Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Assuming the Worst

Why is it that I always assume the worst?

What do I mean by that? Let me explain…. In the past several years of marriage and in my decade of serving in ministry I find that my mind often goes directly to the negative. For example, if I ask my husband to help me take out the trash and he neglects to do so (or do it in the time frame that I have allotted in my mind) I assume he doesn’t care about me and the things I need help with. In ministry I may plan a huge event only to have 5 students show up, then I automatically assume — the kids don’t like me, they don’t like the activity, other commitments are much more important.

Both of these scenarios though drastically different are completely related — they both have to do with my mindset — my negative mindset — and that negativity can easily creep into my marriage or my ministry if I don’t make a conscious change! Assuming the worst is a common plague in our “half empty” that feels that constant need to compare ourselves to those around us. This plague can ruin your marriage and your ministry if you don’t make an effort to make a change.
Here are a few things that I have learned over the years in ministry, marriage and counseling that have helped me pursue truth and not assume the worst.

1. First you need to evaluate the value of what you are dealing with. The value of the relationship or the value of the task. For example, it seems to be rather pointless to spend hours worrying about what someone said about you, your spouse, or your ministry if you do not value that person’s opinions or actions. The same is true about tasks, if I look at the garbage example — in the large scheme of daily life, how much do I really value the fact that my husband may forget to take it out 1 out of 5 times. It sounds crazy but maybe it is not garbage taking out that is your issue but insert your situation and ask yourself that question — how much do I value that task or that person’s opinion in the large scheme of life?

2. Next you must evaluate the action. Did my husband really leave the garbage on the porch and not the curb because he wanted to make a point that he doesn’t like taking out the trash. No — he forgot! There was no vicious action planned to ruin my evening, he just forgot since he is still in his church counsel meeting waffle! How about those youth group kids that never showed up for your big event? Well with a little research I found out there was a big event going on at the school that was planned last minute even though I had checked months in advance to be sure there was no conflict.

3. Give your spouse, your students, and the church the benefit of the doubt. Next time a situation arises take a moment to think before you react (sometimes easier said than done). Find out the facts before you jump to conclusions. Talk to those involved before formulating an opinion.

Assume the best! Just a simple change of mindset can change your marriage and your ministry in minutes!

Jana Snyder is a youth pastor and a good friend who blogs at www.tarajaministries.com.

Add Comment February 13, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: How Leaders Can Prevent Moral Failure BEFORE It Happens

As leaders, I am specifically speaking to church leaders in this post, we are called to be good stewards of the integrity of our church and the Gospel. This is why moral failure, which happens too often today in our churches among leaders, is such a devastating thing. It not only hurts the leader who has failed, but causes damage to the church involved and the message of the Gospel. Recently, Crawford Lorritts, said this in the Elephant Room about leaders and moral failure: “What you do when a leader fails morally happens before the fall.” Too often we wait until a leader has fallen to deal with the issues. Unfortunately, leaders tend to wait until they fail morally to deal with the issue. I believe church leaders today need to take whatever steps necessary to prevent moral failure before it happens. Here are three practical things a leader can do to prevent moral failure before it happens:

1. Have a consistent time with the Lord each day. I cannot stress the importance of having a personal devotional time with the Lord each day! A leader who is not having a daily devotional time with God each day is asking to be taken down by a moral sin. The battle with our flesh and the Devil is too real to not spend time with God each day for the strength we need! Crawford Lorritts also said this: “I have never talked to someone who has failed morally that was not consistent in his time with the Lord.” Consistency with the Lord is they way we grow spiritually and a strong, growing spiritual walk with the Lord is the only thing that will prevent us from moral failure (read Greg Stier’s post called “Lust Will Pick the Lock”). The first thing a leader can do to prevent moral failure is having a consistent time with God each day.

2. Have a strong relationship with your spouse or significant other. Usually before a leader experiences moral failure, his marriage or relationship with his significant other will start to struggle first. Not only should leaders have a consistent time with God each day, they must also have a growing relationship with their spouse. Leaders, stop coming home after work and spending more time on the computer, or Twitter, or checking e-mails. Turn that stuff off and spend time with your spouse! You need it, they need it, your ministry will be more protected when you spend the right amount of time with your spouse! This is so simple, but leaders fail to do it too often. Have a date night each week and never let the love between you and your spouse go downhill.

