How to Find, Woo, and Hire a Youth Minister or Pastor

There are several ways to approach the hiring of a youth pastor. First, I would say have a clear vision of what your expectations, job description and vision for the youth pastor who is coming in. Remember, that leaders are attracted to places where they see they will have the freedom to lead and the potential to succeed without the worry of failing. What I mean by that is sometimes our churches don't allow our leaders to fail and that doesn't allow them the freedom to take risks and improve. You will have to determine what those expectations are as a church.

Secondly, have a clear picture of what experience you are looking for in a youth pastor and what qualities, gifts, strengths you see as valuable. Also, have your team or staff who hires the new youth pastor make clear they type of person you are looking for. If you need a little help in what are some difference to look for or how to do that a little more let me know.

Thirdly, Post your job on the web. I have close ties to http://www.staffyourchurch.com it is free to post and only 9.99 to have premium posts and resume search. You can post as much as you want for free or as many premium posts for the 9.99. The posts on this website give great response in the search engines without the big costs of some of the major ones. If the costs don't matter then post in as many places as you can.

Forthly, Consider an interim Youth pastor. This can be a strong leader from your church or another person that lives in the area that would want to help out. However, this is a must: Do not hire the interim youth pastor. Tell them up front if they want to be considered for the position to not be the interim. The reason for this is that if you open the door for hiring an interim youth pastor then you can settle for them because it is comfortable and you don't hire the best for the position.

Fifthly, and probably could be the best plan if it works out. Call the churches that are doing things well and talk to the youth pastors there. Ask them if they know anyone that is interested in a youth ministry job. If you have all the other things in place then you can call youth pastors who you believe posses the things your looking for.

Now How do you woo a youth pastor? Well, think about it like sports free agency. When a team wants to get a player who they feel are high quality. I would say one of the most important things for you to do is to keep in contact with everyone who applies. If someone sends you a resume put them on an email list and send them an email with your time frame. If they do not fit the qualities that you are looking for notify them right away. Don't hesitate on letting them know and don't just not tell them. It is an awful feeling to be in limbo on what a church is thinking and not knowing their next steps. People would much rather move on to the next opportunity than to be wondering about one that they don't have.

Be sure that when you find people you are really interested in you need to keep the communication very open. Email them weekly on what is the status of your search. If you have 10 people you are still looking at don't go 2 - 3 weeks without letting them know where you are. If they are still a possibility let them know that. Nothing is more frustrating for a leader than a church who doesn't communicate well. I know that we often times in churches want our search team to be very secretive and I think out of respect for the people you are talking to you shouldn't give their names, but it is fine to let people know where you are in the process and especially let those who are looking to be hired need to know. If there are 3 people who you really want to focus on be careful not to narrow down to 1 until you know they are going to say yes.

I have seen many churches get sold on a guy that they end up saying no and the Church has to start the process over. Another reason for hiring an interim person. The church I currently work with had 2 guys all the way until the end of the line that they were deciding on before they offered me the job. If I would have said no they hand another guy who they thought would have done a great job too ready to say yes. They also kept great communication lines open with me and I knew exactly where they were in the process.

I hope this was helpful and if you have any more questions about hiring staff go to: http://www.staffyourchurch.com and send a comment or email.

Orange Conference Review

My plan is over the next week to take some time and give some thoughts on the Orange Conference in Atlanta GA. I had the chance to go with 4000 or so other children's and youth leaders. It was a great conference and the main sessions were really good. I love getting a chance to talk with the exhibitors there and seeing how I can connect with what I am doing to what resources they can provide.

I hope each of you take the time to go to conferences or at least get CD's to listen to that can help you in growing more effectively in ministry. It is worth it to be around people who really want to grow.

Blog Back On

Well, I have been off of the blogging cycle for too long. It is one of those things like you know you need to exercise, you pass by the gym everyday, you see your exercise cycle sitting in the guest room, basement or garage and you think, "Wow, I need to do that again. I do it later." That is my blogging life for the last few months. I have been thinking about a lot of different things for youth pastors that have needed to be said and I said I will do that later. I am back, and I have some great insights from other youth pastors and what God is teaching me that I think we will love reading about.

I am in process of moving forward in our youth ministry on how we do things. We are making changes that are going to reach more students and have more impact. I am presenting this to my adults this weekend and my students next week. I will share over the next couple of weeks how I went about these changes to help you walk through anything you may see you need to change as well. It should be extremely helpful for anyone looking to move forward in their ministry.

