Archives For Discerning your context

A post-Christian model for Discipleship: Spiritual Formation rather than Behavior Modification

April 29, 2013 — 5 Comments

My dear friend Erik Anderson is on the home stretch of adopting a 6 year old girl from South Africa. You should totally check out his blog and read about his story. Inspiring is an understatement! (If you are feeling generous, you should also help him out financially) Ok, are you still with me, because this blog isn’t really about Erik, but in some ways it is totally about him.

Here is what I am saying. If you can humor me and agree (for a moment) that the gospel that you and I grew up as our bread and butter in student ministry is actually no gospel at all to this generation. And if we need a new shaping metaphor that to communicate this good news. And in an increasingly post-Christian context, adoption can be that metaphor that truly is good news to an alienated generation who long to be seen, known, accepted, cared for, and mostly to belong. What is awesome about the metaphor of adoption for the gospel and for salvation, it also gets to inform our understanding of discipleship and sanctification.

First we must die to any and all forms of behavior modification:

The traditional model of discipleship as behavior modification must be replaced with a model of spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is by it’s very nature relational and implies process, and is cyclical in contrast to foundational, linear, and accomplishment versions we have today. If we can agree that behavior modification must die and want to invite this post-Christian generation to become formed spiritually, sanctified into the image of Christ, then we must start where they are, not where we want them to be. That is how we get back to adoption.

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What do you do now that the gospel is no longer Good News?

April 17, 2013 — 11 Comments

Most of us love speaking to students, sharing our wisdom, pontificating on spiritual realities and how Jesus wants to help them in their desperation.  But if we are quiet for just a second and allow space for students to share what they really think, what their true convictions are, what they really think of Christianity, I think we will all be a bit surprised.

My encounter with students, my students, my friends’ students, students from all over the country is that students’ worldview, self view, and moral view is in stark difference from yours.  Students know how to play ball in the adult world, they know what to say and how to get ahead in the verity of social contexts they find themselves.  When they are with their parents, coaches, every different teacher, and in our student ministries, they put on different hats in order to survive / thrive in each context.

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But what would happen if we took a step back and really listened, without our own agenda?  What would we find?  

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In a Post-Christian context, it is not our programs that need to change, but our foundational assumptions.

March 11, 2013 — 3 Comments

This last week I had the privilege of sitting in on a roundtable discussion with some west coast youth pastors talking about post-christian student ministry. This conversation was facilitated by Jeremy Zach who is the XP3 Specialist for Orange. Jeremy is one of the sharpest youth workers out there, and most of that is due to the fact that he is a learner. He always wants to be stretched and grow. He strives to do his job better, and mostly he has a heart to be as effective as possible in reaching students for Jesus. And it is out of this heart that he put together a group to talk Post-Christian Ministry. The guys on this call are great youth workers and deep thinkers and you should check out their blogs and give them some push back :) They are: Peter Johnsen, Erik Anderson, Mike Cunningham, Ryan Reed, Looney Moore, and yours truly.

shaky foundation

As our conference call began I realized very quickly that in a post-modern context, that is becoming more and more post-christian, our biggest challenge was trying to find common language to even begin this conversation. I knew there were questions to shape our conversations, but I was not exactly sure what questions were the right questions.

After our time, I spent some considerable time reflecting on our conversation, and reflected more about the context I find myself doing ministry, and about student ministry in general. After a little bit of wrestling, I realized that much of this conversation is us barking up the wrong tree.

It is not the programs that need to change:

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The hidden danger of mission trips for students:

March 4, 2013 — 6 Comments

This article was published at youthworkerjournal.com

It is once again time to start gearing up our annual mission trips.  There are so many great options out there.  Some are as close as an urban setting, some are in rural and isolated contexts, and some are international ranging in proximity to Mexico all the way to Thailand or Africa.  One of the key considerations when planning a mission trip with students has to be assessing the potential dangers of the context we will be traveling to.

Our church has changed our context for short term missions several times depending on concerns for danger.  We have taken into consideration the violence in an urban setting or an outbreak of hepatitis within the street community.  We have wrestled with the potential danger of crossing a drug warfare zone in the boarder towns of Mexico.  Add to the danger of the location transportation and housing, and we start to realize that a mission trip for students is a costly and dangerous endeavor.

As someone who thinks that short term mission trips is the bread and butter of student ministry, I have come to the conclusion that these potential dangers are part of the process of helping students (and parents) to live outside their comfort zone.  And taking our students and putting them in a totally foreign and partially dangerous context softens their hearts and opens their eyes to see the working of God in new and fresh ways.

But after leading dozens of trips over the years, I am starting to realize that while the surface dangers are real and must be taken seriously, there is actually a bigger danger that is hidden lurking just below the surface.  This danger is cementing in our students a false view of missions and of themselves.

Every year we ask students to fill out an application.  One of the questions has something to do with why they want to participate in this trip.  And with almost 100% unanimity the answer is “we want to help those less fortunate than ourselves.”  Don’t get me wrong, this is an awesome value, it is a value that is at the heart of the Christian faith.  Those of us with power and resources are to care for the orphan and the widow, for the poor and oppressed.

However, when we unintentionally frame missions as us, wealthy suburbanites, helping those poor people, we continue to instill in our students that they have their acts together and are “above” others.  I am not saying that the suburban church is the problem, or that we need to beat down our own context or culture and make students feel awful for the blessings and resources they have.  The suburban culture is just that, a culture.  But when we engage in missions we must consider and celebrate the culture in which we are going to.  We have to help students see that we are guests in another culture, not superior to those we visiting.

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You most likely already missed the Harlem Shake!

February 18, 2013 — 7 Comments

On February 5, 2013 the Harlem Shake went viral.  As of February 14th, in a matter of 9 days, almost 40,000 spinoffs have been uploaded and have been watched over 175 million times. CRAZY!! This is the most unbelievable viral event of all time!  (Facts courtesy of youtube-trends) While there have been many viral videos of note, including, but not limited to, Justin Bieber’s Baby, Friday, Call Me Maybe, Gangum Style, or Ryan Reed’s new blog, this was one of the fastest parody pileups of all time.  And the best part is that your parody only has to be 30 seconds long! (Here is our below average offering)

This viral video was made for youth pastors.

With 40,000 videos uploaded and counting, where is yours? All it takes is downloading the song, Harlem Shake, 3-3000 people, a helmet, and let the dance party begin.  I am someone who prides myself for at least trying to have my thumb on the cultural heartbeat.  I have written about how to stay culturally relevant, how to find work arounds to know what music is hip, and I have even made my own Call Me Maybe video.

But the total speed of this viral video has caused me to once again realize what it is that I am supposed to do.  As youth workers we must understand our cultural context, that is for sure!  But we must fully own the reality that we are not hip, cool, relevant, or cutting edge.  At best we can simply mimic cool and funny things in our culture.  At best we are simply a shadow of pop culture.

We DO have what our cultural desperately needs!!  

They need acceptance, love, belonging, grace, identity, friendship, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, connection, and purpose.  This is the church’s bread and butter!  We know and serve a God who gives this and so much more.  We create culture at church and with in our student ministries that isn’t hip or cool.  But it is a culture that is inviting, that allows space to actually encounter the living God, and that sends them out with real purpose.

Let us not spend so much time and energy in efforts to be hip and stay up on all that is going on at the expense of doing the thing we actually are called to do!  Our less hip youth ministry that actually offers friendship and belonging, where they experience forgiveness and grace, as they explore their faith will never come close the the viral explosion of the Harlem Shake.

So, make your Harlem Shake video.  Post your links in the comments.  Have a good laugh!  But please, please, please, let us die to our desires to be hip, cool, and relevant, and let us bring to the table what popular culture wishes it could, and desperately needs!  

Con los terroristas

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Want to grow your youth group? invest in children’s ministry

February 7, 2013 — 5 Comments

Everyone Says Numbers Aren’t Important:

Whatever!  Everyone wants to grow their ministry and expand the kingdom of God.  Some times it is true that our egos get in the way and our motives are not entirely pure.  But at the end of the day, most people in student ministry are doing what they do because they love students and their hearts break for them.

Everything about the DNA of a youth worker is wrapped up in walking through life with students helping them connect to Jesus Christ.  At our best moments we want as many kids to come in contact with the saving, redeeming, healing, and transforming work of Jesus Christ.  Practically, this looks like trying to increase the numbers of students that can be impacted.

There Are Plenty of Short Term Options:

For better or worse, in my best moments or my worst, trying to grow numerically is always in the back of my mind.  I have done pretty shameful things to try to boost my numbers.  Some have worked great and others have flopped miserably.  For me, any short term numerical gain always seemed to fade.  There are many reasons for this short term blip.  But the biggest reason is that I simply put a ton of effort into an event or two for the simple attempt to inflate my numbers.

You are probably in a better and more whole place in your walk with God and would never be so petty to try and increase your numbers for personal gain, but often I am not.  Thankfully over the years God has continued to refine me and heal me as he has continued to grow my heart for students.  And as He has done this, my heart to increase the size of our group has never gone away.

With the internet we now have access to thousands of clever ideas to grow our groups.  Assuming our hearts are in the right place and we are striving to connect with more and more students, there are some great tricks, gimmicks, and structures that will allow you to grow your group numerically.

But most of these ideas will work in the short term, unless there is a dramatic change in systems or straight up hand of God, most groups will settle back to their average size.  For me, I have found a sure fire way to grow my youth group for the long haul.  It isn’t with gimmicks, it keeps my ego in check, and it actually cares for the larger church.  My trick to grow our student ministry is to invest heavily in our children’s ministry!

The Best Long Term Strategy is to Invest in Children’s Ministry

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50 things replaced by modern technology:

January 27, 2013 — 3 Comments

I came across this infographic through twitter from mashable.com.  (I feel like my twittering skills are growing)  Enjoy!  PS: Sending love letters should never be replaced.  #keepingthelovealive!

50Things

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Safety: The most important value of student ministry

January 21, 2013 — 13 Comments

driving in snow

The winter camp season has finally descended upon us.  With winter camp comes snow storms, icy roads, dangerous sled runs, and about 1000 other ways for our students to get wrecked!  In my few years of taking kids to winter camp I have had kids break arms, legs, collar bones, wrists, and get concussions.  I have totaled a Suburban and crashed a couple of other cars.  There are polices at our church because of me.

Let’s face it, winter camp is dangerous!  But the real question is whether or not it is too dangerous. 

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My top 5 favorite posts from Christmas past

December 17, 2012 — Leave a comment

It is the week before Christmas and I am truly soaking of my share of Christmas fun.  While I spend this week taking care of some personal business and other projects, I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my favorite posts from Christmas past.  These are some of the most insightful and culturally aware posts I have ever written.  Hahaha!  Actually, they are just some of my faves from Christmas past.

christmas table

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Thank you for blessing me and encouraging me in my walk with Jesus, in my vocational call as a pastor, and in my pursuit to be the man, husband, and father that God has for me to be!  Peace!

1)  Advent; What are we waiting for?

2)  An unexpected character around the nativity.

3)  Christmas; An invitation to belong.

4)  We finally have a generation who really have no idea why we celebrate Christmas.

5)  Don’t be too quick to ditch Cheesy Christianity.

PS: If I am still in it, don’t forget to vote for averageyouthministry.com to be the best blog in the universe.  Actually, it is just a popularity contest designed for us to milk our network, so lets see how my network does :)  Vote: Ben Kerns – Are Bikinis Sinful.

:)

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What would you say in a parent / teacher conference for student ministry?

December 3, 2012 — 19 Comments

A year ago I mused about what a parent / teacher conference might look like if done within the student ministry context. I have to admit, that I didn’t have the guts to pull it off. Danny Steis, a youth pastor in North Carolina is actually doing it. He wanted a little outside help brainstorming questions, topics, and issues that would work for this sort of meeting. So, I had him write a guest post and here it is.

Danny has some questions at the bottom, and if you participate in the conversation by sharing your thoughts you will be entered in a drawing to win a free Average Youth Ministry shirt! The good people at whooptee.com are giving away three shirts. If you ever have a shirt you want made or help in the design, they make great custom shirts. Check out their sight and comment away!

Enjoy!

parent teacher conference

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The culture war is over! (And we lost)

November 12, 2012 — 12 Comments

white-flag-2

This was such an interesting election to say the least.  Now that there has been time for me and you to collect our whits, I am left with a couple of thoughts that I think are important for the church to come to terms with.  And with the church, I mean the suburban white church that I am a part of.

Here is my take away:  After all the exit polls and post mortem of the election, I see the election as a choice between two cultures:  The Judeo-Christian White Man vs. Those who have been wronged by that culture combined with those who feel bad for those who have been wronged.  And for the first time, ever, the Judeo-Christian suburban culture has been rejected by the majority of Americans.

Before you react, think about it for a second.  Think about who you voted for and what values you were choosing.  Think about all the demographic information we have learned since the election.  Think about who you want to cast your lot with?  For the first time ever the majority cast their lot against the Judeo-Christian, suburban, middle class, married, white man.  And if not him specifically, the culture he represents.

Suburban Christians have lost the Culture War: Now what?

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Partnering godly values with our local values

October 24, 2012 — 1 Comment

Earlier this week I shared with you about finding the key to contextualizaion. The key is to discover the core values of your context and discerning the shadow implications of those values if there are any. And just this last week our church did exactly that.

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One of the core values of our context is activism.

Activism in just about every form from recycling, organic farming, raising money for wells in Africa, Toms shoes, anti-bullying, etc, is a high, high value. If you add social justice causes to this activism value, now you are in the sweet spot for one of the strongest values in our context. Because activism and social justice are values that are also similar to values found in the heart of God, partnering with people in our community is something we are trying to live more and more into as a church.

There is a young girl in our area who was captivated by child slavery and compelled to do something about it. At first glance it seems “nice” that this little girl would want to take a stand against child slavery. But because activism is a core value for our context and a huge value for her family, they decided to actually get after and make a difference. She decided to make a lemonade stand and raise $150,000 to free 500 child slaves. And for the past 125 days, this is exactly what she has done. This is how Vivienne describes what she is doing in her own words: Continue Reading…

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The Key to Contextualization

October 22, 2012 — 7 Comments

A few weeks ago, my friend Phil and I met with Mark Oestreicher before our Bay Area Youth Forum to help us get our heads around the unique context we find ourselves in and capitalize on those uniqueness so as to have a more effective and relevant student ministry.

Key to Contextualization

What MarkO pointed out is the very fine balance between one truth that every context is unique and the other which is that for the most part students are the same everywhere.  This really resonates with me.  We are all humans and we are all made in the image of God.  We all have the same longings and desires.  (N.T. Wright wrote about this in the beginning of this book Simply Christian)  But we all live in different contexts and these different contexts shape our worldview as well as our self view.  Because of this reality, the felt needs to which the Gospel can be shared will very from context to context.  Therefore, the trick is understanding the values of the context in which you live and so that you can capitalize on these values to find the “thin places” where the good news of Jesus meets people where they are at with language and stories that match their context.

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Top 10 ways to get the most out of #NYWC

October 12, 2012 — 4 Comments

youth specialtiesCan you believe it? It is finally here. That most amazing gift a church can ever give to their youth worker, a youth ministry conference!! Your bags are packed, your room is booked, and it is time to go and get some freebies. For one weekend we get to take off our mantle of responsibility and leadership, and become participants, students, and receivers. Whether it is Youth Specialties, Orange, Simply Youth Ministry, or I Still Do, a youth ministry conference is the one time a year that us youth workers get to actually go to camp, and not just put it on.

And like camp, there are some things that we need to do to prepare ourselves so that we can have an amazing time and get the most out of our time away. Every year before we take students to camp or on mission trips we give them a little pep talk, so here is yours :) These are the top 10 ways to get the most out of your conference experience. Continue Reading…

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Can you love Jesus and love Halloween?

October 5, 2012 — 2 Comments

This article was originally posted on youthworker.com.

It is impossible to walk through a retail store these days and not be overwhelmed with Halloween. Since the beginning of September, aisles of orange and black decorations, bags of candy and costumes have been calling out to my children, building excitement and expectation for their dream holiday. For my kids, Halloween is a simple holiday that involves their two favorite things: candy and dressing up. For Christians, however, Halloween seems to be a bit more complicated.

No matter how you slice it, Halloween has a dark and seedy past. Its history can be traced to a Roman festival that involved worshiping the goddess of fruits and seeds, a pagan festival of the dead or a Celtic festival celebrating the end of summer. This latter part isn’t that bad, but the celebration of the spirit world coming close to the living world is. It’s difficult to encourage recognizing a holiday that has many touch points with the occult. How can Christians get behind a holiday that, at best…OK, there isn’t anything we can get behind in the history of Halloween.

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3 components to an effective leader’s meeting

September 28, 2012 — 8 Comments

Every week before youth group we have a half hour leader’s meeting for our volunteer youth staff. This is, by far, the most important meeting of my week. It is an opportunity for our entire staff to touch base before we jump into another night of student ministry. Over the years these meetings have taken on many different looks. But as I continue to reflect on how to make that time a win for everyone, I have landed on my three most important components to an effective leader’s meeting.

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Who knew a video would highlight some of my most biggest passions and values :)

September 7, 2012 — 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago we had our monthly Manly Mecca meeting.  This is a new approach to our guys’ ministry that was inspired by a show on MTV actually.  After we sat around and did our monthly check in, share our deepest darkest and be honest about every guys’ struggle, and try not to pay the jar, we headed out for a little project.

We take our fall kick off very seriously.  I think a solid youth ministry has purposeful events, and the kick off sets the tone for the year and direction for our entire ministry.  To make our first youth group special, I thought it would be fun to highlight the guys in our ministry and make a Carly Rae video.  I know they have been around all summer and are old news, but that is how I roll, about 6 months behind the curve.

I think it is important to embrace the music that is the sound track of our students lives and use them to have a Dance Party, or simply to use it to solidify great youth ministry memories.  And that is what we did.  This video is the result of some really hard work by one of my students, and in a way totally highlights some of my biggest passions and values.

With all the chaos and work that goes into getting the school year up and going and pulling off our fall kick off, I am tired.  So I apologize for the shoddy post.  But it is Friday, and it is time for some rest.  I hope and pray that you have a great weekend and get some good old fashioned rest this weekend as well.  In fact not resting is breaking one of the 10 commandments.  How cool is that, taking a nap is what you are called to do this weekend.

We’ll all get back after it on Monday. So until then . . .

Blessings!

In Discerning your call, Discerning your context, Discerning your issues, Discerning your students
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What will student ministry look like in an increasingly post-Christian context?

August 30, 2012 — 11 Comments

Our culture is changing, shouldn’t our ministries adapt as well?
One of the areas of passion for me is contextualization. As our context becomes more and more post-Christian, I am realizing that the way forward is going to be complex and challenging. Because of this a couple of the youth pastors in my network whom I love and respect decided that we should host an event to wrestle through some of these issues.

We genuinely believe that the the community of youth workers in our context will have a much better shot finding a way forward than a book by an author from a totally different context or by the oner person with the biggest personality and loudest voice pushing their agenda.

In October we are going to take a big swing and gather our peeps from the Bay Area for this conversation. If you call the Bay Area home, would you consider coming? If you consider me a friend, would you come as a personal favor :) If you are no where near us, please pray for us and feel free to chime in!

Over the next week I am going to expand some of my thoughts regarding the changing culture and the need for a changing picture to communicate the Gospel with students who live in an increasingly post-Christian context.

Below is our events page. Check it out, sign up, and join the conversation. Continue Reading…

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Does a changing culture require a different slant on the gospel? Part 2: The Present

August 28, 2012 — 8 Comments

Don’t forget to read part 1: the past.

Justification for our rebellion used to work.
There was a time in our not so distant past where the gospel of justification as the good news for our rebellion was a compelling and effective strategy in connecting people to Jesus. For the better part of 50 years this was the staple of evangelical christianity.

But as the children of the boomers grew up, many noticed that this gospel of defining sin as rebellion and missing the mark simply lead to a legalistic gospel of sin management. If we are rebels and Jesus now saves us from the consequences of our sin, then sanctification was getting on board with “Christian Culture,” locking down those crazy behaviors and being nice. (I know this is a very simplistic assessment, but I will take my angsty straw-man and jump in line with my fellow Gen Xers who began to tell a subtly different, yet much more culturally relevant version of the gospel for this new generation.)

Many Gen Xers who saw the white washed lives and big box churches offering a simple gospel which appeared to simply offer fire insurance, were longing for a more transformational story that wasn’t so binary in its approach. In or our, secular or sacred. There had to be a broader and more compelling story.

And sure enough, pioneers such as Brian McLaren, Tim Keller, and Rob Bell (just to name a few of the superstars) began to paint a picture of the gospel that was truly good news for the Gen Xers and beyond.

Part 2) The Present
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Does a changing culture require a different slant on the gospel? Part 1: The Past

August 27, 2012 — 4 Comments

The Gospel is Dynamic
One of the most amazing things about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it has proven to be good news to every culture, in every time, and in every context. If you think about it, this is an amazing feat for any religion, and Christianity has done just that.

Christianity is not based on national identity or cultural mandates. It is a religion that offers good news to everyone. As you study how this has worked itself out, you notice that the gospel story has subtle to gigantic differences as you compare what was emphasized in differing Christian communities such as pre-Constantine Mediterranean, to the hight of Papal authority in the middle ages, to the reformation. And this is just the western branch of Christendom.

How much more diverse does the gospel look when you compare the differences from they hyper-spirituality of the Congo to the liberation theology in Central America. The underground churches in China have an expression of the gospel that is very different than the Conservative religious right of the United States.

Once we recognize that the gospel is a dynamic story that has flexibility to truly speak good news to the thin places of need in a culture, we can begin to think more creatively about what is the crisis our students are facing and what is the good news that addresses it.

Part 1) The Past
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