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.

There are things about my job with the National Network of Youth Ministries that blow me away.

One of them, and you’d think it wouldn’t but it does, is when people tell me they pray for me every day.

I have a prayer team and I send them prayer updates so they can pray for specific things for the ministry.

I believe most of them pray for me and when they agree to join the prayer group I send them a thank you and include this sentence:

Whether that means you pray for us every day, randomly, as God brings it to your attention or only when you open up the prayer updates, you are part of the prayer team and I’m grateful for that.

I hope people remember to pray for me and I joke that since most of my friends are Christians they feel obligated to say yes to getting the prayer updates, so they lie about praying for me. Not you, I’m sure.

This past week two people told me they pray for me every day.

It’s very humbling to hear that and yet also very exciting.

One friend told me that he prays for me everyday at 3pm. He sets his alarm on his PDA/phone as a reminder.  He said it’s not uncommon for it to go off while he’s meeting with people.  They’ll tell him it’s okay to answer his phone or ask him what it’s for and he tells them, “It’s a reminder to pray for my buddy who’s doing a great ministry to care for and support youth workers across Texas and New Mexico.”

It’s just so encouraging to hear those sort of things and be reminded that I’m not in this alone and I receive help through people’s prayers.

On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.

Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us

in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11

It’s been a wonderful experience to be at the NNYM headquarters collaborating with our Ministry Council.

The NNYM Ministry Council is composed of youth ministry leaders from around the country who love our mission and are able to help guide us. It’s not a room of consultants, though some are and all could be in their area of specialty, but rather they speak into the leadership from their passions (The shared passions are unity with the Body of Christ, reaching more students with the Gospel, and youth ministry) without pushing their agendas.

Last night the second half of the trip began. This part is meetings with the Field Staff. The Field Staff oversee sections of the country or lead affinity groups for the country (Rural & Native American).

It is such a joy an honor to be here and serve with like minded people, who God has brought together, to help strengthen youth ministry across our country.

Thank you for praying for me and my family through this transition that is ongoing.

Keep on praying for this trip, because I know some of you are. The clarity and consensus is evident and I know it’s because God is with us in a way that only comes through prayer.

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

PS. Stupid West Coast time, I slept 5 hours and woke up at 3am. I read for a bit and thought I’d give you an update. Think I can go back to sleep now.

I am confident that what I’m doing will not just help youth workers but help churches and advance God’s agenda for teenagers throughout Texas and New Mexico for now and more states later. My confidence is based not on my work but so far I’ve been able to catch the wave of God moving me to various places and to make connections that allow me to serve people in accordance to my wiring and strengths.

It’s a a crazy adventure to be on but one that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Thanks for being a part of this adventure through your encouragement, prayers and financial support. (The Frustrations & Joys of Ministry)

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

Prayer Requests

1. My Big Goal for 2010 is to find champions for the 9 areas of Texas and New Mexico

2. We’re around 40% of our monthly budget.

3. We have around 275 people who are on the prayer team and I want to reach 500 in 2010.

4. January Travels

Jan 6-10 San Diego for NNYM meetings

Jan 11 Flying home

Jan 12-15 Dallas

Jan 15-16 Lubbock for the Ingnite Student Conference.

My big goal for 2010 is to find and discern who God is preparing for each of these 9 areas.

My job is overwhelming.

Can one person really care for youth workers across Texas and New Mexico? No, but one person can work with many other people and lead them to ensure systems and strategies are in place to care for youth workers, build local networks so there is a healthy local network within reach for every youth worker in Texas and New Mexico and help churches strengthen their approach to ministering to students.

These are the 9 Areas I’m responsible for. I’m over TX-2, Mark Whitaker with YouthNet is over TX-3, so we’re praying for seven Champions to lead the other areas.  I have some relationships with people and I think a few of them may be willing to to the point person for their area.  The key ingredients are they have a heart of networking the kingdom and can keep a pulse on things in their area.

Please start praying for these seven champions to be made clear and if you think you might be one of these seven champions, let me know.

Much Love and Thanks to Dave Weiss with AMOKArts who designed the map for me.

I live in Lubbock, TX and over the three years we’ve lived here, we drank the kool-aid and become fans of Texas Tech athletics and Mike Leach.  Over this last week, Texas Tech and Leach have been national news for all the wrong reasons.  A squabble that probably could have been settled,  if everyone had played nice, ended poorly for everyone involved.  The collateral damage is gigantic despite being over something that happened on a football team.

Mike Leach is brilliant – A lot was said by the commentators last night and throughout this week about Mike Leach.  He graduated with his law degree from Pepperdine, has a Masters in Sports ScienceCoaching.  He was only one of four coaches who didn’t play division 1 football. Among the comments you may have heard is that Leach is almost an unparalleled coach when it comes to the “X’s and O’s”.  They talked how he didn’t just change the culture of Texas Tech but also the offensive approach within the Big 12 itself.

Mike Leach is a leader – There is no doubt that Leach leads his team to operate as a unit, to know their goal, trains them to reach their goal and succeed.  His detractors may not like how he leads but he is a strong leader.

Mike Leach has a loyal following – Fans love Leach for a variety of reasons.  He’s had a winning season every year he was at Tech, he is a straight talker, he caused an entire Pirate mentality to infect Tech, he’s quirky if you like him or eccentric if you’re trying to be nice. And who can forget the memorable quotes like “Their fat little girlfriends“?

Mike Leach doesn’t play well with others – He’s a genius but from all accounts and from this last event, it is evident that Leach doesn’t play well with others.

Maybe I’m the crazy one but as I saw more and more of this story unfold  I began to see too many parallels between Mike Leach and how some pastors behave.

Pastors are often smart – It’s not a biblical requirement but with our cultural norms of seminary, especially within the evangelical stream, it’s a pretty good bet that your pastor would score above average on many tests.  Even for those of us that school didn’t come easy, we work in a world that involves hermeneutics, cultural analysis, epistemology, and crafting stories and illustrations to teach principles so people can better understand God’s agenda for their lives. Working in this world can breed arrogance, even if it’s an arrogance in our own small world.

Pastors are leaders – Whether you are the “lead pastor” or on church staff, leadership is part of your role.  Leaders can think too highly of themselves and especially leaders who are isolated and not connected with peers.  If you don’t have someone in your life who serves as your “kick you in the shin” friend, you are more likely to slip into arrogance and think more highly of yourself then you should.  I’m that friend for Adam and he’s that friend for me. I’m blessed, I guess, to have many of those friends but you need to have at least one.

Pastors have loyal followers – Even crazy pastors have loyal followers.  Over time, by being faithful and loving the flock that God has given you, people love you, believe in you and follow you.  Some will even follow you blindly, and that’s not healthy but also may not be your fault.  The danger of having a loyal following is they can think more highly of you than they they should.

Some pastors don’t play well with others – Whether they are domineering, manipulative,  micro-managers, or just think they are always right, some pastors don’t have the best grasp of community and what biblical plurality in leadership looks like.  They see themselves as God’s anointed and they shouldn’t be questioned. Once a counselor  told me in his fifteen years of counseling pastors there wasn’t one them that didn’t deal with being narcissistic or anti-social at some level.  That is anecdotal so take it for what it’s worth.  Here are some better thoughts regarding the potential connection of pastoral ministry and some personality disorders.

I hope that you are known for having all of Mike Leach’s positive attributes and you are able to see the dangers of having those same attributes.

I joke with friends about how much I loved my dam job before I took my last church job.  In case you don’t get the reference; I worked for an industrial construction crew that repaired a dam in Three Rivers, TX, therefore it was and will forever be referred to as my dam job.

It wasn’t an easy job. I was a grunt construction worker and most of my days consisted of waking up at 4:44am, driving to the job site, starting to work around 7am, handling a 90lb jackhammer for 4-6 hours and getting home around 6:30 at night.

I loved one aspect of that job though and even seriously considered becoming a foreman and maybe even a site manager over several crews.  The part I loved was it was easy to know when the job was done and at the end of the day, I didn’t go home thinking about the job.

Ministry is different because even though you can be a GTD Ninja and destroy your daily to-do list, you’re never done.  Also since most of us have a pastoral bent and it involves people, it’s hard to turn thinking about the ministry off.

It’s the nature of what we do and we have to find the balance.  If you didn’t think about the people you serve when you weren’t “on the job” , I might question your being in ministry but we can’t lose  focus on life with our families and life outside of ministry.

The part that’s frustrating about what I’m doing now is, so much of my time is and has to be focused on gathering the financial and prayer support.  I don’t mind it actually because it’s not begging for money, it’s sharing what God is doing and inviting people to join him in that work.  It’s a stressful privilege as the foundation is being formed but the frustrating part is so much time goes into it, I feel like not much else gets done some days.  Also I can be busy all day, doing the right things and there isn’t much to show for it at the end of the day.

