Category Archives: Student Ministry

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with what we should teach at Merge (our Wednesday night, multi-generational worship gathering).  What we teach is a big deal.  A REALLY BIG DEAL!  We carry with us the ability to shape a given student’s Godview.  Much of what our students will come to believe about God will come from what we teach them.  What an awesome and scary responsibility!  James said it this way, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” James 3:1.

The more I have wrestled with the reality of what to teach, the more I have felt compelled to ensure that students are not getting some watered-down talk that was thrown together with little forethought or strategic thinking.  As a student pastor, I have constantly lived in the tension of teaching stuff that I think students want to hear verses teaching them the things that I believe they need to hear.  I have wrestled with whether to focus more on relevance (those things that seem most urgent to students right now) or on significance (the rich doctrines that sustain us and ground us).  Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve never gotten it right.  There have been times when I felt like we were too focused on the relevant and never got deep enough, but there have been other times when I have felt like we stayed too heavy for too long.  I have longed for a way to discover balance in our teaching.

This year, we will be implementing what I am going to call the RED Strategy.  My prayer is that the RED Strategy will enable us to give students an accurate, balanced picture of what is happening in Scripture.  I hope it will allow us to meet the felt needs that we find in the youth culture and at the same time help our students establish a firm, doctrinal foundation which will allow them to thrive in the face of a skeptical and cynical world.

The RED Strategy breaks each message series down into one of three categories: Relevant, Expository, and Doctrine.  Our goal will be to provide students with a balanced number series from each of these categories throughout the year.

Here is a brief explanation of each category:

Relevant – In these series, we are teaching to a relevant need in the lives of student.  These messages tend to be more topical in nature.  These help us to handle very specific issues through a thorough examination of Scripture.

Expository – In these series, we focus on a particular text over an extended period of time.  Sometimes this takes the form of walking through one of the lives pictured in Scripture, and other times this is simply walking through a book or passage.  This is a great opportunity for students to grasp a greater appreciation for the richness of God’s word and to uncover truths that are easily passed over with the naked eye.  Expository messages are able to place students in the context of the passage so that they can sense, feel, and absorb the magnitude of what is happening.

Doctrine – A recent study by the Nehemiah Institute shows that 85 percent of self-described Christian students do not hold a Biblical worldview.  The Barna Group has discovered that the majority of students graduating from local youth ministries are not able to articulate the basic tenets of the faith.  In a doctrine series, we dive into the depths of these basic doctrines.  It is the foundation of these doctrines that will allow these students’ faith to persevere through the skepticism of college and difficulty of life.  Some of the basic doctrines we have already handled are: the doctrine of sin, God the Son, and God the Father.

Let me know what you think!  Leave me a comment.

Student ministry is a lot like riding a roller coaster with its ups and downs and with its moments of overwhelming exhilaration and moments of devastating discouragement.  But, even more than being like a roller coaster, I think student ministry is like waiting in line for a roller coaster.  You stand, and you wait.  Then, you stand, and you wait some more.  All the while, you remain focused on the amazing thrill that comes when months, or years even, of waiting finally come together as you finally see the lightbulb go off for a student.

And, there are no Flashpasses in student ministry.  There are no shortcuts that allow you to skip ahead to the front of the line.  As a matter of fact, most veteran student pastors will tell you that you spend a lot more time in the line waiting than you ever do enjoying the breath-taking thrill of watching a student “get it.”  However, another thing most veteran youth pastors will tell you is that the waiting is absolutely worth it.

However, if we are not careful, the waiting can crush us.  It can push us to the brink of insanity, and it can cause us to question everything from our call into ministry to our ministry philosophy and strategy.  That is why it is critical for every student pastor to know what he unquestionably believes about student ministry.  Knowing what we believe and why will help us to make it through the long lines of student ministry and will allow us to easily remind ourselves of why we do what we do.

