Dan Herod - Six Steps to Start Your Campus Club (video)

Dan Herod is a friend and former classmate of mine (NCU). He is now the Wisconsin-Northern Michigan District Youth Alive director. We invited him to preach at The Underground a few months ago, and he really blessed us with the Word and his testimony.



Six Steps To Start Your Campus Club from Dan Herod on Vimeo.

There's No Such Thing as Part-Time

"Raise your hand if you're a part-time youth pastor or youth leader," said Kirby St. John. "You guys are my heroes."

What!? This was a little stunning to hear, and it was the first time I had heard it. Here's why he said it. As a part-time youth pastor, putting in time at another full-time job, we are putting in about 50-60 hours a week-- not with our families. That's on the verge of, if not firmly entrenched in, workaholicism (don't even get me started on how stupid of a word that is). We was admiring our dedication to God's call.

It was good to hear from someone who is in full-time ministry for so many reasons. The first? Self-loathing. If you are a part-time youth pastor or youth leader, you may have struggled with this as well. I've asked myself, "If I'm called to be a pastor, why don't I just quit my full-time job in faith that God will have a full-time pastor job for me?" The answer of self-loathing comes back as, "Because I must not have enough faith."

That's wrong for so many reasons, but I'll touch on one: Paul, the Apostle and evangelist, worked a full-time job making tents (the type you see setup at a farmers market). But, as far as we know, he didn't have his wife and kids suffering from his absenteeism. Those kinds of hours require some deliberate family maintenance. I came home from my 40-hour tent making job, only to immediately head to my home office to study and write a sermon. In the in between time, my 3-year-old welcomed me in, and asked, "Are you going to stay in my house now? Going to stay?" As opposed to go to the office. Or church. Or youth gathering. Or a meeting. "Yes, I'm going to stay... it's my house too," I replied. He repeated his question a few more times, just to make sure I understood. I understand all too well.

The second? Recognition of effort. Part-time pay and hours does not mean part-time ministry. Ministry is full-time. Whether you have a set number of office hours, or expectations of hours "put in" to your ministry job, there are countless other tasks and responsibilities of student ministry that add up. Putting in 10 hours each work could mean: 2 hours for youth gathering, 1 hour for worship team practice, 1 hour for setup/tear down, 4 hours for study/sermon prep, and a monthly meeting with leaders. What we don't add is the time spent thinking about our next fundraiser for missions.Praying for kids. Praying for the leaders. Praying for God to lead us and tell us what to do next. Replying to parents emails about great ideas (they are great). Carefully thinking about how to reply to those parents. Preparing for camp. Preparing for retreat.Planning group events. Keeping in touch with kids who have been AWOL for a few weeks.  Some of that is just part of life. But so much more is either self-imposed or God-imposed. What gets cut out must be those things that God doesn't prioritize.

This could easily become a rant about how much a part-time youth pastor must do, but that's not the point here, because any leader in a church must only do what God has called them to do, and what God is telling them to do right now. The point is, my own self-loathing and embarrassment that I wasn't full-time was annihilated by an encouraging word from a respected leader. Someone who didn't follow that statement up with, "but have you thought of doing XYZ? It would be great!" There was no catch. Just encouragement. Just a word from God through his obedient vessel.

On Their Own

The question may come to a youth pastor or leader, the shepherd, of "when to let go?"  When has discipleship set in?  When are the training wheels off?  If it is a matter of sooner or later, I would say later, not sooner.

 

The Importance of Retreats - Opportunities

Opportunities

There are several opportunities to "bring something back" to your gathering.  The first is to implement good and scriptural techniques that would help your tribe engage more deeply with God.  At worst, there are new discussion points as you may have to scramble to perform damage control due to an over-zealous but under-informed/-educated/-prepared preacher poor self-restraint and lack of a governor between brain and mouth.  In any case, when retreats hand out lemons as part of the registration fee, do not neglect the opportunity to make lemonade.

Continued...

They Need Good Pastors and Good Churches Everywhere – Kevin DeYoung

This article is pointed-- at some of us! Thanks to Pr. V for passing this on to us.

From Kevin DeYoung's response to an article by Bill Steeger. Here is the portion of the article that DeYoung quotes.

It’s amazing how many young pastors feel that they are distinctly called to reach the upwardly-mobile, young, culture-shaping professionals and artists. Can we just be honest? Young, upper-middle-class urban professionals have become the new “Saddleback Sam”.

Seriously, this is literally the only group I see proposals for. I have yet to assess a church planter who wants to move to a declining, smaller city and reach out to blue collar factory workers, mechanics, or construction crews. Not one with an evangelsitic strategy to go after the 50-something administrative assistant who’s been working at the same low-paying insurance firm for three decades now.

Why is that? I can’t offer a definitive answer. It could be that God is legitimately calling an entire generation of young pastors to turn their focus to a small segment of the population that happens to look very much like they do.

