Life of a youth pastor .

Prioritize the TO-DO list.

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  1. If it takes 2 minutes, just do it!
  2. If someone can help, delegate it.
  3. If none of the above, put it on the calendar.

Every night I go home with a to-do list that is never complete. I dream big and know that my list will always out do me when push comes shove. Can you relate? The to-do’s will keep coming and we will never truly finish having to-do’s, but how would it feel to have the list prioritized so you spend more time getting things done rather than feeling at loss or defeated? Getting Things Done, this book has been a huge help in prioritizing my to-do list and has helped me develop a mindset of priority in a role that requires endless decisions to be made and a process for my many tasks to be completed.This chart is referenced in the book…put all of your to-do’s through this model and see what happens.

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Driving students to get their license!

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Roughly 28% of 16 year olds were obtaining their driver’s license in the year of 2010. Thant’s 3 out of every 10 students! The number of students getting their license continues to drop.

I have had countless conversations with students, parents and staff over the past year about how students these days just aren’t eager to get behind the wheel. Why is that? I remember not only learning how to drive on back roads well before getting my permit but rushing to the DMV on my 15th birthday to make it legal. For students today I thought it was a lackadaisical problem. According to research I found in popular mechanics this month it sounds like students are finding contentment in technology rather than the roaring engine or independence behind the wheel. Getting the keys from mom or dad at the age of 16 five to ten years ago meant freedom from home, to go where your friends were.

I suspect that social media bringing friends to our fingertips has underwhelmed the desire for teens to have face to face meetings, hangouts and relationships. While students hide behind the computer or smart phone the roads are slower to grow with young drivers. Our students are becoming less mobile and relying on mom and dad longer for rides. My heart goes out to those students who settle for experiencing life through technology rather than face to face relationships. Getting a student behind the wheel with proper driver’s education can pay huge dividends – helping them get a job, understand responsibility at a higher level, rely less on mom and dad to do for them what they can do for themselves.

Teach them how to drive:

  • Teach them how in a clunker, not in mom or dad’s mercedes.
  • Teach them manual before automatic. It’s something I learned later on, but so grateful I know how. I actually prefer a manual.
  • Show them how to check fluids, change a flat, and change the oil. This will save them big bucks and keep them from being scammed by a mechanic.
  • Parallel parking. Need I say more?
  • My parents set curfew for me the first few years I had my license, not a bad idea.

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Was Camp a Success?

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I have been to dozens of camps both as a student, volunteer and pastor. This past weekend I had the privilege of speaking at a camp in northern Georgia. My buddy Tim Tullis, a junior high pastor at a church in Knoxville invited me to spend the weekend with him and his students. Camp was a blast, I enjoyed the students and absolutely loved the camp. It confirmed that you can pull off a 6-12 camp for students in how you organize their time at camp, a schedule for HS and one for MS. The setting was truly an escape from reality, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I would highly recommend Woodlands Camp for any youth group looking for a camp setting in the south/east.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed speaking at the camp, I had the great privilege of participating in a 7th grade boys cabin talk one night. Hearing them say things like, “I need to apologize to my parents for the way I act” shows me they have a group of friends hearing them out, trusting them, and participating in life change when it happens –  there was some really great conversation! Sitting in the small group and hearing the the boys reflect on the things I shared in the large session really solidified some thoughts on camp. Students will run around, play crazy games, eat that awesome camp food and even take notes in the main session BUT the life change is happening in small groups. Talking with my team at staff meeting this week  my convictions were confirmed. Much of our time is spent programming for the main program, energy spent developing games, we make sure to provide students with enough free time – and cabin time becomes “whatever you guys want to talk about.” There should always be room for the whatever in a small group, but the whatever is hopefully guided toward the essentials of one’s faith journey.

When a youth group comes off of a mountain top experience, like camp, many students experience life change. They have encountered and dealt with some big things in their life and focused on their relationship with God for a solid 3-5 days. What helped make that life change a success?

  • Proximity – Take a student out of their element and put them in an environment that is not regular to them. Getting a student away from the computer, cell phone, their favorite CD allows their mind to think about other things in the present such as God and the people around them. When you take a student out of their normal routine it allows them to zoom out and get a panoramic view of life.
  • Scheduled God Time – For the most part, students hardly spend time with God or thinking about God outside their regular program(s) or small groups that the church facilitates for them. With 2 sessions a day, personal devotions, and cabin talks – scheduled time for students to rest in God’s word and think about their relationship with Him make a HUGE impact over a few days at camp.
  • Small Groups – This is where success happens at camp. It is not only the conversations that happen in the cabin but the intentionality of taking that stuff home as a small group and continue the conversation. The camp speaker is NOT the focal point, but merely someone who primes the pump and begins the conversation for greater conversation among established relationships.

Final Thought

If much of the camp’s success is dictated on followup with small groups, how can we better aim at equipping our small groups and leaders for the long haul when returning home? If you haven’t participated in a small group in some time but lead the direction for them you are missing out. It is incredibly important to take constant pulse checks on your small groups to better serve them and provide resources to help students get connected and stay connected.

