Pastor Kevin

11 things you need to know.

At the Ignited Youth Conference I recently spoke at I was cut short on the time allotted me to speak.  I promised the people attending the session that I would put my points on this blog site.  So as promised here you go.

1) You have a calling and not a career.

Don't treat the ministry that God has called you to like it is a job or a stepping stone for your ministerial career.  If God called you where you are, stay there and make it bigger and better than when you first arrived.  Here is a word to the wise when it comes to "moving" to another church..."The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

2) How to get under the authority of your Senior Pastor

Luke 16:12 says "If you have not been faithful in that which belongs to another man who will give you that thing which is your own".  Your youth ministry does not belong to you, it belongs to your Senior Pastor.  What does he want? How does he want it ran?  What is his heart when it comes to the church, leadership, student ministry?  Find those things out and do them his way.  When you do, God will bless your efforts.

3) How to gain influence.

Finding out if you have influence is pretty simple.  All you need to do is answer these three questions.  1) Who am I?  2) Why am I here?  3) Where am I going?  If you can answer those three things you will have influence in the people around you.  If you can't you won't. 

4) You need to know your responsibility as a leader.

Four D's of leadership are as follows.  Define - Delegate - Discipline - Develop.

5) How to build a team.

Building a team is done by having reflexive systems for these five things.  1) Recruiting 2) Equipping 3) Training 4) Releasing 5) Rewarding If you have systems for these five things you will recruit and keep great workers.

6) You need to know that numbers are important.

If you don't thing reaching numbers of people for Christ are important, than quit your position in ministry and let someone who does take your spot.

7) Your ministry is not the most important ministry in the church.

To find out more about what the church and Christianity is all about, read Hebrews 12:1-2.  When you read it you will not see the words "me" "mine" or "I".  You will however see a lot of the words "we" " our" and "us".  This lets me know that my church and student ministry is not about me and my agenda. It is about us as a corporate body and all the ministry departments of the church working together as a team and reaching people for the kingdom.

8) OK is not good enough.

If your room is ok, your worship is ok, your message is ok, and your activities are ok. When your students are asked how is your youth group, they will say.....OK.  Is that what you want? Then OK is not good enough.

10) You need to know how to make your service count.

Each week you have 1 hour out of 168 hours to make an impact into a students life.  Here are three ways to make your service count.  

1) ONE purpose - everyone that works in your ministry is coming not for their own agenda but for the one common purpose of reaching students for Christ.

2) ONE theme - what are you talking about that night?  Narrow it down to one sentence and teach that sentence three different ways.  

3) ONE person - you are not doing your ministry for the masses, you are doing it for one kid.  Make sure that night you and your staff minister and talk with individual students.

11)  That every kid counts.

When you look at the ministry of Jesus he knew that every person counted.  He was constantly talking with, hanging with, ministering to the down and outers, misfits, and sickly of his day.  Everyone counted to Jesus....make sure that everyone counts to you.

These 11 things are principles that you need to master and allow to become a part of your personal DNA. If you will know these things and do these things on a weekly basis, you will not only be able to effectively reach teenagers for Christ, you will have a lot of people wanting to work alongside of you i the harvest field.

Whats up at Church on the Move

I just got back from speaking at a Youth Leadership Conference in Michigan.  I had a lot of fun and was honored to speak to the 700 or so leaders that were there.  Every time I travel I get flooded with questions about what is going on at Oneighty and the entire church at Church on the Move.  So I decided to give everyone an update of where we are, what were doing and where we are going to be going in the next few months here at the church.

Adult Church.

Just had our first service in our newly remodeled auditorium.  All I can say is WOW!

We are in the middle of an incredible "Its your Move" campaign to remodel the entire church.

Is putting on a Family Fall Festival at Dry Gulch on October 28th.

All our teams are prepping to reach out to over 50,000 people at our Christmas Train Ministry this November and December.

Kids Ministry.

Just had the best camp session out at Dry Gulch ever.  The services were INCREDIBLE.

Is currently re-arranging Kids on the Move to minister to 1st thru 5th graders. They had their first service this past weekend and it went extremely well.

Is putting on a "Kids on the Move LIVE" night on October 28th for the entire family to enjoy.  This night will showcase how we minister to children week in and week out at KOTM.

Student Ministry.

6th Graders are moving up to 180. To help the students as well as parents adjust to Oneighty we are having a giant party for 6th graders and a Q and A session with parents this Wednesday night.  This meet and greet is a great way to build relationships with parents and a smooth transition for students.

