Getting in the way

Greetings friends,

While I'm on vacation I've been blogging about some thoughts that have just been floating around in my head as relates to youth ministry. Today, I'm going to tackle something that really upsets me, so I hope not to offend anybody, but I feel like there are some things that need to be said.

I remember when I first started in youth ministry, and had teamed up with a collection of the youth workers in our neighborhood on a big worship night. The town I was in had several youth ministries and churches, each of us having a fairly small number of students. The thinking was that every now and again we could get together, and feel like one big group. If you ask me, this was down right biblical. I don't think Jesus had denominations in mind when he established God's Kingdom on earth. But believe it or not, that's not the point here.

My pastor at the time was pretty upset about the notion of us partnering with other churches, particularly churches who might have a different political leaning than our church. I don't remember much of the specifics, because I think I was in some sort of low-level rage that only appears in movies, but what I do remember is how mad I was. I remember my face being red as could be. I remember storming out of his office into mine, slamming the door. Basically, I remember being a 22 year old fresh out of college little boy.

Now I'm a 27 still immature as could be little boy, but I have a bit more of a framework to form my argument with. You would think this was an isolated incident, the denial of partnership on the grounds of political issues, but in fact it just happened to a good friend of mine. His pastor specifically asked him not to partner with us, because of something our senior pastor supposedly said that gave away our political leanings one way or another. So today, I want to speak for a second to senior pastors, and issue a challenge.

I challenge you to find any of the following words in the Scriptures: liberal, conservative, democrat, republican, progressive, new age, redneck, or hippie. I mean, if the argument some of you senior pastors are making is as serious as you make it sound, surely you can come up with a place (or ideally several places) in the Scriptures to back up what you believe, right? The idea of denominations, and even further the idea of denominational isolation are in there too, right? Jesus mentions that you should only associate with people who are righteous and agree with everything you agree with, right?

While you're looking for those Scripture references, let me throw one at you for your consideration:

"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:3-6)

Is keeping away from the people who believe in Jesus yet disagree with you politically sound like making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit? Is withholding spiritual experiences from teenagers because of something their senior pastor said in that vein? Have we made every effort? Are we still making every effort?

For whatever reason, it seems like youth ministries are starting to get the hang of this. Every year, I head to the National Youth Workers Convention, and I spend a long weekend with youth workers from every possible denominational heritage. And every year, I am completely unaware of our denominational differences. For those four glorious days, we are one faith, following one Lord, one Father of all. And I'm not over-stating it when I say that it feels like heaven. We're going to have to deal with each other for an entire eternity, we might as well start getting used to it.

I love when youth groups partner together, pull resources together, and put on events with the aim of reaching as many students as they can for Christ. Not making as many Presbyterians or Methodists or Catholics as they can, but sharing the love of Christ with as many as they can.

Now for sure, I bet there are youth pastors out there who are every bit as guilty of this as I'm blaming senior pastors for. But in my experience, we seem to be the ones trying our very best to tear down the dividing wall. We may disagree on everything from gay marriage, abortion, predestination, which party God wants us to belong to, whether or not we should belong to a party, what to do about war, how to best support our troops, what color the carpet in the sanctuary should be, or whether women should be pastors, but we all tend to agree that we are sinners and that we're sunk without the love of Jesus Christ. Could you all do me a favor and set the rest aside, and let's work together on better understanding that grace and our need for it?

I think we'd be pretty amazed at how much faster we could run the race!

Godspeed,

Jason

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Location:W Market St,Breezy Point,United States

Our kids need more.

Hello again my friends!

I'm afraid I might live and work in one of the most over indulgent communities in the United States. I'm sure some of you out there would give me a run for my money, but Upper Saint Clair is an incredibly affluent community, and it's even getting to the point where several of the people we work with have this sense of entitlement, that they deserve what they're getting because of all the hard work they've put in and what not.

Admittedly, this is a tough place to do ministry in when you consider that Jesus on more than a couple occasions talked about rich people and how difficult it would be for them to enter the kingdom of heaven. When almost half the world doesn't have access to clean water and is forced to live on less than $2 a day, those of us who have water coming out of a tap are considered rich. But how do you get that message across to teenagers who are given a bmw on their 16th birthday? How do you teach them about what entering the kingdom of heaven really looks like? How do you instill kingdom values in them?

Simple. Tell them how much more they need.

