revkevjr Church, Discipleship, Fellowship, Life, Small Groups, Student Ministry, Time Management, Youth Ministry

Too Busy Not to Be There

Fall is upon us. Everything is cranking back up. School, sports, band, chorus, clubs, church programs, and more.

Years ago author Bill Hybles wrote a book entitled Too Busy Not to Pray. He was onto something. As a leader and pastor of a huge church the demands upon him were great. Prayer is one of those things that can easily seem like a waste of time when you have so much work to do. But Bill understood that the busier he was, the more he needed to pray, because by praying he was admitting that he was completely dependent on God. In prayer he spoke with God about the burdens on his heart, the weight of his responsibilities, and asked God to show him what he should be putting his efforts into that day. He confessed his weaknesses and asked God for His strength to do the work God was asking him to do. He was simply too busy not to pray.

One of the common things I hear from both parents and students on a regular basis is that they are just too busy. “Megan has a big test to study for,” they say, or “Ryan has a lot of homework,” or “I have practice after school.” I don’t just hear these things from other students or parents; these realities are in my own home! I have teenagers, and our family is right there with you. The struggle is real!

And yet, I want to challenge all of us to have a paradigm shift. The truth is we are all busy! When I speak to students and parents, it is this reality that drives me to say, “Our busyness is precisely why we must make time to be together.” I wrote this down a few years ago: Our feet reveal our values. Where we choose to spend our time communicates what is most important to us. When, in the middle of our busy week, we take a time out — when we choose to stop for a couple of hours to take a breather, to be with other Christians who have also stepped out of the rat race to catch their breath — we are saying some important things.

We are testifying that we are followers of the way of Jesus not simply minions of our culture. We are getting together to hear what God says about how to live well.

We are humbly admitting our weakness as humans, and our need for rest and refreshment. We can’t just go, go, go all of the time. Even Jesus (God living as a human) needed time away from His busy schedule, and He told His disciples to disconnect from their busyness as well. (See Mark 1:35-37; 6:31)

We are confessing that our strength comes from the Lord, not simply from our efforts and will power.

We are reminding ourselves that we are not alone. We offer one another the gift of fellowship. We are supporting our fellow-strugglers by gathering together to share and listen and pray for one another.

And finally, we are obeying God’s Word which says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another…” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

My challenge to you is to not see youth group, small group, or church generally as just another thing you have to do — an item on a checklist. It is not extra credit; it is a core requirement of life. Taking a time out isn’t the most efficient use of time, but it is essential to your health.

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I am NOT Called to Youth Ministry!

surprised-look“I really feel called to youth ministry,” the young man across the table said to me. As a youth pastor who pours his life into students, for years these have been words I love to hear. Especially when they come from students that I have personally invested in. Such was the case of the the young man I was looking at that day.

I was so excited. I was proud of him. He was a man after my own heart. And yet, unbeknownst to him, for quite some time I had been wrestling with the exact words he said.

I feel called to youth ministry. 

I understand what this young man was trying to communicate. I grew up hearing people say they felt called to ministry. It’s the old way of saying you feel God wants you to serve Him in ministry, often in a vocational sense. I’ve used the phrase myself many times, and I still find myself saying it from time to time. And yet, through the years, I’ve come to realize that it is actually not an accurate statement.

This really struck me one day while I was meditating the words of Mark 3:15-15 which say, “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.”

When I read those words, I felt God speak to me so clearly: Kevin, don’t confuse your calling with your assignment. I have assigned you to youth ministry for this season of your life, but that is not your calling.

Did you catch it? Jesus called to Him those He wanted “that they might be with Him.”

THAT

is

our

calling!

Our calling is to Jesus Himself. Our calling is not to ministry; our calling is to be lovers of Jesus. Our calling is not to doing, our calling is to being — being with Jesus! In John 15:5 Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Our calling is to relationship. Our calling is to live intimately connected to Jesus. When we are connected to Jesus, He imparts His truth into our hearts. He begins to speak our identity into us. He reveals His heart to us. He makes His desires known to us.

