Author Archives: Josh

Real Relational Evangelism

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Josh

In Matthew 28:18:-20, Jesus was pretty specific about what we are supposed to do with the gospel.  We are to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey what he commanded.  What was not specific was exactly how this was to be accomplished.  The church over the years has come up with many ways to spread the gospel from street preaching to servant evangelism.  Many methods have worked, and many have not.

One popular approach to evangelism is through what we might call relational evangelism.  I would define this approach as evangelism done through the context of friendships.  On the surface this makes a ton of sense.  If we befriend people and earn their trust, they will be much more likely to hear what we have to say about our faith.  The idea is to influence those we want to share the gospel with by spending time with them and doing life with them.

This approach to evangelism is an effective and reasonable approach to sharing our faith, however, only when we keep these things in mind:

  1. Sharing your faith will involve telling not just demonstrating.  If all that you do is live a good life in front of people, you will have shown them a good example, but you will not have shared with them the Gospel.  Too many people think that we will be able to show people Jesus by the way that we act, but in reality, the best that we can show them is an enhanced moralism.  We must explain the reason for our hope and why we live the way that we live.
  2. Sometimes people will learn more from our failures rather than our successes.  Showing people Jesus in the way we live is a pretty big task given our propensity to sin.  It is shortsighted to think that we will be perfect examples of Jesus for other people.  Instead, one of the best ways that we can share our faith is to respond well when we make mistakes or when we fall short.  A conversation about how grateful we are for God’s grace when we sin may be a more effective way to share the gospel than if we were to act as if God only honors a perfect life.
  3. Sometimes we don’t have the time to become friends with someone before sharing the gospel with them.  We cannot act as if the opportunity did not avail itself when someone moves away or when we only spend a brief time with them.  We must see sharing the gospel as our priority.  If we feel called to share, then we cannot think that these opportunities only come in one shape or circumstance.
  4. We must love people for their sake not for the sake of a sharing opportunity.  In a world full of fake, we do a great deal of damage when we only befriend someone with the motive of sharing our faith.  Instead, what we should do is to love the people that we encounter without any motivating factor and share with them out of that love.  Or love must be genuine, never programmed.

We have been given a great gift in the gospel.  We have the answer for so many people who are looking to find meaning in this life.  We have a message of hope and of peace.  Being a good steward of this gift means sharing it with as many people as we can.

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Bigger than Our Backstory

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Josh

I would guess that we all have several things we would like to erase from our life story.  Maybe it would be all of your awkward teen years.  Maybe it would be a terrible choice that you made that has had serious repercussions.  Maybe it would be simply a time when you were naive or immature.

I have hit that age where I actually have grown a sizeable enough past that I can look reflectively upon it.  As I think about who I was even five years ago I am blown away by the differences in my life now.  When I think back on my times in high school and college I wonder what it would have been like to know what I know now.  I of course have several times where I would go back in time and shake myself for some bad choice or for some style that I thought was cool at the time (you should have seen me in my hippie phase with my super baggy jeans with enough fabric to clothe a few families).

If I am honest, sometimes my past self depresses me.  I begin to think about opportunities I missed because of bad decisions.  I feel guilty all over again for bad choices.  I become embarrassed at the thought of people still seeing my the way that I used to be.

When I begin to feel this way, I thank God that we are bigger than our backstories.  We are so much more than our past.  As Christians, our story has been completely rewritten.  Rather than or stories being about a people who were lost and got more lost, our stories are about a people who were lost and then found.  We once lived in darkness, but now we live in the light of truth of the gospel.  This light propels us forward and takes our eyes off of our past selves.  Instead, we look forward to the hope that each day brings as we are constantly being transformed into the likeness of Christ.  As Colossians  3:19-10 reads:

9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 

Knowing that the Holy Spirit is at work in my life allows me to go to sleep each night knowing that the next day holds new activities and opportunities that will draw me closer to God.

