However, there were times when I caught a glimpse of the Divine. Those moments when the liturgy pointed to the Mystery of Faith. It was during those seasons where I understood at a rudimentary level that there was something Holy happening. . . that this was not just another week where we were repeating the same thing over and over. It was as if someone had poked me in my side between the 5th and 6th ribs and whispered intently in my ear, “Pay attention, this is important.” And I listened like I had never listened before. I may not have fully comprehended it. I may not have understood all the language. But I undoubtedly knew God was there.

It is through ritual and liturgy that we encounter the Divine in the ordinary.

Many years later, one Christmas Eve, I was watching Midnight Mass from St. Peter’s on television when my wife noticed that I was reciting the liturgy alongside Pope John Paul II. Somewhere in my adolescence, the words of the Mass had somehow become part of me. I took extreme comfort in this. In that moment I recognized another dynamic of my participation in The Church.

What does this have to do with Youth Ministry?

I spend a great deal of time in our introductory ministry courses exposing our students to the wonder and mystery and need for liturgy in the life of our churches. I let them peek over the wall to the other side of the Christian Tradition in order to get a glimpse of formal liturgy. We discuss how we all have liturgy, some more formal than others. We have three songs and a prayer, others have The Book of Common Prayer. We have potlucks & friend days, others have Ash Wednesday & Advent. We sometimes speak in plain language that is accessible, humble and approachable. Others speak in carefully worded language borrowed from generations past and deeply rooted in scripture that is deep, holy and divine.

BOTH ARE NEEDED.

BOTH ARE IMPORTANT.

Ivy Beckwith defines ritual as, “something we do over and over again as a way to remember or reinforce the values the ritual represents.”1 In modern youth ministry, we have segmented our young people off from the larger church body to such a degree that I think they might be missing out on the rich heritage that exists in the ritual of our faith communities. We have worked so hard to be so innovative with our young people we have tossed aside the story of who we are with our teens and they have missed a significant part of the spiritual formation–their identity.

Might we have been so innovative, so fragmented, so segregated, that they have missed out on the metanarrative of who are are? Might this be one of the reasons that they wander off from the church when they graduate youth group? Maybe our students do not possess and understanding of WHO they are in the midst of the larger, broader Christian community because they have missed out on the ritual and liturgy that lives out the story of our identity.

What are the things our youth ministries and churches are doing over and over and over again?

What values are those reinforcing?

What Identities are they forming?

What stories are they telling?

We need to have our students participate in and with the larger church’s liturgy. We need to be available to answer their questions of, “What does this mean? What is going on here?” They need to hear and experience the stories that the liturgy lives out in the midst of community.

1 Beckwith, Ivy. Formational Children’s Ministry: Shaping Children Using Story, Ritual, and Relationship. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010. 21

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

Put yourself in the shoes of Mary and Mary.  That morning they are still in mourning over the loss of Jesus.  They are on their way to continue their mourning as they go to visit the tomb.  Perhaps to stil, to contemplate, to wonder, to lament, to begin to work through their anger, loss and betrayal.

Their pain is still fresh.  “He said he’d rise”

Their heart still aches. “I trusted him.”

The sting of death is still fresh. “He lost”

Their dreams are sufficiently dashed. “I left everything to follow him.”

Hope is extinguished. “Now what am I supposed to do?!?

When it feels like things can’t get any worse, an earthquake hits.

Really !?!?!

It is as if the gods were mocking them with the first earthquake during the crucifixion there is another earthquake similarly mocking them in their misery.

I have always glossed over this part of the passion story.  Perhaps because it is so close to the empty tomb and I know things are just about to get better.  But can you even imagine what must have been going through their minds as the earth shook again?

“Why?” must have been echoing through their hearts.  Tears must have being to flow again mixing with the hundreds of others that have drenched their garments the past two days.

BUT. . .

Then the lightning came…the angel appeared…and the words that changed everything for them come,  “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”

HE

HAS

RISEN!

The pain turns to joy

The heart ache is transformed into love

Death is swallowed in victory.

The dream is ignited

Hope blooms.

So where are you in the Resurrection story?

Are you still at the foot of the Cross wondering what has happened?

Have you let yourself still live in the confusion and lonliness of Saturday?

Are you one the way back to the tomb to mourn the loss?

OR

Has He Risen for you?

“The downside to thinking about faith only as noun is that it can be viewed as a commodity one possesses. It becomes a static “thing” that, once acquired, is placed, even displayed in a prominent place in one’s life, often never to be touched again. Noun-faith assumptions reveal themselves when people are asked about their faith and they say that they “accepted Jesus in the 4^th grade,” or that that they’re qualified to teach Sunday school because they’ve “been a Christian for ten years.”

