Some of the things I have stumbled across or enjoyed over the past couple of days (or weeks):

A New Find!

a website a friend pointed me to called Godspace, it is the website of author Christine Sine;

from blogs on ministry

I have also been enjoying the blog by a fellow youth worker, Dan Mayes check out this post (I found it thought-provoking).

Bob Robinson has done two very intriguing posts on a new approach for sharing our faith and revealing God’s Kingdom - quality stuff!! Part One. Part Two.

Chris Folmsbee has written a unique take on how we represent Jesus, check out his post - Stealing or Revealing the Identity of Jesus;

Steve Argue asks the tough questions - and this post gets at the heart of; an important discussion that maybe you can work through in your youth ministry environment.

this is just cool stuff

will it be a trend? Life Church enter’s the world of Second Life… check it out.

Jim Hancock continues to “turn up” cool videos… this one is pretty amazing…

helpful

compare on those books you wanna buy - compare here

Why do we do what we do? For those who work with youth - sometimes we ask this question of ourselves out of frustration. Sometimes we find ourselves answering this question, for other inquirying minds. Nonetheless we are faced often in youth ministry with the question, “Why do you do it?”

We can joke, “It’s not about the money.” (Although I know some folks who are living fairly comfortable off this “vocation.”) But, why do we do it?

Are we incapable of doing any other thing?

Are we able to get by doing little? Are we lazy?

Are we following our calling?

Do we fear growing up?

Do we, do it for love?

What is the driving motivation that has us pursuing youth ministry? I hope among the many competing motivations there is a compeling love for youth. I am on a one man mission to restore dignity to the word, amateur. The word is derived from a latin word meaning, “lover or to love.” When I hear people say, “I am just an amateur” it makes me cringe. Why do folks feel they need to apologize that they are not a “paid professional.” I often reply, “Doing it for the love, is often preferable to the alternative.” We need more amateurs and a whole lot less of the alternative.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13.1-3)

Maybe we could add: “If I teach and lead youth in the community of faith, but have not love, I am merely a sideshow entertainer - much shock, no impact.”

Do it for love!

I don’t want to add too many of my words…

Augustine heard, “take up and read…” - may you hear from my little blogging world this day, “down load and hear…”

Shane Claiborne was featured on the APR radio program Speaking of Faith yesterday and I implore you to listen, consider, dream and pray about what you hear.

If you desire to “take up and read” well then check out, “The Irresistible Revolution.”

May we be more than entertained by Shane’s story; may we listen and hear echoes of God’s Kingdom and may we consider, dream and plan how we might resound with God’s Kingdom in our sphere of influence.

In my earlier post on listening I suggested that the spiritual life is the result of a life that listens. Our ability to learn to listen to our own life and to the voice of God are important factors in determining our progress on the journey to become like Christ. We see in the life of those who come before us (Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, Jesus, Mary of Bethany, Paul, The Church Fathers, etc.) the priority of taking time to push the pause button - and allowing time for reflection, being, and for listening. Joan D. Chittister in her book, The Rule of Benedict Insights for the Ages makes the following observation:

It is a lesson to be relearned in a modern age perhaps. There is nothing more important in our own list of important things to do in life than to stop at regular times, in regular ways to remember what life is really about, where it came from, why we have it, what we are to do with it and for whom we are to live it. No matter how tired we are or how busy we are or how impossible we think it is to do it, Benedictine spirituality says, Stop. Now. A spiritual life without a regular prayer life and an integrated community consciousness is pure illusion.

Did you catch that last sentance? Read it again.

“A spiritual life without a regular prayer life and an integrated community consciousness is pure illusion.”

And when read in context, I hear Chittister saying, without a life of prayer, meaning a life that fails to pause, cease from activity, quiet their life for the purpose of reflecting on it before the living God, is a life of illusion. A life of that leads to the absurd. A life that gets on a hamster wheel and strives, and stresses, and generates a lot of motion and activity - but fails to move in the direction of obeying the voice of God.

How do we practice a life that listens? Well a key word in the previous sentance is the word practice. There are exercises from the 2000 years of our Christian heritage that can help us to develop a life that listens. One of the practices that I have come to appreciate is often referred to as, The Prayer of Examen. This particular prayer exercise was explained by St. Ignatius in his work, The Spiritual Exercises.

The prayer of examen is a way of honestly assessing our lives in the light of God’s mercy. This prayer focuses our reflection on a narrow time span, perhaps the previous day or week. It is not intended to be a tallying of failures and successes but an assessment of how we have lived in union with God. The prayer of examen is to be practiced in solitude, but it is ultimately about community, about our relationship to self, God, and others. It is a great prayer to practice in the evening or at the close of the day.

