Welcome To The Planet
I know that it has been a long time since I have posted anything. I could give tons of reasons why this is the case, but I won’t. I thought I would get back in the saddle with more of a thought than an actual in-depth post.
Full-Disclosure: I am terrible at flossing my teeth. I really want to do it on the regular, but I don’t. In fact I rarely think about flossing until I know I am going to see the dentist, then in a mad dash I floss every day for about 5-7 days before my appointment. My hygienist always tells me the same thing…”You need to floss more.” They live in the world of teeth. They are around teeth all the time. I’m sure it is easy for them to remember to floss (perhaps not, but it is easy for them to tell me to). They spend time thinking about teeth. It is just part of their everyday world. Teeth are not part of mine. I also know that my teeth would be better served if I spent a bit of time thinking of them and just flossing.
I know for lots of people their spiritual life is a lot like flossing. We know we need to tend to our our souls, that we should take our discipleship more seriously, that our faith should have a more prominent role in our daily life, but often it doesn’t. We can go through days and perhaps weeks at a time without much interaction with God. We know this shouldn’t be the case, but for lots of us, it just seems to be that way.
My dentist and hygienist are always trying to find ways to help me remember my teeth.
I am always trying to find ways to help people remember what God has done for them.
It is a difficult task.
Historically student ministries have been good at introducing students to Christ. We can create fun places for students to gather, to be with other students and leaders and to hear the Gospel. We tend to be relational, we like spending time with students, sharing, playing games, eating, etc…but somehow, if we are honest with ourselves, have not been great at creating disciples of Christ. All the most recent statistics seem to back this up.
Isn’t one of the goals in student ministry to help create disciples?
One thing I really want is for my students to own their faith, and to start or continue down a journey that will last throughout their lives. What real good is it to have a bunch of students who when they leave the ministry leave the faith too?
If we really are interested in making disciples we need to look at a model for how that is done effectively. I’m not talking about attending a conference, or looking at how Saddleback or Willow or Newspring does things, but rather I want to look at how Jesus made disciples. Of all the models that exist, seems to me, this is the one we should think about emulating. How did Jesus make disciples? Lets consider the following (I will make no commentary right now…that will come in the next post.):
- Jesus calls 12 relatively young men to follow him, to leave everything they have and become his talmidin.
- The goal of a talmid was not simply to learn what the rabbi knew, but to do what the rabbi did. The discipleship process was not simply a transfer of knowledge, it was a transfer of life, and it required total commitment.
- Jesus spent considerable time with his talmidin. It wasn’t simply one night a week. They shared his life with him. They followed him and learned from him. (If you believe Rob Bell, the goal was to follow your rabbi so closely as you moved about that you would be literally covered in his dust.)
- Jesus taught his talmidin the scriptures (his yoke), they wrestled with its meaning and implications.
- Jesus expected his talmidin to put into practice what they were learning, thus becoming like the Rabbi.
- When they failed, he picked them up, taught them, corrected them and had them go again.
- This process took time, even in Jesus day, the process of becoming a disciple took years.
I think that when you look at the process of discipleship in Jesus’ time, it is clear that while we would agree that these principles are transferable to today, we don’t do them very well. I agree that there are some very real challenges to making disciples in today’s world, we should not let those challenges become excuses. It is our call to and command to go and make disciples, and we need to find ways to do just that.
In my next post, I will lay out some of the challenges of making disciples today, and give some strategies for meeting these challenges.
Facebook may be the king of social networking, but among youth pastors there is a growing use of Twitter. With Twitter, you can quickly connect with other youth pastors, share links to important and useful information, stay abreast of what’s happening in youth ministry all over the world. Did I mention you can do this all quickly? Through Twitter, I was asked by a youth worker from the Vancouver BC area to write a quick post for his website. He likes to highlight those who are in full time youth work.
Here is mine: Dave Roberts: Pro Youth Worker
There has been lots of conversation these days about what is important in ministry. Do we spend too much time on programs or gathering together? Do we spend too much time teaching and not enough on practice.
What is more important? Orthodoxy or orthopraxy?
There are videos like this one popping up all over:
Don’t get me wrong, I think that this type of thinking has value and is something we should wrestle with.
I just don’t get the whole concept that gathering is somehow wrong, or that othropraxy trumps orthodoxy.
