PDYM Recap...

PDYM was an incredible conference.  I was worried that I wouldn't get anything out of it since I had read the book and really didn't subscribe to Purpose Driven fully.  I used parts of it but never made the whole plunge.  This conference changed a lot of my thinking, not necessarily about being purpose driven but really about how I do ministry.  One thing I can say about the Saddleback Ministry crew is that they are very transparent.  They didn't hold anything back.  They made themselves to anyone who was at the conference.  I thought this as very cool.  


Here are a couple thoughts that I learned during the conference...


1. Not everyone has it together...  The Saddleback crew said over and over that they were changing things.  Sometimes we see large ministries and expect them to be doing everything right and perfect.  Doug and crew made it a point to say that they were always tweaking and changing things that didn't seem to be working


2. Smaller is better...  As big as Saddleback is, they strive to be smaller.  They strive on small groups and I even heard Kurt say one time that if he had to choose, he would keep small groups rather than the large group.  We have tried small groups but we will continue to move forward on them and put more energy into them.


3. Keep things in perspective...  Walking into the Refinery is overwhelming for most people.  The building looks incredible, is big, shiny and worth about $19million dollars.  Youth Pastors can look at that and get envious, wonder what they are doing wrong to not have something like that and go back to their own church disheartened.  We need to understand the dynamics of Saddleback in reference to our own churches before making judgment.  I love the Refinery but know that our Student Center is an equivalent for a church our size and that is ok.


4. Good things take time...  The length of time the staff has been at Saddleback is incredible.  Doug has been there 17, Kurt 12, Katie 14 and Josh 5.  Saddleback wasn't built in a day as they say.  We need to start laying the foundation now for longevity.  No matter where we are, we need to start working with the end in mind.  


I really had a blast in Souther California and I am looking forward to coming back in July with my students.  I get to spend the next few weeks/months evaluating our ministry and seeing what I need to change or improve upon.  I am greatful mostly for all the connections I have made with other youth pastors and the staff at Saddleback.  I definitely will be going back next year.

5 Practices - Intentional Faith Development

Weekend Teaching Series: 5 Practices of a Fruitful Youth Ministry (week 3 of 4)
Sermon Title: Intentional Faith Development
Sermon in a Sentence: Spiritual Development isn't quick or easy
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 7 out of 10.

Attendance: 64, above average for us.  19 Sr High (average), 45 Jr High (above average)
Service Length: 70 minutes
Understandable Message: Intentional Faith Development is my job.  Giving students the ability to grow in their Faith with God is my number one job.  We have events like Refuel, Small Groups, Sunday School and other activities that give students the time.  We looked at a video on youtube.com about Dick and Rick Hoyt and their marathon running.  Dick runs for both of them, as Rick is confined to a wheel chair.  I told the students that God is Richard and we are Rick, that we cannot move forward without God pushing us.  Students need to understand that they can't just sit back and expect to grow closer to God, they must pursue him.  Spiritual Growth isn't easy or quick.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: We had good adult leader participation.  We had a new leader come in and help us with greeting.  

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We played a Power Point game called "Bleep bleep" asking questions about old time video games (think Atari and Nintendo).  Students got rowdy and seemed to like it.

Music Playlist: Lord Reign In Me, Love The Lord, Trading My Sorrows

Favorite Moment: Had a student come up and tell me that they read "Help, I am a Student Leader" already, gave it to her last week.  She wants to go to the PDYM SLC in July, pretty sure she will go.

Next up: Risk-taking Mission & Service and Extravagant Generosity.  5th graders and their parents will be joining us next week, so it should be fun.

PDYM Day 3 continued...

After lunch we jumped back into the last two purposes, Discipleship and Ministry.  Doug gave us three words to focus on, "On Your Own".  This is what we are to accomplish when teaching students about Discipleship.  We teach them to do it on their own.  If we show them how and give them the tools, then once they leave the youth ministry, they will survive beyond the people and the programs.  Doug's big picture ideas were: 

• Discipleship can't be reduced to programs and people
• An "On Your Own" philosophy is top down philosophy
• Expectations without Experimentation = frustration
• Discipleship never ends

Doug also talked about how most ministry have Discipleship with 100% lecture/class time or 50% lecture/class time and 50% experience but he recommended 33% Demonstration/Modeling, 33% Education and 33% Preparation.  This changes the dynamic of how we should think about Discipleship.  He also talked about his HABITS series and how that is a great tool to get students started and heading in the right direction.  HABITS stands for...

• Hang time with God
• Accountability with another believer
• Bible memorization
• Involvement with the church body
• Tithing commitment
• Study Scripture

Josh and Kurt came up to give us the Key Learnings from Saddleback.  They also talked a lot about Discipleship not being about programs.  Their key learnings were: 

• Expect resistance
• Being connected to an adult leader makes all the difference
• Requires continuous vision casting, meaning you can't say it once and leave it, you need to beat the drum

We have to become better at preparing our students to survive once they leave our ministries.  During this session, one of the speaker made a comment that I know would spark some debate in my own ministry.  They talked about how parents are responsible for discipling their students, not the youth ministry.  We are to come along side the parents and help them.  Too often we are held responsible for the spiritual development of the students and that is incredibly hard when we only touch their lives 3 or 5 hours a week, if we are lucky.

