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This past weekend I took my JR High students to Forest Home Winter Camp. Not only do I love ministering to middle school students, but I love Forest Home Christian Camps—out of all of the Christian camps I have been to, Forest Home knows how to do it right. The food is great, facilities are great, programming is great, JR director is great, location is great, and the worship and teaching are always right on!
Ministering to middle school students is also great. Middle school students actually listen , respect, and obey you. If you say: “Hey, lets jump up and down and scream” they will do it. Middle school students are so dependent and clueless. It was sooo funny, throughout the entire weekend only one boy out of 14 took a shower. Needless to say our cabin stunk bad and it did not even phase any student that our cabin stunk, but they also stunk! The weekend was a blast! Although throughout the four camp worship sessions, I paid close attention to how the speaker was connecting, communicating, and illustrating his four messages to the middle school students.
In these four speaking session, I was asking the questions of: Do these students understand what is being said? What are great spiritual topics to teach to JR High students? What teaching/speaking method works the best for JR High? What stories should be shared? Can students understand the hard theological topics within the Bible? How long should a JR High message be? Does a JR High message need to include the JR High students’ participation and interaction?
Through my contemplating, reflecting, and asking I concluded that when delivering a message to JR High students it needs to be clear, concise, simple, narrative-based, short (15-20minutes), high energy including much randomness, and heavy usage of props, pictures, movies, and illustrations.
Communicating to JR High students is completely different than communicating to SR High students. JR High students are concrete thinkers while SR High students are abstract thinkers. JR High students are intuitive. They like to feel life. They need to feel Jesus, than learning about Him. A JR High communicator needs to layer his or her message in the affective. One can successfully do this by relying on the story of Jesus. All throughout the gospels Jesus uses stories to teach His followers. Jesus’ teachings are simple, but yet very profound. Jesus rarely tries to hammer out complicated doctrine for only the elite to understand. Bottom line: We as JR High communicators need to be sensitive to where JR High students are at spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and cognitively. Before we connect the middle school student to Jesus, we need to first connect with them. We need to establish a rapport with the students in order to achieve the task of delivering Jesus. It should be our goal as Youth Pastors to get middle school students to know, trust, experience, love, and obey Jesus.
I am not going to lie to kick it, but my intentionality of starting my blog was merely out reaction. I was deeply angered by my radical reformer friends. Early in my blog career (4 months ago), I angrily wrote my perspective about the Mark Driscoll–the radical reformer. Some friends did not like it…..at all. I took a lot of heat not only for my grammar mistakes, but how hard I personally critiqued Driscoll.
Again I am not going to lie to kick it, but I reacted out of my furious state. I argued that Driscoll uses an undercutting rhetoric while he has literally imported his barbaric masculinity into Christianity. I still hold firmly to my critique of Driscoll. Yes, I acknowledge Driscoll has successfully captured the 20 something male generation to come to church. However I acknowledge Driscoll has also successfully established a demeaning persona and rhetoric that may only really resonate with 20 something dudes.
Frankly, I did not see Jesus bench pressing, playing football, and viewing females as the inferior gender in order for Him to get the Pharisees to come to his teaching sessions on the mountain. There is more to the Kingdom of God than Driscoll is preaching. Driscoll is advocating for a Christian masculinity that encompasses a warrior mentality. Jesus a male, however, encompassed and advocated a mentality of humility. If I was going to even attempt to “define masculinity”, then I would suggest masculinity and femininity both look, smell, taste, and resemble Jesus (Eph 5). Bottom line there is no clear definition in the Bible what masculinity and femininity encompass. Trying to define a gender is way too cultural and contextual driven.
What if our USA church culture advocated for a masculinity that exhibited sacrificial love, service, humility, gentleness, slow to anger, and patience? But Driscoll rather argues for a masculinity that is: authoritative, barbaric, superior, rough, entrepreneurial, and brash.
The other day I stumbled upon this Mark Driscoll interview. This guy still seems to amaze and amuse me, which only reinforces my convictions about Driscoll. What is it with Driscoll and dudes? I invite you to entertain your day:
Barack Obama’s sermon/speech at Dr. King’s church Sunday 1/20.
ht Mike Riddle
Check it out:
Presently within YM, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry is a great book that will engage the young people of the America church. Mike King serves as President of YouthFront, a Youth Ministry organization. YouthFront works to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where spiritual transformation occurs, by working with those who are involved in the spiritual formation of youth and by providing church-assisting events. King’s youth ministry experience and expertise is highly evident in Presence-Centered Youth Ministry.
