Revive Us Part 1: Houston We Have A Problem - The School Project

At a local Christian School, Senior High students were given a project to start their own church from scratch.
If money was not an issue what type of church would you build? Who would come? What would your church look like? 
Students got together in groups of 4 or 5 and began to brainstorm with a month to complete this project. They had to come up with a mission statement, a vision statement, and a weekly schedule of events. Students needed to figure out what the worship service would look like, how they developed their church leadership, how they would handle the offerings, who will their church target, and students were to draw a floor plan of their building. What a project! Great concept right?

The students would then deliver a verbal presentation on their church in front of an adult panel made up of those who were involved in church, Para-church or youth ministry. That’s where I came in along with 8 others. There was a rep from the Salvation Army homeless shelter, a youth pastor from one of the local churches by the school, a young adult pastor who oversees a city wide interdenominational service, a missions outreach minister from a local church, a rep from Youth Unlimited, a dancer and author who started her own dance studio to reach the hip hop community. Incredible people were in the room! The panel was invited by the teacher in hopes that we would give valuable feedback to the students but as well to help us minister to youth by gaining valuable information from the students.  I was eager to hear what students would say, and hear their voice of what they would like to see happen in the church. I was expecting to gain fresh ideas that I could implement and even pass on to my own church that would help us reach this generation. I viewed it like a teen focus group on church. That’s what I had in mind but instead I am now sounding the alarm, "Houston, we have a problem."

After listening to the first presentation I was blindsided by what I heard. I came in looking for a little insight, but instead Holy Spirit gave us youth workers a snap shot of bigger problem, one that we created. Have you seen Dave Brotherton’s Vlog The Old “Attraction Model” of Youth Ministry? He wonders if we are tricking students into the gospel by “creating fabricated events… that are not related to what we are about in order to attract people in so that students will bring their friends.”  How has this type of "green screen" ministry made an effect on our youth?

We have been making disciples who do what we do, but they lack the heart of Jesus which is reflected in why we do what we do. 

Youth workers, I believe that the majority of our students are not where we think they are. They are not actually with us in our faith. They have a form of godliness but deny the power. (2 Timothy 3:5) The New Living Translation says, "They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly." After witnessing these presentations a couple of weeks ago, this verse takes on new meaning, along with Jesus' call to “Go and make disciples.”

In short, our students know how to “Do Church” or “Play Church” but they are lacking the authentic heart of the why we do what we do. Since then Holy Spirit has been opening my eyes to see that it’s not just the students that need revival, it is I.

As a result, I’m starting a new Blog series called Revive us. I’ll be sharing about the different churches students put together for their projects so you too can catch a glimpse on whether the students under your care are picking up the same mixed messages. I hope to have some of my colleagues who served on the panel to share their experience along with a “Now What” 

Personally, I am reexamining and evaluating all that my hands have done as 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 weighs heavy on my heart.

Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.

What I’m sharing I believe God is already speaking to many of us about. God is speaking to his church about getting back to the basics, our First Love Jesus Christ. Revive Us O God.

* The purpose of this blog series is not to tear down the students projects for they worked hard on them.  This problem is not a reflection of a school or isolated to the specific city or an age demographic. The views and concerns addressed in this blog are bigger than our youth, I believe it is a reflection of how Christians young and old view the church and what we feel we need to do to make Jesus look cool. 

The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP), Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System and a citywide Conference. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca 

Change of Mind

What Steve Saint talks about in this video is oh so true about youth ministry today. Actually, it could be applied across the board in many churches.

We need to think different about youth ministry today than we did yesterday. What are your thoughts?

@jeffmyth

Following while I'm supposed to be leading?

Commitment is about what I can do.
Surrender is about the other person.

Surrender is about following.
Here is my ramblings about the skill needed in this delicate balance....

