What I Often Forget

There are tons of things that I often forget in my life. Just ask my wife. I forget my keys, I forget to swap out the laundry on lunch, I forget to throw trash in my vehicle away and so much more. I could probably write at least 3 blogs about things that I forget. But in this blog, I want to focus on something I often forget in ministry. Prayer.
This week one of the deacons and most beloved members of our congregation passed away. His grandson is in our student ministry; this is going to be a tough time in his life. He was super close to his grandfather and he will miss him like crazy. So this week I took time out of our normal Wednesday night schedule to pray for him. We must teach our students to pray for one another. It's biblical. James 5: 16 says "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."
 All too often I forget to remind our students how powerful prayer is. God works through the prayers of his people and when a group of students truly grasp this and begin to pray for one another a beautiful thing happens. A community is born. Students need to know that the guy or girl sitting next to them every week truly cares for them and will be there for them in their time of need. Yes, asking students to have a dedicated time of prayer is awkward. They don't like to pray out loud and many of them won't. But, we need them to see how important it is to the life of the church.
How do you teach them this? You lead by example. Take time everyday to pray for your students. Pray for them by name if you have the time to. Lift up the ones you know need it the most. Ask God to foster a spirit of prayer within them as well. Don't be afraid to ask students to pray with you. Find the key leaders in your group and teach them how to pray for others by example. Prayer is not just important, it is vital.
This week I encourage all of you small town youth pastors to set aside time to specifically and purposefully pray for your students. Yes, there are other things that have to get done. Yes, it might be difficult to carve out this time. But make the time. Pray for your kids and teach them how to pray for one another!

Advice

This post is for all of our young and emerging pastors out there. This link is to an article by Mark Driscoll and  gives a little advice for new pastors. There is some great information and advice here. What do you guys think? Was this article helpful for you? Here'e the link!

Suggestions for Young Pastors

Movement and Growth

When Emilee and I moved to serve where we are a little over a year go, we really had no idea what to expect. With this being my first full time ministry position we had little to go on. Plus, we were moving from a decent sized city to a smaller town. And on top of that our church is in a very rural location, super rural. Not only was this not where we expected to be, it was the last setting we had even considered being in.
But, God's calling was so obvious that there was nothing we could do but surrender to it. So we got married (my favorite part of the story!), packed up, and moved. You spend your whole college career expecting to get the dream job as soon as you graduate and you even think you know what it will look like. But for many of us in ministry, we have no idea what it looks like. I definitely didn't expect it to be an average size rural church just 2 hours from my hometown. Honestly though, serving here with Emilee is my dream job.
There is a beauty about serving average/small local churches. It's much easier to see movement and growth. I know when our students are growing spiritually because I have a close relationship with most all of them. And I know when we are growing numerically because I can look out from behind the podium and see it. We have had an unusual amount of first time visitors to our church this past month and it's been obvious. I know who they are and I have the opportunity to connect with them.
It's also much easier to see movement. In our small town context, our congregation is able to serve the church so easily. When things are getting done you can see it. You can see forward motion when committees get together and work, when Sunday School classes are serving together in the community, and when business meetings are full of conversation about ways to improve our worship.
So, if you are a small town church leader today. Thank God for your calling! Thank Him that you get to personally interact with and see your people move and grow. It's an exciting thing to watch and an important thing to be a part of. God's people are at work all over the world. They are moving and growing in awesome ways. And they are doing it to bring Him glory and honor. Small churches, big churches, churches that are ancient and churches that are new are filled with the growth and movement of the Kingdom of God. Wherever He has placed you, be there! Get in and get your hands dirty serving with your church family!

