Monday, February 25, 2013

Launching the Process

Hey all! My apologies for not getting part 2 of "A process for your vision" out sooner, I've been rather busy this week and had very little time to sit and type up this blog. Here it is for your enjoyment! please make sure to send me your comments, suggestions or thoughts It's always nice to hear if this is helping someone's ministry. Many blessings!

A process for your vision part 2: Launching your process

 In the previous post we took a look at 2 key foundational thoughts for developing a good process for your vision.( If you haven't read it, going back and reading it would be advisable as what is written in this post will make more sense.) Once we've got a handle on them, its time for the more practical side of the equation: the actual construction of the process for your vision.

Vision Statement

  If you've read any Bill Hybels books, then you've encountered the idea of a vision statement. One of the most important concepts you need is a clear vision statement, which most churches have now days. This will be the keystone by which will keep your vision tethered and centralized so it does not get confusing and clash with the route the church is headed in. It is important to keep this statement to one sentence maximum! its got to be easy for people to remember and repeat and should be clear enough that you don't need a 3 volume set of explanations to understand it. This Vision statement displays the core beliefs of your group, basically, what you're all about or what people are "buying" from you to use a marketing analogy.

 One of the best ways to get a vision statement, should your church not have one, is to gather your key lead volunteers, youth, adult leaders, fellow pastors, prayer partners, etc and get in put from them as to their ideas regarding the direction of your group. Inclusion of your key stakeholders will be useful when the time to unveil the process comes and it begins to plant the seeds of ownership in their hearts. Talk about where the Lord is leading you to take your group, show them any ideas you may have gotten during your prayer/fasting times and have them give you constructive criticism. Once you've gathered enough information, take some time to pray and then boil it down to its most simplest form, and thus you get a vision statement.

   At this time, it is imperative that you listen closely what your major stakeholders are saying to you. Its ok if they disagree with you, but you must listen to the "why" find out what is making them uncomfortable and try to understand them. There could be historical wounds that this vision statement opens up and they must be addressed before anything moves forward or resistance will be too difficult to overcome. Have you leaders tear the vision statement to pieces, don't feel like a failure, this will actually help you to trim the unnecessary "fat" and once its torn down, then the pieces that are still standing will be your "core" use those to finalize your statement. Remember, cream rises to the top after a good beating. 

   Using the concepts that are left or your "core" beliefs, build a grammatically correct and appealing sentence. You want to end up with is a clear and simple answer to the question: "What is your group all about?" you and your team should be able to answer with a simple "at <fill in your groups name> we believe in <fill in your vision here>, and we accomplish this through <3 step process>." This will help to pique the interest of any seeker and it shows that you know what you're doing and where you're going. There are far too many "Christian Social clubs" out there, which do things for the sake of doing them or because of tradition but they really have no point or have forgotten why they started doing those things in the first place. They are like boats without a rudder who drift in the unpredictable current of  every new organizational fad or popular model rather than plan out a route and sticking with it. A youth group should have a point, a direction and a process by which you are going help grow the lives of the students closer to God.

Getting a good, simple and powerful vision statement does not have to be difficult. If you hear of another church that has one and you believe that it fits with your vision, it is totally ok to use that statement, just make sure you give credit when credit is due. It is preferable that you work out something uniquely for your group as it helps to create and identity and in the end all that work helps to spread the vision amongst your lead team. This statement is like the groups DNA, and will include steps that will map out the process by which you will be taking your students through. This will also help you to gauge how effective your ministry is, since you'll not be concerned with attendance numbers but rather with the number of people that have moved through the process. The groups growth will be horizontal rather than vertical.

The Steps

  Once a vision statement has been agreed upon and finalized, we get to the fun part! creating your action steps. These steps will help to explain and guide how your group will accomplish what your vision statement says. For example, at my last church the Vision statement and process of the youth group was: 
"At Merge Youth we want to grow fully devoted followers of Jesus, in Christ-like community (Church's vision statement) and we do this by modelling how to Love God, Love Others and Love the World" or "at Merge we do L3" 
First of all, our statement let everyone know what our over all goal was (what we were all about) which was "growing fully devoted followers of Jesus", secondly you can see that we had 3 steps by which anyone who was part of our group would eventually be taken through, students were going to see how to "Love God, Love others, and Love the world" with the end result being that they would be fully devoted to Jesus once they graduated from youth. Not only that, but those 3 "L's" became the filter by which every event, small group, mission trip, sermon, outreach event, parent meeting, leader meeting or leader training were taken through. If it didn't "fit" our vision or enhance any of the 3 L's than we simply didn't do it. There was no point in doing things that would not help us and thus we started to spend all of our energy into things we knew would further the vision. We had laser guided focus!

  How can you end up with a steps like these? You have to begin with the end in mind. Ask your self and your team, questions like: what do you want a student to be like after 6 years in the group? what do you wish to impart into them? what tools are they going to need to be self-feeding believers? what do we do with new believers? The whole point of these questions is to get to a point by which you are helping students integrate into the older community of believers as mature, self-feeding christ followers that will be of great benefit for the church as a whole. You want your students' faith to stick, and not be eroded by the seductive nature of the world.

   What we found about the steps in our vision was that they overlapped so well that there was no fracturing of the overall group structure. Each person was free to move unto the next step as they felt with out any forced pressure from the leadership. The neat thing was that a person didn't necessarily have to start with step 1, their starting point could be in the form of a mission's trip or a social justice project. There was a nice spread of people in different stages of of our 3 steps, which helped to disciple a wider range of people and reduced those falling through the cracks. Those who were more mature were challenged, those who were new to the faith felt connected and those in the middle of the pack were free to explore their faith at their own pace.

Now that you've seen how the steps work, here is a few pointers in building steps for your process.

1) Don't have more than 4 steps to your process, more than that becomes difficult to memorize and people will get confused. If it is possible, come up with a pithy acronym that's catchy and relevant to your groups style. Using an acronym based on a country motif for a group of inner city youth who've never been near a live chicken or vice versa, may not work too well. Oh, and avoid cheesiness at all cost!!!
2) Each step should have a practical component. This can be anything from youth regular events, to sermon series, games, small groups, mission's trips, etc. what you deem helpful to get the students through that step. for example, if your first step deals with wanting students to know the Bible well, then maybe a Memorization contests would be your practical component. There should be something active and tangible that students can witness and want to follow or experience themselves.
3) Each step should encourage advancement into the next step. It should create movement that you can track. If there is no movement occurring, then that step needs to be revised, repaired or replaced. A step is useless if students are not moving on, we want them to grow into spiritual maturity.
4) Constant evaluation. A good portion of your lead team meetings should be spent reviewing the steps and keeping a look out for stagnation.

 Once you have a complete vision statement that includes the steps by which your group will bring about the completion of the vision, you have a process. You have in your possession a framework that will help to support the load of your ministry and help you from straying away from your initial intent. Both the vision statement and steps you saw above can be used for any kind of vision you may have received from God, be it for a church, youth group or secular work.

