5 unspiritual things I do in youth ministry part

Plan…I love to plan.  Now there are scriptural foundations for planning so it is not UNspiritual but there are many circles out there in the Church world that believes everything should be led by the Spirit…planning “squeezes” out the freedom of God.  I don’t subscribe to that theology.  I believe that you should plan.  I believe God’s ministry deserves a plan.  I believe the planning process should be bathed in prayer.  The plan should be prayed over afterwards and then you pray during your ministry to allow for interruptions of the plan.

Joshua was seeking God and God gave him a Plan for the Battle of Jericho.  God gave Gideon a plan.  God gave Paul a plan to reach the gentiles.  God gave Martin Luther King a plan.  He gave Mother Theresa a plan.  Planning is good.  I like to plan.

5 unspiritual things I do in youth ministry part 3

I Twitter.  Now I don’t pretend to understand why?  I don’t know why people care to know what I have for lunch.  I don’t understand it…but I love it!  It is totally narcissistic.  I get to have everyone who cares get to join me in this thing called life.  I have gotten advice on what to do for lunch and have had people instantly connected with me in prayer.  It can be idiotic and it can be an instrument of ministry.  I leverage twitter and facebook in ministry so that I can network, have fun and stay connected with people who care about me and I about them.  It is easy to get STUCK in your office planning, reading and writing…sometimes you need to remember that there are other people out there…especially if you are a youth pastor remember there are people older than 18 out there.  So, it isn’t all that spiritual but I am addicted to twitter.

5 unspiritual things I do in youth ministry part 2

I watch awards shows.  Some I actually like some it is like watching knowing a wreck is about to happen.  Why do I watch them even though rarely is there anything that edifies Jesus…in fact sometimes just the opposite.  I love the creativity of it.  I love how they weave in multiple senses to create an environment.  I love the way they create excitement…you can feel the buzz through the TV screen!  I love that and I try to steal as much as I can from it.  Kids ministries and even Middle School ministries would do well to be inspired by the fun of the NICK TV awards.  It is an incredible show!  Our ministry has done a few things to create mood and anticipation…everyone of those ideas I jacked from an awards show.

There are some elements to every awards show that we can transfer to our Wednesday night experience.

1) The Red Carpet – We don’t actually have a red carpet but we do try to create a first impression that makes students feel excited and accepted.  We want them to know as soon as they enter the parking lot that tonight is a special night.  The music, the lights, the attention!

2) The Cold Open – This is what they call in the biz the BIG number that is almost set apart from the rest of the program…a BIG intro.  When students walk in there is a bold countdown in a dark room and lots of smoke and our first number is always a crowd pleaser.  An infusion of energy.

3) The Takeaway – we don’t give out awards but at the end of every service is a communicator that sums up what is most important in the evening.  This takeaway moment hopefully crystalizes what they have heard and allows the Holy Spirit to work it in their hearts.

BONUS) The interview – no award show would be complete without the interview…it makes the stars feel important and gives the reporters meaning…same applies at Alive.  We interview every student…it makes them feel special and gives the youth team meaning.

So, that is what I have learned from Awards shows.  Nothing hugely spiritual and many pastors will scold me for exposing myself to the evils of pride, greed, lust and vanity but it has helped me a lot.

5 unspiritual things I do in youth ministry

There are some things that I do in youth ministry that you won’t find in the Bible anywhere…no not even in The Message.  There are things that I believe are important to youth ministry though I cannot find a single spiritual component in it.  This next series of blogs will highlight some of my favorite things I do in youth ministry that have nothing to do with Jesus but help me in ministry.  It sounds a little heretical I know but it’s my blog so nah.

Number 1 – Logo design

Design is a hobby of mine.  It feeds my creativity and I just like doing it.  I am not saying I am any good at it but i like doing it.  When I got to Pointe North I inherited the name Alive Youth Ministries.  I wasn’t a huge fan but not wanting to change too much I stuck with the name.  Actually it was @live Youth Ministries…that was TOO much so we went to Alive.  One of the things I went straight to was developing a logo for the youth ministry.  The first draft was cool but not very iconic or transferable.

Eventually we went with what we have now that I think is pretty cool and works with the name and is easily identifiable and transferable.

So what is the BIG deal…well everyone who sees the Alive logo, knows what it is.  They know what it represents.  They know who we are.  It is a crucial marketing tool.  When you see the red Target you know what it is.  When you see the Apple, you know what it represents.  When you see the EKG/Circle, you know that is ALIVE.

Nothing spiritual but really helpful in getting a small town to know who you are.

Decisions decisions

I have never been good at making choices between 2 good options.  Some people have that knowledge of “God’s Will”.  I don’t have that.  I know what God wants me to do day by day but rarely does scripture point out details from day to day.  What about you?  How do you approach Big Decisions.  Are you a pro/cons list kind of person?  Are you a pray and fast until you force God to TELL you what to do?  Are you a go till you hear a no or a don’t go anywhere because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?  Let me know…I am intrigued.

Alive Worship Review

Teaching Series: The Face of Love

Theme: Masks – Love is Truthful

Bible: John 4:1-39

Attendance: 293

First Time Guests: 12

Volunteers: 33

Length of Service: 50 minutes x 2

Breakdown: The Middle School crowd was jacked up!  With spring fever in the air and testing going on they were NOT interested in singing and listening to a message.  It was CRAZY!  The High School crowd however was engaged and the worship time was intense with some real healing that took place with over a dozen teenagers.  We integrated a couple of vids and used masks as an object lesson so I will give the creativity a B -.  Overall a good night but incredibly taxing on the volunteers.

