Mel Walker's Blog - Vision For Youth, Inc.

CONSIDERING RELATIONAL YOUTH MINISTRY

2012-02-09T15:18:00.002-05:00

“Relational youth ministry!”

Much has been said and written over the years concerning this vast and very general subject. I’ve heard the speakers and I’ve read the books; and I get it - I really do. We must be all about building positive and growing relationships with our students; and we must work hard to build strong inter-personal relationships within our group. I am absolutely convinced that strong relationships are at the very core of what we do. After all Christ ministered via relationships and He came to earth to “seek and to save” human beings in His love and concern to build a relationship with us and His Heavenly Father.

Let’s back up a little bit, however. We know all this stuff, we believe it, and we are committed to implementing it. But, how do we get started on this matter of instituting relational youth ministry other than just relying on our own personalities? Here are some basic principles to think through:

1. Plan big – aim small.

My first piece of advice for youth workers who want to develop a relationship-based ministry is this: plan big, but aim small. Here’s what I mean. Strong relationships are not developed in a group, but by individual connections. However, the group setting must be the place where individual relationships are birthed and then nurtured. In other words, effective youth workers cannot start by saying I’m going to develop strong relationships with the kids who walk in my door – or you’d ignore everyone else! Neither should you think that close relationships happen because you are nice, and friendly, and have a winsome personality. No, you must plan for relationships to grow out of your group dynamic. That’s where you will meet kids; that’s where your other youth workers will meet kids; and that’s where your kids will connect with other kids. That’s why I say – “Plan big, but aim small.” Make specific plans for each student and each adult youth worker, and then be intentional about building relationships with each one.

2. Think parents, then kids.

The next step in building relationships is to begin with their parents in mind. We must not forget that our kids are minors and are (in most cases) living under the authority of parents (plural), a parent (singular), or some kind of guardian. I think it’s wise to start then with the parents. Get to know them and let them know your intentions, your goals, your dreams, and your plans for their kids. Once you have established some kind of relationship with the parents, then you can work on developing other kinds of relationships with your teenagers.

3. Go – not come!

I am convinced that this is one of the major fallacies within today’s youth ministry. Many, many youth workers expect kids to “come to them” instead of going to where they are. This strategy means that we must develop an “attractional philosophy” of entertainment, or programming that is designed to attract or entice teenagers to come to YOUR program. My advice here is this - watch your motives. Do you really want to develop relationships with kids, or do you want to build a program? It’s probably much better for you to go where kids are already and minister to them there. To be blunt – get involved in the schools!

4. Always think spiritual, but act personal.

Please remember that our goal in getting to know kids is not just to have more and more friends. (Facebook has that covered!) It must be that we want our kids to come to Christ and grow in their own personal relationship with Him. So, we must think through ways we can minister to kids to help them grow in Christ. Everything we do must be for this over-arching purpose. All of our programs, meetings, and events should be designed to help kids grow spiritually. But, that will require relationships – and it will demand mentoring connections, real discipleship, and consistent modeling.

5. Long-haul goals overcome short-term hurdles.

My final suggestion for developing relational youth ministry is this – always keep your long-term objectives in mind. This is so important to keep in mind in youth ministry: your long-term goals will help you overcome any short-term hurdles that come across your path. It is so easy to get discouraged when kids quit coming to youth group meetings or if specific kids fall into sin. It’s especially disheartening when a student you have invested your life in walks away from God following high school. That’s why it is essential to keep our long-term objectives in front of us. Please remember that with God’s grace, the end of the story has not happened yet. Author Stephen Covey put it this way, “Live with the end in mind.” As God puts it in Ephesians 4:15, we want them to “grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

May the Lord bless you as you seek to build growing relationships with young people!

Striking A Balance: A Case for Inter-Generational Youth Ministry

2012-02-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

It’s somewhat of a bizarre expression to be sure. Supposedly this idiom has its roots in ancient German literature where an artist’s simple illustration showed a woman throwing a baby out with waste water. The saying suggests the avoidable error of eliminating something good when trying to get rid of something bad.

Let’s apply this expression to local church youth ministry. Over the years something that was originally designed to reach members of the emerging youth culture with the Gospel and to effectively minister to a booming number of teenagers in this country has become cumbersome, traditional, ineffective, and perhaps even a grave mistake. Now out kids are walking away from the church en masse – supposedly in spite of being actively involved in the church’s youth ministry for years and years. History now gives us a certain perspective that our youth ministry forefathers didn’t have. They indisputably wanted to do something culturally relevant – they wanted to reach kids for Christ. So, a strategy to keep teenagers relatively isolated from other generations was born. Their intentions were positive and admirable. But, this decades old experiment was intrinsically flawed. It hasn’t worked to keep our young people completely separated from other age groups. They seemingly enjoy this approach as adolescents, but they don’t recognize the value of this segregation when they reach adulthood. As a result, church youth are leaving the church in droves often because they don’t really know anyone in the adult world of the church. The separation of youth from adults has turned into a liability.

But, that doesn’t mean that we should now swing the pendulum totally away from the overwhelming advantages of a strong youth ministry as some today are advocating. Sure, this discipline has its weaknesses, but its strengths are incredibly valuable – and they are worth maintaining. We must not overreact.

Readers, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Instead of swinging the pendulum away from a positive church emphasis on youth ministry – let’s strike a balance. Let’s balance the many Biblical and practical advantages of youth ministry along with a commitment to intentionally involve older generations in the lives of the next generation. The pendulum must stop in the middle. We must strike that balance. It’s essential for the current and future health of the church. Our churches need healthy and Biblically-based youth ministries AND our churches need strong, healthy, and growing inter-generational connections. That’s the balance.

Making Inter-Generational Youth Ministry Work

So, how do we make this idea of inter-generational youth ministry work in a specific local church setting? Here are some basic ideas to put into practice in your church.

1. Recruit select significant adults to serve as youth workers.

The most customary level of adult-to-youth connections in the church is the obligatory team of adult youth workers who are assigned the task of running the church’s youth ministry. Let’s start here. It’s probably safe to make the assumption that most traditional churches, at least in western culture, have one or more adult youth workers allocated with the grand task of ministering to teenagers. Actually, this is an incredible way for select adults to build strong relationships with young people. The church’s “official” youth workers can and will develop strong connections with youth; be it via a paid, professional youth pastor or through a team of volunteer or “lay” youth workers. These faithful youth workers have the ability to build into the lives of emerging generations and can truly impact their lives for Christ on into adulthood. However, this is just a starting point. There must be other levels of intentional inter-generational connections.

2. Utilize adult-led small groups.

Another way to involve adults in the fabric of church youth ministry is through adult-led small groups. Here’s how one youth worker describes his small group ministry, “We wanted to have more adults involved... We accomplished that goal by giving them the ministry. On Wednesday night, I’m not the guy on stage who is funny/wise/spiritual/everything-a-teenager-wants-in-a-youth-leader. I’m the announcement man. I get up, pray for the night, make the announcements, and then send them off to small groups after some praise and worship. That’s my job. Remember: I’m the youth minister. To the untrained eye it might seem like I’ve taken a back seat. In reality, I’ve given 10-12 adults more say the youth ministry on Wednesday night than would have been possible under any other format. Each night, somewhere between 3 and 10 students meet with their small group leader for 30-45 minutes. They laugh, they play, they learn about one another, and the dive into the Word of God… The great thing is, on Wednesday night, there isn’t one youth minister in the room. There are at least 10. Having these men and women lead in the youth ministry in a big way means that… the Body of Christ is coming together to serve His church.”

This youth worker explains it well. Small groups allow other youth workers to get involved in the lives of individual young people. I’m not going to present a primer on how to do small groups here. There are tons of resources out there on how to develop and implement a small group element in youth ministry. If you want to incorporate small groups in your ministry, I highly suggest that you do your homework. The important thing to think through is this: an adult-led small group ministry provides specific and tangible ways for dedicated adults to build real and lasting relationships with young people.

3. Develop intentional mentoring connections.

Mentoring is an ideal way for churches to develop another layer of healthy inter-generational relationships. Today’s teenagers are craving adult mentors and scores of youth ministry specialists are now touting the need for launching an intentional mentoring ministry. I am convinced that a truly effective mentoring ministering begins by challenging the Godly, motivated, and caring adults in your church through the Scriptures to take the initiative to develop constructive, growing, and spiritual relationships with younger people. As I have frequently told churches around the country as I have presented this concept to them, mentoring is not necessarily a commitment of extra time; it is doing what you already do just do it with younger people. I also believe that the best mentoring anywhere takes place at church, and perhaps begins in the church foyer with caring adults going out of their way to meet, greet, and build growing relationships with young people.

4. Expect and motivate inter-generational ministry opportunities.

Another way of developing an inter-generational emphasis throughout your entire church is to create a culture where it is expected (almost required) that every ministry position is supposed to recruit and train a younger person or persons to work alongside of them in their specific avenue of service.

This principle should be especially true in the most visible and public ministries of the church. Let’s use the church’s worship team for example. I agree with Gary McIntosh when he wrote, “It is crucial that the worship team be intergenerational. The leaders who are seen on the platform influence the people who will attend the service. When people come to a church, one of the first things they do is look around to find people like themselves. The people on the platform communicate a tacit message about who attends the church, so… care must be taken to have people of all ages up front.”

I also think it is imperative for a church that wants to build inter-generational connections to especially recruit younger people to serve alongside of adults as greeters and ushers. It’s often true that perception is reality. As McIntosh so eloquently alluded; it is essential for the church to publicly demonstrate an inter-generational emphasis. Plus, the natural side effects of younger people serving and learning alongside of adults are powerful, habit forming and life-changing.

5. Provide ways for adults to share their stories.

Today’s Millennials love and relate very well to stories. A recent post on a blog about marketing and branding described this generation, “…Millennials think in images, the ‘language of story-telling.’ …Millennials remember stories, not facts. Stories provide an opportunity where facts don’t.”

Emerging generations connect with adults who are willing to share their stories – warts, blemishes as well. Churches can utilize this interest in stories by proving planned and spontaneous opportunities for older adults to share their stories or testimonies with younger generations. Several years ago I asked one of the oldest men in our church to tell his story to our teenagers. Ways to incorporate these stories into your programming are quite endless. You could invite significant adults to take a few moments to share their testimony in Sunday school or youth group meetings. Time could be allotted in the church worship services periodically for this purpose. Informal fellowship times could be scheduled for the various generations to gather and a group facilitator could be used to motivate the participants to share their stories in an allotted amount of time before something else is scheduled. Homes could also be utilized for this specific purpose. You’ll be amazed at how powerful these simple “story times” can be for your church.

Readers can figure out what ideas would work in your church. The important thing is to plan and schedule regular times for older generations to have positive exposure to younger generations and for younger generations to have affirming exposure to older generations. It’s amazing how generational differences and tastes quickly fade into unimportance and insignificance when the various generations connect and have positive and constructive exposure to each other.

SIGNIFICANT YOUTH MINISTRY TRENDS TO CONSIDER AS WE BEGIN A NEW YEAR

2011-12-21T16:49:00.000-05:00

More shoppers spent money this year for Christmas. The stock market is volatile and unpredictable; and gas prices are the highest ever for the holidays. Some trends are relatively easy to notice and other trends require more astute observation.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the legend of the Native American scout who could predict an approaching army by putting his ear to the ground to listen for the increasing vibration caused by the galloping hoof beats of their horses. This article is somewhat of a reflection of my “ear to the ground” so to speak. In my travel to various size churches and youth groups and in my reading of some of the most recent books and articles pertaining to student ministry I have noticed the following significant trends that may be changing the landscape of local church youth ministry.

1. Growing emphasis on collaboration with parents.

More and more youth workers seem to understand and appreciate the importance of working alongside of parents in their ministries with today’s teenagers. Certainly, a parent ministry has always been a major aspect of youth ministry. However, there seems to be a growing emphasis today on the importance of youth workers working strategically and intentionally with parents for the long-term spiritual health of students.

2. Greater focus on inter-generational connections.

Another very positive characteristic of youth ministry today is the developing tendency to build healthy and growing inter-generational relationships within the overall church’s ministry. Most youth workers have historically built strong adult-to-student relationships between youth workers and students – and many, many voices within the discipline of youth ministry have spoken about the need for relational youth ministry. But, just recently there seems to be a new and encouraging push toward developing other connections between adults and young people.

3. Less reliance on music in worship.

I admit that my observation of this particular trend maybe a result of my non-musician’s outlook, yet I am noticing less and less of a dependence upon music as a keystone of student ministry. Just a few short years ago, most large youth events and local church youth groups featured a heavy reliance on music in worship. As a speaker at various youth events around the country I noticed a great deal of programming time devoted to music. Perhaps that trend is waning some. The iPod, iPhone, iPad revolution has taken musical tastes to a whole new level of personal consumerism. Very few people download a whole CD (formerly called an “album” in my day) in this age of iTunes. Now we buy the song we like and download the digital file into our various technological devices. The current notion toward a rampant individualization of musical taste may ultimately yield less and less of a reliance upon music as a public demonstration of worship.

4. Increasing attention on contemplative liturgy.

I have also noticed an increasing interest upon the idea of a liturgical and contemplative attitude toward local church ministry. We’ve lived through several decades of entertainment and fun-based ministry. Perhaps the days of an attractional philosophy (provide exciting events that attract people) are over. Many churches seemed to utilize a “fun and games” approach toward youth ministry in particular. I see that emphasis changing some recently. We’re trying to reach a generation that is craving something serious – something important. They can get their entertainment elsewhere. The church must be a place where eternity is at the center of what we teach and what we do.

5. Renewed devotion toward Gospel-centered ministry.

The healthiest trend I’ve noticed is the recent return to a Gospel-centered message and a Gospel-focused ministry! Frankly, it’s about time. We must get back to the life-changing, good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for the recent Gospel-centered movements within Christianity (e.g. Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition) that are seeking to restore our attention back to what really matter – The Gospel.

As we end 2011, those are some of the trends I’m seeing that are impacting local church student ministry. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts as well. Maybe one of our New Year’s resolutions should be to keep our “ears to the ground.”

Christmas: "Business as Usual"?

2011-12-09T13:37:00.000-05:00

Have you noticed that Christmas came early this year? It seemed to me that Christmas came to the malls sometime before Thanksgiving – maybe even before Halloween. Sears and Penny’s, American Eagle and Foot Locker may have even had their Christmas sales going somewhere around Labor Day. I’m being facetious, of course; but it did seem as if the rampant consumerism began very, very early this year.

My wife and I went out for our requisite Christmas shopping the other day and we bought gifts for our kids, our daughters-in-law, and most certainly, for our granddaughters. We just finished decorating our living room and the front deck – and even as I write this, my wife is in the kitchen baking this year’s batch of Christmas cookies. Our church has scheduled the usual Christmas concert and children’s Christmas program – and we’re trying to figure out how to juggle our family Christmas time with church services since this year’s holiday is on a Sunday.

In other words – this year’s Christmas seems to be “business as usual.” Retailers need “Black Friday” to end the year in the black financially. Families have long-standing traditions; and churches, with pure motives certainly, are trying to fit the traditional programs into overly busy schedules surrounding the Christmas season.

I don’t know about you, but Christmas seems normal, typical, and traditional.

The problem with that, however, is that it is the exact opposite of what Christmas should be! The story of the birth of Christ, if anything, is the account of how normal human traditions were shattered and obliterated by the direct intervention of God into the affairs of human existence. This truth is exemplified

in the familiar Christmas story in Luke 2. I have been especially challenged by the response of the shepherds to the angelic pronouncement in verse 14. The next two verses explain how these nomadic herdsmen left everything and left immediately to see the Christ-child.

The birth of Christ changed everything – and the world would never be the same.

So, let’s think about our “business as usual” approach to Christmas this year. Maybe it’s time to do something different – something that is actually special and unique – maybe even radical. You can come up with the practical ideas. Talk to your family, mention the concept to your youth group and see what you come up with to make this year’s Christmas truly something extraordinary.

Maybe it’s fitting somehow that we will celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on a Sunday!

(This article originally appeard in the VFY Resource Newsletter.)

MY REACTION TO THE PENN STATE TRAGEDY

2011-11-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

This is a very personal post for me. I almost always write about my thoughts and my personal perspective on topics relating to local church youth ministry – and this article too is a reflection of that heartbeat. However, this particular post is also somewhat of a departure from the norm; and perhaps that is the way it should be.

I remain quite grieved about the continuing saga surrounding the child abuse scandal at nearby Penn State University. My heart cries out for the seemingly forgotten victims of sadistic predators and my anger boils when I think about the lasting ramifications from these heinous actions. No one should prey on children – especially those who are in positions of respect and authority! The news is filled (not just this story, but hundreds of other accounts) with the graphic descriptions of how some distort the human admiration from young people and turn that esteem into a weapon of sinful, selfish transgressions.

There is no adequate way to fully communicate one’s feelings and reactions to fallout from the media’s reports following the atrocities of what actually happened at Penn State, so I’ll leave that alone for now – and instead take this article in a different direction.

We must build our mentoring strategy from Scripture and not from the news media!

This past Sunday I was reminded of this point when I met with a young man I have been mentoring following our church service. I hate to admit this, but I began to wonder if others around me were questioning my motives as I briefly chatted with this young man in our church foyer. I wondered if some would question what I was doing in trying to build a relationship with this student. I hate the fact that my mind even went there; and I’m disgusted by the actions of evil predators that make us all feel this way. I can say with 100% certainly that my motives were pure, wholesome, and God-honoring; but I must acknowledge the media attention on this Penn State story may be a game changer for legitimate, wholesome mentoring relationships.

So, where do we go from here? Again, let me emphasize that we must build our ministry strategies from the Word of God and not from the latest journalism story.

The Bible provides an apt description of true mentoring in passages such as 1 Thessalonians 2:8 “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” This strategy must be the basis for our mentoring ministries. It’s important to note that Paul here was writing within the framework of a local church – and that very institution (the church) provides the accountability and structure for effective and God-honoring mentoring. It’s also imperative that we implement the real focus of this verse – self-sacrificial love and a Gospel-driven ministry.

These two elements must never be separated and they must constitute the foundation for mentoring. Only as we genuinely demonstrate the self-sacrificing, agape love of Christ and base our ministries on the Gospel of Jesus Christ can we truly minister to others.

The world cannot duplicate this life-changing combination! It’s the blending of truth and love into one powerful and truly life-changing strategy.

If our methods for ministry are Scripturally-based we have noting to fear from the media.

5 Ways Parents Can Help Their Children to Go On for God

2011-11-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

The books are flying off the presses in seemingly endless numbers; and frankly, I’m sick of hearing the statistics about the young adults who are dropping out of church. (I know, I know – I listed some of these very books in my last post!) But, please keep reading.

I want to start hearing about the kids who stayed in church. I want to hear the stories of Christian kids who grow up and go on for God. I want to hear about the successes of Godly, Christian parents who are proactively working with the church’s youth leaders to develop strong, stable, and mature Christ-followers who as young adults decide to stay engaged in the church.

I know many of these young adults who are absolutely committed to Christ and His claims on their lives. Some of them are currently in college, others are in the military or work force, and many of them are currently living productive live as God-honoring adults.

So, what can Christian parents do to help their children to grow up and go on for God? I’m convinced that we must look to the Scriptures for the answers! In the pages of the New Testament we are told the stories of some young people who grew up before our eyes (so to speak) in the Biblical narrative and who continued to live for God long into their adult lives. One of those young men was Timothy. We meet him in Acts 16 as a young man growing up in church and we read his story throughout the Epistles, including Paul’s last letter to him in 2 Timothy. There are many things in the Bible that we can learn about Timothy, but for the sake of this quick post lets talk a look at some of the things his parents (especially his mother, Eunice - see 2 Timothy 1:5) did right.

It’s important to note that parenting is never a formula or a recipe. It doesn’t work to frivolously think that a few quick ideas lead to spiritual success with our kids. However, if we look at the sweeping principles that seemed to guide this family, we can take away some very practical advice for raising our own kids for God today.

A Consistent Lifestyle – 2 Timothy 1:5

Probably the most obvious thing that this family did right was Eunice’s and Lois’ consistent or genuine walk with God. The Bible calls theirs an “unfeigned” (KJV) or un-faked faith! Timothy’s mom and grandmother demonstrated a genuine relationship with God – and it impacted Timothy. Notice in verse 5 that Timothy also demonstrated a genuine faith. He grew up and went on for God – and that’s what we want from our kids, too.

Communication of God’s Word – 2 Timothy 3:15

The second thing this family did right was that they made it a priority to communicate Biblical truth. Notice that from his earliest days, Timothy learned the Scriptures. The next two verses (2 Timothy 3:16 & 17) reveal that this strategy was much more than a rote memorization of the Text. He also learned that Biblical principles are “profitable” for life and that these principles lead to true spiritual maturity.

Collaboration with the Church
There’s another key element to their strategy that is worth identifying and that is their cooperation with the church to help develop Timothy’s faith. Acts 16 identifies him as a “disciple”, who as a young man already had a good testimony with the other believers. He also was personally selected by the Apostle Paul to go along on this missionary journey. The text expounds on the purpose of their ministry, “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. (NIV)” Obviously, the church was a priority to young Timothy. He grew up in church and committed himself to a church-based ministry.

Concern for People and Culture
The Acts 16 passage also presents an interesting scenario of Timothy’s circumcision even though his was a Greek (see verse 1). He perhaps was willing to submit to this cultural ritual due to the cross-cultural background in his own family. This somewhat dysfunctional family environment undoubtedly produced a heart-felt concern for other people and a genuine sensitivity for others.

Commitment to Ministry
The final positive thing I’d like to identify from this family was their dedication to God’s work. They were willing to allow their son to follow Paul along on this journey. Without any visible hesitation on anyone’s part Timothy joined the missionary team and set off on what was the beginning of his call to vocational ministry.

Timothy was a young man who grew up and went on for God. The narrative of Scripture points out some identifiable things that helped in this process. Perhaps there is practical wisdom here for today’s Christian families to implement into the fabric of raising their own kids.

Important Books on Church Dropout Crisis

2011-09-29T12:00:00.001-04:00

Many people have asked me to identify and list the important resources available to church leaders, youth workers, and parents about the crisis of kids leaving the church following high school and what to do about it. So, I have complied the following list of must read books (no priority order; other than the newest 2 books are listed first.) I personally do not endorse or agree with everything in these books – so please be discerning and read them with a spirit of honest evaluation. But, do not be a critic either. We can all learn some very valuable lessons from the research and the viewpoints of these writers.

Start reading!

1. Sticky Faith: Everyday ideas to build lasting faith in your kids by Kara Powell and Chap Clark. Published by Zondervan, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-310-32932-9

2. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church… and Rethinking Faith by David Kinnamen. Published by Baker Books, 2011. ISBN: 978-0-8010-1314-0

3. Almost Christian: What the Faith of our Teenagers is Telling the American Church by Kenda Creasy Dean. Published by Oxford, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-19-531484-7

4. The Next Christians: How a New Generation is Restoring the Faith by Gabe Lyons. Published by Doubleday, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-385-52984-6

5. Together: Adults and Teenagers Transforming the Church by Jeff Baxter. Published by Zondervan, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-310-57874-1

6. The Greenhouse Project: Cultivating Students of Influence by Mike Calhoun & Mel Walker. Published by Word of Life, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-935475-00-2

7. Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them by Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes. Published by B&H Publishing, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-8054-4878-8

8. Already Gone: Why your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can do to Stop It by Ken Ham & Britt Beemer. Published by Master Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-9-89051-529-7

9. reThink: Decide for Yourself – Is Student Ministry Working? by Steve Wright and Chris Graves. Published by InQuest Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-931548-69-4

10. Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts by Thom Rainer & Sam Rainer III. Published by B&H Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8054-4392-9

WAYS YOUR YOUTH GROUP CAN MINISTER TO SENIOR CITIZENS

2011-09-09T14:05:00.000-04:00

“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers

in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

1 Timothy 4:12

If you could only do one thing to build your youth ministry’s “street cred” in your church – start by ministering to your church’s senior citizens! Street cred is contemporary slang for credibility, or “commanding a level of respect.” Honestly, friends – this is it! This may be the key to gaining respectability for the youth group in your church. Minister to the senior citizens! They have an incredible amount of influence in your church – and to have the senior citizens as fans of the youth ministry is a tremendous blessing.

