I love swimming. Give me a pool and a warm summer day and I am happy.

If you have ever swam in your life, you have probably played those common pool games.

Marco Polo, Sharks and Minnows, Submarine.

Submarine may not be one you have ever heard of though. Submarine was a game we invented that was basically “Who can hold their breath longer?”

I was decent at submarine, but definitely not the best.

And while it is a simple game that people play while swimming, a lot of Youth Workers try to play submarine with how they work in their Student Ministry. A lot of us (especially me) try to go as long as we can without taking a break. We try to stick our noses to the grindstone and try to stay deep in Student Ministry without taking time to refresh ourselves.

And whether it is swimming or Student Ministry, we cannot afford to forget that we will die if we do not breath.

If you do not take the time to refresh yourself and to come up for air, you simply won’t make it. If we cannot force ourselves to take the time to relax, then we will never lead that Student Ministry to where it needs to go.

Let me say this too: You’re not lazy if you take a day off every now and then. Don’t abuse it. Don’t be a slacker, but understand that your mind, soul and body need oxygen. You need to breath every now and then. You need to come up for air.

You need to pause. Not stop, just pause.

Now, I am acutely aware that many readers are bi-vocational, have nobody else that can carry a youth service or maybe have a Pastor that is a little more strict on time, so let me share the following with you:

Pausing doesn’t mean you have to go away on a trip, although that is probably the best way to come up for air. I am no expert on you or your specific situation, but here are some ideas to help you stay fresh.

1.) Turn off your electronic devices-
I have a problem. Every time my phone buzzes, chirps or dings I have the overwhelming sensation to check it. I cannot stop myself! Every time I turn on my computer, even if it is just to look up a phone number, I catch myself an hour later doing work. Turn off your phones, leave your computer in its bag and take some time just to yourself without being connected. The likelihood of some crisis happening at that exact moment is beyond rare.

2.) Stay in-
On a Saturday or any day that you have off work, spend some time just in your house. If you’re married, spend time with your wife. If you have kids, sit around and watch cartoons (online of course . Spend the day doing nothing with no responsibilities. Take a “Stay-cation” as they call it.

3.) Hobbies-
I love watching football. I love tennis. I love shooting video. I love hanging out in downtown coffee shops. I enjoy crafts. I love to read. Those are just a few of my hobbies, and I am sure that you have some as well. Allow yourself some time to do something else that you really enjoy. Putting your focus on something else will get your mind off of Student Ministry long enough for you to refresh yourself.

4.) Take a Service Off-
This will only work if you have someone that can carry some of the load, but take a Sunday or Wednesday off from speaking. Visit another church, go out of town or if you can’t do either of those, sit back and absorb all that your Student Ministry is doing. Have someone else run the service and just take it all in. The ideas gathered from pulling yourself out for a service will rejuvenate you.

5.) Change your scenery-
They say this is one of the best ways to keep your creativity up. Change your scenery. If you normally write your lessons in your office, work from home or a coffee shop one day. If it’s a nice day out, work from outside. If you can’t get out of the office, rearrange your office for a change of pace.

These are just some tips to help you stay fresh in Student Ministry.

Every now and then with any computer, you just need to restart and refresh it. The same is true about the computer in your head.

Don’t neglect to take the time to refresh and restart yourself, otherwise you’ll find yourself dragging and not moving as quickly as you could.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to come up for air!

(This week we are beginning a new series on the blog. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a name…HA HA! Happy New Year! Enjoy!)

The New Year’s holiday is both the perfect ending of a previous year and the perfect beginning of a new year. Fireworks, friends and family. You really can’t beat it.

But as another year comes to a end and we close the chapter on 2011, it is imperative that we take a look back on the last year before we close the book.

I remember as the year 2010 came to a close, I was sitting alone in a room at my wife’s grandmother’s house in upstate New York. At the time, we were in Madisonville, KY and were beginning to feel that a change was coming. I remember feverishly taking notes for what I wanted to accomplish in the year 2010.

I’ll be honest with you. Some of those things were accomplished (like finishing a manuscript for the book I have been working on) but some I wasn’t even close to completing (like reading 45 books this year).

But as I look back over 2011, everywhere I look I realize that God has been faithful.

