Spreading Their Wings

Today I blessed to spend time with two good friends who are leaving town within the next few days to continue on their respective life journeys.

For dinner we hosted the myth, the man, and the legend Jan Chan for dinner at our place.  The kids (along with Gail and I) had been looking forward to his visit all week and unsurprisingly there was no shortage of things to talk and laugh about.  Jan shared stories of his two years of teaching in different cities in England along with his excitement of going to Melbourne to work for the upcoming year.  We played a fun board game (in which Jan, Jacob, Sean and Gail all tied for first leaving me as the only one in last) and enjoyed yummy fudge bars for dessert before Sean and Jacob defeated Jan and me in a friendly game of soccer on the Xbox (see a pattern here?).  It was a great night of both reminiscing and looking ahead.

Earlier for lunch, the OYYAM staff was able to meet Jeremy Keong for some all-you-can-eat Japanese food downtown.  It was a great discussion as we learned about all of Jeremy’s experiences during his first term studying at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute (for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Catholic University of America) in Washington, DC.  We listened to stories of magnificent Sunday brunches, sharing chores, and racing to meet deadlines.  Despite Jeremy’s constant threats to take my job one day, it was wonderful to see that one of our former parish youth ministry coordinators (and archdiocesan stalwarts) was doing so well in an undoubtedly challenging yet fruitful program.

I’m super excited to see both Jan and Jeremy “spread their wings”.  I imagine that moving away to study and/or work can be extremely challenging and stressful.  I wouldn’t know as I admit I’m a bit of a mama’s boy (now wife’s boy I guess).  But here are both of these young men thriving at what they are doing.

I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to serve with both of them in youth ministry (Jan at both the parish and archdiocesan levels and Jeremy at the archdiocesan level) and I hope that I will get the chance to do so once again in the future.  I’m fortunate to call them my friends and I take great comfort in knowing that we will be praying for each other.

In the meantime, I will marvel as they spread their wings and make their leaps of faith.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie. He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years. Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo 

Why Your Church Shouldn't Be Relevant

Despite what anybody has told you, a culturally relevant church is not what your city, town, or context needs. And, just because your pastor wears skinny jeans, drinks craft beer, and preaches from his iPad, this doesn’t mean that your church is relevant. The church and its leadership might be cool, edgy and different and it’s probably even attracting hipster, home-brewing, techies. But does this really make a church relevant?

What are churches and pastors saying when they say they want to be “culturally relevant?”

If you’d allow me the liberty to break Canadian culture down into two broad categories, I would suggest:

1. The Marketplace – characterized by hard work, a drive for success, advancement, diligence, excellence, self-evaluation, and discipline.
2. Leisure & Entertainment – characterized by celebrities, PVR’s, vacations, Hockey Night in Canada, ease, consumption, and glass of Mike’s, a hammock, and Angry Birds.

By in large, when churches and leaders talk about being culturally relevant, what they are really saying is that they are trying to be “leisure and entertainment relevant.” Add to this, rarely is it well done. When pastors and leaders chase after this type of church relevance, which often happens in the name of missional, we very well may be hindering what God wants to do in our church and city. Author Hugh Halter makes the comment:

In most cases the church environments we've created fosters softness that hinders growth and involvement in God's mission.

I couldn’t agree more. The cultural values of hard work, endurance, reflection, hardship, and diligence don’t seem to be landing in our churches. This is especially problematic among our men. In particular, I believe it alienates those men who live in a hard-nosed, fast-paced work environment where anything worthwhile requires sacrifice. The temptation is to make church and Christianity easy, palatable, and without much consequence. The reality is, not many people live a world like this and when they hear this kind of Gospel, it just doesn’t make sense.

Churches shouldn’t be culturally relevant, anyhow. If we are to be relevant to anything, it would be to the person and work of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. Instead of the culturally relevant church, what I would propose is that the Church be Biblically relevant and culturally appropriate.

Missiologist Ed Stetzer writes that Christian engagement with culture means knowing what bits of culture to adopt, to adapt, and to reject. There are many parts of culture that simply are not relevant to the church. As Christians, we must think more Biblically and then work out how life and mission intersect appropriately with culture. Inevitably, this will take a church much deeper into culture. It will help the church better communicate appropriately, and now, instead of your church being discipled by culture, your church is discipling, transforming, redeeming, and loving the culture it has found itself in.

To my culturally savvy, cool, hip and urban ministry friends and partners, what do you think are the marks and traits of a Biblically relevant, culturally appropriate church?

This post was originally posted here May 23, 2011 and includes an interesting comment section worth reading and adding to. 

-Jer

Leading Up - An Introduction

Photo Credit: cascade hiker (Creative Commons)

I’m a leader in the church and I often don’t know what I’m doing.

Don’t tell anyone.

It’s not that I’m completely clueless or incompetent. I believe God has both called me to ministry and gifted me to lead, giving me gracious opportunities that I’m not even sure I deserve. But I certainly haven’t arrived yet. I’m still figuring this leadership thing out, still learning in the trenches of ministry, still seeking the Lord for what He would have next.

Maybe you’re in the same boat with me. Whether you’re a full-time pastor, an intern in training, or a key volunteer, you're likely reading this blog because, like me, you love the church. You want to see the body of Christ be an amazing Gospel community that loves God, loves people, and makes a significant difference in our world in the name of Jesus. But it’s not there yet, and you have a God-given desire to see the church be changed into what it could and should be.

Imagine leadership in the church like climbing up a mountain. You've got all your gear and tools, your boots and tents and axes and ropes. Everyone is strapped in together by a common rope and we're all headed towards the top. There are plenty of dangerous pitfalls and slippery slopes, as well as beautiful vistas and the refreshing beauty of God's creation. You're in the middle of the team, fellow travelers behind you and before you. The person in front is setting the pace and leading the way.