Below, I have charted out 10 of my student ministry convictions.  These are the truths that I find myself coming back to again and again while I wait.  Take a look and see what you think.  In no particular order:

1. Missions teach students the heart of Christ.  I have found nothing the draws students closer to Christ than serving others.  Mission trips and projects do not produce the synthetic highs that are often associated with youth camps (although I believe these have their place), but they instead allow students to experience the unexplainable satisfaction that comes from being exhausted in Christ.  This creates growth and maturity, not false highs.
2. Families have more influence than I do.  A study shows that the most committed students allow us 40 hours a year to invest in them; excluding sleep time, school time, and practice time, parents have an average of over 3000 hours in a year to invest into their children.  Every youth pastor likes to feel as though they are the most important spiritual influence in the lives of their students, but the reality is that God didn’t design it that way.  Parents are intended to be the primary disciplers of their children.  We need to figure out how to invest our 40 hours into their 3000 hours.
3. Student ministry works, and it’s worth it.  Student ministry is hard, it’s frustrating, and it’s often brutal.  But, I believe it works, and I believe it’s worth it.  When I find myself discouraged, I often remind myself of the stories of students that I have witnessed God transform in front of my eyes.
4. Teaching can be deep and heavy.  Teenagers don’t need Christianity-light.  They can handle God’s word…..ALL of it.  There is no need to water down weighty teachings.  There is nothing wrong with humor or object lessons, but there is something wrong with avoiding diving into deep truths.  It is these deep truths that will allow students to have a foundation which they can build a life-long faith.  I would rather students grow into the teaching than never grow past it.
5. Discipleship happens one-on-one.  John Ortberg says that disciples are hand-crafted not mass produced.  Jesus invested one-on-one into his disciples so that they would in turn do the same.  While you can’t be one-on-one with every student, you must be one-on-one with some students, and you must enable every student the opportunity to be one-on-one with an adult who is mature in the faith.  If there is no one-on-one disciple-making, there is no disciple-making.
6. Having fun is not sinful or insignificant.  While I believe that students can handle the deep and heavy, I also believe there is real value in having fun.  Having fun allows students to grow closer together and allows them to better connect with their leaders.  Having fun breaks down barriers and enables conversation.  Having fun shouldn’t take center-stage in our student ministries, but it definitely has a place.
7. Relationships enable accountability.  Accountability is necessary for the maturation and sanctification of any believer, including teenagers.  However, attempting accountability without the presence of a relationship is devastating.  Students will not respond and will most likely withdraw altogether.  Relationships are time consuming and take a lot of work, but they empower us to bring healthy accountability into the lives of students.
8. Success is measured in time, not numbers.  Every student pastor has struggled with playing the numbers game, and every veteran youth pastor has played the numbers game and lost.  If you gauge the success of your ministry upon the numbers that attend, you will be miserable.  There will be times of mountain-top highs and rock-bottom lows.  We don’t gauge the success of our families based upon how many people are in them, and we shouldn’t gauge the success of our student ministries based solely upon how many are attending.  The real success of our student ministries will be discovered by the types of husbands/wives, fathers/mothers, and church leaders that they produce.
9. Behind every great ministry is a great team.  By great, I’m not really referring to talent, even though that doesn’t hurt.  I’m referring to true greatness; the type of greatness that Jesus taught his disciples.  A humble leadership team consisting of small group leaders, parents, and staff members is a necessity for the effectiveness of any ministry.  There can be no lone rangers in student ministry.  It takes a team.  A great (humble) team.  One of my greatest pleasures is serving with a great ministry team.
10. Teaching moments are everything.  One of the constant truths that our ministry team talks about most often is the importance of taking advantage of the teaching moments.  We often teach, hoping that something sticks.  However, divine teaching moments simply require our obedience, and they are almost guaranteed to stick.  Teaching moments are everywhere; we must be intentional in seeking them out and making the most of them.

Across America, churches are changing.  They no longer have stained glass, cathedral ceilings, and steeples.  They are much more likely to have intelligent lights, costly projector systems, and large production teams.  Worship services seem to more closely resemble rock concerts than the more liturgical services of the past.  Over the past several years, there has been a revolution of new church philosophy and an explosion of church plants.  The driving force behind this transformation seems to be hinged upon the overwhelming belief that church, as it was, was broken.  While there are aspects of this I strongly agree with and some aspects that I question, the church buildings and services are not all that have changed.

This new movement amongst church leaders has also created a new language.  The idea is that people have become so disenfranchised with our Christian clichés and jargon that they have become utterly meaningless.  Words like “Christian” have been replaced with words like “Christ Follower.”  ”Worship services” are now “gatherings.”  We have attempted to redefine the way outsiders view the church in a way that breaks down the barriers associated with old church language.  As our churches have strived to become more relevant in the presentation of the Gospel, it seems obvious that the language we use to communicate the Gospel would transform as well.  I agree.

