So here we all are. The Christmas season is over and i find myself back to the church for the start of 2010. The very first thing that i had my list was to evaluate my 2009 year. specifically my 2009 year in regards to youth ministry. Where we affective? did we achieve what we were hoping to achieve? Are youth actually better off or stronger in their faith as a result of the youth ministry? Are youth facing life with a strength and a confidence that they never had before? were we successful? wait a minute, what does that mean? what is meant in the christian church when we say the word success?
I think the problem in most churches today is that our consumerist mentality here in north america has brought us to believe that success in church is measured by the number of people we bring to salvation, or we base it on the technologically advanced stuff we have in the church, or if tithing is up and people are happy and comfortable. But is this at all what success looked like to Jesus?
I would suggest that success in the church is heavily based more on the intitial actions being taken rather then the expected results. For that matter, if the right actions are being taken then there should be expected certain kinds of resluts that are contrastly different then our culture would like to expect.
So what sort of actions should we be taking........ simply it is..... OBEDIENCE. the temptation in any ministry is to do things that attract the most people or make the most people happy. but if we were to adapt that mentality, then we could hire a rock band, fill the stage with scantaly clad girls, and i guarantee you we would fill the seats of churches with all kinds of people. Alas thats just not the kind of thing you want drawing people to Christ. Cause it wont!
Obedience is the only thing we can do, and the results are up to God, as His spirit works.
2 john 1:6- "and this love: that you walk in obedience to His commands. as you have heard from the beggining, His command is that you walk in love."
2nd corinthians 9:13- "because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
We think that as a church or as christians, we may find success by straying close to the worldy line, in an attempt to be more applicable. But the truth of the matter is, that God wants our full obedience and it is by that act that people will see God's love most affectivly. Youth ministry is especially suseptable to "cultural take overs". But i simply need to have faith that God's Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of young people as we faithfully teach the word, encourage, love and pray with a heart of thanks and worship. If the results are different then what we expect it, then so be it. As long as we are being humble enough to admit our mistakes, and let God take control.
In youth minstry I have some results that i feel would catagorize our ministry as successful.
1) Leaders are encouraged, recruited, developed and engaged
2) Visible signs of spiritual fruit is being seen in young people. (galatians 5:22)
3) Existence of meaningful connections with students and trusting relationships.
4) growth in my own spiritual walk and personal devotion and actions
5) ensuring safe guards and commitment to my role as a father and as a husband.
6) building meaningful relationships with unchurched people
7) experience a level of Christs suffering for obedience. (physically or mentally, or socially, or however that will look)
If you happen to be praying people out there, then please pray for God to move in this ministry. The youth in todays society are faceing such destructive influences. And i see youth ministry as such a strong force in counter balancing the messages that are out there.
What does success look like in ministry? ill leave that up to God ultimatley, im only here to be obedient to His word nothing else. Thats a difficult place to be in, but just for a little while ;).
blessings on everyone this new year.
Pastor Garrett
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Is this what christmas is really about?
Good day!
This, unexpectedly to even myself, will be my first blog post ever to grace the pages of the internet super highway. I will intend to post every second day atleast on things that i feel are interesting, rediculous, and important to the life of human beings as we know them. Let me begin by telling everyone a little bit about myself...
I am a youth pastor from Canada in a protestant Christian church. I wake up everyday and I ask myself, how oh God did I ever get to be here. Not only am I not from a Christian family, I am a person who enjoys my sin very very much. In many ways I would describe myself as selfish and often times I want what I know I cant have. In the area of sin then, I thoroughly recognize that I am a sinful man and that the thought of believing in God and being a pastor no less was far from my childhood dreams. But then I realized early in life at age 15 that what i percieve to be reality simply was not reality at all, merely a distorted image of the truth that this world holds. If there is one thing that i can say about christianity, it is that it gives one a very strong worldview. It gives a person the structure and the means to accuratley and consistantly interpret the world and its actions, including all of its problems. It is within my Christian framework that i can understand the world around me with such clarity and focus.
Now this may not be what some of you are thinking. Some of you may say that i am the one indeed living in a tainted world. That I am the one whos worldview leads me astray in to confusion. But to you I say, my confusion as a non Christian was far and above more damaging and lost then ever I was as a Christian. I often wonder where i would be if it werent for my faith in Christ? Where would i have ended up if i had continued to follow after the sins i love so much? I may have been part of that society that finds their whole social life enveloped in the weekend bar hop. Not finding any true meaning except in the acceptance of my peers based on the amount of booze i can consume or the girls i can pick up. OR maybe i would be a plain ol family man with a wife and kid, with nothing to hang onto as a foundation but to struggle day to day for my purpose and meaning. Some people even apart from religion would claim that they have found contentment in these kinds of things, but i would suggest that is only because things are going so well right now? your invincible, no one can touch you. Well see what happens though when life takes a turn for the worse. When you lose your wife in a divorce or a child in death, or when the booze becomes to much for you to control anymore. Maybe it starts to control you eventually. We all think we have it together until the togetherness of it all falls apart!
I indeed have a wife and 2 kids and I love my life each and everyday. I see them all as a gift from a truly loving and honest and just God. I have recieved salvation from my sins, by Christs death on a cross. But then again many of you have probably heard that before and it has had little affect on your worldview. Thats why i hope that in time, people who read my blog will hopefully come to better understand the truth of Christianity, not just from biblical, historical or theological places but from the way it acts out in my life each day. How my life parralles that of scripture both in my good times and my bad times. Being a Christian doesnt take away the pain but it certainly does take away the hopless void. It fill the hunger we all have for something greater then us. I am not perfect, and i will make mistakes, but humbly i wish to understand this world better and to engage it more thoroughly with a mind of awareness and wisdom. I pray God will grant me this journey that should be fascinating and clear.
