(The following was TOTALLY stolen from my Associate Ben Fawcett @BFawcet)
The fact that Jesus was saving and redeeming people using music like this points to his sovereignty.
(There is a 90% chance I play this before our services on Sunday!)
Can you believe that Summer is almost upon us?! What are your plans this summer?
Here is our Summer Calendar for 2014:
(If you have a creative summer calendar that you would like me to share, just EMAIL ME and I’ll share it on the blog!)
Finally, what are you asking God for this summer? What do you want to see Him do or accomplish through you and the events you have planned? Share your response in the comments below!
Every weekday morning (okay – almost every), I head to the gym to do a little of that crazy thing called exercise. Today was no different. I woke up, ate breakfast, took my daughters to school and then headed to the gym. Parked in my usual spot. Walked into the gym and proceeded to scan my card. Here’s where it gets a bit interesting – the display on the card reader was reading “invalid card”.
Thinking the scanner misread my card I scanned it again and I got the same response from the card reader. A few thoughts started to pop into my head, “did I pay my membership?”, “have I been kicked out of the gym?”, and the ever popular “3rd time’s a charm – scan it again!” – so I did. Same response – “invalid card”! Then I noticed the reason…I was scanning a supermarket key tag instead of my gym key tag…oops!
We’re taught to say “no” a lot in ministry. I’ve been told countless times that you need to say no more often so you don’t spread yourself too thin and become ineffective. As youth workers this a good principle because we are constantly confronted with good opportunities that would drain us from the things we need to be doing.
Taken to the extreme, this can lead to a mentality where we only focus on the things directly within our ministry and job description. We see church ministry like an assembly line where we focus only on our widgets. The problem with this is that the church is a family, not a factory. A family where the parts are connected. That means we need to say “yes” from time to time to ministry opportunities in other areas of the church.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve said yes to serving other areas of our church that don’t directly effect my ministry to teens. One with a singles’ mission trip and another with a young families father/son retreat. Both are completely outside my job description. So when I was asked by leadership to take part, I could have declined. I said yes because I believe it makes ministry better.
Saying yes makes the Body healthy. The members of God’s body are interdependent. We should care about the health of the single’s ministry of your church, because it is just as important as yours. Both contribute to a healthy church body. I accepted the role of leading a single’s ministry mission trip because they needed someone and I was available. Saying yes means I am contributing to the health of the church at large, not just my own ministry.
Saying yes gives you opportunities for growth. When you step outside your normal ministry realm you get stretched in new ways. As part of the father/son retreat I had to speak to both dads and young sons. I have little experience teaching to either audience. It was challenging to come up with talks that could work for both an 8 year old and a 40 year old. Saying yes meant I learned to be a better communicator.
Saying yes shows your leadership you are ready. Many youth pastors, including myself, don’t want to get pigeon holed into one role. While ministry to teens is our main passion, we have other abilities to offer. Sometimes this helps leadership see you in a new light that might open doors in the future.
I’m not saying that you should say yes to everything. But maybe God is calling you to say yes to something that is outside your normal ministry. It may lead to an unexpected ministry experience, but you’ll never know unless you say yes.
Last Sunday I had the awesome opportunity to preach to our adult congregation.
My topic: Spiritually Leading Teenagers
Watch it and let me know what you think!
Flip This Family – 2nd Edition: The Teen Years from LifePoint Plano on Vimeo.
If you like something you hear…steal it, use it, preach it!
Two sources I reference:
Sticky Faith – Powell, Griffin, Crawford
Soul Searching – Christian Smith
Want to keep better track of your students? Want to keep a better record of your students?
Ever ask yourself the question where has that student been in a while
Why has that student stop coming?
Then do this…
Have a Round Up time!! (Round your students up!)
-Have a time twice a year (April, Sept.) where you or your volunteers/small group leaders sit down and facebook/email/text/call the students you haven’t seen in a while to find out where they been. (Make a chart w/ students name, how were they reached, reason haven’t seen them in a while)
-If they don’t answer or respond after you have tried at least twice don’t get discouraged. Sometimes they will respond. Sometimes they wont. But you can sleep at night knowing you did your job by reaching out to them.
-Let the student know you have missed them and wanted to know if everything was okay. To lighten the mood if they feel uncomfortable, ask them if anyone has said anything to offend them and if you need to beat someone up. You can even ask if they have started attending another church…if you feel comfortable.
Find out why they have stopped coming. That student could help you resolve issues that might be going on in your Student Ministry.
-After you have finished, you have lightened the load of a leader or helped a student come back!
This idea came from my pastor Kenny Hibbard and I think could help out your Student Ministry tremendously!
You are able to find out where that student has been! Maybe they started going to another church, moved, or maybe had a conflict you were able to resolve, just following up with them! Go for it!
Hope this helps!!
Student Pastors, keep allowing the front door to be WIDE OPEN, but also keep doing a great job of keeping the back door SHUT. Make sure your students are sticking.
