Experi-(ence)-ment

Hey guys I wanted to share this with you all of you who are a part of our student ministry.  We as a team have decided to make a change…I know that may come as a shock to some of you that I would change something.  We are going to have life groups every Sunday night from 6:00-7:30pm.  They will be high school and middle school combined.  We are still going to stay within our same life groups and life group leaders but this gives us a chance to try and take you deeper and have a touch point with you every week.

Some of our life group leaders are in an adult life group of their own on Sunday nights every other week.  I want them to be able to keep doing that.  So if your leader is not there every week it is because they are taking the time to grow as well.  This is very important to me and I ask that you celebrate that and encourage them.

This will take a little getting used to but I believe having it every Sunday night is healthier for all of us.

We will be starting our Life Groups on January 11th at 6:00PM and this will follow our UNITED on Saturday night at 6:00PM.  You wont want to miss this, great thought has gone into it to connect with you better with others and help you connect with God better.

Parenting 101

DC Curry who is the youth pastor at Granger Church had a phenomenal post on the insight from teenagers about why they don’t talk to their parents.  Parents, ever wonder why your students don’t open up?  This was a candid talk with his teens in one of their Bible classes.

“This is intended to help parents and students communicate better, not to badmouth parents or pick a side.

This is what they said:

• “They are so much older than me, we are not on the same level.”
• “They have authority over me, so I might get in trouble if I tell them something bad I did.”
• “They think everything is so much simpler than it really is.”
• “They put a lot of pressure on you.”
• “I just don’t tell them anything because I don’t want to disappoint them.”
• “They already have so much on their plate, I don’t want to add to their plate.”
• “They are just going to judge me.”
• “I don’t know my parents.”
• “Sometimes I just want a simple answer but they keep going on and on and on….”
• “Every time I talk to them, it’s always a lecture, they never listen to what I have to say.”
• “My dad always has the right answer so it’s not worth it.”
• “They never listen to what I’m going through but they always want to tell me what to do.”

His observations were that students want to talk to their parents but their are road blocks that are in the way.  Thought this was great insight for all of us.  What would your teenagers say?

I Am Second

This is a video that we showed at our UNITED Retro Christmas party.

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Revolution

There is a new revolution in youth ministry, a new thinking, a shift in the way that students and student pastors see ministry.  There is a discomfort and a discontent with the way things have been done and will continue to be done unless something changes.  Typically at the end of the year in most youth ministries in most churches we say goodbye to graduating seniors who say goodbye to us and their faith.  They move on to college and they make choices and their choices usually don’t include church, serving the church, serving others or having a faith that is revolutionary.

I lay at wake at night thinking about how to challenge students and make their faith active, transparent and relevant.  How to get students to realize how much potential they can have if they only give it all to God who in return gives them all.  I lay awake wondering if there is something out there that is not being done that needs to be done?   Is there something that can be done better, more efficiently or more effectively?

There is a new book out called Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestriecher that I am dying to pick up and read.  I have read the reviews and there are of course critics on both sides.  Nobody likes change.  Nobody except for me it seems.  I have never been afraid to stop, remove or change any program, event or idea if it can be done better.  I have never been afraid to think outside the box even though sometimes others don’t understand it.  I strongly believe that our students are the future of the church but I believe even stronger that they are the church now.  I love working at a church that believes that and gives me the freedom to demonstrate that with our teens.

On Mark’s blog he was questioned about discipleship which I am passionate about and have worked years at trying to develop leadership teams that model that in their walk and in their teachings.  I believe we have a great ministry, a healthy ministry and a growing ministry but I also believe we still have room for improvement, namely me.  One of the questions he was asked was:

When youth ministry talks about “discipleship”, what are we talking about precisely?

“Jesus instructed his followers to “go and make disciples.” He didn’t say “go and make converts” (we seem to regularly forget this). A disciple is simply a follower. So, when we talk about discipleship, we’re talking about helping youth become followers of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t just mean a one-time decision. Being a “disciple” of Jesus means living a radical, counter-cultural lifestyle that imitates Christ: a life of grace and love, of caring for the poor, of being passionate about justice, of being people of integrity and humility. Wow! Can you imagine what it would be like to have a whole youth group full of teenagers who fit that description?”

I wonder sometimes if we create programs insted of disciples?  Can you imagine what it would be like to have students who show grace and love?  Who give of their time and their money to care for the poor?  Students who are aware of the issues of this world and believe they can make a difference?  Students who are more concerned about who they are than what they can get?  Students who can own up to their mistakes and learn from them?  Can you imagine that?  I can, and it’s what keeps me going on a regular basis because I believe that is God’s heartbeat.

In The Doghouse

Only a couple days left guys…don’t mess up…not that we would, right?

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Favorite Christmas Cookie?

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RETRO Christmas

Just an update because this is a win for everyone.  This last week at UNITED Retro Christmas Party we had 82 total and we had 6 students receive Christ.  One of our students made a comment about how some people make a big deal about the styles of churches and yet I was able to get up and talk about Christ in a Buddy the Elf costume and still have 6 students receive Christ.  Our worship set was Superstitous from the 80′s, Run Rudolph Run, Rockin Around the Christmas Tree and Santa Clause is Coming to Town.  It has nothing to do with us and it is all about God.

One student said why hadn’t anybody told me about this before?  One of our students has had 10 friends come over the last 3 months and 8 of them receive Christ.  Our students are living out their faith and it is awesome to see.  Next UNITED, Saturday, January 10th at 6:00pm.

Rennovate

Great week!  I love getting to spend money and it’s even better when it is other people’s money.  We were so blessed to have someone contribute specifically to our youth room renovations through the ELEVATE campaign and we have been busy planning, researching and making deals.  We are trying to redo everything in our auditorium at our 209 Bethel Road campus.  From remodeling the room to getting new audio, video, lighting and stage equipment we have been busy trying to spend the money wisely.  We will have pictures on here as the renovations begin immediately after Christmas.

We believe that we have the best youth staff in the Northeast.  We believe we have a great program.  We believe that if we create an environment that is engaging to students it will only help us to reach more and more for Christ.

Outreach

For those of you who have asked, I did have a great time with my family on vacation but it is always good to come home. I got tired of running into “famous” people.

I just got to brag on the best youth staff in the Northeast. A couple months ago I was approached by Mary Davis and Sue Shanko about some ideas for outreach. We are always trying to provide students opportunities to serve, however we don’t just want it to be around the holidays. It did so happen to work out that this past Saturday we had a service project with Urban Promise. We ran a Christmas party/program for inner city kids and it was awesome. I was told that we had over 20 students and almost 10 staff members show up to work the event. What’s awesome is that we had a couple new kids show up who have never come to an event before but came to serve at 8:00am on Saturday. Just another reason why I love teenagers, if you give them a reason they will continue to impress you.

I was so proud of our team and especially Mary Davis because all I did was help plan a date. After that they recruited, developed, equipped and ran the entire thing and did it well. I am so proud of the team that I have that they have the same passion and determination to see people impacted. I can’t brag enough on our teenagers who sacrificed a Saturday morning to come and serve. Thanks also to all the parents who made the drive in to have them here. What a great team we make!