You are here: Home / Archives for 2011

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Part 4

February 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

Youth Ministry has come a long way since I was a kid in the late 80’s-early 90’s. I remember clip-art with white surfers/skaters always saying that Jesus was Radical!! Tubular!!! Outrageous! Sorry not enough exclamations there, I mean OUTRAGEOUS!!! (need one for each member of the Trinity).

Unless I am mistaken, it was believed that if we could make Jesus relatable enough and “cool” enough, our young minds wouldn’t be able to help ourselves and we would fall madly in love with Jesus and reject our cultural’s non-edifying values and live happily ever after. A funny thing happened though, it was pretty much the opposite of all that. My friends and I were fairly polite, we tolerated the “Sk8r boi Jesus” but similar to how Jesus lost many of the 5000 with the “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man …” part, He lost us also with the “Jesus is Gnarly” part. Trouble is, one is found in the inspired text and the other in a flawed methodology.

I always knew Jesus was good, but in my teenage mind, he reeked of desperation and seemed a bit insecure, you know with all the searching for identity stuff. There was also a very high amount of guilt in many of the messages I heard in the late 80’s/early 90’s. I wasn’t quite sure if it was because he lost some of his skater/surf endorsements but for a “chill” guy, he seemed pretty consumed with my thought life and I kept hearing how angry he was about it.

That said, my real problem was while I had been convinced that Jesus loved me, I had no idea what the Bible was really about. For years, it was a fragmented collection of stories (like Daniel and the Lion’s Den), parables (like the Prodigal Son), data to be largely ignored (Numbers, Leviticus, Acts) and words of comfort (from select Psalms, the Gospels and Pauline references). Oh – there was Revelation and a handful of prophecies warning us that Russia was going to attack us (This is true, I grew up toward the end of the Cold War era).

Imagine my relief when I discovered a better vision of Jesus. Soon after that, I was humbled by the beauty and awed by the brilliance of the Bible. Content with a better understanding of the Messiah, jaded by my impressions of the Church, it was no wonder that I (and so many of my friends) loved movies like Dogma and Saved! I admit, I still laugh every time I think of “Buddy Christ” (It’s not Jesus they’re making fun of).

It is possible years from now my current students will write blog posts (or whatever it will be then) about the times we used the metaphors in movies for an entire weekend, week-long mission trips, Crowder-stye music, documentaries on human trafficking and suggest how this was counter-productive to their faith but it’s the best I know to do and may the Lord use me in spite of myself.

Along with my calling and my desire to be faithful, this tongue-in-cheek fear keeps me motivated. And here is today’s thought – For the sake of our Church’s future, youth ministry today must not only be Jesus-centered but give a Biblically-responsible Jesus.

Filed Under: Christianity, Student Ministry, The Church

Reflections of a American Born Christian Egyptian on the News of Mubarak’s Resignation – #Egypt

February 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I tend to refrain from posting these thoughts that contain themes of patriotism, World history, Mid-East perspectives, etc. but I am among the millions that has been extremely concerned for Egypt and though I know no one who is a supporter of Mubarak, seeing his resignation is welcomed and troubling one.

As an American-born son of Egyptian Christian immigrants, I find myself grateful in many ways. I am grateful to be part of the US for many reasons. I am grateful to my parents and for our Egyptian heritage, particularly the Christian and the ancient parts. And obviously as a pastor, I am thankful for my faith and Christian upbringing. The trouble has always been for me is that these identity-shaping factors tend to collide into each other quite regularly. A glance at my loving family and friends’ Facebook walls would verify this quite easily.

I saw one person tweeting from Egypt saying that Mubarak leaving Cairo doesn’t mean anything, I’m sure he’s deleted it by now. I saw another’s Facebook status praising God for a victory that reminded me of how many people celebrated Obama’s election. I want to be clear here and say that I am not pro-Mubarak in any way, nor am I anti-Obama, but I among the many that see these events as extremely complicated and even more, I am very concerned.

Here are a few thoughts pin-balling in my head:

Mubarak’s timing of announcements are extremely odd. One that says, he won’t run in the fall, then a pre-recorded announcement last night saying he is staying in power, then less than 24 hours later, an announcement from his Vice President. I would have liked to see a six week transitionary plan in place to avoid the possible nightmare scenarios that will occupy our thoughts for many months. But for a host of reasons I will never know, that is not going to happen. See this widely-circulated WSOJ article for more.

