Ministry Journey Blog

Newsflash: There is an intentional reason we are known as human beings rather than human beings. Nowhere in the culture and particularly the church is the expectation to constantly do and produce more significant than in youth ministry. As we continue to examine, re-think and re-imagine youth ministry, we must look beyond organization, strategy, programs and even philosophy. Rather, we must look deeper at our motivations and the values that dictate how we operate and lead. In youth ministry, we must move beyond doing move towards being. Its time to move away from a mindset of youth ministry that says we must constantly be doing something, to a mindset that is focused on presence, on what we are becoming rather than what we are doing. Below are five critical shifts that we must make in our youth ministries as we move beyond doing and move towards being.

Moving Beyond Doing

1. Moving beyond programs

Our youth ministries have been program driven for far too long. Programs are wonderful tools, but they do not make disciples. Jesus managed to have a profound ministry without a single programs. Our focus has becoming on programming, doing more, filling the calendar with more events and trying to find, create and lead a program for every possible student population. The church, like every institution that has influence in the lives of our adolescents has focused on busyness rather than care.

2. Moving beyond attraction

The focus of many youth ministries (and other ministries) is attraction. How can we attract more youth? What can we do to get our regular students to bring our friends? How can we make our programs more fun and attractive so more youth will come? In our desire to attract, we have compromised much and embraced superficiality as we have come to value attraction more that evangelism or discipleship.

3. Moving beyond personality

Most youth ministry is organized and lead through personality. Whether a charismatic leader, through the personality of the primarily leader, group of leaders or even a group of students, most youth ministries are structured around a certain type of personality. While this is tremendously effective for youth who are comfortable with that personality type, it ignores and often rejects those students who are not comfortable with that personality type.

4. Moving beyond management

While many youth workers are not good managers, management has become a key part of most youth ministries. Managing expectations, managing finances, managing volunteers, managing events and programs. As a result many youth workers have transition from leading to managing. While all ministry (and leadership) requires some management, leadership should take priority and precedence over management.

5. Moving beyond results/success

While most youth workers do not want to focus on numbers, results and success and find themselves forced to do so by their supervisors and organizations, youth workers are not innocent in this unhealthy approach to ministry. While complaining about the unhealthy focus on numbers that is forced upon them, most youth workers in talking with one another discuss numbers within 5 minutes of most conversations about their ministries. Having lead a youth worker networking group, almost every introductory conversation included a question about ‘how many in your youth ministry’ as one of the first five questions of the exchange.

Moving Towards Being

1. Moving towards discipleship

The primary purpose of our youth ministries is not to create, grow and perfect programs, rather it is making disciples. This is one of the most important calls and purposes of the Church. While programs can aid in discipleship, our focus should be on discipleship and not on programming. Our primary question should be: ‘how can I help our youth become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ,’ this rather than programming should drive our ministries.

2. Moving towards presence

Youth Ministry is often, should be and certainly desires to be deeply relational. We recognize that our youth need relationships and it is relationship that leads to the most effective, long-lasting transformation in the lives of adolescents. While we may recognize this truth and may focus on relationships, this is often done through programming. The key to relationships is not program, it is presence. Christ coming to earth, the incarnation is the definitive sign that relationship is primary and relationship requires presence.

3. Moving towards equipping

There are many great dangers to doing ministry out of personality. Our personalities are limited and flawed. A greater danger is what happens when a personality driven ministry faces a change in leadership. Our focus as youth workers should be on equipping adults and youth to direct and lead ministry in our churches by using their gifts. Rather than finding ways for us to leverage our own strengths to do more, youth workers must leverage the people God has given them to be more.

4. Moving towards leadership

Our call is to be leaders, not managers. Leadership requires much more of us and moves beyond ensuring our ministry happens. The most significant role of a youth worker is being a spiritual leader. Leaders are focused on equipping and moving others forward, not managing those that they are entrusted with.

5. Moving towards a rhythm

The most important end result of a youth ministry is not numbers, success in the eyes of others (or even yourself), but creating and sustaining a healthy rhythm that is focused on doing what is best for those you lead and serve, thinking theologically and creating a discipleship rich culture.

