Pastor Kevin

Five things every teenager needs to know.

In October of 1998 my pastor at the time (Bill Parks) brought me to a Pastor's Day here in Tulsa to hear Pastor Willie George talk about how to have an effective youth ministry.  Those two days literally changed my life and ministry forever.

Pastor George talked about a number of things during his sessions, but one of the big things that stood out to me was his talk about "FIVE THINGS EVERY TEENAGER NEEDS TO KNOW".  From that day in October when I was the youth pastor in Ligonier, Indiana to today as the youth pastor of Oneighty,  I have really tried to build our messages around these five things making sure we give each student a strong foundation to build their life on.

Here they are:

1)    How to be sure of their relationship with God

2)    How to resist temptation

3)    What to do when they stumble

4)    How to have right relationships with people and authority

5)    God Governs by natural and spiritual laws.

Steps to launching a new ministry.

Over the years the past 18 years of working in youth ministry I've had the honor of launching a few ministries from scratch.  Over the past four years at Oneighty we have retooled our Turn Life Small Group Ministry, started a weekly campus ministry, launched a weekend Junior High program, started an all new young adult ministry and launched several volunteer ministries from scratch.

I love this stuff.  There is nothing like rolling your sleeves up, getting alone with God, meeting with your team and strategizing on how together you can build the kingdom.  Maybe you have a ministry you would like to start, here are a few steps to launching a new ministry.

1. Vision:

 Have a firm knowledge of what you are going to do.  As the leader you have to know three main things about the vision.  1) Why – we need to do this  2) How – we are going to do this  3) What – will happen because we do this.

 

2. Cast the Vision:

Cast vision in a compelling way to the right people.  You can do this either corporately, individually or in small groups.  No matter what your vision is, you cannot do it alone so cast it to someone else and allow the vision to become theirs.

 

3. Build your team:

Have a structural plan of who you need as well as what you need to make this ministry reflexive.  Then have steps in place to recruit – equip – train – release – reward the people on your team.

 

4. Promote:

Advertise and get the word out.  For this vision to work you have to have a season of advertising to build momentum before the launch.

 

5. Launch Ministry:

You only get one first impression so make it a good one.

Set things up to where your first night is a big win.

 

6. Slowly Release:

Don’t just take hands off after the launch. Keep a close reign on how things are really going in the new ministry.  You do this through observation, short meetings, and constructive criticism. As the workers prove themselves and the ministry becomes reflexive then you can begin to take your hands off the project and move onto something else.

 

A good rule to follow in releasing workers is this ….

            I DO…

            WE DO …

            YOU DO and I WATCH…

            YOU DO …

 

 

I DO ….

For a short time you do what your expecting your workers to do.

 

WE DO ….

For a short time you do what is expected with your worker.

 

YOU DO and I WATCH ….

For a short time you let your worker do the ministry and you observe them offering constructive criticism and praise along the way.

 

YOU DO …

Now you release the work of the ministry to your worker.  Allow them to succeed and allow them to fail.  When they succeed…let them know they’ve done a great job.  When they fail…let them know the areas they dropped the ball, and pull them back to where you need them to be.

Grass is always greener over the septic tank.

“Things are happening but not at the pace I think they should.”
“My pastor is a great guy, but sometimes I feel that youth ministry is not even on his radar screen.” 
“I receive a decent salary and the church is doing the best they can, but I’m really not satisfied.”

These are the types of thoughts that start creeping into a youth pastors mind about two years into serving at a church. If you are struggling with these thought patterns and are considering starting to look for a bigger and better opportunity somewhere else. I want to give you a great piece of advice…THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER OVER THE SEPTIC TANK. From a distance the grass is plush. The grass is green. The grass is oh so thick. However, when you get right in the middle of it, that green, plush grass…stinks!

It is the same way in a lot of church situations. From a distance the money, the facility, and the staff looks really good. However, if it is not where God wants you to be, it is going to really stink!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself, when you are thinking of moving.

1. Why does the church have to be my only source of income?

2. Why are teenagers in other cities, that I do not know, more important to me than the students I have already built a relationship with?

