Mourning for yesterday(s) and today

May we remember that even as we feel justice has been served, God has been in mourning and still mourns over the events that have led to where we are.

Let’s Get It On…

Meaning prayer, you sinner. I had recently challenged some students to implicate a rhythm of prayer through Holy Week. I, of course, did it, too–praying at 9am and 9pm daily. I liked it. I liked a scheduled, devoted time of prayer. I even enjoyed beginning with a scripted prayer–it gave focus to what followed.

On my online wanderings the other day (BTW, still looking for stories of simple folks creating movements) I found this little gem of a site from the New Monastics folks. Won’t you join in my in some rhythmic prayer, brother (or sister)?

Professionally Missional?

This video does a pretty good job of setting up the missional mindset–it’s really about being sent into the larger community. Do you think that this is at odds, however, with being a professional Christian? How does the paid pastor, youth pastor, worship leader, etc… live missionally like “Bob” in the video?

Throwing it out there

I have it in mind, as we close out the school year in youth group, to present our students with some stories of people engaging in ministry in creative ways. Particularly, I want to excite the imaginations of our graduating seniors–and begin to give them some ideas of how they can missionally live their faith as they transition into adulthood.

I’m having trouble finding stories to share though. Got some ideas? I’m just looking for stories (especially video stories) of folks engaging in ministry in new, accessible ways. Doesn’t have to be a huge numbers success story (“We grew from a small group to a 3,000 member church,” or “we raised $700,000 for AIDS orphans…”), just a story of folks doing something unique to spread the kingdom of God.

Greed = Lack of Faith

I get mad when I don’t get stuff I want. When I can’t eat like I want to or buy coffee because Dave Ramsey says it’s not in the budget, that kind of gets my goat. But why? Is it really a big deal?

In reality: no, no it isn’t. But I don’t always fully grasp reality. The reality of our spiritual existence is that there is more to experience then the here-and-now. But I don’t get that. Really, what’s happening when I get upset about not being able to get a new pair of flip-flops for spring is that I’m lacking faith in God’s promise of eternity. What I’m really saying is that I need to experience pleasure now, because I may not later–and that’s a lack of faith in God’s promises. My wish to have stuff now suggests I don’t hold much faith in eternity.

Jesus understood better things were yet to come for him–why else would we have the cross? I think Paul had faith that better experiences were ahead. There are some contemporaries who have full faith, too (though they are seldom recognized… do you know any?).

What I’m discovering is that by insisting I need things now, I’m telling God I don’t trust in His promise for eternity. That was a sobering thought this morning. Now it’s time to attempt change…

The Shrinking Moment

There’s this moment you often encounter in youth ministry: you’re about to undertake some endeavor (like welcoming in a group of squirrel-y middle schoolers), you’ve just said a few words to pep up the team, you’ve talked over some concerns and expectations, and you feel the need to lift the coming event up to God in prayer. So what do you do? You ask who would like to pray for you all. And what happens? Everybody shrinks. Their shoulders tighten. Their eyes fall to the floor. You encounter the last moment of silence you’ll have for the next two hours. And no one volunteers.

Keeping the Flock

Ugh. It’s the time of year when things get a little thin in youth ministry programming. It’s baseball season, spring soccer season, kids want to be out, there are school plays, and the day-in-day-out monotony of a school has students longing for change. With all this in play, the old youth group starts to get a little thin…

… and that’s when it happens: mission drift.

The Missional Youth Ministry in Action

Wow. These are some great examples of congregations stepping out to do youth ministry in a missional way. New mission can rejuvenate churches – UMC.org.

One thing that I think it’s important to note, though, is that these churches don’t seem concerned about these missional ventures pumping up their worship attendance. That isn’t happening for them… and it may never happen. What is happening, though, is that the Gospel is becoming very real for a number of teens. And they’re finding “church” in the people who they’re connecting with. I’m stirred by this…

Missional Youth Ministry: The Long-Awaited Last Post

Yeah, soooo… got a little side-tracked by life. And, actually, the missional stuff requires some time. Trying to be available and “out there” when students are available has sapped the blogging time. But it’s time to wrap this series up and get on to other things. So here’s one last idea of how to engage in a missionally-minded youth ministry: Give It Up.

Serioulsy, if we’re to really take seriously that our roles, as leaders in youth ministry, is to create disciples, then we must pass the baton of leadership to those who have the greatest ability to disciple students. In a vast majority of cases, those people are parents. We must give the baton of discipleship over to them.

That may be something of a paradigm shift for many of us: because it means we’re going to start investing increasingly more in parents, and subtly less in students. Simply speaking, many parents don’t feel equipped to be spiritual mentors to their students. But they are the ones with the most exposure, influence, and really the greatest care in seeing their children brought into living faith.

So, what resources are out there to help parents spiritually mentor their students? I’ve found one solid one… but what love to know what others are doing, too. Whatcha got?

Related articles

• The missio Dei and Youth Ministry: Part 1 (relationalyouthministry.com)

Missional Youth Ministry: Get Small

In my experience, small groups are the truest catalyst of discipleship. In fact, in most of our minds small groups are synonymous with discipleship. As youth leaders, when we think of discipling students, we think of small groups. That’s how we roll. There’s a lot of credence to this… because small groups work.

If we’re attempting to apply a missional mindset to youth ministry, how do small groups advance that cause? You could make an argument that a missional mindset is a by-product of discipleship–so any endeavor that advances discipleship is likely to affect students missionally. As students seek to follow Jesus, they can’t help but behave with missional tendencies.

But there’s a little more to it: small groups are more adaptable, movable, and easier to replicate.