I have found myself reflecting quite a bit on change recently. Perhaps it’s the focus of Lent, the season of my life or the reality that change is the most complex thing that I deal with as a leader, pastor and parent. I have shared some thoughts over the past couple years on change as I learn more. In some sense, I had hoped to be able to write an eloquent blog on change that would summarize some of the key thoughts and principles I have wrestled with as a change novice. While I have felt compelled the write, the eloquence has lacked. With that in mind, I decided to offer my current thoughts on change in bullet form.

1. Change is essential. As individuals, families and organizations. Change or die.
2. Change is hard, especially lasting change.
3. Change always elicits a response and in most cases there is a combination of positive and negative responses to varying degrees.
4. People do not resist change; they resist loss.
5. I claim to love change, but if I am honest I love change that I create, control, see coming or had been hoping for, but change outside of that can be uncomfortable.
6. The greatest challenge and most fulfilling form of change that a leader can bring is cultural change. It has the greatest long-term impact.
7. We often fail to talk about why (or why not) to change.
8. If we focus on the ‘what’ or ‘how’ of change, we often misfire.
9. One of the greatest challenges to change is pace. We must lead change at a pace that brings discomfort, but also a pace that people can handle.
10. Healthy, clear and transparent process is essential to healthy, effective change.
11. Change for change sake is rarely a good idea.
12. The best change is transformational and rooted in vision.
13. Transformation is most likely to stick when no one wants to go back.
14. Transformation comes in changing culture.
15. Fear is the biggest deterrent to change.
16. A lack of vision is also a big deterrent to change.
17. Significant change requires ownership, commitment and a clear mission, vision and strategy.
18. The more significant the change, the deeper the resolve must be.
19. We must live the change we want to see.
20. Change must start with the leader; nothing will change unless we change.
21. “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs
22. Change is constant.
23. Sometimes changes happens to us. Other times it happens because of us. Change comes in spite of us, but change can also come through us.
24. Change must have a purpose.
25. Communication is essential to change.

True vision comes with great risk. At times the risk is practical, other times it is emotion, it can be spiritual or a combination of the three. Unlike management or maintenance, there is a lot of unknown elements and at the very least some risk with vision. True vision is bigger than your own ideas, capacity and ability. It is by nature not something you are already being or doing. I have always been passionate about vision, for as the Proverbs accurately note, ‘without vision we perish.’ A church without vision is doomed to at best grow old together and close its doors. A church with vision can achieve, experience and become a wide variety of things, most of them grander than they could originally plan or dream. While I am passionate about vision, like many I do not enjoy failure. This is a function of personality, gender, ego and more. No one enjoys failure, yet good leadership means being willing and able to fail. For any individual or organization, sustaining a posture of vision also means being open to failure. The fear and reality of failure may be one of the more significant things that prevents vision, perhaps most profoundly so in the church. When vision happens in a church, the resistance is most rooted in change or the unknown, with the sources of this resistance ultimately being fear or grief (people do not resist change, they resist loss). The great irony is that without vision, the long term prognosis and end result will most certainly be failure, but not the temporary, painful failure that comes with vision, but the ultimate failure or death of the organization. Vision is risky and not guaranteed, yet the truth remains, with vision, we perish; this is the only guarantee that we can find when it comes to vision.

Leadership is a great joy and a great challenge. Its not rocket science, but it is most certainly difficult. Like much of what Jesus has and says to us (follow me, love God, others and self, deny yourself etc.) we can easily understand these words and ideas, but to live them out is a wholly different thing. In fact it is a ‘holy’ different thing, even in the church. Being the Senior Leader in my church and organization has been a blessing. It has also been challenging, surprising, life-giving, formational and much more. Recently as I was reflecting on my approach to ministry, church leadership and vision, I had a thought that caused significant, deep reflection for me. What if what I am doing, how I am leading, the vision I have does not work? Honestly, the way in which I am doing things is not rocket science. Neither my ideas nor myself are particularly special, earth shaking or charismatic, yet they are unusual, rare and unconventional even though they should not be.  What if it does not work? The truth is that this is the challenge with vision. Yet, what would it look like if it ‘worked.’ Does that mean greater numbers, budget or acclaim? Is it a book deal, a new building or some other amazing news worthy item? Or, is it simply spiritual growth of the community, pursuing Christ and living out the Kingdom in our best, healthiest and most faithful way? The truth is that any leader, any program and any vision could fail. That is scary. Equally as frightening is the reality that any leader, any program and any vision could succeed. In the end, it is vision, faithfulness, integrity and obedience to the Spirit that matters most; not any measure of failure or success. It will be interesting to see what God does and continues to do as I seek to be the best Christ-follower and leader that I can be and as I learn and fall more in love with Jesus along the way.