Maybe we should look at what we do when we gather, or perhaps we need some bolstering in our understanding of what worship is and isn’t.
I do think that the days of over-programming need to come to an end, but I don’t think that the pendulum needs to swing so far that we say gathering for worship and teaching is not a valid expression of our faith.
In my mind, orthodoxy and orthopraxy are intertwined. They complement each other. If you have one without you only have part.
So is it this or that? My answer is yes.
(writer’s caveat: I have purposely left out what I think we should do when we gather…that is for another day my faithful 4 readers.)
It is no secret that youth ministry has changed and is changing. While there are pockets of youth ministries that still operate under older paradigms, there are many more who are wrestling with how to do youth ministry in this age. Some, after many years of gaining a level of professional recognition, are questioning if the role of youth pastor is even needed anymore. I find that question to be an interesting one. Are we going the way of the dinosaurs? Are we on the verge of extinction?
I say no…
but I also say that perhaps our historical (as short as that history may be) roles need to die, so something new can be birthed.
I think that the days of youth pastors being program directors a.k.a. Julie McCoy need to die, but that doesn’t mean that the youth pastor needs to die with it. We are partly to blame for where we find ourselves. As youth pastors, we believed that we could entertain students into a faith in Jesus. We thought it was necessary to offer alternative events and activities to keep students from engaging in the 3D’s (drinking, drugs & doing it). While this is what most parents wanted, and probably still do, it often left us as glorified babysitters.
As they say, the times they are a changing. As cultural shifts happen at a rapid pace, and as we gain new insights into faith development, as we learn the numbers of students who leave faith after high school, we are left with the feeling that the way we have been doing ministry isn’t effective and not working anymore.
While culture has shifted and is still shifting, the role of youth pastor has been slow to catch up. It’s time to stop thinking like program directors and start thinking like missionaries. While I believe wholeheartedly that youth ministry is the churches responsibility, I don’t think that most churches are equipped for this task. I believe that one of the crucial tasks for youth pastors in the next few years will be to train church members to reach and disciple emerging generations. I’m not just talking about a few leaders, but many. It will be incumbent upon the youth pastor to be the bridge between students and the church. It will be important that churches have a vision and are equipped to raise up the next generations, and it will be important for students to be able to find their ways into those relationships that will be formative for them. It is the youth pastors job to make that happen.
I think that the youth pastor will actually become more important as the stakes get higher, and I hope that churches are able to make the shift.
It’s time to stop being program driven and become missionally driven.
one, two, three, four, and five are all here.
This is the final installment of this series, I wanted to get this all out of the way before I begin blogging about different topics. I hope that you have found this to be interesting. I obviously have left lots out, and often after writing a post I think “I should have said this.” but I have resisted the urge to make my posts any longer. I have the tendency to rattle on as it is.
It with great excitement that we moved across the state to begin our life and ministry as the student ministry director of John Knox Presbyterian. Before we said yes to the call, we really needed to discern whether we wanted to be on staff with Tobin again, if that was just a comfort place for me or really God’s call. We also had to deal with whether we wanted to make a church called John Knox our home. I am thankful that the staff of John Knox was honest about where they were, what their struggles were and most importantly where they were headed. After much prayer and council, we discerned that God was indeed calling us to be part of JK.
We arrived at John Knox, with a great sense of hope. I had learned a lot about ministry and was going to need all of it. Looking back, it is pretty funny how things didn’t exactly work like I thought they were going to. JK’s youth ministry had a history of being a nice ministry for church kids. This is not where my heart was. I was brought in to help change the culture of the ministry. It was pretty inwardly focused. I wanted it to be more missional, more outward focused. I thought that was going to be my first task. I thought it would take a while…here is what happened:
- I arrive June 1, on June 14 or so, I lead a mission trip with students I barely know. It was all set up for me, and was hands down the worst mission trip I had ever been on. I meet students and learn their stories. I learn that students distrust me right off the bat. There was a few years with lots of turn over. I recognize it is an uphill battle
- I spend the summer getting to know students, recruiting leaders, praying and trying to implement the plan, which was to focus on the core students, cast a vision for them reaching their friends. We were going to go deep and spread out from there. We would worship, teach and have small groups. I figured it would take some time, we would have to be strategic.
- The first night of ministry in the fall, I had no idea what to expect. about 50-60 students show up, and we are set up for investing in our core. I made the decision to go with it as planned. I thought this will be the last I see most of these students.
