Youth Pastors, what really matters is...
(Continuation of Youth Pastor Challenge week)
(Warning: this might sound like a rant, but it's totally not, just offering some perspective about some things I've been processing...hope they're helpful and if you totally agree, that's cool. Just leave a comment on help shed some light on this for me.)
"What really matters is..." I've been processing how to finish this statement for about a month now as we head in to summer season around GSM.
We've just wrapped up a full years (we're on a school year calendar system) worth of teaching and in my opinion the only thing we have to show for it, is the lives our students are living RIGHT NOW. Would you agree?
Not how they were at a retreat, or how they were camp, or a service project, or even youth group. Right now, wherever your students are as they read this is the living testament to how well you're doing in your ministry...or is it?
PERSONALLY, I love the thought that our measuring stick should NOT be "well we said", or "I told em", or "we did a series on that" or "we worshipped well", or "we had a lot of fun", or "a lot of people showed up"...you get the point...I love that our measuring stick is really HOW WELL CAN THEY APPLY THE TEACHING THAT WE PRESENTED TO THEM throughout the year.
And if any of those other things happened then awesome, but really if
application of the word isn't your aim for this generation, it seems that you might be aiming at the wrong things.
If that was your only measuring stick, how would you grade your ministry?
If that was the only measuring stick you had as a church...what grade would your church get?
If you were the only one taking the test that decided what grade your church would get...what would the grade be?
You see what I'm getting at yet? The only thing that really matters in the end for us all, is APPLICATION of The Word of God!
So many times we judge our students because they're not living up to "our" hopes and dreams for their lives but I try to always ask myself...
am I?
Am I ultimately applying the Word of God to my life and asking the Holy Spirit to work in that and change me.
It's not the Bible that changes us, it's the application of the Bible through the power of the Holy Spirit that changes us...
And here on my blog this goes without saying, but for clarity I will say it: NONE of this is for the sake of legalism or "behavior management"...I could care less about managing students behavior (or even my own for that matter)...This is about having a fundamental shift of priorities, cares, desires in our hearts so that we want what God wants thus naturally causing our actions/behaviors falls in line with that....SO THAT THROUGH OUR LIVES GOD CAN ADVANCE HIS KINGDOM.
I'm a coach and athlete at heart so no matter how great something is that I do I'm usually not satisfied with it. As it applies to ministry today, I find myself constantly critiquing and looking for the amazing things those around me are doing and shouting it from the mountain tops! I LOVE giving credit where credit is due!
At the same time I'm always critiquing my performance to the Nth degree to look for ways to become better. One thing I consistently find myself critiquing is my motives and passion for teaching the material we teach at GSM.
I want to make sure that we're teaching things that WON'T just help students grow up and be better boys and girls. I'm not satisfied with that level of teaching/passion.