In my last post I wrote about how the senior citizens can minister to youth. So, in the mode of “turn about is fair play”, here are some basic ideas for your church’s teenagers to put into practice in trying to minister to the “senior saints”.

1. Pray for them.
It starts here. Motivate your group to pray for your church’s older adults – by name! You can probably obtain a list from the church office or from the senior citizens Sunday School teacher. You’ll probably need to remember that some of the key seniors may be “shut-ins” and unable to attend church very often. Don’t forget these people should be the “heroes” in your church. They’ve earned your respect for their many, many years of living for the Lord. So, pray for them specifically and let them know that the teenagers are praying for them.

2. Honor them.
I’ve talked to several senior citizens recently and they feel somewhat “left out to pasture” or marginalized by the church. This ought not to be. They deserve honor – and it will be highly appreciated if your church’s teenagers demonstrate their respect for these older adults. I know several youth groups that host dinners or other times of fellowship for seniors – and that is a great place to start. Let them know they are loved and respected by the emerging generations!

3. Ask them.
This is a simple idea, but it can be powerfully important. Give them a voice in the church. Your teenagers need to hear from them and need to hear their advice and counsel. There’s one especially potent way that you can pull this off. Ask some of your church’s Godly senior citizens to share their story or their testimony with the youth. A few years ago, I asked one of the oldest men in our church (a World War II vet) to share his story with our youth group. He was a decorated war hero and yet he was scared to death by our teenagers. But, when he started telling his testimony, the kids were spellbound. You literally could have heard a pin drop in the room. This simple testimony helped our group connect with he and his wife and strong relationships developed out of this brief time together. It only makes sense to ask some of your church’s Godly and respected senior citizens to share their story with your youth group.

4. Use them.
I am convinced that you could recruit some of these senior citizens to be youth leaders. Of course, they will all say, “I’m too old.” No, the fact is – people get too old to play tackle football, but they never get too old to minister to young people. I understand that in many cases it might not work for them to be full-fledged youth workers, but they can and should be involved. Ideas abound from helping with mailings and paperwork, to organizing them into an intentional prayer-warrior team. The point is that these committed older saints can and should be involved. Plus, it will help them feel useful and needed. (Another key idea: recruit them for work projects alongside teenagers. The mentoring effect will be incredible.)

5. Help them.
Here one last way to minister to the senior citizens in your church. Offer to help them. Your group can help rake leaves, shovel snow, drive them to errands, pick up groceries for them, offer valet parking for them at church, and on-and-on. You will be amazed at how the seniors look positively at teenagers who are servants and who are helpful to them. This can help your group get their eyes off of themselves on onto the bigger picture of the body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul told Timothy that he could be an example to the believers (see 1 Timothy 4:12). I highly encourage all youth workers to implement these simple ideas to help motivate your teenagers minister to the older adults in your church. Blessings!

Special Offer for the Readers of My Blog!

2011-09-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

For the next 2 weeks (from September 9 until September 23, 2011) I will offer a complete set of my books for only $30 – plus shipping. Readers can purchase these titles directly from me: The Greenhouse Project, Pushing the Limits, Mentoring the Next Generation, Impacting the Next Generation, Reaching the Next Generation, and Developing Biblical Reasons for only $30! That is at least a $10 savings from the best price you can get anywhere.

Friends, this is not a “fire sale” – nor am I trying to get rid of inventory. I believe in resources and I want to do all I can to get resources into the hands of youth workers and church leaders.

Send me your mailing address at: mel@visionforyouth.com and I can invoice you for the books plus shipping.

I hope this helps.

Mel

WAYS SENIOR CITIZENS CAN MINISTER TO YOUNG PEOPLE IN YOUR CHURCH

2011-09-01T11:26:00.000-04:00

“Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”

Psalm 71:18 (NKJV)

According to the US Government’s Health & Human Services Department we live in a country with a dramatically increasing population of older people. At this moment, almost 40 million people in the United States are 65 years of age or older – and that number is expected to grow significantly over the next several years. It’s definitely a ministry paradox to realize that this country’s youth population is also growing at a considerable rate. Many churches are filled with a large number of young people alongside of an escalating number of senior citizens.

Even though most of us have been raised believing there is a considerable “Generation Gap”, I am absolutely convinced that the different generations in the church need each other and that both sides of the generational divide actually want the same things in the church. Younger people and older people alike desire to serve and worship God in a local church environment that honors God, that teaches and preaches the life-changing Word of God, and that effectively reaches out to the unsaved and un-churched members of the surrounding community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Bible teaches the unity of the Body of Christ (see Ephesians 4:11-16) and that older people can and should mentor and encourage young people in the church (see Titus 2:1-10). Today’s young people need Godly and loving encouragement from the older people in the church – and actually current research points out that this generation of young people is very, very receptive to building close relationships with older people.

Here are 5 simple things senior citizens can do to minister to younger people in church:

1. Pray for them.
I highly encourage senior citizens to pray for their church’s younger generations – specifically, by name! It’s probably easy to obtain a list of their names from your church’s youth workers. Take each one to the Lord individually. God will begin to put a burden on your heart for them. You will be amazed at how external things fade away as you pray specifically for them and their spiritual growth. Once you have developed the habit of praying intentionally and individually FOR young people – then take the opportunity to pray WITH them. You will be amazed at how receptive today’s young people are for a time of special prayer with older people.

2. Encourage them.
It’s also important for the older, established people in the church to actively and purposely encourage them in their walk with God. Take the Biblical examples of Barnabas and Onesiphorus to heart. They were exceptional encouragers. Today’s young people hear so much criticism and negativity. Let’s change that trend in the church. Imagine the positive influence you could have on your church’s teenagers and college age young adults just by being a verbal encouragement to them. Ephesians 4:29 puts it this way, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Older people should take the initiative. Just say an encouraging word or two to young people in the church foyer or hallway. Believe me, it will be greatly appreciated.

3. Tell your story.
Today’s youth love stories. Most of the recent blockbuster movies have been epic tales told as stories. God uses human interest, real-life accounts of real people to touch the hearts of others. I think this is the idea behind the truth in Psalm 78:1-8. Older generations were instructed to tell the next generation “the praises of the Lord. And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done….” So that, “They may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments.” This generation loves “God stories”. Seniors should take every opportunity they can to share what God has done and is doing in and through their lives. Practical ideas abound. Invite young people over to your home and take the opportunity to share your testimony with them. Take a few young people out for coffee. Today’s young people love to connect with older people. I strongly recommend that churches use this as a ministry advantage. This simple action step will help break down the Generation Gap.

4. Minister alongside them.
It should be the standard norm in your church for each ministry position (ushers, Sunday School teachers, VBS leaders, etc.) to include a mentoring relationship with a younger person. Our churches must be intentional about becoming intergenerational. So, if you have any kind of ministry position at all in your church, why not invite a younger person to serve alongside of you? Even if you are not a ministry leader you can still minister with teens by asking them to help you bake cookies to encourage someone in the church, or to go with you to visit a shut-in. The key is to demonstrate your desire to serve the Lord to emerging generations.

5. Mentor them.
I believe that every mature Christian in the church should have growing mentoring relationships with younger people. This is the Biblical pattern (see 1 Thessalonians 2:8 and Titus 2) and it should be replicated throughout our churches today. Over 90% of today’s young people have indicated that they would appreciate an older mentor. Yet, most adults feel like they don’t have time to so something like this. Friends, I have said for years that true mentoring is not necessarily a commitment of extra time. It is doing what you already do, just doing it with someone younger. The best mentoring takes place at church by the way. Begin this Sunday by building intentional, growing relationships with younger people.

It makes sense for older, spiritually mature people to be intentional about personally ministering to younger people in the church. Let’s bridge that Generation Gap!

COLLEGE STUDENTS LEAVING YOUR CHURCH: Ministering to Your Church's College Students

2011-08-19T09:54:00.000-04:00

I live in a college town. Just this week I met a young girl who will be attending college here this fall, so I asked her if anyone from her home church recommended a good church to her while she completes her studies. To my amazement she replied that no one from her home church, including her parents or pastors, had said anything to her about finding a good church in the town where she is attending college. Of course, I suggested that she should try our church; but that conversation left me wondering.

Are pastors and youth pastors talking to their church’s graduating high school seniors about getting plugged in to a good church while they are away from home attending college?

Here are 5 practical suggestions for ministering to your church’s college students who are away from your church while they are in college.

1. Encourage your church’s college students to find a good church immediately when they arrive on campus!
If nothing else, take the time to talk to the college students from your church who are away from home about finding a good, Bible-preaching church in the town where they are attending school. You might also want to take the time to investigate the churches in the area where your students are living to make informed recommendations to them. This will not take a long time with the wealth of information available on the Internet. Make sure your young adults are plugged in to a good church nearby the college or university they are attending. Believe me; this is also important if your students are attending a Christian college or even a Bible college. Experts on this age group are saying that college-age habits are usually formed within the first 2 weeks they are away from home; so this suggestion is very, very important for their spiritual growth and development while they are away in college.

2. Stay in touch with your church’s college students encouraging them in their walk with God.
Your church’s college-age young adults are leaving home sometime during the next couple of weeks to begin this year’s academic schedule. Make sure you know their mailing address, e-mail address, and cell phone number so that you can stay in touch with them while they are away in college. Put it on your personal schedule to send them an e-mail or a text message just to find out how they are doing in college and to let them know that people from their home church are praying regularly for them.

3. Send them a “love gift” from home within 2 weeks of when they arrive on campus.
Make sure your church sends them a care package (home-made chocolate chip cookies are a must for college students!) in a couple of weeks. You might also want to send them a gift card for a free pizza. Why don’t you recruit a team of church people to handle this important detail? There’s nothing like the encouragement from receiving a love gift from people back at home.

4. Suggest ways they can stay connected with their home church while they are away at college. College students often feel out-of-touch while they are away from their home church. Perhaps it would be a good idea to send each of them your church’s weekly church bulletin and prayer request list. Put this simple practice on a tickler file as a reminder to send them this information on a regular basis.

5. Recruit a team of people in your church to pray specifically for those students while they are in college.
I can’t tell you how important it is for today’s college students to know that caring people back home are praying regularly for them while they are away at school. Put together a complete list of all of the young adults from your church who are away in college (and in the military, for that matter) and add them to your church’s prayer list. Then make sure you remind your church people to pray for them regularly and faithfully. This simple act of prayer will be a real source of encouragement to your church’s students who are studying away from home.

Please don’t forget that these students are still your church’s young people. Your church has invested so much in their lives during their formative years as children and youth. Don’t drop the ball on them while they are away in college!

THE CHURCH GOES TO COLLEGE: Ministering to College-Age Young Adults in Your Church

2011-08-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

According to a recent article in the New York Times, the largest generation in American history is now enrolled in college. That statistic is amazing in itself, but added to that is the fact that current research has revealed that ministering to college age young adults may be the weakest area of ministry in many, many local churches. We need to change that trend!

I am convinced that any church can and should minister to the young adults in your area by implementing a few proactive and simple strategies. However, before I list those ideas, I must emphasize the fact that a ministry to this age group requires a commitment to do it. Many churches see high school kids leave the church following high school without tracking them to see where they are going to church or if they are even going on for God. We must close this gap and reinvest in this “missing generation” in our church. A ministry to this strategic age group begins with an investment of people resources. In other words, churches must decide to make college-age young adult ministry a priority.

Here are some ideas on how your church can minister to this large and needy people group:

1. Start by developing an opportunity to teach them God’s Word!
This really is a simple place to start. Does your church have a Sunday School class for college-age young adults? If not, why not start one right away? Even your recent high school graduates need a place to study God’s Word following their involvement in the youth group. Recruit significant, Godly adults in your church to lead this new ministry – and remember that this current generation is not looking for a revision of what they got in youth ministry. College-age students want to be treated as adults; in fact, many of them many be enrolled in high-academic college or university majors. It doesn’t make sense for the church to give “fluff” to this age group when they are craving serious and important truth! If your church does not have the resources for a traditional Sunday School class, you could develop a regular time of Bible study for them instead. This age group needs Biblical answers that counter the various secular world views they are hearing in college. So, a teaching ministry is the place to start!

2. Provide Godly older mentors to build growing, personal relationships with this age group.
This age group needs older people! The church can and should provide Godly older mentors for this generation of emerging young adults. So many college-age para-church organizations tend to separate young adults from the church by gathering groups of peers together on college or university campuses. Friends, this is a mistake. This demographic cohort desperately needs the church. The church can provide the human resources of a “family” of older adults who are willing to develop growing relationships and connections with college-age young adults. (For more information on the subject of church-based mentoring you can contact the author at: mel@visionforyouth.com.) Encourage and teach your church’s older adults to take the time to build personal relationships with younger adults.

3. Supply opportunities for this age group to have fellowship.
Friends are the life-line for this age group. That’s another reason why churches should “do something” for young adults. The church can and should provide real fellowship – with other members of this age group and with other ages. It’s a shame, in some ways, that college and university students tend to develop their friends outside of the church. This generation is not looking for a series of “youth group games” or activities. A ministry to college-age young adults should look differently than that. Fellowship for this age group will probably feature hanging out around a cup of coffee instead of taking the members to the nearest amusement park.

4. Give them leadership opportunities in the group and in your church as a whole.
One of the most effective ways to offer something for this age group is to give them some specific leadership responsibilities within the group – and within the greater structure of the entire church. In other words, give them something to do. This generation can lead Bible studies and will have influence on their peers. They are no longer teenagers – they are emerging adults. Give them leadership opportunities and work to train them for future positions of leadership in the church.

5. Offer resources to help this age group become involved.
A very effective way to minister to this age group is for the church to supply resources for this generation that is in so much transition. Mentoring is one way to do that, but there is a vast variety of ways that a church could minister to college-agers. One church (located near a major university) hosts a meal for college students every Sunday afternoon. Another church provides transportation to and from the nearby college campuses. My home church recruited a team of families to host college-age students in their homes on Sunday afternoons. The point is that every local church has a supply of resources that could be utilized to minister to this age group. Ideas abound.

These simple ideas do not do justice to this important aspect of church programming. However, it is a shame for churches to do nothing – especially when the number one time people walk away from church is immediately following high school. It’s time to do something!

It’s Time to Gear Up for Fall

2011-08-03T11:39:00.000-04:00

“Gentlemen, start your engines!”

Our “neck of the woods” is busy and bustling with excitement and energy this week as the NASCAR universe prepares for its race at Pocono. Every hotel room for miles around is full and the highways are already jammed with race fans crowding into Northeastern Pennsylvania for this weekend’s annual event.

It’s always interesting to watch the sleepy countryside of this region’s Pocono and Endless Mountains come alive in preparation for the huge onslaught of NASCAR enthusiasts and consumers. There are car races each weekend somewhere during the summer, but on this particular weekend our area plays host – and Pennsylvanians are getting ready for the big race.

Since it is already the beginning of August, this weekend always reminds me of the preparations youth workers should be working on now to welcome students into the Fall programs which will be starting in just a few, short weeks. Here are 5 quick ideas to help you think through your preparations as you gear up for Fall:

1. Make the time for individual appointments with incoming students.
If you haven’t done this yet this summer, take the next few weeks to meet individually with your group’s incoming new students. These appointments would be the ideal time to welcome individual kids into the group and to share your vision for the church’s youth ministry with them. Of course, this would also be the perfect time to talk to each teen personally about their salvation experience and their personal walk with God.

2. Make the effort for a renewed “splash” for your Fall events.
Someone once said, “It it’s important, it’s worth talking about.” I am a firm believer in promotion and advertising, but not in a “consumeristic” or carnal way. It’s a good idea to promote your Fall program in order to create energy and enthusiasm for what you are trying to accomplish this year in your ministry. Some youth workers repaint or redecorate the youth room, others send out creative promotional pieces. The important thing to remember is that what you are trying to do to minister to and to reach out to kids is important. Treat it as if it is important!

3. Make sure to communicate your plans to the parents of teenagers.
Work hard right now to develop a plan to regularly communicate the details of your Fall program to the parents of teenagers. Send out e-mails, develop a group Facebook page, put stuff in the church bulletins, obtain the parents cell phone numbers and send them text messages, etc. Do whatever you can to put the most information you can into the hands of parents. Let’s face it; they will never really be on your side unless they know what is going on.

4. Make the commitment to see how your plans fit in with the overall plans of the church.
Take the time to meet with your senior pastor to go over your plans for the Fall with him. It will help him to know what is going on and it will help you see what his plans are for the big-picture of your church’s ministry. Be prepared and be willing to tweak your ideas some to fit in with his philosophy of what he wants for the church.

5. Make sure to cover your Fall program in prayer!
Now’s the time to commit everything you want to do this Fall to the Lord and to ask for His blessing! It’s also imperative that you meet with the other members of your youth ministry’s leadership team to encourage them to pray specifically for the teens this Fall. I also encourage youth workers to meet with your church’s senior citizens to ask them to pray specifically and individually for the students. Do whatever you can to recruit prayer warriors for the youth ministry!

Thanks for reading. It’s time to gear up for Fall!

5 Summer Strategies for Success

2011-07-26T22:25:00.000-04:00

My wife joking tells me that there are two kinds of people in the world. “Those who have headaches – and those who cause headaches. Those who have high blood pressure – and those who cause high blood pressure.” I’ll add a couple more of my own. Those who are night people – and those who are morning people. And this, those who hate summer and love winter – and those who love summer and hate winter. I’m in the latter category. I admit that I hate winter, but I love summer. I love the sunshine, the growth and the life of nature, and I love being outside in the summer.

Here are some personal pieces of practical advice for making the most of your summer – if you are a summer person or not.

Be disciplined with your time and schedule. Summer is ideal to spend some time with your spouse and kids – it’s also easy to drift away from a life of order and discipline in the summer. So, be sure to come home from work on time and save some weekends for your family. And don’t forget to schedule some “date nights” with your spouse as well.

Take a vacation. You know the old saying, “the devil never takes a vacation.” As Howard Hendricks used to say, “Since when is the devil your model?” Youth workers, be sure to carve out time for a vacation! By the way, youth missions trips do not count.

Do extra reading. Each year I save a pile of books to read during the summer. Most of the TV schedule is reruns, NBA and NFL seasons are over. It’s a good time to read – and read some things that will challenge your thinking and equip you in ministry.

Spend time with students. Your students’ schedule is different in the summers, so be sure to take advantage of their time out of school. Sure, most of your students will get summer jobs, but their schedules are likely to be much more flexible now. Be a good steward of their extra time.

Enjoy God’s creation. Summer is the perfect time to get outdoors and enjoy God’s handiwork in creation. Take your group to camp or on a wilderness trip. Go on a hike or a camping trip. Go on a walk with your spouse. Nature has a unique way of clearing your head and it can help your heart grow closer to the Creator!

Why not make the most out of summer?

5 Things Series: Helping Your Teens Transition Out of Youth Group

2011-06-14T15:55:00.001-04:00

It is graduation time and a recent statistic from pollster George Barna caught my eye. “Only 38% of youth pastors and 36% of senior pastors say they frequently discuss college plans with their students.” (See the Barna Report, June 14, 2011.)

That’s amazing to me. The majority of pastors and youth pastors never talk to their high school graduates about what they are going to do after high school. Our kids are leaving the church after they graduate from high school and we are simply letting them walk away?

Pastors and church leaders, I wholeheartedly believe that there are proactive, but simple things you can do to help your church’s graduating seniors transition out of youth group and into the life God has for them as emerging adults. I ask you to prayerfully consider these suggestions and then take the action steps necessary to implement some of the following ideas into the fabric of your church even this Spring.

1. Schedule individual appointments with your church’s graduating seniors to talk about God’s will for their lives.

High school graduation is a tangible rite of passage in today’s society. It’s a big deal. Your high school graduates are transitioning from the cocoon world of their parents’ home and the church youth group into the looming and scary world of adulthood. So, be intentional about this fantastic opportunity and schedule personal appointments with each graduating senior in your church. Believe me, most of them are looking for some help on how to determine God’s will for their lives and they would greatly appreciate a gentle, yet probing talk from their pastor about that. Of course, many of your graduates have already made plans for their futures. Some are entering the work-force, others are going to college, and some maybe enlisting in the military. This is the perfect occasion to meet with each one of these members of your flock to talk with them about God’s plan and direction for their lives. (Don’t forget that this might also be the ideal time to give each senior a gift from the church honoring them for their high school graduation.)

2. Talk to the students’ parents to see if you can help them.

High school graduation is also the perfect opportunity to talk to the kids’ parents about the future. This is probably a time of high tension for them as well. They have fretted for years about the money for college or about what the world will be like for their children. A brief heart-to-heart pep-talk from their pastor or their kids’ youth pastor would be much appreciated. You can discuss how to help the grads stay connected to the church following graduation. You can also help the parents find a good, solid, Bible-believing church for their graduate in the city where they’ll be living next year. This talk would be a great encouragement to them.

3. Identify those you believe are called to full-time vocational ministry.

God is still in the business of calling young people to serve Him. Who knows? Some of them may be leaving your church youth group this year. Have you talked to them about vocational ministry? You could take this opportunity to talk to these individuals about the honors and privileges of serving the Lord full time. You might be able to offer them some practical advice on attending a Bible college or on what they can do now to prepare for full-time ministry later. If you have sensed that the hand of God is on certain individual students in your youth group, why don’t you talk to them about it? Now is the perfect time.

4. Develop a team of adults to keep in touch with the graduates while they are away from home.

Here’s another simple, but proactive idea for your church to consider. Why not build a team of adults in your church who will continue to communicate with your high school graduates after they leave your church? This team could consist of parents, grandparents, and other interested adults. You may want to also consider adding younger highs school students to this team as well. Encourage them team to secure the grads’ mailing address and phone number while they are away and to outline a specific plan to send them regular updates from the church – and perhaps even “care packages” while they are away from home. Of course, it is very important that your graduates know that their home church is praying specifically for them while they are in college or in the military. So, ask the team to keep the list of your church’s college students and members of the military in a conspicuous place on your church’s regular prayer list.

5. Recruit Godly, influential adults to welcome the high school graduates into the adult ministries of your church.

This may be the most important idea of all. In most situations, your church’s high school graduates would be no longer welcome in youth group. In our culture we tend to ask these new young adults to leave the youth ministry. Have you ever thought through this strategy? Where are they going to go? Youth ministry specialist, Dr. Chap Clark has said, “"In most churches, when adolescents leave high school, there are few programmatic options available for them much less a welcoming community that has committed to bring them into the life of the body." So, does your church have an intentional welcoming committee that is committed to making your church’s high school graduates feel wanted and welcome in the adult ministries? It has been my experience that college-age ministries are some of the weakest areas in our churches. This may be the time to change that. Your new young adults don’t want to be treated like teenagers any more. They want and need growing, healthy inter-generational relationships with other significant adults. Pastors and church leaders, let me remind you that this won’t happen unless you put together a specific plan, and it starts with the active recruitment of specific Godly adults who are committed to making this emerging generation feel welcome in your church.

Friends, I don’t know where Barna gets his information from, but I do know that the local church can be a powerful influence on the lives of our kids. Maybe we can work to change his statistic. Why not talk to your graduates this week?

Important New Book for Youth Workers

2011-06-08T14:19:00.000-04:00

Friends, I have been reading Dr. Chap Clark's new book (actually an update and revision of his classic book, Hurt) Hurt 2.0 and I want to recommend it as must-reading for all youth workers, parents of teenagers, and anyone interested in today's teenagers. This book just came out and it contains some important research and observations about this generation of students. Be discerning, of course, and read it with an open mind. But, this is something you'll want to read ASAP!