I think he nails some of the shortcomings of just looking at faith as a noun.

“BUT If we think of faith as a verb, “Faith is also a verb, and as a verb is more associated with spiritual formation. It expresses believing and trusting in someone/something (John 3:16); is actively worked out (Philippians 2:12); is pursued (1 Timothy 6:11); and can be maturing (Hebrews 6:1).

At its very elemental level, faith as a verb is not a just Christian thing, it’s a human thing that people act upon. 1  Faith is the way human beings make sense of their world. People make meaning in order to connect and hold together the barrage of information they are continually learning and experiencing.”

So what are some of the ramifications of teaching and training our students to faith?  Here are a few:

• Faith-ing is ACTIVE.  The church will need to let them USE their faith instead of just be spectators.  This means leadership enabling and equipping and sending.
• Faith-ing is DANGEROUS.  If we truly make room for students to live out their faith, they will begin to share what they have with others, they will want to rech out the the disenfranchised, they will want to conquer poverty and distribute justice.
• Faith-ing is RISKY.  This means the role of the the minister becomes more of equipping “his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph 4:12) Which means less time for us to be in the spotlight and more time for others to contribute their gifts to the body.  The church will need to shift paradigms from minister as subcontracted laborer to minister as equipper/coach/mentor.

I encourage you to  CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.

This is going to be a day where you come away with tools that will help you teach the Bible better, know yourself better, and lead your ministry better.

Remember you get one FREE registration for every three people from the same ministry!

A continental breakfast and lunch is included in your registration fee.

There ARE scholarships available, just e-mail walter.surdacki@lipscomb.edu for information.

You will not regret making the time to be here.

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION INFO:  http://www.lipscomb.edu/Bible/YM-Three-Stories-2012

Hear me out before you call me a heretic.

I think and believe the gospels are the best thing we have to understand who Jesus is and was. They are amazing, unequivocal works with nothing as their equal.

But.

They still fall short of who Jesus really was. Because they are limited by word, diction, interpretation, culture, history, and understanding.  I get that the word, “poor” is probably not an adequate representation of what I am trying to say.

Yes we see more about God through the story, teaching, insight and character of Christ in the gospels than perhaps anywhere else.

Don’t hear me saying that they are inadequate source for those wanting to know the risen Christ.  I believe quite the opposite.  The gospels are out BEST source to understand who Jesus is.  What I am trying to say is the even though there is a limitation of language, interpretation, culture, etc.  IMAGINE just how much of Jesus the gospels can’t show us?

Imagine how much greater Jesus is than what we can read from the gospels? 

How much more of the persona, character and nature of Jesus was not able to be reflected in the gospels?

Again, don’t hear me saying that the gospels are in any way flawed or weak, I am trying to point to how much more Jesus is than what we can read of him in the gospels.  I imagine a much bigger view of Jesus and his divinity.  I come away from this exerise with a BIGGER view of Jesus.

Let’s look at this from another angle…Every technology has its limitations.  For example, when I am traveling and I have to be away from my family, I have several different technologies I can use to keep in touch with them.  I can use letters, text messages, phone conversations or Facetime.  Now I prefer texts over letters because of their speed.  I prefer calls over texts because I can hear inflection and context better.  I far prefer Facetime over phone calls because I get the added dimension of the visual to our conversations.  BUT I can’t hug my screen when using Facetime.  It is a limited technology.

Each of these technologies can and have helped me maintain my relationship with my family.  I get to know more about my wife and daughters through these technologies as different parts of their personalities come out through each of the different mediums.  They all teach me something about my family memebers in their own way.

BUT none of them come close to being face to face with them, hugging them, smelling them, feeling their presence.  This is what I prefer.  This is what I look forward to when I am away from them.  This is what I long for when I am separated from them.

This is what I can’t wait to experience in the Kingdom that is yet to come. When I can be face to face with Jesus.

I do thank the gospel writers and the Holy Spirit and the early church Fathers who show me more about Jesus than I could ever have of imagined.

We invite you to bring your team to Nashville, TN on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 to join Youth Ministry Leaders from all over the Southeast who will gather at Lipscomb University to learn, train and think about “The Three Stories of Youth Ministry.”

I want to personally invite you to this year’s “3 Stories of Youth Ministry” event we are offering here at Lipscomb.  This year’s conference is going to be a TREMENDOUS opportunity for you and your team to really dive into the story of God.

Teaching THE Story of God–Michael Novelli, author of Shaped by the Story & Enter the Story, has developed an engaging, imaginative, interactive and creative way to involve your students WITH and IN The Story of God.  Michael will take you through how and why to teach the Bible narratively and leave you with a fascinating way to teach your students the larger story of God’s redemptive work through Jesus.

