Youth Ministry in Today's Times

Youth ministry is a way different animal than when I first started doing youth ministry! I believe that today is harder than any other time in youth ministry's history to reach out to students. Just think about all the things that are grasping for an average student's attention...You have school activities and homework, jobs, and sports; which are even a stronger pull then when I was in school. Then you have the iPods, iPads, iPhones and any other iThings out there. The game systems, computers, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, Angry Birds, and the million other apps out there. What do we offer in our youth ministry? Ummm... How about free pizza? Man, things are different in reaching today's youth.

Or think about this. I am speaking at youth group. Now, I should say I take lots of time in preparing messages and then there are times where I don't. Let's say one of those times that I don't, I say something incorrect in youth group. In today's youth group times, a student can pull out his phone, google what I just said, find the correct answer, message the correct answer to the rest of the youth, and tweet "My youth pastor goofed in his message tonight..." ; all before I finish my message for the night. Wow, does that challenge me to make sure I preach truth and have my facts straight...

Though, I am still a believer in two game changers that can change a student's life forever within youth ministry:

1. Show them the love of Jesus! No matter how cool I can act as a youth pastor, no matter how many youth activities are planned, no matter what we do; only Jesus matters, He is the only one that can change their hearts!

2. Build relationships with them! In a world full of distractions; only in America can we have all the things the world has to offer while at the same time being some of the loneliest people on earth...True relationships are a stronger pull than having hundreds of friends on Facebook...True relationships are a stronger pull than any electronic out there. True relationships are what we need to have with the students today!

As a youth pastor; I need the church, the leaders, the parents, the average church goer involved with the youth. Expressing these two things to each student that walks into the doors of our church. Show them Jesus' love and build relationships with them! Thank you to all my leaders and parents that are doing this; you are awesome!

My story: In a different light! Designed for the series "Authentic Faith" with the youth

My story: I grew up going to church, I could say the books of the Bible in 17 seconds, quote more verses than the average person, I was a whiz at Bible Sword drills, I knew God, I knew the Bible, I knew how to perfectly act out the life of Christian. In fact, based on what I just said, you would have never knew I was a lost individual with a one way ticket to hell. My testimony doesn’t have the gory details that some have. I thank God for that; because I have lived the pretend Christian life that many people in the church are living with every week. I can relate with that; there are a lot of lost people in the world, granted, there are a lot of lost people sitting in our churches thinking that they are a Christian. I know because I was one of them. 

At age fourteen, I was sitting in my grandparent Sunday evening service. It was in the month of May, they had a special speaker, and he was an ex-marine. That is as much as I can tell you of what the night looked like. BUT I can tell you that night God found me. I could have all the knowledge in the world about Him and His Word; and I could look like a Christian as much as I wanted; but I never chose Him to be commander in chief of my life with my heart. God tore me up, my religion went out the door, my living out a Christian life on my own evaporated; and I was broken. I gave Him my life that night, the whole thing; brain and heart. And haven't looked back, following His leading and sharing with people His grace and anything He has taught me along the way. 

Was it easy after that? No, my pride hurt and I was humbled. It was hard to tell my youth group! I was a student leader, and leading others students. What were they going to think, you were a poser all the time? How am I going to be able to follow you now...I had been baptized when I was younger because that is what Christians do! I committed to being baptized again, it was hard because all the church would know. It didn’t matter, because God had my life. Has it gotten easier? No! I could tell you many war stories of failures, disappointments, times in pits, burnout periods, and many other horror stories. Sort of just like Joseph, but I can tell you this just like Joseph I know God has a plan for my life and he has a plan for your life! 

"Thou shalt be not of the world" Thoughts of a church person disengaging from the world and such

I've been reading a great book by Brad Powell called "Change Your Church for Good." It is amazing how many pages of notes and stories have come out of my reading and I'm only two-thirds of the way through! God took me through a little journey Friday morning as I was reading a portion of the book. This statement jumped off the pages at me:

"Jesus walked, talked, worked, and lived with those in His culture. Of course, more often than not Christians today isolate themselves from those who don’t know God. They know and associate only with other Christians. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible for them to be the “light in darkness.” Of course, Christians have their weaknesses. (Yes, we do have them.) The Bible makes it clear that “bad company corrupts good character” (I Corinthians 15:33). It also warns us about joining ourselves too closely to those who don’t embrace Christ and His values (II Corinthians 6:14). However, this is speaking of our most intimate and influential relationships. This isn’t a command for us to isolate ourselves from all who don’t know Christ. Jesus revealed the Father’s love to those who were broken, guilty, and far from God. He didn’t isolate Himself from them, nor should His followers today." Brad Powell

Okay, this is good. Many times we hear that we are not to be of the world, and I have seen many Christians hiding in their Christian bubbles. That makes sense...But Paul in these two passages seems to contradict Jesus teaching about being the light of the world. It is almost as if Paul is saying draw a line in the sand and make sure you stay on your side. 

Then God started to take me on a journey, which ended up just being a journey of questions He asked me...

Question 1: Who was my servant Paul writing to? That's easy; the church of Corinth

Question 2: What do you know about Corinth? Well, the city was sinful. I would compare it to that of Las Vegas of today...After all, they coined the term "Corinthianize," which means to practice sexual immorality, after those that lived in Corinth. 