Matthew 26:19-46 
betrayed, asleep, deserted, denied. commitment leads to frustration and failure

John 21:12-19 
When peter arrives at the attitude of: "no more commitment! Just surrender..." then Jesus says, "Bingo, follow me"  "On THIS I will build my church"

Isaiah 30:21
As you go, the quiet voice behind you will say, "yes, this is the way".


Dave Brotherton was a youth pastor from 1984-2006 and now teaches youth ministry at Ambrose University College in Calgary. Dave is also the National Youth Guy for the Alliance churches in Canada, the director of Legacy Youth Conference, and a junior high volunteer in his church. Dave is married to Lisa and they share 2 of the greatest kids in the world. Fishing, camping, and cheering on the Leafs are some of his favorite things. 
This summer, Dave is transitioning to lead the ministry of Sauble Christian Fellowship, Sauble Beach, ON. 
twitter: @oldbrotherdave 

In Good Hands

This morning I sat in the dentist’s chair as he scraped, drilled, and picked among other things.  I knew what the end result was to be...however I had no clue how he was going to get there.  I tried my best to just relax and trust him (and pray that I didn’t hear any of these things come from his mouth).  In essence, I placed the fate of my teeth in his hands.

This is what parents do with us in our youth ministries: they put the spiritual well-being of their children in our hands.  Not completely and exclusively of course, as we youth ministers are supposed to complement and supplement the faith formation that is hopefully taking place at home (and in some cases at school).

But while their kids are at our youth gathering, prayer group, or service outing...the buck stops with us.  For better or for worse.

Here are four ways that we can better minister to and with parents:

1.  Provide regular updates.  Parents have every right to know what is going on with their children.  For the most part, parents are grateful for what we are doing as youth ministers and therefore don’t necessarily need to know every detail of every gathering.  However, regular correspondence with the parents will go a long way towards earning their trust.  It could be in the form of face-to-face meetings, emails, phone calls, newsletters, or a regular place in the church bulletin.  The parents will be more apt to support us and our ministry if they are kept in the loop.

2.  Earn the right to be heard.  I’ve written at length before about the importance of earning the right to be heard when working with teens.  That is, they won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.  The same principle applies to parents.  Admittedly, this will look different for parents than it does for teens - we simply are not afforded the same opportunities with parents with respect to time.  But we can earn their trust through our work with their children.  If they sense that we are competent, reliable, and most importantly, authentic and genuine, they will feel more comfortable with us and more likely to support us.

3.  Ask them for help.  Sometimes parents are willing and able to assist but they just don’t know how.  There’s nothing wrong with asking for a little help from them especially given the time and energy you devote to their kids.  For example, I’m aware of many churches that have parents (as opposed to the youth leaders) prepare the snacks for the youth ministry gatherings.  Not only will parents feel more invested, the snacks will likely be of better quality.  That’s how our parent ministry got started at my home church – I think the parents were sick of me feeding their kids Tang and potato chips.  Sad but true.

Another example is getting parents to drive to outings.  They might actually prefer to drive their own kids...and in many cases their vehicles are nicer than the youth leaders’.  :p

4.  Pray for them and with them.  It seems obvious that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  It’s sometimes challenging amidst the busyness of ministry, but I encourage you to carve out some time to pray for and with parents.  As part of the religious education program I run at my home church, the parents meet in a side room to pray, talk and eat while their children are in class.  As a result, they feel a part of the parish community and are always willing to help. 

We should never underestimate the huge responsibility that we have as youth leaders.  Parents need to be able to communicate with us, rely on us, and trust us.  When parents entrust their children into our hands, opportunities arise to serve together and further strengthen the community. 

After all, many hands make light work!
 

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, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo

Annual Reports: Did I Make A Difference?

