I got this as a text and it was such an encouragement, the intercessor gave me permission to share it with everyone:

Father God,

I know Len has a heart to minister to youth workers. Be with him this weekend as he ministers to hurting youth workers. Give him the right words of encouragement as he ministers in this special way. May he be amazed at all You accomplish through him.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

1. Pray for more monthly supporters

Prayer is the foundation for this ministry. Pray for monthly supporters to join us in our ministry.

2. Give a special gift

Many people have decided to give special gifts rather than or in addition to monthly support.

3. Give a portion of bonuses

A couple of my friends who are in sales have done or are planning on doing this.

4. Give a portion of unexpected financial gifts you get.

Occasionally unexpected money comes our way because unexpected money came to friends and prayer supporters.

5. Give from your tax refund

One friend has shared that monthly giving isn’t possible but they are going to give a gift once they receive their tax refund.

6. Garage sale

Give a portion of your sales or go crazy and give all the money you get by selling your old stuff to others.

7. Sell items on ebay

Okay, I don’t expect you to sell a Ted Williams rookie card on Ebay but you may have something that you could sell and then give that money.

8. Don’t Sell something, give it as donation through iDonate

Use your non-cash resources to support National Network of Youth Ministries through our partnership with idonate. Boats, jewelry, stocks, rusty farm equipment, old cars, tools (even industrial tools), almost anything can be given.

9. Talk to your friends

My greatest “resource” is people and friendships. The first step is for people to be aware of the NNYM’s work and to affirm it. You can talk about what God is doing through this ministry.

10. Invite your friends to give

Once people are aware of our mission and hear of our work, they may want to support it themselves. You are my best pamphlet, but if you need information to share with them, I can send you some.

11. Host a dinner/dessert & have me share

This is the AP version of telling your friends.

12. Invite your Sunday school to support this ministry.

I know one person did this and their class couldn’t yet, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Another class is supporting us monthly.

13. Missions budget

Talk to your church and see if this ministry fits their values for giving. It might and if they are open to the concept I can give you more information and am able to travel and present to them, if you think it’d be best.

14. Give up the price you’d spend on a dinner out to eat once a quarter

15. Collect used cell phones in your town

One or two don’t add up to much but if people or companies collect them for you, it can make a big difference.

16. Car Wash

It’s an old school fundraiser but they still work.

17. Form a group with 1 or 2 others & work together to raise money in your local area

Some friends in Alabama are doing this and trying to figure out how to work together to bring in more financial support for this ministry.

18. Gas Cards

These would be used for my road trips and would be very helpful.

19. Transfer your frequent flyer miles.

A few friends have already offered this and it has been utilized.

20. Something I didn’t think of but you did while reading this list

These are things that you shouldn’t do:
• Sell Girl Scout cookies in front of a Jenny Craig’s
• Give from your lottery winnings
Okay if you waste money on a lottery ticket despite my theology God blesses you despite the odds, I’ll take the devil’s money & use it for God’s glory! Can I get an amen?
• Mug an old lady crossing the street
• Take from money from a blind panhandler
• Selling nuclear weapons to Iraq
• Start a Ponzi Scheme

This group is committing to pray for 4 things, at least 4 minutes a day, for a minimum of 4 days a week for the 4 weeks in March.

1. National Network of Youth Ministries to meet their financial needs by April, 15, for the national ministry.

2. For Len Evans to receive $1,500 more per month in new giving by the end of March for this work with the NNYM in Texas and New Mexico. This would put us at 66% of our budget.

3. Pray for us to reach 100% of our support by September, our 1st anniversary of working for the NNYM.

4. For 500 prayer supporters for NNYM in Texas and New Mexico by the end of 2010.

Join the Facebook 4×4x4×4 Prayer Group and if you’d like to get the regular prayer updates

and let me know.

One of the best scenes from Jerry Maguire is when Jerry pleads “Help me, help you” to Ron.

Youth workers should have this approach when carrying out the biblical mandate of equipping the believers for ministry.

