I was looking to equip some teenagers to lead our student ministry in worship. I wanted to put a book in their hand that was helpful, foundational & simple. I sent an email to any people I thought would have a good perspective and here’s the list they gave me:

• “The Unquenchable Worshiper” by Matt Redman
• “The Air I Breathe” by Louie Giglio
• “Praise Habit” by David Crowder
• “The Worship Answer Book” by Rick Muchow:
• “Worship in Black and White” & “The Worship Pulse” by Yancy
• “Exploring Worship” by Bob Sorge
• “200 Pomegrantes and an Audience of One” by Shawn Wood
• John Frame’s “Worship In Spirit and In Truth“
• Reggie Kidd’s “With One Voice“
• Robert Webber’s “Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative“
• “The Heart of the Artist” by Rory Noland
• “To Know You More” by Andy Park
• “The Heart of Worship Files” by Matt Redman
• [blog post] how to plan & lead worship by Andy Rowell
• [bog post] FAQ about Worship: Seekers, Emotions, & Me-Songs by Andy Rowell

*Note: The first two book “Unquenchable Worshiper” & “The Air I Breathe” received the most recommendations. Also, “Praise Habit” received multiple recommendations.

*Thanks to Andy Rowell, Chris Williams, Ben Taylor, Michael Farnsley, Shane Hart, Jeremy Zach, Graham Buck, Nathaniel Dame, Ryan Smith, Benji Robinson & Lee Bezotte.

My main man, Tim,  asked me what I found to be the key problem student ministries are facing today and to offer 2 or 3 solutions for said problem.

Well, Tim, you know how kids are – for better or worse – a lot like their parents?

Same goes for the ministries they inhabit.

If I were going to paint a very large, generic answer for what the biggest problem in student ministry is, it’d be the exact same answer that I’d give to someone who asked what I thought was the key problem in adult ministry.

A ministry can be successful, popular, copied, and admired while still being incredibly unlike the Jesus that it – allegedly – exists to serve.

Christians can be “christians” without being anything like Jesus. Churches are made up of those “christians.” Student Ministries are – often – made up of those “christians.”

I’d say, for whatever reason, our ministries revolve around so many things besides Jesus. Go poke around 100 student ministry websites and check out which words show up most often and you’ll find what the ministry revolves around. I’d bet you’d be hard-pressed to find Jesus as the keyword on many of those sites.

This is a really broad sweeping problem (of which I am guilty) that plays itself out in a million little places throughout the world of teenagers.

Here are 2.5 solutions to help us turn around the titanic:

1
Revolve your life around Jesus. The problem is part of our larger systems and church culture in general and it is such because individual people have not had the sense to voice their hearts when the time arose. Know about Jesus, know Jesus as a friend, know Jesus as Lord, serve Jesus, sacrifice for Jesus, be listening to Jesus, make a decision or two based on Jesus. Once you start doing this, the world around you (be it church or otherwise) will start looking more and more crazy. The way people spend money, the way people spend their time & the way they spend their lives will seem more and more contrary to the way Jesus is leading your life.

2
Humbly, gently & respectfully speak-up when church, ministry or “christian” is acting/speaking/living/ministering in a way that revolves around something other than Jesus. Ask questions, get to the heart of the motives. Why do you take your group on that Cedar Point trip every summer? Is it because of Jesus? Why do you have a lock-in? Jesus? Why don’t you buy a new car? Jesus? Why did you and your wife travel to Haiti to serve? Jesus?

Usually – it seems – youth pastors wait WAY too long before addressing these issues; so long that they feel they have to blow-up the existing ministry in order to right the ship.

2.5
(not so much a solution, but a place to start) Read Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry by Rick Lawrence. I’ve recommended this to so many people. I sat through 4 sessions of Rick teaching through this at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in 2009 and it change my life. It could have easily been retitled “Jesus-Centered Christianity” as the problems in student ministry are simply a reflection of problems in the greater church. He does a terrific job at articulating part of the issues surrounding student ministry today and giving more specific solutions than I just did.

Just off the top of my head, here are books that I’m either currently or planning on reading.

• Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch
• Linchpin by Seth Godin
• The Words of Jesus by Phyllis Tickle
• The Historical Figure of Jesus by E.P. Sanders
• The Books of the Bible
• The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

What about you? What are you reading? What do you WISH you were reading?

When I picked up “What Difference Do I Make” and started reading, I was moved. The book is filled with heartwarming stories that cause the reader to rethink some standard assumptions.

The book is filled with stories of hope, redemption, healing and life lessons.

I don’t want to spoil the stories here, there were several times I found myself being able to name issues and tensions that had previously remaned hidden.

If you’re a sucker for the happy ending or a sentimental story, this is a book for you.

But this is also the books downfall, while being filled with inspiration and hope, I found it difficult to continue to press on through the entirety of the book. It’s like watching a movie on Lifetime, you know it’s gonna be a sappy ending. You know the girl is gonna get the guy. You know the black kid and the white kid – though they struggle through racial tensions – are going to end up being there for each other.

My recommendation: If you absolutely loved the first book (Same Kind of Different as Me), you’ll love What Difference Do It Make. If you’ve read neither, don’t start with this one. If you’ve got too many books on your reading list, don’t add this one.

One of the more valuable bits of information I picked up in my undergraduate studies was Thomas Groome’s 5 movements. These movements describe Groome’s theory on how

people best learn and share faith. Each movement opens the door to the next culminating in the final movement of deciding/responding to live the Christian Faith. For a more detailed look, check out this detailed article. I’ve included the outline of the 5 movements below….

