KTUAM Training Video #3 from Christian Ministry Videos on Vimeo.

Identity is something that people of all ages struggle. Teenagers are not different and the question “who am I?” is heightened by the fact that billions of dollars a year is spent trying to answer it by telling them you are this or that type of consumer.

Think about this scenario. A sixteen year old young man who struggles with a desire to be accepted by his friends gets into a situation he should not be in on a Friday night. He has an internal battle between what he knows is right and what he thinks will help him solve his “I must be accepted by this people or I am a loser” problem. He buys into a lie. He takes the bait. He has no option but to be at church on Sunday morning with his family. He feels guilty for what he has done. he is trying to figure out why he feels so uncomfortable now in a place he once felt so comfortable in (this is not the churches fault but sin causes you to see things through a different filter). He is asking the question common to teenagers, “Who am I, really?.

The youth worker says someone of you in here have been out playing in sin all week and now you are in God’s house.  The young man thinks in his mind “who told this guy” not realizing it is said each week just in case it is true. By the way, I have no problem with this story up to this point. Then from here there are two options.

1. We tell these Christian teenagers they are hypocrites. They pretend to be good Christian kids when in fact they are bad kids. They are faking it by being at church. They are lying to everyone and we are tired of their hypocrisy.
2. We tell these Christian teenagers they are hypocrites. That, if they are believers, they are the children of God. There identity is found in Jesus Christ. They have been made righteous by the exchanged life offered by Christ. They are being fakes in this world. They are lying to themselves and they are tired of their hypocrisy.

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As I look at the week in review and spend sometime setting up my calendar I have begun to get slightly overwhelmed. Many times I would have been overwhelmed by how much there is to do but tonight I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the volunteer culture that God has created at our church. With Sunday being Easter, heading towards the camp season, church renovations I am more thankful than ever that I belong to a church that truly has a “mind to work”.

I would like to briefly (briefly because I have been made aware my blogs are often too long) give a few of the factors that I believe God has used to create a volunteer culture at our church. The list is neither exhaustive of unique to use. I hope it can be a help to you.

• Pulpit belongs to God. You may say this is true of every church. It is most evident when a pastor preached exponentially and sequentially through the Bible. When the pastor enters into the pulpit with an understanding it belongs to God and we should deliver His message than the church will follow suit in the rest of the building.
• People are equipped for ministry. When people are equipped for ministry they want to go do it!  We are told in Eph. 4:11,12 that the saints (believers) are to be equipped by gifted men to do the work of the ministry. Going from player to player coach to coach is often more difficult than people may realize. We strive to be a church full of disciple makers and not spectators of a few ministry professionals.
• Prospective volunteers are given an open invitation. We try to state clearly and often that “if you would like to get involved as a volunteer in one of the ministries of the church join us at 5:20 for our weekly Volunteers Meeting”. This allows people to always know what is the next step.
• Pre- planning for events provides opportunities. (I know I had to twist that statements arm to get it to fail in live with the alliteration) This is the task we have found most difficult but also one of the most rewarding things we do. The farther out we plan the more detailed our timeline becomes. More details means more actionable tasks which requires more volunteers. More volunteers almost always equals a better event. I hope I didn’t lose you in the math. When you wait until the last minute and get everything done on your own the even may not suffer but the church does. You stole meaningful opportunities for people to be involved in that were not at the church at 11 pm on Saturday.
• Placing an emphasis on involvement. From our New Members Luncheon to our Sunday announcements to our discussions over meals we place a great emphasis on getting involved. We do not take for granted that people should know there is plenty for them to do.
• Providing opportunities. You may say this is not a problem, but it often is. Based upon peoples desires, talents, and schedules we often have to create new opportunities for them to get plugged in as a volunteer. I have seen many churches where if you couldn’t sing, carry an offering basket, or preach there would be nothing for you to do. We must work at making sure everyone has something to do. It should be easy when you goal is world evangelism.