3. Always have accountability in your life. Leaders, don’t wait until your mess up to get an accountability partner. Seek out accountability relationships even when things are going well. If your married, I believe your number one accountability should be your wife. Then you should have Godly men, or women if you’re a woman, to keep your accountable and ask you the “tough questions.” In a recent post called “3 Ways to Handle Personal Sin as a Leader” I said, “The leader who does not have accountability in their life are asking for the enemy and their flesh to destroy their leadership position.” Don’t be an open target for your flesh, have accountability in your life!

These are just a few ways to prevent moral failure in leadership before it happens. Pray and ask the Lord to help you protect yourself before it happens and costs your leadership position.

Austin is currently a pastoral intern at Weymouth Community Church in Medina, OH. He just finished his Bachelors degree from Piedmont International University in Christian Ministries with a student ministries and pastoral studies minors. He is now working on his Master’s degree, got engaged, and is looking for his first-full time ministry position in the area of student ministry. You can find his blog online at www.austinmccann.com.

Add Comment February 12, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Ducks and Disciples

My kids were watching a show on tv and one of the characters told a joke and since I’m a sucker for a good punch line, I tuned in.

How does a duck learn to fly?…

He just “wings” it!

Get it?

Like many things in my children’s lives, it made me think. How do you teach a duck to fly? How does a mother duck teach her little duckling to fly?

I know what you’re thinking. Ducks Brad? Seriously? Hang with me a moment.

Have you ever thought why a duck has to learn to fly? Other than being something that pretty much all birds do, it is critical part of what a duck is. If you live near any populations of ducks, you know firsthand that ducks are migratory birds, meaning that they move from region to region throughout the year for different phases of their life cycle. If they don’t migrate, which involves flying, they would die, or fail to reproduce. Flying is an essential aspect of ducks continuing to be ducks.

You know the phrase, “If it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck…(you can finish it).” Well, the same can be said in reverse, if it doesn’t fly, it’s not a duck, or at least it won’t be for long.

Ducks have an interesting approach to teach their young to fly. It’s kind of like a guess and test method. There is some modeling, some pushing them out of a nest, and some debrief. They don’t take flying classes, go through long orientations, and get certified in flight. It’s part of who they are to learn to fly.

How do we teach new believers to fly (and by fly, I mean share the gospel)? What we generally do is load them up with a bunch of information that we think they’ll need to share the gospel and mature in Christ. What we rarely do is model for them a lifestyle of evangelism and discipleship. When we do this, we suppress part of our DNA. An essential, and life-sustaining part of what it means to be a Jesus-follower is making other Jesus followers. When we fail to model and teach discipleship, we keep new believers from ever being ducks…or disciples. I’m confused now.

Brad Gouwens is the Student Pastor at Crossroads Bible Church in San Jose, CA. Check out his blog at Revival Generation.

Add Comment February 12, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 8 Reasons Why You Need a Monthly Student Pastor Get-Together

Recently, Brian Baker began a student pastor “get together”. We had no name and really hardly any idea of where it could be headed, but the Lord has chosen to bless his vision. He had a vision of student pastors getting together to share ministry ideas, vision, burdens, and connect with one another. The Lord chose to bless this what we now call “Triad Youth Pastor Fellowship.” We began meeting several months ago, and the Lord has blessed our time. It has been an awesome opportunity for me to connect with other student pastors in our area. I have been a student pastor for years, and we have never had a consistent “get together” such as this. So, I am stoked about what God is doing. I love people and I love getting to know new student pastors. I want to give you a few reasons why you as a student pastor need a student pastor community regularly!

