Exciting speaking opportunity

I had the privilege of teaching a couple of workshops at SPARK, the United Methodist Youth Conference at the Westin in Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon. I was talking with students about the fact that God IS present and working in their schools. They just need to look for what God is doing and join Him in that. I shared some of my story of how God called me to be a missionary to my high school (Go Turkeyfoot!) when I was a freshmen. There were probably 75 students between the two workshops. I hope that some of them will go and make a difference in their schools. Thanks to Renaye Hoffman for inviting me to come!

Why do we need denominations?

Occassionally, I hear the question asked, "Why do we even need denominations?" Although the primary focus of my blog is helping Christians work together across denominational lines, I do believe that denominations serve several good purposes. (DISCLAIMER: I'm making lots of generalizations here and these are non-research based opinions).

First, local churches need some kind of structure and accountability. Denominations provide local churches with an oversight, resources, and a kind of stability. And as I think about the history of the church, it seems like a de-centralized authority structure is necessary to provide checks and balances for the entire Body which we'll need until Jesus returns to earth. I think only Jesus could rule the entire Church.

Second, I think denominations help keep the whole church balanced theologically. When one part of the church emphasizes one aspect of the spiritual life too much, another part of the church brings emphasis back to forgotten aspects. It's so easy for us to go off on theological tangents that we need other believers to remind us of the other importants parts of the gospel (i.e., truth and grace, faith and works, God's part, our part, etc.).

Third, and this is similar to point 2, I think God uses different churches to bring good things to the rest of the body. Reformed churches have given all of us some solid theological thinking. Baptist churches remind us to keep winning souls. Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have given us fresh forms of worship and reminded us of how much we need the Holy Spirit. Anglican and Lutheran churches help us connect with our history (including emphasis on the practice of communion). Methodist churches have helped us keep our social conscience. Non-denominational churches have inspired us to stay on the cutting edge. My point is God has a lot of gifts for the whole body of Christ in these different churches.

Let me be clear that I realize there are tares in the wheat. Some people, some churches, and some entire denominations have left the faith. I'm just saying lets not burn the wheat because there are some tares in amongst it. Lets diligently stand for truth AND diligently connect with others who are doing the same even if they are in a different church. And let's appreciate what the different parts of the Body of Christ have to offer to the rest of us! Instead of focusing on what divides us, let's focus on how God has blessed other churches and what we can learn from each other.

churches reaching schools

The mantra of "separation of church and state" has so infiltrated our culture and even the church that many Christians feel like they cannot have any influence or positive impact on our public schools. Over the past several months, I've seen several examples of Christians (particularly youth pastors) reaching schools in different ways. 1) Youth pastors in Latrobe/Derry and in Uniontown are working together to bring school assembly programs to schools in their communities. 2) Youth pastors in Murrysville are helping coach local sports programs - and they aren't telling kids about Jesus at practices, they are building relationships with kids. 3) Youth pastors in Greensburg (pictured here) recently met with a local high school principal to hear about what is happening with students from her perspective - and it was really eye-opening. 4) Youth pastors in the Penn Trafford school district are creating a monthly bulletin-insert-size newsletter to share with their churches to encourage their churches to pray for the local schools and for the Christian students who are doing exciting things to reach their friends. 5) I, and a very good friend of mine, do a Release Time Education program for high school students in Brownsville (RTE is one of Pennsylvania's best kept secrets). 6) A youth pastor from Somerset is helping students in his youth group form a Christian club at their school that will focus on reaching their friends for Christ. There's a lot we can't do, but there is a lot that we CAN and must do for our public schools. This is where most of our students spend most of their time. America's public schools are a great mission field.

In the spirit of Martin Luther, I offer my 9.5 theses

I suppose that, like Martin Luther five hundred years ago, most of us in ministry have strong feelings about what we'd like to change about the church. These are some of the convictions I've developed over the past decade of ministry. These are somewhat untried and untested ideas, but I really believe these things.

1. No one one church is or should act like it's the whole body of Christ.
2. The value of denominations is in what the uniquely offer to the Body of Christ not what separates them from the rest of the Body.
3. "When God looks at a city, He doesn't see many churches; He sees one church in many congregations." - Ed Silvoso
4. For the good of the kingdom and for the wise use of God's resources small churches need to join forces, pool resources, even merge together! (heresy, I know.)
5. God has blessed large churches to be a blessing to the rest of the body of Christ.
6. "The purpose of unity is not 'unity for the sake of unity' but to demonstrate that God's truth is true." - Mike King
7. A divided Body of Christ is a defeated Body of Christ.
8. Youth pastors and young pastors are the best candidates for forging unity (new wine and new wineskins and all that).
9. A church united is extremely difficult requiring, and thus demonstrating, the supernatural love of God.
9.5. This kind of love is what the world is waiting to see.

Those are my thoughts about building a better church. I'd love to hear yours.

Invitation from Doug Fields to Pittsburgh area youth pastors

The surprising thing that Doug Fields said...

