What is a convert?

This semester I'm taking two classes. One of which is with one of my youth ministry heroes, Dr. Chap Clark, Author of Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers (Youth, Family, and Culture). 

In our first few weeks we have been reflecting on something called Incarnational Witness. The basic idea is that our methods of evangelism should reflect the life and model of ministry Jesus practiced. This model dictates that evangelism should be motivated by the same things that motivated Jesus, like being sent by the Father. We should model our evangelism after Christ's example, leaving our place of comfort to go to the broken, the hurting, and the forgotten.

• These lectures are invigorating my love for youth ministry!
• The course material is also solidifying my belief in relational youth ministry as opposed to creating a class or a program for every kind of problem teens will face. When I look back at my adolescence, it was people who journeyed with me that made the difference and not classes or even sermons! I remember the way my youth pastor and youth leaders listened to me, came to my games, and took my questions. I pray that I can be that for our youth and train others in the same model. 

When you think back to your teenage years or even a recent crisis, what made the difference for you?

I want to be missional.

I've been a way a while because of work and school, but I have been reading a lot and I'm ready to start posting again. This one is longer than usual, but it encapsulates what I've been chewing on and wrestling with in my life and calling. I hope you enjoy!


The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don’t yet know him.

The missional church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality. That is, it adopts the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman empire. Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred (religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and God’s place in it as more holistic and integrated.

The missional church adopts an apostolic, rather than a hierarchical, mode of leadership. By apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by Paul in Ephesians 4. It abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical, flat-leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism, apostleship, and prophecy, as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts.

Frost, Michael; Hirsch, Alan (2001-01-01). Shaping of Things to Come, The (Kindle Locations 346-356). Baker Book Group. Kindle Edition.

How to be a man part II

Here's the presentation from tonight's talk to our guys. I'm highlighting some concepts as road markers for them to look at as they pass on to manhood. The presentation will make more sense along with my talk, so it may seem a bit abstract.

How To Be a Man Part II on Prezi

Summer Wrapup

Elevate 2011 Camp Recap from Shoreline Church on Vimeo.

Elevate 2011 Summer Camp: Last Morning Service

Elevate 2011 Summer Camp: Preservice

We like to have a little bit of fun... I love that we did this at a Baptist camp.

homosexuality: stumbling towards a youth ministry response

You Were Born What Way? | Youth Specialties

I just came across this article on the YS site. It's about the first time a youth pastor had a young person tell of their struggle with sexual identity.

He walked into my office, a junior high student in my student ministry – a young man that I had led in the salvation prayer several years ago when he was still in our children’s ministry program.
This was my first year as a student pastor – a novice. A newbie. I thought I knew all there was to know and thought I was prepared for any situations that came my way.
I was not.
He sat in my office and quietly began to tell me that he was unsure of his sexual identity.

 This is not a new issue, of course. I am grateful for his perspective. Dealing with the topic of homosexuality is tricky for sure. In my experience there are no nuggets of truth to instantly take the struggle, feelings, or whatever away. I don't know of any homosexuals that have been argued out of their persuasion. 

If I could do anything differently… if I could somehow go back in time to that first encounter in my office, I think that I would want the first and last words out of my mouth to somehow communicate that I loved him. And then I’d take him out for a coffee or soda and try and let him know that I’d be with him for the long haul.

Honestly, I've been cautious to address homosexuality directly in our services, because I've noticed that highlighting a particular sin can sometimes make young people think that they SHOULD be struggling with that area. However, I do feel the responsibility to address the issue, but will another sermon really help? In my experience, the approach of the author is highly effective, it just takes effort, prayer, lots of time, and wisdom.

Does this topic come up in your church or youth group? How have you approached the subject? How have you seen God's redemption at work in this area?

If you are a youth pastor, you need imovie.

I was goofing around this morning and made a little trailer for summer camp. If you go to lift, sign up today! The registration deadline is tomorrow!!!

Planning Season for Youth Ministry

The first half of the year is over and it's well past time to put our fall ministry plan into effect. This video explains how how I feel about the process. If Jesus was running your church's youth ministry (it's a crazy claim, I know), what would his dreams be? (HT to Chad for the vid)

Things I learned from our recent all-nighter

It's been seven years since I last uttered the words, "all-nighter." After my first, as a volunteer, I asked if we could do one every month because of the great connections made with our young people. After my first, as a youth pastor several months later, I never wanted to do one again. Here's why:

• They are hard to staff.
• They invite drama.
• They can be dangerous...mostly for the church building. 
• They are hard on the youth pastor. 

