Its OK to Not Be Good at Things

Sarah and I were talking last night about the stuff that I like to do.  One of those things is photography.  I'm at least somewhat decent at taking pictures.  Part of being successful is having the proper equipment.  You also need a way to advertise and get your talent out there, and thats usually a website.  Mine is frustrating to me.  I'm just never satisfied with the site.  To make it really shine, I need to invest much more time and money into it...something I just don't feel that I can do at this point in my life.  This morning, as I saw the newest Youth Ministry Daily email pop into my inbox, I just laughed to myself.

*Disclaimer* I have not read the email yet, because I wanted inspiration, not duplication :)

You see, I really like to do a lot of different things.  My problem, however, is that if I begin doing something, I expect to do it to be amazing.  Not just amazing for an amateur, but amazing for the world.  And have a lot of these types of things that I like to do.  If they're not amazing, I want to keep working on it (and stressing myself out) to reach that goal.  For some reason, especially with visual things, I expect pro results every time.  Now I do believe, if you're doing something, you need to do it to the best of your ability (as if doing it for the Lord)...but I obsess about it.

On the flip side, I am terrible at some things.  I want to be creative and look at the big picture, but little detail things slip my mind.  I'm not that great of a communicator on an individual level.  My brain works backwards sometimes.

I told Sarah last night, "Maybe I should just give up photography, trying to be really good is just a distraction."  Her response was, "No, don't do that.  Just be OK with what you do.  You're not a full time photographer.  You are good at taking pictures, and you do get small jobs here and there.  You do enough."

God has blessed each of us with unique gifts and has placed us in unique situations to use those gifts.  As a part of a youth ministry team, I often forgot to look where I am and consider who God has placed in our ministry to accomplish his goals.  We need to make sure we are using these people and their gifts for his purposes.

Here are a few encouraging thoughts I came up with:

• You obviously love certain things and are passionate about them...pursue them
• Partner in ministry with those who have different strengths than you
• Delegate tasks that you aren't good at (or hate) to those people 
• You cannot do ministry alone
• Other people are really good at stuff too
• Don't stress yourself out at not being great at something (have you ever seen me play basketball?)

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Art in Youth Ministry

One of the books I'm currently reading as a part of my classwork is Marva J. Dawn's Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time.  It's been a very good exploration into worship and culture.  We've been talking in class about what it means to be creative as Christians and how to use that in worship...especially in light of the abundant technology and media sources out there.  

How do we put the organic element back in our worship services?  How can we really use the arts for worship in new ways that aren't a part of our normal church cultures.  I've really been trying to figure out how to practically add creativity into our ReFuel services...after all, creativity IS NOT ONLY making cool videos every now and then (although I really enjoy that).  Going further than the worship services, how can we encourage our students to engage in artist endeavors?  How can we encourage a generation of creative young people to create for his glory?

As I was reading a chapter on worship styles, I came across a quote by William D.Hendricks.  As a former art student and as a guy who thinks of himself as semi-creative person, this really made me stop and think.

It has been said that in ancient Greece, art killed religion; later in Christian Europe, religion killed art.  That alone is worth some reflection.  But we can add that in modern America, entertainment is killing both art and religion - a situation that leaves very little space for the Christian artist.

What do you think, youth ministry nation?  How have you embraced creativity in your youth ministry?  Do you ever use the arts?  Let's start a discussion!

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Celebrating Your Event

Our HS guys serving at D-Now

Over the last 4 years of serving at Crossroads, I have had the privilege to see our church morph into a mission minded body of believers.  We hosted a Mission Fair last Sunday night that highlighted 12 different service opportunities this year through Crossroads from here in Marshall TX, all the way to Ethiopia, and a lot of choices in between.

As a youth ministry, we also try to embrace service.  We dedicated the Saturday afternoon time of our Disciple Now to serving, we do monthly Serve! projects, we go on mission trips, we've even gone to mission camps.  In July, we are taking a group of leadership students to the inner city of Houston to serve with a great group called Center for Student Missions.

Each one of these events is incredibly impactful.  You may have the same experience with mission work.  Serving God is incredibly moving and usually creates some period of growth.  If you're like me, you get all pumped up about what God is doing and let that feeling carry the ministry for a while.

We go home and talk about it for a little bit, but we soon move on to plan, pray, and prepare the next event.  We forget to celebrate the week or weekend.  We need to remember those victories.  I heard a great quote a few days ago by Johnny Scott, program director for Christ in Youth

"It takes as much planning to reap the rewards of an event as it does to pull one off."

The truth is, the physical needs will still be there after you leave.  The leaves will fall again, the person you fed yesterday will need food today.  The fact that they raked or brought food will be remembered, but the greater thought will be, "I served.  I made a difference in that little kid's life."  A student will realize that they went beyond their comfort to be a part of something so much greater than themselves...to share an incredible story of hope through Christ.  That is what we have to remember.  When planning the followup of an event, here are a few questions to consider:

• How are we going to remember this in a month?
• How will we going to celebrate what God did at this event?
• How can we keep the students heading in the same direction?
• Do I have followup lessons and similar serving opportunities locally?

I think we can totally maximize an events impact by putting a little (or a lot) more thought and energy into the celebration of an event.  What have you done to celebrate an event in your youth ministry?

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Exploding Pants, instincts, and plans B and C. Part 3

So, I'm sitting there waiting for Sarah.  She was going to bring me some sweat pants...So stylish and so free, right?  The place I'm waiting is in a parking lot off of one of the busiest roads in our down.  I see Sarah pull up and she just starts laughing.  I get out of the car, and the laughing gets louder.

What does this guy do?  I walk to the other side of the truck and change right there in the parking lot.  I am super thankful for my wife.  I get back in the truck and jet to the school.

When I get back to the school, my stylish-sweatpants self was successful.  The mens game had already started, but it was only two minutes in.  I ran (freely) up to the top of the stands to replace my batteries, move the flashes, and resume picture taking.  I finished the game well, and got some great pictures.

I thought 2 things during this whole ordeal, 1) I HAVE to blog that, and 2) There's some great youth ministry application here.

So, blogged that - Check

Application: borrowed from MTDB

Sometimes in ministry, things can either go the way we plan them, or they can take an unexpected turn, for better or for worse. Although we can never plan for every minute to go exactly the way we want, God can. He will always know exactly what your youth group needs. There are a lot of things that can contribute to something not going according to your plan, but we just have to remember that God is in control.

There have been weeks in small group where the group veered off on another subject and we didn’t want it to go that way. When that happens, if it’s productive and the majority of the group is involved in the different discussion, we just let it go there. In the past we would bring the discussion back to what WE wanted to talk about. Later it dawned on us, the guys in our groups had a different need that night, and we should have just let them take over but we didn’t and we quickly lost their attention on our original subject that we wanted to talk about. What a huge mistake!

With that being said, it’s also okay to change plans when you don’t feel like they’re being effective. It’s alright to call an audible in the middle of the play. If your students can’t pay attention, turn it into a fellowship night. Sure, your original plan didn’t go through, but at least your students will be getting something useful out of their time. As a youth group leader, you need to be fast, fluid, and flexible. Teens live in a world that changes faster every single day. Information is hurled at them in a record pace. We need to be able to change and adjust on the fly in order to be successful.

Hopefully, it doesn't take you pants exploding to get you there.

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Exploding Pants, instincts, and plans B and C. Part 2

So, how did I get through this terrible dilemma?

Well, I had to plan it out.  I could walk through the innards of the basketball gym (the hallways that go to the locker rooms), but ultimately I'd have to walk through that and into the main entrance of the building.  The main entrance to the building is a large open area where 2 entire ladies' basketball teams and parents were hanging out.

What did I do?  I looked at the athletic director for ETBU, David Weaver, and said, "Weaver, you may not be getting pictures of the men's game."  He looked at me with a stunned look.  I continued, "I brought an extra camera in case of emergency, but I didn't bring extra pants."  I pointed to the rip, and his mouth hung open.  He was shocked.

It was at that moment that I had to make a crucial decision.  I spent all day getting those lights in place.  I also hadn't shot much basketball this year and was really excited about it.  Do I call it a day, or do I try to figure out how to cover the game?  I made a choice... I'd be back.  I immediately called Sarah to tell her about my unfortunate situation and to see if she could bring me some pants.  I called...no answer (repeated 3 times).

I only had a small window of time before the next game, so what did I do next?  I manned up.  I walked quickly with a straight face without making eye contact with anybody and booked it out of there, just as I had planned.  Did anybody notice?  I hope not.  Plan B failed...I could not get a hold of Sarah.

So, I commenced to plan C.  Plan C was to run to the ETBU bookstore and buy some ridiculously overpriced sweat pants.  As I ran to the bookstore, I was praying that they were going to be under $30.  "We can't afford that," I thought.  Well, it didn't matter, because the bookstore was closed...so I started to run for the truck.  After 2 more attempts, I finally got a hold of Sarah.  I was back in some form of plan B... Lets call it "Plan B, Revision 2"

So Sarah and I were speeding from different directions to meet in the middle.  Did she make it in time?  Did I make it back in time?  Find out on the next exciting episode...

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Exploding Pants, instincts, and plans B and C. Part I.

Let me set the stage for you.

I'm a bigger guy.  And I weigh more than I look...or so everybody tells me.  I'm 5'8 with a 38-40 inch waist...well, a 38-40 inch rear end...my waist is smaller... and its sort of hard for me to find blue jeans.  I found the absolute perfect pair of bluejeans at Kohls a few weeks back.

Well, as many of you know, I do photography.  I was at ETBU on Saturday taking basketball pictures.  I spent most of the women's game running from the court to the top of the bleachers, adjusting camera flashes and such.

Another thing about me... I sweat like a crazy maniac.  I was seriously asked to leave the workout room at ETBU once between my cario and my weight lifting because I was too sweaty.

So, I'm hot and tired and sweaty by the end of the women's game.  It ends, and I get ready to jump back into the stands to change batteries and reposition the flashes again, when it happend.  You see, sweat and blue jeans that are tight around the thighs are not a great combination to begin with.  Couple that with attempting to step from the ground onto the 3rd bleacher and... well... RIP!  A six inch rip in the inseam, from the middle of the crotch down towards my leg.  Luckily, I was wearing dark blue boxer briefs, but I had to evacuate the gym as quickly as possible.

What did I do?  Find out tomorrow!

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Don't be a Useless Servant

I'll admit it, its really easy for me to slip into laziness.  The snooze button on the alarm is just so much easier to press than it is to get up and run.  I also can easily slip into that mid-day funk where some mysterious force sucks the energy out of my life.  I can't move or think, only stare into oblivion, and all I want to do is sleep.  During those times, I might need purchase something from the grocery store.  I've been known, during those sleepy times, to guide my truck into the Walmart parking lot.  Sometimes, I'll come close to parking my truck and say, "You know, I can just get this tomorrow," and go home.

Its absurd, I know.  But often, the thing that I'm looking for will determine how much effort I put into getting it.  In those "I'll get it tomorrow" times, I'm probably going there to buy something mundane...printer paper, wiper fluid, toilet paper :).   If, however, the item I need is something that I have been ordered by the boss (my wife) to get (diapers, ground beef, toilet paper), I usually put a greater effort into it.  I'll actually go in to get it.  Whether I remember to get the item, or come back with something else is another story.  Now, if it is something amazing that I need (a technology item, video game, 50 pounds of chocolate), I'll run there as fast as I can.  If I don't find it at Walmart, I don't give up, I run to Kroger.

As youth ministers, we are entrusted with a wide variety of tasks.  Some things I'm just wired to do...I like to set up techno-gadgets, set up websites, be on stage, come up with videos.  There's things that I don't quite do so well...communicating to students parents, following up on events in a students life, administrative stuff.  In those things that I'm not so good at, I can't afford to just turn around and put it off until tomorrow.  God has entrusted us with the care and direction of a group of students. He's placed volunteers (or potential volunteers) around us.

It reminds me of the story Jesus tells about a master (Mt  25 or Luke 19).  He gives 3 servants differing amounts of his money to do something with.  One dude sits on it, and comes back with the same amount...he is called wicked by the king.  Two others both double their money.  He takes the money away from the wicked servant and gives it to one of the others.  He says, "Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

I pray that I remember, as a youth leader, I have been entrusted with much.  God expects me use my gifts and talents well.  Don't be a useless servant!

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