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Have you ever really messed up? I mean, completely blown it. I have and I thought there is no way to recover from this one. I have finally figured out that it is okay to mess up and fail! Congratulations, you didn’t do it!
The great thing about failing is that it is not the end result. It is part of the process. Another element in life. For instance, Abraham Lincoln’s resume:
? 1831 – Lost his job ? 1832 – Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature ? 1833 – Failed in business ? 1834 – Elected to Illinois State Legislature (success) ? 1835 – Sweetheart died ? 1836 – Had nervous breakdown ? 1838 – Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker ? 1843 – Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress ? 1846 – Elected to Congress (success) ? 1848 – Lost re-nomination ? 1849 – Rejected for land officer position ? 1854 – Defeated in run for U.S. Senate ? 1856 – Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President ? 1858 – Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate ? 1860 – Elected President (success)
Not great. Obviously not all those events were his fault but they could have caused him to quit trying.
So, if you feel like nothing is going right….then you are on the right track. It doesn’t matter if the failure is in marriage, work, ministry, or faith. You aren’t finished yet, so if you want to go from suck to success, you only need one step. Get back up and keep trying.
Jeremy Bloom is trying to figure out life, God, and family. Follow him on Twitter – @finding_jeremy or on his blog about youth ministry.
Posted by Kurt Johnston
This is the 5th in a little series about some of the things that have helped me last for almost 25 years. There is no silver bullet here, just a little insight about things that have seemed to make a difference in my journey as a youth worker.
BLEED IT, BUT DON’T BLEED TO DEATH!
Every now and then, a young youth worker will say something like this, “Youth ministry is my life!”. To which I always reply internally, and upon occasion even blurt out, “Really? That’s too bad.”
I think youth ministry, or any ministry endeavor for that matter, deserves some extra effort. Youth ministry isn’t for folks who are clock-watchers, who only want to do the minimum job requirements. I actually think it deserves to be led by men and women who aren’t afraid to “bleed” it a little bit. But we should NEVER bleed to death!
- When you consistently sacrifice your family for the sake of your youth ministry…you are bleeding to death. - When your friendships suffer because you spend too much time at youth ministry events…you are bleeding to death. - When you have no outside hobbies because you spend your free time with teenagers or planning events for teenagers…you are bleeding to death. - When you fail to take your day off, or you skimp on vacation time due to the demands of youth ministry…you are bleeding to death. - When you spend time in the word out of the need to [...]
You are right, there are far more dangerous jobs than youth ministry. I am extremely thankful that my husband does not stare down the barrel of a gun. I cannot imagine the kind of strength a wife would need for that. No matter what the job each one of us, including myself, has and will face great tragedies. Just in each day there are so many ups and downs. Our lives are sprinkled with many different feelings and emotions from happiness to thankfulness, to frustration to sorrow. My hope is that not one of us would deny ourselves the right to feel validated in each and every feeling that we have that gets mixed up inside of us. I hope that in some small way this blog may be a place for someone in ministry to feel heard, connected, and uplifted through a comment, a funny story, or a serious post. And what I love so much about this community of women is the honesty shared about their lives, and the tone that we all take loving God and our husbands seriously but don’t take ourselves too seriously.
I write this in no way with a defensive voice, but with so much concern that many pastor’s wives are told that their feelings are silly or not important. Whether from someone at church or their own inner dialogue. Our “perspective” should be to accept and embrace our feelings whatever they may be and then with God [...]
q Jeremiah 1:4 ?The Word of God came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.?
q God had a vision a plan for you. Do you have one for the assignment He has given you?
q Vision: The picture of God?s potential, purpose, and possibilities for your life.
q Show me a person without vision, and I will show you a person who is at a standstill in life.
q Proverbs 29:18 ?Where there is no vision the people perish.?
q Life Point: The key element to getting out of my present state is the vision that I have for myself.
q Jeremiah 29:11 ?For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope,
Vision Truthsq True vision goes beyond what I can accomplish on my own.
q True vision adds value to others.
q True vision attracts vision.
q True vision must have God in it.
q Acts 2:17 ?And it shall come to pass in the last days says God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.?
5 Road Blocks to Vision FailureOur good friend (and founder) Thom Schultz has an interesting take on one of the ongoing debates in youth missions – Are they really worth it?
Short-Term Missions A Waste?
What do you think? Did Thom get it right?
I’ve noticed something lately about the way the church and youth ministries tend to talk to girls. We (unfortunately at times I would include myself) communicate that the end game for a girl is getting the right kind of guy. Even though we don’t mean to it just happens. Books sold to teen girls about how to get the right kind of guy (a christian book nonetheless…and I haven’t read it but I am assuming the title is meant to mislead by promising to help girls snag a guy.) A youtube video for Christian girls on how to attract a godly guy. And than we are surprised and frustrated that all girls care about is boys. Oh the irony.
We need to change the end game.
The end game for every girl we encounter should be a radical life following after Jesus. That life may include an occupation in the public circles, a life of full time ministry, marriage, kids or all of the above.
When we begin to believe in a bigger or more radical end game for girls it changes how we communicate to them. We tell their stories better. And in my heart I believe we help girls move their attention from dating to bigger dreams…from drama to radical living. Don’t we all really want that for our girls?
What do you think? What are your thoughts about changing the end game?
