Confession…

As I am sitting here this evening I ponder.  I think.  I read other pastor’s blogs and I think some more.  After thinking, I have a confession to make.

Despite my last post or two, I’ve notice that my blog has been a lot of negative criticism on the church.  I, too, am a Pastor and think a lot of things need to be changed, but there is one problem…

I’m 24.

I don’t have all and don’t even have many of the answers to church today.

So, Lord-Willing, from here on out I will do my best to have positive, influential, and meaningful posts on this blog!

Wow Wednesday…

Last evening was simply amazing.  I feel that God showed up in a variety of ways!  Lately, I’ve really been struggling with our numbers as a Student Ministry.  We are lower than normal and I have my reasons why I think we are, but that is a completely other blog   So, lately I’ve just been praying that God would help me not to worry so much about numbers and simply focus on the teens we have.

So back to Wednesday Night…

• Something simple, not necessarily biblical, but EVERYTHING went right with our technology last night!  NEVER happens!

• We had our smallest crowd we’ve had, BUT had what felt and seemed like a very impactful lesson taught by the Holy Spirit.

• One of our students in the past few months had been dabbling in philosophy, paranormal studies, etc. and frankly it worried me.  Over the past few months he’s been studying and asking me questions.  Last night this guy came and pulled me aside and said after all the studying and reading and other things, I’ve come back to Jesus!

This last one was a kicker to me.  It’s amazing when everything seems like it’s being flushed down the toilet, God moves in such an amazing way!

Thank you God for an awesome evening!

State of Student Ministry…

Before I post, please understand that I am not an expert in Student Ministry.  I don’t consider myself a Student Ministry “vet” because I have only been in Student Ministry for 5 years.  But if you will read on, may I make some observations about what seems to be some current trends in Student Ministry?

1.  Big Events Seem to be Less Appealing
Let me explain myself.  If you read in one of my previous posts from a few weeks ago, our Student Ministry had a “big event” planned.  It was well promoted, the teenagers were excited, it was in the newspaper’s, etc.  While we still had a handful of teenagers, the attendance was down drastically from the previous year.  This also happened to a couple of my other friends involved in Student Ministry.  Conferences and rallies seem to still peak interest, but it seems as though big events within a Student Ministry are less appealing nowadays.

2. Relational Ministry Has Taken Over
I am still mulling over posts by Craig Groeschel about “Reaching the Next Generation”.  Let me explain briefly.  Craig poses that to reach the “next generation”, meaning our students we have to focus on being “conversational, missional, and generational”.  These still rattle my brain.  Trust me, I understand that Relational Ministry is “where it’s at”, and it’s even a part of my philosophy of ministry, but Student Ministry is seeing a trend that students just want to have close and trusted relationships.  Quick example.  I, personally, have had more “success” in hanging out at the local coffee shop and building relationships there than any other avenue used in Student Ministry.

3.  Students Love to Serve
I know I’ll get flack for this only being 24 years old, but when I was in Youth Group as a teenager, when it came to service projects, no one showed up.  Sometimes the Youth Pastor would call it DU (Destination Unknown) just to get teen there and excited and then surprise them!  In today’s Student Ministry, it seems as though serving is a hot commodity.  Whenever an opportunity arises to serve someone in your city, town or in someone elses city, town, or neighborhood, teens are jumping to the occasion to step up and help.  As Student Pastor’s, we no longer have to figure out a way to get teens to help, they just do it themselves!

So, those are just a few observations.  Feel free to critique, agree, etc.

FIRED UP!!!

What’s new, right?  In the past month I have been in two different places where one particular subject has come up both times and it’s burning me up.

Why are older adults, especially those in ministry, tearing down the 20-somethings?  Somebody please tell me?!?!  I understand, you read the statistics, you read magazines, newspapers, etc.  Guess what, your tearing them down is helping the statistics either!

Let me ask you a question.  What happens when you have a flat tire.  For most, if not all of you, the answer is FIX IT!  You don’t sit their and complain about your tire and do nothing about it.  You FIX IT!

So, as I close, how about those of you who want to tear down the 20-something generation stop complaining and try and fix the problem instead of tearing the down in front of a bunch of fellow believers?

Whew!  Glad I got that off my chest!