King in chapters 1-3 describes why youth ministry is experiencing much hardship. King argues that youth ministry is playing it too safe and comfortable. He states: The call to follow this true God is not safe or convenient, unlike much of the feel-good, carefree god-think being modeled to our young people today. The present of Jesus in the lives of adolescents who are nurtured by the power of Scripture is not safe, but it’s the essence of presence-centered youth ministry. (47)
King argues in chapters 4-7 what youth pastors and youth ministries need to be in order for their youth ministry to become presence-centered. Youth ministry is about being with youth, not just as a role model or friend but also as a spiritual guide and a traveling companion. (68) There needs to be a new way of doing youth ministry—a youth ministry that experiences and embodies the presence of God. King suggests that when student sense a polished performance and impeccable image, students are immediately turned off. Research reminds us that students are suspicious of bigness, of advertising and ego trips. They want churches to be down to earth and unpretentious. (74)
Chapters 8- 11 illustrates how to implement a presence-centered youth ministry. He suggests the practices of: listening prayer, imaginative prayer, prayer postures, providing signs of the cross, praying with icons, storytelling, incent prayers, sacred reading and contemplation, and lectio divina. King also refers to a website to obtain more presence centered activities: www.sacredgateway.org.
I loved how passionate King was about creating environments that experience God’s presence. King wants a youth ministry to connect to the early church and tradition, embody their faith, explore the challenge and cost of being a disciple of Jesus, connect between personal faith and a faith community, arrange a tangible expression of faith within a local community, emphasize on being a servant and living out faith, emphasize on classic Christian formation, and deemphasize the activities that do not lead to genuine transformation. Encountering God’s presence will bring forth transformation.
One can tell a lot about a person and their personality by entering his or her office. Generally (this is an assumption), if you enter a youth pastor’s office it will be crazy messy. This mess may include: surf boards, skateboards, old clothes, books, paper, Bibles (ESV), CDs, DVDs, magazines, holy oil, an old loaf of bread, an empty wine glass and bottle, and lunch from yesterday.
Youth pastors’ offices are important. It is the control tower of the youth ministry. The office is where parents come to talk to you about their student who is doing “bad” things. The office is where you plan and prep. The office is where your students come to see you if they are visiting. Your office is where the church administrator comes to talk about how you did not do something. Your office space is literally a reflection of who you are. I am suggesting that every Youth Pastor make their office appealing. Get creative. Make your office very sensory friendly.
Appeal to the sight, smell, sound, and touch. Put up your favorite artwork/poster. Put fun pictures up of your wife, dog, cat, and hamster. Make sure to get scented candles or an air freshener. Make sure you paint your walls—white is not an option. Make sure you have your ipod/laptop hooked up to speakers. Give your office an identity that reflects who you are as a person and as a youth pastor. Turn your little corner space that is in the back of the church building a creative masterpiece. Your office needs to be so attractive and appealing Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh are jealous.
Just think about how much (or the lack thereof) you work in your office. You need to be working in an environment that is appealing and that you enjoy. So make it enjoyable. Spice it up a bit. You need to like where you work. Not only is “The Office” a great show, but you need to feel great about your office. Your office is your world and people have the privilege to enter it so they can see where the magic happens.
HT: Denny Burk
Young Life (YL) has fired or accepted resignations from all 10 staff members in the Raleigh-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Jeff McSwain, the former Raleigh-Chapel Area Director, was the highest-ranking staff member who was fired. McSwain had problems with how Youth Life presented their “Sin talks”. He stated: “talks that include statements such as, “We’ve broken the law and someone needs to pay,” can sound more Unitarian than Trinitarian by drawing a sharp contrast between the holy God and incarnated Son….” Essentially McSwain believes a student can be saved if he or she just believes in Jesus Christ. However the Young Life organization believes a student must believe in Christ and repent to Christ; before they are considered “saved”.
Young Life is clear that their style is relational and incarnational. This means that Young Life’s proclamation of the Gospel will most always proceed from the context of relationships with adolescents. “The statement welcomes creativity in methodology but bolds the line. “However, while our( YL) methodology may change, our message does not.”