Seasons

I haven't been in full time ministry for a super long time. But, I have noticed that ministry is one of those things where you always hit the ground running. Either you are the one ahead sprinting with everyone else behind you, or you are in the back sprinting to catch up with everyone else. What I mean is that we are either giving all we have to lead our churches in the direction God is showing us, or we are behind trying to catch up and learn exactly how our churches have handled certain situations in the past. Now, I know the latter really only applies to us who serve in established congregations but I've really been thinking about that for a while.
When I began to serve where I am now it didn't take long for me to figure out that there are certain events and practices that our church does every year, no matter what. That is a good thing! It is wonderful to be called into a church where fellowship and ties run deep. As I've looked back over the last year I can see that our church operates in definite seasons. If you think about it, I'm sure your churches and ministries operate the same way.
Right now we are in what I like to call the Harvest season at our church. It is a super busy and exciting season for us actually. We have a Harvest Day celebration, a High Attendance Sunday, an annual church-wide Hayride, and a huge community outreach event that we call Operation Pumpkin Outreach. All of that is packed in two 2 months and doesn't even include our normal activities.
For whatever reason, our students love Harvest season at church. Attendance is always up and the students all seem glad to be here. So, I capitalize on that. I make sure that I plan extra fun events and intense Bible study during this season. I give an extra effort to make sure that everything our student ministry does during this season is over the top. We're a small church with a small budget but I use a large portion of it during this season. It's when I promote big events that will happen later on in the year. It's when I plan extra events that are sure to draw non-churched kids in. I make sure our Bible study time is clear and focused. I make sure they understand everything I'm trying to get across because I may not see some of these students again until next fall.
What are the seasons at your church? Do you know? What season seem to be more successful than others? I encourage you to look at the big picture and figure out where to concentrate your efforts. This may sound small and insignificant but it will help you plan your year out in advance and it prepares you for that season when things are fast and furious. Pay attention, make observations, and focus on the season where God is obviously moving within your ministry!

He Said, She Said

Alright, this is sort of an impromptu informational/humorous post. Sometimes we start worship a little early on Wednesday nights. That means we finish early sometimes too. Last night we finished with a little time left so we played a very simple game. He said She said. If you've never tried this game with your group before then you should. If you have a large group, I'd say more than 12 even, it works best to split your group up into smaller teams of 6 or so. Give each person a piece of paper and pen and ask them to write the beginning sentence of a story. They get to choose the sentence but that's all they can write. Once everyone has written something down make them pass their papers to the left or right. That person gets to write the next sentence and so on. So by then end of the game you have several stories that everyone has contributed to and they get pretty funny. This is a great simple time filling game to try because all the supplies you need are pen and paper.

All that to say, we played this game last night and I told our kids I would pick what I thought was the best story and post it here in the blog. So, here goes. By the way, this should be read in a British accent. 

One day, I got a new pet llama.

His name was Mr. Nibbles.

He had 6 legs and 4 eyes.

And he had giant wings and laser vision.

One day, Mr Nibbles got lost in the dark and ran into a trap. 

Mr Nibbles got up and ran into the woods and got attacked.

He was attacked by a giant, scary, very funny, mean beast of a basketball star named Bob.

Mr. Nibbles kicked Bob and got out of the woods.

He was very clumsy because he had 6 legs so he wasn't running very fast.

He died,,,,,

The end.

So you can see how crazy this can get, the students love it and it is a ton of fun. Anyone else ever used this activity? If you have, I would love to hear some of your funny stories!

It Worked!!

Ok, I know what you're thinking. What a slacker, this guy promised a follow up post and it's been over 2 weeks! I know, and I apologize. But you guys know how ministry is. It's busy and many times things come up that we have no control over. My encouragement to you is to keep on trucking and make ministering to your people the main goal of your ministry. Even when you need to blog.....

I'm sure by this point the suspense is killing you so bad that you can't take it. You want to know how our worship kick off went. It went great! And 2 weeks in to doing worship with our students it's only getting better. Here's how we introduced it:

I knew I had to start off in a neutral location. I had to create a new environment for my students to step in to. Trying to introduce worship without changing anything at all could have been a bust. Our current youth space is a large room with plenty of space for us. But when I first came to serve here, I created a monster. Because the students had never had anyone take time to help them take identity of their room, I came in and tried to spruce it up a bit without much thought. What we ended up with was a large room with a ton of activity space and small bible study area crammed in a corner. We had game tables and a futon, and a large open area for games. This atmosphere was just not conducive to worship. So, the first week we took it outside. We created an intimate environment with candles and tiki torches. We led them to this area blindfolded and then revealed to them the new way we were doing Wednesday nights. We sang just 2 familiar songs and I delivered a lesson reminding them of why we gather together each week. To experience God and grow closer to God. I also reminded them that this wasn't the end of fellowship and fun. I wanted them to realize that we need a balance of true worship and authentic fellowship. Numbers were low that week and I was tempted to be discouraged, but I knew God had brought the students there that he wanted there.

The following week I knew I had to change our youth space in order for this to continue down a helpful path. Things have changed and our environment needed to be inviting and also helpful for our new direction with worship. So I simply rearranged our room. Instead of lots of space for games and a little for bible study it became a large worship area with a little room for activity. It completely changed the attitudes of our students as they walked in the door. We lowered lights and lit candles again. We took distracting things out of the room such as game tables and food. And more students showed up and they sang even louder. It really went great! This did not cost much money. We didn't have to paint or build a stage. We simply changed the focus of our room and it made all of the difference.