MY Story with God--Rachel Held Evans, author of Evolving in Monkeytown will take us through the importance of our own stories and they way we read and interpret scripture.  She will delve into that how and why our own story affects what we choose to see and not see when we approach Scripture.  How might our family, our upbringing, our own experiences could what we want to know as truth and what we think is truth?

OUR Story with God--David Hutchens, author of A Slice of Trust, will guide us through the culture and climate that is created by our ministry’s history and values.  David is an expert in helping organizations determine their corporate story and he will help guide your team to look at how your vision, values and identity affect your ministry as well as get you on the way to articulating a bigger and better story for your ministry and church.

“People are better persuaded by the reasons they themselves discover than by those which have come into the mind of others.”

–Blaise Pascal

I came across this quote during a class on mediation I am taking this semester.  The goal of mediation it to help two parties who are in conflict come to a decision or solution on their own terms as opposed to having a third party make the decision for them.  In other words, a mediator is there to help them discover information rather the tell them what they need to know.  This got me thinking about how youth ministers and parents can become more of trail guides for teens and less of indoctrinators?

Again, this is an integral part of the adolescent process where students need to know that their choices matter.  Discovery for a teen gives them and their lives meaning.  You have heard the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water . . . but you can’t make them drink.”  As we work with teens we do need to give them tools and opportunities to discover for themselves.  Truth be told, I much prefer to tell teens what I think they need to hear rather than give them the freedom to discover truth for themselves . . . after all aren’t I the expert?(sarcasm)

I think this concept has several applications in the way we might do ministry:

• Let students have substantive opportunities to learn Truth for themselves:  ALL of the best research out there* that is asking why young adults leave church or what keeps teens in the faith point to the fact of whether or not they had a safe environment to express doubt.  Do our ministries provide sanctuary where teens are allowed to express doubt and differing opinions on faith, God’s existence, sex, social justice, poverty, homosexuality, and other dangerous topics?  Another way of asking this question is to answer, “What are the topics that are ‘off limits’ in our church?”–Let’s talk about those. . . not to be controversial, but to give voice to those issues that are probably on the hearts and minds of our young people.
• Do students leave our teaching with more Answers or more Questions?  I believe a good education gives you the tools to ask more and better questions rather than simply delivering the answer.  ”The Bible says is, I believe it, That settles it.”  Is an attitude we may need to depart from in order to give our students the space and ability to ask difficult questions of faith, religion, the Biblical text, and more.  What kinds of tools are we giving our students that allow them to investigate and journey in their faith that will guide them to answers as opposed to spoon-feeding them with answers?
• Can we say “I don’t know”?  Is our own faith as leaders big enough to have the confidence to appropriately express our own doubts and still allow God to reign?  Do we have to have an answer for everyquestion that comes up or can we simply say, “I don’t know.”  I am not professing allegiance to a blind, uninformed faith.  Rather, I think being able to say, “I don’t have every answer, but I am still searching” is far more authentic and communicates Truth better than a weakly formed, proof-texted apologetic.  Look at Paul’s own struggles with doubt in Romans 7.  Surely, if Paul is wrestling with these issues at the end of his ministry, surely we have the freedom (or necessity) to have our own doubts?

Those are just a few ideas…any others?  I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section…

*For more see Sticky Faith by Kara Powell, Soul Searching by Christian Smith, You Lost Me by Dave Kinnaman.

So true.

When I think of the traditional, One-Eared Mickey Mouse approach to youth ministry, I fear that we have squelched the ever important voice of teens and sent the message to them that says, “Your ideas and your input are not that important.”  In what arenas in our faith communities does the WHOLE CHURCH have the opportunity for students to have responsibility, provide input into programming, share their ideas on faith, give feedback, or to simply have their voices heard?  Most of what I have seen have delegated that kind of input, responsibility and feedback solely to the youth ministry.  Based on who I see utilized in our corporate assemblies and committees, I fear we have sent a message that says, “We’ll listen to you once you are married, have a job and have a child.”

This is good news!  Students WANT responsibility!  They WANT their voices heard!  They WANT to participate!  They know that faith and God are vital and important and sacred and they want to contribute to the work of the Kingdom of God!  They have heard and seen what God can do and want to share in that.

How might we pass the baton of responsibility over to our teens?  What might be some baby steps that we take to train, equip and then UTILIZE teens in the larger conversation of faith in our churches?