Leaders in the church have a very important job in helping people in the church use their God given talents in the Great Commission. I am trying to learn and grow in this area. If you have a way that helps promote a volunteer culture please let me know in the comment section below. No it does not have to start with the letter “p”. Yes, I did forget to be brief.

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“Isn’t great you can serve God and still be cool? You can listen to Christian music that is real similar to type of music you know we all really like! Isn’t it also great that being a Christian isn’t too inconvenient. The boring church services are worth the trade off of all the cool events the church plans for you” It is about at this point that they started to notice the satire. “I am so thankful that God always gives me what I want and never asks anything of me. God is good and I am awesome… I mean He is awesome”. SILENCE

This is how my conversation with a few teenagers at a local Christian school this morning. Dale Carnegie would not have approved because I do not know if I made friends.

I know stating the fact that I believe that much of modern day Christianity is an altar for self worship is not a knew concept. Many good, bad, and ugly books have been written on the subject. It doesn’t change, however, the fact that this grieves me deeply. Especially, how this has impacted the average American’s teenager view of Christianity and more importantly the Gospel.

I have often wondered about some teenagers if we were to remove the teaching of the Bible, the singing about Jesus, and the commitment to follow Jesus from a church would they still continue to come. Many churches have sadly answered this question for me. This is not only true of teenagers it is also true of adults. Many Americans only come to church for the 10 minutes before and after a service where everyone is nice to them because the are just “so friendly”. It is an odd place for self worship.

A church can be built upon many things but the Bible demands that it should come as a result of the teaching of God’s Word. You can grow many things without the Word but you cannot truly grow God’s church without the Word. We, the church, did not create the Word the Word created us!

A couple of weeks ago I was stuck in a ditch on a snowy day. (Kind of like a modern day version of Benaiah) I had more than a dozen of my neighbors help me out. I am fairly confident by my neighbors testimony (life and spoken) that some of them are not Believers. They still worked hard to get me out of the ditch. They gave their time and energy to do this. What motivated this? Does the fact that they were able to do something I considered good mean they must be Christians?

The Bible clearly states that our good deeds are as “filthy rags”. Wow.. I don’t know about you but that is a hard thing to swallow. That some how that my neighbors in doing a nice things was filthy rags. It was for a motive outside of glorifying God. It might have been to feel good about themselves, to earn merit with God (not the same as true worship, unnecessary, and impossible), for me to think much of them, or few several other reasons. I don’t know why and they probably couldn’t honestly tell you either.

I told you this story to say that there are reasons outside of a love for Jesus to do good things. There are reasons to go to church, play church, and lead a church that are completely void of God’s presence. We should worship of Lord for what He has done for us and not for what “worshiping” Him does for us.

Here are a few ways to know if you truly are worshiping the Christ of Christianity of simply worshiping the way you feel when you do good, people are nice to you, and you go to fun events.

1. Do you have an appetite for the Word of God?

There are many of reasons to like church but if learning about the Bible is not a reason you would give I encourage you to consider this verse in I Peter. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” 1 Peter 2:2 It maybe that you don’t like the Bible because it is not written about you but about God. This will help you see whom you are truly worshiping.

2. Do you desire to serve others in a way that is not self promoting?

There are many ways that serving others is fun. Gets you out of the house, gets people to recognize how “good of a person” you are, and even makes you feel good. This motivators lead to a shallow non sacrificing type of service that will not last more than an  hour at a time. When no one is around and no one is there to pat your back will you still worship God through service? If you are truly worshiping God you will not be concerned when you are not being worshiped. If all the credit went to God (Matt. 5:16) and not to you would you be jealous?

3. Would you do it if it came at a cost?

Many teenagers live church because they are able to find what they found at church (fun, attention, something to do) in other places. This is a consumer mentality. Christ has already DONE more than enough to be worthy of your worship. Have you taken up your cross as in Luke 9:23 and are willing to follow Christ no matter how seemingly difficult the path my be. What will it take to make you stop? When you are worshiping yourself and not God you will stop when things get hard for you.