However, I see a similar problem with the new jargon.  We have to ask the question: Why did the words we are replacing come to mean so little?  I mean, there had to be a time when those words were effective.  Nonetheless, over time words like “saved” have seemingly ceased to resonate with a new generation of outsiders.  How did this happen?

While there are probably a plethora of contributing factors, I would have to argue that there is one overwhelming factor: OUR WORDS HAVEN’T MEANT ANYTHING BECAUSE OUR WORDS HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING.  Over time, people have been beaten and beaten and beaten with words that have come to have a negative connotation not because they are bad words, but because they are communicated through inauthentic lives.  As churches have built empires and “Christians” have hoarded wealth, words like “serve” and “missions” have come to mean very little.  Believe it or not, outsiders know enough about Jesus and the Bible to know that our words and our lifestyles are not matching up with our supposed beliefs.  The result has been that our “church words” have become mere rhetoric over time, disgusting the unchurched rather than reaching them.

Was it time for new words?  Perhaps, but what happens when words such as “Christ-follower” are just as powerless to people as “Christian?”  As we have strived to make our ministry language more relevant, it seems to be following the same path as its replaced ancestors.  The reality is that our terminology will not become relevant until our lives become relevant.  If we do not become the hands and feet of Jesus, our words will always be rhetoric regardless of how cool or post-modern they sound.  Truthfully, outsiders are not looking for a new language from Christians; they are looking for a new life from Christians.  Until they begin to see the Gospel changing us, they will not be interested in anything we have to say.

My prayer is that our words begin to mean something because our words begin to do something.  I want my life to more relevant than my words.  I’m actually not sure it is even possible for irrelevant words to be spoken from a relevant life.  My heart is broken over the fact that I know that people have seen my life and saw anything but a reflection of Jesus.  Who cares how well-schooled I am in new-age church lingo until I get that right?

Please share your thoughts.

Cody

Overall, the health of our student ministry is well.  Students are surrendering to Christ, and students are deepening their faith in Christ.  However, part of my DNA is to evaluate things.  As I evaluated our current ministry, there was one glaring weakness.

MERGE (our seeker-friendly worship environment) has been doing exactly what it is designed to do.  It is the front door to our ministry, and it has served us well by attracting a diverse, multi-ethnical, multi-generational, and unchurched group of students.  DifferenceMakers (our intense discipleship and leadership ministry) has also been beyond our wildest dreams.  The students participating seem to build their week around this ministry, and we have seen multiple students invest the Gospel into friends, as well as six students acknowledge a potential call to vocational ministry.  These two environments are exactly what we hoped they would be.  Students are anxious to come, life-change is happening, and the Gospel is being magnified and mobilized through them.

Our weakness, however, comes in our small group ministry (probably the most vital to the success of our vision).  When we look on from a purely life-change perspective, we aren’t seeing much.  Students that come don’t seem to be connecting, which is a problem seeing as how the entire purpose of small groups is connection.  Students don’t seem to have the same excitement or anxiousness to attend, as they do for the step below and the step above small groups.  When I talk to students, very rarely do they acknowledge small groups as a significant part of their lives, while they do frequently acknowledge MERGE and DifferenceMakers.

Why?  Is it a result of bad small group leaders?  I don’t think so.  Our student ministry team has scoured our church and recruited what I believe to be the best collection of leaders anywhere.  For the large part, they are passionate, faithful, and trustworthy.  Yet, I sense an unspoken frustration on their part due to the lack of effectiveness within our small group ministry.

I don’t believe that the sickness of our small group ministry is a result of bad leaders; instead, I believe it is a result of a bad system.  I don’t think we have done enough to set our small group leaders up for success.  We haven’t trained enough.  We haven’t explained enough.  We haven’t given them a curriculim that builds interest.  With the incredible success of MERGE, we haven’t done enough to build continuity between the two enviornments.  I believe most students feel like they step back 3 decades between MERGE and our small group ministry.

Just like when our bodies get sick, our ministry team is currently in the process of performing surgery on our small group ministry.  We are working hard to be more strategic with our teaching and to build continuity between each of our environments.

We have defined our vision as “Building students that change the lives of other students.”  Giving us a clearly defined “WIN” within our ministry.  However, I think we have done a poor job of defining the “WIN” on all levels our ministry.  This was one of the first steps we have taken toward, hopefully, a healthy small group ministry.  Our ”WINS” are as follows:

• Student Ministry: Our win is when a student invests his or her faith into another student.
• MERGE: Our win is when students leave wanting more.
• Small Groups:  Our win is when students share something from their heart.
• DifferenceMakers: Our win is when students DO what they’ve learned.
• Internship Ministry: Our win is when we create leaders that create more leaders.