5 Ways Parents Approach Youth Ministry

2011-06-06T14:27:00.000-04:00

Let’s face it, a lot of youth workers view parents as almost one of the necessary evils of youth ministry. A friend of mine took a survey a couple of years ago in his network of approximately 400 youth workers. He asked them to name the biggest concerns they faced in local church youth ministry. The most listed answer was “parents of teenagers.”

In my last post I listed the “5 things parents want from the youth ministry”. In this post I am going to discuss the 5 basic ways that parents of teenagers approach youth ministry. It has been my experience that somewhere along the line all youth workers will face parents in each of the following categories:

1. Protective – Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the phrase “Helicopter Parents” – those parents who “hover over their kids” and are overly-protective of them. A recent survey reported that freshmen in college sometimes send and receive 11 text messages a day from their parents – and those were college students! We noticed during our summer youth missions trips that many of the participating teens used their cell phones to call their parents almost every hour. It’s true; we are ministering to a generation of hovering parents. My advice is to use this as an advantage and take every opportunity you can to communicate clearly and carefully to the parents of the teens involved in your ministry.

2. Afraid – Some parents are afraid and they worry about the negative influences facing their kids. These parents look at their kids’ peers as potentially harmful and manipulative. They also tend to see even the church youth ministry as a problem. The roots to this particular approach are often deeper than just surface negativity. There are some parents who seem to be pessimistic and critical about almost everything. Probably the best thing you can do to help these parents is to keep communicating to them the positive virtues and characteristics of the church and youth ministry.

3. Proud – Akin to the last approach is something I’ve seen growing over the past few years of my ministry. There are some parents who are so proud and arrogant that they feel as if they are the only ones who can have a positive influence in the lives of their kids. I’ve met some parents of teenagers who will not allow their kids to attend Sunday School or youth group because they see those ministries as a problem. This group of parents looks at other Christian youth and even church youth workers as part of the problem, so they do everything they can to keep their kids with them in everything – including school and church activities. Again, I believe that communication is the key to ministering to this group of parents. Show them Biblical examples of the church in action and help them see the advantages of building other Godly people into the lives of their children.

4. Idealistic – Some other parents are quite idealistic. They think that everything will turn out okay in the end, so why worry about anything. These parents are often somewhat permissive and lenient with their kids. Plus, this group will often prove to be materialistic in getting their kids anything they want. I suspect that in most cases, their motives are good. They want their kids to grow up to be positive and constructive citizens; it’s just that they try to smooth out all the feathers for their kids along the way. I have found that this group of parents may respond well if they see the positive aspects of youth ministry that includes actively serving the Lord and motivating students to enthusiastically share their faith.

5. Engaged – Praise the Lord for active, engaged parents. These are the parents who stay involved in the lives of their kids as they mature through adolescence and they are the ones who value the church’s youth ministry and realize how important it is for the family and the church to work together to help kids grow in Christ and go on for Him as adults. This is the group of parents you should try to recruit to be a part of your team of youth workers. They will have a positive influence on their own kids and will often help minister to other teens as well. Praise God for engaged parents of teenagers!

2011-05-27T23:11:00.002-04:00

5 Things Parents Want From The Youth Ministry

2011-05-27T23:03:00.000-04:00

Youth ministry, is really a ministry to parents. As veteran youth worker Dewey Bertolini said, “Our ultimate effectiveness with teenagers may depend upon our concerted effort to gain an influence in the homes of our youth.” Sure, youth workers can have a real impact on the lives of impressionable youth, but our most effective long-term ministry may indeed be our entrance into the lives and hearts of parents.

We understand that God’s Word gives the ultimate responsibility for raising children to parents (see Deuteronomy 6 for example.) That’s why the focus of local church youth ministry should be upon equipping parents to be effective in how they raise their kids for the glory of God. However, most youth workers spend the majority of their time ministering to teenagers. The problem is that we sometimes fail to implement even the basic ingredients of an equipping ministry to the people most responsible for the spiritual maturity of our students: their parents.

The Lord has given my wife and me the opportunity to lead several seminars and workshops over the past few years for parents of teenagers and preteens. (This only means that “we’re old”; our kids are grown.) This experience has convinced us that many parents are looking for the following five things from the church: communication, training, fellowship, encouragement & support, and resources. We have talked to hundreds of parents of teenagers and preteens in churches of various sizes all across the country. These interviews give ample credence to our belief that every church should include these five priorities in its ministry to parents.

Communication

Parents want to know what’s going on in the youth ministry. What are you teaching their kids, and what are you doing with their kids? These are the imperative questions for any youth worker. Make sure that the parents know what you are doing. Well-known youth ministry author Doug Fields quotes one parent, “I would rather have over communication than none at all. It shows leadership and it gives me confidence I know what is going on.”

I encourage all youth workers to regularly communicate in every way possible to parents. Don’t assume that the teens will get the information to their parents. This is your responsibility. Utilize your youth group Web site, e-mail, texting, newsletters, the church bulletin, announcements, phone calls, mailings, and all other means of communication at your disposal to get the necessary information to parents. I know several youth workers who schedule regular informational meetings with parents so that they do not have any excuse for not knowing what the youth ministry is doing.

Training

Parenting is a difficult task even for the best of parents. It seems ridiculous to me that churches don’t make training and equipping for parents more of a priority. This responsibility is one of the most important tasks we face, and yet we often go into parenting so unprepared. It has also been reported that church growth guru George Barna has stated that parenting classes might be the most effective means of community outreach in contemporary culture. It is no wonder, then, that so many parents of teenagers have told us that they wish their churches would provide specific means of training.

There is a very real tension here, though, because many church youth workers are younger than the parents of teenagers. I personally faced this apprehension as a young youth pastor, right out of college and trying to relate to the parent of teens and preteens in my church. I discovered that I could talk to them about the big picture of youth ministry without trying to state that I was some kind of expert on being a parent of teenagers. Frankly, I didn’t have a clue how to be a parent, but I did come in contact with several teenagers in church each week, and I also made weekly visits to multiple high schools in our area. I couldn’t tell them about how to raise their own kids, but I could share my own observations and conclusions about teenagers in general and the overall picture of youth culture.

I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t provide specific training in how to be a parent of teenagers (I was too young in those days), but I could make other “experts” available to them. So, I utilized our senior pastor (he and his wife had grown kids) and other adults with parenting credibility in our church to lead parenting classes and workshops for younger parents. We also brought in outside parenting specialists for training and provided other training tools for our parents of teens and pre-teens to utilize on their own.

Fellowship

The third thing that parents need from church is fellowship. I believe that parents of teenagers desperately need fellowship and interaction with other parents of teenagers to show them that they’re not in this all alone. They also need fellowship with people from other age groups as well, especially with parents who have already raised their own children. Wise youth workers will help parents make these kinds of connections through various church programs and ministries.

I want to share another idea with you. Why not try planning some activities each year for parents and teenagers to attend together? Mark DeVries, the author of Family-Based Youth Ministry, touts this idea is his book. He writes, “I began with this rule of thumb: if it works with teenagers, try it with youth and parents together.” Maybe he is on to something.

Encouragement and Support

Parents need regular sources of encouragement and support. Ideas abound. The key here is to do everything you can within the youth ministry to show parents of teenagers that you appreciate the work they are doing in raising their kids for the Lord.

Resources

Finally, youth workers should do all they can to provide parents with some helpful resources and materials for parenting. These resources are plentiful today – check the Internet and your local Christian bookstore. Perhaps you could create a library of sorts within your ministry for parents to check out books, CDs, DVDs, or other practical resources to help them with their kids. You’ll need to be discerning about what kind of materials you provide for them. You should read or watch everything first and only then make those resources available that you would personally endorse or recommend. You may also want to involve the senior pastor in that process. Ask him to list some resources that he finds helpful for parents of teens and preteens.

As you gather resources for parents, don’t forget the “people resources” that are a part of your church or community. What about doctors, police officers, child advocacy experts, lawyers, and counselors? Sometimes parents need these kinds of resources as well. Proverbs talks much about the “multitude of counselors.” It is my experience that a church can make some crucial contacts for parents when they are going through difficult times with their kids.

It is very important for all youth workers to remember that they are not the parents of teenagers. Ultimately, parents are responsible for the spiritual maturity and well-being of their own teenagers. I am afraid that some youth workers inadvertently take on too much pressure by almost trying to be a parent to the majority of students in the youth group. This isn’t the best solution. Wise youth workers will work to add the above listed ingredients into the fiber of their youth ministries. This strategy will encourage parents and will help to get them on your side. We must not forget that the most effective youth ministry is undoubtedly a ministry that includes parents as a major focus. May God bless you as you seek to minister to parents of teenagers!

2011-05-07T15:21:00.002-04:00

5 Things: Here Are Some Characteristics of Church Ministries That Help Young People Go On For God

2011-05-07T15:20:00.000-04:00

So, what type of youth ministry helps its high school graduates transition into the overal life of the church - and what kind of church builds its various ministries harmoniously around a consistent philosophy? It is a powerful thing when the youth ministry, adult ministries, and parents and families are all on the same page. We must not forget that God instituted two distinct institutions – the family and the church. (By the way, there are some excellent books available that tout this same premise such as Think Orange by Reggie Joiner; Together by Jeff Baxter, and Family-Based Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries.)

I am absolutely convinced that a church’s ministry philosophy must be consistently applied and implemented throughout its’ structure and programming for all age groups. Of course, your children’s ministry will look differently than your ministry to teenagers and other generations. The various age groups have different needs, different methods of learning, and will be at varying levels of maturity. However, the philosophy and direction of ministry should be the same. The purpose or objective should be the same. All ministries must be focused on developing genuine and lasting spiritual maturity (Matthew 28:18-20, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 2 Timothy 3:10-17.) We are all trying to produce people who live for God and who go on growing in Him throughout their lives.

Here are 5 suggested ingredients that all churches should endeavor to include then within the fabric of their total program for all age groups.

1. Life-Related Bible Teaching – James 1:22 “…prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers…”

Youth ministry has long led the way on incorporating the Bible into its structure. Youth ministry has taught us all about the importance of daily devotions, Scripture memory, and preaching via the ubiquitous “youth rally.” But, one of the most important aspects of youth ministry has been its emphasis on implementing Biblical truth into life. Youth workers understand that the ultimate test of Bible teaching is not a one-hour lecture on Sunday mornings. It’s living out your faith 24-7, all week long. That’s something the church as a whole must learn – from the Sunday morning worship services to the adult Bible fellowship classes. High school students who have experienced the value of life-related Bible teaching while they were in high school would be much more likely to successfully transition into adult ministries if the church as a whole was set up to do that as well. This fact should be a clear mandate for all church leaders to make sure the Bible is indeed taught this way throughout every ministry of their churches.

2. Strong Inter-Generational Connections – 1 Thessalonians 2:8 “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”

It is imperative for churches to be intentional about developing positive, growing, and Godly inter-generational relationships. (That’s why I am such a fan of church-based mentoring. There are several posts on this subject on my blog below.) Older people need to see and sense the life, energy, and enthusiasm of youth; and younger generations need to learn from the wisdom, maturity, and life-experiences of older people. This mutual sharing and the life connections generated by it are what the church is all about. I really believe that high school graduates and young adults are much more likely to stay active in church if they have developed healthy and growing relationships with significant older adults. Young people are prone to walk away if their only true relationships in the church are with people their own age.

3. Parental Consistency – 2 Timothy 1:5 “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure it is in you as well.”

Remember high school algebra? If A = B and B = C, then A = C. In mathematics there are specific formulas with guaranteed, definite results. However, we all understand that the process of raising children does not come with pre-packaged, pre-arranged formulas. It’s not that easy. In fact, parenting is one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding adventures in life. It is through parenting that one generation passes along the priorities of faith, belief, customs, traditions, and even life itself. Parents are the ones who normally develop the habit of church attendance and involvement into the lives of their family members. Parents are the ones who can make participation in church youth group a top priority – even higher in importance than school work, activities, jobs, sports, or other involvements. If church (and faithfully living for God for that matter) is a top priority for parents and if they are consistent in demonstrating that priority to their children, it is much more likely that the kids will grow up seeing church involvement as important for their lives as well. It’s a manner of being genuine and being faithful over the long haul.

Churches and parents working in tandem will be a potent force in the lives of today’s Christian young people. As I mentioned briefly above, God developed two institutions – the family and the church. Wise parents and church leaders must work together with the common goal of seeing young people go on for God as they transition from infancy, through adolescence, and on into adulthood.

4. Local Church Involvement – Ephesians 4:11-16 “…held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part…”

It is important to remember that we are developing a ministry, not a program. Communities and man-made organizations can develop programs; but true ministry finds its’ foundation within the local church. It is imperative for “big church” and youth ministry to work together to make the church as a whole a place where everyone can be involved, not just attend. That’s the picture found in passages like Ephesians 4:11-16. Therefore, getting students involved must be a significant ingredient of overall church life. It should be the expected norm for most (if not all) church ministries to include an intentional, inter-generational mentoring aspect where older, established members train and develop younger members. Also, youth workers must begin to teach and train young people to serve the Lord in and through the local church, to give financially to the church, and to actively participate in church-wide endeavors such as preaching, discipleship, fellowship, outreach, and worship. We must remember that we are involved in one church – not various age-group churches meeting separately in the same building.

5. Welcoming & Accepting Body – 2 Timothy 3:14-15 “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings…”

There’s a final ingredient which also must be addressed, and that is the important of making intentional and purposeful transitions between the various generational ministries of the church. Children, adolescents, and adults are uniquely different generations and therefore require unique and distinctive peer-based approaches to ministry. I believe in the generational advantages of age-based children’s ministry, youth ministry, and adult ministry. But, let’s face it; most churches are notoriously weak at helping people transition between the various ministry age groups. Youth workers should help pre-teens transition into youth ministry, and the church must help graduating high school seniors and maturing young adults transition into the overall life of the church. Too many times, we kick graduating high schoolers out of youth group without helping them transition into the church’s adult ministries. Again I’ll refer to researcher Chap Clark who says that a teenager needs strong relationships with 6 adults in the church (other than parents) in order to keep going to church once they graduate from high school. Churches should work hard to develop an accepting and welcoming environment in their adult ministries that actually encourages young people to actively participate in the life of the church.

Maybe I’m being somewhat idealistic here, but I believe this can happen. I believe that various church ministries must be on the same page, with the same objective – to see our maturing and growing young people grow up and go on for God! I really believe that if “big church” was organized purposefully to include the very best aspects of youth ministry and if churches developed a harmonious and unified philosophy of ministry throughout the various age groups, our young people would be much more likely to remain actively involved in church as teenagers and beyond their adolescent years long into adulthood.

2011-05-05T12:16:00.002-04:00

Would Your High School Grads Stay If "Big Church" Was More Like Youth Ministry?

2011-05-05T12:14:00.000-04:00

According to recent surveys almost 70% of high school graduates quit going to church during their college-age years. The most common reaction is to blame youth ministry. The arguments are something like this: “the youth group is entertainment-based”, “it separates generations”, and “it replaces parents as the primary influencers over young people.” It’s easy to blame the youth program. But, I wonder…

Of course, the root of this situation lies within the family. Parents are the primary influence over their children even as the kids age into their late teenage years. But, ecclesiastically-speaking; what if the problem actually rests on “big church”? Maybe today’s students love and profit greatly from youth ministry; and because “big church” is nothing like the youth ministry, the kids hate it and therefore walk away looking for something else. Maybe youth ministry has it right. Let’s not forget that most people accept Christ and make lifetime spiritual decisions when they are young. Teenagers go on more short-term missions trips than adults – and more Christian teens share their faith than do Christian adults. I have wondered for years why we don’t manage our churches like youth groups. In fact, I have told youth ministry students somewhat factiously for years that if senior pastors would run their churches like youth pastors run their youth groups we would have more growing churches.

Please don’t dismiss this premise without thinking it through! I am absolutely convinced that this problem is serious enough that we should carefully examine the phenomenon from all sides of the issue. We must not dismiss a God-honoring, Biblically-based, and culturally-relevant ministry like youth work due to a prejudicial hypothesis or because of an over-reaction to statistics. A careful and historical look at youth ministry will reveal some amazing results from what now is being called “traditional youth ministry.”

I must admit however, that I have seen significant weaknesses in some local church youth programs. I have identified 5 of those deficiencies below. But, before we unilaterally accept these flaws and believe the idea that traditional youth ministry is failing, let’s also take a look at the kind of church youth ministry that is “working” and is producing Godly high school graduates who greatly desire to go on for Christ as adults. In my next post I will list 5 characteristics of effective youth programs, which can work in harmony with their entire churches to develop spiritually mature young people over the long haul.

5 Things: Here Are Some Reasons Why High School Graduates Might Walk Away

There may be certain common denominators within some churches that seem to lead to the mass departure of young people following high school graduation. Here are some of my observations:

1. Activity Based.

If the church's youth ministry is based upon programs and activities your graduates will probably walk away after they graduate. Young adults can and will find their entertainment elsewhere. The appeal of amusement parks and hayrides fades away fairly quickly. In fact, many youth workers tell me that some of their high school juniors and seniors are actually dropping out of youth group for the same reasons. (Youth workers, please be carful of running the same activity schedule year-after-year, so that your seniors have the same basic schedule as ninth graders. Believe me – they’ll get bored and frustrated with that kind of programming.)
2. “Program” Based.

Another reason why high school graduates walk away from regular involvement in church is if the youth group has been characterized by the rigid structure of a "boxed" youth program. These canned approaches are, in fact, designed to be terminal programs, with a specific, publicized ending point. There tends to be one final step or one top award to earn. That's the point. The students finish the program and they're done. What else is there to do? In the program-based approach to youth ministry it is very difficult to transfer the loyalty generated throughout the years of dedication to the program to the church as a whole. It's no wonder they walk away.

3. Personality Based.

A common indictment of many church youth ministries is the tendency to center the ministry around the strong personality of a charismatic and magnetic youth pastor or youth leader. Strong personalities may attract impressionable high school students - and it seems to make sense for churches to do that; until the inevitable transition between personalities. If the teenagers are attracted to and ministered to by the presence of one strong personality it will be very difficult for them to transition to into the ministries of the church as a whole without the involvement of that strong personality or other equally strong personalities.

4. Generationally Based.

A church is making a mistake if it totally separates its youth from the overall life of the church. In the long run this hurts students because they do not develop significant relationships with a number of influential adults. I have spent a long time specializing in local church youth ministry and I am a strong proponent of peer ministry. Christian kids need friendships with other Christian kids. Plus, teenagers have always been better than reaching their peers than adult youth workers. However, a balanced youth ministry must feature strong inter-generational connections alongside traditional peer-to-peer youth groups. Dr. Chap Clark has stated that in order for graduating teens to stay in church following gradation, they will need positive relationships with 6 adults other than their parents.

5. Narcissism Based.

Akin to the "activity based" youth ministry is a narcissistic approach where churches seek to entertain teenagers by providing almost everything they want. If the kids want to go skiing - they go on ski trips. If the kids want to go swimming - they take them to the beach. This approach will ultimately produce self-absorbed and self-centered graduates who believe the church is all about them. When they are asked to transition into the church's adult ministries, they'll struggle to fit into a program that is not centered around entertainment and narcissism. The undeveloped youth mindset may respond positively to an entertainment based approach, but adult maturity realizes there’s more to life than getting everything I want.

We’ve all seen youth programs like the ones I have described above. The tendency is to look at these flaws and come to the conclusion that all youth ministry isn’t working. Yet, it is imperative and essential to look at both sides of this issue.

I'll finish this article in my next post and will suggest "5 Characteristics of Church Ministries That Can Help Young People Go On For God."

2011-04-19T10:52:00.002-04:00

IS YOUTH MINISTRY A PRIORITY IN YOUR CHURCH?

2011-04-19T10:51:00.000-04:00

5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP MAKE YOUTH MINISTRY A PRIORITY IN YOUR CHURCH

A few days after a recent youth ministry seminar I received a revealing phone call. The caller, a local church youth worker, made this evaluation of the church she attended, “The church leaders just don’t see youth ministry as very important.”

Perhaps every youth worker feels that way from time-to-time. We all wish the church had a greater vision for what youth ministry can do. However, I absolutely believe there are simple things every youth worker can do to help the church see the big picture of what a Biblical and effective youth ministry can bring to the overall church.

Here are 5 things you can do:

1. Motivate older adults to pray FOR emerging generations – and start with the senior citizens!

One of the best ways to help your church develop a burden for youth is to encourage the older adults to pray intentionally and specifically for them – by name. It’s really very simple. Start by compiling a list of your church’s teenagers. Then meet with your church’s older adults. You could take a few moments and drop in on their Sunday School class. Ask them to pray for the teenagers by name. Remind them how important it is for them to pray for the church’s youth. You could divide your list of names by each day of the week or assign specific students as prayer partners with specific adults. I know of one church that actually made prayer cards for each student. The important thing is to do everything you can to motivate the adults to pray specifically for individual young people. Once they begin to pray regularly and intentionally for the teenagers, the Lord will put a growing burden on their heart for those students to live for God. You’ll be amazed at how much this helps.

2. Give your adults specific opportunities to SEE the younger generations actively living for the Lord.

I am a big fan of connecting the generations in church. The Apostle Paul must have wanted that to happen, too. He wrote this in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers…” Being an example requires exposure. Separating the generations does not give them any exposure to each other. I am convinced that the older generations want the same thing you do – for your church’s young people to live for God! So, do whatever you can to give the older generations specific opportunities to see positive examples of your students living for the Lord and serving Him. Perhaps the traditional “youth night” services are one way of doing that. But, there are other tangible ways as well. Give your teens specific and visible opportunities to serve the Lord in the church. For example, you could schedule work days for the students to invest in “sweat equity” in the church.

Tim Ahlgrim. my co-worker at Vision For Youth, had a great idea. When he was a youth pastor, he actually taught the senior citizens Sunday School class. On several occasions he took them on a “field trip” to the youth class where they could see and hear the youth worship the Lord with fervency and enthusiasm. The seniors were also there to hear the announcements and the testimonies of the many, many ways the youth group served the Lord and actively witnessed for Him. There will never be unity or camaraderie between the generations until both groups are actually “on the same page.”

3. Provide specific opportunities for the different generations to have interaction and fellowship WITH EACH OTHER.

Let’s face it; most of our churches do not give the various generations even simple opportunities to get to know each other. Why not schedule and plan a simple fellowship time for your church’s teenagers and older adults? Some churches ask their youth to put on a meal for the seniors. Other churches schedule a table-game night at the church. The actual ideas are almost endless. The important thing is for the youth and the older adults to get to know each other. You’ll be amazed at how positive this simple idea can be.

4. Begin to provide ways for the different generations to pray WITH each other, but begin slowly.

It may be threatening to schedule prayer times together as the first way to connect the generations. Serious prayer times should be intimate and can be intimidating if relationships are not built first. However, once the various generations have prayed FOR each other and once they get to know each other – praying together can be a powerful connecting influence. You know how it is. People who pray with each other end up praying for each other. True inter-generational prayer services can be very positive for any church.

5. Provide significant ways for younger people to SERVE ALONGSIDE older people in established ministries.

Encourage every adult in your church to recruit a younger person to serve alongside them in specific ministry responsibilities. This should be the expected norm in your church. If someone teaches a VBS class, they should be expected to find a younger person to serve as their assistant. Your sound room staff should be training younger people to someday replace them. Why not ask your church ushers to include young people on the team? And don’t forget the worship team. It would be a significant visual aid for the entire church to see older people and younger people serving the Lord together in your church’s public music ministry. Church work days can be another opportunity for significant inter-generational relationships to develop. The important thing is to provide or create ways for the different generations to serve the Lord together.

Readers, I’d love to hear your ideas or specific illustrations of how these suggestions can work in church situations. Feel free to post your thoughts below.