It is then out of our calling that Jesus commissions us to go into the world. Jesus did indeed have a work for the disciples to do. And Jesus has a work for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Jesus gives us assignments — places us in positions, relationships, situations — for us to advance God’s kingdom. As we stay close to the heart of God in Jesus, we learn that our God is a God of mission, and He sends us to declare and demonstrate the good news. Our assignments may (and often will) change, but our calling never does. 

I am not called to ministry, and neither are you. We are called to Jesus.

Are you living in your calling today? Are you drawing near to Jesus? If you are, you will surely begin to feel His heart for people and situations, and you will hear His voice and the promptings of the Holy Spirit to respond and do something about what He is revealing to you.

 

revkevjr Campus Ministry, Christianity, Church, Student Ministry, Youth Ministry

When The Icing Becomes The Cake: 4 Ways Youth Culture Has Changed and What it Means for Youth Ministry

We’ve all seen and felt the affects of the rapidly changing youth culture. Those of us who work with students have felt the impact in a very personal way. Other than the occasional rookie who has just taken over a non-existent youth ministry and now has a dozen kids, or someone who is new to their church and is in the midst of the “Let’s go check out the new youth pastor” phase, I haven’t spoken with a youth worker in a long time who is experiencing a boom in attendance at youth group. Most of them are doing everything they can to reach and disciple students, and they are feeling heat from pastors and boards pressing them for numbers.

We now interrupt this article with an important announcement: Cake icing. I love cake icing. Remind me to come back to that.

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I recently talked to a very good friend who is an excellent, long-time youth worker. She had a pretty happening youth ministry, and would often have 50 students coming out to events. But over the past few years attendance has declined, and she has been running more like 25. She has outstanding character, a heart for students, and she works extraordinarily hard. Students and parents love her and her family. So imagine her shock when, after more than 15 years at her church, she was fired. The church leadership decided that the reason their numbers weren’t as high as before was because she was “too old.” I have to tell you something. Her age had little to nothing to do with kids not coming out in droves like they used to.

It’s not just her church. Our whole region is down when it comes to youth group attendance. In fact, it’s not just our area. This is the trend across the country. Sadly, we are losing great youth workers as a result of the challenges of ministering to students presented by our changing culture.

In his excellent book Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World, Brock Morgan points out that many of the pastors and elders in churches today were youth leaders or students back in the 80s and 90s. Back then, all a youth pastor had to do was say they were having free pizza and giving away t-shirts and kids would line up around the block. Not so anymore. The prophet Bob Dylan rightly said, “Times they are a-changin’.”

So, how is youth culture different today than even 10-15 years ago? There are many ways, but let me share 4 that really stand out to me:

1. Busyness. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York. When I was a kid, my afternoons consisted of eating a snack, doing homework, then going outside to shoot hoops. I was looking for things to do! So when my youth group had an event, I was chomping at the bit to go. I now live on Long Island, and the students in my context have a very different after-school routine. It’s off to sports practice, then mom picks them up and whisks them off to tutoring, then they grab some food at the drive-thru on the way to music lessons. They get home at 9:30pm, and the poor kid still hasn’t done homework. So, the kid stays up until 1am doing homework, only to have to get up at 6am to do it all over again the next day. It’s insane!

When I started off in youth ministry, I would get calls from moms asking how they could pay for their kid to go on the retreat. Now I get calls from moms apologizing that their kid can’t go on the retreat because they’re taking their 7th Practice (Practice! We’re talking about practice!) SAT. When I travel back up to the town I grew up in, I often feel like I am in a time warp. I say that because I know there are certain parts of the country where this point might not be as noticed or felt as others, but I would still contend that the level of busyness is a major shift in youth culture as a whole. In his book Simple Solutions for Families in the Fast Lane, my friend and author Timothy Smith says, “A generation ago the latchkey kid was the poster child for neglect; nowadays it might be the overscheduled kid who never rests but is shuttled from activity to activity.”