Trimming

Perhaps the most difficult thing you'll do in implementing your vision is knowing what things need to be removed from your yearly schedule or plans. This means that you'll have to shut down some programs that may not be producing any results, are draining the energy of your volunteers. You're gonna need to have built in some deep trust and have a surgeon-like precision to removing things without causing much problems.

Because you are going be removing certain things that may have become "sacred cows" to your group, be prepared to face opposition. People who equate their connection to the church by the ministry they help in or the program they have been involved with the longest, will not like it. You must do your best to use their skills and experience and and move them to an even more effective program. Explain the reason for the change and why you need them in as part of the future. Take their feelings into consideration and help them transition, remind them of the vision and this should minimize the hurt. Some people may leave, and there is really not much you can do about that, there are people that will not want things to change and may not want any part of the vision going forward. If they choose to leave quietly, then let them, but be ready to welcome them back should they choose to return.

Three things you can do to evaluate any part of your program are:
1)revise: maybe that program needs some updating in their methodology or maybe a simple refit will help it to adhere to the vision better.
2)repair: check to see why this program is not working and try to fix the problem. If you have honestly tried to repair it and it still draining away energy and time, then it is time to take a look at the last step.
3)replace: This is the last step. after you've exhausted all other options to bring this portion of you program back to life, it may be an indicator that this is a program you should consider removing altogether, but before you do, make sure you have a replacement ready to go. You do not want people who are part of that program to feel left out in the cold with no place to go.

Go Viral

One of the most interesting things about the information age is the ability of totally random and pointless things get spread through out the world. Whether its cats doing funny things or the latest dance craze, information can spread like a virus. Now, once you have your vision statement, and your process steps it is time to let it go viral in your group. This is where you need to get students, parents, grand parents, staff team members or even youth leaders that were not a part of building the process to buy into it. This is why you and your team must be well versed in your vision statement and process, so they can believe in it and spread it around.

  Try to be creative in ways of getting your vision out there! If you have a cool slogan, then make t-shirts, posters, a website, or even use the free social media available on the web. We know that your vision will bring change to the lives of students, which means you have a solid product and it needs to be advertised, you need people to talk about what you're doing ask questions and check your stuff out.

Warnings

  Your process may not yield immediate results, so its important to remain patient and trust the work you've done. If the Lord gave you the vision, then it will produce something in due time. The point is that you are now prepared to accommodate growth. The biggest reason visions fizzle out is because there is no preparation made by the people that receive them, as if they expect God to take care of the details when the vision starts to grow. God will only provide success for your vision as far as you're willing to work for it. He will not bless anything that is a half hearted attempt or mediocrity. God is in the business of bringing glory to himself, and He will not reward laziness or anything that will bring any embarrassment. Does that mean that it has to be super perfect? no! it just has to be the best that you can do with what you have. No cutting corners, no compromising, do what He says how He wants it done, do everything humanly possible and leave the impossible to him.

  There is a further need to guard against adding more things to what you al ready have. Stick to keeping things simple and do those things well. Once you see success in the programs attached to your steps then you are free to look around for things that will enhance your vision. Don't just add things because you heard they worked at another church, or because they are the popular. Be willing to limit the things you add for the sake of the process. What is dangerous is ending up with so many add ons that your process now looks like a quilt made up of a whole bunch of ideas that will unfortunately cloud your vision and limit its effectiveness.

I hope this helps you in developing a successful ministry!


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A process for your vision

 Ask yourself these questions: If there were no earthly limitations to your ministry, where would the Lord want you to take it? Most of us would dream of better events for our students, more outreach, mission trips, a better youth room or youth area (perhaps replace the stained 30 year old couches), we may even want to start tutoring programs for students or even after school programs for those whose parents work double shifts just to put food on the table and have no one to welcome them home. We all have great ideas, great dreams that would be of great benefit; However, most of them tend to stay ideas for "one day" or simply vanish in the business of ministry. an idea, a vision is a delicate and difficult thing to grow.

Defining a vision is as complex as the vision itself. We all know that all visions come from God, who uses ideas to spark a vision. We all receive a vision (in some cases visions) for our ministries, some are easy and others may seem too "big" for us, but God always gives each of us a vision. Now, think about the greatest idea you've ever had. Got it? what framework did you put in place to ensure your idea flourished? This is the place where most visions die. Most of us tend to ask God for the vision, but we forget to ask Him HOW He wants the vision to be realized. Search for the process for without a how or process, vision is ineffective and dies.

There are no church size restrictions for a process. One does not have to be in a certain town or city with "x" number of people, nor does our ministry have to be great, numerically speaking. The number of people who join our ministries is intrinsically dependent on the effectiveness of the process. Without this how or process, vision is like a painting nailed to a wall with a single nail, and without a frame. It will wrinkle, the paint will dry and crack, and the canvas its painted on will eventually tear and ruin the painting. A good frame takes care of this, it keeps the painting protected, straight and in pristine condition. So the process provides the same benefits, it frames our vision, protects it, keeps it from fading and staves off destruction.

 All ministries are given a vision, of some form, for God would not send us out to the field with out direction. It is, however, our job to help determine the what the best way to fulfill his mandate is. Today, we will not focus on our vision, but rather we will direct our attention to some helpful directions  to aid us in determining HOW we are to bring our vision into fruition.

Focused Prayer

  We all know that we must spend much time in prayer. It is where we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, where God speaks to us about His will and where He infuses us with strength to carry out His mission. We can do nothing without praying. Jesus prayed. We cannot make any excuses for NOT spending time praying, no matter how busy our calendars look. Without the power of prayer, we will never be sure whether the vision we have comes from God or from our own flawed desires for success.
  Prayer is the litmus test to prove that our vision has divine origin. If we are in prayer and in continual communion with God then we can be sure that our vision is not our own, therefore, it comes from God, and if so it will have specific directions attached. How do we know this? If we search our Bibles we can find many instances where God gave men a vision and also provided instructions how He desired that vision to be carried out. None is more clear than the establishment of the Tabernacle. In Exodus chapters 25-31 we can read that God was extremely detailed on the building of His tabernacle, all the way to which artisan would build the Ark of the Covenant,  what kind of thread to use on the tent of meeting and what kind of cloth the priest had to wear. When the vision comes from God, then instructions follow.

When we focus our prayers, we must go beyond just searching for a vision, but to also be willing to wait for the instructions on the process by which that vision will be completed. This may be immediate, other times these instructions will come after we wrestle with the idea for some time. How long it takes for us to receive our instructions is not important. What's important is that we are willing to go beyond just getting the vision and trying to figure out how to get it off the ground on our own.