5 THINGS: Basic Observations About Church Youth Ministry

2011-04-14T11:02:00.000-04:00

With this post I am beginning a new series on my blog entitled “5 Things.” I will post a series of basic observations, thoughts, and ideas about ministering to the next generation in and through the local church. I will endeavor to be very practical and will attempt to post ideas that are useful and beneficial to any church, anywhere. I’m very interested in your thoughts as well. Send me a note with your ideas (mel@visionforyouth.com) or post your comments below.

5 THINGS SERIES: Is It Their Church? 5 Things to Help Build Loyalty to The Church

2011-04-14T10:59:00.000-04:00

I have to admit that I’ve been saddened about something recently. I’ve been wondering if many student ministries are building more loyalty to their youth programs than they are to the local church.

Let me tell you about two recent experiences. Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak and present my ministry with Vision For Youth in a fairly good-sized church. I preached in both morning services and also taught in that church’s combined (junior high and senior high) Sunday School class. It wasn’t difficult to notice that a significant number of the teenagers who attended that Sunday School class did not attend either morning service. Of course, there could have been several reasons for this occurrence, but I couldn’t help but wonder why those teens weren’t in the church services.

A second occurrence also caught my attention. I was invited to preach in a nearby church that asked me to speak in both their morning and evening services. Following the evening service the church had scheduled a brief business meeting. I couldn’t help but observe the mass exodus of teenagers (and adult youth workers, by the way) who immediately filed out of the service following the closing prayer. I found out later that the teens had been invited to a social event at someone’s home following the service. I confess that I was somewhat startled and confused why the youth workers and students didn’t stay for their church’s business meeting.

Youth workers, please make an honest evaluation of your ministry. Is your church building more loyalty to the youth ministry than to the church as a whole? If not, it’s no wonder a majority of teenagers walk away from church following their days in youth group. (You’ve read the well-publicized statistics on that, I’m sure.)

Here are 5 things that any church can do to help build loyalty to the church:

1. Teach them the importance of the church. Loyalty begins with an understanding of what church is all about. Develop a series of lessons on the church. Perhaps you could take them through Acts, the Epistles, and even the 7 churches in Revelation to give them exposure to what the Bible says about the church. Talk to them about basic ecclesiology and your church polity. There are lots of materials out there to help you with this, but if you feel uncomfortable doing this series yourself, I’m sure your pastor could offer some suggestions to help you.

2. Provide opportunities for them to serve in the church. Loyalty also comes through what some would call “sweat equity”. Give your students practical opportunities to get involved in your church’s ministries and programs. Provide ways for them to serve alongside adults and motivate them to get involved in work projects around the church. People are much more likely to continue in church if they have been actively involved themselves.

3. Motivate them to give financially to the church. I encourage all youth workers to teach their students to give financially to the church. The majority of today’s teens have their own money. Their parents must be involved, of course, but teach them the discipline of giving financially to the Lord and to His church. It’s hard to walk away from so mething after giving financially to it.

4. Expose them to church business and key church leaders. I also believe it is a wise move to give teenagers some basic instruction on how their church works. Why do you have communion? Why do you baptize people? What is the purpose of church business meetings? These are vital questions and your kids should know the answers. It is also a good idea to give your students some exposure to the key leaders in your church – and that starts with the senior pastor. Don’t forget he’s their pastor, too. I encourage youth workers to invite deacons and other church leaders to give their story or testimony to students. Maybe our kids are leaving the church because they really don’t understand it.

5. Help them develop positive inter-generational relationships in the church. Chap Clark had said that if we want our kids to stay in the church after they graduate from high school they will need inter-personal relationships with 6 significant adults other than their parents. How are you doing with that? These adults need to people above-and-beyond our teams of youth workers. I really believe that we are doing our students a disservice if we totally separate them from other generations in the church. We must think this through if we want our youth to go on for God as adults.

These “5 Things” are just ideas and suggestions, but I think they are very practical and workable in a church situation. May the Lord bless you as you seek to implement them into the fabric of your church!

Game-Changers: Difference-Making Influences in Ministering to Today’s Students

2011-03-21T13:38:00.000-04:00

The Expanding Influence of Mobile Technology

One short generation ago, a young Bill Gates turned technological culture upside down by his prediction that people would want their own personal computers even through this belied the conventional wisdom of the day. This generation is currently witnessing another technological revolution that is drastically changing the future of global communication before their very eyes. There was an unmistakable example of this reality during the recent political uprisings in Egypt. On Friday, February 11, 2011 long-time Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his governmental authority following several days of very public uprisings. Many American news outlets reported that these protests were fueled by young people utilizing social media web sites like Twitter and Facebook. It is very important to note that the course of human history in Egypt was altered, not by soldiers with guns or even bureaucrats in offices with laptops, but in the streets by young people with mobile cell phones.

The future of instant global communication is absolutely not tied to a desk. Ask any teenager or pre-teen. They’d much rather have cell phones than a computer. They’re experts at “texting” and rarely or never use e-mail. Have you noticed? E-mail is so yesterday!

All ministry leaders certainly already understand the absolute imperative nature of utilizing the internet to make instant connections with their various constituencies. Already, more people locate information about churches and ministry organizations from web sites than from any other source. However, to really move ahead toward the future, leadership teams will need to strategize about how to utilize mobile technology for effective ministry communication. The rising popularity of iPads and Smart Phones indicate that future of the internet will not be limited to a home, an office, or even a “hot spot.” This is a growing reality all around the world. Ministries, perhaps not unlike the young revolutionaries in Egypt, can realize the vast potential of making instant personal technological connections with almost everyone directly to their handheld mobile device. What an amazing opportunity.

Here are some key questions relating to mobile technology in ministry:

How are you utilizing mobile technology in your ministry? (Texting kids & parents, Facebook, Bible study or daily devotions, etc.?)
What is your opinion on students having cell phones on youth ministry events like missions trips? (What are the pros and cons?)

Game-Changers: The Lasting Life-Changing, Difference-Making Influences in Ministering to Today’s Students

2011-03-15T11:52:00.000-04:00

It’s tournament time. “March Madness” is upon us. My travel and ministry schedule this month is quite busy, but I certainly plan to carve out some time to camp in front of my television to watch as many of the comebacks, last minute rallies, and buzzer-beaters as I possibly can. I’m not sure where the cliché actually came from, but at this time of year it makes sense. There undoubtedly will be some “game-changers” – some key plays that totally change the momentum of a game. It may be a long 3-pointer or a vicious slam dunk off of an alley-op, but a game’s outcome can often depend, or at least be traced back to, “one shining moment” (basketball fans will get that one), or one particular play. There are, and there will be, game-changers!

Game-Changers in Student Ministry

Readers, I am convinced that there are “game-changers” in our ministries with students as well. Sometimes the Lord cleans out the cobwebs in our minds and hearts to help us see that there are incredible and life-changing difference-makers in student ministries. (I’m very interested in what you think about this subject, so if you have the time, please think this through with me and post some of your thoughts below.) What are some of the game-changers in student ministries? What should be the priorities in our ministries with students that can be genuine difference-makers in their lives? I’m going to take my next few posts on this blog to identify some of what I believe can be authentic, legitimate game-changers in our ministries. Think this through with me.

Parents as Game-Changers in Student Ministry

Long-time youth ministry specialist, Dewey Bertolini once remarked, “Our ultimate effectiveness with kids may depend on our ability to minister to their parents.” I think he’s exactly right. Parents of teenagers must be partners with us in our ministry to students.

I’ve recently begun to notice something that I think is quite revealing, and maybe even a little discouraging. I’m sure you’ve heard the term in sociological and educational literature “helicopter parents”. It has made the news because this generation of parents tends to “hover over” their kids like helicopters. Author Ron Alsop talks about this phenomenon is his stimulating book The Trophy Kids Grow Up, “The millennials are truly trophy kids, the pride and joy of their parents who remain closely connected even as their children head off to college and enter the work force.” Alsop tells the stories of college graduating millennials either moving back home with their parents and taking their parents along with them on job interviews.

Little league baseball, community soccer teams, day schools, elementary schools, and even major secular universities have all learned the value of including parents in the fabric of their programming for students.

My question is this, why hasn’t the church done that?

It has been my observation that our churches tend to separate the generations. We struggle to find nursery workers and Awana leaders, and we are inclined to recruit young adults to serve as our church’s youth workers. Where are the parents?

Perhaps it’s time to change this paradigm. Maybe the church is lagging behind in a cultural trend that is totally changing our society’s basic structure right before our eyes. Let’s face it – we’re dealing with a generation of kids whose parents are totally involved in their lives; except maybe in church! Ouch.

This past summer on our Vision For Youth missions trip to New York City, we noticed students calling or texting their parents almost every hour. A friend recently told me about a Verizon survey that revealed that this year’s college freshmen receive 11 text messages each day from their parents. Yes, today’s parents are certainly hands-on.

Friends, the church ought to be leading the way on this – not culture. Christians are the ones with the Biblical mandates to make families and parenting a top priority. (See Ephesians 6, Colossians 3, Deuteronomy 6, and Psalm 78 for examples.) So, why do we separate parents from their kids so often in the church?

Please understand that I am a fan of peer ministry. I have been an active proponent and advocate of church youth ministry for over 35 years. I am NOT campaigning for churches to do away with children’s or youth ministry! I believe whole-heartedly in the importance of those disciplines. However, to effectively and ultimately make a life-changing impact on many of today’s students, we may need to include their parents more in our thinking and planning.

On the other side of this issue, I must admit that I’ve been in youth ministry long enough to understand the issues and pressures of involving parents in our ministries. I am also a parent and I understand parental fears, biases, opinions, and their tendency to overly protect their kids. I get it; I really do. But, this issue can be a game changer – and we need to figure it out in a balanced and Biblical manner.

Your thoughts? How are you involving parents in your church’s ministry to students?

New Mentoring Booklet Available Now!

2011-03-07T10:03:00.000-05:00

Readers, I have compiled my recent posts on church-based mentoring into a small booklet that is now available from Vision For Youth for only $2 - plus just $1 to help us with postage. If you'd like a copy just send me a note at: mel@visionforyouth.com and I'll get one off to you right away. (Or if this would be better for you, I'll send you a PDF of the booklet via e-mail for the same price - minus the postage of course.)

We had this booklet available last Saturday at our "National Mentoring Summit" - and now it's avaialble to our readers as well. These articles can help you communicate a practical and workable mentoring strategy to the people in your church. So, you may want to obtain multiple copies for that purpose.

Note: I also recommend Hendricks' book on mentoring "Iron Sharpens Iron". It's a classic!

Our motive here is to do whatever we can to encourage church to implement mentoring into the fabric of their ministries. Let me know how we can help.

We're also interested in holding our Mentoring Summit in other locations around the country. Let us know if you are interested in the details.

VFY's "National Mentoring Summit" March 5th at BBC in Clarks Summit, PA

2011-02-17T13:22:00.000-05:00

Registrations are due to Vision For Youth, PO Box 501, Chinchilla, PA 18410 by Feb. 25th!

Special Deal on My Books

2011-02-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

I’ll make a deal with the readers of my blog. I can make available 1 copy of each of my books for a bundled price of ONLY $30. Just send me your name and mailing address at: mel@visionforyouth.com. This is a great deal for all youth workers - or as a gift for students, or perhaps as training materials for the youth workers in your church. (This is a limited time offer.)

HOW TIME FLIES

2011-01-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

“O God, You have taught me from my youth,

And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

Now also when I am old and gray-headed,

O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to the coming generation,

Your power to everyone who is to come.” Psalm 71:17 & 18

The Psalmist had a passion to “declare” the works of God to the next generation. I love the focus of this particular Psalm. Here was someone who had lived for God their entire life – and now in old age, they were incredibly motivated to share “God stories” (“Your wondrous works”) with the generation to come. This kind of motivation is the heartbeat of truly effective mentoring. This person had a long and beautiful relationship with the Lord of Heaven and their continuing desire was to share their love for the Lord with younger people.

I’ve personally had the amazing privilege of knowing some people like this. Truthfully, there’s not many of them out there (and that’s a shame); but the “gray heads” who love the Lord and who enthusiastically want to tell younger people what He has done for them are contagious. This is how good churches are built – it’s the joyful expression of Godly older people who love the Lord so much that they can’t help but “declare” God’s faithfulness over the years with the younger, emerging generations.

Have you ever noticed how time flies? My wife and I have been married almost 35 years now. Our children are all adults and we have two granddaughters. The disasters of 9/11 happened almost 10 years ago, and it’s been forever since the Green Bay Packers won their last Super Bowl. (Well, maybe not forever. But, you get my point.) Doesn’t it seem that the older we get, the quicker time goes by?

Churches are like that, too. It’s also a shame that once vibrant and growing churches are closing their doors in record numbers all across this country. I had the opportunity to visit some of the churches that were once used of God to launce entire movements that impacted culture and that once served as models of effective, community-changing ministry. Some of those buildings are in complete disrepair with just a handful of older people huddled together almost afraid to change in any way. Friends, our churches shouldn’t be that way! We must be intentional about declaring God’s strength to the coming generations!

How about it? Is your church characterized by older people who contagiously and infectiously share God’s wonderful works with younger generations? If not, it should be!

Here are a few quick ideas on how to develop inter-generational mentoring relationships in your church:

1. Be intentional about motivating and training your church’s older people to pray by name for younger people. This could start by distributing a simple list of names and prayer requests. I’ve been in churches that encourage older people to develop prayer-partner relationships with younger people in the church. As the older people pray the Lord will put a growing burden on their heart for the younger people.

2. Once the older people are praying specifically for younger people, take them on a “field trip” to see the young people in action. Paul specifically told his student Timothy to be an “example” to older people (1 Timothy 4:12). Yet, how can that happen without exposure to each other? Make sure that your church’s older people get to know your young people and see how they are living for God in their own culture. Another way to do this is to give your students the opportunity to serve in significant public settings in your church services.

3. Provide opportunities for the different generations to have intentional, informal contact with each other. Some churches ask their young people to host a banquet for the senior citizens and other churches ask the older people to offer to pay for individual students to attend various church youth activities. Other churches schedule informal game nights for the generations to get to know each other better.

4. Once growing relationships have been established, give the generations opportunities to specifically pray with each other. Inter-generational prayer can be a real blessing and encouragement, but it can also be rather intimate and perhaps even quite threatening. So, start slowly and see what happens. Ultimately, this can be a powerful and influential force for good in your church. Young people need to hear older people pray – likewise, older people need to hear young people pay.

5. Provide some opportunities for members of the various generations to serve alongside of each other in the church. What about your team of ushers or the people in the sound room? And what about your Sunday School teachers? Encourage each serving member of older generations to make it a top priority to recruit a younger person to serve alongside them in their various avenues of ministry. It should be the expected norm in all of your ministries that older people are actively training younger people to take over someday.

Yes, time flies. In “no time at all” one generation will pass from the scene and a new generation will be present. God expects one generation to pass the baton to the next generation. Churches must be intentional about doing this - or it won’t happen.

"NOT SITTING AT THE KIDS’ TABLE"

2011-01-17T21:52:00.000-05:00

Remember eating at the kids’ table during family gatherings? The adults would sit at the massive dining room table in the big chairs and they’d use the good china, the real silverware, and cloth napkins. But, the kids ate somewhere else, usually on a folding card table, off to the side somewhere, sitting on an assortment of other random chairs and a lone piano bench. The kids would use plastic utensils and would eat off of those ubiquitous Styrofoam plates. There were always two very different tables, with two very different experiences.

It’s too bad, but many churches are set up this same way. We’ve bought into the idea that there is a “generation gap” and so we’ve programmed our churches to reflect that.

Friends, it’s time to change this paradigm. It’s time to connect the generations in your church!

We are absolutely convinced that real-life, hands-on mentoring is one very practical way that any church, anywhere can intentionally break down generational barriers – and it must begin with the adults. How many young people do you know who would have the personal confidence or security to walk up to a key adult in the church and ask them to be their mentor? That is not likely to happen very often. Instead, older adults must initiate personal and growing relationships with younger people.

Of course, it is very, very important that you build “guardrails” or safeguards into this process in your church. We live in a dark and sinful world where evil predators and sick people abound. The news accounts are nauseating of coaches, teachers, priests, and other significant adults who take advantage of unsuspecting and gullible young people. Our church just instituted a carefully-crafted “child protection policy” and we are enforcing it with tenacity in all areas of our ministry. We highly recommend that your church leaders do their homework on implementing legal and enforceable guidelines into your church’s ministries with juveniles.

However, the sin around us must not thwart the work that our Lord wants to do in and through the various generations in your church. In fact, we all know it’s true, when culture is at its darkest – the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ shines ever brighter! Praise the Lord for His light shining through His people.

Again, it is important to emphasize that effective mentoring is a spiritual exercise and it must begin with Godly older adults. The Apostle Paul outlined the practical ingredients of true mentoring in his memorable letter to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thes. 2:8, “So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.” He made it clear that his relationship with them was based on God’s Word (notice his use of “the gospel”), but he also emphasized his loving and caring interpersonal connections with them. It’s important to note that growing, individual, and inter-generational relationships must include these two imperative ingredients: (1) the Word of God, and (2) sharing your life in a caring and growing manner.

If you are convinced that intergenerational mentoring is the way you should begin to connect the generations in your church, it must be launched through the solid teaching of Biblical truth. Your pastor or other church leaders can use passages such as this one in 1 Thessalonians 2 or the familiar instructions to older women and older men in Titus 2 to challenge your people concerning the development of building inter-generational connections. The Scriptures are also filled with practical examples of people like Barnabas, Paul, and Silas that illustrate how this could work in basic life situations. Perhaps your church could schedule some time within the current structure of your women’s ministries and men’s ministries to teach your people on the importance of mentoring and then launch it within those existing programs. The important thing to remember is that God will always use His Word to challenge and instruct His people, so it is imperative that your church begins this process based upon solid Biblical teaching. We emphatically recommend, based upon passages such as Titus 2, that older women mentor young women and older men mentor younger men. Current culture may teach differently, but this particular safeguard is imperative. Women should mentor women – and men should mentor men!

The next step, practically speaking is to announce and schedule a meeting for all of the interested adults. It has been our experience that many of your adults will be interested in serving as mentors with younger people. However, we have also noticed that even though adults indicate they are interested in serving as a mentor, they will also feel as if they do not have the time to do it. It is for this specific reason that we tell churches that true mentoring is not necessarily an investment of extra time, it is in actuality “doing what you already do”, just doing that with younger people.

Over the past few years, both of us have had multiple opportunities to speak to churches and church leaders about the practical aspects of mentoring. It has been so encouraging to see how personal and inter-generational connections have developed around very basic things. We have witnessed churches where various generations get together around things like golf, quilting, computers, auto mechanics, piano lessons, karate, crafts, and other very simple day-to-day activities. The purpose of mentoring is actually very simple – it is basically the building of growing, inter-generational relationships that foster spiritual growth by just spending time together.

We always encourage individual adults to begin building these relationships with specific younger people right there in the church building. Mentoring begins in the church foyer when adults go out of their way to greet individual young people and by simply asking them non-threatening and life-related questions. A simple question like “How is school going?” or “How many points did you score in the game last night?” can lead to deeper, more meaningful conversations.

Then once a relationship begins in church, the older adult can then invite the young people to accompany them in other non-threatening activities outside of the actual church building. The key is to connect the generations. Practical ideas of how this could work are numerous. Maybe the generations can even sit together during holiday dinners.

(We’ll share specific principles and thoughts on making these connections during Vision For Youth’s National Mentoring Summit on Saturday, March 5th on the campus of Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA. Registration information can be found on the VFY web site at: http://www.visionforyouth.com/.)

Motivating Older Couples to Mentor Younger Couples

2011-01-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

I am certainly not a proficient joke teller, but here’s one I remember.

Two elderly couples met regularly as friends to play games. On one occasion, the first man noticed that the other man was playing exceptionally well that evening. So, he turned to his friend and complimented him on his game. To which the friend replied, “I’m probably doing so well because I’ve been taking classes recently at a memory clinic and it has made a huge difference for me.”

“That’s great,” his friend replied. “What is the name of that clinic?”

The first guy went blank for a moment or two and then asked, “What do you call that flower with the long stem and the thorns?”

“You mean a rose?” His friend answered.

“Yes, that’s it!” He said.

So, he turned to his wife and said, “Rose, what is the name of that memory clinic I’ve been going to recently?”

I’m positive that I’ll forget this story sometime as well. However, I am absolutely convinced that one of the top ministry priorities for local churches is to help older married couples develop intentional mentoring relationships with younger couples. Here’s one reason why I believe this. According to a new book by Thom Rainer and his son, Jess Rainer, (The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation), “91% of Millennials want to learn from people who have long-term successful marriages.”

That is an amazing statistic, but it concurs with what God’s Word teaches us to do in Titus 2: 1 – 8. The older women were instructed there to, “…admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children…”

It only makes sense. Older people can and should mentor younger people. This is especially true in the development of Godly marriages. We must be intentional about helping older couples make mentoring connections in the church with younger married couples. Plus, today’s younger generation may be more open to this kind of relationship than any previous generation before them. Here’s another quote from the Rainer’s new book. “An incredible 94 percent (of Millennials) said they have great respect for older generations.”

Here are some ideas on how you could make this work in your church:

1. Organize a Sunday School class where married couples of all ages could meet together and where older couples could develop intentional relationships with younger couples. Perhaps the pastor or a respected “elder” in the church could teach or facilitate the discussion around Biblical principles.

2. Motive the older Godly couples in your church to develop intentional connections with young married couples. They could invite those couples into their homes to take them out for Sunday dinner. Some churches also actually organize a “surrogate or adopted grandparents” ministry to help babysit from time-to-time for the younger couples with children.

3. Train some of the older married couples in your church to help with pre-marital or post-marital counseling of younger couples. People with “long-term successful” marriages are the ideal people to help “admonish” the young couples in your church.

4. Plan a church fellowship or game night where older couples and younger couples could gather for a brief time of fellowship and interaction. Set up tables and chairs in one of the church’s classrooms and ask the couples to bring their favorite table games. Be sure that the young couples sit with some of the older couples. Give them some time to play the games and to generally get to know each other. Then have someone facilitate a discussion around the tables where the older couple could tell their stories of how they met, how they got engaged, and share accounts of the early days of their marriage. (I visited one church that scheduled a fellowship time where married couples could bring and share their wedding albums with other couples. Get ready for a few laughs with that one!) Today’s young people love stories – and this could be an ideal way to help the generations connect with each other.

Maybe the first gentleman in the above joke would forget his wife’s name, but being intentional about connecting the generations in your church would help us all “…not forget the works of God.” (Psalm 78:1 – 8)

All church leaders and church people interested in developing an intentional church-based mentoring ministry are invited to register for Vision For Youth’s National Mentoring Summit to be held on Saturday, March 5^th at Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA. The cost is only $30 for a full-day of sessions and resources – many of them led and developed by Mel and Peggy Walker. For more information see: http://www.visionforyouth.com/.

Important New Book - Must Reading for Christian Leaders

2010-12-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

I just received a copy of Thom Rainer and Jess Rainer's new book The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation. This book is a must read for youth workers, youth pastors, and ALL Christian leaders. I am impressed with the research and the conclusions presented. Good stuff!

Encouraging Senior Citizens to Become Mentors

2010-12-19T21:51:00.001-05:00

I have finally arrived! I’m at the stage of my life when I proudly display my AARP membership card to receive the discount rate at hotels. We try to do our grocery shopping on the one day each week that offers the “55-plus-discount”, and I just noticed that I find myself paying more and more attention to those annual Social Security notices. However, I’m going to draw the line by NOT accepting the discount offer for the senior citizen cruise I just received. No offense to anyone (please!), but the last thing I want to do is hang-out with a bunch of old people… like me.

Friends, where did we get the idea that it is a good thing for seniors to fellowship and associate only with each other? In fact, I’m starting to believe that churches are making a mistake by doing that.