The ministry is really growing right now.  We had over 400 in our Oneighty Junior High services this past weekend and our Wednesday night ministry is up from last year as well.

While attendance is going up, so it discipleship.  On November 4th we will have a Turn Life Discipleship Graduation Ceremony for more than 60 teenagers.

Varsity (our young adult ministry) is so full each week we do not have room for all the students that want to come.  So on October 28th we are adding a 9pm service to our weekly schedule.  We will have a 7:30pm as well as a 9pm service for these students.

We are having our 2nd Annual Oneighty World Premier Event on Wednesday night October 28th.  This will showcase "The End is Near 3" Video that will blow our students minds.  

As usual we have a lot of things going on here at the church.  It is such an honor to be in the harvest field with such great people and leaders.  God is really moving here at COTM but I truly believe the best is yet to come.

Sitting in airport waiting for a flight out.

Well I've got places to go and things to do today, however I find myself sitting in an airport waiting for a flight out. Once I get on my plane I'll be moving toward my goal, once I get on my plane I'll be able to do what I need to do, but untill then...I sit and wait.

Sometimes this is what happens in life and ministry. We have places we want to go, things we want to do and people we want to reach, but we can't untill our plane comes in. The budget is cleard, we get that staff member, or we know it's time to move. But untill then we wait.

Sitting here at the airport in Tulsa everyone is waiting. Some are making the best use of their time by working the phones, or reading informative books. Others are just waisting time. They must think their life is totally on hold untill their plane arrives, they can't do what they want so why do anything.

What are you doing while you wait for your "plane" to arrive and sweep you off to your dream? Are you making the best use of your time by growing and going for it in other areas of life and ministry? Or are you just sitting there doing nothing, learning nothing and going no where?

God may have something he wants you to do for him and experience with him in the future, but untill your plane arrives.. make the best use of your time.

Good night at Oneighty.

Tonight was a good night at Oneighty and it has nothing to do with attendance.  To be honest our attendance was a little low.  We did not have our regular adult and childrens ministry services, the Tulsa Fair is going full steam, and it rained.  I'm not sure why rain affects attendance but it does here in Tulsa.  But in spite of all of that we had a really good night.  

Here are some highlights....

1) The worship team was all students.

Each of the band members at Oneighty are all students that attend the ministry.  They are young, talented and wanting to make a difference for Christ.  It was really cool standing backstage watching them use their abilities and finding a place in the body of Christ at such a young age. Very cool.

2) The message worked.

This was one of those nights where the message just clicked.  I had a very simple point that I illustrated three different ways and it just landed.  I've had some messages over the years where I felt like I had the plane over the airport but I just never really landed the plane.  Thank God, this was not one of those messages.  

3) One boy came to Christ.

Each week at Oneighty we are blessed to lead students to Jesus, and generally there are a lot more than we had tonight.  In fact tonight there was only one.  One young man named Tim raised his hand and rededicated his life to Jesus Christ.  It was so cool talking to him in the altar room, he was so sincere, so hungry to really get his life on track.  I know that Tim is going to continue to grow closer to Christ and it is really cool that we get to be a part of that process. 

4) Everyone played their role to perfection.

Tonight we had 100 volunteers give their time to serve teenagers.  We did a Junior Varsity service to students grades 7 - 10, we did a Varsity service to students 17 - 22, and we taught two small groups in our Turn Life Discipleship ministry. Over 100 people doing three completely different ministries and it worked.  Each person played their role, each person did their job, each person made a difference.  

If I was to look at numbers alone as the gauge to wether or not we had a good service, tonight, I would go away a little bummed, because we did not have as many students as we normally do.  However, if I looked at tonights service only through the eyes of numbers I would have totally missed the point. 

Tonight six teenagers continued their journey to find their place in the kingdom of God.  The word of God was preached effectively.  A young 8th grade boy named Tim left Oneighty in right standing with his creator. And a group of totally unique individuals set aside their agenda and used their unique abilities to impact the lives of teenagers.

After 17 years of youth ministry.... I think that is a good night by any standard.

Looking at CHRISTIANITY a whole new way.

Last week at Oneighty I stood in front of our students and told them something that is very shocking to a lot of christians...."Living right will NOT make you right with God."  A lot of times we think that if we simply live right, go to church, pray a little, and be a moral person than we are good with God.  But that mentality goes completely against the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was constantly giving examples of how the religious (good moral) people of his day were far from God and on the day of judgement they would be told "depart from me, because I don't know you".   So when you look at the scriptures it is very easy to see that living right will not make you right with God.