We are so much bigger than our backstories because God has made it that way.  Again, we read in Titus 3:-7:

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Our past may still affect us, but it does not define us.  I am a much better person than I used to be.  I am a much better minister than I used to be.  I am a better father, friend, teacher, and student.  I am better because God chose to do a work in my life.  Through his grace I am becoming what I was created to become.  Through his grace you can become what you were created to become.

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What Stories Motivate Your Ministry?

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Josh

Over the past few weeks I have been considering the topic of motivation.  I recently had the opportunity to sit down with our student ministry leaders and discuss where we are and where we are going as a student ministry.  I found that as I discussed the direction of the ministry, what really impacted me were the stories of change and transformation that had been written in our group over the past year.

For me, and for most people I would guess, stories motivate people.  When I dream about what we can become as a student ministry, I prefer to think of the stories that will be told rather than thinking up statistics or numbers.  It’s not that setting numeric goals is unnecessary, but if I want my heart and the hearts of others to be captured by our mission, I go to stories.

When I think about the value and mission of next generation ministry, here are the three stories that I see in my mind.

1. First, I see a young boy who is nine years old and desperately wants to feel loved and valued.  His home life is rough, and he does not have many friends nor does he feel very special.  I think about how powerful a role a church could play in his life by giving him some godly people to love him and share a message of the ultimate form of love found in God.  I think about how the direction of his life would be changed by his encounter with God and God’s people.  I see him growing up understanding his role in the church and his calling to make disciples.  I see him starting a family that is full of affirmation and love.

2. Second, I think about a young couple who has just had their first child.  These two people are just recognizing that they don’t have a clue what to do with this new life.  There is a pang in their hearts that is reminding them of the churches that they used to attend.  As they look at their child they realize that they want her exposed to the teachings of the Bible that used to be foundational for them.  As they pull into the church they are surrounded by people who welcome them and their child, helping them navigate their way through parenthood and the way back to God.  Their child grows up in the church and at an early age comes to an understanding of the gospel.  The family routinely prays together and goes on mission trips together.

3. Third, I see a teenager who wants nothing to do with God.  This student has seen Christians, but has no desire to live the way that they live.  He is too cool for it, and truthfully isn’t even sure if there is a God or whether or not all religions are basically the same.  He wonders what the point of life really is, and is longing to know if there is a reason for any of it.  I see a young adult creating a relationship with this kid, maybe by routinely visiting him at work.  This young adult befriends the kid and begins to share what he thinks life is all about.  As the teenager listens to the man and sees how he lives his life, the teenager begins to become open to the things of God.  After a few months of reading the Bible that the man gave him, the teenager asks the man how he can become a Christian.  Soon after that the teenager walks into a church and is greeted by students who he knows from school who celebrate with him that he has begun a relationship with God.  Together they grow in the knowledge of what it means to be a true follower of Christ.

These are the stories that motivate me each day as we make disciples of the next generation.  These stories are not far-fetched.  In fact, in God terms they are pretty mundane.  God can do all of this, and he allows us to be a part of these stories.   As you consider your ministry whether it be to inmates, students, or your own household, what stories motivate your ministry?

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10 Reasons Next Generation Ministry Matters

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Josh

As a student minister I hate to hear that people see ministry to the next generation (ministry to preschool through high school) as something secondary to the work of the church.  I know that there have been poor examples of next generation ministry.  There are student ministers who seem to be trying to get fired because of their lack of discernment (basketball dodgeball anyone?).  There are children’s ministries who are more committed to a method or a program than to the actual discipleship of our children.  Despite these examples, there are those who are truly seeking to plant the seed of faith in this rising generation.  Here are 10 reasons that ministry to the next generation matters.

1. We are called to make disciples in all nations and let’s assume of all ages.  Ministry to the next generation is obedience to the commands of Christ.

