YOUTHINTHECORNER

There are times to act and there are times to pray and there are times to fast.  These are the rare times where it is incumbent upon us to do all three.  2010 presents many challenges for our Church, Community and our Country.  This is not a year that we can simply sit back and coast as a body of believers.  We need to act but like so many times before the church has acted based upon emotion rather than the move of God so we must also pray.  However, scripture shows that there are times too important for prayer alone and for that you must fast and pray.  I began to feel this urging in my spirit several weeks ago and then last week I came across this campaign (more of a collection of like-minded churches) to call us to 21 days of fasting called “The Awakening”.  I will be going on a Juice Fast from January 10 – 30.  I am not asking all of you to equal that sacrifice.  Maybe for you it is a Daniel Fast, maybe a media fast or a coffee fast…whatever it is raise your level of sacrifice as we enter into this new season of ministry and impact.  I love you and want to see Jesus name Glorified.

I will be posting on this site urgings in my spirit that will assist you in what to pray for.  For more info on The Awakening and resources about the details of fasting go to www.awake21.org.

Also Tuesday night of Prayer returns this Tuesday and this is a great opportunity to take your prayer life to the next level.  This Monday night I will relaunch my small group and we will concentrate on Prayer and going through some of the new book Primal, by Mark Batterson.

Matthew 18:8-9

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Jesus didn’t intend for all of us to wander the earth blind and crippled.  He uses the hyperbole here to instruct just how important lifestyle management can be.  This past week I did a sermon entitled The Spirit that Rescues and in it I laid out that we are not to carry the burden of our sin struggle on our own.  That it is a burden that is spiritual thus should be left to the Holy Spirit to battle.  However, as it says in Romans 8, we will still have the limitations of sin.  That takes me to this blog today.  What are you doing proactively to live a life that honors Christ.

1) EVALUATE – We need to evaluate ourselves regularly.  We need to be checking ourselves against the fruit of the Spirit found in Gal 5:22.  How is your walk with God?  How is your relationship with others?

2) ESTABLISH – What in your life needs adjusting/cut away.  Are you watching too much TV?  Are you surrounding yourself with those who gossip?  Are you eating the WHOLE bag of chips?

3) EXCISE – Have the courage to cut it out.  Get rid of it.

4) ENGAGE – Now with the new time/energy/resources you have engage God with more of your time/energy /resources.

As Pointe North ventures into becoming more focused on Family Ministries I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to our team.  I have the pleasure of guiding these talented people into the next phase of ministry for Pointe North.

I oversee the overall Family ministry and its direction/resource and vision.  I also run Alive Youth Ministries which is comprised of the Alive Worship Experience, Huddle Groups and the discipleship venues, Pulse and Triage.

Hope Murphy is our Children’s pastor and oversees the spiritual development of our K4-5th graders.  She produces Planet Changers, Kids Corner and our Royal Rangers/MPact Girls ministries.

Tiffany Hill is our Nursery director and she oversees Tots Landing our Nursery program at Pointe North.  She directs her team and is growing into a full fledged resource for parents.

Bobby Webster is our Campus pastor for Student Ministries.  He visits area High School and Middle School campuses spending time connecting with students where they are.  Bobby is also vital in our parent connections ministry.

Nancy Webster is the Ministry Assistant for Family Ministries.  She holds the whole thing together.  She is the administrative arm to all of our ministries and makes us look quite honestly much better than we really are.

Coming soon:  Intern for Middle School Ministries.

I am blessed to work with this team and cannot wait to see what God has in store in 2010 for the families in Berkeley County.

I heard a story one time of a runner who was running a big race and in this race you had to run 4 laps around the track.  One runner in particular got out to  huge lead and lunged toward the finish line with a strong sense of accomplishment only to realize as he stopped…the other runners kept racing by.  He still had a lap to go!

I have learned lately that be careful to look around and think you have your race won only to realize that you have more to do before you can declare it a win.

