Sometimes in ministry we need to “Pay it back”

June 22, 2012June 25, 20122 Comments

Have you ever heard the term “pay it forward“? It is a term that often gets used in ministry circles to encourage us to sow the blessings we have received from mentors into the next generation. We receive so much from the mentors who formed us and we pay it forward to those that we mentor. But do we ever pay back those who have mentored us with a thank you? Ministry can be such a thankless task that occasionally we need to thank those who mentored us along the way.

Recently I was working with a great young leader, asking him about his journey of faith. He had a great outlook on ministry so I asked him about his role models and he was able to list four or five men who had mentored him. These were youth group leaders or young pastors in his Church. It happens that I know some of these men and I bet they would love to know the fruit of some their work. More importantly that experience made me reflect on the people who I needed to thank for sowing into me.

St Paul talks about watering seeds that other have planted and to recognise that God does all the work. Sometimes in ministry we seemed to be doing a lot of sowing and watering without much growth. In many cases we never see the fruit of our labour because God plants the person in another ministry or another church. We can go for years without knowing what we have achieved. If you find yourself in this situation here is three things to do:

Create a culture of Gratitude: instead of waiting for someone to thank you for your ministry, start thanking those who serve with you in ministry. Thank the volunteers who serve every week, thank those who pray for the ministry and thank those who financially support your ministry. Don’t forget to thank the people above you, your Senior Minister, Parish Priest, Vestry, Elders board or Parish Council.
Thank your Mentors: think of all the people who have mentored you and sown into your development. Write them a little thank you note, message them on Facebook or email them. Whilst it is nice to send them a card, just thank them any way you can. Often we still look up to our mentors and forget that they are real people who get disheartened just like we do. If you appreciate your mentors by thanking them it will help them stay strong in their ministry too.
Love your Family: often our family are the forgotten heroes of our ministry. Perhaps your parents took you to church as a child, supported your faith or paid for you to go on camp. Maybe your relatives encouraged your development as a teenager. Maybe your wife, husband and kids have allowed you to go to one more ministry event. Love your family first and thank them for the support they give you.

We should take the blessings sown into us and pass it forward to the next generation. But don’t forget to pay back the mentoring, love and attention that you received from others. Learn to pay it forward and pay it back.

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The Reformation and the 12 tribes of Israel

June 20, 2012July 17, 20123 Comments

When the Israelites left Egypt under the leadership of Moses, they were one people. When Jesus sent out the 72 to preach the Gospel they were one Church. In the Book of Numbers we read that Moses ordered the people of Israel into 12 tribes ready to enter the promised land. In the book of Acts we read that Peter and Paul are ordering the Church ready for Mission. So where did it all go wrong? Why do we read in the Book of Judges that the tribes are at war and one tribe is almost wiped out? Why do we read the books of history and have a church that is so fractured that some branches are almost wiped out?

It seems that we have become used to the history of Israel as we read the Old Testament. We know that the tribes have come together, worked together and survived many attacks from other nations. Yet we also know that in some periods of the Old Testament the people of Israel were fighting against each other. In Judges the tribe of Benjamin are almost wiped out and God has to give them wives to keep the tribe multiplying. In Samuel the Kingdom is divided into Israel and Judah. We also know that the theme of exile runs through the old testament but that God always remains faithful to His Promises.

So it seems to me that the Reformation both in Europe and in England were like the tribes of Israel splitting in the promised land. Once the Israelites and Christians moved from being the people of God into Geopolitical nations all the trouble started. Is it just me or does this feel a little bit like the Book of Samuel where God says that it is not good to have worldly kingdoms for God is our King. Whilst I am no Church history scholar it seems that many difficult times in Church history have been tied to political forces.

In January 2012 the Tablet published two articles about the formation of a joint commission between the Vatican (Catholic Church) and the Lutheran World Federation. The commission will look at a joint statement on the history of the Reformation in preparation for the 500 anniversary of the Luther statements in 1517. In the articles it acknowledges that in the past both churches have blamed each other for the Reformation, yet now they recognise that both sides had a hand in the split. It seems that it became Geopolitical, the tribe of Vatican were at war and split with the tribe of England and the tribe of Germany.

In recent years as the Church has lost it hold on almost every Government in the World, it is becoming easier for the Church to reunite as the people of God. Instead of seeking to become one Church under one banner (such as Catholic), perhaps we should learn from the bible. The 12 tribes of Israel is an example to us all that the Body of Christ is made up of many parts, each with its own special role. Lets not try to be the same but seek unity as the Body of Christ.