2. The next generation will be the leaders of our churches tomorrow.  Let’s be honest, what we invest in the children and students of today will be the foundation that the church will be built on tomorrow.  If students learn to appreciate God’s word, then the churches of tomorrow will be taught this desire.  If our students understand that their faith is something that is lived out every day, our churches of tomorrow will fight for something more than a Sunday morning faith.

3. The next generation will be the incredibly annoying church members of our churches of tomorrow…unless we can present them with a love for God and His church that allows them to see the church as a God-ordained missional community rather than a place that caters to their desires.

4. The next generation has genuine problems that the church can help with.  Spend a few minutes in Wal-Mart.  Look at how some of the children in there are treated by their parents.  Don’t you think that a place offering unconditional love and the story of a Savior might be relevant for those kids?  In this past year I have ministered to students with eating disorders, problems with cutting, suicidal thoughts, and bullying.  Some of them have imprisoned parents, divorcing parents, neglectful parents, and parents who have kicked them out multiple times.  These kids have problems and if the church is not able and willing to help them in this time, who would it fall to?

5. These children will be the parents of tomorrow.  Our students are 5-10 years away from being parents.  They will be responsible for raising another generation.  Ministry to the next generation speaks into more lives than you will ever know.  The church can have the honor of breaking patterns in families and reversing the fortunes of families for years to come.  The church can have the honor of building a foundation that healthy families and healthy marriages are built upon.

6. The next generation is not set in their path.  It seems to me that the older you get, the harder it is for you to change.  You mature over time, but over the years we build up a pretty sizable amount of baggage.  Intervening in a student’s life before they make bad decisions or set out on a bad path is an incredible way to make an impact.  We can’t control the student, but we can at the very least offer an option that is different from everything the world will be telling them.

7. The next generation can make an impact now.  I just read that a 27-year-old sold his company for 1 billion dollars.  There are teenagers moving to other continents because they believe that sharing the gospel is more important than living a life of comfort.  We continue to hear stories of young people doing extraordinary things.  Our world has evolved to the point that anyone can make a difference.  There are no age limits, but if we want to see young people continue to do extraordinary things it will take mentors and adults who can guide them and inspire them.

8. The next generation can reach its own generation.  As we minister to the next generation, we recognize that we are also creating missionaries who will be able to go out to their own crowds and share the gospel in ways that an adult would never be able to.

9. Teaching the next generation gives us a deeper way to learn.  As we minister to the students and share the truth of the Gospel, we grow as disciples because we too are encountering the life-changing lessons we are teaching.  In fact, by teaching the word, we often develop a greater understanding of the word than if we had simply experienced as a participant in a class.  In addition to teaching a lesson, learning to disciple and serve students allows us to grow in ways that we could not grow without those relationships.

10. When we serve the next generation, we are also serving their families.  In fact, ministering to children and students must involve ministering to their parents.  We don’t just partner with students in next generation ministry–we partner with families.  As we partner with families, we are actually ministering to a significant portion of the church from preschoolers to grandparents.

Ministry to the next generation is disciple-making in one of its truest forms.  Churches who get this concept will be building up individuals who will be the salt and the light of their generation.

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Why Some Student Evangelistic Events Make Me Uncomfortable

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Josh

I have a deep, deep desire to see every one of my students make a decision to follow Christ. I have a deep, deep desire to see every student in our community make a decision for Christ. I support people who are trying to make this happen through all kinds of efforts, but sometimes I get uncomfortable. I get particularly uncomfortable at large, high energy events where a call to salvation is made and kids are encouraged to come down and get saved.