Encouragement…

Every morning I check the social networking site of Twitter.  Yes, I’m on twitter.  I love connecting with pastor’s I can’t in real life.  I get great leadership insights and I’m a quote junkie and people put tons of quotes on there as well!  Anyways, as I looked this morning a post caught my eye.  Youth Specialties posted the question:

“Since you lead and encourage teens, who leads and encourages you? Let us know!”

followed by a link to their facebook so you could answer.  I just clicked to see what was being said and one person had answered.  That particular post said “nobody”.  Ministry can be a lonely job.  Sometimes you may be under-appreciated and sometimes you can be straight missed.

I think we as ministry leaders need encouragement so many times in our lives.  Not only do we need it, but we need to distribute it as well.

To finish this post, let me share with you a couple of people who encourage me.  A majority of them may never read this and that is totally OK, but I appreciate them.

Scott Distler – What can I say, my mentor, my hermanos .  He is always around to encourage, even when we set up lunch meetings over email, he always has an encouraging word.

Rick Wulf – A great youth pastor friend who is a great listener, great advice giver, and always has an encouraging word to say.  Great man of the Lord as well.

Pat Nepveaux – This is a woman who goes to our church who after every sermon either sends me a card or email expressing how God touched her heart by HIS words.

There are many more, but take this time to email, write or call someone and encourage them!

Wonder…

So, as I’ve said in a previous post, we are working the ReThink’s XP3 curriculum for our Wednesday evening programming.  I’m finding it very interesting and challenging.

We are currently in a series called “Rhythm” and it has been really cool to see where this series goes.  I’ve been looking over the lesson the past two days and I have been extremely challenged.

Have you lost your wonder for God?

That’s the big question.  Some of us would say, “Of course not”.  Other may say that we have.  It seems in the life we live, especially in today’s society, our wonder gets taken away from God and we experience wonder in other things.  Things like:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Our Job
• Our Ministry
• Our Family
• A Sports Team
• Etc.

When you look at your life, have you lost your wonder for God.  If I can be open and honest, I think I have.  For example, I’ve been on Elevation Church’s P90X program for two weeks now.  In short, it’s a plan to read the Bible in 90 days.  I am reading through the Old Testament and my wonder is starting to come back.

I’m reading about how God really, truly still loved Adam and Eve even after they sinned.  I’m reading about how God helped Joseph in his life after being sold into slavery by his brothers.  I’m reading about how God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and how they walked across the sea on dry ground in order to route the Egyptians.

My prayer is that anyone reading this blog, including myself, would ever lose their wonder for God.  He has done and is doing incredible things.  We just need to keep ourselves from our distractions in our everyday life that keep us from seeing it!

Incredible!

When God does something amazing through a student, it’s so hard not to share!  One of the students of our Student Ministry, was part of the school Chorus recital last night at Garden Spot High School.

Unfortunately, I was unable to go because of feeling like I was hit by a Mack truck.  Anyways, after talking with the students father I come to find out that this student got up in front of a packed auditorium at a PUBLIC high school function and said,

“This song means a lot to us 3 and we all have a void to fill in our lives.  Ours is filled with Jesus Christ”.

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!?!  I am so proud of this student!  What an amazing testimony!  This student has come so far since last year it has been unbelievable.  He is a prominent person in the school and has a lot of influence as well!

PRAISE GOD!

Starbucks & the Church

I LOVE coffee.  I hate to say it, but I’m addicted to coffee.  If I don’t drink any in the morning, I get headaches.  I even work at a local coffee shop part-time as a means to meet people in the community.

A couple of books have been put out relating the coffee chain, Starbucks, and the church.  I have frequented many o’ Starbucks and I find, and I know I’ll get nailed for this, but if the church would be a little more like Starbucks, I think we could have more people growing closer to Christ.

Please understand, I am not bashing churches, I am all about people coming to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and will do anything within biblical means to do so!

Let me explain.  What does Starbucks have that we may or may not be missing?

1. Great Atmosphere.  I like to see the insides of churches.  I find it intriguing while everyone else looks, points, and laughs at me.  But what if the church had a really nice, soothing, atmosphere instead of walking into an open room filled with brochures about nothing?  What if people actually felt at home when they stepped foot in the door?

2. Great Customer Service.  I don’t know about you, but usually when I walk into a Starbucks, I am greeted with a hefty “Hello!” or “How are you doing today?”  I will say that churches have done extremely well with this portion of the church (Hospitality), but do we have the excitement and enthusiasm like Starbucks employees do, or are we just there to fill a space and greet people?