  So you've read all this and you want to focus your prayer? Here's how you do it:
a) Fast. couple your prayer with fasting. It seems simple, and it is almost a lost discipline, but fasting helps to hone our spiritual ears better than any book, blog or video series. How long should one fast for? that depends. How much do you want to know the process God wants you to build? How much are your students and your ministry worth? fast until it cost you something. It could be a meal, it could be a day, it could even be 40 days (if you do 40 please make sure you get a doctor's O.K first. you don't want to die in the process, that helps no one.)
b) Carry a Pad. This can be a pad of paper or an iPad or whatever method you choose to record quick notes. Sometimes in the middle of a prayer/fast time God will give you a thought on a beginning step or a person you should talk to, he may even give you the full set of instructions right of the bat, and since our brains (mine for sure) cannot remember every detail perfectly, its good to write down what we "hear." Some of it may not make sense, but write it down, God will give you clarity when the time comes.
c) Repeat constantly. As more of the process is revealed, We are going to need more of God's spirit in us, because quite frankly, some of the stuff He asks for will require an insane amount of faith. Some of it will seem impossible, and this is where you must trust God and where as a leader must keep coming back to God to ensure that you are following through to the letter. This ensures that God's will and your will are aligned for maximum effectiveness. Trust me, you don't want to drive things using your will alone. A vision can be easily warped, by our sinful nature, coming back to God in prayer and fasting keeps our pride in check and thus keeps the vision from warping.

Aid the Vision In Progress

Most youth pastors or pastors in general are dreamers. we dream about the things God wants to achieve in our ministries, we dream about the great many we will impact with our teaching, preaching and love. Most of us dream, and these dreams can bring about ideas that birth a vision. It is one of the ways God speaks. We are even better at asking God to give us vision, yet we are blind to a vision already in progress.

 If you're asking yourself what the 'vision in progress' is, then chances are you've missed it, The vision in progress is the vision of the church you're serving at. In fact, if you're not a Senior or Lead pastor chances are you shouldn't be focusing on a new vision, but rather to ensure that your vision is brought into alignment of vision that the Lead Pastor has been given by God. It is our job as youth pastors to then ask God to help us align and help to enhance the effectiveness of that vision. God is not a god of discord or disunity. When He is the author of a vision for a congregation, then all members of the leadership will and should work in unity to facilitate the fruition of said vision.

   If the Church you are serving at has a good, clear vision, than chances are that your Senior Pastor has already done step one, then you are lucky to be part of implementing the vision. You should still follow your prayer discipline, but instead ensure that the vision for your particular ministry is in line with the overarching vision of the church and its Lead Pastor. We are then blessed to skip ahead and begin searching God's instructions for the method or process by which we are to take our students through so that they may benefit from the fruits of the vision. This will be done in conjunction with the lead pastor and will bring greater glory to God. Your process will aid the vision of the church!

 Remember, the Lead Pastor has been placed there by God. He is God's anointed servant and even if he rejects what you have to say, you are to serve with humbly. Remember the scriptures! David was anointed King over Israel, while Saul was alive, He was even given an opportunity to kill Saul in his sleep, but David refused to raise his hand against the Lords anointed. David refused to hasten his kingship with his own hand, he trusted that God would bring his plan to bloom by His own hand and in His own time. Now this example is extreme, and it does not mean that you should not disagree with your Lead Pastor. What it says is that sometimes, even though we may in the right, we are to honour those in leadership over us for this pleases God. If the desire to see the vision and process come to pass chafes at you, then it is best to leave peaceably. Its better to have the people and pastor you served to pray for you than against you.

to be continued in part 2: Launching the process

with blessings!

Friday, February 15, 2013

From mistakes... tips for youth leaders

Lets be honest, most youth ministries could not run well without volunteer leaders. With out a good leader core, youth pastoring becomes extremely difficult. yes, there are some youth pastors who can do everything themselves or those whose group is too small to warrant the need for multiple leaders, but for the most part, good youth leaders are a commodity that most of us youth pastors cannot overlook.

Here's to you!

 Here's to you! to the ones who work hard at every youth event and actually enjoy it without getting paid. To the ones who work 8 hours during the day and still find the time to lead a small group or show up at one of their groups game or recital. To those who stay up with you during lock ins, or all nighters. To those who give up weekends of relaxation to go with students to a retreat, camp or conference. To the ones who pray for their teens outside of church. to the ones who go out of their way to be there for a hurting student. To the ones who make everyone feel welcomed! To the ones who remember birthdays, graduations or special events. To the ones students know have their back no matter what. To the ones that are never thanked enough. You are our heroes and we thank you!

 Someone once said (it may have been John Maxwell) if you think you are a great leader, but no one is following you, then you've actually just gone on a long walk. For us youth pastors, the first group of people that we need to see standing behind us as we lead is our team of volunteers. With out you youth leaders, most youth pastors would be incredibly limited in what they could do or the number of students that could be impacted by the Gospel. You give up so much because you think you can make a difference and because someone in your past may have done the same for you and know you are following in their footsteps. Good youth leaders are a rare breed indeed!

   There is nothing more exiting than sitting with a youth leader team and dream about where we are taking the youth group. Nothing more powerful than when a team is united in prayer for the lives that darken our doors every youth event night. There's an energy that is built, a momentum that is set in motion when all the gifts or very different people are pooled into one vision that makes youth ministry so fantastic! It almost feels like...Heaven.

Being part of a great team.

  You showing up and helping all the youth pastors is really 90% of the work, so, for the 10% here are some tips to make you and the rest of your youth leader team extra successful:

1) Be part of the vision.

     We youth pastors tend to pray (at least the good ones do) and we believe that the Lord guides us in every decisions that we make with regards to the overall picture of the ministry. When this happens we usually get a vision; a picture of where the Lord needs us to focus or what He wants this youth group to accomplish. This vision could be for a semester or for a year, or it can be an ongoing thing. Your task as part of the team is to help us hammer out the details. To wrestle with the ideas about this vision, voice your concerns and objections and to provide insight into things we, in our fallen nature, may have miss understood or missed all together. One thing we don't need is "yes"-men to stroke our egos, nor do we need opposition for the sake of causing arguments. If you see something wrong, then don't stay silent! To not warn your team about a possible disaster, is sin! you are endangering the development of the faith and souls of the students.
 
     Once we've worked out most or all of the kinks out of the vision, then you must help us to spread it out into the student masses. This means that you must learn and memorize everything there is to know about the vision, eat it, sleep it, breath it, so when a person asks "what's youth group all about?" you'll be able to answer with ease and enthusiasm. Nothing makes students (and parents) more exited about a youth group than one that has a clear vision. (we'll discuss how to build one in another blog)Also, when you are tired, when you feel like if you are not making a difference it will help you remember the big picture. Remember the words of the scripture "without vision, people perish."

2) Always have the youth pastors/ youth leader's back.

This means that if you hear a student, parent, church attendee, fellow leader, former leader, or angry grandma speak ill of your team members and pastors or if you hear rumours (cause those never happen at church, right?) being spread, it is your duty as a team member to stand up for your team and leader. Even if you may agree with what is being said, you do a disservice to the rest of the team if you start joining the fracas. why? because it can be perceived that there is division amongst the ranks of the youth team and division makes people nervous. It makes parents suspicious and that is an environment where rumours and lies can fester and grow to kill the ministry. No, rather than showing your disapproval publicly, defend the group publicly and then if its an important enough issue, go and speak directly with your youth pastor or team. They will respect you for it and will do the same in return.

