Intro of Christ by Steve Harvey

See, everyone has their own style of evangelism .  This is awesome!

D&W: YM LIVE chat with Greg Stier

I’m totally stoked for tomorrow’s LIVE YM Chat with Tim Schmoyer as he interviews Greg Stier about “Answering teens’ tough questions about God,” tomorrow (Friday, March 13th) at 2pm EST.  Much of what Greg shares will be based on his experience from GOSPEL Journey Maui.  Click the link below to join in the conversation.  We’d love to hear from as many of you as possible!

LIVE YM Chat with Greg Stier
“Answering teens’ tough questions about God”

Deep & Wide YM LIVE Discussion

Below is a video invitation for you to check out an online discussion that Tim Schmoyer and I had regarding the Deep & Wide Youth Ministry model from Dare 2 Share Ministries.  Even though the live the discussion has passed, feel free to check out this video and the links below to download the the D&W thesis from Dare 2 Share and listen to the recording of our discussion.

Friday, January 23rd @ 2 PM EST

done

 

Link #1:  Deep & Wide Youth Ministry Model

Link #2:  YM Live Chat with Tim Schmoyer & Jason Lamb

 

Deep & Wide LIVE Chat

I had the opportunity to connect with friend and Youth Ministry hero Tim Schmoyer today as we are planning for a LIVE online discussion concerning Dare 2 Share’s Deep & Wide Youth Ministry.  The event is scheduled for Friday, January 23rd @ 2pm EST.  I want to encourage all of you to join in the discussion as anyone and everyone can call in or log 0nto the website and participate through the chat room.  It’s a pretty cool experience.  In fact, don’t wait until our Deep & Wide discussion to chime in and participate with Tim’s weekly LIVE Youth Ministry Conversations. 

For those of you who aren’t too familiar with Dare 2 Share’s Deep & Wide Youth Ministry take time to check it out.  Grab a cup of coffee, sit back in your favorite chair, and take a few minutes to read the Deep & Wide Paper.  If you have more than a few minutes, read the expanded paper.  It’s time we dove in and caught the wave of Youth Ministry that is transformational in our lives and in the lives of our teens.

Extra-curriculars vs. Youth Group

So let me forewarn you that this is a pretty big can of worms.  Before I dive in too deep with my personal views and opinions (which admittedly are still in flux) allow me to give you a little background that has led to me contemplating this topic for the past few weeks.

1. A good friend of mine and fellow Youth Ministry worker, Brian Ford, recently wrote an article on this particular subject.
2. I took advantage of the opportunity to call into Tim Schmoyer’s blog where he hosts a live online chat on Friday’s.  This week’s particular topic of discussion dealt with this same topic initiated by Brian’s article.  You can actually listen to the discussion that took place (CLICK HERE).

So here are my scatter-brianed thoughts on this subject.  First of all, I am not opposed to sports activities, academic clubs, social justice causes, Boy Scouts, or the like.  I actually have encouraged students in my previous youth ministries to get involved in them and will encourage my own son to do the same.  However, I absolutely cringe when students tell me they are going to miss a Youth Ministry activity because of them.  Now don’t over react.  I can handle a few times here or there, but when it becomes habitual or they miss for several months due to another commitment, my concern becomes their priorities.  Have you ever had one of your students tell a coach they are going to miss every Wednesday of practice because of Youth Group?  Or that they can pracitce during the week but will miss every game because of their commitment to church on Sundays?  Things that make you go hmmmmm…

Now I am totally with you that it’s not about program competing against program.  I can’t stand Youth Ministries that are program driven.  But just like football practices and games are designed to breed better athletes and football players, Youth Ministry should be designed to breed students that are drowing deep in their faith and going wide with the Gospel.  (Check out the Deep & Wide Youth Ministry philosophy for more details.)

Another pet peeve in this whole ordeal is Youth Leaders who feel like they can’t compete with the extras in life.  I’m not saying that it won’t be difficult, but we are fighting for the souls of the teenagers we can influence, and beyond that the friends that they can ultimate influence that they know in their social networks.  Again, great that they have these other commitments, but are they looking at them as opportunities to take the Gospel to their friends hey are spending time with there?  Are they staying committed to growing in their faith outside of these commitements?  Are we, as Youth Leaders, taking the time to invest in them outside of their busy schedules if they can’t make a group meeting? 

I get it…we can’t always compete on the entertainment value with other activities.  In fact, students are attracted to the slightest possibility that they could get a scholarship (in case you weren’t aware, I don’t think there are many Youth Ministries handing out full ride scholarship to D-1 schools).  But what we have to offer that those other activities don’t have, the Truth.  The absolute, straight from God, in the Flesh, Truth.  Nothing else can hold a candle to it.

So where does this leave us?  I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure.  But I know this: no matter what the competition is, no matter what sacrifices we may have to make, we are in a war for the souls of every student we come in contact with and by extension, every student they know.  It will never be easy, but if we give in to the foe known as extra-curricular activites, how can we stand against the true enemy? Satan and his evil regime.

Will you join the battle?  Will you fight for the lives and souls for students all around you?  The competition isn’t what matters.  It’s whats at stake that we need to care about.