Here are a few ideas to get the discussion kickstarted:

• Have students contribute to all aspects of worship from worship team to reading scripture to leading communion thoughts. (Not every time, and not just on “youth sunday” but regularly to develop a culture that students are a part of THIS body and THE Body of Christ).
• Have students part of any or all committees as appropriate.  Let them have a voice in some of the important church decisions that are made.  You never know, students may provide insight or a perspective on an issue, a building plan, a mission committee, etc. that no one else can provide.
• Release students to lead and serve.  I used to fight against students being a part of other ministries in church like Children’s Ministry, Worship Team, etc. because I was selfish and wanted them in MY ministry.  I realized that I had to release them to let God work through them in the areas where they were being called.  I had to really let go and let other ministreis benefit and learn from them.
• Preach.   What if we gave students who have a word or something insightful to share a brief sermonette as part of worship?  You don’t have to give up the entire sermon over to a teen, just 2-3 minutes from them might be the most powerful meesage some hear that day.
• Testimony.  One of the best things we would do when we had “Youth Sunday” was to let students share what God had been doing in their lives.  This proved to be extremely powerful and encouraging to the whole congregation.  Sooooo . . . Why not do this regularly as part of worship where the congregation hears a brief testimony from youth, senior saints, young marrieds, old singles, etc

* Nichols, Sharon Lynn., and Thomas L. Good. “9 A Small-Wins Approach.” America’s Teenagers–myths and Realities: Media Images, Schooling, and the Social Costs of Careless Indifference. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. 268.

“Fewer kids say they like to read. A new report from People for Education — using data from the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office — says the percentage of Grade 3 students who report they “like to read” has declined from 76% in 1998/99, to 50% in 2010/11.

In Grade 6, the percentage of students who say they “like to read” has declined from 65% in 1998/99 to 50% in 2010/11.”

Granted you may want to file this under the “Duh” column and blame TV, the Internet and Online Gaming as the cause to kids not wanting to read. But let us look at the glass as half full.  There are teens who LIKE to read!  These statistics show that HALF of our kids still LIKE TO READ!  So I want to ask the question, “Does the way we do ministry encourage or discourage reading?”

Think about this:

• How often or how much does our teaching with teens depend on people to be IN the text as opposed to talking ABOUT the text?
• Do our ministries have a cultural expectation for teens to bring their Bibles, to be in the Word, to look at a text, etc. in our youth ministries?  I have heard kids say, “I don’t bring my Bible because we don’t use them.”
• Is your teaching more topical and less textual?  In other words, when was the last time you taught through a book of the Bible?  I have found that most topical teaching uses the text as a launching pad for the day’s topic.  A textual study requires you to stay in the text and deep in the word.
• Does the reading up on PowerPoint contribute to your students NOT bringing their Bibles?  After all, why should I poen my Bible when it’s going to be up on the screen?
• I have heard language like, “Today we are going to look at a story from Acts, you don’t have to open your Bibles” which was then followed by a poor retelling.  Does this send a message to teens that says “the text is not that important?”
• Do we use more references and clips from movies than the Bible?
• What does the rise of digital texts (Kindle, iPhone Bibles, tablets) mean for people’s reading of the text?  Are we reading the Bible more or less?  There is some room for great research here.

I confess that I was one of the first to use PowerPoint but have begun to regret that usage.  I know it is helpful for visitors and guests, but how might we enable/encourage/expect people to use their text?

My rant here is how might we ENABLE our students to be more readers?  How do we engage them with the text?  How to help help them DIVE into the word instead of away from the word?

Think of all the contemplative, visual learners and those who learn best by reading.  How might we teach to them and give them the opportunity to savor the text and taste it like “honey on their lips?”

Here are a few things we might consider:

• Bible Text 101:  Lets go back to Elementary school and educate ALL our students on those things we all take for granted:  the difference between OT and NT, what the different numbers mean, the difference between red and black words,  and the Books of the Bible.  Let us get ALL our students familiar with the text so their love for the text is an easier road to travel.  (Better yet, let students who know this teach others!)  Maybe kids don’t read the Bible because they can’t find their way around it.  We can’t assume anymore that just because a kids comes to church they know their way around the Bible.
• Simply saying, “Let’s open our Bibles to  . . . “ to encourage a culture of reading the text.
• Read the text out loud as a group.  After all, much of this was written to be read out loud.  CAVEAT:  Let prepare to read it BEFOREHAND so we do not do mediocre readings of scripture and we bring the text alive as we read it.  Nothing kills the life of the text faster than a poor public reading of it.
• Let students participate in a Lectio Divina during class where you give them extended time to spend time in just one passage of the text and THEN teach and talk about it.
• Silent Readings:  Have students read the text silently in their bibles.  I know, silence is painful for some, but think of the students who LOVE silence. . . give them the gift of a few minutes to read in silence and absorb the word.
• Program in Quiet Time:  Everytime I had retreat, camp, mission trip, etc. we would write daily time guides for quiet reading and reflection on scripture where we gave students guides they were welcome to follow for a daily devotion.  Whenever we did evaluations, this always ranked the HIGHEST!  Kids like to read and like quiet time!  How great!