When there was no money to pay the bills on my Student Pastor salary….He was faithful.
When cars broke down and there seemed to be no way to fix them….He was faithful.
When relationships were severed and people turned their backs on us…. He was faithful.
When things we sailing along smoothly…He was faithful.
When we needed a miracle…He was faithful.
When we made the decision to move to Richmond, VA…He was faithful.

In every area of my life and of my efforts in Student Ministry, God has always been faithful.

Has it been easy, No. Have I wanted to quit, Yes. Have I even gone as far as to put in applications at secular businesses, maybe.

But through it all, God has been faithful.

And I would be willing to bet that as you look back over the last year, you would come to the same conclusion in your ministry.

Maybe you haven’t seen the growth you wanted… But He has been faithful.
Maybe you have dealt with problem students… But He has been faithful.
Maybe you have dealt with spineless and abrasive parents… But He has been faithful.
Maybe you have faced broken relationships… But He has been faithful.
Maybe you have faced tragedy this year… But He has been faithful.
Maybe your world was turned upside this year… But He has been faithful.

No matter what situation you have faced and no matter the outcome of it…God has been faithful.

While there are some things that we probably wish we could have done differently in the last year, it doesn’t change the fact that God has been faithful.

The beauty of it is that those things that God had planned for you and I in 2011 haven’t expired. His purpose for us didn’t end at the stroke of midnight on December 31st. As soon as the calendar switched over to January 1st, His purpose and plan extended into the new year.

And even more incredible is that His faithfulness doesn’t have an expiration date either. If He was faithful to you in 2011, He is more than able to continue His faithfulness through the next year.

If God ever fails you, it will be the first time he has failed anyone. If He ever turns His back on you, it will be the first time.

Sometimes we need to rewind and look back at all that God has done for us as a way to click “refresh” on our perspective.

God’s got you covered in 2012 the same way He did in 2011.

I cannot promise it will be easy. I cannot promise everything will go your way. I cannot even promise that you fulfill your resolutions for the year.

But I can promise you that God will never leave you nor forsake you. And in that I know that nothing is impossible in 2012.

Because with God all things are possible, even in 2012.

Your desire to work in Student Ministry did not come without a flood of vision and dreams. When you first felt that tugging in your heart to work with students, I would be willing to bet that you were flooded with emotions. I am willing to bet that excitement made you want to jump up and down. I am sure fear grabbed a hold of you tightly. I am positive that you doubted your ability to do what you felt God calling you to do.

But in that process something else happened…

You began to dream.

Visions of what you could accomplish in that church clouded your ability to think of anything else. You dreamed of leading youth to change their city. You dreamed of a day when there would be more students in your group than in your church. You saw visions of your students laying hands on the sick and the power of God working through them. You dreamed dreams about walking the hallways of your county schools. You dreamed of getting calls in the middle of the night because your students were praying for people at sleepovers and in the middle of Wal-Mart. You had ideas, visions and dreams for cutting edge programs and life-changing messages.

But then something else happened. You were smacked in the face by reality. Maybe you realized that your budget wasn’t there to have that huge youth revival like you wanted to. Maybe you realized that your students weren’t as spiritually advanced as you thought they were. Maybe you realized that the reality of Student Ministry is that it is nowhere close to our fantasied view of it.

But the question I want to ask you is simple.

Where did you put those dreams, ideas and visions that you once had?

I think we have all been met with brick walls in Student Ministry. I know in my time in Student Ministry, there have been some moments where everything was going smoothly and I was just about to try out something that God had been dealing with me about. And in those same moments, I have been blindsided countless times by things that I had no control over. Budget. Staff tensions. Lack of pastoral support. Deaths in the family.

When you come face to face with the reality that your ideas, vision or dream isn’t going to work out right then, you really are being met with two choices.

1.) I can abandon this altogether.
2.) I can save this and keep working on it for later.

And that’s where you decide whether you will put that dream into an incubator or a casket.

I can honestly tell you that there are so many dreams that I have had for my Youth Ministries over the years that I have put into caskets rather than incubators. There have been so many times that I have mistook God’s “Not Yet” for His “Not Ever”. And in so doing, I have robbed my Student Ministry of things that God had placed in me specifically for that group.