Also, I have some youth pastors that have given me some great ideas lately and I want to share those. Along with that I am emailing some youth pastors and finding out what are the key Life Issues that they teach every year or they want their students to hear. I also, want to find out what are the irreducible minimums (as Andy Stanley puts it) in their ministry. I love the 7 checkpoints but I don't necessarily think that it fits for every youth ministry. I can see that God has gifted each youth pastor and ministry with some key passions and I will talk about what some of those are.

We will also look at some other insights over the next month or so to help challenge you going into the summer and into next year. I have been doing research on how to do Multi-site churches, and I am in process of implementing an internship program in our church.

Stay tuned as we dig into these and I will make a point to not neglect my blog "bicycle" if you promise to read and comment with your insights as well.

Thanks!

Kevin Deming

Another Communication Post..but this one is worth the read.

How many of you struggle with communicating with your adult leaders, parents, staff, students? I am sure that most of your hands went up..actually you probably didn't actually raise your hand while reading this blog, but you might have done a little nod. Maybe even some of you yelled out in your office, "You betcha!" I am sure of all the things you could have yelled out the chances are it was, "You betcha!" Anyways, we as humans, as leaders, as ministers have the ongoing struggle of comminicating.

The number one thing about communicating is that we know what we need to communicate. I am not going to go into depth on this blog, you can go hide out in an office or starbucks somewhere and figure that one out. Maybe it would be a great idea to ask your Pastor what he believes is the most important thing for you to communicate. If you agree then you better start working on it. If you disagree then you need to spend some time with your pastor and communicate what you believe you need to communicate.

Today we are going to look at another aspect of communication. It is actually the mindset of communication. One of our biggest hurdles in communicating effectively is that we don't have the right mindset about communication and what a leader needs to do in communication.

Oftentimes we give out 7 different ways of what we are trying to do from an event, to leading a meeting, to how you want something to be organized and it still doesn't look or work the way you expected. And even sometimes after you have sent out emails, made phone calls and gave the ol' Open door policy to your leaders and students they still don't know what your thinking.

The answer to this is nailed down to 1 major understanding about who you are as a leader. If you have an event, have a meeting, or whatever it is and the people who are on your team are struggling to know what was or is going on.... "It is your fault!" You see even if you sent out emails, did the phone tree, sent a singing telegram, and yelled it from your announcements during youth group, if they don't get what your saying you failed as a communicator. I know this one hurts. We all do it. We think that if we give 7 different ways for people to know what it is that we are doing that if they don't get the answers it was b/c they didn't put out the effort and do it. Even though your correct that they had 7 chances to know what your were doing you have to remember the goal. Is the goal to provide communication or is your goal to actually communicate? If it is to provide communication then all you need to do is provide communication. But if your goal is to communicate and there for make things less frustrating and more effective then instead of just providing communication you need to make sure that you do everything you can that every person your trying to reach gets that communication and understands it.

So the next time you have adult leaders who say, "I didn't know we had a meeting." Please, I mean, Please don't say, "Well, I sent out an email, and I announced it at the last meeting, you need to pay more attention." Instead say, "What can I do to make sure that you know when the next meeting is."

Hope this helps!!

In Christ,

Kevin Deming

Following Through with change...

Wow, I know one of the hardest things in ministry is following through. I wanted to write this post as more of an encouragement to ministry leaders to remind them that we need to be obedient to God first and foremost. When God gives you a vision it is very important that we choose to do what God has planned. God is Holy, God is Perfect, and God knows what is best so we should always remember when He shows us what we are to do if we want the best for our lives we need to follow through. Oftentimes, following through with something means that either it is going to be a lot of work or it is going to be a change that some people won't like. How many times have you seen an area in ministry that is not as effective as it can be and you see the reasons why? How many times do we not make it more effective because we are afraid of the consequences of changing something? Sometimes we are worried that if we make a change and someone is upset then it will be worse than continuing to do what we do.

I have heard many times the quote that Albert Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." If this is true then why do we keep doing the same things and expect things to get better?

Remember, if you are a leader in a ministry there are people who are looking for you to lead. Leaders will always be the frontrunners in change. We have to get better at communicating why we are changing something. But in order to improve anything we have to change it at least a little bit. The more there is a need to improve something the more we have to change it. People will tolerate but will not be satisfied when things remain the same.

