I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

My working definition of youth ministry “programs” has always simply been: The stuff you do.

It seems as if there is a fairly strong resistance to programs in many circles of youth ministry today. Yet, by my definition this means they are against doing stuff, which I know isn’t true.

So….is my working definition wrong?

Are youth pastors really against “doing stuff”?

If youth pastors aren’t against “doing stuff”, but they are against “programs”,  what then are they doing, and what do they call it?

Is what they call it, just another word for “programs” or is it really something different, better, etc.?

You may not know, but Simply Junior High has an online discussion forum dedicated to junior high ministry. If interested in talking shop, you can check it out right here.

Have had lots of ministry related thoughts running through my mind in the past 24 hours or so. No answers, just observations and ponderings:

- Should Christian businesses be more “christian” or “business”? Why do business decisions often seem so un-christian? Is it fair to expect a christian owned business to act like a ministry….obviously there is a difference, but there are also similarities.

- Got a phone call from my friend Gary Hunt, a junior high Pastor in Florida who just celebrated his 60th birthday! Can I still be an effective junior high pastor at that age? He certainly is, but surely he is an exceptional case.

- Highly relational youth ministries don’t seem to grow much and growing youth ministries don’t seem to be highly relational….do the systems and structures that help contribute to, and organize,growth also serve to hinder relational approaches? Of course, this all depends on how one defines “relational”.

- When and how did the term “fundamentalist” get hi-jacked? It hasn’t always had such strongly negative connotations.

- The verdict is in: Francis Chan is my favorite author and speaker. He is both simple and brilliant.

- We had 10 students at our Saturday night (Halloween) JH service….it is usually our largest gathering. We knew we would take a hit, but nobody suspected something like that.

(SO to Tony J.)

In just about every profession/industry there is a tendency to get caught in ruts (even good ruts), to get so bogged down in the day to day busyness that creativity falters, fresh thinking disappears etc. Youth ministry is no different.  Yesterday, I was reminded of the importance of getting out, looking around and being willing to “steal” ideas from other ministries when I visited my friend who is the junior high pastor of a church about an 30 minutes to my north.

GET OUT:  Every now and then you need to get out of the four walls of your church, out of your community and out of your usual circle of colleagues.

LOOK AROUND:  Once out and about, look around and notice all the stuff that is different, new, fresh, uncomfortable, stretching etc. My friend’s church is much older and much more traditional than mine, yet his junior high room is WAY more creative and forward thinking! His theming, his decor, his floor plan….the overall atmosphere forced me to evaluate the atmosphere in my youth ministry space.

STEAL:  When you see ideas that you like, when you hear a conversation that pricks your interest, when you experience something in a different setting that you think will translate to yours….STEAL IT!  Simply ask permission to take that new “something” and use it in your context. Chances are you will need to tweak it a bit because no two settings are exactly the same.

I’ve learned that if I go through seasons when I don’t get out, look around and steal I typically find myself in seasons of repetition, ruts and non creative thinking.

- Weekend Wrap Up: The weekend started Friday night with “The 3″ which had about 1,600 students, a ferris wheel, a magic show, and tons of other fun. Our weekend program included our 5th lesson in our “Happy” series, a chocolate slip n slide (in honor of Choctober), some fun videos and great music.  All in all it was one of our better, but more tiring, weekends in quite a while.

- After Monday Night Football, I actually heard a commentator say that he thinks the Broncos are best team in AFC…better than the Colts. So funny that a couple weeks ago they were just lucky; the worst unbeaten team in history and now they are the BEST team in the AFC?

- Going to Disneyland with the family today. I have managed to navoid the place for several years….today my luck runs out.

- Beginning to work on new book, The Best Practices In Youth Ministry (that’s the working title for now, anyway). I am really excited about what this book will offer youth workers.

- Rode the motocross track for only the second time yesterday. When you have the courage to go faster and jump farther, the track is supposedly much smoother and actually easier to navigate. I say “supposedly” because I have no courage!

Here is an article that you simply must read if you work with teenagers (passed on to me by Scott Rubin). In fact, it may be one you will need to read a few times as you process it. Here are a few questions that popped into my head right away…questions I haven’t tried to answer yet.

1) Does the fact that the writer of this article is gay add credibility, hinder credibility?

2) If the writer were not gay, would that add credibility, hinder credibility?

3) A key point the writer makes goes along this line of thinking, “We don’t question 12 year old boys when they say they have started liking girls, why would we question them when they say they have started liking boys.”  How valid is that point?

4) Is society’s increasingly openess about GLBT lifestyles helping young people come out of the closet or is it creating a bit of a trend of experimentation within younger circles?

5) Is the junior high ministry I lead in prepared to appropriately respond to a student who decides to come out?

6) What IS the proper response, and can a junior high student REALLY even come out?

I don’t do it often enough, but every now and then I like to spend some time taking a good, hard look at myself. I don’t have a set routine or a “check list”, so the things I inspect and, as a result, the things I discover vary every time. Here are some things I have become more aware of lately:

- Spiritually, I get “out of sorts” quicker than I used to. I used to be able to go a couple of days without connecting with the Father before I would feel the side effects. Nowadays it seems that if I miss even one day I get grumpy, distracted, selfish etc.  Honestly I don’t know what this means…could be good or bad.

- Age has finally set in.This one hurts…literally! My eyes hurt after reading, my muscles hurt after exercising (usually for a couple days!) and if I happen to incur some sort of injury it takes much longer to bounce back than it used to.

- Related to the last one….I am older than many parents of junior highers in my ministry. I don’t feel older, I don’t feel wiser or more mature, but the truth is many parents now look to me not only as the pastor to their child but as a parenting model or coach.

- I bore easily.I’m not a great multi-tasker, but I like to juggle lots and lots of projects at once. I can’t really focus on anything for more than a couple hours so variety is the key to a productive day.  I’ve always known this, but I think I am just now beginning to embrace it and figure out ways to make it work for me, not against me.

- I care about people, but I’m terrible at showing it! I hurt when people hurt…I hurt a lot. But I am really bad at confidently and appropriately expressing this. My most awkward interpersonal moments seem to happen when I am trying to console somebody or during hospital visits etc.

This article is another reminder of the struggles so many teenagers face. While there is simply not excuse for this, there is obviously a plethora of issues in the lives of teenagers that lead to this type of behavior. May God give those of us who work with teenagers the wisdom of Solomon.

I am so excited about two brand new junior high resources. Simply Junior High has teamed up with Scott Rubin to create a 5-lesson video curriculum called “The Red Stuff” along with a new 10-minute moment devotional book with the same title. If you want to help your students take a closer look at the words of Jesus, these brand new resources will help you do just that.