Don’t allow your circumstances, the situations you encounter or the struggles you must endure to force you into aborting that dream that God has given you for that group. Don’t allow your pride to talk you into abandoning that vision because life and situations have gotten in the way. Don’t allow yourself to mistake God’s “Not Right Now” for Him saying “Not Ever”

You will face situations. You will face circumstances. You will be running smoothly and then get blindsided. You will have failures along with your successes. Some things will not go your way.

But don’t lose hope that the dream God has given you will come to pass. Don’t lost faith that God will use you to fulfill the vision He has given you.

Don’t put that dream in a casket. Don’t abandon it. If God has given it to you, He has given it to you for a reason.

Place it into an incubator. Work on it behind the scenes. Allow yourself to keep believing that vision will come to pass. Place it in the back of your mind and keep working towards it.

Some of the greatest experiences in my Student Ministries have been the times just like what we’re discussing today. They have been the times that I have held on to a dream or vision even when it seemed there was no way it would happen.

It really is ultimately our own choice.

So where will you place your hopes, dreams, ideas and vision?

In a casket or an incubator?

I’ll be honest. I have written and re-written this post 3 times already. I have tried to be light-hearted. I have tried the more serious route. I have tried for somewhere in between.

So if you will allow me to, I’m just going to write what I feel to share and we’ll see what happens.

As Youth Workers, we wear a lot of hats. We are designers, church administrators, teachers, Pastors, leaders, influencers and friends. We listen to students. We hang out with students. We do all sorts of things.

But perhaps our biggest job as youth leaders is simply to offer hope.

Hope to students like Jonah in the video. Hope to students who come from broken families. Hope to students who need something to believe in. Hope to students who come from bad circumstances. Hope to students who feel like God has abandoned them.

As Youth Workers, we are dispensers of that hope. We are the ones that can speak life into dead souls. We are the ones that can speak a word that can change a life for eternity.

So don’t let yourself get bogged down by the administration of Student Ministry. Don’t allow yourself to get so focused on the exteriors that you miss out on the greatest responsibility that you have…

Introducing your students to the hope that we all have in Jesus.

There are students in your communities and even in your youth group that struggle with the same things as Jonah. There are students that you see on a weekly basis that are searching for a reason to even live. There are students that you know who are desperate to see something happen good in their lives.

Give them that hope. Show them that they can trust in Him. Introduce them to the “hope that maketh not ashamed.” Introduce them to a God that can change their lives.

They need need that hope.

Show it to them.

PS- I do not personally know Jonah, I found this video on youtube and it was such a wake up call for me that I just had to share it.

I love writing. I love the clicking of the keys on the keyboard. I love the sound the pen makes as it scurries across the crisp paper. I love the way the ink materializes on pages that were once desolate.

I love to look at a blank screen as I am right now and imagine what it can be. The paper screams with possibilities of what it can become. Will it be a love letter, will it be a poem, will it be an encouraging note? The opportunities are endless.

There is something distinctly creative that happens in that moment right before pen meets paper and fingers hit keys. I live for that moment. I cannot express to you the sheer excitement that I feel in that moment as I enter into a world of words, sentences, vowels and grammar.

Simply put, I geek out when it comes to writing.

But what excites me more than penning words on pages or posts on this blog is what I write onto the hearts of my students on a daily basis. What excites me more than blog readers and blog comments is hearing a student recite the biblical truth that I helped instill in them.

We are all authors. Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, as Youth Workers we are all writing something.

As you step behind a pulpit, you’re writing the word of God on your student’s hearts.
As you lay your hands on a student to pray with them, you are writing that you God cares for them.
As you spend that one on one time with a student, you are writing that someone cares about their day to day life.

We are always writing. Whether we are the Student Pastor, a Youth Worker or an adult volunteer, we are writing into the lives of those students. That’s why years down the road you will have students specifically remember these moments that you shared. That’s why they remember your sermons. That’s why they recall all the fun times.

Because you were writing into their lives.

So the question is not “IF” we are writing in their lives, but “WHAT” we are writing.

Are we writing hope? Are we writing the necessity of a relationship with Him? Are we writing mercy and grace? Are we writing forgiveness? Are we writing about their future? Are we writing about God’s love for them?

Every word you say. Every action you take. Every smile. Every encouragement. Every text and Facebook message. Every time you take a moment one on one with your students. Every youth event. Every time you step behind a pulpit. And not just that, but everything you do in your personal life. Every time you pray. Every time you fast. Every time your students see YOU worshipping…

You are writing on the greatest canvas that this world will ever know. You are writing on the most influential piece of paper.