Don’t get trapped within a Youth Ministry Cohort

May 31, 2012June 11, 2012Leave a comment

Have you ever had a bumper group come through your youth ministry? I mean a group that is firing on all cylinders. This group volunteers for everything, invite their friends, engage in worship, pray regularly, take an active interest in the youth ministry and everything is going very well. These can be the golden years or dream years for the youth ministry. You seem to connect with this group, you make friends more easily and they really seem to understand you. In simple terms a cohort is a group like this that moves through your ministry in a group, they join and leave together.

Leading this cohort in youth ministry is what we dream of, it makes it worthwhile. But the trap is that this group grows up and moves out of your ministry into the next group, which you don’t lead. Perhaps you have never seen this happen, maybe you have. In the youth group that I attended, the dream cohort were finishing up just as I joined. It seemed that just after I joined everyone got too old for the group and left, leaving all of us a little deflated. In fact these dream cohorts can create such a bubble in a group that when it bursts, they all leave, the group can’t go on.

Recently I put this question to Tim Hawkins from St Paul’s at Castle Hill. Whilst Tim has been in Youth Ministry for a long time, he has led cohorts through St Paul’s for 18 years, so I thought he would have experience in this area. Well Tim’s advice was really really simple. He said:

“You gotta keep thinking of who is coming next”

Sounds so simple that everyone would do it. But here are several practical tips that Tim mentioned:

People in Children’s ministry should keep an eye on birth announcements, these are the couples who will be bringing their kids to children’s ministry in a year or two.
People in Junior high ministry should be looking at the years 4,5,6 who are getting bored in the children’s ministry and are ready to move on.
People in Senior high ministry should be looking for the next Senior who can learn to lead at their youth ministry nights and be trained to run small groups.

Whilst we are all tempted to look for a complex plan, it seems from Tim Hawkins that it is as simple and as complex as keeping ahead of the game. It might be hard and repetitive work but the alternative is having to rebuild your ministry from scratch every time a dream cohort leaves. So who is coming next in your ministry? Do you need to start recruiting for the ministry below you in the age cycle so you have a pipeline coming into your ministry?

What are your youth ministry tips for avoiding “Cohortism”?

Are there “Flashbacks” in the Bible?

May 25, 2012May 25, 20121 Comment

Sometime when people want to be critical of the bible they point to passages in the bible that they call “errors”. An issue that some critics raise are what they perceive as chronological errors. Some critics look at stories that are out of chronological sequence as a proof that the bible is made up. Yet if we look at modern day film making, we may have a clue to why some passages in the bible seem out of chronological order.

For example in Judges 1:1 we read that Joshua died, yet in Judges 2:6 we read that Joshua is still alive sending out the nations then dies again. Did the author get it wrong? Is this a chronological error? Is this a different Joshua? In Genesis 10 we read that after the flood, people filled the earth yet in Genesis 11 all the people are back in the one place, is this right?

It seems that some people look at these literary tools as “errors” in the bible but when it happens in modern movies we all call these “flashbacks”. Whilst I use this term here I have to be careful because the ancient writers didn’t use the term “flashbacks”. However if you want to explain some literary tools of the bible in terms that young people might understand then you can suggest the parallel to flash backs in modern movies.

For example in the movie Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy we see one character go into an optometrist to get a new pair of glasses. Whilst the scene is quiet boring and might seem unimportant, the film maker uses the two different set of eyewear to show different periods of time in flashbacks. When the character is wearing the old set of glasses the audience knows it is a flashback without the date having to appear on the screen.

So flashback to the example in Judges, the author is reminding the reader that Joshua sent out the nations to fill Canaan because it explains the problems Israel faced in chapter 1 and the rest of the book. So Judges 2:6-8 is like a mini flashback to remind the reader of an important point for interpreting the future chapters.

Likewise with the earlier reference to Genesis 10 and 11. In Genesis 10 the author is showing what happened after the flood involving Noah and so finishes the narrative with the people filling all the earth, which would have taken some time. In Genesis 11 the author has a flashback account to explain why the people dispersed rather than stay together in the one place. This is not a chronological error in the bible, simply a literary tool that the author uses to tell compelling accounts of God and God’s people.

What other “flashbacks” can you see in the Bible? Leave a comment.

Would you do what you ask your workers to do?

May 7, 2012Leave a comment

There is a WorkSafe campaign on Victoria television at the moment with the slogan “would you do what you ask your workers to do?” In each of the seven 20 second commercials a supervisor asks a worker to do something that is obviously unsafe and the worker agrees. The point of the campaign is that workers are asked to do unsafe things all the time, just not that obvious. Of course a worker would never do something unsafe if it was that obvious but what if it wasn’t obvious.

