Posted by Kurt Johnston

I’ve come to a conclusion; about myself and about everybody else. No matter how open to change we might be (and some people are much more comfortable with the overall concept than others), none of us are really as open to it as we think we are.

Let’s talk about youth ministry. Not all change in your ministry is good change, and not all change is bad. In fact, in and of itself, change is a neutral concept….it can be good or it can be bad depending on a wide variety of things.

I tend to enjoy change…I like the way it shakes things up…I enjoy the tension it brings. And because I enjoy change, I am always caught off guard when I find
myself resisting it. In the moments I find myself really struggling with change, I try to ask myself a few questions:

- What, REALLY, am I fighting? Am I fighting an old tradition that I just don’t want to say goodbye to? Am I fighting a person whose judgement to make change I don’t trust? Am I fighting a principle that is truly worth fighting?

- Why, REALLY, am I fighting? Is it because of pride (something I hold dear or maybe even created myself is being changed)? Am I fighting because the change will create a bunch of new work and leadership needs? Is it because the change really is the wrong change, and I’m fighting what I know will be a mistake?

It works almost every time. Identifying what you are fighting, and why just might change the way you deal with change!

Lately I’ve been thinking about leadership more than usual.  I thought I’d share some of the questions I’ve been asking myself for a couple of reasons:  1) they may be questions worth asking yourself, too.  and, 2) I would love to hear any insight you may have regarding some of them.  While some may sound rhetorical, and may actually have been in the past, I am really asking myself some honest questions. 

- Is leadership over-rated?  I have landed on “yes” as my answer, but still chewing on this one (so, maybe this question is rhetorical)

- Why does everybody talk about “servant leadership”, yet so few people really model it?  Why is servant leadership so hard for me to display?

- Is leadership more science or art?  How fluid does leadership need to be….if at all?

- In what ways, if at all, have all the “business-influenced” books, seminars, strategies etc. hurt the church, and Christian leaders?

- And here’s the biggie:  As youth ministry continues to morph/revert back to a more organic, relational, less programatic atmosphere, is traditional leadership needed less….or more than ever?

Posted by Kurt Johnston

In the last few years, I have grown more and more compassionate/concerned for the plight of single parents.  As my wife and I strive (and struggle) to raise two teenagers together (pay for them, help them navigate life, help them with school, drive them around, help them through ups and downs, etc. etc. etc.), I can’t imagine what it is like for a single parent.  I can’t imagine it because I have never been in those shoes, and I can’t imagine it because….well, because I simply can’t wrap my mind around it!

Our ministry hasn’t yet made the strides I want to concerning single parents (I’m not even sure what I ultimately think we need to do), but we have made a few small adjustments that are on track:

- We reserve the VAST majority of our scholarship funds for single parents.

- We try to extend extra grace to single parents who pick their kids up late, who ask for us to provide rides, etc.  Basically, when tempted to view them as “high maintenance” we purposely remember their situation and look for ways to help.

- We try to extend extra grace to students from single family homes.  Again, it’s tough enough to raise a respectful, responsible teenager when two parents are on the scene;  imagine doing so alone!  Students from single family homes are often carrying around an extra load of hurt, anger, insecurity etc. 

- We try (we don’t always do it well) to hook up kids from single parent homes with a “mentor/role model”.  We are more agressive with this when the “missing” parent is truly missing….not part of the child’s life at all.  A student with no dad….we try to provide a closer relationship with a male role model.  With no mom….a closer relationship with a female role model.

If anybody has done more significant and strategic ministry to single parents, please share with the rest of us.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

a friend of mine from church shared this:

During the year 2011 we will experience 4 unusual dates…. 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 ………

NOW take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus the age you will be by the end of this year and it WILL EQUAL …. 111!

I’m on a quest.  My goal: to clean up and simplify a whole bunch of my youth ministry’s “stuff”.  I think lots of youth groups are like mine…we make rocket science out of stuff that should be very simple.  Take volunteers, for example. Certainly there is a whole lot that goes into building a healthy volunteer team, but what are the most basic things…the things that when done well give the best results?  I haven’t thought this all the way through, but here is my initial thinking:

ENLIST:  Do a good job of getting the right people on the bus.  You need more volunteers, but you don’t need more of the wrong volunteers!  Create some sort of system that helps you enlist the right youth workers for your junior high ministry.

EQUIP:  Keep it basic, but make sure you train and equip your team.  Figure out what the most essential equipping components are and focus on those.