Young Life’s fundamental problem is Gospel Presentation. What are the key ingredients to declare a student is “saved”? Unfortunately YL staff is confused and unclear on the ingredients. For example, there was a disagreement within the YL staff so the senior leadership of YL makes a power play by firing the leading area director of Raleigh-Chapel Hill. This disagreement of Gospel presentation is difficult. It is not as black and white as it may seem. I suspect there are multiple organizations, para-churches, and churches struggling through the same issue of Gospel presentation. How do we determine the reality of what the Spirit is doing in a student to consider him or her one of us? Is throwing a pizza party with a cool speaker who does a salvation message really working? How many times has a student ran to the altar to repent on Sunday and on the following Friday they back hitting the bottle? Determining if one is a believer is not a concrete thing. It is a very abstract, messy, fluid, and organic thing. I really wish the salvation message and presentation is as easy as systematic theology makes it out to be. Yes, we can present all of the Gospel information, but there may not be guaranteed transformation within the students.
I am reminded of the passage of Scripture (Luke 23.37-43) where Jesus is on the cross interacting with the other prisoners who are also on the cross. The first prisoner rebukes Jesus, while the second prisoner accepts Jesus. Simply the second prisoner asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replies: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” That is it—nothing complicated or tricky. The second prisoner asks and Jesus promises him eternal life.
If you want to read the actual Young Life article click here
| Thanks to Pascalian Awakenings I was able to detect my theological convictions. If you would like to know, then I would encourage you to visit: QuizFarm.com Here are my theological results: |
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| You scored as a Emergent/Postmodern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Generally, a Youth Pastor works with a lot of different students. A Youth Pastor may work with a student who is: shy, creative, vocal, cynical, smart, naive, sarcastic, bold, confronting, depressed, lonely, dumb, hilarious, emo, skater, surfer, conservative, liberal, high personality, band nerd, athlete, low personality, etc… The beauty about working with many students is that they will tell you how it is. They are real and authentic, not necessary about their spirituality, but about how they feel towards you.
We, as Youth Pastor cannot and will not connect and relate with every student. Students can easily sense a fake or an insecure Youth Pastor. Students can effortlessly find your insecurities and call them out—loud and proud if they do not like you.
During my first two years of Youth Ministry, I would get offended, depressed, and upset that my students were making fun of me. Some of the students would say a comment or two about how I was too boy bandish (not a kernel of truth in that comment! ; ) ). However, over the years not only have I built a tolerance to negative words from students, but I simply just get over it and put up with it.
For example this is how I deal with a student’s negative words/comments. If one of my students begin to make fun of me, I will continue to make fun of me with them. Essentially I would play along with them. By me playing along diffuses the critique. Students know how to push Youth Pastors’ buttons; and they want a reaction. If you give them one, they will continue to do it. Although if you respond, and not react, to them they will slowly stop.
The most frequent negative comment I would receive; would be: Jeremy, you are weird! During my first two years, I would take this comment personally, become shut down, and throw a pity party. Now, I play along with the joke. If a student(s) say I am weird, then I first say “Thank You”, God created me like this, and I continue to keep getting weirder in the moment. For me if someone says Jeremy you are weird, I take it as a compliment and not a critique.
It boils down to the Youth Pastor being comfortable and confident (not cocky) in his or her own skin. One needs to know who they are as a Youth Pastor and as a person. Students will immediately detect if their Youth Pastor is trying to hard to be someone that they are not. It is important not to take yourself too seriously, but God’s work seriously. Be a Youth Pastor that exhibits humility, care, gentleness, confidence, awareness, and sensitivity.
ht to Andy Rowell
I am still new to this blog world thing. I am learning what not to do and what to do. The blog world is great for connecting with people who share the same career as you. I am in the business of ministry. Ministry is fast pace and you need to be up to speed with culture, Bible teaching, theological content, news, leadership models, etc…
Over the past 4 months I have found it helpful to be visiting other Christian leaders blogs. I have taken Andy’s list and updated it to fit my style. Here is a list of Christian leader list that I recommend:
The very best blogs for church leaders:
Adam Walker- 27 year old seminarian, husband, Mac-loving web & graphic designing, Progressive Presbymergent.
Alan Nelson, Stan Toler, et al. – Rev! Unplugged – Rev. is the magazine by Group Publishing for pastors
Alex McManus – into the mystic – brother of Erwin and was active at Mosaic until recently
Andrew Jones – TallSkinnyKiwi – well known emerging church blogger from outside the USA.