I'm thankful that God laid all of this out before me. I had no idea how to introduce worship and God made it work. I give Him all of the credit for this and most importantly I am glad tat our students are finally experiencing what it means to worship Jesus for what he has done for them. Week in and week out we will worship Christ because He deserves every bit of it!

How to do a Fall Retreat for Cheap (I hope).

Its Tuesday. I sit in my extremely cluttered office, trying to decide whether I should continue to work on my lesson for tomorrow night, clean my desk, or do some planning for my upcoming fall retreat.  Strangely, posting a blog won out.  So in order to justify blog posting I am going to write about my fall retreat planning thus far.
As I mentioned before, my background is in larger church ministry.  When we planned retreats we often spent as much money on one retreat for a couple hundred students as my entire youth budget for the year.  So trying to provide what I know a fall retreat can be for my students now, on the small amount of money that I have alloted to me is a daunting task.
(Let me note here that I have only been in my current position for a few months.  This being said, I did not plan this year's budget, and so no monies have been previously set aside for this retreat. . . )
The first thing I had to do in planning this retreat was to decide what I felt like God was showing me the purpose should be.  Fellowship, yes. Awesomeness, yes. Food, yes. Worship, yes.  All of those things are a giving.  But what would the driving force be? What would my students walk away with? I felt like it needed to be so much more than just fun memories and full bellies.  They needed to walk away with life change and knowledge.
And so, after much prayer, I have decided that this retreat will focus on Biblical manhood and womanhood.  I made this decision because I know that it would be nearly impossible for me to cover these topics in our weekly worship setting, and I also know that I want my students to have a good concept of what the Bible teaches about being a man of God and woman of God. I think its essential actually. 
The Girly Burly Retreat has been born! 
The next step was finding lodging.  Do I want to have a retreat out of town (a town where there is a whole lot of nothing to do)? Do I want to host in at the church lock-in style? (I will post later about my passionate dislike of lock-ins). Do guys and girls stay co-ed? Should they be in completely different locations? How can I give my students a place to sleep for cheap? Here is what I came up with:
        1. Girls like sleepovers. Girls like showers.
        2. Guys don't really care.
In our area we are blessed to have a Baptist District Office that has lodging available for missionaries.  By lodging I mean a giant room where people could crash on air mattresses, a kitchen, and a few showers.  Best of all, to churches who want to use it, this space is free.  That's right, FREE! So decision made, my ladies will be staying sleepover style in the district office, for free.
In our area we are blessed to have farmers.  With farmers comes a lot of land. With land comes camping.  Guys love camping! So decision made, my gentlemen will be camping out in one of our church member's field.  And we can borrow tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, and firewood from other church members (our church member LOVE our students. HUGE BLESSING). Again, FREE.
I have a speaker lined up to come in and lead talks with our girls.  She is friend from college who is passionate about seeing girls come to recognize themselves as a creation of God and what that means.  And since she is friend, I will pay her gas and a little $ and be good to go.  
I still need to figure out a speaker for my guys. And I need to plan some activities and meals.  But that is where I stand in the planning process as of this morning. 
This retreat may not be the biggest and best retreat to ever hit student ministry. In fact in may fail terribly.  But my prayer is that my students will love it, that they will be challenged to take a deeper ownership of their walks with God as young men and women, and that they will be excited about it again next year. 
What are some things that you have done to plan retreats for cheap? I would love some of your pointers!

Prayers and Ideas..

I have been serving at the church where I am currently at for a little over a year now. The whole time here I have been fighting a specific mindset amongst our students. That attitude is: “We have always been and will always be a small church.” Our students honestly have no idea what student ministry looks like in most other churches. Here is an example of this. This year in February we had a Disciple Now Weekend. I know, not the latest or hottest idea to his student ministry. I even recall DNOW’s being lame when I was still in high school. But our kids had never heard of it. They had no idea what I was talking about when I started promoting the event. All they have ever known is one youth conference per year and short 15 minute devotions on Wednesday nights. They honestly have no clue that other churches do more than this. And if they do by chance know that, they assume we are too small of a church to do anything different.

Well, I have decided to put an end to this way of thinking amongst our students. I’ve been doing this gradually throughout the past year by adding events and making our Bible study times more intense and focused. But this week I am taking the plunge. We are starting worship on Wednesday nights. WHOA!!! Do you feel the gravity that statement carries? Seriously, I am going to ask all 15-20 of them to stand and sing along before we enter our study time this week.