EMMANUEL GOD WITH US.
This last saturday I went into town to finish up on some Christmas shopping and it was busy, oooooo it was busy indeed. My wife and I went into the local mall to do this last minute spending. The experience was less then enjoyable. If it wasnt the screaming kids, the physical pushing by people in a hurry, the running of red lights by people in giant suburbans or the pure commercialism of it all, it was the bitter and angry and rudness of people that truly pushed me over the edge. I said to my wife, why are we celebrating this holiday? Is this really what Christ came to earth to represent?
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the lord himself will give you a sign: a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him immanuel. (God with us).
The bible also says that he shall take away the sins of the world and redeem his people. 1John 2:2
The peace of God certainly didnt rest on this last Christmas saturday. I feel a very strong conviction that this holiday is more anti Christian then anything. So why do so many Christians take part in it? Are we in denial that the traditions that we have set up at this time are not biblically called for or representing Christ and his birth? To me it just goes to show that the culture of this world so easily influences church culture as well. We are slaves to it. Its even taboo for a pastor like myself to evenb suggest such things. But i digress....
Remeber that Christ, (Gods Son) was born as a human and from day one his intention was to teach us how to love and obey God and to love eachother and to one day die for us so that our sins would not be held to us on the day of judgment. Does Christmas really give us the sense of how epic that truth really is??? hmmmmm
Pastor G
This, unexpectedly to even myself, will be my first blog post ever to grace the pages of the internet super highway. I will intend to post every second day atleast on things that i feel are interesting, rediculous, and important to the life of human beings as we know them. Let me begin by telling everyone a little bit about myself...
I am a youth pastor from Canada in a protestant Christian church. I wake up everyday and I ask myself, how oh God did I ever get to be here. Not only am I not from a Christian family, I am a person who enjoys my sin very very much. In many ways I would describe myself as selfish and often times I want what I know I cant have. In the area of sin then, I thoroughly recognize that I am a sinful man and that the thought of believing in God and being a pastor no less was far from my childhood dreams. But then I realized early in life at age 15 that what i percieve to be reality simply was not reality at all, merely a distorted image of the truth that this world holds. If there is one thing that i can say about christianity, it is that it gives one a very strong worldview. It gives a person the structure and the means to accuratley and consistantly interpret the world and its actions, including all of its problems. It is within my Christian framework that i can understand the world around me with such clarity and focus.
Now this may not be what some of you are thinking. Some of you may say that i am the one indeed living in a tainted world. That I am the one whos worldview leads me astray in to confusion. But to you I say, my confusion as a non Christian was far and above more damaging and lost then ever I was as a Christian. I often wonder where i would be if it werent for my faith in Christ? Where would i have ended up if i had continued to follow after the sins i love so much? I may have been part of that society that finds their whole social life enveloped in the weekend bar hop. Not finding any true meaning except in the acceptance of my peers based on the amount of booze i can consume or the girls i can pick up. OR maybe i would be a plain ol family man with a wife and kid, with nothing to hang onto as a foundation but to struggle day to day for my purpose and meaning. Some people even apart from religion would claim that they have found contentment in these kinds of things, but i would suggest that is only because things are going so well right now? your invincible, no one can touch you. Well see what happens though when life takes a turn for the worse. When you lose your wife in a divorce or a child in death, or when the booze becomes to much for you to control anymore. Maybe it starts to control you eventually. We all think we have it together until the togetherness of it all falls apart!
I indeed have a wife and 2 kids and I love my life each and everyday. I see them all as a gift from a truly loving and honest and just God. I have recieved salvation from my sins, by Christs death on a cross. But then again many of you have probably heard that before and it has had little affect on your worldview. Thats why i hope that in time, people who read my blog will hopefully come to better understand the truth of Christianity, not just from biblical, historical or theological places but from the way it acts out in my life each day. How my life parralles that of scripture both in my good times and my bad times. Being a Christian doesnt take away the pain but it certainly does take away the hopless void. It fill the hunger we all have for something greater then us. I am not perfect, and i will make mistakes, but humbly i wish to understand this world better and to engage it more thoroughly with a mind of awareness and wisdom. I pray God will grant me this journey that should be fascinating and clear.
EMMANUEL GOD WITH US.
This last saturday I went into town to finish up on some Christmas shopping and it was busy, oooooo it was busy indeed. My wife and I went into the local mall to do this last minute spending. The experience was less then enjoyable. If it wasnt the screaming kids, the physical pushing by people in a hurry, the running of red lights by people in giant suburbans or the pure commercialism of it all, it was the bitter and angry and rudness of people that truly pushed me over the edge. I said to my wife, why are we celebrating this holiday? Is this really what Christ came to earth to represent?
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the lord himself will give you a sign: a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him immanuel. (God with us).
The bible also says that he shall take away the sins of the world and redeem his people. 1John 2:2
The peace of God certainly didnt rest on this last Christmas saturday. I feel a very strong conviction that this holiday is more anti Christian then anything. So why do so many Christians take part in it? Are we in denial that the traditions that we have set up at this time are not biblically called for or representing Christ and his birth? To me it just goes to show that the culture of this world so easily influences church culture as well. We are slaves to it. Its even taboo for a pastor like myself to evenb suggest such things. But i digress....
Remeber that Christ, (Gods Son) was born as a human and from day one his intention was to teach us how to love and obey God and to love eachother and to one day die for us so that our sins would not be held to us on the day of judgment. Does Christmas really give us the sense of how epic that truth really is??? hmmmmm
Pastor G
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