Check out the adds: Worksafe victoria

Whilst the campaign is frightening it drives home the point that we can’t ask people to do something that we know is unsafe. One supervisor asks the young worker to work on a broken machine, another asks them to work in an inappropriate desk, another to fall off the back of a motor bike on a farm and another to work on a roof without a harness.

So it got me thinking about the situations which we ask our young ministry workers to go into. Here might be a sample add:

Church leader: Will you work in our church unsupervised with no support but with all the responsibility, you will receive complaints from parents and church members, you will burn out after 18 months and probably hate the church for a while?

Young Leader: Sure

Church Leader: Oh and we will pay you less than you would get at a fast food restaurant but work longer hours

Young Leader: Sure

If you think this is a far fetched situation then why is it all too common? Why do we ask people to take on children ministry or youth ministry for 8-10 hours per week? Many young people take on jobs in ministry for low pay with little supervision because we take advantage of their interest to serve the Church. My hope is that we reduce the turn over rate of young ministry workers by putting into place support systems for our youngest leaders. I know some churches can’t pay any more but lets give them the best mentoring and supervision available, lets disciple them like Jesus would.

Would you do what we ask young worker to do?

Never use “and finally” unless you are finishing

April 27, 20121 Comment

Have you ever been listening to a long presentation and heard the magic phrase “and finally” which you thought meant they were finishing but they spoke for another 10 minutes? Recently a speaker who was really boring used the phrase “and finally …” and I wanted to yell out “it’s about time”. But some people use the term “and finally …” to state their last main point before they begin their 10 minute conclusion. In my mind if you use the phrase “and finally” I expect you to be done in 2 minutes.

The trick that many speakers don’t understand is that there are some phrases that mean one thing to a presenter and mean something different to a listener. A presenter might use the phrase “and finally” to sum up their argument but it is often perceived by the listener to mean “I am finishing up”. If you use this phrase then you have about 1-2 minutes to finish or you will lose your audience.

So here are a few phrases that should only be used in the last 2 minutes of a presentation:

And finally
To finish up
I will finish with this
To wrap up
So next week
The worship team may come up

“My last point” is a grey area because I think it is the same as those terms listed above. If you have four points use the word “four” to describe the fourth point as the phrase “my last point” implies you are in your conclusion.

So why is this important? Because people remember your conclusion if it is done well and they switch off if it is done poorly. You want to drive home your message in your conclusion with what the audience should do next; so it isn’t helpful for the audience to switch off. If a speaker goes on for too long then the listener is trying to predict when the speaker will finish rather than listening to the message.

So finally work on your transitions so you don’t use these ending phrases midway through your presentation.

What I have learned about discipleship from Grand Designs

April 20, 2012April 26, 2012Leave a comment

Some of you may have seen Kevin McCloud hosting the TV show Grand Designs. Whilst the program shows off some amazing houses renovated or built by British people in Europe, it was the style of the host that impressed me. Kevin McCloud has hosted over 90 episodes of the show, which in the TV industry is a big deal. In the eight seasons, Kevin has witnessed many building mistakes, challenges and failures. Yet Kevin McCloud has also been there when 90 home owners have showed off their Grand Design success.

When I watched the show recently, it taught me something about being there to support someone as they undergo a journey through something. What interested me the most was how the style of Kevin McCloud could be a style for mentoring future ministry leaders. Kevin McCloud is an expert in his field and yet supports the home owners who are going through the build or renovation for the first time. As ministry leaders we may have seen it all before but the people in our ministry are often going through issues for the first time. How can we support these people through mentoring and discipleship?

So here are four things that I learnt from watching Grand Designs:

Allow the person to share their vision – there is always a segment in the show where Kevin asks the home owner to share their vision for their project. This is makes the show as much about the people as it is about the house being built or renovated. In a ministry context, we should allow the people we are discipling to share their grand design for their life. The process of mentoring and discipling should be on the individual, not what we can do for them or what we can teach them.
Ask probing questions– Kevin McCloud would have seen every mistake in the book yet he never gives the home owner all the answers he asks probing questions:
1. Why are you doing it that way?
2. What problems do you see a few steps down this path?
3. What other options do you have?

In the ministry context this reminded me that we need to let people discover things for themselves. It is tempting to give away all the answers because we have been there before. However people need to make some mistakes and have some failures so they develop their own strategies for dealing with difficulties in their life.