Ask those working with you if they like change. Most will probably say no. Then ask them if they would like change if it paid them 1 million dollars. I will tell you right now those percentages go up quickly. People don't like change if they don't think it benefits them. People love change if it benefits them. It is a simple concept that we oftentimes overlook. How many times do you hear people say, "I just don't like change?" Well, the next time someone says that to you say, well, I guess I won't have to buy you a Christmas present anymore, because it would be different than what you already have. I am sure they would say...oh no. Please understand me when I say this again, we are creatures of habit and even though we struggle with the idea of change it is always very easy to accept if the world around us is better for us. Do people want world peace? Yes, that is change. Do people want to win the lottery? Yes, that is a huge change.

I want to end with this idea that change is only as bad as the result. If you believe God is showing you how to be more effective in reaching more people and making an impact for His Kingdom. Don't let people's fear of change keep you from doing the right thing. Communicate what that change is to your people. Communicate why this is the best. Then do what God has for you to do. Follow through with it or you will burn out and go insane in ministry. Don't keep doing the same thing again and again and expect different results. If it is working then tweak it to make it better, if it is broke then change it!

I hope this helps!~

In Christ,

Kevin Deming

Training Adult Leaders Vol. 3: Listen to how your leader's Talk

This will be a short tip for your training but hopefully will be very valuable. One of the guys on staff at my church brought a great tip to me and I wanted to share it with you. As we look to train our leaders to be thinking from a team approach we need to watch for how our leaders use pronouns. What I mean by that is this: Have you ever heard people discuss their favorite team or sport? It is funny to hear people talk about their team and how they use words like, "We really beat the other team today," or "We need to pick up this player" or "WE need to..."
It is funny when the team is doing something wrong and they are jumping off the bandwagon you hear them saying, "They better stop making so many bad decisions," or "they need to win a game or they will not make the playoffs." You see the pronoun usage shift from a "WE" mentality to a "They." If you start seeing your adult leaders referring to decions made to a they or a you instead of we when they are talking to other people you can put the brakes on and realize that they are beginning to jump of the team bandwagon. It is time to re-cast vision, re-ignite the goals, and re-establish the purpose of why your doing what your doing. So by listening to how your adults talk about the youth ministry you will see how unified they are with a team approach.

Training Adult Leaders Vol. 2: Teach Your Leaders to Be a Team

One of the most important things we can do is to clarify our expectations as I just mentioned in my previous post. However, another thing that is vital to teach your team of leaders on any level is to be a team. We had a leader's training and I hit on the fact that we have got to stay focused as a team. When a decision is made we must look to how we can make that decision work the best for the goal we are tryiing to achieve. Often times our response to compaining is to continue to complain. By doing that we not only hurt our image, we also hurt the ministry we are involved with, the church we are working with, and the Kingdom of God. Complaining stirs up discension and undermines the vision of what your trying to accomplish.

My goal as a youth pastor is to express to the staff ideas and visions on how to be more effective in reaching people for God's Kingdom. If someone on staff makes a decision to do ministry a certain way that I might not agree with I have to remember we are a team and that even thought I think it would be more effective one way, my job as a team player is to at that point help make that decision get implemented as effectively as possible.

An example would be, let's suppose you are at a church that has a Sunday night church service. You really believe that it would be better and more effective to reach students if you did ministry projects on Sunday nights. After expressing this with your pastor and the staff your pastor feels like even though it is a good idea he wants everyone to be together for a service on Sunday night.

You have a couple of options. 1) You can be upset and compain to your youth leaders and students about how your pastor is handcuffing the minsitry and it won't grow until he loosens up. 2) You can Complain behind closed doors to your spouse, and those who are close to you and try to figure out a way to help your pastor see his mistake. 3) You can decide that if this is the direction the church is taking you will utilize this to impact your student ministry the most effective way it can. or 4) You can look for another job. Which one do you do?

As being a part of a team the appproach is simple. You job is to implement the vision with the guidelines given to you the most effective as you can. This doesn't mean you fight until you get your way. You see, I see that option 3 is what we need to do. However, as you do option 3 and seek to make the best of what was given to you, you can prayerfully talk with your pastor and show him what you want to see happen. Clarify your goals and the reason why you see the greatest impact for the change you were wanting to make. If you see that this is too strong of a philosophy difference then you may conisder making a move in ministry. But remember, just because someone does something different doesn't mean that it is wrong (however, sometimes it just may be wrong).

Training Your Leaders

In youth ministry it is often easy for students, parents or leaders to complain about how something is done. You must communicate upfront with your leaders that complaining about the youth ministry to others and to students is not tolerated. But also give them permission to discuss with you their frustrations. Just as you would want your pastor to let you discuss with you why you think something would be better give that permission to your leaders!