This school year went by so fast. It is time for a summer break with the long winter finally over. June is here and its time to reflect.
Usually in June circumstances such as graduation services, annual reports and statistics that need to be gathered force me to reflect on the past school. I remember the days when it seemed like I was failing. In comparison, everyone's youth ministries seem to be growing and my students were still struggling with major issues. I'd look back at the goals we set back in September and yes we made one but in this moment the unmet goals were prevalent in my mind. I had and still do have what I call Global Domination Size Dreams. I've always wanted to have my own talk show to positively influence the masses. I'd like to set up Girl Conferences in Barbados and throughout the Caribbean (That is where my family is from), I'd like to live on a Native Reserve for a month helping students break generational cycles. I want to empower a generation of girls to be bold. I want to rewrite movie scripts (Disney's Brave is on the top of my list). I've envisioned youth under my care in the media for their major contributions to society or being so grounded in the Word of God that praying is like breathing for them. I see them bringing Jesus to school where their friends and teachers end up getting healed physically and emotionally!
Do you have big dreams or multiple dreams? Perhaps you know people who are living your dream right now. When you have Global Domination Size Dreams the everyday steps you take in the present seem microscopic in comparison.
Perhaps you have a dream for your youth group, or the small group of students that you lead, maybe it's a dream for your family or your church and their role in the community. As you reflect on this past year, does it look like you've accomplished very little; that you still have a loooong way to go to fulfill your dreams? Are your parents or family members still hounding you with, "Get a real job!"

I found this commercial on a friend's page. The timing was perfect for me and so I share it with you. Watch this video and be reminded that the little things you do youth worker, matters and it counts. All the dollars you spent this year out of your pocket including gas money, coffee/slurpee money, the $10 you needed to pay to see their recital or theatre production without being reimbursed while you were barely able to make payments on your student loan or rent! Your actions and sacrifice may not be CBC news worthy, no one may ask you to speak at a camp or a youth workers conference this year. The who's who in your denomination or organization still has no clue of who you are or what you do. I remember that place but wait. Please, don't allow the waves of comparison; unmet goals, Global Domination Size Dreams and zero recognition drown out the significance of what you did today and yesterday. It matters and it all counts. In Earth's history books...the data is skewed; in Heaven's history book...your story is viewed.

Thank you for investing in students this year. You are the fulfillment of God's dream by being His hands and feet and beautifying the lives of others through your love. You are making a difference.

In Earth's history books...the data is skewed; in Heaven's history book...your story is viewed. 

Thai Insurance Commercial

The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP), Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System and a citywide Conference. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca 

3 Dangers of Quick-Fix Solutions

The garbage can lid had a small fissure in the center of its diameter. The crack went mostly unnoticed for weeks, until the morning we walked outside and saw the enormous gaping hole in our garbage. Chewed plastic and raccoon feces surrounded the breach, taunting us. I wanted a whole new garbage can, but my wife and mother-in-law insisted that it'd be too expensive, that my mom-in-law had purchased a new lid for us on clearance, that if we could wait a week or so to pick up the lid all would be well.

So I did what any husband desiring to honour his wife and lacking in handyman skills would do: I duct taped the lid shut. 

The raccoons just chewed another hole. This rupture in our garbage can's protective boundary expanded from the lid to the actual can, effectively destroying the rim that offered a seal of protection from the outside world. With days remaining before we would travel to pick up the new clearance lid from the States, I did the only think I knew to do: I duct taped the lid shut...again.

But we would not throw the same ineffective solutions at this problem. No, we would add more ineffective solutions. Through extensive Internet research, we discovered that marauding rodents don't particularly enjoy chili powder. Thus, along with our ingenious duct tape defense system, we added a layered moat of chili powder to our garbage can. Days layer, when we arrived back from my mother-in-law's home with a clearance garbage can lid in tow, we were met with the picture below:

Duct tape and chili powder won't stop a determined raccoon. Plus, the new garbage can lid didn't fit. We now need--and, really, have always needed--to purchase a new garbage can, one with a bit stronger lid.

I wonder if we often take the same quick-fix approach in ministry. Whether it's money (this will cost too much!), time (this will take too long!), or energy (I don't have the capacity for this!), many of the solutions we offer in ministry contexts are short-term and quick-fix, reactionary and impulsive decisions to put a band-aid on a wound requiring surgery. 