Some are wondering why Obama and our Administration were not more involved. News of Obama and Mubarak in communication is a bad picture in the eyes of many in the Middle East. But I also find it interesting that many of who have said this are also against the wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and regularly accuse the US of being imperialistic. But be assured, the US and its allies have been on the phone with the powers that be.

I was among the many that was moved to near tears when I saw Christians and Muslims protesting together. I could not get the Nevine Zaki picture of the Christians forming a circle around the praying Muslims out of my head for days. And further, I was so blessed to read of the news that Muslims formed a similar circle for an outdoor Coptic Mass that had taken place in Cairo.

Still, I am extremely concerned of the fate of the Coptic and Protestant Christians. I pray and fast regularly for you.

As politely as I can, I’d like to say to my Western friends that the Middle-East mentality, though beautiful, is quite different than ours. So comparing Western codes and events to the ME is a bit of a stretch. With the same loving and polite intent, I’d like to remind my MidEast family & friends born overseas and born here that we are biased, hurting, hopeful, anxious, and passionate people. We and especially our families still there have much to lose and much to gain. Let’s be honest and just in our rhetoric and for those of us who faithfully Jesus, let us make every effort to be Spirit-led, Christ-like and give the Father glory for the great things He has done and will do.

There are so many excellent articles to read, here are few I recommend (thankful to the student of history who helps me filter these thoughts):

“The Story of the Egyptian Revolution” – By Sam Tadros – from the American Thinker site. Lengthy but a fantastic on the ground read. Make sure you read what he says about El Baradei.

On why we Christians are concerned and prayeful:
“Re: Willful Blindness, etc.” – By Paul Marshall

“Muslims Attack Two Christian Families in Egypt, 11 Killed” – from The Assyrian National News Agency

One from the LA Times – “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Mutes its Religious Message for Protests”

And lastly, my dad’s interview for a local news station.

Filed Under: Reflective Tagged With: , ,

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Post 3

February 10, 2011 by 7 Comments

Primary Audience – Local Context
Secondary Audience – Fellow youthworkers and Kingdombuilders

This post may be a bit more case-specific but it has been occupying my mind lately. For the last few weeks, I’ve been leading an adult Sunday School class entitled, “The Faith of the American Teenager” based on Smith and Denton’s Soul Searching and Dean’s Almost Christian. Their research insists upon the parents are the greatest influence of their student’s faith; not the youth pastor, not the youth volunteers, not the great camp speaker or the celebrity Christian, but mini-van driving Mom and sandal-and-socks-wearing Dad.

For years, many youth ministry types have said similar.   I have also heard it in the form of, “They may drive you crazy but you need to get parents involved in your ministry!” or “Parents can be a youth pastor’s worst nightmare or best friend.” The youth pastor-parent relationship has been a dicey one to say the least. In my church, we have always seen youth ministry as a support to the home but we have always felt that we are not utilizing the full potential of this belief. Many of us have been talking about this for some time and lately, more conversations are forming as well. That’s right, the wolves are laying down with the lambs.

Like most youth pastors, my relationships with parents has been diverse. Some have given me nothing but grief and blame, others have given me too much credit and of course many in the middle. Overall and over the years, I have enjoyed wonderful and encouraging relationships with many families and consider parents to not only be allies, but friends and co-laborers (and know that it matters to me that I write these words with integrity). , I have/am seen/seeing that when there is trust between parents and pastors, there is better ministry in and out of the home and in and out of the “youth room”.

In previous posts I have been stating that in order for their to be a healthy vibrant church in the future, it needs to be discipleship based now (read Christ-centered, relational, etc.) and second, it must be focused on the Millennials as we focused on the Boomers. Today, I want to emphasize that youth ministry has to to go beyond “allowing parents to help out once in a while” and truly partner with parents in the development of their children’s faith. Some families/churches are already doing this, at least in some ways, while some have out truly outsourced their child’s spiritual development to a weekly program that is scarcely attended and some are confused why their child lacks spiritual identity.

A ministry that partners with parents requires more than emails and newsletters. Frankly many parents have told me kindly that they do not “really read” correspondence from the church which makes things hard (I literally have an email and a weekly handout that is called, “News You Need to Read” but what can you do?). I’ve attended seminars and read articles/books that have focused on ministry to parents and while there are many excellent thoughts and ideas, it will take a reculturing and new understanding of youth ministry for all of us. It’s when we understand and care about the objectives that we not only read emails and correspondence but serve together for the collective goal.