Believe me, I understand. I enjoy being with people my own age. We often share the same memories (remember the good ole’ days of the 1960’s?) - and our values are often the same. We look at life the same way and we have, for the most part, experienced many of the same things. Sure, it makes sense to have friends the same age we are.

But, when we transfer that scenario to the church – it may become a detriment to true church relationships, fellowship, and ministry. I am becoming more and more convinced that younger generations need and actually crave healthy and growing relationships with seniors. Today’s “millennials” seem to relish close, positive relationships with older people. Maybe it’s because they’ve often enjoyed close relationships with their parents and other significant adults.

This is an incredibly positive cultural phenomenon that pastors and other church leaders must hasten to capitalize on in the church. Not only do today’s young people actually appreciate older saints, they can and will learn much from the wisdom, knowledge, and life experiences of older people. That’s why it is such a shame for churches to separate the generations almost exclusively in their various ministries and gatherings.

I am a student of today’s generational differences. My research and personal experiences have taught me that church leaders will probably need to teach the various generations to begin developing intergenerational relationships. It won’t happen automatically. Let’s face it; the seemingly ever-widening “generation gap” has permeated our culture for years and years. Churches have “bought in” to this philosophy of separating people by age in most of our educational programming. We hold one-generational classes and socials where the seniors gather in one place, while the young people gather somewhere else. Sure, the various generations gather together during the weekly worship services, but truth-be-told, the generations have very little to do with each other in most of our corporate services or educational ministries.

So, how do we reverse this trend? I believe it starts with the seniors. It only makes sense that the impetus for developing strong intergenerational relationships begins with the older generation. Our elders have personal life messages that provide a wealth of wisdom and maturity and our students need their advice and counsel. That’s certainly the idea behind the classic Biblical passage concerning intergenerational ministry in Titus 2 where older women were instructed to teach younger women. Our churches’ senior citizens must begin to build positive and growing relationships with young people. It may not be easy, but it is the right thing to do. Sure, we get too old to play tackle football, but we don’t get too old to be mentors.

Here are a few simple ways seniors can build mentoring relationships with young people:

1. Take the time to learn your young people’s names and greet them warmly in church.

2. Find time to pray with and for your church’s young people.

3. Volunteer to help in your church’s children’s or youth ministries.

4. Invite young people into to your home for a meal or snack.

5. Teach a younger person a life skill (like quilting, golf, auto mechanics, or piano lessons…)

6. Look for opportunities to share your life experiences (tell stories) to young people.

7. Take the initiative to send cards or notes of encouragement to young people.

Friends, the ideas are endless. The important thing is to be intentional about developing positive intergenerational relationships. Let’s all be purposeful and intentional about passing the baton to future generations.

Don’t forget that Vision For Youth is hosting our first annual “National Mentoring Summit” on March 5, 2011 on the campus of Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA. All church ministry leaders should plan to attend. Send a note to: info@visionforyouth.com for more information.

http://www.visionforyouth.com/

Church-Based Mentoring: A Strategy for Making Generation-to-Generation Connections in Your Church

2010-11-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

I had a dream a few nights ago. (No, it wasn’t some inner Freudian wish to give a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech to the masses!) In my dream “senior saints” were actively involved with the teenagers in the church. Some older ladies were showing some of the girls how to quilt. Some of the World War II vets were telling true war stories to the young men who had developed their own battle plans on the latest version of “Call of Duty” video game. The various generations were praying together, laughing together, and sharing their own experiences of what it’s like to live for Christ in their own generation. The most amazing aspect of this dream was that there seemed to be a genuine appreciation for each other’s music. The teens were gaining an appreciation for the majesty and dignity of the older hymns - and the seniors were learning to listen to the energy and passion of the newer contemporary Christian worship choruses.

Then I woke up.

If the truth be told, this “vision” is more real than I could ever imagine. Maybe it’s time to put the brakes on the ever-developing Generation Gap. Maybe; just maybe – we’ve got it wrong in the church.

Where did we get the idea that it was wise to segregate the generations? Why are the “senior saints’ in the church library, while the young people are in the basement? Even though I am a fan of many aspects of peer ministry (for instance, I’ve spent most of my life specializing in youth ministry); perhaps we should be much more intentional about developing growing and loving intergenerational relationships in our churches.

I think this is the idea behind Paul’s instruction to Titus for his first century ministry on the Island of Crete as described in Titus 2:3, “Older women… may encourage the young women…”; and in his counsel to his disciple Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Let no man look down on you because you are young, but be an example to the believers.” Paul made it clear that older people are to teach and encourage younger people – and young people should indeed be examples to other age groups. Believe me; the only way this can happen is if the generations have exposure to each other.

The key influencers here, of course, are parents. Parents must model these relationships in front of their children and they must be willing to encourage their own young people toward developing healthy and constructive relationships with other older adults. My wife and I are so thankful for the ministry other godly adults had on our own children in the formative years of their lives. We are greatly appreciative of Sunday School teachers, youth pastors, Christian coaches, missionaries, and other godly adults who cared enough to reach out to our kids. I also love the example of young John Mark in Scripture. He was a young man who grew up in the church (see Acts 12) and who was greatly influenced by other key adults such as Peter, Barnabas, and Paul.

So, how does a traditional church (one that is characterized by generationally-segregated programming) turn its focus toward intergenerational ministry? Friends, I am convinced that it starts with mentoring. Church leaders should do all they can to encourage the older, godly adults in church to actively and intentionally seek out younger people to mentor. Perhaps the church leaders could be involved in the selection process. Some adults may not have any experience being around young people and may struggle identifying younger people who could use a mentor. It would be wise for church leaders to identify needy young people – maybe those without strong, churched families of their own. But, in actuality - every young person could probably benefit from an older godly mentor.

The main point here needs to be emphasized. Effective mentoring begins with the potential mentor. Encourage and motivate older adults to take the initiative to make the contacts with potential protégé’s. It’s the older generation that needs to give back (to minister to younger people as an investment in the future) - and it’s the older generation that has the heritage, the wisdom, the maturity, and, perhaps, the resources (at least of time, insight, and discernment) necessary to serve as true mentors. So, this starts with the adults – and make sure that your adult mentors are people who genuinely love the Lord and who are actively living for Him. This is an ideal way for churches to practically engage their older adults in significant ministry as the older folks move into their later years. I tell youth workers all the time, “We get to old to play tackle football, but we don’t get too old to minister to kids.”

So, encourage your adults to make their first informal, non-threatening conversations with younger people in the church foyer. Adults should introduce themselves and make an initial first connection. As the relationship develops the adults should begin to ask simple questions that indicate an interest in the young person’s life. Questions like: “How’s school going?”, “What did you do in youth group today?”, or “How was the school concert last weekend?” The key here is to show interest in their lives. That’s how to begin a growing, personal relationship. Some young people may resist, but my experience has been that the majority of younger people will appreciate any healthy attention shown to them from significant adults.

At some point, encourage the mentors to find some time to pray together with the person they are trying to mentor. I really believe that God will use these brief times of prayer to help this relationship grow into something truly special for each person.

One of the highest hurdles facing a mentoring ministry is the process of carving out enough time to develop a true relationship. I have talked to several adults who feel as if they do not have the time to implement something like this into their schedules. Yet, my take on it is this, “Mentoring is NOT necessarily a commitment of extra time – it is ‘doing what you already do’, just doing it with younger people.” That’s another reason why I love church-based mentoring. These simple, but significant conversations and connections can and should happen at church. You are already there, so why not reach out and attempt to develop a growing and positive relationship with younger people? Maybe my dream will come true.

I cannot take the time in this brief article to outline all of the ideas of how mentoring connections could work. More information is available in my book Mentoring the Next Generation: A Strategy for Connecting the Generations (published by Regular Baptist Press, ISBN: 0-87227-997-9.) That book is now available from Vision For Youth for only $5 per copy. Just send a note to: info@visionforyouth.com. Sorry, VFY does not take credit cards.

Vision For Youth is also hosting a National Mentoring Summit on March 5, 2011 in Clarks Summit, PA for all church leaders interested in developing a church-based mentoring ministry and more specific instructions will be presented then. Watch for more details on this new training seminar from VFY.

Generation-To-Generation: Building Intergenerational Connections in Your Church

2010-11-02T14:56:00.000-04:00

NOTE: Readers & Friends, I am working on a new book on this general topic and would have to have your input on this concept. How can "traditional" churches move toward an intergenerational emphasis? How can we develop healthy and growing intergenerational relationships - while balancing the positive aspects of peer ministry? Please help me think this through. I'll be posting some of my thoughts in future days on this blog.

One only has to take a walk through the facilities of most traditional churches on any Sunday morning to see that we may have a potential problem developing. Take an imaginary walk with me on a tour of your church to see if it is somewhat similar to what I’ve noticed in many of the churches I’ve visited recently.

The children meet with their dutiful Sunday School teachers in the basement. The teenagers gather with a handful of youthful-looking “sponsors” in the living room of an old house next door, while members of an adult class scatter throughout an otherwise sparse auditorium. A group of senior citizens assemble in the pastor’s office in arranged rows of folding metal chairs. Other than the involvement of a loyal few church workers – the various generations had almost nothing to do with each other during that church’s Sunday School hour.

Sadly, the morning service demonstrates the same basic approach. Some young parents reserve seats for their children – at least until the kids are dismissed for “children’s church”. Some of the teenagers sit with other teenagers, the older adults sit with other older adults, and a few families sit together in almost assigned-seating patterns of familiarity.

Friends, we may be shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot here. Perhaps a one-generational approach to ministry may be more cultural than it is Biblical. Historically, it has been western culture that has led us to believe that it makes sense to separate the generations in various institutions and agencies. The Industrial Revolution took husbands and fathers away from the farm and the home for employment - and compulsory public education required students to spend the majority of their time away from their parents. Somewhere along the line, the traditional church may have “swallowed the kool-aid” of historical trends instead of developing our ministries around timeless Biblical principles.

I highly encourage all readers to study the “generation-to-generation principle’ in Scripture. Even a cursory look at the Biblical narrative visualizes a “next generation” emphasis in God’s story. We see it in the accounts of Moses with Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Paul with John Mark and Timothy, and, of course, with Christ and His disciples. The Biblical pattern is to pass down truth, faith, skills, and memories to future generations. I believe that we have a Biblical mandate to “pass the baton” from one generation to the next.

Of course, the primary Biblical responsibility for this transfer rests squarely on the shoulders of parents. Personally, I thank the Lord for the legacy of faith on both sides of my family that chronicles my Christian ancestors backwards for several generations. My Dad’s family members have been active in my home church for over 100 years, while we can trace my Mom’s Christian heritage back to the time of the American Revolutionary War. My wife and I continue to praise Him for the fact that all 3 of our own children are actively involved in vocational service for Christ as well. Believe me, my story and my family’s story is truly one of God’s amazing grace.

However, I also believe that the church has a Biblical responsibility to pass the baton to future generations. I have seen several once-significant and influential churches that are now almost irrelevant in their own communities and that are basically neutered (please excuse my harsh language here) without any real global missionary impact. How does this happen? I think it is because those churches failed to implement the generation-to-generation principle into the fabric of their church life. There are other factors to be sure, but when churches or ministries become one-generational, there is usually a resulting slide into introspection and self-centeredness.

I’ve had the opportunity recently to visit some of this country’s historically prominent churches. These are some of the churches that at one time were greatly used of God, not only to make a considerable impact on their own communities, but that were also used of Him in the past to launch some of the greatest church movements in American history. The sad reality of the present is that these particular churches are no longer culturally relevant. They’ve begun to honor their past instead of building for the future, and they’ve become content with the methodology that built the church instead of reinventing their form and function for successive generations.

That downward slide is never the intent, of course. But, when churches fail to see the importance of basic reproduction into lives of the next generation, they tend to become inward-focused and quite opinionated. The trends frankly, are easy to spot. The membership of these churches begins to age and they quit practicing the very outreach methods they once used to build the church. Often this is because they become content with what they have become and the membership becomes somewhat irritated with the demographic constituency they once welcomed – be it youth, or the ethnicity of the people-groups the church once targeted for growth. These churches once worked diligently to reach out to their own neighborhoods and communities, but in time the cultural make up of the community around the church begins to change.

As these churches begin to drift into contentment, they lose their “edge” - their passion for outreach and their commitment to cultural relevancy. Then they often become one-generational because as their younger members grow up they see the contentment of the older members, but the very nature of youth wants to see vibrancy, continued change for the emerging cultural relevancy, and a commitment to include them in the process of change. So, without a true church-wide commitment to reinvent itself to retain its drive for outreach and its passion for relevancy – the church will actually drive away their own maturing young people and community neighbors will gradually feel unwelcomed and unwanted by the church. The sad result is that once growing and vibrant churches often decline into a position of contentment and ultimately irrelevancy. These same churches sometimes seem to excuse this decline away by actually blaming the emerging generations for their lack of commitment instead of working diligently to accept change as the actual key for continued future growth and development.

There is a vivid Biblical illustration of this happening in Judges 2:7-10, “The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten… After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.”

Church passion for growth and outreach MUST include a significant commitment to include emerging generations into the planning and process. Churches MUST make the “generation-to-generation principle” a top priority. We must pass the baton!

DON’T FORGET – HARVEST SUNDAY ON 10.10.10

2010-09-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

Please plan to join our international prayer campaign for our God to call a new generation of “harvest workers” into His harvest! Schedule some time on Sunday, October 10, 2010 to pray. For more information: http://www.harvestsunday.org/.

TEN THINGS THE “NEXT GENERATION” WILL NEVER DO:

2010-09-19T19:50:00.000-04:00

Think about this! Here are some things the coming generation (those who are currently 15 years old or younger) will never do…

1. They will never need to use a pay phone.

2. They will never be lost without a map.

3. They will never settle an argument without Google.

4. They will never wait for their bank statement to come.

5. They will never go on a “blind” date.

6. They will never miss a rendezvous with a friend.

7. They will never forget to bring a coupon to a store or restaurant.

8. They will never buy a printed newspaper or magazine.

9. They will never check the paper for movie start times.

10. They will never have “nothing to watch” on TV.

(Some of these ideas are taken from Millennial Marketing newsletter.)

Have anything to add to this list? It’s interesting to think about the “next generation” coming on the heels of The Millennials. What do you think? See any coming trends?

What are your students looking for in leaders?

2010-09-13T11:22:00.000-04:00

In a recent post from Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Resources, he listed the following characteristics of what millennials want in leaders. This information is based upon a research project led by LifeWay Research (much of which can be found at: http://www.lifeway.com/menu/200767/.) You can check out Thom Rainer’s blog at: http://www.thomrainer.com/.) He is currently working on a book to be released early next year on "the millennials".

1. Mentoring. “This generation has great respect for those older than they are… most of them have good relationships with their parents. They have learned from older people all their lives, and they don’t want that to stop now.”

2. Gentle spirit. “Divisive, loud, and acrimonious persons turn them off. They leave churches to some extent because they see some Christian leaders as negative and divisive.”

3. Transparency and authenticity. One student made this statement, her generation, “can smell phony and pretentiousness a mile away.”

4. Integrity. “They are tired of Christian leaders who fail basic moral standards.”

So how does this information relate to those of us working with the next generation?

It is imperative that we help them build growing and constructive relationships with older people in the church. We must teach older believers to “give back” – to stay actively involved in the lives of young people, and we must honor Godly older Christian adults who demonstrate gentleness, authenticity, and integrity. Sounds like a Biblical approach to ministry!

Phinehas: The Lasting Impact of Big Things

2010-09-09T22:07:00.000-04:00

You have to read Psalm 106:31 & 32 "But Phinehas stood up and intervened... This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come." One man "intervened" and God used it to impact "endless generations". It is an amazing story; with amazing applications. Take the time sometime to read the whole Old Testament narrative about “Phinehas” and how God used his bravery in an incredible way during a very difficult time.

This is a true-life, Biblical illustration of how one man did what God wanted him to do and how God used this act of bravery to affect generations to come. This is a classic example of someone who did something for God – and God used this act of courage in a big, big way.

Let’s remember that as you and I do things for God; He can take those things and use them in humanly amazing ways for eternity. We serve a big God Who delights in doing big things that last.

THINK BIG!

2010-09-03T15:30:00.000-04:00

A few years ago a national chain of clothing stores for big and tall men used this advertising motto, “Think Big.” With my apologies to the fine people at Casual Male Big & Tall (by the way, I’m sure that I’m on their “frequent shopper” list), this post is calling all readers to do the same.

THINK BIG!

Here is the basic premise in this article: doing big things starts by thinking big thoughts. In other words, to help today’s young people accept the challenge of doing big things for God we must start the process by challenging their thinking.

Readers, I whole-heartedly believe that we have at our disposal the God-given agent for challenging our students. That resource is the unchanging and yet, life-changing, inspired and infallible Word of God! (See 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17 and Hebrews 4:12.) I can’t understand why we so often toil through ineffective ministries characterized by entertainment, fluff, and humanistic methods when we have the amazing resource of Scripture. Students today are looking for truth and seeking for answers to life’s tough questions – and I’m convinced our ministries must truly be characterized by the relevant and creative presentation of Biblical truth that relates to their lives today. If we do that – we’ll see changed lives that result in students actively living for God and making a difference for Him that legitimately impacts their world.

As we teach God’s Word in a way that practically relates to life – we’ll see students with a God-given desire to do big things for Him!

Therefore, let me suggest 4 quick ideas to help you develop a plan for teaching your students to think big:

1. Teach your students about a “BIG GOD.”

I am truly amazed by the account of Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6. As Isaiah focused his attention on “the Lord”, he heard the Seraphim calling out to each other with cries of, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” When the Prophet fully concentrated on the holiness of God that filled the earth with His glory, he saw his own life as a sinner in need of forgiveness whose only response could be, “Here am I. Send me!” We must teach our students the attributes of God so that they come closer to understanding God’s love, God’s holiness, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, and other awe-inspiring characteristics. Once our students get a closer look at God and just how BIG He is, their response can only be what Isaiah’s was, “Here am I send me!” They too, will want to be used of God to do something big.

2. Teach students about God’s “BIG WORK.”

Christ Himself predicted the immense scope of His work in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My church; and the gates of Hell shall not overpower it.” Now, that’s big! God’s work in this age is His church. He makes that very clear throughout the entire New Testament. In fact, the Bible ends with Christ’s own revelation to the Apostle John that includes, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and people and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb…” (Revelation 7:9).

We should take every opportunity to show our students from Scripture about Christ’s big work. This is enormous. God’s work includes people from “every nation” and every language. You know what is so amazing about this? We can be involved in it, too. Teach your students the importance of being personally involved in the “body of Christ”, “the family of God” – His church! As they actively participate in their own local church – they are actually involved in the work of Christ for all of eternity. It’s that big; and it’s that important.

3. Show your students some “BIG EXAMPLES” from Scripture.

I’m convinced that there should be one other “BIG” idea to share with today’s young people and that is to give them some examples of Bible characters who accomplished big things. Perhaps Hebrews 11 would be a good place to start. It is, of course, the great “Hall of Faith” chapter where God’s choicest servants are listed because of their faith in an all-powerful God. Many of the characters in Hebrews 11 are flawed in the character and in many of their decisions. Yet, God used them all because of their faith in Him and what He could do through them.

That’s the point. We must remember that God is not asking us to do these big things in our own power or our own abilities. We too, are human with very human frailties and weaknesses. It’s that God can do big things through us – for His glory!

4. Give students an opportunity to START SMALL (but, START SOMEWHERE).

My final suggestion then is that we must turn thoughts into actions. We must turn lessons into activity. So, I advise pastors, youth workers, and parents everywhere to make this as practical as possible for your students. Please, please, please – give them an opportunity to start doing something for God. Don’t forget our premise here – your starting place must be the Scriptures. Teach the Word and challenge their thinking by taking them through the specific ideas listed above; but then give them practical, hands-on opportunities to get involved in God’s Work right there in your church. They can work with children in AWANA or Children’s Church. They can use their talents and gifts for the Lord during your church’s “Youth Night” services. They can utilize their technological abilities in your church’s sound room. They can actively share the Gospel with their friends in the community. You can take them on a missions trip next summer. The ideas are quite limitless.

I am convinced that today’s young people can be challenged, motivated, and trained to attempt BIG things for God. We’ve read the stories of the Harris twins and Zach Hunter in this series of pervious articles on “Big Things.” Now let’s share our own stories – stories of the young people in our churches who are excited about how God can use them. Think BIG!

CALLING EMERGING GENERATIONS TO DO BIG THINGS FOR GOD

2010-08-20T15:39:00.004-04:00

Perhaps you’ve heard about Zach Hunter. As a 12-year-old, he began an international campaign (Loose Change to Loosen Chains) “to raise money and awareness for a fight against modern-day slavery. The concept was simple: encourage his peers to gather and give their loose change, which then went to deserving organizations working to free slaves around the world.” (See page 185 in Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris.)

As of this writing, Zach (now 18 years old) has spoken to over 500,000 people at live youth events, appeared on national TV numerous times, written best selling books (see Be The Change and Generation Change), and even delivered a speech at the White House.

Quite ambitious for a teenager, right?

Maybe not. I believe that God is stirring some of the emerging generation to be a human catalyst for BIG things. This is a generation that wants to accomplish something meaningful – something important. I want to do all I can to call this generation to be a part of the biggest thing ever – the work of Christ in the lives of people. What Christ is doing is so important, so big, that it will last forever. I believe this generation wants to be a part of something that big!

Christ Himself explained it very clearly. “Go into THE ENTIRE WORLD, and preach (proclaim) the Gospel to EVERY PERSON, and I will be with you ALWAYS.” (My personal paraphrase of Matthew 28:19 & 20.)

The Great Commission is clear. We have a big job to do, but the amazing thing is that the Lord Jesus Christ is right there with us, empowering us for this great adventure of serving Him and making an impact for eternity.

Now that you’ve thought about this concept for a few moments, the practical aspects of how to challenge students to do this are probably rather overwhelming. However, here are 4 quick strategy steps for you to prayerfully consider in your church.

1. Give your students the opportunity for interaction with other church youth groups.

Let’s never forget that we are part of the body of Christ and the family of God. God’s work in this age is through His church (see Matthew 16:18). It’s so important for your students to see that God is at work through His church in other cities in other places. Plus, real fellowship with other Christian young people is imperative for teenagers. I love the story of “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” in Daniel 3. I tell teenagers all the time that it was probably much easier for Shadrach to stand up for God because Meshach and Abednego were there, too. In fact have you noticed that those three young men are always mentioned together? There’s something very powerful when we realize that there are other people out there who love God and who have the desire to stand up for Him! Take every opportunity you can to involve your young people in area-wide youth events or church camp where they can meet and fellowship with other Christian young people. We must show our kids that the work of Christ is going on in other communities and in other churches.

2. Involve your students in large-scale youth events.

Another way to give your youth group positive exposure to the larger body of Christ is to take your teenagers to some large-scale youth conferences or events. I have personally had the opportunity to be involved in some significant large youth events for over 30 years. I love to see God at work in the lives of kids. It’s thrilling to see students respond to the leading of God in their lives. Plus, it’s a very positive thing to show your students that other church youth groups from other places are excited about hearing the Word of God, worshipping the Lord, and serving Him with their lives. I encourage all local church youth workers to identify and then participate in large-scale youth events with their teenagers. These events have the great potential to change kids’ lives – and your whole church will be ecstatic when your church youth group returns on fire to live for the Lord and to serve Him faithfully in their home towns.

3. Give your young people exposure to other age groups in your own church.

It’s also critically important for you to show your young people that church is designed by God to be intergenerational in nature (see Titus 2: 1-7 for example). I am afraid that too many youth ministries today build loyalty to the youth group instead of to the church as a whole. Youth workers, I must emphatically, yet humbly say, that if that’s the case in your church – you are making a mistake. No wonder so many young people who grow up in church walk away from church after they graduate from high school. But, I also want to emphasize here that it’s the adults (the leadership group in your church) who must set the example for growing and maturing students to be welcomed into the overall life of the church. How are you actively welcoming your church’s young people into the life of your church? Are you encouraging your graduating teenagers to fellowship with the adults in your church? Do you actively welcome the college-agers in your church to participate in the adult Sunday School classes? Do you provide specific and significant ways for your young people to be involved in service or ministry in your church? Why not?