However, I realized that connecting with the high schoolers in my new position is HUGE so it warmed me up to the idea of 'winning them over.' Also, Reading Jeanee Mayo's Thriving Youth groups made me see the value in it. Also, if a 60 year old can do it regularly, I really have no excuse. So I took what I new from my previous experience and tried to come up with an all night experience that would harness the benifits and minimize the cost. Here's what I learned:

• Having this one at a leaders house was great! We met at the church and drove out to her place an hour away. It was almost like having two locations for our event. 
• Cheap was good. The guys brought drinks and girls brought snacks. 
• Guys really open up after 4:30 AM. My head hit the pillow in my tent and I asked God if I should try to push through. Then I heard the guys start to talk about 'real stuff.' I received a HUGE supernatural energy boost and am so grateful for the time spent with those guys. 
• I took the night shift and some of our youth workers went home, or went to sleep. Except one poor guy who had to work at SEVEN!!! Some time after 4:30 AM he gave up and just drove to work. 
• I made sure I wasn't preaching this Sunday. I literally have no clue how I wound up in bed. I just woke up and went to church. After a all night Friday/Saturday. Sunday came quick! Things were ready to go ahead of time.
• Next time I need to do a better job of communicating these things: What to bring, what we will do (exactly) so our leaders can know, and clean up delegations. We were late because it took so long to clean up. 

This one went so well, I'm planning another for spring break. It's gonna be great!
 

My first Hendrickson FCA

One of the healthiest things going in our youth group at the moment is a group of young people at Hendrickson High School. There are a number of fantastic things going on, but I just came from Hendrickson, so that's why I'm singling them out.

They led the praise and worship and discussion time. I mostly "sat on the doorsteps" and was so grateful that they invited me in! It was so encouraging to see this group share openly and honestly about real struggles that they are going through. They ministered to each other and it was powerful. Tears were shed and laughs were shared.

It reminded me that even youth growing up in the suburbs have real pain and baggage to deal with even if they look like everything is all together on the outside. We all have hurts don't we?

I was also encouraged by the tone of the meeting. It was authentic without getting over emotional. It was youth led, but adults were still in the loop. Tonight reminded me that I'm doing exactly what God made me to do.

How the youth pastor dresses for Liftober.

Liftober Worship

We didn't foresee this happening when we invited youth to a costume dress up service. Is that Moses playing keys?

Shoreline Leadership College Expands: Learn how you can be apart. Enrolling soon for Fall 2010!!

In the fall of 2009 we began to dream of a new discipleship program for Shoreline. Shoreline Leadership College empowers a new generation of leaders to unveil God’s love to a broken world. Young people to devote a year of their lives to learning how to hear God’s voice, serving in the local church and community, and receive valuable training and direction for their lives. As we got the word out about our full time program, there was also a demand for a part time option. So we also created a part time option for Shoreline Leadership College beginning this September.

We’ve been busy! Our students provided disaster relief in Nashville, participated with several programs in the Round Rock School district, helped feed 100,000 orphans at the Heartwork packing event and additionally provided support to Shoreline services and pastoral care team. Shoreline Leadership college also received training from the pastoral team, Shoreline leaders, personalized growth plans, and visiting professors. Students from the first year are set to graduate July 28^th!

“I would definitely recommend going to Shoreline Leadership College! Through every experience, and Opportunity, it has taught me to truly/fully rely on a God who so passionately loves me. It taught me how to study, teach, and live the way God intended me to do so. It is defiantly something I wont forget.”

Moving forward we launch our part time Monday night classes on September 6^th. Our Part time classes will serve Shoreline by deepening the leadership cores of our various ministries. Students will get to participate in classes with Shoreline staff and leaders as well as gain access to Pastor Rob’s leadership Classes on Tuesday mornings and monthly Staff Chapels.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in please visit click here, click the registration link, and you can sign up there! That’s it!  Now is the time to take that step of faith and prepare to gain some essential tools to become the leader that God has destined for you to be!

Missions Trip

Saturday night, at 11:59 PM we will pull away from our church in a bus headed for Mescalero, New Mexico. We'll be there for a week long mission trip to serve the Apache Indian Nation with several work projects.

Historically, Indian reservations represent injustice and deep resentment toward the harsh and unfair treatment Native American's endured at the hands of European settlers. Our prayer is that we can be a part of healing these very old wounds. What an honor.

We're going with the Group Work Camps organization. I've been impressed with their logistics. They've told us exactly what to bring, what to tell our kids, and what to expect out of the week. This trip is an answer to prayer.

I don't have a ton of construction experience outside of Stagecraft in Technical Theatre class.  Can you imagine me managing a construction site? This should be really interesting. I'll post from my phone next week, so please be gracious with grammar and spelling errors due to the small screen.