Juggling Rocket Ships.

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What goes up must come down…so the saying goes. But what about the rocket ship? If it goes high enough it will reach zero gravity and stay in orbit for a long time! That ship is not coming back down unless given a force in the opposite direction in from which it came.

In ministry, don’t you wish you were juggling with rocket ships?! What some of us would give, to know that we could throw a task so high that it succeeds in flight and all we need to do is keep an eye on it, making sure the flight pattern is on the right path.

Often pastors, staff, and volunteers throw one ball up at a time just for it to come back down. One area of your ministry needs help, attention, a process – you spend hours, days and even weeks helping it succeed. Just when you think you have thrown that ball high enough you see many others speeding at you like asteroids about to hit your ministry. You have now lost focus of the one ball you spent so much time with! And very soon, it too will be speeding back at you.

I’m not here to say I have the answers to this juggling act, but rather offer some sympathy and encouragement…

I know ministry is exhausting at times, find strength in the Spirit. I understand you are frustrated, find contentment in the Gospel.  I recognize you are probably not getting the results you desire at the moment, find fulfillment and joy in being a child of God!

What are you juggling right now? Budgets, retreats, capital campaigns, small groups, recruiting leaders, meeting with students, parents, equipping volunteers, casting vision for staff, writing messages for Sunday. I’m right there with you.  So, how do I juggle these tasks? I recognize that the Spirit has given each one of my staff, leaders and volunteers a gift. I play to their strengths. You are not alone in ministry…so don’t do ministry alone!

How am I currently juggling? I try to begin with prayer, knowing that God is ultimately responsible here. “God, give me someone to oversee this check-in process.” Now you have to act! Seek out people who have a gift of hospitality – put them in charge of overseeing your greeting and check-in process. This one person can focus on the one ball of greeting. Seek out who has a gift of humor, I strongly believe God has created some people to be more funny than others…and every student ministry needs one. Have this person focus on the one ball of games. I am a partnering students with these adults in the juggling act, help share the load and feel the ownership. I would strongly discourage you from just putting anyone in a postion of coaching or ownership in an area of your ministry, make sure they are qualified, passionate about that specific area, and gifted in that way. It is better to keep looking than try to find a quick fix!

As these teams develop, you do not get a free ride. In some cases, your position becomes more difficult. You will have to learn how to explain your vision, desires, why’s and how to’s, when it comes to juggling. Hopefully, somewhere along the way you aren’t the one juggling all the balls that make up your ministry. You have gone from juggler to aircraft control tower – directing the airspace in your ministry where your rocket ships have launched and are flying high!

I am praying for all the pastors out there today who are juggling away.  I pray that God guides you to people who hold gifts and passions that your ministry needs to successfully launch!

If you are really interested in learning how to juggle, take a shot at it!

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Join the Experiment!

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You wake up, pour some coffee and before you are out the door to your first meeting your phone alarm goes off, it’s a reminder to stay connected to God. The reminder is customizable to your schedule when you are awake, every hour you get a verse from the Bible. Sixty days with God every hour you are awake, the sixty-sixty experiment. For dedicated believers or even pastors it can be difficult to make your relationship with God a priority with all the distractions your day will offer.

Our church is in the middle of the series “Soul Revolution” and the sixty-sixty experiment. I would encourage any one whether they are near or far from God to download the app for free and give it a try (Soul Revolution). If you don’t have a smart phone, all you need to participate is a watch you can program to beep every hour.

To make the experiment a little bit more student friendly, I did my best to get into their world. Almost every student carries a binder to school and opens it every day, multiple times a day – including at home when they do homework. We created binder inserts. The inserts were cut in half, laminated and 3-hole punched. We passed them out at the beginning of the experiment and encouraged students to put them in the front of their binder. I’m considering making inserts for other big series in the future. I’d be happy to share this resource with you, here is a link to my public dropbox folder containing the binder inserts.

Have you participated in the sixty-sixty experiment? Let’s hear your story!

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Wrap up the mac cord!

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Apple makes a beautiful product both by looks and performance. Although Apple succeeds in many areas, when it comes to wrapping up the macbook power cable, I’m sure you have thought, “There has to be a better way to keep this thing from becoming a tangled mess!” While I am a Apple product user at heart, I think they dropped the ball here. The fold-out, wrap assist brackets on the charger do not keep the cord attached 90% of the time. My supervisor Kenny over at childrensministryonline.com showed me his special way to wrap up the cord, it still tangled…I know there are a few different theories, but if tangled cords annoy you like they do me, this is an answer you would be willing to spend a few bucks on. The answer was so cheap I bought one for myself, my wife and Kenny.

The PowerCurl is an extension cord assist, helping keep things neat and tidy…ready for it’s next plug-in at Starbucks, office or home. On amazon the Quirky PowerCurl lists at $9.99 but I found mine at Tuesday Morning for $5.99. Be sure to order the one that fits your charger, there are different sizes.

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Teach your mom how to use a computer!

