Think Next Now

BigStuf Beach Camp Day 4 from Mark Cox on Vimeo.

BigStuf Beach Camp 3 from Mark Cox on Vimeo.

Things are heating up – and it’s only day 2!

BigStuf Beach Camp Day 2 from Mark Cox on Vimeo.

This is just a quick couple clips of what’s going on during the first day of our summer camp this year.

BigStuf Beach Camp: Day 1 from Mark Cox on Vimeo.

And so it happens. Summer camp is a matter of hours away. Summer camp has historically been a huge part of a student ministry’s year. We’ve literally been planning for this event since the end of last year’s camp. It’s kind of like Christmas. You spend so much time building up to it that when it shows up, it’s surreal that you’re about to finally experience it!

So, what do we youth pastors do to prepare? Most of us, sadly, are so bogged down with details that we forget to mentally prepare for what’s about to happen. I regret to say that I’ve learned this the hard way. By that, I mean that my lack of mental awareness has distracted me from the entire purpose of the camp. The week quickly morphs into a system of decisions, details, and rules.

This year, it’s been my goal to be prepared beforehand, so I can be mentally prepared for what God is about to do in our lives. In fact, I’m more prepared than I’ve ever been…ever. It’s a weird feeling. I feel like I forgot to do something big, like pay the registration fees or set up transportation (we’ve all been there, haven’t we?). But alas, we are ready.

So here’s what I plan to do in the 24 hours leading up to our departure.
ps. This is transferable to parents, students, or volunteers, too!

1. Pray.
It should go without saying, but that’s usually one of the first things to go out the window for me, sadly. The late Dr. Jerry Falwell once said, “Nothing of eternal significance is ever accomplished apart from prayer.” So, I’m setting aside a lot of time to pray today. If I REALLY desire a movement of God in our teenagers, I believe it’s worth BEGGING GOD for His favor. I’m praying specifically that God would open the heart of our teenagers to receive HIS calling for them, and that they would respond in humble worship and receptivity to Him!

2. Re-establish My Purpose For This Camp.
I tend to get wrapped up in the details and systems of our youth services/events. Because of this, I tend to overlook the very students I’m there to serve. Not this time. It’s time for me to spend time with them. My purpose is to lead, guide, and serve our students during this time. I plan to get very real with a bunch of our students, to help them open up to God and what HE wants for THEM.

3. Challenge Our Core Students To Serve Others.
It’s inevitable that you have a wide variety of students going on your trips. Some students need to connect with Jesus for the very first time, while others honing in on their call to ministry. One of the jobs of every youth pastor is to shepherd each student through their individual journey. One of the joys I’ve experienced in student ministry is seeing the core students reaching out to the outsiders, to invite them into what they’ve already experienced. This is one of the main purposes of our student ministry: to catalyze students to reach out to their friends and to have what we call an “others-first” mindset. I’m really excited to see how this plays out.

4. Pay Attention To Spiritual Waves.
While it’s true that every student is on a specific journey, there are usually similar elements happening in our group as we do these types of events. In most cases, it’s because the speaker hits on a specific issue. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit has something to say and He’ll say the same thing to everyone in different ways. I think this is the time to PAY ATTENTION! When God does a similar work in or sends a specific message to different people in our group, we know that God’s up to something. Those elements are KEY to bring home. I believe, in a lot of cases, God is setting the direction for our student ministry in what He’s doing in our students’ lives.

Mainly, I need to align my agenda for our students with God’s agenda. That’s going to take some intense focus on my part, which requires 100% mental awareness.

May we be open to what You have for us, Father.

This is another one of those times where we try to give announcements in a creative way. Or just play a video where everyone laughs and doesn’t hear a thing Taylor just said. Either way, the gag reflex is legit and the mayo is on Taylor’s leg.

Mayo Announcements from Mark Cox on Vimeo.