  Pastors are not perfect, we are just like everyone else and can make mistakes without knowing it. Having a team where trust is at its core, where we all know we can disagree or confront each other with issues freely is priceless. Sometimes, we youth pastors are too busy looking at the grand vision that we don't notice that we're stepping on peoples toes and we need our teams to help us become aware. If you hear a rumour, then either squash it right there with the truth, with kindness or direct the person telling you to speak with your youth pastor. When facing a rumour, containment and eradication are key. Stop the rumour from spreading by asking "who did you hear this from?" then try to find the source, also try to do this away from any youth or parents. Eradication means that you go to the source and set them straight with the truth. Better yet, make your youth pastor aware of where the source is and they will deal with that issue and be glad you told them. Nothing kills a good vision like a rumour.

3) Constantly look for recruits!

 Most churches, not all, are marked by this great deficiency: 20% of the people do the work for the other 80%. Recruitment and retention of volunteers is increasingly difficult in the western church because of our consumer mindedness. Most people feel that since the weekend is their time off from work, that getting involved as a volunteer will take away from their leisure time, but they never question how the programs they take in (small groups, sunday school, sunday service, youth, etc) a organized and run. Then there is cross ministry competition for any good volunteers, which means that sometimes other ministries will, for lack of a better term, head hunt each other's key volunteers because its easier than training a new volunteer or ministries go with a skeleton crew: just enough people so that the ministry stands up. barely.

 What is interesting to note is that the role of recruitment has always fallen on the head of the ministry, which adds another duty to their already full dossier. However, what if current volunteers recruited 1-2 people a year? what if they kept an eye out for people among their social spheres within the church and actively looked for new volunteers? You could double the size of any team rapidly! and if it became part of the churches' culture? then everyone who attended would be connected in some way to a volunteer position. no more, competition, cold calls, bulletin announcements, verbal announcements or desperate cries for help!

   You as a youth leader know what kind of people will fit the needs of your team the best. remember, you need to look for the right people not the best people! just because they have talents does not mean that they should be part of your team. They must fit effortlessly. There is nothing more frustrating than working with a person who rubs the everyone the wrong way and there is nothing more difficult for a youth pastor to do than to have to remove a volunteer from the team because they just don't fit. It would be advisable for the youth leaders and the youth pastor to hammer out a "volunteer description" so that you all know what kind of person you should be on the look out for. This includes graduating or former students.

How do you get people in your social sphere to volunteer (hey that rhymes!)?

a) Ask with enthusiasm! people want to join something fun and worth while. tell them the vision (see why you should know it?) and how much impact its having on you.
b) Make them feel wanted, not needed. Recruiters for Universities with big sports programs go out of their way to make athletes feel like they were specifically picked out of the millions of other candidates to exclusively join their ranks. The good ones can make an athlete feel so wanted that they may even overlook the fact that the University has not won anything since the turn of the century. They never go up to an athlete begging and say "we are so desperate we'll take anyone, even you! Can you please just help? <tear>" of course they don't! They say things like "we have a fantastic opportunity for you! we unanimously believe that you have what it takes to be part of our team and help us reach the next level of success!" did you see the difference?
    when you ask a friend or person in your social sphere to be a volunteer make them feel WANTED like your pastor and fellow team members spent hours researching who to approach and they were first choice!
c) Tell them they'll be part of a winning team.
No one likes to be a loser. be it sports, Jeopardy or Family Feud, no one likes to lose. So, when recruiting, use the "wins" your team has accomplished. How many lives were changed at retreat/conference, fun events, outreaches, food drives, stories of kids turning their lives around, etc. you figure this out. Keep it positive.
d) If at first you don't succeed...
If for some reason, they decide to decline your invitation, don't just give up! keep trying. Offer them a no strings attached, trial. Take them on one of your best events and have them tag along and see how amazing your group is! Introduce them to the students, the pastor and the team and get them to give you a hand with some minor stuff. Chances are, they'll fall in love with it and want to come back. (thats how I got conned...er... recruited and fell in love with YM, hahaha!) Sometimes, people need to see a group in action and winning to want to join.

A Leaders learning is never done

4) Do your best to keep training on becoming a better leader. Youth Ministries are only as good as the leaders who volunteer and if volunteers are poorly trained or receive no training, they will either not stick around, cause the rest great frustration or lose the respect of the students. there are hundreds of books on amazon about being good youth leader, you can access blogs or podcasts from top notch youth pastors that can help you improve. Your youth pastor will do his best to train you but remember that they can only do so much. Check out Simply Youth Ministry for some great tools and tips on how to become an even better youth leader!
   
Also, don't forget to keep yourself current. keep an eye out for "world" trends that teens are being exposed too. There is nothing sadder than a person trying to engage in conversation with students who are talking about the latest episode of that show they all like or that funny youtube video or even dress 2 fads too late trying to "look" cool to them. Even if you may disagree with the content of the show or magazine, movie or whatever, having a working knowledge of what it is about and then telling a student why you found it offensive or it didn't help your spiritual growth carries a lot more weight to it than telling them its evil to watch or read those things.
   
     Now, don't go looking at obviously risqué or illicit material! use common sense! If I may add a personal note, I like to watch movies, and shows aimed at teens with a pad of paper and play "find the misquoted bible reference" or "guess who's compromising their beliefs" as I watch and listen to the dialogue I try to find things that are unbiblical, misquotations, bend or break the 10 commandments, misrepresent christianity or christians, and things of that nature. I can use these as sermon/ bible study attention getters and engage students on common ground, letting them see how what they watch affects what they believe. example: I did a sermon titled "the Walking Dead" , a popular show amongst my youth, and I used the premise of a show about Zombies and used it to illustrate that with out Jesus we are all just walking dead. I actually watched the show, its not my cup of tea, but I used something from the world to show the power of the Gospel of Christ. The students got it, some turned their lives to Christ and the Kingdom was furthered. after, some asked if i watched the show and I honestly told them I did and why I didn't like it which led to a good discussion. Keeping yourself current does not only mean reading the latest thing to come out of a Christian bookstore.

4)Lastly, Pray. pray for your students, pray for your fellow leaders, pray for your youth pastor. A youth leadership team that prays is powerful, they can be unstoppable and will see the fruits of their prayers. Sometimes we can get caught up in the preparation of an event or even a retreat that we forget to stop and invite the Holy Spirit to be in our midst. (yes I know he's always there, duh! you know what I mean) You can tell the difference in an event when a group has prayed before and when a team has not prayed. When you take time to pray, when you actually carve out a time specifically for prayer and you follow through and pray for the students and each other, that night usually feels so easy, effortless, like a hot knife through butter. Conversely, if there is a lack of prayer that evening may feel like one small disaster after another, and tensions tend to flare. The event becomes a burden.

Wrapping it up

Pray for your youth pastors at the very least, not only because they are your leaders but because when God grants a vision and said vision  gains momentum and lives are being won for God, the enemy tends to attack the pastors first. with all the fury and dirty tricks he knows. They feel the brunt of that attack and usually deflect the worst of it from you. Pray that the Lord will continue to give them strength of spirit and of body to keep leading effectively. Pray that opposition is decimated by the hand of God and that their families are kept safe from harm or decease so that they will not be emotionally compromised and become ineffective. pray that the Lord give them new ideas and that His voice is never silent in their hearts, minds or ears. Simply Pray.