Yesterday was not a frustrating day. *No, nobody decided to give us a $10K year end gift but there’s still time in case that’s on your to do list.  * It was a very joyful day despite not having anything tangible to show. I gained  new friendships and the joy of beginning to help a couple of youth workers.

I went into the Market Street to work in the the corner of Peet’s Coffee and I saw two guys sit down and one man called the other man “pastor” so I thought, I need to stop and introduce myself before I leave.

Thirty minutes later as I was walking by I stopped at their table, told them I had overheard the word “pastor” and introduced myself.  As outgoing as I am, there’s still an awkwardness to doing this but I overcame that and even asked if I could sit down.  That’s probably not  a shock to you but sometimes I catch myself by surprise.  We talked, I found out where their church is and I explained what I do for the National Network of Youth Ministries.  As I left I gave the pastor my card and got his card and the card of the other man before I went to my next appointment.

On my way back from that lunch with friends I drove by a church and thought,  “I wonder if they have a youth pastor, only one way to find out.” and I pulled into their parking lot.  Again, I know I’m outgoing but “cold calls” are really not my style but I walked in anyways and asked if they had a youth pastor and if he was in.

I met him and introduced myself and who I work for and what  I do.  Not surprising, he wasn’t familiar with the NNYM, so I had the joy of explaining that we exist to help youth workers be stronger because we believe “If the youth minister is stronger, the youth ministry will be stronger.”  I also got to wave my favorite flag, “God is more glorified when churches and believers are more unified.”

I learned a good bit about him in our brief time.  He’d been there around a year, felt called into youth ministry in the middle of an architecture class, was engaged and had been so busy he wasn’t connected yet to other youth workers in the area.

I tweeted about our meeting in the parking lot and then went home.

Later that afternoon I noticed that a facebook friend had “Liked” that status. I clicked the link to his profile and saw that he’s a youth pastor in Albuquerque, NM. I’m planning a trip to Albuquerque in February so I wrote him a message letting him know I was going to be in town and I’d like to connect.   I also gave him the name of the friend who runs the Albuquerque youth workers network. He wrote back and he’s been at his church for under a year and wasn’t connected yet with any other youth workers in his area but wanted to and was going to be in touch with my friend.

I finally put the business cards from my morning encounter into my trusty Palm and I noticed that the friend of the pastor that I met had a radically cool title -  “Leadership Development Specialist” for a local company.

I live by the motto “It never hurts to ask” so while out driving that night I called him and left him a message.  A few minutes later he called back and I reintroduced myself to him and honestly said, “When I put your info into my Palm, I noticed your job title and I’d love to meet with you at your convenience and pick your brain over some things.  Because I believe a lot of what you do would be tranfserable to what I do with youth workers.”

He said he’d love to meet and actually that was part of the reason he was meeting with his pastor that morning.  He wanted to begin looking at how he could use the knowledge and skills he has for his job to help build the Kingdom.   So we are hoping to get together sometime soon and talk.  I also shared with him that one of my strengths is being able connect things and share principles with others in understandable ways. So I’m hoping that I might be able to help him, also.

So yesterday was full of various joys of connecting with people but also because there was a very strong sense of God being at work in things I didn’t plan or couldn’t have planned.

I am confident that what I’m doing will not just help youth workers but help churches and advance God’s agenda for teenagers throughout Texas and New Mexico for now and more states later.  My confidence is based not on my work but so far I’ve been able to catch the wave of God moving me to various places and to make connections that allow me to serve people in accordance to my wiring and strengths.

It’s a a crazy adventure to be on but one that I wouldn’t trade for the world.  Thanks for being a part of this adventure through your encouragement, prayers and financial support.

The starting line for 2010 is almost here and  I can’t wait to begin 2010!

This picture was taken from my office when YS ran a Crazy Youth Worker Office Contest, or something like that. What is obvious is that I still have plastic army men and their kin, what isn’t obvious is that when I have the time, like Christmas break, I custom make them.

The ones I’ve made are Moon Knight, Vision, Two-Gun Kid, Red Wolf, Ms. Marvel, Quicksilver, Ant-Man, Hawkeye and others.  My favorites so far (that are not pictured)  have been Hercules and old school, Nick Fury.

I don’t have the ability to make a mold and melt the plastic into super heroes but I’ve become a wizard with a razor, putty and paint.

Before & After

These are bad shots but it’s the best I can do for now:

On the left is a Sheriff of Nottingham 54mm figure and on the right is The Swordsman from the Avengers.

This next one is pretty sweet job, if  I do say so myself.

