A Youth Ministry Post By Eli Cork

The most important issue in the Church has always been the Gospel. It has also been the most dangerous heresy when it has been tampered with, edited, or altered. The following blog is the first of a series of blogs concerning the nature, importance, [...]]]>

A Youth Ministry Post By Eli Cork

The most important issue in the Church has always been the Gospel. It has also been the most dangerous heresy when it has been tampered with, edited, or altered. The following blog is the first of a series of blogs concerning the nature, importance, and misconceptions of the Good News. Evidently, the church’s precious pearl is also the treasure most dear to Christian ministers.

Part 1: Why it matters

What would be the scariest thing to happen at Halloween? A werewolf knocking on your door? Zombies invading your Fall Festival? A sugar-induced coma? No. Not even close. The scariest, deadliest, most dreadful thing would be to hear a false gospel. What’s worse? To be the one who preaches it.

You don’t think so? Paul says heresy has a terrifying consequence:

 “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1:8-9)

The Gospel according to… who?

Apparently, many ministers are proclaiming a false Gospel. Though they may not realize their fallacy, well-meaning people have strayed away from truth. Lies have crept into the Church, creating countless false converts, drop-outs, and unbelievers (2 Peter 2:1-3). The true Gospel is found in the Bible. We must wipe the dust from its cover, and studying once again its sacred pages. In turning back to our source, we can return to a true Christianity. Is the Gospel you preach based squarely upon Scripture?

Why should it matter that our Gospel is accurate?

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).  All people stand condemned before a holy God (Ro. 3:10, 23). So unbearable will be the Day of His wrath that the wicked will seek refuge beneath the hills, crying, “hide us!” But they will find no safety there. (Rev. 6:16) Their only shelter is faith in the Cross of Christ. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” (Romans 10:17) To receive eternal life, one must hear the words of eternal life. Any alternative message will damn the people to a false hope. As we preach the Gospel of Christ, the one and only remedy is offered to lost man.

The Primacy of the Gospel

The Gospel, bearing so much power and purpose, is the supreme aspect of all meaningfulness in life, namely, in youth ministry. Greater than any game, gimmick, or special event, the Gospel has the power to transform generations. In fact, our calling is not the entertainment business. Our calling is to make disciples, by the demonstration and preaching of God’s power (1 Cor. 2:4-5)

Remember when the early church began bickering about the food distribution (in Acts 6:1)? Considering priorities and the urgent commission earlier received, the Twelve concluded, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program” (Acts 6:2-4). We can assume the modern equivalents: We should spend time teaching, not playing silly games, not telling dumb jokes, not planning Easter egg hunts. We ought to take this seriously! Not that it is evil to play games or go to a concert, just as it is not evil to run a food program. But where is the majority of time spent? If the apostles spent most of their time baking bread, you would have never heard the Gospel of your salvation. Where are we investing our time, energy and money? Is it in prayer? Is it in the study of the Word of God? What about in counseling, teaching and gathering into small groups for godly discussion? Or is too much time spent of finding to coolest game? How much money goes to pop and chips for the hungry goats, while the sheep are starving? To the Corinthians Paul said, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3). That first importance of the first century is the very same priority that we have: the Gospel of Christ. We must keep the Good News  accurate, biblical, and always of first importance.

Questions for reflection:

• What is the Gospel to you? From what source do you draw it from?
• How much value the true gospel?
• In your ministry, how much time do you spend on planning games versus prayer and teaching?
• How many kids would leave your youth group if you stopped playing games and having snacks? What does this tell you about them?
• In the above scenario, how many would stay?
• Why do you think the apostles (and God) call the Gospel a priority?

It’s the new year even though it’s basically half-way through the school-year for most, but revamping, tweaking, or whatever you want to call it – is an important part of your youth ministry. Matter of fact the logo I’m showing and sharing with you is a prototype and not the finished product yet, [...]]]>

It’s the new year even though it’s basically half-way through the school-year for most, but revamping, tweaking, or whatever you want to call it – is an important part of your youth ministry. Matter of fact the logo I’m showing and sharing with you is a prototype and not the finished product yet, but it gives us a start into some new things.

The youth ministry idea of revamping your youth ministry with purpose is critical because everything you do ends up happening because of how you believe a youth ministry should run and or operate and there are many different ways of operation out there. But the reason that I’m sharing this is because when you pray and think through what you want to happen, this has got to somehow transfer into what do you actually do to make your thoughts and ideas happen.