Today is friday! which means that lots of you will be serving at churches everywhere. Do your best, love those kids like its the last thing you do! keep going for every little thing you do for your youth group does not go unnoticed by our Father. Go and keep reaching, teaching, growing and releasing the next generation of leaders. You guys are my Heroes!

with many blessings!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Even Jedi's had mentors (for youth pastors part 2)

  Continuing the last post of "from mistakes...tips for youth pastors" today we will take a look at the importance of having good mentors in our lives.

   A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far war away we were introduced to perhaps one of the most influential series of movies, perhaps of all time. Yes, I'm talking about Star Wars. There is hardly a person who has not had the opportunity to enjoy these timeless classics and its newer prequels, and finding a person who has viewed one of the movies is usually met with a gasp of disbelief and shock, followed by "we're watching them now." It is interesting to see how ingrained it has become into western society that there is hardly a person who does not know what a Lightsaber is, or has never tried to "use the force."

So what does Star Wars have to do with us youth pastors? well, one thing we can take away from it is that each Jedi/Sith always had an apprentice with them. Someone that was learning how to use the force for good or ill. The "master" ensured that the apprentice was placed in situations that would test the limits of their skills as well as taught them how to hone their own talents for the benefit of the apprentice. They travelled together, went on missions together, defended each other and even dressed alike. Does this sound familiar to anyone yet? this is the concept of discipleship, if I'm not mistaken.

Now, depending on your take of the term "discipleship" you may see this example differently. I like to think that "discipleship" is more than just having students in a small group with a leader. From what i've studied about the jewish roots of discipleship it meant that the disciple was to striving to copy the rabbi or teacher in every detail of their lives. It then fell to the master to ensure that he was living in such a way that many people wanted to become like him in terms of holiness, morality and learning. Disciples were to literally become the Master, to speak like him, eat like him, walk like him, pray, read and even think the way their master/rabbi did so when the time came and the Master felt the disciple was ready, that disciple would be released with these words "go, and make disciples." Now, where have we heard these words before? oh yea! Matthew 28! the great commission! this was Jesus telling the disciples that they were ready to become masters/rabbi, they had learned to be like the Master and thus needed to make disciples of their own, which is exactly what they did (See Acts of the Apostles)

   As we inspect the scriptures, we find that Jesus used this concept to train the disciples how it would look like for them to make disciples. The story of the 70 disciples that He sent out is a great example: they were sent out in pairs, and I like to think that perhaps he sent the "newer" disciples paired off with an older "trained" disciple. The older would then make sure to train the younger as they walked and the younger would submit to the direction of the older disciple, but Jesus took it further, both disciples were to serve each other.
    I think this is something we do not do well in the church. we prefer the school/mass training system rather than the one on one discipleship method. I think if we were to pair up our teens with a mentor, perhaps a parent, grand parent or older believer (Y.A etc) who was a solid, seasoned believer who perhaps shared some sort of interest or hobby with their student, a person who was interested in showing them how to be a solid Christian and have them copy their style of prayer, bible reading etc, this would be more effective than preaching 1000 sermons and taking students through yet another teen oriented curriculum  just so we can fill their heads with knowledge.

    Don't get me wrong, curriculums are good, they have their place and purpose, but i've always felt that they lack the practical aspect, they don't really let you "see" how becoming a solid, deep christian is like. It is such an inconvenient and difficult model to pair people off with mentors, plus finding enough volunteers who actually want to mentor a student has forced us to rob students of a more "real" form of spiritual growth.

Most of us at some point in our lives had someone who saw something in us and took us under their wing and basically made us their disciple. whether it was a college professor or a youth pastor or even a senior pastor, someone along the line trained you to be the pastor you are now. Many of us have been blessed with multiple people who impacted our lives and who trained us to use out gifts for God's glory. Should we not seek to give our students the same experience we had?

How can we do this? well we must simply ask people around our churches. Bring it to the congregations attention and pray. The Lord will provide the people, but we must be prepared to train them and to support them as they begin. Don't expect to have a massive number of people sign up right of the bat, but even if you get 1 or 2 to start with, thats almost 100% more mentors that you had before.

   We should also be on the look out for students who have that "something extra" or X-factor. Not the most popular or the centers of attention, but those who have servant hearts, those who show up for prayer without being asked, those who go out of their way to make newcomers welcomed every time there's an even and who do it not to get recognition but because they just feel compelled to do so. These are the ones we need to either mentor ourselves or find someone to mentor them immediately. They could be destined to be used by God in some great way down the road and it is our duty to prepare them.

Lastly, lets take a look at the need for us youth pastors to band together.

   The days of the lone wolf youth pastor are over! I don't mean that you have to have multiple youth pastors in your church, but rather we need to increasingly seek out fellow pastors to make the work lighter. This is a lesson, I failed to learn I'm ashamed to say. My pride led me to fear others stealing my thunder and taking any original ideas that I had and using them to become more successful in ministry than I was. I robbed myself of developing deep relationships with other pastors in my area because I wanted to be the best. not only that but, I robbed other youth pastors of my knowledge and experience which could have helped them further their own ministries and thus expanding the kingdom of God.

  It is one of the biggest dangers we pastors face. The fact that we have been given a following of people who would do just about anything for us, can tempt us to create our own sealed off kingdoms, where we control who can come in and who can leave. It has been a great realization that every success each of us have in our respective ministries is a success for the lot of us. We are to fight for the souls of the students in our cities not try to outdo each other. Its time to put aside our differences in styles and strive to work together submitting to each other for the good of our city. Dare i say, we must also yield from our specific denominational bent and come together in the fact that we all believe Jesus is Lord and that He rose again, is the son of God and the Bible is His book. I don't mean you compromise the beliefs of your denomination, but rather that we must learn how to work together in spite of our denominational beliefs.

So, my friends, my brothers in arms, where ever the Lord has stationed you to serve, do your best to create disciples and go above and beyond working with each other sharing your ideas, praying for one another, cheering each other on when one of you has a success. Stand with each other when you are facing opposition or a season of great upheaval. You all know how lonely it can be to face derision, opposition, disapproval or unrealistic expectations, so do your best to support each other not only with a kind word and prayer, but perhaps help the brother face it. Stand with him and provide any support you can. oh, and for those of you who are married, make sure your wives know each other and also have the same sort of support that you share. I've seen so many youth pastors' wives who feel more alone than the pastor because they don't have anyone in the church that understands what they are going through. Having them be able to meet each other and draw support from each other can be a healthy thing. Your wives are your partners and sometimes the only cheering section you may have, don't let them be bruised due to neglect.


Now Go! make disciples! continue the work the that Lord has given you to do! Keep fighting the good fight until the Lord tells you to stop. Stand strong and may the Lord Almighty bless you with a wealth of ideas, sermons and opportunities to grow.

