Incarnational Youth Ministry

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

The Gospel is built around the core theological idea of incarnation.  The fact that God became a man and made our home his own is full of mystery and wonder.  The very idea that Jesus traded all the glories of Heaven for the mundane has provided inspiration for artists, musicians, and ministers for over two thousand years now.  Somehow, knowing that we were worth this incredible sacrifice, this confounding trading of places, captures our hearts in ways that nothing else can.

God became a man.  The Word became flesh.  For a moment God was physically present here on the earth, and now He has sent the Holy Spirit to be a constant presence in the lives of those who believe in Him.

In youth ministry, we can never underestimate the power of presence in young people’s lives.  Our relationship with God is centered on the incarnation – the presence of God in a place He didn’t have to be.  You also can choose to be present in a place you don’t have to be.  No one is forced into youth ministry.  No one is pressured into getting to know and care for a teenager.  But when we choose to practice presence in the lives of students, we are embodying the very heart of Jesus for His children.  We become incarnate – the love of God made manifest in their lives through acts and words of encouragement, consistent reaffirming love, or simple smiles and unprovoked kindness.

The Word became flesh.  May our love for Jesus, our love for students, and our passion for youth ministry take on tangibility in the lives of the teenagers we are so blessed to know.

ARTICLE - "Fertilizer"

This is a repost of an article I wrote YEARS ago called "Fertilizer".  Enjoy!
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“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven…” - Luke 6:20-23

“… the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” – Romans 8:26

Frustration.  Burn-out.  Depression.  Loneliness.

If you are in youth ministry, it’s not a matter of if these happen to you:  it’s when.  Anyone who has been in ministry (or in faith, for that matter) for a reasonable amount of time realizes that we spend far more time in valleys and deserts than we do on mountains and meadows.

The source of our pain is always different – a difficult senior pastor, an angry parent, volunteers that hurt more than help, a crushing critic – but the results are always the same.  We, who were so passionate and so ready to plunge into this generation of students with the good news of the Kingdom find ourselves sitting alone in our offices feeling defeated, angry, and alone.

How did it come to this?  Didn’t God promise us it would be easy?  Didn’t He promise us success and growth, parents that love us and students that want to learn from us?  Didn’t He give us His cross so that we could hook black lights and speakers up to it and wave it around on a Wednesday night so that we could teach students to do the same?

Sometimes I catch a glimpse of how far we’ve come from what the Kingdom looks like.  Blessed are the poor.  Blessed are the hungry.  The weeping.  The hated, excluded, insulted.  Theirs is the Kingdom, and they are rejoicing.

How do I do that?  How do I rejoice in my frustration?  How do I leap for joy in my bitterness?  How do I dance when there is no one to dance with?

I’ve discovered that I’m not praying right.  I’m asking for ways out of my struggles.  I’m seeking spiritual backdoors to escape conflict and confusion.  The Spirit in me is groaning that to be a citizen in God’s Kingdom I’m going to have to become like those who are already there – the poor, the oppressed, the hurt, and the dying.  I’ve got to stop asking God to take away what I struggle with and instead teach me to rejoice in it.  The solutions to my problems are not really solutions at all – they are changes in mind.  Changes in heart.  Changes in soul.

As I’m learning that the Kingdom is a seed in me, desperate to grow up and out, I’m also realizing that my life is the soil.  Every piece of broken heart and every drop of wounded ego that falls to the ground makes this soil richer, fuller, and more able to sustain life.  In ground like this is where the Kingdom is taking root and growing, where its branches are reaching out, and where its blossoms are bringing beauty – all because the soil was rich with my pain.

So I am trying.  Trying to stop praying for an end to my weaknesses.  Trying to understand that God is made stronger in them.

And maybe, just maybe, I’m beginning to understand what it means to rejoice.

ARTICLE: Congregations Gone Wild

I stumbled on a great article from the New York Times called "Congregations Gone Wild" about emerging expectations churches place on their pastors (and subsequently, I believe, their youth pastors).  It's super-relevant to those of us in YM.  Check out this excerpt:

"The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. It’s apparent in the theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the local people."

Click right here to check out the whole article, and see if you, like me, resonate with the environment we so often find ourselves in in YM.