4. Are you able to explain the Gospel in under a minute?

I know this is a weird question. It is amazing how often professing Christian teenagers can not explain what is the Gospel. There will always be people that can explain it in bigger words but do you know that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is not most important event in world history and in your life? We are not justified by are works (Gal. 2:16). You should know this, celebrate this, and desire to share this with others.  If the story you are currently making is more important to you then the story of the Cross it maybe that you are in a Jesus mask worshiping yourself.

5. Do you respond to the Word of God when you hear it taught?

Putting yourself in a place to hear the Word of God is not enough. We learn in the book of James we are not to be hearers only. As we study the Word of God we should be convicted and drawn by the Holy Spirit to act upon what we here. If it is all about Him and not all about us then we should want to be obedient to His desires. If His Words does not cause action in our lives then whose words do matter? Yours?

This list was written primarily for my teenagers. If you will look into the archive of my blog and at my life you will know I have no desire to cause true Believers to doubt their salvation. I just want my teens to make sure they are worshiping God and not their reflection.

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I received an email this morning from a dear friend of mine named Aaron. Aaron was a catalyst in my life during college that God used in a great way to lead me to the team I serve with today. I love him and his family dearly. They are missionaries working with Muslims in North Africa. A better way to say it is they are now working with believers they led to Christ to reach their unsaved country men! This email meant a great deal to me because it reminded me of how thankful I am to serve with the missions team that I am blessed to serve with.

On Monday night I arrived in Alpharetta, GA right smack dab in the middle of a “normal” week for Vision Baptist Church. No special conference going on. Just life and ministry at it’s average pace. I went straight to a meeting of the “World Evangelism Committee” where about 10 of the members of the church were gathered to make decisions about the mission’s budget and schedule. It was a passionate time. When the budget was too tight to raise the salary of a missionary that they felt needed it a few of them volunteered to give the shortfall personally.

Tuesday I arrived at the church at 8 and taught a group of students for an hour on Muslim missions. My wife arrived at 10 and we sat in Bro. Gardner’s office for three hours while he helped us in a private, painful counseling session in only a way that veteran of missions could. On our first furlough from the work with Muslims in North Africa we needed some fixing in order to be healthy servants of Christ. We laughed and cried. We got a lot of help that I am sure is saving our marriage and ministry.

All the while there were missionaries going to Asia, Europe, and South America making phone calls below us on the first floor.  We had lunch with them and other students of missions. Returning to the church that afternoon we spent another three hours in discussion about Latin missionaries in North Africa; how to recruit, train, deploy, and support them.

That night my wife and I had dinner with three of my best friends and their wives who encourage our passion for the unreached, all members of Vision. We carried “Operation World” with us most of the night.

Wednesday and Thursday I was gone at a missions conference in South Carolina. Upon my return Friday morning I sat in a four hour class with 15 students and other missionaries where we discussed all things missions with Travis Snode, a member missionary of Vision’s who had just flown in the night before from his field. Friday afternoon I had a meeting with John Pearson where he provided me much needed financial advice. But we were both more interested in talking about our past and future missions trips and endeavors to Morocco, India, Peru, and Turkey.

Friday night a student of the OGTC reunited me with a Moroccan man I had witnessed to five years earlier while serving a short stint at the newly formed VBC. He had attended a few times while I was there and just a few times recently as well. He rushed over to Mark’s house where I was staying after work. He has become a very successful businessman here but his heart is torn to pieces by conviction. We spent two hours going over the deity of Christ and the authority of scripture. We prayed together and he promised me he would be back at Vision on Sunday. “I have never heard the Bible taught till I visited Vision.” He told me. I left early Saturday morning for another conference.

So that is what two and a half days looks like for a visiting missionary to Vision Baptist Church. We spoke six years ago now for the first time about starting a church in America that would exist primarily for the cause of recruiting, equipping, exporting missionaries. Thank you, Pastor Gardner and staff at Vision, for being faithful to the vision. You may think that a church so “outward” focused has a hard time reaching “their Jerusalem” and growing at home but 250 people who were there last Sunday might disagree.