Attached to this post is a copy of what we are currently working on with our youth ministry here at the church that I’m working with. The biggest move we made this past fall was getting some youth staff/volunteers to help within the youth ministry (HUGE).

So here is a copy and it’s a work in progress but I feel that we have some direction and it’s the implementation that is always the hardest thing to do in ministry:

Orbit FCC Students

Here are some examples:

But every family has it’s quirks, and one of the Jones quirks is their toaster. It always makes me smile.

Toast is the most popular breakfast item in [...]]]> I love my in-laws. In fact, we have a great relationship, and I’ve enjoyed not only marrying their beautiful daughter, but becoming a part of their family.

But every family has it’s quirks, and one of the Jones quirks is their toaster. It always makes me smile.

Toast is the most popular breakfast item in the Jones household, and they have one of those long toasters that holds four slices of bread at a time. The trick is getting it toasted just right.

Since time began, every morning after the toast pops up, Mom or Dad Jones would press the level down again because it’s never quite finished the first time. Then usually mid way through the 2nd cycle, they hit the cancel button and the toast comes out just right.

Why not just change the settings on the toaster to make it toast more the first time? Well, the toaster fits neatly in the corner by the stove, and in that position you never see the dial because it’s pressed up against the wall.

For a while they even forgot that dial existed, and when I discovered it I was forbidden to touch it. That’s because the dial is set to the lowest possible setting. The whole family has an ingrained habit of toasting everything twice. If anybody changes that dial and forgets to set it back, tomorrow morning the toast is going to get burned.

So when you talk to my wife about toasters, she thinks about her family’s toaster that she grew up with. In the same way, when she began to learn about her heavenly Father, she thought about her own father (fortunately she had a great example).

My point is this: Every family has it’s quirks. Do you know your students’ families? Have you taken the time to try to learn about their past?

In youth ministry, so much of our students’ perception of God is put through the “filter” of what they learn at home, whether good or bad. If we don’t take the time to learn what “filters” they see the world through, we may not know what they need so that the seed of God’s Word falls on good soil in their lives.

Take time to ask questions about your students’ family and past, and then listen. It’s an easy task, yet one with great rewards.

“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23

Nathaniel Dame is the president of Called to Youth Ministry which provides the youth ministry resources, coaching, community and training youth pastors need. He is driven by a passion to promote effective youth ministry in the local church. Nathaniel lives with his beautiful wife, Christa, in Woodstock, Illinois.

You won’t see a young person’s life radically changed just by listening to the best sermons. For every solid teen in a youth group, somehow, somewhere, there are committed believers pouring their guts out for that student. For the solid teens that come from Christian homes, that’s often [...]]]> Every youth pastor knows the importance of relationships.

You won’t see a young person’s life radically changed just by listening to the best sermons. For every solid teen in a youth group, somehow, somewhere, there are committed believers pouring their guts out for that student. For the solid teens that come from Christian homes, that’s often the parents.

But what about the families that aren’t led by parents that love the Lord and disciple their kids?

I believe that family is one of the biggest “gaps” that we as youth ministers are called to fill. God created the family structure so that parents can pass their faith to the next generation. In light of so many families that aren’t doing this, or who aren’t even believers, He has allowed youth leaders to fill that gap by ministering to students.

Problems come when we try to replace the “gap” of strong relationships with programs. Students do not need programs. Students need you.

A fascinating study (abstract here, bottom of page) of youth pastors in the mid west discovered an interesting pattern. These youth pastors firmly believed in the importance of personal relationships with students, and they also stated that the format of their youth meetings basically weren’t working.

Yet they still spent 80% of their time preparing for those “so-so” meetings, all the while wishing they had more time for relationships.

My question to you is this: Is there something you are doing in ministry, or in your life, that you aren’t getting the results you aimed for? How much time does that take each week? Can that time be better spent on other activities, such as building relationships, that you know have a better chance of growing fruit?

Programs are not inherently bad–in fact, they’re necessary! So please consider these questions prayerfully as they may not be for all of you, but I do believe this is one thing some of us need to hear.

My prayer is that the Lord would use these ideas to drive us to prayer and help us work more diligently and effectively for Him.

Nathaniel Dame is a youth ministry coach and youth culture expert. His passion is to equip youth pastors to be the leaders that God has called them to be and to have a deep, lasting impact on their students. He is the founder of Called to Youth Ministry and blogs regularly at Effective Youth Ministry.

This post is part three of the four-part series, “How to respond to the crisis.”