Show your students how fulfilling it can be to offer help to someone who needs it. Show them how warm and amazing the smile of a person in need can be. Tell them how much richer your life is because you've made it your goal to bring the Kingdom down to earth. I firmly believe the problem isn't that our kids want too much. Rather, the problem is our kids don't want enough, or at least they want the wrong things. I mean, think about it. When Jesus invites the rich young ruler to give up everything he has, he's not inviting him to do so and then sit around wallowing in his nothingness all day. Jesus is actually inviting him to take part in something much bigger than his stuff. Jesus is inviting this man to follow him. Though our rich young friend didn't see it, this was worth more than anything he already possessed.

We need to tell our students how much more they need, and how much they need to rely on the gospel of grace. Then, and only then, will it be a little bit easier to do ministry in our affluent neighborhoods.

A little bit.

Godspeed,

Jason



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Location:Rockaway Point Blvd,Breezy Point,United States

Artificical Authenticity.

I've been in a few different situations where people around me will be talking about youth ministry and how they go about being the youth leader they are. Some will promise to be the biggest and wildest youth leader on the market. "These kids just respond to people who are willing to go over the top!" Some others try their very best to simply be the pipeline through which the Bible is transmitted. "I do my best to get out of the way, and let the Scriptures do the talking." Still others come across as the happy fun times best friend that we all wish we had in high school. "I'm taking the kids to Disney World!"

What always cracks me up is when I visit with these various flavors of youth ministers in their homes, when the students are nowhere to be found, or their elder board isn't watching their meeting time. On more occasions than I would like to admit to, these folks are two different people: The people at their jobs and the people they are the rest of the time. This is a personality disorder at it's worst.

What happened to authenticity? To actually allowing your students to see who you are and what you're like? What's wrong with showing students that you're actually a bit of a nerd? What's wrong with sharing with them when you don't feel like you have it all together? Would your ministry really collapse if you let your personal life into it? Would your personal life collapse if you let your ministry into it?

I'm not saying kids need to come by your house every day and eat all your cookies. But I am saying that trying to figure out the best way to be authentic to the kids is probably going to lead you to something that isn't very authentic. Authenticity it turns out doesn't come with a game plan.

The formula for youth ministry used to be something like this: Cool guy likes Jesus. Teens like Cool Guy. Teens like Jesus. It was almost a sure thing for a while there, to the point where you could just throw a pizza party and drench kids in your awesomeness and get a 10% increase at your next altar call. But I think the formula has shifted, or at least I think it needs to.

Maybe the formula should be something more like this. Broken Youth Leader NEEDS Christ. Broken Youth Leader is willing to show Students just how much he/she needs Christ, and how much Christ has come through for them. Teens begin to understand their dependance on Christ. Years of discipleship and mentoring begin.

If you try to convince the world around you that your sin is small, the world around you will come to think that your savior must be small as well. So my friends, let's put the artificial authenticity on the shelf and pull down the organic kind. I think it will serve Christ better in the long run anyway!

Godspeed,

Jason


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Location:W Market St,Breezy Point,United States

The Pre-Vacation Check List

Greetings readers!

I'm finishing up some rendering on the last couple of videos I had for the week, and thought I'd offer some thoughts on what's going through my head.

I don't know if I love or if I hate the last Friday before a vacation. On the one hand, it's the beginning of the end, and relaxation is not very far behind. On the other hand, before any of that relaxation can come down, there's a laundry list of things that need to be done. Add on top of that the fact that I decided to host a party for our volunteers at my house on Saturday and take a guest speaking gig on Sunday, and the list gets longer and longer. Silly J, silly silly J.

It's harder still because a couple of vacations ago I left some things undone before I left, and so my whole vacation was interrupted by text messages from confused volunteers. Relaxation was nowhere. My head stayed right in the office, even if my body was parked directly in front of a TV.

So my goal today is to get everything wrapped up before tomorrow. It's a tall order. What are the things you feel like you need to take care of before a big break?

Godspeed,

Jason

Some good thoughts.

Hey friends,

One of our Veritas Alum has posted a pretty thought provoking blog post, and I thought I'd spread the word so we could all engage in the conversation. Take a read, and be sure to share some thoughts in the comments.

http://crazywhitenation.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-being-rich-sin.html

Thanks gang!


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Leading without feeling like it.

Greetings friends.

