When I first joined the National Network of Youth Ministries the South Central Region included Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Colorado, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The plan was for me to begin with Texas and New Mexico as the District Coordinator and then transition into the Regional Coordinator.

Thankfully NNYM has grown and has added more regional staff.  Aaron Babyar now is the Heartland Regional Coordinator which absorbed Arkansas and Oklahoma.  (My grandfather would be happy that I no longer have to deal with Arkansas and Oklahoma but only because he was such a huge University of Texas football fan.)

I’m going to be raising more financial support over the next few months in order to add Colorado and Louisiana to my responsibility and become the South Central Coordinator for NNYM.

My hope is to do this by September, which will be my 4th anniversary with NNYM.

May 2013 Prayer Update

Thanks for your prayers that power my ministry.

Len’s February 2012 Prayer Update

Francis Schaeffer

The Simply Youth Ministry Conference is around the corner and we’d like you to nominate a youth worker for a free registration.

Here are the guidelines.

1. It’s for a free registration only, so make sure they can get there (Maybe you give them a ride and let them crash in your room, if you’re going.)

2. You can’t nominate yourself. (We would if we could, so we understand.)

3. Ideally this spot is for a member of Youth Ministry Nation who really needs it.  As you know, youth ministry world is filled with all kinds of dangers, toils and snares, so we want this to be a refuge and a time to be renewed.

4.  Go to Simply Soul Care and share in a paragraph or two why your friend needs to attend. This is normally how youth workers contact us so we can provide pastoral care for them.

5. Let your friend know that you nominated them and that we are available to walk alongside them as they face their trials. We only have one registration to give away but you can be the person who encourages, and prays for your friend.

6. Please encourage your friends, who are on twitter, to follow the Simply Soul Care Twitter account for encouragement and support & use #SimplyBlessed as your hashtag when you tweet about it.

7. Submissions are accepted from December 10 through December 20 and the winner will be announced before Christmas!

We are in your corner,

Len Evans

Pastor of Simply Soul Care on behalf of the entire Simply Youth Ministry Team.

Earlier today I posted this on Facebook:

White House knew it was a terrorist act 2 hours after the attack. Will this be reported by anyone else?

with a link to this story: State Department emails from day of Libya attack show militant group on radar

I’m pretty sure it’s become my most commented post ever on Facebook, currently with 63 comments. One of them was from my buddy, Adam Mclane. He wrote, “Len- I dare you to say 10 nice things about your president.”

Though we never escalated to the double dare, double dog dare, triple dare you and the coup de grâce, triple dog dare you, here’s my list:

1. He says he’s a Christian and I believe him.

2. He is committed to his wife and unlike other politicians, rumors of continual infidelity have not hounded him.

3. He loves his daughters.

4. He is committed to his values.  I don’t agree with many of his political values but I greatly respect people who are true to their convictions.

5. He’s open about his struggle to quit smoking.  It’s a small thing but I like his honesty.

6. He’s smarter than I am and a high number of people. I’m not convinced he’s the smartest President, Thomas Jefferson is hard to beat in my opinion, but he did go to Columbia and Harvard.

7. He is loyal to his friends.

8. He’s taken care of his health but still enjoys yummy food when Michelle isn’t with him on trips.

9. He got Osama Bin Laden.

10. He’s able to joke about his middle name.

October 2012 Prayer Update

Praying for Our Nation’s Youth by Donna Nuss & The 30-Day Guide for Praying for Our Nation’s Youth

Eleven years ago I was traveling to Hartford, CT to get some DMV stuff done for a church van. I heard about it on the radio and then talked to my wife. I stopped in a store for something and I watched the 2nd plane hit in the back of the store with the employees. We sat in silence and after 5 minutes or so I decided to head home and listened to radio reports the entire drive.

Living in Fairfield, CT it hit close to us because 3 of our 5 neighbors worked in the Financial District and we didn’t know where they were. They all got home safe but one of them worked in the WTC but had been in Dallas that morning. My dad worked in the Pentagon a few days a month then before he retired and I knew he probably wasn’t in DC and even if he was, he probably wasn’t in the section that was hit but it took 6 hours that day to get a phone call through to confirm that.

Our daughter’s school (she was in 1st grade) the next day didn’t allow anyone to talk about the attacks in class because there were enough students in the schools whose parents had not been found yet.

We had been in NYC about 4-6 days before it happened and just wondered what if we had been there. Another friend was one of the first responders and worked there for weeks. Last I knew, he still couldn’t talk about all he saw at Ground Zero.

We Must Never Forget.

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of my working for The National Network of Youth Ministries.

Thanks for being part of the almost 450 people who pray for us.  You can view the full two page prayer update by clicking this link PL_201209_LE-1 Detailed info about the ministry, family and specific prayer requests will be found there.

I recently contributed to a youth ministry panel on How To Prevent Burn Out by Called To Youth Ministry. It was another affirmation to make it to the 4th anniversary.  Thanks for your continued prayer support. If we only realized how we affect eternity with our prayers, we would pray even more.

I hear a ton of stories from youth workers by overseeing Texas and New Mexico for the National Network of Youth Ministries and leading Simply Soul Care, the nationwide pastoral care service for youth workers.

I’m amazed at some of the stories I hear.  I know all about churches, at times, not being ideal work situations and We Love Our Youth Worker is trying to help remedy that. Nobody is perfect and neither are any churches.  We all have our quirks, personally and organizationally. We are all still broken and we are not where we need to be.

There are times that a church and a youth worker need to part ways.  It’s just not working out, it’s a bad fit and neither side is going to adjust to accommodate the others values. Fine.  But you can part ways and still honor Christ through the process.

We are commanded to live at peace with everyone, as far as it depends on us, whenever it’s possible. (Romans 12:18). If you are youth worker, leave with grace even if it wasn’t your choice. It’s not easy, but  take the proverbial high road.

Churches, please honor Christ as you part ways with your youth worker.  Keep your word regarding the severance package you promised, the time allowed to stay in the parsonage, vacation time they’ve earned, etc. Don’t assassinate their character or let others do it in your presence.  Don’t lie and tell your congregation, “The Lord is leading elsewhere.” when the issue is really they made the wrong family mad and you got tired of hearing from them. Treat them as you’d want to be treated if you were the one being fired or asked to leave.

The stories I hear from youth workers that still shock me include:

1. “It’ll be easier to provide some severance for you, if you resign instead of forcing us to fire you.”

2. Instead of talking to the staff, sending them a certified letter notifying them of the conditions of their leaving.

3. Forcing someone out so the committee can hire a pre-chosen replacement, who happens to be a family member of an “influential person” in the church.

Ministry positions, in most states, don’t qualify for unemployment, so please don’t give someone a two week check and wave at them as you tell them, “Stay warm and well fed.”

Honor Christ in how you end your staff relationships.   Go the extra mile or at least the first mile in caring for the staff and family that relocated to serve in your church.

I dare any church to look at the staff history of their church.  If the average stay of your staff members is less than five years, over the last ten to twenty years, please don’t hire anyone else until you properly evaluate your own organizational issues and faults.

You prayed for weeks and possibly months before you hired someone, you should bathe the leaving process with as much intense prayer and treat them in such a way that Christ is honored through the entire process, even in the behind closed doors meetings.