The Prayer:

1. Remember you are in the presence of God. Take time to be still and quiet. Take a deep breath and remember that in God we live and move and have our being.

2. Recall the events of your day (or week) and ask God to show you all the moments of Grace (or moments of gratitude or times of sorrow - you can practice the Examen in reference to one or all of these various moments).

3. Invite the Holy Spirit to identify one particular moment from your day. After a particular event surfaces, don’t question it - relive that moment slowly and repeatedly.

4. Ask God, what are you saying or teaching me in this moment or what are you inviting me to do, remember or know. LISTEN.

5. Resolve to rest and grow in God’s presence. Imagine that God is sitting with you and you have the opportunity to speak to him face to face. Respond appropriately to what the Spirit of God has shown you (a need to thank, repent, obey, trust, etc.). Ask God to help you be more aware as you go through your day of His presence and to be more attentive to His voice. Rest, wait in God’s presence.

This is the Prayer of Examen. In this exercise we find in reflecting on our life the thread of the presence of God and we nurture a life that is more alert to His voice and to His work. I encourage you to take 15 - 30 minutes and try this exercise and see if it helps you become more present to yourself and to the Lord Most High.

I often look for good news about women and men who have faithfully followed their vocation and who have persisted in a way that is a good example and an inspiration to me. I stumbled onto this story - a story of a teenager who followed his dream and in so doing raised a good family, remained faithful to his spouse, and obeyed God’s call to ministry. I thought I would share it and invite you to take it to heart! It reminds me that:

God can and does speak to young people,

God is at work (although we can’t always see it) and still changing lives,

We can learn to balance vocation and personal life - neither needs to come “second,”

and God honors our faithful steps in the direction of obedience.

Now the story… Enjoy! (I found the story here.)

Pastor Madho celebrates 34 years service to Jesus
By SEETA PERSAD Wednesday, May 16 2007

He is well known in the Southland for his charity work at the Operation Smile Home for Children. Having spent 34 years of his life in service to Jesus Christ, Pastor Madho Basdeo is now enjoying the fruits of his work as he is well respected by the hundreds who attend the Gasparillo Ministry Centre.

With the assistance of his wife, Sandra Basdeo, the pastor has spent days and nights building the ministry and serving the Christian community in the area.

The pastor celebrates his 50th birthday today and his congregation has sent a message to him saying he is a genuine man of God and they are all proud of him.

Coming from modest beginnings, Basdeo has proven that it doesn’t matter where you’ve come from — it’s who you’ve become that matters.

Despite his humble background, Basdeo developed the patience to endure his troubles, and this patience has certainly paid off in cultivating the strong person he is today.

He was just 16 when he accepted Jesus as his Lord and saviour. He had many visions as a teenager and he followed the visions, and this guided him to identify his purpose and pursue it with a passion.

At 17, he became the pastor of the Hermitage New Testament Church of God, and during his ministry at Hermitage, he was guided by compassion from God for underprivileged children. At the age of 21, he was married to Sandra, whom he describes as “the love of his life.” Together they accepted the role of senior pastors at the Poonah New Testament Church of God.

As the pastor related to his congregation at a recent lecture, the church was a dilapidated shack with just a few members when he arrived.

He began his ministering work at the church and the shack was soon replaced by a concrete structure of which the community is now proud.

Having outgrown the facilities at the Poonah New Testament Church of God, Basdeo was struck by the vision of a church in Gasparillo. He followed his instincts and the Ministry Centre was built in quick time.

Not long after the establishment of the Gasparillo ministry, Basdeo set about to create the Operation Smile Home for neglected children in South Trinidad.

He demonstrated his commitment to the people by working long hours to establish the home and getting the underprivileged children to stay at the home.

His church followers are convinced that God is answering their prayers through Pastor Madho, and the congregation is actively involved in caring for the 44 children at the children’s home.

Coming from a humble background, Basdeo did not have the opportunity to get a full secondary education, but this did not stop him from earning a degree in Christian Theology from the Covalent Life Ministry School of Theology in 2001.

In the words of Christian, Dr Kenneth Boa, a careful examination of a leader’s qualifications reveals someone who has his family and public life in balance. This certainly applies to Basdeo, as even though his life’s tasks were demanding, he made and continues to make time for his wife and seven children — all of whom are Christians and are persuing careers. While many may think it is a huge task, Pastor Basdeo believes that God is in control and all thing are possible with him. In the future the pastor plans on opening room and library at the ministry for students and members. Already members are coming up with various ideas to promote academics at the ministry. The hope is to get qualified persons to teach the various subjects to students from there areas. They are also hoping to develop the youths in the different disciplines in sports. This will include cricket, netball, table tennis and football. The pastor is currently holding classes in Bible studies at the ministry.