I don't at all know what my issue was, but on Sunday I was a complete and total crank pot. I was super easily irritated. I made it through sound check with this low level nuclear reaction going on just slightly beneath my skin. When soundcheck was done, I sat in the back by the sound board and I was honestly amazed I had made it through the whole morning without yelling at one of the members of my worship team.

But then, as I was staring at my cup of Starbucks, I realized that the hard part was yet to come. The hard part was the 70 or so people who were about to walk through that door and look at me as a leader for their worship experience for the week. How could I possibly lead people in worship when my truest and most honest emotion that morning was anger? What if I let my anger show through in the worship leading? I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds behind the sound board, and prayed. I told God the truth, that there was no way that I would make it through the worship gathering without the Holy Spirit's assistance. I begged him to show up, rip open my heart, and give me the strength I needed to get through the service.

Because the truth was I couldn't just step up to a microphone and tell people "I'm not feeling it this week." At the risk of being super cliche, the show must go on. It was a moment that happens incredibly too seldomly in my life, where as I was taking the first couple of steps onto the stage, I realized that I was completely and totally depended on the Spirit's leading. Without him, I would fail completely.

It's always amazing when the things that we teach and hypothesize about actually turn out to be true. I have heard it said (and have probably said a few times myself) that when we empty ourselves out, and lean entirely on the Holy Spirit of God, He will show us the time of our lives. When we get out of the way for the Spirit, he tends to do wonderful things. There were no outlandishly awesome moments in worship on Sunday, butterflies didn't come and land on my head at any point in the worship service. But the whole way through the set, I had this peace and this joy in worshiping that I hadn't had in quite a long time. Things just felt right.

Now the trick is, how do you get yourself to realize that even if you feel like you're having a good day that you are still worthless without the Holy Spirit's guiding? How can I feel that way every Sunday? Or is it that you have to go through the difficult times sometimes to purge yourself of your own ego? I don't know. But I'll never approach an "off" day of Worship the same way again.

Godspeed,

Jason




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Flip the Switch

June 2nd, 2010--9:30 PM
I collected my things, placed my laptop gently in my bag, turned off the lights, and walked out the door. This is the end of the final Veritas meeting of the year, our 38th meeting of the year. The way our schedule plays out is not for the faint of heart. We very rarely cancel meetings, only when there's a holiday or when there's a snow storm of biblical proportions. (I'm looking at you February)

Ed and I sat in our office that night, knowing that we were done for a while. We had run a very good race, but we're tired now, ready for a slow summer (ha ha ha ha ha ha) and a little bit of rest. I didn't want to write another talk. I didn't want to organize another lock-in. I didn't want to do anything with our Youth Ministry. I was done for the summer, and as several of our awesome parents would tell us in the next couple of weeks.

July 30th, 2010--7:00 PM
I stepped off the stage from a special guest speaking gig with my friends over at the Bible Chapel. I was the speaker for their Teen Madness event. While most of us usually have one big night of a kick off event, the Chapel has three. But Tree Anthem was playing the gig, and they asked me to speak, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to get out there and speak a little bit.

As I walked off the stage, I felt incredibly good about what I had just spoken. Everything I used was new material, an attempt to shake the dust off of whatever might have passed by in the couple weeks of break I had. But the feeling that took over wasn't expected, though it certainly was familiar. I was ready for Veritas to start again. My brain flooded with new ideas while I was sitting in the worship center, just 10 minutes removed from speaking. "Bring it on" I thought, "I am ready for the year."

I wonder how the switch gets flipped in us. I think we can certainly all relate to how I was feeling in June, ready to take a break, step aside, and if we're really lucky go crash on a beach somewhere for a while. But then most of us come back from a couple of weeks of rest and are more energized than ever to hit the ground running, with new ideas and lesson plans and events. But how is it that we get from one to the other? How is it that we go from never wanting to see a youth group game again to test driving the new uses for pudding we thought up in our free time?

And what happens to people who don't have the switch flipped? Those are the clearest examples of burnout, aren't they? The people that just can't look at another powerpoint presentation, another bible study, another round of dodgeball. Their summer goes by like the rest of us, but when they hit the other side, they have no desire at all to do what they used to love so deeply. The switch is never flipped, and they enter a new condition that doesn't usually end well.

So what does the switch look like for you? Is it the end of a yearly vacation? Is it seeing the kids again for the first time? Is it some other ritual you take part in? What gets you going for youth ministry each year?

Godspeed,

J