YOUTHINTHECORNER

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm..

I know I haven’t posted in a while…twitter is the killer of the blog apparently. Alas I come back to the blogosphere to make a grand announcement…actually not that grand…(although I will be making a pretty big announcement in 2 weeks).
I mess up…a lot. In life, in ministry, in relationships…I mess up.
However, a leadership principle that I have adopted and I pass onto all of you leaders is that when you mess up…correct it…quickly.
I welcome critics and I get them often via email, phone, messenger or snide comments made just in earshot. When I hear criticism I place it in one of three camps.
1) legit concerns that need my attention.
2) concerns that are suspect but I understand the reasons for them.
3) garbage from people who don’t deserve my time or energy.

If it is in the first camp, I immediately go into P&P mode. That is Prayer and Planning. I pray for wisdom and then I assume God will grant me that wisdom and I begin to tweek, adjust or bulldoze whatever is needed.

If it is in the second camp, I make a note and seek council from others to see if it is something that is due my attention and energy.

If it is the third I try to take that criticism captive and throw it away. I say try because I won’t pretend that I haven’t let stupid people with poor motives wreck a good day, week or even month. However, we have to learn to compartmentalize these criticisms and deal with them accordingly.

There is nothing wrong with messing up. However, it is leadership negligence to ignore or fail to learn from it. .

I Twitter.  Now I don’t pretend to understand why?  I don’t know why people care to know what I have for lunch.  I don’t understand it…but I love it!  It is totally narcissistic.  I get to have everyone who cares get to join me in this thing called life.  I have gotten advice on what to do for lunch and have had people instantly connected with me in prayer.  It can be idiotic and it can be an instrument of ministry.  I leverage twitter and facebook in ministry so that I can network, have fun and stay connected with people who care about me and I about them.  It is easy to get STUCK in your office planning, reading and writing…sometimes you need to remember that there are other people out there…especially if you are a youth pastor remember there are people older than 18 out there.  So, it isn’t all that spiritual but I am addicted to twitter.

There are some things that I do in youth ministry that you won’t find in the Bible anywhere…no not even in The Message.  There are things that I believe are important to youth ministry though I cannot find a single spiritual component in it.  This next series of blogs will highlight some of my favorite things I do in youth ministry that have nothing to do with Jesus but help me in ministry.  It sounds a little heretical I know but it’s my blog so nah.

Number 1 – Logo design

Design is a hobby of mine.  It feeds my creativity and I just like doing it.  I am not saying I am any good at it but i like doing it.  When I got to Pointe North I inherited the name Alive Youth Ministries.  I wasn’t a huge fan but not wanting to change too much I stuck with the name.  Actually it was @live Youth Ministries…that was TOO much so we went to Alive.  One of the things I went straight to was developing a logo for the youth ministry.  The first draft was cool but not very iconic or transferable.

Eventually we went with what we have now that I think is pretty cool and works with the name and is easily identifiable and transferable.

So what is the BIG deal…well everyone who sees the Alive logo, knows what it is.  They know what it represents.  They know who we are.  It is a crucial marketing tool.  When you see the red Target you know what it is.  When you see the Apple, you know what it represents.  When you see the EKG/Circle, you know that is ALIVE.

Nothing spiritual but really helpful in getting a small town to know who you are.

Listening to a teaching from Andy Stanley recently and evaluating not only the size of our ministry but the overall health of the ministry and its leaders I felt compelled to restructure some of the way we do things here.  No grand changes really, the bulk of folk won’t even initially realize a shift.  Every organization has systems in place.  Some systems are built for success and some are built for failure.  Steven Furtick worshipped with us last Sunday, he is a pastor at a church in Charlotte.  He is doing amazing things in a short amount of time.  Thousands of peoples lives are changed because of his leadership and submission to Jesus.  However, the thing I love the most about Steven is he put in systems from the beginning to handle growth.  I have also seen some churches that hired a bunch of staff, got a praise band and thought that would be enough, that system is designed for failure.

As important as the right system is the right staff, it is just as important.  I am a youth pastor of 300 students and over 40 volunteers.  Due to our financial situation as a church the only paid staff I have is an amazing ministry assistant.  The rest of my “staff” are volunteers.

My staff:

Audra Rheaume – Worship Leader

Bobby Webster – Youth Leader

Alicia Medeiros – Service Coordinator

Cathy Oliver – Small Groups Director

Keeley Stephens – HS Advisor / Pulpit teacher

Rusty Metts – MS Advisor

RJ Grubbs/Andy Macauley – Tech Directors

Beekur – Recreation Director

And I am currently recruiting a Campus Director to oversee my campus ministries and an Outreach Director to insure we are serving and reaching our community.

Hybels says that lack of leadership should be a sin.  Leaders we have to do more than simply talk and inspire we must structure our organizations to reach not simply students but entire communities.  I am begging God for wisdom, creativity and insight to stretch us as an organization.  How are your systems/staffing set up?  What have been some victories/struggles you have faced?  Let me know.

I am resting after an incredible day of Worship and Celebration and Family.  This weekend we had over 1100 people in the auditorium and over 100 in KidsPointe!  That is a lot of people hearing about the power of the resurrection that now lives in us as Christians.  Ricsha and the team did a great job and the “blood” creative moment was unbelievable.  I mentioned Saturday night during offering that Christmas gets all the press but Easter is the most incredible day for us as believers.  BTW, The inaugural Saturday service was a huge success!  I am proud to be part of Pointe North, I am proud to be a part of what The church is doing, I am thankful for a loving Jesus that let’s me do it.

This Sunday I am going to be sharing a message that I believe will be inspirational and challenging.  Isaiah 43:19 says, Behold I am doing a new thing.  What is that new thing and how is Pointe North Church a part of that.  If you think you simply come, sit, worship and go home and that is all that PNCC, boy do I have a message for you.  God, is doing something AMAZING all over the world.  YOU are part of THAT.  Come find out how.  I can’t wait.

mistake #3 – your on your own kid

This is one that will probably be on my mistakes of 2009 because I still haven’t developed a process.  Last year if a student accepted Christ there was no process in place to guide students into GROWING in Jesus.  Now, discipleship is something that seems to be going the way of the dodo but my Bible says that it is a requirement.  We are not to make converts but to make disciples.  We preach the Word from the pulpit and encourage students to read the Bible but don’t do anything to help them along in the journey.  Small Groups are even built assuming some basic biblical knowledge.  So, we had over 50 students accept Christ, get baptized and then said “your on your own”.  Then dare to be frustrated because they are still so immature spiritually.

God forgive us.

Mistake #9 – Crash Derby

This is the second installment of the 10 biggest mistakes of 2008.

Picture opening night of our new youth facility. There is a buzz in the air. We have a huge crowd for us at that time, over a hundred students. We had a camera crew doing a commercial for us…it was AWESOME…until.

When parents came to pick up the students…it was CHAOS! You see we are in an old Wal-Mart building. The youth center is in the old loading dock. So parents have to drive around a narrow driveway to get to the back…where over a hundred teens are running around like crazy…IN THE DARK!

Cars were parked all over the place and one car almost got hit by a BiLo truck! I was in the middle of it looking around like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Good side is immediately we recognized the problem. We created a portable fenced in area, brought in a parking team and developed a call in program to get the kids to the pick up area quickly. However, that first week we looked like total buffoons.