Life of a youth pastor .

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Supply Run! (DIY8.10)

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shopping-cartThis is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the eighth of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

I’ll make this one short and sweet. You don’t need to do all of the shopping for your ministry. There are plenty of leaders and parents out there that are willing to swing by the store for you, just ask. Get away from do-it-yourself student ministry by delegating to others, allowing them to be a piece in the process of pulling your program or event together. Bringing others into your supply run outings can bring great benefits.

ALWAYS

  • Ask another leader or parent to do your supply run.
  • Encourage leaders to take students with them, it’s a great time to build community.
  • Have a supply list prepared, more time is wasted in the store if you don’t have a list.
  • Understand your method of payment and how reimbursements work at your church, be up front with your leaders/parents and make sure they get their reimbursement.

IDEAS

  • Amazon Prime – Free two day shipping on most items, delivered right to the church. Eliminates the time and money spent on an outing to the store.
  • The dollar store…hidden treasures await you and your students.
  • Old stuff in your youth storage space, you haven’t used this stuff in a year. Get creative with supplies you already have or bring back an old game.

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Listen to “their” music…just push play.

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Music is not what it use to be. If the Beatles are still your favorite band then we need to talk. The music conversation is one that most youth pastors will have with a senior pastor, fellow staff member, student band member or even a parent. I remember a parent asking me recently, “Do you think it’s okay if my daughter listens to Taylor Swift?” Here’s the reality, as a parent or a youth pastor…most of the students out there are listening to a secular radio station your city plays or quickly downloading the hottest #1 release on the digital market. If that’s not the case of your child or student, they will still hear this stuff around their friends or when they go out. While it might not be your taste, visit a radio station that plays music with bad words being bleeped out, lyrics about one night stands and a beat you can’t understand.  Here is what you need to remember – this is “their” music. This is what students listen to, this is what their friends listen to. These are the lyrics that are filling up their minds, driving their emotions, and even affecting their decision making. The chorus that sings about love, will be one of the ways they think about and interpret love as a teenager. Their favorite lead musician may appear to have it all together, this is literally a rockstar they look up to – they want to sing like them, dress like them, talk like them.

Surprisingly, there is still some clean secular music out there and when you find it… you should play it. Play it in the home. Play it as students are walking into church. Play it on the bus as you travel on your mission trip. Play the music video at camp. Students appreciate you knowing their music, and keeping up with their taste. When you play the clean stuff you are affirming and encouraging that specific song or artist. When you choose certain songs or decline particular song requests, this allows for honest conversation in why you chose these artists/songs rather than others. Avoiding the subject all together and just playing what you want is not an option.

I’m guilty of listening to plenty of songs that are irrelevant in today’s student culture. I’m an old soul. When I say to a student that I like listening to The Eagles, Marty Robbins, or some Johnny Cash they look at me real funny. So here is the challenge to you and me, find that radio station playing all the current rock/pop and just push play. Give it a whole week. Reflect on the lyrics, better understand the culture they are living in and what they are listening to. Find the fun and clean songs, write them down, download them, add them to your playlist.

I’m sure there is way more to this conversation…what do agree or disagree with? How do you feel about the challenge? What were the results if you did try this?

I’m addicted 2 things…

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The truth is that I’m addicted to some things.

ad·dict·ed – to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance.

Every morning when I wake up I find myself gravitating toward TWO things I depend on for my day, without them my day falls apart…

1) COFFEE. Typical for the youth pastor trying to keep that crazy schedule of hanging out with students and leaders, healthy though?! I would think not…surely it can’t be healthy when one is addicted to a caffeinated, acidic, beverage of this sort. I know the headache at 1pm all too well – it hurts REALLY bad! This means I didn’t get my one mug fill for the morning…perhaps in another post I’ll talk about fighting addictions but for now I’m just confessing mine. Check out some stuff I found on us coffee drinkers, or even those of you who think drinking coffee is unhealthy!

I found a poll that questioned 4,700 people…

Overall, about 34% of those people say they need coffee to get through the workday. I’m victim of the 34%…the people who are addicted and get headaches early afternoon without their “fix” of the double shot espresso or venti mocha, I personally like my coffee with a little white mocha!

Of those who drink coffee,

  • 46% say they are less productive without it.
  • 61% drink two or more cups a day
  • 28% drink three or more cups a day
  • I drink one cup…okay sometimes two

While coffee was once considered bad for your health, it’s now thought to have many benefits besides simply jolting you awake in the morning.

  • Heavy coffee drinkers may be half as likely to get diabetes as light drinkers or nondrinkers, perhaps because coffee may contain chemicals that lower blood sugar.
  • Coffee might also help protect against cancer. Coffee drinkers are 50% less likely to get liver cancer than those who don’t drink it, and a few studies have found ties to lower rates of colon, breast, and rectal cancers among coffee enthusiasts.
  • There is some evidence that coffee may protect men, but not women, against Parkinson’s disease.

How would you like that?

  • Attorneys and judges are most likely to take their coffee black, as are hotel workers
  • Human resources professionals and personal caretakers are most likely to take their coffee with cream and sugar
  • Editors, writers, government workers and teachers are most likely to favor flavored coffees

2) SHOWER. I know this one may seem odd but it’s the truth. If I don’t get my shower in the morning I’m just not awake and ready for my day…it’s not the piping hot, well water that smells like sulfur and rotten eggs, nor my old spice body wash that does it for me. It’s my WATER PROOF BIBLE! Yup, believe it or not I do have a waterproof Bible I keep in the shower and have had it for over a year now. I’m addicted to it. Show this thing off at your small group, students love it! It does cause me to take longer showers, and highlighting my favorite verses doesn’t really work well, but it is one of the only places in life I can get away from it all…no phone, no computer, no TV, nothing…absolutely nothing, just me and the waterproof Bible. Being addicted to the Word is a good thing I suppose, without a little pep-talk with God my day seems empty and can quickly become about me rather than the one I serve. I have become dependent on it, the shower that is…I know it is the first thing I must do when I wake up. Okay okay, so sometimes I have my coffee first!

  • Do you have a favorite place you connect with God?
  • What are you addicted to?
  • Is it healthy?