex. a diamond) and teams had to figure out which two things make up that object (i.e. Carbon + Compression= diamond). I’ll be posting up the free powerpoint game later on this week so check back soon! 

Message: Kurt taught the message this weekend on “End Times”. This was actually the 1st time in the history of WILDSIDE that the topic of “end times” has been taught at our weekend services. Kurt’s main points were that 1) Jesus will Come Back, 2) Someday the world as we know it will come to an end, 3)The End is really a new beginning! Kurt then awnswered the question of “when and how will all this happen?” by sharing with students that it will happen in God’s time and in God’s way. The thought for the week was: 

“Instead of FEARING The FUTURE, God Gives Us Something To Look FORWARD To!

Pax, 

Rob

All of us have been there. Whether you have been serving in youth ministry for years or you have been serving in youth ministry for minutes, you know that people move on! Change happens. Over the years I’ve seen countless numbers of youth workers move from one church to another or change vocations all together! That is just the nature of youth ministry…it’s always changing! So in the midst of staff members coming and going, how do we who remain say “goodbye” to someone on our staff? How can we make the transition a great one for both the staff and the students? 

Just a few weeks ago our jr. high staff went through this same kind of change as one of our long time staff members moved on from our student ministry to go work out in the cooperate world. So having been in the midst of this type of change recently, here are my thoughts on how to say goodbye to a staff member:

1) Take time to celebrate the legacy of their ministry. A few weeks ago we took our transitioning staff member out to lunch and took some time to shower him with praise for the work he had done while serving on our team. We shared stories of how he impacted students and we shared stories of how he had truly blessed our staff. Never underestimate the power of affirmation! 

2) Give the students in your ministry an opportunity to share in the celebration! Before our transitioning staff member left we gave students some time during our weekend services to write him a note of encouragement & thanks. Not only is this a great idea for your students, but it’s also a great gift for the departing staff member as well!

3) Keep the lines of communication/friendship open. This piece can be the hardest (since most of our ministries are so fast paced that people can be “out of sight out of mind”) but make it a point to stay in touch with your previous staff. Let them know that you care about them whether they are on your staff or not!

Now it’s time for you to share. What are some good ways you have discovered to say goodbye to someone transitioning out of your leadership team? Share your comments below!

Pax, 

Rob