You are writing into the soul of a student.

So what will you write?

(First off, let me apologize for my absence from writing…I’ll have a post up before long explaining it in more detail. But just so you know, this blog isn’t going anywhere. We’ll be here writing until we’re 85 or God tells us to stop, whichever happens first. In honor of of your patience during my absence, I’m bringing you a fresh post, hot off the presses and something God is currently teaching me. Happy Reading!)

Do What They Did…

I am a blessed man. I have an awesome job. I get to do work that I love everyday. I have a beautiful wife that I love and who for some reason loves me. I have a car that works. I am in no way even close to rich, but God provides. I have a great family and I have a great life.

Yes, there are bad times. Yes, there are days that I wish I could have just fast forwarded through. But all in all, I am a blessed man.

But I don’t think I am coincidentally blessed. I don’t think it’s by chance or luck. I believe that I am blessed for a very specific reason.

I believe that I am blessed because of the prayers of my grandmother and grandmother that I never even knew were prayed. I believe strongly that I am blessed by my grandmother used to get up at 5 AM everyday and pray for God to bless me and my brothers. I believe that I am blessed because my great grandmother, who has already passed away, lived such as consecrated life while she walked this Earth.

Yes, I believe that God blesses us for our response and willingness to respond to Him, but I believe that there are some blessings on my life by the simple virtue of the fact that my ancestors had such a strong anointing on their lives and they prayed that God would bless me.

I believe that they walked in such an anointing that God is still blessing them and answering their prayers long after they have lost the ability to say another word.

I have been contemplating the anointings of my ancestors lately. I have been trying to establish what veins of the Spirit they operated in. And I have even gone as far as to pray that God would bless me with their anointing.

In fact, that’s where this post was birthed from. I was praying the other day and began to ask God to place on me the anointing that my grandmother so greatly walked in.

I felt like God stopped me as soon as I prayed and in His simple way made this remark:

“You will never have the anointing that they had, until you are willing to do what they did”

Those words from God hit me like a dump truck full of cinder blocks.

Because my generation is a generation of convenience. My generation grew up being able to microwave everything and have it instantly. My generation lacks a true understanding of what patience really is. I am a part of the NOW generation. I want it all and I want it now.

I had to take a step back and really look at myself. I wanted my Grandmother’s anointing, but….

Was I willing to live a life of consecration amidst ridicule?
Was I willing to still live for God when it wasn’t easy anymore?
Was I willing to get up at 5 AM EVERYDAY to talk to God?
Was I willing to work for God even though I was tired?

And as Youth Workers the same can be said of us. We see that Youth Pastor across the street that seems to live and breath success while in our group, nothing seems to be going right. We see revival happening in that other Youth Group so we beg and plead with God to give us that revival in our group. We beg God to give us the anointing that other Youth Worker has.

But let me echo God’s words to me this past week to you:

“You will never have what they have until you’re willing to do what they do.”

I know it seems simple. I know it looks like they’re just lucky. I know it appears to be something that just happened, but it’s not.

Nobody accidentally has revival. Nobody stumbles into reaching their city. Success doesn’t just happen.

It is the result of countless hours of prayer. It is the result of sleepless nights. It is the result of blood, sweat and tears. It is the result of moments that they probably wouldn’t even feel comfortable sharing.

The cost of great anointing is great sacrifice. The price of a great Student Ministry is time, effort, and energy. Success is the sum total of everything you endure as a Youth Worker. The greater the success that He is calling you to, the greater the struggle there will be getting there.

And until we are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful in Student Ministry, until we are willing to do what they did then our prayers for that anointing are pointless.

When we are willing to do whatever it takes, when we are willing to take whatever steps necessary. When we do what they are willing to do, then and only then can we walk in that level anointing.

It is my prayer that you are the most successful Youth Worker in this entire country. It is my greatest hope that you walk in an anointing far bigger than you have ever dreamed possible. It is my prayer that you are so successful that your Youth Facilities cannot hold your students anymore.

