The New Face Of Youth Ministry

People talk about how different youth ministry is now. How old, outdated ministries are no longer effective and how in order to be effective, youth ministry must look different. The problem is that everybody talks about it, but nobody is really doing it. The people who say they are doing something unique and different are just doing the same things, but using different words. Love this frustration post about how to change the face of student ministry. My favorite line:

Now what? It's time for change, but what? It isn't working. Let's deal with it. It isn't a fad or a season. It is reality. We are doing youth ministry just like the 1970's. Same old stuff in new shoes. It is time to be honest and embrace change. But where to start?

Being A Minister

Being a pastor is awesome, but it's such an immense responsibility. Tomorrow morning I will have 80 middle school students looking at me to show them how they can commune with the God who created them. Sure, most, if not all of them are there for other reasons, but it's my job to foster in them a passion for God. How cool is that?! How scary is that?! I love it. JM

Student Ministry

Student ministry is not my job. It's not even my career. It's my passion.
I hate it when people think it's only my job. I hate it when people think it's only my career.
I didn't take a new position because I have family around. I didn't take a new position to use it to further my career.
I took it because I feel that it's where God wants me to be. It's a chance for me to expand my passion.
I love students. I think a lot of student ministers have lost that. They love talking about ministry. They love coming up with ideas. They love using trendy words, reading books, and going to conferences. But they've lost their love of students. It just got kind of left behind. That almost happened to me. I'll fight however hard I have to to prevent it from happening to me.
I hear about student minsters leaving churches all the time to go to bigger churches or better opportunities. Sometimes they're not even at their church very long and then they go to a different church in the same town. I wonder if they love their students, or if they just love their career. JM

Teen Drug Preferences

Here's an interesting study on teen drug use. While overall drug use is down, teens prefer prescription pain killers. Good information for anyone in student ministry. JM

NYWC - Seminar #1

I went to the "dark side of teenage girl world" seminar by Ginny Olson. Great information. Basically it dealt with sexual promiscuity, sexual identity, self-mutilation, and relationship aggression. Ginny did a great job of balancing information to create awareness with strategies for empowering healing. I have her book, but I haven't read it yet. After this seminare, I'll probably make it the next book I read.
It made me sad to think that Ana is going to grow up in this girl culture. I hope she's able to see herself as a beautiful, confident, unique girl of God and that Eryn and I will be able to help her develop into the woman that God wants her to be. JM

Mission Impossible

I'll post more about it tomorrow night, but Mission Impossible went great. I need to make some minor adjustments for next year, but the kids came out like crazy again this year. I think we had 100 students exactly with the majority being guests. Awesome. JM

Mission Impossible

Tomorrow night we have our biggest event we do all year. It's an outdoor capture-the-flag type game called Mission Impossible. We did it at my old church, and I've adapted it for down here. It's a lot of fun and we have kids come out like crazy for it. Last year we had 129 middle school students. So tomorrow I'll be busy making sure everything is ready for it. I'd appreciate some prayer if you've got a spare minute. Pray that we would provide a high-quality event, that students would bring their unchurched friends, and that I would be able to present the gospel in a clear and relevant fashion. Thanks. JM

Middle School Offers Birth Control

Ran across this article on CNN. A Portland middle school is offering birth control to students out of their health center. This is in response to Portland's three middle schools reporting 17 pregnancies in the past four years. While this is not going to fix the situation, what I found interesting about the article is that it's a reminder to me that students just like the ones I work with are doing this. It's sometimes tough for me to imagine. Really, it just kind of saddens me. I wish they didn't feel this pressure to be so mature, and felt comfortable just being kids. JM

Teens Church Preferences

Ran across these stats on what teens expect, prefer, and learn from church. Several things are interesting. Like 72% of teens pray, but only 48% attend a worship service, which points to the idea that students are searching for the spiritual. The number one thing students expect from church is to worship or make a connection with God. And the number one preference of teens is a church that teaches how their faith should influence their everyday decisions and lifestyle.
So teens want to commune with the spiritual, but be taught the practical.
The problem is that most youth ministries seem to teach the moral/theological and ignore the spiritual and practical. We tend to ignore how a Christian teenager should live their life.
I would rather talk about what a Christian teenager looks like. How they respond to real life situations - boyfriend dumped you, parents yell at you, best friend betrays you, etc. I think that's what students desire too. JM

SYATP

See You At The Pole is coming up again. I've never been a huge fan of this event. Really, I just don't quite understand it. Why are they gathering around the flagpole to pray? Most people say that it's so that people will know they are Christians. But if you have to go pray around your flagpole so that somebody knows your a Christian, what does that say about your actions.
I came across this post by Dino via a post on Mark Riddle's blog. It's an interesting rant on SYATP. While some of it is written with a negative, instigating tone, what he says rings true. I just wonder if there is a way to redeem SYATP and turn it into a truly remarkable event. JM

Hanging Out Discipleship

So last night we had several of the students in our youth group over. We didn't really do anything, just kind of hung out and talked. We watched the US v. Brasil U-20 Soccer game in the background. I love doing stuff like that, though.
It amazes me because the conversation will always turn spiritual. Students greatly desire to talk about stuff that matters, but they don't really care to talk about it unless you really show that you are willing to hear them first. Be available. Listen. Care. We so quickly want to jump to the life-changing cathartic moment and skip the steps we have to take to get there.
I love the journey. JM

The Resurgence

So I've been out for a while. We just got back yesterday from our mission trip to New York. I'll post more about that later. Right now I'm just trying to get back into regular life mode. Sometimes, I think that might be what God doesn't want for us. Life feels so much different when you're on a mission trip.
This trip was interesting because there wasn't a lot of like hard, hands-on, get dirty kind of stuff. It was mainly publicity and direct interaction with people. What I loved about it, though was the time that I got to spend interacting with students, especially the guys that were in my suite late at night. I'd go down and talk to them for a couple of hours each night and just hang out.
I think the key to life change is the stuff you talk about then. When the day is winding down and you can be real with people.
I talk a lot about the moments before sleep. When life is slowing down and you can really think about what is going on. That's one of the reasons that I do my quiet times at night, and the main reason why I blog at night. I just feel it's the most contemplative part of the day.
Spending time with the 9th grade guys makes me really miss them. They are such a great group of guys. It's tough, too, because right now there is just no student leadership in middle school. It's really hurt the direction of our ministry as a whole. I'm trying to assess where we need to go next year in order to recover. I don't care about numbers, or anything like that, I just want to spiritually impact the students that God gives me. The question is how best to do that. JM