- To my surprise, they come back and keep coming back. We don’t change our plan. We still go deep, we still worship, we still have small groups.
- Ministry happens, and students meet Christ and we rejoice
- Students don’t meet Christ, and we feel sorrow, but love them always.
There has been so much that has happened in the past nine years here. I have struggled with program models of ministry. I have struggled with how to make disciples in this age. I have learned that that is so much value in sticking with one place and seeing it through ups and downs. I have learned the value of having students serve, go on mission trips to the same place each year. I have learned that my leaders are great, some of them have been with me since the beginning. I have learned that we face big challenges ahead, and we have to hold loosely to everything but Jesus, that everything is on the table. You would think that after 18 years of ministry, I would have more answers than questions. I guess the old adage is true, “the more you know, the less you know.”
This post doesn’t really do my time here justice. I am just afraid if I start, this series will go on and on. Suffice it to say, I am astounded by God’s goodness and grace in this ministry and in my life.
We are just about ready for part 5 of this thrilling tale… one , two, three, and four are also available for your reading pleasure.
Eight months after buying our first home, we sold it for a huge profit of about $83.00. We packed everything we owned and we moved to Spokane. Looking back, there were good things about the move and somethings that were not so great. I really didn’t want to leave Hope. I just couldn’t work for the new guy any longer. I loved the ministry I was a part of. I had a small group of guys I had been with since 7th grade, they were now juniors, and I really felt like I was walking out on them. I was also excited. My new boss was great, it seemed like we were gong to be in lock step with one another, this turned out to be completely true. I was excited to be living away from the Midwest, something I had never done. It was time to put on my big boy pants and show that I could lead a ministry a part from Tobin. It was a bit strange to be seen as a guy who had led successfully and was expected to do the same in Spokane.
I arrived at First Presbyterian Church of Spokane in February of 1998. My boss Randy and I clicked almost instantly. I knew I would learn a lot from him. I inherited an out-of-control junior high group. I mean they were berserk. It honestly took a while for me to love them, and even longer to like them. They say that you shouldn’t change much when you walk in the door of a new ministry situation. You should learn the lay of the land, get to know people, see what is working and what isn’t, and then begin to make a plan. This just wasn’t going to happen here, and the very first thing I needed to do was establish that I was the leader. We struggled for a few months, but eventually we got there. I definitely changed the way I programmed ministry in Spokane: gone were the elaborate themes, gone were reoccurring characters, we were much more stripped down. We still did small groups, large groups, games and had fun, but things were subtly different. We were teaching students how to reach out to their friends, we created a place where everyone could be part of, we didn’t give students a “bait and switch” gospel. We had them serving, we started a mission trip for junior high students, we started a junior high worship band. These things were all coming on the heels as I was struggling with my own understanding of the church and the gospel. I became enamored with this new thing called the emerging church. I was reading Len Sweet and just eating it up. It was like a breath of much needed fresh air. I realized that I was in an institutional church and I was far from institutional, and it caused tension in my soul. I loved working with Randy, I would have worked with him forever if I could have. The youth ministry department was my salvation during my time at FPC, cause it certainly wasn’t the church, it’s direction, worship or leadership. I tried, but just wasn’t able to respect the pastoral leadership of the church. I even put a fart machine under the senior pastors chair during staff meeting (he asked me about it at lunch 4 months later). The church was experiencing an exodus…a mass exodus, yet the student ministries department was thriving. We were doing amazing ministry, but unfortunately the farting chair pastor decided to make us the villains. I enjoyed the fight for a while, it felt a bit like being in a gang. I eventually got tired of all the crap (I’m using the term lightly here) and began to look elsewhere. I was turning 30, and decided that no matter how great the ministry I was doing, it only mattered if the church had life and was going somewhere too. I applied at a few churches and almost ended up in Oceanside, CA. I am so thankful God gave me the the foresight to pull my name after a 5 day visit, cause I almost got seduced by the waves and palm trees and…well lets just say it turned out for the best. After my visit I decided I would try and stick it out in Spokane, which lasted a few months when I saw a job posting for John Knox Presbyterian Church near Seattle. This was the church that Tobin was now an associate pastor for. I emailed him to let him know the posting was up (computers have never really been his thing…). He responded that I should apply to help give his committee some practice. I talked it over with Rachel and I sent in my stuff, never expecting to actually end up there…
In June of 2002 (we spent our 10 year anniversary packing), we headed across the state to a suburb of Seattle to begin the next phase in my youth ministry life as the director of student and family ministries at a crazy little place called John Knox.