Let people surprise you – Whilst Kevin McCloud knows the show will work out in the end, it has for 90 episodes, Kevin is still surprised by how many home owners attack problems and overcome challenges. In a ministry context allow people to surprise you and learn from the way they overcome challenges. Rather than “lording” your experience over the people that you mentor and disciple, allow yourself to learn from them.
Celebrate their success – Each episode of Grand Design finishes with the home owner showing off and celebrating their new home or grand renovation. Many people have gone way over budget and taken much longer than planned but they are happy with the result. Kevin McCloud celebrated their success with them. In a ministry context we should celebrate the successes of the people in our ministry rather than reminding them of how much they still have to learn. Learn to celebrate the small steps that people in your ministry make.

If you ever get the chance, what Kevin McCloud host an episode of Grand Designs. You can see many of the episodes online.

The Excellence debate

April 10, 20127 Comments

“Excellence honours God and inspires others”

Have you ever gone into a church for the first time and seen something that made you think “that is a little out of place”? Have you ever been to a church or attended a ministry event and thought things looked a little sloppy and could have been done better? Or on the flip side have you ever been to a ministry event that ran like clockwork and you were impressed? It seems that we all have our own interior benchmark of what we think is “done well” and what we think is “done poorly”.

Yet I often hear from people that the Church needs to pick up its game in terms of the standard of events, presentation and hospitality. I have also heard from others who say the Church should never be too slick or fancy. Whilst some churches are pursuing excellence others are deliberately keeping things low budget so as not to look perfect. So my two questions for today are:

What level of excellence is appropriate in the Church?
Should the Church worry about excellence?

Let me start by giving you a few examples that I have witnessed from the best and worst of excellence in church and ministry:

Worst

I attended a young adult camp where the worship band left plates on stage from breakfast.
One church had posters for a youth group that looked like they were designed by a kindergarten class.
One church foyer had three different style of notice boards, posters about Christmas at Easter time and a pile of lost property that just looked messy.
A guest speaker had to rearrange the stage before he could start speaking because the musicians just walked off without clearing the stage.

Best

My church has a well-designed event template for all their posters so they look professional even though the ministry leader drops their event details into the template.
A ministry team that turned the cheap hall they hired for a youth camp into an inspiring place for worship.
A café night at church that had tasty food with enough for everyone to have extra.
A celebration night at church that had proper wine glasses and plates for the food (no plastic forks!)

These are just a few things that I have noticed. But what have you noticed? I invite you to leave a comment at the end about what you judge to be the best and the worst of excellence in church and ministry.

What is the right level of excellence in the Church? The right level of excellence is doing the best you can with the best you’ve got. Excellence doesn’t mean spending more money; you have to have excellent budgeting skills too. Excellence is about enabling people to encounter and experience God without any barriers in the way. If the goal is excellence then we have failed. Excellence is a tool to help you bring people into an encounter with God.
Should the Church worry about excellence? The Church should do the best it can to make it easier for people to encounter God, make disciples and join in the Mission. The Church should be a place that inspires people to see the grandness and greatness of God. People in ministry should offer the same level of service, or higher, that a person would get if they visited a hotel, restaurant, shopping centre or cultural museum. I think the problem is that we either don’t inspire people or we go back to “traditional” methods that Christians used last century to inspire people but they don’t inspire 21^st century people.

Recently I was listening to a podcast with Louie and Shelley Giglio about the level of excellence at their Church, Passion City Church. They shared their thoughts about the right level of excellence in two ways:

When they get ready for Church or events their team doesn’t pray for excellence, they pray that the Holy Spirit might touch people. For Passion City Church, it is not about achieving excellence but removing barriers.
When the Church is excellent in presenting its craft, services/ministry, then it encourages people to go into their jobs and be excellent at their craft. Louie said “the best evangelism happens when your lifestyle is so inspiring that people ask you what makes you tick.”

So don’t kill yourself or stress your team or break the budget to achieve excellence in your ministry. But please don’t be sloppy, unprepared or messy as it doesn’t do anyone any favours. Could you please leave a comment about what you have seen as the best and worst of excellence in church and ministry?

Why a parachurch may get more young people than your church

March 28, 2012June 12, 20121 Comment

In a recent post I wrote about the 10% limit to the size of any youth group compared to the Sunday congregation. But I bet that some of you know a youth ministry that breaks that 10% rule. What I have discovered is that some parachurch groups are able to recruit far more members than the 10% limit. Having worked in and with parachurch groups, there are a few key factors which enable them to reach more young people than a local church can.

Firstly what do I mean by a parachurch group? In this context I am talking about any agency within the Church that has a specific mission to minister only to young people. Put it another way I am talking about ministries that don’t belong to “full service” local churches. These parachurch groups have the specific mission of meeting the needs of young people and usually they have a particular style. These groups are a valuable part of our Church; they have a specific Charism to a specific group of people.