Sometimes, you just wish that someone would see and really understand what it is that you are passionate about. Well that happened to me and some friends at the Doug Fields/Group Publishing "National Youth Ministry Conference" this past weekend. A bunch of guys from the National Network of Youth Ministries were there helping youth pastors connect with local networks back home in their communities. Group even had us do a workshop on youth ministry networking - that was very exciting. We were all blown away, though, on Sunday night when Doug Fields said from the main stage that he can't believe how many youth pastors he talks with who are trying to do youth ministry all alone. He said that he had been telling lots of youth pastors to go and connect with the National Network of Youth Ministries because he is a big fan of what they do. That was a very encouraging moment for all of us - someone who is that well-known gets the importance of coming together and working together. So, it's official, Doug Fields says youth pastors should get connected - thanks Doug for the affirmation and encouragement!(www.youthworkers.net).

Amazing group of students!

A couple Saturdays ago, Christian students from Hempfield, Penn Trafford, Greensburg Salem, Franklin Regional and Mt. Pleasant high schools in Westmoreland County came together to share stories of what God is doing in their schools. As we went around the table, we heard very different stories, but very encouraging - God is at work in our schools! My favorite part of this was seeing these students connect with each other and encourage each other. The video here is of three students from Penn Trafford talking about what they had done to reach out to different groups of students in their school.

Uniontown churches sponsor Fireproof movie event together

I had the opportunity to work with pastors in Uniontown on a special project - the churches in the community showed the movie Fireproof at the State Theater downtown. A single church could've done this easily, but at least six churches were involved and the result was that 800 people attended! The folks at the State Theater were surprised by such a great attendance. It just confirmed to me again that we can do so much more when we do it together.

Youth Pastors in Fayette County create purity event

I've seen this happen several times in my ministry - God gives a vision to someone that is too big for them to accomplish alone. So they bring it to their network of youth pastors - and find that some of them were thinking the very same thing. And then they work together on it and pull off something bigger than any of them could've dreamed! That happened this past weekend. A youth pastor's wife had a vision for doing a purity event, and she brought it to the network last fall. iPromise, as the event became called, far exceeded our expectations. We were hoping for 75, we had room for 140, and 189 showed up! It was a powerful evening of helping students grasp God's plan for love, dating, and sex. A city skyline was the backdrop for the worship, drama, speakers, and video. Appetizers, a chocolate fountain, fruit punch, and lots of mingling made up the front end of the night. A challenge to commit to sexual purity closed the night out. We want to say a very big thank you to Larry & Michelle Georgiana for all of their hard work on this event!

Travis Deans is resigning from Youth Ministry

I've been doing youth ministry for twelve years now (that's me this past Saturday) and every so often, usually a couple times a year, I start asking myself "Why am I doing this?", "What is it that I'm really supposed to be doing here?", "Why don't I go get a real job flippin' burgers or something?" I have to admit, discouragement creeps in at times! The pay is not good, things never go like you plan them to, people don't often see the "vital" importance of what we do, and youth ministry feels a lot like herding cats. Why should I keep doing this stuff?

Well, when those dark moods come over me, four big ideas keep bringing me back into focus...

1) "The local church is the hope of the world" - Bill Hybels

Of all our nations' institutions, the church offers something very unique. Schools provide education, doctors provide medication, hospitals provide operations, government provides legislation, prisons provide incarceration, but only the church offers transformation of the human heart through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Therefore, I believe with all my heart that every church needs a healthy, growing youth ministry - because every teenagers needs Jesus and a church family.

2) "When God looks at a city, he does not see many churches, He sees one church in many congregations." - Ed Silvoso

For the past four hundred years churches have been competing with each other. The splintering of the body of Christ into thousands of pieces has been a long, sad story. I believe passionately that someday the church will move away from competing against each other to completing each other - realizing that no one church/denomination is the whole body and that we will never fulfill the great commission alone. We must work together! Some competition is good to challenge us and keep us from becoming mediocre, but we need to see churches communicating with each other, cooperating with each other and completing each other in building the Kingdom. Therefore, I believe that every community needs a network of church youth ministries - because we can do this better when we do it together! Here's an article I wrote three years ago called "From Competing to Completing" if you'd like to read more about this idea.

3) "Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." - C.T. Studd

All missionaries have known for centuries that to reach a group of people you have to go where they are and the group of people that youth pastors want to reach spend most of their time all together in one place - school. Kids spend five days a week, 180 days a year, 7 or 8 hours a day (or more if they're in any kind of activity) at school. And all of our churches have students in public schools - what happens at local schools affects all of our kids. Therefore, I'm convinced that every school needs reached by a network of churches. When youth pastors/youth leaders come together one of big questions should be, "What can we do together to serve our local schools and to reach students in that place?" A youth pastor named Mark Moder observed in article called "Where Students Are" that if we are called to be fishers of men, we should remember that fish swim in schools.

4) "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - C H Spurgeon

I love this quote - it just reminds me that we can never say "we have a lot of people in our church, that's good enough". Every person needs to hear about Jesus. I believe passionately that every students needs an opportunity to hear about Jesus and to get connected with a local church. There are 50,000 teenagers in this part of southwestern Pennsylvania - that's serious job security - I'm never going to run out of work here!

So, no, I'm definitely not resigning from youth ministry. I have four great reasons to get out of bed every morning and to keep doing what I'm doing. Most of all, I want to do it because Jesus loves me and calls me to follow Him no matter how hard it is, no matter what happens. Jesus is worth it all. Sometimes I just need to remind myself what this is all about. I have to say a big "Thank You!" to my wife, Judy, who keeps encouraging to do this and to my partner in Teens For Christ, Pete Malik, who helped me find God's calling for my life. And I thank you to for letting me express my heart to you in this post.