Burden Sharing — Recently, my wife said to me after a youth group meeting, “what is wrong?” I responded to her, “I cannot explain it to you or anyone else. I can only explain it to my student pastor friends once a month when we get together!” Now, that was quite funny, but sometimes there is a great deal of truth in this as well. The only people who I feel genuinely understand what I go through are other student pastors. If you are not a student pastor, you do not get what student pastors have to go through. This has been a great time for me to interact and share my burdens with others. Each month, we go around the room and share what God has been doing in our lives and share any burdens with one another. The Bible commands us to carry each other’s burdens.
Prayer — You have to pray with one another. You need other local men in ministry who can pray with you about what God is doing and wants to do in your ministry. I need and covet the prayers of our local student ministries around us. Our student ministry relies on this! Also, I rely on the prayers of others. There is nothing like going to a student pastor fellowship and hearing how some of these guys have been praying for me this past month.
Connecting — I love connecting with new student pastors. When I moved into the Winston Salem area to be the student pastor at Union Grove, I started googling any churches in our area, and finding who the student pastors were and adding them on facebook. They were probably wondering who this weirdo was that was adding them, but I wanted to connect with them. This is my passion. I love connecting and interacting with other people in ministry through social media. When I go to this student pastor fellowship, we get to make new connections that you might not ever make otherwise. I went this past week, and met 3 new youth pastors in our area that I did not even know existed. When I got home, I had 3 new friend requests. Now, we are connected, and look forward to growing an even deeper connection with one another.
Sharpen yourself — The Bible says that friends sharpen one another. This is what being friends with one another should do to you. I have some close friends in student ministry in my area that make me a better follower of Jesus.
Ideas — We discuss ideas regularly. How can we do ministry better? We discuss better communication with our students. We discuss what is working and what is not working. It is basically a time to get together and learn how to do student ministry more effectively. It is similar to you getting in front of your computer and reading the top student ministry blogs for several hours at a time.
Bible study- We do a quick mini devotion each month. A different student pastor comes and opens the Word to share a quick thought with the group each month. It is like 3-5 minutes long if that, and it is important for me to be challenged in this meeting each month. I love studying and discussing the Bible with these guys.
Growth — The last couple of thoughts are very similar, but there is a bit of difference. I love growing with these guys. I love improving our ministry and learning how to minister more effectively.
Fellowship — Bottom line, it is relationship building. You need this! You need healthy relationships outside of your church! You need someone to talk too that is not a member of your church.

Here are just a few of the many reasons why I think that this is important to have in your area. If you do not have it, I encourage you to start one for student pastors in your area. You will be glad you did, and probably the guys in your area will be glad that you did as well. If you are in the triad area of NC, and would like to connect in our group, send me an email at joshhevans@gmail.com and we would love to connect with you!

Josh Evans is the student pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church in the Winston Salem, NC area. He has been a mentor and pastor to students for 4 years. You can connect further with Josh on his blog or send him a direct email at joshhevans@gmail.com.

Add Comment February 11, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: A New Kind of Parent Ministry

“What in the world are we going to do for a Parent Ministry?”

That is the question that burned in my mind about two years into a new student ministry position. I had been in student ministry for 15 years but all I really had accomplished in the area of parent ministry was a really snazzy newsletter.

I processed my thoughts out loud one Sunday Morning with an amazing volunteer and Dad in our ministry. He asked, “What are some powerful things you have seen happen between parents and their teenagers?”

I immediately flashed back to a manhood ceremony I attended many years earlier. The father had invited a few of us men to help celebrate his son’s 18 birthday. At one key point in the evening the father asked his son to kneel down. He went to his closet, pulled out a huge Braveheart sword, and set it on his son’s shoulder. Then he said to his son, “I know many 30 and 40 year olds who act like boys because no one ever told them they were a man. Based on my God-given authority as your father I tell you that you knelt as a boy, but you will rise as a man.”

That powerful exchange of blessing from parent to teenager sparked an idea. How could we help parents unleash their Blessing and set their teenager up for success?

We began to wonder, “What if we created a Rite of Passage for every year from 6th-12th grade?” My brainstorming partner got out a napkin and we sketched out these Rites of Passage. For the next three years these became the foundation of our parent ministry and revolutionized many families in our city.

6th Grade- Preparation for Adolescence
7th Grade- The Blessing
8th Grade- Purity Weekend
9th Grade- Driving Contract
10th Grade- Money Matters
11th Grade- Legacy/Family Tree
12th Grade- Manhood/Womanhood Ceremony

Here are 3 things that happened from this new kind of Parent Ministry:

1. The parents were the stars of the Spiritual Training. We took the back seat and cheered as the parents took the reigns of the process. We simply set them up for success.
2. It was all online. We didn’t need a ton of parent meetings where no one showed up. We created a website where they could go get the training anytime they wanted.
3. It created Positive Peer Pressure. Once every semester we did a sermon series on the Rites of Passage and asked the teenagers to request that the parents would do it for them. With the families carrying out the same strategy they were able to compare notes. It was exciting to watch a culture be created around spiritual symbols and ceremonies.