While each of these go much deeper than they may first appear, we tried to work hard to keep them simple so that they are easy to buy into and to evaluate ourselves by.  Hopefully, this will allow our volunteers something a little more substantial to guage their success by other than “How many?”

Our new TRIBES strategy was finally a completed work today (I will go into more detail about this on a later date).  We will be introducing a new small group structure and strategy this Sunday.  We are praying for a buy in and for, more importantly, life-changing small groups.  I’m excited to introduce what we believe will be an effective plan, but, as is always the case with change, I’m also a little nervous.

Thanks for listening.

***This is a post from several months ago.  It was on my heart; so, I thought I would just repost it.***

I’ve been thinking through our student ministry strategy.  We’ve identified a variety of foundational elements that we want to build this ministry upon.  I’ve been trying to figure how to flesh out a ministry model that will be easy for us to communicate with our leadership.  We’ve communicated our vision (“building students that change the lives of other students”), and we’ve communicated a variety of ways we desire to get there; however, I’m not sure that we have done a very good job of communicating why our structure is the way that it is.

For the time being, I’m going to call our strategy a “decentralized” student ministry.  We desire for our student ministry to be built on eternal truths and lifelong relationships rather than a charismatic youth minister’s personality.  Though we aren’t there yet, we are working as hard as we can to expand our base beyond our youth ministers.  I think it would be a beautiful picture if we had students changing the lives of other students, small group leaders investing themselves and truth into students, and youth ministers that are providing spirititual leadership, vision, administration, accountability, and training to maximize the success of everyone, without anyone really being sure who the “Guy in Charge” really is.

Now, obviously when someone has a platform to preach, such as MERGE, that allows easy identification of leadership  Also, I think leadership is necessary, important, and Biblical.  God calls and equips people to lead.  We are simply trying to use our leadership in a different way and in different places.  We want to put our students and families in the best possible place to have a dynamic, growing relationship with Christ.  So, I guess what I’m saying is something I’ve said before: I hope students have a closer, deeper relationship with their small group leader than with me or even their youth minister.  I think the ideal scenario would be for direct spiritual leadership in the following order:

1. Parents
2. Small Group Leader
3. Youth Minister (Should provide spiritual guidance, discipleship, and accountability for the previous 2.)
4. Student Pastor (Should provide spiritual guidance, discipleship, and accountability for the previous 3.)

Now, we haven’t got this all figured out, which is probably evident by the fact that this is incredibly confusing to read .  We are just experimenting with various ideas.  We are striving to do a better job developing families, rather than just students.  We aren’t sure exactly how that’s going to happen, but we are convinced the best way to develop fully devoted students is to develop fully devoted families.

For those of you who actually managed to read through this rambling, thanks for listening.  It helps me to talk it out.  If any of my fellow youth ministers, parents, or small group leaders have any thoughts, I would love some advice or feedback.  What are some things that you are trying?

Just some thoughts.

***Today’s Reflection quiet time video aid is available one post below this one.***

Throughout the summer, our student ministry was in transition.  The second half of the summer was spent dreaming, strategizing, and visioneering.  One of our goals was define, in layman’s terms, what our “win” is.  What is it that we are aiming at?  What is our target?  We really wanted to go beyond simple numbers as the measuring stick for effectiveness and health.  We decided that our “win,” or our vision, was: “To build students that change the lives of other students through Christ.”  There are a wide variety of reasons that we felt compelled by this vision which I may share in the future.

First, let me tell you about a student in our current ministry.  Kyle Bradshaw is senior at Saks High School.  He is the starting center for the football team.  Last year, there was a student that over and over and over asked Kyle to come with him to MERGE (our Wednesday night worship service).  To appease him, Kyle finally said yes.  That night, Kyle surrendered his life to Christ.  Since, Kyle has connected into both our small group ministry and our DifferenceMaker class.  While I am not trying to paint an unrealistice picture of Kyle, he has genuinely spent the last year running after Christ and seeking to become more like Christ.

With that said, I would like to share a picture of a “win” taking place.  Last night at our church, we had “Choice of a Lifetime,” which is a tremendous drama.  The Saks football team was in attendance.  During the invitation, a large number of the players came forward desiring to repent and follow Christ. 