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When I went away to college I’ll never forget how many times my parents would call and ask questions about the computer…how to attach a file, make a new folder, or even how to turn on the computer! Our parents didn’t grow up with computers, why blame them when you can help them?!

Help them answer questions like this:

  • Copy & Paste
  • Change background/screensaver
  • Create an online calendar
  • Chat & Video chat
  • Attach files to email

I was introduced to a website recently that google put together, I’m sure you will have fun organizing your own little tech care package for mom, dad, or the grandparents. The video tutorials are extremely helpful, I’m hoping to put together something similar  for new volunteers serving in my ministry – giving them specific video tutorials that are helpful for their area of serving – greeting, visitor check-in, leading a small group, etc.

Send some tech love to mom or dad HERE.

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Are you ready to plant a church?

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Church planting has a special place in my heart; it is found in the DNA of both my home church Hill Country Bible Church and my current church, Gateway. I was a bit confused when I was asked to take a church planting survey while in my interview process. In the words of my senior pastor, “If we offer you this position I need to know that you understand church planting.” Not just this youth ministry, but almost every youth ministry and every youth pastor will experience this similar pressure at some point…to grow the ministry both spiritually and numerically. I believe that many veteran youth pastors make excellent candidates for church planting. Student ministry is full to the brim of church planting essentials: equipping people to lead, casting vision, working with budgets, hiring and leading staff, organizing serving opportunities and mission trips, leading small group movements, dedicating oneself to a weekly program of teaching and worship, the list goes on and on.

The assessment given to me was issued by ELI Church Planting. “ELI is mobilizing leaders to start new churches out of the culture – churches molded from messy people rising up out of the culture to become the Body of Christ.”

So, are you ready to plant a church? Check out ELI’s website for the free assessment and learn more about your areas of strength and needs for improvement when it comes to church planting.

One of my current reads on church planting is “Church Planter” by Darrin Patrick.

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Caring for Volunteers.

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It’s a task for sure. My wife and I are doing our best to have a one-to-one meeting with each of our leaders and volunteers as we hit the ground running. It is important to give individual attention and care to each sheep in the flock. This comes naturally for some, but is difficult to follow through for anyone. My calendar is quickly filling up with back to back meetings for the next month! I would ask the question, “What are your priorities? Are they on your calendar?” As the shepherd of a flock, you must prioritize your sheep, all of them. If you aren’t caring for them, I hope someone is leading them to food and water! Sure, some eat more than others and some like to sleep all day, but being handed the duty of shepherd the initiation is on you to reach out and care for them. Eventually you should provide a good shepherd to sheep ratio by developing other shepherds, you cannot provide quality care for 30+ people. A quote for the day from a book I’m reading, “The Way of the Shepherd”

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

While developing a team and sharing vision, it doesn’t matter if you know how to build a rocket ship…go out of your way to show sincere encouragement, compassion, and love for your staff and volunteer team. Think about serving them before you think about leading them.

 

The bird’s eye view.

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I bought wi-fi on the plane for the first time…it is very slow, I’d advise against it and actually want my $5 back. Nonetheless, this posting comes to you from 30,000 feet in the air!  We put man on the moon, so I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.

How often do you look at your ministry from a bird’s eye view? Student ministry and really any ministry in the church is due a good look from a bird’s eye view. Up here I can see everything going on…cars and trucks, highways and interstates, farms and cities, rivers and forests, you get the idea. I just made this trip a couple months ago in a different  fashion – Chicago to Austin via the interstate…it was a very different experience. On the road you can pick out details and give very special focus to particular exits, restaurants, pick out and dissect the hotel you may want to stay in, even play that license plate game for 1000 miles! When you are on the ground in ministry you get sucked into the nitty-gritty details of one program, one leader’s concerns, a game that needs to planned, a message that needs to be written…and this happens everyday one thing after another, non-stop. Getting stuck on one topic, problem point, or program may take you miles in the wrong direction when you are looking at the big picture. We have people on the ground that have extremely specific serving roles that need direction and vision. We need to know where we are leading our team and how we are getting there. This requires a bird’s eye view…often.

How often do we take a two hour flight, get up in the sky and examine our ministry’s journey?

Juggling the many tasks that ministry demands becomes somewhat natural for someone that has been doing it for a while. You can think, “I’m doing it!” But at what point do you put all of those things down to pray, evaluate, and take a good look from a bird’s eye view at the whole picture?

Take 20 minutes to answer the following questions to get your own bird’s eye view of ministry…write your answers down and keep them in a place where you can see them throughout the day. Repeat the exercise at least once a month.

  • Pray for an honest heart in evaluating yourself and your ministry.
  • Where is my ministry bearing fruit?
  • How can I thank God for what He is doing among my flock?
  • Is my team driving the same direction I feel God calling us? Why or why not?
  • Do the passengers trust the pilot? How can I continue to build trust with my team?
  • What stories can be captured that will fuel my leaders with encouragement?
  • What people or areas of ministry need more attention or focus from me?
  • What item(s) am I spending too much time on?
  • Pray for a willing heart to follow through on the questions you have answered.

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