Many Blessings!

From mistakes... tips for youth pastors (part 1)

  One of the major ways we humans learn is by learning from the mistakes or success of others. When we are young, we do not possess any frame of reference by which we can make educated choices until we have experience in certain situations. Frame of references come through experience, such as learning that a stove top is hot and can hurt us comes from either being told and listening to that persons advice, by experiencing the pain of a burn first hand, or seeing someone else's experience with a hot stove top. It is fascinating how God created our brains to absorb experiences through both direct and indirect input, every tiny seemingly insignificant experience we either participate, are told of, or witness plays apart in our development into mature adults.
 The main reason for the creation of this blog was to help youth pastors, youth leaders/volunteers, parents, pastoral staff and even students (youth) to become a cohesive unit and further the preparation of the generations that will take over as the leaders of the church in the not so distant future. Today, I want to focus on some advice for youth pastors, and later this week I will try to cover some helpful tips for the other aforementioned groups, however; reading on may help people in the other groups gain a better handle on what we'll be discussing.

Ok, Youth Pastors, here's part 1:

   Whether you're an old guy like me or someone just starting out, some of the most important things that you can learn or remember are: Start with the end in mind, and Parents are not the enemy.

Starting with the end in mind means that you build the ministry at the church you are at in such a way that it becomes Christ centred. A youth ministry built in such a way that if the Lord chose to take you home tomorrow, the youth leaders shouldn't have to hire a detective, an accountant and an archeologist a to figure out how to run the youth ministry. By Christ centred, I mean that you are NOT at the centre of it all, but that any event, retreat, conference, bible study, small group, leader training or coffee time is wholly focused on Jesus and He has absolute and total control to change things as He sees fit. Build it in such a way that it is easily transferrable to your successor.

Lets be real for a moment, we are not going to live forever. We are not going to be youth pastors of a single congregation forever. Granted, some of us will be blessed enough to be in a place for a long time, but we are meant to be ready to move where God knows we'll bring him the greatest glory at a moments notice. This means that we must tailor our ministries to be prepared for us to not be there. More importantly, think about the brother who follows you, wether you meet him/her or not give them the gift of a stable ministry. Help them to succeed, for if they surpass your greatest successes, does that not mean that you succeeded too? Even if the person who succeeds you becomes greater than you, remember that you help build that ministry, you helped to bring greater glory to God by helping your successor do greater things than you could do. YOUTH MINISTRY IS NOT A COMPETITION!!!

     In a perfect world this would be so easy for us to do, but this world is not perfect. We have to deal with imperfect people who sometimes may, without intent, hurt us. We have to work past the hurt and help those who will take up the reigns of leadership after us. It is not the most pleasant thing to do, preparing "provisions" and materials knowing you will never see the finished product, but even King David stored up all that Solomon would need to build the temple, though his eyes would never witness it. In our ministries, we all tend to want to be Solomon and build a magnificent ministry, while God needs us to simply be David, and prepare everything so that Solomon can succeed. Both jobs do the same thing, which is bring glory to God. The Lord will honour us for going the extra mile in ensuring our successor does well, even if the hurt wants us to simply take the blue prints and the materials with us. Remember, you were once someone's successor, and you are building on the the work, sweat and tears they shed for that group. This is how you Start with the end in mind: prepare the ministry for your successor.

How can we do this? well, it really depends on what the ministry in your particular church looks like, but here are some general suggestions you may wish to try or even improve upon.

  1. make sure all passwords for websites, Facebook groups, Twitter, office computer etc are generic. don't use a personal password, but make up something easy to remember that the new guy does not have to go in a change.
  2. Keep all graphics, sign up sheets, permission slips, retreat brochures in template form in a digital or physical folder.
  3. Leave instructions on major events that have become good traditions and are successful. This will keep him/her from accidentally removing or changing said event to the point where the students may riot (ok, riot is a bit of a stretch...barely)
  4. Keep an updated contact list for students, bookings for events, transportation services, hotels, retreat centres used, and other Youth Pastors in the area.
  5. Train your leaders to run, and organize events, they will then be able to maintain the status quo with out much stress. This also frees you to develop deeper relationships with the students, prepare sermons/bible studies, pray or simply take a weekend off with your family. (its ok not to be there every friday, but let your Sr. Pastor know what you're doing.)
  6. Be honest with your students, let them know that you're there until the Lord moves you and that all you do is to prepare them for that day.
  7. Do NOT start fights with other departments, you don't want anyone dealing with your damage.
  8. If you decided to move on, leave a letter outlining any major issues that the group has gone through. This is like leaving a map for a mine field so that he doesn't step on any proverbial mines and can navigate safely and even bring about some healing. This is not a list of complaints about people who slighted you or even called for your resignation! for example, at a previous position I mentioned to my successor to, should he run into any issues, first speak with the executive pastor and then together head to the senior pastor should the executive pastor deem it necessary. This way he wouldn't burden the sr. pastor needlessly with worry.
  9. Remind yourself that ALL ministry is temporary, constantly. specially after a big "win"
  10. Any youth storage area should only contain things/resources that will aid the youth group going forward. No, keeping curriculum from 1983 cause it "may" get used is not advisable... the 80's are gone, let them rest in peace.
  11. anything you would have liked your predecessor to have done or left for you.

These are just a few suggestions that have helped me. feel free to add or omit any that you feel does not apply to your particular ministry situation. The list is not the point. the point is that we need to think about those who come after us and how we can help prepare things for them to build an even greater ministry than we could have dreamed. who knows, if the Lord wills it you may be setting things up for one of your own students or your child or even great grand-child. We all build on the work of others.

Moving onto the next helpful tip: Parents are not the enemy, nor are youth pastors the enemy.

  The reality that both youth pastors and parents need to understand is that they need each other in order to grow a healthy christian teen. Most of us tend to miss out on the wealth of success we can have in ministry if we only involved parents more. No, driving van fulls of kids or using the yard/jacuzzi or their house for a party does not count as having parents be involved. I mean that we should have almost an equal amount of parents as our core leaders as there are students/ young adult leaders. Train some parents (dare I include grandparents?) to be youth leaders, to lead a small group to be mentors to the boys and girls. If you're human like me, you've come to the realization that you cannot be everywhere at once and that you cannot be everyone's listening ear, good buddy and pastor. You're not God, stop trying to be. Think of this: who are your students going to lean on when you're not there? it takes at least 4-5 years to develop a deep rapport with a single student, if you spend 1-2 hours a week with them out side of youth events/small groups. Are you going to hope that the new guy takes up the slack?

 I bring this up, not because of my success, but because I failed to do this many times and regret not building a strong parent contingent to help mentor students. If anything, get parents to form prayer teams that pray for your students and the youth leaders, at minimum this is a good way to get parents involved.