Youth Ministry Consultations

This past Saturday, Pete Malik and I had the privilege of doing a youth ministry consultation with members of Mill Run United Methodist Church who want to start a youth ministry at their church. In these consultations, we talk about building a youth ministry image, structure, and substance. The substance, which is communicating God's truth to see students' lives transformed, is what we want to get to, but the image/structure aspects of youth ministry help us get there. If your church's youth ministry needs a little shot in the arm or maybe a complete overhaul, let us know. We would love to come and help. The great thing about this meeting is that the guy who contacted us about meeting with them was part of our ministry when he was a teenager twenty years ago. Now he'll be doing youth ministry. It's amazing how things come full circle!

Fayette County Youth Pastors working on 3 projects

Youth Pastors in Fayette County are working together on three different projects - 1) iPromise semi-formal purity event for students, 2) 3V school assemblies and outreach, and 3) Benefit concert for Africa. This group of youth leaders did three youth events together this past fall as well. After not having a youth network in Fayette County for two years, the 2008-2009 school year is turning into an amazing time. The iPromise event scheduled to take place on February 21st, 2009 will be similar to True Love Waits events we used to do, but with some clever new twists. We love working with these great youth leaders!

Youth Pastors Summit - January 2009

On January 8th, 2009 youth pastors from around Westmoreland County gathered together to connect with each other and to do a little thinking about what we can do together to reach teenagers in Westmoreland County for Christ. There are 35,000 students in this county and we need to work together to reach them. Pictured here are youth pastors from Murrysville, Greensburg, Derry, Ligonier, and New Stanton. Just these ten youth pastors probably have at least 1000 teenagers that they have some kind of connection with. What powerful potential each one has, and what greater potential we all have when we work together!

A legend of Youth Ministry visits our area

Okay, I'm sure Duffy Robbins would disagree, but I don't think I exaggerate when I say that Duffy Robbins has 'legendary' status in the world of youth ministry. Yeah, I know, you shouldn't put people on a pedestal, but Duffy does have that "youth ministry guru" aura about him. Anyway, we were able to have him here on November 15th to do an "Understanding Your Teenager" workshop (attended by 150 parents who were laughing almost 3 hours straight) and he spoke at our 2nd Annual Youth Pastors Appreciation Dinner at the Word of Life Banquet Room. His message to us that night was that even in the ugly, messy things that happen, God can be creating new life. God works in the most surprising ways and when we least expect Him to do so. About 60 youth leaders were present and were encouraged to not let what you see keep you from experiencing what God is doing where we can't see. Duffy is pictured here with two of our newest youth pastors in the area - Stevan Sheets at Armbrust Wesleyan and Rigel Holmes at Greensburg Alliance Church.

Hanging out with youth leaders

The National Youth Workers Convention has been a blast these past couple of days. It's been great to see so many youth pastors and youth leaders from our area there enjoying themselves and learning tons of great stuff (like how to make money eating hot peppers which the Murrysville Alliance Church youth leaders did on Saturday - pictured here) and it's been great to catch up with and meet with other youth ministry folks from around the country such as a college professor I had at Moody Bible Institute, Dave Veerman. He was one of my youth ministry professors. Francis Chan's message this morning blew me away. That was powerful. Two days left and I can't wait to experience it all.

I'm at the National Youth Workers Convention

A few thousand youth pastors/youth leaders are descending upon Pittsburgh this weekend for the National Youth Workers Convention sponsored by Youth Specialties. I'm on the volunteer registration team so I'm excited about maybe seeing a lot of my youth pastor friends this weekend. I'm praying that God will encourage, strengthen, and provide all that youth workers coming here need to go back and keep working with kids. NYWC is a great place for networking (hobnobbing as my wife likes to call it!). I'm expecting to see friends from all over the country. It's gonna be fun!

Why we do this

The Murrysville Youth Network met last Thursday and what struck me was our brief discussion about why we network together. Jon Price who has been with us three years now said that for him, it wasn't about events, although he loves the Ignition event we do, but he just likes being together with the group. Lu, the veteran of group appreciates the fact that we don't talk about how many students we have in our groups - in fact, there's no comparison's at all, except for how we're all jealous of Brent Squires' new student facility. :) Anyway, the point is, we gain strength and encouragement from being together - plus it's so dang fun! We welcomed a "new" youth pastor to the group that day. Tom Shrum who is the new guy at First Presbyterian in Murrysville. Tom was part of our Greensburg Youth Network for a few years. There's nothing as much fun as hanging out with youth pastors!

