Archives for April 2011

Today we had our local youth pastor network meeting.  We meet once a month for lunch, encouragement, and some training.  Youth Specialties lets us host it in their offices, which are centrally located for us, so that’s a huge win. One church brings in lunch and then we do some training and life-on-life sharing.

Since we lost a youth pastor, Mike Hendricks, in our network suddenly this month to a tragic bee sting, we decided to dedicate our meeting today to talking about what would happen to our ministries if any of us were to die unexpectedly.  We then spent some time praying for Mike’s church and his wife and infant daughter who are dealing with the loss of a husband and dad.

Sounds depressing, but it really wasn’t.  In my opinion, it was one of the best meetings we’ve had. The result was, a solid conversation among our team about how well we are connected to support one another in crisis and how we have structured our individual ministries.  As we talked, I gleaned at least 3 things that were worth reminding ourselves of as youth pastors.

1. CROSS-CHURCH FRIENDSHIPS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR HEALTH.   

Tragedy will happen.  Jesus said so in John 16:33.  And when it comes, yes we can lean on our faith, but we also need to lean on one another.

Being part of a network has been a huge priority for me, producing amazing friendships and great church partnerships in my life.  For virtually all of the years I’ve been employed as a youth pastor, I’ve been in networks, led the networks, and even served on the National Network of Youth Ministries board for a stint.  I really can’t imagine what it would be like to be doing ministry without mutual church connections like this.  We really need each other.

Mike’s funeral will be this Saturday and is actually being hosted in another church in our area.  They inquired at our church but we couldn’t due to a date conflict.  But regardless, I think it’s awesome when churches support one another, both inside and outside of tragedy.  I really think unity it’s the clearest picture we have of God with us to a watching world in our culture.

• Be careful that the stories we all tell as part of our teaching don’t become the focus of our teaching.  We’re teaching the Bible and illustrating it with life.  Not visa versa.   
• Make sure that we’re leading students to faith in Jesus first and deep connection with our leaders or staff second. 
• Use language that affirms and notices the work of God in and around us.  We must be the chief pointer to the evidence we see of God among us in our ministries.  
• Remember that the power of the resurrection is ridiculously more powerful than our latest idea, camp, or plan. 

Our staff meeting today started with us talking about being stuck.  We talked about how we can all get personally stuck in some stuff that we can’t seem to break free of.   We talked briefly about what do you do when you’re stuck in a rut and prayed about some stuckness in our church and lives.

I once heard this quote about a “rut” in a leadership class I was taking.  It reads:

“A rut ain’t nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.”  

So in decided to write some thoughts in agreement that ruts are deadly to my spiritual growth, to my ministry, and to potential.  I’m no rut busting pro, but as I mulled this over today, there’s  things I think I need to bust out of any rut.  This is what I need to remind myself, my students, and my team that we have to do if we’re gonna get out of the ruts we’re trapped in- both individually and collectively.

#1. CALL IT OUT—–>>  I have to call out a rut for a rut. And not just a rut of bad patterns, but a death trap i’m stuck in.  Everyone who’s ever been through a 12 step program out of anything knows this is always step one.  If you can’t name it, you can’t defeat it.

#2. PRAY IT THROUGH —–>>  I can’t just click my heals and wish a rut away.  It’s a rut for a reason.  I’m gonna need some divine guidance, strength, wisdom, and intervention.  I’m gonna also need way more than just one days worth, I’m gonna need a lot of prayer and probably a lot of time.

#3. TELL SOMEONE —–>> Do I have to?  Yup.  If calling it out is giving it a label, then telling a friend is giving it a flag.  It says, “hey, I hate this rut” and I need some help and some accountability to get out.  If I want to get out of any deep seated pattern in life, it takes accountability. It just does.

#4. ASK FOR INPUT —–>> I’m not gonna find a new perspective in me.  I need outside influence and ideas.  I need others to help me de-stuck stuff.  By definition, if I could have unstuck it myself, I wouldn’t be stuck here in the first place.

#5. REPLACE STUCK STUFF WITH NEW STUFF —–>>  Old patterns don’t just go away, they must be replaced with new patterns.  If you want to stop “x”, then it must be replaced with “y”, whatever that is. So busyness can be replaced with solitude.  Anger can be replaced with exercise.  Alcohol can be replaced with…. anything but nothing.  When something that has had a strong hold on us is to be broken free of, we can’t just break free into nothingness or it’ll grab us again. We must turn that attention somewhere else.

I just got home from seminary again… making today another 15 hour day, the last 4.5 hours of which was dedicated to reading, taking notes, and talking about what is the role of the pastor.  It ended in a debate where I tipped the cart over in our class and told them that I thought we had unnecessarily created a gap between the “clergy” and the “laity” in church and that this was not a good thing.  All kinds of Bible verses came up and discussion about apostles and teachers and yatta yatta ensued.

I was lobbying for an elevation of the “priesthood of all believers” and several others in class were calling the idea out as if I was a wishy washy leadership guy who can’t handle anyone taking charge.   We talked about “anointing” and “calling” and “ordination” and such. In the end, I’m not sure we really concluded anything beyond the truth that there is a tension in Scripture where both viewpoints can be supported, which probably means that both views are simultaneously correct and incomplete.

For what it’s worth, here’s how I think “pastoral” leadership should shake out, regardless of the title you put next to your name. I think it’s a “top down from the bottom up”. I ultimately think someone should be called the leader.  But, I also think that someone should sit with the crowd.

LEAD WITH HUMILITY.  If someone needs a title or must constantly introduce themselves with a title, then I wonder if they want to lead or just want to be noticed.  There’s massive difference between leadership and having a leadership position.

LEAD WITH PASSION.  If you don’t want to lead, then please stop and let someone who is passionate about it. We all need leadership that is passionate about their calling and passionate about inviting others to lead in their calling.

LEAD OFF STAGE.  This means, let others shine.  Get out of the way and let others do what God has called them to do. Whenever we can give others the chance to blossom in ministry we produce a Kingdom win for God.

LEAD IN THE FUNK.   Lead in the midst of it not going well. Leadership is messy.  Leadership is about cleaning up the mess together. It also doesn’t fit nicely in a flow chart.  When we lead like Jesus lead, then it’s gonna be funky.  True leadership knows it’s most needed when things are most funky.

Our student ministry sponsors 5 kids around the world through several organizations.  The Berrytribe also sponsors a kid in Uganda through World Vision too.  His name is Kakooza Geoffrey.

Our student ministries sent each of them $75 toward the end of last year for an Christmas gift.  We did the same for Kakooza.  I just got a note in the mail- it takes a while sometimes to get half way around the world and then back to me.  The note thanked us for our sponsorship and for the generosity and said that the money was used to bless his family and here’s what he got.

I tried to get up really early to spend some quiet moments with God before heading to church this morning for 3 services at Easter. But I didn’t manage to do that.  Instead I got up, made some coffee, woke up tyler, and headed to serve and attend together.