Don’t sell Jesus short.
I spent the weekend with a church in a faith tradition I am fairly new to. They have a rich heritage of liturgical worship. But if one made the mistake of thinking this church’s denom is bereft of showing feelings of faith or the goodness of God, one would be wrong.
The YP of this church had a similar epiphany today. She has a deep love for Jesus but thought her diverse international students would be uncomfortable with referencing anyone but “God.” After all, they don’t declare an emotional faith and “Jesus” is just too intimate, right?
After she had a discussion with my ministry partner, Adam DeVries, she told her students she was going to unashamedly call Jesus by his name. How shocked and delighted she was when they were happy for her AND them. They cheered.
My point? Don’t sell Jesus short in your youth ministry. Kids KNOW when they come near you that there’s a good chance they’re going to hear about God. They’re even disappointed when they don’t.
Remember: Jesus is the name of the one to whom everyone will bow. It’s just a matter of when.
S
The podcast returns with Episode 105 tomorrow at 11:15 AM pacific time. Why on Friday? Well, that’s when we could get everyone together. And it’s in the morning, so that should be better for our East Coaster teammates.
Watch it live on uStream or here on SimplyInsider.
Email your questions to SYMPodcast@gmail.com.
See you then.
It’s time for our 40 40 40 sale. This year, get 40% off some of our best resources, $1 off selected books, and 40 free backgrounds.
Also you get the chance to win 40 movie tickets for your youth ministry.
Here are the winners of our Mission Trip Stories:
Lee Porter
Several years ago our group took a trip to work in inner city ministries in Dallas, TX. We worked in benevolence thrift shops, food pantries, cleaned up a former crack house to be used as a rehabilitation/transitional house. Our practice has always been that we begin every phase of our trip with prayer. We had a great trip, God truly blessed and challenged all of us. On our way back to Indiana, we headed out and were about 2 hours on the road when the group began to be hungry. We exited into a small town and drove the main road and found no acceptable places to eat…not even fast food. Giving up on our search, we pulled into a church parking lot to turn around. We pulled up to the stop sign, getting ready to turn left to head back to the interstate. Just as I stopped, I looked up to see a pickup flying down the road…no problem, I was stopped. At the last second, the truck decided to turn on the street where we were sitting. I saw the ladies’ eyes very clearly and at that second decided the next eyes I would be seeing would be Jesus’. I screamed to the teens and my wife to hold on. The lady had not slowed at all to make the turn, she cranked the wheel with all she had, I gunned the van and wheeled to the right. Her bumper scarred the plastic cover on our bumper and she continued turning too hard and rammed her truck into a tree in a yard across from the church building. Long story short, she was running from an abusive husband and due to the wreck, the police and protective services got involved…she and her daughter did not suffer any injuries from the wreck. No one in our church van was injured. After the police took statements from all of us, one of the girls came up to me and lovingly put her arm around us and said, “God took care of us, but we forgot to pray before we left…I don’t think we should forget anymore.” To the best of my memory, we have never forgotten again…even when we are just going out to eat or across town. Maybe our prayer account had a few unused credits and God cashed them in for us that day. Praise God for his angels watching over us.
Matthew McNutt
On my last mission trip I took a team to Uganda! One of the best parts was watching all the Americans get used to the outhouses. Somehow, one of the team members managed to drop his cell phone into the outhouse pit (seriously? how did he manage to do that???). There it was, 20 feet down, lighting up and ringing off and on the whole time we were there until the batteries died! The best was when it would go off while someone was on the seat.
Tony Richmond
We took our high schoolers to work with the Native American community in Albuquerque, NM. One of our junior girls was hanging out with some children at the block party that we were doing in the community. She began making one of the “evangelism” bracelets (the ones with the colored beads for explaining the gospel) with one of the little girls. As they interacted and our student explained the gospel to the little girl the little girl expressed her desire to accept Jesus as her own personal Savior. Our student answered her questions and the little girl went on to receive Jesus Christ. As the two of them finished up, our student asked the little girl if her parents were at the block party. The little girl said that they were so off they went to find her parents. As they found the girl’s parents, her father was talking with one of our adult volunteers. They found out that her father had just accepted Jesus Christ as his own personal savior with our adult volunteer. What an incredible way that the Lord worked in that family’s life! The little girl and her father both accepted Jesus as their personal Savior at the same time, in different places of the block party, with different people. Praise the Lord that he allowed us to experience this awesome movement of the Holy Spirit!
In honor of our new mission trip resource, Prepare. Go. Live., we are having a little contest to see who has the best Mission Trip story. Good, Bad or Ugly, we don’t care we would love to we just want to read some great stories. Have you ever lost a kid? Had a meal you wish you could forget? Said something that was lost in translation? Saw a transformation you never thought possible? Is there a prize you ask? We are going to be giving away 3 Flip Video Cameras to the best stories (a great way to document your next trip). Just leave your story in the comments. You have until May 25th to leave your story to be eligible to win.
Are you getting ready for mission trip? Check out the new resource, Prepare. Go. Live., to help get your students ready to go, engage during the trip, and live out all they learned after. It includes 5 Prepare student journals, 5 Go student journals, 5 Live student journals, and a Leaders Guide and CD with supplemental material. It’s an awesome resource that we did in partnership with our friends at LeaderTreks.
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