3. If I want to be in a bigger and better church, why not make the church I’m in bigger and better?

4. Have I really done the absolute best I could possibly do where I am?

5. Why should God give me a promotion, if I have not proven myself faithful where I currently am?

6. Did God tell me to come here to this church and city?

7. Has God told me to leave?

8. If a few years ago, God told you to come here, and now he's saying for you to leave....why did God change his mind?

The average teenager will have at least four youth pastors during their teenage years. Four different times men will stand up and say “I love ya” and then say “I’m leaving”. Something seems wrong with this picture.

Here is the deal. Are things perfect where you are? Probably not.
Will things be perfect at another church? Probably not. 
If that is the case, why not stay where God has called you? 
Believe that God has placed you where you are. 
Begin to study, pray and fast for the young people of your church and city. 
I think both you and your students, will be glad you did.

6 things a prudent man does, from Pastor Willie George

I've had the pleasure of serving as Pastor George's youth pastor for the past 4 1/2 years. One of the best things about being his Y.P. Is having the opportunity to hear him speak every week. I never fail to take away some great principles that I can apply to my life and ministry.

Tonights message was no different, in fact I took away six principles that if applied will impact every area of my life.

Here are a few of his points...

1) a prudent man will be flexible.

2) a prudent man will take caculated risks.

3) a prudent man will solve problems before they happen.

4) a prudent man will walk his plan out in his mind before he launches it.

5) a prudent man will learn from other peoples mistakes.

6) a prudent man will prepare his heart to hear from God.

I love listening to my pastor. I know that God has called me to serve him as well as for him to speak into my life each week.

This week make sure to take a pen and paper to the service you attend, and let the man God has placed into your life help shape you into who Christ wants you to be.

What do I do when hits the stores November 15th

Talked with my publisher this week and they let me know that "What do I do when" book series will hit bible bookstores everywhere on November 15th.

Needless to say I'm pretty stoked and honored. If your interesed in finding out more about the books you can go to www.harrisonhouse.com, www.amazon.com, www.borders.com.

Time is Flying by....grab it as it goes!

Time is flying by.

This is my son Logan.  It seems like yesterday that he was a little guy playing with his Lego's and today he is a 5'10 - 135# eighth grade football player.  I cannot believe how fast my life is zooming by.  

I consider myself to be a pretty good father, but if there is one thing I regret is not spending even more time with my kids when they were younger.  Going fishing at the lake and catching nothing but tiny blue gills, laying on the ground wrestling, playing catch out in the yard...those memories are some of the best of my entire life...I wish I had event more of them.  

So you know what....I'm going too.  I'm going to keep playing catch with my kids, taking them fishing, going to the movies, hanging out at the mall.  Life is flying by. I can't do anything about how fast my kids are growing up...but I can spend even more time with them as they do.

If you have kids, I think you should do the same.

P.S.

That is a DVR Bag I'm carrying, not a man purse! 

10 Thoughts that will kill your Junior High Ministry (part 2)

Here are the final 10 thoughts that will kill your Junior High Ministry.  Enjoy.

I have to be good friends with all my teenagers.

No, you don't have to be friends with all your teenagers.  However, each teenager does need an adult that knows them personally.  Unless you want to only reach 12 - 15 students, that person can't always be you. 

I’ll handle this problem later.

If you always try and avoid confrontation, eventually you will get steam-rolled.  Here is the deal with problem solving.  1) Identify the problem 2) Figure out the best way to handle the problem  3) Handle it.   This is not always easy, glamourous or fun, however as the leader it is up to you to solve problems.

Parents are part of the problem

They are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution.  The only reason you are able to speak into the lives of their child, is because they let you.  Don't make parents your enemy, make them your friend.

 

I don’t need to network with other ministries.

Their is someone in your city or state that is doing, discipleship, messages, events, volunteers or facilities better than you are.  Check your pride at the door, drop them an email, set up a meeting and pick their brain. You will be glad you did.

 

If I had what they have – I could do what they are doing.

Instead of whining about what other people have (band, facility, volunteers, money) find out what those people did to get the band, facility, volunteers and money, then you do the same thing.  God wants to bless you just like he does the church down the street. So stop making excuses and get to work.

Bonus Thought:

I’ll figure it out once I get up on stage.