The Sunday School class I have been teaching has reinforced this and a few have suggested that we do something like this a bit more frequent. Today I am brainstorming out loud that while I would like to teach/lead more discussions with parents, I think it’s also necessary that parents teach/lead these discussions to each other. This seems logical for youth workers like me who are in their 30’s and whose oldest child is not yet three.

I truly believe that youth ministry today serves the future church by not only bridging the gap between the parents but truly serving the parents. This raises many questions, like what about parents who are not believers or very dysfunctional, certain types of churches, etc. But these are matters to be resolved in a healthy culture, not reasons to be released from purusing it. I keep trying to remind myself of that.

So yeah, the first thing I think of when hearing parents working with youth workers for the sake of their students is the wolf lying down with the lamb, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs drinking coffee together, and Brett Brett Favre playing for the Minnesota Vikings – oh wait :) Well, anything is possible you know.

Filed Under: Student Ministry, The Church

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Post 2

February 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

Primary Audience – Local Context
Secondary Audience – Fellow youthworkers and Kingdombuilders

If you are new to my blog, I offer a sincere welcome. I am among the many youth pastors that takes this aspect of the Church very seriously. In short, I really believe that the Church is going to have to focus a lot of its efforts to the family, our neighbor’s family and our enemy’s family. Hopefully, I’ll get to some of that later. To summarize the last post, youth ministry must center on discipleship in order for their to be a future church (and of course a present one).

I’m going to lay a few cards down on the table here and list some of my presuppositions:
1. I don’t really know what the future church is going to really look like. And honestly, I don’t really think anyone really, really does but some people get it better than others.
2. I do agree with those that say the mid-size church will be disappearing over the next 50-100 years.
A. Thus we will be left with big churches (more than 1000) and small churches (under 100, but probably much, much smaller).
B. Presumably, there will still be professional youth ministry in the bigger churches and probably one or none professional clergy in the small churches.
C. Both types will need to focus on youth ministry but of course, a different type of one than is happening today.

And here is this post’s main point – Soon, today’s churches will need to focus on the Millennials the way it focused on the Boomers. It’s a bit “Captain Obvious” in some sense, but in another, it isn’t. From where I sit, family ministries in many churches serve as a “service” to attract more Boomers. For a number of reasons, including the decline of the evangelical church, we are going to need to focus on the Millennials for their sake.

Think of it this way, as good preaching (and the worship experience) is to the Boomers, community and identity will be to the Millennials. The Boomer Generation churches were built on good preaching. Guys like Bill Hybels & Rick Warren illustrated this. I know, I know, it was much more than good preaching. Their seeker-sensitive, purpose driven approaches were keys in their ministries’ success. I get it – but they are extremely gifted communicators and I am pretty sure if you put Rick out in South Barrington and Bill out in Lake Forest, you’ll get something like Saddle Creek and Willow Back.

But here’s why churches will no longer be centered on preaching – the digital age has made sermons available to everyone. I am literally listening to Rob Bell right now and boy is he awesome (and Warren and Hybles are only a few clicks away). Further, I don’t need my pastor to preach like him, because I subscribe to him and a few others through iTunes. And even further, i don’t want my pastor to preach like them because imitation is the mother of flattery but the harlot of ingenuineness.  Don’t get me wrong, preaching is always going to be important but even in my lifetime, I have seen that dramatically change (which is a strange comfort to pastors who want to pastor and not just preach and scary thought to pastors who have inferior relational skills but are spectacular speakers).

But where the church is going to need to step it up is the place of creating community. As our culture becomes more secularized, the local church (and not the building) is going to have to create that culture and it will not be able to rely on the once a week Sunday morning worship preaching experience. You know who doesn’t have a once a week Sunday morning worship experience? The youth group. In fact, for many of us, the Sunday school hour is the weakest part of our ministry because it meets at a time when our target audience is barely awake.

Now, what you are about to hear could simply be dismissed as another youth pastor delusion but I am thinking that as time goes on, the youth pastor (family ministries, next-generation) position will be the focus (sorry worship pastors :). This does not mean that the youth pastor is going to have the big office or be on the cover of Christianity Today. But it does mean that the position/job description is going to change which is going to change the entire approach as well.