At this 50th year of life, Basdeo is thankful to God for all his accomplishments and plans to keep working to build the Gasparillo Ministry Centre and lives of impoverished children not only in TT but in the rest of the Caribbean.

At the heart of Christian Spirituality is the idea of “listening.” The very first word of Benedict’s, Rule of Life is the word, “listen.” Those who have gone before us have again, and again stressed the importance of being able to “hear” from our own life (our needs, desires, and concerns) and from the voice of our Loving Father.

In our age, we don’t seem to do so well in the area of listening. The result for this failure is a lack of depth in our spiritual life. We are out of touch with what is really real. We are disconnected from what matters most. We are distant from the heart and voice of our Living God. As T. S. Eliot observes we live, “distracted by distractions to avoid our distractions.”

This leads me to Henri Nouwen’s observations about listening.

“The first discipline is listening. The word listening in Latin is audire. And if you listen with great attention the words are ob audire. That is the word for “obedience.” The word obedience means listening. If you are not listening, you are deaf. The Latin word for deaf is surdus, and if you’re actually deaf, you’re ab surdus. The “absurd” life is a life in which you’re not listening. An obedient life is a life in which you are listening.”

May we learn to listen. May we avoid lives of absurdity. May we pray that God will help us to be alert, aware and attentive to life and to His voice. This is the spiritual life, a life that listens. I will add a couple of ways to help “tune our ears” that have helped others in developing a “life that listens,” in the days ahead.

As I author this, I am sitting in the Pittsburgh International Airport waiting to board an airplane to Soutwest Florida. I always have bittersweet feelings at departure time. The tinge of guilt and sadness leaving my family and regular routines and responsibilities and yet a bit of excitement about the journey ahead. And so I wait with the duplicitous feelings washing over me.

Consulting is an especially interesting journey. It is consciously walking into a new set of relationships where there are many spoken and unspoken expectations and all kinds of unknowns (despite the many discussions and phone calls beforehand). It is a journey I do enjoy! I thrive on the thrill of dreaming and encouraging youth workers. I also love the challenge of helping a team of folks come to new realizations and also see the places and ways they are being used to reveal God’s Kingdom among young people. Today I will begin four days of walking with a group of volunteer youthworkers who are desireing to evaluate and discuss a more wholistic approach to youth ministry.

I hope to help these volunteers uncover an important set of truths. The core truths are that more than being activity and program directors - that each youth worker would realize they are called to be advocates for youth and spiritual guides for others. My hope is to help these folks see that to develop a wholistic ministry to youth, they need to advocate for the involvement and participation of teens in the life of the faith community. Championing the cry that youth are a valued and needed part of Christ’s Body, right now. This is essential to be successful in helping integrate the youth into the everyday life of the church. As spiritual guides my hope is to help each of the volunteers to see the vital importance of their own personal growth. It is out of this growing and deepening well that they will have the authenticity and the resource to minister.

That is my agenda, subject to change. For now the journey begins and not to far around the corner, we’ll uncover some of God’s agenda for this important ministry in Florida.

I remember the ten to fifteen minutes before the youth event when students were arriving. At times in ministry those could be anxious moments. I would often be wondering, are more people coming? Are the volunteers going to show up?! Will the core kids come and be kind? Will that obnoxious elder’s kid show up? Have you ever had those thoughts?

It doesn’t take us long ministering with kids to realize that “who is there” can make a big difference in what gets accomplished any given night. One personality can “derail” an entire evening by acting up, by dominating the discussion, or by intimidating others -keeping them from participation. I think we can see this as a problem or we can see this issue as the ministry to which we are called. It may help to see “who comes out on any given night” - as the ministry to which we are called; and if we do so - then how can we change the way we approach such a ministry?

I got to thinking of this question while I was cutting my grass. I was noticing the weeds amidst the blades of fresh spring grass. I was reminded again that I need to fertilize and feed my grass. I have long been an adopter of the mantra, “feed the grass, rather than pull the weeds.” I mean you can pull weeds - but that can jeopardize the root system of your grass, not to mention it leaves a void in your yard. I say feed the grass and get a healthy, growing crop of grass; and in the long term there will be no room for weeds.

