DIRT Blog

If you are like me the only thing you get consistently in your home mail box (snail mail) are monthly bills and junk mail (snail spam). Well don't be too quick to dump that pile of junk mail in the trash. Here is a great way to turn the tables and hopefully the hearts of the junk mailers. Go through every piece of junk mail and find the business reply envelopes. Now put your favorite tract in the envelop and mail it back to the junk mailers! Oh, and while you are at why not put some tracts in your monthly bills too!

Here is my favorite place to buy tracts including the "Presidential Million Dollar Bill" in the picture - livingwaters.com

I just got home from our NCHS freshman football game (they won 20-7). Ever watch football at the freshman level? They fumble, throw interceptions, miss tackles and get lots of penalties. It is not very pretty....

Youth Ministry will not be pretty if you are doing it right. Instead of being managers (managing to make everything work out right), youth leaders should be coaches. The coach is confined to the sidelines and the players are expected to be on the field making the plays. A lot of youth leaders get it backward. They make themselves the stars and expect all the players to watch the game from the bleachers. Try that at your next football game and see who wins.

Coach, put the players in the game! Let the students lead everything. Let them make the plays. Put your ministry in their hands. Yes it will be ugly -- for a while -- but soon your freshmen get better and move to junior varsity and then to varsity. They get better and better! So give them the reins and the reps so they can become star players. You stand on the sidelines coaching and watch what happens. A lot of your players will develop into champions!

Eating Manna? Again?
One of the things we know about the Children of Israel is they got tired of eating manna and they started whining and complaining about it being "Boring" to eat the same old thing every day. Does that sound like some students you know?

Of course Manna is symbolic of God's Word. I want to quote from page 55 of the Warren Wiersbe commentary...

"Their real problem was that they still had the old appetite and needed to learn to enjoy the new food God had for them...
...Feeding on the manna is also a picture of your daily appropriation of Christ through the Word of God. Just as your food becomes a part of your very being, so the Word strengthens your inner person when you read it, meditate on it and obey it. Just as the Jews could not live on yesterday's manna (if they kept it, the next morning it would stink and be filled with worms), so we cannot live on yesterday's spiritual diet. Begin each day with the Lord, and He will give you what you need for facing the burdens and battle fields ahead."

Here are my thoughts...

1. We can expect "children" to grumble and complain but we know if they do not have a daily diet of the "Manna" from Heaven they will not survive the wilderness of the world.

2. When they complained to Moses, he did not respond by giving up or giving in because he knew they must eat or they would die. When they came to Moses with complaints, Moses went to God in prayer.

3. People often ask me, "When is the best time to get in the Word?" Well in this story they went out to gather the manna early in the morning. If they waited it would melt away. Likewise if we do not take advantage of first thing in the morning, our opportunity could melt away in the heat of our daily pressures and cares of life.

3. Spiritual food is essential for spiritual growth. The manna is God's Word. Not someone's opinion about God's Word. Only by getting students to eating the Word will we see them blossom on the Vine of Christ (John 15).

More from Wiersbe...
"God's Word is food for the inner person. It is Milk (1 Pet. 2:2), bread (Matt. 4:4), meat (1 Cor. 3:1-2; Heb. 5:11-14) and honey (Ps. 119:103). Feeding on the Word should bring joy to our hearts (Jer. 15:16), and we should desire spiritual food more than physical food (Job 23:12; Luke 10:38-42)."

Jesus said "Feed My Sheep". Just as we provide place settings for dinner at the family table - plate, spoon, fork, knife, glass and a napkins; the journals are the place settings for enjoying a daily helping of manna.

When I was a boy mom would make me eat veggies (YUCK!). I would complain and she would tell me, "You would like them if you would just eat them. You have to acquire the taste." I did not believer her for a minute. If it were up to me I would have had a steady diet of ice cream and peanut butter on ritz crackers and wash it all down with Coca-Cola.

Today I love veggies! I can't imagine not having some on the table... Today I love Manna! I can't imagine not feasting on the Word of God every day. Keep doing what you are doing Moses (insert your name here)... Keep feeding my sheep!

Have you ever heard of the “Pygmalion Effect”?
I must credit my pastor for the inspiration behind today’s thought. Several weeks ago in a sermon he mentioned a term that has not crossed my mind since I was a student, “Pygmalion”.

Plenty of research and books are available on the subject and I will not do it justice here, but with a broad stroke, I just need to make a point about how we impact students.  The Pygmalion effect basically refers to situations in which some students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so.

In one notable study, teachers were given information that certain students were brighter than others. The purpose of the experiment was to support the hypothesis that students can be influenced by the expectations of their teachers.

The study showed that if teachers were led to expect better performance from some children, then those children did indeed show marked improvement. In some cases, the improvement was about twice that shown by other children in the same class. The improvement was not because of a particular curriculum, but was in fact attributed to the expectation of the teacher.

I have had the privilege of observing youth ministries of all shapes, sizes and cultures. Every time I have found a productive and vibrant group of students, it is inevitable that the leader(s) of the group(s) have a high level of expectation for their students. They believe in them and in their potential for great things (as did Christ for His Disciples).

Unfortunately, what I see most often, are youth leaders who do not believe their students would ever want to share their faith, or have a love for God’s Word, or want to “love their neighbor” by serving them. It breaks my heart to see such low expectations put before one of the most dynamic generations of students to ever live!