Here’s what it also means, youth ministry won’t be the “entry level” position for twenty-somethings with goatees and spikey hair. But it won’t be the Warren/Hybles guys either. The “successful” youth pastor will be the facilitator/organizer whose gift is creating community among teenagers. Don’t worry, he/she will speak too but this person is a creator/organizer/facilitator of youth ministry culture. (If you want a quick read, I recommend Doug Pagitt’s Church in the Inventive Age).

The landscape is changing, dramatically but not completely.  For instance, there will always be the “celebrity pastor”, there will always be the best-seller, every corner of every sub-culture will always have the old “it” person and the new “it” person – that’s not what I am talking about. But the need is community and identity, especially among the Millennials. Thus, growing churches are going to be the ones that are serious about ministering to teenagers and children. And the intentionally-minded churches (big and small) are going to pursue this need with creative and brilliant approaches with the similar urgency that it pursued the Boomers.

Feel free to add, disagree, push-back, reframe …

Filed Under: Student Ministry

Review of Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code

February 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Primary Audience – Pastors and Church Leaders

Review of Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code by Samuel R. Chand

All in all, I appreciated Dr. Chand’s book. As you can tell from the title, every church/organization has its own culture that must be understood before strategic planning then implementation can take place. In some way, it’s “captain obvious” but as obvious as it, I know of very few leadership books that spend an adequate amount of time offering perspectives on understanding your church’s culture.

My favorite chapters were 1 (Culture Trumps Strategy), 4 (Vocabulary Defines Culture) and 7 (Changing Vehicles) and they probably best contain the outworkings of his thesis. Chand offers some solid thoughts in those chapters (and throughout the book, of course). It’s easy for me to see why this is a part of the Leadership Network Series, a “brand” I take seriously.

Those who will profit the most from it are “big church guys” in traditional churches that have a big boat to turn around. They are the illustrations most often used and most of the chapters assume you are leading or a part of a larger pastoral staff. Consequently, pastors of smaller churches may like it but may have trouble implementing a lot of the principles. And lastly, those a part of missional-type churches will probably appreciate this the least (though there’s plenty wisdom for you too).

As I was reading, I kept having two thoughts: One, I need to read more leadership books and I’m glad I’m reading this one. And Two, When is he going to get to the part of connecting with the actual congregation. There’s so much attention in dealing with the large church staff, when is the pastor going to communicate his vision that has been tailored to the culture that he and his staff have finally cracked?? The answer is Chapter 7 and that’s my only criticism, it happens a bit too late and is not enough (though Ch. 7 is lengthy). I personally would have liked to hear more of Dr. Chand’s advice relating to the congregation because he seems very qualified. But the problem for me is it’s easier to change your staff culture because at some point, they know they will be dismissed if they don’t get on board. What do you with a church that doesn’t get on board? And what do you with your church when their culture is not to get on board? Again, Chapter 7 (and 8) helps but I would have liked to see more of the book focused on that (as the title implies).

Once you understand the trajectory of the book, I think most will appreciate it and find it insightful. It’s clear, every church has a culture and leaders need to understand it in order to lead it.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: ,

Youth Ministry and the Future of the Church Post 1

February 2, 2011 by 3 Comments

Primary Audience – Local Context
Secondary Audience – Fellow Youthworkers and Kingdom-builders

My calling/vocation of youth ministry has been on my mind a lot lately and there are a number of reasons for that. For a while, I hesitated in really blogging about youth ministry because there was always the tendency of coming across as either bragging or complaining and I feel I do enough of those already. I’ll do my best here to be as honest and fair in a Christian way as I can but please remember I offered this disclaimer (and for those of you who despise disclaimers, appreciate the fact that some of us really do need them).

Like so many, I am interested/concerned/excited about the future of the church. And because of that, I am also focused on the present church. I am among those that feel that we should be stronger and more faithful to the way of Jesus and among the many reasons, consumeristic spiritual mentalities, personal selfishness, pseudo-Christian homes, poor church leadership is also inadequate youth ministries. I don’t believe the problems have anything to do with liberalism, secularism, or pluralism as countless books of the last twenty, thirty (forty?) years have insisted.

A long time ago, I heard someone say something like. “Fix the heart, fix the home, fix the church, fix the world.” It was way too linear for me but it stuck. There is truth in it but the landscape is quite complicated these days and questions emerge like, “What exactly is the heart and what would you fix it with?” Someone (like me) would quickly say, “With Jesus of course!” and that questioner who ask with all sincerity, “Which Jesus? You have all these traditions and denominations that all claim to be Biblical interpretations from the Bible, it’s really confusing ….”. Good point, we need to fix the church too. Which “church”? Hmmm … you see where I am going with this.

