Not Again

As a youth pastor, how do you be what your students need when THIS happens?

Ministry on Zero getting love

From the AZ Republic.

This happened

… an actual conversation in my junior high guys small group last night:

Student #1 : “Hey I heard that Noah’s ark is on a mountain in the Sahara Desert…”

Student #2 : “What?! I heard they found a piece of it and it’s in a museum in Russia…”

Student #3 : “Yeah, I heard that too!”

Me : “Really? Well, I heard they found Megatron buried in ice in Antarctica.”

*confusion, silence*

I know this is old news…

…but I just watched this for the first time.

A few thoughts:

First, I think Jordin Sparks rocks. She seems as thought someone just plucked her right out of her youth group and like many teens, she isn’t afraid to speak her heart, even on the biggest stage. Love it.

Second, the next time you hear people lamenting how awful times are today and how “those teenagers” just aren’t like they were when I was one, blah, blah, blah remind them of things like this. Teens have and always will be rebellious, its just that today, their rebellion is broadcast live via TV, the Internet, and phones. Those same teens are also rebelling against cultural norms that are harmful and reckless.

Third, notice how Hannity basically says that the opposite of Christian is Liberal at the beginning of the interview. This is EXACTLY what I am talking about when I say that political hard liners are trying to hijack and pimp Jesus for political gain. Its a disgrace.

Sermon on the Mount thoughts

Lately, I’ve been teaching on and studying the famous Sermon on the Mount this last month or so for our Jesus series in student ministries… along with the Jesus for President in bigchurch. I have never wrestled with, struggled over, and learned as much from this part of the New Testament ever before. I want to share with you my bullet thoughts:

• -All things considered, Jesus is easily the most political figure ever.
• -At times, Jesus teaches with a mathematical pentameter… Five, six, seven, eight, “You have heard it said BLANK but I tell you BLANK.” Its soothing… like a lullabye.
• -The type of holiness Jesus is calling listeners to is impossible for man to achieve (never think hateful thought, don’t lust) which just reaffirms that He was actually talking about much more than rules.
• -To truly think about the better way of living that Jesus is talking about is a thing of beauty. What would that look like for MY life?
• -He loves us. His ministry on earth, His words, His actions, show His insane love for us.
• -He was truly a candidate of change… to the point that the true change He was speaking of was ONLY made possible with His death and resurrection. Try that on for size, Obama and McPalin.
• -Finally and thanks to my buddy Matt… what rules/box/restrictions have I put on my faith? In living with other humans, the question should NOT be “Are you saved?” but instead, “Are you loved by God?” The answer for every human is, “YES!” God loves everyone. Matt posed me this question, “You love your boys, right?… is there ANYTHING they could EVER do to make you want them to spend the rest of their lives in torment and away from you?” No.

If you haven’t in a while, you should read the sermon that was delivered on a mountainside 2,000 years ago.

Ministry on Zero

The experiment has been going on for about a month now, but the blog was finally launched today. Check it out at www.ministryonzero.com.

So far, we have managed to do student ministry in a local church with NO BUDGET. The students have been giving of their OWN coin and have ALMOST MATCHED our monthly budget from last year. So far, so good!

From the mailbag

I usually don’t like getting email from parents. If you are a youth pastor, you immediately can relate. Most of the time when a parent emails, it is to demand a custom-tailored event to fit their student’s schedule and preferences or to complain that their student had their underwear soaked in IcyHot cream at summer camp. But this morning, I got one that made me laugh and encouraged me… the names have been changed to protect those who need protecting:

Our son Joseph is an (incoming) 7th grader. I wanted to give you some feedback on the “we have no budget - so learn to tithe” campaign from a kid’s perspective. When the idea was first introduced in June, my son said (and I quote) “That’s just crazy. I don’t know what they are thinking. They’ll never get any kids to go along with that.”

We went on a month-long vacation, and his first day back at church was last weekend. All week long, he walked around saying “You’ll have to make some tough choices: M&Ms…or God, sour straws…or Jesus, a crunch bar…or baby Jesus in a manger. Choose wisely.” You can bet that today he brought his 10% from mowing the lawn, and threw in an extra dollar from his stash. You certainly have your finger on the pulse of junior high boys!

When was the last time you sent or received and encouraging email?

The Bricktestament

If you have ever played with Legos and you consider yourself a follower of the Most High, then you MUST check out The Bircktestament.

A guy photographs and storyboards stories from the bible using Legos and Legomen… I may never have to teach another lesson in Junior High ever again! Brilliant.

Visit the site HERE.

Summer Camp Blog: THREE

Halfway done as Tuesday winds down.

I was remembering the days when I used to be a part of a youth pastor summer camp co-op deal and each pastor would have specific duty to perform at the camp (ie music, speaking, rec, free time, emcee, etc). It added to the stress of the week and just kept me away from my students and staff. That being said, I love Hume (and camps like it) because it allows me to just hang with my students, let my staff lead, and relax. Camp is something I look forward to.

The highlights of Tuesday include a very sick video that was shown during morning chapel that was a b & w visual adaptation of some spoken word song called “Legacy of Faith” I think. I am still trying to track it down.

For free time, I managed to convince a van load of my girls to let me take them to Pacific Beach instead of Mission so I could sit at Starbucks and read and work on the Ministry on Zero site. Of course, the female staff went too and of course I had to buy them ALL Starbucks…

…which turned out to be good thing because my church credit card was declined causing me to realize that someone hadn’t paid the bill. Good thing I found this out now instead of on Friday when we would have to fill up all of our vans with gas.

Tonight was “decision night.” Chris dropped it like it was hot (or so I heard), and 6 of my students got born. One of the most beautiful things to see is a junior high student who has been visibly shaken and is in tears over an encounter with God that they can’t reason with.

Days like today, I love my job.