War Machine

This one was merely painting the yellow, silver and the red black on an Iron Man figure but also was adding the Gatling gun from another figure on his left shoulder, 5 bazooka barrels from classic “Green Army Men” on his right shoulder and a machine gun from a WW2 German soldier. Doesn’t everybody have those in a box, somewhere?

Thanks for reading about my main geek hobby.

What hobbies do you have?

This is our prayer letter, if you’d like be part of our prayer support, please leave a comment and I’ll add you to the email list.  Thanks!

January Ministry Events

Jan 6-8 San Diego NNYM Ministry Council

This is a diverse group of national youth ministry leaders who buy into the mission of the NNYM and provide input for us.

Jan 8-10 San Diego Regional Staff Meeting

Planning 2010 in accordance with the Ministry Council meeting is a big part of this time with the other field staff.

Jan 11 Flying home to Lubbock

Jan 12-13 DFW Metroplex

I’m driving to Dallas and will meet with youth workers and supporters during these two days. * Pray for new connections with youth workers and supporters.

Jan 14-15 Resound Roundtable

Attending this is one of my “God Stories”. A friend of mine is hosting this event which will have 75-100 charismatic/pentecostal youth ministry leaders, including Ron Luce, Tommy Tenney and more, from around the country. I may be the only non-charismatic there and I’m excited because my friend told me, “I think our friendship can be a model for how churches should be with each other.” * I suspect that most in attendance will not be familiar with the NNYM and what we are about. Pray for new connections and partnerships to be formed.

Jan 15-16 Ignite Student Conference

The Roundtable is over at noon and I’m driving home to Lubbock to host the youth worker area for 200-250 churches that are bringing 3,000-4,000 students for this premier event in our local region. * Pray for new connections as I meet with tons of youth workers from around West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

Beyond January 2010

1. Air1 Radio Ads

Air1 is going to run fifty radio spots highlighting the National Network of Youth Ministries and its work in Texas and New Mexico. They will play twenty-five per week for two weeks each quarter in 2010. * Pray for me as I write the scripts that will reach many markets in Texas and New Mexico.

2. LiveYMTalk.com

I’m going to be a guest on Live Youth Ministry Talk in 2010. It’s a podcast that helps youth workers across the country. I’m facilitating a discussion about networking in youth ministry.. * Pray for my preparation and for more youth workers to be more receptive than ever to live this out.

3. Youth Worker Retreats

A. I’m beginning to plan our New Mexico Youth Worker Retreat and our West Texas Youth Worker Retreat. I have four amazing pastors/speakers who want to help serve youth workers and lead this retreat that allows them to rest and focus on God and renew their souls. * Pray for the details of each to be confirmed soon so I can begin promoting them in January.

B. Mark Whitaker has hosted retreats for Texas youth workers for years and will continue to do so, but we want to provide more than one in Texas. Two is certain and three or four would be good because of the size of the state. * Pray for locations and for partnerships in hosting these events.

4. Albuquerque, NM Trip

Another answer to prayer during the National Youth Worker Convention in Atlanta was meeting to youth workers from Albuquerque. One of them leads the Albuquerque Youth Worker Network. I’m going to visit them and meet their local network. I’m also trying to meet with Chuck Harper, who works with Native Youth and youth workers with the NNYM.

5. Texas Metro Focus and Finding Area Champions

When I met with Doug Clark and Mark Whitaker in November, we designated geographical areas within Texas and New Mexico. Texas has six areas and New Mexico has three.

Marks full time ministry is running Youth-Net, the Dallas Metro Youth Ministry network and has been the volunteer state coordinator of Texas for the NNYM. Since I’m now full-time and can oversee Texas, Mark is going to focus his volunteer time on the Texas Metro areas of Austin, Dallas (his home base), El Paso, Houston and San Antonio.

Our big goal this year is to find people within each big area and metro areas to be the point person and keep a pulse on their area regarding youth ministry networks, ministry opportunities, and how the NNYM can help.

Pray for those leaders to be evident to us.

Family Update

All of the Evans’ girls finished school well, especially Tonja, who maintained her 4.0 at Texas Tech. She is graduating in May, 2010!

Year-End Update

We are so aware of the state of our economy right now. Thank you for to those who gave “above and beyond” at year-end to support our ministry as we launch into 2010 and for praying that we fulfill out budget.

We have 21 monthly supporters, who are providing about 40% of our budget. The good news is a handful of other people have already committed to begin giving monthly in January.

There are around 50 other people who have expressed interest in helping at some level monthly.

I believe we could be near 100% of our budget by the end of January if most of the people who have expressed interest begin giving something.