Given that people like me (youth pastors and vocational clergy) need to do our part in our own Christian devotion, our own families, loving our spouses and children, etc. But further, the Church needs to get out of the keep “their people happy business” and get serious about discipleship and worship for all ages and among other factors, it’s clergy that need to champion this.

There are some days that I feel we have too many churches and because of the number, they are in competition with each other which creates a market, which converts worshippers of the Triune God to consumers (of either spirituality or a cheaper, easier form of Christianity). Other days, I feel we don’t have enough churches that subtly communicates to a non-believing community, “Yep, it’s optional, not even the Christians really care.”

As a youth pastor, I find that we are many times guilty of saying/doing similar things. Many times we take the easier way out and attempt to “build a youth program” that fails to do several things. It fails at discipleship in favor of attendance and good times, fails at supporting the home and community (at times undermining the home/community) and fails to inspire a sustaining hope and belief in the way of Jesus that matures in later adolescence and adulthood.

Don’t get me wrong – a lot of fantastic things are happening in the Kingdom of God, but I believe that we can/must do more to have a stronger present Church for the sake of the future Church. Thoughts?

Filed Under: Student Ministry, The Church

Next Christians and Our High School Ministry

January 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Each year we give a gift to those who went on our Senior High Winter Retreat. Examples include shirts with that year’s theme and recycled bookbags made by those rescued from trafficking. This year, we handed out the Next Christians by Gabe Lyons. If you are following this blog, you might remember that I picked this as one of my favorite books of 2010 (it was picked by just about everyone).

Which begs the question, what’s so special about this book and why would senior highers be interested in it? In some sense, you may not find anything special or unique about it. Many in the emergent conversation have been offering similar perspectives for years. Others may dismiss this as just another book on how Christians need to make a difference in their world and honoring God and so forth while citing illustrations and providing commentary. It’s true that many of these have been written already.

But for me, here’s the important difference – it’s genuinely hopeful. It could be that Gabe’s natural disposition is optimistic but what I really think is that he’s inspired by what he sees God and others doing in the world and is dedicated to contributing as well.

He’s also in a unique position. He’s extremely well-connected for a younger evangelical and has access to so many stories of what people are doing. You might think he’s a name-dropper and that may be true if his organization was called “Gabe Lyons International Ministries” or something but it’s called Q (it stands for “Questions”). And the Q Conference is quite the showcase of what many diligent Christians are doing in the 7 Sectors of Culture. If you can get to one (next one is April 27-29 in Portland), I highly recommend it and if you can’t, check out presentations from previous years on their website.

All that said, this is not a cheerful naive book. How could it be when the subtitle is “The Good News About the End of Christian America” and the book opens with the line “A few years ago, I was twenty-seven and embarrassed to call myself Christian.”? Mentioning his strong Christian upbringing and contrasting his experiences in the world, he was among countless that saw the disparity between the Christianity described in the Scriptures, what’s going on in the world and the Church’s involvement in it. Referencing the research of UnChristian, a book he cowrote with his friend Dave Kinnaman, he shares what many think and feel towards the term Christian.

Many high schoolers already know all about this. In fact, in some ways, they may know it better than anyone because they have never been a part of “Christian America” (at least not the version of it that children born in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s know of it). After all, the Millennial Generation’s first words out of their cribs were”I’m spiritual but I don’t believe in organized religion.” While that line could create an entire set of posts, I’ll jump ahead to what Gabe’s main themes which calls for “Relearning Restoration”.

I highly appreciated Part 2 – “The Restorers” where each chapter calls for a better way of Christian engagement with the world. They include “Provoked but Not Offended” “Creators, Not Critics”, “Called, Not Employed”, “Grounded, Not Distracted”, “In Community, Not Alone” and “Countercultural, Not Relevant”. They include accounts from people like Jaime Tworkowski, the founder of To Write Love On Her Arms (a non-profit trying to bring awareness to teen/young adult cutting. Their t-shirts are worn in every high school and mall in America) and discusses global crises like AIDS and human-trafficking (issues that today’s young people are very concerned about).