This past month has been tough for me in Youth Ministry.  I have had some beats lately.  A student who was feeling called into the ministry got another student pregnant, several students struggling with homosexuality, we had to expel 3 students from the campus for drugs.  I don’t care if you are Doug Fields, Jeanne Mayo or the volunteer youth guy at First Baptist Small Town, that is a tough week!

The thing is many people kept encouraging me by letting me know it was just the Devil attacking…stay strong.  I believe that is wrong.

Sometimes we give the Devil too much credit and not near enough credit to God.

I don’t thing it was an attack…I think it was a wake up call.  I think it was God revealing to me that I was too confident in feeling I had this race (youth ministry) won when in fact I was aiming for the WRONG FINISH LINE!

These are some success indicators we have kept an eye on lately. (see if they look familiar to you)

1. How many students were at our BIG meeting
2. How many new students were at our BIG meeting
3. How many students raised their hands when the speaker prayed for salvation
4. How many students were in small groups
5. How behaved the student were
6. How active we were on campus

Those were our success indicators.  They are not bad and all those things are important.  But they cannot be the sole indicators if your purpose is to move students closer to Jesus.  I know this because we have done WELL in all these areas and we are FAILING. We are running over 300 students every week, we have 10-12 new students every week, kids raise their hands for salvation every week, we baptize students regularly, we have 30% of students in small groups and we are active on every campus in the area.  If I were not in a non-denominational church in the middle of no where I’d be teaching conferences on youth ministry…yet in fact we are unhealthy.  We have grown too much in one area and not enough in others.

It is not that the program is designed wrongly, we are not a fun only ministry.  We preach the Word…hard.  We create an environment of worship.  We have leaders who genuinly care for the students well-being, however…

I believe we have to add a few indicators…

1. How is (insert name here) doing?
2. Are our students engaged in spiritual disciplines (prayer, Bible Study, Community Impact)
3. Are students who accept Christ growing?
4. Are mature believers in the ministry serving?
5. Are we developing Parents to be the primary discipler of teenagers?

This list is not exhaustive but it is a beginning of a new process of evaluation.  I will in the coming months hone it down to 5-10 no compromise indicators.  We need to make sure that when student graduate they FINISH STRONG.  Big is not bad it just is.  Small is not good it just is.  I thank God for revelation.  I thank God for patience.  I thank God for the unending drive of 2 forces.  1) We need to grow closer to Jesus and 2) Better is always better.

I am so proud of her.  She has known that God has a call on her life for years and is finally surrendering to that call to go be a missionary to Mexico for at least 1 year.  God has done a lot in her to prepare her and I know that Mexico will never be the same with a Spirit Filled Marissa Barr.  She has been a key volunteer for my ministry for 2 years now and I have seen her shine.  However, she leaves in 3 months and is currently $3000 short of her financial needs.  I know God is going to take care of her and she believes that as well.  I just wonder if maybe God wants to use you to help her to her goal.  If you feel an urging to help her financially or want to partner with her in prayer email her at marissabarr@ymail.com

Thanks so much guys, I know she will appreciate it.

I find myself at a very frustrating time in my life as a Youth Pastor.  I thank God that he doesn’t have a panic button, because I do.  Our teenagers are plagued with so much pain and sin, I am finding myself wanting to teach it all NOW…we need a series on SEX, MONEY, FAMILY…but we need it all now!  Families are falling apart.  Kids are crossing every line imaginable sexually and the average teen will spend $50 for a PS game but won’t drop a dime in an offering.  God is in control…and he doesn’t panic and so today I lean on his peace.  However, deep inside…

Do you ever feel this way?

I was going to take several months off of twitter/facebook.  The reason was 1) I was becoming too addicted to it and 2) I needed to simplify and think through some things and didn’t want to be distracted.

The reason I am back earlier than normal is that as I was processing some things I realized how much I used/needed the networking side of these formats.  I have missed some stuff that is fairly major because for many twitter/facebook is the main medium for communication.  I mean I realized that Marko got canned from YS for crying out loud…a week late!