In spite of everything, I am grateful for my time in Spokane. I learned what it meant to be missional, and that God really wants to use us for His Kingdom. I learned to ask hard questions, and not to hold anything too tightly except Jesus. I learned that the Midwest is really, really flat. I learned that numbers only matter cause people matter, and numbers do not equate success. I learned a lot that I would take with me to Seattle.
This is post 4 of 6 of my history of youth ministry. We have hit the halfway point. I would like to thank all 3 readers for sticking it out this far…let’s hit the home stretch. If you are interested, you can read parts 1,2, 3.
About two weeks before graduating from college, I interviewed for the Director of Jr High Ministry at Hope Church. Yup, it was the church where Tobin was youth pastor. I was offered the position and with great excitement I started in full time ministry. What I lacked in experience, I was gong to make up with enthusiasm and youthful zeal. Hope is a large church with a long history of vibrant youth ministry and truth be told. I had no business being hired for this position. I am just thankful the committee saw something in me and took a chance. I am also glad I didn’t know then what I know now, or I would have been scared silly to be doing ministry of this scope right out of the shoot.
It’s funny how somethings have changed so much in ministry over the years, yet some of the core principles remain the same. I say this because they way I did ministry back then resembles very little how I do ministry today. When I came on board at Hope, it was all “bigger is better.” We created teaching themes with skits and games to match. We had students broken down into teams, and kept points for games and attendance. We created reoccurring characters like “Brief Man” and his sidekick “Boxer Boy” battling the “Evil Dr. Hanes”. We did stunts with eggs, whip cream, flour, goldfish. We we high energy and borderline insane. We were also super busy. If you were a core student, you could be involved in something for church 3-4 times a week…like I said, we were borderline insane. We also taught students about Jesus and his love for them. We had students in small groups being discipled. We ran camps and retreats and even though this is not how I do ministry today, we had a lot of fun. I also ran an after school drop in center for at risk kids from the neighborhood. We had gangs, drugs and fights and I called 911 more times in those few years than I ever have in my whole life. It stretched me and challenged me and showed me that there is no such thing as a throw-away kid.
It was also during my time at Hope that I experienced one of the most significant, life changing experiences I have ever had. I went to Africa. I thought I was just going with a great group of people from Hope and because it was fulfilling one of my wife’s dreams. I had no idea that my entire worldview would be rocked and reshaped. I had never been out of the country and what I experienced and saw changed me forever. I suppose my Africa trip could occupy an entire post or 10, but suffice it to say I had to deal with things I had never given much thought to, like poverty and justice and God’s goodness. It has been 15 years since going, and if I smell diesel fuel, I am instantly taken back to the streets and slums of Nairobi. My trip to Africa significantly shaped how I saw ministry and what I thought was important. It lead me to begin the first ever junior high mission trips from Hope. This was when not many churches were doing mission trips, and taking junior high students on one was just plain crazy-talk. I was able to find an organization (CSM is still one of my favorite organizations for urban trips) willing to take junior high groups and we went and served in inner city Chicago. Those first couple of trips really began to cement into my soul the importance of getting students out of their comfort zones and into places where they can serve, invest and make a difference.
After a few years at Hope, Tobin left student ministry for good and became our missions pastor. I knew I wasn’t ready to apply for the position yet. I think I had learned a bit in the 3.5 years I was there. The church put together a search committee to find Tobin’s replacement, and as sometimes happens (the frequency is up for debate) they called the wrong guy. I tried, I really wanted to be in lock step with the new guy, but it just didn’t seem to work. Coupled that with a wrong call of a new senior pastor and I was literally thinking how can I get out the door? I managed for a little over a year more, and I knew the writing was on the wall for me at Hope. I began searching for my next call. I remember applying for the Director of Jr High Ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Spokane and my wife freaking out even though she agreed it looked good. We had just bought our first home 8 months before, Spokane was quite a distance away although it wasn’t anywhere close to Seattle as I had originally thought. Life was changing fast.