I got the chance to attend a one-day training seminar at Brand New Church with my friend David Farwell a while ago. I posted the notes in a draft for a blog post, and planned to come back and edit them later. The tabs and bullets were all messed up, and I thought I’d clean it up before I posted it.

Then I forgot about it. For a long time (The conference was on May 25. It’s now July 9).

So I’m posting the unedited notes. Because raw is better right? Or maybe I’m just lazy. Either way, here they are.

A big thanks to Shannon O’Dell, Tony Morgan, and Casey Graham for teaching us some great stuff!

:: Session 1 :: Tony Morgan

1. Discipleship Strategy

• Once people get connected to our churches, how do we help them take the next step?
• Let’s figure out what we want our people to look like at the end of the day.
• It’s easy to determine that people are connected. It’s extremely difficult to determine heart change.
• Taste Tests in Walmart
  • 24 varieties of jams vs 6 varieties of jams
  • Where there were only 6 options available, more people purchased.
  • Where there are fewer options, more people will make choices, and those people take action.
• Everyone who comes in our churches have a next step to take.
  • We just tend to make the choice more difficult.
• Questions To Ask for Evaluation:
  • What event or program requires a major platform announcement in order for it to succeed?
  • What would you not participate in if you weren’t the pastor?
  • Does this program reach people outside the church or just satisfy people inside the church?
    • Make a list: Inside/Outside
  • Where is the fruit? What is God blessing?
  • What would happen if we invested more of our time, resources, energy, prayer, leadership commitment into the things that God is already blessing?
• We can’t confuse activity in our church for life-change in our people!
• So we have a strategy – are we communicating it well?
  • 7 Different Ministries communicating at the same time
  • 7 Different messages spoken at the same time.
  • In order to get your message out, you have to get louder.
  • It’s painfully obvious that the messages get more gargled.
    • Imagine if Walmart communicated in the same way the church does.
    • It’s SPAM!
• Clarify our mission, vision and values.
• Develop and clarify a focused strategy.
• Be consistent in your message/communication as a church.
  • Collect all the messages that you send and put them up on the walls around you.
  • You’ll probably find that you’re communicating an awful lot.
  • You’ll also find that what you’re communicating is looking like it’s coming from multiple organizations, rather than one church.
• The Giant Inflatable Blue Monkey
  • Car Dealerships stick these out front, hoping that they sell more cars.
  • The GIBM roams the halls of your church in the forms of stage announcements, phone trees, bulletin inserts.
  • It’s everything we do to promote our churches.
  • Between 75-80% of the people who show up to a church for the first time show up because a friend invited them.
    • We need to focus on creating environments in which real ministry is happening, and where people see life change happening.
    • We need to focus on relationships.
      
      • Recommended Reading:
        • Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
        • Less Clutter, Less Noise by Kem Meyer
      • Go to other churches and learn from them.
    • The Great Commission was given specifically to disciples.
      • If I’m not living out the Great Commission, I’m not living out God’s specific call on my life.

:: Session 2 :: Casey Graham

-       I believe churches should be fully funded and church leaders should be free from financial worry.

• Fully funded and financially free – that’s the way it ought to be.
• If God has called you somewhere, God will make the provision for you to do what He wants you to do.

-       Few church leaders get into the ministry for money, but many leave because of it.

• If you think you’re gonna be broke, you’re gonna be broke.
• Don’t say “if we have.” Say “when we have.”

-       Becoming fully funded starts with asking a new question.

• “What to people really want?”
• We usually ask, “what does our church need?”
• Zig Ziglar – “You can have everything in life that you want, if you’ll just help others get what they want.”