2. Technology. No surprise here. We all know how technology has changed the world we live in and affected the way our students function. When I was a kid, my parents always used to get on me about walking with my head up. I was always walking around with my head down, and I was missing what was going on around me. But I was looking at my feet because, as a clumsy teenager, I didn’t want to trip and look dumb in front of girls. (Of course, I probably looked dumb staring at my feet as I walked.) Today, kids walking with their heads down is the norm. But they aren’t looking at their feet. They’re looking at their Feet App. Perhaps you’ve seen YouTube videos like the one of the lady falling into the fountain at the mall because she was texting and walking. According to Common Sense Media, the average teenager spends more than 9 hours a day on media. Cell phones have led students (and adults!) to become so fixated on what’s going on in everyone else’s life that they don’t really know what’s going on in everyone else’s lives because they aren’t looking them in the eye anymore. And, when they aren’t seeing what everybody else is wearing or doing, they are self-absorbed, focusing on how they are presenting themselves to everyone else.

3. Accessibility. Remember the hard work of looking up someone’s number in the phone book? Remember going to the library to look up information in the Encyclopedia? (The struggle was real!) Remember when looking at seedy material meant taking the risk of being seen reaching for the top shelf of the magazine rack in the gas station or grocery store? Remember when getting drugs meant going to a shady part of town and meeting someone face-to-face for an exchange of money for goods? Technology has forever changed the accessibility of information and exposure to material. A parent recently commented to me, “When we closed the door of our house when I was growing up, the world stayed outside. Now it is inside our houses.”

4. Intensity. And the culmination of these has led to students living in a world of increased intensity. Busyness has led to higher levels of pressure and stress. Furthermore, while kids today still have the same fundamental struggles as previous generations (sex, drugs, alcohol, etc.) the evolution of technology and accessibility have intensified the battle with temptation.

So how has all of this affected our ministry to youth? On the one hand, nothing has changed. Youth ministry is still fundamentally about loving students to Jesus. That has never changed. The students we work with need to know they are loved, accepted, belong, and that God has a purpose for their lives. And youth ministry still requires caring adults who love Jesus and want to help students love Jesus.

But here’s what I have found: Because of the afore mentioned changes in youth culture, the way we access students in order to minister to them has changed. As a long-time local church youth worker, for years I could bank on the fact that I would have the opportunity to impact students at least once a week when they came to church for youth group. I put a lot of time into my messages, we worked hard on our program, and we made sure that we connected with students relationally before and after services. Anything I did beyond that — going to kids’ games, concerts, plays, etc. — was icing on the cake.

Cake icing. Thanks for reminding me to come back to it. I love cake icing! I remember once my wife was making some cake, and she had leftover frosting which she placed in the refrigerator. One day, she went to get that icing out of the refrigerator only to realize that someone had apparently broken into our house and stolen it. We were furious! I was grieving. Mysteriously and thankfully they left all of our jewelry and expensive items behind. I may or may not have known the thief. When it comes to cake, I would almost say that you can skip the bread part altogether. Do we really need all of that fluff? Just give us that that sweet, delicious icing!

OK, back to youth ministry. Here’s the thing. In spite of all the time I spent in the kitchen (the church) planning programs and events and preparing sermons (making cake bread), I have been around youth ministry long enough to realize that kids remember very few of the messages I preached. What they remember, what has proven to be the most meaningful to them, is the icing — the times I left my church world and entered theirs. They remember when I showed up at their game. They remember when I came to their play, their karate black belt test, their concert. They remember the card I sent them when they hadn’t been to youth group in 3 months due to their sports. Not only is the icing of youth ministry the most fun part of the job, it’s also the most important, and the most impactful. The cake bread may be good, but the icing is where it’s at. In a day when many kids are finding themselves disconnected from church, it is the job of the church to go to them. The church is fundamentally a sent-people. It is our job as youth workers to be the church; to be church and take church to students.

The game has changed, folks! If you are a youth worker you know this. But it can be difficult to explain to pastors, elders, and church leaders who grew up in a time when everybody went to church, or, when all you had to do was announce free food and kids would come running to you like you were giving away free money.