I love the concept in 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers…” (New International Version). Yong people can set an example to other age groups. I’ve seen it happen in specific churches over and over again. However, it’s important to be very clear here about one detail in this verse. It requires exposure to set an example. Your youth cannot set an example if they meet downstairs in the basement with no contact with other age groups. The various generations need positive exposure to each other. Externals such as musical tastes and fads in appearance often go away if the different generations sense a common love for God and a unifying desire to make a genuine impact for Him.

4. Develop a comprehensive outreach and missions strategy for your church.

This final suggestion will be much harder to accomplish, but the end results will exponentially increase the global impact of your church and can effectively lead to your church producing new generations of missionaries and Christian workers. Take a few moments to notice the outreach strategy that is found in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (New International Version). The early church was instructed to be very intentional about its ever-widening outreach strategy – and it is essential that our churches today follow the exact same approach. Our evangelistic efforts are to start first at home, in our own Jerusalem. Church leaders, what are you doing to motivate and train your people to reach out into your own communities? (By the way, it’s no secret that many youth groups are better at this than most adults.)

The concentric circles of impact as described in Acts 1:8 expand to our Judea and Samaria. What are we doing to reach out to the general area around our churches? It’s especially intriguing to notice the emphasis on Samaria in this text. Do you remember the stories of Samaritans in Scripture? Most readers are familiar with the accounts of the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4 and the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. In both cases it was unusual and out of character for the Jewish people of that day to associate in any way with the cross-cultural Samaritans. Do you realize that we often do the same thing and ignore our closest cross-cultural neighbors? It is human nature, I guess, to ignore the people around us who belong to a different ethnic group. That’s another reason why we must be very intentional about developing a strategy for effective outreach. In only makes sense that if we develop a growing sensitivity for ethnically-diverse people around us that we’ll also enlarge our own compassion for other people-groups all around the world.

Notice that this verse spreads our growing impact around the world, “…to the ends of the earth.” That’s the comprehensive reach of missions. Our churches must intentionally enlarge our sphere of influence from reaching out in our local communities to a global impact through our financial support of missionaries and through the purposeful equipping of our own people so that we can continually send people out into a world-wide harvest. Readers, let me ask you another question. When was the last time your church sent out one of your own young people as a full-time, vocational missionary? Acts develops the record of the first century church being very intentional about sending equipped and trained missionaries. Acts records the narrative of how the early church accomplished our Lord’s instructions found in Acts 1:8

This is a generation that can accomplish BIG things. They have the desire – and they have the Biblical mandate. All they need is some encouragement and motivation. We can be those things for them. I envision churches everywhere calling on a new generation to attempt great things for God. May the Lord be with you!

Note to readers: A message I preached to teenagers on the subject of doing “big things” during this summer’s Teen Leadership Conference at Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA is available on the TLC2010 Web site at: http://www.bbc.edu/tlc2010/audio_video.asp.

STUDENT-LED REVIVAL: Asking God to Work In & Through the Next Generation

2010-08-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

I need to tell you about one of my heroes. His name is Art Bowser and he taught church history courses during the years I was in Bible college. Probably because I needed another history course to graduate, I decided to take his The History of the Great Revivals my senior year. Most of the dates and historical names are long gone from my memory, but I’ll never forget Mr. Bower’s desire to learn all he could about great movements of God in the lives of human culture. He loving and longingly taught us about Martin Luther and The Great Reformation, the Wesley Brothers and George Whitfield, and the amazing work of D.L. Moody.

It certainly wasn’t the facts of history that endeared Mr. Bowser to me; it was his enthusiasm for true God-centered, heart-changing revival. He had a great knowledge about the chronological dates and he had learned much about history’s human influencers, but what impacted me most was his great love of genuine revival. His passion was contagious.

Here’s what I remember most from Mr. Bower’s Great Revivals course: most of the great revivals in history began (humanly speaking, of course) with students.

I’m sure there’s a level of human logic here that makes sense. Students often possess an idealistic outlook that propels them to seek change. They see things as they are currently and they idealistically want things to be different in the future. Students realistically have their entire futures ahead of them and they have the energy and enthusiasm that drives them toward accomplishment and achievement.

However, Mr. Bowser taught me that there maybe another factor involved in student-led revivals. It just may be that God uses students to change things.

Readers, I honestly believe that this may be the most compelling reason why I love youth ministry. God has given me multiple opportunities over the last 35 years (since I started working with youth in college) to see great works of God in and through the lives of young people. A major part of my ministry career has been a personal involvement in some significant and large-scale youth and youth ministry events. I had the opportunity to have a small role in the beginning of a state-wide youth Bible conference that attracted over a thousand teenagers each year for several years in a row. I led a national youth conference for a fellowship of churches where hundreds of teens participated in worship, ministry, and preaching. I also served on the leadership team at 2 different Bible colleges that gave me the occasion to direct their annual youth conferences. Without any exaggeration these events often resulted in God doing momentous things in and through the lives of students!

Not only did I have the great privilege to see God at work in the lives of teenagers (and, let me tell you, it never ceases to amaze me to see our Lord do incredible things in the lives of students), I also had the unique advantage to hear reports from numerous churches about how God used kids, over and over again, to be a genuine catalyst for revival in their home churches after the event was over.

Art Bowser was right. God does use students to launch great revivals.

At this point it’s important to note that genuine God-centered revivals are never produced via a formula or recipe. If that was the case, man would have undoubtedly put “one-and-one-together” in an all too human attempt to manufacture what only God can truly generate. Authentic revivals are exclusively and entirely of God. However, even a cursory study of the history of revivals reveals that God also used fervent and intentional prayer as an essential ingredient of a true spiritual resurgence.

One of my favorite stories from the annals of historical revivals is that of the Haystack Prayer Meeting in northwestern Massachusetts in 1806. God supernaturally used the passionate prayers of 6 students in an amazing way that led to what is often referred to as the “Student Volunteer Movement”. Up until that time, the United States was usually not considered a sending nation for global missionaries. Yet, historians now credit this “Second Great Awakening” for propelling over 10,000 foreign missionaries into the world’s harvest fields. Some have had lasting influence for Christ generation-after-generation in countries that are now closed to Christian missionaries. God used a simple, but fervent prayer meeting to make a lasting difference for eternity.

There’s another, more familiar, illustration of how God is currently using students to make a significant impact for Him. Most readers probably have some level of awareness about the student-led prayer movement “See You At The Pole”. In the early 1990’s a “small group of teenagers in Burleson, Texas came together” asking the Lord to use them to impact their high schools for Christ. Here’s how the SYATP web site recalls the beginning of this campaign. “Compelled to pray, they drove to three different schools that night. Not knowing exactly what to do, they went to the school flagpoles and prayed for their friends, schools, and leaders.” Another incredible prayer movement was born. Last year over 3 million American high school students met at their school flagpoles in a remarkable demonstration of student-fueled prayer.

I believe with all my heart that students can make history when they band together to cry out to God!

Friends, it’s time for another prayer meeting!

The Lord Himself gave us this strategy in Luke 10:2 for launching a new generation of workers. “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into His harvest.”

We must be obedient to our Lord’s command. It’s time to call a new generation to pray intentionally and fervently for our Lord to send out workers into His harvest! The need for new “harvest workers” has never been greater. The population of the world is growing by a billion people in less than 12 years – and will reach 7 billion people sometime in the year 2012. At this moment, 1/3 of the world’s population is under the age of 21; and the most telling statistic of all – close to 90% of people accept Christ before they leave their teenage years.

We are asking pastors, missionaries, church leaders, Sunday School teachers, and youth leaders everywhere to schedule and organize an intentional prayer emphasis for Harvest Sunday on October 10, 2010. (Yes, that day is: 10/10/10!) Perhaps through our collective prayers, God may choose to launch another great movement of students heading into the global harvest.

Place this date on your church calendars (10/10/10) and schedule some time that day for fervent prayer for harvest workers. Pray in Sunday School and in church services, schedule an early morning prayer breakfast, organize your church people to pray around the clock, organize small prayer groups, etc. Be creative and intentional. The important thing is to pray for and with students.

Please join together with other churches and youth workers all around the world to pray specifically on October 10, 2010 for God to once again use students in a mighty and world-changing way for His glory! Who knows what He may choose to do.

For more information on Harvest Sunday – or to post ideas of what your church or youth group is planning to do – take a look at: http://www.harvestsunday.org/.

DO BIG THINGS: A Biblical Strategy for Accomplishing Things That Matter

2010-08-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

The Great Wall of China. The Pyramids in Egypt. Man landing on the Moon. The invention of the computer. Certainly man has accomplished some amazing things. However, each of the things listed here, as Christ tarries, will someday crumble and be eclipsed by even bigger and more impressive accomplishments.

My challenge to students this summer has been not to attempt hard things or even great things for the sake of human achievement in-and-of-itself; but, to set our hearts on doing “big things” for God – things that will pass the test of time, and in fact, last for eternity.

The Apostle Paul has something like that in mind when he penned his last words to his student (Timothy) in 2 Timothy 4. Paul writes that he knew that his time on earth was limited and vanishing with each day (see verses 6 through 8.) In his final list of memories, he names several people – some of whom were friends and coworkers and others were enemies and deserters of the faith. Yet, his primary focus here was on the Lord. He remembers how the Lord “stood with” him in days past and the Lord would bless him in the days ahead for his faithfulness to Him.

I love Paul’s language in verse 17, “the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear…” Even at the end of his life, the great Apostle, kept his dreams and goals. He was absolutely committed to fulfilling God’s grand purpose for his life. Notice the scope of his proclamation in that verse: ALL THE GENTILES.

It reminds me of the extent of imposing language in the Bible’s “Great Commission” verses: Matthew 28:19 & 20, Mark 16:15, and Acts 1:8, “all authority”, “all the nations”, “all the world”, “all creation”, and “the remotest parts of the earth.”

Wow, that’s big!

I believe that God wants each of us to consider “big things” – things that will last for eternity. Even at the end of his life, Paul had big dreams and big goals. He was incredibly passionate about accomplishing things that would last for eternity. That must be our passion as well. We must be about the business of trusting God to use each of us to accomplish BIG things for His glory. The truth of it is that it is God Himself who is doing big things.

Here’s how I ended my challenge to students this summer: “What are those things that are so BIG that only God could accomplish them?”

Here’s the point. The Apostle Peter sums it up very well in 1 Peter 1:24 – "the glory of men is as the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off…” All human accomplishments will fade and fall, but what we do for God lasts forever.

Let’s do BIG things!

Do BIG Things!

2010-07-15T17:35:00.001-04:00

Have you read the bestselling book by Alex & Brett Harris Do HARD Things?

Theirs is a unique story. As 16-year-old twins they developed the most-visited web site ever for Christian teenagers (http://www.therebelution.com/). Then just 2 years later they wrote their bestseller which has been mightily used of God to challenge and entire generation of millennials to launch a “rebellion against low expectations.”

I had the unique opportunity this week to meet and minister alongside one of the twins (Brett Harris) at a large youth conference in Ohio. I found Brett to be a Godly and highly-motivated young man. He is a true servant of God – with a great desire to impact others for eternity. (Please pray for the entire Harris family, as their Mom went home to be with the Lord recently following a brief bout with cancer!)

However, I must admit that I struggle some with the idea of “hard” things. I found myself thinking that there must be more to accomplishment than just a significant level of difficulty. I get their point. I really do. I’ve read the book and I listened to Brett’s talk on the importance of doing “hard things”. I too want to challenge others to consider developing high expectations and to prayerfully dream of doing great things for God.

Yet, in my mind I wonder. I wonder if the level of difficulty is the point. God has used the Harris brothers in remarkable ways; and after hearing Brett speak on the subject, I am almost positive that they would agree with my premise in this post. But, I wonder if going beyond what is expected (if you haven’t read their book yet, you should!) should be our objective.

I believe with all my heart that God wants us to consider BIG things!

Take a fresh look at the Bible’s “Great Commission” passages. (Notice my emphases below.)

Matthew 28:19 & 20, “Go therefore and make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe ALL things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you ALWAYS, even to the END OF THE AGE.”

Mark 16: 20, “And He said to then, ‘Go into ALL THE WORLD and preach the gospel to EVERY creature.”

Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in ALL Judea and Samaria, and to the END OF THE EARTH.”

Think about the scope of that assignment: ALL nations, ALL things, ALWAYS, to the END OF THE AGE; ALL the world, EVERY creature; to the END OF THE EARTH.

That God-given obligation to His church never ceases to amaze me! We have a huge project ahead of us. Looking at the Great Commission this way motivates me to think that God has charged us and equipped us to do BIG things. The Lord Himself developed His plan for this age when He declared in Matthew 16:18, “…I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”

God’s work (the church) is what He is doing in our age. That’s His plan. I admit that I love being a part of something big. I read these verses and come away challenged with an overwhelming desire to be a part of the biggest thing ever. I want to be a part of what God is doing – and, let me tell you something – that’s BIG!

I want to do all I can to call this generation to be a part of something big. The Lord has put a burden on my heart to be a voice motivating this generation to BIG things! Perhaps God’s plan has always been to challenge each emerging generation to be a part of His big, global, eternal plan! I say that after reading passages such as 2 Timothy 4:16 – 22. Take a few moments to read through those verses noticing the words all, every, and forever. Here, in the last letter we have from the aged Apostle Paul, is a global and eternal challenge for his student, Timothy. In verse 16, Paul writes that “all” of his so-called friends and co-workers had deserted him in his time of need. But, in contrast to that human discouragement, Paul lists his life goal in the very next verse. Look what he says. “…that ALL the Gentiles might hear.” He knew God’s work would face opposition and so, he writes, “…the Lord will deliver me from EVERY evil work and will preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory FOREVER AND EVER.”

Wow, what a visionary. In spite of personal disappointments and spiritual opposition, Paul kept his focus on His Lord’s ability to accomplish His work and to fulfill His mission.

I love the language here – ALL, EVERY, and FOREVER. God is all-about doing BIG things – global things and eternal things. Friends, that’s BIG!

So, with my sincere apologies to the Harris brothers, let’s challenge this generation instead toward BIG things – God's work in this age! We must be about the things that matter – the work of God that will last forever.

Please join me in praying for an emerging generation to develop an all-consuming desire, with corresponding goals, dreams, and plans, to accomplish God’s work in our age. We must be about calling this generation to accomplish BIG things – EVERYWHERE, with ALL people groups – things that will last FOREVER.

As Paul would say, “Grace be with you. Amen!”

“Teaching Theology to Teenagers” – VFY Plans Think-Tank at BBC

2010-07-10T09:47:00.000-04:00

I had a unique opportunity the other day to sit in on a discussion about “beliefs” during a small group meeting with a group of late-twenty-something young adults. This was a church-based small group where all of the participants of singles in one way or another were regular church attendees.

The topic of discussion turned to “faith”, so since I’ve been thinking about my think-tank this summer at BBC’s Teen Leadership Conference in a couple of weeks, I asked this group of young adults 3 basic questions about their theology.

How do you know there is only one way to heaven?
How do you know that the Bible is truth?
How do you know that Jesus Christ is God?

I wish you could have heard their answers. All of the group members had grown up in Sunday School and Youth Group. Most of them were from solid Christian families – and all of them, as young adults, had made the conscious decision on their own to stay in church and to participate in this particular group. But, I need to tell you: they each struggled with even basic theological questions.

These questions were basically the ones cult members or people from other religions would ask. This is basic stuff - salvation by “grace through faith”, inspiration of Scripture, and the deity of Christ. But, they struggled to answer them. The group members knew a lot of Bible facts, and they could review all of the familiar Bible stories. But, they struggled with theology. I’m positive they each believed in salvation through Jesus Christ alone, the inerrancy of the Bible, and that Jesus Christ is God. However, they basically didn’t know how to back up those things from Scripture.

Our discussion in the small group that day again made me realize that as youth workers we MUST be intentional about teaching theology to our students. We’re working with a generation that wants to know what they believe – and, I’m convinced they want to learn deeper, theological truth.

I’m also convinced that during their young adult years, whether they go to a Christian college, a major university, or go into the military or the work force – it’s at this time of their lives that they’ll be confronted about what they believe.

That’s why we’re inviting all youth pastors to join us at Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA on July 19 – 23 or on July 26-30 for a conversation-oriented think-tank on the subject of “teaching theology to teenagers.” Bring your thoughts and ideas and join us during the 2 weeks of BBC’s Teen Leadership Conference. I know other youth pastors will appreciate hearing what you are doing. So, bring your lessons and come ready to talk with peers about what they’re doing.

I’m convinced that this discussion may prove to be one of the most important subjects we’ve ever talked through! Join us. Call BBC at 570.586.2400 to register.

For more information about TLC: www.bbc.edu//tlc2010

New VFY Magazine On-Line Now

2010-07-10T08:46:00.000-04:00

Interested in developing student leaders?

You should check out our new magazine on-line at: http://www.visionforyouth.com/. You'll hear what Tim Ahlgrim, Jim Jeffery, Dave Michener, Joe Castaneda, Brian Hanson, Andy Woodall, and others are saying about this subjecct. Some thoughts are what you'd think - other ideas may rattle you a little bit. Read it through and let me know what you are thinking.

BLOG TOUR: "Where Was God When...?"

2010-06-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

It is a great honor for me to take an active role in a “blog tour” for some good friends of mine, Mike Calhoun and Ric Garland from Word of Life. As many of my readers know, I have had the privilege of co-editing 2 major anthologies of youth ministry along with Mike – and we were very thankful for Ric’s participation in both books.

I am not a Word of Life guy, per se, but I have very good friends within that organization and I grew up with some involvement in WOL clubs, WOL youth events (remember “Operation: Nightmare”?), and even had the distinct opportunity to hear the WOL founder, Jack Wyrtzen preach on several occasions. In my mind, Jack Wyrtzen is one of the legends of youth ministry. Without a doubt, he’s a member of our “hall of fame.” I often tell youth ministry students the accounts from the 1940’s of how Jack filled Yankee Stadium and other venues for what could be considered as the first youth rallies. I’m a fan of Word of Life for their commitment to the Scriptures, for their desire to reach a new generation with the Gospel, and for the development and training of youth workers all around this globe.

Mike and Ric have written and produced an incredible new tool entitled, “Where was God when…?” It’s an 8-part study on the attributes of God and how that truth shapes our understanding of tragedy. This book and DVD answers the hard questions this generation is asking by taking them back to the nature and character of God Himself. I highly recommend this resource to anyone who works with today’s youth. (http://www.wherewasgod.wol.org.)

For their “blog tour” they asked some of their youth ministry friends and bloggers to write a brief and Biblical response to one of the student’s questions from the book. I’m glad to do it!

My dad left me when I was five. I know a lot of people can identify with my situation, of having your family basically fall apart. But sometimes I felt like no one understood. You see, my parents fought all the time. I remember one night in particular, when I stood behind the door with my ears covered as my mom and dad fought it out in the kitchen. Usually, it was just flying words, but that night my mom starting throwing dishes, too. When the third coffee mug broke against the wall, I just lost it. I said I would do anything for them to stop fighting. My dad looked at me like I’ve never seen him look before. He hugged me and explained to me that adults are bound to disagree sometimes. He used the “d” word for the first time—they promised they weren’t going to get a divorce. I don’t remember hearing that word before, but I got used to it soon. They did get a divorce. I remember that night, too. I grabbed onto my dad’s leg and sat on his ankle, begging him not to go.

"Marcus, that’s rough that your Dad left you when you were five. I feel badly about what you’ve gone through and the difficult situation facing your family.

Circumstances like this must drive us to the Word of God. God is our Heavenly Father and will never, never leave us. Take a look at Hebrews 13:5 “…For He Himself had said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The author of Hebrews is actually quoting God’s own words to Joshua following the death of his mentor and leader, Moses. Moses was not Joshua’s father, yet their relationship was real and very significant. I’m sure Joshua felt loss and abandonment at the death of this close, older friend. The truth of God’s statement resonated deep within Joshua’s own heart. Humanly speaking, people might leave and even disappoint us, but God never will. No matter what Joshua would go through, God would be there. And Marcus, no matter what you go through, God will be with you as well.

Our Heavenly Father is absolutely dependable and faithful. His Word is very, very clear about that. For instance, take a look at 1 Cor. 1:9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

I want to share with you one of the Psalms that has come to mean a great deal to me. Take a few moments to read Psalm 18:1 – 19. This passage is actually a song of praise that David sang to God after facing one of the most difficult circumstances in his life. You can read about what he went through by reading the story in 2 Sam. 21:15 – 22. Then keep reading. This same song is also published for us in the very next chapter.

Now go back to Psalm 18. When we cry out to God and call to Him for help, He always hears us and will release all of the resources of heaven to help His children. I especially love the last phrase in the last verse in Psalm 18:1 – 19, “He delivered me because He delighted in me.” Marcus, please understand that the word “delighted” here has nothing at all to do with anything we could ever do to merit or deserve this response from God. He doesn’t help us because we deserve it. He releases the very resources of heaven because He wants to. God is your Heavenly Father, Marcus. He will never leave you and He’ll help you and see you through life’s most difficult circumstances because He loves you and is your Heavenly Father!"

You can order this amazing resource at: http://www.wherewasgod.wol.org.

Youth Pastor - Consider Joining Our Discussion at TLC

2010-06-21T15:22:00.000-04:00

If you are a vocational youth pastor I want to invite you to participate in what I believe will be a strategic “think-tank” for vocational youth pastors during this summer’s Teen Leadership Conference at Baptist Bible College. The leadership team at TLC has given me the opportunity to meet with youth pastors during the workshop times to initiate a conversation on the important topic of teaching doctrine and theology to today’s teenagers!

Perhaps you’ve read Mark Driscoll’s new book Doctrine or maybe you’ve seen the recent Christianity Today series on how millennials have a passion for life-related truth. These authors are substantiating the comprehensive research done by Dr. Christian Smith and others that touts the idea that today’s young people are hungering for deeper, serious teaching in Biblical truth. Friends, I am convinced that we are working with a generation that wants to know what they believe!

It is to that end that I would love to meet with a group of church youth pastors about this very, very important matter. I’d love to hear your ideas of what you are doing with your students. How are you helping your students internalize and personalize doctrinal truth? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to teach theology to teenagers. We’ll meet during the youth workers’ sessions at TLC, but our meetings will be discussion-driven and very interactive. Not only do I want to hear your input, but I also believe it will be incredibly valuable for our group of youth pastors to learn what other guys from around the country are doing.

If you have any curriculum or teaching materials that you have developed on the subject of teaching theology to teenagers, please bring a copy of it along. Part of our discussion will be to share these materials with each other – and maybe even open a discussion about publishing some collaborative material together on this topic.

Anyway, please consider being a participant in our group during TLC. We’d love to hear what you think and I know that other youth pastors will learn much from your thoughts as well. Thanks. I’ll see you at TLC in just a few weeks.

Baptist Bible College is located just up the road from my office here in Clarks Summit, PA. For more information about Teen Leadership Conference take a look at: http://www.bbc.edu/tlc2010.

New Web Address for My Blog

2010-06-10T14:07:00.000-04:00

Check it out. The new address for my blog is: http://www.melwalker.org/.

A Generation that Wants to Learn Theology? (Part 2)

2010-06-10T10:57:00.000-04:00

This is a continuation of an earlier post - see below.

Here are 2 other big-picture principles for incorporating doctrine into your church’s youth ministry:

Develop ways to reinforce Biblical truth in various educational settings.

My high school basketball coach was a master at developing a style of coaching that permeated the entire school system. Not only did the varsity team play one way, but so did the junior varsity, the freshmen team, and even the junior highers. The offenses were the same and the defenses were the same. Every basketball player in our community grew up learning that one style of basketball.