I believe in large group training sessions because there are general truths, knowledge and skills every youth worker needs. I’m even starting to think about creating a very affordable and customizable training event that will be offered in towns where no youth ministry training event is ever held. However, that sort of training is informational but not very relational.

One of the joys of being in a local church is youth workers get to invest in other believers and equip them for ministry. This context allows for a more relational coaching model, which is better.

What if you met with each of your volunteers (or other volunteers if you are the point person but also a volunteer) and asked them this question:

What would help you the most to improve your service to students?

Each answer is as unique as each individual and we should do our best to meet those needs in order to have a stronger and better youth worker on our team. One of the core values for me in my role with the National Network of Youth Ministries is “A stronger youth worker results in a stronger youth ministry.”

So if that is one of your core values or you would like that be be one of your core values, ask that question to your volunteers.

Once again, I’m a volunteer youth worker in a local church. My role is to coach some of the small group leaders. I sent them that question this morning and I concluded with “So give it some thought, reply with your answer and you will help me, help you.”

I will talk with them this week and I’ll meet in person, at some point this month, with each of them and finding the solution to their biggest need will be part of our agenda. I hope you take the time and do the same thing with your volunteers.

Ed Young Jr. of Fellowship Church is in the news for all the wrong reasons.

I was in seminary when there were rumbles of cool and “God things” happening in Grapevine at a new church plant by Ed Young’s son.  Ed Young Jr. and Fellowship Church have almost always been in the news; whether it was for having tank on stage when doing a spiritual warfare series, when they were growing or even when they changed their name to FellowshipChurch.com in 2001.

Thursday night WFAA in Dallas ran the story Prominent Grapevine pastor linked to luxury. I hope you read the full story and watch the 8 min video.

They claimed:

* Young owns an 8M dollar jet

* his 10K square foot home is registered under a company’s name

* a general lack of accountability

Ed Young Jr. replies with No Secrets

I want to believe the best about Ed Young Jr. because of his track record and I do but that does not mean that observations can’t be made and others can’t learn from this news report and his reply.

Ed Young Jr. is a master communicator but his reply was inadequate.  It was decent and obviously not a press release from his lawyers.  He didn’t deny what was reported. To me the biggest issue in this is not if Ed Young Jr. has a jet or not or how big his house is, it’s that he didn’t address the allegations.

If you own an jet and thinks it’s fine that you have a jet, defend it and let the truth come from you.  If you don’t have a jet, declare it to be a false report and rest on the truth. Personally,  I think it’s ridiculous if a pastor (even a millionaire mega-pastor) has a personal jet. However, I don’t care.  That’s between him and God.

If the home he lives in is registered under a company’s name, address that and explain it.

Accountability is a necessity for everyone and it’s more important for Christian leaders.  My suspicion is that an environment  like Fellowship Church lends itself to greater isolation and the potential to have a relaxed accountability because there is so much trust in the leader.

Where’s the accountability in your life and ministry?

Are you making the best choices to protect your character and the reputation of your character?

If accused of something are you prepared to respond to the allegations and do you have systems or structures in place to protect you?

I hope this turns out to be be a big “Oops!” by the reporter or something that Ed Young learns from and becomes better because it was exposed a potential weakness.

My fear though is that this only the beginning of the story since the Trinity Foundation of Dallas has had Ed Young Jr. on their radar for about three years. They are the Christian watchdogs that  is the equivalent of having 60 Minutes show up your door saying, “Can we ask you a few questions?”

Praise Reports:

January was filled with all kinds of good things. The trip to San Diego to meet with the NNYM ministry council and field team was great and encouraging in so many ways. My trip to Dallas resulted in more connections and my time with the charismatic youth workers was also a blessing. Thanks for your prayers that enabled those times to go well.

One of the best stories this month is someone joined my prayer team when I asked for people to join our prayer team via a tweet/Facebook status update. We met for the first time a week or so later and a week after our initial meeting we had lunch and they requested to become a financial supporter.