As I was writing this blog, I wanted to go a little more in-depth and researched Corinth a little more. I had forgotten that they had built a temple to honor the Greek goddess Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love). This temple contained thousands of priestess prostitutes and sexual debauchery was running rapid among the people of Corinth. 

Question 3: What did my church look like in Corinth? Well, the church was not around a very long time. So, I would say a church full of mostly young believers that just put their faith into the Way. Then also many of them were also Gentiles with none or very little understanding of the Jewish Law. 

Things started to connect in my head. Today, when a lost person comes to Jesus; we do our best to get them in the Bible, get them to church, surround them with other Christians, and engulf them with anything Godly that will grow them in their walk! After all, they are a baby Christian. They are at a very moldable time in their new birth. In Paul's letters, I see him writing these new believers to be careful in their walks or what was being taught to them in the church would be overtaken by the pull and draw of Corinth. 

We are to follow God's commands in the Bible, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to us to discern His truth. Should we follow Paul's commands to the church of Corinth and stay away from the ungodly or are we to follow Jesus commands to be lights in the world? I would argue both! As young Christians, we need to let God mold us and sometimes when life is falling apart around us we need to seek refuge in the church and among Godly friends. At the same time, we are commanded to share our faith! We need to be a light among the dark. 

Today, I shared in our Sunday School class that for us to live as a Christian all our life and not share our faith; it is a sin. After all, we are held accountable for not just the things we have done; but also the things we fail to do so...Pastor in his sermon later, told us that 95% of Christians do not share their faith. Wow! Now, I am not sure if that was an American, or a world or a denomination statistic; but nevertheless a scary statistic any which way. Why does Europe only have 5% of the population that goes to church or calls themselves a Christian? Even with 4,000 church plants a year, why are there still 7,000 churches closing their doors a year?

The church has better start something! When you see no lost people coming to your church, this is a problem! When the baptism pool is being used for other things more than baptisms, this is a problem! When church people are fighting over little things within the church but are not fighting for their lost communities, this is a problem! We are not to be of the world? That's fine! But we are called to be in the world! I am glad Jesus didn't say, "well, I am not going in the world"; because he would have never came...and you and I would have the grace of God in our lives!

Politics, social issues of today, and temporary things...

What political party should a Christian be for? Where should I stand as a Christian over this current social controversy? Should we as Christians really be concerned over temporary matters or eternal matters? Read the below three paragraphs; they answer these three questions in an outstanding way! 

There are churches that are primary Republican, and they’re beating up on the Democrats. There are churches that are primary Democrat, and they’re beating up on the Republicans. As if politics were the point of the cross of Jesus Christ. While Christians should be good citizens and vote according to the ethics of Christ, the purpose of the church isn’t political. Think about it. Politics have temporary impact. When your candidates are elected, they only have four to six years before they can be voted out. Then what? Everything changes back to the way it was...or worse. What a waste. But, when Jesus Christ gets voted in as King of people’s lives, their hearts are changed eternally. The church was never meant to focus on the temporary political agendas of any group. It was always  intended to focus on the eternal needs of a desperate world. 

And yet, churches, in the name of the One who lovingly asked God to forgive the angry and vile people nailing Him to a cross, are often filled with hate over these temporary issues that won’t change anything. They use their lobby to sign petitions for the latest social outrage, which is an obstacle to offering God’s hope people on the other side of that political or social issues...the people who most need hope. This clearly causes the church to miss its ultimate purpose of reflecting Christ and His love to this world. As John 13:35 says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

Instead, the church has started embracing the compassionless ways of the Pharisees who were excited to have the harlot thrown down and killed (John 8:3-11). On the contrary, Jesus, with great compassion, lifted her up and encouraged her with the truths that her failures weren’t final. He said, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” The church was never intended to be a reflection of man’s hateful and hurtful rejection. The church was always intended to be a reflection of God’s loving and acceptance. Brad Powell

Let's face it, the world is full of darkness. It has always been. Politicians and politics will always be around us; and will have some effect to our personal lives. And yeah, we struggle with the unbelievable acts of abortion, homosexuality, and sex slavery of today; but the world has not much changed from its darkness thousands of years ago where there was still homosexuality, human slavery, and the throwing of children into the god's fire pits. The world will always be full of darkness; as Christians, we are called by God to shine our light of the hope of Jesus! (Note: the darker it is; the stronger a light shines!) People are hurting, they are searching for hope out of the misery of darkness. How are we shining our lights? How are our churches reaching out with hope of the Gospel? How are we attacking the gates of hell looking to reach out to those who are blinded by the god of this age? How are we representing Jesus through the way we act, talk, and portray our faith? Are we giving the hope of the Gospel of Jesus to a dark world? 

Love God and Do What He Says!

Working on tonight's Wednesday night youth group message; and decided to post a few thoughts of the message.

Verse 1 of I Samuel 3 says, "In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions." Not much different than that of today, don't you think? Many people have suggested that God doesn't speak as much as He used to. I would tend to disagree! I believe He speaks just as much today as He has in the past; the problem is, we are not listening! It's hard, I admit; to spend time with God. If you read the Bible on your phone I can guarantee you that you will have a million texts. If you put the phone in the next room, you will hear it going off or someone will knock on your door. Fighting for time with the Father; is a daily challenge that is so worth it, that is if you want to hear from God.