I pray this helps you as you go into this fall training your leaders.

In Christ,

Kevin Deming

Training Adult Leaders Vol. 1: Communicate Your Expectations

One of the most important thing you can do in ministry is to communicate your expectations. As leaders we want to lead people where we are going and one of the most frustrating things about following a leader can be if you don't know where you going. I know as a youth pastor one of the best things I can do is to communicate to my adult leaders, parents, staff, spouse (family) and students what we see as where we are headed. If people know where you are going they will be better at helping you get there. If we don't clarify our direction then what happens is your adult leaders and those around you begin to have their idea of where to go. They may have some great ideas but if it is different than what your doing it will result in conflict and frustration.

Here is an example:

Youth Pastor (let's call him Mr. A) is passionate about discipleship and is gifted in that way. He sees that the midweek youth event should be designed for the purpose of spiritual growth. He realizes that there is a need for reaching out to the unchurched but doesn't feel that the mid-week event is the place that would be most effective to do that. Now everything that Mr. A does is going to be geared toward a discipleship result. There may be some evangelism that takes place at that program but the messages and the environment that is produced will be done to be more effective in producing disicipleship.

Now let's suppose MR. A hasn't communicated that to his parents, or leaders. Maybe there are some who feel that the best place to reach the unchurched is the mid-week program. What would happen if the leaders and the youth pastor never communicate what the direction and purpose of that event is? Well, it would result in leaders and parents frustrated that more unchurched students are not coming. Even though there may be some good discipleship going on the end result of how the youth event is measured is done with 2 seperate measuring scales.

Don't be like Mr. A and have a vision but forget to communicate it. In fact, I haven't met a youth pastor who has told me that they get complaints because they communicate too much. If you are a youth pastor that gets complaints for that I would say, "Great job!!"

Communicate everything your doing and why your doing it. Communicate what the end result your looking for at each program, or event you have should accomplish. Whether you use the Purpose Driven youth model, or the Northpoint Church in Atlanta Model, or the Mr. A Youth Pastor Model the goal has to be communication.

Here are some suggestions that I have put to practice:

1) Create google groups for your leaders and your parents to communicate with them.

2) Have an email list or database list for you to email your parents, leaders and students on a weekly or regular basis.

3) Put together a newsletter to send to leaders, students, and parents that you can send through your email list.

4) Meet with your leaders regularly. Have them over to your house and have fun with them. Don't only get together with them for trainging purposes. If you have fun together you will be able to lead together better.

5) Schedule regular Parent Gatherings to convey how they can stay connected. Remember if you have ways for parents to stay connected then let them know how you will communicate to them and then tell them if they want to know what is going on they will have to take responsibility to get connected. (This is a freebie: don't let yourself get beat up if a parent or youth doesn't know what is going on if you provide a way for everyone to know what is going on and you let them know how to do that.)

6) Actually email your students, parents and leaders.

7) Put the vision God has given you in print or on the web. Keep details of upcoming events in print (available) or on the web.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have used some of these ideas and if you have some others that have worked well for you.

Kevin Deming

Becoming more effective in ministry

One of the things I love most about the church I am in is their drive to be more effective in every area of ministry. We are in the middle of Strategic planning for every ministry in the church and are using the principles from the book, "7 Practices of Effective Ministry." It is worth buying if you haven't already bought a copy. Our church is taking these 7 practices and applying them to every ministry and demographic in our church to see how we can be more effective in reaching people.

I want to encourage you to evaluate your ministry. Look and see what is working and what seems to be struggling. Get a copy of the books, The Simple Church and 7 Practices of Effective ministry and apply those principles to your ministry. What is your passion in ministry? Do you want to see God show up mightily in your life? If you do then I encourage you to work with a team of leaders to discover God's vision for your ministry, focus on communicating to your people the vision God has given your ministry, do everything you can to follow through and make things more effective.

Don't settle for less than what God has for you and your ministry. God is bigger than we can imagine. Trust Him and let Him guide you. Please don't get satisfied with just maintaining ministry. Be passionate about being more effective and impactful.

Kevin

What to do when you go to a New Church

I have been out of service for a few weeks as I have made a transition to a church in North Carolina. God has been so amazing in answering our prayer requests during our move and I am so thankful to see all He is doing. Thanks for your prayers and I am excited to see what God is doing.

For those who are starting a position in a new church here are some thoughts on some first things to do:

1) Get to know the heart of the church and the staff. Spend time asking questions and getting to know who your working with.