-       People want to be:

• Needed
  • Everything looks like it’s done when people walk in, so people often times don’t feel needed.
  • Create need.
  • Reason people give: NEED
  • Needs jump start generosity (“Cast a need”)
  • When you get people to give, you’re getting them to take a spiritual next step in their life – that’s worship!!!
  • We’re a cashless society and we pass a basket every week.
  • Create opportunities for people to feel needed financially.
• Inspired
  • Reason people give: VISION
  • Times: New Year, Pre-summer, Summer, Fall
  • Vision increases generosity.
  • Help people find their vision and they will fund yours.
• Financially Free
  • But most people are broke.
  • Reason people give: EDUCATION.
  • Broke people think they can’t give.
  • Provide one-on-one help.
    • Get your car/house insurance requoted every year.
    • JoeSangl.com
• Loved
  • Reason people give: RELATIONSHIPS
  • People who volunteer and attend small groups give more.
  • Create environments to build trust with key donors.
    • Lack of trust is a silent killer of generosity.
    • Build relational currency before you make the ask.
    • Just hang out with them!
    • Make them feel like stakeholders and insiders.
    • There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
• Pleasing to God
  • Reason people give: OBEDIENCE
  • Lead the way – how generous of a person are you?
  • Generous leaders produce generous followers
    • People smell it.
    • Preach the Bible.
• Be proactive – quit asking like stuff is just happening to you.

:: Session 3 :: Shannon O’Dell

-       Psalm 141

-       The most effective that I will ever be is based on my walk with Jesus Christ, period.

-       Nothing will be effective in your organization that does not transpire out of a relationship with Jesus Christ, period.

-       Transcending from knowing to growing takes place in this margin.

-       You either react or live in action to what God has called you to do.

-       Most people don’t know God because they can’t hear God.

-       If you want to go to the next level, apply Psalm 141 in your life.

-       I bomb regularly. I suck as a leader. But I can follow God.

-       If we are called of God, then we have a scent.

• “may my prayer be before you like incense.”
• If your marriage sucks, your relationship with God sucks.
  • Groom and Bride
• What type of scent are you putting out?
• People want to see life out of their pastor more than hearing a message about having life.
• The body odor’s coming through. You can’t fake it very long.

-       If we are called of God, then we have a natural bent.

• “let my heart not be drawn to what is evil.”
• If you will create a culture of vulnerability, the people in your congregation will be set free to be vulnerable.
• The moment you say that you’re OK is the moment you’re going down.
• Leader = houseband
• Submission = support the mission
• Why do we expect more out of our church than our home church?
• The most free you’ll be is when you start getting honest about your bent.

-       If we are called of God, then we have a dent.

• “let the godly strike me. It will be a kindness.”
• People are gonna dent you.
• If you’re in rural America, you have GOT to be about the mission.

-       If we are called of God, we need to have time to vent.

• What’s your frustration in ministry?

-       We believe that God created the world, Jesus was virgin-born, and that He rose again 3 days later.  Why don’t you believe that He’s gonna take care of you?!

This post is the second in a series of posts. If you haven’t seen the first post, you should really start there to get the full idea.

The truth is that we have a TON to gain by investing in your relationship with your senior pastor.  And I don’t mean a bigger budget, or getting to preach when he steps out.  I’m gonna go Jesus-style on you, and say that maybe…just maybe…the results for investing in a good relationship with your senior pastor are mainly in the realm of what happens in your heart.

Proverbs 17:1 says it best: “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.”

I’ve decided to share four quick points of action I’ve used in order to preserve my relationship with my senior pastor.  These may totally not work for you, but we’ve found that this is what keeps us reading on the same page.

4 Tips to Consider:

1. Don’t gossip. I heard Dave Ramsey say recently that he instantly fires people who’ve been caught gossiping.  “It’s that serious,” he said.  It’s so true!  But how many of feel the entitlement to talk to different people about all the things he’s done wrong?  All I know is that I hope, if I’m ever a lead pastor, that I can trust my youth pastor not to do that.  Think about it this way.  Good communication means not sharing bad communication about him.