Frustrations with the church

Among many frustrations that one could mention about churches, the one that gets me the most is that nearly all churches/denominations function as if they are the only church that God is using or cares about. I know most churches wouldn't say they feel that way, but I noticed it again today. A church I work with is making plans as if there are no other churches in their community and I have to say, that is frustrating. Of course, I have not walked in those people's shoes, and I believe that God does bless some churches and not others in ways that that I don't understand. I'm just weary of the idea that what our church is doing is all that matters. There is a great big body of Christ out there and we should all care about what is good for the entire body, not just our little chunk of it. I apologize for the rant, but I believe God has great blessings in store for churches who want to be a blessing to the other churches around them.

youth pastors begin working on school assembly outreach

A couple Tuesdays ago, Judy and I met with youth leaders from a church in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. They had a vision of bringing Bob Lenz (Life Promotions, WI) to do school assemblies and an outreach event in our area, but they wanted to work together with other churches to make it happen (it will take $9000 to pull this off and many students will need to be followed up on at the conclusion of this thing). The very next day, by God's providence, it worked out that I was meeting with three other youth pastors in the Latrobe/Derry area who all said they were on board with making this happen. Incredibly, one of those youth leaders, a school teacher, has already gotten the assemblies booked at Latrobe and Derry middle and senior high schools - amazing! And $2000 has already come in from local businesses to support these assemblies. IT IS AMAZING TO WATCH GOD WORK! So today, we had a our first "team" meeting today to strategize. We'll be meeting the 2nd Monday of each month to and we'll keep you posted on how this "experiment in the body of Christ working together" goes.

Doing together what we couldn't do alone.

Last March, a group of youth pastors who barely knew each other met together at Applebees for lunch. After a couple monthly lunch meetings, we sensed that this was a group of believers who wanted to work together and do some big things for the Kingdom. So we asked them in May to consider doing a school year kick off event. We had an idea for a band. That idea didn't work out - but something better did. One of our youth pastors, Larry Georgiana from New Life Covenant Church of God in Markleysburg, had seen a band at Acquire The Fire and had contacted them about coming to his church. However, his church was too small and the price tag too large. So he brought the idea to the next youth network meeting (June). We agreed that this was the band we needed to pursue (Michael Gungor Band) and found out later that they were actually the opening band for Downhere and that our event would be the first stop on their tour. Another youth pastor used his connections to get us a great venue at a fraction of the cost and that fraction was covered by someone he knew. Then we needed a little more help - a downpayment of $1750 was needed to secure the bands. That was half the total fee. So we asked churches to pre-buy 10 tickets at $10 per ticket. Around 10 churches did so with some of those purchasing more than 10. That enabled us to pay the deposit - praise God! After this, we divided up the work (many volunteers were needed) among our churches and that night 350 students came (exactly what we needed to pay for the bands. A local Christian University, Waynesburg University, co-sponsored the event with a generous grant that covered the lodging and meals. At least 20 youth groups brought students who were challenged to participate in See You At The Pole (we had some of our highest numbers ever this year) and to pray/reach out to their friends at school who don't know Christ. No one church could've pulled all of this off, but God blessed the efforts of His people working together!

This same basic thing has been done by a group of four youth pastors in the Murrysville area for the past three years now. That event is called IGNITION and we had 700 students from 30+ youth groups at the one this past September. These guys have proven that working together over the long haul is even more effective. This has become a $6000 budget event - and we've made a profit the past couple years! Together, these two events impacted 1000 students - our vision is to see that thousand take the gospel to school with them everyday this school year and to impact thousands more.

See You At The Pole 2008

This morning was exciting! I got at least 50 text messages within a half hour time span! See You At The Pole was different for every school, but it really sounds like God was present today. Below are some attendance #’s as well as some testimonies students shared this morning. Also, there are links below for pictures from today's SYATP at different schools as well as a video from Laurel Highlands High School. If anyone has more #’s, pictures, or videos, please e-mail, facebook, or text us! (724.322.1130). Also you can share testimonies and pictures with the national See You At The Pole office by going to www.syatp.com/report.

39 – Albert Gallatin
6 – Albert Gallatin North Middle
44 - Brownsville
1 – California
20 – Laurel Highlands
20 – Uniontown
18 – Belle Vernon
15 - Penn State Fayette Campus

20 - Apollo Ridge Senior High
12 – Burrell Senior High
35 – East Allegheny
32 - Franklin Regional Senior High
6 - Franklin Regional Middle School
8 - Jeannette Senior High
70 – Kiski Senior High
23 - Hempfield Senior High
82 - Latrobe Senior High
35 – Mt. Pleasant Senior High
23 – Norwin Senior High
17 – Norwin Middle School
90 – Penn Trafford Senior High
12 - Penn Middle School
17 - Plum Senior High
12 - Yough Senior High

“See You At The Pole went so amazing. So many showed up!” - Penn Trafford Student

“I wanted to let you know that we had 87 kids this morning at the pole and that’s like half our high school. How awesome!” – Hannah, Trinity Christian

“Hey! Our See You At The Pole was awesome! We had 70 people show up!” – Kiski student

“Dear Ignition, See You At The Pole was sooo AMAZING! I met people I have known for years and I didn’t even know they were Christians! We read Scripture and did so many amazing things! It was such a witness and it was great! PRAISE THE LORD! GOD IS SO GOOD!” – Annie Polka, East Allegheny High School

“See You At The Pole went well. There were 12 of us…we sang and read a little from the Psalms and then we prayed. The bell for first period rang or we would’ve kept going!” – Tyler Menhart, Burrell

“See You At The Pole went great at Norwin Middle School and High School.” – Kelsey Gibbs

“I just got back in my homeroom from c u at the pole. it was just me and Jesus.” – California Senior High Student

“Hey we went to the pole this morning and we had about seventy people it was really awesome. Kids walked past laughing at us. But it went well.” – student from Kiski Senior High

"See You At The Pole ent great. We got to pray about our school and Bible Club and churches and also connect with other Christian students." - Dominic Clifford, Uniontown Senior High

"I went to See You At The Pole this morning and we had about 70 students show up. It was awesome to see all the people that wanted to worship on a school campus. We got asked a lot of questions about why we went, but over all it was awesome!" - Jess, student at Penn Trafford

All of this is just the beginning of a 9 Month Mission Trip - please continue to pray with us that God will use Christian students to make a big impact for the Kingdom of God this school year.