Perhaps for Steeger and his crew, the issue is a matter of call. Is there a call or is there an attraction? In my flesh, I'd rather be in sunny Mexico or Hawaii, but in my spirit, which is empowered by and follows the Holy Spirit, I am called to Wisconsin. Maybe Acts 29 is attracting people who want to be like the other people in Acts 29 (Driscoll, etc.). We emulate those we admire, and until we start elevating the work (in our hearts and minds) of those who minister in small fellowships/tribes and low-populated backwoods areas in comparison to the megachurches, this will keep happening.

Don't get me wrong-- I'm not coming down on Acts 29. In fact, in the case of Acts 29, I'm just speculating.  But with Bible college, I have some experience.

At Bible college, how often was some church building verge-of megachurch Preacher was invited to speak at chapel? Hundreds. These are how we measure success. These are the ministries and efforts that are propped up and highlighted in our formative ministry educations, and therefore, these are who we emulate.

Key quotes:

"As I like to remind idealistic twentysomethings, community is a wonderful ideal until you have it. It's easy for Christianity to be nothing but cultural wallpaper in the Bible belt. Sins go under cover for years and sometimes generations. The gospel can devolve into family values, moralism, or Republicanism."

"Preaching the gospel week after week is heroic."

"Be willing to suffer, but don't feel guilty for pleasure."

Put your thoughts in the comments section.

Read the complete article here:

They Need Good Pastors and Good Churches Everywhere – Kevin DeYoung

The Importance of Retreats - Shared Tribe Experiences

Shared Tribe Experiences

The community that is built in 48 hours of immersion as a community at a retreat is worth more than 12 weeks of 2-hour meetings.  The depth of community that happens as students worship together for hours and hours over the course of a weekend is unobtainable through the normal youth gathering structure, and it is not to be ignored.

New Friends

The friendships that are formed not just within the tribe but with other students from the area are great to see.  It's a subtle encouragement that says, This is not limited to you.  God is moving all over the place!  You are not alone.

Witness

At retreats and camps, students are able to witness several things.

1. Other people worshiping God
2. Other ways people worship
3. God moving in others
4. God moving in their friends

Continued...

The Importance of Retreats

Retreats, camps, lock-ins, and conferences are a staple of student ministry.  While many of my articles up until this point have been toppling sacred cows (games, music, etc.), this is one with which I agree.  The benefits are myriad.

Depending on your geography, it's possible that the students in your tribe only meet once or twice a week for a couple of hours.  Your kids may be congregating and converging from many different schools, and the only shared experiences they have involve circling their chairs, playing an ice breaker, singing songs, sitting quietly and listening to a sermon, and praying.  Those are good, but they are incomplete.  It's a 90 minute or 2-hour stint, and then nothing for another 7 days.

Continued...

Adopting a Spiritual Vocabulary - Series

Adam Posegate shared a four-part series on Adopting a Spiritual Vocabulary, and the importance of what it is we speak into the lives of those we shepherd.

Part 1: What is Normal?
Part 2: Does our "Normal" Honor God?
Part 3: A Different Type of Relationship
Part 4: Conclusion

Adopting a Spiritual Vocabulary - Part 2

Is our culture E!, People, and gossip?

If a significant (read: great amount of) of our conversations revolve "entertainment news" or celebrities or even the personal and dating lives of those around us, there's a chance that our "normal" is gossip. Does our "normal" honor God? Are we praying for others as we consider them, or are we talking about everything they do wrong?

Is our culture political, CNN, and Fox News?

If most of our time is spent preaching and teaching moral theism and cultural values, instead of equipping students to be disciples and learn these things from scripture on their own, we may be missing the mark. Getting conservative Christians riled up about politically conservative values is lazy when only done for the sake of preaching to the choir. Rev. Tim Snell once said, "You shouldn't talk about those in elected office in ways that you wouldn't let your own children speak to you." He's right. We cannot make our gatherings a political safe haven for either the left or the right. Chances are, 90% of our students don't really care about politics anyway. We must create a spiritual safe haven and sanctuary-- sacred space that is set apart for worshiping God and learning how to be his disciples.

Is our culture ESPN and SportsCenter?

I once served with a small group leader who would almost exclusively talk sports with his group of guys. Sometimes, to seem relevant, he would also entertain conversation about video games. When I would fill in for him to cover the supporting spiritual materials for that evening's gathering, the kids would comment how they never go over "that stuff." This leader would say that he was doing this under the umbrella of "building relationships." Their normal was sports. In 10 years, sports won't give our students the tools for discipleship that they can only get from scripture. We must love our

students enough to build a different type of relationship.

To be continued...

Church Relevance article re: Francis Chan

Church Relevance is a resource I use frequently. Check out Kent's notes from a session led by Francis Chan (Crazy Love).

I love the point made to not get distracted by the details (while I say still pay attention to those details). Do not let them distract you from your mission.

What mission has God called your ministry to perform? I'm guessing, as you pray, it has something to do with "making disciples of all nations."