Enough with Enough

When it comes to ministry I have never understood the concept of enough.  I know my critics will say that I care too much about numbers or how big my ministry is but the simple fact of the matter is how much IS enough?  When are you capped off?  When do you reach the point of crossing the line of “that church is TOO big”?  At what point do you say to the next guy, “I’m sorry we are full go somewhere else.” (Basically saying in the literal since, “go to hell.”)

My daughter comes to me after being told to clean her room ever 15 minutes, “Is this clean enough?”.  It drives me crazy!  Many in the church have similar attitudes.  I want to do JUST enough to feel good about myself.  We use great excuses for enough, I need more time for “margin” or “family” or “me time”.  I don’t see that in scripture.  I do see in the heroes of the faith an urgency to tell as many people the Gospel of Jesus as possible.  They assembled massive crowds, and spoke boldly.  They endured, they pushed the envelope they never said ENOUGH.

Jesus when approached by his disciples in Matthew 14, after a long day of ministry the crowds were beginning to get hungry.  The disciples were to the point of enough of this it has been a long day, we did good, we are tired and hungry, let’s go!  Jesus didn’t believe in enough.  He took a kids sack lunch and fed 5000.  Jesus wasn’t finished, just because a struggle came the ministry didn’t stop.  Enough with Enough!

This is something that obviously God is stirring in me so if you find it totally random simply chalk it up as me needing to vent…hey it’s my blog!

Alive Worship Review

Stealing a page from Josh Griffin…

Teaching Series:  Collide (our monthly joint MS/HS service)

Theme: Water to Wine

Bible: John 2:1-11

Attendance: 330

First Time guests: 26

Volunteers: 35

Length of Service: 90 minutes

Breakdown:  The theme was Water to Wine basically because we had a guest band come in and that was their name.  We discussed the miracle at the wedding banquet focussing on the fact that Jesus doesn’t only care about the BIG stuff.  We then had a moment of prayer with some pretty cool video moments and took Communion together.  The band led in worship and then we prayed over our teachers (being teacher appreciation week) and ended the night with a rockin’ concert…with me stage diving of course.  All in all a homerun of a night.

Systems and Staffing

Listening to a teaching from Andy Stanley recently and evaluating not only the size of our ministry but the overall health of the ministry and its leaders I felt compelled to restructure some of the way we do things here.  No grand changes really, the bulk of folk won’t even initially realize a shift.  Every organization has systems in place.  Some systems are built for success and some are built for failure.  Steven Furtick worshipped with us last Sunday, he is a pastor at a church in Charlotte.  He is doing amazing things in a short amount of time.  Thousands of peoples lives are changed because of his leadership and submission to Jesus.  However, the thing I love the most about Steven is he put in systems from the beginning to handle growth.  I have also seen some churches that hired a bunch of staff, got a praise band and thought that would be enough, that system is designed for failure.

As important as the right system is the right staff, it is just as important.  I am a youth pastor of 300 students and over 40 volunteers.  Due to our financial situation as a church the only paid staff I have is an amazing ministry assistant.  The rest of my “staff” are volunteers.

My staff:

Audra Rheaume – Worship Leader

Bobby Webster – Youth Leader

Alicia Medeiros – Service Coordinator

Cathy Oliver – Small Groups Director

Keeley Stephens – HS Advisor / Pulpit teacher

Rusty Metts – MS Advisor

RJ Grubbs/Andy Macauley – Tech Directors

Beekur – Recreation Director

And I am currently recruiting a Campus Director to oversee my campus ministries and an Outreach Director to insure we are serving and reaching our community.

Hybels says that lack of leadership should be a sin.  Leaders we have to do more than simply talk and inspire we must structure our organizations to reach not simply students but entire communities.  I am begging God for wisdom, creativity and insight to stretch us as an organization.  How are your systems/staffing set up?  What have been some victories/struggles you have faced?  Let me know.

Culture

No offense to Walt Mueller but I am sick of the word culture.  It has become the most overused word in church vernacular since relevant.  I am sick of how some use the word as a diseased amoeba that we must protect ourselves from.  I am sick of how it is used as a convenient way to over generalize important issues of our day like media influence, social networking, violence, racism, war and a world economy.  I am sick of the way the Church acts as though it is not PART of culture.

Simple fact of the matter is that you can’t separate Church and Culture.  The religious influence on the people is one of the crucial marks of culture in society.  We should be asking not how is this culture affecting this people group or that organization but rather ask how is the New Testament Church affecting Culture.

The internet is here to stay, so are TV, Movies, Democrats, Republicans, Hate and Love.  How do we as a church navigate through this world and proclaim Jesus.  I strained a ligament in my knee a few weeks ago and last night I tweaked it playing with my 3 year old…holding it in pain she saw that I had a small scratch and went to get a band-aid for my booboo.   In her world if she fixed the scratch the pain would go away.  Church, stop focusing on the scratch…stop focusing on the surface level evidences of pain and let’s go deeper into the soul and offer healing. Healing that comes only from Jesus.   Then, the church will begin to AFFECT culture not simply be observing and commenting on it.

Study Jesus and you find someone who went out of his way to AFFECT culture not to comment on it.  Even when he commented on it he was stirring the pot of the establishment.  I pray that you who read this read it with it’s intent to encourage spiritual leaders to LEAD with love, compassion and mission.  Let other people study why.