So our church is located in a very strong Christian area of Melbourne.
Within a 5-10min drive from our church are a number of churches with great youth ministries doing great things.
I believe we've got a great youth ministry doing great stuff here too, but we miss the one thing these other churches have. LOADS of people. Our youth group probably gets on average 10-15 on a Friday night. A few more come on Sunday, but they don't come on Friday, and many who come on Friday don't come on Sunday.
It makes it hard to get new people, particularly youth, to stick around. I think this is totally understandable, it's exciting to be part of a church with 40-50 or 200-300 other like-minded youth.
I'm still uncertain how to operate in this kind of climate. When I was in Tasmania, we were one of those 'big' groups, with 30, 40 or 50 people. There weren't that many other 'big' youth groups around. I new numbers would win more numbers. We didn't focus on numbers it was just exceptionally helpful in doing growing gospel ministry.
Here are some of the questions I'm thinking about often:
1. How do we be distinctive from these other groups?
2. Why do we bother existing when there are these other good groups?
Well not quite next door, but this is about 2 minutes from my house!
As I was driving home I found one whole lane of the main road just round the corner from our place blocked off and police cars everywhere and people dressed in full body overall things. It was like something out of the movies! I thought it was a murder... thankfully it was just a major drug bust...
Crazy!
As I was driving home I found one whole lane of the main road just round the corner from our place blocked off and police cars everywhere and people dressed in full body overall things. It was like something out of the movies! I thought it was a murder... thankfully it was just a major drug bust...
Crazy!
Called to Youth Ministry looks like it will be a great resource for youth workers around the world.
It’s got a bunch of resources on their and if you’re American, it seems to offer much more like coaching and conferences (although I haven’t checked that out too much because I’m Australian).
So why not head over and check out Called to Youth Ministry. Add them to your RSS reader so you’ll be kept up to date with their latest.
Note: These guys have asked me to contribute a few things to their site and I have happily agreed.
Over on Tim Chester’s blog he has a great post here about how the way we spend our time and money reflects that we actually think of church as a show or an event rather than a community or a family.
Tim also has a new book on porn due out soon. Be sure to check it out and get your hands on it as no doubt it will be fantastic!
Do you think you primarily think of church as an event or a family?
I read this in Tasmania's fine newspaper today:
State Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges made an embarrassing Freudian slip when asked whether it was just a coincidence that construction was starting in the middle of an election campaign.
"No, absolutely not," Mr Sturges said.Now, I'm prepared to look stupid here, because I have no idea how this is a Freudian slip... he said no to a question...
See the full article for context here
Please leave a comment if you understand
What I mean by saying they can be too linear is that sometimes they sound like this: We do A to achieve B in order that C will happen. e.g. we reach people, to restore people and then we release people to reach people... and on it goes.
The classic Australian youth ministry model is a bit like this, we bring them in, build them up and send them out.
My feeling is that in reality sometimes B happens then A and C happen together or any number of other possibilities, not to mention those unforeseen ones. That is sometimes we bring them in and send them out at the same time and then build them up later or whatever might happen.
I've never quite figured out how to work out a statement that is fluid enough and complex enough to better reflect the realities of life, yet is simple enough to encapsulate what your organisation or ministry is trying to do.
When I was studying public policy we talked about normative and descriptive policy making descriptions or theories. That is someone would say public policy is made like this, first A happens then B then C. This was usually called a normative theory because it didn't really reflect reality, but rather what should happen in an ideal world. Others would have more complex descriptive models which tried to describe what actually happened in every day life.
I believe our vision statements have to be normative, in that they describe what our organisation should be like, but that they should be robust enough and big enough to also be somewhat descriptive, in that they describe or represent the realities of life and ministry.
I'm thinking out loud here...
Does anyone else feel my uneasiness? Or even understand what I'm trying to say here?
Sorry for a lack of posts in the last few weeks. I got married and have been on a much needed break in the days leading up to the wedding and then an amazing, best holiday of my life, 11 day honeymoon on the Sunshine Coast (QLD) with my beautiful wife Ellisa.
When I get some photos I will most definitely post some.
When I've dealt with all my emails and things that have built up over the last few weeks, I will begin more consistent and regular blogging again.
Ps. You should get married, it is awesome!
Please leave comments with your feedback!
Our Goal
To be a community that thirsts for God
With all our heart we desire to be constantly seeking to grow in our love and knowledge of God above all else.
We want to cultivate this desire of our hearts in those we pastor.
Our priorities
Pastoring people - our main job is to care for and lead our people
Praying people - we cannot do the first without God, so we pray
Our Danger
Becoming solely program planners - the nature of the Youth Ministry beast is to run programs and we will have plenty of them in 2010. However, we must remember that the majority of our focus, energy and time should be spent on our priorities.
How does this mindset help us?
Our priorities affect how we measure success. If we see ourselves as program planners then we will be constantly obsessing over who is coming to our programs. If we get 20 kids to something we have been successful. If only 4 show up we have failed. If however we see ourselves as pastors and people of prayer then we will measure success by the quality of contact we’ve had with people and the amount of time we’ve spent lifting these people up in prayer to God. For example if we’ve rung the youth directly assigned to our care and asked them how they’re going and prayed for or with them then we’ve been successful.
About Me