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VIDEO FROM LAUREL HIGHLANDS SENIOR HIGH

IGNITION 2008 school year kick off event

On September 20th and 21st we had 2 school year kick off events - CONNECT 2008 in Uniontown on Saturday and IGNITION 2008 in Murrysville on Sunday night. Between the two events, we had 1000+ students that were challenged to reach their friends and schools for Christ over the next nine months. Below is a video from IGNITION.

Unleashed: Student Evangelism Conference (#2)

The 9 Month Mission Trip begins...

The 4th annual Unleashed conference was this past Saturday in Irwin. Our Norwin Youth Network and other local youth pastors equipped 30 students from 7 local high schools to share their faith, defend their faith, and to lead campus ministries/outreaches in their schools. The day included workshops, strategic planning time, great resources, and lunch of course! As we said to the students at the end of the day, this was the beginning of a 9 Month Mission Trip for them - to a place where they already have to go, it's already paid for, they have to eat strange food, and there are tons of lost people who need to hear about Jesus. Our goal is to help Christian students see the coming school year as a calling to serve God by loving their friends in Jesus' name. I want to thank Bo Pratt and the other youth leaders who helped plan this event as well as the youth pastors who taught the workshops - James Llewellyn (Murrysville Alliance), Frank Audia (Community United Methodist), Wayne Heckman (Calvary Assembly), and Paul Peternel (Jeannette Assembly of God). I pray that at the end of this school year we will have some amazing stories to tell of the great things that God has done through these students.

The Ebb and Flow of Youth Ministry Networking

Depending on the year we have a varying number of Youth Pastor networks with which we meet. From 2000-2005 we had a great youth ministry network in Fayette County. Then three key youth pastors left and we had no network until this past March when, seemingly from out of nowhere(!), a group of youth pastors came together and now we have a big school year kick off happening in September in Uniontown. It happened without us doing anything - it must've been God.

On the other hand, we have had a great network of youth pastors in Greensburg for a few years now and within the past six months three key youth pastors have left and that network is, for the moment, gone! In some ways, the body of Christ is ever flowing, ebbing, the tide going in and out. Sometimes nothing is happening, sometimes we can't keep up with it all! This September we have three school year kick off events taking place - for Westmoreland County, Fayette County, and the Mon Valley. It is just fascinating to watch how God works.

Unfortunately, I know that some of the changes we see in youth ministry in our area is not the result of the will of God, but the poor value people place on youth ministry and youth pastors. Nevertheless, God uses it all for good. I am happy for my youth pastors friends who have left and found better youth ministry situations and are happier in them. It was hard to see them suffering. May God bless you guys.

We never know what it's going to look like from year to year, but we always enjoy making new friends and, inevitably, we know we will have to say good-bye to some old ones. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away - blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Mission Accomplished

May 15th, and 16th was the culmination of a whole year's worth of work. We began this past school year last August with Unleashed: the Student Leadership Conference, equipping students to be spiritual leaders in their schools. Then we had Ignition 2007, our school year kick off event at which we were mobilizing almost 700 students to participate in See You At The Pole and to pray for 5 of their friends who don't know Christ throughout the school year. In January, we had the Campus Checkup events at which students, teachers, and youth pastors got together to talk about the spiritual condition of our schools. The purpose of the campus checkups was to encourage students to finish the school year well. And last Thursday and Friday nights we had Released to Reach the World dinners in Uniontown and Greensburg - we were celebrating the end of the school year. It was amazing to hear students at both events share what God has been doing in their schools this past year. I think the adults who came were amazed to hear such things coming out of such young people (I know, I sounded old right there!). In between those events, we and youth pastors in the area have been busy helping students lead their campus ministries, doing outreach events, and helping new Christian clubs get started.

And now we are busy preparing for next school year - another year of equipping, mobilizing, encouraging, and celebrating with students as they see God work through them to reach their generation for Christ.

a great quote!

My friend, Brian Coday, had this quote on his blog and I had to add it...

“Christianity has always been a youth movement. As we look over the pages of church history, we find, more often than not, that brave thrusts into the unknown have been led by the young. Can we not see in them the most powerful potential the church has? We must consider the child or young person as a dynamic personality, capable, under God, of realizing his/her best self. We must lead these souls to the point where they are set aflame with the adventure of serving Christ.” --Henrietta Mears

AMEN!

the joy of living out one's calling

Three times in the past five days, I've been able to experience the joy of fulfilling the passion of my heart - getting people connected with each other. On Saturday at Unleashed: the Student Leadership Conference, I was able to introduce a girl who's is starting to lead her to school's Bible Club this year with another girl in the next school over who is leading her Bible club this year. They really hit it off. I know they'll encourage and spur each other on through this school year (pictured right).