As one of our counselors was talking with a football players about salvation in Christ, the player, Kyle’s teammate, looked at our counselor in the eyes and said, “I want Jesus like Kyle Bradshaw has Jesus.”  This is a “win.” 

This is what our vision is in a concrete, undeniable way.  Everything that gets us out of bed in the morning is about this moment.  Students that are so passionately in love with Christ that it has a profound and eternal impact on those that spend time around them.  This is a picture of a student changing the life of another student in Christ.

When discouragement and frustration come, it is these moments that urge us forward.  When we wander if what we do even matters, it is these moments that assure us of the promises of God’s word and the faithfulness of God.  God is doing a great work in this ministry and in our county as a whole.  For the first time in a long time, I talk to youth pastors who aren’t discouraged, but in revival.  County-wide, youth ministries are in the midst of a great movement of our God.  I am continueing to pray that God will bring every lost student in this county to repentance and that they will be discipled by one of many of this county’s great youth ministries.  I hope this story of an incredible God-moment encourages you.

***Today’s Reflection quiet time video aid is available one post below this one.***

It was Saturday afternoon, and I had a house full of sophomores on the way to my house for dinner (“Hale’s Kitchen”).  The Wife and I were frantically trying to make sure that our home was suitable for company.  All day long, we had cleaned and washed and organized everything we could get our hands on.  As is usual on the day of a youth event, my phone is in the midst of a total meltdown with calls, texts, and facebook messages asking me every question imaginable.

All day long, I had planned to buy a new mirror for above our mantle, but I had never found the appropriate time to break away.  Now, it’s one hour from kickoff, and there is no mirror.  I decide that there is just enough time for me to make it to the mall and back before students and parents start arriving.  As soon as my orange Element squealed into a mall parking spot, I was off and on my way to complete my great mission.

At breakneck speed, I rushed into Kirkland’s, and after a 10 minute debate with myself over which mirror was best, I made my selection.  With mirror under arm, I hurried out of the store, and that was when I realized that EVERYTHING was different now. For whatever reason, I paused and absorbed my surroundings.  I realized it was Saturday night (date night), and while every other young couple in the world was waiting in line to catch the latest movie or sharing waffle fries at Chic-Fil-A in the food court, I was in a full, frantic sweat wearing out-of-style clothes that I didn’t know were out-of-style, holding a mirror under my arm, and a Kirkland’s receipt in my wallet for tax write-off purposes.  At that moment, I realized things were very different and that I would not be the first person in history to avoid the cruelties and realities of grandfather time.

While I’ve never been mistaken as cool, the realization that my coolest days were behind me was strangely unique and relieving.  I laughed it off.  I didn’t feel the need to try and fix anything or to try to update my wardrobe; instead, I was strangely comfortable in my own skin.  Why can’t this happen in high school?  I sure hope that God can use a “Has Been.”

***Video quiet time aid for today is one post below.***

God has hardwired all of us with a desire for place.  A place to connect, share, and live with other people.  This began in the Garden of Eden and is obvious with the overwhelming success of social networking sites such as Facebook.  People have a need to connect with people that are in a similar season of life as themselves.

This is a truth that I have always believed, which is why we emphasize small groups so strongly in our ministry.  Our goal for small groups is to connect students with an adult that loves God and loves them while at the same time connecting them with other students who have the same struggles, dreams, and needs as they do.

However, last Thursday, I saw this truth more plainly than I had seen in a long time.  I met with a group of Calhoun County youth pastors from different denominations and different backgrounds.  Almost without fail, every single youth pastor said the same thing: “I want a place to connect, have friends, talk about my struggles, my ideas, and have accountability.”  Even youth pastors need community.  Ministry, but more importantly, life is extremely grueling.  With all of the discouragement and obstacles that come, everybody needs a place of community where they can be safe.

True community happens through vulnerability and transparency, which takes time.  However, when we find a group of other people who understand the place of life or ministry that we are in, that we can be completely open and transparent with, there can be no greater source of renewal and encouragement.  There is something about knowing other people are where you are and are interested in what you have to say that is absolutely therapeutic and healthy.  As a matter of fact, I would argue that it is impossible for a person to be completely healthy without belonging to a community.

What role is community playing in your life?  Do you have place?  Do you feel safe in your community?  Are you able to be completely vulnerable and transparent?