   We all dread parents meetings. Most of us would rather have a root canal than stand in front of parents! at some point it feels like you're heading to be executed before a firing squad and sometimes those meetings are not that far off as you receive volley after volley of "complaints." Parent's meetings shouldn't feel this way though, they're a great tool to cast the vision God gave us for our ministries. If parents catch the vision, they'll support any decision you make. Always be over prepared, be clear in your direction and allow time for parents to ask questions about your vision, you may even want to ask them what Christian principles they are focusing on teaching their kids or what they would like their teen to be exposed to and use that information to tailor your teaching/preaching times.

 We must do everything in our power to make sure the majority of parents are in our corner backing us up or we mind as well quit and making sure parents are properly informed on the direction of the youth group is key. Take their suggestions into consideration, better yet, if they give you ideas that you've never tried, seriously consider asking them to help you get it off the ground. They know their kids best, we only spend 2-3 hours a week with the students, and we only know what the students want us to know about them. Most of all, listen. really listen. Parents like to feel like they are being listened to and in a roundabout way, they may be sharing a deep fear or pain that they are going through.

  Praise parents who are exemplary. I don't mean make an announcement from the pulpit extolling their exploits in parenting teens. I mean pull them aside and tell them you think they're doing a good job. Most of them are scared about raising teenagers, some of them don't know what to do or what to expect during those 6 years and they rely on you to help them. If you think about it, we not only pastor teens, but we pastor the parents as well.

Parents:
 Youth Pastors are NOT the full meal deal in raising healthy Christian teens! We are more like a vitamin. a supplement that helps add small quantities of missing ingredients that will stimulate growth that are missing from their every day diet. Some times, actually, a lot of the time, Youth pastors feel like parents are expecting us to "fix" their kid, to be the full meal when we just can't. Sometimes we feel like we're letting you down if we don't miraculously change a student from a spazzy, hyper 13 year old into a mature bible scholar. We do the best we can, but we're just as human as the rest of you, and we cannot do much by ourselves. we need your help! any help! No sane youth pastor will ever turn down a parent who wants to help.

   How can you help? Avoid falling into the trap that you can't help because your child does not want you there. Yes, its true that teens need to have their own space to develop their own identities and explore their individuality, but there are ways you can help your youth pastor out while staying out of your students "space." for example, if your church has a small group program or a sunday school program for teens/pre-teens you can help lead a group, preferably one that your child is not in. "take care of someone else's, teen?!? are you nuts?!" maybe what you're saying right now, but think about it, what better way to learn how to handle teens? you can learn how to talk with them, what they're into, what they struggle with, what they hope for, what they wish their parents would trust them with, etc. you know, stuff your teen deals with. (by the way, if you choose to do this, make sure you set some parameters with your teen assuring them that while at a youth event you won't go all "parenty" on them and that you're a youth leader until you get home. Ask them first, don't surprise them with the news that you'll be at every youth event for the rest of the year... not a good idea) your youth pastor will do all they can to help train you and place you with a group that fits you best, so don't worry about not knowing what to do. You can learn a ton of things about your teen by spending an hour with a group of teens.

         Lastly, Trust your youth pastor. Most of us work with teens by choice, because we believe that God has called us to train the future generation to go further than we could in their faith walk. Everything we do, from the silliest of games to the deepest of spiritual times is done because we care about your teens. We do our utmost to keep them from harm and would not expose them to anything we felt would endanger their spiritual walk. yes, it may not look like they way you do things at home, not will it look like the way your youth pastor (if you were lucky to have one) did things. You can rest assured that we are trying to grow spiritually self feeding, deep rooted disciples of Christ, but we will not force anyone to follow Christ. We will answer their questions, help to guide them through rough patches of life, but we are not going to brain wash them and that means we're going to give each student the freedom to decide for themselves if our faith will become theirs. We will pray for those who are ready to go deeper with Christ and love those who choose to stay in the fringe, we will do our best to model who Jesus is through our lives, but we're not going to keep them in a bubble. We are in the same team, and we need each other to ensure that the gospel of Christ is preached to all nations and through all generations until He returns.

Have you hugged your youth pastor today? sometimes we don't hear the one kind word over the roar of disapproval. it would be nice if you heaped praises on your youth pastors this week. help them to keep the passion they were given for your teens burning bright.

with many blessings!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Like a Diamond

      Rummaging through boxes of books, I found my first bible. its old, ratty and in spanish, it brought back a ton of memories, chief of which is: I like the Bible. correction, I LOVE the Bible! not because I understand everything in it or because its part of my career, but because it has been the only true constant in life. I don't remember exactly when I became a Christ-follower, but I clearly remember when I fell in love with reading it. I was 8 years old and my sunday school teacher presented me with a full, leather bound bible with my name inscribed in the most magnificent calligraphy I had ever seen, like the one pastors had with them.

  Leafing through the worn, tattered and heavily underlined pages of this old bible brought back memories of times of both great joy and great anguish. It reminded me of how I first read it with such innocent eyes, falling in love with the stories of Joseph, Abraham and Moses, the magnificent miracles and signs that the people in this book were allowed to either perform or witnessed was thrilling! I didn't understand most of it, of course and the books such as Numbers, Leviticus or any of the prophet's writings didn't make sense to me and even made me afraid to read them; However, there were also many promises, life lessons and yes even humour! oh, and there was hope, always full of hope.

Its always so astounding how a person can change so much and yet the words written in this book never get old. I'm a reader. If you are a reader like myself, you will most often be found with your nose in some kind of book, or you'll have one in your car, your back pack or in your office. whenever you pass by a bookstore you'll spend hours looking through books losing all track of time and probably walking out with a few to read later. In fact we buy so many, family members have considered having an intervention to help us through our pulp adiction. The thing about readers like us though is that once we've read a book, we can pretty much remember what its about and the premise of it by just looking at a cover, we tend to read them once or twice and unless its a classical master piece we tend to move on to the next book in the stack we keep on our nightstand.

   Its not so with the Bible. you can read the same story, chapter or verse several hundred times and it never gets old. Something new always pops up at the most unexpected and perhaps even necessary times in life. I heard someone say once that the Bible is like a diamond, its one of the hardest substances in the world, and if you were to look at light bouncing of it as you turn it, you would never see it refract the same way. So it is with the scriptures, you can look at a verse from the many angles of a life-span and it will never look the same. Its unlocked by the Holy Spirit as our faith grows so that we glean more and more from it.

   Do you remember what it was like to read the Bible for the first time? I hope it was not a chore for you, its always sad to hear from people that they were forced to read the scriptures at some point in their lives. Im sorry that happened to you, it was never meant to be forced on anyone. Did you give up reading it because you didn't understand what was written? I encourage you to seek help from a friend or a pastor or even take in some bible college classes, and there is this tool called the "internet" which has a wealth of aids to help you read it and more importantly, understand it. Just don't stop reading it, even if you only understand one verse or one idea behind a chapter that is a feat in it self. Don't worry, God is not keeping score of who's memorized the most verses or who has read it cover to cover. its not about what you can do with it, its about how it changes your heart.