2) Spend time with Leaders in the youth ministry. Set up meetings with them in the first 2 weeks and get a feel of what their expectations are for the student ministry. Remember they are the ones who have been carrying the youth ministry while the church has been looking for a new youth pastor. Find out what they see are the biggest needs. Remember, whatever their expectations of the youth ministry are they will judge your success or failure on those things. If that is not what your heart and passion is then you need to communicate to them clearly what your passion and giftedness are.

3) Spend time with parents. Get to know the parents. Within the first month try and set up a parent gathering to be able to cast vision. Listen to the parents. There are needs that they see their kids have and you want to be sure to address those needs.

4) Get to know the students by name. It is very important that you know their name. It makes someone feel so good when they here someone use their name.
Sometimes youth pastors can make the mistake and just try and spend all their time with the students the first few weeks. Be sure that you focus on all 4 of these areas. Pray through the vision God has given you for that church and then lead the leaders and parents there and love the students and you will see God do amazing things.

The more people you can include in the loop the better you will be.

Kevin

Environment of Acceptance

Every one of us longs to be accepted and loved. We strive to be in an environment where we feel like people care about us. As youth pastors it is extremely important for us to give every student an opportunity to feel loved and accepted when they walk into our churches. We need to change the mindset of most teenagers and train them to reach out to one another and realize how important it is for us to show the truth of Jesus Christ to everyone.

One of the biggest needs our students have is to be accepted. We see that in their desire to fit in. What can we do to see that our Students are accepted and welcomed each time they walk in the door?

1) Know your students by name. Every student looks to see if you know them by name. They also look to see how you say their name. Be sure to use their name when you speak to them.

2) Set up hosts whose job each week is to see that every person who walks in the doors are connected and followed up with. Do you have a welcome center where you can check people in and make sure you know who is coming each week?

3) Find a way to connect your guests and visitors to a significant adult or student in your ministry so that they will be embraced! Have student come to a big event and you may or may not see them again; Have a student form a relationship in a small group and you can make a disciple.

4) Are you training your leaders to look for students who are not connected. It is easy to be friendly to the students who are regulars and have an outgoing personality, but how are you relating to the students who seem lonely or hurting or need a friend? Are you training your students to invest in others?

Remember to always try and look at your student ministry from the perspective of a first time visitor. Would you come back if you were a first time guest?

A Change of Perspective

Yesterday we took our student ministry to Rescue Atlanta which is a church in downtown Atlanta the meets the needs of the poor and the desperate and the homeless in a way that most churches would never. You see it is easy for our churches to go to the inner city and feed the homeless, it is a little harder to actually set up lunches and make hot meals and serve the homeless, but it is very radical to invite the homeless into our Sunday Mornings and our church service and invest in their lives on a permanent basis. Well, Rescue Atlanta Does this. Check out their website: Rescue Atlanta.

On Saturday we got to see the city of Atlanta from the perspective of how a homeless person views it. We ministered to over 150 kids from the projects across the street with a Kid's Jam and rode on buses to pick them up and take them home. My heart broke as we rode with them on the bus and realized that they all were getting ready to be kicked out of their homes so that they could build homes that were for higher income levels. After we were on the bus for a while some of my students called to me and told me that there was a boy who missed his stop. I went to him and asked him to come up front with me so I could tell Pastor Mel where he lived. He came up front and I asked his name and he told me. I could tell he was young and seemed a little scared. I told him that I was glad he didn't get off the bus yet so we could hang out for a few more minutes together. I looked at him and asked him how old he was. He held up his hand with just 2 fingers and said he was 2 years old. He told me he would be 3 in Nov. This 2 year old boy had no one that was watching him, no older brother or sister or friend that was with him and didn't even know if there was someone at his house. My heart broke as I realized that there was a 2 year old boy out there that had to grow up faster than he ever wanted.

My perspective changed as it always does when you take time to see life from people who are desperate and hurting. How often are we so afraid to do ministry in a way that invites the hurting and the desperate? How often are we afraid to do more than just go serve a hot meal at a homeless shelter? Are we willing to actually live in such a way that our lives invest in those who are hurting? I pray that our churches will move from feeding people and helping the hurting at the back door and start investing in them and moving them into the front of our churches. Let our people see that there is so much more to our lives than feeling comfortable. It is about doing the ministry of Christ for the Glory of God. Are we willing to get dirty and touch the untouchable?