Between the stories (postmoderns love a good story) and the insights (postmoderns appreciate wisdom), there’s a lot here for everyone including teenagers.  Even in my youth pastor fantasies, I know that not all of our students will read it. But the book is very much about them and some will really resonate with it. Like last week, one of our 9th grader girls “tweeted” that she loved the first two chapters  – I was so proud.  I’m telling you, it’s a different world and high schoolers understand more than we realize about it. If we as a church can challenge, equip and guide them, we may be a real asset to them as they discover life in the Kingdom.

Filed Under: Reflective, Student Ministry, The Church

Answering the Question, “Why Don’t You Plant a Church?”

January 27, 2011 by 2 Comments

Primary Audience – Whoever Read the Previous Post – A Yankees Take on Church-Planting in Nashville

Sometimes you have to provoke what you perceive to be a problem to see that it’s not (or may not be as bad as you think – make sense?) As I mentioned, I received a couple cool emails and links from people doing good work in Nashville like here and here.

I’ve also been asked the obvious and legitimate question, “Why don’t you plant a church here in Jersey?”  In truth, I’ve been asked this quite a few times. It’s not because I am special; I’m pretty sure most pastors (and seminarians) in their 20’s & 30’s get asked as well. I confess, I do have a fascination with church planting. Some guys make it look so fun and easy on Twitter that you can’t help it and some of my friends are planting (they either do not exaggerate as well on Twitter or not planting missionally/purposedrivenly/annointedly/Jabezly). And similar to how I am fascinated with the idea of batting second for the Yankees, I am just not sure if that’s the direction I am going.

I certainly do believe in the importance of church planting so yes, to compare it to playing major league baseball is a bit ridiculous – even for this blog. But I also do believe in the importance of reforming and rebuilding our existing churches. Just like it takes a special type of person to plant, I think it takes a special type of person to reform. And I’d like to add that it takes a special type of person to be in youth ministry. Hmm, maybe I was wrong, maybe I am special :)

To use the “called” language, not only do I feel called to be a part of reforming the Church, I feel that I am to be doing that in youth ministry. Honestly, most days, I really like what I do. Indeed there are days when I get frustrated, like when a need comes through the church and someone else volunteers the youth group for it (Volunteer yourself bro!), but really, I find a great deal of fulfillment and consider it a privilege to be a part of this chapter in our students’ lives.

A lot of is due to the type of youth ministry we are trying to build here. I know it sounds a bit dramatic but I actually believe this stuff – we are trying to create & foster a Christ-centered culture of young disciples to serve God’s kingdom. Blessed with a great Jr. High pastor and some fantastic youth leaders, we have been working on a culture that is loving, sacrificial, generous and “deep” (not always sure what that means, but we do tackle some tough content). To be truthful, there have been times when our students have completely dropped the ball. There have even been times when the youth leaders have dropped the ball. And there was one time that I forgot to fill up the church van after an activity but I would hardly call that dropping the ball Ok, ok, I’m the worst of them all but come on, I was distracted by the prospect of batting second for … :)

But there have also been times when our students have really went above and beyond anything I/we have expected. Many of them have the godliest parents I have met, some of them have not been as fortunate but the Lord has been just as near – and it’s been incredible to witness. I’ve seen students barely stay awake in youth group and then months later, tearfully express to the group what the Lord is doing in their lives. I’m betting that it wasn’t my teaching that had drastically improved in the short span but rather the student taking hold of the faith that God was extending. There is a goodness you gain in knowing that you are doing your job well but then there is an overwhelming fulfillment in knowing that you are a small part of something that is happening through you and your community and in spite of you and your community.

Witnessing students embrace Jesus and pursue the work of the Kingdom is among the greatest joys of my life. As you can see, this is a very special thing to me and until the Lord changes my heart, I doubt I’m planting a church, leading one, or batting second for the Yanks.

Filed Under: Missional, Reflective, Student Ministry, The Church

Church-Planting In Nashville as Seen By a Yankee

January 24, 2011 by 18 Comments

Primary Audience – Those Interested in Church-Planting

Last week I saw a tweet about a meet-up of Nashville church planters. My reaction was, “What?? There is more than one person planting a church in Nashville??” Then I proceeded to tweet about that. The first tweet was more of an appeal to consider planting in places like New Jersey and the Northeast. The following tweets became sarcastic and speculated the real reason Regis was leaving was to church plant in Nashville.