We really do believe that 2010 is bright with possibilities. Serving the God of the universe makes us optimists – we know how this story ends! We deeply appreciate your investment in our ministry so we can serve churches, youth workers and reach more teenagers in Texas and New Mexico!

Let us know how we can pray for you! My email is levans AT nnym dot org.

I met with a youth pastor this week and it was a great time of getting to know each other, hearing how God has worked in his life to this point and looking forward to our friendship growing deeper.  As we were wrapping up our time together he mentioned wanting to be published and asked for andy advice.  I shared some things with him but today I updated these previous thoughts and thought I’d share it.

This is not false humility but reality, if I can do it, anybody can do it! So be encouraged.

If being published is your goal you have to keep a few things in mind. It’s not impossible, it’s not easy and it can be rewarding.

When I decided I wanted to begin writing for the little niche of youth ministry world, I decided that my measure of success would be Producing and not being Published. The only part I could and can control is if I try to get my thoughts down for others to see. I couldn’t control if an editor liked my thoughts and published them but I could control if I produced my thoughts for them to see.

My goal, until recently, has been to be published once a year in some youth ministry venue.

So the first thing to do is decide to produce your ideas and then, unlike most resolutions, to actually do it!

Everything Counts

Whether you are published in a local newspaper for a story or Backpackers Monthly, the important thing that editors like to see is that others have used you. And no, church newsletters don’t count.

Those that succeed at writing take it seriously

This was the advice that I took to heart. I started treating writing like a part-time job. I’d try to put about 5 hours a week towards writing, research or improving my writing. It didn’t always happen but it helped me to remain focused.

Pay Your Dues

Maybe you’ll live the dream and your first book will be a runaway success but don’t plan on it. Write what you can and where you can. The very first time I was published was because of my seminary prof who was able to let us write some “filler” for a Chistian Education magazine. It was small but it was a start. I then wrote occasional “Tool Reviews” for Youthworker Journal for a couple of years and then my first sidebar back in 98 for Youthworker.

Then no other articles until 2001 but a good streak started then with Youthworker Journal. During this time I also sold the concept and all of my archives to Youth Specialties for the “Student E-Newsletter”. After that was completed I put off sending my idea for a Creative Bible Lesson book for about a year but I finally sent the proposal and Waa Laa!! I became an official author back in August of 2004. It was a long road for me to go from wanting to write to being able to write a book.

I had a chapter in The Youth Workers Book of Hope that was edited by Tim Baker and published by Youth Specialties. The last few years have been one of “those seasons” where there was little normalcy. We’ve been in Lubbock for almost three years now and things are progressing on the fund-raising aspect of my job and finally it seems I’m in a good place to begin writing semi-regularly again.

Everyone has a Story

This is my primary conviction that drives me to try and write. Everyone has a story to share. The key is to think of the unique stories in your life and extract the principles from them that can help others. There is nothing new under the sun. My classic story is when I worked for a large church, a leader came in and told me that the church wanted 200 students at church every Sunday and it was 100% my responsibility to make it happen. I listened to him, asked defining questions and later than night updated my resume. What I shared with others as a result of that experience are these two main points:

1. Expectations determine your experience and your exit in youth ministry.
2. Expectations that hurt you in youth ministry are either Unspoken, Unclear or Unrealistic.

I had more details for each of those points but both principles were learned from one experience. Look for the principles in your experience and paint a picture of what that looks like for others.

Paint a Picture

I took a basic speech class in college and never took a homilitcs class in seminary. I’ve only read one complete book about the art of preaching and it was the “Preaching and Teaching with Imagination” by Warren Weirsbe. He made a very strong case that God wired us to think in pictures and pictures are what people really remember.  This is why you can remember illustrations from years ago but can’t remember the three point outline from last weeks sermon, even if you gave it.

Since that is case, we have to lean to paint pictures with our words. My dream work title for a future Tax Return is “Artistic Wordsmith”.

Find Your Voice

Be yourself with your own unique quirks and views. As the old country preacher used to say, “You gotta be who you is. Cause if you is who you ain’t, then you ain’t who you is.” No one else has your view or experiences, learn how to share those views and experiences with others, as only you can.

One thing I hear consistently from friends who’ve read things I wrote goes something like this, “I could hear you talking to me when I read it.”  That is what it means to find your voice, you are the only one with your unique perspective and ability to share the insights you find so share them as only you can.

People, who don’t even know you yet, are waiting to hear your voice and you never know, you just might impact someone’s life beyond what you can imagine through the power of words.