This reminds me of the parable where there was a man with Leprosy that stood outside the gates and was calling out for Jesus. Someone with Leprosy couldn't be touched and had to yell out all day to people and let them know that they had leprosy so that people would stay away from them. Someone with Leprosy usually didn't have anyone every touch them and I would say one of the hardest parts about being a leper was there was no human touch. Well, on this day, he heard that Jesus was near and so he was calling out for Him. Jesus came to him and he asked Jesus if he would make him clean. Jesus did the unthinkable, he reached down and he touched him. He told him that he would be made clean and the man was healed. You see Jesus did the unthinkable, the radical! He touched the unclean. Are our ministries filled with students who are good kids? Are our students filled with students who are the popular and the accepted or are we teaching and equipping our students to get into their schools and get a little dirty? Are we teaching them to seek out the desperate and the hurting? Are we teaching our students to love the unloved? I would say if we did we would see our churches full of the desperate who have found hope. I challenge each one of us to take time to invest in the unloved and let's do the ministry of Christ.

What we must teach our students?

I am in the process of interviewing interns for the summer as we are growing an intern ministry. One of the questions that I have asked them is, "What do you believe are the foundational truths that we must teach students?" As I have heard some great answers and I have been praying about what we as Youth Pastors need to communicate to students I believe I have a really strong grasp on what it is that we need to teach.

Here they are:

1) A correct and complete picture of the Gospel. Please jump down to the "Why did Jesus Have to Die" Post for more information on this. Ultimately we need to make sure that every student that is in our ministry has a correct understanding of the Gospel. This is more than just having an inviation or sharing the gospel at your youth meeting. This entails getting to know your students and equipping your leaders to get to know the students in such a way that you really know what part of the Gospel they are struggling with. Do you know the spiritual condition of every student in your ministry? If you have a large youth ministry do you or someone on your leadership know every student's spiritual condition?

2) A right view of who we are in comparision to who God is! This is very extensive but it should be the driving force to where we are leading students. Are we leading students to discover a correct view of Who God is? Are we showing them a correct view of who we are as we relate to God? Everything that we teach them about God flows out of this. Our biggest problems with students are not keeping them out of peer pressure or trying to convince them to come to church. Our biggest struggle is working through all the junk and lies in their life that they believe about God and helping to correct that and give them a correct view of God. This view of God is founded in the Word of God as Paul so often teaches that we need to teach according to sound doctrine. (Titus 1:9He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.)
(Titus 2:1[ What Must Be Taught to Various Groups ] You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.)

3) We need to teach them how to apply this right view to their life. We need to invest in students in such a way that we begin to allow them to see how God can and wants to change their life for the better. We need them to as they seek God and see His Truth understand how to put that to practice in their lives.

My encouragement to each and every youth pastor is to do whatever it takes to communicate this Right understanding of God. It starts with Salvation and the Gospel. It continues with the process of putting to practice the Word of God in their lives. The truest way to love someone is to help them know, understand, and apply God's Truth!

Leading Students to Jesus

How many times do we as youth pastors sit back and try to just let our Sunday Morning service be the answer to our kids coming to Christ? How many times do we teach our students about Jesus but just leave it up to them to come if they really want to make a decision? How many times do we actually take the initiative to see that our Students have a correct understanding of Jesus and they really have a relationship with Him?

This past Sunday we baptized 9 people but what I am so excited about is that 3 of them were student salvations that happened the week before. On Sunday Morning April 15th I stepped out of our Morning worship and met with some teenagers to tell them how they can know they have a relationship with Jesus. I was excited from my trip to Russia and leading some students to Christ there and I took the time to talk with some students who wanted to make sure they were going to heaven. I went to our small groups and just told students of the necessity that they understand why Jesus had to die. I asked any student that had never been baptized but wanted to make sure that they were going to heaven to come with me and talk. I had 5 students say they wanted to make sure they were going to heaven.

We spent around 45 minutes together talking about how God was perfect and we were not. We talked about our need to have someone who was perfect take our punishment of death so we could be with God. At the end of the time all 5 students said they wanted Jesus. They went from believing when they walked in the room with me that the way they get to heaven is by being good and doing right. Now, they believed Jesus died but they saw that as part of doing their best. When we finished they realized that it was only through faith in Jesus that they could be made perfect and have a relationship with God. They knew that we obey God, because we love Him (John 14). 3 of the students got baptized the next week. The other 2 had to wait until the next time we baptize. We also have 4-6 other students that want to meet with me in a class I call, "Believe." It is basically me sharing with students why Jesus had to die to forgive our sins. God is doing some awesome things and it starts with prayer, continues with having a clear understanding of how to share the gospel, and ends with students who are ready to hear God's truth. It is exciting to see what God can do! Be strong and Bold and make sure every student has an opportunity to hear the truth about Jesus. Don't take for granted that they come to church that is enough. If they are in your ministry or come to the church, as youth pastors you are held responsible for making sure that they hear the truth. Keep Seeking God with Passion!!

