jesus | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Becoming the Youth Pastor at Your Home Church

I was talking to a youth worker not too long ago who was considering moving back to the church he grew up in as the youth pastor and asked what I thought about someone returning to his home church. My first reaction was excitement – what an incredible honor it would be to return home after getting an education and experience to minister where you grew up. I can imagine how thrilling that would be! But with that excitement comes a caution: I promise you it isn’t going to be easy.

When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?”And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. Matthew 13: 53-58 (NLT)

So please know that when He went back to his home Temple it was beyond challenging. When he walked the streets of his childhood, they still looked at Him as anything but special – in fact, the exact opposite. They thought they knew him today because they knew Him the past.

Many people at your home church may think the same thing.

Here’s the good news: it can be done! It isn’t easy, but often times a returning to a home church can be an incredible experience. A few thoughts here, would love yours in the comments as well:

Returning to your home church is easier in direct proportion to the size of the church. Simply put, the larger the church, the easier it will be to come back. Larger churches have the propensity to absorb memories faster and chances are the congregation didn’t know you as well in the first place. Inversely, smaller churches typically remember the young you, which could make them more resistant to recognizing your maturity.

You have changed! In fact, everyone and everything has changed! You think you know the church culture and history but a lot has changed since you were there in elementary school. Don’t walk in with a false sense of history and be a learner. Take your time and reevaluate what you think you know.

Usually you remember the good and not the bad. Our childhood church memories tend to be a little more rose-colored than you would have seen if you were an adult. Ask some trusted friends about the current climate of the church. Take your time in the interview process. Don’t make assumptions.

You do have an incredible head start. While I want you to reread the caution about thinking you know too much – you know the streets, some of the key families, the needs and the neighborhoods. While there is certainly some things to be unlearned and reevaluated, coming home can probably give you a head start of a full year or more over someone from the outside.

Just a quick update – the youth worker sent me a reply earlier this week with an update: Thanks for the encouraging words. I am now the full-time director of student ministries at my home church and everything has been great so far. They really have given a lot of support and encouragement to lead as I feel led. Just trying to ease my way in with the students and work on some small things that can be modified or changed to produce big impact with parents and students. Thanks again for you words! Be blessed!

JG

1 View Comments March 8, 2013

Geoff StewartMore Posts GUEST POST: The Desire for Victory

As a kid I used to dream big, and you probably did too. Not NHL or NBA big. I’m talking hero to thousands big! Someone who would receive global recognition for their efforts and heroism. As I grew up these dreams changed and altered to varying degrees but more or less, I always wanted to be a hero. If I heard on the news that there was a devastating Tsunami with millions injured or political wars over economic crises, I often dreamt of being the one to come up with a solution and being recognized as, you guessed it – the hero. Or, on road trips with family I would stare outside the window watching telephone pole after telephone pole with a glossy look on my face not paying attention to what I was looking at but letting my imagination run wild. Dreaming of someone in need of a knight in shining armor, thinking of those who needed a savior. Wanting to be like Spiderman or Superman there was something in that desired victory. Heroism wasn’t something someone told me to think about, it was just there. It is just there even today.

Why bring up this desire for victory? Because it is likely that many students across the world have these same desires. I have been in church for many years now. And I want to submit this notion that the victory of Christ at the moment of the Resurrection should not be highlighted solely on Easter Sunday. In my studies I’ve come across a picture of Jesus known as the Christ Pantocrator. Pantocrator in Greek simply means “Almighty” or “All-powerful” and the image is one that emphasizes the all powerful victory and strength of Christ at the destruction of sin and death at the Cross and Resurrection. Students who desire victory need to know that they can live in Victory - Christ’s victory. The yearning for victory and the success of the greatest victory is exampled in Jesus Christ. Preaching victory is preaching the Gospel. Students of all ages need to be reminded that the greatest victory has been accomplished and as we dream of victory, the reality is we can have victory in Christ.

If a students desire or vision for victory is never encouraged how does one expect that student to walk victory in their life? If there is no constant reminder that Jesus is victorious, what encouragement do we have to be victorious in a fallen world? The victory of Christ is central to the Christian message. If Christ has not been raised, Paul would argue, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins; in other words, we have no victory (1 Cor. 15:17). As a kid, the desire for victory was always there but I constantly dwelled upon what my victory could look like for my name, fame and glory. That desire for victory in light of the work of Christ enables students to walk in confidence for the name, fame and glory of Christ. The desire for victory is present within us all. Lest we forget that Christ actually was, and is, victorious.

Ryan McCurdy serves as a volunteer at Revolution which is the Youth and Young Adults Ministry at Christian Life Assembly in Langley B.C. You can follow him at Twitter here.