2. Email him periodically. What?  More email?  We don’t get enough of that already?!  Let me explain.  One of the small things that Tom and I realized was hard to keep up with was communication.  We’re both hard-workers by nature, and therefore, we rarely stop into each other’s offices to talk about what we’ve been up to or what we’re looking forward to.  One of Tom’s values is the connection point between people; “touches” he calls them.  He always wants to know when a connection point was made and how it went.  He also loves to hear feedback on services.  As a student pastor, he wants to know when I hit the schools, or when I one-on-one disciple a student, or when I visit a new member’s home.  In order to keep those communications flowing, I shoot him a periodic (monthly) email to let him know what all I’ve been up to.  That way he can trust me with my office hours (if you’ve ever worked in an environment in which you weren’t trusted, you know how valuable this is!).  This has been one of the keys to our relationship staying on point.

3. Over-communicate. This tags on the last point a little, but it deserves its own stage time.  As a young youth pastor, I made the mistake that almost every single youth pastor (and teacher) makes.  I thought that if I said something once, that everyone heard it loud and clear.  There was no reason that they shouldn’t remember what I said verbatim.  Right?  Wrong?  I’m assuming I’m talking to youth pastors for the moment.  Even if I’m wrong, you can transfer this concept into your work relationship with your boss.  You have a lot going on, right?  It’s hard to balance everything, right?  How much more do you think your senior pastor is balancing?  He has so much on his plate, and so much weight on his shoulders.  And we expect him to remember every little detail?  Rest assured, a lot of our bosses (secular world, too) are hearing what we’re saying the first time.  However, I’m sure you’ve experienced what it’s like to have a tiny (by tiny, I mean huge) details slip between the cracks.  Over-communication might be annoying, but a lack of communication starts all kinds of fires.

4. Be honest. “What did you think of my sermon?”  “How do you think that meeting went?”  “That event was awesome, right?”  Ladies and gentlemen, it’s simple, but not easy.  Lying is wrong.  Are we trying to preserve our jobs?  Are we trying to make sure that we have a good relationship with our senior pastor by lying to him?  This simple truth is what has changed my relationship with Tom the most.  When he asks what I think, I tell him the truth.  What I’m about to tell you might be counter-intuitive, but I’ve found it to be true: When I’m honest with my senior pastor, he invites me in to the planning processes of future big projects.  Think about Daniel as a prophet in a foreign land.  Think about Joseph telling his brothers about his dreams.  Honesty gets really ugly sometimes, but God always honors it.  Are you putting your trust in your ability to preserve your relationships or looking to God for that?

While my wife has been out of town, I decided to knock out some books that I’ve started, but yet to finish. I have a nasty habit of reading a small portion of a book, and then buying another one that looks exciting and doing the same thing. So, I’ve committed to stop buying books until I finish the ones I have. Some of these are re-reads and some are first-timers. Here’s the list of books I plan to tackle:

(I would normally feed the OCD side of me by alphabetizing the list, but I’m tired. So you get the “as I took them off the shelf” version).

Deep Justice Journeys by Kara Powell and Brad Griffin

The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan

Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Oestreicher

Speaking to Teenagers by Doug Fields

99 Thoughts for Youth Workers by Joshua Griffin

Hurt by Chap Clark

Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell

Doctrine by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

The Emotionally Healthy Church by Pete Scazzero and Warren Bird

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

The Search to Belong by Joseph Myers

Jesus Centered Youth Ministry by Rick Lawrence

Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

Reclaiming Christianity by A.W. Tozer

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis

The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel

Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley

Simple Student Ministry by Eric Geiger and Jeff Borton

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Linchpin by Seth Godin

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

Radical by David Platt

Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner

Think Orange by Reggie Joiner

I would normally ask you for suggestions on other great books out there, but as you can see, I don’t need any more at the moment.

How do you communicate your core values? Most pastors share their core values well, but I’ve never seen them put to a song. I’m not saying this would work in your church, but it worked for this church, so they did it. And I love it! If you’re not paying attention to Epiphany Fellowship, check them out. It’s a Philadelphian church plant that actually has a lot of Christian rappers guest-speaking all the time.