A monthly message from Fred Lynch. Fred is the founder of GodStyle Productions, a ministry committed to changing youth culture. For more information on Fred, visit his website or check out his latest project, The Epic (the gospel of John translated into rap).
November 2007
There is the difference between a honeymoon and a marriage. Whether you can look back on that momentous occasion or you're looking forward to that magic moment; the honeymoon has to be on the top ten of most anticipated days in life. Although the honeymoon is a great day, all it can ever be is a celebrated pause before you get on to the real work. We all know that the real work is found in the marriage where you learn each other in the context of daily challenges and opportunities. It's in the commitment of marriage, not the sexiness of the honeymoon where you really get to see what you're made out of (or find out what you need to get in order to make it). In the same sense great youth ministry isn't accomplished early on in the dreaming stage, but it's forged out of the raw determination to stay committed to service. Youth Pastor Trammell Orr and I embark on another conversation called 'Real Talk' and try to go beyond the, "I like you...you like me" stage that Pastors and Youth Pastors dance around. Here's the point: O.K. we like each other...now what?"
The focus on training is more about the attitude to pursue it than it is about the church funding it all.
Fred:
Alright we've been together in ministry now for over 60 days! And we still like each other...that's cool. I'm definitely not hatin' you or your style of ministry. In fact the more I see you interact with the students around the church, the more I feel like we made the right choice.
Trammell:
Thanks a lot Pastor. I remember when I first got here and saw how much work needs to be done and I gotta honestly let you know that I had second thoughts. Even though we have so much opportunity for explosive youth ministry around here, I had to also ask the question, "Why hasn't this church had an 'explosive' youth ministry yet? Just like most churches, the neighborhood doesn't have a shortage of kids, but the church seems to need something to boost the growth...but what's been the in the way of that 'boost'? What's really blocking us and stopping our church from reaching kids?
Fred:
Now see, that's more of a 'marriage' question instead of a 'honeymoon' question. These are the real issues that we'll have to deal with in order to make a real difference. I can't give you the full answer cause I don't know what the blockages are, I think that one, I'm too new as a Pastor here to answer and two, even if I was here for 10 years, I might be too close to the situation to honestly accept the harsh truth. That's not bad news, it's just the way I see it. One thing that I do believe: there are some blockages.
Trammell:
Well if you as a pastor are honest enough to admit that there are blockages, then I'm confident that as a youth pastor I can find them. I promise to 'be gentle' but I will hit you with what I see as blockages. Just to show you how I flow, I'll most likely come with the ol' sandwich technique (a slice of positive observation; the meat of the matter in the middle and a slice of positive encouragement to close it out) but I won't hold any punches.
Fred:
I'm glad you won't dude, that's why I hired you. I need you to see the things that I might not even be willing to look at, then handle it. As a church I can't afford to live in a fantasy like we're really reaching kids when we're losing the game. You know the stats, we're losing more kids out the back door than we're winning to Christ through the front, so let me know how to do what we want to do better, and that's help students become fully devoted followers of Christ.
Trammell:
Cool. If you're ready, we can get started right now. One of my first observations after 60 days is the lack of dedication to leadership development among our youth workers. We are a fairly young church located right in the middle of the hood with many adults who identify with the need to help the next generation come into their own (notice the 1st slice...). Although we have such a cool opportunity, we'll lose it if we don't train a group of our adults to properly disciple the next generation. So many churches in the urban world are challenged with simply having a 'paid' staff person dedicated to youth let alone a budget that would allow training for other adult volunteers, but I guarantee you if we invest in this direction we'll see a big time return on the other end when we see kids who may come in just once (cause that's all you get sometimes is one shot) and we're equipped to handle them and help them.
Fred:
I'm feeling you Trammel, you laid the 1st slice, got to the meat and finished it up w/ a slice of hope. You bad man! Now you put the ball in my court by using the 'I' word: invest. O.K. now let me hit you with another 'marriage' question: How can we do something like that with the budget that we're working with?
Trammell:
Now pastor, I promise that I'm not gonna go all 'car salesman' on you and give you 5 package deals, but the truth is there are a whole host of packages that you can choose from when it comes to training youth workers. Some of my favorite come to mind like Urban Youth Workers Institute or Reload or Flava Fest or Youth Specialties or the Lift Conference or Compassion Works I can go on and on. In fact you can go to the National Network of Youth Ministries site and find all of the major youth ministries and 90% of them have a training module that we can go to.
Fred:
That's all good Trammel, but as I said; what about working within our budget? Remember us, the new church with a new pastor and youth pastor? What can we do if we can't really afford to take 5-10 people out of state for a weekend, man what can we do if we're facing the challenge of simply buying lunch for 5-10 people???
Trammell:
Pastor you crazy! The truth is that we can still focus on training. Even if we have to buy a book every two months for the next 6 months and have our adults form a book club it can be done. The focus on training is more about the attitude to pursue it than it is about the church funding it all. Once my team sees that the church values them getting trained to properly disciple students, I'm sure we'll see folks coming out of the wood works to be connected, trained and commissioned to make a difference. This is a challenge that I know we can meet, I just need to know you're with me and will promote training from the pulpit as I push it among the pews.
Fred:
You got it T. Let's team up and put value to training and get our folks ready to go to work!
Make it pain:
Youth Workers don't lose your opportunity to catch more students because you have a faulty 'net'. Prepare to succeed by partnering with the church to put a great value on training. Too many youth ministries are half-cocked because they don't have enough properly trained adult volunteers. Help your students by helping your adults through training.
Pastors:
The word says, "Make full proof of your ministry" (2 Tim. 4:5) make sure that you put a high value on training for ministry.
FREDDIE FREEBIE:
This month for the Freddie Freebie, I'd like to encourage you to go to my website and just have a shopping spree on me! All of my downloads are free and open to the public. The link is www.godstyle.com/downloads.html. Hope you enjoy!
Sharing the gospel from 'Street to Street',
Fred Lynch III
GodStyle Productions
Fred Lynch is the founder of GodStyle Productions, a ministry committed to changing youth culture. For more information on Fred, visit his website or check out his latest project, The Epic (the gospel of John translated into rap).