EMPOWER:  Give ministry away!  Let them create new ministries!  Don’t view your team as nothing more than foot soldiers carrying out your orders.  Give them ownership and let them run.

ENCOURAGE:  Cheer them on!  Lovingly correct them when needed!  Say thank you a whole lot.

What are some of the crucial, but very basic, things you do with your volunteers?

Posted by Kurt Johnston

….In case you were interested in buying a vacation home, here is a steal!

Posted By Kurt Johnston

There seems to be a fairly common temptation among junior high youth workers: To teach topics that don’t apply at levels too deep for the vast majority of the junior highers in their audience.

The reason this happens, I tend to think, is fairly obvious and quite understandable. After you have taught junior highers for a few years, it is easy to become bored with teaching the same “junior high friendly” lessons over and over and over again.
Seriously, how often can we teach things like “basics of the faith” or “friendship 101″ or “God made you special!”?

The answer: over and over and over again. While you are growing in your faith, getting older, moving into different life stages….your audience isn’t. You are stuck in a strange time warp of perpetual 13 year olds. Every year…year after year…your audience is a bunch of early adolescence in dire need of some of the most basic truths of Gods word.

I’m sure there are some exceptions, but I have found that the most effective junior high ministries are the ones that understand the role of age-appropriate lessons.

Sorta like shampoo….not sexy, but effective. Apply, lather, rinse and repeat.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

About a week ago, Jonathan McKee asked me to read a manuscript of his upcoming book, “Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent”.  I did so partly because I like Jonathan and think he writes some pretty helpful stuff, and partly because I’m the parent of two teenagers; an imperfect one at that!

I have to say, I absolutely loved the book!  It is one of those books that I will buy several copies of so I always have one ready to pass out to a parent in our ministry. 

I don’t know the release date, but my hunch is it won’t be available until late Spring so it isn’t really “coming soon”, but it will be worth the wait.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

For a whole lot of my junior high ministry career, there was a whole lot about junior high behavior that really bothered me. I was bothered partly because the behavior was bothersome, and partly because I felt the pressure (mostly self induced) that if I was a good youth worker, I would be able to change the behavior of my students.  If you work with young teens, you certainly know the behavior I’m talking about:  The gossip, the teasing, the selfishness, the insecurity, and so on. 

 Years later, I’m still bothered by the behavior…but not as much.  Not because I know longer recognize the consequences of the way they treat each other, but because I have a better understanding of the motive behind it.  Let me explain.

The junior high years are tough (remember yours?), and most young teens find themselves, consciously or subconsciously, in survival mode.  They gossip because they think that helps them survive, they tease because it’s better to be the teaser than to be the teased. They are selfish because in order to survive middle school, they can’t afford to look out for anybody but themselves.  

Again, this probably isn’t a conscious decision (for most, they are simply survival instincts), but when you remember the physical, social, emotional and intellectual changes our students are experiencing at this age; it makes sense that behaviors like this manifest.  Shoot…behaviors like this manifest in adults who should know better!

I wonder, if instead of teaching “against” these behaviors we might find more success in focusing our efforts toward helping our students understand themselves a little better, and develop biblical “survival skills”.   Perhaps.  But today, I’m reminded that behaviors like this are a part of the human condition.  Mine, yours and the junior highers we lead.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

- This weekend, for the first time ever, I am teaching on the End Times…sorta.  It is the last part of our “Beginning and End” series and I am giving a very broad overview of what “the end” holds for us.  Here are my main points:

1) Jesus will come back someday

2) The world as we know it will come to an end someday

3) But the end is really just a new beginning

When and How will this all happen?  In God’s time and in God’s way!

- Today is my 45th birthday.  For some reason, I have always had a tough time with the “5′s” (25, 35 and now…45) because it forces me to realize that technically I now have to “round up” instead of rounding down.  Ouch.

- I am toying with the idea of changing our purpose statement to be a more accurate description of why our ministry exists and our current Purpose-driven paradigm.  I actually like what I have landed on so far and should be ready to reveal it sometime soon.

- My tweet earlier today:  “JH Ministry Tip: treat parents like students by going to them instead of expecting them to come to you.” , has resulted in a few emails asking me, “Okay…but how?”  To be honest…I’m not sure!  This tweet was the result of our poorly attended parent meeting which has got me wondering if we need to change our strategy and become more relationally proactive with parents.  Not sure what that looks like, exactly.  If you have had success please share your insights in the comments!