Youth Ministry and Me

I cannot even understand how someone would arrive at the idea that the KJV is the only Bible that God approves of? It makes no sense. The Bible wasn't written in English therefore it must always be translated. 500 year old English sucks for 12 year old kids and most 25-50 year old adults, so why not update the translation from the original languages as many have done? They even admit in the video that they think other Bibles are ok in other languages... One word: stupid. I'll be keen to see if the book burning BBQ grew their church to 15 members or more!

John Harrower gives us some advice from Paul Barnett on how to prepare for a sermon.

Barnett spoke recently at the Diocese of Tasmania Clergy Conference. Another speaker there was one of Australia's most experienced youth pastors, Tim Hawkins.

How good is it that a Diocese has Youth Ministry so high on the agenda that it gets Tim Hawkins to speak to all it's clergy.

If Tassie can do it so can Melbourne (that's a challenge to anyone from the Melbourne Diocese who may read this blog). Give youth ministry a proper priority!

So who really gives a stuff if Deacons do communion in an Anglican church?

Well apparently a whole bunch of people with nothing better to do than take the Sydney Diocese to some Anglican court to make a ruling on the matter. See this article here. The funny thing is the Sydney Diocese isn't even representing itself after they got screwed over by the court in regards to women bishops a while back.

But seriously. I wonder if you can take people to this court for not believing Jesus is the only way to be saved yet still being in some form of Anglican church ministry?

I'm glad much of the Anglican church is dying out. Maybe in 20 years no one will care about this kinda stuff and then we can all actually focus on preaching Jesus Christ lord of all and crucified for our sins.

(HT to Bishop John who linked to the article on his blog)

Came across this free e-book by Tim Challies today called Sexual Detox (HT to Mikey). There is one for single and one for married guys.

I highly recommend it and just finished reading it. Only took me about an hour to read.

It had some pretty good things to say about sex and it's purposes and our need to focus on God and his plan and purposes for sex. As someone who sadly is coming into my upcoming marriage with sexual baggage I found it both a challenging and encouraging read. I'm thankful for God's grace to us and I pray that He will help my past not mess up my future too much!

I think the last paragraph sums up the book nicely:

The fact is, God does not give young men free passes when it comes to sin; he does not allow you to run wild for a time and just “get away with it.” Sin carries with it consequences whether you sin at eighteen or eighty. Turn from your sin today. Pursue freedom. Pursue Christ.

One thing really caught my eye when reading this book though, It relates to the quote below. Especially if you are married I'd like to know your thoughts! It seems quite a radical way of thinking about sex to me!

Even if you have no desire to have sex, have sex for your spouse’s sake. Even if neither you nor your spouse have a desire to have sex, have sex for God’s sake out of obedience to him.

Discuss...

Recently at the NYMC I attended a session run by an Irish worship musician called Andy Flannagan.

I bought his CD the collection and I've been really enjoying his music and his style.

He was a really genuine guy who had a clear passion to see Christians worship God in more real ways than singing songs about how much we love our boyfriend Jesus. He is also big into social justice and had written some songs to reflect the justice of God in worship.

A cool guy.

Check out his website

Bill Hybels is pastor of the American mega-church Willow Creek. Recently Jono and I read his book Courageous Leadership for our professional development as church leaders.

I found the book to be very good! Hybels has many great tips and much wisdom from his many many years as the leader of his church.

Particularly interesting to me were his Chapters on turning vision into action and the art of self leadership. His chapter on different ways to grow and nurture your walk with God was also encouraging and I have since bought the book he recommends by Gary Chapman - Sacred Pathways.

There was only one weakness and that was the chapter on characteristics a leader should have (Ch 10 - A Leader's Prayer). In it he gives different characteristics a leader has by telling stories about Bible figures. I thought he needed to go the other way, give the characteristics and then give biblical and other examples. So it's a minor fault really.

I definitely think even though this book is pretty old, and no one seems to care about Hybels and Warren these days (it's all about Driscoll and Chandler and Piper) all of us involved in some sort of church or church ministry leadership should give this book by Bill Hybels a read!

I didn't really like this. I actually thought Driscoll at times sounded like the complaining boy he was absolutely destroying on stage. He took about 15mins to make one point.

I'm just not sure belittling is the way forward for a pastor to encourage his flock to grow in Godliness...

Having said that, he got better in the last 5-7mins.

Today I sat down with my supervisor and went through where I'm spending my time as a Youth Pastor.

The results were shocking. I've neglected some big and important things while doing a whole lot of little things keeping me busy and feeling very drained.

Let's hope as I refocus for next year in the coming weeks and months, I can get the big important rocks in place first and then work out what other things can fill the remaining space or be scrapped altogether!

My job could look quite different next year.

An interesting quote:

Hint: Your question to them (when in a job interview and the topic of money comes up) should be, “Since you live here, how much do you live on?” Check what the local school district salary range is for a teacher with your level of experience and expect the church’s salary package to be competitive.)

Is that a good measure? Or is it better to look at the Senior Pastor's wage and work from there?