Likewise, our students learn effectively from consistent reinforcement of Biblical truth. Undoubtedly, this process starts at home where parents teach God’s Word to their children, but that routine must continue at church in the various educational ministries that reach and teach students. Consistent presentation of Biblical truth is a powerful, life-changing tool. Wise church leaders working in constant collaboration with Godly parents can and should develop a thorough and comprehensive curriculum throughout the church’s entire educational system that covers the “whole counsel of God” and that presents systematic Biblical truth.

Provide real-life opportunities for your students to think and live Biblically.

One reason that I am a big fan of youth ministry is that our ministries encourage our students to implement the truth of what they are learning into various life situations. The goal is for our students to be “doers of the Word” (James 1:22). I really believe that our teenagers will be more likely to continue on in their faith and will be more confident to stand up for what they believe if they have had guidance in applying Biblical principles to the various real-life experiences of their day-to-day lives.

Now it’s time to talk about “how”. How are you teaching theology to your youth group? Please send me your thoughts or materials (mel@visionforyouth.com) - or post your specific, practical ideas below.

"Surefire" Ways to Reach Youth

2010-06-08T11:15:00.007-04:00

If you are trying to impact Millennials then the following principles from a youth marketing guru should ring true. The following 5 basic ideas can be applied to our ministry strategies as well:

Provide valuable content and information.
Isn’t it interesting that even secular marketers understand the importance of providing “valuable content and information”? As Bible-believing Christians, communicating “content” should be our specialty. We must present God’s life-changing truth in creative and relevant ways – and we must show our students how the Gospel relates and applies to their lives today and in their future. (This relates very, very well with our recent push on teaching theology to teenagers. They are craving this stuff!)

Have a social mission.
I wouldn’t call it “social”, but I understand the point. As Donna Fenn says, “…Millennials care deeply about social causes.” No wonder Alex and Brett Harris’s book Do Hard Things resonates so well with this generation. A recent issue of Christianity Today reported that about 1.2 million American high school kids go on social or missions trips each year. Youth workers, we should lead the way on this one, too. We must teach and train our students to live “missional.” You can read more about this idea in Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8.

Connect with their parents.
A recent survey revealed that the vast majority of this generation consults their parents on most or all of life’s decisions “large and small.” Our church youth ministries must become “parent-targeted”. We’re making a big mistake if we by-pass parents in our attempts to minister to kids.

Co-create with Millennials.
This is a generation that grew up with the Internet. Today’s young people often have entrepreneurial aspirations. For example, Mark Zuckerberg founded the social networking site "Facebook” when he was still a teenager – and he’s now worth around $4 billion dollars. (See Wikipedia.) It’s important that you involve your students in the fabric and in all aspects of your church’s youth program and give them ways to share and implement their ideas. Plus, they will be more effective than you are at strategizing how to reach their own generation.

Be edgy.
This is not a “business-as-usual” generation. They grew up in a time when technology was growing and developing at an exponential rate. (iPad’s anyone?) They thrive on chaos and creativity. Theirs is an MTV-influenced culture and their normalcy is different every week. I’m still thinking this one through, but I’m wondering if the “cookie-cutter” churches of my generation will be relevant for Millennials. They seem to be intrigued by “liturgy and contemporary” at the same time. I’m sure their churches will look differently in the future, but I’m convinced this generation is seeking truth and is very, very serious about their faith and their God!

The sub-points in this post were developed by Donna Fenn (author of Upstarts! How Gen Y Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business) in her blog article Five Surefire Ways to Reach the Youth Market.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your reactions.

Youth Workers, Are You Teaching Doctrine to Your Students?

2010-05-19T19:24:00.004-04:00

Friends, I am becoming increasingly convinced that we MUST be more intentional about teaching Bible doctrine to our students!

We've all read the statistics that shout the high number of students who depart from church once they are young adults. I'm forming the opinion that the number one reason for that departure is that we are producing a generation that doesn't have a clue what they really believe. Certainly, Christian parents and the church must each share some of the blame for this scenario. Our graduating students are hitting college campuses, the military, the work force, or other life situations as young adults and are falling away from the church. In many, many cases they are also falling away from their faith because they do not have the internal confidence that what they believe or what they have been taught in church is true.

It's during this stage of their lives (when they are first out from under their parent's direct influence and when they can choose whether or not to attend church on their own volition) that many of this age group is choosing to walk away. The more I talk with millennials, parents, and youth workers and the more research and reading I do, the more convinced I am that we must begin an intentional educational strategy to help this emerging generation learn Biblical doctrine and theology. We must move beyond quick devotionals and the ever-present, but highly random Bible stories to teach our students the "whole counsel of God" and to "rightly divide the word of truth."

Please take a few moments to read the newly research from LifeWay entitled LifeWay Research finds American "Millennials" are spiritually diverse at: http:www.lifeway.com/lwc/rd_article-content/0,2815,A%253D170233%2526X%253D1%2526M%253D200812,00.html. This article should help us face the facts about how our churches are actually doing at producing high school graduates who know Biblical truth and who can face the tough questions of life with the unshakable confidence that what they believe is the truth.

In an attempt to begin an honest and strategic conversation on how to address the important topic of how to teach doctrine and theology to students, I would like to invite vocational youth pastors to join me this summer on the campus of Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA during their annual Teen Leadership Conference to participate in a legitmate think-tank to discuss how to address this situation in our churches. I am asking youth pastors to bring their ideas and any materials they may have already developed with them to TLC. We'll meet for several hours each day addressing this problem, but we'll also attempt to identy solutions that can be shared in the near future with other youth workers.

If you are interested in joining us for this think-tank at BBC just send me a note at: mel@visionforyouth.com and I'll send you the details of how you can personally be involved. PLEASE consider participating in this important conversation.

A Generation That Wants to Learn Theology?

2010-05-01T08:55:00.007-04:00

It is imperative for youth workers (and parents, of course) to make sure that doctrine and theology are an integral part of their comprehensive teaching plans. It is a shame that some youth workers look at theology as boring or irrelevant for today's high school students. I believe the opposite is true. It has been my experience that this generation wants to know what they believe. They don't want us to "spoon feed" them or cram our own particular viewpoints down their throats. Instead, I am absolutely convinced that many millennials have a desire to learn the meat of Scripture which includes Biblical and systematic theology. They can get "fluff" and entertainment elsewhere. This post is a call to youth workers everywhere to make Biblical theology a major emphasis in their teaching ministries.

The following are some starting points for incorporating doctrine and theology into today's youth ministry.

1. Implement a thorough scope-and-sequence.

Most youth ministries provide a six-year doctrinal window (7th through 12th grade) to teach God's Word to teenagers. What do you want those in-coming early adolescents to know by the time they graduate from high school? An intentional, comprehensive educational curriculum is essential to attaining these goals.

2. Utilize teaching resources that are characterized by doctrinal and Biblical integrity.

I am afraid that one of the most insidious dangers facing today's church educational ministries is the serious lack of doctrinal content in so many books and materials. Have you visited a Christian bookstore recently? Do that sometime and carefully look through that store's youth ministry section. You will probably find a wide range of creative and seemingly relevant teaching guides with colorful and creative covers that contain interesting and innovative teaching methods. Look a little closer. My guess is that you'll find many of these products contain very, very little Biblical or doctrinal content. The publishing trend these days is to sell materials to churches of all stripes with little regard for any particular doctrinal perspective. Please be careful in what you present to your students. Make sure that the materials you select have a Biblical integrity - and that the content matches what your church believes and teaches in other ministries. We must be discerning. If we want our students to grow up with a clear understanding of the Bible and doctrine, we must be consistent in what we teach and in what materials we use in our ministries.

3. Give your students practical opportunites to develop constructive critical thinking about what they are learning in church.

My emphasis here on theology is NOT a push for rote learning of sterile facts and boring lists of proof texts. The Bible is far from that. We must never forget that the Word of God is alive, powerful, and life-changing. The Holy Scriptures can stand up to the most difficult scrutiny. So my advice to youth workers is to provide practical learning opportunities for your students so that they can learn firsthand the truth of God's holy, inspired, imerrant, and everlasting word.

Readers: I'll continue this article in my next post. But, I'm very interested to learn how you are teaching theology to your youth group. Please send me your ideas.

Millennials & Religion: Most Kids Say Their Faith is “Very Important”

2010-03-30T10:04:00.001-04:00

Did you see the article in the Monday, March 29th issue of USAToday entitled, “Millennials Do Faith and Politics Their Way”? If not, you should take the time to look it up. (See http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/on-religion/2010-03-29-column29_ST_N.htm.) You’ll find the research cited there that demonstrates that this generation of students is very interested in religion. Of course, most active youth workers will immediately realize that we don’t need research to tell us that. All we have to do is spend time with kids!

Readers, please help me. I am on a quest to discover how today’s youth workers are teaching doctrine and theology to their students. I whole-heartedly believe that we are working with a generation that wants to know what they believe. So, youth workers: please send me your thoughts on this. What are you doing in your church to teach the “whole counsel of God” – including doctrinal truth and theology to your students?

You can post your comments here on my blog – or just send me a note at: melwalker@epix.net. Your thoughts and comments might be a real encouragement to other youth workers – and what others post may just help you. Thanks!

TEACHING THEOLOGY TO TEENAGERS: What Do Your Students Really Believe?

2010-03-09T17:21:00.003-05:00

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Ephesians 4:14).

We certainly have had strange weather lately where I live in northeastern Pennsylvania. Due to a strong windstorm a few months ago my family’s garbage cans literally blew halfway down the block with the contents spilling out and spreading all over our neighborhood. I just noticed again that there are still plastic bags from my garbage higher than I can reach in the trees in front of our house.

God’s Word uses the vivid illustration of being “carried about with every wind of doctrine” as an apt depiction of the importance of teaching doctrine and theology in our churches. The Biblical objective of local church ministry is to produce people with the spiritual maturity for a life of service for Christ. Read what Paul wrote about church ministry in Ephesians 4:11–16. The Apostle Paul’s admonition to the believers in Ephesus was that pastor-teachers were to equip their people for ministry. The people, in turn, would build up the body of Christ. It’s in this context that he painted the picture of children being “tossed” by waves and “carried about” by the winds of doctrinal error.

The travels my garbage took from the can in front of my house to the limbs of trees illustrates what can happen if preventative measures are not taken in life’s basic activities. Even more important is the imperative we have been given by the Lord to ground our students in His Word. Our ministries must be more than entertainment and much more than fun and games. We have the God-given responsibility to equip our students so that the “winds” and “waves” of false doctrine do not blow them away - theologically speaking.

Ephesians 4 describes the devastating and intentional strategy our Enemy uses to assault our students as they progress toward spiritual maturity.

“Sleight of men” means trickery. It’s from the ancient term for “cube,” or dice playing. This term carries the idea of a con artist.

“Cunning” means a planned, subtle, systematized error.

“Craftiness” has the idea of a clever manipulation of error to make it look like truth.

These descriptors are exactly the things our students will face in middle school, junior high, high school, and college. Our world is evil, and it’s no place for immature children, so to speak.

It’s interesting to me that the word for “children” that Paul used in Ephesians means “those who cannot speak.” It was a term describing infants, those too young to talk. In this passage, the Apostle related spiritual maturity to not being “carried about with every wind of doctrine.” In other words, one of the characteristics of spiritual maturity is being able to verbally defend what one believes theologically.

There’s no room for kid’s stuff here. What we do is serious business. Certainly we must be creative and culturally relevant, but our purpose must be to ground students in Biblical truth so that they know what they believe based upon the Word of God. We have an awesome responsibility to make sure that our students are doctrinally grounded. As youth workers, we’re not about “children’s ministry.” We work with students who can “talk” and who should know what they believe and how to defend it. That’s what spiritual maturity is all about.

NOTE: I’m very interested to hear from other youth workers about what you do to teach doctrine and theology to your students. How do you make sure that your students know what they believe before they graduate from high school and leave your church’s youth ministry? Please post your comments below or send me a note at mel@visionforyouth.com.

TIME TO REFOCUS?

2010-01-22T14:58:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I dropped my digital camera. Ever since then the camera has been out of focus. No matter what I do to try to correct the problem, the pictures come out blurry and fuzzy.

I’m not trying to be a skeptic here, but maybe traditional youth ministry has lost its focus as well. As many of our readers will know, I am a fan of books and I try to keep up-to-date on recent titles and authors. Within the past few months the following titles have been released: “Youth Ministry 3.0”, “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry”, “A New Kind of Youth Ministry”, “Rethink”, “Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry”, and “Sustainable Youth Ministry”. All of these books (and many more authors, by the way) are saying that youth ministry as we know it, isn’t working – and that we must revaluate and recreate a new kind of youth ministry.

We’re interested in your thoughts on this subject. Do you think that traditional youth ministry is broken? Do you think youth ministry has lost its focus? If so, send us a note (mel@visionforyouth.com.) We’d love to hear what you think about these books or about this subject in general. We’re especially interested in solutions and ideas. So, let us know what you think and post some of your thoughts below.

Vision For Youth is going to “weigh in” on this important topic. On March 15 – 17, 2010, we are going to hold our 25th annual “National Youth Ministries Conference” in beautiful (and warm) Gatlinburg, Tennessee! Our theme for this year’s event is “reFocused” – and we’re calling youth workers everywhere to join us for a reInvented and reDesigned conference. We’ll highlight a daily time of worship and Bible study, but the remainer of the conference will be built around what we’re calling “conversational modules”. All that means is we want to hear from you on some of the most important issues facing youth ministry today! Our workshops will all feature discussion, interaction, and participation. We need to hear from youth workers from all around the country. What is working – and what isn’t working? Come to Gatlinburg and share your thoughts and concerns (and solutions) with your peers in youth ministry!

You can use NYMC to reConnect, reEnergize, and reWork your own Biblically-sound and culturally-relevant approach to youth ministry. This year’s conference will be held at a different time and in a different place than we usually hold it. So, come for the conference and spend a few extra days with your spouse or family in tourist-friendly Gatlinburg. You’ll love the Edgewater Hotel. Their rates for us are fantastic – rooms for only $79 per night. The meals are great. There’s a lot to do – and the weather will be warm! We’ll reFocus – and we’ll do that together in Gatlinburg.

Check out the Vision For Youth web site for more information. We’ve lowered our rates a little bit due to the current economy, so our conference is affordable to everyone. Individuals can attend for only $200 (if you register before March 1st) and your spouse can attend for only $100. More discounts are available, too.

Let us know if you have any questions – and we’ll keep posting more and more information on our web site and via Facebook (check out the Friends of Vision For Youth, Inc. group.)

So, join us in Gatlinburg on March 15 – 17th. Bring your Bible, your spouse and kids, and bring other youth workers. It’s time to reFocus!

CHRISTMAS: When the Lord Shatters Our Daily Routine

2009-12-25T15:59:00.002-05:00

Imagine the boredom of watching sheep - at night. Luke 2:8 puts it this way, “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.” It must have been mind-numbingly monotonous; “keeping watch over their flocks by night.” The shepherds’ daily routine of watching sheep had to be something like watching corn grow.
Certainly there are Biblical accounts of a lost sheep here and there and a random bear or lion stealing a lamb or two. But, on most nights the utter monotony of their regular routine must have been quite agonizing. What do sheep “do” anyway – especially at night? It’s no wonder that shepherd boys in Biblical times had the time on their hands to practice playing the harp and to develop their skills with a slingshot.

Then one cold, still night the excruciatingly boring routine of watching sheep on the Palestine hillside was shattered by the voice of an angel joined by a “multitude of the heavenly host.” The shepherds’ lives would never be the same. They abandoned their flocks, their staffs, and their routine to go with “haste” to see the baby Jesus. That opportunity to meet the Lord Jesus Christ changed their lives forever. Suddenly their daily routine was over. They walked away from their lives to see Jesus. The entire universe had changed and these lowly shepherds would never be the same.

The human birth of Christ changed the world – and our new birth in Christ has totally changed our lives as well. It must not be the same old routine of life. Our lives are different – and our lifestyles must reflect that.

The Christmas holiday in our culture changes things as well. The daily routine is over. We have time off of ministry, work, or school. We travel to see relatives or the family travels to see us. We shop for presents for others and open gifts from family members and friends. We consume a volume of things we never eat all year and, of course, we have to dutifully watch the obligatory “The Christmas Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We all know that Christmas should never be life as usual.

So, it makes sense that Christmas and especially the birth of Christ should totally change things. It’s not routine and it’s not the normal fare. Christ changes things. May our lives never be the “same old thing” ever again!

There are several significant observations one can make in the familiar Christmas story in Luke 2. However, for our purposes here, notice especially the response of the shepherds in verse 17, “Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.” They couldn’t help it. Jesus changed their lives and they had to tell others. Shouldn’t that be our natural response as well? They saw Christ and then couldn’t help but share that marvel and wonder with others.

Also notice the shepherd’s response in Luke 2:20, “Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen…” It’s important to notice that the shepherds “returned”. At some point they went back home – back to the fields, back to the sheep, and back to the routine. We’re not sure exactly what happened to those particular shepherds over the long haul. The text is silent in regards to that particular detail, but they did go back. The shepherds returned – “glorifying and praising God.”

We’ll have to go back to our own routines when Christmas is over, too. After the wrapping paper is picked up, after the gifts are returned, after the leftovers are eaten, and after the relatives go home – life will kick back in. At some point the daily routine of life will begin all over again. But, if Christmas teaches us anything, it must be that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has totally shattered the routine of life. At some point, we must “return” to our lives as well, but it must be with an attitude of “glorifying and praising God” – and it must be with a desire to share our marvel and wonder with others.

When all is said and done; life, like Christmas, must be all about Christ! Let’s make that commitment in our lives and ministries in 2010.

STRATEGIC NEW BOOK ON STUDENT LEADERSHIP AVAILABLE NOW!

2009-10-17T21:59:00.002-04:00

“Perhaps the biggest issue facing the church today may be our lack of preparing the next generation to be people of influence.”

“My experience has shown me that typical youth ministries are giving our kids short devotionals instead of the life-changing meat of God’s Word. Many, many students are indicating that the church is not relevant and that they do not feel prepared to face a life of adulthood as a solid and sound follower of Christ. It’s time to quit running youth programs and instead build ministries that are producing God-honoring spiritual leaders.”

Just a few months ago Mike Calhoun and I released our second anthology of youth ministry The Greenhouse Project: Cultivating Students of Influence – which leading youth ministry experts from across the country are describing as a call to “intentional ministry that is focused on life-change!"

This important new book is now available from Vision For Youth (http://www.visionforyouth.com/) for only $15.99 (postage included!). It contains key chapters from several leading voices of youth ministry from around the country who represent a strong local church and Bible-believing perspective of youth ministry, including: Glenn Amos from Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA; Tim Ahlgrim & Cheryl Fawcett representing Vision For Youth; Ken Rudolph (well-known speaker in Empire State churches) from Lake Ann Camp; and a host of other renowned youth ministry specialists such as: Greg Stier, Jay Strack, Steve Vandegriff, Ed Lewis, and more.

Mike and I have collected a series of significant chapters in The Greenhouse Project to adequately address this important church-wide issue of developing student leaders. As the introduction of the book states they selected the analogy of a greenhouse for the title because, “The basic purpose of a greenhouse is to prepare plants for life outside of the greenhouse. Plants are given food, water, sunshine and heat to grow enough so that they can survive and thrive outside of the greenhouse. We realize that like any analogy, our comparison between church youth ministry and greenhouses will undoubtedly break down somewhere along the line. But, the basic illustration is sound. The greenhouse is not the end result. It is a place of growth and maturity. It is a place of safety and security. The ultimate objective of a greenhouse is for the plants to make it outside of the environment inside. Life outside is the goal. A lifetime of strength and maturity is the objective.”

Readers will certainly appreciate the analogy of a greenhouse. Churches must be about the grand task of developing people with the spiritual maturity to go on for God. We want our young people to grow up strong – strong enough to live for God as adults, long after they graduate from high school.

This new book is must reading for all church leaders – not just youth workers. Our churches must refocus our attention on implementing Biblical principles into the fabric of our ministries. It’s not about programming – it must be about “cultivating people of influence.” This book will show you how it’s done. Order your copy today from: http://www.visionforyouth.com/. (Your purchase of the book directly from VFY helps support our ministry of training and encouraging youth workers & students for effective ministry.) The VFY mailing address is: PO Box 501; Chinchilla, PA 18410.

“HARVEST SUNDAY” SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 11, 2009

2009-10-08T13:37:00.001-04:00

“The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” Luke 10:2.

The catalyst for the largest mobilization of students ever for worldwide missions was a simple prayer meeting that was held during a summer afternoon thunderstorm in 1806. This “Haystack Meeting” of only five students launched what was to become the Student Volunteer Movement which is credited with motivating twenty thousand missionaries to consider global vocational ministry.

Why can’t a student-led, worldwide missions phenomenon happen again?

Our Lord Himself commanded us to pray to that end in Matthew 9:37 & 38 and Luke 10:2. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are very few. Our almighty, sovereign God will send laborers into His harvest - if we pray.

So, why aren’t we doing that?

Friends, it’s time for another prayer meeting!

According to projections by the United Nations, the total population of the world will exceed seven billion people sometime in the middle of October 2012. If the harvest of souls was great in the first century, just think of what it will be by the time our world’s population reaches seven billion. It’s more important than ever that we pray “the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers.”

It’s time to be intentional about implementing this Biblical strategy. Praying for laborers is God’s plan, and it is something that He wants to bless. If the Lord used the fervent prayers of five college students meeting under a haystack to propel almost twenty thousand missionaries into the harvest, just think of what He could do if churches all across this nation (and even around the world) would intentionally mobilize their people to pray specifically for harvest workers. Who knows what might happen? Perhaps our Lord would supernaturally bless a new prayer emphasis to launch another great awakening of students into worldwide vocational ministry!

So we are asking youth workers everywhere to prayerfully consider a specific and intentional prayer emphasis for harvest workers on Sunday, October 11, 2009. This could be huge! Perhaps through our combined efforts to be intentional about praying for harvest laborers, God may choose to launch another great movement of students heading into global missions.

Very little organization or planning is needed. All we’re asking you to do is to carve out some time on Sunday to pray specifically and intentionally for this one particular matter. Some churches have scheduled early morning prayer breakfasts; others are taking their Sunday School hour to pray; and others are scheduling time in the morning service to pray. The point is to take some time this Sunday to pray for God to call a new generation of workers into His harvest fields.

It’s time for another prayer meeting!

PRAY FOR HARVEST WORKERS – October 11, 2009

2009-09-23T12:04:00.002-04:00

The needs in our world are staggering! Many people are unemployed or are facing economic disaster. The threat of terrorism is running rampant. There are growing health scares in many countries all around the globe and significant climate changes are on the increase.

However, let me suggest that there is another need out there of much more significance than any of the problems I’ve listed here. It is the ever-growing population of our world that signifies a mounting number of people all around the world who do not know Christ. Certainly, our sovereign, omnipotent God is in control and we must trust Him to bring those He wills unto Himself. Yet, the needs are incredible.

According to the United Nations, the population of our world will grow by over a billion people in less than 12 years. A recent USAToday article also revealed statistics that indicate an increasing number of people here in the United States and around the world that do not believe in any religion whatsoever. Plus, we should consider the ramifications of the old Moody Monthly statistic that stated there are four retiring missionaries for every 1 new missionary heading out.

The stats shout the reality. We’re not keeping up! The need for harvest workers around the world is growing exponentially.
It’s amazing to think that our Lord has a plan for this ever-expanding population growth and the resulting need for more and more harvest workers. His strategy, clearly laid out for us in Scripture, is to pray.

Matthew 9:36 – 38 puts it this way, “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly [is] plentiful, but the laborers [are] few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

The Lord’s strategy is to pray for more workers. So, let’s bind together to do that.

