Not to long ago a girl in my ministry asked me, “what exactly do you do?” I was a little caught off guard and stumbled around my words, so I thought I would take just a little bit of time and share with you what youth ministry looks like on a day to day basis.

Here are some examples of what I do: pray, study, read, keep up with teen culture (not very easy to do), preach, teach, share, text, email, facebook, administrate, organize, make phone calls, return phone calls, conflict resolution, plan activities, hospital visits, confront, encourage, get frustrated, strategize, buy new tools for ministry, edit video, clean up, talk to parents, support my pastor, go to meetings, travel, meet new people, raise money, balance my time with my family, go to school events (concerts, games, …), develop leaders, update website, share life with others, stay up all night, drive a bus and go out to eat!

There are so many reasons that I love what I do–The primary reason is seeing teenager’s give their life to Christ. The other night at church I was talking to a girl about her life and I realized that the conversation needed a little more attention then a 3 or 4 minute chat so I gave her my cell number and we ended up talking on the phone for about 45 minutes. This young lady gave her life to Christ on the phone that night! The fact that God can use someone like me (who deserves nothing that I have) is a realistic picture of the grace of God.

My youth group aka…MZS is amazing! There are some awesome kids that God is molding and shaping into the image of HIS SON. I love to see teenager’s get connected into the group. I feel that God has His hand upon us and is ready to use ALL of us if we will be obedient to HIS calling!

• What if each student truly became obedient to what God desires for their life?
• What if each of us really got passionate about inviting our friends to church?
• What if we truly realized that God has so much more to offer us than the world.
• What if we dropped our masks when we came to church and told people who we really were so we could begin the process of becoming what God really wants?
• What if our youth ministries became a place synonymous with love, acceptance and grace?

This is what I desire to see happen in our group. Are you willing to become an Ambassador for Jesus Christ? This is God’s plan and purpose for you! You are God’s Masterpiece–don’t settle for the status quo.

Jody Shelton is a student pastor in Atlanta, GA. Check out his blog at http://jodyshelton.org.

For all of our youth leaders, we have an expectation that they don’t consume alcohol at any time until they have satisfactorily answered the 6 questions below.

Why? Alcohol abuse is a huge issue in Australia, and particularly on the Gold Coast. As a youth ministry we don’t want to condone this abuse, or be seen to conform to it. Additionally, we want to protect our youth leaders from accusations by youth or their parents, even if they’re entirely in the clear. We understand that drinking alcohol is a personal decision to be made by each person, but until they have a mature answer for their decision, we ask them to abstain.

But… We have 6 questions that we ask each youth leader to consider, work through, and provide a written and verbal answer for. If they can satisfactorily answer these questions, then we encourage them to exercise their mature freedom and drink if they choose to. These questions provide protection for our youth leaders, protection for the ministry, and protection for the name of Jesus that we carry. It also allows the leaders to have an answer when their friends, youth, or parents of youth question them about their decision to drink or to abstain.

The questions are:
1. Why do I drink alcohol?
2. Do I know when and how to stop?
3. Do I know the situation of those around me?
4. Is this the best way for me to present Jesus?
5. Am I acting in love towards my brother?
6. Can I explain my personal conviction from scripture?

Geoff Snook is an Australian youth worker who blogs at http://reflectionsofasnook.blogspot.com.

I think we should break up.

I know we’ve had heaps of great times together, and I’m so thankful for all the great memories. I’ll miss the times when we’d spend a quiet night in, just the two of us. I’ll miss the excitement, the energy, the laughter and the romance.

But I guess I’ve known for a while now that we’re just moving in different directions. It was never meant to be. You’re happy staying where you are, but I’m restless. I want to see the world – and change it! I want to make a difference. I know you’re passionate about some really big issues, but I just can’t be tied down anymore. I’ve got to cut loose and chase my own destiny.

I thought about whether we should take some time to give each other some space, but I’ve decided that I need a clean break. I know this is the right thing, the best thing, and so I’m not going to draw this out. I know it’s difficult to hear, but I know God has a significant plan for my life, and deep down I know that being with you is going to stop me becoming all that I can be.

We’ve got plenty of mutual friends, and we’ll probably run into each other from time to time… When that happens, don’t worry – I won’t make a scene or make things awkward. You can count on me to be polite, inclusive, a perfect gentleman. And maybe from time to time we can hang out a bit on the weekend. But gone are the days when we’d hang out every night of the week.

This is the end. Television – I’m breaking up with you.

Originally published on www.salvos.org.au. Visit them for more articles by The Salvation Army.

As we gear up for a new year of student ministry, we are looking many changes square in the face. We are looking at “tweaking” a good bit of the things that we do on a regular basis. I have always been one that is open to changing things as needed. The other day, I began to wonder if this mindset could actually be backed up by the Bible.

As my mind wondered and my fingers browsed the pages of Scripture, I came across some interesting things…

• In creation, God created man in a different manner than He created everything else (Genesis 2:7).
• There was only one ark (Genesis 6).
• There was only one burning bush (Exodus 3).
• There was only one disciple who walked on water, and they did it only once (Matthew 14:22-33).

One can easily see from Scripture that God has chosen to use unique ways to bring glory to Himself and do great things. Why do we see something work once and believe that is the only way that it should be done until Jesus comes back? The truth is that the ways that people communicate changes with the times. Though the message of the cross shall never change, the methods that we use to get that message out have to change with the times.

How are you clearly getting the message of Jesus Christ out to those around you?

Anthony Stephens is the Student Pastor at FBC Birmingham. Check out his blog at www.anthony-stephens.com.

You can get on youtube and type in ‘parking fail’, ‘soccer fail’, ‘pen trick fail’ or ‘proposal fail’ and catch some of the latest clips put out by www.failblog.org of people making a right mess of things. These clips are some of the funniest or most disturbing (depending on your sense of humour) clips you will see this week.

This is really just the online version of ‘Funniest Home Videos’, as pretty much the majority of that show’s clips are also people falling over, failing an attempted trick, or generally having a bad day.

Personally I cringe when I see someone’s masterpiece that has probably taken days of hard work be destroyed in an instant (‘ice sculpture fail’). Even though it is painful I just can’t look away. Why do we find the failures so interesting? No one googles ‘pen trick success’. No one really cares about a soccer goal unless we know the player or the team, but a dramatic soccer failure…well that’s a different story, over 4 million hits says that it is captivating viewing!!

We live in a world hungry for failure stories. I can tell you three celebrities who have had failed plastic surgery but I can’t tell you three people who have won the Nobel Prize for Peace (oh wait…actually I can, but I can’t tell you four). Why are we so keen on the failure of others? Here’s some theories, feel free to add your own: