Search, Stay, or Quit
Yesterday here at SYMC, I was able to attend a few pre-conference workshops before the conference officially started. One of those workshops was called “The Emotionally Healthy Youth Worker” with Mark DeVries. Instead of sharing all my notes, like I did with a Duffy Robbins track in another blog, I want to share a section of those notes that I believe will help student pastors who may be reading this.
Here is the question that will lead the rest of this post: What do you do when the work you have been called to do as a youth pastor is different from what your senior pastor wants me to do? Unfortunately, many students pastors find themselves in churches or around a staff that may not see eye-to-eye with them about what they should be doing as a student pastor. If you’re not careful, this can cause frustration in your ministry. So the question is, what do you do when your view or calling in youth ministry is different from your senior pastor? What if what you want to do is different from what he wants you to do. Basically you have three options:
1. Search. The first thing you can do is start searching for another student pastor position that fits your better. One thing to remember if you go this route is make sure you stay on board as the student pastor until God opens a door somewhere else. Don’t start searching and leave the church before another positions opens up. I would encourage you to spend time in prayer before making this decision.
2. Stay. Another option would be to just stay. Mark DeVries pointed something out that grabbed my attention. He said if your senior pastor wants you to do youth ministry I way you really don’t want to, than spend some time doing it his way and let your way be worked into it. Eventually, you will be at a happy balance where you’re doing youth ministry your way and also making your senior pastor, whom is your boss, happy.
3. Quit. Some of you don’t like option 1 or 2. If you seriously cannot work in a church where the senior pastor may see youth ministry a little different from you, than the best thing for you and that church is for you to quit. If you do this, make sure you stay there until they find someone or have someone overseeing the youth ministry. Don’t leave them high and dry because you can’t work there. Be wise and smart with making this decision.
I hope if you find yourself in a spot where you don’t see eye to eye with your senior pastor when it comes to youth ministry, this short post has helped you. I will be sharing some more of my notes and parts of my notes in the next few days as I am here at the SYMC.
Teaching the Bible for All It’s Worth
As I mentioned in my last post, I want to try and share all my notes from this weekend while I am here at The Simply Youth Ministry Conference. This morning I was able to attend a pre-conference track with Duffy Robbins called “Teaching the Bible for All It’s Worth” here at SYMC. One of the things I loved about the workshop was Duffy’s passion about the Word of God. He spent a lot of time at the beginning talking about hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation. This was super encouraging for me because I believe the Bible is the starting point for effective youth ministry. The Bible is what students need. They don’t need our clever ideas or programs, they need God’s Word.
Because of the amount of notes for this tracks, I wanted to just post a link to the PDF of the notes I took. I hope these help you and help you understand how to teach God’s Word to students. Click the link below to see my notes from this track in PDF format.
Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2012
For the next five days I will be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Louisville, KY. I have been to this conference a few times and each time I come away refreshed and more excited about youth ministry. I know many youth pastors who cannot make it this weekend so I want to be a resource to them and others you may be interested in the teaching that goes on at this conference. So my plan is to share all the notes I take from the tracks and workshops I am a part of this weekend. I will try to do this daily and put my notes into a blog format for others to read and learn from.
I have already planned what tracks and workshops I will be attending. Once I get there and the conference starts I make change which ones I am going to, but as of right now here are the tracks and workshops I plan to get in on:
Teaching the Bible to Teenagers with Duffy Robbins
New to Youth Ministry: Starting Out on the Right Foot with Steve Schneeberger
Under Your Unbrella: When College Ministry is Just One of Your Responsibilities with Chuck Bomar
Effectively Communicating to Teenagers and Parents Throughout the Week with Tim Schmoyer
If any of these interests you than keep an eye on my blog for the next five days. I will share all my notes from these tracks and workshops as well as anything else that happens at SYMC that is worth blogging about. Click here to see a list of other bloggers who will be blogging throughout the SYMC.
How to Cultivate Humility in Leadership
For the past week or two I have been studying through the book of Acts in my devotions. As I have been studying Acts, I have seen several leadership principles I have been wanting to share. If you read my blog regularly, you know I love to write about leadership principles I see in Scripture. I was going to write a few posts about the leadership principles I have seen in Acts, but I realized all of them come back to one thing-humility. If there is any trait a Biblical leader must have it is humility. It’s not an easy trait to maintain and cultivate, but with God’s help we can be leaders known for our humility. Here are three ways to cultivate humility in leadership as seen in the book of Acts:
1. Don’t be afraid to serve behind the scenes. At the end of Acts 1 we see the disciples are faced with a situation-who is going to replace Judas. In verses 21-22 we see that whoever replaces Judas has to have been among them the whole time they were traveling with Jesus from the time He was baptized by John until His ascension. There was only two men who meet this criteria, one being a man by the name of Matthias. Peter prays and asks God to show them which man He has chosen for this job. God reveals to them Matthias was the man and so he replaced Judas. The reason this is so interesting is because we have not heard of this Matthias guy until now. He has been walking with the disciples and Jesus for years and we just now hear about him! What does this teach us? Sometimes we have to serve behind the scenes. Sometimes as leaders we have to go unnoticed and serve in the background while everyone else is getting the recognition. The first thing we can do to cultivate humility in leadership is be ok with serving behind the scenes. At the end of the day, it’s not about us anyways.
2. Always depend on God. Before Peter and the other disciples made their decision about who will replace Judas, Matthias or the other guy, they prayed and asked God for His will (Acts 1:24, 25). Many times in leadership we try to make all the decision on our own. We feel that as the leader we must call the shots. But if we want to be Biblical leaders who maintain humility, we must depend on God. Not just in making decision, but in everything we do. If you want to cultivate humility in leadership, you must get serious about depending on God.
3. Don’t allow any task to become to small for you do to. A lot of times in leadership we feel like there are some tasks that are just too “small” for us to do. For example, a lead pastor might not feel like it’s too small of a task for him to clean the bathrooms. That is a somewhat extreme example, but if we want to be leaders who have humility, we must realize we sometimes have to do those “small” tasks and get our hands dirty at times. If you’re in leadership and refuse to do something because it’s too “small” or “lower” than you, your probably struggling with pride and you need to cultivate humility. In Acts 6 a need arose-widows where getting neglecting in the daily distribution of food. Because the apostles were called to pray and minister through the Word so they equipped other faithful men to do this task of serving tables. One of the men chosen to serve tables was Stephen. What is interesting about that is a few chapters later you find out Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. Stephen didn’t allow serving tables become too “small” of a task for him. He decided to start with a “small” task and obviously was faithful at it. If you want to cultivate humility in leadership, don’t ever allow a task to become “too small” for you to do.
I want to leave you with a verse that I believe drives all three of these points home. 1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you.” Because Matthias and Stephen humbled themselves and were servant leadership, God exalted them later on down the road. Sometimes we have to serve in those humble ways before God exalts us. The best thing a leader can do is humble himself before God and allow God to exalt him in the proper time-God’s timing.
I’m Getting Married!
My fiancee, Crystal Garofalo, and I have officially set a date for our wedding! We have been engaged for a few months, but have been waiting to set a date until the Lord opens up a youth pastor job for me. God has opened that door recently and I will share more about that in a few weeks.
Crystal and I would like to thank everyone who has invested into our relationship and helped us grow as a couple in Christ. Most of all we are thankful to God for doing so much thus far in our relationship.
Click here or the picture below to check out our wedding website and get all the details on the big day!
How and Where I Ended Up in Seminary
During my last few semesters at Piedmont International University, I started to think about seminary. I thought, “Do I even want to spend a few more years in school? Or, if I do attend seminary, do I want to work on a M. Div. or shorter Master’s program?” Eventually, after a lot of thought, prayer, and wise counsel I decided to attend Liberty Baptist Theological Baptist Seminary and decided to work on a Master’s of Arts in Religion with a specialization in Christian Leadership online. I wanted to take a few moments and explain how I decided the seminary track I am on and hopefully help you if your on the fence about seminary. Before I share my thoughts, I want to make one thing clear. I do not believe the way I am doing seminary is the only way to go about doing seminary work. There are many options and ways to go about it, but here is why I chose what I am doing.
Master’s of Arts in Religion. As much as I respect the M. Div. program and the practical, pastoral education it gives you, I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that many more years in school and if seminary was even going to be a good fit for me. So I decided to start a MAR that is somewhat smaller than the M. Div. If you want a good, professional seminary degree that is not an M. Div., go for the MAR. One of the reasons I chose this route is because at most school’s the MAR can roll into an M. Div. that you can finish in another year or two. The MAR is a great degree because it allows you to continue in seminary if you’re financially and willing to do so.
Christian Leadership. Like the M. Div., when you take the MAR, you get to choose a particular specialization. I decided to specialize in Christian Leadership because I believe leadership is an extremely important part of church ministry that we do not focus on a lot. If you’re planning on being in local church ministry in a pastoral role you need to focus on leadership. Our churches need people who are trained leaders. Even if you’re not going into church ministry, leadership is an important aspect in business and family. I am going into full-time student ministry. Part of having an effective student ministry is building a team of leaders to help you serve students. Studying leadership in seminary is helping me become a better team builder, how to handle conflict in leadership, and how to be the right kind of leader in a local church.
Liberty Theological Baptist Seminary. There are so many good seminaries and graduate schools to choose from these days. I decided to go with Liberty for a few reasons. First, I love the legacy of Jerry Falwell and what he did with Liberty University. I respect the school and what the school has and continues to stand for. Second, they are extremely well-known. I went to a relatively unknown school for my undergrad. I wanted to go somewhere more well-known for seminary. I know we shouldn’t judge people by where they went to seminary, but a lot of churches will look for candidates that are from particular schools or schools that are more popular. Third, I went with Liberty because of their great online education.
Online. If you enjoy the classroom setting and learning in person from a professor, than make sure you attend a seminary on campus. Online education is not for everyone. If you can learn well and stay motivated by online work, than look into doing seminary online. Doing seminary online through Liberty is the most affordable seminary you will find. I went with online for two main reasons. First, it was cheaper and I didn’t want to spend too much on seminary. Second, I wanted to get into full-time ministry. If you want to jump straight into full-time ministry after undergrad, than do seminary online. It allows you to work on your education while doing what you love, ministry!
Seminary is not a walk in the park. I am only a few classes into my seminary degree, but I can already tell it’s not a repeat of your undergrad years. If you’re a first year student in seminary like me, I found this article that includes 10 tips for surviving your first year of seminary. If you can afford it and feel like it’s God’s will, pursue seminary. It’s something that will greatly help your future in ministry.
I originally wrote this post for The Baptist Resource blog. The Baptist Resource is a great website ran by Greg Moore, an adjunct professor of religion and church history and a former college registrar. The Baptist Resource is a great site that provides piratical advice and information on college and seminary education.
Student Ministries Books Every Student Pastor Should Read
In my last post I reviewed a great student ministry book called The Indispensable Youth Pastor. I posted a link to the review in a Facebook group called Youth Pastor’s Only. It created some great feedback and conversations about student ministries books we should read and check out. I have been wanting to create a working list of student ministries books I recommend so I figured I would start here in this post. Here is a list of student ministries books I have read that I would recommend to student pastors, student ministry volunteers, and those studying to go into student ministry.
Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry by Doug Fields
Purpose Driven Youth Ministry by Doug Fields-This is an older book that was at one time “the youth ministry” book. It’s worth reading and contains some valuable principles for your ministry.
Speaking to Teenagers by Duffy Robbins
The Seven Checkpoints for Youth Leaders by Andy Stanley
Youth Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Youth Ministry by Houston Heflin-This books contains one of the best definitions of youth ministry ever given. You can check that definition out in a post I wrote about it called “Youth Ministry Defined.”
Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestreicher-If you want to get a great summary of the history of youth ministry, this book is for you! It explains where youth ministry was, is, and where it is going. I don’t totally agree with where Oestreicher believes youth ministry should go, but overall it’s a great little book.
Youth Ministry by the Book by Roger Glidewell-This is a student ministry book most have not heard of, but I would highly recommend you grab a copy and read it. This is the most Biblical based student ministry book I have ever read.
Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church by various authors-I had to read this book for a student ministry class in college. It is a little older than most of the books I have mentioned, but contains some great insights about the different ways we appraoch youth ministry and the overall local church.
The Ministry of Nurture by Duffy Robbins
Youth Culture 101 by Walt Mueller-If your looking for a book that will help you understand the culture of youth today, this is the book I want. Also, I recommend suggesting this book to parents so they can understand the culture of their teen.
Raising the Bar by Alvin Reid-One of the top student ministry books in my opinion. I recently wrote a review of it here on my blog. Click here to see that post.
The Indispensable Youth Pastor by Mark DeVries-This is a book for somewhere in any stage of student ministry: just starting, been at it for years, or about to be done. Click here to see my recent review of the first part of the book.
The Greenhouse Project by Mike Calhoun-This book is a gold mine for student pastors. Each chapter is on a different area of student ministry and the book as a whole gives you a great summary of what a healthy student ministry looks like.
These are just a few of the many student ministry books out there, but these are the ones I have read and would recommend. Leaders are readers. If we want to be effective leaders in our student ministries we must be readers. Feel free to leave your thoughts on some of these books as well as suggest other books I may have not read it.
The Indispensable Youth Pastor (Part 1)
As many of you know, I am still searching for my first full-time student pastor position. Awhile back I saw the book The Indispensable Youth Pastor and noticed the first part of the book was dedicated to helping you land a youth ministry job. Honestly, this was the first book I saw on this subject so I instantly wanted to grab a copy. My fiancée surprised me and gave it to me as a gift a few weeks ago and I just finished reading the first part. The last book I reviewed here on my blog was Alvin’s Reid book Raising the Bar so I figured it was time to post another book review. Since I only read the first part of the book about landing a youth ministry job, I am only going to review that part in this post. On down the road I hope to read the rest of the book and post a review on it.
In The Indispensable Youth Pastor, authors Mark DeVries and Jeff Dunn-Rankin attempt to do three things for the reader: land, love, and lock in your youth ministry dream job. The book is broken down into three parts based on that attempt and I believe the first part, landing a youth ministry job, provides some of the best advice I have ever heard when it comes to searching for a youth ministry job. The chapters are extremely short, only about two pages each, so it makes this book easy to read and apply the advice given.
The first chapter cuts right to the heart of the matter, before you can worry about landing that youth ministry job, you need to be the right person. If your going to be effective in that dream youth ministry job you better have a growing, vibrant faith that you can pour into students. Here are two great quotes from this chapter: “The only way to share a vibrant faith is to have a vibrant faith” and “We can’t share what we don’t have.” From there the book talks about engaging in youth ministry wherever you are now, and realizing youth ministry is more than hanging out with students. Then you come to a few chapters that deal with the way you go about your search. The authors suggest you make two helpful documents: a contact tracking chart and a personal search timeline. These two documents will allow you to gather a group of contacts as well as track your search so you know where you are at. Personally, I have not made these two documents, but have taken the principles from the idea and it is helping a lot! Then the book spends the next few chapters on your resume. It deals with having the right type of resume, knowing what your references will say, and how to handle interviews once your resume lands you a face to face interview. Then you get to the last two chapters in this part of the book: family matters and holy hesitation. These were probably the most helpful and encouraging chapters for me.
When it comes to searching for a youth ministry job, you must always keep your family first and keep them in the loop with the search process. The authors encourage you to think about things like: how often will your family see you if you take this position, will you have to move for this position, and does it pay the bills. They always encourage you to never stop talking with your family and allow them to be a part of the search process. Then the authors end this part of the book of right, reminding you it’s all about God’s leading and direction. Sometimes we experience a “holy hesitation” when God puts something in front of us. The authors remind you that sometimes that holy hesitation comes right before you step into that dream youth ministry job!
By far, this book provided the best advice I have yet to receive when it comes to my student pastor job search. If you are currently in a search, I would highly recommend you grab a copy of this book (Click here to get it on Amazon) and spend some time soaking in all the advice and helpful tips it provides. The rest of the book covers how to love and lock in that youth ministry job you have so if your currently a student pastor, I would recommend this book to you as well.
Click here for a great review of the whole book by Drew Peterson. Also, if you’re a pastor or person on a search committee that is on the other end of this topic, check out the authors other book Before You Hire a Youth Pastor.
What I Learned From a Week of Church Interviews
This past week I was able to have a couple of interviews with a few church in North Carolina. I have been looking for my first full-time student pastor position since finishing my undergrad degree in November. I’ll be honest, not much has been happening since November. I have sent my resume to over a hundred churches, but was not getting any feedback or calls from those churches. All that changed this past week. Out of nowhere three churches called me and wanted to meet with me! I enjoyed each interview and believe God taught me a lot about myself and my future ministry. Here are a few things I learned that I believe will help you if you’re looking for a full-time pastoral position in a local church:
1. Know your theology. One of the first questions two of the churches asked me was where I stood on certain theological issues. Good churches will want to know where you stand with your theology. They are looking to hire someone who lines up with their theology so it is vitally important you know where you stand. If your theology doesn’t match theirs, don’t waste your time or their time. Hopefully, you have studied theology in college and have a good understanding of where your stand, but make sure your ready to answer questions that are theological in nature. If the church is not concerned about your theology than it’s probably not a church worth talking to. Your theology will direct your ministry, so it is important that a church knows your theology. Before I go on let me explain something. Their are “closed handed” and “open-handed” issues. Usually, “open-handed” issues are things we can agree to disagree on and fellowship and worship together in humility. But when it comes to working on staff at a church, most churches will ask you to be on the same page with even the “open-handed” issuess. So when you step into an interview, make sure you know where you stand on the “closed-handed” issues as well as the “open-handed” issues.