One of the highlights of January was having 11 people agree to become monthly supporters. Four of them have begun giving and the rest will also. We’re over 40% of our monthly budget and we need another $1,500 a month to reach the 66% level of our budget.

Prayer Requests:

* Albuquerque Road Trip is this week.

* New financial supporters

It’s so much fun to see God at work.

Thanks for your continued prayers and encouragement.

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

I’m meeting with a youth pastor in Muleshoe, TX on my way to my 3:30 meeting with the youth worker network in Clovis, NM. Later tonight I’m heading to Albuquerque.

I’ll be spending a day with Chuck Harper, who works with the Native Youth and youth workers across America. Chuck is part of the field team for the NNYM so we spent some time together in San Diego. This will allow me to know more about his ministry and learn how to guide youth workers to him.

I’m meeting with the Albuquerque youth pastor network on Thursday. I’m also discussing/planning the NM youth worker retreat with some of them on Tuesday. I’m also supposed to meet with a denominational leader while I’m in town about potential partnerships.

“We are not asked to teach a discipline like mathematics, physics, history or languages, but we are called to make our own faith available to others as the source of learning. To be a teacher means indeed to lay down your life for your friends, to become a ‘martyr’ in the original sense of witness. To be a teacher means to offer your own faith experience, your loneliness and intimacy, your doubts and hopes, your failures and successes to your students as a context in which they can struggle with their own quest for meaning. To be a teacher means to have the same boldness as Paul, who said to the Corinthians: ‘Take me as a model as I take Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1). To be a teacher means to say as those who want to learn what Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Come and see’ (John 1:39)” – Henri J.M. Nouwen (cited in Wounded Prophet by Michael Ford, 106-107)

Found on Joe Neill’s Blog

Along with everyone else in youth ministry world, I’m thrilled that Tic is back with Youth Specialties.

Tic shared his own thoughts and many others (Tony Jones, Mike King, Marko, Wayne Rice, Walt Mueller, & Karla Yaconelli) have too, so I just wanted to share my experience with Tic and why I’m so thrilled that he’s back.

I’ve had interactions with Tic over the years and he’s always been “fully there” whenever we’ve connected.  What I love most about Tic is he’s 100% authentic.  Whether you see him on a goofy video, he’s on stage for the National Youth Worker Convention, you grab him in the hallway or if you talk with him on the phone, he’s the same guy.  He really is passionate about youth ministry but more passionate about youth workers.

I recently congratulated Tic but I also thanked him for something that I was sure he wasn’t aware of.

A couple of months ago I was thinking about the long path that brought me to my role with the National Network of Youth Ministries.  I believe the turning point was when I spoke at the 2002 National Youth Worker Convention. My seminar was an expanded version of Reality Bites and Some Churches Have Fangs.  That experience resulted in a new network of friendships that helped prepare me for my dream youth ministry position.

Over the years, that network of friendships expanded into a broad base of friendships around the country which helped ease the transition from local church ministry to having a broader platform for ministry. The joy of reflecting on the path that brought me here is not the friendships I have but seeing how God was at work in preparing me for my present role.

It isn’t just the good things that prepare us but the pain and hurt as well.  So though Tic’s decision to let someone like me fill the last open seminar in Pittsburgh was the preparational pivot point for me, it wasn’t the only experience that God used to bring me to my current role.

I tell people that I believe part of what qualifies me for this role (especially the aspect of encouraging and nurturing of youth workers)  is the ministry pain I’ve been through over the years but also my own dark night of the soul.  I’m learning to be a wounded healer.  Youth workers don’t need experts to give them advice, they need  someone who can empathize with the struggles. renew their love for the local church,  help them to not forget their own souls  and remind them serving students so they become stronger disciples is an amazing honor.

It’s a continual process of learning and I’m sure there are more learning curves around the corner but I’m grateful for the blessing Tic gave me and for how God used that to help me begin the next stage of my life.