It has taken me a while to understand why I feel uncomfortable about having students go down and make a decision. A few of the reasons are:

  1. The events are often emotionally charged environments where the expectation for the students is that they would come down front.  For younger students who want to comply with this cool new authority figure, the natural thing to do would be to repeat after them and go down.  Also, it is so easy to make a student question their salvation, and we have to be incredibly careful when it comes to helping students understand the need for salvation versus the need for further sanctification.
  2. Coming down to the stage is often treated as the one and only step in becoming a Christian. Frequently the speaker says “now that you have repeated my prayer and come down, you are going to heaven.” That might be true for a percentage, but many of the kids who went down came with friends, misunderstood what they were doing, or were simply caught up in the moment. If anything, there still needs to be some confirmation that the student knows what they are doing and what they actually believe.  Coming down is a fine first step to talk to someone, but it is not necessarily the only step. When a kid gets to the counseling room and cannot explain why he came down, he will still have heard the speaker say that because he came down he is a Christian.
  3. Too many students are getting re-saved all the time.  There is no such thing as getting re-saved.  I’m not convinced that there is actually such a thing as a decision to recommit your life given that you cannot de-commit your life to God, though I do understand that there are times when we find ourselves refocusing on our faith.  When a student tells me that this is the third time that they have been saved, it makes my head explode.  There is a fundamental failure on our part somewhere to explain salvation, justification, and sanctification.
  4. There is simply too much emphasis on numbers.  It may just be my cynicism, but I do believe that sometimes we make things easy so that we can have more kids make decisions and have more numbers to report to our churches or financial backers.  I do not think that anyone does this intentionally, but I do think that it is easier to just baptize a kid who came down rather than take a few months to ask questions and ensure that he or she actually has truly repented and believed.

I am not saying that I will never take my students to an evangelistic event, and I don’t want to come across as judgmental.  I simply want to ensure that we are doing what is best for our students.  I believe that evangelistic events can be great jumping off points for students who are becoming interested in the things of God.  I am saying that I believe that debriefing these experiences is of prime importance.  We need to be the best stewards possible when it comes to how we approach our student’s salvation.  Perhaps we ourselves need a fuller understanding of salvation, justification, and sanctification.  We want to be faithful to what the Bible teaches us about these things and many times this means taking a big picture view of our methods and our vocabulary.

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5 Things to Know About Working in Ministry

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Josh

When I look back, I probably did not know much of what to expect when I became a full-time minister.  I knew about the job and my responsibilities, but I had not yet immersed myself in the world of ministry.  Over the past few years, I have learned some very valuable lessons about ministry and what it means to be a minister.

1. You are always a minister, even when you are “off the clock.”  If you are an accountant, you can basically stop being an accountant when you leave the office.  If you want to have an unbalanced checkbook or want to overspend your bank account, it will not likely impact your career as an accountant.  As a minister, you are always a minister.  When people see you at Wal-Mart or at the movies, you are a minister.  At night when a student needs to talk because of a mistake they have made or they have been thrown out of the house, you are a minister.  When you are doing your morning prayers, you do so as a minister.  It’s not something that you turn off.  It is who you are.

2. Working at a church changes how you worship at your church.  This is one of the big observations that many ministers make early on in their ministry.  It may not be universal, but working at a church will likely affect how you approach your church’s worship.  If you are like me, you wince each time you see a misspelled word on the worship slide or you get antsy when a transition seems to be taking too long.  I find myself having to fight the urge to constantly be evaluating the worship service while it is happening.  Some ministers also find that their current church has a very different style than they are used to.  It takes work, but there is a great deal of comfort and encouragement in looking around the room and realizing that these people are here to seek after God and you are there to help them do it.

3. You minister out of the overflow of your relationship with God.  If your relationship with God is struggling, you will struggle as a minister.  So many of my great ministry moments have come from sharing what I am personally learning or what I have recently read rather than from the talk that I spent time preparing.  If you are faithful in dwelling in the Scriptures, you will find yourself with a greater depth of ministry.  When you shrink back from God and try to do ministry on autopilot, everything suffers.  Ministry is too difficult for a foundation built on anything other than a desire to work for God’s glory and for His kingdom.