I picked up Dan Allender’s book, “Leading with a Limp,” during a time when I felt frustrated and limited in my own leadership and my own imperfection. Like any overly-excited online shopper, i left it sit in a pile of “books to read” on my desk.

I cracked it open today and couldn’t put it down. The book isn’t incredible because of Dan’s writing or it’s practical advice, but because it each word seems to skip your mind and head straight into your soul. As a president of a graduate school that is well known for it’s bent towards psychology and counseling, much of Dan’s talks and writings sounds like they’re coming from a counselor.

And for me. For me right now. That’s just what I need.

Here is a paragraph that named an inner-tension that – I’d guess – every leader feels. It brought a tear to my eye as I’d never heard another human being so directly speak to that part of my heart:

We expect a leader to make tough decisions – to fire his close friend if necessary or to send troops into harm’s way – yet we want him to tear up over a sad story and be sentimental on Mother’s Day. What we want is an illusion and we know it. We prefer the illusion because we have a deep need to be buffered from reality. Setting up a leader to b our big daddy, our bright and shining knight, our perfect mother who will get up in the middle of the night and hold us until we feel safe makes leadership a nightmare that we inflict on a few while we comfort ourselves that we don’t have the right stuff to pull it off.

That hit me so hard.

If you would, take a second to pause and reflect.

Take a moment to think about the expectations you’re putting on those that you’d call leaders?

I just finished reading “Primal” by Mark Batterson. I’ve got a Review and then a Reflection. I hope both are beneficial to you.

A Review

Batterson writes “Primal” out of the inspiration coming from a trip to an ancient church gathering space. Mark explored an underground place where Christians gathered back when the death penalty was a very real consequence of their faith. “Primal” is an attempt to explore the raw, unpolished core of the Christian faith. What is it that seemed to precious to early believers that caused them to gather in spite of persecution? What did they see in the faith that was worth it? What did they experience? What did they know about God.

In today’s world, gathering with other believers often is less of a priority than sleeping in or taking our 4th grader to baseball. Why the shift? The thrust of Mark’s exploration starts here: “…some of the sacrifices you’ve made for the cause of Christ might not even qualify under a second century definition.” Mark spends the rest of the book elaborating on how Jesus teaches the “primal” core of discipleship in saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

A Reflection

I couldn’t put this book down. I devoured it in 2 days. While I love books and reading, something about this book totally hooked me and I was unsure of what that something was until I thought about it….

I work in a church. I work with Christians. I work in a church filled with upper class Christians. Except for one or two families in our congregation, there aren’t any external needs. In fact, I’ve had to spend 18 months with the teenagers there to begin to see some of the deepest issues that can linger under the surface in suburbia.

Sometimes I just want someone to shake me. Sometimes I just want to shake someone.

This book shakes.

It names realities. It doesn’t sugarcoat. It doesn’t pull punches.

A buddy of mine just asked me for a list of reading materials for youth ministry. Here is what I gave him (in order of my perceived importance):

• Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students – Best overview of discipling teenagers I’ve read. Great for youth pastors, teachers, parents, volunteers, evertyong.
• Your First Two Years – Doug gives a powerful framework for starting out in youth ministry.
• Contemplative Youth Ministry – Read this book twice. I wish my ministry looked more like this.
• How People Grow – Cloud and Townsend are golden. They write great stuff that is SO applicable if your ministry is about helping people grow. Every minister and small group leader ought to read this gem.
• Youth Ministry 3.0 – Marko writes a manifesto for the future of youth ministry. Sign me up.
• Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry – If you work for Young Life or Youth for Christ, don’t read it. You’ll either quit your job or hate the entire book.
• Tribes – There were SO many times throughout this book that I though, “Yeah, that’s SO true.” A leadership book for today’s super-connected world.

your thoughts? any suggestions?

Yesterday I told you about a little known book that could change everything.

The premise: what if our physical wastes weren’t negatives, what if they were positive?

In my odd way of thinking, the entire book made me think about faith communities.

Lots and lots of people have had experience with a church or with christians or something like that. There are just parts of church life that are weird and awkward and draining. Too often, I think those in churches soldier on  through the negatives in pursuit of a “goal.” In reality, I think Cradle to Cradle teaches us that there needed be any negatives or things we “just do.”

First example: volunteers. How often do we church workers – no matter how hard we try – simply see volunteers as the vehicle for our ministry rather than our co-workers in ministry? How often do i neglect my adult volunteers in order to connect with teenagers? How often do the adult volunteers feel like they are there to help me put on my show.

Another example: coffee. Instead of just getting the cheapest or standard coffee to sell/give out at your church on Sunday mornings, why not support the world and buy some coffee here.

Another glaring example: buildings. Instead of  draining the congregation of 3 million dollars for a building – or a bridge – why  not share a space. You could share with a club, a bar (bars are RARELY open on Sunday morning), a coffee shop, a small business, or another church (read here how Holy Trinity and RockHarbor are sharing space).

One of the best books I’ve ever read is “Cradle to Cradle” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. In this book, they ask the reader to rethink what sustainable life might look like. The hippies of the world would have us believe it means not bathing and making our own clothes out of tree leaves, but William and Michael think otherwise.

What if, instead of polluting the world, the things we designed were actually nutrients (both biologically and sociologically).

Think about it, if we designed products that way, we wouldn’t have to halt production in an effort to save the planet. No, instead, our production would enhance the planet (much like a bee’s production enhances the flowers it uses).

Should be mandatory reading for all designers and politicians.

PS. tomorrow I’ll write about what this COULD mean for the church world…..