Perhaps it's the quick acceptance or hire of a seemingly dynamic leader without examining their character. Maybe it's the quick paint job to cover the growing water stain in the ceiling, one that indicates a destructive ongoing leak. Maybe it's adding an extra meeting to the schedule in hopes of getting a team on the same page, when it's a lack of trust in leadership or poor organizational communication leading to the problem. Perhaps it's going with the cheaper website / sound system / seating because we just don't want to pay that much for something so temporary. But these quick-fix solutions often come back to cause more systemic harm than good.

Here are three dangers of quick-fix solutions in ministry:

1. They give the illusion of health and success. In a culture which values immediacy and decisive leadership, quick-fix solutions may offer temporary comfort and relief that looks like ministry health. Much like a fad diet may help a person lose large amounts of weight in a short period of time, a quick-fix solution gives an appearance of healthy change. But fast weight loss doesn't equal sustainable weight loss, and actually may be doing more harm to the body.

2. They ignore systems. A significant part of leadership is viewing every church and organization through the paradigm of systems thinking. The predominant New Testament image for the church is a body. There are individual parts, but there is also the whole body, the whole church. Like the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ, if one part suffers, all suffer; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Problems begin to occur when one part decides that it is the most important in the whole body. Its vision, its ideas, its agenda, its programs, and its budget all take precedent over the other parts of the body. Quick-fix ministry solutions look only at the immediate problem and care little for the whole system. Each part affects the others, and a solution in one arena may create more problems in another.

3. They are rarely discerned through prayer and God's wisdom. When a problem is urgent and looming, it feels like there isn't time to pray and discern what God might be doing. Pragmatism begins to overrule providence. Yet God works in slow and quiet ways--the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, after all. When we embrace a spirituality of waiting, we begin to become more in tune with the rhythms of Christ. When he walked the earth, he never seemed rushed or urgent or overly driven to get things done. He was centered on his mission and focused on loving and healing people. Being more like Jesus requires times of quiet prayer and waiting and listening. When we adopt such a posture, quick-fix solutions become unnecessary.

What quick-fix solutions are you currently using in your own ministry context? Your family? Your marriage? What action can you take today to pursue sustainable and holistic health?

(This post also appeared at The Mayward Blog)

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B.C. Youth Workers: Open Vancouver is coming to Trinity Western University on September 26-27. Check out the Open manifesto, send a proposal to be a presenter, and contact the organizing team with any questions!

ReStart in Youth Ministry

if you are serious about reaching preteens, you need to be serious about providing them with a

picture from LifeWay preteen

space where they feel comfortable. i've seen preteen ministries setup in small rooms, large rooms, medium room and even hallways. they key to opening the door of connection into the church for any preteen ministry is relationships, but don't under estimate the power of decor.

preteens love bright funky colours along with the soothing glow of hd tv's with great sound and video game systems. others love loud physical activity like mini sticks, ping-pong or air hockey. you also need a quieter place to hang out and chat, read or drink a cup of tea.

if i was to start a preteen ministry from scratch, i would set aside a portion of my budget on creating a new, exciting, and inviting spot for preteens.

since budgets are becoming tighter and tighter these days and we being asked to to more with less, here are some creative ways to design and build a preteen room on a tight budget.

• find the largest unused space in your church and ask your leadership for it. a larger space is better for a preteen room so you can have an active and quiet area.
• paint your ceiling tiles or hang old camp t-shirts if you have rafters.
• add unique lighting and furniture ideas throughout the room. ikea is a great option if you have one near you. if not, try a second hand thrift store and go retro in your design.
• ask for old game systems and computers so you can have a technology section.
• scapbook paper and picture design is very powerful and allows preteens to add to the decor of their room.
• collect board games and music for them to pick and choose for their ambience. itunes lets attenders choose their music from a play list if you have wifi access for your kids.
• buy a flat screen tv and show music videos on it or home made ministry event videos.

@jeffsmyth