Here are some of the activities we'll do next week:

• roofing
• building handicap access ramps
• painting
• drywall
• morning and night meetings
• and probably much more!

lift

Lately lift has been so fun. This is a picture from sound check a few weeks ago. The big church gave us their old hazer (smoke machine). It runs on mineral oil (laxative) which I find absolutely hilarious! God is really up to something with our young people. They are open, hungry, and willing to help out in our community. I can't wait to see what happens.

Back From Challenge Camp

I just got back from a great youth ministry experience. Several seasons of my life converged in one evening and it was quite overwhelming. This was caused by the realization that I already knew many of the young people transitioning into jhi. I knew them as YOUNG kids though. I know their parents and older siblings that have already graduated from jhi and high school. It's fun to see entire families move through the ministry here.  In the previous post I talked about how our Children's pastor ivited me to a special event for the outgoing 6th graders. I drove out to Giddings Texas about an hour away with one of the leaders from our middle school team, Matthew. It's so fun talking about ministry and catching up with our leaders. He's been on vacation, working hard, and going to school full time so we haven't caught up in quite a while. Matthew is a fantastic relational leader in middle school and high school groups and is a tremendous support to me administratively. It was nice just to chat on the way there and on the way back.

Camp Tejas is amazing. Our youth ministry at church has been on the waiting list for this camp for quite some time, but it's always too full to find a week for us to enjoy it. The camp will be well worth the wait. I was so impressed. Speaking of impressed, I was blown away by how smoothly the teams moved in and out of the services with so many kids to take care of. Pastor Ken and his team do a tremendous job with organizing summer camps!

After their evening service, we took the kids transitioning out of the 5th grade and into our middle school ministry on a hay ride. I thought it was interesting that most of them thought we were going to try to scare them or leave them in the woods. It was so cute that they were showing that they still wanted to be taken care of. The hay-ride was a great chance to get to know the kids and laugh a lot. for 6th graders, they were so fun, so bright, and FUNNY! One girl kept pulling hey out of the stack and saying, "HEY!" as if to say hello. Brilliant!

At the end of the hey-ride we came to a clearing with a huge campfire in it. Pastor Ken talked about how important this week is in their lives and how important the next few years will be in their lives and that they can nail down a commitment that night to serve God. Then he gave the youth ministry a huge endorsement and tried to settle their fears about the unknown youth ministry transition. We sang some praise songs and then I had a chance to encourage our kids to care more about what God says about them than way people say about them. I tried to unpack that idea in light of some embarrassing examples from my journey through middle school. I'm not sure how much of the talk they will remember because the fire was so stinkin' cool, but we did connect.

The thing that blew me a way was Pastor Ken asking them to commit to attending our middle school service for a year and really endorsing me and the jhi ministry. I was overcome by this show of trust because those kids LOVE him. Something really good is cookin' at our church. Departments are communicating. Parents are getting involved. Leaders are stepping forward from the congregation to help out the youth ministry. I can't wait to see what happens!

Rights of Passage: Challenge Camp

Today Shoreline's ministry to children is going to challenge camp! I'm going up tonight. We missed doing summer camp this year for middle school and high school, so this will be my summer camp fix for the year. In addition, I'm taking one of our all-star volunteers from middle school ministry with me in the car. Having Matthew with me will help redeem some of that driving time!


Tonight after the summer camp dinner and service we will do a hay-ride out to a bonfire for all of our kids going into the 6th grade. We'll have a worship leader with a guitar out there and have a moment with them to mark the transition in their lives. Pastor Ken, the children's pastor here at Shoreline has been so great to work with these past few years. For quite some time we've been trying to think about the best way to transition families from children's ministry into youth ministry. This is a great first step. 

A couple of years ago I went to a breakout session about rights of passage at the YS National Youth Workers Convention. The Author, Rick Bundschuh taught that many of our problems in western culture stem from a lack of rights of passage. Young people are forced to mark their own path to adult hood. I learned that it's important for a community of adults to mark out a path to adulthood, articulate it to their young people, and then affirm when adults emerge from adolescence. Tonight is a nice start. After all, we are only transitioning them out of elementary school, but hopefully it will be a night that these kids look back on as one of the road markers on their way to growing up.

What we've been up to.

It's summer time and time for Lift's Elevate 2010 conference. It's a week and a half away. I'm excited to see what's in store for our city. This year we've invited youth pastors from all over Austin to speak at general sessions and break out sessions. I hope this is something that brings our city together! Here's a look at what we have planned.

Changin things up.

Don't judge the unfinished product.