We often allow ourselves to get in the same quandry in ministry - do I feed the grass or pull the weeds. I encourage folks to feed the grass. Care for and feed those who come and:

believe the best - that Students are hungry for God and meaning,

that it is God who causes the growth,

trust that below the surface in unseen places (at the root level) - change is taking place,

share out of your authenticity the truth found in God’s Word,

and feed, train and call your volunteers to be welcoming, loving, befriending and encouraging toward every kid who shows up.

As we are faithful in these things we will create a positive environment that is accepting and prime for growth. We will “feed the grass” and not uproot any potential from our ministry. We will begin to view every individual not as a “problem” or as “more important” but each person as one who is there by God’s grace and able to be transformed by God’s grace.

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ “ [Matthew 13:24-30]

**DISCLAIMER**
This post is in no way suggesting that we avoid disciplining students in our ministry who misbehave (this can obviously be a part of a persons individual growth). There is a time and place for rules, enforcement of rules and consequences. I would advocate that you regularly review the expectations within your ministry and the consequences for disregarding them.

Over the past couple of days I have found these to be good reads… thought I would pass them along:

Ted Gossard on The National Day of Prayer (and his post on The Beauty of the Lord was a good read, as well).

Caught in the Middle has a great post on leadership and big business in the church.

Alan Bevere provides some fun with a post entitled, “Funny Quotes on Religion.”

Kurt Johnston posts on 25 things you can do with a Buck - this is a wonderful “take-a-way” idea for students on a message on “little things that can make a big difference.” (Kurt provided this list with a dollar as a take-away recently at their middle school ministry).

Mark Riddle post a short little thought on an “odd spiritual discipline he practices.” I really dig it - a helpful way to foster your awareness and to be in the moment.

The internet monk - Michael Spencer - writes a wonderful piece on liturgical prayer; really well done! You can check out my recommendations for exploring an alternative to “spontaneous prayer” here.

Mike King - posts a quote from Erwin McManus - a helpful reminder and a great conversation starter!

It is no secret that the Western World (especially USAmerica) loves the great gala extravaganza. We gravitate toward the big event. It is our way. We love to make a splash and often the build up is bigger than the event [think Superbowl hype every year, new fall tv lineups, release of new Albums (think U2 playing on a flatbed through the streets of NYC), the press coverage of gatherings to herald the arrival of gamesystems & computer operating systems, and we could go on and on] with millions rallied, millions spent, and untold hours of energy devoted to prepare for “the event.” It also comes as no surprise that this “bigger is better event” mentality has crept (okay captured and dominated??) many of our churches.

My hope is that we can shed this sense that Christian growth occurs through events and monumental moments. This seems to fly in the face of much evidence we see around us. It is Spring right now in the Mid-Atlantic states of USAmerica. I have been struck by the fact that the emergence of growth and life is a long process. The various trees (especially the Hard woods like the Red Maple and White Oaks) have been going through the cycle of coming into leaf since mid-March and still aren’t in full leaf. When I look at Jesus and His work among His disciples we don’t see Him including all the disciples on all the Miracles, but apparantly most of them were present with Him for three solid years of living with the Master. They experienced His stories, His priorities, His attitudes and His everyday demeanor as they ate, walked, and worked among people. It was a long process to go from average Israelite to Apostle of the Risen Christ.

I won’t say there isn’t a place for Monumental Moments (who wants to discount the Resurrection or Pentecost or Baptism or the institution of the Lord’s Supper) - but, these events while definitive - are not our only means of discipleship. Discipleship is a process of frequent footprints, interspersed with monumental moments. Too often in Youth Ministry we fail to help students see specifically how they can be daily following after the Master. We can fall into the trap of mistakenly conveying the idea that Christian Growth takes place as a result of participating in extravaganza’s (conferences, retreats, events, rally’s, large meetings). My prayer is that more Youth Ministry practitioners will help the youth of their church discover a discipleship of frequent footprints.

A discipleship of frequent footprints would be characterized by:

1. Helping students have a family familiarity with the life of Jesus;
2. Modeling and calling students to a prayer life that is in harmony with The Lord’s Prayer;
3. Providing regular opportunities for students to serve rather than be served (local service and ministry projects);
4. Becoming experts in hospitality, known as welcoming and gracious hosts;
5. Developing mentor/mentoree relationships that nurtures, encourages, and deepens participants spiritual, emotional, and relational life;
6. Fostering a ministry environment that celebrates and expects students to share stories of how God’s Story is enveloping their own.

Well, that is just a beginning. What are you doing to encourage daily discipleship among your students? May the Church of the 21st Century be a Church that is known in history as getting serious about modeling our daily lifestyle after our Master.