During Session 7, we talked about the last purpose, Ministry.  Ministry is the final piece to the puzzle because it is designed for the Core students.  Those who are fully committed to Christ.  This doesn't mean that others don't do Ministry, but that our Core kids should be leading the charge.  Our own ministry is currently developing a student leadership process, so I was very interested in this session.  Again, Doug brought us some of his big pictures ideas.  They are...

• Teenagers are not the future of the church (but are the church)
• Student Leadership is bigger than teenage advisor
• Ministry needs are Ministry opportunities
• Youth Ministry can and should be a ministry launching pad

Too often students are looked down upon.  Many people think of them as lazy and not wanting to do anything.  Most people can't get past the struggles teenagers are facing to see that they do need a place to serve, just as much as any adult does but normally will do a better job.  Doug gave us a tip in empowering students.  When they go on mission trips, every student on the trip has some responsibility.  Some are small, some are big but all students have one.  And that once we kids students involved in ministry in our groups, they will eventually move outside the group and start finding holes to fill and ways to use their talents that we might never have thought about.

Katie and Matt gave us some practical tips from Saddleback with 3 Key Learnings.  1) There are pastors/leaders/servant in every crowd. 2) Students are flaky.  3)As students grow, all them to experiment.  Student Leadership and ministry isn't always about structure.  We also need to remember that student leaders are still students.  Sometimes we put more pressure on student leaders than we do on our regular students and that isn't always fair.  I did get a lot out of this session and really understand more about how I should develop our own student leadership team.

After this session, I got to have lunch with Josh Griffin (HSM) and about 15 other youth pastors at Chipotle and then Cold Stone Creamery.  I am still full.  Once again, I got to meet and talk with other YP's I have never met.  It was a great time.  Josh and I cruised back in my rental car, he loved it also. (I think we broke the speed limit in the Saddleback parking lot).  Once we got back, Saddleback had invited us to attend a worship service, just for us youth pastors.  The students and Taffy did a great job in worship, speaking, and creativity.  Jana spoke from her heart about where she was in her life.  We were able to share in communion. I was amazed, excited, sorrowful, forgiven, and full of Grace.  I feel I connected with God once again during this service.

Actually, this whole day for me has been about renewing my own soul and resting in God's grace.  When I laid in the sun during lunch and just felt the cold grass on my back and the sun on my face, I worshiped God.  I can't really describe it.

I hate that I am leaving tomorrow but I really miss my kids.  It will take me two weeks to process this conference and start to put plans into place to change myself and my ministry to be more purpose driven...

PDYM Day 3

I am going to skip day 2 for now so I can be current on my blogging.  Day three gets us into more of the practical side of PDYM. I grabbed Michael this morning, grabbed some breakfast, then got to the Refinery.


The student bands continue to rock and do a great job at leading worship.   Doug talked about the purpose of Fellowship that is for the congregation (connected) students. For Saddleback, they use small groups to fulfill the fellowship purpose. Doug gave us some big picture ideas, they are:

• smaller is better
  
• volunteer is better than paid
  
• shepherds are better than chaperone's
  
• better is better
  

He pushed relationships with students as being the number one priority.  After Doug talked, Megan got up and talked about Life Hurts, God Heals and how they created a small group within their small groups by targeting students who are hurting. this is a cirriculum that I have looked and think I will get it and teach on it. She made a statement that floored me, she said "who will help our students who are hurting, if we don't." Very Powerful.


Katie and Jason came up and talked about specifically how Saddleback does small groups and some key learning points.

• there's more than one way to do small groups
  
• small group leaders need to be setup for success
  
• small groups can bridge to the next step

It was funny that they talked about having reconfigured their small group programs every year. Some PDYM State Mentors talked about how they were doing small groups. They emphasized helping you small group leaders understand their role as youth pastors to their small group.  


We broke for some debriefing and lunch. I decided to head outside and sit in the sun. The weather here is awesome and I really enjoyed it.  I almost fell asleep :).  The Refinery is an incredible place to hang out.  The design fulfills many different purposes and gives you so many options to build relationships with students or just sit by yourself.  I had lunch with Chris Harkins, Chris Reed (young adult pastor @ Saddleback) and Matt from TX.  I had never met. We had great discussion about doing small groups, recruiting leaders and various other ideas.


Day 3 continued in a minute...

PDYM Session 1 cont..

The opening session had a lot of different elements to it that made or
tons of fun. Worship started with a Coldplay song that was awesome.
Jake and Katie mc'd the night and had some great games. They brought
down the oldest and youngest youth pastors and had them exchange some
advice and gave them gifts. They also played a game called shoot your
distraction that didn't work as well :).

The speaking session started of with different people who have been
effected by a youth pastor or had been a youth pastor and had effected
someone. I was amazed at the impact that we have on the life of our
students when we do real ministry. Each person talked about the
different Pieces of Youth Ministry like:
. investing in students
. longevity
. trusting God to use imperfect people
. beings learner
. not giving up

Doug came on stage and talked abou tthe values for Saddleback Student
Ministry. Values like...
. value of food
. being student led
. music and song
. laughter / games / gifts
. believing in students
. dependence on God's power
. relationship with God and students

I really enjoyed the talk and it made me reflect on how our youth
ministry is rim and some things that I need to change. I look forward
to day 2.