The Rites of Passage that currently exist in our culture today for most teenagers are the loss of virginity and the sweet 16 party. Instead of inviting our student’s to something greater than themselves, they are only invited to themselves.

I think James McBride said it best, “Why should you do a Rite of Passage? Because inviting your child into adulthood is much better than letting it happen by accident.”

Passing down faith through symbols and ceremonies was God’s blueprint in the Old Testament for inviting children to their faith and family, and it is still true today. There is an unexplored territory in the area of student ministry of equipping families to give away their faith to their children through symbols, ceremonies, and Rites of Passage.

Jeremy Lee encourages Parents of Teenagers everyday at www.parentzilla.com

Add Comment February 11, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Parker Super Happy Fantastic Fun Time Show

This might be a case of funnier to “us” than to “you” but played strong this weekend in HSM. It was week 3 of The Book, focusing on difficult words of the Bible.

JG

1 View Comments February 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 169

Weekend Teaching Series: The Book (church-wide campaign, week 2 of 6)
Sermon in a Sentence: Why the Bible was written.

Service Length: 75 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend my goal was to share about why the Bible was written – we talked about how it was written to equip and transform us as an instruction manual, love letter and to show us God’s love. It was once again a different style message – more about the Bible than anything else. Hannah Rich shared her testimony about how God changed her life through the Scripture as well.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played a hilarious new game we called App Showdown: the app this week was Temple Run and we had 2 iPhones go head to head on the big screen. It was super fun – one student managed to have a run of close to 10K right out the gate. It was epic – super fun and easy – it will become a regular game we play in the future – just change to whatever the hot app is at that time (Fruit Ninja, Tiny Wings, etc). We also played the classic Jesus Pwn3d you video near the opening of the service, too!

Music Playlist: Rise and Sing, Words That You Say, Learn to Love, Your Love is Enough, Burning One

Up next: The Book: 40 Days in the Word (week 3 of 6)

4 View Comments February 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Mirror

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Ok. Stop and go look before reading. Really look at yourself.

(humming Jeopardy tune)

Ok. Good. You’re back and ready to continue. So, what did you see? Are you being truthful to yourself? I can speak personally that I see a guy who is about to have another birthday, who feels much younger inside than his outward appearance shows, needs to lose some weight, could use a haircut, one eyes seems slightly closed more than the other, looks tired and worn down from chasing a toddler around and investing in the lives of students…you get the drift. What do you see?

Let me ask another question. What do you want to see? I used to want to see a pretty good looking guy with 0-2% body fat who wore the latest fashion and everyone wanted to know. Not anymore! As a side note my flesh still wants that, but I really want to see with my spiritual eyes.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord–who is the Spirit–makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Would that not be the coolest thing in the world? To have the veil removed that blocks our vision and spiritually see and reflect the glory of the Lord? How would we live then? I guarantee that we would live with the utmost confident in Christ and I pray that we would remember it’s Him we see, not ourselves.

To do that I believe there are a few things we must adjust in our thinking.

1. Does Jesus know you?
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15)

If you do not know Jesus, this would be your first step. How can any of us reflect Christ if we have no relationship with Him? You’re right! We can’t. So our first step is to realize we are a sinner, we need help, that you believe Jesus literally died on a cross for your sins and rose again 3 days later to conquer the sting of death, and make the decision to follow Him from this moment forward. (see John 3:16 also)

2. We need to stop believing we are worthless.
Galatians 2:20 says, My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We are here for a specific purpose. Yes, there is a reason YOU are living right this very second at this very year. God wants to use your for something amazing and it’s only when you are willing that you can move into your true calling. Notice I didn’t say when you are ready. Willing. Willing to climb mountains, jump rivers, swim oceans, walk through fire, jump on crushed glass…make sense? In other words when you are willing to do whatever He tells you to do. It’s not you who live, but Christ who lives in you. So you are NOT worthless since He now lives in you!