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In the years of 2004 and 2005 I traveled in a full time capacity as a mission mobilizer. I had the great opportunity of meeting some extremely passionate and effective youth pastors. Many of the ideas and events that we employ in our youth ministry have come from my experiences on the road.

Many times I would meet youth pastors who had a heart for youth ministry but had bought into a lie. Many of the churches were just big enough to have two men on paid staff. Which left the youth pastor wearing many different hats. To often the youth ministry would take a back burner. I would hear youth pastor after youth pastor say they did not have time to mentor teenagers because they were too busy in the ministry. Ironic. huh? However, over the last three years I have had season where that lie began to make since to me.

I forgot something very important. The youth of the church do not keep me from ministry they are my ministry. They are not a hindrance to ministry but a great access. When you invest into students and do not just spend time with them they will help you accelerate your effectiveness and not hinder it. They have talents and desires that need to be exercises inside of the context of the local church. You can be the catalyst for this. Some of the best servants inside of our church our teenagers!

In the mainstream trends of youth ministry there are plenty of crazy ideas that I would not want to associate with. Here recently I have send a topic become popular deserves some thought. It is the death of “youth ministry” and the birth of “youth in ministry”. Churches are getting tired of the consumeristic mentality of the people in their church. They have 150 programs offered. They have bill boards asking “How may we serve you?” and they are tired of catering to people at the expense of the true Biblical ministry. They know that quality times acceptance equals effectiveness so they have focused on acceptance and forgot about the quality.

I would encourage you to read “Problems in Fun-Focused Youth Ministry”. As with most thoughts I have had about youth ministry, Cary Schmidt has already said it before and better than I could say it.
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Here are some of the events that your Student Coaches and Trainers (aka youth ministry team) have designed for the next few months to help keep us focused on the idea of “youth in ministry”. I would love to hear what you are doing to get your students involved in ministry.

Parent Appreciation Banquet
February 26th (7 pm – 9 pm)
Our teens will prepare, serve and clean up a meal for their parents. The night will be filled with testimonies from our teens about how they love their parents.

World’s Cheapest Missions Trip
March 13th (9 am – 6 pm)
Our teens will spend the day between a muslim mosque and a hindu Temple. We will spend lunch at an Indian restaurant.
After experiencing the two different religious sites they will hear from missionaries from that area who will challenge them about getting involved in their community reaching out to different ethnic and religious groups.

Kids Crusade with Evangelist Ed Dunlop
April 4th-8th (7 pm – 8:30 pm, except Sunday it will start at 6:00 pm)
This is one of favorite weeks of ministry. We intentionally planned this week during Spring Break to allow for our teens to be out on the street getting the word out.

New Bus Route
Starting mid- March
God has provided for a bus! I can not imagine a better training ground for our teens then on a bus route.

DodgeHunger
May 14th & 15th (9 pm – 7 am)
This is a wild event! It is a lock in, dodge ball tournament, evangelistic outreach, and a food drive. Our teens begin collecting cans of food throughout the month of April. On this night we have a lockin that requires you bring 10 cans of food for admission. Proceeds this year will benefit a ministry in Haiti.

Web & Graphic Design Course
Every Thursday afternoon (4 pm – 6 pm) in March, April, and May
Every advancing ministry I know of needs more hands on deck for their media and promotion ministry. Where will we get trained people to serve in this ministries? May I suggest we already have them sitting in our youth room.

Spanish Youth Ministry Plant
Every Sunday afternoon
Every Sunday afternoon our Jr High Director takes a group of teenagers to a city about 30 minutes away where our church has planted a church for spanish speaking people. Their youth ministry joins us for youth events. I am so thankful that our teens got to see a church planted. It has been a life changing experience for them.

Student Led Service
May 30th & every 5th Sunday in a month
We have been given the great opportunity to lead the church services on the 5th Sunday of a month. It has been exciting to see our teens preach, lead music, give the offering devotional, run the cameras, and run the sounds system.