I received a few tweets and dm’s. One mentioned that it’s surprisingly hard to find a church in Nashville. Another said that it was extremely easy. Another said I was a jerk (it may be true). And another (a Nashville church planter) offered to help me understand his context better by sending me links and dm’s. There was a Christian rebuke in all that too to which I sincerely apologized and thought that, “Indeed my sarcastic tweets are not helpful”.

So here’s a bit of what I was/am thinking. First my context – I’m a youth pastor in New Jersey and have been serving in ministry for 11 years. Born in Jersey, raised in PA, went to college in the South, married a beautiful girl from FL who taught me some southern expressions and how to correctly pronounce the term “reck’n”. I’ve only served in two churches, one in a Philly suburb and this one in North Jersey. If you know anything about North Jersey, we don’t consider ourselves part of New Jersey. This is somewhat similar to the superiority complex that Texas feels in relation to the rest of the country. Being just outside of Manhattan, we feel a sophistication that Central Jersey could never understand. Further, we are working on sending South Jersey (“They’re about as useful as a back pocket on a shirt”) to Delaware and that campaign is called “Building Jersey by Subtracting”.

Now for something deeper – The church landscape here in Jersey is a tough one. There are a fair amount of churches, but many of them are under 100 people and many are hanging on by a string. Regularly, church buildings are begin turned to Mosques and gyms. I wish I had the time to weed through all the stats regarding “churched” and “unchurched”, the number of churches, etc. but I’ll leave that up to you but as subjective as it sounds, here’s what I am seeing.

It is a bit strange that we have so few large churches because of our high population percentage but there are only two evangelical churches in my area that boasts an attendance of over 1000 people and I think one of them is exaggerating (despite my friend’s flawed counting, they are a fantastic ministry). As an evangelical surveying the scene here, you will notice a high number of Catholic churches, synagogues, atheists and a high percentage of successful/intelligent people who see no real need for God though they are “spiritual” and think church, if not taken too seriously is a good thing.

Regarding church planting here, “It’s runs like a herd of turtles”. I literally know of two church plants in my area – The Plant in Allendale and All Souls Church in Nanuet, NY. Yes, All Souls is in New York but we are really close to the border here and technically, the closest plant in my area. One day, I thought I met another church planter, but it turned out it was just a unicorn. Among many cultural reasons, the high cost of living makes it difficult for young couples to either move in or build roots here which also eliminates a lot of the workforce of a church plant. Further, as everyone knows, church planting is extremely expensive though there is an enormous amount of wealth here (“so rich, that guy buys a new boat every time one gets wet”. How am I doing on these Southerisms? They are painful to write but I’m willing to speak the language if it helps :)

A personal annoyance is that it seems the talent called to plant in this area heads over to NYC. There are exceptions, like Liquid Church, in Morristown, NJ (a campus in New Brunswick and another one coming in Montclair) but it’s hard to figure out if they are a viable model or as I mentioned, an exception.

I’ve been to Nashville, it’s a beautiful town. It not only has a church on every corner but a big church on ever corner. I picture families of 6 pulling up in their suburbans and upon entering they complain that it’s Michael W. Smith’s turn to lead worship instead of Amy Grant’s. I suspect that the need for church planting in Nashville is a result of the over-churched culture that Nashville has created. And I reck’n everyone walks in with the current issue of Relevant Magazine (which I love too) and does devotions with Stuff Christians Like and Jesus Needs New PR.

I picture houses with three car garages being sold for less than $200,000. I bet when you buy a house there, the former owners leave up the mailbox with a cross on it and the sign above the door that says, “As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord”. Cars are sold with the ichthus already in place and the only thing that you get on your windshield wiper when parking downtown is a tract that reminds you that “Jesus Loves You” and a note that thanks you for using the free parking.

To my church planting Nashville friends, I say a few things – “Don’t pee on my leg and call it rain”. Please consider the perceived disparity between our respective contexts. Obviously plant where the Lord is calling you so do not let the stereotypes created by the Yankees to dissuade you. However, consider perhaps the Lord is using people like me to speak to you. Second, consider sending people to other parts of the country like the North East and the North West, places that we should start considering similarly to as we see foreign missions fields. Third, consider leaving your church plant and coming here. Not just Jersey, but suburban Philadelphia and the New England States are desperate for strong churches.

Church planters by their nature love a challenge so I tell you as one of our northeastern saints put it, “If you can plant your church here, you can plant anywhere, it’s up to you, Nashville, Nashville.” :)

Feel free to comment, disagree, or correct my Southernisms.