All summer, I've been trying to set up a meeting with one of our local high school principals and some youth pastors. We finally got to have that meeting on Monday. Only one of the guys was able to make it, but the principal was so open to us and gave us some great insight into what's happening at that school. We left really excited and encouraged. I loved being able to help connect my youth pastor friend with the principal at the school where most of his kids go.

Then yesterday, I met a couple youth pastors for lunch for the express purpose of helping them get to know each other. They're both in the same town, but didn't really know each other. Now they're gonna play raquetball together sometime soon. Man, I love this job. This is what I was born to do.

we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up

A new school year is beginning and last night I had the opportunity to speak about the principles that the book of Daniel has for students going back to school. My good friend, Dave Grimm and his wife were on vacation, so I spoke at his youth group for him (pictured right). Daniel and Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego demonstrated great courage, strength, and honor in the face of dangerous opposition. What great examples they are for Christian teenagers today. We have our "Unleashed" conference this coming Saturday at which we train and equip students to serve God in their schools. I'm looking forward to seeing many Christian students resolve in their hearts to worship nothing but the one true God. May God give all our Christian teenagers a great year of making a difference for Him!

Youth Pastors Cookout and Cornhole Tournament

Ah yes...the ancient game played by our ancestors in the old world - cornhole (?) What? Oh yes, cornhole-to-the-death (just kidding) was the game of choice at the annual Youth Pastors Picnic on Saturday August 4th at the home of Tom & Shannon Shrum. Pictured here are Jon Price from Murrysville Community Church and Eric Simpson from New Stanton Alliance. Jon is demonstrating proper form and throwing technique (I think...). Eric is thinking to himself, "He's way off - there's no way." The stakes were raised this year as the prize for winning the championship was a gift certificate for Cracker Barrell. The battle to dominate the cornhole field was on. At the end of the day, our gracious hosts became the envy of all when they won the coveted prize of cornhole champions. Tom and Shannon are below holding the prize. Oh the weeping and gnashing of teeth that we who lost experienced. Our hopes dashed, we finished eating and left having had a great time together.

becoming men of courage and strength

I had the great opportunity to be a small group leader at a camp this past week with Cornerstone Ministries from Export, PA. This picture is of our small group. Probably the best thing that happened in our group is that we experienced the Bible coming to life in a new way - by reading it with movie soundtrack music in the background. The 1st and 2nd chapters of Nahum sound amazing with the music of Gladiator (1st track and forward) playing. We read Genesis 22, the story of Abraham obeying God's command to sacrifice Isaac, to the next to the last track on the Braveheart score. It was good stuff! The theme of the week was about students developing spiritual habits and I was trying to help the Bible come alive for these guys. We also talked about the need to have masculine expression and understanding of our faith. So often, when we talk about our relationship with God, it's usually in words that girls understand and so guys feel at a loss. We talked about Jesus, the strong and courageous man of God using the book of Mark to help us see Jesus in a fresh light.

I had so much fun with these guys. They are hilarious. They come up with the funniest things. At the end of the week they gave me this picture framed with stuff they had written to me on the matting. That was awesome! (with a little helpful from my beautiful wife). Anyway, I'm thanking God for a great week!

a sad and yet great week of youth ministry!

This past week started with a sad note - Judy and I attended the going away party of our dear friend Nick Poole who was the youth pastor at Calvary Assembly in Irwin. Pete Malik and I knew Nick when he was a Bible club leader in his high school. It was awesome when Nick came back here to do youth ministry after graduating from college and he has been a HUGE help to our youth networks since he has been back here. Nick's event coordinating skills and graphic design skills (and numchuck skills) have been a blessing! Thanks Nick for all you did for us here. We're going to miss you.

Then from Sunday night through Thursday night I had the privilege of working with my good friend, Lu, youth pastor at Murrysville Alliance at the C&MA senior high camp at Mahaffey, PA. I spoke on John Eldredge's book, "Epic" - talking about the story that God is telling and how we can find our part in God's story. That was so much fun and it was a great blessing to be out in the woods away from the computer, from meetings, from busyness and the normal hectic things of life. Judy came up for a couple days too and she got recruited into helping lead worship with the kids (btw, she did an incredible job at leading the youth worship band in leading the worship at Cornerstone this past Sunday - June 10th).

Today (Friday) was our end of the school year celebration event, Summer Slam, organized by another great friend, Dave Grimm, at Harvest Assembly church in Derry. We had over 200 students from at least 10 different churcehs that came out for the waterslide, extreme games, concerts with Breaking The Silence and Everlife, a great dinner, the ice cream sundae bar, and much more. It was a lot of fun. You can see more pictures of Summer Slam at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29529&l=518b5&id=514945211

I also got to have breakfast this morning with a new youth pastor in Greensburg, Frank Nemeth (Word of Life). Frank is a great guy. Man, I love this job! Thank you God for the privilege of serving You in this way.

How Teenagers Transformed the Church!

Recently discovered this series of 3 great articles called, "How Teenagers Transformed the Church". I think this will really encourage Youth Leaders out there and to give the rest of us some needed perspective.