I know many of you have been doing this forever but this is a brand new concept for our students. We are adding a brand new element that is hopefully going to enhance our Wednesday night gathering. I know I can’t rush into this. We are going to start out slow. And as a good friend once told me “when you’re in the bush you’ve got to use what you have.” So I am going to lead worship. It’s not ideal and my goal was to wait until we found someone to step up and take this role whether they be student or adult leader. But the fact is, it’s time. And God hasn’t revealed that person to us yet. I already lead worship on Sunday mornings at church so it is a context our students are familiar seeing me in. I know this sounds like we are way behind the times but this is seriously a huge step for our student ministry.

So, this Wednesday I covet your prayers! Pray that it isn’t awkward and pray that our students understand that they are getting the opportunity to worship their heavenly Father. I want to hear your ideas on this too? Have you introduced worship to a student group before? How did it go? What worked and what didn’t? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to make this successful and meaningful. I’ll be posting a debrief blog on Thursday to let all of our faithful readers know how it went!

Connections. . .

I feel like a bit of a slacker seeing that Josh has already posted twice on here, and I have only posted once. But I do have a great excuse - and I want to write about it today.
Today I want to talk about connections in ministry.  By this I mean the relationships you have with other minister and members in different churches.  I don't mean networking, which is something I learned a lot about in college.  Networking involves meeting people from different companies to either build business or get a better job.  What I mean is making connections in order to build your relationship with God, challenge you in ministry, and have some sort of accountability.
One great connection that I have is with my host family from a previous church that I worked at.  This weekend I went back to visit them, and I can't even explain how refreshing that was for me.  The thing that I love about this family is that they know me, love me, and expect certain things out of me without demanding them.  They hold me to a certain standard. They support me 100% and give me advice - even when I don't ask for it!
The most awesome thing about this family though is that not a single one of them are in "ministry".  They don't go to a church day in and day out for their job.  No, they are out there in the real world, working daily with people who are not Christians.  They see their jobs as ministry, and that is what blows my mind.  Even more awesome, they love each other unconditionally.  Knowing this family, and seeing them live out their lives, in good times and bad, has challenged me more than any fellow minister ever has.  If we all had a love for God like this family has a love for each other - even when one member makes another beyond angry - we would rarely struggle in putting Him first.
I think that connections in ministry are extremely important. The families that I have built relationships with, pastors and fellow minister who have poured into me, and individuals that I have seen work out their salvation with fear and trembling have done more for me and my walk with God than anything else, other than studying the Word.  So here is my question for you: how are you connected with the members of your church? Members of other churches?  Is there anyone older than you that you are allowing to pour into your life?  Is there a family that you are looking to as a guide to your marriage and love for God?  
All of these things and more are important to have as we live out our relationships with God and our ministries.  As you serve, whether it be at a small church or a large church, you need to be filled up while you are pouring out.  It is impossible to overflow into your students if you cup is getting empty, and one of the ways to refill it is through connections.  I challenge you to go out and make a new one today.

Fridays

So, there is kind of an unspoken assumption in ministry. At least this is something I've experienced while serving in Tennessee. It goes like this: Smaller Churches have fewer students therefore there is less work for student pastors to do. Now, anyone who has been around the church for a while will know this just isn't true. I've experienced the exact opposite actually. Larger churches are blessed with the ability to hire interns and a more extensive staff. It isn't uncommon for a larger church to have up to 10 people on a student ministry staff alone. It isn't like that serving in a smaller context and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Yes, that means that I am involved in every single aspect of our ministry but I honestly love it. I see it as an opportunity to learn and and grow.

This brings me to Fridays. Many pastors take Fridays off because Sunday is considered a work day. I  encourage all student ministers who have this opportunity to do it but sometimes it isn't so easy in a small church is it? When we are blessed to be responsible for the entire ministry there are some weeks when Friday rolls around and there is still work to be done. Take heart! Don't be discouraged during these weeks. It is so easy to get overwhelmed with it all. But I find if I remind myself of my calling it makes those Fridays easier. God is allowing me to be a part of His work in the church! Wow, what a blessing that is.

But this Friday has been a little different itself. This Friday I have had the privilege to serve in my calling in a way that goes above and beyond working in my office at church. I have had the amazing opportunity to serve and take care of my wife Emilee. She just happens to be out of school today. (she's a kindergarten teacher) And she also so happens to be sick. The being sick part is a bummer. But it has set the scene for spending the entire day with her and that is something I love more than anything else. Yes, I do have things to do at the office. Lots of them actually. But, as married pastors our first ministry is to our family. Our families come before the church. Now I've only been doing this married and full time ministry thing for a little over a year but I have learned this: Giving my wife more time than the church makes it easier for us to serve together. Because being a student pastor is, at times, demanding. But when she is at my side serving with me it makes it that much more fulfilling.