I don’t know if it is irony or providence or what, but 2 weeks after leaving Hope, they fired the youth director…and within a year of me leaving the senior pastor and the church had dissolved their call. So within a year, both situations that caused me to leave were no longer even in play.
In February 1998, we packed up everything we owned and headed west to Spokane.
As I said earlier in this post, Hope has a long and vibrant history of youth ministry, and I am proud to be part of that. I learned so much there about ministry, churches, my strengths and my shortcomings. It was there that some of the gnawing suspicions I was having about how we were doing ministry, discipleship, and how lives were or were not being transformed began to take root, and I think would begin to bloom during my time in Spokane. I am thankful for this step in my journey.
This is part #3 of my history of Youth Ministry. Of course, if you are interested, you can read part #1, and part #2
After finally, and reluctantly accepting my call to youth ministry, I jumped in with both feet, right into the deep end. The next two years were a complete whirlwind. They included me doing an internship, taking 18-20 credit hours a quarter to get done on time, volunteering 10 hours or so in the high school ministry at Hope Church with Tobin, working on the grounds crew at school 15-20 hours a week, getting married between my junior and senior year, getting hired my senior year to run an after school program 10+ hours or so…oh and did I mention that I was taking 18-20 credits? I look back and I think to myself what insanity. How in the world did I find time to do all of that? You know what? I loved it! I had realized my calling, and it ignited a passion in me. I was learning things in school that I saw application for, and it motivated me to learn. I was investing in the lives of students, and I loved it. I was learning how God had gifted me. Could I keep that kind of schedule up forever? Not a chance, but it was exactly what I needed back then. I think back on those two years as some of the most formative times in my ministry life. I realize just how much God was molding me into who I needed to be in order to still be here 18 years later.
I learned that youth ministry needs three things: calling, passion, and gifting.
This is part #2 of a multiple part series about my personal history of youth ministry.
After high school, I did what lots of students do, I headed off to college to pursue an education and a future (I was also interested in pursuing girls and good time). The last thing I was interested in was anything youth ministry related, my only real focus was making the basketball team. You see, I had a hoop dream. It was this dream that lead me to Northwestern College in St. Paul MN. I chose it for very spiritual reasons, it was one of the few schools to recruit me, and it had some of the best dorms in the country. So in the fall of 1989 I headed off to play basketball, get a degree in physical education with a coaching certificate and begin my coaching career which would eventually lead me to coaching for a college program somewhere.
As it turns out, none of those things happened.
The first crushing blow happened when I fell ill during the first part of basketball season. I had worked incredibly hard, and couldn’t wait to play college ball, but because I fell ill, I wasn’t able to play my freshman year. I was at a college with very few real friends, and the one constant in my life was now also gone. To say I was rudderless would be an understatement. Little did I know then, this was just the beginning of a pruning process that would lead me into ministry. There would be many along the way: personal failures, crumbling relationships, sin…all became things God would use to bring me into a real relationship with Him and then into ministry.
During my Freshman year, my old youth pastor called me up and said that he was moving to Minnesota too, and that I should think about coming and volunteering at his new church with him. This was the last thing I was interested in. I put him off for the time being, not knowing that God was weaving together a completely different version of my life than the one I was working on.
My sophomore year was the the breaking point. I had met the best girl ever. We fell in love and got engaged. I worked really hard at screwing that up. Not only was my relationship struggling, but my education was struggling too. I couldn’t get into the classes I needed. In my intro to education class, I was the only student not given a school observation placement, a requirement for completing the class. I was beyond frustrated. I was so pissed at God and myself. I remember sitting in the parking lot at the back of the college, lovingly referred to as the dust bowl, having an apostle moment with God. My life was in shambles, my engagement was on the brink, I finally came to the place where I was ready to either say yes completely to God or walk away. I was prepared to start my car and drive home. In that moment I sensed God wrapping his arms around me, comforting me, and telling me it’s about time your hard headed, stiff necked, son of a gun. I believe it was in that moment that Christ truly saved me, and called me to Himself. It is also in that moment, much to my own personal disbelief, that He called me into youth ministry. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening…we made fun of the youth ministry majors, now I was going to be one. The very next day, I switched majors and began my training for the ministry. I called Tobin, and told him I was a youth ministry major and wanted to be involved with him in his church.
The next two years were a complete whirlwind…and that is the subject of part #3.
