Below is an occasional hobby of mine. I customize plastic toy soldiers/figures into Marvel super heroes, and normally they are from the long line of potential Avengers.  The ones in the front are all customized either by simple paint or by cutting and adding accessories to make them complete. My favorites that I made are Nick Fury (old one) and Hercules. How many can you name?

Want to change the world?  The best place to start is in your own backyard. Take a minute or two to quickly list at least three big needs in your community. Now look at your list and pick one that seems to capture your attention more than the others. Then cold-call a ministry or organization that is trying to meet that need and ask how your ministry can partner to help make it happen.

Networking not only fuels your ministry passions, but gives you a priceless perspective you just can’t get inside your “comfort bubble.” It might not be sexy to change your little corner of the world, but your little corner of the world is the entire world to some people in your community. And when you’re faithful with little things God has a way of entrusting you with bigger things.

March/April 2011 issue of Group Magazine

1. I’m leaving Thursday for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago. I’ll be packing long sleeves & my jacket.

I’ll be there with a good portion of the NNYM field staff helping youth workers understand what we are about and how we exist to help them and their churches have a stronger youth ministry.

My primary responsibility is helping coordinate a great team of conference pastors, spiritual directors, and coaches/consultants who will meet privately with youth workers.

I will also be serving on two panels: “Holding Steady: Coping With Transitions and Turmoil in the Church” & “Leaving a Ministry Without Losing Your Heart”

2. I was asked to write a chapter for an upcoming youth ministry book.  Please pray for wisdom as I share principles that can help youth workers.

3. Here is the latest PDF update on the ministry and the family:  PL_2011_03_LE

4. We’re still working towards being fully funded and I’ll be sending out a wide variety of ways (beyond monthly support) you can help that become a reality in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for being in our corner and for interceding for the ministry and our family.

Keep Lovin’ Jesus,

Len

There is one serious danger — that of developing a superficial type of Christianity, a youth program whose key word is fun. The emblem of the church is a cross, not a magician’s wand. Churches that have catered to every whim of youth, making concessions in order to win them or to retain them in the church have discovered before long that they have been unable to compete with the forces outside of the church. On the other hand, conservative churches that have had a Christ-centered and youth-participating program have not only held their own young people, but have attracted others. A Christian youth program is not an upgraded children’s program not is it a diluted adult program. It is geared to adolescence.

Our primary goal should be to win youth for Christ and to integrate them with the adult program by means of adventurous activities that shall be youthful in spirit, but at the same time be truly Christian.

Our ideal in youth work in the local church should not be a Christian adult, but rather a Christ-controlled adolescent gradually becoming an adult. He is to be a Christian personality now, not by-and-by when he has matured into adulthood.

The Church and Modern Youth by Peter. P. Person

(C) 1963 by Zondervan

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.”