Filed Under: Missional, Reflective, The Church

How/Why We Do Our Movie-Themed Retreats

January 21, 2011 by 2 Comments

Since my last post, a few youth workers asked about how (and why) we did our movie-themed retreats so here’s a snapshot of it.

Obviously using media in student ministry is not new. For years I used clips and would try to use them as illustrations, recreate the context, and attempt to share some type of point or principle. The problem was many times, I could not recreate the context adequately enough. Sometimes the clip became more of a distraction than a tool. I’d hear whispers of “I hated that movie” (Braveheart), “How OLD is this movie?” (Braveheart), “This is such a Dad-movie”, (Braveheart) “is that Charlie Sheen?” (Braveheart; talking about Robert the Bruce played by Angus Macfayden). It got too painful for me to hear such cruelly uttered. In my pain, I would lash out and threaten had such disrespect continued, we would read from the KJV for the rest of the year.

Anyway, as I entered this current ministry 5 years ago and saw their winter retreats were over holiday weekends like (MLK and Presidents’ Day), I worried that I would not have enough interesting content to fill 3.5 days. I know every speaker thinks this is easy, but believe me, I have sat through some of these weekend retreats and can painfully remember the thought, “Now I gotta listen to a month’s worth of sermons from this guy? I thought this was a retreat not an intensive”. Not wanting to recreate a month’s worth of youth group meetings, I had two options, hire a speaker or come up with something that cannot be done over a month’s worth of youth group gatherings. I chose the latter and decided to make it a movie-theme. Among the reasons, movies are among the most sacred of scriptures of pop-culture and further, it is very difficult to do a movie and legit discussion in youth group and it work for everyone.

So where do you start? I know this sounds overly-spiritual but for me the process is a prayer-led brainstorm of what does my group need and which movie will serve that function. Most years, I share the movie search with like-minded and “other-minded” volunteers. Also, there are a few movies that I would love to do but I/we have found other needs to be greater.

Movies we have shown for these retreats have been The Matrix, Saved, Crash, and Religulous. In theory the possibilities are endless, but I have always found it to be a pretty short list. Here’s why – finding a story that captures our Northeasterner students’ attention is a tall task. So many of our new Christian movies like Facing the Giants and To Save a Life will have a hard time in our youth ministry. It’s not because our students are unchurched, in fact, it’s more the opposite. They wouldn’t be challenged by them.

Second, I have always been hesitant in choosing a movie that they really like because in some way, we are reinterpreting it for them and that’s a bit risky. So out went the epic sagas like Lord of the Rings, Potter, and Star Wars. Check your students’ Facebook profiles to avoid others.

Third, it has to be interesting and powerful enough to survive the weekend because it’s difficult to carry the metaphor throughout the entire weekend and still be interesting. So movies like Gladiator have many Christian references but for me, I could not see them lasting more than two sessions.

So here are a few things I look for in a retreat movie. The most recent should be when your oldest students were still in Junior High, so generally, nothing popular in the last five years. The Matrix came out in ’99, when most of my current 12th graders were 6 yrs. old. To avoid duplicating retreat themes and “feels”, use different genres. We used the satire Saved! exactly for this reason. Probably my favorite of all of them was Crash because it’s such a powerful story, multiple-themes (Justice, Racism, , Providence, & Redemption) and very few of our students had ever seen it. We also did it for MLK weekend which was of course, powerful. Some years, we kept the movie a secret to add more mystery to it, other years we promoted to create an appeal (like The Matrix).

On the retreat: We play the movie once we arrive to the retreat center/camp. After a hectic week of school, no one wants to listen to a speaker (unless the speaker is Giglio, Bell, or Bono). And after driving for 3-4 hours, most youth pastor/speakers don’t want to speak (unless they’re are described by the terms “Baptist”, “NASCAR” or “Seminary” ;) We press play, relax, recap the next morning, start slow, have discussion groups and start getting into the deeper aspects by Saturday night. By Sunday night, we largely abandon the metaphor because the themes usually support themselves by this point.

Every now and then, I wished I had a movie-making background but with this new internet thing, you can research to your hearts content. There is plenty of help from Google searches, to books, to ministries and organizations who have already thought of this before you did. Also, you can usually find your movie already edited. (One year, my tech-savvy volunteer got creative for me).

I’m not sure if I will always do movie-themed retreats but they have been very helpful for us and if you are looking for something new to try, I highly recommend it.

Filed Under: Reflective