One thing I am still going to try to do is not worry so much about what others are doing…I am trimming my following list.  I don’t plan on tweeting my dinner plans or random factoids about my life, rather use the format to network, share ideas, inspirations and from time to time witty observations.

Some will think me weak…(like my best friend David).  I can handle that….because…well…I am.

Wigglesworth says “I believe we are on the wrong side of the cross.  We say Love, Love, Love when we should be saying Repent, Repent, Repent!”

The work of your ministry begins with the willingness to repent.  All great moves of God begin with that action and yet it is something that we treat so flippantly.  Repentance isn’t crying or feeling bad…repentance is turning away from sin and toward righteousness.   If you are feeling powerless in your work repent.  If you are feeling confused in a direction you need to go.  Repent.  If you are finding yourself overwhelmed.  Repent.

Only when we get this discipline down in our lives will we ever truly understand what Power the Holy Spirit wants to impart upon us.  Operate on this side of the cross and on your knees repent, then get up and work in righteousness the work of the Lord.

I am praying for you all now.

Lord, I pray for all of my fellow workers out there slugging it out for the cause of your name.  I pray for a spirit of repentance to pour out onto our leadership.  You are the author of our work, Lord.  We recognize that we try too often to do ministry in our own strength.  We recognize that we allow pride, ego, and temptation of every stripe enter our spirits.  We ask Lord for your forgiveness, we beg Lord for your forgiveness.  We plead the cross for the strength to work in your strength.  To work in your Spirit, in your ways, in your righteousness.  Give us your eyes, your heart, allow us to be your hands.  In Jesus name.  Amen

Well I have heard some good responses from anatomy of a leader.  So hear you go.

HEART – We cannot lead people if we don’t care about them.  Sure you can for a while by using your talent, gravitas and charisma.  However, after a while people begin to figure out what you really care about.  Leaders need to love who they lead and the organization they lead.  Do you love the ministry/organization that you are leading.  I pray that if you don’t one of two things will take place.  1) You will recognize it and move on so that the person that does love it can lead it or 2) God would change your heart to allow you to fall back in love with it.

BRAIN – Think people!  Wow, it amazes me how some leaders go through their existence without thinking.  You should spend a god part of your time developing your mind in leadership and in the area of your organization.  READ, READ, READ!  I have been in Youth Ministry for over 16 years and I still read books on Youth Ministry.  Why?  Because I want to know as much about the subject as possible.  Knowledge is Power.

GUTS – Have the courage to make a bonehead call.  Have the courage to do something nobody has ever done before or even dared to think before.  Those are the leaders that inspire, engage and change the world.

What else you got?

When I was a kid me and my brother looked forward to The Dukes of Hazzard every week. We would sit on the floor and laugh as the Duke boys pulled another one over on ol’ Boss Hogg and Roscoe P Coultrain. After spending a week with my brother some of those memories came flooding back when I saw a rerun over the weekend. (why is it shows that were so cool when you were a kid are so CHEESY now?) Anyway, watching the show I saw something that reminded me of some things I am going through right now in ministry.
Roadblocks are just an opportunity to show off.
An iconic scene in television is when the General Lee is being chased by the sherif and they come up to what would seem to be the end of the road…but no. You hear that confederate car horn and the car jumps whatever roadblock seems to be there. The Duke boys…and the car always in tact.

In ministry, if you are growing you are going to hit some roadblocks. That is part of leadership…reaching a ceiling and adapting so that you raise the ceiling. When a roadblock comes my way I handle them pretty much the same way the Duke boys did…

1) I freak out…cmon you saw their eyes…they got big as saucers. When roadblocks come my first reaction is to freak a bit and pace.
2) I pray…as I am sure those boys did as they approached the 15 foot pile of dirt (that aways seemed to be in the form of a ramp).
3) I press the gas…the worst thing you can do is stop. Come up with a direction and GO FOR IT! If you have sought God he is always looking for a way to show off. Just make sure when you are on the other side that you give the Glory to Jesus.

What roadblocks are you dealing with and do these steps help you at all? Let me know.