Evangelism in the Young People’s Society

Mr. Witter, president of the youth people’s society, said: “Young people can win other young people better than any one else. I have read a great deal about the ‘Win my Chum’ plans for young people. I believe in it. I can see great opportunity in our church for our society. We must take more training in personal work, and then we can go out and win others. It looks to me as if we needed to give more thought to our own spiritual life as young people and to the regular meetings of our society that they should be more helpful and attractive. Then our society should be training young people for real service so that our young peopl will not only be good, but good for something. I certainly need your prayers for myself and for the young people of our society.”

Evangelism of Youth (c) 1912

by Albert H. Gage

I hope your new year is off to a wonderful start.

I’m traveling to San Diego to participate in three series of meetings with the National Network of Youth Ministries.

The first set of meetings is with people who will be leading the pilot versions of a national initiative that we are working on to network deeper within the communities to reach more students for and with the Gospel.

The second set of meetings is with our Ministry Council.  Our Ministry Council is an advisory group of youth ministry leaders from around the country.

The third set of meetings is with the NNYM Field Team.  This is a small group of people who serve as regional coordinators for the NNYM.

Here are specific requests for this trip:

1. Wisdom and discernment for everyone.

2. For a greater sense of unity and camaraderie among the NNYM staff because we rarely get to spend much time with each other.

3. I’d ask that you’d pray more for me and this ministry, over the next six days, than you normally do. Let me know if there is anything you believe I should hear about as a result of your prayers.

4. Let me know if you have anything that I can be praying for you.

It’s an honor that you partner with me in this ministry.

Len

Here’s my latest “Tools” article for Group Magazine:

We’re all busy, so it’s easy to tell ourselves that we’re too far underwater to build strategic relationships with others in our community (teachers, school administrators, business leaders, other youth workers or anyone else who cares for teenagers). But doing something–anything–to build up your connections is a huge step toward impacting your community for Christ. If you only have an hour a month, then use that hour a month to build am important new relationship. A few small things, done consistently, can add up to big difference over time.

Conversely, if you do nothing to start building new connections in your community, it could mean that a subtle form of arrogance has infiltrated your ministry–your actions show you don’t need anyone. Think of a new thing you can do this month to make a ministry connection with someone in your community.

Keep up on new books dealing with Christian Education; refer back to your seminary notes often.

Beware–like the plague–of treating youth work like a miniature church! Beware of getting into a rut, and of being labeled dull!

Get intimately acquainted with young people–those in your church and outside it. Watch them; listen to them; find out how they think; then start there with your program. Adapt your program to your current crop of young people.

But whatever transpires, don’t let them know you are calling the signals. Be subtle. Make your suggestion in such an off-the-cuff way that the vice-president of the youth group would vow he thought up the idea all by himself. Stay in the background. Never (except in the cases of fainting or sieges of scarlet fever) lead a meeting. Always be on hand–but always be in the background.

Every now and then, say for a half hour Tuesday morning, sit back and give the entire operation a long reflective look.

Youth Leaders’s Handbook: A “How to do it” Book for Youth Workers

by Gunnar Hoglund and Virginia Grabill

(C) 1958

Adam posted Megachurches canceling services today? and he’s gotten a lot of comments.  I was going to reply on his site, but I realized it’d be too long.

Apparently the church I attend wasn’t the only church to not have Sunday (or Saturday) services in light of having A Christmas Eve service on Fridays.  Our church even had to add a fourth Christmas Eve service.  I have no problem with any church canceling their services in light of what they think is best for their local congregation.  After all, I’m not the one who is accountable for their choices.

I have permission from Adam to kick him when I think he needs it but this is not a kick in the shins, let alone a kick in the danger zone. This is just a small difference in opinion between friends. Let me say this first, I love Adam’s passion and absolute love for the local church as being God’s primary way of changing and reaching a lost and dying world. We are 100% kindred spirits on that one.

Rants, which I’m a big fan of, tend to paint with broad strokes and have truth in them. I think Adam’s rant on this one is in line with his passions and values and I greatly respect that but it went a little too far, in my opinion.

If a local church wants to cancel their Sunday services because it’d be a strain on the congregation, so be it.  That’s their choice and they have the freedom to do that.  I think it’s weak to do to it just to give the staff a break, that’s stupid and selfish.  But even if that’s why they did it, so be it.  It’s not my church and I don’t care.

I think the churches that were mentioned are easy targets to hit and mega-churches by definition, are big targets to take swings at and have their own particular quirks.  They are not for everybody and I’m grateful that there are more avenues for people to hear and experience the Gospel than just through a mega-church. But taking swings at them doesn’t fix anything.  I think it’d be better to say, “They did this and it’s not my cup of tea and here are how my values are different.”  rather than, “In the end, the megachurches who take today off (and the myriad of churches who follow their lead, since they are “church growth experts“) are exhibiting the hole in their Gospel. Not to vilify them– but to expose the places we need to help them repair. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time but they got it wrong.”

I know Adam values the autonomy of each local church but this wasn’t the wrong thing for them to do, it would however be the wrong thing to do for Adam to do because of his convictions.

The good things these churches do, far outweigh any of the small things that may annoy Adam or anyone else.

I will write more before the end of the year but here is the very short updates and prayer requests:

Serving as a pastor for the National Youth Workers Convention in San Diego and Nashville was an honor and the experience affirmed I’m serving where I need to be.

My car died and I shared it about it twice on twitter and facebook. Twenty minutes after sharing it the second time, a friend let me know they had planned on donating their car anyways and if I wanted it, it was available.  I picked it up a little more than a week after it had broken down.  I’m working at Sears, part-time, as we continue to raise support.

Here is an immediate need: I have a trip January 4-9 to San Diego that serves three purposes for the National Network of Youth Ministries.

1. Meeting with local leaders from around the country who will be point people for our national initiative to better network believers in communities to reach more students with the Gospel.

2. Meeting with the Ministry Council. This group of 15-20 people is group of leaders from around the country who believe in our mission and help make us better with their contribution of time and strategy.

3. Meeting with the Field Team. The Field Team is comprised of individuals with my same role for the National Network.
This is the most important trip of the year because it sets the tone corporately and personally for the next year.
In order to attend, I need someone to donate airline miles for a ticket from Lubbock to San Diego or for people to donate around $400-$450 to cover the cost of the ticket. Oh and I have to have it by Thursday afternoon.

So, please pray for this need to be met.

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

PS.  I thought this might encourage you to hear from a different voice about the importance of this ministry:

On November 30, Daryl Nuss, NNYM’s chief ministries officer, met with Josh McDowell near his home in southern California. Josh is a well-known author, speaker and global church leader who has addressed more than 10 million young people in 118 countries and authored or co-authored 120 books. We were humbled when he made this affirmation about the role of the Network in youth ministry:

“There has never been a time when the Network is more greatly needed. After 50 years of ministering to young people, I’m deeply concerned that their post-modern thinking and lack of biblical knowledge are adversely influencing the church in America.

We need the Network to help strengthen youth ministry and to help us work together. Because of this, I believe that the National Network of Youth Ministries is the most critical youth ministry in America. I shudder to think where the body of Christ would be without the influence of NNYM.”

This year, I went to three youth ministry conventions.  The Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago and the two National Youth Workers Conventions in San Diego and Nashville.  At all three I had an official role, to care for youth workers.  At Simply I was part of what is now being called The Shelter and at YS, I was one of three convention pastors.

I would meet with youth workers who wanted to share their story in a safe place. These were typically triage sessions and I was the spiritual EMT. Everyone who I met with was hurting at some level.  The experiences varied from slight tension, deep frustration, emotional hurt or bleeding because of the history of being beat up by their church or ministry and more serious issues from their past.

My role was to listen and help them discover what God has already been doing in their lives, what God could be teaching them and discern their potential next steps.  It was humbling to have people find me before the convention ended and thank me.

I shared with friends that the whole experience was a living expression of 2 Cor 1:3-4:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

This is an aspect of my role with the National Network of Youth Ministries, to nurture and care for youth workers.  We all need to be encouraged and pastored but the need would be less for the professional youth workers, if every church committed to the principles of We Love Our Youth Worker & they worked on having a Five Star Fit. (I included a link to my article  because I’d guess 60% of the people I met with were dealing with one or more of those five areas.)

YM Shorts, the new interactive digital magazine from Wild Frontier and X3 Publications debuted last month. In the first 30 days more than 5,200 youth workers from 16 different countries clicked, read, watched, shared and printed the inaugural issue.

If you’ve not seen YM Shorts yet we invite you to surf over to www.WildFrontier.org and have a look. YM Shorts is free and can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection. There’s is no signup or login necessary.

Brenda pretty much rocks and this is a great, great free resource for youth workers. I hope you view it, contribute to it and share it with other youth workers.

A good bit of what I do for the National Network is relational, slow and behind the scenes. I thought I would give you a peek into how I am currently helping a couple of great youth workers.  Details have been changed but here is a portion of what I wrote recently:

Here are a few initial thoughts from the interactions I have had with each of you,  just so we are on the same page as we go forward.

1. We all want unity in your city and beyond.
2. We are all broken people and have our own share of issues and baggage regardless of how well we hide it.
3. We want God to be glorified in our lives, our ministries and in our relationships to each other and by resolving this situation.
4. We tend to hear what we want to hear and have our own true and false perceptions of reality.
5. We believe we are called to where God has us.
6. We know we can be wrong but odds are we are right. (Thank you pride for being the root of all sin)
7. We need to grow in our humility. If you just thought you didn’t, you definitely do!

These are a few of the foundational thoughts I have as we begin the process of reconciliation.

Here are the things I need agreement on before we go forward.

1. I will serve as the mediator in this process.
2. We will each pray through this process and praying, *Jesus, show them how they are wrong*, does not count.
3. If you disagree with any of the 7 previous things listed you will disclose that.
4. We will use Matthew 18:15-17 as our guide though this process.

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ‘If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

I am honored to serve you in this way and look forward to what God will do with you in your city and beyond.

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

~~~~~~

Reconciliation is a beautiful process but it can be painful.  The reward is worth the risk.  If you would, pray for us through this process as we seek to glorify God and bring greater unity in reaching students for Jesus.

In case you do know this, Peacemaker Ministries is a wonderful group that has great and needed resources to help believers and churches have a biblical approach to conflict.

I just read the Nov/Dec issue of Group and found what I wrote for the TOOLS section. It is an honor to get to write about Networking for Rick knowing that it gets to resource youth workers across the country and around the world. Here it is for you:

There is a guaranteed way to come away frustrated from your attempts to partner with other youth ministries in your area: sign on with them and hope they will meet your needs and are there to serve you.  If you enter into this adventure, instead with the  goal of serving  other youth workers and helping them  succeed, you will never run out people to serve. When you are a blessing to others you experience  a great blessing yourself. Adopt another youth worker and commit to pray for that person for  a month. At the end of the  month take him out for coffee and let him know you have been praying for his ministry.  Share anything that you have sensed on his behalf as you have prayed.  That is a blessing that any of us would love.