That was last week...this week I'm continuing on with that same train of thought by teaching our students.  That "Living the right way will not make you right with God, but if you are right with God you will live the right way".  

To illustrate this I'm going to bring my dog Buddy out on stage and state the obvious...Buddy is a dog. But because he is a dog he acts like a dog, barks like a dog, eats like a dog and goes potty like a dog.  Because on the inside he is 100% dog on the outside his actions are 100% what a dog would do.

Now if I were to bring a student up on stage and give him $50 to act like a dog, bark like a dog, eat like a dog and go potty like a dog....is this student a dog.  No...he is a kid acting like a dog.  You see just because you act like a dog does not mean you are a dog.  But if you are a dog, then you will always act like a dog.

It is the exact same way with being a Christian.  Just because you live right (go to church, pray, and be a moral person) does not mean you are a Christian.  However, if you are Christian (you have accepted Gods gift of grace thru Jesus Christ death, burial and resurrection from the dead) then you will live right. You will go to church, you will pray, you will treat people with respect, you will be a good moral person.

This is something I think a lot of "christian" teenagers struggle with.  Either they think they are right with God because they are "good" or they think they can do what they want, live how they want because they've asked Jesus into their hearts and he will forgive them when they ask. Both of these view of Christianity are flawed and unscriptural.  Because of that tonight at Oneighty we are going to help our students look at CHRISTIANITY a whole new way.

You can download and listen to tonight's message at "Oneighty Message Audio" on iTunes.

Three things to pray for your student ministry.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and he was telling me about a big event that he was doing for his youth ministry.  He went into great detail about the event, but into even more detail about the prayer God laid on his heart to pray for this event.  He said that each day before the event he spent some time praying for three things 1) A full house 2) Open Hearts 3) Clear Message.  Wow....what a great prayer. That about sums it up doesn't it?  Lets break this down real quick

FULL HOUSE

Scriptures teach that God is not willing that any should perish but that all might come to repentance. One of the best ways to bring people to repentance is to bring them to church.  So lets pray that God gives us creative ideas to get students out of the house, off the video games, away from the computer and into our student ministry. "God give us a full house".

OPEN HEARTS

The daily grind of life has a way of hardening teenagers hearts towards the gospel. School, friends, sports, family, mistakes from the past, doubt about the future, all play a part in closing students off from the good news of Jesus Christ.  Lets pray that God softens their heart.  That thru our friendliness and worship experience their heart will be open to hear the grace of Jesus as we stand to deliver our message.  "God give them open hearts".

CLEAR MESSAGE

An important thing for us to remember is that "faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God". What allows faith to rise up inside of a student is not a light show, big events, or special prize give-a-ways, those things are great tools to soften a students heart and get their attention, but what brings life change is the word of God.  Lets pray that after all of our study and preparation that God allows his message to flow thru us loud and clear.  "God give us a clear message".

"God give us a full house, open hearts and a clear message this week at Oneighty"... has been my prayer for the past few weeks.  And you know what it will be from here on out as well.  Maybe you should do the same.

New Book Series Going to Print

Got a good call from my publisher today, the "What do I do when?" book series is going to press next week and will be in bookstores everywhere the first of November. This is a four book series that will answer teenagers toughest questions about "sex, love and dating", "friends", "money", and "God".  I'm very excited about this project and honored that the Lord would open a door for me to help teenagers around the country in this way.  

To find out more about the series or to order them for your child, students or youth ministry just log onto www.harrisonhouse.com

Your ministry is not the most important ministry in your church.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith"

 “Let us . . . Let Us . . . Let Us....this term “let us” is used over 68 times in the new testament.

What this lets us know is that this thing called Christianity, this entity called the church is not about you, its not about me, it is about "us".   When you walk that out a little further it lets us know that the church is not about the singles ministry, it is not about the youth ministry, it is not about the children's ministry running and gunning and doing their own thing.  It is about "us" growing, running and reaching people for Christ, together.

You see the Nursery feeds the children's church, the children's church feeds the youth ministry and the youth ministry feeds the church.  If at anytime all of these are not running smoothly then a link is broken in the chain of Gods kingdom work and people who should have came to Christ, will not.  Each ministry plays a very important role in the church, one is not more important than the other.

Now let me say this, I believe that having a strong youth Ministry is huge and you as the leader or someone involved in student ministry you should go for it and do the very best you possibly can, however, you also need to know that there will be seasons where someone else gets the attention, someone  else gets the money, someone else is in the forefront.  That is OK, because this deal is not about you and your agenda....it is about you doing your part as the church runs toward the things God has called you to do.

Just something to think about.