I am not advocating Biblioidolatry where the Bible takes precedence over gospel.  I do want to see us foster a faith that is informed by the actual text and not what we think the text is saying through our poor recollections and cloudy remembrances of passages.

Remember:  There are teens who LOVE to read!  These statistics show that HALF of our kids LIKE TO READ!  This is still Good News!  Let us foster that love.

For example, one of the reasons the Barna research shows why young adults are leaving church is that faith communities are OVERPROTECTIVE.  One student notes that churches “demonize everything outside the church.”  The problem with this is that our teens are called to live IN this world.  There’s plenty in culture that points to God, if we’re we have the courage to look at it.  Many use lyrics from bands, movie clips, and references to sport in teaching.  This ought to help our students develop discernment rather than separation, and enjoyment rather than fear.  Didn’t Paul even quote the philosophers of his age that had pointed to Truth in some of their teachings?  I hear young people simply saying, “TRUST US.”  They are saying, Give us some credit to recognize what is good and what isn’t. Trust that you have done a good enough job raising us.” Another way of saying this is perhaps we need to let our young people become “free range Christians.”

Second, young people are saying what is being offered in our faith communities, youth groups, churches is simply TOO SHALLOW.  Early in my youth ministry I grew more and more frustrated and youth curriculum that dealt very little with the text and have an abundance of games, ice breakers and time wasters.  What I hear young people saying in this area is that they want DEPTH.  They KNOW the church has something powerful, true and deep to offer and they WANT it!  They want to dive into the depths of scripture and not just play silly games on Sunday morning.  This is GOOD NEWS!  Young people want depth & authenticity over façades & shallowness.

Third, they see faith communities as ANTISCIENCE.  We often forget that today’s young person is a digital native.  They never knew of a world without cell phones, the internet, video games, and most things digital.  Many of our faith communities have often looked to the Bible as a science text and placed upon the text claims it never makes for itself.  Rather than using the Bible to attack science, creation, physics, etc., perhaps we can even LEARN FROM THEM as to how to look at science through the lens of faith.

Fourth, they see the church as REPRESSIVE.  I was raised Catholic and went to church all through high school.  I switched to a Restoration Mvmt church when I was 18.  I don’t remember ANY sermons, Bible classes, or lessons on sex, sexuality or anything in that arena in a church setting.  However, we read in Genesis 2 that God commands Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.”  We condemn people when they have premarital sex or extramarital sex.  But isn’t it ironic that we don’t teach them God original intent for sex beyond, “Don’t do it out of marriage.”  What I hear students saying is “Teach me what God’s designe for sex and sexuality is!”  I believe that young people are begging for this teaching because the sex messages they are being inundated with through the media and the halls of school doesn’t ring as truth and they want to know the Truth about sex and sexuality.  This is GOOD NEWS!

Fifth, they are leaving because they see the church as EXCLUSIVE.  They read about Jesus being welcoming to the lepers, tax collectors, Samaritan woman, prostitutes, etc. and then watch and listen the way some of our communities talk about or treat people of a different political belief, denomination, socio-ethnic background, etc.  I hear that students want to SHARE GOSPEL with those Jesus would want to share it with.

Lastly, they leave because the church communities they are a part of are DOUBTLESS.  In other words, they are so sure of their faith there is no room for doubt.  Study after study has confirmed that if a young person has a space where they are free to present doubt and allow themselves to ask questions of doubt, then their chances for staying in faith rise significantly.  In those churches where they are not free to explore doubt this kills their desire to stay in that community.  Today’s teens live in such a complex and complicated world that doubt is perhaps a daily occurrence.  There are so many situations where teens must have a place to be free to ask, “Is God real?”  When I look at Romans 7, I see Paul wrestling with doubt for everyone in the Roman church to see.  I hear young people saying, they want a real, authentic, forged, smelted, tested and tried faith.  A faith that is small/big enough to ask the difficult questions.  They are striving towards a faith than can ENDURE.

So let us see the cup as half full as we hear these reasons why young people are leaving organized faith communities.  Let us not think they are all going to hell in a hand basket.  Perhaps many of them continue to live out their faith absent from traditional faith communities.  But let us also use these as a wake up call for our faith communities that have played it too safe or presented a gospel that is too small.