4. Ministry requires initiative.  Some churches have highly structured schedules and tasks for their ministers.  Most churches, however, simply expect you to take an incredible amount of initiative when it comes to accomplishing the work of your ministry.  Truthfully, it can be quite easy to coast in a church position.  There is a challenge in making sure you use your time wisely.  This takes constant evaluation and self-assessment, but when it works, you find yourself achieving things you never thought possible.

5. There is always more to do than you can possibly accomplish.  Your goal is not to make 60 cars in a month or bill 300 hours.  Your job is to help people become true disciples of Christ.  This takes time and does not work in some type of linear progression.  Your people will have ups and downs.  They will have mountain top moments and crises of faith.  They will experience transformation in one area and ridiculous choices in another.  And that is okay.  The goal is to be on a journey with Christ, being ever transformed.  Our goal is to do what we can in the time we have been given to help people along in that journey.  At the end of the day, we cannot control other people or even convince them.  We just do our best.  There will always be more people we could meet with or more Bible studies to write, but when we know that we have honored God with our time and efforts, He will do the rest.  A minister who works 80 hours a week will only be a minister for a few years.  Pace yourself.

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Making Ministers

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Josh

One of the big wins for many churches is having people accept the call to full-time ministry.  I think that this is great.  I love to  hear about people who have decided to go into church ministry or have become missionaries.  As someone who accepted the call to ministry and has since become a professional minister, I loved receiving the encouragement from the church.

But what about everyone else.  I started thinking about this when I was talking to one of our incredibly mature students.  I realized that I assume that our best students should become full-time ministers.  It just makes sense that the smartest, most devoted students would be excellent candidates for the ministry.  I have come to realize that my goal cannot be to push someone into full-time ministry.

What if our goal was to make all of our students ministers regardless of what vocation God would lead them into?  What if our hopes were that all of our students would be able to make serving God the central part of their lives whether they were a pastor or a teacher or an electrical engineer.

Thinking that our students should be full-time ministers sets us up for two problems.  One, it makes it seem like real ministry can only be done by professional ministers.  Second, it means that we are choosing the second best for the majority of people who God fully intends to use for His purposes.  By lowering the expectations that God has for them, they have a built in excuse to make God only a part of their life.  After all, it’s not like they are a minister or anything.

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Recent Reads: December

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Josh

I’ve come across some great books lately and thought you might find them helpful.

Concentric Circles of Concern, by W.Oscar Thompson, Jr.  This book is about 30 years old, but there is a 1999 revised version that I found in a used bookstore.  Our church went through an evangelism emphasis in November, and this was a helpful book for creating a meaningful, and realistic approach to sharing our faith.  Using the theme of social circles, Thompson focuses on being intentional about using your influence to help people discover faith in God.  The book is somewhat technical as it has stages and strategies, but when those are combined with several real life stories, the process makes sense.  This may not be the only book on evangelism that someone would want to read, but it definitely introduces some great concepts and helps you see that sharing your faith is hardly the difficult task that we often see it to be.

You Lost Me, by David Kinnaman.  Few books have challenged my thinking on the church as this book has.  The book sets out to explain why young adults have left the church.  While Kinnaman’s earlier book unChristian dealt with perspectives on the church from people outside of the church, this book looks at people who have had the church experience and found it lacking.  While I wanted to disagree with the reasons that the young adults disconnected, it was hard to argue with many of their reasons.  This book is a must read for people who want to reach the young adults who have disaffected from church life or even faith in God.

Doctrine that Dances, Robert Smith, Jr. I first read this book as a divinity school student, but truthfully I was not able to really consider its applications until recently.  As I have had more opportunities to preach and teach, I find the book has become a great resource for helping me shape a theology and a practice of preaching.  With so many of our church members doctrinally and Biblically illiterate, Smith encourages the preacher to resist the urge to tickle people’s ears with “sermonic snacks.”  It’s a challenging book, but it is also an encouraging book as it helps the preacher understand his or her place in the ministry of proclamation and the ministry of the Word.