On Sunday, October 11, 2009, Vision For Youth is calling all Gospel-preaching churches everywhere to schedule intentional prayer time for God’s people to pray for a new generation of harvest workers! We beg you; please carve out some time that Sunday to ask your people to pray for the Lord to call some from your church into His world-wide harvest fields. Prayer is His plan and His strategy. Our responsibility is to obey His mandate.

We have heard from church leaders, missionaries, and youth workers from the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America who are planning to spend intentional time that Sunday in prayer for new harvest workers. Why don’t you join them?

Historically when God’s people band together for a specific prayer campaign – God does something amazing. Remember what happened in the early 1800’s when the Student Volunteer Movement propelled close to 20,000 new American missionaries into the world’s harvest fields. And look at how the Lord is using the student prayer movement “See You At The Pole”, where this year close to 4 million American high school students prayed specifically for their schools. Maybe; just maybe, the Lord will use our “Harvest Sunday” on Sunday, October 11th to do something great as well.

Some churches are hosting early morning prayer breakfasts. Others are scheduling around-the-clock prayer vigils and other churches are taking some time during their morning service or Sunday School hour to pray specifically for new harvest workers. I also know of churches that are taking their entire Sunday School time to pray intentionally for the Lord to call people into His harvest. What you do is up to you! The important thing is to pray.

The needs of our world are staggering – it’s time for another prayer meeting!

Interesting Articles in New Leadership Journal

2009-08-15T10:48:00.003-04:00

Hey, here's something many ministry leaders are talking about these days - intergenerational ministry. If you get the chance take a look at the Summer 2009 issue of Leadership Journal - how churches are integrating an isolated generation. Let's join the conversation on this. What is the balance between traditional youth ministry and moving toward intergenerational ministry? I'm interested in what you think.

THE LARGEST GENERATION EVER

2009-05-29T12:26:00.003-04:00

The largest generation in US history is headed to college. According to Neil Howe and William Strauss, perhaps this nation’s leading generational experts (in Millennials Go to College); the peak birth year for Millennials was 1990. That would make the high school Classes of 2008 and 2009 the largest graduating classes ever. The demographics shout the facts. During the next few years the enrollment in American colleges and universities will swell to record attendance.

The church must do something about it; but undoubtedly, you’ve heard the statistics. The number one time for people to quit going to church and, in fact, walk away from their relationship with God is immediately following their graduation from high school. According to recently-released study from Lifeway’s Ed Stetzer (see Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches That Reach Them), “88% of evangelical children are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school.”

Here’s what church life experts Thom Rainer & Sam Rainer III reported in their new book, Essential Church: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts, “The church is losing the generational battle… Multitudes are dropping out of church… in order to stop the mass exodus; churches must renew their focus on those in this age group.”

Well-known youth ministry expert Chap Clark agrees and identifies a common scenario, "In most churches, when adolescents leave high school, there are few programmatic options available for them much less a welcoming community that is committed to bring them into the life of the body." (See Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers).

Many, many churches struggle with their ministry to young adults and college-age students. In my travels around the country I often ask church leaders and other ministry workers what they perceive to be the weakest programming aspect of their church’s ministry. Invariably the answer is their ministry to young adults and college age students. Young people who were once very active in church youth activities and functions during their teenage years become inactive in church following their graduation from high school.

I understand that this short article is an overly simplistic take on what is a very serious situation, but I am convinced that there are 5 basic reasons why this departure from church following youth ministry is happening.

1. Traditional youth ministry is often characterized by separating generational age groups.

I have been in so many churches where the youth room is literally as far away as possible from where the adults meet. It’s almost as if churches don’t want the two age groups to mingle at all. In fact, I recently visited one of the largest churches in America that was in the process of building an absolutely incredible building exclusively for the church’s ministry to teenagers. This edifice contained a huge gym, a concert hall, a coffee house, several offices and meeting rooms; but they built it on the church property as far away as possible from the main auditorium of the church. This practice seems to be the norm instead of the exception. Churches tend to isolate the generations along peer lines and the result is often a lack of real, meaningful relationships between teenagers and most adults. It’s therefore no wonder, when we dismiss them from youth group following high school, that they fail to make a positive transition into the adult ministries of the church. Their high school world featured a different program, often a different philosophy of ministry, a different meeting location, different pastors, different musical styles, and very few positive relationships with Godly adults. No wonder they walk away.

2. Many youth ministries fail to build loyalty and ownership to the overall church.

You’ll have to evaluate your own ministry on this one. Are your church’s teenagers more loyal to the youth group than they are to the church as a whole?

Author Robert Laurent made this observation, “The leading reason why young people leave the church is ‘lack of opportunity for meaningful involvement’.” That same idea is illustrated by Steve Wright in his book Rethink, “It seems that churches of all denominations and sizes are failing to reach teens with the Gospel and baptize them… If our programs are bigger, our budgets are bigger, our shows are bigger, and our workloads as pastors are bigger, then why are baptisms still declining?”

In other words, we must be intentional about helping our students develop a loyalty and ownership of their church. This experience from my own youth ministry provides a tangible illustration of how I learned the importance of this principle. During my early days as a youth pastor our church hosted a gym night for our teenagers to play pick-up basketball and volleyball. During the evening one of the older gentlemen in our church came into our gym and with his head down walked through our group and down the stairs at the end of that building. In just a couple of moments all of the lights in the gym went out. This dear saint had flipped the electrical circuit breaker.

He came back up the steps and was making his way across the gym floor when I stropped him by saying, “Sir, what happened?” He responded curtly, “I turned off the lights.” Curiously, I asked, “How come?” This was his rationale. “The teenagers don’t tithe, so they don’t deserve to use church electricity.” Then he abruptly walked out. We got those gym lights back on that evening, but his somewhat misguided logic helped me reevaluate our youth ministry. I determined to help the adults to see the benefits of investing in the youth and to help the youth to understand the importance of supporting the church.

That conversation helped me see the great value of building loyalty to the church as a whole within the fabric of student ministry. We began to encourage our students to tithe, to get baptized, and to serve within the parameters of the entire church. We taught our young people to participate in church work days, to attend church business meetings, to serve in various church ministries, and to get involved alongside of Godly adults in appropriate avenues of service with children and adults. The man may have been wrong in what he did but it brought about a good ending.

3. There may be a lack of clear Biblical and theological teaching in many of today’s student ministries.

Have you ever heard youth workers or other church leaders say something like this? “My teenagers know the Bible. They’ve heard it all their lives. They need to apply and live what they already know.” I urge you to check it out in your group. I recently visited a church where the youth pastor made this claim when I talked with him about the value of materials and curricula. “My students know the Bible.” He boasted. “It’s a matter of them learning how to live it out.” While I absolutely agree with my friend’s last statement, I challenged him on the first part of what he said.

He gave me the opportunity following that morning’s church service to meet with a select group of his key students to discern their level of Bible knowledge. I have to admit that this group of students had a basic knowledge of Bible-based facts (for instance, they knew the books of the Bible, they knew about several Bible characters, and they knew some of the general themes of key Bible books). However, they struggled even with a simple understanding of doctrine and theology. Although some of them had strong opinions about some of the basic Bible doctrines – they really struggled knowing how to back up what they believed with Scriptural truth.

Youth workers, we must not ignore the importance of teaching the Bible to our students. My experience tells me that this is a generation that wants to know what they believe and why. (I highly recommend that every youth worker and church leader read and devour Dr. Christian Smith’s classic report on the Millennial Generation’s religious faith Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Some of his findings will challenge your thinking and some will almost break your heart.)

Let’s begin by teaching our young people the “whole counsel of God” instead of a few quick devotionals that we prepare at the last minute.

4. Many churches are weak in developing spiritual leadership in the lives of maturing teenagers.

I am afraid that we have been acting as if our teenagers are little kids. So, we try to entertain them and spoon feed them instead of asking them for a growing commitment toward what it really means to follow Christ. I believe that the very nature of youth ministry provides an obvious visual aid of what this idea could look like. I’ll phrase it in the form of a question. Do you treat your seniors in high school the same way you treat the freshmen? Doesn’t it make sense to think that many of our upper classmen should be more mature in Christ and farther along in their spiritual development than they were as ninth graders?

Our student ministries should be places of spiritual growth and maturity that produce high school seniors, then young adults, and ultimately fully-functioning and church-active adults who demonstrate a growing commitment to Christ and His church and who live out a maturing influence on others.

5. Many churches do not intentionally help students transition from youth group into the overall life of the church.

My last observation about why this departure happens is that we are quite weak at helping teenagers transition from their culture of adolescence into a world of commitment and responsibility of adulthood. I think Chap Clark got it right (quoted above) when he talks about the “few programmatic options” available in many, many churches following high school ministry. Not only should churches make ministries for young adults a key ingredient of their overall educational plan – they should also intentionally build sensitivity toward all generations into the framework of their worship and fellowship experiences and programs.

I appreciate the intergenerational emphasis in Gary MacIntosh’s book One Church; Four Generations, “It is crucial that the worship team be intergenerational. The leaders who are seen on the platform influence the people who will attend the service. When people come to a church, one of the first things they do is look around to find people like themselves…” He makes a good point. Our churches must be God-honoring places where children, young people, young adults, and older adults alike serve Him and worship Him. It is a shame if churches are humanly willing to overlook or exclude any particular age group.

There are several practical ways churches can bridge the generation gap that exists in so many churches between teenagers and adults. First of all, I am a huge fan of building intentional mentoring connections in the church where caring and Godly adults seek to develop growing relationships with individual young people. I advocate that this can operate beyond the structure of a typical youth ministry that features a small team of adults who serve as “official” youth workers. Churches can recruit a larger group of caring adults to serve as spiritual mentors for the teenagers. These adults can form positive relationships with kids that will carry over from youth ministry into adult ministry with this by-product: kids will get to know some of the adults on a personal level.

Another way I’ve seen churches help graduating high school seniors make this transition is through an intergenerational approach to small groups. If your church is working on a small group ministry – why not consider making each of the groups intergenerational in nature? I have seen this to be a very positive thing for the churches when young adults and older adults meet together in small group settings for Bible study, prayer, and fellowship.

Young adults and “college-agers” may be the largest un-reached people group in this entire country. Church leaders must take an evaluative and discerning look at their own churches to see how they are doing in developing an effective ministry with this demographic cohort. Don’t forget that this group does not need to be treated like teenagers. However, they do crave and need close fellowship with other believers in their age group and they are searching for real answers for life’s big questions.

WEEKEND MINISTRIES

2009-05-29T10:13:00.003-04:00

Readers: Please pray for me the next few weeks as I travel to churches speaking and presenting my ministry with Vision For Youth. I am in the process of raising financial support and we certainly covet prayer from our friends. This is not something that comes easy for me and yet I absolutely love sharing my burden for students and my vision for how God can use VFY to impact the world. Please pray!

By the way, if you are interested in learning more about my ministry with Vision For Youth take a look at my presentation on Flickr by clicking on the Vision For Youth Presentation link.

MAKING THE ALL STAR TEAM

2009-05-15T12:27:00.006-04:00

Many who know me will remember that I am a big basketball fan. My office walls are lined with old Sports Illustrated covers helping me recall the past exploits of some of my favorite all-time basketball players. I have the covers of Pistol Pete Maravich, Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and the more-recent Lebron James. Also on my wall, however is another picture of a basketball player. Only this particular photograph is a complete fake.

A few years ago as a Father’s Day present my sons took me to a theme restaurant in Orlando, Florida, called “NBA City” where I donned a Detroit Pistons uniform (some of you will remember – Grant Hill’s days with the Pistons) for a make-believe photo shoot of me playing in the NBA. This 8x10 framed shot hangs in my office and shows me dunking over the likes of Kevin Garnett in an NBA all-star game. Even casual observers of this photograph should realize that this is a “Photoshop” wonder – it was made up by a skilled graphic artist on a computer and that it’s not real. This photo (gray hair, over-weight and all) has no real place alongside the other basketball immortals like Dr. J, the Big O, and Pistol Pete.

I have had the God-given opportunity the last few months to actually make the all-star team. No, not as a basketball player, (those days are long gone, I’m afraid) but as a youth worker – as I worked alongside my good friend, Mike Calhoun, to edit and develop “The Greenhouse Project: Cultivating Students of Influence” a major anthology on the overall topic of developing students of influence.

Let me list some of the “legends” of youth ministry who collaborated with us on this book:

-Greg Steir – the well-known president of “Dare2Share” and the author of “Ministry Mutiny”
-Alvin Reid – professor and author of “Raising the Bar: Ministry to Youth in the New Millennium”
-Alex McFarland – well-known youth ministry apologetics expert
-Steve Vandergriff – youth ministry professor at Liberty University and co-author of “Timeless Youth Ministry”
-Cheryl Fawcett – youth ministry educator and the author of “I Have a Question About God”
-Tim Ahlgrim – my good friend and the national director for Vision For Youth, Inc.
-Ken Rudolph – one of the very best youth speakers I have ever heard
-Glenn Amos – another good friend and one of the nation’s leading experts on steering kids to vocational ministry

This has been an incredible privilege for me to have been involved in this project. I am absolutely convinced that the development of student leaders should be the primary focus of today’s youth ministry. Our kids are leaving church once they graduate from high school and in fact, are often checking out of participation in youth group even before they graduate.

Youth workers, it’s time to raise the bar in church youth ministry. It’s time for leadership and commitment – and this book (written by a collection of youth ministry all stars) will show you how to do it!

You can order a pre-publication copy of our book (and receive a free copy of the accompaning student guide) from Word of Life at:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wolstore.org%2Fp-1144-pre-orderthe-greenhouse-project-by-mike-calhoun-comes-with-a-free-student-guide.aspx&h=52d163b0e405b45971f6471296553e06

THE YOUTH SHALL LEAD THEM: WHAT CHURCH LEADERS MUST LEARN FROM STUDENT MINISTRY

2007-11-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

I’ve jokingly told my youth ministry students for years that if senior pastors would run their churches like youth pastors run their youth groups, we’d have growing churches all around the world. I’m being somewhat facetious, of course, but I’ve often wondered why our churches tend to develop one style of ministry for students and a totally different ministry approach for adults. Then a veteran youth pastor mentioned a concept to me the other day that I want to examine with greater scrutiny. In fact, I would love to get feedback on this theory from youth pastors, lead pastors, students, and former student participants in various local church youth groups. (Keep reading. I will tell you about this particular conversation in just a few moments.)

Why don’t churches operate like youth groups? Maybe the answer to this question is more important than any of us could ever imagine.

You’ve heard the statistics. The number one time for people to quit going to church is immediately following high school graduation. The published drop out rate has been reported to be anywhere from around sixty percent to close to seventy-five percent. (I tackle this problem and offer proactive, practical, and salient solutions in my interactive Next Generation Seminar from RBP Student Ministries. See
http://www.rbpstore.org/about/rbpTrainingng.cfm. I am currently in the process of scheduling other seminar dates and locations around the country. Check back to that Web site often for more specific details – or contact me directly for more information on how you can be involved in one of these seminars.)

This brings me back to the conversation I had a week or so ago with an experienced and knowledgeable youth pastor who serves in a balanced and respected church in the northern Midwest. We engaged in a lengthy discussion about why this exodus from church is happening among college age adults who were once actively engaged in various church youth groups. We talked about the facets of traditional youth ministry which may lead to this scenario occurring so universally in various denominations and fellowships of churches. Our conversation led us to discuss possible causes and potential solutions to this crisis facing so many of our churches. I began to rehearse some of the common characteristics of conventional youth groups that undoubtedly lead to a migration from church once the energy and enthusiasm of youth ministry had faded into the typical adult world of the church.

My friend than made a comment which has challenged my thinking ever since. “Perhaps we’ve got it all wrong,’ he mused. “What if it’s the other way around? What if our kids leave the church because traditional adult is irrelevant, boring, and impractical to them? We’re blaming youth group, but it might be the church as a whole that’s the problem.”

I am very seldom at a loss for words, but that afternoon the questions from this veteran youth worker stopped me in my tracks. What if he was right? Maybe, just maybe, we are doing things right in youth group. Maybe we’re on to something there that the church as a whole should embrace and adapt. Maybe the characteristics of a typical youth ministry are exactly the things that would keep students in church. The common reaction to this departure from church is to blame the youth ministry and to assume that the adult world in our churches is organized and structured correctly.
We hear the above quoted statistics and tend to blame student ministry for its weaknesses. We cite our failure to develop healthy and growing intergenerational relationships and the lack of clear Biblical teaching as the reasons our kids walk away from church. But, what if the church as a whole would adopt a “youth group approach” to ministry? And, what if our churches would implement a holistic and comprehensive ministry strategy that would seamlessly transition our children into youth ministry and then our teenagers into adult ministry?

My friend’s question drove me to begin a process of outlining the basic ingredients of a successful and effective student ministry. I want to flesh these things out in future writing projects, but I will list some key items here in an effort to help readers crystallize their thinking on this subject:

Effective ministry MUST be based on a Biblical and practical philosophy of ministry that includes a clear and concise mission statement and practical, specific, and all-inclusive means of reaching the objective (2 Timothy 3:10-17.)

Effective ministry MUST develop a complete educational strategy (commonly referred to as a “scope & sequence’) that defines key attributes of spiritual maturity through the Word of God (Ephesians 4:11-16.).
Effective ministry MUST include instruction in basic spiritual disciplines (such as daily devotions, Scripture memory, and prayer) and MUST include practical ways to implement those habits in life (James 1:22.)
Effective ministry MUST support and equip parents as the primary influence upon the lives of their children (Ephesians 6:1-4.)

Effective ministry MUST call for a commitment to Christ that includes an invitation to personally accept Christ as personal Savior and the willingness to completely follow the will of God (Romans 10:9-10.)

Effective ministry MUST include ways for believers to genuinely experience worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in daily life (John 4:21-24.)

Effective ministry MUST feature some extended time away from the stress of everyday life in order to people to commune with their Lord (Mark 6:31-32.)

Effective ministry MUST provide various ways for believers to have real fellowship with other believers (1 John 3:16-17.)

Effective ministry MUST implement a strategy for equipping believers for successful global outreach (Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8.)

Effective ministry MUST provide a way to equip every believer to serve the Lord in significant and meaningful ministries (Ephesians 4:11-16) which includes the development of the believers’ spiritual gifts.

Effective ministry MUST include a means of Biblical accountability that develops a positive peer pressure (Hebrews 10:24.)

Effective ministry MUST develop healthy and growing intergenerational relationships (1 Thessalonians 2:8)

Effective ministry MUST result in intentional and specific discipleship where spiritually mature leaders are discipling younger emerging leaders for on-going next generation ministries (2 Timothy 2:2.)

What do you think about this issue? Are we on to something here? Do you think it's possible that our high school graduates are leaving the church because "big church" is boring and perhaps irrelevant to them after their six or more years in youth group? Or, perhaps it’s not that church is necessarily irrelevant – it’s just different than what they are used to in youth ministry.

The real question now, of course, is what do we do about this? Let’s agree that this premise requires at least a response of some kind. Some, I'm sure, will read this, think it through - and yet come to the conclusion that although the above listed mandates make sense, it really is the youth ministry's fault that kids are leaving the church when they graduate. Much of the current debate about the subject of kids leaving the church is leaning in that direction. So many people are saying, “It is the youth group’s fault, so let’s fix the problem there.” But, please, I beg you; don't blow this off without honestly and intentionally thinking it through! I could list here the numbers that prove this point right now - one way or the other. But, you know how statistics work, right? We can find research to prove almost anything. As you know, this whole scenario has become one of the most heavily researched issues in modern church life. You guessed it: senior pastors and older people tend to blame student ministry and, of course, kids and many youth workers accuse the adults.

It’s time to get serious about this. Our traditional dualistic approach to ministry (where our youth groups are operated one way and our church as a whole is organized in a totally different manner) must cease. I’m convinced that if we’d run “big church” like a youth group there would be positive and continued growth over the long haul.

The Only Plan for Reaching the World - Pray for Laborers

2007-03-19T14:51:00.000-04:00

Our Lord Himself said it best – “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.” It is obvious from the text that Christ was speaking about a harvest of souls. He was moved with compassion because people were lost and headed for a Christ-less eternity. His simple yet profound strategy for reaching these lost masses then and for centuries to come was to “pray the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers.” That was the Lord’s plan then – and that His plan now. We are to pray for laborers to reach the harvest of “sheep” that were “scattered abroad.” (See Matthew 9:36 – 38.)

If the harvest of people needing a savior then was “great” – just think of how it could be described today. The world’s population will soon reach 7 billion people – most of whom do not know the Lord. In fact, over 124 million people are born each year around the world.
How on earth can we expect to reach a harvest of 7 billion people? Let me suggest that the only way possible to reach this over-whelming multitude of people is to actively and immediately implement Christ’s strategy of prayer for laborers. The only strategy we have is to pray for laborers. The harvest was great then – it is mind-boggling now. Christ was moved with compassion then – we must be moved with compassion now! The Lord implemented one strategy then – and it’s still His only strategy for reaching the world today. We must pray for laborers! There is no other option.

We can design all the methods we want to reach people for Christ and to impact the next generation for world-wide ministry. We can implement all the man-made plans we want, but until we recommit ourselves and our ministries to Christ’s original strategy we will fail miserably. Christ’s plan then must be our first priority now. We must pray for laborers!

Youth workers: this letter is an appeal to prayer – a prayer for laborers. Please, please – do everything you can, within your sphere of influence to encourage all believers to pray specifically and fervently that the Lord will send laborers into His harvest. Christ assured us that this plan would work. More than ever before the sheep are scattered abroad. There is a world-wide need for laborers to go into the harvest. The answer is to pray! Pray for laborers.

My prayer is that this appeal will be the start of a youth ministry driven campaign – where youth workers all around the country gather their teams of youth workers, the parents of teenagers, and our students to pray specifically for laborers to go into the harvest. The harvest certainly is ready, but the real need is for laborers. We must pray for laborers.

Take some time this week to motivate your students to pray that laborers will go into the harvest. We all know that as God’s people pray a burden will grow in the hearts of individuals so that they may prayerfully consider what God would have them to do. Plus, God answers prayer. So, we must pray for laborers. Spend time during Sunday School and youth meetings in prayer for laborers. Call special prayer meetings before or after your meetings to pray specifically for laborers.

Encourage parents of teenagers to pray for laborers. Last summer I met with hundreds of youth workers who collectively agreed that one of the biggest struggles they face was trying to convince parents to support students heading toward ministry. Maybe it’s time to quit struggling with this and instead call on parents to pray. As they pray for laborers undoubtedly the Lord will work in some of their hearts creating an openness to encourage their students to full-time, vocational ministry.

It’s time to rally the church to pray for laborers. Put a plea in the church bulletin and in your PowerPoint announcements. Encourage all generations to pray for laborers. Motivate the children to pray; encourage your senior citizens to pray.

When you meet with other youth workers spend some time in prayer for laborers to go into the harvest. When you go to pastors’ meetings encourage them to pray. Send out letters. Post announcements on web sites. Do whatever you can do. Just pray!! Pray for laborers.
This is what Christ wants us to do and it’s what works.

I am praying that youth workers everywhere will get serious about the harvest; so serious, in fact, that we’ll take it to God. We’ll pray and we’ll use every ounce of influence we have to get others to pray. Pray for laborers!

Please!

Mel's New Book: Pushing the Limits

2007-03-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

Pushing the Limits - Unleashing the Potential of Student Ministries is a new book that everyone involved in youth ministry should own. It is a 224 page anthology of down-to-earth, practical articles written by veterans of student ministry who passionately believe in intentional strategies for ministry.

Mike Calhoun, Vice President at Word of Life, and I served as co-editors on this project that has been several years in the making. Fourteen additional writers contributed to create the fifteen chapters.With compelling titles like “What are you going to be when you grow up?”, “Can a girl do that?, “It ain’t a one-man show” and more, you will want to purchase a copy for yourself and anyone else who shares your passion for reaching the next generation.