But know that if it’s going to happen, it won’t by accident…

(The last couple of weeks on the blog we have been dicussing what it means to get to the “there” that God has for your group and for you as a Youth Worker. This is the final post in that series. To read the previous post, click the following links: Finding Our There  Where Are You?  and Creating a Plan to get there. I hope you have enjoyed this series and we’ll back with something else on Thursday! Happy Reading!  – Noah)

Getting There- Part 4- Get There

I had a grandfather that was phenomenal. He is one of those old time preachers that would tour the south with his guitar and a sermon. He was a Pickin’ Preacher. Without getting into all of the details of his life, he fell away from God and from my family.

Fortunately, towards the end of his life we were able to spend a little bit of time together.

From what I heard and what I saw at 78 years old, he was an incredible musician. If it had stings, he could play it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have picked up a pair of shoes and found a way to play the shoelaces on them.

My mother, while helping him move one time came across a book containing all of the different songs that he had written. After counting them, she discovered that in his lifetime he had written over 100 songs.

But none sticks out to me as much as one particular one he wrote that he loved to play. I don’t know if I remember it because he played it so much or because I could relate to it, but I do know that to this day I remember him playing the song for the first time.

With his fingers weathered with age and a voice that cracked and cackled, he would strum his Hummingbird guitar and sing:

“Have you got what it takes to get you there….”

His song was a challenge to everyone that heard it to keep their eyes focused on eternity, but I would like to take a second and challenge you with the same lyrics.

Have you got what it takes to get you there?

Have you got what it takes to endure the hardships?
Have you got what it takes to push past the difficult times?
Have you got what it takes to know that God has called you even when you don’t FEEL it?
Have you got what it takes to put the effort into your own relationship?
Have you got what it takes to maybe not get the support you need?
Have you got what it takes to fulfill God’s call on your life?

Have you got what it takes to get you to your “there?”

Because it won’t be easy. It won’t always be a piece of cake. There will be days that you want to throw in the towel. There will be days when you want ball up in your bed and not have to deal with it anymore. There will be days that wonder if you misheard Him when he called you to be a Youth Worker. There will be days when you feel lost and abandoned.

Do you have what it takes to push past those days towards the days when you see your students respond to God? Do you have what it takes to push past your fears, doubts and insecurities and into that place where you see the miraculous happen in your Student Ministry?

Do you have what it takes to get you “there”?

Here’s what you need to remember when you’re fighting to get to your there:

God wouldn’t have called you to where you are and given you the vision of your there if He wasn’t going to lead you to it.

God called you to fulfill a purpose in your Student Ministry. I don’t know the particulars of your “there” and I don’t need to. All I need to know is that God called you and you are following His voice and I can tell you that you DO have what it takes to make it. You DO have what it takes to push that Student Ministry to the place God has for it. You DO have what it takes to get those students to experience God for themselves.

You do have what it takes to get you there!

So what is stopping you? What is hindering you from determining and acknowledging your there, determining where you currently are and creating a plan to get there. Because once you do that, then and only then can you get there.

So don’t wait. Pray and determine your there. Be honest with yourself about where you currently are. Create a plan for how to get to your there.

And when you have done all that…Just do it. Put the effort in. Put the work into it.

And remember, you DO have what it takes to get you “there”!

(We are currently in the middle of a series on The Backstage Project called “Getting There”. So far we have established the need to Find Our There and we have discussed the importance of knowing Where We Are. In this post, We are going to discuss how to take that information and create a plan for how to get “There” Happy Reading!)

Part 3 – Creating a Plan

I am convinced that there are two types of people in the world. Those that have to plan every detail and those that cannot stand being bound to a certain time frame.

And most of the time, these two types of people marry each other.

That’s how it is with Bethany and I. Bethany is a very organized person. In fact, when we were dating, I would pick on her because she would sit down and come up with a plan for how she would plan something. I, on the other hand, was always the type of person that went with the flow and didn’t feel the need for a set plan.

Needless to say, it made for some pretty interesting road trips early in our relationship.

I think there is definitely a time and place for both attributes, but Student Ministry is not one of those places, especially if you’re trying to get to the place that God has directed you to go.

If I have said this once, I have probably said this a thousand times on this blog: You will never stumble into fulfilling God’s purpose for your Student Ministry. You will never just wake up one day and find your Student Ministry where God has purposed it to be.

It requires work. It requires effort. And most of all, it requires a plan.