I agree with Brock Morgan that we need to change our thinking, especially when it comes to the issue of numbers. It’s not time to stop counting, rather, it’s time to change what we are counting. Rather than asking how many kids came into our church building this week, how about we start asking: How many kids did you take out for coffee this week? How many kids did you text? How many leaders did you invest in? How many school campuses were you on? How many of your student’s friends were you able to meet at the football game? How many parents did you have a conversation with? Instead of asking who wasn’t at small group, ask your leaders if they know why those students weren’t there (practice, game, homework, out of town, etc.) and how they reached out to let the students know they were thought of and missed?

Rather than writing off youth as rebellious, irreligious, or disinterested because they didn’t come to our programs; rather than getting upset at parents because they didn’t bring them; rather than condemning youth workers for not being able to get kids to come to the church, let’s celebrate when youth workers capitalize on opportunities to impact a students’ lives by simply entering their worlds. Let’s communicate to students that they don’t just count when they show up at church to support what we are doing, but that they count, period. They matter to us. They can see, feel, and know we love them because, like Jesus, we embrace our call to incarnate the gospel, and we “move into their neighborhood” as Eugene Peterson says Jesus did when He became a human (John 1:14, The Message).

The icing is the cake. So …

be Incarnational. The ministry of presence is one of the most powerful things you can engage in. Go to students’ events. You might not get to have much conversation with them, even after the game, because they are often whisked away to the bus, but just hearing you cheering in the stands, seeing you waiving to them or congratulating them after the game will leave a lasting impression.

be Innovative. Find creative ways to enter students’ worlds, including their online worlds. Use the evolving technology to your advantage. When you do you are speaking to students in a language they understand.

be Intentional. Think through ways you can connect with students on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. One of my definitions of a good youth worker is a person who lives their life for Jesus and takes a student along for the ride. What are you doing in the course of your normal routines that you might be able to invite a student to do with you once in a while? Think strategically about how you can build relationship and invest in their spiritual growth while also getting things done that you had to do anyway.

and finally, Immerse Students in Grace. Just last week I took some time to send cards to 6 different students that I know have not been to youth group for months. Why hadn’t they been there? You guessed it. Busyness with sports. I had been keeping tabs on them, and when their seasons were wrapping up I sent them each a card to congratulate them and to let them know that we had been thinking about them, cheering for them, and missing them. I got several Thank You texts, but one really stood out. It was from a mom. She wrote, “Our daughter is choosing her college tonight. She was on the phone for over an hour with her sisters … After the call I finally got her to come downstairs for dinner and your note had come today. She opens your note [with a Starbucks gift card] and just starts shaking her head … ‘I was actually thinking about going to Starbucks tonight,’ she says. And then she teared up a little. God has been two steps ahead of her in the last 24 hours, and this was just one more validation of that fact in a CRAZY DIZZY whirl of choices and options…. I’m crying I’m so happy…. I just wanted you to know that your note — free of judgment (she’s been SO unavailable) and full of encouragement really gave her a boost and a seat at her youth group’s table….” This girl probably won’t remember the message I preached last week that I spent twenty hours preparing (bread), but she will probably never forget the note that took me just two minutes to write (icing). The icing has always been a part of youth ministry. Now, I believe, more than ever before, the icing isn’t just a nice compliment to the bread part of the cake, the icing IS the cake!

revkevjr Christianity, Church, Compassion, Discipleship, Evangelism, Faith, Fellowship, Jesus, Kindness, Milestones, Ministry, Missions, Outreach, Pastoring, Student Ministry, Travel, Worship, Youth Ministry