A few examples might be:

Charismatic prayer groups
Campus based ministries
Market place ministries, some that meet in Pubs
Social Justice groups

So why are some parachurch groups able to recruit more members than many local churches? Here are four reasons that a parachurch group might be able to get more young people than you.

Narrow the focus – many parachurch groups are able to focus on one or two key activities and do them well. When a ministry only has few things to focus on they are able to tailor everything in the ministry to these one or two activities. In contrast a full service local church has about 20-30 groups and ministries running. Often the resources of a local church are spread thinly across a wide range of activities.
Like-minded people – there is an old saying that like attracts like; a parachurch can attract young people with a common interest. It is easier to attract a group of like-minded people than it is to keep the interest of everyone. Often the local church is trying to cater to the needs of everyone in their community.
Independence brings freedom – many parachurch groups are able to stay independent of the mechanics of regular church councils and committees. I was once part of a parachurch group that met every Monday night and we could plan what we wanted with the leaders whenever we needed. In contrast when I was part of full service local church the parish council met monthly and you needed a months’ notice to get an agenda item on there, meaning it could be two months before we could make a decision.
Larger drawing area – usually a parachurch will draw members from a bigger geographical area than the local suburban church. A parachurch might host an event for 100 young people that come from 10 suburbs where as you are trying to host an event for the young people in your suburb.

Before finishing I want to add that I am not against parachurch groups, they are vital part of the Body of Christ. Given that I have been a part of both parachurch groups and local churches, I wanted to pass on some of the reasons why the parachurch groups might get more young people than you can get at your local church.

There are many positives of connecting young people to a local church; the main reason is that the local church is intergenerational. In a local church young people learn to connect with a wider experience of the Body of Christ.

The real lesson for both parachurch groups and local churches is to focus on what God has called them to do rather than comparing each other. I hope this helps you in your situation.

Please leave a comment

Is your Youth Ministry limited to 10% of Sunday attendance?

March 26, 2012September 3, 20125 Comments

Whilst it has been popular over the past 20 years to say “it is not about the numbers”, many of us still measure our success in terms of attendance. In a previous post I wrote about the difference between attendance and commitment so I know that attendance can be deceptive. However many of us are judged by others based on how many people we get to our events, so let’s take a deeper look at attendance numbers.

What attendance number are you aiming at in your youth ministry? How big would your ministry have to be to think it is successful? Pick a number:

A youth ministry will only grow to about 10% of your Sunday congregation (see Mark DeVries below). Does the number in your head now look small, achievable or unrealistic? A church with an average weekend attendance of 500 people should have a youth ministry of up to 50 young people. But if your weekend church attendance is only 150 then perhaps you should be aiming to reach 15 young people. So when you compare the size of your ministry to the youth ministry in another church, we all do this, you should compare the two groups as a percentage of the Sunday attendance.
Successful youth ministries come from successful churches. On the flip side there aren’t many weak churches that have strong youth ministries. Perhaps your ministry is growing or not growing because of issues in the Sunday congregation. If you find it hard to grow your youth ministry this may not be because of the issues in your youth ministry. Check the health of your Sunday congregation to see if this is effecting the health of your youth ministry. For example if your Sunday congregations don’t volunteer, then that may explain why you find it hard to recruit volunteers.
In the post Christian era, young people are the first group to leave a struggling church and the last group to return to a growing church. Often when the teenagers stop coming to church because it is “boring”, the parents stop coming as well. Perhaps the reason that you are not growing is that the young people have sensed that the church is going nowhere. Many churches that struggle for some time lose all their young people. It can be difficult for these churches to win back the teenagers and they can’t grow a youth ministry until the children in the kids ministry grow into the youth ministry.

Mark DeVries in his book Sustainable Youth Ministry outlines five key “normal” indicators that he has discovered from his Youth Ministry consultancy with hundreds of churches in the US:

A youth ministry will settle at 10% of the worshiping congregation
The Youth Ministry budget should be $1000-$1500 per young person
There should be one full time staff person for every fifty youth
There should be one adult volunteer leader for every five youth
Even with significant investment a youth ministry has a ceiling of 20% of the congregation

What is a realistic attendance target?

Whilst it is hard to translate these “normal” indicators into what is achievable in Australia, we do know that many of the bigger youth ministries come from bigger churches. I think the most realistic target for you to aim at in your church is:

Start with at least one male and one female leader then add another male and female volunteer leader for every 10 young people.
Aim for 10% of your Sunday congregation, when your church grows so will your youth ministry.

Hopefully our youth ministries can lead the growth of our churches, but don’t be disappointed if you reach a 10% ceiling, you are doing well.

Please leave a comment about what indicators are normal in your setting.

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