-GS

Add Comment February 17, 2013

Geoff StewartMore Posts GUEST POST: Journeying With Lost Teens

I met John the week I started as a Campus Life director. He was the kid that only spoke in small group to argue or share a cynical comment. One of his favorite pastimes at club was taking shots at the Gospel and people who believed it. I’m not sure what it was, probably his blatant honesty, but I really liked John. It wasn’t just an “I want another notch on my belt” thing, he was just one of those kids that connected with me. Pretty quick in the friendship he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in me preaching to him about Jesus. In no uncertain terms he informed me he wasn’t going to be another notch on the belt of a Christian.

Over the next 5 years he and I met frequently to get coffee and talk. We swapped books, he read Reason for God (Tim Keller) and I read The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins) and we talked through each. We talked about philosophy, theology, “stupid Christians” (John’s favorite topic), science, life and every once in a while Jesus. The times we talked about Jesus were very few and far between, maybe 2 times a year.

I had to decide, early on, that I wasn’t going to play into John’s “stupid Christian” stereotype and I was going to wait on the Holy Spirit to direct me when and how to delicately share God’s story. I relied mostly on my demeanor, actions, advice, insights and life to communicate the Gospel to him and picked my battles when he wanted to debate. When he has come with a problem I would counsel him using biblical principles, then he would say; “I know, I know Jesus is the way…right.” in a sarcastic tone and I’d just smile.

I wish this story ended with John coming to Christ but the truth is that has not happened yet. We still get together from time to time and I still, when the time is right bring up Jesus. I pray for him often and look forward to the day when Gods story becomes part of his.

One thing I know for sure is that I was/am called to journey with John and gently point him towards Jesus. It’s been a much slower process than I would like. However, I can tell you that I am the only Christian he has allowed to speak into his life simply because I didn’t play into his (mostly false) Christian stereotypes and I respected his wishes.

We often forget, at least I do, that we’re called to be image-bearers of Christ and to preach the Gospel but we’re not called to get more notches on our belt. We faithfully share the Gospel, even when that means sharing it without words and the Holy Spirit draws students to God. We can’t do that part, but we have to be faithful in our part, journeying with and pointing students to Christ.

Remember a few things while journeying with students:

-Don’t play into negative stereotypes. Debating too much, being overly argumentative, treating a student like a project and moving on when you hit a wall are all stereotypes John had.
-Don’t be afraid of tough questions or to “go there.” Book swap, never answer a question you don’t know the answer to, learn more about the areas that create skepticism in them (physics in the case of John, yeah physics…ouch) and above all don’t compromise the Gospel.
-Be sensitive to the Spirit. Pick your opportunities to verbally share the Gospel through the promptings of the Spirit. Pray, pray and pray some more.
-Share the Gospel through your actions. The way you treat them, talk about others, react to situations and the longevity of the relationship are all key.

Todd Lowans is the Director of Suburban Chicago for Youth For Christ (YFC) you can follow him on Twitter here

1 View Comments February 12, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts 5 Questions: Matt Chandler, Eric Geiger & Josh Patterson

I got a chance this past week to interview Matt Chandler, Eric Geiger and Josh Patterson about their new book Creature of the Word. The goal of the book is to refocus church leaders on a Jesus-centered church and provide real practical steps toward achieving it. Here’s 5 questions asking them about the project, the Gospel and youth ministry!

There’s a ton of talk today about The Gospel. Can you help us give a clear definition of it?
To explain the gospel fully, it takes a combination of two perspectives – the global work of God to reconcile all things to Himself and the life, death, resurrection and future return of Jesus Christ. The combination of the two perspectives provides a more crisp, clear and lifelike expression of the story.

The gospel is the historical narrative of the triune God orchestrating the reconciliation and redemption of a broken creation and fallen creatures, from Satan, sin and its effects to the Father and each other through the life, death, resurrection and future return of the substitutionary Son by the power of the Spirit for God’s glory and the Church’s joy.

Where has the modern church failed in sharing and preaching the Gospel?
The Church historically and presently makes one of two errors when it comes to the gospel, legalism or license. We try to lean on the law for justification or we do whatever we want because we have heard that God will forgive us regardless. Both of these errors are traps that rob of what Jesus called “life to the full” (John 10:10). In our day it seems we are making both errors simultaneously depending on the church we worship with. Some of us lean on a type of moralism that would dictate our relationship with God based on our actions instead of God’s. Others lack any real desire to pursue holiness because they believe to “pursue” (1 Tim 6:11) “strive” (Heb. 4:11) or “toil” (Rev.2:2) would be legalistic and not leaning on the grace of God in Christ. Our hearts burn to see people throw themselves on the lavish grace of our Savior and let that be the fuel that burns in the engine of the pursuit of holiness.

Tell us about the year-long campaign and why church leaders should consider it?
The Creature of the Word Church Campaign is a year-long movement of examination and growth. The hope is for churches to become more centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Broken into 12 parts, each corresponding to a chapter in Creature of the Word, the campaign is designed to help churches audit and assess their various ministries, from preschool to the pulpit, in order to be saturated with the Word of God in all that they do.