Why did Jesus Have to Die? Russia part 2

I want to tell you a story from our trip to Russia. It was Wed. night one of our last days at the Church which we were working with. We had a huge Youth Banquet planned and we invited the youth from the church where we had it (First Baptist of Bryansk) and also the Church plant that we were working with. We also invited students from the Deaf School and from the orphanages that we worked with. We had around 150 youth there and it was very exciting. We had a service upstairs where we had students share their testimonies, sing songs, and I got to share out of John 14-16 Jesus' Last words to His Disciples before he was to be arrested (which I focused on Jesus giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth.)

We went downstairs after the service and had it decorated for all the youth and we put all the youth around the tables. Our group made American Pizza for them and we all sat down to eat. We had the places set up where we would have 2 American's and 1 Interpreter sitting together so we could talk to the youth. I went down and sat at a table where no one was yet and prayed that God would bring the people he wanted me to talk with to come and sit with me. A group of students filled in the chairs and they sat down next to me and around me. One of the youth from my group sat with me and we had an interpreter with us. I think the first words out of the interpreter’s mouth to me were, "Ok, now you share Jesus with these boys." So I did.

It was very difficult trying to get the conversation going because you always have to use the interpreter and then they would talk to each other and it was hard to stay in the conversation. But we talked for a few minutes about the Bible and if they had been to church. These boys were from the shelter and the church we were working with did go and work with them some already. They seemed interested in the conversation so I said this, "There is a question that many American Students cannot answer and I would like to ask you. Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive our sins?"

The boys answered with some responses but seemed unsure. So I asked them if I could share with them the answer. They said, "Da" which means Yes in Russian.

So, the door flew open and I was able to share very clearly the gospel. I walked through how God is our Creator and because of that he is owner and He makes the rules. He is perfect and Holy and He must separate Himself from imperfect people. A perfect God cannot live with Imperfect people. God must punish sin and the punishment is death (Rom. 6:23). We are not perfect (James 2:10, Romans 3:23) and therefore we deserve Death and separation from God as the payment for our sin. Hebrews 9 talks about the need for sacrifice and the shedding of blood to pay for sin. Hebrews 9:22, says "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

I told them of the sacrifices of the Old Testament and how they were just temporary coverings for sin. In order to have complete forgiveness there would have to be a perfect person willing to take our place and die in our place. I shared how Jesus was this person, God's Son. He was able to take our place because he was perfect (1 Peter 1:18-19). Jesus was the Lamb that was perfect that died in our place.

When we looked at this I expressed that Jesus had to die because God, being a Just God, must punish sin - there is no way around it. If we try to pay the price of sin by being good it isn't enough we are already guilty of breaking the whole law - even with one sin. If we want any chance to be with God we must have a perfect sacrifice and substitution for our sin. Jesus is that answer. By Jesus, dying on the cross he was able to stand in our place, take our punishment and for those who believe he would take all our sin on Himself. Wow!! Isn't that awesome!

I asked the boys if they wanted to keep trying to pay for their sin on their own and try to get to heaven their way or they wanted Jesus to take their place. The 3 boys all said they wanted Jesus. We went in another room and talked more in depth with them and all 3 boys placed their faith in Jesus being the only way to get to heaven (John 14:6) and how through his ressurection we can have the Holy Spirit living in us and guiding us in all truth (John 16:13).

We gave them Bibles, encouraged them to read it together, pray together and we introduced them to the Pastor of the church we were working with and with some of the students that go to that church. I could see it in their eyes that they really got it! It was exciting to see that asking a question like, "Why did Jesus have to die in order to forgive our sins?" was the open door to share the truth about Jesus.

God size moments in our Lives

I am hanging out in West Virginia on a Youth Pastor's Ski retreat (Thanks CTI Ski). It is such a great time to get with other youth pastors and spend time hearing all that God is doing. Not to mention that it is a blast skiing and refreshing ourselves. I am working through the Book of Ephesians this week and praying that God will continue to reveal more and more of His truth in my life.