3. Great Products. About 4 years or so ago I would’ve told you that the church doesn’t “sell” anything.  They present, they offer, etc.  As I get more and more into ministry and read the startling statistics, I’m finding that a lot of people come to churches because of the Children’s and/or Student Ministries.  They want the best for their kids and will go to a church where those needs are met.  So, essentially, we are selling a product.  Starbucks is always busy because they have great products.  Let me just leave this portion go by stating a quote from Craig Groschel.  Groschel states, “In order to have it, we must do something that other churches are not”.

All of these lead up to something that burns me up about the church that Starbucks has nailed!!!

4.  DIVERSITY.  Why are we as the church so scared of diversity?  Why can’t we worship the same God, under the same roof, with each other?  I know we have different denominations.  I understand the theological differences. But why do we have Caucasian churches, African American churches, Asian churches, etc?!?!  Please, the next time you go into Starbucks, look at the people.  You have blacks, whites, asians, lower class, middle class, upper class all in one space and if you watch closely enough, you will see something a little too crazy for our eyes…INTERACTION!

I know this may seem harsh to some, but I would love to see tons and tons of people come to Christ and would like to put some food for thought out on the table in order to improve.  I don’t have all the answers, and I never will, but I chew on this stuff all time.

 

What I Learned From Last Week…

Can I be honest with you for 5 minutes?  Last week was literally one of the busiest weeks in my entire life so far.  Last week included a Wednesday Evening Program plan, Sunday Morning Sunday School Lesson, finalizing and executing an outreach event, and preaching a sermon with meetings in between.  Whew!  God taught me a lot over the past week.  Here’s what He taught me (in no specific order).

#1 – SLOW DOWN! – Multiple times last week I found myself finding times for breaks, but filling them with things that didn’t necessarily need done, but I felt like I needed to do them.  On top of that, I barely saw my beautiful wife last week, but thank God she understood.

#2 – KEEP TRACK OF YOUR AUDIENCE – I learned it in Bible College and through the many conferences I’ve been to.  That is to learn your audience.  Know what they would be interested in, know what they like, etc.  I go that part down, but what I didn’t have down was that from year to year, audiences change personalities.  You’ll understand this one a little more as you read further down on my list of things I learned.

#3 – NEVER TRY TO PROVE THE EXPERTS WRONG – I understand that the “experts” are human, but those who have been around ministry for a long time really do know what they are doing.  Example:  We had this outreach on Friday.  The new trend in Student Ministry is that teenagers are not into the “big” events anymore.  I’ve always disagreed.  Well, our Tailgating Outreach tanked.  Now I know the weather was bad, but maybe these experts were right.  Maybe it’s all about the relationships and community.

#4 – I HAVE NOT GROWN UP – As a leader, I like to think that I have grown.  In some cases I think I have.  One area I have not is failure.  I FEAR failure.  I know I’m not supposed to, but I do.  This “F” word bit me again on Friday.  I don’t like failing, and I don’t know anyone that does, but for me it lingers.  I’m still wrestling with it even this morning.

#5 – GOD IS STILL FAITHFUL – It seemed like everything went wrong last week.  To top it off Saturday night my worship leader calls me and lets me know he has the flu.  My wife who was supposed to sing had a 102 degree fever and I had to start planning a brand new service.  God provided people to help out and I felt like on Sunday morning the Holy Spirit spoke in a mighty way.  I don’t judge my sermons by the comments, but this past Sunday I got so many comments that weren’t just “Good job” comments which are still good.  They were comments like, “God really challenged me today”, or “The Holy Spirit really tugged on my heart today”.  PRAISE GOD THAT HE IS SO FAITHFUL!

Big Week…

For those of you who check my blog, let me apologize for my lack of posts.  We are gearing up for a busy, but exciting week!

Wednesday Night – We are finishing our last lesson for our series “The Battle Within:  Understanding Temptation”.  I have been feeling really good about the whole series and am praying that God has done and continues to do incredible things through this series.

Tailgating Party – We are having our 2nd annual Tailgating Party here at the church.  This year we have a special guest.  Je’rod Cherry, former NFL Safety for the New England Patriots will be joining us.  There will be free food, giveaways, prizes, etc.  So, we are preparing for that and looking forward to a great turnout!

Sunday Morning Pre-Service – I am so stoked about Sunday School over the next few weeks.  Last week, we started our new series called “Crave”.  We are taking  a look at why we don’t “crave” God as we should and how to by studying what Scripture says about Spiritual Disciplines.

Sunday Morning Service – I am thrilled and blessed to be able to preach on Sunday morning at our church.  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through me in a very bold way!

Well, that’s just a quick update!  Thanks for checking in!