***If you’re looking for the quiet time video aid, it is the post beneath this one.

I’ve been thinking through our student ministry strategy.  We’ve identified a variety of foundational elements that we want to build this ministry upon.  I’ve been trying to figure how to flesh out a ministry model that will be easy for us to communicate with our leadership.  We’ve communicated our vision (“building students that change the lives of other students”), and we’ve communicated a variety of ways we desire to get there; however, I’m not sure that we have done a very good job of communicating why our structure is the way that it is.

For the time being, I’m going to call our strategy a “decentralized” student ministry.  We desire for our student ministry to be built on eternal truths and lifelong relationships rather than a charismatic youth minister’s personality.  Though we aren’t there yet, we are working as hard as we can to expand our base beyond our youth ministers.  I think it would be a beautiful picture if we had students changing the lives of other students, small group leaders investing themselves and truth into students, and youth ministers that are providing spirititual leadership, vision, administration, accountability, and training to maximize the success of everyone, without anyone really being sure who the “Guy in Charge” really is.

Now, obviously when someone has a platform to preach, such as MERGE, that allows easy identification of leadership  Also, I think leadership is necessary, important, and Biblical.  God calls and equips people to lead.  We are simply trying to use our leadership in a different way and in different places.  We want to put our students and families in the best possible place to have a dynamic, growing relationship with Christ.  So, I guess what I’m saying is something I’ve said before: I hope students have a closer, deeper relationship with their small group leader than with me or even their youth minister.  I think the ideal scenario would be for direct spiritual leadership in the following order:

1. Parents
2. Small Group Leader
3. Youth Minister (Should provide spiritual guidance, discipleship, and accountability for the previous 2.)
4. Student Pastor (Should provide spiritual guidance, discipleship, and accountability for the previous 3.)

Now, we haven’t got this all figured out, which is probably evident by the fact that this is incredibly confusing to read .  We are just experimenting with various ideas.  We are striving to do a better job developing families, rather than just students.  We aren’t sure exactly how that’s going to happen, but we are convinced the best way to develop fully devoted students is to develop fully devoted families.

For those of you who actually managed to read through this rambling, thanks for listening.  It helps me to talk it out.  If any of my fellow youth ministers, parents, or small group leaders have any thoughts, I would love some advice or feedback.  What are some things that you are trying?

Just some thoughts.

I have  been wrestling with a quote by Craig Groeschel, which is: “If you want to reach people nobody else is reaching, you’ve got to do things nobody else doing.”  I’m really thinking about this in the context of our student ministry and our church.  How do we reach students that nobody else is reaching?  How do we reach people that have needs that nobody else is meeting?

Everyone who reads those thoughts is probably in agreement with the truth that we need/have to reach out to ALL students and people.  However, I can identify two critical problems that all of us have with this truth.  If we aren’t already doing what it takes to reach these students/people with the Gospel, then it is because: 1) Everyone is uncomfortable with the changes or the methodology required to reach them. 2) No one has yet discovered what it takes to reach them.

So, that brings us to our first uncomfortable question: are we willing to be 1) uncomfortable? 2) creative/innovative? 3) or both?Whether you are a student, small group leader, youth pastor, or church member who is interested in the multiplication of the Gospel, you must face this truth.  What are your questions?  What are your concerns?  Why?

The next uncomfortable question, which is where I am personally, is: if we’ve decided we are willing to be uncomfortable and creative, what do we with this?  First, our team, over the next few weeks, is going to be examining the type of student we are reaching, why we are effective in reaching that particular type of student, and what we can learn from that.  Next, we will be looking at the type of student we are not reaching, why we are not reaching them, and some potential ideas/strategies on how we can reach them.

Lastly, how do we ensure that we do not lost sight of our vision for the sake of creativity and ingenuity?  Our vision is: “building students that change the lives of other students.”  That’s what wakes us up and drives what we do.  It would be very easy for us to chase rabbits and change for the sake of change and lose sight of the vision we have for our student ministry.  The precaution we have to take is to view every idea and change through the lens of our vision.  Otherwise, we can lose track as a ministry or as a church of glorifying God with the vision He’s given us.

The New Testament church seemed to be focused on meeting needs, multiplying the Gospel, and discipling believers in the truths of scripture.  However, I don’t feel that many student ministries or churches are doing any of these things well.  Are we willing to change?  What are we not doing that we HAVE to do?  What do students and people need that we aren’t giving?  How do we reach students that have never been reached or interested before?

Please feel free to converse.