Last night in youth I think it was a God moment kind of night. We had our High School youth last night and I saw God show up in a mighty way. We took the focus from our weekend learning about God's word and we spent some time in prayer. It was a call for us to not accept fluff (the no more fluff campaign) in our lives. We should come before God in desperation. You see in order to have a God size moment in our lives we must come face to Face with the truth of Who God is and who we are in relation to our Creator. We must realize that it is in our desperation that we find God. The moments in my life that God shows up always are centered when I am realizing my great need for God in my life. It is when I realize that my life is not about me. It is not about what I can do. It is about God and what He has done and will do. Do we want to see our youth ministries grow in numbers or grow in God's power. I believe in our own strength we can make our ministries look sucessful to the worlds eyes. I also believe that we cannot fake true life transformation. We cannot fake God's power changing lives in a radical way. Is our ministry showing fruit that is lasting or temporary fruit that looks good for a short time but seems to be missing something?

I have talked with youth pastors who say, "Man, our youth ministry on our midweek program is growing like crazy, but there sure is no depth in their lives." After asking them about their ministry I see that they are not calling students to a life of desperation in seeking their God. They are playing games, passing out snacks, have music, and then give a short message that doesn't take students deep. Then they have not connected the students to significant Christians who are willing to take students by the hand and lead them deep in the Word of God.

It is time for us as youth pastors and leaders to find a way to connect our students to God moments in their lives. Connect them to the Word of God. Connect them to Significant Christians. Connect them to a passionate prayer life and ultimately connecting them to our God.

Encouraging Our Adult Leaders

One of the most important things we can do in youth ministry is to equip others to work along side of us in ministry. Oftentimes our first thought is that we have been trained to minister to students and teach and a lot of other adults haven't so we must do it all ourselves. Unfortunately this actually hurts our ministry more than we realize. In order for us to become more effective in reaching students it is imperative that we spend the time it takes in training our adults and student leaders.

If you are anything like me you have had times in the past when you set up great training seminars, conferences, or meetings that you know will blow the socks off your adults - if they will just come. The problem is oftentimes we are struggling to get our adults to show up. Here is some help on how to get adults more interested in being involved in youth ministry.

1. Have Fun with Them. I know this doesn't sound super spiritual but it makes a bigger impact than you can imagine. One of the coolest things I am most excited about is a monthly time that my adults get together with me for no other purpose than just having fun together. The first gathering I had with my adults I had it at my house. There is nothing more you can do to make someone feel accepted than have people at your house. It shows them that you value them so much that you want to welcome them into your home. You may want to know how I structured the gathering. It was simple. People came to my house, we ate lots of awesome food and we played games. That was basically it. Easy to do and fun for my wife and me to actually socialize with adults. The purpose of this goes very deep. If your adult ministry team can have fun together then you will see lives changed as you work together better.

2. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate! This is so important. I highly recommend that you send out emails to all your adults at least 2x a month if not 1x a week. Be sure not to make these emails always just about the next training event, however you do want to include this information in your emails. I encourage you to brag on your adults and to tell stories of students lives being changed in the emails. Every chance you can get a quote or story from a student will encourage them and remind them more of what they do is so very important and it does make a difference. Along with the emails you want to be sure to send postcards to everyone reminding them about events and make sure they know that you want to them to be involved. Also, don't leave out your adults who do not have email. Be sure to mail them a copy of the emails in snail mail form so they can know that you care.

3. Be consistant in your training Time. First you must actually have training. One thing that I have done is to encourage my Small group teachers to come on Wed. nights every week to work with their team of teachers and go over the next weeks lesson. This does several things: 1) It allows them to look at the lesson before Sat. night or Sunday morning, 2) It allows them to talk about the lesson and be much more prepared than trying to prepare by themselves, 3) It gets them in a habit of meeting together. On the 4th Wed. of the month I will go into the meeting and add some training tips and helpful insights, and cover any needs that we have. You don't have to meet on Wed. nights but I found that many of my teachers were not plugged into the adult ministry on Wed. nights and it was a way to get them connected to our church on a deeper level. For you it may be easier to do a Sunday or a Tuesday night. Whatever the time it is very important to show your leaders that you have a desire to enable them to be more effective in reaching their students.

4. Show them you care. Remember, many of your adult leaders do not have strong relationships in your church with other adults. Use your monthly gatherings as a chance to show them you care about them. Make sure you pray with your adults and when they are going through a tough time that you let them know your praying for them. Remember to ask about what is going on in their lives. Call them on the phone just to see how things are going with them and do whatever you can to show them that you appreciate them. You can never do enough to show your leaders that you value them so don't stop trying to find creative ways to do this.

Please let me know if this was helpful to you. If you want to get some more ideas please email me and I would love to talk. I will be adding the next article on Training student leaders.