Why Youth Leaders Have Low Expectations
Whenever I have questioned leaders with low expectations, if the truth is revealed, they do not want to live by such high standards themselves. I have yet to experience a group of students unwilling to respond to a “Love God, Love People, Share the Gospel” challenge, but I have met many leaders who have literally argued against it.

Jesus’ theme throughout His ministry was to “Love God, Love People, Share the Gospel”. We call it the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Why should we expect less of our students than Christ expects of them? I want to challenge you, weather using the D.I.R.T. Crew identity or your own design, create an expectation of discipleship in the hearts of your students. They will clear the bar no matter how high you place it!

I have a wonderful idea to share with you that can easily and inexpensively be incorporated in your student ministry and should produce an immediate impact. I call it "Worship Stations" and this idea is growing rapidly in popularity. The first time I heard of worship stations was from one of our youth pastors who had just returned from a ski retreat at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. I have also experienced the use of stations in church services, on college campus, and this last summer we setup worship stations at our D.I.R.T. Camps.

At Snowbird they have a prayer chapel (a rustic cabin up on a hill) that is a great example of worship stations. Inside the candle lit cabin you will find an altar for prayer and several composition notebooks for writing prayers on and around the altar. Next you might notice a sand garden that is about a foot and a half wide and three to four feet long. This is for a person to write their sin in the sand as an expression of confession and then wipe it away as a picture of forgiveness. They also had a world map laminated on one wall where the focus was missions. You could use a dry erase marker to circle the area of the world that you prayed for. They had a station to pray for our troops and write them a letter. They also had a cork board for writing praises on note cards and more. The cabin was opened throughout the week for students to visit and by all accounts they loved the experience.

A great benefit of worship stations is the opportunity you give students to respond to God, especially at the conclusion of a message. Think about it, every week (hopefully) you are presenting a Christ honoring message in some form to students that you hope will generate a heart-felt response. In the typical scenario we find ourselves giving an "altar call" (which I have done many times) or making some closing statement that says we hope they will respond somewhere, sometime. Now how unfair is that? With your message you bring them to a place where God may be speaking to them but you never lead them into an opportunity to respond?

Worship Stations have become an anchor in our D.I.R.T. Camps. It is impossible to fully express the spiritual impact they have. At the end of each night's message being able to offer something much richer that the standard invitation. Of course we invite students who wanted to receive Christ to speak with a counselor, but we are also able to say, "If you have a friend who is not a Christian there is a cross where you can write their name and pray for their salvation. If you want to praise God there are some clear plastic sheets that I want you to write your words of praise on and then place them on the over head projector for all to see...." We had a communion table setup and we has several areas where students could pray. We had a prayer journal to write in and there were counselors stationed around the auditorium that students could talk to about spiritual needs.

At our camps each night 90 percent or more of the students engage in some form of response during the invitation time. Each night this time of worshipping God goes on for 30 minutes or more. It is powerful and amazing. As some students would return to their seats we would join in praise and worship while others continue in their response. Only God knows all the decisions, prayers and life transformations that take place during a week of camp. I can tell you it is one of the most dynamic times of worship I have ever experienced.  

I want to encourage you to find some space in your youth area to experiment with worship stations. Be creative and prayerful about it. Ask God to show you how to incorporate worship stations in ways that fit your world. I believe you will be amazed!

I just want to say, "THANK YOU!" for the many sacrifices you make to minister to students. Sacrifices of your time, your money and your sanity (smile). I know first hand that the labor often goes without notice or appreciation. Your countless hours surrendered to (and surrounded by) students. The late nights and all nights on hard bunks in some far away place. Always giving, always pouring yourself out. You are awesome!

Knowing the sacrifices you make for students, be sure you are investing in the best practices. Be sure you are maximizing your investment. Over the past decade I have had the privilege of observing many youth ministries. Sadly, I often see many working hard, sacrificing, investing but without a good return. Youth budgets are strained and youth leaders are taxed while heads are scratched because the work and the money does not equate to lives changed. When it's all said and done, students are still leaving their faith on the church house steps (why?).

The common denominator I see in almost all high investment/low yield student ministries there is a misconception that we must entertain students. The mistake of thinking we must have the "WOW" factor to get them committed to God. Big events (WOW), big days (WOW), big camps with big names and big budgets (WOW, WOW, WOW)!  All that "WOW" and now let's be honest. Look at your students and tell me, do they display a consistent growth in their faith? Do they desire the things of God? Can they share their faith with passion? Are they making a difference in their realm of influence?

Building youth ministry on entertainment is a recipe for long term failure. Entertainment is like a sugar high that tastes very good but wears off quickly. Entertainment also demands an escalating value. In other words, it must keep getting better to maintain interest. and it produces a very low yield in spiritual growth of students. Now here is the clincher; you will never out-entertain the world. The world's entertainment is more powerful and impacting. Anything you do cannot compete. Have you ever been disappointed when a student found something better to do then come to your "Event"?

I like Romans 12:2 that tells us to not conform to the world but be transformed... So why not transform your student ministry! Don't compete with the world. Instead, give students what the world can't offer. Offer your students the journey of a lifetime as disciples of Jesus Christ! Stop entertaining students and start engaging them. Offer them the adventure of changing the world! The secret formula? "Love God, Love People, Share Christ! It's a philosophy that is God honoring, easy to implement, cost effective, rewarding and will have a lasting impact!