Kerri Ann’s Baptism Video

From 4/6/16: Kerri Ann is a resident at West Haven home for the developmentally disabled in Jamaica. She just exides Jesus! Mission Discovery knows her well from their years of visits. She told us she wanted a Bible, and yesterday Hannah told her she would give her her Bible! Today she delivered it and you should have seen the smile on her face. She has also been asking to be baptized for quite some time. Unfortunately her church would not baptize her because of their insistence that it must be by immersion, which is impossible for this young lady. Jen and Scott approached the director and asked if we might be able to baptize her today, and he agreed! We asked her if she wanted to be baptized today, and she lit up. When we gave her the news that she could, she had no words and simply covered her mouth and cried tears of joy. Nathan from MD drove up, and we all gathered under the shade of a tree where she professed her love for Jesus, and Jen, Nathan, and I had the tremendous joy of pouring a bottle of water over her head to baptize her. It was one of the most sacred thigs I have ever witnessed or been a part of!

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Join us for Easter at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury!

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The Problem with Being a GPS Christian

google-maps-mobile-smartphone-ss-1920“I used to have a good sense of direction. I could find my way around places. If I got lost, I could figure out how to get back on the right road. But now, without a GPS, I can’t find my way out of a paper bag.” These were the words of my friend as we were driving in another state recently. We were mindlessly following the directions of the GPS, and it was doing things like leading us off of main roads into neighborhoods only to put us right back on the main road again, going in the same direction we had been traveling; sending us down dead-end streets; and telling us we had arrived at our destination only to find ourselves staring at an empty field where it insisted we would find a restaurant. Perhaps you have had similar experiences with your GPS.

GPSs are great tools. They can help us get to our destination, give us real-time traffic alerts, help us find our way when we are lost, and they come with an option to speak to us in a British accent, which makes us feel classy. But what if your phone battery dies while you are driving? What if it can’t get service? What if the GPS’s latest update does not show that a road is closed? The danger of relying on technology so heavily is that you may never learn, or may forget, the skills needed to find your way around.

As I was thinking about what my friend said, I thought about how sometimes we can become so dependent on other people, or programs, or events to connect us to God that we never learn how to connect, or forget how to connect, with God ourselves. While it is great to have other people that can help you grow in God, like your parents, pastors, small group leaders, and friends; what would your walk with God look like if those people were not around? The writer of Hebrews said, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (5:12-14).

Babies are are dependent on others for everything. Adults are responsible for taking care of themselves. When you are a new Christian, you need someone to give you the milk of God’s Word. But eventually you need to grow up and feed yourself the meat of the Bible. God has given you His Holy Spirit (YOU! Not just your parents, not just your pastors, not just your small group leaders … YOU!) to teach you what God’s Word means and to give you the strength to live according to what He shows you.
Just like there is nothing wrong with a GPS, there is nothing wrong with having people in your life to help you grow. In fact, they are necessary! BUT, those people aren’t meant to just give you all of the answers, their job is to help you learn how to think biblically and how to listen to the Holy Spirit within YOU! Their job isn’t to study the Bible and hear from God for you, their job is to help you hear from God yourself. Ask yourself:

In what ways am I being too dependent on others for my spiritual growth?

How does God want me to start feeding myself spiritually? What are some steps I need to take?

revkevjr Church, Discipleship, Fellowship, Leadership, Ministry, Small Groups, Student Ministry, Team, Volunteers, Youth Ministry

Small Group Kits

Small groups are the most important thing we do in our ministry to students. Today I put together kits for each of our groups to help them maximize engagement and eqip our leaders to be even more effective. You can put all kinds of things into a box like this. Our leaders already have thri curriculum content, so here’s what we put in ours:

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Youth Winter Fest 2016 Recap Video

We have just returned from another amazing encounter with God at Youth Winter Fest. We are so thankful to all of the churches, leaders, students, and staff from 15 different local churches who came together as ONE CHURCH this weekend! God is building His kingdom and it is so exciting to be a part of it. Our speaker for the weekend was Brock Morgan, and we were led in worship by Tim Timmons. So great! Make plans now to join us next year January 6-8, 2017 at Tuscarora Inn in Mt. Bethel, PA!

revkevjr Christianity, Church, Faith, History, Journey, Ministry, Outreach

Shelter Rock Church WESTBURY Campus Launched Today!!!