What about you? What do your Fridays look like? Do you find it hard balancing time between your family and ministry? I pray that today you will take time to serve your family and to thank God for calling you to work in His church. Even when your weekend is just Saturday!!

Intro #2

For my first blog post I find myself playing a rousing game of spoons while on a mission trip.  I find that a good game of cards, whether it be spoons, sock and shoe, or go fish, can bring together a group of people in amazing ways.  That is one of the things that I love about ministry, it brings tons of different people, from different backgrounds and walks of life, together for one cause.
I'm Daniel, and I serve as a student minister in the same small town as Josh.  I also won't tell you the name of our town for a lot of the same reasons that Josh won't.  But, I will say that we do have a pretty sweet tower at one of the parks here. 
I am pretty new to this whole small town ministry thing.  I did grow up in a small town in east Tennessee, but didn't start serving in ministry until college, which was in a large town at a large church.  I moved to this town in July after being called as the student minster at a local church here. Before, I was serving as an associate middle school minister at a church in middle Tennessee. Before that I had served as an intern at another church in east Tennessee.   Those areas were completely different than the area that I currently live in, and because of the differences, ministry is done differently. Completely different.  I am under a huge learning curve here. Everything that I have learned in ministry is challenged everyday and it is both exciting and tough.  
That is why I wanted to start this blog.  I came into this situation thinking that I had it all figured out, and I will admit, some of my ideas have taken off with flying colors.  But I have also learned that some of the things that go on in much larger areas in much larger churches with much larger budgets are just not feasible, or sensible here.  However, my ministry to these students will have the same eternal impact on my students as my ministry in those churches did.  Therefore it is just as important. Just as Josh said, even though we serve in a small town with a small budget does not mean that our ministries are small.  The numbers may not be that same, but the impact is, and that is something that should not be taken for granted.
So here I am.  I want this blog to be a resource for all those minister out there, whether they be student minister or not, who find themselves in my place.  As Josh said, I want to give advice on things that do work and that don't work on our shoestring budget.  I want to talk about things that go awesomely, and things that flop.  I will try to give some advice on curriculum, events, mentoring, fellowship, and speaking.  I want to be open and honest about my struggles in ministry.  My hope is that you will find this blog helpful.  I hope that you will post comments, suggestions, and questions that you have for us.  
We plan on posting daily, whether it be the two of us or just one of us. Thank you for stopping by. Let us know what you think.

Intro No.1

I'm sitting here this morning staring out my office window at the rain that is pouring down. I mean it is really coming down! Much like it was last night when we were tearing down after our annual See You After the Pole event. We had a great night! Some things happened that we didn't see coming and some things went just as planned. God moved in the hearts of the students and it was an awesome time of worship.

I'm Josh and I serve as a student pastor in a small town in rural west TN. I won't tell you the name of the town for one reason: I don't want hundreds of fans knocking on my door each day after they've read this blog! Just kidding. Seriously though, I really don't want people knocking on my door after the curriculum I suggested didn't go over well with their students or the band I recommended didn't show up on time. (Because we all know up and coming worship bands love to be "fashionably" late...) But, for those of you who love fried food, you just might see me hanging out with students at the World's Biggest Fish Fry.....

A great friend (I'll let him introduce himself later) and I decided to start this blog in order to encourage and help other student pastors who serve in a similar context as us. My goal (once again, I'll let him explain his later) is to hopefully help student pastors in small towns understand that they can still have BIG ministries. Hints the name of the blog. Because God is the same God everywhere right? I mean we say that all the time but we complain that we don't see the same growth as larger churches in more populated areas. If we truly believe that God is the same everywhere then we must also believe He can move in our small town ministries as much as He can move anywhere else.

Through this blog I hope to be able to share things that have helped our ministries as well as things that didn't help so much. We'll be doing things like reviewing curriculum and debriefing events that we did on shoestring budgets. We'll be sharing the joys and frustrations of working in the local church as a student minister. And anything else you would like us to do! All in all I'm hoping we will have the opportunity to network, share ideas, pray for, and encourage all of you other Small Town student ministers who desire a Big Ministry!

p.s.
If any worship bands read this, I'm a worship leader too. And it is kind of cool to be late sometimes! Ha!