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All through elementary school we would have a dinner or a banquet at the end of the basketball season. During this time the coach would say some nice things about us and trophies would be given out. Not just he best or most valuable would receive trophies but every player would get one. Looking back now I see how much effort it took for the coaches to come up with reasons to give us trophies. They had the obvious one such as the “Best Defensive Player” but they also had the “Hustle Award” for the one most likely to fall down during a play.

I will never forget the trophy I received at the end of my third grade basketball season. As the coach announced my name and I waited for what my new claim to fame would be I had dreams of getting the “Most Likely to Slam Dunk by 5th Grade Trophy”. However, after Coach York said my name I came up to receive the “Most Improved Player” trophy. You would have thought I would have been rejoicing my hard worked payed off. However, I knew and all the kids on the team knew that was the trophy for the kid who not only improved the most but had the most improving needed.

I was (some would say “am) an awkward kid. Watching video tapes of me playing basketball that year will see me hiding behind kids or treating the ball like a hot potato. After that year I resolved to never get that trophy again. I began to work hard at being the “best … well anything”.

As I think about those days and think about some of the young man around me today that are growing into strong ministers of the Gospel I have decided changed my view about that silly trophy. Students come to the O.G.T.C. or come to Christ in the student ministry and I see them growing in Christ. At the end of the year they might not receive the “Best Communicator” award (if we had such a thing) but they would definitely receive the “Most Improved”.

How come we think the rookie should always get that award. Does veteran players not have room to improve? As I am surrounded by a group of young men who are continually growing in their abilities to minister I want to recognize my need for improvement. At the end of this upcoming year I want to be the “Most Improved Player”. Not because it is a competition or I hope they don’t grow – becuase neither are true. Even though this is not my rookie season I still have much need of improvement.

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I introduced the pastor to blogging nearly four years ago. Like most things. if he decides to to do it, he does it well and is extremely faithful to it. Over two years ago he decided to place his devotions on a private blog. He had been doing this for many, many years through email. However, know does t on the blog and he has written nearly 900 days consecutively!

He is leaving a body of work for us all. I find this very impressive and helpful. I want to follow this example. I am working at mentoring some young men, involved in church planting, and now I want to work even hard at leaving behind a “body of work”.

293 Devotions from Austin Gardner

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Master Copy – Systematic Theology

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First of all, he must be willing to have one thing on top of another put upon him, without any consideration being given him. On top of a hard day in the field the servant in the parable had immediately to prepare his master’s meal, and on top of that he had to wait at table – and all that before he had had any food himself.

Secondly, in doing this he must be willing not to be thanked for it. How often we serve others, but what self-pity we have in our hearts and how bitterly we complain that they take it as a matter of course and do not thank us for it. But a bondservant must be willing for that. Hired servants may expect something, but not bondservants.

And, thirdly, having done all this, he must not charge the other with selfishness. As I read the passage, I could not but feel that the master was rather selfish and inconsiderate. But there is no such charge from the bondservant. He exists to serve the interests of his master and the selfishness or otherwise of his master does not come into it with him.

There is a fourth step still to which we must go. Having done all that, there is no ground for pride or self-congratulation, but we must confess that we are unprofitable servants, that is, that we are of no real use to God or man in ourselves. We must confess again and again that “in us, that is in our flesh, there dwelleth no good thing,” that, if we have acted thus, it is no thanks to us, whose hearts are naturally proud and stubborn, but only to the Lord Jesus, who dwells in us and who has made us willing.

The bottom of self is quite knocked out by the fifth and last step – the admission that doing and bearing what we have in the way of meekness and humility, we have not done one stitch more than it was our duty to do. God made man in the first place simply that he might be God’s bondservant. Man’s sin has simply consisted in his refusal to be God’s bondservant. His restoration can only be, then, a restoration to the
position of a bondservant. A man, then, has not done anything specially meritorious when he has consented to take that position, for he was created and redeemed for that very thing.

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