B.J. Woodworth – what’s your wood worth? – missional pastor in Pittsburgh
Ben Witherington – Great New Testament scholar at Asbury Seminary
Brian Bailey – Leave It Behind & Blogging Church – has the new book Blogging Church
Brian McLaren – well known emerging church leader and writer
Byron K. Borger – Hearts & Minds BookNotes – great book reviews from great bookstore owner between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
C. Wes Daniels – gathering in light – Fuller Ph.D. student under emerging church author Ryan Bolger
CatalystSpace – Catalyst conference blog
Chris Scharen – faithasawayoflife – works with Miroslav Volf at Yale Center for Faith and Culture; Emory Ph.D.
Chris Folmsbee- He is the Chief Ministries Officer of YouthFront and the president of the Sonlife division. I recently released a book called, A New Kind of Youth Ministry.
Christianity Today Magazine – great resources here.
Craig Groeschel and Bobby Gruenewald – LifeChurch.tv : swerve – “the most innovative church in the nation” (Later note: August 1, 2007: These rankings about “most innovative” by Church Report are probably not from a reputable source. See article about founder).
Dale Fincher - Co-founder of Soulation, and one-half of a husband-wife traveling, speaking, and writing team. He has written the book LIVING WITH QUESTIONS.
Dan Kimball – Vintage Faith – author of Emerging Church and a new book on getting out of the office as a pastor They Like Jesus But Not the Church
Denny Burk – He is an Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Criswell College. He is a young Greek Scholar who offers a great perspective of politics, book reviews, culture, and theology.
Doug Pagitt – the pagittBlog – pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis area and wrote Preaching Reimagined and other books
Douglas LeBlanc, et al. – GetReligion – variety of Christian journalists put stuff here
Emergent Village – they have a blog – the main organization for the emerging church movement in the US
Gifted for Leadership – great new women’s blog from Christianity Today – highly recommended
Gordon Atkinson – Real Live Preacher – rlp’s blog – famous blog – has a book Reallivepreacher.com
Greg Boyd – graduate of Yale Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary. professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University. founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, an evangelical megachurch in St. Paul, MN.
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen – is a professor of theology and science at Princeton Theological Seminary, one of the kindest professors at the seminary, in addition to being one of the “hippest.”
John Piper - Most of our resources and products are by pastor and author John Piper, which includes article, posts, sermons, and books.
John Stackhouse – Professor of Theology at Regent College and wrote Humble Apologetics and other books
Kent Shaffer – churchrelevance.com – some interesting stuff here on marketing and the church.
Kevin D. Hendricks, et al. – Church Marketing Sucks - great blog about how to improve marketing in churches
Leadership journal and resources for church leaders – great journal from Christianity Today folks.
Leadership Network Leanings – Leadership Network is a great organization interested in megachurches and leadership.
Leonard Sweet – Napkin Scribbles – prolific author – most recently 2007 The Gospel According to Starbucks
Marc Heinrich – purgatorio – great humor and satire here
Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Anthony Bradley, et al. – TheResurgence – these are Conservative Reformed, Southern Baptist and PCA. So if you are in that camp, good voices.
Mark Galli – GalliBlog – editor of Christianity Today
Mark Oestreicher - President of Youth Specialties. He is a youth ministry guru.
Michael Bird & Joel Willitts – Euangelion – two young New Testament scholars keep us up to date on the latest in NT scholarship
Mike King – Serves as President of YouthFront, a Youth Ministry organization. YouthFront works to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where spiritual transformation occurs, by working with those who are involved in the spiritual formation of youth and by providing church-assisting events. YouthFront provides programs, services, resources and training. Mike is also on the Pastoral staff of Jacob’s Well in Kansas City.
Rethinking Youth Ministry – Two Youth Ministers Rethinking Ministry By, For, and With Youth.
Richard Mouw – Mouw’s Musings – The President’s Blog – president of Fuller Seminary and prolific author including He Shines in All That’s Fair
Ryan Bolger – TheBolgBlog – author of Emerging Churches and Fuller Seminary professor
Scot McKnight – Jesus Creed North Park New Testament professor and best blogger ever. Wrote Jesus Creed and many more books.
Tony Jones – Tonyj.net – emergent village coordinator and author of many books including The Sacred Way.
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