In the previous posts in this series, we discussed how to find our “there” and how that if we are ever going to get “there” we have to be completely honest about where we currently ARE.

But it goes a step further than that. It’s not enough to just know where you need to go and where you are, you have to figure out how to get there.

And it will require some planning on your part. It will require tedious work on your part setting goals and meeting those goals.

I’ll be honest, this is the part that my “unplanned” brain doesn’t do well at. This is the part where the rubber meets the road and you have to be honest about what you can feasibly do.

Since it’s tough and your brain may not naturally work that way, here are a few tips to help you plan the path to your “there.”

#1 – Set long term and short term goals
Having a Student Ministry of over 100 when you are currently running 12 is a good goal to have, but probably not as a short term goal. Allow faith into the equation, but be honest with yourself about what you can do. 100 is a good long term goal, but 30 may be a good 3 month Goal. Once you set manageable goals, you can begin working on the plan to get to that point. Just setting goals will not get you there, but it is a step in the right direction.

#2 – Constantly evaluate
This one can be tricky. A lot of times we can set goals and then forget about them. Other times we may set goals and then intentionally ignore them because we have not met them yet. We need to consistently evaluate where we are on the path towards those goals. If we don’t know where we are, then we won’t know what, if anything, we need to change to reach those goals. It’s necessary to evaluate, just make sure you don’t do it in front of the students.

Side note: Even though you’re evaluating in relation to how close you are to your goal, make sure you take the time to celebrate the small successes on the way towards fulfilling those goals.

#3 – Don’t get discouraged
This is a huge one. Some goals you are going to blow out of the water, some goals you will struggle to fulfill. Whatever happens, just don’t allow yourself to be discouraged. It will take work. It will take effort. You will fail to meet some goals and others you will succeed at with ease. Don’t get discouraged if you miss the mark, just adapt your goals and keep moving forward.

#4 – Don’t compare
You’re going to want to compare your Student Ministry to another one. Resist that urge. God has a specific purpose for each and every Student Ministry and Student Pastor. God may be calling your Student Ministry to a different place than that other Student Ministry across town. He may be leading you to a different “there”. Learn from other groups and from other Youth Workers, but know that God may leading you elsewhere. God may not be calling you to have a Youth Praise Band that releases cds. He may not be calling you to have a ministry of 1000 students. And the same way, He may not be calling other groups to do the things that you are doing. Don’t compare, just chase after the “there” for your group.

I know it is tough for the ‘non-planners’ to complete this step, but if you are ever going to get to that place that God is calling you to get to, you must develop a plan for how to get there. And once you get your plan in place, then comes the fun part…

But that is another post for another day!

(Last week on the blog we began a new series called “Getting There” which is going to discuss what it takes to get you and your Student Ministry to whatever the “there” is that God has for you. In the last post, which you can read HERE, we discussed that before we can even begin the journey to our “there” that we must first figure out what that is. So once we figure out what the ultimate destination is for our Student Ministry, then we can move on to the next step, which the following post will cover)

Where are you?

Georgia Patricia Sullivan was what we called her. Or, GPS for short.

Georgia was good to us while she lasted. Well, let me rephrase that; She was good to my wife while she lasted.

Georgia and I never really got along that well. I don’t know if it was because she belonged to my wife and only wanted to work for her or what but Georgia would never really work for me. She could tell me where to go, but she could never find my exact location.

And I think that is a problem that a lot of Youth Workers run into.

We know where we are trying to get to. We know where our “there” is, but we cannot seem to locate ourselves on the path to that place.

Before we can ever make it to the place that God has for us and for our Student Ministry, we have to get really honest with ourselves about where we are right now. And chances are very good that our egos are going to be hurt in the process.

Real Talk: Nobody likes to think they’re doing anything less than a perfect and extraordinary job at Student Ministry. I’ll be honest, there are times that I have been talking to other Youth Workers and I have fudged the numbers a little bit of how many students were a part of my group. Rather than saying that we had 5 that came consistently, I would say “we have 20 on the roll sheet.” And I don’t think I am alone in doing that.

None of us want to admit that our Youth Group isn’t that stellar or that we’re struggling to get students to show up.