"Once I hit the stage, the anointing of God is going to flow thru me". Those are words that are spoken by someone who doesn't care enough about his students to pray, fast, prepare and study.  As a youth pastor your main job is to present the word of God each week....that doesn't just happen.  Don't figure it out onstage, figure it out in your study time and God will bless your efforts once you get onstage.

10 Thoughts that will kill your Junior High Ministry (part 1)

If you want to flat out kill your Junior High Ministry, here are 5 things you need to keep thinking.

1) My Pastor should leave me alone and let me do what I need to do.

If you have this thought for more than one year, he will do what he needs to do and that is fire you! Then he can go out and get himself a Junior High Youth Pastor that actually has the heart of the church.

2) I’ll stay here till something bigger or better comes along.

 If you can't make where you are bigger and better, what makes you think you will be able to handle something bigger at another church?

 

3) They’re just Junior Highers….lets keep it really simple.

You have 6th graders in your community that are getting pregnant, doing drugs, and living in broken homes. They need more than a cute little memory verse and a good game of dodgeball.  They need to hear the principles of Gods word and see how those principles can impact their lives.  Don't keep it simple, keep it real.

4) Nobody can do this better than me.

Wrong!  If you don't learn to delegate to people that are better than you, you will never be a strong leader.

 

5) I have to grow BIG

No, you do not have to grow big....you have to grow them.  If you will make the focus of your junior high ministry to grow people in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, those individual people will bring other people with them and your ministry will grow bigger.  But if you make the goal of your ministry to grow big, you will do one pizza party a month, have a larger group for a week or so and then go back down to where you were before.  So, don't grow big....grow people.

Oneighty's World Premier Event

 

On October 28th Oneighty is hosting our World Premier of "The End is Near 3".  This will be our most epic and scary movie to date and our students are totally jazzed.  Here is the lowdown.  Each year we make a scary movie with this character named "The Ender" there is no blood, no gore, no evil spirits to the movie at all, however it is actually very scary.   (you can see the teaser video by clicking HERE.)

We use this premier complete with red carpet, poporratzi, awards for the best dressed (kids come decked out in tuxes, prom dresses the whole deal) free popcorn and some sweet prizes to draw in student that have not attended Oneighty in a while or would not regularly attend church but come for the event. While they are here we present the gospel to them in a very powerful way.

Year One of the End is Near - I spoke on End Times and the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

Year Two of the End is Near - I talked about how all good things must come to an end.  That sin has its pleasure for a season, but in the end the fun is over and you have to pay the bill for your mistakes.

Year Three of the End is Near (thats this year) - I am going to come out dressed in a sweet tuxedo. I'm going to talk about how just like the Ender -  our sin and addictions are always around the corner waiting on us and if we don't confess them, and bring them to Christ they will ruin, destroy our heart and future. I'm going to illustrate this by totally ripping my tuxedo to shreds as I speak.

We are going to try and put this entire message up at www.oneighty.com so you can check it out for yourself if you would like.

This World Premier Event is going to be a monster night....and we are praying that tons of students will come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ because of our efforts.  I'll give you a full report on October 29th.  

Where are you floating in the sea of Entertainment.

Tomorrow night at Oneighty we are going to look at ENTERTAINMENT a whole new way.  Here is a quick overview of what I'm going to talk about.

Entertainment is like a body of water.  There are tons of things floating in this sea - TV - Computers - Cell Phones - Books - Magazines - Video Games and Movies just to name a few.  Just like a body of water there are different levels, depths and currents to the sea of entertainment.   If you are not careful you will allow your flesh, your friends, and culture to push you into deeper and deeper waters, until one day you are in way over your head, caught up in the waves and totally lost at sea.

Where are you floating in the sea of entertainment?

How did you get here?

Where does God want you to float, draw the line?

Leviticus 20:7 - Be holy for I am holy.

Romans 1:32 - Knowing that those who do such things are worthy of death, not only do them but take pleasure (are entertained) by those that do.

If you are out to sea....how do you get back?

1) Call the coast guard.

2) Grab a life preserver.

3) Float back to safe waters.

I'm going to illustrate this entire message on a giant 8' long white board up on stage.  Here is a quick view of a practice layout I did in our 180 conference room.

Entertainment can be one of the biggest pitfalls in peoples lives, especially teenagers.  Because of this I'm really looking forward to giving them a biblical world view of the sea they are floating in.  

This should be fun!