First Article -http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t.html
Second Article - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t_1.html
Third Article - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/05/how_teenagers_t_2.html

I'd love to hear what you think of these. Thanks!

welcoming new youth pastors

This past Friday (May 11th) we had a "welcome lunch" in Westmoreland County for new youth pastors in the area - pictured right. It was a great time. When you ask youth pastors to share their funny stories, you are in for a big laugh! We gained at least six new youth leaders in WC this past school year - in addition to the eight new guys that came last year! We talked briefly about plans for a series of youth network events for next school year and it is shaping up to be very exciting. In Fayette County, strangely enough, our network there is made up of a group of folks who are not youth leaders, but really want to work together to reach teenagers for Christ and we're preparing for a concert outreach at the county fair this summer. It's amazing how all of that came together - Pete and I didn't do anything - people came to us and now we have this really exciting outreach coming up. It's wild to see how God works.

what happens when churches combine their resources?

This past April, we had The Seven Project come to Westmoreland County. 400 students came out for an amazing experience - huge inflatable games, free pizza, professional skate boarder Zach Wenrich, former Harlem Globe trotter Seth Franco, great prizes, and an opportunity to hear about Jesus. This event was preceded by three school assemblies. A couple people have asked me how this was possible - it happened because several churches combined their resources! When churches work together, amazing things can happen. The picture here is of the crowd at Jeannette High School. 114 people responded to the invitation to give their lives to Jesus Christ. But it couldn't have happened without a group of churches working together.

Youth Leaders Working Together Works!

A group of youth leaders in the Alle-Kiski area (New Kensington, Lower Burrell) brought a great band to do an outreach called "Broken Yoke". Broken Yoke played at Cornerstone Ministries for the Ignition school kick off last September. Anyway, it was an awesome concert and another testimony to the fact that God's people can accomplish great things when they work together!

Last night, we had the kick off for The Seven Project, a special outreach that youth pastors in Greensburg, Irwin, and Jeannette are working on together. Zach Wenrich, a professional skateboarder was at the kick off last night doing some incredible jumps with a couple friends of his. Over 100 students from 10 churches came out to the event to get ready for the Seven Project outreach taking place on April 13th, 2007. At the end of the night, a bunch of kids gave their lives to Christ and many more committed themselves to being part of this outreach. It was incredible. I want to say thanks to Nick Poole, Bo Pratt, and Jason Lamer for making this happen!

Reading a great book now about the Gospel of Mark. This is a great look at the life of Jesus with a fresh pair of eyes! Mark portrays Jesus as a man of action who causes a ruckus everywhere He goes. I like that. I want to be more like that. Not obnoxious or cruel (Greg House, M.D. anybody?), but more truthful, bold, and willing to enter the fray. There are times to keep quiet and to hold back. But when the time is right to do that which takes courage and which will be good for other people's lives I want to do that. Being timid and cowardly are not godly virtues. Anyway, if you'd like a fresh look at Jesus, check out this book!

this picture speaks for itself

A picture is worth a thousand words...

for all you fans of the Chronicles of Narnia

According to one of my favorite websites, www.narniaweb.com, filming of the next Chronicles of Narnia movie, "Prince Caspian", begins Monday, February 12, 2007! The movie is scheduled to release May 2008. If you can't get enough information about this movie, check back to narniaweb.com often. I have heard that this Narnia movie is supposed to be a little darker and more intense. Sounds good to me. "For Narnia! And for Aslan!"

i love this job!

Today, Pete Malik and I met with a couple who lead a youth group in the area and two of their students who want to start a Bible Club at their high school. We talked them through the basic steps of launching a campus ministry and being campus missionaries to their schools. I love this stuff! Those kids are inspiring to me. They want to see their friends come to know Christ. It is an honor to do this stuff.

what I'm reading right now

I'm working a number of books at the moment. I'm always reading 5 or more books at once. Anyway, a couple high school guys from church loaned me the new book, "Hood" by Stephen Lawhead. Man, that thing is awesome - I can hardly put it down. It's a great and very imaginative retelling of the Robin Hood story. I can't believe I haven't read this guy's stuff before now.

The story of a man who was born to be a king brings me to the other book I'm working through which is "Way of the Wild Heart" by John Eldredge. I'm actually doing the workbook along with rereading the book. He lays out the masculine journey with powerful, compelling imagery, and really helps you see it modeled in Scripture, especially King David, but also Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and others. And I see it in many of the stories that I love. What he writes about God initiating a man and fathering unfinished men makes so much sense. After reading that, the past 10 years of my life make so much more sense. The trials and difficulties are God initiating me, training me, fathering me. I love this book! I recommend to every guy.

my 33rd birthday

I have a great wife. She knows that I love "Pirates of the Caribbean" and so my birthday was everything Pirates including the dvd, the soundtrack, the Pirates version of the board game Life, a pirates of the caribbean cake, a pirate sword, and more! We had lunch at Long John Silvers and dinner at Red Lobster. It was a killer birthday! Not too much blood was shed. And the loot was great.

equipping student missionaries

Ever since my freshmen year of high school I have believed that God calls students to be missionaries to their high schools. I believe He called me to that and I love challenging and equipping students to be missionaries to their schools now. Pete and I have been visiting a number of clubs lately to share resources to help students serve God in their schools - we had a lot of great stuff leftover from our Campus Missionary Conference last August. Lately we've been to Yough, Belle Vernon, Burrell, Hempfield, and we've got more coming up. This is a picture at the Belle Vernon Campus Ministry which we visited today (Monday, Jan. 29th). Our good friend, and youth pastor Matt Swenglish, is the "coach" at this club and he is doing an incredible job of leading these students. Pete and I also had the privilege of speaking to students at the Free Methodist District Winter Youth Retreat a couple weeks ago about being campus missionaries. I love this stuff!

