"Come to me all who are weary . . ."

Over the past 6 years or so I've noticed a trend, and personally I've felt it myself lately . . . Exhausted Youth Pastors! I don't know what the deal is with us, but it always seems that YPs are tired. I remember one of my mentors Danny Basham saying that he always felt guilty because he felt like he was giving his family 'left overs' of himself, when he worked at NCR. To be honest this is how I feel sometimes. I feel like exhaustion is not helping us to fulfill John 10:10, where Christ tells us that He brought us life abundantly, another translation says life that is over-flowing! The question I am curious about is this. Are congregations, elders, pastors, and even the youth pastor, that allows their Youth Pastor to reach the point of exhaustion sinning in allowing them to do so? I mean if Christ calls use to take rest in Him, and we are tired, are the expectations on a Youth Pastor (or any pastor for that matter) to high or ridiculous if they cause us to be exhausted every waking second? I don't mean to point any fingers, I am simply asking a question, what do you in the blogesphere think?

Late late - Sunday Set-list

This past Sunday I had the great privileged to lead worship at Mercer Creek Church in Ellensburg, WA. My best friend Dan Arnold is the Jr. High Pastor there, and I have been fortunate enough to develop relationships with a number of the staff. I am always so honored when I am asked to lead worship anywhere, and especially at a church that may have never had me lead before. Being the 4th of July weekend a lot of their normal team was out of town, or unavailable, so another guy named Matt, and myself both played guitar (he is way way better at guitar than me) and both sang. I kept thinking that this Matt guy is way better than me, he could do this, but I'm not one to turn down a chance to lead worship. Working with Matt was such an awesome experience, we seemed to click really well, for only practicing for an hour the Friday before. Here is a list of the Songs that we did:

Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble - Martin Smith
Famous One - Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves
Mighty to Save - Ben Fielding, Rueben Morgan
God of Wonders - Marc Byrd, Steve Hindalong
Blessed Be Your Name - Matt & Beth Redman (Offering Song)
Black and Blue is My Heart - Rich Kirkpatrick (Communion)

They were gracious enough to let me pick out most of the songs, we did work together on putting the list together. The last one of one of my top 10 favorite songs to worship with. Firstly because it's such a great song, easy to learn, but so deep, and secondly, a good friend and mentor wrote it.

Some people may think that leaving my church on a Sunday, a day I'm supposed to be working to lead worship at another church seems silly and irresponsible. The way I look at it is, we are all one in the Body of Christ, and if the body needs help somewhere, and I can provide it (through the giftings God blessed me with) as long as I can get my responsibilities covered, then I will go and do it. It allows me to bless another part of the body.

My leaving also gave a student I was discipling a chance to teach for the first time, and all the feedback I got about the lesson was great, so that was really awesome too! God is great!

Rooted HS: 7/8 - Service

Tonight at Rooted had no worship, no message, and no games. Tonight we did a service project! We ended up going with a back up project, but it was perfect. We washed the 2.5 buses that our church owns (one of them is a short bus). I thought it was rather fitting because Rooted is the main ministry that uses the normal buses. It was really cool to see a group HS students come together and just serve. The reason we did a service project was to put into practice what we teach in our ministry. Service is one of the elements of our ministry (along with evangelism, fellowship, spiritual disciplines, and worship). We are trying to even out how much we emphasis and spend on each element. We are working on special service and worship times, Bible Studies for going deeper in the word and help to develop spiritual disciplines, and out reach events and nights. But tonight was all about service and our students rose to the challenge, just like I knew they would, because we have quality students here at Rooted!

One Chance

I've had a thought in my mind lately, it's about evangelism. I don't really have the spritual gift for it, but I believe it is important. The thought I've had is, should we be more open with the gospel? Do we shy away from sharing in our Starbucks, or grocery stores? If you only had that one chance to share with the checker and didn't, did we miss out? Should we be taking all those chances? At least ask if they know about Jesus, or have heard of him? Don't get me wrong, I'm all about building relationships and trust, and showing people who Jesus is by being Him to those we meet, but one stop in a Starbucks doesn't give you that chance to build that relationship necessarily. So should we ask, or share if it's the nly time we'll meet that person?

Effeciency or Relational?

I've only been a pastor for a short time, but I've noticed this expectation on pastors to be more than they are or can be. Pastors seem to be expected to not only do their job, but to grow their ministry numerically, to plan events, programs, and ministry opportunities and maintain a healthy home as well. Being a multi-tasker is almost a must for the modern day pastor and some pastors have it worse than others.

I'm a little biased because I'm in Youth Ministry but, Youth Pastors are often expected to:
preach twice a week,
plan games for at least their mid-week service,
plan a small group ministry for their students
lead a small group,
plan a calendar full of fun events,
organize camps and retreats,
as well as spend time with students
and if married have a healthy marraige
and if they have children, be a good father/mother

I'm not trying to make excuses for pastors (or YPs specifically) but wow that seems like a lot, and I forgot to mention that pastors also have to maintain a healthy spiritual life. I'm kinda freakin' my self out here, thats a lot of expectations. In Youth Ministry should we actually expect all this? Do students need a pastor that is running in 20 different directions to sit down with them to listen (or pretend to?) Or do students need a pastor that is well connected to God, and truly ready to listen and pour into them? Do students need programs or relationships? Do they need calendars or presence? Do they need knowledge or God?

Relational Conflict

Is conflict healthy? I used to think so, I used to believe that conflict was a part of healthy relationships. I believed that all healthy relationships had conflict, not because conflict is where we should be but because it shows growth in people. It displays an openness that would cause difference of opinion and beliefs that will cause conflict. Is this conflict healthy? Maybe it is, maybe the unhealthy type of conflict is the kind that arises when people aren't open with each other? The kind where they are stuck in their ways or opinions so much that even if one side is willing to be open the other is closed, or even worse both sides are so entrenched in their opinion that there is no point to talk. How do we reconcile these relationships? How do we navigate conflict, is openness best? Or is being guarded best?

How do you deal (or not deal) with conflict? comment below

VBS Theology

I volunteered myself to do the music at our church VBS this year. I am not a big VBS guy, mainly because I'm a Youth Pastor and well Children's ministry scares me so I avoid it, but I am doing the music. I have been struck with the lyrics of the songs. They are simple, but so true. They have real theological value. Normally you think of of children's ministry songs as being fun and corny, and well a lot of them are. These songs surprised me, I mean I'm not going to have them on my favorite list on my iPhone's iPod app, but I'm actually surprised that I'm not suffereing through them. I am really being reminded about the roots of our faith, sure some of them are a little corny but thats what kids like I guess. Mostly they are great songs, that teach us a lot about our faith.

It made me start asing the question: does our theology really have to be complicated? Why don't we look at the simplicity of our faith and just take it on faith? Do we have to prove every thing?

What is the simplest reminder of your faith you've had lately?