One of the most liberating experiences for me was the moment I decided to be real with myself and push my pride and ego out of the way. And in that moment when I realized that I was only deceiving myself by continuing to think that we were already at our “there” something clicked in my Student Ministry. When I took the rose tinted glasses off and truly looked at myself as a leader and at my Student Ministry, then and only then could I see the areas that I needed to get better.

Let me encourage you today to take a step back and assess your Student Ministry for what it is. Yes, it sounds good and helps our pride and ego when we say we had 20 show up for Youth Service, but it does us no good if we don’t take into account the fact that there were 10 adults there. We need to be honest with ourselves about where we are as Youth Leaders and as a Youth Department.

Call it what it is. Assess it for what it is. Be honest with yourself about your abilities as a leader.

Because you will never reach your “there” until you are completely honest about where you already are.
PS- Let me clarify this so I am not misunderstood. There is a certain benefit to finding the silver lining in anything. When I was first starting out in Student Ministry I had a youth group of 5 students. We had a Youth Service where 19 showed up. 7 were adults, but that left 12 that were students. I ran around for the next few weeks buzzing about how we had 19 people at our Youth Service. It wasn’t me trying to build myself up, but rather me being excited for that step. You should ALWAYS find a silver lining in the worst of cases, but at the end of the day, I didn’t allow myself to believe that we had arrived because of that one event. Build up your Student Ministry in front of your students. Celebrate the small steps around them. But when it is all said and done and you’re behind closed doors, be honest with yourself about where you really stand, then you’ll be able to get to your “there”

I used to not hate driving so much.

In fact, there was a time in my life that I couldn’t wait to drive. Ahh, 16 year old Noah, I wish we could chat.

I don’t hate everything about driving. I like the feeling of the windows down going 65 down those country roads. I like singing along with the radio at the top of my lungs. I like the conversations that my wife and I have on those long road trips.

I guess my real issue is that I hate the time in between the moment I leave where I’m at and the moment I get to where I am headed. Even on the best road trips, there comes a time when I am ready to just “be there.”

And in Youth Ministry, I have found that we all have a “There” that we are trying to take our group to. Sometimes along the way we may get frustrated. Sometimes it may seem like the time is flying by. Sometimes we may get lost or sidetracked, but we all have a there.

So in the next few posts, we are going to discuss what it takes to get yourself and your Student Ministry “there.”

Step 1 – Defining Your ‘There’
I’ll be honest. I don’t know what your there is. I don’t know what that big vision God has laid out in front of you. I don’t know where He is taking your Student Ministry.

But I do know that we can never get to the places God wants us to go until we understand where it is we’re supposed to be going.

Take a second and let the simplicity of that statement sink in.

We can never get ‘there’ until we know where ‘there’ is.

And God is the only one that can label what your success is to your Youth Department. It is following His will for our Student Ministry that makes us successful, not our numbers, cool setups or how often we get asked to speak to other youth groups.

So the first thing we need to do is to seek God to define success for us. Pray that He reveals to us His plan for our students. Study His word and ask Him to make it come alive in your Student Ministry. Fast and ask God to revel His vision for how you lead your students. And follow His will when He reveals it to you.

In a book I am currently reading, the author has this to say:

“Many people fail not because they cannot reach their goals, but because they have wrongly defined what…success is.”

To put it into our context, if you “succeed” by your standards, and by the standards of another Student Ministry, but you fail to become what God wants you to become, then you have failed. Success is fulfilling God’s will for your Student Ministry, nothing more, nothing less.

God’s will should be our “there.” That should be what we strive for. That should be what we push towards. That should be what we measure success by.

So before we can move to the next step in the process of “Getting There” we must first clearly and specifically define what our “there” is.

So what is your “there?” What is it that God is calling your Student Ministry to be? What is God leading your Student Ministry to do?

And just a hint: God’s will is for every Student Ministry to engage and encounter Him. His will is for every Student Ministry to grow into a deeper relationship with Him. His will is for every Youth Ministry to reach out to the lost in their communities.

So as you’re praying about what God is specifically calling your Student Ministry to be, those are some good places to start…

In the next post, we’ll talk more specifically about how to get to your “there.” But in the meantime, don’t overlook the importance of knowing what God wants your group to become. Before you take another step or click to read the next post, take a day or two and determine what it is that God has planned for your Student Ministry.

Because then, and only then, can you reach it.