Strategic Gathering

Youth pastors from our different networks of youth pastors in West- moreland County got together back on January 12th to map out ideas for working together next school year. It was a lot of fun seeing these guys whom I know well get to know each other and talk about issues important to them. These are all top-notch, first rate youth pastors that I am very honored to work with in their communities and in the county. The one big idea that came out of this gathering was the concept of doing a winter retreat together. Pete Malik, my coworker in TFC, and I were pretty excited as we went back to the office after this meeting.

Christmas 2006

Oh yeah...this is Christmas in North Carolina. Instead of sled riding, we go sailing. Judy and I had a great time with her family on Christmas Eve and the days before. We went to the Christmas Eve service that Judy was singing in (amazing time!) and then we had the traditional Christmas eve "game". On Christmas day Judy and I drove down to my folks in NC for a few days. We had a great time with my parents, Justin and Jessica, Davy, and Tre' (my 1 1/2 year old nephew), including the obligatory sail in the sound. The water was a little rough, but it was too nice out not to go. Then we went with my parents to Indiana for my brother Jake's wedding. We ended our 'Christmas vacation' by stopping by Judy's sisters in Ohio and enjoyed an evening with her and Ty (our nephew) at Dave & Busters.

recommended reading

I just finished reading the book "Presence-Centered Youth Ministry" by a guy I know, Mike King. It's a great book and I'd highly recommend it to youth leaders looking for something fresh for their youth ministries. Youth ministry typically consists of fun stuff, big events, worships bands, etc..., but Mike King throws a new wrench into the works - ancient Christian practices. I never thought these things could be part of youth ministry, but then again, I had never heard of a lot of these ideas from believers in ages past.

I also just finished listening to a cd from the Youth Specialties convention by the Dare 2 Share guy, Greg Stier. Man, that was good stuff. He's got a new book out now which his talk on the cd was based on - Ministry Mutiny. I think I'll be getting that one.

i love it when a plan comes together

I had the privilege of speaking at my friend Frank Audia's youth group tonight about students living for Christ at their schools (based on the book of Daniel). It was a lot of fun worshiping with those guys. As a great bonus, another youth pastor friend, Brent Squires, joined me and we tag-teamed the meeting. He gave a great application challenge at the end. I love seeing youth pastors connect with each other! We were really excited about the great worship time those guys had.

We had the Murrysville Youth Network meeting this morning at 9am at Eat N Park in Murrysville (those are so much fun!). They are going to start doing a monthly youth worship night together beginning in January. Then we had the Mon Valley Youth Network meeting at noon at Little Bamboo in Belle Vernon. Tomorrow youth pastors in Penn Trafford and Greensburg are having their monthly network lunches. The Greensburg guys are still talking about bringing "The Seven Project" school assemblies. I'm praying that God will lead that way if it is His will.

article published!

Something cool happened this week - I got an article published in "The Network Magazine" published by NNYM. It's called "From Competing to Completing" and it's about how churches relate to each other. I have to thank Pete Malik, my partner in TFC, and my wife Judy for encouraging me to send this in. Also, my good friend, Mark Kovscek, from Brownsville, contributed a significant idea which became the whole structure for the writing of the article. So thanks Mark! Anyway, it's at www.youthworkers.net. My hope is that this might help the body of Christ become better connected. Other people, who are way more qualified than me, have written much better stuff on this topic, but I hope this helps. I pray that God will be glorified.

Youth Specialties Convention in Cincinnati

Judy and I went out to Cincinnati for the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention the weekend before Thanksgiving. I helped the National Network of Youth Ministries guys (which we - TFC - are a local chapter of) with the registration process (they do the orientation for first-timers and introduce them to the Network). These conventions are amazing. Imagine hanging out with 5000 youth leaders for 4 days!! It is fun and God is there. We ran into a lot of friends including Dave & Kelly Grimm from Harvest Assembly in Derry (Dave is our Latrobe/Derry network coordinator), Tom & Shannon Shrum from Armbrust Wesleyan in Greensburg (Tom is our Greensburg Network coordinator), and Roseann Sworts, Jason Freyer, and Abby Rissler from various presbyterian churches in Westmoreland County (Roseann is our Alle-Kiski area network coordinator). Judy and I are pictured on the left with Dave & Kelly Grimm and the picture on the right is of the main stage where the general sessions took place. If you are a youth leaders who has never been to one of these, you've got to do it sometime.

our "Epic" small group

Judy and I have been hosting a small group in our home with folks from Cherry Tree Alliance Church. We've been going through John Eldredge's video series "Epic" based on his book by the same title. It is so incredible to see the Scriptures as this great story that God is telling and to think that God invites us to be part of that story. We have one week left to go in this series and no one wants it to end. Anyone interested in Epic or other stuff by Eldredge should check out www.ransomedheart.com.