Each one of us as individuals and our churches corporately, have areas where there is a gap between our doctrinal confession and our practicing culture. Our hope is, by God’s grace, close the gap between what is believed and how we are actually living and functioning. We want to see churches, including our own, take an honest look at how our theology is being translated into practice. Is there is a correlation or have we bought into some other foundational system to try and lead a church.

The Creature of the Word Church Campaign is an attempt to address a variety of challenges that we all face through an audit, assessment and renewal process.

How has this thinking and strategy shaped your personal ministries and churches?
Ultimately the book is about the gospel and the pervasive nature of it, especially in the context of a local church. Too often, the gospel has been relegated to an aspect of the church like preaching or teaching, but doesn’t actually permeate into the life and culture of the entire church.

The thinking and strategy is lay a solid theological foundation based on the Word of God. This is the foundation upon which the philosophical framework of the life is established. Then, this philosophical framework informs daily church practice and decisions. To simplify it, theology informs philosophy which informs practice. So, our church practice should ultimately be tied back to a theological truth.

This thinking is how we have led The Village Church. It literally informs our approach to decisions, ministries, what to keep, what to cut, why to do something or why we wouldn’t do something. It is embedded into our culture. One of the great benefits of this is that we are able to make relevant connections between our church practice and our theological convictions.

Can you share the most important principle from the book and campaign where change is necessary in youth ministry?
We have a natural tendency to drift toward religion, to drift toward futile attempts to stand before God in our own goodness. Couple that natural drift with the burden many youth pastors and youth ministries sense to teach students to behave (no drinking, no sex, no drugs, make good grades) and we have a recipe for youth ministry to drift away from Jesus and His finished work for us.

While the gospel definitely creates a new heart in a believing teenager, and the result is a life that is marked with obedience and glad submission to Christ, it is very possible to teach for behavior without addressing the heart. And many would applaud a youth ministry for effectively teaching the kids to act differently. Many youth pastors and youth ministries sense pressure from parents and even the overall church to “train kids to be good” or to “keep the kids busy.” The problem is that if the behavior is not the result of a changed heart, then the behavior is merely temporary. And the messages the students hear only further burden and enslave. Only Jesus transforms. Only His sacrifice is sufficient to melt the heart of a kid.

So youth ministries must wage holy war on the urge, the natural inclination, and even the pressure to protect students from the world (“keep ‘em busy”) or teach them them to overcome the world in their own strength. Youth ministries must constantly and continually bring teenagers back to Jesus. As Thomas Chalmers once stated, “The best way to overcome the world is not with morality or self-discipline. Christians overcome the world by seeing the beauty and excellence of Christ. They overcome the world by seeing something more attractive than the world: Christ.”

We know many youth ministries continually apply Jesus and His grace to the hearts of teenagers. And for those we deeply rejoice!

Thanks so much, guys! Get Creature of the Word today!

JG

1 View Comments January 30, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 200

Weekend Teaching Series: Stuff Jesus Didn’t Say (series premiere, week 1 of 2)

Service Length: 69 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we kicked off a brand new 2-week series called Stuff Jesus Didn’t Say – a contrast to some things that are usually attributed to Jesus with what He actually said. It was fun to talk about Jesus and shatter the misconceptions many people have about the church and Jesus words and teachings. This week I taught through what it takes to follow Jesus and trust Him for salvation, and what it looks like to follow Jesus ongoing as well. Fun, very different feeling talk this week – instead of a clear 3-step application at the end of the message, I used two discussion questions to challenge students to consider the message on their own. We also used 2 teaching videos to help convey the message this week – I’ll be sure to post them here on the blog later in the week.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This week we had another HSM Sports Minute, an epic Pumpkinfest promo video but largely it was a very clean, simple service without too much else happening.

Music Playlist: Dancing Generation, Child of God, Came to My Rescue, Majesty

Favorite Moment: I have so much love for our after service debrief. This weekend I changed up my message a TON right before the service and really appreciated the feedback as well as the adjustments to the message after the first service. Having a group of people who believe in me, make me better and challenge me is HUGE.

Up next: Stuff Jesus Didn’t Say (week 2 of 2)

Add Comment October 23, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts What I’m Learning

Occasionally Kurt and I take the time to take on “the 3” and this week our topic is what we are each learning right now about ourselves and ministry. I’ve picked out things I’ve learned in the past…or I think I’ve learned them in the past because it seems like all three of these are old and new at the same time. Here’s what I’m learning this week:

1: Jesus is still changing lives!
I loved taking to students this weekend at church—seeing them move from seekers to the saved…watching them move from atheist to at-least-curious. Jesus is changing lives every week in your ministry. You might not see it, but it is happening. Teenagers are being drawn to Christ, and what you’re doing matters for the kingdom. It seems like every time I get frustrated with ministry, or wonder if it’s worth it, God shows me that he’s still in the business of saving people.

