Bloom Where You're Planted

Many people in ministry are envious of others in the same ministry. I have known youth pastors who wish they were at the large church because they would have more money and more resources to do the kind of ministry that they wanted to do. I also know local church pastors who have not been satisfied in the church that they have been assigned, remarking that "If only I was at a better church my ministry would grow." It is very easy to indulge yourself in the temptation of being envious of others ministry, however, that is the temptation that we must resist.

Have you ever heard the term "Bloom where you are planted?" I have heard it from time to time in my ministry, especially when I have been depressed that the ministry that I was assigned to be doing wasn't working the way I wanted it to. What I have come to learn from that statement is that God puts us in a ministry setting where we need to be at a particular time when we need the there. God has given each one of us different gifts and God knows where we need to be to be using the specific gifts.

There is no perfect ministry out there. Every church is messy. Accept that! If I might quote Josh Griffin in a blog article he wrote, "[there will always be] pushy parents, apathetic teenagers…" And I would add inadequate facilities, a lack of funding. You can dwell on the negative and constantly be complaining and wish that you were someplace else, or you could be grateful for the gift that you have been given and the place that you have been put to do ministry. 

How Youth Learn

The following information is excerpted from “Just the Fact: a Handbook for United Methodist Youth Ministries” by Michael L. Selleck. I thought it might give you some perspective on how you can reach youth in today's culture.

Adolescence is a normal phase of life, even though within most families the transition from childhood to young adulthood is noted by challenges that may be difficult for everyone in the family. Each youth will follow his or her own inner time schedule in the transition between childhood and young adulthood. Some youth may start maturing as early as age 10. Others may still be struggling to complete a specific developmental task at age 20. To develop a system of ministry that works with youth, it is necessary first to understand a youth's development. Early adolescence refers to middle or junior high youth (ages 10 to 13). Middle adolescence refers to senior high school youth (ages 14 to 16 or 17). Older adolescence refers to late senior high and college-age youth/young adults (ages 16 to the early 20s).

From infancy to old age, at specific times we learn a task that is instrumental for us to feel happy and successful at that stage. We learn to sit up, to crawl, to walk. Robert Havinghurst identified eight tasks of adolescence based upon his idea that each individual "learns his or her way through life." The completion of each task is a building block for the next developmental task.

For adolescents to successfully complete these "developmental tasks," growth and maturing take place in the following areas: physical, sexual, social, intellectual, emotional, moral, spiritual, self-identity, and psychological. Eight developmental tasks are noted below:

1. Meaningful friendships with both male and female peers.
2. Affirming one's feelings and comfortableness with sexuality.
3. Accepting one's physical body.
4. Building interdependent and intergeneratonal relationships.
5. Finding one's place in a world of relationships.
6. Preparing to live responsibly and independently.
7. Acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior — developing an ideology.
8. Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior.

Having an understanding of the stages of adolescent behavior and developmental tasks can help leaders design ministries that are age-level appropriate and that provide significant opportunities for youth to grow in faith and to successfully master the developmental tasks they face.

The Importance of Summer Young People's Ministry

Summer can be one of the most influential seasons in ministry—here’s why I love it and why your summer activities matter so much.

Plan things to be ultra-relational.
Summer activities are an excuse to hang out with students. Take advantage of that opportunity. Dial down the program and work hard to create space for conversations and real life to be exposed. You might be surprised how the barriers come down when it isn’t over-programmed. Keep a journal and at the end of summer it will be exciting to see how God worked.

Make sure you make some “me” time.
This is really important! If you’re not careful, you could plan out every waking minute of the summer and end up burned out by August. You have to set a priority and limit for yourself. You need any kind of ministry, there is always one more person to help, one more event to plan, or one more phone call to make. Don’t make this mistake; usually youth workers make it once and learn from it.

Embrace the change of pace.
When things change, people pay more attention. When you shake things up over the summer you’ve got a chance to be creative in your teaching style, or give guest speakers a new voice to your students (and we don’t mean expensive guest speakers…we mean student leaders, the dad with a cool testimony, etc.). Don’t let the summer be the same old thing—time to experiment!

Summer activities build momentum for the kickoff of the school year.
A great summer makes for a great fall—work hard to invest in your people this summer and the returns will last until Christmas.

(I got some these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

Some Thoughts on Youth Leadership

This week I am teaching the leadership camp and the topics that I then asked the: is "Attitude. " it got me thinking about other important aspect youth leadership. And here are just a couple of things to keep in mind:

Lead with Optimism

Teaching students to see a future of what could be, not necessarily the painful road of difficulty to get there. They need to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. this will help them in problem solving said that when roadblocks occur (and they always will), they will be prepared to face them positively.

Build Fun Into Everything

I love to have fun! Everyone enjoys having a good time. Teaching students that leading can be fun and not boring, will energize them and attract more youth to enter leadership roles. don't forget, God created us to laugh, so let’s have some fun.

   

Conflict Leads to Peace

Difficult conversations need to happen – if they don’t , something small will inevitably grow into something significant and potentially rectifying.  I have done this well and I have also done this poorly. So by all means don't avoid conflict, you will not like the outcome.

By the way, if you're looking for a good leadership training curriculum for your youth. Check out Leadership Lab. Below is a you tube video that explains it in more detail.

I highly recommend this program and hope it will help you train the next generation of leaders for the church.