So how do you lead from the middle? How does a leader implement significant change within the church and culture, regardless of job description or chronological age? How do we navigate church politics and systems without getting frustrated, deflated, or fired? What does it look like to lead up? 

In this blog series, we'll talk about church politics, sacred cows, systems thinking, healthy communication, fostering healthy team dynamics, dealing with criticism, and plenty of other leadership tools and stories that will hopefully help us all become better leaders in the church. I'm convinced that leadership is a gift from Jesus, and I pray that beyond all else, we grow in our relationship and identity with Him.

I'm hoping these posts can become an ongoing conversation of the CYW blog. Feel free to leave comments, ask questions, and share stories. You can also email me if you have a particular subject or situation you'd like to discuss. 

Looking forward to leading up with you!

Joel Mayward is a pastor, writer, husband, and father living in Langley, British Columbia. He is the author of Leading Up: Finding Influence in the Church Beyond Role and Experience. Joel loves youth ministry, movies, the church, and theology. He writes about all of it at his blog.

Maintaining Youth Ministry Volunteers with a Little TLC

Yesterday I was blessed to be a part of a panel for “Blueprints” – an innovative online youth ministry training session spearheaded by Tony Vasinda.  The topic was volunteer management: recruiting, training, and sustaining volunteers.  You can watch the entire hour-long session here.

As part of the training, I put together a 7-minute clip on ways to keep our youth ministry volunteers.  I also touch on the reasons why volunteers leave youth ministry, and I introduce the TLC theory.

Hopefully you’ll be able to use both videos to strengthen your ministry to volunteers and your youth ministry overall!





Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie. He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years. Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo 

Going Slow with Dr. Low

I read a terrific quote on Facebook today by N.T. Wright:

"Character is a slowly forming thing. You can no more force character on someone than you can force a tree to produce fruit when it isn't ready to do so. The person has to choose, again and again, to develop the moral muscles and skills which will shape and form the fully flourishing character."

My blogs usually focus on slowing you, the reader, down.  Every week I meet with Christians who are so hard on themselves.  They are critical to the point of emotionally flogging themselves regularly, gracious with others but impatient with themselves.  They are trying to push themselves (and maybe even God) to be better, try harder and grow faster than they are.  This often leads to a sense of failure and shame as well as people giving up because they just don't seem to be getting there fast enough.

This is yet one more area where people need to be encouraged to slow down.  While it is good to be a spiritually disciplined Christian who is growing ahead in God's will, there's nothing wrong with doing this slowly.  In fact, slowly is the way it usually happens, or at least if it's going to last.  One of my spiritual directees last week was lamenting that his spiritual formation was not happening as quickly as the people he sees interviewed on TV who have these amazing encounters with the Holy Spirit seemingly transforming them overnight.  While this certainly happens to some people from time to time, the majority of God's people throughout history have experienced long, slow, gradual spiritual growth over several years and that's okay.

So slow down and take it easy on yourself.  Strive for holy living and walking in God's will but with grace and patience, realizing this may be a long, slow process.  And that's okay; God's in the business of redemption, not speed racing.

Back to the Future

As another year is wrapped up and pushed into the dark recesses of our minds, we look forward to a new year in 2013.

2012
What are your highlights for 2012? In our family we talk each night before bed by asking "what was your favourite part of today that you are thankful for?" This helps us review the day and giving us a time to celebrate as a family those things through out the day that we are thankful for. Yet as you review 2012, what are those things that you are thankful for? Personally, youth ministry, family, personal development, etc?

2013
What are the highlights that you are looking forward to this new year? What is your purpose and direction behind those things that you are laying the plans down in your life or ministry to accomplish this year? What has God given you a passion and drive to move forward on this new year? Are you scared? If it's truly a vision from God for you , your family, your ministry, your neighbourhood you need to rest in the faith that God is going to grow in and through you.

Colossians 1:3-5Our prayers for you are always spilling over into thanksgivings. We can't quit thanking God our Father and Jesus our Messiah for you! We keep getting reports on your steady faith in Christ, our Jesus, and the love you continuously extend to all Christians. The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.
6-8The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it. It doesn't diminish or weaken over time. It's the same all over the world. The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you. From the very first day you heard and recognized the truth of what God is doing, you've been hungry for more. It's as vigorous in you now as when you learned it from our friend and close associate Epaphras. He is one reliable worker for Christ! I could always depend on him. He's the one who told us how thoroughly love had been worked into your lives by the Spirit.

Some Perspective on Perspective

I’ve had some time over the past couple of weeks to do some praying and reflecting.  It’s been a natural time to do so given that work slowed down just a bit - affording me the opportunity to spend some quality time with family and friends.

Like many people, I was deeply affected by the senseless shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14.  With Gail being a grade two teacher and all three of our kids in elementary school, I’ve admittedly played the “what if” game in my head (as I’m sure parents all over the world have done as well).  I wonder if Kayla would be smart enough to play dead.  I imagine Jake and Sean darting behind desks to take refuge.  I picture Gail sacrificing her own life to save the lives of her students much like the brave teachers at Sandy Hook.

Since the tragedy, I’ve heard a lot of people say that the incident has reminded them to keep things in their proper perspective.  That family trumps all, and that we shouldn’t get caught up in petty disputes, materialism, the pursuit of fame and fortune, or any “first world problems”.

While I agree with all of these sentiments, I offer this as we enter a brand new year:  while the Newtown tragedy helped to put things into perspective...I hope to never lose that perspective in the first place. 

In other words:  I shouldn’t need a mass shooting to remind me of what’s important (and what isn’t). 

Family.

Faith.

Friends.

These are the things worth dying for.

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo