Last Post on Blogger

I have moved my blog from here to Word Press and will be hosting it  through Go Daddy.  I will be making several big changes in the next couple weeks on my site.  This will give me more freedom to add some new things.  Please join me on this adventure.


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Claymation History of United Methodism

I'm currently on our Confirmation Retreat with my students.

When I went through confirmation back in 1993, this movie really helped me understand what the Methodist Church was.

For the last ten years I have made this a part of my teaching to my students. I also used it in my Methodist history class for a project.

Enjoy!

Be Who You Are Part II

Yesterday I wrote about Be who you are and after reading it, I felt there was still somethings I wanted to say.  I think that too often in youth ministry, we try to be who we are not because we do not take the time or are told to take the time to get trained in ministry.  If you attend NYWC or Simply Conference, you can go around to all the exhibits grab some free curriculum or even buy every single one.  You can pretty much pick up everything in the exhibit hall including entering to win a free iPad, iPhone 4, Macbook, and more.  The only thing you can't pick up is the stylish youth pastor goatee, the Rob Bell hipster glasses, and the designer clothes of Steven Furtick.

You can take all these things, go back to your local church and try them out.   But most fail to look at the demographics and needs of their own groups.  We get all this free stuff or buy the latest and greatest series and videos and try to pass them on to our group.  Too often they fail, because they were not made for our group.  We do not take the time to adapt them to our group.  We hit play and we hope for the best.  

Instead we need to take the same time we do to build relationships with our students to understand their spiritual needs.  

I admit, I have been caught in this trap.  I have a book shelf of resources that I bought, tried a couple weeks and failed with them.  I was too caught up in the hype of the product, book, or video series to see that my students did not need this.  Or if they did I did not adapt it to my group.   It was a tough lesson to learn. 

So where do we go from here?  What do we do?

I'm not saying boycott Simply Youth, Group Publishing, or Youth Specialties and just write your own resources.  I'm saying, take the time to know your group, know your students, and know your leaders.   Take time in prayer to see where God is leading you to lead your group.   Take the time if you buy a resource to adapt it to the lives of your students.  Take the time to explain to your adults why you are using this resource.  Communicate with the parents and get them involved.  Take the time to let God shape and mold you to the youth worker He wants you to be, not a carbon copy youth pastor who has a goatee, Rob Bell glasses, designer clothes, carrying a shoulder bag with your Mac Book, iPad, and iPhone.

Be Who You Are Called to Be....YOU

Be Who You Are

A friend shared this video with me and the first thing I thought was I have to share this via facebook, twitter, email, and my blog.   After watching it for the third time it made me think....

It made me look at my 13 years of youth ministry and how I've tried at different times to be other youth pastors and not myself...

Back in 1997-1998, my first job was a part time 10 hour a week youth director position at Faith United Methodist Church in Lexington, SC.  I was just finishing up my training to be a volunteer for Young Life.  At that time I had never been to any type of conference or workshop for youth ministry.   There were only a few books on youth ministry at the time.   The only thing I knew about how to put on youth group time was from my youth pastor growing up and from Young Life.    So I made it up as I went, I combined my knowledge of both and created my own format which is the base for how I still do youth ministry all these years later.

Over the next couple of years I started attending different workshops, one day training, and observed other youth groups.   Slowly over time I could see myself trying to copy what I saw other people doing.   I tried to do skits, music, and talks like the other guys that I was seeing.  I was trying to be someone that I wasn't...I was trying to be carbon copy of other youth workers.   Just a few years ago I stopped writing my own talks and started using talks from Simply Youth and tried to be Doug Fields by memorizing his talk transcripts.
I was trying music from the Passion movement and would introduce songs and read scripture exactly as I saw it live and own their CD.   Everything in my Sunday Night youth program was a copy of someone else and was not fully of God or of me.  I was trying to be someone else and not the Youth Pastor that God had called me to be.

Over the past couple years I have let go of that and have allowed God to show me who I am and who He wants me to be when I lead youth ministry.   I too often see other youth workers fall into the same trap that I fell into.   It can be very harmful to the youth ministry and to the church if they are not careful.  With the hundreds of youth resources out there it is very tempting for us to just copy and paste.   Just be who you are called to be.  Use these resources, but take the time to see how God wants you to use it for your students and adapt things.  

Lost Generation

Lost Generation