2. Know the role your wife will play in the ministry. Every church I interviewed with asked me how my fiancee, soon to be wife, will fit into the ministry. They want to know how your wife will serve in the ministry. Some churches will expect your wife to play a vital role while other will not expect her to do too much. Determine before an interview that you are being hired for the position, not your wife. If she wants to play a big role in the ministry, great, but if she doesn’t, that is perfectly ok. In order to answer this question, spend some time talking to your wife about how she sees herself fitting in to your ministry. Allow her to serve where her strengths and passions lie. Then explain to the church how she will serve with you and what particular roles she will play. If your not married, realize most church will look to at candidates that are married first. Don’t get married just for ministry, but realize it’s an important asset to churches. One quick tip. Allow your wife to speak in the interview if she is present. Let her share her heart and passions for ministry. Churches not only want to hear you, but want to hear your other half.
3. Make sure your like the overall ministry of the church, not just the particular area your looking to serve in. I am looking for a student pastor position so I looked very closely at their students and how the church views student ministry. It is important to make sure you like where the church is going with the ministry area or applying for, but make sure you like the church overall. Don’t take the job if you are falling asleep during the Sunday morning worship servive. Don’t take the job if you don’t feel like you will get spiritually feed by the preaching. Don’t take the job if you feel like your wife and children don’t like the the ministries that are geared towards them. I look at it this way, find a job at a church you would attend if you didn’t get a job there. Would you enjoy the Sunday services if you wasn’t the student pastor? Would you send your children to the children’s ministry if you didn’t work for the church? Find a church that ministers to your personally.
These are just a few of the things I learned this past week. I hope they help you as you are looking for that position or will help you encourage someone who is currently looking. At the end of the day, God is sovereign and will lead you to the right place and position. Pray and ask God for guidance and discernment as you look for that perfect position.
3 Part Philosophy of Student Ministry
It is important to always have a philosophy of what you are doing in student ministry. If you want to have an effective, organized, and healthy student ministry, you need a clear-cut philosophy that you understand and is easy to explain to others. A philosophy of student ministry will help you stay on target and will help you explain to others exactly what your ministry is all about. I believe your philosophy needs to be simple, clear, and Biblical. Here is my simple 3 part philosophy of student ministry:
As you can see I break my philosophy down into three simple parts: Biblical teaching, training leaders, and equipping parents. Biblical teaching involves what you do with your students. As a student pastor, your prime responsibility is to teach students the Word of God. Your games, activities, music, and events will not transform students, only the Word of God will truly transform them. That is why Biblical teaching needs to be the center and focus of your student ministry. Training leaders involves what you do with your leadership team. If you want to have a student ministry that is growing and will outlast you, you must build a leadership team. You do this by training them, meeting with them on a regular basis, and equipping them to do ministry (click here to see a post about how leaders play an important role in small groups). Equipping parents involves what you do with the parents. A student pastor is not called to take the place of the parent, but to partner with them as they point their children to Christ. We must allow the parents to be the prime disciplers of their children. As student pastors, we help them do that. We must meet with them regularly, build relationships with them, and equip them with resources.
I believe if a student pastor incorporates these three things in his philosophy, they will have a very effective student ministry. These three things are what every student pastor must do! So how does this look in a typical month? How do we incorporate these three important things into a typical month in our student ministry. Here is how I would do this:
Weekly student gathering. Whether you meet o Sunday nights or Wednesday nights, always have a large group gathering with your students where you worship and teach God’s Word. This can also be the “front door” to your ministry. A night where the energy is high, the music is loud, and the teaching is relevant. This is a night were unchurched students can come and get plugged in to your church and ministry.
Monthly leaders meeting. After you build a leadership team, you need to meet with them regularly. Use this meeting for two things: planning and training. Go over the month ahead and allow the leaders to help you plan what will happen. Also, use this time to train them on how to be better leaders and better at working with students.
Monthly or bimonthly parent meeting. You have to keep your parents informed and involved. Meet with them every month or every few months to get them informed on what is going on in your ministry. Also, use this meeting to share with them resources that will help them disciple their children.
My philosophy is not the “perfect philosophy” but I believe it involves the three most important things every student pastor must be doing. I hope every student pastor nails down his own philosophy and if not this post helps you create one. This post is very familiar to the post I posted a few days ago called: 3 Things Every Student Pastor MUST Do. Take a few minutes to check it out and get more details on the 3 parts of my philosophy. You can also view a more detailed document on my “resume” page where I talk more about my philosophy of student ministry (Click here to view that document).