ESV Study Bible, by God by way of Crossway.  I am a huge study Bible fan.  I can remember when I first found out that there were Bibles that could actually help me understand the passages that I was reading.  A good study Bible allows you to remain in the text while providing context and access to the deeper meaning of the passage.  The ESV Study Bible is really excellent at doing this.  It’s a huge book, but the notes are incredibly helpful, and the appendices with introductory articles on doctrines and hermeneutics are excellent.

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The Sermon Is Not Enough

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Josh

I have mentioned in the past that it bothers me when a youth pastor tells me that most of his or her time is spent on their Wednesday night talk/sermon.  Perhaps they serve in a very different context than the ones that I have been a part of, but most students and youth ministry graduates would tell you that the talks played a small role in their faith development.  When a student pastor spends twenty-five office hours a week developing his or her talk, I always wonder about his or her priorities.

I am a firm believer in the importance of preaching the Word of God and calling people to transformation, but we also have to understand that the sermon is only one part of this call to transformation.  Bill Hybels mentioned in an interview that he believed the role of the sermon to be an element that sets the tone for the ministry and opens the door to discussions.  My belief is that if there are not any follow-up conversations and goals being set, then the sermon has a much better chance to have been a forgettable 30 minute talk.

This is why I am a firm believer in knowing where we want people to be in their faith.  We want to have a vision for what a true follower of Christ looks like, and then we need to work towards discipling them to that end.  The sermon or talk is a great piece of this puzzle, but it is hard to imagine a person really growing in their faith if they only hear from God 30 minutes a week.  That is a lot of pressure for a preacher: solve all life problems, faith questions, and growth needs using only three points and a response time.  Instead, what if the sermon was one part of creating an environment for building faith and answering those tough questions?

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What Is Your Job?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Josh

It’s easy in ministry to get caught up in how many roles that we actually have in our churches.  Many ministers hold several different responsibilities in their churches.  I wrote about holding different roles, particularly as it relates to student ministry here.  In our church I am responsible for a number of things outside of student ministry.  I work with the missions team, oversee the new member experience, and preach several times of year.  I love having the variety that my job allows me to experience.

I am inspired and energized by the things that I get to do.  However, there is one things that steals my joy and my inspiration very quickly. Discouragement creeps in when I start to think that it is my job to make our church a great church.  You see, when I get frustrated by difficulties we are experiencing or with processes that I disagree with, my countenance towards my roles drops.  I become frustrated because I can’t change things that I want to change.  Every time I start to get close to the edge of discouragement, I have to remind myself that it is not my job to make the church work.  In fact, it’s not really anyone’s job in my opinion.

Understand, I want to be a part of a great church.  I want to do my part in making sure that our church functions well, but my job is not to make an organziation, it is to make disciples of Christ.  My job is to introduce people to Jesus and help them live lives worthy of the gospel that they confess.  When helping people grow in their faith is my goal, it is much easier to hear complaints about the music or hear that someone has left the church for some reason.  One of the reasons that so many people become frustrated with working in a church is that they think that their job is to create a great church, but unless your number one goal is to make disciples, you will not have a great church.  We could create what is perceived to be a great student ministry here at BBC if we wanted to by focusing on what people think they want, complete with video games or guilt driven re-salvation messages.  We would have attendance numbers, and we would have decision cards, but all of that would mean nothing if we did not have disciples.

I hear from a lot of fellow ministers that they feel discouraged in their churches because things are too backward or too traditional.  They don’t like the music or they think that they would be better at preaching.  They may or may not be right, but I’m not sure that it matters.  I encourage them to be professional and speak their minds as long as their observations are focused on helping the church reach and grow more disciples. But, if things stay the same, it is no problem because it was not their job to fix everything.  Once all of their students are doing all things to the glory of God, they can start to worry about what’s next, but until then, they still have a job to do.

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