Let me leave you with a bit of a caution. I know we live in the 21st Century, the information age, where we can carry whole libraries in our smarphones or tablets, which is a great blessing. I also know that there are great Bible apps out there that can be very convenient for our lives, I use them, and there is nothing wrong with them, but I can't help but think that we may be robbing future generations of the opportunity to scribble all over their first bibles and discover helpful thoughts brought about by the spirit of God at a moment of need. all for the sake of convenience. If you are like me, you've also ran across the temptation to check your facebook or Twitter when you're reading your bible app during a service, after all no one will notice if you do.There was a time when to carry a Bible was a badge of honour, it told the world that you were a Christ follower and you were not ashamed to show it.

  I want to challenge you next time you're at church to perhaps bring the good old leather bound book (of which most house holds own 6-7 copies, but that's another blog for another time) and perhaps a pad of paper, or a journal and write up what the pastor preaches on a particular chapter. underline the verses, write quick thoughts in the margins or in the back, you never know when something your wrote will help someone, it may even be you.  Carry it around, perhaps it will spark a conversation with a complete stranger who is seeking God or needs comfort. At very least, carry it to honour the thousands of saints who died so that you could have one in your own language and to honour the hundreds of thousands in countries where the Bible is outlawed, and where Christians would die to have a piece of paper with a single verse to call their own. (if a christian community gets a bible in these countries, they usually tear it to pieces and each person gets a piece and they trade with each other once they have read and memorized their portion. this is just incase they face a raid in church and their bible is taken away and destroyed.) Most importantly of all, read it like there is no tomorrow, savour it, meditate on the words, do your best to follow what it says, they are the words of God after all.

Many Blessings!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Two Words

I was doing reading my bible before bed, (trying to re-read the gospels this month) and I was just passing through Matthew 8 which starts off with a very short story regarding a leprous man who asked Jesus for healing. I must have read that story thousands of times by now, I'm sure it must have been referenced or used as an illustrations in thousands of sermons I've either heard or written (not that i've written thousands of sermons, but I digress) and something caught my attention. At first glance, it seems so common, so plain, but then I read it again and this thought took hold of my brain: Have you ever noticed how the leper asked Jesus for healing?

     The statement itself gets lost in the magnitude and magnificence of Jesus healing a man from a torturous sentence. Now, wether you believe that the man had actual leprosy or some other form of skin disease, is really besides the point, and I really don't want to get into what the Hebrew meaning of the word Tzara'at or if the greek lepra was used correctly. what really astounded me was the way this man asked for his miracle. Take a look at it in Matthew 8:1-4, if you want and see what you can glean from it. In verse 1the man says to Jesus "if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."(NLT) Did you catch it? lets see it again with some underline help "if you are willing, YOU CAN heal me and make me clean." did you see it now?
 
    "…You can…" Those two words triggered something in my brain, it is such and astounding statement to make! to me, there is so much confidence, so much boldness in these words! He was not inquiring if Jesus had the power to heal him, but it seems like he already knew it in his heart and believed it so much that his faith was brimming out into his words. If it were most people, that statement would read " if you are willing CAN YOU make me clean?" and I think you would agree that this is accurate, since most times we ask the Lord for something but in the back of our minds there is this hidden cloud of doubt, this residue of cynicism that hinders us  from making bold statements like this mans.
   
There is no scepticism, no reservation, but just the resolute hope that this Nazarene could heal him. His faith ran so deep that poured out of his words almost as if he had made up his mind that this Jesus was no regular professional healer (which there were many at the time) nor was he someone trying to sell something. I would propose for your thinking that this mans statement is more profound than the healing itself. I'm not downplaying healing, just so we are clear. I believe Jesus heals today, I have seen it, experienced it and know healing to be real; However, in this instance I can't help but think that the seemingly simple reordering of two words can be a much greater miracle than a supernatural act of healing.

   Think about the situation that man was in. Leprosy was no laughing matter to any Israelite, in fact one could argue that it was a fate worse than being imprisoned in the darkest and deepest of dungeons. If a person found some sort of skin problem in their body, there were supposed to be examined by the priests who would quarantine the person for 7 days, then re-examined and if it was found to be a serious skin decease that person would be declared ceremonially unclean, have to tear their clothes, uncomb or uncover their hair, shout "unclean!" wherever they went and live in isolation out side of any encampment or city. (Leviticus 13:45) that person would only be welcomed back AFTER they were re-examined, went through the ceremonial cleansing ritual (Leviticus 14) and were declared ceremonially clean by the priest. Until then that person was an outcast, doomed to die alone and to wonder in shame, having people chase them off, have kids throw stones at them, be insulted and cursed, and worse yet, be labelled as someone who was being judged by God for some great sin.

  This man chose to not accept the fate that the world had assigned for him. Somehow, he heard about or saw the miracles Jesus did. His faith grew bolder, to chance a trip into a crowd, into a place where he would be chased away with rocks and quite possibly be killed for deifying the law! But I believe he believed in Jesus. he believed with everything he had in his body that there was something different about this man. He was no ordinary professional healer. This man would gamble with his life for a chance to kneel before Jesus and say with all the faith in his soul "I believe!!! I believe in You, Jesus!!! will you affirm my faith by healing my body? I know you can do it! I know who you really are! I believe!" this, I believe, is the greater miracle. A man who was doomed to die alone, to never know human contact again, that was to be reviled until he breathed his last breath and whose ears would be filled with the sounds of mocking, cursing and horror, a man that was broken and ground lower than dust decided to place his trust, his faith, his future and his very life into the hands of Jesus. Now that is a miracle, the physical healing, then was simply a perk. an affirmation of the mans faith, a testimony for the ages.

   This mans' was brought out of the gloom of death to be a beacon not only of God's great mercy and healing power, but also that stalwart faith can keep the flames of hope alive though any wisp of doubt or torrential negativism would snuff it out. Jesus went as far as making sure the man was legally restored under the law of moses and before the priests by sending him to be examined and fulfill the ceremonial cleansing ritual (Leviticus 14, read it it wasn't simple or easy and you should read about it). I like to think that maybe a priest had not given this man any hope, but rather yoked him with the burden of the law and cast him out, and perhaps this former leper stood before the same priest and said "see?! I am healed! the Lord made me clean!" and perhaps somewhere in his heart that priest was moved, repented and rejoiced with the former leper as he reinstated him back to his family and society.

If you read this far, I commend you and would like to leave this thought for your edification: Sometimes, faith manifests itself  in the simple re-ordering of two words, the "Can You?" to the "You Can" we saw above can bring about a great transformation of the soul and that is a great miracle!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

writing a book

Its been season filled with change, not all easy, but all necessary. Ever since I left Spruce Grove, I've had this nagging in my heart that I need to write a book. I have the idea, and i've worked out a chapter outline, but every time I carve out time to sit and actually write, seems like i don't have anything to say. I know that I have to do some research, to quantify my ideas, but I wanted the first draft to be written from the heart. My goal is not to write a book that will catapult my ministry, but rather a book that may help future generations of believers to grow.
  I figure it would be a fun thing to have a place to post ideas or things I'm discovering as I write this book for people to read someday. I may even post pieces of it just to get some feedback from people, who knows, I may even try and get it published! now wouldn't that be something.

Be blessed!
Pedro