For over a year now, I have served in a senior pastor role. This has meant preaching almost every Sunday and most of the Wednesday night and special services. I have always loved preaching. Wrestling with the Scripture, communicating God’s word, sharing passionately, pointing people to Jesus. I wondered if I would find it harder to be passionate and energetic once I started preaching each week. I also thought I might find that I would like preaching and sermon preparation less once I began preaching more regularly. Each week I spend a chunk of time preparing for the sermon. Thinking. Praying. Reading. Researching. Writing. Rehearsing. Then, on Sunday morning, I do my best to simply trust the Spirit. I have learned several things in this past year about preaching…

1. I am more in love with the Word of God than ever before. I have found that the Bible has come even more alive as I focus on it in study and prayer. I continue to learn from it.
2. Preaching every week is both easier and harder than preaching occasionally. It is harder in the sense that you must stay fresh, creative and disciplined. You have less time to read, research, think and pray between sermons. Its easier because the passion builds and routine and rhythm has strengthened me. Building on sermons and series as you seek to move the congregation forward and help them grow spiritually and fall more in love with Jesus is a joy.
3. I still love preaching and feel as passionately about it as I ever have. Preaching more is challenging, but it is also life giving. Sharing the word and doing my best to trust the spirit and point people to Jesus and the Kingdom builds passion.
4. Preaching is far more important than I realized. The act of preaching carries greater significance, meaning and importance in the life of the preacher and the church than I realized. This is a high and humbling reality and it is also something that Pastors must take seriously.
5. Trusting the Holy Spirit is a great gift. Preaching that is focused in the triune God requires trusting the Spirit. In the midst of all of the preparation, ideas and presentation, it is God who must speak, God who must act and the preacher must trust. It is our one great act and the true meaning of faith. I have grown so much from having the honor the comes from trying to trust the Spirit every week.

Written for Fuller Seminary’s Burner Blog for Pastors and Leaders.

by Rev. Dr. Marcus J. Carlson

The Trouble with Idolatry in the Church

Idolatry is not a new challenge. The assumption that idolatry was limited to Old Testament idols and that the commandment against idolatry is irrelevant is dangerous and inaccurate. Idolatry is alive and well in our culture, but also in the church as well. While there are far too many forms of idolatry to examine here, and while we all struggle with idolatry in some from and to some degree, there are three types of idolatry that have a significant impact on the church today.
For many churches, tradition is an idol. Whether it is their denominational tradition, liturgical traditions, the traditions and habits of the individual church, symbols, practices or other forms of tradition, tradition has become more than an important constant and a part of our history and identity, it has become an idol. In many churches tradition is worshipped, protected and held in higher regard than God. God becomes secondary to our understandings, traditions and practices, the very definition of idolatry.
Another idol in the church is consumerism. The church has embraced consumerism so much so that it has driven and shaped its identity. Often guised as sensitivity, contextual ministry, service and other things, our desire to attract, please and retain people is undergirded by our fear both of conflict and the departure of church members. We have embraced a people-pleasing gospel. Other than the products and services offered, there is little distinction between the church and the neighborhood fast food restaurant. Fear, competition and conflict avoidance have taken the place of discipleship, Biblical preaching, leadership and theological reflection.
A third form of idolatry in the contemporary church today is relevance. In our heart felt desire to reach those not connected to Christ or His church, our focus on being relevant has been elevated to the highest of values. We celebrate relevance deemed as effective based primarily on attendance, programming and busyness as if these values are Biblical values. While we must minister within the context in which we find our churches, we fail to recognize the Gospel is relevant to all cultures, contexts and periods of history. Using the tools of the culture in a contextual, Biblically appropriate way rooted in theological reflection is not heresy and can be a gift to both the church and the culture. Worshipping relevance and allowing culture to shape and lead the church is heresy, poor leadership and idolatry amongst other things.
Idolatry is sinful, but not just because of the Ten Commandments, the rest of Scripture or the reality that it takes our focus off God. Idolatry is also very problematic for our churches with some significant downfalls that we must consider. First and foremost, idolatry takes the focus off of Christ and the Kingdom. Spreading the Gospel and living the Great Commission cannot be done in any long-term, effective capacity without a focus on Christ and the Kingdom. Secondly, idolatry can ruin the church. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, when we take our focus off the main thing (Christ) we not only lose the main thing, but the secondary thing that we put our focus on loses its true value as well. Finally, idolatry in the church is problematic because it requires absolutely no trust of the Spirit. While being in control appears to be helpful in the church, it does not create an environment where we trust the Spirit. Trust is our one great act and is required in order for the church to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
We have many gifts, all of which come from God. These gifts when used well, Biblically appropriate and undergirded with theological reflection can become great tools for the Church and the Kingdom. When these gifts become our focus, they become idols and not only do they tear down the Church, but ruin the gifts God has given us. Idolatry is not just an Old Testament problem, nor is it limited to popular culture. It is a very real problem in our churches today, one that must be confessed and redeemed.

