For the second year in a row, The Church Report has put me at the top of their list of ‘Top 20 Youth Ministers’. I didn’t mention it to anybody last year and wouldn’t have this year if not for the fact that it is the topic of conversation on a couple of blogs. Let me give you a little history and my thoughts.

HISTORY:
Last March, my assistant received a phone from The Church Report Online asking for a bio because I was being listed as one of the top 20 youth pastors. I was surprised that I was on the list, and even more surprised and slightly concerned that such a list was even going to be published, so I asked my assistant to call them and ask how the list was compiled, what the criteria was etc. Their response was basically this: Each year they do a massive survey asking church leaders to list the most influential churches in America. They publish this list each year. From that list, they create their list of top 20 youth pastors, top 20 worship leaders, top 20 children’s ministers etc.

They said that they took a quick look at the health of the youth ministries and the reputation of leadership to make their list….that the list didn’t match the top 20 churches exactly, but came from the top 50 churches, and that I was being named #1. In hindsight, I wish I would have declined the award right then. But I guess my thinking was that if such a list exists, I may as well be at the top (I recognize the arrogance and insecurity in that statement)!

THIS YEAR:
I heard nothing, got no phone calls. I began receiving emails this week from people offering me genuine congratulations as well as my friends mocking me for my ‘repeat’, my ‘dynasty in the making’, my ‘back to back championship’ etc. I went to the current issue of TCR and compared it to last year’s list. IT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME! Nobody was off the list, nobody had moved up or down a spot and there was nobody new added.

MY THOUGHTS:
I could probably right a book about my thoughts! I’ll make them bullet points and try to keep them brief:

* I dislike anything in ministry that pits churches, pastors etc. against each other. Creating a ‘top 20 list’ seems to go against kingdom economics.

* I found last year’s list and methods to be suspect at best. Just because a church as a whole won an award from a survey of peers somehow means the youth pastor at that church automatically wins the same award?

* I find this year’s list to be completely invalid (again, I think the whole concept is questionable, but much more so when it has no integrity). I think that by cutting and pasting last year’s list, the organization hurt it’s own credibility and also hurts the credibility of youth ministry (at least it feels like it hurts our credibility….although I’m not quite sure why).

* The question has been asked: “Why Kurt and not Doug Fields?”. While I would like to say that it is because I’m obviously a much more gifted and talented youth worker, I have a feeling it happened like this:

Church phone rings and is answered by receptionist who happens to know me better than Fields…
TCR: “Hello, can you please give us the name of your youth pastor?”
Church receptionist who happens to know me better than Fields: “Uh, Kurt Johnston?”
TCR: “Thank you.”

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how I have become America’s Top Youth Pastor two years in a row.

A few thoughts and happenings from my Thursday:

- Played an early round of golf this morning. Had a decent round, but stuck my hand in some kind of wild shrubbery looking for a ball and my arm from elbow to wrist began burning and stinging instantly. Three hours later, it still hurts.

- We’re kicking off a three week missions series this weekend (which is what got my mind going yesterday…). I’m not teaching at all for three weeks, which feels really weird, but kinda nice.

-I drink lots and lots of sweet tea from Chic-Fil-A (I have one on my desk right now). It’s interesting to me that no two batches taste exactly the same. Fries always taste the same, chicken sandwiches always taste the same, but something as basic as sweet tea seems to vary quite a bit.

- Not sure how, or if, to address the Virginia Tech incident this weekend. On one hand, it feels like it will be old news by Saturday, but on the other hand I’m sure some kids haven’t talked about it with anybody and would welcome the opportunity.

I’m going to acknowledge from the get-go that this post is simply a reflection of some of my current thinking. I’ve got tons of questions and very few conclusions. My question is this: Is it time for a new paradigm for youth group missions projects?

Others have raised this question and it has been addressed in numerous articles, forums and youth ministry circles, and my response has been what it typically is when people begin to question long standing institutions: ‘Show me something more effective, and I’ll consider changing’.

But for some reason, I am beginning to feel a strong desire to change how we do missions sooner rather than later, to begin to move toward change even though I’m not sure what the ‘something more effective’ is.

I believe in short-term missions. I know first-hand the impact they have on the lives of our students (I felt called to youth ministry while on a short-term missions trip). I recognize that the efforts of students on these trips does impact those we serve. But is there more to it than that? Could there be more to it than that? SHOULD there be more to it than that? Certainly Rick Warren’s PEACE plan is one effort at a new paradigm, but I’m struggling with how to flesh it out in a youth ministry setting.

Like I said, I haven’t reached any conclusions. My only conclusion is that there must be a more effective strategy than a youth group showing up in a bunch of rental vans once a year to run VBS and paint houses. I know this isn’t the only paradigm, but it seems like it’s the prominent youth ministry strategy. In fact, I’m not sure if ‘strategy’ is even the right word. ‘Tradition’ is probably a more correct word. I think it’s time to question the traditional approach and come up with a new, more effective, strategy.

Cussing made cute.

Attendance: Average
Lesson Topic: One Hit Wonder: WORSHIP
‘Fun Factor’: Average
Volunteer Involvement: Average
Music: Average
Lesson Quality: Above average
Length of Lesson: Shorter than usual
Student Response: Above Average

Lots of things made this past weekend a little bit unique.
- The week after Easter is always tough because we cancel for Easter and for some reason it takes a couple of weeks to re-gain momentum.
- We are in between series so we did a ‘one hit wonder’. Each year, we try to teach through our purposes a couple of times. This week we taught on the purpose of Worship.
- It was Mariah Miles’ last weekend with us. Mariah heads up our small group ministry and is getting married in a couple of weeks and moving to Oklahoma. She taught the lesson and we built much of the weekend around her.

After reading this news story I can imagine some of the water-cooler talk:

“When this trial goes to court, the judge is going to tell the guy he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.”

“His partner in crime might get off though because he seems to have a leg up on him.”

“The whole story is strange. To be honest I’m totally stumped by it.”

Because we didn’t have youth services this weekend, our family had all day together on Saturday with nothing planned. So we decided to have a ‘choose your own adventure’ day. Each member of the family got to choose something they would like to do and we’d all do it together before heading off to the next destination. Here’s how we spent our day:

Brunch at The Pancake House (Kayla’s Choice)
Looking at Model Homes in new development nearby (Kurt’s Choice)
Walking around shopping Center and stopping for Coffee at The Coffee Bean (Rachel’s Choice)
Going to the movies to see ‘Meet the Robinson’s’ (Cole’s Choice)

Very fun.