2: Camp works!
Holy smokes…camp was incredible this summer! I love that summer camp still works—despite the roadblocks of summer sports and summer school. Camp works!

3: Your capacity has to grow with your ministry.
I’ve had the realization recently that the people around me who have stuck it out in our church have increased their capacity every year. Not just work production, but their hearts have grown larger and their relational skills have increased. As your ministry grows, you need to as well—so here at the end of summer it begs a great question: How are you growing in productivity—working smarter not harder?

How are you leveraging new technology or ideas to reach more, and be more effective? And secondly, how are you growing spiritually—are you growing closer to Christ as your serve him?

What are you learning here at the end of summer?

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

Add Comment September 5, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts 99 Thoughts on Jesus-Centered Living – 50% off Today

Rick Lawrence’s great little book 99 Thoughts on Jesus-Centered Living is on sale today (Saturday) only for 50% off!

As you read the pages of this book, you’ll encounter habits for changing the way you relate to Jesus, ideas for pursuing a dependent relationship with him, strategies for moving away from our culture’s false ideas of him, and questions to chew on as you realign your life into a Jesus-centered orbit.

When your life truly revolves around Jesus, the people around you will find rescue from pain and worry and hopelessness and emptiness and loneliness and purposelessness. Instead of a boring, predictable exercise, life will become a grand, breathless adventure. And if your orbit comes so close to Jesus that you can see him and taste him and smell him, watch out—your world will change forever.

JG

Add Comment July 28, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts Guest Post: On Being Small: As Told By A Youth Pastor

The Atom is a comic book hero who has mostly been known for his ability to change the size of his body from normal to microscopic, so small that he could even travel through phone lines. He always managed to save the day no matter what size he had to be. The one limitation Adam (clever I know) had was that he could never grow bigger than his original size…he could only go smaller.

Serving in youth ministry it is easy to feel big at times, as your church may see you as a hero for handling the church’s students, and the parents of those students can at times see you as a saint for putting up with their kids, but truthfully no one works with students to feel ‘big’ about themselves, so what’s our motivation for doing this? We must remember that ‘I’ am not the answer to a problem in anyone’s life (family, students, church, etc.), Jesus is! There are many areas and opportunities where we need to become small in our ministries, but here is one way this ‘BIG’ youth pastor became small and why it is important.

Here is a conversation I had with a colleague three years ago.

COLLEAGUE: Matt, why are you in youth ministry?

ME: I am here to come along students and show them that God loves them

COLLEAGUE: How do you do that?

ME: By showing them in God’s word that He loves them

COLLEAGUE:What do you want your student’s to know when they move on from your group?

ME: That they were loved

COLLEAGUE: By who?

ME: By myself and by God

The conversation continued and I was getting kind of annoyed and a bit threatened with all of the questions, but at the end of the lengthy discussion my friend stated, “did you realize you didn’t say the name of Jesus or mention his sacrifice on the cross once?” I quickly answered back and assured him that I knew about that, to which he just as quickly responded, “but do your students?”

After our conversation I was extremely upset that He didn’t realize that when I said God I was meaning Jesus as well, but either way it was at that moment that I had what I refer to now as a gospel encounter. Questions began to fill my head; what were my students learning from me? Did the students fully understand what Christ’s sacrifice for our sins meant? Did they know that they needed a savior, not just a friendly Youth Pastor? Did they see Jesus as the ultimate teacher that they could always learn from? Finally, who were they putting their hope in, Jesus or me? At this point I saw that I needed to become small and realized that Jesus is way more interesting than I am and has no problem bringing people to Himself, but it is because of His grace that he wanted to use me at this time. It would now be Christ that I would preach intentionally not just implied, because the fact is that students will be able to stand on His name, His life, His example, His hope, and His grace, rather than my own.

Like Captain Atom I have had to become small to help get involved in situations, but I don’t do it because I can, but because I must! As a youth pastor I have this special opportunity because of Christ, to equip students to fall in love with Him and follow His example. That is where they will find their identity, hope, and freedom, in Him alone, all the days of their life.

New Motivation

I love being a youth pastor, but my motivation is no longer in being a hero to a parent or student, or even being known as a clever guy. Instead, I find my everything in the Godman Jesus, as I now purposely present weekly to the students His example, death, burial, and resurrection. My motivation and attitude is much like that found in John 3:25-30…’He must increase, but I must decrease.’ No longer will I say how great is our youth group…INSTEAD, we will acknowledge as a group how great our God truly is, “for from him and through him and to him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.”

Matt Johnson is the High School Pastor of Catalyst at Coquitlam Alliance Church in of all places, Coquitlam B.C.