I had the privilege of celebrating my first Holy Week as the lead pastor of a church. It certainly is a busy and intense week. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and many other events make for a full week with a wide range of emotions. It was an exhausting joy to walk through this Holy Week, both as a Christ-follower and a Pastor. Trying to fully embrace each moment and share the story in a way that fit the moment but was also practical was difficult and humbling. Holy Week presents an incredible opportunity to share the gospel and point people to Jesus. From the celebration of Palm Sunday to the powerful reflection of Maundy Thursday, the pain of Good Friday and finally the celebration of Easter. What a story! Holy Week reminds me of how thankful I truly am to follow Jesus and to have the honor to be called to professional ministry. I am deeply thankful and also rather tired!

Practice what you preach. Easier said that done and this statement often comes at a time when we are least receptive. I have found myself as a result of my doctoral journey (and for other reasons) preaching a lot more on trust. Trust, like many other things is easier to preach about than it is to live. That said, our one great act is to trust God. It’s the one thing we do, God does the rest. We cannot even trust God without God’s help. As I made a big transition in the past year I found myself having to learn to trust more than ever before. It also came a little easier, although not less painful. Trusting was actually incredibly freeing. I recognized the need to do it more. Now that I find myself in a new setting, I am leading others in their trust of God. I am challenging the church to consider where we need to trust God the most. As we figure that out, I have found that we all have a little nervousness about small and large steps that we might be taking that require trusting God. In the midst of the nervousness, I know it is the right thing and I have to remind myself and others that trust will not only lead to the results that God wants for us all, but will also in the end be very, very freeing.

It did not take long into my ministry career to recognize that Pastors and other church and Christian leaders are on a pedestal of sorts. While this has its downsides, it also has roots in scripture as well. It is clear in reading the scriptures that leaders are called to a higher standard. While the fairness of this should not be debated, the nature and quality of the standard has been and will continue to be debated. There is a difference however between placing a leader on a pedestal and expecting them to live up to a higher standard. Placing a leader on a pedestal has some inherit dangers both for leaders and followers. For leaders, it prevents them from being authentic or even human, creates unrealistic expectations and magnifies sin in a way that is often inconsistent with the scriptures. For the followers, it often leads to idol worship, can skew their image of God, limits their ability to build a meaningful, transforming relationship with leaders and models for them an unrealistic expectation in their own life and relationship with Jesus.
We must call our leaders to higher standards with high accountability and support. It would also benefit the church greatly if we were to allow leaders to be as authentic as is appropriate as this will avoid the pedestal mentality and lead to greater growth and relationship amongst all. I have learned much in the first 8 months in my role as a lead pastor. Many of these learning’s have been a surprise, while others have not. In the midst of learning through happenstance, success, failure and ultimately the movement of the spirit I am thankful. Above all else, I am thankful for the graciousness of my church, its leaders and people. I have been given the freedom to be authentic and have received encouragement, accountability and support. Most of all, I have been given the gift of grace. So often many of those in my church have been gracious to me, even though I may not have deserved it. It has helped me to become a better leader and Christ follower. It has also created greater relationship and growth for us all. Finally, it has deepened my understanding and practice of grace in all areas of my life.