3. We need to be ready to do anything, even die.
This life is short compared to eternity and there is only one decision you’ll ever make that effects your eternity. Would you die to tell others about Jesus? In other words, would you be willing to literally sacrifice everything you have for someone else to come to a relationship with Him?

On the flip side, if you don’t know Jesus, would you die to your old self to start a new life with Christ?

For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. (Philippians 1:21)

The simple solution is that we do anything God ask of us and let Him determine the outcome.

4. Mistaken for Jesus
Can you see God reflecting in your life? Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in your life as Galatians 5 talks of?

I can say that I’m failing miserably at reflecting Christ, but I want to desperately be mistaken for Jesus. Yes, mistaken for Jesus. I want Him to radiate through everything I do, everything I touch, and everyone I meet.

Now go look in the mirror again and pray to God to make Him evident in your life. Pray that people see Him in your life and His Spirit reflecting back when others see you. Let’s be mistaken for Jesus and not just when we are alone and looking in the mirror.

Nick Fry blogs at http://morethanscars.comand serves as the youth pastor at Crosspoint Community Church in Huntington, WV.

Add Comment February 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Beneath the Surface

Recently, I compiled a series of blog posts that have gotten my blog a lot of traffic. There’s an iPhone game, Snappers, that causes more frustration than child-proof packaging. So, I scoured Google, Yahoo Answers, and my game experience, and compiled a list of walk-throughs for the various levels. As I was laying it out, I also carefully key-worded it and SEO’d the mess out of each blog post. Now, when you Google for Snappers levels, more often than not, this website will be one of the top 3 results.

Thanks to these 5 blog posts, check out my web traffic.

Pretty crazy, right? Those are unique visitors (by IP address) per day at my website. I uploaded the first of the walk-throughs on January 21. Between then and the time of this blog post’s beginnings, I’ve had 37,796 individual people come to this site.

This kind of traffic landed me as one of the world’s most visited wordpress.com blog pages.

According to wordpress.com’s Blogs of the Day, I’m a high-influencing blogger. This page varies in it’s order, but here’s the rank (the site lists the top 100) the time of this writing…

Yep…that’s right. austinjwalker.wordpress.com right now is the #28 blog in the world (out of blogs using wordpress.com not .org or any other platform). Let’s put this in a little bit of perspective, just to help out. Scott Bourne hosts (or at least used to) a widely followed podcast called Photofocus, in which he answers emails on photography. Scott has over 166k twitter followers, one of the best blogs on wordpress.com with posts featured in the worlds top blog posts of the day on a regular basis, and a wealth of knowledge in his field I will never be able to touch. Here is where is blog was at…

I say all of this not to brag, but to set up this observation. It would be natural to think that kind of traffic would increase influence, traction, and authority. Twitter followers may jump, commenters may arise out of thin air, and the beginnings of a solid network may emerge. But here’s another interesting stat for you…

Painfully revealing. I’d love to hide these numbers. I’d love to pretend the stats aren’t real. The fact of the matter is, in the last 7 days, the unique readers of my true “content” (including my home page, about, and contact forms) are but .007758% of the traffic. .007758% is nothing.

So why am I writing about this, how does this apply to anyone reading this (the .00000005% of my future blog traffickers)? Here’s how it hits student ministry. What do your numbers truly reflect? When you’re talking with other student pastors, deacons, your pastor, or anyone you’re wanting to be looked up to by, how do your numbers come across? Does your ministry attract a LOT of people? If so, that’s awesome, and if done right, there’s a LOT of positives that can come out of that. But looking beneath the surface, is there any depth? Are you discipling students to pursue Christ and lean into His call on their life, or are you just satisfied to count their head at youth and let them chow down on pizza and warheads?

Are you making use of the numbers God has given you, or are you doing everything you can to gain accolades, with no meat beneath the surface? Is there substance to accompany all the hype?

Austin Walker is the Student Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Cabot, AR and blogs right here.

1 View Comments February 9, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Download HSM’s Student Leadership Application

We just started up a Student Leadership program (I had killed it a while back because it was unhealthy – more on that another time). The application is pretty exhaustive, meant to be a thinning process right out of the gate. They are due this weekend, I’m excited to see the response from the students. Download HSM’s Student Leadership Packet (PDF)!

JG