Super Bowl Thoughts

Glad to see the Colts win, I was rooting for them. I’m a big fan of the way they’ve conducted themselves the past few years; both in victory and defeat. It’s also good to know the Raiders are on the clock with the first pick in the NFL draft.

It was very cool to see Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, two class act coaches lead their teams. Much was made of them being the first african-american coaches to oppose each other. It’s a step forward, and hopefully now we can look at coaches (and each other) as simply being human beings without having to slap a lable on them.

It was also awesome to hear both coaches proclaim their faith in Christ; including Dungy declaring his faith during the trophy presentation. Congrats to both coaches; I’m proud to call them brothers in Christ.

Detour From The Plan

As we’re journeying through the 50 Day Bible reading, my ADHD kicked in on the journey of the Israelites, and I kept reading on this subject. If you’re interested, Numbers 33 has a great recap of the whole 40 year journey, stop by stop.

It’s incredible all the twists and turns God took His people through. The funny thing is, if the people had lived with faith it would have been a short journey straight into the promised land. They forfeited God’s blessing by lacking faith and doubting God.

Oh how I pray I never forfeit God’s blessing and plans because I lack faith. As we move into our Seize The Moment campaign I sense God is really calling us to live and give by faith. It’s a huge challenge, but we know the Lord has the provision for us if we’ll simply believe Him!

What Lead Pastors Need To Know About Student Ministries

I took our Student Ministries team out to lunch today just to hear what’s going on in their world. As a former youth pastor (who wanted to do youth work forever) I have a huge heart for what’s happening to the teenagers in our culture. It was cool to hear the exciting vision our team has for reaching young people in our community for Christ!

If you’re a lead pastor, here’s a few important things you need to know about your youth pastor, and how to encourage them…

1) Treat them as valuable team members. Your youth team are not “pastors in training”, or “future ministers”; they are on the cutting edge of your church reaching your community for Christ. Our youth pastors are leaders in every area of our church. They teach in “big service”, participate on the creative team, teach classes, etc. When I was a youth pastor it bothered me that people often treated me like I was a junior pastor; I’ll never do that to our guys.

2) Learn from them. Youth pastors are incredibly creative. They have to be to communicate with teens every week. Our youth team speaks to 200 teens on a weekend; they can teach us a lot about how to transcend culture to communicate the gospel. I learned a great deal today talking with our team; they know what they’re doing!

3) Pay them a good salary so that they can live in the community. Invest in developing them. Give them resources. Believe in their ministry. Many great youth pastors have to move on in ministry because they can’t afford to feed their families. It’s a shame that some of the best and brightest are lost because churches don’t have a vision for this vital ministry. I’d rather have my kids in a ministry that’s led by a professional (even though he costs us more) than someone who has no clue what he’s doing.

4) Have their back. Your team is going to make decisions and sometimes those decisions will be wrong. When parents are hacked at your youth leader, make sure you defend him. Don’t leave him hanging out to dry because it’s easier than you as the leader stepping up. I’m sick of wimpy pastors who are too afraid of people to say the tough things when they’re attacking staff. I learned in youth ministry that parents will always be upset about something. I want my guys and gals to know I’ve got their back.

Obviously you have to evaluate and grow through those times, but make sure you don’t burn your team in the process. Defend them publicly and correct them privately. Think about how you’d want to be treated.

5) This is key: recognize them when they do things well, not just when something is broken or a parent is upset. Pastors, understand that stuf is going to get broken; windows, chairs, arms, etc.. it’s the price of being dangerous. I once threw an all-nighter where 13 teens received Christ as their Savior, but all I heard about from church leadership was how ticked they were that we put a hole in the wall of the worship center.